Random Thoughts: The Return

flowersofnight

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This might sound horrible, but I don't feel an urgent need to see shrines and temples... XD
Yeah, just go see the temple in Asakusa and be done with it. Most of them in Tokyo seemed pretty much the same, apart from the size.
As for cities, Osaka would be the other big one, but I have no idea what in particular you should do there.
Other things you should do:
Eat at Cafe Christon ::mana:: ::mana:: ::mana:: (Internet seems to be ambiguous about whether the place still exists)
Or go to an authentic Japanese cat cafe - these are pretty much illegal due to health and sanity reasons anywhere else XD
 

PureElegance

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Yeah, just go see the temple in Asakusa and be done with it. Most of them in Tokyo seemed pretty much the same, apart from the size.
As for cities, Osaka would be the other big one, but I have no idea what in particular you should do there.
Other things you should do:
Eat at Cafe Christon ::mana:: ::mana:: ::mana:: (Internet seems to be ambiguous about whether the place still exists)
Or go to an authentic Japanese cat cafe - these are pretty much illegal due to health and sanity reasons anywhere else XD
Are there any Malice Mizer-related places I should stop by? XD Not sure if I will go, but just to know.
Yeah, people say "Osaka" but then I look Osaka up and I'm not sure if anything pulls me. I think because I've seen so many temples and shrines that I'm like, "ANOTHER ONE?" XD (I'm shocked by how much more expensive the bullet trains are than in China too, haha.) I'm kind of tempted to get all my "musts" (DisneySea, butler cafe, Ghibli, etc.) done and then just wander around certain neighborhoods in Tokyo that I've heard about all my life and do random things in Tokyo. Hmm...
I think I'll buy a little guidebook like I did for Shanghai because it showed me A LOT of places I wouldn't have thought of otherwise!

There is this nice little day trip to Kamakura I found with great reviews. You get to eat on a pirate ship on the bay. So... Maybe I can do just the pirate ship cruise. ::batsu::

We're doing the animal cafe once the whole team arrives so it'll happen. I'm going to be on my own for 3.5 days, before spending another 4 in Tokyo with my team until we go to Kyoto, because I want to get there earlier and I only have to pay the difference to the school.
They're covering the Tokyo hotel and the Kyoto hotel so I lucked out!
My professor wants to stay in this Marriott Ginza hotel and it seems like a cool neighborhood. She laughed and said it was funny how "glamorous" this trip is because normally the clinic goes to places like Sierra Leone. Wow!

Lisa said she's probably staying with her boyfriend who has an apartment in Ginza she said literally a block away from that hotel. I told her, "WOOOOOO!" YEAAAAAH.

I have to think about a hotel for my 3.5 days though *strokes beard* I'm not sure what area to stay in although I found some nice hotels in Asakusa.

I'm so tempted to stay in a capsule hotel for the adventure XD

BTW is there some free wifi? I read that there isn't a whole ton (unlike Shanghai XD) so I'm wondering what to do about internet when I'm out and about. Corinne purchased a "dongle" that she picked up at the airport and it seems convenient too.

Anyway, before class this Monday I'll go to a cheap Japanese ramen place by my school.

I'M SO EXCITED. It's motivating me to finish all my final papers early... 3 more to go~
 
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etherealspirits

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Are there any Malice Mizer-related places I should stop by? XD Not sure if I will go, but just to know.

I have to think about a hotel for my 3.5 days though *strokes beard* I'm not sure what area to stay in although I found some nice hotels in Asakusa.

I'm so tempted to stay in a capsule hotel for the adventure XD

BTW is there some free wifi? I read that there isn't a whole ton (unlike Shanghai XD) so I'm wondering what to do about internet when I'm out and about. Corinne purchased a "dongle" that she picked up at the airport and it seems convenient too.

Aoyama Cemetery, lol.

As for hotels I recommend the Villa Fontaine chain. They are decent, have good staff and have free internet. Outside some places like Starbucks have free wifi.
 

PureElegance

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Aoyama Cemetery, lol.

As for hotels I recommend the Villa Fontaine chain. They are decent, have good staff and have free internet. Outside some places like Starbucks have free wifi.
OH YEAH XD I saw that and I actually might go there, haha. Thanks for the hotel recommendation! :D

My friend Tiana sent me a document with things of what to do in Japan and useful tips she made for herself when she went last year. She's so nice and it's great! The Ghibli Museum's tickets are sold out until May, haha, so I'll really have a lot of free time! She thinks I'll be into this Aoyama Flower Market Cafe. I'll look it up!
I'm even meeting with an internet friend I've had since elementary school who I used to email back and forth with about Three Kingdoms and our lives. She translated some of the TV series songs for me and we were such nerds. She even did Zhugey's funeral song. Years later we found each other on Facebook and said we still kept our old emails. We said someday we'd meet each other and she actually has been living in Japan for years now and I said, "I'M GOING TO JAPAN" and she said I made her morning. So we're meeting soon after I arrive! :D

We finalized all our plans and we even get more hotel days covered! We're also deciding on what hotel to get in Kyoto! More importantly, a Parliamentarian will be meeting with us and be with us as we're presenting to the Ministry of Justice. We're like, "Woooooaahhhh" XD IT JUST GOT REAL. ::batsu:: (or REAL-er?)

I rejoined my friends and the dinner itself was nice. I mostly liked seeing my friends again. I feel like I haven't socialized as much with outside friends this semester and instead hang out with my Japan team or classmates. Jason said he thinks I'm always doing interesting things and all, "Oh, just going to Beijing for the weekend!" I laughed XD

One awards recipient was this alumni bankruptcy lawyer who said he used to collect houses and cars until his future wife was like, what are you doing, why are you doing this. XD He thought, why AM I doing this? His parents were immigrants too and he wanted also to get all these things he didn't have as he was growing up.
What was interesting about his story to me was that he isn't in public interest at all and instead puts his money into making many full-tuition scholarships and partial scholarships for public interest students at my law school. He does it so much now that they just renamed a lounge to honor him.
It was a different take, I thought, than the usual, DEDICATE EVERY SECOND OF MY LIFE TO THE PUBLIC GOOD type of lawyer. That's the regular type I see, the ones who work at non-profits or law firms doing that type of work. So I liked seeing someone different and who at first glance wouldn't necessarily "belong." I actually wish there were a lot more of him. I was also surprised by how young he was!

During the student awards part I got my name called and I had to stand up for people to clap XD Oh man. It was nice though.

Oh lord XD We caught up and she just went to Asia, even Shanghai, during Spring Break! She's also working part time at a law firm this semester, geez. I can't imagine studying AND actually working at a law firm XD

Back to work on the final draft of the white paper, eep...
 
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PureElegance

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You too can knock hanging out with 30 live owls off your bucket list!
looks HOT AS BALLS

I don't know what they'll decide, but we're definitely doing SOME animal XD I'm so excited.

We saw part of Howl's Moving Castle in animation class today and omg that movie will never get old for me. It's just BEAUTIFUL to the point I always get this grin on my face and tears. HMC and BatB are just my all time favorite films ever. I can't even deal with those. Ashley saw my BatB stained glass watch and said I was hardcore. XD
I love the beginning of HMC where you see Sophie for the first time. I love the details and how quiet it is. Sigh. So subtle. I love it. And when she's sitting there looking out at the lake after doing the laundry. Ugh. The way the light shines through the clouds onto the lake. I can't. Too amazing. And when she and Howl "sky walk"... I just... Sigh~
Our professor asked how was Sophie broken at the start and I said, "She's not living for herself." Hmph. She was also insecure about her looks!
We were going to watch parts of The Cat Returns, but we could only see a snippet because the professor brought the wrong disc. What I did see though, I thought, "WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN THIS BEFORE OMG." I need to see the whole thing now. :| I really loved Whisper of the Heart so I must see this.

Anka said she's never seen HMC and I'm like, "*places hand on her shoulder* You HAVE to see it. It's BEAUTIFUL. YOU HAVE TO SEE IT. *explodes*"

I keep getting asked if I'm going on a "bar trip" and I didn't even know what that meant. XD They are trips people take after the bar exam. I don't know, I guess we'll see... I feel like I'm already doing a lot of traveling XD

*ponders Howl's Moving Castle more*
 
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Madmoiselle_Silk

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I just got back from Oska and my agenda was the castle (Osaka-jo), the big ferris wheel and the shitennouji (temple). To be honest, Osaka didn't impress me too much, and it was dirtier than Tokyo to my biggest suprise.

I recently went to Kamakura (and I'll be ging once again next week), that was really worth the long trip!
 

faith

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If I remember correctly, Osaka is known throughout Japan as being dirty...
Which is probably still the Western European equivlent of "Hey, I could eat off the ground here" but eh...

Kamakura's beautiful - lucky! did you visit the sea caves too?
 

flowersofnight

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Since you asked...
Now that's some true GOTHIC SPIRITS ::mana:: ::mana:: ::mana::
Did you check out the surrounding neighborhood while you were there? "Millionaires' Row" as I dubbed it. Go to any stores?
 

etherealspirits

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Now that's some true GOTHIC SPIRITS ::mana:: ::mana:: ::mana::
Did you check out the surrounding neighborhood while you were there? "Millionaires' Row" as I dubbed it. Go to any stores?

I will admit to throwing the "Dix sign" while wishing a happy anniversary at one point, lol. Didn't look at anything else in Aoyama except a temple on the way to the cemetery. I was pretty tired since it was the start of my stay in Tokyo and had a long flight before that. I stopped in Shibuya before going to Aoyama and while looking for live houses and Lion Cafe ended up in the wrong part of Shibuya, lol. Thankfully it was morning so not much "action" happening.

Other days I did stop at Shinjuku KERA shop and Atelier Pierrot in Harajuku where I got a very fancy pair of chopsticks, lol.

I also went to the David Bowie is exhibit. It was great! I'd go see it again if it ever ends up in my area.
 

PureElegance

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Hope any Scapers in Russia are okay :( (I don't know if we have any, but just in case!)

@etherealspirits: Thanks for the recommendations BTW. I had to say this again because I was about to book a Villa Fontaine hotel, but they only had smoking rooms left! I ended up with a hotel by the Tokyo Station/near Ginza so I'll only be 15 minutes away from Shinjuku and DisneySea (I think). BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. And I won't have to go that far for the Marriott hotel in Ginza because I'll be already nearby.
I spent hours looking for a hotel though, omg XD I haven't had to search for one in a really long time so...

This Friday I'm off to Washington DC for a class trip to visit the US Patent Trade Office and meet with officials who work with China. We're going to be there all day long! We have to ask them questions and things like that so I have to be prepared XD My paper is about counterfeits in China of Disney products, inspired by counterfeit goods being sold AS I WAS WAITING ON LINE for a ride, and how can multinational corporations like Disney invest their money better/what else can they do to combat infringement, things like that. My professor is going to hook me up with Disney lawyers. Yeaaaaah. ::batsu::

The Barristers Ball was fun! Nothing bad happened unlike last year so I was pretty happy about that too :D I hung out with Maraiya and Princess and Lauren the whole night and I'm so glad they were there. We had some yummy dinner and even these tiny slices of pizza and I had two mini oreo cupcakes, oh God. They were just too good. Gotham Hall was also gorgeous and I researched the building before arriving!

View attachment 182 View attachment 179 View attachment 180
(Just being inside inspired me to do photography again because I've been so distracted I haven't done it as much!)

I saw Lisa and something odd happened. We went to the bar area and she asked what I was having and I said I'll just get a Coke! I forgot what she said next and because we talked about this at length weeks ago I replied, "Yeah, I said I didn't drink, haha," something to that effect. She got tequila (I could have SWORN she said she didn't drink) and I got my Coke.

She turned to me and asked if it was "just Coke." I said yeah. She asked, "Can I have a sip?" I said sure. So she did and we left. I felt odd XD Like, she didn't believe me?? Why would I lie about not drinking?? XD We didn't hang out much, but she made sure to hang out with me until I found my peeps. I felt odd for some reason with her and I was happy to find my peeps. Like something wasn't genuine? Something niggled at me XD I think it may have been how we often stopped to talk to people she knew and then she told me how they were all shallow relationships and I was surprised because they seemed like ancient friends by the conversation.

Something else happened that was so Latino-y. At the end of the ball we were posing for a huge group picture of the "minorities" and Maria (I think that's her name, it's a shame I don't know because she's in my Entrepreneur class) was with us the whole night. She's from Argentina, is pale, and has a lot of blonde highlights. So we were posing for the picture and Maria joined us and a Latino girl was like, "Uh, what is she doing here? What is she doing here? I thought this was for minorities what is she doing here." Omg, I felt so bad for Maria and I was annoyed too. I'm not Argentina's #1 fan but you know. She gave her a talking to and we subsequently posed for our picture. I told Maria I was sorry about that and she said it's okay.

All in all I had a great time dancing! I saw some people who I hadn't seen in so long! :D My favorite part had to be the ending song when we danced to "I Will Survive." I also saw my fellow human rights clinic classmates too and we danced along. My feet were KILLING ME at the end of it all, but it was worth it. (I think I figured out why now though so I'll be more prepared next time.)

I hobbled outside with Maraiya and Maria and we walked towards Times Square. They helped me find a cab and ran for it as I caught up. They're so nice! I threw myself inside, landing on my side, and they slid the door closed, telling me to get home safe. They're so kind! :)

Anyway, I get to pick up my cap and gown this Thursday, woo! The robe looks SO COOL. It's a deep red with gold and black and it even has a hood! I also get a poofy black hat. ::squee::

Back to homework... CAN'T WAIT FOR JAPAN AHHHHHH~ ::squee:: ::squee:: ::squee::

There's a Capcom Bar apparently so... I'LL HAVE TO BUST OUT MY ACE ATTORNEY MOVES.
 
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Madmoiselle_Silk

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If I remember correctly, Osaka is known throughout Japan as being dirty...
Which is probably still the Western European equivlent of "Hey, I could eat off the ground here" but eh...

Kamakura's beautiful - lucky! did you visit the sea caves too?
I have to agree...one of the first things I thought when I arrived was that Osaka was as dirty as any other country in europe XD
No! I didn't know there was sea caves there...
 

faith

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you did ok with Turkish orange coffee, if I remember correctly.
Maybe you just need to drink coffee with a huge dose of machismo and trying-to-sell-you-overpriced-rugs to really appreciate it.

There are 2 cat cafes in Paris :)

I have to agree...one of the first things I thought when I arrived was that Osaka was as dirty as any other country in europe XD
No! I didn't know there was sea caves there...

Well, they're not QUITE in Kamakura...more like Enoshima. But they're close? lol
The name is the Iwaya caves and it's super fun running around in them like a cave troll :)
You also get to run up a really big hill in order to get into them and run around more.
And there's a beach.
 

faith

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I seriously hope this was said while smoking your bubble pipe.
 

faith

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flowersofnight

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The title translates to "This artist collects his cats' fur to make them hats"
And yet you laughed when I suggested you make them cable-knit sweaters out of their own fur XD
 

faith

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Well yes...those cats are not normal.
No normal cat will wear anything, ever lol
 
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