Elle's Adventures

First of all, sorry for letting my posts get so behind! I think about blogging all the time, but time doesn't allow me to get around to it. I realise I haven't made a post since around the time of my birthday, about three months ago. To tell the truth, I am still having major troubles with image hosting sites, and I don't like to post unless I have at least one photo. However, life still goes on and more exciting events happen that I want to write about. So I suppose I will add in photos later if possible. So getting to the exciting stuff!! (I hope...) On December 24th 2012, my Mum, Colin and Alex came to Japan for a wonderful holiday! I met them at Nagoya airport, and we stayed in Kani for a few days. On the 26th we headed for Tokyo. Unfortunately we weren't to experience, or even see the craziness of the city; time limits and all that. However, the reason we went to Tokyo was for Disneyland! I really love characters like Hello Kitty, but Ive never been huge on...

Sometimes I am really embarrassed to be labelled as gaijin 外人 or gaikokujin 外国人, which in English is literally 'outsider' or 'outside country person'...obviously foreigner. In fact, you really notice that you are a foreigner in Japan; people stare, and not in a friendly way either. But the time I hate being non-Japanese the most is when other non-Japanese are here and don't respect the culture and customs; I do my best. For example, I was just watching a tv program on how foreigners (it's too easy to label ourselves and others with that term) disrespect geisha 芸者 and maiko 舞子. Most people are familiar with geisha (entertainers in traditional Japanese arts), but usually confuse them with maiko. Maiko are in fact apprentice geisha, and dress in more colourful, flambouyant kimono. Neither of the two are prostitutes, no matter how they have been portrayed over the last 100 years. This show was set in Kyoto, where the majority of geisha and maiko work. T...