さよなら？

This will be the very last post of HOUR HOUR...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 was the day I first started blogging.

I made so many connections and friends here, and I had a really, genuinely fun time. I was able to inspire people, and I was able to be inspired countless amounts of time. But for several reasons, I lost connection with this blog...:

• I feel as though this became a Japanese language (learning) blog, rather than the personal blog that I originally wanted to write for myself.
• I was betrayed by my best friends, and on April 10, 2012―I finally left them. A huge chuck of this blog still contains memories of them that I'd much rather forget completely.
• I did a little soul-searching during the Summer of 2012. And in a 4-5 month time frame, I matured and grew a lot as a person. I changed, and now―I need to make a lot more changes.
• Happy Hour's layout is a default layout. The URL hasn't been bought, and I have never used my real name throughout this blog. I feel like this blog has never truly reflected ME. And when people started referring to me as the "Happy Hour" girl, I felt as though they were talking about someone else. I'm generally a positive/optimistic person, but my experiences in Japan won't always be so upbeat and joyful. I need a blog with the freedom to write about the good, and the not so good. I still want to inspire people to learn Japanese, and follow their dreams. But, in order to do so, my readers need to know both the pros and the cons of living life in Japan.

This is really sad for me.

Almost two years now, and Happy Hour has been able to generate 6,638 views. (My first full year of blogging was a ghost town period; with literally no page views. And so 6,638 page views is extremely good in my mind!) Surprisingly so; it seems I still get at least 25-30 page views per day. And considering that my last post was posted over four months ago (on April 10, 2012) those are surprisingly good ratings. I don't quite understand it, but I like to think that there are still people out there waiting for me to write again. And if that's true, I have exciting news for you! I also need your feedback now, more than ever. ♥

http://www.littlegaijin.net

   I started a new blog!   

The Little 外人

The Little Gaijin blog layout was actually a gift from my friend Hana! ♥ (Please check out this gorgeous, talented girl's blog!) 

My new blog is a huge improvement in my new life, and is becoming extremely sentimental thanks to Hana. ♥ I'm finally starting to use my real name―despite always hating it in the past. My name finally has a story behind it now, and I'm excited to share that story with you all very soon. 

Lastly!! During the time I first started "The Little Gaijin" blog, I received news that I would be able to transfer to my dream college (Temple University) from my parents. Of course, it wasn't very finalized in that "YOU ARE GOING, FOR SURE" way... until last Monday. ♥

The next chapter of my life...

TOKYO | 2013

You'll see this Little Gaijin in Tokyo next year.

（＾＿～）ノ

Hey, readers! I need your help, one last time.

I need (an extreme amount of) feedback! 

Please help me by answering the questions below, and submitting your answers to 

this post's comment section, or directly to littlegaijin [@] hotmail.com

1. What was something that you liked about "HAPPY HOUR", that you would like to see again in "The Little Gaijin" blog?
2. What is something new that you would like to see in "The Little Gaijin" blog?

サクラCON!

I had a great time in Seattle this weekend! ♥ Got to meet up with May, and scout out other bloggers. Made some connections with TUJ and JET, went to my very first Japanese concert, went dancing at a rave, went shopping and bought some art, and experienced dorm living for the first time! It was so much fun, but I STILL feel extremely tired... I need another weekend to relax and chill out!! :(

I'm not really an otaku type, but I definitely used to be! And, I know that it's no surprise to anyone that the reasons I got into Japanese in the first place―waaay back in 2005―were purely anime-related. And my parents sealed the deal and got me into classes after seeing the business aspect of the language; after all, we lived on Oahu. Although my huge, lovable family of Filipinos have just now taken the spot as Hawai'i's largest ethnic group;... when I lived there―the Japanese advertized their "number 1" status proudly. And if you spoke Japanese, any job on the island could be yours!!

Original image here: colourblindxx@deviantart.

 Forcedwent to a 分島花音 concert... please try not to squeal too loudly. Q----Q;

Apparently she's very popular here? She's not bad....I don't know much.., please don't kill me. :(

Taken off of the SAKURA-CON website. A rave in the concert hall. ♥

So! It was definitely a blast from the past to go to an event like this! I gave into my otaku needs (think of it like a smoker needing nicotine every once in a while...haha), and scavenged the whole building for any merchandise from my favorite animes! FOUND ALMOST NOTHING. Why aren't Japan's more popular series popular in the US?? PEOPLE. YOU HAVE LESS THAN ZERO TASTE. >:(

 A random gift from May. ♥ Thanks, you sexy thang. Wink.

Well, most of the things in these pictures were free gifts from stalls, and a few hand outs... (all except my 君に届け poster!! ♥), but a day or so after arriving back home―I got this in the mail!

Yep. I've been getting into イナズマ・イレブン recently... Condemn me. I dare you. I just joined a local soccer league, and started obsessing over watching 宮市亮's soccer games on the tele (English League: Bolton). So I wondered what Japanese soccer animes were like.. and got hooked. Japanese, soccer-playing kids on steroids! Who could resist?? And the Italian, Fideo Aldena, is a hottie. ♥

Well, I had an amazing time!! UGH. Had so much fun! The most productive weekend I've had in a very long time... didn't even have a minute alone to sit down! I might even go again next year, which is HUGE, coming from me..!  I might edit or elaborate later; but I can't even begin to explain how brilliant everything truly was! (Plus, I know one or two wonderful ladies that did a much better job covering the days than THIS crappy excuse for a blog post..!) Hope to do more composed posts real soon!

Don't be alarmed! Just my creepster daddy. Plus, the doors were locked!!

 ♥  Hana's version: day one, day two, day three.
 ♥  May's version: n/a. Coming soon??!

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know in the comments below if you were there as well, or how your weekend was! ♥ Aya.

春休み～。

I love meeting with other v/bloggers! Social media is such a funny world, and it's nice to meet with other crazies that understand. Today (or, should I say yesterday... currently undergoing an allnighter), I met up with my friend Anna May, and at the moment―she is actually sitting across from me typing up her version of the day... soooo awkward! LOL.

Isn't she so pretty? ♥ //drool.

She came by at about half past twelve, and ended up fixing my face until 4:00pm... took some pictures, and―finally―we left the house an hour later. Can you believe we got all dolled up to go to a FIVEGUYS restaurant? //shame.
May is practically a professional cosmetologist, photographer, fashionista, and photo-wizard―all combined inside a very unique 5'2ft lady. And so, I cannot tell you how nice it was to... wake up, close my eyes, and have my fabulous face painted on me in a little different style this morning! Or, how nice it was to have a high quality camera nearby at all times! She even tamed my crap morning hair!! I felt so pampered...♥

Ugh, yesterday was amazing. ♥ Not only did she get me out of the house for lunch―and some shopping for cake, and a few movie rentals―she also brought me some belated xmas presents, and early birthday gifts. ♥ I almost broke down crying from shock... had no idea there was that many things, and most with somewhat HUGE sentimental value.

She MADE this. SHE MADE THIS. - OMFG.

This was a picture we took back in Thanksgiving,.. in a bathroom. (I think we're sitting on the toilet, actually.) That whole weekend was a really emotional time for me, and just having her there throughout the whole thing really helped me forgive and forget some issues that really needed to be dropped.
Annnnd―yes, ma'am. That be a tofugu sticker you see up there~. I'VE ALWAYS, ALWAYS WANTED ONE. So this is either a happy coincidence, or an amazing friend who just knew. Either way, this sticker smells like dried fish... and has Koichi's essence ALL OVER IT. Time for Koichi clones? ;)

 

♥　「私と赤ちゃん作らない？」 ♥

She MADE these...

She freaking MADE these.

These are lip care products that May actually MAKES. The one that looks like delicious applesauce is actually a minty lip scrub, and the one that looks like all the delicious sweetness of the world in pink is lip balm...♥ AND THEY ACTUALLY WORK. She may be selling these online through her blog. Check out for these!!

Childish, chubby amazement/shock? The whole day long...

Dude, wtf? I can't be sexy even if I TRIED. :(

I had so much fun yesterday, and even now―now that we're sitting across from each other yelling, and bashing each other about how we never post anything... "SHUT UP. I'M WORKING ON IT. I'M ALMOST DONE, JEEZ." LOL. We definitely bring out the best in each other... especially since my whole face situation was conquered by this woman. ><; 

The two of us will be doing collabs very soon, and very often!―so please check out her blog!! She's an amazing person with so many different talents, and will have a wider range of posts than me. Definitely check this fine lady out! ♥

LOVE YA, MAY. ♥ Thanks for everything!! ;) xoxo.

aya.

It's nice to get away from the stress sometimes...

However, does anyone have any other ways for me to relieve some stress?

昨日チョー楽しかったよっ！♪

      Yesterday, I met with my friend Hitomi. :)
(During my last trip to Japan, my friends' English-professor-daddy had me meet up with one of his students for a much needed girls'-day-out in Kobe. And out of all the things I did on my trip―meeting Tomi was the most memorable, and fun!! ♥)
        Here's some purikura of us from that day―; ♥

   aaand now, here's a picture of us from yesterday...―;

(That's one of my mum's friends (Mimi!! ♥) on the left.)

After catching up a bit, and exchanging some omiyage--I gave Hitomi a short tour of my college campus (which is actually right next door to hers). This Fall, I will actually be working at her college as a Resident Assistant!, but... because of some stupid mistakes I made last year, I couldn't work the Spring session. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong again, but I'm not getting into THAT any further YET. It's too exciting, and I'm planning on doing a full post on that later this year. ♥


   aaaaaaand here's the omiyage Hitomi brought me from Japan!―;

Some-what coincidence!! We kinda celebrated SETSUBUN in class, but this handkerchief was the topping on the cake for me! ♥ Not only that―the cotton fabric is my favorite shade of green. (I'm planning on attaching the scented deco-balls (LOL, can't figure out a better word!) to my bag/cellphone. I don't want it to lose the perfume scent though... I'm 'a bit' of a preserver-type.)

While waiting for Tomi in my school's lounge/lobby; I was actually doing some kanji homework for my Japanese class... on tiny-lined notebook paper. Yeah, so, I was really happy to get this book. ><; I'm studying the damn kanji, so I should at least make it a little easier on myself! LOL. (I miss Kobe!! TT)

UGHHH. She's toooooooo nice! ><; Hopefully we can try meeting up once a week. I ♥ you, Tomi!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!! (;____;)//

   Finally, now, 
just some random, recent pics from my Japanese classes...―;

 

cam-whoring. ♥

So that was the exciting point of my last week. Hopefully, I can maintain this once-a-week posting thing... Well. "Hope for the Hopeful. Optimism at its best/finest."―aya. That's how I'm going about it.

Do you have any quotes you love?

(&&how was your week?) comment below, please. ♥

aya.　『絢ぁ』

JUST %$#@!'in DO IT!! (JFDI.)

   Here's to all you hesitant, Japanese linguists to-be,..
Your objective is simple: Learn Japanese. You've got ALL the tools you need. Notebooks, pencils, maybe a textbook, and then you've got the internet. The knowledge of the entire freaking world is now in your sweaty palms. With just that shiny new iPhone―you can literally read your way into Japanese fluency. No doubt. Anywhere, any time. (Bus delayed? That sucks. Hmm. iPhone in pocket + ten minutes. Time to learn a new word?) So, what's stopping you from doing something you just said you WANTED to do? JUST DO IT.

It's no secret that I support Koichi―and the guys at Tofugu―a mighty 101xπ%. Especially on this topic. Because as an aspiring (English/Japanese) teacher, I know that words mean nothing until there's completed work at the end of my desk. Plus, I didn't get to where I am now by watching the grass grow. I worked hard over the past 2-3 years, and I put in an insane amount of obsessive, hardcore energy into my Japanese studies. And, well,..

  here's just a few reasons why I KNOW you can do it too:

1. I was NEVER a good student. From Grade 1 to Grade 12―things got worse before they finally got a little better. Hell! I was even tossed out of a school because of my grades. 
2. I've tried learning Tagalog, Russian, and all things Irish (Gaeilge)... all in that order. Obviously, I gave up on each one. My entire family had once viewed me as 'the girl who talked big, but gave up easily'. Even now that I've achieved so much with my Japanese language skill―I'm STILL fighting this label within my family.      

So, now. Reading this, I knowKNOW you know you can do it. So, JUST DO IT.

Of course, of course. You might actually have some pretty good reasons keeping you from your 'doing it'. So, let me try smashing a few of those reasons with my mighty B.S. hammer.

      excuse: I have no idea where to start!

A: Bullsheeet. Alphabet, vocab. Think back to learning English. It's just like that. NO ONE learns Japanese the same way, the same order. You'll just have to trust me on that. There is no "wrong way" to learn Japanese (UNLESS romaji is involved). You want a tip?―here's a little something something to get you started.

      excuse: My life is just too hectic to take on a second language... 

A: aaanck! Wrong. You could of been studying during last sunday night's football game, last weekend, last summer,.. waiting in a waiting room,.. free time,.. the last time you spent ten minutes trying to touch your tongue to your nose. Ohhh, yeah. You just got called OUT, man. ANY amount of time spent studying is better than no time at all. So, JUST %$#@!'in DO IT.

      excuse: I'm scared of embarrassing myself.   

A: Number 1; if you're embarrassed of yourself wanting to learn Japanese―this language may not be right for you. Supposedly, this is something you want. Something you should start developing a passion for. And THAT is nothing to be ashamed of. Number 2; if you're embarrassed of talking out-loud, or making a mistake―I need to stress that making mistakes is the quickest way to learn a language, and something I recommend doing 101%. If you are really serious about Japanese, you'll know this, and you'll accept this. And sometimes, someday, your mistakes and embarrassing moments can become your most fondest memories. I speak from experience. Just do it, kiddo. :)

And so, before I leave you with you with your thoughts, I need to ask you a question... because the last excuse is the one you considered, but pushed aside into the back of your mind―too scared to hear the answer.

WHY do you want to learn Japanese,

and just how much do you want it?

The answer to this last excuse is simply "yes" or "no", and depends entirely on who you are, and how much you want this... and is something I've wanted to discuss on my blog for several years now. 

 Maybe Japanese isn't right for you. 

Learning Japanese so that you 'don't have to read the subtitles of an anime' used to be a popular reason that killed me on the insides. That, and learning so that you could live a 'carefree life in Harajuku'... (why, people, WHY?!)

Before, I would have wanted to write that if you were learning Japanese for these reasons―you should just stop now. But now, I don't think it's all that bad. Because; although the reason is small, your reasons for learning Japanese will grow with time... just like mine did. And that is something that I forgot.

So, I guess it all comes down to much you reallyREALLY want to watch sub-free anime... I guess. So let me ask you one more time......

WHY do you want to learn Japanese, 

and just HOW MUCH do you want it?

answer below in comments. ♥ 

aya.

Don't regret. Just DO IT.

It's V-Day again!

"post more!! (try for once a week; at least?) ><;"

Wow. Can you believe that I wrote that as my #1 resolution for 2012?

・・・最悪なぁ。 あたしが

  もうぅー！今年もいつものように彼氏がいない～ぃねっ

It's been about a month since my last post... but, BELIEVE ME―I've been pulling hairs in an attempt to hack up some kind of inspirational blog post of some kind. I'm still working on it, but I've learned my lesson! More than one post can be worked on simultaneously. And so, I don't know when this inspirational rant thing will be out, but I'll keep trying to post something on my blog each week. Fingers crossed. :)

バレンタインデー♥。

It's that time of the year again, and for the second year in a row―I made a batch of chocolates, and blogged about it like a boss. This year, I lost my tolerance for chocolate after-taste, so I decided to use white chocolates... completely neglecting the fact that I am NOT making these chocolates for myself. The toppings and fillings that I used weren't ingredients you'd usually want to mix white chocolates with, but... well, they looked pretty. ><;
(NOTE. ALL the chocolate photos were taken by my dad's snazzy iPhone camera thing. My camera would pull a nuclear before taking a picture that good...... Thanks daddy.)

Well, it was fun to work with white chocolates this year. :) NOT SO MUCH NOTICEABLE MESS. I definitely prefer it over the dark and milk chocolates I made last year... ><;

This year; I ended up making 友チョコ and 義理チョコ... for a few friends, and my college Japanese-linguist classmates. ♥ :)

♥ 本命チョコ (honmei-choko); chocolates as confessions, or given to husbands/boyfriends. Loved ones.

♥ 友チョコ (tomo-choko); chocolates given to close friends. :)

♥ 義理チョコ/ちょ～義理チョコ (giri-choko/chō-giri choko); "obligation chocolates". 

Chocolates given to bosses, coworkers,.. haha, well, you get it. ;) 

***don't get 本命チョコ confused with "homemade" chocolates! Sounds similar (katakana-wise) but a common mistake... in fact, just read my V-Day post from 2011... **dies in shame**. D:

Along the lines of Valentines Day traditions; I have one more. ♥ 

Since I was a kiddie, my mum would write me a letter and fill my lunch-bag with a few chocolates. When I got home from school, she'd have a few goodies laid out for no reason. Bracelets, teddy-bears, lotions, etcetc. This year, she got me some pretty awesome gifts. (Oh yeah... Valentines Day is actually tomorrow. That's how sweet my mom is. ♥)

ADORABLE 原宿 brand perfume; Gwen Stafani. (w/collectible top.)

I can ALMOST forgive Gwen for linking Japanese culture to Harajuku street...

 New Penguin's Parallel Text; in Japanese Short-Stories.

+ completely life-relevant; Confucius laminated bookmark that I looove.

 (I kid you not; I've been looking for this book for an extremely long time. ♥ ><;)

 Lastly, a cute top by Allen Schwartz' "Allen B" line.

My mom is the coolest. Hands down. ♥ And so, tomorrow, for Valentines―THIS KID is gonna dress up all snazzy, spray herself with Harajuku fluids, and study a book. Yay for singles!! </3

♥  ***So, how did you celebrate your V-Day?? :)

Answer below in comments!! (Looking forward to read!)

aya. 『絢ぁ』