297 posts from 2008

seeya when I seeya. 

I went out of my room to go use the loo, when the guy next door to me (who was already right outside his door) suddenly spoke to me in perfect, West Coast American English, "hey girl, are you sick!?" Like most of the other people in this building, he looks like a homeless, lived-in Japanese guy. I did not expect him to even understand English, much less basically BE an America. Apparently he's had the good fortune to hear my relentless coughing for the past week. Don't ask me how a Japanese American guy came to live in this building in Shimbashi with a whole bunch of semi homeless construction worker type guys.

That's one mystery solved though. I've been hearing an American guy singing loudly along to weird hip hop songs, and I was wondering who it was. It must be this guy.

I'm making good use of my new curling iron. Look! It's raining though, so I don't know how long these curls will last. I feel like I'm from my grandmother's generation!
Off to work. Hope it's a slow night. I've got lots of translation work I need to catch up on, since I was sick all week.

Show us your pet(s). If you don't have one, show us one you'd like to have.
Submitted by munchorz.

This show looks awesome. It's about a group of forgotten teen idols coming together and facing their demons. And guess what? One of the teen idols is in my vox neighborhood! Billy Hufsey of "Fame" fame. Remember hunky Eric from the first ever MTV Real World (I do)? Well time hasn't exactly been kind to him -- he's the one in white looking kind of like jesus. And David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff's Baywatch son's kind of a plastic surgery nightmare these days (he's on the far left). And you guessed it, they're all in the show. Can't wait to watch it. It's starting Jan. 4.

I finally figured out how to stream videos blocked outside of America, so I'll be watching.

I was wondering why all these people I haven't been in touch with suddenly knew I was back. And then I found out. D-girl wrote about me in her mixi blog. She totally busted me. Now I look like I've been avoiding people.

So I've had the "yeah I'm back, but I have the flu [read: I wasn't avoiding you, I just haven't been able to move even my texting finger], you should get the flu shot if you haven't already, yeah let's hang out in January" conversation a few times already.

I am boycotting my chinese herbal medicine prescribed to me. First of all, it tastes like crap. Well that's basically the only reason. But I guess second of all, I feel like the fifty other pills I was prescribed should be enough, and "chinese herbal medicine" just seems like it's not going to do a whole lot. I'll save it for later, when I feel like I'm starting to get sick some other time.
Here's a list of shit I should be doing:

• get back in touch with agencies I used to work for and tell them I'm ready, willing, and able to work my typing fingers to the bone and won't turn any work down
• contact guy I'm working for and tell him I'm dying of the flu
• get the rest of my stuff that I left at my friend's house
• christmas shopping
• call my aunts and tell them I'm back
• sort out financial aid
• start applying for jobs. actually, I'm going to do this after my vacation
• buy stuff for my house
  

Who thinks I'll get any of this done?
Remember the guy D-girl nicknamed Butt Showing? The guy who lived on my floor in the Roppongi room I lived in, who just always hung out in his underpants? D-girl predicted that there would be a Butt Showing #2 in this new place I live in. Well the other day I walked up the stairs to my floor, and there was one of the construction workers standing in the hallway with his beer belly sticking out, and a tiny wet towel wrapped around his butt. Indeed, there seems to be a Butt Showing #2. Maybe the sight of that gave me the flu.

Last night, somebody suddenly started listening to strange music and singing along really loudly.

And then I was woken up this morning to the wonderful smell of nicotene. I turned off the central heating vent, and that made it a little better.

One day when I'm rich and successful, I will look back with fondness on these things.

I just spoke to D-girl and told her to watch herself, because I have the flu and might have infected her. She said she's fine, but she might go and get the flu shot today anyway.

She started dating this guy recently. He was a customer. These salarymen are just such workaholics, I couldn't be the girlfriend of one. He works morning to night, has to go out drinking with customers into the wee hours, and just never rests. When I worked in offices, I could totally see it. The new boys would come in looking fresh faced and vibrant in April, and than by the end of the year they looked ten years older.

So D-girl's boyfriend (who is almost 40) had a weird stress nerve explosion on his butt cheek. He apparently gets it all the time whenever he's stressed, but it got really bad so he had to have an operation to have it removed. He got put on strong antibiotics, and his life is miserable now because he can't drink. He had to take customers out last night and was miserable the whole night. There's an end-of-year party tonight and he's not looking forward to it. How do you live like that? It's just never ending.

D says everyone around her is in poor health, but she's as healthy as ever. She told me to rest up and not do anything for a few days. Believe me, I can't even get out of bed. I can't help but rest up and not do anything.

Home!

It was a long flight back. I sat next to a young kid on his way to visit a friend for a week in Chang Mai. He's an undergraduate student somewhere on the east coast, and it was obvious that he thought I was too. His eyes popped out when I told him I'd been out of school for eight years. Do the math, yes I'm almost 30.

I got lost on my way to my friend's house because I did my classic move of leaving a building and walking in the exact opposite direction of where I should be going. She's being kind and wonderful, letting me stay in her studio apartment that she shares with her husband, but things are cramped.

So I'm moving into a nice little room in Shimbashi tomorrow (or I guess today, I just woke up and it's 1:30am!). It has a big, 2001 Space Odyssey style capsule bed, and two big windows and enough space for my stuff and, a decent enough desk and chair. Plus free wi-fi and all utilities included, and it's cheaper than my other closet. And the building manager's really into maintaining the place, so it's just much less neglected. The kitchen's communal, and it's pretty big. There are about 40 rooms I think. Because it's so cheap maybe, it seems like most of the other residents are toothless old construction workers. They look kind of homeless, but they don't smell homeless, so that's good.

D-girl is working really hard. She started companioning too, and because work is unreliable at the ghetto club, she also works a little for another club in Akasaka. She fell asleep on the subway and got her wallet stolen. Shit like that happens when you're pushing yourself too hard. Poor girlfriend.

I dyed my hair cherry red/purple today. My friend says it's because subconciously I don't want to get a job. She might be right. It's a crazy color. People got out of my way and stuff when they see me coming. It's like I suddenly added 12 inches to my height. It's awesome.

So things are moivng along nicely.

I just had a delightful conversation with a very bright 13 year old boy.

My mother has been in contact with a woman who is thinking about buying one of the islands around here (wow). She has a complicated collection of Hebrew/Hindu/Japanese names, I'm not sure why. And she home schools her sons, who are really interested in Japanese animation.

So I spoke to him on the phone, and he was so polite, and so articulate (for a 13 year old), and just a delight. I told him to email me if he ever has any questions about Japanese. When I said to him "It was great speaking to you," he replied with a bright, "It was great speaking to you too."

Then when I said goodbye, he said "Jya ne." Which is Japanese for "see ya."

That just made me smile and feel all happy inside. If you learned Japanese in school, you probably wouldn't learn "see ya." You'd know "Sayonara," and that's it.

There are so many people outside of Japan who just have so much love for the culture, it's really wonderful. I didn't realize that before. I just love it.

My time here is coming to a close.

No more lazing around. No more healthy square meals cooked for me every day. No more fluffy cats keeping me company. No more mother to hang around with. It's back to the real world.

I had some specific goals in coming back here. The main one was to finally get my grad school applications done.

Besides all the time and effort, it cost me a lot of money.

The GRE prep course: $1,000
The GRE test: $150
Application fees: $60~$105, and I applied to nine schools
Ordering official transcripts: $16, and in total I had to order 13
Ordering official GRE scores: $20, and in total I had to order nine
First class mail for letters of recommendation forms: $25, I mailed out two of these
Mailing supplemental forms to schools: $13, and I mailed out four in total

Which means it cost me over $2,300 just to APPLY!

It's probably going to cost me more too, because I have to order more transcripts and GRE score reports for scholarship/fellowship/financial aid applications.

I've worked so hard, and spent lots of money. It will all be worth it in the end though. It BETTER be worth it!.

I'm going cross eyed from all these stupid confusing, disorganized financial aid forms and applications. I've just decided to not look at them until I get to Tokyo. I'm going to enjoy my last three days here. I've finished all my applications FINALLY, except for two that won't let me upload some things, but that should be sorted out by tomorrow.

I got a job! Translating war memoirs for a writer who needs them for his research. Yes yes yes yes YES! I'm looking at this as a sign of things to come. This acceptance should indicate a deluge of acceptance letters in the near future. My friend told me to visualize myself succeeding. So instead of drowning in images of myself failing miserably all over the place, I'm imagining myself getting accepted all over the place.

My mother works so hard. She has two jobs and she stays up late every night and wakes up early every morning and even works on her one day off. But she never made me feel like I was in the way or that I was draining her money, free time, energy, or inconveniencing her in any way. She's actually acting like it's a privilege to have me around. Maybe that's how things are supposed  to be, but that's not how it was with my father and sisters. I shouldn't hold on to my anger, but honestly, I'm going to be upset about how they treated me for a long time.

I know people who grew up never knowing if there'd be food in the house, or whether their parents would come home, or if they'd be kicked out of wherever they were staying. It wasn't that bad for me, but we lived in constant fear of my father's irrational temper though.

I told my friend Marty about everything that went down. I told her that when people are accusing you of being crazy, you can't really defend yourself. She said yes you can. Just hold your head up and live your life (how Oprah is that?), and she is right. That's what I'm doing anyway.

Speaking of holding my head up (haha!), the ghetto club is already stressing me out. The boss told me not to expect steady work or a good salary, then D-girl tells me that they need me back really badly. My best customers never even go in anymore apparently. Excuse me, why should they? They're MY customers, they want ME, they don't want the ghetto club, that's for sure. Well six months ago they wanted me, now they probably can't even remember who I am.

When I get back to Japan:
- I'll figure out those financial aid forms
- I have to put a major plan in place to MAKE a lot of money and SAVE a lot of money. If I think I'm going to grad school, I seriously need cash flow, yo
- I'm taking my favorite aunt and spinster-before-her-time cousin on a vacation to Korea
- I'm sending my mother bath salts, green tea, Japanese sweets, and some books, DVDs and CDs
- But first, I'm going to Australia!

And before any of that, I'm taking a bath right now. I'll read over some of the translation/research material in the tub (because I'm working again!), and enjoy the open space and silence of this mountain California town. Lord knows I won't get much of that in Tokyo.

Oh shit, I'd better email my friend that I blew off too, before I forget.