Connections with unknown people

This is hard to explain and mainly I am just using my now defunct blog to ramble about stuff that I can't post of Facebook...since I know no one reads anything here anymore anyways!

P.S>

ALso gas hit $2.99/gallon in Maui today...sweeeeet! That means gas has dropped almost $2/gallon in the last 2 months here...really it should just stay expensive and force people to ride the GODDAMN BUS!

SUch an interestung experience

SO I went out tonight for the first time in Kihei (Maui) and it was pretty interesting. No one dances, just watches the 5 eople on the dance floor an makes them feel stupid. Also no one comes to the bar/club until 12:30 and last call is 1:30...how effing stupid.

Most interesting tonight though was this guy - I saw him when he first walked in...tall, backwards baseball cap, O'Neill white t-shirt, whatever. Really cute Hawaiian guy but he was talking to so many girls that I didn't give him a second thought. Actually once I went to the batrhroom and he was sitting outside on a bence talking to some other girl...blah blah blah. THEN at about 1 a.m. I look across the table and see him talking to John (Amy's boyfriend who is also a bouncer at this bar)...I don't think anything of it until I see both of them smirkng at me. I asked them what and they said "He wants an introduction"...WTF?! He wanted to be introduced to me...so strange and formal and yet so cute!

I will contirue in the a.m. when not so drunk but sadly this story has no happy ending...he bough me a beer, talked for few and left...either he is really shy or he thought I was super boring. Hey if that is the case, then this is the first documented time a guy liked me for my looks and not for my personality ahahahaha....ahhhhh sad. Maybe I should be more girly when I talk...eeeee.

My new obsession

Still deciding on whether to keep blogging...

I know I have lost all my "readers" but I feel so guilty blogging when I live in Hawaii! I mean I should be out in the sunshine at the beach instead of on my computer right? Well I do miss it and as my first return trip to Tokyo grows closer (57 days but who's counting?) I feel the urge to type!

I have the next 3 days off - technically - which means I only have to go into work for 2 hours each day...so I am hoping to update on how my move to "paradise" went, all the wedding stuff going on (not me!), future trips, lack of friends, blah blah blah. But I decided to check out Japan Today for the first time just now since I left Japan - I was purposely avoiding it because I knew it would be a huge reminder of what I am missing. The first this I saw was an ad for Oakwood where I used to live...sniff. But then I saw that Fukuda quit abruptly! This is the 2nd PM to quit in less than a year (in a row)...I guess that doesn't really matter to me or to anyone reading this but it is just interesting because I can picture how my friends are reacting and what they are talking about at work these days.

And then I get sad. I would say that I have been SO immersed in work - and I truly adore my job, best job I have had yet working for my company - that I haven't had time to miss Japan and the people as much as I thought I would. I bought my ticket to go back and visit at the end of October for TWO weeks eeeeeeeeeeeeeee and then I just kind of stopped thinking about it. I email back and forth with friends and keep in touch with everyone but it doesn't usually hit me. And then sometimes when I am sitting home alone AGAIN or I go to that aforementioned website that I feel this huge urge to go to some English teacher website and submit my application to go be a trained monkey asap!!!

Obviously this is a ridiculous thought and must be put away at all costs but oh my G-O-D I miss Tokyo...
I miss my friends.
I miss wearing long sleeves (ha yes, yes I do).
I miss the metro (well public transportation in general).
I miss good Japanese food (Maui has a shockingly icky selection).
I miss being able to go out with my co-workers after work because I wasn't the boss and I could get messy drunk with them.
I miss my bug-free apartment.
I miss weeknight nomihodais.
I miss hiyashi kitsune soba (and believe me I will eat it at least 8 times in 14 days in October).
I miss speaking Japanese.
I miss hearing Japanese!
I miss seeing beautiful Kanji everywhere.
I miss wearing my iPod - everything here is so close there is no time to wear it and anyways I would get kilt whilst riding my moped if I was wearing that thing.
I miss big city life.
I miss brand name stores.
* I DON'T miss my job!

And if you think I am just whining here is what I LURV about living in Maui...
I love my 6 minute commute along a road where you can see the beach.
I love spending $5/week in gas - on my cute cute cute moped!
I love the weather.
I love the beach.
I love the birds - I have become a bird-watcher...don't be so jealous!
I love my cheap rent and my own bathroom.
I love seeing the stars at night (and almost crashing every time I drive in the dark because I am so busy staring at them).
I love coconut-pineapple ice cream.
I love Hawaiian shave ice...any variation you can come up with.
I love being recognized at Starbucks, Avis, the grocery stores, etc. as a local and treated as such.
I love saying Hi to people I recognize as locals.
I love hearing the Hawaiian version of Japanese - NOT good but better than nothing!
I love being able to chat with my Japanese customers. Only a few a week but still.
I love the hot ocean, the clear water and all the little fishies.
I love that it takes 25 minutes to get to the airport and that is about as far away as you can get from where I live.
I ADORE my job...truly love it.

I am totally going to update but it is not right now!

Yar sorry for the delay in updating...too much to write about and yet hmmm nothing is really all that interesting!

Short notes:

* When I drive over 28 mph in Maui I feel completely ooc like I am a crazy BMW driver on the autobahn.

* I got an apartment (well a room) tonight with this slightly loopy hippy woman but whatever...it is across the street from the beach, perfect rent, my own bathroom and a big room to fit all my shit. Plus it is in the same building I am hoping to buy a place in about 6 months. It is also right next door to my company-paid condo I am staying in right now.

* It takes me 4 minutes to drive to work. In fact today for lunch I drove home, cooked spaghetti, watched a delightful 30 minutes for HGTV and drive back to work. AND got back early! My bike will be here from Tokyo next week so hopefully I won't d-i-e from the heat and can just ride that to work.

* I have driven all over the place in the last 4 days since getting here - everywhere I wanted to go and explore and I have only used 1/4 of a tank of gas. Heh heh heh. I wish I could have moved to a place that was MORE opposite from Tokyo!

* My job is going great - slooooooooow due to Aloha and ATA going out of business so there are way less tourists on the island. It is kind of sad really but nice for us living here! Too bad so sad my boss...I couldn't make the sales plan due to YOUR friends not wanting to pay $800 to fly to Maui!

* I am going to take a ton of pictures on my next day off (Wednesday...yarrrr) and post them on here. Please don't be too too jealous.

* I need to take up a hobby and make some friends a-s-a-p. I am like that girl who has no friends.

Completely paralyzed...

Have you ever had so much to do and so little time that you should be running around like a chicken with your head cut off? It has been that way for me for the last 2 weeks and yet I am sitting here in my apartment completely paralyzed. Like I can't make a decision (hey that's the title of my blog...I must know myself well) about anything right now: what to wear, what food to throw away, how to pack my bags, etc. I am just sitting and staring at the wall and I have been doing it for literally hours. I knew I shouldn't have gone to Okinawa for 3 days this week because ever since I got back later Wednesday night I have been in panic mode but it is like I am on dope or something. I am panicking in my head but my body says "Hey! Don't move and definitely don't do anything." It is the weirdest feeling in the world and it does not bode well for the next 18 hours before leaving for the airport.

On that note obviously at some point I will have to get it together and finish packing but I guess that also means I won't be sleeping. I will be in San Franciso and Seattle the next week or so before flying to Maui on June 3rd...whoa. We had our (mine & Q's) goodbye party last night and there is so much to write about for the last month, I promise I will cath up. Probably once I move to Hawaii, know no one and just sit on the beach typing on my laptop being anti-social on my days off. Ha.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from last night...I am going to miss these drunk fools.

I'm alive AND I've got great news!

Sorry I will get back into the blogging habit and more than make up for lost time once I get myself all moved from Tokyo to MAUI!!!! Hahahah I totally got my job and I am so excited....SO excited to go live in Hawaii and live the slow life for a while.

On a Freudian slip note when I originally typed the title I accidently typed "I'm Alone" instead of alive...oooooh interesting!

The 100th post for reals yo!

Alright this is my fo-real 100th post so that is exciting! Other than that I haven't been updating a lot because my friend L came back with me from SF for her very first international trip and we have been exploring all over Tokyo. Plus I am in the process of packing - the movers will pack all my stuff but I feel better starting the process and getting things organized the way I want them - and my sister and her boyfriend arrive on Saturday 2 hours after L leaves! So I have back to back guests for over 2 weeks, including my last week of work, and there is so much to get done! But really I looked at my work calendar and I haven't got SHIT to do so at least I don't have to worry about that! Just a few trainings for the new hires and lunches with friends and my plan is to leave every day by 5 cause I have stufffff to do yo!

I eventually have to cancel my bank account and figure out what to do with my cell phone but I don't even know how to do that and I definitely am not going to waste my own time on that project heh heh heh =) Plus there is getting final presents for friends and family back home, getting things seperated that I want to take in my first shipment home vs. 2nd shipment and THEN if I get the Hawaii job I have a whole bunch of other stuff to deal with too!

I've been thinking a lot lately about leaving (obviously) and I am feeling so much better about it - I think it has a lot to do with the potential of the Maui job but it also has to do with how much "fun" I had in San Fran and Seattle and I am really looking forward to making new friends and enjoying everything the U.S. has to offer...more on this later.

Job updates!

It seeeeeems that my good job karma may be continuing as the recruiter told me my last interview with the Regional Director went "very well!" and I should be getting a firm offer this week - eeeeeeee! If I move to Maui all you bitches better come visit...cause I am buying a condo within a year and live out my days perfecting my skin cancer and trying to avoid full-length sleeves....delightful!

I was in Seattle at the airport waiting for my flight back to SF last week when I got an email from my recruiter saying the RD wanted to interview me for the Maui GM position - I was obviously super excited and emailed back right away my availability for the rest of the week (it was Tuesday a.m. at that point)...and then he said she wanted to talk to me that afternoon! I ended up having a 30 minute phone interview with her late that afternoon and it went so great...I am bomb at interviews, especially my company since it is beyond predictable what they are going to ask. I actually had all the questions written down that I thought she would ask and answers for all of them - and then she asked me EVERY SINGLE ONE in almost the exact same order! Yesssss I was so good! She kept saying "Oh great answer! Oh that is great to hear! Very nice!" which was awesome (^_^)

I didn't hear an update from anyone until Friday SF time when I checked my work email from home and the recruiter told me the part about it going very well (with a !) and that they were currently working out next steps for an offer with HQ and I should hear this week! Yeah!!! So I will let everyone know as soon as I know...but this is like my dream job and I am thinking I am SO getting it!

Ooooh the ticket is bought...

Wow so my ONE WAY return ticket to the U.S. is bought and ready to go....so sad! We have to book 3 weeks out in order to get the best rate and be eligible for my relocation benefits so I told my boss that I needed to get everything in order even though I dunnah know what is going on yet. I am flying to Seattle on Sunday 5/25 and will arrive at 9:30 in the morning...after that who knows!

I have to go to SF at some point to clear out my storage - there is so much shit I need to sell or get rid of in there (since obviously I have lived without for 15 months and therefore don't realllllly need it right? Except I wantttttt it!) and if I have another shipment of stuff from Japan that will take 40-45 days to get there....so that means at some point I need to be in SF to either combine storage units or get another one or do SOMETHING with it! Blah blah blah anyways I have a ton of crap to deal with in SF and even though I got to see most people I wanted to while I was there last week there are still some friends I haven't had time to catch up with so it would be nice to have at least 3-4 uninterrupted days there.

As far as Seattle it would be great to have to same amount of time - I want to see both sets of my grandparents again since the older they get, the more important it is to see them as often as possible - and I didn't get to see 2 of my really good friends last week so I HAVE to make time for them asap!

But for now...I have a ticket, a seat, a ride home and a firm date. Scary stuff.

Finally a fun-ish SF trip

So my trip to San Francisco last week (and to Seattle for a hot second) ended up being pretty fun and very busy - I always have an inappropriately full time schedule for my home visits and try to pack way too much in but this time was almost perfect! I got to eat at 2 of my favorite restaurants - Trattoria Contadina and this yummy little Mexican joint, but I missed my very favorite place Lime (another thing I must do at the end of May), went to Bliss and caught up on some waxing - yeahhhhh!, saw old friends and co-workers, shopped like a fiend at Old Navy and crashed with my friend L at her place in the Mission which is where I have ALWAYS wanted to live! She also has a really cute pitbull and one of her roommates has an inappropriately fat beagle and I have missed living with animals so much - there was so much petting and I wanted to walk them all the time...man the first thing I am going to do when I get my own place again is get mahself a pet!

I also packed a lot into my few days in Seattle but started getting a sore throat on my 2nd day and had to cancel with a few friends - but they are top on my list as soon as I get back! Freaking weather better be better by then though...

100th Post! oops NOT!

* Updated to add that it is NOT my 100th - dumb blogger counts drafts...ah well.

Wow so I was just going to quickly update that yes, I am alive and made it to the U.S. and then I saw that this is my 100th post! Pretty rad...

Anyways SF is HOT and sunny and great weather and then I got to Seattle this morning and it is rainy, freezing and gross!

I have lots to update but the main thing is that I lost my cellphone and am super-ghetto borrowing strangers phones, trying to figure out how to use a payphone, blah blah blah AND I barely have had internet access so I am all over the board! I will update everything when I am slacking off at the SF offices later this week=)

2 semi-important updates

I forgot...

1) We had Jesse's sayonara party and now he is not leaving - eh! He decided to go to grad school for sure and since we all have the 4 weeks of time in SF to "job-hunt" after we leave Japan I guess he gets to stay here and help out our team since he no longer needs to job-hunt. I'm glad he is staying for longer but selfishly I am semi-annoyed because I am the first to leave! And I swear to GOD if I have to leave here and go to SF and have no job possibilities in cool locations lined up...it is off the Golden Gate for me. At least with the original plan Jesse would have already been in SF and I could meet up with him there - I still have tons of work friends there but I feel like I need that continuity with Japan and my friends from this last year. We were such a small team (4 of us) that we are completely bonded together and not fractured like normal teams in SF...I can't just go back and integrate myself. I am like one of those wild gorillas that goes crazy in captivity (SF being captivity) when introduced to new gorillas...gots to be eased in people!

2) I haven't heard about the Hawaii job STILL but on Tuesday the DM told me she is interviewing 2 internal candidates this week and that she would tell me asap because "I know how hard it is waiting for a job offer!" SO I don't know if I am obsessed with the wording because of my lack of vocabulary these days but she could have easily said waiting for an answer or waiting for the feedback on your interview, etc. etc. I like her wording (^_^)! Also I was a freak-and-a-half and found the interview she is doing for 1 of the girls...all it said on her calendar was Erika interview - I figured there couldn't be that many Erikas w/a K in our compnay so I searched and cross-referenced all 16 with their job titles. There is an Erika that is the Associate Manager at the Maui store when the GM position is open so duh that is her (maybe I could be less moronic and check the store listings first?)! The great news about that is the stores are going through re-structing and the DM specifically told me during my interiew that the A.M. job was getting down-graded and that that girl was going to have to take a pay cut or get severanced out - she also said that they didn't consider her ready for a GM role yet which is why they weren't having her be the acting GM while they search for a replacement.

Blah blah blah too many details but it basically means that they are only interviewing her because they have to! Yesssss! But I don't know who the other one is - there is no interview on her calendar which probably means I still won't hear for at least another week! Bastards!

Plodding along

Yar I was so tired today due to the not sleeping until 3ish but Q & I also showed up at work at 10 a.m. so I guess I can't complain that much...I was the hottest mess ever though. I am leaving tomorrow to work a 1/2 day and then fly to San Francisco for my official "interview" trip...aka my time to catch up with friends and old bosses so the company an write off the expense. Yes please. Also my friend Mike's wedding is on Saturday - tripppppy - so I obvi scheduled this trip around that and therefore didn't have to pay $1,400 to come see him tie the knot FOREVER.

I am also flying to Seattle for a hot second to see both sets of my grandparents, meet up with some sorority sisters I haven't seen in a loooong time (I will refrain from using the word ye*rs as that would officially make us old but you get the idea...), hang out with my long-lost friend Kirisssssss (trying to make this non-searchable on google heh heh heh) and hopefully see "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" with Lindsay! Then it is back to San Francisco for more nonsense, delicious dinners, gross weather, bitchy people, hills, fog, tourists, retarded Muni, dirty/slow BART, an insane amount of homeless people, drugs, drugs, crack, meth, heroin, smack, drugs and oh....more drugs. Yes I am really looking forward to going to back to San Francisco...

L & I are flying back to Tokyo together (she is stuck in economy...ごめんね!) on Thursday afternoon and getting back Friday...then of course it is Golden Week so I don't have to work Monday or Tuesday AND it is supposed to be 70 degrees and sunny that whole week! So basically I have to suffer through the indignity of being in SF and I will be rewarded with the gloriousness that is Tokyo when I return.

Okay back to putting away all my shit so I can pretend like I am clean, neat and tidy person although L def-def knows better than that as we have been roooooommates!

Again with the not packing...

Arghhh like I said a hot second ago when I went home for Easter, I ALWAYS pack at the last minute! WTF! It is 1:45 a.m. and I have to takyubin (delivery service) my bags to the airport 1 day in advance aka tomorrow before work! G$*&#*$(&#*($&damnit! So tired but truly not allowed to go bed until I shove a bunch of shit in a suitcase...well really it all food since I got L a shitTON of food by request. And a bunch of girly-ass shampoos and eyelash curlers for my friends' fiance - actually the friend whose wedding I am going home for!

Okay must forcus...

Dumb Blogger and dumb formatting!

Sorry I was having major problems with formatting so I have to write the text in a seperate post! Also I have increased font size since my readers are getting older heh heh heh and mebbe it was too small to read...or was that just me?

Anyways Y-chan, A & I have our English/Japanese lunch together at least once a week...my Japanese is blah but their English is getting so much better! I was totally using it as an excuse to be obsessed with A and hear about him but now I have made 2 good friends from it...aren't they cute?!?! Y-chan is a majorly mini-person when she stands up...like probably 80 lbs. Ho. Also I had to make them laugh to get them to smile like that in the picture...the other pictures are totally Japanese-style and they look like they are on their way to the guillotine. Yar.

Here are less retarded looking pictures of us...

There will be no words EXCEPT...this is THE boy! In my sunglasses...yum!

* Edited to add that since I am now posting pictures everyone will go back to initials...no more names since as Murs (I will keep HER name) pointed out, people can search online, etc. There is nothing really inappropriate on here but I will do it n-e-wayz! Dakara...this adorable person is now referred to as A. Fyi...

3 things...

1. When Illahee posted about a butter shortage in Japan a few weeks ago (look at April 5th post) I laughed right along with her - I mean seriously Japan get it together! BUT! Now I cannot buy butter! I am for effing serious too - I tried 4 different grocery stores and 2 convenience stores...and NO BUTTER! I mean it is good for my heart I guess but WTF?!?!

2. I am OBSESSED with Leona Lewis and "Bleeding Love" and just everything about her. I think she is beyond gorgeous and when her video is on I just stare and stare...I sound like a lesbian stalker but really she is so gorgeous! Someone please tell me what her makeup is and gimme that hair! And also that song is bomb...bombbombbombbbomb. I listen to it over and over and over...hmmm re-reading this post makes me think I have some sort of an OCD condition going on. **Photo taken from her website - is that illegal hehehe?**

3. I have started packing eeeee! Technically the company that we use will just come into my house and pack everything up perfectly, ship it to wherever in the U.S. and then unpack it (!!!) in my new apartment too BUT there are 2 problems with that. The first is I dunnah know where I will be living in the U.S...yarrrr. The second is that I am over my volume limit for airing my goods (18 cubic feet) SO they are giving me another 1,000 cubic feet (yes seriously) via ocean shipment that will arrive about 40 days later. So now I have to sort all my shit into air vs. sea piles - whoo hoo! The company sent over some boxes to get me started and I am actually having a lot of fun - except I also have to give a detailed statement to customs about anything leaving the country not via my flight so I am COUNTING all my clothes, shoes, dishes, etc. and filling out a form. I am guessing I will have at least a couple thousand pieces of clothing on that damn form...I am going to look like a super freak! And as my dahlink sister pointed out...that is only what I have here and NOT counting my very full 15 square foot storage unit in SF...heh.

I should park myself in Yokohama! And keep scrolling, there are many new posts!

Wow so between all day Saturday in Chiba/Yokohama and then today in Yokohama with my mom's friend Sheilah and her 2 kids I feel totall suburbed out! So much fun though today - G was telling me & Q about museums we should see in Japan before we go home and obviously one was the Ramen Museum (already saw it last year), the Parasite Museum (must find that for my sister) and then the Anpanman Museum which features the most popular Japanese cartoon ever. Sheilah had mentioned that her kids love it so I jumped at the chance to go - I think it is highly inappropriate to go there without kids (and after going I have confirmed this thought!) It happened to be the 1-year anniversary since it opened but thank God they didn't advertise it very much because it was crowded enough as it was...but there was a special show that they put on and Anapanman himself was there so it was pretty funny to experience this really Japanese cultural icon in all his glory!

I have decided to start posting pictures because this small font and green background is soooo boring - here is a picture of me with Anpanman in the elevator...sorry I look so effing out of it but as explained earlier I am just a hot mess and nothing can be done about it. But I must practice smiling with less gums...ewwww. And stand up straight!I also bought a ton of crap at Toys R Us since I have never been to one in Japan and they had a lot of good deals on candy and food presents for people...yessssuh. Also got some super cute stuff at the museum that my mom (are you supposed to capitalize that? I don't remember...) will love so I have now added to it to the pile on my bed of all the shit I have bought recently! The people who are moving my stuff stupidly told me I get an 18 cubic feet air shipment back home AND a 1,000 cubic feet sea shipment so obviously I took that to mean: buy anyhing that you want, will want, have wanted, other people want or you may/possibly/probably not/but who knows want in the future! People need to not tell me things like that!!!

Longest day evuhrrrrrr.

So shoot going out 3 nights in a row and then having this all-day madness on Saturday has left me effing exhausted! Yasue had asked me and Q a while ago if we wanted to go strawberry picking - apparently it is a very popular thing to do here in the spring mainly because it is all you an eat (tabehodai) for 30 minutes for about $15. Sounds crazy but a) 30 minutes is a LONG time when all you doing is picking and eating and b) it costs about $1/strawberry in the groery stores here! Aka it is a good deal fo shoh.

We RAN for our 7:20 train and were major hot messes - got about 4 hours of sleep since we got home from Jesse's party at 1:30 a.m., no showers, perfume everywhere to cover up the stank and the cigarettes, etc., etc., etc. But we made it, met up with Yasue and got on the Hato Bus in Yokohama with NO other gaijins...in fact I didn't see one other gaijin the entire day and was totally stared at like a monkey. I yam soooo unusual I guess right? Freaking white people in Japan.

It was beyond windy on Saturday and our bus was sliding all over the roadway - I think we driving across the Yokohama Bay but meh actually I am making that up...it was called the Aqua Line and was basially a ginorm bridge from Yokohama to Chiba. We got to go Kamogawa Sea World which was RAD since it was right on the beach in Chiba, we saw a killer whale show, tons of sea turtles, a beluga show and all sorts of cool stuff...I love aquariums! From there we were driven to the strawberry picking place where they ushered us into a greenhouse, gave us a tray with some sweetened condensed milk and let us at them for 30 minutes! Oh yummmm...I have never eaten strawberries with condensed milk but it was fabulous and everyone was telling me that I should put it on toast, cereal, etc. Bad idea ne? I totally pigged out with the strawberries and probably had about 24 or 25 before feeling like I was going to barf. Everyone else had about 10-15...dummies!

We also were paraded to some good spots to shop for omiyage or gifts for home so I got some new flavors of Kit Kats for people, a few Hello Kitty cell phone charms (one is in a crepe Harajuku style - random!) and then we ended the day at the Yokohama station. So all in all it was only $70 for everything included and it was a 10 hour tour - what a freaking great deal! Of course it you go to the website the only tours that they advertise in English are for Tokyo so I always thought that was all Hato did...wrong!

For dinner we wandered around Yokohama Cosmo World and the Landmark area - there is such good shopping and I am going to skip out of work early in May to go get some good stuff for my next apartment somewhere...so cute! We had dinner at an all-you-can-eat Japanese food place that specializes in seasonal vegetables and it was soooo good. $20 for everything and there was barely any meat so this is ANOTHER place I am going to take Murs in May - yummmmmy. We finally got home around 9:30 p.m. and I was so flipping tired I think I was asleep by 10:30 at the latest - which was good because today I had to meet up with more people in Yokohama AGAIN by 12:30 p.m...doesn't sound early but when you have been getting 4-6 hours of sleep for 4 nights in a row....yar.

Sayonara Jesse-san!

Friday was Jesse's going-away party WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Oh my Jesus in heaven with lights on top...I have to write a whole update about this party later not because it was so wild and crazy but I think I was just drunk enough to get emotional and sad and then happy...well anyways. I don't want to go into whiny details here so I'll save that for later this week.

He had rented a private room at a bar in Nishi-Azabu called The Baron so it was majorly for gaijins AND the room had its own bar for our nomihodai! Usually the waitress keeps bringing drinks but here it was great because we had our own bartender who would do anything we wanted for 2 hours for only 20 people...heh yum! I was very restrained though due to my pants becoming a little tight (too too too much alcohol these days) and also because Q & I had to catch the 7:20 a.m. train from Shibuya to meet Yasue for our Saturday adventure (more to come on that). So we knew we couldn't drink that muh anyways and then Jesse gave me his videocamera to use and I taped the whole night - man that really made me realize HOW much I want a videocamera! I have to buy a new camera anyways and people keep telling me that they take fine video and as long as you have a big memory card it is the same thing. But I realllly want a videocamera! Give it to me!

We had a 2 hour nomihodai and then people all stuck around and drank and danced for another 2 hours before heading out to WHERE ELSE but Muse? Everyone was drunk enough that Q & I were able to escape with minimal harassment where normalls use leaving before 2 a.m. would be totally inappropriate. Oh also Jesse was pretty drunk and loves to say "I love you" but with the intonation going up on love like he is singing so there was much of that going on - and I am pretty sure that when I was giving him back his camera he tried to feel me up by hugging me but with his hands in front of him...heheheh but I will forgive him.

I know you people want to see half nekkid Japanese wrestlers too!

Thursday Xtiane & I went to Dragon Gate Pro-Wrestling with my friend Ando-san and I fully expected it to be lammmmmmme. He is a HUGE fan of Japanese wrestling and has been harassing me for a year to go but I have until this point put it off due to his true love of me (awkward as eff since he is married) and the fact that really who goes to watch fake wrestling unless you are a weirrrrrdo?! But we went and it was AWESOME! I mean so funny and entertaining and hilarious...I am also taking Murs in May!

It is a fairly small arena and we had standing-room only tickets which means we just were on the 2nd floor and leaned over the balcony but it was a small arena and a great view. Some amateur sumo wrestlers were in the audience and also 7 geishas that were part of the performance of giving flowers to the top winners, etc. - I am sure they are "fake" geishas cause really why would they be in this kind of a place but they were still perfectly dressed and acting like real geishas so it was pretty cool to see. THEN there were the wrestlers - hottttttttt! Think yummy Japanese guys but WITH muscles and tans - whoo hoo! Obviously some were gross and some were super tiny (the ones for really joke matches) but that was pretty fun heh heh heh...and the matches were SO cool! These guys are so athletic and flexible - not like the lumbering hulks in WWE or whatever - they made me so nervous that they were really getting hurt for a while but all in all hugely entertaining.

I kept telling Ando-san how much I loved it and he saw that Xtiane had so much fun too and he was SO happy...he is very girly and whiny a lot of times and tends to ignore me for weeks on end if I have done even one little thing to irritate him so the fact that we loved the show so much made him giddy. It was great to see him so happy=) Anyways it was fabulous and I canNUH wait to go again!

Weekly update - bad Katie!

Sorry I have been so spastic about updating lately...I am SO tired due to my being very-popular but soon my popularness will make me broke so then I will get some sleep!

Wednesday was hilarious - G and his team had found this really good restaurant in Shibuya few weeks ago that serves such hot/spicy food that it "broke Ayumi's stomach" hahaha! So he sent out a meet invite for dinner to our whole team and the title was "Hot Stuff" heh...we had to explain to him later that hot stuff yes can mean hot things like food but usually it means something else. Everybody was scared to go so it only ended up being him, his boss, me, Q, Yasue and one of our newer people Meguro-san who I love, love, love - good group of people and man it made me remember why I lurved G for so long and it was almost nostaligic. He and his boss and travelling so much for work these days to visit all of our stores and also since he moved to the 3rd floor we really never see him. And as I have whined about many a time before he obviously makes no effort to come see us and especially not ME! Bah anyways. So the food was beyond hot - like HOT HOT HOT! They are famous for their chicken but they also had squid and it was really good but after about 3 bites it felt like I had sunburnt my lips! A really weird feeling...they also have yummy spicy tofu, spciy avocado salad, etc. And a whole bunch of milk based drinks to calm the inevitable hole you will burn in your stomach! We were all literally sweating and coughing...pretty much a bunch of hot messes. G was the hottest mess though - that fool sweats a lot anyways but OMG he soaked the whole neck of his shirt and his hair was half wet - we were cracking up but he is very Japanese and just lets the sweat come because "I am human" as he says...yes thank you for that.

Anyways I am FO SERIOUS taking my sister there when she comes to visit in May! And we will drink some yogurt before hand to coat our stomachs such as is the practice...yummmmy.

じゃあああ 分からないんですが。。。

Hmmm so I don`t know what to think - my interview went very well and we *bonded* over our seemingly unique hatred of San Francisco (heh heh heh she brought it up, not me!) but I am not sure she thinks I am ready for a GM position yet...so we shall see. She was trying to really sell me on the store though and it only has about 16 sales associates, $2 million/year and is on sleepy little Maui so MAYBE she will give me a shot!!!! Man I am hoping...

But if not there is the Ala Moana job and if no to that no then shoooot I am enjoying my summer off, visiting my crackhead sister in DC, putzing around NY and in general effing off...so I wait.

Friday night fun times!

Jyaaaa time to get this shizzz updated - for serious yo. Friday night had to be one of the funnest (yeah bitches) nights I have had in a long time - here and in the U.S.! Freaking Japanese people can party on down with the best of them and once they decide that it is a night out, man there is no end to the night. Here's what went down!

One of our temporary Production trainers from NY was here for about 2 months and Friday was her last day - I didn't know her very well the first month but the last few weeks we started hanging out a lot and this bitch is crazy hilarious...and also just crazy. Aka we were majorly kindred spirits (^_^)...so it was Suparna's last night and her team planned a goodbye party of 2 hour nomihodai (all you can drink) and dinner from 7-9 at this restaurant in Shinjuku. I knew going into it that we would probably have a nijikai (2nd party or 2nd round) so I had gotten out extra yen to get ready for the night heh! I was the only person besides Jesse from our area so I got to hang out with the new Production team and some of my favorite merchants including Io who I am sure loves me but loves one-night stands with mini-Japanese girls more! Hahah anyways...fun times. Oh also out President came and our CFO - apparently Suparna has friends in high places...and they drank a ton! Gotta love Japanね? Had some delicious Malibu & pineapple - on a side note I am sure glad I finally got over automatically puking from smelling Malibu (effing Chris!) since it is sooo delicious and it only took me 6 years....lame!.

They had already planned to go a favorite bar after dinner but it was full so we wandered a bit until we ould find a place that would fit all 20 of so uf us. Luckily it was right above a super sweet massage parlor in Shinjuku so we got to watch tons of nasty old men wandering in and out as we drank! Grossssssss. It was technically a shot bar and as we got a little more drunk we had some nasteeee shots but mainly I had a few Malibu Lime (have YOU heard of this deliciousness? I need it in my life!) & pineapples. Also Matsui-san (one of my favorite co-workers) loves loves loves to yell in English when he gets drunk so we basically shut the place down and chased out all the other salary-men and people trying to relax with our loudness and 面倒くさいness! He was intent on finding a certain kind of alcohol that he claimed was 98% but the bartender only has some random rums that were 75% so he ordered some shots and we all sipped little bits...hmmm well I didn't puke but it was little like fire hitting my tum-tum. Very weird. The other great thing was the Production team is super traditional Japanese with work and social rituals so when we getting ready to leave and there was a $450 bar tab for all of us, they made each person pay by gender and place in the company! Aka I only had to pay $10 cause I'm just a girl and lowwwwww...heh heh heh. Suckers.

So THEN it is about 11ish and most peoples' last trains were about in a hour so we had time to go to karaoke - Shinjuku is stuffed full of karaoke places so we just stumbled down the stairs yelling about finding karaoke. As I was yelling there were these 2 Asian people walking up the same stairs and the girl said "AHH English? You speak English?!?!" It turns out she and her boyfriend (both Chinese I think) were visiting from Australia (yarrrr awful accents and totally trippy on an Asian person), had just gotten in the night before, spoke no Japanese at all, were totally lost and desperately wanted to sing karaoke! So I drunkenyl said "Hey! We are going to karaoke, you will come with us!" Hahaha! And they did! I introduced them to all my Japanese friends and they were all sufficiently drunk enough to accept new random people without question - so weird (^_^)!

We ended up at karaoke for a few hours - a few people peeled off to catch their last trains but the majority stayed and just decided to take cabs home! Those fools ordered big old beer pitchers full of lemonade - or so I thought...turned out to be piss-ass gin & tonics! By the pitcher full! Yahhhh and we drank em...sang a ton, even got to record a lot of video so I can't wait to see how that turns out! One dude was puking for a while in the bathroom and we were all kind of running out of steam around 1:30 so we ended karaoke and headed down to the front of the buidling. I was on my way to catch a cab but then Suparna was yelling about wanting to go dancing! At 1:30 a.m.! Wtf...I totally thought no one else would want to go but this guy Hara-san was all about it and knew a rad place in Roppongi that had NOTHING to do with nasty old Muse so we all went...about 12 of us!

Ended up at Soul Bar Roppongi (eh or something like that) - they only play 70's music so it was so good! I was obviously the only non-Japanese person there and I was majorly stared at...they seems to LURV that I knew all the words to all the songs. It was $25 to get in but also included 2 drink tickets - really didn't need those last 2 drinks but meh...whatchu gonna do? I probably drank a bottle of Malibu by myself that night after all 4 places ahahahah! I had worn heels that day to work since I had an interview in the afternoon and dumbly forgot to bring my flat shoes for going out that night - so I ended up dancing for hours in heels! Well it probably made me look better anyways=) and I danced sooooooo much! I was telling my sister that I never knew I could dance - I used to think that I had to be drunk to dance but even after this last year here and being drunk *a lot* I still had trouble dancing...but for some reason I was great on Friday! And all the Japanese girls loved me - they did exactly what I was doing ALL the time! It was so weird for a while but once I figured out what they were doing I thought it was hilarious and enjoyed my new-found celebrity....yessssuh. So now I am very happy I can dance. All of a sudden...

Io was with us the whole night which was great because he is crazy hilarious and also because he is one of Ashi's best friends at work and I KNOW that fool told him about the whole night out...so let's hope he told him I am a bomb dancer too...(^_^)

Oh yeah and the ending is I thought it would be a good idea to walk home since it is only about 30 minutes but they forced me into a cab where I rambled in Japanese with the cab driver the whole way home - he thought I was the craziest gaijin ever but it is very easy to speak a foreign language when under the influence heh. Got home around 4, fell asleep around 4:30 and had to drag my stinky (from cigarettes and sweat yum) self up at 10:18 to get to my hair appointment around the corner at 10:30. I couldn't shower since your hair has to be dirty before you get highlights so what did I do? Slapped on some delicious Aquolina Pink Sugar lotion and Febrezed my hair. Yah that's right you heard me...I Febrezed that shit!

Yelena looked at me and snorted "What time did YOU get home?" I told her and she snorted again "Heh! You look like it..."

Eeeeee!

Dude so excited right now! Sooooo the GM position of one of our stores in Maui opened last week and even though my recruiter says I should return to the field as a Sr. Manager of blah blah blah I figured that this store is fairly low volume and Maui is beyond chill...so I emailed him and asked him if he thought I would be qualified. Right away he set me up a phone INTERVIEW with the DM of Hawaii/OC to talk about the Maui job and also the Sr. Manager job coming open in Ala Moana (a very intense job I think) - TOMORROW at 8 A.M.!!! Holy shit!

I snooped on her calendar too and there is no one else she is interviewing for the positions so that either means they are all internal already at the stores and looking casually OR Robert already told her about me and they really like me! Eeeeeee so excited...gotsta gotsta gotsta prepare for this shizzz so much tonight!

Wish me luck=) Cause now I will have tried my best with Tokyo and with Hawaii and I am not feeling any regrets (^____________^)

Random early morning thought...

So I was just watching TV at 2 a.m. ha...and saw this group of 3 really cute Japanese girls doing all very stereotypically Japanese-girl things: wearing 3/4 stockings, giggling while covering their mouths, etc. For the most part they were all dressed the same and were acting all the same when responding to the interviewer - and it got me thinking about how people choose what kind of people they like.

As my time here runs out faster and faster like a hourglass (Days of Our Lives style!) I have been thinking about a lot about guys and whey they did like me or more often why they didn't - especially recently with Ashi. And watching these girls made me realize that more often than not: we like what we know. I know that isn't a revelation to most people but it is so weird to say it out loud or just to put in down in writing because it just makes so much damn sense. I know for a fact he likes me and yet he semi-hid his girlfriend from me. He flirts with me all the time, wants to spend so much time together and has totally changed into such an outgoing person since we started hanging out together a few months ago and I can't reconcile that person with someone who would like a soft, squishy, shy, timid little Japanese girl. And then I think that well he likes what he knows - I mean let's think about this...he has never been to the U.S. except on business to NY twice, he barely speaks English, he is only 26 and he is has only ever travelled to other Asian countries. Last week he told me in Japanese "I want to learn English so much and I want to speak to foreign people but I am having a trouble/bothered/embarrased (the Japanese word was 困る which is very hard to translate)" - I knew he wanted to learn English since he told me a little bit about it and this is the reason we started having lunch but to hear the intensity was interesting.

So if you think about it he really doesn't know what foreign girls are like - why we do what we do, act certain ways, wear weird clothes, yell, smile big, cry, fight in public, want to kiss on the street, make eye contact all the time, ask Japanese people questions about everying, dive into details of other peoples lives, etc., etc. As he has gotten to know me and all the insanity I entail in the last few months I can feel and see his interest and curiousity growing - I have never had such a quick and intense friend as him. Whether this interest is really in me personally or the fact that he has never known someone "like me" I have no idea - but for now I have decided to be content with this little genius brain revelation and bask in my craziness/uniqueness.

Time to update but...

Okay people I have tons of updates - sadly none in the job department so don't get too excited - but my friend X is flying in from SF in a hot second and I gots to go pick her up in Shinjuku! Also I just discovered this new blog and spent an entire hour reading it - the beyotch is high-larious so go read her!

So when I have time this weekend - ha - I will be updating on the following topics (this list is designed to keep me on track as there is much to discuss):

1) Too too too much drinking. Tuesday night, Wednesday night and then all fuck-out last night (Friday). AND I had a hair appt. at 10:30 a.m. this morning, my 4 hours of sleep and 3 ragers in 1 week has left me looking wrecked and floofy and Yelena (the crazy lezzy) said "Wow. You look rough." Hahahaha!

2) Job updates - had 2 more interviews with agencies. One said I should have started 5 months ago and one was really un-professional - not badly, just you could tell they were a newer company and had very little experience. Cause you know I am the expert now...

3) Boys - Ashi, Io and 2 others who *lurv* me and hid their girlfriends from me...I swear to God if I meet one more guy who flirts outrageously with me and then says 6 weeks later "I don't live alone" I will kick them in the balls. I have heard this complain a lot from other gaijins dating in Japan but never have I come across it so prevantly as in the last 3 monhts. Obviously it is because I have gotten much hotter and everyone wants me.

4) I figured out I can dance - and WELL! My sister dances like the ho that she is but I could never figure it out and then last night at the 4th place we went to (after all-you-can-drink restaurant, shot bar and karaoke) it all clicked and people lurrrrrved it! I had so many little mini-Japanese girls copying every move I did...I am like a celebrity now. Or at least a celebrity dance coach.

5) Updated dates of leaving Japan pending no job here and my plans for the summer (don't be jealous of my 4 months of severance...)

6) Other random things such as my friend thinks my boss is a lesbian and now I do to. Also Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" video (yes from 18 years ago) is playing on MTV Japan and I cannot believe how well she can swing that thing around! It is so round but it is like she can dis-engage it from her hips and make circles...

7) Friends in Japan, making friends in the U.S. again and the changes I have noticed in my personality (re: 2 randoms I invited to karaoke last night, etc.)

Jyaaaaaa, that is all for now. Have to hide all my embarassing things in my house before I got get X (this is not a weird anonymity symbol, her name is Christiane and pronounced like the religion so I write her name Xtiane and therefore call her X. FYI!) Please wait on pins and needles for all my entralling life updates (^_^)...