So, I took a few days off before classes started to go around and see the cherry blossoms. For some reason, I had it in my head that I needed to go to Nara, so I went. The park is very lovely, but you definitely have to watch where you step. I also learned that you shouldn't buy deer crackers if you're by yourself, unless you want a herd of deer to swarm out of nowhere and have their way with you.

Todaiji is amazing though, and definitely worth the trip. Buddha is totally chill, and the guardians at the gate are amazing. Hard to believe they were carved 700+ years ago. Nara was also my first time seeing true hanami. Three salarymen, a camp stove, and a 24-pack of beer. Rock. But instead of boring you with words, I'll bore enthrall you with pictures.

( Nara )

The next day, I decided to stick around Kyoto. I caught the last of the plum blossoms at Kitano Tenmangu, had yakisoba and Ramune under the cherry blossoms at Hirano Jinja, and checked out the zen garden at Ryoanji. I wanted to go to Ninnaji too, but thanks to getting sick in the middle of the night, I got a late start and got there just after they closed.

( Kyoto )

Friday, I went to Hana no Tera in Oharano. Even though it's well-known for its cherry blossoms, Oharano doesn't get many tourists. So it was very quiet and peaceful there. Actually, the only other gaijin that I saw there happened to be the guy I sat next to on the plane from Boston, who teaches in Okinawa. o.O Everyone I met in Oharano was super-friendly, and the other temple, Shohoji, had beautiful gardens, and you could actually go inside the halls. So I had a great day. ^_^ Then I took the train back to Kyoto and went to the Gion light-up and to see the huge cherry tree in Maruyama Koen.

( Oharano )

Saturday was the big Sakura Matsuri at Himeji Castle, and like a crazy person, I went. It was sooooo beautiful though, and definitely worth fighting the crowds.

( Himeji )

On Sunday, I went to Kameoka for a hanami picnic with Paulette and Sue. We had alcohol and a tarp, so it was genuine hanami!

( Kameoka )

Monday it rained, and I was exhausted, so even though I had the day off, I just stayed home and had awesome RP with kanaliya. Unfortunately, it continued to rain heavily for several days, so that was pretty much the end of sakura season. :(

As always, there are more photos here.

Next update: Tokyo and pr0n version!

Hard to believe it's already been one year. To celebrate, there was an earthquake this morning. \o/

The unthinkable -- dare I say, the unspeakable -- has happened.

Japan is in the middle of a butter shortage. ToT

I was able to skip out of work today and go to the Gion Matsuri parade, which was awesome, but I only took one picture before my camera decided that all my batteries were dead. >.> And I have lots of work to do to get ready for Fuji tonight so I can go to the baseball game tomorrow. It's the prefectural quarter-finals or something like that.

This spastic and discombobulated post is brought to you by the letter stress.

I just got home from an eight course dinner. All eight courses were tofu. x_x

LOL, the police have my neighborhood blocked off because of the G8 talks. Maybe I won't be going out this evening after all.

This is a momentous day! My flickr account is completely up-to-date! :o

It’s a special kind of person who can roll halfway down a mountain strapped to a pair of skis and be fine, but needs to go to the hospital for x-rays because they messed up putting on their shoes. >.> And yes, that person would be me.

I haven’t updated in, um, forever, because A) there’s been a ton of stuff going on, B) I’m lazy, and C) I hadn’t been taking my medicine regularly because I was running out, but I got some more, so I’m starting to feel better now that I’m taking it every day again. I do wish that the world could just stop for a bit and let me catch up, though.

( super boring update: skiing version! )

( super boring update: doll and bodily injury version! )

( super boring update: art snob version! )

Okay, I’m ending things here, because I know that anything more would be just TOO MUCH AWESOMENESS for you to handle at once. But stay tuned for more zomg amazing updates featuring exciting topics such as: Flowers! Being attacked for food by crazy animals! Flowers! Bitching about the Japanese system of school administration! Porn! And moar flowers!! And as always, check out my flickr page for more photos.

Taxes. For when life just isn't fucking frustrating enough.

I finally finished reading Paul Clifford, the book that no one knows, but everyone's heard of. (It's the one that starts, "It was a dark and stormy night.") When Mark Twain made his rants about brevity of writing, I think that this was the book he had in mind. Though the author makes some very good points about the criminal justice system, and there's one excellent pun ("make up for my absence with my presents") the whole thing is the very embodiment of tl;dr. My particularly favorite quote:

( two freaking sentences )

JUST SAY SHEEP, DAMMIT.

It's actually considered by many to be one of the worst books ever published, and the horrible prose isn't helped by the author's enormous ego. At one point, he interrupts the story to rant for 60 lines about how Thomas Moore was full of shit on some point or other, and it's just like, dude, who the fuck do you think you are?? Then at the end, he's like, "Now that I've blown your mind with my amazing plot twists, I'll explain everything to you," when I had guessed the big surprise about 1/3 of the way in. Yeah, whatever there, Mr. "Let's End This Sentence With 168 Exclamation Points" Bulwer-Lytton.

In case you're wondering why I bothered to read the whole thing, the main reason is because I was in serious need of a hardcore English workout. But also because I hate myself. But now that it's out of the way, I can read about gay Arthurian knights! \o/ Yay!

( the end-of-year survey )

[edit] Wa!! rkold, I just got your package! Thank you!! :3 Where did you get that tape? I know someone who's in love with the shinkansen, and would ADORE it.

x_x I was "invited" to a Christmas party tomorrow. And by "invited", I mean I'm expected to prepare and run some sort of English Christmas game for 20-30 elementary school students. And for the privilege of all this, I get to pay ¥4000. And have I mentioned that I've wasted my whole day doing nothing and haven't even started on it?

Fuck.

JLPT is tomorrow (how can it be December already?!), and I'm not likely to pass. x_x But because there is a possibility of passing, I have to waste my whole weekend studying instead of going sightseeing during peak foliage time.

Anyway, I has a flickr page. But no pictures from Japan yet. I'm still uploading road trip pictures right now.

Because I just got my motorcycle license. >D And the bruises, road rash, and aching muscles to prove it. @_@ And LET ME TELL YOU INTERNETS, learning to ride a motorcycle is not easy. Especially since the first bike they gave me handled like a drunk ox. I came so close to giving up. But then they got me a smaller bike (only 125cc, oh noes, my penis is so small), which handled great, although it did tend to stall at the bat of an eyelash. We also watched an anti-drunk driving video in which Chip Esten (yes, of Whose Line Is It, Anyway?) played all the parts. XD;

Anyway, I would have done quite well on the driving test, except I completely mucked up the swerve. So I ended up passing by only 2 points. ^^; I did get 100% on the written test, though. And I was complimented many times on my, er, "positive attitude".

At any rate, it is done, and now it's time for another visit with Mr. Ice Pack.

Well, my tooth is scheduled to be pulled next Monday. The other option was to get a root canal and a crown and braces, and then maybe there'd be about a 40% chance of saving a tooth that's caused me nothing but trouble ever since it grew in. Not exactly a tough decision. I probably won't be getting a bridge, which makes me feel kind of white trash, but the tooth can't be seen anyway, and the whole reason it needs to be pulled in the first place is because there's not enough room in my mouth for it. And then we get to decide what to do about the same tooth on the other side! It's not as bad, but still probably not worth saving. Oh, the excitement. I hope this won't be as bad as having my wisdom teeth out was. :x

Ugh. What a rotten week, and it looks like I'm not the only one. And to top it all off, I discovered today that not only do I have to go to the dentist (I despise the dentist, and the hoops my health insurance makes me jump through only makes it worse, which is why I haven't been in years), but I'm probably going to have to have my rear molars pulled. My mouth is really too small for them, so it's nearly impossible to fit a toothbrush back there. *sigh* I guess it's my own fault for not keeping up with regular checkups.

In the meantime, that plus the cut on my tongue means I can't eat anything that is:
hot
cold
sweet
sour
salty
tangy
chewy
crunchy

Yay.

[edit] And of course, of course the dentist's office is closed today because it's Good Friday. So I have to wait three days before I can even make an appointment. x_x *headdesk*

1. I can fit into jeans again! Well, they're my fat jeans, but still.
2. I got a haircut today.
3. I had to throw out my peanut butter because it was from one of the "tainted" batches.

Scene: Friday

Me: I know I said I'd be in for 1:30, but you see, there were these gay pirates....

Boss: .............

Okay, so that conversation didn't actually happen, but I was half an hour late to work because I brilliantly decided to read my gay pirate book in a room with no clock in it. And THEN, the reason I was supposed to go into work so early was because I had to leave later for a doctor's appointment. Now, I had been led to believe that this was just a discussion of next week's surgery to make sure that I understood everything. But they lied, and instead it was SURPRISEBUTTSECKSPELVIC EXAM. T__________T Owwwwwwwwwwwww the paining.

And then I had to go back to work, and you know the very first thing that happened?

I WAS STABBED. SOMEONE TOOK AN X-ACTO KNIFE AND STUCK IT RIGHT IN MY HAND. D:

They didn't mean to do it, but still. T___T Of course, I was in so much pain from the pelvic that it took me like a whole minute to realize that I was bleeding all over the place and needed to put a bandage on it. So yes, now I can say with authority that being stabbed hurts much less than having a pelvic exam.

Anyway, the result of the exam was that my uterus is too small for Essure, so we'll be going straight to the tubal ligation instead. While I really liked the idea of setting off airport security detectors with my robo-implants, at least this way, it'll be over in one shot, and by this time next week, I'll be as cold and barren as Dick Cheney's heart. It also helped to be able to report to my mother that it would be pretty much impossible for me to carry a fetus to term, anyway. Not that any of it matters, since I doubt I'll ever be having PIV sex, but better safe than sorry, right?

Okay, I'm done. The guys on my f-list can uncover their eyes now.

Question: Which is worse?

1. That I am reading mpreg.
2. That I'm actually really enjoying it.

Of course, it helps massively that the impregnation of said male character was done in such a way as to be quite plausible in the universe of the story.

Lauren and Mike are up for Hanukkah, so we hung out today. We went to the humane society (Jackson and Sheddy McShedsalot are still there; Molly Brown and the kittens were adopted) and Building #19 (incl. encounter with Random Road Rage Man, who actually STOPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF MOVING TRAFFIC to yell at me, wtf, I have no idea why he was even mad at me, except that I possibly might not have let him change lanes when he wasn't using his turn signal. He was flipping his shit so randomly that we all couldn't help but laugh our asses off, and he chickened out and didn't get out of his manly red pick-up with the Dubya sticker on the back). Then we met her parents for dinner and all went to see The Pursuit of Happyness, which was very good. Nepotism rarely makes for a positive movie experience, but Will Smith's kid is actually a pretty good actor. Also was excited when the rolled the opening credits and I saw that Dan Castellenata was in it, because I fangirl him massively, even though his role was as un-Homery as it could possibly be. Anyway, the movie really spoke to me on a personal level with where I am in my life right now, and really showed me how lucky I am, and how fearful, and how much more I could probably achieve if I just reached for it. I'm really glad that I saw it.

That being said, I'm going back to my mpreg now. >3

First I hurt my shoulder, then my mom hurt her shoulder, and then my grandma hurt her shoulder. No one thought my grandma would be able to have surgery done before Christmas, but apparently there's an opening, uh, tomorrow. Which I found out ten minutes ago when my mom called and asked if I would take her and my stepfather to the airport.

I have no idea how long they'll be gone. One of them was supposed to take my step-grandmother to her eye procedure on the 5th, but I don't know if that will be rescheduled, or if one of them's coming back. My mom was supposed to drive me to Essure on the 12th, but that's just a local anesthesia, so I can probably manage on my own if I have to.

My mom is really anal about the mail, so she wants me to stay at the house while they're gone. I think it would be counterproductive to move all my stuff over there before the JLPT though, even though is is an immensely better study environment. *winces from Spawny McBratface next door hurtling himself at the walls* If today wasn't my last day of vacation, I'd do it, but... *sigh* Maybe on Saturday after I've printed out everything I need.

TOO MUCH GOING ON AT ONCE KTHX.

Also, how many brain cells do you need to figure out that if you've screamed for your mom 48 times and she's clearly not going to come see what it is you want, maybe you should shut up and go find her?

As usual, once you start doing the thing you've been avoiding, it's not nearly as bad as you thought it would be while you were avoiding it. I'm going to have to scratch everything but studying and JET of my vacation to-do list though, because I realized I haven't studied nearly as much as I should have. Equivalent to one semester, my ass.

Skiddie got adopted yesterday. I'm glad that I was there to give her a good-bye hug. Jackson was feeling nice today and actually let me pet her for a bit before attacking me, instead of going straight to the attacking. Oh, and I got a better look at Paws, and she actually has seven toes on each foot.

Okay, time to get back to work.