If you were to calculate all your expenses for one week in Japan, what would you say you spend the most money on each week?

Tuna Mayo Onigiri! Haha, I am joking although that might not be far from the truth.

Let's see...things I buy every week are train tickets, lunches, and... clothes... Yes...I have spent a lot of money on clothes (that's probably the thing I spend most on, but damn, Tokyo's so fashionable!). But if that doesn't count I would say I spend the most money on the train each week .

The way my train pass works in Japan is as follows: I set up a route from my house to Waseda and paid for a three month pass which means, I can ride this route as much as I want for 3 months. On this pre-setup route I can make stops at any station with no extra charge. However, if I go other places I have to pay to get there...and it adds up really quickly actually, especially since I'm always trying to explore the city or get out and do things! :)

Ask me about Japan!

i'm loving your blog. japan is so interesting and beautiful. i know that not all japanese girls are skinny and tiny but i think i'd still feel like a giant if i were to live in japan. do you ever feel too big?

Ah yes, not all Japanese girls are tiny but oh man- a lot of them are. Now, I'm only 5 ft 4, so I'm about the average height here, but my body type is a bit thicker. One night, my host mom and sister and I were comparing the sizes of our wrists and they were surprised to see how thick mine were! (As my host sister said "wow, you'd be so strong at tennis" haha). I don't feel too big though....sure, jeans don't fit me here as well as they do in America (cause I gots curves) and sure, I bought a size LL shoe the other day (but my feet are only size 7.5!) but you have to keep in mind the differences of body types in the cultures- and really try not to let it get to you and have confidence.

I felt a bit paranoid about my size when I first got here, but that was for a few reasons:
-1) Foreigner...which means most people will STARE at you. Which can make you self conscious with how you are perceived.
-2) Fashion...I will make another blog post about this later but people are so fashionable here, and it's the people who aren't dressed up that stick out usually! I really tried to (and am working on) my own personal style that suits me.
-3) Poundage...During the summer I had put on a few extra pounds... but now due to the change of diet, riding my bike everyday and climbing mass amounts of stairs, I've lost 10 pounds since getting here, and feel a lot better about myself.

I digress, tldr; different body types. I can feel big sometimes but I'm not Japanese - it's how I'm built and I can't change that, so might as well rock it. Haha, maybe I would feel different if I was taller...like my friend Nick- he's tall and all the Japanese girls are gaga over him- I'm sure there's times when he feels giant.

Ask me about Japan!

Host Family and Harry Potter

I totally forgot it is Thanksgiving today~ So Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eat turkey and gravy and pie for mee. (Tomorrow, all the Oregon students, some Japanese students and I will be celebrating by going out to a big dinner....details to be reported later.)

I woke up this morning with a note from my host mom:  (Translated from Japanese of course haha)
              "Dear Mikaela, Enjoy breakfast! I left to go teach Japanese. Could you please let Rara out before you go like usual? Also...for dinner tonight, shall we eat OMURAISU?"
Now my dear friends, while I am missing Thanksgiving...I EFFIN LOVE OMURAISU <3 <3 <3 <3 and my host mom. Omuraisu is the smooshing together of two words: omelet and rice...It looks like this:

From Website: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3329/3511141823_ecb5f2e95c.jpg

It's all ketchupy and delicious @_@
Over the weekend, all the host families went to meet with our program director to check in...My friend Rachel informed me that her host mom told her, that at the meeting, my program director was mentioning a girl who lived in Setagaya-ku who was PERFECT and totally adored by her family....
The only girl besides Rachel who lives in Setagaya-ku IS ME. Which means.... MY HOST FAMILY ROVES ME!!!!!!  It makes me all happy cause I'm always paranoid about stuff like that haha. I digress. Things are going good basically. These are pictures of the backyard (deck area) I took last weekend when it was sunny:

The Big Persimmon Tree in the yard!:

Anyway, On Tuesday we had a no school day (national holiday). So after studying all day I went and met friends to see HARRY POTTER (which I really liked! I loved the animation in the middle). But afterwards, across from the Shinjuku train station they had an 'Illumination' set up. Illumination in Japan is what we call "christmas lights" haha. They are still Christmas lights in Japan, but my friend Kanako says "hey wanna go see the Illumination" instead of "hey let's go look at the christmas lights" !

They also had this biiig Christmas tree that you are supposed to walk through with your bf/gf and push a button on the inside...whatever color lit up was what you would be lucky in! Well, we threw out the couple rule and all walked in together (haha friendship time). I forget what all the colors mean, but like yellow is happiness, and red is passion etc etc. We got RAINBOW! Which is like the best you can get cause it means you'll be lucky in all aspects! It was so magical hahaha

Some last little note I guess. While all y'all back in Oregon are getting ready for finals...well I officially just got done with midterms today. I wanted to share what my Kanji midterm was like (because I'm always complaining about kanji....here's why): 

150 characters...an average of 3 readings each...that's 450 words and combinations we had to memorize because we didn't know what was going to be on the test.
Here's my paper from practicing strokes during another class....by the end of the class my friend from Spain was laughing at me and telling me I looked like a crazy person from The Shining.  (ignore the map of america...I had to show her where Oregon was in the U.S. haha):

But, I basically kicked the test in the face! Meaning I totes didn't fail ! haha (though I didn't exactly score an A...I feel proud)! 

Final note...As I type I'm wrapped in like 2 blankeys... 
Dear Dad, I won't complain about your house being cold anymore...the temp inside the house right now here, is 62 degrees. (although when I got home my host mom looked like an ice cube and told me people were coming to fix the heater)...cause it's not the usual whopping 65 degrees inside hahaha

YoYoGi! and a dachshund on a stump!

Yoyogi Park, one of the largest parks in Tokyo right next to Harajuku! I went here last Sunday and it was packed full of interesting people (Sunday is the best time to go here because it's when it's the most packed). The photo above shows the entrance to the park and the guys that are always in front of it street dancing. Bōsōzoku, Yankee, Greasers- whatever you want to call them- they were so awesome! I guess Dorothy says there's a lot of different groups and they have dance battles and their own style of music and look. 

Poodle Skirts!

The park is full of bike paths, flower gardens, picnic tables, basketball courts, dog run etc etc. Me and my friends went and had a picnic on a nice fall day.

It was just a really beautiful place with a lot of crazy things going on! Haha, walking through the park we saw many different types of dance troops practicing, a drum circle, people with lightsabers (who were legit!), acoustic performers, some power rangers (and a whole lot of other people in costume), dogs more fashionable than me, mimes, hulahoopers etc etc etc.While I didn't get any shots of them really, I did get to practice photography. Here's some more shots from the day:

And more fashion shots of Dorothy (developing her portfolio and my skills! haha)

I also saw these reeeally cute french bulldogs and was totes creeping on these people for a picture(I admit it)

Just look at this guy, he's taunting me by playing with the face rolls

Also saw this on the way out...Some guy playing with his remote control car (probably 60 years old?) and had his dachshund waiting on a stump.

(sorry crappy quality..it was getting dark)

Then you leave the park, turn left, and are back in this! (Harajuku Station is on the left)

Things to remember

This is just a short post about a few things you have to keep in mind when living in Japan.

But first, look at what I freakin' had for lunch the other day:

Indian food! Do you see how giant that naan is? So dericious- and don't worry, I made people help me eat all this.

Anyway, back to the post.

1:  My water's cold?
            If you want hot water, you gotta turn it on. That being said, there has been sleepy mornings when I've woken up and stood there waiting in the shower for my water to get warm before realizing "shoot, duh...". This is the little device that controls it. Ours is in the kitchen. The buttons on the left control temperature, and the buttons on the right say "furo" (top button) which means tub (if you push that one, it'll fill up the tub!) and the one on the bottom right is the one you gotta push to turn on your hot water.

2. Cough cough hack hack oh sorry, is my cold making you hate me?
            Tokyo is a city with like 13 million people living in it. That being said, sicknesses can spread pretty fast. If you are sick in Japan, out of common courtesy (like covering your mouth when you sneeze in America), you are supposed to wear a face mask. Everyone does it! And I've already gotten so use to this. For example, this man was all hacking up a storm next to me and not wearing one and all I could think of was how rude he was being (crowded trains and no where to go!). But literally, you see these everywhere you go. Even people you wouldn't expect to wear them, do. I think this is going to be one of the rules I'll miss when I go back to America.

The last thing isn't something you necessarily have to keep in mind when living in Japan, but just a note on Japanese culture:

3. What do I want to eat?
                 When you go to a restaurant in Japan, the front part of the place usually displays, in plastic food version, the meals you can eat! I've gotten really used to this I think. Also, if they don't have it in plastic food version, the menu ALWAYS has a picture of whatever it is.  I think back on menus in America, and you have to rely on descriptions of the food for many of the dishes...but here you see exactly what you're getting and can see exactly what looks good!

Photo from: photopassjapan.com

Camping and Disney Sea!

Firstly, look at this food:

That would be rice, with sprouts and some hamburger topped with Japanese mayonnaise (different than American mayo and SO GOOD) and an egg!
Also, this is one of my favorite things:

Green Tea Ice cream!

Anyway, this past weekend I went camping with Dorothy's boyfriend's club. We went to a place called Chichibu near Nagatoro. It was really nice to get away from the crowds of Tokyo for a few days.
We started out our weekend though, by pulling an all-nighter at this sports complex, where you could play arcade games, pool, a whole bunch of sports, or roller blade among a lot of other things.

There was this really racist game there haha, where you were two white cops and have to run around punching all these black guys. Yeah. That game so would not fly in Amuuurica.

Saturday we got to the campsite, and everyone spent most of the day napping haha! Then we stayed up super late again, and went to an Onsen on Sunday. Onsen is a Japanese hotspring...like a public bath. Where everyone gets naked and goes and showers then sits in hot pools (don't worry, girls and boys are seperated obviously...but I have to mention that because when I told my mom this she was all "A BUNCH OF GUYS SAW YOU NEKKKID?" No. ) 

anyway, photos:

NATURE

random people on a boat tour?

 

Oh and this is Dorothy getting ready for camping: which is one of the best photos ever btw.

Chicken Legs

Camping was really fun overall, I can't wait to go again! The people in Marco's club are all so nice.


Part II

 Wednesday night, my friends and I decided to hit up Disney Sea after our classes. In Tokyo, like California, there's two disney parks: Disney land and Disney Sea. Disney Sea is a bit smaller and has rides like Tower of Terror and Indiana Jones, but it also has a few I'd never been on before like Journey to the Center of the Earth. (although I guess you're supposed to go to Disney land with your friends, and Disney sea with your bf/gf because disney sea is prettier and romantic or something? I dunno, we had a big group of friends haha)  And if you go at 6 pm, it's like, half the entry price. So that's what we did! There weren't a lot of people there because the weather was kind of crappy that day (but luckily the rain cleared up for us...still cold though) which meant there were hardly any lines! It was so much fun!

All the Christmas decorations were out!

The monorail was Mickey themed of course

Most of the buildings were like, places around the world. So here was Venice

The American part

Tower of Terror! A castle- bit different from the creepy hotel in California (and makes less sense to me haha)

King Santa Triton and his Reindeer Dolphins all decked out for Christmas

And these my friends, are the Disney Sea specialty: The Gyoza Dog (the other specialty is the many different flavors of popcorn which were: milk tea, strawberry, caramel, black pepper etc.)

I don't even know how to describe this thing..it's just delicious haha. It's like a giant bun thing filled with meat! They call it a gyoza dog because it looks like a gyoza (pot sticker) and hot dog? hahaha
Enjoying the gyoza dog:

Last but not least, ride photos:

Tower of Terror

And jeez, I wish I would have bought this next one.... it's like, the best ride photo I've ever seen (I think because we weren't expecting it.) haha We look scared...but it was just Indiana Jones!

Dorothy's on the far right, and I'm next to her

That's all for now, except to say it's midterm time here, and it's kinda kicking my butt. So wish me luck, and I'll update after they're over!

The Waseda Festival (aka total madness day 2010)

As I mentiond earlier, we had Friday and Saturday off of school this week because it was the Waseda Festival on Saturday and Sunday (Friday was preparation day). I stayed home Saturday because I had a bit of a cold I want to get over before I go on a camping trip this weekend...But I hit up the festival on Sunday and what can I say: TOTAL MADNESS

How the festival worked was basically a whole bunch of performances put on by different clubs, and then a lot of clubs also sold food. The roads got so packed you seriously could not even walk.

CROWDED

We went to go watch my friend Daichi's dance! It was basically Tap, but with Geta (wooden shoes.) It looked like everyone was having so much fun haha. Here are some shots:

Daichi the superstar!

We also saw my friend Rachel's dance, Soran Bushi:

And we also went to see my friend SaeEun's band perform. They are a Jamiroquai cover band, and they were super good!

Other shots of friends and stuff:

Dorothy doesn't even have to do anything to look cute

Tomo

Kunpei!

Carollyn, Daichi, and Kanako

The Niji no Kai (international student club) had a booth that was selling these bread delicious things? I don't even know..but all last month when they were testing cooking of the bread, they would have some of the international students taste it and take photos of them. haha well, we came upon a sign for the booth that had Dorothy's face plastered on the poster! See, totally a model already.

Dorothy says "ughhh" to the photo though haha

Oh and last thing I guess, we were just sitting on this ledge when all these people from the "Bansai Waseda" club came up....I don't know how to explain what kind of club they are. My Japanese friends say they are a club to get people excited about things like at baseball games and stuff? I dunno...they just started doing all this crazy energetic stuff and shouting. It was pretty much awesome

But yeah, overall a very fun thing to do. It was just soooooo crowded. It's starting to wear on me a bit now...
This next weekend though I'm going camping with my friend, Marco's club (White oak...the camping club!). I'm super excited.