this entry is dedicated to the hello kitty-burning boyfriend.

~LOOKIE WHAT I FOUND!!! ~

she crawled out of the burnables heap and came back home!!! there’s nothing u can do about it!

this also came in the mail today… hooray!!

a work in progress… can u guess wut it is? (hint: ignore the pencil)

                                 WRONG!!!!!

the bday festivities in tokyo were sooper. thanks gen, gaby, christina, tee, cherie, teresa & kevin for a stupendously tremendous nite! to be honest, i was spent after the mexican food. i really was in heaven.. omg i really was…

my first burrito in almost 5 months. my only complaint was it didn’t last long enuf… my mouth still waters when i look at that plate of food. *drool* who woulda thunk i’d miss mexican food this much!!??

my thursday…   lookie what came in the mail today

my wednesday (your tuesday):

 a day of running around with the coolest girl from a few rice patties & a huge pile of rocks over…  (teresa)

1st stop: yamada denki to get my bday present from kevin. check it out:

IXY 600 packed with 7.1 megapix plus a buncha other goodies i can’t wait to try! thanks mr. boyfriend! i love u! *mwah*

2nd stop: bday lunch at Geeta, a newly-opened indian restaurant located conveniently nearby (the only non-japanese place besides pasta). we were about to take pictures, but were too excited by our food to do anything but devour it. cmon, it was all u can eat curry and naan. what would have done? hmm?

3rd stop: some gas station in Sakura.. we got a lil lost

   

                                                                             ^- here’s a sakura sign to remember our journey  

and some graffiti… i saw some better ones, but we were driving so i couldn’t get my cam out fast enuf gotta work on that..

5th stop: aeon department store… where we got our shopping on. oh yeah, we also took purikura of course! i couldn’t believe this purikura shop had these dressing room type vanities. a bit much, but we had to seize the opportunity to humor ourselves and take a few pics. the place was called…

   

it’s wintertime in purikura land

it seemed, oddly enough, that our time was unlimited, so we had ample time to fix up our pictures. because of this gracious opportunity, we actually had enuf time to be able to locate where the cute animal thingees were. perhaps we got a lil carried away with the animals. i mean, there are two different squids on there, along with a big, an ape in an onsen, chick, polar bear, snowmen…. but hey, makes the picture look like there’s more company huh?

and that concludes my spectacular day with an even more spectacular friend. (whose xanga i will sabotage if she doesn’t update soon!!!!) thanks tree for a sooper day!

aww i feel so loved!!

thanks jerry!!!! u’re the best cousin in the whole world!

wow!! lookie wut pauline made for me on her xanga!!

sugoi!! u’re the best pauline!!

this weekend was splendid. saturday, me kev & teresa had a gash bell marathon for episodes 34-45 (thank you parin for 41-45), the best kids’ anime ever!

sunday, was nothing short of a fun-filled day.

first, we were shuttled to the strawberry patch a whole 100 feet in this supercool strawberry mobile. (why we needed to drive out there, i don’t kno, i mean it was walking distance for sure… )

 

the strawberry field seemed to go on forever…. closer………………….lookie the chili-shaped strawberry!!

  

doesn’t this make your mouth water? just look at how BIG and JUICY this one is!!!

 

so yummy!!!! (but not kevin’s, it’s been in his nostril! eeew!!! )

 

as delicious as these strawberries were, we were unable to stuff too many down due to their large size and the breakfast we had eaten right before going to the farm. we thought this would be one of those “pick a box, pay by weight” deals, but we learned that it was all u can pick & eat. sooo…. we secretly took some to-go to get our money’s worth. hehehe

part 2: to be continued…

here’s my attempt to get caught up. wish me luck

today~ went to see super tall ufo thingee at the park w/kevin

last time kevin was there, he got to the top for free, but unlucky for us it cost us $2 each. the view at the top was pretty neat tho. it’s not quite the coit tower or twin peaks (nor is it as high up), but it offered a pretty good view of the our small town’s port & mineral refineries. i’ve never seen a mineral refinery before so that was something novel i guess (to meeeeeh). what captivated me the most were the colors i saw out in the distance. it wasn’t quite beautiful but it seemed a bit fantasy-like since it was waaaay out there…

last week~

                        

i’m headed out from the countryside to the big big city. for those of you who don’t believe me when i say i live in the country, here are some pictures that will help with that.

 ————>

these are views from the bus. one was leaving the country, one is entering tokyo. pretty big difference huh?

this bridge looks really nice at nite since it’s lit up in violet purple lights.i’m absolutely mesmorized as i gaze it when leaving tokyo at nite. (i never got any good nite pictures of it tho , i’ll post some when i’m successful)

 

just look at all those bright lights!!!  at some point i feel like i’m getting hypnotized. there’s a place (i think it’s shibuya), where there are tons of those ginormous tv screens all playing the same damn commercials, and by the end of the nite, i’m convinced i need to buy skII (by maxfactor) cosmetics. lucky for me there are other better distractions within the train station. take for instance this blowup penguin.. he’s so cute!!!! or.. CREAM PUFFS!!!! there are hella cream puff vendors at the train station. u can smell them a mile away. hmm… i sure could use on right about now…*drool*

 

after i met up w/christina, we headed to ueno to meet up with her two buddies judith & courtney. here are our purikuras.

here’s a shot of ueno at nite. i really dig the way the moon is smack in the center of this picture. while walking through the many markets there, i came across this vendor that sold this chinese snack. it’s kinda like a dumpling but in a smooshed circular form (like a pupusa, for those of u who are familiar with salvadorian). miraculously, the thing didn’t have meat! i had to have some!! the vendor guy was hilarious, so i had to get a picture of him for memory’s sake

 

we had quite the bite to eat at a nearby izakaya (traditional japanese restaurantish place that primarily serves alcohol). i thought i was getting a virgin smoothie but the waiter misunderstood me i guess. i was in for a surprise…  i was kinda worried at first when my cheeks started to get hot, but in the end-

 

i was a-o-k!!! (after 4 cups of water) afterwards we had to take some more purikuras cuz we didn’t get any of just us. i actually stole these off her site cuz i seemed to have misplaced my set.

i ended up missing my bus home to kamisu that nite, so i had to go back to shinjuku to stay with tee. while gettin lost tryin to find her place on my own, i came across some graff. not that great, but it’s the most noteworthy i’ve seen yet.

  

last weekend~  *Eric & Kayo’s Wedding*

check out her dress that cost $10,000 TO RENT!!!    (things in japan are just so frickin expensive! )

everyone’s having so much fun! including sumie, who did mine & teresa’s hair. she’s fabulous, no?

 

here’s me n kevin right before we hauled ass outta that hotel for part II of the nite. i this picture so much cuz of the cute lil kids on the side peering into the (fishless) fountain.

after the wedding reception, we left kashima central hotel (also where the highway bus stop to tokyo is located) to go home & change then hurry back to catch the last bus into tokyo for the night so we could hear our buddy yukihiro fukutomi play at loop.

we made it the bus stop with time to spare. after the 1.5 hr bus ride & 30 min train ride, we were in shibuya. here are some interesting things i saw before we got to the club. if anyone needs legal drugs or condoms, these are ur spots.

                              

after a long nite of dancing & breathing second hand smoke, gettin hooked up with staff drink vouchers, and more dancing, we got hooked up with a mixed cd. hooray!! the dj sed he would hook it up “in the near future” but handed his cd over within a matter of 2 minutes. perhaps he didn’t know how to say “in a second”? i later learned the cd was much different from the stuff he spun at the club, but it was still kewl. check out yukihiro fukutomi & wifey & me & kevin & his mixed cd truby trio retreated. (also check out the orange disco ball.. groovy huh? ) what a nite…

 

last last week….. *valentines day*

though it’s japanese custom that the girl give to the guy on vday, kevin brought me home some flowers and took me to a yummy dinner at a restaurant with pictures on their menu (since it’s frickin hard tryin to order w/o pictures… ). such a nice boyfriend 

welp, this concludes my super xanga update. thnx for waiting for all the pics to load. til next time!

eh… so lazy.. mebe cuz i’ve been eating too much… many yummy sweets!!

there’s a lot to catch up on, i’ll just keep this entry simple. teresa & i went out to shinjuku (in tokyo) to visit christina & party with her roomies n friends at their place. lotsa fun, thnx tee! 

after the party, stayed up even later watching joey. woke up quarter til 3 & hit up the shops. only two pics. but they’re the only ones that matter cuz we were at the famous “beard papa”. best cream puff shop around. i can honestly say that this place lives up to its name. *drool*

aren’t we so cool? that’s beard papa himself!! (but not really..)

 

here are the pics from new year’s day. traditionally, everyone goes to the temple to pray for the new year on the first day. it’s considered really good luck if u stick the very first stick of incense into the incense pot at the temple. people line up at the door of the temple close to midnite just waiting to be that lucky person. we did the normal thing and just went during the day. needless to say, it was extremely crowded and smokie. (notice the crowdedness and smoke…)

this temple is very special because it has the most buddhas present. the number of buddhas at this temple grew as they were transferred here from ruined temples. because this temple has the most buddhas, it makes it the most popular temple since u can cover more buddhas at one time.

 

with 7 sticks of incense, we had to make our rounds to each buddha, tossing 1 stick of incense at each stop.

 

and of course, there were lanterns everywhere… the bigger one pictured is actually one that u’re supposed walk under after u’ve made ur rounds at the temple. u walk under and touch it for “good luck”. we skipped it cuz it would’ve taken over an hr til our turn. making that journey thru the temple was enough if u ask me.

                

right outside the temple, there was this gorgeous waterfall, makes for good feng shui

after the temple, my uncle, kevin and myself went to a nearby street market to get some food. even tho i’ve been to the markets many times before, it was slightly different this time since it was new years. laterns everywhere, booths line in red, vendors dressed in red wishing their customers a happy new year.. it was just “so cool”

my fave foods + other taiwanese yummy stuff…. chinese onion pancake, sausage (back when i used to eat meat), ten ren tea, 

  

freshly shaved peanuts + cilantro + taro icecream wrapped in crepe (sounds like a weird combination, but it’s hella good!!), taiwanese bbq corn, pepper pork bun,

   

zhong zi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves)… damn i miss taiwan already…

this concludes part 1 of day 1. my new years day was a busy one..