The Week I Might Not Have Forgotten... Too Bad About Wednesday

It’s been so long since I’ve updated this. Sorry, everyone. Where did I leave off? Ah, yes, I should be on Saturday, December 3rd. One problem there. I can’t remember too much of what happened between the 3rd and the 11th. About that whole taking notes thing… I took some, but I didn’t date everything. So for now we’ll just say that week happened. I can remember a few tidbits, I believe, so I will include them here.

One out of those two Saturdays, the 3rd, was the day the Matt-tachi and Jason took the JLPT. It was another rainy Saturday, so I decided not to go on the final culture class trip. I still didn’t have proper shoes for that kind of weather. By the time the boys were finished the exams, the rain had ended, and we all decided to go out to eat in celebration. We went to the Indian curry place again, with “we” including those three, Jay, Jess, Jil, and myself. We had a lot of fun, and I was able to finish my meal that time. That made me really happy, as it was pretty good food. The service was just as excellent as the last time, too. The people there are so very nice. ^^ They gave us extra drinks and some cheese naan. At the end, some were having difficulty finishing their nan, so a large chunk was handed to Matt (the US one). He made the best face as he bit into it and cried, “Nooooooooo,” because he was already full. It was highly entertaining, and there may be a picture of that face somewhere. XD

As for Sunday the 4th, I don’t remember too much about what I actually did that day. I think I stayed inside for most of it, though. That morning I did tell Gotou-san I would be getting a package, and it happened to arrive later that same day. x.x Talk about timing. I was in my room when someone rang my bell, so I picked up the phone to see who it was. It was the delivery guy! I wasn’t sure exactly what to say to him, so I just answered his question affirmatively and ran to the door. I signed for the big box and thanked him for bringing it all the way up the stairs for me. ^^ And thanks again, mom, for the package! Extra clothes that I should have brought to begin with, a new pair of boots, a coat, and tons of shampoo and conditioner! So helpful! Oh, and my umbrella, too; it’s nice to have, considering the one I bought here was taken. Also, let’s not forget the nail polish Aunt Lisa sent for my teacher (that was so sweet. I think she really likes it). As I was unpacking everything, Jess had gotten back from purchasing tickets for Disney with the other girls, so I gave her the PJs ma sent for her. She likes them very much, she says. ^^

On to the week. Monday… I can’t remember Monday for the life of me, except that whoever was available for the song class took part in a practice for a very odd event on Wednesday. Tuesday we had Konno-sensei again, and it was during that class that she gave out the schedule for our speeches. Duke was to go on the first day, Friday. As soon as Konno-sensei announced it, he turned to me and said, “I called it.” Ever since he had accepted to be one of the MCs for Wednesday’s event, he knew his week would be made even busier. We were to have the 楽しみ会 (which translates literally to “fun meeting”) on Wednesday, a test Wednesday, a test Friday, and then the speech for Duke on Friday. It was shaping up to be a hectic week. I raised my hand and explained his situation to Konno-sensei, and she laughed as she realized how busy he’d be. She offered for me to switch my Monday slot with his, but then I’d have been in the same boat. He insisted that he’d be fine and didn’t need anyone to switch with him. Stubborn fool doesn’t know when he’s got too much on his plate.

Wednesday was a day I could have done without, if we’re being honest. I was not looking forward to singing the insanely slow, lengthy song that Saitou-sensei asked us of the song class to perform. I would have preferred a more energetic piece, but it was what it was. I didn’t mind watching/listening to the other performances, though. I especially enjoyed a piece done on an instrument I’ve never seen before. I have been informed it is called an Erhu. It was a stringed instrument, but there was only one string (I thought it was one string, but according to wiki it has two). There was also a bow, like for a violin or cello, but this little instrument was not at all shaped like either of those. The bottom end was very small and rather circular in shape. It was one of the most amazing things I’d ever seen, and the student played ridiculously well. ^^

Unfortunately, the song class did eventually have to sing. I didn’t like having the sheet of lyrics, as I had done my best to memorize them, but I suppose it was just as well. We moved to our places as the MCs gave our intro, which was a lie, by the way. Whoever wrote that part said that we’d been practicing for three months. One, the class didn’t start three months prior, nor were many of us even in the country at that point. It was two months. Two, we were told about that event two weeks in advance, and we were only given our song one week in advance. There was essentially no practice. But I digress… We sang the song, and then had to sing Jingle Bells. It was only the chorus, but I may never want to hear that song again. Finally, the event was over, and there was a little bit of time before class. Rather than study for our test, Jil and I remained on the 8th floor as she played the piano for a few minutes. It was fun. After that we did run off to our class and take the test. Don’t remember what chapters were on that one, but I got at least a 90. ^^

Thursday… again I don’t remember too much. Oh, but that day, and the few before, during class we had to practice our speeches with a partner. My partner was none other than Junso-san. I think these were the only times he didn’t tease me, probably because he was just as frightened to do a speech as everyone else was.

Friday we took another test, and the first three speeches were given. Mokuhou-san had to start the line. Poor girl was nervously laughing like crazy before she started speaking, and for a second it looked like she was gonna take off into the hall. Duke brought up the idea that perhaps these students never had to speak in front of a class before. Most of the US students are used to things like that, but if the Koreans and Chinese students never had to, it’s no wonder so many of them were really nervous. In any case, she ended up doing okay once she got started. For every speech, each student had to fill out a small sheet scoring the speaker on grammar, content, and performance (such as whether or not they brought visuals). I gave her a good score because she was first. ^^ Duke was second. He stood up there and spewed lies about Canada, and Konno-sensei was about to fall over laughing. I couldn’t look at him or listen, for fear I might also laugh. It was so bad. I should’ve given him a zero for being a liar, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. x.x He had a ton of pics, the content was all lies, but they were funny lies, and the grammar was accurate. And he wasn’t nervous, or didn’t show it at least. I think Teyan-san was third. He forgot part of his speech and asked the kid sitting next to his desk for help. XD It was pretty hilarious.

Saturday… Right, during the day on Saturday, I hung out alone in the lounge on my computer. Chatted on IRC, talked to mom, and maybe got some studying done. For lunch I had McDonalds. The walk back from that was entertaining. I was walking beneath an overpass, singing along to my ipod when I heard some really bad, high note from above me. A group of Japanese boys, likely high schoolers, were grinning at me. I smiled at them and continued on my way. Thinking back on it, I should’ve waved too. Or said hi, haha. It would’ve been pretty entertaining. Ah well, it made me laugh anyway. After my meal I began to draw in my sketch book so I would have pictures to bring in for my speech on Monday. There are three really funny pictures that I’ll have to somehow scan eventually. X.x During my drawing, though, I fell asleep with the book in my lap.

I woke up to Duke entering the room; he had come over as per usual. Itunes was still playing on my computer, and no one else had come down to hang out. We chatted for awhile, and I tried to nap at some point. Failed, by the way. Just as well, we had fun talking, and I showed him the ridiculous drawings I made for my speech. I think his favorite is Nyanko no Hikouki; yes, I drew a picture of me in a chibi form with my kitty ears hat and waving my arms. I will show everyone at some point. So we went out and got curry for dinner, I think. Brought it back to the lounge to eat and watch more episodes of HunterxHunter. It was fun. ^^ I can’t remember if I finished my curry all by myself or not. o.o Frequently, I can’t finish my food. My stomach is so tiny. Luckily, I hang out with enough hungry boys that it never goes to waste. XD

At ten it was time to leave the lounge again. I decided to walk with Duke to the Book Off where he bought a volume of a manga for his host sister, Chiyo, for her birthday that was coming up that week. He could’ve gotten on a train there, but apparently I can’t get back to the dorm by myself. (Yes, mom, I know you will be annoyed at that statement. I didn’t walk back alone, so don’t kill me.) By the time we got back, I was warm and actually enjoying the cool air. I wanted to go for a walk, so we decided that I would walk with Duke to the Ikebukuro station instead. We passed the vending machine with the pepsi, and I won that round by preventing him from buying one. XP Then he realized he left some books in the lounge, so we headed back to see if the room was still open. Again, I blocked the soda machine. Heh. We were on the brick path close to the dorm when Duke remembered that there was a lunar eclipse that night. It was pretty cool. Like geeks, we sat and watched for a few minutes, until being reminded of the need to grab Duke’s books. We ran into Gotou-san on the way back, and I asked her if I could go get said books. She opened the door for me, and I grabbed them and took them back to Duke. He didn’t live at the dorm, so he wasn’t allowed in after ten. He finally went home, and I walked up the stairs only to stop and stare at the eclipse a bit longer. It was really cool. ^^

So, I remembered a lot more than I thought I did. ^^ I’m gonna go to bed now, though, so I’ll include Sunday next time… if I can remember Sunday. XD On second thought, I can't remember Sunday. It's just kind of mixed up with Saturday a little in my mind, so I'm not really sure about that. I'll just start with Monday next time.

What Happens at the Museum Stays at the Museum

November 24, Thursday, happened. I seem to be unable to remember much from that day, though. I feel like the whole day I was just hoping for the weekend, and sighing at the thought of another day in between. I love class, don’t get me wrong, but the weekends are just so much fun that I find myself looking forward to them more and more. Friday was fun, thanks to Konno-sensei, but again my memory is failing me. I’m really doing a terrible job of jotting things down as they happen. I’ll have to get better at that.

More on the Pepsi wars, and I’m not sure if it is chronologically accurate to include this here, but it’s funny, so whatever. I had a fabulous win by placing one 100yen coin in each of the pockets of Duke’s jacket. How? I was told to borrow it again, as I’m always freezing. It was a great success. Of course I had to start losing again, though. One night, likely Friday, Duke enlisted the help of Matt (Jil knew too) to sneakily place a Pepsi in front of my door with 500yen sitting underneath. The reason… I was trying to give him a 500yen coin all night, probably for all the soda he’s paid for thus far. Only, I did not succeed in giving him said money, so he gave me way too much. I told him he had to take his 500yen back the next day, as he would be at the dorm anyway. Thankfully, he accepted that condition. Sigh.

As for Saturday, I went to the bakery for breakfast and to attempt a bit of studying. It was another bakery trip with Duke, not a race this time. We decided that was a bad idea. I think that punk paid for my food too, as I didn’t think to grab a tray before telling him what I planned on eating. At least it was only one thing. So I did get some kanji studying/homework finished, but we didn’t stay long. Heading back to the dorm, I think I ended up with another soda. Really, this guy shouldn’t feed my Pepsi gluttony.

That day was mostly an all day hang out again. Some homework was done, but mostly we were having fun just talking. We need to turn these talks into Japanese more, haha. Oh, that night my first real package came. A big thanks to aunt Kathleen for that! I promise I’m sharing the candy! ^^ Even gave some to friends I only see at school. Junso-san and Teiyan-san liked the Halloween eyeball gummies. I should probably give Jess a Reese’s though. I still have five, so I suppose giving up one or two wouldn’t hurt, haha. Duke loved the cookies n’ cream Hershey bar; I thought he was gonna die of happiness. XD Oh, and the hat is great! I am now known as “Nyanko no Hikouki” because of it. That basically translates to Airplane Kitty. I put my hands in the pockets and spread my arms out like an airplane. It’s fun, but some people at school think I have issues. XD

I believe Sunday morning was laundry time for me, heh. Two full loads, and I was so happy to have everything cleaned! I really should have brought more T-shirts and the like (read: thanks, mom, for sending me stuff; can’t wait to get it). At some point, Duke came over again, as he and Matt had plans to go get pictures taken for their visa applications for future semesters. Jil and I tagged along, and Jess stuck around the dorm to watch anime. She watched Big Windup! XD I knew I’d get her to like it, muahahaha! It’s such a good series.

Anyway, let’s dodge that tangent. So after some wandering through the train station to find a photo booth, we ended up in Sunshine City. We went to the Book Off there to check out pricing on a DS for Duke, but we didn’t stick around long. For dinner we had decided on Saizeriya (that Italian place with the name I couldn’t remember). Much to our delight, there was one right across the street from the Book Off. It was totally packed, but we got in without too much of a wait. Mmmm… now I want that spaghetti again. And we were seated right next to the fountain drinks, woot! It was such a win. The rest of the night was spent hanging out in the dorm lounge, as we have a habit of doing. It’s a shame that we get kicked out at 10pm every night, heh.

On to the week! I really need to catch up with this blog o’ mine. Monday was a kanji quiz, and I aced that one too! Hooray! Tuesday we got back sakubun to review, fix, and return. Wednesday we had class with Okada-sensei again, and it had been awhile since we’d seen him last. The previous two Wednesdays were midterm then holiday.

Thursday we went over a text about Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize, because Friday’s class was a trip to a museum including exhibits about Nobel. That part of the museum mostly bored me, except for the fancy lights and interactive displays of information. However, I couldn’t read most of it… And we had to fill out some dumb worksheet too. Bleh. Also at the museum were exhibits on many, many different kinds of animals. And my favorite? The dinosaur fossils! That part was so much fun! There was a velociraptor skeleton on a pole that could be rotated to view from different angles. It was phenomenal. Jil loved the sea creatures’ exhibits, especially the squid model that was hung from the ceiling. We continued along to a section with more interactive screens. You could select a species or family from those screens, and the floor lit a path to show where in the room it was! I had fun walking along the path. XD

Friday morning, Duke came over to the dorm early to hang out until we had to leave for the museum. That way, none of us would be late. We ended up leaving later than planned anyway, but made it just in time to meet everyone. Me, being the smart person that I am, forgot to bring my camera along. However, many other students took pictures, so I shall find them on Facebook or something. XD

Once the adventure was over, I was pretty exhausted. I was like the energizer bunny for the dinosaur display, but I lost that energy pretty quickly, sigh. We met up with the teacher again to be dismissed, essentially, and I was finally allowed to drink the water I had brought along. I tried to chug it like a loony, but Duke stole the bottle from me to force me to breathe between sips. I was fussy about that. XP As we walked back outside, I pulled my usual “I want to fall over” nonsense, because that’s how I get when I’m tired. I go to fall over, and someone has to catch me. I should stop that, as it makes said person panic, but I’m so unreasonable when I’m tired. XD

The train ride home was insanely crowded. And the ride was rather rough. I lost my balance a lot, and almost took out another person at one point, sigh. Again, needed catching, which Jil thought was really funny. I did kind of look terrified at the time. >.> Falling over in and of itself is fine, but falling into a stranger would not be cool. I don’t like it when my clumsiness inconveniences people I don’t know.

In any case, we got back without much more trouble, and ate at McDonald’s, I think. That’s all I can remember for now. I’ll try to update again this weekend. Sorry this post was kind of lacking. x.x

Cooking Curry and a Day Off!

Monday, November 21st was a bad day for me. And a little bit for those around me too. I was just moody and angry, thank you girl problems. At least most of the group found my angry antics to be entertaining more than anything else. Although a dumb boy decided to tell me something he shouldn’t have, so I advised him to not talk to me for awhile. After that I began to toss around an origami box that Jil made for me. It was fun, and everyone else probably just thinks I’m insane now. Oh well. X3

I was trying to cool down before class; I didn’t want to be an angry person for Kataoka-sensei’s class. She’s too sweet, and I would have felt horrible. Unfortunately, she wanted to play sort of a game with roll call that day. First she wanted someone else to answer for the person she called, forcing the called student to correct the mistake. Then when she called my name, I was to pretend I was not paying attention, forcing a student nearby to tell me I was called. Well, Denseki-san (not sure of spelling) was sitting next to me, and said boy from earlier was sitting behind me. If I were smart, I would have whispered for Denseki-san to be the one to speak up. I didn’t do that, though, so I got a tap on the shoulder from behind. I was still angry and promptly turned around to tell him, in what was likely a very venomous tone, not to touch me.

After that, we moved our seats into the big half circle used for class, and I sat far away from anyone I really knew. In doing so, I could safely talk to those next to me for class exercises. Of course, as class dragged on, I began to feel like a terrible person. Don’t know why, as I gave fair warning that I might not be human that day. XP Poor kid next to me asked if I was sick. I told him no, I was just a girl. I doubt he understood what I meant, though, because he went on to say that he’s always sleepy in class too. During break, I barely left my seat at all. I was drawing angrily in my notebook, because that’s just what I do.

In any case, when class was over, I did apologize. (read: yes, mom, I apologized) I guess I can act like an adult sometimes. But only sometimes. Heh. And all was well again, as we scurried out of our classroom.

Tuesday was another sakubun, but this one will be used as a speech that we have to memorize. I’m not looking forward to that so much. They did give us the freedom to pick our own topics, and we were told about it ahead of time with the hope that we could finish writing it in class. Writing the sakubun was saved for the end of class as always. Jil, Duke, and I had a curry cooking class to attend afterward, so we tried to hurry in writing it. It took me a long time to figure out an opening sentence, but the rest of the paper didn’t take too terribly long. We were all late in finishing, but we still made it to the curry class.

Once we arrived at the place for the class, I immediately regretted letting Duke badger me into signing up for it. We would be making curry with some Japanese college students who volunteered to join. As if talking with them wasn’t nerve wracking enough, I was expected to help make food? I hate cooking in front of people, so I didn’t know what to do with myself. There were 15 US program students, I think, and we were split into groups of three that were then joined by two Japanese students each. Jil and I stole Duke for our group, as he had done the curry class before. Two male students joined us: Yuto-san and Yo-san, who were both very friendly.

We went to our station with the ingredients and got to work. At first I was afraid to touch anything, as it wasn’t my kitchen. Sigh. But I eventually joined in, helping Jil cut the carrots, potatoes, and onions. Yuto-san and Yo-san insisted that we were doing really well, like it was a difficult task. It was pretty entertaining. They kept telling me to be careful while I was working, though. I was being careful; they worried too much that I might cut myself. Yo-san took care of washing dishes as his portion of helping. He kept saying that it was something he could do, so he would do it. Duke took care of the actual cooking part of the job, and we all chatted to pass the time.

When everyone finished cooking, we all sat down and ate together. Rice was prepared by two students who volunteered to do that instead of make the curry itself, so it was time for some yummy curry rice! At our table, our group of five was joined by Michiko-san and another Japanese student, Masaki-san. We had a really good time talking about all kinds of things, such as differences in size of food portions from the US, Canada, and Japan. US of course won as the cheapest and fattest. I know Duke mentioned some other things on his blog too. The punk put up some pictures as well, ch.

Wednesday was a holiday! Woot for days off school! We were initially planning to do the afternoon free time for karaoke, but that ended up not happening. So sad. What we did do was go with the guys to Sunshine so Duke could get a CD that came out that day. It was the opening of a new anime he’s watching. As a quick note, most CD’s are insanely expensive in Japan. I’ve seen a few that cost around 5000yen (about $65). Granted that CD had a ton of songs on it, I still wouldn’t pay that much for it. Luckily, Duke’s CD was under 3000yen. He’s been pretty obsessed with this song since he first heard it, and thanks to that I have had it stuck in my head more than once. It is a good song, but the opening line drives me a little insane with the Engrish, heh.

After that, we went to a book store for the two Matt’s to get some JLPT prep books. We had to take the elevator to like the 8th floor of the building for that. Luckily, they were on a bookshelf right in front of the elevator. Win! Lunch followed, which was gyuudon again. I need to not eat that for awhile, I think. It would seem that I am growing tired of it.

On our way back to the dorm to yet again attempt studying, we stopped by the park to pretend to be kids for a little bit. XD We tried walked up logs that were set on an incline. The first one was simple enough, but the second set was too high an incline and too slippery. I opted instead for taking the other side to the horizontal set of logs, and just sat up there for awhile. The guys attempted the steep inclined logs and failed too. Doubters thought I was making up how slippery it was. Okay, just kidding. We just sort of hung out for a bit until we decided to stop scaring the locals. XD We did get some interesting stares from the passersby.

I believe we were distracted once again, this time by a CD and game store. The guys finally caved and bought a Japanese copy of Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver; they were about 2000yen a piece (about $26). They were used games, but that’s still a decent price for Pokémon video games. Brand new in the US, they were $40. Anyway, Duke purchased Heart Gold, and Matt, Soul Silver. That night mostly involved trading good Pokémon from existing save files to Jess’s US copy of the game, and then the Matt-tachi began their own save files. XD

That’s all for now! ^^

End Midterm Week and Not Quite Singing in the Rain

Ah, Thursday. I somehow woke up in time to get ready and go to school as usual. I was running off of about four hours of sleep and was quite literally falling asleep in class all day. Kataoka-sensei must have noticed, because she called on me to answer a review question in the book just as I began to lose consciousness. Whoops. Luckily she is a nice person, so I don’t think she’ll hold it against me. I’m not sure I remember anything else about Thursday, as I was completely out of it.

Friday was a “disaster drill”, like our fire drills at home, but this one is about what to do in case of an earthquake. First we were made to hide under our desks, should the lights or anything else come loose and fall from the ceiling. Let me just say now that our desks are tiny. Seeing the guys attempt to fit under them was pretty hilarious. Poor Zach. His legs did not fit at all. I am small enough that I could fit my whole body under my desk, without anything sticking out. ^^;;; After hiding, we had to leave the building (in case of fire) and head for a nearby park, because it’s a large, open space with less risk of buildings falling on us or something. I personally felt the whole thing to be completely unrealistic. First of all, the entire school didn’t go at once. Second, I find it difficult to believe we’d make it all the way to the park in the event of an earthquake. Oh, and the most annoying thing was that they actually had people taking pictures of the freaking drill! Who does that??? I was not at all happy about it. x.x

Getting back to class mode was fairly difficult for me. I didn’t want to do anything after the drill. But, alas, I had no choice. Time just sort of dragged until almost the end of class, where more crazy conversations were made. It was another of those “watch the video and create your own dialogue” activities. In this video, there were two men walking back to their apartment building (note: condominiums in Japan are called “manshon”, a katakana transliteration of the word mansion). That had me laughing before I even knew it. One conversation involved the statement, “Oh, my condo is great. Do you want to come home with me to see it?” May I repeat that I love my class? XD These kids, quite a few of whom are actually older than I am, are hilarious!

Okay, time for some random notes about the week. The Pepsi buying war between Duke and myself is still going strong. One night I won pretty amazingly by dropping a 100yen coin into his pocket as he dropped on into the machine. However, he then decided he had to buy me a second one to make up for it. Punk. Couldn’t just let me enjoy my victory. Then, when we went to karaoke, he bought me another one! Three in one night was cheating. XP Since then, I have preemptively placed money in the side pocket of his backpack without him noticing about three times thus far, and only once did he find it before returning home. I’m totally getting back into this game.

While I’m at it, I’ll try to fit the weekend in here as well. Saturday Jil, Jess, and I were supposed to go to Asakusa (stress on second syllable, not first/third) with the culture class, but it was pouring rain. The trip involved walking around a bunch of shops, and I don’t have proper shoes for outings in the rain. None of us are taking the class for credit, so we made the executive decision to not go. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask Gotou-san to contact those at the school to let them know we weren’t going. We walked to the closest bakery for breakfast, and while we were eating, someone took my umbrella from the stand outside. Jil offered to share hers for the walk back, so I stayed mostly dry, except for my feet. Ugh. Few things exist that are worse than sneakers and socks soaked through as you walk.

After that, Jil and I spent most of the day in the lounge with the guys. Duke, of course, came over again. That’s practically all he ever does, heh. I seem to recall trying to draw that day and failing, as I couldn’t think of anything. But we all chatted a lot, so it didn’t matter that much. Dinner was gyuudon, and my feet became even more soaked during that trip. The ground was so flooded, it was not even funny. It poured even harder on the way back to the dorm. And me, without my umbrella. Duke all but demanded to share his, which was kind of broken, but big enough that it still functioned. I didn’t really have a say in the matter as he yanked me next to him. Jil giggled, and Duke felt the need to tell me several times “I mean nothing by this. Nothing but to keep you dry.” I found it fairly entertaining, personally.

We all hung out at the dorm for a little longer, until we got booted at ten and had to leave. Poor Duke had to walk back in the rain, while the rest of us scurried to our warm, dry rooms.

Luckily, Sunday was a much nicer day. Sun shining, humidity levels back down, I put my sneakers in the window to finish drying. They took about three hours from that time to dry completely, during which I video chatted with friends from home and regular chatted with the cousin. It was a lot of fun, considering I had been far too busy for such things before the midterm. That morning, Jess, Jil, Jason, Duke, and two friends of Jess went to a small anime festival type things near our area. I spent the morning alone, grabbed a simple lunch, and bumped into Matt on the way back to my room. He explained that the others were leaving the festival and heading to Akihabara, a place well known for anime merchandise. I chose to tag along with him and Jay to meet up with everyone.

We went out for okonomiyaki, an unusual pancake type food with very different ingredients from what you all know as pancakes. I probably would have enjoyed food more if I hadn’t just eaten, but it was okay. After that, there was some exploring to a nearby arcade with PuriKura. I decided not to participate this time. We walked around the arcade, played some air hockey, which I lost. I did great the first half of the game, but then fell apart once I hit 6points. Too bad. Then Duke played a table flipping game! XD All you had to do was smack hands on the table, then flip in when the bystanders weren’t paying attention. Apparently their surprise, plus the damage done by what was flipped increases the player’s score. It was pretty funny to watch. I want that game at home. In my room, haha.

The two Matt’s left to go back to the dorm, and Jay and Jason left to go elsewhere in Akihabara while the rest of us chose to go to karaoke. It was fun. We stayed for two hours before returning to the station, parting ways with Jess’s friends, and returning home. Jil, Jess, and I all got dinner at the convenience store on the way back. I got a small thing of curry; it was yummy. Upon returning to the lounge, I caught the end of a baseball game on the television. Apparently, the team they wanted to win won. XD Good for them. Odd note: the box indicating the strike zone is not shown on the screen here. It was interesting.

Well, that’s all for last week/weekend! ^^

Beware the Midterm! Another All Night Karaoke?!

Okay, now for the post about midterm week! 11/14-11/16

Monday morning was funny; showed my picture off to everyone. XD Duke was jealous because he is not fabulous like the drawing (really, I just can’t draw beards, so there isn’t one). And Jil and Jess love their characters. Hooray for me! We all hung out and tried to study until class. In class we went over the homework and basically finished the last chapter to be included in the midterm on Wednesday. At the end of class, I was informed that I had to do my hatsuon check, which I had completely forgotten about. Yikes. Luckily, we’ve been working on a simple story: Momotarou. It was not difficult to read, so I got A’s for this check too. Thank goodness.

Tuesday was a hilarious class. Konno-sensei is always so funny, but on that particular day, I had a fun experience with another student. We were put into pairs to create a dialogue using the most recent grammar pattern. This conversation was meant to include “hurdles”, meaning that one person would ask for permission for something, and the other would essentially challenge the need for said permission. We were meant to go back and forth until one person backed down/granted permission. I was paired with Mokuhou-san (using a Japanese spelling of her name). For our conversation I actually took the initiative. XD I pretended to be a young girl asking her mother for permission to go play with a friend. She asked if I’d done my homework or studied, and my response was that I studied the day before. Then came the best line of the day: “Kinou ha kinou da yo!” Basically, she yelled that yesterday is yesterday. We were dying of laughter as the teacher pointed out that it was actually a common expression. Eventually I asked if my friend and I could study together and was granted permission. XD

After that, Zach and his partner were up. I’m not sure their conversation made too much sense. It was about borrowing a book, which was apparently the other kid’s “girlfriend”, but it had Zach’s name written on it, haha. Regardless, it was a blast.

Alas, the dreaded day of the midterm arrived: Wednesday. We got to school really early to do some last minute studying, mostly kanji on my part. Listening was something that couldn’t really be helped, and the grammar seemed doable. The reading section involved two stories we’ve already read, but it had slightly different questions. There was no preparing for the sakubun portion at all; we were not given the theme until time for the test. Thus, kanji was my biggest worry. We could be tested on any of the 135 kanji learned in class, but it was more like 300 possible words that could be made out of them. Needless to say, I was a little worried about that.

We shuffled into our usual classroom, followed by a different teacher from our usual three who was our test proctor. I went to sit down in one of the few remaining seats, only to be told by Junso-san to look at the board for our assigned seating. Turns out I picked the correct seat anyway. Duke, oddly enough, was at the desk behind mine and vowed to annoy me during the exam. Punk. Before I could come up with something clever to say, which probably would have failed anyway, the test had begun.

The first part of the midterm was the sakubun. I wanted to bash my head into the wall beside me. Duke wasn’t lying when he said these people were terrible trolls. Jil and I felt they wanted to crush all our hopes of doing well by throwing the worst section at us first. To top it off, the theme was absolutely horrendous: Things That Have Surprised Me since Coming to Japan (日本へ来て、びっくりしたこと). I’ve been asked this question on multiple occasions, and not once have I ever been able to come up with an answer. I had a time limit of 50min, though, so I simply wrote about a few differences between life in the US and life in Japan that I knew to expect. Okay, so I fibbed, but I had to write something. Worst section ever (read: worst essay ever written). There was a ten minute break after the sakubun for students to use the restroom, eat a snack, etc. Jil, Duke, and I used most of the time to tell each other how poorly we did.

Part two was the listening section, I believe. Many of the conversations/questions were ones previously done in class, so I knew how to answer them. Other questions involved a description of something, leaving us to pick one of four pictures that best matched what was said. The last few conversations were more difficult, as they were longer and had slightly more confusing questions to accompany them. Regardless, I think I did well on that section (read: I hope I did well). Another mini break was given before the longest part of the exam.

Reading comprehension was up next. The two stories picked out of the three we read were the obvious choices because they were the two more difficult ones. One was about soybeans and the Japanese people; I left a few questions blank on that side because some of the vocabulary was too complicated. The other side was the story of Noguchi, Hideyo. I answered all of those questions, and I think I got them all right. With any luck, that’s not just me being too optimistic, heh. Once time was up for that, we were immediately handed the bunpou section of the test. Throughout most of it, I felt I was able to put the correct answer, but there was at least one question I did not answer at all. I was still kind of in panic mode, and I could not remember for the life of me what one little phrase meant. That made the whole sentence that I was supposed to write pointless for me. I’m sure I made other mistakes too, even though what I wrote for certain questions may have seemed correct at the time. As long as I didn’t make too many little mistakes, I should get a fairly decent grade. ^^;;;

A short break later, and the time for kanji had come. I was the most worried about that section for the sheer volume of the content that could be used. Much to my delight, they picked a lot of simple kanji that I knew! There were fifty words we had to change from kanji to hiragana or vice versa, and I answered all but five. Provided all the ones I answered were correctly done, I have a 90%. I was only unsure of one or two that I answered, meaning the lowest grade I could have is an 86%, with which I am totally okay. Once I finished, I handed in my paper, put my chair upside down on top of my desk, grabbed my bag, and gleefully ran down the stairs to freedom. XD (Yes, we have to do that with our chairs every day) I was so happy to be finished the day of testing! Shortly after my retreat, Jil and Duke joined the group of freed prisoners. XD Jess was already downstairs, as each level’s exam worked a little differently. I believe the level 2 test sections were slightly shorter than ours.

So, our group gathered together to go eat dinner at the Italian place in Ikebukuro. Then we prepared for all night karaoke! Woot! We didn’t even care that we had class the next day; we wanted to party in celebration that the midterm was over. A group of seven this time (Jason, John, Matt, Duke, Jil, Jess, and I), we headed for Sunshine City.

Free time for karaoke during the week was cheaper too because it was a weeknight! We of course had a blast. Munchies were eaten, including some McDonalds at some point, drinks (only water and tea for me) were had, and all were merry. Jason was, as usual, far gone after only one drink and dancing as he sang. Matt got relatively drunk too throughout the night, which was also entertaining. As for me, I pushed myself too hard while singing not far into the night, but I kept up with the water and had a decent length break between each of my songs, so I was fine. XD I all but monopolized Duke’s giant headphones to listen to music on his phone once the other guys were so lost that their singing became drunken yelling. And I believe Duke asked me for about the hundredth time “Why are you not getting paid to do this?” I dunno, maybe I should try to be a singer. XP

Much like the previous all night karaoke trip, I was totally passing out by the end. However, this time I was able to at least stand for the walk home. I did however need help with the walking part; so of course, Duke was practically holding me up the entire trip back to the dorm. This time, at least, I was smart enough to bring my coat so that I wouldn’t freeze. We did decide to walk back through the station this time, so I did tear off my coat for that part of the trip. It’s always disgustingly hot in the subway. Once we reached our exit, though, we had to walk up a couple sets of stairs to get back outside again. I said I could handle it, but I was picked up before I had the chance to take even one step. I was set down again at the top of the stairs, and almost fell over trying to regain my footing before being pulled along yet again. I seem to recall saying fairly ridiculous things in my sleep deprived state. Mostly funny things that may not have made any sense. Heh.

We returned to our rooms to pass out for as long as possible, and poor Duke had to get all the way back to his host family before getting any potential sleep.

That’s all for now!

The 12th a Disappointment. The 13th, race to the bakery!

Saturday, the 12th, was spent shopping. I was really hoping to find a pair of boots that could be worn during rainy weather. I found nothing I was willing to spend money on that fit me. I was pretty upset and would have felt the day was wasted if it weren’t for Jil finding a cute cloak to buy. At least one of us found something worthwhile. ^^

We had spent the entire day looking in Shinjuku and Shibuya, so we were rather tired upon the return home. Unfortunately, we had to go out yet again, this time for food shopping. That’s all I’ve really got for Saturday. I thought more happened, but I don’t find it all very interesting now that I think about it.

Sunday was a race to the bakery inside the Ikebukuro train station. I was up too late on chat the night before and somehow got into an argument with Duke about whether or not he should get me anything at the bakery on his way to the dorm. I knew reasoning with him was useless, but I was tired and also being unreasonable at the time, so we decided to see who would get there first. If I won, I would buy my own food, making it pointless for him to buy me anything.

I was scheduled to be there at 8am because he thought he’d get there at about 8:30. Well, I’ll be honest. I was late by about 20 minutes, but I was still there first. XD I had brought my kanji book with me to study while waiting for the slowpoke. I got something to eat, and sat down in a booth. Once finished eating, I attempted to focus on studying. I use the word “attempt” because the classical music playing in the background was literally putting me to sleep.

So I decided to walk around and look for a restroom. I found a map of the station, but the only restroom listed was the one that costs 100yen to use. I didn’t care, so off I went to said restroom. It was on the way back to the dorm anyway, so I figured I’d see Duke on the way if he showed up. So the restroom was pretty nice, but it was kind of creepy at the same time. I will say it was worth it solely for the fact that I was actually able to wash my hands with hot water. Once finished, I started to head back toward the bakery, stopping by the ticket gates for the Fukutoshin line to see if the punk might be just arriving. Nope. Wasn’t at the bakery either, so I figured I’d just head back to the dorm. I couldn’t remember what I did with the receipt from the bakery, so I was basically giving up the win if I made it home before running into Duke. I didn’t care anymore though. I had to get back to the dorm in time to talk to the cousin like I promised. ^^ Because I hate being late. X.x

On said way home, he who should not be named did catch up to me, apologizing like crazy. My initial plan was just to ignore him, but I decided to instead agree with him that he was a bad person. XP As we passed the vending machine with regular Pepsi, he, as usual, bought me one. The start of his penance, so I didn’t try to stop him that time, ha. Turns out, though, he really was planning to be there first. However, when he got up, he supposedly thought it best to let me win. He passed out again and didn’t get up until pretty late. I explained that a race is a race, and I didn’t want to be handed a win. I think he has noted that. And yes, I realize I’ve spent entirely too much space talking about this, but it was entertaining to write, so make fun of me all you want.

Back to the dorm we went to hang out in the lounge, and for the Canadian to watch his hockey. I brought my computer to chat with the cousin. Said Canadian was very nosy, reading some of the conversation, mostly just the part where I was ranting about how he’s an idiot. XD Then he decided to send her an email in an attempt to defend himself. He got the address from her Yahoo IM name, I’m sure. Punk. Cousin asked me if it was okay to respond back! Haha, that I found funny. I told her it was fine, that he was just a punk. He has since been dubbed “the Canadian punk”.

Before long, the whole group was in the lounge, and there were laptops everywhere. I remember a lot of playing around on computers and just chilling that day. We were supposed to study, but we all have a tendency to get distracted by the internet. Good times indeed. We went out to get lunch at some point, and on the way the group was stopped by this silly old man who wanted to chat. Duke and I were far enough ahead that we escaped. Muahahaha. We stood on the side of the street, watching them until a car wanted the spot where we were standing. I was yanked out of the way by Duke, and we continued walking toward our destination. Duke explained that this old man has stopped him and the other guys to talk before. He just keeps forgetting that he’s spoken to them already.

Lunch was McDonalds for me. XD Duke and Jess got McDonalds too. I think the others got food from the bakery near there (different from the bakery in the train station). I must’ve looked super hungry because Duke kept shoving fries at me while we waited for those at the bakery to finish. Fries are so amazing. XD We returned to the lounge with our spoils and watched another episode of HunterxHunter if I remember correctly. Then it was back to pretending to study for all of us terrible students. I glanced at my benkyou nooto (basically my HW book, if I haven’t already explained that), but quickly became sleepy looking at it. I tried to nap a little, eventually giving that up for drawing. I drew on the back cover of said HW book, because I wanted a picture that was better than the one on the front cover. I ended up drawing Jil, Duke, Jess, and me. I have since inked it, but I am now in the process of adding more people in the background. The guys don’t look at allllllll like their real life counterparts. Whoops.

At the time, I refused to show anyone. I had to finish drawing and inking it first, so I told them to wait until the next day at school to see it. I stayed up pretty late working on it, but it was so worth it. XD

That was the weekend before the midterm! The post (posts?) about the week are sure to be just as fun! And if I remember anything interesting on Saturday that I missed here, I'll add it later.

Sat/Sun and Week of Testing

On Saturday we hung around the dorm and watched anime practically all day. Specifically, we watched HunterxHunter, a remake of an old classic that I never saw, and an episode of Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume's Book of Friends is English title). Before the anime marathon, though, we went to the nearby bakery for some yummy breads and the like. Good stuff. Duke kept trying to shove some apple thing at me that I didn't want, which was pretty funny. I won that round.

For dinner, we (Jil, Jess, Duke, Matt, Jason, and I) went to the Italian place I mentioned before. There was relentless teasing aimed at Jason for the time he first tried to show everyone "this really good Italian place" he knew. They walked around for around an hour, apparently, haha. This time, though, just about all of us knew where we were going. During the walk to said Italian place, the joke of me being carried came up again. I protested that there was nothing wrong with my legs, meaning I could walk just fine. At that very moment, I knocked my shin against one of the random (I feel they are random) posts on the sidewalk. The response I received was, "There is now." I laughed and winced at the slight pain, not quite believing the perfect timing of my clumsiness.

We reached the place quickly and were seated. I got the same thing as before, of course. I love my spaghetti. XD It was so yummy. As per usual, we chatted about random things, and I’m pretty sure there was more geeking out about Pokémon, as that tends to happen with us.

After dinner, I believe we got ice cream at the konbini, and the guys bought some beer. Jason, by the way, is a total lightweight. He was pretty far gone after just one, dancing around and talking about typical college student problems. We all of course giggled at his antics, and Duke was trying to give advice as usual. He again chose to relate the issue to Pokémon, something we’ve all come to expect from him. Each of the rest of us piped in with a comment here and there, and Jason has dubbed us all his bros (or honorary bros for the girls). Then the guys, along with some other students from our dorm, headed out to a nearby bar. We girls followed for the walk but headed home as soon as we dropped them off there. Heh.

That’s all I remember about that day right now, as it was awhile ago. While I’m at it, sorry about this late post, but I had a midterm on Wednesday. Anyway, on to Sunday. That was a rather uneventful day. The only thing Jil, Jess, and I really did was watch Moulin Rouge while eating like pigs. Other than that, I studied and slept.

I’m going to include the whole following week of classes (7-11) here too, as my memory is failing me. I’ve decided to start carrying a little journal with me to write down random tidbits from each day to help me write this blog. I know I probably should have started that weeks ago, but better late than never. So, for that week of classes, we were scheduled to have three tests (two grammar, one kanji) squeezed in before the midterm. It didn’t happen, thankfully. The sheet that would have been the second grammar test was given as homework to prepare for the midterm on the 16th.

Random fun notes: Tuesday we girls and Duke went to the stationary store near the school. It’s a good thing I’m picky about spending money, or I’d be totally broke now. It was huge, and there were so many pens and pencils, etc. that I wanted. Also, the second floor housed computer graphics programs, such as those specifically designed to help in the making of comics. Jil, Jess, and I were completely mesmerized by the video that demonstrated the application’s abilities. It was simplified, yes, but so amazing to watch.

Wednesday… nothing I can remember of importance right now. Thursday’s song class was fun, as it always is. At the end, for some reason, we got to listen to a bit of a favorite song of mine. Again by Yui. I threw up a fist, yelling, “Yes!” and began to sing along immediately. Nobody noticed, as the volume was turned up pretty high. Worked for me; I got to sing a song I love. However, Saito-sensei decided to turn the music down to talk to the class (I think). That was when he looked up with a very confused look. He noticed I was singing along and continued to play with the volume, perhaps to see how well I knew the song? It was difficult not to laugh as he did so, but I finished the chorus before class officially ended, heh.

Friday was kind of nerve wracking, to say the least. During class, we were put into groups to hold a conversation with Japanese persons who volunteered to speak with us. It was very nice of them to take time out of their schedule to help foreigners learning the language, and I really appreciated that. However, I was rather terrified that I wouldn’t be able to say much. It went okay though (at least Konno-sensei told us we did fine).The conversation counted as a test, I believe, and we were asked to write a small reaction about something we found interesting. The topic of discussion was end of the year celebrations, and I wrote about the differences between Christmas in the US and Christmas in Japan.

That’s all for now! I’ll start up on the weekend in a bit!

A Picture Conversation: Add Insanity

Oh Friday. Konno-sensei. I knew it would be an entertaining class, but there's never any way to prepare for the crazy. The only thing that's expected every class with her is to have to read aloud a new kanji that she points to on the board. I almost always fail the first time and have to stand to do it again after she goes through everyone in class. Luckily, a lot of us fail the first time. It's difficult to memorize kanji you've just learned. I should just start studying them ahead of time, heh. Although, she frequently throws in extras for which we would not be able to prepare. Getting it wrong is funny, though. She says, "Hai, stand up." Love her. XD We also fail when she asks us to make a sentence on the spot for a new grammar pattern. Again, we have to stand. Best class ever.

Toward the end of class, it was time to look at a picture and then make a conversation out of it. The photo was of a man and woman at a table in a restaurant. I was paired with Junso-san, the class troll. I knew he'd make it into something ridiculous, as he always does. So as we were trying to make a conversation together, Konno-sensei seemed amused by our topic. Thus, she picked us to act it out for the class. Dammit. We sat across from each other at the desk sensei placed in the center of the room, and so it went. We said "Hey, it's been a while. What've you been up to?" to start the act. Then, as requested by Junso-san, I added "Oh, by the way, I'm getting married soon." His response in Japanese was the word 'dame', which basically means 'no good'. So, I tried to continue to act, responding with "What? Why?" And this is where it got absurd. Junso-san's next line translates as "The truth is, from long ago, I've loved you." I burst into laughter, because I can't act out scenes like that to save my life. An attempt to play it off as a joke was my next move, but Junso-san kept a poker face, saying that we could be happy together and all that jazz. I couldn't stop laughing. And after a bad pause, he repeated in Japanese "I love you". The entire class was roaring, Konno-sensei included. It was so bad, but so hilarious.

At least sensei made another group go too. Duke and Zack were next with Teiyon-san. Duke had to play the woman, haha! It was a married couple talking about their kid's recent lack of concern for school. Teiyon-san was the waiter, and he was rude and funny. XD Everyone got a kick out of their act too.

When class ended, Duke decided to tell me that if I ever did that to a guy who was pouring his heart out to me, I'd crush him. I explained that it wasn't on purpose, but I probably would react that way in real life. Then he decided to try it out, and I was out of there, still laughing my head off. We joined Jess downstairs to explain class, and she also found it entertaining. Of course, it was at that point that I thought of all kinds of great things I could have said for the conversation, basically to crush Junso-san's character even more. But it was decided that I'd used up my "abusing men" quota for the day, so I was not allowed to tease anyone at all. Instead, Jess and Jil brutally tortured Duke for the trip home. I'm usually tame, comparatively.

So, once we reached our station, Duke decided he didn't feel like going home yet, so he walked us back to the dorm. Only we let Jess in front, so she walked crazy fast as always. Somehow, Jil managed to keep up with her, whereas Duke and I were like, "Nuh-uh". We fell behind, but I certainly wasn't walking any faster to keep up. So we chatted about them keeping pace, and what they might be talking about. Duke guessed right. They were giggling about us walking alone together. Fools. This joke ain't ending anytime soon. Doesn't help that Duke insists on beating me to the vending machines to buy me soda. Sigh. He won that round because I hadn't pulled out 100yen in preparation. We finally caught up to Jess and Jil, and they were of course, giggling. Funny how this joke persists when he's got a girlfriend already. Wait, never mind. That wouldn't stop Jess from making comments. I should know better, heh. Oh well, I'm used to being teased relentlessly, so it doesn't really bother me.

Duke finally left, and Jil went to see Alex, so it was Jess and I for dinner. I made sliders again! Woot for the mini burgers! We ate and watched a few episodes of Big Windup! on my computer. Om nom. Speaking of food, I'm starving, so I'm gonna head out to eat. Peace! The rest of the weekend will be posted when it's over. XD

Week 4- Can you believe it? Been here a month, haven't I?

Yet another week gone by. Scary how fast it's going for me. Well, another Monday, another kanji test. I totally aced this one. 100%, hands down. Yay me! So, I brought the red hoodie to school with me on Monday with the intent of returning it to Duke. It was nice out, so I did not bring my own hoodie. Jil dressed up a little, as it was Halloween; her outfit was cute. ^^ Duke actually showed up in a suit like he said he would on chat. Jil made him wear her mini hat, and she's got a picture of it. Oh, the silliness. As Duke was in a full suit, I ended up carrying the hoodie around all day. It didn't really bother me... until school let out. I was, of course, freezing (as it had gotten dark by that time), and Duke insisted he didn't need the hoodie. Crazy, cold weather-loving Canadian. Sigh. So again, I ended up taking it home. Bet the teachers got a kick out of that, heh.

Tuesday was our second composition writing. I think I did a better overall job this time around, especially since I was able to start writing much sooner than last time. The theme was our relationship with something (tangible or intangible) or with someone. I of course chose song, or Japanese Songs to be more specific. I rattled on about how I became interested in anime theme songs and the Japanese language. Thanks again, Ma. Heh. So hopefully I get a good score. After class was the hatsuon check (speaking/reading test). I got all A's again, hooray! ^^ Again, minor mistakes like forgetting how to read a kanji or two. That's all I remember for Tuesday, I think. Also, I gave up on bringing the red hoodie to school and opted to wait until the next time Duke visited the dorm to return it to him.

Wednesday was another test, grammar this time. I missed 2 questions for sure. I should still have at least a 90% though. We'll get those back on Monday. Other than that, the tidbit I remember from that day is Okada-sensei and his amusing charades. He was pretending to be a person squeezing onto a train, and we all cheered for an encore. He was explaining a grammar pattern, but the action to go with was too hilarious to resist laughing. Other than school stuff, Jess, Jil, and I watched Anastasia that night. Then after they left, I proceeded to listen to songs from musicals on youtube until about 2am. So smart.

Thursday was another national holiday, so no school! Woot! Jil, Jess, Matt, Duke, and I all went to the Pokemon Center in Tokyo for some crazy fun! We began the day by getting breakfast at a bakery in the station. Mmm, apple cinnamon bun. We then caught a train on the JR line for our destination. Much of our conversation during the trip involved geeking out about the Pokemon games, proving that I'm the geekiest of them all! XD I surprised everyone with the dumb little details I've memorized. I loved every second of it. Once we stepped out of the train, we saw a sign pointing us in the right direction. Win. The Pokemon Center was literally right across the street from the station, if the giant inflatable Pikachu was any hint. Upon closer inspection, you could see that the Pikachu was a moon bounce. Jealous. I wanted to be a kid if only to be allowed to play in it.

Taking the outdoor escalator to the second floor, we hurried into the center. Pokemon center music playing in the background and video game footage shining on the televisions, I was about in heaven. Ridiculous Pokemon merchandise lined the walls and shelves, and we squeezed through the crowds to view all of it. The only really disappointing thing about the place was that most of the products were of the new set of Pokemon, and only some classics loved by all of previous seasons were anywhere to be found. But I suppose the place wasn't nearly large enough to have something of every Pokemon out there. I couldn't even find Melanie a Gible. So depressing. But if you want me to go back for something like Snivy, let me know. However, most everything worth getting was about $20 or more. I bought nothing because I couldn't justify the pricing. Duke bought a CD with tons of Pokemon instrumentals from the show. Jess got coins with Pokemon printed on them, the kind that you pop money into a machine, select the design, and it presses it into the coin for you.

We left the Pokemon center, heading for the park across the street. I wanted to play. Unfortunately, there were no monkey bars. But there were swings! I simply had to wait for a kid to release one. And I did stand there feeling very jealous of the children on the swings. Once two were freed, Jil and I pounced. XD It was fun, but they were obscenely low to the ground. Apparently the older kids don't go for parks like we do? Whatever; we had a blast.

We didn't stay at the park long, as we had plans to go to the festival that was being held by the college down the street from our dorm. Jason joined us for that part of the day. We walked around to see all the food the students were selling. It was pretty cool, but I didn't feel like spending money on any of it. I did share some soup with Jess, though. And a certain Canadian (Duke takes no offense to us referring to him as such, I promise) for some reason felt I needed to be fed. He kept apologizing for there not being anything I wanted, as if he could fix that. I was just the picky kid that day. I was mostly bored too. I did, however, find it fun when two Japanese students came up to me with the sign for their curry stand and asked me if I liked curry in English. I should have responded in Japanese that I could read the sign, but I was too busy giggling at their antics. At a different stand, a male student was trying to sell some banana treat, and I did respond in Japanese to him. He seemed immensely pleased and called "thank you" as we walked away. Jason, Duke, and Matt ate quite a bit if I remember correctly. They couldn't resist any of it, ha. That's about all we did at the festival.

Next stop, the park in Ikebukuro. This one also had no monkey bars, sigh. But there were some people bouncing on some kind of bungee that was tied from one tree to another. It was pretty amazing to watch, not gonna lie. One at a time, a person would balance on it standing up, then bounce on it in a different position and bounce back to standing on it. A little weird to explain, but it was cool to watch.

Another stop back at the dorm, and I finally gave Duke back his hoodie. As we all went out again, though, he kept trying to hand it back because I apparently looked cold. I won, though. XP For dinner that night, we (plus Jay) went out for Indian curry. It was too spicy for Jess, and my stomach was just acting up, but everyone else loved it (they'd been there before). I don't know if I will return,as it was a bit pricy for me. Despite that, though, the service there was phenominal. The staff was very nice and brought us some extra things as well for no extra charge. If I went back, the service would certainly be the main reason.

We returned to the dorms again, only for our group to shift more and go out again. Jess (and Jay, I think) left the group, and Bryce and John joined. Bryce and I geeked out over Avenue Q songs for a good portion of the walk. It was Bryce's birthday that day as well, so the guys bought a beer each at the convenience store to celebrate. Then we walked to the Don Quihote, a chain store with all kinds of fun stuff. Jil and I followed Bryce to the candy and snacks section, where I found Snyder's pretzels and Oreos, yippie! Snacks purchased, Jil, Duke, and I parted from the group to head back. They wanted to go out drinking for Bryce's birthday. The three of us walked through the station, and Duke left to take his train back to his host family while Jil and I walked back to the dorm. End Thursday.

That's all for now! I'll include Friday with the weekend. ^^

The Weekenders: VII Sense Live and Room Cleaning

Oh, the Weekenders. I miss that cartoon. Anywhooooo... Saturday morning, right. I passed out close to 6am. Jess woke me up with a knock on my door at 10am to see if we were doing breakfast, I think. I sluggishly opened the door, and she probably looked at me like "the heck is wrong with you?" See, Jess didn't know we went to all night karaoke. She was annoyed at me the night before (for good reason), and I was afraid to even talk to her at the time because I am by nature a coward. So when I explained why I was still sleeping, she got a little more mad at me. :( I swore to bring her the next time to make up for it.

Jess did give me a strange look about my clothing. I was still wearing that red hoodie, which wasn't mine, because I had been too exhausted to take it off before collapsing onto my bed that morning. Again, an explanation was in order. I told her it was borrowed thanks to the ungodly cold weather at 5am. She figured as much, but laughed and told me something interesting. Apparently some teachers are getting the wrong idea about me and Duke. Michiko-san even asked Jess if we were going out. I about died of laughter to hear that; the thought of Michiko-san asking such a question is priceless. Jess also giggled and admitted that had she not known me, she would have jumped to the same conclusion. Clearly, if a girl and guy talk a lot and laugh a lot together, it means they are seeing each other. My comeback was, were he a girl, such conclusions would never be made. In any case, it's become the new joke among our group.

So Jess and I patched things up and had a laugh. I also did some laundry. Then, after chatting online with the cousin for awhile, I decided to attempt to study for my kanji test on Monday. Failure of epic proportions. I was falling asleep in the common room, so I marched back upstairs to pass out yet again. I set an alarm to go off in an hour, but when it did, I reset it for a half hour later and slept some more. In the end, I turned what was supposed to be a 1hour nap into a 2hour nap. Mmmm, naps. Best time of the day. Back on topic... I got up finally and hopped online to chat while I updated the blog. It wasn't long before Jil was up, and it was time to head to the live.

This time only Jil and I went to the live concert, as there was a misunderstanding about whether Jess wanted to come, so only two tickets had been reserved. We agreed to meet Alex at the Ikebukuro station. Again, she was late. I believe she had trouble finding our set of exits from the station. Once she found us, we ran out the closest exit and got a cab. The destination was super close, but we didn't know that part of town, and according to Alex, we had no time. The cost was mostly paid by Alex and her other friend who came with us. I mean, it wasn't much, but meh.

We arrived early, thankfully. The band before VII Sense was still playing, and they were pretty funny. Dressed up for Halloween, and acting like a bunch of jokers, I feel they were more about being showy and amusing the crowd than anything else. Worked for me. XD The dances the girls did for their songs were just as entertaining as the ones for VII Sense too. My fave was the one where everyone ran from one side of the room to the other, then back again. XD Also, there were two female backup dancers wearing large bunny-head-things. Terrifying. Made me think of Animal Crossing gone wrong. Don't ask. Melanie knoooooowwwwws.

Soon enough, they were finished, and we got to move closer to the stage as some people left. I stood at the right end of the group to see RayX better, whereas Jil stood to the left to see her fave guitar player. It was a blast, just as before, with a couple different songs, I believe. We tried to get more into the bizarre dance moves this time around, heh. And when everyone in the crowd cooed at Shaura, I myself cheered in a high-pitched, Japanese school girl sounding voice, "RaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayX!" Just to spite them. Heh. Jil could hear me, so I think that means I was loud enough. Alex kept giggling at me, and pointing out whenever RayX was up front, as if I didn't know. He's my fave member, so I basically stared at him the whole time. I think Alex thinks I have a serious crush on the guy. Nah, I just admire his guitar skills and pretty face. X3

Loved the live, but at the end, a microphone fell. It was bad. The feedback was blaring for almost a full minute as the band members left the stage, and the curtain was pulled. I had a ringing in my ears until Monday. So bad. All better now though. After the live, we went to eat at an inexpensive Italian place. I have found my "comfort food" pasta. Thank the LORD! My fave meal, and this place makes it well. Also, unlimited beverages for a small price. Sweet! I shall have to return there from time to time. While we were there, some weirdo guy came up to us and asked if he took take a pic for his friend. Alex said she and her friend couldn't because they were models, whereas Jil and I kind of pretended not to understand him. Creepy vibe, really.

We finished up and parted ways inside the station. A chatty walk home with Jil, and a few flights of stairs later led me to pass out on my bed. Hooray! Don't remember what time I woke up Sunday, just that we ate, went shopping, and cleaned our rooms. We bought Scrubbing Bubbles! XD Yes, they have that here. And I'm so happy about it. Super clean bathroom time, it was. Other than clean for the room check on Monday, I mostly sat around all day online and updating my blog. Boring day, I know.

That's all for this post. Gotta type out the week now. XD

Friday's a BBQ! All night karaoke?!

Finally the day of the barbecue arrived, and Jil and I headed out with the burgers and buns to meet up with Duke at the station. One problem. We never agreed on a spot in the station to meet. Let me explain that the station is huge! Several different lines connect through that station, and it's really like an underground mall, to be honest. Luckily, Jil and I were early, so we first hung out near our usual ticket gate to see if Duke would be taking that line to the station. After a few minutes, some other kids from a different class passed us on their way to the correct train line for the day's trip. We followed to see if perhaps Duke was already over that way. On the way we slowed down and spoke to another US student from yet another class who was waiting for her group, and then we continued to the Yurakucho line to search for Duke. He wasn't there. After standing around for a little longer, we started to head back to the Fukutoshin line. On the way, we saw Duke and the girl from the other class heading toward us, hooray!

We speed-walked to the Yurakucho line and climbed on the first available train. We made it to the stop where we'd get a bus 2min before it was supposed to leave with our class... but it left already. So, we were declared late. We got on a bus with a different class after waiting a bit more. The bus was so full, we had to sit in these pull-out seats in the aisle; they were pretty awesome. All day, we were called "chikoku" (late), so we made a joke out of it. "We weren't 'chikoku'; the bus was 'hayai' (early). Either way, we made it there and the barbecuing had begun. Everyone seemed to like the burgers. Luckily, Junso-san did not eat them all. I wasn't a fan of food that day. It was too hot, so I hid in the shade of the trees a lot, away from the fire. The teachers kept asking if I was feeling okay, so I had to explain that I wasn't just being antisocial.

The Korean kids did feel some need to feed everyone though, so Teiyon-san and Teiyan-san both quite literally shoved some spicy foods in my mouth. I about died after that and chugged my water. Also, I was really sleepy, so I decided to lie down on the tarp-like thing under our back packs and lay my hoody over my face to protect from the sun. Dana kept kicking my feet and asking me if I was dead. I said I was, so she told me to stop talking. I clarified, "I'm the undead, so it's okay."

Also, at the BBQ, I had to use the restroom. There were plenty... but the toilets were the kind that are this weird hole in the ground. Not fun. I think all parks are like that. Also... no soap. What's the point in the cold water? Thank goodness for hand sanitizer! Take it with you everywhere! Also, strictly cold water seems to be typical for restrooms here. I don't see how it does any cleaning, seriously.

Once the cooking and eating was finished, we played rock/paper/scissors to see who would have to wash utensils, etc. I of course lost and had to help wash. Again... COLD WATER. It's so useless for proper cleaning. It wasn't so bad, though. Duke ended up washing too. And Haley too. So it was a group of North Americans, heh. I was, as usual, a perfectionist about it, so the teachers like that. But they kept saying the one thing was fine, when there was still stuff on it. I finished anyway.

We still had lots of time, so we moved away from the BBQ area to some more open space to play ridiculous games and the like. I taught them how to play freeze tag. XD ... With some help from Duke, ch. Whatever, I was it, and I rocked. But I got worn out too quickly, and switched with Zack. There were a lot of other games, most of which I did not play. They were rather embarrassing, and I'd rather record them than play. XD So I did.

At the end, we took a class photo... or 5 and headed back to the bus. Along the way there was a man feeding a ton of stray cats outside his truck. Interesting, I thought. In any case, we took the bus back to the station, and from there the train back to Ikebukuro. Opting to continue our day of fun, we (Jil, Duke, Matt, Jason, and I) returned to the dorm for some Arrested Development and anime watching. I barely made it through ep 1 of Arrested Development; it's a bit too much for me. So we watched the first episode of an anime, Madoka Magica. Again, I fail for not really enjoying it. So we switched shows yet again. This time we watched an ep of Kamisama no Memochou. That show I liked. XD

Ten o'clock rolled around, and we were booted from the common room. Sad. Well, Jason had been begging for all night karaoke all day, so we finally caved. Off to Sunshine we went for some singing insanity. We stopped for snacks on the way, because it makes more sense than buying anything there. During that stop, I joked about potentially needing a piggyback ride back to the dorm in the morning. Of course, Duke assured that wouldn't be a problem. Once at the karaoke place, we discovered that students get a discount, so out came the student ID's. It was after 11 when we got there, and we'd be there singing until 5am. Excellent. I have found no better way to stay up until the sun rises.

We sang songs, both Japanese and English. Jason drank a lot, and he got funnier by the minute. Most songs we sang would not be recognized by those back home, but some... Well, one you'll all know is Piano Man. Yes, they have Billy Joel songs at karaoke. You name it, they probably have it. It's a matter of finding the song for which you are looking. The book is totally useless to us, so using the machine to do a more direct search for a song or singer was the way to go. At least we can all read the katakana versions of the song titles, heh.

All this to say that all night karaoke was a blast. I was thoroughly exhausted by 4:30, and half fell asleep with the music still blaring loudly. I was poked and lifted my head to have a hoodie stuffed under it by Duke, so that I had some cushion. Then as I was drifting in and out, he told Jil he wanted to draw on my face, but she wouldn't hand him his bag to get a marker. I didn't hear that at the time, but they told me later. Hooray, Jil! I doubt he would've anyway, but who knows. At 5am, I sluggishly followed everyone to the front desk and did my best not to pass out standing up. Payment was much easier this time around. And cheap! The student discount was awesome.

We walked outside, and I was freeeeeeeeezing. It is far too cold at 5am. I had my hoodie on, but it's not thick at all. Sigh. Next thing I knew, another hoodie was thrown over my head. It was a little disorienting, to say the least. I had to sleepily pull it all the way on without falling over. Difficult to do when you're mostly asleep, I must say. And my comment made mostly in jest earlier was brought up again. Turns out, I really did need to be carried. There was no way I was making it back on foot in my condition. And so, I got a piggyback ride from Duke.

The entire way home, I was falling in and out of sleep, attempting to listen to the conversations going on and commenting occasionally in a very tired manner. There were certainly a ton of people staring; one apparently said I looked dead. All I heard was, "Daijoubu?" or "Are you okay?" to which I sleepily replied to our group, "Mou shinimashita" or "(I've) already died". I think they got a kick out of that, whereas I was simply repeating it from the BBQ. Also, I for some reason kept insisting, in Japanese, that I was too heavy and incessantly asked Duke if his back was okay. He assured me that he was fine and I wasn't heavy at all, but I was rather stubborn in my sleepy stupor and continued to mumble about it.

We did eventually reach the dorm. It was not yet 6, but after 5:30 I believe. I, like an idiot, almost fell over once set on my feet. So smart. I retrieved my bag from Jil, who was nice enough to carry it back for me. ^^ Then I attempted to give Duke's hoodie back, as I only had to walk up a few flights of stairs, but he insisted he could get it whenever. Thus, I slowly trudged up to the fourth story and passed out on my bed the instant I fell onto it.

3rd Week of Classes- Tests and Shopping for BBQ

I had assumed Monday would be a terrible day from the get go. I had two tests for which I'd barely had time to study, and I was in a lot of physical pain. Don't ask what it was, because anyone who knows me, knows. In an attempt to counter this sure to be horrible day, I got up early to continue studying and finish the homework we had over the weekend. However, in the middle of studying I had to curl into a ball from the agony my body was causing me. I was more than thrilled when Jess came in to make breakfast, as that meant I could take my Motrin. I didn't even care that breakfast was scrambled eggs, which I don't like at all. Anything to fill my stomach. I stuffed my face and popped some pain killers to prepare for the day.

We arrived at school somewhat earlier than necessary, and I used the time to try to study more. I was nervous about the tests, but I felt I could pass. Good thing, too, because I couldn't concentrate on studying in Kato-sensei's English support class that day. I instead drew pictures of girls with pigtails in my notebook in an effort to make Duke also unable to study, heh. I'm a terrible person. Apparently pigtails aren't fair, especially low ones that drape over the shoulders. I was highly entertained. Dana not so much; she kept telling me I should be studying. I hope she wasn't offended by my lack of concentration. -_-;;;

The kanji quiz wasn't that bad, really. I knew right away that I only got two wrong. The annoying part is that they were only half wrong. I knew one kanji out of the two in each word, but if you don't get the whole word correct, then it's wrong. Oh well. That test turned out to be a 90 though. We also got back the grammar test from the previous week. 92, which would've been better if I'd paid attention to the two sentences using past tense, not present. I've made a note to always double check such things from now on. Class wasn't too agonizing, and I got all A's on my speaking quiz at the end. I made one mistake, and Kataoka-sensei complimented my accent. ^^ Turns out the day wasn't as bad as I'd thought it would be. Thank goodness!

Tuesday we had Konno-sensei again. And thankfully this week we didn't have to do compositions. We did, however, receive the ones from the previous week. I was terrified by all the red marks on my paper, but when I saw the grade on the attached sheet, I was able to relax. It was a B-. We were told to correct the mistakes in a rewrite on new composition paper, and turn it in on Thursday.

Instead of writing at the end of class, we had to watch a muted scene on a DVD from the textbook, and make conversations out of it. It was pretty terrible. In the scene, clearly two businessmen who were friends met up and then went out to a bar. They chatted and then prepared to leave. Konno-sensei had three pairs try to do their conversations in time with the DVD. It was so bad, but oh so funny. After the 2nd pair had gone, the teacher asked who wanted to go next, to which Teiyan-san (one of the Korean students, whose name I'm spelling the way it's pronounced in Japanese) responded by pointing at me. He and Junso-san make a habit out of teasing me in class. Duke says they are flirting with me. I say they are evil. Regardless, my partner and I had to do the dialogue. It was pretty bad, but at least he threw in some entertaining lines. The two men pictured in the film were balding, so he commenting on my character not having any hair. Then when they were at the bar, he ranted about fighting with his wife and having to sleep on the sofa. I did not speak nearly as much as he did, though. Everyone had a good laugh, at least.

Wednesday we had another test, this time grammar. I'm not sure how I did, and I won't know until Monday, so here's hoping I get a good grade. Other than that, school wasn't too interesting that day. However, after class we all went to Shaky's again for all you can eat pizza. It was, of course, a blast. This time I got the large soda with no ice. Best idea ever. The guys, on the other hand, were having an eating contest. The winners, whom I think were Matt and Jay, ate over 20 slices. It was gross, but at least they sat at the other end of the row. I, conversely, enjoyed geeking out about Pokemon games with Duke, Jil, and Jess. We chatted about move limitations and what types sucked and why. Ah, I love it when others get what I'm talking about.

We went to an arcade after dinner. I'm not sure if anyone actually played any games, as I was too busy staring in either horror or amazement at prizes in the unending lines of crane machines. Some prizes were adorable, whereas others should not have been displayed in public places easily accessed by children. We didn't stay too long, and we got ice cream from a convenience store on the way home. Also, we passed through a park, and I decided that I had to play a little. I walked up and down wooden ladders suspended by chains, and then I climbed across a rope bridge. It was fun. I shall have to return during the day sometime to see if there exist monkey bars at that park.

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day in class, but there were adventures afterward! Duke and I raced to the vending machine to get cocoa. I won, but fell over in the process, reaching up triumphantly (although it may have looked pitiful) to hit the button for cocoa. He did, however, succeed in buying one for Jil. I wasn't sure what exactly we needed cocoa for that day, but whatever. Jess left ahead of us to get home and prepare for shopping with her classmates for the BBQ, while we waited for one more and spoke with a few other classmates about who would get what. We decided that Jil and I would accompany Duke to the supermarket for ground beef and burger buns.

Dropping our things off at the dorm, we were joined by Matt to head out shopping. We bought the beef  at the usual market, but wanted to look for real hamburger buns, so we had more stops to make. We put the beef away first and decided to walk to another super market. There we found plenty of good things, strawberry pocky in my case, but no buns. There was another super market somewhat nearby, but someone decided that it would be a good idea to go to Book Off, a great place to get manga and the like for cheap. As soon as we walked in, we found my favorite series, Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup! is the English title). It was a collection of the 16 volumes out thus far for a total of 4000yen. That's about $50 for 16 volumes, or approx. $3 a book. Heck yeah, I bought that! Sure, it's in Japanese, but these aren't available in the US because no company has decided to translate it (at least not yet). Also, it should be good for reading practice. I found what I wanted, but we browsed for quite some time before taking our spoils back to the dorm.

We did finally find burger buns at the third super market, but there were only eight. Thus, we decided to make some normal burgers and some small ones to be eaten on the dinner rolls. We returned to the dorm once more and formed the patties, placing them in plastic containers. Duke returned to his host family, while Jil helped me straighten my hair for the barbecue. She, Dana, and I had decided to make it a pigtails day as a bit of a social experiment. We wanted to see just how unfair they were to the guys. Heh.

Perhaps at a more decent hour I will continue with Friday's event: the BBQ. For now, though, I need sleep. Night, everyone!

Kamakura Overnight Trip- Sunday

Sunday morning we got up for an early breakfast, which was very unlike breakfast at home. I mostly ate rice. And had a lot of hot cocoa. Strangest breakfast ever. In any case, we finished and returned to our rooms to make sure we were ready to go. Futons were folded neatly in the corner of the room, and all our belongings were in our backpacks. Out we went. On the way out, we met the chef who cooked our meals and thanked him for the good food. Then we were out on the road again!

We traveled to the Hasedera Temple, which houses the Eleven-headed Kannon, a statue just over 30ft tall with eleven additional heads placed atop the main head. We were not permitted to take pictures there, but I have a mini brochure I can bring home. Not to mention, pictures exist on the web. There is also much more to the site than the statue. There are many different buildings, each with their own purpose, but my favorite part about this location was the observation platform that overlooked the beach and the long path of stairs to get a view from even higher up. I know I need to post pictures, and I will at some point. ^^ Oh, and I took a photo of a very funny sign, written in English, warning about "kites". Kite means hawk, by the way. Strange terminology.

Next on the list was the Daibutsu (Great Buddha)! The Great Buddha is a bronze statue that is 44ft tall (if you include the pedestal). For history on it, feel free to search the web, as I have not the time to put together a presentation here. Heh. In any case, it was pretty amazing. Plus, we got to go inside the statue! It was really cramped going up the stairs, but once you were up there was more room. It was pretty cool to see it from the inside. Again, no photos allowed in there, I believe. Either way, it was fun. Going back down the stairs was the difficult part. They were so steep and tiny, I clutched the railing until I got to the bottom. Side note for our time here... okay 2 side notes. When we first reached the site, I saw a huge butterfly just land on some lady's shoulder. I tried to get a picture but didn't have a clear shot. Then it flew away. Note number 2. Another US student in our group gave me a little Edward Elric figure b/c I was wearing a FMA shirt that day. Apparently he found it somewhere. I have cleaned it since then, but it's still a little scuffed up. Either way, it's adorable. XD

On our way back to the train station, we had a few minutes to shop. I was unfortunately distracted by the weapons store (knowing I could not buy one even if I wanted one). Weapons laws are very strict here. The only time a knife or something of the like can be on your person is if you just bought it and are taking it home or something like that. Very different from back home. In any case, I ran out of shopping time, and settled for buying a green tea flavored ice cream. Not terrible, but I won't do it again. The sweet potato one tasted good, though. Thanks to friends for letting me taste theirs. ^-^

Our last stop was Enoshima. First we ate, and our options were McDonald's or a slightly more expensive burger place. We took the cheap one, haha. This time I failed in ordering and ended up with a burger with no cheese. So annoying that the cheese one costs 20yen extra. Punks. We hurried to eat, and then we made our way across the bridge to the island. We walked on the pedestrian side and were grateful to not be stuck in the long line of cars on the vehicle bridge. The walk wasn't that long anyway. On the way across, a hawk came down really close before perching on a lamp post. They aren't afraid of anything, I swear.

There was plenty to do on that little island. The main street was full of shops on both sides, but we walked past them; the shopping would be done after the sightseeing. Here we took escalators to reach each platform, which all had many interesting structures, etc of which to take pictures. After the last escalator, we walked through a botanic garden, filled mostly with greenery as opposed to colorful flowers. Some beautiful flowers were there though. We then went to the lighthouse observational tower, my favorite part of the entire trip. We took an elevator up to the indoor platform, then climbed a flight of stairs to the outside part. It was fantastic. The view, the breeze, everything! And to top it all off, we were able to see Mt. Fuji, which can usually only be seen from there on the clearest of days. My pictures of it are nowhere near the best out there, but they are mine, and so I'm glad I took them. ^^ Also, there were a ton of hawks just riding the wind. I wish I could have gotten good pictures of them too. We stayed awhile, but eventually we had to leave, sigh. I followed Ryuuhei-san and Tanaka-san down the stairs instead of taking the elevator again. XD Jess came too, despite her fear of heights. Poor girl should have taken the elevator. Her legs were shaking long after we reached the ground.

Our time at the tower finished, we took the only way back down. A long and winding downhill path surrounded by greenery and, much to Jess' dismay, spiders. They weren't near us, but up in the trees with huge webs. It was rather fascinating. I've never seen spiders so large before, so I was enjoying myself during the walk. The bottom of said path was very steep and slippery, and I of course slid down it in a very ungraceful fashion. But at least I didn't fall. Some bystanders seemed concerned though, haha. We still had a bit of walking to do before we reached the street of shops, but the rest of the walk was fairly spider free, as it was down paved streets lined with shops. We reached the main street and darted in and out of most of the stores, browsing mostly. I bought a couple souvenirs, but nothing more. Spent less than I thought I would on that trip.

A walk back to the station, and a one hour train ride would take us home. I fell in and out of sleep during that time. But toward the end of the trip, a woman and her two sons were next to me. She was sitting with the younger boy in her lap, while the slightly older one stood. They were both under 10yrs old, and kept poking each other. It was rather cute. They were also fiddling with Pokemon stickers throughout the ride. At some point, Jess scooted over as far as she could, so I could too in order to allow the other boy to sit. At first the offer was refused, but when another passenger on their side left, all three sat in their own seat. The boys continued to pester each other, but they were quiet, so it wasn't at all annoying. Once it came time for their stop, they gave me a sticker of Pikachu before they left the train. It was so sweet. It is now stuck to the inside of my wallet where it will be safe. ^^

The Shinjuku stop finally came, and Ryuuhei-san walked those of us in the Ikebukuro dorm through the station until we reached the Shinjuku-sanchome station (which is on our commute route, so it didn't cost us anything to get home from there). We hopped on the first train to arrive, and rode to our usual stop on the way home. At this point, I believe only Jil, Jess, Ashley, and I remained together, but Gabrielle may have been there too. We were walking through the station to our exit when we came across Duke. So of course we stopped to chat and tell him how the trip went, even in our exhausted state.

I don't really remember quite what I did when I finally returned to my room, except that I fell asleep studying for the kanji quiz and speaking exercise that I had the next day. ^_^;;;

Kamakura Overnight Trip- Saturday

If anyone's wondering why I made no updates over the weekend, it's because I was far too busy taking the Culture Class trip to Kamakura. As it turns out, these culture class trip costs are included in my tuition, so of course I decided to go. We left the dorm early Saturday morning in order to go to the pre-departure lecture and find out more about the places we'd be visiting, such as the Daibutsu (Great Buddha). It was raining very slightly when we left. On the way to school, I bought a cheapo, clear umbrella at the Family Mart, because I forgot my own red umbrella in America. I'm so smart it hurts. Needless to say, it did not rain at all during the trip, so I had to carry that thing around for nothing.

Kato-sensei, who is the English support teacher, gave us a lot of historical information about Kamakura. Then she gave us pamphlets and asked us to form groups to make quick presentations on each place we would visit. The presentations were very silly and amateur, but we were all very sleepy. Jay drew many silly pictures for his group, and during my group's turn, I mostly just drew my "amazed tourist", as I named my character. However, as we were preparing for the presentation, I was threatening to randomly sing the parts I was supposed to read. I needed more coffee, seriously. 500mL of iced coffee from the konbini (convenience store) was not enough.

After the lecture, we were given time to get ourselves some lunch. A group of us went to the nearby Sukiya for the awesome beef and cheese over rice. Heck yeah! We quickly walked back to school to stuff our faced before leaving for the train. The main portion of the trip was the rapid express train from Shinjuku to Kamakura, which was about an hour. The three staff members to accompany us on this trip were Kato-sensei, Tanaka-san, and Ryuuhei-san. During the long train ride, Ryuuhei-san and Tanaka-san mostly slept. It was rather entertaining to watch Ryuuhei-san almost fall against Tanaka-san several times in his sleep, only to shift back into an upright position without waking. I could never sleep like that, I must say.

Once we arrived, we took a bus to our first destination. As a quick note, the buses in Japan are smaller, but we all fit pretty well on that first bus. The first stop for us was a beautiful bamboo garden, called Houkokuji Temple. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Small paths made of large rocks throughout the garden led the way between the tall bamboo stalks. We stopped to look around and snap photos constantly like the tourists that we were. It was toward the end of this almost maze-like property that we noticed a very large spiderweb with an equally large spider above us. Jess, being terrified of spiders, immediately stepped as far away as possible. Little did we know that we'd see many, many more like them throughout the entire trip.

We finished our exploration of the bamboo garden to catch another bus that would carry us to a shrine. This bus was much more crowded than before, but we somehow all still managed to fit. Almost all of us stood in a very tight line from one end to the other. I was struggling to hold my backpack in front of me when a passenger in a seat offered to hold it for me. I hardly got a chance to politely decline as she grabbed it and placed it safely on her lap. Again, we see the hospitality of the Japanese people. When the bus finally came to a stop, I took my bag back and thanked her before gladly stepping out of the congested bus and into fresher air.

The next stop was the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, where we had the privilege of witnessing a very traditional Japanese wedding. They are less common than they used to be, but they happen relatively frequently at this shrine. By the way, I will be using the terms shrine and temple throughout this post, so for those of you who don't know, there is a big difference. There are two main religious beliefs in Japan: Shintoism and Buddhism. Shrines refer to Shintoism and temples, Buddhism.

After that, we did some shopping. I really bought like nothing, sadly. We did go to a Ghibli store, inside which there was a lot of Jiji, the cat from Kiki's Delivery, merchandise. Everything I found, though, was too expensive given the quality of the product. I wanted to buy something there for the cousin, but the one thing I thought I'd spend the money on was plastic. Were it made of metal, I would have bought it. Difficult to explain, and pictures were not allowed, but I can probably find a pic on the internet somewhere. I shall have to look at some point.

We weren't given much time for shopping before we were led off to the inn where we spent the night. It was very traditional style. Shoes came off at the door and were placed on a shelf. We were given strange shoes to wear inside; they couldn't be called slippers, but same concept I guess. We dropped our backpacks off in our rooms, which each held a different number of people. I was on the second floor in a room with Jess and Jill, a room that was somewhat westernized in that it had a wooden door. Hooray for us! A lockable door! The doors on the first floor were the paper sliding doors, of which I'm not a fan.

Anyway, down to dinner we went. Dinner was great. We did have steak, but I also ate sushi. It was really good. The tuna one was my favorite. Squid and octopus were chewier than I liked, but they didn't taste bad. I was amazed. I did not eat the sashimi or raw shrimp (the shrimp still had it's head, so it appeared to be looking at you... GROSS). I did, however, grab a nice sized bowl of rice and chow down.

Bellies filled, we returned to our room for card games until bed. The staff had already come in and set up our futons for us, which we thought was pretty cool. ^^ So Jess and I taught Jill how to play Rummy, and we played like six or seven rounds maybe using Jess' Inuyasha playing cards. Fun. At some point, Kato-sensei came in to see if we wanted to do the morning walk to the beach, and she ended up watching us finish a round. She didn't understand the game very well, but having her observe was entertaining.

The three of us decided not to go to the public bath with the other girls, because that's not our thing. However, we did wear the yukata to bed. They were kind of weird to sleep in, to be honest. First of all, I had to pull the bow to the front because I frequently switch from lying on my back to my side in my sleep. Also, it was warm, so I kept kicking the huge comforter off (only to pull it back on later because I was too cold). I did not sleep very well that night at all.

That's all for now. I'll finish it later! ^^