Tina in Japan

I kind of think it’s hilarious that the first time I try Hard Rock Cafe in my life was in Japan. There’s one in San Francisco at Pier 39, there’s one in Hollywood and several in general in Los Angeles, but I never have eaten there ever.

Regardless, it was  yummy and it was for Jamie’s birthday, so it was allgood. It was also kind of nice to have american food since I’ve been good and not have had it in so long ( not that I was really torn about it anyway). We went to the one in Sakuragicho in Yokohama Japan.

Lately I’ve been doing a thing where I make a card for a person’s birthday, and get everyone to sign it. For Jamie’s I kind of went the extra mile because she was expecting it and I wanted to blow her away the best I could with the time I had =P. I made it a 2 pager. The first page is a Pop up with a few signatures, and the next page was everyone else’s signatures all happy in a bunch.

The food was yummy, lots of fun laughs and good times.

Totally gonna go try to see it this weekend

http://i.gizmodo.com/5284821/tokyos-life+sized-gundam-is-just-about-finished

GEEKED OUT <3

May has been most busiest month here in Japan hands down. Around the end of May I almost literally konked out of being so tired from it all. But it has been lots of great times. Will have posts ahead.

Honestly it’s also easier to load pictures on facebook than it is here XD;  facebook image loading is so much faster and you don’t have to resize the photos before putting it up. But I will try my best to put more galleries on this thing since there are people who do not have facebook, and should not feel obligated to get one =p.

I have compied a “to do list before leaving Japan” thing  that I haven’t done yet that I want to accomplish or would like to keep in mind to accomplish.

-Eat Fugu?
- go to Joypolis (Sega amusement park), could happen this weekend!
- Eat more sushi and ramen, I feel since I’ve been here I haven’t been eating those two dishes as much as wanted.
- Homestay ( already filled the app. for that, so that should be underway)
- Kabuki Theater( planned to see in July, all set and ready)
- Comiket 76, 75 was awesome, would love to go 76.
- go to Nikko, heard it’s gorgeous.
- try Pachinko, reserved for August so in case I was to get addicted I would have no choice but to stop haha
- go to Disney Sea, only been to Disney Land, better try Disney Sea since Japan is the only place that has it.
- Ride the Shinkansen at least once
- Go to either Okinawa or Hokkaido before leaving, one of those two for sure.

This was around the last week if not less of Sakura blossoms still being on trees but dissapearing. The Sakura Blossoms were only up for 2-3 weeks in Japan. very short time =( They honestly are really pretty, it’s a shame they’re not up that long. I was really happy to get a chance to see them and go to all the festivals and do Hanami.

I thought this was really cool. These are alot of Sakura petals that fell into the river and piled up into a clump. Very pretty.

MIX SPEAKERS INC., The Script, and LM.C. in a span of a month or so. Not deaf. Yeah!

MIX SPEAKERS INC. I watched with Yilan in Saitama, Tokyo. Yilan sent me some of their stuff a little before she came here so I could get an idea of their stuff. They’re a very fun band. Very catchy stuff . At the concert it was so insane with the audience since everyone did para-para like hand motions with the band, headbangs, running across the room, all IN SYNC. It was so amazing and fun. XD

The Script I watched with Jamie and Junki in Shibuya, Tokyo. They’re a band from Dublin Ireland and they were amazing. Jamie sent me some of their stuff a while prior to going and they were great, but after hearing them live/in person I am moreso in love with their stuff now. Very very nice <3

LM.C (Lovely Moco-Chang) I watched in Hibiya, Tokyo with Jamie. It was very fun and very hot pink and black striped. Maya and Aiji were adorable<3 They played songs from both of their albums (Super Glitter Loud Box and Gimmical Impact!) There were giant LM.C balls thrown into the audience so everyone can throw them around like beach balls. Maya and one of the Denki-Man went around the middle of the auduience with a walking stand while Maya was singing. Very entertaining concert <3

I snuck a picture with my cellphone from afar of the stage before performence started :X

Recent favorite UFO Catcher winnnings. Two Raichus and a Pikachu. They’re sooo soft. I love them.  It’s fun to hug all three at once.

These were a fun win. Leslie and Jamie watched me go for the two Raichus. I wanted to get a Raichu for keeps but then I ended up wanting to get the second one cause it was the only one left in the machine. Raichus are very popular so I wanted to go for it.

It was a very fun night. Leslie, Jamie, and I just had dinner at Pepper Lunch, shopped, had desserts, did purikura,  very generic normal things and yet it was honestly a really fun time. I haven’t had such a great time in a while. <3

My first batch here to go into the kilm for their first firing yesterday! Two cows, a lion, an elephant, a display with an Onigiri, Cat, and Tea cup that can hold a pencil. I had some other works completed but they’re too wet atm to be fired. These are gifts for various people around the dorm and one of them is for one of my Senseis. I may keep a cow for myself. Dont’ blow up!

I love how in Japan, you see something as simple as like say, a cat sleeping on a tree, a group if not hordes of people crowd around that tree to take pictures of the cat(s) sleeping like the paparazzi. What’s great is that this has happened more than just a few times since I’ve been here. Kind of makes me feel happy to know I’m not the only one around that’s easily amused by these things.

When Yilan and I were walking in Ueno Park during the Sakura Festival there were these really cute cats in a pack of three sleeping on one of the Sakura tree branch. It was a huugge crowd of people just wanting to take a picture of them sleeping with their cellphones and cameras. It actually took me a while to just get to the front to take a picture myself! It was indeed really cute though, it was worth it =P

Here you can see some of the other cameras and cellphones before I was able to get a pic of just the cats lol.

So tonight was the Welcome Party held by 105 from the Ryugakusei Center. The whole shindig where you drink, eat, talk, meet new people, etc. I met this guy from Serbia ( i THINK it was Serbia) and the first thing he said was ” hey are you that girl who posted those pictures on your blog?” and then I was puzzled and asked him to elaborate.

He mentions the post about the dormitory room, one of the first entries I posted when I moved here, and he said he was really happy to have seen pictures of the Dorm before to have moved in. I asked him if he remembers the site name and said “it was tinainjapan.com I believe.” lol.  He said that when he searched on Yokohama National University Rooming or whatever my blog was one of the first results. Hooly moly, small world indeed.

Last semester. This marks me being home in 4 months. Too soon, there is still so much I want to do. There were times during the last week that I was actually looking forward to go home, but today it changed a bit since new events and new people are about to happen, and I feel sad knowing that I can’t enjoy it a good full near year like I could the first semester.

Man I kinda wished SJSU started in September so I would have another month here instead of rushing back by early end of August.

Today I’ve met some of the new exchange students that have enrolled this semester, a lot of them are very cool and I have already am gradually getting to know some of them pretty well. A lot of them are really cool so far.

Today one of my Japanese teachers actually found me a potential part time job to teach English to two kids. I’m grateful for the opportunity if it all pulls through.

Today I had a nice hangout with a lot of students that I’ve known and been with since last semester, we were playing ball and racket sports and it was honestly a lot of fun. It also hit me that this will all end in 4 months to where I probably most likely will not see them again for a long time or ever.

Today I finally had the guts to join a club at the school for Ceramics. It was all Japanese students and they all welcomed me in. It was a very chilled group. We talked about our interests and hobbies. A lot of them were playing on the Wii, or reading comics, or doing ceramic-related stuff. It was really nice and relaxing. I honestly wished I had more balls to just have joined this before when I heard about it.

Today I actually finished a piece. It’s my default mascot(?) cow that I like to draw. I have made something like this before but I wanted to make another one to see if I have any improvements to before. So far so good. I’ll probably make a few more to use as gifts, or other animals.

Needs to be fired, glazed, then fired again, should be good.

I need to make the last 4 months the best it can be. It’s gonna end before I know, the last 6 months slipped by faster than I thought it would, so the last 4 is gonna be like nothing. Gotta make the most of my time!