December 31. 2004 04:52

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! I had so much fun celebrating the new year today ^______^ It started out like a bad night but it turned out to be great ^___^ I came back from Tokyo last night (I'll tell more about that later) and this morning, about as soon as I had woken up and went to the local store to stock up some food for the new year's holidays (I don't know if they're open for the first few days of the year or not), I went to the other exchange students to see if they had something planned for tonight. They did have, but none of it included non-family members. Tom was going to have a dinner with Yuuko and Richard and Lorna were spending time with Richard's parents, who are in town. Tim has disappeared to somewhere (the others think it might be Tokyo, but nobody's heard of him in a while), Dion's in Tokyo until the school starts and the girls, Laura and Janeva, have gone home. So, I'm left all alone again, with nobody to party with... (And I still have that bottle of salmiakki Koskenkorva, and I'm not taking that home with me...)

I returned home, disappointed that I didn't have any party to go to tonight, but then thought that didn't I especially want to see the Japanese new year, not just any party I could have anywhere in the world? It lifted my spirits a bit, even though I was still a bit down about my lack of plans for the big celebreation. After pondering it a bit I decided to go to the Kurama hot springs, since I have to go there before I leave, and then go downtown to see the bells being ringed at one of the temples. After pondering a bit more I didn't feel like going to the Kurama after all, but thought I'd rather go there the next few days, when I'd have more time to just lie in the warm water. But I did decide to go to one of the temples around the shopping streets to see the bells and such.

It was still early, so I tried to translate some of the report and essay assignments we have to do for this semester. I could only figure out the one for the Issues in manga course, I was again amazed by the awful handwriting of the Network art teacher, and of the others I have gotten no instructions. (I wanted to do those essays during the holidays, but there's a slight problem if I can't understand what I'm supposed to write about.) Sometime before nine o'clock I decided I'll rather go eat supper at some restaurant and then go spend time downtown.

The restaurant I chose for today was the yakitori restaurant that is on the way to Kokusaikaikan from my dorm. I ride past it several times a week and I've always wanted to go in, but every time I pass it I don't feel like yakitori. (If somebody's wondering what yakitori is, it's bird meat in a stick roasted on a fire.) Having done this for over 3 months, I had decided that if I leave Japan without going there, my life will be forever doomed with chances I never grasp. And finally, today was the day to grasp the chance of going there and finally do one of the things I want to do before I leave. (There're only 22 days left. That's so little and I want to see a lot more.) And going in that yakitori restaurant, Momotaro yakitori as it is called, changed all my plans for the new year ^_^

It's a rather small place, with nice red lanterns that invite you to step in, but with only 4 tables and a bar. When I went in there was a group of men at the bar, and I sat down on one of the empty chairs. I didn't know what to order since I've never had yakitori before (more than that one small bite at Kinosai), so I tried to ask what was good, but the owner of the place didn't seem to understand so I just ended up ordering 4 pieces of general yakitori and they decided on which they wanted to make. It worked very well, in fact, I got 4 different pieces featuring things like dango and leg, and later on also heart and liver and some "elbow-things". (Heart was really good, but liver tasted like liver (= bad).)

The men at the bar seemed to be long-time customers, everyone seemed to know each other and the two "bartenders". They were talkative, laughed when I asked for a ramune (and not something with alcohol for this big night), applauded when I opened the ramune easily (it was a really easy bottle, I was surprised) and then started another lively conversation, this time inviting me in it. They asked where I was from, how old I was, if I was a student (yeah, at Kyoto Seika I told them), what was the animal of the year I was born in (one of the guys just turned 33, he was a boar, like me and the owner of the store), what was Finland like, whether I had seen the aurora, whether I had a boyfriend in Finland, stuff like that.

There was one guy, 28-ish called Hisashi, who was a former resident of Iwakura but had moved away 9 months ago, was born in Kouchi and had a wife but divorced and worked as a helper for old people, and he was very much into talking with me. Then there was another guy, 23, I think he called himself Yuu-chan but I'm not sure if that was his real name or not, who was getting very drunk but liked to talk with us anyway. He lost his girlfriend a month-or-so ago and was very sad, and I kinda think he was eyeing me like he wanted to take me somewhere, but these Japanese men are too kind to force themselves on girls. (I actually noticed a few of them looking at me like they thought I was pretty, but the atmosphere was very nice and safe, I wasn't the least bit worried that I was gonna be treated badly there.) The guy who was drunk wanted to buy me a drink, so I agreed to get a chu-hi, at which everyone voiced their approvement. I was thinking about leaving after the first 4 yakitori, but the atmosphere was so nice that I stayed, took another 4, had another chu-hi and continued listening to the men and talk to them.

In a while some more men dropped in and at half past ten-ish a group of 3 girls came to one of the tables. By now I was having so much fun I didn't even think about bothering to go somewhere else. I was having a great new year with people around me and just two minutes from home with bike! This was more than I was hoping for! I was sick of spending time alone at home and now I had all these interesting people to talk to ^__^ And, on top of that, they paid for all my drinks and in the end food, too, so I had a nice meal of yakitori plus 3 chu-hi all for free ^___^ The drunk man, Yuu-chan, also gave me a good luck charm from some temple and I got to taste some sort of onigiri snacks. (Not rice, but like salted crackers, I guess the taste was onigiri.)

At some point the owner of the shop joined the customers, leaving his young "apprentice" to take care of the kitchen. (Which was the space behind the bar. Yakitori doesn't take much kitchen space.) By the way, this young man was very good-looking *grin* I couldn't help glancing at him every now and then (and to my joy, I think he glanced at me every once in a while, too *griin* I think I'll have to go there again... hehe). At one point this Hisashi asked me to pick the one who was best-looking between him, Yuu-chan and the "bartender", and I would've said the bartender at once, but I thought that'd be a bit rude to the other two and refused to answer. Then they taught me a lot of Japanese jokes that I can't remember because they relied mostly on different pronounciations of Japanese words that I didn't know. I can only remember that one had something to do with sliced socks and one was about the English word 'sorry' and the Japanese president.

Before we even noticed it, the girls in the corner shouted out and it was the new year. The time flied past so fast! Yuu-chan went home early (I think before midnight, actually) and Hisashi-san left half past midnight because he had golf early in the morning, I stayed to finish my chu-hi and to listen to the other men talk for a bit more. They were all so much fun. The owner was a really funny guy. Sometime after one I finished my chu-hi and, even though I might've wanted to stay and listen to a bit more talking, I felt like it was the time a decent young woman should return home. (They had been very impressed by how I was talking to them so easily when I came there all alone, but they made it really easy to me, talking to me first and being so open-hearted and everything.) The girls from the corner returned at the same time and we changed a couple of words, I found out that they were also from Kyoto Seika and (for some reason that I couldn't quite understand) they wanted me to keep quiet about it. (Or maybe they just wanted me to keep quiet in general because it was late? I got the feeling it was just about the school, though.)

On the way home I went to get a man (that's a Japanese word, man like manjuu, not a man like a male ^_^;;;) from Circle-K, because I had one yesterday night and realized they're awfully good with the right stuffing. The bean paste ones are bad, I don't like bean paste, but the ones with cabbage and meat inside are really good. I actually wanted to get an american dog (I got one of those yesterday night, too, and remembered how good they were), but the nearest Circle-K doesn't seem to have them anymore and the Lawson at Kokusaikaikan is too far. Man is quite good enough ^__^ While I was in the yakitori place it had started to snow, my first snow in Kyoto (!! ^________^), and I made a little snow man in front of the dorm and ate my man standing next to him. Now I'm having my "single made sparkling wine", the same as at christmas, and just finished the small black liquorice candies (liquorice is a very difficult word, by the way) Mum and Dad brought from Finland. I'm still a bit hungry, though, so I might go and eat a few Maruten or something before I go to bed... I'm having one of these strange "hungry even though I just ate a bunch" days again O_o

So, about Tokyo

Tokyo was nice. I had fun, even though it was a bit difficult to find things to do because I was alone and didn't know much about the city. The last couple of days I spent at Comic Market (number 69 this year, and my reason for going to Tokyo in the first place). Comiket was great, even though it was hard to find anything decent with all that porn-ish stuff around. Hard, soft, straight, gay, whatever you can imagine, they had it. ^_^;; But they had some cleaner doujinshi there, too. My main object (if there was any) was to find Inu-Yasha doujinshi featuring some Sango x Miroku sweetness, but to my great surprise there was only one group selling their 5 IY books. I found some fiction, that is, novels, but not even a single fan art besides the ones I ran into during the last 10 minutes of the event. The art is not excellent and the stories don't look much better, but I took 4 of the books because leaving the event without a single IY doujinshi would just be wrong. There's a Sango x Miroku story with some sexual content to it and one that's clean, then a Inu-Yasha x Kagome book, and then one about Kagome and Sango's relationship. That last one seems really great and it was the only one I took not just because it was IY, but because I was interested in the story.

Mainly I bought Card Captor Sakura or Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles themed doujinshi and a couple of Harry Potter ones. The last one of them, a story about James and Lily, has to be the greatest book I found in the whole Comiket. It has the best story (as far as I can understand it) and it has beautiful art ^_^ I'm very happy I ran into it ^__^ Then I got a couple of illustration books, a yaoi book about Jack Sparrow (but he's so gorgeous! ;P) and some random other books because they had pretty art. The first book I bought on the second day was a Fullmetal Alchemist shounen-ai doujinshi that I only got because the cover was so pretty and it was cheap, and thinking about it now that I got all the other books it seems like a kind of a waste... But when I ran into it I had not found anything else to buy yet, so I partially got it so that I wouldn't go home empty-handed ^_^;;

I also found tables of the people behind the Windows-tan girls and those that make the flash animations that always end up being famous around the web (like the sad story of the cat in the box, with Wind's Nocturne as the music) and I would've liked to buy something from them to show my appreciation to their work and show that I have actually been close to the artists themselves (^__^), but neither of them had anything worth buying. The flash guys had just a load of trinkets and the Windows-tan doujinshi were hard porn and too pricey to be bought just for the heck of it. But I got an advertisement with the Win2000 and ME girls on it, that'll satisfy me at least a bit ^_^ (By the way, you Win girl lovers, there were a couple of girls cosplaying them, oh you would've loved them ;P)

The first two days before Comiket I spent mainly just walking around the few spots of Tokyo I knew. I went to see the Sensoji temple, which is said to be the oldest temple in Japan (or was it just Tokyo? Too lazy to check) on the morning when I arrived (came with the night bus again, this time less sleepy afterwards, probably because I slept well the night before leaving) and then walked in Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku in the evenings. I was supposed to go to the Shinjuku part on the second day, but I got out of the hotel so late that I didn't make it there until it was too dark to go walking in a park.

The hotel I stayed in was New Koyo, noted as the cheapest place to stay in Tokyo. It was indeed cheap, only 2500 yen a night, and I had my own room, not just a bed in a dormitory. The room was small, of course, only 2 tatami (that's about 1,5 x 1,5 meters) plus the wide window sill and the small closet and table for the TV and a small space to leave your shoes in, but that's all you really need, isn't it? I only needed a place to sleep and I was prepared to only have a bed in a shared room, if that's what it took. A room of my own was great, and a TV was a luxury bonus. The showers and toilets were shared, though, so the place still had a "backpacker feeling" to it, but that's okay, that's what I went for.

I was actually really surprised that I managed to get a room in this hotel. I woke up to reserving one only one day before I had to leave and I was sure it'd be difficult to find a place with the new year's holidays and all. But New Koyo was the second place I called to and the absolute best offer I could find. They only had 2 nights free when I reserved, but they put me on the waiting list for the third night and it only took a few hours before a place opened for me. I didn't even have to change rooms. I had so much luck with this trip I can't believe it! I got the bus ticket and the room in one day's notice, the days in Tokyo went perfectly well and I found Comiket easily. The only things I had small problems with was the trip back (I couldn't get a bus so I had to take the Shinkansen, wasted a few thousand on that but that's okay I guess) and an evening-full of worries because I didn't get enough money from the ATM before they were said to close down for the new year (but they didn't, I got more money at Comiket and then there was nothing to worry about anymore).

I did hope that there'd been at least something more to do in the city than wondering around alone for two days, but I guess there's no helping it, since all my friends are elsewhere. (But those days alone in Tokyo sure enhanced the feeling of disappointment when I learned that I'd have to spend the new year alone, too...) Well, at least I could go wherever I wanted and spend as much time in the stores as I wanted. The small shops in Harajuku (towards Omotesando) were pretty interesting, all sorts of funny small stores with all sorts of interesting clothes. And people dressed in interesting clothes, too, though I was too pre-occupied by watching to stores to watch the people. (You really should have a street-side cafe to sit at to get to watch people, and there seem to be only a handful of those in Japan. Or at least there weren't any in those parts of Tokyo.)

I found a store with Gothic Lolita clothes in Harajuku and went through it very carefully, checking out everything it had. Gosurori clothes are so cool! I'd love to wear them, but they'd take way too much of either money to buy or time to make and I wouldn't look good in them anyway, because you kinda have to be small and doll-like to wear them... But the romantic gothic style still inspires me and I'd like to try it, if I ever have enough time to make some cool clothes for myself. (I'll never have enough money to buy a full set of clothes in that style...) I'm inspired by so many different styles, I wonder if I'll ever settle with just one... I want to try gothic, then cute, then sexy, then I want to relax and go for the gargo pants style. It's a bit difficult trying to establish a consistent style with my airy head, but I kinda like to be able to select what suits my mood at the moment ^_^ (I just hope people don't try to read my character too much based on the clothing of a certain day, because it might change in a few days again ;P)

But that small gosurori store was nothing compared to the OiOne store I found the next day. Nothing. The OiOi chain has a few department store in Tokyo, it seems, and one of them in Shijuku is designed for young people. The first 3 floors, the OiYoung part, was just regular youth clothes, but the 4 highest floors, the OiOne part, were all full of goth clothes. O_O It was amazing! There was a Nightmare Before Christmas corner (as it is the new hip thing here), then half a floor or "normal" gothic/rocky clothes, then a beautiful corner with a Moi-meme-moitie store (complete with dim lightning and gothic style ink paintings and decorations!), then a floor with less rocky but general gothic clothes, and then one for shoes, and then one for Gothic Lolita! And all of the staff wore gothic, half of them being lolita! :D It was the coolest store ever, you'd never find anything like this outside Japan. I spent so long there, just browsing the clothes. The "general but not rocky gothic" floor had a set of kinda "chinese gothic" style clothes in it and having slept over it I decided that's the place I'm gonna get my Tokyo thing from, even if it'd cost 10 000 yen. (I had been browsing the other stores quite a bit and even though the clothes were nice, they were all depressingly expensive, starting from 5000 yen for a simple top. Here at least I'd be getting my money's worth.)

I came back to the store the next day and tried on some of the clothes. There were several that looked very nice on the rack, but they didn't really fit me. But then I tried this mix of a shirt and a top and a jacket and there, it was the thing! It looked nice on the rack, but on me it looked perfect! (I'll have to get my tummy a bit firmer to look my best in it, but I already decided to do that anyway.) It was a bit over 10 000 yen, but what the hell, it's the only thing I'll be buying from Tokyo. (Besides the doujinshi, but they don't count :P) And it looked so good! When I got home I tried it with the black skirt I had with me for "fancy occations" and it looks great. And I also noticed that if I open the zipper in front half-way and organize myself a bit, it produces quite a nice cleavage even with my small breasts ;P (By the way, in the proving room I had a chance to see myself topless in front of a mirror for the first time since Finland and to my disappointment I noticed dieting has also eaten away some of my breasts... They're fine being small, too, but I kinda liked the way they got a little bigger (when I got fatter, apparently) and now that they've once been bigger, they're not as firm as they were when they were originally in their smallest.)

And on the third day in Tokyo I saw my first snow in Japan. It came down heavily and was very beautiful but lasted only for half a day. And it was a bit wet... A couple asked me if I really didn't want an umbrella when I went out and I laughed and said I was fine. Why would anyone want an umbrella when it's snowing? Snow doesn't make you wet. Everyone else around me had an umbrella, though ^_^ And I did notice that it wasn't pure snow, it was, as I said, a bit wet, so maybe an umbrella would've been wise, if I was touchy about it. But no, protecting myself from the snow is unthinkable. I love snow! Snow is my friend ^_^ (Yeah, and didn't I say it'd snow in a while after I put those paper snow flakes up in my window? ^___^) I wonder if I could marvel at it now from my window, or if it's slowly melting away again... There was some this morning, I hear, but by the time I woke up it was all gone... But now that it's night it might be cold enough for it to stay for a while ^_^