Thanks to all...

Thanks to everyone who has followed this blog! If you wish to contact me, I am not at uluvbri@gmail.com

The Last Post

Sayaka and I in the gardens of the temple at Asakusa Does anyone see the irony here?

Random Geisha Saying a prayer to Buddah
Merry X-mas
Taking the sushi off the belt
I look so happy in this photo...

Ta-da! Dinner at Sayaka's Sushi- Can you see the eyes of these tiny fish? Delicious!
This is my favorite sushi- baby octopus
In Kimono outside the temple entrance
Kimono

Over the dance floor at DP Meryl and Jess
Wash your ass
Robot Rock
You know you love the sweat stains on my shirt

CRABS!

So here I am, one week away from coming home. In the past few weeks I have been making myself too busy to keep this updated (obviously). Two weeks ago I stayed at Sayaka's house with her family. Her mom prepared a wonderful homade dinner of tempura, soba, oden and more! Then, I wore a Kimono with Sayaka and went to a beautiful temple in Asakusa in Tokyo. It took about an hour and a half for us to get into our Kimono's, and once I had it on I realized I had no clue how to walk in one. I had to take small steps and go one-at-a-time when taking staris (which was especially hilarious in the subway stations). The best part about wearing the Kimono was being famous; I mean everytime I turned around someone was taking my picture. Japanese people and other foreigners wanted their picture with us. It was great! Wearing a Kimono is really meaningful and special to Japanese people, so being a foreigner wearing one is a HUGE deal. We also went to a great sushi bar near the temple, did some shopping, and went to Ueno Park in downtown Tokyo. I must say, after 6 hours of wearing the Kimono, I was ready to take it off. I could hardly breathe at times, and it took so long to go to the bathroom everytime (many layers). Once it was off I did serveral grande jetes in the street.

This Friday night I went to dinner at Saori's house. She made crab and I ate with her mom, sister, and her boyfriend. The crab was SOOOOO good, and I totally stuffed my face. I also had some delicious Tofu from the restaurant that she used to work at that had the most creamy texture. I realized that Japanese really have the whole healthy eating thing down. The food here is simple, but so delicate and delicious.

Then there was Saturday. A break from tradition. DAFT PUNK! The concert included names such as SabastiAn and Kavinsky, who got the crowd moving before Daft Punk came on. We were so close to the front (thanks to my elbows) and we danced our little hearts out. Meryl and Jess, (also Westgaters) are the two lovely girls I had the pleasure of going with. The show surpassed my expectations, and I felt totally enthralled by the performance at times.

I also just returned from a "maid cafe" in Akiharbara (the "technologic" center of Tokyo). The maid cafe is an interesting phenomina that is catching on in Tokyo. You go into the cafe, and girls dressed in maid uniforms wait on you. They are super over-the-top polite and bow a lot. So you basically sit there and eat your cake and drink your coffee and feel like you have a lot of money. The girls are all really cute too (of course). We couldn't take pictures with the workers (boooo) so their image has to live in my memory I guess.

I should be back in Kalamazoo late on the 16th. I will have the same cell phone number as before. See you in a week!

And then I thought to myself; "Why is it rude to eat and walk at the same time?"

HOW TO MAKE A GRAPEFRUIT SOUR: Step 1: Get the booze and half a grapefruit and juicer from the waiter and press down.
Step 2: Press REALLY REALLY hard and ask for help if injury seems likely.
Step 3: Pour the juice in the booze and ask for a towl to wipe the sweat off your brow.

Some cultural rules amaze me...this being one of them: In Japan it is rude to eat/drink and walk at the same time? Why you ask? For this question I have no definite answer. Probably for the same reason it is rude to blow your nose in public, or why some Japanese girls walk with their feet turned in. I am guilty of only breaking one f these, and if you know my love of coffee and food you know which one it is.

Lately I have been getting nervous about my job here ending so quickly! Where did the time go? I have 20 days leaft!!! I gotta get better about updating this thing...

4-Ever and a day

Where has the time gone? It's been 2 weeks since my last post, which I can attribute to 2 reasons: 1) 2 weeks go, having gone dancing 2 full nights in a row, and sleeping all day. 2) Being sicker than a dog this week and broke = not doing anything.
So, I have been a little bored to say the least. I would recap the weekend before, but I was a little "foggy" on the details. My friend got into a street brawl with some Portuguese guy, I do remember that. Otherwise, the usual dancing all night, draggin my butt home, sleeping past my stop sort of stuff.
This coming weekend promises to be far more exciting. I will get my hair straightened, go to a Thanksgiving party, go clubbing, and go to an isakaya. More to come!

I heart Mt.Fuji

Check out these great shots of Fuji. The little car you see in the corner of the one photo is the cable car we rode in.

Being a Tourist

I'm flying!!!! Why don't we have beer vending in the USA???

The Gondola. In Japan. Hm.....

In the Japanese robe with Allison

Tower of TERROR!!!

When you live in another country, doing tourist stuff can be quite strange because it's like you haven't gone anywhere, but you are somewhere different. That really does not make sense at all but hey, I am running on coffee, beer, and like 3 hours of sleep last night. Anyway this was quite an eventful week. On Thursday I went to Disney Sea (which is like the more adult version of Disney Land, and on the bay. It is much better than Disney Land, or so I am told). I met my friend Saori there, and her friends as well. I was actually quite impressed by the whole thing. This was not some rinky-dink theme park; it was quite large and grand. We went on a ton of rides, but Tower of Terror was by far the best. The 3 story drop almost made me pee my pants the first time. There were also some shows. We saw all the characters come out on boats and of course there was singing and dancing and fireworks at night. The weirdest part was hearing all the characters speaking Japanese, but in the same kind of voice you would attribute to Micky, Chip n' Dale, etc. Normally I am not a theme park person, but I was totally impressed by this one and the rides were great. Oh yeah, and did you know Indiana Jones also speaks Japanese? Who knew! Now I love him even more.

The following morning I went to my University's festival and saw one of my students dance the flamenco with her dancing club. Surprisingly professional performance. There was a girl singing in Spanish, 2 guys playing the guitar and one on drums, and the rest of the girls dancing their hearts out. They were well rehearsed and very much in character.

Immediately after that I headed out for Hakone, a very natural area in the mountains with great scenery. It took 2 transfers on the train and a bus to get there, and since I was meeting people I was traveling alone, but I didn't get lost! My friend Allison, 3 guys she works with, and myself all stayed in a guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. We took a cable car through the mountains, took a gondola (yes I said gondola) on the sea and went hiking around the hot springs. They had these special eggs that had been hard boiled in the hot springs that they were selling along the trail. The shell was turned black from the sulfur (as you know there are hot spring because Mt.Fuji is a volcano) and they were delicious! Not to mention the fact if you eat one it's supposed to "increase your longevity by 7 years". 2 eggs = 14 years but I decided one was enough. People were just going nuts over these things! Everyone was eating them.

On the home front, the big news this week is that my sister is engaged. So, I was really excited and happy to hear that all the way over here. Congrats sis!

Enjoy the videos!

Cheers!

Happy Halloween!!!

That is Mt. Fuji in the background. This was taken from the parking lot of IKEA of all places. Also I think I had been awake for about 35 hours at this point...

Cindy and I..... I love this girl. She is really not as evil as she looks in this photo :)

Oh the ride home the following morning can be sooooooo long.....
Shibuya on a fantastically blue day...it's times like these I think I could love in the city.

Hey!

So what's the word on Halloween in Japan??? Well...they decorate for Halloween and you can see the "theme" everywhere, however, they don't really do anything to celebrate. So, it's just another day here.

I would really like to tell you what happened this past weekend...because it's a mad story...however there are certain things I just can't post on the Internet for all to view. Let's just say I went to this party...it was in what was obviously a front for a business...and I met all sorts of shady characters...and I danced for 6 hours straight. I met this model who was on the cover of Elle magazine, among other things, and hung out with her the majority of the night. Colm also came out with me; you have to have backup in strange situations. For the whole story, talk to me when I get back. It was perhaps one of the strangest nights of my life...

So here are some recent pics. Tomorrow I go to Disney Land and the following day to my school's festival and Hakone...so I will have lots more to talk about after that.