epik_noodles | Entries tagged with random

I woke up to the sound of food today....
Is it strange that while nothing else appears to wake me up, the smell or sound of food makes me wake up immediately? I heard the sound of Miki rustling through a box of crackers this morning. That's what woke me up.

This morning, I heard my dad talking about driving (golf related), so I asked if I could go practice too. I'm quite rusty and out of practice. I haven't practiced ever since I got out of that golf academy my dad forced me to go to. That was 10 years ago! When he said he was going to practice, it reminded me of the 10 years I wasted leaving my golf clubs to collect dust. I went out to the garage and dug through all the junk until I found my clubs. I hopped into the car and we went off to the driving range in Skokie. On my first swing I tried using a 3driver, my asked, "why so big, don't you want to start smaller?" I told my dad that I've always used the irons and wedges, but never the driver. My first swing was excellent! But the swings that followed after were beyond horrible. I kept throwing my balance off, I missed the ball a few times, I smacked the wall, I hit the ball into the ceiling, or I hit the ball but it only goes 1 yard. I'm really bad now. I keep moving out of alignment, resulting in mishitting the ball. Plus, I can't even hit more than 100 yards like how I did back then. I was once able to hit the ball 150 yards with a 9iron. I can't even hit up to 100!!!! I'm getting worse!!!! All my power is gone, my technique is worse. There was this old Korean man who kept staring at me and would occasionally laugh at me. I'm so bad at this now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After I got back, I went to the DMV to renew my permit. I got a full score on the written test... as usual. I got it done pretty quickly. I got home soon afterwards. I then went off to school right away. Today I had psychology class, it sucked! I was the only person who showed up without a textbook. I got to class and everyone had a textbook in front of them. Everyone read ahead too, I didn't have a book. When the professor asked questions, I was unprepared, I've never felt dumber.

After class, my uncle picked me up and bought me a birthday cake. My party in tomorrow, Friday. We'll see how it goes.

Miki quote of the day:
"Ghost poop..."

Current Mood: blank
Current Location: Chicago

Running back and forth between Chicago and Batavia this week.
I got dragged back to Chicago yesterdays, just to be abandoned.

I actually don't have time to write. The house is empty because everyone went to Oregon for a wedding. I need to take care of the house and restaurant this week.

Miki came up with this interesting idea of adding "Miki quotes" into my journal entries. A new one each day, because the things she says are just epic! Or sometimes they don't make sense...

Miki quote of the day:
"I hear silence..."

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: housing HQ

After all of my enthusiastic cheering...
MIKI WON FIRST PLACE IN LAS VEGAS!!!!!!
This is great news! Miki has dominated that cooking tournament. Miki makes the most delicious food in the whole wide world, of course I knew she couldn't lose! Texas can have their beef carving champion, because that's not Miki's style (as a matter of fact, she didn't even place). But when it comes to real food, Miki is a amazing chef. This grand Vegas competition is a piece of cake. Miki is invincible!!!

By the way, I got super bored at work today, so I created a Gaia Online account. My friends are probably laughing and thinking, "whoa, didn't Tess say something about never creating a Gaia account?" Yeah... everyone is most likely mocking me right now. I'm using Gaia until I properly install Ragnarok Deliverance on my new laptop (I've forgotten ever since I got the laptop last year).

Anyways... I finished watching Zoids Genesis a while ago. The ending was way too simple. You don't even know what happens to the rest of the characters after the final battle ends. The main character is the only one who speaks and he says, "let's go back home to Miroodo." Then it immediately goes into a montage of Ruuji (the main character) piloting back home. I guess it's suggested that everyone went back to rebuild their destroyed homes. Well... with the exception of the Sora people, their home came crashing down from the sky in a fiery mass of destruction.

I started watching the New Century Zero season of Zoids. It was the first Zoids series I ever saw. It was also what sparked my interest in Zoids. This was like way back in 2001. I remembered watching it after getting out of school. I watched Zoids and Digimon afterschool, I remember! Those were the best animes ever... during that time.

Right now I'm in Batavia... Lake in the Hills. Miki is returning tonight. We are definitely celebrating her victory tomorrow... or at least I would like to.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: housing HQ

I woke up late today after having a horrible nightmare of my doll being possessed by an evil spirit and massacring all of Miki's dolls. The plastic carnage, you have no idea, I was really freaked out. I would be really scared if my doll ever came to life. I just hope that nightmare does not reoccur.

I woke up and went to the Argyle Asian Town District with Miki. We did some grocery shopping. On the way home, I picked up an ever so lethal "durian."

Familiar with it? Besides the intimidating spikes... It's the most foul smelling fruit in the world. A nose burning combination of rotten fish and moldy socks. Many have tried to overcome the smell and failed. It's something that isn't for everyone. The most infamous fruit of Asia... the durian. If you can get pass the stink, the fruit's flesh has a rich custard-like taste. "Andrew Zimmermn," a traveling food critic/bizarre food eater, described the taste of durian as a mushy rotten onion, then he spat it out quickly. Out of the countless crazy things he's eaten, durian was the only thing that beat him. In our home village, the durian is a real treat because we can't buy it that often.

At lunch, we ate at a Swedish restaurant near home. I ate a Reuben, that didn't seem so Swedish... But I just love corned beef and sauerkraut. Many of my friends have wondered why I have a sense for Polish food.

We then moved the flat screen TV into Miki's room. I've been meaning to move it for a long while but I kept forgetting. So it's always remained in our parents' room. I hooked up the PS3 and we watched a few things. After all of that, We started working on a Taiwanese dumpling soup. It was very good. The dumplings were meatballs wrapped in rice dough. I seasoned and skimmed the stocked while it simmered. I did a lot of chopping too, since finely chopping food is something I'm good at. Who needs a food processor when they got me?

I helped with the soup, then I took a short break. During my break, my uncle came to bother me. He wanted me to revise a brochure for a temple. I read through it... Not to sound mean, but the grammar and syntax was off. It said something like. "What is Meditation benefit for me? What is Meditation benefit for social?" My uncle said, "come on, it's like charity, help me out." I quickly pulled up Microsoft Word and started rewriting some contents of the brochure. I printed it and gave the revision to my uncle who rushed over to whichever temple he got it from and they made new prints.

I ate the soup... it was good.
My mom also returned home, that's why I'm taking refuge in Miki's room.

And....
IT'S BACK!!!
The "Shuji hair" is back!!!

My hair has gotten long enough to poke my eyes again. So... the Shuji is back. And yes... we were playing Tekken. Miki likes to use Jin, I remembered, in Tekken Tag, which was really old, Miki knew the combo for Jin's ultimate move. It was so cheap, it completely took out the opponent's life bar. The fight wouldn't last for two seconds. The one we're playing in the picture is Tekken 6.

I did build part of a Zoid today. It was like a master grade version for Zoids because it had hundreds of parts. Today I only built the head. That portion alone had 32 pieces to it (an average Zoid head contains no more than 10 pieces). The "Great Saber" is a really detailed model, totally NOT something to laugh at.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: Chicago

I wanted to write last night, but ended up not writing.
Basically, I purposely lock my posting entries at around 11:30pm, leave it blank, and I go off to do something else. So in reality, I don't start writing until 3:00 - 4:00am.

Last night I lock the entry around the usual time, then I watched many episodes of "Big Bang Theory." I watched up until 3:30am, I was way too tired to write, which is why I left that very random message in the previous entry.

So anyways, my summer is ending soon, I need to get back to life. But for now, I'm trying to enjoy my time off for as much as I can. There hasn't been much for me to do lately. All I do is sleep in, eat, build the Zoids I got from Japan, eat, watch anime, and sit around the house. I'm loving the Zoids I got from Japan. I obtained some super rare ones. I really am a hardcore Zoid collector. Just yesterday I finished building Liger Zero's custom "Schneider" CAS unit. It's a rare armor upgrade exclusive to Japan. Liger Zero has 4 upgrades (now I own all four), Schneider, Jager, Panzer, and Phoenix. Phoenix was the odd one out, because it was the only upgrade for LZ that was in the form of "Blox." Which are cubic pieces that must be assembled using plastic pegs... so tedious. Normally, most Zoid kits are click and fit, Blox fall apart easily due from instability.

Besides immersing myself in the wonderful toys from Japan, I've been watching animes to pass the time. I just finished "Kuroshitsuji," oh wow was that anime dark, well... it's not as morbid and messed up as "Hell Girl." I haven't seen it, but I heard it's gruesome. Of course I watched some Zoid animes too. The first Zoid anime I ever saw was "ZOIDS: New Century Zero" back in 1999. It takes place after "Chaotic Century," Zoids are used for sport and competition in "New Century." In "Chaotic Century" Zoids were used as weapons of war. Right now I'm watching "ZOIDS: Genesis," which takes place 1000 years after "New Century" and Zoids are used as war machines once again. I'm hooked on the opening song now, I think it's catchy.
It's "Yotaka no Yume," by Do As Infinity.

I like the OP for ZOIDS: Genesis. It's a good song. After watching the first few episodes, I really like the main character's Murasame Liger, it's super cool. I have the model, but haven't built it yet because I don't have paint for it. I need to go buy some model paint. This is the first Zoid I've come across that requires paint. Murasame Liger is an expensive Zoid too, very rare.

This morning, I was going to watch more anime, but I've been pulled back into work already. Apparently, there was a party reservation for 50 people? Yeah right the biggest table I saw today only had 10 people. They lied to me!

Tomorrow's a Friday, busy day... always a busy day at work on Friday. Can we fire the other waitress since I've returned from Japan and we will no longer be needing her services? I want to watch more anime, I hope the lunch rush is dead tomorrow.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: housing HQ

Ah screw it, I'll write tomorrow.

Don't have time, need to sleep.

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: Chicago

So, I woke up early...
Umm... I'm still suffering from jetlag,.. I can fall asleep until 6:00am. I sadly don't wake up until 2:00pm. Waking up at 8:00am means I only sleep for 2 hours. Imagine the grumpiness. The dentist appointment is at 10:00am. More cavity fillings, my jaw and teeth hurt so much!

Later I was dropped off, alone, at Ikea to go eat some soft delicious Swedish meatballs with lingon berry sauce. I walked around, explored, found a cool sofa. I was picked up and we did some grocery shopping. We had a barbecue. I ate blood dripping raw steak, because that's the way I like it. The sweetness of the blood and fat still remains when the meat is raw. I'm not trying to sound creepy, but I've been eating that way since I was a child. It contains lots of iron.

Maciek visited me a few hours ago. He came to pick up the souvenirs I got him a cute Naruto in Asakusa cell strap and an awesome violent shirt with a cute bear (he called it pedo-bear) viciously cutting up Ronald McDonald. Maciek loved it because he knew the bear. He stayed for a bit and I showed him all the cool stuff I got from Japan.

I dunno, my life just really feels pointless.
I realized a long time ago, but maybe my parents are right. I truly am useless. I've been told that I'm useless for all of my life. I am of no contributing value to society. No one needs a loser like me. I never did care for college. As matter of fact, I don't want to attend classes! I don't like my classes, I don't like where my life is going. It's true that people say I'm smart, but I'm a different kind of smart. I only know how to resolve peoples problems and bring smiles to them. As for knowledge, I only know random useless facts, my memory of facts is decent. Nobody cares if I know about the fall of Edo, the secrets and origins of the himitsu bako, the American Revolution, the specs of every passenger aircraft (right down to the engine and fuel tanks), filming skills, or agricultural knowledge (don't ask). I know useless things. There is no place for me in college. I have no interest in classes. It's been so many years and I still haven't decided on a major! Society doesn't need lazy good for nothings like myself. For me, I would prefer to rot on the side of the street like the useless fool I am.

I needed to get that written down, my emo-ness always weighs me down.
Now I feel better.

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: Chicago

So I woke up, ate breakfast... spam and eggs.
I actually didn't leave Arata's house today. Miki left the house with Arata and Chizu-san to go grocery shopping. They were out for half the day. I stayed home with Arata's Grandma. I sat around playing on my laptop. I was watching a drama special. While I was watching, Arata's grandma came up to me and gave me red bean ice cream, I was so touched, grandma was worried because I didn't eat lunch. Miki and everyone else still didn't return, so I watched something else.

I had been itching to see the One Piece: Strong World movie, I remember Ex kept raving about wanting to see it. I got it on my computer and I just watched it. Strong World was so good. This movie was one of the somewhat rare occasions that Nami gets kidnapped again. I liked Biri, so cute, there's shops all over Japan that sell Biri plushies. The Straw Hat Crew looked so badass in this movie. Overall, it was good, but I have to say, my favorite all time One Piece movie would be "Dead End Adventure."

After Miki and everyone got back, Miki made a delicious dumpling soup. Arata's mom made a wonderful tempura platter with all sorts of vegetables and lots of shrimp. I ate a lot of fried lotus roots, my favorite.

After dinner, Arata took us bowling at a place near the house. There was a special discount today, it was 850 yen a game. The average cost of bowling is about 3000 yen everywhere else. We did one game of bowling.

Striking a cool pose..... then falling onto the ground miserably.
I had fun... it's sad that the bowling alley prints out your scores, I did horribly. I had a lot of fun! We hit the arcade after bowling. This place had a lot of games, most of which I have never seen before. Many claw games too. And Miki's favorite, the picture machines. We did two rounds of pictures and then returned to Arata's house.

Now I'm tired, I need to wake up super early tomorrow so I can go ice skating!
I'll write soon.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Yashio, Saitama Pref, Japan

This morning, after my well deserved sleep, I woke up early and went to the open-air bath / hot spring. Hakone is loaded with tons of underwater hot springs and geysers. It's my first time going to a Japanese hot spring. It was so weird at first, "whoa there's A LOT of naked people!" The Japanese don't get fussy over nudity like most foreigners do. Before you enter the spring, after putting away your shoes and undressing, you have to rinse yourself with hot water. Then you can go into the hot spring pool. There's more things I want to say regarding the hot spring, but I shouldn't because it'll be very awkward.

Here's a cute illustration to show my trip to the hot spring.

Yes, that would be me clinging to the side of the spring. Miki and Arata were talking to each other a good distance from me. I moved away from them because the area I was sitting in was where the water was being heated. I was flailing around in the shallow water like a dying fish because the heating mechanism in the water was burning me and I really didn't know it was behind me, which is why I moved away from everyone else.

After a nice relaxing soak in the hot spring, we hit the road again. We drove up a mountain on the other side of Hakone to go see where the steam rises out of the rocks. In that tourist area, there were a lot of suspended cable cars that took you across the mountains. Hakone is also known for it's "black eggs." What makes these eggs special and black is only regional to Hakone. These black Hakone eggs were baked in an underwater hotspring at the base of the Mount Hakone Volcano. They've been baked until the egg shells turned black. According to Hakone folklore, If you eat one "kuro-tamago" (black egg), it'll extend your lifespan by 7 years.

I tried one... and you know... it tastes like a normal hard-boiled egg. I also tried egg ice cream and wasabi ice cream while I was there. Both ice creams were very interesting.

Our next stop was the premium outlets. When we got there, I wasn't all that impressed. It looked exactly like the outlet center that's nearby my restaurant back in Batavia. It had serval shops that were different, other than that it look like an American outlet center. The weirdest part is that the outlet is divided by a valley right in the middle. To get from one side of the outlet to the other, you need to cross a very big bridge.

None of us actually bought anything, so we got on the expressway again. We were on our way back to Saitama. Before returning, we stopped in Ikebukuro for dinner. According to Hiro, Ikebukuro has the best and most famous ramen. Hiro took us to a place where he's a regular at. We know this because we saw the amount of stamps on his stamp card when the waiter asked for it. I had one of those dipping ramens, ohhhhh the noodles were so delicious. We ate and chatted, it was fun. After the meal, we continued back to Arata's house. Now I've figured out the best signal spot for internet which is why this entry exists.

I might go ice skating tomorrow, yay!!!
I'll write again soon, time to go to sleep.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Yashio, Saitama Pref, Japan

My meeting plan was a fail yesterday, mostly on my part for not even checking my stuff on DW. I partially blame my faulty e-mail too. But in this case it was primarily my fault.

I wandered around Hachiko plaza for about two hours and wow did I see interesting sights. Everyone is familiar with the "Tale of Hachiko," right? You know, the dog with extreme loyalty, he escorted his master to Shibuya station every day and even went back to the station to pick up his master. One day his master died at work and Hachiko still waited even though his master would never return. After decades have passed, Hachiko's statue has become a landmark spot for people who want to meet up. Everyone who waits there is usually waiting to meet up with a friend.

While I was sitting on the uncomfortable bench, there were a lot of people waiting for others. I saw a lot of interesting things. There was this old man next to me, he ended up falling asleep while waiting. Now, these benches are a little weird and painful to sit on. Think of a two-tiered railing, one railing you sit on and the other you lean back on. You need to sit upright to balance and even stay on. The old man feel asleep and just completely fell over and landed on his face. The impact woke him up right away. When he woke up, the person he was waiting for just arrived.

I think I also may have spotted "Wakaba Ryuya" walking out of Shibuya station. It's a possibility, he was in a horrible disguise though (he was wearing a nasty wig). There were a lot of screeching girls taking his picture. Maybe it was him afterall...

So... while I continued waiting, there was another Japanese guy sitting next me. He appeared a little older than me with somewhat short red dyed hair. He too was waiting for his friend to show up. When it's uncomfortably hot outside, most people scratch their neck, wipe their foreheads, or fan themselves. I'm not trying to be weird and I WASN'T directly looking at this guy. More like saw it out of the corner of my good eye. While this guy was talking on his phone... he actually reached under his shirt, pulled his shirt up, and started scratching his nipple. That was really weird! I'm slightly disturbed he did that in public. About 15 minutes later his guitarist friend showed up and they crossed the street.

Continuing... I ran out of water at one point. My refusal to leave my spot made me super thirsty and hungry. Now I know how Hachiko felt... Anyways, there was this other Japanese guy. Umm... I forgot what it's called but it's a popular trend in Shibuya for a specific style? Super tan skin and outrageous hair? I know what it's called for girls, but the term for guys is different. He waited by the Hachiko statue to meet up with his friend. So... this guy was REALLY tan!!! The pigment was disturbingly dark! This guy's skintone was equal to a Hershey bar! Not only did his complexion stand out but he wanted to be noticed... He was dark and his hair was bright hot pink!!! Dark skin and pink hair just clash, it screams "look at me!"

I got tired and Miki swung by to take me off to an amazing food wonderland located several meters from where I was waiting. It was an amazing super market. There were foods from all over Japan. All the ingredients were fresh. After being immersed in that beautiful underground paradise of food, we were on a mission to find "Tokyu Hands." Tokyu Hands is a shop that sells almost anything craft related or collectible. There's even random pharmacy stuff too. I went for the toys! There was one floor that had a lot of toys. I bought a robotic nano bug, oh it's so creepy. I bought some chibi Gundam models to build for fun in the hotel room. I also bought some randomized "One Piece" collectible pirate ships. When I opened the boxes, I got everything BUT the "Going Merry."

Let's face it, I will only buy toys, Japan is nothing more than a giant toy trip to me. I love being a kid (from my point of view I'm still 9).

On the way back from Tokyu Hands, which we technically got lost, we found..... what my friends were talking about "MANDARAKE!" It is well hidden on a side street. Mandarake isn't truly a building... We walked and I noticed the sign and I got excited, "WHOA!!! It's Mandarake! My friends were talking about this place! I can't believe we found it!" The sign was small and said "MANDARAKE" on it with an arrow pointing down towards a staircase. At first we were a little skeptical, should we go, should we not? We began to walk down the stairs... then a second flight of stairs... then a third flight of stairs... Then we were greeted by a blacklight lit entrance followed by an enormous windowless utopia of anime goodness. But then I had my crazy thoughts! THIS PLACE IS 3 FLOORS BELOW BASEMENT LEVEL!!! IT LOOKS LIKE AN UNDERGROUND ANIME CLUB!!! HOW BIG IS THIS PLACE?! THERE'S NO WINDOWS DOWN HERE!!! WHAT IF THERE'S A FIRE?! I explored a little the first aisle I checked out had... Zoids... Kid in a candy store... I picked out the ones that weren't sold in the states and when I walked to the back to go check out the display cases before paying. There it was... in the display case... an ultra rare... Japan exclusive... discontinued production since 2005... "Murasame Liger!" It was priced at $170... "Must have..." Am I insane for being a hardcore Zoid collector? I bought it... now I'm super happy and will not buy anything unfood related for my entire trip here!

I was busy for the rest of the night because we met up with Arata later. We ate. We did each others' nails (excluding me, I hate nail polish). We watched a Taiwanese drama which was on a Japanese channel? I think it was called, "Miss No Good" or something like that.

Well, today, we woke up early and went to the "Tsukiji Fish Market!" Its the largest fresh fish market / tuna auction in Japan. They had so many live fish!!! Thanks to the kind fish monger at the market, he let me film him paralyzing the fish in very violent ways. There was blood everywhere. I had a lot of fun! We then went to another section which also sold seafood and produce. There was another kind man that sold us a cut open / ready-to-eat sea urchin. He was happy to take pictures with us. We bought some fresh oysters from his place too. He poured soy sauce into the shells for us to eat right away. Obviously I'm an American, so I ate my oyster American style... which is to practically inhale them like shots or chucking them, as to Arata who slowly nibbled at the oyster. I quickly slurped the oyster whole, that oyster was gone in the blink of an eye. The guy who sold it to us was amazed and yelled, "SUGOI!!!" I'm guessing that oyster chucking is uncommon here.

We then got on the train and went to Harajuku. We found "Kiddy Land" an awesome toy store! They had a lot of Pullips. I bought a giant plush Ghibli cat, more One Piece ships, a Final Fantasy figurine, and two Bey-Blades. I was so excited over the Bey-Blades. They discontinued in the States a long time ago, the tournament leagues were disbanded all together. But the sport is still going strong and continues in Japan. I didn't know that Japan had new seasons of the anime and they even modified the overall designs of the Bey-Blades themselves. It used to be full plastic with a small metal weight ring to keep it balanced while spinning. Now, the center is full metal and the balancing weight ring has now become the main attack ring. Before, the top plastic panel was primarily used for attacks. Now, the full metal center is used for attacking instead.

Look at me going on about toys.
The main highlight was the Tsukiji Fish Market!

I hope Arata's house has internet.
I'll write soon.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Shinagawa, Japan

YATTA!!!!!! I have internet again, thanks to wonderful Arata for retrieving my laptop charger.

I ended up waking up at 7:00am...
I don't know what it is with Japan that makes me wake up early. It could be because nearly everything closes around 9:00pm, resulting in me sleeping early.

We checked out of our shady "Asuka Hotel" and took the Yamanote line down to Shinagawa for our next hotel. So... this new hotel is friggin awesome!!! It's called the "Prince Hotel." There's a 60 lane bowling alley, an arcade, a penthouse bar, indoor amusement park, aquarium stadium, mall, and movie theater ALL INSIDE THE HOTEL!!!!!!!! It's possibly the biggest hotel I've ever seen upon arriving in Japan. The two previous hotels were tiny and had one twin sized bed (imagine sharing the bed). This one has two beds and lots of space and a working fridge (Asuka's fridge was broken).

Later, we took a short walk to find a place to eat in Shinagawa. One of Arata's wise tips about Japan "Shinagawa is like Ginza, it's a real wallet buster, be wise to not shop here and shop at the other train stops (ex: Shibuya, Harajuku)." While walking, we found a nice little "yakitori" place. How I love to try strange things. We ordered the works: liver, tongue, heart, kiel bone(chicken sternum), cartilage, tripe, raw alcohol soaked squid, chicken skin, and bacon wrapped quail eggs. Arata ordered German potatoes for some reason. But it was a great meal, so delicious. The restaurant owner came and chatted with us for a bit. Arata told the owner that we were Thai and we were on vacation visiting her. The owner said something along the lines of "wow, that's interesting, Thai people huh, I like Thai food, do they eat spicy? If they do, I have some pickled peppers on the house for them if they want." So we got ourselves a free bowl of pickled peppers... Arata can't eat super spicy things. Miki's tolerance is up to par with mine. I eat insane heat, but my sense of taste is really sensitive, but I can handle super spicy food. Arata and Miki just lightly nibbled on the pepper, while I just plopped the entire thing into my mouth. I felt that heat right away, my entire mouth was burning. I had to wait and cool down a bit. Then Miki told me to continue eating the peppers (since I can handle them) because we shouldn't waste the old lady's (owner's) kindness. As I finished off the remaining peppers, I said, "ohh... this is so going to hurt tomorrow..."

Anyways, tomorrow, I "might" be meeting up with some friends. I hope everyone's available. I know I have time for all of this week. I will be off to Yokohama, Hakone, and Fujiyama next week! Roadtrip!!! (yes, we're taking a car, shockingly not going by train) YAY! Yokohama: Chinatown is next week, I'll try my best to have as much fun as possible before the roadtrip.

I just noticed...
I'm doing a lot of hotel/city hopping, aren't I?

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Shinagawa, Japan

Some bad luck lately.
First off, we seperated our bags and gave some to Arata to drop off at her house. Bad news is, we accidentally packed all our important cords and chargers into the bags we handed over.

So my laptop is dead and I can`t use it for internet. Right now I`m stuck using the pay by the minute computer in the hotel lobby and I just used up my last 100yen. Not only that, but the hotel we booked is shady and hidden in an alley. Shinjuku is HUGE!!! We got lost trying to find our way back to the hidden hotel. We changed it, so we will only stay at this hotel for one night instead of four nights. We`re moving to another hotel tomorrow morning.

Right now I`m trying to contact friends, but it`s difficult because I have limited internet access. What bad luck I`ve been have since arriving in Japan. My feet really hurt from walking around so much too.

Okay, I got two minutes left on this computer.
I`ll try to write again soon.

Current Mood: confused
Current Location: Shinjuku, Japan

It was on Monday, but I didn't write about it because I've been busy packing.

I invited a good amount of people but most of them canceled. Isabelle and Sylwia canceled last minute. Because Sylwia canceled, now we didn't have a car. Gameworks is all the way out in Schuamburg. While I was chatting with Izzy on the phone, Marvin arrived early. Marvin and I played co-op on "Fat Princess" for about an hour, aww... we kept getting killed until we finally discovered the secret passageway to breach the enemy castle. There was so much blood and carnage!

*ahem*
Well, we were both disappointed that we didn't really have an easy way of getting to Gameworks. I then suggested that we take the local Pace bus, because it stopped at Woodfield Mall, which was near Gameworks, but it was a bit of a walk. We walked all the way to Jefferson Park Station (name of my neighborhood district) and took the train to the Rosemont stop where ACen is. After that, we got on the Pace bus. We were both surprised that this bus passes Mitsuwa. Well now we know.

After nearly a half an hour bus ride, we arrived at Woodfield. We decided to just cut through the mall to save on time. After that we had to dodge cars while crossing an interstate to another region called "Streets of Woodfield." It was ridiculously located far across the street from Woodfield Mall. We finally got to Gameworks. We filled uop our gamecards and went straight upstairs to the arcade games. I played "Time Crisis 4" first because it's my favorite shooter. Marvin kept dying really fast, he was using his credits an awful lot to continue playing. I felt bad because he used most of his credits on Time Crisis. I'm way too good at it, I only swiped once for a continue. After dying on the 4th level, we took a short break. While Marvin went off on his own, I attempted to play "Too Spicy," another arcade shooter, but this one's about stealing an inheritance from the yakuza. It's really hard because the time limit they give you to defeat an enemy is insanely short. I mean really short, it gives you 30 seconds to defeat the enemy. If time runs out, it's an automatic fail, resulting in a gameover. Marvin snuck up on me while I was playing. He said, "this game is really hard, it's a total bitch." After failing a 30 second challenge, we moved onto another game.

The next game was some military based assault game. You got to use machine guns a shoot everything. I remember it went by really quick. Then Marvin really wanted to play the new "Rambo" game. This one also had a machine gun and the bullet cap was maxed, but you still needed to reload. It was fun, but I think the amount of health for the game was insufficient. After dying on Rambo, we went to the DDR machine. Wow, I haven't played in a long time. We played two rounds of DDR. The first time, the machine was being difficult, we couldn't figure out how to change the difficulty level, instead we kept accidentally selecting songs we didn't want to play. We wasted our first round playing songs we didn't want on the easiest level. Each round allows you to play three songs, we wasted three songs trying to figure out the machine. Both of us hadn't played DDR in a long time, so we actually forgot how to use the machine. Our second round, we figured everything out. Marvin always plays on Heavy or Challenge, as for me, I'm way out of practice, I can only do Standard(mid-level). It was so weird because my stamina did not allow me to last very long while playing on Standard. I tried but I was way too tired. Marvin had a hard time too. We continued playing, but on one level lower than what we normally play on.

After playing DDR, we were both super exhausted. We were really sweaty and could hardly stand and walk. We limped over to the couches on the balcony. We both sat down, but I immediately got up and went downstairs. I walked to the claw machines. There was one filled with evil looking cat plushies. Ooohhhh, could not resist. I'm really good at it. I played three times. First: got nothing, second: got a pink cat, third: got a black cat. They were so cute!!!

I ran back upstairs to show Marvin. He was a bit surprised that I actually won something. We went back downstairs to try a few more times but got nothing. I had Marvin hold my cats. He shoved them into his pockets with their heads poking out. Marvin said, "I must look like a fag with these kitties sticking out of my pockets." I said, "Nooo, I think it's adorable, Marvin." He then said, "Yeah yeah, I'll just tell everyone that you won them for me and I'm very happy and love them." I said, "uh... isn't it supposed to be the other way around?" Marvin retorted, "bah! what a stereotype."

I went to play some ticket games and got enough tickets to get a Sonic shot glass. After that, we left Gameworks to get something to eat at Chipotle. I told Marvin to grab some extra napkins as a joke for a friend. So we ended up jacking an entire bag full of napkins.

We rushed off back to Woodfield because we were afraid to miss the last bus back to Chicago. We actually got a little lost on the way back. We started to panic when we thought we couldn't catch the bus. Fortunately, we made it right on time. We went back to my house and that was my going away party!

But I wished that my other friends could've gone too.

WAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow. I need to get some sleep.

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: Chicago

I learned about an interesting anime from ACen this year.
There was this must see short online series called "Hetelia: Axis Powers." I saw plenty of cosplayers this year, but Jason and I weren't familiar with the series. Jason asked, "what's with the fascist outfits?" Well, Hetelia is about WWII, so the characters are in military uniforms. In this anime, each of the characters are personified forms of the nations they represent. I started watching today!

Japan is on the left. Italy is in the center, and Germany is on the right.
Besides the amount of fanservice in this anime, I mostly watch it for the humor and cuteness. To my surprise, it was a very educational anime. The anime explained the relation between the nations and things that happened in the past. It is fun, but it doesn't change the fact that this anime is somewhat racist and stereotypical. Unintended offensiveness, I'm sure. But, most of the assumptions claimed in the anime are based on true facts from the countries' pasts.

In this series, Italy (often called 'Italia') is the main character. Back then, Italy was split in two, north and south. So Italy is portrayed as a pair of twin brothers. Veneciano representing northern Italy and his twin brother Romano representing southern Italy. Veneciano (who is pictured above) is the true main character. He has a scary obsession with pasta, but he's very kind to everyone and all the other nations. Italia is the only nation that didn't really want to fight anyone. It's interesting, every time the allied forces shows up, Italia quickly pulls out his white surrender flag and waves it around to avoid fighting. Although, he angers Germany whenever he does that.

So, lets go back to the beginning of WWII. Basically, Germany bumped into Italy and kidnaps him so they can form an alliance. Germany is very surprised that Italy shows no resistance after allowing Germany to conquer him. Germany asks confusingly, "Hey, Italia... don't you want to retaliate or escape or something?" Italy replies, "Hmm? Why??? You feed me yummy bratwurst and you protect me from scary enemies... Let's be friends!" After that... Italy develops a co-dependency complex and is constantly being rescued by Germany. America and England constantly bully and attack Italy because he was considered the weakest (mean assumption) amongst the axis powers. Germany rescues Italy a lot in this anime. At one point, they made a reference I understood. Germany, Italy and Japan are preparing for war. Italy gets super excited and shows everyone that he made surrender flags for all of them, Germany gets annoyed and tells Italy to come up with something more practical. Later on, Italy comes back and announces that he made more surrender flags. Germany yells, "HEY! That was no different from before! You got anything else?!" Italy replies, "but... all I have *pulls out suitcase* is Niccolo Machiavelli *Machiavelli pops out of suitcase*" Germany says, "sadly we can't use him." I know that reference! Machiavelli was a famous Italian writer a long time ago, he wrote a lot of controversial stuff. One of his books was about military strategies, which ironically, when an Italian general used the book's advice for battle, he failed miserably and lost every battle.

This anime is so good, I can't stop watching it!
Each episode does not exceed over 5 minutes and it's really cute! Even the ending song is adorable, this is just the ending video, it's very short, english translation below:

Hey hey papa, give me wine!
Hey hey mama, hey hey mama!
I can't forget that taste
of the bolognese I ate before!

Draw a circle, there's Earth!
Draw a circle, there's Earth!
Draw a circle, there's Earth!
I'm Hetelia!

Ah, a fabulous world...
That can be seen with the stroke of a paintbrush.
Let's have a toast with our boots!
Hetelia!!!

Yeah... I'll write about Gameworks tomorrow, I'm tired.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Chicago

Everyone is probably wondering what Tessie found this time?

Okay, well... today was another ordinary day at work, the lunch shift is dead as usual. A customer steps in and tells me that he's alone so a "table for one." I noticed that the young man was carrying something familiar in his arm. I guided him to his seat and I pointed out, "Dude! Nice longboard!" He was a bit surprised when I said that, he replied, "What?! You actually know what this is?! Yeah, thanks, I just got it recently."

I FOUND A LONGBOARDER IN BATAVIA!!!

I just got into a little conversation with this guy, "Wow, that's really cool! And yeah I know it's a longboard, because my friend bought a custom longboard back in high school and he's a member of the 'Chicago Longboard Society.'" Then he asked me, "Do you know what shop your friend got his longboard from? I was thinking about getting a custom for myself." I told him, "I don't really know, my friend told me that he bought it from Michigan, but no details about the shop, sorry."

Now I should explain what a longboard is...
It basically looks like a skateboard, only bigger and longer. The material for the board is sturdy but really flexible. The trunks are larger and have a wider range of motion compared to a skateboard. The wheels are much bigger (double that of a skateboard) and made of a gummier softer translucent polymer. It's a bit of an underground sport. Not very many people practice this type of boarding nor do most people know about it. Finding other longboarders is like trying to win the lottery... very random and slim chances.

After the guy finished eating, he walked to the counter to pay for his lunch. I made a strange request after he finished paying. I said, "I have a strange request, can I take a picture of you with your longboard?" The guy said very happily, "Hahaha, why of course you can!"

Here he is!
The longboarder I found in Batavia. I so want to show this to Maciek. Maciek is still an active longboarder, I'm sure he'd enjoy hearing about how I found another longboarder. What I found strange in this picture... this guy's longboard is rather small. Every time I visit Maciek's house, I can see his longboard sitting in the corner of the basement. Maciek's longboard was definitely bigger than this one. It's a different shape too. Oh well, I need to ask Maciek about it then...

It was fun talking to this guy today. Unfortunately I didn't catch his name. I wonder if he'll stop by to eat again... In the future, I can probably give him the name of that custom longboard shop in Michigan. But I would need to ask Maciek first.

Until next time, bye for now.

Current Mood: blank
Current Location: housing HQ

Seriously, did anyone else but me notice this random thing?
This is from one of my super random observations... I just felt like watching Blood on Fire for old time sake. It reminded me how much AAA has changed since then. These are my own screencaps.

Anyways, while I was watching, I happened to pause it at an interesting frame. Like I asked, did anyone notice this?

Shuta... has a flashlight in the video. If I was the only dumb person who missed this and everyone else already knows about this, please feel free to inform me that everybody already knows... if not, I'll continue my findings. Really, I never noticed the flashlight before.

My next issue was... why would they need a flashlight in the first place?! If you didn't notice, Blood on Fire is loaded with CG effects and sound FX. Why the simplicity of the flashlight?!

Shuta is trying to blind us so we don't notice...(I'm kidding)

Shuta has the flashlight for most of the clear shots of him in the video. The only times you won't see the flashlight is during the full group shots and his break dancing solo.

Well... he has redefined the form of prop dancing... which is actually a difficult style to master without impaling people around you. If I recall... in Asian music culture, Min-woo made the "water bottle" dance popular (dancing with a water bottle in your hand). Mmm... bottled water never looked sexier... Same thing applies here, respect the flashlight! Shuta with a metal heavy duty flashlight looks really cool for some odd reason. Although... besides the limited blinding light... THE FLASHLIGHT SERVES NO PURPOSE!!!

I'm done with my random discovery, carry on.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: housing HQ

Sorry for not writing for a very long time... again.
Miki even warned me too. She said... never look back(I'm kidding, "kat-tun joke"), what she really said was "careful Tess, people might think you're dead from not writing." Well! I am very much alive. See! I AM NOT DEAD!!! I'm still very busy with lots of stuff you know, I don't have all the time I want anymore.

Ha! Like it matters, no one would notice if I died. I'm too quiet to begin with... wouldn't be noticed at all.

With that out of the way, what is "The Taste?"

Well, it's short for "The Taste of Chicago." It's the largest outdoor food fair we have every summer in Chicago. Restaurants from all over Chicago gather and set up tents and sell their best dishes for tickets.

Dominick's Grocery sponsors the festival every year and like I said earlier, you need tickets to purchase food. It's $8 for 12 tickets, which equals about a strip. There's rides, free concerts, raffles, food, and test samples for drinks or products that haven't been released yet.

I went with Miki by train. It was so scary because we were the only ones waiting for the train.

Chi-an wanted to meet up... so after we got off the train, we wandered around(we were lost for a while) until we made our way to the "John Marshall Law School."

Right on the corner of the street... there was this giant eyeball that just stared off towards the lake(Lake Michigan). It was still being assembled... I wonder what it's for???

We looked around and we didn't see Chi-an. We called her and all of the information we could give her was... "we're next to the giant eyeball, in the corner of "State" and "Van Buren." What I didn't realize was that Chi-an was right next to us when we called her. We didn't notice until we walked apart.

Every year, I always buy crawfish from the same place, but this year they withdrew from the vendor's list. But my other favorites were there, like homemade potato chips, giant bbq turkey leg, and fried okra.

The place that sold these chips was nearby the "Buckingham Fountain."

There it is, all the way in back.
I tried a few new things too because there were also some new restaurants selling food at "The Taste." There was this one Afrian cuisine place called "Iyanze," that had the most spectacular Hibiscus sorbet. They also had a very interesting stewed goat which I regret not taking pictures of.

Later we met up with Santi, Chi-an's husband. Santi is awesome! He made a great list of places he wanted to sample food from. We did save him some goat, but because he was a little late, we kept teasing him about the goat getting tough because it had taken him so long to find us. But yeah, he recommended a mustard fried catfish... and the aroma... the herbs... seasoning.. texture... they all complemented each other so well. So mustardy, the catfish smelled fishy... seeing as it's one of the most smelliest fishes you'll ever find, in my opinion... the batter would work on tilapia very nicely. Sorry, no pictures of it.

For dessert we chose to try out "Churro Factory." The line was really long, the churros must've been really good. That's why we waited in line. They piped filling into the churros... melt in your mouth deliciousness. Freshly made churros are unbeatable.

On the way back to the main side of the fair we saw something interesting being sold at another restaurant. The "Abbey Pub"(it's actually near my house) had a stall at "The Taste" and one of their items was "Irish Curry w/fries." We all had a "lol...what?" moment,,, it was great. But out of curiosity we wondered, "what on earth is Irish Curry?!" Santi, who was laughing behind me said, "HA! No such thing, curry isn't Irish! It must be 'Japanese curry' or something." Chi-an and Miki were super curious and asked one of the workers what exactly was the Irish Curry and what was in it. The guy had no clue, he just sold the food. Out of fear, he ran to the back and got their chef to talk to us. He was laughing and said we were the first ones who actually asked about the curry in detail. Out of refusal to reveal anything, the chef just started lying his way through all of our questions like a joke. In a rather good Irish accent he said, "ah... the herbs picked from the highest peaks to season tis fine curry... made by laughing leprechauns with pinch of shamrock under a rainbow..." What a load of bull, now that we're suspicious, we ordered a taste portion. I tried the the curry... I recognized the scent and taste and I yelled, "you were right Santi!" The restaurant workers and their chef giggled as they had no idea about our secret conversation. Miki and I then screamed "IT'S JAPANESE CURRY!!!" Their chef was shocked and said, "now now, what's tis about? Hush down, tis Irish Curry, no no no, just fine Irish Curry." After we walked off, the chef had a grumpy look... Sorry... but you can't fool me, you can't call it Irish when it's clearly Japanese curry. Though he could easily fool people who have aged/dulled taste buds. Hehehe... Irish curry wasn't worth a photo, sorry again.

As my first day at "The Taste" grew closer to an end, we made another round back to Iyanze for some more Hibiscus sorbet. After that we all parted ways.

NOW! Day two!!!
Yeah I went back for a second day, this time with my parents. I did try more food today though. I had a plantain pork dumpling, more churros, chorizo w/yuca fries, hibiscus sorbet, rainbow ice cream, and bananas topped with mayonnaise(which was really an accident on Miki's part). Oh man... Miki... the bananas with mayonnaise were foul... don't ever do that again.

Speaking of bananas, Chiquita Bananas had their own tent. I got myself a banana hat and it was awesome! They were giving them out for free, but they were cool! I had so much fun wearing it.

I'm wearing it over my Tanaka Koki hat and it still looks ok.

While we were waling around in the back area, we could see all the grills they were using for "Robinson's Ribs." They were smoking and grilling a lot of meat. There was so much smoke everywhere.

It was so nice, we had a little picnic in the shade. Almost the perfect picnic.
My parents fell asleep after eating...

After the festival, we went into Chinatown because it was nearby. We were by New Chinatown.

My mom needed groceries... I wanted to take some pictures near zodiac square because they had all the cool statues, but it was a bit far(not really, it was a 2 minute walk) and we didn't have time. I did get a quick picture of the entrance of zodiac square.

As we left I also got a quick picture of the pagoda located in the center of the area.

And that was what happened recently. If I have more time again, I actually have some really interesting stuff to post.

Until next time, bye again.

Current Mood: bored
Current Location: Chicago

So last week, I had the same lady who had high expectations. Since I had some basic knowledge of skating, she always asked me to do basic things like I should already know what they are. She would skate up to me and say, "work on swizzles and holding-strokes, I'll be right back." Because I'm just a beginner who pretty much skated for an entire season without any guidance, so I'm like, "WTF?! What's a friggin swizzle?! *dumbfound* A what stroke...? Hey, help me out, I have no idea what you're talking about." Her method is "listen to me and do it and I'll be right back." It doesn't help that she doesn't pay attention to our mistakes or even corrects them. I understand her, she needed to teach two classes at once because the second instructor had personal problems and was away for two sessions. Leaving her to watch two classes.

So today, the other instructor finally returned. His name is Adam and he's my new skating instructor. Apparently he's the crazy technical guy who wants everything to be perfect. He's a drill sergeant when it comes to posture and technique. He won't let you move on to the next lesson until you've mastered your current lesson. Miki was jealous because she prefers Adam. Miki got stuck with that other lady because Miki's in a different level from me. Miki told me that Adam is good because he works with everyone individually to perfect every detail.

Today, Adam kept picking on me because I don't hold my arms out for balance, I don't bend my knees, I don't skate with my feet together, I don't stroke properly, and I slouch. He made me do a whole bunch of ridiculous exercises because I lacked basics, understandable because I'm untrained. Besides being a crazy neat-freak, Adam's a cool instructor. I look forward to future sessions.

I've been taken to work again...
While at work. I was really bored and started looking up drama series to watch. I was in the mood for a Yokoyama Yu drama, I haven't seen him since "Yukan Club."

I really like Yokoyama Yu, he looks funny(in a good way) and he's very silly. I like hearing his ever-so-rare cheesy Chinese. Yu also does the best/funniest manzai acts I have ever seen. I was looking up both new and old dramas. I found one.... but... I was a little shocked. I ended up finding... I found yet another "Hey Say" drama with the same kid, Yamada Ryosuke. That boy shows up in everything I watch and he's on the cover of almost every magazine I look at.

This drama is called "Hidarime Tantei EYE." I spotted it because Yokoyama was on the cast list. I know for a fact that Yokoyama never gets major roles, but even though his roles are minor, he still plays a significant character. Anyways, Yokoyama gets killed in this drama and Yamada's character gets an eye transplant from deceased Yokoyama(they play brothers) and now he gets weird visions of what events led up to Yokoyama's death. I haven't watched this drama yet but I was like, "noooooo they killed off Yokoyama, oh wow Yu's gone downhill since Yukan Club." So... the debuted Johnny plays a dead guy with a minor yet significant role and the Jr. gets the lead role... Can't blame them, Yamada Ryosuke's got a good amount of acting experience and he's adorable. I remember from a while back, he had a minor role in "One Pound Gospel." That was one interesting drama, but I couldn't take it seriously nor could it's silliness hold my attention for long... because it was just another "Kame" drama and it felt a bit repetitive. Moving back to Hidarime Tantei EYE... I will attempt to watch this new detective drama, also because "Meitantei no Okite's" subs are taking forever and "Shibatora" refuses to let me obtain it. But yeah... this boy... Yamada Ryosuke... is everywhere...

Until next time... Hey... anyone have any j-drama recommendations???
I could really use some, I need to watch something during my rare freetime.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: housing HQ

Once I get a new game...
I won't put it down until I beat it...
Yup, still playing Ragnarok DS. So.... sorry, but I'll just post a little bit and go continue playing Ragnarok. Wah! My main party is nothing without Aoi as my "Shaman." I'm stuck with Lucifi (knight) and Lisir (wizard) who have no healing capabilities whatsoever. So I'm stuck wasting tons of zeny on potions, all because Aoi got kidnapped by evil forces. My current in-game mission is to rescue Aoi from being killed by the evil people. Aoi was my auto-healer, now she's unplayable, which means I need to manually heal everybody in my party.

Enough about my game!
I went to the dentist today and got some cavities filled... it hurt! Then we stopped at Ikea for lunch. I had a Swedish meatball meal with a yummy apple cake for dessert.

Along with mashed potatoes and lingon berry sauce. It was as good as always.

Apple cake.... *gulp*
It was..... very.... delicious... and it had such a cute little Swedish flag on it.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Chicago

Yeah... very unclear title.
Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I haven't written in days! I've been so busy that I haven't had any time recently.
I'm really tired... my eyes are tearing because I'm so tired.

Can I write tomorrow?
I promise I'll write tomorrow. I need to e-mail someone first and then I'll crawl to my room. I want to sleep...

See ya tomorrow!

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Chicago

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epik_noodles

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August 2012

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Life's short and boring...

But I just want to write about it!

Entries tagged with random

Eventful Day.

Busy with Work.

Well Whadya Know.

Fixing Brochures and Other Non-Lazy Things.

Been Really Bored Lately.

No Title.

Why am I so Negative?

Sat Around.

Relaxation

Ahh... Mmm... I Don't Know.

New Hotel, New Day.

Wah....ha...

Going Away Party.

This Anime is So Fun!

Found One!

Anyone Ever Notice This?

I'm Not Dead, THE TASTE.

Instructor Change?! Yamada Ryosuke is Everywhere!

Game Marathon...

Tomorrow... Please Wait... Tomorrow.