ITS ALIVE!!!!!

私のコンピュータはALIVEです！(Watashi no konpyuuta wa alive desu)！！The mac lives! Thanks to the apple extended protection plan (thank you Daddy!), I was given, get this, a brand new hard drive FO FREE. Yes, these words are true, this is not some fabrication of a down-on-her-luck college student. I did not pay a cent, AND, the young man who helped me both days at the Apple Store was quite attractive. Never does hurt if the hired help has a pretty face!

^This is my "rejoicing-in-the-computer-lab-because-my-computer-lives" face. I like the vistory fist, personally. :)

I got to explore a little bit of Osaka while the computer got fixed on Tuesday and passed by a few infamous "love hotels" which have three different prices listed according to particular customer needs: rest, stay, and the extremely utilitarian "service time". Please see below.


Other lovely sites included the well-known Doutonbori street, where there are many (you guessed it) STORES, where you can blow all your お金 (okane, or money)<-- I'm learning kanji, can’t ya tell? There are lots of bright lights and beaucoup de gens, and to be honest the effect is rather overwhelming. Never thought I'd feel overstimulated, but that was the feeling I was walking with in Osaka.

On Sunday, after dropping said computer off at the Apple store (kind of like dropping off someone at camp... not really), I scooted up to Nara and joined some friends there who were shrine and temple-ing. While on holiday in Nara, I met Bambi, and his entire extended family. They say hello.
Nara is famous for its deer population and for this reason, in addition to its shrines, temples and lovely location, it has become a tourist destination for Japanese and foreigners alike.
Maybe we could get people to pay money to come check out all our friends in the dingle. I knew there was an undiscovered market economy in Longmeadow!

Margaux Frank, blogging live from Hirakata, out!

A problem that non-vertically-challenged visitors to Japan may encounter: the architecture of Japanese fitting rooms!!!

It has now been a week since my last post, roughly. Let's write!

Class is going well- I'm in the computer lab right now and have just finished my chapter 3 and 4 test. I think it went alright! I bought myself some fly new pencils at the hyakuen shop (100￥shop), and they write like butta. I think they gave me special powers. :)　I'm headed for Osaka today and shall pay a visit to the Apple store, where the computadora is currently on vacation. The Apple store is located in a particular store, where the computadora is currently on vacation. The Apple store is located in a particularly ritzy area of Osaka called Shinsaibashi, so I'll be droppping a few thow on some heirloom jewelry as well... NAHT. I shall instead be thrift shop hunting and generally exploramacationing, as one must when one makes said voyage to yonder city.

This weekend I am Hiroshima-bound with a lovely bunch -- quite international at that. The poster children of Kansai Gaidai's Asian Studies program, if you will. Germany, Canada, Colombia, Italy, 'Merica, England, Scotland, Japan- represent-shimashou!

It promises to be a sobering and informative experience. To be honest, I don't truly know how I'm going to feel when I arrive. I've been told you can feel it in the air that something awful happened there.

Its starting to get a mite chilly here now, which gives me great reason to rejoice. I've been sporting the occasional pair of leggings and strut around campus in my beautiful purple gold-streaked scarf, courtesy of ma soeur (love you Tana) who never fails to dress me so that I look like a million bucks.

Though I have to say, there is something about the tee-shirts here that is quite profound.

The shirt reads: "Hope springs eternal in the human breast."

Now tell me, where in America would you ever find something so poetic, yet decidedly hip?

Many thanks to my model, Amanda Tobin.

今、おなかがすいた、だから　ひろごはんお　食べます！またね！　

^Now, I am hungry so I will go eat lunch! Later!

Must be heading to the cafeteria now to brave the swarms of hungry Japanese students. A tout a leur!
Hope all is well at home and wherever you all find yourselves in the world. Lots of metta!

Love,

Margaux

Back by popular demand

Please excuse the long gap between entries, dear fan base.


My darling computer has been under the weather and I am enthusiastically NOT diving into the firey pits of technological warfare.

I'm having my techie friends do it instead.

Since I last wrote, I have ridden several buses, a Hello Kitty ferris wheel, and a plethora of trains. One particular combination of said modes of transportation brought me and several friends to Tokyo for Silver Week, which is a fairly recent addition to the Japanese national holiday roster.



We had, how do you say, a blast. We saw several temples, rode up tall skyscrapers to see the entire city (both at night and during the day), saw the Tokyo Tower- essentially a takeoff of the Eiffel Tower, and became quite adept at navigating the Tokyo metro system, considering we were there less than a week.








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Having Hello Kitty (affectionately known as "Kitty-chan" in Japan) narrate a ride on a large ferris wheel proved to be excessive stimulation.
Odaiba, in addition to boasting a large shrine to an infantile feline, is also the location of Marine World in Japan. Its funny, you see because Odaiba is actually an artificial island... that the Japanese made... because they didn't have enough islands? Ah the mystery. I will take it for what it is! And then Wikipedia it. We had a lovely time.

<--We stayed in a hostel! This was my bed! Left to right: Andrea, Maria, and me.
Asakusa was by far my favorite place. The Sensoji Temple was a MADHOUSE, but very pretty and we took LOADS of pictures. Maria left no possibility unturned and was very unapologetic about her shashin toru (that is, picture taking. Monacle, monacle.) We paid a lovely visit to the fish market, where we nearly became grease spots dodging the oil drum vehicles the workers drive to transport fish. I took a few pictures. We followed a 70-year-old fellow out of the maze of fishy peril and decided that the aquarium was a perfectly suitable place to see the fishies sans escalating blood pressures.
Pictured above is an example of how one lays down the law in the fish market.

Team Tampa Takes on Tokyo (and I tag along).

Subtitle explanation: the people I went with all go to school in Tampa, FL. I couldn't resist the alliteration. :D
Our fearless leader, Maria, is map queen and Tokyo Tower aficionada. Wali was our Japanese bauss and will dominate anyone at Kareoke. Watch out. Travis is going to live in Akihabara someday and open a legitimate American bistro, and Andrea is our mama duck and will keep everyone happy, pacified and beautiful, so help her. I contributed to the trip by getting on the wrong bus coming back from the bathroom on the way back. In my defense, it was four in the morning, and I can't read.

Group Picture in Akihabara (left to right): Maria, Andrea, Travis and Wali

There is no way anyone could ever hope to see everything Tokyo has to offer, even if you were to live there your whole life, but there is most assuredly something there for everyone! Let me know if y'all ever need maps- I've got lots!

Lots of love and picture-taking peace signs,
Margaux