Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Pictures!





So here are some pictures, finally. The first two are the two flights of stairs I have to climb in order to get to my apartment building. The last is my futon in my room. I tried to take a picture of the view from my balcony, but it's too dark out to really see anything. Those steps are killer. Those are two separate flights of stairs, not just pictures of one taken from different angles. They're right after one another, too, so you don't even get a bit of a break after one before going right on to the next. If I didn't like my roommates and if my apartment wasn't actually fairly nice, I'd be putting in for a housing change simply so I don't have to deal with those stairs anymore! Apparently Ikuta is sort of infamous because of them; when I was training at Shibuya, when I told people where I was from they would go "oh, with the giant hill?" or "with all those steps?" I'm getting a ton of exercise anyway, with having to go up and down those steps every time I want to go somewhere and then walking up and down all the steps at the train stations and then of course walking wherever I need to go.
I saw this cool burnished silver bag at a little shop in Machida when I was there yesterday; I might try to find the shop again tomorrow before work to pick it up, it was only 1700 yen. The 5000 yen ankle boots at the shop right below where I work are still calling my name, but I am strong! I will resist! At least until payday : p
I heard that Tully's coffee shops all have free wireless, so I'll probably stop by the one in Machida tomorrow before work as well. I wish we had a Tully's here in Ikuta so I wouldn't have to lug my laptop all over the place. I think there might be one the next stop over, I'll have to go there and check next time I'm free. Ikuta doesn't even have a Starbucks, can you believe that? I haven't spotted a single coffee shop here, not even a small independent one. Fortunately there's a brand of canned coffee that you can get in vending machines that's actually really good, I usually grab one as I'm heading to the station to go to work.
A kind of funny phenomenon I've noticed here is American and British actors endorsing Japanese products. So far I've seen commercials with Tommy Lee endorsing canned coffee, Orlando Bloom endorsing hair gel, Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt endorsing Softbank (my phone company!), and in a HILARIOUS episode of SMAPxSMAP, the Black Eyed Peas were guests and they did a rendition of one of their songs along with all of SMAP. So you have this American hip-hop group doing their thing, and this Japanese pop boy band all trying to be all hip hop along with them. I don't really care for SMAP, but I may have to start watching their variety show regularly if this sort of thing is a common occurrence on it. It's funny because it seems like all these famous western stars all come over to Japan to do things that they would never do in their home countries.
Anyway, I'm running low on battery here so that's it. I'll post again sometime later this week!













4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish we had stairs like that to climb every day. That would be great exercise. I`ll bet your mother would love those stairs too! I can`t wait to see the view from the balcony. Dad

tom and sandy said...

Sarah,, I am trying to picture you climbing up and down those VERY STEEP stairs twice a day in your 5 inch heels while lugging your laptop!!! Very coordinated and physically fit, you must be!! Can't wait to see more pictures.... How is the job, by the way?
Aunt Sam

Denyala said...

Gah, those steps make me winded just looking at them ; ;

You need to tell us about work! And food! What the hell are you eatting? Fish? Cheeseburgers? :b

Glad you've made some friends, that's awesome. Do you guys cheat and chat in english or are you good little students and practice your japanese with each other? :b

Hope to hear about more adventures soon! ~Dee

corinne said...

i am so jealous that you are in japan and i think it just now sunk in that i despise you with ever fiber of my being.

in other news i miss the hell out of you, this sucks

goto maki's new album came out! hahaha, "how to use SEXY". By the end of the album i feel fully educated every time.