あけましておめでとう!!

..aka Happy New Years everyone! This past year has been absolutely amazing and full of adventures! And to think just a year ago I was about to get engaged..So much has happened and we sure have come a long way haven't we? We have come so far that I am now able to get Trav to eat....are you ready for this Momma Jenkins?? Its gonna completely blow you away!! OK here goes...I am now able to get Trav to eat TOFU! Yes, it was actual Tofu, and no I did not have to force feed him or drug him beforehand..I didn't even have to bribe him! 

Although now that I look at the pic, he does kinda look drugged out! ｏ(≧∇≦*ｏ)
But we tried our hand at making a Sukiyaki/Nabe type dish for New Year's Eve..We have a great recipe for Sukiyaki (<3 you LORI!!!) but unfortunately the price of pork was up three fold for the new years so we had to make do with this weird ground up chicken dango (dumpling) thingie..They were pretty good but not nearly as good as the sliced pork! And there was tofu in this dish!! Now I can mark "getting my hubby to eat tofu" off my list of wifely duties! ヾ(●⌒∇⌒●)ﾉやった！
 So a few days ago Trav and I met up with our friend Alex who is also studying abroad through the CSU program in South Korea. We took her to Odaiba which is that island right behind our apartment that we've been talking about..we had lots of fun shopping around and of course, took some pics!!

 Words cannot express the awesome perfectness of this pic...

 Perhaps a change in career choices??

 Looks like they still don't have spell check on their word processors..XD Maybe I will be needed here after I graduate!!

Rainbow Bridge

 This was an ad in the girl's bathroom at the Odaiba train station..Im not sure wtf is going on in this pic to be honest..The Japanese phrase literally translates as "Be careful not to forget to shit"...Great advice Japan, great advice...

Yes their names are "Lubey", "Pokey" and "Ribber" and yes, this is an actual display window on a busy boardwalk..

 Tokyo Tower..I always find it so pretty even though I see it everyday...Well that's all the updates for now..Trav and I got our cold soba noodles to eat tonight (a Japanese tradition on New Year's Eve) and of course some champagne for midnight! We were gonna bundle up and try and find a local temple to ring in the new year at (literally speaking..they usually will ring a giant bell 108 times at midnight..Hope no one nearby has to work tomorrow!) but then we found out that Tokyo Tower has its own thing going on at midnight and so we might just watch from our balcony, where we can easily escape the cold! But I hope everyone has an amazing and safe New Years..We are always thinking about you guys and miss you all like crazy!
but before I leave, I thought I'd post this pic of the most epic hat in the world:

A KITTY BEANIE!! I dunno how I survived this long without one..Thank you Lori!!!!!
(=^. .^=)ﾐｬｰ <3 <3

Merry xmas everyone!

We may not be with our families this year but they still made our xmas a memorable one! Thank you everyone for the amazing gifts and treats! It is definitely tough being away from you all, especially this time of year, but you have definitely helped battle the loneliness. We should be giving you all some awesome updates in the near future as we have a very busy next few months coming up (esp. FEB!!)..We have Kabuki (type of Japanese Theatre) in Jan, an Okinawa and Hokkaido trip in Feb along with Lori and her bf Nick coming out to visit us for a week (WOOT WOOT), and we finally end our 2 month spring vacation in Hiroshima and Kyoto..As my fam might remember, Kyoto was where I lived for two months with Amanda house sitting for Sherry...Can't wait to visit there again as I absolutely loved Kyoto!!! Oh and as long as I can make it through the practices, I will be gracing you all with another humorous koto performance in April..This is gonna be quite interesting cause although I will have had 4 months to prepare for this concert instead of 1 month, the song is infinitely harder and at the moment, looking quite impossible for a beginner to master! But they seem to have faith in us so we will give it all we got!!! (つ^_^)つ頑張るよ〜〜〜
and now it's time for Trav and I to end our quiet and cozy xmas in Japan..Love you all!!

The CSU Christmas Party

A Christmas Party in Japan, it was really hard to know what to expect, especially since we were having it at a mexican restaurant in a country where 95% of people don't know what mexican food is and the ingredients to make it are almost non-existant. 

But i must say we had a lot of fun, even though the food was anything but authentic. i.e Chips and Chili instead of salsa, and a ricotta cheese quesadilla .... italian food? Ect. Ect. but hey how picky can you be when there is only one restraint to choose from.

Though the food wasn't the best Lee, myself, and the other 30 or so members of our group did enjoy bottomless margaritas.

..... Some More Than Others

Lee was on a mission to find the bottom of these bottomless margaritas along with our resident director who proved she could become a 2o something year old when needed.

As you can see we all had a lot of fun, especially since this is the last dinner with the group for some and for others like us it was a chance to have christmas with our "family" away from home. And for Leanna a chance to dress like she still worked at Rexall during the holidays.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Leanna's Koto Concert

Christmas Lights in Ebisu

So Lee, Jessie, and I decided to go to Ebisu Garden Place to check out their famous illumination display.

It was absolutely amazing considering Japan doesn't technically celebrate Christmas

Lee was so excited that this was a real Christmas tree that she kept picking pieces off to smell haha

At the end of the display was the huge and ridiculously well guarded crystal chandelier. Mom would have loved it.

She also would have loved this large Victorian mansion right at the top of the garden. 

It definitely put us into the holiday spirit.
But we miss you all very much.

I totally did this in reverse!

So Trav and I, being the horrible tourists that we are, forgot to bring our camera during Thanksgiving dinner and have had to rely on our friends to get pics to us..But here they are! Even if they are a little late...The dinner was definitely nothing like what we get at home but it was still a very fun night with all our illegitimate CSU brothers and sisters and our Japanese host parents:

We had the whole upstairs to ourselves..but with 25 of us, it kinda looked like a mob..

We were at the head of the table, which makes sense considering we've been dubbed the unofficial parents of everyone..

Trav actually ate this salad...and ENJOYED IT! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Ya that's stuffing to the left....*dies*

It was technically "pumpkin bread pudding" but desperate times call for desperate measures!

*pukes rainbows*

Yes that's a Reese's cup on the table..I think we were more excited for those than for the dinner!

The restaurant where we had Thanksgiving dinner...The restaurant is located in a renovated house in the residential area of Shibuya..

In other news, we are just a week and a half away from the Utada Hikaru concert and I've almost completely regressed back into my fangirl phase (my parents remember that fondly I'm sure)!! Oh and my Koto concert is just 2 weeks away as well..Im kinda dreading this concert though as I think its gonna take a miracle for me to be able to play without messing up...Especially since I now have to sing in my song and my voice could be comparable to a dying cat..Time to scoop up some 5 yen coins and head over to the temple to pray for some type of divine intervention! But if worst comes to worst, you'll all get a hilarious video of me looking like a deer in headlights as I lose my place during the song >_<

oh and this got posted on facebook but not on here...These are just some pics Trav and I took out by our apartment..The leaves are finally changing color in Tokyo and as you can see, that whole thing about Tokyo just being concrete is a complete lie!!!!

Oh and there's more! Our little pissing statue has been all pimped out in festive xmas clothes!!

Yes, Rudolph is a kitty!!!! *LOVES*

Add caption

haha first thing I spot in this pic...JAPANESE TRAIN!!!

There was a giant group of ppl getting off the train when Trav took the pic...AWKWARD! 

and finally..I leave you with this amazing little "engrish" gem that I found while in "korean town"..Is it horrible that I still lmao everytime I see one of these signs??? You'd think after 7 years of knowing about the whole Engrish phenomena it'd get old....guess not!!! XD

so is a "department sotre" different than a "department store"?? XD

おやすみ！いつも考えている。。。

Thanksgiving is over so that means....

Its officially xmas over here at the Jenkins compound - Tokyo Branch =) We got an awesome care package from the Momma and after gorging ourselves with costco tortillas, we have decorated the apartment in true American style ^_^ Here's a little video I made for everyone..Trav was totally being camera shy though...boooooo! \(>o<)/

We hope everyone is having a great holiday..We miss you all soo much!
<3 <3 <3 <3

LEE IS ONE HAPPY MUFFIN!

So there are some things that will cause me to dance around my apartment room like an obsessed little fangirl.....and one of these things is WINNING UTADA HIKARU TICKETS!!! Yes, I won the ticket lottery to her final show before she goes on her indefinite hiatus..I'm soo happy I'm getting to do this cause, as I've said before, she is what sparked this whole endeavor. She's  been a huge inspiration to me for the past 7 years so this will be a great way to see her off..
I am also one lucky cookie as I will have gotten the chance to see her in concert twice in one year (sorry Japanese fans!)..A lot of you already know who she is but if you don't, she is one of the highest selling artists of all time in Japan and has broken many music records here..Getting tickets to see her live in Japan has been so difficult (unless once again, ur a lucky cookie like me)  that a lot of her Japanese fans have actually flown to America in the past just to go to her concert...I probably owe this awesome stroke of luck to my hubby who always seems to have all the luck (^_^)
So in celebration of this, and if you are really bored and wanna hear her newest and final single..then CLICK THE LINK (the music video is so cute I could puke rainbows)!!!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfpX8lkaSdk

lol I should probably warn you its a tribute video to her fans so there's a lot of inside references to her music career and fanmade stuff (hence the randomness) ..Sometimes it's hard to believe that she's richer than most people in Japan!  (^_^)

THOUGHT DAD COULD USE THESE FOR HIS RETIREMENT PICTURES

The firefighters here in Tokyo have a sense of humor after all.

Wasedasai

This last weekend Leanna and I went to Wasedasai, a festival our school throws every year and is possibly the most widely advertised this our school does. Here in Japan every school has a festival and for all intents and purposes it is how your school is judged. Waseda, being as well known as it is, has famous bands perform, enormous amounts of food and stage entertainment, as well as some of the weirdest clubs and costumes you will see anywhere. I uploaded our photos from the event in a slide show below for you to enjoy. The event goes on for two whole days and somewhere over 50,000 people attend. Each of the schools over 500 clubs set up a both or perform live for the people attending and allows them to gain funding for their clubs. Since the clubs funding is on the line you are bombarded by students trying to get you to visit their club booth and buy their food or buy tickets to their performance as soon as you step on campus, which in such a large crowd, is extremely hectic. However some of the hilarious things we saw made this totally worth is. I hope you enjoy a few of the videos we took as well as the slide show below.

MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!

So courtesy of my loving family Mexican food has been restored to my diet tonight, and as you can see i was quite happy about this. Tonight the package my family sent containing all sorts of Mexican food including Tapatio hot sauce which is worth more than gold here in Japan arrived. Since lee was feeling sick i took the opportunity to make a massive pot of shredded chicken burritos with onions, peppers, chillies, ect. I then drowned it all in Tapatio and had the best meal EVER!!! Also i found glass bottled Pepsi at the foreign market today to make the meal even more Mexican. Since i am now on the verge of a food coma i think i will go lay down. Night.

cheesecake, purikura and tiny xmas trees!

hey everyone! There has been so much going on but we're finally getting a much needed break from school this week! Im not sure where to begin on the updates so I'll just post some pics for everyone! I had a great bday in Machida with my friend Gabbi:

ya that would be the tacky tableware of a TGI Fridays..But when you've been deprived of death-caloric American food, even TGI Fridays tastes amazing! I won't lie though, the TGIs here are sooo much better than in America and our birthday dessert was awesome! It was apple cinnamon strudel cheesecake aka apple pie cheesecake style =) 
It also seems like all Americans go through the purikura addiction whenever they come to Japan. We just cant resist a cheap photo shoot that makes our eyes huge and allows you to digitally add a bunch of random but cute images into your photo!!

After we satisfied our purikura addiction, we headed over to the UFO machines to see what useless items we could spend too much money on winning. If you've never seen a UFO machine in Japan, they are basically claw machines on crazy Japanese technological steroids...They look tough but are surprisingly fair as you can actually win things without going broke! Trav and I are pros at these machines and I managed to get this year's xmas tree in one try! 

You may think its small, but we think it's perfectly sized for our apartment =) I wanna try and get a pic of the crazy machines these are in but photos in the arcades are strictly forbidden and this rule is ardently enforced by the staff..I'd try and sneak a pic but unfortunately  I have too much pride to be caught pulling a classic gaijin tourist move(damn my pride!!) (^_^) and now Im gonna go chase down the yakiimo truck that's been slowly circling my street! Where America has Ice Cream trucks, Japan has Yakiimo Trucks aka Roasted Sweet Potato Trucks..The differences: well aside from the food item, in America the ice cream trucks play an upbeat, childish melody to announce their arrival whereas in Japan, the Yakiimo trucks play this haunting, funeral like melody that almost sounds like a buddhist chant..I'll try and get a video for you all! In America I can't stand sweet potatoes without loads of brown sugar and marshmallows on them (as both my fam and Trav's fam knows ^_^) but the sweet potatoes here are yellow and taste completely different...and are absolutely amazing with just a little butter (sorry orange American potatoes)...

おやすみ！！！！

EDIT: well I missed the sweet potato truck but he'll be back!! And speaking of sweet potatoes, Trav and I actually went to a sweet potato festival with our friend Jessie:

 















It was pouring when we went but it was still lots of fun, and this is where I discovered I actually like Japanese sweet potatoes!! The festival was at a temple in Meguro and as you can see, the area was gorgeous! I was curious to see just how many different ways a sweet potato could be prepared and the number is surprising! They had all sorts of sweet potato snacks, my favorite being honeyed sweet potato on a stick! sooooo good!  ohhhh I hear the truck again! love you all!!!