And here’s the concert info I ganked from Metropolis:
Tokyo Jihen
Japanese rock band formed by singer/songwriter Ringo Shiina. Nov 10, 20 & 21, 7pm; Nov 11, 6pm, ¥5,500. Zepp Tokyo, Aomi. Tel: Sogo 03-3405-9999.

My favorite Japanese TV show comes on channel 8 at 9pm on Tuesdays.

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e

There’s this chick who falls in love with a boy dresses up like a boy to go to his school. Recently a really bitchy girl just found her passport and is determined to ruin her life. And I thought this sort of plot only happened in anime.
The best thing about it, is it’s filled with beautiful, beautiful men.

And Ai does the ending theme song!

Uh oh. Maybe that was the last episode.

I only had to teach three classes at my Thursday elementary school so I had a lot of free time. I spent one period amusing second graders by speaking very basic phrases in Japanese (Whoa! She’s mastered the simplicity of “I am.” and “You are.” LOLZ!) and eating gerbil food*. I’m a sucker for cheap thrills.

After school, I found a group of kids talking around the bathrooms. “Why are you all hanging out around the toilet?” The most outgoing of the boys came over to me. I don’t think he understood most of what I said, but he certainly understood “toilet.” He squatted down like he was laying an egg (or hunching over a squat toilet) and made grunting noises. Then he made a motion under himself to mime something being expelled from his bottom.

I followed that group around for a while. A few of the boys made a girl cry and she ran off. They peer pressured each other into apologizing to her and making her laugh. Wow. One day these kids will be unhappy, overworked, suppressed adults, but right now, they’ve got a lot of class.

Thursday night was the typhoon. It was a lot of hysteria in a landlocked area over some rain and wind. Minor train lines were stopped. Private schools canceled class the following day. Classes in Maebashi were delayed three hours on Friday morning, but I still had to go in on time.

The typhoon was bad enough that I wouldn’t have wanted to out walking in it. And I probably would have fallen over on a bike from the wind. But one of the biggest news stories of destruction and injury was that some old person had slipped and broken his/her hip.

My friend is a badass. He donned a swimsuit, put his cell phone and wallet in a ziplock bag and went out drinking until 2am.

*ok So the gerbil food was only raw sunflower seeds, but when I popped one of those into my mouth all the kids were totally freaked out. One of the boys eagerly handed me a second bag of gerbil food and helpfully held out a few green and brown pellets in his hand.

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Right now I’m obsessed with “Hybrid Rainbow” by The Pillows.

The music video isn’t anything special, but check out that gorgeous song.

Here’s another cute video by Yuki -Biscuit. Not sure how I feel about the naked baby in the end.

M-flo and BoA (a Korean pop star). This one came out a while ago, but I still think it’s a neat song… And there’s something about the music video that reminds of the movie Tron. I wonder what it could be.


“I got the bad case of interplanetary live jones.”

I’m getting seduced by Jpop. This is the sort of amazingness that lured me out here to begin with.

Strawberry Chips- Halcali

Chu-lip- Otsuka Ai

Joy- Yuki

This music video is ridiculously hot. It’s pretty popular amongst the young Japanese ladies for karaoke. (more…)