Allergies

It started out in the end of July and has been plaguing me ever since, and it is now mid December.

I have had a constant stuffy and runny nose, off and on itchy eyes, violent sneezes, and even an eczema outbreak on the backs of my knees, though that's unrelated.

Trouble is, allergy medicine doesn't help, it just keeps it from getting worse should there actually be an allergen in the air that bothers me. Now that the weather is drying out it's gotten a lot better, but I'd also started irrigating my nose with eucalyptus oil and saline, as well as taking twice-daily shots of apple cider vinegar. At this point the mucous has made a snug home in my chest and I have been coughing all weekend with little hope of reprieve.

I am so ####ing ready to go back to America. Counting the days and the boxes.

Mucc in Shinkiba

After 14 months of being here, I finally got to see my favorite (current) Japanese band live!! I was so excited I ended up nearly forgetting a couple things on my way to the train...

Left the station at 1PM and arrived in Shinkiba around 4. Made a quick shopping stop in Kashiwa.... Got to Shinkiba and walked to the venue, seeing very few people waiting around. Browsed the band merch a moment, and as I was putting my purchases away, EVERYONE PILED OUT OF THE VENUE. Came to find out there had been a mini concert right before that I wasn't aware of.  Endured the sweltering, claustrophobic conditions to get a locker for my merch and took my purse and satchel with me. This will end up being a minor mistake in judgement.

Found a girl from Germany living in Osaka and chatted with her while we waited for them to start letting people in. Met some of her concert friends, as well, and it turned out 3 of the 5 of us liked Satochi the best (This is rare). Yay!
At first we thought I had a great ticket number but it turned out I was 8 away from being dead last. B92. "A" tickets went all the way to 2400. So one might think I had a crappy location but this venue fed us in from the side of the room, not the back, so I managed to get ridiculously close to the front, just way off to the side which was just fine - good view of Miya and Satochi :D
Unlike at Kashiwa the bar was outside the performance area so I had the choice to drink before or after. I opted for before, got a rum and coke again, but didn't have time to nurse and enjoy it. I chugged and chucked, then made my way inside. I was happy to confirm that I was taller than nearly everyone in front of me... huehuehue Put my ear plugs in and waited.

The lights went down and we cheered. I stood out with my American WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! XD Or at least I think I did. But instead of band members we watched a clip of videos from their European tour and a few back stage things. Then they came on stage! One nice thing I learned about Mucc fans in Japan is they don't opt for high pitched, prepubescent squeals of the member names, but kept their shouts at lower registers.
The music started and we soon rushed the stage, which resulted in me getting even closer! And pushed around but that's ok, I weigh more than all of them! Except I gotta protect my bag... And my glasses. Thank God I got frames that hook behind the ears; my first pair would have flown right off my face.

There was lots of headbanging and pushing to be had, but the third song was when the real moshing actually started... Body surfing had started, and my being taller than everyone turned into a problem as I'd get limbs hooking around my neck, joints and feet hitting the back of my head, and people grabbing my shirt. All well and good but yeah I was dumb to have so much crap with me. I learned for next time, at least. A girl beside me also had glasses and during the more intense moshing songs (LIKE "Utagoe" APPARENTLY) we both were like, "Uuuhhh *takes them off*" XD There was another girl that barely came up to my shoulders and when she'd get pushed and shoved around, especially backwards, I'd grab her and pull her forward, even if just so I could keep an eye on her. For the most part I had a wide-legged stance and elbows poised to block and poke any that dared ^^
At a couple points they had us clear a space in the middle of the floor, filled the room with fog, and started the mosh music again... ^^;;;; So much sweat and body heat everywhere.

As you'd expect, they played mostly new stuff but the classics that got played included, "Utagoe," "Fuzz," "Ryuusei," and I want to say one other but I forget. The set list is out there somewhere. There was some brief MCing and a short break or two, and then they went off and we stomped, clamped, and shouted for the encore ("Oi!"). They came back after about ten minutes and played a few more moshy songs. For the final song, Aki from SID came out to join, and they went all out with the flame jets and silver streamers and and and and Satochi tossed out some drumsticks and augh ;A; Then they said goodbye and left the stage, and we were treated to another set of clips, and an announcement of a tour video, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the music video to "Suiren" which is pretty awesome and moving.

Aaaand then we filtered out and my new German friend (whom I apparently knew on Tumblr, we found out) made the 3 hour trek back to Mito.

Oh, and there was a casualty: my Y100 folding fan got knocked out of my bag and trampled XD I retrieved the corpse for posterity.

Haircuts

I had managed to live here a year and not get a single haircut, barring that done by my sister during my winter visit home. Here it was, June of my second year already, and I was starting to want one. I had started asking around where other AETs got their haircuts done and how much it was, and I'd been inspecting locations near our neighborhood and comparing prices and atmospheres all spring.

Near the massage parlor a block away from us is this little 2-chair salon that we'd seen cats inside. We were of course intrigued, so I checked out the prices. I was a little put off when the first time I went inside, nobody answered my call, and the price sheet had nearly no katakana on it (highly unusual!), and what I assumed to be the standard procedure was $35. I left disappointed, and continued in my search.

At Pikachiu's insistence, however, we decided to try the kitty place after all. We went after work and the owner greeted us this time, sweet as can be and didn't even balk at two foreigners walking in asking for whacks. She had the TV on and some magazines and books to flip through, and with a little stumbling on the language barrier we got some nice summer dos. And a handful of candy. And some bars of soap. Very chatty lady and we did our best to have three-way conversations with her. Sadly, none of her three kitties (Chibi, Koro, and Maru) came out to meet us, but there were several prints and pictures of cats up for us to admire.

A couple weeks later (yesterday) I took Chowder there to get her mountain of waves chopped off (and thinned, but that got lost in translation). Still no cats, but I did hear about how Chibi had gotten lost that morning and worried them to death, but everything was fine in the end.

I've ran into this lady a few times near Kawachi now, as it's across the street, and she doesn't hesitate to chat me up for a minute or two. ^^
One thing that I've wondered about businesses here in Japan is how they survive with so little advertising. Word of mouth can only get you so far, as less and less people seem to communicate with one another anymore, and not all businesses blatantly advertise what they are here, especially those that aren't on the beaten path. I think about this sometimes as I walk by shops, parlors, and restaurants that hardly have any customers in them. It might help that they possibly own the building, as they typically live behind their business, but they still have bills to pay, taxes, food...
Nothing made me wonder that as much as a week ago when I walked by this hair parlor one evening and saw the stylist sitting in the lobby chair, tiredly watching the TV and seemingly just wanting someone to walk through the door asking for a haircut. When I took Chowder, we heard her talking to her mother in the back of the building, and she's mentioned her son working at the massage parlor every time we've seen her, so perhaps there's at least a dual income, but still my heart can't help but ache...

I'm sure I'll be going in for regular trims while I'm here.

Updates again

I obviously haven’t blogged in a while but I want to remedy that by changing my intent overall. First, a couple updates:

The new school year did not hit without changes. My conversation teacher left, the teachers overall got shuffled about in the teacher’s room (this worked to my advantage, on a personal note), and over all my classes are now at the whim of the JTEs because I don’t want to fight with all three of them and keep straight which classes in each grade are on which page in their respective textbook. One JTE is two weeks behind the others and doesn’t do many of the same lessons and worksheets, so I gave up taking point. As long as the kids get conversation time, though, I don’t care. I still get to be loud and bossy with the kids for the most part, and that’s the main thing. 8) I mean… Their learning English is the main thing.

Right?

It’s the end of June, so the rainy season is wrapping up and gearing up for Typhoon season and summer heat. Not looking forward to that, but meh.

Come August I’ll be going to Okinawa again. Sounds like suicide with the more intense heat and humidity, but Veronica and I will be spending the vast majority of our time plowing through Netflix.

But finally, I’m happy to report that after 14 months of being here, I’ll finally be able to see MUCC live in concert next month :D And they’ll have another show that I can attend at the end of summer. I’m so excited!!

That’s all for now!

Inspiration

So my darling kouhai has inspired me to blog more regularly so that you can all get a glimpse at the daily shenanigans that I manage to put myself through.

Tonight the girls and I went to Book-Off again. We took a different route this time but didn't get lost or anything. We were successful in our venture in that we found some of the things we were looking for (I apparently grabbed two copies of a volume 9 when there had been only one copy of the other 8 volumes...) and then went to get sushi for dinner down the street like last time. Apparently one of my students was leaving right as we sat down to wait for our number to be called, but I didn't notice him until Kachiu pointed him out to me since he'd been saying my name and she'd heard it. XD I felt bad not recognizing him right away, but he was out of uniform and he's not generally friendly with me at school. Meh.

While we were paying for dinner, Kachiu decided to try for some cotton candy at the machine again and managed to fling pieces of rock sugar at the other people in line. Some kind soul took pity and her and showed her how to use the thing properly without putting someone's eye out. Chowder and I, being the loving and supportive friends that we are, laughed at her the entire time.

On the walk back home Chowder mentioned wanting to stop at a convenience store for dessert and mentioning how she wants her sweet sugar fix for the night, which prompted talk about sugar fixes in general. ....We then took it upon ourselves to demonstrate sugar-flailing walks (eg, http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view/526066/jim-carrey-dumb-and-dumber-o.gif) and Kachiu, after recovering from her laughing fit, wanted to see me combine that with my thug walk from before. More laughter ensued.

Once home I put my books away on the shelf, only to find that my apartment had managed to absorb the two books I had bought the last time we went. This has become a recurring theme with me since moving here. It absorbed $1500 and my DVD case, a tape measure and some swiffer duster refills. Thus far I've found everything that has been absorbed, but the two books are still MIA. I don't have a large apartment and there are only so many places any one particular item can be, so that I manage to lose the things that I do manage to lose is quite a feat.

Spring cleaning

My weekend was to be spent in the company of friends watching anime and eating cookie dough like fatties. I had proposed moving my PS3 and TV downstairs to the larger apartment, because my apartment is not only small but also typically cluttered if not out-and-out unfit for company. Well, it turns out that it simply made more sense to just clean the damn place, so I did.

I spent the better part of my Saturday picking up, throwing things away, tying up my recycling and setting it neatly aside, sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, vacuuming again, putting laundry away, and doing dishes. My efforts were deftly worth the sweat and fatigue, and I may even make an attempt to maintain the cleanliness that I'm learning to appreciate.

Sempai came over first; I entertained her with video games while I showered, and then we did some light grocery shopping for her before the other two girls came over. Once they arrived, we all got settled with our snacks and I put on The Kids on the Slope, or Sakamichi no Apollon. A darling coming of age anime that another friend had turned me on to, and I turn them all on to. I was impressed by how much everyone enjoyed it. :3 We ended up watching all 12 episodes that night.

Afterward, the two rookies went home (they live in the same building), and sempai stayed the night. We played more video games and watched some more anime the next day, as well as went for a quick walk to the book store and media store.

Excellent weekend overall. :3

INTERNATIONAL BOOBIES

Went to Kashiwa, once again, to see Inugami Circus dan for a friend. This event was a little more interesting than the first two, but overall was great.

This wasn’t a one-man like DuelJewel were, but I didn’t recognize the names of the other two acts. This time I had a really good place in line but found out it wasn’t particularly necessary. Once I was inside, I saw that the merch booths were in the same room as the stage instead of upstairs like they had been. Sadly nobody was manning the Inugami booth so I had to wait to buy things. :/ The larger booth by the bar had imperial flags all over the place, which I found a little odd, but obviously it was related to the artist. What was even more peculiar was that despite the merch booths taking up all this space along the side, the audience wasn’t sardined in like they were before. There was personal space, and even places on the floor marked with belongings. It all seemed very private, and I was looking forward to that.

I made my way near the front (in a roughly 30-foot distance), and marked my territory, noting a few girls that seemed like they were going to need the actual stage front to fan girl properly. Respect, yo. Got my rum and Coke that’s still the best I’ve ever had and waited for the show to start, periodically checking with my friend to see what merch she wanted and how much she was able to spend.

Then the first act started, and it was a solo dude that came out with an oni mask on… The nature of masks being what it is, that didn’t last too long and it never came back on. This guy had a lot of energy and showmanship, and his fangirls ate it up. They formed a mini mosh pit that… consisted of them periodically prancing and skipping in an ellipse because there wasn’t enough room for a proper circle. When it came time to head bang, they instead grabbed onto the guardrails at the stage, lifted themselves off the ground, and bent themselves in half over the rail, and then righted themselves back on the floor. This was really bizarre to watch, and they all did it in sync with each other (the music, obviously), but it was all fairly slow. I personally had just come back to Japan with a hair cut so I fluffed it out and whipped it back and forth as is proper where I come from. At this point I’ll mention that two girls in particular were wearing pastel sweets Lolita-type wear, with mismatching crocs and cotton candy wigs covered in useless accessories.

One of the next songs was dedicated to breasts, however, and apparently the girls in the audience were encouraged to show their appreciation for their own mammary glands by cupping them and swaying with the music… When the lights came on the musician caught a glimpse of me, and promptly pointed and shouted, “INTANATIONAL OPPAI [boobs]!!” and pantomimed that he wanted me to join in the fun. I finally did and he cheered XP Probably didn’t hurt that my cup size goes past B, unlike the majority of the audience. A few songs later, he wrapped up and made way for the next band.

Meanwhile I mosied over and made my purchases at Inugami’s booth, as well as Mr. Boobies’. This kind lady, larger than your typical Japanese woman, with long hair, glasses, and a face mask, was helping me with the selection of items as I went through what was available, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it was Kyouko, Inugami’s singer, but how could she be? Isn’t she supposed to perform in a few minutes? She went and got me a guy to take my money, and he either miscalculated or the band told him to cut me a deal since I bought pretty much one of everything they had. O____O

Then Inugami themselves came on stage, but they were without Kyouko. I looked over at the merch booth and she was still there. It made me wonder what was going on (Turns out she had hurt herself and was still required to take it easy). I told my friend and she reminisced that they make really good instrumentals, but no… They were singing. George II was, anyway. As much as I love Kyouko, I was enjoying their music profoundly more with it just being the three boys.  <_< They had a brief MC explaining that Kyouko wasn’t there (no shit, Sherlock) and presumably why, but I couldn’t catch that part. It was also their first time in Kashiwa, apparently.

After their performance, the audience started to shift around and the girls made room for men. And out came the imperial flag dude. After about ten minutes it clicked that this was going to be a comedy act, so I left and went home early.