My trip to the airport was so sad. I tried to be the last one to give a gift by giving my host mom one a half hour before we left for the airport, but she managed to give me my chopsticks I'd been using at home right before I left. I think it was Melissa who mentioned they will always give the last gift, and she was right! I got them something that I'll be sending shortly though. My host mom and I both cried at the airport, it was really sad/cute. I think it was only then that it hit me I was really leaving and that everyone else was gone.

Home and all that. Switching back to my normal journal, since the Japan trip is over. New friends- I added you on that one, so add me back.

Oh, Kyoto....what a fun trip! I would at some point like to go again, only this time with friends, time, and money. However, the super-ghettoness of my trip only added to the charm.

( Super long, so it's behind the cut )

I have to get to sleep so I can see Christy tommorow! And head home on Saturday! I hope everyone is well, and I will see many of you soon :)

Everyone is gone or leaving now. The last couple of days were fun, though I'm pretty pissed at myself for loosing my bag and thus missing out on Ikebukuro Saturday. But it's done now. It's all done. I'm not going to see anyone for quite some time now.

I think my few days in Kyoto are going to be good so I can clear my head. Though at the same time, I do desperately want to go home. Sleep on a real bed in my room. Drive my car. Go shopping with my sister in places where the clothes will actually fit me. See my mom and dad and grandpa. Be able to speak English all the time and not Japanese constantly, which has gotten really exhausting even with how much I've improved.

But I have time today before I go, so I think I'm going to start packing, print out a bunch of info for the trip, and get a memory card for my new camera. The night bus leaves at 9:30, but I need to get there around 9, so I'm going to leave the house at 7:30 or so. I should probably get on that....

So people are going to karaoke today in Shinjuku, but I can't go because I don't have the cash. Not the money, mind you- I have plenty in my bank account at home and I have a visa card. But I don't have enough CASH. Auuurglblargugh. That makes me unhappy. Sure, I still have a lot of writing and studying to do, but that's basically LAST CHANCE for karaoke. So yes, I am pretty upset. The only reason I don't have the cash either is because stupid visa fraud stopped my card even though we had already told them that I was in Japan. So my mom talked to them, and they started it up again, but the only day it wasn't working was, of course, the day I had to buy my $150 shinkansen ticket. So I'm running on $150 less cash than I was planning. This is a big deal here since hardly anywhere except big stores accept credit cards. LAME.

/ranting.

Back to work.

Had a fun night at Y's on Tuesday, then went to Odaiba on Wednesday. Got an adorable purse from Lesportsac as well as a few generally cool presents and things. Today we had to go to the Yushukan yet again....oh well. Better than sitting in a classroom I guess.

But more importantly, right now I am making my reservations for my little Kyoto trip! I'm taking the night bus on the 17th to Kyoto so I get there the morning of the 18th (and get to sleep on the bus, saving some cash ^.^ ) and I have a youth hostel booked for the nights of the 18th and the 19th. Then I'm booking a shinkansen (yea bullet trains!) back the evening of the 20th. So I'll get a couple of days to sightsee and generally run around and see temples, and recharge after what is going to be a crazy next 10 days. Then hopefully I'll spend the 21st and the 22nd in Tokyo and see Christy, and then fly out on the 23rd as already planned. I'm home in just over two weeks guys....crazy. I'm really going to miss Japan and a lot of the IES people though. And I've already promised myself/some of them that I'm not going to lose touch with them, because I've always regretted loosing touch with a lot of the Oxford kids.

For some reason today I had the compulsion to listen to Tori Amos really badly. I was super into Tori in high school, but in college I haven't listened to her so much. But for some reason it's really fitting right now.

Well, I haven't woken up later than 8 in over a week, so I am exhausted. I'm actually gonna get some sleep tonight and get ready for a very crazy weekend/week/next weekend.

Ok, it's about time for another update. However, I'm gonna be as quick as I can because things are going to be crazy these next two weeks. I have:

-A performance activity tommorow involving talking in keigo (formal language) to old Japanese ladies that I have to write a bunch of stuff about my hometown for.

-Two kanji quizzes Tuesday.

-A presentation for my Society class for which I have not decided the exact topic (except that it'll be on gender) nor have I done any research for it, also on Tuesday.

-Japanese quiz Thursday.

-History field trip Thursday.

And for the next week:

-Soc final Tuesday, Japanese final (1st) Tuesday.

-History paper, for which I have not decided a topic nor done research on, Thursday.

-Politics final Friday.

In addition to the whole "we're all leaving soon and might never see each other again, and certainly won't in this context so we want to do as much fun stuff as possible" thing.

Anyhow, to sum up the past week, I:

-Skipped Politics class last friday to go to an all-you-can eat cake buffet. Hell yea. Then I hung out with Allie and her sister Trisha, who was visiting over the break.

-Went out to dinner in Shibuya on Tuesday with Marius, his sister, her boyfriend, Allie, Aiko, and another Japanese girl I forget.

-Laid low most of the week and just hung out with Allie at the taco bar for a bit on Friday.

-Went to see Kabuki on Saturday morning (had to get up early ugh), after which we had lunch in Ginza and did a little shopping in Shibuya. Following that, Marius, Matt, Sarah, and Allie came home with me for a Christmas party my host mom had set up :) It was incredibly super cute! Check out the pictures on my photobucket or thefacebook. My host mom made piles of food, and they just kept feeding us and had us decorate a Christmas tree. SO CUTE. And they all agreed that my host family is incredibly sweet.

-Today, I got up early AGAIN to take level 3 of the JLPT. Now, I hadn't studied at all, so it will be a true reflection of my Japanese knowledge. We'll see if I pass....if I do, it'll be by a margin similar to last time's.

But seriously, both days this weekend I got up earlier than I get up to go to school. SUCKED. Anyhow, now I am actually going to get to work so I can do fun things this week and weekend.

Oh, but I got an A- on the politics paper I wrote between 3 and 8 am the day it was due. Go me. I've still got that caffiene-frenzied touch.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I'm going to a buffet in Shibuya that does a Thanksgiving dinner in a few hours, but I have time to kill so I'm gonna upload pictures to the photobucket/write you guys about Nikko.

We left quite early on Tuesday morning, and got to Toshogu Shrine in the early afternoon. Toshogu Shrine is super famous because the Tokogawa Shogunate (people who ruled Japan in the name of the Emperor from the 1600's-1860's) built the place as a monument to their power and wealth, plus Tokugawa Ieyasu (who founded the Shogunate) is buried there. It was super pretty and gorgeous, though in a rather Chinese style. There were a bunch of famous things there that we saw and were pretty, and....uh....it was very nature-y. The leaves have been changing up there, so it was gorgeous. After that we went to the Kegon Falls, one of the three biggest waterfalls in Japan. It was awesome of course, but the most hilarious part about it was how well it embodied the Japanese tourist trap. Not only was there an elevator that took you down to the middle of the falls so you could view it properly, oh no, there were also TWO gift shops in the not very large observation area. TWO. Of course I'm a sucker and I bought two monkey teacups because they were adorable, but it was a little ridiculous. Plus there were like 4 more gift places above the falls. Oh, Japan.

We then went to our hotel, in Chuzenji Onsen I believe. This one was outwardly Western style, but our rooms were done in the traditional Japanese way with futon and everything. There was a huge onsen in the bottom, as well as some outdoor onsen pools! Way fun. I wish I had the picture, but the best way to sum up that night is to describe Matt Waller the next morning- his hair was shaved into a mohawk and he had full dental impressions on each side of his neck. From me. There is a reason why I have that icon on my other journal...if you ask me to bite you I sure will. Though the next morning I was thinking "Oh god, I do not belong in society".

On Wednesday we went to Ryuokyo Ravine, which was very pretty/famous/nature-y, and we went on a hike around it. Took lots of pretty nature pictures. Then we went to this handicrafts center where we got to try our hand at traditional Nikko woodcarving. I did a bamboo design on the back of a hand mirror. At first I was mad at myself for sucking, but then I saw some other peoples', and in comparision mine turned out quite well. After that we headed back, and I ended up staying a while afterwards and hanging out because Allie's twin sister, Trisha, had arrived to visit over the break and so a few of us went out for dinner and such.

And today is Thanksgiving! I'm probably going to have an interesting weekend, because I only have one class on Friday, and we have today off for Turkey-ness. Now I've gotta try and get some work done, so everyone have a great day!

Ok, well, I guess I need to update a bit before I go to Nikko tommorow so I can do a Nikko-only one when I return :)

Most of the week was pretty chill. On Thursday, my host sister invited me and some of my friends to go to a wine tasting in Yurakucho with her and some of her friends. Anna, Allie, and Sarah came with me, and it was super fun. We went through a whole lot of wine, because it was technically a "first wine of the year" celebration and not a traditional wine tasting, but it didn't really matter. It was outside, which by now it has gotten super cold in Tokyo, so towards the end we kinda felt like we were gonna die a bit, but we survived somehow.

The next day we had orientation for the Nikko trip after class, so I went to that, went home, took a nap, and ate dinner with my host family before heading out to meet Matt and Allie at Chiba. We then took the train into Tokyo, stopped in Roppongi for a bit, and met up with Marius and some other students for a while. We weren't digging the Roppongi vibe (mainly because Roppongi is the catering to foreigners district and gets really sleezy at night) so we went to Shibuya instead. Even though there are tons of foreigners that hang out in Shibuya as well, Japanese people go there too and there are way less blatant prositutes and Yakuza types. There were other friends of ours there that we were going to meet, but they weren't picking up their phones, so we went to McDonalds and got some food. After finishing, they STILL weren't picking up their phones, so we wandered around outside for a bit before realizing it was way too cold to do that. We ended up "McHopping" through about 4 different McDonalds....we only bought food at the first one. The other three we would just go upstairs and sit down, drinking water out of a two-liter bottle we had bought from a konbini. Once we finished the water in an hour or two, we left the McDonalds, bought another one at a new konbini, and entered a new McDonalds. There are tons of 24 hour ones in Shibuya, so it wasn't much of a problem. Eventually we found our friends at the 4th Mcdonalds around 4:30 AM, and it turned out they had been in a concert so they didn't get signal or hear their phones. We were pretty worn out at this point, so once the trains started running I went and crashed at Allie's place because it would've taken me another hour to get home and I had to be back at this end of town anyway by 2 for our history field trip. I was way wired still though so I only slept from like 10-12, then had to get up and get going for the field trip.

For that, we went to the Showa-Kan and another museum, the first about wartime Tokyo and the second focusing exclusively on veterans and the treatment they received, their lives, etc. Both were very good and void of the political bias that permeates the Yushukan, which I went to/I think I wrote about earlier. Of course by the end of this I was absolutely dead, and instead of going out with people for Brazillian I went home, at with my host family, and passed out at 8 PM. I didn't wake up until 10:30 AM the next day. Of course, I was pretty sure I had also been to that Brazillian place before, so I didn't feel like I was missing out much.

Today we went on a field trip to the Diet (Japan's parliament) building again. This time, however, Packard-sensei has super awesome connections so we got to actually have a meeting with a member of the House of Councillors! It was way super cool. We talked about the bullying issue that has been in the news a lot lately, and how differently American and Japanese schools handle that as well as other issues. She gave us all business cards as well, so that went in my Japan box. Yes, I have a shoebox that I'm using as a place for mementos :)

Anyhow, I've better get some sleep, for I've gotta be up early tommorow to get to the trip on time! I'll have lots of interesting pictures and stories afterwards, I'm sure, though this trip is short so I'll be back on Wednesday night. Hope all of you I haven't heard from are doing well!

Oh man....so much to cover.

Briefly, Halloween was fun. Both Tuesday and Thursday we celebrated. On Thursday I traded costumes with Pat for part of the night, and there are some hilarious pictures of him in mine on thefacebook now. I went to Shibuya for some karaoke on Friday night, but spent most of the weekend chilling out and recharging after a few weeks of crazy social action.

Monday I spent doing kanji homework and writing my take-home sociology midterm. Tuesday I spent, as usual, going to a million classes. Wednesday I was totally preoccupied with the election because I'm such a political junkie. Then Thursday I had a history midterm. So, Thursday night I spent writing my Japanese composition and my 10-page politics paper. I actually wrote the paper between 3-8 am, which is pretty good output considering I had none of the quotes picked out beforehand and was going through the books looking for citations AND writing 2 pages an hour. Anyhow, I finished that and then skipped Japanese because I was busy writing the outline I thought we had to have for our presentation. Even though we didn't have to have it, it was still pretty helpful.

At the end of the day we had a fun Friday's at Y's. Having not slept at all Thursday night, when I got home around midnight I went to sleep, awoke briefly at 9 am, and didn't actually wake up until 3 pm. I immediately had to get ready for our ladies' night out, which was WAY fun. All 28 of the IES girls were invited, and I think a little over half showed up. We went to a cool place in Shibuya with nifty light-up drinks and stuff, all dressed up in nice cocktail dresses. It was awesome, and afterwards we broke up into smaller groups and went out to smaller bars.

I got home at around 1, and then got to wake up at 7 am for our trip to DisneySea. Wow, DisneySea is WAY cool. I didn't realize how new it was until I saw all the signs around advertising that it was the 5th anniversary, and it really was in awesome shape. We went on a whole bunch of rides, saw a couple of shows, and generally had a great time. I definitely want to go back before I leave!

And now, of course, it's the week and I have to actually do homework, but it's nothing compared to last week. I am definitely happy about that.

I discovered caffeinated gum today.

I have to write a 10 page paper, outline a presentation for said paper to give tommorow, and write an 800-character sakubun tonight. We'll see how that goes.

Ladies' night out Saturday! Disney Sea on Sunday! Think positive!

Millions of midterms....

Halloween was good. Must....study...and write....

*dies*

Ok. Nagano. This is going to take a while.

( Day 1 )

( Day 2 )

( Day 3 )

( Day 4 )

Now I have to deal with two midterms on Tuesday as well as Halloween funness. Though I suppose I shouldn't say I have to "deal" with that. Anyhow, I am going to continue to recover by replying to more emails and studying and things. The photos are uploaded, and you can check out others on the facebook as well.

This weekend I went on a few excursions. On Saturday, I went with Matt and Betsy in their quest to find a Red Lobster. We were unsuccessful, despite the fact that we went to locations pointed out on the website, but a few very interesting things happened instead. We ran into a very drunk man who was telling Besty how pretty she was in Japanese, and then burst out with the English phrase "nice body" with that great Japanese accent. We proceeded to get into the opposite car from him, and then ran into "the Ewok". Imagine a way overly tanned Japanese girl whose skin matches her boots, both in color and leathery texture. Her outfit is also tanned and trimmed with gray fur, and her hair is tan with GRAY streaks. Yea, she kinda looked like an Ewok. She then proceeds to start talking really loudly and rudely on the phone (using your phone on the trains is a big no-no here, and if you do have to use it you make it quiet and short). But in a minute we understand why. Bounding out from another train car into ours comes Rainbow Bright! Not only is she dressed entirely in a neon red, girly little outfit, her hair is also neon red. No, not a wig, her actual hair. Can you even imagine what it takes to turn their hair that color? I was mostly impressed that it was still pretty long and hadn't all fallen out from the bleaching and dyeing that had taken place. Of course, between them and us the gaijin our end of the train car was the "freak end" and we could totally tell that everyone was trying very hard not to stare at us. They got off at our station, so Matt was able to surreptitiously take some pictures as well as a video of Besty making commentary near them about Ewoks and the planet Endor. The best part was that later, when we were going home, they came back to the station at the same time we did and got on my platform with another one of their crazy friends! So of course a few more pictures were snapped.

Sunday was an adventure in and of itself. I went to Odaiba and did some shopping, checked out the sights, and took pictures of the replica Statue of Liberty. At first I was asking myself why there was a replica of the Statue of Liberty in a random park in Japan, but then I remembered that I was in Japan, and stopped being confused. You just get used to the randomness after a while. Then I went to Harajuku, met up with Sarah, Matt, and Besty, and did some shopping. Spent $50 at the 390 yen store, an impressive feat if I say so myself. Also bought tons of socks and more stuff for my halloween costume. Then I got talked into going back to Odaiba by Matt and Betsy because they wanted to go to the Red Lobster that I had spied on the 6th floor of Aqua City. It was definitely good, but I left my house at 9 that morning, and didn't get back until 11 at night. I was pretty exhausted.

Today while on the train home, two Iraqi men in Japan for business started talking to me to practice their English. I felt akward being an American in that situation, but I tried my best to have a nice conversation with them. Poor guys hated the food here.

Early tommorow morning I leave for our field trip to NAGANO! Hot springs, a Ninja Museum, seeing castles and mochi-making....and generally doing all sorts of things loud obnoxious American students do best. Oh yea. More commentary about Japan/Japanese life when I remember to write down the random observations I make and the theories I come up with.

God damned insomnia.

I have never had insomnia before, and I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

I spent Tuesday with Gail and over at their house, which was awesomely fun. There was an earthquake Wednesday morning, which woke me up. I was all like "Oh, who's shaking my bed? Oh...no, just earthquake." Then it stopped and I went back to sleep for a bit. But only for a bit mind you.

It's not caffeine, because I'm not really drinking coffee or tea or soda. I really don't know what it is but it is driving me crazy because I am tired ALL THE FREAKING TIME. I hate relying on drugs but I think I am gonna have to do melatonin tonight and see if that helps because I am beyond exhausted.

Oh, and again, I have the sweetest Okaasan EVER. Last night she took me out to an awesome concert, classical strings. Mostly violins, but of course a few cellos and a bass and a harpsichord. Wonderful music, and she then took me out to dinner, but apparently she felt bad because I was so tired and today when I got home there were a few adorable little Hello Kitty things on my bed with a note saying thanks for coming to the concert!!! Jesus Christ, she got me my ticket, took me, and then bought me dinner, and SHE'S saying thank you! I'm not sure how well I can deal with that, so I gave her a couple of extra omiyage I had saved because I was just like oh em gee I can't deal with this. But I do have to cut down on what I've been eating at dinner, because last night when I put on my dress pants they were a lot tighter than they should be. So I will work on that, even though everything in this country is delicious (except the strange fish things and traditional bean sweets, those are weird).

Friday is going to be awesome....or awesomely bad, I'm not sure which yet. We only have late Japanese class (11-12:30) and no politics class tommorow! So after Japanese....we're free. God knows what we will end up doing. It's really freaky to think though that we are already half done with the program. I've been here for almost two months now...and I don't want to leave, and I REALLY don't want to leave all my friends here. So sad :(

Oh, and I bought an adorable french maid outfit for Halloween in Harajuku. Hell yea.

I am completely exhausted right now. This week was ridiculously busy.

On Tuesday, after a full day of classes (and by full I mean class from 9:20-4:40, with a lunch break I spent mostly on a train and walking), I went and saw Junko, my piano teacher at Oxy, perform a concert! It was wonderful of course, and afterwards I was able to talk with her for a bit. Unfortunately I could not spend more time with her because I had tons of classes when she was free, and she had a few more concerts to play before she flew back. It was still great to see her though, even if only for a bit.

Wednesday I headed into Tokyo to visit Gail, Christy's mom. We met up in Ginza and went out for a lunch at this delicious all you can eat Thai food buffet, and afterwards I went over to their house and hung out for a while. Unfortunately I already had plans to meet other people so I couldn't stay too late, but I am going back next week to stay over for dinner. After that I went to meet Audrey and Pat for a little nomihodai, which was good times.

Thursday I got the most amazing package in the world from my awesome, awesome parents. It was filled with reeses peanut butter cups and peanut butter. DELICIOUS. Oh, and we had orientation after class for the Nagano field trip we're going on in a week and a half. That is going to be WAY fun, because where we are staying is filled with Onsen (hot springs) and we are gonna get to do stuff like go to a ninja museum and ninja theme park!!! Plus visiting old castles and doing cultural activities like mochi-making. It'll be a four-day excursion from Oct 25-28th. We also signed up for roommates for the trip, and I got a room with Sarah, Anna, and Audrey, so I am more than happy.

Friday I was originally not going to do much, but I got talked into going to Roppongi with a big group of people. Pat and I met beforehand and pregamed (and let me confirm, french fries are possibly the most awesome food EVER) so we wouldn't spend too much at the club, which at least had free entry beore 11. The club itself was pretty decent, though after 1 or so it was so crowded you could hardly move, which got a little annoying when people kept stepping on my poor, poor feet. Which are still sore today by the way from that and the 4-inch heels. Anyhow, the techno room was fun, but some of the people kept complaining because they didn't like techno, and the "hip-hop" room did suck a lot. The awesome stay out all night vibe just wasn't there for some reason, unlike the last time I went out. I think it was partially the bigger group, and partially the club. Also I do not think any of us were well-rested enough to be staying out until 6 AM either. I actually fell asleep in the bathroom for an hour with Aiko and Kelly, because I thought everyone else was having a really good time and I didn't want to be a downer, but then right as we were waking up Harsha came in and was like "Where have you guys been? We've been looking for you for an hour! We all wanna leave!" We ended up at an Italian place that was open until 5 AM or something equally ungodly to cater to us tired clubgoers, and hung out there for a while. Some of the group passed out on the table, while others of us just chatted and waited for the first train, which came at 5:08. While we were hanging out by the station later, we saw some guy getting arrested for being too drunk at a restaurant, which was pretty funny if only because it was Japan, and you never see the police do anything except direct pedestrian traffic and give people directions. Finally got home at 7, which was better than last time at least.

Even though I was totally exhausted, Saturday was Atsumi's birthday, and people wanted to go out for karaoke. It was a lot of the same people who were out on Friday, so we did not stay out too late. I think we finished up at 11. I hadn't done karaoke in a while though, so I enjoyed myself thoroughly. And even though I am so utterly tired, I have still been having horrible insomnia all this week. I've never had this problem before, so I really don't know what to do. But I was already so busy, and then I could hardly sleep, so...I feel like I could fall over. Luckily Mondays are easy days for me...only Japanese class, and late too (11 AM). I'm gonna start researching for my politics midterm paper after class, and generally take it easy.

People in Japan are slightly amazing. When people lose things, they get turned in to the lost and found. Seriously.

Last night I was out with my friends and on the way back, I lost my card case on the way back. I am going to run over the cash value of what I lost here so you can imagine my freakout:

Coach card case (approx $100)
Two 3-month commuting passes ($330)
Plus my Suica had about $60 on it
Key to my house (would cost hundreds to change the locks)
My flash memory drive with school stuff( $50)

But this morning when I cam downstairs for breakfast my host mom told me that they had gotten a call from the station and someone had turned it in. So I went to the station and picked it up. Phew.

Typhoons suck. Tons of rain, wind, and here you have to walk EVERYWHERE so that is not fun in the least. I helped Matt take his computer home in the typhoon, which was a 30-minute walk, and he now owes me a favor equivalent to his first-born child. It was funny though because I had to borrow some of his clothes since all of mine were soaked through, so I went to dinner wearing his stuff. The pants had a hole in the butt and I was wearing bright green underwear, which was kind of awesome. People kept commenting on the shirt too, and I kept saying uh....not mine. Also, people set up a beer pong table in the room we were in, which was AMAZING since none of us have played beer pong since we got here.

So we have a three-day weekend, and I do not really have any plans. Kinda wanna go to the shisha bar in Roppongi, but we will see if that happens. Today though is a clean up/fill out forms/do some homework and relax day. And put new pictures up! So check out the photobucket for those.

So...for the last two days on my daily commute I have been listening to Stadium Arcadium, the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album. For those of you that do not know, each way every day I have a 10 minute walk, a 13 minute train, a 10 minute train, and a 15 minute walk, so there is lots of listening to my Ipod each way. Earlier this week it was Elliott Smith and the Elysian Fields, but yesterday and today it was the Peppers.

Anyhow, listening to them made me incredibly nostalgic. The night I got that album was lots of fun around the Westside with my friend Sina and his friends, and it made me think about this summer and how much I miss driving around LA at all times of the day and night. I want to go to the beach and have a picnic at night, I want to see the lights and the palm trees and bands in tiny clubs in Hollywood and my friends. Not that Japan is not awesome, it totally is (though as much as I love trains I wish they ran from 1 to 5 am). I am really realizing now how much LA has grown on me in two years. Despite the fact that I spent 18 years in Washington, it is LA that I miss. I want to cuddle with someone during the "chilly" LA nights while we wait for tacos at the local taco truck. I want to go gutter-sliding. I want to see the glow of the night sky. I want to go driving in canyons in Malibu. I want to drive by the beautiful houses that I know I will never live in and be sated just with that.

I want to feel that LA sea breeze on my face.

Less emo now. I still have ridiculous amounts of homework that I was not able to get done today, because I watched a video for a class that ended up being 2 and a half freaking hours long. So I am going to have to stay up late and work very hard on studying for my quiz tommorow and writing my field report that is due tommorow.

Today on the monorail home a guy sat next to me and started chatting with me. Turns out he had been studying English for like 5 years but hardly ever got a chance to chat with native speakers. So that was fun to talk with him for like 10 minutes, me putting in Japanese where I could and resorting to English the rest of the time. He said my pronounciation was very good, which made me happy. Also we joked about how my hair color makes me very easy to spot in a crowd here, which is ridiculously true.

Also spent like 45 minutes talking with the parents this morning. They are sending me peanut butter and reeses minatures. No, they do not have peanut butter here. THey only have very little cheese, which is sad, but literally no peanut butter.

Oh my god I am so hungry. One hour until dinner. In the meantime I am going to study, and try and get my stuff together.

Oh! I went to Yasukuni shrine yesterday, and I got a bunch of pictures from the museum of "interesting interpretations" of events during World War II. Like how Roosevelt was determined to force Japan into war and refused peace talks even though Japan really wanted peace, and how they always wanted Korea to be a free and independent state. We were not supposed to take pictures, of course, but I discretely got some of the funnier captions. Those pictures will go up when I have time to upload pictures again, so probably not until Sunday. But trust me, they are pretty good.

Ugh, I have effectively quit rugby. And doing so has kinda put me in an emo mood. I just feel really bad for getting all excited, getting the gear (which of course I can just use when I go back home, so it is not too bad) and going to a few practices and then just quitting. But I really have WAY more work than I though I would have. Tonight I have to study for two kanji quizzes since I missed the one last Tuesday and do some Japanese homework. Tommorow I have a field trip to Harajuku (way cool, btw) and some shrines in that area, so I will not get back until way late in the evening. So I basically get to spend Wednesday writing up 4 field trip reports and coming up with an outline for my Politics midterm paper. Not to mention any Japanese homework I might have, considering I have a quiz...Friday I think. So lots of studying. I will barely have time to do all that, and I really have to buckle down, which I at least did today in regards to Kanji homework. Also, Japanese clubs are really super hardcore, if you could not tell by the four super long practices a week thing. Even if they said they were, they really would not be ok with me doing only two practices a week, which is all I could probably pull off. So...that is the end of that.

But I hate going back on my word to people, so I feel crappy about it. And then I get to spend my entire week doing homework. Urrgh. So I am not optimistic at the moment.

Harajuku on Sunday was fun though. I bought a bunch of Engrish shirts, some cool random stuff and little omiyage for a few of you. I will be back there on Tuesday and will try not to buy too much more stuff, because I must work on spending less money. I did an inventory of my finances on Sunday and was rather shocked at how much I have already spent, which is not a good sign, and another reason to feel emo. A good portion of it was essential, to be sure, and I will get reimbursed for a good $75 or more in train fares at the end of October, which will be nice. But I need to be more careful about random food and drink expenses, which is what is adding up.

Sorry to do an entire totally depressed entry, but I also really miss little things. All I really want to do right now is hang out in a dorm room or somewhere with some friends, listening to music and just chilling out. Everywhere to hang out in Japan though is either a public place or restricted to same-gender, which I find annoying. And now it is about time for dinner, so I have to explain to my host parents about how I am quitting rugby because I have no time. And even though I have already done homework for 3 hours today and just want to go to bed I have at least an hour more to work on after dinner and shower. Next entry will be less bitchy I swear.

I know I said I would try and update more than once a week, and I really am attempting to. It is just kind of difficult sometimes.

Monday was the event which from now on will be refered to as "Disaster Monday". Those most recent facebook photos, in which I look like a total tard? Yea, they are from that.

I ended up having to skip rugby practice all this week because I kept feeling sick and just kept not getting better. I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday and got medicine, and I am feeling quite a bit better now. The stupid cold is finally clearing up. I tried calling one of the managers and letting them know, but they did not pick up and it never went to voicemail, so I think they all think I quit. Which is tempting because I would have way more spare time, but I should not do that!

On Thursday we went on a field trip to the Tokyo Edo museum, which was pretty cool. They had a ton of models and things that showed the evolution of the city from the 1600s until present-day Tokyo. I did not really take any pictures though because I was busy filling out my little quiz thingy that we had to do about stuff in the museum.

Friday we had a field trip to the National Diet building. Why we, in English, call it the Diet, I had no idea, but it is the Japanese Parliment. It is really big and fancy, and we talked about the Japanese political system and stuff. I got a few pictures I will put up on photobucket soon. Then we went back to Makuhari and hung out with a bunch of people, which was good times.

Now I am totally taking today (Saturday) off and I slept tons. I am also gonna get a lot of homework done so I do not have to worry about it tommorow night. Other than that, nothing too crazy. Tommorow I am going to Harajuku, which should be fun!