Fifth Entry -- Mega-Picture Entry Part 2
General:
Okay..my week so far (yayee tomorrow's Friday!!) has been pretty normal? I really hope today's post will finally catch me up with everything that's happened so far.
Oh okay so here is my finalized class schedule:
The only classes in English are the History class and the Economy class. I know I mentioned taking an Architecture class before but it was utterly boring (I mean, the information was interesting but the class really dragged on...) Anyway, except for my Japanese Writing/General/Speaking classes, Gene is in every single one of them hahaha. The Japanese Writing/General/Speaking classes = 4 credits, Clay Molding = 1 credit, and the rest = 2 credits each so...I'm taking a total of 15 credits this semester. I usually take 15ish credits back at home but I feel like this schedule is easier. Maybe because the classes only meet once a week?? Also because I don't have work or anything scheduled in between classes. And having a lunch period is nice too.
So...on Tuesday Gene and I went to daytime karaoke (a bit cheaper than at night) to practice songs--hahahaha. Anyway, I thought it was really funny because we got placed in this huge 30 people party room and it was just the two of us!
Gene by himself at karaoke:
Kind of a fuzzy pic but oh wells.
Ermm kinda mundane but here is us UMDers at SATY (cheap shopping center-ish place?)...we're eating Baskin Robbins Popping Shower ice cream<3! The store guy totally knows Kim and Gene because they get it everyday hahaha. (Popping Shower ice cream is the best ice cream ever; it's vanilla and some greenish bluish colored ice cream with soggy pop rocks! Oh and it probably doesn't have eggs in it because only a few of the Baskin Robbins ice creams have eggs (ie: French Vanilla (but not regular vanilla), Cookie Dough, etc) yayee.)
Me, Gene, and Kim!:
Ooh and this is totally the day I dressed kind of girlishly.
Here is a tantalizingly small pic!:
hahahahaha. Anyway, I'm wearing these ultra comfy boots that were on sale for 3000 yen at SATY. Yayee~
Okay, so tonight, most of us english speaking people got together and ate nachos at Emily's (Australian girl) dorm! (Well, Kim lives in the same dorm too).
We're all using the 'Meeting Rooms' that they have on each floor of the dorms. We're not supposed to eat in there but...
Left to Right: Emily, Magda, David (fyi)
Anyway it was a lot of fun cuz we said we were like a family having dinner and then started assigning roles for people. Hahahaha I feel like I always do that with groups of people but it's so much fun! (and retarded too, yes).
(The explanation might get a bit boring so feel free to skip this part:) So, Emily is the mom (she prepared our food, etc), David is the dad. Except he was late, so of course he was with the 'other woman'...and things are kind of bitter between them. Scott is Emily's oldest son from another marriage...and he's also her favorite son. He's secretly kind of evil. She has a slightly unhealthy love for him? Gene and I are twins, but I was born a bit earlier because I'm louder (?) than him or something. Anyway, we chill a lot together but sometimes have a love-hate relationship. Oh and I'm always sucking up to Mom and stuff but she hates me hahaha. Kim is the middle child and tends to get forgotten sometimes. So she's kind of rebellious and will totally become a JRock groupie or something one of these days. Magda is the youngest daughter, always quick to correct people, etc. She is Emily's favorite daughter hahahaha.
Here is the awesome-est family picture ever:
I love how everyone played up their roles to the max. Emily and Kim are especially awesome in this pic.
Oh so anyway, the above^ pic was the 3rd take of the 'family'...I like how Kim is evil in all 3 of them:
First Take:
Second Take:
Third take:
hahahahaha she is so evil!!!!
Okay so the end of that update...
Hey this is a totally unrelated question but: does anyone know how to make pictures into links? Like, I'll have a smaller version of the pic on the blog but when you click on it it opens up into a bigger picture in another window?? I have a lot of pics to post and I feel bad that I have to make some smaller (and also, when I resize them the quality of the pics get really bad).
The Past Week or So - Major Catch-Up!
I'm doing this update according to the pics I have.
Oh wow. So I got Gene and Scott's pics onto my computer and I realized that they're a lot better at recording moments than I am. Especially the first days in Chiba. Most of these pics are thanks to Scott:
(hahaha sorry; I had to include this pic because he is seriously the only person I know who wears a camera pouch!!...(along with other pouches). But anyway, it really is thanks to him that there are some interesting pics here.)
Okay, so the first couple of days in Inage, Chiba were spent shopping (necessities, room stuffs, etc).
Us on the train from IKEA! <3 (10/04/06)
Okay I know I'm really unladylike and my legs are open but I was protecting the IKEA bags!! hahahaha. Oh, but it probably just runs in the other family<3...
Mommy Rhonda after the Language House "Formal":
hahahaha aww what a dork....But this pic is sooo funny cuz she was my Miss Manners when we lived in the dorms together...and here is a picture of her all dressed up but sooooo not a lady!!! ahahaha. (FYI: Left to Right: Dustin, Aleshia, Shania, Jeff. *Shania*~~~ how've you beeeeen???)
So during the shopping phase, it was just overcast in Inage. A couple of days later it started raining majorly. Even though we had umbrellas, we were thoroughly soaked. This totally didn't help with our impression of Chiba...
Anyway, here is a pretty unflattering picture of me trying on rainboots because my shoes were all wet. (It stopped raining the next day....hahaha. So much for my unfashionable rain boots.) (And I know I have to do something about that humongous tear in my jeans...but they are sooo comfortable!!!)
(yes, my legs are open again)
But you know, even though it was a pretty miserable day, we all went out to karaoke! (The other karaoke place in Inage). The place was cleaner than the first room in U-Style...but it was majorly shady. Maybe because it's usually young attendants at the front desk at karaoke places, but when it was us it was a grim looking man in a black suit. And even though we ordered the all-you-can-drink course, the drinks were watered down..The food was good though. Oh and Kim was being awesome and ordering food on the phone in Japanese. But then each time she did it, a young attendant would come to our room later and be like "sorry, we didn't quite understand what you wanted to order"....(???) It's like, couldn't you say that on the phone?? Kim could've repeated her order, etc you know...
People with wet spots (from the rain) (10/06/06):
Kim singing "X" (??) and people participating:
Whenever she sang "X!!" we had to cross our arms and yell "X!" with her. At first it was fun but by the end we all started getting tired and just groaned "x" weakly hahaha. Sorry Kim-chan!!
The next day I don't know what happened (everyone else was busy?? heyyyy) but it was just me, Gene, and Scott chilling. Gene and I wanted to buy TVs so we went to Akihabara, the Nerdy Electronic District of Tokyo. That's where they have "maid cafes" in which girls wear anime-ish costumes and talk in high, perky voices and call guys "Master" (Goshujin-sama) and girls "Mistress" (Ojou-sama) (? haha I don't know how good my translation is). That's what I hear, anyway. One of these days we're all going to one!! hahaha ewww. But also, it's just where there a bunch of electronic stores so they try to be competitive and lower prices, etc. (There are also shady stores like "AV Factory" (not AV as in audio-visual but like AV as in adult-video) in the back streets haha.)
Anyway, there was a laptop that was the size of Gene's hand (Gene was also looking for a laptop to buy):
One of the many store attendants noticed that we were about to take a picture (and I guess seeing that Scott was white) (or maybe he overheard us talking?) scolded us in English: "No pictures! One (sounded more like "wan") only! Wan!"
Akihabara is also where we saw the Geno outlet:
I think that store just sells some electronic parts. We didn't enter. Oh, and Akihabara is like 40ish(?) minutes away from Inage by train.
So then we wanted to explore more of Tokyo so we visited Harajuku (10ish minutes away from Akihabara by train?). Look who we saw!!:
.....okay that was a way lame joke.
Anyway, we visited Condomania, a condom store in Harajuku:
There was a bunch of condom varieties and novelties. It was really crowded and the shop was really small...Kind of like 3 elevators put together?
Oh I remember what happened now. I think Kim and Laura were chilling in Harajuku while we were in Akihabara. There were some loose plans for meeting up but it didn't work (I guess we took too long in Akihabara). Anyway, they said that they had visited Kiddyland, which contains all the brands of cutsey stuff (like, Studio Ghibli, San-X, Sanrio(?), Disney, etc etc etc). And then we ended up going to Kiddyland too haha
So anyway, I found the awesome-est thing in Kiddyland (kind of like a guide to what was on the floors?):
hehe, first there is Rika +Jenny, which is like me and Jendadenden!!<3. And teeks, there's Tomica...which isn't Tomika, exactly, but close, right? (Kind of disappointing...Tomica etc turned out to be a toy train/car company for kids.)
Jen!<3:
Gene, Scott, and I started getting hungry and it didn't seem like we would find a good eating place in Harajuku so we headed towards Shinjuku (another part of Tokyo..another couple of minutes away by train?). Shinjuku is a glitzy shopping part of Tokyo? I don't know Tokyo very well hahaha. I feel like Harajuku is geared towards more younger, funky people while Shinjuku is more...mature? Hmm maybe Gene can shed some light on this (when he finally gets a laptop and starts updating his livejournal!! :D )
First there were the obligatory tourist-y shots in Shinjuku:
(I took the second pic with my 2 year old Canon...wow it's way worse in quality than the first pic (Gene's Canon bought this year.))
We were having some trouble finding a good place to eat. Somewhere where we could sit down and eat and relax...but not too expensive/complicated, and nothing like a fast-food place. Luckily, we found Wara Wara, an izakaya!! <3 (It's a chain izakaya; we went to one later for Magda's 21st birthday.)
We all had to take pics of us kampai-ing (toasting). I know, soooo dorky!!
hehe from Left to Right: Gene's view, Scott's view, my view. Anyway, it was called Mizutama (water bubble?) and it was a blue-ish greenish colored drink. I forget what was in it. I do know it wasn't as good as the 'Beckham,' which we ordered next<3
Here is Gene with his dainty drink:
Ewww he had to do the dainty pinky thing hahahaha.
Anyway, we all bonded over stories of our past relationships, etc. The food was good and the setting was nice (way to be specific...). We stayed for so long that when we left we had to run to catch our train. We caught the very last one!! (Trains end early-ish here (like 12 AM-ish, 1 AM-ish? but start early.)
I guess this post is going to be split up even more because I am pooped and I haven't gotten to the next weekend yet....Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pics, etc!
Okay..my week so far (yayee tomorrow's Friday!!) has been pretty normal? I really hope today's post will finally catch me up with everything that's happened so far.
Oh okay so here is my finalized class schedule:
The only classes in English are the History class and the Economy class. I know I mentioned taking an Architecture class before but it was utterly boring (I mean, the information was interesting but the class really dragged on...) Anyway, except for my Japanese Writing/General/Speaking classes, Gene is in every single one of them hahaha. The Japanese Writing/General/Speaking classes = 4 credits, Clay Molding = 1 credit, and the rest = 2 credits each so...I'm taking a total of 15 credits this semester. I usually take 15ish credits back at home but I feel like this schedule is easier. Maybe because the classes only meet once a week?? Also because I don't have work or anything scheduled in between classes. And having a lunch period is nice too.
So...on Tuesday Gene and I went to daytime karaoke (a bit cheaper than at night) to practice songs--hahahaha. Anyway, I thought it was really funny because we got placed in this huge 30 people party room and it was just the two of us!
Gene by himself at karaoke:
Kind of a fuzzy pic but oh wells.
Ermm kinda mundane but here is us UMDers at SATY (cheap shopping center-ish place?)...we're eating Baskin Robbins Popping Shower ice cream<3! The store guy totally knows Kim and Gene because they get it everyday hahaha. (Popping Shower ice cream is the best ice cream ever; it's vanilla and some greenish bluish colored ice cream with soggy pop rocks! Oh and it probably doesn't have eggs in it because only a few of the Baskin Robbins ice creams have eggs (ie: French Vanilla (but not regular vanilla), Cookie Dough, etc) yayee.)
Me, Gene, and Kim!:
Ooh and this is totally the day I dressed kind of girlishly.
Here is a tantalizingly small pic!:
hahahahaha. Anyway, I'm wearing these ultra comfy boots that were on sale for 3000 yen at SATY. Yayee~
Okay, so tonight, most of us english speaking people got together and ate nachos at Emily's (Australian girl) dorm! (Well, Kim lives in the same dorm too).
We're all using the 'Meeting Rooms' that they have on each floor of the dorms. We're not supposed to eat in there but...
Left to Right: Emily, Magda, David (fyi)
Anyway it was a lot of fun cuz we said we were like a family having dinner and then started assigning roles for people. Hahahaha I feel like I always do that with groups of people but it's so much fun! (and retarded too, yes).
(The explanation might get a bit boring so feel free to skip this part:) So, Emily is the mom (she prepared our food, etc), David is the dad. Except he was late, so of course he was with the 'other woman'...and things are kind of bitter between them. Scott is Emily's oldest son from another marriage...and he's also her favorite son. He's secretly kind of evil. She has a slightly unhealthy love for him? Gene and I are twins, but I was born a bit earlier because I'm louder (?) than him or something. Anyway, we chill a lot together but sometimes have a love-hate relationship. Oh and I'm always sucking up to Mom and stuff but she hates me hahaha. Kim is the middle child and tends to get forgotten sometimes. So she's kind of rebellious and will totally become a JRock groupie or something one of these days. Magda is the youngest daughter, always quick to correct people, etc. She is Emily's favorite daughter hahahaha.
Here is the awesome-est family picture ever:
I love how everyone played up their roles to the max. Emily and Kim are especially awesome in this pic.
Oh so anyway, the above^ pic was the 3rd take of the 'family'...I like how Kim is evil in all 3 of them:
First Take:
Second Take:
Third take:
hahahahaha she is so evil!!!!
Okay so the end of that update...
Hey this is a totally unrelated question but: does anyone know how to make pictures into links? Like, I'll have a smaller version of the pic on the blog but when you click on it it opens up into a bigger picture in another window?? I have a lot of pics to post and I feel bad that I have to make some smaller (and also, when I resize them the quality of the pics get really bad).
The Past Week or So - Major Catch-Up!
I'm doing this update according to the pics I have.
Oh wow. So I got Gene and Scott's pics onto my computer and I realized that they're a lot better at recording moments than I am. Especially the first days in Chiba. Most of these pics are thanks to Scott:
(hahaha sorry; I had to include this pic because he is seriously the only person I know who wears a camera pouch!!...(along with other pouches). But anyway, it really is thanks to him that there are some interesting pics here.)
Okay, so the first couple of days in Inage, Chiba were spent shopping (necessities, room stuffs, etc).
Us on the train from IKEA! <3 (10/04/06)
Okay I know I'm really unladylike and my legs are open but I was protecting the IKEA bags!! hahahaha. Oh, but it probably just runs in the other family<3...
Mommy Rhonda after the Language House "Formal":
hahahaha aww what a dork....But this pic is sooo funny cuz she was my Miss Manners when we lived in the dorms together...and here is a picture of her all dressed up but sooooo not a lady!!! ahahaha. (FYI: Left to Right: Dustin, Aleshia, Shania, Jeff. *Shania*~~~ how've you beeeeen???)
So during the shopping phase, it was just overcast in Inage. A couple of days later it started raining majorly. Even though we had umbrellas, we were thoroughly soaked. This totally didn't help with our impression of Chiba...
Anyway, here is a pretty unflattering picture of me trying on rainboots because my shoes were all wet. (It stopped raining the next day....hahaha. So much for my unfashionable rain boots.) (And I know I have to do something about that humongous tear in my jeans...but they are sooo comfortable!!!)
(yes, my legs are open again)
But you know, even though it was a pretty miserable day, we all went out to karaoke! (The other karaoke place in Inage). The place was cleaner than the first room in U-Style...but it was majorly shady. Maybe because it's usually young attendants at the front desk at karaoke places, but when it was us it was a grim looking man in a black suit. And even though we ordered the all-you-can-drink course, the drinks were watered down..The food was good though. Oh and Kim was being awesome and ordering food on the phone in Japanese. But then each time she did it, a young attendant would come to our room later and be like "sorry, we didn't quite understand what you wanted to order"....(???) It's like, couldn't you say that on the phone?? Kim could've repeated her order, etc you know...
People with wet spots (from the rain) (10/06/06):
Kim singing "X" (??) and people participating:
Whenever she sang "X!!" we had to cross our arms and yell "X!" with her. At first it was fun but by the end we all started getting tired and just groaned "x" weakly hahaha. Sorry Kim-chan!!
The next day I don't know what happened (everyone else was busy?? heyyyy) but it was just me, Gene, and Scott chilling. Gene and I wanted to buy TVs so we went to Akihabara, the Nerdy Electronic District of Tokyo. That's where they have "maid cafes" in which girls wear anime-ish costumes and talk in high, perky voices and call guys "Master" (Goshujin-sama) and girls "Mistress" (Ojou-sama) (? haha I don't know how good my translation is). That's what I hear, anyway. One of these days we're all going to one!! hahaha ewww. But also, it's just where there a bunch of electronic stores so they try to be competitive and lower prices, etc. (There are also shady stores like "AV Factory" (not AV as in audio-visual but like AV as in adult-video) in the back streets haha.)
Anyway, there was a laptop that was the size of Gene's hand (Gene was also looking for a laptop to buy):
One of the many store attendants noticed that we were about to take a picture (and I guess seeing that Scott was white) (or maybe he overheard us talking?) scolded us in English: "No pictures! One (sounded more like "wan") only! Wan!"
Akihabara is also where we saw the Geno outlet:
I think that store just sells some electronic parts. We didn't enter. Oh, and Akihabara is like 40ish(?) minutes away from Inage by train.
So then we wanted to explore more of Tokyo so we visited Harajuku (10ish minutes away from Akihabara by train?). Look who we saw!!:
.....okay that was a way lame joke.
Anyway, we visited Condomania, a condom store in Harajuku:
There was a bunch of condom varieties and novelties. It was really crowded and the shop was really small...Kind of like 3 elevators put together?
Oh I remember what happened now. I think Kim and Laura were chilling in Harajuku while we were in Akihabara. There were some loose plans for meeting up but it didn't work (I guess we took too long in Akihabara). Anyway, they said that they had visited Kiddyland, which contains all the brands of cutsey stuff (like, Studio Ghibli, San-X, Sanrio(?), Disney, etc etc etc). And then we ended up going to Kiddyland too haha
So anyway, I found the awesome-est thing in Kiddyland (kind of like a guide to what was on the floors?):
hehe, first there is Rika +Jenny, which is like me and Jendadenden!!<3. And teeks, there's Tomica...which isn't Tomika, exactly, but close, right? (Kind of disappointing...Tomica etc turned out to be a toy train/car company for kids.)
Jen!<3:
Gene, Scott, and I started getting hungry and it didn't seem like we would find a good eating place in Harajuku so we headed towards Shinjuku (another part of Tokyo..another couple of minutes away by train?). Shinjuku is a glitzy shopping part of Tokyo? I don't know Tokyo very well hahaha. I feel like Harajuku is geared towards more younger, funky people while Shinjuku is more...mature? Hmm maybe Gene can shed some light on this (when he finally gets a laptop and starts updating his livejournal!! :D )
First there were the obligatory tourist-y shots in Shinjuku:
(I took the second pic with my 2 year old Canon...wow it's way worse in quality than the first pic (Gene's Canon bought this year.))
We were having some trouble finding a good place to eat. Somewhere where we could sit down and eat and relax...but not too expensive/complicated, and nothing like a fast-food place. Luckily, we found Wara Wara, an izakaya!! <3 (It's a chain izakaya; we went to one later for Magda's 21st birthday.)
We all had to take pics of us kampai-ing (toasting). I know, soooo dorky!!
hehe from Left to Right: Gene's view, Scott's view, my view. Anyway, it was called Mizutama (water bubble?) and it was a blue-ish greenish colored drink. I forget what was in it. I do know it wasn't as good as the 'Beckham,' which we ordered next<3
Here is Gene with his dainty drink:
Ewww he had to do the dainty pinky thing hahahaha.
Anyway, we all bonded over stories of our past relationships, etc. The food was good and the setting was nice (way to be specific...). We stayed for so long that when we left we had to run to catch our train. We caught the very last one!! (Trains end early-ish here (like 12 AM-ish, 1 AM-ish? but start early.)
I guess this post is going to be split up even more because I am pooped and I haven't gotten to the next weekend yet....Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pics, etc!