I decided that today, after I woke up and got ready really early, that I decided to experience a little bit of the outside world. And what a fun day. I don't have much to say that won't be better said than a picture. So, I guess I will save a thousand words and show what I did this afternoon with a very good friend. I will give some background information of this festival though, then I will allow you to enjoy it. This festival is called tezutsu hanabi in Toyohashi. It's basically a bunch of fireworks going on with people holding onto the fireworks as they are showered by the little sparks of the flame. Then they bring in big firework cannons and shoot off a ton of fireworks. Overall, it's an interesting festival that they have. Now, enjoy the rest of the pictures.

I leave and come back and leave again...

ひさしぶりね。

It certainly has been a while since I last posted on this blog. I am a bad writer. Bad. Like someone should hit me on the nose with a newspaper.

I still don't have that same satiation for writing like I used to. But I am slowly regenerating myself to want to drive that energy towards writing.

I still do the whole vegging out after work, but I do write at least a page about my day or about a thought that crossed my mind. It has been interesting to get back on that horse. But, it feels like I am picking up a bicycle and riding a bit again. With no training wheels.

That's not to say I have not stopped living in Japan. I still am living on the other side of the world, with nothing to do but eat Ramen noodles and day dream about Mexican food drenched in salsa verde that my mom makes.

Since the last time that I posted, I found out I have not updated what has been going on with my life. I guess I should update something of what I have been up to.

Summers in Japan are in a word HORRIBLE. It makes cold showers and big ice refrigerators seem like a paradise! All I did was create new pit stains on some of my favorite shirts! It has not been pretty.

But fall is here, so the sweat pools have dwindled down nicely. Now I only worry about getting my cardigans dirty and what not. Otherwise, it is only going to get better now.

I have done a few more things on the bucket list that I made back in May. I did see a Kabuki show at an old retirement home. There was this cute little old lady that kept singing alongside the show. Speaking of little old ladies, one time when I was walking home to lunch, I got hugged by a random one on the street. It made me happy for a while.

Also, I have switched apartments. It's bigger, more spacious and has a little bit of a bug problem. But that was my fault. I let trash fester in the summer and must now reap the consequences. But I will say in my defense, the time I had to take out the trash, a typhoon came and would have made it very difficult to take the trash out.

I don't know what else I have yet to mention to make it sound like I am having a good time versus I am just complaining about the time I have spent in Japan. Because I don't like to complaining about this place. I love it here. I don't have much of a choice, I mean, I'm still planted here for another full year.

I wonder what to do for my one year anniversary. Probably nothing but a wine bottle for me. Raising a glass, October 13.

My inspiration is drained!

I have been trying to get back up on this horse of writing. But I have noticed that as soon as I get home, I will get on my laptop and instead of opening a writing application, which I have paid some decent money to say to myself well I bought it I might as well use it, but instead I go on tumblr, look up an episode I have not seen yet, pig out, and rest my eyes for the following day.

My inspiration has been slowly sapped from my skin. It has left no trace of hunger to continue this passion that I majored in.

And I find it ironic that while I Have no more inspiration to write, I keep looking at writing seminars, and universities that offer a master of fine arts in writing. I figure that if I want to get into these prestigious schools, I should be writing on a regular basis.

And yet, here I still sit, doing nothing.

But I have been giving some thought about a bucket list.

A bucket list of Japan, because, although I don't want to be pessimistic, I will probably not return to Japan. So, I have to do everything I want to do in Japan before I leave October of next year. So here is a bucket list with things I have already done and plan to do in Jaapan before leaving in October 2014.

1. Go to every Pokemon Center in Japan (7 total, 2 completed)
2. Climb Mount Fuji (To the top of the mountain. Go big or go home)
3. See a sumo match
4. See a Kabuki play (even though I understand no lick of Japanese)
5. Go to an Onsen (with monkeys or no monkeys; just as long as its an onsen)
6. Go to Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Disney Sea
7. Visit all the beautiful shrines and areas in Kyoto (Fushimi Inari shrine done, around 8 more to go)
8. Visit all the islands of Japan.
9. Stay in a capsule hotel
10. Buy a Kimono and a Yukata
11. Ring a shrine bell and pray
12. Do a Tea ceremony
13. Go to Universal Studios Japan


And heres the finished or completed parts of the bucket list:
14. See the cherry blossoms bloom
15. Go to Tokyo Tower
16. Visit the Winter Illumination in Nabano no Saito
17. Cross Shibuya Crossing
18. Visit Akihabara
19. Play UFO Catcher games in Akihabara
20. Visit a maid cafe
21. Visit Osaka and Dotunbori


And I know I have done a whole lot more, but I think due to the lack of sleep I am feeling, I am forgetting. But that's all for now. I will update as I think about more things I want to do while in Japan.

I love Fridays.

Normally, I have a very hectic schedule. I have late and afternoonish classes and don't arrive home until after nightfall. And not to mention I have to pedal all the way home, sometimes, like tonight, in rainy situations, where a pink umbrella is fighting with the wind.

But when I see that my calendar is marked as Friday, I love it. I think if I had to pick a day of the week, it is Friday. Even more so than my weekends, sometimes.

It's because I actually have work. I normally have work days which I feel I am dragging my feet through the damn doors. It's not because of the students. Well, sometimes because of some of the students. But mostly because those classes are not my favorites. And neither are the ones that I have on Friday.

It's just something about the day. Friday. The day when you are getting closer to the weekend. The beauty that the weekend is just around the corner. I don't know what is the beauty of Friday. I just look forward to it every weekend. I still have to drag myself into work tomorrow, but the fact that it was Friday. Just like it is still Friday now.

I love it.

Dreams

When I was a little girl, I often had dreams of becoming someone, or doing something with my life. More often I would imagine I was a superhero, like many other young ones and was impenetrable and impervious to anything and everything.

I also remember that when I was a little girl I found my fascination for anime and manga. I fell in love with Sailor Moon, Dragonball, and everything that came from Japan.

But I did not know that those fascinating cartoons of big eyes and colorful imagination began in the Asian islands. So I dedicated a promise that one day, any day, I would visit the birthing place of anime.

Some very many years later, I have achieved that dream. And even though I have been here for half a year, it seems like a unachievable dream.

I guess, what I am trying to get to in this submission, is that dreams are actually coming true. And now, that I have had this dream come true, I must venture out to achieving a new dream.

But none still comes to mind.

I would say come up with my own anime, but that would require that I possess drawing skills. sadly I lack that. But maybe a novel in itself.

A novel idea... yes, pun was intended.

Once, I had a great schedule planned out for me. I would wake up and read a bit while enjoying a ham and egg Muffin sandwhich with powder style tea. Or I would watch a few Youtube videos to get my fill of news from back home.

Then I invested in a Playstation, and it all went to hell.

Damn you Playstation, for being so god damn awesome. For filling my nights with multiplayer sessions, and for pointing out how bad I have become at shooting games. To point out my rustyness and fill me with nostalgia from all the ps one classics I purchased.

And also, thanks for being able to let my External Hard Drive work on you so that I can watch television shows and movies on a much bigger screen than the one on my computer.

I need to get off that thing. And start hopping on here more often.

I do have something written, so hopefully, the next time I log on it will be with more time.

One of the things that many people don't tell you is that when you have a lot of free time, and I mean a lot, you don't really want to do anything. Or maybe that's just my point of view.

I have been dedicated to reading 50 books in 52 weeks, but I am a bit behind, but three books are notched down, and I have 47 more to go. One of the books on my list is to read all of the Game of Thrones, and some classical novels I say I have read, but truthfully have not.

Another is the learning Japanese aspect. They say when in Japan, you'll catch on quick, but it still hasn't stuck that well. That could also be from this apparent ADD that I have acquired.

Just anything in general that involves typing something onto something else, or reading or studying, has left me.

And it's time to pick it up again.

God, even a game to keep me entertained is that too much to ask for brain!?

I was trying really hard to avoid the whole sickness thing. But when you work with nothing but children with snot rolling down their cute button noses, I had the feeling that I was going to be plagued as well as they are. But how can I ask for medicine when I am sick? Hence the dilemma.

Well, the sickness has invaded, and the other bad thing? I need groceries, and it's raining, outside.

This is a no bueno dia. So I am just gonna roll back into my blankets and pray the rain goes away to come another day.

Four Months Already?

Four months in Japan. Yes, today marks four months that I left from LAX and came to the land of rice and neon signs. Seriously, so many neon signs. None near me thank God.

Well, a reflection of the four months that I have spent here? I thought you would never ask. Especially since I haven't written in a while. But slowly starting back up and being reprogrammed. And once I start, I will try to continue.

To begin with, Happy New Year! Wow 2013. We have survived another end of the world scenario. I don't really know how many is that now, but I kind of lost interest the minute we survived Y2K. Well, maybe a bit after.

For the 10 days that I had of vacation, it was in a word, glorious. No work for one week and spending 4 days in Tokyo, can be something that the doctor ordered.

I will say for the record that Tokyo is huge. like Huge. And to make matters weirder, there is a ton of Americans in Tokyo. Like, when I go to Nagoya and see another American or something I stay surprised for a second because it's crazy rare to see them. But going to Tokyo, seeing all of them made me second guess whether or not I was still in Japan. It was nice not to feel alienated for a while. But not much could have been said for it.

We visited many places in Tokyo, Roppongi and Wendy's where we spent New Years Day, Shibuya and Shibuya crossing and their poochy mascot, Shinjuku and the hotels we found to stay the night, Harajuku and the nostalgic feeling of the callejones from Los Angeles (and a churro for a snack!), and Akihabara and the maid cafe that my friends were called masters and I was called princess.

After vacation it was nothing but sleeping and resting and playing video games, all the while fearing stepping outside because it was outside. I just didn't want to okay? I'm broke at the moment so the only thing I can afford is food and drinks. Which I don't mind.

So for now, I will remain in bed while the cheese nan I have leftover cooks in the toaster oven I almost burned down, along with my apartment. That's what I get for sticking in a tortilla and not watching over it.