A Bloody Long and Overdue Post

It's been way too long since I've updated this. Nothing overly exciting happened between what I'm about to write about and when I started classes, and I've had a lot of trouble with Flickr, as I've got so many pictures to upload and the uploader doesn't work at the moment. I've been trying for the last four months to upload things, especially because some people are specifically waiting for my photos, but it just doesn't work. I have too many to e-mail, too. Way too many. I was going to wait until somehow I could get the uploader working before I post, seeing as I can't link to the pictures in my blog if they're not online, but I've decided it's too late and I'm going to post anyway using the pictures from my hard-drive instead. This is going to be a long post. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting!

After going to Takayama, I didn't do a lot. Every day was a good day and I spent plenty of time relaxing. On Ash Wednesday, I went with Caylee to church. I'm not normally one to go to church all the time - or any time, really - but Ash Wednesday has been the one consistent in my life, I think ... so I was compelled to go that day. It was really nice. I hadn't been to the church before, and they conducted the whole thing in Japanese. It was really awesome, actually. There were some really nice people there, too.

I went walking plenty of times during the break, and took lots of photos of the city, the scenery, the wildlife and more. I found a post office, too. I also went to Karaoke - and we saw this woman in one of the film-clips who I swear looked exactly like an Asian version of Jess Baker! Seriously!

When March rolled around slowly, and I got my scholarship money, I started going out a little more, catching the bus and trains and what not. Eventually, the end of March came, and along with it, my Aunt Sandy and my Nan!!! I met them at the airport, and I was shaking with anticipation. I missed them so much, and I couldn't wait to see them! We did SO MUCH together, and the amount of photos I'd taken is unbelievable (and that's why I'm having trouble getting them all back to them to share with everyone). They arrived on the 19th of March, and after a snack and a lot of catching up and explaining why Nan's phone wouldn't work here even though she had international roaming, we left the airport and took a train back to Nagoya. I took them around Sakae for a little bit, we went shopping in the Pokémon Center and Honeys and saw all the festivities, then we went back to their hotel and waited a while. Nan and Sandy were pretty tired from their trip so we ended up just waiting to be let in to the hotel rooms (Japanese people are pretty strict when it comes to check-in times and what not), and to our relief they let us in an hour early.

We got all their stuff upstairs and hung out for a while, then we went out for dinner and I took them to Denny's because I wasn't sure what else Sandy would want to eat (she's pretty picky). Turns out Denny's was a big hit, because it definitely wasn't the last time we ate there. Sandy was still picky about what was on her food, but I managed to translate well enough to get what we needed across and then we enjoyed the delicious meal before they went back to the hotel, and I headed home. I was just going to go to the nearest subway station (literally around the corner), but as I walked out of the hotel I noticed that I could see the Nagoya TV Tower, so I followed it down the street and found that within 10 minutes I'd made my way back to Sakae Station, which was excellent! I took the subway home from there.

The next day, I walked them back the way I went to Sakae, but not before stopping at Denny's for breakfast. We got on the trains and headed off to 名古屋城 (Nagoya Castle). I took them for the tour, and we walked around the gardens, as well, where we took a whole heap of photos of us ladies mucking around and having fun.We went past most of the stuff inside the castle because it was bustling and busy and most of the explanations were in Japanese anyway, so I took them straight up to the top and we bought souvenirs and stuff. I put some money in the coin machine and for a while we had some trouble getting our change back, but then a lady came and fixed it up and gave us our money. We bought some commemorative coins, and Nan put "Ronny & Yvonne" on hers. I admire her strength, I really do.

We spent all day and had a great time there, and shortly after that we went back on the train and on the bus. We were waiting for the bus when Sandy decided to try on Nan's awesomely-warm-and-snuggly overcoat. It looked good on her! The bus came, and I took them back to iHouse, to show them the wondrous place where I live. We used the free internet to get Sandy's bills paid and what not, and I introduced them to some of my friends, and then we were off again, off to have dinner at Denny's and head back to the hotel. We were wondering if there'd be any room at the hotel for me to spend a night there with Nan and Sandy because it was getting late and I didn't know if I'd make it back to iHouse before it closed at 11, but they were all booked up and what not. I said that was fine and I was going to leave, but Nan wanted to put me in a taxi, so she had the people behind the counter call for a taxi and Nan gave me some money to pay for it. I rolled my eyes 'cause I knew I didn't need one, but I went anyway, to make Nan happy. It turned out that I had an excellent conversation with the taxi driver while he took me home, so it was $60 well spent.

On the morning of the 21st, I met them and their all-packed bags in the lobby of the hotel and I took them off to Denny's for the last time for breakfast. We stopped at the little chemist on the first floor first, and they bought some cough medicine, and I told them they should buy some face-masks, because that's what everyone in Japan does ... it's considered a bit rude if you're sick and coughing in public without one. Once in Denny's, Sandy ordered a breakfast set, and we negotiated with the Japanese waitress for a while to get her breakfast exactly the way she wanted it. I had her miso soup (and it was delicious) because she didn't like it.

We left Denny's and headed back up the road to Sakae station, and spent a bit of time there. Just outside Oasis 21, there was a dance-group of kids performing on a stage, so we stopped and watched and took photos for ages. However, once the Japanese Conservationist Party van drove past shouting things in Japanese over the megaphones, I explained to Nan and Sandy what they were about (kicking foreigners out of Japan and closing it off again), we decided to take our leave. We headed on the subway to Nagoya and to the JR section, where we bought our 新幹線 (bullet train) tickets, to just to Kyoto for them and a return ticket for me, and then headed up to the platform where we took photos of ourselves at the JR in front of the tracks, as our last moments in Nagoya for a while. The train eventually came and we got on and had a wonderful smooth ride going at just over 100km's an hour.

We reached Kyoto and headed straight to our hotel. We took a taxi because we weren't sure where the hotel was, but it turned out that it was literally across the road. It wasn't a waste of $6 though, because our things were heavy and we were glad for someone else to 'carry' them to the hotel. We got upstairs and what not, dropped our stuff and I asked if there was room to stay the following night, which there was - a twin bedroom was available right next door to Nan and Sandy's room, so I took the opportunity. We explored the hotel for a little while, then went down to the lobby-room and had a heap of fun looking around the shopping mall there. We came back for dinner at a little hotel restaurant, where Sandy ordered a beer and we all enjoyed our meals.

It was night time by the time I met up with Joel, and we went to Karaoke like I'd planned, and took Sandy with us - Nan decided to stay back and rest, she was tired. So Sandy, put off by the idea that in Japan, Karaoke meant hiring out a private room for a few hours and singing with just your friends, ended up having a jolly time with a couple of beers and some good songs. The hours flew past and Sandy complained that it'd gone too quickly. We took her back to the hotel and then Joel and I headed back to Hirakata where he lived, and he showed me an awesomely cheap Karaoke place. We spent the whole night there singing all sorts of songs, and ended up having a nap there, too. We went out in search of breakfast at 6am, wondering what sort of place would be open when we found a McDonald's. We went inside and had breakfast until it was lighter out, and then we went back to his seminar house - his equivalent of my iHouse. It was too early for visitors though, so instead I waited outside while he got some stuff together and he took me out and showed me his university.

We returned later on and harassed Nan and Sandy at their room and took a little nap. We then went off to see the Kyoto Imperial Palace, which was absolutely beautiful. There was a 桜 (Sakura) tree blossoming, so when we found it I took photos of people under it. Sandy's camera started doing some odd things, so she stopped taking photos with it and asked me to share mine with her. We took plenty of photos in front of virtually everything - including with some beautiful men and women wearing kimonos. One couple had been married that day ... how awesome is that? After that, we explored a little more, and then looked for some food. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't just go to Denny's, sadly enough, but we found a McDonald's and just ordered some chicken and what not.

We then went back to the hotel and Joel put his crap down and stayed the night in the twin room I'd booked (convenient, much?). The 23rd came around, and we swore we'd be awake by 9am, but we weren't. We heard Nan knocking on the wall behind our beds, and we woke up like "OH DARNIT!" and frantically got ready. We went back to Kyoto station, because Nan and Sandy were going to leave for Tokyo that day, and I was gonna head back to Nagoya because the next day I was supposed to wake up early and head to uni for my placement tests. We stopped at a gorgeous fruity cake store, and had some amazing, beautifully presented cake made entirely out of fruit.

We walked outside in search of a department store, and Nan asked to take a photo specifically Japanese-looking to prove that they're definitely in Japan. So I pointed just behind them where there were a couple of signs in Japanese, and we took a photo. Yay! We found the department store, but it was closed so there was nothing there. We headed right back for the station and that's where Joel and I said goodbye to Nan and Sandy and we went our separate ways. Joel and I stuck together, taking a bus to the central shopping district of Kyoto and wandering around. We found all sorts of deals and we happened to get all the awesome cheap stuff. It was epic! We also came across a pizza place that charged us only $10 for a few hours of 食べ放題 (all-you-can-eat). It was AWESOME! They even had dessert pizzas that tasted fantastic.

We hung out 'till late and then I took the bus back to Kyoto station and got back on the bullet train, making my way home. I got back to iHouse and slept 'till the next day, when I had placement tests. I ended up getting into the 300 level classes, yay! Classes this semester are okay. I'm a little more used to the work load now than last semester, but I'm getting very tired of Japanese ... it's just so full on. I'm losing my motivation to study. My grades really sucked this semester, but I'm really hoping I'll do alright on my final exams. I'll have to do a bit of study before then but yeah.

In any case, shortly after semester started, we went to Ega Ueno, a Ninja village. We learned all about the 'path of the ninja' and got to see some real ninja weapons, and they fought a battle with them and it was epic! I got to throw Shurikens (throwing stars) and it was AWESOME! I wore my Naruto ninja head-protector and we got photos with the ninjas. I visited the gift shop, and they had ninja costumes!!! So I HAD to buy one. It ended up at half price, so I got it for $70. I've warn it quite a few times since I bought it. It's totally awesome.

Around the mid-April is when the Sakura trees started REALLY blossoming. The ones out the front of iHouse and along the road at NUFS were absolutely gorgeous, and I couldn't resist taking photos of them at every opportunity. After a while I started working on a little video, just a slide-show of all my sakura photos put together with a beautiful piece of music from Okami, my favourite PlayStation2 game. It's the most beautiful, educational and traditional game I've ever played and the ending theme, Reset, was my favourite piece of music so I used it with the video.

We were assigned groups for our Quarter 1 project this semester, and John, Elyse and I were assigned a little place called 徳川公園と美術館 (Tokugawa Garden and Art Gallery) that we had to visit, take lots of photos of and then talk about for 5 minutes or so at the end of the quarter. I loved the garden, it was so beautiful! Upon visiting it a second time with Emily and John, we came across this weird place we called "Oz Land" that really surprised us. It was totally epic, and there were statues all over the place, and as you walked down the street and looked at the statues in the right order they told the story of Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz". Awesome, right?

Shortly after that, I did 生け花 (Flower arranging) with NUFS and it was so much FUN. The flowers were only buds when we did them, but I took photos later on that next week and they'd bloomed beautifully.




And that's it for now, I'll update later when I have time about my next great adventure - my trip to Hikone with Joel! Write later! ~

Last Exams, Takayama and Lazing Around

Sorry it's been so long! I had some trouble with my laptop for a while.

So I finished last semester, and I'm happy with my results compared to the first few exams. Because we did a two-week thing after Christmas, we didn't get time to do an essay class or anything like that, it was just grammar and Kanji. I passed Kanji because the test was on the entire book, so the first 8 or 9 chapters I knew well, it was just last quarter's confusing chapters that threw me off. Grammar I did really well in, but I kind of expected that, because the content over that two weeks was relatively easy to grasp and remember. So I'm quite happy with that.

On the last day of the week, Siobhann and I went to Sakae and checked out the Pokémon Center and other places. I bought a Pokéball - a Great Ball, in fact. When Siobhann and I got back to iHouse, we hung out with Erica, Dani, Jess, Kri and Yuka and had a mini dance party. It was pretty random! After that, I didn't do much. My laptop cable broke, so for a week or so I was waiting for a new one, using my iPod Touch to check everything and speak on Skype. I'm so glad I have that thing, it's really come in handy when I needed it. Shortly after I got my laptop back, Anthony used it to book what we had yet to discover was the awesomest, most epic holiday ever. I haven't received my OS HELP yet, but Anthony said he wanted me to come so he'd lend me the money. I now owe him roughly $500, which I'll get back to him as soon as I can.

I celebrated Australia Day on Tuesday 26th of January with some TimTams. Yes, TimTams. I didn't know you could buy them over here in Japan, but I found some. Believe me when I say, I was really really happy. We tried to sort-of plan something, like get some reasonably Aussie food together as best we could and then having like a dance-party or something and play some good music, but that fell through because I didn't end up getting to Aoki to buy some steak or anything. Dad suggested that I paint the Australian Flag on my face, and I loved that idea! But I didn't have the paint to work with. I ended up going down to the Exciting Bookstore, because Lauren and Jazzy (who came with me) said that they were selling flags and I thought I'd go and see if they were selling the Australian flag, but they weren't. Instead, I came across these TimTams. I was very, very happy.

So after that, on the 7th of February, Anthony, Alonza, Tommy and I went to a place called 高山 (Takayama) in the Gifu prefecture.

We caught a bus from Proxy to Nagoya, where we went to McDonald's and waited for the next train. We got on the Meitetsu from there to 新鵜沼 (Shin-Unuma), then took the JR for almost 3 hours from Unuma to Takayama. Who knew that 3 hours away from Nagoya everything would be covered in snow? It was beautiful and the closer we got, the more snow there was until eventually, when we walked out of Takayama station, the sight before me could only be described as a chess board - a cluster of black buildings covered in snow.


The first thing we did when we got there was, being the children we are, threw snowballs at each other. We then stopped at a convenience store and picked up some food and went searching for a bank that could take Tommy's card, then we found our hotel and went straight to the onsens. Ahh, it was so relaxing. I thought about the first onsen I went to, back in September during Silver week with Joel, and I gotta say I liked this one better ... it was more relaxing. Shortly after that I set up the laptop in the room - Alonza and Tommy shared one room, Anthony and I shared the other - and found the LAN cable for the internet, although I didn't spend a lot of time on it other than to send a few e-mails and check Facebook.

As soon as we were all set up and we'd gone to the onsen, we went out to look for a place to eat and eventually after a lot of walking we arrived at a little bar. I didn't drink that night, I just had some (really delicious) chicken and then watched the other boys play darts at the back of the bar. We went back to the hotel at about midnight and slept until about 8, when we went down and got breakfast. I totally pigged out on croissants and orange juice, and FRUIT. I haven't had much fruit since I left Australia because it's expensive, so the fruit at the all-you-could-eat breakfast was really good. After that we went out walking around. We wandered all day, finding shops and shrines and just walking and taking photos. I bought a little watch, and a better pair of boots that didn't slip in the snow - and we wanted to buy some shoes for Tommy but none of them fit him, so we made a joke about it. You know what they say about people with big feet ... they can't buy shoes in Japan!

We went to the onsen, then got out and met back up and caught a bus to the old town, where the old straw and wood houses were on display to the public. There was a big lake, totally iced over and sprinkled with snow, surrounded by the houses. It snowed really heavily from shortly after we went in to the moment we left. It was really beautiful and I couldn't stop wishing that Nick was there with me. I've decided that when I come back to Japan, I'm going to go back to Takayama during the snow-time - and when Nick has enough money to come with me to Japan on holiday, we're definitely coming back to this place. It's just ... amazing.

We caught the last bus back to the station, and then went in search of a place to eat. We decided to eat at the bar again, because we tried a few places and didn't get in (one place said no foreigners). That night we played a drinking game called Ring of Fire. You get a drink of something that nobody playing likes (in this case, we chose a Vodka shot), and lay a deck of cards in a circle around the drink facing down, and then you'd go around the table picking up a card. If you pick an Ace, you had to share a personal secret with everyone. If you picked 2 - 8, you had to skull your drink for that many seconds. If you got a 9, you could choose at any time during the game to pull a pose. The last person to copy your pose has to down the rest of their drink. A 10 was a toilet card - you weren't allowed to leave the game unless you had one. If you got a Jack, you had to think of something, and then go around the table and name different types of that something (cheese or cocktails for example), and the person who couldn't come up with a name had to down their drink. A Queen allowed you to create a rule to add to the game (in the end, after all four queens, the new rules were you had to spin the drink around your head, do the chicken dance, and shout "PENIS 大好き" (I love penis) before you drink anything, and if you failed to remember then you had to add 1 second per forgotten rule to the drinking time). As for the Kings, the person who pulls the fourth King has to down the drink in the middle (in the end, it was Anthony). I drank a lot more than I normally would (I only participated because Anthony said he'd buy my drinks, to get me to play), but I didn't get a hangover and the next day I felt fine, so that was great. When we eventually got back to the hotel at like 2AM, we all crashed and slept in the next day.

We all woke up late the next day. We went back on the bus to the old town, but walked back down the hill to check out the giant shrine we could see from our window back at the hotel. It turned out that the moment we got there it was 4:30, and the shrine closed at 4:30. So we wandered on past it and then walked home - there was a sign to McDonald's on the way back but we didn't see the McDonald's, so we kept walking. We didn't catch the bus back, but it was a straight tun for half an hour so it was really pretty hard to get lost. We got back to the hotel and the boys went to the onsen, I didn't particularly feel like it so I hung back and checked Facebook and DeviantART.

We went to the Karaoke bar we found and spent almost 5 hours there, and paid about 2000 yen each. It was funny - the place charged per room per hour, not per person per hour - so if you took a whole group of people there, it'd be really really cheap for everyone. We sang all sorts of awesome songs, and Tommy sang a song by Nik Kershaw called The Riddle - a song I'd heard before but had no idea what it was, so when he sang it I was all happy and told him to tell me the name of it later so I could find it online. When he got back we watched the whole collection of DragonBall Z Abridged. Tommy left half way through 'cus he was tired, but Anthony watched the rest with me. He really enjoyed it.

We intended to get up early the next day but we all slept in anyway. We got up at a semi-decent hour - too late for breakfast, but with plenty of time to go to the big shrine. We ended up walking there again, which was fun but I was really spaced out, I'd been kinda spaced out for the last two days or so. We got there and walked through the gates, and I followed the stairs and what not all the way up to the top and walked out to see the shrine. I went up to the top of the shrine and inside was a great hall. I learned that the shrine was called the World Shrine, which was home to the God of Light who had created everything. It used symbols from all sorts of religions, including the Star of David, and it was made by a group who wanted to cleanse the world through the holy power of light, and start anew using technology and spirituality to help human-kind blossom. They spoke about things like developing organic agriculture and spiritual medicine. It was really very interesting. As soon as I walked into the great hall my breath was taken away, the place was so beautiful. I wasn't allowed to take photos though, unfortunately. I went in, sat down and prayed for ages ... I don't know how long I was in there but the boys stood up and left with me so I'm assuming I was boring them after a while. XD When we left, I didn't feel nearly as spaced out, and I felt really happy. I wish I could go back to that shrine now.

I paid good attention and followed the McDonald's signs on the way back to see if I'd missed something. It turns out we had to walk down a street, that's why we didn't find it the first time. We went down there, had McDonald's, then went to the Sega place next door and spend ages in there playing the arcades. When we walked out, it turned out that the side street the Sega place was on was the same street the Bowling place was on, so we just walked down that street until we found it and we went bowling. I tied with Tommy for first place in the first game, but in the second game he got two strikes in a row and beat me. I came third in the second game. We went back and watched a heap of Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged, which I enjoyed but I have to say that it wasn't as good as DragonBall Z Abridged. We made a joke about curious cats, but the way Anthony worded it was like "You know what they say about curious cats..." so I came back with "They can't buy shoes in Japan!" We laughed and that officially became the in-joke of the trip.

The next day we went to find this beef place that Anthony and Alonza had found on their walk-about earlier that day while I was upstairs. We went to the place and holy crap - they had cuts of beef for more than $50. I bought the $20 piece and I have to say, it was really beautiful. After that we went back to the Karaoke place and spent a few hours there, and we sang The Riddle again. It got really stuck in everyone's heads after that, and it became the trip theme song. Anthony made a joke, you know what they say about holes in the ground ... it was part of the lyrics of the song that he had in his head. We went back to the hotel and stayed up 'till a ridiculous hour of the morning, Tommy and I were poking and wrestling each other while Anthony read manga on my laptop, and eventually we asked why Tommy wasn't going to sleep and he told us he was waiting for some Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged, so we played one episode and then he left.

We slept for like ... two hours or so ... then went down to breakfast and then went upstairs to pack our bags. We left and got to the train station and bought our tickets home, then got on the train and I said goodbye to the snow and the ice and the bar and everything. I slept on the long train back, then we jumped a train and got back to Nagoya, went back to the same McDonald's we'd gone to on the first day of the trip, then caught the bus home ... and that was that!

So that's what's been happening with me lately. Sorry it took me so long to update the blog! I've been having too good of a time! I'll try to update more often.
Until next time!

Finals, Christmas, Senpai and Snow!

So it's been ages! First things first; I was basically really caught up with school work, and that's mostly the reason I haven't blogged ... the other reason being that when my SD card broke, I couldn't find my other one for like a month so I couldn't take any photos either. So there's a little bit, but not too much, to catch up on - none-the-less, it's going to be a long blog, so look out. Possibly a lot of edits too, if I remember things that I'd forgotten about before.

So. The most memorable moments of the past month or two have probably been classes, and Remembrance Day. I couldn't get both Rene and Pop out of my head at the time, and it was really putting weight on my shoulders. I cried a lot during that week, I couldn't help myself. It was the time I felt the most homesick, too. I could have really used Nick's arms around me, but it just wasn't going to happen.

Speaking of classes, I still haven't picked a topic for my study journal for USC, although I guess I'm still considering just doing anime/manga and its origins. I don't think I'll start studying 'till the 2 month break - there's literally no time between classes and homework to pick up another study topic. That's why I was hoping to be able to study something I'm already studying in my culture classes, but that turned out to be a failure, so ... I guess I just need to think harder now that I've got the time. Another big possibility was, using Hetalia as the key, investigating how Japan sees the rest of the world. That was a really interesting one that I'd love to see, it also involves a lot of background research that if I have the time to do, will be incredibly awesome. I'd love to learn more about the world, especially through the eyes of a country other than my own.

Language classes were incredibly stressful and uneventful - except for our project, but that wasn't that exciting either. I actually got rather frustrated with the project towards the end; being the only person with Photoshop, I was doing work for both my team AND the other team. I ended up volunteering to help Rosie with the front cover - she designed it, I drew it up - and was asked to help with the back cover by the other team. Doing the back cover was probably the most fun, because it was completely random ... and photoshopping their faces onto random things like a samurai and Santa Claus was pretty awesome. But on the final day, when we were putting everything together I had things set up, and nothing went to plan basically ... the teacher got impatient with us and Rosie wouldn't let me anywhere near her computer so I basically didn't have a lot of input. The teacher then decided to drop on us that the whole project, which I'd poured my heart and soul into compared to everything else during this whole semester, was only worth 15% of our marks, so after that I just put on the music and waited around to see if Rosie needed any help, and otherwise blocked out the world. It was quite disheartening and a very disappointing end to the project work, actually, after all that effort by all of us. After that, it was finals, which freaked me out a bit.

I didn't go on any more excursions after the Toyota Museum trip. I didn't have any time for them, because of the insane amount of study. I worked harder than last term, but I still failed my Kanji this term, which really sucks. It was really bloody confusing though, because they mixed up the chapters and what not ... there were so many times when I was so unsure of where we were up to. But I got average marks on everything else, including a 60.5% on my grammar (60% being the passing point). That of course doesn't really matter, just so long as I pass overall, it counts towards a pass on my record back home - they don't take into account what grade you actually got.

After the finals, it was time to realise that Christmas was coming, and soon! I was rather annoyed at myself for not being able to finish Hoshiko's Christmas present off before the 17th of December, being the day we gave our Secret Santa gifts to everyone and gave the Senpai and the people going home for Christmas their gifts early. I ended up getting that to her on Christmas day, which was great. The Christmas party was really awesome - we ended up opening most people's presents, instead of waiting for Christmas Day. There was lots of amazing food and so much joy in the air, it was really delightful after such a depressing and scary week of finals. There was lots of Christmas carols and gift-giving, and for some of us, it was the first real Christmas in a long time ... I'm incredibly glad that I could be a part of such a touching event, really. It was so fantastic.
I myself got two books from Andrew, one was a Fate/Stay Night manga book, the first episode. It's awesome. The other was a Kingdom Hearts book - but not ANY Kingdom Hearts book ... it was THE book, THE BOOK that has EVERYTHING about EVERY Kingdom Hearts series for every platform it'd been released on so far. The Ultimate Kingdom Hearts book. I thanked him so much for that, it is so amazing! The other gifts I got were a little candle and keychain from Erica, the candle has a little frog inside and has a beautiful little quote about friendship on the side. I love it so. The other things I got was an ice-cream Christmas tree decoration, a pair of chopsticks with Ponyo on them, a little globe with a star in it, a Pokémon calendar, and some other little things that made me really happy.

On the Saturday after the finals and gift-giving, it actually SNOWED! It started snowing at about 2am apparently, and I went outside at about 4am and played in the carpark across the street, kicking it around, picking it up and throwing it, and making a tiny 3-inch snowman with no features (unfortunately that's all I could do at the time). I looked up as the snow fell down on me lightly, and I really felt like I was in an anime; I was the girl with bright blue eyes and short brown hair dressed in a jumper and two pairs of baggy pants and gloves, looking up at the cloud-filled black sky, my eyes sparkling with awe as though I were looking directly up at God himself. I'd heard many things about the snow - Google Weather was determined to tell me that it would snow on Saturday, even though it was put back from Friday and I was feeling as though Google was going to let me down. People were saying, out aloud and all over Facebook, that it NEVER snows in Nagoya, only very very rarely and it wasn't cold enough to snow this year and it was definitely not going to happen. I hadn't really got my hopes up until about 4am, when I decided to look out my bedroom window and glance upon the black-and-white wonderland that lay just outside the door. It snowed all the way through 'till about 10am, when it stopped, and by 11am, it'd all melted away as though it'd never happened. This taste of the white fluffy ice left me wanting more, and I really can't wait until I get my hands on that OS HELP loan - I'll be booking the Shinkansen to Hokkaido as soon as I do. Unfortunately I need to get my hands on my Official Transcript before I can do that, so I have to do that soon - assuming all goes well, I'll have the money by mid-February at the latest.

After that, most of the Senpai, and the people who were only here for a semester, left on Monday and Tuesday. There was a party at the pub down the road, 3000 yen for 飲み放題 (all you can drink). It was alright, I wasn't really in the mood for a party - even less so for one so expensive - but Rosie really wanted me to go, and I knew I'd miss her terribly once she left (which I now do), so I went, and while it wasn't the most exciting party for me, I don't regret it. Sunday night and Monday morning was spent with Rosie in her room, finding karaoke versions of songs for her to sing to - it was a Christmas present for her best friend, Jun, who really loved her voice, so she decided to see if she could record herself singing and give that to him on a CD for Christmas.
Very early Monday morning, we basically picked out songs, crossed some off a list, and found karaoke music on YouTube, then Rosie fell asleep and I woke her up at 7am. After that, she was frantically cleaning her room until about 10 and then we got to work trying desperately to record her singing before she had to leave at 11. We ended up JUST getting it done on time, but it wasn't fast enough to get them burned onto a CD so I ended up sitting in her room 'till about 4pm working on Adobe Soundbooth, getting the singing to fit with the music. It was great fun, very tedious but fun, and I sent her the songs via Skype. She didn't like them much though, and I understood that because we were fairly rushed trying to get it done - understandably. So she said she'd come back to iHouse the following Saturday and we'd re-record it.

Shortly after that, I received a package from deviantART containing the things I'd ordered - which was rather odd because, due to the demand for Christmas gifts, I wasn't expecting it 'till after Christmas - but of course I didn't care! I was just happy I'd received it. Nanny gave me $300 for Christmas, so I got myself a hoodie, a hat, some emoticon stress-balls, a skin for my Nintendo DS and an artist's bag, and these were accompanied by a free dA sticker. Yay! Now my collection is almost complete - I bought the dA Birthday shirt and the Fella plushie before I left, and there's just a few more shirts I want, and then that's it. I also bought a good friend of mine a subscription - which basically meant that, because of the current Christmas 2 for 1 deal, my own subscription got bumped up 3 months as well. Yay!

After that, it was Christmas! I'd pretty much retreated to my room - my den - and lived in there for the few days leading up to Christmas Day, only coming out to cook and go shopping. On Christmas Day, I got up early-ish and waited for Mum to Skype me, and I spent a little while "virtually" participating in our traditional Christmas Lunch back at home. It was great to see so many familiar faces - including Chloe, Nanny, Terry and Cheryl... I was very happy to see everybody and to know that even though I wasn't there, they were still enjoying themselves very much. I still wished they'd come to Japan to celebrate with me, that would have been so great! It would have been a pitty it wasn't a White Christmas, though. But that's alright. Nan and I are organising her trip to Nagoya mid-March, and I'm hoping to follow her to Kyoto before I have to go back to Nagoya for uni. How awesome will that be? I can't wait - Joel and I will have to do Karaoke that night. I'm craving it now. After a quick visit downstairs where the remainders of the presents were being given out to the few people still here in iHouse, I got off Skype and took off to the bus stop to meet Joel at Nagoya Station.

Joel arrived shortly after I left and missed the bus and had to wait half an hour for the next one, being a holiday and all. Eventually I got to Nagoya Station, and met him just outside the McDonald's (where I had breakfast). We then plotted our next move - we went to Kanayama, two stops down on the Meitetsu line (not the subway) from Nagoya. We dropped his luggage at the hostel there, and I met this random Australian guy and we had a totally random discussion about Japan. It was great. After that, we went back to Sakae on the subway line. I showed him the Pokémon Center, and bought two of the Eevee-lution plushies - Glaceon and Umbreon - before we moved on to the roof of Oasis 21 to take photos and what not. We got down at about 6:15pm, and walked down the road to the SkyBoat. It was so fun! I love that thing, you get such a good view of Sakae. When we got off, we went down the road to the Karaoke bar, checking out the prices - it SAID 108 yen per hour and a half, but we found out later that it was the MEMBER'S price - and ended up paying 6,060 for 3 hours. Totally sucked! We were really annoyed after that but it didn't matter. As the subway lines were closed up after we got out, we wandered around for a really late dinner somewhere, and ended up at a 24 hour Denny's - which became the base for a lot of our in-jokes after that. We spent more than five hours there - from 11pm to about 4am - during which time we ordered only 2000 yen or so worth of food, and drank incredible amounts of water - we both needed to go to the toilet several times during that session it was hilarious! Eventually it got to ... "Guess what ..." "... you need to pee again?" "Yes. LOL"

After we eventually left Denny's, laughing and wondering what the waitresses thought about us having spent pretty much the entire night there, we went to Sakae station to see if the trains were open yet - which they weren't. It was raining softly and was nice and cool. We waited around a while to see what time Oasis 21 opened - we discovered later it opens at 7am. We wandered around Central Park for a little while, before the trains started at around 5:30am, when we got an all day pass and went back to Joel's hostel for a little while (where I met another random dude and had a totally deep and meaningful discussion with him), then got on the Higashiyama line back to Hongo and caught the next bus back to iHouse where we crashed all morning until Rosie arrived.

We tried desperately to find a quiet place to record Rosie singing, seeing as technically she was only a visitor and wasn't allowed upstairs or in the library or laundry rooms, so we ended up outside the bathrooms at the far end of the iHouse. Lea came up to us and complained about her being very loud and singing the same songs over and over - she did this in the middle of a recording. Luckily enough it was during a break in the song and I could cut it out. I apologised to her later for what we were doing. I fixed up the songs that we had, but Rosie wanted to put some different music to one of the songs, so I had to fix that one up after we left. Joel and I went to Okonomiyaki for dinner - delicious stuff. We then went our separate ways - I walked him back to the bus stop and took him to Sakae Station, then we separated, both exhausted from turning two days into one really long one, and I fell asleep at about ... I think it was  2am when I eventually fell asleep.

We got up in the morning and met at Sakae Station, where we hung about for a little while before heading to Nagoya Castle. I'd been here before and it was so beautiful, and Joel was really glad he came. We spent a few hours there, the scenery and the grounds were amazing - I saw some of the gardens and stuff that I couldn't see last time because we were on tour as a group and kinda had to stick together.

We then we went to Nagoya and checked out Bic Camera, where we sat around for HOURS and played with the lego blocks ... we got really sick of this ad that came on, in English with Japanese subtitles, where this guy named Jamie spoke about a little thing called a Block Separator for a while, claiming that he wasn't being commissioned for the ad. Eventually it came on again and we could almost repeat what he was saying. "And his friend, ANOTHER block separator ..." So retarded! Straight after that, we went to the other side of Nagoya Station to see the illuminations on the front. They were absolutely spectacular - and unfortunately my camera died at that point so I wasn't able to take as many photos as I so desperately wanted to.

After that, we went on the Sakura-Dori (red) line from Nagoya (which is where the red and yellow meet, on the left hand side) across to the Meijo (purple) line, and then went to Ozone (大曽根, the station to the right of the pink line at the top-middle）, just because it was called Ozone (even though it's technically pronounced Oo-zo-neh), and found a neat as little ramen shop where we had the awesomest ramen ever. Afterward, we went back to the subway where we wanted to kill time for a while before heading to Karaoke again. From about 9pm onward, we got on the Meijo line and went around the whole loop around and back to Ozone, then further down to a few stops past Sakae where we got on another line and went across to where it met the Sakura-dori line ... took it back and did a loop ... basically I figured out that we could go across ALL the subway lines INSIDE the Meijo line loop, without going over the same track twice, so we did it! We didn't make the whole thing because it took us little over an hour and we needed to get back to Sakae before the trains stopped running, but I swear I'll complete that circuit, whether or not Joel is there to do it with me!

We then went back to Sakae and found ourselves at Denny's AGAIN ... and I ordered the lasagne and it tasted great! We then headed out at 11pm towards the Karaoke place, rather put off by the last bill and searching for a place that did free time (from about 11 or 12 through to about 5 or 6) reasonably cheaply. We ended up finding a place not too far from the main road where we asked about membership price and what not - turns out it's only 200 yen to sign up, and more importantly - free time went from 11pm - 6am, the longest we'd found that night, and it ended up at only 1900 or so for two people. It was fantastic! We sang awesome stuff like Utada Hikaru and the Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy songs, and we sang Dancing Queen! We totally ripped our voice-boxes apart on that one ... and I said "Fail!" into the microphone with this low growl because my voice was dying, and we laughed so hard! We also revisited the past a little by singing the Evangelion theme song ... yeah, we had a great time that night.

After that, we meandered back through the streets to Sakae Station, bought yet another all-day pass and got on the subway to the stop south of Sakae (the one on the map where the purple meets the yellow, on the left hand side - two stops away on the yellow from Nagoya), where we went to the department store and found Sweets Paradise! Basically 1000 yen-ish for an hour and 10 minutes of ALL YOU CAN EAT DESERTS ... So good! It tasted amazing! They even had pasta and curry rice (which I became quickly addicted to). It tasted really good. We went to the music shop where Joel picked up some Final Fantasy piano music books! He sat down at one of the pianos on display and started playing, we were there for ages. I saw this awesome BLUE guitar that I REALLY want, so much! When I get home though, I'm going to save up and buy a piano - they were only a couple of hundred here, they'll probably be similar back home - and Joel is going to be my piano teacher. Yippie! He said it was mostly self taught, so it shouldn't be too hard, hopefully.

After that, we went back to Kanayama, picked up Joel's things and went to Nagoya Station, where we parted ways ... I was sad to see him go because it'd been so much fun - we'd turned four days into two massive long ones, absolutely packed to the brim with fun.

After he went home, I chilled out in my room, totally exhausted but very satisfied. I ate my cheesy-pasta that I'd frozen from Thursday night, it tasted great and I didn't feel sick at all so I assume it was fine. Since then I haven't left my den, much like the few days leading up to Christmas, except for the last several hours, which I spent sitting in the kitchen eating chicken-nuggets, having fun with my latest obsessions - Formspring and Omegle - and typing this bloody long blog post. I started writing at about 2am, it's now 7:48. Yay!

At least you're all up to date now. I'll try not to leave it too long next time.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Excursions, Exams, Halloween and More

So it's been a while.
I'm only going to briefly go over what's happened in the time since I last updated.

Firstly, I went to a really nice place called Asuke. It was for our project, we had to write an in-class essay about the place. We got there and we got to do activities. I did paper making - it was so fun! Basically, you poured this goo into a sieve-type thing, and it filtered out the water and left the goo there ... and then you did it again... and then again, and then you place a little red maple leaf on top, then pour the rest of the goo in there and let it filter, and then you open the sieve and take the bamboo mat (filter) out with the goo on the top, and you put it face down on a towel and remove the filter and wrap it up (to dry it). It eventually flattens out and they dry it on a heater-type thing, and you peel it off and ta-daa! It's done! It's really awesome. So now I have two beautiful little pieces of paper, one with a little red maple leaf in it. I don't think I'll write on them, I think I'm going to preserve them... the one with the maple leaf in it especially.

I took this really awesome photo of a dragonfly too, it was totally freaking awesome. I love my camera so much! I could be walking along and take a random photo and it'd come out perfectly clear, it's great. It took me ages to get this particular photo right, though. I had to stand a metre back and zoom in on it, then use the manual focus. lol. He sat nice and still patiently while I did it, though. So happy!

Secondly, I've been sucked into Hetalia. I have been sucked into it so hard, it's unbelievable. It's my new love XDDD I love it! I've even written a fan-fiction about it already. Anyone who hasn't seen it ... just has to see it. It's just ... awesome. It's like, given me a completely different view on the world. I never wanted to learn German or Italian before ... now they're the next on my list of things to learn! I might even be getting into Italian music! I'm wondering whether I want to do Italian or German while I'm still learning Japanese ... or whether I want to do it while I'm still at uni ... I kinda want to finish uni so that I can do something different, like a trade. But I have a feeling that if I do something at TAFE, I'll want to get straight into the business so that I don't have to re-look for a job somewhere once I finish. So perhaps ... I'll do something useful at TAFE and then find somewhere to work part time and do Italian or German at university...? I'm not sure, but I'll figure it out. Life is suspended for me for the next 8 months or so while I focus on learning Japanese and becoming one (XD) with the Japanese culture and geography, so I've got time to think about what I want to do afterward.

Halloween. Wow, I've never had a real Halloween before, but it was awesome. I didn't go trick-or-treating, but the party was pretty awesome. I even had a drink! I'm such a naughty girl, drinking illegally... tsk tsk. The legal limit here is 20, so when I turn 20 the month before I get back to Australia, I'ma throwing a massive-ass party, and I'm gonna get drunk. It's going to be the 18th party that I never had, hahaha! So excited about it. Anyway, the Halloween parties were pretty awesome. I went to one that a friend of Hoshiko's was hosting, and the food was amazing, I had heaps of fun too. Jasmine dressed up as Sora from Kingdom Hearts! Man! I wish Australia had more cosplay stuff, but we're so boring in that department ... it's so crap. We also had a huge massive party at iHouse, and that was the awesomest one. I actually drank a little bit at that party.

After that awesomeness came mid-terms. I was a bit worried about them, not enough to actively stay up and study ... but just enough. I ended up doing them and getting them over with ... it was great, the rest of the day was free after the exams, and Tuesday was a day off - it was a holiday for the moon, it was a full moon that night. Some weird things happened around that time, and Erica told me a pretty strange story... and it's funny 'cus I heard something similar just today about it from Joel all the way over beyond Kyoto, so ... yeah it's a bit weird. Anyways, I got my results back for those exams the next week.

That weekend, I got really sick. Well - not really sick - I caught a cold and it hit me really hard because I haven't had a cold in like ... years. It affected me from Friday night right through to Monday. Luckily for me, Caylee gave me some cold/flu tablets and they made me feel better. I was really burning up on Friday night, it was the worst night for it. I spent all weekend recovering from it, but by Monday I was feeling a lot better, especially after Erica bought me some Vitamin C tablets on Saturday night I started feeling pretty good. I'll pay her back the $5 for the tablets on Tuesday when I get paid and I can afford to pay her back without going hungry, hahaha. Anyway, now that I'm well again, I'm feeling a lot better. We put up a Christmas Tree on Friday night, I was up at about 3AM talking to Jimmy, the awesome Belgian who moved in just down the hall from me, because I couldn't sleep 'cus I'd slept all afternoon and earlier that evening. He helped put up the tree and the decorations, that was pretty awesome. Everyone came home on Saturday evening and was like, 'omg hey there's a tree there! Sweet!'

Then during the next week was when we got our feedback for our exams back, and I barely passed ... but so did mostly everyone else, in fact I did better than some people, so yeah, I'm not too worried. I think the teachers expected this of us ... because everybody did pitifully. I mean, I think a pass is 60%, but I think I only just scraped that. I did fine on my essay exam, which is odd because I wrote really simple and pathetic sentences and barely incorporated the grammar that we'd been learning all quarter, but I still did pretty good considering, so ... yeah they don't seem to have much expectations from us there. Kanji ... I think I passed this quarter ... I got more than 60% on my grammar exam so I definitely passed that. Overall I think I'm happy. I'm just bleh about my homework and stuff, I messed around quite a bit this semester. I mean ... it was just the getting into the study habits kinda thing ... lots of late nights and mid afternoon naps, that's my new routine ... four hour sleeping sessions twice a day. Not really that healthy, but ... I'm adjusting to it, my body seems to be settling down now too.
We got our pottery back too! They look totally awesome! I've been using my cup and bowl a lot since I got it back all black and nice and stuff ... I'm so proud of my work! lol!

Then Friday I went on an excursion to the Toyota Automobile Museum, and it was pretty awesome ... I took some good photos of shiny cars, and some really awesome ones of Jessica and Mike 'riding' the sports cars, hahaha! It was pretty awesome. Not all that exciting, but I had more fun talking with people and taking funny photos. My camera spacked out about my memory card, though, which really sucks because I only bought it before I left ... my camera claims that my memory card is 'locked', which is really odd because it's not. I don't know, it might be the camera, it might be the card ... I have my old memory card which I'll put in my camera for now but it's only 2GB and my new one is 4GB, so I will only be able to take half as many photos. Which is okay because I usually put my photos on my computer before I fill up the card, but still, I like knowing I have more space. It's a security thing I think, haha. At any rate, I couldn't take any more photos that day, which was kinda sad, but that's okay because I took 160+ photos anyway, haha.

Anyway, that's everything that I can think of so far, in a brief explanation. I took a whole heap of photos, it was great. Please visit my Photostream on Flickr and check out my photos, they're pretty awesome.
And that's it from me for today! Until next time!