Nakano & Ghibli Museum

So, today was the Nakano and Ghibli Museum trip. I had to google Nakano (I was interested only in the museum) and it seems to be a place for anime fans and collectors. While I do enjoy anime, I'm not really one to drop 50 dollars on a 4 inch figurine. It was really nice to look at, but there wasn't much for me to personally buy, since everything was really pricey.

It started out...bad. First, we were too early. Almost everything was close when our tour arrived. We had a tour guide, but it really wasn't needed. Nakano Broadway is like a mall, so imagine getting a tour around a mall...yeah, pretty pointless. Once we were let loose, it was a lot better. Just able to wander around and what not. Here are some pictures.

They had some art galleries around. I thought they were
rather nice.

Yup...Isn't it wonderful?

They were drawing on the walls (a project of sorts). It was
pretty nifty.

What I bought from there. 700¥. I'll hang it up...somewhere.

After that, we got on the train and made our way over to the Ghibli museum. Now, I was already excited about this place. I love Miyazaki's work. I always have. His stories are always touching and fun and the art is magical (He's like Japan's Walk Disney). The museum did not disappoint. It was a great place. They had a huge room of his sketches and color pallets, still cells, and great diagrams of walks of many characters and creatures.  It was wonderful. They wouldn't let anyone take pictures, but I was able to take some outside. Here's what I was able to get.

We also were able to see a short film, only for the museum. It was really great for multiple reasons. The art was great and the store was adorable. But best part was that there wasn't any dialogue. I know this is going to sound freakishly cheesy, but it was a great experience for me, since I want to be an animator and all. Everyone was able to laugh and react all at the same time, with nothing but the movement of the characters, their expressions and timing. At the end, when our little corner was cheering, there was a really small child who was cheering with us. We turned and clapped with the little girl and it was touching, because even though we must of been strange to her, and could barely say anything (and I'm sure the child didn't even know where she was or why we were clapping), it was nice that we could all come together over something as simple as a cartoon. I'm happy with my choice in majors.

Here's what I bought. The intention was not to buy a stuffed animal or trinket, but something distinct to the museum (kinds sorta). I bought an art book for the movie Spirited Away (hard choice. I like a lot of his movies, but those books are 30 dollars a pop) as well as a small stuffed keychain of the character in the cartoon. The cartoon was really endearing, plus, I had a "moment" being all animator-ish. I had to get something to remember it by.

I'll be treasuring this book. I'm
glad I bought it.

She's the たまごひめ！ Or Egg Princess.  The story was
cute, she was cute. I loved it.

I really enjoyed that place. A lot. It was worth the money and the crappy tour. I'm now going to finish watching season 1 of mad men.

I am D-O-N-E with dorm life

I'm sick of it I tell you, sick of it! I hate young people (90% of them). It's like they're suffering from brain damage. I don't think they sleep. They just wander the halls at night, spewing gibberish. All they care about is getting drunk and partying and the boys are a special treat because they just care about women (and they're vulgar about it, which gives me hives).

They're also dirty. I may not be the master of clean, but I can lean food residue off of a dish. And someone decided to use the microwave, have something explode in it, and just walked off. WHO DOES THAT!? This isn't someone's personal home? I can let MY microwave get dirty because it's MINE. That doesn't work when the microwave is shared by 20 girls. And there's also a girl that doesn't wash her hands. I was in the bathroom, she walked in, used the toilet (and did her business) and just walked out. She didn't even look at the water. SHE COULD OF AT LEAST FAKED IT.

Did I tell you that they're rude? Besides just wandering the halls, they couldn't greet someone if their life depended on it. Would a "good morning" really kill them? Would it!? I've quit saying good morning in this dorm, because it doesn't even register in their heads. They either ignore it or just continue to lumber through the halls. The Japanese are better at greeting me, and they're scared of me.

And it seems that not only are they rude, but they're illiterate, since they can't read the signs about "quiet hours" or how sound travels when you talk in the hall, which is why they request you don't do it (not that they care, because what do they have to wake up for? Oh yeah...CLASS). I guess this is also the reason that at one or two in the morning I can be woken up by the lovely sounds of someone slamming the microwave door shut, because walking down to the kitchen and letting me sleep would be too much for them (My room is next to the "kitchen" area upstairs, which is why it's a special peeve of mine).

I want to know how they function. They obviously don't sleep, so how are they going to class? They're more then willing to skip class to shop (I kid you not), but it seems that class takes the back seat. I'M NOT EVEN GETTING GRADES FROM THIS SCHOOL AND I CARE MORE. >:[

Did I miss out on this super powered young people gene? I need sleep, and I know how to shut the hell up, and I can read a sign. Did I miss something? I'm done with dorms. Stinky, awful, loud dorms. Never again!

After this I'm moving into a retirement home and playing scrabble.

P.S. Honors Announcement (I'm bragging, bear with me):

Please, join me in congratulating: The Honors Program students who also made the Fall 2010 DEAN’s LIST and The third-year students who have completed at least 4 honors courses as of Fall 2010 and are on track to earn the Honors Program Certificate (Medallion. I'm not doing this for paper)! In your honor, please attend the annual Deans List Luncheon & Junior Pinning Ceremony.  Enjoy dining with the Dean of your School (major) and or receiving the Honors Pin, bestowed by the Dean of your School.

(Can't go. I'm in Japan)

Honors Dean’s List 

* Deans List and Junior Pin Recipients   

Digital Animation                  Gabrielle Minor*

P.P.S. I can't really understand your comment, Dad, so I'll just say thank you. :)

Snow in Japan

 It snowed. It was really quick. It snowed that night and it was gone the next evening. I saw someone fall (badly) though because of it. She got help, but that goes to show you that snow is dangerous, doesn't it? I was really worried, because I come home late, and I didn't want it to freeze over, but it was really all gone. I heard that for Tokyo, that was a lot of snow.  Here's a small video of the snowfall and my ramblings:

 

Well, my most favorite food now is tempura. Tempura japanese sweet potato actually. We went to a tempura place and studied the menu. I found out what I like it called "imo." They also have tempura pumpkin, which isn't as horrifying as it sounds. It's actually very, very tasty.                

I also had french toast from a place called "PanDoll." It was a big hunk of bread toasted (fried?) and covered in sugar. It tasted like a big square piece of funnel cake. It was really, REALLY good, also pretty cheap, only 100¥. I was quite happy with it.

Until I came to Japan, I've never seen hot(cold) chocolate sold like this. In powder form, in little fancy starbucks cups, but not like this. Of course I bought it. Cold hot chocolate isn't half bad. It's not my favorite  thing in the world, but it isn't bad. Also, why hasn't anyone told me that "coco" is actually "cocoa?"

Also, my earphones broke today. =_= I had been using them since freshmen year actually, and they blocked out EVERYTHING, so I'm very sad to see them go. I actually don't even remember what the brand was, since I got them from the school store. Headphones are something I really care about, because I hate hearing noise, and I hate hearing my neighbors who are up and ghastly hours, so I ran to the nearest store. I was sad, because I know that I wouldn't find ones as good as the ones I had (without spending a lot)...

However, I was able to replace them with Disney earphones!  Yup, that's what I spend my money on. It's important to me. They aren't as good as my old ones, but I suppose I'll just get used to mediocrity when it comes to my music. Nothing seems to "pop" anymore...but at least I have mouse ears on my head. :)

I've been having money nightmares. Everything costs something. Why can't anything be for free? Or at least last longer? =_= Oh well, what can you do?

Special thanks to my mom for letting me borrow her camera. It's very nifty. :)

Nigerians: Multi-Lingual Ninjas of Japan

I do not know any Nigerians (to my knowledge). I am not well versed in their culture, general attitude, or behavior, and even if I was, I wouldn't be able to lump them in all together.

However, the Nigerians in Japan are crazy.

Now, if you're wondering why, I'll tell you. What these folks (men) do is hang out in shopping districts (and club districts, which I don't go to) in groups of four to six. They speak English, Japanese, their native tongue, and I've also hear french. What they do is shout and gang around certain people to get them to go to their clubs or go to their clothing stores.

Yes, it's just as weird as it sounds.

Now, they aren't super aggressive (to me anyway, but I'm six feet tall, so...), but I've heard they can be and I have to say, in a country that may already be wary of black people, they're certainly not helping. Nor would I think that they're helping other Nigerians. *shrug* Just my opinion.

It snowed today. Not all that heavy. No pictures because it wasn't "pretty" snow. It just meant everyone was walking around with umbrella's and being careful in stores because of the slick floors. I went to Harajuku (been there once before) and was surprised how crowded it was for being a "crappy" day. It was nice though.

Needless today, I will not be going out for some time, nor will I be shopping for some time. I don't know what's in the water in this country, but it's caused me to lose all of my common sense and self control. When in the world did I become a shopping, girly girl?  I did buy a nice pin for my coat (pictured to the right). About five bucks. Along with a bag (also five bucks). It has the english flag on it. Gotta love Japan for loving England.

One thing I will miss about Japan is their customer service. They are all about pleasing their customers, and I mean ALL ABOUT IT.

Customer Service Experience: 
At one store, I was looking at an item and I went and asked if they had "more" or "bigger" sizes (I ask this no matter what). The woman, with a huge smile, said, "Free size!" and proceeded to walk with me back to the item. She took it down and tugged it, showing that it stretched, exclaiming, "daijyoubu, daijyoubu (It's okay, it's okay)." She also showed me different colors and styles they had of the same dress, which I thought was pretty nice of her. I eventually said, "Eh, alright. May I try it on?" She eagerly showed me to the room and when I accidently banged on the door, she (who I assume was standing outside of the door) asked if I was alright. When I opened the door with the item on, asking how it was (they friend I was with was out of sight), I saw that it was actually a different girl, who proceeded to give me two big thumbs up and say, "Ii desu! Kawaii! (It's good! (It's) cute!)."

When I changed back into my clothes and left the room, another girl asked if I like it, and I said yes (could look awful, but my like of the item and the enthusiastic thumbs up made me want to buy it). She said, "Oh, underneath?" I know that this was simply a way to get me to buy more, but I thought it was nice that she proceeded to match up the item with some other things in the store to make a full outfit (I only bought the one item).

I was actually on the fence about the item I had and left, but returned a few minutes later. One of the previous girls was still there and she smiled and just held up the item for me. When I went to the register, the woman there was very nice, said my coin purse was cute and all of the clerks there were very nice as I left the store.

I'm going to miss that in the states. Japanese are so eager to please their customers. Yes, it's to boost sales, but good customer service means so much to me. It makes me recommend stores to my friends, and it makes me bad mouth them for YEARS if it's poor. I have been to this same exact store in a different part of Japan and thought that they had the worst attitudes and thought they were all rather nasty (at least to me). This store changed my opinion of them 100%. See what good customer service can do?

I have had people find other items for me, make outfits for me, help me try stuff on, and just generally be super, super nice, most of the time without me even asking. Even the people in the 7/11 will heat up your meals for you, free of charge and not give you a weird face if you don't understand them right away. I'm going to miss that when I'm back in the states, getting nasty, annoyed looks from the woman that works at the market. I'm going to miss that a lot.

Well, I will be trapped in the dorm all weekend doing work. 3D animation just picked up as well as all of my other classes (Oh goody...). Can you believe I've already been here a month?

Wish me luck.

Daily Food + Shibuya 109 + Ramblings

Daily Food:
So, what am I eating when I'm not eating honey and cheese pizza?
Believe it or not, I cook. It was very hard since we don't have have oven, so everything is a stir fry of some sort. Lots of vegetables (60% Yam, 30% other veg,  10% meat. And of course rice). It lasts for about three meals, so that dinner, my lunch the next day, and that dinner. It's not too bad. Plus, I can bu a huge thing of gyoza for under 200¥.


Another meal I have is a beef and what I think are tiny string beans. With, of course, rice. I tried these little rice balls too. I won't buy them again. Not as good as just rice, which I actually really starting to like.


This is also what my fridge looks like.

Bread, rice, apples, sauces
Vegetables.

Cookies, butter, honey, water, juice, sauce.

Gyuza, meat, chicken, rice, ice cream.

 It actually has food in it. Some healthy, some treats. I'm going to get back on track this month though. I've been going a bit...crazy.

Crazy thing I tried today?:
Fruit milk. Didn't taste like milk. Just thick juice, but then again, it's fruit milk. I like my peach juice better myself.














Shibuya 109:

So, today I went to Shibuya. I had a goal in mind. I was hunting for a poncho. The japanese make them look amazingly awesome. So I was on the hunt. I even asked around when I saw one I liked. I always got a store called "Liz Lisa" or the large shopping building "Shibuya 109." I went to that store which is two towers, eight floors each. I went to the top and worked my way down. The floor weren't too big, so I was able to go pretty fast. Some of those sales people are pushy though, which I hate. If I want to buy something, I'll do it. =_= Some were really nice, but sometimes I wanted to just say, "BACK OFF." I wish I could of taken some pictures because it seems the rule is, whatever shop  you work at, that's the style you dress in. So if you have crazy skank clothes, you're wearing them. However, the place was plastered with "No picture" so you have to use your imagination.

Anyway, I did find the poncho/coat I want for, get this, under 25 dollars (it was 1995¥). I asked how much it cost, because there was another price underneath it that was  A LOT more expensive. She was like, "...it's 1995, like it says." But I just wanted to make sure. I was happy, because I always heard of them being a lot more. The poncho:

 

 I personally love it. And you can take the fur off, which is an added bonus. It was the very last one they had.  I bought two more things while I was there:

I think this sweater is the beans. It was in black and white
and gray and black, but I tried to be "different."

No, this sweatshirt makes no sense, but it's extremely
comfortable. Just trust me.

I am pretty much done shopping. The only thing left on my list are gifts for you guys (family and such). If you have a certain request, let it be known, or you'll just get a surprise. :)

I'll make sure they're good ones though!

Ramblings:
Well, I am not a group shopper. I originally went out with three other girls to Shibuya 109. These girls were walking so freakin' slow I wanted to pull my hair out. Just walking to the train station was murder, and I was slowing myself down BIG TIME when it came to walking. One girl kept saying "why are we running?" I was like, "...This is walking...WALK!" I pestered them to move faster on and off until we got to Shibuya station when one girl said, "oh, well, we're just chillin', and she's (another girl) wearing heels." Who told this girl to wear heels when we are going to be doing NOTHING BUT WALKING!? I was like, "pfft, peace." Shibuya 109 is a huge store and right outside of the station, I didn't need them to find it. They were just too slow, I couldn't stand it! I was able to go F21 to return a shirt, go through the bigger, eight floor tower, and then to the second tower before meeting them again on the first floor, and I was done by eight. Arrived at around 6:30, left by eight.

The women of Japan wear heels A LOT and they move faster than me. This girl needs to practice because I wear sneakers and I'm not waiting for her! They were hungry, I wasn't, and they were tired, and I wasn't. I had one class today, I was ready to move around, walk, climb, something! I know I should of stayed with my group for safety, but I just couldn't stand how slow they were moving and the dilly dallying! People who have gone to the market with me know that I usually hate to just wander through the isles. If I know where I want to go, I'm going, going fast, and then leaving. And now that I don't have to depend on anyone to get to and from Shibuya, pfft, it's a done deal.

Word to the wise: Don't wear heels if all you're going to do is walk. It's a dumb, dumb idea.

Gorgonzola and Honey Pizza

Today was a regular old school day, but we decided to go out somewhere different to lunch than Sukiya. We found a pizza place (I know, very japanese), and it was pretty good and very interesting. We also bought little cakes.

The pizza I got was a gorgonzola and honey pizza! I stared at it for a long time before I finally caved in and said, "...I just gotta try it."

It looked the picture to the left and came with a little cup of honey. It was actually really, really good. The pizza was very light and thin, so it wasn't overbearing. My friend tried a slice as well (and I got some of her octopus pasta in return) and wanted to write down what it was so she could try and make it. It'll have to wait till we get home since we don't have an oven...


We also got these little cakes.

The first one is mine. It had a hard crust and nuts and was chocolaty, but also had a bit of a mango paste on it. And then a bit of cream and the piece of white chocolate. I'm really bad at explaining, but it was nice. Not sure if I'd buy it again, only because it was 420¥.

This was my friend's. Hers was kind of fruity, but it was pretty pleasant. While eating this we both had our first cappuccino. Which seemed like regular coffee with foam on it. All it all, it was a nice meal. I'd go back just for the honey pizza!