the tenin at h.naoto are out to get me
it's true, you know. there was a large group of *other* gaijin in the marui01 naoto floor when i was there, and who was the one being accosted by no less than 3 tenin? ME. i'm like an h.naoto tenin magnet. i wasn't going to buy anything, just look a little, but then the tenin were being all heeeelpful and... 買いちゃった。。。
oooh, but that was later in the day.
today i didn't know what i wanted to do so i got dressed in my one ozzon shirt i have and went out. i got to the train station and realized i had no idea where exactly i was going. i just knew that i was planning on going to ozzon at some point today and that was about it. i had wanted to go to ichigaya and see hazuki-san but i wasn't sure if i should or not since i'd never gotten to email her earlier. while on the train i was exchanging emails with farron, and she encouraged me to just go and surprise her! so i diiiid.
the CIEE office (and ichigaya campus/where all the foreign students study) is now a part of yotsuya campus proper, but it's aaaall the way shoved in the back (you could see the new otani through the back doors of the building). farron had given me some directions to the office, but after traipsing through the cafeteria (why do no foreign students eat there?? are they not allowed or something? cuz i got a lot of weird looks just for walking thru... or mayhaps it was the ozzon outfit...) and past many, many classrooms, i finally asked a pair of foreign students where it was. turns out, it was just two feet behind me ::face palm::
when i went in, hazuki-san was in a side office talking to the new head of the program (joy-san has since left, as we all know). i saw her in there but when i entered i asked the new secretary woman 加藤さんはいらしゃいますか？ the secretary kinda called out to hazuki-san and she turned around and stared at me through the window. she told me later that at first she didn't entirely recognize me (cuz my hair is a different color-- and prolly cuz i'm not wearing my glasses, but no one realizes that). she was all excited to get a visitor and came out to talk to me for a bit. hazuki-san looks different too! she was all in a cute suit and wearing contacts and light make up (the cute sparkly kind that young women wear). it was like, since joy left, hazuki-san is taking better care of herself ^_^ (or mayhaps they had some important meeting that day so she had to dress up, but either way, i was happy)
we chatted a bit (she wanted to know how everyone is doing and all) and i gave her omiyage and wrote down my keitai email and such. she's gonna email me later and we're gonna go get lunch together sometime next week (and if she doesn't i'm going to accost her again at the office!!). she was really busy today, tho, so after we talked a bit, i left.
i wanted to have lunch at our favorite restaurant in atre, but it was super crowded by the time i got there (well, it was already noon). so i couldn't decide if i wanted to wait in line to get a table by myself there or just take out (for which there was also a line). i stumbled across a gourmet onigiri shop in the back of the building (is that new or did we just never notice it??) and ordered two onigiri that i could actually read the names of. both of them turned out to be riddled with itty-bitty fishies that stared at me happily while i ate them. good shiso has an oddly lemon flavor to it, btw.
after eating i got back on the train towards shinjuku with no plan yet again! so i just went over to marui01 to window shop a bit. i managed to resist an awesome piece of clothing at algonquins and even managed to get through the ozzon there without much incident (of course, one of the tenin came running over to thank me for wearing their clothing). then i went to the h.naoto floor... i had half a thought to just skip it cuz i didn't want to buy anything. but just a look couldn't hurt, right?
for the first few minutes i thought i was safe, no tenin came over to me directly. what i really wanted to do was go to closet child and get a skirt or some other variety of bottom cuz i had realized that all i'd brought was that black skirt that i was already tired of (and i blame it for falling down the stairs in shibuya). then i finally got accosted by one tenin when i took too long looking at a certain skirt (they like to explain to you more complicated pieces of clothing and such). i managed to get away from that one, to the other side of the floor. i was avoiding the nasal-voiced male tenin who had talked to me last time. little did i realize that the *other* tenin from last time (a gothiloli-dressed girl) remembered me too! it was like "omg, i didn't even talk to you last time, how do you remember me? there's tons of gaijin who walk thru here!" i swear they had a tenin-conference as soon as i left last time...
i figured, since i have a tenin following me around and i feel all comfortable cuz i'm dressed 'properly' i might as well try some stuff on, right? i picked out a jelly skirt and a really strange red rum jelly top (that didn't go together at all but i wanted to try on both). i didn't think the skirt would fit... but it did >_< it's awesome with red tartan swatches covered in lace and it ties up underneath. so when you tie it, it's a shorter, poofy skirt. when you untie it, it's a longer handkerchief skirt. of course, you can tie and untie it as you please. the red rum thing was a white top with too many straps all over it and sleeves attached with chains. it was really just-for-fun that i tried it on (tho it did suit me... not that i'd *actually* buy something that complicated and expensive).
i tried to resist the skirt... really, i did. it was expensive, full price from the store, which i don't usually buy but... it encompasses three different kinds of skirts that i've been searching for for quite some time! so really, it's 3 skirts in 1. i thought about it a bit and... ended up buying it.
i fled from the building then, back to the station. after some wandering in subnade i went to the ozzon on *there* and was *immediately* pounced upon by a tenin who was, again, very thankful for me wearing their clothes. i tried on a one-piece that, altho it technically closed all the way, i wouldn't actually come out of the dressing room in it. while i had been wrestling with it my helpful tenin had already brought over a bunch of other things for me to look at >_< there was another one-piece set that did fit me, and i think it looked good, but i wasn't sure if i liked it enough to buy it (it made my むね look HUGE, i mean, huger than normal. the tenin was all うらやましい of it.). the other thing she showed me was a 'mantle', which is another piece of clothing that i now own but have no idea how to decribe to ppl. in perfect ozzon fashion, it's a complicatedly cut piece of cloth with lotsa buttons so you can wear it in a myriad of ways that the tenin is very skilled at arranging. when you get home you are somewhat bewildered by the huge piece of cloth you now own, however! but i had been looking for a cover-up type item and had wanted to buy something there anyway, so i put aside the one-piece (that's a maybe...) and got the mantle. the tenin was all excited cuz she had also purchased one the other day, and now we have the same piece! i have half a mind to take it back and demand that she teach me how to make it pretty again.
so i happily made my way back home at this point, wary of spending any more money (i already got my skirt so i skipped closet child). i got back and played dress up for a while (i have to use a variety of strange camera poses and the small mirror in my bathroom in order to see if my outfits really work or not, since i have no full length mirror. i'm still not entirely sure if all the outfits work entirely actually). i have managed to figure out how to assemble my favorite "form" of my mantle already, so i'm happy (it gives me long kimono-like sleeves and a long piece in the back).
i went back to the cook-your-own okonomiyaki place for dinner and this time i made it all myself ^_^ it came out pretty well i'd like to think. i over cooked the soba so it was all crunchy on the bottom, but i actually rather liked it that way.
now i don't know what i'm gonna do tomorrow morning before i head out for my live. shop in harajuku? the live is at narciss so i could go to ueno too. well, we'll see what i feel up to at that time.
oooh, but that was later in the day.
today i didn't know what i wanted to do so i got dressed in my one ozzon shirt i have and went out. i got to the train station and realized i had no idea where exactly i was going. i just knew that i was planning on going to ozzon at some point today and that was about it. i had wanted to go to ichigaya and see hazuki-san but i wasn't sure if i should or not since i'd never gotten to email her earlier. while on the train i was exchanging emails with farron, and she encouraged me to just go and surprise her! so i diiiid.
the CIEE office (and ichigaya campus/where all the foreign students study) is now a part of yotsuya campus proper, but it's aaaall the way shoved in the back (you could see the new otani through the back doors of the building). farron had given me some directions to the office, but after traipsing through the cafeteria (why do no foreign students eat there?? are they not allowed or something? cuz i got a lot of weird looks just for walking thru... or mayhaps it was the ozzon outfit...) and past many, many classrooms, i finally asked a pair of foreign students where it was. turns out, it was just two feet behind me ::face palm::
when i went in, hazuki-san was in a side office talking to the new head of the program (joy-san has since left, as we all know). i saw her in there but when i entered i asked the new secretary woman 加藤さんはいらしゃいますか？ the secretary kinda called out to hazuki-san and she turned around and stared at me through the window. she told me later that at first she didn't entirely recognize me (cuz my hair is a different color-- and prolly cuz i'm not wearing my glasses, but no one realizes that). she was all excited to get a visitor and came out to talk to me for a bit. hazuki-san looks different too! she was all in a cute suit and wearing contacts and light make up (the cute sparkly kind that young women wear). it was like, since joy left, hazuki-san is taking better care of herself ^_^ (or mayhaps they had some important meeting that day so she had to dress up, but either way, i was happy)
we chatted a bit (she wanted to know how everyone is doing and all) and i gave her omiyage and wrote down my keitai email and such. she's gonna email me later and we're gonna go get lunch together sometime next week (and if she doesn't i'm going to accost her again at the office!!). she was really busy today, tho, so after we talked a bit, i left.
i wanted to have lunch at our favorite restaurant in atre, but it was super crowded by the time i got there (well, it was already noon). so i couldn't decide if i wanted to wait in line to get a table by myself there or just take out (for which there was also a line). i stumbled across a gourmet onigiri shop in the back of the building (is that new or did we just never notice it??) and ordered two onigiri that i could actually read the names of. both of them turned out to be riddled with itty-bitty fishies that stared at me happily while i ate them. good shiso has an oddly lemon flavor to it, btw.
after eating i got back on the train towards shinjuku with no plan yet again! so i just went over to marui01 to window shop a bit. i managed to resist an awesome piece of clothing at algonquins and even managed to get through the ozzon there without much incident (of course, one of the tenin came running over to thank me for wearing their clothing). then i went to the h.naoto floor... i had half a thought to just skip it cuz i didn't want to buy anything. but just a look couldn't hurt, right?
for the first few minutes i thought i was safe, no tenin came over to me directly. what i really wanted to do was go to closet child and get a skirt or some other variety of bottom cuz i had realized that all i'd brought was that black skirt that i was already tired of (and i blame it for falling down the stairs in shibuya). then i finally got accosted by one tenin when i took too long looking at a certain skirt (they like to explain to you more complicated pieces of clothing and such). i managed to get away from that one, to the other side of the floor. i was avoiding the nasal-voiced male tenin who had talked to me last time. little did i realize that the *other* tenin from last time (a gothiloli-dressed girl) remembered me too! it was like "omg, i didn't even talk to you last time, how do you remember me? there's tons of gaijin who walk thru here!" i swear they had a tenin-conference as soon as i left last time...
i figured, since i have a tenin following me around and i feel all comfortable cuz i'm dressed 'properly' i might as well try some stuff on, right? i picked out a jelly skirt and a really strange red rum jelly top (that didn't go together at all but i wanted to try on both). i didn't think the skirt would fit... but it did >_< it's awesome with red tartan swatches covered in lace and it ties up underneath. so when you tie it, it's a shorter, poofy skirt. when you untie it, it's a longer handkerchief skirt. of course, you can tie and untie it as you please. the red rum thing was a white top with too many straps all over it and sleeves attached with chains. it was really just-for-fun that i tried it on (tho it did suit me... not that i'd *actually* buy something that complicated and expensive).
i tried to resist the skirt... really, i did. it was expensive, full price from the store, which i don't usually buy but... it encompasses three different kinds of skirts that i've been searching for for quite some time! so really, it's 3 skirts in 1. i thought about it a bit and... ended up buying it.
i fled from the building then, back to the station. after some wandering in subnade i went to the ozzon on *there* and was *immediately* pounced upon by a tenin who was, again, very thankful for me wearing their clothes. i tried on a one-piece that, altho it technically closed all the way, i wouldn't actually come out of the dressing room in it. while i had been wrestling with it my helpful tenin had already brought over a bunch of other things for me to look at >_< there was another one-piece set that did fit me, and i think it looked good, but i wasn't sure if i liked it enough to buy it (it made my むね look HUGE, i mean, huger than normal. the tenin was all うらやましい of it.). the other thing she showed me was a 'mantle', which is another piece of clothing that i now own but have no idea how to decribe to ppl. in perfect ozzon fashion, it's a complicatedly cut piece of cloth with lotsa buttons so you can wear it in a myriad of ways that the tenin is very skilled at arranging. when you get home you are somewhat bewildered by the huge piece of cloth you now own, however! but i had been looking for a cover-up type item and had wanted to buy something there anyway, so i put aside the one-piece (that's a maybe...) and got the mantle. the tenin was all excited cuz she had also purchased one the other day, and now we have the same piece! i have half a mind to take it back and demand that she teach me how to make it pretty again.
so i happily made my way back home at this point, wary of spending any more money (i already got my skirt so i skipped closet child). i got back and played dress up for a while (i have to use a variety of strange camera poses and the small mirror in my bathroom in order to see if my outfits really work or not, since i have no full length mirror. i'm still not entirely sure if all the outfits work entirely actually). i have managed to figure out how to assemble my favorite "form" of my mantle already, so i'm happy (it gives me long kimono-like sleeves and a long piece in the back).
i went back to the cook-your-own okonomiyaki place for dinner and this time i made it all myself ^_^ it came out pretty well i'd like to think. i over cooked the soba so it was all crunchy on the bottom, but i actually rather liked it that way.
now i don't know what i'm gonna do tomorrow morning before i head out for my live. shop in harajuku? the live is at narciss so i could go to ueno too. well, we'll see what i feel up to at that time.