Ninja ED!

Fanfiction.Net

Saturday, September 29, 2001
::Points up:: In other words, Endless Entertainment. ;p All you Weiss Kreuz fans reading this HAVE to check out the WK page; it has exploded in the last couple of months! Where there once were only five pages of fic titles there are now nearly forty. I will never be able to catch up!

In slightly more relevant news, I went on the University trip to Nagoya on Thursday and Friday. It was a blast! We got our own tour bus and everything, and ALL of it was paid for, every meal and all. Needless to say, I ate as much as I could. We went to Kyoto first, where we visited a weaving museum of some sort-- there were all sorts of displays showing the different kinds of woven ribbon used in traditional Japanese clothing, and it was really cool. We got to even make some ourselves; I took pictures of the instruments we used. It was amazing.

All of you cell-phone users out there should check your phones for little hooks on the top; if you see a little plastic loop there then you can put a charm on your phone! That is the major souvenir item here; I bought a couple and I hope they will actually fit on the cell phones at home. ;p

Then we went to... the Ninja Museum. Actually it had a better name than that but I like saying `ninja museum`. I am SO going back there again; we did not have time to hang around and see everything, and there was a TON of stuff to see! This was the real deal, not the black-clad movie ninja kind of thing everyone thinks of when they hear `ninja`. I have never seen anything so cool. I hope I can find some books in English on this stuff somewhere. I mean, they had examples of all these different everyday tools the ninja used to infiltrate palaces and eavesdrop through walls and walk through marshes and everything! It just blew my mind. And did you know that besides collecting secrets and information, the other ninja specialty was the manufacture of gunpowder? They built whole innocuous-looking farming villages just to hide this trade, and all the buildings in the village were full of hiding places and trick doors and stuff. It was beyond awesome. ;)

I have to scram now, I need to eat dinner and track down my sempai. *Ninja ED melts instantly into the darkness*

Voices Carry

Thursday, September 20, 2001
Ahem. The above link is best enjoyed with a dark, evil sense of humor (not to mention a basic knowledge of the X storyline). I seem to be in a CLAMP-ish mood today. ^_^

I slept most of the day away...AGAIN... since Naini did not call me after all to wake me up for lunch. So I shall set out for the AM/PM soon and buy some soba for dinner, methinks. I don`t know what I would do without that store. Inside its flourescent-illumned recesses, there can be found such goodies as Pocky, apple tea, sushi and bento sets freshly made each day, school supplies, stationery, manga anthologies and tankoubons, magazines, CDs, instant soup of every kind, toiletries, kitchenware, and the list goes on. And all of it is relatively cheap, too.

One of the things I enjoy most about shopping here is the way things are packaged when you make a purchase. Instead of just tossing it all into a bag and handing it over, the cashiers will wrap any items that might be easily scratched or poke through the bag, and stack everything neatly so that it will not jostle around while you carry it. When I bought my CD player, it came in a box about a foot square and seven inches tall, and I assumed I would just have to lug it back to the dorm as best I could. But the salesman took the box out of the storeroom, opened it up to check on the contents, sealed it back up, /wrapped it in store paper/, and then tied it both ways with tough plastic strips and attached a plastic carrying handle so that I could carry it like a piece of luggage. How cool is THAT? (And if you buy *cough* `feminine supplies`, the cashier wraps them up in a little paper bag and tapes it shut before putting it in a larger bag with the rest of your purchase.) Shopping here is definitely a far more pleasant experience than it is at home. It doesn`t hurt that everything in the world is less than a ten minute walk from the dorm, either. If you can`t find it between Higashimuki and Sanjodori, you don`t need it. ;p

Japan-Guide.comWednesday, September 19, 2001

Hmm...I am attempting basic HTML at the suggestion and instruction of friends. Being me, I bet none of it will work. ;p
Now, I only have about ten minutes so I will try to put in a little `quality update`...hmm. Let`s start with Osaka. On Saturday night, I went with a friend on the train to Osaka, with the plan to meet some friends of hers, eat dinner and maybe dance some, and then come back on the last train. Well, the friends never came, mostly, but we did eat dinner and dance... and dance... and dance... we missed the last train, you see, and they don`t start up again until five in the morning! So. Perfect excuse to stay out all night. And was it ever fun! The first bar we went to was actually where we ate dinner, and we stayed there till after midnight when things really got going. Then, we went to a different club-- and it was a blast. The DJs were great (one of them was REALLY cute; I was perfectly content to dance for hours and just watch him do his thing from the back of the floor) and so completely lost in their music, it was really great to watch them. And the music was mind-blowing; EXACTLY what I like to dance to. Fast and upbeat and melodic, not the dry hip-hop and disco-like stuff that the last club had offered. And the crowd was wonderful too; everyone was so into the music that we all cheered when certain songs came up, and danced even harder.
We finally crawled outta there at five AM and pulled ourselves onto the train into Nara. I got to watch the sunrise from the mountains over Osaka before the train went underground; it was so beautiful. Osaka is HUGE. Atlanta has nothing on this place. It sprawls like nothing you have ever seen (except maybe Tokyo ;p) and just goes on forever.
Now, language class starts in 45 minutes and I have to get there early because I missed it on Monday. I had a good excuse-- we went to the last festival of summer at one of the temples near Todai-ji, and had a great time. I even got yanked into one of the traditional dances, which was scary at first, but after a few minutes I figured hey, at least I`m amusing whoever is watching; they must be getting a kick out of seeing an American look this ridiculous! (Just wait till I get photos developed; you can see for yourselves. And I really am one of the worst dancers on the planet, never mind that everyone around me knew those moves in their sleep.)
Okay, must go. More soon, I hope.

Sony JapanMonday, September 17, 2001
Wheeeha! Oh, how I love to drool over audio technology... and this is THE place for it. Check out the Sony webpage to see what I mean. Really, can you find clear pink or yellow Walkmans at home? Or pearl blue MD players with crazy psychedelic designs on them? Or pale orange and silver stereos with flat speakers that out-perform any Aiwa I have ever heard?! *_* . . . . . . . . . <-- I still cannot figure out how to make line breaks work on this thing, so that will have to do for a new paragraph. You have all been warned. ;p . . . . . . . Anyhow, I have to make this short today because we are leaving in an hour to go watch a dance performance (traditional dance) that one of Suchinda`s friends is in. . . . . . I did manage to go shopping by myself one day last week, which was tons of fun. I got a teeny boom box for about fifty bucks and bought a used three-CD Rurouni Kenshin collection to christen it with. Suffice to say, there has been much samurai music action in the room this week. :) RK has such gorgeous instrumental music-- of course, Kenshin`s theme is the prettiest, but I am not biased at all, oh no. . . . . . . I am also thoroughly hooked on Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, which is a completely wonderful, hilarious and very well-written (and drawn!) manga series. It is so much fun to read, even if I do have to sit there with a dictionary in one hand and my tankoubon in the other. For most of you who have no idea what the series is, it is about a girl who masquerades as a boy to get into an all-boys private high school so that she can be near the guy she likes. The first half of the book had me rolling... I need to find some links so you can check out some scans of the art. (Because of course the art is awesome.) . . . . . Now I have to run; more later, maybe by tomorrow. Mwah! Oh, and DIANA!!! You still have not told me whether you want that Another World single or not! I am going to buy one and keep it for myself if you don`t let me know... ;p

Friday, September 7, 2001
Bleeaaaargh. It is raining today. A LOT. It seems to happen often here. So, perfect excuse not to leave campus... but I still had to make a trip to the student office and turn in a form they wanted me to fill out, so I decided I might as well stop in the campus co-op store. Oh, how I love that store. C-store, eat your heart out: here you can buy any magazine you could want (except Animage or Newtype, it seems) and school supplies, blank tapes, toiletries (this being an all-female campus, that one is a big plus!) and books and all sorts of food--not just junk food, but bread and all sorts of tea and coffee and sweetbread and canned goods. On the bookshelves, Harry Potter seemed to be the hottest item... hee. I should pick up a copy in Japanese, just to see how it is when translated. I bought a Non-no magazine (my favorite fasion/all around mag) and a copy of Pati-Pati, a music magazine (I had to, there was a L`Arc article AND a T.M. Revolution article inside!) ...Anyway. And I got some scotch tape and a notebook, both of which I really needed. And some bread to go with that yummy blackcurrant jam sitting all alone in my cupboard. So now I am in the computer lab because it was just upstairs from the store and I really do not want to walk all the way back to the dorm in this downpour. Rain in Nara just drenches everything, steadily and without end. It makes for a really depressing day, the kind where you just want to stay in bed and read or watch TV. Yick. I hope it clears up tomorrow... hopefully even tonight. ;p

Thursday, September 6, 2001
Happiness is an Animate store ten minutes from your dorm room. Andre, you evil person, why did you tell me there was an Animate store in Nara? I cannot believe I managed to walk out without buying anything... I think it was because I was so overwhelmed, indecision paralyzed me. I mean, a whole WALL filled with soundtrack CDs! Shelf after shelf of Saiyuki shitajiki, X wallscrolls, and Inu Yasha posters. I have to say, it will definitely NOT be hard to buy gifts for some of you guys! However, if you want anything specific or more expensive, let me know and I will see if I can get it. I even found a couple of stores along the way that sell model kits... Last night I went to the informal language class in one of the dorms. It is not for class credit, just for those who want to improve their Japanese. Basically, it was still waaaayyy over my head. There are no Japanese classes taught at the university, so no help there... so every Monday and Wednesday night from seven thirty to nine thirty, I will be in the dorm trying really hard to understand what the professor is explaining and what all the words are on the sheet in front of me. Whee!

Monday, September 3, 2001
Monday, September 3rd Oh, how I hope the page breaks work when this loads... Steeeeph, play with the HTML? ;p I do not have the requisite brain cells handy to figure this stuff out right now! I woke up today expecting to do nothing more than walk over to Sanjodori and do some necessary shopping. Boy, was I in for a surprise. Not only did we end up going to a supermarket on the other side of town, but we went to a 100-yen sushi shop for lunch (where every plate is 100 yen, and they all slide by your table on a runner-belt) and then up to a mountaintop resort outside the city, where we used the onsen (hot spring). /That/ is most definitely something I never thought I would do! I was really nervous before we went in, but once inside, I just stopped caring. It was... well, liberating, to be sure! But very very nice. I am still relaxed and sleepy now. We also stopped at a temple on the way up to the resort, and I took some good pictures. I hope they develop well; Suchinda says there is a shop here I can develop my film at that is not too expensive. I guess now I am just killing time before we eat. I should go find somebody and see what else we want for dinner-- I was thinking about making an omelet, but I need eggs first! Oh, and the craving of the moment is: MUSIC. I am practically starving for some good fast-paced Ayumi Hamasaki or Gackt. Oh, how I wish I had a Gackt CD right now. Diana, this is all your fault. (Speaking of, would you like me to pick up their new single for you, if I can find it?) ^^