Reicheru's Blog
This year so far…
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I have already failed in my blogging attempts, but I blame the fact that my boyfriend has been hogging my laptop to catch up to the 569 chapters of the One Piece manga online. That and I have had a lot of homework.
I have so far read 3 books, but have yet to write the reviews for them. I will probably end up reading most of the English language novels in the ICU library, since they are so expensive to buy here in Japan. I want to go home and dive into the library there. My goal is to expand my reading tastes, since I only ever seem to read popular stuff or stuff translated from Japanese. Just gonna go in and pick a random book.
In the meantime, I picked 9 books from the ICU library, some of which I had heard of, and others that I just thought would be something new for me to try. I read Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” which was a collection of short stories and thought it was pretty good. Then I read Jean Webster’s “Daddy Longlegs” because the name sounded vaguely familiar. I found out after that it was a musical and had been several movies, but having never watched any of them, my reading was not spoiled by expectations and it was a very good read. Then I started on “Inspector Imanishi Investigates” which goes by another name in Japan, but was translated into English. It was a gripping read – I shall have to look for more Japanese crime novels because the ones I have read have been amazing. Japanese horror and Japanese crime are so good 
Each book I have read has been better than the last. I am sceptical about the next one I am going to read. I got a series out – an apparently famous series but I have never heard of it. The first is called “Dragonflight”, then the next is “Dragonquest”, then “The White Dragon” and they are part of a huge catalogue of sci-fi/fantasy books by Anne McCaffrey. Part of me thinks they will not be my thing, but I like dragons and fantasy and stuff so am willing to give them a chance. I also got ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert. I know my mam is working her way through a giant combined tome of the Dune series. I have seen bits of the movie but always thought it wasn’t my thing. Figured I may as well give sci-fi a chance. I also have a book of short stories by H.P Lovecraft, since he is meant to be a good writer, and a random book I found called ‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing, which sounds ok.
Really, I should have wrote all this in my reading blog, but whatever.
So I had the intention of doing a readathon last weekend, but after I got in from the library, Ben and I headed off to Musashisakai to grab some food. We got gyoza from the North side of the station and I found a load of books to put on my “must buy before leaving Japan” list. Including an amusing-looking series called ” My Darling is a Foreigner”. I also saw the manga version of Twilight, but the less said about that, the better.
As well as collecting all 12 volumes of Sailor Moon (plus the 2 short stories volumes I already bought) and all 20 special edition volumes of Hana Yori Dango, any new volumes of Bakuman, anything by Arina Tanemura and more of NANA, I want to start collecting Moyashimon – which is probably one of the most underrated anime series. I am curious about how the manga progresses and I am sure my Japanese could do with learning some technical, scientific terms. I mean, the word for bacteria can be easily slipped into everyday conversation! 
Not to mention the light novels I am interested in and the fact they all seem to be 7 + books in length.
And the Kanji Kentei books.. and any other Japanese language study aides.
I seriously need to go apply for a work permit so I can earn the money to afford not only the books, but the cost of shipping them all back to the UK.
Though the more Japanese language books I own, the better my chances of doing well next year. If I study.
Anyways, after the Musashisakai trip, we went back and I began reading, but I have been plagued by headaches and stomach cramps, so concentrating on reading was hard. Took me a while to get through the relatively short “The Bloody Chamber” but to be honest it was also the pacing of the book. Some short stories were not as interesting as others… but I digress. That is something for the book reviews on my writing blog.
On the Saturday we stayed in, due to me feeling a bit blergh (to put it technically). I read, completed the second draft of my sakubun, and got a call from my landlady inviting me and Ben on a tour of the Jindaiji Temple and Ookuni Shrine on Sunday.
We jumped at the chance, and met up with her after she and her friends got back from church at midday. We met them in the dining hall of ICU and chatted for an hour as they ate lunch. We were lazy and had a late breakfast so weren’t that hungry. I used my poor Japanese, Ben was a bit bewildered. My landlady has broken English but is so very sweet I love her Enrish. She can write it down really well though. All her notes make perfect sense.
Luckily her friend (whose name I have forgotten) speaks English very well, having lived in the UK for a few years, even if it was 30 years ago.
She drove us to the shrine and temple in her hybrid car and we tried some dango and took lots of pictures, then at the shrine we got our fortunes for the year ahead. Both Ben and I got “big luck” which was fortunate
Nana promised to show us around more places before Ben leaves.
She told us that there is a multi-screen cinema in Fuchu (where the shrine is). Which led Ben and I to our excursion on Tuesday afternoon.
We finally went to see Avatar. After finding out that the cinema in Fuchu had 3D, we decided to see what the fuss was about.
I did my research and found out how to get there, how long it would take, how much it would cost and when the buses would come. We arrived and got a little lost but eventually found the cinema. It was huge and maze-like, but reminded me a bit of work back home. It was modern and nostalgic, with a smell of slightly burning popcorn. Though their popcorn smelled more of honey or maple syrup than of burnt sugar. Which is wierd, but there is a difference! We bought out tickets for the English language 3D screening at 2.20pm, and the girl was kind enough to let Ben have a student ticket even though he’d foolishly left his student ID back in the UK, thinking it would be invalid here.
Then we checked out the snacks and spent 850yen on a “triple set” consisting of a medium Coca Cola, a medium popcorn (choice of salted or caramel – I went for caramel) and a hot dog (plain or chilli – Ben went for plain.) I miss having staff discount on cinema snacks 
We headed off to the screen (screen 2) and outside there was a staff member standing at a table of fancy-looking 3D glasses. They were all laid out in neat rows, all clean, smudge free and ready for use. We got out pairs after having our tickets torn, and went in.
The screen was huge and futuristic looking. Blue squares of lights on the soundproof walls gave the place an eerie, space-age type glow. The seats were plush and it was allocated seating. We had chosen the centre and got J 9 and 10, which was slightly to the left of the screen. The snacks we had been given came in a nice tray which Ben figured slotted nicely into the cup holder, so the popcorn would hang in between us. Not that he would eat any since he hates popcorn, and especially sweet popcorn. I figure we need trays like that back home.
So we chatted for a bit, then a staff member stoof at the front explaining the rules and how we should turn phones off etc, and thanking us for choosing their cinema. (Toho Cinema, Fuchu, since I neglected to mention it).
Then the ads came on, and it would appear Japanese cinema ads are quite surreal. From the weird cartoon characters discussing how to recieve emails from the cinema to your mobile phone, to the helium-voiced fox and rabbit who got caught messing on and being silly by the stupidly long-necked giraffe teacher, then the anti-piracy add with the dancing camera-headed man… they were odd to say the least.
The trailers were cool, though all in Japanese and pretty much all Japanese-made films with the exception of Alice in Wonderland (Japanese dubbed Johnny Depp does not sound as nice as real Johnny Depp) and Coraline (which is getting a 3D release over here, and I am tempted to go see it since Empire Sunderland didn’t have a 3D screen at the it was released back home.) Coraline was renemaed “Coraline and the Button Witch” or something like that, since the Japanese like to have detailed titles – Disney Pixar’s ‘Up’ became “Uncle.. something’s something balloon” – though I don’t remember the exact words.
Anyway, Avatar was awesome. Characterisation has improved dramatically from when he made Titanic, and James Cameron seems to be getting bettr and better. Though I loved the film, found it full of good strong female rolemodels and less pantomime villainary than Titanic (which despite its many flaws, is still one of my favourite films) and I liked the music, since it basically sounded like Titanic but tribal instead of Celtic (James Horner FTW!) I came away feeling quite worried. I had heard there would be sequels and as good as Avatar is, it will be totally ruined by the cash-cow sequel machine. I say just leave it be, then move on and make new, more awesome films. Like the proposed film about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. That would be interesting, emotional and educational.
Also Avatards have me worried. They are not yet at the level of unreasonable obsessiveness and violence as the Twitards, but give them time. The film is only a few months old.
Anyway, I had an exam the next day, which I am sure I passed, though I doubt I got more than the 90.2% I got on my previous exam. There is always next time though.
Well, I have finished writing up the neat copy of the script for my speech on idioms that I have to give tomorrow morning, (well technically this morning) but as it is nearly 2.30pm I really should head off to bed. If my crampy tummy will let me sleep anyway.
I shall try and update again tomorrow. I plan on stealing the laptop off Ben and spending the time blogging, reviewing and writing fanfiction. If I don’t get given a load of homework.
I’m also hoping Ben and I can meet up with my Soul Run friends and go karaoke-ing in Kichijouji on Saturday night.
Harajuku Funtimes!
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The other day Ben and I went to Harajuku. We didn’t head off until 1.3-pm, due to us being lazy and sleeping in late.
First we headed off on the bus to Musashisakai Station, and withdrew money from the ATM in the Ito Yokado Department Store. I bought a cute fleecey sleeveless jacket on sale. The staff were so friendly – it made me so, so happy 
Then we had lunch in the food court. It was so yummy! We bought our meal from Poppo. Ben got Shouyuu Ramen which he left most of, but at least ate the noodles. I was super greedy and got yakisoba (which was nice, but for some reason not as yummy as the convenience store yakisoba) and some negi takoyaki. I have had normal takoyaki from Poppo before but didn’t realise for an extra 100yen I could get [i]negi[/i] takoyaki. Negi is Japanese for spring onion, and boy does it make takoyaki even yummier!
After the feast we looked around a bookstore where I managed to leave without buying anything. Ben pondered over purchasing a copy of Shounen Jump for lolz, but decided against. Not sure why. Jump rules.
Then we headed off – Ben got stuck at the gate again. This one particular gate doesn’t like his Suica card so he always gets held up. But silly Ben waits for it to stop flashing red before trying again, instead of scanning it again asap, and of course, it doesn’t stop flashing red. I had to tell him off He was holding people up. But now he knows. And knowing is half the battle! (GI Joe!)
^^;
We got to Harajuku, but it was super busy. I blame the fact it was Sunday, New Year’s Sales were on and there is a big, famous Shrine there for people to go to.
It was fun even if I was intimidated by the large crowds, pushing and the shops being so darn small and clostrophobic-un-friendly.
We got Ben a new jacket (our mission for the day completed) and he also got another One Piece t-shirt and a Snoopy t-shirt too, bringing his Japan t-shirt collection to 6 (3 plain emergency shirts, 2 One Piece shirts and the Snoopy one) This does not include the shirts he got for Christmas from my parents.. so he has a lot of shirts to take back.
I bought myself some nice new grey gloves, since my old ones have holes in. I also spalshed out on some Harajuku Lovers perfume (Baby – the talc scented best one of the collection). It was 3040yen, which I think is between £20 and £25. It was one of the small 10ml ones too, so basically I paid as much/more than I would for a large bottle in the UK (which is about £20) But I get the joy of saying that I bought a Harajuku Lovers perfume in Harajuku. And I get to use the perfume – which is awesome XD Now I have lots of nice smelling things to make me feel better.
Funny sotry about the perfume shop though – there was a weird foreign guy who came in and talked in English to the shopgirl, who blatently knew no English. He was trying to flog some miniature perfume bottles to the store. He kept asking “eigo dekimasu ka” and everyone was avoiding him. I tried to help out by explaining to the shopgirl what he was saying but my Japanese was pretty bad. He left when someone Japanese with good English skills explained and the shopkeeper firmly said no. Then he talked to the poor translater girl telling her he had over 900 mini bottles. We laughed so much at him. Seriously, shops have proper suppliers – they aren’t going to want to buy dodgy merch off a weird foreigner.
Anyways, after that we wandered round and saw a British pub, which we will check out in future. We made our way to Kiddieland, where we checked out the Hello Kitty, Snoopy and Ghibli stuff, and I bought Ben yet another One Piece t-shirt His Christmas present.
On the way back to the station we popped into The Body Shop and Ben got me a goody bag
I love how in Japan at New Year, all the shops seem to be giving out lucky dip goody bags. It cost just over 5000yen but had so much stuff in. Body Shop is ridiculously expensive in Japan – things cost a lot more than in the UK which I always thought was a bit high but in this goodie bag there was a giant bottle of mango shower gel, a luffa, some envigorating shower gel, pomegranet hydrating spray, pomegranet body butter, oceanic eau de toilette, peppermint foot scrub, cassis rose body lotion, a little bottle of cassis rose shower gel, and voucgers for 10% off next purchase. That stuff would definately have come to over 10,000yen. Maybe more. It came in a cute little bag too which was a bonus XD
We headed home and stopped by the Ito Yokado supermarket, buying a cholclate goody bag, some Haagen Daaz ice cream, some minced beef and mixed peppers so I could make chilli for tea, and I bought some pineapple and strawberries too as a nice treat. We got doughnuts and Pringles as well. And some stuff that I thought was kara-age (fried chicken) but turned out to be octopus.
Ben ended up eating all of them, since I only really like octopus in takoyaki.
I made the chilli but it was a bit too spicy for Ben. Once again he didn’t finish a meal I made him. I think I give him too much but he eats like a bird – seriously.
We ended up watching youtube vids until late (mostly nostalgic stuff like Addams Family, Scooby Doo and Freakazoid )
It was a good day
Today we were supposed to go to Disney Sea, but I had a lot of trouble sleeping and really could not get up. I had such a headache. So we didn’t go.
We had onigiri for breakfast, watched anime, read books, played on the laptop and our nintendo ds’es. We grazed for lunch and I made chicken soup for tea, which Ben ate nearly all of. I ended up feeling super ill though – nearly throwing up after having some yacky paracetamol that got stuck in my throat.
Ben finished off all the tissues in the house He owes me a new box. Best make it 3 the way he goes through them. He keeps coughing all the time too. He has manflu perhaps.
Anyways, I finished my homework, wrote some fanfiction and have updated my blog – New Year’s resolution coming along nicely
Tags: Ben, chicken soup, cooking, department store, goody bags, Harajuku, homework, Japan, ramen, shopping, t-shirts, takoyaki, weird foreigners
New Year’s Resolutions
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That time of year again where everyone plans to do something and then forgets by the 15th of January.
Well not this year!
I have a series of things I want to accomplish in 2010, and by golly I WILL do so!
1) Blog more often. Minimum once a month, hopefully every other day.
I have 2 blogs – this “Japan Blog” as a diary of sorts, and my “Writing Blog” which is about my fiction, fanfiction and reading attempts. The latter should be updated once a month at least, but every other day is a little unrealistic for that kind of blog – the posts would get repetitive and boring.
There is no excuse for this blog though. Every other day or bust!
2) Read at least 15 novels. Not fanfiction, or manga, or textbooks. Novels.
I should draw up a Reading List but I am too lazy right now. Will do so eventually – hopefully before the end of January.
3) Read at least 2 Japanese language novels. As in books written in Japanese. Again, not manga. Proper books. I have 3 such books at my disposal right now – the first 2 in the series of The Sacred Blacksmith light novels, and the original Japanese version of OUT by Natsuo Kirino, which I have previously read in English translation. You can bet I will have many more by the time I leave Japan in July.
4) Become good at Kanji.
Every student of Japanese needs an area of expertise – I want to be able to read, understand and write as many kanji as possible. Especially since I want to read novels in Japanese. So I am going to practise at least 1 hour everyday and ask if I can move on to the JLP 4 and JLP 5 kanji lists to get a head start. I’m doing well right now. I just want to do even better.
5) Get my job back at the cinema in July, or at least get a job.
I will be really broke when I get back from Japan. Everything costs far too much here and the cost of cancelling my phone and internet contracts as well as sending all the stuff I have collected back home. My bedroom back home will be needing new furniture too since my bed kept breaking and I had no shelf space for my mountains of books and DVDs.
6) Travel
Seems weird saying this after having come all the way to Japan, but I haven’t really travelled that much. I hope to be able to save up and go to places in the UK (like Leeds to see my new Leeds Uni friends I made at SoulRun, and London) Then maybe next year I can save money to go to Paris, Spain or even New York… but I doubt I will be able to arrnage something like that between July and December 2010 since I will have no money and possibly no job
7) Write fanfiction every week. Even if it is just a drabble.
Start working on original fiction. After the Great Memory-Stick Incident last summer I have lost most of the stuff I had worked so hard on and pretty much gave up on writing. I will get back into it this year!
9) NaNoWriMo. This year I will do it. Never tried it before despite wanting to. This year 50,000 words will be written in November.
10) Read-a-thons. I will also take part in such events as read-a-thons. Because I have so many books at home, and should really read them.
Let’s leave it at 10, since it is 2010. Though I am sure I have many more, like the usual “will lose weight”, “will eat more healthily”, “will learn to drive”. Yeah I will try them all. Doubt I can do the first 2, but learning to drive can at leats be started in 2010 – doubt I could pass the test between July and December.
Anyway, wish me luck!
Tags: blogging, fanfiction, Japanese, kanji, NaNoWriMo, New Year's Resolutions, read-a-thon, reading, to-do-list, travelling, work, writing
New Year! Where have I been?
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Wow, it certainly has been a while since I posted.
Since my last attempt at blogging, which I believe was back just after recovering from swine flu, I have failed JLP 3 and had to resit it in the Winter Semester, thus scuppering my plans to get to JLP6 by the end of the year abroad.
But on the plus side, the class is smaller, so each person gets more attention, I get on really well with the teachers since I have talked to them a lot more than I did back in the Autumn semester, and since I have done most of it before, I am finding it much, much easier. Things I didn’t understand before have become clear and I have made myself study a whole lot more than I did previously. The addition of a proper desk in my apartment (thanks to my lovely landlady) means I can study for hours and not end up with a numb bum due to sitting on the floor. I make flashcards each week of the vocabulary, kanji and grammar points (something I attempted last time, but kept forgetting to do) and I have been writing out the formation drills voluntarily. Which has been handy, since it was given as Winter holiday homework – one less thing for me to do while my boyfriend is here.
Yes, at last, my boyfriend has arrived in Japan! It was an interesting arrival to say the least. He booked his flights with a French airline to avoid the possible BA Strikes (which didn’t happen anyway) and then due to weather problems across Europe, his flight was delayed – resulting in him staying overnight in Paris (they put him up in a 4 star hotel and paid for his meals). It meant that instead of arriving at 7pm in the evening on the 23rd December, he was arriving at 7am on the 24th. Which was fun for me, since it meant in order to get there in time to meet him I had to spend the night waiting at the airport. I made the 2 and a half hour trek across Tokyo starting at 7pm where I caught a bus at 7.10pm, bought some food at the Little Mermaid bakery before it closed, and then got a train from Musashisakai Station to Shinjuku Station, then found the JR Yamanote Line and travelled 20 mins to Nippori Station. At Nippori Station I got off and headed for the Keisei Line Ltd Express, which took me to Narita Station, and I waited 10 mins for the next train which took me to the airport.
All in all it was actually about 140mins travel time, and it only cost me 1400yen (£10ish I guess) which saved a bundle on the Narita Express (3000yen one way) I waited the 8 and a half hours at the airport, sitting on a single chair because other people had taken the sofas. It is very hard to sleep sitting in an airport chair. Then they turned off the heating and even my big poofy jacket couldn’t keep me warm. And the snoring. Oh Lord, the snoring. If it wasn’t the Russian dude snoring on the sofa next to me, it was the cries of the small Japanese child with obvious learning difficulties. He kept grunting at weird times very loudly, so when I did fall into some form of sleep, I was quickly woken up. My rabbit fur earmuffs did little to block the noise. I couldn’t even read because at 1am they turned the lights off. Damn them. Just because everyone else is asleep, doesn’t mean I am! I was obviously awake – shuffling around trying to get comfy and playing kanji DS games. I did manage to read all of Dazai’s “No Longer Human” which was really short for some reason. I thought it would be longer and more detailed after watching the Aoi Bungaku (Blue Literature) anime which had this book in the first 2 eps. The anime had far more detail…but I enjoyed the book none-the-less.
Then when Ben arrived he was one of the last to arrive through the doors, since he’d been waiting for his luggage. It had been lost on the way and they didn’t know where it was. He’s also somehow managed to lose the 6000yen my parents got him. And when he tried the cash machines, they wouldn’t accept his card despite the bank in the UK saying they would.
Anyways, on the 27th he finally got his luggage, but we had already spent 6000yen on clothes by that point (managed to get money out after a call to the UK bank).
Tis hard living in such a small apartment together. Especially when I was used to being alone. It doesn’t help that he is completely reliant on me since he doesn’t know his way around and cannot speak the language. I am hoping that the irritation I am feeling is stemming from not being used to living so close to another person and by being stressed and completely relied upon. If we moved in together in the UK I am sure we’d feel much more at ease since we can go whenever and wherever we want and have alone time, rather than being together 24-7.
It’s only been a week though, so I will probably get used to it.
Anyways, I was going to write my New Year’s resolutions down in this post, but it is already far too long. I shall have to post again. Get the New Year off to a productive start.
Tags: airport, apartment, Christmas, FAIL, ICU, Japan, Japanese, JLP3, landlady, luggage, National Holiday, New Year, resit, shopping, travelling, Winter Holiday
Failure and Friendship
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Since I last wrote in my blog, many things have happened.
I got over my swine flu, but ended up missing the last week of lessons and the week of exams. I was so tired due to my upside-down sleeping patterns. Not to say I slept upside down, but rather if I went to bed it was at 5am-6am in the morning and I would get up at 3pm-4pm. Occasionally I didn’t sleep at all for periods of over 24 hours.
So I met with my teacher, Kanayama-sensei, on the Friday at 4pm which was the last day of the exams. She tried to convince me to just resit the semester rather than take the exams, since I wasn’t doing very well in class anyway. Considering I was homesick, injured, depressed and tired for pretty much the entire semester ensured I couldn’t do better than scrape a pass.
Anyways, just after the meeting she mentioned that there was a party to celebrate the end of the semester, so I went along since my headache wasn’t too bad and I figured it would make me sleepy enough to sleep early.
It was a really fun party and I got to see my friends again. It was pretty cheap considering it was all you can drink and they gave us some nice-ish food. Best thing was socialising with the teachers (Song-sensei and Kanayama-sensei both sat at our table in the izakaya) and seeing Chanelle mix drinks while trying not to get caught by the izakaya staff, having brought her own selection in with the intention of mixing mojitos and pina coladas for the teachers. For some reason they had never tried them before.
I went home afterwards, having to wait half an hour for the bus (bought some cakes from the Little Mermaid bakery before it closed. They make really nice apple pies. Though maybe not as good as my nana Margaret or my little brother. Their apple pies are amazing.
I revised my butt off for the exams. Was in the library as much as I had been before I had the internet, though it was crowded a lot and I couldn’t get a good desk. I spent 6 hours there drumming causative and passive verbs into my head and writing out kanji after kanji. I even practiced speed reading, which came in so useful in my final exam, since I mistimed it and ended up having 10 minutes to finish the reading section.
I think, despite my mountains of revision, that I failed. Mostly due to my abismal performance in the speaking test. I’d just finished the 2 hour final exam and due to mistiming it I had been forced to miss out some grammar questions I would have otherwise been ablw to answer, and then had 10 minutes to read a 2 page spread of text and answer 2 pages of questions on it. I answered all the questions though, with the exception on the extended writing answer. It shook me up though, realising I had probably failed despite the fact I actually thought I did ok on the kanji and grammar until that point. I ended up with no break and went straight in to the speaking exam. My mind blanked, and the kanji readings in the text that I memorised that morning left me struggling. I made so many mistakes that I knew it was going to be a failure. I ended up getting upset and could hardly continue. I got to the interview part and got through that ok, except half way through I realised I was supposed to be using polite and humble forms and I wasn’t. So I failed again. Then I got to the roleplay. I had written out and practiced 2 of the 3 roleplays. I was better at the one on my experiences in Japan though, and knew I would do well if I got that one. But I was given the letter of reccommendation role play which I wasn’t as good at, and ended up forgetting how to speak any Japanese at all. So I gave up and didn’t finish it.
Kanayama-sensei said I only had around 50% before these exams and I need 60% to pass, so I doubt I will pass.
But she says I will be better off resitting JLP3, but it ruins my plans. I wanted to do JLP3 this semester, JLP4 next semester and intensive JLP5 and 6 in my final semester. If I have to resit, then JLP4 is the highest I can get, and it isn’t good enough to get fluent for my final year in Japanese at Newcastle University.
Also if I fail this semester, I may get my scholarship taken off me, and have to repay the 100,000yen I have already recieved. Though I can’t exactly help the fact I had influenza…
I have been pretty lonely whilst in Japan, but I am starting to get out more and make more friends. I went to Tokyo Disney Sea with the Soul Run people. I could only afford to go after 6pm (which is 3,100yen as opposed to 6,500yen for the whole day) but it was still amazing. I got to ride some fun rides and see a 3D Aladdin live show, and I bought some Minnie Mouse ears (they were 1,050yen though :S ) The fireworks were amazing. Everything was so Christmassy even though it is onlt November!
On December 2nd we are all going to Disney Land for the day. I hope I can afford it, since I am running low on money. I’m going to transfer more over this evening when the UK is up and running. I think it will be faster than last time, mostly because I actually know I need to go convert it from pounds to yen myself rather than waiting for it to happen itself. Maybe I will get a good exchange rate this time?
I went out with Gary and the guys from Canada House the other day. We went to a festival at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies not too far from ICU’s campus. We rode our bikes there, which was good because I needed the exercise. I hadn’t eaten all day but I didn’t like how small the food portion sizes were for the money they were charging. I gave in and bought some ゆず茶(Yuzu Tea) from the Korean food stall. Yuzu are a sweet citrus fruit that is very popular in Japan. It reminded me of how Lemsip would taste if it was actually yummy. Very sweet and tangy.
After the festival, some of us went off to Higashi-Koganei station’s side streets and got some Gyoza from this really nice restaurant. It only cost 500yen for 2 rows of gyoza (10 gyoza in totally I think. either 10 or 12) plus a bowl of rice, some pickles and some soup. There was free water on the table too. I had a really fun time and made new friends – some American, some Japanese.
I am hoping that I will spend the holidays going places with friends, but everyone seems busy going outside Tokyo. I can’t afford that yet. Maybe I can’t afford it until after Christmas, or perhaps not at all.
I am looking forward to Soul Run Video Night #2 (I was unaware #1 had even happened) and I really hope I have the money for Disney Land on the 2nd.
Tags: Canada House, cycling, Disney Land, Disney Sea, festival, gyoza, ICU, illness, Japan, Japanese, JLP3, kanji, money, party, revision, swine flu, travelling, Video Night
Reicheru’s all-nighter!
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For the first time in my life that I remember, I stayed awake for a full 24 hours. In fact, it was more like 27 hours.
I slept from 12pm until 5pm, then stayed up until 8pm the next day.
I just couldn’t sleep. I had a bad chest, cough, my nose was then stinging like crazy and I was thirsty no matter how much I drank. Of course, drinking loads meant I was up every 10 mins going to the toilet, and I ended up with a headache. I tried to sleep, but couldn’t. Then, 7am in the morning I felt tired.. but of course it was too late for me to sleep. It would screw with my sleeping patterns more than my recent late nights have, so I had to stay awake.
Thank God I found out about Drawn Together. I started watching it and it kept me awake. My God, it is funny! I was watching the uncut version, and it beats South Park in terms of crass-ness. But it is so freakin’ funny. I love how it parodies reality tv too. My favourite character… is either Foxxy Love or LingLing. Foxy is pretty cool, stereotypically black and is pretty much the smart one, even if she isn’t smart. She’s more… levelheaded? I guess… I dunno. There is something about her that makes her a more central character I think. Then there is LingLing – a Pikachu spoof battle monster who talks Japerean and will fight anyone. Super cute and super deadly
I was watching youtube during my all-nighter, and was amazed at the talent of so many voice actors. Apart from the obvious – Mel Blanc ~ God of Voice Acting and creator of most of the Looney Toons voices – there were some amazing talents there. I learned about loads of actors.
One thing I was sad to learn about though was that Mickey Mouse died this year. I can’t believe I didn’t find out sooner… but Mickey Mouse’s current voice actor, Wayne Allwine died in the Summer, and he’d been the voice of Mickey since the 70’s. He was so Mickey, he was married to Minnie – his wife, Russi Taylor, has been voicing Minnie Mouse for nearly as long.
Sad times. I watched some interviews with him and he seemed like the most genuine, sweet, happy person in the world – very much Mickey Mouse.
He will be missed – Kingdom Hearts will never be the same without the true King Mickey. I doubt the new guy, Bret Iwan, will be as good. Wayne seemed perfect for the role.
Yesterday I went shopping and bought food. I’ve been snacking all day because of that.. food doesn’t last a day in this place… I am enjoying my strawberry and banana milk, and I bought a load of frozen veggies. I’m considering frying some chips soon. I really fancy some chips.
And pizza. Though the pizza will have to wait until I am well again.
I’m feeling much better now, after getting a lot of sleep yesterday. Slept from 8pm until midnight, then got up and played Pokemon Heart Gold until 3am. Then I went back to sleep and woke up at 1pm.
Pokemon Heart Gold is pretty good. I have had to play along side a notepad and dictionary though for the words I am not sure of. I got confused at the fact the Pokemon names are different, and the attack moves are in Japanese too, so there is a lot of guess work too. But, it was fun
I am happy with my little Waninoko [Totodile in English] and I can’t wait to start catching more pokemon, though it is hard to get motivated to play as I need to use the dictionary and notepad too incase I don’t understand something. Tis cool seeing the pokemon follow me around though.
I’m gonna try and write some fanfiction before going to bed. I feel the need to contribute to ff.net since I have read all of the good B&V stories that are up at the moment.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I burnt myself yesterday. I was cooking eggs for breakfast and grabbed the frying pan handle a little too close to the top and caught my hand on the metal for a few seconds. I wasn’t fast enough at adjusting my grip to avoid a nasty burn. Put ice on it immediately. It stopped hurting after 2 mins, and has been a giant blister ever since. Doesn’t hurt though, so I am just leaving it. So long as I don’t need to write too much… and since I can’t go back to uni until next week, I think it is ok. It’ll be gone by then, right?
Tags: all-nighter, apartment, Bulma and Vegeta, Disney, Drawn Together, fanfiction, illness, Japanese, Mickey Mouse, Pokemon Heart Gold, shopping, sleepy, translation, voice acting, youtube
What to do when you are stuck with swine flu?
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So I am stuck in my apartment all day. Can’t go to uni, can’t go out shopping (though tomorrow I will have to as I need to get my rent from the atm and I need to buy bread and toilet paper…)
So, today after boiling up some edamame beans for breakfast so I could eat something before taking my Tamiflu meds, I tried to watch anime but fell asleep, until a text from Wataru about Soul Run people possibly going to Ueno Zoo woke me up. It didn’t stop me though. I simply read it then turned over and went back to sleep (after switching off the laptop I left on ^^; )
I ended up sleeping from about 12pm til about 5pm. Good use of a day, though I doubt it will help me get into good sleeping habits. Mind, I did wake up at 10.20am today instead of 1pm. Maybe trying to get to sleep at 1.30am rather than 3am had an effect, even if I couldn’t sleep.
Anyways, I have enough tamiflu for 5 days (4 days after todays doses) and I need to do something… I mean, I will study of course, since I am being left waaaay behind now, but I need something else. Something a bit more fun.
That is when I remembered Alicia Blade. One of the best fanfiction authors online, I subscribed to her newsletter and I read her blog and she is always mentioning NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it is from November 1st til November 30th. During that time, participants must write novel of at least 50,000 words.
It sounds fun I may give it a go, though not officially. If it is official, there is too much pressure. I’ll just do it for myself.
I’m also going to try and write more fanfiction too. I’ve been far too lazy recently.
Anyways, today was pretty uneventful, after all I did sleep most of the day. My landlady came to see how I was doing before she headed off to a concert. Today is Cultural Day (文化の日；ぶんかのひ；bunka no hi) in Japan. Despite the national holiday, ICU still had classes though I couldn’t attend.
I made myself some spaghetti with “real” Italian tomato and basil sauce I bought from the Emio supermarket in Musashino the other week. It was foul. Bitter horrible tomato flavour – worst pasta ever.
My Mam phoned me as i was cooking and we had a nice long chat. She told me what she was going to send over in a Christmas hamper though I don’t think it will arrive for Christmas because she is having to wait until my brother’s student loan comes in before she can afford to send it (he owes her board money) but the way the Student Loans Company is, I doubt he’ll get it til January. Tis a shame because the hamper had Christmas pudding and all manners of yummy treats, and also some gifts for my lovely landlady. It’ll cost a fortune to ship over though and will take a while due to being shipped by sea mail. It can take 2 months, so even if it gets sent now I may not get it til January.
My phone battery died, so I didn’t get to say bye properly.
After eating the World’s Worst Pasta, I decided to make some miso soup. I was relieved to find I had bought dashi stock and finally got round to using the kilo of shiro-miso (white miso) I bought a few weeks back. The only veggies I had though were some frozen broccoli and some onion. I had potatoes too but was too lazy to cook them. It was pretty simple to make and tasted ok. Not as strong as what I am used to but white miso is not as salty as red miso or black miso. The dashy made it taste pretty fishy… though it was probably beneficial for my health. It was bound to be full of protein and the broccoli is known for fighting the flu.
After that I took my 2nd Tamiflu capsule and drank some green tea.
Now I am all wrapped up in 3 layers of blankets feeling nausious, with a slight headache (no fever though Thank goodness!) and a blocked nose. I might catch up with this week’s new anime episodes since I am falling behind, then probably go to sleep. Though it is tempting to start NaNoWriMo – I am 3 days behind already…
Tags: cooking, fanfiction, illness, landlady, miso soup, NaNoWriMo, National Holiday, pasta, phonecall home, sleepy, student loans, swine flu
Swine Flu!
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Oh joy. It is official. I have caught Swine Flu.
I put it off for so long but when I began to have chest pains and a cough along with a high temperature, I figured it was time to see the doctors. I was worried incase I would catch pneumonia in the sudden cold weather we have here in Tokyo right now. Once you get pneumonia with your swine flu you are pretty much done for.
I got dressed, packed an overnight bag (just in case) and went aknocking next door for my landlady at about 9pm. She the took my temperature, gave me a ton of blankets and drove me to Musashino Red Cross Hospital.
While there I waited for an 2 hours. She stayed with me the whole time and she even rubbed my back when I said it hurt and she really looked after me. She explained to the hospital staff, wrote the kanji of my address for me and stuff.
My temperature was 38 degrees. My chest still hurts, I have a sore throat, occassional bouts of sneezing and coughing, a massive headache, a runny nose, I can’t stop shivering and to add insult to injury I am now super hungry. But alas, all i have is pasta and it takes too long to make this late at night.
I will have to take time off uni, be in quarantine for a few days and I have o drink a horrible powder every so often to get rid of my fever, and take tamiflu twice a day.
Joy.
ICU 50th Festival Fun (plus aftermath illness)
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It’s no secret that I have been feeling kinda ill lately. If it wasn’t my dodgy knees it was Friday’s migrane attack which prevented me from going to the last Soul Run practice and the much anticipated pizza party.
I made myself go to the festival on Saturday because I needed to perform Soul Run and could not let my friends down, but I was pleased that when I got up, I was merely tired and had a slight headache. I went off to Musashino to get me some paracetamol and a black tank top for the performance and happened to bump into my good friend Ashley who was heading to the festival too. So we went to the festival together and sampled the bubble tea (plenty of choice as to where to buy it from since there were at least 3 stalls) and other nice foods (though I didn’t really eat since I was quite nervous and had already eaten some Poppo okonomiyaki for brunch)
We watched the traditional Japanese dancing in Shin D building and stood and talked to Jillian and her Japanese host-dad for a bit. He was such a sweet guy. He invited us to visit Jillian whenever we wanted lol. Very sweet.
I had to go get prepared for Soul Run’s 2.55pm performance so I lent Ashley my camera to take film footage and then went to get changed.
Before the performance we had a run through which went ok. Then we headed off to Shin D to drop off our stuff, but we had a crisis when we were 1 happi short. It was somehow worked out and we then went and lined up for our performance. It were all buzzing – it was an amazing feeling. Not so much nervous as excited. We all headed off into formation and waited for the shout of “komai”. It was over so quickly! I made a few mistakes and didn’t go down as low as the others because of my knee but the performance still looked amazing. We got a load of cheers and as we went back behind the stage and celebrated the end of our performance we were suddenly posing for a billion photos. We were uber-popular. But alas, no-one knew how to vote for us so we didn’t win the best performance award at the end of the festival today.
After that we all went back to Shin-D and got changed, then I hung around with Rob, Miles, Katie and their friends from Leeds Uni (Kazuya, Matthew, Fran and Ella) and we wandered around sampling more foods and things. I got me some choco taiyaki (fish shaped chocolate filled pancake), some takoyaki (fried batter balls with octopus inside, covered in a sticky sauce, mayonnaise and bonito flakes) and some green tea
We sat on the grass talking for a bit, mostly about British accents and stuff. Then we went to Shin-D and sat talking to Lianne from Soul Run. We arranged to go to karaoke after the Soul Ran Otsukare Party in Kichijouji.
I headed off to get my bike for the ride up to Musashisakai Station (since my knee had fared quite nicely when all strapped up) and met up with everyone from Soul Run. We headed off, parked our bikes and got the train to Kichijouji Station. I had to lend some money from Rei for the meal because I couldn’t get any cash out.
The meal was an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can drink yakiniku party. We had to grill the meal ourselves on a little bbq in front of us. We were constantly supplied with giant pitchers of cocktails and huge plates of sliced meat and veggies, and massive bowls of plain rice. It was totally delishous. We played party games in English and Japanese, laughed, joked, made people down their booze and then the presents for the graduating members, the club committee and the bosses were presented, and Tatsuya was announced as next year’s “danjo” (boss).
We got kicked out at 9.15pm, but Wataru was suddenly very ill. No-one realised he had been unwell before we forced a load of drinks down his neck, but he had to be taken home he was so unwell. We were very worried. He managed to get home ok, and emailed everyone late saying he was ok.
We split into 2 groups after that – those who were going to go clubbing for Halloween and those who weregoing to come to karaoke with the Brits
There were 15 of us going for karaoke. It was an amzing experience. We all got a free drink, and we sung loads of songs. I was a bit lost reading the Japanese sometimes but I got to sing Arashi’s Sakura Sake, since I knew most of the words anyway.
I tried Dragonball’s Cha-La Head Cha-La but only remembered the chorus lol. My throat was sore from singing so much!
We headed home at midnight, and got the train back to Musashisakai Station, collected our bikes and rode off home.
This morning I didn’t wake up until 2.30pm, and had missed my friend’s events at the festival I had a headache and a sore throat but just thought it was sleeping too much and because of karaoke.
I tidied my apartment, which was looking super messy. Got all the dishes washed and cleaned the bathroom for fear of cockroaches, and put clothes in the washing machine, then got ready and headed off to see the end of the festival.
On the way there I got stopped by a Japanese guy who started talking to me at random. He was asking me loads of questions, and we exchanged phone numbers. I was a little surprised because I thought Japanese people were quite reserved. I think he may have been coming on to me, because he was saying he likes western girls, and asking me what I thought of Japanese guys and when he saw a pic of my boyfriend he asked where he was from and seemed happy to find out my boyfriend was English and not currently in Japan. He seemed nice enough, but a little too forward. I shouldn’t have given my number out to a stranger… but at the time I was too surprised to make an excuse that wouldn’t cause offense. I managed to escape eventually though and headed off to find Soul Run people.
We were told there was a chance we got 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in the performance awards, and if we did we would have to perform again. I brought my stuff with me but the place was being cleared up. The stage was being cleared away and I could hardly see anyone from Soul Run. I bumped into Anna who told me everything had been moved to the auditorium because they were worried about rain, and that we still may have to perform. I was about to head home because I was feeling a bit yucky and had nothing to do, but she said we may have to perform so I had to go park my bike and get changed.
I met up with a load of Soul Run members and we watched the ceremony in the auditorium.
We didn’t win. Wadaiko got 1st place, Smooth Steppers got 2nd place and I have no idea who 3rd place was.
I had to leave though because I was burning up and very thirsty. I felt light-headed and sick. I got home after stopping by the convenience store and grabbing some vitamin water, green tea, cooling patches for my head, some throat sweets and a bentou (since all I had eaten before then was some cheesy-potato mochi from Kanako’s stall.)
I rode my bike back in a rather wobbly fashion and found myself talking my thoughts aloud to myself for some reason. I was a bit delirious I think. I got home, full of aches and pains in my legs, back and especially my neck, I was shaking, my head was burning up, I was tired, super thirsty with a pounding headache and a sore throat. My nose was blocked but I could feel the phlegm in the back of my throat making me sick.
As soon as I got in I downed some water and some cold and flu capsules and started drinking my vitamin water. I put my cooling patch on my head and broadcast my sickness to my friends on facebook.
I am so gonna have to go to the doctors. Could be swine flu… but I think it may just be a bad cold caused by lack-of-sleep and stress.
Early night for me I think, and lots of fluids. Going to the ICU Clinic tomorrow to get some help.
Apart from being ill though, the weekend was awesome!
Tags: apartment, being hit-on, convenience store, ICU, ICU Festival, illness, Japan, karaoke, Kichijouji, sleepy, Soul Run, swine flu, tidying up, yakiniku
Sleep deprivation = illness
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I stayed up late writing the world’s worst sakubun only to find out the hand in date was Friday and not Thursday. Gutted.
I have been dead on my feet all day having had to get up early for Soul Run’s morning practice. I nearly fell asleep a few times in class, and my eyes just couldn’t focus on the OHP or the textbook.
I also forgot about today’s vocab quiz due to my stressing over the sakubun and therefore did really badly on that.
I got back to my apartment, intending to do homework but fell asleep instead. And I am still tired. How is that possible?! I woke up with a sore throat and a fever somehow as well.
Went off to the evening practice of Soul Run which was hilarious – the dirty-minded English-speakers amongst us laughing when Rei used such terms as “spread your legs” to the girls and “I’ll come (to the front)”.
Rob and Miles were genki as usual – they always manage to cheer me up.
It was a shame Katie missed practice but since she only got 2 hours sleep last night, who can blame her?
The dance looks amazing, but I feel I let it down a lot. My knee injury means I cannot go down as low as I should be, so I stand out amongst everyone else who is doing it properly. I also am a bit clumsy with my moves – I missed so many practices too. I hope I can do ok on the day.
I am very much looking forward to the pizza party after tomorrow night’s 5pm practice, and the all-you-can-eat yakitori after the performance.
I also plan on eating the traditional festival foods – yakisoba, choco-banana and (if they have it) takoyaki Gonna be a weekend of excessive eating me thinks
Right now I am just about ready to die. My head is pounding, my throat is sore, I am freezing cold, but my forehead is burning. No cough yet, but I am feeling a bit sick (probably the convenience store takoyaki I ate earlier)
I want to sleep, but I need to shower and do more formation drills and stuff. Too tired… but I have to do the work.
I’m planning on going to buy a black top for Soul Run tomorrow so I may be joining Rob in his search for shirts that actually fit western people. Then again if I feel as crappy as I do right now, I may not get out of bed tomorrow and will have to miss uni, soul run practice and a pizza party and have no top for the festival… Ok, I’m gonna drag myself out of bed even if I am dying tomorrow.
Why is my apartment always so cold? I’m so glad I have a fluffy fleese blanket and cushion to help keep me extra warm.
Tags: Japan, apartment, party, Chinese food, ICU, homework, Soul Run, injury, shopping, illness, convenience store, ICU Festival, shirt, innuendo, sleepy
