RIP

Daul Kim! What happened?

(@_@)

gimme some adderol for the next week or two.

Fuji-Q

Fuji-kyu Highland on Sunday?

Also, I am officially broke.

Rainy day thoughts

I don't mean to turn this into a fashion blog (or do I?) or whatever but as I was looking for rain boots today, I remembered that I'm not particularly fond of rain boots. No, I will not settle for anything less than these. oh baby. If you find these anywhere, let me know. I just want to be a vision of grey.

I've got big plans.

I'm finding it a lot harder to blog in Tokyo than it was in Philly. But I'm doing it now as a way to procrastinate from writing term papers and also to remind myself of these big plans of mine. So far, I've stayed in Tokyo, with the exception of a day-excursion to Yokohama. So here's what I'm thinking.

Nov 6-8: Kanazawa area in Ishikawa Prefecture (right after a Lightning Bolt show!).
Nov 12: Tokyo Disney Land
Nov 14-15: Nagoya and Hamamatsu
Nov 27-29: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara. Although I should do this on the 20-23 since I've got that Thanksgiving holiday, but Battles is playing on the 21 so I don't know..
Sometime during weekend of Dec 4-6: Hakone onsen/ryokan trip. OMG LAST WEEKEND can you believe dat ish?



And apparently we only have one full week of school left, so I still want to make it out to a few places in Tokyo on my days off. Everyone is scrambling to make plans for the remaining weekends. kind of looks like we're all going our separate ways but I'm looking forward to it.

Edit: I want every single pair of United Nude shoesies. check the new collection.

Shows

GAH! I missed Autolux in Philly on 9/9 - the last time they toured was almost 5 years ago. And I will be missing Tim Hecker on 11/21 and Do Make Say Think on 11/30. However, I will be seeing Fennesz next week, Lightning Bolt on 11/13, and BATTLES on 11/21 in TOKYO!

Edit: Also, Mew will be in Philly on Nov 30. painful.

Irrrrrashaimase!

Let's see. everyone rides a cool bike. no one locks their bikes. parks galore. the city is immaculately clean, despite the sparse placement of trashcans. the trash don't stink. little doggies in little rain boots. 7/11s that aren't grimy. pasmo. elevator doors that close as soon as you press the close button. city-wide 5:00 dinner call. school children with sailor hats and square backpacks. stray cats, not stray dogs. stray cats with stubby tails. homeless people who don't ask for money. man purses. smap. punctual subway trains. shimokitazawa. men in uniforms. indian food/HUGE nan. happy hour at junkadelic. the occasional gaijin stare. mcnuggets after an all nighter in shibuya. kawaii culture. being LEGAL. my alien registration card (I really do look like an alien). oktober fest in september. the view from mori biru. deciphering engrish.

I've been in Tokyo for 1 month, 2 weeks, which means there are about 2 months left. NOT MUCH TIME AT ALL. My motherboard is fried and I'm using a makeshift tablet computer so I don't have any pictures for you at the moment &&& I am sorry that it took so long to update.

Japan has been totally good to me and I was seriously considering trying to stay the rest of the school year but I don't think this is a realistic plan. I'm really jealous of all the kids I've spoken to who have already been in Tokyo for five years. I met a bunch of people who originally only intended to stay for a semester but ended up staying for three years, so I thought it would be cool if I could be one of them but I think for now I should stick to the plan of going back in December. It's just that I really want to be here. I don't know if I can come back if I don't stay now. Not to say that I don't have my issues with Japan. For instance, race is a huge deal here. To be honest it's not really something I thought about that often in America. I feel like I have assimilated to American culture pretty well, too well in fact, and so I've lost a lot of my Chinese identity. I still identify as an ethnically Chinese person, but as a Chinese-American. The first things that most Japanese people have asked me are "Where are you from? What race are you?" I say that I'm a Chinese person from America. And every single one of them thought that meant that I'm half white. The concept of Asian-American or African-American or whatever is lost on a lot of people here, even people who go to TUJ, which was really surprising to me. Then some people started telling me that I look half white, which made me feel really weird for awhile. People either told me I looked Japanese or that I look half white; it's very strange. But apparently a lot of people, especially the younger generation, view half white/half Japanese people as very attractive and a lot of them are employed by the entertainment business. So maybe they think I'm super attractive (wishful thinking).

Well I have plenty to say about Japan but I think I will save it for another time. 3-day weekend is here and I think it'll be a good one. Another thing I love about Japan is all the holidays that give us days off from school. chyeah.. I will leave you with my favorite cell phone picture - passed out pops and passed out baby at the zoo.