yesterday was the day from hell for some reason - ( the kind of day where I woke up late and couldn't even decide what to wear.  )

Today though, today was a good. day -- one of those good days that I expected yesterday. 

Made it awake this morning relatively on time, got breakfast and a bagel, met with students about their papers, took my kanji quiz, finished the reading for class and even squeaked in a surprise meeting with the coordinator from the Conference from Hell.   Had a fantastic time in class reading everything in super close form (and finding out our translations were strange things indeed compared to the Japanese), and had a lovely conversation with my advisor while giving her a ride home.  OH, and one of my friends in the program gave me flowers for my birthday!!  How cool is that?

Got home, loved my family, and am working on homework for next week so that I can be prepared.  Life is definitely looking up.  Best of all, I get to play all day tomorrow at making the Conference from Hell a fun event, then get to give my Tetsuo talk (again!).  Best of all, I'm getting nummy food tomorrow night... and possibly stopping by the Asian Studies party after.

:D

( for those of you curious, the new fur )

I'm having these intense urges just to dig in stubbornly and do nothing.  It's my reaction to having too much to do, and not having enough time to do it.   And I'm conquering the urges, mostly, so it's not like it's the end of the world.

( however, my to do list )

Now that it's all out there I think I'm going to be ok.  I really do.  But wow.  It's all a matter of seeing what's on the list and getting it all done one by one.

And I don't think I mentioned it but the best part of going to the conference was that I figured out what texts I'm going to write my master's thesis on.  ( for the curious... like three people )

I did it!!!  Conference 1 = ROCK.  Unfortunately it also included six hours of driving getting to Huntsville and back, and I'm one tired monkey (well, tired from that and from all of the nervous excitement before and after).  But the presentation??  I was great!  (quote from my prof, not self-aggrandizement, promise)

( you want the more than one paragraph version )

We were very responsible pet people and took the stray kittens that decided our house was great to the animal shelter today - this way they at least have a chance at a good home, since we can't adopt any more pets and they deserved it - but it was one of the hardest things I've had to do in a long time. 

My last goals today?  work on:
x gilesxander 's giles/xander fest postings
x roshomon translation
x abstract for the Thesis

I think it was Saturday Night Live that suggested the less Palin knows the cuter she gets, and good god did the woman have to start with a wink???  EEUGH.

I automatically hate everything that's coming out of her mouth (or am suspicious of it).  What I fear?  That the uninformed think that she's a straight talker who did just great.

Not the fucking "meet without preconditions" thing again.  OH MY GOD is that ALL you can come up with??

Ha, we're fighting terrorists, securing democracy and building schools in Afghanistan?? Please.  (at least Joe read the paper today about how the Surge won't work there)

I HATE her "oh gee, i'm just an outsider and i just don't get what you do".    Oh no, she's going to use the silly grin again... damn her.

Dude, McCain did NOT win the Vietnam war.  WTF?  He doesn't know how to win a war just because he has experience being a soldier.

my favorite quote from the peanut gallery - our couch - "according to her, International Policy is like a bar fight in Alaska"

Joe Biden, you kinda rocked it out.  Sadly, I'm pretty sure the polls are going to say that Palin did just fine - cuz as much as she said things I violently object to, she wasn't stupid.

( and now for State of the Kate )

from mechassninja

Leave a comment to this entry and I will answer the following (either truthfully or as artfully as i can)

a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
g) in return, you must post this on your own LJ.

Mom visit is good, continues until tomorrow, and overall was actually kind of active, what with the visit to Fredericksburg, the gardening plans we have tomorrow, and me dragging her to Uni to check out my classes and my performance.  (1)

I saw Tokyo Gore Police on Tuesday night (after going to my Kaplan class - test prep YAY) and it was not only gorey but kind of funny and fantastic.  Having the director do a Q&A afterwards was adorable and more entertaining ... and I think I actually understood his japanese.  Oh, and I got to ask him about Tetsuo and the dick drill since he had a giant mutated penis gun in his film.  (2, 3, 4)

Wednesday was exhausting but transcendently amazing since our department hosted mock-presentations for those of us doing conferences next month and I ROCKED it OUT (and manage to frighten my audience at the same time).  I dragged Mom and Daria along with and so not only got great feedback from the people there, but got my own private critiques from the family.  (5, 6)

We had ribs last night and I feel like my stomach has expanded two sizes from the food - but it was actually good, so hey, who am I to complain! (7)

I'm running on coffee fumes what with the emotional and mental juggling act of crazy school presentations and adding "hey, I'd like to hang out with my mom" into the mix.  I think I'll be collapsing this weekend.  Find me under the dictionary under over-caffinated heap. (8, 9, 10)

I'm giving my first conference talk October 4th, and my second Oct 10th (yep, one week apart), and so our department is putting together a mock presentation for those of us who are giving talks ... a dry run of sorts ... this Wednesday.

What that means is, along with the Mom-visit, I've been frantically writing my talk paper and sending the drafts to my adviser for her comments.  The first one, as usual, she doubled the length of the paper with her comments.  But it was, in her words, a promising start (big sigh of relief there!).  When I worked on it Saturday I kind of lost the plot a little, and then had an intense hour-long session with D on Sunday where she let me bounce ideas off of her and helped me actually get to the frigging point (and made Sunday a lot, lot better).  I revised again today, and sent it off to my adviser.

I got her comments on this evening and....

SHE LIKED IT!!  Not only liked it, her words were actually, "I think this is really excellent."

This is not a woman who hands out the praise.  I actually jumped up and down.  This time her comments?  They're more like someone who actually got into my argument and was nodding along and getting excited than comments about how I need to fix things.  It gives me serious hope.

i couldn't decide if i'm going to include the questions or not, cuz the whole "email me the questions" things seems laborious, but apparently I am a sheep (which really, sometimes is what meme-ing is all about isn't it?).

Rules:
1) Ask for the questions and you shall receive.
2) If you receive you must reciprocate.
3) Give only one name per answer (whoops, i messed this one up a little)

( 30 questions )

The mom (mine!) is here for a visit and so far it's been a lovely day - I dragged her to class with me, we had a great time, and then we goofed around the house while I half heartedly did translation.  It's going to be a bit of a weird visit since I'm pretty overwhelmed with work right now, but that's ok, because it's worth it just to spend time together. 

( The plan for the week (we'll see how this goes) )

the btvs one:
When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

It's kind of long, but it's one of my favorite exchanges, ever:

Buffy:  Does it ever get easy?
Giles: You mean life? 
Buffy:  Yeah, does it ever get easy?
Giles: What do you want me to say?
Buffy: Lie to me.
Giles:  Yes.  It's terribly simple.  The good guys are always stalwart and true.  The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day.  No one ever dies and everyone lives happily ever after.
Buffy: Liar.

the picture one:
from aesiron and elementalv :

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair. Just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with no editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

( just in case you don't want to see )

I was excited this morning - the first paper for the class I'm TAing was due today.  I was looking forward to seeing how people addressed the prompt, and I knew there were going to be some doozies, but considering the most I've had to do for this class so far was to create a sign in sheet, anticipation about doing work and earning my keep had gotten to me.

Until I started to read.  I cannot explain the bad.  Admittedly, it's the first paper, and most of them are probably freshmen or sophomores or people from non humanities disciplines.  Some of them may never have written a paper in their lives.  It shows.

I'm trying to be as fair as I can... in part because there are 70 of them and 1 of me, and if I spent the time on working through their I'd like to with each one of them?  I'd never do anything else again.  Even if I spent the time correcting each one the way I'd like it would take me more than a week. 

My solution, I think, will be to talk to my professor about putting up a "tips for writing your paper" sheet for the next one... and we'll see who actually uses it.  But I foresee an entire semester where I have to slog through these things.  Thank god they're mostly three pages long (and yes, the margins are all messed with, the text is turned up to a 14 ... or 13.5...or not times new roman.  It's so funny how patently obvious those little tricks are).

Still... it's kind of fun....

Getting sick is not productive.  And sure, you say, "I knew that already, trust me" but for me this last week has been an exercise in forced remembrance.  For a week I've felt as if I was pushing too hard trying to break through some invisible barrier of "behind" to get to the point where I'm ahead.

My rough draft of my conference paper was due today to my adviser (and if you count a draft without a conclusion I just sent it to her at 11:34 pm), translation of a page or so of text (of a fantastic little story called Hanabi [Fireworks] by Uchida Hyakken) was due in class Mon & Wed and it was a little painful to get through, along with the kanji quiz per day.  Plus I found myself taking an active role in the conference-from-hell planning, which meant I worked (probably too much) on things all last weekend while I still felt about 50%, then on sending emails.  Much needed relief came this afternoon when my grad seminar was canceled due to the hurricane (well, not due to the actual weather, but scheduling difficulties on the part of our prof) and while on the one hand I'm depressed that I didn't actually get the chance to prove i did the 200 or so pages of reading for this week's class, at least it's reading I won't have to re do next week.  And I worked on the paper.  And volunteered to co-chair the East Asian Studies graduate student stuff until I can get someone else to do it (which will be at some point, but right now it's monthly meetings -- and compared to the conference-from-hell monthly meetings are ... soooo far away).

the only way i've managed to be as productive as i have is through massive infusions of vitamins - a vita-C here, a double-boost jamba juice yesterday, b-monster Odwallas on tuesday and wednesday and m/w/f i've been a good little munchkin and had apple juice.  I don't think I've drunk this much juice this consistently since I was a kid.  Other than expensive, its not as bad as I remember it.

So this weekend?  I want to collapse.  Instead I need to get started on my abstract for my master's thesis.  Whew. 

OH, but about that?  has anyone ever heard of this movie [ tokyo gore police ] ... cuz i think it might work as a second text.  not cyberpunk though as far as i can tell (oh, and warning, the link is not for the faint of heart)

The Cyborg DB (from a UCSC class, haha), it has no content at the moment, but should be pretty interesting and worth looking at later.

And here's the Cyborgology 101 (from SJSU '06) that's got all kinds of academic sources on cyborgs and a nice little summary of Haraway too.

The IO9 "Where are my cybernetic implants" where they claim "Full disclosure - I'm a cyborg.  I wear corrective lenses and shoes that modify my feet appropriately for an urban evnironment.  It's not exactly Robocop, true, but according to the loosest definition, most of us already have a complicated relationship with technology blurring the line between "me" and "stuff"

Today for my day at fall_for_cordy I posted many many things :D

63 cordelia icons
9 cordy/xander icons
6 cordy/angel icons
5 cordelia headers/banners
3 cordelia color bars

teasers:   

( Thank you for making the right choice, and for showing me how much you all love me. Being this popular is not just my right, but my responsibility, and I want you to know I take it very seriously. )

coughing, hacking, throat sore.  not the kind of body to get a lot of work done with.   it's passing.  slowly.

And if you found that incredibly boring (and i can't imagine you didn't), consider signing up at these lovely areas of fun:

Giles/Xander October Fest!  (at gilesxander )
A celebration of all things Giles/Xander

Welcome to the Nancy Tribe (at ruuger 's lj)
a Giles, Spike & Wesley ficathon ... signups close today!

i have been deeply amused today by the troll post on lkh_lashouts

i remembered to take a spoonful of b-complex today and WHOA it was actually wonderful having energy for a change - i feel like an an energy drink commercial without the crash - but I hope I can sleep.

i am appalled by Amy Goodwin's arrest and the fact that you can't even get a hit to Democracy Now! from Google news.  This story is BURIED, and it's really really creepy.  Makes me believe in the concept of a media conspiracy for sure.

i am reading about Mori Ogai.  And Maeda Ai.  And they are hawt.  Well, in an intellectual, modernist kind of way.

i got an email back from a tokyo cyberpunk prof I emailed!!!!  I'm like a fangirl in scholarly clothing.  In his last line he actually took my bait about looking for a Phd program and told me I should go there.  I'm trying to set my sights slightly higher, but hey, it's a fall back school in case my GRE scores are that crap.

i ran the stupid conference meeting today.  But at least we were done in about an hour and I didn't get so annoyed I couldn't stand anyone in the room... just mildly annoyed that they insisted on having the doughnuts vs. bagels debate during the damn meeting.  For 20 minutes.  Count them, 20.  Imagine how efficient it would have been if they could've, you know, not worried about which kind of pastries to have in the morning right in front of the rest of us.

i'm done.  lol.

first off, I had no idea this existed:

ISBNdb.com
Yep, for all of your ISBN searches.  It's slow, but ... it's there.  And I'm kind of stoked.  In a completely nerdy way.  So of course I immediately look for Japanese science fiction. 

( Now for the books )

first things first, elizabuffy and lilianvaldemyer (and any other Willow/Tara shippers on my flist) you should go check out this beautiful and heartrending W/T picspam by mouthfullofdust ... it goes through all of their time together through the whole show.

( second, it was my beloved's birthday!!  )

( third, school, oh you (planning, rants, annoyances) )

* I'm starting to actually do research this semester.  And sadly, I already have a massive, overwhelming list of bookmarks... so it's not really constructive of me to keep everything there.  Instead I thought I'd put them in my LJ, that way I have a chance in heck of remembering what I found and why it's important.  We'll see how it goes.  I'll try to put everything behind a cut so no one is bombarded with long lists.  And who knows?  some of you might like this stuff, right?

( round up- searches for Japanese Sci Fi )

In my usual fantastic way I found out today that I start school tomorrow (instead of the time I thought - Friday).  Just in the nick of time!  Luckily I managed to hid my start of surprise since I was in a meeting for the class I'm TAing, trying to sound competent.  Hopefully I skidded just under their radar. 

( It is going to be an interesting semester )

Wow, when I write it all out ... it's not a small list.  And that's just the big stuff!

64 Giles Icons
   

( Whoa, Giles has a TV. Everybody, Giles has a TV. He's shallow like us. )

teasers for the wallpapers:
 

( I had very definite plans about my future. I was going to be a fighter pilot. Or possibly a grocer. )

( august thru sept )

someone absolutely lovely nommed my tribute wallpaper for mirielle719 's Sleep While I Drive series at the Bodice Ripper Awards!  Thank you, you sweet person!


and... I got notified today that I won for best wallpaper (for my tribute wallpaper for lostgirlslair 's Second Glances) at the Running With Scissors Awards (rwsawards )!


Congrats to lostgirlslair , entrenous88 , wesleysgirl , purplefeen , and soft_princess on their RSA awards too!!

From my summer_of_giles posting day - the fic tributes, in their entirety (gushing included)...

Set I:
This is another open love letter.  I seem to be sending them out a lot lately, but that's because there's plenty of love in this fandom, and I couldn't leave Giles out of it.  For those of you who saw my spring_with_xan posts, you'll know what I'm talking about.

For those of you who didn't, I wanted to create graphics for my favorite Giles stories and for my favorite Giles authors.  It's going slowly, but this post today will hopefully reflect a little of the fangirl adoration I share for two radically different but equally amazing authors mireille719  and janedavitt.  Both of have a habit of writing the Giles I fell in love with, and yet both bring their own interpretations of his personality to the front so much so that I fall in love with him all over again after reading their fics.

Behind the cut you'll find links to wallpapers that include some of my favorite lines from each fic, so you can enjoy the memory of the fic even when you're not reading it!  And, of course, links to each fic in question so you can read them if you're so inclined!

( here are two tributes that hopefully show how grateful I am )

Set II:
There are some fics that stay with me, with sound or shape or form. Sometimes they're richly textured enough that they leave an indelible imprint on me.  Doesn't matter how long the fic.  Sometimes it just takes a couple of words. 

So below the cut you'll find my adoration for savoytruffle and lostgirlslair and glimmergirl expressed via images (paltry, but hey, it works), and a couple of fics that, if you haven't read them, you really really need to check them out.

( this way to the three tributes that hopefully get close to the fics they're based on )

I admit it, I dropped the posting ball!  Because I'm actually back home, and have been for a day or so.  Jet lag is either catching up with me or hopefully almost done with me - I slept twelve hours last night and when I woke up I still felt like I could sleep some more.

My last couple of days in Tokyo were filled with preparation - for the end of the semester, for my two finals, and for the trip home.  A month in Tokyo was perfect - I was ready to either get on the plane or stay there (and since getting on the plane was my option ... *grin*).  Finals were taken on Friday,  questions answered in both classes, oral exam discussed, all of that good stuff, and then I headed back to the apt to pack and rest a little.  Because even though they're summer classes I actually put some effort into them and I wanted to do well! 

Saturday night was the perfect ending to this whole journey - I met Gabriel and his friend for kaitenzushi and then later drinks in Ni-choume, we had a fantastic time and mostly ignored the boys hitting on Gabriel and talked goofy fantastic stuff until we needed to catch our trains.  I can honestly say that one of the things that made this summer trip so great was having Gabriel as a companion. 

So, good friends, great classes, a school that actually had interesting activities and me better able to manage myself (since I think last year I didn't say no when I should have) and it all combined to equal greatness (well, greatness with a dirty bathroom.  *grin*)

( the last of the piccies!! )

Coming home was a wonderful blur - I got to the airport early but not as early as I thought since I had to repack my suitcase twice to get it under the weight limit, and then it was 10 hours in a middle seat on the airplane with two crying children in the rows in front of me (thus I did not sleep - but watched movies with the sound turned way way up).  Getting off the plane in LA my darling M was there to pick me up and whisk me away to the Malibu Beach House (and yes, it really was in Malibu, it really was on the beach, and it really was absolutely wonderful).  It's a tradition that the house gets rented every summer by our friends or their parents, and this summer was no different.  I got on the porch, was handed a round of hugs, and then a drink, and we watched the waves roll in as the bbq got warm.  I may not have been able to string a coherent sentence together, but I cannot imagine a better place to ... not string coherent sentences together.

That night M put me to bed and left me a key, and I got to wake up and have breakfast the next morning with M2 and then hop on the air shuttle for ... that most wonderful of places... home.

It's 12 midnight my time, and I'm supposed to be in bed, sleeping, so I'm doing a drive by post with links instead of full thoughts.  Will come back, soon!

Monday afternoon I saw two kabuki performances at KABUKI-ZA!!  Kabuki rocks when there are demons in it!

Tuesday I ran down to Akihabara for more kaiten-zushi (see previous post for link to that) and some present buying, then went to an Izukaiya with my rommie B and ate bite size chicken skin and livers and stuff and had my first sake in Japan on this trip

Wednesday was my last tutoring session, and after I took myself off to Yasukuni Jinja and found the best thing about the place, for me, was the little koi garden in the back.  (pictures forthcoming, promise).  After that I went to Ikebukuro for my first American fast food in Japan - KFC and did some shopping and met a school friend H for coffee and cigarettes.

THEN, I spent the rest of the night reading our homework assignment for class and:

EVERYONE INTERESTED IN ALTERNATIVE FICTION (i'm talking new forms of writing), please check this out - it was a sensation in Japan.  It's a supposedly true story from a single-men's BBS (online forum) in Japan - this guy was worried about asking a girl out on a date.  The BBS of single men (they call themselves poison men because they're the kind of guys who, here, are expecting to be geeky confirmed bachelors their entire lives) gave advice to the guy and basically coached / followed his story.  So, this happened on a forum right?  Well, the owner / mod of the forum compiled the threads into one single narrative, and then it was consumed by millions in Japan.  AND THEN.  they printed a book that is the *exact* same thing you can get on line... and know what?  It sold in the MILLIONS.  I sound like add copy, but it blows me away that the thing that most of us take for granted is our daily life online ... and it was published as a  new form of media and not only sold, but was one of the most popular books of the year here.  Also?  A TV series AND a Movie and I think also a manga and WHOAH.  That's a lot of readers.

I want to write more about alternative writing forms, but have to stop gushing.  Check it out here:  TRAIN MAN  電車男

Today!  Today G & I got together after my class and went to Ueno Park: the National Museum, and also the old black market of Japan that used to be right next door (it's now not a black market, but a market, still!).  And I had falafel that was FANTASTIC and should be on a show about Tokyo - a $5 falafel.  MMMM.  Then we finally, after two previous abortive attempts, saw the new Batman movie and ... well, it just about blew the top of my head off with the goodness.  Even though I was supposed to go home right after we stopped and got some food so that we could discuss because AH! there was so much to talk about!

tomorrow (friday) i'll try and put up the pictures - studying for my finals on saturday, yay, and then on Sunday I depart for LA!

(and this is what I call a short post)

Tueday's child:  Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging)!

Well, I know the rules of one school of flower arranging!!  The Sensei did 7 different arrangements, including one gigantic tree that was ... colossal.  They gave us the opportunity to make our own ... in a group of 5.  The thing I learned?  Ikebana is not suitable as a group pastime by any stretch of the imagination.  I basically sat back and let other people cut the flowers because it wasn't worth it to bicker over the heights.

( Some of the highlight pictures )


Wednesday... I studied.  Got ahead in my reading.  Waited for a friend to drop off his suitcases in my room since he's just finishing a year in Japan and is headed to Okinawa for diving.  At first we were going to meet at 5, then at 8, then at 10, then at 10:20, then finally 11 pm rolled around and he made it to our station.  Funnily enough I didn't really hold it against him - it was still lovely to a familliar and dear face even if it was only long enough for him to lug his luggage from the station to my room.

Thursday... Sophia put on a Rakugo performance - a one man comic who made us laugh for about an hour, even though he'd learned english from tapes that he'd put together to get the intonation down.  Pretty impressive, and since the guy's full time job is as a musical signer his voice and range was incredible.

Tried to see the Batman movie with my friend, but sadly we misjudged the date and it wasn't playing at the movie theatre we went to. So we went to Ni-choume (the gay district in tokyo) and had some drinks and talked instead. All in all a totally pleasant evening.

Friday's child:  Nekobukuro!  (Kitty-town)

Friday afternoon a friend from school and I decided we'd go pay to pet kittens!  Hey, when you go through pet withdrawal, you'll do anything to catch up.  The cats were absolutely beautiful, and some were even sleeping down close enough that we could actually pet them (sadly, no picking up).

( So, the kitties looked like this... )

Last night I got a roommate!  A friend from Texas needed a place to crash for a couple of days, so now I have a roomie - and last night was his night to grin and goof around with his Tokyo friends (and he of course invited me and the friend from school).  We landed in one of those tiny places in Shibuya that makes fantastic food and brings you lots of drinks (all of which are... well, not as cheep as they could be).  Hilariously some of Blake's friends had opted not to take the class I TA'd for in fall.  Apparently talking about Harry Potter on the first day of an adaptation class is a no no according to them.  Other than not taking my class, they were quite lovely people and I had a great time.  Oh, and I had a mahi-mahi / avacado salad to die for!  Sadly I pooped out at about 11:30 pm - getting up at 6 am really puts a crimp in your ability to stay awake until a decent hour.  I split off from the group as they moved to a dance club and managed to catch the last train home (yay for trains!)

Saturday's adventures:  Vampire Cafe!!

Today, after my tutorial I met up with my gothy school friend and we went to Ginza to go to the swankiest goth place ever - a Vampire cafe!  The menu was hilarious, we ate in a velvet-draped alcove, had to ring a bell every time we wanted service, and it was actually really good food (not the kitchy kind you'd expect from a themed place in the states, to be sure!)

( Check it out! )

and now.... to bed!! 

xxxooo

there's a man I see on my way home from school sometimes, a small and thin bent-backed, white-haired man who has a container garden.  A little gray fence screens a square meter of green, with a long-needled pine tree and another leafy vine reaching into the alleyway.  But outside of the perimeter of the fence is where the containers lie.  Three days ago I swore he was pulling carrots from one small pot, and yesterday he was trimming dead leaves off of his geraniums.  Each pot is hardly bigger than the plants I used to have on our porch in LA, although he probably has fifteen pots, some bunched together in one small space like little terraces, four others strung out along the outside of the fence with late-summer plants growing valiantly in the summer humidity.  It's a marker for me, when coming back home, that I'm more than halfway back to my little room - a place to set my burdens down and cool off from the sweating, sweltering, cloying heat of the day (no matter how cold the air conditioners on the trains run they barely cut through the air).

( but my recent days have been less filled with quiet things )

And now, since I haven't taken pictures, but I succumbed to the temptation of snapping away while at Meiji Shrine, the three pictures that I actually liked from the bunch.

( they're not too bad, for touristy pictures )

Ikebana (flower arranging) tomorrow. Possibly movie Thursday night, and a friend from Texas is coming to stay with me on the weekend!

I just had this pizza



for breakfast, at a Coco's Restaurant (Coco's Japan, mind you).  And it was ... really good. bbq pork on one side and panchetta & sausage on the other.The only thing that would have made it better was corn.

Scintillating things have happened to me since the last time I posted.  Absolutely scintillating.  Or titillating?  Possibly dizzying or dazzling.  Ok, I'll stop with the thesaurus and the sarcasm.  Especially since it wasn't the most exciting of the last couple of days. 

( The highlights have been: )

No new pictures though.  I suppose at some point I'll take my camera to school with me and take pictures of the campus, but as of right now I'm kind of settling in to life.  Perhaps there will be some great Harajuku girls who want to be photographed tomorrow!

Ok, so... anybody ever read anything about a place in Tokyo and wanted to go there? I'm looking for things to do and I've gone through a bunch of the travel brochures and websites, and I thought... why not ask the online friends? So, if you've heard of someplace that you think is a must see, I want to go see it!

Let me know in a comment, and if you have a link to the place description that's a bonus!

Time ran away from me yesterday a little bit, and it was a fuller day than I expected.  We had our orientation for summer school - big differences from last year's program - this one actually gave us student ID's, we have access to the Sophia computers/library/internal internet, and generally the whole thing went off like a well oiled (of a sort) machine.  They've been doing this summer program for years and it shows.  There are about 200 people in my program (up from last year's 80 or so), and we all sort of wandered around introducing ourselves to each other in piecemeal fashion...dribbles of hometown, or major, or Japanese experience, or just who found a way to buy a phone or not.  Most people in the program seem really young, but we'll see how that sorts itself out as we get into classes. 

As a fantastic bonus for showing up at school for the orientation (well, and as one of the planned activities) we were herded onto four buses and driven down to the port so we could take a cruise up the Sumida river to Asakusa.  The river was beautiful and possibly slightly cooler than the rest of the city, and I started talking with a couple of people from my bus (Japanese natives taking the non-Japanese classes for summer credit).  We arrived in Asakusa and they gave us the option of sticking with the tour or heading off on our own.  I stuck with them for about 15 minutes, until I couldn't stand hearing one more word that I already know about temples and fortunes and the whole shuffle-shuffle-snap picture-shuffle  process of being in a group on a tour.  Not that it's not interesting, but I think there's one generic spiel about the functions of temples, how to cleanse yourself, how people gift their prayers, and I heard it three or four times last time I was here.  I want to get a religious specialist to come with me someday and tell me about each temple's distinctive personality, but until then I'd rather walk through the temples and the stalls of food and touristy things (Mom, I got one of your requests already!) on my own.  That's how I found the Buddhas at the end of the first set of photos.

After that I took myself home and managed to save some money not taking the train all the way back from the school.  Talked to my darling man on the interwebs (much better access this year) and got ready to get up at an ungodly hour in the morning.

( And here you go, the pictures of the day )

Today was more exciting for me but less exciting to read about, since classes probably aren't interesting unless you're actually in them.  Japanese looks like it's going to be great, and my literature of Tokyo class is going to be fantastic - a smart woman from University of Washington is teaching. When she heard about my major interests she promptly gave me the name of someone on their faculty who does a cyberpunk class.  Yippee for making connections in Tokyo!  While sitting around / having lunch / etc I also managed to read the book we're reading last in the class, so I'm already ahead of schedule on day one. And I may have a class buddy or two - there are three really sweet German students, two of whom are in my Japanese class, and then one in my lit class, and we talked a bunch today.

I decided to spend another hour or so walking around my neighborhood instead of freezing this evening while watching a Noh play (school activity, yay). Every time I ride the train back to my stop I see these pretty flower streamers hung up on the north side of streets leading away from the train station, so I decided to follow them.  Turns out there's a little shopping district down there with more bookstores, cds, kimonos, groceries, and everything else that seems to be found on every other corner here, but I had a lovely time and took a couple of pictures worth sharing.


( My neighborhood - a couple of streets )

and finally, since *someone who shall not be named* yelled at me for using photos from last year as my Japan icons, I have a couple of new icons from the things I'm posting today... *neener, neener, neener*  ;)

when buying yogurt in Japan be very careful to not only look at the picture on the yogurt container, but also be on the lookout for the tiny label that says アロイ (aloe) because it is not a pleasant experience when expecting only blueberries to be eating yogurt with blueberry and small chunks of aloe.  My tongue feels funny now.

Since I have the leisure to do so this year, I thought I'd start posting pictures now instead of waiting forever and posting them in one massive overwhelming bunch.  Besides, my day wasn't so exciting as I pretty much managed to

a) find my way to my school campus, which may take up to 45 min to get to from door to door - but on the good side one of the administrators was actually there and informed me I don't have to be on campus until 9 am tomorrow instead of 8:30 (yay!)
b) eat lunch at a little cafe
c) go to Rikugien Koen (Rikugien Gardens).  The garden reproduces in miniature 88 scenes from famous poems - although I didn't actually wander around to every single scene, I did see a bunch, and all of them were beautiful.
d) discover the "little" grocery store in my neighborhood is actually a 5-story ... department store with a food component in the bottom.  I got dinner and an alarm clock!  And I'm seriously thinking about going back to the housewares section to get myself a second comforter, since I'm actually using my first one as padding because the mattress is so lumpy.

( To start off the photo tour, you get the neighborhood I'm living in as seen from my 4th floor window. )


( Now, photos from my garden adventures )

Finally, once I got back home this afternoon it had started to rain, including lightening and thunder that I could see in the distance reflecting off the buildings.  At one point the sunset turned everything an almost starteling deep yellow-orange color, and low and behold, I saw a rainbow! 

( That's right folks, a rainbow over Tokyo. )

So there you have it - day two in all it's glory.  I'm sacking out early tonight with a movie and some JapanesePodcast language lessons to get ready for class tomorrow, after which I will continue my search for a cell phone (which was, again, the only thing on my personal agenda that didn't get done today).  I checked online and it appears there are only *certain locations* where I can pick one of these suckers up, or I have to order it online and get it mailed to me.  So I'll be heading to the depths of (or possibly wilds of?) Shibuya in search of the mythical pre-paid cell.

I'm in Tokyo!!  And it's fantastic.  After two and a half days of visit with my dad & stepmom, and then another two day visit with my mom, and a night spent at Hawk & Miranda's house (all of which were amazing and fabulous and just good in multiple ways that I won't try to describe here) I got on an airplane and arrived in this city!

( Not only that, when I landed last night I managed to get myself to my lodging, jet lag and all.  )

Anyway, my day started great and ended great, despite the frustration of the phone in between, and I'm going to bed happy.  I'm also hoping to get myself out to one of Tokyo's gardens tomorrow to walk around - it's been pretty hot here so it might not be the best time to see it, but supposedly it's actually a bunch of mini gardens who were all planned / inspired around a series of poems.   Oh, and Gabriel showed me this fantastic grammar book that he's working through that I really want to get, so perhaps a bookstore visit?  We shall see.

So, this is my last post before I head off to California before I head off to Japan.  I don't know if I'll have internet while in CA because the parents ... well, one of them does, and the other is doing dial up and I have lost the patience I used to have with it.  Besides, I kinda want to hang out with them a lot.  And then... JAPAN!

I'm sure I'll be boring you all with posts once I get there, as this year I'm supposed to have much better (and more reliable) internet access.  But until then, in the words of the goofy reprobates (and I seriously hope they don't remake this movie): Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!


OH, and PS, for all you Cordelia lovers?


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I almost hate to do this, because looking back over the list I realized why I love my friends list... it's because all of you are fabulous people and I could pretty much write books about your wonderfulness.  At the same time, when I looked at each of the 34 usernames on this list and thought about a sentence that could describe that person?  These are what I came up with

( Which one are You?  Well, you are to me )