New blog for Korea

Since, I'm off to Korea and I haven't really updated this one in forever...I feel like I need a new blog for this new step in my life.
So here's my new blog: http://runningtowardsthemoon.blogspot.com/
There's nothing there yet...But follow me and I'll make your day amazing with my posts~

Gilli

Change of blog...maybe

So I've been thinking about this for a while. I wanna start to blog again, and I wanna do movie and drama reviews, also to help on my Japanese and possible Korean.

Now I'm not 100% sure if I wanna just change this blog over to doing that, I mean it didn't really have much of anything else on it.

Or if I wanna start up a new blog...

I already have 2 or 3 started up and don't really know if I wanna do another one. But they again if I do start doing review and stuff I don't really want some of my entries from before to all that public.

Well what ever I deside on, I do want to do this. I already have pretty much been doing the same thing on FaceBook, but this would be more in depth and more perfessonal, I guess.

Gilli

Sad times

There is just something really sad about walking into your room to find your roommate in the same spot you left her in when you left almost 12 hours before...And to make this sad picture a little worse have her sitting there on her bed with her laptop and headphones! I'm not even there and she clearly doesn't know when I'll be back, so why sit there with headphones on???

It's been almost 2 weeks being with my roommate and she still has yet to say more than 5 words to me in a day. I'm not counting in a row, but in a single day! I try to warm up to her, I say 'morning' to her every day, but I get a nod in return.

I've only seen her talking to one person in the dorm. And when she's at the dorm she's either studding in the kitchen or in our room. ALL day yesterday, which I might add was a holiday, she stayed cooped up in the room with her homework. Today I'm guessing she did the same thing...Which isn't a bad thing, but I've yet to see her do anything. And it would be nice to have some solo time in the room as well, to study or skype or have a few friends over...

I'm hoping she'll warm up a bit in the weeks to come, but if not I don't think I can stand 3 months of living with ghost. Not having anyone to talk to yet not having a moment alone!

あきら

帰り

So I'm finally updating here again! Let's see if this term I can keep up on updating on a more regular basis...I kinda doubt it, but I can try at least right!

So I've almost been back for a full week! Yay~ And literally it felt like I never left. I was back with everyone and it felt so normal. And the weather was too perfect, so nice and warm. Of course the first thing I wanna do is get something to eat. Airplane food sucks and I didn't really eaten anything in quite a few long hours. So Ariel, Jenn, and I headed out and ended up just going to Top World, which was perfectly fine!

And since being back felt so natural and perfect, the first thing the next morning...Wake up bright an early to go see Gantz! Hitched some rides with people who had bikes and we all headed down to the station to meet up with Aya! (OMG the mermaid hill was SO MUCH fun to ride down!!!) I was so happy to finally see her again! Gantz was too awesome!!! And it was only the first part, so we have to wait a few months for part two to come out... T.T We spent the rest of the day at Sem House 2 hanging out. Ariel and I started watching Bloody Monday, so awesome!

The next day, Kagrra,'s album came out! Of course that was one of the first things I had to buy! Got the CD+DVD version and got a pretty poster with it! It came with a card of Akira in it! We headed to campus and payed everthing. And we ran into Katie! I kinda attacked her, it was so much fun! We went to get concert tickets for Kagrra,, but they were all sold out so I was kinda super depressed! But a few days later we went to Shinsaibashi and ran into ZEAL LINK and they're having a Kagrra, signing event, so Katie, Jenn, and I got tickets for it. I had to buy the album again, but HEY it was cheaper that the concert and I got a load a goodies with it! A photo set and it came with Shin inside it!

I got into one of the 2 classes I wanted. So as of right now I have a 7th period and I really don't want one! Luckily its Hollstine's class and the one I want is also his, so I can beg him to let me in to the other one. And if I get in to the one that I want, I'll have classes only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons! Though if the one I'm in right now is interesting, I might end up keeping it and having 3 classes again...

Aya made us all watch a scary Japanese movie, which because I missed the start or because I couldn't understand a thing that was going on, it wasn't scary at all! So it was epic fun watching everyone else get scared from it! Though, I just found out that an actor that I like is in the second one of the movie, so I kinda wanna see that one too just for him. And if it's anything like this one, it shouldn't be too bad at all! I hope...

Friday after going to the gym with Gabe, Jenn, and Lily we eat lunch at KappaSushi. SO GOOD!!! I've missed cheap sushi! Then Katie, Ariel, and I went to Shinsaibashi. Shoppers back in their element! We spent the whole afternoon in Amemura only, most of it in Pure Sound. I happily spent every little and came away with a nice little hall of really cheap albums! I almost got a shirt in SEX POT OSAKA since they were having a 30-40% off everything sale, but I couldn't find a shirt I liked so I didn't get anything. But in Regulas they had a bunch of Gloomy Bear items, Ariel got a black Gloomy Bear card purse for his train passes. And I finally found a normal sized pink/original Gloomy! This is also where we got the tickets for the Kagrra, event.

Yesterday we headed over the Sen House 1 and we played this scary board game, it was SO fun!!! I'm going to have to find it. It kinda reminded me of my old 221 B. Baker St. game that I have, but a haunted house rather than London. Before that though, Ariel and I made chocolate covered caramels. We took a bunch the caramels I made (which were a hit by the way!) and made chocolate and then covered them in coco powder! They turned out so amazing! I wanted to eat more, but I hadn't eaten anything but chocolate all day...We also ended up going to the little Okonomiyaki place by us and I got Yakisoba, man I love this stuff!!! And Ariel moved back in with his host family today, so the night was sad not having anyone to watch dramas with...

Today was pretty awesome! Got all checked in to the dorm and am now all settled into my room! My desk is just a bit bare of things...I feel like I need some little things on it to make it more homely...After check in and the dorm meeting we headed down to the station. Sukiya was full, but we found another small Gyudon restaurant right by it and had lunch. Then we got snacks in the 100 en shop and headed up to Ring for an afternoon of Karaoke! It was too long since I last sang so much! We had a blast and I finally found that Alice Nine song that I've been looking for forever, it was Fantasy~ On the way back to the dorms we got food since we can finally start cooking things since all the home stay people have moved out. So I finally have real food that I can eat and cook! Yay for breakfast! ~<3

This was post number one of the term! Classes start tomorrow and I get back to normal life!

Gilli

ホストファミリー

This had to come some time.  I kept writing something for it and I just didn't like it and trashed it.  But right now I feel like I just need to write about my host family and maybe something will come to me or I can edit it later with something that I like better.

As of now I have been living with my family for about 5 or 6 weeks.  It really doesn't feel like it has been all that long to tell the truth.  One because the days are just so packed and go by so fast.  And second I thought I'd be improving a bit more that I have been.  More on that later in the post.

My family is so sweet and nice!  I have my Otousan (dad), Okaasan (mom), Kayoko (my younger sister), and Niango (our cat).

So Kayoko is only 15 years old, but she's been learning English for 10 years now.  So she is pretty amazing with English, even though she won't admit it.  She is also SO FREAKING energetic!  I swear she has the energy of at least 3 people.  But she is also super sweet and your typical teenager who wants to do things her way and not do what her parents tell her.  She's completely obsessed with Karaoke and Video games.  Both of which can be a good and a bad thing.

I never really thought Karaoke could ever be a bad thing, but lets just say if you don't have enough food to support you, and you much have sugary horribly unhealthy food, 8 hours of Karaoke is killer!  Not because you're singing almost nonstop for 8 hours(well that is part of it), but because it's super hard to keep coming up with more songs to sing!  And I was the only one singing English songs, not to mention a few Korean and Japanese songs too!  I really don't know who she does this, because I'm very sure this was not her first 8 house straight Karaoke session...

My Otousan, well I don't really talk to him all that much because he's usually either sleeping or at work.  But he's a cute little man, he enjoys a nice glass of beer or wine with dinner and is always taking pictures of what Okaasan cooks.  He also doesn't know a lot of English, and his Japanese is all  Osaka-ben so it's hard for me to understand when I could with Okaasan or one of my teachers.

The greatest moment with him though was when I was getting ready to go meet my friend Katie to shopping in Amimura, because she's the only one I've been able to find who will go to my punk/goth clothes shops and not get bored after being in there for 5 minutes.  And I always feel bad dragging people to these places when I know they won't like going.  But anyways, back to Otousan.  So Okaasan is making me lunch, because she just sweet and awesome like that, and randomly out of the blue he asks me if I drink alcohol.  Going with it since I don't get to talk with him all that much, I told him I have a glass with my mom every once in a while.  And 10 minutes later when I come back down to the dinning room, what do I find waiting for me...A steaming bowl of delicious smelling INSTANT RAMEN and a glass of RED WINE!  This was probably the greatest combination of a meal I've ever had in my whole life!

Last is my Okaasan, well there is also Niango but he's just a freaking cute can who likes to sit there and stare at people as they walk past.  Okaasan is so sweet, she actually knows quite a bit of English, just because Kayoko has been learning it for the past 10 years so she would obviously pick up some here and there.  She is also one of the best cooks in the whole world.  Back home even if mom or dad cooked it, I usually wouldn't try many new or different foods, but almost everything she has cooked I've loved, and I hated quite a lot of the things before I came to Japan.  Yakisoba is pretty much one of the best foods ever created and I have yet to find a bad Yakisoba and almost each one is just as good if not better than the last.  But non of them compare the slightest to Okaasan's Yakisoba!  I become a bottomless pit when I eat it.  Literally the other night when she made it I eat close to enough for 3 or 4 people!  It was just too good to let go cold and not be eaten with love!

I don't know how she does it though.  She wakes up before 6 everyday, works part time, keeps the house almost spotless, does laundry everyday, cooks, and stays up till 1 or 2 in the morning EVERY FREAKING DAY!!!  When I only get 5 or 6 hours of sleep at night even the excitement of being in Japan can't wake me up until about 2 in the afternoon...She is a truly amazing Okaasan!

Now about our house.  I live in Neyagawa shi(寝屋川市), by car it's about an hour from Kansai Gaidai, but I walk and take the train to school.  This way it takes about 40-45 minutes.  From the house I walk about 20 minutes, I go past a truck place, 2 huge shopping centers, and a long street filled with little shops and cafes and resterants and an arcade and about 4 Pashinko parlors and 4 karaoke places.  Then I take the train 4 stops from Kourien(香里園) to Gotenyama(御殿山), that takes about 10 minutes.  And from Gotenyama it a lovely 10-15 minute walk to school.  And by lovely I mean that at 7 in the morning I have to climb up a HUGE hill...

Neyagawa shi is so pretty though.  There are so many old houses and buildings.  And I think if I was back home I would hate doing this walk everyday, but I really don't mind it here.  Every time I take it I find something new!

Yay I'm finally getting aught up on my posts!!!  Only a few more left, can I get them all done tonight???

Gilli

9.25のコンサート

I have been meaning to write this since Saturday night, but I keep getting distracted and doing something else...

So Finally here it is!

This day started out like any other day that ends awesome, horribly!  First I try to catch the door before it slams from the wind and instead get my finger slammed in there and a lovely chunk of skin got taken off.  And right when I'm leaving the house I almost fell off a small step by the gate.  I'm starting to see a trend of days that i do see concerts...

Anyways, after the wonderful Yakisoba my Okaasan made for lunch I caught up with Meri at Hirakata shi station and we headed off to Shinsaibashi.  We got there with plenty of time so she wanted to run into Book Off.  Once again I was SO tempted to buy Kagrra's concert that they had.  I also found IRIS (Korean drama) there!!!  But the thought of Japanese subs rather than English made me turn away.  But they also had the first 2 disks of Kimura Takuya's Beautiful Life, and that is also very much tempting me, with or without subs of any kind!

After that we meet up with Sandra and Ebba and made our way to OSAKA MUSE for the concert!  I think there is something about us and concert halls that make them not want to be found.  Just like when we went to KYOTO MUSE for Kagrra, we couldn't find with when it was right there.  This time  though we walked right past it.  And to make it worse right at the spot where I though "Hey i bet it's right down one of these side streets", it was right down THAT side street...

OSAKA MUSE was even smaller than KYOTO MUSE!  It could probably only hold about 200 people and there weren't even that many there.

So first up was 2nd Dyz.  First off their outfits had lights in them!  So even before the curtain opened we could see them.  They had an awesome sound, they we're on of my favorite of the night.  They guitarist with the red hair was awesome and jumping all over the stage.  The drummer also had some sweet skills!

Best part about them, I got to talk to them after the show (when I say talk, I mean say a few random words in Japanese and make lots of big hand movements).  And they were so shy can cute!  One of them got kinda red in the face and turned away from us.  The guitarist and one of the others got big smiles on their faces and kinda repeated what we said then thanked us!

Lycaon was next.  They were by far the most entertaining band of the night!  Can you see the picture above?  If you can't click on it to make it bigger.  This is what they were wearing for the concert!  I kid you not, there was less clothes on them than it looks!  We got a strip show from Yuki, the vocalist (red hat).  You can't really see his pants in the picture, but there are no sides to them at all, had to have been about 4 inches or so of skin and the strings holding the pants on all the way down his leg, and to top that off he kept playing with his red thong...pulling it up and his pants down!  It was quite distracting, in a very good way!!!  Then there was the guitarist!  His pants were literally half way down his butt and he also had a thong on!  Between each song he had to pull them up.  And his shirt!  All that there was to it was the cloth on the front and 2 straps that crossed in the back.  And let me tell you he had an AMAZING back (thank god he kept turning around and playing backwards!!!)!

Anyways about their songs...They played all my favorite songs!  RED RUM was so awesome to hear live!  They were also super energetic and they kept calling out to us to sing along!  Yuki has such a great voice!  I love listening to it.  Both the guitarist had a little battle at the front of the stage for their solos.

Next on stage was EVER+LAST.  Along with 2nd Dyz, they were the other band I hadn't heard of before.  And to give them the props they deserve they were my favorite of the whole concert.  That is saying something, cuz I love Lycaon and Sel'm quite a lot!  It all had to do with their transformation.

When they first came on stage, I'm not kidding you I thought they were a couple of Hosts that picked up instruments and decided to start a band...I was really freaking out that they were going to be cheesy or try to hard.  But they were amazing!!!  The bassist (with the dreads) was awesome!  And the vocalist's voice was so good!  But the best thing about them was how they acted, the whole time where were up there smiling and playing around with each other!  The bassist got a solo in one of the songs and the vocalist and one of the guitarists kept smacking him on the head.  And the vocalist was head banging so much he fell of the back of the cage at the front of the stage and almost took out the bassist and drums!

東京ヒーローズ (Tokyo Heroes) after EVER+LAST.  They weren't bad at all.  The bassist (blonde guy) was VERY entertaining to watch.  And the guitarist on the left of the picture had an amazing voice!  I was surprised I almost liked him more than the vocalist.  They had some great songs.  But they ended on kinda a slow note.  The last song the played wasn't anything special.

However after the show I got to meet the bassist and drummer.  They were at the merch table selling their merch rather than having other people.  I had to buy something since they were out there personally!  So I got their new single and apparently it came with a free poster, I think they said something about it being signed but I haven't opened it yet to check cuz I know I'll never get it rolled up nicely again!

Sle'm was next!  This is about when the crowd started to get crazy!!!  When an adorable five foot tall Japanese girl dressed in a cute Gothic Lolita dress with matching headband starts growling, it is time to get scared!!!  You really wouldn't think someone fitting this description would be all that fearsome, but take my word IT FREAKING IS!!!

When the band started up there was lots of head banging and jumping around.  It was pretty energetic.  They were much more hardcore than the one before them and Kagrra.  There is this one move, it's kinda like moshing, you throw your hands up alternating them and start hoping one way then the other!  So fun!!!  UNTIL...Until the cute little girl next to you comes flying at you and sends you into the group of people next to you!  You really wouldn't expect that to come from her!

SHE SCARED ME!!!

The vocalist was pretty awesome to watch.  There was one point in one of the songs where he just fell backwards onto the stage and was just laying there singing and making his feet, which was about all of him you could see, dance.  So fun!

Awoi was the headliner and last to go on stage!  They had a stage presence that was epic.  I mean it was a small theater so being that close to any of them was pretty epic, but as soon as they came on you could feel the crowd waiting in anticipation for them.  Before this I'd heard of Awoi, but never really many of their songs.  They have a very heavy dark sound to them, but the songs are beautiful at the same time.  The Drummer was amazing, I usually don't pick up on the drums in a song, but I did for some of their songs.  And the Vocalist's voice was amazing.  He screamed a lot, but when he sang it was awesome!

They kinds ended on a bad/sad note though.  They were on one of their last songs and and the vocalist was sitting on the metal cage and was about to stand up.  But his foot slipped off the cage and he went crashing to the ground where we all were.  There was a collective gasp as he fell.  The girls in the front bent over the rail to check on him and some of the band members did to.  Now it wouldn't really seem all that bad, because it was only about a 3 maybe 4 foot drop, but there was a large metal pipe that I'm pretty sure he landed right on!

After a few moments he popped up and slowly crawled back up on stage.  He went to the back by the drums and in a few more moments he was back singing and screaming!  But I happened to notice there was some red stuff on his face that hadn't been there before, it was blood.  I think when he fell he hit his head on the pipe.  Because as soon as they finished that song he ran off stage.  The rest of the band did their thing, thanked us for coming and supporting them and they too left.  And that was it, they still had a few songs to go I think, but since the vocalist fell they had to end early.

Over all it was one hell of a concert!  I love going to the One-Man concerts, but going to see a bunch of smaller bands was so much fun!  After it was over and we bought a bunch of merch, I had to by something from TOKYO Heroes just because the bassist and drummer were the ones selling the stuff, we passed by 2nd Dyz out on the street.  I mean at the larger One-Mans you will never see the bands after the show just standing there in broad night light!

More concert recaps coming soon!

Gilli

手話

I know this isn't an update at all, but I wanted to share my new blog project that I'm going to be working on.

I haven't mentioned it on here, but I've been learning 手話(しゅわ), Japanese Sign Language, over the last three weeks and I've really developed a bit of a passion for it, so I wanted to make a blog while I'm learning it.

http://lifewithoutears.blogspot.com/

It's mostly going to be my experiences, but I also am going to post pictures and videos of myself doing Shuwa.

So if you're interested at all, take a look.

Gilli