"saigo"

Saigo refers to last, and it is with much joy and sadness that I announce today is my saigo full day in Tokyo. Tomorrow morning I head off to Yokohama for the boat. Tonight I am meeting some Japanese friends for a saigo dinner event, and then I will go back to the palace for my saigo night in a nice big comfy bed (the ship has beds, but they aren't all that.) And I think this will be my saigo entry in this blog (for the next few months) since my life on Peaceboat is soon to begin. So make sure you check out my Peaceboat blog site for updated entries.
http://www.peaceboat.blogspot.com

"yatto"

Yatto means "finally" in Japanese, and is the word I am saying to myself now that I've finished packing and cleaning and moved out of the small shoebox apartment into my new palace home (at least for the week until I move to the boat.) The picture on the left is extremely similar to the view from the living room window, except I am located a bit higher on the 19th floor.
Oh, and I have a bed to sleep in tonight. Woo hoo! Now my neck and back pains will go away. Double yatto!!

"hikkoshi"

Yikes!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow is my hikkoshi, or moving, day. What a big ball of stress, especially since this whole week I have orientation for my upcoming job on PEACEBOAT and very little time to do any packing. I have thankfully sold ALMOST all of my furniture, with the fridge and chair going tonight after I get home from a goodbye party at 12:30 am. All the stuff I couldn't sell will be taken tomorrow by an organization that helps out foreign students in Japan like myself. This is a good thing, because otherwise I would need to pay money to a recycle shop to pickup unwanted goods.
This hikkoshi has made me realize how much junk I have accumulated over the past six years here in Japan. I am chucking tons to the curb, but still have a few packed boxes that I will need to send to the States. This is another problem, seeing that a box weighing around 20 kilos will cost $120 dollars to ship sea mail.


$120 x a few boxes = cheap last weekend in Japan for Meribon. screw!

"mata ne"

One of my very very good friends leaves Japan for Norway today. During these past couple of years we have spent many nights together in our lovely suburb of Sengawa sharing our worries and joys, usually over a nice glass (or bottle) of cheap Japanese diner wine. I wll never forget our late night escapades at Jonathen's kitchen, karaoke, and the best izakaya ever - Kuus. I wish her all the best! Sayonara sounds too official, like we will never meet again, which is definitely not the case. So I will leave her with mata ne, which basically means "See you later."

MATA NE!!!!!! See you soon in Norway!

"tomodachi"

Like I said, my two tomodachi, or friends came to Japan for a visit last week. This picture was taken in Nikko, a small temple town approximately 3 hours north of Tokyo. My tomodachi loved the temples! This is probably the only day they were here we didn't go shopping.

For anyone in Japan that has so far missed Nikko, I highly recommend it!!

"namakemono"

Okay, so I have been slacking on this blog as well. Call me a namakemono, or lazy person, if need be. But my friends from NYC were visiting for the week and we were quite busy with touring temples and shopping and karaoke and more shopping and after that even more shopping. So there really wasn't much namakemono going on...

...and my computer broke, again. What gives?? First its the hard drive, and now they say the motherboard is fried. Well, take my advice and NEVER BUY A TOSHIBA. They obviously suck the big one.

"byouki"

Yeah, so you all probably heard the news. U2 has postponed the rest of their Vertigo tour due to some immediate family member being byouki, or sick. This means that they are not coming to Japan on April 4th, and since my boat leaves on the 5th I will miss out on the concert. How extremely sucky is that?!

I do hope that whomever is byouki has a full recovery.

"yasui"

While in Tai I was able to try all sorts of fantastic foods. I would have to say that this meal was my favorite. Extremely yasui, or cheap, and very authentic - you could tell by the plastic furniture and non-air conditioned room.

The whole meal cost about 10 dollars, including 3 beers and a bottled water - yasui!! See that pad thai on the right? That was 1.50 for the plate, and it was the most fab pad thai I have ever tasted!

"tai"

Tai is Japanese for Thailand.
I was in Tai for 5 days this past week with my mom.
It was 39c/94f degrees and fabulous!

Are you jealous?

"okaa san"

My okaa san is coming to Japan today - woo hoo!
We are going to have some fun times.

"hana"

Yesterday I had a nice surprise after getting back from a long night of craziness. Someone had left hana, or flowers in my bicycle basket. I highly doubt the hana were left specifically for me since my bicycle looks like any other bike, and it was in a parking lot with many many other bikes- but it made me feel good anyways. Maybe I can pretend the hana are from Mike Relm, he he...

"kakkoii"

Last evening I discovered my new love. His name is Mike Relm and I think he is totally kakkoii, or hot-handsome-cool-good looking-etc... etc... He may try and fool you with his nerdy suit and black frames, but this guy has got some skills. I mean, ANYONE who spins the Cure and Jay Z in the same set has most definitely got skills. And I like the outfit, it works for him. He is so kakkoii, I just spent the past two hours online reading his bio and downloading some tunes. Too bad he lives in San Fran. I may just have to move there to be with my new kakkoii love.

Check out his site at http://www.mikerelm.com and click on the My Space button for a real good tune, Josie and Relm. It's hot - like him. Or even try this http://www.mikerelm.com/music/thetwist_high.mov

more "kandou"

Yesterday I went to see a friend's friend perform in a Flamenco concert. It was my first time to see live flamenco, and it was fabulous. The dancers - kandou shita! The guitarist - kandou shita! It almost makes me want to learn how to dance flamenco myself.

OLE ! OLE ! OLE !

"kandou"

Kandou means impression, and if you add suru or shita on the end it means to be impressed.
The other day I FINALLY went to my first musical in Japan - The Lion King

The props , the musical score (all music was adapted into Japanese,) the singing

very very very kandou shita!!!!!!!!!!! Best musical I've seen yet.

"kousu gai"

Some people would call kousu gai "off course." Many of my European friends here in Japan call it "off piste." I call it the only place to hit some major powder and forest action when boarding the Japanese alps.

Kousu gai is my snowboarding haven. I am always in search of some kousu gai places since normal runs are usually too boring - an attitude spawned from being spoiled with deep, fresh powder every day for the few months I was in Hokkaido (northern island of Japan) a few years back. And even if the signs have DANGER and cross bones and skulls and other silly things written on them, the Japanese are pretty lax about boarders entering kousu gai areas, at least this is what I thought...

UNTIL yesterday, when I was boarding under a lift in a kousu gai area and got the whistle. Someone from the lift was not having it. I could NOT believe it. I was caught! I was going to be thrown out! I was going to get a life ban from the mountain ! All these thoughts were racing in my head as I looked up at the lift and saw the patrol, who looked down at me and said in Japanese, "Excuse me, could you please leave this part. It is dangerous for you."

Sometimes the Japanese politeness just kills me....

"kawaii"

These pictures have nothing to do with my life in Japan. I just wanted to post them because they are soooooooo damn kawaii, or cute. The top picture is my very very kawaii nephew and "his" pig. This pig was actually a present to me for my 23rd birthday, but he stole it from me when he was about 7 months old. The little scammer!

The next picture was taken last year during a family trip to Disney World. That is my mom holding my kawaii nephew while we were in line for the tea cups. The tea cups were fun by the way, although not too sure if the boy enjoyed it so much.

By the way, my mom is coming to Japan in two weeks. So excited!!

"chuudoku"

Chuudoku means addiction, and since being in Japan I have had a range of different chuudoku, always ending on a bad note. My first chuudoku in Japan was banana chips. I started out eating a handful as a snack and it gradually progressed into buying a bag almost every day. My banana chip chuudoku finally finished after I got super sick one night after eating a whole bag and a half as my dinner.
My chuudoku last year was TV show downloading, like Desperate housewives and Lost. Downlaoding all that crap TV led to my computer crashing (thank god for insurance!) and almost mental breakdown as I thought my thesis was a goner, too.
My latest chuudoku is earl grey tea. The other day I was at a friend's home and she made me earl grey tea and it just tasted so good! The next day I went to the store and bought a huge box of the stuff, and am to the point where I will drink at least 5-6 cups a day (or more if I am at home all day.) Of course, the weather is also a factor since it is soooo cold in my apartment and the tea warms me right up! I always like a bit of skim milk, and sometimes when I feel like a treat I add a bit of baileys. Oh, and it goes so well with a few cookies or some M&Ms.
I am hoping the weather will get warmer soon before something bad happens with this chuudoku - but really, what harm can tea do to you? Well anyways, I need to go now so I can make myslef another cup.

"genun"

...

For most people, the word genun, or vertigo, means a sick dizzy feeling, often caused by looking down from a very high place or by too much movement around you.

But for me, genun means one last hurrah in Japan before I head off for my trip around the world!

Guess who got lucky with U2 presale tix for the April 4th concert here in Tokyo??

"sakura"

Did you know that in Japan they make all sorts of flavored kit-kats? What usually happens is that a new flavor is released for only a short period of time and then phased out with something new and different. A few of my friends totally fall for this gimmick, going nuts whenever a new flavor is released. I too, have been sucked into the Japanese commercialism of kit-kats, feeling the urge to buy and try even though I never once had a kit-kat craving in the United States. Some of the flavors I have tried are strawberry, passion fruit, mint, apple, wine, white chocolate and maple syrup, yogurt, banana and blueberry.

Once in awhile they'll come out with some extreme Japanese versions, that everyone seems to loathe except for myself. Like the green tea kit-kat. Now that was yummy! This season's newest edition is also obviously Japanese. It is sakura, or cherry blossom flavor, which is pictured above. All of my kit-kat fiend friends have stayed clear, but even after numerous warnings I decided to finally give it a try yesterday.

Well, all I can say is don't mock the sakura until you try it. It is seriously one of the best to come yet!

"atarashi"

Welcome to my atarashi blog site!
So yeah, Friendster blogging sucks. It restricts the number of pics you can post, and no one can figure out how to add a comment. What gives? I have decided to create an atarashi, or new blog site.
So feel free to leave comments from now on...
Oh yeah, for archives of my other blog site check out : http://meribon.blogs.friendster.com/almostlost_in_translation/