And we got to read a sci fi story for my last class, which was doubly awesome! I'm already starting to get nostalgic though - this whole year has been an isolated bubble of tons of homework and very little other responsibilities and all of that? pretty awesome.

like how the most I had to concentrate on was getting through the readings, memorizing new things, making sure i got enough sleep after hours and hours of homework, and managing to pay the bills on time with my grant money, and getting into intellectual conversations with a pack of smart people. Even when I was driven most crazy it still is pretty amazing just to be driven crazy while living in Japan.

I don't know how much I've managed to convey about the program, but these professors are some of the most dedicated and generous people I have ever studied with. With minor exceptions they constantly went out of their way to give us extra advice, encouragement, and also just respect. It's crazy how much feeling respected makes you *want* to push through your own limitations to express your ideas.

So yeah, last day of class work. Next week we have a full day of placement testing (so we can find out if we've gotten better going out than when we came in) and a lot of final presentation workshops, and the week after we do our final presentations spread over two days, meet with our Sensei's for one last time to set goals for the future, and ... that's it.

It's coming up fast. And even though I can't wait to be home, I'm going to miss this a LOT.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

ALL THE FEELINGS! THEY BURST FORTH! OR SOMETHIGN!

( S01, E08 Frommage - yes, incoherent spoilersCollapse )


is anyone other than scarimonious on my flist watching Hannibal? If you want truly creepy dynamics with really beautiful actors, setting and characterizations you should hie thee to the interwebs immediately and watch it, since it's not clear that it will at all be renewed next season.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Ok, so, I have to say at the outset that this is all me meandering because Mom has all the pictures from the first half of our trip. My camera battery died and I didn't nab a new one until we got back to Yokohama.

( so, the word for 'lake' in Japanese is 'ko' when appended to a name like KawaguchiCollapse )

Next up: Karoke and Kyoto!

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

yes, procrastination has set in and it's cold enough i don't want to go out. besides, i'm saving money for when my mom arrives next week and we spend 14 days galavanting around Japan.

So I hit up apple's sci-fi movie trailers, just to see what random stuff they're serving up, and ...

Upstream Color looks *really* interesting.

I'm afraid to read reviews of it, because i don't want to be spoiled (and since it showed at sundance i'm assuming the reviews will be pretty review-y), but it looks like good mind-bending-screw-with-your-head sci fi.

( Then there's BrandedCollapse )

( Then there's Man of SteelCollapse )

( Then there's DreddCollapse )

( Finally, there's the one that got me into this in the first place, OblivionCollapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

omg, ok, just read that Boston is locked down with a manhunt. Bostonites my heart totally goes out to you all.

tbh my aunt was actually running the marathon (and is ok, and so are the family members that went with to watch her). but there were a lot of people who weren't, and it's a scary thing, and i hope they catch the guys -- and it looks like it might be soon that they do?

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Ok, so, I caught another cough this week and ended up being at home wed & thurs just to try and rest it out (and drink buckets of water and tea - BUCKETS!). I was really worried wednesday night because it was the second night i'd had night sweats, until i realized that the weather had warmed up significantly and it wasn't my body it was actually, you know, the super-heavy-winter blanket i had on my bed making me so hot. LOLZ.

after dragging myself to class today (which was good - i actually did mostly ok, and did the reading, which was good, and class helped explain the reading, which was *even better*), i gave myself a friday off.

this afternoon and evening I've been doing marvel-movie marathon! Captain America, Thor, and finally my 50th viewing of the Avengers. (ok, not 50th, but seriously, like possibly 7th? 8th?). ( And so here are some thoughts that at this point can't be spoilery, right?Collapse )

Oh, and on the heels of that fannish stuff, I was mentally musing about Black Widow and how she came off to other people, and ran across this awesome review/discussion talking about black widow spinning a web around the avengers that gave me an entirely different lens to look at her actions with. Not that I think Joss is the be-all-end-all in feminist directors (because he's not) like the reviewer does, but because it brings up *really* good points about the actions Black Widow takes in the film and HOW she goes about doing it all as a human amongst super-beings.

Finally, looking for a giggly little bit of Sterek? (you know you get your Teen Wolf on), check this out:

The Scientific Method by uraneia
Stiles/Derek | Teen Wolf | Teen | 5,947 words

YES. IT IS AS AWESOME AS YOU THINK. IN A 'NOTHINGHURTSANDEVERYTHINGISFINE' kind of way.

have you guys heard of the other non-facebook/tumblr/twitter sites in this article? cuz I haven't. made me feel old.

i miss my oven because of things like this chicken bastilla recipe (cinnamon + chicken = GOOD)

my favorite death in the last episode of sparticus was this guy's death (SPOILERS!) but I was mostly pleased with the last episode - or as pleased as I was going to be by this third season ( because really, this season had problemsCollapse )

and now that i've prattled away, i'll let you get on with your day/night/what have you.

OH, but if you're into Giles, don't forget about summer_of_giles sign ups! Or just join the comm to see what happens.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

today i have:
x done laundry
x cleaned bathroom
x set up stuff for summer_of_giles
x talked to both parents
x watched spartacus finale
x talked to gray_ghost about spartacus finale and possibility that japan will get bombed by korea
x mock interviewed another friend who is applying for a mechanical engineering position
x organized my food stores
x done dishes

do you notice the lack of homework on there? i do! apparently i really really really needed the weekend off. this is good for the brain. not so good for the homework monday, that's for sure. ugh.

( anyway, before i head into the trenches, i thought i'd say that i am alive! and this is what has been going on...Collapse )

and now, to homework!

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

it rained sheets and buckets at the beginning of the week, making it cold, and dreary, and putting off that kind of feeling that just makes you want to crawl back in bed in the morning instead of getting up and going into school.

except the really cool windy rain blew all the sakura flowers off the trees i walk past on my way to school and covered not only the street but the walls and steps of the houses across the street - little pink circles of color scattered over gray stone and green leaves and white painted fences. they evenly covered a couple of people's cars (which i'm sure were a pain in the ass to clean off, but were pretty and kind of charming to see).

i didn't make it to any of the giant sakura-viewing sites, in part because of the cold i caught the last weekend of my break, and in part because the weather for the most part was cloudy and gray. but i did take pictures of the local park with all it's trees, and one afternoon when i was with Sam we walked to the local pond in his neighborhood and saw all the sakura trees that had draped themselves (or been trained to drape) out over the water. it was beautiful, and of course there were a ton of locals eating their lunches out on the benches watching the petals fall. and the place where our school is is absolutely filled with trees planted in rows up on rows, so we see them from the windows of the building every day.

it's crazy how amazing the trees are, even when there's just one in your neighborhood. i'm sure those of you who live in places that actually get weather (not my LA LA land steady 72 degrees) are used to this, but after the cold and shriveled winter, suddenly encountering tress that are like puffy delicate floating clouds with just a hint of pink is just ... this thing that made me smile every time it happened.

and there are stages for the sakura. there's the first blooms, but then also the falling petals, and these become pinker as they go. and the leaves of the trees that come in *after* the flowers are actually reddish brown, which i find fascinating.

before this all happened i kept seeing trees start to bloom with pink blossoms, and kept asking if these were the sakura, and being reassured i would know when the season actually happened, and oh my god now i understand why people were slightly condscending when they told me i'd know when it was time! it was time! and it happened in a joyous rush.

and now it's time for other things to begin springing too - today we had the first warm afternoon in a bout a week where the sun was out and the sky was blue and all the leaves are bursting forth on all the trees, there are bulbs flowering, and even though the sakura have mostly fallen off the trees, there's still this magic in the air that they've left behind.

of course it clouded back over this evening, but that just made me curl up under the kotatsu and think about making chocolate milk, so you know, worse things could happen. of course motivating to get out of bed tomorrow will be a bit of a stretch but ... it must be done.

( now about the nitty gritty of life and what i did on my vacation after my vacationCollapse )

and i'm *still* not doing homework, or at least i'm not while i'm typing this entry. it did happen today, about five hours of it, so i'm not entirely lazy. but there's always more waiting around the corner ;)

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

it's one in the morning and I miss my dog. i've missed very little else, partially because we really do live in a more connected world than ever before, and i've been able to at least *touch base* with people, if not get them on messenger or skype or something. but you can't do that with a dog. and every time my dad has tilted the camera to show her to me i've been struck with a gut punch of missing her, because it's not the same thing.

i miss my dog.

not too much longer now though, really.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

not to be a giant dork but, um, to be a giant dork:

I READ A WHOLE MURAKAMI SHORT STORY (80 PAGES) IN ONE DAY!!

of course there are like four disclaimers that come with this: 1) Murakami's is like the easiest Japanese to read ever - he uses short sentences with few clauses. 2) I had a vocab list cuz it was for a class reading. 3) i also had a recording of the professor reading the story that i listened to as i went through each page - it helped parse some of the sentences too just from intonation.

still. OMG. did not think that was possible.

Especially because this is the week I started my own research, and that stuff? Takes me about half an hour each page. Part of that is cuz I'm not only looking up words, I'm creating a vocab list and for the first part of it I was also doing a rough translation, but *still* it all felt super duper sloooooooow.

so, um, yay. i can read sorta more like a normal japanese-speaking person. as long as i have a vocab list. and a recording. ;)

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Dear Diary,

I went to a penis festival. Yep, you read that right. In a little town North of Nagoya called Komaki they have a harvest festival every year that hopefully will bring fertility. Setting aside the patriarchal underpinnings of only celebrating the penis as the active maker of fertility *cough* hello vagina anyone *cough* it was a really amusing day. Lots and lots of foreigners were there, but there were plenty of Japanese too, celebrating, taking pictures, buying penis-shaped food, and drinking shrine sake. And after that? Sam and I went to the Ise Grand Shrine, dedicated to goddess Amaterasu.

I ended up with incredibly painful blisters (by the end o f the night on the second day I literally had tears in my eyes) and sunburn that makes me look like a raccoon (which is why there are no pictures of me on the second day, omg) but had a great time. Our friend Fede brought two of his friends to hang out with us at the festival, and we laughed and were goofy all day. And Sam not only put up with my limping the whole second day, but is still talking to me afterwards – which is a tribute more to his patience than anything else.




( Be warned, here there be wooden and stone penii! (and ok, they're really not so bad)Collapse )


also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

1. man, I never get to say that! 今晩は (konbanwa), i mean. It's partially that I end up studying at home at night, and partially because you don't *really* say 今晩は much anyway when you walk by people at night (my neighborhood is very much a 'nod' 'nod back' neighborhood, not a spoken greeting neighborhood). All i know is i hate the way the announcer guy says it on the American Iron Chef. Hate like burning.

2. Anyway!! HI everybody! I have been wrapped up in the end of school stuff for the last two weeks... Not that our program is over, but we are four days away from finishing our third semester. And then we get a two week break! SO needed - I was getting exhausted just from the schedule and the continual push pull of homework.

3. My presentation today went well - 15 min in Japanese on revising the definition of SF, with ten minutes or so of question and answer. The lovely part is that people got enough of my presentation to really actually ask probing questions. Good and simultaneously tiring since it's heavy lifting answering these questions in either language.

4. So all my shoes died. Not that I had a ton, but I had three pairs of boots all get holes or start losing their soles one after the other. So I found our neighborhood shoe repair place. Of course the two guys who work there are very nice and chat with me about what the hell i'm doing in Japan. They are literally astonished that I am studying Japanese literature and told me over and over that they had NEVER heard of anyone doing that. I am a serious curiosity. When I picked up my shoes yesterday they invited me to hang out with them and other shop owners in the neighborhood - apparently they get together on the weekends and grab food and drink. I gave them my number, so we'll see if they call, but it will be interesting. I'm afraid I'll feel a bit like a zoo animal, "Come one! Come all! See the Japanese Literature Grad Student in her Japanese-habitat!!" but we'll see.

5. I am currently involved in making plans to go to a festival in Japan where they parade a giant penis around the town. Yes, for reals. It's a harvest festival called 豊年祭り (Honen Matsuri) I will not be praying for my own fertility though.

6. As a treat I made myself this chicken piccata and OMG. If you like chicken and capers and lemon, you must eat this IMMEDIATELY (or as soon as you can). I took pictures of my own dinner and will post them when i get the energy. But OMG SRSLY.

7. hanging out with Sam's housemate last week and I found out she is in fandom too, and was sort of horrified that one of the other students in the program had found her fandom tumblr. Of course, the reason why that person had found the tumblr was because *she* was *also* a fan (so hey, equal levels of geekyness). We did have a talk about anonymity/revelations/etc. One of the things I comfort myself with is that if someone's going to find my stuff they will also have to be fans themselves to find it. Though these days I'm more ghost-like than fan-like, but hopefully there will be two solid months this summer when I get back to the states wherin I will PLAY ALL THE TIME and make some fannish contributions above and beyond 'kudos' at A03.

8. got linked by another one of the students at our program (who is nice enough to rec sherlock fics to me) to a post at fandom_wank and got lost down the rabbit hole this afternoon. It's been a while since I've paid attention to their posts and I love them so. Also, please, take a look at this ridiculous Misha Collins Youtube Video of him and his son having the most goofy time. I don't know if it'll strike you guys as totally awesome or not, but I literally laughed out loud over and over again.

And if you're curious about the Sherlock fic, I haven't read it yet, and the reccer tends to like angst with a happy ending, but here:

The Fabric of Life by holyfant (Sherlock/John / 150,000 words / read the warnings)

9. did my taxes! am getting money back! (of course, that's because according to my earnings statement i'm not exactly living above the poverty line). glad they're done though. i just wish all the other paperwork i have pending (forms for my program in the states, etc.) would be as easy to take care of.

10. it is *almost* cherry blossom season. There is a plum tree that is covered in white blossoms (very like cherry, but white) I see every day on my walk to school. The starbucks has started offering 'sakura' (cherry blossom) flavored drinks (which taste like pink). Over break I will be trying my damdest to get to one of the viewing spots that isn't super croweded to take some pictures (well, if things actually blossom during break...) it's hard to pinpoint the time exactly, but the air is getting warmer these days, and the sun does feel stronger, so I have hope! ... well damn, just checked, and the best viewing day according to the "sakura weather map" is April 4th. oh well, at least spring is coming!

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

on fun
went out last night to the favorite neighborhood bar and had these, where they serve my new favorite drink. it's called a 'blue moon' though actually violet, not blue. and not sweet at all. but omg tasty:



and some of those, with really good company, plus fried oysters (on my part tasted for the first time and they were ludicrously good) made the evening beautiful. the oysters were after we ended up at a pool place and stupidly amazing shots were made (not by me - i suck, but i'm cheerful at sucking). everybody made it home before the last trains died, and i didn't even have any problems getting into the apartment on my way back home. miracles!

on classes:
we have three weeks left in our current semester, and while it's all rushing up super fast, it's also not coming fast enough - everybody is tired and strung out on a lot of japanese - and each day is a grind. i did two presentations last week, one on monday on the meaning of pop culture, and one on friday on posthumanism. this next week i'll be doing one for our fiction class on feminist rewriting of a mountian-witch fable, and another one that i have yet to choose yet.

i don't think i mentioned before that this semester we have elective classes - so i've been taking literature and popular culture - lit two days a week and pop culture four days a week (and then we have regular grammar studies two days a week).

next semester we change classes again. i'll actually be doing independent research three days a week, literature (two classes) three days a week, and grammar two days a week. it's going to be busier but i'm looking forward to finally getting to my own research. I have two books that i'm going to be trying to read, which is terrifyingly exciting to have as a project. RESEARCH! OMG ALL THE THINGS I WILL HAVE TO LOOK UP.

but in between we get a break and i can't wait to take it. even if i spend half of it poking around tokyo and doing little else.

on recs
Speaking of miracles, if you're a graphic artist and you don't know about hybrid genesis, you should seriously check her stuff out. she just posted some really beautiful new textures, and has both a free and paid stuff available on her website. Or you can follow hgx to see new updates too. she does completely inspirational artwork too, and seriously, just, words can't even explain. check out her stuff.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

from eurydice72

Age I was given: 25
I lived in: a little one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, CA
I drove: my red Geo metro - i loved that little hatchback!
I was in a relationship with: 'the ex' (though of course he wasn't an ex at the time)
I feared: my friends group imploding, not being 'enough' (cool enough, interesting enough, things like that)
I worked at: being the most awesome receptionist/operations person ever at a web company called Feed the Monster Media that made web sites for radio stations. It was both a high and a low career point.
I wanted to be: smart and cool. and to someday go back to school. even back then.

Now I am: 37
I live in: Yokohama Japan
I am in a relationship with: me :D and lots of friends and family.
I drive: nothing right now - trains are awesome.
I work at: learning Japanese. it is a full time job. even on the weekends.
I fear: not finding a job after i graduate and my student loans
I want to be: a teacher

If anyone wants to play, I'll give a number. :)

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

because i am slothing around right now watching tv from the states and NOT DOING HOMEWORK.

it was an incredibly long week even though we had a holiday on monday (some japanese holiday - there are lots). homework load is getting longer, i had to write two different compositions this week, one of which was a six page presentation, the other my take on anime based on the critical readings we'd done last week.

my right eyelid decided to swell up for some reason on tuesday, so that was ALSO fun. no sight problems, and it wasn't even that itchy or anything, but it is WEIRD to look in the mirror and see one eye open much further than the other, and some strange puffyness where i didn't expect it. and the whole feeling like i need to open my eye wider. luckily i've been doing warm water compresses on the eye and it is basically back to normal. i'm going to skip the contacts for another week or so though, just to be on the safe side.

so, as treat for myself I indulged in the 'from Mom's care package' velveta-mac-and-cheese-shells. I don't even *know* why I crave this stuff in Japan, since I don't EVER eat it in the states (well, I did in the 1990s as a teenager, but not since then), but ... yeah, it's like crack. Tasty, nuclear-orange-colored crack.

And so, after having consumed that, I am tucked under my kotatsu with the heat turned up high, watching the following (so here there be spoilers:

( Elementary 'Details'!Collapse )

( Supernatural 'Trial and Error'Collapse )

( Arrow 'The Odyssey'Collapse )

now i am sad i have no more TV.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

it's the birthday of miss elizabuffy!!!

Fic Title: Caged Bird
Author: condancer
Rating: PG
Words: 10,600
Summary: Kris Allen and Adam Lambert first met at music camp when they were both young and idealistic. Despite making a special connection, they went their separate ways. Ten years later, they find each other again. All it takes is a song, a dream, and the courage to fly free.

( this way for the rest of the images - beware, textual spoilers!Collapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

went out with Sam and Kat and Colin and played pool last night. Kat is like some kind of a pool shark (though she did not try to take our money, because we're friends!) with crazy accuracy. Colin is pretty damn good too (thus they make a good pair - since they're married it kind of works out well) and Sam wasn't a slouch. And then there was me. Who cheered when I got my first ball in because I literally played an entire game where I DID NOT SINK ONE BALL. finally they took pity on me and started lining up angles so that I could take proper shots.

But it was also just hilarious because we were, you know, in Japan, playing pool. Sometimes life is just bizzare.

The other strange (well not so strange, but weird to us) thing was that this pool place had no one else on the tables, and the entire group of other people there were either watching or participating in the very serious dart games going on. This seems to be a major Japanese pastime - darts. Throwing things at very high speeds that requires lots of accuracy.

It was a really good night! And low and behold, because I am now in charge of locking the chain lock, I was able to get back into my apartment when I came home at 11:30 last night. HOORAAY!


Let's see, other than that, I ended up taking thursday off after the great roommate debacle of wed. night (although by the end of the night, for those following along at home, roommate and i had reached new detente that didn't actually involve armed hostilities, but instead some redrawing of lines and different negotations, and now hopefully things are going to be ok). but even after she and i were done talking i was too keyed up to sleep, so ended up awake until 2:30 am. So, I took the day off. Little did I know that, out of the 5 students in my afternoon class, 4 of us were going to take the day off all on the same day! So we got a strongly worded email from our teacher asking us to please get our asses to class. And it really was sort of accidental - one guy had a friend in town and had emailed the teacher letting her know, one girl had a doctor's appointment, and then me and the other girl decided to take personal days. And yeah, it had to be horrible for the teacher, but in retrospect it's also kind of crazy.

this is also the third actual school day i've taken off since i've been here. the other two were for sickness, and frankly, being emotionally sick counts just as much to me. so, while i feel a little bad for how it must've looked, i'm only *slightly* guilty for the horrible cooincidence.

anyway, had a really good day so far today - woke up and was able to talk to both parents, picked up my stuff at Sams (left my backpack there yesterday), went grocery shopping and got stuff to make cumin-crusted pork loin tonight, stopped to grab a kebab-pita from the kebab guy next to the train station and had a nice chat with him, and am hoping the postal guys are going to bring me a care package from the mom.

OH, and I got Sam to divulge his recipe for fresh sauerkraut (which, i know, isn't sauerkraut because the cabbage hasn't fermented, but which tasted REALLY GOOD anyway).

( this is more a list of ingredients than a recipe, because that's kind of what sam does - throw things at pans and make them goCollapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Fic Title: The Sports Package
Author: samanthahirr
Type: Humor, AU
Word Count: 3,600
Warnings: n/a
Rating: R
Summary: Kris is so out of practice it's embarrassing.


( this way for the rest of the images - beware, textual spoilers!Collapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Fic Title: Sleeping to Die at AO3
Author:
Rating: R
Word Count: 8064
Warnings: Violence, Light Language, Supernatural Elements

Summary: They met, for the first time, completely by accident. It was at some function or another, thrown by someone undoubtedly rich with too much time on their hands. Adam couldn’t even remember if the person was human or not, only that he had been invited to a party, and who was he to refuse a chance to get dressed up?

( this way for the rest of the images - beware, textual spoilers!Collapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

it all went well until I had to call my housemate to let me into the house because she'd chain-locked the front door. and that sent me into a PISSED off mood because it really sucks to have to call someone to get them to open the door to your own fucking apartment.

IN ONE OF THE LOWEST CRIME RATED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD.

Also, our front door is a steel-door, with a deadbolt. (this I have a key to). Additionally, our front door can't actually be reached by walking in from the street - you have to walk around the building, through a gate, up stairs, and *then* you get to the "1st" floor front door. Delivery people can't figure it out. Fed Ex & UPS people have trouble figuring it out. We are NOT easy prey for robbers.

Yet still she insists on locking the chain lock every night. And sometimes she does it to passively agressively retaliate when she's feeling pissed at me. I'm sure tonight it was because I didn't do my dishes from last night. Or maybe she honestly thought I was at home, even though there was no evidence of me being in my room, even though I didn't come out to cook dinner (and she can clearly hear me do that since she comes out and talks to me while i'm cooking dinner every night since she's gotten back from the states).

i am so annoyed right now it's burned off at least half of the good feeling i had from hanging out at Sam's new place, trying Shochu (a kind of sake-ish thing), drinking good whisky, watching too many stupid youtube videos, and having good conversation with smart people.

dammit.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

how could you tell?

two memes stolen borrowed from brutti_ma_buoni and ruuger:

My "Job" description (which devolved into me trying to summarize my thesis) using only the most used 1000 words:

I want to be a teacher of books, so right now I study books every day. And to be a teacher the next thing I will do is write about books from another place in a long piece that I hope will be a book some day.

That long piece is about many different things. It is about the next form of human life. It is about art that shows memories of a time, not the past, and not the present, but some other time. It is about how women who write have changed what we know about the next form of human life, and about how the reason why that next form of human life will always be about men and women no matter what other form it takes. And I think about how the people who write books about these things are also changing the way they write.

... that was weird.

And, this one is for you dear readers:

I know very little about some of the people on my friends list. Some people I know relatively well. [Some people I know lots. Some people, if they're reading this, gave birth to me.] But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's Parker ...she likes money and cereal." I'd love it if everyone who's friended me did this. (Yes, even you people who I know really well.) Then post this in your own journal if you feel inclined. In return, ask me anything you'd like to know about me and I'll give you an answer

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

you need this in your life. you don't know it yet. but if you watch it, you will understand.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

is anybody else watching these? what do you guys think?

( supernaturalCollapse )

( arrowCollapse )

( suitsCollapse )

( elementaryCollapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

OK, so, I am *totally* being lazy on this one. Instead of doing short descriptions I numbered the photos -- got questions about a photo? tell me the number and i'll tell you all about it? (yes, i am a dork, but a dork with finished homework and a deadline to sleep!)

so, without further ado:



( KYOTO PART II: more gardens than you can handle ... ok, not really.Collapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

It is totally snowing outside my window! Snowing and *sticking*! this is crazypants.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

It started with an all night hang out in Tokyo, waiting for the freshest fish in the world to be served at 4 am, then I ran off to visit as many temples in Kyoto as I could handle - actually probably more than. It was awesome. And I'll miss more than just the warm toilet of my room at the ryokan. But I might be temple-ed out at the moment....





( ADVENTURES! I HAD THEM. HERE IS PROOF!Collapse )

And that's where I'm going to end this set today. Rest up tomorrow or when I get the chance!

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

wow, so I forgot to post my summer_of_giles artwork in my own journal (cuz I am clueless). SO, here, without adieu... Giles! Lots of Giles!

I have below a bunch of images with some of the awesome lines Giles said (ok, one that was said about him, but I couldn't resist)

( this way to the sexy fuddy duddyCollapse )

I pulled a couple of words that seemed to me to be sort of descriptions of Giles, and you get graphics!

( charming, stylish, sorrow, scoobie, watcherCollapse )

teasers:


( liked any of the images from before? cool! here are icons made from those!Collapse )


( Oh Giles, he is a man of many words, but few absolute definitionsCollapse )

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Hysterically I celebrated New Years earlier than I usually do (in the sense that Japan is ahead of the US) and I still didn't manage to post online greetings until 7 pm my time on the 1st. Such is life!

I've had a quiet vacation so far - not that I haven't done anything, but I definitely haven't been travelling as much as popping up to Tokyo to wander around the city with friends, and catching up on sleep and quiet time and just ... resting the mental reserves. Cooking.

( friday party - I think i mentioned thisCollapse )

( For Christmas...Collapse )

( Other little day tripsCollapse )

In between I've been cooking all kinds of things - potato cakes with cumin, a cumin-soy-garlic chicken that I devised myself, cod okonomiyaki, japanese fried chicken (actually called chicken karaage), rice cooker coffee cake, a cucumber salad I've made like three times, and this morning simple, but tasty, sweet potato hashbrowns to have with my egg and english muffin.

( finally New YearsCollapse )

You know how they say whatever you're doing on New Year's / New Year's day will shape the rest of your year? Well, I have been a total sloth, so I guess my year will be filled with talking to my mom on skype, cooking, folding laundry, and rewatching Suits. It could be worse. (either that or it's going to be a year of beer pong, which could be very strange... )

I was feeling sorta like I hadn't accomplished much this last year, because this last week has been pretty quiet and I still have a lot of homework to get done. Then I realized -- I QUALIFIED TO BE A PHD CANDIDATE this year, spent the summer taking one of the hardest Japanese classes of my life, and have spent the last four months in JAPAN, and told myself I was being silly. It's good to look back sometimes!

And that, I think, is about it. I'm going to go scrounge some leftovers, make myself some hot chocolate, and find another movie to watch. Tomorrow is another day.

Happy New Year to you all, dear flist. I hope you had a good year in 2012, and are looking forward to 2013. I don't know what the future year will bring, but I believe there will always be a little good in it.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

OMG, PHEW.

Today was our last official class day for the semester! We had a test in our afternoon classes and some random play in our morning classes. I'll be honest I've been burnt out for a week or so. Course me burnt out means spending like three hours a night practicing for my presentation yesterday. However, when I got to the vocab lists last night, and started to review the articles that were going to come up, I organized them and then .... turned to the interwebs for entertainment. OH interwebs.

That being said I slogged through the test today and gleefully turned home to sloth around my room underneath my awesome kotatsu. Oh, and made pancakes for dinner. Just cuz.

Tomorrow we have our end of the semester interviews with our sensei, then I'm DONE for real. Housemate leaves for America around 1 pm. Sam is going to come over and make home-made fish tacos for five of us. After that more lovely people are going to come over and have a celebratory drink before they either fly off back to the US or start their winter breaks here.

anyway, ON BREAK. OMG.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

• it's been so clear here the last two days that I can see Mt. Fuji on my walk home. Last night the sunset was completely incredible - I haven't moved the pictures I took from my camera, though I know they won't do it justice.
• roommate has been downright friendly, cheery, et al. the last week or so, so probably look forward to it all blowing up before she goes home? i always speak too soon on these things
• school is good, though i've ratcheted down to doing about 20 minutes of homework a night (so has everyone else, trust me). Class is really engaging, it's just that we're all tired and we only have like 6 class days to go, so it's really easy to want to just scrap it all. Of course, I have a semester-test next week as part of the "last week of classes" which should be ... ugh, yeah, not so fun.
• I've been helping everybody edit their grad applications, and one of my friends who was applying at Oxford just found out that he got in (conditionally... and the conditions are fortcoming, but it was a congratulations email he got). His stuff was murder to edit - linguistic analysis of classical Japanese and Chinese - but whatever, I'm counting it as a win! Besides, it's good to see him happy.
• Saw a "Bunraku" (Japanese puppet theatre) play last week Wed. MONKEY PUPPET!!! It was at the National Theatre so they do this whole middle section where they explain a little bout the different roles of the singers, musicians, and puppeteers. I felt culturally enriched!
• And that was my 2nd trip to Tokyo in the space of like a week, so I feel well traveled even if it was just to take the train for 45 min or so. I also learned awesome words at my friend's birthday party - apparently "threesome" in Japanese is たんっぴ or "tan-pi". THE MORE YOU KNOW.
• I got the coolest smelly thing in tokyo. It's a flower diffusion thing, where there's aroma oil in the bottle and the flower, that is made out of paper, soaks the oil up and changes from white to color in the process. Kind of like this except mine is taller and has two flowers. It is awesome - I come home every day and my room not only smells great, but I have pretty white flowers turning to pink-ish flowers. It was kind of expensive (like $20ish) but worth it!

ok, that's not everything worth telling, but that's all my brain has right now. i just wanted to say "hi! i haven't been killed for my room yet or anything!"

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

i've been studying at Sam's house during the week for the past three weeks (ok, last week was a kind of hit and miss because of turkey day prep, but before then) in part because we keep each other on track for homework, and in part because the roommate negotiation with the housemate limited me to having one guest over per week (doesn't matter if it's for fun or not) because i'm too loud with a guest here for her to get anything done.

last week sam came over here Sat so we could do our homework and he headed out around 8 pm. Today he did the same thing - arrived around noon, headed out around 8.

I had a conversation with housemate yesterday to let her know we were studying together here. I checked in with her today at 11:30ish to let her know he was on his way. She told me that she was ok with it if he was here for like six hours, but not longer, because she needed to study and we were too loud for her to study.

Now, when i'd talked with her sometime in the last couple of weeks about the fact i was studying at sam's house but that it got tiring studying at his place all the time, her suggestions to me were that we could study at the center, or possibly at a cafe, or even there are public places elsewhere that make great study spots.

So when she told me that today, I noted that I was spending 5 nights a week out of the house out of respect for her and that one day a week, even if we took longer than expected, did not seem to me to be outside of our agreement. (additionally, when we went over our 'guest policy' she noted guests had to be out of the house by 10 pm on a school night...so well within that time). I suggested that she might try a coffee shop or something. She responded that she didn't have the money to do that. I again reiterated that I didn't think it was so unreasonable to have a guest over once a week even if it got a little loud. She also went on to say that I made noise beyond having a guest in the house. As she was stepping into her bedroom she noted, "I have a lot of problems with you." to which I responded something to the effect of, "ooooook. well."

She walked out a few minutes later and I sarcastically said, "Maybe you should make a list of the problems you have with me, that way we can talk them out, instead of letting them fester."

She responded, "I don't let things fester."

To which I made a harummphing noise of disbelief and added, "oh, really?"

(cuz honestly, when someone tells me "i have a lot of problems with you" it's not something that immediately makes me relaxed, I dunno about you)

Sam came over. We studied. Yes, with accompanying musical soundtrack - not turned loud, just music turned on, in my room, with the door closed. We went out for food at 5 pm for like an hour (again so we didn't use the kitchen during a time when she was going to use it - since that was another one of her complaints about me having a guest over, was that I cooked food and occupied the kitchen for so long she couldn't adequately get dinner).

We came back, did another hour of work, then heard the TV snap on, LOUD. It got louder.

After about a half an hour Sam asked me if I'd stick my head out there and ask her to lower the volume a bit, since the vibrations were literally shaking the floor in my room. I did. She lowered it two notches, saying that she had it turned up so loud because she couldn't hear it.

Sam and I wrapped around 8 pm. He said goodbye, and I changed to clean the kitchen. As I got started she snapped the TV off, came into the kitchen, and proceeded to tell me that she didn't appreciate me suggesting she wasn't raising issues - that she had certainly raised all her issues with me when they came up. When I quoted her noting this morning that she had lots of problems with me, she said that she meant I was loud often with guests, and when she had talked about having guests over she meant that I was only supposed to be loud once a week. She told me that I wasn't respecting her, and I wasn't listening to her. She moved to close her door again. I called, as she was closing it, "ok, now that you've said that, do you want to talk about it?" (yes, still pretty confrontational) and she slammed her door screaming, "I HAVE HOMEWORK!"

should i kill myself now? ignore everything? sam suggested turning on loud metal, but i think that's just not cool (besides, he wasn't really serious)

ETA this just in, an email received 5 min ago:

Kate,
Ground rules for guests don't seem to work too well. Why don't we just not have guests over anymore? I'd rather have some on occasion, but it's clearly too difficult. We only have about six months of the program left, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

So, other than feeling a little weighed down by last week's classwork, I've been working on this plan with Sam for a 20 person thanksgiving. But let me set this up for you -- ovens aren't common in Japan. And in our housing, two burner stoves are also the only thing we've got. So imagine the idea of trying to put together food for 20 people in a regular kitchen (not a small feat) and then cut your number of burners in half and take away your ability to keep things warm (or bake) in the oven.

That being said, Sam's idea was to basically figure out the menu instead of doing potluck (since those kinds of things always end up with people bringing chips from the combini down the street), and then do assignments of dishes to people who could do them. So one guy did all the sweet potatoes, one woman did all the potatoes, I did the stuffing (and the gravy), Sam did the meat (which also, not a turkey, but instead braised pork that was fantastic), and a pumpkin soup for starters AND mulled wine.

( And a good time was had by all! And so I have pictures!Collapse )

All in all totally worth the weeks of preparation, the all day shopping excursions, the having to drag heavy (good) smelling food onto the train in the rain, everything. :D

Now though? I'm totally pooped, and am basically going to be watching LOTR and doing nothing for the rest of the day. I hope y'all had good thanksgiving if you celebrate it! And if not, good weekends!

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Music: Ok, this isn't fandom, but it's such a cool transformative work!! (even if i'm not the biggest fan of one of the songs). The person takes a Miles Davis song & a LCD Sound system song (both on youtube), and plays them together. Its beautiful.



Gardening: Moss does NOT equal mold... and should possibly be encouraged to live in our homes? Also, Japan has moss in its national anthem?

[english language news article about moss pictures]

Art/Advertising: Apparently in LA they're doing a campaign to fundraise for LA schools by getting artists to design really awesome things. One of them is a bunch of buses that are covered with Emmerson quotes! And a billboard that reads HUMAN HISTORY BECOMES MORE AND MORE A RACE BETWEEN EDUCATION AND CATASTROPHE (which, um, so true)

[see cool pictures here]

Literature-ish: Curious about Japanese ghost stories? I got directed to this "Litrolab" pod-cast of Lafcadio Hearn's ghost stories. The interesting thing is that he wrote them down because no one else thought they were important ... and then they got famous outside of Japan, and the Japanese themselves took notice and translated his english-language book back into Japanese... and these are the forms of the tales that are most famous today in Japan.

[oooooo, scary .... ok, well, maybe not totally scary]

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

I went tonight with a new Japanese friend (yay) to see a French documentary ... so the subtitles were in Japanese. And let me tell you, there was an absolute brain wrench to listen to French (which I can barely understand) while trying to rapidly read the Japanese text. Luckily it was a LOT of naked ladies and very little dialogue.

For your amusement, the Crazy Horse Movie trailer. Not a good documentary. Interesting, but not well done. But lots and lots of burlesque.

now off to drinks, if my friend every gets ready... he needs to primp way more than me.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

so the sky will probably fall tomorrow. Why? this week I had a pretty good week. And today I did chores (just a few) and mostly watched some bad tv (Arrow anybody? It's kind of ludicrous but sort of hitting it's stride?) and didn't think about Japanese.

I was also done with my homework most days this week before 10 pm, because Sam and I are embarking on a week of 'we do our homework together so we don't goof around as much and just get it done' and it seems to have gone fairly well. We also shared a celebratory glass of whiskey while we watched Romney's concession speech gleefully and made fun of how the Fox presenters were basically making things up out of whole cloth throughout the night.

And AO3 re-implemented their tag system!! With like ability to sort by kudos!! (look, these things? they make me happy).

Even though we'd just gotten done with a week long break, it was a difficult week for most of the school. Four people had meltdowns of some sort (one of them literally right in front of me, two who ended up taking off the afternoon classes and classes entirely for friday, and one who just looked like he'd been punched in the face repeatedly because he was so tired). This is the beginning of the longer haul where everyone begins to loose a little focus, or feel like the usual 'hump' of feeling like you can't say anything is actually a rather large cliff that you can't seem to get yourself to jump off of.

And then there's me - while I'm currently knocking on all available wood around me as I type this - I've had some tiredness, an inability to properly recognize simple kanji, and a little feeling of needing to buck myself up a bit, but honestly not these major crises. Sure, still plowing, and I was a bit intimidated by my afternoon class, but we're settling in, and I'm feeling pretty ok.

However, group exhaustion apparently lead to karoke, and that kind of wasn't up my alley, so last night was a little quieter - a couple of drinks at this strangely-USA-like-pub (that serves ribs) with Sam, Federico (he *is* italian!) and a Japanese friend of Sam's. Of course, because I came home and then went back out, my housemate thought I was still *in* and actually chained up the door to lock it (I apparently scared the shit out of her when i told her about this -- she was in the middle of showering at like midnight and i addressed her through the window).

Sam and I are planning a big Thanksgiving meal (though probably on the 23rd not the 24th). It's going to be *crazy* because the cooking will be spread among a bunch of different people's apartments. So far it looks like there will be about 23 people going, too, which isn't exactly a tiny party. But Sam's going to cook, and I can organize like a demon, and one of the other students has offered her apartment (and the apartment of her friend down the hall from her), so I think it'll all turn out hilarious, tasty, and probably a bit of a wild ride. *fingers crossed* The devil is in the details though, and there will be lots of those.

I am learning interesting work arounds for not having an oven though! Like did you know you can bake bread and cakes in rice makers? I didn't, but I do now! And they even look super tasty.

Other than that I've been consulting with probably a dozen people in different ways about their applications to a variety of grad programs from MA to PhD. Last weekend I edited Fede's work, including writing samples and letters of introduction to professors at the programs he was applying at, and tomorrow I'll be finishing editing a writing sample for another woman who wants to do Japanese lit/culture, and I was trading emails this afternoon with a woman who is interested in USC specifically. Just call me the resident guidance councilor / editor! And a friend of mine in the states is working on his apps too, and I'll be editing his stuff as soon as he sends it to me (Gabriel, send it soon!) It keeps the brain active, I will say that for it!

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

you guys??

OBAMA WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

Looking back through my entries I realized you might begin to wonder if I'm actually having a good time here in lovely Japan or not, so I thought I'd actually, you know, mention some of the cool things that have gone on!

I've been on break for the last week, which has been GREAT. It was totally necessary. Before that we had another end of the semester test on reading comprehension (reading a newspaper article and answering questions) and listening comprehension (which we hadn't actually practiced all semester, so it was kind of a fly by the seat of your pants thing).

Hilariously going through the test with my Sensei last week friday I got some things wrong because I didn't trust my gut. But she's such an awesome sensei that I didn't even mind getting them wrong because we talked through what was right. And I'm going to have her again for my morning classes next semester, which is also amazingly awesome! Also Sam is going to be in my morning class too, so I will still have a study buddy.

On that note, the morning I found out I went into the hallway after meeting with my sensei and Sam was at his locker (so highschool - except it's not since we're in an office building they've modified), and I totally launched myself at him to get a hug (he is a hugger, it's awesome) and the Sensei completely took it the wrong way. So I think the Sensei's probably think we're dating (they gossip like crazy. They also pick among themselves the "pretty" sensei and the "young" sensei and other types of super competitive things). But Sam and I are NOT dating.

He has firmly classified me into 'cool big sister' category, which I'm pretty fine with. This happened this last weekend while we were preparing for the Whiskey Tasting Party that so vexed the housemate. So rather than dwelling on her vexation, here's what went awesome:

Sam came over at about 5 and we went and got the fixings to make carnitas (which omg, is absurdly easy to make, you just have to have patience and three hours, which usually i don't). We also made orange simple syrup AND ginger simple syrup in order to make whiskey sours and this drink that has a bizzare name, but is basically ginger ale + ginger simple syrup + ginger + whiskey. Friends started to trickle in early - one of my other favorite people Marc lives within walking distance so he came over while Sam and I were still enjoying the super nummy snacks I'd bought (prosciutto and brie -- a blast from the US where that is my splurging food as well).

Then everyone else arrived, and really, even though there were only 8 people (and all but me and Cat were male) it was a really lovely loud random set of conversations and a good time. I found out who has done the (IMHO) good drugs, and was called pretentious (in a loving way) because I was surprised the other PhD guy had never read Derrida (which, ok, yes, probably is a little pretentious, *grin* but that's how I roll). And one of the people who came said it was the best time he's had since he got to Japan, which was just delightfully awesome. And I had a great time bounding from one room to the next, making drinks, teasing everybody, and just ... I like these people. They're fun.

That's the awesome part about programs like this one - we all start from a certain place of fellow feeling. And the awesome part about the toughness of the program is that, except for like two students, EVERYBODY is a geek in some way or another. Sometimes this does lead to some serious social awkwardness (see housemate stories) but most of the time it means that they are just has happy to be geeky or to let me be geeky around them. And everybody actually does their homework.

Speaking of that, I did manage to get out on Halloween Night and meet up with other people from the program for a drink in costume! Even though my "costume" was a long nightgown and some scarves and heavy eye makeup (fortune teller at your service!) I read everyone's palms, so that's good at least. And we had good random conversation too, and promises to hang out with each other more, so that's a good. Again, that whole geek factor, it makes for nice people.

There are two things that I wanted to do this week that I haven't done:

1) get out of Yokohama, and
2) study more Japanese

but the week isn't over yet, so there's still time. I have plans to go up to Tokyo tonight that I'm debating on (just because I'm feeling lazy), and I will be going up there on Sunday to a conference, so at least that's getting one of those things out of the way. And if I put my mind to it I will actually probably get the Japanese thing out of the way too.

also posted to katekat on dreamwidth | you can reply here or there

fear: The dog tripped my mom on a walk last Friday night, and she fell and got a couple of hairline fractures in her pelvic bone. There was a bit of chaos at the beginning - she was trying to make arrangements for the dog while in stuck in the hospital the middle of the night with her body totally hurting her. We've been able to talk every day since then and she's been back at home for a day, settling in and making arrangements to handle being off her feet for the next couple of weeks entirely. Honestly, she's pretty amazing and is working her way one by one through all of the things she needs to, but I still wish I could do more than be on the phone with her.

fire: One of the apartments in my grandfather's complex got set on fire this weekend as well. Luckily he wasn't affected much (though I guess his apartment smells like smoke) and is totally safe, but it was like apocalypse weekend.

foes: speaking of that, I've been watching hurricane coverage and photos and facebook and worrying about everyone who is affected by the weather in the States. I hope y'all were/are as safe and protected and made it through ok.

awake: ok, so, ANYONE WHO HAS A DIRECT LINK TO MY ARTWORK BEWARE - AFTER 03/2013 THOSE IMAGES WILL BE GONE - Due to LJ's most recent beta-feature (a modified "friends" page that strips custom design and turns it into a bad copy of facebook/tumbler/delicious) I won't be renewing my paid account. This means I will lose my scrapbook (where I host all of my fan images). I will be looking for a new image host, but all the current links will eventually be broken on 3/2013. Sorry guys. As soon as Dreamwidth offers an image hosting option, I'll be buying that and uploading/transferring things there, to be sure, but they're a ways off (and that's ok with me, i will wait for them).

i haven't been a huge prostelizer of Dreamwidth, but I am now - please consider getting an account over there if you don't have one, and cross posting? I'll help you set it up if you want? it takes like 10 min at the most. I don't want to lose friends, but when the new design goes live I won't be checking my LJflist.

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

(hey, you try having a good day when yours starts out with the child in the house next to you screaming at the top of their lungs for half an hour first thing in the morning)

I have read two fics in the last two days in the TeenWolf Fandom clearly written by British-English speakers and each time they use phrases that are simply NOT IN California dialect AT ALL when writing a fic from Stiles' perspective. It drives me crazy.

I want to write them a note -- the word "whilst" is NOT in the California speaking vocabulary. The idioms "sitting down to tea" (or variations thereof) are not part of California teen-speech. The tough part is that it's not simply single words, it's phrasing, sentence structure, and tone. (and whoever said you can't understand tone on the internet was wrong. Sure, tone can be misconstrued, but we've been writing tone into our sentences since we first put sentences together into books -- it's there in fiction writing and it's there on the internet and it will be there whenever we write words down).

And sure, I haven't been a CA teen for a while, but trust me, I know what they sound like.

for example, this sentence:

That point is by-the-by.

great sentence. don't get me wrong. but NOT A SENTENCE STILES WOULD EVER EVER THINK. because Stiles? Does not know how to properly use by-the-by. It is not part of his lexicon. And there is a specific California dialect. I promise. I've lived in it.

These authors clearly put time into their work, which is why i'm ranting here, not at them. at the same time, why not ask someone to help with these things, if you're putting that much time into it? Maybe they don't know? Since they got a lot of other slang right, maybe they know and don't care? I tried once to talk to someone about how their Xander didn't just sound a bit British, he sounded like he was just about ready to grab his torch to head out to the shops for a bag of chips (and Bob's your uncle!) and they told me since they had someone in New York telling them their fic was fine, my opinion and objections weren't something they had time to listen to. Which is sad since NY vernacular doesn't sound like CA at all. I had to stop reading their fic, because i'd get kicked out of it every other paragraph. And the same thing is happening now.

/rant. sorry for cluttering up your day with this, but omg. it's been one thing after another. had to get it out.

( ok, and while i'm ranting, another example of me being as petty as i want in my own journal - OMG HOUSEMATE!!!Collapse )

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

ok, these are the things right now

• holy crap, how about that debate.... actually, how about the insta-meme of lady-binders (binders full of women) that happened like three seconds afterwards.  way to meme internet!  I get to vote by absentee ballot and it came in the mail last week
• test last week - did NOT do as well as I wanted, but did better on speaking portion and written portion than I expected.
• test next week - HOLY CRAP ANOTHER TEST.  i'll start studying next week.
• HOLY CRAP HOMEWORK DOUBLED THIS WEEK.
• i think i might be getting better at Japanese you guys!
• there is a specialty coffee roaster down the street and I bought coffee from him sat.  He's been to LA once, for one day, and went to the cafe in my neighborhood (Intelligentsia).  SMALL WORLD
• I did a three minute presentation on liking cats more than dogs this week. *hangs head*  it was just that my presentation the week before on one of my favorite literary authors went over like a bag of bricks. Next week I'm going back to major-related crap
• when it rains stores put out plastic covers for your umbrella, so you can stop at the store, put an umbrella cover over your dripping umbrella, and not drag water in with you when you're inside.  IT WORKS.
• i had pancakes on saturday - so worth it.
• Supernatural!!  I am watching you!  (it is very difficult to watch this episode by episode since I devoured the first five seasons over like three weeks).
• Battlestar Gallactica!  I am REwatching you!  In season three already, because I watched it while I was sick.  It's an awesome show.  Though not one I feel particularly fannish about.  I'd so break off a piece of Apollo and eat him with my teeth though. OMG.

roommate has OKed me having a party at the house, but wants me to have it in the afternoon so there isn't a chance of someone staying over if they miss the trains.  (also she has said she will hide in her room because it's a whiskey tasting party and she doesn't want to hang around while other people are drinking whiskey).  Poll #xxxx What should I do?
now, i apologize to all those who are seeing this in a weird font, since i'm using the html editor for the poll.  but onto homework.... (well, after i do the dishes, and possibly take a shower).  see, life in japan, it's like scintillating, isn't it?

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

thanks everybody who sent love and hugs and sympathy to my last post - once i recover from testing today i will sit down and respond to all the comments. this is just to say that it got better yesterday... i apparently should only celebrate my birthday on american time or something! Sam made this *to die for* dinner, the american contingent totally weighed in via email and facebook, and i was reminded that i do have friends, even if they're physically a long way away. Oh, and I got some sleep last night, which always helps your outlook.

now, on to test. *eek*

and happy national coming out day!

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

someone told me yesterday that you stop caring about birthdays at a certain point. I think they were lying. Because even my dad, who winces when I wish him happy birthday, still *cares* (he just doesn't like the idea of getting a year older and is annoyed that its happening to him). but the urge to downplay something isn't the same as not having it matter.

all in all i felt a little bit lonely for my birthday this year. even though i'd mentioned it to my senseis the day before (and they dutifully told my classes), no one at school actually wished me happy birthday yesterday. We're gearing up for a huge test tomorrow, so it's to be kind of understood, but it still made me feel forlorn. Sam wished me happy birthday when we studied after school, one of my other classmates did as we were walking out of classes (with some prompting), and my housemate did once i got home, but all in all the in-person recognition was pretty sad.

so despite my mom sending this hilariously awesome (seriously ridiculous) birthday package over the weekend, the day of my birthday was ... just another day.

now it's the 10th in the states and i've gotten really awesome emails and notifications and mentions in posts from people i love who are in a different time zone, so i'm feeling more cheered. than you to all of you who are reading this who sent me a little something - know that it was particularly awesome and made me feel less alone. and hopefully this weekend i'll do something that seems like a celebration, and that will be worth blogging about.

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

That's right, I'm here to bring you tales of one of the last celebrations you'd ever expect to find in this country, like, ever.

It all started on Saturday when Sam brought over 100 proof rye. This was my payment for editing his writing sample (oh my god, I'm getting over paid here). We honestly only had two drinks a piece - hello! trying to accomplish things! and be coherent! Still, it was a nice way to start off a day, since it was both productive and entertaining.

Now, picture this: a big white tent, about 2000 people crammed outside in those tables that have attached benches, ringed by beer stand upon beer stand upon beer stand. While admission was ridiculously cheep (about $2), the beers were $10 a piece (with a $10 deposit on the glasses that you got back when you returned them). Oh, there was food too - the most authentic sausage, schnitzel, pretzels and sauerkraut.

And in true random outsider fashion, instead of trying to roust out other people and fit at the packed tables, one of our people realized there was a grassy area behind a bunch of the tents that was part of the grounds - of course we ended up there! What kind of an Oktoberfest would it be if we had to sit squished into long rows of tables without backs? Instead our little circle kept widening to accommodate more people, then it turned into a set of mini circles that broke off from the main, constantly recirculating. Mostly we talked and bugged each other - later in the night everyone ended up standing around a stone pylon smoking - Sam managed to give me nuggies (gnuggies?) and I headed home at like 9:30 or something. The good part about having your life regimented via train (and often centering around the last one you can catch to still get home), is that you can just ... go home early ... and not feel guilty about it. Of course there are those who totally party hard who stay awake all night and catch the first trains at 5 am, but i was never one of them and probably never will be.

My friend from Texas who is now working in Japan came down from Tokyo, too, so it was like old home week and new friends week all at the same time. And despite the ridiculous prices it was a really good time. My friend managed to get the phone number of one of the girls who was a friend of a friend (so he was happy), we all managed to talk to each other in english for a couple of hours that didn't involve bemoaning Japanese classes, and seriously, that was worth the $70 or so dollars i spent on food and drink (i kept giving half my beer away because a) not a beer drinker, b) it was in really big glasses and it kept getting warm).

And, just for those of you who are entertained by such things, my new food for the evening is ginger hot chocolate. It's really quite tasty - hot chocolate with a bit of a bite. If you like cinnamon in there you would probably like this? I am quite pleased with it, even on a night when it isn't actually cold enough for hot chocolate. Hey, food whims, I get them :D

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

My housemate rolled her eyes at me today because I asked her if she'd clear the entire dish drainer out more often than she has been doing.

You see, no apartment in Japan has a dishwasher. Or, ok, no student housing. Just like we don't have ovens. So you're hand washing all the dishes. I don't mind this - even my place in LA doesn't have a dishwasher (that's because it's cheap! yay cheap housing!).

Anyway, rules of the road in my LA place are (and this is living with two different people): if you're doing dishes, you try to clean out the dry dishes first. Of course it doesn't happen every time or anything. But if you start putting one dish away it's easy enough to put all the rest of 'em away (dish drainers aren't that big after all).

Current housemate wants to leave her dishes in the drainer and never put them away. For her it's a perfect system - from drainer to table and back again. EXCEPT, LO, I USE DISHES TOO.

And I realize what the fundamental problem is here: she's not used to living with other people. I know for a fact she's been living by herself since she's been in LA (which is two years or so), and she doesn't talk about past housemates, so I'm guessing that she lived by herself or with parents (a whole different set of compromises).

But eyerolls?

So, flist, give me your advice? Eyerolls really piss me off. I want to open my bedroom door and ask her to please refrain from rolling her eyes at me when I'm trying to calmly bring up something that bothers me. Even if she thinks the subject is closed, if it bothers me, I'd appreciate that she give me the courtesy of taking me seriously as her housemate. Even if she chooses not to compromise with me, I'd like her to acknowledge me in a mature way.

Actually, I can guess what you're going to say - I should ignore it, because confronting her isn't going to make it any better. But goddamn i hate it when I get made to feel absurd and like i'm an ass because I asked someone to do *exactly* what I'm doing every time I put away the damn dishes -- just meet me fucking halfway.

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

We're two weeks into classes and so far, while I've been keeping up, that's about all that I've been doing. It's been a fast process where we ease into the schedule (which is classes from 10 am to 12, then from 1:30 - 3, then homework whenever you can). I've managed to reach some kind of equilibrium with the housemate, I think, so that's good (though she has her quirks - one of which is not getting up to unlock the door when she's sitting in the living room even though it takes me a while to fish out my key).

I've also made a friend who happens to be in both my morning and afternoon class, Sam, who is whip smart and funny and generally incredibly easy to be around (and handily has even cooked us dinner and poured me some very very fine whiskey the two times we've hung out to work on homework). He's already got plans to make thanksgiving dinner for us expat studens somehow (even though his kitchen is smaller than ours), and we're going to trade papers (in english and japanese) to edit each other. It's just nice to have found a kindred spirit and somewhere I can relax and be a dork (he doesn't judge). I feel like I've known him for much longer than a couple of weeks. He also has a bunch of people (including a lovely sounding girlfriend) planning on popping in to stay with him and if they're half as entertaining as he it should be a grand time all round.

As far as the Japanese goes, it's slow going, though I keep reminding myself it's only been two weeks. They talk about culture shock sometimes, but the good part of having been here before, even if it was only in the summer, is that things aren't really shocking anymore. Oh, sure, stuff is occasionally a little strange, but most of us are so used to shrugging and going 'that's just Japan' (like the way you have to recycle here - literally everything is sorted - and by everything i mean we have *5* different garbage cans - paper/burnable trash/non-burnable trash/plastic (non-bottles)/plastic bottles+ cans and YES I'M SERIOUS about that).

I came *this* close to stopping at a local bar/cafe tonight on my way home from Sam's house, but then took the path of virtue by reminding myself that I don't currently have my funding yet (it's coming in next week) and I can wait. But soon that's going to be me stopping at some weird neighborhood place so I can start to talk to Japanese people instead of my American housemate or school friends. The two places I have scoped out are the Jazz Bar that's right next to our train station, and this other place that's fancies itself an old fashioned burger joint (with bar) but occasionally plays punk music. Don't they both sound like fun?

And fun will happen. However, not this weekend, where instead going to edit a statement of purpose, write some interview questions for our interviews next week (oh joy, we get to interview our senseis!) and do some laundry. Laundry in Japan sounds like an exotic endeavor, doesn't it? I'll tell you a secret though - it's much the same as elsewhere - you put the laundry in the washer, put the detergent in, and set the cycle to wash. :D

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

I wanted to do a picspam, but LJ has decided I am not allowed to update photos. I'm sure there's been a comprehensive announcement about it from LJ support or something (ha!) that I missed because I've not been able to keep up with the flist.

However, in the way that you do when your current technology goes haywire, I have instead posted my pics up at tumblr, which is always happy to accept them! So, i give you linksies!

My Awesome Apartment

In all it's Japanese-y glory (in that everything is small, cramped, and sort of disheveled). The apartment is actually much bigger than I expected. I managed to take pictures of my room (that's the one with the blue pillow & chair) but not my bed, so it looks more like a living room than anything else. It's not! The living room is the thing with the table and chairs in it (it's a living room / dinning room). Still, I'm fairly pleased.

My Awesome Neighborhood

I was bored. Pictures happen. Here are some of the images of my neighborhood - the most boring white building is my apartment (but hey, it doesn't have to be fancy!). It's a great neighborhood so far. Quiet, charming, and people actually greet me when I walk past sometimes with more than a head nod. Lots of dogs. And the closest grocery store is literally down the block.

Surprise Neighborhood festival!

While heading out on Sunday to get groceries, take a break from studying, and just to get the hell out of the house, the housemate and I ran into *this*. Nearest we can tell it was a festival for a local god (that's the thing in the shrine that is being carried around the town). Half the people were carrying the shrine, while the other half pushed them in backwards so they made very very slow progress. We have no idea, but two theories: a) the people pushing back were the representatives of the bad kami, and the shrine holds the good kami (kami are local gods) and so the good kami slowly wins over the bad to protect the neighborhood OR b) the people pushing back represent the reluctant kami who doesn't want to come out of his shrine, and the people pushing forward represent the faith of the people drawing the kami out to protect his neighborhood.

Or it could be something entirely different.

but now at least you have pictures!

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl

I've always liked the way ittadakimas （いただきます） sounds. It's a pretty word. Just like there's so much in this country that is pretty, even when its crowded and hot and stuffy. Cute kids, everywhere. You've never seen such cute kids.

So, looks like housemate crisis number one is averted. Although she was taking the hard line verbally, she apparently is willing to meet halfway, and so isn't going to send my life into a tailspin by trying to get out of our rental contract or anything. Yay. I'm sure I'll have more amusing tales on that front for the future, but for now things are fairly even steven - we even went to the 100en (pronounced hyaku-en) (the Japanese equivalent of the dollar store) today to buy home goods of a variety simply not found in most of your usual US dollar stores. It was reasonably fun.

I feel like I ought to start at the beginning, though, of this journey. And to do that I really have to start at the end - ( saying goodbye to Los AngelesCollapse )

I said any hello had to start with goodbye, and I meant it. And my first goodbyes in the city I live in was to the city I've mapped out with my own two feet (accompanied by my four legged accomplice). After that, for some reason, the good byes to the people I love who live in that city didn't seem so difficult to do - they seemed, instead, to be awesome.

Which is why I let my awesome housemate help talk me into inviting my friends out dancing, even though it was on one of the nights when my mom was going to be in town picking up the puppy. We did some tequila shots at the house, piled into one car, found heavenly parking, and then literally danced our booties off (or our muscles into submission, or something). I think people need to dance. Whether it's the dancing in your room, or dancing in the car, or going to a club that blows your ears out even when you're not standing near the speakers, turns your dress into a sweaty stinky thing at the end of the night, your shoes into weird water/booze soaked leather, and your smile into a grin, dancing is good for the soul.

And why I went over to my other friend's house for the last monthly cocktails night I'm going to attend for a while, and got to sit and talk with them just a little bit longer before I hopped on a plane. And why I went to spend my last night in the city with my other girlfriend M before getting dropped off at the airport shuttle - this is the third time I think I've left for Japan that way, and even though it was a rocky time for her (she had to take one of her dogs into the vet the night I spent over, and found out the next day that she had to put her to sleep - long story, but not a terrible surprise and the wisest decision to let her go), it still was good to be able to be there for her, even just a little bit, before I flew off for places known.

that, my friends, is how I went off for Japan. there's more to this story, but that's enough for one night, I think.

also posted to dreamwidth | you can reply here or there | um, but don't worry, i'm still an lj girl