On Christmas Eve we had a little party. Ray, one of the lads we live with, made loads of food, including delish meatloaf and chocolate scones, om nom nom. Derry made tofurkey, which turned out quite well! I ate a ridiculous amount of cheese and crackers.

Derry's mum had sent over a Christmas Cake and some Christmas pudding. These went down quite well with the Japanese folk. I found it very amusing to see people eating Christmas cake with their chopsticks :)

On Christmas day we exchanged our gifts. Derry got me a hair dryer, a curling tongs, a ring, loads of Pocky and the best teddy bear ever. Derry Claus fuckin rules. We went into Shinjuku in the afternoon to have a Christmas pint with Sean Lugosi in Dubliner's Irish Bar! We don't know Sean very well but it was great to see a familiar face and to hear his impressions of living in Japan. I got a pint of Strongbow for 1000Yen (€9.19).

Then we came home and made our me-xmas-ican feast. I ate 5 tacos and a giant portion of nachos. I'd been craving mexican so bad for the last few weeks so it was awesome. We watched Elf while we ate.

After dinner we Skyped both of our families in Kildare, Laois, Dublin, Offaly and Chicago. We finished off the day and the bottle of Captain Morgans, watching Bad Santa and Home Alone with our fave roomie Ryuta:
An interesting Christmas to say the least.

So I have FINALLY gotten a job. I officially live here. Up until now everything was up in the air and I honestly didn't know if the whole Japan thing was going to work out. Myself and Derry had started working on our backup plan which was to move to Korea, because going back to Ireland with our tails between our legs was not an option.

The job seems awesome. It's in a Bilingual preschool in Tachikawa, which is about 30 mins away from where we live. I only have to teach a couple of classes a week, so I won't have to spend ridic amounts of time planning lessons, and the rest of the time I'm just there to participate in the activities and talk English to the kids to provide a bilingual environment for them. Easy!

It's slightly less money than I had hoped but I suppose for someone with no experience coming in at the middle of the school year, I can only be so picky. And it's still double what I was making at home! Furthermore, it's a LOVELY school and I'd much rather work with kids singing songs and going to the park than teach 40 year old men the functions of the present perfect progressive tense, ya know?

My next step will be to start the application process for my visa, and to start looking for private students to tide me over until I start working full time, because I don't start until February and I'm definitely going to run out of money before I get paid in March! Uh oh!

I'm feeling pretty positive about everything, which is good because I had just about given up hope, and I really didn't want to go to Korea, haha!

Yay Japan!

I haven't been updating this much, because we haven't really been doing anything very exciting. My two priorities are jobhunting and not spending money which puts a severe limit on the amount of fun things we can do.

We have been having a laugh though, going on lots of walks and doing a bit of sightseeing. I put some photos up on my Tumblr:
hamsterhatesyou.tumblr.com

I've had a few interviews so far but no job offers. The job market is a bit more competitive than I had anticipated and every week that goes by my bank balance drops and I get a bit more nervous. A lot of the jobs on offer right now are for an April start, which is when the new school year begins, but we can't last that long on our funds.

Hopefully things will work out. If not, we have a backup plan :)
I'm keeping a positive attitude and I think I'm getting a lot better at interviewing so hopefully something will come up soon!

xx

:(

I had an interview for a job today which would have been PERFECT.
But I was told I probably won't get it because I have an Irish accent.

FML.

Birthday weekend

I turned 24 this weekend. It was weird, it didn't feel like my birthday at all. Firstly I suppose because I'm getting a bit old to be making a whopper deal out of my birthday, but also just because I knew it wasn't going to be like it would be at home. No mates means no presents, no party, haha.


Me and Der still had a class time though. We went to the zoo on friday and saw all the animals. It's quite cheap to go to the zoo here, tickets are only a fiver, a yearly pass is about €20 and they have three days a year where it's just free admission for everyone. Which is class. Defo want to go back because the giant panda exhibit was closed for renovations and I was dying to see the panda! Had to make do with these guys.


On the way home I bought myself some birthday pyjamas including lovely matching neck scarf.


Derry got me my very own leopardprint TV blanket. All my close friends know how I feel about my blankies, well this is a blanky with sleeves. Incredible. I will never be cold again.


We went into Shinjuku that night and got hella locked. I ate about 2 dinners in a mexican bar (mexican is hard to come by here) and got too drunk to go bowling, which was the intended plan for the night. I wore my gown because it was my birthday and I felt like being fancy.


On Saturday we went to Shibuya to meet Sean Lugosi, which was a mega fail, because as previously mentioned, we don't have a phone and we're really bad at meeting up with people. Shibuya fucking rules for shopping. There is two department stores called 109 an 109(2). They are incredible. Something like 9 floors of delightful Tokyo fashions. And not that expensive!
I bought myself a couple of birthday presents including this Hello Kitty bow tie (so I can be like Chuck Bass)...

...and this tartan scarf.

Oh I like tartan. I didn't bring my camera to Shibuya which I regretted, as per usual, but it's so fucking awkward and heavy that sometimes I don't want to bring it. Also, I hate looking like a tourist.

One million puppies.

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to Yoyogi park and Harajuku. Yoyogi park is fun to go walking in because there are people dancing and busking and having a laugh and there are a million doggies all wearing their sunday best.

Me and Derry spent most of our time flipping each other off.

Again, notice the t-shirt in the middle of winter.

After our stroll in the park, we went shopping in Harajuku, so I could buy myself EVEN MORE birthday presents: a new pair of Vans, and a pair of vintage Levis, that I don't have a picture of.

You can't QUITE see how hairy my legs are in this photo which is good.

I'll leave you with this photo of Derry blowing smoke rings at me. Notice the smoking indoors. Delightful. All in all good birthday weekend, which could have only been made better by the company of my dearly missed friends at home. Love yall xxx

Koenji

Strolling through Koenji.

After bumping into Penke last week, we arranged to meet him and his girlfriend Kate to hang out. Unfortunately we were all very drunk when we made these, and Derry and I don't have a working phone, which resulted in Penke and Kate waiting at Nakano station, and Derry and I waiting at Mc Donalds in Koenji. We are really bad at meeting up with people. Whoopsy. So anyway, once we realised that we weren't going to be meeting the others, we went strolling again.

Village Vanguard - Exciting bookstore!

Koenji is such a cool area. There are vintage stores everywhere, with the best vintage clothes I have ever seen. Which are unfortunately, very expensive, but it's fun to browse, expecially when there are such beautiful things.

Aggressive Leather Shop....and Meat! What a name. It had some of the
nicest vintage leathers I've ever seen. No meat though...

This shop was called Slut :)

There are also lots of antique and secondhand stores. These are a little bit more fun because they are actually affordable! There are a good few 700Y used shops, where everything in the shop costs 700Yen or less and some of them are the kind of shops where everything is in piles and you have to get in and have a rummage to find the good stuff, which I enjoy.

700Y shop - about €6.50.

Koenji is also known to be a "punk" area and it's where there are a lot of gigs and venues and record stores and tattoo parlours. We found a shop that pretty much just sold vintage band t-shirts which was rad, there is a Municipal Waste and a Minor Threat shirt that I really want.

This guy was terrifying. He stood at the entrance of Booby Trap,
a skate and rock store with a million Black Flag posters on the front door.

Derry and the Christmas Colonel.

First gig in Tokyo.

So last night we went to see Gauze and some other bands in a venue called Roots in Koenji. Derry got told about it by the lad who released the Tunguska record over here a while back. At about half 6 we heard the venue had reached capacity (early show) but we headed down anyway to see if we could get in. Which we did, no probs.
It was 20,000Y on the door, which is roughly €18, this included a drink ticket. Apparently this is quite a regular price for a gig, but I was pretty bitter about it. If we had gotten tickets in advance it would have been 1500Y with no drink ticket.
The gig was on in a tiny square room absolutely crammed with people, we think maybe 80? It would have been the most horrible sweaty thing ever except that the room was really well air conditioned. Deeeelightful. People went absolutely wild for Gauze, which was awesome.

There was 5 whiteys in the room, myself and Der, a guy in a drug free youth shirt, and randomly enough, Penke (one of the lads from Fashion) and his girlfriend whose name I can't remember.

Penke.

After the gig, Penke and girlfriend were going out with some of their japanese friends for a drink and we tagged along. First we got brought to a rehearsal space and watched some band practice for a bit which was mad random.

Sneaky photo in the rehearsal room.

Then we all went for food and beers. One of the Japanese guys called So has offered to be our tour guide this week, he said he'll bring us to gigs and show us the sights, and he wants us to come to Osaka in a few weeks for some fest. I dunno how many gigs we'll be able to afford to go to for the next while though considering we need to make our money last as long as possible and we spent a stupid amount last night.

So and Derry

The girls name is Minako, can't remember the rest.

I apologise for the terrible photos, I was drunk.

So! We moved into our house yesterday. We are staying a place called Nakano, which seems like a fun area. It is also near Koenji, where we walked to last night. We walked around for two and a half hours just looking at things. My feet HURT afterwards. I haven't taken any photos outside the house yet, brought my camera for a walk today but forgot my memory card. Disaster!

Here I am on the roof terrace of our house posing unkowingly beside a big pylon. (Notice that I'm only wearing a t-shirt in the middle of November. LOL@YOU, IRELAND.)

Roof terrace again, with a Derry thrown in.

Here are some photos of our room! It is pretty big by Japanese standards.
Our couch/fridge/desk:

Bed and television!

Lots of closet space for all my clothes :)

It is a sharehouse, so we share a kitchen, living room and two bathrooms with some other dudes. There is 5 of them I think, but I've only met two. They seem nice! People seem to keep to themselves in their rooms most of the time.

We haven't done a whole lot since we got here except to go for walks. We have to try and be very careful with our money until we get jobs. Lucky my favourite shops here are the convenience stores and 100Yen shops.

I will hopefully take loads of photos soon of the area and whatnot. Maybe not today. I'm so tired all the time, I'm not sleeping amazingly well and I'm still jetlagged so I keep waking up at 4am which is annoying. Hopefully I'll get into the swing of things soon.

xx

Tokyo!

We have arrived!

Phew!

I'm packed!
It was a horrible process. My bag is probably overweight, I have no way of checking. Uggggh.

It's been an emotional few days made much worse by too much stress and not enough sleep. Hopefully I will have time to chill in town for a bit tomorrow and get my last Boojum burrito and 3FE coffee.
Feel free to join me xx

Countdown

ONE FUCKING WEEK till I jet off to Tokyo. I am 5% excited, 5% depressed and 90% fucking shitting myself with fear.

Best case scenario, myself and Derry will get awesome jobs, an awesome apartment and have the best time ever.
Worst case scenario, I'll be home in time for Christmas and will have got to hang out in tokyo for a month with 3 grand to blow on Pocky, Cola Shock, negima yakitori, karaoke and arcade games :)
P.M.A!

We're having a going away gig on saturday which should be fun.



If anybody tries to make me cry I will box them.

xxx

The Storm and The Still

The video that almost caused me to have a mental breakdown. I still think it's shite. How we got a first is beyond me.

Douglas Reynholm

I changed my friendface profile from "married" to "it's complicated".

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Ciara is a fuckin hero for helping me out today at the flea market. It wasn't incredibly busy, but I made a nice chunk of change which is now burning a hole in my pocket. Happy bunny.

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I'm selling my life away today at the DCU flea market. It's on from 12 to 4. Come buy everything I own. I'm raising funds to do my TEFL course. Or get more tattoos. I haven't decided yet.

Japanese commercials

I came across a Japanese Twin Peaks commercial which amused me greatly, so I spent the next hour just watching Japanese adverts with western celebrities in them. They are so strange. Here's a few for your enjoyment.

Twin Peaks


Hulk Hogan


Ben Stiller


Tommy Lee Jones


Nick Cage singing about Pachinko


Arnie did 30 ads, mostly for Cup Noodle.


This is how I avoid doing college work.

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When I move to Japan, the first thing on my agenda will be to join an all girl biker gang. Obv.

.

Bananas are such a comical fruit.

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I keep not winning the lotto. What's up with that? It's forcing me to put all of my life plans on hold.

The best girls

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The Obscure Hollow

A blog dedicated to horror movie interiors and set design. Incredible.

Today has been very long. I didn't go to see Eyehategod, because there was no possibility of me enjoying the gig due to how wretched I felt after 3-4 hours sleep and 9 hours of work. I need to remind myself that not drinking at a party does not mean that I will feel as fresh as a daisy the next day.

It's easter tomorrow (or today), so I am looking forward to easter eggs and adventures with Ciara and Kate, and hopefully I'll get to hang out with my mum for a bit if she's feeling better.

Now it's time for a good 12 hour sleep.

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Goodbye grey hair, i'll see you again someday x x