Miss/Won't Miss #10

Things I'll Miss About Japan #10: Arashi and EXILE on TV

I don't watch a whole lot of TV in Japan, but I do try to watch Himitsu no Arashi-chan, Arashi ni Shiyagare, and EXILE Tamashii. Pretty Japanese men who sing and dance and are rather entertaining! On my TV! And I don't have to download it off some streaming site or anything super mendokusai! Why would I ever say no?

EXILE is especially wonderful in all their matching suits~ 

I tried joining a community on LJ dedicated to providing subbed versions of Arashi shows. They opened membership for a little while and you had to write some long dribbling fangirl essay on why you love Arashi. If they didn't like your essay they didn't let you join. So dumb.

The forums also make you jump through a billion hoops just to watch subbed programs. "Sign up and earn points for each posts! Once you earn a billion points fangirling on stuff you don't care about then you can watch the 30 subbed clips!" Really? Sorry for just being a casual fan and not dedicating every waking moment to thinking about a group of five guys I'll never meet or even see in person.

I suppose now I don't really *need* subs and could download raw files. I can follow along ok, especially since Japanese TV shows provide funny Japanese subs when the guests say something interesting.


Things I Won't Miss About Japan #10: My Apartment

I'm not even going to post a freaking picture of the place. I did a before and after a few days ago, you can scroll to find that.

Manager has been such a bitch about telling me what to do and what's happening in regards to me leaving that I'm thankful just to be out of the apartment.

I'll miss the independence and freedom that came with living on my own, but screw that place. It was small, lacked any storage space, and the utilities were insane. I paid more than 6000 yen for three weeks' worth of gas and another 6,000 yen between electricity and water.

It helps that my hotel is SUPER swanky and I can't believe my company is paying for it.

Arashi Parfait and Vegetarian Ramen

This is a food post. I hope you don't mind.

Wandering around Shinjuku station this past week, I came across a parfait that is very relevant to my interests.

An Arashi parfait named after one of my favorite songs??? HECK YES I NEED TO EAT THAT. I went with my dears Tracy and Marissa to partake of the epic dessert. Cafe Est! Est!, home of this parfait, also bills itself as an establishment that employs very handsome j-boys. I'm not sure what else I could ask of a cafe.

Comes to your table with a sparkler!!!
As sparkly as MatsuJun!

OM NOM NOM!!!

Yes, that is an upside-down ice cream cone on my parfait.

And a slice of chocolate cake.

Hidden bonus: the cream puffs are filled with vanilla ice cream~

Our chocolate cake took a fatal spill.

Delicious~ and worth the 1250yen omg. The cafe made us order one item each, so we also ordered happy face fries to cut the sweetness and I got a milk tea. I do have one complaint -- my milk tea came to me as regular tea and the pretty boy handed me a non-dairy creamer to make it *milk* tea. Cheap bastards. But if you want to pay them a visit, go to the Odakyu department store in Shinjuku station.

Onto something savory~ There's a ramen shop chain, Kagetsu Arashi, that has a special limited-edition vegetarian ramen on their menu. Since it's very difficult to explain any sort of dietary restrictions to Japanese people, I was interested to try it. I'm definitely a carnivore and I was not expecting to enjoy this dish at all (I even ordered a side of gyoza in case it was a bust), but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was!

I've had their tonkotsu ramen before and I thought it was okay by Japanese standards, but the noodles were a bit thick for my tastes and the broth left my mouth feeling dirty. The vegetable ramen managed to keep an unmistakable ramen flavor with a lighter broth and thinner noodles. Aside from one very aromatic vegetable I couldn't identify, I liked the veggie ramen a lot more than the tonkotsu ramen.

Standard tonkotsu ramen for comparison. My new coworker had that one.

My Nana vegetarian ramen! Smelled like salad lol.

I have no idea what's in this!

Mmm vegetable broth~

Green noodles~

Seriously, it was delicious. It's a little pricey at 780yen a bowl, but OM NOM NOM GO EAT IT.

SPAM BONUS: This Lawson near Shinjuku station is clearly advertising SPAM MUSUBI.

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!

Twas the week or so before Christmas...

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope everyone is thoroughly enjoying the holiday, since it's on a Sunday and no one in Japan or America has to work. I certainly enjoyed this view at Waikiki Beach on Christmas Eve.

A while back dearest Marissa decided not to go back to America for Christmas, so we had a little Christmas get-together at her ENORMOUS apartment. Seriously, the company put me in the tiniest little studio and Marissa has this huge 1RK apartment with enough space for a queen sized bed and two burners in the kitchen. TWO!

The girls got me a totally legal copy of TegoMass' newest album, Tetsuya <3 on the cover of the latest EXILE magazine (that I refrained from buying a few weeks ago since I bought the J Soul Brothers cd + dvds), and the Dolly Wink eye shadow that I've been wanting since the summer. 

Tracy and I got Marissa some GANTZ postcards we managed to find in Nakano and some other things she doesn't remember because NINO AND THAT OTHER GUY IN LEATHER SUITS HEEEEY.

Marissa and I got Tracy a Totoro blanket and a bunch of nail polishes. Revlon makes scented nail polishes in Japan, so I got her the pink peach-scented one.

I also brought over this sake that was left for me in the apartment by the last teacher. Drank half the bottle and didn't even feel it! Lame.

Tracy and I also impulsively bought a few Christmas cakes. In Japan people eat regular cake, absolutely no special ingredients whatsoever, at Christmas and call it Christmas cake. We also bought a crepe layer cake which wasn't that good.

And now for some really bad photos! I don't think we managed to take a good one at all.

And a wonderful time was had by all!

Nordic Print Tampons

I've said in previous posts how everything marketed to women in Japan has to have some sort of OMG SUPER KAWAII element to it, and apparently tampons are no exception. Allow me to showcase my latest find: Nordic print tampons!

Seriously - why do these even exist? Japan loves its seasonal themed crap, I know, and I share in that love every time I go to a convenience store and see new stupid drinks or snacks. I suppose Nordic print is everywhere because it's cold like the Nordic countries of northern Europe (although not really), so why not put it on tampons? At least they didn't cost any more than the normal print ones.

Better watch out for this starry night design, too!

Yet unfailingly, I was reminded at the register of how ridiculous this all is. I told the cashier I didn't need a bag since I'd be tossing it into my big work bag, but she still wanted to wrap the box in brown paper. IT'S A SNAZZY NORDIC PRINT, WHY WOULDN'T I WANT TO SHOW OFF MY AWESOME FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS TO EVERYONE I KNOW??? Oh, that's right, because it's still a tampon box and it would be so mortifying to be seen carrying it. I do wonder if the Nordic print will throw off my manager from realizing it's a tampon...

In other news, I took a picture with a big poster of Aiba in a train station. VERY DANGER.

Now if only I could somehow rip that poster off the pole...

Coffee Prince Cafe + Space Izakaya

HI THAR. Just got home from Kyoto about an hour ago and here I am blogging about what I did... two weeks ago. Heh.

But for a moment let me rewind to about a month ago. Thursday nights are glorious in Japan, for that is when they air the only thing I really like watching - Himitsu no Arashi-chan. For the last few episodes the boys have been paired up and given a celebrity "date" for a day, and Sakurai and Ninomiya took some cute actress to the Coffee Prince Cafe in Shin-Okubo. Tracy and I happened to be watching and we were texting each other throughout the segment, kyaaaaa-ing and making plans to visit this glorious place.

In case you didn't already know, Coffee Prince was the title of a popular Korean drama that aired a few years back. I didn't watch it, but it was something about a girl pretending to be a boy and working at this cafe with handsome guys and she falls in love with one of them but he doesn't know she's a girl and whatever whatever whatever. The point is that this cafe is staffed by beautiful Korean boys who don't mind being gawked at.

Two whole floors~

It's across from 7-11 if you need to go find it~

2nd floor by the window.

Ignore Kevin, concentrate on the cute boy in the black blazer~

I told that one I didn't speak Japanese LOL.

Prime example of how very few Asian guys can look good with facial hair.

EDIT: Just remembered they seated four other gaijin right next to us after he cleaned the table.

The cafe is two floors of the building and you enter through the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor is where they filmed the Arashi program and where the more handsome staffers (in my opinion) work, so it's a lot busier. We opted for the 2nd floor because we didn't want to wait around. Most of the customers were girls my age, probably paying a visit for the exact same reason we were. 

The cafe menu consists of fairly overpriced coffee, waffles, and ice cream, but please don't kid yourself into thinking you'd go to this place for the food. Our coffee did come with characters drawn in syrup though:

I took the frog.

After oogling at Korean boys, we went drinking in Shinjuku. I feel like that should be the beginning of some awesome story of how one of us got arrested or deported, but really we all went home about 930pm. Our izakaya of choice was a theme izakaya and owned by the same people who run The Lock-up, but instead of jail cells we were blasted into spaaaaaceeee~

My cocktail was called an Earth.

No one ordered an Uranus.

Kevin and I looking creepy.

Tracy taking pictures of the stars in Marissa's drink.

I didn't get a photo but all the waitresses were dressed in provocative neon-colored space gear and fishnets while the guys were dressed in typical izakaya aprons. Not that I want to see most izakaya waiters in fishnets but they could've made a little bit more effort to look outer spacey.

Eventually I'll have to make some posts about GOLDEN WEEK and how EPIC it was. Seriously, I've spent so much money on train fare going places it's disgusting, but been well worth it.