There are days when I get out of bed and regret the decision immediately. After all, my favorite hobby is sleeping and then feeling like I haven’t slept at all. There are days when I can’t be bothered to put on clothes, put on makeup, do my hair. Je suis sick of that shit. There are days when I literally give up, so that the quilt of not doing stuff I was supposed to do today gives me energy get stuff done the next day. I mean, like, why do homework when I can sit here and hate myself? I literally sit there, looking down on my homework like I should totally do this for tomorrow and then, because I am a gigantic idiot, I’m like nah, not feeling like it. Then I panic the next day because I am not prepared for class. What kind of an idiot does this?!
In any case, I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. My morning classes start always 8:45 and it takes me from 20 to 30 minutes walk from my dorm to Uni depending on how badly Sapporo’s weather is trying to kill us that day. Which it had been valiantly doing since a couple of days ago. Our bikes outside are gone. Nothing but a huge pile of snow. People slipping everywhere. Snow in my shoes. Everything is white. We’re drowning in a gigantic white pillow called Sapporo’s weather.
I’m so fucking done with this weather because it means early wake up calls. Which are hell. You’d think that as a person who adores sleeping so much I would go to sleep helluva lot earlier but no, nope, my brain refuses to shut the fuck up in the evenings.
On the bright side, our midterms ended a week ago. I scored almost perfect score on each of my subjects because I’m also a gigantic nerd and a perfectionist. I feel like I haven’t studied this much since high school. Yeah, I could have bullshitted my way through basically everything else but Kanji midterms exam (because you actually have to study for that) but I ain’t about that lifestyle. Then again, I had been feeling really stressed about my schoolwork so I cancelled one of my classes which I’m planning to retake in the spring. So now, I feel more balanced and focused. Zen.
But really, me eating spaghetti doesn’t have anything to do with regret and everything to do with the fact that I can’t cook. You want to see a magic trick? I can even make pizza explode in the oven! I haven’t cooked by myself in weeks and why would I, when I can get anything and everything straight from conbi (convenience store) that are open 24/7. Maybe the fact that I’m getting so many pimples has something to do with my diet literally consisting of rice, meat, sauces and sweets. Like, I don’t know, sounds totally fake but okay. cough-denial-cough
Not only is my skin breaking out but me and the other Finns – that have fallen victim to all the chemicals Japanese people pump into their water – complain about the same thing: hair loss. There is hair everywhere in my room. Tufts of it come off when I comb it after shower. I have hair in my clothes, in my shower, on the floor, on my bed, even in my fridge. How, I do not know, but there it is. Apparently this is normal and to be expected and it should stop after half a year, but I’m not sure if I’ll have any hair left after six months if this pace continues.
What else have I been up to except for worrying about sudden baldness? Well, let me talk to you little about contemporary entertainment.
Lately there has been a lot of commotion about Yuri on Ice!!! which is basically an anime about a Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki who gets famous and successful Russian skater Victor Nikiforov as his coach, and they fall in love in the process of working towards winning the Grand Prix gold medal. And the commotion isn’t unfounded, this anime is truly a feast from visual effects to soundtrack. Besides, all that fan service. My god. Take me out of the oven because I am so done. This time in a good way.
The other anime and manga that has had my undivided attention for a while is Haikyuu!! (what is it with all the exclamation marks in the titles, I do not have answers for you, I’m also bewildered). Surprisingly enough, it’s a volleyball anime. Yes, I have fallen for a sports anime and I can’t get up. In fact, I don’t wanna get up. If anything, I’d like to dig myself a little bit deeper into this series because it’s so worth it. You know when you get that nervous flutter in the pit of your stomach and panicky jitters when you watch your favorite sports team play IRL? This basically puts all those emotions in a nutshell and let’s you enjoy the feeling to the fullest.
Everyone should just keep an open mind and try different things even though they are not in your usual genre because, who knows, maybe you’ll also come across gems like these two animes. I’m never been into sports animes before but hell, I ain’t turning back now.
One more serie that I want to talk about is not an anime and surprisingly enough, not even Japanese. I’m talking about a Korean history/romance/action/drama called Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, or also known as Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo. Don’t let this soft looking name ruin this bad boy for you, alright? This thing, right here, is pure gold. If by pure we mean it will make you the happiest person on earth, and by gold that it will eat your heart, chew, and spit the remains out just so you can cry yourself into dehydration. That kind of gold. The main storyline is basically about a modern woman who gets thrown back in history into Goryo-era (I do not know Korean history enough to tell you anything meaningful about this era, I’m sorry) and attempts to survive in there, all the while she just might fall in love (more than once) and change history.
Through my various experiences with animes, dramas and fan fiction, I have arrived into a conclusion that I greatly enjoy watching other people emotionally suffer on screen. I will also stay awake the whole night in order to partake into the said suffering and cry my eyes out because the said actors are too precious for this world. I just like torturing myself, ok? Don’t judge me.
What else, what else? There have been a couple amazing parties I’ve gone to.
For example, there was this awesome Thanksgiving Party where everybody cooked or baked some food to share. Even with this many people everyone had their stomachs full by the end of the party. The food just kept coming and coming. I am actually in the picture as well, somewhere on the background behind everyone else (curse my vertical restrictions).
Another party that I thoroughly enjoyed was International Christmas Party at Club Vanity in Susukino. Since I felt like my makeup that night was totally on point, here, have a picture.
Thankfully there are no actual pictures from that night but let me tell you, it was awesome. We danced for maybe 4 hours straight and had a blast! Shout out to my party gang of Helka, Joan, Stuart, Kaita and Hao for being totally awesome, and also congratulations to Kaita for winning ”the wild-one” gold medal with the pure power of his abs. Another similar party will be held next weekend but in a different (bigger!) club, and to tell the truth, I can’t wait. I need more party outfits. Shopping required ASAP.
So, in midst all that drunken haze we actually managed to have another wonderful trip to the onsens with Ewelina, Carmen and Agné. This time it was the Hoheikyou onsen near Jozankei with a very reasonable price of 1800yen which included the bus tickets there and back, as well as the onsen ticket. We managed to soak up for a good 3 hours, saw the sun set and stars come out, all the while floating in that steamy pool. Pure. Extacy. And so, I conclude this blog entry with some pictures from that magical place as well as of us, being just generally magical:
So, on that note… I went to see an orchestra. It was awesome but in my typical style I feel asleep at some parts. I’m so sorry, I’m so ashamed of myself.
I took the picture above today from my route to Hokkaido University. As you can see, the weather has been treating us nicely and Sapporo has proven to be a beautiful city. Before I came here I admit to being a little nervous as to how I’m going to survive in asphalt jungle but as you can see, Sapporo is actually a very green city. There are stunning parks, little roads, and greenery everywhere. In Hokudai students can actually study Agriculture as a major, so we have their playgrounds all around campus: apple trees, potato-carrot-onion-salad-fields, greenhouses, flowerbeds, tree plantations… You name it, they have it. And it’s beautiful.