Japan, Week 2

Woohoooooo week two!

 

 

 

 

Shortly after I posted the last entry, Taylor and I decided to make the five-minute walk down the street to Tokyo Dome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is really no telling you how gigantic and spectacular just the outside of the structure is. I can’t imagine what it’s like inside! Unfortunately we didn’t get to peek our heads in because there was a baseball game going on (in case anyone didn’t know: Tokyo Dome is a baseball stadium, that is its primary function), but maybe some other time later we’ll be able to go inside.

 

I don’t think I ever showed pictures of my phone…

 

 

I actually quite like it ( *｀ω´) Hopefully I can personalise it just a bit soon~

 

 

Ummmm after Monday we were pretty much just in training and I didn’t take a lot of pictures of that xD

 

 

But on Wednesday we moved to Hatogaya, Saitama!

 

 

Leopalace Hatogaya Sakashita.

 

 

Here are pictures of the apartment as it looked as soon as I got there:

 

 

View from the front door.

 

 

I have a washer! ＼(・ω・)／

 

 

Sink and stove.

 

 

The uh… living area. xD;; Again these were taken almost as soon as everything was deposited.

 

 

Table, mirror, closet.

 

 

View from the end of the living area.

 

 

The loft!

 

 

Toilet yaaaayyyy

 

 

And the shower/bath area.

 

 

It’s really actually a very nice apartment, and much, much bigger than I thought it was going to be.
The loft is really nice, it’s like a mini-bedroom, and it saves space for the living area.

 

 

Now, a few days later, the apartment is in its transition stage. A lot of sutff is put away, but not everything has a spot yet, and it’s still largely undecorated (hopefully that will be changed soon), so here is what it looks like now:

 

 

 

 
Loft area~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(If you couldn’t tell, I’m really bad at colour matching.)

 

 

 

And that’s the current apartment. In a few days, the GazettE will release their new single, and my order apparently comes with a B2 size (20x28 ish) poster, so I will get that up… somehow, somewhere. ( *｀ω´)ゞ

 

 

Yesterday, Taylor and I went out on a little jaunt around Hatogaya:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s really a very nice area with a LOT of really nice traditional-style houses. Apparently we live in either a very rich area or a yakuza area. xD;; We’ll find out soon.

 

 

Purchases of this week are mostly limited to household items like pots and pans and hangers, but I did get a few luxury things:

 

 

 

I couldn’t help it xD “Versailles print” sheets to line cupboards and such. I used it to line under the sink where I put my dishes, but I still have some left, so maybe I’ll line a few other shelves while I’m here.

 

 

 

NOBODY FREAKING LAUGH AT ME BUT LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT IT.
GAZETTE’S “VORTEX” BANDSCORE. I HAD TO GET IT I HAD TO I HAD TO.
IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL. I WISH I HAD MY GUITAR OOOHHHHHH.
It might not be official but from what I can read of music it’s very close, if not spot-on, and for the price it’s a very good deal and exceptional quality.
And the other great thing is that that music store had ALL THREE of their album bandscores.
I’ll be getting at least DIM while I’m out here ;w; So happy~

 

 

 

Second-to-last volume of Monochrome Factor, one of the best manga ever.

 

 

 

 

 

In random news my iPod has been doing this lately:

 

Replacing album covers with… it looks like screencaps from videos I have on there. I’ll have to see if I can get that sorted out.
(The one on the right actually made me lol a lot. xD)

 

 

 

 

I’ve started thinking of things I wish I had here, so here they are just in case someone wants to send a care package:

Bengal Spice herbal tea (I know I have a lot at the house in Utah)
Some of those wall hanger tabs, so I can hang things up, and maybe some hooks or something
Dry cereal (it’s really expensive here)
Powdered sauce mixes
Lotion (also really expensive)
Cookies (even the ones at the dollar store are fine)
A vacuum
A dryer
A dog
A cat

Thank you.

 

 

 

And that is all I have for this week! Like I said, I was mostly in training, and that’s the way it’ll be for the next two weeks, but I’ll let everyone know what goes on with REMEMBER THE URGE and the signing sessions if I end up being able to go!

( *｀ω´)ゞ

Japan, Week 1

Sorry it’s been awhile guys, but stuff is happening and I have a bit of time to talk about it now.

Warning: half the pictures are taken on my iPod, the other half on my camera, so some are nicer than others. xD;;

 

 

 

 

So I arrived at the Salt Lake City airport at about 6:30 AM on August 14th, flew from Salt Lake to Los Angeles, and boarded a Korean Airlines plane to fly to Narita.

 

 

The plane.

 

It is such a long flight T__T I watched two episodes of Mystery Science Theater at least. I somehow refrained from watching movies that were on the airplane. This was easy because they had electrical outlets at the seats! So I plugged in my laptop and watched stuff from that. x3

The FOOD, though. ;_; Korean Airlines has apparently won awards for its food, and it was easy for me to see why.

 

This was dinner. Curry, a roll, side salad, and a spongecake-raspberry dessert.

 

 

This was breakfast, chicken pasta in cream sauce, a roll, coleslaw, and carrot cake.

 

 

 

So we landed in Narita and went to the hotel. It was about 15:30 and we were all tired. But we went out as a large group anyway and stormed Narita. My group ended up at the Aeon mall, where we wandered around for awhile.

 

 

Azarashi san! I tried to get it but after failing twice I gave up. xD;;

 

 

There was a Book-Off next door (so dangerous!) and they had this Kuroshitsuji Sebastian doll for sale.
∬°Д°∬

 

 

 

 

This was the view out my window at the Narita View Hotel.

 

 

This was the training room.

 

 

This was the view out the training room window at Narita View Hotel.

 

 

Training was pretty brutal. We needed to be in to breakfast by 7:00 and in training by 8:30, and we were generally kept in training until (average) 18:30 each evening. Then we had homework, lesson planning, etc. after all the training was done. We were all jetlagged and exhausted, but somehow we all made it through.

 

 

This cute little guy was my demo helper.

 

 

Next, we were taken to central Tokyo for a few days of sightseeing and (in my case) training.

 

 

Pictures of my hotel room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My actual apartment probably won’t be a whole lot bigger than this hotel room, so I’m getting used to it. x3

 

 

 

This was my first day’s breakfast at the Korakuen Hotel, which I’m currently at.
Fried fish, rice, fried egg, and miso, the washoku breakfast option. The last two days I’ve had the okayu breakfast, which I’ve not enjoyed quite as much (but I miss bread, so I had it twice because it comes with two steamed buns). Okayu is the Japanese version of rice porridge, but it’s basically just really soupy-goopy-reboiled rice… mushy like when you add too much water to the rice. So it takes a lot of sugar to make it taste all right.

 

 

Iidabashi Station. This is the area where the work office is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our manager treated us to Indian curry our first night in Tokyo. He’s the one on the left who is looking away.

 

 

This guy giving the peace sign is my work colleague and neighbour, Taylor (we will be in the same apartment building, same floor and everything). So we are getting to know each other. He likes Dir en grey. I think we will get along just fine.

 

 

Our “super spicy” tandoori chicken!!! That was not very spicy. (・ω・)

 

 

 

The next day it was to the office for more training!

 

Lunch break!!

 

 

This was a barbeque beef onigiri that I picked up at the local conbini.

 

 

Genki hatsuratsu!!? ORONOMIN C.
I finally tried it and it is super fizzy vitamin C. I don’t think I’ll be sick for awhile now. (゜∀゜) It’s really good though. I think I’ll only be drinking it when I am tending towards sick from here on out.

 

 

Later that night: Shinjuku, for the Square Enix Showcase!!

 

 

This is right out the south entrance of Shinjuku Station. That area was under construction last time I was here two years ago, too. xD CONSTRUCTION.

 

 

SHINJUKU.

 

 

 

And we made it~
I didn’t take that many pictures because I’m going to be living in Tokyo and going back at least several times while I’m here. I wasn’t in much of a hurry. x3;;

 

 

 

We went to Yoshinoya for dinner and had gyuudon. Oh Yoshinoya, how I have missed you.

 

 

 

A shot of Iidabashi during the day.

 

 

Yesterday was Akihabara, and we went to a maid cafe. We were only allowed to take pictures of the food, so no one bother me about pictures of the maids please.

 

 

I got the Nyan Nyan~ vanilla parfait. It consisted of candied gummies, ice cream, corn flakes, and a wide and strange variety of fruit.

 

 

Someone’s katsukare.

 

 

 

Someone else got the Kumatan~ chocolate parfait, which was basically the same as mine.

 

 

I was wearing my Versailles t-shirt to the maid cafe and I got mad points from all the maids, especially one who called herself… Yusa, of course. (゜∀゜)

 

 

Just outside the maid cafe, our two Brits had to show that they too have what it takes to be Harajuku girls. Thank you Chris.

 

 

 

We just kind of randomly happened across the Gundam Cafe that I know Yō of Matenrou Opera has blogged about, so I got a kick out of seeing it in real life.

 

Dinner last night was just a bentou bought from the hotel’s conbini:

 

Apple juice, taco rice, deep fried squid rings, a deep-fried seaweed thing, and a little piece of chicken.

 

 

 

Today was a quick jaunt to Harajuku.

 

 

 

Taylor hates me and took me to see all the GazettE cosplay costumes that were up for sale and torture me with how expensive and small they were.
They had Guren-era Aoi, Uru, and Reita, Madara-era Ruki, DISORDER-era Kai and Ruki, Yuutsu no Zakuro-era Ruki, and the list goes on and on. They had Guren posters, too! But they wouldn’t sell me one. ;_;

 

 

 

They also had this track jacket, which was really tempting for $35, but I am holding off because real GazettE merchandise comes out in a week. xD;;

 

 

A couple of quick shots of Harajuku:

 

 

 

Takeshita-doori’s front.

 

 

 

Right out in front of Harajuku station.

 

There was a young man, probably in his late teens-early twenties, who was standing outside the station in cute poofy short-shorts and lace-top thigh highs. It was great, I felt at home. xD

 

 

 

 

Purchases of the past week have been pretty good. Nothing too outstanding, though.

 

Rock and Read vol. 36 with Reita’s (from the GazettE) 100-page feature, which I randomly found in the bookstore at Aeon (I thought this magazine was supposed to be sold out?!). It also features HIZAKI (Versailles), Leda (DELUHI), and Anzi (Matenrou Opera), so for me it was a very good buy.

 

 

 

A little azarashi (seal) shobo-n keychain that is currently on my iPod case. Isn’t it so cute? x3

 

 

 

I bought this from a store called Don Quijote which will probably become my best friend in the next few weeks.
It says “I ♥ Akihabara” on the corner and it says “Shobo-n” across the back (shobo-n is the sound effect for the kaomoji/emoticon).

(I need to lose weight (´Д｀) Hopefully I’ll look better in a month, since I’ll be doing a lot of walking and healthier/less eating!)

 

 

 

I honestly wasn’t planning to buy any music until “REMEMBER THE URGE” came out (eight more days!), but I couldn’t help it when these three were on big sale, especially Guren (only ¥250!!), so now I have expanded my Matenrou Opera and GazettE disc libraries a bit.

(Because the glare is bad, I got the Matenrou Opera’s “Indies Best”, with a lot of rare old tracks and a DVD with all their indies PVs; Matenrou Opera’s “Helios” with multi-angle PV; and the GazettE’s “Guren” Auditory Impression).

 

 

And I bought some school stuff:

 

Just stuff for taking notes and preparing lessons for the kids and such. All bought at the Daiso~ (Only ¥100 per item except for the hard case, that was ¥105.)

 

 

 

 

It’s been a really rough week with lots of ups and downs, but I have kept going and I intend to keep going and doing my best.

Taylor and I move to Saitama tomorrow, so that means I will be packing and studying and lesson planning for the rest of the day. I will hopefully write another blog on Sunday night talking all about that also. Until next time, then~ (´・ω・｀) Shobo-n!