portland in tokyo.

last night i went to my friend ann-marie's "one night in portland" event at this place called Le Baron de Paris. 

fun!

weird!

surreal!

fuuuuuun!

so, i went there with the intention of pulling an all-nighter. this is a huge downside to living in tokyo because my last train leaves shibuya at 12:44am and the first train doesn't start working until after 5am. and i worked today at 11am. champion! 

i had no idea where this place was. addresses are useless in this city, and the website provided a less-than-adequate map for me to follow. i decided to talk to these two super cute japanese girls for directions...oh, man! THESE GIRLS WERE SO INCREDIBLY NICE!!!! i invited them to go with me to the place in exchange for helping me find it (it was invite only). after calling the venue several times and walking around, we hopped into a taxi and we found Le Baron. yes! the girls paid for the taxi and walked me to the entrance and had the bouncer escort me inside. i wanted them to come in with me, but they resisted for some reason or another (they barely knew english) BUT SERIOUSLY! they helped me so much and were so nice. i love japanese ladies.

as soon as i walked into Le Baron, i saw loads of giant pictures of everyone from portland from cute-alert events throughout the last year and a half or so. EVERYONE! 

it was so surreal to see my friends' pictures on this huge screen, hanging out with ann-marie, and talking about portland in tokyo! so weird! but awesome! and so fun!

then, out of nowhere that guy mark the cobrasnake photographer showed up (weird!) and took the WORST PICTURE OF ME EVER! but i don't care because i look really happy (and of course, i totally was!). i love portland. i love tokyo. 

meet pamela, from usa.

this week just hasn't been my week. 

for various reasons, mostly health wise. i tried to see a doctor today, but the clinic rejected me because i'm foreign (they didn't out right say this, but it was quite obvious). i have an appointment on friday to see a japanese (english speaking. hell yes!) doctor. i CANNOT WAIT to post some story about THAT experience!

anyway, while my body is rotting away...i did get a very nice message from one of my students:

"dear pamela, hi! i came back from america 3 days ago. in san francisco, i studied english, enjoyed sightseeing, and i was involved in volunteering. and the information from you was very useful, so i could go many famous place in san francisco. before i went to america, i was scared to talk with foreigners. so, i decided to attend your class. it was very fun and exciting for me. i want to practice english more and more! and i would like to be a teacher like you someday. thank you so much!!"

accompanied with a giant bag of ghirardelli chocolates. yum.

i really needed that message today. thank you, yumi!

temptation and anger coincide with hello kitty blog.

hello kitty blog.

i'm angry.

sort of.

ok.

not really.

but i tried logging into the sanrio town website tonight because i want to create my own hello kitty account so i can create my own hello kitty blog (duh!) and the stupid website won't let me! i don't understand! 

if i have a hello kitty blog, my life will be complete. 

my japanese phone truly expresses me.

you can buy anything in tokyo. 

i'm not joking

anything.

if you can think of it, it was probably invented twenty five years ago in tokyo. because you are behind, man. sorry! did you know that tokyo is in the future. like, literally?! 

so, i can check up on my blog from my phone. i can also use my phone to telegraphically erase any previous notion of what life was like pre-japan. then, my phone can make me some japanese curry and sing me to sleep. when my japanese phone wakes me up in the morning, it also makes me coffee and dresses me for work while i'm still in bed. my japanese phone is my best friend. i love it.

in order to show your appreciation for all your japanese phone does for you, you must make it pretty. most japanese adorn their phone in at least twenty to thirty accessories. these can range from anything to rhinestones to stickers to squishy donuts that actually smell like real donuts. 

so far, i have:

*one sticker (as previously mentioned, its the game center sticker taken with maya. note: we are not actually in a real glass of wine. i know. it looks very realistic!)

*two squishy donuts that smell like real donuts

*two hard donuts that do not smell like real donuts, but they do in face look more realistic than the squishy donuts

*two hello kitties

*one blob of goo that represents a character from a bottle of itch relief gel (this was free with the gel i used to relieve my mosquito bites. documented in a previous post over the summer, when i went to yoyogi park.)

no rhinestones, yet. 

also, i am proud to say that of the adornments listed i only bought ONE hello kitty adornment and the sticker. the rest were given as gifts. 

not even four months into living in tokyo. 

aside from this blog, i believe that my japanese phone is the best physical evidence to document the evolution of my time spent in japan.

critical post.

i had to post another post to post this extra picture post. 

very critical.

1 in 3 japanese own a louis vuitton.

i finally went to a game center! yesterday! 

you can't really walk ten feet without passing a game center in tokyo. even in my neighborhood, there's a game center (which i still haven't been to. although, i was quite upset at myself for not trying to win those babies dressed as animals in the front grab-claw machine when i first moved here...that statement probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me. sorry. documentation.) so its pretty common to see them. its kind of like the equivalent of SUVs in america. 

these are the things you can totally pay 500 yen (like, a number 3 at mcdonalds) for 6 tries for at the game center. there's better stuff, too. like huge cans of crackers, packets of curry and nintendo ds.

instead, i tried my luck at taking sticker photos with maya. since i don't have a scanner, i'm going to take pictures of them and post them on a later post. my japanese phone is so japanese, now. i'm only almost four months in, guys. i wonder how much more japanese i can get?! JUST IMAGINE ME IN 8 MONTHS!

i do not understand american accents.

last night, i met someone from london who had just moved to tokyo two weeks ago. i literally had to repeat everything i said like three times to him. "i do not understand american accents. speak proper english!" he said. 

i'm teaching ballet this week at my school. its a sort of counseling week where most of my classes are cancelled, so we offer alternative classes during this week for students. so far, i maybe have five students who signed up for ballet this week. i haven't prepared my lesson yet. i should do that.

election coverage.

i don't know anything about the prime minister election in japan, nor do i care to know. as well, good luck in america. it really doesn't matter who wins in either country. but if you really feel like it makes a difference, then vote. either way, the country needs to change before its leader does. 

anyway, on thursday the five prime minister nominees gave some speeches outside of my school in shibuya hachiko square. 

at times, it was really loud and some nominees were screaming bloody murder. it was interesting. here are some images i took. enjoy!

cuteness overload!

when you walk down the streets of tokyo, you notice something strange: cuteness overload!

japanese school girls wearing their cute little uniforms are everywhere! and these girls are CUTE! let me tell you! i was not cute in high school...i was str8 up awkward. but i don't think a majority of japanese girls experience this phase in their lives.

so, when a couple of super duper cute japanese high school girls came to my school today to be interviewed (they are "prospective" students. meaning, that they get interviewed by a teacher to determine their english level)...it wasn't out-of-the-ordinary for me to see them. of course, i still notice their cuteness. but i'm not really shocked anymore. BUT THEY WERE SHOCKED TO SEE ME!!!

i didn't conduct their interview, wil did. however, those girls could see me through the doorway while i was in the hall talking to a student of mine. they REQUESTED to talk to me. when i entered the room to say hello they literally screamed "SUGOI"!!! (translating along the lines of "GREAT!!!") which was so funny to me. 

sometimes i get weirded out by things like this. i think "for real? what's the fuss about? yea, i'm totally some white chick. whatever, japan! most of you are insanely gorgeous!" but i guess...even if you live in tokyo...there are not many opportunities to actually speak to foreigners, much less young white females...such as myself. i get it.

even the other foreigner teacher at my school, wil, is totally asian. so, i can kind of understand the excitement. 

still, its weird. i don't think i'll ever get used to people freaking out when they meet me.

brasil and the beat-beat.

i went to the brazilian festival yesterday, in yoyogi park.

there were so many people there!

it was fuuuuuuuuun, man.

i ate lots of meat, danced to some drum beats, and watched some crazy breakdancin' fightin'. holla.

the dude totally psyched to eat bbq with me in the above picture is my co-worker wil. i met up with him and my other co-worker chiemi, and her boyfriend. good times, man. 

I WANT TO GO TO BRAZIL!

meet my friends.

an evil spirit possessed my soul on monday and has been festering within the inner depths of my being ever since.

so, i took a walk down to yoyogi park to cleanse myself in the shrine.

instead, i met my new BFFs.

not being fluent in japanese isn't a problem.

we UNDERSTAND each other. 

just by staring.

typhoon season.

one week ago. 

scary/awesome.

the cause of my delayed train.

three month mark (a.k.a its already SEPTEMBER?!)

i usually have sundays and mondays off from work. however, yesterday was a SPECIAL day. yesterday i had FOLLOW-UP training for my school. 

guess what, guys...i've been in japan for THREE MONTHS!!!(already? whoa.)

reality check!

this last week has been weird (although i found the cause to the weirdness. which is good. sorry to be elusive, but i gots to maintain some privacy or whatever. ha!) 

BUT!

after an 8 hour day of reuniting with my initial training group from Omiya (sweet, sweet memories of living with 16 other people in the Omiya house for 10 days straight.) Maya and I decided on some drinks (best idea in the entire universe).

even though this started to become a hip thing in the Portland bar scene, i tried an absinthe cocktail for the first time at some English pub called the Hub in Shinjuku. it was delicious! and oh, so green! like some magic potion!

after a few drinks and catching up with our Swede friend, kris, we were outside in Shinjuku and i felt the energy returning that i had given away last week. 

after maybe a month of solitude in working, working, working and pretty much only doing that...last night, i said "wow. i really live in JAPAN! i live in TOKYO! life is pretty rad!"