I'm at school. It was a half day and all the teachers went to one of my other schools to observe classes, but there's no English class for me to observe (because, um, I teach it). So I am here, in the personconshitsu, and it's very quiet.

I got a haircut. It's cute but I was having some sort of caffeine overdose at the time so I was somewhat distracted. (Seriously, you give up pop on weekdays and THIS is what happens?)
Another first in Japan.

More first times in this country: seeing a movie (Star Trek), putting money on my Suica Card (I accidentally did it correctly), buying a Marc Jacobs wallet, going bowling.

I started a new blog, so I could write more. And then I didn't write anything on it, which is why you still don't know about it. I guess I'm not as motivated as I thought. (I still would like to though.) (Famous last words.)

I also bought a new Charles Dickens book from Kinokuniya in Shinjuku: Great Expectations. I am slowly but surely working my way through all of his novels. I have Barnaby Rudge left to read, and I never actually read all of David Copperfield, but apart from that I've read pretty much all his major works. His writing is also generous when it comes to re-reading which is nice when it's a bit harder to get one's hands on English books.

Well we'll see if this comes through on anyone's friendslist. I don't blame you if you miss it, seeing the huge blue moon looming above.

Of course I forget to post until the last day I'm here.

We went through several bouts of indecision but in the end we chose to go to Salzburg, Austria. Other than that I've spent the whole time in München. Here are some things I have done:

- Drank Mountain Dew and eaten lots of turkey (this is exciting if you live in Japan)
- Gone to the State Zoo
- Taken seven polaroid pictures and over 550 digital ones
- Wandered around Auel Dulten outdoor market buying old postcards
- Had dogs interrupt our picnic in the English Gardens several times
- Blended in eating lunch with the students of Ludwig Maximilian University
- Looked out over Odeonplatz from the Royal Residence
- Bought books from English language bookstores
- Eaten kiwi ice cream and drank kiwi juice
- Attended the school Bavarian Night complete with two awkward teenagers in traditional garb dancing for us
- Breakfasted at the Pension Jahn in Salzburg
- Explored two graveyards, once at night with somebody coming around the dark corner crunching on the gravel and then we ran away
- Eaten at the OLDEST RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD
- Attended Catholic Mass for the first time?
- Sat through a rain shower in a chapel by the Salzburg fortress
- Ordered ice cream in German
- Rode on a boat on the Köningssee Lake which is surrounded on all sides by the Alps and is in sight of one of Hitler's houses

There's more but those are the ones that sound the best in bullet-point form. I leave to go home (home meaning Japan, I keep reminded myself) tomorrow but I don't arrive until Wednesday afternoon. And it will be interesting to see, coming through the airport in Narita, if they will be checking me for swine flu or anything. Ah well. Going back to work on THURSDAY will not be terribly fun but I will spend my time on the plane solidifying my lesson plans. And after this trip I don't think I'll be doing any more flights until Christmas again. I really miss everybody though, I have thought about you all (meaning those of you who I know read this, Megan, Al, Jen, Michelle) and how much fun it would be to have you here.

It's been really great and hopefully my stuff won't be too heavy. I decided to bring only two bags both as carry-ons which on the one hand is good to not worry about my luggage making my connection and all that having it in my hands the whole time, but on the other hand is a bit more to lug around the airport. I only bought one magazine, i-D, instead of two. I was going to buy Russian Vogue but I just couldn't justify it. Ah foreign languages. Soon I'll be away from the one I don't understand and back to the one I kind of but often still don't understand. Still, I'm very happy and this has been an awesome trip.

Okay, I am going to visit my cousin in Munich, Germany tomorrow. I seem to have caught a spring cold in the last two days so this is going to be a... comfortable plane ride. Yes. Comfortable. Just keep repeating. Anyway I seem to remember to post only when I'm on trips, so we'll see if I update from there. If not, you will for sure see photos on Facebook if not here. With my new camera!

New camera: A Canon Ixy. It's cute and blue and totally amazing compared to my old HP. And I can take so many pictures! Who could ever need so many pictures? (Will totally try my best to use them all, haha.)

The new school year has been going well, btw. We have textbooks for my 5nen and 6nen now and so far it's been a great help! I feel somewhat more confident in teaching at this point (I still had a mini-meltdown two weeks ago though, oops). I have people I can sort of call friends here, and recently have been doing things with them weekly which is good (instead of once or twice a month). So of course now I leave the country...

Tangent: when I come back I am TOTALLY going to Ikea. I want some carpeting and/or a bookcase.

Watching: The Quiz Show (ZAH QUIZ SHO~), Atashinchi no Danshi (Osa U R MAI LOVAH), Smile (with MatsuJun), and when I can catch it, Bleach and the new Fullmetal Alchemist.

Reading: Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens. DORK = ME.

Listening to: Beautiful, perfect sad love songs on the new Camera Obscura album.

Eating: Haagen-Daz Maple Cookie ice cream. So very very good.

Well. This was a worthwhile post. ANYWAY.

meme from kazenokaitou.

Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

[England]: I don't know at what time my family's anglophila began but it's certainly a weird post-colonial thing having to do with fanciness and Lord Peter Whimsey and Ricky Gervais. Or something.
As for myself, I first visited England in 2005 with my father. It was my first time going to Europe and I loved every second of it. To be honest, that may have been the beginning of my determination to live in a city (such as London) that has lasted through the present, at least. And then, in 2006, I went with Wheaton College on their summer semester to London and Oxford (among other wonderful places) and, getting more time to explore on my own, I fell more in love with it. Don't get me wrong, I had the same feelings going back to Europe a third time in 2008 but England is kind of the motherland.
Obviously my goal is to get back there. I don't know if it'll work out the same, better, or worse than living in Japan, but England is next on my list.

[Fruits Basket]: Probably my favorite manga ever. The anime was beautiful as well, AND it was a rare case where an anime ending and a manga ending are completely different but equally satisfying (for me). I own all 23 volumes in Japanese and am currently buying The Most Boring Manga Ever, Hoshi ga Utau, simply because it's by Takaya Natsuki. Despite the bizarre gallery of characters and original wackiness of premise (which receded further and further into the background as it went on - there are volumes and volumes where nobody transforms at all and it's just relationship-focused) I could fully believe in it. I can believe in the friendship of the Mabudachi Trio, I can believe that Yuki who seems so much to have it all together from the outside does learn how to be amazingly normal, I can believe Akito's panic each time the curse is broken, I can believe Kimi and Kakeru are having more fun than any of us.
(I think the only other series I thought this deeply about was Utena.)

[Kanon]: Auugh. Okay, look, I am human, okay? I already have my true love of Code Geass who is RIVALZ. ::sad bee noise:: Which doesn't mean I can't appreciate the charms of the rest of the cast. Towards the beginning of the second season (oh, the most cracked out season perhaps of anything ever to run on crack) there was some new character art floating around and I was like "OH HAY WHO'S THIS DUDE WITH A JAUNTY HAT?". A jaunty hat! He has hair the color of chocolate milk! And then one of the first times we hear him speak... he implies that he is, in fact, the boy toy of one Mr. Schneizel-nii-sama. What's not to love? Okay fine it's kind of weird. Whatever. I was sure he would bite the dust but somehow he survived, so now I just have to find him and see if he likes girls at all. (<- ignoring at least two relevant realities)

[fashion]: Well this isn't broad at all. Haha. Yes, I like fashion. This is a relatively newer thing in my life (dating to roughly 2005 by my estimation). I understand the drawbacks, by the way, and it's an interest that does not always love one back. The exclusivity, the expensiveness, the inflated sense of self-importance. However, there is no end to the creativity and the stories you can tell with fashion, and moreover, it is one of the most optimistic worlds there is. I think that's fantastic.

[Flava of Love]: Jen... wrrrry? Alright, if you get right down to it you'd have to throw in a whole pile of trashy Vh1 televsion programs. I cannot apologize because there is nothing, NOTHING better for avoiding homework while in college. While I go cry under some blankets at the realization that I can still recall many contestants' names, I also admit I totally miss those days. You just can't dismiss insanity when it's so entertaining.

And here I swore to take more pictures and put them up, and now here we are and I got nothin'. Soon~

I'm going to elaborate a bit:

I've been in Japan for six months, so if I stay for two years total I am one-quarter done.

To be fastidiously honest, I would be content to do one year. Teaching elementary school is not my calling and subsisting out in the rural rice fields of Chiba prefecture is not where I want to be living out my mid-twenties. I want to live in a city and have access to things and etc, you get the point.

For that purpose, and apparently a desire to embarrass myself every time I have to say it out loud, I am planning to apply to the LCF (London College of Fashion), for an MA in Fashion Journalism.
Oh it sounds nerdy to me too, but when you've got a dream you've got a dream.

Said school would really be the ultimate two birds for one stone, because I'd get to live in London AND I would get some possible training for a job I would really really like to have someday (with the interesting side benefit of being in town for the 2012 Olympics).

But that's assuming I can get in.

However, that is word for word what I used to say about the JET Program. And here I am.

In any case, though, to apply for school again there are suddenly the facts of deadlines and tuition once more. So, as you can probably put together yourself, what this means is:
I stay in Japan, practicing for being an LCF student, until my contract for the second year runs out in August of 2010.
I hold tight to my money (apart from what's already going home every two or three months) and save for tuition. So far so good on that count.
I'll have to write to a Calvin prof for a recommendation, I'm afraid. I might ask someone here for the other one but I feel this prof (in case you're curious, it's Jennifer Holberg) at least will remember me (since I did my independent study with her) and can offer up more testimony about my writing skills than the Japanese professors could (otherwise I might ask them, haha). But I will apply for the Fall of 2010, which seems to start in October maybe? Which would leave me most of August and September to get back to America and prepare to move overseas. Again.

Who knows if I'll maintain this plan. A year and a half ago I was barely thinking seriously about JET and Japan. There's just no telling. And if this works out, I'll be going to London at the very end of my 24th year. Yikes, how does this happen? Time moves fast.

Enough of me. Have a few more pictures.









(London photos are from random internet; drawing is from Garance Doré.)

For general information: I've decided to stay in Japan for one more year. And then I'm going to try applying to grad school (or at least that's the current plan).

In celebration, here are some of my favorite recent pictures from The Sartorialist:









I want to write a story about each and every single person in his photos.

A shame I fail at writing. Kind of makes my choice to pursue writing somewhat moronic, eh?

Hello everybody~ It's December. I love December, for many reasons not least of which is now I will allow myself to read Doctor Zhivago (because December = snow = Russia). In honor of the month, I am doing this meme:

SIX THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY

( clicky-click )

What goes around comes around:

1. Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love of at some time in your life.
2. Have your f-list guess your favorite character from each item.

1. Sailor Moon
2. Ronin Warriors
3. Gakuen Alice
4. Kyo Kara Maou
5. X (manga)
6. Kiddy Grade
7. Shojo Kakumei Utena
8. Paradise Kiss (manga)
9. Scrapped Princess
10. Full Moon o Sagashite
11. Gankutsuou
12. Magic User's Club
13. Zettai Kareshi (manga)
14. Clamp Campus Detectives
15. Ultra Maniac
16. xxxHolic
17. Code Geass
18. Fruits Basket
19. Soul Eater
20. The Venture Brothers (American tv show)

Wow. I've now realized how obvious I am about who I love. I didn't even bother with Rurouni Kenshin, you'll note.

Also of note: Gundam Wing is NOT listed because I got deeply obsessed with each and every one of them (except for Wufei), so I couldn't even give a fair answer.

Prepare for capslock. Because there will be a lot.

AND IT WILL ALL BE ABOUT GUNDAM OO.

( SETSUNA EFF YOU SEIEI )

I've been marathoning a series for three weekends or so (Soul Eater, Mujin Wakusei Survive, now this). NERD ALERT!

We'll see if I can get anyone to read this.

It's a pretty lame enough journal as it is, so it's even worse that now I must confess that I have already been living in Japan for two months and just never posted. To be fair, I only got personal internet about a week ago, but it's not like I never got online.

I'm not sure I can talk about all of this properly yet; being actually here in Japan (in Kujukuri-machi, Chiba-ken in Honshuu to be precise) is such a big experience that I don't feel like I have enough perspective to say anything about what it's like yet.

What I can say:
I love Japanese television because it is absolutely insane, in a number of differing ways.
Having my very own apartment is pretty awesome. I wish I had a pet or something for company but since I tend to be the independent type and protective of having alone time, so far living alone is something that feels good to me.
Traveling by bicycle, bus, and train is moderately convenient. At least it helps me get exercise.
Teaching elementary school children is exhausting. And occasionally frustrating. It's like giving an oral presentation (one of my top fears) in front of small kids (another fear) five, six times a day five days a week.
On the other hand, my ability to communicate in Japanese is probably already stronger. I can only imagine living here a whole year is going to finally make my Japanese skills not suck.
I LOVE ARASHI. (And I made Megan love them too!)
I also love Tokyo now. Harajuku is famous for a reason because the percentage of hot, awesome, stylish people is the highest I've ever seen (even more than Amsterdam, London, or Paris).

Also, today is my birthday. I am feeling some feelings at the moment... Y'know. Just various feelings and emotions and etc.

And lastly, living here is not good for my long-controlled otaku side, because having new anime on tv and manga in the bookstores for cheap and being able to go into Akihabara and buy stuff is bringing that particular iceburg's lower half to light. CODE GEASS IS OVER - SAD. SOUL EATER = PURE AWESOMENESS.

OH BUT WAIT~ for my birthday Meg-chan gave me a DS Lite, and then in Tokyo yesterday I bought the cute new Code Geass game. LORD HELP US ALL.

I'm now a graduate! Time to lie around the house doing nothing, apparently. The next two months are going to be very, very strange, since it's too soon right now to get all ready for Japan but I have to keep reminding myself that everything I'm used to will change once I move overseas. Frankly, this feeling of "I'm terrified to the point of turning into jelly but maybe I need to grow up" has become a familiar one recently with the traveling alone in foreign cities but it will take some time to apply to the prospect of a year (or more) abroad.

To the important stuff - some favorite screencaps from Code Geass R2, or what Meg-chan brilliantly dubbed, "Lulu: the series".
( Roro row your boat )

I passed the interview level of the JET Program. This means I will be placed somewhere in Japan starting in August to be an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). And... yeah. ::shuffles feet:: A real job, overseas. It's like I'm a grown-up! Oh so exciting.

But much more importantly, after like a whole year Code Geass has returned! And despite the over-exposure of Lulu in every print publication that Sunrise can slip money too (I have no idea what I'm talking about) my love for that crazy kid grows. BUT NOT RORO. NEVER RORO. FIRST OF ALL, HIS NAME IS RORO. ALSO, I TRULY HOPE HE ENDS UP BEING A FREAK LIKE MASAO FROM MARS. BANZAI.

It makes me miss CLAMP too, it's been so long since I read much of their manga. Except for xxxHolic, I guess. (Speaking of Jun Fukuyama!) I just love how this series is like: mecha, fabulously unpractical uniforms, student councils, chess, magic crap, terrorism, Arthur the cat, blind cripples, really pretty skinny boys, and crazy scientists.

Happy it's back? Oh yeah.

Icon meme! Tagged by ack_attack!

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee. Whoo!

( ack's chosen five )

Paris is beautiful. You always kind of think it's a mass hallucination or something (what, don't you?) but it's Paris for a reason. I don't know if I'd ever want to live here but I need to come back. Four days was not long enough. And I got to see old Paris, the usual museums and monuments that are so pretty they border on completely ridiculous, and new Paris, if you will, including where the Osbrinks, my relatives, live in Aulnay-sous-Bois. You know. Where the huge race riots broke out two years ago? Yeah. But they're Parisians too. It's all weird, even more so than London. I'm glad I got to see both sides.
I have seen many many many things but too many to list at the moment since I need to go upstairs and pack (for the last time, hallelujah). I will be happy to get home again, at least, but this whole trip has been the most amazing thing to happen to me in a long time. Even if the Paris Metro occasionally pwns me.

In Cologne (Koln) now. Germany is weird, you guys. We arrived on a super luxe train, went grocery shopping, and saw people in costume (mostly CLOWNS) everywhere, literally everywhere. We believe this is some sort of Carnival but what the hell. But the cathedral is gorgeous and huge and HUUUUUUUUUUGE. All the emo-punk-goth kids hang out at the train station, including one girl full-on dressed as Digi Charat. At least this backpackers hostel has free internet though only one computer that works.
Hope to communicate again soon. I have one more week until I fly home from Paris.

I have to just say that like a good third of Dutch boys are mind-bogglingly attractive. It's almost really weird. And the other two-thirds are more like skeezy Euro guys.
Now I'm in Den Haag, after a homestay in Amersfoort with a nice finance manager named Hannie. We have been getting such good food, I can't even tell you. Oh, and also, don't get alarmed, but I have had more alcohol on this trip than I have my whole life. Good times. Everybody's so nice (well, not so much this neighborhood but we're on the side more aptly described as "sketch").
They're playing the most hilarious loud trancey-dance-pop in this internet cafe. I love it. Also what I love: sinaasappel juice.

Helloooooooo from Amsterdam!

How did I never think this city was so fantastic? Rather unprepossessing by the airport but the place itself is fabulous. I am both filled with Dutch Golden Age nostalgia and consumerism because I want to spend hundreds of dollars but as yet have only bought postcards. There's this drink, called Fristi, that is apparently raspberry soda and I must try it.

This is my first time in a country where I can't even read the language but English is kind of like how it is in Japan where you see it all the time (and almost everyone speaks it!).
Must go because this hostel computer is expensive as crap.
But hope to update again soon!

Hey hey hey.
I'm now 22. Back at school.
Not going to England. But I'm going to the Netherlands and Belgium. And then, if I'm accepted, to Japan after graduation.

I'm not quite up to jogging every single day, but five days of seven's not bad, right? (Certainly the most I've exercised in my life, ha ha.)

Don't know that I have too much to add right now. 'Cause I don't, y'know, actually do anything. Look at magazines, I guess. Read websites. Wait for the second season of Code Geass. Eat lots of raisins. Scour eBay for Pan Am handbags. Zip around on my newly-functional old bike (made in Belgium!). Go to class and my unfortunate tendency to space out. Sit around and watch the new tv season, which is quite good, I think, though I'm easily satisfied early in the year. Attempt clubs that haven't quite worked out, weirdly enough, because the meetings keep not happening.
And in order to guarantee a good night's sleep I made a resolution to turn off the computer at 11:30, which so far has failed as I'm typing this at 11:42. Argh! Not done with Japanese homework yet, either.

That's all I've got. I'm very excited for the release of the new The Fiery Furnaces album tomorrow, since I plan to actually pay for it and get the real CD in hand (you know paying for music is like my kryptonite!), and I love the band and the sample I heard from it so I know it'll be good.
In other news, Caroline is in France for the semester so I have no one to go see movies with anymore, sadness.
Also, someday I totally need to work for Gawker Media, on either Defamer or Jezebel, seriously...

Penelope, shoot the apple off my head

Jen: I have another wonderful picture of a colorfully draped Mika to share with you. And you need to send me the CG icon folder still.

Michelle: We should totally talk now that we're much closer to moving in. Though, at the moment, I can't think of anything to discuss other than... television schedules. You probably don't even watch tv, I bet, because you are smart and don't waste your time like me and Alyson.

Alyson: Well, I'm sure you'll read this eventually. ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY TANK CAT INTO MORDOR!

Jess: Actually I'm seeing you once again in like four hours. We can discuss the Phillip Pullman trilogy in greater depth then. And why is Prince Caspian so old in the upcoming movie??

Nicolynn, shoot the candle off my head

Season one of Code Geass is finally done. I don't know what all this nonsense is about, but I do love that Lulu kid. No, really, it was very dramatic and everything, and one can only hope next season is about Lelouch, Milly, Lloyd and Cecile, Raksharta, Orange-kun, and Schneizel. Schneizel-oniisama FTW!

In other news, in talking to Jess the other day I realized that my knowledge of certain areas is alternately bizarrely precise or hopelessly vague. I can explain who John Galliano, Jessica Stam, Luella Bartley, Henry Holland and Agyness Deyn are; I'm thinking about my upcoming Early American Lit class and can only think "So it's... a bunch of puritans, right? 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God'... and other stuff? Colonial stuff? What did they write about? No taxation without representation? Is that what I'm going to be reading? I hope no Thoreau. Please no." And it is very clear that, though capable of boring my mom to death talking about Charles Dickens, I am not a very good English major when it comes to America.

Lulubird, shoot the doorbell off my head

Meme from Jen!

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

So here we go!

1) What is (or was?) the best birthday present you ever received?
2) If you could replay any moment in your life, what would it be?
3) Least favorite color? [yes, I find this more creative than asking your favorite]
4) What was the last thing you bought?
5) Favorite song at the moment? [well, so much for being creative! XD]

1. Well, my iPod last year was a pretty good one, but for my sixteenth my friends banded together and gave me a year (or was it two?) subscription to Animerica Magazine, which was cool because it was something I'd get every month. Kinda lame-sounding now, but I get more interesting things at Christmas, I'd say (like my cat!).
2. I would replay a certain moment that happened last summer. The end of June, in London, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to walk along the Thames from the Tower Bridge to Westminster Bridge, by myself, at like ten o'clock at night. I'd misjudged this distance, and skittered along hoping to get to a Tube station before it got dark, and in general acting like those kids in Mary Poppins who run away from the bank and avoid cackling homeless ladies and shriek a lot. So, I finally get to Westminster and have to walk along this long underground metallic corridor to get to the right train. For the most part, there was no one down there, but at one point I saw two boys maybe my age coming from the other direction, one of them on skates or something. When they're about ten feet away from me, the one on skates took a turn and fell and crashed fully into my side of the corridor. He seemed a bit embarrassed but his friend (and me I admit) were totally giggling. And they went on their way and I went on mine and I got home alright and it was perfect.
3. Least favorite color is probably neon orange. Never liked orange as a color much - I can stand dark red-oranges, but it's pretty much the only color I don't like wearing.
4. Last thing I bought: pale blue ballet-style sneakers from Roxy. I got them for work but I love them too much to subject them to that. Here is a picture:


5. Oh man. Sometimes it feels like all I do is listen to music. (In fact, not that anyone cares, but I plan to do another music post soon.) I'm obsessed with about twenty songs currently but picking one, I'd say:
Sufjan Stevens - In The Words Of The Governor
Because I love Sufjan and I love all the banjo and piano miscellanery he does but I also love how rock he can get. Sufjan is boss.

Well, that was multimedia indeed. I'm off to work some seven-hour cookout tomorrow for fourteen hundred people. Maybe do a proper post soon.