Merry Christmas...from Nagoya Japan!

I'll start off by saying that it doesn't feel like xmas...at all. I had to keep constantly reminding myself that it in fact was that special time of the year all day.

Nagoya...is SO much warmer than Sapporo by the way. Its about 45-50 degrees normally, and most of the leaves are still on the trees! no snow in sight. It feels like I've traveled back in time or something.

So, on Christmas eve I was in Osaka with Regina and her friends. We went on this giant ferris wheel together and saw the city from a very high point of view, it was quite nice. When we were waiting in line there were so many couples everywhere, because in Japan Christmas isn't a family time, its more of a 'lovers' holiday. Our Christmas dinner was choice was quite interesting (and delicious!) because we went to a sushi restaurant and had some amazing fish hehe. The next night we went to an English pub in Osaka and afterwards did Karaoke for 5 hours (lol!) It was quite the night, totally different from any other 'Christmas' I've experienced in the past.

The previous nights were...uh insane. I think that's the appropriate word? The first night we arrived in Osaka we did a pub crawl to 5 different places. We only payed a 2500 yen entrance fee (25$) and basically drank free most of the night and even got to eat.

AND THEN comes the real, never gonna happen again, crazy shit that went down the night after the pub crawl. So we decided to go find another bar, this time we ended up at a darts bar, which was fun, me and regi were actually beating the other guys most of the time...haha. Then we decided to move on and search for another random place. We happened to find the same bar from the other night, called Zeros. We had a couple of shots/beer there. During this time, there was a group of women all in their late 30s, dancing like they were 20 years old. A couple looked to be 40, and one obviously had some botox shit going on with her face. Well, these fine members of society decide to grab a chair and start erotically dancing with it/on it, then one of them starts dry humping the corner of a wall like its a pole ( more on poles later btw) Next, they grab one of the foreigners they were dancing with before, sit him down in the chair, and start giving him a lap dance!! (2 girls at once) Needless to say the guy looked pretty excited HAha..ha. So! because our group was mainly run by testosterone, we decided to follow them to the next bar (because this one was closing) The took us to this random club, and when we got there, there was NO ONE in it, save us. Altogether we were about 11 people. So, this club from the get go seem pretty...skanky? because there were totally too poles in the center of the dance floor....yes...as in EROTIC DANCER POLES! The aging part of the group sits down in the corner and orders some food, we order some drinks at the bar, and begin dancing(mostly with eachother and not the old women...yet) Then they too join us on the dance floor, and before you know it a couple of them are pole dancing before our very eyes! One of them even was skanky enough to take off her shirt and start dancing, and while another was on the pole, she definitely slipped her pants down and showed her thong a couple times *reminder: these women are 35-45 and are acting like this* At one point they even got a certain member of our group (not me i assure you) to get up on the pole also, and they took his shirt off...hahaha. My god this was so fucked up....

Anyway, since now we were even more wasted, we followed them to the next place, but later decided not to enter, because they even told us it was a dangerous place for thieves (it was 5am by the way) And at that point one of the 40 year olds offered to let us stay in her place that night O___o but of course we declined, and finally went home....my god that will never happen again...

So, believe it or not, that was my trip to Osaka. Sadly enough we never actually really did the "tourist thing" at all...hahaha. We did have some very delicious Okonomiyaki though before we left, and got to see alot of the downtown/nightlife type places in Osaka.

So as of now, I'm in Regi's host families house using her computer to type this. She'll be moving out of her host families house tomorrow, so I'll help her with that and then we'll be staying in a hotel in downtown Nagoya the rest of the time.

NAGOYA HERE I COME

I failed to mention this before, but I'm going to visit Regina in Nagoya from the 21st of Dec. to January 3rd! So, that's where I'll be on Christmas and new years. Me, Her, and some of her friends are also going to visit Osaka during that time, It should definitely be FUN! Yay for no homework!!...(kinda)

See you tomorrow Regi!!! <3

ps: I got a haircut, and its definitely not an American style... O__O

So the snow has finally begun to stay, winter is here! >_< My bike is basically frozen now, so much for that...haha

On Friday, we had a CLASS field trip to guess what...? A BEER FACTORY!! Yes, the Asahi beer factory on the outskirts of Sapporo. It was actually quite fun, for more than a couple of reasons. We got to see the inside of the factory, bottling, brewing, etc, and then we were led into a cafeteria where we were able to LIMITLESSLY drink their beer and have snacks for 20 minutes!! Needless to say, I had more than one, the asahi 'super dry' their most popular, and then their dark beer, which was also good. One of my friends Andy, had 8 beers and was significantly wasted by the end of the time. And I will also admit, only eating a small lunch, that I was thoroughly buzzed afterwards. So after they get the whole class drunk, they take us to watch a movie on the Asahi company, which INSTANTLY becomes hilarious, because we're drunk...hahaha There were parts where they talked about their commitment to the environment, and I remember laughing out loud with a couple other people...O__o lol

And thats is why, Japan is not the United States, because not a single time did ANYONE get carded!!! Hurray

And then its also important to note that later that evening, (this weekend was heavily influences by alcohol by the way) I bought an entire bottle of captain morgan rum, and me and my friend cait almost finished it while watching family guy with Andy...who had his own bottle of southern comfort!

AND THEN there was Saturday night. That night there was another Apatrida (student run bar)Xmas party. All you can drink/eat for about 15 USD So again, I was drunk, but not as much as the night before.

And its important to note that the whole time these events were unfolding, I had a cold...and a sore throat, and was on medication...OOOOPPS??!

And that's the weekend!

As for classes, I got a really good score on my Grammar Midterm test, 90/100!! Don't ask me how, I call it luck, but i was SO happy. And on my other midterms...lets see

Oral: 18/20
Writing: 21/25

So, its looking pretty good so far in terms of classes.

ta ta

＞＿＜

Ok, here's the dirt everyone wants, me dancing on stage in a cultural festival in a foreign country...have fun.

http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2317555&l=14db5&id=8630626

what the HELL?! Its almost December and...

Its 55 degrees F, all the snow has melted, what is going on????

Over the past week and a half me and 2 other international students have been working on a dance to present at the cultural show sponsored by Hokkaido University. Some days I would even practice for more than 4 hours...and on the final day of practice we were there for more than 7, yes *7* hours practicing! Then the show date finally came, this Saturday. All in all, I think the bunkasai (cultural show) went pretty well. I was SOO nervous, it was crazy. But not as nervous as when I did piano recitals when i was in junior high (no idea why!) The songs that I mixed for our show were U2 and Brittney Spears...yeah i know. But actually they were very good contrasts to each other I think. The first part was slow and more relaxed, and the second party was fast paced and edgy. If i get a hold of a video of it that someone took, I'll try to post it here. It was definitely rewarding when we finally finished it, and everybody congratulated us. Im just glad its over, and now I have REAL free time....kinda. I have a lot of work this week tooo.... >__<

And the snow! The snow now has accumulated more than 2 inches, and its not melting, so it REALLY feels like winter now instead of fall. And its getting colder! 3 days ago it was -10 C with the wind chill, and MY GOD i froze to death.

Which reminds me! That was the day me and my friend Cate and Liz made thanksgiving dinner for everyone (topic 2!)

So we had this idea about a week before, to make some kind of Thanksgiving dinner for all the American kids and some friends. Cait had her mom AIR MAIL her gravy (lol) because we couldn't buy it here. I took thursday afternoon off(skipped a class) and cooked for 5 hours with Cait (Liz cooked in her own dorm, then brought the food with here to dinner at 7) I made my mom's recipe of "butternut squash saute" but instead of squash I used sweet potatoes and pumpkin (the pumpkin here is more like squash and its very good) It was REALLY GOOD. Cait made the chicken(we can't buy turkey in japan, because its so expensive) We seasoned it like it was turkey though, and it turned out well. Then we made garlic mashed potatoes, Stuffing, Apple Cider. Liz brought over fruit salad, green been caserole, macaroni salad, and a pumpkin bar desert (all made from scratch) So with all that food (and in large quantities) we had a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday at 7pm. We told people to either bring 5 dollars (500 yen) or some drinks/snacks... and what does everyone do (but like 4 people?) they brink large quantities of ALCOHOL! SO, it kinda turned into a eat, then get drunk thanksgiving dinner...haha. The bad thing about it though, was that there were more than 20 people there...and we intended there to be less than that, but some people invited others (when they weren't supposed too!) But all in all, I think it went pretty well.

Now off to Laundry and HOMEWORK... >_______<

So about that concert...

I left with my friend Yuko on Saturday night around 5:30. We got there at six, and it was raining but there was a couple thousand people there. At 6:15 they finally let us in and the concert began at 6:45. Let me say, although im not a huge fan of koda kumi, she has a very good 'stage presence' ei-> she can dance REALLY well, and even her singing isn't that bad for a Jpop/hip-hop singer. The first scene was her swimming up through a REAL tank of water, coming out, flicking her hair back, grabbing a microphone, and SINGING, (soaking wet)...YUP! The whole show had this 'pirate' theme thing and there was a lot of costume and set references to it. The stage was also one of the ones that came out into the crowd, so every time she did that the fans went wild. All in all, it was a fun experience. Next time I hope I can actually go to a concert of one of my favorite singers... (but this was still fun)

Then me and Yuko went to a bar with real Penguins in Susukino, although the 'penguins' was only 1 penguin, and it looked kinda sad... >__< But! the drinks were pretty good anyway.

The night before (Friday) I actually did a one night Homestay with a Indian mother and her two children (half japanese). That was really a nice break from dorm life...I got to eat/make SOOO much good home-cooked food. We made Thai Curry!, Nan, a type of sweet bread, and a bunch of other thai dishes that were all REALLY good (she lived in thailand for a while, she's QUITE an international person) Her kids were nice too, we played wii together for a loooong time.

I'm going to a Koda Kumi Concert in Sapporo tonight!! YAY! sometime fun to do!

I'll report back later.

Its that wonderful time of year again. The time that it gets cold, the time when your homework piles up, the time when you just feel anti-social... BLEEEHhhh

I just finished writing a 6 page paper for a films class, i received the wonderful grade of C+ for the 2 days I spent working on it... The idiot who teaches this class (senaha sensei) needs to learn how to grade papers. He's Japanese, and believes that everyone in the class should be at his ridiculous standards, that DONT EVEN make sense. I wrote the same quality Paper I would write at UW Madison, and I got a shitty C+. Its also important to note that the lowest grade i've ever received on a paper in college is a B, and that is from a Japanese Professor who GRADUATED FROM YALE, so obviously he has higher standards. But this films teacher is just a douchebag. If you dont write the damn thing exactly how he wants, he'll just start dropping your grade whole letters. I had a VERY good argument, my paper was VERY well organized, I provided an INCREDIBLE amount of evidence, and all he can comment on is how i summarized too much. WELL BUDDY, when you write a paper about a movie, its kind of IMPORTANT to explain the scene that you're talking about before you just JUMP IN.... (rips hair out) UGH

so anyway! moving on...

I have very little free time during the week now, my classes are consuming me whole. I took way too many and I'm starting to regret it >__<

Its going to snow tonight, I think. There goes another luxery, the use of my bike, my wonderful...free...bike. I'll have to start walking to class now, 25 minutes ONE WAY >__< At least my new winter coat is amazingly warm and it looks good too, haha. Its green, and kinda shiny, and it fits perfectly.

On a slightly happier? note I think I'll be participating in a cultural festival at Hokudai on the 24th of November. Me and 2 other people are going to do some kind of dancing thing (modern music, not traditional stuff) So far the chosen songs are by U2, and none other than the infamous Britney Spears (yes, i know she smells funny and is a whore, but i like some of her songs, i can't help it!!) I'm the one who got to mix the songs (thats the fun part for me!) but now i have to memorize some dance steps...which i have NEVER done before...wish me luck! ( I also have no idea why I agreed to do this...maybe im going crazy?)

cya folks,

So yes, classes have finally evened out, and a livable equilibrium has been reached...I think. I'm now in Adv Reading 1, Intm Writing 1, Adv Kanji 1, Intm Oral Comm 2, and Adv Grammar 1. (6 japanese classes per week, because communication meets twice) Each class is 1.5 hours long, so its a lot of Japanese for sure. (9 hours a week, more than Madison even!) On top of that I also have 5 english classes: World War 2 contested memory, Reading Films, Field Bioscience, Japanese Society, and Comparative Japanese Culture.

So this week there are 2 1000+ word essays due. To be honest, I haven't done this much homework since Madison (5 months ago) Is that sad? I think i've become laaaazzyyy....

The weather here is becoming colder and colder every day, the average temp lately has been around 50 degrees F, with alot of random rain. The other day my bike's kickstand broke, so i had to ghetto tie it with a plastic shopping bag...yup.

Its so weird sometimes when i leave for class on my bike in the morning. I look around, hear the crows, smell the decaying leaves, see the fall colors, and even smell that wonderful "farm" fresh smell, and it seems like it could be Wisconsin, but in reality im in a foreign country. I almost have to keep reminding myself that this isn't normal, i've just become used to it...lol.

This weekend me and Andy went to this AMAZINGLY cheap kaitenzushi (rotating sushi restraunt) that cost me only 1200 yen (less than 12 dollars) for 16, yes, 16 pieces of good sushi. I was considerably satisfied XD

Ohhh! And I finally got the internet in my room, although we had originally planned to set up a wireless network, the wireless router that's been 'pased-on' from previous years DOESNT WORK ANYMORE, so i guess *I* have the internet for now. My friends may have to buy a new router, which in Japan costs over 100$ for the CHEAPEST one. In the US, they only cost 50$... go figure. But otherwise, the connection is very fast, I can download at over 2.5mb a second, thats definitely as good as the UW Madison connection. Its just that I had to wait 4 weeks for it to come in the mail...(they sent a DSL modem)

On Tuesday-Wed-Thurs Regina is coming to visit me!! So im very excited to see someone from home...now i'll just have to find a way to skip classes....lol.

Ahhh, and yes, I did go to a halloween 'party' on saturday night, by no means as amazing or violent as the one on state street, but i was able to get sufficiently drunk wearing a sort of pirate costume nonetheless...haha. Then we all went to A-Life, a Dance Club in susukino until 2:30 am...that was fun!!

AAANNNDD
here are the new pictures for the last couple weeks:
http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286957&l=1706e&id=8630626

Japanese classes have....started

and they suck (so far)

Monday and Tuesday i have a level 2 advanced writing class and a level 3 advanced reading class(highest offered). When I look around in these particular classrooms, everyone is either a) Chinese/Korean or b) grad/masters students. What does this mean? well, it simply means that the placement test at this university SUCKS. I actually was brave enough to go to these 2 classes, and was blown away by the amount of kanji characters on every handout that i couldn`t even read... AND, in the adv 3 reading class, our first task was to read an article directly from the japanese NEWSPAPER (read: it requires 2000plus characters to read a japanese newspaper) and THEN answer questions on it...all in Japanese of course, WITHOUT using a dictionary... needless to say i wanted to run out of the classroom.

Todays class, kanji and vocabulary adv 1, was by far the most tolerable. I think they may have placed me in one correct class so far (aplaud)...

btw, the weather here is SO cold, and its always raining at some point during the day. Basically, cold and wet to sum it up nicely. Its about 45-50 degrees now most of the time. If the sun comes out, its actually bearable, but when that wonderful 30 mph wind kicks up, not fun at all...

with that,

cya!

Japanese Classes

so, like they said i arrived at the international student center at 8:30am and went to the board to check which classes I was placed into.....along with 50 other people. It was a bit crowded. I ended up being placed into alot of advanced level classes, it was kinda suprising. For some reason i even got advanced reading 3, the highest class, i have NO idea how, and im pretty sure it'll be impossible... There is one big problem though, i have 3 classes that overlap at the SAME time...so im kinda screwed. I have advanced composition and advanced grammar on tues/thurs, and at the same time and same days my intermediate oral practice II is also in session...DAMNIT. somehow i'm gonna have to sort through all this mess... They say i cannot change my classes JUST because of scheduling conflicts, then can only be changed on the basis of skill level, so basically I have to prove to them i need to be in a higher or lower class so i can take all of them...sigh...

This weekend there are a couple of activities i'll be attending. One of them is an international event where int. students meet a bunch of kids and tell them about their countries. I'll also be going to the student run bar/restaraunt on campus for an all-you-can-eat/drink night on saturday, and tonight is a dinner for int students and then some kinda of 'dance' party *on the poster it said bring your own drinks, but then it looks like the management crossed that out in red pen!* haha...we'll see about that.

2 days ago i met with my advisor, tutor, and his assistant at a really nice japanese restraunt close to the university and sapporo station. It was a nice experience, basically they give you a huge plate of really fresh seafood, and you cook it over a charoal fire in the center of the table. Everything was really delicious and very very fresh (crab, shrimp, fish, shellfish, you name it)

bye bye

let there be light?

So yesterday I bought a really cheap 2000 yen floor lamp for my room along with a REALLY (even more plastic) cheap table to set my tv on. So at least my room feels a bit more "home like" than it did before. Other than that, the only other thing i really need to buy is a space heater, because its SO COLD in that dorm its just ridiculous.

This week is our last week to decide which classes we want to take before we have to officially register on friday. Friday is also the day we finally learn what japanese classes we are placed into. This week we are also having a "formal entrance ceremony" in the international student center, and tomorrow I am going to meet my academic advisor and the tutor that he set up for me at dinner (somewhere).

It`s so WEIRD to have people constantly stareing at you. Everytime I go somewhere, whether it be alone or with friends, night or day, people can`t help but to gawk at the foreigners. I feel like an attraction at the zoo sometimes. I even stare back and they sometimes just KEEP looking at me o_0

Anyway, I have to do a lot of stuff this week to figure out how to pay for all these services im receiving. Lets see... theres the phone bill, the utilities, the rent, my bank account set up, umm...OH and national health insurance... I really need to figure these things out! I guess I can set up my cell phone bills and health care payments to be automatically deducted from my bank account, but that requires a high level of japanese and character (kanji) knowledge that I currentlly lack. So! i guess I`ll be assaulting my tutor to help me with these things. Everytime I see an application form i squirm, because they`re IMPOSSIBLE to read without consulting 3 dictionaries.

anyway, Im off to my art class.

jya ne (see you later)

10-6-07

The first week of classes are already over. So far, they all seem very easy compared to any of my Madison classes. The japanese classes won't start until next week (why does it take so long?!) and I'm really feeling the need to learn some Japanese!

This weekend is a actually an extended holiday weekend with 'sports day' on monday, a day commemorating the first tokyo olympic games. So classes (only the english afternoon ones) wont start again till tuesday, on an already easy schedule. There is one problem with this lack of classes, its very very boring. I still don't have the internet in my room, so the only entertainment inside of the dorm i have are videogames. Otherwise i go out of the dorm to the entertainment district (susukino), sapporo station and surrounding areas, and to Jusco (the big shopping market)

On Saturday, me and my friend caite (from University of Mass in the US) went to Jusco and I finally bought a good autum jacket, because its REALLY cold at night sometimes, and a hooded sweatshirt just doesn't work that well. Then we ate some takoyaki (fried batter ball with octopus, yes it DOES taste good, if you'd try it you'd know!) and we were able to watch a small show from a live band that had just released their first CD single in the store. After that I went back to my dorm and for dinner I met my other friends at the second dorm (the international student dormitory) because the chinese students were making some dinner. It was really good, They had a mixture of fried rice, vegetables, meat, and other tasty dishes.

I finally moved into the dorm room on friday afternoon and have since been depraved of the internet. THERE IS NONE. I have to pay 40$ a month to get single room access, and it takes 2 WEEKS to install. its just ridiculous. So, in light of that i am making 10 minute bike rides to the youth hostel to see my friends, and to use the free internet. Yeah, the dorm is about 10 minutes away by bike, walking its more like 25, its REALLY far away. The room itself is pretty decent, it came with a newer desk/chair/bookshelf/locker, but its also kinda cold. The bathrooms are dirty and smell, and FREEZING because all the windows are open and its 59 degrees. (the hallway is also this temperature) So far, the only good thing about those dorms is the single room, and the fact that its a 10 minute bike ride from the best shopping center north of central sapporo called "Aeon Jusco" Its basically a huge complex with a huge grocery center, over 15 restraunts, clothing, home supplies, everything, and its CHEAPER than most places, especially when it comes to food. I went shopping there yesterday and bought toilet paper/laundry detergent/ and a bunch of food, including a small bottle of alchohol and some fresh fruit (expensive in japan) for about 40$ US, which by japan standards is like walmart prices. Hokkaido even has their own cheese brand, and they have REALLY good camembert cheese, for less than 2.50! Oh, btw i had to buy toilet paper because there have NONE in the bathrooms, so you have to bring your own (wow, sure sounds great huh?)

Anyway, all i've been doing lately is going out with friend to karaoke, nomihoudai, and exploring my surroundings on bike, so far not too bad 'to iu wake'. (in other words)

school starts on tuesday, but not the japanese classes (next week). Our placement test results will tell us which one we get into. btw, that was REALLY HARD in the kanji part, and easy in all the others. the chacacter part (kanji) at the end was impossible, completely random stuff i've never seen.

ta ta

(4 days ago)

I haven't moved into the dorms yet, but they said i could yesterday. The thing is, i dont want to because the hostel actually looks better because of its location. If i moved now, i would be away from all of my friends, have no internet, and be 25 minutes away from central sapporo. (vs 1 min) Yesterday I picked out a cellphone, GOD that was an intimidating process. Even with the Japanese I had, it was almost impossible, we had a Japanese friend help us translate. The phone was free, but of course there are many catches. There is a 27$ activation fee, and then the phone -doesn't- come with the charger, but you must pay for it with the phone immediately for 10$ ?? makes alot of sense i know. I chose the 'M' plan which gives me 144 minutes of free talk time a day for 35$ a month, plus 10$ for data services (like ringtones, internet, and email) So my monthly bills will be around 45$ Anyway, my phone is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. It plays free terestrial TV!! It has a media player for music and video, It has a 2.8 inch widescreen, a nice 2 megapixel camera, and it can access the internet. It also does this 'flip' thing where the screen flips around and then locks onto the phone so it looks like one big widescreen tv, and YOU CAN WATCH TV LIKE THAT! So, at least the phone is good right?

Today we are going to open our bank accounts at Hokkaido bank (finally) we didn't do it the first day of registration because it was payday that day and it would have been too crowded. Our placement test is on friday so i'm also trying to prepare for that. Yesterday I had some really good thai curry at this place next door for less than 5$ Usually though i've been eating at convenient stores, they actually have pretty good selections of decent food, my favorites being 'onigiri' or riceballs with stuff inside. I usually like the ones with shrimp and mayonaise, or crab.

Today was alien registration day, so at 8:45 this morning i set out with the rest of the hostel gang for the international student center. We got there and filled out papers for an hour, then they took us by taxi to the city ward office and to the post office to set up our bank accounts and register our alien status. Now that i have my alien registration complete i can buy a cell phone (yay!) I'm probably going to get an AU KDDI phone because they have 50% discounts for students.

Yesterday was 'free bike day' for international students. GOD that was a mess. They had us line up outside of a fenced in area for 45 minutes, then finally let us in to choose a used bike. It was basically like a stampede of desperate people, there was no order whatsoever. So after finding a bike with working breaks i had to wait in another line, this time for more than an hour. When I finally got out I went with some friends to a local 100 yen store to buy a bike lock.

The day before was our trip to 'Otaru' Otaru is a very nice ocean side city with a pretty canal. They are famous for their AMAZINGLY fresh sushi and their hand made glass work and music boxes. Needless to say we stopped at a sushi restraunt and I had the best raw fish in my lifetime for less than 20$. I ordered ikura-don (salmon eggs over rice) mackerel sushi, fatty salmon sushi, and an eel role. #)$(*#()$!! so good!!!

Tomorrow i'll be off to buy a cellphone at AU.

jya ne

pics

http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286957&l=1706e&id=8630626

Yesterday (sat) I basically just explored my surroundings with andy and some other HUSTEP students living in the hostel with us. We went to the trainstation area, south to Odori Park, and then on to the 'tanukikoji' outdoor shopping arcade. It was all very new and interesting, and the weather was nice. OOH and we also stopped at the NIJO fish market. I've never seen so much FRESH CRAB AND SALMON in my life...yum! Today the plans are to take a 55min bus to a nearby tourist town called 'Otaru' I'll tell you how that goes.

Oh, and I found out that they lend towels to guests, so i was able to take a shower (thank god)

oh, and convenience stores are amazing places, and beer is too expensive.

That is all.

omg

This hostel sucks...I MEAN REALLY SUCKS. They stuck 8 people in a tiny room with everyone also having huge bags, there is no room at all. Also, there are currently no planned activities so we are left here to fend for ourselves, real nice. Hopefully I can find a place to buy a towel so i can take a shower!

着いたばかり！ JUSTーARRIVED

So, I'm writing this while waiting at the domestic terminal at Narita Airport. My plane will be here in about 1hr 30min. the exchange rate was 112 (including exchange fees) so not that great ( it was at 119 a month ago...) Its very muggy and hot in Tokyo Narita, and the line for immigration was about 15 min long.

Other than that everythings going good so far,

jyaa mata ne

cya later!

COUNTDOWN

Ok, so there is literally less than 48 hours till I get on my first plane to Tokyo, and before that I'll be staying in Chicago overnight with my parents, meaning that TODAY is my last day in Wisconsin. I leave on Thursday at 12:30 pm from Ohare. Right now all i'm doing is Packing, Cleaning my room, and breathing.

O___O so much crap to paaaaackkkkkk!

"Hello,
Here is the address of your dorm room.

(from October 1)
Keiteki-Ryo Rm#F217, Kita18 Nishi13, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8587 Japan
Phone(Shared): 81-11-747-7849

We are sorry for this delayed notification.

Sincerely,
Tomomi"

KEITEKI!!!!!!!! OH YEAH bizniches
It seems I got into the no holds crazy dorm, the one preferred by many students because of their complete lack of authority/curfews!

Update

So, they're not as evil as it would seem!

"Dear Phillip,

Thank you for your prompt reply.
I also asked Mr. Andrew KUKOWSKI from Wisconsin to accept to stay in a hostel.

The name of the hostel is "(Sapporo Hausu Yu-su Hosuteru (Sapporo House Youth Hostel)".
It is closer to the International Student Center than our dorm.

Please don't worry, we will take you to the ward office and a bank to have necessary procedure, same as other students.
Of course we will take you from the hostel to the dorm on October 1.

Also you don't have to bring your own pillows. A pillow and other linens are available in the dorm.

I appreciate it if you accept it.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Sincerely,
Tomomi"

It seems that me and kukowski san will both be in the hostel. I checked and the hostel really is close to campus, and has a new 回転寿司(kaitenzushi - rotating sushi) restaurant nearby (SCORE!)

Nooo!!

A nice little email I received today lays on the BAD news:

"As for your dorm room, we are sorry but we were informed that it will be available from October 1.
So we have reserved a room in a hostel, please accept to stay there until October 1. The hostel room is not individual type, so you have to live with other HUSTEP students. (There are six more HUSTEP students whom we are asking for this. )
We apologize for your inconvenience."

wonderful, now i'm gonna have to move in twice, and walking to class is out of the picture the first week. I checked online to see what some sapporo hostels looked like, and honestly they look pretty nice. HUSTEP better get a nice one!

grr...

Last day at work

Today was my last day working at Hacienda Santa Rosa in Manitowoc. The money I made there in the last three months will be a huge help for Sapporo. That and the Cameron Keith scholarship will go a long way (hopefully!) I'm actually going to put a link for their restaurant on the blog. (they want me to advertise!)

Ok, so screw the music player idea, that's not happening anytime soon, Its just too much work.

My teeth are seemingly ok right now, and only seem to ache when i chew food. I've stopped used the heavy drugs yesterday and now i'm just on advil. It seems that all 4 sockets have clotted well (yes that is gross i know) meaning that I wont have any dry sockets! Dry sockets are when there's no blood clotting in the socket where the tooth was pulled out, exposing the nerves/bones and creating a VERY painful experience.

As for Hokkaido progress, I went to the store today and stocked up on personal products for the trip, the biggest ones being 4+ deodorants, 3 contact solution bottles/supplies, and alot of shampoo. XD

Today I also updated with 2 more friends blogs, Andrew Rumsey and Eric Sisco.

Site Updates and Teeth Status

So i've been playing around alot with blogger and editing html and stuff.

So far I fixed that annoying cut off of the youtube embedded videos, and I've added a really cool weather widget for sapporo! And I'm still in the process of adding a little music player on the side bar too, but thats a bit more work...

I've also added a link to Regina's Japan Blog on the right side of the page so its easy to catch up with both of us : )

As for my teeth, the pain is basically nonexistent, its so suprising! I woke up this morning after sleeping for 9 hours (that means 9 hours with no medication) and I was in very little pain. Jesus, I must heal like a mutant or something, because i would have thought that those gaping holes in my mouth would still be hurting!

親知らず! Wisdom Teeth!

Today at 10:30 am I had ALL 4 of my wisdom teeth removed, and surprisingly I'm in very little pain (maybe because of the vicodin?!) lol The procedure was so quick, it literally took like 15 minutes to remove all 4 teeth. I didn't go under anesthesia (im crazy?) but I had my whole face numbed with local anesthetics and I was also under laughing gas, other wise known as nitrous oxide, which basically makes you feel like your REALLY REALLY drunk (without the nausea). So actually, all I felt the whole time was pressure in my mouth with no pain. Right now I'm at home trying to chill out and relax while the drugs do their thing...

OH! And today I got Utada's new CD single in the mail "Beautiful world/Kiss & Cry" Its SO GOOD!
Here's another Utada clip, this time its her freaking out at the site of her favorite sushi, tobiko (flying fish roe)

さあ、これから北海道のじゅんびを色々しておきる。

Well, from here on its time to start preparing for Hokkaido.

aaaannnd... watch utada perform her new single on heyheyhey! lol