Sign at the Hakodate station, reminding you not to forget anything, with puns! See, Hakodate is famous for squid (ika), and it’s saying “Wasuremono ha naikai?” Yeah, loses something during translation. This is why everyone should learn Japanese, yes? (≧∪≦)
( Sapporo was cold!! )

mood: sleepy music: Eddie Izzard tags: winter 2007

Waking up at 5:30 so we can drag all our bags from Shinagawa to Tokyo so we can catch the Shinkansen to Hachinohe, was not fun. But it snowed! Well, we were in Hokkaido so of course there was snow, but still.


( Snow next to the ocean, trippy )

mood: good music: CSI tags: winter 2007

If Day 3 was for the guys, Day 4 was for me. It was a Sunday, so we went to Harajuku! I got the impression that the guys were going just to see all the people, but even though I told them that the bridge wouldn’t have any one on it before 10am, guess what time we got there? 9:30. Sigh.

So we went to the Heian Jingu next to the bridge while waiting for shops to open and people to show up.


( I remember this place from highschool )

mood: nostalgic tags: winter 2007

Got up too early again, so we had to wait about a half hour for anything to open at Akihabara. But the first stop of the day was worth waiting for.

Misudo!! I got a Double Chocolate Pie to make up for McDonalds not having the sankaku choco pie anymore.

One good thing about getting to Akiba so early was getting to laugh at all the other crazy people. ( hora mite )

mood: amused music: SciFi channel? tags: winter 2007

I know it’s not Osaka, but this street is still natukasii.

( And then began the feet-hurty )

mood: hot music: CSI! tags: winter 2007

I’m baaaack!

Survived traveling from Oregon to Hawaii, Hawaii to Tokyo, Tokyo to Hachinohe, Hachinohe to Sapporo, Sapporo to Osaka, Osaka to Tokyo, and Tokyo back to Hawaii. Hoo. But not the Hard Gay Fuu! XD Two weeks of traveling with the Cousin and the Cousin’s Twin, visiting familiar places, exploring new sights, making new friends and playing with old ones, taking tons of photos all the while.


( Here we go! )

mood: busy tags: winter 2007

Karaoke Withdraaaaaaaaaaal.... HideTrio went every week, sometimes more than once a week. Okay, lots of times we went more than once a week, especially around exam week when we had nothing to do from 2pm on…

I heart the people at Makino’s BigWave. Seriously, if I could have had a part-time job I’d have applied there in a flash. They noticed when Essie had bleached my hair! It wasn’t even one of the people who normally bring our drinks who noticed! And one time when one of the guys brought in our drinks, he danced with us a bit and sang Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo with us ^_________^

( And this lady, wow )

mood: lonely music: ゆらめき～Dir en Grey tags: oh japan

They made us come in on a Saturday, at 9am, for the Graduation Ceremony. Nurrr. And they gave us seat assignments and blocked cell phone signals, so I couldn’t even make faces or quote songs at Essie or Lindsey. At least it was a little more interesting than the Opening Ceremony, if only because we got to go up on stage and bow to people.

Yeah, there was an Opening Ceremony last semester but no Graduation Ceremony, and this semester didn’t have an Opening Ceremony (that I remember, but it might have happened that one day during Orientation that I said screw it, I’m staying in the room and reading my book).

I attempted to get pictures of my friends’ backs as they got their empty red folders, but my digicam is too slow and failed miserably. But I did get a video of the chorus singing Sukiyaki (Ue wo muite arukou), that one Japanese song with the whistling at the end. That was the most interesting version of the song I’ve ever heard! One of the guys was beat boxing. Huh.

Anyway, after the ceremony I ran around ( taking photos of people )

mood: melancholy

Wednesday the 16th Okaasan had a Sayonara Party for me, so Essie, Lindsey, and Yuko came over to the house for an amazing dinner of curry rice, chicken, bread, a strange but yummy veggie dish, and fruits. And bwahahaa, HideTrio is infectious! Yuko’s only been to karaoke with us a few times, but when we broke out the karaoke songs and dances, she understood! Not that she was very happy about it, but still. ^_^

Thursday we had planned to go to a hair place and get my hair bright pink, Essie’s platinum blonde, and Linsey’s pink and black, but things kinda failed. Essie has a job interview, so she nixed the blonde, and Lindsey’s friend vetoed the pink and black hair because Lindsey is in her wedding, and to top it off we couldn’t find a single place that would dye my hair bright pink for any decent price.

( So Friday Essie bleached my hair in the Seminar House bathroom )

mood: blank tags: best host family evar!, o.o

I really enjoy spreading the Spam Musubi Love to places. Spam is cheaper in Tokushima than in Kourien (450 yen vs. 700 yen), but before meeting me Yuko and family had never heard of it. So when I made spam musubi, Yuko took photos and mailed them to people. XDDD


( It was a lazy day )

mood: blank tags: backlog, golden week

It takes a really long time to drive from Yuko’s house to Kazurabashi. Over two hours, I think, stuck in the back seat of a car. Which, of course, made our silly level skyrocket.(≧∪≦) Though part of that might be due to the tower of snacky foods we brought with us…


( Hee, sugar )

mood: blank music: Justice ~ Psycho le Cemu tags: backlog, golden week, oh japan

After two days at school – why’d they make us come to school for two days? In the middle of the week? Meh. For the second half of Golden Week I went with Yuko to her hometown in Tokushima, on Shikoku. That was a lot of fun. It’s the country, and her family and friends there don’t know much English, so it was really a test of my Japanese. Yuko’s English is really good, but we always speak in Japanese with as little English as possible. We actually tried speaking in English on the 2 ½ hour bus ride there, as practice for Yuko, but we couldn’t think of any thing to say. In Japanese we were fine though XD

On the Thursday we were supposed to go to Kazurabashi, this famous wooden bridge, but we woke up too late. Instead, we went to see the whirlpool at Naruto. ( Heh, Naruto )

mood: hot music: Prism ~ Psycho le Cemu tags: backlog, golden week

I live! In a perpetual state of slight meltiness, though. Ugh it's hot. Anyway, working on the backlog. I don't know yet if the stuff from Fanime fits here, this being a Japan blog and all... I guess I'll figure that out when I get there. Anyway, here's ( Golden Week: Part 1 C )

mood: hot music: Howl's Moving Castle tags: backlog, golden week

Yeah, so I was supposed to have pink hair, but we couldn't find a place that would do it bright pink for any reasonable price, so Essie and Lindsey teamed up with a bottle of bleach and a few packs of pink henna stuff, but the bleach didn't work as well as Yura-sama's bleach, so I didn't get blonde enough for the pink to work, so we left it BRIGHT ORANGE! Wahahaaaaa! Behold!


...Okay, so it's more gold than orange. But it's more fun to say I have bright orange hair.

This was after the graduation ceremony in the sumi-e/ceramics gallery. You can't see my sumi-e painting, ha. But that's Yurie I'm standing with, the crazy Japanese girl from swing, with Essie in the background thinking she's out of range of the camera. And look! Skirt! And bright orange hair! Bwahahaaaa!!

mood: crazy tags: o.o

I’m not going to be around for a while, probably not until after this month ends. It’s crazy busy right now, and since I don’t have Internet at home, I can’t make quick posts before I go to bed. So the backlog will have to go on hiatus for a while, along with pretty much everything I’m doing until I leave Japan. But I will be keeping a paper journal, and I will update this blog once things settle down, so check back in 6th month if you’re curious.

( Preview of things to come )

mood: genki! tags: scheduley stuffs

We heart Harajuku. Especially the Closet Child CD store and clothes store. I now own skirt. XD

( Here’s some more random things from Harajuku )

And why the heck did it suddenly turn to Hawaii outside?! It's hot and sunny and ugh. 28C! I think the weather is the only thing Oregon still has going for me right now. -_-;;

mood: hot music: Misery ~ hide tags: backlog, concert, golden week, oh japan

I live! *strikes pose with dramatic lightening flash in background*

Anyway, yeah, I’m not numbering the days because school was annoying and made us come in on Tuesday (5/1) and Wednesday (5/2) because they weren’t national holidays. So Golden Week was split into two bits, which I have creatively labeled Part 1 and Part 2 XD

Part 1 started Friday afternoon when Essie, Zim, Lindsey and I caught the night bus to Tokyo. ( Yes, I went to Tokyo again, shush )

I'm still working on getting caught up with everyone's updates and things. It'll take a while since there's no Internet at home... -_-;;

mood: busy music: Oblaat ~ Hide tags: backlog, concert, golden week, oh japan

Alrighty, I'm off to Tokyo tomorrow night for concerts and karaoke and shopping (only in Japan, ne?)!!! I won't have Internet until Tuesday (5/1) Japan Time, and then they disappear again from Wednesday (5/2) ~ Saturday (5/5) when I flitter off to Tokushima to convince the country folk that all gaijin are insane ^__^ Hopefully by the time I get back from there, the Internets will have reappeared at home, and I can make my backlog posts and catch up on e-mail and flist updates from my laptop. We'll see though.

Bwahahahaaaaaa!!!! Tokyo! Concerts! Karaoke! And I might come back with a skirt! o.@

location: school, sigh mood: excited like woah tags: golden week, scheduley stuffs

...aka, the Angry Post of Angsty Pants.

... even though my pants today are made of Awesome Strappyness with Extra Butt Room... That was unnecessary, I'm sorry.

( Don your Emo Kid glasses and pull your hair over one eye, because here comes the whining )

...I feel better now. Johnny-oniichan (who's actually Japanese, Lindsey katte ni decided that he needed to be called Johnny) came and poked me for a while. So I'll end this post with Happy Karaoke Gloating.


Ha! Look! We're nanbaa wan! Boohahahaaaaa! HideTrio rules!! Okay, so I wasn't actually singing that one and there were only 7 people who sang that song before Essie and Lindsey did, and they were mostly just humming the melody, but I don't care! Booha! XP

location: school mood: crazy tags: rl

So, I never did get to go hanami-ing properly due to weather and other timing issues, so I don’t have many photos of the sakura that actually look nice. Here’s the best one, I think:


This is a close up of the tree at the corner on the legal short cut from Gotenyama station to Kansai Gaidai’s West gate. The illegal short cut takes you through the apartment complex and past a different sakura tree XD

( Here’s some more photos )

And in completely unrelated news, Japanese pizza is insane. I don’t remember everything that was on the first pizza I had here, but there was a lot of stuff. The second one had ham, onions, mushrooms, salami or pepperoni, and corn. Then the latest one had potato mush, mentaiko (fish egg things), ham, and of course, corn. I still wish I’d gotten to try the one with the salmon sashimi and ikura on it…

mood: blah music: Hate ~ Nightmare tags: oh japan