miss universe japan

somehow, last week, i ended up at the Miss Universe Japan after party in Shibuya....i didn't want to go, but part of me was curious as to what would happen. it was lame, of course.

anyway, there's this huge controversy in Japan right now about the Miss Universe Japan national costume she's wearing for the pageant on saturday. a designer from the 109 designed this? i mean, this look does sum up Tokyo and the 109 Shibuya fashion...granted, these Japanese girls can and do wear anything and everything...

drunk...

off of oolong tea.

and when i speak Japanese, i accidentally say something in Chinese? a girl from Weihai and i are newly befriended...i really want to escape to the mainland for some really salty food and cheap beer.

i think i'm just going to get lost in Japan for Obon. so far, the plan goes it: Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Osaka and a (pretty pretty please!) beach, onegaishimasu!

rainbows!

i don't want to be anymore white.

i have failed to find a suitable face moisture in japan (women know how important this is!) and i am on a never-ending quest to find at least a decent substitution whilst livin' my japanese dream...

yesterday, as with all days which include a beauty treatment shopping spree, it took me no less than 30 MINUTES to find a NON-WHITENING FACE MOISTURE. holy shit japan, does EVERY face lotion have to include some kind of bleach?! gross!

my insanely rich student, soon-to-be-divorcee of her almost-murderer-husband, was obviously gobbling down some pills in front of me the other week as if to make me ask "oh Yoko, what are those for...?" (and of course, i did). her response? "they're for my skin. they're whitening pills." which i thought was ironic because that same day our lesson consisted of discussing the recent death of Michael Jackson and she asked me "why did he not want to be black?"

LIFE IS A COMEDY FOR EVER AND EVER.

that is all.

in other news, my skin continues to slowly melt away in this tropical heat wave.

summer gems

all of these were taken with my mobile camera, so i apologize for the quality.

no explanations are necessary for these.

these are daily things in my life. and a (kind of) recent picture of me.

ego inflation

what i dually love and hate about Tokyo is that it is guaranteed that i will have the dance floor to myself.

my dance ego is totally inflated in this city. i mean, c'mon, i know that i can dance, but i wish people wouldn't make it so easy for me....

monday!

Monday!

So, I have five months left in Japan. I am in the middle of my second summer here. I haven't been quite all here lately. Meaning, my head is in some haze of thoughts and ideas. I feel like I float through my days. but that's all pretty BORING, so...instead I am putting out pictures of my day (per my mother's request!). and today is Monday. so, here you are!

I started my morning with a run around the Tamagawa River next to my apartment. It's a ritual I have been doing since last Winter. This time of year is good for running because it literally feels like a sauna out here in Japan, therefore I sweat away all those horrible toxins and I am soaked to the bone in sweat! horray!

I took a nap (this heat is killing my energy) and went shopping for groceries.

I got fairly nostalgic about Japan while I was shopping. Because I have a date now that I'm leaving, I can count the days until my departure...parts of me have already left Japan, but that's not where I want to be right now. I want to be here, completely.

I love so many thing about this country that I know I take for granted, and I know I will realize how much I miss these things when I leave. Things like : the way, waaaaaayyyyy too cute Japanese children (!!!), women wearing heels while riding bicycles, open markets, the fact that you can buy almost anything at the 100 yen shop, music that plays on the streets from stereos around the tops of the buildings, underwear hanging from every apartment after laundry, school girls and boys in their sailor school uniforms, the produce market that only plays Motown music, the ridiculously HUGE moths and beetles, the homeless residents of Shin-maruko, the fact that I can now understand 85% of Japanese from Japanese children, that I use chopsticks almost every time I eat, when you go to a restaurant you split all the dishes and the bill with your friends, bowing, the dinosaur sounds of the HUGE crows, the music of the garbage trucks in Kawasaki, going into 7/11 and being able to buy almost any meal and it tastes pretty damn good, the train finder on my phone, being more comfortable around Japanese than of Americans, gifts in some form or another every day, covering my mouth when I laugh, etc...etc...

the carrots here are CARTOON CARROTS AND THEY ARE IN PLASTIC?! Yea, things like that are NORMAL to me. Also, paying 400 yen = 4$ for an APPLE (ONE APPLE!) is normal, too (but I don't buy them. AH HELLZ NAH!). bento boxes! onigiri (rice balls with fish inside. yummy, yummy, yum!)! I bought those really bizarre yellow shoes as a token of my time in Tokyo.

Also, my school manager (who is seriously GORGEOUS and HILARIOUS) and I spend our time together trying to make the most grotesque faces at each other...those are some of the ones she does. She is very talented. Also, when she grabs her cheeks and runs over to me and screams "Touch my cheeks! They feel like an ass! I have an ass face!" OH MY GOD, I LOVE HER. I'll get her picture up here sooooooon.

note: the Pocky sections is serious. if I could, I would marry Pocky. it's heaven. BUT! I just noticed today that they have POCKY FOR MEN?! Its dark chocolate flava.

Expat Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, America.

I spent mine with an Englishman and a slew of drunk Japanese 60 year old men at a yakitori restaurant drinking large amounts of Sapporo beer and discussing which was better: BBC or NHK.

GOD BLESS LIFE.