Blog Archives: Images

Apartment

It’s about time I gather some time to post! We’ve been moved into the new apartment for nearly 3 weeks now! I suppose, more than anything, we’ve been busier than ever getting things together and more settled. A little background on where we’re at and what’s going on :3

Our new home is located in the International District, in the heart of old Japan town. As I happily showed off before, Kobe Park is located in our backyard and the famous Maneki restaurant is right down the block. We’re atop a HUGE hill, just about the same length and steepness as the damn hill I use to climb to my dreaded dormitory in Kanagawa. In one way, I’m not a fan of the hill. In another, It’s my best friend. I’ve already lost 4 lbs climbing it the past couple of weeks so I suppose it’s a good thing.

Cute cakes in one of the many cute downtown bakeries <3

Our local market is now Uwajimaya instead of PCC (organic natural crap store), which also happens to be the home of Seattle’s Kinokuniya. My god… amazing upgrade.
The cabinets are well stocked with Oi Ocha green tea, lots of curry and random little snacks. Our god send for stupid tiny necessities is DAISO, a Japanese dollar store, located just around the corner from Uwajimaya. The location in Harajuku was where Liz and I had originally picked up all the stupid random crap we needed for our dorms. In a way, it gives a warm familiar feeling of happy times.

First meal in our empty apartment <3

Instead of spending $20 a week on Starbucks the new guilty pleasure is bubble tea and cute little cakes from the many Chinese and Japanese bakeries around the neighborhood. I like to do more walking than ever trying to discover all the little shops and fun things there are in the neighborhood. Our latest goal is to find a good bar in the area. We suspect there’s a traditional bar on the second floor of an electronics shop, soon we hope to visit. We’ve found two Karaoke places that offer private Karaoke rooms. Now I simply need to get Kai into the idea of singing like an idiot with me.

Really, I suppose if I couldn’t have stayed in Japan and we certainly don’t have enough money to live there, this is probably the next best thing for us. It feels like a place where we fit in a lot more, we can explore around us and find new and interesting things. Fremont was nice for a while but, in the end, I’m not a hippie and that just wasn’t going to work for me.

No more hair dye, not much make up. I think I can like me again :3

Out of everything that has changed I’m the most excited about the changes I’m seeing in myself. I really didn’t think simply getting our own apartment was going to make a huge difference in my struggle with depression. I figured even after moving I’d still have a lot of healing to do. But, no, it is not so. Every day I’ve been more full of energy, in fantastic moods, enjoying life again and feeling very hopeful. I want to be out. I want to be alive. I want to get dressed up every day and feel good about myself. Yes, I’m still a gloomy little girl. I’m still a pessimist. I still wear shades of black and gray, keep my hair in my face and avoid the sun. I’m glad to see that’s just part of who I am and not what I’ve become.

So, it’s late now. And I feel relieved to get everything out and have fun talking about so many new things. If everything goes well I should hopefully be updating more in the future. Photo dump:

Keeping our cute little chi tank in the kitchen

I have a thing for keeping the kitchen neat :B

Holy crap.. I have a couch... and a coffee table 8D

Soon, there will be color!

Halloween 2011

I make the un-dead look sexy ;D

I must admit.. getting older has made Halloween not so much fun at all. I wish it was still acceptable to go around to stranger’s houses, dressed up all crazy and demand candy. It seems until I have a child of my own to drag out Halloween won’t be the same. It’s been a rough couple of years. Because of that I haven’t really been involved with things that I use to find fun, like dressing up. I suppose my self esteem still has trouble sustaining that. But this year I decided not to let all the blahness hold me back. Sure, I couldn’t get all decked out in a costume for trick-or-treating. I’m also too far away and too poor to have visited home this year to party with my friends ;-; So I did the next best thing. I dressed up for work. Something I haven’t done to this extreme before. I was determined to go out in public looking as odd looking as possible. My weapon of choice this year? A bloody gorey Zombie!

The Majestic Mountains!

I decided to take a week off from work while I could. Before the holiday rush that’s soon to come. It was rather nice. Nothing to worry about for a full week! Though I hate how having time off means I end up spending more money than usual. But it was nice to get out and do things.
The last few days of my vacation Kai and I took a trip upstate into the MAJESTIC MOUNTAINS in Mazama… where ever that might be. There was no phone signal so I have no effen clue exactly where we went since google maps wouldn’t work. It was really far though. A nice 3-4 hour drive to the middle of nowhere. When we stopped at the first overlook on a cliff it started to snow! Really slow, light kind of snow. Kind of like the gentle and fake looking snow you usually see in movies. Only apparently gentle snow isn’t fake. I suppose I’m use to the snow we’d get in New York which was pretty much an angry cloud violently vomiting up heavy and often wet snow like substance all over everything at the most inconvenient of times. So yeah, this wasn’t like that.
It was a really nice experience though. I’d never seen mountains like that in person. Was something like the panoramic views of nature you’d see on the national geographic channel or something. It’s so much different in person though. The sheer size of everything. Out on a tall cliff in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains on all sides.

View from the cliff

We ended up staying and Kai’s Uncle’s Girlfriend’s cabin in the woods. A nice warm place to hang around and watch Jdrama all day. We did some sight seeing around the small neighboring towns. I went to my first wine tasting 8D and at no point did I get attacked by a bear. Over all a good weekend.

Under the Sea~

I realized just the other day I never posted anything up regarding my beloved Picotope mini-reef tank that I’ve been wanting to set up for years! So I went to it and took a bunch of pictures and even made a stupid little video. I amused myself with all of this at the very least.

Nameless flowers 名前のない花

Nameless flowers (名前のない花)

in this iron city, with rugged edges
the dreams I’ve gotten used to dreaming are slowly withering

the intersection wavers through the filtered sunlight
I’m bewildered; lost sight of my way
and, as i remember so many goodbyes
suddenly a melody starts to play in my head

i sit on a rusty swing, looking up at the very bright sky
if i could throw my thoughts up there
my gloom would be gone

the wind changes
with premonitions about the cold season
whirling the air around,
it blows my suffocating heart away
it drifts about in the air, and i wish it could go
all the way to where you are
my own flowers, i wish they could bloom
out of season

i see through it to the future, the cold sky ――――――.

I’m spinning words, to build myself some hope
still searching blindly for a tomorrow

i drew the world colorless
there was only paint left to color you
i really must go and show it to you, soon
before it fades

the wind changes
with fragrances from the cold season
it glistens
it noticed my honest feelings

I’m shaking, I want to be with you
and laugh
my nameless flowers, I wish they could bloom
out of season

i fall through it to the future, the cold sky ――――――.

the wind changes
with premonitions about the cold season
whirling the air around,
it blows my suffocating heart away
it drifts about in the air, and i wish it could go
all the way to where you are
my own flowers, i wish they could bloom
out of season
i’m shaking, i want to be with you
and laugh
my nameless flowers, i wish they could bloom
out of season

i see through it to the future, the cold sky ――――――.

-plastic tree