Weekend!

Hey there, everyone!

So i'm just watching The Escape from Alcatraz in Japanese on TV... haha. It's cool when you know what they are saying, I mean, I don't know everything but I'm picking up on words and I kind of know what they are saying because I've seen the Movie a couple of times. Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery... Someone I should really know who they are, but they played the bad guy in National Treasure 2, I even have the movie here but I'm too lazy to figure out which one he is. Oh, which reminds me, I purposely left National Treasure 1 home for you, Nick! So use it wisely!

I had a cheesesteak tonight! Amazing, some of my friends and I decided to make this a Sunday night ritual, this was the second Sunday of doing this. Haha, we watched our favorite parts of Aladdin, the King of Thieves and then Watched the Emperor's New Groove.. hahaha, I LOVE David Spade. Just shoot me was one of my favorite TV Shows.

This past weekend was a slow one for me, I decided to take it easy, I went to a concert on Friday night, Muramasa, AMAZAZING! three bands, about three hours of concert and the craziest scene I've ever been apart of. They were all really good live it was very worth it. But my feet got soo bruised and I felt so sore that I just laid around like a bum, ate some PP&J, and watched scrubs... and get this... Twilight! hahahahhaa... I had the hugest urge to read some harry potter or Twilight and after I watched three harry potter movies I took a chance and searched ... Just so happens that SurftheChannel had it through MegaVideo.

And I just decided that Sean Connery loses some of his essence when you don't hear his accent, cause It's not like you have a Sean Connery accented Japanese person dubbing over the real Sean Connery...

Sorry mom, though, Seeing as I was a big bum, I didn't do laundry so I didn't do a picture/fashion show of the clothes I bought so far... nor did do any real work... But it felt sooo good! hahahahahaha. LOVE YOU! hahaha.

This week I have a day off on Tuesday, and it seems that tomorrow night, Monday, I'm going to stay out all night and in the morning go to the World Renowned Tsukiji Fish market at 5 in the morning (It's not open later really so you need to go early). The plan seems to be to find some place to stay and play cards all night with about 10+ people and then go get sushi first thing in the morning! No Doz is all ready and rearing to go! hahaha. I'll get my midterms back on Thursday then from my Economics and Japanese classes, they happen to be on Tuesday and Thursday, and Tuesday is my day off... so you get the point. I'm probably going to go to school early tomorrow to take some notes before my Law class. I'm so glad that they are so food obsessed here, because it means that even Convenience store food is awesome. But 90% of their television shows are about food... and They are just always so amazed and happy... like they just have people watching pictures of food or little video clips of food simmering and they just talk about it! That's the whole show! haha. Probably going to do laundry and the dishes tonight though, and it's already 11pm, so I guess I should say goodbye for now!

"I'm representin' for them gangsters all across the world,
Still hittin' them corners in them Lo LO's GURL!
Takin' my time to perfect the beat, and I still got love for the street!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSHmSusgjFU&feature=related
Good episode, should be watched by all!

Valentines Day!

Last weekend went well! Went to a Pre-Valentines day party at a Club called AI. That was a lot of fun. All my friends were there. On Saturday, it was he MOST gorgeous day out, So I went with my friend Kris (Kristen Weldon)from the Hotel here, to Ueno Park. Tons of shrines, and probably the best spot I've seen for when the Cherry Blossoms bloom. It had an entire walkway of trees stretching out over. Right now the trees are bare but wait till spring! One tree decided to break from the pack and bloom early.. haha it was the Only one! haha... I took a picture. I linked the pictures to facebook but i'll link them here as well! PS mom really like snapfish! But I will say that I can't get the pictures through snapfish on my face book, just invite people to look at my album. NO Problem though! I still like it.

I was then going to go to a party that was supposed to give me the most crazy photos but it was Valentines day, I couldn't get a hold of anyone from my school or my french friends that I just met that I was supposed to meet in Shinjuku that night when my one friend that was for sure coming was running late, I got a hold of her 5 minutes after I was supposed to leave so I waited and then I didn't know where it was cause we were supposed to meet them and go out from there to the place that they knew where it was. And, Christina, that's my neighbor friend here, has a boyfriend here who lives in a different building, so I told her to catch last train and surprise him. It was Valentines day after all. So, I just hung out with my good friend Dat after she left. BUT ALAS, there is another one on White Day, March 14th, which is the reciprocating day for Valentines day here. On White day, the guys give chocolate back to the girls who gave chocolate to the boys on Valentines Day! Which brings me back to the fact that while I did promise to find something in the day after Valentines day candy sale before Valentines day, I wanted to show some appreciation to Dat, he's a good person and I really like people who are there for me when I'm feeling down. =]

Other than that, school has been going well... Had some midterms.. well all of them hha. I got my grade back for my Law exam and it was a B, and as I told Stacey just mere moments ago the teacher was not happy with the class because there was 14 F's. I think my Japanese Midterm went well, it was an Oral exam, and she said that because we talked alot I seemed well prepared and Well done! I was so happy haha. And then the Economics midterm seems like it went well. I was only slightly unsure of like 2 answers. But that was just me overthinking probably so I stuck with my first instinct. That's ingrained in my head from my statistics teacher, Mr. Ciccimaro, he said he had a teacher that realized he erased all the right answers and replaced it with the wrong answer and he could faintly see it when he graded the papers so the next test he broke off Mr. Ciccimaro's eraser and told him to go with his first instinct because that is most likely the right one. I miss math... and my Computer teacher was talking about statistics and about how numbers and titles can make it look worse than it really is by presentation and he went over the bell curve and normal distribution. But he was talking about how there was something that causes the data to deviate from the mean and I kept saying in my head, Standard Devition and Variance.... and then he HAD a Standard Deviation slide! AND SKIPPED IT!.... saying... I don't think this is necessary... and kept going.... =[[

But I digress... ahhaha.... i'm up way too early for today but my heat was on too high and i was really thirsty and I fell asleep really early so i just felt awake... I'll probably crash later on today and take a nap lol... This weekend I don't really have anything planned But there is a trip to Hakone going on which is right by Mt. Fuji, but I wanted to wait a little longer till it was warmer out and I wanted to go to a different town because the view would be better. I was thinking more in March.

Anywaysss.... there is a video I am specifically posting today... for Valentines day... kind of inappropriate, but that's why you love me! haha... check it out, Thank You Mom and Dad!!

So, that concert, completely amazing. Loved it! It was really far away actually out in Kashiwa, at a place called Kashiwa Palooza. I mean, it was only a little less than an hour away from Takadanobaba, so that's not too bad but still. Once we got there the concert started at 7pm and ended at 5 in the morning! Crazyness, I know! Saw loads of bands and they played beatles songs and turned a song from the musical Grease into a well done rock song, I was really impressed! haha. I caught a pick in my cup when this band threw it out.. lol... The very same band that came out and shook my friend, James Anderson, shook his hand and told us he was a pirate! haha. AND the very same band that had their guitar player where nothing but a well placed sock. I need to get the pictures off my phone and onto the computer cause I ended up not bringing my camera out with me so I took pictures and videos with my Keitai. Overall though, it was a Blasti. Everyone thought I was just soo cute, that's all they wanted to tell me haha. I think i'm starting to like this country and their open opinions hahahaha.

Before that I went to a very small fireworks museam out in the home of Sumo Wrestling, Ryugoku. I was there for the Sumo wrestling matches and some of my friends heard of this place down the street for fireworks. It ended up being a reallyyyy small room with a cool video on how they make the fireworks, which I got video of... i only missed the first couple of seconds of the video before I thought that I should involve myself in piracy and video tape the movie... haha... So i'll post that on facebook cause its a big file and this blog site actually doesn't really like me when I try to post things. I'll work on it though.

So since I stayed out on friday night into the wee hours of the morning, I slept most of the day, but went out to go shopping and ended up buying two pairs of boots for 20 and 30 dollars, a sweater dress that is amazing looking for about 9.50 at H&M. I got tights to complete that outfit and when I got back I came up with some more outfits that worked out one I had the boots and the tights... I am in love with their fashion here. I can't wait to see what they do in summer, because its no hold bar when it comes to how short their skirts are and how much skin they expose during the winter, I almost wouldn't be surprised if they figured out a way to wear less in the summer. hahaha. Everyone is just so dressed up here. Yes, Sarah, I might convert, then you won't ever be able to count on me wearing jeans to church on Christmas haahaha.
BUT, on Saturday I was just going too eat dinner with some friends in Shibuya but they convinced me that I should stay out all night and go to Karaoke, so I did which turned out to be amazing, that's how I met some new friends from france that are studying here and some of them were in a band together here in Japan. I hope I can hang out with them again soon, they seemed like they create crazy situations all the time. I'm all about the craziness! I got Ayoki's and Geraldine's number/emails soo maybe we can all hang out again.
Sunday was a day for recovery.
School is going well, I got back my first quiz on economics and i got a B so that was good, I made a stupid mistake for one question where I disregarded the fact that it said something about supply curve and focused on the Increasing costs term which is the reason why the PPF is concave and then thought oh, the slope would be downward sloping, but I know that supply curve makes it that it is always upward sloping. I hope you understood that.. lol. My friend Craig might have, if he knew about this site, he was one of the guys I knew in thaht Band, Far and Fading that I used to go see all the time. I'm sure there was a time someone came with me, I brought a bunch of my friends there with me. haha. Good times! OH, but yeah, he was an economics major.

anyways, I 'll post videos/ pictures later i'm at school right now and i can't upload from here, eerythings on my computer at the hotel...

Miss and love you guys, tell you more when i have more to tell!

Hello Everyone!

Sooo.... Since last time I wrote I went to a sumo wrestling tournament, a sake tasting event, got a japanese cell phone, bought my ticket to Kyoto for the school, went to Karaoke, planned out my trip to mt. fuji... there might be more that i'm forgetting.

Sumo Wrestling
I went with my friends Christina and Kristen, we got up around 8am, which was supposed to be 7am so we could leave by 8am and be there around 8:30am, but thanks to my sleepiness we left about ten minutes late and didn't get the realllly cheap tickets. They sell about 2hundred tickets for $21 but we essentially got the same seats from $36. Out seats happened to be next to a broadcaster I think because once people realized who it was they started taking pictures of him. He looked like he could have been an ex-sumo wrestler, so I guess it would have been the equivalent to Charles Barkley doing the sports center stuff about Basketball. Any way, the matches were good, some of them the crowd would get really into, like if they stayed in the ring for a long time. I wish I would have though to ask what phrase I can yell in japanese to route someone one or something like that... but oh well. I'm putting my favorite video on here but there are a bunch I just posted on Facebook! Everything was crystal clear from where ever you sat, due to the lighting I guess.While I was there I got a Sumo-Sized bento (lunch) box... which it wasn't too bad but what we really wanted was a hot dog and some ice cream that we heard was there but couldn't find... we eventually did find it and we were really dumb because its location was just around the corner on the second floor. See we looked around the first floor. Oh well, the mustard was spicy, from what Kris said so that's okay. The matches went on all day but we got there around 2 or 3 and it ended around 6 or 7. The interesting things about Sumo: They throw salt into the ring to purify the air, they sike each other out by almost starting and then going back to their sides about 3 times, and they wash their hands and face and drink water all as part of a ritual to cleanse themselves. This is a religious event to them. This tournament that I saw wasn't the last one, I went on a Wednesday night and it fully ended by Sunday.
Posted from sumo: fav. video, me eating bento, standing outside the place, and some of the pictures that were hanging from the ceiling (what they did was take a picture of the Sumo Wrestler that wins the entire tournament and then cover it in oil so I looks like a painting, but goes a lot faster.) Oh and the free vending machine in the basement of Softbank, we went there so Kris could get her phone that day.

Sake Tasting/Fashion Show/Concert

This was a great event. So I get there right before the speaches start, luckily I was saved a seat (I ran into some people on the way there, and since I was alone I decided I would walk in there with them but they wanted to get food first) Which btw was a fully non-english speaking little restaurant and I did well and I was very happy! Anyways, So this guy who wrote all these books on Sake makes a small 30 min. speech about how Sake is made, what makes it different than wine, or beer, or anything else, which comes down to the fact it was made with rice and nothing else, purely a rice wine. It was interesting. And I got to try 7 different kinds of Sake, and twice cause they accidentally gave me two things of coupons but I wasn't going to give up that mistake haha.. They were really small portions so it wasn't bad. Sake for me isn't really great, there was one that I liked more than the rest but still... Concert... yeah started off with an Ambient band, horrible horrible noises. Just screachings and weird noises and a girl up front singing tones. Then a really good Shimasen (i think thats what it was called, banjo looking guitar thing thats really big over here) player came on and it was wonderful. I saw the Fashion show next, which had weird music you needed to get used to, but it was really cool to see their outfits and I even got a picture with one of the male models. More music, it was an interesting place and everyone that I knew from school was there so it was great.

Japanese Keitai
I feel sooo much better that I can contact my friends here! Okay so the cell phone is a mute pink, almost a yellow tint to it, VERY thin, and really cool. The Camera is as good if not better than my actual camera. Money wise, I bought the phone for about 40, plan for 33, and a charger for about 10, which is as cheap as it goes here. It is a prepaid phone so the plan is 33 each month that i'm here. But the plan includes unlimited texting and email and about 30 minutes of talking time, which doesn't seem like a lot but when you can email someone you don't really need to talk. I bought my phone from this store called Don Quiote, lol... huge store filled with everything you may want pretty much! haha... first floor was tons of clothing, accessories and luggage, second floor was groceries + any household items you might need like cleaning supplies which sounds like a grocery store from back home like Giant, but here they do specialty stores i guess is the best way to put it. Like if its a drug store, its medication and cleaning supplies and make up and what not. If its food, its just food, they never commingle. 3rd floor was electronics and there were some vaccums i think and there was a 4th and 5th floor but i didn't even have time to explore those. craziness!

Kyoto
basically I'm all paid up and everything is good to go for that trip! It was 400 but worth it, theres so much to do down there you could spend a year there to get it all done. Wonderful. Thats going down in middle to late march.

Karaoke
It wasn't everything I hoped it would be, and when I say that I mean, it didn't give me that, i really love Karaoke feel. Cause I know how big it is over here and that so many people do it but its expensive and while singing songs are fun its not the same. Maybe it was just that I didn't have my normal group of friends with me like Nick, Sarah, Jonny B, and Amanda and Anthony, and Ryan... maybe you guys make the difference!! MISS YOU!!

Mt. Fuji
I think I have figured most of this out now. I'm going to Shirto Falls which is right near a really old shrine and then going to the north side of the mountain to get some good pictures and right next to there, Lake Kawaguchiko, is an Amusement park!! And its open right now so that's awesome. It has like 5 roller coasters and an amazing haunted house which has real people in there who are allowed to physically grab you! haa.. I hope i'm okay! But i'm going to try to make it through. I think i'm going to go when the weather is a little nicer

Other than that today i'm going to a fireworks museam and then to a concert, potentially Glam Rock, lol. So i expect to see some crazy outfits. Its all local Japanese bands so ... till next time!

Oyasumanasai, to all those going to sleep!
Missy

Video's I promised

Heezo!
Thinking about you Tiffany! ahah.. I watched Tropic Thunder with my Friend Dat and btw Ryan, you were right it was a good movie! I ate a normal dippy or as some people call it sunny side up egg with a chopstick today, actually not that hard! So that was cool. I was also talking to my next door neighbor Christina and she informed me that the exchange rate should get better by the end of this month! and in February the Dollar will be equal to 100 yen so that makes me feel really good. That the exchange rate is connected to the peoples thought of what the dollar will do, like the stock market and how we caused the crash because everyone thought that it was doing bad essentially causing it to do what they thought it would do. But anyways, that's going to be great cause then I can stop doing the math in my head. I will say though I like having a use for the graphing calculator that I carry with me at all times lol.
I went to this dance held by the school at this place called MUSE. Its a club and for my first ever club I am pleased! It was really cool in there. So you have all the normal stuff for a club, dance floor, bars... plural bar space then there were all these secluded rooms like I saw a basement that had ping pong. I also heard there were pool tables and the Head of the Office of Student Services was kicking ass and taking names. haha He apparently beat everyone that challenged him.
I figured out how to use the microwave. You don't hit buttons you open the door and then can turn the knob to pick a time, refer to the picture to see knobs and whatnot.
Hahaha, I saw a very upset Tommy Lee Jones (guy from men in black) on the poster of all the adds on all the vending machines for boss coffee. lol. He just has such a serious face and then there's like a rainbow coming out of the can, I'm taking a picture soon of that. Yeah, the vending machines are every corner and they have all your drinks. Fanta, coffee, tea, water, coca-cola, dr. pepper, and Pepsi zero. I'm upset at this, this country is ruled by coke. I once saw someone with a really large can of Pepsi but when I go to convenience stores or grocery stores they have normal coke and then Pepsi zero. It's crappy and I would ask to have Pepsi sent to me but that would get really heavy. So I decided that I'm just going to come home and chug a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi immediately... then get my wisdom teeth removed. Maybe chug another one just to reward myself! haha. yeah so i'm getting sleepy i think i might call it a night now its like 2 am... i really need to get better at this sleeping thing

Miss you!

Classes went over a lot better today. I'm realizing that lunch makes me really sleepy for like an hour after I eat. LIKE, really sleepy, to the point where If I were to lay down I would pass out. hahaha. I might start taking some sort of energy drink or pill to keep me awake mid day if it doesn't stop within the next week! On another note, I am very happy that I bought these sparkle rings out of 25cent machine at KMART the day before I left for Japan. It was the most unexpected surprise when I found them in my secret coat pocket on the inside of my jacket when I arrived! I decided to wear them all the time. They are now comfortable to wear, my fingers wanted to reject them at first but then I told them to suck it up and alls been well ever since!

Met new people today that live at Ontakesan dorms. I'll take a picture next time I see them, they are all in my Japanese class, there's Chuck, Ryan, Tom, VP-kun, Patrick and Dan. We ate lunch today I had a Bento box(lunch box)which had egg sashimi, rice dumplings, and Sushi.. don't know what was in it, some sort of meat. It was good though!

There's a dance tomorrow night that the school is sponsoring by this place called Roppongi and shibuya. The school scared me away from really going to Roppongi because thats the supposed hang out of the yakuza(gangster mafia) and they own a lot of buildings and clubs and bars around there and the school had stories about them setting up guys with pretty girls and slipping something in their drinks and stealing their money. Also that that area is expensive. But this is a school sponsored event so.. DOn't worry MOM! haha, I'm going with a lot of friends and what not, i'll be fine!

I think i'm going to buy a locker on campus, the school is renting them for the semester for $20. And that would make my life easier cause I feel weird using my mesh book bag here so i've been using my really big esprit tote bag but i'm afraid its going to break if i put too much stuff in it all semester so I don't want to lug books around in it. Besides whenever I go back to my room I'm tired and lazy cause the bed takes up the majority of the room and that's where I tend to sit. =[ So it would be a better idea to stay at school till my homework is done then go back and do Missy-like things and not worry in the morning if things are done, only have to worry about looking pretty and getting to class on time!

I'm going with one of my friends from the Mansion (hence forth i declare the Mansion to refer to my hotel that i'm staying at, cause its the shortest way to name it!) to the city ward tomorrow morning before class to get my Alien registration card, certified matters, and National Health Insurance. Alien card because I need to and this way i don't need to cart my passport around with me everywhere anymore, not that it wasn't safe to before because of my "in my pants wallet". Certified matters goes along the same lines as that and then the health insurance... yeah, don't worry family because appearently there is a really CHEAP health insurance for those who made no income the year before like $20 for the semester and it covers 70% of medical fees. So I only pay 30% upfront and then can fill out an insurance claim on the rest if I need to. But the school told us in orientation not to worry and that its like filling out a rebate form to something you bought and you're only getting $2 back anyway so postage alone outweighs it. That we would be surprised at how cheap it is to get everything including a perscription. So all that worrying about health insurance and getting sick while i'm here for nothing! So great for me.

Well... I love you guys! I'm out to go back to the Mansion! PEACE!