The Beginning of the End

Well, it's all over now. It's been over for quite a few days. On Sunday we left Japan and we won't be able to return to finish up the rest of our year. It's Friday morning now and I'm still suffering from jet lag. I keep waking up at 11 or 12 no matter how late I try to go to bed, only been getting 5-6 hours of sleep the past week due to waking up anxious and worried about this entire mess. Our bad luck just won't seem to stop even though I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something will turn our way soon.

I'm rather sad to have left. I got so used to my Tokyo lifestyle and I just loved living there. It is so hard for me to leave and try to re-adjust to an American one. I miss everything already. The convenience stores, the convenience of Tokyo in general, the arcades, the way people don't get into your business, the fact that food comes to you within five minutes, the signs reading in Japanese, getting to hear Japanese all of the time... There is just so much.

Plus there are so many things I regret not buying before I left. For example, another pack of my lashes and Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner. I did not realize that I had only ONE left eyelash left and three right eyelashes. Unfortunately all of the stores in Narita airport only had Dolly Wink eyelashes instead of my Diamond ones. They also only had the pencil liners for Dolly Wink rather than liquid. It would be really nice if there was a Japanese grocery store here in Boston. There used to be one but I'm pretty sure they have been closed down. Also, I really regret not buying a few more tights before I left Japan. You know, the warm ones that allows you to get away with wearing shorts and skirts in the winter. I have no idea where I could possibly get those here. At the very least I have one, my WC ones.

I guess that this means that this blog will come to a close soon. However there's still some pictures I have left to post up, so I'll still post a few more times before I close it. I also need to write about my hectic last few days. Beyond this blog though, I think I will probably re-start up my Ameba blog (though I write that in Japanese). I am not sure if I will start up another blog in English yet.

In any case, here are some pictures of the road leading to Nerima, which is about ten minutes from where I was living. I took these a few days before the earthquake.

Traffic signs. It was cool that they were in both Japanese and English.

An underpass.

A different angle of the underpass.

Crosswalk sign.

The Bamiyan Chinese restaurant, a sister of our much frequented Cafe Gusto. I wish we had had a chance to go one last time.

A nearby pet store. However, it is unique in that it also doubles as a cat and dog cafe and triples as a karaoke bar where you can have your own private karaoke box or party with the animals. Is this not a perfect way to establish a relationship with an animal you're thinking about purchasing or what? I wish we had had a chance to go just for the experience.

Momotarou sushi restaurant. I always thought the sign was cute.

My First Resume

It took me a while, but I finally did it! I finished my resume and I handed it into the store today. I had to include a picture with it though, and I didn't really like the way it came out. Unfortunately the booths only allow for two tries so if you don't like either than you're screwed. I brought scissors with me to the train station so I could specifically cut the photo out and paste it to my resume. Many thanks to everyone who answered my questions about the resume while I was trying to figure it all out!

When I handed it in though it was a bit awkward. I couldn't find the guy I had consulted before and the manager of the store was busy with a client, so I handed it to the second girl working there. I tried to think up the keigo way to say "Is it all right if I give this to you?" but I couldn't remember it so I just used normal polite. But it seemed to be okay because after she confirmed I was really actually handing her a legitimate resume, she went and gave it to the guy. I really wish I knew his name, since he'll probably be the one interviewing me. We set up my interview for Monday at noon. I hope I can do well! I mustn't forget my visa though, just in case.

I asked him what kind of clothing I should wear, and he said that "normal" clothing is fine. Well of course this is Tokyo and everyone in Tokyo's "normal" wear is a bit dressed up, especially for a store like the one I applied to.

I bought myself these new eyelashes before I left. I've been wanting these for a while now!

Dolly Wink Nail Polish

I started a shopping service recently, and I've finally shipped off my first order just last Thursday! So, I decided I'd buy myself some new nail polish. I decided to go with lavender from Dolly Wink's line.

Unfortunately, I have to say I'm not really a fan. I found the nail polish to be super thick and it took me forever to put on and smoothing it out was near impossible! Speaking of impossible, it seems my camera is incapable of taking pictures of purple things. They all come out blue...so the picture above isn't really accurate of the color that came out.

The above is the actual color. So, my nail color came out a bit darker than that.

In any case, don't think I'll be buying Dolly Wink nail polishes again.

UPDATE (two days later): My nails are already chipping even though I added more topcoat. I am disappoint.

Ueno

Yesterday Nicole took us to Ueno to show us some super cheap places to buy clothes and things. I guess Ueno is actually historically known as being where the black market was in Tokyo, so of course there were a lot of cheap vendors! But I can't believe I forgot my camera...I was so mad. Dan let me use the camera on his phone, but it's just not the same. *sob*

In any case, we looked around for some bags and Daniel found himself a cheap school bag he was happy with, which looks really Japanese especially since he put a cute little charm on it of a Nintendo character. We looked around a bit more, and then Nicole brought us to a store called ABAB, which is a huge mall with floors and floors of shoes and other girly fashionable things. She took us down to the basement first since it was the floor with makeup and tons and tons and tons of fake lashes.

I ended up buying Fairy eye lashes from a brand called Diamond Lash and a new black liquid liner. Afterwards, Nicole brought us back upstairs to look for shoes~

I ended up getting this pair, but man it sure left a blister on my right foot, even though they fit the left foot perfectly. Stupid feet that are different sizes!! I'll have to start carrying bandaids with me or something. In any case, I learned that I'm actually a large in Japanese shoe sizes. I would've never thought that though, considering how tiny my feet are compared to most Americans.

After shopping around ABAB a bit more, we decided we were ready for food and headed over to what Nicole told us was a well-known place to order gyuudon, which is beef on top of rice. It was pretty good, although I couldn't finish my bowl. I finished all the meat and half of the rice though.

It was kinda funny though, while we walked through Ueno so many people tried to advertise to us in English. One dude who was trying to advertise the pachinko parlor tried yelling "Evangelion!!" at us, to which we turned and laughed. Nicole says that she normally doesn't get so many people trying to talk to her in English. Makes me kind of think f my experiences in Shibuya 109, where people would just keep advertising to me in Japanese (although one chick actually asked if I spoke Japanese or not...should've said no LOL).

We headed over to Shinjuku to get a few basic and cheap things from a store called Uniqlo. I had totally forgotten to bring any tanktops with me, so I got a bunch of those.

Buying these things was a bit frustrating though. For one, I was stupid and tried on a black one first so I could figure out my size. That was such a huge mistake! I should've grabbed white. This type of thing wouldn't actually be an issue for Japanese people because they use aerosol deodorant. Beyond the color, I had some other issues in the bust size. The medium fit me just fine body wise, but not so much elsewhere. In any case, I ended up just getting mediums.

After Uniqlo, we headed over to Tokyu Hands so I could buy a cute notebook. I ended up getting a few more things than I thought I'd come out with though, they were just too cute.

 A Mickey Mouse notebook~

A pig notebook with really cute Engrish on it.

A super cute pencil with pictures of bears and a cute bunny hanging off it.

And I found my new planner for next year! It's just soooo cute!!

After Tokyu Hands we headed home. Daniel went to bed early, although I stayed up a little bit longer.