I have been seriously neglectful to this thing..

… here’s what I’ve been up to:

I’m home in the states and living it up! The first weekend I was home the girls all gathered in Bernatrice’s apt for a weekend of randomness. First night it was onto “Garden of Eden” but not without pre-partying w/ Hypnotic at the apartment. Forgetting it is America where guys actually buy drinks for you I was on a mission to get all my drinking in before we went so that I didn’t have to spend any money! That was the worst decision I have EVER made. Hennessey times 4 later we were alllll ready to leave the club and head for home, with NO sober driver. We called Wil’s boyfriend to come all the way from Chino Hills to come pick us up and were up til 6 in the morning reminiscing about the night… meanwhile I was fighting back the urge to run to the toilet to pay my repentance for the night’s fun-stivities.

Gerund- The club promoter (Thanks for the drinks homie)the beginning to my endBerna repping her SNACMe and my best friend

Then Saturday we got in the car and drove 1 hour to Manhattan Beach to meet up with Elijah, Andre, Donelle, Adam and Randy. After searching for parking for another hour and nearly avoiding a mishap in the parking lot, we walked up to see literally thousands of intoxicated half dressed partiers lining the beach. What we thought was going to be a chill tanning session turned out to be another crazy day ending with me being thrown into the ocean by the hooligans and Berna screaming “Welcome back to CA biatch” NOT COOL and I was freezing. We played volleyball (girls vs. guys) and we won! We got off to a rocky start so the boys sat down and claimed that we couldnt even score a point with no competition. That lit a fire under our asses, the noise was "broughten" and we ended up with the V!

Let the games beginTime out for a picture
This is after we scored....again!
The walk back to the car was even eventful: a scuffle with the cops, eating off of people’s dinner plates from the balcony, getting lost trying to find our car, getting a ticket, and half the group getting separated. It was such a fun first weekend back but I was ready to go back to Oxnard to get some sleep after only sleeping a total of 5 hours the entire weekend.

He gets paid to take pictures but I had to show him how we do it in JAPAN

OOOJIMA! Going out in style..
Im going to miss you guys soo much!

I told you about my gift from Okima being a summer kimono or Yukata. They asked me to wear it and I obliged. Only I couldnt get it on properly so I panicked and frantically called Sachino (my fav. JTE) to come over and help me get dressed.. I looked a mess, so sloppy and everything hanging out in the wrong places. Anyways after she started completely over from the beginning, it finally started to look like it was supposed to and besides me not being able to BREATH, I was set to go! Those things are the MOST uncomfortable things to wear. She tried to make me put a board in the front of the Obi to make it smooth but there was NO way anything else could fit in that thing without me passing out so I told her it was MUUURI!!! (impossible).

my hair that took me FOREVER...

me dressed in Yukata..thanks to Sachino..b/c believe me, it didnt look like this when I put it on! lol

my VERY LAST enkai on Tuesday night was filled with a lot of DRINKING because my legs were falling asleep trying to sit in the Yukata! I literally had to drink the pain away! This was the first teacher enkai that I have decided to drink at all year so I was hoping it was going to be a good laugh. All the teachers took turns going around the circle giving me their message in English (after a couple drinks of course). I couldnt believe that a couple of them almost sounded like native speakers but hadnt said a SINGLE word of English to me all year. I guess that liquid courage was enough of a boost to give them the confidence they needed. The school nurse ended up getting really really really drunk and held onto my arm all night never leaving my side for a second. She was completely trashed and it was seriously the most hilarious thing I have seen since I started working at the school!

the principal giving the Kampai speech!

The coolest girls.. takeda (left) reminded me of my aunt Debbie... Hasegawa on my right was pretty much like another mom teaching me all about Japanese culture and making me goodies every week... and SACHINO --the best. PERIOD.the teaching staff at my favorite school!

Anyways after the party we all went to karaoke which was so cool because they all tried to sing English songs including "HELP! I need somebody! Help..not just ANYBODY!"

So these are my J.T.E's that I've been working with all year!

SACHINO! Isnt she cute!?! ...and she is single too!

this is Tetsuya Oguma.. he is crazy and hilarious! The number 1 team teaching team in Japan...according to Tetsuya

SUMMER'S HERE!

Summer is here and ya know what that means. 1. You can find me at the beach if it’s a nice day. 2. I’m going home!!!! I love how my friends from home keep sending me daily updates counting down the days til I get home as if I wasn’t counting down the minutes for myself! At the same time, it makes me feel really special that they all know the exact time my plane lands and everyone is dropping everything to hand out with me as soon as I get home. Wil is coming down from SAC, Lindsey from San Jose and Bernatrice is throwing a big shin-dig in Hollywood. Its about to be soo fun! I didn’t think I would be so excited to leave but as the time drags on, I feel like everything is packed and I’m just waiting the rest of my time out. Today is my last day at school and then I’m finally done with all the “good-bye ceremonies” and end of the year enkis. Ojima gave me a Yukata as a going away present and asked if I could wear it to the end of the year party! Me, the token American, all dressed up in traditional Japanese wear at a party! Should be interesting, Im sure there will be plenty of pictures so I will be sure to post them soon. For now, I’ll be lapping up the sun when the sun decides to bless us with its presence instead of raining out all my weekends like it has been doing for the past month!

The long weekend.

Just because it’s named: All you can drink Special doesn’t necessarily mean that you should literally test to see how MUCH you can drink! Although, for some it was a rough night, I had a great time! I’m pretty sure Kevin and Michael did too…although I’m not sure how they faired after getting NO sleep and heading straight to the airport for their loooong flight home! Anyways here are some of the pics from that night.

Kevin getting a little more into than me...

Mike looking more kawaii than me...Kevin throwing up the gangsta peace and Russel being himself

Girl kisses...yuck

don't ever think Ive gotten that reaction in my life

BEFORE!After:

As Kevin would say,"OWNED!" 3 am Karaoke!

So because I’m leaving soon and I have practically 0 weekends left in Japan. Pam and I decided to head on down to Tokyo on Saturday after getting 4 hours of sleep. Thanks to Mike and Jeffrey we had railpasses and saved about 100$ on the train trip down there…even though Jeffrey’s wasn’t valid still, Pam had a system and it worked every time…hopped in a taxi and talked to the driver so much that he forgot to start the meter…onto Pam’s friend’s performance in Ragus (traditional Irish dancing and singing concert) where we got in for FREE! Pam rambled off some random Japanese/English about singers and the show and apparently they thought we were singers in the show because all of sudden we were handed 2 of the best tickets in the house! 1st floor, another 8,000yen saved! We can’t believe our luck, so far an entire Tokyo trip for FREE! It was amazing and we couldn’t stop talking about how lucky we were! It was AWESOME! Then it was out on the town. Pam’s friend needed to get back to the hotel around midnight since they had performances the next day and she needed her voice to sing. We were faced with a decision, should we go to her expensive hotel with Pam’s friend get a good nights rest and sleep in style orrrrr stay out all night and crash in an internet café!?! Of course, we stayed out all night (even though 2 all nighters in a row is not the brightest idea I’ve ever had) went to A-life in Roppongi and Harlem in Shibuya and were honorary HIGH ROLLERS all night, poppin’ our collars and buying up the bar! To be honest, the only reason is because we saved so much money from entire day, the only option was to have a good time no matter the price! Let’s just say “We made it rain!” LOL… then around 5am and in the middle of a typhoon plodded around in puddles to find an internet café…following a random Japanese couple who were in search of the same thing we finally found one. It was pretty much a cubicle with a reclining chair in it that you could crash in for 4 hours for 1200yen ( about $12). Woke up at 9 and onto Starbucks then to the train station to drag our exhausted behinds on home... on another FREE Shinkansen ride! Because of the typhoon, a lot of the trains were cancelled so Tokyo station (the busiest station in the world) was at a standstill where you literally had to step over people to maneuver through the station. Luckily ours was one of the few trains actually running so once again luck was on our side! It was one of the best times I have on a night out!

After getting home I got a call from Melissa about a potluck card night in Niitsu. Stay home and get some much needed rest or go to Niitsu??!? What to do, what to do. Whelp, it had to be done. Went grocery shopping, whipped up a batch of chimichungus for the potluck and hopped on another train. Good times again. Me and Reg WOOOPED Deccy and Mel in some Spades…*beaming pride* Hung out all night and woke up early to go into the city to see Harry Potter! HAD AN EARTHQUAKE, but we were troopers and went into the city anyways! The trains were all down so I met up with Ros, Johanna, and Natasha for some dinner and chattery

…then home to discover a whole bunch of stuff all over the floor from the earthquake.. Oh well, I leave that till another day to clean up… all I wanted to do was COMPLETELY CRASH…out like a light, only to be woken up by my “temporary not-so-boyfriend” (he made it up, not me) who I haven’t talked to in over 2 weeks blowing up my phone because he was “oh-so-worried” I was killed in the earthquake that happened 15 HOURS earlier, needless to say, I was less than impressed…had some choice words and then it was off to dreamland for umm…a whole 5hours. Boo. Now, I’m sitting at my computer nodding off every 5 seconds and looking a mess! How many hours left of work? …that would be 6. Another boo.

Earthshakin!!!

An earthquake shook Japan's northwest coast Monday the epicenter being in Niigata, setting off a fire at the world's most powerful nuclear power plant and causing a reactor to spill radioactive water into the sea. The 6.8-magnitude temblor killed at least nine people and injured more than 900 as it toppled hundreds of wooden homes and tore 3-foot-wide fissures in the ground. Highways and bridges buckled, leaving officials struggling to get emergency supplies into the region. 10,000 people fled to evacuation centers as aftershocks rattled the area. Tens of thousands of homes were left without water or power. The quake triggered a fire in an electrical transformer and also caused a leak of radioactive water at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest in terms of electricity output.

About 315 gallons of slightly radioactive water apparently spilled from a tank at one of the power complex's seven reactors and entered a pipe that flushed it into the sea, said Jun Oshima, an executive at Tokyo Electric Power Co. He said it was not clear whether the tank was damaged or the water simply spilled out. The U.S. Geological Survey put the intital quake's magnitude at 6.6 and the second at 6.8. There were also a few little aftershocks that took place through out the day. This all coming after a weekend typhoon hit Japan and put trains out of commission on Saturday in Tokyo. Now, after Mondays earthquake, trains again went out leaving people stranded wherever they were at the time of the incident. As of last night, the Joetsu Shinkansen was still closed down. I am so lucky that I decided to come back to Niigata from Tokyo the day before because not only did I get to experience a cool earthquake, I wasn’t stuck in Tokyo for a few more days…missing school…I guess, it wouldn’t have been such a bad thing after all!

TOUCHED!

It touches me to know that I have made such a difference in the English capabilities of my students after being here for an entire year!!!

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DISNEY SEA!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally went to Disney Sea. I’ve wanted to go there since I have been in Japan. With Tokyo Disneyland (which is actually in Chiba and not in Tokyo) being the #1 visited theme park in the world, DisneySea is left with 2^nd place. It was amazing. Jefrrey, Jimmy and I went and hoarded as many fastpasses as we could get our hands on and waited in line only about an hour for each of the other rides! Tower of Terror was amazing. It wasn’t as scary as I remember it from Disney World in Florida, but it was still fun and we only had to wait 40minutes to ride it and I didn’t have to hear my mom screaming the ENTIRE ride so it was a little more enjoyable.

The scariest ride by far was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Not scary like: OH my stomach is in my throat, we’re going to fast and oooh there is, like, a 100mile drop scary…but I THINK I MIGHT DIE scary. The concept is taking an adventure to the depths of the sea in a tiny submarine but I didn’t know until I got on the ride and all the doors closed around me that the submarine was only big enough to fit 6 people sitting, you couldn’t stand upright, it was about 10degrees hotter than the outside air, and there was no way out, plus now that I think about it, I think they cut down the oxygen levels in those things...It was a kids ride and therefore not meant for grown up bodies. There are little holes you can look out of from the inside of the submarine, the ride started, the windows bubble (leaving us in the dark) and we start our plummet down under the sea, then the windows bubble some more and you head further down, the excruciating process happens about 4 times before it is so dark you cant see your hand in front of your face then you go back up to the “surface”…followed by me running out of the ride as soon I saw daylight, knocking down anything in my path, including little kids and pregnant women… don’t judge me it was a matter of survival… Not cool! I hated the ride and started hyperventilating as soon as the doors were shut down on us thrusting us to the mercy of the sea. Anyways, besides my brush with death, we got to ride on every single ride we wanted to and ate some pretty good BBQ for lunch. We even saw a mariachi band (in JAPAN!) and went to a show titled “Mystic Jungle” which was a little like Chinese Acrobats only everyone was dressed up as jungle animals.

OH! Another thing: when a hotel offers you shuttle service to Disney Resort, make sure they offer you return service too! After coming out of Disney I called the hotel and they explained that they didn’t actually offer services coming BACK to the hotel which left us stranded in the mile long parking lot only to wander around aimlessly in search of a taxi. Not cool after you’ve already been walking around all day, another mile seemed endless!

So far in my quest to visit every Disneyland in the world I am over ½ way done (Disneyland L.A, Disney World Fl, Tokyo Disney Sea). The only remaining 2 are Paris and China! Now how many people can say they’ve done that!?!!?

THE BEST SIGN EVER IN TOKYO:

That's a big buddha! I made them do the jumping picture..hence the half hearted attemptThe picture that got me yelled at in BAPE!Even in Japan... so RANDOMcrazy Japanese art wall
wall of Sake on the way to Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, Tokyowashing away the sins in the holy water... you're going to need a lot more than that kid.

The most important Shinto Shrine in Japan. There are over 84,000 shrines in Japan. The Shinto religion believes that people are inherently good and evil spirits cause evil deeds.

What Disney Character are you?

In honor of visiting DisneySea….I’m all in the magical spirit

You are part Jasmine. You are loyal and would visit the ends of the earth for what you believe. You would never let obstacles stand in the way of true love.

You are part Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.