A Somewhat More Unusual Day

No traditional school today. Instead we met up at some gathering hall in central Ikebukuro (i.e. walking distance from home) for a speech competition between the chosen representatives of fifteen something classes from the three branches of our school, two from Shinjuku right here in Tokyo, and one from some other far off place.

I was supposed to have had an audition for a fashion show today as well, but that was apparently postponed. So finding myself with nothing to do following the end of the competition, I opted to tag along with Staffan and Linus to a gaming card store they were heading for, to look at some Magic the Gathering cards. While it has been a long time since I last played the game, and me going back for real is a very unlikely scenario, the visit to the store did make me somewhat interested in at least getting a preconstructed deck or something, to allow me the social benefit of being able to attend any gatherings that some of my friends may have from time to time.

After the store, I returned home, put on some rice for lunch (surprise, surprise), then for some reason started cleaning the kitchen. Don't ask me why. I suppose it just wasn't clean enough. I then watched the latest episode of the L Word, and once my rice was done I started eating. I am actually just about to go for seconds, and then I will hit the books. The goal is repeating 50 kanji and five chapters from the book today - and to know it all well by the end of it.

Today I have had the greatest craving for Cinnamon Melts, by the way. If you don't know what that is, it's this great sweet available at McDonalds here in Japan (and in the US, I believe), almost like cinnamon rolls but warm and creamy and with lots and lots of cinnamon. And if there is any spice I am not far from being addicted to, it's definitely cinnamon. Especially in pastries.

Unfortunately my economy is still not at the point where I could easily afford a 290 yen indulgence such as that, so it will just have to wait until I've done a few more modeling/acting jobs, or started getting students as an english teacher. Or found some other parth time job that wouldn't interfere with my modeling aspirations. All in good time, I suppose.

For now, my books await.

Bank Account

When school was over for today, I went to 新生銀行 (Shinsei Bank) in Shinjuku to get that bank account I was talking about. Apart from being one of the coziest banks I have ever been to, the service was great, and everything went more smoothly than I could ever have expected. Though I had to sit down and wait for almost half an hour (in a quite comfortable chair, I might add), once my number was called it didn't take long before I walked out of there with my brand new ATM card.

Even nicer was that I didn't even had to get up from my chair while the whole thing was taken care of - they came to me. And another nice touch was that they allowed me to choose the color of my card from among twenty something different nuances. I picked a very nice shade of almost viridian green they called crocodile. I would have given you a picture, but my camera wouldn't give a close enough representation of the color. 

I am currently awaiting a package from my mother, by the way, containg no less than two kilograms of pick and mix candy. While very popular in Sweden, such candy doesn't exist at all here in Japan - one of the very few reasons I wonder whether I could really live here indefinitely. But I suppose as long as I have a steady supplier, I'll be alright. Thanks mom! You're a life saver! :D

Wish me Luck!

Ever tried standing around near the top of a mountain plagued by dreadfully cold winds wearing nothing but a black suit while waiting for the director to decide enough of the mist has gone away for you to actuallt be able to continue shooting? No? Well, here's a little piece of advice: don't.

Today I went back for a third shooting of Zettai Kareshi, and it was cold. But what the hell, I'll get paid, and I'll probably be seen pretty well in the picture too. But it sure wasn't easy standing there extremely still, pretending to be a deactivated robot, when you really wanted nothing but running back inside to sit a few more minutes leaned over that wonderful heater they had there.

On the way back I discovered the first McDonalds ever that wouldn't take plastic. This country is truly ridiculous when it comes to that. The second largest economy in the world - and not even Seven Eleven will take your Visa or MasterCard? And now a McDonalds!? Come on! No, what this country needs is a major card revolution. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I am going to get a bank account tomorrow, I think. About time, you may say, but I haven't actually had that much use of one until now. Of course, had I opened one up when I first got here and transfered all my funds to it, I would not have been affected by the global currency crash. But as they say, hindsight is a bitch. There was no way I could have known.

Now, however, as I hope to get more and more modelling and acting jobs - which of course I will - a greater need for a Japanese bank account has appeared. I was contacted yesterday about the payment for the first job I did, which can be picked up at the office of my agency any day now. But having them transfer the amount to my account would save me the trip - which is time and money both. So after school tomorrow, I will go to Shinjuku to open a bank account.

In the meantime, do wish me luck (1) getting the fashion show job I am currently awaiting an answer about, (2) receiving ever more calls about jobs from my agencies this coming month, and (3) winning Drömvinsten on Lotto.

Zettai Kareshi: Part II

As I may very well prove to be too lazy to update this blogg after the job, I thought I might as well post a quick notice about it now, before I leave for it.

I am going to Narita Airport today, for a second shooting of Zettai Kareshi. Needless to say, I am much looking forward to it. I am meeting up with my agent in Shibuya at six, so I should go get ready now. Wish me luck.

Glass på Terrass: Tokyo Edition

Spring is on its way! Today the sun is warming more than ever before this year, and though it's still cold and quite windy, the heat of the direct sunlight make it all worth taking walks outside.

The warming sun rays of early spring always make me remember the best times of my life, all those days when I was truly happy. Very uplifting. Spring always seems to have that effect on me, breaking the negative spell of the winter months, during which I never seem to do anything worth remembering, and never seem to get anything of importance done. During the summer months, on the other hand, I always have a whole lot of more fun, and still manage to learn more in school, get my work done more efficiently, and so on. The coming of spring is, and always has been a freeing golden wind, a parole from the prison of my mind that marks the winter season.

So it is with great anticipation I look forward to the warming months ahead. Soon it should be warm enough on my roof terrace to allow me to lie up there studying while basking in the sun, and maybe I could even organize a Japanese reprise of the hottest theme party of last year: Glass på Terrass - that is Ice Cream on Terrace.

Zettai Kareshi

What a day I had today! Waking up earlier that I have ever done since coming to Japan, I took myself down to Shibuya, one of the southernmost centers of Tokyo, well before rush hour had even hinted at starting. There I met up with a representative of one of my agencies, along with a bunch of other gaijin who were there for the same job. Walking to a buss, we then went south for three hours before reaching a place in the mountains where the shot were going to take place.

It would prove to be quite a sight: twenty foreigners dressed in black suits with black ties and back sunglasses, portraying a task force of Agent Smith-like robots. And most of what we did was running. We did a lot of running - grouped into two parallel lines we dashed downhill more times than I remember, from the black SWAT-like car we were supposed to have exited at one end, to the small car we were chasing at the other.

All in all we were out there for about eight hours, with the bus taking three hours in each direction, adding up to a total of 14 hours. We left Shibuya when it was still dark, and came back not before the darkness had returned. Kinda cozy, that neon-lit darkness. As for the pay, I will get around 25 000 yen for the day. Not too bad for doing something as enjoyable as this.

The name of the series is 絶対彼氏 (Zettai Kareshi, or Absolute Boyfriend), a romantic drama about a girl falling in love with a robotic guy.

There will be one more shooting at the same location before the end of the month, which I am almost guaranteed to be part of. I may also be selected for two other shooting occasions - one at Narita Airport and one in a studio - but as they won't need as many people there it remains to be seen whether I will actually get those jobs. Though I am quite confident that I will.

A fun tidbit is that a few of the other guys I worked with looked a bit like American celebrities. There were two guys who had a resemblance to Gary Sinise and (a younger version of) Kurt Russell respectively, and this one guy who looked very much like Bill Maher.

A Quake of Awakened Dreams

So apparently there was another earthquake this morning. A magnitude 6 on the Richter scale, it is supposed to have struck at 6:51 am, waking up a couple of my friends. I say supposed to, because as have been the case with all somewhat stronger earthquakes since I got here, I slept right through it. But then the epicenter was a hundred and seventy kilometers northeast of Tokyo, and something like 35 km below the surface, so maybe it wasn't that strange I didn't wake up. It is getting somewhat annoying though, that I still have only felt a single quake since getting here, and a very small one at that.

Well, well, maybe next time. In other news, the first signs of spring are finally showing up! Yesterday the temperature almost allowed me to have my jacket opened, and the sun rays themselves are getting warmer by the day. Now if only the wind would stop its constant assault, and some flowers actually started showing up, then we could talk about spring for real. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the day when I'll be able to ascend to the roof terrace on top of my apartment building and lie down basking in the late spring and summer sun.

Hopefully I'll have gotten myself an iPod Touch before then. I have realized that said device would be a blessing to my studies. There are not only programs for it that would allow me study vocabulary and kanji so much more efficiently, but also dictionary programs that would eliminate my ever growing need to buy an electronic dictionary - which would pretty much cost as much as an iPod Touch. Add to that the fact that it's just the coolest device this side of the iPhone, and I obviously need to get one.

Another thing I need to get is an electric piano. The more time that goes by, the more desperate I become on this point, the more urgent the need for a piano grows. My artistic inner angel is screaming out unheard, dying to relearn the piano and start composing things for real - instead of simply doing it in my head, with no way of getting any of it out before it disappears into the mists of memories long gone.

I have actually been looking around a bit on musical instruments in the last few months. While most electric pianos start at around 100 000 yen, I have found the occasional one for just under 60 000. As soon as I can afford one I am getting it - possibly after the iPod though, as I have to prioritize those studies. There is of course also the option of getting a used piano. That would allow me to get it that much sooner, at a fraction of the cost.

A while back I actually found an electric grand piano at Yodobashi Akiba, going for just over one million two hundred thousand yen, if I recall correctly. Now wouldn't that just be a wonderful thing to have in your apartment! I doubt I could ever get it into my place though.

Whenever I do succeed in getting myself that piano, this apartment will truly become a musical place. My roommate Legato bought a violin a while back. Let's hope that Isaura - the new girl who is moving in when Linus leaves by the end of this month - also has an interest in playing something. We could then invite Christian, Kitti, and a bunch of others to come over with their instruments from time to time, and we could have some great weekends of music together.

That would be the days for sure. I am looking forward to it. For now, I have started looking for jobs as an English teacher, while continuing trying to get more jobs as a model. I may have something coming up on that last front, but I don't want to say too much before I know for sure. I am also looking into some more business ideas on the side - I'll let you know if anything comes from it.

Another point of recent interest is that I have now applied to the University of Hong Kong. The program I am trying to get into is the Bachelor of Business Administration. If I do get in, and have enough money for tuition fees when the time comes, chances are pretty strong that I will minor in Japanese, while trying to learn Mandarin and Cantonese as best as I can on the side.

Speaking of university, I had a bit of a problem paying the application fee of 300 Hong Kong dollars. Some technical error prevented me from finishing the application process. Had to call them and arrange for a document to be mailed to me which I could physically send over there. Worked out alright in the end - apart from one major complication. Apparently the actual payment process hadn't failed quite as much as the rest, meaning the money was drawn from my account every time I tried! And I tried quite a few times, meaning my account was depleted by the time I realized anything had happened.

Now, I am sure I will get the money back. We are dealing with the second most prestigious university in Asia, after all. But I am aware it will take a while, so for the next few weeks, I will confine myself to a diet of rice. Quite exotic, wouldn't you think?

I am feeling kinda lucky I had already added three additional months to my commuters card. Otherwise I might have had some slight problems getting to school in February. As it is, I am sure everything will work out just fine. Especially as was recently brought to my attention an as of yet unreceived tax return of about 3800 sek, money I had no idea I were supposed to get. But apparently I will, as soon as some bureaucracy is brought out of the way. But that too may take a few weeks.

I may have had some financial problems lately, but aside from a few temporary setbacks like this thing with Hong Kong, I have to say it now looks like that will soon all be behind me. Especially with this forced rice diet, I fully expect to be back over break even within a month, and from there things can only get better. So now do wish me luck, and that I get that modeling job I am hoping for right now!

Sayonara!