Our Final Night

Our next stop after Yotsuya was Ikebukuro to check in at the hostel. For some reason we got a bit confused with the trains though, but I can't remember why anymore... We managed to make it there in one piece though and before our luggage had arrived too. Seeing a Japanese person and not thinking "oh duh I bet she speaks English..." I checked us in in Japanese, we got our keys, and checked out our rooms. There was two bunk beds and we unfortunately had one roommate, though he was not there at the time (more on him later). It was mid-afternoon by then and we still had not eaten anything that day, so we went to a nearby restaurant. We got our meal tickets, sat down, and got our food within a few minutes.

Looking back at these pictures makes my mouth water!

After we ate, we headed back to Ikebukuro station and headed to Shinjuku to go shoe shopping. I still had not replaced my hole-y tennis shoes, so I decided I wanted to get new shoes before I left Japan. I was so tempted to buy those boots I had been longing to buy at that point, but I ended up not getting them and bought these new pink and black tennis shoes instead. Later when I tried them again though they seemed to be a little bit big...maybe I should have gone with the previous pair that was a little bit tight and I could break into. The ones I bought fit perfect at the time though, I don't know why they felt different later!

Beyond that, we started wandering around. I only took the above picture, which was the entrance to a karaoke parlor.

After it got dark, we headed back to Shinjuku station and rode the trains for the last time. Our luggage had arrived and so had our roommate. He was quiet and, to be honest, the exact definition of "otaku," who had clearly come to pay hommage to Japan. He had some anime character statue which he had set up on the only bureau in the room. We got on our computers to check what was going on in the world of the internet, and eventually got hungry. So, we headed out to see what our options were.

This was one of our many options.

However, we ended up opting for the bar called Beer Saurus across the way, located on one of the floors of the building in the above picture. The beer was very nice although there were not too many people so luckily it was not too smokey.

Our first drinks were as above: that ginormous mug filled with Hoegaarden and my tiny martini (I think it was). Don't remember the drink, but unlike other bars they definitely did not skimp on the alcohol!

After studying the menu for a while, we ended up ordering the "party" size of fish and chips.

And here's a bit of the decor inside of the bar. It was a really nice place, I wish we had discovered it sooner.

Unfortunately all good times come to an end. While we paid the bill, I noticed that the tip jar for the earthquake and tsunami relief was stuffed full of 10,000 yen bills (about $124 at the time of writing this entry).

We began our tipsy walk back to the alpaca...and discovered an arcade. I wanted an alpaca so we went in. Daniel won one last Rilakkuma keychain and then we attempted the big one.

This alpaca was the boss battle of all UFO catchers up until this point. It was stuck between a big Rilakkuma's legs (I think it was) and refused to budge. I think we spent close to 4,000 yen to win this giant alpaca, but win it we did! We went back to the hostel with our spoils of war and had an unfortunate terrible night. Neither of us got a wink of sleep that night. The beds were so uncomfortable and every time we turned over there was squeaking. Our jetlagged roommate was sound asleep though, so who knows if we woke him up or not. The entire night I found myself wishing there was a Glade or Febreeze air freshner in the room though...

Not to mention, the room one over from ours was filled with drunk Japanese people screaming the entire night. It died down eventually, but that was soon replaced by the sounds of retching as dawn approached.

Needless to say, that was not a very pleasant night.

I Hate Conversations Over the Phone

I reserved a set from a shop called MA*RS for a customer of mine. Today the call came to tell me it was in, however it ended up being a rather frustrating phone call for me. For one thing, she talked very, very fast. I assumed it was a call from the MA*RS shop before I picked up the phone, so I tried to listen as best as I could, however when she got to her question I could not understand it because of her speed.

I've noticed that I've had this same problem before when I've received calls before. Is it just that they speak very quickly over the phone in order to spit all of the introduction, explanation, and questioning as fast as possible, or that without being able to see them face-to-face that I have trouble following what they're saying? I guess it's probably a mixture of both.

In any case, the first time I asked her to repeat herself she said, "You don't understand Japanese don't you?" Second time, "You really don't understand Japanese after all, do you?" She probably just didn't realize how fast she was speaking at all, but saying this directly to me was just kind of annoying.

In any case, I finally understood her final question on the third try: Can you come to the store today? I asked if I could go tomorrow instead, so guess I will be heading to Shinjuku after I head to the post office. After staying inside yesterday and today I kind of have the itch to head out to go somewhere anyway.

Recently

Nearly a month has passed by now since a few of the happenings I want to write about, but I suppose for now I'll just update about what I've been up to. I've been mostly focusing on my shopping service and I think it's starting to go pretty well. I've been getting quite a few customers and now even a repeat one. It's fun to go shopping for people! But I guess because of that it leaves me a bit worn out and I haven't really had much inspiration for blogging.

Shopping hasn't been the only thing I've been doing for my shopping service. I went to a CD signing event yesterday for a customer. It was such a nightmare for me. When I got there, there were so many girls lined up to get their CDs signed they had said that lining up was temporarily closed. However that didn't stop a bunch of a girls from jumping in whenever there were gaps. I admit, I jumped in with one group of those girls. Even though I did this though, the total wait was at least two hours. When I finally got into the room where the band was autographing on the top floor of the shopping mall, I didn't realize that we could only get the autograph of the dude that was on the CD label. Not to mention, I didn't even know who was actually on the CD's label in the first place! So I just got into the line as the vocalist because he had brown hair. However turns out that there was another dude with brown hair, and he was the one on the CD. How embarrassing it was to wait all the way through the vocalist's line and then have to go wait in the guitarist's line, which was the longest! That sucked so much. I must have looked so pissed off by the time I got to where the guitarist was sitting. All I could think of to say was "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" (please take care of me) and "arigatou gozaimashita" (thank you very much). He probably thought that was all I knew how to say anyway. He had a sort of mixed look on his face when he looked at me and only said "Hai!" (Okay!) to me as he handed back the CD.

I have to say though, he looked a lot different in real life compared to the photoshopped picture of him on the CD. Up close he looked like a regular Tokyoite: really skinny with a ton of hair products in his hair. I bet if I had touched his hair it would've been a bit crunchy.

I was rather shocked by the whole thing though, since the girls there were so dressed up! I wish I had my camera with me because some of those girls looked incredible. I was also really surprised by the range of different fashion styles there. There must of been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of girls dressed up in their very best and most expensive clothes and accessories, lined up with the mindset as if they were on a pilgrimage to a holy land to meet the messiah or something. They all must have all carried expensive gifts for their idols as well, because I noticed that in the room outside of the signing the boxes for gifts for each individual member of the band was overflowing. They all must have left chocolates as well since tomorrow is Valentine's Day.

I must admit though, unless it's for a singer/band that I like, I don't think I'll do this kind of thing again. I was completely drained by the time I left that place and practically near tears when I was on the train. By the time I got home I was so exhausted I found it hard just to use my chopsticks to eat dinner. Soon after I ended up passing out in the middle of doing something. I was not a happy camper last night.

Speaking of food, the past few nights I've managed to experiment a bit. The night before last I tried this cheese carbenera pasta. I wasn't such a fan but that's probably because it got cold really fast. Probably tastes better hot. Last night I really wanted some rice, so I got a bento that had hamburg with cheese on it. I figured I hadn't tried eating hamburg for a while, so I should give it a try. To my surprise, it was pretty good.

It actually snowed here last Thursday and Friday! I managed to get two of my shoes completely soaked before I took out my rain boots. I'm glad my skinny jeans can fit in them.

As far as a regular job goes though, I never heard back from that one store. However, I saw that a nearby convenience store was hiring, but when I finally had the courage to ask about it the manager wasn't in so she told me to call later. Well I'm not so good when it comes to calling, so I went back instead only to find that the sign was gone!! I was pretty shocked and went in the next day. The same old lady was working there and I asked her about it and she said they were still hiring but the manager only comes in after 5 so I should come back then. So I did that night and this time I actually asked. There were two guys working there, but the manager wasn't in so one of the guys called the manager up. Turns out that I had just missed the deadline for applying this month, but they'll hire again at the beginning of next month. I can't believe I had just missed it!

Daniel has been away the past few days doing touristy stuff his school had organized. It's been a bit strange being here all by myself, but he'll come back today. Can't wait to see his pictures! I wish I could have joined along, but hopefully we can do a bit of sightseeing across Japan before we leave.

Now that I think about it, we've been in Japan for six months now. Wow, it's gone by so quickly!

Sorry for these long posts that are just walls of text. Hopefully my next few posts will have some pictures!

Spring Break!

Thursday was the day I handed in my two final essays. Twenty pages worth of essays in total. One was eight pages and the other was twelve. What a pain in the butt that was. Did all this while suffering from my cold too. Luckily today I'm only coughing a little bit now. Daniel's all recovered too. However, this means now that my spring break has begun! Yay!

I still have two or three posts I want to write about concerning notable things that happened to me last month, so I'll probably be going back to last month's happenings soon. But for now I'll talk about some more recent experiences of mine.



I celebrated on Thursday by going to Shibuya 109 and picking up a few items for a customer at my shopping service. I managed to do some job hunting at a few nearby stores, too.

The first one I asked at told me that the deadline for applications had already passed. While disappointing, I did appreciate the fact that she didn't act surprised that I could speak Japanese and just spoke to me regularly.

The second store I asked at the manager wasn't in, so they took my resume and said that the shop manager will call me about an interview whenever she gets in. Well, that was Thursday and today is Saturday. Hopefully the manager has a several day break or was sick or something. I wonder how long I should wait before moving on? Though I think they'd at least send my resume back sooner or later. Unfortunately my picture is kind of plain looking, a lot different from how I looked in real life when I asked about a job. First appearances are everything, so I hope the manager will wait until the actual interview to judge me, and doesn't just judge me based on the picture. Maybe I would have been better off just leaving my phone number.

It was funny though, because I asked one of the workers who had actually spoke to me in English beforehand. She didn't seem too surprised I was speaking to her in Japanese, but she told me she had only started two days earlier and took me over to the other three girls working there at the time. I wasn't sure what to say, so after a few seconds of silence the lady whom I had assumed was the manager says, "Can you speak Japanese...?" It was funny, but from there I think it proceeded smoothly enough and I think I managed to appear charismatic and eager enough. The other two girls seemed excited, so hopefully that was a good sign?

In any case, my heart couldn't take asking at a third place that day so I ended up going home. It's so nerve wracking to ask for a job here! But at least I feel comfortable that I have the correct phrase to ask now and I feel like I'm enunciating cheerily and loudly.

I did, however, get the whole "wow your Japanese is great!" thing when I went to a store called d.i.a. This could have to do with the fact that some other foreigners were shopping in there and trying to talk to the shop staff. I really dislike it when I get lumped in with the tourists.



Yesterday I went to the post office to weigh the items for my customer and an old lady stopped halfway while crossing the street to gawk at me. I know I wasn't wearing any makeup because I was just going a few blocks down the street and home, but I don't think I looked too weird. The funny thing is that I feel like this rarely happens to me. Sure. on the train some people will look at me a few seconds longer than normal and some little girls will look at me with some wonder in their eyes, but most don't care at all and I've never felt like people try to get away from me, try not to sit next to me on the train, or just make me feel alien.

Silly old people.



On Thursday I got a message from Maki inviting all of us who went on the Nogal trip (which I participated in on October 1, October 2, and October 3, if you don't remember) and live in the Tokyo area to get together once again. The other girls in my immediate group all agreed and it seems a few other girls who also participated will join us as well. I really hope I can go, I've been wanting to see them all again.

Speaking of Nogal, I guess a documentary of the whole thing aired during the last week. I didn't get to see it, but maybe it's better that I didn't see what a fool I probably had made of myself.

Nogal

Sunday we ended up just staying in all day and lazing about. Nothing too exciting, until I saw on Ameba that Fujita Shiho had updated her blog about harvesting this year's rice. Who's Fujita Shiho? She's the leader of a movement called Nogal, which is dedicated to spreading awareness about the agricultural crisis in Japan and educating about the unnecessary anxiety towards rice and other healthy food through the means of growing her own rice together with other famous models who have a particular fashion sense called gyaru (gal). They also have the goal to create a newer, more stylish image for farming.

Anyway, she updated her blog and wrote about how she was taking applicants for people who wanted to participate in this year's harvest festival. I wasn't sure how much of a chance I had, but I applied anyway. The application consisted of usual things such as name, phone number, address, and age, as well as whether we like rice or not and our reason for wanting to participate. I ended up writing a little mini-essay to introduce myself and that even though I'm foreign I know Japanese and am interested in gal style, and told her I've been following her activities for the past year and have read her books, written essays, and even given presentations on her work. We also had to include a picture of ourselves, so I ended up getting dressed up just to take a picture. XD

This is the picture I ended up choosing to send in along with the rest of my application. I was really unsure whether I had a chance or not, but my chances would remain 0 if I never sent it in at all, right? And that was pretty much all the excitement for yesterday, although while we were falling asleep we felt our first earthquake! That was an experience. It was pretty short though.

Today I got up as usual, checked my email, and found out from their newsletter that Ikebukuro PARCO is having a sale in nearly every store to support a baseball team. I noticed that Liz Lisa was having lucky bags as their participation. ...how could I resist!? So I headed over to Ikebukuro by myself since Daniel was at school. I was curious how much my commuter pass is going to cost, so I decided to go to the ticket counter and purchase it. My pass is 6,450 yen a month. Much better than 24,000 a month, right?

Anyway, I headed over to Ikebukuro PARCO, went over to Liz Lisa, and got myself one of their lucky bags.

The letters are shiny. :D Inside were three items. I was hoping for two dresses, but instead I got...

A purse that was originally priced at 8,295 yen.

This adorable skirt originally priced at 6,195 yen.

And last, this fluffy sweater originally priced at 7,245 yen.

The skirt alone was worth the whole bag. It's so cute! I'm not sure if I have anything good that would go with it though. I don't really dig the bag, and I'm not sure what to think of the mint-color sweater. I'm thinking I'll just sell the two on eBay or something. But for that, I need a scale to calculate shipping with. I wonder if I can find one to buy around here or if there's one I can just randomly use...

Right as I was about to try on the skirt, my phone started vibrating. I was getting a call. I picked it up nervously and answered in Japanese and got a long explanation...the conversation is now a blur in my memory, but my heart must have stopped when I realized it was Fujita Shiho and she had told me I had been accepted to join in with the harvesting of the Shibuya Rice. I was speechless and shaking all over, that's how shocked I was!! I remember her asking me how I found out about it, and I told her it was from her blog, and she asking to make sure I know when and where they're meeting in Shibuya, and she mentioned that it's cold in Akita this time of year so I should dress accordingly and make sure I wear something easy to move in and have long shoes I don't mind getting dirty, but I asked and rain boots work as well.

I was trembling with excitement after the phone call. I couldn't believe I had talked on the phone with Fujita-san herself and that I had actually been accepted!!! Waaaaaah! (≧∀≦) She even wrote about me briefly in her latest blog post today. She only said that "a foreign girl living in Japan had applied" though, so nothing too amazing.

So, on Friday night I'm going to meet up with possibly Fujita-san herself along with the 39 other girls who had been selected in Shibuya and we're all going to get on a bus and go to Akita to go harvest rice all day on Saturday. Saturday night there'll be a barbecue and we'll head back to Shibuya on Sunday. I'm guessing it's going to be an all night trip to Akita though. Akita's pretty far from Tokyo. I hope they give us blankets or something.

But that's about it for my day today. The skirt fits great though not sure what to wear with it, and I'm still extremely excited. What an opportunity! I need to find something cute and functional to wear, since we're creating an image of stylish farming. The weather report says that the highs will be low 70s and lows will be high 50s, so I'm thinking shorts with tights + rain boots, plus a long shirt if I can find a cute enough one. And gotta figure out what to wear on the bus too! Gotta buy rain booooots.

It Has Happened.

Out of detergent so I headed to Drug Papas. I asked for help in Japanese, explained in situation in Japanese. All the responses I got back were in English. My Japanese was perfect except for the fact that I don't know the word for detergent, and yet I all of her responses were in English, as if I didn't know any Japanese. This makes me :(. I'm sure she thought she was being helpful, but...no! :( Or maybe she was just in denial?

It's amazing how even though it's in the 80s today everyone's already pulled out their fall wardrobe. I only saw like one person wearing shorts. Granted, I was wearing half-pants since all my shirts are hanging to dry right now, but still. It's hot out!