Luck o' the...Russians? Hmm, yes quite.

It's been a long time since I've blogged. I originally wanted this to solely be a travel blog, hence why I haven't posted nothin' in a while. No travel, no post and my life has been pretty void of traveling. However, I have had various requests throughout the year to start this thing back up, despite my current stationary lifestyle. I informed them that if I started back up I wouldn't be posting about anything much interesting, just my life happenings and crazy rants. Apparently that's good enough though. I considered it all year long. Since I have been finishing my last couple of terms for my BA I haven't had much time to think about it, but now that i'm practically  done with my degree I started to consider it harder and now here I am. So here I go. Post one after a long hiatus.


I have noticed throughout the years that I have some of the most ridiculous good luck. However, before that good luck comes a'knockin' things always seem to plummet down a spiraling tunnel of shit for a couple minutes before taking a sharp turn for the best.  


I graduated a couple weekends ago and it felt great. After four years I finally had my degree and I was going to start grad school in the fall (that's right, they accepted my sorry ass into the MA TESOL program, yahoo!).
I had two summer jobs lined up and ready to go.
After a year of "it's your's! ...oh wait just kidding we have no funding...Gotcha! You still have it!", my graduate tuition is going to be paid for by the department I currently work for as part of a graduate assistant program.
I was going to travel to a part of the US I have been wanting to go to forever (although since the East coast seems to be having a bit of trouble with heat i'm a little glad I didn't go).
Life was looking great.
Until I had  4 credits sneak up on me out of nowhere that need to be completed in order to receive my BA. That's right, I made my family sit for 3 + hours watching as 6000+ students they didn't know walk up and receive their empty diploma case for nothing.
DESPITE having two advisers in my department go over my DARS report (my university's system for tallying up credit requirements) and telling me I was on the right track. I guess there was some sort of miss-communication or something because I am for sure 4 credits behind and there ain't no way around it. It's an accreditation issue for the university; all undergrads needs a minimum of 180 credits to graduate and I've got 176. Le sigh. Thankfully all my specific degree requirements have been taken care of so I just need four credits of anything, upper or lower division.  


So, I panicked and scrambled to get into a low level online course (I'll be damned if I'll let this get in the way of my summer vacation!). I'm taking a 100 level women's studies course online. So far it's been easy breezy and i'm not too worried about it as far as school work/effort goes. I am pissed that the university decided it needs an extra 250 dollars for "online class fees", totaling my tuition this term to over 800. All paid out of my pocket (and some of my mom and step dad's pocket--thanks guys!). Oh well, life shall go on.


But like I said, life plummets before taking an unexpected turn. Here's some more examples


I had applied for a teaching job in Chile once I found out that I wasn't going to have the funding I thought I would for grad school. I had a really good interview, the contract the lady drew up  for me was a amazing, and I truly thought that I was going to have to learn Spanish over the summer. Unfortunately the owner of the school did not have the projected enrollment she thought she would so I didn't get the job. However, around that same time I found out that I had the graduate assistant position. Plummet and turn.


Another example, I was told back in November by a dear co-worker of mine that student workers were not allowed to work over 1039 hours in the fiscal year (which runs from June to July for us), otherwise we would have to resign because the university would have to pay back benefits. I panicked and tallied up my total hours for the year so far and I was already at 600. I doubled checked with our lady who deals with HR and she confirmed it. So since November I have been working a measly 14 hours per week, BARELY getting by with 500 dollar pay checks PER MONTH (shit shit shitty shit shit). Luckily I had financial aid otherwise I wouldn't have made it. HOWEVER, I found out a couple days ago that there was a miss-communication (this seems like a pattern with my uni). Turns out my dear co-worker was not considered a student worker but rather was under some other category that rendered her unable to work over the 1039. Student workers, however are not eligible for benefits no matter what and can therefore work up to 130 hours per pay period. I've been living poor for NO REASON. I have since then been racking up the hours like mad. A plummet with a slight turn (if I had been working 130/month hours for the past year I wouldn't have batted an eye at the amount I have to pay for my summer class).


I'm still going to Japan in August though! I'm planning on mostly staying in Tokyo, but hopefully going to Shizuoka to see an awesome friend as well. I am also going to try and drive over to Montana's Glacier National Park to do something camping and climbing and visiting my most awesome roommate Jenn. 
We'll see though. That's one hell of a drive from here and I wasn't the best pilot last year when I did it with friends. 


Today is fourth of July so I feel like I should end this with something patriotic so here ya go 

couldn't have said it better myself!

Happy fourth everyone and expect more posts in the future!

-J

"...if I stay in one place, I lose my mind."

So my host family in Japan wants me to come to my host sisters wedding in November.


The ceremony is being held in Australia.


And they're going to put $1,000 towards my ticket leaving me to scrap up the last 6-800.


I'd be there for about 5 days, and would miss Thanksgiving plus a couple days of class.



I'm not going to be getting as much financial aid for next year as previous years because I submitted my FASFA renewal on the 4th and not the 1st, meaning I was too late to get the Perkins loan from my school.




Should I pay tuition/living expenses or go on a 5 day trip to Australia?



Life sure is complicated.

PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie

Too much structure can be too much

so um, my camera is broken so there won't be
any pictures that I've taken shown for
a while.....

I have been battling over skype with Citi Bank Japan these past couple days to try and figure out how to set up a transfer from my account to my host families account (JASSO - the scholarship I was getting while over there-- ended up paying out March's portion even though I 1. didn't sign for it and 2. am no longer there. But now I can pay back my host family so I'm not really complaining).

After going through all the menu options in both Japanese and English until I hear the one that sounds remotely like the problem I am having:

Today our computerized phone receptionist will be
played by Lady Gaga

Generic computer phone women's voice: "please enter your account number"

Me: grumbles while tears through bag to find card; enters number.

Woman's voice: "now enter your telephone pin number"

Me: "my what?"

Woman's voice: "please enter your telephone pin number"

Me: enters pin number

Woman's voice: "we're sorry, that number you've entered is incorrect. Please enter your telephone pin number"

Me: "stupid computerized piece of..." enters number in again.

Woman's voice: "We're sorry, that number you've..."

Me: hangs up.

I called back and did it all over again, entering what I thought was my PIN number but turned out to be the wrong pin number and I was transfered to a human.

I get talking with this guy (who's English is so-so but I can manage). He tells me that in order to transfer the money I have to apply for something called a "one time pin". What does it take to do that?

Citi bank man: "I'm going to transfer you back to the computer system where you'll have to enter in your telephone pin number".

OH I'LL GIVE YOU A PIN NUMBER!!!!!
(me played by Beyonce)

Me: "but wait! I've already tri..." Too late, i'm transfered and the woman is back demanding my number.

I hang up and call back.

I get someone different. We go through the explanations and just before he's about the switch me to computer woman from hell I tell him that I don't know what my "telephone pin" is.

Citi Bank man: "oh well, if you've signed up for banking online then you should know it".

Me: "looks like I forgot it".

Citi Bank Man: " you should have gotten it in the mail on a little post card when you first opened your account".

Me: "yeah that's gone".

Citi Bank Man: "oh..."

Me: "Is there any way you can just look me up in your system and go from there"

Citi Bank Man: "no, we need that PIN number, we can't look up anything without it".

Which is complete BS because I called them a couple weeks ago about closing down the account and the guy just looked me up with my name and date of birth. But this man could not be convinced otherwise.

Solution?

He told me to download this registration form and send it in by mail then they'll manually register the account that I want to transfer to. Should take about forever to complete.

I understand that companies have certain laid out ways of processing things, but sometimes you got to break the rules a little bit. Just sometimes. Why couldn't they just look me up with name and my account number? Who knows.

Thank you for calling Citi Bank, have a nice day.

Jerks.


--In other news--

I've been working my butt off lately (not complaining seeing as how I'll be able to pay my rent and car insurance on time~). In addition to my current job at OIA (office of international affairs) I have picked up a student to tutor in English! The Middle Eastern Studies advisor heard that teaching English was kind of my thing and hunted me down and introduced me to a student from Qatar who is having some difficulties with his English studies. Very nice guy and eager to learn, but at the very most beginning level right now.

I don't know this for a fact but I don't think that they require you to learn English in the Middle Eastern countries. Most the students from the Middle Eastern countries are all in the Intensive English Language Program (and a good portion of them fail their classes on a regular basis for more reasons than just not being able to understand what's going on). My new student has been here since winter term this year and is still mastering his ABC's (but he's moving through them like a trooper!). I helped him with his English HW and could tell that he gets it, it's just being able to remember things without needing something to prompt him.
I charge him $10/hr and we're scheduled to meet twice a week (although he's very relaxed about time and was at first saying "oh, whenever you're free is fine". To which I was like "no, I need structure, when are you free"?). Canaan (the middle eastern advisor) said that he'd be shooting more students my way in the future so. bring on the tutoring~

$10/hr is less than I was charging in Japan but the way people think about money over here is way different than in Japan. If I had been asking for 1000 yen/hr over there then I wouldn't have gotten any students because they all would have been wondering why I was so cheap! Whereas here, if I had gone above $12 no one would even consider me! So why did I go with 10? Because I don't have any fancy qualifications other than what I can tell them I've done in Japan and that i'm a Linguistics student. Whereas in Japan all I had to be was a native speaker and I was in! Funny how that works out.

Oh and one interesting linguistics thing that I found out from my first lesson: Arabic doesn't distinguish between "p" and "b" sounds. "put" and "but" sounded the same to him. IT'S INTERESTING TO ME.

For those of you who don't know where
Qatar is; here you go. 

PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie

My first Passover~

Sort of.

A lady who belongs to the Middle Eastern something or other as an advisor here in Portland sent out an email three days ago to our department for Middle Eastern Studies wanting to know if any students would be willing to come over to her house for passover to wash dishes. Naturally the email got sent down the line (Middle Eastern Studies office is in the same building as the Office of Intentional Affairs --where I work) and it got handed to me by my supervisor. 12 bucks an hour plus free food and a ride back home? Count me in!

This family lives in the West Hills which means they're rich and their house exemplified that fact. Beautiful kitchen, old gas stove (the kind with the pilot exposed that are illegal to sell now-a-days) plus a wood stove for heating and an electrical stove thrown in for shits and giggles. Wood floors, wood counter tops, lots of cabinets and flood space. I didn't see the rest of the house (for obvious reasons) other than the bathroom and the entrance way that sported a beautiful painting of a Chinese warrior. I guess Carol (the hostess) is really into Asian pottery and letterings and has been to Japan a couple times. Her husband is a linguist like me except he focused on Middle Eastern languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, etc. Their daughter, Marissa graduated from U of O, but in what I don't remember. Carol reminded me of my Asian Studies prof I had last year; sort of quiet and walks around with a sort of disconnect that leaves conversations a little bit awkward. I didn't talk to her husband very much but her daughter was the complete opposite of her; loud, amiable, and totally and completely into this passover thing. Nice people overall.

Not being Jewish (nor religious in any other particular way) I didn't really know exactly what was going down for this "passover". Carol and her husband (who's the Rabi for their local synagogue) filled me in on a couple things. Passover is sort of what Easter is for Christians (minus frighteningly giant bunnies hiding colored eggs). She had about 14 people both nights (passover lasts 8 days but most people only celebrate the first couple days).

I didn't really witness what went on during the sedar (is that what they call it? I guess it means ceremony or something) due to being in the kitchen the whole time (talk about kitchen wench) but I did hear most of what they were doing (although I couldn't understand what they were saying most of the time due to it being mostly in Hebrew).  They started at about 7:00pm and went through the Tora reading passages and sang some songs. Then they went into some debates about various topics revolving around the Jewish community (one of the topics being about more support for GLBT, which I thought was cool ~they didn't sound like they were very conservative Jews ). Then the food was served and I was preoccupied with keeping up on the leaning tower of plates and pots so I don't know what went on during the eating portion (other than eating).

After all the courses were served they went back to reading passages and singing more song (one of them I got stuck in my head but can't remember any of the words other than "10 for the weeee commandments"  ...idk either).

All of the people there looked
about like this + a yamaka .  

They were all really nice people and the food was spectacular. I've never had kosher food before (other than the salt, haha) but I guess the process it goes through before it can be considered "kosher" is long and expensive sounding. It all has to be inspected by a certain person before it's processed and in the case of meat, has to be drained completely in a certain way, then is has to be inspected again by the same exact person as before (can you imagine if that person got sick or something in the middle? They'd have to halt the whole operation!) before it can be packaged and sold. They don't eat pig or shell fish (that little specific right there is enough to count me out! Ain't no body tell me I can't eat food!), nor can they have milk products if the meal had meat in it (I wanted to get some more in depth detail on this peculiarity, but the dishes came pouring in as I was asking so I forgot).


Normally I feel very uncomfortable around religious people and religious ceremonies leave me feeling anxious, but I didn't experience either here. Granted I wasn't really apart of it but I guess because I don't really know anything about the Jewish religion they didn't creep me out like Christians do. Could also be that they were really chill and didn't appear to be hard-core conservatives or shove their views down my throat. It was a nice overall experience. I had gone to a Mosque last year for my Middle Eastern studies class and just sat in on their morning service in which afterward I felt some of those feelings that I described above but it did give me a better understanding of the Islamic faith. I think I want to go to a Synagogue sometime and do the same sort of thing. Would be interesting (I've done the Church thing more times than I wish to count so i'm done in with that field; although it would be interesting to go to a Catholic ceremony sometime because those people intrigue me).

I must say though that I have found that I much prefer the Buddhist ceremonies and practices that I experienced in Japan (and southeast Asia). They're much more relaxing and make me feel less stressed somehow. Maybe it's because there's no priest (or what have you) up in front of you telling you this and that and to do this and that. Buddhism is more personal/private from my experiences and I do find the idea of reincarnation better than the idea of an after life.

and lets face it, rock gardens are prettier to look at
than dead guys on crosses.

Needless to say it was an easy $130 dollars made and i'm glad I did it.

Now off to figure out what's wrong with the car I just bought.

PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie

It was then that she said goodbye to studying and hello to the paychecks

My last final was Saturday (wtf, right?) as well as my last Japanese class (even though the final for that class was on Monday, the JPN department seemed to think that that wasn't good enough). Friday I went and signed my contract with Gaba, so it's official! I start the certification training next week (three full, 10-7 days of unpaid training; just how I wanted to start my vacation) and then I can start bringing in the money!

But Jamie, you're going to Southeast Asia for three weeks soon aren't you? Won't that be a conflict of interests?

un-paid holiday, but who cares!

 

 

Fear not, my loving audience because my contract is what they call an omyou itaku (which means something like entrusted contractor or something?) so they have no say over how much I work or when I work (although they prefer I work more than less) and although it will be a bit warui (bad) that I'll leave so soon into starting (because my paycheck is based off of how many students I actually teach; no students, no money), there's nothing I can do about it. I'll explain to the manager at my Learning Studio and I'll probably get some words of disapproval but, shouganai! (nothing can be done to avoid it). My boss at my other job (Lily English Salon) is completely chill with it so at least that's covered.

we interrupt this program...

A girl I met a couple months ago at a mutual friend's birthday party is one hell of a vocalist. However, it  just so happens that she lacks a guitarist to back her.

Her: "Jamie, do you know anyone that has an acoustic guitar and is willing to play the music I choose? "

Me: ":D,
Why it just so happens"

Her: "Would you want to perform with me this coming Thursday?"

Me: "Would I!"

So I'm accompanying her on guitar this Thursday at a place called The Pink Cow (more details to come) in Shibuya and I am totally stoked!

Except I just realized that my last training day falls on Thursday so I'm going to have to beat feet to get there and perform in my suit. But whateva; I look good in a suit ;D

-------------------In unrelated news------------------------

Everyone should read this article about the "Tiger Mom" and seriously think about what it talks about because next post will be on it and I want to hear your opinions as well!

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2043313,00.html

PEACE OUTSIDE

Phew, I'm glad that's over with

It looks like I have my financial situation under control again. I only have to pay $1,286 instead of $1,686 because I read the bill wrong (they were giving me back $400, not charging me. How nice). The 400 dollar difference is from my dental bill (back in May, WTF?). I guess the insurance company finally agreed to pay the rest of it (thank god, even though I was told that it was all good and taken care of). So my stress level and risk of early heart attack have decreased substantially. Unfortunately I still don't think I'm going to be able to make my little southeast Asia tour this year. Yet, with a little luck maybe I can tour Japan a little bit more before I go home. Thailand isn't going anywhere anyways (I hope) and i'll be back to Japan before I know it and will be able to hop on over there easily.

In other related news, I had an interview today with a little English teaching company called Lilly English Salon. It's owned by this woman who opened a Chinese school (called Lily Chinese Salon) five years ago and decided just last year that she wanted an English school as well. She named the schools after her daughters (Ai-li and something else-li). I guess she lived in Beijin and used to work for a car parts export company before opening her Chinese school and she's fluent in Chinese (pretty badass). She also co-owns a business with her husband (watch making) and she runs a blog site as well; AND has two young children. Wow, that's what I call a career woman! Anyway, we had our interview and she pretty much hired me on the spot to teach on Thursdays. Her last Thursday teacher had to return home because of visa problems but will be back at the end of July when I go home so it works out perfectly! It looks like i'll be teaching an older lady 9who teaches some sort of crafts at a craft school and wants to learn English for some reason), as well as little kids from the ages 5-12 (well, this will be interesting indeed). She also wants me to tutor her as well, but mainly correcting her blog site (she runs it in English). There's no dress code so that's a huge relief ( I own no suits). I went and bought this nice, cheap pin skirt and top for the interview but when I asked her she was like "no, you can wear whatever, it doesn't matter!" so, hurray for that.

To make the day even better, I got a call from Gaba (the big English teaching corporation that my friend works for and that I was hoping would contact me) wanting to set up an interview for this Friday! Unfortunately, I know for a fact that they have a dress code so if I get the job I'll have to drop some money on a couple nice suit-like outfits (sigh, i'll be turned into a suit wearing monkey). Gaba pays bank though and reimburses for the commute so I'll put up with it. Lily also reimburses so that's cool as well. The only reason why I wouldn't get this job is the contract. They contract for 6 months and I'll be short a couple days but the nice lady on the phone today said that it shouldn't matter so long as I work all the way up to the time I leave. FINGERS CROSSED!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unrelated stories.

The lovely Aori

Went and hung out with this guy that I met randomly in Shibuya a few weeks ago. He seemed cool enough when I talked with him so I thought, why not? I could use some more friends.Yet, what I thought was just going to be casual hanging out turned out to be a date. And an awkward one at that. This guy is so completely desperate for a white girlfriend it's kind of sad really. I guess he was engaged to this girl from Sweden but they broke up in July after only knowing each other for ten months (great, i'm a rebound). I don't know how many times I said that I didn't want/need a boyfriend that night but for some reason in his mind that meant "I wanna be your girlfriend". He even bought me a Xmas present! Really? We talked for maybe 10 minutes on the street like, three weeks ago! Sigh...needless to say I ditched his ass for some more agreeable company. The story of the ditching is one worth telling though so please, follow me.

screw you creepy guys!!! 

After going to dinner (and him paying for everything) we went to a bar and the whole time I was desperately trying to figure out a way to get ride of him. Eventually, I texted my friend Micah and asked for some advise on how to ditch a guy. Said friend did more than give me advise though, he came and saved my ass. Well, he didn't actually come, I had to go meet him at the station. As an excuse to leave, I told this guy that my friends were really drunk (which they were, hence the enthusiasm in which he said that they'd come save me) and needed my help so I had to go meet them at the station. He seemed sad, but determined not to let me go so easily. He offered to walk me back to the station and on the way there he grabbed my hand (uugh) and asked if it was okay to date me (ahhhhhh!!!) in which I replied "umm...how about we just slow down and maybe hang out a bit first?". I'm afraid that mis-translated again and in his mind I said "yes, I would love to date you" because he didn't seem the least put out and tried to get me to kiss him on the cheek goodbye in which case I was like "I'll give you a hug instead....".

Aori and Yusuke (one of my heroes!)

He left, and I waited for my rescue team to show up. About three minutes passed and this fool comes back! No, i'm fine. My friend isn't here yet (where the f*ck are you!?). Yeah sure, it's okay if you wait with me, why the hell not (starts texting friend desperately). Then I see my friend Yusuke run by (part of Micah's rescue team) and I yell out excitedly and chase after him, leaving said loser behind without even the slightest look back. What a nightmare.

Masaru

However the night ended on a good note with drinking and Karaoke with Micah, Yusuke, Aori (Yusuke's GF) and Masaru (Yusuke's older brother). This team of rascals are really a crazy bunch and know how to have a good time (even if they do get a little bit out of control sometimes in which case Aori runs as far away from them as possible out of embarrassment, poor girl). It seems I missed the bulk of the excitement when I went home early though. Seems some guy on the train, instead of asking my rowdy friends to quiet down, attacked with fists a-blazing. Luckily, Yusuke and his bro are complete badass gangster brothers and were able to subdue this guy before anyone got hurt. What an exciting evening!

You tell them Micah!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Natsuyo

Yesterday was a planned day to hang out with three girls that I met back in Portland. One of them, Natsuyo, has already made an appearance on this blog and the other two were Fumika and Yumiko. Fumi and Yumi are actually the first friends I made when I can to PSU, and I met Natsuyo through them. It's been about 2 years since I saw Yumiko because she was just at PSU for one term through a study abroad program through her university in Hawaii. Fumika I hadn't seen since the beginning of last summer, so I was really excited. Unfortunately Fumika wasn't able to come (poor girl is always so busy with everything!), so it was just me, Yumiko, and Natsuyo but we had a great time ( and had a good laugh when loser from last night texted me wanting to know when we can hang out again. Did. not. reply.). I love all my friends, they're such awesome people.

Delicious Indian curry for Lunch

Yumiko, long time no see!

School starts this Saturday (stupid Saturday class), and I start work for Lily next Thursday!

Until next time folks,
PEACE OUTSIDE
Jamie

お正月~Japanese New Year

Well this year started off looking like it was going to be a good one. That is until I got this notification from PSU that I owed them $1,600+ for unpaid tuition this term. Can you say, F*cked. Well, not entirely but it still shocked the hell outta me. I knew that this was going to happen because I knew that I wasn't going to get enough financial aid to cover the international study abroad fees. This is why I was so desperate for the Scholarship from the Japanese government (which I do receive) so that I could save up and pay off what was left. Well, for some reason I forgot that this was what I had planned on doing (i'm so used to my tuition being taken care of) and I went ahead and planned a trip to Thailand with another girl, bought the tickets and everything. Going to have to cancel and hope that they give me at least a portion of my money back. Oh well, Thailand isn't going anywhere, i'll be able to go there some other day. The most stressful part of this ordeal is figuring out how i'm going to get the money to PSU because the money I have is in a Japanese bank account that I'm not able to just transfer money around like that. I have to fill out a form, physically turn it into the bank then wait for however long it takes them to process it, then transfer money from here to my bank account in America so that then I can pay with my credit  card and in turn pay my credit card off with my American bank account. It'll all work out. It always does. Right? *nervous laugh* T.T I've applied for some more teaching positions so hopefully someone will get back to me.


To top it all off, I have gained 15 lbs since I've been here. 15 FREAKING pounds. I've been wondering though, why have I gained this much? I mean, my eating habits haven't changed that dramatically...I am eating regularly and getting the required amount of nutrients which is more than I can say I got when I was living in the states. So why have I gained this much??

Well, let me tell ya my theory.
Before I came here I changed my birth control prescription. a couple weeks after I arrived here is when I started on the new prescription so I have this feeling that this is partially to blame for this unexpected (and unwelcome weight gain). Another part might be stress because lets face it, living abroad is stressful no matter how much you think you're used to a certain culture (that and things like unexpected money issues popping up on you!). Long story short I've stopped taking the BC and we'll see what happens from here. Starting tomorrow i'm going on a strict diet (whether my host sister thinks I'm able to do it or not! She laughed at me when I told her my plan. I'll show her!!) and hope that my waist line beings to decrease (already can't fit into some of my pants...oh how depressing).

How about something happy?

JAPANESE NEW YEARS!
Completely different from how we celebrate it in the States. It has more of a Xmas feeling to it, with all the family gathered, great food, TV programs and movies on all day, lamentations/recollections from the previous year and hopes and dreams for the year to come.

My host mom spent practically all day in the kitchen New Years Eve creating one hell of a dinner consisting of crab, tempura, shashimi and a whole lotta alcohol.

Isn't he beautiful! And so tasty...XD

Tempura

She's drinking sake out of the crab skull!
HARD CORE OKAA-SAN!

He tired to kiss her

And she disapproved 

My host sister is so pretty! XD 

Sake I bought in Kyoto for just
such an occasion  

He loves his Sake and Nihonshu

mm,mm quail eggs and salt!

That New years thing I talked about

Not bad wine from France

How I love you shrimp

I didn't realize it was a bunny until they pointed it out to me,
almost too late 

We started eating at about 6:00 and continued until 12:00, switching between drinking and eating, drinking and eating. I was so full and drunk that I fell asleep on the couch at around 11pm with instructions to wake me up 10 minutes till. Then we partook in another Japanese New Years tradition of eating Udon/Soba noddles at midnight. 

Me and Miyuki went for udon

Oton, and Okan went for the Soba

But I was so full I could only eat a couple bites before giving up and going to bed (And you're wondering why you gain so much weight?! Geez! But then again, they say never try to diet during the holidays, and I took their advice to heart ;P). 

New Years Day woke up to even more amazing food!

And of course more alcohol, and this time with
gold flecks in it!

"it's okay to drink this early in the morning
cuz it's new years!" 

Even though we were all still full from the previous night, we tucked in while watching the Mummy Three (which SUCKED!). 

Then came dinner at around 5pm 

Suki yaki baby! XD

You dip the cooked meat and veggies into the raw
egg and eat it. I don't know either but it tastes good.

dried persimmon. Yum!

New Years soup with mochi!! XD 

Another tradition of New Years is to give young people money! I received about $100 from my host parents (despite much protesting) and from my host sister I got a Vivienne Westwood towel! I didn't even tell her I liked Vivienne Westwood, don't even have anything Vivienne Westwood but she choose well! She also gave me a Vivienne Westwood scarf and another towel for Xmas. And my Okan gave me a cat purse for Xmas as well (she really loves cats and wants me to love them too). 

Ugh, next to her I look even worse! T.T 

Now i'm going to crawl into bed and watch The Lord of the Rings. Tomorrow i'm going to wake up early, do some over due yoga then head off to a US Navy base in Kanagawa to hang out with Natsuyo and her boyfriend.

Good night y'all and hope you wake up to a better new years than I did! The rest of this year is going to be better! Off to a bad start but it'll look up! It has too!!! T____T