"Sugoi, nee?~~~"

Miss Nippon Grand Prix 2004 Yuriko Saga

Okay, to give you an idea of how fancy the girls at Ferris University are, let me tell you this. The girl who got crowned as Miss Nippon Grand Prix 2004 is a student at Ferris!!! Her name is Yuriko Saga, and she's 21 years old. I don't know if I've seen her around campus, but she's a sophomore student here, and we have the same course, International Relations (which is what the exchange students here are taking). Heh heh. I walk among beauty queens.

Title means: Great, isn't it?

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The Tale of Love and Madness

A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for the first time, virtues and vices floated around and were bored, not knowing what to do.

One day, all the vices and virtues were gathered together and were more bored than ever. Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea: Let's play hide and seek!

All of them liked the idea and immediately Madness shouted: I want to count, I want to count! And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek Madness, all the others agreed. Madness leaned against a tree and started to count: One, two, three...

As Madness counted, the vices and virtues went hiding. Tenderness hung itself on the horn of the moon, Treason hid in a pile of garbage. Fondness curled up between the clouds and Passion went to the center of the earth. Lie said that it would hide under a stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake, whilst Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking. And Madness continued to count: ... seventy nine, eighty, eighty one...

By this time, all the vices and virtues were already hidden - except Love. For undecided as Love is, he could not decide where to hide. And this should not surprise us, because we all know how difficult it is to hide Love.

Madness: ...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven... Just when Madness got to one hundred, Love jumped into a rose bush where he hid.

And Madness turned around and shouted: I'm coming, I'm coming!

As Madness turned around, Laziness was the first to be found, because Laziness had no energy to hide. Then he spotted Tenderness in the horn of the moon, Lie at the bottom of the lake and Passion at the center of the earth. One by one, Madness found them all - except Love.

Madness was getting desperate, unable to find Love. Envious of Love, Envy whispered to Madness: You only need to find Love, and Love is hiding in the rose bush.

Madness grabbed a wooden pitch fork and stabbed wildly at the rose bush. Madness stabbed and stabbed until a heartbreaking cry made him stop. Love appeared from the rose bush, covering his face with his hands. Between his fingers ran two trickles of blood from his eyes.

Madness, so anxious to find Love, had stabbed out Love's eyes with a pitch fork. What have I done! What have I done! Madness shouted. I have left you blind! How can I repair it?

And Love answered: You cannot repair my eyes. But if you want to do something for me, you can be my guide.

And so it came about that from that day on, Love is blind and is always accompanied by Madness.

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It just dawned on me.

From nowhere, an idea came to me tonight. Well, I can't say that I didn't have inspiration, because I did. A really negative inspiration it was though, but nevertheless, it helped me decide. I now want to do something, and I'm determined to do it. I can't go on telling people what it is yet, but I hope luck will be with me. Heh heh heh. Ganbarimasu!

Ferris University

Anyways, vacation official started at Ferris yesterday. Yes, our last day of class was a Monday. Isn't that really weird? Well, never mind, that's how it is here. I also hear that the next semester's class will start on a Tuesday. O.O Hahah. Well, no use pondering about it. The problem now is, what to do until class starts again on April. Yes, people. That's two months! Back home, this piece of news would have been heaven, but here it's not. What in the world am I going to do? One consolation is that, the IT center at Ferris will be open all throughout the break. And hmmm... how about that part-time job Sasaki-san was talking about? Another thing really weird though is that classes are over but we still have papers due. Until Monday. That's something which would never happen back home, but I can't say that it's a bad thing! =P

Ferris and Silliman are really alike in some ways. For example, well you all know I have been taking British Poetry class right? Well my sensei is really good. He's British, he's written a lot of books about Britain, and he's been teaching in Ferris for 20 years! Last Monday, during our last meeting, I asked him if he was going to have the same class next semester. To my surprise, he told me that it was his last semester at Ferris! The reason is, he's also teaching at WASEDA (probably the top university in Japan) in Tokyo, and will be transferring to a new department there, so he's leaving Ferris. That was really too bad. I really liked the class! So, it made me remember SU and all the teachers moving on to CVPC to teach. Hehehe. Another British teacher, Annie and April's sensei in one of their classes together also had his last semester at Ferris. Hmmm. Whot's happening? Mass Briton migration of some kind? But guess what the all-girls schoolgirls are thinking? Ahehehe. Maybe some hot, young teachers are going to take their place?!? Bwahahahahahah!!!

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Snow in Disney

We finally went to Disneyland last Saturday. =)

Ate Weena, a teacher from UP Cebu who is now studying her MA here in Japan is here at Ferris for a few days to do some speaking, and since it was her birthday yesterday, we went to Disneyland on Saturday: April, Ate Weena, the Uchida family, and me. We left early, and when we arrived at Disneyland (which is about an hour away by car [much longer on the train]), it began to snow lightly! That was amazing! Although it was the second time of snow ever since we got here, it was the first time we saw it falling. For tropical girls like us, it was amazing! Hehehe. =)

We got on a lot of rides, and they were all really fun! We got pics with Pooh and Mickey, too! =) The Disney Dreams on Parade was really nice, and ya know, all the princes were pretty hot... ;) Hehehe. When it got dark, the whole place was in lights, especially the area around the castle. Last Saturday was the first day for the theme "Cinderellabration: Lights of Romance", which lasts thru April. So with the name, you can imagine how beautiful the lights were and how... AHEM, romantic it was.

We were there for around 12 hours but no way was it enough. We didn't get on all of the rides and attractions, so I'd love to go there again. Did you also know that aside from Tokyo DisneyLand, there is also DisneySea beside it? Hahaha. Now, that's kinda cheesy isn't it? But I definitely will want to check that place out!

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Coming of Age and Photos

I had my 2nd debut today. Yep, I'm not kidding. In the Philippines, girls have their debut at 18, but here they have it at 20. It's called the seijin-no-hi, the "Coming-of-Age" ceremony. People here don't celebrate it like how we do. Big banquets, parties, no they don't do that here. Here all the people who have turned 20 or will turn 20 gather together for a half-an-hour ceremony. Of course, the main attraction is all the girls turn out in their best kimonos.

Annie and I got an invitation to this event, so off we went, even if we didn't have kimonos (coz they are freakin' expensive). The Yokohama Ceremony was held at the Yokohama Arena, near Shin-Yokohama Station. This place is also where the International Stadium Yokohama is located. This was built especially for Football World Cup 2002! (Whhheeeeeeeeeee! I'll definitely check out that place one of these days!) Anyways, Annie wore a suit, I wore a dress. All the other girls were wearing all these pretty kimonos, it was amazing. Silk and colors everywhere! Most of the guys were wearing suits, but some were wearing the traditional Japanese costume for males. I don't know how that is called. =P

We sat there, and then people came on to talk. The 20-year-olds who go there don't need to do anything. They just sit and listen. Annie likened it to a graduation, only they have to wear fancy outfits. Hehehe. The funny thing was though, the first guy who had his speech, talked about something really weird. Guess what he talked about? I know you won't be able to. He said that he went to the Philippines, and he talked about Smoky Mountain. How random is that? And WHAT THE? He talked about garbage! We really didn't understand everything he said but we could pick out the words. Philippines, Smoky Mountain, and garbage all throughout his speech. GAH! That is just so weird. Sooo sooo weird!

Over the past month, I did a lot of other fun things. Did you know that I have seen the Japanese Imperial Family? Bet you didn't! Well, I have! Heh heh heh. December 23 was the emperor's birthday, and during this day, the royal family always appears outside their home for a viewing. Yep, that's them in the picture above.

That's the Tokyo Tower in all it's blazing glory. I was roaming around Tokyo's Roponggi district last New Year's eve with April, Bobet, and my friend from IRC, Morigen, so we went up to the Tokyo Tower to take pictures. The tower's lights are turned off at different times of the day and night each day and Annie told me that legend has it that if you go the tower with the one you love and all the lights turn off while you're there, the two of you will be together forever. GYAA! Heh heh heh. Interesting, huh?

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