Kowaii!

I swear, I think the islands of Japan are the most abused by Mother Nature among all the places on Earth. Why? Because there are earthquakes almost everyday. And, they have the worst typhoons ever! Today, the wind was blowing like crazy, and it was raining, too. I come from an archipelago in the Pacific and so it shocks me every time their winds here blow stronger than at home. But honestly, they really do! Most of the time when it happens though, I'm just inside the dorm, so I just hear it howling in the distance or banging on my glass windows. Today however, I had to go to Yokohama for a lesson in Japanese with my tutor. Boy, was it scary. All the time I was thinking like, Oh no is this wind gonna blow me away?!. It sounds ridiculous, but if roofs and other stuff get removed during typhoons, then it can blow people too, right? >.<

It also ruined my umbrella. :(( Good thing I just bought it for 100 yen. Heheheh. I bought a new one (for 1000 yen now), but in the end I couldn't use it. The wind was blowing so hard it was impossible. Annie, since she lives on the 3rd floor of the dorm, said that sometimes she'd feel the building shake if there was a gust. See, isn't that scary?

On another note, the manga I ordered from Amazon arrived today. It's called Chobits. Hmmm. I read it, but I still like One Piece better, though. ^^;

kowaii - scary

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Partey!

Last night we went to Hard Rock Cafe for April's, Annie's, and our friend Natsuki's birthday. The place totally rocked! The food was very good, too. I really wanna go there again, soon! ^^;

Anyway, when I came here to Japan, I thought I wouldn't get into anything Japanese. But guess what? I'm starting to dig manga now! It all started when I wanted to buy one for Mark, and so I got the only English one I could buy at one of the book shops here. I read it (haven't sent it yet... oops), and it's great. I just learned now from Amazon.com that the manga I bought, One Piece, is currently the most popular in Japan. Hehehe. Now I wanna read more of these stuff! I also feel like I've seen the light, because I finally like something Japanese that everyone is crazy about!

[ADD-ON]
I also just learned that the original Japanese title of the only anime I ever really watched, Ghostfighter, is YuYu Hakusho. ^_^

manga - Japanese comics

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Oops!

I am now famous! Of course, because of something embarrassing I did!

Yesterday morning, as usual, I turned on the radio and listened to AFN (Air Force Network). A while after that though, I had to turn it off because I had to take a shower and get ready for school. About thirty minutes later, after my shower, I turned on the radio again and requested Where Is The Love by Black Eyed Peas through email. As it turned out, while I was in the shower, the two DJ's talked about the worst song ever, and it was apparently Starship's We Built This City, but one of the DJ's said she totally hated Where Is The Love. Since I didn't hear what they said, I requested it. When they came back on air again, they were like: We got an email from Mary, maybe she was listening to us talking awhile ago... and they said what they had talked about before that and I was like, oops! It was as if I was being sarcastic, which I wasn't! Hahahah!

So I emailed them I told them I didn't hear what one of the DJ's said, and she replied I forgive you! ^^; But that was so funny, really! I'm such a dork! Anyway, it was just my name that was mentioned on the air, so if ever you read this and you're on the Kanto plain, don't tell anyone, ok? It's our secret! ^^;

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Hmmm...

Something fishy happened yesterday at Starbucks. April, , and I went to one of their shops, and both Annie and I ordered and paid for Tall Chai Tea lattes. But, we both got served short ones. Hmmmm. That was really erm, fishy. It just seems more than a mistake when both of us got the wrong ones. In fairness to them, when we told them about it, they gave us the correct ones. It's fine with me, really, but it's still... hmmm.

Also, today I went to Mister Donut and ordered Crabmeat Gratin Pie. But, I was given Shrimp Mayonnaise Pie. Hmmm.

I really hope they're not intentional. Gaikoku-jin are certainly not that baka not to notice things like that.

gaikoku-jin - foreigner
baka - stupid

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Easter

Last Easter Sunday, Annie, April, Ate Smile and I went to church. It was a Protestant Church and was erm... very nice. The people were very friendly, and during the service a Chinese woman who was a professional erhu player performed on-stage--she was very good! The service was in Japanese, but there was an English translation, so that made it better. However, it's probably just me, but services where pastors speak for almost the entire length of the event are not just my thing. 'Coz at the end, I feel like I haven't been praying, but just listening to a lecture. I guess I'll always be a Catholic.

The best thing about that day was that April's friend from church who is also a Filipino brought us to a Filipino restaurant! I never realized Filipino cuisine tasted so good until that day! LOL. In that area there were also stores with goods from home. Hay, thank God!

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The Da Vinci Code rocks!

I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and I must say, it is one helluva book.

Normally, I don't read thrillers/suspense books, but I love history, and The Da Vinci Code was the #1 book on Amazon for a really long time, so I was really happy when I found a copy of it. Despite its popularity, I didn't really know what the plot was about beforehand, but when I found out what it was, I became totally engrossed. It's about that story that everyone has heard about but I'm sure just slipped your mind: the quest for the Holy Grail.

I won't go into much detail about it for those who haven't read it yet, but I just have one thing to say: if you haven't read this book, go read it! The plot is just absolutely amazing! All I could think of while reading it was "How did he come up with that?" I won't say that it's the best book though [The Count of Monte Cristo still holds that title for me], but it's really interesting and is a must-read! People might just ignore the story about the Holy Grail, but this book makes you think about it. Just go get a copy now! =)

To all the people who've read the book, please comment!

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Yoga

Yay, I've started doing yoga. I found this great website that has illustrated yoga moves and all the essential things you need to know. It's really cool though, coz it's very easy to do, and you don't go around huffing and puffing, but at the same time it's still really rejuvenating. It's supposed to increase my flexibility, lessen stress, and make me lose weight. Hmmm. Let's see if it works!

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Humph.

The weather is very fine today. The sun is out and it's warm! WHY WAS THE WEATHER YESTERDAY NOT THE SAME AS TODAY?!?!? Grrrrr!

Humph!

Well, anyway...

Happy Birthday, Apyang!
I wish you all the best and all the happiness in life, gurl!

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*Cry cry cry*

I am so so disappointed. =( Today was the scheduled Cherry Blossom Festival at Yokosuka Naval Base, right? Well, the weather was bad so it got canceled. The sad thing is, my partner in crime (--thanks for putting up with my lunacies, gurl) and I only knew it got canceled when we got there. So in short, we traveled for almost 1 hour and a half (one way) and paid roughly around 1000 yen (US$10; back and forth) for nothing. The fact that it was raining and cold while we were walking from the station to the base and back was not something to be happy about either. However, I'd like to thank the very kind (you're an angel) for trying to meet up with us.

When we got back to Yokohama, Annie and I roamed around because we thought that it would be a total waste to have left the dorm and just go back. We went to SOGO, and I did buy a paperback of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (I can't afford hardcovers), which was relatively cheap. Sigh. I've really been wanting to read that book, so at least that makes me feel a little bit better.

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Grocery Shopping

A supermarket near Seya station, one of the places we frequent.

I went to the supaa today (Japanese for supermarket) and everything was just so expensive as usual. I wanted to buy mangoes which were imported from the Philippines but they were almost US$2! Gah. Back home they're only maybe 20 cents each. One tomato is almost the same price. *bawls* It's the vegetables and fruits that are really expensive here. The only cheap one is broccoli, I guess. *sigh* Who is generous enough to give me money out there?

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Welcome Party

We just finished having the welcome party for the new students here at the dorm. As expected, the food served was the same with the food we had in parties here before. Mind you, I'm not complaining though. I'm just stating an observation. ^^; In fairness, they're always really good, though.

I expected the party to be boring, but it was fun actually. For the first time, there weren't a lot of speeches. We didn't get to play the game that Annie () and I prepared but that was fine. For the introduction, we had to be in pairs and we had to introduce the other person, instead of just introducing ourselves. That was an interesting change, and challenging too, considering my measely Japanese.

The most fun though was after the party when we just laughed around with our friends. Two of them were Japanese girls and I was really amused when they made fun of how Tokyo girls talked and how they would act all cutesy to attract the attention of guys. Thank goodness they're not apparently all the same! :P~

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New Semester

I'm in school today because it's that time of the school year where everyone has to be in long lines and do all these stuff that thankfully, you only have to do once a semester. Yep, I guess you call it enrollment. For us this time however, since we're just exchange students, we're kinda like the students who don't belong. Well, not really. It's just that we don't really need to enroll, because we're already in the school list. We just have to do certain things. Like today is physical examination day. Yay--not! In fairness though, they're very efficient here and we came early so we didn't need to go through very long lines, luckily. And it's not like back home in Silliman where you have to walk like a kilometer (Registrar to Medical Center) just to get a PE. Here, they brought the hospital to us. They made a some classrooms into the testing centers. There's even an X-ray van. (Yes, it's kinda like a delivery van but you can have your x-ray taken inside it.) LOL.

We also got our grades for the last semester today. For my 9 subjects, I got 3 S' and 6 A's. In lay man's terms, S is 90-100 points and A is 80-89 points. My S' are in those Programming & Excel classes (thank God, else I would totally be an embarrassment to my course), and in our Japanese Affairs class. Phew. Yokkata.

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David Beckham

Why am I even writing this entry?

To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure. I just have a few guesses, that's all. 1) I recently saw the new Pepsi commercial here in Japan. Who is in it? David Beckham. 2) Back home, my room is full of posters. Here, it only has one--with Posh and Becks in it. 3) A while back, I swore I'd write an entry about him. 4) He is so popular here in Japan, it's amazing! 5) I have nothing to do.; and 6) I just want to. Whoa! Six guesses. This entry might not turn out to be so bad after all!

Okay, back to reason #4. Why is David Beckham (or Becky as me and my friends would like to call him) so popular in Japan? Since I came here, I've seen a handful of commercials with him in them. Fran (a brand of pocky), Macadamia Nuts, Vodafone, Pepsi, a spa place with him and Victoria in it, and I'm sure a lot more that I've forgotten. Even Ayumi Hamasaki or uh... Tom Cruise, can't top Beckham. Why not Ronaldo? Or Michael Owen, whom I believe is as good-looking as he is and can hold his own in football. Owen even comes from England, too!

One of our dormmates here said just a few days ago that apparently there was one Englishman who asked a Japanese what he thought of England, and that person answered David Beckham. *hahahahaha* Poor Queen. Even she was forgotten! LOL

In his book, Beckham mentions that if he has photo shoots for use here in Japan, the producers want Victoria to be included as much as possible. To project an air of family, which they like here, I guess. Sad thing is, most people just think of Beckham and Victoria as this glitzy celebrity couple. But that's not true at all. Maybe I'm brainwashed because I read his recent book, but I don't know, try to read it and see for yourself.

I believe Beckham deserves his fame though. He's worked hard enough to become the football player that he is now, and he certainly tries to be a role model. I guess I should just be thankful that it's him who has become so popular here, and not some bad ass jerk.

By the way, if you're wondering, I also like David Beckham. :)

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The Return of Aragorn the Hottie (If he gets to be a king, then he should have some description!)

Oi, Aragorn has returned! I finally saw The Return of the King! Yah, I know, I'm 3 months late, but spare me, since here in Japan, movies come late coz of the subtitling and all. But, yesterday when we saw it, it was POSH--in the true sense of the word!

OK lemme explain. We arrived at the movie theater in a city named Ebina (about 30 mins from where we live) at almost 2 pm. We didn't know the schedule beforehand. The only Lord of the Rings screenings were at 1:00 and 1:30, so Annie () and I opted for the 1:30 showing so that we would not miss a lot. However, it turned out that that showing was on premiere screen! So, OMG, we decided to watch it anyway even if we had to pay 2400 yen for it! (Normally it's about 1500 yen, but it was Wednesday yesterday so there was a discount for the regular theaters: 1000 yen.) Premiere screen, however, is always 2400 yen. That's roughly 1200 pesos or 24 USD. Imagine that?!? Graaaaaaaaaabeh!

It was so sweet though. The seats were so pretty and fancy! They were huge, and considering how long The Return of the King is, I'm sure all your butts ached out there when you watched it! But, not us! *evil laugh* I felt like I was seating in a first class airplane seat, and at the same time screening a movie for the Oscars. There were also li'l tables between our seats (although if you opted for a love seat, they also had that out in the back). Plus, we got free popcorn! And, outside the theater was a private lounge with a sorta bar place. It was too much really! Hahah.

Of course the movie rocked. Aragorn was hot and Legolas so cute. They also kept calling my name: Merry, Merry!, and as usual Pippin was being a fool of a Took! But I'm sure you all know that. At least, if you're ever gonna watch a movie for 24 bucks, then it should be The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It definitely deserved its record-tying 11 Oscars!

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Oscar Awards

BEST PICTURE
Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh

DIRECTING
Peter Jackson

ART DIRECTION
Grant Major (Art Direction); Dan Hennah and Alan Lee (Set Decoration)

COSTUME DESIGN
Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor

FILM EDITING
Jamie Selkirk

MAKEUP
Peter King

MUSIC (SCORE)
Howard Shore

MUSIC (SONG)
"Into the West"
Music and Lyric by Fran Walsh and Howard Shore and Annie Lennox

SOUND MIXING
Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek

VISUAL EFFECTS
Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson


And by the way, I can truly say that Aragorn is hot, but for some reason, I can't bring myself to say that Viggo is hot. Hmmm. Weird. Must be the hair? Or, lack thereof.

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