Wide-eyed

So today I passed out card thingies for the Shack. I was scared out of my wits, but I think I remembered to smile. But doing that kind of thing is good for me, I think. For some reason, I really want to move out of my comfortl zone this semester. I guess I feel like I've been spoon-feeding myself long enough, and it's time to get down to business. Anyway, I realized how little attention I pay to people I pass by every day going to class. People who've seen me pass by can vouch- 9 times out of 10, I honestly can't see or hear you, so calling out to me may result in embarrassment (although I'm getting better with that). I guess I really noticed that there were faces and stories attached to the people I was giving cards to...kinda makes you think.

Also, funny thing. I was talking about how Leviticus is the hardest book of the Bible for me to read...like, I really don't get the point of reading about all these sacrifices and ceremony that didn't seem to apply to my life now, and so on. Anyway, last night my Bible study girls gave me a Welcome Home bag, and in it was the book they had studied last fall while I was away- The Pursuit of Holiness by Jeff Bridges. I had seen it mentioned in the emails I got with prayer requests, and I honestly thought I wouldn't like it very much. You know how it is..."holy" is all well and good in the Bible, but talk about applying that to everyday life and you get visions of grim and strict...old people. But from the first chapter of this book, I was really interested. It's actually a really practical book, and I think I'm going to finish reading it on my own as part of my devotional time. But anyway, what this has to do with Leviticus, yeah. The author included part of Andrew Bonar's commentary on Leviticus in said first chapter...and it was interesting. I couldn't believe it. Then I got one of those weird slow grins I get sometimes, and I said, "You know what? I'm gonna read Leviticus again." I'm gonna look up some commentaries and what not to help me along, and I'm gonna get to it. I mean, it has to be in the Bible for a reason, right? I might as well get something out of it. So that is my goal for a while- to get something out of Leviticus.

Heh heh...wish me luck.

Don't look da da da down...

My mother correctly identified that as my favorite line in Travis' "Love Will Come Through" without me telling her just before I left for college. My mommy knows me so well...hee hee.

I keep starting to write, then stopping. Part of me wants to complain about classes, but there's no point in that. Regardless, I'm gonna do the work and most likely pass, so it's a little silly, not to mention selfish when there's people who struggle a lot more than I do here. There's the word of the day...selfish. I've felt extremely selfish lately. I feel like I have a little more confidence than when I left...I talk a little bit more...I think. (But still not that much...then I wouldn't be Liza, now would I?) But I feel so unsettled sometimes, just cause things are a little different. Everyone I left is the same, more or less (that is, I haven't fallen out with anyone cause of drastic personality changes). Circumstances have just changed, which is natural. I've even had the chance to make new friends, really fast too, which I'm thankful for.

To label my feelings and put a cute little bow on it, concisely: Things have changed. I've changed. I need to re-figure out where I fit in things. That freaks me out a little bit.

There.

Wow...

Elmo's voice is done by a kinda strong looking black guy. I'm watching the guy on an interview right now, and all I can think is, "You know, now that I'm listening closely, Elmo does have some flava..."

I need to go to bed.

I'm good! How are you?

Happy New Year, peoples! Liza is cheerful and ready to do awesome stuff and see this year which is certain to be full of awesome and win.

...And she's starting it off by talking in the third person. Okay, she will stop now.

I feel like I accomplished a lot in 2006, and even if I just do a little more in 2007, I think that'll be great. I don't make New Year's resolutions because I tend to make resolutions all year round...and forget half of them, eh heh heh... Heck, I'm ready to go back to class and tackle those International Business classes. If I can just get through them, I'll have an awesome resume. Trying to figure out transportation...issues, since the only place I frequent that West Quad is close to is...the Strom.

......

But! Today is a good day. Even though it's raining and everything's not perfectly mapped out, it's a good day. Cause it's...life. And I 've still got 11 months of my 20th year of life to celebrate.

Sometimes God reminds me about how wonderful life is, even with all its ups and downs. I remember all the people, places, and things that make me so happy, and I can't help but feel humbled and really thankful to be alive.

Today is one of those days. So I'm gonna enjoy it.

...Cause it sure beats the emo days. Ha ha.

Christmas is five minutes away...

...I'm kinda excited. Mostly sleepy, but excited. Today I actually saw the morning light. Coming back to America totally threw off my sleeping patterns, and I've been wide awake at like 2 and 3 in the morning and sleeping until 12...I'm just now finally sleeping through the night.

Don't have much to say...just wanted to write this down before I forgot. This kid at my home church had a G-Unit hat on, so of course it had a big G on the front. My mom (keep in mind this is the preacher's wife) asked him what the G stood for, and without missing a beat, he says, "Gracious."

...Kids today...they're too smart for their own good.

Boku wa kuma, kuma, kuma, kumaaaa...

When I first heard that song, I was like, "How did such a cutesy song make it to Oricon's [Japanese equivalent of Billboard charts] Top 10 Singles list?" but now I know why, for two reasons:

1. Cause it's Hikki [Utada Hikaru, Liza's favorite Japanese singer and possibly favorite singer, period. And do not ask why Liza is suddenly referring to herself in the third person. She does that sometimes.]. Duh.
2. Cause that crazy song has permanently lodged itself on loop in my brain for no apparent reason.

Yesterday I accidentally carved a hole into my knuckle with my razor. I was putting up stuff and I had the bladed side against my fingers, which in hindsight was really kinda dumb... Anyway, I tripped, the razor scraped, and there goes my dermis. Those things really are sharp, because I literally just scraped my finger and I think I hit a vein. It was kind of funny because I wasn't in much pain at all but I was a little concerned because there was blood dripping down my finger and it wouldn't stop for a few minutes...

Yeah, I can be really clumsy sometimes. And yes, my finger and hand are okay now, although there's a little hole in my knuckle right now.

I'm trying to decide when I'll be coming back to Columbia. Not before the 9th of January, since that's when the dorms open, but probably the Saturday of that week...I dunno yet. I'll be in West Quad this semester...which is kinda difficult when you don't have a car...and you're a business major. And this time I'll have three new roommates who I won't know at all before moving in with them. I find it amusing that not only have I not had the same roommate every year, I did potluck every time. I got along pretty well with my last two roommates...let's hope the third time isn't when my luck finally runs out. :D

Grits is a simple dish, but it has a certain allure...

I don't know why, but I really missed grits in Japan. And I don't even eat grits all that much... Anyway, I got back home yesterday. I was going to write this nice little goodbye post back in Hikone, but the Internet died...again. Alas.

I'm kinda rushed right now since I have to start my day, get my hair done, go shopping ("What do you want on the list, Liza?" "Chicken!" "What kind?" "All kinds!"), unpack, etc... but someday I will write a decent post.

Someday...

...Uh, yeah, this is the title...

I'm at home. It's just like I remember it; not much has changed. I say something stupid and my sister gets mad at me...I feel bad cause I wanted to grow up a little and not make things so difficult at home. But things are good. I go back to my home church and everyone welcomes me back. Then I go back home and make dinner for my family like I used to...

Then I see an airplane land in my yard. I peek out of my front door window in disbelief...then realization hits. "What the- there is no way a frickin' airplane is going to land in front of my house! I'm dreaming, aren't I?!" 9 times out of 10, I either know I'm dreaming or realize it halfway through, so this isn't new to me. As the airplane touches down, I wheel around and storm back to my room, pissed off. I'm mostly pissed off because even though it's finally registered that this is a dream, it still feels so real. ...Yes, even with the airplane in my backyard. Just my luck that this had to be one of my rare, super-clear dreams. "Enough! Wake up, me! This just sucks!" Yes, that was said petulantly in the style of a three-year-old. I was probably pouting too.

I go right to my room and climb into bed, because for some weird reason, if I want to wake up, if I go to sleep in my dream, I'll wake up in real life. I shut my eyes and refuse to move, because as much as I want to go back and stay in this dream a little longer, I know it'll be that much worse when I inevitably wake up. When I open my eyes again and my vision clears, I'm back in my dorm at JCMU. It feels just as real as my dream did, but this...and the last leg of exams...is reality. I feel my heart sink, but I shake it off as best I can and go on through my day. Buying souvenirs/Christmas presents for the fam, studying for my tests, acquiring three new holiday songs (two of which were free and one of which was Ella Fitzgerald's "The Christmas Song", so it was so worth 99 cents, heh)...so I had a good, if normal, day today.

...But that dream really pissed me off. Seriously.

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...

I swear, this is the longest I've ever celebrated my birthday. I started at 12:00 AM Saturday morning, and the festivities are still not over. Today we have cake...because my roomie is the best roomie in the whole wide world (It's cake, man...) She even got the little candy animals and "Tanjoubi Omedetou" sign I'd been having my eye on. And to think I wasn't going to celebrate that much at all...ha ha.

I guess it still feels like my birthday cause the Internet died Saturday afternoon while I was out and didn't get back up until Monday morning, so I'm still answering all the people who wrote on my Facebook wall. I figured since I've been so lax in letting people know I'm still alive while I've been in Japan (or been in college, in some cases), now's a good opportunity to at least say hi. So if you wrote me Happy Birthday, expect at least a "thank you" in the next few days.


I ended up doing some traveling on my birthday after all. Pretty much, I woke up, started on my studying, then said, "Screw this. It's my birthday. It's my birthday in frickin' Japan! I'm going to Kyoto! Yarr!" (Well, okay, I didn't say "yarr", but you get the picture.)

So I ate at the ramen shop down the road and hopped a train to Kyoto. I decided to go to Arashiyama this time, which is in the western part of Kyoto. It's got a kinda old-school feel to it, and there are kouyou (ridiculously red leaves) everywhere this time of year. Arashiyama is famous for them. It's pretty much the end of the season, so the leaves are falling, but I still got to see some spectacular scenery. As the sun was setting, I took a sightseeing train through the mountains by this beautiful river...it was gorgeous. Hiking from the sightseeing train station to the JR station in the cold wasn't so fun, but there was the orangest sunset I have ever seen, so I didn't really think about it. Fall is my favorite time of year, and the changing leaves are my favorite thing about it, plus I adore sunsets, so I was really thankful for that day. It was definitely a very awesome birthday.

One more thing- I bought some tinted lip balm here (Nivea, by the way...I didn't know they made lip care stuff...). What better way to add to my extensive lip balm/gloss collection (and feed my fetish) than to buy Japanese lip balm...? (Doesn't matter if I could probably buy something very close to it back in the States...it's Japanese.) I really like the subtle pink tint it gives my lips, and it moisturizes oh so well (which is sometimes hard to find in lip balms). But the best thing is definitely the name. Watering Lip- Pink Veil. Yes, it's in Engrish.

...I love Japan.

Melon bread is good...but warm melon bread is full of win and awesome.

Remember that. It's a very important fact.

I went to see little kids (1st and 2nd graders) at this elementary school Friday...and I have pictures. Only because they're actually on my computer because the nice vice-principal gave us a CD. Ahem. Anyway...

This is me playing jan-ken-pon with a student. (Jan-ken-pon= rock-paper-scissors.) They put the kids in line and they each got a chance to play with one of us.


This is my profile pic on Facebook right now...we're still playing jan-ken-pon, even though you can't see our hands that well.



The kids sang and danced for us. Here is some sort of traditional dance, I think...sort of. (I love how that one kid's really feeling it.)



This time of year, many towns hold Autumn festivals, where they hold parades. Yesterday, the kids had their own mini-Autumn festival. People carry Shinto shrines through the streets, and the kids made their own version (that's what I'm holding up with Carl here). We marched around the gym a few times, yelling something (it started with a w...I think.)

Ah, the jan-ken-pon train...that was...interesting. Basically you play jan-ken-pon, and whoever loses gets behind the winner. So your train gets longer and longer, and the person at the front of the huge line in the end is like the jan-ken-pon master or something. Playing this with 50 hyper kids...you can imagine the pandemonium. But it was really fun.



"I want that one." Caught me right in mid-point, lol. Some of the students pressed flowers, and we got to pick out one. They put it on a small card and we could decorate it and take it home. I really like my little yellow flower. We also got some other small presents, like a hand-drawn panda and what I think is a paper cow. And leaves...they kept giving me leaves. I have the biggest brown leaf ever sitting in my room right now. All in all, I had a great time. It made me feel better after a not-so-stellar week academically. I think I'm just in a dummy slump. My brain's just burned out for the moment. It'll pass.

Found my alien registration card. That made me very happy. Mostly cause I kinda need it to get out of the country...eh heh heh.

I hate technology, but not as much as Jennifer...

I was thinking about Napoleon Dynamite when I wrote that. So we finally got a LAN system for the Internet, yay...

...but my network card has died. Boo. No Internet for me, unless I use the computer room...

My sister has it worse than me, though. She took her computer to the tech people at her school, and they basically told her her hard drive was slowly dying and she needed to back up all her stuff as soon as possible.

.....

I am glad I at least have the Internet now, even though I`d rather use my own computer. I can still blog and stuff, along with keeping up with my online classes. Speaking of...I got a 95 on my midterm in my business class. Yay...I haven`t seen a 90-something in too long.

My birthday`s in... *counts on fingers* ...three weeks. Three weeks from today, actually. (Today being Saturday afternoon for me). I haven`t decided whether I`m actually doing something for my birthday this year...I kinda don`t feel much like celebrating it right now. I guess I already gave myself a huge present by going to Tokyo, and I know that nothing else I could do could come close to topping that. Maybe I`ll buy myself a JJ (stylish college girl magazine) for research purposes and buy a cute outfit. I`m thinking about baking a cake in one of the community ovens (the only ones big enough), but we`ll see. I`m thinking a lot about Christmas, and home...I`m not terribly homesick, but I think of all the reunions I`ll have and I smile big.

The most wonderful time of the year...?

Japan is trying to force Christmas on me.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I adore Christmas. The Christmas season is my absolute favorite time of year, where there's warm homes and warm hearts, hot cocoa and singing Christmas carols with the people you love. I really believe that because it's coming to the time we celebrate Jesus' birth, people 's hearts begin to warm, Christian or not. That's what I love most about it.

However...it started about two days before Halloween. I walked into Beisia and I saw...a Christmas display. I ignored it. I walked away. "No, it's not even Halloween yet..." I mean, they had a Halloween display up too in the front, but...

It only got worse once Halloween was out of the way. It started creeping up on me slowly...a placard advertising Christmas cakes (which are really pretty but frickin' expensive here), the occasional Christmas display in stores in Kyoto and Tokyo...that Christina Aguilera Christmas song playing in Beisia...

I knew it was over when I went to Beisia today and I heard "This Christmas" over the speakers. A J-Pop, very Engrish "This Christmas". I have given up. I am officially bringing out my Christmas music and looking for a modest wreath to stick on my door.

...It's gonna be kinda awkward when it gets to Thanksgiving. (We're having a dinner here at JCMU, but most Japanese don't celebrate it, of course.)

[Totally unrelated: I like to buy things here that I will probably never see in the US...like Pepsi Gold. I don't think America is ready for a Pepsi that looks like pee.

....Then again, there's Red Bull...]

Yes, I'm okay.

For those who have been keeping tabs on me, yes, I went to Tokyo today. Yes, I'm back at JCMU in one piece. Exhausted, but in one piece. I officially dub my excursion the "Turbo Tokyo Trip"- you really weren't meant to visit Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku all in one day...and I had to cut some stuff out, but I saw everything I really wanted to.

-In Shinjuku, I finally got to eat at a Mos Burger. It's a frou frou burger/frou frou coffee shop. (I had a teriyaki burger and a cafe latte...hee hee hee.) I also went to a garden and saw lots of crysanthemums and lily pads as big as half of me...no joke.
-In Shibuya, I got to see Hachiko (famous dog statue), I went to Tower Records (which is huge and has seven floors; used to be the biggest in the world), and I got to be part of the famous Shibuya pedestrian pandemonium not once, but two times. (At the intersection in front of the station, the traffic signal will occasionally make a four-way stop and this huge mass of people will just start walking really fast in all directions...it's crazy).
-In Harajuku, I saw all these really cool, trendily (is that a word?) dressed high school kids...I kinda felt under-dressed. They had the most awesome shops and at least two malls...but I can't even afford the stuff they sell out of a trailer set up on the street in Harajuku...literally. I also went to this art museum stuck randomly in front of Laforet...but it was really cool. I got a poster with some of the woodblock paintings reproduced on it. Then I saw a procession on the street. There were women singing and some Buddhist monks hitting a drum...they were protesting war (I suppose the war in Iraq). A couple of guys got really mad and started yelling, and at least one of them got arrested. Everyone was just kinda shocked, since this happened right in front of Harajuku Station...anyway, you know the drill. Someday I will post pictures, etc.

But right now, my brain has just exploded, so if you'll excuse me, I need to go clean that up...

What have I created...?

So I haven't really made American food since I got here...when I do cook, I make Japanese dishes cause it's easier to find the ingredients. Anyway, today I decided I was going to make buffalo wings. I had to fry instead of bake the chicken because we have a piddly-small oven that shouldn't even be called an oven cause there's no way in Hades you could cook anything in that...anyway. That went well. Making the sauce went well also (hey, it was just hot sauce and margarine. Strangely, spreadable margarine is cheaper than stick margarine here...) It's just that there's only two kinds of hot sauce in Besia: Tabasco (Tabasco is even served in Western-style restaurants) and Louisiana habanero hot sauce. I figured Tabasco would probably be a bad idea, so I got the Louisiana. I eat the regular kind all the time, and I knew habanero would be spicier than that, but I didn't realize how spicy. I mean, I've been putting small amounts in my curry since I got here, so I didn't think it'd be a problem.

So I finished, and it looked all pretty and smelled good...

...And then I took a bite out of one.

Let me explain. I don't exactly eat jalapeno peppers like pickles, but I think I have a pretty high tolerance for spicy food. I thought two things at once: "Wow, this tastes really good" and "Aaaah! My mouth's being ripped off my face!!" Five minutes later, my mouth was still burning. Apple juice was the only thing that could ease the pain. I just had to sit still at my little table for a while to recover, taking deep breaths like I had been through some kind of battle. "Those are the devil's wings..." I thought.

"....But you know, that was pretty good. I want another one."

...Like I said, they were really good, after all.

Various and sundry pictures (finally)

So, sometime ago I went to Hikone Castle. (Was it three weeks ago? A month? Meh...) Without any further ado, here are the pictures.



This is the gate you walk through as you go towards the outer moat and the road that will take you to Hikone Castle. The outer moat circles the center of Hikone, and Shiga University is on the other side of it.



This is a memorial marker for a nobleman who lived here. He was like the 14th of 17 children or something...talk about getting the short end of the stick. His house is behind the marker, and you can see part of it in the picture.




This is just cause I like Shiga Prefecture's mascot. You go, cute little white samurai kitty-thingy. At least, I think it's a kitty thingy. Since it's got whiskers.





This is some of the (many) steps that go up to the castle. The steps are purposely rough and uneven so you have to concentrate on your steps. One of the many tactical maneuvers that went into building the castle.

(By the way, that's the tour guide and the back of Dr. Meier, our resident director's, head. Dr. Meier looks a whole lot like Colonel Sanders. I kid you not.)




The bridge that goes not quite to the actual castle. It goes at an angle so that you can't see directly in front of you and people can hide and attack. That's smart...


The castle, at last. It was smaller than I thought it'd be, but it's pretty, isn't it?



Yay, pretty little Japanese garden next to the castle. Several parts of the garden were inspired by several beautiful views in China. This is one of them.




Sign in the top floor of the castle. When I asked the tour guide what it meant, she explained that it says that in case of fire, you should tie the ladder stored around here around one of the posts and climb out of the window.

....Bit too extreme sight-seeing for me.




Oh, this was cool. This is actually a picture of the roof. You can see a tiny little stage here. The nobility could watch performances from here. A ninja could also hide out here in case of attack and totally pwn you. Really, that's what our tour guide said, paraphrased.

...That's so cool....



Finally, I leave you with the stairs of doom. There were two sets of stairs inside the castle that were more like ladders. It was crazy. I wanted to get a picture of people coming down these stairs so you can see just how steep it is.

Next time, moon-viewing festival. And I went to Shiga University Friday, so I have a few pictures from that too.

Fun, Fun, Fun

I just got back from a moon-viewing festival in Kyoto...it was awesome. But stupid me didn't bring my camera...ugh. Anyway, I'll probably write an in-depth post tomorrow, but I'm super-sleepy now. As a preview of that, I just want to say I successfully rode the train and bus to Daikakuji, but somewhere on the train getting back, something went very wrong. And some time later...

"What the heck are we doing in Osaka?! Waah!"

Yeah... if you take the super rapid service train, Osaka is thirty minutes away from Kyoto...

In the other direction.

And yes, I will post the pictures of Hikone Castle...sometime.

I hope.

YATTA!

(Japanese exclamation of delight)

I got my test back today, and I got a 89.65. Very, very close to a 90...I was so happy.

Plus, I also got my debit card today, and it works! Now I'm officially an independent ryuugakusei (student studying abroad).

Today is a good day.

Daisuuuki Sunday Morning...

There's a song on Utada Hikaru's CD Ultra Blue called "Nichiyou no Asa" [Sunday Morning]. That song has been stuck in my head for the past day and a half, but that's a good thing. I like how in the pre-hook, above some tranquil vocalizing, Hikki says what I guess are things she loves in English. "Cloudy morning, ice cream toppings, music's playing... High street shopping, chocolate cravings, baby's crying." (You have to wonder if the babies crying may point to something sinister under the surface, but anyway... *whistles*) I found myself singing the first line of the first verse just now. "Daisuki [I love] Sunday morning..." Then I realized it was Sunday morning (for me, anyway) and I started laughing.

Cause the truth is, I really do love Sunday morning.

.... *twiddles fingers*

Yeah...yesterday I was totally zoned out...like all day...

...And then the Internet died...

Anyway! Pictures, yes?





This is my ikebana (flower arrangement) project. ...It looked a whole lot better in the academic building, but oh, well... It was really cool, cause we had these ceramic pots and you put a little spiked thingy in there and impaled the flower stalks on them...And then you had to put the big green background things so they made a triangle no matter what angle you looked at them from, and you had to think about the center flower and the complimenting flowers. As the week went by, my flowers bloomed, and the look of my arrangement shifted naturally. It was really cool...


Tea ceremony- really interesting, but murder on your legs if you're not used to sitting seiza (like our hostess is in this picture, with your legs tucked under you). This is the tatami room inside the academic building. The floor is very delicate, so we can't even wear slippers in here, and we use it only for special things like the tea ceremony.





...The flash made this stuff look radioactive or something... Anyway, this is called matcha. It's a fine powder made from ground-up green tea leaves. You mix this up with hot water to make the tea for the ceremony. (You can also go to Starbucks and get this mixed up with ice, milk, and sugar to get an awesome blended Frappucino...one of the things I will truly miss about Japan...sigh. But I digress.)




Behold the instruments of the tea ceremony! Only the hostess has to worry about these things, and we just have the tea served to us. But, the little tiny ladle thing is to spoon out the matcha (you can see a little bit of it still on the tip), the thing that looks like a whisk is to stir it (you really have to stir fast, like you were beating an egg), and the cloth is to clean the cup.




Oh, and this is just our uber-cool rock garden. Just wanted to share that.

Next time: the buttload of pictures from Hikone-jo (Hikone Castle).

Yeah, I know I keep saying it, but...

...pictures will be later. Definitely today, but later.

I just wanted to say I may have found my birthday present this year. It'll be a month early but...

JCMU will reimburse us for about $60 USD if we go on a student-directed field trip. We can go anywhere we want as long as we go to three or four places of cultural/historical significance.

...I want to go to Tokyo. I could so take a train and go to Tokyo.

Of course, it would cost about $240 USD for the train there and back...a bus wouldn't be that much better, and it'd take even longer. So I don't know, but I'm seriously considering it. At least I get a $60 discount if I do it through the school. I've been playing around with an itinerary (I might not get to do everything, but...):

-Take the train from Hikone Station with three connections to Harajuku Station
-Visit Takeshita Dori (super-chic shopping street) and Laforet Harajuku (seven-stories high mall skyscraper, probably the inspiration for Gwen Stefani's song "Harajuku Girls")
-Visit Meiji Jingu (Shinto shrine), and the Ota Memorial Museum of Art (traditional Japanese paintings), take a walk down Omote-sando Avenue to see the awesome greenery there
-Visit Yoyogi Park (the site of the first Japanese powered aircraft flight and now a good place for people-watching) and NHK Studio Park (where, if you're lucky, you can even see a show being taped and meet your favorite Japanese TV celebrities)
-Walk along Koen Dori (another chic shopping street) before catching the train back with three connections to Hikone from Shibuya Station


So yeah...besides the "I could get lost so easily" factor, it'll cost at least $249 just to get there (train and admission to the art museum and NHK Studio Park). Not to mention that Tokyo food is expensive and I'll probably end up buying at least one souvenir... Oh, well. Even if I don't end up going to Tokyo, I'm definitely going to take advantage of this reimbursement thing. I'm gonna go somewhere cool...hee hee.