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Friday, November 13th, 2009
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| Subject: | :D |
| Time: | 2:56 am. |
| Mood: |  cold. | | Music: | FFXII OST. |
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Whoa, long time no see. Time actually does fly, even when it doesn't really feel like you're doing anything.
It's basically been the usual, school during the week, party on the weekend. I went to Shinagawa again to actually pick up my work permit so now I need to start putting out ads 'n stuff. As my friend and I were exiting the ticket gates from the station though we got stopped by Japanese police asking to see our foreigner cards. I've never been carded before so it was quite surprising. There were also quite a few policemen and women on alert around the station. Very strange.
I received my care package from my mother! It was a box full of love. :3 Namely, my BEAR SUIT! We've been reunited and it couldn't have come quicker. My clunky 1st-gen DS and games! Like three pounds of candy, yum. And various other things that were needed. Needless to say, I'm a happy woman for now.
I've had my ups and downs but in general I'm rolling along quite nicely! Here, let the pictures tell the story.
( Many pictures here! )
It's the weekend, so you all know what that means. We out, yo!
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Sunday, November 1st, 2009
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| Subject: | :D |
| Time: | 1:27 am. |
| Mood: |  content. | | Music: | Xenogears. |
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You can't have highs in your life without the lows. After my few days of sulking the typhoon blew past, the skies were beautiful, I realized how lucky I am and life was good again. Better, in fact. Best it's been! haha Personal drama finally resolved itself, not necessarily in the way I'd have wanted it but most likely for the best. I'm not gonna worry about that situation for a long, long time. In the aftermath I'm feeling very free and open. Alex has been giving me a lot of good music so I've got good vibes all the time, Nick and I are hanging out more and more, and I go out to party every weekend. Life is good.
This time I'm trying to focus on the positives. Yes, things will go wrong, people will be confusing, I'll want to go home, Japanese society will be oppressive, the list goes on. But past that is the fact that I'm here having this experience now and I'm lucky enough to be experiencing it with some awesome people. I need to zoom out of my own personal space and see the big picture. Which is what I'm doing now and am loving it!
Random tangent over. Not too much in particular has been going on lately. I did not end up going to Nikko, but that was more because of bad weather than anything else. One decision affects the rest and so by not going I ended up hanging out with Nick for a whole day, which was fun times. The usual drinking and partying was also had, cause that's how we do at DK House. During the week I went to Shinagawa to apply for my work permit, so I can finally have some monies. Unfortunately, I have to return in three weeks to get the permit proper, which is lame.
We have Monday and Tuesday off from school for the Sophia Festival, which I hope is fun. It's just nice to have a break, too.
( Yes, pictures! )
Hope things are going well for everyone. I do read everybody's journals, but we all know my bad commenting habits. :x
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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
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I've been having a rough couple of days these past few. A mixture of several different issues, money (or lack thereof) included. Had my first 'I want to be home' kind of day and it was not fun at all. Sulking gets you nowhere though so I took today as a day for myself and cleaned my room, basically did laundry for all my clothes and generally chilled out by myself for once. That definitely helped put things into perspective for me. I'm here, I'm going to be here, and I'm surrounded by wonderful people who I shouldn't take for granted and need to enjoy while we're all here together.
I also went to a large arcade with one of my foreign friends who doesn't live in DK House earlir, and that was fun. It was great to distract myself with somebody who wasn't connected to anything. He's also a huge gamer like me and we have almost all the same interests, have played the same games, we both collect game soundtracks and art books and figurines, etc, etc... the list goes on. And he's not too bad looking, ifyaknowwhatImean. ;)
( Read more... )
Some of us are planning to head up to Nikko this weekend to see the autumn colors. Hopefully I'll be able to go!
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Saturday, October 17th, 2009
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| Subject: | :D |
| Time: | 12:03 am. |
| Music: | Whistle Song - Fantastic Plastic Machine. |
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As of today, I have officially been in Japan for one month! I'm kind of switching between 'wow, it's a month already' and... not really thinking about it. 8D It's been a month packed with a bunch of stuff. Tokyo Game Show, Tokyo clubs, ageHa, meeting cool people, starting school again, etc. So far my year has kicked off to a mega cool start, and I'm hoping it'll only go up from here! :D
Not too much has been up recently, just classes and such. I have my first paper due on Monday, ooh scary scary. I haven't written an academic paper in oh, maybe five months so we'll see how well this goes. Japanese class is still pretty easy and my grades on quizzes and such are good, which is inspiring considering this is actually the first Japanese language class I have taken. Anthropology is boring, but it's not like I went into it with high hopes anyway so it's all good. I had wanted to join the hip-hop dance club at school but apparently they're only recruiting in the spring after a series of auditions. T___T I think I'll give it a go, though! :D
Got my alien registration card, yay! My picture is alright, I'm smiling but there's something about it that says I'll rape your children in their sleep. :( This means I can apply for a work permit and finally not be stupid poor anymore! :D Always a good thing.
( Paul Van Dyk @ club ageHa! and etc )
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Sunday, October 11th, 2009
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That might have been the wildest night of my life.
:D
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Friday, October 9th, 2009
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| Subject: | :D |
| Time: | 4:13 am. |
| Mood: | content. | | Music: | I'm Still a Simple Man. |
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Hello! Long time no see! Let's see, lately I've just been busy with school. I'm taking three classes this semester: Japanese M1 (which is like accelerated beginner) M-F 9:15-10:45, Social and Cultural Anthropology T/F 11:00-12:30, and Survey of Pre-modern Japanese Literature M/Th 3:15-4:45.
Yeah, see that M/Th? And that four hour break? Yeah, that's fun. :P
( Karaoke funtimes! )
Tomorrow night is the big night! A huge group of us are going to club ageHa in Odaiba, which is apparently the largest club in Japan, maybe even Asia, to see Paul van Dyk!! It's way expensive, but this is an experience I just can't miss, even though I won't have any money whatsoever as a result. I'm way stoked.
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Friday, October 2nd, 2009
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Hello, hello! It's time for another episode of 'Christine is in Japan!'
First of all, Japan's weather is a little confused right now. It thinks it's the rainy season when that's actually not until late next spring. Autumn is supposed to be blue skies, no oppressive humidity for a few days and then blue skies and bone piercing cold winter. Kthx.
We went to the Ueno Zoo! I wonder if any animals are different from last time, I couldn't really tell. HOWEVER the giant panda, Ling Ling, died of heart failure last year. :( Yes, we went to the zoo on a rainy day so what. It was our last day of summer! Then we hit up a huge arcade in Takadanobaba, fun times!!
( Zooglygooglyoogly. )
Next episode: karaoke! School is happening, but I haven't taken any pictures of campus yet. One day!
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Thursday, October 1st, 2009
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This past weekend was the Tokyo Game Show 2009!!! The last two days, Saturday and Sunday, were open to the public and so of course my ass was on a train (after serious miscommunication issues with a friend which resulted in me waiting for about two hours) down into the heart of Chiba prefecture to see all the showcases!
( Less talk, more rokk. )
I've started school! More to come later; also, pictures!
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Saturday, September 26th, 2009
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| Subject: | :D |
| Time: | 10:15 pm. |
| Music: | Earth Wind and Fire. |
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Okay, I'm just going back to emoticon subject titles cause I'm never original enough for anything else. 8D
It's been a few days since I last updated and while I've been busy, it's been mainly school stuff so it's not interesting at all. We finally had our orientation on Thursday in which they gave us a shit ton of papers, basically. The campus is small and is situated right in the middle of Tokyo sprawl, which is kind of cool. I haven't taken any pictures of campus yet but come on, we've got a whole year for that. :D We also had to take our Japanese placement test on Friday, which I'm sure is safe to say completely raped everybody.
Otherwise, hanging out with the other DK House people is mega funtimes. Everybody here (for the most part) is just so cool and I've already shed my bitch-get-away-from-me exterior and I'm gotten to that point where I'm just insane, haha. But a more polished insane than last time. There was an impromptu drinking and dance party in the kitchen last night and I got pretty buzzed after three chu-hais, which you know I know understand why people will just wind down with a beer after a long day. I only actually ENJOY drinking chu-hai though cause they're got those fruity flavors.
Today is chill-out day! I'm staying the fuck out of Tokyo until we have to go back to campus on Tuesday and will just stay local. Maybe ride some bicycles around, you know, the usual.
( Yay picture time. )
I also went to the Tokyo Game Show yesterday. :D But that'll be saved for a post of it's own.
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Monday, September 21st, 2009
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I definitely just went to sleep at seven am this morning after dancing in Tokyo all night. Hell yeah. That was an experience, haha. It was an indie band and dj event that ran from 11p to 5a in this tiny club called Lush, in Shibuya. There were a good number of foreigners there (like ten, at least) and since we're so rare we all just started talking to each other and other Japanese people and everybody had a romping good time. Dancing til five in the morning is awesome, though but it's also kind of out of necessity if you're clubbing far from home cause the trains stop around 1a and don't start again til 5a! I had tried to find this Kotaku Tokyo Game Show kick-off party in Shibuya before Lush, but I just. couldn't. find. it. :( I walked up and down and in and out and around the general area it was supposed to be for like 45 minutes and all the hosts and restaurant people trying to get you to go into their shop were looking at me weird and it was awkward.
Otherwise I've just been taking care of business. I got my cellphone, yayaya! That was a hassle even with one of my Japanese friends cause her English wasn't so good, my keigo (polite form) is shit and there was just this breakdown in communication that couldn't be helped. 8D But we did it, in the end! It's pretty huge, but I like it. The screen can be turned so it can be watched as a tv, used as a camera, or a mirror. I've also just been hanging out with different people around here, cause most of us are Sophia students, and am waiting for our orientation and for school to start.
( But enough about all that, on with the pictures! )
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Saturday, September 19th, 2009
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Hello all! I've finally settled in a bit, gone grocery shopping and got some other various living need-type items. Yesterday a large group of the DK House Sophia students went to fill out our alien registration forms so we can get our cards. That was a process, haha. Today was a welcome party where we all ate curry and mingled and talked. Pretty fun, but I had to jet a bit early to Harajuku to meet up with one of my KU Sophia friends.
I'm really excited cause all the international students seem nice and are fun to hang around with, so hopefully I won't be doing almost everything by myself this time. Which is nice. ^_^
Excuse my really bland recounting, I'm tired as fuck.
( But I come with pictures! )
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Thursday, September 17th, 2009
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I made it!! I am safely at my dorm in Japan, unpacking and generally starting to settle in. It was a long trip and nearly started in disaster at the Wichita Mid-continental airport. My bag was 20 lbs overweight so they charged me a $150 fee unless I got it down under fifty. So I was frantically pulling things out of my bag all the while this ominous voice behind me "Ma'am, we've got to get your bag on or it's not gonna make it." I was 2 measely lbs over and the lady was still gonna charge me. Mom had come back by this point, I was in tears and the attendant lady in a state of virtual disinterest. In the end mom pushed me toward my flight so I wouldn't miss it and apparently stuffed almost everything back in and paid the fee. I got my bag, though! Overall that whole experience served to reinforce the horrible reputation of the ICT airport staff.
Flying was fine, no problems. Long, but fine. I hate how I can't sleep when I travel. One funny thing I noticed: sitting waiting for my JAL flight this Japanese lady walks past me and I look down to her giftbags and I see not one, but TWO boxes of Patron. Lady was about to get down when she got home, haha.
A Sophia student was there to meet me at Narita and helped me make it to DK House, thank god. So now here I am and I've got a lot to do before I can go to blessed sleep.
Oh well, Japan part deux starts NOW!!!
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
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This is it. I leave tomorrow bright and early at 7 am. I'm more ready than I was, though I still have some lingering anxieties. All my loose ends are taken care of and today it's just personal stuff, like packing and cleaning.
I visited my father's grave today and I think it's the first time I haven't cried... wanted to, but I smiled through it. Dad passed a year before my first time to Japan so he never got to see me leave the country, and I guess if I have any regrets it would be that.
I feel silly about other things but hopefully, in the end, that will all be okay again too.
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Friday, August 28th, 2009
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| Subject: | D: |
| Time: | 3:14 am. |
| Mood: |  tired. | | Music: | Ristorante side A - Nujabes. |
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Lawrence is tons of fun. I've been seeing all my friends and it's really nice to have everyone paying attention to me and happy to see me and all that. My going away party is tomorrow night though and I'm almost kind of dreading it... it's going to be so hard to say goodbye.
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Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
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| Subject: | So. |
| Time: | 12:20 am. |
| Mood: |  okay. | | Music: | Finale~Mint~ - Threads of Fate OST. |
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I was just reading over some of my old posts from while I was in Japan and some of those were straight up ridiculous. And I apologize. 8D I've definitely matured since then, but no promises my posts this time around won't be just as insane! Less whine/rant, more rokk.
Working with the new exchange students this past week was a good experience. Tiring, with eight hour days starting at 7 am but worth it. This was their initial orientation to begin their acclimation process to the culture and language and then they were sent off with their host families the next day. It was fun hanging out with the students and talking to them, even though I probably will never see any of them again (I'm still in Japan when they go home). But I'll probably be remembered as "that crazy black girl with the 'fro"... which always seems to be the case, in the end. 8D
Otherwise, nothing exciting here. Weather's been rainy and nice. Enjoying my last few weeks of quiet, cause I'm gonna hit the ground running once I'm back in Nihon (literally, cause I wanna get through customs quick). I've paid my housing costs for the year so I'm basically done with all the prep, now I'm just waiting for the plane to take off. Next week I'll be in Lawrence partying it up then I'm off to Delaware for a few days of super happy awesome funtime yay. Time is moving a little too fast for me to keep up, though.
Oh Tsutaya, why wouldn't you let me rent porrrrn...?! *shakes fist futiley*
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Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
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| Subject: | :P |
| Time: | 1:57 pm. |
| Mood: |  cramps. | | Music: | Silence and Motion - FFVIII. |
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I have a lot of things planned for the rest of this month and a bunch of stuff to do, yet I still find myself playing FFTactics for hours on end. So much to do, so much time! I watched the entirety of Simoun in about three days and yep, definitely cried at the end. That show turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would.
Ughhhh, I do not like pap smears.
The new exchange students coming to America arrive tomorrow. I'll be helping AFS out with the arrival orientation for the rest of this week. I think it'll be fun working with the new students. :D
In perhaps not the smartest move I decided to have my going away party in Lawrence the night before my 8:20 am flight to Delaware. 8D It's an hour drive to the airport from Lawrence so I wonder if I'm even gonna get any sleep. Should be fun, though!
I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'm never going to get a scholarship. But I'll keep applying anyway.
( Mildly angsty stuff. )
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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
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| Subject: | :D |
| Time: | 12:12 am. |
| Mood: |  sleepy. | | Music: | MUCC. |
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Ridiculous Persona 4 comic.
In other news, August is slipping by so quickly! It's like a freaking ninja. Lots of little loose ends I need to take care of, but I'm definitely content to completely ignore it all and start a new game in Secret of Mana. 8D
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
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Figured it was past due for my monthly post, haha. This journal will get way active again once I'm in Japan, but that's not until September. I bought my ticket a few weeks ago and I fly out on the 16th and after traveling for 20 hours I'll arrive the next day. Yay for flying into the future! I have a bunch of stuff planned and that I need to take care of before then, though. Serious business stuff like immunizations and (oh no) a pap smear, as well as finally wrapping everything up from my Lawrence lease. Then funtimes like visiting the east coast again which will be at the end of August. I'm a little more excited to go to the beach than I should be, I think.
Things that have happened in the past month: not much. Still never could find a job so now I just do chores around the house for an allowance, which is still better than nothing. Playing a lot of games... I recently decided that this would be the "summer of completion" and I'd finally gungho and finish all those RPGs I never got around to. It's proving more difficult than I initially thought, haha. Trying to get back into a game you haven't picked up in more than two-three years is hard enough without needing to grind a whole bunch just to get through the final dungeon! So, we'll see just how far I'll get with that. So far I've finished Dragon Quest VIII with 130 hours. Now I'm working on Final Fantasy Tactics, cause that's been on loan (for about two years now? haha) and am right on the cusp of 100 hours, though I'm near the end. I am not looking forward to those final battles though, cause FFT can be infuriating. Next, finish Breath of Fire IV? On the side though I've been playing a lot of the first three Spyros just for fun. XD
I have fully recovered from my ear surgery, though I went through a few periods of hell during that time. My hearing has already improved 15-20% and is expected to continue to improve. Yaaay!
I went on a date with a black man. If you knew me you'd understand how huge this is. Basic story is that I don't like black people (ironic, yeah I know. I sure hope everyone here knows I'm black myself 8D). I happened to be at a club by myself cause my friend bailed and he happened to talk to me and we happened to switch numbers and meet up the next day for three hours. Too bad he happened to live in Washington D.C. and was leaving the next day. And that, as they say, is that. :D
Also visited Lawrence and had one of the most relaxing weekends on my life, for cereal. It was nice cause I didn't have to worry about any expectations or obligations. I could just sit around with my friend all day, eat pizza, gorge on candy and watch funny movies and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. And it was totally kosher. Went to a bar one night, got pretty drunk, and chased after a girl I'm pretty sure I had danced with earlier in the year at a different club. Too bad she was there with her girlfriend. :( I really need my own little lesbian friend circle, cause as it is I am so out of the loop. Hung out with Adam a couple of times, ended up getting pretty drunk again the next night and kind of ended up spending the night at his place. XD; I was definitely on the futon, though.
Still trying to lose weight, but it's being difficult. :( I exercise a bunch everyday and eat healthy, yet I've been hovering around the same spot for about a month now. At least I'm toning up, though.
I may or may not be off my hiatus, haha. All I have to offer now is random game babble and ranting, which I suppose is all I can ever give so yeah. Lata.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
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| Subject: | :D |
| Time: | 1:37 am. |
| Mood: |  blah. | | Music: | Xenogears. |
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What up?
Last Thursday I had a small surgery on my right ear to improve hearing and insert a pressure-equalization tube. I'm still recovering and it's slow, but steady. It kind of feels like I have a constant slight sensation of vertigo, which isn't necessarily pleasant. But here's to a good rest of my recovery!
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ralien's journal
exhausted.
nostalgic.