Osaka, Here I Come!

Yesterday, even though I was upset with the news of Heath dying, I still had room for other emotions and I feel bad because sometimes I was happy, and I felt like I couldn’t be happy while his family are grieving. But, I can’t dwell on the past, and I know that he’s at rest now, so I’m sure he wouldn’t want people to be upset over it for the rest of their lives. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to be forgotten, and I won’t forget him I hope, but I need to stop dwelling on the sadness of it all. He lived his life well, and that’s all a family wants from their child right?

Anyway, the reason why I started to be happier yesterday is because I finally got the long awaited email of confirmation! I now have a host family to live with, and a school to go to! I am to live in Osaka, but I will not share any specific details online, because then any type of person can find my host family’s house and school, and I definitely do not want to give them that trouble! I would be betraying the trust of my host family and school before I even met them, which is obviously a no-no.

I will share my feelings on Osaka though. Before I start, just know that I am so, so grateful to the workers and volunteers at the organisation I signed up with, that they found me a place to stay at such short notice. I am a little disappointed though; actually, I’m very disappointed. I was very set on Tokyo, so much so that on the forms when I had to choose what type of place I’d like to live in (heavily populated city down to small rural areas or islands) I wrote underneath my choice “Tokyo”. Like, I really, really, was set on it. And the volunteer who had come to talk me through the paperwork said that was fine and if I wrote that down I should almost certainly go to Tokyo. Then she said that they’ll give me a choice of host families they have found, and will supply me with information of their personalities, likes and dislikes etc, so I could choose one. Well, both of those things never happened. I am happy that Osaka is a large city, which is what I wanted, but I really wanted to check out the famous areas i’d researched and heard about. I know NOTHING about Osaka. Except that Ayu, the Japanese girl I hosted last year, lived there.

Also, this organisation said they’re pretty big and have a good reputation, so shouldn’t that mean I would have at least two choices in the matter of a host family? Out of the whole of Japan? I know I’m being really, really, selfish here, and I’ve accepted that this is whats going to happen, but could they at least keep their word on something? Even Mum is a little tiffed about the wait, the lack of communication (its been about a month), and how the procedure has gone differently from what was explained.

Well, whatever happens, I’m so scared and excited thinking about it!

Rest In Peace

I hate WordPress.

I created a whole homage to Heath Ledger, and then as soon as I press the publish button, what happens? They log me out! That has never, ever happened before, even when I’ve been logged in for days at a time. It was over 800 words, and it said it saved every few minutes, but yet only the first fucking paragraph saved.

I know its just a website, but its fucking offensive to the death of Heath that a dedication to him is deleted after all the feelings and sympathies and tears that went into it are just.. deleted.

You were an inspiration to me, Heath. I may not want to be an actress anymore, but I will never forget the rolemodel that you were to me, in all your career choices and risks that you took to become the man you were.

RIP April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008

To my darling, dearest Windows Movie Maker,

First of all, how was your morning? I’m sorry I left you on all night, but I was afraid of losing my saved work. You know, that mirrored video of Ai No Imi Wo Oshiete? The one that I slowed down to half speed, to learn the dance to? Yeah that one. The one I spent from 11pm until 3am this morning trying to save as a proper movie file. You know, it really isn’t right what you do to me. I spent my time downloading that video off youtube, converting the FLV file to a MPEG, capturing the WAV sound file off the MPEG, slowing said WAV file down to half speed, fixing the pitch so Double U didn’t sound like they turned into two men, saving that file, then giving it to you. Not to mention the whole trouble I had with giving the MPEG file to you, slowing it down to half speed, silencing the two men singing and adding the fixed pitch track to the movie.

You know all too well what happened next, you bastard. I try to save the project and you SHUT DOWN! What the hell do you think I am, a kindergarten teacher? I do NOT have the patience to put up with your bullshit.

So anyway, I restart the computer, and wake you up again. Because you’re so scared of what I’m going to do to you, you decide to tell me you have recovered what was lost. I save the project, no problems. I play the video through, no problems. “Alright, time to save it to a movie file then hit the hay”, I think to myself in anticipation. The bed looked so~ nice and comfortable at that moment.

But what do you give me? A million and one friggen choices of file size! I’m a simple woman damn it, especially when I’m tired! And no, I don’t care if you recommend the 113.65 MB file size! Do you think I’m that dumb to fill up my small amount of harddrive space left, with one movie file of 7 minutes in length?! And besides, who hired you as the all-knowing, smooth talking sales assistant who can gauge his customer well enough to recommend what they need? Anyway, after choosing one with signifigantly less size (Video for broadband, 19.87 MB) you tell me that you cannot save the file!! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?

Ok, so I went and brushed my teeth at that point, even though I had done it a few hours earlier, simply because 1) it gave me a chance to get away from you and 2) I like having an excuse to see my angry face in the mirror.

After my minor interlude, I came back ready to handle whatever bullshit you were to dish out. You told me that you couldn’t save it to the location I had selected. I tried saving it My Documents you stupid idiot, of course you can save it there. You told me (you didn’t even ask nicely! Rude!) to make sure the source files I used in my movie were still available. Yeah, I did that. They all work. And then you tell me to check if theres enough disk space availabe. Well thats rich, coming from the one who tried to sell me into choking my hard drive! And yeah, there is enough space available! There is nothing wrong on my side! It’s you damnit!

I really don’t get this; are you trying to push me away? Do you want me to reinstall Nero so I can use his movie making abilities? Don- don’t you re-respect me anymore? What is it? Is it my choice of videos that you don’t like? We need to talk about this instead of you just pushing me away!

Please reply soon!

Ashi.

(No, my readers, I do not usually write letters to my computer programs, or talk to them. In fact, my close friends know that I hate letter writing with a passion. Which is exactly why I’m writing my rant in this form. I figured that, as I’m moving away and overseas calls cost an arm and a leg, I should get used to writing letters if my blog idea fails to connect with my friends and family. Oh and no, WMM and I are not and never have been seeing each other. I swear! If this post has been too out-of-the-box and is freaking you out, I suggest you tell me so. Otherwise, it could get worse. Oh, and if you have any suggestions or know exactly why I’m having this problem, PLEASE help me!)

Happy Birthday!!

So, Sister turned 8 today! I’m still trying to think up a codename-thing for her, like to protect her identity ya know? But I have yet to come up with something.. so she’ll just be Sister today. Wait wait wait.. hold that thought. I just came up with a name so disgustingly cheesy, it just might work! So, she’s pretty active all the time right? She loves going on the trampeline and having running races and stuff, and she’s 8.. I’ll call her Activ8! Du-du~n! The name already bugs me, but do you care? Na, didn’t think so. And do I feel like thinking of a better name? I think we all know the answer to that.

So anyway, Activ8 got a Hello Kitty bedspread and pillow cover set, as well as a HUGE-MUNGUS Hello Kitty plushie. So~ cute! She has been pretty easy to please today, surprisingly. Mum took her food shopping for tonights party, and she asked if part of her present could be Bubble Blowers, ya know the cheap ones that hang inbetween the items in each aisle? Yeah, pretty El Cheapo but she asked for it, so we don’t feel guilty. Although, as if sensing our cheap victory, she promptly started begging Mum to buy Fruit Loops as soon as we reached the cereal aisle, “as we only ever get nice cereal once in FOREVER!”. Oh. My. Dog. 9 FRIGGEN bucks for a box of cereal?! Somebody punch some sense into Kelloggs, stat. Unfortunately, Activ8 does have a point. The last time we got good AKA sugary cereal was probably last August or something? So yeah, we indulged in the biggest box we could find. And, I must admit, having Fruit Loops for lunch was such a good break from Weet-Bix or sandwich lunches!

Ahem, back to the presents. She was also supposed to get a Nintendo DS, but they’re still haven’t been restocked anywhere. And I mean the ‘we looked in every shop within a half-hour drive that could possibly stock it’ type of anywhere. Nanna also went to every possible shop in Gero, which is much easier for her then it was for us. Again, its completely sold out there too. Get your heads together and release more stock Nintendo, you’re more popular than you think!

It friggen sucks that shes getting a DS though. Well, it hurts my jealous pride anyway. I was hinting a few months ago that Nintendo have come out with Kanji-teaching and dictionary software for the DS, but I suppose I’d be trying my luck to get one too. I mean, do I even have a right to be selfish and whiney when my parents are footing the bill for my exchange? Maybe not, but I am helping to pay AND once I get back from Japan I’ll be going straight to the work force and paying back every cent ASAP. So, it’s not like I’ve just been lying there for the last few months while everyone else does the work for me. Or is it?

No. Fracking. Way.

Ok, so that dress I was looking up the price for? 25,800 Yen. Which is currently $275.75 Aussie dollars.

Oh but it gets better. That first coat, the one where I was worried about the real fur? 53,800 Yen. Yeah, it more than doubles the price of the friggen dress, making it $575. I can almost definately say now that its real fur, if they’re charging that much.

The pink coat was a bit more reasonable *snicker* compared to the other coat, being $414.70.

And (yes I can begin my sentences with ‘and’ if I want to) if I ever had the sudden urge to buy the bonnet, i’d only have to hand over $155 friggen dollars. For a bonnet. Which I doubt I’ll see many people wearing in Japan anyway.

Suffice to say, I have a few words for Mary Magdalene…

I HATE YOU EXPENSIVE BOUTIQUE!!! GO TO BOUTIQUE HELL!!!

I MUST find this shop..

..when I go to Japan. Its called Mary Magdalene (yeah ok ignore the name, why they named it after that bible chick I’ll never know), and it has the CUTEST dresses and coats I have ever seen! Actually, they sell hats and bonnets as well! Strangely enough, when I saw the bonnets, I flashbacked instantly to my younger days when I used to be obsessed with the Muppet Christmas Carol. Why. The. Frack? Maybe because of this person:

Yeah, it is a sucky picture of her, but I’ve spent about an hour and thats the best google could come up with. Anyway, see the bonnet shes wearing? Yeah. Bonnets now officially equal The Muppet Christmas Carol. Is bonnet even the right word for those hat-things? Whatever, now I’ve got “The Love is Gone” stuck in my head. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, for fear of exposing my weirdness, but I actually found and downloaded that song onto my iTunes a few years ago.

Anyway, back to Mary Magdalene, i’m going to try and find out the prices via a page translator, as theres a lot of different numbers on each page and I can’t really read what the site says (shh, I’m nowhere near ‘good’ at reading Japanese yet!) but I’ll update this post when I find out. Seriously, these clothes are like something out of the Victorian era, so I bet its going to be expensive. MASSIVE thanks go to Atashi (who, by the way, is absolutely awesome with her song translation, art, and Haruhi cosplaying) who happened to mention this shop in one of her posts.

Heres some pictures of my fav things they’re selling:

CUTE CUTE CUTE CUTE CUTE CUTE OMG SO CUTE

I really hope that isn’t real fur…

Nyah! I love it!

I can assure you that I’d NEVER wear a bonnet unless I went back in time (or was cosplaying), but hey its cute!

Ok thats enough for today, I may have mentioned the word cute one or two times too many, but oh well. Next post I may start putting up Japanese “lessons” for my friends who have asked for it, with links to my clips that will go along with these lessons.

Look forward to it, ok?

Ashi’s very, very first blog!

Wow, I really don’t know what to say. If you’re here, you either got lost while searching for something on google (probably something to do with Yuki Nagato, Anime, minor cases of otaku-ness, Japan etc etc) or you’re one of my friends =D Yay for friends! Yay for randoms who find blogs!

So anyway, its now about 5 and a half hours until Christmas & im so not excited. I don’t have any money to buy you guys anything, and that makes me feel like… I don’t know how to explain it. You know those friends that just kind of lurk around when its the day of a birthday party, just cos there’s cake and junk food? Then you don’t really see them again until someone elses birthday? Yeah, I feel like one of those people. And for those who know who I’m making an example of, yes, I feel like Tuna. Gawd help me -_- Anyway, I am thankful that its Christmas though, as my present from Mum and Dad (and other family members) is the money to go to Japan!! Which is the whole reason why this blog was created, so be thankful for that! -ebil glare-

Anywho, I’m working on a proper banner for this site at the moment. Its going to have a picture of Yuki Nagato from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. Google it, Youtube it, buy it or ignore it, if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about =) I don’t really know what else to put onto the banner, but probably something else related to Anime and Japan. Or me. But you don’t want a picture of me staring at you everytime you visit this page, so I best leave it out =) Oh and in case you’re wondering, the title of my page means “Ashi’s blog of Japan”. And the word in Japanese underneath it is “gaijin”, meaning foreigner. Hopefully, I don’t need to explain why I named my blog “Theycallmefoot” xD

So one last thing, because I know this post is getting too big for its boots =) I was searching around the other day (at 2 in the morning of course) on this major Otaku’s blog, and from there I somehow ended up going to this blog. Well, lets just say that I didn’t sleep until I had read every single post for the entire year. I don’t exactly know why, but I find her posts so interesting! The fact that shes so funny, and has been dealing with so many internal troubles at the same time as struggling with a foreign country, its so inspiring. She’s opened my eyes so much more to the REAL Japan, not the one you find in textbooks. Plus, I’ve read a positive review about her book before even hearing about her blog. Its such a coincidence that in the huge world of the internet, I found the site of the author.

Anyway, my word count is just over the 500’s lol so have a Merry Christmas and I’ll see you all before the end of the holidays =)

Lol (lots of luffs)

Ashi