First semester almost done...

When I realize how quickly this semester went by, I realize how much one semester here just wouldn't be enough! There is so much here that I just haven't seen or done yet! And I am really sad to see some of my friends leaving at the end of this semester! I am learning a lot but I need more time to use what I have been learning in order to keep up with it.
With Christmas coming up, I am a little sad that I won't get to see my family but I think I will somehow survive. Christmas in Japan is a little different than what it is back in the States. Actually it's extremely different. They all eat cake and go to KFC and get a bucket of chicken and then spend it with their Boyfriend or Girlfriend. They have the image of Santa but I am not sure they actual know about him. It's not really about giving gifts and Family too much during Christmas. I don't actually have any plans for Christmas. Tiki is working so maybe I'll probably hang out with him afterwards. But besides that I am not too sure what is going on. I hope to catch my family on Skype and watch them open presents up.
I am really excited to spend New Years here. I'm going to Kae's mom's house with Jessica and we are going to have probably a NABE PARTY!!!! I love nabe! So I'm excited for that!
Next semester two of my friends and I are looking into getting a house. Tiki, Heather and I are going to go check it out on Monday. It's 400 dollars a month split between 3 people... It's probably an older house but it would save me so much money! Living in the dorms is like 1700 dollars for the semester so I'm pretty happy with not paying that much next semester. I hope to get the house sometime before my birthday...
Now I am just trying to get ready for finals and all of that... Oh goodness... I hate this time of year!

Long time no write...

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been a little tied down with school work and little adventures... I really am enjoying my time here in Japan. I have met a lot of interesting, and cool people here from all over the world! I'm sorry I have not taken the time to write down all of the things that I have been up to lately. But the words I write do not give any justice to the actual experience.
Not all experiences are amazing. I didn't expect that when I got here. My listening skills are slowly getting better than my speaking skills and sometimes I still feel like I cannot speak Japanese. Usually when I am not talking to one of my friends and I am talking to a clerk at a store they stare a me as if I am not speaking Japanese at all. Things like that are extremely discouraging but I try not to let them bother me. I still get the strange looks everywhere I go, especially from the older people... I occasionally get dirty looks from girls around my age. But I think thats because they are jealous that I can be skinny but still have curves and don't feel like I need a pound of make-up to make me look pretty. I guess the only culture shock that I have kind of experienced is the staring. I mean I was stared at in America on occasion but not so intensely as I have been here. I mean it's not like they have never seen a foreigner before. Half of their media are people from America. Cameron Diaz is in a commercial for Softbank the phone company I have. Jamie Lee Jones is the face of Boss coffee! They LOVE Tom Cruise here (?)! But I still get the OMG what are you stares from children. Sometimes they are cute and smile at me and then other times they gape at me. But I like to think that everyone stares at me because they think I'm pretty... I can dream!
Classes are ok. I like my classes I find them interesting but that doesn't mean I want to be there all of the time. In my speaking class we are writing a skit that we have to video tape. It sounds cool but it's time consuming and I have other time consuming things that I have to do that I would rather not do... I have two papers that are due at the end of the semester. I have yet to start one and the other one I have less than to pages left on it!!!! YAY!
Today is Thanksgiving! And I have no turkey... *sigh* I do miss turkey a lot! I haven't had turkey since I left! But I have found a new love for shrimp. I liked shrimp before but now I LOVE it! Fried shrimp is probably my favorite thing here. I have had rice EVERYDAY since I have been here. Except for one day and I was totally surprised when I realized it. I love going to 7-11 or Lawson to get my onigiri, which is a rice ball with something in the middle wrapped with seaweed! The tuna one is my favorite, or the seaweed with seaweed in it... that one is delicious too!
One thing I have a hard thing understanding is that the colder it seem to get outside the less clothes that the Japanese girls seem to wear... it baffles me! Today alone I saw 3 different butt cheeks from girls! Their skirts are so short! And I don't even think it's because they are trashy or slutty or whatever, they just wear skimpy clothes. They all wear ridiculous heals or boots with heals. The heals are not very stable and some of them end up walking bow-legged. Some of them are very vain! I saw one girl curling her hair in the cafeteria! I think that was a little too much! They all dye their hair light brown or they try to get it as blond as possible, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even recognize themselves without make up on. Which is very sad because they are all gorgeous or extremely cute girls. It makes me sad that they think that they have to try so hard to get attention...
I'm sure most of you probably guessed that I would get a boyfriend while I was here and I guess those who did won't be surprised when I say that I do have a boyfriend. His name is Tomohisa Toda but his nickname is Tiki. His English is pretty amazing considering he never studied abroad. He is really cool, funny, smart sweet, nice, and so much fun to hang with. He helps me study too so it makes it that much nicer to have a boyfriend here.
I hope everyone has a great holiday!!!! Take care! I love you all!

*^^*

Sorry it has taken me so long to write in my blog again! I have been a little busy! I did end up going shopping last weekend! I got an awesome shirt that is has English on it but makes almost no sense! I cannot wait to wear it! "Girl loves the heart. Feature of girls heart. You should be so lucky! Waiting for you. Take delight in your heart in 1987. I give you some love... It is nostalgic. Finding shining heart." It makes no sense at all! I'm pretty excited! It's long sleeved though so I want to wait until it gets colder out. I also got that baby mickey that I wanted! It is the epitome of cute! After shopping i went to Karaoke with some of the other people in my seminar house. The karaoke place was pretty awesome! We got a pretty big room and all you could drink! I sang like 3 songs with the Japanese girls that met us there! They were pretty excited that I knew some pretty awesome Japanese songs!
The rest of the week was just class and frisbee and hanging out with Tiki and Justin. On Wednesday I went to block Shouhei from catching the frisbee and we both jumped up into each other except I jumped into his back and I fell on my back and got the wind knocked out of me. It was worth it because he didn't catch the frisbee so the other team didn't score! Yay me! But I think it might have jarred my neck a bit because it hurts to move it. I played frisbee a lot this week because the weather has been so gorgeous! It's still nice and warm out and I couldn't be happier about it! I am in no hurry for the cold to start making its way over!
Today I am going to meet Jessica at the train station!!!!!!!!! I thought that I was gonna have to go by myself but luckily, because it's a 3 day weekend, my friend Yasu is going to the same train station so he can go home to Kyushuu. If not then I would have to get off one train and make my way to the subway and get on the subway to where ever Jess is! I had directions but I'm glad that I have someone with me that actually knows where he's going. And then from the train station Kae is going to pick us up after he class! This weekend is going to rock! I haven't seen Kae since I want to Kyoto with her and I haven't seen Jess since August the 16th! That is like a life time! Well Jess hasn't seen Kae since the end of May so I guess that is longer... Anyways I am really looking forward to this 3 day weekend! I have midterms in 2 weeks and I am not too thrilled about that...

Days Go By

The past couple of days haven't been too eventful. I have mostly just been going to school like a good girl. I did finally get my Gaijin (foreigner) card! So no I am a legal Gaijin! YAY! I played frisbee the past 3 days in a row. And I am not sure, but I think I pulled a muscle in my foot? Maybe? The outside of my foot hurts when I walk but not when I ride my bike. And because I am walking differently from that pulled muscle, I pulled a different muscle in my leg... Awesome, right? I still somehow manage to ignore it and play frisbee. Yesterday this one dude and I jumped for the frisbee at the same time and he landed on my foot (the one that hurts) and my toe ring cut into my toe. So that started to bleed. It was pretty awesome! It didn't hurt but it sure did bleed a lot. I was carried to a faucet and I washed it off and put a band aid on it and continued to play. All is good! That night (Friday) I was supposed to go to karaoke but like last weekend plans changed!!!!!!! >< But it's whatever because next week Jessica is coming down and we are going to party, dance, and sing all weekend!!!! YAY!!!!! Well anyways that night Justin and I hung out at Tiki's place and we watched movies. We watched the sequel to a movie we watched earlier in the week and another movie with Shibasaki Kou in it! They both had horribly depressing endings and I was tired and whined and cried about how Japan hates happy endings. It's ok though because I'm going shopping today and everyone (or maybe every female) knows the healing power of shopping. I have to go buy a new toe ring... my right foot is now naked... and long sleeved clothes, and that baby mickey mouse stuffed animal thing that is THE most adorable thing will ever see in your life! I might need to get a hairdryer too. We'll see!

Weekend fun!

This past weekend was a good one! Quite eventful! Saturday was the sports festival but I didn't go... I decided that I needed to study! Keigo is a pain in the butt! why Japan would make up more polite verbs to go with their already polite society is beyond me! I had to learn I had to learn a more polite way to talk to people like teachers or old people. I figured that I might need some extra practice. When I was tired of doing that my friend Heather asked me to go shopping, which turned out to be us going to Namba for food and drinks. Namba is a cool place. I found Japanese hippies there... Not a big fan of hippies but they were all holding free hug signs, so I hugged them all. And when we came back around I hugged them again! At first there were only four of us but I called my friend Will who met up with later and he brought a friend too. So the six of us, only one was Japanese, joked and laughed and had ourselves an amazing time. And even though I had to get up early the next morning I didn't get back until 1 in the morning.
Sunday I went to Eiga Mura! Yasu, Shouhei, Justin and I went. Eiga Mura is located in Kyoto, and it is a place where a lot of samurai or old time movies were made. We got to walk into houses where movies were made and we even got to see prop set ups. I'm pretty sure I saw a famous actor but I couldn't tell too many people were in front of me. But Yasu said he was famous. They were filming a movie that day so I got to see about 30 seconds of the movie. It was only of a guy screaming for someone, but whatever I saw it. We got to watch a "Samurai" fight, which was really cool. After the demonstration they picked 3 people from the crowd to show a move to and I was one of them!!!!! I was a little nervous because I didn't think they would actually pick me but they did! It was me an old Japanese guy and another foreigner that was really tall and a little too excited. The guys talked a little fast but I got the gist of what they were saying. We got to do a little fight with one of the Samurai guys. We blocked the first attack and then do a little kind of dance-throw-him-back-thing and then the next time he attacks you, you cut his stomach and then he dies. When I went up the guy asked my name and where I was from. "America" and he jokingly said me too! He then asked me "suki na taippu?" (what's your type?) I wasn't expecting him to say something like that so I was a little confused. but I pointed and said that the guy in green was cool and then that caused an argument between 2 of the guys. Didn't really matter anyways! The guy in green was the one that I had to kill! And I did! It was awesome! After that we got a group photo with the samurai and walked around a bit. There some cosplayers there and Shouhei was excited because there were people dressed like storm troopers and one guy that dressed up as the emperor. What they were doing in an old Japanese looking village is beyond me. We also watched a 3D video there too, which was a little dumb but amusing at the same time. After we walked around a little bit more we made our way to the ghost house! I was with 3 boys and while we were going through the haunted house tell me why they screamed more than me and were pushing me to go in the front!?! G Z Whiz guys! It was a lot of fun! Afterwards we ate and then made our way back.
It has been rainy here the past couple of days which makes me sad because it's cold out... It's shame. I miss the hot weather. But I think there was an earthquake this morning... It was very small and not strong at all but I felt the building move a few times... It scared me a bit at first but it wasn't really anything to be worried about. No alarm went off so I'm going to take that as a good thing. I hope this weekend is sunny! Stupid rain! ><

<3 Fun Times

So I have been here almost a month and I am going to have to say that even though I might be a little bit homesick I am in no hurry to come back home anytime soon. I mean I would totally miss all the fun that I have with all my friends AND my roommate! (ha ha) She totally said 5 words to me on Sunday! I vacuumed our room on Sunday and I asked her if she could move her futon. "Sure." I then vacuumed under her desk and she had to move out of my way so I said sorry. "It's ok." And then when I was done she said "Thank you." I think she might be opening up to me!!
Tuesday we did not have class because of the autumn equinox. So on Monday Heather (roomie from orientation week that talked to me), Yasu, Shouhei, Justin, and I hung out and played drunken Mario Karts and walked to 7 eleven. Heather had to leave early because she had to get back to her host family so the four of us made our way to a club that was between Justin's place and the 7 eleven. It was 5 bucks to get in and then you got a ticket to get a drink. I got starbucks liqueur on the rocks and shared it with Yasu, and Shouhei. The bar/dance club was maybe 2 times the size of my dorm room! It was so tiny! But it was cool, we still had fun. We frequently went outside so we could breathe because everyone and their moms were smoking! So we would go outside to breathe. And then we went to 7 eleven again around 1 something for the 3rd time! That night was awesome until This drunk Canadian kid slapped me for no reason and I wanted to smash his face in the ground! The guys I was with didn't see it so they did nothing! And then the kid tried to hug me which made me even more upset! Then Justin stood up and told him to leave me alone. He was a jerk! But the rest of the night was fun. The four of us made plans to go to karaoke. Shouhei and I are going to sing Daite Senorita together! YamaPi!
Tuesday was a little less eventful. I went with Justin to Saty (a mall) to visit Tiki at his first day of work. We both bought jackets which I am going to need soon because the weather is getting a lot cooler during the night... Fall... awesome... Then I returned and did homework! Yay! homework!
Wednesday was a good day. After class I played frisbee for a bit and then Tiki and I went to Justin's house. I told Justin to cook for us and he did so I got free food out of it. He made oma-rice(?), maybe? Well it was some rice dish with ketchup and an omelet with onions on top. It was actually really good! Then we watched a Japanese movie without subtitles. I understood the gist of it. And it was cute and sad... I cried... The parts that we didn't understand Tiki translated. It was a good movie. "Taiyou no uta" "The Sun's Song"
Today (Thursday), the Japanese students started classes. Random right? Thursday? The cafeteria was packed! But it's cool! Tomorrow I'm supposed to have lunch with Yasu and some of his friends who want to meet international students. It's sometimes strange because everyone stares at you here because you're different. Not so much in a bad way because if I smile and wave they blush and smile and wave back. Boy or girl doesn't really matter. But I like to think they stare not so much because I'm different but because I'm cute! ha ha Just kidding, but seriously. I'm really excited to meet new people on top of all of the other people that I have already met!

Another Weekend!

This weekend was pretty cool. Well after the rain had stopped. I walked miserably to school on Friday with my bandaged knee and my crappy umbrella in the rain. Stupid typhoon! Well when the rain did stop I went out to dinner with a few international friends and 2 Japanese friends. Its always fun to teach the Japanese people sarcasm. Oh yeah, Japan is not a very sarcastic country. In fact no one in Japan in sarcastic except the foreigners. So Justin and I make it our daily effort to teach our Japanese friends sarcasm. I mean especially if they are going to study abroad in America! We have to teach them more than just the language... We have to teach them how to use! Well anyways after dinner we hung out at Justin's place for a bit and kind of had a techno party in his tiny little house. But we ended up just sitting down and talking. Sometime around midnight we made a 7-11 run. Oh yeah, Japan has 7-11 and McDonald's and KFC and of course Starbucks! They're 7-11 is way different though. They sell food that doesn't suck. But no slurpies (Sorry Joella). So we hung out a bit eating our food, joking around and on our way back to Justin's we ran into some other international students who were drunk... Hilarious. Drunk people trying to speak Japanese when it's not their first language is awesome! I have done it. You think you're smart but you sound even more retarded than when you're not drunk...
I was not able to go to Uji this Saturday with Tiki :(. There was a misunderstanding due to cultural/language differences that left me a little upset. But that afternoon Justin, Yasu, Shouhei, and I went shopping, which makes me happy so I was fine. I bought a tank top, and a dress shirt I would have bought a Bump of Chicken CD but 30 bucks for a CD from 2001 with 10 songs on it? Come on Japan... Are you serious? That is a little too takai (expensive) for me. Shouhei had to leave early because he was going to an Avril Lavigne concert that night (They love her a lot over here). Afterwards Tiki came over and explained and said sorry so we are going to go to Uji next weekend instead.
Jessica is coming down the tenth of next month to visit me and I am SO excited!!!!!!!! I miss Jessica! Next weekend should be fun too. Shouhei, Yasu, Justin and I are supposed to be going to a ghost house or something. Im totally excited about it. I have a lot to look forward to!

Typhoon!!!

This week has been pretty fun! Monday I had off and it was rainy so I did homework. That wasn't so much fun... But Tuesday I ran into a guy that I went to karaoke with orientation week and his friend. Yasu and Shouhei. We met up with Justin and Played some frisbee before we decided that I wanted to go to Starbucks. So we rode to Hirakata City on our bikes. Except Shouhei who lest his bike key so he rode my bike and I sat on the back sort of seat thing. But when we got to a downhill slope I rode down and he ran. It is always fun going down a hill for Justin and I. Our back breaks squeal so amazingly loud! I laugh the entire time we ride down hills. So we get to Starbucks buy our drinks and walk to another Starbucks to drink them because that Starbucks was full. We then played video games (I only played one because I can waist my money on cooler things) and then all four of us jammed into Puri-kura for some photos! And then when ate at this restaurant where you put your money in this kind of vending machine and you push the dish you want and a ticket comes out and then you give the ticket to a waitress who gives you your food. It was good eatin'! We then rode back to Justin's house and talked for a couple of hours. Shouhei quotes South Park. Justin and I found that hilarious!
The next day (Wednesday) was not too eventful... I had a Kanji test the next day so I felt that studying would have been a good idea. But Thursday (yesterday) was fun. After class I hung out with a few of my friends. My friend Will, he's from Leeds(?), asked if I wanted to come over to his host family's house for dinner. I said yes! Why would I turn down free food? But he had class until 6:30 so for the mean time I went to play frisbee. I fell twice trying to catch the frisbee and twice I skinned the same knee... AWESOME! My pants are all bloody and glorious! But it's ok because I washed it off in the bathroom later. All is good. Frisbee is fun and we played five hundred too. Afterwards when Will got out of class we rode to his family's house for dinner. The family had 6 small dogs that jumped up on you and wanted to lick you but backed off when you tried to pet them... The food was pretty good, minus the Sashimi (raw fish), but I did at least try a piece. After dinner we went to a different house that the family owns where Will and another exchange student live. The mom and the daughter pulled out all of these Yukatas and Will, Landon (his roommate) and I each pick out one to wear. I picked a navy blue, Akiko picked bright yellow, Will picked a royal purple and Landon picked light pink. I unfortunately did not have my camera on me but I will get the pictures that they took somehow! Afterwards we just talked for a bit before Will rode back with me around 10.
It has been a little rainy the past days though because of Typhoon #13 is coming! ><>

Karaoke = Fun

This weekend for the most part had been pretty good! Saturday Justin and I rode our bikes to Hirakata City. There is this big hill we have to go down to get there which I absolutely hate! To make things worse our bike breaks squeal horribly! So the whole time we are going down this hill I am laughing hysterically before I decide to just walk it down the hill. It was too annoying to keep hitting my breaks. Anyways we parked our bikes in these bike meter things that locked your bike in and you have to pay to get them out, and then we went shopping around. I bought Jess a B-day present! I also bought a hamper and a caddy for my shower things. I was using a plastic bag for a while... When we were done we went to get pay for our bike parking but couldn't figure it out! The machine kept spitting our money out. The machine was also in English. It said put in your meter number push this button put in the money and you done. Nothing... And I was going to ask a man to help us but he walked away kind of quickly. :( So I called our friend Tiki up and he said he would come and show us how to do it. But before he got there we saw a girl just put her number in and get her bike... We figured out that you must not have to pay on weekends... >< So all we did was keep unlocking our bike but never got it. Our stupid moment for the week! Tiki came and hung out for a while anyways!
Sunday was Karaoke day! Justin Hiroko and Tiki and I went. This place was a lot cooler than the other ones because you could also play pool, darts, and ping pong. We did karaoke first for a couple of hours. I sang a few Japanese songs but it's a little difficult sometimes because i can't read all of the kanji. Tiki sang Avril Lavigne's (last name spelled wrong) complicated! Which I thought was hilarious so I video taped it! Justin and I sang Bohemian Rhapsody together and we ROCKED! Go us! Hiroko and I sang Kiss Shite together! I love that song! And of course I sang some Bump of Chicken! Tiki and I sang my favorite song together, Tentai Kansoku! After singing for a bit we played pool, Tiki and I against Justin and Hiroko. The games were all relatively close but we lost every time. We especially lost when I aimed for the 3 ball and hit nothing but pocket with the cue ball! And then the next turn I hit another ball that hit the 8 ball in... MVP Katie right? I kind of sat on the floor and laughed for 5 minutes after that happened. We played nine ball too and lost! ><>

Kyoto!

Today was pretty awesome! Kae and her Friend Yohei picked me up at my seminar house at 1:30 and then off we went to Kyoto! It was awesome! A little tiring because of all the stairs but absolutely worth it! W e went to 3 different temples.
The first temple had the rows of Tera gates. It was really cool. It was back in the woods so even though it was kind of hot out I was able to manage because of the shade. It was the stairs that killed me the most! The had steep stairs, big stairs, long stairs, short stairs, shallow stairs, and any other type of stairs you can think of! It was a good work out though! The scenery was so beautiful! My camera would never be able to capture the detail and beauty that I go to witness with my own eyes! There were even random cats there! It made me miss mittens... :( I miss my baby!!!
The second one was my favorite. The Golden Temple... Absolutely took my breath away! The Temple was a peninsula in this small lake where small little islands with trees surrounded it. I even saw 2 Iris's. Purple and beautiful! It made me smile and I pointed out to Kae that Iris was my Grandmother's name. Iris is Ayame in Japanese. The Carp in the Lake would, every now and then, stick their fins out of the water it was a very peaceful place! And It totally had less stairs than the last temple! Past the roped off section of the walk-way way a metal bowl and three stones. The bowl was absolutely surrounded! It was like a water fountain minus the water. Kae said that if you get it in the bowl it means good luck! Yohei and Kae missed but I at least hit the bowl. It's not horse shoes though so no luck for me!
The last Temple that we went to was on a slope! So more stairs! But it was still just as beautiful as the other two! This one was on a mountain. The trees were gorgeous! Kae bought a little talisman paper thing which she let me pick. And of course I picked the bad luck one... What I was supposed to do was to fold it once or twice and then tie it to a pole so the bad luck wouldn't follow me. But what happened was when I went to tie it it ripped! So we tucked the pieces into other people's tied up bad luck... We didn't spend too much time at this temple because it was getting dark and they were closing it to visitor but I did get to wash my hands in feet in the washing stations (I don't know what they are called that's just my name for them). The water fountain type things are everywhere at every temple. I thought they were cool. The last temple had a dragon one! Awesome!
After that we drove to a restaurant and ate nabe! What is nabe you say? Kae couldn't explain it more than food in a boiling pot of soup in which you can put many different things in the pot. My interpretation of it was over eating! Between the 3 of us I swear we ate enough food to feed 7 people! But it was absolutely delicious! And I would totally do it again! I pretty much love Kae and Yohei for today! They wouldn't let me pay for ANYTHING! except for the little present that I bought for Jess. But the food and the temple expenses? Not even 1 yen! So I am totally grateful to them for that and for showing me around! It was a really awesome day!
When I got back I rode my bike to Justin's to hang out with him Katsu, Hiroko, and Tiki for a bit. Justin asked Hiroko out on a date. It was cute! Props to Justin! Hiroko and Katsu left early, so Justin Tiki and I hung out for a while before Tiki rode his bike with me back to my place. And now that I am completely tired and it is almost 1 am. I think it's bedtime! Oyasumi!

Fun! Fun! Fun!

I feel like everyday is a new adventure here! After my classes of course... yesterday (Wednesday) was no exception. I went back to play frisbee with the kids from the other day and 6 people grew into like 16 people. It was pretty awesome! I don't really remember who won because both teams scored a lot. All I could really remember was that I was SO hungry! Justin (he came back to play too) and I decided that we wanted to hang out with the Japanese kids from the night before. He's totally crushing on the girl we met. But she's cute and sweet so I approve! She wasn't able to come but Tiki and Katsu were all for it. Since the cafeteria was closed Justin offered to cook... SPAGHETTI! We had to go shopping for the ingredients before we went back to Justin's place. And then we waited forever before it was done! But oh my goodness! It was amazing! Justin had a very interpretation of spaghetti and garlic bread! The four of us hung out until passed midnight talking in as much Japanese as Justin and I could. Which we kept up pretty well. We even taught them an American game... That hand slapping game that doesn't really have a name. I was the champion! Go me!!! When we decided it was a good time to go back Tiki and Katsu rode with me back to my dorm house to make sure I made it back ok. I then crawled through the darkness of my room as quietly as I could. Wouldn't really matter anyways, my roommate doesn't talk to me! But she did leave the door unlocked for me, or she just forgot to lock... But I'm going to say she was being nice and left it unlocked.
Today I'm going to go play frisbee again! And tomorrow I go to Kyoto!!!! Woot!

BIKE!!

So I started my classes yesterday! That wasn't too bad. The two classes that i chose to take are instructed by Americans which is all good! They seem to be pretty ok classes. Pacific Rivalry is taught by a man probably in his late 50's but he seems totally cool and laid back. My Zen Buddhism teacher is a little short woman who seems pretty easy going and cool too. I hope they don't give too much work! I would be sad!
Today language classes stared. At 11 on Tuesdays I have reading and writing for 50 minutes and speaking at 12 for 50 minutes. And then I'm totally free for the day! Like usual Mondays are my busy days! I start at 10 have an hour break and then I'm not done until almost 4!
Justin and I bought BIKES today! Mine is pretty SAWEET! It has this awesome basket for my things. The seat isn't amazingly comfortable but it comes with a cool bell and a light for night time! It's weird here how you have to get your bikes registered in order to park them. In America we register our cars. But it's cool. I bought books and LAN cable today too so I'm actually on my own computer today! YAY! After buying our bikes Justin and I went to get some groceries and we took our awesome new 1920's looking bikes for a spin! Afterwards we rode back on campus and we met new people who invited us to play Frisbee with them! We played ultimate frisbee too! My team won because I am just that amazing! No seriously they couldn't believe it was my first time playing! It was totally fun and I think I am going to join the little frisbee circle. I have yet to join a club. But I heard you don't want to join the clubs because they are hard core everyday and circles are more chill and a better way to meet people. Today was fun! I totally love my new bike!

>< New Roomie...

So I just met my permenant roommate yesterday and I already dislike her. She's either extremely shy or extremely rude. She totally ignores me whenever I say anything. And I know she's not deaf and I know that she speaks English!!!!!!!! I totally said good morning to her this morning and nothing! Not even a little grunt! Silence! Everyone else in the seminar house is nice and says good morning except for her! I get the grouch... Thus is my life... Whatever! I don't really plan on spending too much time in my room anyways. All the action is elsewhere! Makes me sad that I have to type and rant on the computer instead of just calling people up and telling them. But it's all good. I knew that I had to make sacrifices when I made the decision to study in Japan. I'll get over it soon. I usually don't stay angry too long. The good thing about yesterday was that I finally unpacked my things now that I'm in a permanent room!!!!!!! No more living out of a suitcase!!!!!!!! And I laundry but the dryers are kind of crap so I had to find random places in my room and on my balcony to hang them. They were all dry this morning so yay for that!
Classes start today and I hope to get my computer back too! I miss my own computer! It's so much better than the ones that are downstairs at the seminar house or the ones that are in the CIE. It also has my music which I have been with out for a while... :( Everyone is so loud in the computer lab... It totally says quietly use the computer lab. Ok so it says it in Japanese but non-the-less you would kind of think that it would be a place where you know you should probably be quiet. It's semi like a library! I'm totally a little bored trying to wait for classes to start. My class starts at one and it's only 11:41! ><>

Japan is pretty shut down on SDundays.. It's almost like Utah... Justin and I wanted to buy a bike today but everything was closed! Everything on the Campus is closed except the sitting room in the CIE! All of the Japanese students are gone! Which right now there really aren't any because their classes don't start until two weeks after ours... Only the sports teams are really here. But we did find this cute Japanese girl that I thought was a student at the Kansai Gaidai. But instead she was a high schooler. she was cool though we talked to her for a good half an hour. After that we went to go and find some food at the cute little okonomiyaki place that I like but it was closed too!!!!!! I was so upset! So we actually had to walk over to a grocery store and buy prepared food. I also bought a few things for my fridge, including a big carton of Iceed Koohii!!! (coffee) I also bought kimchi which will probably be my breakfast... If you don't know what kimchi is it is this amazing korean dish. It's fermented spicy cabbage! I love it! The taste kind of lingers though so i would have to brush my teeth like 12 times to dilute it. But it totally tastes better than it sounds!
Classes start tomorrow... I'm a little nervous but I think I will be fine. Language classes start tuesday. I got into level 3 for reading/writing and for speaking, so I am right about where I should be. Wish me luck as this semester starts!!!!!!!!! <3

Apply

Back to the las blog when I said that I had to apply myself... I totally did! I walked up to a group of guys on campus and asked if they could take my friend Heather and I on a tour. They had tennis but we met the one guy that I talked for a little bit and he said that he could show me around tomorrow so we exchanged phone numbers talked a little bit through text message that night and decided to meet at 12 at Hirakata City (which is only like a 15 minute bus ride maybe). I had a stupid orientation thing the next morning at 10 but all of the computers were taken (it was for language lab) so my friend Justin and I had to come back at 11! I was so upset! So I had to tell him to meet me at one instead. Everything worked out just fine! We took the train to somewhere and then got off to take a different train to another place. When we got there we had takoyaki, or breaded octopus ball shaped things. I popped one in my mouth after just getting them like an idiot and was still surprised to find out how hot they were... I totally burned my mouth. But they were still delicious. After that he showed me around whatever city we were in. We even did a skywalk thing. We went to a building that was 40 stories high and looked out at Japan or kind of more down on it. I could see Osaka Castle, Osaka Dome, mountains, and the sea. It was really cool. He then showed me around some shops. before we started to head back we did Puri-kura, which is the photo booth thing. He had to be on campus around 4 because he had a tennis party thing. It was really fun having out with him even with the confusion. My Japanese is limited and his English is even more limited. But his phone had a dictionary on it (jealous!) so we managed conversation. We both like the color green, we both don't smoke, are blood types are both O, and not only does he like coffee he gets the same thing at Starbucks as me! Crazy right? I hope to hang out with Keisuke again he was really sweet and cute!
Afterwards I was supposed to meet up with Justin to go have some drinks. I waited at Hirakata City for a bit found some tirimasu mochi (amazing!) and went to starbucks to have a drink. Justin who tried to take the train back got completely lost! So I had to call Kae and tell her to text Justin and help him out. Mean while I just walked around one store lookinf at the cute little things went to another store and found a bathroom. The toilet was a porcelien hole in the ground... NOT COOL! And on top of the ditch potty myphone died! And Justin still wasn't there! But it was fine because I went to a Softbank which is the phone company that I have and said my phone died! The lady got me a charger and sat me in the corner and for the next 20 minutes or so I sat and charged my phone waiting for Justin. When he finally got there we were hungry and made our way to a Japanese fine burger and coffee place. How amazing does that sound? What more do you need than coffee and burgers? I got a chicken burger but no coffee (next time). That was the most delicious thing ever! It was so amazing! Anyone that comes to visit me I already know 2 restaurants that I'm going to take them to. MOS Burger and This cute little okonomiyaki place that is right next to my dorm. We walked around and didn't really find a drinking place so we went to the liquour store and I bought some canned grape cocktail that was good and then we watched the street performers and talked about things that we could get away with because we are foreigners and people are scared to talk to us. Justin calls that Gaijin (foreigner) Smash. I wouldn't doubt that we could get a way with a few things. but not too willing to try. But I did walk up to the street performers and asked if I could play their tamborine. They blushed and said yes so for one song I jammed a bit with them with my awesome tamborine skills! They were just a bunch of kids but they sang and played guitar and this semi drum thing really well.
Yesterday was totally awesome! And I can't wait for more fun times like it! I don't have my computer right now because I missed the pick up time yesterday but I have to computer lab downstairs. I won't be able to pick it up until tomorrow which is when afternoon classes start. I have 2... But my Tuesdays and Fridays are pretty open. On Tuesday I only have my writing/reading class and my language class and on Friday I only have my language class. And Friday I'm going to Kyoto with Kae and Youhei! Yay!!!!!!!

Fun Times in Japan!

Last night I went to another Karaoke place with a bunch of other international students and one of their speaking partners. It was SO much fun rocking out to both english and Japanese songs. There was about 13 of us that were in this one room. We all fit in a nice, cozy little way. We were there for about 2 hours. Afterwards 5 of us went to a bar for about 20 minutes. We had to make it back by 11 or the seminar house gates would have closed. Which I really hope they are open later when school starts because that would totally be a bummer. But it's cool because my friend Justin is renting a house so I'll just randomly make my way there and be "Hey buddy! Wanna hang out?" Either that I will find myself a nice bench. And no it does not occur to me that I could just be back before 11 everynight that would make too much sense for me. Today there is a tour to Kyoto but I am going to wait till next week to go. Kae and her friend Youhei are going to take me! I would rather go with people that speak Japanese than with people that just want to speak Japanese (kind of like me). I'm trying to apply myself and work hard...

So far Japan has been a very nice experience. The study abroad part is a little stressful with the forms and the orientation and the placement test and the registration and the paying of fees but other than that I am really enjoying myself. I am not bothered too much by the heat or the intense brick wall of humidity.
My Wednesday evening my friend Justin and I decided to look for a place to eat off campus (the cafeteria was closed...). We wanted a ramen shop so we asked the guards at the main gate where one was. We understood straight blah blah something blah blah ramen. So we nodded and smiled and said thank you and walked a bit came to another gate and asked the same thing. We pretty much just ended up walking around talking making fun of ourselves saying stupid foreigner and what not. We ended up making it to a okonomiyaki place. It was a small cute little restaurant that where you could get food and VEBERAGE!!! Janglish... Makes me giggle!
My Thursday afternoon we were a little more successful with directions. Justin need a new pair of sandals because the ones he bought for 300 yen were giving him blisters and I need to do my alien registration. So we too the bus to Hirakata Station and then walked to the City hall. Shiyakusho! A new word! (City hall) It is very helpful to just text Kae and ask her things. I love Kae! She's my hero! Anyways I wish I took a picture of the guy that helped me with my registration because he had the most AMAZING hair!!! It was like Elvis but way more UMPH! After that we went to STARBUCKS!!! I totally love the fact that I can order things in Japanese!!!! After the caffeine run we walked in to a department store looking for sandals . the first floor didn't have any so we asked where to find them. The lady said 6th floor. The 6th floor didn't have any so we asked where to find them. The lady said 1st floor... So we went to another store and asked a girl who actually walked out of the store and to the end of the street and pointed to it for us! Justin and I were amazed! No one in America would ever do that! But anyways we get to the shoe store they all nod and smile and say welcome and we're actually in there for a good 15 minutes talking to the people. I even tried on two pairs of adidas shoes which I bought. They're slip-ons so I was very happy. Then we got back on the bus and got off at Kansai Gaidai where I asked a cute guy in a business suit what the time was. It was 1:45!! Justin then bought a cell phone and I went back to my dorm. Other than that the only thing I did was sign up for classes. Soooooooo Yay for that!
Oh! I totally saw a bird the size of a cat today... I think it was a crow. Yeah and I saw a moth the size of a small bird! Crazy!

I have arrived!

So much has happened since I left! The plane ride was incredibly, horribly long and on both plane rides I might have slept a total of 45 minutes. And it didn't help that I barely slept the night before.
I spent more than 15 hours on plane!!! And I could not sleep AT ALL! Sitting up and sleeping doesn't work very well for me!
When I arrived in Japan Kae and her Dad were waiting to pick me up! I went to my first genuine sushi restaurant!!!!! And I even tried raw fish and squid! Amazing right!?! Well the fact that I tried it was amazing not so much the actual taste. the squid was so chewy that I couldn't just take a nibble... I had to put the ENTIRE thing in my mouth. I was so close to *walking the dog* that I had to spit it out. There was just no possible way that I was going to swallow it.
After that we went to a Hot Spring place. It felt so good after such a long trip. I was even at all shaken at the fact that you're naked with a bunch of other people around. I was in a female only area of course!!! Before you get into the water you have to wash yourself. So I did... The warm waters were so relaxing!!!! There were different types of hot spring pools. Some had seats where water jets are and gives you kind of a massage and some are just hot.
The next day we went to Namba! Kae and I rode the train to get there. There was even a STARBUCKS!!!!!! There were actually 3 but i only went to one. Namba is where I bought my cell phone! I pretty much just sat there while Kae talked. At this point I'm doing a lot more listening than talking. After that We met up with her dad and went to an international pub where I had my first legal alcoholic beverage. I mean first alcoholic beverage... 20 is the drinking age. Then we went to karaoke!!!!!!! I was a little shy at first but it was a lot of fun after I warmed up to it! Kae's Dad was hilarious. He sang a queen song, and the Japanese version of "living the viva loca"! I sang 2 Japanese songs, "A Whole New World" with Kae, "Under the Sea", "Before He Cheats", "Friends in Low Places", and a few other songs! after that we went to a sukiyaki place and ate and then went to another sushi place and ate! I was SO full! Then we went to another hot spring place! This place had an electric bath... I did not really enjoy that. I couldn't sit down all the way it was too weird! When we got Back to Kae's house she had a few friends over. I was a little shy at first because I know little Japanese and they know even less English. But it was fun and I enjoyed myself!
Monday night I met Kae's Mom and her Mom's parents. We had dinner at their house. The food was amazing! After dinner they had plums. I bit into it and thought it tasted weird but I kept eating it. I thought "Why does this taste so sharp?" Then I realized that they were plums that had been sitting in alcohol for 5 years... I could only eat one... It was ok but not the best. Kae and her Dad took care of me while I was there and I know I will be seeing a lot of them! Especially Kae! I'm so lucky I had them around! I only paid for my cell phone! Everything else Mr. Miki paid for.
Tuesday!!!! I have finally checked into my seminar house! For orientation week I have 2 roommates but one of them has home-stay so she will be leaving. I'm not sure but I think I have to change rooms as well. When I got here Kae and I met up with our friend Chisato (She also studied abroad at Towson) and then we met up with Justin (he was in my Japanese class at Towson). We ate in the cafeteria which has good food for a cheap price! Very exciting!!! Chisato then took us on a tour around Hirakata! It started to rain after a while but I didn’t care! It was my first rain in Japan and I was happy! We ended the night at an okonomiyaki restaurant where Chisato works. The new manager was our waiter and was absolutely, amazingly cute!!! I kept drinking my water or taking someone else’s cup that had less water than mine just so he would come back with more water! I went to the bathroom a lot while I was there... I even asked if he had a girlfriend! And he didn’t so I worked up the courage to give him my number!!!!!! Well with some pushing from Kae, Justin, and Chisato. I’m kind of scared if he does call because I’m not going to understand him right away...
I pretty much love it here and maybe the only culture shock that I have experienced is that everyone is so polite! You walk into the store and EVERYONE that works there greets you bows and smiles! Everything else is not too big of a difference. I have an open enough mind where most things don’t bother me! I mean I get to walk around barefoot! We all know how much I hate shoes!!!!