It's My Life

China Town, Nomikai, Food, and Hanabi!

khamtanh — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:26:54 +0000

Haven’t updated in awhile but now that school is over, I have 2 full weeks of nothing to do so I should be able to keep up with this. First, Destini, Gwendy, and I went to Yokohama’s China Town last Saturday. It was amazing! It felt like you weren’t in Japan anymore. It looked just like an American city. There were alot more cars and I even saw my first gas station since being in Japan. It’s true that the people outside of Tokyo are WAY nicer. Here’s some pics of China Town:

For lunch we kinda had a hard time deciding where to eat, we were trying to find a specific restuarant where KanJani8 members Ryo and Hina had gone to but we gave up and just picked a place…. and what do ya know, it was the restuarant! 梅蘭(Bairan) And we hade the chinese yakisoba (Fried noodles with onion, beansprout, chinese chives, pork, made with a crispy egg crust on top)

Yokohama’s China Town is the largest in Japan and its really nice! And apparently they have a thing with Panda’s and chili peppers. In all the tourist-y shops theres bunches or panda everything O_O and on all the corners there are phone strap stands with little chili peppers. I don’t know whats with them either. Apparently the different colors means a different thing.

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Nomikai! (Drinking Parties!)

Des, Gwendy, and I went out the other night to Wada Wada and well, it was pretty memorable… This was the yummy starter drink I got, a Gin and Tonic:

Annnd the awesome parfait:

Destini got a little happy and gave the best line ever:

” Did you know that Iceland is green and Greenland is full of ice? I learned that in GEOMETRY!”

XDDDDDDDDDD <33

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More food~ This wasn’t the same night, actually this was Friday. A mini going away party for Gwendy and to celebrate the last day of my school. We went for Yakiniku. And Omg why can’t they have these in America!!! (Because we’re too retarded and someone would probably end up hurt from playing with the grill ><) BUT Des and I are saving up to go here again!!

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Lastly Hanabi! (Fireworks)

They had a festival in Asakusa and we decided to check it out. Getting off the train was horrible. It was so packed you could barely walk or climb the stairs. Though it was worth it. Before seeing some fireworks we decided to stop in the temple. Its filled with a crap load of stands that have a bunch of tourist-y things.

Next, the Hanabi~

Purikura!

khamtanh — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:07:26 +0000

Tokyo Globe/Harajuku [Again!] ７月１５日

khamtanh — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:48:17 +0000

So I’ve noticed that Tokyo Globe, yes the one where Neeners will be performing in “Strangers on a Train”, is in the town where my school is! And what do you know, I happend to see if from the train Anyway I found out how to get there so today before school I walked to it and Nino better be glad he’s so freakin adorable cause I thought I was going to die >< It was only like a 10 min walk but it was damn hot! So its pretty easy to get to. When you get out of Shin-Okubo station the pachinko parlor on the opposite side of the street, well theres a street there with a ton of bicyles parked, well take that street and keep walking straight until you see alot of trees and bushes and well the globe of course. Here is the opposite side of the globe where there’s a bulletin board:

This is the front of the place:

And and finally the huge loveable promo that can be seen from the train <33

To get to the side with the big Nino poster you gotta go a street over. I went to go take pictures over there and I notices that off to the side there were people doing stuff so I kinds snooped and I swear it looked like they were building some set stuff ^O^

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Reasons why I love Harajuku:

Johhny’s shop
crepes
cheap udon
crepes
more pretty boy shops
purikura
Johhny’s shop

So I went back to Harajuku again today! And as you can see above, those are the reason I <3 Harajuku! First stop, went to give Mr. Kitagawa more of my money. Also, just like last time, we did have to wait in line. We are so lucky….man! XD And Arashi’s corner is alwaaaays packed. They still didn’t have any other goods, just pics. This time got a crazy moon, Ohno TMFA, and yes had to support Jun and get one of his~

Oh and another sighting of “Engrish”

Harajuku 2009.07.11

khamtanh — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:22:48 +0000

So today we had a little meet up in Harajuku. 2 girls from my Japanese class, Destini, Gwendy, and myself. We first walked around a little and I snapped a pick of this forever 21… that had a full out line to get in.. Harajuku isn’t huge, its just really crowed O___O

One of the first stops we headed to was the AU KDDI building filling with gorgeous phones, gorgouse Arashi, and scary Oguri Shun O_O Well he was goreous as a woman >__< [Click here to see Scary Shun] Anyway this was a pic of the ouside of the building:

Then we had to go in and look at all the phones that we can never get XD Also there was a little room thing where you could sit in and watch all of the CM’s~Ohh annnd there was a huuuge solar phone that all of the member signed as well! BUT no one could take pics cause there was a guard and everything standing there XD Sooo I Just snapped some pics of the promos ~

Oh ya this one too~~~

We walked around for a bit and then decided to stop at Johnathons for some lunch. And can I just say that I CLEARLY wrote my name in katakana and the guy didn’t even call out my name! Hmph! Well I guess it didn’t help that Destini stamped a “Ninomiya” kanji next to my name with her awesome pen we got at the 100 yen shop. But ya I had this Thai dish and it was pretty yummy but the menu totally lied when it said it was “HOT” ><.. The restuarant was on the second floor so I got to snap a pic of the crossing.

Also this happened to be on the other side of our view:

So after lunch it was of toooooooo Johhny Shop!!! There wasn’t a line so we just went straight in, and of course the Arashi corner was packed so we had to squeeze our way through. I had to put back a reaaally cute Matsujun pic [gomen] >< I got too many [and yes I had to support V6<3 :

After Johnny’s and other pretty boy shops Gwendy, Des, and I went to go purikura!!! And well I don’t have a scanner so I can’t show you all of them but here’s a blurry shot of a couple:

To end, Destini and I settled in our room and watched AAA 2008 while………..AGE-FYING STUFF! DS’s, phones, cameras!:

Japan : Week 1

khamtanh — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:34:58 +0000

Ah, so much has happened that I can’t remember what day I did whay SO! I’m just going to post some stuff I remember! Well, after an 11 HOUR plane right Destini and I were happy to actually get to walk around. The bad part; lugging our suitcases around was NOT fun at all! The airport is in Chiba so we took a train to Tokyo and we had a chance to see some of the countryside~

And speaking of trains. The Japanese train system is total hell for someone thats never been around something like it. You have to pay ATTENTION to the signs. And you WILL get lost! At least know some Hiragana also. Thank goodness the signs in the train station are in English and Hiragana.

So the week end when we got here we decided to go around to Harajuku, Shibuya, ans Shinjuku. Shibuya is buuuuuussy crowded! And all the gaijin stand out in front of the station to take pictures.. For Example!

ALSO:

Those clear plastic umbrella’s you see in J-Doramas and etc, YES everyone has one, including me now.

Everyone has a super nice phone with 124232 different key straps attated to it.

If your foreign you WILL get stared at.

People do dress crazy, AND they do wear shirts in English that don’t make sense. EXAMPLE

All in all, I don’t think it hit me that I was in Japan until I was out in Shibuya amount the hundreds of people. Living here is definitely a way to learn the language because Japanese people don’t speak alot of English. Speaking of useful phrase! Hot-o sa-su- ga arimasu ka? (Do you have any hot sauce?) Because I have yet to find any Srirach sauce and its killing me. Also the guest house I stay in, there are other people here so there’s another mix of language. For example, when I go to school, it’s all in Japanese. When I came home yesterday there were two French guys wanting Destini and me to help there with there computers. I took 2 years in high school so I could understand a little. But those guys were no helo because they can’t uncderstand English or Japanese and I was trying “hai” to them ><. Then today I went to Shibuya with some of my Korean classmates. So its like Japanese->Korean->French->English O_O

Ok will update later when I have more time~ till then Ja ne~

…

All pictures can be found here~<3

Moving: It sucks!

khamtanh — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:45:03 +0000

Becaused today pretty much sucked I would say. My family is in the process of moving. And it’s not the typical move on the other side of town move, its the move and hour away where you have to take the highway and pack as much crap as you can into your car kind of move. Woke up at 7AM to avoid the heat and well I don’t think that worked.. Anyway onto the main point. If you have my address do NOT send me anything XD I will give you all my new address here shortly. Also will give my Japan address if you want~ Best thing about today: Everything PV ^O^ Cho kakkoi<33333 Really wished i would have ordered it but I guess I can settle for the RE when I get in Japan~

Rankings

khamtanh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:22:48 +0000

For future reference. Ranking system! The more <3′s the better!

Washington Set (More pics)

khamtanh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:48:01 +0000

Here are all the rest of the pics from the trip~

See them here!

Washington!

khamtanh — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:07:37 +0000

Ok so to kick off Summer the fam decided to go to Washington to visit more of the family~ Can I just say it was freaking gorgeous. I didn’t want to come home! The weather was perfect. I even had to wear a jumper in the mornings and in the evenings. It didn’t feel like Arkansas weather where you step outside and feel as if you can’t breathe. It was a nice change of scenery. Especially when you fly. The St. Paul/Minneapolis airport was like 3294832 more nicer than the AR one. I found it interesting that down where the metro’s carry people to different gates, well they had signs and intercoms in English and Korean.

I’m sorry if this doesn’t wooo most of you but remember I’m from Arkansas and to see something Korean here would be a complete shock. Annnd for some reason my parents think I can understand Korean just because I like Japanese. Can’t tell you how may time on the metro they asked me what it was saying XD

Another first for me was riding a ferry! The town we stayed in, Bremerton, you can drive to Seattle from there or take a ferry. So with traffic being what it was and up for a new experience, ferry it was.

My sis, Alicia (yellow scarf), cousin Kim (black jacket) and me~ The scenery was from the view of the ferry as we were arriving in Seattle. And the last shot is of a seagull! I was so excited to see one O_O (I named him Gully XD) It was a nice ride and only too us about an hour or less to get to Seattle. The ride to Seattle is free, but coming back you gotta pay like $5

Dowtown Seattle, is like wooahhw._. People everywhere, and all types of people of that. One of the places we headed off to first was the Pike Place Market. That’s the one you might have seen on TV that where if you order a fish they throw it over the counter thing. Anthony Bourdain went there too.

We went twice. Even on Monday this place was packed! I didn’t get to see them actually throw a fish but the guys that worked there were very lively and even sang a little. This place was at the corner of where Pike Place started it was inside this looong indoor flea market kind of set up. There was everything in there. Ot course more fish stands, jewlery, restuarants, flowers, clothing, even a stand that was selling replica from the Zelda game XD

And so we looked around like all the other tourists until we finished with Pike Place and then we decided to head on over to China Town via metro. We then stopped at a place to grab some lunched at:

Hee hee “Ho Ho” I think my dad got a kick outta that. BTW the food was yuuumy! Well even before we left for Washington, I wanted to go to one place O_O! And that place happened to be right in China Town. So thanks to Destini via Vanessa XD I got direction tooo Kinokuniya <333 I didn’t take any pic cause I was too busy searching through all the mags. Which BTW had KJ8 on like every cover. I’m not a fan so I wasn’t that thrilled sorry. All the mags were from like May and June so I’d already seen most of them scanned up on LJ. So I didn’t get any Arashi mags, buuuuut I did manage to convince myself after a 15 min debate or YES NO in whether or not to get one particular mag (TWIN REKI shoutout!) So I got this..

I couldn’t resist! Look how hot he isssss<33 no matter what Gwendy says Ugh I’m sooo glad I got it. It even came with that duffle bag thing in the corner. Which I mad my sis bring as a carry on cause I couldn’t fit my boots in our luggage >.>

There are alot more random pics but I’ll upload them in a folder to later viewing, for now.. oyasumi~

Summer 2009

khamtanh — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:14:31 +0000

I made this blog for when I leave this summer to post everything in for family and friends. Why? because I’m going to freakin Ja Panda! (Watch Love Shuffle if you don’t get that!) Everything will be available for viewing EXCEPT certain posts people don’t need to see unless I give permission not because they’re BAD well maybe some, but because, well just because!

This is going to be THE best summer ever!