azurite | Entries tagged with hong kong

Greetings from the lobby/lounge area of the Sakura Hostel in Asakusa, Tokyo. Today was a challenge, being that we had to be up around 4:30am to get a bus to the Hong Kong airport only to wait around for a few hours and sit on a mostly-empty plane back here to Japan. But we made it! And I got to see "The Lake House," which, while horribly predictably and totally paradoxical, was romantic-squishy-fun for me.

Also, I am screwed for money (again). I'm honestly trying to figure out exactly where I went wrong, and the only thing I can genuinely think of is: food. Plus country-hopping does horrid things to my money, because you're stuck using an exchange rate and the buy-sell rate of various banks in airports. And today, Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ at Narita refused to take my coin money (all of $12.40 HKD, which isn't much), so I have to try and change it somewhere else or be stuck with Monopoly money that I can't spend (pretty much).

I think part of it is also that I ended up getting gifts where I initially didn't budget for them: I got more things for my Mom and Dad, even though I had already bought (and sent, for a lot of money, because EMS is expensive!) because I found things that "fit," and I also ended up getting omiyage for my tutors and roommates. And I also bought myself a few things here and there --a Mulan picture frame, some nice Disney Princess stickers, a Space Mountain photo, and a few random other things... some gifts for other people, too, but every time I calculated it out in my head, it never seemed much (in USD, anyway). But after paying for the hostel (I did it all at once, so as to not be broke and have to ask Bonnie for money), I have something like ¥2000 left. I am making a transfer from my PayPal (the money from the PayPerPost entries), and I transferred funds between Savings and Checking to help out... what's killing me is the $108 bill I have to pay on 1/10. I don't think the Exchange Students are getting paid on the 5th, the next Friday after we get back, which WOULD be our payday if we hadn't had vacation and that wasn't the first day back after the break. Hopefully the 12th, since we'll have another week of EC plus the pre-break EC sessions to get paid for. But until the 23rd when I leave, that's it.

I feel horrible, because Dad, Baba & Grandpa all pooled together and gave me that great and generous Hanukkah gift, and here I am wondering wtf it all went. I can blame part of it on being responsible-- paying bills and not just going crazy and buying totally POINTLESS things... mostly. :( Also, there are fees for every damn thing-- part of the reason why my bill is so high. I just hope I don't have any issues with the next NTT/Yahoo! BB bills I'm going to get. I don't know what I'll do if I can't scrounge up the money. I HATE (and I use that word SPARINGLY, to give you an idea of how much I don't usually "hate") asking people for money, especially if they've been exceedingly generous in the past.

I can't wait to get back to the States where there'll be a job and a big, fat financial aid check waiting for me. I do have to pay Mom back immediately (for helping me out with the phone bill, not to mention all the packages she sent), and there is no way in hell I'm just going to slack off and not EARN that damn scholarship; if anything, this is the wake-up call not to spend so much money. The Seishun 18 Kippu will help with transportation money (so it's good I planned out what days to use it and what days to not), but generally I think I'm going to have to be very wise and cautious. I'll use the time I might normally spend shopping working on my paper instead. I don't want to disappoint anyone.

I can deal. :)

...I hope. I suppose later on, I'll post a whole "trip retrospective" and give more details on everything, but other than the fundage issue, I'm well, Bonnie's well, and so far I'm having fun. I hope I get to see the Dali exhibit tomorrow, because it's the one thing I DO want to see, regardless of funds. I already bought the Disney tickets, so I can't get out of that, but I can make sure I minimalize for everything else possible without being a stinking cheat.

Current Mood: worried
Current Location: Sakura Hostel, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan

Ah, the joys of Internet. Surprisingly, even in a 3-star hotel such as this one, there are no less than 15 wireless networks in the area. The bulk of them are WEP-encoded and thus I can't access, and some I just couldn't get a stable connection to... so I paid about $15.95 USD for a 24-voucher for access... and I gotta say, sitting right up here in my own bed, typing on my own laptop in my own language is pretty damn nice.

But you don't wanna hear about that, you wanna hear Mer's Big News!

Bonnie has a new boyfriend!
No, seriously. And stellar budding photojournalist that I am, I found a picture of him on the web! Click here to check him out, and then ( Read more... )

I'm sure given time and a more comfortable schedule (and bed!) I could probably think of more to say, but being that we have to be up by 7:30am or so tomortow to walk to a nearby hotel for our tour, I think I should log. :P Catch you in Tokyo!

P.S. If you or anyone else has tried to text message me since I've been in HK, I don't think I've gotten your messages. The network here is called 3, but it's a 2.5G band... while my phone is more than compatible with it (I've received text messages from them advertising their "guide to HK" service), I don't know if text messaging is. And hell knows what T-Mobile might be charging for calls/TMs from here as opposed to Japan! So please email me, and I'll try and get back to you within a few days. I can't really call, even from Skype, because I don't have my microphone... if I did call anyone, it would sound VERY strange (due to the feedback from my internal speaker, I think-- even if I had my headphones plugged in, the internal mic is embedded within the internal speakers).

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Location: Imperial Hotel, Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

In less than 10 hours, I will be on my way to Tokyo/Narita to go to Hong Kong with

baine! I'm actually pretty excited. :) Today went by really fast toward the end, but I'm glad I got so much done-- I did my laundry, cleaned up my room, finished planning the budget sheet, printed out maps and generally walked away with a feeling of accomplishment. I also ended up buying both the tickets for the Disney Tokyo resorts (Sea and Land) and Hong Kong; Bonnie'll pay me back for them, but at least we can both be confident that we won't have any problems getting into the park-- we have TICKETS, dammit. (At least, I hope that's the case that they don't oversell and expect people to be able to come back whenever; I'm sure we'll try and go to the parks at opening, so we don't have to worry about that.) Truthfully, both parks seemed pretty cheap compared to the original down in Anaheim. :P It was only $45 for the Hong Kong park, and only $80 for both Disney Sea and Disney Tokyo on the 2-Day Passport. Unfortunately, I didn't know the passport could only be used for consecutive days, so I had to change our plans from Disney on the 28th and 31st to the 30th and 31st. We're still sticking with our original plan for Hong Kong Disney on Christmas Day, though. :)

I managed to pack enough clothes for all 10 days in my duffle-wheelie, and I'm bringing my big black purse and my backpack for carry-ons. I'm also going to bring the laptop-- not that I'll have Internet access (that I know of), but I do want to try and work on all my papers... I have to at least get started on my paper for Mass Media, and of course, keep working (if possible) on my scholarship paper. Kerhoff from Criminology finally gave us (the exchange students) an assignment to determine our grade, but it's not due until 2/1... still, I'd rather get it over with sooner while the information is fresh and I'm more likely to have free time that I *should* dedicate to school (rather than websites or fanfics). And then there's culture and pop culture, both of which have papers due, but with no specific date set as of yet (as far as I know). I missed both those classes this week because I wasn't feeling well. Ironically, that wasn't the day after the party, when I had something akin to a hangover (yes, I'm pathetic).

What else? My back still hurts from all the hunching-over New Year's Cards I did, but at least I got everything mailed out- tomorrow I'll mail Scott's present + letter, but I mailed everything else (Joyce's package, Dad's package, postcard to Gary, New Year's cards to my Japanese tutors and roommates, and a card for Scott's mom) today. I'm going to look around for the game

staplerx wanted, and the doujinshi at Comiket that

richlikesmaids mentioned, plus presents for Holly, Grandpa, another, slightly-more-significant gift for Scott, doujinshi for

atlantian_magic and

guardian_kysra, and perhaps my tutors/roommates as well. After budgeting everything out, it looks like I can afford to do that, even if I weren't feeling guilty (because many of the other exchange students gave gifts to their tutors today; I didn't GET anything from my tutors except some cute cookies from Misato, but that's to be at least partly expected; people don't really do the gift-giving thing en masse here in Japan, which is VERY surprising given the amount of attention and hype Christmas gets).

I should get to bed soon so I can wake up early enough to make a hearty breakfast (gotta finish off all my milk; I already gave Holly all my eggs, but I want to drink all the milk and OJ; everything else I can freeze) and call both Mom and Scott. :)

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

Ah, the luxuriousness of the relaxed weekend is almost over! ;_; Whine. And I won't even have much of a winter break, because I've got all of 2 weeks to travel around before heading BACK to school (and therefore finals), and then back to the States, and then starting school one week after that (and work one week after THAT). I look forward to the weekends SO much here in Japan. And it's funny, because that would imply that I'm really busy, but it doesn't FEEL like it. Maybe I am really busy, but things I'm doing have become so routine or mundane that I can't recall them when someone asks "So what are you up to?" or something like that.

Anyway, today I actually decided to get out of the dorms-- yesterday I felt pretty ill, and I slept most of the day, hardly ate, and kept waking up in the middle of the night. Today didn't start much better, as I woke up first with a horrible stomachache, and then a rotten headache. I slept until after 12pm, and when I finally got up, I took some Ibuprofen for my headache, had some pancakes, and decided to go to Daiso to get some CDs, DVDs, and other random necessities. My HD has been filling up pretty fast here-- mostly with pictures and music-- so I've been burning all the NANA anime and Death Note onto DVDs, along with any other movies or things I happen to score. But I need to clear out more space, as I only have a little over 2 GB free now... and this is on an 80 GB capacity drive. WTF?

I also headed to the Mito Eki area, and decided to go to Marui to see if Todd's recommendation about the menswear (as presents) was any good. They did have some cool stuff, but nothing really screamed "Scott would love this!" to me. I did swing into the Virgin Megastore (yes, I was surprised, too) and saw Mika Nakashima (aka NANA from the live-action movie)'s new single for "Hitoiro," but I didn't buy it. Her new album is coming out on the 12th, too (that would be "The End"), and it's really expensive! CDs here are such a rip-off, unless you get old, used ones from Hard Off or something... Still, I do like all the NANA music (live action and anime), so maybe I'll hunt it down eventually... it might be cheaper on cdjapan.co.jp!

Well so anyway, what kind of presents do you get for the man in your life? (Dad, brother, boyfriend, whoever) I've gone through countless gift guides, said no to all the usuals at the Gift Stations (ties, cufflinks, pens, etc), and am STUMPED for ideas. I just think I'm an idiot when it comes to men. (Male friends on my FL, please, feel free to disagree with me. It'll make me feel better. Of course if you don't, it won't make me feel WORSE, but obviously I would appreciate your input A LOT.)

In Virgin, I found a cool magazine oriented toward gaijin folk like myself living in Japan, and it turned out to have some pretty helpful listings of things to do and places to go. For the few days

baine and I will be in Tokyo, I know we want to spend 2 days checking out both Disney resorts, and at least some portion of a day hanging out with two other

smrffers, Kris and Fin. I don't really think we've decided on specific whens or wheres just yet, though. I do know that I'd like to go to the Ueno Royal Museum for the Dali exhibit, and probably "somewhere cool" for New Year's. Alas, all the clubs having New Year's countdowns are SO EXPENSIVE! And there are some pretty big names coming to Japan, soon (or are already here), like Muse, Eric Clapton, Foo Fighters, etc. ;_; I wish I could afford to go!

I'm thinking next weekend I have to go to Kairakuen for sure (1) just to see it, and (2) because I need to visit a local Mito temple with a "Japanese friend" and report on it for my religious studies class quiz. The following weekend, there will be not one, but TWO antique fairs in Tokyo, so I thought I might go to those, to check out and see if I could find some cool presents for my Dad and Scott. I also have a lot of space in the boxes to fill up for Joyce and for Baba and Grandpa... gah, shopping is hard!

Tomorrow after class, I can't just sleep in, either-- I have to repeat the whole post office --> bank thing, by going to the post office to make a withdrawal, and then going to the Tokyo-Mitsubishi bank to pay the balance on my IACE trip. YAY for that being almost taken care of! Then all I'll have to do is save up for the Tokyo hostel, shopping, food, and transportation in Hong Kong (I bought the JR Seishun 18 Kippu today, so travel in Tokyo is taken care of). I do have to go to Kasumi tomorrow to buy some groceries, and the other night, we went to Coco's for a vaguely expensive (but totally filling) dinner for Holly and Sokei's birthdays... so it's back to yen-pinching, if I want to have a good time. I'm dead-set on having a good time, so it's all about save save save! I would go to Kasumi tonight when I know things will be on sale, but my head is back to pounding and pounding...

( I can't really remember my health ed class that well, so prepare for The Stupidest Sex Question Mer Has Ever Asked! )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

Okay, so I've been religiously checking my WaMu account back in the States everyday for the past week, to see if that transfer I made from my last paycheck cleared. Well it did today, as promised by the girl at the post office. And of course, WaMu took $10 from it as a fee (and I'd paid something like $23 just to MAKE the damn transfer in the first place. Geez, how useless!). But hey, the money's in there, and it's enough to pay for the rest of Hong Kong.

Here's my pickle.
(1) If I go to the post office today, withdraw the money I need (about 63,000 yen) and pay for the trip today, I will have something like $40 left in my bank account. I have $25 in Savings. That's it. But I have to pay for the trip by 12/5 (Tuesday), or lose it all.
(2) I have a $121 phone bill to pay by 12/10.

BUT!
(1) I do get paid on the 8th. If I go to the post office and make a transfer again, I *MIGHT* be able to pull something off... this time I actually know the Bank Code, so theoretically I could do a wire transfer. But wire transfers STILL might take up to 5 days, and even if American and Japanese banks/post offices are open on Saturdays (for a limited time compared to weekdays, aka "business days"), the money might not get there in time for me to pay my phone bill.

(2) Dad said he'd help me out after I emailed him, but he didn't say when or how much he'd put in. And while I could easily ask Mom, I've ALREADY DONE THAT, and for a SHITLOAD of money, and I DO NOT WANNA DO IT AGAIN.

The bright side is that any leftover money I have from the next 2 paychecks I'm going to get, I'm saving for the actual trip to Hong Kong (food, transportation, etc). Of course I also have to save some for my December (and possibly portion of January) bill for Yahoo! BB, since I only get the first two months (October and November) free. I don't expect it to be much, but that doesn't mean I can go out and buy Louis Vuitton purses and Prada key holders.

GAAAH, WHAT DO I DO!?

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: Tokiwa University International Exchange Hall, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

So it's 3:37am on Saturday here, and I'm only awake because I went to bed EARLY (I was exhausted by 8:30pm) and didn't eat dinner. Later today (which feels "technically" like tomorrow), I have to go to both the Hyaku-En (aka Daiso) and Kasumi (aka Supermarket) and get some necessities, but generally speaking I'm still yen pinching. Thankfully I only have to deposit 30,000 yen by November 27, and the rest by December 5. I think I can manage that, even if (alas), there's no payday in-between now and then. I got paid today, and I went to the post office and did a transfer, but because I had no idea if a "bank code" was my routing number (which I put) or not, they have to do the slow, probably-by-mail transfer. -_- It takes a week. But I can just go to the post office again, withdraw cash from my bank account, and then fork it over to them with the IACE invoice saying "here you go, can you make this transfer for me?" No harm, no foul.

I do have a question though: for all you Mac users, is there a BitTorrent client that lets you choose WHICH files from inside a torrent that you want to download? I'm actually trying to catch up with the NANA anime, and two currently-seeding groups are doing batch downloads. Alas, my HD ran out of space at episode 10, and Tomato Torrent didn't seem to want to let me choose which files I wanted to finish downloading (11, 12, and 13). But I don't want to re-download 1-10 again (after I burned them to DVD and then deleted them from my HD)! Maybe there's something I can do in AppleScript, or should I just look for a better client? Or will that disrupt the hash, and I would have to re-download ALL of 11-13 again, even though I already have the majority of the episodes? I tried looking for individual episode downloads from the trackers, but they don't offer them anymore-- and honestly, I am a bit picky about my subtitle standards. I'd prefer Live-eviL or Ureshii, especially since they have the most seeders, too.

Does anyone want to help me with weekly_ygo? I feel silly for asking this again, but those that volunteered before I left for Japan now have other commitments, and while I DO have regular internet access, I'm also pretty damn busy with teaching English, writing papers for all my classes, applying to SDSU, and so on. So I could use a helping hand, even if it's just someone who browses

playthedamncard for updates and emails them to me. I MIGHT be able to handle the rest, but I thought I would ask anyone who has a free hour or two each week if they can help out. I will also be out of town (i.e. out of Japan/away from Internet) from Dec. 23-Jan. 2, which means I'll ESPECIALLY need help during that time, unless I put the community on suspension and resume when I have time. Demoerin said she can return in February, which is most likely true for me as well... but if anyone can help, please, please speak up!

Current Mood: aggravated

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January 2016

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MILES to GO || before I sleep

lovely // dark // deep

Entries tagged with hong kong

Sakura Mae

Greetings from Hong Kong

Gettin' a little excited now

Workin' on it

Dilemma!

Well PHOO!