Miss/Won't Miss #9

Things I'll Miss About Japan #9: Wearing Whatever the Hell I Want and NEVER Looking Like a Weirdo
I have commented before about fashion and appearance standards for young females. When I was at Jouchi I felt like I had to "dress up" for school. I always had to have my nails painted, make-up done just right, hair curled, cute outfit, the whole nine yards -- and that was only for class. When I got back to Omaha I was shocked to see how girls would roll out of bed and go out into the world* because no girl in their right mind would have done that at Sophia.

I still think the standards are set high in a city like Tokyo, maybe a little bit higher for girls than guys. I have expanded my views, however, to include the fact that you can wear anything you want as long as it looks like you put some effort into it.

Normal. Really.

Seriously, you can dress however you want and no one will look at you twice. Even in Saitama, I see girls dressed to the nines in lolita gear and it's perfectly normal. If you ride the Yamanote on a regular basis you become accustomed to the goth and visual kei people. On the train ride from the airport, I was standing next to a girl that was dressed in super Kyary Pamyu Pamyu style and my parents were like, "Do people always dress like that?" Yeah, they do! I didn't even really notice her.

*When I went to college, girls tended to dress like this: 1) North Face jacket or university sweatshirt, 2) Victoria's Secret PINK line sweat pants in some disgusting neon color, 3) Ugg boots, 4) Vera Bradley purse (the first time I saw them on a bunch of sorority girls I thought someone's mom made them cuz that shit is HIDEOUS), 5) sport backpack with a thermos hanging off a clip, 6) hair in the Britney Spears top of the head messy 5-second ponytail with headband. Bonus points for orange skin from tanning booths and/or chunky blonde highlights.

Things I Won't Miss About Japan #9: Being Totally Screwed When Not Dressed Appropriately

I hate regretting what I wore for the day. I don't live really far from Tokyo, but once I'm on the train that's it. Whatever clothes I have on are all I've got to protect me from the elements. Unless I want to spend money on new clothes, which I actually don't always want to do, I'm screwed.

It happens more often when the seasons are changing and the weather can't decide what it wants to be. I'll leave the house thinking, "Oh, I don't need a scarf! Oh, I don't need another layer!" and then FREEZE later on. Last fall I spent the night at my boyfriend's house thinking it'd be cold all weekend, and come Sunday morning it was summer weather. I only had my big hot leather boots to wear. Ew.

I got lucky this past weekend when I went to a barbecue. The weather forecast said 80% chance of rain and I took a chance thinking it might get sunny and hot. I was a little cold in the morning but the weather cleared up and I even got a nice sunburn!

It was so hot, Funny D had ice cubes put in his pants!

Shameless Purchases Post: KIS-MY-FT2 CONCERT DVD YEAH

I'm taking a short break from the Miss/Won't Miss series to bring you this epic announcement.

That concert I went to came out on DVD and I HAVE A COPY OF THE SUPER AWESOME EDITION THAT HAS TWO DVDS AND A CD OH YEAH.

I haven't watched it yet as I simply have not had time, but don't you worry! I've already seen gifs and screenshots on Tumblr and I've got to set aside time to watch this soon. Of course, I could save it for the plane ride back to America... HMM...

Miss/Won't Miss #7

Things I'll Miss About Japan #7: Dating Whoever I Want Off Mixi

Of the guys I've dated in this country, I first contacted about half of them (including my current one!) through Mixi and Twitter. I had a friend from my Jouchi days *invite* me when it was still necessary to do so, and I'm so glad I kept the account.

Find me!

I'm a member of the big English and language exchange communities and find good English-speaking fellas through introduction posts. If he's cute and his English isn't too bad, I'll send him a message and offer to exchange Twitter handles. It's all downhill from there for them muahahahaha.

This city is so vast that I've NEVER run into any of them once I stopped dating them, even the one who lives a train station away from me. It's so nice to never have any reminders of them or have mutual friends and go through all the drama and petty he-said-she-said crap.

Things I Won't Miss About Japan #7: "I'm too busy!"

Each of my previous relationships ended with some variation of, "I'm too busy with work for you! You should date other guys!"

The really sad thing is that I kind of believe them. The salaryman types, especially the ones my age, work crazy hours on a regular basis. A 12-hour workday is a Godsend, considering their commutes are about an hour to and from work. My current boyfriend has been pulling 16-hour days this week, and that isn't including the mandatory drinking with the bosses after work.

Not everyone is blessed with cool gaijin coworkers

who take you to Kua'aina Burger!

My parents commented on that when they were here. How lucky they were, they said, to be at home and done with work at 5:30pm, eating dinner by 6pm, relaxing until bedtime, then getting a full 7-8 hours of sleep. The salarymen in Japan work too hard.

Things I Will/Won't Miss About Japan

Things have been rather dead around these parts. I apologize, I'm going through a big life transition and blogging isn't high on the list of priorities.

In packing and sorting through all my crap, I decided I'm going to try to do a new post EVERYDAY (lol let's see how long that lasts) cataloging the things I've loved and the things I've hated about life in Tokyo.

I'm not going to officially start this epic series until July, my last full month in Japan, but here's a sample~

Things I'll Miss About Japan #0: Ridiculous Men's Magazines

Whenever I'm feeling down or just want something pretty to look at, I indulge myself with a purchase of some crazy gyaru-o magazine.

My most purchased to date has been Men's Egg, but they're all about the same. I think in general the models for Men's KNUCKLE are better-looking, but I'm a dedicated Men's Egg fan. I really should have made a greater effort to see their taiko drum movie last summer.

Oh, look! Gyaru-o "gangs" or circles or something lol.

Subtle.

Even though I can get most big name Japanese magazines in Hawaii (Egg, Nuts, SCawaii, etc.) and every single JE magazine, no one carries men's magazines. I rarely bother reading the articles, but sometimes I do find gems like how to nampa over Mixi or other hilarious topics. Otherwise I'm sure it's a mix of misogynist crap and tutorials on how to get the best hair evarrrr.

Alas, the few I've purchased are now bundled up and waiting for recycle day. Thanks for the lulz, guys.

Here and There

The story of the last two weeks. Or week? I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYMORE.

Last purikura with Marissa and Tracy!

Please note our matching HK lense-less frames.

Saw Marissa off at Narita.

She'll miss the big bottles of Kewpie mayo!

Skytree is one word.

Chef being coy.

Lucky me!

I managed to get three unsuspecting j-boys into an izakaya!

YEAH.

Russian? strawberry shake flavored Milky Way bars.

Delicious.

Hamburg steak place in Shinjuku.

This was the healthy summer set with vegetables.

LOL healthy with a slab of butter on it.

They have this bag out front LOL.

Look an old shinkansen.

I am naturally pigeon-toed, ask my mother

about the horrendous boots I wore as a baby.

He wouldn't get out of the picture!

The only lines worth riding, to be honest.

SIX WEEKS LEFT IN THIS AMAZING PLACE. FML.

Kis-My-Ft2 Tokyo Dome OMG

Carly has a new favorite j-boy group.

Found on Google Image Search.

I know it seems like I suffer from shiny object syndrome and I have a new favorite every week, but I'm serious this time! I was lucky enough to score tickets to Kis-My-Ft2's big Tokyo Dome concert and I was beyond amazed and enthralled~ They put on a spectacular show that was entertaining from beginning to end with THREE encores. IT WAS CRAZY AWESOME.

I'll be honest, this was a big gamble for me. I know nothing about this group - I don't know their names, I only started listening to their album about a week ago, and I certainly don't have a favorite member yet. I bought tickets because I'm never going to see Arashi in concert, so I figured I might as well settle for any major JE group, and I've been wanting to see Tokyo Dome for FOREVER. I didn't have high hopes for the show; I figured it'd be fun but we'd get stuck in the nosebleed seats and just spend a lot of money.

To my extremely pleasant surprise, WE GOT FLOOR SEATS RIGHT NEXT TO A WALKWAY. I was close enough to hear them actually sing into their microphones and not hear any sound come from the loud speakers (lol lip-syncing). I could see every sparkly bedazzled detail on their costumes. I got waved to during each song. I WAS SO FREAKING HAPPY.

Lights everywhere.

The show opened to their three major hits to date, and the boys managed to keep the momentum going through the first hour with no breaks. All music, super happy fun roller skate time, fireworks, acrobatics, dozens of Juniors running around in ill-fitting suits. It was everything I'd expect from a JE show... everything I'd ever dreamed of.

Kis-My-Ft2 started the show suspended by wires and doing acrobatics
from the strange blue balloon there.

Before the show~

The second hour was their variety bit where take a break from performing and show off their personalities. My Japanese is still terrible so I didn't understand most of it, but they promoted their dramas and had some strange comedian give them a big jar of rice crackers. A.B.C.Z, another JE group, made an appearance in the audience. Kisumai dressed up in drag and did a comedy routine as their female alter egos, something about things you'd say to seduce your boyfriend.

The final hour consisted of more music, fireworks, a monster truck, balloons and acrobatics. More waves and smiles to my section. Oh you charming Kisumai boys, making me want to spend more money for your stuff~ They "ended" the show with a song about saying goodnight instead of goodbye, and they "went to sleep" as they descended from the stage. But then we heard complaints of, "I can't sleep! I'm not tired!" so they came back for an encore.

I forget during which encore this happened, but I believe the one named Kitayama smiled and waved HELLO to one of the girls around me. Two of the girls in front of me turned to each other and KYAAAA'd, Marissa turned to me and said OMG HE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME (EDIT: Apparently she was making fun of those girls, too. OOPS!) and for all I know he was looking at my crazy wig. So hey Kitayama, you made all of us feel special for just a moment~

Yet that was simply not enough for the fans. Kisumai left the stage, but no one sat down. All these crazy j-girls spent big money to see Kisumai and they wanted another encore, which they got. I believe one of the guys (Kitayama?) was shirtless through this one, not that I was complaining. I thought this was the *real* end.

NO OMG I WAS WRONG. WE GOT A THIRD ENCORE. A.B.C.Z came up and horsed around with them onstage for the final encore, it was cute.

Then we all left in an orderly fashion and went home. IT WAS SO GREAT. OMG.

I even left with some loot! The streamers exploded out of the sky at some point in the first 10 minutes and once they landed girls started fighting for them. I caught mine fair and square, but I wasn't about to get nuts trying to get one of every color. The girl across from me was a Kisumai super fan, she was kind of scary and actually pulled a streamer out of another girl's hand.

I was disappointed with the goods for sale, notably the over-sized shapeless tote bags, though I did impulsively purchase a pen light. Every big JE show (or tour?) in Japan gets a special pen light that you have to hold and wave to the beat. I felt like the biggest dork waving it around! IT WAS SO FUN.

It's like the transformer pens from Sailor Moon.

Compared to the Jin Akanishi show in LA, this was a far better experience. Cheaper, far more spectacular, and I have a copy of all the songs I like and don't have to wait two years for a crappy album. All in all, I had a great time and I now I have seven more j-boys to love! YAY!

Look at Dead Fish Eyes Running Down the Street

Way back before I ever dreamed of studying or living in Japan, I was an intern at a government office in downtown Honolulu. Not only is the area the central hub of political activity in Hawaii, it's also a hot spot for tourists who want a bit of history and culture. I don't think there's another state that can claim bragging rights to having a capitol building on the same block as a former royal palace.

One day, I happened to be outside of Ali'iolani Hale waiting for a document. Not much was going on, but a film crew was setting up in front of the statue of King Kamehameha. Some reference photos:

I was standing off to King Kamehameha's right side in front of the building. The person they were obviously going to be filming was a guy, maybe a bit older than me, dressed up all nice in a tuxedo and looking pretty. I didn't know who he was, but I assumed he was some Korean super star drama actor filming his next big thing in Hawaii.

The crew set up a camera across the street from the statue. Tuxedo Mask did three takes, running furiously in front of the statue each time. Between takes he went back to his make-up and hair assistants and someone graciously held an umbrella over him to protect his delicate skin from the harsh sun. It must be nice to be so pampered, I thought.

I took a few photos of this guy and asked my expert K-drama friend who he might be. She had no idea. And then I forgot about the whole thing until three years later when I was studying Japanese at the University of Hawaii. I retold this story to a classmate, who immediately told me, "That was Dead Fish Eyes!"

INDEED IT WAS DEAD FISH EYES.

Oh, Fishy, if I had only known who you were... Maybe you and I could be married, like your BFF Jin and Meisa, and speaking English on Route 66. Instead I took some creepy stalker photos of you. Thanks for the memories and rhetorical "what if..." questions I will ask myself until my dying day.

A Note to 2012

Hey 2012.


Just a few things on how to be awesome. First, some general points:

1. Try not to be a dick with the natural disasters. 2011 REALLY messed that up in an epic fashion. We're still recovering from those and we don't need more to deal with.

2. Get that global economy back on track. It'd be nice.

3. America kind of sucks right now, can you make it suck less? I know 2011 kinda screwed us over with the batshit crazy GOP presidential candidates and a sitting president who's less than hopey-changey these days, but you can do better.

4. Take advantage of that whole Mayan calendar ending thing. "The world will end as we know it." That's not a terrible thing, because the world as I know it isn't full of rainbows and bunnies and Nyan cats.

5. Keep the internet memes coming.

Personal points:

1. Related to the America-sucking-less point, I need Japan to suck less as well. I'd like to live there for a while longer without wanting to gaijin smash everything.

2. 2011 gave me all these great new wonderful people in my life. Keep that up, I like having funny kids in class and people to see on the weekends.

3. My family is happy and healthy. My friends are happy and healthy. I'm happy and healthy. Keep that up.

4. 2011 was a Rabbit year and I did all right, but 2012 is a Dragon year and that's kind of frightening. Make sure it doesn't eat me alive.

5. More j-boys. Sandaime J Soul Brothers is like the best thing ever, thanks to 2011. Top that.

And just so you're not alone in this, here are some things I'm going to strive for:

1. Pass JLPT N3 and improve my Japanese all around.

2. Expand my social circle in Japan. And not at international mixers, those are terrible.

3. See, do, experience more. I want great memories and stories, not useless stuff.

Let's do it, 2012!

Shameless Purchases Post

Welcome to another Shameless Purchases post! I've been dropping some serious cash on various things this past week, and I'd like to share them with you~

Seriously, how do I sign up to drive the EXILE/J Soul Brothers truck?

First up, my beloved Sandaime J Soul Brothers released their new album! Check out their ad trucks rolling through the Shibuya scramble, easily one of the best random things in Tokyo. I bought the album set as a reward for taking the JLPT, and what a reward it is. The set contains a brand new CD, a DVD with four videos and two making-of clips, and a live double DVD of Nidaime vs. Sandaime AND some show the entire EXILE Tribe did. HOT DAMN.

The best clip is the "Fighters - Round 3" PV, where the performers get their crazy free-style b-boy skillz on and are completely adorable and make me want to marry all of them - even the one who can't decide what his look is supposed to be and looks weird most of the time because of it.

Yes, this is the second album they've released this year.

Caroline has been gradually cleaning out her apartment, and bestowed upon me a great deal for her old jisho and JLPT N3 study books. I've been wanting a proper electronic dictionary for a while but have been holding off since even the cheapest ones are a few hundred dollars. I am now super legit with this jisho and can even bust it out in class with Mittens and Slightly Racist Teenager when they don't know something. Mamegoma is totally staying on there and will be getting company shortly~

Full color touch screen is pretty badass.

This is the greatest Christmas card I have ever seen. Tracy described it to me a few weeks ago and it made it sound like all of my wildest dreams come true. I found it at Loft and it is WAY cooler in person. I'm gonna send it to my grandmother, I hope she finds it as mesmerizing as I do.

And finally, I did my nails! I've really come to like these little pa nail polishes, they're cheap and come in all kinds of great colors.

Looks better in person, I promise.

Now somehow I've got to save SOME money this month, hopefully I won't have to do too much more Christmas shopping before I get paid and go home.