Fly me to the moon...uh...Japan

I received an email from the lovely staff of AIIU two days ago which declares that my flight is officially booked. Yay! Which means that in approximately 100 days I will be on my happy way to Tokyo.

In the email it also mentioned the details we will receive at orientation day. By the sound of it they already have acquired our host school and some host family details. Oh. My. God.

I'm really excited to find out where I'll be going. (Please Tokyo) I'd love to be in a more city situated area so that I can learn about the rail system (which I am sure I will be exposed to no matter where I go) and so I can go shopping for all the most amazing things but still be able to visit all the traditional temples. To me, the city seems to have a really good balance to it.

Mind you, I am quite sure that wherever I end up in Japan, I will have a wonderful time and most likely be taken on trips to the city anyway but the ease of accessibility would be so much more convenient.

Anyway, enough about that. So, as you may well know I am leaving the dusty land of Australia on the 26th of March, 2009. Doubtless, I won't get any sleep that night. Well, I have nine hours of a plane flight to make up for it.

So, I will arrive in Japan on Thursday. That night and the following day are expected to be filled with introductory activities to get to know each other (the other AIIU members), japanese language and culture. Saturday, it is possible we will be whisked away by train to meet our host families and get settled into our new homes for an indefinite period of time.

Sunday will be filled with angst as I try and cope with learning about the family and them about me all in an foreign language. And Monday, that has got to be the scariest day. The first day of school. I'll be poked and prodded by the population of the school, much to my discomfort as I momentarily reach the status of "new, shiny plaything". That's gonna be very scary.

But I'm sure it will get better from then on...I hope.

And this is just me hypothesizing! Oh my goodness, this is definitely going to be quite some adventure.

<3

Ashley-chan

A Frodo for Paul

LoL. It has been a while since I have posted, I know. It's mostly due to the line in my acceptance letter which said, "You will receive further information at the end of December". With this blog being intended as a blog about me and Japan and all, not just a normal blog, it's hard to give you non-existent updates.

So, I figured I'll post some random stuff for the time being...just to keep me and my (lack of) readers occupied.

This is a Frodo for Paul:



I'll tell the story for you because Paul has probably forgotten anyway.

I did guitar lessons with a strangely awesome, male-version-of-me named Paul. I told him about this blog as we want to stay in touch (something we haven't yet done, I'll do it, I SWEAR!)And I told him I would include photos of Japan and he thought I said "Frodo's"

Therefore, this is just a little joke between us, we have a lot of personal jokes it seems. I mean, after nine years of being isolated together in a small, little room that was bound to happen. S'awesone though. ^_~

<3

Ashley-chan

Correction

I'm no longer a liar.

I am officially going to Japan next year.

Now, this is slightly strange for me. I have mixed emotions. Don't get me wrong I'm ecstatic about the opportunity to bask in the glory of another country's culture and certainly will do so without fail. But...I'm nervous.

After waiting for over a month, with the constant self re-assurance that I would be going, it has all fallen into place. Going by the estimated departure date, I have 135 days left in Australia before I double that amount in Japan.

I'm terribly excited, I'm horrible nervous and I'm slightly melancholy.

I'm terribly excited:
I can experience what this world has to offer, I can learn a new language, a new culture and a new way of life. That is something that will surely change me as a person for the better. Plus, it will help me gain independence, a trait which eludes me in favour for its more convenient twin, co-dependence.

I'm horribly nervous:
While Japan offers me all these wonderful things, I'm afraid of being unable to communicate. The world revolves on communication, without it each person would be building their own tower of Babylon, unable to work together. If I'm going to miss one thing it will be the certainty in myself that I can inform others what is happening.

Imagine If I'm having a heart attack and don't know the words, I can't tell anyone what is happening and, in my ditress, all I can summon up are the words: "heart" and "accident". What if it makes no sense? What if they tilt their heads and ponder over my meaning while I die lying on a unimprtant backstreet of Kyoto.
You have to admit, that's a little scary, and a little exaggerated, I realise that. But for purposes sake...

I'm slightly melancholy:
300 days. It seems like such an expanse of time that looms when I think that it will be that long be for I hug my Kitty Kat again, Lucy Loo, Constable Christie or my beautiful, supporting, loving mother.

It will be sad to part and I am sure the coming months will make it harder but it's only ten months out of my life. If I live untill I am eighty that's just 1.05% of my life. That's not a lot when I can spend the remaining 99.95% with all the people I love.

I'll be happier once I receive my letter tomorrow containing details. Then I'll probably go hyperactive and post random nonsense. So, I apologize in advance for any jibberish that is posted. My mind is not always my own. 0_0

<3

Ashley-chan

Soon, All Will Be Revealed

I know I'm going a little overboard with the whole: Three-posts-in-one-night thing however, I just wanted to let you know that they (AIIU) said I will find out whether or not I can go to Japan in early November.

With early November being only days away (2) I'm sure that I will know my fate very soon and will be sure to tell all of you, my non-existent readers.

<3

Ashley-chan

Haruhi Suzumiya Cosplay

So, as I am sure you have already established, most likely because you already know me, I am slightly deranged with my obsessions.

Most recently, I have become acquainted with the most astounding field of dedication, work, cost and paraphernalia. It is known as: Cosplay Dun Dun Da!

Anyways, cosplay is basically the art of dressing up as a game/manga/anime character and you rock up to conventions and get glomped by an infinite sum of people. Now, this is something I enjoyed greatly when attending my first convention as a cosplayer, Animania. I cosplayed as Haruhi Suzumiya.

Haruhi Suzumiya is a complicated character, she is bossy and obtrusive however at the same time she has a much lonelier side which she hardly ever reveals. Basically, the only thing Haruhi Suzumiya is interested in is the stranger side of life, insisting she will only speak with aliens, time-travellers and ESPers. All of which miraculously appear, unbeknownst to her.

But enough of my plot summaries, if I've peaked your interest, you can always Google it.

I just wanted to show off some of the photos of me in my Happy Little Cosplay Costume. I intend to do further editing later.



Yes, those are flowers in my mouth and yes, they do taste quite disgusting. I never really planned to put them in my mouth but Haruhi Suzumiya took over and insisted I do something crazy.



Haruhi salutes to you. Those that I have spoken to about these photos all seem to believe that this is the best one. I'm not really sure I just took like, 200 photos and happened to get a couple decent shots.



Ummm... the lemon. I don't think anyone really knows why Haruhi Suzumiya has a lemon. There is a lemon featured on the inside of all of the DVD cases and because of that I was like, "Why not?" so I bought a lemon.



This photo kind of just came out like this, I thought it would be fun to grab my Wii remote because I think the ever-enthusiastic Haruhi would be equally fervent about using a console which allows you to jump around without looking like a complete idiot.

The reason this is in here is because even though this blog is about Japan, cosplaying and anime are intricately connected and I definitely hope to do some cosplaying while I am there, so this gives you a touch of background for my future posts.

<3

Ashley-chan

I am a Liar

I apologize.

I'm not technically in Japan yet.
I don't even technically know whether I will be going to Japan in the future.
As of right now, I technically know nothing.

But, let's not argue over little, unsubstantial technicalities.

I thought it would be a reasonably good idea to set up this blog sooner rather than later so that I can let everyone know where they can stalk me next year.

For those of you who have not yet caught on, I can be found: HERE

Oh, I've gotta laugh at those who clicked on that link. While you're at it, why don't you just press ALT + F4 too. Go on, try it. See what it does. ^_~

Plus I figured that I wouldn't want my first challenge in Japan to be excusing myself from host family, liberating myself onto their computer, infiltrating their internet, mastering their keyboard (Wow. I nearly wrote Keyblade. Too much Kingdom Hearts.) and trying to figure out how the hell I set this thing up.

Not to mention ignoring my newly met family, that's just a little inconsiderate. >_< won't be one of those things I do for two weeks and abandon as I am want to do. I should have enough spare time at school to update every few days.

Well, that's the plan. ^_^;

I think we're off to an adequate start, don't you.

Now, I just have to get in...

O_0

<3

Ashley-chan

P.S- For my asian friends who are curious, yes I realize that Ashley-chan is not asianly (jk) correct however, much to my despair, ashuri-chan was already taken.

Yes, go and see the phantasmagorical website which absolutely deserves to steal my name. [/sarcasm] XD