Ikebukuro, Hakuouki fun~

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

Tasty looking Hijikata, as usual~

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~

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.

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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Christmas Parties and Dinners

Christmas and New Years in Japan Part 2:  The Rifa Party, and Christmas.

Since the last post was so flipping long, I decided to make a new post for this party.  I'll also try to add in the little Christmas party that took place on Christmas day.

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Japanese Word of the Post:

踊り (odori) - Dance.

Short and simple, I know... but because the Rifa party was all a stage based celebration, and one of the most memorable parts was when one group busted out in dance moves, it makes it a logical choice...

鈴 (suzu) - Bell

I only chose to put this in because during our Christmas Bingo during the Rifa party, we were told to put any words we think of on our sheet as our bingo board.  I put bell, but they said it had to specifically be "suzu".

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THE RIFA PARTY

Christmas in the Dorms

And they made me the tree...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

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Word of the Post:
良いお年を (Yoi otoshi wo)- Have a good year~!
あけましておめでとうございます!　(akemashite omedetou gozaimasu)－ Happy New Year!

They are both said during the time of the New Years holiday.  The difference? The first is said before New Years, the second is said After the day.  So before we went on break, everyone I saw greeted me with a "良いお年を！"
Afterwords, ”あけましておめでとう～！”

The more you know. Hehe.

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Christmas is Coming

Christmas is fast approaching huh...  It doesn't feel like anywhere close to Christmas.  Maybe its because I didn't celebrate turkey day with family this year.

Have a Christmas Cake.  <3
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Japanese Word of the Post:
Maneku - to beckon or invite.  The cat who has it's paw up is often called a maneki neko because it "beckons" customers into a shop, which is why the cat is often set out in front of stores.

Now that that little tidbit is done, on with the meat of this post.

Reitaku University

As I promised, I'm here to bring a small tour of my current (for 1 year) campus.  This is the not very attractive back entrance of Reitaku University.  The actual entrance is much nicer, just to tell you, this is the way I usually come and go from though and I figured it would be best to show you what I see.


 

That wonderful building looming in the distance is my dorm room...  I'm somewhere on the far left, behind the gate.

Japanese Dorm Rooms, and the View

So, I just received my memory card reader and am really, really happy.  Of course, I'm happy about all the other stuff that came in that wonderful wonderful box, but having a memory card reader really makes my day.

So for today's post, I've decided to give a bit of a layout on just what my campus of Reitaku University looks like.

Starting from my room...

Ikumen Report

Well, I just decided to pop back online to write in this poor, neglected, pictureless(dagnabbit!) blog, and I realize that it's nearly been a month since I wrote anything in here!  And no doubt I've experienced plenty of new things during my trip abroad.  I apologize, my poor, poor empty blog!

Anyways, as I really do not have the time to post any lengthy posts about how the last month has been in Japan, (ehehehe.  I'll try to do more when I get my camera card reader, geez! -_-) I decided to share my report on Ikumen with you. (whoever "you" may be, if there's anyone actually bored enough to go on my blog...)

As a way to interest some potential readers:

IKUMEN - Sexy beasts who actually care about helping raise a family.


Come onnnnnnn~!!!  You can't deny the cute that is a man and his love for his children!

Anyways.  Continue to read for the report, Kay?

What is Wrong With the Sweets Here?

Wow, haven't updated in almost 3 weeks??  Where does the time go.

Anyways, this will probably be a fast post.  I have a test tomorrow and am really just procrastinating by being on here.  (Already did all my laundry and made food...)

Anyways, on to the post.

Japanese words of the week:

Moufu (mow-foo)　もうふ - blanket, plain and simple.  Ah, the comfort of many a children all around the world.  It ain't surprising that I'm in love with my nice, fluffy warm blanket.....

Fukuro (foo-koo-ro) ふくろ　- bag.  Not to be confused with kaban, or bag/purse, this word means the bag that things like groceries and other such shopping items get placed into upon purchasing.  Japanese are very careful with giving out their fukuro, you usually only get one or two for a crap load of groceries.  If you have a eco-bag, many times they knock off a few cents from your total.

Also, there's a store called Big-Ａ．　　Ｔｈｉｓ　ｐｌａｃｅ　ｄｏｅｓｎ’ｔ　ｇｉｖｅ　ｙｏｕ　ｂａｇｓ　ａｔ　ａｌｌ，　ｓｏ　ｉｆ　ｙｏｕ　ｐｕｒｃｈａｓｅ　 ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ，　ｍａｋｅ　ｓｕｒｅ　ｙｏｕ　ｂｒｉｎｇ　ａｎ　ｅｃｏ－ｂａｇ　ｏｒ　ａｔ　ｌｅａｓｔ　ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｃａｒｒｙ 　ｙｏｕｒ　ｓｔｕｆｆ　ｗｉｔｈ．

Why isn't this sweet?? ----->

I want my sweets dengit!  And I don't mean the chocolate milk!

Instruments and Aquariums

THE AQUARIUM
and other junk

Word of the Post:

WAKAME - This is the type of seaweed that is used in Miso soup, not nori as I had always believed.  I’ve been using nori in my miso for a while because it’s pretty cheap, but my soup always turned out way saltier than it should be. That’s because nori is salted and dried to add more flavor and make it more edible by itself.  So now you know, if you wanna make a nice bowl of miso, grab the wakame.

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It’s been around two weeks since the last time I posted up on this blog……………….

Already?!

Oh well, even if it’s not being read, I wanna write it for my memories in the future, so here I go.

Meeting with friends in Ueno

Maybe I should just say I'm gonna update every week or so.  I don't seem to do enough to update daily.


As I go, I'm going to try my best to make this blog much more organized, that way it's more fun for everyone.

JAPANESE WORDS OF THE WEEK

Ikumen - Apparently something that is becoming more usual for Japan is the idea of men being able to take care of kids on their own.  It's always been a normal concept to think of women as being the person to raise the children, not the men.  Now though, this word has come out.  Perhaps it's a wave of the future??

Ogottekureru - Slang for treating someone.  The formal version would be "Gochisoushite," but when talking about friends treating you out for food, it's more normal to use ogottekureru.

A run down of My Weekend

Beware for all words and no pictures.  This is also a rather boring post, as it's just a rundown of things.

Another Week, another Blog

Alrighty.  Time for some updating huh....  Well today is Monday in Japan, it's about 5:30 PM here.  Classes officially get out at 6PM but I don't have a fifth period class today, so here I am.

Beware, it's another mass of words.  I would say that this one is for my own memory.

Blending Days

So, I haven't posted anything since Thursday huh??  Feels like it's only been a day or so.

Beware, this is all words and no pictures.  ;)