Annalisa's blog and cupcake cafe

Haruyasumi

2008-03-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

So its been awhile. I'M gonna apologize beforehand for my absurdly horrendous spelling and grammer and ridiculously limited vocbularly. thanks =)
So I'm now on my 5th family, I'll be with this one until the first of april(april fools day) and then i will make hopefully the final switch to my 6th host family. Last weeekend we had meeting with all the other exchange students in kansai, there are alot of americans this year, almost half are from the US or Canada. We went and some stuff south of osaka, an educatinal trip about ancient burial mounds, the actual activites themseleves were kinda boring, it was another tour bus excursion, everyone was more interested in talking to all the the other exchange studeents and sharing stories.
I mentioned tour bus excursions earlier. I don'T remember if i stated my hate of them yet, welll, I hate them, i really think it'S sso boringgetting on a bus for six hours, getting off for half an hour, taking the same photo as everyone else who has been there before you, buying the same over priced souviner as everyone else and then getting back on the bus for another 4 hours, going to a hotel in the middle of nowhere, eatingin the same thing is the same as everyone else in the hotel, then getting back on the bus the next morning at like 5am and doing it all over again, and then after it'S done, you pay for an over priced group photo with a bunch of people you don'T know who were on the bus tour with you. I really loathe bus tours but japanese poeple love them, i don't get it...wheres the adventure? the fun? the discovery?
So right now I7m on spring vacation, the four week break inbetween school years, starting April 7th I'll be a 3rd year, a senior in japanese high school...THough when i get back to the US i still a bunch of things to make up...like the ACT....oh lord....and math...and then theres the whole thing of applying for college...but i'M trying to make the most fo this. I'm trying to get as many credits as i can here, and I'm also researching colleges in my free time, I'm proabably going to study abroad more in college, but not in japan, somewhere new.
so, thats about it for now. The value of the dollar is dropping quickly against the yen, a few weeks ago it was 113 yen to a dollar, now it'S about 98 yen to a dollar, oh thank you mr.bush for killing the dollar =)(note my sarcasm). maney is going to be tight soon, wich is bad cause I was planning on going to a concert at the beging of april with some of my school friends and buying a nice new facy japanese video camera, far better than anything availiable in the US.
well, peace out for now.

News...

2008-02-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

So, stuff is happening
So, as i mentioned before, they wanted to move me. Apparently someone in rotary thought i wasn'T doing so well at that families house because i kept getting sick and was kinda hiding away all the time. But i have a new family, and things are better now. I'm not so sick anymore, I spend more time with my friends from school, I'm learning more japanese becasue this family only speaks japnese with, wich is good, the last familiy always wanted to practice their english with so i never got to speak japanese. SO my new family...lives in a temple, well more accuratly, their house is attched to a temple they take care of. and my host father is a monk, and every morning he gets in his monk kimono robe and sandels and such and get on his motor scooter and rides off to run errands, it's quite an intersting sight to see.
also, the english speech contest at my school. Since i already speak english as my mother tounge i get to do a speech in japanese...fun...So i've been conduting this big survey project and such on american and japanese teens, on things like adulthood and getting a job and importance of apperence. I've gotten alot of intersting results from bolth sides, i'll put up the results in awhile. But i have to do it all in japanses, lots of difficult japanese, with lots of long words...
Also, two weeks ago we met the new exchage student from australia. Her names Katie and she pretty cool. BUt not as cool as my beloved Forest Wookie kaeti back home.
So i was gonna type something about anime and stuff but i forgot and I'm running out of time. So our school festival is coming up in April, I'm part of the cosplay exihbit, yay! i get to be cosplay nerd again! So I got stcuk with a haruhi cosplay, wich isn'T bad, actually it'S great. though this is serious buiness, each student has to spend the equivalent of $300 US on their costume, or at leats thats what the girl orgamnizing the event says...
so more stuff later. Also osaka punk spring comin' up in april, super excited for that.

A need to rant

2008-02-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

so heres my rant
So the other day I was working on a project for the speech contest, and one of the english teachers from the U.S. at my school came and confronted me about the fact i don't spend alot of time with my clasmatess. Well, I have a private scedule, with all private classes (with the exception of art, gym, and computer graphics), so obviously i don't see them in class. And at lunch, a couple kids invited to eat a few times, but they stopped after awhile. And honestly, I find the majority of my classmates too immature and materialistic to relate with on a similar level. I don't care about the purikura you did this weeknd or the newest line of Louis Vuttion handbags. And these are the things they talk about, even amongst themsleves not just with the forien girl and her basic japanese.and for the record, i find louis vuttion's merchendise tacky and kinda ugly, and rediculously overpriced.If only i could communitcate　theses things with them with them we might have a slightly less shallow conversation...I have been studying like crazy, I can understand the television and movies, and almost all what i hear around me and what people say to me.I can read all the hira and kata and i know alot of kanji, but when it comes to actually speaking japanese...thats where i have trouble, when someone says something to me, i can'T find the words, all the japanese i learned just slips out of my mind and I can'T reply except in really broken basic sentences.I understand but I have no idea how to reply or how to say it.
I only have one friend really at school, keiko, shes really smart and speaks excellent english, and is studying swedish and a couple other laguages. shes studying to become an interprter for the U.N. Shes also way into all the same music, clothes, hobbies as me. MCR FOREVER!

So back home, apparently it'S been snowing like mad. Like 4 feet(like 120 centimeters) in the past two days. and snow days. I am super jealous, i should be up at purgatory shredding up the mountain...I miss skiing. and snow.but not shoveling it. XP
Happy Snowdown Everyone, and Happy Shoveling.
ahaha.
still the irony, the year i leave, is the year we have the first real colorado winter in 10 years, and snow days! ack!

おさしぶりですな！？

2008-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

So, yeh i fianally got off my lazy ass(figure of speech, seeing as i am currently sitting down) and decided to blog again...
so lots of stuff and nothing at all has ahppened, lots of little things but nothing really signifigant, but I'll just tell ya'll anyways starting where i left off in my last blog, sorry if i wrote any of this stuff already.
So i belive i left off from teh Dir en Grey concert(my neck finally stopped hurting from the mosh...). so, lets see, next thing that happened...Christmas party! The rotex students had this christmas party with the curent inbound exchange students, the kids going abroad next year, and the kids who went abroad last year and the year before. There was pizza, weird japanese pizza, wich i am not going to talk about becasue japanese pretty much fails in all aspects of pizza. Also we had to have costumes or some sort of fun mask or hat, I wore cats ears, typical annalisa. Will and Alan dressed up as each other, that was amusing. and some japanese boy wore a little santa lingire dress, that was also amusing XD.
oh photo time:
lingire boy santa

will(dressed as alan) with mario, the crazy hungarian kid in the bunny ears

so what was the next thing that happened after that...oh yeh alan and will went back to australia and south africa. that was sad.

next...christmas....dosn't really happen in japan.....we went for karaoke and that was about it.
new years, i stayed up(well not really seeing as my avergae bed time for the past two years has been around 1 or 2 am) with my host siters and watched some new years special TV programme.
After new years, me and my host mother went on an overnight trip to fukui. not much there except snow and nuclear power plants and the ocean. it was cold. very very cold. but here s pcture anyways! yay!

not much after that basically just school.
oh yeh on sunday we went to Inari, it'S that place in Kyoto with all the vermillion toris(orange gate thingies) that you'll proably recognize from memoires of a geisha. there were so many of thoes gate things, they just seemed to be endless paths of them...going on and on.....more pictures, yay!

so not too much else goin' on, I7m movign next week, but other than that, nothing really....
if you want to see more photos visit my myspace galleries

RECENTLY/CURRENTLY:
mood: bored, as usual
LIstening to: Three Days Grace-Animal I have Become and Fall Out Boy- Grand Theft Autum (bolth with the volume and bass turned up way too loud <3 <3 <3 i love my music)
Watching: Kanon (2006 Remake)
Eating: pizza toast, it'S easy quick and fuels my need for cheese and carbs <3
Playing: in desperate need of video games, someone send me an emergency video game care package quick before i start twitching from withdrawal....too late *twitch*

Dir en Grey

2007-12-17T06:22:00.000-08:00

so this friday i went to to dir en grey, live in concert.
I'm gving this a seprete post becuase it was such an amazingly awsome concert.
Kyo was so close...it was amazing. They're an awsome live band. He really puts his heart and sould into his music and his pervormances.
the opening act was really good too. the support act was 10 Years, from teh US, it'S weird seeing american/english speaking bands in japan becuase thewy can't really do crowd interaction or talk to them, or even have anyone understand them, it was funny, the lead singer just stood there and yelled "OSAKA!! over and over agin and people cheered for it, and then they yeslled "OSAKA WE LOVE YOU!" and they didn't reallly understand, but i yelled back "WE LOVE YOU TOO!"
though i doubt they heard me.
but dir en grey was why everyone was there
there were times where Kyo had almost hypnotised the audience, there were moments whre everyone stood silient in awe and adortation.
I screamed my lungs out that night, my voice is still recovering. They played all my favorites, "dead tree" "the final" "aggitated cry of amggots" "beautiful dirt" etc....The encore was the best part. thouhg it was hilariouxs, whent eh crwod was cheering for an encore, japanses people can't really pronouce the word "encore" right so it sounded more like "ann-kaa-ree"
my neck and back still hurt from that thouhg, i went a little over board in the mosh.....

My fingers are cold

2007-12-17T04:48:00.000-08:00

yes infact, my fingers are very cold, the room i'm in dosn'T have the best heating system, and I have poor circulation in my hands, so my fingers are infact very cold, so excuse my typing.

So last month we went to hiroshima and miyajima on a rotary trip. It was pretty fun.
though it seemed like we spent a large majority of the time stting on the bus, getting off for a couple minuets, taking a photo of us in front of something famous(i.e. the a-bomb dome, the tori, that temple with the all the stairs, etc...)
the hiroshime peace park was interesting, especially going through their as an american. It's impossible to describe, it'S just something you have to experience for yourself.
So right before the hiroshima, i switchged host families. I am now living with the shibata family. they are very nice. They have threee daughters, Ayako, Emiko, and Kanako. Ayako and Emiko are indentical twins, and I still can't tell tehm apart....T_T.....
I really like this family, but I'm only going to be with them until January 20th and tehn I7m moving to a new family in kyoto. wich means...annalisa has to leave teh house at 7am to get to school in time, becuae my school is halfway between downtown nara and downtown osaka....but that ,easn I7ll be able to see dyalan and maru and all teh toher students who live in kyoto more often.
Speaking of toehr exchenge students, alan and will are going home this week, which is sad. Everyone is going to miss them alot. they've really helped everyone so much.

well
thats al for now
merry chritmas

And like magic, I'm back!

2007-11-16T18:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry, it'S been a long while, like month or song, and bunchs of stuff has happend^^
and you get to here all about it, well that is depending if i I7m in the mood to type it out....lol XP
oh, that photo is from the airport, when we left for our school trip to hokkaido, I have other better pics, but i havn't had a chance to upload them yet, sorries....
so my class trip, I7m so sick of talking about it, I7m just gonna give you a breif over veiw....oh, yeh Haokkaido is the northern most island of japan, it'S cold there.
Day 1, Sunday: Flew from Kansai to Ashahiyama
Ashahiyama Zoo, there were penguins. I like penguins, alot, they're cute <3.
Day 2, Monday: Drove to Lake Kushiroko
Went to small Aquarium, and Kita Kitusune(hokkaido north fox) sanctuary.
foxes are cute too.<3
Day 3, tuesday: Drove to the coast
Visited the purest lake in all japan, I can'T remember the name at moment.....
that was the coldest day of them all, teh ocean was freezing.
that hotel we stayed at that night had an all you can you eat buffet, and part of the buffet, they had tacos, that made annalisa very happy. they also had cotton candy, that also made me happy.
Day 4,Wednesday:Northcoast of Hokkaido
this was teh funnest day. we had a choice of 4 activities that day, i choes to go mountain biking. That was really fun. We rode along the coast for the most the time. the first part we went through the forest, and then BLAM! you don't expect and OCEAN!
well, cliffs, and then the ocean, we were on teh tops of the cliffs, it was so pretty sine it was almost sunset. It didn't look like japan, it looked like something on the United states east coast or in Europe. It actually looked like something out of a miyazaki movie. Mostly due to the big feilds on the cliffs, and then these huge windmills.
Hey america take clue from japan! Windpower!
Day 5, Thursday:Drove to Kushiro
this was intersting, due to the fact i had no idea what was going on, and we had to get uo really early, first we went to the ocean and took lots of pics, it was really bright for 7am...and i must say I look pretty good in male pirate lolita at 7am...lol jk.
but eyh, we actually went rafting that day. not like rafting in durango with rapids and stuff, it was really slow and shaloow, wich is good becuase anyone who knows me knows, annalisa hates rafting, and annalisa can't swim very well.
also, that night we went bowling, wich i am horrible at....
Day 6, Friday, Fly home to kansai
That day, we also got up really early. not fun. After we were "awake" we walked to a marketplace i downtown Kushiro, since it was our last day, alot of my friends bought crabs for their family, because you know hokkadio crabs are famous, apparently even better than alsakan king crab....
but after than we took the express train to Sapporo and waited around in the airport, and then flew home, to osaka. While we in the airprot waiting to board our flight, I saw a pokemon plane, it was sick, if i may say so myself.
So teh past couple weeks, after the school trip we were kinda uneventful. Me and some the other exchange students wanted to go to this concert, taste of chaos (the used, rise against, Aiden, etc...) We were all from the same district, but all from differnt clubs. In my district, the rules are that the host family tops rotary rules. Normal rotary curfew is 9:30,but some families gice their students curfews of 10pm or Midnight. some don't have a curfew, just as long as their dressed and ready for school the next day. My host family gave me curfew, of 5:30
in the afternoon
everyday
even on weekends.
lame, i know.
also, my rotary rules are that students cannot go out on weekdays into osaka at night without a rotary person. SO the only one who endeed up going was alan, who apparently had a blast.
But Dir en Grey is playing next month, on a saturday night, and the concert dosn't go too late, and I7ll have differt family, with new rules (trust me you can't get much worse than 5:30 pm), and we'll going wiht a group. so keep your fingers crossed!

So noithing much other than that, changing families next week. thats going to be interesting, due to the fact the day after i move in I'm going to hiroshima for 3 days on a rotary trip. whee!
and then right when i get back we have too new exchange students from australia, with the boyscouts(but they're girls...weird...) coming to our school during their summer break(remember australia is in the southern hemishpere, their summer is our winter), then christmas! whee! sorta, japan christmas is going to weird. and then ALan and will go home, wich is sad, those guys are fun. but then we get new excange students and stuff from the southern hemisphere and such, fun fun fun.

so that all for now
bye bye!

I felt the need to blog...

2007-10-11T05:57:00.000-07:00

so, I7m here, feeling like blogging, not sure about what, but i shall blog. and it will be the greatest blog EVER.

lately i havn't been on 4chan, and i have been missing it, I miss long cat.....

anyways mving on. My school sports festival was last week. that was pretty slick, there was a relay, we came i 3rd. and the was DANCING! our grade danced to the music from Lupin the 3rd. The boys did gymnastic to Rammmstein. Like pro gymnastics, stuff annalisa would die if she tried to do. Throught the entire sports festival and the training leading up to it. I kept having "Make Kaeti Proud" moments. like warm up before you stretch, or run, run fast. It felt like my favorite crazy paramedic sports traner friend was right there with me. it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

the week after next, were going on our class trip, we're divided into two groups, group one is going to Hokkaido for a week, group is going to Australia for week, I7m in group two. not fair. Hokkaido is cool,but it's like colorado, or as my english teacher so aptly put "Wisconson with ski areas". and those ski areas arn't open yet. = ( I wanted to go to australia. I coud really use a beach right now, and a good tan.　Why must i be denied the simple pleasure of laying around on a golden australia beach driking virgin pina colodias with 40 odd japanese school girls....?

hmm...well thats all for now, will update later, love and kisses
annalisa

Yes, it has come, THE ANIME BLOG! WAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-10-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

It was only a matter of time before this would happen, I'm suprised it didn't happen sooner. It my anime update from japan! Yes the land of the rising sun and the freshest anime around. And i bet all my otaku buddies are just itiching to know whats happening. Well here we go!!!!!!!!!! ^_^
First things first, it'S time for neon genesis evangelion!!!!!
WOO!
well the new movie has been out for about a month now, i saw two weeks ago and i must say IT WAS SOOOOOO [insert swear word i can't say on my blog because it'S a rotary blog] AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The new animation was just mind blowing and the sound and the action and the explosions and the blood and the awsomeness, wordds cannot describe it!!!!!!!!!!!
GO SEE IT.
NOW.
OR YOU WILL DIE.
DIE.
oooookaayyyy....moving on.....
A new gundam series is starting soon, and along with it comes a new brat pack angsty teens for japanese high school students to obsess over, along with slew of new gundams for hardcore mech otakus living in their mothers basment to buy, construct, and horde forever. lol Speaking of gundam, they made a HD revamp of Gundam Wing (or "W" as it's refered to as here). Wing is favorite gundam series, and has my favorite gundam, Deathsycthe. Deathsycthe is awsome, i love him along with duo, it's pilot. They're awsome.
Ryan keeps saying theres a 63 foot gundam model in china, but has failed to inform me wich gundam it is, or even what series or movie it'S from.
Ok, mving away from giant robot animes, time for new episodes of the animes we've come to know and love. It's fall and fall means a new television season, wich means new anime!!!!!! Haruhi and the gang (Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu) are back for another round this october. This makes me happy. I love haruhi, I'm even cosplaying as her heroic costume from her PS2 game (ComicCon 08 here I come!). Shes as popular as ever in japan and the US. theres just something about her that everyone can love^^

Also new episodes of D.Gray Man, Lucky Star, Gurren Langen, Idol Mater Xenoglossia, and Code Geases will be coming soon.
Well, thats all for now, love yah!
oh, and i leave you with this, enjoy, chu!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bXnPZ6YZNqU

Another Blog of Greatness, and Doom, I love Doom and Gir and Tacos

2007-09-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the title of randomness, i'm in a random mood, but the internet is the only place i can let out my randomness. Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry, so yeh, the past week has pretty much been, school, school, food and more school and very little sleep
Yay insomnia! XD
Also, i have been craving taco bell, due to the fact there is NO MEXICAN FOOD IN JAPAN!!!!!!!
why!?!?!?!?!?!
ah...I miss the carefree days of me and summer being dragged to taco bell by kyl and forced to treat him to delicous greasy faux mexican food.....and then forcing him to pays us back the next week at the same taco bell by buying us food. ah good times good times. I miss me and Kyl'S food marathons, just going from resturant to resturant snaking and eating and lauhging...slowly thouhg, due to the fact Kyl still had to have cane at this time.
Anyways.....
We went to todaiji last weekend. Thee are deer everywhere, and not colorado deer that run away from you. these deer are different. everyone says there friendly, but they're not, they're vicious attack deer that tried to eat me. true story. On the other hand, todaiji is HUGE. and the Daibutsu is gigantic. Kaeti wouldlve loved to see it, I7m sure of it. btw go read her blog, it the funny stuff lifeatdhs.blogspot.com, trust me it'S sweet. Sweet like sweden.
so, yeh other than that, not doing much;; training for the relay for my sports festival, getting ready to go to Hokkaido in october, and Hiroshima in November with rotary. speaking of rotary, there was supposed to be a welcome party for the incoming exchange students, but they canceleed it because they thought it would rain, it did, but just a little. It rains a little like everyday here, wich is good, caue it'S soooooo hot.
lol the other day i was filling out some quiz on DA, one of the questions was if I7d ever been kissed in the rain, the answer is no, but i would imagine that it would be romantic, and wet, and kinda cold, but still nice. the same with snow.
speaking of snow, apparently it dosn't snow in NAra. I'm heartbroken....No crazy schoolyard snowball fihgts....no skiing every weekend with laruel and kenton.....no snow devils, no running around in the fresh snow like an idiot with kaeti and bailey......awww.......
weel, gotta go
oh watch this, i'm addicted to the song....

School!

2007-09-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

So, yes on saturday, I stated school, but Yesterday was my first full day of class. right now the schedules are all weird because all the students have a bunch of stadardized tests to do, like CSAPS and the ACT'S and SAT'S(that remindes me..arn't I supposed to take those this year...), but anywho, since I'm an exchange student I don't have to take these lovely tests, so while my classmates are tortured by Japans notoriously sinister stadardized testing system, my teacher has been showing me around the school, wich is huge, like 10 times the size of DHS, but with less students so it's not crowded at all, wich is nice. Along with the endless tours I've been doing little research projects on teh Ainu(japans indigonus people) and besically been sorta show and tell for my teachers english clases, giving speechs in english(wich isn't helping my japanese at all), giving powerpoints of durango and my school and my friends, and such. They find it very odd that i have male friends. In japan it's somewhat uncommon for males and females to hang out with each other even though teenage dating and sex is more widely accepted than in other countries. In the short time i have been here, many stereotypes my friends and family and society has placed on the japanese have been shattered. Male dominance is one of those things. It used to be only the men went to college, only the men had drivers licenses, only men held positions of authority. But nowdays, you see women in equality with men. Gender barries are being broken. The Honorific -kun used to be just for males friends but nowadays can be used for females as well. And -chan, usally used for female friends of all ages is now used mostly for young girls. Nowadays females are equal almost always, except height. Most people think that all aisian are short, but thats not nessicarily true, Most males are around the same height as many westerners. Though the females tend to be Only around 5'0 or so. You see many females wearing high heeled shoes, not just for the purpose of looking nice or it's the fashionable thing to do, but my therory is to be on more equal terms with males, heigth wise, also If they have boyfriends i would imagine it would make things a bit easier, especially if you're 5'0" and your boyfriend is 6'0"(yes, they do get that tall here, stop being so shocked).
Also After graduating from high school or college many youths like to wear all sorts fo wild clothes and sport the craziest of trends. I feel this comes from their ability to express themselves or explore their creative side by the japanese school system. From Preschool, and often times in universites, the majority of japanese students are required to wear uniforms, school approved schoes, socks and bags. They are told when and where to eat, how to walk ,what to say. Even where they where their shoes and slippers and socks are controlled. Even in art classes often times they told what to draw, what to paint, what colors to use, etc. I find this form of learning very old fashioned. Suppressing todays youth will only make for a defecting tommrow. Kids in america complain about being "repressed" and forced to conform. Conform to what? Most schools have pretty lax dress codes, a variety of classes to chosses from and a jillion clubs for any interest, Nowadays school are supposed to encourage creative expression wether it be though art, writing, fashion, music, even interpretive dance (lol).
Well that all my cultural observations for now, I'm making my best effort to use japanese, but I7m not getting too many oppertunities to, but slowly I7m picking it up and learning to recognize kanji, katakana and hiragana, so good luck to me
Ganbate!
Currently:
mood:hungry
watching:old naruto
listening to:Memorial Adress by Ayumi HAmasaki, god i love this song but i havn't heard it in sooooooo long, I think i stil rembebr the lyrics....
"Sayonara ne saigo no kotoba sae todokanaiWakare no tsumetasa oIyatte hodo omoishirasareruKikasete hoshikatta uso de kamawanai karaSugoshita ano hi o kuyandari shitenaindatteTatta ichido de iikara..."

Kyoto and and mt.fuji

2007-08-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

so, yeh i should've updated this a couple of days ago but, yeh, here we go
so last saturday, we went to Kyoto. We went and kinkaku-ji(golden temple) wich is really famous even outside of japan.　It was really hot and humid and so many bugs, but i was really cool. i got some neat photos, go to my myspace if you wanna check em out. but we went and had tea at an old fashioned japanese tea house, traditional green tea is very thivk snd bitter, but i tried it none the less. afterward, we went and bought good luck chams, i got one for successful school work and dreams come true. then i bought my fortune, wich was "excellent".Yay!
after that we went to kiyomizu-dera, wich is another temple. very famous, kyoto is full of famous temples. when i was walking up to kiyomizu, i saw a girl with a BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT parisol, i was so excited, i love japan, they have BABY here....
lol, so back on topic....kiyomizu was amazing,the main deck is really high up, and the temple is on a mountain side in a reqally old deeep forest, the veiw was amazing. there were the roofs of toher temples poking out of the trees and stuff . KAeti and baily would've really enjoyed it.
Kiyomizu literally translates into "pure water". the entire reaosn the temple was built was because there was spring the that gused pure clean drinking water from the mountain side. they have a bunch of little fountains and and stuff where they let people drink and cool themselves of with this pure water.
later we saw a maiko, wich is a geisha in training. she was really pretty.
all in all kyoto was amazing, mabey if my friends come and visit, i'll take them there, It'd be sweet, sweet like sweden.
so yeh, a couple days later, on tuesday, we went on a bus trip to Mt.Fuji. we didn't actually go to the mountain, we just sorta drove around it.it was still fun. though we spent alot of time at overpriced tourist traps. that was annoying

well, thats all for now

2007-08-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

so, here i am, ｉｎ　ｊａｐａｎ，　ｓｏ　ｆａｒ　ｉｔ　ｈａｓ　ｂｅｅｎ　ｆｕｎ，　Ｙａｙ！Ｆｕｎ！
ｓｏ　ｉｔ’ｓ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｈｏｔ　ｈｅｒｅ　ｉｎ　ＮＡｒａ．　Ｗｅ　ｗｅｎｔ　ｓｈｏｐｐｉｎｇ　ｙｅｓｔｅｒｄａｙ，ａｔ　ａ　ｂｏｏｋｓｔｏｒｅ，　ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ｗｏｎｄｅｒｆｕｌ，　ａｌｌ　ｔｈｅ　ｍａｎｇａ　ｙｏｕ　ｃｏｕｌｄ　ｅｖｅｒ　ｗａｎｔ，　ｅｘｃｅｐｔ　ｉｔ’ｓ　ｉｎ　ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ．．ｗｅｌｌ，　ｉ　ａｍ　ｂｅｉｎｇ　ａ　ｓｃａｔｔｅｒ　ｂｒａｉｎ　ａｎｄ　ｄｏｎ’ｔ　ｆｅｅｌ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｔｙｐｉｎｇ，　ｌｏｌｚ
ｓｅｅ　ｙｏｕ　ｌａｔｅｒ
ｌｏｖｅ，ａｎｎａｌｉｓａ
ｐｓ．ｉ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｐｏｓｔ　ｐｈｏｔｏｓ　ｏｎ　ｍｙｓｐａｃｅ　ｓｏｏｎ＾＾

Harry potter and such stuff

2007-07-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

so yeh i went and go the new harry potter at midnight when it came out, and i'm about 150 pages from being done, and it's awsome, but i don't wanna be like those losers at 4chan or 7chan or encyclopedia dramatica or that idiot noob on gaia, so i'm not gonna give anything, except there is alot of death,lots, seeing as the title is "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", it's even in the title for gods sake.
other stuff, so i went and saw transformers on the premeire, on my birthday, like month ago. and IT WAS AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i mean i wasn't into transformers before this,but omfg it was just so amazing.lol through the entire movie my friend ryan was having a "nerdgasm" as my friends called it throughout the enitre movie, but i was sitting like 4 rows in front of him(i sat in the front row) so i only really heard him squealing with joy evry 7 seconds or so.
So more news on japan, i got my itinerary yesterday, god i have the most stretched out messed up flight plan, it'll be like 3 days later including the 18hour time difference, by the time i get there, and annalisa will be extremely jet lagged, and confused and overwhelmed. lol I fly from denver to chigago to tokyo narita, then i have to take train to transfer to another airport in tokyo from there i will fly to Osaka Kansai airport, and then it's another 2 hour drive to my house in Nara, god so complicated. and i have like 4hour layover in like every airport. It'll be likemidnight japan time by the time i get to my new home by the time i get through customs and get my bags and do all the formal rotary introductions, and all i'll wanna do is sleep, since i can't sleep in moving vehicles, of any kind. ugh, it'll probably be a week or two before i get over the jet lag and confusion and by then i'll be starting at my new school.oh heres a picture of my uniform, it's kinda hard to see, sorry it was the only one i could find on photopucket, since i can't do HTML

heres some pics of my new city, it's very pretty i must say

well, that all for now

First post! W00!!!!!

2007-06-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

YAY!!!!
First blog on my new blog,!
Ok, lets go. My name is Annalisa, at the moment I am 5 days away from being 16, but that dosn't matter right now(well it sorta does..). I've been meaning to make a blog for awhile but i've been too lazy, but now I need to make one for RYE. oh, yeh you should know about that, I'm currently an outbound rotary youth exchange student to japan, set to depart in mid august, for a year. K got it? Japan? Exchange student? not interested in cybering? Good^_^

But yeh alittle about me:
I'm 5'0"
Junior in High School(2nd year in japanese high school)
Curently residing in Durango, Colorado USA
Will be residing in Nara-shi, Nara-ken, Honshu, Japan

Love:
Anime
Manga
Punk Rock
techno, any sort o' music
Video GAmes
Cosplay
Gothic Lolita
Eggo Waffles
Hello Kitty
Hot Topic
Shopping
Cats
Figure Skating
mashed potatoes
the voice of Greg Ayres
Drawing
Copic MArkers
Model U.N.
My friends
road trips with my friends
Youtube
Writing/reading fan fiction
skiing
sushi
etc.

Hate/strongly dislike:
whiny emo kids
Maroon 5
Fat people who hug the armbar and sweat all over the DDR machine at the mall
whiny 9 year olds who think they're otaku just because they own a Naruto headband
Bad voice acting
Xenophobes
spiders
Bobobo or whatever the hell that stupid anime with the hair is called
people who disrespect anime because it's "A cartoon"
the smelly perverts who hang out in the back of Hot topic
quacamole
scary preteen otakus who only like one anime
people who make no effort at school
Guyver
etc.
ok, thats all for now