(ｰ｡ｰ)ﾌｩ

Boy am I tired!  It's been a long week.  Good, but just really long, mainly cause of 2 things--Metropolis's annual Halloween Glitterball that was on Thursday, and the fact that we're moving to a new office over the weekend.
Which mostly means that our office has been filled with boxes and other crap for days now--empty boxes to pack our stuff in, and boxes of beer, flyers, balloons--you name it--for the Glitterball. Craziness ensues.
So on Thurs, I spent the morning at a press conference for Hellboy 2, which would normally have been kinda meh, whatever (I mean it's not like I've seen the movie)--except that the director, Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) was *super cool*. He was talking about how Hellboy is "autobiographical." lol.

Anyway, he was a total rockstar.
So I got back from the press conference just in time to finish up a few things and then Hiroko and I headed over to Womb in Shibuya to help set up for the party. I swear, when I got there only an hour and a half before the doors were scheduled to open, and took a look around, it was like "there is no way we're gonna get this ready in time!" Cases of beer stacked 10 boxes high along one wall, folding tables in one corner, a thousand or so gift bags in huge piles.. it was ridiculous! But somehow, miraculously, we got everything set up and even had time to duck into the bathroom and change into our costumes. I was going for a sort of cowgirl theme--found a cheap hat at Tokyu Hands--perhaps embarrassing, but that was the only part of my costume I had to buy.  lol.  That's Hiroko on the left, she dressed up as Yoko Ono ^^

So I was scheduled to work the door handing out glowsticks from 7:30-8:30, but I got drafted into sticking on wristbands right at 7 when the door opened. It was ridiculous.  People had been lining up for a while already, and as soon as they opened the door it was just like the floodgates and all these people came pouring in. I heard later that 20 minutes after the doors opened, the place was at capacity.  And they just kept letting people in. The 3rd and 4th floors were supposed to be reserved for VIPs and special guests, but they ended up having to open those up to everyone cause it was just too crowded.

I mean, it was a lot of fun, and I got to hang out with my friends so I'm definitely glad I went. But--Seriously. Crowded.
So it's not like I stayed out past the last train or anything, but I got home really late. Steve had said it was ok for us to come in late on Friday, like at noon, which was cool, but I still only got to sleep in like an extra hour because I had to go all the way out to frigging Odaiba in the morning. See, we needed a photo from Fuji TV for the terebi article, and sometimes the tv studios get all annoying and for some reason can't/won't send a photo as an email attachment (cause that would be too easy) and instead they make you physically go down to the office and pick it up. Makes no sense but しょうがないや。
Got to the office around noon, only to find it everyone either gone or hungover, and the whole place looking pretty much like this:

Yup, it was a packing day. I'm all sad to leave our office :-(  not that the office itself is particularly nice, but I really love the area. And the new area, aside from being a pain in the butt to get to (gotta either walk 15 minutes or take a bus from the station) is, from what I hear, not so much with the tons of fantastic restaurants that our current place has.  It's gonna be really weird. We put everything in boxes, the movers are hauling it all over the weekend, and when I go in to work on Tuesday it will be to a different office.
I am gonna get so lost.

By the time everything was finished up, I was completely exhausted. But Fri night was the big party for the 1st anniversary of the Omotesando Gyre building, and we got invited to the MoMA Design Store party there. All the shops in the building were doing promotions and events and things--MoMA, Chanel, this organic restaurant called Cinegro was giving out awesome food...it was really cool.  And there were these very odd box-headed recycling people wandering around...? I didn't really get it.

And there was some sort of champagne lounge that had--well, champagne--and also a live performance by some duo called MCU. I tihnk they're newbies, like they're gonna debut in a few weeks or something? They were pretty good tho. They got everybody really into the show, dancing and everything. I took a video.  hehe.

New PV: another Fuma! well, technically his character was a Yasha but...

For those of you who don't know, I'm referencing the crack-tastic high school-sports-feuding-ninja-clans show Fuma no Kojiro that we subbed, and the fact that the twins (see last PV) as well as the lead singer of this band, Rei, were all in the show. 

Anyway, the PV is not the most interesting (fairly typical for a debut PV) and it came out several months ago--but I like the song and I don't have anything better to post this week.  lol.

enjoy!

(wow this was a long post)

good things come in...4s?

Re: the fact that that whole "3rd term is easier" thing turned out to be a big fat lie. The other day after morning class (cutting into my lunchtime--how dare they?!) we had an orientation for 4th term. I kind of thought that it was supposed to be the same as 3rd, but apparently not.

First: the Good News!
Up until now, we've gotten to experience the pleasure of no-afternoon-class Wednesdays. Once a week, every week. And I thought that was pretty good. But it turns out, in 4th term, we have NO afternoon class! XD
My current M-Th morning class (literature) will continue into next semester, as does the Tues/Wed IJ grammar class. That one becomes 上級日本語 High-Level Japanese. My current Fri morning class, Business Japanese, ends after this term, and gets replaced by a new class. The choices are Speaking, Listening, Writing, 日本文化論 Japanese Cultural Theory (something like that, anyway), or 現代小説 Modern Fiction.
I haven't decided what I'm going to pick yet. I mean, the obvious choice would be the Modern Fiction class, as it's about "the short stories of current, widely-read authors." But, on the other hand, the Culture class sounds pretty interesting, too (Ari-sensei's heading it up). Also, taking two lit classes at the same time is definitely nothing to sneeze at. Or I could pick the listening class, for a bit of a break. Since my listening skills are definitely the best of the bunch (and by bunch, I mean the bunch of my other skills, or lack thereof), it would make for a bit of a slack class.
I dunno, I'll talk to Ari-sensei about it, but I'll probably end up going with the other lit class. From a future-use point of view, it's definitely the best choice. I'm just a little nervous about the workload, hence putting off the inevitable.

Next: the Bad News
Well, not exactly bad news, but... The reason we have no afternoon classes is because, during 4th term, we're supposed to be spending the afternoons doing dun dun dun...Project Work! Theoretically, at least. (Flashbacks to HIF, anyone?)
I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm sure the project will be rewarding, and interesting, full of fun facts to know and tell. It's just...I have no idea what to do my project on! Nothing. Complete blank. Worse, a void. I mean, I know there are lots of things I'm interested in--Japanese culture, fiction, publishing, dramas... I'm just not sure how to get a research topic out of that. You know?
Aaannndd...we're supposed to turn in a little sheet thingy outlining our project proposal "as detailed as possible." By noon Monday, according to the paper. (A fact which I just now realized. Eek) I guess I'll have to shoot an email to Ari-sensei over the weekend, see if she can meet me before class Monday--or before lunch, assuming I can get an extension past the noon deadline. lol.

So, anyway, that's the skinny on 4th term. As far as we know, at least. ^.^
As we've seen, the good folks here at IUC sure do like to shake things up.

Getting ready...

Just a short post to get this blog going. I'm now officially a grad (scary!) and even though I've only been home for two days, it's time to start getting ready for Japan! I leave for Hakodate in just about two weeks, and it feels like there's still *tons* to do.
Hope I find out about my host family soon!

More to come when I finally arrive in Japan...