Hey You, Let's Play Zoo!

Friday was a cool day. Literally it was cooler actually. jejeje. Classes were for the most part uneventful as I made my way through Nihongo and Japanese Business. The readings for that class were of particular interest because they tended to focus on Toyota which is where I am going to visit next week on Wednesday. Lunch was had with a couple friends from Nanzan that I have made over the past few weeks: Yuka, Yuho, Sayako, Satomi, and Regina. We had a fun little time on the green in front of CJS before we all had to head out to get out classes on. It really was too short of a time to do anything really because I showed up late in the first place (nice). Apologies.
Afterwards we (Dylan, Regina, Adam, Mallory, Brittany, Guy, & I) went to see the second most famous shrine in all of Japan (at least that is what I was told) and to get eaten alive by mosquitoes. I took a couple of pictures. There were chickens running around all over the place and there were a couple HUGE trees that had little fences around them and then an evil-spirit warder wrapped around their trunks. This is where the foul hung out. You must see this temple. The Tories are gigantic and the park is immense. They had also recently (as in yesterday) finished another temple. I think, if I remember correctly, that they tear down and rebuild these things every 20 years or so. It was an impressive design. There was no way that we saw all of it in such a short amount of time. There was one, small, isolated red temple. That was curious.
After that we quickly stopped at a Jusco to grab a bite to eat (KaitenZushi) yum. Adam wasn't feeling well though. Then we walked back to the dorms and eventually settled down to play a raucous of a game known only as Zoo. It starts of with everyone clapping their hands in the "We will rock you" way, right? and then, instead of those lyrics, you say "Hey you, let's play zoo"...and the rest is where you are going to have to find a big group and me and play. It was a lot of fun. Thank You Kevin for the inspiration. 1.5 is a good size for me.
As more of the peeps filtered out for the night Adam, Regina, Kevin & I settled down to watch Princess Mononoke. It was getting late and few other people showed up for a Tequilla party that I am guessing never happened. I had to go so I bade farewell and made it just in time to catch the last train home-whew! All's well that ends well Shakespeare wrote, and he was right.
I want to Pericura so bad...they are playing Honey Flash continuously next door...I slept 8 hours today.
Los fotos consistan en: 1)El Tempulo Nuevo 2) Un Galleno sin cabeza (camera trick) 3) Un tonto nombre de una tienda de pelo con errores gramaticas... y 4) Yo con mi gato Miruku (Milk) Me aconpanaba durante mis estudios con su carino...

名古屋城

昨日名古屋城へ行った！すごくすてきな所だと思う。　そして刀があるよ！南山大学のフィルドトリプだったから日本学生と留学生は一生に行った。友達サヤコさんとサヤミさん話したりした。スパイン語がわかるのでスパイン語でたいてい話した。楽しかったと思う。写真は見て下さい！This is Nagoya Castle!!! This is the first castle that I have ever seen in Japan! It was magnificent! I learned a lot about what life was for the royally rich back in the day and i'm guessing that it pretty much rocked. There were several floors to climb, many a sword to see, and several exhibits to gaze upon. The thing that Nagoya-jo prides itself on are these two gold-plated whales placed on the top of the building on opposing sides of the tip of the roof. They are immense. From the top you can see all of Nagoya (which is pretty smoggy by the way) and the rest of the castle grounds. The kindof cool thing about the construction of the castle was that the many different clans that helped out moving hte foundation stones all marked the stones with their family crest and these crests can still be seen today. Mind you the actual structure was completely annihilated during the air raids of the second world war, the rebuilt structure is still the heart of the city and an amazing site to see.
Afterwards I mainly came back to my home in 一宮 and did some homework. I did that until about 10 when I went online for a bit. Mom/Dad/everyone, you are never online anymore!! I try to text to no avail. But really, excluding some rare excursions to the computer cluster on-campus, I am hardly online anyway except for late at night (USA read: early morning). There are a couple more things that I needed to report on that concern Japan's abnormalities or eccentricities. The first concerns riding a bike: When riding a bike note how the Japanese ride their bike, they constantly swerve to and fro which leaves the want-to-pass-you foreigner (read:this guy) also swerving to and fro...jockeying for position like a nascar racer around a horse-drawn carriage. Absurd. Second, concerning buses: Some buses, like those bound for a certain Myouken-cho 妙見町, come at an outrageously frequent interval; whereas other buses bound for other, more popular and certainly more important areas of town come once in a steely-teal moon (which is rarer than blue moon mind you).
Una etstrellita del mar se callo aqui en mi corazon. La doy mi amor, pero まだ miedo tengo.
Tengo fotos! Disfutan!

土羅梧 風郎令須

Well today had a few people's tempers flaring. I don't know exactly why it effected so many people but there must have been something in the air today. Brit was flaming because the classes that she has are kindof a joke. One moves to slow and the other is very unstructured and she just can't seem to handle it. Karen is doing fine as long as she stays away from her host family which, if it wasn't before, is starting to sound pretty strange. Everyone pretty much agrees that if we go home to out host families we basically twiddle our thumbs with boredom. Personally I find that time useful in learning more kanji but that is just me. Thought there are days when I have less homework, I find ways to keep myself busy. Perhaps everyone is just getting a little homesick. I thought too that I should try to explain some of the pictures from the last post. There one with the chain is taken from a small park adjacent to the nearest temple to my house in 一宮. The one with the fish on the plate is my dinner from the other day (yeah basically a whole fish with nothing but chopsticks--btw if I wasn't good with chopsticks I definitely am now). The one that is pinkish and a skyline is taken at dusk from 南山大学 basically looking over the city. The one with the sidewalk lady was taken near my home here on my commute back home. Until next time, じゃ　ね

A little more on the side please

With a few more days under the belt you'd think that I'd be running out of new stuff to tell you all about. Nope. Fat chansu. It turns out that every once and a while you will run into a lady wearing a kimono. Truth. Today I way three. One on the subway (of all places) and then two that emerged from what looked like a very nice hotel. I bowed to one of them and she smiled and bowed back! けっこいいね。Buses here come basically once an hour (unless you are going to Myoken-cho cuz then they're like every 15 seconds). There are yellow tiles on the sidewalks all around Nagoya that I had taken to be like decoration for the longest time but nay, they are actually guiding tools for the blind. I guess the city of Nagoya is just so nice -- or the people are so cold --- that they put those tiles there to help the less fortunate. The style of dress here, while we're talking about Kimonos 着物 is very fashion conscious but stuck, as a certain Phil pointed out, in the 80s (for the most part). We decided that, and this actually applies to multiple categories of style and purpose, that they Japanese just loved the 80s so much that they are having real trouble letting go of it. For example the girls and guys are always seen with very tall, poofy hair that goes in many a direction; the girls wear high boots with short skirts and the guys wear skimpy, multicolored vests that are a couple sizes too big with pointy elf shoes; computer machinery and many of the buildings of Nagoya and Nanzan are still stuck in the 80s with very few real modern pieces of equipment--hell, they're still have the option of not only using a tape recorder in the listening space, but (get this) a floppy disk for their e-mail service. Floppys get like a third of a magabyte of storage! It's really a turned around society in that respect: some aspects of life are really modern (cell phones), many are stuck in the 80s (vests??), and then there are other aspects of life that still live on from ancient times (Kimono on the subway), all in all they make up this society of people who see themselves as a special, unique culture that is moving and changing like the current in the ocean but who's culture and background remains in a constant ebb and flow with the oncoming future like the tide on the shore. I'm just floating on the surface it seems...
still loving the starfish...

月

I am very tired right now....very tired. I just returned from a night out on the town with all of my friends (well not all of them but the ones that were there were so much fun). Club ID is the place to go for foreigners and some Japanese tourists and the music was pretty good too. There was some wonderful dancing going on last night. Unfortunately the night had to end at 1 when they closed so we all headed out. Dylan made and lost a friend (and his dinner) in a matter of minutes, we went to Dennys (wtf mate) to grab a munchie, and then we headed over to a hotel to crash for the night. That hotel...a Japanese double with Americans t triple capacity. Fun.
I have really enjoyed this week and I am really looking forward to next week (a trip to Nagoya Castle is in sight I believe) with all of its sights and sounds. I realized, perhaps again today, that the Japanese people hardly drink any water at all. While I am busy schlurpin down my third glass they are usually about a quarter sip from being halfway through their first glass. They are a very hard working people but there is also a lot of free time for other activities of their choice. On Friday school started for all the locals. That meant that there was a sudden influx of Japanese culture and language that I had not seen before. All the guys and girls were all dressed up for the occasion in their best outfits which ranged from shorts & T, to designer jeans/boots/shirt/hat/and hairstyle, to an unreal pink & white frilly dress w/parasol. There was everything. I can't wait to see Starfish again. I bought a funny hat. By the way it's still hot.

日

It is the start of a brand new day! The sun has finally returned to Nagoya and the weather has never been better. Yesterday was a great day--despite feeling pretty drowsy the entire day--and today will be better i think (気分が悪くないんです）。 Everyday I forget about some things that I wanted to say about the quirkyness of Japan, for one, all of the 小学生 students wear yellow hats during their morning/afternoon commutes. I suppose it`s so others can see them better. To me it`s just funny looking! My commute is so frickin long. 2.5 hours of my life are gone to that effort. I think I might plan it so that I have to stay overnight at school a couple nights of the week just so that I can actually do something with those hours instead. Went to a little pastry shop last night with Starfish, just to grab a bite. The real good times were the walk that we took though. I`m looking forward to Wednesday. レヒナさんのお宅で映画を二つ見に行きます。It should be fun. I hope that I can just lay around outside and feel the sun. Nena, that is YOUR influence!

新橋

On the up and up! It is Sunday today in Japan and true to the face of this entire week it is raining today. Woot. Talk about another crazy weekend with crazy weekend stories. Boring stuff first: Showering at night (I might have said this before) not in the morning is the norm, Japanese people like their layers of clothing despite the heat (i think this is due to the humidity; the outer layer stays dry and looks nice no matter what), Subways and trains stop at midnight and the only mode of transpo at that time become the pricey taxi, 栄　is the center of the night of life, and you HAVE to remember where you parked your bike!
So Saturday, I left about 1pm to head out to the Zoo with 下. It turned out to be a great experience really. There were so many animals that I had never really seen so up close and they were all super-active. A lonely Rhinoceros, a few cats that I had never seen before, a couple of elephants taking a bath, kangaroos, a couple variations of penguins...really it was amazing. There was even a molting camel and a man with a very large hose...cleaning the cages. A certain someone lost all restraint at the zoo and basically lead our group through the entire place in record time. She really likes zoos! I don't know what I was watching more.
Our group then headed out to 名古屋,　not 栄, where we grabbed something to eat. RAMEN!! It got all over me, that カラーラメン。I was looking everywhere for a bank at this point too because I had run my initial wallet funds to the ground (there was still some I had at home but for all practical purposes I had no money at that point). Citibank is where I was able to get some cash. Ask any Japanese person for directions and they don't know the place they'll still tell you to go a couple of blocks in some random direction and then to turn right and look for the コンビニ or 7-11 shop and the place you are looking for is right around there....they always say that. Red Bull in 栄　last night--fo free! We found a Red Bull truck that was handing them out. Woot again. There are so many high-end shopping centers in 栄 it's nuts! We stopped in a Coach shop to ask for directions (this was actually helpful info).
To end the night we went to JoyJoy for some Karaoke fun. I really didn't want to go though, I really wasn't in the mood and something was irking me the wrong way. It didn't really get better as the night progressed into the music. Others drank too much, cigarettes belched their smoke with such a pompous air that that room...me, three guys, and a starfish getting too close to the shore. The waves crashed her hard on the sand last night and I could only do so much to show her back to sea. The tide is low again now but my mind is set; I cannot let that happen again. To the rhythm of my own heart she told me today that she too was far too close to shore and sorry to have made me worry the way I did. I would like a quiet afternoon.
The trains stop running at midnight by the way. It would be best if you returned to your home station before then. Take it from me.
So I'm pretty much finished with my homework for tomorrow and it's almost 5. I might go for a jog.

Fridays

Today was the last day of our first week with school. Today I had a full day of class which basically involved one really long Japanese class (9:20Am-12:30pm) with 4 professors, and a Japanese business class with a very cynical professor from England. Today I could not go out because my family had some family over for the evening. Actually they are staying the night. We all ate together (Okonomiyake! Sushi! yum!) an we talked, played games, I showed them pictures of my house (at which they all stared at in amazement of its immensity) and then at the end of it all I ended the fun with a rightly due　おつかれさま。I really like the family that I am with. We had such a fun time tonight. Japanese people have "inner" and "outer" groups so I hear. I know that as foreigner I will never really fully be in the inner group, but tonight I really felt included and a sense of belonging. I really connected with the kids and I feel like my speaking skills improved slightly. I can't forget Kento doing his little dance today, one that he used to remember three small countries in West Africa. funny. なるほど！
　　It's a little late now and if I'm planning to be up by 8 or 9 then I better get to bed. By the way it is hella humid here.
From: Japan.

Rolling Stone

So today was the real first day of school! We began our day with Japanese at 10. I really liked a flower on the way to class today so I picked it with intentions to give it to my little starfish early in the morning before it wilted. So much for that I suppose. I had to save that until later. Unfortunately the little estrella had a really bad morning. :(
The strange thing about my Japanese class is that I have 3 professors. They rotate in and out while our little class stays in one room. I'm really thirstaay. On the way to school today I noticed that all the little kids going to school wear funny yellow hats. I suppose they wear them to make their tiny figure more visible. My Japanese culture class started out telling me some of the things that I should not be doing such as putting my hands in my pocket while talking to someone, putting my hands on my hips, crossing my arms while talking to somone...what else...don't pick at your food with your chopsticks...
I guess it's back to home for me tomorrow. My family is having family over so I'll meet a few new members tomorrow but that just throws out any plans I had for the night.
じゃあ、ね。お休みなさい！

Burning Fingers, Heavy Eyelids.

I can't write much because I'm very tired. However, let me say one thing about today: It ended in a way that I never could have bet on any time before it actually happened. Up until the very moment I doubted even myself even if all the signs pointed me on a very wide and defined path. Out of the nervous woods and brambles of doubt I have emerged with so much that I am unable at this moment even to fathom my own reality. In short, I have my beautiful little starfish with me still, and the little starfish likes me back! Nagoya is wonderfully lit up at night but I realize that I prefer 栄. I'm getting off of the point... wonderfullness in Nagoya tonight! しずかな心。　That is, it is at peace at this new beginning. Worried some about the future but glad to know that it will not be going there alone. How unexpected in the utmost sense!

Outside a cricket is playing, the stars are listening.

今日

I am writing form a tired state of mind. No, it was not induced by any foreign substance unless you count the raw fish I had for din-din tonight. I guess I am just way tired for not too good of a reason.
I finally bought both tickets for my travel between here and school. The only thing is that they cost me about $400 total (370 is probably closer) which is basically my stipend for this month. That doesn't leave much money leg-room. I am definitely going to try to e-mail Ms. Opel about my predicament. I mean, I calculated it and everything, and the card should basically pay for itself in 1-1.5 months, but still.
Today was buy-a-book day in school. yiiiiaayeee! ....I didn't have to buy any books....how wierd is that? Ok, I had to buy one, but it was a workbook and you can't get any used workbook from anyone now can you ね。The only other class that I had some reading material in was (no not my history course) my business course. It was about 20 or so packets on who knows what. I just stuffed those in my locker at school because I didn't need them todayよ。
After class we headed out to see 栄　again and it was a lot of fun. I like 栄, especially with the group that we're with! They are so funny! I was a little out of it today but I know that there are those days in everyone's life and they come and go. You can't be the life all the time! No worries, Kevin Prawd took up the reigns, followed by an ever hard-working Brittany--so funny. In other news, I am trying to figure out Regina Estrada. Tomorrow will help out a lot I think. I hope.
Tambien hay los que no creen en amor. Por que amas si no hay nadien con que te puedes amar? Mi corazon es roto. La weona. What little, soft, and cautious steps I take on an already treaded ground. I fell once or twice and hurt some skin, my soul was still intact, was it not? Was it not? Why do my footsteps fall with such hatred and precaution on this traveled but unknown ground? 愛
　　It rained again today. It was cooler and that was nice. I bought a really wonderful bracelet with what looks like a star or a starfish on it. I like it. I wonder if the star likes me back? If I ask the star if it likes me too will it say yes? Will it say no? Maybe if my little star says no then it will wash away from my bracelet! I know I've only known this happy, smart star for only a little time but I am so entranced by it's radiance that I am unable to look away. Nor am I able to ask it my question. roto.
Have fun with that.

思う

またね。。。these biting mosquitoes. Ok, food is the subject of this entry.
Japanese people are HUGE on the food scene! It's amazing すごい. Seriously though, if you're not eating you're watching someone prepare something then eat it on TV...or you're doing both. Then, at the table you get served a bunch of tiny platefuls of amazingly tasty food that doesn't look like a lot at first but it becomes obvious (very quickly) at how much it really is. My host mom finished her meal in about 15minutes or so, my father in about the same...and me?? I was about halfway through my meal! Did they eat less? no. Did they use forks? no. They just scarf the stuff down! It actually is more amazing than disgusting (it is actually not disgusting at all) because 1) they use chopsticks, and 2) they don't use napkins. Yup, no napkins anywhere.
Back to the TV thing. I don't know how it is in other houses but here the TV is on just about 24/7 and like I said, most of those 24 hours are food. Oh and the TV commercials are hilarious!! Hilarious. "ここじゃない！ここじゃなーいーあーい！”　Oh so funny. But yeah, maybe they think that I need to be constantly eating or something. I know that I have it good though because the guys in the dorms are droolin at the mouth for a bite of what I'm getting treated to. My host mom always asks me" してえる　Or している”which I know --even if I can't spell it, means"do you/have you ever know/recognize this" or something similar. Now, I'm kindof getting annoyed by it but the truth of the matter is that I have not seen most of the food anyway! I'm not a huge seafood guy but it's the only way here --海道　you might say--eat or die. Heck, I had octopus today...yesterday??? いつ。。。わすれった。
とにかく、Today was amazingly fun. I just hung around with my family and talked (with the help of a newly acquired 電気辞書. That might be the wrong kanji for an electric/pocket dictionary...We talked about differing customs, I worked on my kanji with Kento, we folded origami, read One Piece, and watched some sumo wrestling. めっちゃ楽しかったよ。It was a lot of fun. After the kids all left my host dad whipped out the Do-you-know-who-dropped-the-bomb on-Hiroshima question. Nice and awkward. "America...." I told him that I wanted to see Hiroshima, and I really do, and that made things a little less awkward. He showed me a picture of his class from that year--1945--and he told me a little about the feelings that he had at the time and the fear of the B-29 bombers. It was a strange feeling, being on the other side of the war... I was a ashamed of our country at that moment. Thinking that a bunch of 8-year-olds were fearing for their life and that America was to blame.
No pictures today. I took some yesterday though. Check out my town! Gonishi Fukumori Yamoto-cho, Ichinomiya-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan. ごにし福森大和町一宮市愛知県日本。

The Day After Yesterday

Yesterday was a long day......but it was awesome! Lets start at the beginning. I started the day really early. AS usual I woke up around 6:30 (I don't know if it's still the jet lag but I feel absolutely awake at that time) I had breakfast and set out like the other day--expecting no problems this time--towards 一宮駅 (Ichinomiya station). I parked my bike among the thousands of others and casually made my way onto the train. I had so much time! It was just past 8 and I didn't have to be at the school until 9:45. But then things went really wrong... The train stopped at Nagoya like it has for the last couple of days but everyone and I mean EVERYONE got off. So here I am the only one left on the train. What can I do but get off? All I knew at that point was there was no way to get to Kanayama (where I would transfer to the 地下鉄 subway). I lie, I knew one more thing (or so I thought): all trains stop at Kanayama 金山. So i just moved over two platforms to hop on a train. When the train started off I heard the conductor say: "Kanayama made" which means, "ending at Kanayama, and I thought that all was well. The first thing to go wrong was that the train curved off to the right. I should have known then. It basically stopped at every other possible stop there was in the area before it made its final stop not at Kanayama...but Kaneyama かめやま！(see pics) By the time I had turned around, jumped on the right train to Kanayama, and arrived at Nanzan University 南山大学, it was just about 12!!! I had completely missed the morning session!! Frickin'
Oh well, all's well that ends well someone once said, and they could not be more right! Yesterday night was the only remedy to my morning. After my afternoon orientation me and the "cool" people headed out to eat in Sakae 栄 to eat and relax. We headed out to a restaurant that had the word tororo in its name. Our two Japanese guides were really helpful with ordering food. Keiko and Natsumi even reserved a room at a Karaoke bar. Maybe I'll have some pictures of them later. They hold a weekly coffee hour at 南山大学 that I think i'll try to attend.
The food was really good and actually pretty cheap (like $5 本当！）　So basically if I ever go back to 栄市 I will have to check out that place again. But surely I will go to JoyJoy again!
　　　I am so happy that we went to the Karaoke bar! You have to try them at least once! At first--when we were all fully conscious of what we were doing--it was hard to get people to start singing...it got easier...somehow. I sang Bohemian Rhapsody with Kevin and then Help with Regina. Regina told me that Kevin said I was "one of those good kids" and I'm not too sure what he meant by that. Surely it was a compliment. If you go to a Karaoke bar, be sure to mind how many drinks 酒　you have. They don't really kick into high-gear until you are out of the bar and walking home. eh heh... I really have to thank our tour guides though. They really were there for all of us 100% to the end. I have more video of the karaoke bar than I have pictures. Others took pictures. The cost for the rooms and all-u-can-drink was 1300円 or about $11 which I will hands-down support.
I got back late though, around 11:30. I told my host mom that I'd be back around 9pm so you can see that it could have been a big problem. But they seemed to pass it off, either way...I'll tell them that I'll be back later next timeね。

A new beginning!

Today I got back the results of yesterday's test and...yes! I made it into my desired class!! Intensive Japanese 300!!! The thing is, there was barely any use of the Kanji that I learned over the summer and there was a high usage of the grammar. I mean, I really needed to know some kanji to actually understand the question, but it was all useless if I didn't know the the grammar! Lucky for me, I guess i got it!! After the test results were returned, I just walked around the campus with a couple friends and relaxed!!! リラックスしましょうね　（くつろぎましょうね！）I took pictures--lots of them! See above....and, as the typhoon approached, we enjoyed ourselves. The coolest part of the whole experience (たいけん） was that I made a few really good friends. I decided to stick with the three other ND students, but to the mix I added a Chad, Regina, Brittney, Dylan, and one or two others... We decided to be the self-proclaimed "cool" group and head out to morrow after our orientation ceremonies end.
　　　That's right! A Typhoon! Lucky for me the brunt of it will pass by without Nagoya (名古屋 or Ichinomiya （一宮）knowing anything about it. That's cool.
The only thing that I am having trouble with now is: A) Buying a phone & B) Buying my commuter pass. I am going to buy my pass on the 10th...I think...I might buy it tomorrow, I hear it's going to cost me about $160 for three months of travel. I guess it's probably worth it: It's about $10 a day(without the pass) for 20-24 days a month...that's a lot of money, it will quickly pay for itself in my case...I say, as long as the three month pass is under $600, it's totally worth it!!
The only thing that I'm getting annoyed at at this point is that my host mom keeps mentioning her previous host kid Michael and it's starting to piss me off. I've had enough of "Michael" this and "michael" that. Heck, she even showed me pictures of him. I'm starting to feel like i'm some kind of disappointment or something.
とにかく、it's late and I'm tired, I'm going to bet. 遅くて疲れていてお休みなさい！

To school

今日は
Today I went to 南山大学　to begin my formal introduction to their institution. It was greaｔ！楽しかった！Also, today was the day of our placement test. I feel that I did as much as I could do and that I'll place into the class that I have aimed for: the 300-level class. There are sooo many Exchange students! 留学生がいってみんなしんせつだった. I met so many new people and heard so many new names today. I doubt that I will be able to remember three of them: Regina, Justin, ....Adam! There, that's three isn't it. There was also a Patty I think, and a ....a... well, we finally met up with Marla again.
The welcome ceremony was cool but it lasted pretty long. There are a lot of papers to look over and fill out. So much so that I think there is now way that I'm going to finish them all. Knowing my track record, I am going to forget a pretty large amount of what was said. At least I know what I have to do for tomorrow.
I need to get a phone. I feel strange in this house on occasion...that is, I am trying to feel comfortable and at home but I know that there must be many things that I am doing that must be strange to them and maybe annoying (like typing this entry in their living room while they are in it). There's nothing I can do but to do it I guess.
I messed up today on the subway. I got off the subway around student rush-hour and took out my ticket. I placed the ticket in the little slot where I put all used tickets...and as I tried to walk forward the gate swung out in front of me and locked me in! Of course, all 200 of the middle-school students behind me let out a groan as they bumped into each other due to my stupidity. You see, I had accidentally underpaid for my ticket! I was off by 30 yen! Lucky for me this thing must happen often because I only had to go to this machine where I adjusted my fare and all was well. Still, はずかしかったよ。
Tonight I write as a typhoon approaches. I hope it doesn't rain too much tomorrow as I make my 1.5 -hour trip to school.
Stay tooned

A new Home

I finally arrived in Japan. まさか。I am so tired it's unbelievable. The flight was fourteen hours long and I just about fell down with jet lag when I got off the plane. It was great because I was able to meet up with Mallory and Kevin on the plane to Nagoya and we had a grand olde time on the plane..surrounded by Japanese and a few other nationalities. Wakae, my host mother, is amazing! I can't believe I have been placed with such a nice family! From the moment I arrived she has been nothing but the most accommodating and kind person that anyone could ask for. Her husband, Shigeharu, is also amazing! He has sooooo much energy! I have seen many 20-year olds that have less energy than him. He's up, he's down, he's everywhere and busy, busy, busy! The best part though is that he is crazy nice and wants to learn English almost as much as I want to learn Japanese! He throws our English now and then and it's pretty good too. I am amazed.
Last night Wakae made the most amazing dinner. The problem was that I was more tired than hungry so much of it went untouched. ざねんだ。　
Today Wakae and I went to the station together to map out my route to 南山大学 and I must admit that although it wasn't all that confusing, I was thoroughly confused. It's all in Japanese after all. We got there fine and I met up with Mallory and found out the time that I had to be at the University for the test tomorrow. よかった！I think I finally figured out the route the second time on the way back but now she's telling me that a friend of hers found an easier route and so my route is going to change a bit over the next couple days. it's cool.
What I think I'm going to really like about this trip is that their next-door neighbor is her daugher and three of her grandchildren. They are sooo nice! Chieko is their daughter's name. Her three children are Rieko, Kento, and Setsuki. They have all been very receptive to me, especially Kento. Setsuki is opening up a bit after a day. I hardly see Rieko. Chieko is amazingly nice and reminds me a lot of Claudia with her looks and countenance.
This entry is going to be pretty scatterbrained as the days' experiences return to me...forgive me. I was so tired last night I went to bed around 9:30. I woke up around 6:30 to the sound of strange birds and new sounds. I new as soon as I woke up that i was really in Japan. I was anxious to leave the room and meet the new world.
Tonight I finally gave my host parents their gifts. Perhaps I wasted too much time to give them the gifts. Note to self: do it right away next time! Also, I can't believe how much these guys eat! I can hardly finish my meals. Maybe they are feeding me more...no, that's not it, they eat the same-sized meals but much faster. I don't know how they do it. Maybe because they've been eating those-sized meals their whole lives. Maybe I'll get used to it.
Today Kento showed me how to ride this cool board thing (look at pics) and I kindof figured it out. More practice is needed--like my Japanese.
Today when we were returning on the train I looked up into the glass and in shock looked at my own face with it's big eyes. Maybe I stick out a little!
Yeah I'm leaving a little out. Daijoubu!

Liftoff

I am leaving in the next few hours to Japan. I have packed--almost--all of my stuff including my presents (candles, books, decorated stationary kits, Minnesota Twins baseball hats, and candy). I have video tapes to capture all of my experiences there too. I also had to stock up on some of the essentials: bathroom things. I really need to just start closing my suitcase and checking things of my mental checklist. I can't forget my passport, wallet--plenty of Japanese Yen, my study materials...what else? I'll probably forget something. I just want to try to pack as lightly as possible but with a suit and a jacket in mind I just feel that I will end up pretty crammed.
I have also decided to grab a few pictures of my family to show to my grandparents in Japan: cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. I never found my iPod. I am going to be soooo messed up by the time difference. It's a ten hour flight and a 14-hour time difference from here. That means that I'll basically lose a day, right?
I'm trying to relax but there are a lot of things happening really fast in the next few hours!