| WHY?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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8.11.06 - 11.56pm
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I think I from Full House OST |
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OMGGGGGGGGGGG I HAD A CHANCE TO GO TO TSUBASA'S SOLO CON FOR ONLY 5000YEN BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I HAVE TO LEAVE THE DAY BEFORE THE CONCERT T_______________________________________________T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no motivation to do anything now.
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| So busy!!! |
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8.6.06 - 7.09am
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七色の明日 ~brand new beat~ by BoA |
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Ah, long time no update!!! Need to catch up on SO MUCH stuff...... I'll try to remember everything
July 25 - Bosai Kan
On Tuesday, all my group when to a fire department at Honjo Bosai-kan to learn about safety procedures for earthquakes. First we watched a video simulating one of the earthquakes that happened in Japan a couple of years ago. Then we went to different stations within our groups. The first station we went to was talking about the dangers of smoke when a fire starts because of an earthquake. Then we went groups of 6 through this maze full of vanilla-smelling "smoke" and had to follow the emergency exit signs to escape. Inside the maze were sensors so that if you weren't crounching low enough, it set off and you were "dead" because in a real life situation you would suffocate. My group was the first group and we all made it out okay XD. I think we might have been the only group that got through OK, but I wasn't paying attention.
Next we went to an earthquake simulator. We had to put pillows on top of our heads and hide under the table while this pretend room was shaking. It was a lot of fun XD.
Then we went to fire extinguishing training. We got these fire extinguishers (with water only in them, though) and had to shoot them at a screen with a picture of a fire working in groups of 5. If we succeeded within the time limit, the fire would go out....otherwise you had to watch as the room in the screen burned up ^^.
Lastly, we went to a typhoon simulator. We had to put on rainboots and full body raincoats and masks. Then we went in the simulator and there's tons of "rain" and wind.
( Pictures )
July 26th
Went to eat ramen at a yummy ramen shop nearby. Otherwise, I don't think anything spectacular happened that day
( pictures )
July 28th
I forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures. But this day after Kakegawa field trip workshop, Weiting, Jane, Mandy, Tiffany, Gigi, and I went karaoke. So much fun and SOOOOOOOO cheap if you go during the day. You have to buy a drink (which is cheapest 350yen) and then it's 50yen for every half hour. If you go at night it's like 500 yen every half hour @_@. Anyway, I stayed for 3 hours and it only amounted to 645yen or something insanely cheap like that.
Some of the songs I remember we sang were Wannabe (Spice Girls), Stop (Spice Girls), MISIA song, ROSE from an anime, NeoGeoEva theme song, KareKano anime song, Yume Monogatari (T&T), lots of Chinese songs, Shine We Are! (BoA), NewS Nippon (NEWS), Kibou ~Yell~ (NEWS), Real Face (KAT-TUN) and lots more.
July 29th
Saturday I woke up at 6:30 to get to the Tsukiji fish market and eat raw fish sashimi for the first time. Tsukiji is really famous for it's fish market and the sushi made is from the fish caught THAT morning, so it's super fresh. We had to wait in line for 1.5 hours in order to get into the sushi bar because in sushi bar there are only 10-13 seats and the sushi chefs make it right in front of you. I was surprised at how not slimy the sushi was...I really expected it to be from appearance, it was actually pretty good. Except for the baby shrimp one, which was pretty gross because the texture was so mushy, like brains. Sea urchin was surprisingly ok, although I still prefer the fish ones more.
Afterwards, I went to Harajuku and finally got to meet ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) nicky87. It was a lot of fun shopping for Johnnys stuff together because I don't know where most of the blackmarket shops are XD. I ended up buying lots of DBSK photos... We walked around Harajuku and then went to HMV and Tower Records in Shibuya and looked for mags, but couldn't find the ones we wanted :/. Next time XD!
( Fish Market (lots of sushi pictures) + Shibuya )
Update on my homestay later!
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| A day with Bex :D! |
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7.22.06 - 6.27am
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Shine We Are! (Korean) by BoA |
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Today was a lot of fun super shooping with Rebecca! Ah, I was so happy to finally meet her after knowing each other online for a year ^^! We met up a Snoopy Town in front of Harajuku station :). I had left a little early (around 11:45...I woke up at 11:00 XD) to get to the station a little early so I could wave like crazy in case she couldn't find it^^. But it turned out that she was there before me anyway :0 (I just read your e-mail tonight, Bex...it was in my junk mail...but that's ok 'cus I didn't check my e-mail this morning anyway :x...I hope you didn't wait too long). I had just gotten off the station and looked at the time and was like "Oh, I have about half an hour to burn until 1:00" but then I saw a white person standing at Snoopy Town. It was her XD! Ah, I was so happy! (hahaha good thing it was Rebecca, otherwise it would have been so awkward :x...). Way cuter in real life ;D!
We walked around Takeshita Street in Harajuku just shopping around mostly. We also visited Johnnys store, which had quite a few people today since it was the weekend. Since it's July, there are a lot of sales going on (granted, though, something that originally costs $150 cut by 60% is still really expensive, so there weren't TONS of deals out there^^), but we both bought clothes from SOS-Market on Takeshita Street. I bought this lacy top thing and Rebecca bought a pretty dark aqua dress-thing (one of those outfits that either works as a really short dress or a baby-doll top). Buying it really made me want to go back to Shinjuku and buy those cute shoes :x... Anyway, we also went to Claire's to find a shiny belt, but Claire's failed us so we bought jewelery instead. I bought 3 earrings + and ear cuff (I think I don't know how to put it on correctly...) and Bex bought a really big sparkly cross and necklace to attract Yoko at the next K8 concert (because Yoko really likes shiny things ^^....).
After going through Harajuku we walked over to Shibuya. On the way we stopped over at Starbucks to rest and buy green tea frappaccino (really good). She gave a HUGE pile of magazine pages with Johnnys pictures :D!! Ureshii~~ THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Then after resting a while we walked some more, stopping at HMV, Tower Records, and Book Off. We also saw a huge KinKi Kids poster, so we asked some girls to take a picture with us in front of the billboard, which was fun :). Then on to Shibuya where we did TONS of shopping, saw cute sales guys, and an Oguri Shun look-a-like (only with black hair). I bought my Hello Kitty bag for only $10 and it was really big! Bex boughts some nice shiny belts as well :D. I also made Bex go tour the cake section at the mall with me and we oogled at how pretty they were :). Bought a strawberry shortcake!
More shopping and then we went to eat a tempura restaurant where Rebecca was soSOSOSO nice to treat me too _(_._)_. It was really delicious (although we just randomly ordered something because there were no pictures T__T) and Bex showed me Jweb :). I was so happy that we could talk about so much since I'm not very social around people I don't know well^^.
THANK YOU SO MUCH BEX FOR A WONDERFUL DAY!!!!!!! You're so nice and cute! I really hope we can meet up again in the future :D!!!
(maybe add to this entry later when I'm not so tired :x...going to drink apple juice now :D)
PS: Bex, I tried to call your cell at around 11:00 to make sure you got back ok, but for some reason my phone card would let me dial that number :x.
( Pictures )
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| YAY XD! (can't think of a good title) |
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7.21.06 - 9.58am
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金魚花火 by 大塚愛 |
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Ah studying is so taihen!!! Especially the kanji. Understanding the meaning through reading is okay and writing them is okay, but looking at the hiragana/writing the pronounciation is so difficult for me v_v. There are around 2-4 pronounciations for each kanji....SO ANNOYING. It was okay in college because we only do like 15 kanji every two weeks and we don't learn very many vocabulary that uses them and the different pronounciations. But with my kanji class we learn 15 kanji per DAY, and each kanji we have to know all the pronounciations of as well as 6~ish words that use them. On top of that, I have roughly 10 kanji per day from my regular Japanese class.... UWA~~ But the regular class kanji are a lot easier, because we only learn 2 or 3 words that use them.
Besides class, I went out with Juliana (my roommate) and Jane shopping before going to eat dinner at a soup curry place called "Fuuu!" to celebrate Jane's birthday. At the station, we couldn't find the people we were supposed to meet up with (Gigi, Mandy, Annette, Weiting, Tiffany, and Gabrielle) so we were calling each other on cell phones forever trying to find each other ^^. Luckily we saw Gigi across the street because she was wearing a bright red shirt. At Fuuu! we celebrated Jane and Tiffany (birthday the next day)'s birthday and took lots of pictures ^^. Then afterwards at the dorm we shared a strawberry tart that Tiffany bought :). It was really delicious XD!
Right now I have the room all to myself for today, this weekend, and possibly Monday because my roommate went to Shinjuku to stay with her ex since he came to visit her for a week. She already has a boyfriend, but she didn't tell him that she was staying with her ex....which is kind of weird.....I won't event try to understand >.>....
BTW, food really isn't that expensive in Japan if you know where to buy it. I bought an entire lunch set for only 300yen (less than US$3) consisting of udon, those fried potato things (I forgot what they're called), and curry rice. Earrings are also super cheap here compared to the US. Usually the "nice" earrings at Claire's or where ever cost $6-8. But here they cost around 350yen (Around $3.25). The things that are expensive are clothes, fruits, and vegetables. Chicken is pretty cheap, but always comes fried or BBQ. Japanese people really don't eat enough vegetables. It's like the eat fish and meat and rice and natto and that's it. Like at Japanese restaurants, I don't think I've ever seen a dish of just vegetables, or at least consisting half of vegetables (which, as a Chinese person, is really insane...too many "yang" foods). As a result, I feel really unhealthy eating here because I feel I don't have enough fruit and vegetables. Thus, I try not to eat a lot of meat here...when we are at the Coop (canteen), I always try to order noodles because at least the put some pieces of seaweed and green onion (although not hardly enough).
Another thing that I find a little annoying is the insanely huge apples here. I can probably only eat half of one....and then I can't do anything with the other half! You'd think since Japan is so into small, cute things, the apples would be small. Also the cell phones here are really large compared to American ones, although there is way more variety because everyone here (especially the youth) are obsessed with them.
Today (Friday) after class I went with Weiting, Annette, and Emily to shop at Shinjuku. Emily left a bit early because she needed to go eat dinner with her mom (she doesn't live in the dorm with the rest of us). We some really delicious food at a Japanese restaurant (the fish was cheap and good :D). We also had some sort of sweet pizza with banana and ice cream and also a strawberry+redbean custard thing. Oishii!!
Afterwards, we went clothes shopping. I found some SUPER cute shoes at one of the stores, but even after it being on sale, it was still 4830yen (approx US$41). I was SO sad :(. Also, there was a super cute skirt! But it wasn't on sale and cost 8900yen (US$77). I might go back and get the shoes, though, because they were so cute :3.....*dies*.
Anyway, we talked a lot about being ABC and FOB (and ABCFOB and ABC wannabe) which was really funny XD. I'm really glad to be Chinese because there are so many Chinese girls on this trip, we all mutually clump together ^^.
While we were walking to bus stop, we saw Jay Chou's "Fearless" MV (aka really funny MV that wasn't meant to be funny XD). I thought it was amusing, so I took a picture XD.
And I was proud (ahhh....excuse me while I be vain and shallow for a minute^^) that I fit into size small in Japan! I thought definitely I will have to wear large. But medium was so big v_v. Maybe it was just the places they were shopping at, though :x.
EDIT: I forgot to mention, "stuffed" Asian bras are SERIOUSLY stuffed. I mean...I swear it's at least 1.5 inches thick O_o.
( Pictures on July 19 )
( July 21 pictures )
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| Umi no Hi (Sea Day) |
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7.17.06 - 10.40am
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Today is public holiday, so I have no classes today! Yay!!!
Saturday I slept in and watched TV and saw Morning Musume. performing cover melodies of Wink, Pink Lady, etc. They wore horrible costumes XD and talked about Asami and Makoto's graduation from the group. I also saw Koda Kumi's CM for the mobile phone and KAT-TUN CM for something (I forget). A lot of the other people went to buy yukata for fireworks the next day. I didn't go because I already have yukata which I rarely get a chance to wear and I didn't want to buy another one. But I did take pictures of my roommate's (she bought two; yellow and red). I also watched some anime that reminded me of Sailor Moon, only with boys because the guys would transform pretty much the same way. It was kind of weird because apparently this witch girl was sending pink pirahnas to attack another girl and some blue-haired guy was there to save her.
Then on Sunday we went to Yokohama to watch the fireworks. They were SOOOOOOOO amazing!!!!! Well first we had to take a metro to Shibuya and then switch lines to take a 35 minute metro to Yokohama. At the Takanobaba Station I saw ads for KinKi Kids new single (which I might buy because it comes with B3 poster!! Aaa....I was totally not going to buy it, but since they throw that in...). Then at the Shibuya station I saw huge ads of KAT-TUN advertising mobile phone. Oh, also I saw the "women only" metro car. But it is only women only during rush hour, so we saw men in there that day.
When we arrived at Yokohama we went to Chinatown and searched for dofu fa (Chinese sweet tofu dessert). It was really hard to find, but we found a stand that sold it. It was Taiwanese style with the peanuts, which I had never tried before...I really wanted to eat Hong Kong style, though :(. It was pretty good, though, although a little too sweet.
When we got to Yamashita Park to watch the fireworks, there were TONS of people. You had to take off your shoes to walk on the mats that people sat on. It was such A LONG wait for the fireworks even though we got there late. But the fireworks start much earlier here compared to the US; it started at 7:30pm and was pretty dark already. Also, we had AMAZING seats to the fireworks. Right in front of the waterfront and in the middle (the fireworks are launched from a boat)!!! Anyway, while we were waiting, this drunk old lady "fell" on top of me....I say "fell" because it was more like she lay down on top of me... It was really scary!!! I thought I was being attacked by a pervert or something >.>.....it was so weird 'cus she took FOREVER to get off of me X_X. While we were waiting some people in our group were playing drinking games, which was kind of interesting.... (which reminds me, on the day I went shopping at Harajuku and Shibuya, some people went to clubs later that night and apparently went to a transgender bar...). While waiting for fireworks, the boat kept shooting up these rainbow smoke things that I'm not sure what they were.... and also sprayed water really high (I guess to entertain us until the main attraction)
I took pictures and lots of videos of the fireworks! Words can't describe how INCREDIBLE they were!!! SO BIG AND GORGEOUS!! Imagine the finale fireworks in Ames only 10x better for the ENTIRE hour. It was great. It was kind of funny because between each spurt of fireworks there would be a 15 second pause and an announcer would read off the sponsors of the event XD (mini-advertisements). The pictures and videos really don't do the fireworks justice because the fireworks looked so much bigger and the colors were much more vibrant in real life. There were a couple fireworks that I missed catching that I wished I did; there was a fish one, a Doraemon one (SOOOOOOO CUTE), a Hello Kitty one, and a double heart one (heart inside a heart).
I uploaded all my videos but one (because that one was too big) on to youtube and you can check it out here
( Pictures )
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| Harajuku and Shibuya |
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7.15.06 - 11.51am
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Rising Sun DBSK |
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So yesterday I went to Hararuku and Shibuya to go shopping! It was SOOOOO much fun and there was so much stuff to look at. Harajuku is known as the "teenage" part of Tokyo; very much teen fashion, styles, music, etc. Shibuya is just major shopping area; clothes, foods, etc. LOTS of people and big TV screens in the street! I counted 4 at one intersection. Actually, we weren't really planning to go to Shibuya, but we went the wrong way to go back to the station so we decided to go to the station in Shibuya.
ARGH Photobucket deleted one of my July 13 album T__T!
Anyway, Harajuku was just MAJOR fangirling because, YAYYYYYYYYYYYYy Johnnys shop! Plus blackmarket photoshop XD.
The Johnnys shop was actually pretty disappointing. It was so..... plain? Like the ground was cement and there weren't as many goods as I thought there would be. You aren't allowed to take pictures of the shop or the inside of the shop, otherwise I'd show how unspectacular it is XD. The KAT-TUN shop photos were the only ones that had a metal safety bar around them LOL. Probably to protect them from both the crazy fans and the haters XD. And surprisingly, ALL THE YOKO posters and uchiwas were sold out!!! WOW! I didn't realize he had become so popular in Japan *hearts*. K8 group poster was also sold out when I got there. Most of the other stuff was REALLY old (like KinKi Kids stuff was from last years font de anniversary v_v). Only K8 stuff was fairly new since they did their tour. KAT-TUN I couldn't find posters of.
Once we got outside of Johnnys shop, we heard Koichi Domoto's Deep in Your Heart song playing! And then we saw at the last second that it was truck that was advertising the single, but it was so far away and moving, it was hard to take a picture.
Besides Johnnys stuff there was lots of Gothic Lolita clothes and yummy looking crepes XD~~~.
While we were at Shibuya, as we were walking out of a tempura shop and we saw KAT-TUN's advertisement truck for "Signal"!!! All of us were look "AAAA KAT-TUN!!!! KAT-TUN!!!" and hastily getting our cameras out LOLLLLLLLLLLLL. There was an old Japanese lady behind us and she laughed at us and said "Really fun, isn't it?" (in Japanese of course XD). ahahhaha it was funny. We also saw Koichi's truck again, but it was moving too fast D:. (BTW, for the non-jpop fans, KAT-TUN is currently the hottest pretty boy idol group in Japan right now).
Besides Johnnys, I saw a lot of Koda Kumi :D!!!! It was really hard to find Amuro Namie stuff, though :/.
At Shibuya, the cakes were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pretty and yummy looking!!!! I really REALLY wanted to take pictures of them, but I'm pretty sure that I'd get in trouble ^^.
On the way home on the subway, I'm pretty sure I got "felt up" -_-. But I was just getting off the subway when it happened and when I turned around, I only saw and old lady behind me -_-...
Besides that, I really love staying here in Tokyo!! Everything is just a subway ride away although it takes about 20 minutes to walk to the nearest train station. But I love being able to access the main shopping places (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Akihabara) so easily. And subway costs only about 160yen each time I ride it.
( Pictures )
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| Classes |
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7.13.06 - 3.56am
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ハレルヤ by AAA |
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Yay I got into level 2!!! The grammar exams were SO difficult. I couldn't even complete half of it... had to circle a lot of "I don't know" XD. I really thought I would be placed into level 1... but thankfully not! I was really worried on the first day of class, though, because was really really hard for me. And the homework was even harder... because there was so much kanji, vocabulary, and grammar forms I was expected to know, but never learned. But luckily today was so much better... hopefully it will be alright ^^. In addition to classes (which are 3 hours a day), I also signed up for a kanji workshop. This is where I was really glad to be in level 2 because if you're level 1, you can only choose one out of the 6 workshops. In my kanji workshop, we will learn 250 "essential" kanji as well as watch dramas/movies/anime. We, as a class, also went to by cheap manga to read because we're supposed to be able to read it by the end of the six weeks, I guess XD (ehhhhhh.....). I bought "Fruits Basket" because Sari likes it so much I didn't want to risk picking up a book that ended up being porn. It was super cheap, too; less than $2. There's a used CD store right next door, so hopefully I can find the place again and buy lots of cheap music! I went to a CD store after class today and saw a poster advertising KAT-TUN's "Signal" single release, but I didn't buy anything there since I figured I'd wait until going to the used CD shop.
Today some techie people came in to "fix" our internet problem (we just need a hub to split one internet plug-in to two), but of course, nothing got done XP.
( Pictures )
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| First Two Days in Japan |
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7.11.06 - 8.12am
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I'm in Tokyo right now!! Extremely tired from walking around all day, but surprisingly not very jet-lagged. Probably mostly because I slept only about 5 hours on the plane and then went to bed at 10:00pm Japan time.
a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"> </a>
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| Testing |
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7.1.06 - 9.12pm
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Music |
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Testing testing
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