![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Kichijouji shopping trip
Aug. 21st, 2007 02:18 pmRight, so yesterday I went to Kichijouji to hang out with Eri for the day. The day started off with getting lunch at Subway. I was all nervous about how to order in Japanese, and then the guy says in perfect English, "Oh, don't worry, you can order in English here," and it's at that moment that I notice that he's... not Japanese, he has Japanese features but is too tall and has green eyes. So I stutter out an order, and I notice his name tag has a Japanese last name in kanji -- Sasaki -- but an American first name, in katakana. He of course asked Eri for her order in Japanese, and I just had to ask him, "Okay, I can read your nametag, err, Where are you from?" He's like "Uhhh, Japan? I'm half Japanese." "Oh. Duh. I'm sorry! That's really cool."
Of course, what I wonder is, if you're fully fluent in English and Japanese, why are you working in Subway? I guess maybe it's just a part-time job through college or something.
Anyway, after lunch we went looking for some clothes first -- but, alas, unsurprisingly, Japanese clothes don't really fit me. There was one series of clothes on the third floor of Seiyu that sort of fit, but most of the ones that fit didn't really look all that right on me. (Let's face it, Japanese fashions aren't really designed for someone with a big chest and big shoulders.) We tried on some hats and other funny things -- maybe I can get a stylish hat to make me stand out less, but I dunno. I sort of think I'll stand out no matter what I do.
We also stopped at some variety shops and looked for some ideas for decorations for a Halloween party, and stuff like that. At the Loft, I got those awesome Kattobashi baseball-bat chopsticks. So cool. They also had a ton of duckie-related bathroom things, toothbrush holders and soap dispensers and all, like I have back in Seattle, but I didn't buy them, I think I have no room for anything in my apartment, really.
After shopping for a bit we went to a coffee shop and talked about ideas for parties at GEOS in general. We think we want to have an autumn party in September, the Halloween party in October, and a Disneyland trip in November, and then a Christmas party in December. Since I have no clue where you have these sorts of events in Japan, Eri suggested we go to Shinjuku and find a magazine called "Hot Pepper", which is apparently a gigantic list of places to have parties, and other such stuff. So we did that, except finding one of these magazines was actually a pain in the neck, and we finally came across some inside a Tsutaya near the Kinokuniya store. By then it was like 7:30pm, so we decided to go find dinner and look through the magazine.
Eri suggested a place called Duckie Duck or something like that, it's pasta and desserts mostly. There was a band called Moumoon playing outside, they were actually pretty good, so I wonder if I'll actually hear their music somewhere else. We got pasta dishes (mine was fantastic except it had goya in it, which is this horrible bitter Okinawa vegetable) for dinner, and looked through the magazine. We found a few promising places in Ikebukuro; we want to go somewhere near Akabane, and we don't want it to cost more than 2500 yen per person, so we seem to have a limited number of places that fulfill that. Eri's going to check out some of the online listings and try emailing a few places, I think, and I said I'd go through more of the magazine later on. I'm even thinking of heading to Ikebukuro to stop by Playguide and get a Seibu ticket, so maybe I'll see if I can check out a few places.
We went shopping a bit after that for videocameras -- Eri wants one to tape her hockey team so they can work on form -- and I priced more Nintendo DSes, but they're still all 16,800. So, eh.
I headed north after that and Eri headed back home. I stopped off in Akabane at GEOS to swap my shoes (I had worn my dress shoes around since I was wearing a skirt all day, but I didn't want to walk to/from the station in those) for sneakers, and I checked email for a little while, and I looked over my lessons for Tuesday to see if I needed to do anything special. I headed home from Nishi-Kawaguchi and timed the walk. It's still like 22 minutes. There may be a shortcut, but I bet I'd get lost if I tried to find it.
I spent a little while watching TV. There was a TV special on Kyohei Matsuzaka... yeah, the little brother of that Daisuke kid. Kyohei is apparently an infielder for the Ehime Mandarin Pirates, a team in the Shikoku Island League (a semi-pro league in Japan). Kyohei is only two years younger than his brother (he's almost 25 I think), and he said it's pretty crazy having a super-famous baseball brother when he tries to play, but it's exciting for him to follow the Red Sox now and all.
I keep trying to catch up on my LJ friends list when I have a minute late at night and such, but I have to admit I'm really just skimming. I see most of your entries but I tend not to click on LJ-Cuts and such, so if you need me to know something, please tell me directly.
Oh, so on the internet situation...
KDDI actually called me yesterday as I was heading south on the Saikyo train, so I explained in Japanese that I was on the train and couldn't hear, could they please call me back? And they did... EXCEPT I forgot to take manner mode off my phone, so I actually didn't hear it. Oops. SO, this morning they call back and I talk a bit just fine but then I can't understand what the guy's saying, he asked if I lived in a house or apartment, I told him apartment, he asked something that sounded like "Does your building's owner want internet?" and I couldn't figure it out, so I explained I don't speak Japanese THAT well, and he had me hold on, and got a person to translate to English. And she explained that what they were actually asking was...
...did my landlord GIVE ME PERMISSION to get internet?
Well, I had no idea about that. So, I asked them to please call me back in a few days. They said if I can just get my landlord's phone number and info like that, they can actually call them and explain the situation to them. I'm going to go try to get my landlord's info from Sachi today at school and see what happens, I guess. It seems that they actually need to install some line on the building besides cable, so they need permission to fix whatever onto the building. I dunno.
Anyway, I should get going (rather than watching Koshien. Sigh.)
Of course, what I wonder is, if you're fully fluent in English and Japanese, why are you working in Subway? I guess maybe it's just a part-time job through college or something.
Anyway, after lunch we went looking for some clothes first -- but, alas, unsurprisingly, Japanese clothes don't really fit me. There was one series of clothes on the third floor of Seiyu that sort of fit, but most of the ones that fit didn't really look all that right on me. (Let's face it, Japanese fashions aren't really designed for someone with a big chest and big shoulders.) We tried on some hats and other funny things -- maybe I can get a stylish hat to make me stand out less, but I dunno. I sort of think I'll stand out no matter what I do.
We also stopped at some variety shops and looked for some ideas for decorations for a Halloween party, and stuff like that. At the Loft, I got those awesome Kattobashi baseball-bat chopsticks. So cool. They also had a ton of duckie-related bathroom things, toothbrush holders and soap dispensers and all, like I have back in Seattle, but I didn't buy them, I think I have no room for anything in my apartment, really.
After shopping for a bit we went to a coffee shop and talked about ideas for parties at GEOS in general. We think we want to have an autumn party in September, the Halloween party in October, and a Disneyland trip in November, and then a Christmas party in December. Since I have no clue where you have these sorts of events in Japan, Eri suggested we go to Shinjuku and find a magazine called "Hot Pepper", which is apparently a gigantic list of places to have parties, and other such stuff. So we did that, except finding one of these magazines was actually a pain in the neck, and we finally came across some inside a Tsutaya near the Kinokuniya store. By then it was like 7:30pm, so we decided to go find dinner and look through the magazine.
Eri suggested a place called Duckie Duck or something like that, it's pasta and desserts mostly. There was a band called Moumoon playing outside, they were actually pretty good, so I wonder if I'll actually hear their music somewhere else. We got pasta dishes (mine was fantastic except it had goya in it, which is this horrible bitter Okinawa vegetable) for dinner, and looked through the magazine. We found a few promising places in Ikebukuro; we want to go somewhere near Akabane, and we don't want it to cost more than 2500 yen per person, so we seem to have a limited number of places that fulfill that. Eri's going to check out some of the online listings and try emailing a few places, I think, and I said I'd go through more of the magazine later on. I'm even thinking of heading to Ikebukuro to stop by Playguide and get a Seibu ticket, so maybe I'll see if I can check out a few places.
We went shopping a bit after that for videocameras -- Eri wants one to tape her hockey team so they can work on form -- and I priced more Nintendo DSes, but they're still all 16,800. So, eh.
I headed north after that and Eri headed back home. I stopped off in Akabane at GEOS to swap my shoes (I had worn my dress shoes around since I was wearing a skirt all day, but I didn't want to walk to/from the station in those) for sneakers, and I checked email for a little while, and I looked over my lessons for Tuesday to see if I needed to do anything special. I headed home from Nishi-Kawaguchi and timed the walk. It's still like 22 minutes. There may be a shortcut, but I bet I'd get lost if I tried to find it.
I spent a little while watching TV. There was a TV special on Kyohei Matsuzaka... yeah, the little brother of that Daisuke kid. Kyohei is apparently an infielder for the Ehime Mandarin Pirates, a team in the Shikoku Island League (a semi-pro league in Japan). Kyohei is only two years younger than his brother (he's almost 25 I think), and he said it's pretty crazy having a super-famous baseball brother when he tries to play, but it's exciting for him to follow the Red Sox now and all.
I keep trying to catch up on my LJ friends list when I have a minute late at night and such, but I have to admit I'm really just skimming. I see most of your entries but I tend not to click on LJ-Cuts and such, so if you need me to know something, please tell me directly.
Oh, so on the internet situation...
KDDI actually called me yesterday as I was heading south on the Saikyo train, so I explained in Japanese that I was on the train and couldn't hear, could they please call me back? And they did... EXCEPT I forgot to take manner mode off my phone, so I actually didn't hear it. Oops. SO, this morning they call back and I talk a bit just fine but then I can't understand what the guy's saying, he asked if I lived in a house or apartment, I told him apartment, he asked something that sounded like "Does your building's owner want internet?" and I couldn't figure it out, so I explained I don't speak Japanese THAT well, and he had me hold on, and got a person to translate to English. And she explained that what they were actually asking was...
...did my landlord GIVE ME PERMISSION to get internet?
Well, I had no idea about that. So, I asked them to please call me back in a few days. They said if I can just get my landlord's phone number and info like that, they can actually call them and explain the situation to them. I'm going to go try to get my landlord's info from Sachi today at school and see what happens, I guess. It seems that they actually need to install some line on the building besides cable, so they need permission to fix whatever onto the building. I dunno.
Anyway, I should get going (rather than watching Koshien. Sigh.)
