スーパー楽しい

This weekend = super fun. Intern filming work, Jamaican hamburgers, Kego Kouen, cute ミスターしげ, Spark, Infinity, Lawson's, riding on the back of bicycles through Tenjin

Eggs, Shaved Head, Daimyo

Ahh...have you heard of these 「半熟卵」? They are so tasty! They're "soft-boiled" apparently, and it's on a lot of Japanese food and since I really like eggs, this is excellent that I now know what they are called. You can even buy them in packs of 4 from the supermarket. I love them on all my food...

Also, FINALLY got my hair re-shaved on the side of my head. I've been in Japan for about 1.5 months so far, and it was all just growing back and looked like normal hair and got boring. 

So I went to this place one of my teachers recommended in Daimyo. SUCH A COOL HAIR PLACE. Really legit-i-mate...! PLUS, they did the shaving thing, wash & shampoo, and everything for ￥1000 (basically $10) and you don't tip in Japan, so it really all was only $10. I have a point card there now, haha, so I'm going BACK. 

The people were all really nice and awesome and have forced me to fall in love with this place.

And ALSO, Daimyo is just the coolest place ever.
Prime example, camels-

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK hahaha

Hahahaha, OMG
This is a link for a hostel in Tokyo
(part of our intern work finding this stuff, haha)
Click the link and watch the intro-

http://www.tokyo-ih.jp/

「とうーきょうー、とうーきょうー、
東京、東京、東京、東京、東京！！」

Shuuji

I've come to the realization that I actually have to start practicing shuuji here. I brought all my materials and everything, so...

And now my teacher back in LA, Hiroko Sensei (usually it's Ohno Sensei), mailed me the example that I'm supposed to be writing, so I have to GET STARTED. (I mail the best ones I write back to her.)

Plus, I have plans to go see another shuuji sensei out in Iizuka soon...so I should probably brush up on my skills.

A Cool Dude & A Whole Bunch Of New Opportunities

I came home to my apartment today to find my roommate and one of his friends setting up wireless internet. My roommate's friend was this really nice, middle-aged dude and we ended up talking about all sorts of things from cultural anthropology to the different sizes of pizzas in Japan & the U.S.

I guess I don't even have to say that when the conversation got too difficult, I did more listening than talking, but I picked up a lot of new words from it. Like 「偽造する」which means "to forge" and 「殺菌」for "sterilization". I don't think I'll be using "sterilization" in any conversations anytime soon, but I mean, "to forge"...that's actually kind of useful when you think about it.

REGARDLESS, his sister is actually a shuuji teacher out in the middle of the countryside (Iizuka) and I told him that I do shuuji and everything and he offered to take me out there to try practicing shuuji with his sister! He called her and we have a date for it set and everything. So awesome. Also, apparently, one of his friend's husbands does all sort of lantern/shoji screen making and he's planning to talk to his friend so I can go over and watch him.

I'm actually really excited about the shuuji, though. To be able to go out to the countryside (which I've only been to 2-3 times here in Japan) and meet all sorts of new people.

All so exciting and just a good conversational night :)

Plus, I had pizza for the first time in a LONG TIME. It was actually quite good...
PizzaLA would take 50 minutes to deliver, so we got PizzaCOCO instead. First time I had cheese-filled crust...

Slippers

You have to take off your shoes and wear slippers in a lot of Japanese restaurants and homes and offices, etc.

As in, I have to put on slippers everyday at Genki JACS. As in, there's 100+ students here right now and finding slippers that fit my MASSIVE FEET is almost impossible. So I take these babies (pictured above) and hide them away everyday when I leave school, so that I can wear the same ones every morning/day. I can get about 90% of my feet into these ones so I like them.

Plus, they're quite fashionable when compared to the others.

August 1st FIREWORKS at Ohori Kouen

Went to the August 1st fireworks at Ohori Kouen tonight. SO AMAZING!! Seriously, SO MANY PEOPLE. Like thousands of thousands type a lot of people. AND SO MANY FIREWORKS. They went on for way over and hour, just amazing. Really makes me wish I had a yukata, though- Everyone was wearing one. By the way, doesn't the second picture look like everything's on fire? WHAT?! Can I get a what what?

Then afterwards to all the food stands for all SORTS of delicious experiences for my taste buds. Really not the healthiest food in Japan, but when it's so tasty what else is there to do but eat LOTS OF IT? Right? Am I right?

^ the picture above is me with some strange okonomiyaki-type thing rolled onto a stick. There was also an egg on top of it. It was really bready, but really good. Considering I love okonomiyaki so much, I wanted like 5 of these things.

On the walk back home, got COMPLETELY LOST somehow...Even though Ohori Kouen is like 5 minutes from my apartment. I ended up in Ropponmatsu and had to to take the subway 5 stops to get back to Tenjin...WHOOPS.

Tehe, BUT I got to see the interesting sight that is a Starbucks filled with people wearing yukatas.

Korean 食べ放題 BBQ & An Interesting Night

First off...went to Korean BBQ and, as always, (because Korean food is delicious) it was amazing.
Had some makkoli and plenty of panchan! The panchan reminded me of when I used to work at Tofu Village in Little Tokyo :)
Met lots of new people and it was fun, and since it was all-you-can-eat, I...ATE A LOT. And by the way, a couple pictures down it's KASUGA and then me and "KURONO KEI"!!

Afterwards, went to the Masquerade Party and it was SO CROWDED. SO HOT. But I mean, it's Japan and it's not raining anymore which means its humid 24/7 so there was nothing to be done. Quite fun ☆ ALSO, ran into the director from Mentai Wide, hahahahahahahaha. Aside from that...me and Chika pictured below!!

Also, on the walk back home...

Had a couple INTERESTING encounters.

But then again, it could have been my fault. It was 3 a.m. and I was walking home alone wearing these (pictured below).

Mentai Wide!!

Got interviewed for the FBS street interview show "Mentai Wide"!

It was actually really fun, talked about all sorts of things from shuuji to okonomiyaki to Japanese toilets. Chin-nen, the awesome interviewer, and I even did a host club role play type thing. I'm actually not quite sure how we got to that point, but the main thing is that it was really fun.

I think it airs this coming Tuesday? I don't know...THINGS I MUST KNOW.

Bee tee dubs, I started feeling better and went to work/school on Wednesday and Thursday, but MY COUGH IS BACK NOW. HOW IS THIS HAPPENING? Anyways, I'm thinking it would be nice if I'm back to 100% by Monday. 

Also, if you ever see anything called Spirytus, RUN.

Sicky Sick Sick

No REAL photos to put up because I basically haven't done anything for the past 2-3 days. I somehow managed to catch a cold :(
It's like one million degrees outside (ballpark estimate) and I still got a cold. WHYYYY?!
Oh well...It'll pass so I just gotta wait it out.

Last night, my landlady made me this really nice little dinner set (bento-type sich) and it was really good and really sweet of her. Ahh if only kindness could cure a cold, I would be all better :)

I'm not going to work/school today as well (just RESTING...and eating) so hopefully lying around the house will make me better by tomorrow.