Samurai Cowgirl of the Midwest

Mutated form of ADV wins 2010.
Title: GLASS MASK COLLECTION 1
Running Time: 650 min.
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
CAT: SF-GM100
UPC: 814131014801
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
Pre-Book Date 12/22/2009
Street Date: 1/19/2010
Format: DVD
SRP: $49.98

First You're Under Arrest 2nd season, now this. What other dream shows will I be surprised with???

XD

Current Mood: ecstatic

WHoooooooooaaaaaa
So if bad things come in threes, do good things also come in threes? Because I have three good things.

Transcripts from Japan plus placement test stuff came in. Four As, one A-. J 302 is marked as an A.

*SCREAMS

DOUBLE MAJOR
DOUBLE MAJOR
DOUBLE MAJOR
DOUBLE MAJOR
DOUBLE MAJOR

DONE~~~~~~~~

All I need to do is wait for December to actually officially graduate.

Second, tomorrow I leave home and move in with Dave. Dad is driving out there with me. Normally. this would be a two-day affair, driving from Indianapolis to Denver with one stop in Kansas City. However, we've decided to turn it into a 9-day father-daughter Western graduation trip, so we will also make stops at the following:

Wichita, KS
Dodge City, KS
Liberal, KS
Oklahoma City, OK
Abilene, TX
Lubbock, TX
Amarillo, TX
Roswell, NM
Truth or Consequences, NM
Taos, NM
Four Corners
Durango, CO
Telluride, CO
Leadville, CO

camera is coming with, of course!

And for number 3, in a move that will probably not surprise people, I will be working Sep. 11-13 at Nan Desu Kan as Guest Services staff for the Japanese guests.

With all that going on, it's a bit difficult to get to sleep!!

Current Mood: jubilant

Japanese placement test today
At this point, I'll take some good-luck charms with me and hope for the best. Kind of hard to study for this sort of thing, I always find.

So, Joe
No Spirit, Sgt. Slaughter, Shipwreck, Wonder Twins, Lady Jaye, Flint, (bit roles count not)almost certainly different music. However, still going with a friend to go see it. As she puts it, "as awesome as it may be, if no one in the movie yells Yo Joe! I will consider it to have failed."

Of course, they could recreate a similar sequence to this and it would please me. Much more than the trailer I watched 5 minutes ago did.

My friend found this amusing, so I'll post it here
My quote of the day, in a discussion about going to the theater: "Why can't we all be black when we watch movies?"

Current Mood: profound

Final countdown?
We had the official Returning to the US meeting on Friday, which was a little sad because obviously, the end is coming. With that in ming, I test-packed today and discovered I have officially purchased more manga than will fit in my suitcases. Good thing Mom is coming to visit! Still, I'll probably have to mail some stuff... thinking a smaller box and sea mail, but suggestions are welcome from those who have mailed junk from Japan before!!

And photos will return after I finish the mountain of final papers...

Current Mood: melancholy

Sunday in Nagano to Narita Drum Festival
Trying to get as munch uploaded before I head out to Okinawa!

( Read more... )

Oh right, photoblog
I should probably post them once in a while. Let's go back in time a month:
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

animated movie meme
because I don't feel like being productive.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake

goal!
During orientation, we were asked to state a goal we hoped to fulfill in Japan. After hearing about 30 people say their goal was to get better at Japanese, I decided it would be more interesting to say something fun, so I said "I want to go to the Kishidan concert in April." Kishidan are a Japanese rock band known for dressing like biker gangs of the 80s, crazy concerts, and bizarre music videos:

Today, I will fulfill my goal! The concert is being held at the Nippon Budokan, which originally was for martial arts and other sports tournaments, but know is also used as a concert venue. The first concert there was the Beatles in 1966, and at the time there was a lot of complaint that having a western group perform would ruin the Budokan. Obviously, it turned out okay, but that's my interesting tidbit for those that have no interest in Japanese music :)

Sadly, it's raining all day, but I'll try to get some pictures of the building.

Current Mood: excited

North Korea
So, the missle news has been on every morning and evening here since the whole thing started, but today was a record when I flipped around and 5 channels were running news stories on it at the same time.

Also, the North Korea newscasters are pretty scary. I'm surprised that barking woman hasn't shown up in my dreams yet.

On an unrelated note, I would like some new feet. Japan is eating my current ones.

Some help requested
For those of you who have been to Akihabara before, can you suggest good stores to go to? I went last week to go anime shopping, and most of what I saw was 1) new stuff at full price 2)adult DVDs and games 3)used R2s for mayybe 20 or 30% off. If possible, I want stores with older stuff, secondhand items, and most of all, used CDs. I spent 2 hours there and only bought stuff at book-off and left because I was starting to get bored, so clearly I'm not going to the right places.

MASS PHOTODUMP
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

Quickie update
I don't want to use too much of the host family internet, so this'll be quick - pics coming tomorrow, I promise!

1. On the way back to our apartment, I took a slightly different street, and just before I turned to head back to the normal one, I spotted a Book-Off! And I only spent about $16, and got 8 manga and 3 CDs! I love the cheap aisles. I also signed up for a point card, which was fun because I couldn't really understand the vocab, but lickily I was carrying my address with me, so between me and the store people, we figured it out :)

2. My host mom helped me, and now I have a ticket to go see the first Kishidan concert in three years next month! YES~!

3. Today, without any input from me, the student from Thailand here for the weekend said he wanted to windowshop and that he likes cameras, so today we are going to eat lunch and wander around in

AKIHABARA

for those that don't know, this is the area of Tokyo famous for electronic stores, and lately as the gathering/shopping place for anime and manga nerds. On Sundays, some of the roads switch to pedestrian traffic only, and people dress up like anime characters or maids and wander around. It should be fun for all, if a little surprising to the host parents :)

4. My host mother invited me to go with her and her friend to Nagano for Golden Week! (sort of a national spring break.) My host father will be in Nepal.

Current Mood: excited

HAHAHA
So, all the homestay students are sitting in the office, waiting for their host families to pick them up. Most went sometime between 3:30 and 5:30, but guess who's marked at around 6:00ish because both parents work???

It's like daycare all over again!

I am highly amused.

Current Mood: amused

Orientation, orientation, orientation
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

FYI
I started another livejournal about my Japan trip and you might have seen that if you're on facebook, but if you're already on my flist here there's no reason to add it. It's mainly to give my family and friends I don't see as much a chance to keep up with me, without subjecting them to everything in my regular journal. Also, this one will get more detailed geek reporting. No way am I going to have my parents read lists of what I bought in Akihabara ^^;

Off to the land of the rising sun
Next time I update will be - from the future! See you all in a few days!!

Current Mood: excited

Just what I want to hear before flying:
A plane crash at Narita, killing two people: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/22/japan.planecrash/index.html

I'm not particularly worried about my flight, but it's not a good environment to get on a plane in.

more Japan prep, and a visitor!
This morning my mother called. My flight back has been changed from business class to regular, which will be less comfortable, but freed up a LOT of frequent flier miles. Enough so that she used them to get a ticket for herself to come visit me! The way the flights worked out I had an extra week in Japan when the program ended, so now I'll be escorting my mother around the country. She definitely wants to go to Kyoto, all other things are yet to be finalized. I don't even know what field trips my program has planned yet, aside from the long one. The only thing that worries me is dragging my two suitcases around Japan, since I hear there is little space on the trains for such items. Other than that, this will be the first time where I know more of the local language than my mother does, so it will be extra fun for me.

I spent most of yesterday assembling clothes and other items for the trip, only to find out that I needed things for my "internship." Last summer I had a uniform, so I didn't have to buy anything extra, but for this I bought some black slacks, a nice short sleeved black blouse top, and some black shoes with no laces. If it can double as a nice outfit, so much the better, less stuff to take to Japan, more room coming back!

Those of you who have gone to Japan before for extended periods of time, how much luggage did you take? Were there any problems getting it around?

Most of this last week will be spent cleaning up a few spots in the house so that they can be used while I'm gone and reviewing Japanese. Being out of school for 3 months has made me a bit rusty!

!
I was doing my usual, relaxing and sitting around, when it really hit me than I will be in JAPAN in less than two weeks. I nearly exploded.

People! If you're currently in Japan, or will be between March 24th and July 19th, let me know! We will make things happen!

The program finally gave me a housing assignment. I'll be living with a couple a little younger than my parents in Chiba. No kids, 2 cats. I am surprised and really happy that they took my request to live in a home with cats seriously. Also included was a link to an online tutorial of "how not to be an ass to your host family and understand that they will expect you to do things but may never tell you that they want you to do them." Anyone that's been on a homestay in Japan before have any advice?

I am somewhat amused it will take 45 minutes to get to school, after living right next to classroom buildings for the last ~3 years. Ah well.

Trying to figure out what luggage to take for 4 months... thinking two suitcases, with a backpack/carryon and a duffel bag inside one of the suitcases to take on overnight trips.

NOT looking forward to a 13 hour flight from Detroit to Narita, blech. I have a horrible time sleeping on airplanes.

I'm also not sure what to think about the temptations of shopping. After doing runs in LA and book-off for a few years, the prospect of Akihabara is scary. Of course, since I'll have no car, I can only get as much as I can carry! That still might not help ^^;

They still haven't sent a finalized calendar, but if the program does the usual thing, there will be a trip to OKINAWA XD

Current Mood: excited

MOAR CHII!
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-02-05/chii-sweet-home-2nd-tv-anime-season-announced

YAY!!!

And ouch, more limited edition R2s to buy... but that too, yay ^^;

Current Mood: ecstatic

Top 15 anime I saw in 2008, part 3
For the few of you kind of waiting on this, sorry for the delay, life got in the way. To everyone else, thank you for the congratulations and support you gave in response to the engagement announcement, it means a lot to me.

And now, the top 5 shows I saw last year are...

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

This is a slightly impersonal way to announce it, but some of you ARE overseas and such..
So, I uh.. got engaged to

davekapp (Cthulhu for you IRC people) today. No wedding details or anything yet. Just lots of love and excitement :D

Current Mood: loved

Top 15 anime I saw in 2008, part two
I spent the better part of today trying to track down a record that I had chicken pox 20 years ago, only to be informed by my mother that she recognized what it was when I got it, and she never took me in and we just dealt with it. So I get to go get the blood test done for it tomorrow. To unwind, here are the next 5 of last year's top 15.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: sleepy

Top 15 anime I saw in 2008, part one
Years ago - 2003 and 2004, I think - I started doing top 10 lists for the year. It was a lot of fun, but then I got lazy and the amount of anime I was watching dipped, so the idea was on hiatus for a couple of years. Normally I would revitalize it with a top 10 again, but... I saw so much awesome stuff this year! Even with 15 there were a lot of titles that had to be left out.

*Note - in this case, saw means "all the way to the end." As many of you know, the endings to shows can really drop the ball at times, and sometimes only the first arc is truly awesome. With that in mind, some of these I started years ago and only now finally finished - or even started!

So! Part 1, #15 - #11

( Read more... )

Current Mood: content

home again
Well, I left the apartment where I lived for 2.5 years, that was a little weird. I'm used to visiting home, but after a week or so of not driving back down there it'll probably get to me more. Anyhow, I think one of my goals for 2009 will be to post to lj more.

I got my grades; I was pleased, but I'm still wondering if it would be too braggy to post them here.

Since I've watched a lot of anime in 2008, early next year I might do some kind of "Top" list.

Not really a lot to say right now, between feverish unpacking and getting ready for trips and Christmas. Hope people are weathering the winter storms.

I need a picture to express how I feel right now

Current Mood: indescribable

It's here!!!
I think there's about 0% chance I won't have cnn stealth on during my Russia class. My Cultural Geography prof is awesome for canceling class.

So yeah, do what you feel is the right thing today.

Advertisement