( Back from Korea/Saiyuki Event )

And I'm copying many other people and posting the exciting visitor info. map -



Create your own visitor map!

I managed to be in Kyoto, Osaka, and Takarazuka over the weekend and saw shows in all three places! Definitely a successful weekend.

( Takarazuka Stalking Pics )

All those pics and I somehow failed to get any with omlteaufromage. Oops. My goal this week is to see the Takarazuka performance of Elisabeth as many times as possible before leaving on Monday to go home for a few weeks. Today was a total failure, but at least I have a ticket for tomorrow's show!

( Torchwood Day 4 Spoilers )

And now off for my first ever Takarazuka pilgrimage! If only I didn't have to get up at 4:00 am. DX

And now on to my Japanese manga that needs a good home! This seems like a lot, but the amount I'm keeping is even larger. Sad, I know. If you're interested just let me know and I'll try to get it to you. If you live outside of Japan I just need the shipping cost.

( Free Japanese Manga Here! )

And for anyone who missed my English manga giveaway list, it's over here. Everything that doesn't get taken is going to Book Off or that English bookstore in Takadanobaba whose name I can't remember.

I'm supposedly leaving Japan in a month to go somewhere (don't ask me where) so I thought I should at least attempt to get rid of some of my books. If anyone on my flist in Japan wants any of these just let me know how to get them to you. If you live somewhere else, I would be happy to mail them to you if you want to pay for shipping. I started with just the English books since those took long enough to go through. A post of Japanese books is upcoming.



( English Manga - Free to good homes! )

For the last two weekends in a row, I've been to ochakais for actresses in Takarazuka. For those that don't know, an ochakai is like a tea party/meet and greet official stalking event for the actresses that is organized by the fan clubs. It just so happens that the last two events I've been to have been for people who were in the Phoenix Wright musicals. Last weekend it was Nanaho Hikaru who plays Edgeworth, and this weekend it was Tomu Ranju, who plays Phoenix. Now at these parties, the schedule usually consists of the something like this -

*the star comes in
*answers a lot of questions at a podium in front of everyone
*you have your picture taken/shake hands with the star
*eat some cake
*play random party games
*the fan club gives away lots of free stuff like autographed pictures

Now out of all of these events, the game is definitely the scariest part because that's when you might be singled out to actually speak to the star. This is horribly embarassing anyway, not to mention the whole Japanese aspect, and the fact that most people find it amusing that foreigners are there to begin with. Well at Tomu Ranju's ochakai, one of the games that was played was that they pick random tables and those tables either have to say something to her or have her answer some questions depending on what number they picked. The first table that got picked ended up having to say whatever they wanted to her. (while everyone watched) Some people went on and on about how much they liked her, other people just said 'daisuki desu' or 'kirei sugimasu.' Now at this point I was a bit embarassment squicked, but it got worse. Another table picked a number that meant Tomu Ranju had to say 'aishite imasu' (I love you) to everyone at the table while shaking their hand. (It didn't help that it reminded me a great deal of this hetalia vid.)I may have died! but I sekritly loved it and wished that I was at a closer table Luckily, our table escaped any embarassing encounters.

Overall, it was a really awesome ochakai. omlteaufromage and I had some eye contact made with us probably in great part due to the fact that we were the only foreigners there. We also got a really awesome powerpoint quiz show about Tomu Ranju and popular fandom opinion. Now if only I had another one next weekend!

I think I've spent enough time playing the Sims 3 now that I can pretty much see what things are a lot better and what things need some work.

Pros -

*Leaving the house is a million times easier. As in the game doesn't freeze or take ten years to load. And different people in the household can be in multiple places at once. You can have one sim going to the bookstore or grocery while another one goes to the park and one stays at home to take care of the baby. And it's extremely easy to switch between them.
*It's easy to visit neighbor's houses and see what they're up to.
*The game generally doesn't ever freeze. I had so many problems with The Sims 2.
*You can change people's hair or clothing at any time by clicking on the mirror and dresser. No more ugly outfits and hairstyles for children!
*Much more choice with personality and personality traits. For example you can have a sims who's brave, artistic, kleptomaniac, clumsy, paranoid and romantic.
*You can choose your sims' favorite food, color, and music.
*More gradual pregnancy progression.
*More body type options for sims, rather than just thin, normal, or fat.
*Not as many stupid friend requirements for career promotion.
*When you adopt you can choose sex and age of the baby.
*It no longer takes forever to do things like eat or bathe.
*You can control what your sims do at work. (although you can't see them)
*Moodlets are great! You now get status effects caused by bad or good events that you can easily fix or ignore.
*Lots of great social interactions.

Cons -

*Still no way to change the height of sims!! *cries*
*Almost no custom content is available. Hopefully this will change, but it's highly annoying at the moment.
*No more cut scenes at important events (weddings, the birth of babies, engagement, etc.)
*Still not enough hairstyle choices.
*Some things are less realistic, for example to change a baby's diaper you throw them up in the air while it magically changes rather than putting them on a changing table.
*The nighttime takes forever! You have literally ten minutes of doing nothing while the Sims are sleeping. Same with when everyone goes to work.
*No more mpreg, alien abductions, vampires, etc. Now there are only ghosts.
*You can no longer hire a nanny, only a babysitter. The babysitter leaves the instant an adult comes home.
*Relationships are somewhat more difficult to build.
*No more hot tubs! (or hot tub woo hoo) XD
*You can only have one family in one city at a time. So you wouldn't be able to make two families and make them interact.

So overall I'm enjoying it, but I'm hoping some more custom content shows up soon. I desperately need more hairstyle choices! And an mpreg hack would be nice, too. Back to my weekend long Skins marathon now!

Summer school has been amazing so far! My class is very small and mostly consisting of well-behaved girls. There are two boys who can be difficult, but so far they've been behaving themselves. We'll see how long that lasts. And I especially love getting off at 12!!

I've been meaning to post a list of some of the awesome Star Trek vids that are out there at the moment. Some of them are absolutely hilarious!

Regular Vids -

Don't Stop Believing by arefadedaway - This is by far my favorite vid for the new movie so far. It just hits that awesomeness that the movie induces.

Poker Face by talitha78 - Really great Spock vid that I discovered from thehoyden's post.

Running Up That Hill Amazing TOS Kirk/Spock vid.

Amusing Stuff (mostly from ontd_startrek -

Brokeback Mountain Parody I admit I have a slight weakness for Brokeback Mountain parody vids ever since that really awesome House one. This one is HILARIOUS! And ingenius the way the clips were put together.

Crossover with Lost It really works surprisingly well. XD

Shatner/Nimoy vid made by Shatner himself!

I've also recently managed to get a copy of The Sims 3. and it was certainly not in any way illegal. And I made some America/England sims! In the Sims 3 you can choose character traits which makes their personalities much more distinct. For England I chose - bookworm, grumpy, family-oriented, neat, and frugal. For America I chose - brave, childish, charismatic, flirty, and excitable. England's lifetime goal is International Spy and America's is Leader of the Free World. Pretty appropriate I thought. Now if only a hack would come out where you could adjust the height! Seeing America and England the same height is just wrong.

So despite what I had heard about relationships being harder in the Sims 3, they got together and were in bed after about five minutes. So then after an extremely short time we ended up with a wedding. I threw it up here at my beloved takadainmate's request.

( Somehow I managed to miss England's part of the ring exchange... )

Made it back from my sister's wedding intact, and was promptly swamped with work since it's the end of the school year and I missed a week of marking. Not a fun situation. But I managed to get everything done and today is - THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!! YAY!! Not that I'm off after this, but summer school starts on Monday and I get off at 12 everyday. This would be awesome if I wasn't teaching teeny tiny children who are probably going to drain all of my energy and leave me unable to do anything except surf the internet for hours. I really wish I could teach my current children for summer school, but they are headed for third grade, leaving my co-teacher and I behind to suffer through the torment of the new second graders. (The kids I'm teaching are actually the new first graders, but for some reason the school is pretending they're in second grade.

On the fandom front there are a lot of awesome things lately -

1. Star Trek!! Finally saw this when I was home and I was very happy that it didn't disappoint like The X-Files some other remake movies. I'm also very happy to see the resurgence in the fandom. Star Trek was my first fandom so it's very special to me, and it's fun to see people getting into it again. And the best part - LOTS AND LOTS OF NEW FIC!

2. Pandora Hearts - the manga is awesome, the show is awesome, and I am completely obsessed with Raven. The series is dark and angsty and kind of a mystery. It's a little confusing at first, but things become clear if you stick with it for awhile. Check it out if you haven't yet!

3. Hetalia - The obsession continues. The newest ep was the continuation of the America Cleaning out Storage story arc. So pretty!! England's crying face! Baby America! I almost couldn't contain my happiness! Now they just need to do some more of the slashy Germany/Italy stuff before the season ends.

4. Abe Lincoln/Joshua Speed - This is totally not my fault! takadainmate and I took a tour of Farmington when I was home, an old plantation in Lousiville where Lincoln supposedly stayed for awhile. Only to discover that he had an intimate friend!

( Check out this letter which I am c&ping because I can't find the link. )

Off to Kentucky now for my sister's wedding and to see takadainmate and the new Star Trek movie! Hope she doesn't catch swine flu or I will never hear the end of it from her boss! Also, happy birthday to reppu, koramay, aurora_ren and my Mom, who all have birthdays this week!! koramay - We will miss you!!

Randomly, I have two dreamwidth codes to give away if anyone wants them. Just let me know!!

The internetz have arrived! I switched to OCN from Yahoo BB so I didn't have to go without internet access for three weeks this time. I think it was definitely a good choice. I've pretty much been busy trying to unpack and somehow manage to fit two floors worth of stuff into a tiny one room apartment. I think I've done a pretty good job, although the amount of stuff I've thrown away is kind of staggering. I only have two more bags to go and I will be completely unpacked!

I've also had a lot to do this week since I'm going home for my sister's wedding on Saturday. I'll only be home for a week so it's going to be a very fast trip. I had a hard time getting the days off to begin with, but I haven't been given any pressure about the swine flu thing yet. I know some Japanese companies are making people who travel abroad take a week off after they come back to make sure they're not sick. I kind of wish that was the case with me, but sadly my school has a serious lack of subs!

I've also been doing some job searching lately which is kind of fun. It's only when I get to the interview phase when I start freaking out! I'm looking for a teaching job at an international school that starts in September so I have a little bit more time before the panic sets in. XD

In fandom news - I desperately want to see the new Star Trek movie!! Star Trek was my first fandom, discovered when I was only twelve so I'm pretty invested in it. It doesn't open in Japan until the end of May so I've been kind of screwed in regards to spoilers. I have a bit of a self-control problem when it comes to spoilers anyway (as most people know), so it's been difficult. Spoilers are everywhere! I think I may be spoiled for almost every major plot point already, but maybe some of the minor stuff will be a surprise. I'm definitely seeing it when I'm home! Only one more torturous week to go!

And this week's ep of Hetalia is in Japanese! Words cannot express how happy I was that it was not in horrible Engrish!! I give them credit for trying, but please not on that story arc!

I spent the entire weekend moving. I've always hated moving, but it was much worse this time than usual because I was moving from my relatively big apartment into a tiny studio. This meant that I had way too much stuff to fit into one room. It doesn't help that my new apartment has absolutely no storage space or closets of any kind. I did get a really big metal rack from someone at work that I'm using to put my clothes on. Otherwise they might be in garbage bags until I left Japan.

As for the rest of the stuff, I'm just having a hard time finding a place to put it. Right now there are bags everywhere that I have to step over to do anything. It looks like the apartment of a compulsive hoarder, which is kind of scary. And the thing is, I have absolutely no problem getting rid of stuff. I have fifteen garbage bags sitting on the back porch at the moment. But throwing stuff away in Japan is not easy! You have to call some sort of number to arrange pick-up of almost everything that's bigger than regular burnable garbage. Then you have to go to the convenient store and pay for a certain tag depending on how big your garbage is. Then you have to put it out on the designated day. All of this just leads to me procrastinating and letting it build up.

I would have been in even more trouble if I had not had omlteaufromage, aiwritingfic, and doubt72 over to help on Saturday afternoon. Somehow moving with four people is a lot easier than one! Thanks again! I still ended up moving almost all day on Sunday, too. Good thing we have the recycle shop down the road to take furniture off my hands. I was also comforted by some lovely Thai food and beer at the end of the day.

I guess I will be doing more unpacking/throwing stuff away tonight in the hopes that I can someday see the floor of the apartment. I want to have everything all organized when I get the internetz back tomorrow! (One has to have priorities, after all.)XD

I have once again failed at updating. Mostly due to my own laziness and the large stream of visitors coming in and out of the apartment. We have had visitors continually since my brother came on March 14th, and the current visitors (ontogenesis's friends from home) will be here until April 18th. Over a month, but it's been amazing!

When takadainmate was here we accidentally got addicted to Axis Powers Hetalia. Admittedly, I didn't understand the hype when I watched the first episode, but after marathoning the first 9 with harumi (this took about half an hour) I began to understand. It is extremely slashy, (to the point where it's sometimes in the BL section at stores) and there are just too many fun things you can do when pairing countries. It doesn't hurt that America/England seems to be the most popular pairing, and that the art is undeniably adorable. XD

So while we were in the initial throes of our Hetalia obsession we went to the maid cafe in Ikebukuro and they just happened to be having a Hetalia event.

( Atarimae da! )

Next up - Pics from Kusatsu!

As usual, I've completely failed at updating for the past month. Oops. I did have a really good time in Guam, so I'm going to post those pics now before it's even later and I've forgotten everything I did.

( Escape from Japan )

I'm leaving today to go on the teacher's trip to Guam, so I won't be around again until Sunday. (Just teachers, no children thankfully XD) I'm looking forward to being somewhere warm since it's been freezing lately, even if it does rain the whole time as the weather forecast seems to suggest.

Since I got the JLPT results I've been playing around with a new online flashcard program called iknow. I've used a lot of Japanese flashcard programs including Stackz and Anki that I've also enjoyed but this one has some advantages that the others don't. One advantage is that it's made to be kind of like a game and is much more entertaining. I still get bored after "playing" 8 or 10 times, but it's a big improvement over just looking at cards over and over. The other big advantage is that it includes sound. You can hear a Japanese voice saying all the words and sentences. It also has a dictation section where you have to listen to a sentence and type it. This really seems to help in remembering sentence structure.

There are a ton of lists already made for the JLPT, but unfortunately no one seems to have made a complete 2kyuu Vocabulary list. There are quite a few lists for the first 233 words, but nothing beyond that. And considering there about 6,000 words you need to know for 2kyuu, 233 words doesn't seem like a substantial amount. Luckily you can make your own flashcards easily, which is what I will probably doing if no one makes any more for 2kyuu vocab. I did enroll in the Japanese Core 6000 course, but although there are some 2kyuu words on it, overall its level seems to be a bit higher than 2kyuu. The program also records your progress and lets you know how many study sessions you need to complete a day.

And now I must go do more packing! I just love waiting till the last minute!! I'll definitely be posting pics when I get back. XD

ontogenesis and I failed completely at getting tickets to the new Takarazuka play (My Dear New Orleans) this morning, despite being online and ready to obsessively refresh at 10 am. I guess that's what happens when top stars retire. I then got a crescent shop account in an attempt to bid for Gyakuten Saiban tickets for myself and reppu on yahoo auctions. This also resulted in failure as apparently you have to bid more than two days before the auction ends. This is a bit of a problem since the show is this weekend. I guess I'll see if anything else turns up, but it's not looking good. Silly Yahoo Auctions not allowing foreigners to place their own bids!

I did get some good news at work recently. Apparently my vacation days for May were approved! So now I'm free to go back to the US for a week and be the maid of honor in my sister's wedding. Fun times. XD I also told them that I'm not renewing for next year. So I need to be seriously looking for a job now. Or at least making some sort of effort. Updating my resume might be a good start. I am going to be leaving Japan, so that will be a big change for me. Just packing up my stuff is probably going to take six months.

I also got a surprise e-mail from my brother saying that he's coming to visit next month! I was pretty surprised since he never really showed any interest in visiting before. But I guess since I'm going to be leaving soon, he felt like he should take advantage of the situation. Anyway, it should be fun although he and his friend are the first of many many visitors we will be having over the next two months. XD

Thanks to the anon who left me an extremely sweet comment in svmadelyn's Valentine Game! It made my day much happier after discovering I failed the jlpt yet again. And my beloved also wrote me lovely extremely filthy RPS carsmut to cheer me up!

After a traumatic week involving way too many parent/teacher conferences it ended on a good note yesterday with teacher appreciation day. This is my favorite event of the year mainly because it involves homemade Indian food and an extreme amount of desserts. I also got a ton of chocolate and candy from the kids, which I plan to regift as much as possible so that I'm not eating chocolate for the next three months. (as much as I would like to)

Today it was super warm! Apparently it got up to 24 degrees which is kind of crazy for February in Tokyo. I admit I wouldn't mind if it stayed like this for another few months. ontogenesis and I met up with koramay for dinner (which turned out to be a bit more trouble than expected) and then went to see My Bloody Valentine. Nothing like 3D slasher fics to guarantee Valentine's Day fun! Unfortunately, the movie ended up being dubbed so we didn't get to hear the original voices, but I think we got the idea. Then we went to Tora no Ana and I picked up the new chapters of Vassalord and Yasashii Ryuu no Kuroshikata, both of which are excellent! I also picked up some new Natsume Yujinchou doujinshi that looks very pretty.

All in all it was a good day, although I spent far too much time looking at pictures of 触手 in varying positions, which is clearly not my fault! *looks in takadainmate's direction suggestively*

Posting this from school because 2nd Grade is closed for 2 days due to a flu outbreak!! (Not sure if I should be happy about this or preparing to be sick all next week. XD) 3rd Grade is also closed and it looks like 1st Grade may be on its way too. I think the whole school wasn't closed just because the principal didn't want to panic anyone. Although 2nd Grade was definitely the worst. We had 15 out of 40 kids absent on Monday. And the kids are already quiet to begin with!

I've been taking the opportunity to mark the extremely huge stack of papers that has been piling up. (In between bouts of playing on the internet.) So, all in all, definitely not a bad day.

I also wanted to mention the Takarazuka Phoenix Wright play. Tickets go on sale this Sunday 1/25 at 10 A.M. Now I know that ontogenesis, aiwritingfic, reppu and koramay were all interested in tickets. Is there anyone else? I know the tickets for the PW show in Takarazuka City sold out within minutes, so I have a feeling Tokyo will be the same. And basically you can only get two tickets per person each time you order. Unfortunately, the week of the show just happens to be the same week I am going to Guam for the school trip. So pretty much the only day I can go is Sunday March 1st. But if anyone else wants instructions on how to get the tickets on the Lawsons ticket site, I can give them to you in detail. So just let me know.

( Here are the dates and times the show's going to be in Tokyo... )

Back to marking Reading tests!!

Uh oh, this entry may have gotten a little long. I fail at updating lately. So last weekend I went to Nagoya to meet up with reppu. On Friday we had a few drinks with kastra at an izakaya and I was introduced to the amazing Nagoya style chicken wings. Seriously awesome! Then we watched the first ep of the new Natsume Yujinchou season and some Kuroshitsuji. Then I oohed and aahed over her extensive colections of manga and yaoi novels she acquired while home.

The next day we did some shopping and then headed to Osaka. The highlight of which (as usual) was going to Spa World. This is a really big spa center that is divided into European and Asian floors. The European and Asian floors alternate between men and women each month. This month women had the European floor. Basically each bath was based on a different European country. The highlight was definitely the Spain bath which was outside. That kept things cool enough that you could stay a long time in the water. It also had a huge waterfall which was fun to stand under while pretending to be Buddhist monks in training. (don't ask XD) Since it was outside, we could also see the moon. Some of the other baths they had were Greece, Italy, Finland, the Mediterranean, and Atlantis (I so wished I had lil!John and Rodney for that bath!) They also had a salt sauna where you can rub salt all over you to exfoliate. I've been to the Asian floor before too, but it's been a long time so I would love to go back.

The next day was Osaka Comic City which involved a lot more lines and time spent freezing than I expected. I kind of didn't realize exactly how big it was and expected it to be more the size of Tokyo Comic City, which it definitely was not. It's also one of the very few times that I've stood in line for event where it's been really cold, since I've never actually been to Winter Comiket. And the lines were out of control! You had to line up just to go into another hall. And the line to get to the original circles upstairs was even worse. Definitely not as organized or well laid out as Tokyo Big Site. So all in all, not a very pleasant experience, although I did get pretty much everything I wanted which was nice. Almost all of the circles from Winter Comiket were there.

So then this weekend I finally saw Sumo! I'd been meaning to see it for quite awhile, but just never had a chance to get tickets. Finally, one of my friends from Aizu the place that shall not be named managed to get tickets and we were off.

( Sumo Pics Ahead )

So I made it back to Japan with a minimum of trauma. Certainly it was a lot less horrible than the trip home, which may go on my list of worst flights ever. It still wasn't great, but was made a bit better by -


1. Sherlock Holmes Adventures on my ipod!

2. Lots and lots of yuletide fic on my palm.

3. Extremely bad and a few tolerable movies. (Did anyone else find Appaloosa unexpectedly slashy?)

4. The fact that I sent my luggage from the airport instead of attempting to drag it around Tokyo with me. In fact this may have been one of the main factors.

5. The fact that I had an aisle seat! Not sure I could have made it otherwise. The two people next to me did not get up once during the entire flight. That's 13 hours!! Madness, I tell you.

I was still unbelievably tired when I got back, probably due to the fact that I had a 6:00 flight two days in a row. So not fun. Before that I was visiting aurora_ren in Boulder where I spent way too much money at Lush and learned to play mah jong. I also renewed my Lord of the Rings love and saw the musical Jersey Boys. All in all, it was definitely a good time!

Also must respond to certain comments made in part 3 of my beloved wife's recent post. IF IT BOTHERS YOU THAT MUCH, WE CAN SWITCH THINGS UP ONCE IN AWHILE, 'KAY? <1111