Boring To-Do List for 東京！

As you probably saw on my Facebook, I got accepted to Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan!  Which means that, after my last final on Wednesday, I will not be in school until next April.  Oh, my god.  What am I going to with myself?  4 MONTHS.  I intend to leave for Japan on March 1st, so I will have plenty of time to explore and enjoy myself before school starts. I don't want to feel so rushed I don't get to enjoy myself while I'm there.  I have to keep my grade-point high (because it sucked before, but is just now getting better), so when school starts, I'll have to make school my priority.  But before that, I will surrender myself completely to my whims!

Before I Go to Japan:

1. Turn in forms to study abroad office

2. Figure out health insurance

3. Figure out medication situation (am I aloud to bring 6 months worth?)

4. Get glasses + backup contacts

5. Get all the supplements that I'll need to prevent anemia/slow horrible vegan death.

6. Get student visa.
7. Try to relearn all the Japanese I've learned in the last 3 years + some.

To Do In Japan:

1. Visit Grimoire (dolly kei store in Shibuya)

2. Go to all the Closet Child's/Grand Bazaar Lolitas/Brand X's/etc to buy lolita.

3. Go to La Foret

4. Eat at a bunch of vegan restaurants

5. Go to Fuji-Q Highland

6. Climb Mt. Fuji

7. Visit the deer at Nara

8. Get in a KERA magazine street snap (I can dream, right?  Right?)

9. Dress like an insane person every day.

10. Shibuya Scramble!

11. Go to several theme cafes

12. Go to that bar from Lost In Translation, just for kicks

13. Nomihodai/izakaya

14. Get a job (preferably tutoring English!)

15. Join the teaching English in schools club and hiking club

16. Hike in Kamakura

17. Go to Joypolis!

18. Go to Yokohama, go on ferris wheel

19. Try to locate old host family

20. Learn a lot of Japanese.

21. Become a decent Japanese-food cook

22. Go to punk shows in Japan & make friends

23. Go on the waterfall ride at LaQua

24. Go to department store grocery shops to look at crazy expensive food

25. Figure out Shinjuku station (My old rival.... how many hours I spent lost there, I don't even want to think about...)

26. Shop at MaruiOne

27. Run a shopping service

28. Go to Ice Cream City

29. Hanami!

30. Everything else.

Angelic Pretty SF Opening!

I posted this on the lolita LJ community, but I thought I might as well post it here too. :)

Unfortunately my camera was broken, so I had to resort to cell phone photos, so the quality isn't fantastic.  But I just thought I'd share a few, in case anyone is interested.



I had intended to arrive at around 8 am, but I stayed up too late on Friday so I ended up waking up at 9 am and rushing over, to encounter this line!





It wasn't nearly as bad as the BTSSB opening, however, I think mainly because there wasn't as much notice so many people were unable to get the day off or travel from afar.  Still, like most other people, I didn't actually get into the store into almost 2 pm!

Here's some lovely girls who were standing behind me in line.  Sorry I didn't get your names!



My waiting-in-line-buddy Chelsea!  She got one of the last tickets to the Tea Party!
Also, we were standing under an overhang because some lovely person was chucking fruit and water-filled plastic gloves at us from one of the apartments.  The police actually came by and they stopped for a while, but then the began again a bit later. Luckily they must have gotten bored because they stopped, and no one got hit (although I got some orange gore on my shoe)


All of us bonded through our fluffiness.


The first girl to come out of the store.  Everyone crowded around her to see what she got and see what was in the lucky pack, and there was much fangirl squeeling/ooing-and-awing.  Unfortunately, it turned out there were only 5 big lucky packs and only a few accessory packs too, and they all sold out within the first 10 people.


Nearing the front!  Note the cowboy-guard-guy at the door.  I think he's married to/dating the women who was organzing the event?  He was talking about how he was surprise about how many lolitas are into guns/shooting.  Looolllll.


The display window!


What I ended up getting (I figure stock photos will be better quality than any I take!  Especially because the lighting in my house is pretty bad right now).  The total was $65 with SF's 10% tax, so the mark-up actually was very reasonable given the current poor exchange rate.  On some of the items it was really high, though.  I saw a cardigan that was about 10,000 yen but was being sold for $170!




That's all folks.  Sorry again for the poor quality, but I hope the pics were at least a bit entertaining!

Note: Also, if I took your photo and you don't want it posted here, please just ask and I will take it out/edit it immediately!

Thought I posted this before, but apparently I didn't, so.... Backtrack!  Thank goodness for date adjustments.  (Ari, 12/10/2010)


So, I'm turning in my ridiculously long applications for 上智大学 (Sophia University) on Monday.  I had to get photos, a physical, letters of recommendation, write an essay, and fill out about 30 pages of forms... but all I have to do now is go by Kaiser to get the result of my TB test, and then I'm DONE.  And then... I wait.  Supposedly I hear back from them in January, which is a terrifyingly long time.  I really, REALLY hope I get in.  I mean, I can't imagine them not letting me in.  But there's always that chance... >_<  So, I get to hold my breath for 3-4 months!  Yay!

Pics of my crazy lotta forms:


Also, BPN is KILLING my budget with their sale.  I have now bought... 8 things there in a month and a half.  Jesus christ.  But everything is so cute, and usually I can never buy anything there because I can't rationalize spending so much... but at 50% off it's soooo easy.  I'll post pics soon of my conquests.  Everything is awesome, and I can wear them comfortably all the time.  So I figure it's worth it.

I have officially broken down...

And gotten a blogspot.

I've always thought blogging was, essentially, narcissistic.  That it was based primarily on the assumption that people were interested in you, your thoughts, your feelings, etc.  And so for a long time I rejected blogging, social networking sites, twitter, etc.  But... I'm slowly caving in.  It started with giving in to facebook and myspace and those oh-so-tempting status updates.  And now, I am taking the next step, and starting a blog.  Oh, god.  However, my negative feelings towards blogs have reduced a bit.  Although many blogs are no doubt based on an assumption that a person is more interesting than they really are, maybe that confidence isn't a bad thing.  Maybe, over time, it actually DOES make that person more interesting, simply by virtue of their increased confidence and willingness to express their ideas and experiences.  Who knows. 

At the very least, blogs are certainly helpful in connecting with people you already know, and will help me to continue writing on a regular basis.  So, why not?

El Fin.
~Ari