T O K Y O & L I F E: March 2010

ALRIGHTTTTTTTT

So what has been happening in January and February... and March

Moving, Korea, Snowboarding, and Random Stuff

all my pics are on the very bottom by the way

Moving!!

Let me first talk about where I used to live, and where I live now. I used to live at a small place in Aobadai with my DORMIE friends. Aobadai is about 30 minutes from Shibuya aka Civilization (where I could walk to school), and also happens to be on the Train Line called "Denentoshisen" which translates to "Crammed in a Train with Fat Old Japanese Men Who Have Sneezes That Could Deafen a Man Line"

Aobadai was pretty nice. It had a nice little smoothie bar at the station (about 5 bucks for a smoothie the size of a "Tall" at Starbucks) and also had a shopping mall. I'm gonna miss my dormie lovers, but I have to move on. Move on to the Kooch Gooch, or, "Mizonoguchi." I live here now, with my roomie Sam. Not only is this place bigger (pics below), cheaper ($550/mo compared to almost $800/mo at Aobadai), but there is no bullcrap curfew. My roomie, Sam, happens to be a game lover like myself. He came well prepared with a Xbox 360, FFXIII PS3, sticks for both, and SF4. Not to mention a nice little HD TV.

Our place was kind of a wreck when we moved in. I wish I took pictures. We spent days scrubbing the entire house, having to buy things like light bulbs, curtains, an entire bed, and lots of other random things. Don't get me wrong, we did get super hooked up by the people who used to live here (Alena, Spencer, and Heather). Fridge, washer, sofa, desks, and lots of kitchen stuff. But let me tell you about that sofa...

The sofa, at a glance, looked like it was clean. Maybe a little stain here and there, but overall good. Me and Sam later found out that the stains were actually LOTS OF VERY TIGHTLY PACKED DIRT in the damn sofa. I don't know that happened.. maybe they found it at the junk yard? Anyways, we cleaned it as much as possible, and threw a blanket over it.

Our place is 15 minutes from the station, which gets a bit annoying since all the important things (grocery shopping, arcades etc) takes 30 min round trip. HOWEVER, it takes only 12 minutes to get to civilization aka Shibuya!

OTHER THAN MOVING..

Spring Break officially started on Feb. 5th for me, and Spring Break will officially end around the middle of April. That's right... 2 months of Spring Break. I made plans to go to Korea with Akane, and my friend invited me to go Snowboarding in Nagano (my first time). Both were experiences... some good...some bad.

Let's talk about KOREA

I went to Seoul, Korea, in what was supposed to be a 3 day package deal that Akane found via H.I.S. (I know these guys... I always buy tickets from them) However.. I've never bought a ticket + hotel deal from them.

The deal was this: For $300, you get to spend 3 days in Korea, as well as staying at a REALLY NICE hotel for 2 nights. Pretty damn nice deal! I was super excited. I have never been to Korea, and I felt like I was visiting Japan for the first time all over again.

So when we got the itinerary, we were kind of shocked. We got jipped aka shafted aka RIPPED OFF. Our 3 days consisted of this: 1st day - Arrival at 4pm at the airport, 6pm at the hotel. 2nd day - This was an actual day. 3rd day - Bus to take us to the airport leaves at 7am. THREE DAYS MY ASS

But we weren't going to let this ruin our 1.2 days in Korea... oh no. On the way to the hotel from the airport, we were recommended a "Massage" from the H.I.S. company. The deal was this: 1.5 hour massage for about 50 bucks. Not bad! We asked for something cheaper, but they were very clear in their response by saying that we will definitely NOT find anything cheaper in Korea. So, we said OKAY!

Akane and I arrived at the hotel, tossed our luggage in the room, and took the free bus from the hotel to the MASSAGE parlor. I had high expectations... I mean, a Korean massage sounds so legit. When we arrived, we found out that we had to go out separate ways - This was already bad news. If I had to go to a MEN ONLY part of the parlor, that meant that ONLY MEN were going to massage me. I convinced myself that men are stronger and it might feel a little better (I REALLY tried convincing myself).

First, they tell me to get butt-naked. Alright, done. They tell me to go wash my body in the shower, and go in the sauna, and repeat that over and over. So I did that for 30 minutes. So there went 30 minutes...

I was then shown to a room with a very lively Korean guy. This story only gets gayer. So if you are already gayed out, then just stop reading.

He takes this rag... kind of like something you would use to wash yourself in the shower. Except for this rag wasn't nice and soft and snuggly... it was like SANDPAPER.

He shredded the SHIT out of my arms, legs, back, neck, and ASS. This hurt so bad. It continued for about 20 minutes, until he showed me the rag - full of skin. I don't want to say it was all DEAD skin, because I'm pretty sure he ripped some nice new skin off my back as well. Well, it kind of relaxed me... knowing that he's not just trying to torture my body. After that, he used one of those things that shred the dead skin off your heel. He did it for about 2 minutes, and it was crazy... something good for a change. In case you don't know, my feet are beautiful... none of that dead skin stuff. But he managed to do find some. After that, he said "You want other foot?" 2000 yen! (20 bucks). Um, no thanks. ....SHIT! So my left heel is like shredded up, and the other one is fine and untouched... I feel so damn weird. That piece of crap just should have asked me before he did ONE FOOT. #($*@#($@#($H

After that, he oil massages my upper back and neck for 15 minutes. It just felt like a slip'n'slide on my neck. And after that.... He said "Owari!!" which means "Done!" in Japanese. Done? Done with the bullshit? Time to start the real massage? Done??? He guided me to the shower room, where I begun to take the most painful shower of my life.

Complete BULLSHIT. After waiting for Akane to be done with her massage, we finally ended up in lobby, gave each other the "look." You know, the "Oh, we both know what the f*ck just happened" look. I also found out that Akane got it worse than me - Her shoulders were slightly scabbed up from the sandpaper-rag-thing.

After that massage, we treated ourselves to some delicious Korean BBQ. It was pretty damn legit - I was kind of curious why everyone in Korea was speaking Japanese or English to us though. Anyways, it didn't bother me. The Kimchi had some spice from hell that made us cry, and take long ass breaks after each bite. We had enough... found our way back to the hotel, and cried ourselves to sleep.

The next day was actually fun - We met up with long-lost childhood friends, Jennifer and Julia. They are sisters who used to live next to me in the 4th grade, but moved away. We cruised around Korea, and learned a few things. One being that we could have found a WAY CHEAPER massage in Korea, and they were telling us BS. We also found out that we were only in the part of Korea where all the foreigners, especially Japanese, go. DAMNNN IT. On the bright side..Jennifer treated us to a kick ass Korean BBQ, had some coffee, walked around, and called it a night. The next morning, we found ourselves at the airport.

Oh, let me rant really quick (like I haven't been for the past page). There was this fat Korean girl at the airport working at a smoothie place. All I wanted was a smoothie. Just a smoothie. After a long, strange vacation, I just wanted a smoothie. JUST A SMOOTHIE. No attitude. I went to the counter and found out the smoothie names. Each smoothie had a description, but it was in Korean. Only the name of the smoothie was in Japanese. So I asked her what they were! AND SHE GAVE ME AN EVIL STARE FROM HELL, followed by a long SIGHHHHHH. Like JESUS CHRIST LADY. You work in an AIRPORT. INTERNATIONAL. I gave her my evil stare back, but I think I just look constipated instead..
Anyways, that was Korea. Strange indeed...

Snowboarding was tight!!!!!!!

I really enjoyed it, and I picked it up pretty quickly. I went to Nagano for 3 days with friends, and finally went snowboarding. I took lots of crazy pics, and I am thrilled that I happen to live in SD. Next winter I am definitely boarding.

Well, a few more weeks until school starts. I don't know my schedule yet, but I'll post it soon. I still haven't found a REAL JOB yet. I currently teach English to this businessman, who Akane thinks is a Yakuza (Japanese Mafia). I don't mind... as long as he pays up! 30 dollars per hour ain't bad

Random stuff I want to talk about:

I don't know if its me, but I seem to be unable to avoid people when they walk towards me. Like, the "I go left, you go right" mentality that you sense when you walk towards people. They kinda just walk towards me and stop. I've gotten frustrated once and did one of those "Football jukes" to one of the guys...

Gyms in Japan cost about 80~130 dollars a month. Of course, it is amazing, but honestly, that price is just too much. I wanted to try one, and asked for a day pass. 30 bucks for a day pass. Tried another gym... 40 bucks for a day pass. My school gym is about to collapse, but its free... I'll stick to the school gym.

Oh yeah, in Japan, they have WHITE DAY, which is the opposite of Valentines day, but in Japan Valentines day is the opposite of Valentines day in the USA. Wait.... what? Okay let me explain. In the USA, on V-day, guys give girls stuff (generally) but on Japan's V-day, girls give guys stuff! Schwing!!! But, they have White Day, on March 14. On that day, guys give girls stuff. So, I got a nice little gift planned...buehehehe!

PICTURESSS

Hallway to my house. Right door is Sam's room, Left doors are bathroom and shower

FOOD PLACE

Our living room... a little empty, but not bad at all

My bootyful room

The bootyful toilet

Sam's setup

When the huge earthquake hit Chile, every channel on TV had tsunami warnings.

All it was was a damn logo pasted on EVERY CHANNEL.

SF4 Tourney - Girls Section - They were hella good

PRIZES

Tokido winning at 5am

Me Akane and Jennifer in KOREA

Waitin in Nagano...

Sheena's goodbye party!

Taking a break from snowboarding...

GAME FACE ON

what did i do...

Paranormal activity

Kids makin snowballsss

Quick learner!

Tryin to look badass

Town in Nagano

Amazingggg view at the top of the mountain before flying down it

TEAM AOGAKU

Rachel Brian Devin and Sheena

yeah right..

KOREA

Korea was insanely COLD.. negative 7c?

Picture at the massage place. I think what it is trying to say is "The right side is your body before the massage, and the left side is your body after we scrub it"