(no subject)

So, today's latest exciting news is that tomorrow's classes have been canceled because of the impending typhoon. It's scheduled to hit Tokyo tomorrow morning. I'm glad to have a day off, but am slightly worried about this whole typhoon thing.

I meant to update the other day, but I forgot. I wanted to talk about the fun stuff I did on Sunday. I spent the day with meepalicious and Greta. Our first stop was the Pokemon Center in Hamamatsucho, which made my inner-child quite happy. So much adorable Pokemon stuff! I picked up a cute Jirachi plushie there. After Pokemon time, we made our way to Akihabara. In case you are not familiar with Akihabara it's pretty much known for two things: electronics, and the otaku subculture that has sprung up around the city. It was quite the interesting experience. Akihabara was quite noisy and flashy. As we were walking down the street, there were girls in maid costumes handing out flyers advertising the local maid cafes. I guess one of the reasons that I wasn't as crazy about Akihabara is that it's more male oriented. There was definitely an abundance of merchandise featuring half naked (or mostly naked) female anime characters. And in certain stores we were actually the only girls present. It kind of weirded me out. Some stores actually had certain floors marked as "ladies' floors", which were pretty much the only sections of the stores with female-oriented merchandise. The only times I actually felt really comfortable in Akihabara were on the ladies' floors and when we were in the Animate (because it was filled with people of both genders). I definitely prefer Ikebukuro (and Otome Road, which is fangirl territory) to Akihabara.

I also wanted to mention the interesting conversation I had with my host mother the other night. She said that she was jealous of me because I'm American. She said that in her next life she wants to be American or European, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She said that the Japanese are boring because they only have dark hair and dark eyes. She also said that Japan isn't that interesting because everyone in Japan is the same nationality. I thought this was an extremely interesting conversation. I know that Japan has been fascinated with the West for quite some time, but I didn't expect my host mother to admit to it so openly. The conversation gave me a lot to think about. I'm having trouble properly articulating all my thoughts on it though. ^_^; It could be because I'm tired.

I'm going to go to bed soon and hope that the weather won't be extremely horrible tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.

(no subject)

So, today's latest exciting news is that tomorrow's classes have been canceled because of the impending typhoon. It's scheduled to hit Tokyo tomorrow morning. I'm glad to have a day off, but am slightly worried about this whole typhoon thing.

I meant to update the other day, but I forgot. I wanted to talk about the fun stuff I did on Sunday. I spent the day with meepalicious and Greta. Our first stop was the Pokemon Center in Hamamatsucho, which made my inner-child quite happy. So much adorable Pokemon stuff! I picked up a cute Jirachi plushie there. After Pokemon time, we made our way to Akihabara. In case you are not familiar with Akihabara it's pretty much known for two things: electronics, and the otaku subculture that has sprung up around the city. It was quite the interesting experience. Akihabara was quite noisy and flashy. As we were walking down the street, there were girls in maid costumes handing out flyers advertising the local maid cafes. I guess one of the reasons that I wasn't as crazy about Akihabara is that it's more male oriented. There was definitely an abundance of merchandise featuring half naked (or mostly naked) female anime characters. And in certain stores we were actually the only girls present. It kind of weirded me out. Some stores actually had certain floors marked as "ladies' floors", which were pretty much the only sections of the stores with female-oriented merchandise. The only times I actually felt really comfortable in Akihabara were on the ladies' floors and when we were in the Animate (because it was filled with people of both genders). I definitely prefer Ikebukuro (and Otome Road, which is fangirl territory) to Akihabara.

I also wanted to mention the interesting conversation I had with my host mother the other night. She said that she was jealous of me because I'm American. She said that in her next life she wants to be American or European, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She said that the Japanese are boring because they only have dark hair and dark eyes. She also said that Japan isn't that interesting because everyone in Japan is the same nationality. I thought this was an extremely interesting conversation. I know that Japan has been fascinated with the West for quite some time, but I didn't expect my host mother to admit to it so openly. The conversation gave me a lot to think about. I'm having trouble properly articulating all my thoughts on it though. ^_^; It could be because I'm tired.

I'm going to go to bed soon and hope that the weather won't be extremely horrible tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.