Pink-Spider.net

Week in Canada

// August 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Blog

Again, it’s been almost a month since I last posted.

August flew by. Actually, the whole summer has really just flown by.
I can’t believe how ridiculously busy I’ve been. With work, friends… life.

I went back to Canada last week for the week, which really, was too short. It’s hard to live at home again after living by myself, but a week hardly gives me any time to adjust to anything. Everyone wants to do something, and I want to give everyone a bit of my time, but it’s near impossible in only six or so days. I feel bad for not having been able to spend as much time with my parents as well.

The house was super empty without Watson there. It’s actually really hard to be there alone without him. I kept thinking I heard his little feet or his heavy sighs when got all comfy in a warm patch of sunlight on the carpet.

But yeah, it was a decent visit. I saw most of my family on Monday because they came to my parent’s house for dinner. My cousin Tyler couldn’t come which sucked because he’s the one I’m closest to, but I talk to him on MSN on a regular basis anyways. We were celebrating some birthdays, including my Uncle’s, Grammy’s and mine. So, Grammy made her special red cake… yet she forgot to put sugar in the icing.

Yeah.
The ‘icing’ was basically butter.
We had cake with thick layers of butter.

Tuesday I did some shopping with my mum, and went to the race track (horses) with my mother and Grammy. My mother and I came out up thirty cents.
… yeah. I bet on horses based on their cuteness. It doesn’t work out so well.

Wednesday was dinner with Kat, Melinda and Jenn, and then to the drive-in. Thursday I hung out with Kat, and then we headed over in the WORST RAIN STORM EVER to the theatre to see a movie. Seriously though. It was like someone was standing on top of the car pouring buckets down the windshield.

Friday morning my dad came to me and said he wanted to ‘burn a CD’.
I asked him what kind of music he wanted on it, and he just kept telling me he wanted to ‘burn a CD’. Eventually I learned that he wanted to make a CD with a demo of his voice so he could try to get some voice work. My dad has a really cool voice, so I think he actually stands a chance to be able to do that. I showed him how to record himself and burn a CD… so we’ll see how that goes.

The rest of Friday was insanely busy. First, I headed over to the campground. It was good to be back there, in a strange way. I saw all my old friends, I answered the phone, talked with my former boss and the family (who really, I feel are like my own), and went down to chat with this one couple that’s come camping with us for years. Then I went to dinner with my piano teacher. She’s pretty awesome, and we went to dinner, then back to her house to let the dog out for a bit, and then went to get ice cream. It was nice to catch up with her.

Annnd from there, I headed back to the campground for a good old fashioned campfire. It was really awesome and I’m glad that my friends were able to do it. We had spider hotdogs, roasted marshmallows and of course, Jenn’s infamous s’mores. Talk about nostalgia.

Saturday, Kat and I headed up to Toronto to hang out with Tony, who I hadn’t seen for years. We did some shopping, went on a wild goose chase for these ridiculous hamsters (don’t ask), and ate dinner at a former TA’s restaurant. It was a nice day, despite the hordes of Justin Bieber fans that crowded the train. No. I’m not even joking. It was insane. And there was a lot of glitter.

Sunday… I headed back home. Nearly missed my flight to Nagoya, but ended up making it safe and sound.

And… that’s my week in Canada.

I’m going to try to blog more…. so we’ll see if anything else pops up here tonight, haha.

Protected: And things.

// September 23rd, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments. // Blog

we had good intentions

// August 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog

To update and post about what we were up to while Kat was visiting here in Japan, but you know how it goes. Posting seems to take a lot of time and effort sometime, and then you have think about all the things you’ve seen and done…

Well, here’s a recap of the two weeks that have been missing (and Kat if I miss something, let me know, haha):

♪ Met up with Hitomi (shuuha on LJ), and since then have had a lot of fun hanging out on various occasions. Highlights include being in the park until nearly midnight (despite the dangers, haha), karaoke, buying tickets for a live next month, and wandering aimlessly. Dinner at LHK was pretty sweet, too.

♪ Went with Eri to 長久手 (Nagakute) which is just outside of the city to watch fireworks and wander around the celebrations that were going on. Got awesome candy apples, and the fireworks were really cool – especially the butterfly and Hello! Kitty shaped ones. Rode back to the station on the most crowded bus EVER, but the bus driver was hilarious, so it made it more tolerable.

♪ Following the fireworks in Nagakute, we headed to Sakae for some karaoke with Hitomi and Sean (so it was Sean, Hitomi, Eri, Kat and myself). Big Echo was ridiculously expensive, but hey, it was a Saturday night. So despite the price, we had a great time singing and a lot of double over in laughter moments.

♪ Kat and I were randomly approached by two guys on the way home. We exchanged e-mails. The one that I talked to seems like a decent fellow.

♪ Went to 白川郷 (Shirakawago), a ‘world heritage’ place with Toshi and Kyoko. It was pretty awesome, and really beautiful. It’s in the mountains, in Gifu prefecture… and well, you can’t go wrong with mountains. We went through an amazing number of tunnels, including one that was 11km long. I don’t know why I find that so fascinating, but I do. I love tunnels. Despite being stuck in traffic for a good three hours, it was a great day. On our way back, we stopped for okonomiyaki, and had a lot of laughs. Photos are finally uploaded: http://www.pink-spider.net/index.php/shirakawago/

♪　Went to 馬籠 (Magome) and an onsen with Eri and Miho. Awesomeness all around. We all had a lot of fun, and the onsen also had a pool that went from indoors to outdoors, a slide and a spa. We ended up renting a child’s floating… thing (because there were no adult ones left) and took turns trying to sit on it and whatnot. Pretty sure the pool boy thought we were some sort of crazy, and tried his best not to blatantly laugh at us. Magome is an old town, where a lot of Japanese style inns used to be, so the town is really interesting to walk through. Beautiful weather, too. Photos are posted: http://www.pink-spider.net/index.php/magome-onsen/

♪ Headed out for dinner with Eri and Hitomi, followed by some karaoke. We had a three hour singing session with quite the setlist — I’ll probably post it in my Japanese blog at a later date. The signs at karaoke are awesome.

♪ Went to LHK for Kat’s last night in Japan, with Eri. The staff there are so sweet; you just want to hug them all. They remembered us from the last time we went. Had the most amazing dessert EVER. French toast with ice cream, bananas and chocolate. I will marry it.

♪ While I was working, Kat set off on a few of her own adventures, including the botanical gardens and zoo, aquarium, and some of the heritage locations around Nagoya. She also got a random lady knocking at my door, for reasons we might never know, and had to buy some new luggage, which in itself sounded like an adventure.

★ To see Kat’s photos (many of which will appear on P-S.net at some point in time) make sure you check out her Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blissful_pics/

So, yes. I think that’s all I can remember for the big points right now. I’m working on adding more photos to the galleries, so if you’re interested, make sure you check them out! Even the older ones, like the Nagoya galleries and friends galleries will be updated.

It was awesome having Kat here, and I’m really glad she got a chance to come! Hopefully she’ll be able to visit again, and if Toshi, Tomoko and Kyoko’s wish comes true, she can find a job here, haha. (IN GIFU, THERE’S LOTS OF PLANTS THERE!).

Annnnd that’s it for now.

K & A’s Adventures in Japan…

// August 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog

After much contemplation, I’ve decided that doing it in parts is just going to get tedious and I’ll have to keep up with the counting and quite frankly, it’s not worth that sort of effort.

So, here are the missing two days from Tokyo plus the return to Nagoya, which in itself was an adventure.

On the 13th, we decided to visit Asakusa and Ginza. It was boiling hot out, so even though Asakusa was really nice, it was not nice feeling gross and sweaty. We had some ice to cool down and it felt like the best thing ever. Naturally we visited Sensouji, and then did a bit of looking around at all the different stalls. Kat ended up buying a really cute towel, and the older gentleman was so cute. He was also a very quick wrapper. To add to the coolness, we had gelato.

After that, we headed off to Ginza where we did mostly window shopping. We stopped into a few stores to browse, and although there were a million and one things we’d have loved to have, most of them aren’t exactly on the list of things we need and can afford, haha. We saw this moving cabaret shop which had different ‘scenes’ where you can put a token in and they move. They were mostly made of wood and metal… it’s hard to explain, but it was cool.

We met up with Kimkim for dinner, and headed out to this little diner for burgers. Unfortunately we were really late (we got there about 10pm and last order was at 10:30pm) and they were sold out of burgers. We had sandwhiches instead, which were just as good. AND I HAD ROOT BEER. It’s hard to find Root Beer in Japan so I was ridiculously exited.

We stayed up pretty late that night watching random things online, but all in all had a good time.

The fourteenth, which was day three of Tokyo, was reserved for Roppongi Hills, after much debate. We wanted to see a nice overview of the city, and the Mori tower had an outstanding view.They also had the ‘Sky Aquarium III’ which was just… amazing. It was basically like art with marine life. There’s no other way to describe it, and there are tons of photos in the photo gallery of it (just go to the Tokyo gallery).

Also in the Mori tower was an Ai Wei Wei exhibit. The art there was… interesting. It’s that kind of art that you don’t really get. We stopped in and watched this extremely bizarre and disturbing movie (well, the latter half of it). It’s like one of those artsy, ‘tortured-soul’ films, that only a certain type of person ‘gets’. We’re not sure if we should be confused, scarred, offended… it was just weird. The footage we saw was this guy with something like a twinkie in his mouth as he talked, and he was connected to what looked like tin foil and silver tubing. The tubing was connected to this wall, where you could see someone’s head, and they kept screaming and banging on the wall. The twinkie-man was also drooling.

Yeah.

From the Mori tower, we headed back to Shibuya to catch the bus to get back to Kim’s and meet him there. Oddly enough, we ended up on the same bus, haha. My future husband was not working at the conbini on our way by. It was sad. I never got to see him again.

Next on the menu was yakiniku, which we had to wait ten minutes to get into. But, the food was good and the menu had the BEST PHRASE EVER: “Yakiniku makes you happy. It’s magical”.
Truer words have never been spoken.

Then after much food, we went to karaoke. Yayyy. We initially planned to be there for three hours, but ended up extending a few times. We sang a lot. We also learned that Kat and I can actually rap — decently. Who knew. We were there until around 3:45am, and finally decided to call it night. On the way home, we stopped by McDonalds, because apparently we felt like we needed that at 4:00am.

Saturday… it was hard to wake up. But we had to catch the shinkansen to head back to Nagoya at 12:40. We left Kim’s place at 11:50… and let’s just say, we cut it really close. Long story short, after walking and the subway (with a transfer) we got through the wicket for the shinkansen at 12:37pm. That was just through the wicket. We still had to find the right platform, and get up the stairs. We made it on that train just in time. It was quite the little adventure because we both honestly thought that we just might not make it.

The ride back to Nagoya was nice, cool and relaxing. I fell asleep. Kat read. And after getting back we prepared for the live, which I already wrote about.

And that concludes our days in Tokyo, haha.
We took lots of photos which I’ve uploaded into the gallery: http://www.pink-spider.net/index.php/tokyo/

K & A’s Adventures in Japan – Pt. 2

// August 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog

Tokyo – day one.

We arrived at the Shinjuku station in Tokyo at the lovely hour of 6:15am. Kim wasn’t keen on getting up any earlier than 8:00am, so we decided to head to the Starbucks in Shibuya for some breakfast while we waited.

We did some people watching, and caught a model and some photographers. It was pretty interesting, and it seemed like it was a shoe campaign. The model was wearing a ridiculous outfit, which made her look kind of like a prostitute. While they were shooting, she was propositioned by this one guy, who she completely ignored. A bunch of people walked through the shot, and they almost got hit by a few cars. That was our breakfast entertainment. The look on everyone’s face when they realized they were in the center of the Shibuya crosswalk when the walking lights were all red was priceless.

We were walking across the crosswalk after breakfast to hail a cab, and there were two irritating guys behind us going, “Do you speak Japanese?”. They also saw that Kat’s backpack had ‘Canada’ on it, so they were like, “Canada!?”. We didn’t respond. That is not cool at 8:00am after you’ve been on the night bus and feel like complete and total ass. That is annoying.

So, we ended up meeting up with Kim and taking our much needed showers and a bit of relaxation before heading out. Kim went to work earlier, but we met up with him for lunch and had some awesome shabushabu. The guy at the restaurant was so sweet, and gave us some candy on the way out.

Next, Kat and I headed to the Meiji Shrine to check out what was going on there. While we were taking a photo, this random guy (who is now our BFF) came up to us and asked (in English) if we wanted him to take a photo of us together. That was awesome, so we said sure. I said thank you to him in Japanese, and he kind of freaked out. YOU SPEAK JAPANESE!? And he asked a bunch of questions like where we were from, and we talked for a bit. He had one question that was plaguing his mind — IS GINGERALE CANADIAN? I told him that I think it was just a brand name, but we do drink it in Canada. Then he asked if he could take a photo of us with his camera, so after deciding he wasn’t creepy, we agreed and went on our merry way.

The shrine was really beautiful, peaceful and we had some great weather. There weren’t that many people there, so it was nice. At another part of the shrine, shortly after Kat had said she wished our buddy was around so we could get a photo together, HE SHOWS UP. He asked again if he could take our photos, but separately and together. I asked him if he could take a photo of us with my camera, and he had no problem with that. So he did, and then we got our photos taken by him. He was nice, we felt like models. He was always looking for the right light, and would be like OKAY, MOVE UP! MOVE BACK! STEP HERE! He also referred to us as ‘Miss Canada’ over and over. It was cute, and he was nice so it was fun. He asked about what we didn’t like about Japan, but I told him there wasn’t anything really I disliked. It’s just different from Canada. He said he thought Canadians have a lot of freedom… and I said well, I’m a foreigner in Japan so I feel like I have a lot of freedom here anyways… he laughed. We said our goodbyes, and explored the shrine a bit more.

Afterwards we headed to Harajuku for some crazy fashion. We didn’t buy much; socks, hair bands. That’s about it. It was paced, like it always is, but it’s always interesting to look around. We were there for about three hours just window shopping mostly, and at the end were feeling pretty exhausted. So, we headed back to Shibuya where we hopped on the bus to come back to Kim’s.

On the way we stopped at the conbini where the cutest conbini boy ever was working. And blushing like crazy. He asked me if I wanted a straw which confused me, because they generally just give it to you and I’ve never been asked. I told him it wasn’t necessary.

Kat and I hung out at Kim’s for a couple hours; tried on our head bands, watched Glee, chatted… and Kim texted us saying he was ready to come home and head out to dinner. We went for some awesome gyouza.

The rest of the night was spent with the three of us on YouTube and just talking… Kat and I had a giggle fest just before we went to sleep and I honestly don’t remember what was so hilarious, but we couldn’t stop laughing. Poor Kim.

So that was yesterday! What adventures will today hold!?
We all woke up for a brief period to a lovely swaying due to the earthquake. Every time we have an earthquake (which have been two now… well, two that we felt), Kat thinks that someone is gently trying to rock her awake.

K & A’s Adventures in Japan – Pt. 1

// August 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog

SO!

Sunday, I went to the Chubu International Airport to meet Kat! Yay! Long story short, we made it back to my place after taking the train and a taxi. No problems; it was pretty smooth sailing despite the fact that Kat’s plane was delayed, which sucked for her.

We didn’t do much Sunday night; relaxed, ate, chatted… played with Kaito. That was about it.

So, Monday rolled around. We ended up slowly getting ready, having some lunch, calling home (both of us did; Kat to tell her parents she arrived safely, and me to thank my mum for the suitcase filled with awesome that she had packed for me). After lunch, we headed out to Sakae and Oosu Kannon.

In Oosu, which is always fun to walk around, we saw interesting Michael Jackson masks. One white, one black. I shouldn’t laugh, but you have to admit that it’s kind of funny.

It’s been a while since I went to Like an Edison, so I picked up the R指定 release that came out in the end of July that I didn’t have yet. We did mostly window shopping; Kat bought a small umbrella… but that was about it. We also headed to the Apple store so I could finally get a pink case for my iPhone.

It was disgustingly humid, so we were out for about 5 hours and then headed home. After napping (yes, we’re that sad) we ate some dinner (where they forgot to give us utensils, so we had to ask for chopsticks), then just talked and surfed around the internet.

TUESDAY.
We had to pack for Tokyo in the morning, make the apartment presentable because Hanna and Sean are stopping by to check up on Kaito while we’re away, and go to Fujigaoka to meet Eri and Miho. Well, we were a bit late, but we got there okay and first things first, WENT FOR DONUTS.

There’s this place in Fujigaoka called Hara Donuts that sells awesome awesome donuts. So we all stopped there, ate upstairs (which is super cute), and headed off for Eri’s car and a forty minute drive to Asuke. Asuke is in Toyota, which is in Aichi-ken, and close to where Eri’s hometown is. It was a really nice drive through the mountains with lots of greenery.

In Asuke, there’s this little town and it’s kind of like one of those historical towns where they show what they did in the past. So, we walked through there and went to a paper making place, where we each made two sheets of Japanese paper, one of which had momiji in it! Yay! They’re really cool and pretty. The lady who showed us how was really cute and sweet.

After paper making, we walked around the little town a bit while it dried. Tried out some stilts, which were hilarious. An older Japanese man came out of the basket weaving house to show us how to do them. He was AWESOME at it. Kat and I pretty much failed. Eri was really good at it, however.

We met Kaede-chan, a cow, some roosters and chickens, a really cute dog and a very drowsy cat. There was a Showa museum which we checked out, and some old fashioned Japanese toys. Eventually we made it back to pick up our paper, and then headed out for dinner! On our way to dinner we stopped to take a quick refreshing foot dip in the river.

After dinner, we went to part of the town where they lit candles all along the sidewalk. They just do it for a couple weeks in August, but it’s SO cool and really pretty. People decorate their candles with all sorts of paintings and some of them were ridiculously good. We’ll post photos later.

There wasn’t much left to do there, so we headed back to Fujigaoka and took some purikura! They’re not the most attractive purikura because we were outside sweating all day, but it was a lot of fun. Then Kat and I said our goodbyes to Eri and Miho, hung out at Starbucks, then headed to Meieki to catch the night bus to Tokyo!

That’s all for now. We made it safely to Tokyo and are staying with Kimkim.
We’ll update later, and post photos when we transfer them onto the computers.

then I realized, I need it

// August 6th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

I really should be asleep.

But there was one thing I wanted to post about before I went.

On Saturday, Eri and I went to Bic Camera to look at digital pianos. After nearly an hour of sitting down at various models, testing them out, and weighing all the options, I bought one.

It’s awesome.
I played it for a good twenty or so minutes, to get a good feel for it. The touch is nice, and the keys have a nice weight to them. There were a few that were really hard to press, and since my piano at home is pretty light, I didn’t want something that was going to be vastly different.

Naturally, it’s touch sensitive (wouldn’t have it any other way) and has all three pedals. The damper pedal is the most important for me, but it’s nice to have a fully functional digital piano. Some perks are that it has sixty demo songs and comes with a score book containing the music for a lot of them, a few different sound options, a duet option (so the keyboard is basically split into two, but at the same octave… pretty interesting), the ability to record, and a couple different sound settings (grand piano, electric piano… nothing out there).

It came with the stand and the music stand, but the bench wasn’t included. I didn’t buy one yet, because I figure I can just use one of my kitchen chairs. But in the future, I might get one. We’ll see how it goes. I have enough points on my Bic Camera card to pay for the bench. But, I’m also thinking of getting headphones, so I can play at those ridiculous hours that I like to play at. Like 2am.

The problem came when we went to pay for it. We had the slowest man in history waiting on us (yes, he rivals the Deli boy). THEN he messed up the payment. I originally wanted to put 50000 yen on my Visa, and pay the rest cash. But he messed up, and it ended up that I wasn’t able to use my Visa for it. Luckily, I had extra cash and my MasterCard, so I did end up being able to pay for it… but omg it was ridiculous.

HE EVEN CLICKED THE PEN ‘ON’ SLOW. Eri does the funniest impression.
We were at that point where we couldn’t help but giggle, because he was just so ridiculously slow. Then when he messed up, he didn’t even sincerely apologize. He didn’t care. He just said the stanard, すみません。間違いました。 -_-

His supervisor ended up coming over and finishing it off.

And the kicker? It won’t be delievered until August 18th.
Apparently, it takes 5 business days for them to get it.
However, next week, they’re on vacation or something. So there are no deliveries.
Meaning that it won’t come until the 18th.

It’s not a big deal, because Kat is coming on Sunday, so it’s not like I’m going to want to sit at my piano and play while she’s here, haha. But it’s still a bit annoying.

Regardless, I’m so excited. My mum gathered a bunch of my books to send with Kat, and now that I have more free time than, well, ever, I can hopefully get back to the level I used to be at. Maybe even improve.

I’m even going to practice my technical stuff.
That’s right.

My mum told Bev that I got one, and she was happy. So, I’m excited to call her and tell her about it.

And on that note, I will conclude my piano post with a photo:

For some reason, it didn’t post my last post to my LJ. I wonder why. :/

The Live

// July 26th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blog

I didn’t write about this yet, and it’s about time.

On Thursday, my friend who lives in Osaka came to Nagoya because one of her favourite bands, DI3SIRAE, was playing at HOLIDAY NAGOYA. She stayed here for the night, and we went together to the live. I always like going to lives, but I don’t really like going alone, so it was great to have someone to go with!

There were a bunch of bands… some that stood out in good ways, and some that stood out in… not so good ways. A couple other girls from Osaka came for DI3SIRAE and it ended up being four of us at the front for half of their set, and another girl joined for the second half. Naturally, I was completely nervous being in the very front but it ended up being a lot of fun and I really enjoyed DI3SIRAE.

Afterwards, we waited around outside a bit to see if we could catch the singer, L. Ended up talking to him (well, my friend did… I was too nervous so I only said like two things, haha). I should also mention that the drummer, Loui, is completely adorable. No seriously. I got a photoset of the band, and a cheki of Loui. My friend wanted to get a cheki of L, and on her first try didn’t. She got Loui, so I said I’d pay her for that one if she wanted to try again. Unfortunately, she didn’t get L the second time either, so I felt bad. :/

I wanted to get Hideko a photoset of EAT YOU ALIVE beacuse she likes Ryohei, but when I went to buy it, the stuff was gone. We ended up seeing him afterwards outside, and my friend told him that we wanted to get a photoset, but the stuff was packed up. So, he went back into the livehouse and brought out three sets for me to choose from. He was super sweet and ended up speaking to us in English, which is amazing. His English is so freaking good, without any hint of a Japanese accent. I asked him if he’d mind signing the photo for her (I explained it was for a friend) and he did, no problem. So nice!

It was still pretty early, and so nice out, so we ended up heading to Oasis 21 for some Baskin Robbins. Omg, it had been so long since I had ice cream, so it was delicious. I’m like a kid though, the flavours I got were Poppin’ Shower and Cream Soda, haha. We also saw a disgusting amount of cockroaches.

ONE OF THEM FLEW.
IT WAS THE SIZE OF MY HEAD.

Okay maybe it wasn’t quite that big, but omg it was so gross. IT FLEW.
Then we called it a day, and ended up just hanging out, talking a bit and sleeping.

It was fun. And I really like going to lives, even if I don’t really listen to the music as much as I used to. I’m hoping that the more lives I go to, the more I get back into it.

The next one is August 15th… providing I can decide which band to reserve with. R指定 or Lycaon?

Holy rain batman.

// July 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blog

I can’t believe how hard it’s raining!

Both yesterday and today it was sunny one minute, and pouring the next. Today we got thunder and lightening to accompany it as well. Nice. What a lovely day.

Other than that, not much is new. My bed came, so my apartment is almost all set up.

Tomorrow we’re going to the mountains for the day… which means I have to get up super early. I have to catch the 7:03am subway, and I have to stop by the conbini on my way, so I’ll have to leave at about 6:50am. Okay, some people don’t think that’s super early, but I do! I go to bed at around 3:00am, so 6:00am comes pretty damn fast.

In a couple of weeks, Kat will be here! I’m really looking forward to that.

Then we have Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
I have decided that’s what I will call them.
For no other reason than I can. Except I haven’t quite decided who’s who.

One week~

// June 28th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Blog

So, my lovely braintwin was visiting this past week.

You know how they say bad things come in threes, well, we definitely got our fill of that.

I’m too tired to make any sort of long drawn out entry about everything, but she started off sick (jetlagged) for our trip to Ise. Despite being sick, she was a trooper and really stuck out the trip, which aside from her feeling like poo for the latter portion, was a lot of fun.

We went with three of my adult lady students, who are just so awesome. They took us to the Ise shrine, and I got yelled at for taking a photo. I must have made the god there mad. I asked Toshi if I could, and she said it was fine. Two seconds later, the guard is yelling at me. “NO PHOTO”. Ah well, maybe that ticked them off and explains what happened for the rest of the week.

The day after Ise was Kyoto, where we went and got all Maiko’ed out (as in, dressed up as apprentice Geisha). We went with my friend Eri and her sister Miho, who are both just so sweet. So that was really fun, and the photo shook was pretty awesome. I’ll upload some photos into the photo galleries here on the site later.  We went to the Kiyomizudera, Kinakakuji and the Bamboo Tunnel — all great places to visit in Kyoto. Again, photos will come later.

We made a brief interlude back in Nagoya, after Kyoto while we were waiting for the nightbus to Tokyo. We got offered apples in a plastic bag by some completely random guy. It felt like Snow White.

Really though, who goes around offering random strangers outside of a station apples from a plastic bag? O_O

Long story short for Tokyo — I got extremely sick. As in, hallucinating and throwing up for a few days sick. It was weird because I knew what I was saying and thinking wasn’t making sense, but I couldn’t make it stop. I guess I told everyone there was pain in my stomach that was like iPhones, and they were flipping (or turning, or something). Kim, being as sweet as he can be, was so awesome. And braintwin played nurse to me. T_T I felt so bad putting everyone out like that, and I really wish I didn’t get so sick. We were supposed to take the bus back to Nagoya, but ended up taking the Shinkansen, with Kim in tow.

We did end up catching a live (and omg SIN from ViViD is hot in real life), and bought a couple things for S-T, so that’s a bonus. I’m really glad that we got to see lynch. too. They are always good live; never disappoint. アンド (AND) was surprisingly good live as well, very… JOKEResque. If I had to compare, that is. That’s the easiest way to describe them. It felt really good to go to a live, so I’m looking forward to checking out a few more.

Anyways, back in Nagoya we realized that braintwin had lost her glasses. T_T Kim went back to Tokyo to see if they were at his place, but no dice. Turns out, we lost them on the bus. We did get them back, so that’s all good. We spent yesterday wandering around Oosu for a bit, but I was just so easily exhausted because I hadn’t eaten any solid food except a piece of toast for like, three days.

So, overall it was really nice to get a chance to hang out! I just feel awful that I ruined it all by getting so sick. I mean it’s not like I intentionally wanted to (who would want that), but yeah. At least we got to see some of the sights, go to a live, and hang out and talk.

I feel like there are more things to say, but I’m done for now. As they come back to me, I shall update.