Shibaraku!! or SHIIIIIIIIIBAAAAARAAAAAKUUUUUUUUU!!!

So, last Monday (a week ago in 4 hours and some) I went to see the Kabuki 'Shibaraku' at the Kabuki-Za. I saw a little of it one a video that Aoyagi sensei showed us in class. The plot line is very basic and it is actually pretty short for a kabuki, but it is one of the most famous and easily recognizable ones. This is mostly due to the strange appearance of the main character.

This time I did not get the English translation head set, nor did I have binoculars. I missed the binoculars, I may need to invest in a pair. But the lack of translation was okay. Mostly because the plot line is so basic. Bad guy and his huge group of goons take over this group of kind, but whimpy, nobel men and women and are plotting to kill the Emporer. One thing I found kind of funny about this is you don't even see the take over. In fact the first half of the play is pretty darn boring. Everyone walks in on this cool set. They talk a bit about the plot to take over, and the whimpy nobel people say "oh woe is us," the bad guys goons re-affirm that they are on the bad guys side and kinda do an introduction thing, and thats really about all that happen for the first part.

I really did like the set. It reminded me of one of those big houses that they put the pretty dolls on for Girls Day. In fact it looked almost exactly like that. And the outfits of the nobel people were cool. They were very colorful, where as the bad guy and his crew were all color coded. For example, all the head people (main bad guy, his concubine, and the cat-fish preist) were all bringly, almost ridiculously dressed, the fat stupid guys were all the same color, the samuri had the same gold color scheem going, the lower samuri were all dressed the same. In my head I see some kind of analogy for a militeristic rule where everyone looks the same. As opposed to the weak but beautiful and creative nobels.

Anyways, the nobels are about to get their heads cut off (and I think their little harrum or daughters? rapped) when you hear, from some where back stage, SHIIIIIBAAAAAARAAAAAKUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!
In the fiercest voice possible. It's awesome! Everyone started clapping. The bad guys stop (which was what they were told to do (lit. wait a minute)) and are all "WTF was that? Who would dare tell us to stop?" They debate over this (and I think talk about what they are going to do to who ever it was when that person finally gets here (again, I kind of missed some of the finer details of the dialog due to the lack of translation thing)) when you hear the voice again from back stage.

Finally, after a lot of dialog from the bad guys, you hear the *shhhhhhink* of the curtain that leads to the little room on the other side of the hanami, and out comes this HUGE, GARGANTUIN, CRAZY LOOKING DUDE!!!. His hair really looks like bike spokes (thick black ones) the sleves of his kimono look like plane wings. He looks terrifying and huge and terrifying. The crowed goes wild. Shouts of the actors house name all over, applause. It was great! All he does is sit there. This giant dude (did I mention he had a 5 foot long sword?) just chills at the end of the Hanami, not going anywhere.

The bad guys are terrified at the sight of him and don't really know what to do cause he told them to stop but he isn't doing anything but sitting there glarring at everything (I wish I had the binoculars for the glare.) After a bit of debate, the main bad guys all go up one at a time and ask what he wants and try to convince him to leave. Nothing works. He introduces him self at some point. Which is pretty awesome to hear, but I didn't know what he was saying, just that it was an introduction. I might have to go back and look up the translated script and see what he says.

So, the bad guys try to convince him to go away, nothing works. After a while they send their goons after him, all he has to do is glare at them and they blow away, literally. No one can stand up against his fierce glare! After this great show of force the bad guys cave (his concubine defects to the good guys side) and he releases the nobles and even gives back some of the treasure he stole from them.

But then the bad guy sends his goons to just try and kill this guy. This too does not go according to plan. There is an awesome costume change where the outer kimonos are peeled away to revel a huge rope belt and the wings taken off, he still looks really fierce. In this kind of cool dance scene all of the bad guys goons come up to this guy and try to kill him. He pulls out his big sword and easily dispatches them all, some in one swing!

The play ends with the scene before the good guy goes against the bad guys head goons. It's a pretty nifty dramatic ending, and one I find happens a lot in Kabuki, they like to stop the play just before the big final climactic action (like in the Double Love Suicide I saw, they ended the play right right RIGHT before the man killed his love.) I think it's for dramatic effect, it's kind of nice, and actually makes me think of some anime I have seen that end like that. Coincidence?

Anyways. I really like this play a lot. I kind of wish I had gotten the translation thing, but not having definitely didn't ruin it. I also got to stand the entire time. By the time I got there it was standing room only. This was okay because I got to stand on this little bleacher like thing in the back and it actually gave me a decent view of the hanami so I could see the main character the whole time he was just chilling on it. This time was also cool because the audience was really into it. Every 5 lines someone would shout an actors house name. It was really cool. I can tell that there are actually breaks in the lines that seem almost especially made so that the audience can show their appreciation. I want to learn where those are and the house names so I can shout at people too. It's very different from Western theater. I like it a lot! It's almost more like a sporting event.

And that was the awesomeness of Shibaraku.

The next things I am planning on seeing (and boy are their a bunch of them coming up) are;
The Twelfth Night (kabuki style) on the 17th
Siayuki (AKA Monkey Magic) on the 19th
I might see Noh on the 13th, they have a special thing for it.
And I want to see Fuji-hime or whatever it is called (wisteria maiden dance piece) at the Nationl Theater (not the Kabuki-za)

We will have to see which ones I actually end up seeing but I really want to see the Noh and I already have the tickets for the first two. We will see. I am very excited!

I will let you know how those turn out.
Thats all for Kabuki for now. I will however post a new general post either tonight or tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of Eve Terrific! And her magic mystic samuri cat, Manfred (I am changing that so much, you don't even know.)
~Eve

Lost in, and out, of translation.

Well I have kind of decided to stop trying to make sense of what is happening and to stop controlling what is going to happen. If you have read my other blog www.diaryofnagagoose.blogspot.com you know I have had a lot of trouble with the Japanese language past. Being in Japan has not helped that as much as I had hopped it would. As a result, though I have been trying very hard, I have not been doing as well as I would like. The past two weeks it has degenerated to almost the level it was when I dropped out of Japanese in America. Almost unfortunantely, though I can:t be sure because it would mean me never coming to Japan, I do not have the luxary of backing out. Im not sure I would even if I could.

I really REALLY am enjoying Japan. But language becomes so frustrating for me, I cant take it. I am sticking with it though, but my drive is waneing and these past two weeks have been complete failures. I don:t really know what to do. This weekend I am going to re-double my efforts (since I have no where to go since I have no money) and try to re-re-re-learn all we have learned from the past three chapters. I will probably try and do this on my own. I find that often having people try to help me, actually hinders me. So it is going to be a weekend of controlled, quiet, no stress study in an attempt to be up to pace with the other students.

It really is frustrating that I am so far behind. Or at least I feel very behind, everyone else seems to be advancing in leaps andbounds and Iam stuck where we started. I have been seeking comfort and advice from friends at home and one said something very true of me. It takes me forever and a day to learn something, but once I know it, I really know it and it stays with me for a long time. The thing is there is so much in a language I have to really know something down pat before I can go onto something else. Other wise it turns into Math and I forget very quickly something I supposedly only learned a few days ago.

So studying it is. I need to ace every test and quiz we have from here on out. I dread what my grade is currently. I have no problem admitting this. Language is hard, and seems a particularly hard topic for me. But it is something I want to get better in. There is nothing wrong in me admitting it is hard and struggling. And yes, half the reason I am saying this is to convince my self. Everyone has something they are good and bad at; Im sure I can dance better than you can. Another thing I need to do is chill. I tend to worry so much about failing, that when time comes to preform I freeze, like what happened for the mid-term. I studied probably more than 4 hours the day before. Un-stressed, good studying. I knew it. And then I got to the class room with the test in front of me and I froze, couldnt remember the simplest things.

So I really need to relax. Many of my friends have been trying to lend me their calm. I think their thoughts and kind words are helping. So thank you to all who have been helping me. I am also finding that my solitude has been helping my calm. I like being in the swirl and wrath of humanity on my own. I am finding out a lot about my self on this trip. More than I thought I would honestly. But I am growing. And my Japanese really is better. I just need to relax and not worry to the point of hysteria when I don:t understand something or make mistakes. No matter how numerous those mistakes are. This almost comes across as me not caring, but really I do, I just dont want to be depressed or sad or angry or hysterical because I don:t understand or I am not as good as everyone else anymore. Its tireing and annoying and I dont like being that way. It hurts. Calm is better.

Right now I am very calm.

I have not up-dated lately I guess. It doesn:t really feel like that long but I guess it has been a while. It always seems like life is on slow motion while in progress, but when you think back and remember the past day or week, it seems like it was on fast forward and it is hard to remember or you wonder if you took full advantage of the time.

These past weeks have been kind of like that. There have been days where I have felt almost more productive than I ever have in my entire life. And then there have been days I want to re-try or erase completely.

I visited Asakusa again, by myself. It was very nice. I got to spend a lot of time meditating in Yoyogi Hall (a hall in the shrine complex dedicated to the Budhavisattva gaurdians of the zodiac animals.) It is probably my favorite building and very calming. It was nice to go there by my self and just explore. I also went to this nifty little Turkish Resturant near the shrine. And yes, there is Turkish food in Japan. It was very good and I met this nice girl who I will hopefully get to teach English too, though our first attempt at a lesson fell through.

I have however, been in contact with many of my other students and prospective students. I know am officially seeing 4. I hope that more contact me soon. I should probably start charging some money for the first lesson simply for transportation. This past week has been nothing but me meeting with these first 4 contacts but I have lost 1000￥ just from travel expenses and have yet to get anything back. Next week will be better and I will finally have some cash on hand. Which is great because there are many many things starting to coe up that I really want to do.

For example, the new Star Trek movie is out in Japan now (movies com out a few weeks later in Japan than in the states) and there are two other movies I want to see, Angles and Deamons and the Blood the Last Vampire movie that came out the same time as Star Trek. A lot of the kids at the dorm want to go see Star Trek either this weekend or on Wednesday in Roppongie, which kind of expensive. Also, I am going to go see 2 full length Kabuki plays in June, and maybe a shorter one and a Noh play as well. That will all cost a lot, though one of the kabuki plays is paid for, maybe two, I can:t remember, it is too confusing. I ALSO want to go to studip Ghibli on the 10th.You have to buy tickets way in advance but they aren:t that much 1000￥ (10$) so not too bad. But I will want money to spend on things there, like I want a Totoro Obento box (lunch box) and maybe a blanket or something. I don:t know. And a few of my friends are requesting suvoiers. So I need money for that too.

And traveling around Tokyo in general is very expensive. It can cost a lot just to travel around and sight see, minus food or actual acess to buildings, but the trains. 150￥ here another ２３０￥ there. It all really adds up quickly. But it is really very dull just sitting in the dorm. Not tomention depressing. So the fact that I now have contacts and students I am seeing is very good because it means I can get out and do things. Which always makes me happy. There are a few other places I want to go just to sight see, but food and transportation, and some of these places are bound to have things that catch my eye, Akihabara for example, the Otaku mecha. Like an Anime Convention and Steroids and Extacy, with a caffinee adiction and swords... good times all around, and my type of place.

I want to stay busy busy. I am also trying to keep up my extracuriculars. Most of which keep me happy and sane. Like exercise, which I almost completely stopped doing these past two weeks. But yesterday I went and I can tell I hadn:t done it in a while. I am going to try and do some jogging early morning work out tomorrow. Also Aikido. Yesterday was also the first time I had gone to that in a week. I think they thought I had died, or had been snubbing them. But being depressed (which I was) makes me not want to do physical/social activities, which happen to be usuaully what I need most to get un-depressed, or at most mellowed out.

Another thing I have done recently is gone to see another Kabuki. I did this on Monday morning, woke up bright and early to get to the Kabuki-za for standing only seating. At only ６００－８００￥ the one act kabuki are very worth the trip to Ginza. I find them very enjoyable. The one I went to see was Shibaraku. It was very good, lots of shouting from the audiance. I
will write it its own post here during the weekend, I need a critique for that one for kabuki class, as well as maybe one of the videos I have borrowed from the teacher. We will see how productive I am this weekend, but I hope the answer is very.

I also hope to get a scholarship done this weekend. Or even this evening. I might try to have the first copy done by tonight. We will see how far I get, I have the thesis and opening anyways. It is a start. Lots to do and plan in the up coming days. June I think might be my busiest month. There is also a plan trip to a cherry orchard in the country out side of Tokyo and then to an Onsen. This will be nice since I have yet to goto an onsens. The only trouble is there are limited spots and it is by draw if too many people apply. I hope Im lucky. Or that some of the people who have gone to an onsen already dont try to sign up. If I dont get in I might try to schedule my own trip.

Another thing I had planned to do was go to see Sumo. Sadly the tickets had sold out for the last tournament in Tokyo. So I was unable to go. I am a little disappointed but I am hoping there will be another chance for me to see it at some point in the near future. There is another tournament some where else in July. I may go to that if I can.

I do enjoy going and seeing things, but I am finding I like spontaneous solitary wandering. Also, I seem to get angry at someone or make someone angry at me at group functions. So I think I will try to avoid them more now. It is simpler that way. I don:t know if this makes me a bad person or anti-social or what, but it:s just what I am finding out about my self.

This doesn:t mean I:m going to beomce the traveling hermit. For example, I love all of my students, and I love meeting new people in new places. I just prefer to met new people with out company. And the dorm functions seem to complicate things. Like this one guy in the dorm completely cussed me out at a party a few days a go for very little reason. Onhis behalf I think he was drunk at the time. So he may not have realized or been thinking clearly, but it kind of hurt my feelings, though I didn:t let it ruin the night for me because I was having a very good time. But things like that seem to happen a lot, and I would rather just avoid those types of situations.

So this is what has been done by Eve and what is being planned to do, and my musings about my self findings. I apologize if this was one of my duller posts, I will try to post something more riveting soon. Today I am in a very mellow mood and have been all day. I feel it might seem as though I am distant, or calous, but that isn:t it. This is one of the best moods I have been in for the longest period of time in a long time and I am kind of hoping it keeps up all weekend.

Anyways, wish me a productive weekend and calm thoughts. Prayers of any kind would be appreciated. Nothing terrible is happening to my family. As far as I can tell everyone is happy and fine. I just feel very very lost about where my path is taking me right now. More lost than I have ever felt in my life. It is un-nerving and causing me to be anxious. I never felt like this at WAC, everything was always very certain. I hope I get back on track soon. I am sorry I used this post as a way to spill my guts about my current issues.

Thank you for listening.
~Eve

A very good day

So, I woke up at 5:40 am... though I may not have fully ever slept... REM sleep was never attained, but I lost like 45 min between 4 and 5, so maybe sleep...

I had planned on waking up and exercising, so when I woke up at 5:40 I stayed up and got a really early start running, had run 2 miles and done a few other exercise things and showered by 9, was dressed and on the way to Asakusa by 10. I got money from 7/11, put some on my pasmo, got to Asakusa by like 10:30 or so.

I enjoyed the temples, I sat and meditated in the zodiac temple (my favorite, really it's called Yoyogi) for almost an hour, did the purifying thing, bought incense. I felt really great after that (I still have holy water in my travel mug, which is Pirates of the Caribbean. ^_^)

Then I walked around Asakusa market... but all of the tasty food stalls were closed and there was no good food.

I found this nice little turkish restaurant, their little caller person was out side, apparently she spoke a bit of English and she convinced me to come in, though I was pretty much sold anyways (woot Baklava).

Sat down, her and I talked, I asked if she was taking lessons, she said not really, I told her I taught and we exchanged info and now I have a new student!

ALSO

I kinda started dancing to the turkish belly dancing music they had playing, which the guys who seemed to own the restaurant really liked... They gave me free turkish tea and one of them invited me to go to the Disco in Shibuya with him >.>;;. I said no thanks, but I would totally come back there after my lesson with Kei (girls name) and dance for a bit for turkish coffee ^_^

and they kinda agreed.

Then I went to the cultural exchange where they taught us a fan dance

and I could flip and spin the fans right off the bat! I was pleased. W00t for colorgard!

And now another student from the website has contacted me!

And I have a set time with my THIRD contact! Yatta!

I even worked on my Japanese mid-term a bit last night, including some translation.

I FEEL PRODUCTIVE!

I'm going places now, apparently.

I will talk to you later, TATA!

Sakura hirahira

[*]
Sakura hirahira maiorite ochite
Yureru omoi no take wo dakishimeta
Kimi to haru ni negai shi ano yume wa
Ima mo miete iru yo sakura maichiru

Densha kara mieta no wa itsuka no omokage
Futari de kayotta haru no oohashi
Sotsugyou no toki ga kite kimi wa E÷(machi) wo deta
Irodzuku kawabe ni ano hi wo sagasu no

Sorezore no michi wo erabi futari wa haru wo oeta
Sakihokoru å(mirai) wa atashi wo aserasete
Odakyusen no mado ni kotoshi mo sakura ga utsuru
Kimi no koe ga kono mune ni kikoete kuru yo

[* Repeat]

Kakikaketa tegami ni wa "genki de iru yo" to
Chiisana uso wa misukasareru ne
Meguriyuku kono machi mo haru wo ukeirete
Kotoshi mo ano hana ga tsubomi wo hiraku

Kimi ga inai hibi wo koete atashi mo otona ni natte iku
Kouyatte subete wasurete yuku no kana
"hontou ni suki datta n' da" sakura ni te wo nobasu
Kono omoi ga ima haru ni tsutsumarete yuku yo

Sakura hirahira maiorite ochite
Yureru omoi no take wo dakiyoseta
Kimi ga kureshi tsuyoki ano kotoba wa
Ima mo mune ni nokoru sakura maiyuku

Sakura hirahira maiorite ochite
Yureru omoi no take wo dakishimeta
Tooki haru ni yume mi shi ano hibi wa
Sora ni kiete yuku yo

Sakura hirahira maiorite ochite
Haru no sono mukou e to arukidasu
Kimi to haru ni chikai shi kono yume wo tsuyoku
Mune ni daite sakura maichiru

(Pretty song by Ikimono Gakari. I think it will be the first one I memorize and try and sing at Kareoke. It's called Sakura, go look it up!)

Getting better all the time!

Well I just got my third and forth prospective students for English tutoring. I hope to hear back from them all soon. Currently I only have one definite meetings scheduled. I am very excited about this. I look forward to meeting them, I only hope that I can do this well. I think I can. I'm happy that things are going so smoothly now, and a shout out to my prospective students and Maggie who helped hook me up with most of them. Wish me luck mina-san!

I had the best night EVER on Saturday. Me and my friends have been wanting to experience Tokyo club night life since we got here. I love dancing, so it has been something to do high on my list for a long time. FINALLY we got to go on Saturday. Atom is an awesome, reasonably priced, and very popular club in Shibuya. If you ever find yourself in Tokyo and are bored between the hours of 11 pm and 5 am, I suggest you check it out.

The club is kind of set back off the main drag and surrounded by other clubs, bars, sex hotels, and convinies. It's not a seedy area though, it can't be, it attracts too much attention. There are also lots of police every where, so it is very safe and you don't have to worry about walking alone. I my self, walked there at 11:30pm to meet my friends who had already gotten there.

It really is reasonably priced. 1,000 yen (about $10) to get in, if your female you get two drinks on the house with that entrance fee. The club is 3 stories of pure awesome. The 5th floor is the main floor and features a huge DJ area, big bar, and a lot of seating. Though there isn't enough seating once it hits midnight, this is no problem for ladies however, as there is pleanty of seating specifically for the ladies around the edges of the floor. The 5th floor also has a huge dance floor with 4 large wooden boxes spread out in a eshilon off of the DJ's podeum. Each box is accompanied by a bouncer (all of whom are EXTREEMLY NICE, and will talk to you if you start up a conversation) and you can get on a box and dance if you are brave enough. But be warned, everyone will see you. Also, make sure your under wear matches your skirt, or wear shorts under your skirt, cause guys get a look right on up there.

ANYWAYS! So this club is awesome! I met up with my friends and we danced a bit. They had already finished off their first round of drinks. I got mine later, a red bull and peach liqour. It did very little. I drank water for the rest of the night because dancing under the influence of alcohol is not fun at all. Besides that the drinks were kind of expensive. 500 yen ($5) for water, and 1000 yen ($10!) for a Smirinof Ice. RIDICULOUS. I bought one bottle of water and just kept refilling it from he tap in the ladies bathroom.

One surprising thing was that the mens bathroom had a bigger line than the girls did. Another interesting thing about some Japanese clubs, you can smoke in the bathrooms. They provide ash trays and stuff. That I don't have a problem with, what I do have a problem with is people smoking on the dance floor. Which is really problematic when your close to getting your face burned by some guy waving around a ciggarrette. I walked out of there with a bunch of ciggarrette ash on my shoes, quite annoying.

Other than that the club was a lot of fun. The 4th floor is awesome! It's all trance techno music. But the theme is a cave. The walls look like they are made from mud or rock. There are little projector screen sliced up and streatched across the ceiling and others intact streatched across the walls where they play the mindless, trippy, psychadelic techno music videos, that make you feel like you have tarrets. They also had this giant prehistoric looking arthropod on the ceilinng, which I didn't notice until later into the night. Also there is a small bar at the entrance to the 4th floor and a bigger one off of the actually place to dance. I think the 4th floor was my favorite by look. Though the only lights they had down there were white strobes and green lasers, so after a while I started getting a head ache. But that was a lot later into the night after being on my feet dancing to ridiculously loud music for hours. So who knows. But I think all in all, the 4th floor was my favorite, but the boxes on the 5th floor were the best part of the club in general.

While on the boxes so many guuys wanted to touch my hand and were cheering. I was called sexy quite a lot. One guy saluted me. On the boxes is actually the safer place to dance. Guys can look but they can't really touch, your too high up, they would have too reach to get your butt, and the bouncers are ever attentive. Besides not needing to worry about people touching your butt, your pretty much safe from betting drinks spilled on you or poked with a cig. You also don't need to worry about over enthusiastic guys coming over and grinding up on you. It's really nice to dance up there. If your not too nervous I suggest you try. I was trying to coxe some of the Japanese girls up on the boxes with us, but a lot of them were just too nervous. I wonder if that isn't one of the cultural differences, that English girls are more personally agressive, and thus don't mind doing things like getting up on a box in a crowded dance floor and dancing where as Japanese girls (who are prettier than said English girls) are to afraid to.

I didn't actually go to the 6th floor that much. It started out not playing the best music when the night first started off, so not many people were up there. But by 1 am it was packed and there was no getting in their with out the aid of a sledge hammer. But they started playing mostly rap and hip hop later in the night, so that was nice. I actually liked it there when I was there. They had it set up just like a regular bar, mostly standing room. DJ in front with a big over head projector. Really low lights but no strobes or flashing lights, so it was a nice place to go to just chill. They also had things you could dance on there. Namely two oil drums on either side of the DJ. The problem is these were very small, if your moving any amount only one person could have fit up there. There were little boxes next to them that another person could have stood on, but they were really only about the size of a step. Not much room. But it was still fun. One of my favorite belly dancing songs actually came on up there near the end of the night and I hopped on an oil drum and did my thing. It was a lot of fun.

I actually met a lot of people, some girls some guys. Three really pretty Japanese girls started talking to me in the bathroom, asked me where I was from and if I was having fun. Later a few guys were talking to me down stairs asking the same questions. I actually met some American chicks on the stair well and kept bumpbing into them all night. This one girl when I was dancing on box kept giving me the evil eye, which I found funny. A Japanese girl and her Korean friend jumped up on a box with me at some point., they were very nice. I met this other American girl who was hanging out with us for a while. It was pretty cool. I actually ended up hanging out with these American military guys from one of the Tokyo bases for the last 3 hours of the night. We hooked up on the 5th floor and hung out on the 4th floor and meet up with all of my friends. They all wanted to leave so I let them go and me and the 6 military guys chilled in Shibuya for a bit, till about 6 am when we all parted ways at the train station (another big point about Japanese night life, don't go if you don't plan on staying out all night, the trains shut down around midnight and the clubs don't start livening up till around 11 pm, so there is no point in going if your not going to stay out. Luckily, even if you want to take a break, there are sex hotels every where which let you stay for about 3 hours for $35, or go to a Kareoke bar or a McDonalds for a little bit. There are also all night noodle and curry places, just keep your eyes open for places to chill.) Even gave out my number, woohoo for a productive night. Not really expecting a call back, but still, good times all around.

I really enjoy that night. It's the most fun I have had in a very very VERY long time. I have been stressing a lot lately as anyone who has been reading this knows well enough. Dancing is one of the best ways for me to relax, so this was the biggest thing to relieve stress, and dear lord knows I needed it.

Anyways, I currently studying for a chapter test in Japanese, so I am going to go do that now. Later I need to put up this awesome recipie I invented today. It was really good, and easy. I will write it out for you later.

TATA FOR NOW, read on
~Eve Nealon

Sleepless in Ookayama

It should be the title to a movie, I'm sensing a block buster....

Apparently there is an Awesome view of Mt. Fuji from the road up to the train station I use. I will try and take a picture next time I am walking there on a clear day.

I still am having issues sleeping. I am very tired right now and can't seem to fall asleep. So I gave up staring at the ceiling for staring at a computer screen. Slightly more annoying and worse for my eyes, but I think it is a touch more productive. Besides up dating my calender on Google, something I haven't done since my freshman year of college, I have cleaned my room, scheduled things for the next few weeks, tried to translate the page for this job I want to apply for and kinda got the gist, but failed, and done a whole bunch of other useless type stuff that I only kinda needed to do.

I'm going to start working on a project soon. Just wanted to let you know that the insomnia continues. Though I thin I will make my self sleep soon, regardless of if the sleep inducing mallet must be used.

I have a busy day tomorrow, including going to a club, which is pointless but something I have wanted to do for a very long time, so I'm kind of looking forward to it.

Anyways, I am ranting in an insomnia educed stupor, I will talk more later.

Oyasumi
~Eve

Problems Arise

So, now he novelty and excitement of being in Japan has worn away. The money has also become tighter and I am having to monitor my spending far more than I did at the beginning when I was in Japan and had cash. Thus things are starting to get depressing.

I am currently looking for a job... I think I said that last time. Still haven't gotten one yet. I'm a little discouraged, but taking it a day at a time. My friend who got jobs from this site is going to give me the contact info of some of the people she had to turn away. I hope I get people soon. I won't turn them away

Japanese, also, is not getting any easier. I am dreading the mid-term, which is a 10 minute presentation with hand outs and at least 3 interviews. I'm debating doing it on aikido, which would be easy. Or Japanese self image would be an interesting topic. But harder to talk about.

I have also been sick... again... this time it isn't going away as quickly but isn't as bad a cold, illness, whatever. Just a bit annoying to constantly have either a stuff nose of sore throat.

I am also missing more congenial companionship. I feel a bit socially claustrophobic right now, and I don't know how to get around it. In short, I am lonely.

Now that the sparkling magic of Japan has worn off I am finding it hard to motivate myself; it's not as exciting, and the current surroundings are making me a bit upset. The ladies at the International Studies Office said this kind of thing usually happened. Not to sound arrogant, I didn't really think it would happen to me. I'm not the home sick type, in fact I have never been home sick. And I was so gun-ho about this trip, the fact that I am feeling a little down is making it worse... I feel bad for feeling bad. The funny thing is I'm not feeling home sick. Lonely maybe, kind of bored with the lack of social interaction, but not home sick. So I will definitely stick with it. I AM NO QUITTER GOOD SIR! I'm even still debating the staying another semester. It all hinges on me getting a job though.

Another problem is I think my insomnia is coming back. This has been the second night in a row where I watched the sun rise, trying to convince my self that, no really, sleep is a great idea, you should try it, you'd love it. And yet there is no convincing my self of that.

Summer is going to be interesting. The weeks are getting progressively hotter and muggier, I'm not looking forward to meeting July. I'm not going to be wearing very much I think by that time.

Anyways, I said I was going to tell you about ALL of the things that happened to me on this trip, and I think this is a very important part of that. One of the guys here was talking about how he liked Japan, but he didn't think, after this trip, that he would ever want to live here. Another was saying how living in Japan made you appreciate America more. And both are very true. Though I could still see living in Japan, some aspects of America are better, some aspects of Japan are better.

I will let you know how the next few days go. Not much is happening currently. Lots of projects and things to do for school, but that is really all. I am going to take it a day at a time, and ATTEMPT to relax so I don't make my self sick, which I think may be the case.

Wish me luck.
I hope I can do this.
~Eve

GOLDEN WEEK: and what I did.

Golden Week = AWESOME WEEK
all you need to know.

Golden week was the most busy, and lazy, I have been in the shortest period of time in a very long time. I am usually a nice balance of busy and lazy every day. But Golden Week, there were some days where I was every where, and other days when I was just staying in bed all day. No days where it was half and half.

Thursday I ended up in Setagaya for the last have of the day trying to get my alien registration card, which I did get. But the commute there and back to so long that I didn't really do anything else for the rest of the day, I tried to make aikido, but ended up coming at the wrong time. Which was very embarrassing and upset me quite a lot. I don't like missing aikido, it is important to my sanity as a way to releave stress. Every time I miss it or don't go I get a touch more touched, not good. I did however exercise in the gym for a good hour, did a lot of running, was very sore, felt good. I had made the trek to the school, figured I might as well work out.

Friday was also a bit of a fiasco. I ended up kind of accidently sleeping through my classes. Apparently my phones alarm (which is what I have been using) has a setting where it turns my alarm off during holidays. Thus I did not wake up till around 11. Also very upsetting. I think I ended up cleaning most of the rest of the day.

Saturday was a big day for me. I was very happy, we got to go to TOKYO DISNEY!! It was great, almost exactly like Disney in Orlando. Except Tokyo Disney seems to have a strange obsession with certain characters, namely; Lilo and Stich (which I never saw and have no interest in), Monsters Inc. (which was cute and I liked it but by no means the best Disney movie), and Micky and Mini (which will of course be big in Disney World.) The thing that upset me and my friends was the distinct lack of any of the princesses. None of them were any where. It was all Lilo and Stich and Monsters paprphinalia. The Monsters thing I can understand, they just opened a new Monsters Inc. ride, and they are probably milking it for all it is worth, but really, no Princesses? I was a little disappointed at that.

I kind of pigged out at Disney, but it's okay because your allowed to do that at amusement parks, it's a law some where. The first thing we rode was the little space ship thing the lifts you high off the ground, it was pretty fun. I also rode Space Mountain three times. I never rode it in Orlando, but it was a lot of fun. I got a picture with Captain Hook (great guy, I like his hat) and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland (also a great guy, and he said he liked my hat and we exchanged witty comments.) I rode The Haunted Mansion, which I love, I kind of want to live there. That ride makes me giggle, though the line was painfully long and probably the root cause of the horendous sun burn I developed about 5 hours into the stay at the park. Also rode a flight simulator called Star Tours (yes, we were supposed to be going to one of the Star Wars planets but ended up facing off against Emperial Cruisers and the Death Star, good times all around.

Also rode the Caracel and Alices Tea Party. I love the Tea Cups, they make me very happy. Dad always spun me really fast on those, so I put the guns to work and spun the our tea cup as fast I think they can go, with the help of Meaghan of course. It was a lot of fun. Another of my favorite rides from the trip was Splash Mountain. Some of the big flume rides scare the... whatever... out of me. But this one was very tame and the only really LONG ride, besides maybe the Haunted Mansion. You went into all the little places in the Briare Rabbit story, and there were two drops on the inside of the building (they were pleasently sized drops too.) And then came the big drop on the outside of the ride. It was a lot of fun and I didn't even get that wet, just a pleasent damp across the face.

We also went on a train ride I want to say was called Thunder Ridge or some such. It was one of the little roller coaster train rides. The drops weren't that big, though they kind of looked like they might be, but it was a very tame ride, I was a little disappointed. I look forward to maybe going to another amusement park in the near future, one with bigger and bader rides. Disney was a lot of fun though. I really enjoyed it. One thing that probably made it so nice was that we had fast passes, so we could get a fast pass and then go ride a ride while we waited for our turn. It is a pleasent system.

I even got to see a bit of the light show parade at the end of the day and got an adorable Cheshier Cat-bell-phone-charm for only about $5. I love it, I jinggle when I walk now. I also rode one of the best rides. The Pirates of the Carabien ride is of course always awesome. From what I remember a bit from the one I rode in Orlando when I was little, long before the movie, they added a part with Barbarosa attacking the jail, and a bunch of Jack Sparrows popping up in random places. It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it a lot. And no, they didn't sing the pirate song in Japanese, though I do believe the skull that says good luck in the beginning was speaking in Japanese. It was awesome, and we even got to see Mr. Sparrow outside of the ride. I felt kind of bad for him, he was being attacked by a gaggle of little Japanese girls (girls being like people my age.) I didn't try to attack him like SOME people did, and kind of let him run. I feel kind of sorry for whoever plays him, doing that day after day. Though the guy did make an excelent Jack Sparrow and probably would have been hot out of costume too.

All in all, except for the ridiculous sunburn, which has finally led to the peeling it promised it would when my skin burned and turned waxy, Disney World was awesome! I'm glad I got to go, but it makes me want to go to the one in Orlando again. Also I want to go to Disney Sea, which is another part of the park but requiers another ticket, but supposedly has the better rides. Like the Tower of Terror. Maybe if I get a job.

I have indeed applied for a job on findstudents.net, which introduces Americans in Japan to people who want to learn English. As people can see from my many spelling mistakes, I may not be the best person for the job, but for conversation I am good, and I am actually pretty good at essays, as long as I have a spell check. I am hoping to get some people soon. If I can get a few usual customers I can stay here for another semester. So I really hope I get at least some people. I'll let you know, but they haven't give me a conformation yet, so we will have to see.

Sunday was also fun. Woke up early again (did I mention the day at Disney was a 6 to 9 day?) and went to Asakus for a class project. One of our teachers has devided us into groups of about 2 or 3 ISP students and one Japanese student and told us to go explore places in Tokyo and come back and do a presentation on what we found. We chose Asakusa (pronounced a-saw-ksa) because it is kind of an old styled street market connected to a shrine. I didn't really know what to expect but I am glad we picked it, it was absolutely awesome. All manner of food and wears were sold in the old styled market, most of the food was really cheap too. A lot of the wears though were meant for tourists, and not very Japanese. Some of them were authentic though. And the food was definitely authentic, and smelled delicious.

The shrine too was amazing. And exspansive. I kind of felt like I had finally come to my church. It would have been nice though if it hadn't been so crowded. I hope to go back soon on a day when it won't be so crowded, some time during the week. The buildings were awesome and it was really cool to see the temples. I was a little sad that they were doing reconstruction on the main building, made it hard to see how pretty it would be other wise. I enjoyed learning about the different kannon and budavistas from our buddy. I actually got a compliment from a Japanese man who over heard me talking about them. He said I knew more than a lot of Japanese people did about Buddhism, I felt very proud. I wish I knew more. There are so many different dieties, it is hard to keep them all straight.

I like the Zodiac temple best. It had the different budavistas of the zodiac animals. Mine is the snake and the kannon that goes with it is Fugen Botsatsu. He (or she, many of the kannon look very androgenic and it is hard to tell, though I susspect that might be the point, but I am pretty sure Fugen is a he) rode and elephant. I thought it was pretty cool, and really worked hard on praying.

There are places all around the temple where you can get your fortune for the year told. You give 100 Yen and shake this metal hexagonal can, tip it upside down and jiggle it a few times and a stick comes out. You match the numbers on the stick with the rows of small drawers and pick a piece of paper from your drawer. My fortune wasn't so good. But there is a remedy for this. Tie your fortune onto one of the racks that are scattered about and you will have a much better fortune.

Then we went to a cool old resturant from the 1800's. It was pretty cool and the food was good. I enjoyed my self. The other nice thing was that the day ended a lot faster than the trip to Disney had, and we were back in the dorm by 4. I even got Ice Cream at the baskin Robbins out side the resturant. But it was a very educational day. I learned a lot about Buddhist religion, and went to my first major shrine. I really had a could time and felt very good after words.

Monday I don't thik much happened. So much had been going on the two days before that that I didn't really want to do much. I have been reading a lot. Nothing Japanese, just for fun. I find that I am becoming a little withdrawn. I like being alone a lot of the time but it gets boring after a while. I kind of have been catching up on my sleep the last few days. On Tuesday I made the walk/train ride to school in the rain so I could go to aikido. I had a lot of fun at Aikido tough. We did mostly Ukemi, which are rolls that are very important to getting away once you are tossed. it was a lot of fun but my back hurts a lot now.

Today I had planned on going running and the back to Asakusa. But I didn't feel very good last night and slept through running and then decided to just get my rest. I think it was a good idea. I feel quite a bit better now. I also got all of my homework done. So I am ready for school and aikido tomorrow. I'm kind of planning on running tomorrow morning. Running is great exercise, I always feel better after running. Also I feel the need to repent for my poor eating habits at Disney. Though today I have eaten very little. I am considering eating some bread with peanut butter now, just to have a bit more food than the tiny quesadilla I ate a few hours ago as my only form of food.

If I do that I am going to put on one of the Kabuki dvds we got from our teacher, we have to write a critique on those too, though I do not know if I will finish it tonight. I might try and take notes in bullet, or write as I watch. I will tell you what happens later.

Really very little has happened. One thing I am happy about is that we no longer have Japanese 4 times a week, only 2. I feel like I have been regressing in my Japanese proficiency level for the past week and a half. I Don't know if it is because my mind is on over load or if I am just tired. I feel like too much is trying to be shoved in my brain at the same time and I can't deal with it anymore. But I am hoping this will no longer be the case now that our class time is cut down. I will certainly get more sleep now. Though depending on when I meet my prospective students, that could change quickly. With aikido, I am still kind of busy, even with fewer classes. I am sensing a lot of morning visits, but I may try to keep them afternoon.

Anyways, off to be more productive. Happy Golden Week.
~Eve