+ Live or Die Trying +

My mom is sick and the doctors don't know what it is, and my dads business is going a bit slow. But I finished a painting today that I liked enough to sign with my own name, and my parents are happy. I have new art supplies thanks to a spontaneous Michael's trip- I went to get some white paint and ended up with $99.12 worth of things, all of which I need; including REAL paint and not the crappy craft acrylics that don't flow right. Life is good~

ちょっと変な感じがするけど、今日が日本語学校の最後のひだった。
授業は２時間で終わりだった。その間、６ヶ月後の自分に手紙を書いた。
で、担任先生とみんなでイタリア料理を食べに行って、カラオケに行った。
それが終わったら、僕はほかの先生と２人で韓国料理を食べに行って、
学校の居酒屋に一緒に行った。
楽しくて、今日はすごく嬉しかったよ～！

みんな、まだ会おうよね。

パイロウ☆

Gotta learn how to take it one day at a time,
Two steps up and it makes them cry
I smile and I fall away and she says, oh, babe...
Gotta cry when you cry and you laugh when I dance
I ask if you will and you say no I can't
And you smile when I die and she says, oh, babe...
She says oh, babe, and she loves me, she loves me

I'm probably the worst.
I'm selfish and very demanding.
I often change my mind and my moods, sometimes faster than people can keep up.
But... "Somewhere, I will find someone who will accept all of me." That is what I think.
My crazy side, my selfish and childish side, my serious side, my melancholy side; surely even with all of these clashing pieces of me, ever-changing and interacting, someone will be willing to be with me, letting me change on my own into someone new without judgment or trying to change me into what they want.
That is what I think.

Pairou.

I'm sorry

I miss you...

Hiatus for however long I feel like it. :]

子どもの時、みんなは夢を持っている。「医者になりたい」とか、「有名なバレーダンサーになりたい」など、夢は人によって違う。でも夢は一つしかえらべないという人がいるのではないだろうか。このひろい世界で夢や仕事が’多すぎて、どうしたら全部できたらいいのか。

かしゅは声で自分の考えや気持ちをみんなに伝えられる。芸人はどうさを使って、気持ちをあらわせる。ダンサーはきれいなダンスでみんなにストーリーを伝えられる。でもそんなことは一人で一つしかできないのだと思った。私にはどうやって仕事を決めるか、まだ分からなかった。

が かはペンで自分が好きな世界を作ることができる。ペイントで世界をいろどれる。ある日、両親がマンガを買ってくれた。私が夢見ていたことは全部マンガでで きた。私はこれで思いついて、「マンガ家になりたい」と決めたのだ。自分の絵で医者にもバレリーナにも、何にでもなれる。

 

During childhood, everyone has dreams. "I want to become a doctor" or, "I want to become a famous ballerina" and so on, dreams are different for everybody. But aren't there also people who can't choose only one dream? In this wide world where there are too many dreams and jobs, how can one do everything?

 

Singers can convey their own thoughts and emotions through voice. Actors use actions to show their feelings. Dancers can convey a story to everyone through a beautiful dance. But can't those people do only one of those things by themselves? I thought. I still didn't know how to choose a job.

Artists can, with a pen, create their own world the way they like. With paint they can paint the world. One day, my parents bought me a comic book. The things I dreamed, I could do all of them in a comic book. When I thought of this I decided, "I want to become a comic book artist." Through my own drawings, even a doctor or a ballerina, I can become anything.

So what's changed recently?


Well, today I got bookshelves, a small table, and such from my good friend Yukari. I may have gotten two stools, which is great because I need them for the balcony.

I'm likely getting a new roommate in July, a friend of mine I met in the States.

I may be studying at Yamasa until next March.

I learned a few things, about myself and about people in general. That even though there are people out there who aren't worth the scum on the bottom of my third cousin's old boots, there are a ton of people out there that make life wonderful, just because.

I learned not to trust others' opinions about people and to wait to make my own- otherwise I'd never have gotten my new friend/probably future roommate, instead thinking bad things about this person (helped along by a bad first encounter XD;) and being generally wrong about her.

Today, the rain is falling steadily, I got invited out (a rare occasion), I have two bottles of Pepsi in my fridge and ideas for artwork. I'm motivated to study again and I'm thrilled about my progress in Japanese!

It was a good week. :3

-Pairou.

Getting your friends to harass my friend and say omghorriblethings about ME, when I'm not even involved in this... have fun failing at life.

今 日は大雨の日で、暗く感じます。授業中強い風がふっていて、窓は変な音がしました。僕は何回もクラスメートの前に日本語で文法の説明をしましたが、ぜんぜ んできなくて、「僕はばかだ！」と思いました。今日は本当に大変でしたが、一所懸命勉強して、一所懸命頑張ったので、きっと上手になると思います。

でも時々、いやな気分になります。土曜日、日本語能力試験の模擬試験をしました。しっぱいでした。２４０点以上が合格ですが、僕は１７１点しか取れませんでした。時々、「どうして日本語を勉強してるんだろう？やめたほうがいいかな？」と考えます。

そんな時、子どもの頃を思い出します。僕は７才の頃から日本に来たいと思っていました。マンガは僕の夢でした。日本語はもちろん難しいですけど、好きですから、勉強をしに来ました。そのことを思い出して、もう一回やってみれば、そんなに難しくなくなります。

強い夢があったら、きっと何もできるようになるでしょう。


パイロウ☆

Might be unreachable for a week or two. Be back eventually.

Pairou.

Woke up at 4:30am.
Went to the airport for a 7:30 flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Sat in Minnesota airport for 5 hours until boarding for Tokyo (3:15 flight) started.
Sat in airplane for two hours.
Was deplaned.
Asked to return before 6pm.
Flight delayed until 7pm.
Flight delayed until 10:00am.

I am very tired. But at least I get to my apartment in the daytime, even though I'm missing school completely.... *sigh* I hate missing first days. You meet the new people those days.

Had a guy give me money and his email. On the plus side, I've been complimented at least 4 times today cos I'm wearing my shiny yellow sunshine boots. <3

I'm in a surprisingly good mood...


Pairou.

My old laminator burnt things and got stuck so badly we couldn't fix it.
My new laminator works perfectly and I am excited. :3 It doesn't come apart like the self-laminating things and is way stiffer, since I got ID-use pouches.

Pairou is pleased.


Pairou.

has a scanner again? <3 It's my old old scanner from like, the 90's. (Or maybe 2001. Or something else back when technology was sucky.) It takes forever to scan at 360dpi, but it works and I love it anyway. I LOVE YOU WORKING SCANNER.

Now the only problem is getting it to Japan. Hmm...

Peter left.

People like to talk. They usually talk about themselves because let's face it, what else CAN we talk about? Our opinions, our views, our pasts and presents and futures, we are the suns in our solar systems, the center of our universes. I bet the sun doesn't think much about the faraway stars or floating asteroids. I bet it just mentions casually to Neptune that it's rather sad Pluto always sits so far away, and does Uranus think it is looking more of a yellow or a red today?

So, so so so. So... what happened so far? Lessee.

We went to 名古屋港、Nagoya port, to the aquarium. 'Me' refers to myself and Mariah. So we went and saw dolphins, belugas, fish, and all sorts of strange Japanese tourists. OH AND OMIGOSH THE PENGUINS.

I only have videos of them though so instead you get this.



We also had parfait. Delicious.

And then Sunday, we went to Kyoto. ...<3

This was Pairou's view as she:

Took photos of the big-ass Heian Shrine gate!

   

Stalked a Japanese marriage party!



Watched Mariah eat her ice cream! (note: the trees on either side of the path are all not-yet-in-bloom sakura.)



Snuck photos of the locals' gardens!

  

More flowers~!



Caught kimono-clad girls unawares by accident as she tried to get a nice shot of a shrine walkway!

 

Yes, we saw geisha. Mariah has the photos. <3


love,

pairou.

Chuhai. Or chuuhai. Whatever it is. It is delicious. It is apparently vodka with fruit flavor. It's pretty strong stuff- as much as 8%, 16 proof, whatever you use to measure it- and I didn't know this until much later since it doesn't affect me half as much as, say, beer does.

The Suntory-brand orange flavor tastes like orange Fanta but better.

....mmm. Even better than the mango and peach flavor. The lemon one is good too, it has pulp in it. Next up is pineapple and some others. :]

love,
Pairou.

So hey~

Went to the airport yesterday with Roommate to pick up Maria(h) from the airport. Freaked out the entire trip, ended up half an hour late... but so was she, having a customs officer entranced by the mystery of the feminine hygiene product. We're not sure he ever figured out what tampons are used for, but at least he seemed to decide they were not being used to smuggle drugs or bombs into the country, as he eventually allowed her to pack her things back up (tampons and all) and go out into the Outside World.

Ooh shiny.

After a looong two-hour trip home, which included trains, delicious juice and nikuman, walking, and me talking her poor ear off, we got back to the apartment, had a wonderful night's sleep, and woke up this morning ready to face her day... which I will write about tomorrow. :]

+Pairou.

You: ...where did you go? Why would you do that?

Peter: I wish I could talk to you all day long~ I miss you... <3