on the radio this morning for the Good Morning Garage show--my first turn up solo, since James and I shared the first round 2 weeks ago. No special guests this time, so it was definitely a different atmosphere (aka no swarms of fans crowding around the DJ booth, lol). Just a couple people hanging out in the Tully's. But it was lots of fun, and I guess I did a good enough show ^_^
They took a picture to post on the GMG website.
OK, I officially have a new favorite band--and they're not even Japanese! (lol)
so on Tuesday for the podcast recording (www.metropolis.co.jp/podcast for those of you not in the know about where you can hear me every week) we had a special live performance. The band Vinyl Soul, out of L.A., came to our office to perform some songs! You can hear it at the very end of the Wed, Mar 25 podcast. Anyway, they gave us copies of their CD as well, which I have been listening to nonstop. I'm totally dragging some friends with me to go see their concert on Sunday, they're playing at this little cafe over in Okubo, near Shinjuku.
Oh, and I got taken out on a sort of 接待 thing on Tuesday. The good folks over at Iichiko shochu company are trying to market their product to Americans, so they wanted to take some (American) Metropolis staffers out for a tasting, etc. It was ridiculous. they came to the office for 挨拶 with the sales people and then they took me, Sarah N and Yui (she was like, "I'm a 中途半端なアメリカ人" lol) out to this izakaya in Gaienmae and fed us sashimi, and kara-age and nabe, and then had us drink a bunch of shochu and tell them what we thought of it.
i know, "work is rough," right? lol.
oooh, and last weekend I went to see the Dustz concert. SO much fun! lol. I'm a huge fan of theirs--mostly cause the lead singer is f&%#ing hot, but also because I like the music. and they are definitely 10 times better live, the songs come across much more rock than they do on the CD. Oh, and even better, this concert was officially their last con as an indies band--cause they will be releasing their major debut with Sony/Epic Records in May! Yay! They've (obviously, since they got signed to a major label) got a pretty decent fan base, but I felt kind of sorry for them at the concert. Nermal and I were looking around like, "have any of these people ever been to a concert before...?" Nobody was getting into it, nobody was moving, and all these girls had set their purses and shit all over the floor (hello people, that's what the lockers are for!) so that we could have been practically up against the stage if it hadn't been for all the stuff in the way. whatever. Nermie and I totally rocked out, and they definitely saw us. I mean, obvi the whole being gaijin thing makes us stand out a bit, but it was also cause we were practically the only ones who were really into it. Nermie's decided she has a crush on the drummer, lol (--this was her first Dustz concert, she wasn't really a fan before this, but I dragged her to it so I'd have someone to go with). We're going to join the fan club so we can get better tickets to the concert in June.
Oh, and in other news, I got a pack of cigarettes in the mail the other day. Well, not me, they were addressed to the person who lived in my apt before me, but still (only in Japan). It says "enjoy a special coffee break moment with Cabin"--which, caffeine addict that I am, kind of makes me want to try them... (breathe, daddy--- I'm only kidding)
PV this week isn't exactly a PV, it's a youtube vid I found of Vinyl Soul performing their song "Could This Be Heaven," which is one of the ones they sang for us the other day.
Enjoy!
so the other day I went to the bank to change my registered address on my account--cause you can't do that online, you have to do it in person. whatever. anyway, in the process of showing them my gaijin card to prove my current address, it was pointed out to me that my card had expired. In August.
>_< doh
I guess, when I got my visa, I thought that took care of everything, and I didn't realize that my actual card was expiring too. upshot of which is I had to get up really early and head over to the ward office the other morning before work to get it all fixed up. and hope they weren't too mad at me. lol. which, it turns out, they weren't, so that's all good. cause, i mean, my visa stuff was all taken care of, so it's not like I was staying illegally or anything. and since I was good and got up early and got there right at 8:30 when the office opened, I wasn't even late for work! well, not by more than 10 minutes anyway.
let's see, what else... oh, I found out my latest bar review is going in 763, so look out for that Nov 7.
we had a big meeting about the redesign this morning, and Steve had given us all sorts of stuff we were sposed to come up with ideas for. i was okay on the ideas for the new sections, and multimedia which i'm gonna be in charge of, but Steve wanted us each to come with 2 ideas for features that we could do in-house, with photos and stuff. and i was just drawing a COMPLETE blank. I mean, I can come up with lots of ideas, but nothing that feels big enough to be a feature, you know? anyway, I managed to fudge through it okay. and we're gonna start having regular Ed meetings too (genuis! what an idea!) so we'll be talking more about it again next week.
Wah, I'm tired!! (@_@)
But on the plus side, I was actually able to finish all the things I was supposed to today. On the way to work this morning, I was seriously doubting it. Didn't take a lunch break but....
On the other plus side, I got paid today! Which is also very good as I looked at my bank account over the weekend and was a bit dismayed to learn that I was down to my last 1万円. Then I thought, "wait, that means I made it through the month with $100 bucks to spare!" And I felt a lot better. Plus I went on a bar review this weekend, which means I'm gonna get reimbursed for that at the end of the month too, so that doesn't actually count as money I spent. (((o(^o^")o)))
Speaking of bar review, the place I went to was really awesome, this Belgian beer bar next to Yokohama station, called Glass Dance. I dragged Jason, Felicia and Ben B with me and we had a grand old time. ~_^ Cost a pretty penny, but the beer was fantastic and work footed a good chunk of the bill so we didn't really mind. This was our first round! You can see Ben there, enjoying himself. And if anyone ever has a chance to try a Belgian ale called Delirium Tremens, I strongly suggest that you do so, because it is FANTASTIC. See how it comes in a glass with pink elephants on it? hehe. Not sure when the review's gonna run, but I'll give an update. Month or so maybe?
I was at work until 8:30 tonight *cries* And I'm gonna have to try and get there right at 9:30am tomorrow morning, too.
it's been a busy week.
Monday me and the other Metropolis eds got taken out on the town in style. A couple weeks before I joined the mag, they did a review of a place called Charcoal Bar Tunnel in Roppongi, and apparently thanks to the review, they started getting lots more foreign customers, and they were so grateful they called and asked to treat us to dinner! yummmmm
We got to meet the promoter of the restaurant, and the 社長 who was like "here's my card, it's got my cell phone number, anytime you want to come here give me a call and you can eat for free." seriously!
then, on Tuesday night Hiroko and I went to the 1 year anniversary party for Billboard Live Tokyo. again, seriously yummy food. and it's an incredibly neat venue, really small and intimate. i kept imagining how cool it would be to go see a live there.
no pictures, but i did actually get around to replacing my broken camera yesterday--yay! i am SO in love with my new digicam. so hopefully there will be lots more pics to come.
oh, and speaking of pics, i get another photo credit in this week's Metropolis! so, i was writing the terebi blurb, and i decided to write on this tv tokyo show about famous japanese landmarks, that was gonna be showcasing Itsukushima Shrine. mostly cause i hadn't had time to call for a photo yet, and TV Tokyo has a site where you can DL press photos. only, it turns out that the photos they had up for this show weren't very good (you'd think on a press site they'd have decent quality photos!) and the design people were all panicking, so Steve goes "does anybody have any photos of Itsukushima Shrine?" and i was like, "oh! i do, actually...." (cause we went there during the Great Nihon Adventure when my parents were here, on which trip I took literally about 500 photos...
so, in short, the below photo (slightly cropped) is running in this week's Metropolis! (my second photo credit!) XD
Sometimes I am right.
Got an email from Chris today, who's the person in charge of the movie sections at Metrop, asking me if I had managed to get any photos at the Jodie Foster press thing yesterday.
Flash backward to yesterday's conversation--
me: Can I have the camera to take with me to the press conference?
them: no, Chris said he's sending a photographer, you don't have to take photos this time.
me: oh, I thought I did.
them: no, Chris said he's sending someone.
me: okay
Back to today.
Chris didn't send anyone. Which, actually is not that big of a deal--they always have an official photog at these events, so all we had to do was call up the movie company and have them send us a picture, which they've already done. I just thought it was funny.
Oh, and it turns out that my piece on Jodie Foster is going to be a Star Struck instead of a Movie News--because Will Smith, who the SS was supposed to be about, is too cool to give an actual press conference--which means that now I have to write 600 words instead of 250. Thank goodness I took a lot of notes.
P.S. the subject line has nothing to do with anything, it's just the ad line from a poster I saw on the train today.
Also, IUC is over!
waaahhhh.....
But, here are some pictures from the end, courtesy of Matsumoto-sensei, IUC's resident photographer. At every IUC event, he's forever popping out of corners and snapping so many photos that when you flip through them, they play almost like a movie. >_<
Anyway, here's me giving my final presentation:
The group of us (most of us anyway) who took shodo
And receiving my graduation certificate.
Which, this time, they didn't forget! Lol (unlike a certain HIF graduation ceremony I attended)...
Oh yeah, and I did really well on my final test!!! ☆★☆
Oh, and speaking of endings/beginnings, in a few short hours, my parents will be arriving in Tokyo! Whee!! Along with my 幼なじみ Rebecca and her mom. \(^_^)/
So, just to let you know, I probably won't be making many posts on here for the next couple of weeks, as we'll be travelling around Japan. Needless to say, I'm sooooo excited!
Oh, and I suppose I should change up the PV, hmm? Let's see, I've got to pick a good one, since it might very well be up for a good long while.
OK, I can't resist. What else, but the new PV by DoReMii's favorite twins, ON/OFF.
<3
So, I'm not dead. Not in the literal sense, anyway. I've just been super busy, and before I knew it it had been over two weeks since my last blog post. Ouch.
But, things have been a mix of fun and stress lately. IUC is over--well, almost entirely. Classes have ended, and we took the test last Monday. I actually really appreciate the way IUC handles the exit test: for the written part in the morning, they give the exact same placement test that kicked our asses at the beginning of the program. Which makes it really easy to gauge how far you've come. Don't know how I did for sure yet--we find out at the final evaluation session on Friday--but it was SOOOOOOOOOOO much easier this time around! Especially the kanji section, because this time, I actually *knew* most of them! (^_^)d
So, all that's left now is the Final Presentations, which take place Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we'll be done for real!
I promise to post another, more detailed IUC wrap-up post later.
In other news....
On the Job Front:
I've been applying for jobs!!!! And starting to get some results. A lot of my resumes haven't been making it past the initial screening by the recruiting companies, but I actually had a real live interview last week (which sadly, also ended in a rejection, but!). It was an editorial position with a company that publishes textbooks to teach English. There was an interview, and a test, all in Japanese. See, it's standard practice for Japanese companies to administer a test as part of the interview/hiring process--and since they're designed to test the Japanese abilities of Japanese people, they're....um.... "hard" is something of an understatement.
But, it was a good experience, to sort of get the first Japanese-interview nerves out of the way a bit.
And even MORE importantly, I have another interview on Thursday! And this time, it's in English (i.e. I actually stand a fighting chance). This next interview is for an Editorial Assistant position with Metropolis, an English-language weekly magazine in Tokyo. It's an Arts & Entertainment, resaurant reviews type of thing, sort of Time-Out style. Crossing my fingers extra hard, cause this seems like it could be a really good thing.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted. And I promise to write more later, with some pictures and potentially some updates on the "fun" part of my last few weeks. But now for sleep, cause I have to get up in the morning to practice my presentation.
Lastly, finally getting around to changing the PV.
For the first time, I will be featuring the wonders of Japanese girl-idol groups. This one, Perfume, has recently taken IUC by storm, with their peppy blend of electronic-synthesized-pop.
The song is "Polyrhythm," which shot the group to fame after it was chosen to feature in...I kid you not... a recycling commercial.
See how long it takes before the synth makes your head explode. (^_~)
You might have noticed, but there's some newness on the blog--links list, a music player (!) and a new 3-column layout. ^_^ (And if you didn't notice all that, then I find myself insulted).
I'd been wanting to have a sidebar on the left for a while now, but blogger doesn't offer a 3-column template, so I thought I was stuck. I found out that you can make a 3rd column, but it involves changing the HTML code and a bunch of--for me--complicated programming-esque stuff that I have absolutely no idea how to do. Fortunately, after a bit of searching, I came across an extremely dummy-friendly site that had instructions more at my level, i.e. "here's the code. copy and paste it into the box." ^^ Of course, it was slightly more complicated than that--involved some actual *gasp!* typing on my part--but eventually I was able to get it right.
Along the way, I came across some other code that lets you add a music player with mp3 files from your own computer. And I thought, why not.
You can't upload a whole ton of songs on the player, so I chose a nice representative selection of what I've been listening to lately. Some of the songs you might recognize from past videos, and some are new. So now, in addition to the music videos, there are some nice j-pop songs to play in the background, or even to leave on while browsing other pages.
The links list is fairly self-explanatory, so I'll leave that as is. I'll be adding more links whenever I find something I want to share, so look forward to that!