Friday, May 25, 2007

The Final Chapter

In order to wrap up the blog post-return, let's talk about my last week.

Monday, May 14 - On the Market
Today, I had a mission. My mission was to complete my culture class and forget that it ever happened. In order to do this, I simply had to approach the teacher's office door and rid myself of the monsterous paper that I had written. Once at the door, I trew the paper in and ran like it was going to explode. From there, I simply had to kill time until my shopping extravaganza with Kazuki. While doing this, I sat with Haruki and Koichiro for our last encounter. Once it became time to begin heading to the station, I wanted to make a pit stop at the convenience store. On the way out of the lounge, I stopped by to take a picture with Mariko, my first Japanese friend, and Mie. After that, I ran into two other girls who I had recently met. Once out of the lounge, I ran into Suzuka before leaving the CIE. I continued running into various people all the way up to the gate where I could finally progress toward the station.

Upon meeting Kazuki, we began to puzzle over where was best for us to begin our shopping experience. We decided to begin at Tanmabashi where we could not decide where to go and ended up walking to Osaka Castle in search of souvenirs. By the time we reached the castle, we were quite thirsted and we stopped by an icecream shop where I ordered a lime-clear frozen drink that was one of the most awesome frozen drinks I have ever had. Next, we progressed to the two stores at the castle where I purchased a statue of a cat that would give good luck to my family. From there, we progressed toward the station, but obtained another lime-clear before we left. On the way to the station, I saw and band of girls playing outside. They were the first girl group I saw in Japan, so I took a picture. Noticing this, they decided to try to talk to me in English. I told them we were off shopping and they suggested that we go to Namba for that particular activity. And so, our next location was decided.

In Namba, we went to the central shopping center and wandered around. Most of the shops were for girls, so we did not have much success. However, we found a store featuring Okinawan wear and I found a neat looking statue that I wanted. There were two of them facing different directions, so I chose the one that I liked best since I did not want to pay $30 for both of them. When I went to buy the statue, the clerk told me to wait and ran off to the stand where the statue was. She came back with the other statue and boxed both of them up. Apparently, they were a set sold at the displayed price. I was pleased to pay the original price for both when I thought that it would have been more.

After dinner, we returned to Hirakata where we went to have seafood pizza at my suggestion. At the restaurant, we seemed to have difficulty in tagging a waitress. After one finally came we made our order, waited, and ate. After dinner, Kazuki had to go do homework, but before he departed, he bought me a guidebook to Hirakata so I would have something to remember it by when I returned home.

Tuesday, May 15 - Don't Test Me!
Today was probably my last scholastic Japanese test ever. It was a long one too. I have no idea how I did since they didn't give it back, but I have high hopes. After the test, Nao wanted to meet for lunch, but that wasn't until 2:30. I decided to defeat my paper for Human Resources during my free time. I was able to do so and happily removed it from my person at my teacher's office. After that, I found Suzuka and her friends outside. She was with an extremely shy girl who I kept playing around with in hopes to make her less shy. We all stood around and had fun until Nao finally arrived. Nao came with her friend Aiko and we all went off to lunch. Aiko had to do some research about the American social class system, but I was not able to be of much help since I have a social studies deficiency. After we finished lunch, I returned to the lounge in order to await my appointment. While waiting, I ran into many, many people who kept me entertained until my company arrived. My appointment was to meet with Ayumi and Miyuki. Ayumi carried with her a gift that she presented to me since this was our last meeting. It was a small Japanese wind chime. From there, we puzzled over what to do next. We eventually decided to go to karaoke since that was the only suggestion we could think of without sitting there for an eternity. We went, we sang, and we left.

Wednesday, May 16 - Say What?
Today began with meeting Masami and Nana for the last time. When I went fishing for lunch, I noticed that I had become completely bored with the menu. Fortunately, today would be my last time dining in the cafeteria. Also fortunate, they were serving a special meal today. I ordered the dish known as sukiyaki, which was pork over rice with fried tofu and a raw egg. I wasn't sure how I would like the egg, but I gave it a shot. The egg had a slightly unfavorable taste to it, which I believe was just that particular egg or how it was prepared. My meeting with Masami and Nana consisted of our usual talking during lunch and departure.

After the meeting, I went back to the CIE where I ran into Yusuke, who wanted grammatical help with his Human Resources paper. Being that it was a six page paper, he felt like he owed me something, so we went to the convenience store so he could buy me a drink. I also discovered some packing tape that I needed for my package that I wanted to send for over a month. Yusuke also got that for me. From there, I returned to the lounge where I found Suzuka and her friends Yumiko and Hikaru. Yumiko was another really shy girl. In fact, since our first meeting, I had been trying to help her get over her shyness. I noticed that she would always rub her hands while sitting around me, so I would always pull them apart and place them on the table. By this point, she was able to not rub her hands, so I had apparently made an impact. I initiated a game at our table with the empty bottle from Yusuke. I would place it in front of someone and say, "ippon!," which meant one |long object|. From there, the other person had to do the same thing to another person. At first, when the bottle reached Yumiko, it would sit there until we could get her to participate. After we played for awhile, we were able to get her to participate by herself. At that point, introduced two origami figures that Suzuka had made into the mix of our game. This seemed to bring Yumiko's shyness back, but she would attempt to participate every now and then. Eventually, it came time for class, so I had to take my leave.

In Negotiation, we had our final, which consisted of a questionnaire about our negotiation checklist. It was a strange final to say the least. I hadn't really used my checklist since I didn't know what to put on it other than what I already did to prepare for a negotiation. At least I had some answers I could put down.

After the test, I waited for another friend named Nao who apparently doesn't take very good pictures since I think she looks better normally. We had met a week ago and she wanted to go to dinner. On the way there, she told me that her friends were joking that we were a couple since we were going to dinner. At dinner, I noticed that she had some traditional Japanese habits because she insisted on doing everything for me including ordering, getting the drinks, and even paying since this would be our last meeting. After dinner, we walked home since her appartment was on the way to my dorm.

Thursday, May 17 - Let's Try Again
Since my first shopping experience didn't bear so many purchases (which I don't place blame on anyone), I wanted to try again in Kyoto. To accompany me was Nao - the original. On the way to the station, I both took pictures of the town for my memory and ran into my friend Nick who suggested that I go to Shijo in Kyoto for shopping. It was good to have the suggestion, because Nao had no idea where to go. When we arrived at Shijo, I had no idea where to go, but I had been there once before with Kenji. I started noticing things that looked kind of familiar in my chosen direction. Eventually, we ended up where I was hoping to end up. I didn't end up buying too many things, but I did get a few things. Next we had lunch and then went for icecream at a Baskin Robins. From there, we went to a shrine since Nao wanted to see one. It happened to be the shrine that I went to for a festival with Albert and Yusuke. After that, we were perplexed as to what to do for our last meeting. We eventually decided upon the seeming default of karaoke.

After karaoke, we returned to Hirakata where Nao wanted to get a purikura with me. Purikura is a popular activity among Japanese girls which is known in English as 'print club.' In purikura, the people enter a booth fit for about five people and select a variety of backgrounds for a picture. Next, the camera shoots pictures at timed intervals for each background. After that, the people move to another section of the booth and decorate the pictures with touch pens and preformatted designs. Finally, the pictures are printed. We got 24 pictures for about $4 with six different shots. I can unfortunately share only one online. After that, Nao had to attend her friend's birthday party. I went to the vending machine restaurant for the last time and then went home.

Friday, May 18 - Clear Across Town
Today, I was to go to USJ (Universal Studios Japan) with Einar, Nabil, and Todd. When I woke up, Todd appeared highly uninterested in joining us. As it turned out, he never actually wanted to join us and said that he would simply to avoid us trying to convince him. Nabil had said that he might come at 3:00 since he was on a date prior to that. He also did not end up coming. Back at 9:30, I was making my way to USJ to join Einar and his friend Simmie who was visiting from Iceland. When I got there, I had to pay my $55 to get in and wait for Einar to come find me. USJ seemed smaller than the real US, but we still had our fun. We began with a 4D movie of Shrek. It was an interesting experience. The seats bounced us with the movie and we occasionally had water spew on us when the donkey sneezed... From there, we encountered a parade with the peanuts. Next, went to see the Terminator show that was pretty much the same thing that we had in America with a guy who didn't look like the Terminator. Next, we went to ride Spiderman, which was suggested by my friends. The line was 70 minutes long and ended up being the longest line in the park. The ride was worth it, however. After that, we went to the Hollywood Dream, another suggestion by my friends. Simmie seemed apprehensive about the idea of a rollercoaster, but we made him ride anyway. It was fun. Short, but fun. Next, we went to Jurasic Park. They had a video of some fat American guy wolfing down a hamburger and smoking as an example of how not to behave on the ride. It was kind of funny. After getting spat on by a dinorsaur, we fell down a waterfall which seemed scarier than the actual rollercoaster, ironically. Next, we went to the Waterworld show. They had some really dangerous stunts in it. When the bad guy came out, he shot water with his boat at the booing crowd. We were on top, so we were spared the hydration. Lastly, we went to a Sesamie Street movie since that was all I had time for before I had to go. It wasn't that great, especially since I couldn't understand what they were saying.

I had to leave at 5:30 in order to honor my original plan for Friday. I was to go to Demachiyanagi in Kyoto to meet my friend Aya for dinner. Aya had helped me obtain a CD for my sister earlier and I didn't want to leave her with that being our only meeting. Demachiyanagi was on the opposite side of the Kansai area from USJ, so I wanted to try taking the SUPER GOD TRAIN that doesn't stop at Hirakata. Despite it's super goddom, it still took about an hour and a half to get over to Demachiyanagi. It just so happened that I would be right on time. After arriving and having some difficulty finding each other with the stations many exits, we made our way to the restaurant where we dined and chatted. I was given praise for my ability to teach English in an easily understandable way.

After our meal, we parted ways and I went back to Makino. It was raining by the time I got there. In Japan, when it rains, you get wet; unlike in Georgia where you just wait five minutes and walk home in the sun. After I waited for probably 15 minutes, the rain stopped for awhile and I made my way toward the dorm. It eventually started raining again, so I hid under a building for awhile. Soon, Nabil rode by on his bike and spotted me. He gave me his umbrella saying that his rain coat would be enough for him before speeding off. Indeed, he is a friend who will be missed.

Saturday, May 19 - A Farewell
Today was graduation. We had everyone's names read and everyone got up to pick up a certificate jacket. The actual certificates were delivered to our mailboxes in order to make life easier for everyone. Next, we had speeches from the school president, the consulate of Australia, a teacher from our program, and a Japanese teacher. Next, we had a reception with many people. I hung around with my friends and got many pictures of them all. Next, I went to the lounge to meet with Rieko and Yuka who really wanted to see me one last time. Rieko presented me with some postcards of Osaka and a set of chopsticks. She then proceded to cry over my leaving. The meeting was not too prolonged, so I soon met up with Nabil so we could gather the men one last time for a night out.

We met with Nabil, Todd, Einar, and added Simmie to the mix. We all went to Round One for one last gaming session. After Round One, I started getting messages from Miruku who wanted to see me one more time. Since I was with the guys already, I offered her to come join us. After some convincing, we waited up for her to get there and everyone went off to dinner. Next, we all went to karaoke. It became too late for Miruku to take the train home, so she got her mom to come pick her up. The boys all departed home while I waited with Miruku for her mom to get there. We chatted some and I gave some more English tips. She expressed her interest to visit me when she studies abroad. When her mom arrived, we said our farewells and I headed home.

Sunday, May 20 - The End
Today, I was to pack and prepare the appartment for inspection. I had to do some tricks in order to get everything in the suitcase and I was just barely able to zip it up. I guess it was good that I didn't find a horde of souvenirs. After packing, I went to meet with Nao who wanted another last meeting. We went to some arcades to play a game or two before going to dinner. I got something that was served in the cafeteria, but I amazingly didn't like it as much. Nao sampled the meal and seemed to agree. After that, we went to karaoke for one last time before heading home.

Monday, May 21 - Home
My journey started with the inspection. There seemed to be some wear and tear on the tatami mats under our beds which was strange since no one touched that area. Everything seemed to check out. Soon after the inspection, our cabs arrived and Todd and I made our way to the bus stop with our luggage. Next, we boarded the bus after waiting for it to arrive and went to the airport. We waited for our tickets and then sought out food. Next, we went to the boarding area where I had to go through an extra bag inspection via random selection. There were no problems, especially since I told them what to expect. Next, we sat at the gate where some old white guy seemed to stare at us periodically. It was real creepy and I hoping he would give me a reason to hurt him. Fortunately, there were no incidents and he was out of sight/out of mind after boarding the plane. Todd was sitting behind me due to an odd twist of fate and I was sitting beside another Kansai Gaidai student who I had never really talked to until the plane ride. I talked with Liz for most of the flight. The flight itself seemed much smoother (not referring to the constant turbulance) than the flight to Japan. Before I knew it, we were back in America.

I started becoming nervous about customs since I had heard so many horror stories about it. I handed the guy my slip that I filled out on the plane which I had checked the food box since I had food. He asked what kind of food I had and I told him that it was just candy and cookies. He said, "Is that all?" and he let me pass. From there, it was apparent that customs was over. I brought my bags to the reload point and went through another security checkpoint before going to my gate.

The flight across America was a nightmare. First, the plane was delayed at takeoff because the pilots had apparently had a night out and required rest before being allowed to fly. Next, during the flight, one of the flight attendants spilled orange juice all over me and just gave me a 'sorry' and threw napkins at me. Then one of the passengers started getting sick and we had to make an emergency landing at Colorado Springs. The Paramedics took him off the planes within ten minutes, but we had to sit there for at least two hours and wait for the breaks to cool off. When we finally got back in the air, I was ready to blow up the plane, but had to suffer through it for another two and a half hours. The flight across America ended up being as long as the flight from Japan, which was just unacceptable Once on the ground, I had to wait 30 more minutes to get my bags and then take the hour and a half drive home.

All in all, it was nice to see my family again. I feel that I have brought my trip to Japan to a nice close by seeing all my friends one last time and doing all my favorite things one last time as well. I will hopefully keep in touch with many of my friends with email and maybe even see some of them again during their travels. I trust that this blog will serve as a great memory for the experiences that I have had as well as a great advertisement for anyone thinking about visiting Japan as well. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and can perhaps write one yourself about such experiences (save the last bit about the plane).

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

New Experiences

I feel a lecture coming from Mom after I write this one...

Friday, May 11 - Swaying in the Breeze
To start the day off, I got to have an oral test for Japanese. With all that I had going on (10 page culture paper, 6 page human resource paper, oral exam, culture test, etc.), I had studied the test material beginning after my night out with Miruku. Despite this, I was able to fully memorize the entire speech so that I would be ready to answer the questions that were to come. Naturally, I was nervous, which caused me to trip up a whole bunch, but I was able to say what I wanted to eventually. I took the liberty of finishing my culture paper so to not die the following few days. I also had to do another negotiation, which the teacher specifically selected because it was unlikely that we could come to an agreement. After two hours, the class gave up and we all went our merry ways.

My merry way consisted of going to dinner with Junko, one of my classmates who is going to America on the 16th, along with Niels (also in the picture) Wei, and Dan, three other classmates. We gathered in the lounge, where we got Kie (another classmate) and her friend Eriko to join us. And so, we traversed over to the station to begin seeking a place of dining. Being it dinner time, the restaurants at the station were fairly occupied so that a six-person party was difficult to fit. When we finally found one, we were glad to settle down.

For some time now, I had been thinking, "I've been in Japan for four months and I haven't tried sake yet!" Being that 1. I was now 21 and legally able to drink in my country of origin and 2. everyone else ordered a drink, I took the liberty of joining the fun and getting some sake. Since I didn't know how I would like it, I got a small one. When I took a sip of it, I knew that it was strong. From my previous two experiences with alcohol, I was able to clearly distinguish the taste and it was plentisome in the sake. I was a little disappointed that the alcoholic affect had already began to set in before I finished the sake. However, Niels reassured me that he could drink beer all night long and never get drunk, but with sake, it's all over. Despite my new achievement, I also consumed a beer and two cocktails.

From there, I closely observed everything I could about what was happening. I was drunk, and I wanted to know why it was such a popular activity. Moving was odd. It was like I contined moving even after I stopped for awhile. If I held still, I felt mostly normal. My speech was normal and I could control everything that I did. Most of all, I remember everything. Either I was only partially drunk, or I don't have the same effects as the common drunk. That night, my trips to the bathroom consisted of ridding myself of the excess liquid that I consumed. After the dinner was over, I took a bus with Wei that went halfway to the dorms. From there, we walked home. I was easily able to navigate the streets with only slightly wavering every now and then. When I got home, I performed my nightly duties and went to bed, curious as to what might become of me the following morning.

Saturday & Sunday, May 12-13 - surprise, Surprise, SURPRISE
When I awoke, I felt the effects of the previous night as follows: I woke up an hour too early, and I felt slightly groggy. I had no headache, I had no sickness, I had no hangover. Therefore, I deem my first real experience with alcohol as a responsible and successful endeavor. This was fortunate, as I had things to do today.

I was to meet Nao at Osaka Station. I used my excessive planning skills to end up arriving there about 15 minutes early. Because of this I predicted (correctly at that), that she would be late. After waiting around for about 25 minutes (15 early and 10 late), we met up and made our way to Kobe. Our first planned activity was to visit the Kobe Zoo, which to my surprise had a $6 ticket. The zoo had some fairly interesting animals to see. After the zoo, we walked around Kobe for awhile before retiring to her house, where we would be dining with her family due to my saying that I enjoyed my time with Kenji's family. When we arrived, there was no one there, so we had to find stuff to do. First, she wanted me to fix her computer, which was difficult because A. it was a Mac that I have no idea how to use and B. It was all in Japanese which I cannot read. Despite this, I tinkered around with it and eventually found something that fixed her dilemma of the icons being too big. After that, she had me play the piano for her until her parents arrived.

The family consisted of the dad, the mom, the sister, and the sister's husband. After a brief introduction and conversation, Nao left to pick up her friend, Hiroko, who would also be joining us for the festivities. At that point, the sister's husband and the father attempted to talk with me. In the beginning, I was able to understand what they were saying. They were talking about how they began drinking and smoking early and therefore were bad boys in response to my explanation about having gotten drunk for the first time the day before. After that, the father began philosophizing about how beautiful the Japanese language is. At this point, I could no longer follow what he meant because such deep discussions are beyond the scope of my language knowledge. Fortunately, Nao soon returned with Hiroko and was able to attempt to explain.

For dinner, we had takoyaki, which, if you remember, is octopus encased in a batter. It was a little strange, however, in that there was no tako (octopus) to include in the takoyaki. Therefore, we were essentially eating batter balls with various other ingredients. After dinner, we all had some cake that the family bought for the evening. Once that was done, we cleaned up and Nao, Hiroko, and I headed into Nao's room to socialize and do various things. After awhile, it became apparent that I would be unable to go home since it was getting too late for the trains. Thus, I became an unexpected guest, but no one seemed to mind.

To break away from the timeline for a while, Over the past few entries pertaining to Nao, she had been progressively (at a very fast pace) been becoming more and more interested in me. First there was the strange way we met, then the giving of a birthday present, then the holding of the arm on the way home. I could tell from her stories that she seemed to have trouble expressing her emotions in that she was a little too friendly with guys. A great example was the story about her and the ex-boyfriend who lied about their relationship status. This lie was probably a product of her continuing to see him like nothing changed except for the physical aspect. Another situation was that she has an interest in a foreign person who wanted her to get a web camera to chat with him over the internet. I pointed out to her that she was about to spend a hefty amount of money just for one person, so he was basically controlling her. It seemed that, despite my shooting her attempts down, every time I altered her way of thinking, she came to adore me more. Hence, I felt that she would become lost in her emotions again.

The next day, Nao and Hiroko (also known as Toshi chan) had to get ready for their part-time jobs. Nao would be working from 10:00-2:00 and she wanted me to wait for her at her house. During my wait, I played the piano (keyboard with volume control) in order to recall all the songs that I had forgotten since my leave to Japan. After working hard for an hour and a half, I was actually able to revamp myself to about where I was before I stopped playing. At that point, Nao's mother came in and asked if I wanted some food. Nao's mom was having some trouble making me toast. With the assistance of the father, they discovered that the toaster had been unplugged. After remedying the problem, the toast was made and eaten. Nao's mom left with Nao's sister to go somewhere while I was eating. After I finished consuming my breakfast, I returned to my study at the piano.

I returned to the piano, but only for about thirty minutes. At that point, my two hours of sleep proved to be insufficient, so I slept for an hour, waking up upon Nao's return. After she came back, we returned to the place where she had been for the past four hours in order to eat lunch. Once finishing lunch, we returned to her house where we hung out and chatted for awhile. When it became time for me to go, she took me to the station and I headed home.

I later asked Nao if she got in trouble for my stay, but she said that her parents didn't really say anything. I got the impression that her mom liked me and her father seemed rather indifferent.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Now Where Did I Leave Off....

Before you read this blog, please revisit the entry entitled "New Music and New People." I have added two new paragraphs concerning an event that I was confused about for awhile that now holds pertinence to the following stories.

Saturday, May 5 - To Namba We Go
Today I was to go meet Keisuke on a trip to Namba. We had been looking for some friends to go with us, but we were largely unsuccessful in doing so. I was able to get Nao to agree to come, but she couldn't join us until later that night and she would have to bring her friend.

My arrival at Namba Station sent Keisuke on a hunting trip since I ended up on the wrong side of the rather large station. After he came and rescued me, we began our journey of trying to find stuff to do. Our original plan involved Saki and Chiaki, but they apparently could not join us, so we had to find stuff to do with just two people. First, we looked around in a popular department store, but everything in there was rather dull and boring. After we walked around for a bit more, we stopped by some arcades in order to have some fun. Next, we went to a cafe where we enjoyed a triple chocolate drink while waiting for Nao to arrive.

I had earlier spoken to Nao online about our venture and did some information fishing. As I discovered, her friend was a guy, but she was not dating him. When they arrived in Namba, I discovered that this friend was one of the exchange students at the school. From there, we all went to eat okonomiyaki for dinner. After dinner, Keisuke had to leave since he had another appointment to attend to. Nao, Matt, and I went to karaoke. It seemed that Nao did not want to sing in front of us except for the few songs that she sang with one of us. Matt and I had several songs that we both knew, so we got to sing together a few times.

After karaoke, we went to the station in order to head home. Nao had to go a separate way. Matt began asking how I knew her, so I described the rather odd circumstance of meeting to him. From there, he casually stated that she was his girlfriend. Unfortunately, this information was inconsistent with the information that I had previously received. However, I thought that it might be best to approach the incompatibility from the other side since it could cause trouble if I brought it up to him. Therefore, I pleaded the fifth and we returned home peacefully.

Later, I asked Nao about the mismatched information and she verified that they were not together. She explained that they used to date, but she broke up with him because of the future distance problems. She expressed her concern about his statement in that she thought he might still believe they are together. After later asking him about it, she found that he did indeed lie about it. Through my psychological analysis, he wanted to get back together with her and perceived me as a threat to that goal. Unfortunately for him, his untruth pushed that idea over the edge by making her mad at him for lying about such a thing and therefore making her not want to talk with him anymore. (These events all happened over a series of days over the span of a week).

Sunday, May 6 - To Dinner
Today was the three weeks in the making plan to go to dinner with Miruku and friends. She brought Yuki and two other friends. She tried to invite Albert along, but he was sick. We met halfway at Kyobashi Station and made our way to the restaurant. Miruku said that the restaurant that she reserved was a little expensive, but looking at the menu, the prices were still less expensive than in America. We all enjoyed our meals while talking. After eating, we stayed and chatted for about two hours. Yuki's father had previously gotten upset with her for going to dinner with some guy (me) because he is very strict. Therefore, he mandated that she be back home by 9:30. However, 9:3o came and went. Apparently, Yuki has a bit of an attitude when it comes to being told what to do. This amused me, as it is against my image of a Japanese person to do such things. After we left, we all went to the station and parted ways.

Monday, May 7 - Otanjoubi, Omedetou!
Today was my birthday. As a present, my Japanese teacher gave me.... a test! A test that I later found out on which I got the highest grade out of all my other tests. As another present, I got to go to my favorite culture class and stare off into space and then do a similar act in my human resources class, but with a little more attention every now and then. After class, I was to meet with Nao, who insisted on getting me a present. She was officially the only person who gave me a present and also officially the person I knew for the shortest time (5 days). She got me a kimono for males since I asked her to get something Japanese. After that, Nabil appeared and insisted that we celebrate my birthday, so Nabil, Nao, and I went to karaoke. This time, I was able to get Nao to sing songs on a consistent basis and by herself - an interesting development considering that she used to date Matt and would not sing with him and now Nabil, who she did not know at all was there and yet she still opted to sing.

After karaoke, Nao realized that she would not be able to get home since the trains would stop before she could reach home. Fortunately, she was able to find a friend to stay with who even lived near the dorms. So we all walked home together. Using the excuse that it was cold, Nao took my arm in order to keep warm. This was a fairly consistent act all the way home. Hence was my birthday.

Tuesday, May 8 - Alright, That Does It...
All I can recall from this day was that I gave up on getting my sister's birthday present from a site that hadn't shipped it for three weeks, so I had one of my Japanese friends help me choose from another site that was in Japanese.

Wednesday, May 9 - Nada
I don't recall anything particularly special happening this day other than meeting with Masami and Nana again for lunch.

Thursday, May 10 - A Glass of Milk
Today I got to go to karaoke with Miruku; this time unaccompanied by friends. Miruku is part of a gospel choir, so I was expecting a treat. Sure enough, she had a voice. Throughout our singing, I assisted her in pronouncing English at her request. After karaoke, we went for dinner where I continued to assist her with pronunciation. She also perused her dictionary for English cliches and I attempted to explain the meanings to her. After we stayed in the restaurant for awhile, we finally left to head home.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Man, You Trippin'!

Thursday, May 3
Today, I got to get lost; as I expected. I was to go to Shiga, an area near Kyoto, home of the largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa. I was to meet my friend Kenji, who I had previously went to Kyoto and Round One with for the first time. I knew that I would get lost on the way there because he had to type an essay in his cellphone message about how to get there. So at 8:30am, I began my jouney.

The first leg of the journey was simple. I took a bus to the station and got on the ever-so-familiar Keihan train to go to Tambabashi. From there, Kenji had given me multiple warnings of which trains not to get on at the station. The train he told me to get on had signs pointing to it everywhere, hence giving me no trouble to find it. From there, I went to Kyoto station. At this point, Kenji's instructions told me to ride the JR line to my goal. Unfortunately, this station was at least the size of an airport, making his one sentence explanation very unhelpful. In fact, he was even lost when I called and asked him where the hell I was. After a good while, I finally discovered my destination with the help of various staff. Strangely enough, I had to go downstairs to reach the gate despite the fact that both Kenji and one of the staff said I would have to go upstairs... The last part of my journey took me to Oumihachiman in Shiga. The train conductor was almost impossible to hear since his voice was so quiet, so I had to watch what station was coming next. When I finally arrived, I happily got off of the train to find Kenji waiting for me outside of the ticket gate.

Our first stop was Lake Biwa. As we drove to the lake, I surveyed my surroundings. Shiga was much more rural than the other places I had been. Much of the land was devoted to growing rice. When we reached the lake, we were both famished. We drove around for awhile until we found a restaurant near the lake. It had a rather neat menu. It was here that I finally had my first helping of curry rice. We also had a nice view of the lake.

I had been thinking about the factors about my overnight stay with Kenji. Previously, he had been living in an appartment near the school, but now he lived so far away. It seemed odd that he would make this move by himself, so I asked him if my theory was true. As it turned out, I would in fact be staying with his family, not just him. This of course made me a little nervous since I would be indebted to people I haven't even met yet.

After lunch, we dropped by Kenji's house to deposit my bag before going off to karaoke. His Grandmother was there since she was 86 years old and couldn't really go anywhere. Their dog, Rin, was also there. At first, Rin didn't seem to like a stranger coming to the house. The Grandmother acted about how I expected; greeting me and then taking on a motherly role with Kenji asking if such and such was done and what we are going to do. The house itself was much bigger than I had anticipated. I had always heard how small Japanese houses were, but with the exception of the narrow hallways, the house was actually quite big! Just beside the house was a small temple that was managed by the family. The temple lacked a bell because they had to give it to the government during war time in order to make guns. Buying a new one would be very expensive.

Next, we went to karaoke. After that, we went back to his house where we played some games with my Nintendo DS until the family came home and it was time for dinner. And so I proceded down the stairs to meet the father and mother of my friend. Kenji's dad was a high school English teacher before he retired, so he would occasionally talk with me in English. These speakings were preceded by him saying 'ah!', tilting his head to the side, and staring into his mind while he put the sentence together. Despite his slow compiling speed, his sentences were very clear and easy to understand. Kenji's mother, like his Grandmother, spoke only Japanese, but with two English speakers around, I was able to keep up with what she was saying and respond back.

For dinner, the family planned the interactive experience of rolling sushi. As commonly thought of by foreigners, there was raw fish provided, but only as one ingredient. Since I was not keen on trying such things, I just stuck with the other ingredients, which were plentiful. After dinner, Kenji and I took the dog for a walk. This was my third encounter with Rin and by this time, she had gone from barking at me to jumping with excitement when I came near. This surprised everyone because Rin had taken a liking to me so quickly. After our walk, Kenji's sister finally came home. By that time as well, the family had prepared a bath for me in order for me to experience a Japanese-style bath.

First, I had to take a shower to clean myself. The shower was absolutely wonderful since there was actually water pressure as opposed to the gravity-based shower at the dorms. After that, I was to enter the bath in order to warm myself. It felt nice to be in the hot water, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do in there, so after awhile, I exited and got dressed again.

Next, the family wanted to hear me play piano. At this point, I hadn't played piano at all for three months with the exception of the short time I played for Kenji prior to his family's return. I did what I could to remember songs. For the most part, I was successful in playing.

It was becoming time for bed. I was to share Kenji's room. I noted that our countryside location created a lovely cacophony of frog noises outside the window. They were very Japanese frogs because they would all start and stop together. When they stopped making noise, it was like a window of sleep time. By the second time they stopped, I fell asleep.

Friday, May 4
Today started out with another walk with Rin. After this, we waited for the grocery store to deliver food as is custom to that particular town. While we waited, the Grandmother showed me some of the calligraphy that she used to write and asked me to take one. I chose the one that read, " White Clouds Flow Freely Without Roots," which is a Zen concept that the clouds can flow without anything holding them back. From there, we made our farewell from the household, but not before taking a group picture.

I went with Kenji, his father, and his mother. We had to drop his mom off at school where she taught as a contract worker since she had already retired from her real job. From there, we went to see tanuki statues, which are statues of raccoons. There were many stores to look at in the area. After window shopping some, we went to a museum of tanuki figures and from there, we went to lunch. I was very hungy. After lunch, they took me to the station where it was time to go.

The trip back was much easier than the trip there. Kenji pointed me to the correct train to go back to Kyoto Station. From there, there were a plethora of signs that pointed to my destination. In fact, the actual journey there was much shorter than the journey I had originally took. At this point, I had some trouble getting a ticket since the machines I went to would not take my 10,000 yen bill. After asking about it, I was pointed to the green machines that would take my money. From there, everything went smoothly all the way home.

Nabil wanted to hoist me away again that evening, but I elected to stay and do nothing since I was tired from my travels. I stayed at home and chatted with some Japanese friends online.

New Music and New People

Tuesday, May 1
Today's main event was going to karaoke with my friends Masami and Nana. I had met them previously on my 'nine people in one day' meeting experience. We went to the place that I called 'the expensive one' because depending on the time and people configuration, the price can get way out of hand. Apparently, our configuration was well made and the price was actually lower than the other place's when split up between us.

This place had a few different songs than the other, so I took advantage of the variety and tried singing some more Kana songs. I wasn't very good at them since I had never tried to sing them before. Masami tried singing English songs. For the most part, I could not understand what she was saying since she was still deep in the process of learning English. Nana exercised her shyness by singing so that I could barely hear her.

After karaoke, Masami and Nana wanted to go home since it was dangerous for girls at night due to drunk Japanese men wandering around. Before they left, Masami made me borrow a CD of My Chemical Romance. This was ironic since a Japanese person was trying to get me into an American band. I took them to the station and headed home.

Wenesday, May 2
Today in Japanese class, they had a group of student teachers come in and present a lesson on Kansai dialect. My perceived title of this course was, "We're Finally Going to Teach You What the People Around You Have Been Saying Now That You're Leaving." On top of that, it was made like a super cram session so that it was quite difficult to actually grasp most of the concepts. Although the student teachers tried to make it fun, having the fun was actually more work than I wanted to do, so I was eagerly awaiting the end of the class.

After class, I went for another sid-down in the lounge where I was again constantly met by various people one after the other. I probably met another 7-9 people in one day again. Always busy I am... Even as I was trying to go home, I was followed by a new person who wanted to meet me. I wonder if I can pack my popularity with me when I go home.

While I was leaving the CIE, I noticed that two girls were looking at me. They didn't say anything as I was passing, so I continued walking. After I walked past the neighboring building, I heard someone running behind me. It turned out to be one of the girls who was looking at me. When she reached me, the first thing that came out of her mouth was "can we be friends?". This, on top of the whole running after me thing was very shocking to me, as Japanese girls do not typically act in such a way - in fact, I don't think any cultural group of girls do. After I recovered from the surprise, we introduced ourselves; I as Michael, she as Nao. Since I was hungry, I described my exiting campus as going to a restaurant. Since Nao had gone through such trouble to meet me, she decided to tag along.

As we were leaving campus, her friend Hiroko (the other girl who was looking at me) passed us on her bike. She expressed her opinion of our going to dinner as being 'fast' and my rebuttal was that I was hungry. Nao and I talked on our way to the restaurant as well as while we were in the restaurant. While we talked, I disclosed that my birthday was soon when the topic of age came up. I also expressed an interest to see Kobe again after she made known that she lived there. From our conversation, we made plans for her to show me around Kobe two weekends later. After dinner, she boarded the bus and headed home.

At the dorm, Nabil gathered the troops and we marched off to karaoke again. Such occurences seem to be the only times that Todd ever leaves the dorm other than school or buying food. I wonder why he came to Japan since he just sits in front of his computer all day. I'm over here making myself go places and he just rots at home. In fact, after we were at karaoke for awhile, he apparently got bored of singing and just sat there until we left. I don't get it, and I probably won't.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

More Randomnity

I absolutely love Japanese advertisements! I can't read a word on them, but I can blow my nose with them!

Also, here's another lesson about Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2jCU8mNfT4

And here is how Japanese people learn English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDoL_PFg6U

Monday, April 30, 2007

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Moving On

LET'S SKIP THE LACKLUSTER DISCOURSE OF HOW I MET 40,000,000,000 PEOPLE AND GET TO THE MORE ERRATIC EVENTS OF LIFE :D :D :D

Monday - Met People
Tuesday - Met People
Wednesday - Met People

Thrusday
Today was the day of our Japanese mini drama, aka, skit. I had been working on the script's development with my French partner Judi for the past two weeks and now the time had come to present it. As most of the events as of late have shown, the skit could not go through without complication. As if by necessity, I had become sick. My throat was scratchy and I felt sick all over. Knowing that I could not miss the presentation, I made my way to school in order to fullfil my duty.

The skit itself was simple. My fears of having a coughing attack were never realized and I remembered all of my lines except one, which I simply had to glance at the English version of the script for a moment to remember what came next. From what I could hear, it sounded like Judi had several mispronunciations of her part and had much more trouble with the lines in general. In case of such an event, I had prepared a powerpoint to go along with the presentation in order to semi-distract the audience. Unfortunately, when it comes to grading, Judi will have to face judgment since the skits were videotaped.

I went through the rest of the day suffering through my other two classes. In Human Resources, one of the Japanese students was being followed around by a camera crew for some job hunting interview since she could speak remarkably good English. I tried by best to not look like I was dying while the camera crew was there. After they left, we had a group present their project to us. When class was finally over, I inched my way home, having developed a slight fever by then.

It was not my intention to be afflicted by this illness for long. After I got home at 4:00, I went straight to bed. As could be expected, my sleep was under constant interruption from waking up since I was sick. After sleeping until 10:00, I got up to take a shower. From there, I went back to sleep. I continued fighting my way through sleep until 5:30, when I figured that I had slept all I could. I still felt sick and a little nauseous. I wasn't sure if I was sick to my stomach or if I was just feeling strange for not having ate for 16 hours, but I figured I needed to try eating something, so I had some bread. After eating and not getting sick, I sat at my desk wondering what to do with all the time I had. I looked over at my bed and suddenly wanted to go back to sleep; so I did. I woke up a little before 9:00, making it so that I slept about 16 hours total. I noticed that the sick feeling had disappeared and my fever had gone with it. My throat was still messy though.

Today, being Friday, I had my long break between classes. I discovered as the day progressed that my voice was beginning to fade. It was ironic that I had to talk to people all day. All I did was sit in the lounge and mind my own business and everytime one person left, another person came - including people I didn't even know yet! By the time the day was over, I had almost no voice left! My fever had also started creeping back, so I went to bed at 9:00.

Saturday
I was still sick, but my fever had died completely. Unfortunately, my voice problem was at full quantity. On top of that, I was very susceptible to coughing. Despite that, I was to go on a trip to Kobe with my fellow sick friend, Shiori. We went together as the coughing crew - both of us with colds. On the way to Kobe via train, Shiori would constantly nod-off due to being tired. Due to the ebb and flow of the train, she would eventually fall on me, which I thought was funny. After we reached Kobe, we visited the area called Sannomiya, where there was a festival being held for the people who died in an earthquake 12 years ago and to celebrate their foreign community. After we watched some of the festival, we wandered around for awhile until we came across some European-style tour houses. Shiori has a particular interest in such places because she went to England to study abroad; therefore, we went on a tour. We got a discount to see three houses for $10 as opposed to $15 since we were students. It looked like Shiori was in a dream world as she wandered through the houses. There were some rather interesting things to see as well. After we finished the tour, she found another area with more houses. I requested that we go elsewhere since I wanted to see some Japanese things too. That saved another $12 dollars and me from getting bored. Next, we headed off to the famous China Town. Our visit primarily consisted of us doing a walkthrough. It was pretty nice. As an ending to our journey, we went to Kobe tower. It was very pretty at twilight. From there, we trekked back to the station where we started our journey back home. She again dozed off and fell on me, but this time, she realized that she fell on me and apologized. I told her that it was better me than a stranger, at which point, she elected to rest her head on my shoulder to prevent such from happening. At Hirakata, she stayed on the train to go to Kyoto where she lived, and I went to Makino to save myself some walking time.

Sunday - It's a do nothing, catch up with my blog/do homework day! My voice is a little better and I have a cold X_x

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Catching Up Again

Friday, April 20 - The Milky Way

I had previously received an email from Miruku inquiring where I was at the moment. At that particular time, I had already returned to my dorm, where I would continue work on that horrific project of mine. I described to Miruku in my response that I would be tremendously busy until Friday. Since she had obviously tried to set up a meeting with me, I decided not to leave her hanging by inviting her to lunch with me on Friday. When said day arrived, we met as planned.

She came with some friends who, after meeting me, all went off to do something else. Miruku and I surveyed the area for potential foodage, and we decided to go to the upstairs cafeteria in order to perform the eating ritual. I had never been to the upstairs cafeteria before. They had some different selections, but nothing substantial. I opted to get the omuraisu, which is the Japanese way to say omelette with rice in it. After we got our food, Miruku and I talked about various things. After eating, we continued to talk about various things in the CIE. Eventually, class interfered with our conversation.

Today, we had another negotiation. We were acting as representatives of a college including the trustees, headmaster, and faculty. I was part of the faculty with three others. The negotiation went about as we expected. The headmaster fought hard for his sports improvements, the faculty fought hard for the scholastic improvements, and the trustees fought hard for the profit margins. As we were winding the negotiation up, the teacher walked in and distributed a paper that said a student was attacked on a dark path and we were advised to invest in lighting. This was a rather sneaky move to make the negotiation more interesting. We had only half the necessary money to complete the lights as our deal stood. We decided to do half the lights and add a lighting project to the engineering curriculum as well as a self-defense class.

After the negotiation, I returned to the lounge to meet Miruku and Yuki. We stayed and talked until the lounge closed at 8:15. From there, Miruku and Yuki decided to join me for dinner to prevent me from having to eat alone. We went to Roro where we continued our random chatting. After dinner, we each went our own ways since it was late.

Saturday, April 21 - The Funkytown Osaka Tour: fieldtrip tag

As aptly named by our teacher, we went on a fieldtrip for my Culture class. On the way to the station, I saw many of my classmates riding the bus too. We arrived a little early, so I talked with my classmate Sayuri for awhile until it was time to meet with the class.

Our first stop led us to the Liberty Osaka Museum, where we got to view various articles on human rights in Japan. Most unfortunely, coupled with my already uninterest in museums, all of the displays were in Japanese, hence making the experience quite boring. I had to backtrack several times in order to prevent finishing the tour an hour before those who could read Japanese. After I finished the tour, I went to eat lunch at the museum's cafeteria with Eilene and Sayuri. We had to rush since we were worried about being late for our departure time, but we ended having to wait for the teacher to finish the tour anyway.

Next, we ventured to the homeless area of Osaka. There were many people with many reactions to our 25 person group. Some people ignored us, some people greeted us, some people greeted us per person, some people commented on us, and some people tried to talk with us. After walking around for awhile, we went to an even more obscure area: the red light district. There were many open buildings, each featuring a young girl being guarded by a not so young girl. Many of the young girls laughed as we passed, perhaps out of embarrassment, or pehaps because there were 20-some foreigners walking through the red light district of Osaka.

After leaving the slums of Osaka, we began making our way to Korea Town. On the way there, we passed through several shopping areas that were very narrow, but full of people. We later passed through a fish market. Next, we stopped by a shrine, where most people sat down and rested since we had been walking for several hours straight. We then went into Korea Town, where, other than a few different names on products, everything pretty much looked like Japan.

We ended our tour at a Korean restaurant, where I discovered that all of our food had been pre-ordered by the teacher. This of course meant that I would not like much of what came my way since a lot of it was either spicy or seafood. The last dish looked like someone went to the beach and threw in everything they found without even removing the shells! All I can say is that it was a $20 meal that I walked away from still feeling hungry. So at last I found food that I don't like in Japan; except the food wasn't Japanese...

Sunday, April 22 - You Are Candy!

Today was the welcome 'party' for the freshmen. It seemed to be more of a recruiting effort from the school clubs than a welcoming ceremony. The main attraction was in front of the cafeteria, where many musical clubs came to perform. I watched a few performances until I got hungry and went for lunch. While at lunch, I was joined by Hisaka and her friend Yumi. By this time, the reality that my project was actually over had finally caught up with me, so I was in a rather hyper-active mood. Because of this, Hisaka, at one point, said that I was okashii (strange), but in a good way. Okashi also means candy in Japanese, so I proclaimed, "I'm not candy!" This seemed to be popular with my company, as from then on, Hisaka would proclaim, "You are candy!"

After lunch, we exited the cafeteria to find a heavy metal band performing. There was a big Japanese guy screaming and the guitarists were going wild. I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Hisaka and Yumi seemed to get a kick out of me thinking it was funny. After we got tired of watching the band, we wandered off toward the CIE where we were drafted by the dance team to join them in a mini lesson. I attempted to follow the instructions and eventually was able to do the moves acceptably by the end of the lesson. From there, we went to the gymnasium to watch various clubs introduce themselves. That did not prove to be very entertaining, so we went back to watching the bands perform. Some of them were actually pretty good. After we finished watching the bands, we all went home.

I met Nabil, Todd, and Einar and we all went to dinner. After dinner, Todd and Einar went home and I went to karaoke with Nabil. We tried singing some different songs since our party was small this time. After that, we headed home to prepare for the oncoming school day.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

My Thesis to You

I have a game on my computer called Stepmania. It is a computer simulation of the popular Japanese dance game, Dance Dance Revolution. Every now and then, I will run across a difficult song that will prove very challenging to pass. Despite the song's difficulty, I am able to survive, however, toward the end of this song, there is a part that is almost impossible to pass that makes me fail the song. I have named such an instance as a f--- you move.

Perhaps it has crossed your interest as to why I am describing such things to you in my rather late blog about my recent experiences in Japan. To clear things up, the past several days have been a splitting example of the f--- you move in that I have been so unbelievably swamped with school work that I had absolutely no interest to sit down and catch up with several days worth of blogging. Because I now have almost two weeks worth of story to tell, I have named this particular blog a thesis.



Sunday, April 8 - Flowers Galore
For centuries, it has been a Japanese tradition to view the majestic sakura/cherry blossom tree blooming. This practice, named Hanami (flower seeing), had been the hot topic around campus for a few weeks. The sakura had an apparent short lifespan, and I had yet to see them. I started to worry that I might not get to see these flowers since I have difficulties traveling to new places by myself and could not find anyone to go with me. Then suddenly, it was Kazuki to the rescue! My dear friend and I traveled to Zoheikyouku in Osaka; the Japanese version of the US Mint. Our journey led us to a jam-packed park in the area where many others had come to view the flowers. As we walked, I was able to witness both the majestic flowers, that were quite plentiful, and the masses of Japanese folk who were partaking in their time-old tradition of flower viewing. As we left the park, we progressed into the heart of Zoheikyouku where we joined the multi-lane line of people wandering through the aisle of sakura trees. As if in Atlanta traffic on foot, we progressed through the area, snapping pictures as we crept. At one point, Kazuki asked if I knew how to change pictures on the computer, so I later took one of the pictures from our trip and made it look like he burned down a house. I quite honestly have no idea what we did after seeing the flowers, as that was literally two weeks ago. But feel free to view the pictures under the hanami tag.

Wednesday, April 11 - Hito ga ooi
Today was the first day of school. Of course, I refer to the Japanese students, as I have been in school for a long time already. 12:00 lunch time went from very busy to unbearable. During my waiting period between classes, I noticed a group of three Japanese girls peering into the lounge. It was obvious that they thought they were not allowed to enter, so I beckoned them inside to permit them entrance. The girls asked if it was okay for them to enter and then began the typical process of practicing English with a foreigner. These girls, Yuka, Miki, and Kayoko, made similar comments to what Ai and Hiromi said about me in terms of being handsome. I think this perception is mainly due to me not being Japanese, as some Japanese girls prefer foreign looks. We talked for a short while before they all scampered out, having to go somewhere.

I also saw my friends from before the semester ended, Koichiro and Mariko. I had met Mariko only once, and when I remembered her name, she was taken aback. After we talked for awhile, their friend, Kanae, came to join the party. However, Koichiro and Mariko had to take their leave for class and so I just talked with Kanae as did Albert, who eventually joined in as well.

Outside, there were many clubs advertising themselves for the new students. Some clubs were performing their various arts, while others just sat at tables patiently. The campus had certainly come to life. I also noticed that the school facilities remained open much later than before, which I was somewhat upset about since it was unfair to the foriegn students before.

Thursday, April 12 - The End of Freedom
The main reason my blog is two weeks behind is because of the giant presentation we had in Human Resource Management that I volunteered to do the powerpoint for while the other members simply had to make their speaking parts. As a great summation of the next week's worth of work on the presentation, I had to continuously make ammendments to the project up until the day of the presentation which was a week from this entry.

In addition to the project, I had also volunteered to speak at an intercultural exchange event on Saturday, which I had a feeling would make life difficult for me. I decided that it was best to fully concentrate on completing the presentation for that so I won't have to worry about it later. I decided to do my topic on International Food in America.

Friday, April 13 - Lunch Meet
Lunch time had become atrocious. There were never any seats for to sit at since there were so many students. Of course, being an exotic foreigner, I was able to easily find an open seat and gain permission to use it. As if by divine will, the people at the table would eventually start a conversation with me. That is how I met Shiori, Ayako, Mariko, Nanako, and Saki. Shiori was apparently preparing for a job interview as most third year students go for in preparation for graduation. She had to leave before everyone else, but we all did the 'great exchange' of phone information before she left. Ayako was the flamenco club with one of my friends, Yuko. I showed everyone the picture of Kazuki burning down a house and was able to convince them that he acutally did it before telling them that I made the picture myself. I also showed Saki Saki's picture, and she said that she might have seen her before. We all continued to chat until they had to go.

After lunch, I went to work on my project in the lounge. While working, Yuka, Miki, and Kayoko came for a visit. I decided that Kayoko was the single most cutest girl in Japan, as I have to work to not daze off while looking at her. I spent their visit showing them my project thus far and then several pictures from home. Soon after, they again had to go.

Saturday, April 14 - International Exchange
I made my way to school early so I could eat lunch before presenting. From there, I went to the event's room where I discovered myself to be first: first in arriving, and first in presenting. My presentation worked as it should and all was set and ready. The room seemed to be rather scarce as it neared starting time, but at the last minute, there became standing room only, which soon after also dissipated.

I didn't expect my speech to be anything special, but it really didn't matter since I was first and there was nothing to compare it to. Everyone else primarily presented about their cultures which was both interesting and boring at times. The main event, as I had anticipated, was Nabil doing a traditional dance from Dubai. For pictures, please refer to the nabildance tag. I also have a video with no place to put it. After the presentations, we had chat time where I met two more girls who I have pretty much forgotten since I saw them only once. Later, I went with Kazuki for karaoke.

Sunday, April 15 - All Work and Some Play
I worked on my project all Sunday until Nabil came by that evening and we all went to Round One. I needed the break, but I felt that it would not be enough.

Monday, April 16 - Death
As I expected, I was completely burned out on Monday from having so much work to do. Apart from the project, most of my classes kept throwing homework at me and I wasn't too interested to hear it. After dragging through my classes with an alcohol-less hangover, I went to the computer lab with Yu (group member) to discuss what he wanted added to the powerpoint. I ran into Shiori in the lab and after I finished talking with Yu, I went to dinner with Shiori who was looking for something to do that evening. We talked about how she wanted to become a flight attendant and how her interviews were going. After talking in the restaurant for about two hours, we walked to the station in search for something to do. We went into a store where she looked at some magazines for awhile. Soon after, she discovered that she had to go since the buses in Kyoto stop early. My evening adventure helped me feel a little better, but I was still mostly dead and I still had all the work I had to do.

Tuesday, April 17 - And Her Name Was Milk
Lunch presented the same problem as usual with no seats readily available, and so I scouted out a cute girl with an open seat and asked if I could sit. I allowed the automated process of being talked to to take place. Sure enough, one of the girls at the table began a conversation. This girl's name was Miruku, which is the Japanese pronunciation of milk. She was with her friend, Yuki, and they were sitting at the table with another girl, Miho, who they did not know. I could tell that Miho was in a higher grade than Miruku and Yuki since her English homework was much more advanced than the English that Miruku and Yuki were using. In fact, as Miruku struggled to communicate with me, Miho would occasionally chuckle since I would look at her, knowing she knew what they wanted to say.

Most of the conversation came from Miruku, who seemed to have a much more assertive personality than any other Japanese girl I had came across. Yuki and Miho seemed to remain as simple spectators for the entire time. I eventually told Miruku that she was very animated (with the help of my dictionary) because she would constantly move while talking. She was very entertaining. All of us also participated in the 'great exchange' of phone information before parting ways.

Later that evening, I saw Miruku in the CIE as I was thinking about heading home. We went into the lounge where we joined some of her friends, a different Yuki, Masato, and one who's name I did not catch. We continued to talk for awhile until Yusuke pulled me away to ask me about the project. After I helped him figure out what to do, I returned to the girls to talk with them until they had to go.

Wednesday, April 18 - More Names
In the lounge, I found Mariko and her friend Yoshie, who I had met briefly before. Mariko soon had to go to class, and she was replaced by Yuko, my classmate. I worked on my project while occasionally talking to Yoshie and Yuko. Both of them had an impending class and so they had to go eventually. Soon after their exit, however, I was joined by a new group of girls. I can remember only two of their names, which were Hisaka and Risa. Albert had also joined the party soon after their arrival. I spent my time showing them various pictures on my laptop since my ability to work on my project was once again interrupted. We all talked until I had to go to class. After I went back to the dorm, Miruku sent me a message asking where I was. I told her I was very busy up until Friday, so we set up an appointment to meet for lunch on Friday.

Thursday, April 19 - The SuperNova
At long last, the day had finally arrived. All I could think about all day was getting rid of my presentation. The day inched by like a legless dead mule on a conveyer belt going the opposite direction. Finally, the time came for us to give our presentation. As opposed to my usual speeches, I was extremely unprepaired for this one since all of my time was spent on making the powerpoint. I was fortunate to have typed out a speech for me to read to the class, although I had no time to practice it. My part was substantially shorter than everyone else's though, so it wasn't so bad for the presentation. I was surprised that we actually spent the entire class presenting, as I thought we would come up 30 minutes short.

After the presentation, I went to meet Einar so he could take my laptop home for me. I was on my way to Kyoto. I was going to meet my friend Aya, who I met from the website I became a member of a while ago. Aya has a dream to become a singer, so we were planning to go to karaoke so I could see what she was all about. Once we met, I could tell that she had a voice just by how she talked. She had been studying English for only a year via private lessons. It seemed that they had spent a large amount of time perfecting her pronunciation, as she had very clear speech. What they hadn't spent a lot of time on was vocabulary, so we had some difficulties communicating at times.

For some odd reason, we ended up driving aroud Kyoto for two hours looking for a place to eat. Once we finally found a place and ate, we went to karaoke for an hour. She had me start out before taking her turn. As I later had to get a friend to help me translate for her, listening to her sing was like listening to a CD. With the exception of a few 'l' sounds and 'th' sounds, I could swear that I was listening to an American pop star singing on a professionally made CD. She said that she would sound bad since she had a bit of a cold, but I couldn't hear it.

After karaoke, we both had to go back home since it was getting late. When I finally got home, it had been 13 hours since I left that morning.

I'll type the rest later! I have to go to class now!

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Random Acts of Practice

Friday started off like any other Friday; go to Japanese class and do my language lab assignment. After lunch, I decided to put a theory I had to the test. The last few days, I just sat in the lounge doing nothing in particular when all of the sudden, something cool happened. And so, after working on my Japanese review sheet, I began listening to music and playing my DS while greeting people as they passed. At one point, I looked up and there were two Japanese girls standing there hoping to get my attention.

After noticing them, they asked if I could help them practice English if I wasn't busy. Of course, I was glad to talk with them instead of play games, and I cooly shut my DS to show that I would talk with them. They were freshmen who would be starting school next week. They asked me various questions in English and had to return to Japanese from time to time, but I was easily able to understand what they said. At one point, they asked if I had a girlfriend. They were surprised that I did not since they both thought I was handsome! - If the beginning of the Japanese school year will bring random girls who think I am handsome to me, let's get it started already! - Their English was actually quite good with the exception of their heavy Japanese accentation of syllables that don't need the extra sound. (You can see my house-u from-u the gate-o) After we talked for awhile, they had to go and I returned to my game in waiting for class.

After class, as soon as I got home, Nabil and Einar hoisted me away to Hirakata station. We were looking for someplace to eat when Nabil suggested that we go to an Indian restaurant that he had eaten at before. Neither I nor Einar knew what we wanted to get, so Nabil decided we should go with the meal set. The set cost about $30 per person, which I expressed that I was not thrilled to pay, so Nabil said he would pay $60 worth (because he likes spending money or something).

We started with some salad which was very good. Next came some potato-like things wrapped in a triangle (yes, I forgot the name). I wasn't too into the potato things because they were spicy and whatever gave them the spice had an odd taste. I eventually finished the whole thing though. Next came some chicken. I assumed that the red color they had indicated that they too were spicy, and indeed they were (note that Michael spicy is much more mild than most would call spicy). After that, the spice went away with the bread called nan (I remember that one!) and curry. I enjoyed the bread and curry greatly. Lastly, we were given some mango icecream to finish off the meal. I had some sort of yogurt drink with the meal that proved quite effective against the spice. It was a nice experience, but I would go there only so often since the price is so high.

After dinner, we all went to Ring to do more karaoke. I did several songs that Nabil felt obligated to clap after I finished. I also did some Japanese songs from Kana and Ayumi that I was able to keep up with fairly well. After we sang for three hours, we did some table tennis before walking back home.

At home, I had to enlist the help of my sister, Julianne/Julie/Jukums, to see if I could register for my classes back at CSU. As I feared, neither my advisor, nor the administrative staff in the business department removed my advising hold despite my having asked them to several days/weeks ago. I am now left worrying about how on earth I will register for my classes since no one from CSU seems to care about me now that I am abroad. Hopefully, it will all work out.

As a last note, I need to think of a topic to speak about concerning American culture. I am really clueless about what would be interesting for Japanese students to hear about, but I really would like to present something. Please please please send me ideas!

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Random Trips and Lessons Learned

I spent the majority of Tuesday afternoon looking through my Human Resources book/packet in prepartation for both the upcoming test and the upcoming study session I had with my Japanese classmates Yusuke, Yuko, and Nozomi. Being that English is their second language, I would naturally become a sort of 'teacher' for them instead of us just studying.

In addition to studying, I also had a meeting with my assigned group from International Negotiation about our upcoming negotiation for the next day. Our Dutch counterpart, Neils, had reportedly fallen ill with some sort of stomach problem and was unable to attend, so I proceded with the preparations with my Chinese counterpart, Wei. As we looked at the information we were given, it became apparent that this would not be an easy negotiation, as much of the information was unknown from the other side, while also being necessary for planning. Our meeting was short-lived, and I couldn't help but notice that our opposing team was in the lounge planning for nearly the whole afternoon.

In the evening, Nabil showed up and randomly suggested that we go to karaoke. We all figured that we might as well and we made way as our gaijin crew consisting of myself, Nabil, Einar, and this time Todd. To reminisce on some missed pictures from last time, there was Einar and I and Nabil and I. Aside from the tone-deaf Arab (who actually sounded better this time) and the Arnold Schwarzenegger impressionist (who sounded the same), Todd took on a fake heavy metal tone of voice, though he didn't seem to be trying very hard. The experience turned out to cost what I thought was an exorbitant amount. Fortunately/unfortunately, Nabil had promised us that he would treat us to karaoke. I said that next time we should go to the other karaoke place since we could wind up with half the price for the same thing.

Wednesday brought new activities to deal with as the day progressed. First, we were to have another negotiation meeting in attempt to talk with everyone in the group. After neither of them showed up on time, I went to have lunch, during which, Wei called me to say he would be late. When I returned to the lounge, I found Neils working on an essay. He had described his experience the previous day as needing to be within ten seconds from a toilet all day and getting a shot from the hospital in order to quell his stomach. After awhile, Wei showed up and we talked about the negotiation a little bit until they both had to go to class. I didn't feel like we had a solid plan, which was unfortunate since that was the last chance we had to meet before class.

Almost immediately after our negotiation meeting ended, my study session for Human Resources began. During the session, I pointed out several points that I thought were important for the test, as well as explained several of the concepts to my Japanese friends. Before long, it was time for me to go to class and attempt the negotiation. I was able to finish going over the material for our test just in time before leaving.

The negotiation was interesting. My team was to role-play an American company that had been bought out by a Japanese company. Our goal was to keep our freestyle work environment in tact which was an interesting feat considering that most American companies are not even that free. Our opposing team consisted of three Japanese girls who were to represent the Japanese company. To make matters more interesting, the teacher had rented some video cameras for us to record our negotiation.

The negotiation itself was so long that we ran out of tape. It seemed that our team, despite not having discussed the negotiation that much, was able to work together towards common goals. I would many times want to add something, but another member would start talking about it before I got the chance. Despite our easy flow of words, the Japanese side had to break away from us several times to discuss certain aspects together before telling us what they thought. In the end, we came to an agreement that we were both able to be happy with - two hours after we began.

After discovering that we were probably the last group to finish, I decided that we might as well make something of our meeting and I declaired 'Nijikai!,' which means second meeting - typically for eating out together. And so we all headed to a Japanese-style restaurant where we shared a variety of different dishes. In total, our meal cost about $30... for six people, coming out to about $5 per person.

After returning home, it was time for my words from Monday to come back at me. I bet my roommates the rough equivalent of $100 that they couldn't drink a 1.5 liter bottle of soda
within a certain time limit without burping until the end, at which point they had to exhale a single burp and no more. I was joking about the bet, but they were adamant about doing it.

Todd was up first with a twenty minute limit, which I thought was unreasonable. His strategy seemed strange, as he was making odd noises as he progressed. As it turned out, he was cheating by burping through his nose while swallowing. His mischief did not help him though, as he reached the point where he could no longer hide his gastric sounds.

Einar took his shot next with a much more admirable time limit of five minutes. Since his time limit was so low, Todd also threw in his $100 bet. Einar seemed intent on following the rules as he gulped down the soda like a machine. For some odd reason, he felt it necessary to have a conversation with Todd while he was on the spot. After he got about halfway through, he had to hunch over to take a break and walk around for a little while. As he moved back toward the bottle, he began shaking his head to indicate that it was over and he exploded. He was upset that he had just eaten prior to the contest, and he demanded a retry on Friday. Since I didn't want to bet $100 in the first place, I took the opportunity for readjustment and downed my offer to $20. I think I will enjoy the experience more now that I don't have to pay an unfair amount of money when I have only something to lose.

Monday, April 2, 2007

Sore Throats

On Saturday, I was set to meet Kazuki, who had purchased some Japanese sweets for me while he was in Tokyo (since we had been discussing how we both like sweets earlier). I decided to bring him some American candy in return for the gift. I figured that a simple exchange of candies would not make a useful meeting, so I pressed for another activity. Agreeing to the notion, Kazuki and I went to a local department store to look around. I picked out some items that I thought were interesting before we headed out to look for something to eat. After dinner, we opted to go to Ring, where we did some more karaoke.

This karaoke experience was different from the last in two ways: first, Kazuki is able to sing on key, and second, my voice had a much more raspy quality to it that made singing a little more challenging. Needless to say, by the end of our activity, my voice was set to call it quits. After we left Ring, we parted ways as we each went home.

I spent Sunday talking to various people though email. I was able to set up a transaction for a fairly rare set of Japanese items that shall remain unsaid for gift-giving purposes with someone I met through a Japanese website. It was surprising to me that she offered to pay for the items in advance for me, especially since we had never actually met in person. I will have to advise her to be wary of doing such a thing in the future, as some people may not actually pay her back.

Monday
Today's most interesting event was that my friend Eri came to ask me for help in pronouncing English words. She explained that she had to give a speech to the new Japanese students at Kansai Gaidai in English and she wanted to say everything correctly. After going through the speech I was pleased to tell her that all she had to work on was the 'th' sound and when to use 'r' and 'l'. I think she will just have to wing the word 'program' since she can only say 'proglam' or 'plogram'. After our session, she said now all she had to worry about was her sore throat from the cold she caught.

For dinner, Nabil and I rode down to Makino. By 'rode', I mean that I got on the back part of his bike and held on for dear life as he rode from the school to Makino (about a 30 minute walk). Fortunately, he did not pull any stunts like the last time I rode on the bike and did not speed down any hills while I tried to wish myself to another planet. That did not keep my hindquarters from becoming quite sore from the metal protrusion that I was situated upon. It was a flat surface, but it was a series of metal stripes instead of a plate. I was glad to arrive and depart without a scratch.

The Night of the Gaijin

Friday

Up to this point, there has never been a night that I went out with a group of people that did not include a Japanese person. Tonight, all of that changed. It was me, Nabil, and Einar who went as a unisoned trio out to town. By Nabil's suggestion, we embarked on a course to Round One; his apparently favorite place in all of Japan.

As if compelled by divine will, Nabil instantly made his first stop the golf area as is customary of all of his visits to the entertainment center. Since the activity is not multiplayer friendly, we split our unison as I guided Einar to the arcade section of the facility. We began our adventure by playing a guitar-based game that was very similar to guitar hero, but much simpler. After wallowing through our three songs, we moved on to participate in a drum game that I had also seen in America. Next, we participated in a short DDR session. By the time, Nabil had rejoined us, but by the time our game was over, he had disappeared to play tennis against a machine. Einar and I played a few more games before Nabil joined us again and we all went to play table-tennis/ping-pong.

Our experience was hightened by setting up a game that could include all three of us - circle tennis. This game consisted of each person running around the table in a circle in attempt to hit the ball before it falls to the floor. After doing this for a good while, we decided to take turns having matches. Once we concluded our matches, we made our way to the outdoor sports area. We spent the rest of our time there before it was time to go. From there, we returned to Hirakata station to eat.

After dinner, we sat in the station wondering if our night out was over. It was about 10:00pm. There were two people who set up some instruments and started singing. Let's call it a jury-rigged rig. What these two people accomplished was giving Nabil the idea to have us continue our venture and go to karaoke.

We made our way to the karaoke studio that I went to with Saki and friends, hoping that it would still be open. We discovered that not only was it open, but it was also bustling. We became worried that we might not be able to get a room. Einar, being our senior expert of Japanese, went forth to attempt to set up our event. We opted for a two hour stay and were led to our room.

The actual singing experience was an unforgettable event that I will perhaps be scarred by for a long time to come. Picture a tone-deaf Arab and Arnold Schwarzenegger attempting to sing classic songs through the ages. It was actually quite amusing to watch while hoping that one does not develop a headache from listening to it. Early on, Nabil had expressed his expectation that I would have miraculous skill in singing. When I started my song, I was greeted by sounds of delight as I attempted to mimic the orginal singer of the songs.

After we sang a few numbers, we changed tracks and began attempting some Japanese songs. For the most part, we found it very difficult to keep up with the Japanese words as the songs progressed. I had picked a particularly difficult song to attempt since the words were very fast. After muttering through most of the words, we went back to singing English songs until our time expired. From there, we walked back home and brought our night to a close.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Once Again, A Week for Which to Speak

I would like to say that I will start keeping up with my blog like I am supposed to, but I do not have faith that I will actually do it, so let us go off of what happens.

On the last episode of my blog, Michael was relaxing on his spring break. Let's see what he did...

Wednesday
Today, I got to meet a new friend who I met through the website I registered with awhile ago. Yusuke, in addition to the other Yusuke that I knew, was also a student at Kansai Gaidai, but was a traditional Japanese student instead of being a study abroad candidate.

We planned to go to the Ring, the entertainment center from last Friday, in order to kick off our friendship. I took my usual means of reaching the station via 40-minute walk. Once arriving at the station, I took a short rest while waiting for our meeting time to arrive. Like clockwork, Yusuke appeared and we headed to the Ring. This was apparently his first visit since he was not sure where it was. Fortunately, I was able to recall where the building was. After our ascention to the sixth floor, Yusuke went through the registration process in order to receive his card while I simply gave my card to the people.

We began with playing pool. Yusuke had expressed that he had not played pool before and he was interested to learn. It became immediately apparent that whatever skill I posessed last Friday had disappated since then and I was left with a skill level in between my first and most recent time playing. The lowered skill was just as well since Yusuke seemed to be having trouble even hitting the ball. We played two times, both of which I came out victorious. I allowed him to sink all of his remaining balls for practice after each game. By the end of our second game, he had become able to claim he could play. After our second game, we returned the materials to the staff and went for karaoke (also in the Ring).

This was officially my second experience with Japanese karaoke. Since it was a different establishment, there were different songs to choose from apart from the most popular songs. As I perused the song book, it became apparent that the Ring had a more suitable song selection than the other place I went last time. Yusuke kept alternating between a Japanese band and the Backstreet Boys. It was clear that the Backstreet Boys still held their popularity in Japan, even with the guys. I went forth singing songs from many different bands that were not available in my last singing extravaganza. I even got to sing some DragonForce, which was totally unexpected for me to find. Once karaoke was over, Yusuke and I headed back to the dorms where we played some Nintendo DS until he had to go home.

Thursday
Thursday was one of my days with no plans, so I decided to dedicate it to something that I had been putting off for way too long: a haircut. Nabil had told me about a place that he went that he was pleased with, so I made my way in that direction.

I was very nervous about going in, but I made my entrance anyway. I was immediately greeted and asked to take a seat as the barber took my coat for me. He began asking about 'class.' I wasn't sure how to answer since there could have been different classes of service that was offered. After he decided that I didn't understand, he used the Japanese word for school lesson and asked if it was over. It became apparent at that point that he wanted to know if my classes were over for today. From there, I explained that it was spring break. I found it amusing that I could understand him better in Japanese than in English.

From that point, he spun my chair around and leaned it back and began wetting my hair. He shampooed my hair about three times, just as Nabil said he would. After the washing was complete, the part I had been fearing came when he asked what I wanted done. I never have an answer for that question even in English. Fortunately, he whipped out a book and turned to a page. From there, I picked the best looking hair-do I saw and he went to work. The entire time he worked, he used only the scissors and comb. He never touch any electric appliances, but did the same job that an electric razor does. After cutting my hair, he passed me a mirror so I could see the back of my hair. Next, he asked me if I wanted a shave. I had shaved a little over a day ago, so I didn't think that it would be very successful, but I opted for the shave just to see if he could do it better than me. I enjoyed the warm rag he put on my face, but I wasn't quite so pleased with the razor he ran across my face. Once he was done, he rinsed my hair out again to get rid of the excess hair and put some kind of stuff in it so it would be styled.

Once I got home, I inspected the job thoroughly. The haircut was nice, but the shave was very unprofessional. It may be due to the hairs not having grown out enough. Either way, he cut me a lot more than I have ever cut myself. Overall, the haircut cost about $23. In America, this may be perceived as a ripoff, but in passing other salons and barber shops, I found that the average haircut price in Japan was closer to $40, thus making my experience a very good deal.

I was graced with an offer from Nabil to revisit Round One, the amusement center that we went to with Kenji. We were misfortuned with not knowing how to get there, however. After asking the information desk, we determined that we had to take bus #1. Once we found the bus, we boared and rode for awhile. After it became aparent that the bus was not going to Round One, we got off in hopes to find a way back to Hirakata. We were lucky to run across a train station after only a few minutes of wandering. Once arriving back at Hirakata station, we called Kenji to find out where to go. Apparently, there was more than one #1 bus. Having found the correct bus, we made our way to our destination.

Upon arrival, we went though the process of buying our tickets to enter. Then we went forth to have fun. The experience was not as exciting as the first time since we already knew what to expect. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our time in the game center. After about an hour, we went to the sports area where I got to try more archery. This time, they had these silly little short arrows that were much harder to use than the long ones. After archery, Nabil and I played some basketball, but we just shot goals instead of actually playing. Then we played soccer where each of us kicked the ball at each other trying to get a goal. Lastly, Nabil showed me how to hit a golfball and then we played mini golf until our time was over.

At Round One, after your play time expires, you get a ticket for one free try at the crane game. I took my try by peeking around the machine in order to see how far the crane went back. By doing this, I was able to lift one of the prizes. At that point, there might as well have been an earthquake since the crane shook violently once it reached the top, hence dropping the prize. Still, I was able to pick something up, which is more than most people who play the game can say.

Friday
Friday I got to meet my decided favorite Japanese person, Kazuki. Kazuki is the perfect portrait of the stereotypical 'apologetic' Japanese person. He has a certain clumsiness about him that is tempered just right to be amusing. Call it bad luck if you will. His history of such luck has forged his personality to be very kind and considerate as well as teaching him to expect things to go wrong. Mixed with his Japanese upbringing, it becomes very amusing to be around him while also generating a feeling of peace. Despite these characteristics, today he was going to show me where he does his part-time job: a boxing club.

We met halfway between our two houses at the KS Electronics store. I grossly overshot the time it would take for me to walk there, so I wandered around the store for awhile while waiting for our meeting time. Once we met, we began walking to the boxing club. Kazuki had made me, as promised, some warabi mocchi, a Japanese confection. Along with the treat, he included directions of how to make it. Since we had a while to go before I returned home, I had him hold onto it for me. We talked as we walked. As expected, we eventually arrived.

When we entered, I was introduced to the manager as his friend and was hence granted free admittance for that particular visit. The main attraction of the gym was the boxing ring where two people were practicing with styrofoam gear. There was a timer that went off every three minutes and then in thirty seconds before starting over. After Kazuki greeted his collegues, we went to the locker area where we began our adventure to find me some shoes. Kazuki offered me some of his old shoes. I could barely fit into them, but I was able to squeeze in, though uncomfortably so. From there, he took me through the first through steps of the gym's daily routine. He showed me some boxing moves and had me practice in front of a mirror. At that point, some of the children in the gym asked Kazuki to let them practice with him. Since he worked there, he was somewhat obligated to oblige them, so he left me to practicing while he taught some. It turned out that more people than he expected asked for help and he began his apologies for having us stay there for so long.

Once we finished with the club and I was reunited with my properly sized shoes, we dropped by a supermarket where he bought drinks for both of us. Then we went to a Japanese confection shop where he likes to go. Finally, we made way to a restaurant. We chose to go to Gusto's since it was about halfway between our houses (though I think it benefited me more).

In Gusto's, I found Taka eating with some other Kansai Gaidai students. After sending him a wave, I sent him a text message that said 'hi' just for fun. Kazuki, Taka, and I got a laugh out of it. We ordered and talked while waiting. At one point, Kazuki received a phone call which I had to grant him permission to take. Once he was done, I asked him if it was an authoritative person due to the way he was talking. He seemed impressed that I was able to recognize the difference in speech and he was indeed talking to an authoritative figure.

Once dinner concluded, we went in search for a bus stop so Kazuki could go home without having to walk so far. On the way, we set up another meeting for karaoke on Sunday. We reached the bus stop and found that the upcoming bus was the last one before a long wait. Once the bus came, we said our farewells and I went on my way back home.

Before I got home, I received a message from Kazuki that he had forgotten that he had to apologise for his car accident to the family of the person he hit (apparently a practice in Japan). The message took a turn away from the usual in stating that he would have to make our meeting later than expected instead of just plain cancelling it. I had no problem with the idea since we would still go for singing.

Saturday
I was again faced with a day that had no plan. I again decided to dedicate it for a necessity I had. My haircut didn't look very good without having some sort of styling product added to it. Unfortunately, getting a hair styling product was nowhere near as interesting as getting the actual haircut, so there really isn't much to report for today. Kazuki had suggested that I look in a drug store since it would be cheaper than a convenience store. After obtaining my product, I went home to apply it.

I bought some sort of wax for my hair. It wasn't quite what I expected it to be. It had two sections, a cream and something that looked like wax. The picture showed that I had to rub the cream through my hair and then shape my hair with the wax. Although it was different than I expected, it did what I thought it would. My hair dilemma solved, I spent the day relaxing.

Sunday
Nothing of particular interest happened before meeting Kazuki, so I will skip to that! I reached the station as Kazuki was sending me a message that he reached the station. As soon as he sent it, he saw me and came over. We went to the Ring, where Kazuki also had to go though the registration process. For this outing, we started and ended with karaoke. Three hours of singing split between two people. Kazuki had a much better singing voice than Yusuke did as well as much better pronounciation for English songs. He decided to sing all English songs for practice. I decided that it was time to grant my Mom's wish and record myself singing some songs that she knew. After three takes on singing a Brian Wilson song, I finally had something that I could claim as my attempt to sing something she knew. After awhile, I decided that the song didn't portray how I sang properly, so I sang a Beatles song as well. Since today's theme was singing songs people knew, I decided to try a Japanese song by Kana for my sister. I did not opt to record this song since I knew that I couldn't keep up with the words. It is very difficult to read hiragana (Japanese writing with no Chinese characters) at singing speed, just as my friend Jeff from the US had told me a long time ago. I sang what I could and muttered the rest. I think I will practice the lyrics at home so I can record it for my sister next time.

After karaoke and both of our voices dying, we went to eat. We talked about various things while we ate. When it was time to go home, Kazuki walked with me about halfway before taking the bus back home.

Monday
Today school resumed. Class started out looking like most people were rebelling against having to go to school, but eventually most people showed up. At lunch, there were many Japanese students, reportedly new students for orientation. By the time I was finished with lunch, line for food was looping around the cafeteria and was out the door for McDonalds. I guess I had better prepare well for when all of the Japanese students come back.

After class, my Human Resources group met to plan the next phase of our project. I was asissigned (or more assigned by myself) to work with Yuu on the youth issues of employment since Yuu had already started reading a book on the topic, and Yusuke was assigned with Albert to do the aged issues of employment since Albert had already started on the topic and Yusuke could read Japanese information on the topic. After our meeting concluded, I went to meet Keisuke for our planned bowling trip.

Keisuke and I waited for Chiaki and Saki until eventually finding out via text message that they were waiting outside of us! And so we began our journey over to Makino, which was accentuated by our female company's slow walking. Eventually, we reached our destination and began our adventure. As usual, I was made to kick off the game. I was doing a little bit better than I was last time, which doesn't say much. It became apparent that I was not too mismatched with the others though. Poor Saki had a lot of trouble reaching the end of the lane. The end of the game ended with Keisuke being first, Chiaki being second, and me being third, each with one point difference from the other. The second game became more interesting when Saki realized her potential and started off with a strike. It was as if she and Chiaki traded skills since Chiaki suddenly found it very difficult to stay out of the gutter. Keisuke became a super-bowler all of the sudden and got strikes and spares all over. I maintained my thrid place bowling, while Saki advanced to second and Keisuke came up on the distant top.

They had a special contest at the bowling lane where each lane had a yellow pin. The contest was to leave only the yellow pin after the first shot and then knock the pin over with the second shot. As I expected, I just so happened to end up with just the yellow pin. Also as I expected, I missed the yellow pin. I find it interesting how I can predict such things from time to time.

After the game, Saki and Chiaki went to the arcade section to look for something to play. I was surprised that they chose Time Crisis 4, a shooting game. I was amused to watch the two girls shoot at people when there were much less violent games to choose from in the area. After we played two games, we all set off to go home.

For dinner, Nabil gave me a call as I was walking home from bowling. He said that he would treat me since his scholarship money had come in today. We met at the dorm since he would take longer than me to get back. Once he arrived, he invited Todd and Einar to come as well. We went to the restaurant we call "his place" since Nabil found it; also my favorite restaurant in the area. Nabil kept insisting that we buy whatever we want. I decided to go easy on him since he was paying anyway. After dinner, we all returned home and went on our merry ways.

Tuesday
After class and lunch, I was greeted by Yusuke who wanted me to join him for lunch so he could show me pictures from his trip to Thailand that he went on for spring break. He started off by giving me a souvenier that he picked up while he was there. He bought a bunch of doll-like charms to give his friends. He forgot what they were called though. Then I looked at the pictures he took. He got to do some sky surfing over the ocean and ride an elephant. After he and a friend thought about what the dolls were called, they came up with voodoo. I am skeptical that that is what they are called, but they seemed to agree. From there, Yusuke, his friend Mitsuya, and I went to the library for studying. After they had to go, I went back home to catch up on my laundry and homework.

As a bit of extra news, I made an 87 of my culture test. A fine achievement for someone who neglected to read or pay attention in class if I might say so. No wonder I never took anthropology.

Wednesday
Much like any Wednesday, I went to class, ate lunch, and then hung out in the lounge for five hours. I was trying to catch up with my reading for negotiation from the past week. I decided that studying for midterms was more important than reading back then, so now I had to make up for it. After reading all I could, I retired to my Nintendo DS. I was joined by one of my classmates, Giovanna, who eventually asked me for help with Japanese. She was in Japanese 1 and did not understand how to change verbs into different forms. After Giving her the Schmitz sensei (teacher in America) version, she seemed much more able to understand. She was glad to find someone who could explain the material to her after finding many who could only tell her the answers. From there, I made a new potential travel buddy and friend. We talked until it was time to go to negotiation, one of the classes that we shared.

In negotiation, we received our test back from weeks past. I expected the teacher to be about that slow in grading based on his personality. He said that most people got a 20 point question wrong and accepted the blame on himself for that and therefore gave everyone a curve of 13 points, which he claimedly does not usually do. With the curve, I managed a 97 as a final grade on my test. Now all that is left is to do the same on my Human Resources test that is coming up soon...