Finals and Part-time Jobs

It feels like nothing particularly interesting has actually happened for me over the last week. This would appear to be because I'm getting used to the slightly weird life I am living (which seems to include bumping into Visual Kei bands in the middle of Harajuku...), rather than because nothing interesting has actually happened.

Firstly, finals week. I think I mentioned this at the end of my last post, so I'm sure you are desperate to hear what happened. Well, there were exams. And I went to them. That's about all, really...

Okay, not quite all. So, I don't think I've talked about the way exams work in Japan yet. Actually, I'm not sure if this is how all exams are. My Japanese language exams are the same as they were in England, and only one of my other modules had an exam. However, my International Relations exams seem to me to be the way exams work here. Basically, the exam consisted of somewhere between 25 and 50 multiple choice questions, and then a 1-2 page essay. For this, I had about two hours. Needless to say, I was out of the room in under half an hour. I am much more used to having two hours to write two or three essays, of three or four pages each. However, most of the people taking the course are Japanese students, so I guess it's difficult enough for them to understand the questions let alone answer them - I had trouble understanding the weird wording of some of the multiple choice questions after all.

What am I complaining about then, with such easy exams? To begin with, I don't actually recall complaining so far in this post... But any ways, the thing is that the pass mark here is a LOT higher than in England. So, English universities have 40% as the lowest passmark. 70% is the lowest mark you need to get the highest grade possible. Not so in this university! Here you need to get 70% to just get a C grade. This strikes me as terribly confusing and unfair... Anyways, now that I have actually complained about that, I will move on.

Now, with the end of term exams over, it is currently holiday - November break. Term will start again at the beginning of December, just in time to break up again for two weeks for Christmas... I seriously have no idea who came up with this 'logic'. Anyways, with the holiday approaching, I thought it might be nice to go someplace. Unfortunately, travel in Japan is a bit more pricey than in England, and I spent a considerable amount on bills at the start of the month. So in hope of earning enough to go visit friends in other parts of Japan, I did something I had never wanted to do. I have started tutoring English. Now, I like teaching some things. Archery, for example. However, I have very little patience to be a really effective teacher. But, there was no other option. There are websites which facilitate meetings between students and teachers, so I signed up to one of them. It appears having an English accent is quite a lure to some people, so I have had a bit of interest, and have had a couple of lessons. This seems to involve meeting some random Japanese person, usually a businessman, in some random coffee shop, and having awkward conversation for an hour, then being given however much money I decided in advance I would charge and trying not to grin too happily at the money... Then ending up spending most of it on groceries...

Needless to say, I have not saved up enough to go someplace. I haven't even really even earned enough to go someplace, even if I had saved all of it. However, the money I got made some things nicer, like the fact I was able to go to an all you can eat pizza place with my friends who had been begging me to go with them for weeks. I was a little unnerved to see that some of the pizza was topped in chocolate sauce and bananas, or in apple and cinnamon, but it was actually quite tasty. As was the unlimited tiramisu which was included in the whole thing. I did feel quite ill on leaving the restaurant though. And one of my friends seemed to have some strange problem of hearing jazz music in the restaurant, even though none was playing...

So, to continue in the, frankly disgustingly capitalist tone of this post, I would like to talk about money. Specifically money in Japan. See, I am always surprised, and a little irritated, by how much of a 'cash culture' Japan has. Now, I don't mean to say they don't use credit and debit cards. Lots of shops accept them, but I have rarely seen anyone actually use them, except for really big purchases. Japan is, as a lot of people are aware, one of the safest countries from petty crime, but still...

I will give you an example – bills. I have had to pay a depressingly large number of these since arriving. The fees for the dorm I'm living in, my mobile phone bill, my health insurance bill... The thing about all of these is that you pay them in cash. You can pay most of them at any convenience store, or post office, and conveniently, we have a post office right in the middle of our campus. Some people tried to pay by card, especially for the dorm fee, which was almost £2000 at the time due to horrible exchange rates but were told they had to pay in cash. No one wants to carry around that much money. Most banks wont even let you withdraw that much at one time. Still, cash it had to be.

In England, if you work in a shop and someone tries to pay for something with a £50 note, often what you are meant to do is call your manager, who will assess whether the note is real, or tell the customer that they don't accept £50s. That's because a £50 is much more likely to be fake. The only people who use £50s are tourists, and I really pity them for the trouble they will find trying to use one.

In Japan, the highest note I have seen is the 10,000 yen note, which right now is about £70. These are accepted everywhere. Even in a hundred yen shop, where you are only buying one thing, and want all that change back. Personally, I think they prefer that to when I go in and buy one thing with one hundred and five one yen coins (100 yen shops are actually 105 yen shops, after tax).

One yen coins are possibly the most useless thing ever. They are worth less than a penny and are made of recycled drinks cans. They are also the bane of everyone's wallet and the reason why cash based societies are always stressed. Although, there are special boxes you can buy to keep your 1 yen coins in. You can fit fifty in a box, and I've already filled one and am on my way through a second. Because you can't actually use these stupid pieces of fake metal anywhere, except the occasional shop where someone feels like being nice to you and pretending for a moment that they are anything other than a waste of everyone's space, time and drinks cans.

Anyways, I'll end here. Sorry for the lack of photos. I kinda forgot to take any over the last week, so busy with doing the incredible amount of revision I did. I really, really hope I'll end up doing something of interest over the next week, but probably all I'll do is sew plushies and try desperately to finish my 50,000 word novel by the end of November...

Finally here, after a arduous three week delay

Hello! So, you may have noticed that I haven't really posted anything for... a while. I think it's about three weeks.  While I'd like to blame this solely on being incredibly busy, sadly that just isn't the case. Not to say I haven't been very busy, but there have been evenings with me sat in my room when I totally could have written this, and just...didn't. Partly because I have a very short attention span, so concentrating for the hour or so necessary to write, edit and add photos to one of these can be a little taxing to my dominant childish side.

Also, every time I thought 'Hmm, I should probably write that blog entry now' I would remember something I had taken photos of recently, and that I had not yet uploaded said photos to my computer. I was therefore faced with the choice of leaving out the event, and having to explain why in a future blog, going through the arduous task of retrieving the cable to transfer photos from camera to computer from its usual hiding place (in plain sight, right next to my computer) and then wasting maybe even five of my oh so precious minutes transferring the photos... or putting off writing all together until I'd gotten round to sorting out photos at some mystical future point in time. I really do like making life difficult for my future self, whilst grumbling that past-me clearly had no consideration for others, or foresight.

So yes, lots to catch up on, because I know you have all missed my wonderfully dry witty comments on society, and my delightful Tokyo antics.

To begin with, I know I left some of you hanging with my last comment from the previous post - a tantalising glimpse at a weekend that I was very excited about. I know there are some who have been dying to know what happened, and what had made me so excited - it's alright, you don't need to hide your anticipation, you're with friends now. So, the weekend started off with the Canada House Ball on the Friday. This was a party held by Canada House, which is one of the all-male dorms on campus. They had dressed the place up to look like a club, and there was an outside area as well, where the performances happened. Now, I was running a little low on money at this point, and so had resigned myself to not buying any drinks whilst there. But then a pre-party party happened in one of the units in Global House... Anyway, when the Global House group arrived, I'm fairly sure we made the whole party about ten times livelier. From what I could see, people were talking when we arrived, but no one was dancing, except us. Now, there are about sixty people in Global House, and whilst not all of them went to the Ball, enough did to make it a very successful dorm invasion.

The Ball was awesome, and the performance by Smooth Steppers (the ICU dance club who are all made of pure, solidified awesome) was incredible, but I get tired of dancing quickly, and after bothering as many of my friends who I could find, I decided to call it a night.

Saturday was basically just filled with me lazing the day away in my room. Nothing particularly awesome happened that day.

Sunday, however, was one of the best days, possibly of my whole life. Now, I really like a certain type of Japanese music called 'Visual Kei'. It's very unique to Japan. Basically the idea is, that the bands don't just provide music to please your ears, but a complete aesthetic experience. Basically, this means they dress up in awesome costumes and act very over-dramatically on stage which, as those of you who know me well will understand, is something I fully support, on stage and off stage.

On that Sunday, there was a music festival, called the V-Rock Festival. It was a little way out of Tokyo, so meant an early start. I went with two of my friends, who also like V-Kei. This was the first and only music festival I have been to, and was AWESOME! All my favourite bands were there. In fact, most of the really famous ones were there. Name dropping time for anyone who knows Japanese bands, or wants to look some up: The artist GACKT, the bands Versailles Philharmonic Quintet, Golden Bomber, Ali Project, Girugamesh (which should have been Gilgamesh, but turns out they didn't do enough research into the proper spelling of characters in Mesopotamian mythology. Honestly, some people...), Mucc, SuG, Matenrou Opera... I'll stop there, because there were almost thirty acts. It was impossible to see all of them, but luckily none of my favourites clashed with each other - my favourites being GACKT, Versailles and Golden Bomber.

Wooo, look, a sign!

Golden Bomber is a recent interest for me - I only found out about them about two weeks before the festival. They are unique amongst V-Kei bands in that they don't even pretend that they play their music live. In fact, although it is written by them, they openly admit it was recorded by professional musicians, although I believe the singer sometimes sings live. They are the first, and only, 'air' V-Kei band. I think they are satirising bands who mime on stage rather than playing live, but they also seem to just be messing about. The live show I saw included someone doing a 'guitar solo' - which for them equated to speed eating corn on the cob, and someone having a shower on stage, because he felt the venue was a bit too warm. I almost hurt myself laughing, and was very surprised by the amount of the Japanese I could understand.

So, moving on from pretty Japanese rock stars, to the following weekend. Now, in most high school anime, and in Japanese TV dramas set in high schools, at some point there is a 'cultural festival', where each class and each club has a cafe, or food stall, or performance to attract attention to them, or raise money. Turns out universities have them too, and that was what the last weekend in October consisted of. It was absolutely awesome, and there were far more types of tasty food on offer than I could afford or manage to eat, but I tried a few. I was also helping out with a cosplay cafe, the costume for which arrived the day before the festival, thanks to my awesome parents.

Wandering around in cosplay in Japan is very different to in England. It's less intimidating here, although that might just have been because there were other people in weirder outfits running around. I would probably feel pretty out of place wandering into a supermarket on a normal day dressed like that. I had a couple of people ask if I was dressed as Alice in Wonderland, for an early Halloween celebration, which I actually hadn't thought of using the costume for, so that was fun.

Personification of Belarus, or Alice in Wonderland?
Who knows, but I certainly didn't see any rabbits that day...

And on to last weekend - I'm almost there! Thanks for staying with me on this! In Tokyo, there is a place called Ikebukuro, in Ikebukuro there is a shopping centre thing called Sunshine City, and in Sunshine City is a place called Namja Town (I suddenly feel like I'm writing a children's book...). I'm still not sure what to define Namja Town as, even though I have been there. It is a bit like a theme park, without any rides, but with lots of food. This is a theme I seem to have noticed in Japan - the cultural festival was all about the food booths, with maybe one game booth, and one garage sale type booth, unlike in England where those would be the norm.

We had barely left the station, when we had to make an emergency stop off at a Japanese bank. The reason for this was that I was very low on cash, but luckily had some English money. The on-campus post office had refused to change it, as the £20 note I had wasn't in their book of 'recognised English currency'. The picture of a £20 that they had is in fact one that is now out of circulation, and although I tried to explain this to them, there was no way they would believe me, so I had to brave the bank. Situations like this are what restore my faith in being able to cope in this country. I may get bored in Japanese class, and struggle to remember the vocab, but I can walk into a Japanese bank and, with no help from anyone else, understand what I am being told, and walk out with my purpose accomplished, having changed my money, and therefore being able to afford a train ticket back home.

Back to Namja town. You pay 300 yen to get in - which is about £2.50 at the moment. Inside it is pretty much a maze. The official guide book admits such and warns parents to keep their children near them. Currently, possibly due to Halloween, there is a ghost hunting theme, with games you can play involving searching for ghosts with sensor things (the 'ghosts' are in fact carefully 'hidden' electric devices that probably do something like bounce the signal back at you). The walls are full of posters that look like they could have come from America or England during one of the World Wars.

Whatever the Namderbirds are, they are apparently here to protect us. Yay?

Whilst there are food places scattered liberally around, the main ones are concentrated into 'savoury' and 'sweet'. My idea of going straight to Ice-cream City was vetoed by the people I was with, so instead we went to Gyoza Town. Gyoza are very tasty dumplings, which weren't nearly as expensive as I expected. There was also a rogue sweet shop that I expect was only let in because it fitted with the traditional theme of that specific area, but it had very cheap, very tasty sweets, so I will forgive them for trespassing into the domain of the savoury.

Then to Icecream City, where I actually didn't have any ice-cream, although I definitely plan to next time I go. I did, however, take pictures of some of the odder flavours they were selling, including garlic flavour, cheese flavour, sunflower flavour, eel flavour and, my personal favourite, mysterious fruit and chocolate flavour (no really, that was its official name...)

Apparently Dracula endorses the Garlic ice-cream.
Also, wasabi ice-cream (the green label)? Really? Isn't there enough despair in the world already?

Right next to the land of ice-creamy wonderment was a large arcade, which contained the real reason for us going there. One of my friends is fairly obsessed with a game series called 'Persona'. The fourth game is currently being made into an anime, which she had got me watching. In this arcade was a Persona 4 themed purikura (sticker pictures) booth. It was a touch more expensive than normal purikura, and you didn't get to decorate your pictures afterwards, but we all agreed it was worth it. I then beat one of my friends at air hockey.

The only other thing of interest that has happened is not Japan related at all. November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, where people worldwide are challenged to write 50,000 words of the novel they have bubbling away in the back of their head. I have been trying to complete this for three years - with a new story idea each time, and although I have fallen a bit behind, I really want to finish it this year. Finals are next week though, so things may get a little stressful over here in Camp Hazel, and due to that and my recent track record, don't expect regular updates of this blog. But there again, you never know. I do delight in being unpredictable after all...

Pandas, Dorm Festival and Part-time job woes

So this blog is a 'little' later than I intended it to be. There would have been an update last weekend, but I didn't think anyone would be interested in reading 'Waaaah, I feel ill. Waaaaah' which was pretty much all that the post would have contained. So I decided to wait a week, get better, and hopefully do interesting things.

So the first thing of interest would be my visit to Ueno zoo. Technically that wasn't the point of the daytrip to Ueno. The zoo was actually where a group of us went after the official tour/field trip for the Ramune to Anime class. Basically, we have lectures about the history of a specific bit of Tokyo, then go to see what's left of the history and so on. While this can be quite interesting, what really convinced most of us to go on this particular trip was the pandas. Ueno park is actually huge. There's a lake in it, with swan boats, but we didn't go on them (no crazy pirate shenanigans for me. Besides, I left my pirate hat at home.) The park used to be the site of a huge Buddhist temple complex, but time, and a handy civil war (known in common parlance as the Meiji Restoration) cleared the way for the pandas.

Apparently, after the Meiji Restoration ended in 1868, there was talk of turning the area into a medical school attached to Tokyo University. However, the Westerner they consulted about this was like "No! We can build a medical school next to Tokyo University itself. You know what this area would be perfect for? Pandas!"

Okay, maybe he just said that Tokyo needed a proper, official park, but I'm sure he would have been even more adamant if he'd known Ueno park would become home to Ueno Zoo, which would become home to Ling Ling from 1992-2008, then Li Li and Shin Shin from February of this year. Yup, Giant Pandas apparently are too awesome to have just one name, they need two. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of creativity in the Grand Bureau of International Panda Naming, as they just get their name repeated twice. Still, it sounds very cute.

Sad Panda? Or do they just always look sad?

Now, sadly I have to move on from talking about pandas, as I have typed and looked at the word so much, it no longer looks like an actual word. Last week was the week of Dorm Festival and Midterm Exams. Not the best piece of scheduling right there... So Dorm Festival first as it was the most fun of the two. It basically seemed to be a chance for all the dorm students to get together, play games, hang out and meet each other.

Monday kicked of with the 'Engeikai' performances. Basically, each dorm performed a really funny skit in Japanese. Was really awesome, and I was amazed how much even the people who know very little Japanese could understand. I didn't take part, which meant I got to watch all of them, instead of having to rush off and get ready. I was really impressed with how good each one was - there wasn't one which wasn't hilarious. The outrageous costumes and terribly overdramatic acting really helped!

Other events included playing rock, paper, scissors for icecream. Thanks in part to my extensive studies of this game and also to the fact that it was actually really easy to win (what can I say, I have a natural talent!) I was one of the many people who won (also known as all bar one person. Shhh, I totally have skills.)

There was also a scavenger hunt, which very few international students turned up for, so I had a chance to practise my Japanese, trying to understand instructions and play charades etc. Also, it would appear that I am terrible at group skipping rope challenges.

Finally, there was a dinner with free food, and announcements of Engeikai results, although most of the announcements were in Japanese, so I'm still not sure who won what, except that our main actor won 'best actor' or something, which is pretty cool.

Then, after a little bit of getting ready, went out for a friend's birthday party. There is this wonderful thing in Japan called 'nomihoudai'. It means 'all you can drink'. Sometimes there is a time limit, for this place there was not. Soft drinks are often included too, so non drinkers can still join in. There are also places which offer 'tabehoudai' - all you can eat. For a country where food is so expensive, this is an amazing thing.

I actually hadn't realised how expensive food would be here. I think the problem is, if I could cook, especially Japanese foods, it would be a lot cheaper, but I am fairly restricted in my skills, so end up having to buy slightly pricier food. I am therefore currently looking around for some kind of part time job. If I get anything, it will probably be tutoring someone in English. I did see an advert for a part time worker in a shop I truly adore in Harajuku, but upon inquiring, I was told I couldn't apply. This made me sad. I am contemplating whether or not going there every weekend and asking again will make them change their mind. I mean, the sign was still there two weeks after I first asked...

Are these replicas or the actual costumes Visual Kei bands wore on stage? Judging by the prices, I'd say they are originals. All I know is that I really want to work in a place that has things like this on display constantly.

I also got to go to Shinjuku, but didn't get to do as much random wandering as I had wanted to do, as there were very specific place we wanted to go to. Also, we were supposed to wander around Shinjuku as an independent field trip, so I expect I will go back soonish and take pictures of more than just the awesome Hello Kitty bus.

Is it a tour bus? What is its purpose? We may never know...

I imagine next weekends post will be fairly epic, as I am super excited for this coming weekend. It probably won't be up until Monday though, as I will be out all day on Sunday.

Akihabara and other misadventures

A bit later than I planned to post this, but then this weekend was quite busy. Well, I say busy...

Firstly, there was the terribleness that was Friday. Now, originally I though Friday was going to be in the 'Best. Day. Ever' folder of my life. Okay, maybe that's exaggerating. But at least in the 'Pretty awesome day' folder. Turns out I kind of fail at planning things. So in Japan at the moment, there's a whole load of stuff encouraging us to reduce electricity usage (or maybe its not all across Japan and is just in my uni, I'm not sure yet) I think it's to do with the fact that there are less power stations in Japan now, so power from elsewhere is being rerouted to the Tohoku area.

So, in aid of this 'reducing electricity usage' thing, ICU decided to have last Friday as a 'no power' day. From 8am to 5pm they turned off all electricity on campus, so no lights, no cooking, and no hot water. Now, all this was fine. They had warned us in advance, and a lot of people were planning to go sightseeing for the day, because they had also cancelled classes. I decided to sleep in for a bit, then use the battery power of my netbook for a few hours of chilled internet time. Turns out no power means no internet. Don't know quite how I hadn't figured that out early enough. But by the time I had, everyone else had gone to fun and exciting places and my very last minute plans fell very, very flat. Still, I had the chance to study for hours more than I thought I would! Then I got bored and went to a nearby bookshop and bought a book to try and read. Turned out that felt a lot like studying too, as I had to have my electronic dictionary next to me the whole time and look up almost every other word.

Saturday was a lot better though, as I finally managed to get to Akihabara. For those who don't know Tokyo, Akihabara is also referred to as 'Electric Town'. It is full of shops selling electrical goods and gadgets, and is an awesome place to find a good deal, if you know anything about that kind of thing, which I really don't. However, as Akihabara is a haven for the geeks of Japan, it doesn't just have electric things. It also has many, many shops filled with wonderful anime merchandise. And arcades, which will eat your money up faster than a trophy wife (I assume. I have never actually experienced that, but I have read about it in Regency era novels...)

However, arcades are also the home to the wonder that is Purikura. Also known as sticker pictures, these things are amazing, and we should totally have more of them in England. You take pictures with your friends, then decorate them. They are designed for girls who often want to look more American, so there are options that make your eyes look bigger, and your skin look paler. For the sake of irony, I usually go for the biggest and most dramatic eyes and the palest skin tone. I went with Alyssa, who is pretty cool, even if she doesn't live in the best dorm on campus (unlike me). Sadly, I didn't get to go and look for shady alleyways, because Alyssa was afraid that at that time of night, in Akihabara, I might actually find some. Apparently explaining that  it would be alright, because I know aikido/self defence was not comforting, especially when I explained the first thing I had been told to do if I got in a fight - try to run away. Turns out she doesn't know aikido/self defence and I didn't have the time to teach her the finer points of the great and noble art of running really fast from danger, so we came home.

Also, the sign in the picture on the right below this paragraph entertained me so very much. It's basically saying that this is a 'women only' zone. There were other signs which I think were saying that guys were not even allowed downstairs to this whole area without a woman. The pink rectangles are the Purikura booths that guys are completely forbidden from entering, whereas they are allowed in the blue ones, but I think they're still mean to have a girl with them. Not that many groups of guys would want to do Purikura, it just entertained me that they made it into a rule.

An example of Purikura, me and Alyssa

Just out of the shot is a little additional sign,
saying 'no cameras'. Oops?

So with all that over and done, and me back safely, even though I had left my bike unlocked for hours, with the key still in the lock, and no one had taken it (I love Japan) Sunday came next, when I finally managed to get along to church. Which was cool because I got to meet up with a friend I haven't seen for almost three years. It was a little bit weird being so far from home, yet still in church. It was nice though, made me feel like I'm finally settling in or something. It was quite a journey to get there, especially as I missed the stop on the bus, and had to go round the loop circuit, which luckily only takes about 30 minutes, with the bus driver staring at me like I was crazy... But yeah, I managed two solo journeys this weekend, without getting too lost, and managing to make it to everything on time. I'm totally not counting the bit of the return journey on Sunday, when I got on the wrong train and went two stops in the wrong direction before I even realised.

Backtracking a bit now, because I covered the weekend which, to be fair is when most of the actually interesting stuff happened, but there was some interesting stuff in the week. So I mentioned how I feel like I'm finally settling in. Well, I think the two main things that are bringing it home to me that I'm living here, and not on holiday, are my bike and my phone. Those are not things that a vacationer buys! Or if they are, then they must be some kind of really rich vacationer, who really likes bikes, and doesn't want to hire one... Anyways! Yes, I got a Japanese phone last Tuesday. My flatmate Yukari took me to the phone shop and dealt with all the confusing translation stuff, and I walked out with a phone. It was a bit of a weird process, as I didn't pay a penny, and now have unlimited emails - Japanese phones email without having to be officially connected to the internet. It's basically like texts, except I can send them to normal email accounts as well. I have never in my life had a contract phone before, and I keep being slightly weirded out by having one, but it's amazingly useful for finding out what's going on and everything.

New phone!

Behold, my beautiful Tavros. Yes, I named my bike
Because it is an awesome bike and deserves an awesome
name.

If I remember rightly, I have already ranted about 'yay I have a bike, yay' in a previous post, but seriously, it's like every time I ride it, I'm reminded that I live here now. That this isn't like before, that I'm here for ten months. While that sometimes seems scary, I'm loving being in ICU. This place is like everything I always dreamed a university would be like. Sure, its a bit disorganised at times, and I wish the Japanese Language Program had made the workbooks to have ALL the chapters we're going to be studying in the order we'll be studying them in, so they don't keep having to give us more paper, which I inevitably lose, but I really love it here. I'm enjoying studying Japanese again. I'm enjoying all my lectures. The campus is beautiful and there are tennis courts, and a gym (which you can use for free) and a swimming pool (which has a small fee for each use). The people are all really kind and friendly, and my dorm is just awesome.

So even though days like last Friday are kind of annoying, I am really looking forwards to these next nine months (and can't believe that I've already been here for almost a month!)

Two weeks in

Vaguely trying to keep to an update per weekend schedule. Here we go!

I have now been in Japan for a bit over two weeks, although it seriously feels like far longer than that. Maybe because I'm used to not really doing much with my time, and these first two weeks have had what feels like a mandatory, or strongly recommended event every single day. It's been fun, if a little tiring and has made me feel like I've lived four weeks here instead of two.

Of course, my classes have started too, but my usual tactic of 'go to classes, then go back to my room, study and lurk on the internet or watch random things' has been disrupted by the nightly parties/meetings/things that have been going on. We had dorm tsukimi about six nights in a row. Tsukimi was a word I had actually never heard of before coming to Japan. It translates literally as 'Moon Watching' and is the term that is used all the time at ICU for the 'welcome new students' parties that go on in the evenings. The ones I went to were held in my dorm, and students from one of the other dorms would come over and we would all introduce ourselves, then play some random 'getting to know you' game (I know, I know, it's a WILD live I lead!) It was actually really fun, if slightly exhausting to have to many social events. I also discovered a new favourite game – Uragiri (Traitor) Basket, a much more entertaining version of the Fruits Basket game. 

Still, despite my busy social schedule, I have managed to explore a bit. My getting lost in Japan count so far is only at two for this trip sadly, but I'm sure that will increase as time goes on. Especially as one of my lecturers recommended that we all went out and tried to get lost because that's when you find the interesting places. I'm still not convinced that wasn't his way of trying to cover up for getting everyone lost on the first field trip they took the class on... Still, it is advice that I intend to follow diligently.

The big news since my last post has to be, of course, that I have found vaguely affordable cheese. Heh, just kidding, no the big news is that I have had a full week of classes, including switching one of my classes for a more interesting one. A lot of the week was spent wearing a really-not-me outfit for initiation, which is now, thankfully, over. The fake nails actually didn't last past a day. They were just far too irritating to put up with. Which was sad, because they were kinda cool, just too long.

It's so...girly :(

So I know very few people will be interested in my classes, so I'll just say a bit about each.

Japanese: it is really disorientating to have Japanese taught at a level I can understand it at, keep up with, and actually learn something through. I like it.

Introduction to International Relations: Really awesome and interesting class, but the timetable means I have no time for lunch.

Contemporary Japan: Ramune to Anime: Make this class an hour shorter, and it would be the nicest class conceivable.

Right, now onto other, less tedious academic things. Grocery shopping in Japan is very interesting, especially for someone like me, whose main method of cooking is heating stuff in a microwave, or cooking things from frozen. That is definitely the most expensive way to eat here, and so I am having to, after many years of resisting, figure out how to cook real meals. Pasta, noodles and pasta sauce are figuring a lot, as I try to figure out what foods contain protein that I can afford and cook (bearing in mind that I really, really dislike cooking raw chicken). Also, I need more ways to cook eggs than scrambling them. Nice as it may taste, I need variety.

Another thing I have learned is that apparently I look half-Japanese. When three people on separate occasions make comments about it, or ask me if I am, I started asking why. Apparently it's the hair. Naturally straight hair is apparently not a western thing. The fact that it is currently black might help, but I haven't made a secret of the fact that it's dyed. Now, I'm not saying its a bad thing that people wonder if I'm half Japanese, it's just odd. Also, if people who know me think that, maybe the random strangers on streets think that too, which might affect my ability to play the 'oblivious foreigner' card. These are the important things in my life to think about.

Speaking of cards, I am now officially an alien! I have an alien registration card to prove it and everything! Ok, granted that was just a bad translation of 'foreigner', but it is the official translation, which is what counts, I feel.

Initiation, Harajuku and mosquitoes

It is actually exceptionally difficult to type right now. The reason? I have just glued fake nails on to my fingers for the first time in my life. I am also wearing a tutu, although that does not appear to be affecting my ability to type, just the level of my pride...

Pretty, right? Or maybe just tacky...

It's not a new fashion choice, it's initiation week! Now, I haven't actually posted anything for a while. The reason being, that orientation to my study abroad university has been long and tiring. Also because I procrastinated. This is also the reason I haven't yet written and sent home the postcards I promised (sorry guys... soon! I promise!)

So last Thursday, I arrived in Japan. The flight was fine, except that there were too many good movies, so I didn't actually get any sleep. My first impression on returning to Japan was that, once again, I had underestimated the heat. I was wearing my winter coat, because it was too big to go in my suitcase, and it was a bit chilly in England. Not so here! And with a typhoon on the way, it was horribly muggy too. Still, I met the guy from the Netherlands who I had arranged to meet, and we started the journey to ICU. Heavy bags, a long journey, and humidity are not my favourite combination, but it was great being back in Japan. Eventually arrived, and went to my dorm, Global House. My dorm is a very international one, and has people from loads of different countries, which makes it, in my opinion, a very exciting place to live.

I was very surprised at how much like a home, or a family, Global House is. Dorms in England seem to be just a place to sleep, but Global House has pride in being Global House. They even have a football team (which won the tournament last year. The cup is displayed in the communal lounge) I guess its because in England, you are in a dorm, usually for only one year. Here, students will stay in the same dorm, though not the same room, for the full four years.

Anyways, the reason I am wearing fake nails, far too much tacky plastic jewellery and a tutu is because every time there are new students, a bunch of the dorms have initiation, where the new people have to dress up to a theme for the first week of class, then perform a dance or something on the last day. We, for some reason, rejected the theme of pajamas, or vikings vs pirates, and chose our theme to be two types of Japanese fashion, one for the guys, one for the girls. Ours is called 'gyaru', and whilst there are many types of gyaru, the main ideas include tacky, glittery, coloured hair, and really bright colours. Also tanned (or makeup darkened) face, white makeup round the eyes...you get the picture. Guys are being 'chara-o', which I have probably spelt horribly wrong, which is basically a cross between 'pretty boys' and hipsters.

A trip to Harajuku was definitely on the menu once the theme was decided. For those who don't know, Harajuku is the Camden of Tokyo. It is the fashion district, where all the alternative people go to shop, or just to walk around and show off their outfits. It's also the place I dream of having a shop selling my designs in one day...

Anyways, we weren't able to spend as long as we wanted there, as we had to get back for yet another meeting. I have to admit, by one week in, I am really meeting'd out. Although I ended up missing it anyways, as pretty much as soon as I got back to my room I felt really ill. I have indeed finally caught the Global House cold/sore throat. I think, especially amongst the girls, there are few who haven't caught it now. I also developed a headache, probably brought about due to my reverse insomnia, or whatever it's called when your body wake you up after five-six hours sleep every single morning... So, feeling really ill, I crashed. I woke up at about 10pm to realise that somehow, between the morning and waking up, my legs had been bitten so many times by mosquitoes.

I really, truly hate mosquitoes right now. I finally start wearing skirts again, and they make me regret my decision... foul play, little insects, foul play.

Last minute rush!

There are now ten days before I will be on a plane, leaving England for ten months. I just typed that sentence then sat and stared at it for a good five minutes - I think. I wasn't really timing myself, because my mind may have gone into a form of meltdown known as 'pure terror on realisation of the imminent approach of the most adventurous and most nerve-wracking thing I have ever been stupid enough to sign up for, and I sign up for a lot of stupid things'.

On reflection, that feeling should probably have a shorter name. Now, if I was terrible dull/conformist/normal, I would just refer to it as 'nerves'. Ha! If I were slightly more dramatic (also known as 'cool'), I might refer to it as 'fear'.

I think I will call it fearror. Because why say 'fear', when you can combine it with a more dramatic synonym (terror) to make a much more descriptive portmanteau.

If I'm being honest, I shouldn't really have any reason to be feeling so much fearror. I have my visa. I have my ticket. My suitcase is almost completely packed! Which is fairly weird for me, being one of those people who packs when the parents are loading the car and yelling for me to hurry up or we'll miss the boat/plane/spaceship. But no! I have been prepared! Packed two weeks early! I am more prepared for this than I have been for, I think anything, ever.

Maybe that's the problem. By putting things off, I normally manage to escape thinking about it all until the last minute, whereas now, I've had months of having to actually prepare and think of more and more things that could go wrong.

Now that everything's practically ready, I have ten days to totally forget that I'm going to try and lessen the fearror. Yes. That is most definitely the best option now.

Land of the Rising Sun.

So, I'm going to Japan soon. People who know me well will be aware that I study Japanese at university in London. People who don't know me and managed to magically find this via some interesting google search (like my caterpillar post and the rock paper scissors one) will probably not care, although they will have provided me with the entertaining thought of them somehow being directed to this post. Anyways, a part of the course is a year studying in Japan. That year is fast approaching. That means I may actually write blogs more frequently, what with the whole 'I will actually have stuff to write about' thing.

So yeah, ten months in Tokyo, studying in the International Christian University. It's going to be awesome. And possibly terrifying/exhausting. But still, awesome.

Ooh! So pretty! ICU has 150 wooded acres as part of the campus!

Good news includes my camera being fixed, so I will be able to post a photo or two (which I will actually take myself, unlike the photo above). Bad news includes my best friend not going with me, so I will have to find my way around by myself until I make new friends.

I would write more now, but there's really nothing much more to say. More interesting posts will follow, no doubt dealing with my visa traumas, me getting lost in Tokyo with all my luggage on the way to the university, and adventures such as trying to pass as a tourist so people don't realise I can technically speak Japanese and ask me awkward questions. There may also be pretty pictures.

Bitter-sweet memories of a friendly caterpillar

Story time! One of the main reasons for me starting this blog was because I have a horrible memory for little details. So much of my life just passes by and years later I remember something that I wish I hadn't forgotten. This blog is partly a way to remind future-me of all the little things that I thought or did. Today, in honour of my 21st birthday (which started almost half an hour ago by the time I upload this) I intend to share with future-me and my wonderful readers a story of childhood innocence, of loss, of responsibility, and of friendship.

See, I have thought for years that I have never had a pet. No cheerful puppy, cuddly kitten, or even a hamster for me. And, much as I begged my parents, I still have never had a rabbit. I am aware that there were pets in the house at one point, but with me too young to remember them, I have been of the impression that the two gerbils 'belonged' to my brothers. Oh, and we borrowed the school gerbil/hamster one holiday, but still, no pet for me.

Imagine my shock when I recalled a couple of days ago, that I had in fact had a pet. It was a caterpillar. My forgetting of my one and only beloved pet may be because of blocking it out due to the trauma of the story, which unfolds thusly;

Inspired, probably by children's books, I decided that if I was not allowed a normal pet, a caterpillar would do just as well. I prepared a coffee jar, poking small holes through the lid so my pet would have air, but wouldn't be able to crawl out. I then went out to the garden and found my soon-to-be-friend. I broke off the twig it was on, and broke off more of the leaves from that same plant, reasoning that it must like eating that one. I carefully lowered my friend into her new home, and took her inside.

(Image removed due to copyright claim)

I was so proud of myself for thinking of this - now my parents didn't have to worry about me bothering them to buy me a bunny, and I was showing I could be responsible and stuff. Plus, I now had a pet to talk to. I was vaguely aware that children talked to and hugged their pets, so although my caterpillar was a little bit small for hugging, I still talked to her (in my mind she was female)

But the, horror of horrors, it turned out that my parents didn't approve of my new friend. Looking back she, or the leaves did have a rather distinctive smell which, although mild, my parents possibly didn't want in the house. Or they were aware of the short lived nature of caterpillars and didn't want me to get upset on the Inevitable Day. I was just hoping to be able to keep her until she became a butterfly, then I would release her. But no, my parents convinced me that my caterpillar would be happier in the garden and so, holding back my tears, I took her jar out to the garden and took her twig out and laid it on the bush it had come from and said goodbye after only a day or so of our friendship beginning.

I have never experienced the pain of a pet dying but to child-me, and present-me this was by far more painful. I would not know if she was alright, I would never be able to talk to her again, or even find her again. She would be happier, I hoped, but I would not see her ever again. Also, as a child, I had no concept of how long any insect survived, so for many winters after, I would every so often be passing the garden and suddenly worry that Caterpillar was too cold. I never did get to see her turn into a butterfly.

Although a year or so after that, if I remember correctly, I was in the garden and a butterfly landed on my arm for a few minutes, before fluttering off. I never connected the two, but it's nice to think, now, that Caterpillar remembered me and came back. Or if caterpillars and butterflies are shorter lived than I thought, that she told her children, and they told their children, about the nice human girl who cared for her and told her stories.

Gummy Sweet Life

So no doubt we have all heard the phrase '[insert fruit here] flavoured? Yeah right! The closest this [sweet/juice/etc] has been to a [insert fruit here] is that at most it was shown a picture of a [insert fruit here] at some point in its life'

It struck me yesterday, that this was actually a very sad and cruel accusation. Picture a gummy sweet. For the whole of its life it has been told it is strawberry flavoured. From the very beginning it has been told it must emulate a strawberry. It was once shown a picture of a strawberry, and was informed this was what it must live up to. And it has tried. It is in the same shape, it is the right colour, even if the green bit doesn't quite match the bit shaped like leaves. It even manages to taste of strawberries. But it knows, and cannot escape the fact, that it is not a strawberry. It can, in fact, never be a strawberry, because it was not born to be one. But our poor little gummy friend must continue this pretense, knowing it is fooling neither itself, nor its eventual consumer.

When you try your best, but you don't succeed...

And then, oh indignities of indignities. The person who has chosen it, the person it has lived its whole short life trying to eventually be perfect for, mocks its pain. This person is you, is me, is the whole human race, who insist on poking fun at the futile, yet fervent efforts of the artificially flavoured ones amongst us.

Yes, this is a long and slightly weird metaphor for the life of far too many people today. We have seen pictures, and heard stories of people who have made it big. People who we are told are the prettiest, the cleverest, the most talented. We can never match up, we think. This is where the metaphor falls down a little. You see, we are not gummy sweets. We are not a pale parody of something beautiful. We are all beautiful, and all have something beautiful inside us to contribute to the world. Instead of being gummy sweets trying to pretend to be strawberries, we are like raspberries, trying to be strawberries. Yes, it is impossible, but raspberries are also something wonderful and tasty.

Everyone has a song inside them. Everyone has a treasure which is uniquely theirs. If you cannot show it to the world, by the lack of one treasure, we are all made poorer. So don't be afraid, live your life beautifully, and don't try to imitate anyone else - you are amazing, just as you are.

Random inspirational road picture

Rock, Paper, Scissors, a Psychological Profiling Test

So, I was thinking about rock, paper, scissors today. Yes, of course the game. But yet, more than just the game. That which lies at the heart of the game. For it is not just a way to decide who has to do the unpleasant chores, or to decide who will be the one to charge the dragon. No, it shows something about the heart of who we are. We are asked to choose, in three seconds, our weapon of choice. We do not realise it, but each of the three displays something about ourselves. As this sort of 'what your eyes/hair/starsign/fingerprint/favourite colour say about you' thing seems to be popular at the moment (or so my Facebook Newsfeed tells me) I thought I would do that for this game. Now, are you sitting comfortably? Alright, I will count down to one, then form whichever one you chose instincively. Yes, you are playing rock, paper, scissors against yourself/your computer screen. Deal with it.

3

2

1


Ok, have you chosen? Right, now look below. Because your entire life and future will totally become clearer as a result of this. Because that's how these things work, apparently.

The Rock
Now, this is a fairly obvious one to start off with. It is the dependence on blunt force, that deep primal instinct which, when confronted with an aggressor, instinctively responds with that well known and wonderful phrase "HIT IT IN THE FACE!" People will look to you for protection, and possibly even leadership, because you are the guy who stands up and makes the dramatic speech. Think of Enjolras from Les Miserables (I do. A lot...) You don't really know how to back down, you definitely don't understand the word 'surrender' and will fight to your dying breath for your friends!

The Scissors
So, you're kind of sneaky then, are you? Not one for the "HIT IT IN THE FACE!" tactic, you will let your team mate get fried trying to hit the dragon in the face, using the distraction of their stupidity to sneak around behind the dragon and stab it in the back. Although, I hope you're using something larger than a normal pair of scissors. Or you might just be as stupid as your straightforward, boulder-wielding friend. Although, if you had the plan your way, of course, you would wait for the dragon to go to sleep before sneaking in and stabbing it, with your (hopefully really big) pair of scissors/sword (the sword is always the better choice. Trust me on this) You don't really care about the 'good of the people' like Rock, but are loyal to your friends, usually. Unless they annoy you. Or there's a dragon in the mix. You have to balance your desire for sneakiness with your craving for recognition. You want people to think you are cool, but try to act distant.

The Paper
Well, most people would underestimate you. You aren't shiny, like Scissors, after all.You have no defenses and fall apart when confronted with a little puddle to cross. Compared to Scissors and Rock, you seem like a bit of a wimp... Wait, what's that? While Scissors and Rock were playing around with the dragon, you cleaned out all of its loot, bought half of Asia, and my very identity... That's not fair! (you also left little notes all around my house which will make me more and more paranoid until I break down and become your willing minion with the condition that you protect me from the Dark) You fight for youself and no one else, and are willing for people to look down on you and despise you for being 'weak' as you know you only have to wait, then they will come crawling back. Or at least, until you get your revenge and sue them for everything they're worth. Or frame them for some crime.

Final notes
Be aware, having now read this, you have had rock, paper, scissors ruined for you forever. Next time you play, you will not be able to play the strategies you usually use, or just trust to luck, but instead will be sucked into a vortex of trying to psychoanalyse your own choice, and those of the other players. And then you will be the one sent into the dragon's den to kill it. Future-me, I am so very, very sorry. Or would be if I hadn't just played an imaginary game of rock, paper, scissors with you, and had chosen paper.

To Tokyo we shall go!

So I hear blogs usually contain actual news, not just the blogger rambling about the things that caught their interest during the day... Fun as that may be... Also, I actually have interesting news. Rare, but true. So, future-me, I hope you remember yesterday (yesterday to me, not to you. Although I hope you remember your yesterday too, otherwise the accident-caused amnesia that I have been presuming you have may be worse than I had thought.) If not, I will remind you.

In our university, SOAS, second years studying Japanese have to take a test in February to place them within the year. Then, the people who got the best results get their first choice of which university in Japan they go to next year for the compulsory year abroad, and the people who do the worst get whatever is left over. That means, for about three hours of one nervewracking day, fifty people hang around in the SOAS bar, waiting for it to be their turn to find out their Fate. Some, upon finding out, return to comfort others and quietly celebrate with friends, some slip off, not wanting to be too excited in front of those who are still waiting, or not wanting to burst into tears amongst friends. It's like the set up for a dramatic movie about friendship, betrayal, joy and heartbreak. I would totally make a movie about it if, you know, I had money. Or a camera. Or friends willing to slightly mock themselves.

Now, we were very lucky, future-me. We, unlike some, managed to get our first choice! That being the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo - a campus uni full of awesomeness! Hoorah! Here's to hoping we get into on-campus dorms! As we originally applied to go there instead of SOAS, then had to turn down the place due to funding issues, it feels like a two year long plan/wait has finally clicked into place! Even better, instead of going by myself as the previous plan entailed, I will be going with my wonderful friend, Fran!

And another good thing is that none of the fictitious scenarios we came up with happened - like one of the guys being sent to Ochanomizu (an all girl's university) due to it being the only place left, or there being no places left in Japanese universities at all, so being sent to China. It's amazing the things your overly nervous brain can tell you are possible...probable... DEFINITE!

On an ending note, following other people's blogs is mildly addictive. Especially as there are so many good tutorial blogs... And I managed to start a mini-craze amongst my friends (ie two of them) for creating blogs, which has made my brain hurt due to the realisation that I'm following Half a nice day, who's following me, who's following Deboscribbles, who's following me, who's following Half a nice day...And round and round we go in a weird circley pattern, never to end...

Dear Past-Me

Hello. Yes, you can't read this, because you no longer exist. This is something that makes me and, no doubt future-me as well, very happy. 'Why?' I hear you ask pathetically. Do I really have to explain it to you? You embarass us both. We are cool, intelligent and awesome people. You...try, we know you do, and that makes you a bit loveable, but when we look back at the old photos of you (not of us. No one as cool as present-me or future-me would wear...That...) we cannot help but feel embarrassed that we have all inhabited the same body.

Now, you have done some cool things. Going to Hawaii was good, although you didn't really get the 'beach clothes means no sleeves' thing. That's okay. Present-me still has a bit of an issue with the no-sleeves thing, but no doubt future-me will have it sorted. You also went to Japan. Nice work! You have also made some amazing friends who me and future-me get to have the pleasure of hanging out with, so thanks for that.

But why, oh why, did you never think in the slightest about clothes, and fashion and how to look pretty. Did you assume it happened naturally to some people and others it was a lost cause, so why try to bother? Actually, I know that you believed that. You also didn't know how to go about finding out how to put an outfit together or anything like that, so we can't hold that against you. Although surely even you must have realised that brushing your hair was more than just a luxury. Granted, you were pre-puberty, but still.

Also, the expressions you pull in photos? You are not a natural smiler. Little smiles were fine, but big smiles were never something you displayed on a regular basis unless there was a camera involved. Actually, it didn't help that you kind of knew smiling for cameras was uncomfortable and awkward, but the person with the camera always made you do so. I guess it's not really fair to blame that on you. You had practised small smiles in mirrors so you knew you wouldn't look like an idiot, but camera-people always bulldozed that plan and managed to make you look like you were terrified, or high.

Actually, when I think about it, I just feel kind of sorry for you, past-me. You get hated on a lot by present-me and future-me, but you were trying, and it's because you tried so hard, and every time you fell, you got up and carried on that me and future-me can reap the benefits. 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step' as the Chinese proverb says, and thanks to you making that step, me and future-me are not still sat at the start of the road whining about how far there is to go. We have the awesome friends you provided us. We have the grades you worked for. We have the cool memories and souveniers from the fun places you went to, and it's because of you that we finally get fashion, a little bit. So thank you, I guess. And sorry for hating on you so much. If we ever were to meet, I would give you a big hug and a crash course on appropriate clothes and how not to be terrified of talking to people. Of course, being so shy and scared of the world as you were, you would probably freak out. But it's better than the slap upside the head I was planning to give you before this letter.

Hugs =>.<=

Azurite/Hazel

The Plum Wine Explanation of Japanese Students

So, I have become aware that the people I have sent this blog link to have actually read it. This means I actually have readers. Hello! Not that many of you have accounts, so I doubt that you will be commenting. Ah well. Still, I have to apologize, future-me. From now on it looks like I will not merely be addressing you, but also my beloved, if somewhat mute, readers *sends love to everyone, including future-me. Especially future-me.*

So yes. I study Japanese. I am in second year and currently dying, hence me wasting time so gloriously by writing a blog. Second year Japanese at SOAS includes a wonderful test of super shiny joy in last January, early February which will determine which university we get to go to for our year out next year. This is an issue. Why, you might ask? Well, because the people who are best in the year get first choice and so on. Ah, but surely, all one has to do is study, no?

Ha. Let me explain. Most of us second years have actually been at SOAS for a full year already, having only started learning Japanese when we started at SOAS. Then, there are those of us who joined SOAS as freshers this year, but studied Japanese at GCSE level and A level. This means they are Too Good For First Year, and got to join us in the big, growned up peoples class. It also means they are better than this. 'But how can this be?' I hear you ask. Or would. If you had accounts. And commented. Yeah... *feels crushingly lonely for a moment* moving on!


So to explain/rationalise to myself and others how we are working horrifically hard and managing to pass and the new intakes are getting constant 80% marks, I came up with this little analogy. There is a type of wine which exists in Taiwan, and probably other parts of Asia. It is rice wine, but not just any rice wine. In it, you put a sour plum which after a little while flavours the whole wine. Now, the new intake students are a jug of rice wine to which the plum was added over half an hour before the meal. Now, the wine is all nicely flavoured and would get 'thumbs up' from the judges. The rest of us are jugs of rice wine that have just been put on the table, and as people sat down, the plum was added. There are bits of the wine that taste vaguely like plum. There is one bit that tastes horrifically of sourness and plum (that would be the plum) but most of it has a vague hint of a promise of future-plum. That's us. Plain, boring rice wine. The plus to this analogy is that both studying Japanese and being full of rice wine make you so brain dead you can't even think straight about thinking straight. The downside to this analogy is that it's very long, complex and makes me want rice wine (Japanese version is called sake, pronounced sah-kay)

In further news, I was 'accused' of making a ;S face today. Being me, of course, I went 'huh?' Only to realise I was making it again. Yes, this face is possible in real life. Try it. Right now. One eye, preferably the right closes slightly, in confusion. Raising eyebrows may help with this. Mouth twists. Full S is not possible without intervention of the fingers. Head tips to the right for maximum effect. And I really hope that this will spread across the land and all will come to know and recognise the ';S' face. Then my joy would be complete.

Future-Me Needs To Remember Why Jesus Is Awesome

Hello again future-me! *grins happily at mental image of imaginary happy future-me* I have slept! And finished chocolate trifle! It was very good. A lot better than some trifles we have had. We really need to get over the 'I don't like trifle' thing. It's like the 'I don't like bananas' thing, we've believed it for so long, but now that we've actually eaten a banana/trifle for the first time in over ten years, we've discovered we do like them and this is throwing us into a state of existential crisis (be warned, future-me, I tend to get an existential crisis at least once per day. This is something you will discover as you recover from the terrible accident which has given you temporary amnesia). Anyways, this was not meant to be a post about trifle, or bananas. Even though triple chocolate trifle is really, really good.

It's about something more important. Jesus. Now, future-me, listen up, this is really, very important. You are a Christian. If you have forgotten this, you need to remember, because it makes your life so much more awesome. Other people might not believe this, and lacking my memories of the awesomeness being a Christian has given my life, you may not understand. So this is for you, so you can understand, and help others to understand just why being a Christian is an integral and awesome part to your life.

Now, we could kick off with the bit about how Jesus is the King of Kings, and the Bible tells us that we are heirs with him or something, which makes me a princess and insta-fulfils all my childhood dreams about being a disney princess, but that's not really what's pressing on my mind at the moment, so here goes.

Cake. We like cake. In fact, we love cake. Cake is glorious, Cake is filled with all the things that make life worth living. Cake is even better than trifle. Though not as good as Errol Flynn. Now, I don't want to turn this blog into a 'YAY BIBLE STUFF' cos I can do that other places, and this is meant to be a 'YAY RANDOM STUFF' place, but meh, you need to get this, future-me. Book called Mark, in the Bible. Look it up. Can't remember where, about chapter 7, possibly 8 (chapters are the bits with the big numbers next to them) There's a bit earlier as well. I would look these up, but you're a big girl and I don't want to tidy my entire room to find where I last dropped my Bible. It's probably in my bed, under my anime plushies. There's this story, where Jesus gets this huge crowd, and they're all listening to him, and are so interested, they forget to eat. Happens to the best of us (ie me) all the time, but Jesus, being the nice person he is, feels sorry for them. He proceeds to do the best thing ever (except, of course, That Thing With the Cross, and the walking on water, because man, they were both EPIC, though the first one more of a sad-but-epic, of course...back to the cake thing!)

So yeah! He asks what anyone has in the way of food, and out of the whole crowd, there's not much. They weren't expecting to find him interesting enough to listen to through lunch time and dinner time. First crowd - 5000 men, not including women and children, one little boy with five loaves of bread and two little fish. Second crowd - 4000, again I'm guessing not including women and children, what with this being a long time ago, and the women's rights thing not having kicked off, so no-one would think to count the women. The kids were probably running around too much to be counted properly. The 4000 also only managed to produce a little bit of bread and fish (yeah, I forget the amount. You want to know, future-me? Why are you not looking this up? You're going to take what I say for granted? Bah.)

Here's the awesome bit. Jesus turns that tiny bit of bread and fish into enough, not just for everyone who's there to have a good meal, but enough for them to be able to take home goodie bags! (Bible doesn't say what happened to the 12 baskets, and 7 baskets, but I like to think it was goodie bags. Like the best, most magical party ever. What? I don't like the rubbish plastic toys from most parties, but LOVE fish sandwiches. Don't judge me)

Ok, future-me, as it took a friend pointing this out to me to get this, I won't be surprised if you're not that impressed, even with the unlimited fish sandwiches thing. Here you go.  

This means that Jesus can create unlimited cake. Whenever He wants to.

Now, you may be wondering 'but why would He want to?' Well, why would He create cake in the first place unless He understood its awesome potential? The fish and bread thing was because He is a responsible adult, and wanted to give people a proper dinner. Cake doesn't count to a responsible adult. Also, because they didn't really have cake then, and all the little boy had was fish and bread, but still, future thinking! He's already shown he has no aversion to making sure parties go well! (Look up the bit about the wedding at Canaan when he created wine, the best wine ever, out of water, so the party would keep going.) He's not just about the miracles of need, but also the partying. And this makes him awesome.

Future-me, when people ask why you are a Christian, and why you think it is an awesome and integral part of your life, when it just means rules and 'can't do this, or that' and guilt and recrimination, first ask if they've read the Bible, because I don't see any of that in the bits about how to be a Christian. Then, if they still look confused, stare them directly in the eye and ask seriously. "Who else in the multi-verse would be able to, and probably willing to create unlimited cake, and maybe even some complimentary dessert wine?" BAM! You have won the argument.

In other news, the stuff I ordered with my Christmas Amazon Gift Voucher has started to arrive. This means I have Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy: Chocobo Tales. Ordering Nintendo DS games shortly before a big TEST OF DOOM was probably not one of my brighter ideas. The Final Fantasy thing is probably something for another post though. This one's too long already...

Oh yeah, and just because I mentioned earlier how cake is less awesome than Errol Flynn, Jesus MADE Errol Flynn, just like he made cake. So Jesus is more awesome even that Errol Flynn. And the daily 'Thank you for cake' prayer is now the daily 'Thank you for cake and Errol Flynn' prayer. Because those two things, and Jesus, make my life worth living.

I now feel very embarrassed for making a 'religiousy' post, which felt when I started a lot more like it would be an 'I like cake' post. So I will end. Here.

First Ever Blog!

So, new account, new blog (can it really be called 'new' if I've never had one? hmmm) Not even really sure why I created this. I've been reading blogs all day which are amazingly well known, and have loads of subscribers. But they're funny. I only seem to be funny to myself. So maybe I'm writing this to entertain future-me... Or maybe I'm doing it because in 15 hours I have an essay due, three thousand words long, which I haven't started. Ah, glorious, glorious procrastination. Maybe I'm doing this to help future-me procrastinate by reading over old blogs and being appalled at how fail-y I am/was. I like future-me. I don't think future-me likes me. I don't really like past-me though, so it all evens out. I tend to feel like past-me is that slightly irritating friend/relative at reunions. You have to acknowledge them. But you wish they'd hang out with someone else. Anyone else. Or you might just punch them in the face.

I don't think present-me, past-me and future-me should ever, ever meet. Present me would hang around future-me like a lovesick puppy, trying to kick off the annoying clinging past-me until we both annoyed future-me enough for her to start trying to stab present-me and past-me in the face. And that can't end well. Although, being presented with two past-me's I would probably do the same, so fair play to her. (yes, there is not supposed to be an apostrophe there, future-me. But 'mes' looks weird. Deal with it.)

So why else did I start this? Oh yes. You know those days when it's like your own personal backing track of AWESOME is playing? And everywhere you go you feel epic? I had one of those days today. And I wasn't even wearing my Dark Overlord Boots. Future-me, you need to know this, if you've had a terrible accident and forgotten most of your past, yet somehow stumbled upon this blog. Probably because I never close any interesting looking tab, and leave most of my things signed in (we have a culture of TRUST in this studenty house. I think they fear my terrible, terrible retribution if a frape/blape(?) war were to begin. Oh yes. It would be terrible) Where was I? Oh yes. Future-me, you have a Dark Overlord Coat. It is black, looks like an army trenchcoat and has brass buttons. It swishes gloriously. You have Dark Overlord Boots. They are black, kneelength and zip up the side. The laces are pretty but mainly useless. You do not yet have the Dark Overlord Throne Room, Dark Overlord Minions, or Dark Overlord Diadem, but you will, oh yes. You will.

So yes, glorious day, I got to push open double doors and stalk through them. The Dark Overlord Coat did not catch on the doors, but flared/swished gloriously. The soundtrack of AWESOME was playing. Nothing could go wrong. Then, having got home and sat on the sofa being all like 'woo! I'm awesome!', I remembered I had no minions. Or throne room. Or diadem. The crazed manical laughter catches in my throat. Noooooo!

Too late. The moment is gone. So I status it on Facebook. That's not enough. My mind turns to blogs and how I had never been able to think of something interesting to start one off. I realise I don't care if noone but me reads it. I find me funny, and I will become Dark Overlord one day! Even if only on the internet. Cos that's just as cool as in real life. BAMF! New blog! With a slightly less emo/gothgirl username than most of the ones I created when I was midteens. But that particular 'WHY I HATE TWILIGHT FOR STEALING MY COOL(except not) USERNAME AND MAKING ME SOUND LIKE A PATHETIC SPARKLY FAKE VAMPIRE FANGIRL' rant can be saved for another time. When I'm not hyper. Or possibly mildly drunk. I'm still not convinced this juice hasn't started to ferment. It would explain so much right now.

So yes. This blog is born out of attempting to procrastinate, helping future-me procrastinate, and to entertain future-me (HI! YOU'RE AWESOME! CAN WE BE FRIENDS???) the belief that one day I will become a Dark Overlord on the internet, and to express my soul-deep anguish at not yet being a Dark Overlord. Such glorious beginnings! What could posibly go wrong! >.<