Guess who's back?

Yeah, so I wasn't able to make a post here my last day, but, anyway, I'm back now. ^^V Safe and sound in the US. The evening I got back, my brother had a party ready for me with all my high school friends there. It was great. I got hit with the jet lag yesterday, though, but I haven't been sleeping. I just wake up in the morning and go through the day feeling like someone taped weights to my eyelids. I still haven't gotten a chance to drive my car. With the gas prices so high, I'd feel very bad if I just hopped in the car for a joy ride. I may have a good reason, though, because I found out I still have a closet stuff full of clothes! I can't believe it. With all the trouble I went through in Japan giving away clothes and even throwing away older ones, I still have a closet full of stuff? Yeah, so I'm sorting through it to take it to the salvation army. Me and my jet lag. We're doing it together. I'm also writing a email to send out to a bunch of peeps over in Japan to tell them I arrived ok. I sent an email to my chinese friend to let her know I was back and had hoped she'd tell others, but I don't think she's read it yet. I got an email from Una (my little Korean friend) saying she had emailed me cause she was worried. I guess cause Japan is only an hour plane ride from Japan, she forgot that jet lag would lay me out for a few days. XD But, yeah, I felt bad I made her and possibly others worry, so I'm mailing them.

I'm sleepy

Well, o my goodness o my goodness, an entire year (give or take a week) has past since I first came here, but I don't feel anytime has past at all. So how do I feel? Well, I hated the classes. I'll tell you that right up front, but they still had their value. I got tons of listening practice, so now I feel I am at the point where I can, at least, hear everything that some says. I might not know the meaning of the words they are say, but since I could hear it, I'll just look it up in my trusty electric dictionary. I'm assuming since I single handedly made all these blessed phones calls (stopping the gas, water, eletric, come pick my bags up and take them to the airport) that must mean it was a more or less successful year.

Socially it was a gold mine excavation. I should be really thankful to Rida for suggesting I join the English club. I made lots of friends, got tons of Japanese practice (yes, I know. It's ironic), and now I have a little family over here, hehe.

Yeah, so I am packed for home. I'm sitting in the computer room waiting for the pick up service to take my bags to Narita. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning for my afternoon flight. Rida, who just walked by the door, is leaving in a few minutes, and Chema is leaving tomrrow morning at 9am. Still need to throw out stuff and clean my room. The Gas guy came yesterday and turned it off, so I'm taking cold showers. (I didn't think it through well) Gonna stop the water and eletricity on Sunday morning (cutting it close, but you try living in this heat without taking a shower or AC. o_0) I need to turn off my phone today. I'll do that on the way to the concert. ^^V I hope Hirai Ken is singing first cause I'm leaving right after Kaela is done. But it looks like he is first up from the set list on the website.

Gonna go sit with Rida till he's reading to go then wait around for the luggage pick up people.

I think I won't listen to Japanese music anymore...

Ok, so you know, I already have to put up with a lot of stuff for being an American yet liking Japanese music. Having to order online and wait weeks for cds instead of buying them in stores, only by strokes of luck getting to see my fav artists in concert, everybody thinks it's SO weird to be listening to Japanese music when it's really quite normal, nobody knows who on earth my favorite artists are, can't hear my songs on the radio, forget catching a performance or music video on tv, etc. To be honest, I've been quite depressed this past week thinking of having to return to the US and carry on my jpop fandom. I've grown so use to this jpop filled environment leaving it to go back to the nothingness of the states isn't a great prospect. I'd go as far as to say painful. I love my music! I've got access to just about everything here. Going back to the states, I'll lose everything!

I was even contemplating going back to listening to English music mainly again. Maybe it's from going a year without being in an English enviroment, but it's starting to sound good again. At least, I wouldn't be musically starved that way or go through the annoyance of being odd, weird, abnormal, etc. That is my main pet peeve. I'm sick of thinking that I can't express my love for my music without being thought of as strange by someone. It's just music. Chill! The only difference is the language, and, yes, I can understand it. It's quite good actually if you'd give it a listen, but even if you don't want to, you don't have to roll your eyes, insult me or the music, or look at me weird. Open your mind a bit! I just hope my family stops the teasing. I never liked it before, and after spending a year here, it's not going to seem any less annoying.

So what is the point of this post? This


That was for my Ellegarden fan music video. JASRAC (I know now) is a copyright protection organization for Japanese musicians. How the heck they found my video, I do not know, but it angers me that they would be so willing to take it down. What's the most annoying thing is that there are tons! of other videos that are violating copyrights on there. Music videos, dvd content, performances, etc. Why my stupid home made fan video only? I was on the verge of marching straight down to their headquaters in Shibuya. I really was going to go. I spent yesterday writing up and printing a letter in Japanese and English to give to all their board members. I ended up just mass emailing (it was only 11 emails addressed to the board members) to some random email I found on their website (couldn't find any direct emails) and throwing all the stupid letters away.

But, I'm really angry. I learn Japanese partly because I love Japanese music so much. I want to go a step further and do something even more meaningful to my favorite artists besides just listening to their music. Going as far to study Japanese is meaningful especially since I am a foreigner. I work hard. And when you put in so much effort and put up with so much nonsense (read from the top again), it's very annoying that some dumb organization would step in and be like "No, we don't care that you are simply being creative and showing love for your favorite music. We're shutting you down". It makes me mad and don't talk to me about stupid laws. Make an exception! It's a fan, and not just any fan. I'm from a different country which means their music is spreading. Isn't that a good thing? Now I'm going back feeling like my favorite artists don't even appreciate my fandom.

Yeah, so that was something on top of something else. I just want to hurry up and come home so I can see how I feel about it then. It was just nice to be normal for a year. I'm having a hard time letting that feeling go.

p.s. And yes, I'm still excited as what to be seeing Kaela live in concert next week Saturday! booyah! ^^V kutsu wo narashi! takaku! takaku! jump shite! It's gonna be a blast and forget Japanese culture that doesn't express feelings. I'm rocking the hey out at that concert so watch out!

Any day now...

Well, it doesn't feel like it, but I'll be on my way out of here in less than 2 weeks. So how do I feel? Sad. I've been wanting to go home for like...ever, but I'm really going to miss the people here that I've gotten to know. I've never really had the experience of living so closely with other people and forming friendships. I was homeschooled until 9th grade, and, in high school, I was so shy it took me till my senior year before I even started saying hi to people in the halls. Even one of my high school friends is suprised when I'm actually speaking to her during our conversations. It's been so much fun, and being the only American/native English speaker was such a gift. I'm going to miss this international community here. Hanging out in Yokohama with your Japanese friends, chilling after class with your Korean friends, eating lunch with your Eygptian and Spanish friends, or bumping into your Indonesian friend on the way to buy a soda. It's an experience that everybody should envy. These are some of the best people I've met in my life.

This weekend I went on the trip with the English club(sorry, made a mistake with the dates. It was August 4-6). It's so great to know how much I connected with them. I'm one of them now, and that's a great feeling to know. On the Sunday night, we had a small party which turned out to be a good bye party for me. They called me up front and presented some gifts to me. I started crying. T_T It was kind of bad because it made all the girls and some of the boys start crying, too. XD And after the gift presentation, everybody gave a speech to me, so that just made me cry even more which made them cry even more.

It's almost frightening to think how close these people are to me. Like I said, I've never had the experience of feeling so close to people outside my famiily. It's kind of scary cause you don't know if they could hurt you. If they did, you don't know how you'd feel about it. Or maybe it's because I haven't slepped properly for an entire week, and I'm getting weird. X_x And also maybe it's because there are so many of them that I hope to keep in contact with. o_0 The English club is like maybe 20\30 people, the peeps in the dorms are maybe the same number or more, and then you have the random friend I have from here and there. In total...maybe...close to 100 people? o_0 I'm going to take a nap now.