Hello everyone. I'm back to Tokyo from our Kansai trip. Again, thanks so much to Micchan (who's currently on the Seishun 18 Kippu journey to Tokyo from Osaka right now) for letting me stay in her room for four days. <3

I was supposed to go on the 17th but things happened so I had to go on the 18th. Anyway, changes in plans were made by Terry and me, so we've decided to meet in Singapore instead. We'll be staying there from the 4th until the early morning of the 12th. Well, I'll be arriving on the 5th, actually, since my flight's at 7 in the evening, and I'll be arriving in Singapore at 1:45 am. Geh. I'm just glad I have money for this trip, since I'll be getting my first *true* salary on the 25th of April.:D February's BS here in Gaba since I started on the last week and got only 2 lessons: one lesson, one cancelled but paid.

Speaking of money, I think I spent too much on my Kansai trip, I've got nothing but 300yen left in my wallet. My bank fund's all used up, and hurrah, my next allowance is not until the 15th of April.D: I'm glad I have other baitos to back me up financially, otherwise I'd be a binbou chibi now.o(T-T)o

Nothing much happened in my Kansai trip. I went around Osaka, Nara and Kobe alone during the last two days. But there are interesting stuff that happened to me. The first day I went around alone (21st), my mobile phone died on me, so I couldn't contact Micchan when I arrived at their dormitory. The door was locked, I needed to go to the toilet badly, It was so farkin' cold and windy. I didn't know how to contact her. I could turn on my phone and copy her number during the time it's still on so I thought of calling her. I saw a payphone booth nearby, but yay I only had 50yen coins with me. The payphone only receives 100 and 10 yen coins. I was on the verge of tears, going back and forth the street in front of their building. Fortunately, a guy from the first floor went out of his room to smoke, and he opened the door for me. Whew~

The second day was funny. I went to Nara first and then Kobe. I fell asleep during the train ride from Nara to Osaka, where I should change trains to Kobe. The moment I woke up, the train was about to leave Osaka station. The door was closing when I rushed out; it's a good thing it was just the signal that they're closing the doors, so the doors opened again. Then groggily I ran to the platform where I was supposed to take the train to Kobe. Uguu.

Seishun 18 Kippu is really convenient for students who want to travel around Japan, since for example, the local train ride from Tokyo to Osaka would've cost me 8,000+ yen but since I had the ticket with me, I only spent 2,500. The downside is that you have to take local/rapid trains only, and the trip takes 9hours or more, with more than 5 transfers. I was lucky I had to transfer only 5 times on my way back to Tokyo, so it wasn't that exhausting. The way to Osaka was so tiring. I had to transfer seven times, carry my luggage going up a flight of stairs, and I didn't have a decent sleep because I went straight to karaoke box, where Micchan and Klao were.

Anyway, in the meantime, I'm back here in Tokyo, back to working in Gaba, and trying my best to keep myself alive by doing part-time jobs. Tokyo International Anime Fair's on the weekend, but I won't be spending much on anime goods.

Oh and yeah, sakura are blooming now!o(*o*)o The first time I saw a sakura tree (from the train) I had goosebumps. They're so beautiful. And yay~ We're going hanami on Tuesday! \(^o^)/

Ohisashiburi desu.

All I've been doing since the start of March was work in Gaba. I started work last March 1 and since then I've been working from 10am till 5pm. I'd always get up two and a half hours earlier to prepare my lunchbox and commute to the Tachikawa Learning Studio, where I was placed. I had preferred teaching in Kichijoji since it's only a twenty-minute bicycle ride away from my dormitory, but looking at the number of instructors there, I was glad to be placed in Tachikawa. That school's almost as busy as the one in Shinjuku, with at least thirty-five Instructors working everyday.

Having thirty-five Instructors in the same Learning Studio's tough, especially if there are Clients who take two or three lessons in a row. We have this chart in the LS where you can see all the lessons booked for the day. In Kichijoji, you have to scroll down the page to see if your Client has another lesson after yours, while in Tachikawa, you only have one page and that's it. Plus, the fewer the Instructors, the more chance you get to teach. Most Instructors teach at night, because there are lots of students at that time. I can't do that so I teach in the morning until late afternoon. I get a fair amount of students, and I try my best to build my Client base from those students who take my class.

I taught straight from the 1st of March until the 9th. Weekdays are really quiet, while the weekends are really busy. We have at least five Instructors working during the weekends, and most of them are fully-booked. Gaba's getting a lot of Clients and Instructors now that's Nova's gone bankrupt.

I scheduled for B1 Belt Modules tomorrow and the 13th, and the B1 Certification Test on the 14th. I'm doing this because our Senior Instructor Support Leader suggested so, since most of the people in our LS have belted up. There is also the higher pay incentive. You get 1700 instead of the Belt A 1500 for lessons taught during weekends. After the B1 Certification, I'm off to work again on the 15th and the 16th.

I won't be here in Tokyo from the 17th to the 23rd since we will be going to Kansai. We'll be staying in Micchan's place in Osaka. But we haven't got an itinerary yet. We can do that when we're there. I've scheduled this week only for this trip, so I have to make the best out of it. I just wish people'd stick to the schedule when one's been agreed on. I've been getting it since winter break and frankly, I'm getting tired of fitting my busy schedule for other people.x_x;;

After the Kansai trip, I'll have a one-day break, then I'm off to work again. Hopefully, my lesson slots get filled up, so I don't get that much idle time at work. Although, I'm not complaining much since I get to catch up with manga titles I haven't read for a while.:P

After that week, there's the Tokyo International Anime Fair on the 29th and 30th!
I've known about this convention for months now, and I've marked it on my planner since then. It's funny how people tell me about it as if I don't know how to search the Internet for anime events.XD Anyway, I've bought my tickets already (yay~) and Micchan and I (and Trish, too I think) are going on both days. I have to remember to save money for this one. There are lots of exhibitors again:

TAF's going to be the first convention I'm attending that's got an entrance fee. Jump Festa and Comic Market were free so I didn't need to pay money for admission. This is okay anyway, because I got two eco bags with the TAF logo. I can use that when I'm buying stuff in TAF.:P Anyway, to those who want anything bought there (because there will be lots of original goods, again) I (finally!) have a Paypal account, so you can just transfer funds there. Just make sure to add an additional 200yen for the transfer fee to my Japanese bank account.^^;;

In other news, relief goods have arrived! I received yet another package from my mother last Saturday containing: 10 packs of Lucky Me! Pancit Canton, 10 packs of Lucky Me! Beef Noodles, 1 dozen Head and Shoulders Shampoo, 1 dozen Pantene Conditioner, 1 bottle of Hot Oil Cream, 2 packs of Hany and Spicy Dilis (yay!) and read this: 10 packs of sanitary napkins.DDD: I probably won't need to buy napkins for the rest of my stay here in Japan.

3 packs of spicy dilis from FaMusu also arrived yesterday, in a battered long brown envelope:


Notice the note taped at the left? It says something like the package broke (in this case, the scotch tape Mikai used to seal the envelope didn't do its job) on the way to the post office, so they had to repair it (reinforcing it by adding another layer of masking tape). No wonder your letters/packages to Yanagi do not arrive, Mikai. The contents get lost on the way.:D Peace! Thanks for the Valentine's Gift, anyway.<3

That would be all for this update. I can't think of anything else to add anymore. Oh yeah, congratulations to Kate Janagap for becoming the nominee for being next year's AIKOM Prorgram participant! She's going to be my kouhai, haha! Too bad for her, me and my senpai's both small so our winter clothes aren't not going to fit her.^^;; But we've got a lot of appliances here so lucky Keto.:D

Ijyou desu!