Pinterest

I, like many other teenage girls, have a big obsession. In fact, I love it more than Facebook and Instagram. And if you know me well, you know that I would totally fall into the category of major addicts for this website.

so, why haven't I blogged about this earlier? I've had a Pinterest for.........since like October. but really, it's just great. I've always enjoyed finding healthy, nutritious recipes that are calling my tastebuds (that I never end up making), finding adorable, stylish, fashionable clothes that I could never fit into or afford, hairstyles I could never do on my short hair, funny things I wish I could've come up with by myself, crafts I always want to do but I never end up doing, planning my bucketlist in pictures, planning my imaginary wedding, sharing my One Direction infection with the rest of my followers, finding Hunger Games quotes and wondering why they won't make the second movie for like 2 more years............yep, you get it. Oh, must I even explain my love for Pinterest? I can spend hours doing the things I just mentioned. I can get a good idea of my future. I can eventually attempt to learn how to do my hair (if it actually grows, or if I'm patient enough to let it grow). It's a girly thing, but I am obsessed. It is so fun. Sometimes I wish it came with a Warning: You have already pinned this button. And now that I'm in Japan, and when I'm cooped up in our teeny little apartments, and all my friends are asleep so there isn't anything on Facebook or Instagram, I can just escape and go to pinning paradise.

just thought I should put my Pinterest addiction out there. if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, here ya go. this, here, is the link to all of my boards. enjoy, don't waste too much time going through all my pins (I appreciate all the repins I can get!), and stay sane!

WARNING: This is VERY addictive. It is nearly impossible to log off. Good luck.

oh, and I will post a few of my personal favorites. whoops I lied. I will post like 20. and those are only 20 of the 1000 (I don't know how many pins I have) I have pinned on my Pinterest. enjoy a little taste of my pins, and if you want to see more, I already posted the link to my profile. have a legit day.

Imperial Gardens: my transcandental escape.

On Wednesday, we had the chance to go to the Imperial Gardens. it is an amazing place for pictures! and they are HUGE. we were in there for like 2 hours, and we didn't even see the whole place yet. they are also very pretty, calm, and well, something like a place mentioned in my transcandelist post. after that, we went to a really cool fountain place. It reminded me a lot of City Creek in Salt Lake City (one of my favorite places in the universe). it was so amazing to see the beauty of these gardens (see, I sound transcandentalist again). my favorite one is the one of me with the skyline in the background. it was a great adventure!

again, the size amazed me. it was big enough to fit a whole entire city in there, and it is only a teeny tiny piece of Tokyo (just to give you an idea how big Tokyo actually is). In the city, there is absolutely no space. everything is crammed together, the streets are packed, and the subways are usually packed. in the Imperial Gardens, everything is spread out, there's a little stream with a waterfall, and lot of trees and flowers, and grass. for the first time ever, I actually saw grass in Tokyo. even at other parks, there are trees, dirt, and tons of weeds, but absolutely no grass. it was a lovely getaway from all the commotion and chaos in Tokyo! it was peaceful. I got what I wanted: a taste of simplicity.

{by the way, I am not really big on transcandentalism. I've just been under a lot of stress and adjusting, so I kind of went all transcandentalist. but in real life, I am not usually like this at all!}

more updating: we went to our LDS ward party (we are in an English-speaking branch) and there's actually more girls there than in my old ward! yes, I come from Provo. Where LDS Churches are all around the corner. The Land of The Mormons. but I did not have very many people my age in my ward! In fact, only 2 other girls went to my school. I was in a Sunday-school class with only 3 other boys my age. it was so small, the boys that were 2 grades younger with us had to combine with our class. but here, there's a lot of girls, and I've already met more than were ever in my old ward! it is really nice, except most of them are leaving for the summer and I have to go back to what I was facing in Provo. see, some things are similar.

one of the issues is food. our family would die without it. Mom and I used to go to Costco at least 2 times a week, the food ran out so fast. my brothers, who both look like 8 year olds, act like 2 year olds, are actually 9 and 11 1/2, but eat like 16 year olds are some of the reason all our food goes down the drain. if I go too long without food (usually 2 1/2 hours), I go crazy. luckily, Mom is a good cook and would always bake cookies, make dinner, and replenish the pantry whenever it even showed the slightest decrease on food supply. here, you can't buy anything in bulk. everything is so expensive, and the supply would last us for 1 day, tops. so, we have to go shopping like every other day, and even that food isn't enough. I guess I'll come back as skinny as a rail! I miss our food, but hey, it's only 4 months! oh, and I haven't eaten anything too odd yet. we've only had: bananas, pineapple, spaghetti, ramen noodles, fried rice, pancakes, Frosted Flakes, Japanese Cheetos (there is a very significant difference between those and American Cheetos), Yaki Soba (noodles and pork in this really good sauce), Mabo-Tofu, and sushi. sooner or later, I will have to eat fish-eggs!

a day in Tokyo

Good news- the cord connecting my camera to the computer finally came. So, I will be doing some "mega-posts" of pictures. So, don't get bored. These first pics are a lot of pics that Mom took before Imperial Gardens/Zoo, and it's mostly my brothers. (all the ones of me I absolutely hate). these pics are what we do on a daily basis: go on walks to the park. get eaten by mosquitoes. get rained on. and we did go to 2 museums, but the pics weren't that good. so, enjoy these first ones!

 it rains a lot here.

 brotherly love

 this is one of the many unusual statues in this park. there is also a really weird unicorn, a snail, and...the rest I'm afraid isn't G-Rated!

 looks like they got themselves girlfriends!

 Mom and Justin in the front yard by our apt.

haha Justin fell off the duck!

transcandental thoughts.

I know, I know that you are anxious for a Japan post. To all you long-time stalkers (this term is not a bad thing. Admit it: we all go blog-stalking at times), this isn't new, but to the newer ones, this blog is generally used for an update on my life. However, sometimes, when I am sitting alone downstairs, playing the piano and singing Adele (or whatever I feel like), I get inspiration. And suddenly......the light bulb turns on, and inspiration strikes me. today, I feel like a transcandentalist, which never made any sense when we learned about that in American Studies. but I realize that really, this world is really crazy. it's chaotic. sometimes, I need a little simplicity. even just a little. I wish that I could just run away into the woods and leave everything behind, escape, and just be gone.
forgotten.
separated from the real world.
in my own little happy place.
where I can just forget everything I have ever worried about, and where stress isn't allowed. where everything is simple. where I can just sit back, play the guitar, and sing my heart out.
where I don't even care what anyone thinks of me. where I can be myself. where I don't have to worry about school, drama, impressing people, being someone I'm not, or my looks.
where I can just.............reflect upon the meaning of life. go into a world where everything's okay, no explanation needed.

back home, I had a few of these places. the stake park, for example. also, the tennis court. (yes, i go in my own little tennis place.) the temple. my bedroom. I can just do my "thought processing", as I call it. tennis, music, and my escapes are what keep me sane.

here, I haven't been able to do that. our apartment has: 1 bedroom with 1 bed for each of the 5 members of our family. a living room. a kitchen. and 1 bathroom. oh, and a teeny backyard with a swing, where cats and mosquitoes dwell, too. I haven't been able to escape. and out of all the things i miss, that is what I miss the most.

I haven't even been able to finish this post. there is no privacy here. Wesley has been bugging me for the past half hour to check his email. (only 1 of his friends actually emails him.) no one understands that I need this time to reflect. there is more I wanted to talk about. but this circumstance is just the perfect example of what I have been yearning for. I will talk tomorrow.

scienara.

Scienara/Konichiwa

So.........I'm here in Tokyo. I don't even know what day it is. I left on Saturday morning, and I don't even know when I got here. The time change is crazy, let me just tell you that. I went on 2 planes: one from Salt Lake to Seattle, and the other one from Seattle to Tokyo. Most boring however-many-hours-I-was-on-that-plane in my life. I was tired, I wasn't feeling very good, and I had to eat airplane food, which......let's not even go there. Then, we had to take a train, and then a subway. From the subway to our apartment, we had to go on a death march. And our apartment only has 1 bedroom, so I sleep on the floor. In the living room. Not very pleasant, but hey, you get used to it.

We have gone to check out the university, gone grocery shopping, played games, watched movies, watched some really weird Japanese TV show where pink cows take baths with balloons, people dance in bread costumes, and dogs turn their bums into elephants (I'm freaking serious!), and we checked out the Tokyo Dome. It is pretty cool, but we got rained on. So, we haven't really done much.

My last day in Provo was actually a really good day. First, I went to watch Centennial Idol Finals (even though I'm not in it anymore, I still watched it), and for a "commercial break", Student Council did some Minute to Win it activities. I had to stack cups, and I won. After I got my milky way prize, Cami, the studentbody VP announced that I was moving to Tokyo and that it was my last day and she congratulated me on how well I had done on idol, and everyone cheered. A bunch of kids I didn't even know told me good luck and that they had voted for me every single time. that made me feel great! in math, I had to finish science testing (which I did), and since 4th period is the same period as student council, I got to hang out with a lot of my SC friends instead of going back to math. it was legit. then, in American Studies, my friend Miranda passed around a little notebook for everyone to write in about me. A lot of the notes were really sweet, and some of them (especially from the boys) were hilarious! Here's what a few of them said (these are all boy ones):

• "I love your stinkin face, and it is not stinkin!"
• "You're cool. Stay fresh. ♥/ somebody."
• "Your voice is like the sunrise after a storm."
• "Scienara........love, your secret admirer." (I know who you are, and I just barely learned that the way you spell "goodbye" in Japanese is actually sayonara. but your spelling just makes it seem like 100 times more romantic.)
• "Miriam my lover! You are the best thing that has happened to me since sliced bread!"
• "Eat lots of good food for me!"

haha. gotta love boys. and my friend Adam drew me that lovely picture of me in Japan. he should seriously become an artist. after that, I hugged everyone, made a speech on how legit they were, and left school and went to Jamba Juice! later that evening, the elementary school had the extravaganza (school carnival) so i went, hoping to see my friends and to get food. wesley stole my punch card and bought all the food for himself. and I only saw a few friends there, and I got chased around with an orange spoon. it was lovely.

well, I miss all of my Provo friends more that I can even explain. but I am pretty excited about Japan. I will try to keep you all updated, but if I don't post too often, do not kill me! see you in 4 months.

Turning point-- Saylor O'Brien

This is a video I saw on BYU-TV. It has my friend Saylor in it. This girl has gone through so much trials in her life, yet she still has an amazing spirit. Also, she can ski way better than I can! So, please please please prettypleasewithacherryontop watch the video I am about to give you. And watch the whole thing. Have fun!
Turning Point- Wasatch Adaptive Sports