good morning
It seems I'm incapable of sleeping any more than seven hours a night lately. I don't think I've gotten over seven hours of sleep for more than five nights since I got here. It's only a matter of time before it catches up to me and I hope that it doesn't do it *right now* since I have a modeling interview on Wednesday and I *really* need to be able to look alive, healthy, and well to get some CA$H. I'm not SO much over budget, but I will be soon. However, between birthday gift money and income from my three part-time jobs, I should be more than fine. :)

First, let me say I fully realize how stupid it was of me to misread "0:35" in military time as 1:35. This should not have happened and for several reasons. Aside from the fact that it is blatantly obvious how "0:35" should be read, my computer clock is ALSO set to military time and I read it every night. However, I'm still not used to seeing schedules and such written in it. I think, really, the biggest reason I was convinced all day that the time was different than it was, was that sometimes you just hear what you want to hear. I swear my host mom confirmed the time I thought it was and I know for a fact that I ran it by my Japanese friend Kumi last night and she didn't do anything to tell me otherwise. Fucking language barrier. Eh.

But, secondly, the fact remains that I feel great. This morning even, after going to bed at 3:30 and waking up at 10AM. My throat feels slightly of sick, but I think if I could fight off the sick when I got her all jet-lagged and immuno-compromized, I can do it now. Today is a beautiful day and I think I'll take it easy emotionally and just let myself be carried along. I have a lot of homework to do, but all of it is reading that requires almost no thinking on my part. Sometime in the next three hours, I'm going out with my family to Meiji Jingu, the biggest Shinto Shrine in all of Tokyo. Despite that I don't really have time, I also feel that I can't stay inside with such gorgeous weather outside so I'm not going to cancel and just suck it up on the whole reading thing. As much as I hate to do it, I can speed-read when neccesary. And hey, the readings don't have to be done until... Tuesday. Hee.

Third, and most importantly, yesterday was a great day. I did a bit of homework in the morning and then, because I didn't sleep much the night before (no surprise), I took a little nap. [Didn't sleep much because I decided to watch MX: Reloaded before I went to bed. That movie is so HOTT.... OMG.... *pant pant* Alex, you're right, too... I can also watch it in Japanese with English subtitles. Died laughing.] After my nap, host mom and I went to the Ginza because I wanted to return to Kyukyodo, a "traditional goods" shop, to pick up a Christmas Present for my grandparents. I am a good samaritan, see?

The long and short is, mom and I had hella fun in the Ginza. Ginza is great because it reminds me so much of America. The streets are wider, the sidewalks are huge, and there are more trees along the boulevards. It's like a Japanese Seattle.

We happened to come along to the main street right in the middle of a parade. Tokyo is right now celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Bakufu, a detail that always amazes me because my own country is little more than two hundred years old and gives me NO sense of tradition, connection or history. This parade literally went on for hours. We'd wander into a shop and come out again on another street, and there it would be. It was really weird, too. Not only were there exhibits(?) of samurai and traditional dance, but a whole lot of people dressed in classic Western/American style dress and doing either mock-military salutes or dances. Very creepy, in a way.

Mostly, we just wandered around aimlessly window-shopping. Mom bought me some seasonal chocolates at the Ginza Godiva in the shapes of an acorn, a walnut and a chestnut. I haven't eaten them yet so I can't brag about how orgasmically delicious they are. Mmmm.... chocolate.

One of the shops we wandered into was a really weird gallery/designer fashion shop in one. Each floor (1-4, 5 and 6 were under construction) was designed as a different type of room and contained various items of unsightly design and prices. Floor one looked like a post-modern jewelry shop; floor-two was like the classic American jeans closet; floor four was decked out like a boudiour and floor five was a shrine to all that is 'Zine. I can't even describe it... the store totally looks like it just fell out of Portland into Tokyo Ginza. Major weird.

The last shop we wandered into was a traditional O-hashi (chopstick) shop, where my host mom bought me some chopsticks. She was convinced they fit my hands a little better when in fact I think the ones I have at home are fine. The sales lady was very curious what I thought of her English sales description of various items and asked me several questions about how I thought she should describe, for instance, the Japanese/Chinese zodiac. After I chatted with her for a while, she gave us both certificates for a free pair of chopsticks from their upstairs shop so we went up to collect. The upstairs shop was much like the downstairs, except that all products were intended for children. Major cute! We browsed around a little after getting our (adult) hashi and then left for the station.

Before I departed to Roppongi, mom took me to FUJIYA, a rather famous dessert and pasta bar on the main street of Ginza. I had a light dinner and dessert and most of mom's cake that she forced on me. Bloat. But then I left on my own, found the club very easily, and danced for four hours straight. The rest, really, [See previous entry] is history.