LOLI-POP
- Created By Wakusei Aoshi
Long tiiimeeeee
I dunno why I keep forgetting about this place. Or I don't really forget about this place and its memories and meaning to me but more that I forget to post anything on here.
I dunno why, but since this place has always been the place for me to express my feelings and just let off steam, cause it is my home after all, I just felt like talking about current events.
I confessed my love to somebody for the first time yesterday and this morning they told me they just wanted to be friends. It is a pretty normal experience, but it really feels awful. I never knew it felt this bad. I am also really confused because the way he talked to me was a bit more than friends, with sending pics of food and worrying about eachother's health...well I guess that isn't too different from friends. I am not sure.
The reason I got a reply this morning is that he lives in Japan, so it would have been a long distance relationship if anything. Not only that but if and when I return to Japan it will probably be to a city far away from his. So I guess it wouldn't have worked out anyways...but I just wanted to hear that somebody I liked might have liked me and that I was right in assuming so even if we couldn't do anything about it.
I talked to him pretty much everyday and skyped hima lot and now he is not replying to my messages very often and it is depressing me. I wish I never did this and kept it a secret...but I also couldn't concentrate on my hw. However even now I can't really cocentrate as much...but I feel less dependent on facebook messaging so I can do my hw....but still.....guhh it sucks...
I guess it is good to habe this experience...but yknow, I would really like to have at least one romantic experience in my life at all. >.>
Well now that that is off my chest for a bit I think I would feel better to talk about...MANGA~
So I have reached a sort of dilemma...I decided I would sit down and write a manga...and I have been doing that...with 6 stories....Or around the much...
So lemme give tou summaries cause I do that a lot! I want to work on all of them and finish all of them in my spare time and then send them to publishers. I think eventually one will work out maybe?
So the most recent one I have worked on I call I Hate You. It is about a girl who reluctantly goes to a school for magical girls. It takes place in a universe that is ruled by love and the gods of love and when people come of age their fairy appears. The twin to their fairy is with their true love. The main character kills her fairy because it was annoying, thus ensues the wrath of Cupid as he tries to make her believe in romantic love.
The next one is called Multiple Choice for now. It takes place in modern Japan except there are exams like the imperial exams of Tang Dynasty China where those who pass the top exams get a large salary for the rest of their lives in order to encourage education of others. The main character is a person who wants to become a super hero when he wins and wants to show people that they should believe in this, so he works his hardest to pass the exams, while his rival is a stuck up rich kid who wants to destroy the exams instead.
Another one is called Bloodlust. This is about twins who were separated from eachother after one of them got the other one put in prison for treason for helping 'those of the water' whose blood is actually made up of liquid similar to water. While he is in prison his help is requested by a person of water and he escapes the prison to help him fix a machine that is supposed to find water underground. He wants to unite the people of blood and the people of water by doing so.
Next one is called Under the Cherry Blossoms. It is about a world where demons and spirits are created by the shared consciousness of th people who live there. A boy is adopted by the emperess for some strange reason. The boy has black teeth, skin the can boil water, and likes to drink oil more than water. After introducing him the prince, the prince gets hurt somehow and his face is deformed, leading to other people making him into a demon, so the boy with black teeth must save him from those of irrational fear.
I think the last one is called Blind and it is the least flesshed out,... A boy plays an online game with his friends and they end up dying the next day. People suspect it is the game and eventually he gets psychokinesis powers and I dunno what I am doing with this...
Also one other one if I feel like it would be based off of an old dream I posted about a while ago. A boy and a girl are trapped ina strange school with strange deformed human monsters that attack them. They try to escape, but end up back there. Yappp
My friend is skyping me now and just reminded me of the above situation...ughh....
Well I am going to focus on being more productive with manga and work hard on trying to do all the other things I have to do like maybe find a jov for rhe summer. Lots of disappointments this year. Also my dad got run over by a forklift, which is weird. He is okay, just a broken leg, but a weird thing to come home to hearing. "Oh yeah, your dad got run over by a forklift"
My uncle also tripped and fell and almost died, while my grandma is also quite sick...not a good year so far. I also got several rejections from jobs n people and other things, not so great grades...also had to leave Japan this year too...what a terrible year so far. I look forward to next year when I can graduate and get to it on my dreams.
I want to become a manga assistant for the time being so I will apply to pretty much everyone I can but I don't think I can do that until next year because visas and government documents are difficult...
But if I do I will probably live in Tokyo, and I was thinking I would proabbly meet somebody better there. I am mainly looking for friendly, not weird, fashionable otaku like that last person...I think there are more people like that in Tokyo...
Well anyways, I should probably go to sleep!
Adios!
Shueisha~ :D
Sorry I forgot my promise...or did I even promise anything? I don't remember...;3; If I did I am sorry.
I was going to post about this earlier but I ended up doing a lot of other things and I forgot I had brought my laptop. Of course I could post using my ipad but sometimes I touch the wrong part of the screen and takes me to another page and yadda yadda I don't like touch screens for typing long things.
So yeahhh~ Last week I went to Shueisha's building and my heart fills with joy just remembering it.
I'm not a mangaka and I was expecting my manga to be published or anything so that's not really what this is about.
The fact is that I went to Shueisha's building and actually met with an editor of a manga and he was nice enough to give me advice and the company itself was nice enough to do all of this despite my lack of japanese skills and that I am American.
I can't believe all of it!
I met with the editor of Usogui which is another manga that I really like so I am shocked (and lucky I didn't get Tokyo Ghoul's editor...>3>). He understood some english which was surprising like escapism and consumerism and materialism all them ism's he understood! O.O
But he spoke extremely fast so I am afraid I missed some things but my friend translated and took notes for me. It must be the norm for editors to speak so fast because it sounded like a naturally sped up voice and he said everything he had to say.
Basically what I have learned is that when it comes to writing manga the character should be the most important thing. The setting and the story are second to the character. He said that a manga is not about a story but about a character.
This actually gives me loads of confidence because I prefer writing interesting characters to writing interesting stories. I have lots of weird characters that I want to put in my story but I always thought they were too weird but I guess I shouldn't worry about that so much considering how many weird characters there are in anime normally...
Another thing is something I understood before but I need to keep telling myself is that manga does not have to have well drawn illustrations, it just needs to have an interesting story that is easy to understand.
He said this is why Tokyo Ghoul works because it is very easy to understand the premise. Now that I think about it, that's pretty true. It is super easy to read (which is why it is easy to criticize). I have the problem of liking really complicated stuff I don't understand though so I write stories that are difficult to understand...
I think I should practice writing simple stories and maybe stories for children or something. I am exploding with inspiration and ideas for manga and how to practice them I just didn't bring the materials or have the space or time to do that now...So when I return to America besides my normal studies I will go deep into practicing manga and studying Japanese because neither of them are good enough for me to become an actual mangaka.
The great thing is that it's possible! It feels incredible to have an editor tell you that you can do it and that it's possible and even tell me how to get into it more and guhhdfgndjkgdnkjdgn!! So happyy! TT^TT
My problem now is how will I be able to live in Japan....>3> I am not sure how to find mangaka needing assistants...I think that would be the best way to live in Japan besides the JET program. I think if I can get a good enough mangaka the pay would be a lot better than if I was a mangaka.
I have read about some people who wanted to become mangaka but they got stuck being an assistant to a mangaka forever because they got a lot of money and were comfortable and became friends with everyone working there so they couldn't bring themselves to take the risk of becoming a mangaka.
Not really a worry for me since becoming a mangaka is so big of a goal for me I don't think I could really feel comfortable if I was not one.
I learned mainly that my writing style is too Western.
The two big things that he told me were to make an interesting character ('cause my main character was not interesting at all) and to figure out what I want to say or what the theme is at the beginning. This is the opposite of everything I've learned from my creative writing classes in America. They tell you to make an interesting deep character in an interesting deep world 'cause it'll make it feel more realistic while figuring out the theme as you write it. It cheapens the story if you have the theme right at the beginning and it can sound preachy, but manga is being sold so you have to great readers from the beginning.
Another thing is that, I don't know if this is just Young Jump but the shorter the better and not more than 35 pages. Which is super nice 'cause I thought it had to be 45 pages so I kept adding pages...;orz And then the main climax page is almost always on page 29. That's something that I never noticed before. Another reason why I am happy for this experience. It makes everything so much easier. Before I couldn't wrap my mind around it when I read the manga and I knew something was missing but I didn't know what it was...
So I am going to study manga so more and write out where the climax etc of each scene is etc. Then also practice drawing the pages to see where the story happens and how they show this...though that part is annoying and I have done it before but I don't know if I am should completely copy it or just copy the paneling and expressions etc...Like should I ink it and tone it and everything??
Also I have given up on traditional manga. I can do illustrations traditionally but NO EFFECTS. NO SPEED LINES. NOT AGAIN. THAT WAS HELL. Pretty much what I did the entire week before going to see the editor....and like the few hours right before it as well...;orz It's so freaking time consuming and easy to mess up and I don't want to do it.
Yup so I have a renewed and strengthened love for manga now!
Oh~! You might also be wondering the tiny details of what it was like going inside the bulding etc.
So we started in Shinjuku station and then just went off I think exit A1 if I remember correctly and then we turned left and it was right there across from Tully's.
It was a bit confusing 'cause there was one Shueisha building with manga and mangaposters all over it and another Shueisha building with cubicles and posters of animals and a small photography exhibit. Before we went in we took pictures of eachother next to the sign of the building and this guy with a bunch of manila folders ran inside, probs with a ton of manga, probs an editor.
Then there are security guards surrounding all the corners of the lobby except for the photography exhibit. When we walked inside they stopped us and asked us if we had an appointment which was terrifying 'cause we were like 'are we in the wrong place' but nope we did have an appointment. Then we went up the desk and the person asked for our name and then called the editor and said we were here and we signed some papers and then got tags that said we were guests.
Then we went into one of the closed rooms, not the cubicles, but through the cubicles I could see mangaka talked with their editors...:3
And then we waited and panicked for the guy. I realized that that moment I forgot to put in some dialogue and missed some lines here and there so I did not feel well.
But as soon as he came in he was extremely nice and humble and talked extremely fast and to the point. I was too nervous and forgot what I had originally planned for my manga so when he asked me what I wanted to say with it I was like 'uhmmm...I dunno...' so that part is what I regret...;orz But anyways my manga was very weak and dull which I thought anyways so that didn't really break my spirit at all. What's great is that I knew what was wrong with it I just didn't know how to fix it and now I know~ :3
So yeah then he left and we left and then we went to Ikebukuro and after that I did too much shopping and playing around so am just now writing this...
If you are interested in that bit I will just summarize below:
I went to the pokemon center and bought my friend's souvenirs that she asked for so it was like 10 figurines and 5 keychains but they were all really cheap which was nice. I bought a gardevoir keychain and a sylveon plushie keychain.
Then we went to the large Animate store which was too huge and there was an extremely long line for the cash register...And I bought a Tei keychain, a ghibli pin, and two fire emblem if charms which weren't Leon so I was disappointed. But I kept looking for Evangelion or Chibiusa stuff but I couldn't find any...;orz Apparently all the things I like are extremely old...'cause we tried finding a Dance Evolution or DDR machine in the numerous game centers in Ikebukuro and couldn't find any....;orz
Then we stayed in a manga cafe and I read some Heroine....something something I forgot...It was interesting at first but then turned into Strobo Edge...Where you have the main guy not like the main girl as a twist but then in the end he gets jealous of her dating some other guy and like the main girl again...which I am super confused about because I thought the point was that that wasn't not going to happen and she kept wishing it to happen. Like don't imagine impossible things, but then the manga just changed it's mind.
Then we went to a game center in Shinjuku that did have DDR and Dance Evolution so I played to my hearts content. Then we went to Asakusa and ate some yummy tanuki soba from a restaurant where you could see the guy making it in the entrance window. I bought a tengu mask at Asakusa. It had so much tourist gandering japanese stuff that was trying to hard to be Japanese...but some nice sweets and snacks to buy. But yeah I successfully bought a tengu mask that I always wanted. I just wanted a cheap one that I could pain to something, I just want the base. I tried making one once and that failed so I was determine to buy a plastic tengu mask. I really like tengu masks..:3
Then I went back to Harajuku and splurged on clothes and accessories. Then afterwards we went to Shizuoka where I am not at my friend's house.
We have been playing tons of Splatoon which was really funny during Christmas time 'cause we could tell that kids got Splatoon for christmas since late at night there were random 1 level players appearing along with level 50 players.
I bought some clothes in Shizuoka as well and my friend's sister gave me her jacket which was exactly like one I had wanted and looked for all over Japan but it was always over $40...:/ It's a pretty basic olive green jacket...;orz
I bought lots of souvenirs for my friends and I went to the movie theatres in Japan for the first time to watch Orange~
Which was surprisingly good. I mean good as in not a terrible embarrassment like LDK or Another or some of the other movies I have seen Kento Yamazaki in...I actually cried which surprised me. I also had a cold but I do believe I honestly cried at the end. It's a topic that is hard not to cry about so yeah my defense.
And Kento Yamazaki was top tier gorgeous so that was great and seeing him on a big screen.
I just can't believe that I went to a manga editor, saw the movie version of one of my favourite shoujo manga's with my eye candy playing the lead, and that Bakuman's live action movie is popular in here so I get to hear Sakanaction very often (since it did the theme song for the movie). So happy with my life right now....:3 So happy with Japan right now! XD
Oh! Also I was looking for a souvenir for my brother and wanted to buy him a figurine but they were all really expensive and I couldn't figure out what to buy him but yesterday I went to a used figurine store and found a Guts figurine AND Griffith figurine together for less than $20 so I bought the Guts for my brother and the Griffith for me and omigaw 'tis awesome...<333
I hope people are happy with my souvenirs 'cause I thought a lot about what they might want...;3;
Today was my free day of no plans...I will probably go back to playing animal crossing now...
ADIOS~ (watching Pokemon Victini movie right now...nothing on tv either...;orz it's nice it's in Japanese but...yeah I prefer the Arceus movie which I watched yesterday...;orz TV...)
Young Jump~
I just came back from my club and although it is 11:30 and way past my bed time I can't fall asleep...;3; It was a dance club if that makes any sense...so I am feeling really hyper right now from dancing~ :D Instead of tired like usual?
But I just though I'd tell you guys some recent news which I mentioned before but now it has officially been marked on my calendar!
My friend helped me contact Young Jump and I am going to go meet with an editor during my winter break to show them one of the mangos I be workin' on.
Young Jump is the magazine that publishes Tokyo Ghoul and also my favourite mango ever which isn't the reason why I chose the magazine. I chose it 'cause the audience is around where my target audience is. I want older boys, like high school age 'cause my story is targeted at those who like action-y shounen manga but can also take dark psychological stories. Death Note is one of the few that are like this that became popular in Shounen Jump (Monthly Shounen Jump I am assuming...I don't remember right now) but I think most genres of this type go in Young Jump.
Also, ignoring Tokyo Ghoul, I think the quality of manga in Young Jump is quite good.
...oh but now that I think about Tokyo Ghoul...hrmm...bad editor? I dunno...I hope I don't get somebody who thinks it's okay to not draw backgrounds and keep all my angles the same...
I am also worried 'cause most of the stuff in Young Jump is either violent or ecchi...and mine has neither of those (for now) sooo...it is actually pretty boring. I mainly just want feedback on how to make it better 'cause I am stumped and I need somebody who knows what they are doing to tell me what I am doing right and what I am doing wrong.
Apparently my editor is a nice one but we don't know what that means...
Also even though I didn't call them personally and I am American they didn't say no to me. My greatest worry is that they don't want to help me 'cause my Japanese isn't very good...;orz
But it was all quick and easy and they quickly scheduled the appointment and told us how to get there. So unbelievably simple...all of us on here must have been thinking about the sneaky crazy ways of getting to meet with an editor but all you have to do is just call them a bit ahead of time...
Now all I have to do is finish it and clean it up. I need to finish drawing backgrounds and effects...but I dun wanna...but I'ma gonna do it...;orz
Next week I have two tests and a presentation and I have to practice dance every night from 6 pm to probably midnight because I have a performance next saturday. Then after that I have a paper due and another sort of presentation...besides that I am going to put my nose to the...grind stone? Uhh I will work really hard on finishing my manga so that I am ready to show my editor and feel proud of it.
Oh crap I forgot I need more help in translating...;orz Oh wellz I gots friends I can beg. Actually basically anybody would help me if I just asked.
Yup that's what goin' on. I am extremely excited if you can't tell. Hopefully I will remember to tell you guys what happened afterwards (I most likely will considering this is the place I spent the most time on dreaming with other people about doing this exact thing). I will see how many pictures I can take~ I'm also excited to return to Tokyo with somebody who is Japanese. It might be confusing as well for her but at least I have somebody who can speak fluent Japanese instead my broken Japanese. Plus she has wifi and I don't which is the biggest thing.
Welllppppp...gotta go to beddy-bed
My dreams are becoming reality~ :3
Ja-Ja-Japan~ :D School taimz
I have been here for about 3 months now! :0 It is really hard to believe and I don't like counting because that means I only have two months left...3 months have passed so fast and I am really unhappy...I DON'T WANT TO LEAVEEE...;M; THIS PLACE IS PERFECT FOR ME!!
I won't go into so much detail about the step by step moments of what has happened in these 3 months 'cause that'd take forever to write and for you guys to read so I'll just make it a bit shorter! ;D
So basically I got to my University, got a nasty old house which is even worse after having humans live in it for 3 months without cleaning it...which I need to get to eventually but it's gross...like worse than the Grudge in here...;orz
Then I was thrown way too much information at me and it was very stressful the first few weeks and I was extremely tired and I still feel tired but yeah. I can't handle so much important information!! ;m;
Then classes started and they're all fine and dandy not too interesting to talk about.
It was really difficult for me to make friends 'cause I was feeling so self conscious since everyone looked at me 'cause I was an obvious foreigner and lots of people were afraid of talking to me because they thought I couldn't speak Japanese..;orz
So then I complained about it online and everyone came to my rescue and now I don't eat lunch alone and people try to talk to me if they see me alone~ So I have become quite good friends with a lot of people~ :3
I have entered the Manga club and the Dance Club. Recently I have only been going to the Dance Club though because we have a performance on Dec. 13th and we have little time to practice and I chose a type of dance that I have never done before so I suck majorly at it. I feel bad for not going to the Manga club but they told me that it isn't a big deal and I am fine to come whenever I want. So I will go back to the manga club once the performance is over.
That's mainly what I have been doing is just practicing dance whenever I have any time to spare. I have improved a lot but it's still difficult. I am doing 'locking' dance which looks like this:
It's really hard...;m;
I don't think it's that popular in the US anymore or I just don't know anybody at my college who does it so I wanted to learn it so I could introduce it to my school.
That and I have been going to lot of festival and events that the international student department has put together. I have decided to not go to them anymore and I will explain why~ NOW~ :D
The first event we had was really early and with little information until like 3 days before we would go to it and our advisor just then told us that we had to make a poster and presentation for the event...3 days...My friend and I had already told another friend that we were going to go to a poetry thing the day before so we had very little time at all to work on this.
First the nice part~
My friends and I went to the poetry thing and it was a bit confusing what we were there for...I still don't know why they asked us to go there but we went there and it was nice. We read poetry of a poet from that prefecture which was very inspiring for me since I have never read poetry with this sort of tone and atmosphere before. They gave up juice and cookies in the shape of the author which was really cute and then we had to write down out favourite poems.
Coincidentally there was a camera crew in the area waiting for the one millionth customer of this onsen but nobody showed up. They spotted us in the museum and since we were foreigners thought it would be cool if we were the one millionth customers so they told us to pretend to be customers there.
If we thought the poetry thing was confusing this whole thing was. I didn't understand what was going on until I asked the guy who brought us to the poetry thing what happened.
We posed with a large poster and received numerous gifts and got to stay in the onsen for free and got free drinks and snacks that were a specialty of the onsen while they took pictures of us eating the food.
All the pictures of me have me frowning 'cause I was so confused and when they interview us I had no clue how to answer the questions. So I was very relieved by the person who took us to the poetry thing for being there and telling me to not be afraid, even though I was anyways. Now we are fairly good friends. I gave him a gift but that still doesn't speak to how grateful I was for him being there! ;m; It wouldn't have be even more terrifying if he wasn't there explaining what was going on. Even more so if my other friends weren't there. They had acting experience and were not camera shy...;orz
So I appeared on TV and my teachers and fellow students kept coming up to me saying they saw me on tv for weeks! XD Also in the newspaper~ As it norm for Japan (the most circulated newspapers in the world are from Japan)
Then right after all that I fell off my bike. The handlebar smacked me really hard in the chest and I couldn't breathe for a good while. I went to the hospital and I just got some cooling stuffs which I wonder if worked...'cause it doesn't hurt that much anymore but recently when I do one of the dances with the more tiring choreography my stomach and chest hurts a lot like it did before and I feel like throwing up. Also my back still hurts...
I kind of wish they gave me an x-ray since who knows what got misplaced or whatever.
But anyway I was in shock from being on tv and then falling off my bike and having to go to the hospital, but I still had to finish the poster and presentation with the group of people from my country. The day before I had prepared some stuff with my advisor and asked everyone ahead of time what to do and then made a plan that would make the poster really eye catching and nice but it required some tedious work but it wasn't impossible as long as we all worked together.
However after gathering all the materials and having printed out the necessary materials I get back to my group who were supposed to be working on the poster while I was in the hospital just lounging around talking about whatever. Then they were like 'yeah, we decided to change the idea for the poster and make it easier' which was actually more complicated than my idea and they wouldn't even listen to my explain it they just kept interrupting me saying 'we don't have time for it' and then I had a panic attack because it we had to finish this and wake up early in the morning to do this stuff. I don't want to be so tired I can't enjoy the festival. Not only that but they didn't seem like they wanted to do anything.
Then I calmed down and just agreed to whatever they wanted to do and started working on the poster and drew the letters of USA with chevron letters which took a lot longer than I thought 'cause I used the wrong type of markers so I had my friend work on them and he was basically the only one doing anything 'cause I told him to help me.
Then they printed out new pictures for their idea which was to take regions of America that were unofficial regions they just then decided on and couldn't even remember were pictures of...'cause yeah...you can split America into regions but states make more sense.
And then after they printed it they were hungry so they went out to eat. Which is perfectly fine with me since I ate after I came back from the hospital and they hadn't eaten anything.
Let me remind you all they did was print out some stuff, cut it out, and put in the on the poster without gluing it. Since I was working on drawing everything else on the poster I accidentally moved the stuff around so when they came back they were really mad at me for moving the like 5 pieces of paper that can easily be put back in place that should have been glued down in the first plce.
Not only that they all came back super drunk. After getting mad at me for moving the pieces they then glued it down. And all of the pieces were in the wrong place so their original idea was completely ruined. I just sighed and said 'I can't believe that this is actually happening'
And after that one of them snapped at me saying that 'Don't think you are better than us 'cause you're not. In fact you are worse they we are you're so full of yourself' I was super shocked 'cause I honestly don't know what I did wrong...I think anybody in my situation would be disappointed when the people who are supposed to being working together with you decide to get drunk and mess up the poster you worked on for hours. Then I asked them if it's okay if I just didn't talk to them anymore because they keep making me upset and they seem to dislike me so much and all of them said in a really aggressive way 'yeah, that would be nice'
So ever since then I hate the other people I am with. Well they aren't as bad when they are sober, but the one guy who snapped at my I can't forgive even if he forgave me. I can't understand a person who comes to a meeting where we have to work on a project drunk and then gets mad at the person who is actually trying to do what we were supposed to be doing.
Every day they all get 'black out' drunk and then don't go to school the next day 'cause they are 'sick' AKA hung over. They don't do their homework either. They don't join clubs or if they do they brag about how tough it was when they were only there a few times. Then the only thing they ever have to talk about is about what weird sexual things they did with eachother the night before. Then all they complain about it how they want to go home and how they don't like Japanese food. Or 'I like Japanese food but I really want to eat a real hamburger right now' or they start begging for stuff they don't even like 'cause it's American..
I just don't understand these people and I don't want to be around them anymore. Every time I am near them I just get disgusted. I don't understand how you can go to study abroad in another country and waste your school's money having fun in the country instead of being there for what they gave you money for.
So I avoid the events because I don't want to be around them more than I have to.
But back to nicer news~ :3
Last weekend I went o Fukuoka with me frands and we went to a anime and manga store which is fairly large and it was supah dupah fun~ :D It was especially fun 'cause I got to talk to them more and learned we had so much in common about preferences for anime and manga and respecting it. Like one of my friends doesn't really like Disney movies for the same reason I do. They are cute but the plots are so flat and boring whereas Hayao Miyazaki movies are really deep and complicated.
I also bought a special Evangelion manga vol 13 that came with an art book, 6 post cards, and a holographic pic, to the envy of many of my friends back at the university! :3
I am also known now as the foreigner who likes Evangelion. Which is weird since the other people in my group like Evangelion as well, but y'know since they just want to drink with eachother and have weird sex parties with eachother and not talk to the other people in Japan nobody knows what their hobbies are. It was weird in one of my classes I presented on manga and the professor asked them if they liked manga and all of them are really really into manga in an unhealthy way and are you typical manga nerds/otaku yet they were like 'yeah I've heard of it.' WUT? But the entire week we travelled together all you wanted to do was do something anime or manga related and talked about how much manga you read and blah blah blah manga, but now you are embarrassed about it when peeps actually care to hear what you are talking about?
I don't understand. It's not embarrassing to like manga in Japan. I have met only a few people who don't read it, mainly professors, but they understand that it's normal for especially foreigners in Japan to like manga.
But anyways, one of the students calls me Eva 'cause my name sounds similar to that, but that's not my name...;orz But that's how he remembers me 'cause I like Evangelion.
'nyway...crepe and bubble tea cafes exist here...I-I need to live here...
There is no American food I really miss. I mean...pasta, but I can always make that myself and I didn't eat out at all in America. There is tons of pasta and cheese here it isn't a problem and pasta is popular here as well. I like pretzels and I thought those didn't exist here but I went into one of the stores in fukuoka and they had loads of 'em. However the mall cinnamon pretzel is one thing I did miss 'cause the Christmas displays had the smell of cinnamon and reminded me of that.
Also there's another thing. The christmas cheer in Japan is like America's so I don't feel like I am in another country...except that peeps aren't going to threaten me for not celebrating it.
Tortillas is probably the only thing I will miss...Enchiladas and tamales...mah christmas tamale...;3; I wonder if I can make it myself?
The Japanese students want me to make American food for them but there really isn't any American food. Plus the food I make is mainly just...pasta+cheese tortilla+lettuce+cheese, bread+salmon+ranch dressing, bread+peanut butter+banana+cereal, instant ramen+egg, french toast...
But french toast and pancakes are all over the place here....I am not very good at making them either so I don't want to give that to the students. Lots of the stuff I eat at home are just...vegetable plus sauce...O.o; You can't get some of the vegetables here, that I know of, but it's not that worth it to eat...
I know more about cooking japanese meals than cooking American food. I guess I know how to make macaroni???
I dunno I need to think about this...
BUt yeah...Japan...it's a great country for me. The food is great. The manga is cheap. It's easy to get to places due to public transportation and everything is pretty close to eachother. The clothes all fit me here. The clothes here are nice. Everything is a lot cheaper. The guys here take care of themselves more and are more 'oshare' or fashionable. Therefore lots of good looking guys. Lots of places to buy manga. Cat cafes. CAT STUFF EVERYWHERE. The love for cats here is strong and great. TV shows that I like to watch even though I do miss Colbert and the Daily Show and some other stuffs which aren't even the same anymore so it doesn't matter to me anymore...
Yeah the only thing I miss are pretzels in malls and the gaming community...Like talking about games at length with other people. I can do that here as well but my japanese stops me and the culture is slightly different and less nostalgic. We are nostalgic of the same things but not in the same way. Like I feel nostalgic about one game they played when they were a lot younger since it was released earlier. Or nostalgic bout some anime but they know way more about it since they got to watch the whole thing earlier than I did and with more attention...
Maybe this will change the more I get to know people and improve my Japanese...but yeah...
This was super long and I don't remember what I said 'cause my mom facetimed me in the middle of it...And it's 12:35 AM and I got dance practice tomorrow and homework to do and manga to finish...;orz
AKA I actually have time to sleep in! XD
Part 3: Nara and Osaka
Wow sorry for the long break in between story-telling posts...;orz Right after those previous posts I suddenly got extremely busy. Enough busy-ness to tell you about in another post if I have the time and energy to get to that...:D (I mean like this is around my bed time and when it gets to my bed time I usually get knocked out with sleepiness)
So the day after that we went to Fushimi Inari shrine which is the main reason I wanted to go Kyoto since it was pretty much right next to the station to go to Nara and Nara ain't too far from Kyoto.
I would post pictures but I have far too many pictures to show about Nara and Kyoto for this post...And basically my pics look like anything you'd find on google if you just look up Fushimi Inari shrine. It was quite a magical place despite le tourists.
Then we went to Nara~
The main thing to go to in Nara is to the park and that's pretty much where the world is at. Literally I have never seen so many people from different parts of the world in one spot...O.o; And so many deer too. Here is one of the many deer in the park. I started taking pics of the deer and then I realized how they are a billion of 'em and they are all in your face half the time. They're still adorable but not as fluffy and soft as they look.
Also the great thing about the deer is hearing the children scream out of fear. I know I shouldn't find that entertaining but Twilight Princess has taught me bad things (I love scaring people as a wolf). Although there was one kid who screamed bloody murder for good reason since this massive deer (buck?) with large antlers was chasing him. Other than that the kids were just terrified of the existence of these deer.
The highlight of that trip was Todaiji Temple
(This pic is to demonstrate the size of the temple and also because I wanted to take a picture of the guy in the black 'cause he looked super cool...:B Also this is an example of the many peeps I saw around Japan wearing all black on extremely hot days while everyone else was wearing as little as possible. Made me feel better about all the times I did the same thing in America but peeps thought I was weird)
Look how massive that thing is. Holy crap my heart was beating going up to that. It was so freaking magical holy crap.
Look at the freaking huge Buddha! HOLY CRAP!! But this pic looks like something off of google...which I am disappointed about...Like it's nice to take pictures to remember being there but they feel so lifeless...it was much different and person...
We spent most of the time wandering around Nara park until we got bored and tired of all the shrines. It would have been nicer if we weren't there during silver week...that or it's always like this? 'cause I don't think most of the people there were Japanese seeing temples during silver week...O.o; So yeah this pic makes it look all magical and wondrous but by directly behind me were a group of tourists (most likely Chinese...not saying anything it's just I saw a lot of Chinese in Kyoto and Nara) taking pics of the same thing...soo yeah...the feels were ruined by modern tourism.
Then my friend and I went to our hotel which was fairly nice. It had everything we needed. And like EVERYTHING WE NEEDED. Had laundry. THANK GOD. I was so dirty the days before, it was awful...;orz And also a restaurant but we decided to eat out at a nice place.
My friend doesn't really like japanese food or something and so we decided on an 'japanese style italian restaurant' that got some good reviews. So we went there and got a seat right in front of the owner of the restaurant who cooked our meals right in front of us. He talked to us the entire time and told us the recipes for some of the dishes and how he cooked them. I got the restaurant's special spaghetti and it was great but too spicy for me so he gave me extra cheese to lower the spiciness! ;w;
And then he gave us free desserts and did not charge us for our drinks...It was an unbelievable experience. I've never had an experience like that. He was so kind I was in complete shock the entire time.
Afterwards we went back to our hotel.
The next day we went to Osaka early in the morning and road another lovely shinkansen. I think on this ride I sat next to a bishounen looking young man with gorgeous curly hair. So I was completely frazzled the entire trip and I couldn't look out the window 'cause I was afraid it would look like I was staring or him...or that I would end up staring at him. I am sorry Japan for being such a perv...;orz But I can't help it if the men in Japan are so much better dressed and take care of themselves more than American men. That's what happens when ya be leik dat.
We ate breakfast at the Osaka Tower...I think that's what it's called. I am too lazy right now to look it up. The breakfast wasn't anything special but the atmosphere was great and it a wonderful start to the day for me. I still look back at that breakfast with fond memories. It makes me want to live in a big city...;w;
Then we went to Osaka Castle which was gorgeous and for some reason I don't I have pics of the castle...O.o; Well it was as magical walking up to it as Todaiji Temple. Also, luckily, silver week was over so it was empty going up there. But inside there were numerous students from other countries on a fieldtrip. I could tell since they weren't Japanese and traveled in a group, were all young looking, and for some they were wearing matching shirts. So yeah it was a very educational castle and it was boring for me. It's just a museum in there despite the gorgeous exterior it looks like any old history museum so I was disappointed despite seeing some gorgeous paintings and old artifacts. The presence of students there made me feel like I was not supposed to be there and made it feel more academic...
We were going to go to Tennoji Park but it was raining and we really wanted to see the ocean since we hadn't been able to since we arrived despite being in places where we could have seen the ocean. So we decided to go to the Aquarium.
Coincidentally we also met up with one of the other peeps from my school and he latched on to us for the rest of the day.
You can see him in this pic.
It was a pretty nice aquarium. I did enjoy my experience here because everyone together is commenting on the fish and asking where it's from and stuff like that so I got to interact with a few people who gave me strange looks but still. The experience helped me sink in where I was.
I think Osaka was a success since we knew where we were going and we didn't get too lost, despite accidentally going to Universal Studios instead of the Aquarium at first.
But we did get lost going to Dotonbori, but we got there anyways thanks to Family Mart workers~! :D
I ate some takoyaki and that's about it. Unfortunately I was not with people who were interested in Japanese street food so I ate alone...;3; But then we went to a restaurant and I got a big meal of various foods.
Also this
Japan and corn is a weird thing. There is corn bread which is literally just bread with bits of corn in it...Like not the kind of corn bread we think of. Corn is just randomly everywhere in the weirdest places.
Then we wanted to find this one shopping area that's supposed to be like the Osaka Harajuku and were hoping that we could find some weird fashion in a less crowded area or something. But we never found it. Instead we ended up on a road filled with host clubs. All these guys in suits with nice hair were walking around and it scared the crap outta me.
I am not interested in host clubs...I find them to be very gross. I don't like the idea of pretending to like eachother and paying for all that...
Also I am a very gullible person so it's not okay to be well dressed and pretend to like me.
Because it was raining my tights turned colours because my shoes are leather. I still wear this pair even though it looks gross. But it also looks cool and reminds me of bubbles since it's a weird combination of colours~ :3
And then we wearily walked for about an hour to our hotel.
We stayed at a hotel for businessmen so it was a really unique experience. Everything was very many and businessman-like. It was pretty cool. It was probably the nicest place we stayed at and the workers were extremely polite and formal. It wasn't my favourite place was it was relaxing.
It was fun staying at the many hotels~ We stayed at so many unique places!
My favourite place I stayed at was probably the manga cafe. But I have come to realize that I feel the most comfortable in places with manga. As long as there is manga there I feel a lot better. So I didn't like the capsule hotel that much 'cause peeps above me were being loud and irresponsible, but the lobby was really nice since they had a huge TV and manga~ :3
And konbini are nice 'cause they all have manga! XD
My favourite place that I went was probably Nagoya and second is Osaka, but that's probably just because everything worked out. My least favourite place was Kyoto but that is probably just because we went during silver week.
I am going to go to Tokyo again! And this time I am saying this for realz! I have been telling this to people a lot as 'I am thinking of going back to Tokyo' but I have already made plans with my friends that we are definitely going to Tokyo together they are definitely going to help me show my manga to a manga magazine.
I guess I am not too tired...and I can make the next post more flexible about the things to talk about...
So yup I'll go work on that next post now! :D
'cause after Osaka I just went to my University and got settled in...to a really dirty old house with mold everywhere...;orz Still uncomfortable here but whatevs...I am making it more dirty because I am afraid of cleaning it because I might break something or make it worse...;orz
