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Here I am in glamourous Slough, England!! Slough is pronounced "slow", which is a pretty apt description of this place. :/ But today we're picking up the rental car and going to Bedford, which I hear is even more slow. :/
Yeah, my younger sister Brittany has been living in London for a little over a year now. She's a teacher of autistic kids at an elementary school. I don't mention her much because we haven't lived together for a long long time now. ^^;;
I just gorged myself on the breakfast buffet OM NOM NOM. Also, Adam introduced me to the wonders of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core on PSP. I'm already addicted!
The London Dungeon is awesome?!?! AWESOME!!! We are even more excited now!
RooG sent me an email declaring "Sou! I forgot! Kim Hyon Hi was dress change♪(*^ ・^)ノ⌒☆ ", which I will take to mean that one of the female cockroaches has molted. Oh boy! The other girl roach is named Princess Tenko, and she's really outgoing so she lives with Kim Jong Il and the other boys. I know, fascinating right?!?!Current Mood:  bouncy Current Music: Tori Amos-- Welcome to England (I wonder if this song got any airplay here...?) |
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Hey everybody!! I'm alive! I met up with my folks (parents + brother) a few hours after writing that last entry. We went to our beautiful bungalow deep in the forest in Beekburgen, Holland. We spent the week there, toodling around the area and also taking day trips to Amsterdam, Bruges (Belgium) and Cologne (Germany). We saw a lot of awesome stuff, like...
-- the Rijksmuseum
-- the Netherlands Open-Air Museum
-- the Cologne Cathedral or whatever
-- the gigantic park that surrounds the Kroller-Mueller Museum
...and so on. Pretty rockin!
Now I'm back in Schipol Airport (Amsterdam). My flight to London leaves in an hour and a half. I've been so internet-deprived that I leaped at the chance to pay hard-earned Euros to use the net at this little net cafe inside the airport.
My sister lives in London so we'll be visiting her for the next two weeks. Tonight we're staying in some random hotel in London, and from there we'll be staying for a week on a houseboat (!!) in somewhere called Bedford. After that we'll be back in a hotel in London for another week, and I go home on the 24th.
I've had a fascination with London since middle school. I blame Pulp, Pet Shop Boys, Suede, Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare, and John Constantine. Bro-Bot and I are also very excited to go to the London Dungeon-- I've heard it's shite, but I don't care! It looks like the most amazing place EVER!!
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I've been a gaijin in Japan for nearly five years now, but NEVER have I been stared at the way people stare at me/ us in Europe! It's crazy! I thought as a whitey in a sea of whiteys, people wouldn't give us a second thought, but we are gawked at openly as we walk by. It's the weirdest thing. Also, I notice that more often than not, if I make eye contact with one of the gawkers and smile, they frown back or look away. Hoom.Current Mood:  excited Current Music: Pixie Lott-- Momma Do (Uh Oh), stuck in head 4ever whether I like it or not |
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Here I am in big bad Amsterdam. The flight was eleven hours and was UTTERLY DELIGHTFUL! Best flight in recent memory. I love Japan Airlines~! I watched awesome movies and was most content.
Trouble arose as soon as I arrived in Amsterdam. It was tough business negotiating the public transportation system, especially with a suitcase. Amsterdam is NOT Japan! I am having a hard time adjusting here. Last night I just wandered around the city for hours by myself. I kept accidentally wandering into the bike lane and nearly died twice. I really miss RooG. :(
It seems like the vast majority of the tourists here are here to get blitzed and/ or stoned....
I arrived at my hotel. 25 euro a night and you get what you pay for-- a top bunk in a TINY room with 7 other strangers. aghghghghgh. The men snored all night and it was generally horrible, I slept clutching my handbag with all my valuables in it. But I was able to get SOME sleep so it was ok I guess.
Now I'm just waiting for my parents and brother to arrive. They touch down in Amsterdam an hour from now, and then they're gonna pick up the rental car and pick me up at my hotel. PLEASE COME SOON GUYS
Guess that's it for now....Current Mood:  scared Current Music: Let's Get Retarded, worst song ever |
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A few days ago I put a SiteMeter on this journal. It's a little thingie that tells you who visits your site, how often, etc. Well, I've been watching for five days now, and evidently there is only one person on this earth that visits that site-- someone in Kamakura who visits 2-3 times a day. :/ I know for a fact that my brother in Arizona visited the other day, so I get the feeling that SiteMeter is leaving some folks out. But Person In Kamakura, you should comment and introduce yourself! =D
Today the RooG and I went to our favorite buffet restaurant (om nom nom!!) and then walked along the beach for a while. It rained all day today, but it was kinda nice cos the beach was pretty quiet. Then we did karaoke, went grocery shopping, and watched Be Kind Rewind, which was crap. Roo made dinner and it was awesome. Then I realized I couldn't find my cell phone.
After lots of frantic searching, we called the karaoke place and sure enough, they had it. So we had to trek all the way back there to get it back. Oh well. At least it had stopped raining by then. ;)
I still cannot believe that I'm leaving for Europe in four days. So weird. What's the weather like in Amsterdam, btw? How about London? I have no idea...Current Mood: nervous Current Music: Michael Jackson-- Blame It On The Boogie |
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Add me to the long list of people shocked and bummed by Michael Jackson's death. I checked my Facebook feed this morning and everyone's status updates were talking about it. At first I thought it must have been some kind of joke.
The Thriller music video scared the living hell out of me the first time I saw it on TV. but i LOVED IT!! I stole my parents' Thriller cassette and listened to it like nuts. Of course, I have fond memories of playing the Moonwalker arcade game. And let's not forget Captain E-O!!!! The first album I ever bought with my own money, was Dangerous on cassette. To this day I know all the words to every song on there. And I always loved to watch him dance. :)
So, yeah. It really sucks that he's gone, and mostly I'm sad about the fact that he died as "Whacko Jacko". He never managed to regain any of that awesomeness he had back in the day. But I remember. :)
This is something that I'm guessing a lot of you haven't seen, but may enjoy. He's a comedian that comes on Japanese TV every once in a blue moon named Maikoo Ryou. He's an MJ impersonator, but he does it with a lot of respect, I think. He's got all the dance moves and the singing style down, too. Check it out!
Current Mood:  thoughtful Current Music: Bjork-- Pagan Poetry |
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Jun. 26th, 2009 @ 12:31 am
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Hey y'all. Still diggin my new jobby-job! We're currently working on two different games in the same series. One of them has to be completed by next Friday, but we don't have all the files yet so we're only about halfway done. Bossman said next week would be a busy one. But because I finished all my work, he let me go home early today and take tomorrow off!
The other day I bought Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Touch de Dokodon! for my brother. I'll give it to him when I see him in Amsterdam next week, but in the meantime I'll break it in by playing the hell out of it. It's so fun!!! VERY hard to do the difficult levels with one hand though.
Today RooG had the day off so he made dinner! Today's menu was banbanju (?!) and penna cotta (?) for dessert. Banbanju is a cold Chinese dish with chicken and cucumber with like a sesame peanut sauce. YUM! The dessert was amazing too.
My stupid eye infection has kept me from going to class... I went on Monday but I felt like such a dweeb wearing my glasses the whole time. I can't see ANYTHING without glasses or contacts. ;_; I think it's like 95% fixed now though, so I'll go tomorrow morning with Khalil.
Less than a week until my spectacular Eurotrip with my folks!! I am SO AMPED to see them again! I also want to eat bread and chocolate! and look at cute European men!
Oh, and the other day I finished the main quest of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and I cheered when I saw ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) montydrei's name in the credits! Very soon, that'll be me! *o* I already coughed up the 300 points to buy Rydia's quest....Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Pet Shop Boys-- Was it worth it? |
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Jun. 23rd, 2009 @ 03:35 am
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I've been using that horrible Iris Alpha eye medicine stuff every three hours, and I think it's working! The swelling hasn't gone down much, but it hurts less than it used to. I hope it gets better soon, cos I can't go to the dojo till it does. >_>
I'm watching the movie Covergirl on TV now. It's a delicious 1984 epic tale of a supermodel's rise and fall. The 80s were awesome!!
Thank you, that is all.Current Mood:  relaxed Current Music: Tori Amos-- Playboy Mommy |
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I have an eye infection most heinous.... my left eyelid is swollen to three times its size and is red and grotesque. I guess it's a sty, even though there's no white bump as far as I can tell. It's gross and embarassing and I want it go away. D:
RooG's sister recommended this crazy medicine to fix it. It's eyedrops that you can put it up to six times a day. Sounds great, except about five minutes after you put it in, it puts this HORRENDOUS metallic-chemical taste in the back of your throat that nothing can erase. Blleeeaaaahhhh :PCurrent Mood:  blah Current Music: Tori Amos-- You Belong To Me |
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I've been working hard at karate these days-- I've gone the past three nights, and I'm going again tonight too! Trying to get my fightin' skillz back. Maybe it's working.
Last night, I also got THIS!
My new belt!! YESSSSSSSS I am finally an official 3kyu! I was a little sad to replace my 4kyu belt, though. He and I have been together for over two years now. He was really soft and even kinda starting to fray a bit at the ends. The new belt is a nice, darker color, but is also hard and therefore it doesn't hang right and looks dorky. I hope to get 2kyu in February though, so I won't have this one too long... I hope.
Work is good too. On the first day I was kinda nervous and hesitant to make any changes, but yesterday I just did my research, put myself in the shoes of the character, hearing their voice in my head instead of my own, and busted it out. Finished a few minutes before quittin' time. Ok!! I think I'm getting the hang of this. Bossman seemed pleased too.
For my birthday a few months ago RooG got me this bean plant. The thing is still going strong-- it grows a little bit more every day!
Also, I got a new iPod. 120 gig silver iPod Classic. I love it!! The sound quality and layout is greatly improved.Current Mood:  happy Current Music: They Might Be Giants-- Everything Right Is Wrong Again |
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Jun. 13th, 2009 @ 11:01 pm
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I caved and bought Final Fantasy IV: The After Years for WiiWare. And I'm SO GLAD I DID!!!!!!! =D =D I wish I was playing it right now!
Hit up Old Man Class today. It was rough. My stamina and sparring skillz stink so bad these days.... it'll take time to get what little I had originally had back. -_-
Thank you, that is all.
 Current Mood: excited Current Music: Mesh-- Petrified |
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Jun. 12th, 2009 @ 05:31 pm
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I'm watching Every Little Step, a documentary about auditions for the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line. Allz I can say is, I'm REALLY REALLY glad I decided not to pursue musical theater for a living. :P I just couldn't cut it. But the movie is fascinating!
and how incredibly awesome is it that as of Monday, I will be a video game writer in Japan. That has been my dream since I was at least 7 or 8. No joke. I would sit in my room and read Nintendo Power and think that that's what I wanna be when I grow up. I am so grateful to whatever stars aligned or whatever it was that gave me this opportunity!!! =D
Today I went to karate and attempted to wrap my head around Saiha some more. No go. I just don't get it. Must get RooG to teach it to me later.
And my buddy Khalil just came back from a 2-month tour of Europe, so I met him for lunch! It was so good to see him again. :) He's gonna come to the dojo on Monday-- I can't wait!
Speaking of the dojo, here is Master Artiste Fujimoto-sensei's poster for the 2009 Summer Camp. U know u wanna join!!!!1
 Current Mood: excited Current Music: Blue Man Group-- Time To Start |
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Jun. 11th, 2009 @ 11:09 am
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I am lovin being 3kyu! Yesterday Sensei taught me another shiny new kata, Saiha. Unfortunately, it's effin hard!
But of course when a karate superstar like Yui-shihan does it, it looks easy. :/ I'll have to get RooG to help me out with it later...
Last night Amy and I had ramen at Kookai, a yummy soba joint. They were having some kinda promotion where girls get free annindofu for dessert!! Most excellent. :)
I gots ta get ready!! D:Current Mood: nervous Current Music: Nine Inch Nails-- The Downward Spiral |
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....just genuinely curious: Does anyone actually like reading LJ posts that are just compilations of that person's Twitter tweets for the day? I have to admit, I'm not a fan of Twitter in the least, but seeing a whole bunch of tweets together really turns me off. I see it popping up in my flist more and more and it frightens me-- is THIS the future of blogging?
Today I had another lesson at Starbucks. I ordered a grande iced chai tea, and the guy brought me... a grande hot chai tea. :/ So he said he'd bring the correct drink to my seat, and he did... about 10 minutes later. I woulndn't have cared so much if the SAME EXACT THING hadn't happened the last time I went to that Starbucks. Why does it take 10 minutes to make an iced tea?! And why don't I get a discount coupon or something when they screw up my order? ;_; I remember American Sbux being more generous in that regard...
Tonight I met up with Anna, Lisa, and Gaby at a fancy new izakaya. The highlight of the evening: It was one of those places where every party is in their own individual booth with a sliding door. Anna and Lisa and I were already there and Gaby was on her way. The waiter (who bore a stunning resemblance to Iwahara-senpai..) kneeled and opened the door and Gaby came in. Gaby immediately slamed the sliding door closed-- right on the dude's head!!!!
Bonus pic of me at UniQlo. When I'm clothes shopping I often try something on, then snap a pic and send it to RooG to get his opinion before buying. I ended up going with this hat-- cheap and functional!
Job interview on Thursday. :)Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Tori Amos-- Digital Ghost |
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Yo yo
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Jun. 8th, 2009 @ 10:28 am
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Yo, whut up G. I've been a teachin' fiend these days. I had a lesson on Friday, two on Saturday, and one last night. I absolutely LOVE teaching privately. It's so fun that it doesn't even feel like work. And the money is good. But I'm still looking for a real jobby-job...
One cool that that happened was, on Saturday morning I was teaching one of my students at Starbucks. As soon as the lesson was over and we were standing up to leave, a lady walked up to me and was like "I was watching your lesson and you seem like such a good teacher. Please teach me too!" So I gave her my number and she called and scheduled her first lesson! Awesome. :D
Also, Starbucks has excellent chai tea. Mmm.
Yesterday the sun was shining for the first time in a while (it's rainy season now). So I said to RooG "Let's go to the BEACH!" Ryuuji is not a big beach person (he prefers mountains, he claims), but it's easy to convince him to go due to the presence of Natural Table, an insanely cheap and awesome buffet joint that's right on the beach.
We ended up going with Tan, Laura, Ganesh, and Amy, stuffin' our faces at the Table before hittin' the waves. AWESOMENESS.
Mogi-shihandai is the awesomest teacher. I can't go to his class so often, but at the weekday camp he taught me one-on-one for 4 1/2 hours, and on the days before the test he called RooG or the dojo and asked them to put me on the phone, so he could give me another pep talk. :) How sweet of him to go out of his way like that. :) So I got him a little Godiva gift box and I'll go to Tsunashima dojo tonight so I can hand it over.
I can't wait to get my new belt!! Now please!!! :P
And here's the hermies eating their favorite food, sunny-side-up egg white. Mmm.
 Current Mood: happy Current Music: Rihanna-- Question Existing |
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Yea, verily, I am in great need of assistance. A friend sent me an Excel spreadsheet that I need to add text to, in the blank cells. I downloaded Open Office Calc for the purpose but it's proving to be a complete nightmare.
So, as I'm entering the text, I press Ctrl+Enter to make line breaks. But if I leave the cell, and then try to go back to the cell and edit the line breaks, Ctrl+Enter just bumps me down to the next cell. Like, I can only make a line break once per cell. If I try to do it again, then Ctrl+Enter will bump me down to the cell below it. This is driving me insane. I've been working at it for nearly two hours now and I have accomplished NOTHING.
(Should I just throw in the towel and go to the internet cafe, I wonder? Is the reason it's not working because I'm trying to edit an Excel document in Open Office? The fact that my computer is slow as molasses is not doing much to improve my mood either....)
Karate was awesome. I learned a shiny new 3kyu kata, Tsuki no Kata. I did it for RooG today and he gave it a 40 out of 100. Well, not bad for the first day I guess. :P
The Kim Jong Ils are hissing at each other like crazy today...Current Mood:  frustrated Current Music: Yamazaki Masayoshi-- Sakamichi no aru Machi |
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Thank you so much for the kind words, everybody! Some folks from Kyokushin4life.com wanted to know what happened at the grading, so I wrote up this report and figured I'd post it here, for other martial artists or just anyone that may be curious:
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It was a heijitsu shinsa (weekday grading), an open test open to all levels. Usually the tests are held on weekends, with anywhere from 30-80 people grading for a certain level. The weekday tests have much fewer people and therefore are harder, because the sensei can see your mistakes more easily.
First up was the written portion. 4kyu have to memorize this short essay thingie about the proper kamae stance. Memorizing and writing it in Japanese was tough. :P
There were only 3 other students at the test-- an 8kyu guy, a 5kyu guy, and another 4kyu guy. We started with kihon and Shihan would point out any mistakes that people may have been making. Somehow I got through this part without him saying anything to me!
Next is tairyoku tzukuri. 30 seiken pushups, 30 jumping squats, and 20 of those senobashi pushups for good measure.
Next, mitt. We 4kyu had to hit a taekwondo mitt 3 times using a joudan tobi ushiro mawashigeri. Cleared!!
Idou was next. We had to memorize a whole bunch of combos that our shihan made up. It would take too long to post them here, but one of the shorter 4kyu ones is:
-- from zenkutsu dachi, kaiten, then jodan mawashigeri, then straight into nekodachi
-- from nekodachi, kaiten, then uchi mawashigeri, then straight into kibadachi
-- from kibadachi, kaiten, then jodan yokogeri, then straight into zenkutsu
-- then do the whole thing again, sagari (backwards)
Then kata. For us 4kyu, we had to do the ura versions Taikyoku I-III, Sokugi Taikyoku I-III, Pinan I-V, and Yantsu (not ura, of course). The Sokugi Taikyoku in particular are killers (so exhausting!!) but somehow I got through it and did not screw up!
Finally, kumite. As a 4kyu girl I had to wear headgear, gloves, and shin guards. There were no other women there so I fought a 3dan man. The actual fighting time was pretty short (4 rounds at 40 seconds each), but my opponent was tough and I haven't done any kumite in 3 weeks because I've been too busy practicing kata and idou for the test!! Still, I kept fighting till the end and I think I did ok.
And that was it!
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In other news, I want that new Final Fantasy WiiWare game soooo baaaaddd!!Current Mood: happy Current Music: Captain Jack-- Dream a Dream |
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Last night was the karate test. I passed!!!!!
Only myself and another 4kyu dude took the test. We were tested on lots of different idou and as well as the ura versions of Taikyoku I-III, Sokugi Taikyoku I-III, and Pinan I-V. I did everything correctly. I've been practicing like nuts the past few weeks and it really showed. I wasn't so nervous and once Shihan said the name of the next idou or kata or whatever I was immediately ready to go.
YESSSSSSSSSSS
It feels really good. I want to learn all the 3kyu stuff (3 new kata) and hopefully take the test to become brown belt in February of next year. But I want to become a really good 3kyu first.
Thanks for the encouragement, everyone!!! I feel so awesome today. :) :) I'm finally 3kyu!!!
To celebrate, RooG and I went to TGI Friday's and totally pigged out. He's wearing his new favorite shirt, which I brought back from Thailand. <3
 Current Mood: ecstatic Current Music: The Tears-- Imperfections |
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The baby birds can actually fly out of the nest now!! But not very far; they just perch on a nearby telephone wire for a while before they go back in. But still, wow! They grow up so fast. ;_;
I've recently taken up Super Mario RPG again. That game is so fun, years and years later.
That's it for me! :OCurrent Mood: blah Current Music: Depeche Mode-- I Feel Loved |
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Yo yo I'm back from karate camp! It was tough but fun. 12 instructors and only 9 students including myself, so each student was assigned their very own sensei that taught them and only them for the whole day. I was thrilled and delighted to find out that my teacher was the amazing Mogi-shihandai, who is 3dan and super nice and awesome!! He was my teacher for a total of four and a half hours of one-on-one training. We did nothing but test stuff. and BOY WAS IT TIRING
For some reason the vast majority of stuff that appears on the 4kyu test involves "kaiten", or spinning. Spin and punch, then spin and block, then spin and kick...tons of spinning. On the mats at the dojo this isn't so bad, but after an hour of that on a gymnasium floor the bottoms of my feet were really hurting. I taped them up but it didn't do anything. Even now it hurts to walk. I also have hella muscle aches in my legs.
But on the whole the Heijitsu Gasshuku was awesome and I totally wanna go again. One of the badassingest things about it was that I was the only girl there, so I got this humongous room all to myself!! SO GREAT. Here's me being stoked about my slammin room.
RooG got two friends for Kim Jong Il, who are also named Kim Jong Il. They do nothing but lay around in the same position for hours.
Today I met Laura for lunch in Yokohama and we finally got to try Haabesuto (er, Harvest), this fancy-schmancy organic buffet restaurant. I had heard lots of good things about it but frankly I didn't think it was worth the price of 1800 yen. It was good to talk with Laura though. :) Also picked up my new gaijin card, bought travelers checks, and caught up on sleep. I needed it!
May. 28th, 2009 @ 10:02 pm
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| » Fast food |
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I'm not really the biggest fan of fast food these days, especially not after watching Super Size Me and reading Don't Eat This Book, Chew On This, Fast Food Nation, etc. But when I saw the commercials for Mister Donut's new "burger donuts" I was really intriguied.
We had time to kill before class last night so we went to Misdo and saw they had a set-- the burger donuts, fries donuts, and a drink for 400 yen. Cheap! ....... but in no way tasty. :P
I mean, just look at it. The burgers were so gross-- two donuts with Crunch-bar-type chocolate and strawberry or green tea filling. Nasty. The fries were like potato donuts, and they came with actual ketchup to eat them with. Gross. Who thought this was a good idea?!?!
BUT Amy alerted me today that the Lotteria next to HT station has been shuttered to make room for a BURGER KING!!! Opening on June 11th!! oh BOY I can't wait to eat my first Whopper in years :O :P
Class was good last night. Still practicing test stuff like mofo. But my katamaris really hurt so I'm gonna get a massage a little later, in preparation for the looong day I have tomorrow.
(I have these permanent muscle knots in my calves that RooG refers to as my katamaris. [Katamari means "cluster", and that's what they feel like] They hurt when you touch them but sometimes when I'm stressed or haven't gotten a massage in a while, they ache on their own. Bleah)
In other news, RooG brought home a new pet-- a Madagascar hissing cockroach named Kim Jong Il. He is absolutely enamored with it.
May. 26th, 2009 @ 10:18 am
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Yo G, whut up. Last weekend was nice!
On Saturday I finally got to hang out with Annie (rakugo_report). We had lunch at Afternoon Tea, the awesomest place ever. Their food and dessert menu changes every two months, and I had been dying to go to try out the new stuff, so I was really amped that she came with me! The food was awesome-- I had the seasonal dessert "grapefruit and violet salt vanilla shortcake" or something, it was GREAT. And Annie is so cool and so pretty! D:
I also had three lessons this weekend. I really like teaching private lessons. Yappari teaching adults is a lot more interesting than teaching kids (imho), because they have so many interesting stories to tell. But it's all good.
Tomorrow is the heijitsu gasshuku-- "weekday camp". Ho boy. I know you wanna see the schedule, don't you?! Well HERE YOU GO
Day 1
19:00 Leave Yokohama
21:00 Arrive at the "inn" (for lack of a better word...?)
21:30 Self-introductions (zzz)
22:30 Lights out
Day 2
4:45 wake up (!!)
5:30-7 training (hopefully this will be held on the beach...)
7:30 breakfast
10-11:30 training
12 lunch
2:30- 4 training
4-5:30 training (yikes)
6:00 dinner
6:50 bathtime/ clean up rooms
8:00 leave inn
10:30 arrive in Yokohama
C-sensei said that because the instructors will greatly outnumber the students, class will be really tough. "I wouldn't be surprised if we did 1000 of every kihon". Um, what?! There's like 20+ different kihon. Was he joking when he said that? I hope so...
May. 25th, 2009 @ 02:35 pm
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| » Thieves and birds |
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Quite a day today!
I arrived at Dojo A this morning for class, only to find the place swarming with police. Yesterday was the dojo's day off, and sometime yesterday someone came in and opened the locked money box, and took all the money out of it. Around 2000 USD. :O
A-sensei thinks for sure it was a student, or a former student. The thief knew that the key to the door is kept in the (unlocked) mailbox. Only a few students know this. The police found the thief's footprints; he kept his shoes on, which makes them easy to recognize. But anyway, the thief went directly to where the money box was and forced it open with a screwdriver. They knew exactly where to go.
I really hope they catch the person responsible! But in the meantime, to everyone else, please make sure you keep everything locked up and safe.
Then when I came home, right in front of my door, were two baby birds!! One was dead, but the other was alive so I brought him inside.
OMG SO CUTE
I found the nest... no sign of the mother, but right under the nest was another baby! Luckily alive. And then I found ANOTHER one!
So now I have three baby birds and no way to get them home. Finally I pilfered my neighbors' stepladder, and, using all of my courage (I hate stepladders), I got the birds back into the nest. And five minutes later when I checked the nest again, Mama Bird was sitting on it! Yay!!!! A happy end. :)
And here's a bonus pic of Amy on the train last week, with her new BFF, Random Sleeping Guy!
May. 22nd, 2009 @ 09:59 pm
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I usually go to bed after RooG, and by the time I wake up, he's gone to work. So RooG and I always write letters to each other. Waking up is awesome when you have a rockin letter like these to look forward to:
What are we eating? I have no idea.
Why are we making a pose like a Y? I have no idea. Also, the face above is evidently supposed to be Samuel L Jackson. LOL!!!
And this was my Valentine's Day letter <3
Today I did a skincare study for Shiseido. It was neat to see the inside of a multinational cosmetics company. They took pictures of my face and measured moisture and stuff I guess with all these high-tech machines.
RooG and I also bought two new hermit crabs! They are huge and purple. They get along well with the three smaller ones, aside from the fact that they always step on them. ;D But they don't seem to mind.
May. 20th, 2009 @ 01:41 am
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Whuzzup G! I've been busy lately, with dojo drama, karate class, and private lessons. The dojo drama stuff is totally lame and is bringin' me down. But the rest is ok. :)
The other day I decided to make "spinach and cottage cheese curry", an Indian recipe from the Cooking Navi. I have no idea why I thought that would taste good. It didn't. Luckily I had the foresight to make turmeric rice with it, so we ended up just eating that. D:
Some pictures from the last tournament surfaced on the dojo website, and I had fun trying to find myself in every picture. Just look for the screaming gaijin!
Check out that dude's face!! He would yell randon curse words with every attack. It was really creepy. I was cheering for the other dude, who is a dojo buddy of mine. And he won!
May. 17th, 2009 @ 03:16 pm
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| » Heaven's easier to get into than Arizona State |
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I just watched the most hilarious video from the Daily Show about my alma mater Arizona State University, and why President Obama is unworthy of receiving an honorary degree from the esteemed institution. For some reason the embedding isn't working, so you're gonna have to click here to watch it. You won't be sorry you did! Especially if you went to ASU. ;D
Karate drama is getting me down. I don't wanna go too far into it, but on Monday I'm changing my home dojo back to Nishiguchi. Nishiguchi is where all my homeys are. It's my favorite dojo and the one I feel most comfortable at.
May. 14th, 2009 @ 01:01 am
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| » Richard + Norie's Wedding part 2 |
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This is at the reception, after Norie had changed into another fancy dress. The happy couple went around to each table and poured the two liquors into a glass, and magically the drink GLOWED! Every table had a different colored drink. I have no idea how they did that. But it was pretty neat.
Evidently in Japan, the bride doesn't throw the bouquet and have people catch it. The wedding emcee guy explained to us gaijin that the reason for this is that people get "violent" trying to catch the bouquet. O__o
So instead they do something called the "bouquet pull". Both the bride and the groom have a bouquet with seven ribbons attached. The bride gets 7 of her girl friends, the groom gets 7 of his guy friends, and they all pull one ribbon. The person that gets the longer ribbon (or something) gets a prize. And RooG won!
So here's the couple with the proud winners of the bouquet pull-- the lady friend got the bouquet, and RooG got that incredibly awesome rainbow afro wig!! I wonder if the wig was Richard's selection, or a time-honored Japanese wedding tradition....?
My best homey Amy lent me the dress I'm wearing. and thank GOD for that because I was dreading attempting to clothe my fat gaijin self. Over it is a scarf I got on clearance at the Gap four years ago and have only worn once.
Whee~~~! It was a really nice party, and the food was yummy!! Richard's friends were all really cool too, which was good because RooG and I didn't know a soul there. Aside from the couple, of course.
No wedding cake, though. :( That was one of the things I was looking forward to the most, was to finally eat wedding cake!! I love cake. Next time!!!! (Or maybe they don't do wedding cake in Japan?? The horror.)
Last night's karate session was devoted to SHINSA KOUMOKU. Shinsa koumoku is one of the most terrifying phrases in the Japanese language. It means "stuff that just might show up on the test, and you'll flunk AGAIN if you mess up even once so you betta get it right sucka!!!!" Surprisingly, my body remembered almost all of it. Hope I don't fail this stupid test again. You bet your booty I'll be practicing a lot.
May. 12th, 2009 @ 01:29 pm
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| » Richard + Norie's Wedding part 1 |
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On Saturday Richard and Norie got MARRIED! Craziness! It was the first wedding I'd ever been to in my life... and it was REALLY nice. They chose a really good place to get married at! (Celes Takadanobaba, for the curious.)
The chapel was dimly lit, which looked nice at the time, but as a result all my pictures of the ceremony look like they got married in the Haunted Mansion. D: Here's Norie and her dad. In Japanese the aisle the bride and groom walk down is called the "virgin road." Um......
And here's the happy couple, just married!
In other news, yesterday was the Shinjinsen karate tournament. RooG was a judge and I cheered my teammates to victory. I was blessed (?) with an obnoxiously loud and somewhat distinctive voice, and it really stands out in the din. I yell encouragement and advice because, having been on the mat a few times myself, I know exaclty how crucial it is to have people cheering for you. You can't win without it. This is a fact.
So I yelled for all my buddies and a bunch of them thanked me afterwards, saying they heard every word I said and it really helped. Since I've been going to four different dojos recently, I had a lot of people to cheer for. D: But so many of them said thank you afterwards and it really made me feel good.
A tale: I was watching the kids' fights, but when I glanced over at the adults' fights, I saw a guy there who was really kind to me at the last tournament I was in. His dojo buddies were there watching the fight, but no one was cheering for him! He was kinda losing, too. So I took it upon myself to cheer for him and yelled at him a couple times to go for a low kick, and he did! He followed my advice, and he won! Afterwards he thanked me. I was just so happy to help someone who helped me. :)
May. 11th, 2009 @ 02:52 pm
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| » Stuff |
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-- The other night we watched Eastern Promises again! because it owns us! So tonight for din din I'm gonna attempt to make beef stroganoff, using the cheapest beef at the meat store. (Beef is so expensive these days! Couldn't help but notice that the pork from Mexico was really cheap though....)
-- After being gloriously unemployed for almost 2 months now, I figure it's about time I got off my butt and did something. So I registered on two different websites in an attempt to get private students, and I'm trying to spruce up the ol' resume. I downloaded OpenOffice but for some reason it runs soooo sllloowwwlllyy on my computer, so this whole writing-a-resume thing has been a real trial. D:
-- Last night at the start kyouka, Sugimoto-sensei was like "Ok let's stretch out for five minutes and then we'll do 20 rounds at 2 minutes each." I honestly thought he was joking.
but he WASN'T!!!!!!!!!!!! It was one of the toughest trainings I've ever done. Very painful :( There was myself and and seven other dudes there... the lowest belt there was a first degree black belt. And then there's me. Yeah.
Somehow I got through it! But my arms have NEVER been so bruised.
-- This morning I fried up an egg for breakfast but somehow succeeded in burning it. Whoops. So I threw a bit of it into the hermit crabs' cage..... and they have been on top of it, continiously munching on it, for going on THREE HOURS NOW. Who knew?!
May. 8th, 2009 @ 04:03 pm
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tired
