While I’m in the process of cleaning out the sludge of two years of mostly-wasted memories, I want to upload a few choice pictures from the last few months!
Please enjoy! (^o^)/
My friend Marianne enjoying a pomegranite margarita. I don’t drink, but many of my girlfriends enjoy a girly drink every once in a while. ^^
By the way, in the US I never used the term “girlfriend.” I felt that it had the connotation of, well, lesbianism. I obviously have nothing against lesbianism myself (I am non-choosy in the gender of whom I fall in love with), I didn’t want things to get confusing when these are just platonic friends.
But living in Japan and making friends who came from other english-speaking countries, I found that they used the term “girlfriend” to refer to a platonic friend. Also, in Japan “date” is used all the time to refer to a gathering of girls.
Maybe it’s tongue-in-cheek, I don’t know. But I sort of fell into using it. I should be more careful, though. While I don’t have any plans to date anyone, and there’s nobody that I want to date, if I at one time have a girlfriend, as in the romantic kind, it could get confusing, right?
Yametoku! (Ï’ll put a stopper in it.)
What a random thought.. but it’s a thought that never would have occurred to me before I moved to Japan. For those of you from the US, what do you think about the term “girlfriend”?
Back to the pictures!
These are a few pictures taken inside of Mitaka station, on the way to see the Plum Blossoms.
Here are some pictures taken during the filming of my TV show!
Outside the window of the Asahi TV building in Harajuku:
Inside one of the editing rooms:
My director in the chair closest to the camera. He is a genius!
So embarrassing! It’s a ton of fun to do, but I hate watching myself! ^^;
Me and Yuka, who is a voice-actress. She’s really gotten popular recently, and she does the voice-overs for my tv show. ^^ You can find out more about my TV show in the links at the top of the blog. ^^ Sorry that it’s not available abroad! Maybe I can work something out sometime, or I can make a show on my own!
A random Starbucks.
Randomly, the gate to Meiji-jingu shrine around the corner from Harajuku station:
Some salarymen/women lining up to go in an elevator. For some reason, I found this funny, and… sad. Say no to conformity! ^^
A cold, cloudy winter day.
A few years ago, a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop opened up across the street from Shinjuku station. for the first year or so, no matter how freezing it was, even if there was frozen rain blowing in icy sheets across the waiting customers, people would line up for two or three hours just to get the opportunity to buy a box of 12 glazed doughnuts. During that time they often gave out free doughnuts to waiting people. Sometimes, you still have to wait 30 minutes or more, and there are no free doughnuts without a purchase. I love doughnuts, but I hate waiting, so I only dip in if there is no line!
The Empire State Building.. not!
Across this somewhat picturesque boardwalk is the Shinjuku South branch of Kinokuniya. They have a really decent selection of foreign books on the sixth floor.
Past the boardwalk..
Here is where you board the knight bus highway bus, AKA the cheaper-than-a-shinkansen way to travel somewhere!
Can you see why I took a picture of this?
The Sports coliseum in Harajuku.
A random cool-looking advertisement in Shibuya.
Walking home from my station to my new apartment, I thought the sunset was really gorgeous.
And to prove that snow happens in Tokyo, a freak snowstorm on the 29th of February, the day after I moved into my new apartment!
Hi!
I’m from Ontario, Canada and we use girlfriend all the time, but it means nothing more than she’s my friend who is a girl.
We get quite allot of snow up here in Canada, I’m sure I would miss it allot going to a place that barely has any.
My boyfriend of 5 and a half years and I just broke up, we have a house and pets together. I move into my new apartment tomorrow actually. I can’t wait to see a sunset walking home to my new place. Sounds like you are in a great place in your life! Can’t wait to get there myself!
Good luck with everything!
xox
Josee
I’m so sorry to hear that, Jossee. You seem to be handling it a lot better than I did, though. Good for you!!
I say `girlfriend’ all the time about my friends. Usually if I am refering to just 1 I say ‘friend’ though. I thought that was a pretty common thing in North America. I have to remember not to use the term when speaking in German or to German speakers though. Saying something about ‘meine Freundin’ or ‘my girlfriend’ does mean girlfriend in the romantic sense. Instead I have to constantly remember to say ‘a friend of mine’
Glad that you are back! I don’t really comment, but I love getting a peek at life in Japan.
Now that you mention it, it does sound romantic when you use “girlfriend”to refer to just one friend! I hadn’t thought about that before!
Hey Jamie,
Loves your photos. They are beautiful. ^_^.
May I know what camera did you use?
I especially adore the black and white ones.
Take care. ^_^
No problem, and thank you!
I use a Pentax istD DSLR camera at the moment, but I’m probably going to change to a Canon Kiss sometime before I get to Europe. It’s a lot faster and quieter, and my camera is having a lot of issues at the moment. I really like to get full money’s worth out of my hardware! XD
I love your blog! I’m learning Japanese (my plan is to be a linguist) and I hope it will take me to Japan.
I showed my boyfriend your blog and it turns out he went to art school with you. What a small world!
AIPX? What a small world! What’s your boyfriend’s name!
His name is Chris T. He’s an asian guy and studied game design and 3D art I believe.
Oh, Chris!! What a small world! We used to hang out quite a lot. I hope that he’s doing well!! Sometimes I see his friend Kato when he comes to Japan. Chris should get his butt over here, and bring you along too!
Aww such gorgeous pictures! I hate the snow, but I suppose I will have to suck it up if I plan on living in Japan!
And a pomegranate margarita sounds so delicious!
I use the term “girlfriend” only when I’m being silly with my friends who are girls, lol. “Don’t go there, girlfriend.” Hehe!
Okinawa (waaaaaaaay down south) doesn’t get snow. You could always live there! I’d considered it for a while because the only thing I hate more than snow (and Makoto) is walking in snow! I used to like it when I was a kid, but walking for pleasure and walking for necessity are two completely different things!
A bonus to living in Okinawa is that they have A&Ws all over the place! It’s the only place in japan that does. Now if they had Taco Bell, I’d have moved there already!
Hahaha! Okinawa is a lovely place, and I definitely recommend if anyone has the opportunity to visit, to do so. I lived there for six years of my childhood. The snorkeling and diving is amazing, the parks and beaches are very nice, and there are lots of cool places to see and things to do. I often miss it (Weird as it may sound, I consider Okinawa my “childhood home”) and would love to go back for a visit sometime.
When I was a kid, my sisters and I were among the first 12 American girls to learn and perform the traditional Ryukyu dancing under a famous Okinawan sensei. Ryukyu dance is gorgeous and the feminine form of Okinawan karate… both use the same movements, katas. When the Japanese invaded Okinawa and outlawed their traditional marital arts for fear of an uprising, the Okinawans turned their martial arts into a dance so they could continue to train.
Yes, I really love Okinawa. ^^ I’d love to go there again sometime!
I hear “girlfriend” to refer to a female friend on occasion, but usually the person is talking about a group, as in “My girlfriends and I…” I don’t think it would be confusing, though, and most people (around here, anyway) would just ask if they weren’t sure.
I live very close to the home of Krispy Kreme; their donuts are my favorite! Do the stores there have the giant doughnut-making machines? That’s always my favorite part of going (well, second favorite, taking a backseat to putting the doughnuts in my face)
LOL!!! I just laughed really hard at your last sentence. XD
We sure do have those big ol’machines. It’s kind of hypnotizing, watching them pop out confection after delicious confection. XD
Where is Krispy Kreme’s hometowm, btw?
^_^
Winston-Salem, NC (I’m across the border in Tennessee)
I use the word girlfriends all the time when talking about a group of my friends that are girls all hanging out. I don’t go out often with just one girl, but if I did I would probably refer to her by name if she was my friend, or as my girlfriend if she was my date.
Great set of photos. I now have a craving for Starbucks coffee and a doughnut with sprinkles. <3
Eat one for me!!
I just got an image of you dating a girl.. Poor Al (or lucky Al, lol!)
Regarding the term “girlfriend: When I speak of my friends, as I call them *girl friends* with a SPACE in between girl and friend. When I speak of someone’s romantically dating friend, I put them together, *girlfriend*. I don’t know and haven’t noticed if others do this, but this is MY way of putting a difference in between the two meaning of similar words/names. Maybe you can use this too if it gets too confusing for you? n____n
I like all the pictures. My favorite is the donuts XD I’m on a diet, so no donuts for me, but it’s still fun to look at them +w+
I think you have a good method here. I’ll try to do that, if for nothing else than to distinguish it to myself
Thanks for sharing! ^-^
I’m TOTALLY in love with those donut photos!!! :3333
I also tried that sakura thingie from Starbucks and liked it quite a bit.
Hehe. I remember those “HOMG! Snow in Tokyo!!” tweets from everybody a while ago! ^-^
Really nice photos!!
‘For those of you from the US, what do you think about the term “girlfriend”?’
So many people use it to identify their friend(s) that I’m just used to it. I don’t use it since, well, all of my closest friends are girls. It’d just be monotonous. xD
“Can you see why I took a picture of this?”
The heart is a little unusual ne?
You got it!