I have started to tumble or whatever it is called.
http://keitorininwonderland.tumblr.com/
Enjoy.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Happy Science
I guess it has been a while since I last updated this blog. I'm not exactly sure where the time went but the past two months seem to have flown by. I haven't really been doing anything all too exciting unfortunately. The weather in Tokyo has been so nice that the cherry blossoms have already begun to bloom (which they don't usually do for another few weeks). Jeeze, I just commented on the weather... surely there is something more interesting in my life to mention. Here goes, in the past few months I have:
- gone for my first Taiwanese foot massage... it was pretty nice and the masseuse told me that my neck and eyes are tired -- almost definitely true. The BF loves getting massages so he convinced me to go, I'm glad he did it was really relaxing and I definitely needed that :)
- seen and sat through a massive dust/dirt storm in the middle of Tokyo. A lot of Japanese new stations were (apparently) blaming the massive storm on Chinese pollution but then it ended up just being the result of warm and cold air systems colliding lol.
- replaced the old iPhone 3GS with the newer, sleeker iPhone 5. The old 3GS erased all my contacts for the last time, it was also completely out of space so the need to upgrade was quite dire.
- hurt my ankle and wrist (not too sure how on either one of those - both not drinking related injuries)
- gotten a visa extension! Bad news Tokyo, you are stuck with me for another three years. After all the horror stories I'd heard about dealing with immigration I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to wait a total of maybe two hours over two trips to the office. I now have a residence card... I'm not sure if that means I am a resident now but it does mean that I don't have a visa in my passport but this card in its place.
- encountered a dirty old pervert who shook his flaccid penis at me. I kid you not. I was walking home from work one day and some old dude in his car drove up to me and shook his business at me and then drove off. I'm very disappointed to say that I was too shocked to throw anything at his car or write down his plates. Bad Keitorin. I guess there is always next time...
- gone for my first Taiwanese foot massage... it was pretty nice and the masseuse told me that my neck and eyes are tired -- almost definitely true. The BF loves getting massages so he convinced me to go, I'm glad he did it was really relaxing and I definitely needed that :)
- seen and sat through a massive dust/dirt storm in the middle of Tokyo. A lot of Japanese new stations were (apparently) blaming the massive storm on Chinese pollution but then it ended up just being the result of warm and cold air systems colliding lol.
- replaced the old iPhone 3GS with the newer, sleeker iPhone 5. The old 3GS erased all my contacts for the last time, it was also completely out of space so the need to upgrade was quite dire.
- hurt my ankle and wrist (not too sure how on either one of those - both not drinking related injuries)
- gotten a visa extension! Bad news Tokyo, you are stuck with me for another three years. After all the horror stories I'd heard about dealing with immigration I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to wait a total of maybe two hours over two trips to the office. I now have a residence card... I'm not sure if that means I am a resident now but it does mean that I don't have a visa in my passport but this card in its place.
- encountered a dirty old pervert who shook his flaccid penis at me. I kid you not. I was walking home from work one day and some old dude in his car drove up to me and shook his business at me and then drove off. I'm very disappointed to say that I was too shocked to throw anything at his car or write down his plates. Bad Keitorin. I guess there is always next time...
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Hair Flap - Hair Salon in Futakotamagawa
January has been quite the bad month for me. I have a theory that January is always a terrible month.
It all started a couple weeks ago when I agreed to go in to work on my day off and teach classes for one of the other teachers... I woke up congested, thinking nothing of it I got on with my day and did some grocery shopping before heading to the school. By the time I got there I felt disconnected from my body and seriously ill... but I was already there so I taught the classes. That Sunday I had to travel across the city to meet the new BF's family -- which went well enough. On my train ride home I felt like I couldn't breathe and ended up hyperventilating on the train and almost fainted. I've never done that before so that really freaked me out and I thought I was dying. What was more scary was the thought that my Japanese is still awful so I wouldn't have been able to tell anyone who to call or what was wrong with me.
The next day we had our first snowfall -- a massive dump of snow... at least one foot. As a result of that the concrete stairs that lead up to my second floor apartment were quite snowy and then icy and then black icy five days later. On Friday that week, as I tried to go to work, I slipped on some black ice on those stairs and fell all the way down them resulting in nasty bruises on my lower back, arm and hip. I'd like to give my decrepit landlord a big "fuck you" for never in five days bothering to clear or salt those stairs and helping make that happen. Since my back was bruised it was almost impossible to sleep on my right side for the past week. Fortunately, the bruise isn't as painful now as it was.
The rest of the January b.s. I will not be blogging about.
It all started a couple weeks ago when I agreed to go in to work on my day off and teach classes for one of the other teachers... I woke up congested, thinking nothing of it I got on with my day and did some grocery shopping before heading to the school. By the time I got there I felt disconnected from my body and seriously ill... but I was already there so I taught the classes. That Sunday I had to travel across the city to meet the new BF's family -- which went well enough. On my train ride home I felt like I couldn't breathe and ended up hyperventilating on the train and almost fainted. I've never done that before so that really freaked me out and I thought I was dying. What was more scary was the thought that my Japanese is still awful so I wouldn't have been able to tell anyone who to call or what was wrong with me.
The next day we had our first snowfall -- a massive dump of snow... at least one foot. As a result of that the concrete stairs that lead up to my second floor apartment were quite snowy and then icy and then black icy five days later. On Friday that week, as I tried to go to work, I slipped on some black ice on those stairs and fell all the way down them resulting in nasty bruises on my lower back, arm and hip. I'd like to give my decrepit landlord a big "fuck you" for never in five days bothering to clear or salt those stairs and helping make that happen. Since my back was bruised it was almost impossible to sleep on my right side for the past week. Fortunately, the bruise isn't as painful now as it was.
The rest of the January b.s. I will not be blogging about.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
久しぶり or whatever
So it's 2013! When the hell did that happen?! I guess a little over a week ago. Happy new year and all that.
My (not so) new job is going really well. I'm thrilled that my new coworkers are AWESOME. They really made the transition seamless and now I consider them to be a part of my Tokyo family. It's really nice to have coworkers who share the same sense of humor as me as it sometimes lands me in hot water hahaha.
Since August I haven't been up to anything too crazy as I have significantly cut down on drinking. I've DJ'd a few times, including one night where I played for about four hours, so that was fun. There are no upcoming events to report at this time.
I went up to Fukushima to visit an old coworker of mine waaaaay back in September. It was really cool to get out of the city and see some parts of the country I had never seen before. I went to this place called "British Hills" and it was a total trip! This place was all built with wood from England and it was built in England and barged over to Japan... every building was built according to traditional British architecture. The place is stunning! It really brought me back to the brief times I spent in England. At British Hills there is a tea house and a pub that even serves good old fashioned British food (that actually tastes authentic) -- it kind of made me home sick for my mum's cooking lol.
I went to a Japanese wedding reception for the first time in November. I went as my boyfriend's date as it was his friend from junior high school's wedding. His friends were really nice so that was good as my Japanese still sucks!
I finally returned to Disneyland! Only twelve years after my last visit haha. Unfortunately we chose to visit on what might have been the busiest day of the month at the very least. I did get to take a lot of fun pictures wearing Minnie ears though and I found, with the right company, the crowds weren't so noticeable. :)
I had a week off at the end of December and beginning of January so I hopped on a plane and went back to the good old Pacific North West to pay my family a visit. What I'll never understand is a family's need to take their infant on trips around the world. On my flight in to Vancouver there was a family of five with what had to have been a three to four month old baby... They had clearly gone to Tokyo to do some sightseeing and I couldn't for the life of me understand why they would bother. Nothing infuriates me more than babies on a plane with indifferent parents. Granted, for that flight I was fighting a nasty cold and was quite sleep deprived so that didn't help. The visit was a lot quieter than the ones in past years had been. I spent a lot of time hibernating on my parents' couch and saw some good friends. I did some shopping and had some quality time with my favourite foods haha.
Going back to Vancouver is always strange for me. I feel like I am interrupting the lives of everyone I see. It feels like we are almost strangers again because there is so much we don't know about each other again. And yet, returning to Tokyo always feels like I'm falling into a mass of concrete and I'm back to getting lost in a vast sea of people. It always takes me a while to get back into the rhythm of things.
My (not so) new job is going really well. I'm thrilled that my new coworkers are AWESOME. They really made the transition seamless and now I consider them to be a part of my Tokyo family. It's really nice to have coworkers who share the same sense of humor as me as it sometimes lands me in hot water hahaha.
Since August I haven't been up to anything too crazy as I have significantly cut down on drinking. I've DJ'd a few times, including one night where I played for about four hours, so that was fun. There are no upcoming events to report at this time.
I went up to Fukushima to visit an old coworker of mine waaaaay back in September. It was really cool to get out of the city and see some parts of the country I had never seen before. I went to this place called "British Hills" and it was a total trip! This place was all built with wood from England and it was built in England and barged over to Japan... every building was built according to traditional British architecture. The place is stunning! It really brought me back to the brief times I spent in England. At British Hills there is a tea house and a pub that even serves good old fashioned British food (that actually tastes authentic) -- it kind of made me home sick for my mum's cooking lol.
I went to a Japanese wedding reception for the first time in November. I went as my boyfriend's date as it was his friend from junior high school's wedding. His friends were really nice so that was good as my Japanese still sucks!
I finally returned to Disneyland! Only twelve years after my last visit haha. Unfortunately we chose to visit on what might have been the busiest day of the month at the very least. I did get to take a lot of fun pictures wearing Minnie ears though and I found, with the right company, the crowds weren't so noticeable. :)
I had a week off at the end of December and beginning of January so I hopped on a plane and went back to the good old Pacific North West to pay my family a visit. What I'll never understand is a family's need to take their infant on trips around the world. On my flight in to Vancouver there was a family of five with what had to have been a three to four month old baby... They had clearly gone to Tokyo to do some sightseeing and I couldn't for the life of me understand why they would bother. Nothing infuriates me more than babies on a plane with indifferent parents. Granted, for that flight I was fighting a nasty cold and was quite sleep deprived so that didn't help. The visit was a lot quieter than the ones in past years had been. I spent a lot of time hibernating on my parents' couch and saw some good friends. I did some shopping and had some quality time with my favourite foods haha.
Going back to Vancouver is always strange for me. I feel like I am interrupting the lives of everyone I see. It feels like we are almost strangers again because there is so much we don't know about each other again. And yet, returning to Tokyo always feels like I'm falling into a mass of concrete and I'm back to getting lost in a vast sea of people. It always takes me a while to get back into the rhythm of things.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
So a lot has happened in the past little while.
It was my birthday and I got a little bit older, not at all wiser.
I worked for maybe less than half the month of August and I came down with a wicked head cold/sinus infection. I am still trying to recover from this.
I DJ'd in Shibuya one night and it was grand. The music was awesome, I was awesome and then I went home for two hours of sleep before getting up for a good 9.5 hours of work.
My friend from elementary school and high school came by for a brief but memorable visit.
For the past little while I've been musing about making t-shirts so at the moment I'm trying to get all the logistics of that sorted so I can get them made. It's going to be grand, who wouldn't want a t-shirt of some giant lizard rampaging Tokyo?
It was my birthday and I got a little bit older, not at all wiser.
I worked for maybe less than half the month of August and I came down with a wicked head cold/sinus infection. I am still trying to recover from this.
I DJ'd in Shibuya one night and it was grand. The music was awesome, I was awesome and then I went home for two hours of sleep before getting up for a good 9.5 hours of work.
My friend from elementary school and high school came by for a brief but memorable visit.
For the past little while I've been musing about making t-shirts so at the moment I'm trying to get all the logistics of that sorted so I can get them made. It's going to be grand, who wouldn't want a t-shirt of some giant lizard rampaging Tokyo?
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Je Suis Delicieux - T-shirt on some girl
So as always I guess I should start off apologising about my absenteeism. To be fair I have an excuse this time, I was off the grid for the past month and a bit. It feels good to be back!
Obviously a lot has happened and I'm not even sure where I left off...
I moved into my new apartment. It's great and I'm really enjoying it so far... it's a lot bigger than my last place, it has a much better location and view (no cemetery, woo) but sadly it's very empty as I have barely any furniture! Oh well.
The transition between jobs went off without a hitch. I feel like I'm settling in well at the new company and my new coworkers are pretty cool so that's nice.
In terms of my personal life... nothing interesting whatsoever is happening. I've been listening to good music as always and started sketching a lot more in my free time. For some reason it seems like I have a lot more free time with my new job which is nice. I'm looking to make a couple t-shirts but maybe I've mentioned that before. They feature random drawings I've done including one of Godzilla rampaging Tokyo and one of outer space (naturally).
Yet another birthday is coming up. I feel like I should just cancel it and stay 25. I don't have any plans and it doesn't seem like much of anything will happen. Oooooooooh well.
On a bizarre note - I keep seeing people throw up lately. It's entertaining and I'm grateful it's not me who is throwing up but I can't help but wonder why all of a sudden everyone wants to puke in front of me. I guess I'm a good audience? June and July are puke season?
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Holy Shit. Not dead, just lazy.
Wow it has been a seriously irresponsibly long time since I last blogged. No, I'm not dead... just lazy.
Suffice to say a lot has happened since I last updated so bear with me while I try to include every thing in this update.
I guess the last time I blogged I had just declined another contract with my company. Now there are only two weeks left on my current contract so I'm saying my goodbyes to all the students I have known and loved for the past two years and getting ready to start my new job. I spent a good month applying for as many jobs as possible and I went to three interviews and luckily for me I found a job that I think will be a good fit for me. So far the company sounds really reasonable and respectful which is more than I can say for the one I work for now. The job will be similar to the one I have now but it will be focused on teaching children and it is in Yokohama. So last Monday I went to observe an experienced teacher at one of the schools and I will go again tomorrow.
Even now that I'm leaving the school I've worked at for two years I'm having a hard time believing I've been living in Japan for two years already. I say it all the time but it needs repeating, it's like a dream.
So since I'm leaving the company I came here with, I have to move apartments. It has been a trip looking for a new place to live. I never knew that racism was still socially acceptable. I guess it Japan it is ok to refuse someone's rental application based on the fact that they are not Japanese. I make decent money and I've never paid my rent late in the seven years I've lived on my own but that isn't counted for anything. In the past few weeks I have applied for four apartments, two of which I have been rejected based solely on the fact that I'm not Japanese. I'm really lucky I have a Japanese friend who has vouched for me with one of the applications, that one was successful so I am going to sign the contracts today. I'm trying not to get excited until I have the keys and am living in the apartment though. Throughout this whole apartment hunt I've been packing... it's amazing how much crap one accumulates over the course of two years. When I first came to Japan I had three suitcases, now I have seven boxes and three suitcases. Yikes. My Mum says I'm a pack rat... I'd like to disagree but I guess the evidence speaks for itself.
I guess back in December the last of my good friends from training had just left Japan but he has had a change of heart and has decided to come back. I'm really looking forward to our reunion, it's a rare thing when you meet friends you really connect with and can be yourself with.
So since I last blogged I've DJ'd two more times, both were relative successes I suppose. I'm not sure when the next time I'll DJ is.
Not sure what else to write... So I guess that's it for now. Good to be back.
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