Bad, bad week.

Guess I'm a bit homesick. And cold. I hate how it gets dark around 3 everyday. I found that one day I couldn't even get myself to go to classes.

My school's accommodation system sucks. The only thing they'll accommodate is my extra test time, and my teachers still don't even know about it yet!!!!! Such outrage and bullshit.

I'm glad it's a long weekend though since Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are holidays. Don't know what I'll do, probably games or homework?

In a few hours I'll meet another possible student to tutor. Hope it goes okay.

New Jacket

It's just getting colder and colder here. I decided I HAD to go and buy a jacket on Wednesday

Stopped by for breakfast with Daniel at Mister Donut. Yum!

 It was just another cloudy day in Shibuya. I ended up just heading up to Cecil McBee and searching around for a suitable jacket. I ended up getting the one I've been wanting all along:

This one! It's featured in a lot of their advertisements. Well, specifically they had the beige one, but they were sold out. I had a feeling that even if I hunted it down the beige wouldn't look the same color as in the pictures, so I just went with the black one. It's super fuzzy inside and really warm. So glad I got it!

Wednesday night was a rather annoying night with a bunch of bad things happening in succession, but oh well. This weekend couldn't come quick enough, though I can't believe it's already over now.

I got my first Japanese exam back, and was very disappointed to have gotten a 86. I got 10 points off on the grammar section. The problem is that she put the same questions from the homework on the exam, and on the homework I got them wrong but we don't even go over the homework in class. So basically I had no idea what a correct response would be for some of those questions. Going to meet with my teacher tomorrow so I don't have this problem again...

Other than that I've been stressing out about my religion class since I feel it's very hard for me to approach the assignments we're given and now I'm trying to make up some of the assignments I missed. Such a pain. ><

Monday & Tuesday

Well, I headed back to class and after that headed to Ikebukuro to meet someone who was interested in having me tutor them in English. However, I don't think he liked me very much since I got a text a little while ago that said the previous person who had been teaching him English is apparently coming back to Japan. Yeah, right.

While I was trying to find him though, some random person with a big camera took a picture of me talking on the phone. o_o What the??

In any case, after that I rushed to Ebisu to go to the Liz Lisa special opening party to Japan Fashion Week.

They had a bunch of special things designed that were only sold there. On the left is the two items you could buy together for 10,000 yen. On the right is the three items you could buy for 20,000 yen. So people were doing their shopping, and eventually we all piled in to watch how this contest went down see the fall/winter collection.

The stage was really pretty as you can see~

Some pictures of the crowd opposite to us. On the left there in the bottom row are the creators behind the Liz Lisa brand.

So, we watched the contest (with music that got really annoying after a while), got to watch some comedy skits, and saw the entire fall and winter collection. The accessories and such that they had were pretty amazing. Didn't take any pictures though since I didn't think it was okay since no one else was.

However, we were both pretty tired so we ended up going home after we saw that. Didn't stay for the spring/summer collection and to see the other brands as well.

 Got this super cute gift bag though! It came with an aromatic stone, I think? Otherwise it's all just Liz Lisa advertisements.

We took some pictures outside though. The Garden Place is really lovely.

I even managed to get a small picture of Tokyo Tower. Though as I was taking it, a bunch of Japanese men walked by talking about Tokyo Tower, in English, and how they had been there. Or something.

We walked the long way back to the train station and took the long train ride home, standing. My feet felt numb by the time I got home. Boy were they unhappy Tuesday morning. I was so exhausted, I could barely keep my eyes open. I'm surprised I managed to stay awake while I ate lunch with E, a Japanese girl I met at my school's orientation party. I immediately went to sleep when I got home after school.

I found this note in our mailbox when I got home though. It's an apologetic letter from Pizza Hut saying how sorry they were about how late our pizza was delivered (it was probably 10-15 minutes late) and here's a 700 yen off coupon. All right! So we ordered apologetic pepperoni pizza.

Yummy~

Lunch

At home now for lunch. I won't have class for another 3 hours, so I figured I'd spend it here.

Recently I've been digging these ham and cheese burritos. Cheap and yum!

After Japanese literature, I'll be meeting my first student. Hope it goes well!

Ugh, there's a chill in the wind now. It was pretty cold this morning. I really, really need to get a jacket ASAP!! x.X

Nails!

I finally got around to redoing my nails. Not very happy though. Three of the jewels have already fallen off on my left hand just after a shower. I think they got caught in my hair. I guess I didn't set them when they were wet enough, and I didn't push them in hard enough. >< I don't think these will be lasting me too long. And I definitely won't be using this polish again. It got all bumpy while it was drying! Gross.

I'll be lucky if these nails last me past school tomorrow.

Slime!

Yesterday was the day our rent was due, so we headed off to Shinjuku! Except we made a slight mistake, and came out at west Shinjuku instead of taking the west exit from Shinjuku station. Oops.

But that's okay, because Shinjuku is a very pretty place at night.

So, we wandered over to Shinjuku proper and then made our way to the office building where we're renting our apartment from. After that we backtracked and headed to Mos Burger!

Oh man had I been craving a hamburger. I even managed to properly order it so it'd have no onions and mustard. Yay!

After that, we headed to Bic Camera to pick up a few goodies.

We picked up this awesome slime that holds your DS, acts as a rest for your arms, and even has a speaker in it! So awesome.

Last night I got some sake and did my eyebrows since they were looking unshapely. They came out pretty good, if I say so myself~ I wanted to do my nails too, but I got really tired pretty quickly and passed out by like 12:30 or 1.

So far today I haven't done much, though I managed to do a half hour of studying for JLPT. I haven't had much energy to study much for it because I'm always so tired from school, but I'm going to try to do at least 5 minutes per deck each day from now on. ><

And Another Week Goes By...

So yeah, I got super sick this past week. And you know what that means in Japan? I have to wear a mask!

I don't look scary at all, right? Dress and shawl are from Cecil McBee by the way~

Just because I'm sick doesn't mean I can't appear undone! (;゜ロ゜) Though I think it was on Thursday that Dan's alarm didn't go off, so I woke up an hour late and ended up late for class so I didn't put on much makeup... orz

I don't quite remember Monday and Thursday anymore, just that I was totally exhausted and my brain a bit fried. I had trouble doing some of my reading homework too. Wednesday was my break and that's when I got myself a ticket to the Liz Lisa fashion show event at the Tokyo Collection fashion show that'll be held next Monday!

Thursday we had to go buy new prepaid cards for our phones though, so we ended up heading to Shibuya.

So yeah, headed past 109 and to Dogenzaka to the Softbank store for our prepaid cards. After that, we stopped for some food. I was more in the mood for burgers or chicken or something, but instead we stopped for some ramen at a nearby shop.

Unfortunately, it wasn't really quite to my liking at the time. I really wasn't in the mood for something so messy. :(

After we ate, we headed to Shibuya 109 and headed to Liz Lisa to get Dan and invitation to the fashion show too.

We got it, and headed home. The invitation from the Shibuya 109 store is so adorable! The one I got from Ikebukuro Parco is so plain lol

And then Thursday night I spent writing a response paper, and studying a bit for the test I had on Friday. I'm pretty sure the test went fine though I know I missed one kanji. After Japanese and religion, I went to the Communications Club and hung out and met some people there. After the club ended we went to the cafeteria, and I actually ordered food for the first time there. Had fun hanging out with people and then headed home a lot later than I was expecting. I was hoping to do laundry but unfortunately that didn't happen. I was exhausted later, and decided I wasn't up for going out to go drink.

Aaaaand I guess that's the past week, considering I spent most of it tired and recovering from that bad cold.

Harajuku!

On Saturday (October 9) I had a pretty eventful day. I met up with my friend Marie, who was an exchange student at my home university back when I was a freshman. She's also a graduate of the current university I'm attending now. It was so nice to see her again! Since I haven't gone to Harajuku before, she decided to show me around there. I was a little bit late though since it was raining and I couldn't decide what I wanted to wear...I ended up settling for my new dress from Liz Lisa and furry vest from Cecil McBee together with some leggings and boots. I wore my pearl necklace with it, though I wish I had worn my hat too.

We met up at the station, and rounded around the outside of the famous Takeshita Street, which I guess is known as being a huge center for fashion. Near the bridge by the Meiji-Jingu Shrine, we saw what I guess was an old car show.

There a lot of people lined up to watch. After we snapped a few photos, we continued on our way and headed to a restaurant that Marie said was great.

I got the herb chicken that she recommended to me. It was really good!

After food, we continued on our way and headed to Takeshita Street. On our way we browsed through a lot of different shops. Marie's really into the mori girl style, which is a really "natural" looking style. I think it rubbed off on me a bit because I kind of want one of those white tops with a brown belt now...

Along the way we spotted Liz Lisa, which I've been recently entranced by the cuteness of. Well, more like smelled. Liz Lisa has a specific nice smelling perfume that just wafts its way out onto the streets. We stopped inside to check out the stuff, and I saw an adorable jacket. Too bad it's so expensive. On our way out, one of the shop ladies talked to us, commenting on how cute my vest was. Marie told her I really like Liz Lisa and she was pleased as punch. She pointed to my dress and said that it looked like Liz Lisa, and when I said it was from Liz Lisa she thanked me for shopping there and coming back to shop for more. I wish I had taken a picture with her. She was super cute.

She also mentioned that the Liz Lisa shop was three floors. Three floors!? We headed up to the second one, which was Tralala, a sister of Liz Lisa's. They're having a coat and dress fair right now, where if you buy a coat and dress together you'll get 20% off. There's been this one combination I just love...I really need a job LOL

The third floor was Liz Lisa's bedroom and lounge wear line, Chambre a Coucher. I didn't realize Liz Lisa had it's own bedroom set, including sheets and stuff like that! So cute... T-T

Eventually we peeled ourselves away, and after some browsing we decided our feet were tired so we stopped by at McDonalds to chat over a milkshake, McFlurry, and some fries. When we decided our feet were up for some walking again, we ran directly across the street and downstairs to take purikura.

My first purikura~ It's amazing how much we look like aliens though, and how much my makeup disappeared, including my eyebrows (;゜ロ゜) But it was a ton of fun!

Then it started to really pour, but we headed back to hit up the 500 yen and 390 yen shops. We had been joking before about whether or not a 500 yen shop actually existed, and were so shocked to see one in the middle of Takeshita Street! I bought myself a few little things...

Got these two headbands together for 390 yen. The black one is really shiny and the top one has leopard print.

And I got these earrings and necklace together for 500 yen total.

I saw a Hello Kitty train pass holder, and I'm really considering getting one later. It'd be so convenient not to have to dig my wallet out of my backpack when I go to hop on the train.

The rain started getting worse and worse, and Marie had an appointment so we parted ways.

However, like the moment I got home I started sneezing a lot and feeling really sick! My nose just wouldn't stop running, and on Sunday I was feeling feverish. I just barely managed to do grammar homework for Japanese and could not manage to do my reading for literature at all.

I guess karma decided it wanted to rebalance itself out?

First Full Week of School

Last week was my first full week of school. It was really long, to say the least, especially since I started it out with hardly any sleep because of the weekend! I have to get up at 7 everyday to do my makeup (takes me about a half hour to do). I don't think I really did anything too exciting besides being tired and homework.

Luckily though, I have a day off from school every Wednesday so I managed to catch up on some sleep then.

Hmm, I should really take more pictures during the week so in case there's a long time where I don't update I have pictures to remember it by. Though, I think my memory might be fried because of the cold I caught, which I'll go into detail about in my next post...

Souvenirs

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention: Souvenirs~

I got these two cell phone charms from the place that we stayed over night at. The right one I got for Daniel and the left one for me since it's Hello Kitty! She's dressed up as Namahage (and Dan's is Namahage with a baby Namahage in its mouth). Namahage is an oni (ogre; demon) famous throughout Akita. There's even a festival dedicated to it where a bunch of people dress up as Namahage and burst into people's homes. The legend is that Namahage takes naughty children to the cold snowy mountains and they never return, so Namahage is used to scare children who live in Akita Prefecture into obedience. :x

I bought this Akita Premium Excellent Chocolat at a grocery store. They taste like Pepperidge Farm Milanos.

I also bought Akita Namahage Cookies.

The packaging inside is really cute.

And so are the cookies! They don't really taste like anything special though. Maybe like normal tea cookies?

I also got strawberry Kit Kats from the last rest stop we went to. They taste like strawberry pocky, and were so good I couldn't resist eating them all within a few days. orz

I also bought myself a little collection of Hello Kitty pencils and a pen. These pencils and pens are only sold in specific prefectures of Japan, so I was lucky to get them~ On the right is a pen that can only be bought in Akita Prefecture, which is Hello Kitty shaped as a rice ball. The middle is Hello Kitty dressed as a cow from Iwate Prefecture. The left is Hello Kitty dressed as a doll, which can only be bought in Saitama. So cute...even if they were pretty expensive for pens and pencils. Not sure I would ever have a chance to buy them again though.

And of course, I have all of my awesome memories too~

October 3 (Sunday)

I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly despite not having any white noise in the background, but I still woke up begrudgingly at 7am. I'm so glad no one asked me to help with breakfast, because I wouldn't have had any clue what to do. The girls from Rumiringo's group came to eat breakfast with us.

This was my breakfast, though we also had salad, shell fish, and miso soup I think. I didn't end up liking the tamagoyaki (the yellow stuff) too much though. It was a bit too sweet for my tastes. During breakfast we watched some anime like Yumeiro Patissiere and then it was time to go.

Everyone took some more photos before we left and piled onto the bus. We went back to the original hotel we were at the morning before, where all of the Nogyaru members came on to give a farewell speech. I didn't grab a photo of it, but I did manage to grab some pictures of them being goofy before we headed out.

And then we left!

Goodbyyyyeee!

And I thought the 7-8 hour bus ride back to Shibuya would never end the whole ride.

When we finally arrived though, Mei accompanied me to Shinjuku 3choume where we met up with Daniel to head to Kinokuniya. Daniel and I kissed in greeting, and I guess it surprised Mei a bit since that was the first time she had ever seen that. She actually asked if everyone kisses in greeting in America, though I told her only couples do.

So we went to Kinokuniya, I got my textbooks for Japanese, and then we went to Old New York Style Pasta for dinner. Daniel had gone to a rock concert with some people he met at school, so he was starving as well. The pizza was delicious, as usual~

And then I was exhausted and we went home.