Guilty Pleasures

We all have "guilty pleasures". It's that thing that you really love, but may be taboo or considered weird. I have many guilty pleasures (Barbie, anime, the Disney-channel) but one of my biggest guilty pleasures is POKEMON! I just cant get enough of the little monsters.

Like every kid that grew up in the 90' I have a ton of Pokemon stuff. I collected all of the Pokemon "beanie-babies", binders full with all of the trading cards and of course, all of the game-boy games. I went home for a week on spring break. There I was reunited with some of my childhood treasures. By looking at my collections of these Japanese creatures I realized how spoiled I was as a child.
Pokemon are my guilty pleasure because most people deem it immature for a 20 year-old man buying childrens' toys. I cant help but go ga-ga over these creatures from the past. Now that i am an adult it is much better because when I see that there is a new Pokemon doll out, I can buy them all at once, unlike when you were a child and your parents would only get you one. It is a bit reassuriung that my best friend has the same love for pocket monsters. I am able to go with him to the toy store and buy some Pokemon cards and open up them up in the car and brag if you got the better card. 
I recently realized how much of a hermit I was the other day because I hadn't left my house for two days because I received the new Pokemon Black game for as a birthday present.
I think that I will continue to buy and collect these little creatures. They make me happy and they help me reconnect with my childhood.

Japanese Fairy Tale

One of the final projects I had to do for my Japanese course was create a fairy-tale in Japanese. I decided to create a "yaoi-Cinderella story". I scanned the picture into my scanner after I had already clued them to the book pages, so they look one-thousand times better in real life then they will on the blog. I hope you enjoy it.
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Once upon a time there lived a young prince. His name was Ariel. He was a very kind and selfless person. He was beautiful outside and inside.

むかしむかし、若い王子が住んでいました。彼の名前はアリエルでした。彼はとても親切で、献身的な人だった。彼は外側も内側も美しい人でした。

One day the king saw the prince kiss the horse caretaker. He was so angry that he said that he never wanted to see the beautiful prince Ariel again.

ある日、王さまは王子が馬の管理人にキスをするのを見ました。彼は、とても怒って再び美しい王子アリエルを見たくないと思いました。

The prince Ariel was sad that he upset his father and he knew that he could never get back his father's love. So he decided to pretend that he killed himself and would run away to another kingdom after his fake funeral.

王子アリエルは、彼が父親をがっかりさせたことと、彼は父親の愛を取り戻すことができなかったことを知って悲しかった。そこで彼は、自分自身を殺したふりをして、彼の偽の葬儀の後に別の王国に逃げるふりをすることに決めた。

A few months passed since the prince had left his home. The prince's new town was talking about a party that was being help for Prince Marius to find a bride. The prince wanted to go so badly because he had not been to a party in a very long time. So, he decided to dress up as a “princess” and go to the party.

君主が自分の家を出ていってから、数ヶ月が経過した。王子の新しい町で王子Mariusが花嫁を見つけるためのパーティーのことを話していた。彼は非常に長い間パーティーにいけなかったので、ひどく行きたがっていました。だから、彼は"王女"としてドレスアップして、パーティーに行くことを決めた。

The young prince arrived at the party and was having a very fun time, until a strange man decided to  dance with him. This “strange man” was actually prince Marius

若い王子はパーティーで到着し、とても楽しい時間を過ごしていた、見知らぬ男が彼と一緒に踊ることにした。この"見知らぬ男"は実際には王子マリウスでした。

After dancing and talking for a very long time, Marius kissed the beautiful  prince Ariel. The young prince was shocked. Then, Prince Marius said “you are the most beautiful and kind girl here, I want you to be my wife”.

長い時間踊ったり話したりした後、マリウスは美しい王子アリエルにキスをした。若い王子はショックを受けました。その後、王子マリウスは"あなたが最も美しいと親切な女の子、私はあなたを私の妻にしたいです"と語った。

The young prince began to cry. 'I wish I could marry you,  but I can't.” I have a horrible secret. I came to your party in a disguise. I am not a princess… I am a prince.” Prince Ariel I've known that this whole time. I still love you and want to marry you if you love me”.

若い王子は泣き始めた。 '私はあなたと結婚したいですが、私がすることはできません。"私は恐ろしい秘密を持っています。私は変装してあなたのパーティーに来た。私は王女ではない... ...私は王子ですと話した。 王子アリエル言った、私は、この全体の時間を知っています。私はまだあなたを愛し、あなたが私を愛していれば"あなたと結婚したい。

The young prince said “I love you” and they were married, and lived happily ever after.

若い王子は、"私はあなたを愛しています"彼らは、結婚していつまでも幸せに暮らしました。

Made-up Holiday

Yesterday was a Japanese holiday called "Hina-Matsuri" or "Princess Day", basically it's a girls' festival where you treat the daughter in your family to some sweets and small gifts and you decorate your house with princess dolls that make up a royal court. For more info click HERE.

I really think it's a pretty interesting holiday, So I decided to change it a little bit and celebrate the holiday in my own way. Since, you are supposed to spoil the "princess" in your life, I got some small gifts and treats for my Best-Friend here at school. Since the holiday is centered around the dolls, I decided to get my friend a "doll" as well. I got him a really cute panda beanie-baby. Then at the Asian market I bought some "dai-fuku" (sweetened red bean cake) to help maintain the Japanese holiday element. To make it seem more like a western holiday, I also got bought us a raspberry-butter-cream cake to split and mini ice cream cups.

It was a lot of fun to have all of these sweet treats especially because me and my friend had a horrible week and an ever worse day. It was the perfect remedy to make everything all better.