Looks like I’ve been in Japan 5 weeks. That’s a lot of days. How many, you ask? Hell if I know! You’re asking the WRONG person. Because knowing the answer to that question requires counting. And it involves numbers. Two of my least favorite things. Food, however? Love it! Ask me about food. Do I like to eat food? Um, duh! Am I thinking about food right now? Um, duh x 2! Am I jelly that you eat more food than me? Um… Hey! That’s not cool. But, in case you’re wondering, the answer is “Um, duh x 3!”
So I’m super tired (a common theme these days) and have to study for my にほんご テスト tomorrow (AHHHHH!!!), so let’s get to my highlights, lowlights, and goals for next week:
Highlights
I have an アパート!!!!! OK, this is old news. But it’s still a highlight for me. I absolutely adore my ‘hood and my home. It feels SO GOOD to have a permanent place to live. I have an apartment. Like, what? I can sleep there? Cook there? Even POOP there. Sorry, but it’s true. Don’t pretend you don’t poop in your home. You do. Don’t lie. Everyone does. Be thankful for it. I know I am! Especially once I get one of them fancy water-shooting toilets. Oh yes. Soon. Soon I will get one. And my ass will thank me. And I will say DON’T TOUCH MY MUSTACHE (どういたしますて/you’re welcome) back to it. CANNOT. WAIT.
I bought a fridge!!!! Yes, this is a highlight. Because of this fact, I’ve been able to COOK FOOD again. Oh yes. I cook super exciting things like… Uh… Lentils. And steamed veggies. OK, not exciting. At all. Hey, where are you going? Come back! Don’t you want fiber? Protein? Fine! Go! I didn’t wanna share with you anyways. I’ll just sit in my corner and eat my boring-ass veggies with a stupid smile on my face. BECAUSE I CAN COOK AGAIN! Even if my food is about as appetizing as eating paint chips. BTW: Don’t eat paint chips. Despite having “chips” in the name, these are NOT as good as potato chips. Trust me.
I met a new friend at Tokyo DisneySea. Her name is Manae. She’s a photographer. She takes AWESOME pictures at the Disney parks (look, look, look!). She taught me how to remember “you’re welcome” in Japanese (see above). She LOVES Goofy (she says she wants him to be her father). And she invited me to meet MICKEY MOUSE after winning a raffle through her Disney credit card. Awesome. It was so great meeting her. Other fun facts about our interactions:
- She was really impressed my teeth were so white. I explained to her I use an object called a “tooth brush” and use a substance known as “tooth paste” along with a liquid (that you don’t drink, btw!) called “mouth wash” followed by dragging a string in-between my teeth known as “floss.” Crazy, right?
- She was surprised I wasn’t tall nor fat for an America. I apologized for crushing her hopes and dreams.
- She said I was so Japanese for breaking out my umbrella to BLOCK THE BEAMING SUN while we were waiting for the Halloween show to start. She was kinda right; but it was so worth it. NO SHAME.
- She knows ALL the Toy Story Midway Mania secrets. This scared me. Because I told her I’d kick her ass. Now I’m 100% certain I’ll be eating a humble sandwich worth 10x my daily ¥1,000 budget.
I love meeting Disney fans here. Because unlike America, people here REALLLLLLY love Disney. It’s STUPIDLY infectious. And it’s one of (MANY) reasons why I love living here.
I registered my PERSONAL STAMP. Yes, my stamp is totes official now. I even got to use it, too! Which leads me to my next highlight…
I joined a gym!!!! Sooooooo stoked for this. HOW I MISSED THE GYMBO!! Joining the gym was a bit of a challenge, but I’ll get into that in a future post (too lazy to yap about it now). But I got to use my personal stamp, so that was rad! Even radder: My gymbo is like 6 minutes away from my apartment. Amazing. And it’s open 24/7, so I go in the morning and there’s no one there. Literally. This morning, I was the ONLY PERSON in the gym for a good 30 minutes. THE GYM IS MINE! ALL MINE!
I bought the BEST TABLE EVER off Craigslist. Seriously! This table is amazing. I LOVE IT. It has BUTTERFLY WINGS so you can fold down the sides when not use to save space. Perfect for my tiny-ass place. I usually don’t want to kiss inanimate objects, but I’d pucker up for this table.
Lowlights
Payment logistics. So after thinking I was all ready to go to receive payments for my site, I ran into a sorta small (i.e., HUGE) issue: I couldn’t transfer the money I received to my Japanese bank account. Doh! That’s kinda important. But it turns out, I just had the wrong account holder info (it’s complicated), So I think this will turn into a highlight next week! Lol!
にほんご is HARD!!! Ugh. Just when I think I feel like I’m getting it, I get kicked in the shin (OUCH!) with something new that trips me up. Sometimes I feel like I’m not picking it up as fast as the other students in class, and that’s a little discouraging. But I know part of the problem is I haven’t had time to really dedicate to studying because I’ve been so busy trying to START A NEW LIFE HERE. But now that I have an apartment and I’m starting to slowly get back to normalcy, I think this will change. Kinda has to! I have no other choice.
Setting everything up is PAIN. Tomorrow, I’m FINALLY getting Internet. But, man, it’s been a hassle and a half to figure out all these logistics, especially with my stupidly primitive language skills. For instance, I applied for a prepaid debit card (so I can buy stuff online) and after uploading the required documents, they came back to me saying there were issues with the docs I submitted, but I have no idea what the issues are. And when I called to find out, of course, the person on the phone couldn’t speak English. Doh! I’ll eventually get it sorted out, but to anyone who thinks you can just move here and expect things to magically happen, you’re in for a treat cosplaying as a trick. And the costume will be so goddamn cute, that you’ll forgive it even though you’re totally frustrated. 😀
Next Week’s Goals
Finish sprucing up my place. It’s almost there! By this time next week, I’ll have internet AND a WASHING MACHINE. YASSSSS! Once this happens, I’ll do a video and show it off.
OPEN UP SHOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aight, that’s it! See ya らいしゅう!
Nihon Nerd 