Hiking in Heaven!

Sometimes, heaven is not so far away as we may think. In fact, when you live in Tokyo... heaven is ANYWHERE outside of Tokyo. Haha!
So, I went to a place called Okutama... which is TECHNICALLY Tokyo, but looks as if you've been transported to another planet... or at least another part of the world.

This lone fisherman looked especially magical when I was gallumphing around taking pictures. There's hardly anyone around... and it's a man, his fishing rod and the wilderness. :-) Could almost be Alaska!

One man, on a quest for really cool pictures... ended up at the end of a stairway to nowhere... or at least to nowhere that would allow him to stay dry.


What is SO fascinating about the river bed?


The ROCKS of course!!!


And by the end of the day, I was so tired that the trees even seemed to lean sideways. Haha... well, it made for a good picture anyway!

The Week Long Birthday Celebration...

Last Monday, April 14th, I turned the illustrious age of 28. Now, I was a bit apprehensive going into the birthday. Why? You may ask... well, mostly I've not really gotten to where I thought I'd be by 28. Now, that's not to say that I thought I'd be married and settled down (well, in high school I did, but who didn't think that when they were in high school??) or anything, but more along the lines of thinking I'd be DONE with school. Yeah, basically I was hoping I'd have my masters my now... but somehow other things happened instead.
Now, you may ask how my birthday (DAY being an integral part of the compound word) became a week-long affair. Well... you are about to find out!
Sunday, the 13th, I went to see a very special someone in Yokohama. We spent the afternoon being very lazy and then went and "played" in the department store in Yokohama (play = window shopping) and chose cake. Then we headed back to a great little pizza place near his place. We ate delicious (and that's saying a LOT!) pizza and headed to his place. We had cake and did presents. I am a very lucky/good/fortunate girl because I got an iPod nano for my birthday. Silver, but with a very sexy green case! ;-)

It was a great start to my birthday. :-)

Monday, I had my first class of the new semester, zemi. That went well. I jetted out of there for a very nice lunch with my friends Kassandra and Taka (aka brother). We had a great lunch at my favorite restaurant in Takadanobaba, The Cotton Club. Kassandra gave me some great gifts: funky socks, a HUGE (and awesome!!) Starbucks coffee mug, and a green pouchy thing from Uniqlo!
That day I also started my new job teaching at a boys high school in Ikebukuro. The teacher that I teach with, Ishii-sensei gave me a copy of the new Utada Hikaru album, Heart Station. :-)

Tuesday was my birthday in the US. I woke up to a bajillion messages and cards from folks back home. When I got home that night there was a notice that my parents birthday package had arrived. However, I had to wait until the next day to have it be delivered. And I got what I've been waiting for for ages: a watch!!! And not just any watch, but a cool Ironman...


Cool, eh??

Wednesday came and I taught classes and got to spend time with that special someone. Every class that I taught people wished me happy birthday!

Thursday, I got a super funky, cool gift from my friend Shivani. A really cool purse/wallet. It's kind of a mix between the two... and you'll be able to tell exactly why she picked it too!

Now, I may not be the most fashionable person in the world... but that is one cool purse! I love it. I haven't used it because I want to use it sometime when I'm doing something cool and fun. Hmmm... not sure when I'll be able to afford that kind of thing in the near future... but I'm going to try. ;-)

Then came Friday, the end to my birthday week. And what should come as I'm making dinner!?! My present from my best friend, Melissa. She sent me two books (am thoroughly enjoying The Time Travelers' Wife) and a scarf she knit (beautiful), running shorts (still haven't used them), and... gummies and Milky Way Midnights (why did they change it from Dark??). I was so tickled!

Even though I talked about lots of gifts (and posted pictures to make my blog more interesting...) the more important thing is that I stopped to remember all of the people who I care about and who care about me. Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, gifts or just said happy birthday when you saw me! I really felt happy and loved last week!!

Nearing a close...

As sad as it is to admit, my spring vacation is nearly over. :0( It's really sad because this year classes begin on my birthday. How lame is that? VERY LAME!!

But this past weekend I got to get away from Tokyo and enjoy nature and historical sites and have an all around great time. We went to Nikko on Saturday and then to Shiobara onsen (hot springs) area. There was a foot washing bath that felt amazing. The regular bath was nice too!

I took some pretty good pictures and there were even some pretty good pictures taken of me. :-)

These are the famous monkeys at Nikko. How cute are they??


This is me being a dork coming through a gate at Nikko. Someone I know makes fun of me when I make that kind of rather "unnatural" smile. Sometimes a goofy picture is just necessary. ;-)

This is probably one of the best pictures that has been taken of me in a LONG time. No fake smile, no weird dorky grin... just me having a really great weekend!



Sometimes I can even take a pretty good pic... this is of a certain someone... I think the pose is a mixture between dancing and being WAY too cool for school! Haha.

The miracle of Disney...

Monday I went to Tokyo Disneyland. I went with a kendo sempai and two of her workmates. It was a blast... the only things that made it hard?? Rapid fire Japanese and energy that doesn't end (their parts not mine!). Despite all that, we had so much fun. Ate the chicken legs (they might have been turkey!?), went on the Star Tour ride (it was SO fun!!), and screamed my head off in Space Mountain.
At Disneyland they now have these clip on ears of all sorts of characters, not just Mickey and Minnie. I got a nice green Mad Hatters hat! :-) And apparently it really suits me... haha!

Mami, me and Andy!! There's the green hat... how do I look?? Haha!

Kyoko, Andy, me, and Mami! You can't see Cinderella's castle in the background, but it's there too!

All in all, it was a fun day... but I won't be rushing to do it again anytime soon!! Haha!

It's been awhile...

Now, the semester has been over for more than a month and I've neglected posting anyything. Why? (you may ask) Well... is it because I'm busy and important? is it because I've picked up SO much extra work that work has replaced school in my busy schedule? is it because I'm a lazy git that can't seem to make time to do anything? Erm... I'll let you speculate as to which of the aforementioned reasons it is... :-)
Then there's the fact that I've been spending a lot of time outside doing fun things like trekking around Kamakura and walking around parks and things like that. It's been really nice! Especially as the weather starts getting nicer and the temps are warming up. (I went to kendo today and the floor was no longer COLD!! Simple pleasures folks, simple pleasures!)
Next week I get to teach in elementary school for two days. I'm really looking forward to that. I do love the kids! They are so fun and enthusiastic about everything. I LOVE it. I feel young when I get to spend time with the kiddies. And I need that sometimes.
This update is incredibly short... but when it's a vacation and you don't have money to travel the extent to which I am having adventures is quite limited.
I'll leave you a few pics from my Kamakura trip!

Me... not so horrible picture. Why am I SO unphotogenic? Please tell me!!


I'm not sure if I took this picture or not... I'd like to think I did... because it's cool... but I'm not sure! Pretty cool eh?


This pic was not taken by me... it's an awesome picture though... so I had to add it! Enjoy a little bit of Japan. :-)

Snow!

Tokyo isn't known for getting tons of snow... but we've had it twice this year!! And it made for some real fun the other day... walking around in the snow always makes me happy.


I love footprints in the snow... I also love the crunching of the snow under your feet. It just makes me happy! Hope that all the snow everywhere else is making you happy!

Stress, school and the skinny jeans!

Recently my life has consisted of a lot of stress and a lot of school work. The stress comes from all the part-time work that I have to do in order to have some sort of life here in Japan and then add that to the school stress and you can imagine my stress levels are a bit high. :-) Then add the fact that I almost never have time for full meals.... imagine all that in one person's life and you have imagined my life. For the most part, my life has been an impossible whirlwind that is really not very much fun... but there is an added benefit (if you really want to call it that): I can fit into my skinny jeans! Yes... the fabled skinny jeans, the ones every girl has in hopes that SOMEDAY we can fit into them again. I bought my skinny jeans during college... they're Silver Tabs. And they are LOOSE! ;-) The picture is just for proof...

メリークリスマス! or Christmas in Japan!

Anyone who has ever spent a Christmas away from home in a foreign country has discovered that Christmas is different in every country around the world. :-) Well, in Japan Christmas is something of a cross between Christmas and Valentine's Day... as in the couples fill the streets and it becomes a huge date day. I wish I were joking... despite this weird contortion, this year was a pretty good year for pre-Christmas activities. The weekend before Christmas my friends and I went to have a look at some of the Christmas lights displays around Tokyo.

The first pic makes it look like there's snow in Tokyo... the second is an OCEAN of Christmas lights.
　　　

Then there is Christmas day... my friend Will and I got our "cook" on and made a pretty decent Christmas dinner.



The finished product...


　　


The food was great... and the day was a pretty good one even though it was exactly like it would have been at home. It was close... and it's being with the people you love that really counts - friends or family.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!!

Fall is in the air...

and winter's right around the corner! If only that meant that there would be some snow this year. Unfortunately there are no guarantees. :-(
I wanted to share some amazing pictures that I clicked on my phone the other day... this only happens on the weekends where there aren't people around automatically scooping away the leaves.
Isn't that just like the yellow-brick road or something?



Next, our kendo captain... being a goof!

3 and 2 makes 5

Recently I've had some good things happen in my life... but there are some nagging things as well... and the total number of aforementioned things is 5.

Good things... in no particular order:
1. Tuition deduction - about $1500 will be returned to me
2. Scholarship from the university - $3600 will be given to me
3. I passed kendo 1-kyu - I'm now a certified stud! ;-)

Things that make me worry... also in no particular order:
4. I work/study too much and have no extra time to relax (this may sound like I'm whining, but I literally don't have time to take a 5 minute breather sometimes)
5. I don't have enough money to go home for Christmas and will spend it in Japan

The last two items really do have me worried... especially the NO free time EVER thing. I'm getting to be a stress head and last week a friend at school asked me how I was because I looked extremely tired (fair enough I was, but still... it was BAD!). I don't see any end in sight for the madness that happens to be my life right now! Any stress reducing/relaxation inducing practices that can be done in less than 10 minutes?? I'm totally up for any advice!

OPPAI!! (aka boobages)

Oppai... it's a very interesting word. Recently I've been having interesting encounters that are predominantly about these interesting female "appendages."

Case 1: Sundays I teach basic English to a 5 year-old Japanese girl. Somewhere around the middle of the lesson she bursts out, "Your oppai are big!" (in Japanese) I ignore it and try to get her to keep going on the lesson. Nope, wasn't gonna happen. She turns around, looks at her mother and says, "I think yours are bigger than my mom's." By this time I'm very red and her dad is scolding her... even at the end of the lesson she once again said "Sensei's oppai are big" to her mom.
***embarrassing***

Case 2: Last night was the end of season girls' drinking night. Yup! All the kendo girls, after practice, went out and got pissed. At the beginning, my 2nd year group was kind of segregated from the rest... talking amongst ourselves. Then I moved, and my friend Shivani followed, to near our favorite girl captain, Toda. Now, this is dangerous... Toda loves to talk oppai!! Well... we did more than talk... we took silly pictures that mostly featured oppai... and we all (I'm embarrassed to admit), in our drunken states, felt each others oppai. Toda is not well endowed and expresses her jealousy of my rather ample endowment. I try to tell her they get in the way and are a pain in the ass, but somehow I am not able to convince her.

What is the magic of the oppai?? Seriously. I'd love an answer!

Best little present ever...

A dear friend of mine came back to Japan last week. And she's a big sweetie and brought me some prezzies! :-) A small pot of Christmas pudding, some mulled wine fudge, and a nice gift pack of moisturizer, muscle rub and some chapstick... it's the coolest because it's the Extreme Badger Body Care kit... for Active Badgers!!


Take a minute and smile... if you're an Active Badger too!

Running frustration...

Now, I've had a frustration with Japanese walkers for awhile. When walking on the sidewalk people walk one of three ways: on the left, on the right, or down the center. Not very useful because there is no way of predicting which walker you will encounter at any given time. Annoying!

I've recently started running again. (Yes, it's been over 6 months, but I'm on a 3 times a week schedule for now!) I get annoyed with these walkers under normal circumstances, but it's much more annoying when you are going at a rapid pace and you are face with people walking parallel to each other, in the same direction, walking nearly three abreast on the sidewalk. Not enough room to get past, but enough to want to try.

I realized this morning that people walking in the morning are on autopilot. They know their way to the train station based on instinct and they just go... without any awareness of their surroundings. I nearly took out a woman in heels who stopped in the middle of my path to wait for a light. Awareness people!! Seriously!

Ok... enough of my rant!:-)

Back to school

Man... I think the older you get, the harder it is to start school again in the fall. I used to look forward to the first day of school. I'd get all excited with my new outfit, new backpack, new school supplies... ahhhh... it was so much fun. Now?? I had a really relaxing (read: lazy) vacation. Did a bit of work, but mostly relaxed the time away. So, when school started again yesterday... it was really hard to get excited. In fact, I just thought "man, now I really have to get my sh*t together." Bah!

At least I finally get to start researching things that I'm really interested in. That is always motivational help! :-) Wish me luck... and maybe I'll even eventually graduate. haha...

Rewind....

Well... I had a very nice weekend. During the weekend I looked at some of my old Japan pics. So I decided to do a picture rewind... hope you don't mind.

This was at the choral competition.... I still remember Miyuki!

This is part of why I love kendo so much. Mayuko kicking some serious butt!! How awesome is that??

Irish music.... Tokyo pub.... one of the best nights ever!!!

Alisha and Ro in the snow.... we had a great time. Even if I did get a bit grumpy because I'm a crap snowboarder. Heehee...
And that's enough of the rewind... believe me I could go on!!

Pictures...

My mom visited in July... we took pictures with her camera mostly, so I've only gotten the copies today. Here are some of the highlights...

This was a picture taken out in Kawagoe City, Saitama. It was a pretty rainy day, but we were determined to do something. So we met up with my friend Gabe and headed out. Even though it looks really rainy, it wasn't that bad. :-)

When she was in Japan, Mom got to see me practice kendo for the first time. Afterwards, we took a kendo girls picture to commemorate. There were only a few girls that day... but it was still a great picture.


We also visited Shinjuku-Gyouen, formerly the Royal families private garden, but now open to the public. It was amazingly peaceful and nice. Mom loves gardens so she really enjoyed this spot, as did I.

These were all taken at the park. I think they're pretty good... There was so much to see that we just couldn't do it all!


We had lunch one day with my friend Shin-chan. She's from Taiwan and let us try a bunch of different Taiwanese treats that her family and friends had sent. It was really a treat!


We also got to participate in tea ceremony. From left: teacher, mom, me, my friend Kassandra, and the other teacher. (Never got their names, just said "sensei.") It was really a great experience, but it reaffirmed my choice to do kendo. I'm definitely NOT graceful enough for tea ceremony!! :-)

Here's the end of part 1... there's SO many pictures!!

The Summer of Drama!

And I don't mean for me!! Yay!! hahaha... I mean the summer of the Japanese Drama. I am HOPELESSLY addicted to two dramas at the moment: First Kiss and HanaKimi. They are very silly... and could even be characterized as guilty pleasures. But I love them!! And now that fall has arrived (along with rain and the possibility of typhoons), I am even more inclined to ignore the real world and just watch my dramas.

First Kiss is about a heart patient who returns from LA to Tokyo to visit her brother whom she hasn't seen in over 10 years. Ro, do you recognize the guy in the bottom middle pic?? If not, I'll give you another pic and a hint. He's from one of our FAVE movies!! And I must say, he's looking awfully hot in this pic. ;-)


Next drama... is the one that can really be called the guilty pleasure. It's called Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (HanaKimi for short!). It's based on a manga (silliness alert!!). AND... the basic story line is that a girl sneaks into an all-boys school that is renown for picking their students for their good looks. Girl sneaks in to help one of the guys start high jumping again... and so the story spins. The subtitle for the series is: Ikemen Paradise = Hottie Paradise!! You be the judges.

This is the full cast... best ones? As follows... Oguri Shun.


He's been in other dramas that I like as well... so he's bound to be one of my faves! Then there's Ikuta Toma. Newish face... but the funniest character in this drama.

The only person missing from the bunch is YamaP (Yamashita Tomohisa). With him the show really would be a Hottie Paradise for everyone to enjoy!! ;-)

More pics!!

A few weeks back, my friend Kassandra and I went to a place in Tokyo called Yanaka Ginza. It's a really cute area with cute shops, some really old buildings, and a park with lots of turtles. The first pic is us in this really neat (HUGE!) old house. It was super hot, but glad we went out. The second pic is just one section of the huge house. Third pic is the side of a traditional candy shop... really neat building. The art on the side of the building was amazing.
Then there were the turtles. Notice the turtle climbing up the ramp... we sat and watched him try and try to get up to the platform. He was really gambaru-ing (trying hard), but after the third time of sliding backward down the ramp... he gave up and swam off. It was so funny to watch though!!
Sorry this is all such a jumble... I'm decidedly annoyed by the way that the formatting works on blogger sometimes. I can't seem to get anything to line up anymore. Oh well... It can't really be helped.
Hope everyone is enjoying summer and staying cool!!

Wow... has it really been that long?

Ok... so here are the long awaited pictures... The first is of rice fields "back home" in Yamagata. I was there in June (yeah... JUNE!!!) for a wedding. Aaaaah... it's so peaceful there... not quite like Tokyo.

Second picture... it's an odd tradition at weddings, but a lot of times there are goofy dances, skits, or songs that are performed for the bride and groom. The guys with the multi-colored wigs are all the grooms' friends from high school. Hahaha... the made me laugh SO hard!

The last picture is of a turtle. I like turtles... and you see them in parks here in Japan all the time. Thus, the picture. Now when my mom was here we used her camera and she didn't have a cable with her so I couldn't transfer any of those pics to my computer. But they will be coming soon.

Also, big news... I'm staying here in Japan to finish my degree. I am looking forward to finishing here and also getting to meet more people and maybe even have people visit me! That's an open invitation!!

Wow!

It's been an awfully long time since I posted anything. Pictures or messages. For that I must apologize. Things have been busy but not THAT busy! I'm just lazy.
So, I'm going to do one of those crazy updates of what I've been doing since May!
-I finished my midterms and have gotten the results back (for the most part)... grades are good and I'm doing well in all my classes.
- Went to my friend Nami's wedding in Yamagata... wow! That was a major event... Had a total blast!!
-I had a friend visit for the last 10 days... Ted. He's been studying in China and wanted to see a bit of Tokyo. It was fun, but exhausting because I didn't get nearly enough sleep while he was here.
- Kendo's good, but KILLING me because I've not adjusted to the heat (I don't think you really can!) and I end up a sweaty mess by the end of EVERY practice. But I love it still.
- Did and interview to get into Waseda last weekend... have been accepted. Now for figuring out the money situation. :-) Doesn't everything all come down to money??
- Am trying to figure out what to do with my mom while she's here... she's got a list a mile long and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to be able to play with... I'll still be in classes!

That's the REALLY short version... I promise there will be pics!