About Me
If you're reading this, chances are you already know me. If you know me, then you've spent at least five minutes talking to me. Five minutes is all it takes to figure out that I'm utterly, hopelessly, completely obsessed with Japan. And chances are, if you're at all close to me, then you're probably also at least a tiny bit interested in Japan, too.

Some of you have been with me since the beginning of my obsession. In fact, I distincly remember some of you laughing at me as I poured over my first "Learn Japanese in Five Weeks!" books, learning words like "haihiiru" (high heel) and "handobaggu" (handbag). But I'm a stubborn little mule, which is how I got here.

Explanation
The raison d'etre for this 'page' (though it's just a glorified journal) are many. It's a way for me to keep track of my 'adventures' while in Tokyo/Japan. It's to keep my friends, who are continents and continents away, updated (see! it's entirely laziness! this way, I don't have to write a thousand and one emails to keep everyone informed. this is efficency at its best). It's a way to practice my writing skills. And so on.

Title
I shamelessly modeled the name of this journal from the famous film "An American in Paris." I've never seen the film myself (and I'm surprised that I haven't, considering all the musicals I've watched), and I've always rather thought it was a dumb title. But I couldn't resist using it.

Just so you know, a 'gaijin' literally means "outside person." It's Japanese for "foreigner," or as old cheap movies like to translate it, "evil white demon." Yep, that's me! An evil white demon.

Tokyo, I'm sure you already know. It's that capital city on the little island "to the east," Japan. A useless (but fun!) fact: Tokyo means "eastern capital." Huh.

Whom am I Talking About?
masako: my host mother, a verily awsome person.
kazu: my host father, is a journalist for a famous newspaper.
aayu: my eight year old host sister, quiet, shy, studious. i say her mark to fame is that she willingly wakes up at 5am.
yuzu: my four year old host sister, bouncy cheerful and energetic.
gina: a fellow exchange student from oregon, and a good friend.
giuri: former roomate, and now with me on the exchange program. an utterly insane gal.

Archives
In case you missed the previous entries, or you want to go re-read them obsessively. Mmm, obsessive readers, yummy.

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Would you like your own easy to manage and update diary? Go to pitas, the service I'm using. Small, personal, cozy, and free. Yeah, I like 'em. Why do you ask?

Links
This is actually more for my own self-refrence.

Japanese-English/English-Japanese Dictionary
Takarazuka
Tokyo Classic
Tokyo Metro Tokyo Q

If you know of any other good Tokyo city guides, or anything else that might interest me [places to get tickets, information sites, etc, etc], please tell me about them!