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Sunday

Today's itinerary began with going back to Kyoto. I went to Hirakata station to meet Kenji, who arranged our trip. Once we arrived at our destination, we walked around for awhile to see the sites. Among the stores were some shrines that we stopped by to see. As Kenji pointed out, there was a much different feel in the shrines than there was on the street just outside. It was like a shell of silence brought peace to the area while the noisy street passed unimpeded. After walking for a while, we took a bus to our main event: plumb blossom viewing.


The entrance to the shrine was guarded by a bull statue. There were many people taking pictures of the flowers just as we were. There was also a long line of people waiting to pray for knowledge at the shrine. After thoroughly enjoying the flowers, we headed back to Hirakata.

Upon our arrival, we went to a restaurant for dinner. This restaurant was different than any other one that I have went to because you had to buy a meal ticket of your order instead of asking a waiter for something. After we ate, we met up with Nabil and thought about what to do next. We decided to go to Round One, a gaming center.

At Round One, Kenji set it up so that we could get members cards for a discounted price for future visits. With the card included, it cost about $15 for three hours of free-play activities. After ascending to the game floor, we began to play the various games including sports-related games and video games. After playing for two hours, we went up one more floor to the recreation area where you could play actual sports games. I found enjoyment in trying the archery practice range. Having only done archery once several years ago, I had to learn how to do it again. I quickly learned that holding my arm out straight was not a good idea since the string liked to attack anything near it when let go. I also discovered that it was easier to hold the bow right under the arrow since everything else was bumpy and rough. Lastly, I recalled how to hold the arrow before firing so that it was less painful to shoot. Despite my learning curve, I ended up making a premier shot in my first set of shots. In my best set, I managed to get four arrows out of six (one being broken and unable to stick in the target). After that, I rejoined Nabil and Kenji who were playing Tennis. I also played my first Tennis game today. I wasn't too bad considering my inexperience. I just need to not hit the ball so hard sometimes. After the game, we went back downstairs just in time to leave at our designated time.

As we waited for the bus, I decided that it would be a good idea to study for the quiz that I had the next day. Once arriving back at the station, we walked back home since it seemed that the buses had stopped running. Once getting back home, it became apparent that I had been gone from 12:00 to 12:00, making it a 12 hour day. Sleep was greatly anticipated.

Monday

I started by taking the quiz that I barely studied for over the weekend. It became apparent that my hurried cram session was just as successful as my more laxed sessions. I met up with Yusuke at lunch and we decided to go study for a test that we would be having in our class today. As we were looking up the questions, we ran into two other classmates who joined us in studying. I was the only non-Japanese student in the group, so I pretty much became the teacher. After we got through the questions, it was time for class.

I was particularly dreading my first class today since I had not gotten enough sleep from my late-night venture the night prior. As I expected, I spent the whole class battling against falling asleep. In my next class, we had some lecture and then took the quiz. After that class, I went to the lounge to read for my test on Wednesday while waiting for Albert to get out of his class. Once it became 5:00, we went to Gasto's to eat.

I thought that it might be a good idea to get something Japanese at Gasto's instead of the American food that they also served. My meal had some very interesting side dishes that I wasn't particularly fond of, but I was able to eat it all. After dinner, I went back home since I was still exhausted from yesterday. From there, I did my laundry and relaxed.