The weekend is here!

This is one of the neighborhood cats. It's terrified of me. -_-' I'm eventually going to get it to let me pet it. Or if not that one, at least one of them. (There's at least three different ones I recognize.)



This evening I had to talk with Marina about the whole issue with everyone not wanting to hang out with her anymore. I tried to explain what the reasons were for them not liking her, including her habit of one-upping everyone. She said she didn't realize she even did that, which is why I knew I needed to tell her. Of course, she got really upset and was crying, but I managed to calm her down a bit. I said that now that she knows, she needs to talk to at least one of the others about it. I'd like to think that if they realize how miserable they're making her, that they might change the way they're acting toward her, but I really don't know. They all seem pretty fixed on disliking her. She said she'll probably try talking to Walter, since he "seems the most mature" as she said. I agree, and I told her that Evan would probably be a good person to talk to, as well, if the way he was talking to Brittany last night when she was being all aggravated about her interview with Blood is any indication. But anyway, I'm just tired of this whole situation going on, especially since it's so similar to what happened last year.

Tomorrow Brittany and I are going to get Gazette tickets...and I'm also getting Kagrra, tickets for Marina and I if they're not sold out yet. I wanted to see L Change the World, but because Brittany has a field trip tomorrow, I'll probably not get to go. Or maybe I can go with Marina. I still don't like spending a huge amount of time with her, but...oh well. She really wants to see the movie, too, so I guess that works out.

My cough is getting worse, I think. I kept coughing during my Practical Asian Society and Culture class when we were watching the Tiananmen Square film, and Katsuya must've asked me at least five times if I was all right. Geez. It's not like I'm dying! It's amazing how people here jump to the worst conclusion, haha. I'm going through water like nobody's business, though. I bought a huge (2 liters) bottle of water at Peacock this evening, since the tap water isn't too great.

I really, really want to get my hair cut. I think I'll ask Yumika on Tuesday what a reasonable price for getting a haircut is here, since I don't even know how to tell if I'm getting a rip-off. Maybe she'll even know a good place to go. All I know is that my hair is getting irritating and not-nice looking. It's been four months since I've gotten it cut, so I'm overdue for a cut. I haven't decided what I want done yet, though.

Crappiest Field Trip Ever

Today I went to school soley to eat lunch with my friends...and then meet in the classroom before walking to Roppongi where the museum was. The National Art Center, Tokyo. It was SO crowded because it's the last week of the Yokoyama Taikan exhibition, and apparently everyone in Japan wants to see his work. -_-' Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the crowding. Half the time I couldn't even see the artwork. There were a few that I really, really liked, though. After much searching, I finally found them online. The name of the painting is Gekka no umi. The way he painted them makes it look really hazy and blend right into the sky. I know it looks like a really simple painting, and the online picture doesn't do it justice, but in real life the painting was amazing. Professor Morland was telling us how the Japanese during his time didn't like them very much, but I absolutely love the way they look. I also really liked this one: Umi, though the online picture doesn't look very nice at all...even I think so, haha. Maybe sometime I'll go see them at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where they are permanently on show; the National Art Center, Tokyo just borrowed them for this "50 years on" exhibit.

On the walk back from the museum, I was talking with Katsuya most of the time, and he was telling me all sorts of weird stories, half of which sounded ridiculous. Like why Tokyo Tower was red. (He said it was to represent the blood from the Korean War. I told him it was just air regulations. XD) One thing I did believe, though, was that the area we were walking through was the place where the Sailor Moon anime took place. It's been years and years since I watched that show (was it really nine years ago?!), but when I reached back in my memory, the streets and shops started looking familiar, hahaha! Katsuya said that there used to be a huge arcade, but now there's restaurants and such in its place now.

On Saturday, Brittany and I are going to try and get tickets to a Gazette live in April. I really, really hope we get tickets! They go on sale on Saturday, and we're going to get them in the morning, so hopefully that'll insure us.

These are the Gazette songs I've been listening to a lot lately. For those of you that actually want to watch/listen to these, hahaha. They all have subtitles.
Guren, their newsest song and my current favorite, is so, so sad. I love the video, though.
Taion The costuming and make up in this is really fantastic. Then again, Gazette's outfits and make up usually are.
I love Silly God Disco purely for the amusing Engrish he's singing. (with subs do you can actually understand the English)
Cassis is my favorite of theirs, from a while ago. It was really hard finding subtitles in a font that didn't ruin the video. It's such a beautiful, beautiful song if you know what it means.

Tomorrow I have my Japanese written exam. I hate studying, but I did study for it...and I'll probably study some more before I go to bed, and when I wake up, haha. Japanese is the only class I actually care about, but it's just too easy right now, so it's extremely frustrating. I feel like Koyama-sensei doesn't push us hard enough, and the quizzes feel like jokes. All of the main campus Temple students I've talked to here say that the Japanese classes back home are much harder than here, so they're not happy about it, either.

This is completely unrelated to Japan...but I'm starting to get really nervous about UMass Amherst. I'm supposed to find out between March and June...and I'm so worried that I won't get accepted for some reason. More than anything, I don't want to go back to Marlboro. I don't know what I would do if I had to go back. Be the most miserable student ever, probably.

Also...I have a question. Is it bad that I don't like going all over the place just for the sake of seeing things before I leave? I know everyone keeps going, "you should see this! you should go there!" but I really don't enjoy doing things like that. I always get so exhausted when I go somewhere for the day (and don't even get to see much), and half the time I feel like it was a waste of time. Plus, whenever I go to those places, I feel like I'm doing it for the people who told me to go there; not for myself. I guess it's just kind of confusing, since I'm studying abroad, and I should be "taking advantage" of being in Japan, but to be straight out honest, I don't enjoy the whole tourism thing, running around and seeing the sights. I started thinking about this today when Katsuya was saying, "Well, if you didn't come here for the art, why are you here?" Is it such a problem to say, "Because I like the culture and just want to be here"? Why does everyone have to have a reason for everything? Sorry, I think I sound like I'm whining now. I don't mean to, but that has always really bothered me, and I hate it when people ask me questions like that.

Half a week of ughh

This week hasn't been fun, since it's midterm time, and I've just been generally unhappy the past few days. I had my first midterm on Tuesday, and I'm pretty sure I didn't do well on it. I was talking with Katsuya today about how I kept mixing up the eras for the art, and he thinks we weren't given enough time for each of the questions. Also, I think I'm on the verge of getting sick or something...my stomach is really bothering me, and today I felt like I had a fever all day when I was in school. I skipped my last class after talking to my art instructor and finding out what I would be missing. I feel bad because we started the nude model drawings on Monday, and so every class is important from now on. But I just didn't think I could handle two and a half hours of being in one classroom (which would be really, really warm for the model's sake) when I'm feeling like this. I left my bike at school and took the bus home, since it was cold and very windy. The only reason I was able to bike to school this morning is because although it was windy and I felt my bike getting pushed sideways, it was much warmer, and therefore bearable.

When I was waiting for the bus this evening, though, across the street there's an elementary school, and a group of maybe eight or so boys were all beating up each other. I still don't know if it was real fighting, since first there were only a few boys playing in the bushes and running around, but then more showed up, and a few teamed up on one boy, and more showed up and soon everyone was beating each other up. I couldn't tell if there were sides or if it was every boy for himself. It was all very shocking to watch, and no one came and broke them up. Everyone at the bus stop was watching the fight (the boys were pretty noisy, so we could hear them over the traffic), and I think the young couple next to me was talking about it, from the snatches of conversation I understood; the guy was saying something about how it was for fun, though the girl didn't sound so sure. I'm not so sure, either, since several of the boys were on the ground half the time, and they kept doing these weird jumping attacks (like you would see in some kind of Japanese teenage gang drama) and doing headlocks and such. I got in a really bad mood watching...I don't think I've actually seen people beating each other up before in real life.

Oh, since I haven't posted since Saturday (I think?), I'll tell you that on Sunday, even though I said I was going to do homework...I went to Ueno Park and Asakusa instead. Yeah. Bad student. I did do my homework afterward, haha. But I just spent the entire day out. It was REALLY cold and windy, though, so it was kind of painful to be out. Asakusa seems like the perfect place to get omiyage (souvenirs/gifts), so I'm definitely going back to get a bunch of stuff for people another time. I didn't buy anything except some noodles at a vendor and then a bottle of Shiroi Natchan and a pack of Haichuu (anndd I don't know if I'm spelling it right, since I'm so used to seeing it in Japanese).

These are prayers hanging at a shrine in Ueno.


I'd thought I was going to go to Hakone with the others sometime soon, but apparently Cecelia planned the whole thing again without me, and since she already has the hotel reservation, I guess I'm not going with them. They were talking about it at lunch, and I thought that I had been included in the plans, but then when James asked who all was going, she said four of the guys from Green House and four girls (her, Emily, Lindsay and Tamaria). I talked to Steve about it later, and he said he was planning on going to Hakone on a day trip (instead of an overnight thing like the others are doing), which is what I'm more interested in doing, so I said I may just go with him. He said he would go when it's warmer, which would be best for pictures if there's more greenery, lol. I just hope that works out. We're still trying to figure out when to go to the Ghibli museum.

Speaking of museums, I have another field trip tomorrow during class. We're going to walk from school to some museum in Roppongi. Then on Friday I have the second half of my Japanese midterm (today's oral half was SO easy), and we're watching a film about Tiananmen Square in my Asian culture class.

Yokohama in a Sandstorm

Today has been so windy that it's crazy. I was constantly rubbing sand out of my eyes all day. It was really warm at first, though, so the wind wasn't too bad. Only later did it get nasty.

Yokohama is suprisingly close! It's only 20 minutes by express, and only 440 yen. I'm definitely going back sometime either on my own or with maybe one or two people, since going in a huge group was...well, it was fun, but it's really hard to shop with other people who can never decide where to stop, and won't necessarily wait for you if you go into a shop. I got pretty pissed off around lunch time when no one could decide on a restuarant, and they kept saying, "We need to split up so we can get into a restaurant," but whenever a group of us disappeared, they would go searching for the group. I suggested about three times that we just get food from a vendor and eat while walking (which is what half the Japanese people there were doing, anyway), but no one listened to me. Eventually we went into a restaurant, and it was delicious. Except the fried rice. It wasn't really fried, I don't think. It tasted fine, but not fantastic. The wonton soup I had was really good, though, and the dumpling thing (I don't remember its name) was wonderful. I love Chinese food, haha.

Ah, and a culture point. Before we left the restaurant, I used the bathroom, and it only had a squat toilet, haha. It was...weird. I'm not going into it anymore than that! But I definitely prefer Western ones. Sorry, Japan, there's just some things that don't appeal to me. *dies*

I'm jumping ahead, though. One of my favorite parts of the trip was Landmark Tower, which is the tallest building in Japan, at 273 meters tall, and has the fastest elevator in Japan. Unfortunately, it was pretty hazy today, so we couldn't see Mt. Fuji from the tower.

There's an old ship! It looks so tiny from up there, haha.

The gang I'm always hanging out with, haha! So many of us.

My other favorite part was our trip on the sea taxi. Aaaaaah I will never stop loving the ocean or any part remotely attached to it (we were still in the harbor, obviously). I just get this awesome rush whenever I'm near sea water and can smell the salt in the air. Absolute heaven for me. I miss the ocean from the west coast so much, and I don't think I'll ever stop missing it, no matter how many years pass. I definitely left part of me there.

A ship from New Orleans...a long way from home, haha.

A cute little boy playing by himself in a small park by Chinatown. I love Japanese children. They're the most adorable things in the world.

Sandstorm a'comin'!!!!!!!! Before it hit, we were like, "Why the hell is the sky orange?!"

Some cookie things I bought and still haven't tried yet. I'll try them maybe tomorrow or later tonight. Oh, and I got some bubble tea in Chinatown, but it wasn't very good, so I think I'll stick to Shibuya's bubble tea.

We didn't go to Yamashita-koen because of the weather being so windy and sandstormy, but I figure I can go back when it's better, warmer weather, so I'm not too disappointed. When we got back, we found all of the bikes blown over, like dominoes. I don't know if I've ever experienced such fierce wind before! Crazaay~!

Go cry in a corner, emo kid

I feel like one of those emo kids right now (Aurie: "Go cry in a corner, emo kid!" haha), but this evening was somewhat good. And not so good. I feel kind of gross right now, since despite my daily workout of biking about 12 miles (total to school and back) and the obvious loss of weight determined by my tightened belt holes and loose jeans, this evening I ate a huge amount of junk. So gross, but I couldn't really help it. After Marina and I got out of class (she's in my Practical Asian Society and Culture class), and I raced the bus home (AND WON), we went down toward Jiyuugaoka station, where all of the stores, etc. are.


It's been kind of difficult being friends with Marina, since everyone else has started hating her. She's kind of overbearing and...very Russian. I'm not just saying that. She's got one of those one-upping complexes: she's always trying to one-up whatever you say to her, even if it doesn't call for it. It gets really, really annoying after a while. Despite that, I enjoy hanging out with her, as long as I limit the amount of time I spend with her...and as long as I firmly tell her that I just don't feel like talking about bad things right now. It works, it really does. I told Emily how it's hard for me with everyone I like hating her when she hasn't done anything to bother me yet, and so it feels really awkward for me. But I'm glad that I told her, because she respects the fact that I can deal with Marina, and so I'm not expected to join in on the venting and crap.


That aside, this evening I enjoyed myself. We first went to Mos Burger for dinner. I didn't really want to, but Marina had been craving it, and I didn't have any better ideas, so we went. It tasted really good, since they cook real food, hahaha. Disgustingly unhealthy, though. Afterward, we went in search of a wallet for me (unsuccessfully), and then went into Book Off. Have I ever mentioned how difficult it is to go into a book store here and actually find what you're looking for? I wanted to find a Kagrra, cd, since all the cds in Book Off are super cheap. However, I don't know how they categorize things there, and when I didn't immediately find it under the カ (ka) section, I got discouraged and went back to where Marina was looking at video games. We wandered upstairs so she could get a Russian-Japanese dictionary, and found a Japanese translation of The Little Mermaid in tiny book form. I almost bought it, but then put it back when I found a treasure: a huge volume (combined volumes, I think) of the manga Hana zakari no kimitachi e ("For You in Full Blossoms" is what the English translation is, apparently) for only 400 yen. In the States, they call it "Hana Kimi." Anyway, I flipped through several of the volumes until I found the place where I am in the series, and so now I have it. It's my goal to read the entire thing. So far I've read (and understood)...the first page, without looking anything up, haha. I stuck a post-it note inside so I can continue reading sometime with a dictionary beside me.


After Book Off, we went off in search of other things, and eventually stopped at a bakery/cafe ("Danmark Cafe," haha) and got some yummy pastries before going to Daimaru Peacock (the grocery store). At first I wasn't going to get anything, but then I spotted oranges for 88 yen each, and I couldn't resist buying two. Then Marina helped me find soy sauce (YES!! finally!) and we headed back to the apartment.


Tomorrow I'm going to Yokohama. I'll take millions of pictures. I really hope it's fun. It should be.


So, back to my emo self (heh). I was Facebooking...yesterday, I think?...and I saw pictures my friends had posted of them in their dorm room, and I got really homesick. I can't even begin to describe how much I miss my Marlboro friends right now. Every time my friends here talk about how their friends or parents are going to come and visit sometime before the end of the semester, I get really jealous. For instance, some of Brittany's friends might be coming in March, to see Gazette, and Peter's girlfriend is coming in March, and someone's (I don't remember who) parents are going to come and visit.


In drawing class, I said we're doing the live models, right? Well, on Wednesday, we had the guy model come in, and he wasn't nearly as dynamic as the girl model from Monday. He did too many standing poses, and didn't move his body around as much. Probably the biggest factor was that he was super skinny, so it was just boring when he was standing. Also, when I draw guys from my head, they're usually half manga style, half realistic, if that makes any sense...but usually really guys don't look the way I draw, so trying to draw a real guy who happened to have the exact body type as most of my fake drawings really threw me off, and made it extremely difficult to draw in a realistic style. I don't think I'm making any sense, sorry. It's really hard to explain. These are the ones I like better of the bunch. I especially like the sitting one. Sitting poses seem to be more interesting.


I like the one where he's leaning back and twisting a little.

The one on the left is my favorite, since in that pose you could see his back muscles and spine, and since he was bending over and twisting to one side, they made weird shapes beneath his shirt.


Okay, so I just found out some very interesting information. Emily just told me that apparently really close to school is where most of the Johnny's boys do their recording (we were talking about NewS, and I guess they are one of the bands that do their recording in the building nearby). It's the building with the big NewS poster on it that we pass if we're walking to Azabu-juban station. I honestly can't remember the poster, except a faint memory of seeing it, but I can't believe we're so close to their recording studio! Azabu-juban is maybe...a ten minute walk from campus? Less, if you walk quickly, like me.

Ramblings

I think I did something to my right knee, but I don't remember what I could have done to it. There's a big red bruise on it...which wasn't as dark this morning until I touched it when I was trying to compare my knees to see if anything was loose (it felt weird, that's why), and a minute later there was a dark bruise. It had been hurting before already, though, so I don't know. My knee really hurt after coming home this evening, so I almost wonder if it has something to do with riding my bike in the cold. It started hurting yesterday, when I first noticed it during one of my classes, and my knee suddenly started hurting, like I'd popped it or something.

I have mid-terms next week, and I'm not really looking forward to them. Then again, who does look forward to midterms? Crazy people, obviously.

I can't wait until it gets warmer. I'm sick of wearing so many layers and having to carry them around all day in school.

Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to try and get Kagrra, tickets at the Lawson. Of course, that means I have to go to the bank in the morning, since I only have about 1000 yen on me. Brittany's going to teach me how to use the ticket machine. Hopefully the live I want to go to hasn't been sold out yet. Metropolis still has them listed, but I don't know if they take shows off that have been sold out. And...Ticket-Pia still has them, from what I can decifer (the site's in Japanese).

Today Yumika was telling me that I need to do purikura, lol. Purikura is the photobooth thing that friends go and take silly pictures in. Emily, Tamaria and I really want to, but we just haven't gotten a chance yet. When I told her I was going to Yokohama this weekend, and taking the ferry taxi to Yamashita-koen, she said the view is really beautiful, so I must take lots of pictures to show her. She really liked the pictures from the museum that I showed her today.

Artsy Fartsy time

Today in my drawing class we had our first life model; female clothed figure. Before I even saw the person, one of the guys came into the room, saying, "She's so tiny and cute! I wasn't expecting a beautiful model. Usually they bring in models that are better for art...like round people or old people." XD Then the girl came in, and the professor told her in Japanese (she didn't speak English) how long she would be holding poses and stuff. First, we did ten second gesture drawings, then twenty second, then thirty second, one minute, and then five minute drawings. Then we took a break and then did a ten minute drawing, and then a twenty five minute drawing (with a break in the middle so the model could stretch out).

Being able to draw someone right in front of me was really awesome. It's been so long since I've drawn real people, and because we were forced to get the entire figure in such short amounts of time, I was able to get the proportions and forshortening to look much better than I normally do. At one point my professor asked me if where I was sitting was okay, since I was getting a lot of the poses that had forshortening (arms out toward me, legs toward me, etc.), but I told her I preferred it that way, since I'm terrible at forshortening, so this was really good practice for me. Some of my drawings turned out really well, while others weren't so great. I think my favorites were the 1-minute drawings and 5-minute drawings.

I'm assuming that we're having a male clothed figure on Wednesday, since these first ones are so we can get used to drawing real people, and it makes sense to me that we'd have a female model and then a male model so we could draw both with confidence before we get into the more serious stuff.

On another topic...at lunch today, we were all talking about Tokyo Decadance, and Evan had his computer out, so we were looking at some of his pictures. Some of them were really awesome, since no one was standing still, and he couldn't get his camera to stay still, so everyone is transparent, and there's weird light effects. I hope he puts the pictures on Facebook so I can steal them. He wasn't too happy about not bringing his real camera (he only brought his tiny digital)...since he's a camera nerd and really wanted his huge camera to take good pictures.

I just remembered that I'm going to Yokohama this Saturday. Hopefully the weather will be good. As for TUJ House people going, so far I know of only Emily and Peter who are going. Apparently there's 50 people on the trip, and we're split into groups...I hope we're in a group together, because that would be annoying if we had to split up from our friends for the trip...especially since Emily and I purposefully signed up for the trip together.

Way Un-Cut, Beware

Well, since I'm not doing homework right now, *cough* I'm going to tell you more about Tokyo Decadance, as well as Tokyo National Museum, which I went to today. Man, I'm sore. All over. I feel like an old person. I've been slathering arnica on my feet, lol. I want sleep, sleep, sleep! I almost fell asleep on the train home this afternoon. I think I was half-sleeping; just awake enough to hear the stations we stopped at.

Basically, the way the club ("Warehouse") was set up was that you go down a long flight of stairs, underground, and then there's a drinks counter, and then a dance floor with a large square platform in the middle where the performers and DJs danced. Then there's the stage where the DJs and performers go, and on the left side of the club, there's a balcony where there are the people selling souvenirs and such. Underneath the balcony there were lockers and small tables and tall chairs. I spent most of my time between the stage and the center platform, except when I went to get a drink (pineapple juice LOL I wanted water). I hung around Brittany and Marina for most of the night, and then with the rest of the group when they showed up. Time went by pretty quickly, though by 3:30 my feet were starting to really, really hurt, so it was difficult to dance, and there wasn't really a place to sit.

The performances were pretty cool. The first one we saw after DJ Sisen was done DJing was two women in puffy dresses who performed famous French-ish (I think?) songs in Japanese (one sang, one played REALLY good violin). Then two DJs went on together, and they were the better of the DJs as well. The DJing started to go slightly downhill as the night went on. Not bad, but not especially amazing, anyway. The DJs and performers kept going up on the square platform to dance, and one performer had HUGE boots. They were like....two feet tall from the hoof-like bottom to the foot part of the boot, and then they went up to the guy's knees, I think. It was like he was on stilts, haha. When he got on the platform, I thought he was going to hit his head on the ceiling!

There were a bunch of weird strip-tease performers too, lol. At one point two guys in speedo-like bottoms and belts got on the platform and were dancing. Evan and Steve looked away at first, going, "Oh my god..." and then they had to turn around and watch--of course, they absolutely loved it when a woman got up in just a bikini and was doing body contortions. *laughs* There was also a performance of a guy in a really elaborate queen-something (I'm bad at guessing fashion names) ensemble, with two guys in tight shorts and shoulder guards and helmets (they were supposed to be guards), and they were all pulling various pieces of clothing off of each other. The funny thing about all of this was that the entire atmosphere of each of the performances was really playful and joking, instead of straight-out erotic.

I briefly mentioned costumes before, but not really in much detail. Frequently I couldn't tell if someone was one of the performers, or just someone in a cool outfit. Some people were wearing really extravagant outfits, wheras others were wearing hardly anything. Several people came in matching/themed outfits. For instance, there was a group of four girls who all had white/silver wigs and had all visible skin painted white. Another pair were chained together, and another pair had outfits that made it looked like they were two halfs of the same person. Several people had tubing for hair accessories, and several people had light-up toys/jewelry or glow sticks attached to their person. (Once Brittany puts her pictures on her computer and then sends them to me, I'll show some.) Oh, I found an old-ish video (last year) about them. It's in Japanese, but the whole point is to see the kinds of outfits people wear. DJ Sisen is one of the people who talks in this video (you'll see "DJ" under his name, and he's all aqua). http://www.tokyo-decadance.com/

I can't remember if there was anything else. The trip home was uneventful, and yet eventful. Steve fell asleep on the train, sprawled across the seat (but made sure he didn't put his feet up), and the rest of us were zoning. We weren't even sure if we were on the right train back, but we ended up on the right one, though we argued a lot when we passed the station half of us thought was the right one to transfer at. By the time we got back to the apartment, it was starting to get light out, and right before I went to sleep, it was really sunny out. -_-' I was half asleep when Emily got back (she stopped to eat somewhere), and when she turned out the light, I distinctly remember mumbling, "Man, it's not even dark!" And then I promptly fell asleep. Haha.

Today I went to Ueno to the museum....I was in a really bad mood because I only got the small amount of sleep, and I got slightly lost trying to find the right building, but then I started looking at all of the pieces, and enjoyed myself. I took a million pictures. I hope your computers can deal with it. I also have a video of two screens that were cool. Not my favorite ones (which are the two pictures of screens somewhere below), but still cool.

This is a giant whale sculpture outside of the Science Museum (I didn't go in; I only walked by on the way to the art museum). There was also a rocket launcher...but I didn't take a picture, sorry. It was pretty cool, though.

I love swords. XD But not the fact that you can see my reflection in the glass. This is a katana sword from the 14th century.

This one is awesome, is it not?

And this one, I thought Colin would enjoy (Mom or Dad, make sure he at least sees these couple pictures, if he's not checking on his own).

Ha HA...imagine going into battle in that sucker! I can see the guy riding under a tree...thwunk--he's DOWN!

This is my favorite screen. Sooooo beautiful.

This was paired with it, and is almost as gorgeous. I should have done a video for these two, as well.

A shamisen with flower inlay. (is that the right word?) Click on the picture to see the detail, though beware of blurriness.

A writing box, one of many I saw. They were all beautiful.

Okay. I want this shelf. (Daddy, make me one!!!) It's so awesome, and the best thing is that it's asymmetrical. I'm a sucker for things like this. I'm going to have the coolest house when I grow up. ^_~

I think this is a mirror.

Kimono!! There was an entire wall of them, but I only posted my favorite.

A hair accessory. I was having a ton of trouble getting non-blurry pictures, since there were no flashes allowed in the museum.

These are some decoration things that go on a sword hilt. These are Fuji-san designs, if you couldn't tell.

A tanto sword. Equally as awesome as the others.

Here's a zither.

And a harp.

The weirdest horse face guard I've ever seen. It's way bigger than an actual horse's head.

And I think that's it for today. (Two posts in one day, consider yourself lucky, because it's never happening again. Time for icky schoolwork.) Oh, and randomly: Emily told me that she's almost positive she saw Oguri Shun on the train back from Harajuku yesterday evening. I'm jealous, lol.

Tokyo Decadance

I think I killed my feet. Last night I danced for about four and a half hours straight, and thoroughly enjoyed myself doing it. Tokyo Decadance was awesome. I'm going again in March, I think. It took us forever to get ready, and then when we got to the club, Brittany didn't have her ID, and so they almost didn't let her in, but luckily the guy in charge of the event got her entry, and all was good. We got in right in the middle of DJ Sisen's music, and it was really cool music. I'd have to say that looking back on all of the music they played, his was definitely the best. Everyone else's music sounded exactly the same, but his was different.

It's hard for me to think about how to write about the club, since my brain's not working too properly yet, and I have to go on that dumb field trip. Everyone else gets to sleep it off, but I only got four and a half hours of sleep. We got home around 6:00 am, since it took forever to walk up from Jiyuugaoka station with our painful feet, and then I fell asleep half an hour later.

Oh, I remember something interesting to tell you guys. One of the cool things about Japanese clubs is that when someone is performing, people will stand and watch, and they don't yell and scream like morons. (There were a few foreigners that did last night, though, since we were in Roppongi, where there's more foreigners.) Also, the outfits people were wearing were CRAZY. Crazy in a cool way, obviously. But wow, were they wild. We got the dress code discount, luckily, so it was only 3,000 yen to get in. My clothes now smell like cigarettes, but I'm trying to air them out as best as I can. At the club, I wasn't bothered by it unless someone was standing right next to me and smoking.

Ah, I have to leave for Ueno now. I am noooot happy about going, but whatever. I'll post again once I get my brain sorted out, haha. I also need to steal some of Brittany's pictures, and some of the other people's pictures.

Here's two pictures of my outfit, haha. The second one was from when we were taking turns pretending to be pidgeon-toed and seeing how ridiculous we looked.

Decisions, decisions.

I am so, so tired. I almost fell asleep in the library today, when I had free time between two of my classes. I also had a terrible headache (though it's gone now, thanks to the miracle of Motrin) for about four hours, and I was not happy about having a make-up drawing class. I almost skipped it, but then I went anyway, and I'm glad I did. We were preparing for our life model session, which starts on Monday, so we did several gesture drawings, and we each had to model for one minute for the rest of the class to draw. Then we drew our hands, and then our arms, and then we partnered up and drew each others' faces. I haven't drawn a real person in so long...it felt fantastic to be drawing people again.

Tomorrow I have to go to Ueno for my field trip, which I mentioned yesterday. I've been trying to figure out the best way to get there, and I think I've settled on biking to Meguro-eki and then taking the JR all the way up to Ueno. I have no clue how long it'll take, or how much it'll cost, but I don't have to transfer at all, and I'd rather not worry about that stuff tomorrow. I hope the field trip turns out all right.

Another thing I'm wondering about is whether I'll go to Tokyo Decadance tomorrow night. It's a club where that DJ Sisen guy is going to be, and there's a bunch of other DJs and guests and such, from what I understand. Several of my friends are going, and I'm thinking of going, but there's just a few things that are keeping me from going, "yeah, I'll go!" right out. The first of which is the fact that, with the flyer I have, the cost is 3,500 円, and that includes one drink. Since I don't really intend on drinking...I don't know if it's worth that cost if I'm not drinking the alcohol. I'm sure they have non-alcoholic drinks--I'm not worried about that. But I just don't want to waste my money. Another thing is that the event (which is in Roppongi, btw) starts at 11pm...which means that we would have to stay out until the first train in the morning. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't really do well with pulling all-nighters. I have never failed to get sick the very next day. Especially with the fact that I have a minor cold right now, and people are starting to get sick at school. I've also never been to a club before, but since several of my friends are planning on going, so that part doesn't really bother me too much. I don't know...I feel like such a worrywart, but it's not like I can just tell that part of me to shut up. I just want to have some fun every once in while, though, and not have to worry. I need to figure out what I'd wear, though....

Right now Emily is doing an interview for MTV for a summer internship. I let her use my headset mic so she could use Skype to call them. Her interview was supposed to be at 9am on Friday...in NY, haha, so she had to wait until 11pm here before she could call. I'm being the good roommate and staying quiet, lol. If they like her, she'll have to have another interview.

Edit: Aaaah well, that's settled! I'm definitely going to Tokyo Decadance, and I'm also not going to the museum tomorrow...because I remembered that my professor said we could go on either Saturday or Sunday...and if I want to go to Shibuya and Harajuku beforehand to get something to wear, going to Ueno is not working. Ah, and here's what the front of the flyer looks like. I'm so excited, now! I talked with Brittany and Marina about my worries, and they both understood, and said it should be fine. We'll have to see.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Today was quite uneventful. I overslept, since I can't get my snooze to work on my alarm, no matter what buttons I press (I really don't understand what I'm doing wrong), so I had to take the bus to and from school today. Luckily, the bus came right after I got to the bus stop, and so I was at school in half an hour. My Japanese Art class is so boring. I can't stand going to the class, it's so terrible. My professor doesn't do anything except tell us what we'd be able to read in the book ourselves, and nothing more. Nearly all of the questions she's asked, she says, "That's a very good question, which I don't know the answer to." I have to go to a stupid field trip on Saturday for the class. The only good thing about it is that I get to kill two birds with one stone, because we're going to Tokyo National Art Museum in Ueno, and for my drawing class, I have to go to an art museum or gallery and do an assignment on that. Apparently it's only 300 円 to get in. I'm still annoyed about having to go, but hopefully it'll turn out for the better. I'm not too happy about having to stay late tomorrow evening for a make-up drawing class, though. It's the only class that has a make-up class for missing Monday's holiday. *sigh* I'll probably freeze on the way home tomorrow night, too. (Btw, yesterday I froze riding home, and had to stop several times just to get feeling back into my fingers. My legs kept seizing up, too.)

Today when I got back, I had to run to the grocery store to get some foodstuffs, and I had a pretty successful trip this time! I finally found onions (Emily was very impressed), and I got some miso paste and some udon noodles. I also bought a small piece of salmon and cooked it up for a super late dinner, and it was sooooo good. Emily said I didn't cook it enough, but it looked more cooked than when Mom cooks salmon, so I don't know. It tasted fine to me, so that's all that matters, I suppose. ^_^' I also got some Morning Bread and these little pancake things to have for breakfast tomorrow. (Today I didn't eat breakfast, since I didn't have any food in the apartment, so by the time I got to school I was slightly woozy. That's certainly not going to happen again, haha.) Oh, and I got bananas! I haven't had a banana since before I got here, so that's cool. Bananas aren't that expensive...or at least I don't think they are. I don't know how much bananas cost in the States, so it's a little hard to compare. Anyway, the price didn't make me go O.O so I think it's okay.

Movie time

Today I went to see the movie KIDS (trailer) in Shibuya. The ticket girl was asking me something after I told which movie and time, but I didn't know what she was saying, so she asked me if I spoke English. When I said I did, she asked me in the best English I've ever heard a Japanese person speak here, whether I was a student, because there was a student discount. (I should have understood that question, too, so I don't know why I didn't understand it. -_-) It sure wasn't very much, lol. My ticket was still 1,500 円. Since I was too early, I wandered around a little bit and then came back to the theater.

The movie was really, really good. I didn't understand about half of it, especially whenever there was a long, serious conversation (there were quite a few of those). It was really easy to put the context of the situation together, though, so I don't think I missed very much. I'll have to see the movie again sometime when I can either understand more Japanese, or when I can get subtitles. Anyway, I thought the acting from all three main actors (Teppei Koike, Hiroshi Tamaki, and Chiaki Kuriyama) was pretty good. It was awesome watching it on the big screen, too. I've never watched a Japanese live-action movie on the big screen before. Despite the movie costing so much, I'm really happy I went. Oh, and another thing. I found it amusing that when the lights were about to go out, the theater played that tune you usually hear at the beginning/end of a school day (sorry, but it's impossible for me to describe it better than that. "Dun dun dun dun....dun dun dun dun," is not going to cut it, lol).

During the part when Asato (Teppei) was half-dying (they show it in the trailer, so I'm not giving anything away), I'm almost positive a girl in the row across from me was crying. I'm sure that if I had understood what Takeo (Hiroshi) was saying to him, I probably would have been at least tearing up, because I could feel an amazing amount of emotion from that scene (plus the music in the movie is well done)...but it was just hard for me to connect when I couldn't understand the exact words being said. It wasn't very distracting, though. Sometimes I forgot that I couldn't understand what they were saying, since body language and facial expressions were really easy to pick up.

I now know where they are playing "L Change the World" (the spin-off of the Death Note movies), so maybe next weekend my friends and I can go see it. The guy who plays L was on tv earlier today, and I almost didn't recognize him because he had facial hair, was standing up straight, and obviously wasn't wearing the black under his eyes, lol. It's amazing how he looks like an 18 year old in the movie. (Apparently the actor is 22, if I'm doing my math right from what it says on IMDB.)

I bought this drink the other day, and it is SO good. I have no clue what it is, other than "Shiroi Nacchan" which is white...something. It tastes really peculiar, and it took me a day to figure out what the taste reminded me of. Yogurt! Isn't that weird? It has the same kind of tangy but milky taste as yogurt, but has the consistency of juice. The CMs for it don't make sense, either. Maki Horikita is in the CM, but the whole CM consists of her crying...and then drinking the drink, and looking at the camera. She doesn't look any happier after drinking it. *laughs*
Look, there's even a sad face on the bottle cap. (Sorry for the blurriness.)


And then there's a sticker with her face on it, too.

Amusing Afternoon in Harajuku

I went to Harajuku today and had a wonderful time. Except at lunch. We went to a sushi conveyor belt place, since Brittany really wanted to, and I was starving, so I didn't care (it was around 2:30)...but this place didn't have any cooked fish, haha. I tried some sushi with a small amount of white fish (I think it was yellowtail?). It had wasabi and I dunked it in soy sauce, and was able to eat it, but then I got this strange looking thing and almost puked when I ate it. I had to choke it down, and my eyes were watering a lot. Blegch, I can't do that. I tried to enjoy it, I did. Bit I just couldn't deal with it. I didn't eat the second one, and didn't eat anything else after that.

The good parts of the day, though...we went into Kiddy Land (or at least the first floor), and it was awesome. I got two pairs of tabi socks with designs on them. Then, we went back to Takeshita Street (the famous one everyone knows about) and I found some wonderful, wonderful boots. Not practical for snow (it's snowing right now) or rain, really, but I love them. I'll get a cheap pair of rainboots tomorrow, maybe. I also bought a new purse/shoulder bag. It looks cool.




At one point, Brittany just disappeared (I was looking at clothes), and I was really irritated since my phone had died earlier, and so I couldn't text her to find out where she'd gone. But I hung around for maybe five minutes, and she came back with some guy dressed up weird...he turned out to be some DJ (DJ Buo, I think his name was?), and she had run off because she saw DJ Sisen (this dude: DJ Sisen who is apparently her favorite person in the world) walk by, so she went after him and got to meet him and talk with him a little. And got a picture with him. Brittany is a radio DJ back in the States (DJ Riyozake) who hosts a jrock show, and so while she's here, she's doing a ton of scoping around for the Japanese DJ's she's heard about, as well as finding music to bring back for her show. She's also interviewing Blood sometime soon (I forgot when), and she's going to try to get an interview with Merry, and with Versailles. I haven't heard music from any of these bands, though I have heard of them. They're just not my style. Anyway, she was SUPER happy for the rest of the time we were in Harajuku. ("Did I mention I met DJ Sisen??") It was so hilarious. I completely forgave her for deserting me, because I know I probably would have been the same way if I saw someone...like Hyde...walk by. *laughs* But Buo was walking with us for a while...which I found REALLY sketchy, and was I kind of iffy about the whole situation, but it turned out fine. I just didn't like the fact that some random guy we'd never met was walking around with us while we shopped.

Uh oh, the "One Pound Gospel" show is on...with Kazuya Kamenashi who is a boxer (HAHA the skinny twerp) and he's in love with a nun. O.o And there's this whole Valentine's Day theme this episode. Ohhh dear. Sister Angela (they refer to her as "shista~") was going to give Kame some chocolates, and then she saw another girl giving chocolates, so she rode off on her bike, angry. She was going to throw away the chocolates, but some highschool (middle school?) boy (though he looks like a girl) saw her, and she gave them to him instead. Then the kid (he's the son of the boxing coach) told Kame he got chocolates from Sister Angela, and Kame started freaking out. Oh man, this show is so bad that it's hilarious, and I can't stop laughing. Aww...now the high school boy is getting bullied by some other students. Poor kid. Wow. This show is intense. Now there's some huge drama about Kame liking the nun (or something like that), and he's sparring (boxing) with another guy...and then he got really upset, and their brawling turned into hugging, and he was semi-crying, and then the other guy punched him out. (Can you tell I'm half watching the show, half writing this entry? Sorry. I'll stop.)

I'm getting kind of tired of seeing Johnny's boys everywhere on TV and on huge signs and in stores, etc. Oh. For those of you that don't know, when I say "Johnny's boys" I mean "Johnny's Entertainment" or "JE" boys. JE is a huge, huge music company here in Japan, and they manufacture boys bands (or idols) like nobody's business. All of the boys are super pretty or kakkoi (cool doesn't really fit them, but kakkoi seems to fit better), and are scouted out or audition when they're munchkins (I've been using that word a lot lately when I talk about little Japanese kids, I've noticed). Then they're trained for years, during which they do a lot of commercials and act in dramas, and then they eventually debut as some band. They have really strict rules (I don't know if this is true, but the boys aren't allowed girlfriends...or at least have to be REALLY secretive if they have one), and while their contract is going, they're basically owned body and soul by the company. Johnny's basically owns the music business here. They even have their own shelf in the music stores. And if someone goes up against a Johnny's band during a single/album release, the Johnny's band is most likely going to come out on top. I found this article just now, and it was really interesting and informative, though a little dated. http://nippop.com/features/feature_id-33/

Here's the snow. Sort of. Sorry for the really dark picture...but it's night now, obviously, and I didn't want to have my flash go off so all the neighbors could see. Click on the picture, and maybe it'll be clearer when it's full size.

I didn't have any food in the apartment, other than Morning Bread, but I didn't want to walk to the conbini, so Brittany made us miso udon for dinner, and it was SO good. I'm going to buy some miso paste so I can make yummy udon, too. She said she wasn't sure if she was supposed to cook it with the miso paste, but I told her, "who cares, as long as it tastes good." If there's one thing I can do, is boil water and cook noodles. -_-' I'm a hopeless case, I swear. It's a good thing that there's ready-made food available close by, otherwise I'd probably starve.

Mixed up description of my day

Today on my way to school, I was pushing my bike up Meguro-eki hill (I named it that...I don't think it has a name, lol...but it's the worst hill ever), and I saw a jrock band get out of a van and look like they were about to go into a restaurant. I didn't recognize them, but one had a big instrument case on his back, and the others had matching black tote-style bags. They were all very jrock looking with the way they were dressed/styled. One guy had dark auburn hair in a weird mullet (normal short hair until the very bottom, where it was looong and straight down his back), another had longish black, spiked hair, and many chains attached to the left leg of his skinny black jeans. I don't remember what the other two looked like. (There were four guys.)

In Japanese class today, we finally finished learning katakana. (I know most of the katakana already, and forget just a handful of them.) Then, Koyama-sensei was like, "and now let's learn some verbs!" and everyone was like, "nooo!" but I said, "yeah!" because I really wanted to learn more. It frustrating, because they all whine so much about learning...but I'd rather learn the language than not be able to communicate with people here.

We watched "The Japanese Version" in one of my classes today...I forgot that I had seen that film last year in my Japanese Culture class with Seth. It was still good the second time, though this time I couldn't help but notice how exaggerated the film was. Katsuya was sitting next to me, and he was laughing throughout the whole film...and then at the end, when Sumi-sensei asked us what our reaction was, I heard Katsuya mutter, "it was embarrassing."

This evening, Marina and I got out of class, and then she went to catch the bus while I got onto my bike to go home...and then right as I was at the corner of Denny's (two blocks from the apartment), Marina and a bunch of TUJ House and Green House people come across the street because they had just gotten off the bus! HAHA. That makes me feel better about having the long ride home, because I'm not actually taking longer than the bus.

There's several trees that have baby blossoms on them now. I don't know what kind of trees, but there's white ones (maybe apple?) and dark pink ones. It's strange seeing spring flowers when it's only the beginning of February.

Lindsay and I went to the conveyor belt sushi place for dinner. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Emily and I had gone there before. It's pretty self-explanitory what kind of place it is. We only ate cooked things, though. They have mugs and pots of matcha that you can make yourself to drink. I love drinking matcha. I don't really like the tea-bag green tea, but powder green tea is delicious. It's not sweet or anything, but I find that it tastes so much better. I need to find myself some so I can drink it whenever I want. When we were at the sushi place, the chef noticed we weren't eating any of the raw sushi, and made a comment about it being delicious. I laughed a little, and he asked if we knew Japanese. I told him I knew a little. Lindsay didn't know what he was asking, so I explained it to her once we were out of the restaurant. I keep wanting to try the raw sushi, but I'm afraid my gag reflex will kick in like it did over over the summer when we were at the Japanese restaurant, and when that happens I have to spit it out, or I'll throw up...and I don't need to do that in public here. -_-'

...Aaaaand once again the news is about gyoza. I'm getting so sick of listening about poisoned gyoza. I just don't buy any gyoza now, whether it's frozen or not. Most of the gyoza has pork in it, anyway, which I'm trying to stay away from. Tomorrow we're supposed to get snow. 3-5 centimeters, possibly. I hope it doesn't ruin our day our to Harajuku and Shibuya (and any other places we might go). I need to find some boots, fast! I've settled on getting normal rainboots, instead of nice boots, but I haven't had time to go out looking yet. Anyway, I'll bring my umbrella! I love using my umbrella when it's snowing. ^_^

No, I haven't died

This week has been...well, I'd say busy, because it feels like it, but when I look back, not that much happened. I got a cell phone on Monday, and that was a very stressful adventure, which I didn't enjoy much. It was a nightmare getting to school from Shibuya on my own, since I still have no handle on the train system here. When I couldn't figure out from the maps on the wall which train I was supposed to take, I went up to the ticket man, showed him my tiny metro map, pointed to Azabu-Juban (the station I wanted to get to), and said, "Ano, sumimasen. Wakarimasen." (Um, excuse me/sorry, I don't understand.") He told me which line, how much it would cost, and then I went on my way. But that wasn't the worst part.

At the changeover, I got onto the express train, since it was on the side of the tracks that the line I was supposed to take was supposedly on (that's what the signs said), but when I got on it, I must have looked really panicky, because an old Japanese man asked me in perfectly understandable English, "Are you in trouble?" I was pretty close to tears because I just have been super sensitive this week, and everything was stressing me out, but I held it in and told him I didn't know if I was on the right train, and I told him where I was trying to go. He told me I needed to transfer onto the other express, but it was the "next stop" and I would just go across the platform to that train. It turned out to be two stops more than he said, but he stayed with me until it was the one he meant, and then he went and sat down. I'm so happy that he helped me, because I don't know what I would have done. I'm terrible with trains. I can barely deal with the NYC subway system.

Anyway, this is my phone.

The wallpaper moves, it's so cool.

And there's the back. You can click on the picture to see what the sticker says. (It's a warning about the phone getting too hot, and it's in both Japanese and English.)

I set my ringtone to Pachelbel's Canon, or as the phone calls it, "pahheruberu no kanon." I can't figure out if I can download songs...I don't think I can, which is disappointing. One thing that is cool, though, is that I can have a special color light for when certain people call. So far I only have four people on my phone, though. Our dorm manager, Peter, Evan and my culture exchange partner. I had Emily's number, but she sold her phone to Evan so she could get a Soft Bank phone, so I just switched her name to Evan's.

I'll skim past the boring school stuff and tell about the semi-exciting things that are going to happen. A bunch of us are going to go to the Ghibli Museum on March 8th. Steve is buying the tickets for all of us (we joke that he's turning into our daddy), since he knows how to work the ticket machine in the Lawson (convenience store). I gave him my 1000 yen as soon as he asked me if I wanted to go, since that's one of the places I really wanted to see. Also, on March 1st (that's a tentative date, though), I'm going with some of our TUJ House/Green House group to Hakone. I'm really looking forward to that. Also, Brittany and I are going to figure out some concerts we can go to. I might go see The Gazette with her (these people http://www.pscompany.co.jp/gazette/) in March, if we can get tickets. I also really, really want to see Kagrra, (these people http://www.pscompany.co.jp/kagrra,/ whoa, you can listen to samples of EVERY song on their new cd!) as well. I want to go to the 3/30 live, since the C.C.Lemon Hall is closer than the others, I think. (Or I just don't know where they are, lol.)

I've been really tired all this week, and I'm pretty irritated with the snow. I've taken the bus to school twice this week already, and a recent development is that I start feeling sick on the bus ride home, so by the time I get to Yakumo san chome, I feel horrible. It was snowing when I got off at the stop, and so I was walking really slowly and didn't bother opening my umbrella until I started getting cold from the snow. I've quickly picked up the Japanese habit of using umbrellas when it's snowing. I never would have thought to use an umbrella in the snow before coming here. I still need to buy rainboots. I'll probably do that this weekend. (Yeaah for 4-day weekends!) I might be going to Akasaka to see some traditional buildings...I saw some pictures online that looked cool...and I'm going back to Harajuku, and most likely Shibuya, and I don't know where else yet.

I think I brought the snow here from Vermont

Once again, it is snowing. We have...at least three inches, maybe five on the parts that don't melt easily. it's really wet and gross, and I'm sad because I'm not about to go out in this weather. I went to Seiyu to get some things, and saw people riding their bikes, but I don't trust myself to be able to control it on the snow...plus I'd feel bad if I splashed someone. All of the buses and vans have their chains on, and other than the main road, the streets aren't plowed very well. Plus, the people just shovel the snow out into the middle of the street. (I saw an old woman doing that. She only stopped for a moment to let me pass, before she threw more snow into the middle of the street.)

This is looking out of our front door.

This is where my bike is kept. You can't see it in this picture.

These are the slippers I bought. They were really cheap, and they're slightly too small, but I don't care. I'll just buy a better pair somewhere else. I also gave in and bought a normal bath towel for 1,197 yen because I'm tired of using a travel towel. -_-' It's a pretty sky blue color.


Here's a short video of it snowing, since things are always better to see in motion, haha.


Today has been a slow day. I woke up at ten, planning on doing work, but Emily slept until 2:30 in the afternoon (she was out until the first train again), so I couldn't have the lights on...it was kind of annoying, but only a little. Plus, I didn't reallly want to do my work, anyway, so I suppose it worked to my favor. I had to pull all of my clothes inside from the line since they were very cold and still damp, and then I had to find places to put them in the room...in the dark, haha.

Hopefully I'll get my phone tomorrow. I'm going by myself, since Brittany lost her health insurance card, and she doesn't have the special document for her alien registration (the receipt isn't good enough), so she wouldn't be able to get a phone. I'm getting the 5000 yen card with the phone, though that's only the equivalent of about 55 minutes of talk time, so I'll have to get another one as soon as it runs out. I'm also paying the 300 yen charge so I can have unlimited messenging for 30 days (to be renewed as well, I guess), since that will probably come in useful...though I don't know how to text people, so I'll have to learn. I'm going to try to get there shortly after the store opens, so that I can get it all taken care of, and then take the train from Shibuya to school.

Now I'm off to homework. I actually have work to do this weekend. It's all very boring work, lol. For instance, right now I have to read about "Culture and Management in Japan." Maybe it'll turn out to be interesting.