speak now
So once again, I am writing another summary post :0 It's been half a year here, but every day has been as fun as the last and I know I'm definitely not ready to leave here anytime soon ): However with 6 months left, I guess I'll have to plan my vacations more carefully (after this Spring Break, I only have 3 days of school off for Golden Week... no more breaks after this... -____-) , and try to get going to more places like Mie Prefecture (Ise Shrine!!) and Nagoya (:
- went to Korea for a 2nd time with Aki, Philipp, and Raynor (: Kim Young accompanied us on the flight back since he was returning there for good (T__T), and Jun met us at the airport for a joyful reunion (: We stayed in a huge family style room together (excluding Young since he lives in Seoul) and basically spent 90% of our time together. Had to sleep with Aki on a bed, but we survived (though Jun snored a LOT D:) and made lots of good memories on the way (soo much good food). Perhaps I'll do a seperate post on it sometime, haha.
- finally have a couple students for teaching English :D So far I'm teaching 2 guys, but I have another possible student lined up for when I come back from Tokyo ^__^ Yayy!! One of my students drives a JAGUAR, so I was like LOL WTF when he started showing me pictures @__@
- will be going to Tokyo from March 9 (night bus) to March 18 (arriving back in Kyoto at 6am in the morning, yay). I'll get to see all my Tokyo friends and can't wait!! For accomodation, I'm lucky because my mom asked her friend to let me stay for the week and she said yes!! Guess all my money will go towards transportation and food <3
- my room furnishings have been upgraded even more by my purchase of a TOAST LOW CHAIR <33 So far I have multiple postcards on my walls, a fridge, a hot water kettle (never used), a low table (thanks Eki <33), my rug from Nissen, and this lovely lovely chair <33
- Nellie, Crystal (with Hazel) came to Kyoto to visit (though in the end we went to Osaka) <33 Nellie stayed in my room while Crystal was at Hazel's, and it was so nice to see them here <33 MISS YOU GUYS!! Osaka was crazy walking though, I'm glad I didn't wear my boots because my feet would've died ><
- We had a "chikan" incident at I-House, but it was nothing superr major. A girl on the first floor screamed because she saw the shadow of a guy outside her window and while he was gone by the time the guys went to check the rooms and outside, security at I-House has been upgraded to having barbed wire around all the fences and walls. Good luck, you gross pervs D:
- For Lillian's farewell party, we had another huge potluck and Aki and I bought a whole fish (not realizing the guts and scales were untouched)... So I proceeded to descaling it and then finally cutting it open and ripping the guts out (they were stuck so I had to hack at them with a knife...). Fun! As for Lillian leaving, I'm so glad I'll see her back in Canada but I thought my heart would stop again for the 2nd time ):
- Jun was leaving the next day after Lillian and had no more money to do anything (I had to cut his hair for him because he couldn't afford his usual expensive haircut), so we treated him to Jumbo and eat giant poritions of yakisoba (<33) and okonomiyaki (: We didn't stay up with him, but we walked him to the station and also made him breakfast (can't send him off starving, right?) at 6am. HOWEVER... the jackass somehow took MY cell phone and nearly got on the train to the airport WITH my cell phone in his pocket (he had to borrow money off Raynor for the train haha) -___- Luckily, Yuusuke was with him and managed to recover my phone otherwise the phone would've gone with Jun to Korea and I would STILL be searching for it >< YOU JERK!!
- WENT TO AN ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION CONCERT IN OSAKA. It was definitely one of the best days of my life, even if I had to go alone. I couldn't buy a ticket on the day they went on sale (sold out within 2 minutes -___-), so I had to go on Yahoo Auctions and bid on a pair for a slightly more expensive price. Observing Japanese concert culture was also definitely amusing. Nearly everyone was on the floor (though I had a reserved seat because I didn't want to be crushed) and nearly 1000-2000 people (?) were standing shoulder to shoulder, packed against the stage, jumping and pumping their fists. That's what Japanese people do at rock concerts. They pump their fist with their index finger sticking out and pointed at the musician. THEY ALSO DON'T ALLOW PHOTOGRAPHY!!! I had to take a sneak shot in the end (and it wasn't even of the band T__T), but after that coincidentally there was a staff member standing directly behind me and to my left, so I couldn't whip out my camera to capture the action >< But that's okay, I'll forever remember the concert <3 I nearly cried with happiness when I saw the band come out on stage, and they did 2-3 encores (-___- why not all at once??). They played around 30 songs, and everyone screamed with joy when they did Solanin (I did too...). In the end, Gotoh came up with this lovely mini song (if I remember it correctly) to commemorate the Osaka concert:
なんばシャイボーイ
大阪
なんでやねんガールズ
Nanba shy boys
Osaka
What the hell girls
The whole crowd was singing along with him, and it was a great experience (: ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION <3333
- Went to the Kyoto Imperial Palace tour with Anna <3 It was strange standing among all the tourists and hearing the tour in English, but it was enjoyable the palace is lovely <33
- Went to Kaiten Sushi I don't know how many times with Aki <33 We went after the King's Speech at Toho Cinema and again with Philipp's mother, whee <33 The King's Speech was an awesome movie, but why don't Japanese people laugh in theatres?? We were the only ones laughing at the funny parts, and we had to muffle our laughter because the entire theatre was silent. Embarassing...
- Went to Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine (伏見稲荷退社) with Anna, Aki, and my Japanese language exchange friends Natsuki and Yuuri (: It was a 2 hour climb to the top and about 1 hour down, but it was really nice weather and there was a special feeling as we hiked higher because eventually we were one of the few people attempting the massive staircase. After, we had a 2 hour nabe/shabu shabu in my room. When Japanese people think nabe, they think of a pot with already set ingredients inside. However in North America, we usually dip meat and other things into the water before consuming them (thus shabu shabu hot pot?), so it was definitely a new experience for Natsuki and Yuuri, haha.
I guess I should do a whole bunch of seperate posts later, but that's it for now (:
- went to Korea for a 2nd time with Aki, Philipp, and Raynor (: Kim Young accompanied us on the flight back since he was returning there for good (T__T), and Jun met us at the airport for a joyful reunion (: We stayed in a huge family style room together (excluding Young since he lives in Seoul) and basically spent 90% of our time together. Had to sleep with Aki on a bed, but we survived (though Jun snored a LOT D:) and made lots of good memories on the way (soo much good food). Perhaps I'll do a seperate post on it sometime, haha.
- finally have a couple students for teaching English :D So far I'm teaching 2 guys, but I have another possible student lined up for when I come back from Tokyo ^__^ Yayy!! One of my students drives a JAGUAR, so I was like LOL WTF when he started showing me pictures @__@
- will be going to Tokyo from March 9 (night bus) to March 18 (arriving back in Kyoto at 6am in the morning, yay). I'll get to see all my Tokyo friends and can't wait!! For accomodation, I'm lucky because my mom asked her friend to let me stay for the week and she said yes!! Guess all my money will go towards transportation and food <3
- my room furnishings have been upgraded even more by my purchase of a TOAST LOW CHAIR <33 So far I have multiple postcards on my walls, a fridge, a hot water kettle (never used), a low table (thanks Eki <33), my rug from Nissen, and this lovely lovely chair <33
- Nellie, Crystal (with Hazel) came to Kyoto to visit (though in the end we went to Osaka) <33 Nellie stayed in my room while Crystal was at Hazel's, and it was so nice to see them here <33 MISS YOU GUYS!! Osaka was crazy walking though, I'm glad I didn't wear my boots because my feet would've died ><
- We had a "chikan" incident at I-House, but it was nothing superr major. A girl on the first floor screamed because she saw the shadow of a guy outside her window and while he was gone by the time the guys went to check the rooms and outside, security at I-House has been upgraded to having barbed wire around all the fences and walls. Good luck, you gross pervs D:
- For Lillian's farewell party, we had another huge potluck and Aki and I bought a whole fish (not realizing the guts and scales were untouched)... So I proceeded to descaling it and then finally cutting it open and ripping the guts out (they were stuck so I had to hack at them with a knife...). Fun! As for Lillian leaving, I'm so glad I'll see her back in Canada but I thought my heart would stop again for the 2nd time ):
- Jun was leaving the next day after Lillian and had no more money to do anything (I had to cut his hair for him because he couldn't afford his usual expensive haircut), so we treated him to Jumbo and eat giant poritions of yakisoba (<33) and okonomiyaki (: We didn't stay up with him, but we walked him to the station and also made him breakfast (can't send him off starving, right?) at 6am. HOWEVER... the jackass somehow took MY cell phone and nearly got on the train to the airport WITH my cell phone in his pocket (he had to borrow money off Raynor for the train haha) -___- Luckily, Yuusuke was with him and managed to recover my phone otherwise the phone would've gone with Jun to Korea and I would STILL be searching for it >< YOU JERK!!
- WENT TO AN ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION CONCERT IN OSAKA. It was definitely one of the best days of my life, even if I had to go alone. I couldn't buy a ticket on the day they went on sale (sold out within 2 minutes -___-), so I had to go on Yahoo Auctions and bid on a pair for a slightly more expensive price. Observing Japanese concert culture was also definitely amusing. Nearly everyone was on the floor (though I had a reserved seat because I didn't want to be crushed) and nearly 1000-2000 people (?) were standing shoulder to shoulder, packed against the stage, jumping and pumping their fists. That's what Japanese people do at rock concerts. They pump their fist with their index finger sticking out and pointed at the musician. THEY ALSO DON'T ALLOW PHOTOGRAPHY!!! I had to take a sneak shot in the end (and it wasn't even of the band T__T), but after that coincidentally there was a staff member standing directly behind me and to my left, so I couldn't whip out my camera to capture the action >< But that's okay, I'll forever remember the concert <3 I nearly cried with happiness when I saw the band come out on stage, and they did 2-3 encores (-___- why not all at once??). They played around 30 songs, and everyone screamed with joy when they did Solanin (I did too...). In the end, Gotoh came up with this lovely mini song (if I remember it correctly) to commemorate the Osaka concert:
なんばシャイボーイ
大阪
なんでやねんガールズ
Nanba shy boys
Osaka
What the hell girls
The whole crowd was singing along with him, and it was a great experience (: ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION <3333
- Went to the Kyoto Imperial Palace tour with Anna <3 It was strange standing among all the tourists and hearing the tour in English, but it was enjoyable the palace is lovely <33
- Went to Kaiten Sushi I don't know how many times with Aki <33 We went after the King's Speech at Toho Cinema and again with Philipp's mother, whee <33 The King's Speech was an awesome movie, but why don't Japanese people laugh in theatres?? We were the only ones laughing at the funny parts, and we had to muffle our laughter because the entire theatre was silent. Embarassing...
- Went to Fushimi Inari Grand Shrine (伏見稲荷退社) with Anna, Aki, and my Japanese language exchange friends Natsuki and Yuuri (: It was a 2 hour climb to the top and about 1 hour down, but it was really nice weather and there was a special feeling as we hiked higher because eventually we were one of the few people attempting the massive staircase. After, we had a 2 hour nabe/shabu shabu in my room. When Japanese people think nabe, they think of a pot with already set ingredients inside. However in North America, we usually dip meat and other things into the water before consuming them (thus shabu shabu hot pot?), so it was definitely a new experience for Natsuki and Yuuri, haha.
I guess I should do a whole bunch of seperate posts later, but that's it for now (: