I've been way too busy with life to write recently. Now that my whirlwind three weeks are over, I finally have a little bit of time. First up is the half a week I spent in California with DJ!

Even though my flight was over an hour late, I met up with DJ with minimal fuss. He picked me up and we met up with Travis for dinner before heading back to ( Read more... )

Last weekend was fun! Leslie, Anna, Lilith and I went to Disney Sea to celebrate Leslie's birthday. Japan is the only place that has a Disney Sea park, so it was cool to get the chance to go to a Disney Park that I hadn't experienced yet. The park was divided into a number of worlds that included Disney worlds, like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, ( Read more... )

Today was my first day back at work after six days in a row off. Each teacher at my school gets 4 days of summer vacation to use when they wish, so I decided to use mine to take time off during Obon (since there's hardly anyone at the school during Obon). I was off of work from Friday through Wednesday. I spent a little bit of time relaxing and did ( Read more... )

Saturday was Tanabata, but it was unfortunately rainy. (It's even sadder if you consider the Tanabata legend because when it rains the star-crossed lovers supposedly can't meet in the sky.) I went to a Tanabata matsuri in Kappabashi with Leslie, Kaille, and Kaille's housemate Pei. We decided to wear our yukata anyways, which was probably not the ( Read more... )

Yesterday was a really fun day! Leslie, Anna, Kaille, and I met up at Leslie's apartment in the morning. We spent about two hours doing make-up, hair, and getting all of us into our yukata (which involved conversations that unintentionally sounded like they should be in BDSM porn). Between tying the obi and making sure the seams on the yukata are ( Read more... )

Thursday was the drama festival at my base school. All the different classes put on plays. It was up to the kids to write the play and do the costumes, scenery, props, and lighting. It was fun to see what they came up with. The plays included everything from three different versions of Snow White, a serious piece about the war in Okinawa, and Home ( Read more... )

Another weekend has come and gone. It seems like time has been flying by recently.

On Friday, I met up with Yumi after work. We had chatted and had dinner at Wired Cafe in Ueno Station. I hadn't seen Yumi since early this year, so it was nice to catch up with her.

This weekend was Design Festa, so Leslie and I decided to go check it out on Saturday. ( Read more... )

I was unsuccessful in my attempt to get a ticket to Gaga's Japan concert yesterday. They went on sale at 10 AM, but the ticket machine kept telling me that I couldn't purchase the tickets yet. I heard that the tickets sold out really fast, so maybe the ticket machine just couldn't handle it. I would've liked to have gone, but oh well. I'm sure ( Read more... )

I was excited this weekend because Greta (Fearless Leader of Kotobukigumi) arrived in Japan! I met up with her and Leslie after work on Friday. We ended up getting dinner at Sukiya and then we went back to Leslie's place. I wasn't originally going to stay the night, but it was cold and rainy and I didn't feel like walking all the way back to the ( Read more... )

When I was out with Eri this weekend she mentioned that she wondered what kind of music was popular back in America right now. (She grew up in America, even though she lives in Japan now.) It reminded me of something that I've been thinking about recently. I've reached a point during my stay in Japan where I feel very out of touch with things back ( Read more... )