Time is tickin’, T-Time is tickin’ away…

"One (feat. Ji-Sun)" by Epik High is a prettttty cool song.  I just looked up the lyrics, conveniently found a translation, and ummm, gosh, I think I'm going to need to re-read this a few more times before I understand...

BUT the point is:

4 days left.

no way.

no way.

no way.

...

I always knew the end would be difficult, but...oh, this is ridiculous. ;-;

♥ Our Christmas/Holiday/Goodbye/Final Family Dinner ♥

I won't say that there's nothing good about good-byes (ha, just look at the name!)...but [no words left to properly express how I feel]...

~*~*~*~

it suddenly got suuuper cold these past few days (single digits, in celsius, admittedly still positive numbers), but according to tenki.jp, will warm up again next week...very slightly.

time goes by...

FAR TOO QUICKLY.

"so slowly"?!  Madonna is so wrong.

(by the way, just for context, I'm supposed to be writing a paper for my Japan-China class right now... maybe we can say this is warm-up?  I've discovered this excellent trick with coffee for people, like myself, with low caffeine tolerance: drink a little coffee at a time and then a lot of water; sure, you end up going to the restroom quite a bit, but this way the caffeine gives you a boost while the water keeps you hydrated and refreshed☆)

Just for masochistic pleasure and general procrastination, I've put a little countdown-thingy on the right-hand side of my main blog page, underneath the little "about me" blurb.  Shouldn't be too easy to miss.  Those awaiting my glorious return to the Bay (SF Bay, the only one that matters of couuuuurse) can clap in delight as the number spirals down.  For me, I shall be mildly panicked every time I see it and how much more reduced it is compared to the last time I looked.

In other news, I've booked a rather last-minute trip to Tokyo for the next weekend (Nov. 5-8).  And yes, I will be skipping a couple days of class, hahahahahaha~   As for how much money I'll be spending............we can address that later, when I've taken some pretty pictures to prove that it was worth however-much-it-is. 8D

Okay, there are lots of topics I want to write about here, but first, that midterm paper.....

Ah, priorities...

Life in Japan II

a pretty spot around campus, on a pretty nice day

snacktime!...happens every night, not always this crazy.

separating garbage is important! (though, it varies from city to city.)  my roomie and I divide between plastics and burnables.

our room in an unusually neat (yeah, this counts as neat) state.

my new keitai strap (phone charm) ♥
it's a momiji (maple) leaf~ to commemorate this fall semester.

Thursday, October 14, 2010 @ 3:05 AM

Life in Japan

A picture's worth a thousand words, so let's say this entry is ...a little over five thousand? :)

Rilakkuma slippers.  Worn all around the seminar house (dorm), except on the tatami mats in rooms.

Futon.  They're arranged a little differently now (this was taken during orientation week), but you get the idea.  Rolling out of "bed" is easy and painless.

Bicycle.  In Japanese, 自転車(jitensha).  In Kansai-ben, チャリ(chari).  Not utterly essential, but pretty darn amazingly helpful.  If the USA is a car culture, Japan (at least in Hirakata?) is a bicycle culture.

Cell phone.  In Japanese, 携帯電話 (keitaidenwa), or just keitai for short.  Again, not absolutely essential for life, but exceedingly useful and advantageous for one's social life.  Almost every other 留学生(ryuugakusei, exchange student) has this same, exact phone (in either black of white), but I've finally distinguished mine by adding Kanazawa gold lacquer シール(shiiru, stickers).

Pudding.  プリン (purin) is my favorite dessert here in Japan; it has a flavor and consistency similar to flan and/or creme brulee.  This particular pudding has a special point: 焼きプリン (yakipurin) is browned on top...not sure how much it actually affects the flavor, but I like it a lot.  A lot. ♥

Tuesday, September 21, 2010 @ 9:40 PM