お久しぶり

I know, I know. It's been too long. One of my new year's resolutions should be post on my blog more. Let's sum up what happened. This probably won't be in order:

School was and still is going well. Hopefully it'll stay that way.
I went on a date with a guy who, though Japanese, wanted me to call him Tony. Didn't work out and not heartbroken about it.
I got in a fight with my friend Mariko and didn't know how to resolve it. D:
Spent a month combating a cold before finally going to a doctor and getting some real medicine. Unlike in the States, you can't get good medicine off the shelf like Nyquil. Gawd, I miss Nyquil. D: I followed the advice of one of my teachers (who lives really close to me!) and went to her doctor, who explained all the instructions in a mix of English and Japanese. He is AWESOME.
I fell in love with the Japanese rock back NICO Touches the Walls.
I got back in contact with my friend Eric from UCSB. He'd moved back to Japan and I happened upon him on Skype. Turns out we don't live that far away from each other. haha.
One month later, I take the first step and apologize to Mariko for our fight. She apologizes back and we make up. YAY!
I was invited by two of my schools to the year end party, which happened to be on the same day. I went to one and had drinks with three of the faculty from the other school afterward.
I spent Christmas alone, but made up for it by Skype calling my family Christmas day in the States.
I went on a date with Yuuichi. <3 *blush*
Happy New Year!
I went to Osaka with Breana for 4 days and to Nara for 1 day.
The new single, Diver, by NICO Touches the Walls came out and I BOUGHT IT. OMG AND IT'S FIRST EDITION BECAUSE I BOUGHT IT THE DAY AFTER IT CAME OUT!!! *dances*


That pretty much sums up the past 2 1/2 months. lol. Looking at it now, it looks like I really did a lot. In actuality, I don't feel I did enough. I spent a lot of time at home farting around on the computer because it's gotten so cold outside that I don't want to leave the house. In all honesty, I really should go out more because 1) walking around helps warm me up and 2) they BLAST the heat in stores around here so it's warmer in the stores than it is in my apartment. D: The only down side? If I'm in a store, I kind of feel like I need to buy something while I'm there, or after all that browsing I found something that's kind of spiffy and decide to buy it. Seriously, though? Staying at home made sure I actually cleaned up my apartment before New Years as well as kept me from spending money so I had money to spend in Osaka! :D

Real quick: My date with Yuuichi. We met up at 7pm in Yokohama and walked around a bit, trying to figure out what to eat. We had ramen at a shop that has a branch in Ueno, where he lives. Apparently, the ramen at my branch wasn't as good. hahaha! It might be because you sit in stalls rather than at a real table. Afterward, we played Taiko no Tatsujin, a game where you beat on a Taiko drum along to the rhythm of a song. It's a lot of fun! We thought about going Bowling, but the wait was 1 hour and a half long, so we decided to go to karaoke instead. He really wanted to hear me sing in English. After 1 hour of karaoke we went to McDonald's and drank coffee while chatting. We didn't part ways until 11pm. He's SO nice! <3

Ah, I should probably go through what we did in Osaka. Here goes. New Year's evening I caught a Night Bus with Breana from Shinjuku all the way to Osaka. They make stops periodically every 2 to 3 hours because they don't have bathrooms on the bus. The seats are like an airplane and recline and once you're on the road they turn off the lights in the bus so you can sleep.

After multiple naps on the bus we get to Osaka in the morning before most things are open. I think Clarissa again and again for making me more practical after living with her because Breana, though adventurous, didn't have the balls to just go into this hotel we needed to go to to ask about the 2 day passes we wanted to get for the trains. There was a sign outside the hotel in kanji that Breana said had something to do with being closed, but I saw that there were guests with luggage inside. After coaxing her into the hotel I ask the man behind the counter who energetically tells us the price like it's totally common practice. We bought two for each of us, because the plan was to be in Osaka for two days, take a day trip to Nara, and then wander around Osaka for another two days. We saved SO much getting those passes. I am SO awesome. lulz.

We walked around the area until we were hungry and went to McDonald's for breakfast. There, a British guy who lives in the area overheard us making plans and suggested the area around Tsutenkaku Tower. Breana got a bit creeped out that he was listening in on us, but considering he was sitting right there and everyone needs help when in a new area, I thought it was really nice. I actually chatted him up a bit, since it only seemed polite. Nice guy. He said he was going on a snowboarding trip. Hopefully, he didn't break anything.

That day we did a bunch of things, most notably going to Osaka Castle. It's gorgeous, but I heard later from one of my friends that it really isn't all that great because it's too small. lol. I don't mind. It was really pretty to look at, and the museum tour inside it was free because of the 2 day pass. :D I had fried squid there and it was SO delicious, even though watching the guy tear the squid apart to get all the good bits was kind of gross. haha.

We tried going to Shintennoji Temple, but the things we wanted to do there were already closed. Spoot. Sure was a pretty place though! :D I got my Omikuji (fortune) there. It wasn't Dai-kichi, which is the best fortune you can get, but it wasn't a bad fortune so I was happy. :3

Afterward, we went to a mall and rode this huge red ferris wheel that's built into the mall. I'd actually seen it on a show on KIKU back in Hawaii when I was in high school, so I was totally stoked to actually BE there and RIDE it. I had used up all the space on my memory card (I had a spare, but it was in my luggage at the hotel), so I took shots of it with my phone. The way the lights reflected off the red paint was kind of sinister, and looking down it made it look like looking into the pits of hell. SO cool. hahaha.

Day 2: We went to the Kaiyukan, a big aquarium in Osaka. Their mascot is the whale shark, of which they have two in their big tank, which is apparently the biggest tank in all of Japan (maybe even the world?). It was cool seeing all the animals, but they were SO busy and some people were really rude about getting close to the tank enough to actually see anything, so it made the experience less enjoyable. I imagine going in the middle of the work week is the best thing to do, but we went during Winter break. lol. I bought a turtle doll and a whale shark doll. I couldn't resist. :3

We rode on the Santa Maria, which is this big old-fashioned ship in the bay right beside the Kaiyukan. It was free, which was REALLY awesome because it was, like, 16 dollars. lol. Breana didn't find the ride all that great because apparently the mascots were supposed to come and be our guides, but instead we were told stuff in Japanese and, surprisingly, partly in English. AWESOME. We spent the trip going through different names to give my turtle doll. We finally settled on Dexter, though I keep mistakenly calling him Derrick or Dominick. I can't help it if I like those names! But they're too cool for my turtle doll. His smile is kind of dorky looking, so Dexter fits him better. XD

After that, we watched a juggler in the courtyard outside the aquarium. He was quite good and actually set stuff on fire and juggled it! AWESOME. He encouraged everyone to cheer him on, because that would give him the energy/ability to do his tricks.

Totally random, but OMG IT'S 34 DEGREES HERE RIGHT NOW! D: I heard it won't actually snow until February. Wahh.

After the juggler we went and had Okonomiyaki, which was really good. They actually make it in front of you! I had pork and kim chi flavored okonomiyaki. SO good. But... spoot. Now I'm getting hungry again. hahaha! There was a middle-eastern ice cream shop in the mall where we ate. The ice cream wasn't your ordinary kind of ice cream. It stuck together, almost like chewing gum. I got mango flavored and the server, maybe because I was cute or maybe because he liked my reaction to the little stunts he did with the ice cream while serving it, gave me a scoop of chocolate in the middle of my mango even though I hadn't ordered it. :D

By now it was late, so we went to a really tall building, probably the tallest in Osaka, and looked around the city. It would've been better during the day because the bay area made one side look completely black. I thought I was staring into a void for a bit. Kind of cool, but it would've been nice to see the water.

There was still a bit of time, so we came home and went to Spa World across the street. I gotta' say: I LOVE ONSEN. Seriously, I can't imagine people in America ever being comfortable with soaking in baths 100% naked with other people of their gender, but it's seriously REALLY awesome. It might be that the Japanese don't stare, which makes even slightly overweight me comfortable being in the baths. Breana said that Chinese people stare though. I don't think I could do that. D:

Day 3: We woke up early (or at least tried to) and went to Nara. On the way to Todaiji Temple, we fed deer shika-sembei (deer crackers). They tried to eat my coat and I got bumped in the butt a couple times because they wanted sembei. Oh, and one of them actually stood up against me with his hooves on my chest. CRAZY. I wish Breana had caught a picture of that. It would've made for a great Facebook picture. LOL!

On the way to Todaiji we were offered carriage rides, the ones drawn by a single guy. There's a fee, of course, and I wanted to do it, but Breana said she didn't want to put a guy, especially a hot guy (some of them were really pretty!) through the trouble of dragging our fat butts around in a carriage. At the temple we took lots of pictures of the giant Buddha there. He's so huge you almost hurt your neck looking up at him. I bought omamori, protective charms, for my family (Now all I have to do is, y'know, SEND it to them. lol.) as well as for myself. I got another Omikuji because it was in English. It was alright, but there were some things foretold on it that I wasn't too thrilled about, so I tied it up with all the other fortunes people didn't want in their lives.

While looking for a place to eat we were stopped by a guy advertising an Okonomiyaki place. Breana looked like she either wasn't interested or was intimidated, so I spoke in English in an attempt to deter the man from pursuing us and moving on to another target... BUT HE SPOKE ENGLISH. Not fluently, but he definitely knew enough to tell us it was delicious and how we should try it and I didn't have the heart to say no. We were looking for a place to eat anyway, so why not, right?

Day 4: We went to the Osaka Science Museum, which was really fun because they have all these little things you can do. It's the perfect place to take your kids because they can get so worked up on these little experiments that require them to expend so much energy that I imagine a lot of them need a nap afterward. We went to the planetarium show in the museum. It had two parts: one talking about common stars in the night sky above Osaka and one from an American museum. Breana and I totally perked up when we heard that it was from the States because we figured it'd be in English with Japanese subtitles, but NOOOO. It was dubbed in Japanese and the guy's voice totally put the both of us to sleep. We woke up during the end credits and were sad to find that the original version was narrated by Tom Hanks. Seriously? We totally wanted to hear the Tom Hanks version! >_<

Next, we went to a flower conservatory. It was gorgeous! One of the tour guides told us how this one orchid smells like chocolate, AND IT REALLY DOES! Awesome! We took lots of pictures of flowers and I totally got all kinds of giddy when I found out they had a separate green house for Hibiscuses. AWESOME! They actually had a display of one of the quilts grandma makes upstairs because they feature flower patterns. I was SO excited. I tried to tell Breana about how grandma makes them and how they're SO awesome and she totally wasn't interested. D:

After that, we finally got around to going to Tsutenkaku Tower. In Osaka, they have a god called Billiken, who is "The God of things as they ought to be". His statues aren't very cute, but the small keychain I got of him is REALLY cute, and glows in the dark. hahaha. If you put in a donation and rub his feet, Billiken will help you with what you ask of him. :3

While walking and looking around for a place to eat, we were stopped by two men advertising a katsu shop. I don't mean katsu like chicken-katsu, I mean katsu as in deep fried meat and vegetables on skewers. I pretended I couldn't speak Japanese because Breana, once again, had this look on her face like she wasn't interest or that she was intimidated by these men talking to us, so I figured she didn't want to go to the restaurant. However, once again one of the guys was able to speak a little bit of English and I didn't have the heart to say no, especially since they were having a sale. XD People in Osaka must be strong drinkers because I only had 2 sours and a high ball and I was getting drunk. I was drunk enough to ask the cute waiter if I could take a picture of him and the restaurant. In my befuddled state, I figured he wouldn't care because we were obviously tourists. lol.

Day 5: We went to Tennoji Zoo, which was about a five minute walk from the hotel we were staying at. We took a bunch of pictures of the animals and I bought a small bean-bag doll of a giraffe that's a ball, so it has no neck. lol. While eating, a young boy (he looked to be in 6th grade) with his two little sisters and his grandpa were eating beside us. The boy must've heard Breana and me talking in English because he asked his grandpa in English "Can you do speak English?" The grandpa was hilarious. He said in Japanese "No, but I know that that sentence isn't right." I asked Breana if we should correct him, and after another minute or two of the boy trying to remember how to say it, she corrected him in Japanese. I started talking with the grandpa and the boy a bit after that. The boy called me "Dai-sensei", which is actually kind of close to my name (Diana is spelled "daiana" in Japanese characters). lol. Cute kids. The girls picked on their brother a bit. It's amazing that he didn't get annoyed with them, but really really really adorable to see them interact. I hope my kids are like that.

After the zoo, we walked back toward Tsutenkaku Tower to check out the shops nearby. At the station, we bumped into that same family again. The boy actually remembered me and said "Dai-sensei!" So cute! <3 We were actually headed the same direction, so we rode on the train with the family, chatting a bit as we went. It was really nice. :3 I told the grandpa we were going to an Ukiyo-e (Japanese wood block print) museum and he said that was wonderful. Lots of Japanese are surprised when they hear I studied Ukiyo-e back in college. lol. My teachers like to say I'm more Japanese than most Japanese because I studied so much stuff back in school. HAHAHA.

The museum was small, but they had a print featuring the store of Oiwa and Iemon. Oiwa is the inspiration for the girl from the Ring. I learned about her back in school. Her story is really scary! I didn't want to be alone after I'd finished watching the animated version. HAHAHA. I got really excited being in the museum, but Breana said she's not really the museum type. She also didn't seem to think much of Ukiyo-e. >_< I'd broken my glasses case during the trip (it's been breaking for a while now), so I bought a really pretty red with yellow flower patterned glasses case at the museum. :3

After that, we went looking for the Johnny's store. Johnny's is a company that creates boy band groups. My favorite Johnny's group is Arashi, and knowing about them always gets me kudos with my kids. I bought a few pictures of my favorite member Ninomiya (who portrays the main character in Letters From Iwojima). <3 He's so cute.

By that time it was starting to get late. We got something to eat, picked up our bags and found our bus stop. The both of us bought a magazine called "An An" at the convenience store across the street from the bus stop because it featured gorgeous shots of Tomohisa Yamashita, a Japanese singer and actor. He's so pretty!

The ride back to Tokyo was cramped because we were in the very last row with three other girls, and right in front of the heater. I didn't sleep well at all, especially since the girl next to me put her feet up by where I was supposed to put my feet up. I scooted her feet away because she had THE WHOLE AISLE to spread her legs out in! >_<

But anyway. Now that I'm done writing my novel of a post and it's 5am, I'm going to bed. XD