Hiromi’s Blog

So I will have ADSL soonish, one week from today! I was worried that I might have spent a lot of money to do so, but it is about $50/ 5,300 yen per month. Somebody told me that I had to buy a telephone line licence (?), but that was not necessary..whew…you could still buy it, but it costs $300…which doesn’t include anything, but just a phone number…so stupid… anyhow, I am so happy to have figured this out and took care of it!!

Oh it is getting chilly out and I am wearing the pink scarf which Harper got for me when he went to India. It is very nice and warm…I love it…

10 min to go home now. I have no show!! my client doesn’t show up, but I can’t go home because of the company’s rule or something…

Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow are my day off. I need to organize my stuff which is still in the boxes..ahh..oh I should look for a cheap ticket to go to the U.S. for Christmas. I will probably stay home and take it easy since i am pmsing. I have weird dreams and fatigue and bloating and so on and on….ahhhh….just a few more days…I will not be grumpy…

oh well, oh Halloween…I am missing out working here..I heard that there was a huge party a couple weeks ago hosted by a free magazine. I should have asked around about it, well, I was too busy to go anyway…soon..sooon though….I will enjoy my tokyo life…

sweet dreams for everyone and for me too, haha

I am at work and having a break. I work on weekend and have weekdays off, which I kind of like it because I can avoid the crowded shops, trains, or wherever you can think of. How do people deal with that every single day. Especially after living in the u.s., it seems extremely difficult for me, but still I am always amazed by those who do this over, I don’t know 10 years or so.

Here again, i am suffering from pms….this time, I am just physically tired…I want to stay home or watch DVD or something..oh I don’t even have a TV yet, haha. Do I need a TV? well, I want to watch movies, so probably I should get it….soon…in a few months. my friend was like, “how can you live without TV?” She thinks that I should have bought a TV instead of microwave oven (it is a microwave and oven as one unit). well, I just can’t think of not using microwave for one person living. I cook rice and freeze them so that I don’t have to cook a small portion of rice every day. It is hard to make a meal for only one person. I am glad I love cooking.haha

ok…i should go back to work….I want to go to Chicago and Colorado for Christmas…I really want to…I have been working a lot, so I should be able to,…credit card, perhaps…well, I should go even if I have to abuse? my credit card.

Oops, I have to go back to work now….

I had two days off and went to my parents to pick up some winter clothes, because it is getting chilly in Tokyo. All I had here was summer clothes and not even a pair of socks. My dad somehow wanted to drive to Tokyo to see my place and bringing my boxed that I sent from Chicago, which I didn’t knwo until I got there, haha. He was hesitant before when I asked him to drive there with my stuff. He was worried about parking situation and trafic jam. I found hourly parking by my place and told him about it, and he was like, “okay, we should go tomorrow then.”

My mom gave me a lot of kitchen stuff she doesn’t use ever and a set of futon for guess. Yey, I can have my friends stay here with a set of futon for them. My dad loved my place as well. It was about 2 and 1/2 hour drive and traffic after the highway was not smooth. otherwise, it could have been 2 hours or so. I am sure it would be like that in the early morning.

We had a nice lunch in my neighborhood, where I always wanted to go and turned out it was very nice!! it is a very casual place and their lunch special was very good! I had stir fried broccoli with shrimp, and a bowl of rice, and seaweed soup and almond pudding. oh so good…highly recommended..i also had this amazing cucumber salad. it is very simple but so tasty. cucumber was not sliced but broked off as chunky pieces (I don’t know how to describe it) these chunky pieces were marianted very well with just simply salt and minced garlic, but just go great! I should try to make it. I think that a little technique like this makes a huge difference. my dad had a noodle soup with veges, thinly sliced boiled pork with garlic soy and a small bowl of rice. We truly enjoyed out lunch and he took off after having a cup of coffee at my place. I told him to bring my mom next time, although she has to take care of her mother who has alzheimer’s disease. I think she can make one day trip after she sends off her mother to twince a week elder people’s day care for several hours between breakfast and dinner times.

okay, I have to go now

That is exatcly how I feel when I have to buy many basic stuff for my new aprtment. Oh god, I need an internet connection badly…I am dying…j/k. Sorry that if I don’t respond your email yet…I can’t email from my work. So there was no fridge or oven..not even a shower curtain pole. no medicine cabinet in the bathroom or not even a towel holder. Basically, I had to buy everything to make the space livable. I finally bought a shower curtain and a pole, yey!! I was carefully taking shower or taking bath..haha..the bathroom floor is okay to get wet anyway, so it was not a big problem, but a towel holder. There was this very small holder on the bathroom door, but the towel doesn’t get dried out by the end of the day…sad….I bought a pole to hang my towel… Oh my washing machine, finally I can use it. It just needed to be elevated a little bit with bricks… They charged me 2,000 yen for that..which is about $18..sucks… I have been cooking crazy!! Mostly because I need to save money, but also it is hard for me to find food for me when I eat out. I accidently ate butter, bacon (OMG), and dairy products. People love sharing food here/ party style. I went to my co-worker’s farewell party. Eveyone paid 2.500 yen (about $ 22?) and all of the food contained meat, except a small appetiser. There were 30 people and there was no way that I could say “hey, I don’t eat meat, and egg, and dairy products.” I just didn’t want to be difficult, you know? However, I had a yummy drink, Chinese whisky? on the rocks, haha, so it was worth it. I also ate other people’s appetizer since they didn’t like some veges, haha..

I don’t have a TV yet, so I can’t watch documentaries and such…kind of sad, but I feel like I don’t waste my time…and feel very productive some reasons.

Oh this morning, I hit my head on the ceiling support bar, haha. The ceiling in my loft is sort of low, but very close to my height…I wish it was shorter, so I can pay attention to it! or higher…I will hang a piece of cloth or something…that happened a min after I woke up, so I didn’t wear my contact lens yet..it woke me up for sure though…

Yesterday, I was building a storage box and realized that I don’t have a driver, haha.. I don’t have anything, huh…

Oh I found a very nice and inexpensive vege stand and fish store!! I cooked a lot for this weekend because I usually work on the weekend a lot. so yesterday was very domestic…someday.. I will go to museums, movies, or some exciting events…I just need to settle a bit.

Oh well, it’s time to go back to work!

Have a good weekend guys

So I moved in, yey, but there wre a few minor? problems, haha. The bed! could not go through the foldable staircase, sad…I had no choice but sent it back…and I went to Muji and bought a futon. It is a bigger and light one, so I carried it with me…but people looked at me..because it was sort of rush hours.. I tried to avoid it, but I didn’t want to miss the store hour. And the washing machine!! the person who delivered tried to install it, but the space is too small, so he needed to place some bricks underneath to conncet the water pipes. oh…why …. I was going to go to Aki’s to do laundry but it was pouring outside, I mean very hard…very very hard..so I gave up and did laundry with my hands, haha….it wasn’t that hard actually, but took a while and I can’t squeeze water out much….I need more mussle or a washing machine…some reasons, i can’t start a new paragraph…ummmm…well the laptop atmy booth at work doesn’t let me use email or chat…there is some sort of block……Maybe, harper knows some tricks… anyhow…I started living in a new place… It was very fun to live with Aki, so I feel a little lonely, but try to make my place liveable still. I cooked, took a bath, and cleaned…but no internet connection yet…sad.

oh, I can start a new paragraph, yea! well, it has been good so far. I love the local shopping area near my house. homemade tofu places, 100 yen shops ($1 shop), fish markets, farm stands, and Korean grocery too! so many small shops. I had deep fried soy proteins last night. It was delicious! I made miso soup too. too bad it has been raining…even today. it is amazing that you can buy so many things at 100 yen shops. It is very helpful for me actually. it is a slow day today at work.. I had one lesson at 12:15 and the next one was 4:45, so I went home and ate lunch and did a little yoga on my loft. I was a little bit confused when I woke up….”where am I?” hahaha….

I am teaching until late tonight like 10:40…I wonder if I could go to Aki’s to use internet…i want to though…

Anyhow, i should go back to work..work work work….

It works!! but the screen I am typing in looks weird. Oh well, as long as it works, great! I am moving into my new place tomorrow for real. My bed, fridge, washing machine, microwave oven are coming tomorrow! It will be fun, but I am a little bit worried…I have never lived alone…I always had roommates. I won’t be able to use the internet for a couple weeks too…ummm…isolated from the world… at least, I can email from my cellphone.
I am at work now just waiting for my next lesson. There was a halloween party and I had a good time. I wonder if I can find cool halloween parties to go. I should ask my coworkers… I went to a little coffee shop yesterday and had a soy latte. It was very good with very good foam. I love coffee, haha…caffeine is my friend. I also saw a Japanese style cafe with Japanese sweets…I haven’t tried there yet, but I should!

I am sure that I need to do more shopping for my new place. It was completely empty!! Somebody who used to live here left a gas heater!! Yey, using gas is much cheaper than the electricy and more powerful!! The other day, a guy from the gas company came and showed me how to use the gas and what I should be careful about, and what I should do when some natural disasters occur. He also fixed my water facet, which was super nice. He used to live in NYC, it was funny that people just brought up their stories in overseas without knowing I used to live in the U.S. Maybe, they can sense it…

One time, I was told that my Japanese sounds funny…sad..I don’t believe it though, haha

anyhow, it’s time to go back to my work…

I wonder if I can update my blog rom the work….

I am having two days off in a row and trying to move in, but everything I bought won’t be delivered until this weekend, so I am still staying at Aki’s. I spent so much money today, very scary…a bed, a small table, two chairs, a washing machine, a refridgerator, and a microwave oven. OMG…how do I survive until my next pay check… I put all of the electronic devices expenses for December. I was going not to buy some of the stuff, but it would be very difficult to live without them, especially I work a lot and until late.

After I picked up my key and measured the space, I decided to go this big time shopping, but I got so hungry…and then I ate a soba noodle at the standing noodle shop. It was actually my first time to eat at a standing noodle shop. I saw only middle aged men eating there and it was a little bit intimidating, but I tried it, and it was good!! Everybody ate so fast and I ended up being the last person, haha..it was only 300 yen which is less than $3..a soda noodle with vege tempura on top…yummm…free cold brown tea as well…it is located by the station which I am going to use every day…

I think I like this area. There are many small shops and narrow roads. I started liking them..

I have so many things to do to make a new place liveable. Today, I had to call a gas company to make an appointment tomorrow. I have to be there, so that they can show me how to use them.. the electricity was there…the space is empty, haha..I am going to clean the place tomorrow.

Last night, I talked to Harper by using Aki’s headsets. It has been a while since I talked to him for real, although I talk to him over AIM all the time. It is different. Aki has a camera and talks to her friend just like a video phone. I should get a camera too, so I can talk to my friends by seeing them.

Oh, becca had a baby!! I am so happy for her. a healthy cute boy!! I wonder when I can meet him…what a great news!

it has been a good day. I love having a day off on weekdays, because I can easily avoid the crazy crowds.

ok…it is time to cook..

It has been a while since I updated my blog….apology…I have been super busy since I started a new job. I finished my training and am placed in Tokyo Studio which is located right next to Tokyo station. Work has been fun and very interesting. I have met many interesting people, many bussiness people who want to improve their English, especially listening and speaking. So work is good so far.

I am still staying at Aki’s and was looking for a place to move in. Since I got some advice from my friends in Tokyo, I was very clear what I was looking for (large kitchen space, convenient for grocery shopping, close to the train line which goes to my work directly, and large large space since I was spoiled in Chicago…) I priotized space more than any thing. I said that I’d rather live in an old place than a tiny but super new apartment.) Oh storage space…and an outside porch..and then…I got to talk to a real estate person and when I visited him, he had several places ready to show me. It was the first day of me looking for a place. I trust my instinct, yea, really. I saw 5 different aptments near the same station. There are also two other train lines which go to Shinjyuku and Roppongi, so the location is very good. I can go to work or concerts and museums, or cool and hip places with one train ride. The area is an old town and there are many small local shops too, so I was happy about the area at first.

The real estate agent said, “this one is sort of unique, but very spacious. There is a loft, but you can close it off, so it is like you have two rooms. Some people don’t like the foldable stairs, but it is worth checking out.” I was like, “sure, let’s do it.” I saw two different aptments before this one. They were okay, spacious and huge kitchen, but I didn’t click it to either of them. then, I saw this loft one, I was like, “wow, I love this space!..a lot of sun light, an outside porch, two rooms if I close the stairs, the kitchen is really nice. Nice bathroom. He called the owner of the building and the owner reminded him that there was another person who was interested in the place, so I had to make a quick decision. Yeah, I filled out the application and put some money in to hold the place. They did credit check and such and I was told that I got it in that evening.
So it happened so quickly!!

I don’t have any thing, even a bed..haha…I just moved back from Chicago. oh well, it will be fun to look for things that I need for my new place…Next week I will move in the place..probably on Tue or Wed..I have two days off. it is coming up so soon….I am going back to my parents to pick up some boxes which I sent from Chicago and haven’t even opened yet, haha….it is easy, right? no packing…I have only 6 boxes and two suitcases…My dad and I will drive his car to bring my stuff over there. I am excited! Oh..I won’t have an internet access for a few weeks…sad..i hope some one around there has a wireless…but i should get my own though..

anyhow…so many things happened so quickly….