giant post is giant
ugh, yesterday. almost threw up from the heat, staggered home, passed out at 7pm, woke up at 1am. it was nice at 1am man, really cool. i rode down to mcdonalds and there was no one on the road so i was making illegal moves all over the place. (like stopping bang in the middle of an empty road to make a u-turn.)
i've uploaded all the japan trip pictures to my facebook but i'mma picspam here too anyway. thanks to my diary, i can also now remember what we did on each day. =__= my memory is shithouse, as rei can attest to.
DAY 1: ARRIVAL + ASAKUSA
rei-kurasaki booked us an apartment facing the river. hnnghh the water. i love being beside the water. this is the view from our balcony.
... incidentally, there was a funny moment when i first arrived and was trying to look for the apartment. rei told me, "walk over the blue bridge and turn right." there were two blue bridges, which i couldn't see until i was halfway across a green one. i got so lost-- it took me like 45mins to find the apartment, which was only 10mins away from the bus station i got off at. =__= in her defense the bridge was really more teal than anything else, but still. later on in the trip we did the same thing again-- we looked at a teal thing, and rei instantly said it was blue while i instantly said that it was green. clearly there is something weird with our eyes.
TUGBOAAAAT. the lights in the IBM building never went off, man. there'd always be people working past 1am.
that building with a hole in it was a newspaper company, 読売新聞 i think.i think that's also the bridge that confused me! she called it blue and i call it green. ffff our sense of colors.
asakusa!
... apologies for the picture being so dark. =__= there were so many people on the day we went omg. i think it was 'cause it was a holiday or something? or a festival? idk.
the place was so pretty at night sigh. i'm attracted to water, and to lights like a firefly. which is probably why i like sydney so much; it's a city with tons of water. XD;
... like i said on facebook, i don't think anyone but scientific, rei-kurasaki and i will get why this is so awesome. in retrospect, phloxic and puzzley would probably get it too.
yes yes we are retards shut up.
at night we met with KEVINKEVINKEVINshe'sgonnahankme's mom's colleagues. i had grapefruit vodka, with squeeze-it-yourself grapefruit. by that time that night i was so tired, orz, i almost fell asleep.
DAY 2: NIKKO
nikko's this quiet little area outside tokyo. rei wanted to omochikaeri the entire place, orz.
we have no idea what this was but it was in the sky. we gaped bemusedly for a moment before yelling IT'S THE AMANTO, THE AMANTO ARE COMING!! GINTOKIIIIIII TASUKETEEEEE
this picture is so damn dark but yeah, wandering around nikko. we all stared like idiots at the trees. so red. some of them were literally this shade of red.
the architecture is amazing man, i love it
... we actually paid to see this. i don't get it. i'm sure there's something somewhere explaining why people would/have to pay for a ticket to see that tiny sleeping cat, but all the signs were in japanese and none of us could be arsed to stop and try to read.
god i hate my camera for turning red trees pink.
... ORZ IDK WHY I HAVE THIS, granny kevin you fail so hard at being kawaii. :|
we stayed in this little cottage (... which i've forgotten the name of), and inside it was made up like a traditional japanese house, save for the toilet which was totally 100% modern and had a toilet lid that automatically lifted and closed itself depending on where your ass was. kevin and i ran around everywhere trying to find the cottage because it was hard, man, pretty hard.
poofy blanket-beds inside
omg kevin your gd purse ruining the picture
KOTATSU. (i am so proud of myself for remembering the name of this thing. i keep wanting to call it tonkatsu, pork broth. =__= ) it's like a table with a heated blanket, which was good because nikko was freakin' cold. kevin and i got under it and then didn't want to come out again.
there was this area 5mins from the cottage where they had lots of jizo statues. rei (and wikipedia) tell me that they're there to protect aborted fetuses/miscarried babies/children who die before their parents in the afterlife. they're also meant to protect travelers, or something.
WATER!! ... okay, i couldn't resist. there were streams running alongside the path to the jizo statues and hnnghhh the water in nikko. it was the clearest, cleanest water i've ever seen. so beautiful, seriously. i was climbing over rocks and things to get down close to the streams. i wish i had a clearer picture of it, it really was so gorgeous. kevin kept saying, "GO SWIM IN IT!" and i really wanted to but fff nikko was cold. D:
sigh so pretty.
i couldn't resist taking a shot of this. :| APPROVE IT.
more water, running near the town itself.
DAY 3: HARAJUKU
this was in the meiji jingu in harajuku.
apparently these were all caskets of sake? donated by traveling gaijin or something.
there was some sort of carnation festival starting up when we got to japan, so there were heaps of these flowers around as we walked toward the shrine area.
PRAYER TABLETS! i didn't write on any because everyone would've seen and it would've been EMBARRASSING DESUUUU, but i loved some of the prayers on these things, especially the ones written by kids.
... like this one. what on earth was the kid on the left trying to say. XD SO CUUUUTE aaaa i can't take it.
there was this little girl walking around the shrine all dressed up and stuff. she was like a celebrity man; every time she took a step someone would run over and try to take her picture. we were all squealing over her; she was so cute. rei wanted me to run over and holler OMOCHIKAERIIIIIII at her, rena (higurashi no naku koro ni) style. i was like UHH NO.
we also shopped around the streets in harajuku, obv, but i didn't take pictures of that. i got a fucking sweet jacket, though. and some rings. i love them so much. i have this one ring that has "my heart is yours forever" inscribed all around the inside, and the same phrase inscribed all around the outside in french, because i am a sap. ("mon couer est à toi pour toujours", i think, though i'm really not sure whether the sentence is meant to start with "mon" or with "toujours".)
DAY 4: MOUNT TAKAO
more shrines! this place was damn awesome, man. we had to take a chairlift up to see it. the chairlift was one of the best rides ever.
us on the chairlift, after looking down and going, "OH GOD THIS IS HIGH." i yelled like a retard when we got on the chairlift on the way down, orz, i think i scared someone. HAYAOOOO!! i whipped out my camera and said, "pull a scared face," but somehow i started laughing. so.
view of the... outskirts, i think? of tokyo from near the top of the mountain.
i loved the shape of the hills! i've never seen hills like this, man. they look like sand dunes, or like a giant grassy squished up snake.
some kind of octopus/squid tree thing.
after takaosan we went to ikebukuro, where i continued to go broke after splurging on doujinshi in mandarake and animate the previous day. after that i think kevin and her family went back to the apartment while i went to shinjuku to meet with min, my high school friend. she was... going through some kind of drama, and i was really tired, but it was still great meeting up again after so many years. we had cheese udon, and so much plum wine. i was half-drunk when i got back to the apartment but kevin was too tired to notice, orz. i act the same when drunk anyway so i don't think anyone would've noticed.
and randomly:
i love japanese toilets, man.
DAY 5: SHINJUKU + TOKYO TOWER
... you know how i say i dislike cats? i actually wanted to take one of these kittens home. they were just randomly sitting on top of this sign, looking utterly bewildered. they were SO TINY; i could've held one in one hand alone. so cute. i saw them while walking around the shinjuku area while kevin and her family shopped in takashimaya/times square.
on a seat. what the dumb fuck!
shinjukuuuuuuu ♥ i actually don't like the place as much as harajuku and ikebukuro (all the shops were really pricey, and sold brand-name stuff), but i like how it looks. i just love cities, man.
... orz, rei and i were sitting in a bakery near takashimaya and decided to try and be cute while rei perved out the window at high school boys. :| PEDO, PEDOOOOO, HENTAI BABA. but yeah, we were so cute that we disgusted ourselves. we took the picture, looked at my camera, and were like HEUUURGHHHH
... guys, can you believe that i'm actually the younger one? i don't look like it at all. i mean okay yeah we're pulling old person faces in this picture, but still. rei actually could pass for 16-18 if she wanted to, i think. whereas i actually look 21. ugh i hate my dad's genes, WHY DO I HAVE TO LOOK LIKE HIM. so uncool. i wish i looked like my mom. =__=
after that we went into tokyu hands and took retarded pictures with all their gag glasses.
this cracks me up EVERY TIME I SEE IT wtf. kevin is secretly an amanto, i'm sure of it.
orz this was me yesterday man, after getting off the planes from tokyo --> sydney --> melbourne and after getting shit sorted down at the university.
sakamoto glasses! rei you seriously rock these glasses so hard, i can't believe you didn't buy them.
so old, soooo oooooold. goddamn jurassic pedophile. :|
LMFAO she does "durrrrr" so much better than i do. i couldn't stop laughing while i took this picture, it was such a good face.
WHA'S GOIN' ON GUISE
you know it's true.
tokyo tower at night! yes i know i'm an amazing photographer. actually, on a serious note, i really don't know how i managed to get the lights like that, but damn i'm glad i did.
from the base.
tokyo at night.
i love the road in this. it looks like a stream of movement. :> yes yes shut up i know this is like the 5th time i've talked about water now.
HEURRRGHHHH THIS WAS THE GROSSEST THING EVER. we went to mos burger after tokyo tower and got burgers, but by the time we got back and micro'd rei's, hers... looked like that.
DAY 6: DISNEYSEA
:| ninja ni natta.
me failing at being a ninja. in my defense, i wasn't wearing a turtleneck like rei was.
MICKEY HANDLEBARS ASKJGBAKHBKDNHKSFHKDF!! on the disney train. my only regret is that i didn't make a hayner!pose like i did two years ago
the disney resort, which i think all of us wished we stayed in at the end of the day when our feet were killing us badly.
WATER WATER WATER!! i think this was in the 'mediterranean' area of disneysea.
one day i will go to venice and go on a gondola for real. but only if i have a romantic partner, because going on one alone would be kinda sad. ):
this seriously amazed me, man. water and fire, what is this and how does it work.
little mermaid land.
i look like i'm punching myself in the teeth, sigh.
omg this place was amazing. after about 7pm people started going to watch the shows/returning home, so we got to go on rides over and over. this one was an 'underwater' thing-- at one point it had a giant kraken. amazing tentacles were amazing, man; they looked so giant and gorgeous, and i shrieked each time i went on the ride and the tentacles zapped the submarine.
i wish i could've gone on the tower of terror more times. idk why, maybe it's 'cause i've been on so many rollercoasters by now, but honestly the only ride that actually manages to frighten me anymore are freefall rides. the tower of terror was fucking amazing, rei and her mom were so terrified. but yeah, disneysea was amazing. we watched the final fireworks/candlelight show too, which i didn't take pictures of but i'm sure rei's dad did. it was so pretty, sigh. i wibbled like a sap. it was about spending christmas with people you love, and having fun and lalala disney mush, but it was so sweet and lovely.
on the last day we went back to asakusa to get geta. rei got the two-support kind, whereas i (with my giant feet) couldn't find a two-support one that fit me, so i got uhhhh a different kind instead. they're so comfortable, ugh i love them. i was so proud of myself for being able to (badly, and very scrappily) communicate with the shopkeeper as we tried to find a really nice pair for me, ahaha.
things i learned about her and myself on the trip:
- i seriously have a terrible sense of direction. if i don't know the way, i automatically turn to walk the wrong way every time. the only time(s) i ever got it right was when i'd walked down that route several times.
- i am so klutzy. i must've tripped/flailed and almost fallen over air like 10 times on the trip.
- rei has this seriously amazing ability to fall into a deep sleep almost as soon as she lies down. i had the lights on and she still fell asleep. even after i tripped and yelped loudly she still slept through it. that takes skill, man. i tend to roll around on the bed for ages.
- i can't stand still. i really can't. i end up jiggling my legs/swaying left and right/bobbing up and down after a few seconds. kevin would be like, SQUATS! and i'd start doing zack-esque squats while waiting for buses/trains/whatever. i can sit perfectly still though, i think.
- kevin is such a goddamn pedophile, geez. :|
- i am soooo scatterbrained. on the last day, i realized that i left my camera in the apartment, and had to run back to get it. HUFF HUFF HUFF MY STAMINA.
- kevin hates hills and stairs. sigh. BE A MAN. YOU MUST BE SWIFT AS A COURSING RIVER, WITH ALL THE FORCE OF A GREAT TYPHOON! i don't mind stairs in wintery weather but i hafta agree; man, wouldn't it just be awesome if every hill in existence was fitted with a chairlift?
- rei seriously never drinks coffee. never. how the fuck do you do it man. maybe that's why you fall asleep so easily. =__= some of the days we were there, i wouldn't have been able to survive if not for a morning shot of caffeine.
- kevin thinks her japanese is bad, even when she's chatting with taxi drivers and other people in non-stop japanese. you damn liar. =__= me 'chatting' with people is mostly them talking, and me making "mm" noises and going "sou desu ka, ii desu ne" every now and then.
- kevin is good at controlling her spending. i... am not. /bought so much doujinshi omg
- granny, dude, do you realize how often you switch accents. XD sometimes it's singlish, sometimes it's really strongly british, and then sometimes american slips in. i can understand why the singlish but dude, the rest of it. is it because of my weird accent or something? XD
tl;dr: amazing trip was fucking amazing. i didn't expect it to be as amazing as it was, or for my japanese to improve... at all (but it did. a little). i want to go again, ahaha. once i get my australian citizenship, i definitely want to look into programs where i can go over for maybe a semester or something and just live there and learn japanese (and possibly teach english, too).