America

Hahaha, it has been ridiculously long since I posted. In the time since my last post: The semester ended, I went home to America, and as of yesterday, have returned to Japan. However, there is honestly very little to say. I might have my grades available now, but I may not for another few days. Not sure if I'll share them or not. Anyway, I'll briefly go over everything of importance.

Classes: Not much to say. I got all my work in, and know how I did in all but two courses -- both of which I could have gotten anything in.

After classes: Just kind of read Kant and watched some South Park before going home. A bit after classes ended I went to Bang/Tama's joint-birthday party, and some of my Japanese classmates, coincidentally, showed up. I also took another walk to Rainbow Bridge -- this time with Viivi, we tried to get there before the sunrise. Started at about 4:30am and got to the water around 7, the bridge between 7:30 and 8. It was too cloudy to see anything so we didn't rush after we got to the water, it was pretty fun but we got there too early to cross...so I have to go again. We did take the train across though, so at least I technically went to Odaiba again?

Home: Did a lot here. I mainly rested and watched Freaks and Geeks, and later RuPaul's Drag Race. However I had mainly come home when I did to catch the Tibet House Concert -- Patti Smith and Iggy Pop!!!! Also a lot of experimental music acts. It was pretty awesome. I stayed with my brother and ate good food, so I cannot complain about the trip. My mom also threw me a sort of 21st birthday party with this cake:

It was pretty tasty - thank you Lisa Boehle! I feel I should now mention I also got an adorable Valentine's Day card from Zoe, my step-sister, as I don't know when else to put that in. Thank you!

Now: I am back in my room. It has been completely undone so they could change out the carpets, but on the plus side it seems I am neither getting a new roomie or a raise in rent? The sign telling me this was a tad confusing, but I am fairly confident it will stay constant. Which brings up the other thing -- a bunch of cool people, including Gen, have left the dorm. Hope you are all doing well!

Future: Ben and I have laid out our trip and made all of the reservations. We leave on the 11th, my Birthday!, and get back on the 25th (I think). The plan: Hit up Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kobe, Nagoya, then head back to Tokyo. It should be pretty sweet.

Anyway, that basically is everything important (that I can think of). Maybe I will have a rush-edit later, though?

Hakodate

I hope everyone has had a great break! Hakodate was excellent, I really loved it there. I'll give a run-down of what we did.

There were some issues meeting up on the first, but eventually we got it together and got on the bus in time (had enough time to wait for like, 25 minutes at the station). I sat next to Lauren, Ben and Jordan sat together -- and seemingly got along pretty well. I am really glad as everyone seemed to get along for most of the trip, there was really only one incident that blew over pretty quickly so I won't get into details about it. Apparently there was a snow storm, so within the first stop or so (no bathroom on the bus -- but a stop every two hours) we hit snow! I was pretty excited and it kept me awake and in good spirits for basically the rest of the bus, as every two hours I could get off and play in the snow. This happiness basically lasted till we got to Aomori, around 12pm - two hours or so late.

Our first impressions of Aomori were unimpressive. It was a small strip and very cold with lots of snow. We got separated for a while, which was extremely terrifying -- we almost wen to the police -- and then walking to the ferry terminal...through back-roads. It didn't work very well. We ended up catching our ferry, very uneventful, and took us 4 hours or so to get in to Hakodate, from which we took a cab to our hotel. From the cab we got to see the port all lit up, very pretty and put us in good spirit. I got to take a nice, long shower/bath before going to sleep which basically relaxed all the tension from the day, the trip could have ended there and I would have been rather pleased.

For our first day of Hakodate, we pretty much all slept in till about 2:00pm. Then we went to get lunch at this place called "Lucky Pierrot" which was very Christmas/Santa themed! It was amazing and the food was good! Great way to start the day, we decided to come back for milkshakes the next morning before our ferry. Afterwards we went shopping in this area near the port, the "Red Brick Warehouses" which were pretty nice, kind of expensive, and mainly import stores. The area was pretty and there was some interesting wares, so it was a nice diversion.

From there we kind of wandered around and looked for these two churches the town was famous for. On the way, we got side-tracked by a Shinto Shrine -- a guy working there (maybe a priest?) invited us in and showed us around, which was great. From there we made it to the churches, which were beautiful kind of high up on this slope. Basically Hakodate is set up like a tinier, colder San Fransisco if that helps put the layout in perspective. After the churches we went to an Italian restaurant, which was absolutely fantastic. I have not been so happy with mozzarella, tomato, and basil since I was in Italy.

Afterwards we headed to an onsen (public bath), one of the goals of the trip. None of us had ever been before, but all had a loose idea from movies and anime. For those unaware, there's a men's side and a women's side, and three pools - hot, cold, and warm. Even though it was pretty empty, Ben and I were rather concerned about accidentally doing something socially unacceptable at first, which made the public nudity somewhat less awkward (not to mention there were very few other people there). However, after a few minutes the whole feeling of the place overtakes you and it's much easier to relax. It was a very nice experience. Though, I think relaxing with everyone in the lounge afterwards might have been the most stress-relieving part. From here we basically walked around the lit up port and went to sleep, all of us wanted to get up early for our last day.

In the morning, Lauren and I went to "Viking Breakfast" - that is how the Japanese refer to all you can eat. It was very nice, it had lots of both Western and Eastern food. After, Jordan, Lauren, and I decided to go to the "Morning Market," or fish market, while Ben went to some sort of fortress on his own.. It was full of fish, and kinda gross/interesting. Laur got to show off some of her Japanese skills, and impressed the locals. I think both of them enjoyed it a good deal. Afterwards, Laur and I went to the Red Brick Warehouse to scrounge for some gifts. It was much less exciting the second time, so I didn't really find much of anything. I was personally feeling a tad ill, so I skipped out on milkshakes.

The cab and ferry were pretty uneventful - though I did get some cool things at the ferry terminal on Hakodate side, and finished reading "Self-Made Man" on the ferry. Aomori, however, was great this time. We found a strip of shops we hadn't noticed and basically just explore for a while. We ended up dining at a Japanese style restaurant, that was extremely tasty and had really friendly keepers. One of which makes chopsticks and taught the table how to properly use them (I was doing it fine, but apparently everyone else was doing it Chinese style?) It was kind of silly/entertaining. After we got some ice-cream and caught the bus -- this time we got to sit all together in a row of four. We were very chatty at first, to the detriment of the grumpy man in front of me, but were quiet once the bus started, kind of. Lauren and Ben made friends with this guy next to us, a student at Tokyo University. Thankfully this driver got us back on time, and we all went our separate ways. All-in-all it was a great trip.

As for me, I got a few hours of sleep and then hung out with Jordan for a bit in Takadanobaba. Tomorrow classes start up again, and I have some final papers due throughout the next three weeks. Then classes end! So excited! This week I hope to start planning my two month break!

New Year

First of all, Happy New Year everyone!

Today Jordan and I went to Shimokitazawa for a lot of shopping. It was fun, though very long. Honestly we probably should have left a tad later, and I should dressed a tad heavier, but it was definitely enjoyable. Unfortunately we did not find the second half of the area until rather late, when we were cold and tired and lots of shops were closing, so we didn't really see everything. A reason to go back, I guess? Some highlights: There were lots of ponchos, that were awesome. There were some cool jackets, including a Korean one that was red, had a tiger on the back, and a zip-down hoodie. Like, the hood had a zipper in the middle. It was really weird. In a store there was a random Fender Stratocaster just hanging out, possibly for sale. There was a golf magazine in a convenient store with a japanese man dressed in 70s Britt-punk attire. We got a free tea tasting that was absolutely delicious (I will maybe pick some up when I'm closer to going home). Lots and lots of animal-socks -- with eyes and mouths and such. Really delicious looking waffles...that we didn't eat! Much more!

Afterwards we went to Yoyogi Kouen (Park) to celebrate the New Year. There was a standard festival with expensive food (500 for an anman! Ridiculous!) And some sort of music thing - basically large screen with a New Year's concert showing. We walked around a bit, Jordan realized how close we were to a fashion district which we then explored, and then we went back so as to avoid getting stranded by metro. It was nice, but I was just inside and non-attentive when the year changed...which doesn't really bug me. We almost ended up on a bus tonight, so it is better than nothing! Also Gen gave me a rather sweet card, so I kind of feel like a jerk now. Oh well, I will probably pick him up a little something in Hokkaido, I guess?

Tomorrow, around 10pm, we will board our bus for Aomori, then take a ferry to Hakodate for our trip. So I think I'll just relax and maybe do some work tomorrow, but for the two days following I will be in Hokkaidoi! It should be lots of fun, and will hopefully include some hiking, a castle visit, an onsen, and maybe some soup curry and dairy products. Also -- snow! I am rather excited.

Another note: Jordan also keeps a blog and is somewhat better at writing than me. Her post on yesterday had a bit more detail and wonderment in it, so I would recommend reading it. If nothing else, it will provide a different perspective on what I say. Honestly, it will likely give a more complete story to events we mutually experience. Read it!

Good Day

Today has started out pretty good and continued that way pretty much unhindered until this moment.

I woke up feeling pretty decent, took care of some things, packed some stuff up, and headed out to get breakfast. I got some Yakitori (Grilled Chicken, typically with Salt or Teriyaki) from a rather nice and casual Japanese vendor I have never seen before. He had no problems asking if I was a Gaijin and chatting with me about it, then dropped in that I looked "cool," asked what it meant and put in some guesses. He gave me a 10Yen/Yakitori, and was generally jovial. The experience has been with me all day and rose my spirits in a pretty good way.

I got a good amount of reading done on the train to Narita, and the scenery was beautiful. It took longer than expected, so I didn't have to wait very long for Jordan, who of course was delight to see (especially after last week's error). On the way back a Canadian guy, Michael, started chatting with us. Seems like a nice guy, he's apparently here for a year working as a chef in a Roppongi Gentlemen's club named Tetra. Interesting guy, most Westerners kind of just glare at each other or ignore each other when they see other Westerners they don't know, but he opted to talk to us. I would like to meet him again, at some point.

There were some issues in getting into Jordan's home for the month...the key left in the mailbox got pushed all the way in, but we eventually got it out. The area her apartment is in is not the best, but the apartment itself is rather nice. We walked around a bit, she bought some magazines, we got some delicious bento, and we made friend with a local drunk man. Basically, after peeing on some street, he ran up to us and decided that we were shy/indecisive about entering a ramen shop (we were just trying to translate the menu) - so he told us he was friends with the owner and basically convinced us to enter. The shop owner was pretty displeased and told us they were closing, so we left...only to meet that man again a few minutes later on a different road. Very odd.

I  unfortunately lost a 2010 scheduling book I got in my Japanese Class's Christmas Party...it had all the subway maps and I was thinking about using it as a kind of journal/diary. Might use losing it as an excuse to buy one, though I don't know how long I would be able to keep that up, or even what sort of journal I would want to keep. I just feel I should take to writing things more immediately. I kind of want to practice writing very openly about myself and my thoughts, so it would be great practice. I also want a Kanji Notebook, to write down kanji I don't know to look up later, as a learning tool. So I could always combine both goals into one general notebook...we'll see what happens.

Other things, Ben and Mom both called a few minutes of each other when I was at Jordan's pad. It was rather odd. The Bento shop by Jordan's place is way better than any I've been to before (which is only really 2 or 3, if you don't count konbini and supermarket bentos). I may end up meeting family in the Caribbean or something over my two month break (Exciting!). Jordan and I exchanged gifts, she got me the book I've been pining for for months now (Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent), and I gave her the Tokyo Jihen single she was asking for. Related not, Julianne apparently got me something...I am really curious to see what. Tomorrow Jordan and I will go to Shimokitazawa (full of thrift shops, I went a month or so ago and got cool pants and a jacket), and who knows for New Year's eve. I am hoping some people will join at some point, but it seems a bit late and no one's really interested. Should still be fun! Also, the bus for Hokkaido leaves the next day!