at the moment, I’m looking for a place to crash in Sapporo during the snow festival(2/5-11) and although i found a place for the 5th through the 8th, all the places I’ve contacted have been booked for the 9th and 10th. I mean, Hokkaido is not some place where you can spend the night OUTSIDE because it’s, well, hella cold up there right now. so I’ve been looking at a couch surfing website(about time!) and I found this profile:”my couch is so small and dirty.but I like my couch.because I slept my couch so many times.someday I drunken so much,I didnot go my bed.I just wanted to sleep my couch.yes. couch is not good for my backbone but I dont care.thank you see you….”“ l love rock music and soccer and japanese girl. how do you think about japanese girl? japanese girl is pretty to me. and I love jimi hendrix. if you dont know jimi hendrix, I can teach to you for jimi hendrix. jimi hendrix is my black jesus.Interestsyou know that jimi hendrix is great hippy. I love real hippy style. kurt cobain and alice in chains. you know kurt cobain likes a lead belly. Its fucking cool to me. “ lol what the fuck is a “lead belly” lolI think I found one though so it’s cool. I might meet up with some people in Tokyo through this since noone is hardly home here at where I’m staying(CAPSULE HOSTEL! AHHH!!)I’m going for a job interview in Shibuya today as a bartender at an Italian restaurant so wish me luck please. I’ll probably work 6pm~11pm 5 days a week, hopefully saving up at least $4,000 for my next trip (about what I need for Jun-September)I haven’t even taken the exam for my school yet so I don’t even know whether they’ll have a place for me. ugh. I’ll find out on Jan 4th when the classes start. Otherwise, I’ll just attend free classes all over Tokyo since my Japanese is pretty crap anyways. I’m just not used to people being “polite” or “apologetic”(I only use it in quotes because I don’t believe saying ’sorry’s or ‘excuse me’s a lot doesn’t make it sincere. it’s just a cultural difference) so I’m kind of freaking out when I’m bombarded with bows and “Sumimasen”s. Besides that, everything is pretty petit here and it’s pretty cool. too bad I can’t read 90% of the menu here. ugh. any idea where I can get a lonely planet guide in Shinjuku-ku?
Gonnichiwa December 27, 2007
Hello all,I have arrived safely in one piece to Tokyo yesterday and spent the whole day today pretty much reviewing Japanese and sleeping. I think I adjust to the time difference quite well by now since I usually changed my sleep hours by 12 hrs every weekend back in NY. haha. not healthy, I tell you. I didn’t have problem getting on the train and subway since there were many directions written in Korean and English but geez, I don’t think I’ve ever been so surprised by my lack of understanding the language! I pick up every other word, which means that I don’t understand what the hell is going on. GAHHH!! I mean India, I expected people to speak English but they didn’t and it was shocking as the travel went on, and in Turkey, I didn’t expect to understand a word so I was prepared, and in Spanish-speaking countries, I at least knew the basics, but here! in JAPAN! HOLY COW. It’s all in code!!! and even my stupid English-Japanese dictionary is in Kanji(Chinese characters) so I can’t even read what it says!I’m at a guesthouse now where I had planned to stay but I don’t think that’s happening now because they are capsules and I might spend more time in my room than I had expected. Thankfully, I found new shared-rooms/guesthouses which I’ll go look at tomorrow. oh and some words of wisdom from pops:moi: It’s like I’m going through what GoSam(Korean for High School seniors)’s go through, they put on weight because all they do is study and eat while sitting down. Instead of going through that during highschool, I’m suffering in college senior year.pops: You are going to lose weight in Japanmoi: Yea I know, because my diet will be healthy.(upto this point my usual diet consisted of chips, pizza and chinese take-outs)pops: No, because you are going to be broke! well dad, what do you know. so far my meals here have consisted of a blueberry muffin and a leftover morning roll from the plane with strawberry preserve packet I grabbed from McDonald’s, and an okaka(gatsuobushi) onigiri(triangular sushi) and some nasty lipton lychee iced tea. I love lychee but this tastes like some mfer baptized themselves in tea after having sex on the lychee field. UGH. By the way, meal prices seem to be similar to that of NY but as my dad has informed me, the portion is probably a lot smaller. DAMN YOU AMERICA for spoiling me with ginormous portions enough for three!no wonder why everyone is so tiny here. I feel like a giant towering over even most men here.
Last semester December 17, 2007
I’m 4 finals, a 10-15 pages paper, a 3-page review away from finishing school.
but alas, before I can hoola hoop my way through life & congratulate myself on getting a BBA school in 3 yrs,
I of course decided to go out grand style, and decided to show up at school for a wrong exam, not preparing for the actual exam of the day.
That was 4hrs ago and since then I’ve gotten over my initial thought of curling up into a ball and dying and actually now am 90% ready for the exam.
As I’ve said before, I am going to Tokyo on Christmas and will be there until the 5th of March. I wanted to extend my stay there until the 25th or 26th but that’s not happening since I would have to pay $225 as a changing fee. ugh. whatever happened to good ole policies of open tickets? anyone knows how to waive the fee for studentuniverse.com? ugh…
right now, I’m thinking of either staying at a dorm(w/5 other ppl in 3 bunk beds)/share a room with one other person or getting my own room in Shinjuku area, about 15-30 mins away from Harajuku. Getting my own room will cost about $100 more but I already have like 5 people wanting to visit me so I don’t know. If they can pay me a bit for their stay, maybe I’ll get my own room.
I actually found a dorm room deal for about $240, which would have me sandwiched between two other bunk beds in a 3(!) bunk bed frame. I was telling my parents about it and laughed so much about how I’d be totally reminiscing about my train rides in India. Spending 2 months sandwiched between strangers? lol bring it on.
For the classes, I’m looking to take classes at Kai in Harajuku as it is the only internationally certified language school in Japan..I have to take the placement exam in about 2 days and hopefully they’ll have a space for my level. They’re charging me daily tuition instead because I won’t be able to stay for the whole semester. I was hoping to finish the whole semester, which ends on 21st because it’s way cheaper that way but since the aforementioned problem will most likely leave me $225 less, I guess I’ll be back to the States on the 5th…gahhh.
I got my new bigger and thicker passport in about 2 weeks (the official site says 4-6 weeks but if you look at an agency’s website it tells you that it will be done in 8-12 days sans the extra fee) so that’s one less problem to worry about.
Over the weekend, I killed my external storage drive with all my photos and music and I, rightfully went insane at 4 a.m., trying to console myself by watching Robert Plant toss back his head about 546 times. It’s at a repair center now and let’s all pray for its quick recovery otherwise….I’ll be sad. very.
anyways,
I’ll be done with every school-related thing on the 19th and then it’s time to pack for 2 separate continents and hopefully during the short break I’ll have time to post about my previous trips….hm
