So, I don’t really like monday mornings, or any morning in general. Today, I slept through my class. And it was wonderful! Is there something to be said for sleeping through Sr Seminar? yeah, probably, but I did it anyway. I do what I WANT! Now, I am housesitting for fun little Fletch, so I am going to go play with the dog. And, tonight, I will eat turkey at school. PURE excitement!
Well! It’s Monday now and the Wii has pretty much been on since we got it on Saturday night (early Sunday morn). It’s pretty much everything I’ve been hoping for. The controller is much more solid feeling than I thought it would, not cheap at all. Even the battery contacts are really high quality (as dumb as that may sound).
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That’s right. Now is the 2nd most popular time to go outside and look at trees in Japan, right after hanami which is the cherry blossom time in the spring. The Japanese Maples are turning red and are really pretty and I feel tempted to take pictures of them, which all the other old japanese men. Anyways, to celebrate Koyou, me and a few of my friends from the program went out to the very last stop on my train line. Pretty much the farthest you can leave tokyo and still say you are in tokyo. Getting to Okutama took about 1.5 hours for me, but I was closest, it took other people around 3 hours! After we arrived we took a 35 minute bus ride, then hiked for another 30 minutes through mountains and arrived at our destination, Nippara Caves. They were pretty sweet, but all the stalagites/stalagmites had been broken off and stolen in the 19th century, so they weren’t that impressive. But hiking through the mountains was really fun, especially with the colors of Koyo all around. It was crazy to think of that area being apart of Tokyo because it was much more like a tiny old Japanese town. There was basically a few houses around the train stop but after just Mountains and wilderness. All the houses were really old style and some even had traditional thatched roofs! Although, I am pretty sure those were abandoned. We found a vending machine in the middle of nowhere that was easially 50 years old and unoperational, but it was cool to see the old style soda cans. I learned a statistic that said in tokyo there is 1 vending machine for every 2 people, and in all of Japan the ratio is closer to 1 to 5.
Then for day 2 of Koyo celebration I went to the park in my town, koganei koen. I had a picnic and found another amazing area. It is a playground for adults. You do excercises there. I saw like 3 old men doing the exercises and it was really cool. I think they should have those in America too! Anyways, I realized I only have 33 more days in Japan! I am definitely looking forward to seeing everyone, but I think I will be sad to leave Japan too. I feel like I will be so bored in Cedar Rapids, and it will be so weird to not have to walk everywhere, and not have to plan things at least an hour in advance because that’s how long it takes you to get to downtown. However, I am a little homesick, and I want to be back in Iowa with all my buddies.
Don’t read this if you really, really love Jesus. You’re only going to get mad. I don’t want to make you angry. I wouldn’t like you when you’re angry. (more…)
Graphic Design is probably my favorite class I’ve ever taken. For our latest assignment, we made ‘zines. To get inspiration, we had to draw a verb and a noun from a hat (I chose tap dancing and kudzu), and derive our magazine based on these words. I made up all the information within the book, so don’t quote me on anything. Here it is!
Hey hey!
Ho ho!
All this jibba-jab has got to go!
Hey Hey!
Ho ho!
My spacing sucks, as does my flow!
I may have told a few of you about this, considering it was the defining moment of my entire life. But for those who do not know, get ready to be ASTOUNDED.
…..On Friday night, last week….
I met….
Bradley Greenwald.
…..what. What? You.. you don’t know who he is? You mean, unlike me, you did not sit through what an educated guess would say 20ish performancse of The Children’s Theatre Company’s production of Aladdin Jr., falling steadily in love with the awsomest version of Jafar you had ever seen? Oh the humanity! You truely missed out, my friend. Not only did this Jafar have TWO musical numbers that he handily rocked (Operatic training, oh yes), but he showed up at the back of the theatre to OUST lame-o Aladdin as a street rat, and in order to show up there he had to walk through the lobby and through the house left doors. So if I was not out in the lobby for the show, I made sure I was on house left. It was glorious. That’s all I can say.
That’s officially the only picture of him as Jafar that I can find, but if you want to know his real face, you can google search his name. A few headshots pop up, but none as glorious as the real thing, which I did glimpse this Friday at the How the Grinch Stole Christmas opening night party (he plays the Grinch, if you’d like to know). Of course, there was absolutely no way I was going to introduce myself, but that is where SUPER CREW GUY comes in. Super Crew Guy and I are homies. Well, not really but once I ushered for another play he was doing for freee. So theater homies, more like it. Anyway, SCG was all “oh yeah, we can just walk over there and I’ll introduce you. Bradley’s that kind of guy” and I was all “oh, okay tehehehehhee”. So we get up there and Bradley is talking to another woman about something SCG knows about, so I stay quiet while my heart PALPITATES FURIOUSLY.
Finally SCG goes “Oh, Bradley, I’d like you to meet my good friend Emma” and we shake hands and Bradley himself is looking at me waiting for some sort of introductory statement, and I had previously been ready to make real honest to god conversation with him – but instead all that comes out is “Uh.. ah.. hi… I usher here? And.. umm… i .. saw you in aladdinandithoughtyouwerereallygood…ahaha…” Oh my god AWKAWRD. It was soooo embarassing. SCG saved the day by introducing a REAL conversation topic and soon we were chatting amicably about the front of house staff taking the stage. It was short and still kind of embarassing, but I can now say I met him.
p.s. Bradley Greenwald is (1) way too old for me, and (2) taken by a (3) man. This I knew aaaages ago. It did not stop my love.
So, let’s recap. I went to the Tea ceremony. It was super cool, but i had to sit crosslegged for 2 and a half hours. Ouchies!
Then today I went to Ebisu with a few of my friends from the program. I went to the sapporo beer factory and had their beer sampler. It was delicious, but the factory was kindof small. Then someone knew someone who worked in a sushi restarant nearby so we went there and had some delicious sushi. After that Murphy wanted to go to the World’s only Parasite Museum. We went. It was gross. I saw an 8.8 meter tapeworm. I regretted eating raw fish.
THE END!
Here we go again…
With T minus 5 days and 17 hours until the Nintendo Wii comes out, I’m getting a little anxious. SO, in an attempt to quell my desire I forced Lindsey to me a Wii Mii of me, and I made one of her. This whole “Mii” thing reminds me of something I did awhile ago. If you want, you can make your own Mii! [updated: I made one of my sister, Lauren, so I added it, too.]
