Aino Minako-chan

As you may have guessed by the subject line, today is my birthday. Hurray for me! I am now [insert subject's age here] years old! (Well, technically not quite yet. My mother once told me that I was born around 10:30 at night, in Calgary, which means I'm almost a day early here in Japan. Meh.) Luckily enough, I've been in a good mood the past couple of days, so hopefully this means good things for my next year!

1. Birthday presents
I honestly couldn't think of anything that I wanted for my birthday and therefore didn't ask for anything, but I still managed to get little presents from everyone that I like. Even my Detroit Sister, whose past presents have included Poker: The Board Game and the pulp novel "Ricochet", ended up getting me some bordering-on-tacky jewelry that I'm actually super excited about. (I'd never buy it for myself normally, but I'm in Japan, so I feel unhip when I don't accessorize with bordering-on-tacky jewelry!)

2. Birthday cake
As it just so happens, I went to the chain restaurant Ducky Duck the other day (their pasta is okay, but I really like their chiffon cake), and I won 500 yen in a drawing, which is just enough to get another piece of cake for my birthday. Yeay! Chiffon cake!

3. Massage
As I mentioned before, I mysteriously won a free full-body massage. Anyway, I got the info in the mail yesterday, and it looks pretty cool. I probably would have liked the facial treatment better, as I have a tendancy to kick people if they accidentally tickle my legs, but I'm still looking forward to it.

4. Vacation
In just over a month, I'll be going on vacation with kinomakoto. I'm super-de-duper excited. See, I may live in Japan and have family spread out all over, but I rarely go on "real" vacations. Whenever I get time off, I'm always visiting someone. Excluding mini-vacations within Japan, most of my vacations over the past 8 years or so have involved going to the States or Canada or Scotland and visiting family. I don't regret it (I'd rather see my nieces over the Louvre any day), but I never really have the time to just, you know, go somewhere new. Visit a big city. Do some sight-seeing and go to a museum. I'm extremely excited and already making lists. (And lists make me almost as happy as the vacationing. Lists!)

So Saturday was my birthday. Happy one year older to me! johnabe came over in the morning before work so that he could give me my present: two bottles of uber-special edition Final Fantasy XII potions. Do you feel energized!? 50 or 100 hit points worth of energized!? (could happen) I was very impressed with the present, although I had unfortunately just brushed my teeth at the time, so the potions had an extra infusion of mint that made it taste even weirder than normal. I went out shopping in the afternoon, bought myself two shirts and a cardigan-type wrap, and played some Tokimeki Memorial.

On Sunday, after getting my nails done (I believe the shade is known as "Streetwalker Red"), my friend Meg invited me out shopping with her in Roppongi. We hit the new Cold Stone Creamery, which debuted in Japan fairly recently and is ridiculously popular. We felt like we had taken a trip to Disneyland: We stood in a winding line for 45 minutes, only to be greeted by cheery workers who all sang ice cream-related songs to the tune of "Hi-Ho". But Cold Stone Creamery! Yum!! We left to do some shopping, only to discover that it was the last day of the Pixar art exhibition, so we raced to the museum to see that. The highlight was a massive, modern, Toy Story-themed zoetrope. Unlike traditional zoetropes, this was made with huge 3D sculptures attached to a fast-spinning platform. They'd start the thing up, rotating it faster and faster until it was just all a blur... and THEN they added strobe lights, and suddenly, the entire thing was animated. It was wicked cool, and apparently based off of a similar invention for the Ghibli museum. And it all comes full circle. [draws circle with hands] Afterwards, we rested in front of a live musical performance by a newbie, unknown band called "Soma" (they were surprisingly good; band to watch for?), and then headed off to a really yummy Iranian restaurant for dinner.

Finally, I bought myself a new birthday present: Final Fantasty III for the Nintendo DS. Hurray!!! Prepare to level slut!! I haven't actually played yet; I've been busy going online and reading through the manual and trying to figure out which jobs for everyone to learn. As I've mentioned several times in regards to RPGs, Minako-chan and magic don't really get along. I always give people magic and summons and stuff... but then I never actually use them. And don't even get me started on status magic... In fact, me being, well, me, I'd rather have a team filled with nothing but Ninjas and Karate experts. We'll see what happens. And I'll keep you updated on my process!

I'm the worst daughter, ever. I totally forgot my mommy's birthday. And if I forgot my mom's birthday, then I totally forgot my brother-in-laws' birthdays last month. What the hell is wrong with me? (T_T) Anyway, in honor of a long Golden Week vacation for me, I've got another long post today filled with things that make my fangirl heart happy.

Freedom Project
Do you like Cup Noodle? Do you like the anime Akira? Do you like Utada Hikaru? Have you ever wished that Kaneda would sell you Cup Noodle while Utada Hikaru sang to you? Then I've got the ultimate advertising campaign for you: freedom-project.jp!!! Okay, so it's not technically Kaneda, but it is Otomo Katsuhiro, so it ends up being the story of Not-Kaneda as he races his Not-motorcycle to freedom and eats Cup Noodle. I am not ashamed to admit that I'm totally in love with this advertising campaign. It has not convinced me to eat more Cup Noodle (yet), but it did nearly make me walk into a pole in the middle of Shinjuku station when the posters first went up. "Kaneda-kun!" I shrieked. "Cup Noodle!" Seriously, there's a lot of fun stuff at the web site, so check it out.

Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Kiss
I realize this is important information to exactly one person out there (Minako-chan waves to kinomakoto), but there's a sequal to Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side coming out in August. HURRAY!!!! You have no idea how ecstatically happy this makes me. Check out the web site here. Who should I woo first? Oh, the excitement!!

And finally, for V6 fans, "Hold Up Down"!
( Because every V6 movie needs a frozen Jesus. )

Oh, and since I mentioned it yesterday, has anyone out there played (or started playing) Final Fantasy XII? I'm slowly but surely gaining levels and merrily slashing my way through the game, but I've got a question: Has anyone found any use for Levitega? It's a type of magic that just makes you float a couple inches off the ground. But.... WHY? It was easier with "Float" magic in FFVIII; people literally ran around screaming, "FLOAT!!! USE FLOAT!!!!" So what does Levitega do? No idea.

Believe it or not, but this year will be my second Christmas in a row spent in Japan. How does this year compare to last? Well, admittedly slightly worse. I've got a cold and no real plans. When I say "real" plans, I actually mean "plans that involve other people", seeing as Kingdom Hearts II comes out tomorrow. With no work on Friday, that gives me a solid three days to start playing, and I have absolutely no problems with acting like a slug and doing nothing else all weekend long. Hell, I'm planning my grocery shopping today so that I won't have to leave the apartment. It'll just be me, sweatpants, pizza, my warm kotatsu, and my PS2. [thinking] Actually, that sounds like a really good Christmas, doesn't it?

There was a little segment on the morning news that made me think about Japanese Christmas "traditional" foods. The question of the week for the viewers was, "Do you put candles on your Christmas cake or not?" See, when I think of traditional Christmas foods, I think of turkey, eggnog, cookies, gingerbread, fruitcake, stuff like that. In Japan, Christmas food means fried chicken and strawberry cake. As kinomakoto once put it, "Birthday cake for Jesus, I've gotten used to, but fried chicken still makes me giggle." Anyway, the arguments for and against putting candles on your Christmas cake this morning were pretty funny. ("But it creates such a nice mood!" "It's a CHRISTMAS cake, not a BIRTHDAY cake!" "But the candles drip wax all over the place!" "...Wait, that's a good thing?") They showed traditional Christmas cakes from a few countries around Europe, and all of the news announcers seemed surprised that A) many European Christmas cakes tend to be more fruit-bread-y than cake-y, and B) nobody put candles on those suckers. I suppose you could make an argument that you're putting the birthday candles on the cake for Jesus, but then as one of the male new announcers asked, "Who's supposed to blow them out?"

In reality, most people I know don't have cake for Christmas. You'd maybe have it, just in the sense that you want a dessert, but unlike birthdays, it really doesn't have to be cake, does it. Cookies or pies or flambes or whatever work just as well on Christmas. Then again, I'm not really sure how this works for normal, Western, Christian families, since A) my family never celebrated Christmas as a religious holiday since not all of us are Christian, and B) my dad's birthday is December 25th, so we DID always have birthday cake on Christmas. Well, technically, Mom would always get cake for the rest of us and serve my dad fruitcake or Christmas pudding. He's Scottish. He actually LIKES those British Christmas-y cakes. The blacker and tougher and fruitier the better.

But since I actually have lived many years celebrating with both British Christmas cake and birthday cake, I can answer one question for these Japanese news announcers: Never ever try putting candles in British Christmas cake. Only use them for birthday cake. Seriously, my sister and I tried one year, and have you ever tried drilling candles through marzipan? About three birthday candles unraveled as we tried to force them through the top. Then later, we had to bring out carving knifes to slice the damned thing...

Long ramble short, if you need me on Christmas, I'll be the one killing Heartless for munnie, while eating fried chicken in front of her TV. Now that's the life!

Yesterday was my birthday, my second in Japan. I'm now an actual employed worker living in Japan. Now I feel like an adult. ^_^

Yesterday was work, of course, so I didn't do a whole lot. Mainly just did work, ate cake, and played the new "Lunar" game on my Nintendo DS. (Oh, the level slutting possibilities are glorious!!!")

Today was the day when I went out on the town with johnabe. We saw "Team America: World Police" in Ikebukuro with the roudiest Japanese movie crowd I've ever had the pleasure of joining in my life. They were actually laughing more than John and I were. After that, John and I had two hours of karaoke and dinner at a little okonomiyaki place in Kabukicho. A really relaxing, really really fun day all around.

Anyway, the real shocker that made my day didn't come until I arrived back at my train station. To start off this story, I should point out that I was wearing my brand new "sexy school marm" outfit today: knee-length pleated skirt, plain white button-down shirt that's just a tad too tight, and knee-high pin-heeled black whorin' boots (lol). I'm walking down the uncrowded streets, when I guy comes jogging up to me, saying something about "Ten Point". Thinking he's asking for directions, I stop and pull off my earphones. "I work for Ten Point Productions," he says. "Have you ever considered a career in modeling?" Minako-chan's jaw drops.

Needless to say, I sent him on his merry way, but I was so flattered by the unexpected nampa that I did so in the politest way possible. It's not every day that old women like me get attention like that. :D

Help, what does one get for a 5-year-old tomboy for her birthday!? My little niece is turning five extremely soon, but if I rush, the present won't come (too) late! My sister says they all like Ghibli films, and suggested getting "Princess Mononoke". (She's seen all of the others; I got her "Totoro" last year, and she apparently nearly passed out from the excitement.) But I'm thinking Mononoke is a bit too bloody for a five year old. I mean, my sister has a doctorate in psychology, so she fully believes in treating her obviously genius child like an adult, and probably would see nothing wrong with watching animated guys getting their animated heads chopped off. But the rest of us think my sister is rather nutty, and I want to at least pretend that I'm not contributing to my niece's future therapy.

In other news, I moved back into my apartment on Friday. Hurray! I'm home, freaking home! I exhausted myself cleaning and unpacking on Friday, then spent Saturday and Sunday mornings making trips to the store to stock up on groceries and other supplies. I can make my own food now! The glory...

Anyway, in the afternoons, I spent time playing video games. Saturday was The Sims2. (No offense, kinomakoto, but your sim is really freaking stupid. She finally crashed at about 3 am one day after nearly 48 hours of no sleep. But if it makes you feel any better, MY sim tends to burst into tears for no apparent reason.)

On Sunday, I started plowing through Shadow Hearts 2. I really love that game, and want to take my time to finish it, but I panicked on Sunday when I discovered that a NEW Shadow Hearts game was just released. This time, they appear to be in the Wild Wild West; there's two Native American-ish characters, a Spanish-ish guitar player, a saloon whore, and a ninja. Anyway, it looks extremely good, but I always confuse myself enough when I play two RPGs at the same time. Playing two SHADOW HEARTS RPGs at the same time would probably short-circuit my brain. And I still need to get the Katamari Damacy sequal, too... Too... many... video... games...

I'm serious, I have the strangest stages of dealing with trauma, ever. I've never gone beyond 3 stages of grief: Shock, Depression, and then Acceptence. It's weird.

Anyway, yesterday was a really really bad day for me, as I'm sure it was with most people. Roomie and I spent the day at home, watching the news and finding ways to distract ourselves. We ate a lot, started working on a giant puzzle in the shape of a tiger, played lots of computer games, and finally settled on watching "The Whole 9 Yards" (a darned funny movie, btw). By the end of the day, I was actually pretty much okay again, back to my normal, overly optimistic self. I started doing actually work and singing stuff like "I Will Survive" to myself. I'm odd, okay?

But, I'm glad I'm better. Because today....

IS MAKO-CHAN'S BIRTHDAY~!

She's my best friend and I love her, so I updated my own page and then took over her page, gravity, at the Senshi Gakuen. Go and see my merry birthday tribute to her.

^_^ v piisu~

Happy Birthday to me~!
Happy Birthday to me~!
Happy Birthday Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to me~!

and school starts tomorrow. blegh.