coika :|: love song [entries|friends|calendar] j-mee +++ coika inspired by "Love Song", by the band Kuroyume the stats name; jamie (j-mee) age; 24 birthday; august 7th zodiac; leo bloodtype; o+ hails from; texas, u.s.a. residing in; shizuoka, japan yay colors; earthy tones, red foods; tex-mex, italian, cheesecake, ebi chili artists; clazziquai, hamasaki ayumi, közi, janne da arc, jealkb, kiyoharu, kuroyume, malice mizer, no doubt, psycho le cému, rihanna, sia, the romeo, utada hikaru, + etc. t.v.; law & order, reno 911!, nepleague brands; dip drops, pageboy, vivienne westwood nay irked by; laziness, liars, natto, reality t.v., louis vuitton, waking up early, shitty drivers frequented sites eslprintables facebook gaijinpot gaijin smash közi mbok the ROMEO surf the channel credits layout coding/design by ljlayouts.org & edited by me [ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ] [ calendar | livejournal calendar ]

Friends, & etc. [Sunday, Jun 21st, 2020 @ 9:25pm] [ mood | relax mode ] [ music | Sia - Girl You Lost to Cocaine ] My journal is 95% public, 5% friends only. Feel free to add me and I'll add back whether we share interests or not as long as... o1. you try to put large stuff behind a cut (just because you think that honker picture of legolas is special enough not to deserve a cut, probably it isn't.) o2. are fine with the fact that I may not comment much (most of the time I can't think of anything interesting to say, but I do read my FL posts!) o3. are OK with posts that aren't 100% happy all the time (I try to keep the drama llama out, but hey everyone has their bad days.) It would also be nice if you commented if you add me. If you don't it might take me awhile to figure out I've been added. 21 *comment * mem? * link

Dewdrops on the windowsill. [Saturday, Jan 23rd, 2010 @ 4:46pm] [ mood | indifferent ] [ music | Amuro Namie - Copy That ] A lazy Saturday. I've been up since 7:30 just lounging around in the futon reading. Got up at various annoyances like the doorbell ringing, Dakota attacking my feet and scaring the crap out of me, and running out of tissues after a sneeze attack. One of the mailmen in particular could probably read the frustration on my face at wanting to be left alone after mispronouncing my name like Jammy. Made some instant harusame soup and am just taking easy in between hanging out loads of laundry outside to dry. Nori's going out drinking with some co-workers from one of his old jobs which leads me the question of either cooking for one or getting take out. Tomorrow I'm gonna meet a friend to catch up over lunch and then go to the deco shop to by parts to deco my new cellphone. Thinking half pink half zeebra with silver studs down the middle and maybe stick on some stars but I'm looking for something with more gaudy parts than stones since they stand out more and take less time to do. I changed my ringback tone to Lady GaGa's "Bad Romance", but I haven't figured out what to put for a ringtone yet. Late(!!) Christmas packages are almost mailed out. I already mailed out Karina's, Noor's, and Justin's. I'll mail out Nadia's and Dee's on Monday. I rented Slumdog Millionaire and it was pretty good. I have the urge to listen to lots of Indian music now. I like how in the end they broke out Bollywood dance style. I think taking up bellydancing would be totally rad except I'm too self conscious about my body to probably ever try. Such is life. Hmm... well that's it in a nutshell. Lady GaGa concert tickets go on sale next weekend so I hope I can get one before they sell out. =X 13 *comment * mem? * link

Ice age up in my workplace. [Wednesday, Jan 13th, 2010 @ 5:41pm] [ mood | freezing my rear off ] Things have been on the up. Nori's gone to visit his friends and family back in Kanagawa and the wind is blowing harder than you know what so I'm taking some time to sit back, order in dinner, and catch up on Law & Order: SVU while finishing up some other odds and ends. =) Monday was a national holiday and I asked Nori to plan a date for us since it's been so long since we've had a real date that wasn't just shopping for stuff. He took us strawberry picking and it was really fun even if we could only eat them and not bring any back with us. Before that we went to a restaurant we happened to pass along the way and it was so awesome! Like a real American restaurant with a free-for-all salad bar. The potato salad was divine and tasted just like my Nans's. We'll definitely be going back there every now and then. Sunday we planned as a day to clean this one room of our house we call the room of doom. Basically from the time we moved here we used it as a place to shove crap we didn't want to deal with or unpack after we moved. My keitai has been kinda crap for awhile so I finally decided to get a new one. So last week Nori took me to the au shop (my phone's under his account) and I picked out a new phone except they didn't have any in stock so I'm waiting for it to come in on backorder. I had 7,000 yen in au points so I got a pretty nice discount. Up to now I've only ever had a Casio phone but my next one will be a Sharp with a 8 megapixel camera. I'm really excited about having a good camera on my phone since it's convenient to take pics that way. Work hasn't been so bad so far, but both schools basically feel like huge igloos. I found my Rilakkuma kairo pouch while sorting through the room of doom so it'll be nice to have that on hand from now on to beat the chills. For the love of god almightly, can we at least get some central heating installed in the teacher's room..? ;A; I guess instead of rambling on I should take the once a month collection garbage out there before I get too cozy and lazy to do it. >_>;; 5 *comment * mem? * link

Happy 2010! [Wednesday, Jan 6th, 2010 @ 9:11pm] I had a good time in Tokyo- got to hang out with friends and do some retail therapy. Including meeting up with kikuko_kamimura who I haven't ever gone out with one-on-one despite the fact we've known each other on LJ since I was in high school, lol. Good times were had just taking it easy and all in all I came back with a lot of hope and motivation for the new year kinda sorta. I think I spent too much but for the most part I was selective and careful about what I bought, including two new pairs of glasses. My old pair is still good so I'll wear them for work and then wear the other two for when I go out or dress up. My host family is doing great, but one of their cats, Hana, passed away a few days before Christmas. But as hard as the loss was for them, my host sister says it really feels like she's watching over them because they've had a lot of luck with New Years stuff, lotteries, and the like since then. R.I.P. Hana; you lived a long, long life. Today I had to go get a multiple re-entry permit to go back home. Minae came with and it was awesome because evil lady that works at the immigration office wasn't there. =D Then we went to look at the sales but there was nothing good anywhere although Minae bought some hair extensions for her and me because she was wild about what I'd look like with it and we took purikura. I'm not sure how often I'll be wearing it but I think it would look cute for every now and then dress up. Rilakkuma! (& I'm wearing one pair of new glasses here. =3) Then I went to the bike shop to fix my burned out headlight and even though it was their day off the grandpa that runs the place not only changed my light, he tightened my breaks free of charge and his wife brought me some homemade cake and green tea while I waited. Sometimes I lose faith in society here considering I work with and encounter lots of crazies, but honestly the people that I see often are truly awesome and I'm happy to have that network. Nori and I can't do our January trip this weekend like were planning on because his boss scheduled his make-up New Year holidays insanely stupid (two days off, one day work, two days off, one day work, and then two days off) so we're going to shift our plans for Golden Week and try to travel to somewhere like Taiwan or Thailand because all the government holidays line up then. From tomorrow I have to go back to work...;A; But with the new year already here I only have a little more than two more months of left and I think I can make it. P.S. I have Christmas presents ready to go out to peeps back home. I'll be shipping them out over next week and apologize for the lateness...TAT P.S.S. I bought my plane ticket home right before Christmas. So y'all back home hit me up b/w March 20 - April 1st for hanging out!♪ 19 *comment * mem? * link

Ho, ho, ho! [Saturday, Dec 26th, 2009 @ 12:01pm] [ mood | merry ] Christmas is over here, but Merry Christmas to those back home who are still celebrating it! I hope you're all having a wonderful time with friends and family. My Christmas wasn't special but it was still nice in its own weird way. My vice principal let me take an early leave today (yay!) so I spent the morning lounging around the futon reading The Age of Innocence (this might become my new favorite book) in between hanging out laundry since Nori of course had work. My head English teacher's daughter had a baby boy a few days ago and is staying at the clinic I go to to recover. So he invited me to come see his new grandson and I went a little early to get a long overdue blood test done there. (Ouch.) But his grandson was so cute! They let me hold him and take a picture. It makes me feel like I want kids of my own someday but to be honest I'm pretty undecided about that and so is Nori. It's not something we could both ever imagine at this point. When I left they had an open market going so I bought some handmade gifts to give throughout next year and then I went over to my friend's house to exchange X'mas gifts. Her family invited me to have some dinner and so we ate and chatted before I went home to fix a late dinner for Nori and I. They didn't have any decent ham up for sale around here so the day before I bought some seasoned roast chicken and made sweet potatoes and stuffing left over from unused Thanksgiving foods and a salad for Nori. We actually celebrated Christmas on the 23rd since we both had that off. I went to Kanagawa to buy him some clothes from his favorite store that had reopened up a month ago and he got me an orange iPod Nano like I wanted. My current iPod is just refurbished 2GB 1st generation Nano that I got for cheap on eBay like 4 years ago. It's still going strong but I've used up all the space. My family sent us a bunch of cute stuff including some money for Nori to get him some new glasses (his glasses are scratched up beyond crazy and he refuses to get new ones) so we went and ate kaitenzushi and then glasses shopping which was a success since he found a pair he liked. Another reason we put Christmas on the 23rd is because burnable and recycleable trash collection was the next day. The latter only comes once a month and I didn't want to keep all those present boxes for a month so after we got back we got all that stuff ready to go out. I hope to get some big house cleaning done before I leave for Tokyo on the 28th. ._<;; 6 *comment * mem? * link

Finishing loose ends. [Monday, Dec 14th, 2009 @ 9:39pm] [ mood | stressed ] Not much going on. Busy as usual, but nothing to write home about. This past weekend I sat down and decided what I want to do about New Years greeting cards this year, and this is what I came up with: Except it looks better without glitter IRL so I'll probably drop it. The usual friends/family back home will be getting one, as well as vicechan and hazeltea. But if any of you other guys want one, drop me a line with your address please. I think my Christmas packages will be a little late, except the ones for my mom/grandma. That's always the case with me, but I have so little time for Christmas shopping due to all the work I've been doing and I don't like to get people random crap just so I have something to send. >_< Probably TMI but last Saturday the "that time of the month" fairy paid me a visit. I wanted to stay home because I looked and felt gross but I had agreed to MCing a party that weekend because one of my part-time bosses asked me to and there was no one else that could do it. Because some of these people hadn't seen me in a year and I was all bloated and gross I had like 2 people ask me if I was pregnant or not. Ugh, all I could do was laugh and be like, "Ohoho no I've just gained some weight." and try to laugh it off because obviously I didn't want to explain the real reason but it was just majorly embarrassing. ;A; In other news, two of my co-workers suddenly decided to go back home, including the one at the ES I go to. She'd been debating whether or not she was going to go home at Christmas or stick it out the rest of the year, but since she hadn't made a decision by the time this month rolled around I figured she might stay put. But rather suddenly we were all informed that this will be her last week, and a new guy will replace her from next year on. I really enjoyed our chats every Wednesday that made it so nice to get a break from hell JHS and I'm sorry I'll only see her one more time before she leaves. On top of that, I was really hoping she'd stick it out so I could take over her job next year since I have no problems with this school and I think it'd be awesome sauce to work there everyday. However I'm sure this new guy will probably want to recontract when the school year ends and he'll have top priority being the regular teacher there everyday. This kind of saddens me, because I really LOVE my ES kids and I would have loved to be able to teach them again next year. But short of taking this same position at hell JHS with one day at lovelovelove ES, there's not anything I can do, and I absolutely want to avoid this position next year at all costs because hell JHS causes me too much stress and I'm not growing as a teacher or a person at all there. But on the other hand it sucks because for once I would really like to stay in the same spot for more than a year. =/ Well anyways, other than that I have no real news. Just counting down the days until winter break. I actually have moolah this year so I might go for some lucky packs from stores I know don't just put unsold ugly crap in them. XD;; Nori got a small bonus and he gets some holidays from next year on so in mid-January we might take a mini trip for a couple of days. =D Nothing set in stone, but I'm crossing my fingers. Since he started this job we haven't really had a chance to spend much time together like we used to due to our holidays hardly ever matching up. 6 *comment * mem? * link

As things go. [Tuesday, Nov 17th, 2009 @ 10:42pm] [ mood | positive ] So after that crapfest of the last couple of posts, I thought I'd post some of the good stuff going down this month. I have money to put into savings! Probably around $1,000. I'm so used to living paycheck to paycheck or some huge wtf thing taking all of my cash when I do have some to spare, but it looks like I'll finally be able to have something to add. It's been a long time coming and it makes me realize that Nori and I have come a pretty long way from when we first moved out here with our savings to last two months until my first paycheck or until he got a job. It's my goal that I can start saving like a hundred dollars or so each month for the future. When I think about the possibility of getting married some day, buying a car, house, etc. it makes me really stressed because all I see are money signs when we don't have any. Having savings would really motivate me to start forming an idea or a rough timeline for when I'd like to try and plan major events in our life. Lots of downtime because of workshops/testing this week. I picked up a couple of books at the store; right now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife and it's really good so far. Much better than I anticipated. I ran out of powder and had some shipped to my mom who then shipped it to me. Man I've never been so happy to see make-up in my life...;A; Thanksgiving this weekend, yay! 7 *comment * mem? * link

What a shit day. [Wednesday, Nov 11th, 2009 @ 8:58pm] [ mood | sad ] Yesterday was so busy and stressed I carelessly passed out when I got home and today I screwed up for work forgetting some stuff. Kids were really awesome. I flew by the seat of my pants and things somehow went better than they probably should have. Tomorrow it's back to babysitting troublemakers at the junior high and absolutely no time to breathe since I have to go to my weekly lesson. I already cancelled last week due to not feeling well. It's like I absolutely have 0 time to myself, and there's no real way to fix that. I also don't have friends IRL that are in the same situation as me to talk to. Sometimes I miss when I had a real life. Sometimes I think about what my life would be like if there were no Nori and no Japan. But I can't say it'd be better what with the job market back home sucking and all. And maybe I would be lonely. But I'd be with my old crew. I don't regret my decision to come here at all, I just feel like I'm suffocating sometimes. 11 *comment * mem? * link

Ha ha, thisaway... ha ha, thataway... [Friday, Nov 6th, 2009 @ 5:25pm] [ mood | indescribable ] Work is driving me nuts. My class load has been pretty light, but just the epic proportions of BS is just... well, there are really no words. I just crack up laughing at work sometimes because it's either that or cry at the unfathomable lack of common sense/brain some of these people have. When I think about my feelings on work, I imagine this one time in high school where Karina and I had to go see Ms. Iafrait after school and I don't remember what happened but Karina stormed out of the class all, "Fuck this shit!" and it was pretty epic, except I don't have that kind of courage and I need my job so...;A; Japanese Paypal is also getting on my nerves because I need to verify my account to raise my withdrawal limit, but I can't verify it with my U.S.-issued debit card because it's not OMGz! Japanese. However, the chances of Japan giving me a credit card are slim to none. I tried explaining this to one of Paypal's staff, and her response was, I shit you not: "Have you tried getting a Japanese credit card?" Well, let's think about this. If I hadn't tried that already why would I write about how I can't get a card because the credit card companies here won't give me one because they consider foreigners to be "high credit risks"? Since I have a good chunk of change in there I need to get out I'll probably just end up making a new bank account, making another Paypal account to link it up to, and get around it that way. What a pain in the ass, but it'll take less time than waiting for 1 out of 239402342 credit card companies to not reject me. But just to humour her anyways I sent off an application to a Tsutaya one because I heard it's supposed to be easier to get. On the slim chance I get approved, there will be lots of epic win! dancing. On a lighter note, Nori and I watched a really good movie the other day called The Namesake. And we've started to work out some of the kinks in our relationship, so everything is good on that front. We've been in our new apartment for six months, and I have to say it really beats our old place. I feel so much more relaxed here and I sleep a lot better at night now. I made an appointment to get Daisy spayed next Tuesday. I just hope she doesn't go into heat before that. With that over, I won't be forking out huge amounts of moolah for the kitties for a long while. It'll be a nice relief not to have vet-related expenses eating out of my paycheck every month for a change. 3 *comment * mem? * link

My Sunday gone...;A; [Sunday, Nov 1st, 2009 @ 9:56am] [ mood | rushed ] So my mother-in-law Nori's mom is coming to visit us today, as she informed us by text suddenly. She's never been to our place (even our last apartment) before, so this was random and sudden. Que the cleaning patrol ASAP! 1 *comment * mem? * link

Trick or treat! [Saturday, Oct 31st, 2009 @ 3:56pm] [ mood | bored ] Dakota and Daisy have gotten big! Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! 19 *comment * mem? * link

Turn, turn, turn. [Tuesday, Oct 20th, 2009 @ 10:53pm] [ mood | bedtime! ] Today I got let off work early and then went to buy a cheap bento and ran into who else but "local produce" (this hot teacher at my elementary school; him of all people!) at the store. I guess he was picking up some cheap eats as well before his seminar him and all the other teachers had today. I had one of my part-times tonight, but since I had a bunch of time on my hands (even enough to take a nap!) I got there a little earlier than usual. At the welfare center there's always a Japanese sign language class for deaf residents in the area going on at the same time as mine. As I was finishing up some preparations one of the ladies looked at a list I had written and showed me how to sign some of the words. It was random, but I felt kind of moved by it. I mean, she can't speak Japanese well due to being deaf and I'm have no clue about Japanese sign language, so we had to communicate just by watching each other's expressions and gestures. I wanna try to learn to sign some greetings so we can communicate more next week when I go back again. I've also had some far away weekend work, too. Next week is the last one and it's around town so that's nice for me. For the most part I've been pretty sick. The flu is going around like crazy, and although I didn't get the flu itself, I got a pretty bad cold that kept me in bed for a few days. I mean seriously, this month has mostly sucked balls dudes. It's only today that I felt my luck kinda turning around. Maybe the fates are done crapping on me for awhile and have moved on to the next person. I hope so! Law & Order has started up again, especially SVU OMGz. Fanservice from TVGuide: DO WANT. When are Elliot and Olivia finally gonna get it on on the show? It's only been like... what? 11 seasons now. I asked my family to send me a copy of the TVGuide this photoshoot came out in, and luckily a family friend has a subscription and was willing to part with this issue. Aaand last but not least, Thanksgiving is going down this year! We have the 23rd off, I can get a turkey, friend has access to the base for the other stuff, and our other friends have an oven it can be cooked in. So I have to make a list and tweak recipes so they'll come out OK since Japanese ovens are much smaller than conventional ones. This better rock! =O 8 *comment * mem? * link

Get your groove on, shake shake shake! [Thursday, Oct 8th, 2009 @ 7:37am] [ mood | enthralled ] DAY OFF FROM WORK BECAUSE OF THE TYPHOON. YESSSSS. So I only have to go to work tomorrow, but there's no classes due to midterm testing so it'll be a piece of cake, and then after that I get a three day weekend! More YESSSSS. Also, I'm VERY RELIEVED that Tokyo did not win the Olympics. Taxes here are already exhorbant enough, and the government just wastes that money left and right instead of giving it to schools, much needed policy reform projects, etc. Personally I don't want any of my tax money going to more useless construction of an Olympic dome and all that. Besides, most Japanese living in Tokyo are pretty unwilling to help foreigners as it is (nor do they have the English or insert other language ability to do so), and I doubt prevailing sentiments would change much even if a bajillion foreigners flowed in for the Olympics. And on top of that, the Olympics have never been held in Brazil, nor anywhere in South America before. Tokyo has already hosted the Olympics once. So congrats Rio de Janero! I'm sorry Ishihara is being such a sore loser about it and talking smack about y'all, though. 7 *comment * mem? * link

Like stuff happened and... stuff. [Monday, Sep 28th, 2009 @ 10:41pm] [ mood | drained ] I've been really busy since school started. Staying late a lot. I'm still busy and stressed. You know you're too stressed when you're too lazy to even go out for shopping therapy. Not that I really have the dough for that anyways LOL low summer paycheck. But then I was like "Oh yay, I get some holidays to myself!" and... nope. Things came up and it didn't happen. Disappointed about that and disappointed in myself for not making more of what little time to myself I did get instead of being so dang tired. Nori got himself the Saturday following our four year anniversary off for us to celebrate and then my company messed up my schedule and it had to be switched over so I ended up having to go to a Sports Day. Then my friends were really egging me on to come to this BBQ/onsen during Silver Week so I went... Random nakedness and I'm the only one that remembers all the weird shit that went down because I wasn't drunk off my ass. It was fun, but I just feel like I have no real time to myself. It's like the concept of personal space is so foreign to Japanese I have to lie and make up some excuse why I can't do whatever instead of being able to tell the truth. And then I hate lying so I usually go unless I really can't stand going out that day and feel caged into making some lame reason up. Been doing a lot of sudoku to cancel out some of the stress. Going to join the gym FINALLY next month. Need to get myself back in shape! Will probably help with the stress, too. Cats are getting so big! Dakota has his appointment to get neutered this weekend. I feel sorry for the little guy, but the last thing we need is more kittens. =S Today was my holiday off from working sports day, but Nori was sick and had to come home early from work so I spent most of the day taking care of him instead of doing the stuff I needed to do and then my scooter got a flat tire so I had to wait for 3 hours for that to get fixed and pay 16,000 yen. Just fffff sometimes, you know? One of my weekly part-time things starts up next week so it doesn't look like I'll be un-busy anytime soon. But I need this money to pay off my annoying resident taxes boohoo. And then I signed up for a few extra shifts because I'm a masochist. Nadia! I got my cute b-day present from you forever ago and I thought maybe I told you thanks, but my memory is so shot now I'm worried I only imagined that and anyways I'm saying thanks now pukuu nukuu! <3 All in all, I haven't been a good LJ follower or friend lately. Sorry. =( 15 *comment * mem? * link

Too bad it can't last forever. [Wednesday, Aug 26th, 2009 @ 4:23am] [ mood | accomplished ] [ music | Lady GaGa - LoveGame ] Enjoying my last week off just being a lazy bum. Today is my last day and I see I'm off to a great start going to bed at 4:30 a.m. Part of the reason I stayed up is because my renewed U.S. drivers license never turned up in the mail so I had to give them a call and see what happened. But calling the DMV always takes forever and I had to hold for 40 minutes before someone could help. Today I bought some stuff to bling out my phone (my previous bling fell off and thus my cellphone was all sad and stuff) so while I was holding I finished decorating it. This is how it turned out: Other than that I've been trying out new cooking recipes, watching lots of movies with Noributt, and been busy doing shopping service/selling stuff. I'm totally bummed summer vacation is almost over! 3 *comment * mem? * link

For daily picspamming... [Monday, Aug 17th, 2009 @ 1:01pm] [ mood | blah ] I made a DailyBooth to post random photos daily because it's so easy to use. If you also use it and want to add me: http://dailybooth.com/strawberrytalk I'll still post photos here every now and then, too. =) Going to see Nori's mom was weird as usual, but turned out OK. Just flushing out the carbeurator on my scooter didn't work and it's going to require some new parts. But almost every business was closed for Obon all last week so they couldn't be ordered and it won't be ready until Wednesday or Thursday. Fixing it went up to 20,000 yen. Crapola. I hate how whenever I have a good financial plan going and a little extra cash tucked away to the side, life seems to take that as an excuse to make something requires more than just a bit of spare change magically happen. =/ The bright side is that at least I'm on break and can live without the scooter. At the same time it's annoying having to walk 1-2 km everywhere in this super hot/humid weather or take the bus (more money gone). My friend keeps suddenly cancelling our plans and then calling to reschedule them later in the day when she's free again from whatever came up. It's happened 3 times in the past week and a half. I'm annoyed and am thus not returning her calls. 3 *comment * mem? * link

Something goes here. [Saturday, Aug 15th, 2009 @ 1:00am] I was right about the scooter. It seems like the carbeurator's clogged so the gas can't get to the engine. Said he'd clean it out and have it ready for me by today, but I didn't get a call to come in and pick it up. Tomorrow I'll walk back over and see what the status is. So far it's going to cost 10,000 yen... I hope that's all it ends up being. =( I was supposed to hang out with a friend, but she wasn't feeling well, and that kind of worked out OK because I ended up not getting my scooter back to drive over there anyways. I dunno I was feeling blah all day, but Nori was extra nice (probaby because he asked me to take a taxi at the buttcrack of dawn to go bring him something he forgot for work) so he offered to buy a pizza for dinner and we ate it while watching a movie. Except... I didn't really understand the movie. =/ After that Grave of the Fireflies came on because it's just after the anniversary of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings. Every year the Japanese do a good job of pulling out the "woe is Japan b/c we got bombed 60 years ago". I disagree with a-bombing and what the U.S. did, but I think Japan did their share of horrible things which they seem to conveniently forget because they got a-bombed. My city has this whole campaign about completely erradicating nuclear weapons, which is a great thing and I wish the whole world would get on board. But sometimes it's painful to read the essays my students put out in support of it because they always talk about the war and it's always so one-sided like Japan was completely minding its own business when big ol' meanie U.S.A. came along and bombed it. It's like... If you hadn't provoked big meanie U.S.A. by attacking first you probably wouldn't have gotten bombed. But you can't say this, especially if you're American, or you're a horrible person. IDK I wish people would just logically think and take responsibility when they're partially at fault as well. This also includes the U.S. concerning things we've done to other countries. Anyways... TL;DR none of this takes away from Grave of the Fireflies being a good movie. Tomorrow evening Nori and I are heading to Kanagawa to visit his mom for Obon. It's like one of our two yearly pillages over there, lol. I always get really nervous when we go because his mom is quite a bit stranger than most older women I meet her age. Last time we stayed over his mom woke me up at 5:45 a.m. to drink coffee and listen to oldies records before going to walk the dog. I snuck back into bed afterwards and then she came right back and got me up again. It was a pretty D= but at the same time I guess it's good she's taken to me more over the years and wants to bond. I just wish bonding could come after sleep. I just saw Ayu perform on T.V. a few minutes ago. For the past year or so I've really been wanting to see her live with Nori before she starts sounding anymore worse live. The problem is that she usually only tours her new songs and I just want to hear her do the songs that got her where she is now. That and the days always conflict with my work, or are mega expensive for nosebleed seats. Someday, someday... 3 *comment * mem? * link

This isn't really going anywhere. [Thursday, Aug 13th, 2009 @ 9:50am] [ mood | wha..? ] My scooter is loopy. It's been acting up since the night of my b-day, where it'll go about 1 km/h when I hit the gas and then slowly work its way up to normal speed, but not before pissing off everyone behind me when the light turns green. =X I thought it might need an oil change, so Nori did it for me, but it was only a temporary fix and it started acting up again yesterday. The bike shop was closed then, so I'm gonna pop in today and see if the grandpa there can tell me what's up. *crosses fingers it doesn't require a lot of money to fix* It's like the gas can't get to the engine quick enough, or maybe there's a leak somewhere? Ever since we set up the new desk the cats have suddenly become interested in computing in addition to destroying our house. Unfortunately they are still kittens so they haven't mastered the art of LOLspeak yet. Today Daisy writes: wwwwwwwwwwwwqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqcq2222222222222222222222dddddddp@いお Maybe it's catspeak for "Today mommy ate a peppermint and it smelled funny. So I stuck my nose up her nose and sniffed. I DO NOT APPROVE!" For some reason I can't sleep in. Nori almost always wakes me up in the morning with his fiddling around and getting ready for work, and then I figure I should do laundry and hang it out early or feed the cats or something else inane like that and never actually get back to sleeping. >.>;; So I've just been piddling around online. Sometimes when I check on egl there's some flail post about a convention/tea party/trip to Japan where the OP got to meet some famous brand designer/model. I think that's great they had an awesome time and got to meet someone they admire. The annoying part is when the OP or the commenters start in on "Liek OMGz the way they eat/sit/drink/fart is so adorable!" C'mon! I doubt the way they eat is really all that different unless they're slurping spaghetti or twisting natto with their chopsticks, both of which aren't cute at all. You can stop flailing over every insignificant thing they do because they're not really all that much different from anyone else save for the fact they're Asian and come from Japanland. I have 100% confidence you could find a cuter person from every country in the world. EDIT: Wallet came in the mail! <3 4 *comment * mem? * link

Today the earth trembled. [Tuesday, Aug 11th, 2009 @ 11:51pm] [ mood | it's been a long day ] There was a pretty huge earthquake in Shizuoka this morning. I think it registered as a 6.6. Took out a few lanes on the Tomei Expressway (they just crumbled and left a huge gaping hole in the highway) and completely cracked another bridge. Luckily it was around 5 a.m. so people weren't really on the roads yet. This BMW dealership near our place is totally jacked up. There were some people above our suite running for the door and stuff. I'm pretty used to earthquakes here so I listened for awhile, rolled over, and went back to sleep. That combined with a typhoon left us stranded at Atami for most of the day and ruint the fishing plans. I still had a good time getting away, though! The place was more decked out than the Hilton and I think I ate the most expensive meal I've ever had in my life. (But was free for me!)　So props to friends with connections getting our lil' group hooked up. =D About 2:30 they finally got the ferries running again so I could make it back to the main island, and then the Tokaido line took forever getting the Atami - Hamamatsu section up. It was like YESSSS when I finally walked through the front door. Initially I had planned on being back this morning in time to help Nori with a desk we were having taken away to make room for a new one and just hang out, but that didn't work out. I wish we had had more time together today, since his days off are so rare. =/ Lately it seems like everytime I think we get some time alone, there's something we have to do/something crashes it. Looking forward to taking it easy tomorrow and maybe getting some organizing done. I have a stack of books that I bought, but haven't really had a chance to get into yet. The cat babies are having fun poking around the new desk. Their cat tower should come in the mail sometime this week. I'm kinda excited for them. I know this kinda stuff makes me no better than your average oya-baka. 2 *comment * mem? * link

A happy birfday and then some. [Monday, Aug 10th, 2009 @ 1:58am] [ mood | accomplished ] [ music | Hamasaki Ayumi - Far Away (Live) ] My birthday went down pretty awesomely! It seriously beat the last couple of birthdays I've had! Last year I spent the whole thing on an airplane flying home. The time before that I remember having good times with friends and a whale cake, but not before my family guilt tripped me into crying over something lame. At first I thought the day was gonna go down in huge flames because due to some mess-up at the immigration office I ended up having to re-pay the visa application fee. But then I guess they realized what d-bags they were being, because when I got my visa back it listed THREE YEARS instead of the usual one year. Woot! That actually got my fee back and then some, saving me many trips to the immigration bureau over the next two years. After that was all settled (it took most of the morning/afternoon...;A;) I went to get my hair cut at a salon nearby because it was too late to make a trip to my favourite salon. The guy did a good job on my bangs last time and it turns out they remembered me and brought him out to cut my hair again. I like that he focuses on his job and doesn't try to chat me up too much. I never know what to say to a complete stranger to keep the convo going. My hair came out cute and it felt really refreshing getting a little bit cut off. Soon after I got some happy birthday wishes by e-mail/facebook (thanks <3) and my ex-coworker friend called to invite me for boat fishing in Atami tomorrow. Can't wait! Then Marui was having a huge sale so I wandered in and scored an awesome skirt for 80% off. Nori came back from work soon after I got back home and he took me to a nice Italian place and then we went for a drive on our scooters (dorky, whut?!) to the sea and walked around. It was really simple, but just right. Saturday I sat on my big booty all day and did squat. =D Today I did a lot of cleaning and reluctantly got Nori to help out. I feel better now that that's all done. And on top of that I won a super cute, used Vivienne wallet off of Mbok for a few thousand yen...<3 I'm glad Japan has caught up with Netflicks technology and started Tsutaya Discas. It makes me much more in the mood to watch movies now that I don't have to drive all the way down there and worry about getting it back in by the due date. Well, I need to go back to making up packages of sold stuff to mail out tomorrow...@.@ 4 *comment * mem? * link

navigation [ viewing | most recent entries ] [ go | earlier ]