Rさんとのオフ会。
Today is a magical post that will probably be the last one I make from Nippon. \(=A=)/ I go home to the states on Wednesday. Lots of photos this time, so brace your internets for my half-assed camera work.
On Saturday, R and I went to meet three of his friends (two girls and a boy, who I will call Y, M, and J, respectively). He had never actually met them in person before (or seen their pictures), though; they are friends of his from an online game that he used to play. We were all nervous at first but soon bonded over our general nerdiness and had a great time. The goal of the meet: to visit one of the waterfalls found in the online game in person.
On Saturday, R and I met his friends for the first time in a parking lot. They knew R had a girlfriend and that she was American, but didn't know anything else about me. The first thing one of the girls said when she saw me was "KURO DAAAA!!" ("It's black!!"); she then said she thought I would be blonde ;w; (lol American stereotypes♥)
We climbed in a car together and M popped in a CD she had made for the hour-long drive. The ENTIRE CD was Vocaloid music and other songs (like 組曲 mixes and 歌ってみた stuff) from NicoNico Douga. J confessed that he had only slept for three hours last night because he couldn't stop looking at niconico videos the night before. Y had a niconico phone strap of a little TV with a face that she got from a UFO catcher. That site is wonderful and at the same time has a kind of terrifying grip over those who use it. I love it. ;A(\ They inspired me to look into a premium niconico account, which R gave me as a present yesterday~
After singing stupid songs together and talking about happy otakujunk for an hour, we arrived at the mountain with the waterfall. It was beautiful! ;A; Humid and hot as hell, but beautiful! After eating some of the region's famous houtou noodles, we made our way through the mountain paths.
here is said mountain path (at a weird angle)
more photos along the river
every rock lining the side of the path had 1 yen coins stuck in every little crack. Even when the rocks were overhead, they were full of coins hanging.
The waterfall! The air around it was cool and smelled really nice.
Y, M, and R (tinytiny) walk through a neat rock formation.
We were exhausted by the time we climbed back to the parking lot in the heat so we had ice cream and left for our inn. My nerdy body isn't fit for hikes but the scenery was so beautiful that I kind of want to try playing that online game so I can click-walk my online character to see the waterfall and surrounding area again (in pixel-form) \o/
the inn was a little old building hidden among a million fields of grape vines. The inn itself was even UNDERNEATH some grape vines, so the inn entrance and front garden had a beautiful ceiling of grapes growing in the summer sun.
We spent the evening enjoying delicious inn food, wine made from the inn's grapes, chatting, and playing Hatsune Miku: Project Diva (everyone present owned or shared a copy of the game and brought their PSPs ahaha;;) and Daihinmin all night.
The girls I shared a room with were so great. ;A; It's a shame I have to leave Japan so soon. They said they wanted to drag me to Gackt concerts and Tora no Ana and I would GLADLY ACCEPT this dragging.
Interestingly, while we were rolling out our bedding, one of the girls stopped and stared at me for a second, saying "you look like someone..." before pausing and then suddenly saying "Oh! Angela Aki!" The other girl responded with "you're right! Angela Aki!" ... which makes that the third time I have heard that this summer. D-do I really look that much like her? Really? Really? ;A(\ They thought I would be blonde before they met me so there's no way that R told them he thought I looked like Angela Aki (the time I tried on his glasses)....
The view from our second-floor room, where you could see the tops of all the grape vines. It felt like being on top of clouds. Green clouds.
What a beautiful countryyyy ;A(\
After our night at the inn, we went to the Takeda Shrine, which honors Sengoku-period warrior Takeda Shingen (or as people who have played/watched Sengoku Basara know him: Oyakata-samaaaaaaaaaaa *A*). I bought some charms and drew a fortune. According to my fortune: someone close to me will be far away soon (true; I leave Japan in two days ;A;), I will have good luck with work as long as I think carefully and listen to the advice given to me (my mom's advice, perhaps?), and my health will be good as long as I follow what the doctor says (I.. I don't have a doctor and to be honest my body feels like it is crumbling apart so maybe this is a sign that I should find a doctor to fix this messed-up body; lately my wrist hurts so bad I can't pick anything up every time I use the computer for more than 30 minutes and my stomach feels bloated and achey and painful frequently).
After our temple visit, we parted with R's online buddies and R and I decided to go to a karaoke place, since it would probably be our last chance for a long time. I made the mistake of choosing to sing Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo's ending theme song, Garnet (because it was stuck in my head from listening to it in the car). After singing a few lines I realized "shit, this song is too sad to sing two days before I leave! I shouldn't have picked this!" Sure enough, when I looked next to me while I was singing, R had started crying. ;A(\ (it is a sad song of parting about never seeing the person you care about ever again but remembering the fun last summer shared; anyone who has seen Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo should know the feelings associated with the song when it played;;) So then I started crying too while trying to sing through a dead voice. We both left the karaoke place with red eyes. We are idiots. orz
I spent all of today packing. By some miracle, it looks like I won't have to ship anything. I am, however, not sure I can take my FF Potion cans back with me since they're heavy and I worry about them exploding in my tightly-packed suitcase. I guess I can try shipping them, but it seems like too much work for a drink that doesn't even taste good just so I can have pretty cans to look at. orz I have one more day to think it over.
I had a great time this summer but I have had my fill of nippon for now and look forward to being back in the states. \o/ I'm just depressed that I have to leave behind someone important to go home and even more depressed every time I think about how the hell we can comfortably be together again. I want a solution that does not involve me giving up a happy working life (as lazy as I am, I can't imagine being satisfied in life without a career) to go live in Shinjuku (ugh noisy).
I'd better post this before the internet and/or my laptop battery dies. The internet here dies like once every hour or so so I will definitely not miss it. Even though my laptop battery is only like two months old the battery life compared to when I first got it seems to have been cut in half... I miss my fat old PC. ;A;
On Saturday, R and I went to meet three of his friends (two girls and a boy, who I will call Y, M, and J, respectively). He had never actually met them in person before (or seen their pictures), though; they are friends of his from an online game that he used to play. We were all nervous at first but soon bonded over our general nerdiness and had a great time. The goal of the meet: to visit one of the waterfalls found in the online game in person.
On Saturday, R and I met his friends for the first time in a parking lot. They knew R had a girlfriend and that she was American, but didn't know anything else about me. The first thing one of the girls said when she saw me was "KURO DAAAA!!" ("It's black!!"); she then said she thought I would be blonde ;w; (lol American stereotypes♥)
We climbed in a car together and M popped in a CD she had made for the hour-long drive. The ENTIRE CD was Vocaloid music and other songs (like 組曲 mixes and 歌ってみた stuff) from NicoNico Douga. J confessed that he had only slept for three hours last night because he couldn't stop looking at niconico videos the night before. Y had a niconico phone strap of a little TV with a face that she got from a UFO catcher. That site is wonderful and at the same time has a kind of terrifying grip over those who use it. I love it. ;A(\ They inspired me to look into a premium niconico account, which R gave me as a present yesterday~
After singing stupid songs together and talking about happy otakujunk for an hour, we arrived at the mountain with the waterfall. It was beautiful! ;A; Humid and hot as hell, but beautiful! After eating some of the region's famous houtou noodles, we made our way through the mountain paths.
here is said mountain path (at a weird angle)
more photos along the river
every rock lining the side of the path had 1 yen coins stuck in every little crack. Even when the rocks were overhead, they were full of coins hanging.
The waterfall! The air around it was cool and smelled really nice.
Y, M, and R (tinytiny) walk through a neat rock formation.
We were exhausted by the time we climbed back to the parking lot in the heat so we had ice cream and left for our inn. My nerdy body isn't fit for hikes but the scenery was so beautiful that I kind of want to try playing that online game so I can click-walk my online character to see the waterfall and surrounding area again (in pixel-form) \o/
the inn was a little old building hidden among a million fields of grape vines. The inn itself was even UNDERNEATH some grape vines, so the inn entrance and front garden had a beautiful ceiling of grapes growing in the summer sun.
We spent the evening enjoying delicious inn food, wine made from the inn's grapes, chatting, and playing Hatsune Miku: Project Diva (everyone present owned or shared a copy of the game and brought their PSPs ahaha;;) and Daihinmin all night.
The girls I shared a room with were so great. ;A; It's a shame I have to leave Japan so soon. They said they wanted to drag me to Gackt concerts and Tora no Ana and I would GLADLY ACCEPT this dragging.
Interestingly, while we were rolling out our bedding, one of the girls stopped and stared at me for a second, saying "you look like someone..." before pausing and then suddenly saying "Oh! Angela Aki!" The other girl responded with "you're right! Angela Aki!" ... which makes that the third time I have heard that this summer. D-do I really look that much like her? Really? Really? ;A(\ They thought I would be blonde before they met me so there's no way that R told them he thought I looked like Angela Aki (the time I tried on his glasses)....
The view from our second-floor room, where you could see the tops of all the grape vines. It felt like being on top of clouds. Green clouds.
What a beautiful countryyyy ;A(\
After our night at the inn, we went to the Takeda Shrine, which honors Sengoku-period warrior Takeda Shingen (or as people who have played/watched Sengoku Basara know him: Oyakata-samaaaaaaaaaaa *A*). I bought some charms and drew a fortune. According to my fortune: someone close to me will be far away soon (true; I leave Japan in two days ;A;), I will have good luck with work as long as I think carefully and listen to the advice given to me (my mom's advice, perhaps?), and my health will be good as long as I follow what the doctor says (I.. I don't have a doctor and to be honest my body feels like it is crumbling apart so maybe this is a sign that I should find a doctor to fix this messed-up body; lately my wrist hurts so bad I can't pick anything up every time I use the computer for more than 30 minutes and my stomach feels bloated and achey and painful frequently).
After our temple visit, we parted with R's online buddies and R and I decided to go to a karaoke place, since it would probably be our last chance for a long time. I made the mistake of choosing to sing Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo's ending theme song, Garnet (because it was stuck in my head from listening to it in the car). After singing a few lines I realized "shit, this song is too sad to sing two days before I leave! I shouldn't have picked this!" Sure enough, when I looked next to me while I was singing, R had started crying. ;A(\ (it is a sad song of parting about never seeing the person you care about ever again but remembering the fun last summer shared; anyone who has seen Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo should know the feelings associated with the song when it played;;) So then I started crying too while trying to sing through a dead voice. We both left the karaoke place with red eyes. We are idiots. orz
I spent all of today packing. By some miracle, it looks like I won't have to ship anything. I am, however, not sure I can take my FF Potion cans back with me since they're heavy and I worry about them exploding in my tightly-packed suitcase. I guess I can try shipping them, but it seems like too much work for a drink that doesn't even taste good just so I can have pretty cans to look at. orz I have one more day to think it over.
I had a great time this summer but I have had my fill of nippon for now and look forward to being back in the states. \o/ I'm just depressed that I have to leave behind someone important to go home and even more depressed every time I think about how the hell we can comfortably be together again. I want a solution that does not involve me giving up a happy working life (as lazy as I am, I can't imagine being satisfied in life without a career) to go live in Shinjuku (ugh noisy).
I'd better post this before the internet and/or my laptop battery dies. The internet here dies like once every hour or so so I will definitely not miss it. Even though my laptop battery is only like two months old the battery life compared to when I first got it seems to have been cut in half... I miss my fat old PC. ;A;