7/23-7/29 Graduation, Hiroshima, Fuji

お待たせしました!

7/23
Today was the day of KIT's IJST graduation. In the morning at 9 am I was the first one to return the laptop the school lent us. It was awkward when I said good morning with my horrible injured voice. XD

After this, I cleaned and packed until my one on one consultation. When I got there, it was stupid hot and the people ahead of me took a while so I was waiting for a half hour or so. When I finally did get in, it was very quick for me. Fuuji sensei told me how well I did with everything and that she was very impressed with my exit exam. She said people in Hoshi gumi had already gotten a high score on the entrance exam, but I improved 11 points on my exit exam. ^_^ Yay! She didn't have anything bad to say and I pretty much got all A's. Success! Then I had to fill out a quick questionnaire and it was back to the apartment for more cleaning.

The apartment inspection consisted of a woman coming in for like 2 seconds, commenting on how clean everything was, and then leaving. XD I guess I worried too much! I spent the rest of the time before the graduation on the internetz.

I wore the same outfit for graduation that I did for the opening ceremony. Before it started, all the teachers were thinking waaay too hard about how the students should walk back to their seats. It was kinda ridiculous. XD In any case, it went off fine. And I even got a Teacher's Award for my presentation! =D I got a t-shirt for that, too. Apparently, they were very impressed that I memorized my entire presentation (they told me). ^^

After graduation, I changed clothes and went to my last manga club meeting. I was sad because Matsui-san and Nagai-san did not show up. But I gave my e-mail address to a few people and got a group shot of the people there. I will miss them. T_T

When I got back to the apartments, there were some people going to hang out down town. I ended up not being able to go but I got to chill out with some people before they left and then with some Japanese students. It was a good, quiet, lonely night. I was up WAY too late. I was sad to leave.

Incidentally, it is perfectly okay to take luggage to Family Mart to ship at 2 am. I totally filled up my duffel bag and had to ship it, too. =(

7/24
I got up early, finished the last little bit of packing, and ran into Shingo in the hallway. =D He helped me fold some posters and take my luggage first to OIP to drop of my key and then to the bus stop. He sat and waited with me for the bus!! We got to chat and stuff. It was sad, because Yoshiyuki called and wanted to come say goodbye but the bus came before he did. My last memory of KIT is Shingo being such a good guy. ^_^

I took a Thunder Bird train to Osaka and then a Hikari Shinkansen to Hiroshima. It was pretty uneventful, but I found out I am unable to lift my wheely bag over my head by myself. @_@

When I finally got to Hiroshima, I checked into the hostel J-Hoppers. It was a pretty cool place! Very hip. lol The girl was very nice and spoke English. I feel bag because she took my bag to my room. On the third floor. T_T

There were 8 beds in the room, but it was not too cramped. I threw my stuff on the bed and headed out on a hunt for okonomiyaki. The girl told me before I left that there were fireworks going on tonight. That this it the only time of the year the Hiroshima does anything like that and that I am very lucky to have shown up today. ^^

I ended up waiting a while for this one place to open and I had their okonomiyaki. We chatted in English and Japanese and they helped me figure out where the fireworks were. The okonomiyaki was not great. I'm not a fan of Hiroshima-yaki. =/ Maybe it was just that one restaurant. *shrug*




After food, I followed a bunch of girls in yukata onto a tram. It ended up getting very very packed and the tram ride to the port was long. But we got to the port and I followed everyone to the festival. It was just like it looks in anime! Tons of food vendors! And people in yukata! I got a giant snow cone.

The fireworks were set to music, which is something most shows in America are severely lacking. Music makes it better. One of them was set to that song from Final Fantasy 8! ^-^ It was very fun! I wish I wasn't so full so I could've tried more of the food there.

7/25
This morning I went to a pastry shop called Boston. It is NOT a place to eat though, just a place to buy picture perfect sweets. I got a pudding with fruit and brought it back to the hostel to eat. It was around this point that I started feeling the judging eyes on me. I am very different from all the other people in the hostel. I am NOT a backpacker. I have a suitcase. I buy things. I eat out, instead of buying groceries. >_> No one talked to me at this hostel at al.

After I ate I went to the Peace Memorial Museum and Park. It was lovely and very very sad. I also went to the A-bomb dome. I tried to find the contemporary at museum but failed. Instead, I went to a mall nearby where it should be and puttered around waiting for the sun to go down.




I was by myself, but I did what I would have wanted to do with someone. I did purikura XD I went to a small cafe. I saw a movie. Incidentally, I saw Inception. For movie theaters here, you have to pick your seat. Another foreigner was sitting right next to me. Huh! Anyways, the movie was amazing and I cried a bit (probably due to the heat, exhaustion, seeing the museum earlier, and the fact that the movie had sad bits). I'm such a girl. XP

Btw, the movie theater was Warner themed. The cartoon characters were everywhere. Bugs, etc. It was cool!

Theeeen I walked back and slept.

7/26
I had breakfast at Cafe Veloce which is a chain I've seen in a few towns now. It wasn't bad, but I always feel weird in such places cause they are meant for you to stay and hang out and I eat fast when I'm alone. I briefly checked out the super Book Off across the street before heading to Hiroshima Castle.

Hiroshima castle is another rebuild but it was still epic. I went all the way to the 5th floor of the tower and could see very far. It was awesome! Also, in the moat thing surrounding the castle, there are TONS of turtles and carp! So adorable! When I waved at the turtles, they would clamber to the side of the wall and pile ON TOP of each other trying to get up. Awwww




I went to mall Pacela which has some of the most amazing modern architecture ever. It was insane. I didn't do much there, but I went to an awesome buffet. 1910 for unlimited food and alcohol (at least until they closed). The really cool thing I thought was that that alcohol was buffet too. It was just a huge spread of booze and you went up and made your own drinks! There were a bunch of groups of people who were obviously there after work. I ate way too much!

At one point I was reflecting on how I was alone. And then... "All by myseeeeelf. Don't wanna be..." You gotta be kidding me. That song ACTUALLY came on. Wtf.

7/27
Today I went to the Hiroshima Art Museum. This was a very Western museum. There, I saw works by Manet, Monet, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, and.. Best of all.. Van Gogh! They had one Van Gogh piece, the Daubigny's Garden that had the black cat painted over. The museum had taken on a huge research adventure and published a book about the black cat and other touch ups/changes to that specific painting. It was lovely. He was a truely unique artist. So many paintings look the same online or in books. But when I could actually SEE it and compare it to the paintings left and right, it was very obviously different. How he lays the paint on, etc. ^^ Eeee amazing!

After this, I finally found the Contemporary Museum. I was one of two visitors at the time. It was empty and odd. On the basement floor, there was this cool guy who was sewing children's drawing into stuffed toys. And it was like a forest of clothing.. It was so cool!



Upstairs was paintings, photos, and sculptures related to the Hiroshima bombing (it's the 65th anniversary). One of them was a room called the death of time or the death of numbers. It was an entirely pitch black room except for a line of LED along the walls that had counting numbers. It was fucking scary. T_T; Also, there was a painting that was HUGE and black and THIIIICK red paint caked on like blood.




Then, I got "lost" in the forest mountain. It was this place that was just high up and had walkways and roads and staircases to everywhere and nowhere. it was really peculiar. I finally found the Hiroshima Manga Library though. Yes, Manga Library.

It was just like a regular library, but it only had manga. I sad and read some Kodomo no Omocha before heading on. I went back to the mall from the other day and had some spaghetti. As I was finishing I noticed I was missing my flip video camera. FUUUUUU

I panicked and ran out and ran all over the forest. It was awful because it was so hot and I had gone all over that maze like place. It could have been anywhere! It could have gotten picked up or run over or god knows what. My asthma kicked in as I was running up and down staircases. @_@ I went to the Manga Library to see if maybe I lost it there and someone found it. I ran up and down the rows but didn't see it. Just as I was about to go up to the desk and ask for it, there it was on the desk. Omg relief. It was a birthday present. T_T;

After this I pretty much did nothing. I was so exhausted.

7/28
This morning Tim from IJST met up with me at the station before I had to leave. It was super nice of him and awesome to see him! We had breakfast at McDonald's and chatted. ^^

Then I was off again. On a 5 train adventure. @_@ Fuuuu- I was surprised I managed to find everything okay. While on the train to Kawaguchiko, an ita lolita go on. And got off at FujiQ Highland Park. Which was weird to me until I finally went to the park myself. I also saw monks on a train!

I finally got to Kawaguchiko and started walking to the hostel. The free pick up service van found me and offered me a ride. XD How nice! I checked in and stuff. This place was much more clean and white. Like, the other place was very homey and lived in. This place, K's House felt more like a hotel. 5 beds in my room.

I went right out for food. I went to this place Kusaku which supposedly serves the local speciality. It did. Houtou. Which is delicious, but it was a big portion. =( I felt bag not finishing it. The restaurant was GORGEOUS!

After food I went to Lawson and bought my ticket for FujiQ and the Eva thing. Annnd not much else this night.

Oh, so I saw Mt. Fuji this day. On the train and walking around town it was VERY OBVIOUS. I didn't take many photos, tho, cause I was figuring I had the entire next day to take photos. Hah.




7/29
It was raining today. And cloudy. You could not even make out the outline of Fuji. It was just gone. Fuck ><

I took a sightseeing boat ride. It was a short ride on Lake Kawaguchiko. One of the men running the thing chatted with me a bit. I also went on a rope-way cart thing on Kachikachi Mountain. Scary!! It would have been an amazing view of Fuji. Unfortunately, it was raining, so you could barely see out of the boat/cart thing. Oh well.

After this I bought some souvenirs and stayed in the rest of the day. The people in this hostel were much friendlier to each other. Strangers talked and chatted a lot. But still no one actually spoke to me.

This night, as I was in bed, late at night, two girls who had lots of suitcases and smelled way too strongly of perfume, came in, made a lot of noise, and left. They ended up sleeping on unmade beds because it was dark. At least I'm not the only one with a suitcase?

I left the next morning.

Album update!

Lots of more pictures! Esepcially of my trip to Osaka!
Album 5
Album 6
Album 7
Album 8
Album 9

Also, check out the new videos at my youtube page!
http://www.youtube.com/user/chibisaraface

-Sara

7/18 - 7/22 Presentation Week

7/18
Today I got up relatively early and headed down town to check out some of the many museums in the Kanazawa area. First was the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. Or something. It's a circular building very white. There were definitely some awesome and interesting things. For example, a pool that was not a pool. It looked like a pool but when you looked into it, it was into a blue curved room and there were people! So it looks like there are people just chilln underwater. I also got to go down and be in the blue room hehe.





There were two main exhibits. Rather, there were two artists on display in the museum. One was very obsessed with bugs, crosses, skulls, and skulls eating dead animals. One room was full of crosses and skulls that looked like they were made out of bugs. Scary. Another artist was really into wood carving people. Large pieces that all kinda looked the same. And then drawings of those carvings. I think the most interesting things were the permanent installations to the museum. There was one room that was dim and has a slanted wall that had a large black spot on it and it looked like an endless hole. Another room was slanted and had a perfect square opening in the ceiling and was just...beautiful.



There was also a long term project room that was very dark and had part of a Japanese house in it, but more like the frame. It was very open. And it has someone speaking and in the house there was blue lights showing up on the floor where people were walking. You could see their foot prints and stuff. It was all prerecorded, of course. But it was really cool.

Outside there were some interesting things toooo and the gift shop had some very interesting things.

After resting a bit I headed up to the Ishikawa Prefectural Art Museum. This was museum was a mish mash of many different mediums and time periods. Anything that was made there, I assume, was there. Or some such. There were kimonos and samurai outfits, very modern paintings and dishes, and also lots of sculpture. I spent the most amount of time here. There was just so much! It was very interesting. =D

After this museum, I went to a Samurai museum. It was small and close to closing time so I didn't have much time. But it was basically the collection of one samurai family. The name escapes me just now. Upstairs there was the full regalia for a horse laid out. It was neato!

It sucks, but most of the museums did not allow photos. Sadness. Soon after the museums, I headed back to school cause I was exhausted.

7/19
Today I got up super early to go see The Borrower Arietty. Oh my god amazing. We got to the theater around 9 am for the first showing at 9:40 am. The mall wasn't open, but there was already a long line at the theater! You stand in line. Take the elevator up. Stand in line. Pick your seat in the theater and pay for the tickets. My ticket was only 1000 yen (about $11). Then I got a small popcorn and a small soda for 450 yen total (around $5.50). Cheap!!

This movie. Fucking amazing. It was GORGEOUS! The music was all celtic and <3 <3 <3 The art was gorgeous as always but even more so this time because of all the various color. I am so in love with it. Favorite. Ghibli movie. Ever. I bought the sound track. =D The movie theaters in Japan do it right because they sell stuff from the movie in the movie theater. ^_^

I don't believe anything of note happened after this except that I bought some steampunk jewelry.

7/20
Today we had our exit test in the morning. It was exactly the same test we took in the beginning. Everything. So, it was easy just like it was the first time. Boring. I was done pretty quick.

After this, I think some sort of lunch thing went on. And I also talked to the Service Center about all the places I need to get to. The lady was nice and helpful and wrote out a whole detailed itinerary for me. :D And then Rpro where we practised our presentations. It was silly. Afterwards, I asked Fudano sensei to explain the itinerary and she did so. She was shocked that I was travelling alone. XD Tokyo?! Alone?! Yeah, whatever. hah =D

After rpro, I went to club and bummed around for an hour and a half before going to the lounge for a dinner of instant ramen. I proceeded to print out every bit of information I could possibly need on all my hostels, trains, and directions. That was pretty good. I felt accomplished. ;D

7/21
The dreaded day of the presentation.

Woke up around 9 am, had a quick breakfast, and headed to the classroom for practice. I proceeded to practice as little as possible by talking to people online. However, I already had my presentation memorized. I ended up staying pretty late so I could go over it with a teacher, anyway. I got some hints on pronunciation and minor word changes so I'm glad I stayed.

Then lunch. Then. *gasp* Presentation.

We were split into two rooms. The "good" class (the one the teachers wanted the President of the school to see) and the other class. Or so everyone else said. Fortunately for us, the President could not show up. Also, we did not have to dress up. Also, no one except us students and our teachers showed up. It was awesome. I totally blacked out during my presentation in the sense that I have no memory of it. However, I am told I did well. I was number 10 in the "good" class. My presentation was on solar powered heating.

After that was over, it was like...NO STRESS ANYMORE! Sarah Stewart, Ruying, and I then planned to take on the down town. GIRL'S NIGHT OUT! We did a little bit of shopping, ate food, saw a movie, and went to karaoke! I also traded in my JR exchange order for my real JR pass and got a huge JR time table book. It is bamf.

We did nomihodai at karaoke and it was pretty epic. 5 hours of nonstop singing and drinking. X3 We left the place at 4 am and got back by 4:15 am by taxi. My voice was SO RASPY is was barely there! I then proceeded to stay awake till at least 6:30. ;D Screw 9:40 am class

7/22
Today was the very last day of classes for KIT. I was absolute exhausted from the late night previously. And my voice is still god awfully raspy. =x Teague says I sound Tara Reid raspy. It's true.

Got up just in time for class and printed out my paper. Then. Class. We discussed our feelings on the trip, the classes, the program, Japan, and the Japanese. It was an interesting discussion but I'm pretty sure everyone felt like it was a waste of time. During the break, almost everyone lied down and fell asleep. It was ridiculously hilarious. I will try to post a picture if I can find one. Apparently we were all up until stupid.




After class I grabbed a quick lunch of cold udon and was off to the Service Center to get my train tickets. It was really easy. I just showed them my Japan Rail pass and gave them my itinerary and they said to come back at 2 pm.

I came back to the apartments and bummed around on the internet for a bit before turning in my post-program travel form to OIP (Office of international programs). The one woman there also helped me fill out my luggage shipping form. =D Then it was back to the service center to pick up my tickets. Now I have 6 or 7 JR tickets. X3 After I picked them up I bought a KIT shirt for myself. Cause, c'mon. That is necessary.

I left and as I was outside I looked through the small stack of papers I had. And my little envelope with JR tickets...was missing. I flipped a shit and ran back up to the book store. And there the envelope was, sitting nicely on the floor in front of the tshirts. ><; fuck, I can't believe I almost lost ALL MY TICKETS!! Lucky for me I noticed so soon. *sigh*

After this I came back and waited around for everyone to figure out how we could ship our bags (have them picked up or go to convenience store). In the end, we headed to Family Mart. Shingo was very nice and carried my bag for me the entire way (which weighed over 60 lbs). When we got there (a bunch of ryuugakusei with bags and a few Japanese students), we kinda dominated the conbini. I felt bad. Anyway, I luckily brought a duffel bag with me and dumped the 10 lbs extra stuff into it, paid for my bag, and was all set.

Upon my return I have learned all about some fun internet stuff going on on 4chan. I am literally giddy over this whole mess.

7/17 Fair well party and 7 hour karaoke

7/17
Today I got to sleep in! I did laundry and cleaned up the apartment a bit and pretty much just waited until the fair well party which was at 2 pm. It's funny that we had a fair well party even though we have a whole week left!

Anyway, around 1:45 pm a bunch of us headed to the cafeteria Platz for the fair well party. There were already tons of people there! =D All the SGE students and some host families. I did not expect mine since they live two hours away and the party is two hours. So I sit and chat and stare at the food that we have to wait to eat. Then! My host family shows up!!! Hiroshi and Hisae and Hisae's mother even!! I was so happy and excited to see them!

They sat and we chatted together! =D And then the whole HUGE group of us (Freemans, IJST, SGE, and host families, and Teachers!) did a huge kampai! ^^ Then, we got to open our presents! =O Yes, the host family brought us presents! Omg wtf bbq they were amazing! Two posters from matsuri that go right by the families' house in Noto! And also, strawberry and blueberry jam that is famous from their area. And also big traditional snacks that I have no idea what they are but they're colorful. XD And two hand made little charms that Hisae's mother's mother made for us! Jackie and I each got two. They look like blue berries and have a bell. X3 And there was also pins from Noto and tissues from the matsuri. Augh, I know I must be forgetting something else. It was amazing! I wasn't expecting that.

We chatted a bunch and it was great! We had deliiiiicious sushi and sweets! Omg mini donuts <3 OMG SUSHI <3 After most of us were done, we all emptied the HUGE platter of sweets. Hisae's mother took a huge bag full home! Hisae and Hiroshi gave us their address, phone number, and email in Kansas and told us to come visit them in Kansas! They were very adamant that we call them if we are in Kansas. And we got Hisae's mother's address too! =D I will definitely write them! And we gave them our addresses, email, and phone numbers. They are such a great family! I really hope we can keep in touch. o^____^o

Oh, also, SGE presented us with tshirts and we got out host family to write on them. Hiroshi used the marker to do this really cool picture of bamboo! I was amazed!! After the party, we all went to the lounge and passed around t shirts. It was like year book time! I got a bunch of Japanese students to write on my shirt and vice versa. I am never washing it! I will hang it on my wall. <3

After we hung around for a few hours, most people went out for food. Then! The funness! After quite a bit of waiting around and confusion, we went to karaoke. For 7. Hours. SEVEN HOURS!!!

There were over 22 of us and we got two LARGE rooms with a mini stage and everything! Omg it was great. X3 We got unlimited soda bar and it was nice cause the machine for soda was right outside our room. I sang so many songs! I'm really happy cause I can sing Fuwa Fuwa Time now and I totally aced Summer Days! I can't wait to go to karaoke on Tuesday now! ^_^

I had about a MILLION melon sodas! Omg so good! Even better, this place is less than a half hour walk away, there's a conbini right across the street, and it was only 1600 yen per person for frikin SEVEN HOURS!!! Cote D'Azur was the place. ^_^ I wanna go again!

Lesse, I sang Fuwa Fuwa Time (K-ON), Voices (Macross Plus), Equal Romance (Ranma 1/2), Maps Opening song, Desire, Summer Days, Never Gonna Give You Up, and soooo many more! I sang along with a lot of people too. Fuuuck it was a good time. There were so many of us! And there was a constant stream in and out of the room for bathroom, drinks, and the other room. X3 By the end of the night there were people falling asleep lol

At one point, Taylor went out and was just like SWARMED WITH GIRLS! He is so popular cause he's a cute blond foreigner lol He even brought three Japanese girls back to our karaoke room and they sang and then clapped along with us singing. They told me I was cute. XD Other Japanese girls were marvelling at how small my face is. Lolololo wuuuut?

Then, there were these wicked drunk guys doing piggy back and demanding high fives! It was hilarious! Late night karaoke on Saturday is packed and fucking amazingly fun! I wish I had gotten to do this earlier! Even John Ertl, our culture teacher, came out. ^___^

To sum it up, fucking amazing day. This has been a pretty amazing past week actually! Yaaay!!

We walked home at around 3:30 am. X3

Tomorrow I am going to down town Kanazawa and I'm gonna go sight seeing. Then Monday, which is a holiday (ocean day), I'm gonna see The Borrower Arrietty (the new Ghibli movie) in theaters. Stooooked!

-Sara

7/11-7/16 Some of the best days in Japan

7/11
I slept in today and didn't really do much until 4 o'clock. I travelled with other classmates to down town Kanazawa where we met up with our culture teacher and other students at a restaurant whose name I've forgotten. It was a small, narrow, cramped restaurant but it was warm and homey. There was a projector set up on one wall where we watched Tampopo, a movie about a ramen stop. The way some other classmates described it, it sounded like the worst movie ever, but I actually thought it was pretty good and funny. It made me so hungry!!! @_@ At around 6:10, when the movie was over, we were all set up for nomihodai! (all you can drink).

I chose to sit at a table with Japanese students from our teacher's other class. The restaurant served us many different plates of foods and we could drink whatever we wanted and as much as we wanted. I had 3 or 4 beers (not sure, because Brian kept refilling my glass when I wasn't looking), a whisky high ball (which was weak as hell!), plum wine, some sort of orange mixed drink, and someone else's drink that they couldn't finish. In less than 2 hours, that was what I drank, because nomihodai ended sharply at 8 pm. At this point, everyone was going to karaoke which I would have loved to go to, but I was quite drunk. XD I decided to make my way home, Derek came too. Somehow, we were speaking solely Japanese most of the way. It was funny.

We found the bus stop and we found the time for the correct bus. And then I got us onto the wrong bus. ><; I remember that 32-35 goes to KIT. But for some reason this 32 DID NOT go to KIT. So, on the last stop, we desperately tried to explain our situation to the bus driver who, after trying to tell us how to get to the next bus stop by walking, told us to sit down. He drove us to a bus stop and when we got there, the correct bus had already gone and there were no more busses that night.

Luckily, Derek had a working phone and friends in Japan who knew the area. We stumbled about towards our destination, speaking animatedly on many subjects, made a few wrong turns, and were finally home. My feet hurt so bad! Getting lost in Kanazawa, at night, drunk ended up being interesting if not painful. It took us over 2 hours to get back. @_@ First thing I did upon my return: ice cream!! Yes, my night was awesome. =D

Btw, I chatted with a bunch of Japanese students which was great! I'm more comfortable speaking Japanese after drinking, it seems. But I guess that makes sense. One of them emailed me today. I wish I could remember which one it was. I'm so bad with names...

7/12
Today I had Rpro and Language class.

Rpro- I got the draft of my presentation back and had a one-on-one with one of the teachers going over corrections and explaining what I meant. I got some good feedback on something I wrote in a very short amount of time. XD Now it actually sounds meaningful. Hahaha I spent the rest of the class finishing up my presentation slides and matching it up with my presentation draft.

Incidentally, one of the students had a bike accident recently so the teachers were like "If the bike has no breaks, don't use it." All of us have been rather upset at the quality of the bikes. Almost all are broken in some form or another. Only two have working breaks. We paid 300 yen for maintenance costs and still nothing has been done. But Sara makes the difficult conversations. And I brought up in class to them all of the concerns we are having. The bikes are broken, they haven't been fixed, wtf. So, Fudano sensei, the head of the program, said she would have words with SGE (students for global exchange, they are in charge of the bikes). =D Yay. Hopefully something will be done, even though we have less than two weeks left.

I also brought up that I haven't been able to print from my laptop at all. I don't think that's gonna get fixed because my teacher said I should just e-mail her my files. *sigh* Inconvenience. It just sucks cause I have to rely on the kindness of others to get all my assignments printed out. I feel bad asking. T_T

During break, I had yummy ramen inspired by watching Tampopo last night. Then I went to the self study center and did internet stuff till language class.

In language class, we had a quiz on our daily kanji and on asking for directions. Then we reviewed some grammars. Theeeen we wrote down a bunch of things that were good about our trip and bad about our trip. After that, we were supposed to take one of those things and make a four shot manga out of it. *facepalm* I know this was fun for some people, but I can't fuckin draw. So I really just didn't. My story was dumb too lol. "Sara goes to Japan. Sara meets Japanese people. But they only speak Japanese, so Sara is confused. But she makes lots of friends anyway." Only partially true. e_e;; After that stuff, we were given a hand out to fill out with what we will say for our language presentation. We'll present on Wednesday with our project. I did a kanji project so I get to be like "Hey, look at my journal of kanji!" And we also got our portfolio index today. For some reason we have to turn in all our schoolwork and hand outs for language class as a portfolio... >_> weird

After language class I had some pizza and I slept. XD And then I did internet stuff and here I am.

6/13
Today we had Culture and JST.

In Culture we talked about gender roles in Japan. It was an interesting lecture but I didn't wanna go, like usual, cause I was so tired. x.X We talked about wimminz and how they're so super feminine here. And menz and how they are also super feminine here. ^^;

In JST we recorded our mini presentations. I did mine on furoshiki. When I went the first time, it was awful. I was nervous and left out a whole line! But I think I did really well the second time! It was embarrassing cause it was on video. @_@ They were recording us so that they could review it and give us tips on how to be better. So much of JST has been to prepare us for our final presentation and to make sure we don't embarrass the program when we give it. lol!

I honestly can't remember what else I did. XD

6/14
TODAY WAS BEST DAY

Language class was the last language class. We went over farewell phrases and things like that. I don't remember much. It was what came after that was so great!

I did stuff on the internet till about 2 pm and then went to the manga kenkyuu kai. There weren't many people there yet. Nagai san showed up and brought a bunch of new faces with him. Even girls! One guy, Junya, asked if he could record him and I while we talk and then use it in class. lol Talk to a gaijin! XD So yeah. And then we spent the next while talking about hobbies and stuff. And Justin gave me a pokewalker!!!! So now I have one again. And then I got my own copy of Grave!! <3 Grave is the club's doujin. The latest one is the one my page is in. <3 Proud. Junya drew the cover apparently and I got him to sign his name.

After we were all there, we got bikes, and headed to KARAOKE!!! My first time! We biked to Shidax which is nearby. The place was so pretty on the inside! It looked like pretty sky!



We split into to groups and each got a room. The room was pretty small but I was SO SURPRISED how well it was sound proofed. It was nearly silent in the hallway but we were BLASTING our music. We picked music and I was surprised because mine played first! @_@ Fuwa Fuwa time! ^^ Which I didn't know the full thing and I've never done karaoke before so I didn't sing loud enough. But Nagai filled in for me with the other mic. =D

Nagai was SO GOOD AT SINGING! So was everyone else! Oh man XD They were so intense! The guys would stand up and scream! I met a girl, Tomoyo. And she also loves Do As Infinity! We sang a bunch of their songs together! It was so much fun! For drinks, I got a cola float and melon soda. :D We sang for FOUR HOURS!!!! In the end, it was only 1400 yen per person! Oh man, so much fun!



After karaoke, we went to Matsuya for dinner. I feel bad because I couldn't finish my meal. =x Incidentally, there was a guy with a Japanese fro! It was so fluffy! I tried to ask him how he achieved it, but it didn't come out right. XD

After foods, we went to the arcade near by! Everyone is so good at the games, too! Man, they are good at everything! I played a little bit of popn music thing and this square rhythm game. I left soon after though. But that night was amazing!




6/15
Today we had culture class and I did not. want. to go. at all. Mainly because I had stayed up into illegal hours the previous night. Anyway, class was relatively boring all around. Though, there was a presentation on Pokemon and who doesn't love Pokemon? After culture, I got some lunchy lunch (cheese pizza) and puttered in the self study center until the JST final. Which was easy as expected. The sucky thing was that after we took the final, we had to wait around to have our one on one for presentation (video) evaluation. So I had an hour to kill in the self study center again. When I did have my one-on-one it was great. She had almost only good things to say. She says I should just be smoother instead of giving my words their own cadence or whatever lol :D Yay!
After class....I fell asleep....

6/16
Today we had our language final. Honestly, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was pretty much all of our quizzes put together. What a relief! I was done in a half hour, so I had three hours to kill. What to do what to do.

I went to Book Off first and got the final volume of Eva manga that I've been looking for. I also got another Do As Infinity CD, a Puchi Eva DS game, and the Sakugan no Shana DS game. :3

I then went to the second hand store where I found interesting things but nothing worth buying. Might have to go back though, to look for a HS bag.

Then off to the 100 yen store where I got even more bento stuff (I found wrappers that let you keep the seaweed separate from the onigiri like in the conbini) and some hair things. X3

Then I came back, had a quick lunch of instant noodles and ice cream, and was off to one of the last Rpro classes. Class was awful and boring today. It was basically going back and fixing everything based on the teachers corrections. And then waiting 4 hours to have your presentation gone over. It was funny cause Suda sensei was going over Derek's, but then she was like. Wait, I'll do Jackson san's first cause hers is easier. XD lol

So, presentation complete. Now I just have to practice and then give the presentation on Wednesday. T_T

After class, I went to club. but only Matsui san was there! I was really surprised! Apparently Friday,a s well as Monday, are holidays! It was nice though, because then it was me and two other foreign students, Matsui, and Tsuda. And we just got to sit there and chat about Fuji san and onsens, travel and other things. Matsui san seems DETERMINED to get me to go to an onsen. XD He kept pretending to take off his shirt lol I was all "nooo! It's embarrassing!" I wasn't the only one though, cause the Mexican foreign student also had not been and said he would not because it's embarrassing. *nods* We don't have them in America!

After club, I went out to dinner with Tim and Matt. Omg we ate so much! The rest of the night I watched anime. And there was an INSANE lightning and thunder storm. I have NEVER heard thunder that loud. @_@ It was scary!!! And that was that lol

7/2-7/5 Osaka

7/2
On Friday we all got up pretty damned early and met at 7 am to begin our journey to Osaka. After nomming some onigiri, we took the city bus to Kanazawa station. From there, we took a double decker bus to Osaka which took 5 hours. It was kinda great, because we were sharing the bus with some other ryuugakusei, but they were on the top floor. My "group" of Sam, Jackie, Tiana, Sarah, and myself got the front basically to ourselves. At one of the rest stops, the bathroom was frikin intense. Each of the stalls has a large light telling you whether it was occupied or not. And there was a map. XD

Anyway, we go to Osaka. Now we had to figure out which subway station to go to and which line to take etc etc. When we finally found our way to the subway station, while looking lost, we were approached by a very nice Japanese lady. This was my first time experiencing super over the top friendly Japanese people. Osaka has lots of tourists, so I guess this isn't surprising? Anyway, she was awesome and helped us figure out which lines and stops we needed and also helped us buy the tickets. Not only that, but she rode on the train with us and, we're pretty sure, she went beyond her own stop to make sure we made it onto the correct second train. ^_^

We finally arrived in Sennichimae and now had to find our hotel. This wasn't too hard in the end because we had a map. Our hotel, the Business In Sennichimae Hotel, was nestled in an alley of clubs and bars. It was right off one of Sennichimae's main covered paths that is full of restaurants and vendors. Everything smelled so good. *_* Osaka is so busy and full of so many people and SO MANY TOURISTS. It was great.

We were packing 5 people into a 3 person room, so 3 of the girls went and checked us in and dropped off our bags. And now it was time to find shopping! But first, food!! We went to an awesome okinomiyaki place and had delicious delicious okinomiyaki. *_*



After okinomiyaki, we pretty much just wandered about looking at all the amazing shops and arcades. There were a metric fuck ton of pachinko places with HUUUUGE signs.



Oh, and Evangelion was just about everywhere. Let's just say that I was in fan girl heaven. We went to lots of arcades and I spent way too much money. XD And we did purikura and that was fun! We had delicious delicious crepes and looked at adorable pets in pet shops. We wandered around until late and finally found Den Den town which was mostly just closing. But we had a first glimpse at some of the anime shops we'd be in the next day.

Oh yeah, in the arcade, these two boys won all four different type of eva headphones from this one crane game. My mind was blown! @_@ And there were also some gorgeous stylish girls playing project diva. X3

Then, return to the hotel, and shenanigans.


7/3
Today we went to Nipponbashi. And we shopped at a lot of anime shops. And it was insane and I can only really describe the insanity in pictures which can be found here and here.

However, we went to K Books (where I dropped over $40 on doujins), Animate, a capsule toy store, and...a crap ton of other stores that I can't even remember. There were a number of small Touhou only shops, a wig shop, and a few maid cafes. Sadly, no maid cafes were gone to. We did go to a small restaurant and I had yummy udon.

Oh man, the amount of eva everywhere is just. @___@ It fucking blows my miiiiind! Do want! This is the best time to be in Japan!! and Touhou Drinks!!



Today it rained a crap ton. It was a little ridiculous the down pour we had to put up with. @_@; Hm what else? In one of the anime shops, there was an employee cosplaying Naruto. o-O Of all the things... Anyway. We had dinner at a small place where you cook your own meat and the meal was just meat and was pretty good, but expensive, in the end. We also got ice cream yum yum yum yum. Annnnnd went to Don Quixote which is the insanest insane that ever insaned. Basically, a lot of shopping today.

7/4
Today, I had breakfast at the hotel which consisted of bread, a croissant, a hard boiled egg, and banana slices. While I'm on the subject of the hotel, let me mention their two computers. They have two computer with internet for customer use. These computers are old, slow, and I can't even believe they are still using them. They froze on me constantly and I couldn't just reboot it once. No, I had to reboot it three times because something always went wrong again the 2 first times. e_e;;

Then we went to the aquarium!! We got there via subway which we got to via underground MALL! Wtf! Not many things surprise me about Japan. But. Underground mall?! Insane.

Anyhow, we went to Kaiyukan in Osaka which is one of the biggest aquariums in the world. It has two whale sharks and tons of amazing. Oh, and too many fucking little kids and parents. I found out that day that Japanese children are just like American children. *facepalm*

Anyway, it was awesome and photos are here.

I must also mention that the aquarium's gift shop was pretty much a Kaiyukan-themed department store. @_@

After the aquarium, we went to the mall right next door (but unfortunately we did not ride the 112 meter ferris wheel ;_;). The mall was also insane and was hosting Hawaiian Festival 2010 or some such. Bunch of hula-ers hula-ing. There were even amusement attractions in this mall. o_O TWO Sanrio stores, a ghibli store, and a million restaurants. We went to Coco's for lunch which was Western style dining and food. Omg it was so delicious. *drool*



Oh, I forgot to mention. I got to touch shark and rays at the aquarium! They had a...touching..tank... Weird and awesome =D

I got lots of nice omiyage (gifts) for people on this day. ^_^

After the aquarium and things, we got ebi yaki for dinner. It is an Osaka only thing, so say the cooks. Imagine takoyaki, but with shrimp instead. Omg to die for. So good!

7/5
Today we got up early, 6:30, and headed back to Kanazawa. We took a subway to the bus station and took the 5 hour bus to Kanazawa. There was a woman in a kimono on our bus. It was lovely and music themed and I have no idea how we was uncomfortable in that for 5 hours sitting. @_@ annnnd I got a crepe at a rest stop <3

Once at Kanazawa station, I grabbed lunch, and waited for the bus to school. Took bus to school, went back to apartment, and proceeded to pass out. Probably.

6/29-7/1 Daily life!

By the way, this was my host family:



6/29
Today in culture class we talked about Nihonjinron which is a genre of books dedicated to "Japaneseness". Basically, what do all Japanese think, feel, and do. The thesis we read analysing Nihonjinron seemed to be against it, in general. I think these books sound interesting, especially thinking about how some books by foreign authors are in the genre as well. I wanna read some!

In JST (Japanese for Science and Technology) we learned about graphs and math terms and such n such. JST hurts my head because it gets really boring sometimes.. T_T

At manga club I mostly watched Oda-san play Biohazard (Resident Evil) and then I played Pokemon. I chatted with Matt Cillick and Justin Han (two students in the program from different schools) and left club not long after.

And I have no memory of what else happened since it was so long ago~

6/30
In Language class we did stuff for Tanabata. *_* It was very fun. We read about the legend and we wrote wishes! I made one wish for Teague and one wish for myself. I accidentally spelled Teague's name wrong. ;_; I was upset, but I used white out to fix it. Orihime will understand, I'm sure. All us gaijin got to put our wishes on bamboo outside of building 1!



After lunch and stuff I went to the Girl's Floor in the library again to revel in its glory. It was awesome.

I then went to Rpro (research project class) and realized I FORGOT my frikin laptop. >< I felt retarded since we use it every class and I needed to do research!! Thankfully, one of the teacher's lent me her laptop so I could make PP slides, but I had no internet for researching. It felt like a big waste of time. Mister grumpy pants from the past few posts was over an hour late to this class. (Classes are 2-3 hours). e_e

I took a nap in the afternoon and went to manga club pretty late. Justin (from RHIT) was there and we chatted about animes then went to Pizza Hut for experimentation time. A medium pizza was 2500 yen. @_____@ Awful price, but it was DELICIOUS! We got potato mayo gratin. It was pasta with cheese, potato, and mayo on top of pizza dough (no marinara). Yuuuuum!!

7/1
Culture class was about various chapters in a book we read. I read a chapter about the transnational movement of women as brides. Basically, Japanese women leave, all other Asian women come in (from/to Japan).

The afternoon was very less than stellar, almost entirely because of me.

I was upset at the beginning of JST and did not give two shits about the quiz I did not study for. I ended up doing very well, I feel. It was surprisingly easy. Then we learned about furoshiki and it was pretty silly. XD We watched fashion videos on how to tie furoshiki for different purposes. Lolololo

Did laundry tonight and Lupin III came on TV. Awww yeah! And also, Ultraman!!
After laundry, I went to manga club. At first it was just sitting there not doing much. But after Nagai-san was finished playing BlazBlue, we chatted a bit. He's a funny and upbeat guy. I got to play with his cell phone and we exchanged skype names. I'm excited cause now I can practice my Japanese more!

It's funny, cause his last name means long and his first name, Katsuya, is the name of a restaurant in the area. XD

Theeeeen I watched lots of K-on before falling asleep!