chocolate_chip

Lonely Planet can bite me; Hirosaki is well worth visiting. I had a great day today. I walked around the castle, went to the Neputa museum, saw a Tsugaru-jamisen performance, and rode a free rental bike through the temple district. For lunch, I had an apple (40 yen! Crazy!), apple pie, and apple vinegar with honey.

Yesterday was great, too, even though it involved a whole lot of sweating and an unfortunate encounter with a cow's tongue on a stick. Matsushima is beautiful, and the train ride from Morioka to Odate was lovely. Even though it was total BFI without even a separate track for each direction, it was the nicest local train I've ever been on. It even had a bathroom AND a trash can! Plus, Morioka Station has a Jupiter, so I was able to have a Dr. Pepper during the ride.

So sleepy, and need to get up early tomorrow to head back down south. And just think, today was my relaxing day. x_x

I woke up this morning from an awesome Kyou Kara Maou! dream in which Conrad had been kidnapped, and Yuuri went into total ass-kicking mode to get him back. Not exactly Maou-mode, because even though he was powered-up, Yuuri was still totally himself, just pissed off and taking names. It was so cool.

Except then it was 4:30 in the morning, and I couldn't fall back asleep. ;_; Then, when I finally fell back asleep at 6:30, I overslept, couldn't find any suitable clothes to wear, and had to skip stopping at 7-11 in order to get to work on time. And since it's exams now, the cafeteria was closed, so I had to eat overpriced Calorie Mate from the vending machine for breakfast.

Calorie Mate is exactly as appetizing as it sounds, although it's not something to help athletes put on muscle, which you might guess from the name. Calorie Mate is sort of Japan's version of an energy bar. It tastes like cardboard (I actually mean that literally), bears no resemblance to any food ever found or created by natural means, and according to the package, is 100% nutritionally balanced. It is the yin to an energy bar's yang; instead of being a slab of congealed sludge which is impossible to chew and guaranteed to give you stomach cramps and constipation, Calorie Mate is a crumbly, moisture-less cookie bar that can't be swallowed without the aid of at least half a liter of water, and is guaranteed to give you stomach cramps and constipation. It's also the only food other than corn soup sold in any of my school's five vending machines.

Needless to say, between the lack of sleep and the rock in my stomach, I'm not having a very good day. I demand super-fun tiems tomorrow to make up for it! >:| [edit] Okay, finding out that my will-call angel got all the protos I wanted AND a bar of Xmvlzencab helps quite a bit, too.

Oh, and I must amend my post from yesterday. Today she spent only half the day on facebook. The other half was spent on twitter.

Vacation was insanely busy, and I did almost none of the things that I was supposed to. I wanted to use the time to catch up on things, and instead I fell even further behind. ;_; I did have a good time though, and I got to hang out with anruiukimi, kyashieru, jougetsu, and misspaulette. I also had the most Japanese New Year's yet, including sending and receiving New Year's cards, making a trip out to the inaka, going to a temple for the New Year's Eve bell-ringing, making a New Year's Day shrine visit, and shopping at the New Year's sales.

x____x OMG, the New Year's sales. I spent so much money. Like seriously insanely ridiculous amounts of money. First we went to Peace Now, and I got two skirts, a top, and a sweater. Then we went to the loli department store, and I got a jewelry lucky bag. Then Cassiel took Paulette and me to Osaka to show us the Qutie Frash store, which is made of awesome. And the salesgirls' hair was made of even more awesome, all teased up and crazy colors and filled with tiny little New Year's decorations. I wish I'd thought to ask for a picture. Anyway, Qutie Frash makes Asian cyber-punk clothes in styles and materials that actually fit the non-tiny. And they even let you try on sale items! I bought two skirts, a pair of pants, a Chinese-style tunic top, a Japanese-style kimono top, and a camisole. After that, we tried unsuccessfully to find an ATM that would actually let us withdraw money, ate at a cute okonomiyaki place, went by h. Naoto, Gouk, and Hangry Angry, but they were closed, and hit up Kera and the used shop. I had no money left, but I went back the next day and got a pair of armwarmers at Gouk, a hoodie, a pair of bloomers, and a doll case at Kera, and a whole bunch of stuff at the used store. I got an h. Anarchy t-shirt, two Algonquins skirts, a Qutie Frash skirt that would be Cassiel's if I hadn't seen it first (and if it didn't go PERFECTLY with my dragon jacket), and two h. Jelly skirts that I thought were wraparounds, but turned out to be fitted skirts with wrap overskirts. x_x One of them fits (barely), but the other one I don't think I could fit into even if I were at my ideal weight. The overskirt goes great with my QF stuff though, so I'll probably just keep it.

And there's still Super Comic City next weekend! T__T But after that, I'm definitely through spending money. Except for BPAL. And maybe some shoes to go with the skirts that I bought. It wouldn't really be a problem, except that I also bought three dolls for other people during vacation, so my yen level is pretty giri-giri for this month. And the whole thing about maybe having to return to the US with its distinct lack of jobs soon.

Speaking of BPAL, holy crap, my collection exploded over vacation. Not literally, thankfully. XD After the After Event, Cassiel and I had a sniffing party at Starbucks. (BTW, I highly recommend this month's houjicha latte. I don't like coffee OR tea, and even I thought it was great.) I tried scents until both arms were full, and she very generously gifted me with several of her unloved imps. Then when I got home that evening, there was a package of even more imps waiting for me! XD So now I have 50 different scents, not including the vial of Zombie Apocalypse that fell down the drain. And 30 more in the mail. Aaaand about 15 more that I need to send money for. ^^;;; BPAL is very dangerous, because it's not very expensive, if you look at each imp or bottle by itself, but it's SO easy to get carried away.

One of the things on my list that DID get done was a trip to Spa World. I went with Lannie and a friend of hers, and had a great time. It's a pretty strange experience though, moreso than a regular onsen, because there are employees selling snacks or doing spa treatments, and the customers are all naked, but the employees are all clothed. We decided to get some spa treatments; I got the one where they rub off all your dead skin, and a mini-facial. I thought that the skin rub was going to be just arms and legs, but no, it's ALL over. o.O I hated it at the time, because my skin is really sensitive and it hurt a lot, but I have to say that my skin looked fantastic afterwards. The facial was also uncomfortable because it involved a lot of really hot towels, but since then, my face has been noticeably less oily than usual. It's starting to go back to normal though, unfortunately. Outside of the baths, there's a lot more stuff that you can do while clothed or in the spa-provided tunics, like several restaurants, a game center, a nap room, and a pool where doctor fish suck the dead skin off your feet. I love the fish, they're so cute and it feels like a cross between a tickle and a mild electric shock. There's also a pool, mixed bath, and seasonal water park, but we didn't get to that part. And they've extended the ¥1000 campaign, so I want to go again either this month or in March to see the European floor, but finding a day that won't be packed will be difficult. Oh, and one more awesome thing about it: the building is really well-ventilated, so you can wear your glasses everywhere! Being naked in public is a lot easier if you don't also have to be blind.

I also did get up to Mineyama to see Elizabeth, and Mandy and Jarrad came over for dinner and hanging out. There were cookies and hamburgers and mixed veggies and biscuits and proper bacon and scrambled eggs.... T^T I miss having real food. We watched The Fifth Element and Cars in shiny shiny blu-ray, and I had a nice, snowy train ride back to Kyoto. I also now have Kirk and Spock action figures which I need to put in inappropriate poses.

Hatsumode was beautiful! It was snowing gently, and clouds raced across the full moon. Unfortunately, my videos of the bell-ringing turned out crappy because my camera was on a super low-res video setting that I didn't even know it had. But I got a lucky fortune, and ate delicious strawberry taiyaki! And then Paulette and I rode the subway back and forth until 5 in the morning.

What I DIDN'T do: dishes, cleaning, studying, mailing Christmas presents to family. x_x I don't feel quite so failtastic though, because out of the whole vacation, there were only three days that I was actually at home, and I spent one of those recovering from vertigo. I also didn't eat any McDonald's the whole vacation! Yay me!

I'm not going to do a decade retrospective, because I'm lazy 2010 is the last year of the current decade, not the first year of the next one, geez people. 2009 was pretty okay, had some fun times, not too many bad times. My biggest regret is that I pretty much just let 2009 happen to me, instead of going out and making things happen. That's the main thing I want to change for 2010.

There were previous storms that coworkers had referred to as typhoons, but apparently that was just wind and rain from storms that were hundreds of miles out at sea. Last night we got the actual thing. VERY different. I woke up at 2:00 in the morning to the sound of the wind trying to rip my privacy window off. Not too much damage around here other than a few fallen trees and branches, luckily.

But what I really want to know is, if it can blow the roof off a kindergarten in Osaka, why does the giant spider still have its web hanging out over the bike rack?! D:

Win 1: I ordered a pizza! \o/ This is especially big news for me, because I don't even enjoy talking on the phone in English. It was sooooooo good, too. Either they use real pepperoni, or it's been so long since I've had real pepperoni that I can't tell the difference any more. The bad part is that now I'm going to be tempted to have pizza way more often than I should.

Win 2: Scored some 70% offage at Black Peace Now.

Win 3: Volks is NOT having the Sato event on Health and Sports Day weekend for once, so I can actually go!

Fail: The leopard print glasses that I've been lusting after look absolutely terrible on me. ;_;

In other news, ST:Wrath of Khan is amazing and amazingly slashy. So goddamned sick of the surprise!son trope, though.

I've got to do purikura more often. The lighting in those booths makes everyone look so good!

Okay, this is mostly a gratuitous icon post. Oh, Japan.

I had a Very Cultural Weekend. Yesterday misspaulette and I went to a taiko recital. Seeing little girls being taught to beat on drums as big as themselves makes me happy.

Today was pro wrestling! \m/

It was actually a lot of fun. I wish the tournament came to Osaka more than once a year.

Some days I get so frustrated at what a fucking joke Japan's public school system is. This would be one of those days.

Happy Emperor's Birthday, everyone!

Well, somehow I survived the Christmas party. We had a blindfolded snowman-building relay race, so the kids practiced "go up," "go down," "go left," "go right," etc.

Anyway, if you're wondering what I've been up to lately, I have prepared a lovely picture post for you!

( clicky )

But rkold will be bringing me a shiny new Canon when she comes to visit!!!!! I can't wait! ToT

Oh yes, and speaking of doll pictures.....

( how fucking cute is this shit, seriously )

Also strung up my first 40 cranes for my senbazuru. Crane count: 94 down, 906 to go.

I never thought I would be saying this, but Costco is so amazing! It's like being instantly teleported back to the U.S. We lol'ed so hard at all the Japanese people with their giant shopping carts filled with boxes of bulk cereal, a 20 oz. soda (with free refills for only ¥80!!) in one hand and a hot dog in the other. It's like some kind of crazy theme park where people go to play American. And they sell DS games! I could have saved 10 bucks by getting Platinum there! But then I wouldn't have been able to get my Secret Key today, so it's all good. *pets the shiny mystery gift*

Let's see what I bought.... brownie mix, American mayonnaise, canned chicken, canned tuna, 75 packets of instant cocoa, a 24-case of Dr. Pepper, microwaveable popcorn (I usually hate the stuff, but I have no way to pop real popcorn, and I'm that desperate), MUFFINS, and two slices of pepperoni pizza~ T^T So disappointed that they didn't have Lucky Charms, though. I regret not getting the Tim Tams, but I was barely able to get everything home as it was, so oh well.

Next time, I'm bringin' the BIG suitcase.