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
Stripping Japanese boys can't even convince Sara to go to an Onsen.
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