White Christmas... or lack thereof

Now, more than ever, do I want to be home for Christmas. The day is coming up pretty quick here and I've heard from family and friends alike about how much it has been snowing back at home. Apparently they got 9 inches, which is fucking crazy if you think about the fact that we usually only get like 2 or 3... cumulative, for the whole winter. (Which, by the way, still shuts down the schools on occasion. It's the northwest, we're built for rain not snow!)

It's been years and years since my parents have had a Christmas tree at home, and with them having it this year, and having all this snow on top of that, I'm really sad I can't be home.

One thing that should help me feel better though is that I'm going to see my friend Paige today, who was in Japanese with me last year (aka, fellow PSU student) and is studying at Aoyama Gakuin (AGU). For some strange reason, we've both been here 3 months but have yet to hang out. So we're fixing that tonight by going out to eat in Shinjuku... and probably getting lost haha.

Fellow blogger JT has also offered to provide me with some social comfort in the way of a drinking/move watching/whatever-ing buddy over the break, so at least I'll have someone to hang out with.

Ok, time to stop slacking off and go study for my exam that starts in three hours. Sigh.

Just my luck

Junior, cute Japanese boy who volunteers in my class... has a girlfriend. That he's been with for almost 2 years. Of course.

Which makes me think about Saturday night when I was out with my friend Ken and his coworker. At one point we were talking about Christmas and Ken was telling me that I have to get a boyfriend (he might have said should get one, but I was relatively drunk at this point) . Anyway, because of this they then proceeded to ask me what kind of guy I like and I wasn't very detailed, figuring it'd take too much dictionary use to give them a big list, so I pretty much summed it up to smart, funny, and cute. They also asked me if there was someone I liked at Waseda, and I told them there were a couple nice guys, but that I had no confidence. Now that I look back on that, I was referring to two--Junior and the guy who first subtly rejected me. So that was kind of pointless.

I don't really have time to go into how ridiculous Sunday night/Monday was, but just suffice it to say that Tokyo Cowgirl and I got the best kind of bonding two American women in Japan can get--getting completely drunk together. On a side night, that night also reaffirmed my love for Dave Chappelle.

"Fuck yo' couch!"

Distance makes the heart grow fonder

This whole no internet thing is seriously The Suck. I'm not entirely sure what The Suck is, I can't strictly define it for you, but if I could it would definitely entail lack of internet at home. To further the issue to even more irritating levels, I found out from my program associate (after asking her to talk to them about getting wireless at home) that my host parents are completely against setting it up, even though I offered to pay. Apparently they have this ideal that, if I have internet at home, I'll turn into some hermit, doing nothing but sitting in front of my computer. Which, admittedly, is almost all I do when I am at home... but I DO go out, TC can at least attest to that.

Anyway, to catch you guys up on things, last time I posted I talked about going out for all you can eat yakiniku and karaoke... which ended up being completely alcohol-less, much to my dismay. But it was a lot of fun! There were way more people than I anticipated, and that ended up meaning long waits for songs and such, but it was great to see everyone so excited and into it. Once it hit 3:30 in the morning, though, I started to get veryvery tired since I'd been up since 6:3oam, technically the day before. This caused the loud music and ruckus to become veryvery annoying, but I managed and got home and to bed at 6.

Problem with that is that I then had to get up at about 10 or so to call the family and say Happy Thanksgiving and all that. It was nice, but I was seriously beginning to resent them for talking about all of the delicious food they were eating.

Other than that, my week since then has been relatively unexciting. My little study date kind of thing with the Japanese boy (who henceforth shall be known as Junior) turned out somewhat disappointing in that another guy from class decided to tag along to help Junior. Oh well, nothing probably would have come of it anyway.

This weekend should turn out at least semi-interesting, though. I'm supposed to hang out with my friend Ken on Saturday and his friend and then Sunday go over to Tokyo Cowgirl's place and probably drink way too much considering I have to be up at 6:30 on Monday. But honestly, I don't think I cut loose enough here, so hopefully this'll be a nice break.

Clipped wings

You know what really pisses me off? When keys on keyboards decide that, in order to WORK, you must intentionally exert three times as much force as is necessary, thus making your typing speed three times slower. I don't know about you guys, but I type with speed and most definitely without looking. And so... when my quicker fingers, which usually dance across the keys, have to instead jab... I am likely to get thoroughly irritated.

That aside, here I am at just past 6 with still an hour and a half until meeting time for my all-you-can-eat meat-athon, and I am already tired. This does not bode well, for a night of karaoke surely means another twelve hours of ridiculousness are ahead of me.

Perhaps the anger will get my blood flowing and wake me up a bit.

Nostalgia

I've been feeling an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and homesickness lately, what with the Holidays coming up, considering that this will be the first time I will have spent them away from home and family. Just one more step into the "adult world," so to speak. I never thought I'd feel homesick, I've always been able to adapt up to this point with being away from home and not missing the family too much, but I don't think I've spent more than 2 or 3 months without seeing my parents. Kind of silly when I think about it. No matter how much I like to think I'm an adult, there's still bits of childishness trailing behind me, slowly but surely drifting further behind.

The homesickness has made me realize that, honestly, the life I lead here is closer to the same as in Portland last year than I had really anticipated. My regular schedule basically consists of wake up, breakfast, school, return home, do homework/study (or more realistically, slack off and end up doing the homework before class in the morning) then go to bed. Pretty exciting, right? The major differences between here and there are that:
-I live 40 minutes from school, as opposed to 5 minutes from class.
-I have no internet at home (Which will, hopefully, be remedied very soon)
-Japanese. Japanese.

And that last one cannot be emphasized enough. Though I am getting better at Japanese (at a snail's pace, it seems), it's still not to the point where I can hold very interesting conversations. I can talk about food, school, and other relatively basic matters, and when I do I occasionally get comments from native speakers that my Japanese is good... until I open my mouth to speak about something resembling an opinion other than whether I like it or hate it. At this point, I'm pretty sure they'd feel bad about taking back the comment, so at least I'm left with my ego intact.

I've degressed, and also run out of time... but do expect an update in the next few days about eating way too much grilled meat and being thoroughly exhausted from a karaoke all-nighter--my Thanksgiving plans. Wish me luck!

Soon-to-be Sensei adventures

The last few days have been quite unremarkable, though not entirely uneventful. As I have mentioned I was working with an American Business class on Friday, "volunteering" (I use quotes, because I don't think getting money for something is volunteering) along with some other exchange students, by helping the Japanese students make sure they understand what's going on in the episode of The Apprentice they watched. Because of this, and how ridiculous reality TV is, I realized that I have a very high probably of laughing in pretty much, well, any situation. This makes for awkward moments when you see something cheesy in a show, laugh, and find yourself the only person in the room having done so. Can we say "awkward silence"? I wish I could say this is the first time, but I'd be lying if I did so.

Anyway, this class thing is going to only last for a couple more days, and talking with some of the other exchange students about doing private English lessons has prompted me to create a profile on a popular site for this purpose and I think I am honestly going to try this to make some extra pocket cash. Undoubtedly, this'll resort in some interesting hijinks, so I hope all (three) of you are looking forward to reading about it. :)

Money and a life... and I'm complaining?

Sorry, no pictures until possibly tomorrow when I will be coming into school--even though I don't have class. I signed up for helping out this class on the Engineering campus of Waseda, assisting the students with a project that requires they use English. Great thing about it is that I get compensation of the cash persuasion. Thirty bucks for each day, three days total. Can anyone say "free money"? FREE MONEY.

After all the complaining about nothing to do, now I feel like I have too much to do. Lots of studying yesterday and today for my big exam later, helping that class tomorrow, and I got invited to do three different things this coming Sunday. When did I actually get a life?

Short but sweet.

If I didn't know tutoring was a common thing among exchange students and Japanese students here, I'd be super excited about the fact that I'm helping out a cute Japanese guy next week as he is studying to take the TOEIC. As it is, I'm still kind of psyched about it. Makes me feel slightly productive, on top of the fact that I get to spend time with him.

I think tomorrow I will try to upload some of the photos I took at the potluck I went to last night with some of the other exchange students and our host moms. The hotel was freaking ridiculously expensive looking, you'll have to see for yourself.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

With a fiery passion, to rival all of the burning, seething, fatal flames of hell, do I HATEHATEHATE the fact that I have to lug my laptop to school to use the internet. And not only that, but that I also have to screw around with proxies and pull out half my hair getting nowhere to use Pidgin or any IM service. Then I try meebo.com, browser-based IMing, and that still screws up by logging me out every 5 god damn minutes.

Can you tell how pissed I am right now? Seriouslyseriously pissed. That's how pissed.

A couple small things

A) Obama has prevailed. Praise Americans for making the right decision!
B) I am pretty sure my Japanese Cultural Anthro. professor uses words the Japanese students can barely understand (if at all), let alone spell well enough to properly scribble them down in their notes.

On an entirely different note, I've been feeling uncharacteristically introspective lately. Or maybe I just have more time to myself forced on me so I'm only just now noticing it.

Buddhism teaches that everything in the world is interconnected, part of how they justify no killing. To follow Buddhism, to think this way, one must change the way they act before they can change the way they think. When I did youth corps a couple years back, one of the crew leaders put it well: "Fake it till you make it."

A couple issues that I'd been wanting to attend to while abroad is my lack of care of myself (eating more junk food than I should, not getting out and doing physical things as much as I should), as well as procrastinating more than is healthy. I figure if I can just force myself to do these things than it'll eventually become more natural to me, and not so much of an ordeal to do so. Problem is that I am finding it incredibly hard to get up the willpower to start. One of the wonderful things about having a significant other: someone close to you, who (presumably) wants the best for you, to push you when you don't have the power to push yourself.

This is becoming a blog more about me and less about Japan. Hrmmm. How should I remedy that?

Annoyance by proxy

To think, today is the first time I've been online since Thursday! Ghastly, I know. I'm really finding it quite irritating dealing with no internet access at home (and stubborn proxies on campus), and I'm reallyreallyreally quite tempted to buy a router and set it up at my host parents' place, though not yet tempted enough to outweigh the headache I anticipate maneuvering my way through a Japanese operating system and an undoubtedly Japanese instruction guide for the router itself. Just thinking about it makes me break out into a sweat.

In other, but somewhat related news, I started uploading my photos onto my google/picasa account thing (since the school proxy apparently doesn't like Flickr), and I have a few I wanted to share, simply because I absolutely love messing around with fireworks settings and nighttime scenery. That's what you'll find floating around this entry.
One thing I noticed I have not yet figured out is the idiosyncrasies of Japan's weather. Though somewhat similar in relation to Northwest weather, it's definitely different enough that I find that the chilly morning does not indicate a chilly day, and that a scarf added to my sweatshirt will just be hot and uncomfortable and subsequently removed once I get to school, though I may desire to remove it before that time. October and November have just been so much warmer (at least during the day) than at home, and I find myself suddenly questioning why I am complaining about this. Perhaps I am just in a whiny mood.

On another note, I remember now that I haven't updated about the meet and greet (more like meet and eat) that Tokyo Cowgirl and I had the weekend before last. We went to this ramen shop in the area of my school and feasted on deliciousness after convincing the server that, yes, we did know it would cost more to pay for things separately instead of in a lunch set, could you please just take our order? After talking for a while and buying drinks (and receiving little trays of food we didn't order... I have a sneaking suspicion this was to keep up appearances that we weren't loitering and had an actual reason to still be in the little shop), we headed out for a walk in the area and had a pretty good time. Though, for some reason, I ended up being quite tired at the end of the expedition. We plan to hang out again on Friday. Happy happy joy joy for getting to converse with another American who isn't studying abroad.

Alright, this update turned out a bit more boring than I expected, but the weekend was too full and I have too little time for a proper entry. Enjoy the pictures at least, and I'll try to update again tomorrow or Thursday!

the International city

I am one big ball of whining and complaining. Apparently it shows, because I got grilled the other day with questions about if I am okay, am I homesick etc. etc. from another girl I am friends with from my Japanese class.

Honestly though, I am feeling a lot better over the last few days because a few things happened:
1. My host parents didn't freak out when I asked to stay at a friend's house since he was having a party for me and it would start kind of late (although since then the party has been canceled. Oh well)
2. After venting to my mom via email about how expensive it was here, how much money I'd been spending, how much money I didn't have... she basically told me to stop stressing out, that she'd put 600 dollars into my bank account, and to keep in contact about how spending money is going and all that.

So, yay for loads of stress taken off my shoulders!

Anyway, Tokyo Cowgirl and I are going to meet tomorrow and eat ramen. How very gaijin of us! That's okay, we both love it, that's all that matters, eh? I'm pretty excited to meet up with her, we've been talking for a few months and she seems like a firecracker. I just wish her and I could have met earlier, would probably mean I'd have had something more to do this weekend than sit on my butt at school on a Saturday! I love Tokyo if only for the pure fact that it's such an international city. Being an exchange student, I've already met so many people from all over the world, and even a lot of people from all over the US.

I think it's pretty damn nifty.

Exhausted with being exhausted

So much for posting on a more consistent basis. Looks like I am starting a once a week trend now that I can only really use the internet on campus. On top of not having internet to keep me distracted at home, I have been absolutely exhausted on days that I am busy with school. Though I get tons of sleep on the weekends, I feel like I get barely enough to get through the week, and that thought is dragging me down already.

Okay, maybe I should move to something more entertaining before I zonk out at the desk and scare all of the Japanese students around me.

I met with a friend this weekend that I first met online, and one of the great things about that was the hilarious conversation we had while sitting on the Tsukuba express, discussing the courtesy seat symbols. (I have read at least one other blog entry about this topic, but I thought his points would be entertaining nonetheless.)

He's a sign that's not the same, but similar... I'll explain the differences.


Anyway, the ones we were looking at didn't show the bottom part of their legs, just the thigh part. Because of this, my friend was saying that supposed thigh part of the person could just be a shadow of a standing figure. This, to him, made the equivalent of the 2nd picture appear to be a man stealing away with a bag of kidnapped children slung over his shoulder. I asked him why his deluded mind came up with that as opposed to say, Santa with a bag of presents over his shoulder, and he said it was obviously not Santa because he doesn't have the Santa hat on. Of course. Also, I am pretty sure I don't need to go into detail about what that first figure looks like. Oi.

That's all for my entertaining stories for now, I have to wake up super early tomorrow morning to go to Hakone with the rest of the students from my program, and I need to be bright and bushy-tailed first thing if I am going to make it through the day. Ugh, time to trek on home.

Boring, but an update nonetheless

I realized last night that today would be my official one month mark. It feels a little surreal, especially with how much time I have left as well. Nine more months and it feels like it is stretching off into the distance.

On the bright side, though, I am starting to feel a little bit better about my skill in Japanese (Emphasis on the little bit).　I finally met my host parents' daughter (she's staying with us because she and her husband had a tiff, what a situation), and she complimented me on my Japanese, and then today in class one of the volunteer students complimented me as well. I don't know if my Japanese has gotten any better per se, more than my confidence level in speaking it has simply gone up... though I still waffle sometimes when it comes to saying what I want to.

Slowly, but surely, I am feeling a bit more comfortable, and I am definitely happy for that. The one thing that is really paining me right now is the noticeable speed at which money leaves my wallet. I knew it would be more expensive here, but now that I have spent a good chunk of time here it's really becoming noticeable. Oi.

Time to go read and write up a short paper for class later, but I will try to update again at a time sooner than I've started to adapt to, hah.

The End of the World

Right. Updating. That'd probably be a lot easier if my internet at home hadn't decided to go out on a more permanent basis, eh? So here I am, on a Saturday, sitting in the self-study room on campus. I'm at school, because if I was at home, all I'd have to do is homework. What an ironic twist of fate.

Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful. Not much in the way of getting together with people, though I did have lunch a week or so ago with a couple friends and got to see my first bloody crime scene when we were returning from the cafe. How fun is that, following a meal? Tons, I tell ya! Other than that, it's just been school, homework, school, homework, downloading doc and pdf files of books to avoid homework, then more school and more homework. Luckily I am going to Shinjuku tomorrow and actually doing something, primarily spending money I don't have on clothes that don't look half as good on me as they do on Japanese women. Then Monday is another busy day of reading more than I should because I still haven't done my homework. Wee!

As a side note about Japanese men/women/relationshis between the two... I've kind of wavered about trying to integrate somewhat by taking a bit more of a feminine role or image. I've already talked about fashion and guys, and I don't want to and don't plan to compromise myself to appeal to men or fit in with women, but like I said... I'm here, do as the Romans do or somethin', right? That stress on top of just trying to adjust is driving me nuts lately. It's hard to believe it's already been a month, but maybe I'll just have to tough it out to get to that famous 3 Month Mark, eh? Well... Ugh. I should probably skidaddle, I've got to get home for dinner time (oi), and then go drown myself in more reading. Helluva way to spend my 4 day weekend hah.

Fashion woes. Or something.

tIs everyone in this country either going to/coming from a party or work, or is it just me? I pose this question, because it's basically how everyone dresses. It's either business attire or very "hip", stylish clothing (with the exception being, of course, otaku who don't give a shit and the people who look like they are going to a convention, in their crazy lolita wear and whatnot).

Back in Portland, people are pretty free-spirited and laid-back. I come from a part of America that's not very huge or very small, so you WILL see people dressed relatively fashionably, but the vast majority of people are in pretty damn casual clothing. Most of the time, I'd just wear jeans and a t-shirt. If I felt like being a bit fancier, maybe jeans and a button-up t-shirt, and if I felt I wanted to go a little bit further, I'd add some nice-looking flats to that. Pretty casual.

Here, though... I feel like I need to wear my best clothes every damn day to fit in. This is difficult when you are coming from another country, can only pack so much, and thus your wardrobe is quite limited. I don't know about you, but I hate looking like I wore the same thing a couple days ago.

The other side to this problem is that I am too big for Japan, even if I wanted to buy clothing. My chest is too big, my feet are too big, I am too big. Not to mention, clothes are expensive as all hell, as with everything else in this city. (BOOKS. ENGLISH BOOKS ARE WAY TOO GOD DAMN EXPENSIVE. ... Sorry, that's been bothering me all day.)

I think I'm done ranting about clothes for now, but I will leave you with one more thought:
I. Hate. Rush. Hour.

Apparently Ikebukuro is NOT a place you want to travel through if you want to like... breath. Every morning my train has to go through Ikebukuro to get to my transfer station, and it's hell. I am pretty sure I was touching at least 5 other people, simply because everyone was so god damn squashed together. I guess I can see why some guys get a kick out of it, having their crotch pressed against someone else... but personally, it's just a tad bit uncomfortable. Especially since I've gotten the "ohmygod a gaijin at rush hour, what's she going to do?! Is she going to faint?!" stare several times so far. Plus, I get probably 10 minutes added to my trip just from the door taking forever to close because everyone is so squished that it takes the people at the door a while to get themselves back enough for the door to be able to close. Ugh.

That's enough of my ranting for tonight... soon to come: complaining about school!

You don't even want to know

Japanese guys are great to look at, sure. I just wish I had a freaking clue as to how to deal with one in a... potential relationship way. This is probably my loneliness acting out, but man are there some cute boys going to Waseda, haha.

How do you do that, though? Especially coming from America where expectations of appearance and actions from women are almost the opposite. Japanese guys seem to typically like cute, kind of shy and humble girls... whereas in America it's outgoing, social, "sexy" girls who get the most attention. I'm not really either of these though, I guess. Maybe it's because it's been so long since I've dated that I have even less of a clue what to do than I thought I would. Oi. I just don't know how to appeal to them without compromising who I am, because I am sure as hell not about to go buy frilly shit and wear heels every day.

And on top of that, how do you let them know how you feel? With an American guy I'd feel a helluva lot more comfortable just being kind of open and honest about it, but with Japanese guys... I feel like I should skirt around the subject and give hints, and that just feels weird to me.

Man, relationships are such a pain in the ass sometimes, but damn are they fun. I miss having a boy to play with! ...That sounded dirty didn't it?

Jesus, this is kind of a whiny entry haha, I promise the next one will be at least a more entertaining! And now, I shall leave you with fireworks pictures!

o-e-o-e-o, ice ice ice

I don't actually like that song, get over it. It's just stuck in my head, god damnit. Anyway...

One thing in particular that I noted today: Japan just smells different.

This is not always a bad thing, some of my favorite food comes from here, and of course that smells great. I guess it's just the unfamiliarity of it that really gets to me, what with my icky case of the lonelies nowadays (yes, I did just use the word "icky"). Though I feel a little more at ease around my host family, it's still hard as hell to communicate with them beyond "un"ing, "hai"ing, and nodding emphatically, pretending I know what the hell is going on when I really, really don't.

The last couple of days have been pretty busy as well, which is a mixed blessing. Nice to get out and do something, have some time taken up during my day where I'm not sitting on my butt in front of the computer. The thing is, though, that when you don't have much to say in Japanese with other people either and you apparently have an affinity for carrying way too much shit with you, going on daily adventures can get tiresome.

I also finally bought my phone yesterday, and was starting to be okay about feeling like I gave up some, as of yet unknown, piece of my body when I got an email today from my mother asking me TWICE in the same paragraph "what happened to getting a prepaid phone?" I love you Mom, but honestly I don't want to hear anything that makes it sound like I made a bad decision right now, feeling inadequate enough kthanks. There's only so much I can do with a language I can barely comprehend and therefore cannot thoroughly research products/plans from the country which the aforementioned language originated.

I am thinking that I just really need to make some friends (ones that aren't forced upon me), and do something I LIKE with said friends. You know, it might also help if I could find a guy, they are nice distractions. Then again, I can under no circumstances have any friends (of either gender) in my bedroom here, so it's not like anything could happen... at least not if I didn't want to get a hotel room or mess around in a park or something. Ugh.

On that note, I am going to go watch the season premiere of Heroes and then go read till I pass out.

P.S. One more thing, I've uploaded a crap ton of photos in the last couple of days so feel more than welcome to click on the flickr majigger on the top of the sidebar to check 'em out!

I'd like to order people, with a side of noodles.

So I'm finally in my host family's place. We got set up yesterday after buying our teiki (commuter pass) and going out to lunch. Tasty tasty ramen!



I also asked Ayumi (my assigned buddy) what these thin brown things were, and she said kikurage but couldn't explain it, so we looked it up in my electronic dictionary. Do you know what the definition kikurage says? Jew's ear. Wtf, that's all I've got to say. But then she explained that it was a kind of kinoko, or mushroom. Yesterday I ate mushrooms AND fish. In the same day. If you know me at all those are the two things I avoid at nearly all costs, though lately I'd been trying to get a bit more comfortable with them since I knew I wouldn't get to be as picky when I got here.

I have been in and out of my room and on the computer all day so far, so I've kind of drifted away from writing this, but I'll end it with this:
I love Japan. I love the food, the people, the culture, the history. It's not all kittens and lolly pops, and I think you have to understand that to truly love it, but it's such an interesting and rich culture. But god damnit am I lonely, and I've only been here a few days. No boyfriend to talk to, can't call the parents very often, barely skating by with internet at my host family's home what with stealing someone else's connection, and not really anybody I know more than a smidge. I hope that my host family and I get along fine so that I don't have even more pressure there.

Wish me luck? I think I'm just being kind of emo at the moment, haha.

As a follow up...

You don't even want to know what the bathroom looks like. I felt kind of bad walking in and Ai and Midori saying "OOOH HIROI" (spacious), while I was over to the side thinking HOLY FUCK THIS IS SMALL.

(Thank you John for pointing out how incredibly tired I still was when I posted this... I originally put hidoi instead of hiroi, hah.)

I cuss a lot while stressed and tired. Who would have guessed?

I'm sitting in my tiny ass (shared) hotel room, sweating my non-existent balls off because for the life of me I can NOT figure out how to open the damn windows. I'm anxious because my two checked bags won't get here until tomorrow morning and I, in all of my stressed glory, failed to pack a pair of pants with my extra change of clothes in the carry-on luggage. So I've got the brown skirt I was wearing today... and my black zelda shirt. This'll totally work out, right?

Bless my technological skills, the air conditioner is now on and at full blast! Now I get to wait till tomorrow to look all red and sweaty!

You know, thinking about it, I don't even know why the heck I am still alive and kicking at the moment. I didn't sleep last night (or is it the night before? I have no god damn clue), and I have basically been up for like... two whole days. I thought staying up the night before would mean I would sleep on the plane, but that plan most definitely backfired. Those seats are just so god damn uncomfortable, and I was feeling too antsy.

And to top it all off, the mind fuck that is having to speak (or at least understand) Japanese. A bit of me not studying at all this summer, a bit of me being in a neurotic, sleep deprived state, a bit of me not being able to just keep the fuck up with what they are saying... here's hoping this gets a hell of a lot easier lol. I AM glad to see that I am not the only person in the group that's feeling that way about the Japanese. There's already been a couple of the guys who speak pretty much nothing but Japanese to the Waseda students and, I must admit, it heavily intimidates me.

I need to wash myself and pass the fuck out because figuring out my international calling card is apparently beyond my mental comprehension at the moment. I'm sure I'll have some more entertaining shit to spew out by the end of the week.

Scared Kanjiless

So, I am abso-fuckin'-lutely (pardon my french) way too good at procrastinating for my own good. This I can say whole-heartedly and with much confidence. I have had one of my best friends tell me I take it to a whole new level, and I'd have to agree with him. Something is wrong when you can get away with writing papers, doing projects, and studying for tests mere hours before it's due and still get A's and B's the whole time.

This will undoubtedly bite me in the ass once I get to Japan.

Why, you ask? You see, once I arrive I have to take a test to dictate which level of Japanese I will take at my exchange university. This scares the bejesus out of me because I have done pretty much jack shit for studying (like make flash cards... which I haven't even studied yet), and I'm afraid I'm going to place too low for my real level in the language, simply because my memory has lapsed a bit over the summer. The real potential problem here, that I only just recently realized, is that I need third year college level Japanese as a basic requirement for both my major and minor. What if, by testing too low, I don't get that credit that I should be getting? That would set me back at least a couple terms.

Well, I think Saturday and Sunday will just have to be full of studying, planning, and packing. I still need to see if I can find some thermal underwear, as well as making sure I have gifts to give to potential host family members (I won't find out who they are until 3 days after I arrive).

You're all probably bored shitless by now with my ranting, and I need to leave to go out to comedy with my family, so I'll see you guys when I have something a bit more interesting to say.

P.S. I apologize for the crappy excuse for a pun as a title.

The Packing Nightmare is nigh!

The trip is merely two weeks away, and my excitement is definitely got a bit of nervousness now added to it. Only today (well, Monday the 1st) did I start studying Japanese for the first time this summer, and even that wasn't much. Just a bit of kanji practice, and only about a chapter of practicing writing them. I really really need to go over my grammar and vocabulary (or lack thereof) since I'll be promptly taking a test to determine which level of Japanese I'll get into at Waseda. I've always prided myself on doing fairly well with Japanese, but I'm thinking this lack of study is gonna hit me hard once I arrive. I guess I'll find out the hard way, blech.

Other than that, my preparations are... going. That's about all they're doing. I got my luggage (though I need to clean out my backpack), but I still need to pick up various items sometime soon. This is where my anal retentive streak comes in and I can't really decide how much of or what to bring. I want to be able to bring enough of something I might not get in the United States (I'm not exactly Japanese-sized, in pretty much ALL aspects except perhaps height), but I also need to worry about weight limit since they basically take your right arm and your first born child if you go over that limit.

I feel infinitely unprepared, and though my procrastination is usually subsided by the excitement of something I'm very hyped up for, it seems to be stubborn and persistent on staying with me right now.

I'm going to be working a lot this week (comparatively, anyway) which means that it'll probably go by faster, but I'm not sure whether that's good or not. I'm pretty sure the solution to my problem is to go drown myself in the wonderful world of Harry Dresden!

P.S. I like how, for the last 4 months, I've posted only once a month. I promise this won't become a trend once I actually land in Tokyo!

Flight ranting

FINALLY, my ticket has been purchased! Pestering for months, and I just had to resort to extreme measures. Those being: go to studentuniverse, sign in, find the flight, put it in my cart, go to checkout, then unplug my damned laptop and BRING IT to my mother. Tasks too strenuous for my her, I had to take it upon myself to do them. Ha.

Anyway, I know I have plugged them already, but studentuniverse (SU) is E F F I N G amazing. You have to give them a school email in order to purchase their supah cheap tickets, but if you have one it is worth it. When I purchased my ticket it was $502 for a one way from Seatac to Narita. On SU they also offer you the choice of comparing prices from other sites that promote cheaper ticket prices, and here's what I got:

• Kayak.com - $805
• Cheaptickets.com - $843 (And this is the cheapest one. The exact flight that I have booked, airline and flight number and everything, is up for a whopping $1704. Jesus.)
  
• Mobissimo.com - $685.40 (I'd probably recommend this if you don't have an email with which to utilize SU. Even though it's more expensive than SU, still a huge drop in price compared to the other three.)
• Orbitz.com - $808 (Again, same flight number and airline $1707. Apparently I got the good shit.)

So you can kind of get the picture as to why I'm touting SU so much. That's more than 300% more expensive for the same flight if I were to go with cheaptix or orbitz. My flight leaves 11:40am (holy crap, you mean I don't have to wake up at way-too-fucking-early o' clock to anal rententively obsess about what I may have forgotten to pack, and then leave so I can be 2 hours early for a 6am flight?) , which I think is a HUUUUUGE reason why my flight for the other sites isn't at the bottom of the bucket in regards to price.

I also, incidentally, figured out how to change my seating. I like to "plan" (i.e. obsess) about my trips and anything remotely EXCITING going on in my life (my previous trip to Japan, first moving to Portland for college, etc.) , so I got to looking around on Northwest Airline's website for travel tips and whatnot, and happened across "Manage my Reservations." Of course, being me, I happily clicked away and found that TADA I can change my seating! I'm not eligible for "Premium" seats (see: basically every damn aisle seat) , as they are for elite members or whateverTF, but I'm sure as hell not sitting in the middle of the middle 4 columns of the plane, having to stick my ass and/or crotch into (1, possibly 2) someone else's face(s) several times during an 11 hour flight. So, what I did is I chose the one window seat next to a "Coach Choice," which are basically the seats they save for last-minute buyers (up to 24 hours before departure). Hopefully by doing this I have thus saved my self from aforementioned ass/crotch exhibitionism, and given myself a little more leg room as well. One can only hope.

I also need to briefly plug seatguru. Basically it has the seating plans for almost every commercial plane imaginable, and tells you all the (sort of) nitty gritty. Whether the seat is bad/good/neutral, whether they serve food, whether there are power adapters (and what kind... ac, dc, empower), if they have individual screens for each seat... etc. It's pretty much ze shit, and I'd recommend it, especially for a long flight like I'll be experiencing.

Ok, I should scamper off now and let you (all 1 or 2 of you) get back to doing something productive.

nagnagnag

We still haven't bought my ticket. I keep bringing it up and they go "Yeah, we should do that." And then I end up bringing it up again a few days later and they go "Yeah, we should do that." And then I end up bringing it up...

You can already tell how this is going, can't you? I know they probably think I'm nagging them or something, but I just kind of want my ticket for my 10 month excursion out of the country BEFORE the date is on the current month's calendar. Pfft. Maybe I'll just have to anty up the pestering hah.

Other than that, the only trip-related thing to say is that I really need to start studying my Japanese again... I don't want to score lower than necessary on the Japanese level exam once I get there, so yayyy time to study.

I don't really want to study by myself though, kind of sucks to be at home for such purposes.

omg cheap airfare

So, I definitely recommend using www.studentuniverse.com for any students or teachers who want to get some cheaper airfare. I looked up a one way ticket to Tokyo (Narita Airport) from Seattle (Seatac Airport) and it was only like $502.37, WITH taxes and fees. After seeing what the estimated price was that OUS (Oregon University System) gave us (about $1,600.00 round trip), I'd say that's a pretty damn good price. If my ticket back is that much, that means I'm saving like 500-600 dollars right there, freaking crazy.

Also, I was looking at a more domestic flight (from Illinois to Seattle) and it was like $50+ cheaper than I could find using orbitz or cheaptickets. I recommendrecommenrecommend it! Just remember, you have to be a student (or faculty member, I think) to use it.

I am getting very pumped about going, but very nervous about trying to pack my life for a year into two checked and one carry-on. Eek.

Accepted!

It's confirmed! I just received this email on Tuesday:

"Dear Waseda Applicants,

I am happy to report that Waseda University has accepted all of our OUS nominations! The formal review process is still ongoing, however, official OUS acceptance letters will be sent out next week. These letters will indicate any qualifications or conditions to your Waseda acceptance, i.e. completion of Japanese 103, boost in Spring term GPA, pending missing paperwork, pending personal interview, etc.

I know that you have all worked really hard to get to this point and we look forward to working with you towards successful entrance to the Fall and Yearlong programs at Waseda University!

Sincerely,

[Name Removed]
OUS International Programs"

I'm in! I don't know what requirements they'll want of me, since I've met the Japanese requirement already, have a good gpa, and I think I have all of the paperwork in... except I need to take some pictures and send them to Ms. Cuenca. Other than that, I think it's all set.

Holy crap, I'm going to be in Japan for 10 months!~

And in the beginning...

Though I'm not there yet, this will be my blog for when I'm in Tokyo at the end of the year as an exchange student at 早稲田大学 (Waseda University). Not sure if I'll make posts before I go (about the process of getting ready/making plans and whatnot), but you'll see me back here by the end of the year!