The post I don't want to write and never thought I would

Patrick dumped me.

If you don't know where I've been or why I've been sad, this is why. He said he struggled with his emotions for months, because over the summer and after I was in Japan he realized he didn't love me anymore. So he waited until I was in a phone booth outside a trainstation in Japan at 7am to tell me. For me it came out of nowhere.

I feel like the biggest piece of shit alive. I have no idea when or why this happened. I guess I'm just the kind of worthless person that you can propose to, promise to marry and then leave when they need you most. I've had tremendous support from everyone and I'm telling myself it's not true (that I'm worthless) and I can move on, but it hurts too much. I've gone through every type of emotion imaginable and in this post I wanted to be calm and unbiased and I'm sorry if this hurts a lot of people. I haven't wanted to write this because I know Mrs. Prugh might see it, and this has hurt her and my mother more than me in a lot of ways. I'm sad because I loved Pat's family and I'm doing my best to mend my ties with them so I don't loose everything over the past seven years. I'm also trying to be friends with Patrick, which is hard, but hopefully not impossible.

The same day this happened my mom told me she had to go back on Chemo. because they found things in her system they didn't know were cancer or not. I used this combined with my failed engagement to get Kansai Gaidai to allow me to return home and be able to come back in January. Right now I'm home, working and meeting with friends and trying to heal the best I can. When I got to the states I found out that my mom does have cancer, they caught it early enough so the cells haven't formed yet, so with the chemo she'll be fine. We're all hoping for the best.

Also going on, my grandmother has colon cancer and can no longer care for herself so I haven't seen my father because he is in Missouri helping move her to a place either a home or with my aunt where she'll be better taken care of.

I would like to thank everyone that has messaged, emailed, IMed, called, written, and knocked on my door. My family: Mom, Dad and James. Jer. Along with the Japanese crew: Erica, Drew, Nadia, Maria, Marika, Tracey, Kim, Alba, Alex, Matt, Limmer-san, Milka-san, Riho, Chinatsu, Yoko, Yuri and the staff of Kansai Gaidai. The Park Ratz: Tessa, Kirk, Shelly, O'Neil, Jared Gators: Elmer, Jay, Carrie, Hali, Mr. and Mrs. Prugh, Chris, Cavin, Jon, Danny, Renate There are tons more, I'm just too tired to figure out everyone. Know that I am so happy to have you all supporting me. I couldn't do this without you.

Hi, this has to be posted

Hey guys, most of you know already, but I'm facing some problems right now. I can't get into it here, this really isn't the place. I felt that I had to mention it because it will affect my posts in either tone or less frequent posting for quite a while.

I will try my best to catch up on the past few weeks and keep every one updated on what's going on. Today I skipped all my classes and so that you don't worry, I do have a good network here. They all skipped classes (Nadia and Erica skipped a field trip), drew me pictures, brought me food and we went to Hirakata Shi where I got the new Pheonix Wright game for DS, a big teddy bear and a bunch of cute things.

Also so far Danny's winning the plant contest. *hint hint* I'm going to go eat vegan tacos now, yes you read that correctly.

Friday and Saturday October 20 - 21, 2006

Sadly, I've been busy this week with a bunch of little stuff, so there's no one big thing like last week (Mid-terms) that I can point to and say "THAT's what's making me go crazy". This week I've had friends here have breakdowns, a pimple from hell (yes, you needed to know that because I can't deal with it anymore), I'm entering a photo contest with this photo, renewing my stay here (I have to fill out paper work for next semester, everyone has to do it), lunches with people, and to top it all off I slept wrong on my mats Tuesday night and I couldn't move my neck for all of yesterday. It sucked and I tried my hardest to massage it out an to play it off as a joke, but by the end of the day I was exhausted and going to check my mail box when I bumped into Maria and her new boyfriend-type person Victor. As we were talking about how tired I looked (and felt) she finally burst out laughing and said, "I felt bad for you all day, since you were walking like this (mimics me with my head slightly turned and not moving)" So much for poise and grace. :3 atleast today it feels a lot better so I have the ability to turn and face people when they talk to me without turning my whole body.

Anyway, the whole point of this was to talk about my weekend or atleast the first part of it. Friday I was so tired from exams that I didn't want to do a single thing. Maria found out she didn't do so well on an exam and went home early and so I had to tell Hilda we couldn't go out to our favorite bar for an end of exam hell week drink. She didn't mind she was equally as exhausted so it all worked out. I went home and went to sleep early because I wanted to get up super early to meet up with Kim at the train station to go a Kyoto flea market at Toji Temple. I had the sinking feeling Kim wouldn't be there at 8:30 and low and behold I was right. She doesn't have a cellphone and also does homestay so it's really hard to set up stuff with her, she promised she'd ask her host family if she could go with me, but as I found out later on Monday she got nervous with her hostmom getting upset about something on the phone and didn't ask. >__< damnit Kim, I knew she'd back out on me when she said on Friday, "yeah, umm if I'm not there at 9, you should go without me." Well, I went ahead at 9 and had a good time anyway. The Toji temple is still a functioning Buddhist temple behind Kyoto station (that HUGE one that Pat and I took pictures of Astro Boy at). I wandered around the complex and they were selling all sorts of things, antiques, crafts, food, plants, trees, furniture, the list goes on and on.

Needless to say my Mom would've died and gone to Asian yard sale heaven. It was awesome, sadly she's not going to be in Japan on the 21st because that's when they hold this market everymonth. Pat will be here so I told him we have to go since he'll be able to find a good sword for his collection. There were a million things I wanted to buy and I kept getting lost in all the little side streets of booths that were set up and due to the massive amount of people there. I saw a TON of gaijin (foreigners) so that kinda disrupted the mood, especially when they misread yen. I know I know, I'm the same way and all tourists in a foreign land can make mistakes, but this woman seemed like she'd stepped right out of Nina Hellmans and into this booth filled with expensive trees, "Oh my God, is that tree $3000? Is it really worth it? Oh, it's only $300, that's not too bad then." It's still a tree and I can't do her voice justice here, but rest assured if you've ever been to Nantucket you've heard it. When you hear it, it makes your skin crawl.

The things I did end up getting was some awesome food:

Chicken nuggets on a stick and some coffee thing I picked up at a conbini (okay convience stores here are not called Cumbies, 7-11, etc. they're tons of chains from the aforementioned 7-11 to Lawsons and so from here on out they're going to be called conbinis. It's what we call them and it's just easier to type. lol). I don't have a picture but I had a pancake sandwich with red bean paste in the middle ealier. Seriously, I've grown to LOVE red bean paste, it is filled with delicious and awesome. There were tons of other types of food for sale at the booths, I have pictures on flickr, but to high light a few, they had seaweed still in salty water for sale as well as all types of spices, meats, beans and finally pine tree branches with all the needles on them. Now, I don't know if this was meant to be eaten, but they were a hot item and at this point I wouldn't be surprised.

My booty (yar) I ended up with is as follows:

There's one thing here I didn't get that I really really wish I had, it was an actual board for playing Go. It had little feet and everything! Even if I don't really know how to play Go (it looks like Othello) I could've used it as a little side table. It would've looked awesome in my dreamhouse living room. The kicker? It was only $20 (2000 yen) ;____; I couldn't have gotten it to my host family's house let alone get it to the states. The pictures is here *SOB* It was juuuuust to big to carry easily. Gah, anyway the things I did get were pretty cool. First I'm sure you noticed the Tanuki, it's geisha tanuki. :3 I there was a little booth with
a dog sitting on the tailgate of this car and I wandered over to say "hi" because it was a chiwawa looking thing (I did not go over to make friends with a german shepard) and it was super friendly. He was hanging out right next to this table of stuff and I caught the sight of the girl tanuki out of the corner of my eye. I fell in LOVE with it. I noticed that she was also pretty cheap (about $10 or 1000 yen) and I was psyched, then I noticed there was another tanuki. She's pouring sake and there's a boy tanuki (also in kimono) holding out his glass. He was also $10 and now I was faced with a dielma: I only wanted to get one and they were seperate, but I should I split them up? Well I had a flashback to the movie Whispers of the Heart (or the Cat Returns I don't remember) either way, in the movie there's just the boy cat statue and it's very sad to be split up from the girl statue. So I figured what the hell, I'll tell Pat I got us two tanukis and he can't hold it against me for long. So, I got them both, but since they were wrapped so nice and I want them to make it home okay I only unwrapped the girl for the picture. I do have the sinking feeling that just looking at this my mom is going, "Oh my God that thing is ugly, what the HELL does she see in that thing?", maybe there's plenty of you doing that. I just have a feeling it's one of those things I like but Moms just don't get. Pat my think it's ugly too, but it's perfect and is going to become a Prugh/Nicholas family heirloom that will be passed down for generations and that everyone thinks weird and no one wants, but it's Great-Grandma Manda's favorite thing from Japan, they'll have to keep it around. :3 My furture grandchildren are so screwed.

I also picked up a plant for $1:

I know, if I can't have a pet I get a plant. I'm hopeless. Anyway, it's supposed to have flowers like foxgloves on it and I'm trying to keep it alive. It's still really warm here, but it getting colder at night so a lot of plants have been dying yet the leaves have a few more weeks (so I've heard) before they change color. So far I've done really crappy on the "taking good care" scale. I live on the third floor of my little Japanese house and to give it more light (the man I bought it from said direct light was best) I put it up on the railing of my balcony. Yeah, I also have to hang out my laundry and in doing so knocked it off the balcony and didn't notice until I was leaving later that day. ;____; I found it in pieces on Minami's bike and immediately tried to get it all back together before anyone noticed and it died. Later that night after my bath I snuck outside and was trying to find more dirt to repot it (it fell out of the pot no less) when my Otoosan came home. Picture
this, it's late (like 9pm) you're tired from work and you're just coming the gate when the gaijin comes out the front door holding some sort of little plant and is looking around in the dark for dirt. After the oblitgatory "What the HELL" look from Otoosan I quickly explained that I dropped my flower (I didn't know the word for plant) and I was trying to fix it (again, don't know the word for dirt or repot). I pointed to my room and showed him my plant and he smiled and was SUPER nice and gave me a little trowel and showed me where I could get some dirt from a windowbox they weren't using, then he wished me luck and went inside. This was an act of fate that he came home when he did, I was very close to giving up on finding dirt I could use from their plants and do a 5AM ninja mission to the neighbor's yard to get some soil. I know I should've asked Okaasan or Otoosan in the first place, but I didn't really know how and I didn't know if I was allowed to have a plant in my room/balcony. I don't really see why I wouldn't be able to and in the worst case they'd make me keep it in the garden with all the other plants. I thanked him later and he said "you're welcome" and smiled again, so I'm going to assume that they don't mind my little plant.

Now, what you guys can do for me is NAME my plant. It needs a name and you can either email me or leave comments with the name idea and I'll pick the one I like best. If I pick yours I'll give you something cool from Japan. I have a few things already and depending on who wins I can tailor it to them.

As for the rest of the pile-o-stuff: I got the geta (Japanese sandles) for $10 and I found out later that they could fit my feet, but the straps are too tight so I can't fit my feet in them. If you have smaller feet than me and want some sandals, let me know. I got the manga at the book-off (used book store chain I'm addicted to) near the train station. I try to hit any book-off I see because they're all over Japan and they have different things depending on what the people in that area have been turning in to the store. The most expensive book I've gotten is around $5 and most times (like the three you see here) are $1 a piece. The one on top is a series called, "Zombie Power", I haven't read past the first chapter, but with a name like "Zombie Power" how could I not. The thing with the pig and flowers on it is a little towel because 2007 is the year of the pig/boar so they're already gearing up for it. I haven't opened it and I might give it to Grandma since it's nice and she's in need of a present. Plus it has no Japanese on it - Bonus! The stamp is the kanji 恩 which means grace (on), my great grandmother's name was Grace and I like the way the kanji looks and I wanted to get a Japanese stamp to use on my books as "this is Manda's book" type mark and I found this in a box of stamps at total random. It was $3, so I had to. :) The final awesome thing I got has several pictures in flickr, it's a padlock. I don't know how old it is and I highly doubt it's a millions years old and belonged to the Empreror. That would be nice, but I bought it because I really liked it. It was in a booth with a bunch of other locks and the one I got wasn't even out when I stopped to look at them. The really neat one was one shaped like a fish that was $70. I guess what makes me like them so much is that instead of numbers they use kanji (Chinese characters) and when you match them up the lock opens. I took pictures of the ones that were out, since they were cool, but way too expensive for me to justify getting a giant fish shaped lock. As I was looking at one and trying to read the kanji the owner of the booth walked over and started talking to me. He asked if I was a student and could read kanji and I told him I could read a few. He then reached under the table and pulled out more locks and explained that he had a bunch more if I didn't see one that I liked. He continued to explain that he had other sizes that were different prices. He pulled out smaller ones and their prices ranged from $30 - $50, until he said, "but for you, $20 and $30". I was tempted to get the $30 one, but I knew most of the Kanji on the $20 one and it was cute. I couldn't read all of the handwriting so he helped me out and showed me that it did unlock and now I know the kanji that do it. Of course I bought it and thanked him very very much.

I took two or three steps outside of his booth when an older (60-70's) woman was off to my right in the middle of the street with all the people and she got my attention somehow. She was making something out of flowered paper and she started talking to me (I think that's way I stopped). She wasn't in a booth or anything, she just started to fold the paper and asked me if I knew about origami cranes. I didn't recongize the Japanese word for cranes, but after (tsuru) going with "bird" I confirmed that's what she was talking about. I whipped out a quick sentence about how in high school I knew how to make them but regrettably now I'd forgotten. She was very nice smiled and hand the crane to me. Just before she did she showed me how if you hold on to the front and pull on his tail his wings flap. I have never figured out how those cranes are made, still don't, but now I have one. I asked her how much it was because I honestly had no idea why she stopped me or made this, but I acted eternally grateful and impressed (I didn't act, I seriously felt that way) This whole thing is weird because I have no idea where she came from and why she stopped me of all the gaijin there. She may have heard me talking to the man with the locks, but I didn't see her there and it was very random. I also don't know where she went after I thanked her up and down for the crane. She went a few steps ahead of me and disappeared in the crowd. She's one of those people that you meet and swear are supernatural because there's something about them and then they're gone. Either way I still have the crane and it's going with the tanuki in the family heirloom box.

Did my day stop there? Hell no! I went back to my homestay and dropped of the booty (sorry I'm in a pirate mood and am going to abuse that word to no end) especially since I was carrying my plant in a bag and he was getting beat up and I didn't want the tanuki couple to break if I got bumped into something. My plans for that evening included meeting up with Riho at Makino Station so I could visit her apartment for dinner. He kept bouncing emails back and forth trying tofigure out when I should head over and what I should bring/do for dinner. Eventually I went to Makino around 6pm and I met Riho and her friend Chinatsu at the Life (supermarket, same chain as the one across from my house) right next to the station. At first this was SUPER awkward because I felt like Riho was doing this because she felt really bad that I was having trouble with my host family (Was, things are cool, but she helped me through the lonely part) and so she invited me over for dinner. Her friend was nice, but I had no idea how to act around them. When we got back to the apartment they started to make dinner and I wanted to help and it bugs the hell out of me to just sit and be a guest. They were super super nice, they gave me the "seat", which is a pillow with a back since we're all sitting on the floor and they gave me the nice cup/bowl and set up with a tv and Final Fantasy III to play while they worked on dinner. I of course didn't turn on the tv and half play FFIII and mostly kept up a conversation with them from the other room. Thankfully dinner wasn't very "makeable" because it was nabe. Basically you have a special hot plate with a big pot on it that you put in the middle of the table fill with flavored soy sauce (or water) and boil everything and anything you can find. Mostly it's gyoza (chinese dumpling things, kind of like egg rolls), cabbage, carrots, potatoes, mochi (rice paste, which is delcious), etc. It's like a soupy stew and you pick out what you want once it boils.



It was super good and after chatting with them a bit I started to have a really good time. They seemed happy too, to the point where Riho finally said, "Amanda I didn't know you talked this much!". She said it in a happy way, not a "omg shut up" way so all was good, I didn't seem like a American recluse anymore and I found out a lot about my host family from Riho. Apparently I'd been going about the whole talking thing all wrong. I was asking Otoosan about his day and telling Okaasan about my day. The way Riho put it, Okaasan is a more personal person and likes to talk about herself more than hearing about you, so I should ask her about HER day. Meanwhile Otoosan is much shyer and is sympathetic to other people so he doesn't want to talk about himself you have to tell him what YOU'RE doing. I got it backwards and although I didn't get bad results, I've been getting much better ones working the system the other way. I also discovered that Minami (host sister) did not graduate high school early. She stopped going when she was 16 and finally has gotten the certificate that allows her to take enterance exams for college, but she hasn't yet. I asked why and Riho explained that she had the same good group of friends in middle school, but they all went to different high schools and Minami didn't try to make new friends. As a result she was miserable and although she's pretty smart didn't want to go to school anymore. I asked how in the hell the parents put up with that and apparently Okaasan spoils her a bit or at least sympathizes to the point where it's okay. I can't blame Minami, I have no idea what would've happened to me if I didn't have Tessa and Kirk around in high school, I probaly would've been okay. Especially considering how bad middle school sucked, but either way, good info to keep under my hat. I also heard that Soji does have a girlfriend and that she's super protective of him. Then Chinatsu laughed and said something in Japanese, which they then explained meant... unattractive. Apparently she's the jealous type, but she really doesn't have any grounds to be pitching a fit. I have no idea what to think about this, but I guess it's good to know that if I ever see her to be super nice and not be nice to Soji in front of her.

Overall, after Chinatsu helping me through FFIII, much joking around and major smack downs in a Mario Kart DS three-way. They were super happy to have me over and I felt so much better about my host family and having friends here in Japan. :3 Happy Saturday. Sunday was also crazy.

(NOTE: okay I finished this on October 30, over a week since it happened. I promise I'll have a flood of things before this weekend. :3)

Ready for the weekend

I think I've already used that title, well whatever. I'm totally exhausted right now. The Japanese elementary school students kicked the gaijin crap out of us at dodgeball, dancing and just about everything else. I've never had so much fun! I'll explain in detail more later (yeah I know I'm about a week behind on the old "detail" thing) but it will probably go down as one of the funniest most endearing experiences of my life. I even applied to be the english club leader for next semester. :3 it would mean doing a class about once or twice a month that would be all in English and organizing this same trip next semester. Nothing that I haven't really done already, plus it will look awesome on any resume ever. Hopefully I can get it, or atleast get to visit this school again.

I'm at campus right now and going to be late for dinner because I wanted to upload the pictures now. Please be aware that most of these pictures will ONLY be up THIS WEEKEND. They are super strict about having children's faces on the internet here so I'll upload them now and then make them private on Monday because other students will be using my account to upload their photos and we'll be sharing the private address with the teachers. After a few weeks I'll change my password and all will be fine, but for a good while you won't see the pictures with children in them for a long time. Just be aware. Also if you do have a flickr account (howie ginne *cough cough*) you can see them regardless when they're made private. I really want that job so I'm going to try and do this as best I can.

I also uploaded the flea market pictures. I don't know why they didn't go with the first batch. I must have worked Flickr too hard. lol.



This is my favorite pic and since you can see everybody in it I'll have to take it down. ;___; So enjoy it while it lasts. Yes, I'm getting a shoulder rub from a bunch of fifth graders. Actually the one behind me is Yuka and her sister (twin sister, mind you) Honoka is in the red shirt sitting down. They were awesome.

Anyway, have fun you guys, whether you're in Syracuse right now (God I WANT to be there, but hey I'm leaving the dream here) or at home being awesome. Or in Florida watching a football game and chilling with Chunky Monkey.

All is full of love

This week has been good. Very Very good. I wish I could post something longer, but although I've been sitting here for hours I haven't put together anything. The flea market, festival, Riho's Dinner, Riho's Birthday and all other drama will have to wait.

<3 goes out to Hali, Nata, Mom, Dad, Pat, James, Granmda, Steinmetz and everyone else dealing with crappy stuff in the states and/or helping my sorry ass out.

Yes, I know the title of this post is from a Bjork song. I felt that crazy little icelandic singer was appropreate for such a random post. Regardless, my iPod and Camera are both working. :3

Mid-Term Hell

Yesterday didn't go so well, with the screwing up my oral exam and all. Today was okay, I hate to angst all over this blog, but I'm just wicked tired and this week can't be over soon enough. I was late to my arch class and I honestly had a panic attack as I got to the door. The lights were on in the room and the teacher had started, but I just couldn't open the door. I couldn't see a chair until I noticed one all theway in the front and I paniced and decided I couldn't go in the room and wouldn't. So I went the the bathroom and went down to the lounge to relax and ending up meeting some pretty cool people. I was working and over heard one of them say something about Extreme Blue and another thing that reminded me about Clone High (old Cartoon James and I love). Then I realized they WERE talking about clone high and I threw out a random quote and made some new friends from Oregon, Oklahoma and Colorado. Skippy.

I got home a little late and Okaasan was pretty cool about it. We chatted a bit at dinner since Soji was late and Otoosan hasn't been home for dinner in atleast two days (last night was no different). Then Okaasan decided to give me a lesson in how to sit at this little table thing, because apparently I suck at it. I always end up having my legs cross-wise because they go to sleep really fast if I just kneel on the floor for an hour. Pillows help, but my circulation sucks and therefore it doesn't work. I always have to keep both hands on the table (which is just weird, you aren't supposed to have your hands on the table unless you're eatting with them) and I had to be right up against the table. Honestly, when I had to get up to refill my drink I almost fell over because my legs were so tingley, but I look at this as ninja practice. I know it's nerdy, but it's the only way I'm going to get through this. Atleast I can sleep now on a nice soft bed. :3

Today's exam went well, I think. It was the writing portion to my everyday class and tomorrow I have the written exam for my reading and writing class. That includes a fuck ton of kanji, and yes that's an actual unit of measurement for kanji. Kanji's the chinese character stuff, okay nevermind I don't think I can explain it on this blog to mom and I know Hali and Renate get it. Heck, Hali's kanji is harder than all of ours since she doesn't get any other writing system to work with.

Now I'm working on being late for my law class. I'm kicking ass, but I didn't do the reading today so I'm going to suck. Man the bar this week is oh so low. Love you guys.

Today, Wednesday 18th

Sorry that last post was late, I used Skype on Monday to get in contact with everyone and cover the bases and thanks to mid-terms and just general chaos I haven't been able to get one on one time with Mr. Computer. One thing I did get today that was filled with awesome was a program for iTunes. It's called Mytunes Redux and you know how if you use iTunes on a network you can see other people's playlists and listen them, but not do anything else? Well this lets you take and download the songs onto your computer. For someone with no downloading abilities and a network filled with people from around the world, this is GREAT. Kim watched in mock horror at some of the things I downloaded and then approved of pretty much everything else. I have no idea what anyone would say if they looked at my collection of music as a whole, it's very very random.

Today's midterm was my oral exam for level three, which involved me going into my teacher's office and pretending I was visiting a family called the Yamashita's and being late. I figured she'd be doing the test, but I got in to find out it was the TA and my teacher was sitting at her desk behind this cubical thing with a little tape recorder proped up behind me. I did everything I was supposed to up until "Yamashita-san" asked "Blah blah blah go nin blah blah desu ka" Seriously, that's how it sounded and I froze up. I heard "go" (five) and "nin" counter for people and it was a question so I asked, "who?" and then she repeated it to the same effect. I was supposed to finish off by asking five questions so maybe this "nin" thing was wrong, so I launched right into my five questions and we ended. It was bugging the HECK out of me what the hell she was talking about and after talking to a few other students they explained what it was. She asked, go NEN, which means five YEARS, as in the sentence "Five years from now what do you want to do?", this has NOTHING to do with what we practiced and my response of "what music do you like?" probably was the most wrong answer ever. I officially suck in every sense.

So I sat with Maria, who equally fouled up her fourth level test, and I got in some computer time and we all got lunch with Victor (Maria's new bo), Patrick (Kim's ex-bo, yes, AKWARD), Nadia, Kim, and Maria. It was nice, I've been pounding down the green teas today on top of an espresso this morning and an apple tea. I should be twitching by my Arch. class and be up late enough tonight to get ready for the written mid-term tomorrow. I swear the conbini on campus will be the death of me. They have excellent drinks of all kinds in cute bottles and little snack cakes that either have monkies or strawberries on them.

I'll be around next week sometime. Good luck to Nata and her presentation that she just found out about and the 130 pages of reading. Good luck to all your other folks too.

Sunday, 10/15/06

This weekend was again, the fun high impact action filled roller coaster thrill ride it always is. Actually before you get your hopes up that was sarcasim. I only even saw my friends once and then spent most of the weekend eatting, doing work, or hanging out up in my room. Friday I was totally bummed and a freaking witch to top it off. Class got out for most of us at 5:20, which is way to late for a Friday, especially when I fell asleep in class. It was architecture and I didn't fart or snore or anything horrible, I just nodded off and woke up with a jolt seconds later when my pen hit my paper and I drew a huge freaking line across my notes. I looked stupid, but the lights were off and everyone else naps or reads anyway so I guess it wasn't bad. Regardless after that adernaline rush of excitement, I wandered outside to wait for Maria since we'd planned to go back to the bar this week to, but promised we'd only drink two beers. Pinkie swear and everything. We weren't feeling up for it earlier so the other plan was that I was going back to the seminar house and going to fix her new iPod (her music that she ripped from her CDs in Spain via Windows Media Player wouldn't let her import them into iTunes because it was "protected", I did it with my iPod so I was going to see what was up). Actually one thing I didn't even think of was the language issue, I have no idea how I would do it if it was in Catalian (she doesn't even use Spanish, it's ANOTHER rare Romance language). Anyway, she saw me and said she had to talk to someone, stood me up and then I got messages from her later saying that she'd gone on a date with this boy from Mexico. Can't blame her, I just wish I'd known so I could've made new plans. Instead I got thrown into a group with Drew, Nadia, Doug and Charlene (girl from UF that I don't know) who were going to do Karaoke in Hirakata-shi. This involved Drew and Doug taking a bus while Charlene, Nadia and I biked to the otherside of campus to Charlene's homestay so she could ask if she could go (because she doesn't have a cellphone, which is dumb. I live by the darn thing, it makes everyone so less stressed, your host folks know where you are and you can tell them what's up and not feel like a bastard, sorry I'm ranting.) Then we had to bike to Hirakata Station, so lots of biking, I hadn't eatten all day and I was just flat out grumpy. By the time we got there I was just about a crabby as you can get. I snapped at Drew and finally had to realize how much of a pain I was being and apologized. Then we went to the Conbini (convience store) and got some food. All was right with the world. Then we did karaoke and things went horribly, horribly wrong.

Like I mentioned it was a bunch of girls and one guy and sadly we made him suffer since most of the songs we thought everyone would know where very very girly. Yes, there was Cher's "Believe", with Lion King's "Hanuna Matada", something from the Little Mermaid, "Girl's just want to have fun", and many others. Poor Doug. We did help him through a Metallica and a System of a Down song, so it's cool. It was a lot of fun, I'm glad I got the stick out of my rear end early and had fun.

Saturday I planned to hang out at the hostfamily house. I had to leave once to get my bike at Hirakata (I took the train back on Friday night to save some time). Aside from that, nothing. Sunday I was supposed to visit Riho's family, but she emailed me Saturday afternoon on my phone to let me know we couldn't go because she had a job interview on Sunday and didn't find out until JUST then. That made me sad, but she emailed me later to see if I wanted to have dinner at her apartment this weekend, I haven't gotten back to her, but yeah I'll go.

Right now I'm in an Udon coma. I didn't know these existed but that udon (Japanese noodles) is hitting me like a ton of bricks even though I finished eatting them two hours ago. My hostfamily took me out to anUdon place and at first I didn't know how to order and I wussed out and ended up just going with Kitsune Udon, it's good and I know I'll eat it. I wasn't all that hungry and the picture looked small so I figured I was good. Then my host mom lets me know I should come here with my friends because when you just get udon (like I did) they automattically make it a double for the same price. ;____; here's the food as it showed up:



Seriously, that's large enough to KILL a man. Of course due to my relationship and lack of being able to communicate with my host family I ate the whole thing because, that's just what you do when people you don't know so well buy you things. Regardless of how much it hurts you eat the tofu and LIKE it. Hence, why I'm passed out on my floor typing this and unable to move. I don't even want to think about dinner. Oh God, that's only a few hours away. Whimper.

Trust me, nothing exciting

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, nothing super great has been happening, so no super surprises. I have mid-terms in both my Japanese classes next week and I've had a test in every subject in the past two weeks except for Architecture, which had me do a five page paper on Todaiji. Fun.

Last weekend was a hoot and a half Friday Maria, Hilda and I decided the week sucked so hard we were going to a bar across from campus right after classes got out at 6:30. We didn't leave until 11, needless to say it was fun, but we most certainly are not going to do that again anytime soon. I mean, we're going again today, but probably only for an hour and that's after I fix her new ipod. I won't talk more about the bar adventures because the two people who read this daily are my mom and Hali. My mom hates hearing about me being drunk and Hali knows first hand how I get when I'm drunk, so no new ground to cover there. I was safe and fine and my host mom (who had to let me in because she locked the door using the chain and forgot) thought it was hysterical. She gave me crap for the rest of the weekend.

See that's another thing that's made me feel down this past week. My hostfamily is Japanese and they're... just... different. I'm at the stage where I'm not a guest, but I'm not family and even though they've had 16 host kids they aren't really sensitive to how it feels to be a student in a house where they don't talk to you. I started getting embarassed about my Japanese recently and didn't say a word aside from "Now?" "Good Night" "I'm home" and "yes" and things got worse on Sunday when Riho (girlfirend of a prior host student) visited and everyone was happy and I was lost. I then got frusterated as hell (if you can do that) that I hadn't progressed and I was such a screw up at all of this. Even in America I constantly think people are mad at me and so when I don't speak the language I just KNOW they're mad at me, even though they're not.

So I decided I'd just email Riho on my phone and ask her what the heck was wrong with me. I apologized for being embarassed and quiet at dinner (they mentioned that I got drunk on Friday and I got embarassed, but they thought it was funny, so I didn't talk much) and explained why. She emailed me back right away and we talked for a good hour or so via email on the cellphones. It was an amazing help, I email her about once a day to let her know how things are going and thank her up and down for just listening to me. I try to talk more about random stuff and last night I had a bit of a break through when my host parents started talking to me about my pets at home and I asked them about pets they had as children. Sucess on many levels, plus I feel less lonely at home.

That was Friday and Sunday, on Saturday I got up and went over to campus to get my bike and visited the seminar house for a few hours. I walked in the door and I found all the roommates in the bathroom and half of Nadia's hair on the counter. Apparently she wanted to donate her lovely long hair to cancer patients and had Erica cut her hair for her in the bathroom. Erica did an awesome job and it was cool to see Nadia's transformation. This week turned out to be the week of hair cuts with Kim deciding to cut her own hair and Maria cutting Matt's hair because he wanted to shave his head and we just couldn' t deal with that. No, I haven't had anyone cut my hair, I'm fine. The reason why we have to cut our own hair is not that there aren't any hair salons here, quite the opposite. The thing is everything, EVERYTHING, is made for a specific body type, because everyone here is Japanese. They all have Japanese skin tones, hair, etc. That's not racist it's true, because at home we don't seem to realize it but we made products for all sorts of hair color, types, skin tone, skin sensitivity you name it. Here their market is a single type, so you wouldn't bother making shampoo for blonde hair if no one has it. Therefore, Nadia, being from America (who is Chinese) has never had such shiny hair and clear skin because they have a wider variety of products for her body type than in the states. The rest of us just suffer and we also can't go to normal hair salons because our hair styles differently. A lot of the types of layering I see in girls hair around campus just wouldn't work with my hair. We have heard of a few gaijin salons in Osaka and are waiting to see how they are. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, Saturday was great because we hit the store and I picked up some supplies for making PB and J. I miss it, it's easy and delcious. Now, what I didn't realize is that not everyone loves PB and J, I sat down back at the dorms and whipped open the jars and starting making a sandwich while Erica drooled over her own jar of peanut butter. Suddenly Maria walks by behind me and comes to a screeching halt, "WHAT are you doing?!" We (Nadia, Drew, Erica, Me) just turn and go, "Making Peanut Butter and Jelly?" Maria goes on for a good five minutes about how that's just wrong, gross and you should only put one on a sandwich or toast, and finishes by saying, "I always see that in the movies and thought it was a lie." This has had me amused all week long. We all keep asking Maria if she wants some PB and J and the face she makes is just priceless. We asked Tracy (from England) if she hated it and she said she'd heard of it, but never tried it and didn't see how it was that good. We also asked a few Japanese people and they seem to think it's okay, but don't swear by it. Meanwhile, I can distinctly remember my Nana saying when I was four or five that I could live off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday for the rest of my life. Erica says she still lives off of it and what makes our dependence depressing is that here in Japan Peanut Butter (NOT Peanut Cream, that's like a sweet crappy subsitute) is $5 for a little jar. ;____; Also, no Fluff, so I know exactly what Pat's bringing me this December.

I could write a whole other post about neat things I've learned about childhoods from the international students here. There's a few that I've mentioned, first is that kids love playing in the dirt. I saw this at the Okinawan Festival and Maria noticed it too and we both thought it was kind of neat. She was in Spain, I was on Nantucket, Erica in RI, Drew in OH and here there are kids in Japan who couldn't be happier making giant dirt castles. The other thing I wanted to mention I learned last Friday from Hilda and Maria. Hilda is a girl from Munich, Germany and is very very sweet. I don't know how we got to talking about it, but Maria said that when she was little and they were visiting their family cottage in the Pyraneese Mountains, she and her cousins begged their parents to let them go camping over the big mountain. Finally their folks gave in and said they could "camp" next to the pool for a night and they did. They were in their own beds by 11pm. Meanwhile Hilda said she and her brother also begged their folks to let them sleep outside in the backyard for a night and when they did they also ran back inside. I did the same thing, before I was in girl scouts I wanted to go camping in my backyard and I got my parents to let me sleep in my pop out tent on the otherside of the fence (we must have just moved to the Old South Road House) and I got so scared by the shadows on the wall that I was back inside within an hour.

Sorry that was random, back to the important stuff. Monday was a day off so I went to Osaka by myself because I couldn't convince anyone else to go with me. I wandered around Umeda looking for the huge electronics store (the one that makes Best Buy look like a 7-11), but I couldn't find it. I don't know if it's by Osaka or Shin-Osaka Station and I'm just dumb. Anyway, I wandered down to Namba and I found a bunch of stores there and hooked myself up with a headset and webcam for a total of $30. Sweet deal. So Tuesday I went into school early and called up my parents and Pat on Skype. The next day I called up Tessa and today I called Olivia (not home), Renate, Elmer, Parents and Pat (not home). I also learned from Renate that my blog isn't allowing comments so as I was talking to her I fixed that. Comment away! If you can't tell me and I'll fiddle with it some more. I'm sorry I haven't called everyone yet, I have a small window from 9am to 11am my time where I can get in calls before class. After 1pm it's 12am where you guys are and I can't call most people. The other time I'm free is from 5 to 6pm and it's 4 to 5am and I'm pretty sure that doesn't work for you either.

This has also been the week of bad news, because no one will tell me bad news on AIM or through email. So the moment I call people all the bad shit gets passed along, which probably added to my bummer of a week. First family stuff, my Grandma has colon cancer and will most likely recover, but this has caused everyone to realize that she can't live on her own anymore and will move in with my Aunt Linda down in Arkansas. Not my Nantucket Aunt Linda, my actually Aunt Linda, she's a set of twins with the one that's a missionary in the Phillipeans. A friend of the Prugh's had a bad car accident and is recovering, but it was quite severe. My cat's not dead, but my dog's (Jemma) got a new lump and she can't move as easily ontop of slipping and falling alot. She's going to go to the vet and I'm sure she'll be fine until I get back, but it's said to see the little puppy wheels start to fall off. Tessa's dog Jackson, aka Jack-Jack, General of Fort Jackson, and just an awesome dog was put down two weeks ago and I just found out. He was old and part of the same generation as Aoife's dog Sadie (who died last summer) and Taylor's dog Moses (who died earlier this summer), so it's not a huge surprise, it's just sad to lose a good puppy friend. I can't imagine going to Tessa's and not having him woof his ass off at me. I actually can't think about that because I'll probably cry, nevermind. More bad news? Yep, in my more recent phone calls I found out a friend's grandfather died. I never met him, but it's just sad to hear most of your friends sad on the phone even for a few seconds.

I hate to end on a depressing note, so I won't. I talked to James and he's kicking but in Football and they won their game today (yesterday for me? God I don't know how to say that) . Also the Gators are #2 in the Nation in football. GO WHALERS GO GATORS and there's two more baseball games left here so HANSHIN TAIGAAS GAMBATTE~! (Hanshin Tigers are the team here, in case you couldn't read my awesome Japanese) The plan is simple for the weekend, hanging out with the crew tonight, home early (like real early), Saturday study and chill, then Sunday going to Riho's family's house in Nara. :3 I can't wait! I hope things are better for all you folks! I promise more frequent posts Hali and Mom! <3

Ready for the weekend

I really do have a nice host family. Honestly a lot of things I want to rave about were supposed to be in different posts covering sleep, bath, food, tv, etc. Screw it. You'll get a mix and love every second of it.

Most importantly I eat like a GOD here. Everything I eat is delicious and unlike anything I've ever had, I can't describe it, I try not to eat too much in the day because I know there will be something yummy waiting for me at home. It might look strange and I will probably eat it wrong, but hell it'll be good. I know my Mom will know what I'm getting at, but does anyone else remember in the movie verision of To Kill a Mockingbird when they invite the poorer farmer kid over for dinner? Then he asks for syrup and puts it all over his potatos while everyone at the table looks on in horror until Scout finally jumps up and calls him on it. Yeah, I've had that moment several times over here at dinner and it's been hilarious. I think they give me weird things that are hard to eat just to see what I'll do and I'm glad I don't dissappoint. The first time I did it was with white rice. We have white rice at everymeal and it's getting to the point where I need it at everymeal, I've just gotten that used to it being there. Well, in the States we put soy sauce on white rice, it makes sense, plain rice is dumb and soy sauce is already there... so I go ahead and try to do this here. Yeah. Big no no. Not to the point where I get banished from the table, but everyone did laugh at me and was seriously confused that we did that at home.

Here what you do is put kelp or seaweed on it, which is cool. It's like the didn't have the spices we used so someone went out in a boat reached over the side pulled something up and said, "Yeah you dry this sucker out, this'll be delcious." Every bit of seaweed takes different, good though I can't explain or compare it to anything we eat at home.

I'm running on a a tight schedule today and with the three day weekend I probably won't post until Tuesday. So hang tight and I'll be back!

As for today...

That post I just did was from last night. This morning is when I got the email from mom, so they're a hole in my time-space continum. That sucks. Anyway, today wasn't too bad, I did well on the vocab quiz and I understand what I need to know for the Law Exam tomorrow and I understand it, but I need to meditate on it so I can answer his crazy short questions in 15 words or less talking about the judicary and their lack of independence in the Japanese system regardless of the fact that we drafted the constitution and our Judicary is pretty bitching. Lots of reading and pondering ahead of me for tonight.

Right now I'm trying to unwind and catch up with a few things. I'm kinda peeved that no one has come up with good ideas for this weekend and they can roll that way because they live in dorms, but Kim and I have to plan in advance. So I'll ask my host mom what's up for the weekend and squeeze dorm people in around it. I also want to kill Kim, I love her and she doesn't have the address for this, but she finds me in that new lounge and sits there and TALKS at me for hours. I can't get anything done, I try to be polite and I even shut off the computer and went with her to get lunch for a good long while. Then she followed me again and asked to use google earth on my computer whilst I was trying to find those gates in Nara on it. Then moments after she left for class, Nadia, Drew and Erica swung by, knocking on the window and giving me thumbs down for not eatting with them. Normally I would, but I just got back to doing stuff. Someone please tell me what I have to say to Kim that makes her realize I don't want to talk to her for 3 plus hours a day when I have my computer. I don't want her looking over my shoulder, reading emails and talking to me or asking me why I'm doing things. Also don't correct my spelling. I can't spell, everyone knows, deal.

Seriously though, my week has been good. Nothing really to complain about, especially since they posted episode 11 of Venture Bros. I'm just going to have to ration it out for a week so I don't watch them all at once. What sucks is I got an email from Pat today (that wasn't the suck part), he had no idea I was using iTunes. Therefore I can accurate conclude he doesn't read this thing. Thanks honey, I love you anyway. (He's totally going to become Panda gumdrop snuggle kitten purrr from now on)

I have an address if you want to send me things. IM me or email and I'll send it over to you. I'd post it here, but that's kinda weird since this is a public blog. Anyway, later!

The Status Quo

Again my life becomes a baren waste land filled with frusteration and suck. My new camera, which I love to all ends is broken. I think I can fix it, but not without first sending an email to my folks in which I just beat the hell out of myself and felt like crap. Thankfully my mom replied this morning so they're not in the process of disowning me. I emailed a special task force of Sony based in Japan that's solely English. So I'll wait and see what they say. My fingers are crossed.

Also, did they not have an episode of Venture Bros on Sunday night? Because there isn't one on iTunes and I'm watching the last one I have now. It's only great because apparently Dr. Venture went to Japan and pissed off a demon that Dr. Orpheus has to remove. Classic. On the upside there is wifi at the coffee shop on campus, they lied and Barnes and Josh were right. Sadly I haven't gotten bit comet or bittorrent to work with that connection either, so I'm back to square one. Thankfully some one out there is getting me something to watch, in the meantime I'll raid Drew, Nadia, and Erica's stashes while I get through the episodes of Desperate Housewives Season 2 I have. Yes, I said that, and no, I'm not proud of it.

Today's big mission was to get through a test and a review, accomplished on both ends, but I still have a quiz tomorrow, exam thursday and five page paper due next wednesday. What sucks even more is I have this three day weekend coming up and NOTHING to do. We really wanted to go to Tokyo or SOMEWHERE, but Japan doesn't believe in cheap hotels and the hostels are full, or don't take internet reservations which means bugging Marika to call and translate for us. The other problem is I don't know who'd want to go so anywhere from just me to 6 other people would want to go. Meanwhile, my hostfamily waits or atleast I haven't told them anything and they haven't asked yet either. I wish I had a better plan, I hate being a pain in the ass.

Okay I have like five new favorite Venture Bros. moments after this episode (10: I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills). I think Brock listening to Led Zeplin and H.e.l.p.e.r. giving him crap is excellent.

Mornin'

Today's Monday and I wish I had more to show for the weekend, but I'm sure it's more than enough to write about. Sit tight, because here's Saturday. Oh, what happened to Friday? The excitement with Kim and Maria? Yeah we were all beat from the weekend so I went over to the seminar house until like 9:30 where I fixed (or tried to fix) Drew and Erica's computers and found out when giving Drew some Pirates of Penzance that A LOT of people have anime stocked up on their computers. So I'm sitting on the complete series of Emma at the moment and will probably finish Samurai Champloo and Midori no Hibi if Drew helps a sister out. Regardless, Saturday started early because it was an architecture field trip to Nara and we were meeting in Tammabashi (near Kyoto) at 8ish. Once we got going I had to figure out what to do with myself, I didn't know anyone in the class, so I tried to be social and eventually hung out with a set of twins and a few other folks who I forget their names (nice). The twins were cool, I'd met Rachel before, but not Danielle and trying to tell them apart was a problem because they had the same glasses and the same t-shirt on (they didn't realize this until later, but thankfully one was a different color only the same design).

Our professor was definately an architecture professor he loved the buildings WAY too much, he brought heavy camera equipment and didn't care that we were all dying from the sun and couldn't keep up with him. I don' know if Mr. Prugh is as energetic as this guy, but they diffenatly have the same passion for buildings. I was funny to watch. It was also funny to watch the deer and how they'd just wander through our little circle while the professor was giving lectures, it was so crazy to have happen. Who gets to pet a deer in class? Did that just break the awesome scale?

Anyway, I edited out a bunch of the pictures I took of the buildings for my paper, just because they're mind numbing enough for me and no one (except Mr. P) would be interested in the details of gates or of the way the windows sit in the temple. There are still about 100 pictures I uploaded to flickr. I don't know if you can actually hear flickr cry or not, but I'm pretty sure it is. It hates big uploads. Hrm. The city of Nara was one of the first capitals of Japan and was modeled after the cities of the Tang Dynasty in China. The entire city was laid out on a grid with the palace at the north and the poorer people going in order down until the southern side. There were supposed to be two huge temples guarding (spiritually) the west and east sides. The eastern temple was built first and called 東大寺 (Todaiji) or Eastern Big Temple. It was there that they put together a huge temple complex in the 700's AD that had two gates (with walls) leading up to a HUGE wooden structure with 100 meter tall pagodas on either side. The main attraction of all of this was what was inside the huge wooden building, a huge bronze image of Buddah. They did this because the Empreor (or the Prince, I can't remember) started to follow a sect of Buddism that believes that building images of Buddah are good works, not only that but once they are completed the Buddah itself comes alive.

The idea here was the bigger the better so they built one out of bronze, which meant building an original model out of clay, then casting it piece by piece from the bottom in bronze, then putting a layer of dirt over the part you just cast, moving the forges up a level and then casting this level, until you reached the very top when you could then start to unbury the statue and try to fix the parts that didn't cast correctly. When they were first doing this in China they would mess up and have to start ALL OVER again. Luckily Japan brought over some Chinese techinicans and they supposedly got it right the first time. What's funny is that once the image is done, you then build the building around it. Now, since 700 AD a lot has happened, typhoons, wars, fires, etc. so the image we see today is a hodge podge, the bottom is original, the mid-section is from the Kamakura Period (1192 - 1333), and the top is from the reconstruction in the 1700's. The building is mostly from the 1700's I think and the same goes for one of the gates, while the first is from the 1200's. Regardless, old and very very cool even if you're not a history nerd. This Buddah is HUGE, even the pictures can't put it into scale:



After the Todaiji, we didn't continue to the 西大寺 (Western Big Temple), because it was way too far away and actually quite small due to the fact that they ran out of money with the Eastern Temple. Opps. The being to far away part is true too, since the original city was abandoned for Kyoto in 1100 or so it wasn't so much a city anymore. The "city" part today is mostly just the western section with the temple, which is something I never realized until the trip. On the train we passed some weird looking "temple" structures the middle of a field and our professor was telling us that thanks to archeologists (:3) they know where the palace used to be and are now reconstructing it. It looks like the middle of no where, which gives a great impression as to how the landscapes changed in 1300 plus years. Okay, history nerd will shut up now. Where we did go next was to stop and have some lunch, which was bento (boxed lunch) we'd picked up at a store near the station. Mine cost me about $6.00 all together and included: some mochi on a stick (rice paste that's sweet and come in Pink, White and Green), a bento of rice, a little samon, potato salad, breaded chicken patty (Katsu) and some veggies, then I got some muffins and a tea, but I didn't eat the muffins at that point. Everything was great, I couldn't actually finish the bento box or all the mochi so I shared with my new people I was with.

The trip countinued up the mountain near Todaiji and we went to the Sangatsudo and the Nigatsudo the third month building and the second month building respectively. The Sangatsudo is actually from the 700s and was attached to another building in the 1200's for more space. Inside it has a bunch of images of Buddah, guardians of the four directions, Kanton, etc. It's amazing how preserved the building and the objects are. It was really low light and we weren't allowed to take pictures (hence why I have none), but it was really neat to see. We ended at the Nigatsudo which is up on a hill and has a "rare Buddah" inside of it. Our Professor's thoughts on why it's a "rare" or "mystery" Buddha is that it looks like it was in a fire and probably was and then brought to this building. They also have a ritual once a year where they wash the buddah with water from a nearby spring and then have the LONG torches they set on fire over the mountainside and do something with the ashes. It sounds wicked awesome. Well once we broke up I didn't quite know what to do with myself so I wandered around Nigatsudo and bumped into a girl from my class named Genevieve who was also alone and just wandering around. So we teamed up and did a little more site seeing around Todaiji and did a LOT of deer feeding as well as some shopping. We chatted a lot on the train and she was pretty cool. She's an Anthropology major from Novia Scotia and she's doing her thesis on toilets, which is pretty damn cool.

That was Saturday, yesterday (Sunday) I slept in and got up and after cleaning a bit I had ramen for lunch with the family. I went back to cleaning and then while looking at my calendar I had a horrible realization: it was my Okaasan's birthday. And to beat that I'm retarded and didn't get her a thing. So, I did like any normal totally screwed person would do, I bolted out the door with a quick, "I'm going to Hirakata, be back at 6!" and was gone. I texted Minami (host sister) to see what I could get, but she didn't have a clue and said that anything I got would be fine. I decided a Minnie Mouse towel with a cute card and some nice hand lotion worked. Now, Minnie Mouse might seem random, but there's a ton of Minnie and Mickey stuff around the house and I'm about 99.99% sure it's Okaasan's since there's a wedding minnie and mickey in the hallway and she and Otoosan are the only two that are married and well, I hope it's not Otoosan's. I got back and even picked up some stuff I needed so it was good cover. I hung out in my room writing out the card until Soji got me for dinner.

When I went downstairs with my present I noticed two things, 1) No one else had presents 2) Riho was there. Riho's the girlfriend of their last homestay student and she's really good buddies with Minami so she comes over a lot to see the family and she helps me out because her English is awesome. As for the no one else had presents thing, I just set mine down and waited until I could ask Riho what I should do. Riho's advice was simple, just give it to her whenever, but let her know (Riho that is) when I do. I did in about five minutes after I talked to her and then I realized why Riho wanted to know when, she wanted to be there because my Okaasan cries when you give her presents. Here she teared up and was very very happy at what I got her and said that I didn't have to do anything. She also remarked that she felt bad that I went out in the rain that day to get them (I guess she figured out why I went to Hirakata). I'm very glad I got her something and I'm glad she liked it so much. I even wrote on the card: "お手伝ってくださってありがとうございました！” Thank you so very much for helping me! I know she read it and smiled so I'm trying to be as nice as I can in real life even though on the blog I'm frusterated.

We got huge amounts of sushi and it was SO very yummy and that night there was another big event! As if my magic I got a new futon! It's fluffy and I love it to little futon pieces! Okaasan talked to me about futons for 5 minutes and all I could do was stare blankly, I couldn't understand what she was getting at. So, she followed me up to my room and repeated it, so I asked some questions and I think it's VERY uncommon to have three mats and that if I don't need one to bring it downstairs. I mentioned that I slept on the comforter and she asked me not to do that since it's bad for the feathers. Noted. I didn't use it last night and it was HEAVENLY. I don't think I need the bottom mat, it makes the floor hard. Seriously the carpet has more give to it than it. So two fluffies and now I can use the comforter for when it gets cold like last night! It was cold last night, but I was too lazy to get up and get the comforter, but hey at least I can now!

I am a happy Panda. I got TWO emails from Pat, a comment from Hali and I chatted a bit with Jon. Soon I'll get a headset! Tomorrow I have lunch with Yoko (from UF) and I'll ask her futon related questions then. Erica, Drew and Nadia just knocked on my window. It's almost 3pm, I need to eat something, I've been here since 11AM. Crap.

P.S. Anyone (Like Elmer, James, etc.) who wants to send me stuff and has any of the following I will make sweet sweet Japanesey presenty love to you: LOST (season 1), Bleach, Eureka 7 and anything else you have. Hali and Cavin and hooking me up with One Piece so they're off the hook on getting me stuff. *hugs!! to them and Nata!*

Hey I'm alive

Nothing important to report. Apparently I overloaded everyone with the last post. I've got an hour before my architecture class and then I'm probably going to go out tonight with Kim and Maria. I have to get back early because I have to get up at the crack of dawn (like 6) to go on a fieldtrip with the architecture class to Nara. That should be awesome and I get to play with some super cute deer. :3

The Zoo and the Saga of the Butt Pillow

Now, that I have your attention, let me tell you about the Osaka Zoo. This was an adventure planned through Nadia for Sunday. My host family wanted to take me to Kyoto, but I'd already promised Nadia I'd go with them to the zoo, so I had to skip out on the fun with the host family (not a huge loss, I was quite relieved actually) . But in order to skip out I had to tell my host family EXACTLY when I was leaving, so I mailed Nadia via cellphone during dinner and got the reply, "around 10ish". So I got up and out of the house to meet them in Hirakata by 10 and instead got there around 9:45, making me early, which I know is stupid with a group of people that's always late. So I hung around, waited, got some breakfast, mailed Nadia and waited. Eventually I got a few replies just as I was about to give up and go to Osaka on my own and I finished up my breakfast while I coutinued to wait. Breakfast was actually kinda cool, I had a coffee from a can called, "Depresso" and some bread that was like cheese cake/pound cake that had a picture of Hokkaido (northern most island of Japan) on it. It was all quite yummy, so atleast I had that going for me. Eventually they showed up around 11. Yeah, I waited over an hour for these guys, but atleast they were super nice and apologetic. Another thing that threw me off that morning was the people that showed up where not the people I was expecting. Nadia and Drew were there, but everyone else were people I didn't really know. The total crew was: Nadia, Drew, Me, Charlene (girl from UF, but I dont know her that well), Craig (from photo shoot out), Lettica and Doug. Then there were three Japanese students: Sho (aka Nice Guy), Aki (guy) and a girl who's name I never heard and I felt bad I didn't really talk to her. There were 10 of us, so right off the bat we all got a number and would randomly count off in Japanese to make sure we were all together.

The Zoo was on the other side of Osaka so we had to take a train to Kyobashi and get off to take the JR line over to the zoo. Once we got off the train we bought tickets for the zoo, got maps and then had to walk a good half mile around this park that had huge glass walls around it. Prompting Craig to say, "If you look to your left you can see the Japanese in their natural habitat." which was funny to everyone including the Japanese folks. When we did get there we all went off to the left and spent a good four hours there looking at everything, posing and just having fun. I found out Drew LOVES zoos, just as much as she does Family Guy, The Pirates of Penzance and Rocky Horror, so aside from singing randoms songs and Family Guy quotes we had a great time looking at the animals. I tried to restrain myself on the picture front, so Flickr has most of the animal pictures I got, plus a few classics:



We wrapped up the zoo and everyone wanted to head home, but mid-way to the train station Nadia saw an arcade with a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) machine and had to stop. We had a good time playing DDR, I challenged Lettica to some Taiko drummer, which was great, and we tried some UFO (Grabber) machines. They were still hanging out there when I realized that I'd said I'd be home in about an hour and I was still in Osaka so I split and headed home early.

Now for the Butt Pillow story. I have a bunch of posts I'm working on that just describe general life here and other random stuff that happens that doesn't fit into the category of "I did x, y and z this weekend". One of these things was going to be the bed situation, but since most of you guys have heard me complain at length about it, it's been mostly explained. You see, most of my friends I talked to that did homestay here have or had beds or cots that were bed-like objects, but apparently I'm special. My house only has one room with tatami mats, but everyone sleeps on the floor. So everynight I go over to the closet and take out 4 folded mats and blankets (along with Woofy) and lay them out and fuss with them until I can go to sleep. I recently bought a little puffy futon mat to stick inside one of the others to soften it up a bit and it helps. There's two mats that I'm supposed to sleep on with a big comforter to go over top, but since it's hotter than heck here and I don't like how hard it is I solved both issues by folding up the comforter and sleeping ontop of it and just using my blue blanket from home. When I first got here they gave me two pillows, one was like a normal cotton pillow and the other was like a beanbag from hell. Honestly, it didn't feel comfortable, it was smaller than the other one and I didn't know what to do with it, so I never used the thing.

It was last week sometime just before the Little Brother (host mom's little brother) showed up that it was getting late (11pm or so) and I'd been up in my room for a few hours either playing DS, doing homework, etc. Well, I wanted to go to sleep so I went over to my closet to get said items and pulled everything out, but I couldn't find a pillow. I couldn't find EITHER pillow. This left me sad and confused because a) everyone was asleep and b) who would take my pillow. Why would they take my pillow and leave me with nothing? That's a pretty outwardly dick thing to do. So after pondering this problem for a while and just when I was about to fold up Woofy and sleep on him I got the guts together and decided to go to my closest neighbor and buddy, Soji (host brother). I went to him because he is the closest to my room and I can always tell when he's awake (we share a balcony so I can see the light's on) and I can hear him watching TV most times too. I knocked and got a confused Soji, I tried to explain the situation and even after looking up the word for pillow, it still didn't make anysense to him either. His first response was to close the door and come back with a stuffed animal (??) of an apple, it wasn't a pillow and it's not an animal, but hopefully you get the picture. I tried to explain again and he followed me into my room and helped me sift through all the mats and blankets and we both came up empty. At this point we were both laughing at this situation, who takes a pillow? Who the heck do you ask? Well Soji had the answer to this, the only person doing cleaning around the house was Okaasan so he snuck downstairs and nudged her awake to ask about my pillow. I tried to stop him at this point because I didn't want to piss her off, but he said she wouldn't get mad. She said she'd cleaned it and forgot to put it back so we'd look for it tomorrow. In the meantime though, I could use one of the pillows from the dining/living room. Soji grabbed me one and handed it over still chuckling about the fact that Okaasan had "ninja-ed" my pillow. He went off to bed and I was left with this new pillow. Now, let me explain, this is NOT the same pillow you might have in your rocking chair, couch, sofa, loveseat, etc. This is a zuton, which is what you sit on when you're eatting or watching TV because you're sitting on the floor. I was left with what will forever be known as, "A Butt Pillow".

Not having much else to do, but use the pillow I decided atleast I could put a barrier between me and butt pillow, so I used my pink Myles Reis shirt Sean gave me as a pillow case. Sorry, Sean, this isn't a reflection on me feelings towards your present it's just that it's the biggest shirt I have and it does make a fetching pillow case. To explain to everyone who isn't in a homestay, this pillow is just fine and I still use it because Okaasan never did find me my old pillow, which is fine by me because I didn't like it that much anyway. The Butt Pillow is clean, comfy and doesn't smell bad (when I said this to Kim when I was explaining how it wasn't that bad, she said, "You SMELLED it?!", yes I sniffed it. I was going to put my face on it, I had to know if it was safe!) Still, my hostmom took my pillow and after working for a replacement I got a butt pillow. If there was one thing to start off my week wrong, I think that's it.

Now it's Wednesday and I think I'll get something to eat, I have class in an hour, and I've been avoiding snacking during the day because the scale at my host family hasn't been kind. Long story, but converting from kilograms is a pain. I've had a pretty good day today and lots of fun tests tomorrow!

Today's okay

No post about the zoo yet, I have it half written and I'll post it when I bring in the laptop tomorrow. Right now I'm just hanging out in the computer lab with a printer they've loaded with paper that's printed on both sides, so my stuff comes out weird and now it won't let me print. I did email Josh about wifi and I realized I'll be fine either way. I might just beg Cavin to burn me DVDs and mail them or give them to Pat so he can bring them with him when he comes in a little more than two months.

What I did do was watch two episodes of Firefly and one of Venture Brothers. Apparently iTunes lets you get TV shows now and they have Venture Brothers for $1.99 an episode. Sorry Pat, I'll probably owe you like 10 bucks. I'll pay you 1,000 yen though!

That's another thing that has me peeved, there are no emails. There haven't BEEN emails in my inbox from some people since last week. So from here on out Patrick is now "My big cuddly sweet little ball of kitty fluff and rainbow kisses" until I start getting some emails. I know that takes forever to type, but it'll prove if he actually reads this thing and will ever email me. I'm not worried that he doesn't like me or any crap like that, but come on, I'm on the other side of the PLANET. Email me like, once a week. Bill Simmons updates twice a week for that matter. I apologize to Dad and Charlie who after reading about, "My big cuddly sweet little ball of kitty fluff and rainbow kisses", are probably cringing, but sometimes you have to go on the offensive. Feel my wrath.

Today's plan is simple, I went to my morning classes and I have my Law and Culture class at 2:30, so I'll probably read in the lounge until my friends find me and we get some food. Then afterwards I'll probably hang out with them or go home. Skippy!

Crummy Day

I was going to write a post about this weekend (we went to the Zoo), but at first I got to talk to James so I was too busy doing that to type it up. I was super happy after talking to him, but then he had to go to sleep and I tried to figure out a way to get my bittorrent to work. It worked just fine until a few days ago and now it won't work at all. I realized they blocked all the ports it and bitcomet use so I can't download anymore.

This has me super depressed. It's 1:30pm I've been here since 11am tinkering around and I just feel like nothing is working. All I want is more One Piece. I can't get it here because a) not subtitled and b) I don't have a Japanese DVD player so I couldn't watch them even if I bought them. I'll try and break the ice with Minami first to see if I can use her Limewire account (I know she has something like that she uses) to get some episodes. Or atleast try and get her or Okaasan to let me use bitcomet on their computer so I won't be on the computer, but my things will still be chugging along as they use it.

All I really want to do is snap at Okasan and demand internet in my own room. That was my top priority when I signed up for homestay and apparently Kansai doesn't give a rats you know what about this or a lot of things. I also really want to point out that internet is important enough that my own parents offered to help get it for me. I seriously doubt that I could navigate this conversation period with Okaasan, let alone get the point across without making her grumpy, which I can never tell or figure out how to fix anyway.

I guess it just boils down to me being tired, having a lot of work to do this week, not getting any email love, just wanting my stuff to work and being left out of the loop at home. I don't know how to fix most of that, but hey I'm going to go get something to eat and get my bike back from the park near the dorms. Then I'm going to ask the girls in the Seminar house if bittorrent works at their place. If it does, I'll just plug in my computer and leave it over there for a few days (if they don't mind). Also I'm going to get in touch with Josh and Barnes to see if I can get any good wifi spots.

Taking about Sunday (Sept 17, 2006)

Sunday started later than Saturday, I had to meet the crew at Hirakata eki (train station) at 12ish and I got there a little early. The plan was to meet up with Erica and Kim's class that was going on a field trip to the ESA Festival because it apparently was held in the middle of no where. Since the Seminar House side of the crew isn't exactly known for their punctuality we missed meeting up with the class by about 10 or so minutes. The total crew was: Alba (Maria's friend from Spain here at Kansai), Maria, Erica, Drew, Me, Nadia, and Tracy (the British girl that was Erica and my roommate, but doesn't like to hang out with us, so big shocker there). So we shopped in Kiddieland for a little bit. Kiddieland is the CUTEST store I've seen, it has Hello Kitty and all of her friends, Carebears, Disney characters and all of those other San-X characters as pillows, notebooks, hell EVERYTHING. I think Pat would explode if he ever had to go in here. We love this place to no end :3 That aside we eventually got going and thankfully the professor foresaw that students would be late or get lost so Erica had a whole page she'd written out of directions, ticket costs, and everything else you'd need to know.

We took a train from Hirakata over to Kyobashi and then over to the JR line (another train line, we use Keihan mostly) and took that to Taisho and a bus from there to the park where this festival was being held. Now, they called it a "park" but it was... a large open space made of dirt. Little bit of a let down, but the festival was pretty neat. I don't know what ESA means, but it was an Okinawan festival showing off music (there was a HUGE stage), food (more on that later), clothes, and dancing. Since Okinawa is a little island very far away from the main Japanese islands normally people don't get to see this stuff so they have a huge festival. The main reason we were on this trek was that it was Maria's birthday, we wanted to do something special and so we fumbled around for a week not knowing what the hell we were going to do and somehow ended up at the festival. It was great because at 12:01am they had her open all her presents and the next day they pinned a "Birthday Princess" sash on her and didn't tell her a thing about where we were going until we got to the festival (hence why the whole dirt thing wasn't so spiffy) . We were a little bit of an attraction because Erica kept her hair up (in a mohawk) and there were A LOT of pictures, plus we were outside the city so there weren't that many gaijin (foreign) people around. We didn't get down to the shop area, but we hit the food tents right off the bat since it was past noon and no one had eatten. Here's what I ate:



The guy told me it was a "hot dog" and the other thing is an omlette with Okinawan sausage in it. When I bit into it I realized the "hot dog" was more of a "pork dumpling shaped like a hotdog", still very yummy. The food was a little expensive and it was hard to find a place to sit. Drew almost didn't get anything to eat because everything was $3 or so, but we tried to explain to her that it was like stadium food. Erica finally found something vegan (phew). Meanwhile Maria got those octopus balls that plague me and Nadia got some seaweed held together by some tempra (which is like dough and when it's fried it's tempura). I didn't have any, but Nadia said hers, "tasted like the ocean". That's a pretty good description of a lot of things. Where we sat was behind the tents with the food in these cement bleachers. The problem was that there were so many people we couldn't find the stairs to get up there, so being the graceful one I am I just hopped up, only to rip my shorts right open. Smooth. Everyone hopped up with no problem, but I was still left with this gaping hole. Thankfully Maria lent me a safety pin from her sash to fix my little problem and we all pretty much agreed everyone would be too busy looking at Erica's hair that my hole wasn't going to be an item of interest. Note: today I finally sewed them back together, it looks really spiffy so now I have shorts again!

We hung around the festival for a bit, watching the drummers, having peolple gawk at Erica, getting our picture taken by a million different people. One of which included a friend of the professor (who started this little trip, we saw him too) who was in her full kimono and loved us so she got a million pictures of us and us as a group. What was really cute was this little girl who asked Maria what her sash said and Maria (being level 4 Japanese) told her that it was her birthday. After she heard this the little girl ran off and came back a few minutes later with a can of green tea for Maria, telling her "happy birthday!". She followed us around the festival for a long time and she was the sweetest thing ever.



Maria and I were both taken with how many of the kids at the festival were just sitting there making sandcastles in the dirt. I was trying to get a picture of them when Maria remarked that she couldn't believe that years ago in Spain she did the same thing, just like I did back home in the States. It was cool to see that kids everywhere play in the dirt, I'm sure that's not life-altering for all of you, but it was cool.

Once it started to rain we realized there wasn't much else to see and Erica's hair would melt if we stayed out in the rain much longer, so we ran over to the 100 yen (dollar) store across the street and then headed out to catch the bus back to Osaka. We found our way to Namba and wandered around that mall I had fun going through the week before when I couldn't meet up with my friends at Yodabashi Station. We were doing okay until Drew had a panic attack due to the crowds and we had to leave the busy mall area. We were getting tired at this point (it was around 5pm or so) so we took Maria to the electronics store where she when inside with Nadia to get somethings while we sat on the steps outside (there was a huge over hang, so we weren't blocking the door. We were chatting about random things when, yep you probably didn't guess, adventure found us once again.

This time it appeared in the form of a middle aged (probably late 40's-50's) man who was walking over to us. This didn't seem weird at first, since a lot of Japanese people just walk up to us to practice English, say hi, etc. but this guy was walking and didn't respond to any of our reponses of, "How can we help you?" "Hello?" or "Konnichiwa? Shit is it Konbanwa yet?" Nothing. He just kept walking. Now what we thought would stop him was this little fence in front of us made out of those big orange cones and some plastic bars going between them. Yeah, it didn't. He walked through it and made a lunge for Tracy. Erica, who had been the one attacked early (there, I said it, you know who the friend was, gasp) she reacted immediately while the rest of us were just in plain shock. She grabed his wrist with her nails and shoved it away yelling, "DAME HENTAI" which should me don't you pervert, although I would've gone with Chikan and not Hentai, but I don't really know. Tracy was to my left and Erica to my right so I was just sitting there in total confusion until I realized Erica's very obvious attempt at getting him to go away didn't work. He climbed over the fence. At this point I jumped up and ran over to the door near the entrance to the store that had a security guard in it and just said, "Tasukete!" (help). He nodded and got on the phone, but at this point I whipped around to see what the hell was happening. I'd forgotten my bag, but thankfully Erica grabbed it and the shocked Tracy and had run over to the opening of the store. Now, this was a big over hang we were under with two HUGE pillars holding it up. I was behind one with the guard and they were behind another, nothing stopped this guy. He followed them around and around and around the pole. We were all yelling at him and he wasn't going too fast so we'd get faraway thinking he'd stop and then he'd see us and sluggishly stumble over. He didn't say a thing, he made some sort of grunting noise and dragged his feet as he walked. Erica even said she didn't think he opened his eyes the whole time. This is why the first time he went for Tracy all I could think of was Resident Evil (Zombie video game, for those who don't know) and my inner monolouge went a little something like, "Shit, do I have enough magnum bullets left? Wait, this is a standard zombie not a crimson head so I should go with pistol." then I hopped up and entered reality again. Erica had armed herself with an umbrella and as she was running with the others trying to get away she'd hit him everytime he got close. Nothing phased him, but eventually we got all of us together and when the guard FINALLY walked up to him he fell over and pretended he couldn't get up. We BOLTED for the door and stood shaking inside the electronics store waiting for Maria and Nadia.

What really pissed me off about this whole thing wasn't that this guy did this, he was either drunk or high of something, or just crazy, but was everyone elses reaction to it. There was a guard there, a group of people doing some sales outside the store and other passersby and NO ONE did a thing. One guy when over and said, you shouldn't do this, but nothing else. No one stopped him, yelled, raised an alarm or helped us. I know it was sudden and probably hysterical to watch the gaijin get chased by the drunken old man, but what the hell, you're a security guard, security has been breached, pepper spray the bastard! What that guard did do was call the police, who did show up rather quickly. When we left the store we saw they'd taken the guy and sat him down and were kind of laughing at him. They helped him up and took him away, but the general consenus was that no one took this seriously and they were just going to get him home and let him off. I don't know if this was the case, but it felt that way and we couldn't shake the crazy shock and frusterated feeling all day. Since her previous attack Erica carries a cute Japanese box cutter with her, she almost used it here, but we would've been in a world of more trouble for that. Her dad wants her to get a tazer and doesn't even know about this event because, well he'd flip out and get her one.

Japan is really very safe and it was scary for all of us to have this randomly happen. I mean it's hysterical on some levels and bothersome on others. We were in a big place with a lot of people and were safe. No worries. Though this did put a damper on the day as did the rain and the dirt pit, but Maria loved everything else about her big day. We got some food at a cafe and realized there wasn't much we could do that didn't involve big crowds, plus we were exhausted so we went back to the dorms. Marika arrived at the dorms with in a few minutes of us getting there and we gave Maria the rest of her presents and ate the cake Marika bought, which was quite yummy. Then I was kicked out at 9:59pm by Okaasan (their dorm mother) and got home at a normal hour.

That was Sunday. Now it's the following Saturday and I'm the only one on campus and should probably leave before they close the gates on me. ;)

Ready for the weekend

It's Friday here in Japan, which means two things: 1) Weekend! 2) No school and no internet ;(

I'll see if I can get up REALLY early on Saturday and stay up tonight so I can post somethings tomorrow. Also a big thank you to my mom for reading my huge post yesterday and pointing out we're miss the first part of the Madonna story. I fixed it and here is the opening for your reading pleasure:

"As I was trying to figure out how to get to Yodabashi from Namba station when I got back to Osaka. I noticed another white guy standing next to me in a bright orange Texas longhorns t-shirt. I was about to ask him if he needed help, when he looked up from his map and ask, "Please tell me you speak English." I do, so I asked him what he need help with and apparently he was just trying to get to Umeda station, which is one past Yodabashi (the one I was going to to meet Erica and crew). So I helped him get his ticket, explained how the train worked and then offered to ride the train with him since we were both going on the same one anyway. We got to chatting and it turns out it was his first time in Japan and he was here working for the Madonna concert that was being held in Osaka that night and Sunday night. He was really nice and is originally from Texas (hence the shirt) and showed me pictures of some of the other shows they've done (in Denmark, etc.). He also threw in a picture of his dog, which was super cute. As we were talking he said he was very thankful that I stopped and gave him all this help and even went on the same train and he offered to walk me into the Madonna concert! I was totally excited and then he gave me his hotel he was staying at and the room number. Now this freaked me out. continued in the other post"

I also had another classic Manda moment in class today. We had to do "Karaoke" in class and sing a line to this, "Thank you" song that we made up thanking someone for something. I made up my line way in advance and prepared it as the other students were doing their lines, then it was my turn. The music played, I opened my mouth and said, "naoshi" followed by a blank stare and my mouth hanging open. I then put my head on my desk. What I'd wanted to say was "Jitensha o naoshite kure.." (Thank you for fixing my bike) but I started with the verb "to fix" and therefore couldn't go back in time fast enough to get to "bike" and I folded up like a cheap cardtable.

All I could do was have flashbacks to all of the plays I messed up solos in, it's like my really crappy superpower.

My Saturday (talking about 9/16/2006)

Let me assure you I didn't pansy out in any respect on this Saturday. I was committed, I had drive and ambition and I got shit done. It was very very good. In order to be such a driven individual I decided I would have to start early. Real early, infact. I got up at the crack of 8:30AM. Yep, I know you're all gasping in horror at the audacity of it, but it's a Saturday, I'm in college in a foreign country. 8:30 is early on a Saturday. Please also factor in that I sleep on THE FLOOR, on mats I'm convinced are trying to make said floor harder than it actually is. More on that at a further date.

The best part of getting up early was the look on my Okaasan's face. She was still in her jammies drinking coffee when I was fully dressed and heading for the door. She knew where I was going, but I think she was impressed I got up and ready. I got up and out by 9AM to catch a train from Gotenyama(the station next to my house) to Osaka (Yodabashi Station), which is an hour or so away depending on which train you get. Then I had to take the subway from Yodabashi Station to Namba Station and find the Namba train station, not the subway, to get on another line that would let me off at Kishiwada. Kishiwada is a small town to the south of Osaka in the Kansai Region and what posessed me to go there on a specific day was the Danjuri Festival. It's a day when they parade huge unpainted wooden floats called Danjuri through the city to temples. It started over 300 years ago and it's in order to thank the harvest god named Inari. Inari is also the god that uses the foxes called Kitsune as messangers, there are little shrines all around Japan and I love taking pictures of the fox statues and bright red temples, so I know you've all seen that at least.

That was the textbook answer as to what, "Danjuri Festival" means, it's what brought me on this mission, but as always when you actually hit the ground things can be completely more crazy than you expected. Quite frankly that's what I was hoping for and Japan delivers. The whole "parading" the danjuri through the city is an understatement, they RACE them through the city streets, being pulled by kids, women, men, everybody. Also they aren't on wheels, they're on steamroller rollers, so it's like a HUGE verison of the Flinstone cars. And the huge part is really what makes this, they're gorgeous and beautifully decorated and they have local officials standing on the front and people who have to climb inside them playing insturments on the upper interior and on top they have one or two guys waving fans and doing stunts. What really got me was the atmosphere of the whole thing. Everyone had on these black pants and a black over kimono with a big symbol on the back referencing which team they cheered for or were working for. I tried to buy one while I was there, but everyone was sold out, which leads me to believe that most folks do this every year and have these things for years and years. I loved how it felt like a Nantucket holiday, honestly anyone from home will understand what I'm going to say, heck I'll illustrate it: It's like you took the daffodil parade, the mid 1990's stroll, and the fourth of July and had it on a single day. It was as if Jer souped up the beachcart so it was HUGE, we had three board members riding on the front, Jeff's kids playing instruments on the inside, Marshall around in a black kimono (I have pictures of dogs dressed up), and Olivia on top doing backflips. Oh, and we challenged the fire department with their HUGE hose-cart and the NHA with their whaleboat and we walked up Main Street only to get to Centre Street and take a sharp 90 turn and WE RAN with this thing down the street taking sharp turns on Quince, India, Fair, Gay Street, hell you name any TINY street until we got to one of the churches. Then there would be much cheering we'd stop to have tourist fawn over the cart only to start it up again 20 minutes later.

It felt wonderful to be there. Everyone was so nice, several Japanese people helped me out off and on all day. As soon as I got off the train I saw a danjuri go screaming by and I was afraid that I'd missed it. I had no clue they did it all day. Anyway I walked maybe 20 feet down the main road when an older guy sitting in a chair by a doorway stops me and asks me if I'm a foreigner and when I answer in the affirmative he insists that I go inside this building and get a map. I'm operating on a map I got out of a magazine, so I'm game. Only to find out that this is the tourist center and they couldn't be happier to see me. They have me sign this guest book and then take me over to this wall where they put on one of the black kimono, a red and white handband and give me a huge fan and take a few pictures. They took some with my camera too, so here I am in all my tourist glory:



They gave me the head band and the huge fan, I had them all day, although I took off the headband because I felt really silly. The maps were great and it was a wonderful start to this day. Now, another factor in this getting up "early" was that no one else wanted to join me in my little adventure. Later Nadia asked me who went with me and I explained why no one else wanted to go and she felt bad for me, which I guess was nice, but it was a great thing to do even on my own. I know the train system at this point and I could go and do what I wanted, it was an adventure and I'm glad I took this oppertunity to go out of Osaka and see something super cool. It just felt good to know I can do this sort of thing on my own and survive. This was a festival and that would make you think that you'd run across mostly foreign tourists taking in the sights, but aside from the tourist center I only saw a handful of other foreigners. This really seemed to be a holiday for the town and they seemed psyced to have us along. The first time I was able to see the floats go by I was standing next to a middle aged woman who asked me in English, "Is this your first time?" I told her it was and we had a little conversation, she kept smiling and offered to help me out if I need directions. I got a few things cleared up, but she was just very happy that I liked it so much. I owe a few people for just grabbing me or letting me squeeze myself in next to them to get out of the streets. These streets can be really narrow and these floats aren't on a set time so as I was trying to get back to one of the main streets I got cornered and had a float coming down the way, don't worry there's a huge string of people pulling and they check before they go really fast, but it made it so I had to stop and find a place to stand off to the side quick. I was looking around trying to find a doorway to hop into when a crowd of people gestured for me to stand by them. They pulled me in so I was safe and we all had a good time getting pictures of the floats and cheering for them. It was with these folks that one float actually crashed into an airconditioning unit across the street and they had to have some people from the parade stop and move it back. After that happened I noticed more and more the padding people put on their stores and balconies. There were a few other "crash sites" I noticed later on too. Also in this spot another float had their people pulling the float have to run to the side to help make the turn and ended up body checking a bunch of us. We were fine, it was just sudden and crazy to have happen, it made the event much more fun.

My path through the city is pretty easy to follow, I went down the street in front of the train station down to the mall area (most stores were closed or had tourist items in the regardless of the fact that the tour is normally a real estate office or men's clothing store), outside there I got to see some danjuri stopped and I got a bunch of pictures. I loved the people that had their little dogs dressed up in the little kimonos and all the guys who pull this thing just hanging out. One of the other highlights of the day were all the kids. They were climbing all over the danjuri and a few of them were playing the instruments inside. There was this one kid that was playing the Taiko drum (I have a video game version at home), his friends were in with something like a cowbell and another drum. They were just jamming and even though they were all of 7 or 8 years old they were GOOD. I got a bunch of pictures of them and they played for me to make a quick movie I have saved on my camera too.

From there I backtracked to see the danjuri I saw stopped in motion and I got some lunch, which was some onigiri (rice balls) that had pickled plum and some seaweed in them. They weren't that good, but a downed a green tea and got to see the parade. After that I went to the Kishiki Shrine and the Kishiwada castle. Sadly this isn't where the original castle was and the inside is a museum (it was gutted, like Osaka Castle), but it was beautiful to look at and gave you a sense of the layout of the town from the Heian Period (700 AD) until the 1800's. Most of the town was made up of gates and moats, which make walking through the streets way cooler. I'm a nerd and I was psyced I could read enough Japanese to make sense of this stuff. I realized a suit of Samurai armor was made for a 6 year old son of the local lord. I know it's little, but it's a trimph for me.

After the castle I went by this huge pond with beautiful lotus flowers and cute turtles. I ended up back at the parade and found my way to one of the other temple. This is the other example of Japanese kindness. I knew a cart was coming, but then they realized it was stopping at a building I was right next to, so they moved a bunch of people so they could turn. I had my camera out and was kind of near the back of the crowd when this guy waves at me and then helps me up onto this ledge where a bunch of other offical looking photographers are. He and his wife were just up there watching and decided to let me in on their spot. I got some great pictures and when they were finished I realized the man and woman were halfway across the street in the crowd I yelled, "Arigato" as loud as I could and the woman turned around and smiled. They were very nice to help me out like that and I'm so glad atleast she heard me. I said in that spot for alittle longer and got to pet this old man's dog who was also up there with me. He and his wife were also very nice and I had a little chat with them too.

The other HUGE section of this town was made up into little tents for food and kid's games. I have a bunch of pictures on flickr of octopus stands and kid's games for catching goldfish. I got some little cakes shaped like pikachu for later and played a game that got me a black and white pig folder. Awesome. I wanted to stay for the lantern lighting that started at 7pm, but I'd been in this town since 11AM and by 3 or so I'd seen and done everything, so I headed back for the train station. I got an email from Erica right after I started back and she told me they were on their way to Osaka, which is where I had to go anyway to get back. So to kill some time while they got to the city I stayed in Kishiwada caught another temple and got some ice with some melon and strawberry flavoring in it.

Now this is how dumb I am. I was eatting this sno-cone trying to do so my lips didn't up blue or green and I was walking down this street until I hear a loud CRACK of plastic and have a LARGE sharp pain in my forehead. I walked INTO the side mirror of a parked truck, only to have Japanese passers by ask in English, "Oh my God are you okay?!" I laughed it off and explained that I was fine, just dumb (baka, idiot) and they went on their way. It HURT though, I honestly felt it in my teeth and it was sore all day. I swear I get less and less graceful daily. >__<

My mom was right, part of this blog is missing. Crap I have to retype it

As I was trying to figure out how to get to Yodabashi from Namba station when I got back to Osaka. I noticed another white guy standing next to me in a bright orange Texas longhorns t-shirt. I was about to ask him if he needed help, when he looked up from his map and ask, "Please tell me you speak English." I do, so I asked him what he need help with and apparently he was just trying to get to Umeda station, which is one past Yodabashi (the one I was going to to meet Erica and crew). So I helped him get his ticket, explained how the train worked and then offered to ride the train with him since we were both going on the same one anyway. We got to chatting and it turns out it was his first time in Japan and he was here working for the Madonna concert that was being held in Osaka that night and Sunday night. He was really nice and is originally from Texas (hence the shirt) and showed me pictures of some of the other shows they've done (in Denmark, etc.). He also threw in a picture of his dog, which was super cute. As we were talking he said he was very thankful that I stopped and gave him all this help and even went on the same train and he offered to walk me into the Madonna concert! I was totally excited and then he gave me his hotel he was staying at and the room number. Now this freaked me out.

Also my stop came up so I thanked him and said I might and then hopped off the train only to promptly forget the room number and his name. >__< I told the girls (Erica, Nadia and Maria) when I met up with them and they were totally excited and I realized later the whole room number thing was to CALL him, since he's only in the country for a week. So we decided to try and catch up with him since I did remember where he was going (the Ritz Carlton to look at some cars, off Umeda station) so off we went. What frustrated me was that we made this decision to go and so I was all gung-ho about let's do this or not. They stopped a few times to do shopping and when we did get there he was gone and they were bored with the idea. I keep kicking myself for getting flustered and forgetting the room number, but hey it's still a cool story either way.

We met up with Marika (she's Japanese, but new at Kansai) in Namba and eventually found food we could all eat (reminder: Erica is vegan) at a Mexican Restaurant. :3 There we found out our waiter, who since Erica is vegan we had to ask a million questions about the food, was Mexican so Maria spoke Spanish to him, then we realized he spoke fluent English and pretty good Japanese. Nadia, I think in an attempt to impress him or atleast make things easier tried to order her food in Spanish and ended up saying Tacos de mexicanos. To which he replied, "Nope we don't have that." We looked confused, while Maria was laughing her ass off and he explained, "That means tacos made from Mexicans and since I'm the only Mexican here, you can't have a taco made out of me." Nadia will NEVER live this down. We constantly tease her about her horrible Spanish pick-up line of "yeah I'd like a taco, made out of YOU. *growl*" Seriously though, the food was great and he was so nice that place will probably become a regular stop when we're in Osaka.

I got home around 11:30 to find that no one except Soji was home. Everyone else went to the public bath (I thought he said "Public BUS" and so we looked confused at one another for a few minutes) and they got back. Apparently my curfew doesn't really affect them, so atleast I know they trust me and I'm not making them mad by coming home a little later than 7pm. All in all, Saturday was busy, but Sunday was going to be busier since it was Maria's Birthday. More on that later.