Count down to FDTP...

Eiko says...
It's 34 minutes into the 31st of August. That leaves me with 3 more days till I head off with Ken and Rica (is that how you spell her name?) and Yasu for the FDTP. What to do? What to say? Not much. For some reason or another, the FDTP isn't my very favorite subject to think about, much less write about, and I just finished writing 4 full pages of why I'm dreading the FDTP, what I'm expecting from it, and how I need to make it my time and money's worth in my diary!
One thing's for sure: it's going to be so darn tiring.
It's also for sure that the classes are going to be awesome. But these awesome classes will also for sure be long. You see, my concentration span is no more than 1 hour and I think this will be a problem, not only for me, but for the staff.
Word Class Staff:"What's that head of hair doing on the table instead of on a sturdy set of shoulders, held high and alert by a sturdy neck? Don't tell me that's Eiko again, dozing off into dream world!" I can see it already. Sigh.
Well, we'll see how this goes once the time comes. I also have a sleeping disorder where sleeping during normal, human hours (which are usually anywhere from 10:30 to 12:30 in my books) is very difficult, so no doubt this will also be a problem which will probably contribute to my being the sleepy head during classes that are anything over an hour. I think it might also affect me during P.E time.
P.E staff: "Eiko, is that the fastest you can run? Holy...!" I dread P.E... so much.
But we'll see how that goes as well.
Oh, and I'm not good in large, human settings. I mean, crowds suffocate me. I tend to feel a bit nauseous and faint when there are over 5 unfamiliar faces in one room. How the heck am I suppse to feel in a room full of over 20? Eeek! This results in a very strange Eiko that acts slightly different..., no, make that very different than the Eiko we are used to being around at Home. I don't like this Eiko very much. It's quite stressful, you know. You see why I'm bound to come back tired and greying?
And of course, this is me being all very negative and whiny. The FDTP will be fine. God bless all the staff that are working so hard to prepare everything so nicely for us. I'm truly thankful. And I also think it'll be a good change for me. Everyone needs change. Change of senery, change of food, change of company, change of weather, change of room mates, change of schedule...and I'm going to get all of this and then some during the 4 weeks at the FDTP! What more could I possibly ask for?
Hmm...let me think.
Pasta! If I get to eat good pasta at least twice over there, I think I'll be fine. Really. ;)
Okay, I ought to try sleeping now.
Nighties.

The Summer Festival

Eiko says...
Once again, the HCS held a very exciting, successful Summer Festival which we all enjoyed. The last Summer Festival I went to was 3 years ago when Hiki was still the JT counselor and we, (Boris, Yasu, Hiks and I ) had stayed over at the HCS for a week or two before the Festival to help out.
"Helping out" included scrubbing Lydia's house inside and out, preparing food, and setting up and manning an ice-cream crepe booth. The ice-cream crepe booth was a bad idea. I'm sure you get the picture. There was a stack of crepes on one tray. On a cutting board were unpealed bananas that needed to be peeled and cut before serving with each crepe. There was melted chocolate for decoration and I think we had some sprinkles and/or whip cream to make the crepes look more attractive and sexy. Then there was the ice-cream. There were 3 flavors in one container with no divider, and being that it's summer and all the ice-cream would not stop melting! (like duh) Sure there was a cooler with ice in it which we'd return the container of ice-cream to after serving each customer, but apparently the crepes were good-tasting and we had a perpetual line up of greedy customers wanting more, MORE and MORE. This of course meant that the ice-cream would stay out of the container for long periods of time and be subjected to the naked heat of the summer. After only 30 minutes, the ice-cream was melting bad and before we knew it, there was no chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Instead, we had a new flavor which I'll call chocovanillaberry, and it was a very difficult mess to work with. The strange thing was that people kept coming for more. I kept telling them that we only had chocovanillaberry, and it would probably taste quite different from what they were expecting, but they really couldn't care less. They wanted ice-cream crepes, chocovanillaberry or whatever!
By the end of the day, my hands were gooy with banana slime, chocovanillaverry, the sprinkles, and whip-cream. Yeah...ice-cream crepe idea wasn't a good idea. Everything else was though. And so everything else was laid out once again for Summer Festival 2009. The curry, yakisoba, pop-corn, kakigori, the American dogs, the baked yummies and beer were all still here. And it was awesome! So were the bands. Kando-Bando did waaaaaaaay better than the last time I heard them play, which would be 3 years ago. Heart to Heart was perfect as always. The kids circus was a brilliant addition and I loved it. It was a hearty summer festival, and I'm sure everybody there really enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Good job, HCS!

Check out the pics that were taken at the Festival below!









It was also Yasu's first time on the Highway, and he did a spanking job! I was so proud of him! I mean, my navigating sucked big time, but he managed to get us there all in one piece, and for a new driver, Yasu drives very smooth. It's smooth like nama beer! Well, will blog again soon. So keep up with me! Loves, hugs, bye. ;)

Pre-Summer Festival Hangout and New Lounge!

Eiko says...
The teens in our home have decided to branch out and do something new by attending the yearly Summer Festival at the HCS. But just in case the summer festival wouldn't live up to each individuals idea of a cup of tea", we decided to start our excursion the night before with a bang! That "bang" would be watching "Ink Heart" in our absolutely wicked, new lounge on 4th floor over some snacks. We all loved it.
The Absolutely Wicked, New Lounge on 4th Floor!!
What I LOVE About Our Lounge BEST!
Watching Ink Heart in that very lounge.After the movie, feeling very happy satisfied.

Camping...?!

Akari says...

Eiko told all of you, readers that I will be posting about this, I guess I have to… so here it is!

First, I think I must explain why we went camping in the first place. Well, our vacation is going to be at the first of October, and Pa and Yuya just couldn’t wait for 2 months to go camping, so they decided to have a 1 night vacation beside Mt. Fuji.

There was 1 thing different from the many camping we had. Eiko and Yasu weren’t there! I know why Eiko couldn’t come. She was tired, worn inside and out because of the many hours that she was standing in Kappa. But, Yasu, I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s because he’s a father and because he’s busy. Well, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

After we loaded all our stuff in our car, we were off.

2 hours later, instead of going straight to the camping grounds, we decided to look around. Mom just happened to find a flower park near by and so we decided to go check it out. It was nice and pretty, all but the fact that we had to pay 200 yen per person to go in the park. You might think that 200 yen isn’t such a large sum, but for us, we count money by Ice cream, and 14 Ice creams being wasted was rather frightening.

Now, we can go to the camping grounds! Or… so I thought. Mom found ANOTHER park nearby. But this time we didn’t have to pay anything to go inside the park. Instead, we got to have Ice cream for parking our car! Wait, you might have a question mark hovering over your head. Well, instead of paying money we just have to buy something from a store ( that they own) right next to the parking lot, and as normal stores do, they sold Ice cream!!

The park wasn’t bad…actually, I was glad I went there. The park had a lot of lakes, and these lakes aren’t just ordinary, muddy, lakes with a few creatures in it. The lakes were small, but they were 5-15 meters deep, and you can see the bottom of the lake very clearly.

I’m going to junk all the other things we did there, because then, this post is going to be too long. I’m going to skip to the camping ground.

So, a very ‘generous’ (as Mom puts it,) guide showed us where the park our car, where to pitch our tents, and where the kitchen was etc. I was to pitch the tents with Yuya and Pa and the girls were going to cook for us. It took us a long time to pitch the tents because somebody mixed some parts of one tent with another. After tiring ourselves out, we found another problem. We forgot to bring coal! How on earth were we to make a fire without coal?! I don’t know how, but after 2 long hours of choking on smoke and fanning the fire, we got the fire blazing. Yuriko was fanning the fire for a whole hour and she still says her arms are sore. There was another thing that made this camping…well, tiring is that there was hardly enough light, and the toilet was not close to our tents and the way there had only one light.

After running around and tiring ourselves out, we finally got to have some fellowship time. It was so much fun having Yuriko there. Mom and Dad were sleeping in another tent and we kids were sleeping (all 5 of us) in another. That was one of my highlights of the day…sleep and fellowship.

We woke up at around 7 o’clock (which isn’t so early especially when out camping) and while reading word with Pa, we brought our food, Yakisoba, but we were shocked to find the Yakisoba was being feasted by red ants. I was trying to squash them all but they were too many. Well, the breakfast with the ants done, we packed the tents and loaded our car to go.

Not much happened after that, besides Lunch (which was Curry and rice) and besides that, we all decided that it was time to go home, and that we got stuck in a traffic jam and it was night time when we finally came home.

It was all very fun and exciting. It’s a long post and I think I will end it here. Good night.

belly chub on guys ;)

Eiko Says...

Akari just came back from a very *exciting* camping trip that she'll be updating us all on, but until then I have something to say...

to all you guys...

who are working out...

endless hours...

trying to get your Shaun-T-Perfect-Abs.

What I want to say is...

STOP!!!

And stop like NOW!!

Because.

Girls aren't really into perfect abs that protrude and are steel hard. I mean, for one, it looks far too...hard. Secondly, it IS too hard. And lastly, how are your perfect abs suppose to make us feel? Absolutely inferior! If you must work out, then work out your biceps or something. Biceps are nice. Shoulders are nice too. So are backs and chests are OK. But a little pouch of chub around the belly area is actually fine. And I mean, ... fussing over belly fat is what girls do. Guys can chill out about it. Really. I mean, if you have nice, toned abs, then good for you. It's nice. But if you don't, that's nice too.

And that's really all I wanted to say.

So good night for now, and coming up will be a post by Akari about her *exciting* camping trip with Mom and Dad. We will soon post some pictures of our new, extra-naughty-looking, kick-ass 4th floor!! And don't be satisfied with just the pictures. If it looks too good to be true, then drop by and see for yourself! You'll be so proud of everybody who put so much into making it look so hawt!

2:40am...

Eiko says...
I glance up at the clock that hangs on our wall over the comp and it tells me that it's already 2:40 am. But all I can do is shrug my shoulders and continue to browse the countless blogs that seem to be all the fuss and the rage these days among most young people in the Family. It's called insomnia, everybody--not the blog thingie, but the 2:40 AM thingie.
The sad truth is that my night shifts at Kappa have been having it's way with my body and has completely screwed up my body clock. I've been scrapping by with 1 to 3 hours of sleep for almost 3 weeks now and I'm not so happy about it. Sleep happens to be quite important to me, and not being able to sleep at night has added a few more wrinkles to my face that I have to fuss over now, and a few more grey hairs that I'll have to re-dye soon. But I realized that trying to get comfortable and sleep when your body isn't ready for it just adds to the stress of it all, and so I've decided to get smart and give up on sleep all together.
Some of you may argue that insomnia is all in the mind. Well quit arguing, 'cuz you would be arguing in vain! Because for the most part I agree with you. I think insomnia has a lot to do with your mental state. If you've got something that's worrying you, or you're just the worry wort type, or you simple enjoy thinking and pondering your sleep away, than that's probably your problem right there. In my case though, I think there's that and also my night shifts. My body just isn't up to sleep after coming back from work and taking a nice refreshing shower.
It's not a good thing though. Like I mentioned above, I've only been able to have 1 to 3 hours of sleep for the past few weeks, and on rare, happy occasions, I've been able to sleep 5, long, beautiful hours. But it's just not enough, and as insane as it may sound, taking naps is also quite difficult. I've tried taking naps, but the more I try, the harder it seems for me to sleep. I can doze for maybe 30 min. but not much longer. This has not been without consequences. I've experienced what I call, "sleepy high" where I become insanely happy to the point of being cheesy. I find myself laughing over stupid and serious things alike. I find myself making pathetic jokes. I find myself doing silly things in a very silly manner, and strangely, I find myself quite energetic. Of course, if there's a "sleepy high", than that means there's also a "sleepy low", and occasionally I collapse on the nearest chair, table, sofa, bed, door mat, whatever, and look like a zombie.
So, I've determined to change. How? By getting to the root of the problem, which I believe is my night shifts. Yup. I'm quitting. Of course, this is not the only reason why I'm quitting. There's a variety of reasons and excuses, but most of all, Jesus seems to be leading me to say good bye to my lazy boss and my co-workers and all the raw fish for something even better! Whoopee! I love the change journey!
I also love back massages, kaki pees, Boris, air conditioned rooms, and all the handymen that came and helped us out with our 4th floor renovation. You guys are THE guys! You saved T.O.M Home in a way that only you could, and my hat goes off to each of you. Thank you so much. God's got mighty awesome blessings up His sleeves that will rock your world to Heaven! I'm sure you're already seeing these blessings popping up in your life and home. If you're up for more blessings of this kind, there's always the 1st and 2nd floor renovation that you're welcome to help us with in the near future! Nyahahahaha!
Okay, although I'm only half way through catching up with the blogs in Mana's blog list, and although it is only 3:15 AM, I think it's about time I wrap things up here. I like you all and I love most of you. Have a good day.

Pools...

Akari says...
Summer is the perfect whether to go swimming. Of course like everyone else, I like swimming, but not pools…it makes me feel disgusted even to think of wading in that bleached, urine-filled water, and occasionally, seeing someone's hair(God knows where it’s from)floating around.
But this summer, when I have just decided that I was not going swimming in any pool, Mom asked me to go swimming with our sheep’s kids!! As my older brother Yasu would say, “From when did you ever had a choice?”
Yasu being my JT counselor, I had to obey and, well, it seems every time I go swimming, I have a lot of fun. Thank you Jesus.

MORE pictures!

Eiko says...
We had a Offensive Celebration Dinner Party last Wednesday, with the best of pastas cooked by the best of cooks, Ken and Lixy. We all had to dress up as an "occupation", and thus the chef shirt. (Obviously, I'm suppose to be a chef! A chef that can't cook cuz I'm missing my hat with the fammed rat that can cook.)
Gracie is a secretary. Celeste is a Tennis Player. And I still am quite confused as to what my daddy was attempting to dress up as. Whatever he was suppose to be, he looked so cute. Cute like a turtle!Akari is a farmer-girl. I love her braids!!But after the dinner party, me and Ken decided that we didn't have quite enough fun yet, so Boris got Mom's camera out and we took some "fun" photos!!