January 22nd, 2010
ohemgee. finals. japan style. not a fan. spent the entire week studying my ass off for one test or another and writing my final paper (in japanese) that was handed in yesterday. kanji test today as well as a pronounciation (hatsuon) test and role play in japanese (sounds kinki:P) and omg. so done. but not done. because the real stuff hasn't even started yet. i have a make up class next wednesday because a teacher was sick and cancelled one of the classes. so i have to come on what would otherwise be a day off. lame. then wednesday of next week until feb 2nd i will be writing intense kimatsu shiken (final exams) in japanese for my japanese classes and i will be lucky if my head doesn't hakka (explode). ugh. ugh ugh. needless to say i am very impressed that i made it to friday this week and am celebrating by having some drinks with Bryan :) happy times. also i have to study all weekend so really friday i my only escape day. alas.
to start of this escape day caitlin, jen and i watched vampire diaries (new episode out!) and that was jolly good times. then i took my two hour commute home and getting off the train i ran into the lady who lives with the obaasan (old lady) in the house in front of mine and that was super fun because we chatted in japanese the whole way home and i had someone to ride the bus with :)
now i am enjoying some tea and waiting for Bryan to return.
i do believe that is all i have to update you with. back to the grind stone and i will resurface in another week and a few days :)
xoxo
January 15th, 2010
WOW. it has been a really long time since i updated my blog. apologies to my adoring fans (mom).
Well. i guess i have a lot more updates than i thought i did. so here goes:
December 26th, 2009
That is all i can remember for now.
So it is Friday night and my body appears to have succumbed to the cold that Caitlin and Jen and Bryan had that I have been fighting off and not getting for the past two weeks. fml.
I only have one more week of classes before exams start so everything has gotten so super busy! sorry if emails and letters are slow being returning. I started cramming this week to try and fit as much Japanese into my brain as it will hold. Only time will tell how it works out.
I MISS ALL OF YOU. a lot. and I have set my return date home. It is *drumroll please* AUGUST 15TH 2010!!!! That's right, in 7 months you will all get the chance to see my face again and find out if i can still speak any english (it's getting pretty dodgy. i've proof-read this blog post twice already and i'm pretty sure there are still some wicked typos).
So my loves. That is all. oh, and PS. i think i might start another blog page where i write about the things i do in my life that are much to scandalous to put on this general blog that my parents, grandparents and other people who may stop feeding me if they find out what im up to can read. Perhaps i will find a place where i can post and people can comment on my adventures. now that would be fun. for those of you who know me really well you know just what adventures i mean BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *evil maniacle laughter* (pps. i have definitely started having episodes of random maniacle laughter in public recently. it has a wondrous effect on those around me. and it keeps me sane ;) (now just think about that. maniacle laughter keeps me sane. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) thatisall.
Alrighty. Christmas *check*. Christmas was great :) Very relaxing and i got to spend hours chatting with my family on skype. I also took a ton of secret ops pictures while i was chatting to them and then link to view them has been added to the photos page :D I even got to watch everyone open presents on Christmas morning (stayed up until the wee hours of the morning in Japan so the time zones worked out :P sooo sleepy). It was awesome.
Lots of new pics up in the photo section including a grouping of assorted December pictures. Click Here to go see them.
Happy Holidays to all and I'll be sure to keep you posted as my winter vaca continues.
xoxo
December 25th, 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
that is all. lovelove
December 24th, 2009
Merry Christmas Eve!
Day Number 1 of my Winter Holidays and I am feeling happily well-rested, well-loved and well-cozied (which is feeling cozy in a very well manner:) So yes. Happy great things.
Homesickness is being combated by the following: Tomorrow while Bryan is away at work (yes he has to work on Christmas)I will be skyping with my family :) It will be there Christmas Eve and my brother and his sweetie and their wee one will be over, grandparents will be over and all will be gathered for a feast and yuletide merryment. Then on boxing day in Japan i will be waking up EXTRA early so that I can video chat with my family while they open presents on Christmas morning! Someone is going to bring their laptop into the room with the tree and I will get to watch live and comment and yeyness :) Good plan.
Bryan and I found this AMAZING vegan pancake recipe online and made it last night for dinner and it is absolutely PHENOMENAL! soooooooooooo sosososo good. So i think we will have it for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Perhaps share a bottle of nice wine :)
Happy Holidays to everyone <3
December 21st, 2009
Ahhh Monday. Almost finished a two-day hangover and only two more days of school until winter break :D hurray hurray. So this past weekend was....terrible. Bryan and I went to the year end party for his work and had to pay for...nothing. We did insist on buying one of his students a couple drinks because she had bought us some already but other than that, people just kept sending drinks over because they like him as a teacher. We had not been expecting this, so we had already split a bottle of wine between us before leaving and bryan also had two cups of sake. so...oh dear. two gin and tonics and 5 shots or tequila later i was leaving my spaghetti dinner behind in two different parking lots. oh.em.gee. one of those going from zero to drunk in 5 secounds nights. so not impressed and so not how i had intended the evening to go. Needless to say, the rest of the weekend was a complete write off dedicated to me recovering.
On the upside, while recovering I did get to have a nice long skype convo with various members of my family that were all gathered at my parents house and that was AWESOME. even got to see my adorable little nephew :)
Sooooo looking forward to Mayhem Week and Christmas holidays!!!! Going to skype with the family for their Christmas Eve and Christmas morning/day which will work out to being my Christmas day and boxing day :)
Also will be getting some new pictures up soon of various himeji type things as well as Christmas stuff. Mayhem week will be fully documented as well but will have to...sort through the pictures to ensure that none of the ones that you will be able to blackmail me with later make it onto the internet lol.
****PHOTOS ADDED**** (2 minutes later...lol)
Love to all, hugs and miss you :)
December 14th, 2009
My oh My is it ever a blustery day in the 100 acre wood. also known as Himeji. Absolutely beautiful day. Blue skies, crisp air, a wind that comes and goes and blows tons of leaves around with every breath. just lovely.
Had a good weekend. Super tired today. Bryan and I went to Luminaria in Kobe. It's this big light display. It is apparently in memory of those who died in the Kobe Earthquake but people also make it a Christmas thing. It's made up of a long corridor with nicely detailed christmas light archways and it leads to a palace of lights. I will have pictures up in the next few days. The whole thing would have been great except for a couple things. Namely the fact that there we TENS OF THOUSANDS of people going to see this thing. and they make everyone follow this path that weaves up and down the streets like a GIANT cue line. it took us 2 hours to get to the actual lights and palace. normal walking pace would have taken us about 10 minutes or so...Bryan and I are both guilty of making Herd anologies and occassionally Moo-ing. :P So. after we stared at the lights and palace and i took some pictures we headed back to the train to get home. We got there and there were SOOOOO many people inside. Then we discovered that there had been a "Human Damage Accident" (code for someone suicided on the tracks) and the trains were delayed. So we got home a few hours later. We had left the house at 4pm. Got back home around 10pmish. Had planned to be home around 7pm. Oh dear. When we did get back to Himeji I looked at the signs that show if all the tracks are operating and it showed that a secound Human Damage Accident had occured shutting down the line to Kyoto. It is really very tragic and sad. Also, to add insult to injury, because suicide by train is a very common/popular way for people to commit suicide in Japan, and because so many people were doing it (Japan has one of, if not the, highest suicide rates in the world) the government allows the train company to seek reparation from the suicider's family to pay for clean up, delay cost, etc etc. So wow. turned out to be quite a night.
On a lighter note. Only 10 more days till Christmas. and out of those 10 days i only have 7 more days of school :D
Happy Holidays
December 11th, 2009
HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY BRYAN!!!
yey :) Birthday celebrations :D
finally it is friday. and that is awesome. it is the start of the weekend AND it's Bryan's birthday (in case you missed the big message at the beginning of this entry). Now, as Bryan is out at work all day i have come up with the best dinner creation. (bwahahaha) I TAUGHT MYSELF HOW TO MAKE SUSHI :D it's amazing. and so yummy. and while quite time consuming it is SO easy. i love it. now, one might be thinking "Nicole you silly duck, you're living in japan, sushi is EVERYWHERE! why bother making it at home?" and you would be right. sushi is everywhere in japan. and every single piece you can find in the store has fish in it. or some other meat. japan, as i am now so keenly aware of, is one of the least vegetarian friendly places. ever. seriously...they put fish in everything. want to by a bag of peanuts? oh, lets throw some tiny fish in there! got the munchies? how about a bag of dried fish. nomnomnomvomit. and these little fishes they have in everything (on top of the fish flakes and fish powdery business that seems to find its way into most things -_-), these little fishes have eyes. yes. eyes. japan, not so big on de-eyeing their fish to make them more user friendly. your food stares at you while you eat it. at the shokudo (school cafeteria) you can by one of those long thin fish. it's longer than the plate they put it on...not so thick. and its a whole fish. scales, eyes, fins...everything. ew. this being the case, bryan and i have a very limited number of meal options, and since bryan is brave enough to make the switch to vegan while we are still in japan (something i quite admire) there are even fewer if i'm cooking for two. so this new sushi addition. its fantastic. it opens up a whole new world of awesome and amazing.
honestly. all in all this sushi update is without question the best part of my day. Can't wait to surprise Bryan with it when he gets home :D also...i may have written happy bday on the floor in candles...:D
December 10th, 2009
The Cove:you have to watch it. Click on the linked words to watch it free, streaming online. It has won awards and is rather groundbreaking. very well done and well documented.
Tomorrow is Bryan's birthday :D exciting business. he has yet to tell me what he would like for dinner and it rather sucks that i have school and he has work. but still. it will be awesome. i have plans.
Cards arrived from home today! Yey for christmas cards and pictures of my nephew and christmas presents :D lovelovelove.
Had a lesson test in Japanese class today which i think went pretty well and even better than that, I now have 3 ladies lines up to be languge exchange/friends with me :) Hurray. Super excited and slightly nervous to get out there practicing my Japanese on real live Japanese people and making new friends in the process. it's like going into elementary school. but in a different language. and without a sandbox.
More updates as they happen....
xoxo
December 7th, 2009
So. still not pleased with my website not displaying in any browser other than firefox. so if you are looking at this in anything other than firefox...i apologize. it looks much pretty in firefox. working on getting the kinks out hopefully with the help of my extremely web savvy brother.
Old blog entries have been moved to the Blog Archive and i will soonish be organizing it into months. probably will do that once i have the rest of the site ironed out so it stops looking like a big blither on other browsers.
School is puttering along nicely. New week, weekends over. another 5 days of waking up at 5 am. definitely can not wait until winter break. once school goes in after that i only have 1 more month of classes :D hurray. that reminds me, i definitely need to get my VISA sorted out -_- yey.
Good news is i have a girl who i'm meeting in a week or two for language exchange :D we will talk mostly in japanese so i can practice and then in english so she can practice her english. should be good, hoping that it works out that i get a couple language exchange partners so that i have someone to meet with once a week. i think that would do wonders for improving my language speaking skills. also thinking about adding in some japanese to my blog...so if your computer is not enabled to read language script it will show up like a bunch of questions marks and other nonsense.
i do believe that is about all i've got for now. will update again when something more notable happens :)
xoxo
December 5th, 2009
Whoaaa it's been a long time. Excuses for not updating my blog: computer containing all my information died giving me no
access to any of my cool codes :( and on top of that, getting internet in Himeji turned out to be a GIANT headache. but, all is resolved :D
UPDATES:
i think thats it for bullet updates. Super excited for Christmas, it will be mine and Bryan's first Christmas together (normally i'm at my parents and he's at his in Vancouver and we meet up around New Years). Only downside is it's also my first Christmas away from my family and that is causing random boughts of homesickness...though the homesickness is greatly eased by the help of the internet and the shortbread and care packs my Mom is sending me from home :)
Picked up a little tree and some decorations so there is now a Christmas corner in our bedroom upstairs and some more garland downstairs. Bryan's Christmas and Birthday presents arrived weeks earlier than expected (they arrived today instead of at the end of the month) so that is amazing. got them all wrapped up in a fun creative fashion and they're under our mini tree :)
Our big plan for the holidays is "Mayhem Week". we are putting all our christmas bonus/savings and what not into one week of just completely letting go and doing ridiculous and amazing stuff. The list of what will be happening is not yet finalized but i will be sure to photograph the entire week so you can all blackmail me with the pictures later in life ;)
Well mon ami's, thank you for reading and i will be sure to keep the updates coming and get some new pictures up soon :) I found a faster way to get most of my pictures up is to just give a direct link to my facebook photo albums since then i dont have to upload them twice and then format and code another page for the website.
Also, the old blogs will be going into an archive so that its neat and more organized. You will be able to access the archive once i've created it from here and I think i will organize it by month/year.
xoxo
August 4th, 2009
it's official. Japanese tv makes absolutely no sense. i swear to god, half the time Japanese people
don't even understand what the heck is going on.
didn't get to himeji today because i slept rather horrendously last night and couldnt wake up in time.
alas. still got some good stuff done today like picking out matching bathroom stuff (if Bryan's reading
this, don't worry. its not all pink :P) and picking up a frying pan. still searching for a pot.
the plan for tomorrow is to go to himeji with a load of stuff, find a used appliance store or five and buy
myself a fridge, get it delivered to my place and do a good clean and get stuff set up. also i am hoping
to somehow magically find a couple futon mattresses so that bryan and i have something to sleep on other
than piles of our clothes...which is the current plan. and for those of you in Canada who think futon mattresses
are big and thick and comfy. nono. futons here are like...those thing blue foamies that you buy to go camping on...
that are pretty much the same as sleeping on the ground. planning to get a few of those and stack them on top
of each other so that sleeping is bearable and possible. also need to get some blankets. ahhh the list never ends. -_-
had some awesome dinner with maz tonight, homemade spaghetti sauce and tofu meatballs (yumyum) and im
def getting her to write out some recipes so that i can cook them in himeji.
getting closer to the land of me not having internet for a few weeks...dundundunnnn. will still try to
check my email at internet cafes and what not.
def looking forward to bryan arriving in t-minus 11 days and counting :D
i suppose thats all for now, going to watch the movie 'Obsessed' tonight with the girls :)
xoxo
August 2nd, 2009
well. i, without question, owe my liver a great big hug and a cuddle. Classes ended on friday and it
is now sunday night and what a weekend it was :) Went out friday night with the ladies to Sam & Dave's where
we all proceeded to get a lot of free drinks bought for us...made it home at around 5:30am, proceeded
to sleep until 3pm that afternoon and then went out again for more celebrations and a birthday party on saturday
night (though i only had a single drink and a lot of water) and another late night ensued. Sunday (today)
was a recovery day that included some window shopping and movie watching along with lots of healthy
munchies to thank our bodies for carrying through the weekend.
now, onto the next plans. heading to Himeji tomorrow, possible with the help of one of Maz's friends
vehicles, but if not it will be a lot of luggage pulling and hauling on the train and in the cab to once
we make it to Himeji. hoping to get a large amount of my stuff dropped off and some internet sorted out.
i will def be without internet for a few weeks while it gets set up in himeji so there wont be any blog updates
though i will spend some time in internet cafes so that i can let everyone know that im alive.
once i get back from himeji tomorrow night there is another party, this one being a farewell party for
all of the students who have to go back home. *tear*
well its late and im sleepy. ready to attempt getting my sleep back on schedule...or something more or less close
to it :)
xoxo
PS. definitely looking for the most asian baby clothes in existence to send back home for 'the fruit of Adam's Loins' XD
July 30th, 2009
9/11 exams finished and i think i most definitely got A's on all of them (and A+'s on some:). two more to
go tomorrow and then everyone is heading downtown for some good old fashion celebrating of the end
of the semester :)
Also I am trying to get things lined up so that i can get my place furnished and moved into this week.
twood be nice :)
Thinking i will post links to my albums that are on facebook instead of making seperate photo pages for
everything on my web site. though it demonstrates less talent with my little html skills it is a lot
faster and will mean that i can share my pictures a lot faster with everyone instead of having to upload them
to facebook and then selecting only a few to upload to photobucket so that i can craft a picture page and
link to it on here. i may eventually turn them into webpages but for now there are just way too many pictures
and not enough space on my webspace to put them all!
really happy that everything seems to be coming together for my move. only thing is i will likely be
without internet for a few days because it takes about 2 weeks to get it set up here in Jpon. or at least
in Himeji. not sure how fast it will be because the place where i am living it quite far from the NTT (?) tower that
supplies the internet. although knowing that means i will just buy a more mediocre internet and save some monies
instead of paying for a 50M internet and only getting 30M i will just pay for the 30M and save. yey savings. still
internet is pricey here.
still staying at Maz's house and learning to cook some new Veggie food with the ingrediants that Japan
has to offer:) i'm quite pleased and will be sure to write them down do that Bryan and I can eat them in the
future an add to our current extremely small list of foods that we can eat here.
i suppose thats about all for now...to check out the new photos (that you maybe have already seen on facebook)
Click Here :)
July 27th, 2009
so yes. it has been a while since i updated. that is because the past 10 days have been absolute
and complete hell. i went from having a place in himeji to live, to coming extremely close to not
having a place in himeji (and having to move back to Canada) to live as a result of numerous things falling through and in the end the only
thing that saved me is that the real estate guy thinks im cute and likes to wink and flirt with me.
i went to himeji with jenni yesterday and we got all the contracts sorted out, ended up savings even more money,
met the landlady (cute little old japanese lady who is so sweet and nice) and the real estate guy told me
that he will set up all my utils for me, i just have to take care of the internet on my own, the place
will be cleaned top to bottom on wednesday and i can move stuff in anytime after that and hurray!
i have the keys in my hand and am so super excited. now i just need to furnish the place and find a way
to get all my crap there that won't spend all the money i just saved. ahhh. relaxing.
though the relaxing wont really happen until friday. this week i have 11 exams (now 9 since i did two
this morning) and they promise to be varying degrees of difficult. the easiest ones are over. and i am
not looking forward to any of the ones that will follows. alas. i will just look forward to friday and the
alcohol awaiting us all at the end of the tunnel lol.
Moved out of the guest house and got my deposit back which was great :) wasnt sure if the guy was
going to be lame and keep it for some silly reason. almost left without one of my pairs of shoes on account
of this family that moved in with 3 kids who decided it would be fun to hide peoples shoes around the house -_-
Staying at Maz's place for a week or so and its pretty nice and laid back. its a little closer to the school
and i can stay here for as long as it takes me to get everything to himeji which is nice :) she is such a super sweetie:)
i've recently become close friends with her and jenni (wow! me, having friends who are girls....everyone must be
so shocked) and its so nice. we chill at maz's, adventure out at night when we so desire and its super
comfortable and awesome all round :) plus its keeping me from being all anti-social and stuff when im stressed out about moving
went to a fireworks matsuri (festival) in Osaka with Jenni and i have pictures from that as well as some others
pics that i will try to upload asap! at the very least i will get them onto facebook as soon as i can
find the cord that connects my camera to the computer...
xoxo
July 13th, 2009
I HAVE SOMEWHERE TO LIVE IN HIMEJI! Its a cute little two story corner house
(btw house in Japan does not mean own chunk of land, it just means own building
with no one living above of below you...more like a condo back home?)
Anywho, its in this quiet little area close to town and its the corner house
farthest away from the little street. The people next door are little old ladies :)
It's two stories, has a kitchen, living room, bathroom, two toilets, and two rooms
up stairs that can be opened up into one big room :)
I'll take more pics when I move in, but for now i have some up on the photos page.
Himeji is fantastic. I like it sooooooo much better than Kyoto. it's like someone just turned down the
knob labelled 'busy city'. its quiter, moves a little slower and has much more green space surrounding it :)
I will give more updates when i get back from school today or tomorrow, just wanted to throw this up before i
left for the morning <3
July 7th, 2009
I spoke to soon. yesterday i was all stoked from having a good day and having the weather work out for me...
it wasn't meant to be. I blame the new couple that has moved into the room next to mine. they had been
having a shit day (dropping bags of open rice on the ground, getting drenched, etc.) and they must have
sent their bad luck towards me lol. so, i was making dinner and chatting to my mom on msn in between tending
to my food...im chilling in pj bottoms and a tank top, no shoes or anything...and what do i do? well i lock
myself out of my room of course. capital fuck. not only are my keys in my room, but so are my proper clothes, keys
to my bike, etc. so i talked to the guy next door to me (not the couple since they are clearly cursed, but sho)
and he let me use his phone to call the guest house. apparently, normally the staff member who lives in the guest
house is supposed to have extra keys and if she isnt there someone will come buy with extra keys. well, she is on
vaca and the staff people at the other house had zero interest in bringing the keys over like they were supposed to
even though i knew for a fact (which i reminded them of) that they would have to come over eventually anyways
to sign papers with the new tenants. but no, they refused to come. so sho lets me use his bike, since i can't
unlock mine, and i bike to the guest house. in my pajamas. awesome. 2 minutes into my 15 minutes bike ride there,
the skies open up and it starts absolutely pouring like it needed to make up for not getting me wet on the
way to and from school. SPACE DAMN YOU! i get the key and go back home and let myself in, COMPLETELY drenched
to the core. good job Nicole.
ahhhhh. so today:
school was school as usual. got my health insurance paid. that's about it.
oh! just remembered a fun tidbit about yesterday. the package from Bryan's folks that we were waiting to arrive
arrived yesterday. but the post guy for some reason assumed i wasn't home and just let a 'come pick up your package'
note on my door. despite the fact that i was indeed home and in my room. i went to the bathroom later and found it hanging
on my door. not impressed :P. so now i have to go pick it up and somehow manage to get it home from the
post office...also i don't know where the post office is. i think the fates are conspiring against me.
alas. I miss my cats. currently still refusing to allow the recent outpouring of unfortunate incidents to cramp my
awesome style -_- lol
heart <3
July 6th, 2009
Today...was pretty great. Granted i had an exam to write (which i did lots of studying for and thing i
did superbly on) and didn't get much sleep last night which left me on the verge of sleep for most of class,
but it was just a feel good day. forcast for the week is solid rain but i most definitely managed to bike to school
during the dry times! Today hasn't been all that rainy either, nice 28ish degrees though. Thing i have
noticed about the weather forecast is 1-it is not very accurate and 2-if it says rain for the whole day
there will probably be periods of not rain but they are just to lazy to specify. i'm enjoying it though.
im listening to the thunder start up and giving myself a pat on the back for my luck and not chickening
out and taking the train (which i always feel is so lame and a waste of money, especially since it actually
takes me longer to get to school that way then it does biking! plus i dont get the good i've done physical
excercise feeling).
Going to get homework done today and make enough okonomiyaki to last me the majority of the week. the stuff
keeps really well and its quite healthy to boot :) just re-heat and eat :)
Had some incredible internet time with Bryan lately talking about lots of interesting, fascinating and important
things, the results of which i am really happy with...but i will safe that for my diary :P lol.
made it through the entire x-men series this weekend while i was procrastinating studying...i really
do enjoy those movies. they remind me of my card collecting days and have me jonesing to read the comic books
that's about it for now, more updates when i have something noteworthy...or more pictures? took me so long to post
new ones, sorry about that.
xoxo
July 4th, 2009
Had a fantastic evening last night full of teachers and classmates and lots of fun :) Started out with dinner
at this cute tabehodai place and then the teachers parted ways and the rest of us carried on to a very
cheap but good karaoke bar! Lots of fun and we got an hour of Karaoke plus nomihodai for only 800yen each!
super cheap, super fun :) The dresscode for the event was fancy so that was fun to do. I wore ridiculously
high heels, but also brought sneakers around for the long walking portions in between. it was quite a good
time all round and i have FINALLY added two pages of pictures! all from the evening. Click Here
to check out the photos from the evening :)
Tonight I am most likely heading out to celebrate a friend of mine's birthday, but before then i have A LOT
of studying to do and need to clean my room and get some more laundry done too.
Short update...but since it comes with pictures its probably all right :) Oh also there are more pictures
from the evening on my facebook for those of you who have facebook.
xoxo
July 3rd, 2009
It's Friday! Finally. So ready for two days of being able to sleep in. Also so glad that this is my
last month of the semester. Aug 1st marks the beginning of summer holidays and also life in Himeji :)
Himeji plans are moving forward. One of my teachers volunteered to help me out. She is going to go
down there with me on the 12th, early in the morning, and start house hunting with me and then we will
return later that night. A friend of mine also said that he would be able to go to the housing places
around Kyoto with me to find out if they have Himeji listings and if they have a branch in Himeji since if
i can pick out in advance the places i want to look at and know which places definitely won't be able to help
me i think it would be really good.
Going out for a class party tonight and 3 out of 5 language teachers are coming along for at least the dinner
part of it. should be interesting. Either way i am going to relax and celebrate getting through another
grueling week of learning and cramming information into my head and share some wine :) Probs won't have
too much to drink though because I am heading home alone and don't want to 1-not have my wits about me and 2-i
don't want to be out too late.
Also celebrating my friend Satoshi's birthday tomorrow so that should be fun. I'm not sure what we will
be doing, most likely having a couple drinks along the river, relaxing and celebrating :)
Not terribly too much to update other than that. I'll keep trying to send emails and update when
i have time.
xoxo
June 30th, 2009
Just noticed that I am constantly writing down the wrong day on my homework for school. Always
writing down the day before for some reason :P odd.
In other news...that rainy season has started. I managed to get caught in the rain both on the way
too and from school today, both times the rain starting halfway into my half hour journey. I somewhat
enjoy the rain though. its a rather neat sensation when you close your eyes and just feel it
hitting your skin. i quite enjoy it :) also the fact that its super warm and in Kyoto it never just
rains, but torrential downpours...its neat.
Got 98% on my test that i wrote on monday! beat my goal of 97% and am very pleased about that :)
Lots of studying to do for the next one. two tests next week instead of just one. normally we have them
on mondays but the way the lesson schedule has worked itself out we have one on monday and friday. not so
cool since i use the weekend to get literally hours of studying done and there isnt as much time to do that
during the week. im sure i'll sort it out somehow.
Got helped from some nice friends at school for finding housing. turns out when you do the searching in
Japanese it is A LOT easier. downside being i need a portable Japanese person to translate all of the kanjis
and websites for me and to know what to type. i feel like there is some hope though. now i just need
to recruit someone to come to himeji with me for a weekend and apartment hunt. ugh. such a pain in the butt.
but im happy that some headway was made.
i suppose thats about all the update business i have for today. its raining, im studying and not spending
money as per usual...and yup.
xoxo
June 29th, 2009
long time no type, i know. here is the much awaited update on my life (for my mom since i think
she's the only person who reads this lol)
Went to Lake Biwa on friday (the north end since the south end is dirty)with Bryan, our fantastic friend
Satoshi drove us, and we spent the whole afternoon lying in the sun, swimming, lying in the sun...sooo good.
it was so peaceful and quite it reminded me of home and it was soooo nice to get
away from the city!
Friday Bryan returned home to Canada and i took the day off school so i could see him off.
much sadness on that note, not to mention my PTSD has been going batshit crazy. ugh. this is the
first time i have lived completely alone, without any roommate of any kind. its intimidating, moreso
to be doing it in a foreign country where all my friends live kind of far away (throughout Kyoto)
but i am feeling pretty positive that I will make the best of it and that it
will be a very good growing experience. so we'll see. :)
Hung out with my Korean friend Jongman on Saturday. we were supposed to study all day but
ended up cooking, studying for about an hour and then drinking wine and having an absolutely
hilarious time laughing, singing and telling stories. Even better, we talked the whole time in
ONLY Japanese since that was the only language we had in common:) so cool! also i am kind of counting
it as studying since it was speaking and listening practice. im amazed at how much we were capable of talking
about, it was a nice suprise to see all my studying paying off.
speaking of studying, did that ALL sunday and i think the test i wrote today went pretty well.
came home and got all my homework done and some emails sent, things updated and tidied and i
have some kanji's to study for a quiz i missed on friday.
other than that...not too much else to report but i am hoping to update this thing more frequently
now that i am sure to have more time on my hands now that i am minus 1 Bryan.
xoxo
PS. currently listening to the rain outside, rob thomas on compsterd and i found a new
freckle that i have named "Titus". that is all.
June 24th, 2009
Good morning.
It is Wednesday. week is halfway done. which i would normally be really excited for except this
time it means its almost time for Bryan to make his temporary return trip to Canada :( Not very cool
business. While he is gone i've been entrusted with the duty of finding us somewhere to live...which
would be much easier if 1) the person who hired him would be in the office and answer the phone 2) GEOS
would act as a guarentor for housing (which they won't do unless you live in their overpriced housing
where i am not allowed to live with Bryan) 3) we had the address of where he was going to be working. Ugh.
Nothing ever goes the easy way
On a brighter note, going to see the new transformers movie :) promises to have Japanese subtitles through
the whole thing. i am rather looking forward to it :)
Got 95% on the test i wrote on Monday...not so pleased with the mark. Since i have become a supreme nerd
who stay home and spends no money and only studies i have set my standards at minimum 95, preferabley higher than that...
i'm aiming for min. 97 on the next one. (ohmygosh i am such a nerd) o.O
Today is also pay rent day. hurray. get to argue with them about not charging us for two people when there
is only one of us staying there. funfun.
well time for me to head off to school,
xoxo
June 22nd, 2009
Happy Father's Day Dad :)
quick update before i head off to school...its raining like crazy and sleeping last night was
such a joke. sooo humid (94%), torrential downpour rain (just the rain i could hand), noisy outside
and too hot inside. ugh. test this morning. hurray.
Bryan is off to make sure we can book his flight (or he will be off once he wakes up...its really
early here atm) and fingers crossed that the price they told us before is still the one we will get
before we don't have enough cash for much else :P though i will take some more out today.
Weekend was successful as far as studying and relaxing goes. good enjoyment and fantastic weather :)
will type more when time allows, sorry i didn't get back to anyone by email. mind kind of blanks
out after so much studying
xoxo and much love to the family and my kitties :)
June 20th, 2009
the studying never ends. its ridiculous. on average i think my studying has increased beyound
2+ hours outside of regular class time. on the upside, it is having a very obvious pro effect on my
test marks. on the downside... i have no life. i stay home and study and don't spend any money.
alas. really looking forward to spending a couple months in himeji where i can relax, study at my
leisure and explore a town that another UVic student compares to Victoria. He said there are more
open spaces and its less crowded and this all sounds fantastic compared to living in one of the worlds
largest urbanized sprawls. Kansai...is ridiculous.
Watched an epic 4 hours of movie last night. Parts 1 and 2 of Mesrine. HIGHLY recommend it. very intense
movie and definitely worth the effort of downloading and searching for subtitles. its based on the life
of Public Enemy Number 1 Jaques Mesrine. Movie is in french and sometimes the subtitles are perfect (as
the uber good french speaking Bryan was able to put out) but all-round a great movie :)
side note, i will try to get everyones emails sent back to them this weekend. in the meantime...blog updates
since they are faster lol.
oh another fun tidbit. Went to try and book Bryan's flight today and all of the travel agencies we were
familiar with were charging around $2,000 + for a round trip to Vancouver and back. giant 'wtf' thoughts
that resulted in a lot of stress and 'where are earth are we going to get that kind of money' talking.
then while bryan was adventuring in the kitchen i went flight hunting once more and by using japan's available
travel agencies have been able to find a round trip for $1200 to $1000 =D major happiness. since the reservation places
are closed the travel agency will be getting back to us on monday to confirm that the seats are available
at the right price etc and if they aren't trying to find a similar deal. hurray. good news :D super stoked
and i have been crowned super-girlfriend. super relieved to find more 'afforadable' airfare
also...bryan shall be away for a month and i will likely still be stuck paying for double occupancy on our rented
room. SOOO. anyone want to come visit Japan for a while? accomodation is free...also probably
all of the food too :) I am specifically directing this message to dear sister Brittany. visit me. lovelove.
much love to the fam and my fur babies back home :)
xoxo
June 17th, 2009
Wednesday. the week is halfway through which means its just that much closer to me being able to get
a good nights sleep. Got 99% on the test i wrote on monday so im pretty pleased with that. silly
mistake that kept me from getting 100% but alas. studying crazy amounts on the Japanese front.
Look like a friend of mine might be able to help bryan and i find a place to live in himeji :)
that plan is this: at the end of july when bryan come back to kyoto we will move to himeji once my
classes are done and i'll live there with him for aug and sept since my classes dont start until
the VERY end of sept. at the end of sept i will move back to kyoto for my semester (we'll visit every
weekend, or almost every weekend) and then when my classes end at the end of january i will move back
to himeji :) it will suck to be living apart again but im confident that we can handle it since we've
made it through longer times than this before. plus we can visit lots since himeji is only 90 minutes
away. apparently himeji is closer to the size of victoria and there are more rural food producing areas
outside of the city. that should be a nice break since kyoto is part of kansai which is one of the biggest
continuous (sp?) urban sprawls in the world -_-...i prefer my village back home.
might have another audition lined up...going to talk to the lady on the phone tonight :)
not too much to report other than that...short little update i suppose. thats what happens when i update
during the week. having no money to spare bryan and i never go out and do anything. we stay in...and watch moives
and i study. woohoo
oh. i lie. we did do something last night, one of our new friends is this awesome Japanese guy who speaks
fantastic english. His name is Satoshi and he treated us to 'ominomiyaki' last night. code word for Japanese
pizza which is made of japanese flour, water, potato, a bit of ginger, cabbage and whatever toppings you want included
and its made kind of like a fried omelet and then there is sauce on top with seaweed flakes. its absolutely
fantastic and i definitely want to learn how to make it :) sooooo yummy! and vegetarian! hurray. We're hoping
to all go to Lake Biwa (a clean, ginormous lake that you can swim in) sometime next week if the weather
is good :) would be awesome if we can.
Muhammed (the aforementioned friend who is helping bryan and i find a place in himeji and is also from UVic)
and i are going to try and make a trip to himeji to house hunt while bryan is in canada. he knows a family there
who he homestayed with way back in the day and apparently they love him to death and call him their 'secound son'.
They are well off and own a hotel and such things so when we go we'll get to stay in their hotel, i'll get to meet
them and make some good connections and we can hopefully check out places where bryan and i can live:) I'm really
looking forward to it. this family has lived in himeji for over 30 years and no EVERYTHING about it and muhammed
said they are incredibly nice people so yey :)
hmmm this turned out to be longer after all.
xoxo
June 14th, 2009
So just realized that I accidently deleted a bunch of Japan parade pictures off of my camera without
uploading them to my computer. major oops. so much for all those pictures i have been saying i would
upload. alas. there will be other parades and i can always see the same one next year if i want. or just
look at picture from it on the internet.
yesterday was absolutely fantastic. Bryan and I decided to stay in a have a bit of a movie marathon
supplemented by drinking...all day. we started in the afternoon. fantastic day :) Very funny documentary
movie that we watched was called "A Complete History of My Sexual Failures". I would recommend it.
Not too much to update but I thought it would be nice to update two days in a row since it seems as
though i mainly have time to update on weekends.
crazy amounts of studying to do today. probably all I will do today aside from sleeping. perhaps i will
embellish the day with a little nap. but probs not...would make it too hard to get to bed early and start
another 5 days straight of 6am wakeups. Still though...it is good to get as much sleep as i can on the
weekend since i certainly dont get enough during the week.
weather is supposed to be nice today...but its rather dark out so we shall see. it is 25 degrees out already.
nice.
Will try and rummage up some more photos :)
xoxo
PS. just realized that I can not remember if i last updated my blog yesterday or on friday so im
not sure if i have the right date for the previous entries...possibly supposed to be the 13th...hmmm
June 12th, 2009
ok. i have been informed that i have not been updating my blog frequently enough. my apoligies!
now for the news you've all been waiting for:
June 7th, 2009
Good Morning,
Yesterday was a rather fantastic day. Made a new friend who can speak really good english but has
dedicated herself to helping me improve my japanese which is awesome :) she is also REALLY open minded
and really great to talk to. We even got to talking about what my honours thesis is going to be on
and that is definitely something that I do far havent been able to talk to many japanese people about
(the GLBT community in Japan). I also got ridiculously sunburnt yesterday on my arms and shoulders.
I will most definitely be having a very painful shower this morning and the skin is sure to peel off
in a grossly unattractive way.
Also Bryan and I went to a party that a group from my school put together. It was a 'Flu Party'
and lots of people dressed up in different costumes as different animals flus. it was very cute
and a great party idea i think. met lots of new people, talked in english and in japanese. it was
really a lot of fun :) even got to bed at a good time last night
i have discovered that my mon-fri routine of waking up at 6am every morning is drastically impacting
my ability to sleep in on weekends. -_- i am displeased by this even if it is convenient not to be
sleeping until 12....but it feel sooo good to get that much sleep. Bryan has informed me that i am
'growing up' lol. alas. whatever shall i do.
Today looks to be another super sunny day so i am intending to spend a large majority of it outside
like i did yesterday. as usual my scheduled tutoring students have asked to reschedule, all except one
who i met with yesterday and who gave me a present on top of what she normally pays me. it was cute. :)
also planning to do lots of studying today since i have another big test tomorrow. I've spent the past
few days reviewing stuff i've already learned and been tested on to help keep it in my head, build
from a solid foundation and such things, and today im going to tackle the newer stuff that i'll be
tested on tomorrow.
I suppose that is all the updates i have for now. Bryan and I are planning to watch a swedish vampire
movie tonight. it promises to be good so i'm looking forward to that :)
xoxo
June 5th, 2009
Whoa, its June. Weather update for today: it's raining. Japan is about to enter into their month long
rainy season where there are TONS of thunderstorms and everything is hot and rainy and humid and people
get sticky. sounds kind of ew...but i do love thunderstorms and warm rain. i'm rather looking forward to the
experience
Didn't get the modeling job i auditioned for. They decided that they wanted a brunette..and I am rather not brunette.
it works out rather well though because my work clearence still hasnt come through so i would be
majorly freaking out if i didn't have that and yet had booked a job. since i would have to cancel the job...
and then the agency would drop me :O so it works out quite nicely :) i got the experience which is what i needed.
i'm putting in some major effort into meeting more japanese people and making friends with people who will
speak to me in Japanese. My friends who are foreigners tend to speak with me in English so its not much help.
I'm attended an extra class in my spare block on thursday and am meeting new people that way. also making new friends
through online classifieds (don't worry mom, i'm being safe :P lol)
Tutoring tonight and tomorrow and hopefully sunday. if i do tutor three times it will a good amount of grocery
money that will help bryan and i get through the next week. oh the life of the starving student. i don't know
if i ever really appreciated that phrase until now.
Well it is most definitely time for me to head off to school (gotta take the train since biking in the rain
will leave me very unfortunately drenched and then i have to sit in class for 3 hours and freeze since
they always turn on the air conditioning.
xoxo
May 28th, 2009
Warm but rather overcast day. Not sure why i've been starting my blogs recently with updates about the weather.
Not too much to report. The date for the modeling audition got change to Friday so I'm going to that tomorrow
and I have lots of tutoring this weekend. Posted the tutoring ads at the International House so hopefully
I get some more student from that. Would like to be tutoring about 5 hours a week. Would still leave me
lots of time for school but I would also have enough money to buy decent groceries. Well maybe not decent groceries...
but food.
Ordered protein via the internets so I'm looking forward to that arriving. it's wwaaayyy cheaper than buying
it here. we're getting roughly 3 times as much for what we paid for our last bag. The shipping is ridiculous...but even
so, shipping included its still more protein for the same amount of money. Got chocolate flavoured this time. I am
oddly excited for it to arrive :) It's like healthy christmas presents...that i bought myself :P
School went back in today. They are going to take an extra week onto the school year to make up for the
week that we missed. Not a full week...we were only out of class for 4 days. but still. It doesn't make that much difference
though since I don't participate in the scheduled exam period (because i'm taking language classes and my electives
all have final papers and not exams) my semester ends around the same time anyways.
I suppose that is all for now.
xoxo
May 26th, 2009
Sunny sunny day :) how nice.
Went computer hunting yesterday to find Bryan a cheap laptop...but the plan sort of failed when we
discovered that to get a completely old crappy laptop here costs more than it does back home. It's actually
way more cost effective (efficient?) to get a new laptop. ugh. ridiculous. Today we're going to go buy
the dollar store and also try to return the japanese lan card that we bought yesterday (for a laptop that turned
out to be WAY more than we thought...so we didnt end up buying it), so hopefully they let us return it
and my broken japanese will get us through the ordeal. lol. Also going down to the international community
house to post another tutoring ad. I think Bryan is going to post one too.
Got some good news about getting Bryan's official original graduation paper over to Japan so that should be
in the works as soon as we send off the credit card info so they can charge us for the courier costs.
Got lots of studying done yesterday and the day before and will probs do more today. Modeling audition tomorrow
so that should be interesting. depending on the time frame i might wander around Osaka for a while and
check out their super duper electronic shopping district, see if there are any sweet deals for Bryan. He might
come along too.
Thats about it i suppose
xoxo
May 23rd, 2009
Righteo, updates:
Swine flu has closed the school for about a week. Wondering how this will affect the rest of the semester
but also rather pleased because it means that I can sleep and catch up on my studying. Also it frees up
my schedule for some upcoming modeling auditions :) I will update on those once I know how they went.
Tutoring is pretty sweet and an enjoyably easy way to make money.
Turns out Bryan's Visa business is going to take about a month longer than expected. This news is somewhat
bitter sweet. On the upside it means that we can live together for a while longer and we will spend a little
longer in Japan. The major downside is that we will run out of money about a month and a bit before there is any
serious money coming in. I currently have no idea where the necessary money is going to come from. We'll have dried
up my student loan money and my tuition for the following semester...which is a huge deal since none of that money
was supposed to be touched. There's always the line of credit that i took out before i left, and my visa has a decent
limit on it. but i hate spending money that i dont have and sinking farther into debt than i already am. and its
not even fun like 'sweet i have money and im spending it' its more along the lines of 'i am living as frugally
as humanly possible' whilst spending my imaginary money.
there is an upside though. the money were spending is more of an investment because we are sure to at the
very least break even by the time we head back to canada, including paying for my tuition and paying back
the loan money that we've already spent and will spent. so thats pretty sweet:) also including our airfare home.
fingers crossed anyways. also all donations are excepted (christmas mom and dad? lol jkjk...but if anyone
wins the lottery, please hook me up :P)
So while i am gaining some unfortunate new experiences with the world of financial woe, being here and going to
school is still super positive and a major investment in my degree and the quality of jobs I will be able to get in
the future. Plus i am hoping that while i am here I will be able to meet some people who can later on help me
with my case studies for my honours thesis which will look at some aspect of gender and most likely the GLBT community
in Japan :) So yey for good things.
Another fun note: Bryan and I celebrated him getting a job by drinking and absolutely phenomenal bottle
of wine =D and we have also watched some fantastic movies recently :) AND we've started running together
in the evenings (Bryan did it before, now I'm joining...albeit at a slower pace), and I am finding that really
enjoyable :) puts me in a feel good mood :D major smilies in this blog entry.
one final note: I shall be posting some new pictures soon, so keep an eye out for those.
xoxo
May 17th, 2009
Ahh, long time no update. It has been intensely busy and crazy but here are the results:
May 9th, 2009
Absolutely Fantastically sunny day out today! soo nice. definitely crispily (crisp-ill-E) sunburnt
and loving the chance to be outside all day. Bryan and i went on an adventure to the imperial palace
which appeared to be closed? im not sure. we just hung out in the park area and took a bunch of pictures
and did some lazy reading :) Got mad amounts of vegetables and dragged them all the way home and eventually
one of us will get up the energy to make dinner. being sun tired is awesome. would possibly be awesomer if i
had a servant to fetch me my food so bryan and i could lounge...maybe nap...mmmmm naps.
Went to Zem21 model management yesterday and they signed me up as one of thier registered models
so that was neat. i have another agency interview on monday with FUM model management and another tentative
one to set up for later in the week as well. just have to get around to filling out their paperwork. also
have to fill out some more paperwork for the school so i can work on my student visa. whoot.
weather is supposed to keep being phenomenal for the next few days and i most definitely intend on soaking
up as much sun as possible! it's gonna be good
xoxo
May 7th, 2009
Photo page is updated with lots of photos from Golden Week. Click Here to take a look :)
May 7th, 2009
Totally, completely, 100% drenched to the core from biking to and from school in the torrential
downpour that is Kyoto today. Had fun doing it though, figured as long as i was going to be soaked,
i might as well go through all the biggest puddles, throw my legs out to the side and say "Weeee!"
Drenched-ness aside, finished off Golden Week with a lot of studying, some adventuring with a girl from the
states who was visiting from South Korea (where she is teaching). Also reading a lot of Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation
Trilogy' and watching a large amount of Starcraft on GomTV.net :) its been a very fulfilling past week.
supposedly its supposed to get up to 28 degree this weekend! that will be so incredibly awesome =D
Was supposed to have my first tutoring session with a girl today (me teaching her english) but schedules didn't
work out so we have to reschedule. Tomorrow I am going to Osaka to interview with a modelling agency so i
am thinking i will adventure about the city a little bit while i am there.
Not much to update about other than that. Abigail is sadly no more but it was good knowing her, and
i have more homework to do (as always).
xoxo
PS. Hoping to get some new pictures up from Golden Week asap :)
May 2nd, 2009
Starting to feel so much better already! my face no longer feels as though i have been hit by a truck,
the swelling in it has gone down and i can breath a lot better.
today Bryan and i went to visit the Yasaka Shrine. Amazingly sunny beautiful and crazy hot day today!
hurray for summer weather! (26 degrees!) The park/shrine area was very pretty and asthetically pleasing
but the best part of the day by far was the Peace Rally we stumbled upon. We decided to go in and find
seats in the ridiculously (def over a thousand people) packed amphitheater and listened to a singer/piano group
and a speaker :) we didn't stay for the whole thing because there was no where to hide from the sun and i was
getting quite toasty, also i could only pick up about 1/3 of what they were talking about. The rally was to protect
the constitution and in particular Article 9, the article that prevents Japan from amassing a war capable army.
it seems as though (and some of this i learned in class back home) there are a handful of main views on this topic:
May 1st, 2009
Successful adventure to the dr. to get drugs to fix my face. oh but what an adventure it was:
after staying up all last night and not being able to sleep because of the excruciating pain in my
face I did some research and discovered some possible causes...all of which meant i needed to go to a dr.
sooo i emailed nurse mom to pick her brain about my symptoms. she concurred with the internet and said i
should most definitely go to a dr because i probably had a sinus infection as a result of the 2+ week cold i
battled. oh yey. only me. i go to a foreign country, get a ridiculous cold and then for the first time in my
memory (excluding anything that happened when i was too young to remember it) get a sinus infection. hurray. and ow.
but it gets better. not only do i get this infection thing before i have learned sufficient japanese to see any random
dr, i also do it on golden week. when the school is closed and there is no one i can drag along to assist me. perfect.
so i googled some clinics that were supposed to have dr's that could speak english and headed out on my bicycle on a lovely
warm and sunny 25 degree day :) an hour later i have failed to locate the clinic and resort to going to the far away
clinic by the school, which i was guessing would be open even if the school was closed because there website didn't say otherwise...
and i hadn't gone there first because it was twice as far as the other clinic. alas. i get there and it is closed. thankfully
i met my favourite person of the day. her name is Lindsay and she totally saved my ass. first she walked with me
to an atm that would accept my visa card so i could withdrawl some monies, then she gave me super great and simple directions
to the nearest hospital, which is all that was open, and told me to come get her if i had any problems. yey progress!
so i get to the hospital...try to talk in broken Japanese to the clerk to explain whats wrong and then i meet
my secound favourite person of the day! She is this super nice nurse who speaks amazing english and all but held my hand
through out the rest of my experience. she translated everything, talked to me about nice things, explained the stuff
the dr said that i didn't grasp (to my credit i did understand a spattering) and then afterwords walked me across the street
to go get my prescriptions and hurray. she is amazing and so nice :) Turns out she worked as a surgery and trauma nurse in the U.K
and the states for a long time. Definitely made my day so much better.
fun stuff that happened during my examination: I got to see up my nose and into my sinuses! the dr (who wore one
of those old school dr hats with that metallic shiny circle on it) had this fiberoptic camera thing that was all bendy, and it
was hooked up to a small tv and he explored about my maxillary sinus's and discovered and fun abscess in the right one
that was causing all that pain. I have named her Abigail :) He gave me lots of drugs to get rid of her :) (sorry abigail)
also learned from my mom that apparently an abscess is worse than just a sinus infection. oh good :P
April 30th, 2009
Ahh, a sunny thursday and its the secound day of Golden Week. What is this shiny week you might be pondering
to yourself? Well, its around three holidays that all land within the same week...so its called golden week
and school is closed from wed-wed :D its awesome. yesterday i didn't do too much. slept, dawdled around, watched movies..
but today i went on an epic adventure and climbed a mountain at the Inari Shrine! twas awesome.
phenomenal view of Kyoto, Bryan and i went and made some pit stops to read along the way. We made it around the
WHOLE TRACK. which is like two hours of hiking. also its predominantly stairs one is hiking up which is somewhat brutal.
its a sweet shrine though. it has over 10,000 of those orange legged black topped gate things :) magical stuff.
Also important tidbit that i forgot to mention last update, in Nishinomia I saw and incredible black Mazerati. I can now die
happy :)
I've watched some pretty sweet movies on comp-sterd as of late, including: Vicky Christina Barcelona,
Monsters VS. Aliens and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The first movie is awesome, its a woody allen movie, which
might mean something to some people but i havent seen one of his films before. i quite enjoyed it, especially the
way it open-mindedly explored different kinds of relationships and people. very pro. Monsters Vs. Aliens is adorable
and hilarious and great to watch if you're looking for something like and fun :) (insectasaurus is my favourite dude ever!).
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is a Chan Woo Park film and it is a masterpiece. It's the third movie in his vengeance series (following
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (which i have yet to see) and Old Boy (phenomenal)). The movie was fantastic. Visually it was stunning
and the way it explored the dark side of human nature and what human beings are capable of was impeccable. Similar to 'Old Boy'
the violence was rather intense and the film definitely leaves you feeling somewhat trainstruck by the end of it...but in a good way.
Amazing director. Can't wait to watch 'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance' once i've finished digesting the one i just saw. The films are dark,
intensely realistic and still with moments of humour.
Finally got around to posting an ad at the international community centre for tutoring which is good. Also, after being asked to
model for the school's brochure and it going pretty well i decided to look into foreign modelling while i'm here. I've had a couple positive
responses, one from an agency in Tokyo, which is much to far, and another from a place in Osaka which I am going to interview at next week.
From what i understand, it's free to register with them and then they notify you of job offers and you get paid your share if you are chosen
after each job interview and they get a booking fee from the person who hires me. i think. we shall see, im sure i'll get all my questions
answered once i get there.
Got a ridiculous amount of homework from my teachers the day before Golden Week started...about 3 hours worth. I think i am about 60% done since
i got just over 1.5 hours of it done tonight.
on a not so great note, starting last night and raging on throughout today i have the most wicked upper right jaw ache spanning
all my back top mollars. its absolutely brutal and i've had a raging headache all day. not cool. it feels like i've been punched
in the right side of my face. I am thinking it may be from clenching my jaw unconciously for the duration of the movie
last night...and then possible grinding my teeth and sleeping on my right side? i'm hoping it feels better sometime tomorrow and is
not some stupid problem that will cost me money to see dr's to fix. that would be unfortunate.
Well, this update is somewhat ridiculously long so i shall leave it at that
xoxo
PS. Extra Happy Birthday To Britt :)
April 25th, 2009
Rain, rain and more rain. Currently experiencing a Saturday of torrential downpour rain, but i really
don't mind it since its still quite warm out :) Plus i have a wicked cold that i haven't been able to
shake so its not like i can do much anyways :P
Went to Nishinomia (possibly spelt that wrong), its in between Kobe and Osaka, because Bryan had a job
interview and it is a very nice place:) its still very packed, but there just enough of a population drop
that things seem to move at a generally slower pace. the air is cleaner and overall it was a very cute
place to spend an afternoon. tons of dogs at the park and we got into a conversation with a really nice
japanese guy who spoke english about nothing in particular. it was kind of funny, i tried talking to him
in what japanese i know but you could tell he wanted me to speak english so he could practice his own.
from what i gathered from Bryan the interview went well but the guy was pretty emotionless and impossible to
read so he has no idea whether he got the job or not. its a little less money than desired and they wont have
an answer for him for a couple weeks so we'll see.
Planning on getting a lot of studying done this week since i have a semi large japanese test on monday
but i think i should do pretty well as long as i take my time and dont make a bunch of stupid little
mistakes like i did on the last one
interesting tidbit: people absolutely LOVE weiner dogs here! ive seen more weiner dogs since i got here
than i have in all of my life combined. its cute, they are so low riding :) makes me think of that Low Rider song
by War.
I had some more stuff to type i think but i seem to have forgotten it since i've been trying to multitask
and msn while writing this. perhaps i will just post it some other time this weekend if i ever remember.
xoxo
April 22st, 2009
Witnessed a mad Japanese police chase on my way home from school. super intense. let me tell you...
All surround traffic completely stopped and semi-pulled over, police car comes through lights blazing
sirens wailing and its almost hard to see what it could possibly be pursuing. Then i spotted it.
A mophead...going about 40km/hour...with two people on its one seat (it is indeed illegal to double
up on mopheads and bicycles since they only have one seat). the police car was following noisily behind,
occassionally moving up alongside the mophead to tell it to pull over...and the driver completely ignored him
while the girl on the back occassionally looked back dramatically. it was intense. just like in the movies :P
my life is now complete.
in other news: was involved in a bicycle hit and run the other day. while sitting on my bicycle waiting
to cross the street to go over to the school another bicycle whizzed past me. and completely nailed my left
arm with its handlebars. the guy just kept going. didnt stop, no apologies. and space be damned it really fricken hurt.
so sported a sexy red welt on my arm for a couple days and now its still sore to the touch. damn him. if i ever
find him i will beat him dedicatedly with the handle bars of my bicycle...grrr...
on a lighter note. learned neat things about gift giving in japan. it is intense. and generally involves
semi-large amounts of money. remind me not to give any one gifts or ever do anything where it might be expected
that i give someone a gift. yikes.
also had my first sighting of a couple showing an ever so taboo 'public display of affection'. they were cuddling
and holding hands and kissing along the banks of the river. all old people who passed them scowled in their direction
thoroughly.
I'm going to be modelling for Doshisha's ad campaign book that they send out to all the school. i do it for free and get to be
the token white girl in print millions of times. hurray. also kind of odd.
almost the weekend. hurray except that i have so many things to get done such as...post a tutoring ad at the
community centre, pay rent, pick up my alien registration and pay doshisha some ridiculous school fee that i
shouldnt have to pay because i pay all my fees to uvic...perhaps i will boycott it and avoid it as
long as possible...hmmm good plan.
xoxo
April 21st, 2009
I learned several new things biking to and from school today and they are the following:
April 19th, 2009
Another beautiful day :) Spent the afternoon reading by the river after making an amazing brunch for
Bryan and I :) Then we came back and both got lots of laundry done which is hanging up drying. Going
to get some studying done before to long and Bryan is studying poker stuff and applying for jobs.
good times good times. all in all a very nice relaxing weekend and im looking forward to the week ahead :)
Saw two newts sunning themselves in the walkway up to the entrance of our building, they're pretty sweet
rather newt-ish :)
Hoping to get out to see the golden pavilion (Kinkakuji Temple) sometime this week. we're supposed to have
20+degree weather and rain for a couple of days so not sure when that will happen and I'm hoping to
get up to Sapparo in February to see their Winter Festival. I was reading about it and apparently they have
ice sculptures and its a really big event :) Would be nice to experience, but we'll see how school is
and if there is a break that is timed so that Bryan and I could go up and see it
xoxo
April 18th, 2009 PM
New photos are up:) Click Here
to check out photos of Bryan and I spending a day reading by the river :)
April 18th, 2009 AM
Ahh time to list the updates:
April 14th, 2009
Ahhh. Update time. It gets harder to update as things become busier and classes are now in full
swing. that and the fact that I was so disgustingly hungover on sunday from a very fun saturday
that i couldn't move let alone type. ahhh Japan. you and your karaoke madness never cease to amaze
and inebriate me.
today is the secound rainy day since i got here. its about 20+ degree and rainy. its crazy. i could
be out in the rain in a tshirt and shorts and be warm enough. this combination of grand warmth and
rain makes anywhere not outside crazy humid...and even outside is crazy humid...which makes my
hair generally crazy...but oh well. i will take warm-feels like it would thunder storm-rain over
cold-penetrates you to your core and leaves your shivering-rain any time :) the rest of the week
promises to be as great as last week! tons of sun! amazing. PLUS MY BIRTHDAY IS ON FRIDAY!
exciting business and the planning is underway. i think i will celebrate on friday. have a potluck-style
gathering at mine and bryan's place, then head downtown to a nomihodai, then have some karaoke madness!
or possible clubbing if we can find one that isn't crazy expensive. but more likely is the karaoke madness.
also fun karaoke tidbit: you can get a karaoke-nomihodai combination! for a little more money you get
to drink and much as you want AND sing as much as you want (pay per hour). its fantastic.
on a less fun note. tons of homework and studying to get done. but i am feeling better about it now that
i have a better idea of what my classes will entail and how heavy my course load will be. most of my elective
classes have very few assignments so i'll have time to study every day with the occassional crazy week
of having a paper due and studying.
Oh, also Happy Belated Easter to everyone. it was hard to send out an email for the exact day because
of the time difference, but thanks to all for the easter wishes and the awesome emails from my family
keeping me updated.
I am homesick for my kitties. meow. also i am homesick for the variety of foods you can eat back home. Back home
there are all sorts of varieties of ethnic restaurants and sections in the grocery store. Here...there is not. alas
peace out yo. xoxo
PS. Photos added to the Photos Pages.
April 11th, 2009
Fantastic amounts of sun and school have prevented me from giving updates to my adoring fans (which
consist of...my mom). Weather has been above 20 degree celcius ALL WEEK! Also the fantastic discovery
of 'nomihodai's' have been made. which translates into: ALL YOU CAN DRINK. you pay 1,000 yen ($10ish dollars
CAD) and you get to drink as much as you want for an hour. All yummy chick drinks :) its brilliant.
there are also tabehodai's...which are all you can eat. havent gone to one yet since im not sure what
the veggie options are.
school is so far going well albeit ridiculously easy. biking to and from school saves me money and is a
nice way to get excercise since im biking along the river (30 minutes each way). the only downside
is depending on the time of day you get attacked by swarming tornado clouds of tiny nearly invisible
little bug fly things! they get EVERYWHERE! its so gross. eyes, mouth, nose. horrible. you need
those ridiculous looking eyes goggles to get anywhere.
spent the whole afternoon out in the sun along the river and made some neat discoveries:
April 7th, 2009
ahh another warm wonderingfull sunny day. and how did i spend my evening? enjoying the gems of the 90's
with bryan. including a charming match of early 90's WWF (wrestling) between Yokozuma and the undertaker.
you should probably watch and enjoy the essence of north american culture by watching this clip.
if you do watch it, be sure to watch it through to the very end as the last couple minutes are by far the best part.
also i highly recommend getting a good dose of Clone High. that show is amazing. as is undergrades. Also...so is
metalocalypse, but tragically the 3rd season is not out yet. how sad.
Got lots of important stuff done today like registering for health insurance! hurray. also i bought a bicycle. i have yet to name
it and am taking name suggestions. it is silver and rather old school looking (like most bikes in Japan).
also learned some neat culture things and that kyoto gets ridiculously hot in the summer and (this next tidbit is thanks to my mom)
Kyoto is closer to the equator than Victoria or Vancouver and will get weather more like Las Vegas. Considering Vegas
is always sunny on tv i am pretty pleased. The helper students i was with today told me that because Kyoto is in a valley,
the heat gets pretty brutal in the summer. im stoked. as for cultural things learned today: my tattoo is considered quite attractive,
but only because i'm white. if it was on a japanese person it would be like saying "look at me, im mean, dont come near me, im a gangster"
and not like the Victoria gangsters who are just kids in oversized clothes who look ridiculous and in no way intimidating...i mean the real kind (with tattoos). :P
also apparently japanese people don't get sunburned. as i continued to burn today (since i have yet to find sunscreen and its
too hot to wear long sleeves) the students i was with became quite concerned and suggested i go to the hospital because i was
"turning red badly". I informed them of my pasty nature that involves a yearly cycle of burning, peeling and fading back to paste
in a super attractice fashion and they are intrigued.
also...people dont hug here.
classes start tomorrow...that should be interesting. hopefully its not crazy overwhelming. tomorrow is my busiest day and i will def
have to buy snacks on the way to school to get me through the day lest i faint from heat and malnourishment.
April 6th, 2009
10 days until my birthday! exciting business. also today was an incredibly beautiful day! got hours of sunshine
and spent a good amount of time outdoors pumping up my vitamin D stocks :) also my sunburn from last week is
peeling (ew) and i got a little extra burn wandering around today. alas. i am so white.
got lots done today at the school and am in the habit of waking up early mon-fri so thats good. i have
better sleeping hours hear in japan (so far at least) than i ever did back home. so hurray?
anyways, got lots of paperwork done, still have a handful of things to get done tomorrow (set up a bank
account, set up health insurance, buy a bicycle, etc.) but after that i should be pretty much done :)
funny experience of the day, since the new school year is starting up there are TONS of students trying to get
other students to join there clubs, but because im an exchange student i get pretty much ignored (fine by me:)
but as i was walking with a new friendish, 5 secounds after we both commented on this very situation, a guy approaches
us to ask us to join his calligraphy club. all well and good, a normal interaction, until as we ready outselves
to leave he reaches up and runs his fingers through my hair...supposedly because it is blonde-ish? omg it was hilarious.
as soon as i got a good distance between us i burst out laughing. he was so shy about it too! funny stuff.
reminds me of the other guy who stopped me on the way to the train station to practice his english on me and 'welcome
me to kyoto'. 10 minutes later i managed to escape the conversation and have a good laugh :)
other than that i suppose not too much going on. weather is supposed to be in the low 20s all week so i am
thinking that is rather fantastic providing i don't just burst into flames and burn to a crisp. i am starting
to wonder if there is a special hole in the ozone that follows me around to make sure i get extra crispy. perhaps.
also sidenote: while the streets of kyoto are really clean, the air is really polluted! it makes sense taking into account
the density and size of the city...but its still unpleasent to breath. also it prevents true sun brightness at certain points in
the day...i think. you can see the pollution if you look around the city from certain angles. smoggish. gross. cherrie blossoms
are pretty though
suppose its time to head to bed now. though i do want to give special mention to my sister Debbie, who sent me the most
hilarious amazing email today that i literally Laughed Out Loud. it was fantastic! kudos to her randomosity, and thanks to
everyone at home taking care of my kitties :)
xoxo
April 5th, 2009
soo...realized that i put the wrong date on the last post...so that is fixed :)
got a lot of stuff done yesterday. wen't into town with bryan and we FINALLY GOT BATH TOWELS!!! hurray
no more drying off with t-shirts and pajama bottoms:D finally i'm living the high life! also go a handful
of little odds and ends to make the day go buy a little easier, school stuff, things so we can hang up stuff on hangers,
more food...holy cow do we ever go through food fast. thinking about ordering some vitamins or getting
a care pack send to us to prevent becoming malnourished from not getting enough vitamins and other fun things
(since all vitamin rich foods here seem to be...for the rich. and are crazy expensive)...still, super excited
about getting a bath towel...from the dollar store (cost me $2!).
got a lot of cleaning and studying done today. got some laundry done...some of it is still air drying.
it was a beautiful day today, nice and warm. also i bought three cute little plants today :) i find myself
bothered by not having plants and/or pets living with me. i have nothing to tend to and no kitties to keep my feet
warm at night and pleasently love me providing i give them kibbles. i am homesick for my cats. mew. i miss them both.
not sure if i'm supposed to be at school for 9am tomorrow of it i don't need to go until my mandatory dr's appt.
i think i will go for 9 because worst case scenario is i have 4 hours to study and kill time before my appt. I can always
go adventuring and explore about.
well i should stop procrastinating studying by updating my blog. peace out yo
xoxo
April 3th, 2009
So just had the side thought that if someone is reading this blog, depending on the time of day that i've posted it and they're
reading it...it could still be april 3rd in BC. fun thought. interesting tidbit.
so yesterday was ridiculously unproductive. day 1 of having three days off in a row and i did absolutely nothing.
well thats not true i did catch up on the myriad of tv shows that i enjoy watching but haven't watched for about a
month or so. also watched jim cramer get his ass handed to him by jon stewart. amazing. and i did leave the house at around 730pm
for a brief trip to the grocery store. i hope to make up for yesterdays completely unproductive day by getting lots of things done today.
oh i also made an amazing mystery dinner last night. super crazy healthy using all the odds and ends we have for food around here. god food
is super expensive! its ridiculous. even rice is expensive in kyoto! that makes no sense! its japan, rice should be the cheapest thing
out there to by. ugh. oh well
will probs fill out my class registration today...do lots of studying and maybe even shop around for a bicycle. its possible.
in the meantime i have some fantastically unproductive tv show watching to do since i have apparently missed two episodes of heros.
oh life in japan. doing the same things i do to procrastinate over here as i did back in Canada.
i have decided this blog entry is crazy random since i have now decided to mention some of yesterday and todays musings. being that
i am stoked to be in the last half of doing my degree...wondering where i will do my masters. uvic seems like default since its close to
home and everything but australia and new zealand have a more developemnt pacific and asian studies program (since they're right next door)
so i'm really not sure. doing an honours bachelors at uvic basically sets me right up to doing my masters at uvic and i already know most of
the profs that are going to be the most help for me. i just have to decide whether they will be beneficial contacts for me to have once
i start looking for work and possible research grants? i'm also going to take some business classes because i think it would be a good thing for
me to do if i end up working for a company as their paci consultant or doing culture courses for big businesses that want to do business with asia.
also going to eventually work on french as my next language of choice because i'll need it if i want a job with the canadian government.
but we shall see, we shall see.
April 2nd, 2009
Crazy busy past couple of days. Yesterday I had a Japanese student who studies english try to help me get some of the
paperwork done that i needed to do. he spoke about as much english as i do japanese so it didnt go very well :S we got lost
trying to find the ward office so i could apply for my alien registration. first we went to the wrong office, then we took the
wrong bus to get to the right office, then we finally got to the right office and got my registration done but when it came to getting
my health insurance done there was some fiasco and reason that i couldn't comprehend as to why it couldnt be done. either because
my student didnt know what was supposed to happen or the guy who was supposed to be helping us didnt know what was supposed to happen...or both?
ugh. so we're supposed to go back next week but i have to get that sorted out because the student also said that i'm supposed to pay for everything up front
but i know that you dont have to pay for it up front and that they bill you monthly for it. so i have no idea whats going on with that.
on the brighter side, today was pretty awesome. got lots of questions answered and they paired us up with other english students who have done
the program before or started it 6 months ago and that was really helpful :) also the course registration was explained so i'm now registering for
all of my courses :) i think im going to completely fill my timetable and then drop if need be because after you've registered
you can't add or change classes you can only drop them. my class schedule is going to be pretty ridiculous but thursdays and fridays will
be easier days since i'll be done after about 12.
met some new peeps today and was social and making friends so that was cute. couple guys from sweden, a girl from new hampshire, a girl from the U.K.,
and a guy from New Zealand. fun stuff. I have three days off in a row now so i plan to milk that to do a bunch more studying and also
adventure about with bryan, help him find work and get some more odds and ends that we need to live.
mini rant for today: Japanese keyboards are so frustrating to get used to! they are slightly smaller than western keyboards
and the extra space they get from making the keys smaller is used to fit in even more keys so i spend half of my typing time backspacing and
fixing the mass amounts of typos i incur by typing on the keyboards and i keep accidently hitting the button that puts everything i type in japanese!
ahhh!
time to go fix dinner, xoxo
March 31st, 2009
ahh tuesdays. weather was less awesome this morning though the sun did come out this afternoon after i had holed myself up
for studying...which turned into some studying and some video/voice chatting to my family over the internet (heart). Still, I am
successfully cramming more and more back into my head. it appears that more information than I first thought has leaked out of my
brain, on the bright side...it is returning and i think i have a better understanding of it learning it for the secound time
than i did the first time around. its sticking better. hurray for that i suppose.
listening to a lot of other people talk and talking to them myself i have realized that a lot of other students are in the same
boat as i am (haven't taken courses for almost a year, out of practice, trying to study like crazy and stressed about the placement
test and the lack of english speaking ability amoung the teachers) so that is nice to know. the interview part of the placement
test that i had today was short and went much better than the written part yesterday so that was kind of nice. still got confused
about some of the questions but managed to distract them by talking about UVic's ridiculous amount of bunnies. although once i told
them there were a lot of bunnies they then asked me why there were so many bunnies...and i couldn't come up with a polite way to say
'because people abandom them there and the have unprotected bunny sex'...so i just kept repeated that i didn't know...yikes. oh well
hopefully i don't lose any points for that.
bryan did some serious adventuring today. Got some money changed and brought home some groceries...and little trash can and a present for me.
He picked me up a hilarious notebook that has the following english written on the cover:
"Whenever I hold onto all the words I want to utter, I hear them bursting into seeds."
AMAZING. i love engrish. :D its so great and hilarious. plus i totally needed a notebook to write in :)
well time for me to get back to studying, tomorrow i think i'm getting my alien registration card (or
at least applying for it) and getting a tour of the library and how to use its resources! exciting business.
xoxo
March 30th, 2009 PM
wow. what a crazy overwhelming day. had the first half of my placement test today and then mass amounts of orientation
along with a few hours to explore the campus. After being rather shocked by the extreme lack of English instruction given
during the orientation and on any of our hand outs I planted myself down on a bench to explore the course selection stuff
(mostly in Japanese) and happily discovered that all is not lost. that despite what we were told in orientation, there actually
are a lot of english courses for me to choose from and a lot of the classes sound really interesting. i'm a little worried
that i did poorly on my placement test since i'm only done catching up on 1 of the 2 classes i've taken at UVic in Japanese...
should be done studying the other one in a couple days. all in all, a crazy but fullfilling day. there was also so much warm sun
that i didn't have to wear a coat all day, and acheived a charmingly painful sunburn across my chest and exposed parts of my shoulders
(a price i am willing to pay for any weather warmer than victoria's)...also it was kind of odd since yesterday was rather cold and
super windy. hmmm. here are some observations from today:
March 30th, 2009 AM
FACIAL SPONGE HAS BEEN LOCATED!
did the paper signing with landlord guy. seems nice enough. is it wrong to have a prejudiced immediate
dislike for landlords? I think i do...I also think it may have to do with the fact that they take ridiculous
amounts of your money and it all goes into the black whole of rent payments. oh well. Bryan and I figured out
this brilliant sleeping arrangement that involves using one of our 'mattresses' that are supposed to go underneath
us on top of us. keep us SO MUCH WARMER. its a brilliant discovery. also its heavy enough that neither of us can
hog it in our sleep. very pleased with this developement.
Bryan has gone for a run and I am about to start studying again before I go to my orientation. Nervous about the
placement tests :S Havent really aquired much breakfast food yet so im eating a bunch of yogurt granola bars to get
me through the day. will probs stop off at a corner store for some yummy sweet pastries.
Heinously terrible tidbit that I left out in yesterdays update. topic: Babies on planes. oh.my.god. i have never in
my life felt so much hatred towards infants as i did towards the multiple crying babies that polluted the air around
me with their screams and odours constantly throughout a 10 hours flight. i contemplated numerous sollutions to this problem
including whether or not i would feel remorse at allowing one to crawl out the emergency exit on a plane. i decided that
i would, if only for the other passengers that would be vacuum sucked out as well. also concluded that this was a fair
price to pay for silence. terrible? yes. guiltily pleasent to think about? even more so. i am officially a firm believer that if you
cannot drug your irritating brat into a sleepy coma for the duration of any plane ride than they should not be allowed on the
plane or at the very least there should be a seperate soundproof area of the plane for such irritating beings.
it should not be assumed that everyone female has some maternal instinct that makes them understanding to the cries of a
helpless infant. nor should any one else who has of yet been smart enough to not bring their child on an airplane or has
chosen not to take part in their role as breeders have to suffer through such a heinous cacophany of sound.
ahhh. all things aside. i do believe i can now shall go on with my day :)
March 29th, 2009
Wow, first update from Japan on my fancy new blog. yey html's and internet. right then, here goes:
Bryan and I arrived in Japan after a ridiculous amount of flying on airplanes and then a little bit of
bussing to Kyoto Station...once at the station we wandered about until finally going into a hotel and
asking for directions to the bus stop so we could get to our guest house/hostel/accomadations and
I earned 10 pts for being able to ask for directions and understand the answer in Japanese! Hurray for
mass amounts of studying on the plan. So we got directions and then spent half an hour being completely
baffled and unable to get to THE OTHER SIDE of Kyoto station. it was somewhat ridiculous. Eventually we
both just gave up and got one of the bazillion taxis waiting around the station to take us to our abode
(5ish minute drive away).
So we get there and as it turns out the place is a dive. Way less appealing than in the bright shiny (pro
bably photoshopped pictures) so that was unfornate. Also the rooms are freezing and since they limit our
included heating and i'm not sure how much we are supposed to use or not use to stay within are limit we are using
it as little as possible...so oh dear. Eventually we got to sleep...only to wake up multiple times on
the uncomfortable beds with not enough blankets...
MORNING. Time to shower. oh wait, we both forgot towels...so that resulted in us each using an older shirt
as a towel. they're hanging up drying for tomorrow as i type;) Then we discovered we also were lacking in the
shampoo and toothpaste department. extra fun. plus i have already managed to lose or misplace my eye makeup
remover sponge from the body shop. Bryan things it was taken by one of the house people as a souvenir of our
of foreigner-ness. i am not pleased.
After the interesting antics of the morning we set off to adventure around kyoto. we succesffully: