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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Time Zones

I still get caught off guard when talking to friends in the states and it's their bedtime when I'm getting ready for lunch or they're on their lunch break and I should be sleeping....but I'm not. I've always been a night owl, but it seems like I am even more so since moving here because I have the mindset that if I stay awake, I might catch my mom or close friends online by chance. Sometimes it works, but mostly....it doesn't. So I do ridiculous things like clean the house at 2:00AM, rock out to the japanese music countdown or concerts on Music on TV, do some online shopping...and the list could go on forever. If I was smart, I would just go to bed and be done with it, right? Well, I've tried that. And I just lay in bed staring at the ceiling for hours. Insomnia much? Good thing I work in the afternoon-evening!

In all seriousness though, I totally forget that I'm halfway around the world instead of just a few hours away when talking to friends. It's a little surreal to know that I'm eating dinner while my friends are just waking up to start the same day.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Things I crave in Japan.

I just got this overwhelming craving for nachos. Like the good, messy, everything-on-it type of nachos that you can find pretty much in any mexican restaurant in the United States. Japan is not known for mexican restaurants. In fact, I've only heard of 2 in my 6 months of living here, and one of them is in Tokyo. There is a mexican restaurant right outside of base called Mike's that we're going to try to go tonight. We've tried 3 other times....2 times they were closed and 1 time they were closed until 8:00 because of a private party. I miss mexican food! I love it and it's not easily accessible here. We have a Taco Bell on base, but let's face it....that is not real mexican food and everyone knows it.

I also crave pizza, but luckily we do have decent pizza on base. I've had better in my day, yes, but it's enough to curb the cravings.

I also miss cheese and cheesecurds. Imagine that from a girl from Wisconsin! A&W on base has cheesecurds that aren't too shabby, if you eat them while they're piping hot. If you let them cool, they get chewy and rubbery. Ugh.

I miss the regular dressings from Subway. The ranch on base is horrible and the Subway out in town doesn't have ranch. Eh, I survive.

I miss my favorite kinds of makeup. Don't have it on base and haven't seen it out in town...although I will admit to buying all of my makeup on base, because the prices out in town are shockingly high compared to on base (almost double-price).

Then again, there are things that I crave out in town here as well, that I will never be able to eat once I return back to the states.

#1. Hands down, sushi and sashimi. It is so much better here and makes the stuff I used to love in the US taste like cheap crap.

#2. Gyoza. So much better. So much.

#3. Apple Juice! Japanese apple juice tastes like you're literally eating an apple. My tastebuds frown when I drink American apple juice now.

#4. Green tea ice cream. Yum. That is all.

#5. Ramen. I didn't know it existed outside of those Cup Noodles or ten cent packages. It does and it is quite possibly one of the best soups ever....if it's not the Cup Noodles or ten cent packages variety.

So, here's to hopefully getting nachos tonight. They'll have them, if they know what's good for them. Hahaha.

New Blog, New Home, New Life

Yep. I did it. I joined the world of blogging. I have so many things to rant and rave about in my new country of residency that I figured I would give it a go. Let everyone in on a little bit of my life, on the opposite side of the world.

So let's see. A little about me. I'm 24. I live in Japan, situated about 5 miles out from a US Naval base. I don't have any children or pets, although I'd love to have a pet. I'm not allowed. I've been in Japan for 6 months and I love it here. If I could live here forever, I would. Obviously I'd have to do a lot of traveling back to the states to see family, but I'm not even going to think about it, because it's just not possible anyways. I teach English to some of the cutest kids on the planet.

For those of you that don't know, living in Japan is extremely expensive compared to the United States. I feel like a poor kid half of the time, because all the Japanese girls around here carry designer handbags (we're talking Louis Vuitton) and wear designer clothes and sky-high stilettos and even run in those suckers. They spend hundreds of dollars and many hours to look the way they do. They have porcelain skin and look like dolls. I could say just as much for the guys, minus the stilettos. And then I come walking along in my $20 jeans, converse sneakers and t-shirts. I don't blend in to put it mildly. But I'm okay with that. I'm becoming a little more fashion conscious while over here, but don't expect much. I prefer my Betsey Johnson purse to Louis Vuitton. I will always prefer comfortable shoes over painful ones. I'm always going to be me, no matter where I'm living.