ワッショイ!

Last night I went to Gevil's last live show at Club Seata in Kichijyoji.
I took the train to Kichijyoji by myself and somehow managed to get on a train that went past my stop so I had to backtrack some and ended up being late, which meant that I had to ask some 14 year old girls to help me find where Kazuma was waiting for me. Once I met up with Kazuma, we went to Mister Donut and met Haru, Ukisemi, and Takuma.  It was really great getting to hang out with them.  I miss my big brothers a lot.  It was also fun to realize that I can almost follow their conversations in Japanese now.
When we got to the venue, I had the realization that it was the same place I saw Quaff perform for the last time and it made me a little sad, but the show was really great! Also I got to meet Takuma and Kazuma's mom and hang out with Hiroka~ So I was happy!

"sealing" Gevil

encore~

After the show, we hung around for the after party and I got to talk with Taka for a minute.  He gave me some sort of strawberry cream filled pastry that looked like Totoro~! It was so cute I felt bad eating it, but it tasted just as good as it looked and I was super hungry by that point haha I intended to stay until first train, but since Haru and I were both dog tired he and Uki were super sweet and paid for us to take a taxi home <3  So I was able to make it back in time to actually get some sleep~

Taka can never pass up an opportunity to make fun of me lol

Today, I had to be at the school by 11:00AM for Spring Semester Orientation.  Basically we just had to go get the necessary paperwork and the list of classes and find out when we meet with our adivsors and the let us leave.  The -interesting- part of it was outside the buildings.  All through campus were two never-ending lines of people handing out flyers for their school clubs.  It was like nothing I have ever experienced before.  It was so loud and as you walk in between these two lines of people to get into the school building there are people on both sides of you trying to get your attention and holding out papers that they are begging you to take.  It was the strangest feeling! I imagine it to be a lot like how rockstars feel when they get done with a show and are walking back to their tour bus or something.  Now I'm happily back in my bed where I intend to stay for the rest of the day because I'm not feeling so great and I want to get plenty of rest and make sure I'm healthy and ready for school to start back on Friday~

Here's a LINK to a video that Emily took at the school today.  You see me attack Macee in a hug at one point in it ^^

Oh yeah... I have a blog....

So lately I have been doing a whole lot of nothing.  But I've been really enjoying the whole lot of nothing I've been doing.  My sleep schedule is terribly off and it's going to suck when school starts back, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

If the last month of my life was a book the title would probably be something along the lines of

The Epic Cooking Adventure 

Part 4 of the on-going Elle and Lauren series

Yeah, I never thought I would be able to list cooking as one of my hobbies, but lately I've developed a love for it.  It all started with me and E trying to get creative with the spaghetti because we got tired of eating the same thing every day.  It became a game to see what all we could actually manage to make with the limited ingredients we had available.

Taco Ring

Chicken Alfredo Spaghetti

Horchata

Hayashi Rice

4AM On-a-Whim Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Also added to this list would be a chocolate cake for Daiki's birthday, biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings, chocolate truffles, chicken soup, cheddar garlic biscuits, and what E and I call 'Mexican Spaghetti' which is basically like eating spaghetti noodles with queso poured over it.  We get desperate for Mexican food fixes around here haha




The 'Short Stories' of this month would include:

30 Minutes Without Air

"Wearing a Kimono was everything Lauren dreamed it would be 

until she realized she couldn't breathe..."

Actually in all seriousness, this was a fantastic experience.  We went to the school and were able to wear real (rather expensive) Kimonos. But I'm not lying when I say that I had to learn to survive with significantly less oxygen than normal while I was wearing it.  There was SO MUCH padding to the outfit, but this padding is meant to suction you in and hold the fabric in place.  I don't think it really -pads- anything.  I am convinced that the woman dressing me was not going to give up until she achieved giving me the appearance of having a bust size equivalent to that of a 13 year-old.  Once we were dressed, we were allowed to walk around in them and take pictures for about 30 minutes before the next group had a chance to try them on.  After we were back in our normal clothes, we were able to take part in a mock tea ceremony as well.  However, I think mine and Molly's most excited moment was discovering the traditional Japanese sweet that was basically the equivalent of a Fig Newton.  The little things make us happy.

Three Sexy Ladies

"Shinjuku didn't know what hit it when these three women came out to celebrate White Day."

In Japan Valentine's Day is celebrated a little differently than it is in the U.S.  On February 14th, girls are expected to give the guys they like chocolates, then on March 14th the guys return the favor.  But since E, Macee, and I have no guys to return the favor we decided to celebrate White Day in our own style: a girl's night out!  We got dolled up and headed to Shinjuku for a fun night of drinking and being with friends!  I'm so glad I have these two around <3

A Gamer's Guide to Birthdays

"Nothing says Happy Birthday like chocolate cake, presents, 

and a good competitive game of Super Smash Bros." 

Daiki's birthday was on the 19th so me and Elle celebrated with the guys a little early.  We baked a super yummy chocolate cake and cooked chicken soup for everyone~  And naturally after we ate, we had to have our usual game of Super Smash Bros.  Having a big group of boys sprawled out in the middle of my living room playing video games is such a typical sight for me and I love it.  I always have such a great time with them, even if I still lose every time.

A Night With The Colonel

"Two girls spend the night at the home of one of the most famous colonels in history: 

Colonel Sanders" 

E showing the lack of people in the restaurant with us.

A chicken sandwich, a chicken leg, a large french fry, and a drink: each. SO MUCH FOOD!!

Yep, that's right.  Me and E went to KFC from about 1AM until 3:30AM for no other reason than we couldn't sleep anyway and we were tired of sitting in my dorm.  We spent about $20 but it was the most meat we had eaten in weeks and it was -fantastic-! It was also made even better by the fact that we were the only ones in there so we could be as loud as we wanted and listen to music on my iphone.

The Fuzzy Hat Duo

"The story of two friends and their hats"

There really isn't too much of a story to this other than we were going grocery shopping and we realized that we were wearing the same kind of hat.  We also noticed that our hair colors matched our jackets.  And naturally we couldn't just take a normal pretty picture.  It's just not our style haha

Journey to the Live House of Kashiwa

"Three young women set out on a journey to Kashiwa 

that puts them on a path toward old and new friends."

Ok really that's just a long way of me saying that Macee, Elle, and I went to see Daiki's band perform.  The venue was in a section of Tokyo called Kashiwa, which as E repeatedly pointed out was in the middle of NOWHERE.  It's a good thing Daiki and Kazuya met us at the station or we never would have found our way there.  We had a great time hearing Daiki's band perform covers of X Japan and Luna Sea.  Also, during their set I made friends with a Japanese girl behind me and she and I rocked out for the last two songs together <3 Her name was Monica and she was so sweet!  After we saw Daiki's band we decided to hang around for a little while.  We were the only foreigners there so -naturally- we stood out so I didn't think much of it when E told me that there was a guy who kept eyeing us and kind of hovering.  However, eventually this guy got the courage to talk to us and informed us that he was the brother of one of the guys in the band we had just watched.  He was really sweet and adorable so we were happy to stand there talking to him and he eventually introduced us to his brother.  At first I was totally stoked that there was a cute guy standing there being obviously flirty with me.... until.... he told me that the guy in the band was his older brother.  Upon asking said older brother his age, a huge neon flashing "I DON'T THINK SO KID" sign went up in my mind because the OLDER brother was 19.  Dude trying to flirt with me: 16.  While I'm flattered that people often think I'm younger than I really am.....that was just ridiculous.  

These Boots are Made for Cross-dressing

"The story of how one pair of boots will forever haunt the boys of I-House..."

So... I have these boots... they are thigh-high, 5-inch heel, rhinestone studded, REALLY AWESOME boots.  And for some reason these boots fascinate the guys who visit my room, particularly when they are intoxicated.  I'm pretty sure that before I come home most of my male friends will have tried on these boots....usually at Molly's suggestion.  It's mine and Molly's evil plot to have blackmail on all of them (not really, but I guess we do accidentally haha) Shou didn't know what he was getting himself into tonight when he said he wanted to come hang out in our room.  He should consider himself lucky that this didn't end up as my facebook profile picture haha  This was the eventful part of the night.  The rest was spent playing Mario Kart.

November 3rd

Since I was having some friend problems, I was feeling sad and little homesick this day. Especially since Molly was gone on her homestay visit. But! Since he's such a wonderful big brother, Takuma took me with him to see a Gevil show and my day was made significantly better.  I met Takuma in front of Starbucks in Shibuya and we went together to Shibuya-AX(the music venue).

While we were walking I tried speaking in Japanese.  It was the first time I had really tried to have a conversation in Japanese with someone since coming to Japan and, even though I couldn't say everything I wanted to, it made me feel really good that I was trying.  I was able to show both myself and Takuma that I had at least learned more than I knew the last time I was in Japan.

I really liked Shibuya-AX.  It seemed kind of small at first until I realized that it had multiple floors.  The first floor was the area where the stage was and there was a bar and some tables to sit at.  Then the second floor had another bar and a dance floor of sorts.  There was a third floor as well, but that was being used as a dressing room on this particular night, I don't know if that is normally the case or not.  When Takuma and I got there we got our drinks and watched some dancers perform.  After the performance, I turned and realized I was standing right in front of Waka, who completely didn't recognize me until Takuma turned around.  We talked to Waka for a while and he was surprised to hear that I was back in Japan for the year.  He also told me I lost weight... while I was completely shocked that he would notice, I like anyone who tells me I look thinner, so I was happy haha  After that I found Gevil's merch girl that I met last time I was in Japan.  I was excited to see her again because she was so sweet! It's hard for us to communicate, but we manage and I enjoy talking with her.  It's like a big game of charades! lol  Eventually, Takuma took me up to the third floor and I got to see Taka.  I was SO happy to see him.  When he spotted me, he walked over and shook my hand, and I was about to start a MAJOR pout fest until he laughed and gave me a big hug.  He was completely messing with me with the handshake *sigh* Then I stood there and tried to get his TINY bracelet on my arm for several minutes.  I eventually managed it, but I still am at a loss for how he gets it on his wrist that is even bigger than mine.  After that I took a picture with him and the other guys then headed back down to wait for their performance.

Gevil's merch girl gave Takuma the video camera and asked him to video Gevil's performance since he's so tall and could see over everyone's heads haha  so Takuma and I had a good laugh calling him "Director Takuma" and going on about his new movie and the plans he had for it.  It was just the kind of goofiness I needed to cheer me up.  After we watched Gevil's show (which was fantastic of course) we continued our craziness and danced and just had a good time until we had to leave in order to catch the train back home.  Taka walked us to the station and we said our goodbyes for the evening.  I can't begin to explain how much the entire night meant to me.  I was having a really rough time and they were there to cheer me up when I needed it the most.  I truly have some amazing friends.

Me with Gevil

Director Takuma

Just a short clip of Gevil's performance