It has been a long time!

So I have done a lot since my last post:  I went to a Chinese Opera, I celebrated Halloween (twice, of course), got a package, I almost got my Working Visa, I bought new clothes!

Highlights:
Chinese Opera: Was sort of fun, but really long and not something I care to do again. It was more a variety show of Chinese theater than anything else.
Halloween: Um...it was somewhat extremely lame. I dressed as a  70s disco king during the day...which everyone confused for me just dressed nicely. During the evening I went as a Biker-Themed Exotic Dancer -- which was hit with mixed reviews...from the same groups of people. I went to a Halloween Party and was basically complemented all night, proceeded to lose a costume contest, and was then told by half the people that didn't vote for me that my costume was amazing and I should have won. Afterwards there were a few planned and botched ideas -- such as going to a train party the next day (was advised against), and going to a club (left too late), so instead I went to Big Boy with Ben! Pretty cool. I of course changed my outfit for this outing to more club-appropriate gear. All available in the album at the bottom of the post! Beware, though, it  uploaded them in reverse order. The next night I, dressed in a nostalgic super-hero costume (no pics unfortunately, I wore a paper crown, a pink shirt, underwear over my pants, and my bed sheet like a cape -- my name was The Lion King), went with Ben, dressed as a BDSM-bottom cat-boy, to Shinagawa to people watch...and was reminded why Ben should not be allowed to use my camera. He took and saved 3 ratty pics -- the rest he deleted. There was an awesome pic of two Popeyes that got deleted! It was still sort of cool. Basically Halloween in Japan is not as cool as Halloween in the US, was the lesson from the weekend.
Package: My mom sent me candy and socks! Both of which I really like. They are red cashmere socks, and the candy lasted about 2-3 days, so I am rather satisfied. If I get another one, though, I hope for some coffee!
New Clothes: I stopped by a store and picked up a rad pink shirt, and a rad brown shirt, which there are pictures of. Together they cost about 980yen ($10) and are awesome as hell so I am rather satisfied. Later, some friends and I went to a place with a name I cannot remember. It is near Todai, and rather cool! I got some patch-work pants and a really cool jacket, both of which are really warm! I hope to upload pics of the pants soon, but the jacket is online now.
Working Visa: Basically in the course of a week I went to Shinagawa and applied, and then got permission to go back and pick it up. However, when I went, I forgot to bring my passport! Yeah, pretty dumb. I want to go Monday, but I am concerned I will be late for the FRANZ FERDINAND CONCERT! We will see how this goes.
Future: Monday I will go to Franz Ferdinand, and Wednesday I have my first assignment due for history of Mathematics -- I have no idea what to do for this. Afterwards my midterms should start so I will be rather busy soon...and I don't have another break till December.Oh well! I'll try to be better about posting.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/LotsChineseOperaHalloweenNewClothes#

P.S. My Chrome is having difficulties loading GMail. Anyone else having this issue/capable of helping?

Pictures!

Today was somewhat non-eventful as I spent most of it waiting to use an ATM. However, the few events that happened were rather interesting.

After I woke up and got some breakfast (Milk Tea!) I asked Kim for some help with my Japanese. Basically, I wanted to say "The back of my phone is broken. Please replace it." or "Wakareteru no de, Koukan Shitekudasai." So, on my own, I went to the au shop to have it replaced...and was promptly greeted with the English speaking attendant, as I was instantly recognized from yesterday. Oh well. They didn't even replace it -- they just bent it into place, but I guess that's ok as I have insurance for it.

Later on I met some people over lunch - Yan and Hakleh(I assume this is spelt wrong). Pretty interesting, we had a rather long conversation about world politics. It was somewhat surreal as the conversation was long, was in multiple languages, and involved multiple people helping translate without really adding anything besides the translation.

Later on I walked out to find an ATM that would work. On the way I found this, and took a picture specifically for Father:

I hope you enjoy this.

I walked around for a rather long time, checking the area. I was going to walk to Shibuya, but it was rather far away. I think I entered part of the Shibuya area, though? It is sort of weird how the sections are done. I also managed to enter the red light area (twice) by mistake. The second time an Eastern European man tried to sell me a room in a love hotel and "Beautiful, Japanese girls." It was rather creepy and awkward. I took a few pictures of the clean section of Shinjuku (I will maybe go back and take pictures of the seedy part):

This one is of interest because I WENT IN HERE THREE YEARS AGO!!!!

In the end the building with the ATM I wanted was closed. I ended up working my way back to find the Post Office in order to try it again, but on the way I found a 7-11 with a "Ginkou ATM" which worked! So, I guess I could have used any of these at any point and saved a lot of trouble. Oh well! I celebrated my victory with Tempura and Calpis Soda (It is a Milk Soda -- like Milkis from earlier posts, or a plain Egg Cream for new readers). Tasty!

Anyway, I updated my situation from last post in the comments for it: Basically father will try to take care of it, and if he can't then I will have to call. It seems like it was a mistake on the bank's part, though, that should be cleared up alright.

Edit: I almost forgot. Since I can now do the picture thing, I will probably go back and do picture-tours of my dorm, Nishi-Waseda area, and Waseda itself. Like, maybe a full post per each thing sort of deal. I will do other areas like this too, and am willing to take requests (so long as they are reasonable places for me to go and take pictures of). I will try to spread out these posts over periods where I may have little to actually post about to keep the blog updated, so I won't just do a bunch of them now that I have a camera. So, if there's something you want to see, comment and tell me!