Japan Trip 2019-2020 Day 1: First Full Day December 28th, 2019

Due to jet lag, I had a pretty early start. The first thing my mom and I did was go to a cafe to have breakfast in Akihabara. I don't remember the name of the cafe but it is a franchise and a place my mom had been interested in going. It was a little disappointing since it smelled like cigarettes and had an intimidating atmosphere. But the food seemed pretty good. I got a warm strawberry milk while my mom got a breakfast menu with bread and coffee.

After eating, we went to Asakusa to take some pictures and explore. My mom wanted to get some instagram worthy pictures. Since it's not as crowded in the morning, we were able to get some good shots. After taking some pictures, we explore Nakamise dori and got ichigo daifuku. The ichigo daifuku was very good. On the way back, we took a taxi back to the hostel since we realized that it was a bit far. The taxi driver talked about how Sumo is the main thing people go see when they come to Asakusa other than the Nakamise dori area but other than that, there's nothing else.

 

After going back to the hostel, we took a quick break before I went to go get my haircut. By then, my roommates were already awake. Having roommates was an interesting experience. Majority of them were Chinese and they were pretty nice. I did feel different from them however because I'm not someone who tends to care much about appearance while most of my roommates spent hours doing their hair and makeup in which I had to go up a different floor when I wanted to brush my teeth or just wash my face.

So I left, I believe a little bit before 11am since that was when my mom scheduled my appointment. The salon itself was a bit run down but overall, I had an good experience. However, when I went go get my haircut in March of this year, my hairdresser was very surprised about the way the hairdresser that I went to in Japan cut my hair. It was just very different from the way she cuts people's hair from what I have been told. The haircut took probably about an hour and I really liked how my hair looked. 

After getting my haircut, we went to Tokyo Dome in order to know where everything was. For lunch, we had sushi. It was quite big so I wasn't able to finish it all unfortunately and I was also feeling a bit sick. 

  After we had lunch, I went to line up to get some concert goods. I lined up for a good hour or so. It went by pretty smoothly. One thing I liked is that there were stands specifically for those to pay with debit/credit cards. There were not as many people lined up there so it went by a lot faster. When I finished buying these goods, I tried to look for my mom but it took forever to do so. She wasn't very specific about where she was so I had a very hard time trying to find to her. While I was looking for her, I saw this girl who I believe is Fuwameru(ふわめる). For those who don't know her, she is a well known Yamada Ryosuke fan. She writes very obsessive tweets and instagram stories about him such as how much she loves him, how he looks in almost every picture and has been obsessing about what he looked like when he was younger. Basically, she's pretty controversial especially when she posted on her instagram story of Yamada's previous address although she did not disclose in full detail by putting circles and triangles. In summary, she is a crazy/obsessive Yamada fan. From what I saw, she was very small and didn't seem that much taller than I am. 

When I finally found my mom, she was very excited to see what I bought. I showed her the things I bought and then she made me take pictures with my Yamada uchiwa that I just bought. It was very awkward to do so because I don't like to show that I am a fan. I didn't realize what my mom was making do was something a lot of fans do when they take pictures. After this, we parted ways since my mom had to start heading to Osaka while I went back to the hostel to rest a bit. 

Around 4:30pm, I headed to Akihabara to go to the Hello! Project store. I was surprised that there was quite a few people there. It's normally quite empty so I wonder if it was just because of the time I went there or because it was getting close to New Years. I thought this was cute so I decided to take a picture of this. 

I regret not buying this since my hair was short at the time and I believe that these stuff were a bit pricey. After this, I went to Don Quixote to buy a towel since I did not bring one and the one I rented was taken away by the cleaning lady. It was quite hard to find where everything was since it's so big. For dinner I went had McDonald's because for some reason, I was craving it. I got a Filet-O-Fish, fries and the Sankaku Choco pie. For my drink, I got a Fanta grape. For the Filet-O-Fish, I noticed that it was less oily compared to the one in the United States. Also, I'm sure the size of the drink would most likely be a small here as well. Overall, it was good.

After having my dinner, I went home to rest for the big day ahead. That is it. I will try to have the next post out on next Saturday.

Black Friday Haul 2019(I know, I'm super late)

 I was initially planning on making this post as soon as winter break began but didn't have the time to do so(aka being lazy about it). Since I finally have some time, I will be showing the the clothes I bought on Black Friday. 

I will start off with my purchases from Adidas. 

 

I got this crewneck long sleeve shirt. I first bought this in pink and also wanted to get a black one after seeing it at Macy's. It was originally $60 but got it for $36. 

 The second and last thing I got from Adidas is a hoodie. The size for it is XS, however it is still very big on me but it's nice to wear it oversized. It definitely came a lot bigger than expected so the next I get a hoodie from Adidas, I shall order one from the kids section. 

Next, are the purchases from Levi's. 

I got these two shirts for I think $10-$20. I can't remember whether it was $10 for each shirt or 2 for $10. I got these in size small in which I thought were a little too big. I was debating whether or not I should get them in XS but these fit pretty well. A little big but more comfortable this way. 

 

Lastly, I got this long sleeve. I just like how simple it is and it's very comfortable to wear. I don't remember the price for but I think it was around $20. 

These are the things that I got. I know it's not much and I regret not posting this much earlier since I would've remember the prices more.

September

 It is already September in which I cannot believe. This crazy year is already going by super fast. I honestly do wish everything will go back to normal eventually, however it looks there is still a long way to go. It's weird how we were all so afraid at first but I think many of us are getting used to the new normal. I do also wish that I can travel again. When the pandemic settles down, it would be nice to go to Japan again and do the things that I was not able to do the last time I went there. Lately, I have been watching a lot of past travel vlogs, food vlogs and packing videos. I think this is a perfect time to plan any future travels and find places to go and things to do. 

I finally finished my summer course. It was a very stressful term. Although I only took one class, it was still tough. The class itself was very unorganized and I think my professor got lazy with it in the end. But I got through it and that's what it matters. 

Growing up Japanese in the United States(Oregon/California)

Introduction 

So I thought it would be interesting to talk about my experience growing up in Oregon and what it is like being Japanese here as well as talking about my experience in California(I honestly don't remember much about living there but I will explain just what I remember). I originally moved to the United States when I was 5 years old where I first lived in California at a small college town. We moved here because my dad wanted to continue his education. It was a fairly diverse place and everyone was nice and helpful. Then I was 8 years old, I moved to Oregon after my dad got a job here. It was very different. The town I grew up at in Oregon is not diverse at all. I was one of probably four Asian kids in my school and I kept on getting mistaken as the other Asian girl as well as one older kid making fun of my lunch because it looked "different". Everyone expect my dad had a hard time adjusting. It was honestly like a huge culture shock. This included the weather, environment and the people. I moved in the winter so it was very cold and rain which was something I was not used to because of living in Southern California for 3 years. There was nothing to do so I ended up just staying inside. This caused me to prefer being indoors more than being outside. When I lived in California, I was a very active child. I loved to play outside and try new things. For some reason in Oregon, I refused to try to do anything because the environment was so different. At that time, I did not realize that I was depressed due to my parents getting mad at me if I was not smiling all the time. Also, I was starting to go through puberty so I was hungry a lot. I would eat tons of snacks after dinner and even sleep with a banana at night in case I got hungry. At the time, I thought I was simply gaining weight because my dad told me that I was fat and need to lose weight. So, I tried to eat less but my eating habits got in the way.
 

School

I struggled quite a bit academically after starting the third grade. The second grade class that I transferred to did not assign any homework and we barely did anything other just play. I was not used to this so I wanted to study, however I thought I had to wait for my teacher to assign me homework so I just waited for an entire semester to study. This did not happen. When I was in the third grade, my teacher suddenly assigned us tons of homework and everything went by a lot faster. For math, my teacher would only focus on each unit for a few days, giving me no time to actually process what we were currently learning in class. Because I did not understand anything I was learning, I cried on a weekly basis when my parents tried to help me due to them yelling at me for not understanding the materials. Looking back, I wished I was able to get some sort of help by trying to ask my teacher or going to a learning center. However, I wasn't taught much common sense so I didn't realize at the time that I should be getting extra help for schoolwork. Meanwhile, the school I went to in California started assigning homework in kindergarten. It was, however quite simple such as some math homework and to read for about half an hour each day. However, I do remember not understanding one of the assignments most likely due to not being fully fluent in English and ended not getting a full score. So I guess I have been struggling with school since the beginning and the lack of homework just made it worse than it already was.

 

Japanese stores/restaurants  

As for resources such as Japanese grocery stores, the only Japanese grocery store is 45 minutes away so we were only able to go there once a month. This was my only excitement because I was able to get out of the town that I lived in. Now, we are able to go more often(before the pandemic) and stop by more places such as the Washington Square Mall and such. But when I first moved here, we did not go to the mall and such for unknown reasons. When I lived in California, we went once a week because it was a little more closer. Looking back, I was super lucky to live in a town close to Los Angeles and the amount of stores that my mom was able to get Japanese food at, although we only went to one. I thought there were nothing Japanese in LA due to not going to the city very often. Now, there are more options for Japanese food in Portland which I'm very happy about, however it is still very far from the varieties that California has. 

Interaction with other Japanese people
My interaction with people changed drastically. I had some Japanese friends because of the connections my mom made when I lived in California and I would also play with some of the Japanese/Hapa kids during my first few years living in Oregon. However, for the first year or two in Oregon, I did not talk to almost any Japanese people here because of the lack of resources to do so and there really isn't as many in the town I grew up in compared to the area I lived in California. I only used Japanese to my parents and grandparents when they came here to visit due to this. This caused my Japanese to deteriorate quite a bit. Because I did not have anyone else to use Japanese with, I did not realize how bad it was. My parents understood what I was saying so I thought my Japanese was quite decent. I did not realize how bad it was until I started to talk to a girl who went to Saturday Japanese school and had tons of Japanese friends. Her Japanese was ten times better than mine and I was surprised to meet someone who spoke better Japanese than myself. At the time, I was still used to playing with my Asian friends so I would tell my mom that I wanted to play with them. However, she was not happy with this because they all lived in the other side of town or a town nearby and it was snowing. She wanted me to play with kids from school who I did not feel comfortable inviting over because of my heritage. But my parents who had no understanding of this continued to yell at me for not playing with kids who lived close by. Other than the few kids that I knew, the only other "young" Japanese people were the exchange students that came each year. Each year, around 100 Japanese exchange students come to study at the sister university of their university in Japan. The first time I was exposed to the exchange students was when I went to a Japanese day camp. When I heard their English, my brother and I made fun of them due to not understanding that they were still learning the language. The only non-English speakers we were exposed to were my parents so it felt weird hearing other Japanese people not speaking fluent English. 

 

Overall, losing the chance to interact with other Japanese-Americans has affected me in a negative way. Although I have a diverse group of friends, I still feel lonely at times because of not having a friend that came from a similar background. I regret not joining a club in college to make friends that look like me but what happened is what happened. Because of this, it did give me quite a bit of anxiety when talking to Japanese people, specifically those who grew up there. I don't really know how to talk to these people despite knowing the language. 

 

Conclusion: 

Although there might be more things to explain that I cannot remember right now, this is basically it for now. Overall,I do miss living in California but I fully understand that it has it's own ups and downs as well. I do just want to say that this is my own experience and everyone's experiences is different, even if you live in the same city or state so please do not assume that everyone's experiences are the same.

First episode of Socially Awkward Asian

It's been quite a while since I've last posted anything on this blog. For my YouTube channel, I have decided to do a new podcast based series called Socially Awkward Asian that I hope to do once a month. It will be about basically anything that I feel like talking about. For the first episode, I have talked about how I became a fan of Hey! Say! JUMP. I originally wrote my story on my other blog but decided to mention it on YouTube as well. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this video!

April

I cannot believe it is already April. This year has not been the best so far and will most likely continue this way. I have been staying home basically like almost everyone else and only go outside to go on a walk every few days if it isn't raining. Where I live, it's rare especially during the winter and spring when it isn't raining. I actually went out today since it was sunny for a few hours and the sun blinded me and got a headache as well. Anyways, I hope everyone is staying home and safe from all this madness.

Japan Haul

After filming this back in January and taking about four days to edit, I am finally done with this video! I know the way I talk is kind of weird since I have a lisp and stutter. It's very long but I hope you still enjoy! It was fun making and editing this and I hope to make more videos like this in the future.

Japan Trip 2019-2020: Arrival Day

During the last few weeks of winter break, I went to Japan for about a week to go to the Hey! Say! JUMP concert at Tokyo Dome and to binge buy all the things I have been wanting since my last trip. It was mostly a very positive experience and honestly, it was the first trip I genuinely had fun in over 10 years. This was originally a solo trip but my mom was quite worried about me so she ended up coming with me last minute.
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My flight to Narita Airport was around 11:16am. I left around 7:30am in order to be early as possible because my mom did not have an assigned seat. On the way, I thought I forgot my airpod and made my dad head back home. He was very mad because he tends to panic when things don't go his way and on schedule. On the bright side, my airpods were in my backpack so we did not have to head all the way back home. It took over a hour to get to PDX since it's super far away. The check in process was a bit confusing because my mom and I checked in online, however they wanted everyone to check in again using the kiosk.When we went to check in our luggage, my mom asked to see if there is seat on the plane and was just told that she'll know at the gate. This caused a lot of stress for her because she thought she couldn't get on the plane.

Security was quite different compared to the last time I was at an airport to board a plane. Basically, you did not have to take anything out of your carry on so it was quite easy. The scary part of security was that I thought was in trouble when I was going to the scanner thing where you go in and they check if you have anything in your pockets and such. I was just sent right next to it and a security guard just put rubbing alcohol on my hands and waited for a few seconds before I was excused. My mom just laughed and told me it was most likely because of my height and I was just too short for the mach
ine.

After going through security, my mom and I tried to find something to eat. I just ended up buying a yogurt and cookie since I was not hungry enough to eat a burger at Burgerville. It has been a while since I've last been at the airport so I was surprised at the amount of shops they had. When we got to the place our gate is, the first thing my mom did was ask about her seat. It turned out that she was be able to board and the only thing was that she could not sit next to me. My mom was very relieved about it because she just wanted to board the plane.

Normally, it feels like it takes forever for boarding to start by but this time, it felt very fast. I was surprised how fast and efficient it was to board the plane although it took forever for my section to get called. I think I accidentally cut some people in line because I didn't know where the line started. My seat was more in the back. After getting settled and put everything I wanted to use in the pocket, someone asked me if I could switch seats so their friend can sit next to them. Since I didn't have a reason to say no, I switched seats. They were very polite about it. The seats were very cramped. I feel like economy plus had a normal amount of space while economy was just cramped, but it also might've been the fact I had a big backpack with me. The person sitting next to me just watched YouTube videos or anime and drank a lot.

Despite the cramped seats, I did enjoy the flight. The food was good. I chose miso salmon made from a Japanese organic restaurant in Portland. The flight attendants were very nice and gave us a lot of snacks, up to the point where it was too much. I grabbed some snacks but didn't eat it all because I wasn't that hungry. The only downside was the USB charger plug was broken so I had to charge my phone from my portable charger. Also, they did not have an outlet so I could not charge my laptop. I did not sleep too much on the flight despite feeling tired and sick.

The flight was for about 10 hours. Immigration was smooth and easy. All I had to do was just scan my passport. I did panic about it a bit because it was not reading my passport but eventually, I was able to get through. There was a lady who was helping me with it and she was very nice and patient about it.

I was quite surprised to come out of the exit where TV shows such as Why Did You Come to Japan usually film and honestly got a little excited. It did take a long time to get out of the airport. My mom had to get her SIM card so she can use her phone in Japan but there was a lock that prevented any other SIM cards to be used on her phone so she decided to get a pocket wifi. Then, she had to line up to get her JR Japan rail pass since she was going to Osaka to see family. While I was waiting, I went to Starbucks and the konbini.

After we got everything done, we were finally able to hop onto a train and head to Asakusabashi. It took about a hour to get there because it stopped in every three stations or so. But it was an interesting experience. We passed by the town where my mom's friends family used to live. When we finally arrived, it was very easy to find the hostel since it was very close to the station. We checked in and went to get some food. We had some Takoyaki at Gindaco. It was pretty good. I just thought it was a lot bigger than the Takoyaki I usually eat.

The room we stayed in wasn't that bad. The only downside is how warm it was. I did not realize it was almost 80 degrees inside till the last day. But most of the people that stayed in my room was nice.
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I will try to post about each day of my trip once a week but if I can't, then it will be up eventually.

Storytime: My experience at the Johnny's Shop in Harajuku

Despite the amount of homework I have to do, I thought it would be interesting to write about my experience at the Johnny's shop in Harajuku. For those who don't want to read all of this, basically, it is better to go to the ones in Osaka or Nagoya. The reason for this is because you WILL be in line for a while and when I mean for a while, I mean for about 2-3 hours. So basically, I believe if you go after it opens, a security guard will hand you a slip that says to come back to line up after a certain time. I went there around 12:18pm ish so I got a slip that said to come back around 12:30pm, so it wasn't that long of a wait. I debated whether or not I should line up and even looked up the reviews of the store. Keep in mind that I went on New Years Eve so Harajuku was even more crowded than usual due to Meiji Shrine being close by and it was just crowded. Anyways, the reviews on google said that you will be in line for a few hours which was right. Also, I read that the people who works there do not speak English and are not helpful. For those who don't speak Japanese, there is not a lot of communication needed other than when you're at the cash register but again, when you get handed a slip that says a certain time, just come back after that time. For some reason, I thought it would be different for me and wanted to find out on my own. Also, my mom encouraged to line up.

 So when you first line up, you line up outside. It does not take that long to get inside the building where you line up more. However, it takes a very long time to get into the actual store. I believe it took about a hour just to get inside the actual store. Because they only allow a certain amount of people to get into the store each time, it does take a very long time to get in. Most people like myself had the dedication to stay in line. However, I have seen some people leaving and it looked very hard to get out. They don't have a restroom inside, so don't drink an excessive amount of water when lining up. I believe a lot of people that actually goes there are not from Tokyo and are taking the opportunity to go there when they are on a trip to Tokyo like myself. This is something I find very interesting but I think it's just nice to listen to what fans talk about whether it's about their idols or just life in general. I always find it interesting to hear what other people think about their idols and basically just the life of a fan since I don't have any friends that are fans of Hey! Say! JUMP or Johnny's in general. Because of this, going to Japan and going to concerts are the few opportunities to just be around fans of the same things I like.

After a hour or so, I finally got in and was able to choose the pictures I wanted. This was a pretty quick process since I tend to choose them quite quickly. However, after that, I had to line up again in order to pay. The line to pay was quite confusing to find but I was able to find it. It was around where the KAT-TUN section was, I believe. This again, only a certain amount of people can go at a time so it a very long time to pay. When I was able to pay, I was able to pay fairly quickly and get my pictures. There were some people who took forever to get their pictures because they wrote down ones for multiple groups. There was a foreigner who was there for a very long time most likely because of this. Again, as for myself, it was very quick since I only bought pictures of Hey! Say! JUMP. I got out of the Johnny's shop around 3pm so I was there for over 2 and half hours. So how did I feel? Not too happy. Overall, it was an experience. But if you're planning to do other stuff that day or it's your last full day in Japan, I don't recommend going to the Johnny's store in Harajuku. If you're planning to go to Osaka or Nagoya, go to the stores there. There are a lot of people there but you will not have to line up in order to get in. Lastly, listen to the reviews on google.

January

It is officially a new decade! Well, it has been for almost 2 weeks. To be honest, it does not feel any different at all. So this month has been quite hectic. I went to Japan for 5 days in late December and came back on New Years Day. That was a very fun trip. I got to the Hey! Say! JUMP concert in Tokyo Dome and did a lot of shopping around Akihabara. I finally finished writing everything down on my journal so I will try to write about my trip as soon as I can. If not, then I will do it during spring break. Then, a few days after I got back, school started. It was a very exhausting week. I have been sick and it was not fun having to go to school with a cold.