NANA

! They decided that we would go to Fuji-Q Highland (an Amusement Park in Fujiyoshida near the base of Mt. Fuji) at 8pm on Sunday night to ice skate and go on the rides since the park was open until 2am that day.

Mind you this is in the middle of winter in the Yamanashi region where everything was covered in snow, so I ended up putting on ski pants over my jeans. My host sister and I looked like Eskimos..

. excuse me Inuit, but we didn't really care because it was so cold.

When we got to the entrance gate the staff told us that none of the Roller Coasters were open due to the strong winds.

But my host parents (did I mention that they are crazy?) decided that we would ice skate all night (ice skating rink was 24 hours) then go on the rides the next day when the park opens again.

I skated for a few hours, taught my host sister how to skate and tried to do some bad figure skating with my host brother resulting in many bruises.

By the time that was all done it was 12:30am and I decided to get some shut eye. Do you know where we slept?


Yes, in the trusty Food Court (that's Mt.

Fuji in the background by the way). I had four of those metal seats lined up in a row so I could lie down and actually sleep. I felt like I was a homeless woman with ice skates.

I woke up at around 2am and went skating again because it was just too uncomfortable to sleep. After about an hour of skating and couple stalking I was too exhausted to be on ice anymore so I went back to those damn chairs. I woke up again at around 6am, played some DS and skated around for the last time before going back to sleep until 10am.

It was quite embarrassing because Fuji-Q Highland had officially opened by that time and the people who came into the Food Court must have really thought that we were homeless people.

When my host family were all ready we went to go on the rides. I'm a huge fan of Amusement Parks.

I love Roller Coasters and Fuji-Q has three amazing ones. Let me introduce you to the Fujiyama.



The Fujiyama was the tallest Roller Coaster in the world when it opened in 1996.

It is 75 meters tall and over 2kms in length. I felt the ride would never end, although the first drop was still the best.


Eejanaika, on the otherhand was the most insane ride.

It is similar to the Lethal Weapon Roller Coaster in Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast in Australia, in that rather than sitting inside the train, you're legs are hanging out in the air. This ride holds the records for having most inversions because not only do you fly along the tracks, the seat you are in also rotates.

I read on the information wall while waiting in line that altogether you go upside down 14 times during the ride.


Waiting in line however the speakers repeatedly chanted, "Ee janai ka? Ee janai ka?

" It was amazing annoying yet addictive at the same time. As we were strapped into the ride, right before we set off all the staff members shouted, "Ee janai ka?" and heaps of people in line and on the ride (including myself) replied back, "Ee janai ka?

" LoL

I found this on YouTube:

It's apparently the biggest in Asia and it was truly spectacular.


It would have been very romantic walking through the endless stream of lights if I wasn't with my 11 year old host brother.

Today however I altered myself in different ways.

.. no I'm still fat but I changed my hair color.

I dyed it black to get far far away from the image of the archetypal blonde Shibuya Girl, so my friends in Australia can't accuse me for turning too Japanese.


Yes and the thing above my head isn't a cotton bud as someone commented in a previous post. It's hook used to hang towels and stuff.

Anyway do you like my new jacket? I bought it in Vivienne Westwood a few days ago. Claudia, don't tell dad about it!

I wanted to buy the red and black heart shaped collar jacket that Nana has, but I don't think it suited me very well. Out of the whole NANA manga I think the person who most resembles my style is Shion (the leader of the BLAST fanclub), so no matter how cool I think Nana is, I don't think I can pull off what she wears (unless I lose 15kgs).


Another part of me was more permanently altered today though.

I finally finally got my cartilage pierced. Claudia, don't tell dad about this either!


I've have three piercings on my right earlobe and two on my left and I've always wanted to have my left cartilage pierced, but was too chicken to actually do it.

I thought that the cartilage not only looked painful but I've also heard the horror stories rumors in which people go blind after the piercing slices a vein. But today I finally worked up all my courage and had Nadia take me to a little piercing parlour. The piercer was called Sumiho and she was so cool.

She has tattoos all the way up her arms, she has "c'mon" tattooed in her mouth, she has a slitted snake tongue, she has piercings everywhere and she's a bassist in a band. Also I heard from Nadia that Sumiho got banned from Thailand for punching a camera man while she was a suspect for murder @.@ That's almost as crazy as my host parents!

Although the piercing hurt a little bit, it hurt no where as much as I thought it would. inserted a needle in first (it was thicker than a normal earring because the cartilage requires a bigger hole) and I was so nervous that I grabbed onto SumihoNadia's hand with all my might and started singing, "Don't Cha" to take my mind off things.

Sumiho then took the needle out and placed the earring in. Although it didn't hurt very much, the whole process was long and I was scared that the most painful part was yet to come. However, the most painful part was the initial needle and it wasn't too bad.

I was very happy with myself afterwards though, albeit a little embarrassed for being so wimpy in front of Nadia and Sumiho, who have so many more piercings than me.

Trying to find the perfect place for my piercing.

Chu ?

Mel

Today I met up with Nadia (the other exchange student) and the two new Italian exchange students who go to her school. I hadn't dressed up in ages, so today I decided to put on a little make up to give a good impression to the bellissimo milano e roma bambina (is that even correct?

). So I was feeling more confident and sexy than ususal as I strutted out to the station thinking to myself, "If only Heidi and Lily could see me now".

When I arrived at the South Gate of the station a young man in his early twenties, wearing dark blue vintage jeans, an Evisu t-shirt and a grey beanie stopped me.

"Are you going to work?" he asked shyly.

I looked up at to see large sparkling eyes that crinkled at the corner as he smiled.

His dimples gave his face a child like quality. I was taken aback. OMG HE'S ACTUALLY CUTE!

I thought, my heart making a sudden dokidoki leap.

"No," I replied in tentative Japanese, "I'm meeting friends."

"Where are you friends?

" He asked still smiling.

"They're at the North Gate."

"Can I walk you there?

"

I nodded, looking at the ground, pretending to be a demure Japanese girl. As we walked along he said something to me in fast Japanese. "Sorry, I didn't understand that.

I'm an exchange student so my Japanese isn't very good."

"Oh," he said, "where are you from?"

"I'm from Australia.

"

"Ahh, Australia," then he said in a Japanese accented English, "how long are you here for?"

"Until January, I've stayed for around 6 months already."

"Ahh," he replied, "It's no use getting your number is it?

"

I shook my head, "Sorry," I said quietly.

We had reached the North Gate by then. "Well it was nice to meet you.

.."

"Shoji," he continued for me.

OMGOMGOMG Shoji! SHOJI! My thoughts screamed.

OMG and he's wearing a beanie!

"It was nice to meet you Shoji. My name is Mel by the way.

"
Although I really wanted to say my name was Nana.

"Well have a nice weekend Mel."

I extended my hand to shake his, except he took it and gave it a kiss.

I swooned.

"Thanks for walking me here, and have a nice weekend too," I said before we parted ways.

It almost seemed like a manga plot to be chatted up by someone who resembled a character from a manga that the heroine loved within that manga.

Did you get all that? No? Okay.

I just want to urge you all to read NANA, a manga that I (the heroine within an manga plot in real life) love very much.

Taken from NANA Volume 1, edited by me.
Now after that little episode, or should I say chapter since we're talking about manga and not anime, I was left in a fairly good mood when I met up with Nadia and the Italian exchange students.

I told them about Shoji in very fast and excited English, perhaps confusing the two Italian girls somewhere along the way. After my recount the four of use went up to a little cafe to treat ourselfs to some macha (green tea) icecream and coffee. Then, since we were all fans of the Punk Rock look (due to NANA of course) we visited a shop called J22 which sold of clothes and accessories.

Finally at 12:30pm we went up to U-Style Karaoke and had a 5 hour session.



Half of my head is cut off because this photo was taken with the self-timer and I generally always screw up self-timed photos.

The girl behind me is Irene.

She wore a jacket with kitty ears attached to the hood. Nadia and Valentina (in the red and black striped shirt) both wore black studded dog collar chockers around their necks, so I felt a little inappropriately dressed. Perhaps even Komatsu Nana-ish amongst her BLAST friends.

.. OMG it all fits in perfectly!

In J22 messing around with the Shop Assistant. He found it fascinating that we came into the shop speaking English then the Italian girls speaking Italian to each other. Nadia and I felt rejected so we started speaking Chinese, but Nadia only understands Mandarin and doesn't know how to speak it, so she ended up replying to me in Japanese, which I in turn ended up speaking as well.

So in the end everyone, including the SA could understand what we were saying, thus there was no point in continuing our semi-private conversation. Instead the SA decided to scare us by playing with a giant (fake) spider.



In our karaoke room.

I'm searching for a song in the electronic song searcher LoL.
During the 5 hours I sang so much I was physically exhausted by the end of it. I guess it was because I chose some sugoi energy draining songs such as Shabondama by Morning Musume, Fighter by Christina Aguilera, Because of You by Kelly Clarkson, Precious by Yuna Ito, Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani and various screaming Linkin Park songs.

Oh I also did a Shakira impersonation of Whenever, Wherever.



The red is the top score (95), the blue is the average (79) , the purple is the previous score (80) and the yellow is your score (90).
The top scores in every song is 95, so I figured that it's impossible to get above 95.

I took a photo of this song because I scored 90. This song was Because of You by Kelly Clarkson (only because I'm a native English speaker). The other song I scored 90 in was Daisuki da yo by Ai Otsuka and I scored 94 in Karenai Hana, the ending theme to Full Metal Panic!

These were the only three songs out of about a million I scored 90+ -_-;; Singing is so hard.




As I walked out of my karaoke room to get more soft serve I bumped into a 3rd year boy from my school. His room happened to be right next door to mine, so I popped in to take a photo of the 3rd year boys.

I only recognised three of them. So I'm not too sure if the cute guy or the unenthusiastic spectacled guy are actually from my school or not.
Tall green man is really enthusiastic about learning English so he talks to me a lot.

I'm going to ask him about the cute guy next time I'm in a 3rd year English class with him.




Nadia looking really serious singing some Jrock song which I don't know. I'm a disgrace to NANA fans.

Nadia, Valentina and Irene sang dozens of English and Japanese rocks songs, so I decided to join in the head banging action.
My Happy Ending by Avril Lavigne -_-;;



I mentioned some of the energy draining songs a few photo commentries above. After a while I decided to mellow out and sing songs like Sakurairo Mau Koro by Mika Nakashima, Morai Naki by Hitoto You (along with the whole enka voice effect XD), Endless Story by Yuna Ito, Glamorous Sky by Mika Nakashima (not really mellow but doesn't require much vocal cord exertion), Remind by FLAME, A Little Pain by OLIVIA inspi' REIRA , 1,2 Step by Ciara feat.

Missy Elliott, Yu Jian by Stephanie Sun, Because I'm a Girl by Kiss (the Korean girl band Kiss not Gene Simmons KISS) and Sayonara Daisuki na Hito by Hana*Hana.



When it was 6:30pm we finished our karaoke marathon and we went to the toliet. This is how our conversation went:
Nadia: I never know how to get the soap out of these dispensers.

(Pushes and pulls tip of soap dispenser).
Mel: Just shake the tip like you're giving a hand job to a micro dick.

The last time I saw my BFF Maggie before I left for Japan, she said to me, "Mel, I will slap you if you come back as a Japanese fob".

I nodded, acknowledging her concerns as Ganguro doesn't really conform to Sydney's laid back beach culture. But my name is Mel and I'm 60% strong willed and 40% influenceable but 100% fun ^.~ I just didn't think that 40% would pull through.

However, Japan is this giant insidious fashion emporium that can change the minds of even the coldest Wintour hearts. So yes, my new born baby is Punk Rock and Gothic Lolita, I will love and nurture it until it grows into something wearable.

My change began with one word.

.. NANA.

Yes, so I was infected with Nanagitis before I left for Japan but this illness has gotten worse. I have never been into rock music as it's just noise to me even though some of my favorite songs belong within the rock genre (does that even make sense?) and besides many great fashionista's of our age believe that fashion should be part of your lifestyle and our lifestyle should contribute to our style.

That means I shouldn't dress like Nana no matter how cool I think she is because I'll just be a phony try hard rock chick. I have to disagree though. As I said a few posts before that I have broadened my views with the idea of trying different styles so I CAN DRESS LIKE A ROCK CHICK IF I WANT EVEN WITH MY LACK OF MOSHING WHILE WATCHING LIVE BANDS PERFORM!

(Note: Lack of = 0). Although I still think it is important to retain a certain style that you know back to front and inside out, I also think fashion is for everyone and people should experiment with style as much as possible. Not only is it fun but it also teaches people about different lifestyles and cultures.

Wow just think of that concept.

The abolishment of discrimination due to fashion!

Of course it's a tad bit idealistic but I have a new found respect for people down in that Utopia CD shop.

Refer to my post

Since I haven't posted any eyecandy for a long long time I'll update with quite a few pictures in this post for your viewing pleasure. All pictures are from Kera Magazine with my digital camera. I don't have Photoshop on my host mother's laptop so the photos are a little dark and I can't watermark them, please do not use without crediting me.

This blog entry has taken me over an hour and a half to finish. Click to enlarge.

Tartan skirts and b w horizontal striped knee length socks are essentials for both styles.

This outfit reminds me of something Misa from Death Note would wear. If it's Death Note, loves it.

Come on, even the little kids are getting into it.

They're so adorable. I'm gonna dress my kids Chip and Chloe like this (even if they want wear Ralph Lauren) and make them style icons at the tender age of three.

Punk Rock and NANA wouldn't be the same without Vivienne Westwood.

I'm loving the dress at the bottom right hand corner.

One problem with dressing Gothic Lolita is the fact that I'm tall and unfortunately one style that doesn't look good on tall people is Gothloli. You're meant to look young and cute hence the word Lolita.

Although of course models would still look amazing in something Gothic (just look at the Christian Dior Sping 2006 Couture show) but it always looks to high fashion rather than authentic Gothloli. Another problem with both Punk Rock and Gothloli styles is that these styles require extreme waif like bodies, even more so for Punk Rock due to all the cigarettes and drugs. Not to worry though, I've lost a kilo (2.

2lbs) over the weekend already (probably only water but anyway...

) so I'll be 50 kilos (110lbs) in no time.

Nana and Ren seem sceptic -_-;; Here's a rock chic one throw in for good measure. No I don't smoke, the cigarette is a prop.

For more refer to .

For most people high school was a time of change, mental maturing and adolescent angst. Although I would never consider high school the best time of my life I also wouldn't change it for anything.

It was my high school experiences that have laid the foundations for the person I am today. However there is one thing I regret..

. one small minute thing..

.



Yes those walks home together after school, the holding hands in school uniform and the "studying" session together. I NEVER EXPERIENCED ANY OF THAT!

!! And now to think that it's too late and I'll never have a chance to have a high school romance ever again.

Maybe I've been in Japan for too long and all this shoujo manga and high school TV drama's have influenced this sudden urge for love involving a blouse, tie, brown skirt and blazer.

During high school I had three boyfriends, none of them lasted extremely long and none of them were very serious. Two of them had already graduated high school when I went out with them and I dated the other one during the summer holidays and we broke up before the holidays ended lol.

Thus meaning no Sydney Girls High School uniform and ***** School uniform walks down the park and no stressing about exams together and no going to a boyfriends' Formal (aka Prom). I've been to 11 formals (including two of my own) and all of them have been with my guy friends. I actually went to my Year 12 Formal (aka Senior Prom) by myself *cries* but none of my friends brought a date either so it was actually a really great girls night out.

However that's besides the point. The point is that I missed out in a crucial part of my teenagehood. In twenty years time when three of my best friends from school and I sit in a cafe for brunch (evoking Sex The City scenes) they'll start talking about their high school sweethearts, how their boyfriends waited for them by the front gate after school and all the naughty things they got up to when they disappeared for three hours in a drunken high school party, and I'll just be sitting there twiddling my fingers while sporatically injecting a desperate comment on my high school romance dramas within the manga world -_-;;

Remember how I talked about hottie Akanishi a few posts ago?

Watch this lame but sort-of-cute-in-it's-own-little-way video.

You're waiting for Akanishi outside the school. He comes out with friends cheering him on. He asks you why you're waiting for him.

When his friends are gone, you two are walking home and he thanks you for waiting for him and that you two should walk home together tomorrow as well.
I want to hear all about your high school romances. Comment or send me emails!

!!