That one time in Japan... when they tried feeding me a giant fish head

お久しぶり～！ wayyy too Long time, no see! After my unannounced (and in my defense unintentional) hiatus came about, I had virtually no time to spend blogging. To be honest, I blame it on my smart phone. For most of my computer uses, it's way more convenient than a laptop, but for serious blogging, it's just too time consuming. I got busy with work, got my license, bought a car, have been through many emotions, changed life plans, lost 28 lbs, finally got to visit home again, and sadly, still have no concrete plans to visit Japan anytime soon(but lets keep our fingers crossed!)

Today I bring you a rather unique experience.... so I hope you will enjoy it!


I had been talking with my host mom about my Johnny’s obsession. Like, literal obsession. I have magazines, fan merch, watched all the dramas, memorized stupid facts about the members, even called them by their affectionate nicknames… I had (and still kinda have) a problem. But they’re just so hot and sexy and whatev, not even close to embarrassed.

I read online that recycle shops in Japan often have Johnny CDs and DVDs for wicked cheap prices. When I mentioned this to my host mom, she decided that we should go check one out. We drove to Kamisu City, which is just below Kashima.

I was in heaven!!! I found lots of things I wanted to buy, thought about buying, but I finally decided on two singles (the “Seishun Amigo” single from the dorama Nobuta wo Produce with YamaPi and Kamenashi and Daite Senorita, which is the first solo single of YamaPi) and the Never Ending Wonderful Story DVD from NEWS. (Totally NEWS no dai-fan much? Yeeeeep XD) 

L to R - Seishun Amigo, Never Ending Wonderful Story, and Daite Senorita

After making my purchases, my host mom took me to one of the restaurants that she owns. They were teaching me about the different kinds of food they made there and started showing me the meat. Then, all of a sudden, they showed me this giant fish HEAD! I’m not sure what kind of fish this was, but it’s just scary and creepy and was nothing I wanted to eat.

When they asked me “Tabete mimasen ka?”(Will you try eating it?), I almost died. Apparently, they even use parts of the head!!


Instead, my host mom ordered me lots and lots of chicken(some of which you can see in the picture) so all was good. But I decided to take a picture of the fish head because I had never, ever seen anything like it and haven’t ever since!

Confessions, birthdays, and recent things![pic heavy]

I have a confession to make. I've been keeping a big, important secret from you all (unless you follow my twitter, then you'd know allllll about it). I'm part unicorn. Okay, so it's not that. The truth is, I've recently started seeing someone. I knew when I made the post about my birthday, I'd have to introduce him because he played a huge part in it. And he's asked me if I ever talked about him in a post and when I said "...Not really..." he looked hurt笑


Shortly after my birthday we had a few *bumps* but it's all been worked out and things are back to normal. I just want to say THANK YOU♥ to everyone who listened to my late-night rants and were so supportive of me. I really love you guys. (expect even more loving in my blogger award post!!)


Shortly before my birthday, I spent four days at my boyfriend's house. My boyfriend is a photographer, specializing in weddings currently in the DC/Baltimore area so he's busy like every.single.weekend. Plus, during the actual week, he has to edit photos from his engagement sessions and weddings. So that week we decided to take it easy and only went shopping a couple times and only out to dinner笑 
If you're interested you can view his portfolio here at his website!


Here's a photo spam of our time:

this week consisted of:
lots of ke$ha/lady gaga ☆ 牛丼 ☆ awesome Chinese food at P.F. Chang's ☆ kisses ☆ watching the movie "Bridesmaids" ☆ serious talks interrupted by misplaced laughter ☆ Carroll's Mead ☆ Ginger beer ☆ homemade Taiwanese food ☆ Godiva Chocolate ☆ Milkshakes ☆ talking about exercising and choosing sleep instead ☆ korean bbq date ☆ post-bbq ice cream adventure ☆ buying three 12-packs of Brisk and two 6 packs of gatorade ☆ being asked "Where is the party?" and later "Can I watch?" by a grocery store employee ☆ learning the characters for his name ☆ perfection.
All of that in just a four day period! (plus wayyy more ^_^)



Now onto my birthday and all of it's crazyness....
Usually, I don't have a real cake. My birthday falls shortly after school gets out, so I rarely do anything for my birthday because everyone is soooo busy! So if no party, why cake, you know?

This year I have two cakes and ice cream cupcakes. Sooo awesome!

Flavors: Triple Chocolate, Cake Batter, Sweet Cream from Coldstone Creamery

On the day of my birthday, I woke up, got ready, cleaned, had a dance party with my nieces in our living room, and then my boyfriend came over! We ordered a pizza and then feasted on a delicious chocolate mouse-y cake from the Korean bakery Shilla's Bakery.

He even got "Happy Birthday Stacy" in pink on it!

my niece made a mess of it....

After we went to the park. Around five, the boyfriend left and we got ready to travel back to my hometown for the weekend. My mom had a cake ready!

With cream cheese frosting!!

I also had dinner with my dad that weekend, but no pictures. It was a pretty nice birthday weekend. Thank you to everyone again. It was a really nice way to turn 20 :]

And now onto more recent things...
This summer I've set a goal. I want to lose around 30lbs with the goal of losing 50 in total by the beginning of next year. I know, I know, you're thinking, "50lbs? isn't that a lot?" Yes, it is. But turning 20 made me realize something.... I will only be 20 once. Soon, I will not be able to loose 5lbs in a week with very little help. I am the healthiest I'll ever be and I'm not even that healthy. I'm cutting calories and doing Wii Fit Plus for 1 hr+ every day. Rather than concentrating on just losing weight right now, I'm measuring my waist, hips, thighs etc to see how things go. I check my weight every day using the Wii Fit and I've already lost a few pounds. I'm only going to be young once so I might as well look and feel my best~

I just moved closer to DC and I've been taking care of my nieces until I find work. I put in seven applications today. One is already in review! Along with dieting, I feel a lot of good changes are coming. And if things go right, I'll have even more things to announce! :]
Wish me luck~

My baby niece playing in her stroller. So cute<3

A rare find at my local supermarket! Do you get the joke?

And to wrap things up, a few more pictures from when I visited my boyfriend that I've edited.

Snapped a photo of him snapping a photo of the sushi we had!

This picture perfectly expresses our personalities<3

Chinese for "Forever together"

A collage I made for my wallpaper on my phone!

Recently I've been using and testing many photo editing apps from the Android market. Ones used in this post are the free versions of: Free label, Photo Grid, and PhotoWonder.


I will reply to all recent comments this weekend! I am going back to my hometown for a party with my friends and to move the rest of the furniture down! Then it's back to my new home!