The Rose Garden of Reitaku University

While the reason that we saw the rose garden was because of Reitaku's Anniversary fair, it was a pleasant surprise to see that nestled in the near center of Reitaku was a wonderful garden...

Tis the season to be blooming I guess.

Really....Really?!

The last month has been a time of lots of sickness and not so fun times for my friends.  This particular lesson goes out to my German friend Elise, who has been sick for two or so weeks...

Life Lesson 11 - Japan Style

 Before Stating Something, Check the bottle.

So the background for this life lesson involves the aforementioned sick friend, Elise.  She was taking some medicine for her sickness and then out of the blue states:  "This medicine tastes like crap..."

She's great like that.

Anyways, she shows Sarah and I the bottle, and it only takes us a second to read what it says and burst out laughing.  Here it is, for your viewing enjoyment:

For anyone with not so decent eyes, the medicine does state "ASS"

So, now we know what people are talking about when stating that something "Tastes like ASS."  They are talking about this medicine.

Thank you Elise.  This moment is a beautiful moment of my life.

Ciao for Nao~ 

日本語の宿題ＩＩ

カリフォルニア

 

カリフォルニアはアメリカの西にある州です。　人口はおよそ３７万人で、アメリカで一番人口が多い州です。　

アメリカのゴールデンステートと言われています。

The Best Things are Always Free

Life Lesson 7, Japan Style

So this life lesson is a little bit on being frugal.

Here's the background.  We were at the international party, hosted by Rifa, where we presented the Souran Dance and at the end, got free food.  Always a nice deal.  But the real deal is what we managed to do during the course of the party.

As international students, we were actually allowed to wander and mingle and eat food like all of the other guests.  As hosts of the party, we were also allowed free food afterwards.  In between this, something called "Shuu Cream" came out. 

 

These are little packages with a pastry filled with Ice Cream...  The special little thing wasn't the shuu cream though, it was what was on the package.  There were 1 point stickers on every package (What had to be near 300 packages of shuu cream, each with a sticker)  See where I'm getting here?

The people at the party weren't particularly interested in the stickers, you see.  And after waiting a while, Sarah and I realized, they wouldn't care if we pulled off the stickers on the packages.

So we did.

Here's where the lesson of being frugal comes into play.  I wouldn't say that you should take something  immediately, as soon as you see it.  But when you've assessed that they don't care, then go for it.  If you don't, the stuff will be wasted.

What we got out of this.  Sarah and I, together, ended up with 110 stickers, which we promptly brought into Lawson's (the almighty convenience store) and found exactly what it was they were offering for collecting the stickers.

I guess I should say, take what opportunity gives you.  Is an appropriate lesson for this post....

They were offering BOWLS.  We essentially got a bunch of free bowls to accompany the free food and fun night at the party.

How great is that?

Ikebukuro, Hakuouki fun~

Do it while you can!  It's only till the end of May!

Tasty looking Hijikata, as usual~

Reasons why my friend Sarah is a fatass

Life Lesson, No 6 - 

Is this really a lesson?

Let's make it one:  How not to be a Fatass.

This is done with permission from Sarah.  In fact it was encouraged by her.  Here we go.

Some background.  Last night was the Rifa International Welcoming party for the ryuugakuseitachi.  The day before that was my birthday.  I got some good pictures of Sarah eating food, and then we started talking about Sarah being a fatass.  She started going through a list of why she was a fatass, and we came up with five reasons.  So we ran through a list of five reasons why Sarah is a fatass.

We all live in the dorm by the way.

1. Sarah keeps a nice box of snacks behind her chair in her room for when she's on the computer and doesn't feel like getting up to search for food.  She doesn't even get out of her chair.
   
2. She weighs herself multiple times to make sure the machine isn't trolling her and that her weight is accurate.
   
   
3. She wants other people's food even when she still has her own.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. She fights other people for said food.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. A first year Japanese college student told her she should join dance to shed a few pounds.
   
   
   

These are not actually serious by the way.  She doesn't actually eat THAT much.  And she's probably not as bad a she says she is with the snacks either.  Though the first year did actually say that, look at her.  If she lost any more weight she would vanish!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the Friday lesson of the week this time.  As for the lesson.

The key is, do the opposite of what is listed here.  (Except for joining dance.....that's something you should do)

Ciao for Nao~

Life Lesson, No 5

Life Lessons - Japan Style

When Going Shopping Bring Little Cash.

(Make sure you're ready for emergencies though!)

Here's the point of this life lesson.  I got into Hakuouki （薄桜鬼) in February, maybe.  The problem is that there is a great amount of merchandise available for it.  I made the mistake of having around 10000 yen available at the time (I never did this again) and in the process of about 2 months, have managed to purchase all of the above.

The moral?  Keep a tight reign over your pocket.

I've had to keep a real tight reign of my spending money since my scholarship is a month later than it should be, so I've been living off of a few hundred dollars.  Unfortunately, this month also happened to be the most expensive I had in a while.  Lots of stuff to buy.  Anyways.  The point is, pretty merchandise makes me want to purchase.

Ja for now~

Life Lesson, No. 4

Life Lessons - Japan Style

Life Lesson 4 - On A Rainy Day, Make sure you have an umbrella handy

Cute guys with cars work too.  (Just don't go with strangers).

Some back story is necessary.  On this day, it was raining at a pretty steady drizzle.  Nothing too bad.  My friends and I were going to badminton that night, so we were just going to walk to badminton and then head back to the dorm, or so we thought.

We ended up invited out with the guys to Cocos.  Problem?  I didn't bring an umbrella, and all I was wearing were shorts.  

Solution, the cutie ex-leader of the badminton circle invited the only three girls (me, and my two friends) into his car to drive us to the place.

~Thank you Cutie~

Life Lessons, No. 3

Life Lessons - Japan Style

Life Lesson 3 - Dorm Life is more fun when you talk to people

This picture was taken a few days ago.  We decided to have a fun dorm time after our cleaning (every thursday).

We talked from 10PM till 1 in the morning, and we all had school the next day.

One thing that I must say is: get to know your dorm mates.  It is much more enjoyable when they all want to at least greet you.  You'll probably make friends!

~Ja for now

Life Lessons, No. 2

Life Lessons - Japan Style

Life Lesson 2 - Laundry is easy to deal with in small increments.

Do your laundry.  Trust me, you don't want to have to deal with the mess all at one time.

And yes, that is my laundry.  I ran out of hangers (seeing as I don't dry my clothes) quite quickly.

I know, this post is quite similar to my previous cleanliness post.

~Ja for now.

Miscellaneous Saturday

The first Miscellaneous Saturday of hopefully many.

For today's item:

This was found in Osaka, Japan.　　Ah, fun times....

I wonder if the Japanese realize just what is being said here....

Life Lessons

Life Lessons - JAPAN style

Life Lesson 1 - Being a slob is NOT okay.

For the past few weeks, I've been basically hibernating in a state of  "LAZY" and "CHEAP".  I haven't gotten up the gumption to do much of anything.  So when a person doesn't do much of anything, you would expect the mess to be minimal, right?

HA, yeah right.

Apparently, I have a bad habit of eating things that are rather crumbly in my room.  And these crumbs tend to build up.  It got out of hand, so I actually cleaned it.

And what a glorious thing it is to be able to see the floor once more!

That is All.

Japanese Graduations are Boring

And I am not over-exaggerating.

Nara

Deer, Deer, Everywhere!

So...Technically, this trip took place right after Osaka...(January 5th?) but I got lazy and didn't feel like posting it up, so here it is now....

The trip to deer central Nara, Japan.

Nara actually didn't seem to be all that large... I'm pretty sure it was just the area that we were in that was so small though.

Skiing and Snowboarding
Nagano, Japan

Last time I went to the snow (also, incidentally, my first time that I remember), I tried my hand at snowboarding - as is pictured above.

This time.  I thought that Skiing would be a better option.

 See that smile?  I'm clueless.

Tokyo Disney Sea

Going to fun places~!

Or just one fun place.

A heads up to anyone wanting to go to Disney Sea.  It's really hard to find anyone who speaks English.  The furthest you can get is an English Guidebook.....unless you're lucky and find someone.

The entrance of Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea.  This is the "Resort Line" which is basically a train that connects the two.  Unfortunately, you can only choose to go to one with a single ticket.  To go to both, you would have to pay for both.

 

Word of the post-
乗り物 (norimono) - Ride, as in amusement park ride

遊園地  (Yuenchi) - Amusement Park

雪だ! 雪! きゃあああああ～！

First Snow in Japan!

Omg, it's snowing!  This really isn't much of a post since it's really spur of the moment, but I really wanted to commemorate my first time seeing snow in Japan.  It's not even supposed to snow here!

As a matter of fact, where I live in America, it doesn't snow either!  I have to go all the way to Lake Tahoe to experience snow like I got here!  *high pitched screech*  I'm so happy~!!!

So, to commemorate this day, I've decided to post our night time activities of what we did in the snow.

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Word of the post-

雪　(yuki) - snow!  I think the reason should be really flipping obvious!

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Osaka

~Exploring Osaka~

During our Winter Break, Elise and I decided to do a bit of traveling.  We decided to spend three days in Osaka.  We decided to go for three days and two nights.

Happy New Year

Happy New Years!

From Japan

Fire, fire!  Hahahahahahaha!  (They're all drunk)

In Japan, New Years is considered a more important day than Christmas.  It's pretty strange to do more for New Years than for Christmas, trust me.  Especially if you grew up in a western society.

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Word of the Post:

忘 年会 (Bounenkai) - New years is important in Japan for a reason.  To end a year means to forget the mistakes and the sad times of the year and to start over.  For that reason, Japanese often have a party called the "bounenkai".  It means a party to forget.

新年会 (Shinnenkai) - On the other hand, the Japanese also party at the start of the year.  This is to celebrate the beginning of the year and to hope for a good one.

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