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!

Yo~ mina-san~ Genki genki?

I haven't updated my blog for quite a long time, I just realized that. Last post was for Klaine, but well, that was because she really deserved a post of her own.:P

Well, a lot has happened since our short trip to Sapporo for the Yuki Matsuri, and what can I say? TSUKARETA!!!:P It's supposed to be the spring break, but hell, I don't want to get stuck in my room staring at Oto's screen 24/7. That's like having no life.D: Anyway, enough rambling. So yeah, the AIKOM students went to Hakone for an overnight trip. Impressions? I wanna go back. It's a great place. There are lots of ryokans + onsens. You can stare in awe at Mt. Fuji's beauty. If I hadn't been afraid of heights, I would've pressed my face on the glass of the cablecar. Unfortunately, I was frozen in my seat (beside my equally frightened tutor) so I only had some pictures of it. But really, a perfectly cone-shaped snow-covered mountain is a rare sight. Probably the reason why Fuji-san has more pictures than me in my Hakone photo album.

Next, skiing. Well, duh, I've never skied before.^^;; I was only able to go forward after two days. The first day, I really enjoyed skiing, and rode the lift a second time. But I still wasn't able to control my speed then, so I fell over twice. No, rolled's more like it.^^;;

What am I busy with now? Work. I started teaching in Gaba last Tuesday, but my real first working day was Wednesday, when I had to give one lesson. All I did during the previous day were trainings with experienced Instructors. The first Instructors I met were a bit uptight in their work actually, so I was a bit pressured. But no worries now. After teaching six lessons (40 minutes per lesson) in one day, four of which I did consecutively, with just a 5-minute break in between, I think I can handle the work. Met some great people there, too, who make Gaba a bearable place so I guess I'm okay. Not to mention, they're going from 1400 per lesson to 1500 starting April 1. And that's without Belting up (or leveling up). I'm scheduled for two B2 (one level up the lowest one) certification sessions next week, and after a few weeks, I'll be getting 1700 per lesson given during weekends, and 1500 on non-peak times. *kaching kaching*

Of course, I'm still doing my other part-time jobs. There's the everyday online lesson with the Algerian diplomat, then the occasional lessons with the guy living near my dorm, and the weekly conversations with another salaryman. It's really amazing how I'm able to fit all these into my schedule.D: I'm amazed, myself. I never realized I can juggle so much work at the same time. Good thing I have my stress reliever every night.^^

Speaking of her, Terry's *going* to come here on April. But she hasn't really filed an application for the visa yet and all that shit but she *is* going here.XD So yay for two weeks! And it just so happens that one of those two weeks'll be Golden Week, so more time to go around Tokyo. We're planning on going to Hakone, actually.:3 Wah~ I can't wait.X3 Cheers to a person who knows what she wants and does everything to get what she wants. Well, I'm to blame, too... partly.^^;

I'm tired.D: So much for this update. Until next time~

PS You probably think I have lots of money now, but not really. It's not like I'm going to spend the money I earn for myself only. I have better plans for the money I earn, thanks.:P

Which means that I only have 8 months left in Japan. Have I gotten better in Japanese? Most Japanese friends said I did. As for my opinion, I think I became better, being able to talk in Japanese straight (though still not spontaneously), than the me who had forgotten all her Japanese and could not talk at all four months ago. とにかく、日本語がペラペラになるように、頑張ります！

Last week's schedule had been very hectic. I had to write report papers for the Relay Lectures and History of Science and Technology classes, do presentations in Japanese Literature and Nihongo, and write the proposal for the Directed Independent Study course for Summer Semester. I was supposed to give a presentation in the Lit class earlier, but I couldn't finish the book I chose, so I just asked Ellis-sensei for a shorter and much easier story. That was okay, since she warned me about the complexity of the book I chose anyway. For the presentation in Nihongo, I did my best. I even think I overdid it a little. I think my presentation was 20 minutes long, but I realized that only after watching the video of the presentations. The proposal for the Independent Study was easy for me, since I'll try working on the same topic as my thesis. Having a Todai professor whose specialty is language change will be a big help for my thesis come November when I have to continue writing it.

So yeah, I was so busy I didn't even had the chance to blog about my first snow in Tokyo so I'll just put up the links to the pictures and video here.

Sorry for being such a dork. It was my first time to see snow after all.:P Anyway, Miggy and I will be going to Yuki Matsuri on the 5th so we'll be seeing large snow sculptures there.(*o*)/ Nagi will be going with her friends, but we're going to meet in Sapporo.:D I'm getting excited, after seeing the snow sculptures they're going to have (and a biiiiiig snow slide and snow maze, too!!!) I'll try my best to record videos of the festival, using my DVD camcorder. But I still have to buy blank DVD-RWs for it, and one blank 8cm DVD-RW costs 1000yen.

We still have to pass two term papers, one for the Japan's External Relations class and the other for the Lit class. But I think those'll be easy since for the JER class, we only need to pass a 500-800-word essay and in Lit class, a 2000-word essay, which is what I consider a normal term paper in UP. But for the time being, since I have a loooooong break (Spring-Summer semester will start on April) I plan to travel a lot.:D After Yuki Matsuri, we have the overnight trip to an onsen in Hakone, then two days after, Viet Thi and I are off to Nagano Prefecture to ski~!(^.^)/ There is also the plan to go to Kansai region with Karen and the others, since we were invited by Micchan, who's studying in Osaka GaiDai.:3

Of course, I'm still doing part-time jobs. I've been able to save quite a lot, but I had to spend 10,000 for the Ski Tour.>_<;; I'll definitely return that to my savings when I get my allowance on the 15th. My student who lives near my dorm also contacted me again, after having a hectic week at work. I have online conversations with the Algerian guy almost every night, and meet once a week for the payment. The third one is an employee in an insurance company, a Todai alumnus, who wants to improve his conversation skills. We also talk online, and he'll be depositing his payment to my bank account every month.

I don't know what else to write here. I just want everyone to know that I'm going fine and still alive! But I lost weight, actually. In three months, I lost 3 pounds.D: I guess not eating fastfood for a change helps.^^;;

Random Thing #1:

There are only three weeks left till the end of fall-winter semester. After January, we have a two-month break (Feb-Mar) and go back to school for the spring-summer semester on April.:3

Three weeks left and I still have to do these things:

• 2nd long test and presentation on Japanese III
• Test on Japanese History
  
• 3 report papers and 1 term paper on Japan External Relations
• 3 report papers on Relay Lectures
• Presentation and term paper on Japanese Literature
• 3 report papers and 1 term paper on History of Science and Technology of Japan

I regularly pass report papers on the Relay Lectures and History of Science and Technology classes so I don't have to worry about those. I just have to read the assigned readings and write a 300-500-word essay. What I'm worried about is the External Relations class because I have not passed anything from the start of semester until now.x__x;; Oh well.:P

Random Thing #2:

I wasn't selected in the Ski Tour organized by Todai, but I applied for MISHOP's Ski Tour, which costs exactly the same as Todai's. This tour's capacity's 50 people, compared to Todai's 30, so I think I have a bigger chance of being able to join this one. Also, when I called MISHOP this morning to confirm whether they've received my e-mail or not, the guy on the phone said that I might be able to come (maybe, there aren't many people who applied for the tour). So this means, SNOW!XD

Random Thing #3:

AIKOM's organizing an overnight trip to Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture on Feb 20th-21st. This means onsen, Lake Ashi and Mt. Fuji!\(^-^)/ We'll be staying in this ryokan where there is onsen.:D Yay~

Random Thing #4:

Today, I was able to talk to Ayumi-san, the Japanese student to came to UP last year as an exchange student. Mhel-senpai wanted us three to meet before I left for Japan, but she wasn't able to contact Ayumi-san so I couldn't meet her. It was fun talking with her (her English is really good), especially when I asked her about cockroaches and Ma'am Cory of OIL. She's working part-time as a call center agent now, but I hope she can get to join our field trips.:)

Random Thing #5:

Tomorrow I have an interview in Gaba. This will be my second interview. Wah. Wish me luck.o(>_<;;)o

Random Thing #6:

I received another package from Mama today. And finally!