これが最後。

That line was written on all the Harry Potter movie posters. The meaning is, this is the last. Last day at my school, last time climbing the sixty stairs of the art school, last time eating delicious bread from our frequented bakery, last time going to the edge (aka sixth floor of the school that's not really a floor and is really more of a storage space), last time having an elevator dance party, last time taking a bus to school, last time waiting at Kinrin Shako Mae for my 93 bus to take me home, last time sitting in the cafe to use the internet, and last time in this part of Kyoto (probably). I'm going home tomorrow!! I still can't believe it. It's almost unreal, this summer has flown by so fast! I would never trade this experience for anything. I actually think I want to come back and study here (or maybe in Tokyo) in a year or so. These past couple days have really just been me studying like crazy for my finals, which didn't go too badly actually. I'm definitely going to miss it here. I've grown really accustomed to this way of life and it's going to be a bit of a shock going back to Dartmouth (and America really). The Japanese language is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. That is for sure. I made a pact with myself to work even hard to learn this darn language. 

I can't wait to learn more!

Until later, (perhaps in the airport.....)

Jya~

DAY FIVE

Well. Yesterday (day five) was half bust half great. The whole day was basically spent travelling so it was a little bit dull, but the transitions were smooth and the traveling was all around pretty good. I fell asleep on one of the trains with my mouth open. the guy next to me must've been juding. but that's okay i'll never see him again. anyway the whole point of yesterday was to get to this mountain and look at the volcano and scenery and stuff. however, we got there through mist and fog and rain, so when we actually got to the top of the mountain (by cable car), we couldn't even see the volcano for fog. It killed juliana's umbrella and miller juliana and i had to take shelter in this weird cave hut thing we found for like five minutes. it flipped my umbrella inside out, i fixed it, and then used it as a shield because the wind and rain were so strong. Thoroughly put out, we took the cable car back to the first place and made the journey to our hotel. Before that whole thing though, we got lunch. we tried to go to this restaurant that was empty with plenty of seats. They took us in the end after christian's negotiation/ persuasion. the whole thing was just uncomfortable. But we got to the hotel and had dinner at this cool ramen place. hung out a bit and went to bed. pretty uneventful. this morning (day six), jeff, christian, miller, sugi, and i went to see this castle after breakfast. it was really pretty. we didn't get to go inside or anything but the outside was great. and it was a nice walk. now we've taken a street car to the station and got on our shinkansen. we'll switch and eventually end up in nagasaki! yayy! haha funny thing though- the guy from the hotel tried to speak to us in english, but his english was harder to understand than his japanese hahaha. so that's all for now!
Yeah I forgot to write about day six and day seven was just travel.. sorry this is so late! ah!

Day Four woot! So yesterday I wrote from the shinkansen after the very stressful morning. We then got off the train, but our baggage in coin lockers and met up with Sensei-sama’s former student Vera and went to have lunch. We ate at this little place on the main street next to Beppu station, very good. Then we met up again and took a bus to the hotsprings! It was called the Rounds of Hell. There were six but we only went to three. However we did get to see a zoo!!! It was kind of sad though because the animal cages were rather small and not original habitat-looking. It was tiny too, there was one hippo, a few flamingos, three baboons, two llamas, and an elephant.. Haha it was great. The hotsprings were really cool though, the way the clay and stuff boils. We also passed a couple places (and stopped at one) where you can take off your shoes, roll up your pants, and put your legs in the hotspring. It was a little too hot for me and my jeans didn’t roll up that far, so I passed on that. But all around it was really cool. After that we went to a sand bath. About six of us went with sensei-sama walking to the place, the other half went with Vera on apparently a different route. They were really far behind so I just assume.. plus they got there before us so.. We accidentally went the wrong way a couple times, but got there in the end! Oh and it was pouring rain, so that was interesting. Actually it was really fun. So for the sand bath, we got there, put on yukata (summer kimono), took all our clothes off and then went out side where they buried us in naturally hot sand and we relaxed for fifteen minutes under the mound. It was really great. Then, much to Juliana and my dismay, we went into the ofuro where you must be without clothing. So we were awkward, but sam and anna weren’t hahaha. That was okay though. Then we took a bus back to the station, grabbed our bags, and took taxis to the inn! We had the banquet dinner then went and did karaoke!!!!!! It was so much fun! Contrary to popular belief, you and the people you go with get your own room and just have a blast. We sang Disney and maroon five and all sorts of things, it was so much fun! Then we came back hung around before going to bed. What a great day. Now we’ve left the hotel and I’m sitting on a train taking me to…. Aso I think were we’re going to the top of a mountain. Woot!

Jya~

DAY THREE

Now sitting on a Shinkansen after a stressful commute to the train station from our hotel! We had a tight schedule so we left our hotel, got on the ferry (more on that later), and had eight minutes to cross a tunnel (going up and down all these stairs with our heavy luggage), walk a ton, go up some more stairs, and get on the train. It was hectic, but we made it! Then we got off and boarded the shinkansen (bullet train) where I'll be sitting for an hour before we get off at Kokura (i think?) and transfer trains. But anyway, yesterday was day three.
So we ate breakfast at the hotel from yesterday, which was this great buffet with great chocolate croissants. Feeling full, we missed our first train because people were late (I was murderous at that point because we were planning on going to the beach later and sensei sama said if we missed the first train we couldn't go, but everything turned out okay). Got on the street car and thought we'd missed the train by like ten minutes. It was veryy hot yesterday. Although not as hot as day one, i think that was the worst. We got to Miyajima finally and it turned out the train we thought we missed actually ran a different time, so I was happy. We got on a ferry (in the ocean!!!!! yaaayyyy!!!) and took it over to the island. We saw this really pretty shrine and the famous Tori (sorry if i spelled that wrong) which is the red/orange thing in the water that slightly resembles a pi symbol. It was super pretty. Then we broke for lunch/saw this other temple that was a practicing temple. We sat for a moment and listened to monks chanting and beating drums and stuff which was really cool. Then we walked around some more, had lunch, and had shave ice! A DEER (silly deer!!! they're everywhere!) ate sugi's last dango (little round mochi-ish things with sauce on sticks like skewers) off the stick, then stole my seat!! it pushed me out!! i was very disgruntled at this deer and moved to a different seat, then it kicked me out of that one!! rude!!! Anyway then we took a van to THE BEACH!!!!!!! How I've missed the beach. One thing that was sooo wrongggg with this beach was that there were DEER on it. stupid deer. we played in the water and the sand and it was glorious. then we packed up and went back to the hotel, showered, and had a banquet-type thing. I tried to eat all my food, but there was so much I couldn't finish it all, though I tried valiantly. Had some good conversation with Yeh-san, Juliana, and Sensei-sama and then went to go see the tori lit up at night. That was gorgeous, the lights cast this eerie green glow over the ocean and the orange was so vibrant. It was really awesome. Then we went back to the hotel, hung out a while, and went to bed! All around a rather pleasant night! On to day four! Yatta!
Jya~

DAY TWO

Sitting here in Hiroshima.
Yesterday was crazy. Had a breakfast buffet at the hotel, which was supposed to be youshouku(western style food) but really it was japanese food with like sausage and eggs and bacon... then we went off to Himeji and Himeji Castle! It was ginormous. There was this beautiful mote around it and one section that was enclosed by cherry trees (although not in bloom now, still pretty). We go up to walk around the castle and we meet this little Japanese woman named Yoshiko Nakamura who was a volunteer tour guide at the  castle who gave us a tour along with these two Italian people (I don't think they were a couple? But maybe they were, I was confused)who were really nice. She gave us the greater picture of what Japan's history was like when the castle was prominent and during the different periods and stuff. She was great!! She reallyy knows what she's talking about. She said I think she's been giving tours for twenty eight years (as a volunteer!!!) to practice her english! It was so good too!!! She was incredible and adorable. The castle was actually being renovated and has been for a couple years now so we got to go inside and see how the renovation works and stuff. The airconditioning was probably the best part.. no just kidding. But really. Anyway, the castle architecture was really unlike anything I'd seen or expected to see in a castle. Yoshiko told us that it was considered a lucky castle because it was one of the only four that hadn't been totally rebuilt and that withstood earthquakes and battles and had never been taken or destroyed or anything really. The doorways were really short (Jeff had to crouch) and there were these rectangular steps in the doorways so that enemy troops would trip and all fall. The walls were angular so then enemy couldn't climb up adequately and there were no rain gutters on the walls for the enemy to attach their hooks to to scale it. the stairs were all different sizes to make it harder and the whole place is set up to be really confusing, which is probably why no one had penetrated it yet. She walked us through this long winding hall that was where Princess Sen had stayed for ten years. The whole thing was pretty fascinating all around. From there we went to Hiroshima where we saw the Atomic Bomb Dome, walked through the Peace Park, and into the Peace Memorial Museum. That whole experience was really heavy. We looked at the Dome for a while, which is a miracle in itself when you look at how the city was destroyed. Then we went to Sadako's monument. A lot of American kids read that book pretty young, according to Sensei-sama. It's about a little girl who got radiation poisoning around age two and I think by age twelve developed Leukemia? Or before that, the ages are sketchy for me, but anyway, she was in the hospital and thought she could save herself and grant her wish if she folded one thousand paper cranes. She only got to 500 before she died and her classmates folded the rest for her in memory. It was really sad. There are thousands of cranes in glass cases around the monument, it was really beautiful. Apparently a couple of years ago, some vandals destroyed all the cranes in a fire and the amount of cranes the society received increased by four times. From there we went through the peace park and looked at the monument and the shallow lake thing that was really pretty, then into the museum. This was the hardest. I cried a little. The images of the people burnt by fire and the whole atomic bomb thing were just mind blowing. It made me feel a little bit sick. We saw items that were burnt and deformed and pictures of people and Sadako and there were videos. I was very sad coming out. So we all sat on a bench waiting for the others to come out (Sugi and I came out first) then we split for dinner. We had Hiroshima style Okonomi Yaki! So tasty. Then back to the hotel where I couldn't stop laughing for the hilarious company and talk. Then I took an ofuro and bonded a little bit with Juliana.. She's such a crack up I love her. I didn't sleep very well though and my back kind of hurts. But then I never really sleep well in hotels  I guess.. Off to Miyajima today! (Really famous shrine) SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN SO EXCITED.
Jya~

KYUUSHUUUU TTRRRIIPPPPP

Day 1
yeah! it's finally here! --sad thing is that that means i only have 16 days left here. i'm kind of growing accustomed to living here and I rather like it. But that's besides the point. So we got to kyoto eki bright and early this morning and took a SHINKANSEN (oh my gosh bullet train) to Kobe where we are now!! We walked around a lot, had lunch in this really great chinese place (we were in china town.... in japan... anyone else find that weird? my okaasan always says that the japanese hate the chinese.. or my family does at least haha). We toured these really old houses that were western. They were really pretty, looked like eighteen hundreds washington dc or.. england? but really great. Got lost a little (but always find our way back thanks to sensei sama dorsey, our fearless leader.) and saw some more house-ish stuff. Got to check out this really awesome art museum, a lot of oil paints, some soft pastels, an acrylic or two and some water paints. All really beautiful. IT IS SO HOT HERE. i thought i was going to die all day. seriously. then we tried to go to some sake brewery but today's apparently a holiday so it was closed. so instead we went to this sake museum which was a little boring and a little interesting. Then we went to this AWESOME Mountain (Mt. Rokko) where we took a cable car up and got off to look at the gorgeous view of the city and the ocean. It was really stunning. Then we went back to the hotel! i would just like to say that our hotel is amazing. we all got single rooms (which is glorious, not that i'm opposed to roommates, i've just never had a single hotel room before and it's SO COOL). So they gave us eye warmers and bath salt and some tea as well as shaving stuff, comb, toothbrush and toothpaste, etc. it's so amazing. and A BED! oh my gosh it's been so long since i've slept in an actual bed. how am excited am i? to quote oppaman san, the most excited. Yeahhh.. ANA Crown Plaza Hotel for the win. So I guess that's all for today. we saw this superrr creepy old man (i think he was homeless) coming back from dinner (which we had at this cool little place that played a ton of jazz music and the food was phenomenal. of course the meat is bound to be. we are in kobe after all haha) which scared us all to death. Now I've taken my bath and I shall go to bed! YAY study excursion!!!!
Jya~

Umai deshou???

So I definitely have the best homestay family in the world. First of all, chichi (dad- his name is actually takanari but we all just call him chichi i dunno) has had three days off of work which is really rare since he usually only has tuesday off. I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but he's a chef at a high end italian restaurant. So he cooked one of the pasta dishes for us on monday which was amazing. tuesday we went out to eat at this udon place (noodles) and tonight we had curry rice that he made. It was delicious. So I take my ofuro then go upstairs to put the finishing touches on my packed suitcase and rei bursts in the door and babbles something about eating on the shinkansen (bullet train). So I was like okay let's go downstairs. I get down there and yuki was like hey let's go to the suupaa (super market) and buy some okashi (sweets/snacks) for you to eat on the train!! I was like awesome! So we went and she bought me four things of snacks!!!! Rei was then bitter because he only got to pick one hahhaha. So we get home and I saw this cake that Yuki had made in preparation for her next class and I said Oh that looks awesome! And she said some weird word that I didn't understand, and when I still didn't understand it after they gave me the italian and french words for it, she says, I'll draw you a picture! So she does and looking back after I knew what the word meant, it was a very accurate picture, but she drew what the cake looked like next to it, which really confused me. So I'm sitting there trying to figure it out and and chichi hands me his phone which had translated the word into "chestnut" so I let out a loud OHH! and then yuki looks at the picture and then at me and goes "UMAI DESHOUU???" and I couldn't stop laughing because that means "it's really great, right???"-talking about the picture. So then chichi looks down at the picture of the cake, which really looks like a cartoon of fecal matter, and he draws a fly coming off of it and I laughed even harder and continued laughing when yuki exclaimed that was wrong and drew what a cartoon of fecal matter is SUPPOSED to look like, correctly. Then i said, and with that.... good night. and we laughed some more as i walked up the stairs. all in all, a great night. and KYUUSHUU TRIP TOMORROW SO EXCITED!!!!!
On a side note, however, today I had two  successful Japanese person interactions. Here's the vocab that'll help out (keeping in mind that these conversations were in japanese!!!! yeahhhhhh)
ojiichan-old man (really grandpa, but they use them interchangeably), tenin-lady at the drug store
okay great.

1)
ojiichan: (coming off the bus)  it's really hot isn't it??
me: it sure is!!
ojiichan: where are you going?
me: i'm going to kirindo (over there).
ojiichan: Oh okay, bye!

2)
me: excuse me, this is sunscreen, right?
tenin: yep!
me: is it for adults?
tenin: it is, yes.
me: ahh. why does it say baby on it?
tenin: oh, that's because it's for people from babies to adults.
me: okay great! thanks!
tenin: no problem!

So really, today was pretty good after I left the cafe. I was kind of in a weird/bad mood all day, but it got significantly better after I talked to the ojiichan. Yay! Okay back to packing!
Jya~

O Hisashiburi Desu Ne!

So the title of this means long time no see (loosely)! Because it's been a bit since I've written. I'm currently sitting (or I should say roasting) in my room that is 36 C which is.. I don't know what that is F but it's really hot. Usually I come back to my room being 32 or 33... No good. Hah but anyway! I forget what the last thing I posted about was and I don't have internet so I'll write about this weekend! We went to Nara (the next prefecture over)! It was great, took an hour train ride and were there! We ate kamo nanba, which is duck, mostly because we in a song we studied in sensei's class (Toire no Kamisama) she talks about eating that with her grandma. From the restaurant, we went and explored around a couple temples that were really pretty. It was a really long day. Most important thing about Nara: FULL OF DEER. literally they're everywhere. They come up to you and eat your stuff if you're not careful. (Jeff had his pamphlet eaten by one and Miller had his shirt bit by one that he so lovingly christened Jack) So we frolicked among the deer and got to this one temple with a HUGE buddha inside. Behind the buddha they have this pillar with a small hole carved out at the bottom that is supposedly the same size as the buddha's nostril. It is said that if you can crawl through the hole, it was lucky. So I definitely crawled through the hole. A good majority of us did, it was really hard!!!! The hole was very small. Then we left Sensei-sama and his wife Yukari-san (I think I've written this before, but when all else fails, do what yukari-san does!! That's my lsa philosophy!) and ate okonomiyaki on one of the main streets and walked back to the lake where we sat and waited for the lantern festival to start. It was absolutely beautiful. The lake was illuminated and everything was gorgeous. Then we walked back around, saw the temple all lit up and took a train home. Luckily my mom called me while Gaby and I were waiting for the bus because she was close to Kyoto Eki and so could pick us up. We didn't have to ride the bus back! Not that I have anything against the bus..
Anyway, on Sunday (yesterday) Yuki and Rei and I went to the River Kamogawa and played in the water and ate ice cream and over all just had a very pleasant afternoon! We were all exhausted afterward and they took a nap while I read Harry Potter. It made me miss sitting on the lake in Park City with my family, which is what they're doing right now (Shout out to you guys!! Miss youuu!!!!!). Then we ate thin udon noodles for dinner and went to a school Matsuri (Festival) with Gaby's family! We played little games and I was the only white person. Actually no, there was a french guy, but he lives in Kyoto and is married to a Japanese woman so he doesn't really count. I won some fireworks which we'll probably use later and Gaby's little brother got a bunch of fish. I also got three more mosquito bites which puts my total at.. seven I believe. Really fun though. I was exhausted afterward.
Then today we went to this loom/textile place and made little table decorations on the loom!!!! It was great! I admire those women who sit there and do it for hours, my back would be dying, they're amazing. So that was really fun. We leave for our "study-travel-excursion" as called by dorsey sensei-sama on Thursday morning!!!!!! going to Kyuushuuuuu and I think Hiroshima? More on that later. Two more days of class!!
OH! Last week we also watched this flower arranging presentation which was really neat. She showed us how she cut the thick stems and peeled this one green plant away to make a cat-tail looking plant, then added flowers in the water and everything, it turned out reallyy pretty. Some of us (myself not included) got to try it too, which was really amusing to watch. Japanese crafts are so cool!!
I have a presentation to give tomorrow, so I'd better go do that. More later!

Jya~

Worst Day.

Yup, that was today. Started out okay, slept nine and a half hours, mildly cloudy, watched part of The Holiday, feelin good. Class was okay, ended kind of badly with a low B on a test I thought I did well on. Ate lunch alone. Got some depressing news regarding a friend. Skyped for a while, which was nice. Got on the bus with a headache, feeling down. Got off a stop too late (I was going to a drug store called Kirindo to get some dental floss and mosquito bite soother, etc.) and had to walk back to find the place. Had an enjoyable time looking around at the random things in the store, bought my items, and went to leave. Got to the door and there's a storm outside, POURING rain. Was going to buy a four dollar umbrella but then thought why would I do that I'm really close to home, so I venture out into the storm, wearing my backpack on my stomach to shield my computer and get home seven minutes later, soaked to the skin, water dripping from my hair and everywhere else. Tried to take a shower, but the water never got cold so I gave up and I'll do that later. Skyped Talia for a little while, which cheered me up a lot. Now I'm watching He's Just Not That Into You, waiting for dinner. Don't really have anything to do I guess.
However, a lot happened this week that is the complete opposite of today! Been a good week anyway and tomorrow's Friday! Thank goodness for the weekend(although when I post this it'll probably be Friday because yay I don't have internet at home haha). So I'll go back to this week, starting probably on Saturday. So we had a test that day, which turned out okay I guess (the grading here is weird and I don't like it very much), then we went to sushi with sensei!!!! Dartmouth paid for kaitensushi which is the conveyor belt sushi, and as a class of around fourteen I think we ate over 200 plates!!! bahaha so great. Then some kids went to the river and a bunch of us went shopping. Found some great stuff! $4 shoes!!!!!! (which I wore today in the rain YEAH) That's really all I remember from that day, but Sunday was great. Juliana and I went to this Catholic church she found. I took the bus to the stop I thought was right, then walked in a bunch of wrong directions before we finally found each other. Got to the church a little late, but it was a really nice service, lots of Filipinos. Then the best thing happened. After church, Juliana and I spotted this crazy flee market-swap meet-garage sale thing!! I'm pretty sure it was a flea market but it looked like a GIANT garage sale in front of Kyoto City Hall. It was amazing! Got this beautiful necklace for $1. Juliana got this gorgeous tea set for like $3. It was so much fun!! Monday not a lot happened I think.. I don't really remember. A bunch of us went to this other really big flea market and looked around. Best idea: shave ice. Tuesday we went to Ginkakuji temple which was really pretty. Wednesday Ishida Sensei came!!! For those of you who don't know her, she's our Japanese prof at Dartmouth and she's SO AWESOME. I love her. She observed our class a little, then we all went to Heanjingu (I think I spelled that wrong) Temple which had the most beautiful gardens ever. I felt a little sick and it was unfortunate, but then we (Sugi, Christian, Juliana, Miller, and I) went back to the shopping area and by way of the 46 bus, I laughed harder than I've laughed in a long time. We got to the shopping area and Sugi and Christian went to Mos Burger (sorry if I spelled that wrong) to eat and Juliana, Miller, and I went looking around and took sticker photos!!!! Yayyyyyy so much fun. So that pretty sums up the week. Hopefully the weekend will be better than today!
Jya~

Oh hey Typhoon.

So today's Friday... or so it would seem. That's right. We had a day off of school on Wednesday because of a typhoon. Which means (as Dartmouth never sleeps) we have school tomorrow.... Saturday. Am I bummed out? Yes. Which reminds me, I tried to explain the word "bummer" to my homestay parents... yeah they didn't get it lol but they thought it sounded funny.  So on typhoon day I stayed in like we were supposed to (even though it was relatively sunny- I invite those of you Las Vegans to think back to that happy day when school was called off for a snow day.. and then it didn't snow. Good times.), skyped for a couple hours, ate a little, slept for two hours, and read Harry Potter for the rest of the day. I've been on a pretty bad Harry Potter kick ever since we watched the last movie. Thinking of going backwards. just read the seventh now gonna start on the sixth. OH wait the best part about having school tomorrow is that we dont just have class. we have a test. but we dont just have a test. we have a two hour test and then ANOTHER hour of class. Starting at 9am. Dartmouth for the win. If I am not mistaken, however, Dartmouth is then treating us to lunch. So that's fine.
Anyway though, today we did a traditional Japanese dance workshop!!! So much fun! We all put on kimonos and learned a short dance and did it to music. It was rather hard to walk in mine, it was really tight. Japanese traditional dance is very interesting. Also, I had to write a comment about it in the book afterward as a girl representative--thank you Ezra for the help. Other than that though, not a whole lot has been going on here. Just the typhoon and school. Ugh test on a Saturday. Alright complaining over. It was lovely and cool today which was rare but nice. I have learned the word for to scold- gami gami iu. it's pretty much anytime you're yelling at your kid, that's what it's called. YAY. That's all for now!
Jya~
ps sorry this is from last week ahh!

Festival Time!

Yay weekend! Too bad it’s over….. I’m dang exhausted and I don’t think I’ve eaten as much as I ate today in a very long while. So last night we went to the GionMatsuri!! It was so much fun! Juliana’s older sister and her friend and really her whole family are great! Before that though (I always get ahead of myself in my excitement) we had the family potluck! My family unfortunately couldn't come but it was really fun anyway! Our teachers came and the main office people who help us out. It was a good time. We ate a bunch of food that was great and then we did the performance section. Thien did some cool Vietnamese martial arts kata thing, Jeff played guitar and sang You and Me, I sang Not For the Life of Me and then Christian played guitar while I sang Toire no Kamisama, a really pretty song we learned in Japanese 11 last week. After that, Anna’s homestay mom asked me to go back up and sing Amazing Grace because apparently she’s on a gospel kick or something, so I did that and we finished up the party. From there a bunch of us walked/took the bus to juliana’s house. Miller, Juliana, me, Thien, Gaby, Anna, and Jing I believe it was. So the men went upstairs with juliana’s dad while the girls got dressed up in yukata (summer kimono). Then we went upstairs to finish getting ready, took a bunch of pictures, and went to the festival! It was PACKED. More packed than any event I’ve ever been to anywhere ever. Holy cow it was so full of people. It was amusing however, because people always stared at us for being gaijins. Anna and I were the weirdest because we have light hair I think. It was fun! Then we had dinner and started to make our way back home. Gaby and I live in the same area so we took the same bus, but we had twenty minutes to get to our bus stop which was ten minutes away by foot, so we booked it and got there exactly as the bus was pulling up because it was like eight minutes early!!!!! We must have looked silly running in our yukata. Oh well it was fine.

            Before I talk about going to Osaka today, I would just like to point out that I feel so in place here because everyone is pigeon toed!!!! They all wear too many high heels too often so then they all walk with their feet inward. Bahahahaha.

Alright. Today we went out to breakfast, then took drove to Arashiyama Eki and took a train to another train to… another train? I forget. But we ended up in this huge awesome mall that was eight stories, Osaka clothing/shopping is cheaper than Kyoto, so I bought a pinky ring in this great discount accessories store. When we first got to the mall, we rode in this slow ferris wheel type thing where you can see all of Osaka from, which was reallyyy pretty. Yuki is afraid of heights. She was so funny. Then we shopped around a bit more and took another train to the real reason why we went Osaka: the food. I ate an unhealthy amount of washoku (Japanese food). I don't even know how to describe the place we walked around in. it was packed with people. But according to Yuki, it’s always that packed. I knew Japan had a lot of people in it…. But really. I can’t even imagine what Tokyo would be like. We had okonomiyaki and Yakisoba, then we went to another place and had warm/cool anko and this realllyyyy salty seaweed you’re supposed to eat aferward. It actually made me want to stop eating for the rest of my life. It was way too salty. But not just regular salty, like lawry’s seasoning salt salty. MAZUKATTA. Seriously if I had a choice between not eating for the rest of my life and only eating that for the rest of my life, I’d stop eating. Thinking about it now is making a little bit sick. So I recovered from that (yeah my family definitely thinks I enjoyed it because I just said I was full… why did I do that) and we went to ANOTHER food place where we had… shoot I don't know the name but it was delicious and deep fried. However, the Japanese know how to do deep-fried correctly. It wasn’t too greasy and the breading was small. Then we walked around by this really pretty river where there were small tour boats going around. Then we went home, really. It was a great time. Oh! Yuki bought me a pair of shoes that were only 1000 円　which is SUPER cheap for Japan and comes to about $12. I was going to buy them myself but she said it was a present. I’m not exactly sure what kind of present it was or what it was for, but it was really nice and I was really surprised. So that about concludes the weekend. Might have to go back to the doctor. Sore throat’s still not gone.

Jya~

Disaster Strikes

Worst night.
Got lost for the first time. In the middle of Kyoto's biggest festival of the year. Let me just start by saying that GionMatsuri (the festival) is ridiculously entertaining and probably will be fun when I go tomorrow if I'm not too scarred. Also, best day because we just saw HARRY POTTER oh my gosh it was fabulous. Sentimental time for me. I was really shellshocked after the thing ended so I walked around for about half an hour-forty five minutes like a zombie. Then I ate dinner with Ezra, Christian, Jeff, and Sugi, which woke me up a little. Good thing too, because I needed to be coherent to go through what I just went through. Guys if you're reading this, THANK YOU. So yeah we ate, then Sugi and I were going to take a five bus but the five stops usually in Shijo Karasuma I think which is In the middle of the festival. Well I was going to stop there and then switch to another bus that would take me home. But then this guy at Kyoto Eki (which is where we watched Harry) that Sugi asked for help for me said to take a twenty eight, so then Jeff and I went there, but it said the bus wasn't running. So I went by myself back to the five (Jeff went someplace else) and tried to stop at Karasuma but ended up missing that stop and going one more. Then walking down the street the wrong way, crossing to go the right way, walking for fifteen minutes the wrong way, and talking to this very pleasant japanese teenager who was trying to help me out. He spoke english very well actually. So then I walked back to where I started and then wised up and started asking the policemen, who, incidentally didn't help very much. One actually was laughing and that's when I kept walking and started crying. So I'm crying walking down the street that I'm hoping is going to get me out of the festival and to a normal bus stop when I pass two of them but couldn't find the same kanji name on my bus map (which usually never steers me wrong). So I'm losing it slowly trying to figure out which bus stop to go to when i see this little tiny store (that I think sold cigarettes, or at least it said tobacco on it in katakana) but it didn't look like a cigarette shop, also, two little old ladies were sitting in the front, so I walked up to them and was like (in japanese) I'm really sorry but I'm sort of lost and I need to find an 11 bus because I need to get back to Arashiyama and I don't know the way. Then, after they stopped being surprised at the white girl speaking their language, one lady offered to take me to the correct bus stop. We got there, I thanked her profusely, and checked with the bus guy to make sure it was the right place. There were a couple of Australians in front of me, a man and a woman, and the man asked me if I was okay and I just laughed. He called himself Australia-jin (which means person from australia, like I would be an America-jin) which I thought was humorous. So I finally boarded my bus and here I am, trying to calm down a little. I'm exhausted.
But while I'm writing this, I thought of some other things I wanted to touch on. So Japanese people have some weird fear of the sun because they don't want to get tan. So they all walk around (the women at least) with these amusing parasols to block the sun. I don't understand. But what I REALLY don't understand is the arm things they wear. They have these sleeves, most of them are of a strange fashion, that they put on when they walk outside. They only cover the arms and wrists. Not the fingers or thumbs. And they take them off when they get in the bus..... I could understand if it was an elderly person who didn't want to get skin cancer or has sensitive skin or something, but teenagers do it, so they don't get tan because they want to be as white as possible. Things are weird here hahah. While I'm on the bus subject, something else I don't understand is that the busiest day for bus riding in the morning is Friday. There are ALWAYS more people on the bus on Fridays. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Silly.
Also, I heard about in Japanese 10 class how Japanese children (boys mostly I think it was? maybe not) are completely bratty in the home, not listening to their mother, basically just being rude and doing whatever they please. So I was always like nah brah, that's not how it is. It definitely is how it is. Rei is cute and everything, but he throws temper tantrums at EVERYTHING literally everything. Half the time I don't even know why he's crying (fake crying???) He can be a brat sometimes! I honestly would whack him if he was my kid. And yuki just lets him do it! Whatever he wants! And gives him his way when he throws tantrums. I just sit there and look at him scornfully. I don't know if that does anything. I shake my head sometimes. Or say, Rei why are you always crying?? Yuki's parents are also staying with us now until Tuesday. Apparently they are quite well off according to Yuki. They took Rei out and Yuki on Thursday in the day. I'm not sure what they did, but I know Rei got a bunch of toys out of the deal. That's another thing- people have off of school starting now for like a month? I have no clue as to why... This system is just crazy. So they came back around the time I got home yesterday and gave me allll this origami paper! They were like here's a present for you! I was so flattered! It was very kind of them. Also, while they're staying with us, they/we eat out every meal. Well not me because I have school, but the rest of them do. So Thursday night we went to this place called the Beer Garden, which sounds sketchy, but was actually realllyy nice. It was a rooftop restaurant and the view we had was absolutely beautiful. Stupid me though, forgot my camera BLAH sorry (not that you can see the pictures anyway because I'm a dork and left the cord somewhere at home..). Then we were apparently going to go to a public ofuro(which they like to do and do often I think) from what I got from the conversation, but thankfully Rei fell asleep so we didn't end up going. They're really cute, the grandparents! I like them. I miss mine.
So anyway, it is now Saturday (I went to sleep after that last sentence) and I had a miserable night. Woke up I think at one and then at four in terrible pain. NOT that any of you need to know, nor care to know about my bodily functions, but severe cramps are not a fun thing to go through. So I couldn't sleep and took some bufferin or advil or something that sensei gave me, which dulled the pain, but didn't make it go away. Then I sort of fell back asleep until my alarm went off at 5:55 because I'm clever and thought we were going to breakfast at 6:50 not 7:50, way to go me. So I got ready and went downstairs and realized that everyone was still sleeping. So now I'm back in my room writing about it. Greeeaaattttt. But back to more things I was going to say about Japan:
Did I talk about movie prices yet???? OH MY GOSH they're so expensive here!!! A regular movie ticket costs $22!!!!!!! But worth it to go see Harry. Still ridiculous though. Alright enough with the ranting. Today is the family potluck with all the host families! Mine can't go which is a bummer, but sensei asked me to sing (along with other students doing some performing I think) so I'ma go do that. With Christian playing guitar for me like a kind soul. Then tonight I'm going to go to GionMatsuri (intentionally this time, and with a Japanese person so I don't get lost and cry about it) with Juliana and her homestay sister. Should be a good time. Forty more minutes until breakfast! I think I'll go back to sleep...?
Jya~

BeroBero

This weekend we went on a trip to Kanazawa. I’m still not exactly sure where that is, but it’s a two hour train ride from Kyoto Station. Before I start on that though, Christian our DA is really sick and in the hospital. I think he’s a bit better now, poor guy, but Dorsey’s class got cancelled on Thursday because he was taking Christian to the doctor. So Free day wooot. No it was really only half an hour free. But anyway, so at one thirty we ventured through Kyoto with one of the office aids at our school to this place where we did a traditional dye workshop. It was so much fun! We each got a thin scarf (furoshiki) and got to pick out stencil-ish things that

(*okay side note—I would just like to point out that I am currently eating little tiny fish. You can see the eyeballs still….. at least I think they’re fish……….)

we would put the dye over. I did one with my own pattern. A lot of people used just one big pattern because the cloth was fairly large, but I picked this phoenix thing with mountains and a sun. I think it looks pretty cool haha I dunno. So that was really great. We also walked twenty minutes from the bus stop there and back to the bus stop in pouring rain. I was soaked through haha it was a problem. The rainy season is supposed to have ended…. Definitely rained yesterday. I don’t remember what we did on Friday really…. Oh no, I do. I did chores because I wasn’t going to be there on Saturday morning when we usually do them. So Saturday morning I got up really early, had breakfast at like six or something and biked to Gaby’s house at seven. We then got on a bus to Kyoto Eki where we took a train to Kanazawa.

            We took a bus to another station (the transportation details are a little fuzzy at this point, it being Wednesday.. my apologies.) and from there walked to the Ryokan (Japanese style Inn) where we would be staying. Then we went off and did some sightseeing. That area is really pretty. We went to this weird modern art museum thing which didn’t really appear to have much art. Although, we just got tired halfway through and sat down in the lobby (we also got the meeting up time wrong so..) and joked around, getting stared at by random Japanese people who probably thought we were ridiculous. Although, we did get an EXCELLENT rendition of the dramatic chipmunk from Miraa-san (if you haven’t watched that on youtube- ‘dramatic chipmunk’- I strongly encourage you to do so.) and a lot of random dancing was involved. The museum was pretty cool though. It was interactive so you would walk through a bunch of mirrors or look at this giant fabric thing that looked like a hole. There was an invisible wall maze, that was entertaining. We put on these headband things that buzzed every time you hit a wall. I wasn’t exactly sure where the thing ended, but oh well. There was also this thing that, from the top looked like a pool, but when you looked down into, there were people! I then figured out that you’re supposed to go downstairs to the basement floor and you stand under the “pool” which is actually a large pit with a piece of glass over it. The glass had water running on top of it, it was sooo neat. Before that though we went to this really pretty … temple? No I’m not exactly sure what it was. It wasn’t a temple, but it had a lot of gorgeous garden areas and water and this really tall statue. It’s really nice being able to see all kinds of greenery everywhere. The architectural work is stunning. We saw this lantern thing made of stone that was supposed to have had three legs at one point, but apparently one fell down and they just left it that way. Looked like it was doing fine with two.. So that was great.

            Back at the hotel, some people used the “onsen.” That’s supposed to be a hotspring/giant public bath, but at this ryokan it was really only a bigish ofuro (a hot bath) that constantly is pouring small amounts of water into it. It was pretty, but I was always scared some rando was going to walk in on me, so I went really fast and didn’t exactly get as much enjoyment out of it as I should have maybe. That night was absolutely a mess. We were up quiet late with some of our friends who had a bit too much to drink. We got a cool comradery experience out of it though, the sober ones. And a bit closer with the others too, I believe. So the next day, we all got up exhausted and had breakfast in the main dining hall thing. Oh! That’s another thing, the inn fed us this beautiful dinner the night before too. We did it in the style of a tradition Japanese drinking party, is what sensei said. He then added, but we can’t order alcohol for you guys, so it’ll just be Yukari and I (his wife)! He’s great hahaha. Apparently in a traditional Japanese drinking party, everyone sits in hierarchal order, the lowest at the bottom and the highest with his back to.. shoot I forgot what it’s supposed to be, but in our case it was just a wall-sensei being the highest. Fun fact, Miraa-san hates fish and Anna is a pescatarian (which they humorously took to mean vegetarian, so she was rather disgruntled when she didn’t get any fish and instead got a bunch of soggy vegetables haha), so they sat at the very bottom. Coincidence? Maybe… haha anyway we all sat on cushions with the low one-person tables. Oh it was so cool! So that’s how breakfast was set up too. Brian and Sugi sat closer to sensei at breakfast because they wanted to up their standing ahahah. So after breakfast we all packed up our stuff and put it in a front room for us to come back and get later. We took a bus? Train? I forgot. On Sunday and then walked forever to get to this cool little place where we made rice crackers! We put the flat rice cracker in this prong forkish thing, only you put it inbetween to clamps (sorry it’s sory of hard to explain) and hold it in a kiln(right word? I dunno) and flip it over a few times and the thing expands! Then you place the cracker in the opposite direction in the clamp thing so it gets rid of the original line that was made. Sorry that probably didn’t really make sense. But it was SO COOL to watch the tiny cracker expand to this huge one. Oh man. That was when Brian, Sugi, and I decided that we were going to make sensei and Yukari a cult following (obviously very much joking. Cults are bad.). Brian would be president, I’d be vice president, and Sugi would be secretary. Then we made a tshirt design! Most important thing I learned from this weekend: When all else fails, do what Yukari-san does. Sensei told me that wise piece of information. She’s the real nihon-jin (Japanese person) after all. So after that we went to this famous place I forgot the name of and were allotted an hour and a half to check the place out and get lunch and do whatever.

            We ended up meeting these three Japanese college girls wearing Yukata who wanted to practice their English. They toured us around the place, which had these really cool old buildings, most of which were tea houses. We also saw this temple and they showed up to a great place where we ate shaved ice and ice cream. We then had half an hour left so the six of us, calling ourselves KI-6, walked around a bit and found this really shallow river. So we took our shoes off and walked across it to the other side and sat in the shade a bit before we had to go back to meet everyone at the bus stop. We met these cute thirteen year old school girls who were obsessed with miraa-san. He got them to splash Juliana and it was hilarious. So we walked back to the bus stop and from there went to this gold leaf museum. I was just happy to sit down, frankly. It was really cool though, we watched this video on how they make it. They take gold I think mixed with copper and they pound it with a hammer. Then they do it again and it’s something like 1/10,000 of a mm or something ridiculous like that. So pretty. Then we went back to ryokan, grabbed our stuff,  and took a train back to Kyoto. At the station we split up and had dinner. Our group had okonomiyaki which was great as always and then we went home. I had to take a bus back to Gaby’s with her because my bike was there, then I exhaustedly rode home, took a shower, and went to bed. Good weekend.

            Monday nothing really happened. Tuesday we gave our presentations on a famous place in Japan. I’ve been really good about doing my work, I’ll just let you all know. My granddad would be proud. I think he would even say “Keep up the good work!” Hahah I would also like to take this opportunity to lament over the fact that I’m missing camping in Carlsbad right now and it’s very upsetting. Today we’re going to make Wagayashi! (Japanese confectionary things) So pumped! I made it with Yuki and Rei a couple weeks ago. Can’t wait! Last night we went the four of us (Yuki, Rei, and Takanari) to an Udon restaurant (noodles). The service was so great!!!! They took our order while we were waiting so we basically sat down and then got our food. Also as we were leaving, a couple of them followed us out, thanking us and waving and stuff. I was amazed haha. So yeah, today should be fun. This week is Gion Matsuri festival! Until later,

Jya~

Kayoubi.

It's been quite an interesting couple of days! Done a lot of cool stuff. Sunday I went to Jing's party allll the way in (I think...) Shiga-ken. Which is north of Kyoto-fu. Thank goodness I went with Gaby because I would have been so lost otherwise. We took bus 11 to a different bus to Kyoto Eki, where we then got on a JR train going to Shiga-ken. The station was literally a three minute walk from his house, which was great. I then proceeded to experience a proper Japanese party (and according to Jing, a normal Asian party). We started by hanging out in Jing's room (WHICH HAS A BED!!! rest assured I took advantage of THAT opportunity.), us Dartmouth kids. Then, when the other guests had arrived (Jing's family's friends), we went downstairs and drew numbers/letters for where we were going to sit. We were mixed up between ourselves and the parent's friends. It was really great actually because we got a good chance to talk to Japanese people of different ages and different accents. They were all superrr nice, we had some great conversations. We ate osushi and I believe sukiyaki. Jing had a bit too much wine, which was absolutely great to witness. I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but in Japan, the drinking age is twenty. However, they don't card gaijin (foreigners- or anyone, for that matter) because they can't tell how old they are. That's why it's easy for a lot of kids to get into clubs even if they're underage, because Japanese people can't tell how old white people are. Also, the smoking culture makes my lungs hurt. Anyway, after we ate and talked, I can't remember which came first, but we did a kind of variety show and they gave the Dartmouth students gifts. The variety show included a magic show (by this elderly woman.. SO CUTE), guitar playing (by Jing's dad and Jeff- kudos to Jeff, didn't know he could sing ahah), piano playing (by Gaby, Juliana, and myself), and a hula dance (by two older ladies). I think that's it, but I may have forgotten something. So then we drew names to see who we would receive our gift from. I was given this really cute little purse thing with a cat on it, a small cat thingy, and a magnet. Then we played Bingo!!!! I got last.... for anyone who knows me..... shocker, right? Everyone got to pick a prize though, which was really nice of them. I got this AWESOME pencil box thing with THREE COMPARTMENTS!!! whattttttt. mind was blown. It has Stitch on it :)) Then we had dessert (coffee/tea and flan), took a bunch of pictures, and went home. It was thoroughly organized and flawlessly executed. I had a really awesome time!!! As we were going into the train station, the other ladies that had attended the party were running after us, saying they forgot to give us something. Then they gave us these great okashi things!! Still not quite sure what they are. So then I went home and had dinner. Yuki's friend and her two kids had come over and we did fireworks with them! Which was actually perfect since it was the day before fourth of July. However, I think these might have been in the spirit of Gionmatsuri, Kyoto's biggest festival of the year.
Monday was a pretty bad sick day, which was unfortunate. Had class like normal, then went to the post office! Nothing really exciting there though, except that there were no lines. Oh, and the addresses have to be written in pen. If you write them in pencil, they make you re-write them. I don't know if that's regular in America, at least, it's not in any of the post offices I go to...? Before that, though, we had lunch and then listened to this apparently famous Japanese folk singer, who gave the talk only to our class! He was so cute! While he was talking, I drew him (probably rude... but I was totally listening!!) in my sketchbook. I showed it to sensei after he was done speaking and he showed it to him!!!!! Then the guy (his name was Miura) asked if he could have it. So I took a picture of it and said goodbye...... sigh. He was a cute old man anyway. And very interesting! He said, as a child he wanted to either become a folk singer or a Buddhist monk? haha He was funny. He's done a tonn of different things though. At present they all escape me, but I know he was a teacher and translator for a while, among other things. After that I went home... and stayed there. Didn't feel well at all. Still don't, really. But maybe it'll get better. Otherwise, tomorrow, it's back to the doctor for me! Zannen.
Today was a pretty good day. Had the same class for three and a half hours- that was rough. We gave presentations on our families. Everyone else went to a different area of town for lunch, but I didn't really feel up to it. So here I am. Tonight, going to sushi (or osushi, to be polite) with my family!! Fun times! Now going home to maybe watch Harry Potter/ take a nap. Blah mono.
I learned to say:
-kayui: itchy
-hareteiru: swollen
-zutto: all the time
-scholarship: shougakukin
-seki: cough, which you don't do, in fact, it leaves you. "seki wo deru" -deru meaning to leave/go out
Jya~

Interview with Anonymous

Q: What are your thoughts on Japan's weather?
A: Well when I first arrived in Japan, I was shocked by its humidity and its hot climate even though I already knew that the weather in Japan wasn't too nice, but throughout the two weeks that I've been here I feel like I've become more accustomed to the weather, and lately actually, its been raining a lot. There's been fifty to sixty percent of rain daily so its been a bit cooler. There's been less sun but it's still been kinda like humid.

Q: Do you feel that your Japanese has become more fluent?
A: More fluent? Like more fluent? Are you typing this? Well. Um. Not really actually. Probs. But i feel that my fan has become more broken. Look at this.

Q: What's your favorite thing about Japan so far?
A: um. i guess i just really like our lsa group and ive met everyone before cometing to the trip but the time that im able to spend with them i think is a going to develop a storng friendship that will remain even at dartmouth when we return. and evertone just like weird and funny heh heh hheh. im a fan of gatewood san who broke my fan.

Q: What are some big differences you've noticed between here and America?
A: Well definitely the culture. people are more....  people keep to themselves a lot. But at the same time I still feel like no matter where you go, places are generally similar. Clearly every country has its distinct thing that they're known for, but if I were to live let's say somewhere like Turkey, I feel like I'd still be able to maintain who I am while immersed in their culture, which is kinda like saying people are going to react to you similarly.  Think about it this way, in all cultures your teenagers or students our age do similar things for fun. Also, I live in Arizona so the place i live is kinda in the suburbs no one's outside, people go everywhere by car, so it's new to me, riding the bus, and I've never really ridden a bike places, but it's a main transportation system for a lot of people here. It's really difficult, don't you think? I mean, people hold umbrellas while they ride! Also, i hate the toilets. And I think the fashion is really interesting, but it's very distinct and people are trendy here, I think more so than in America because compared to Asian countries, people don't really follow that many trends. Food is different. Its yummy. I think it's also interesting how you put the money in the little basket, the cashier's gonna touch it anyway, but I still have to put it in the basket! Its also really annoying that I'm still greeted with this really fast nasal tone,"irashaimase!" If that happened in America.... people might get shot.

Q: What's your favorite Japanese food?/
A: takoyaki. is that what its called? That yummy thing with the brown sauce that's yummy? yum yum!

Q:What do you miss about America?
A: You, whoever is reading [cackle] haha no just kidding. Well, I guess not just America, but my personal space in my comfort zone-- like home or my dorm. Where I can eat whatever or listen to my music as loud as i want. But I like being sort of uncomfortable in a homestay family. That sounds weird, but I enjoy it because it allows me to become more organized and thoughtful of the other people living in my house. So i wouldn't keep my sink dirty like I would at home. My room's really neat, etc.

Q: Have you watched any Japanese TV?
A: As a matter of fact, the family watches TV while eating dinner. By American standards, it sounds impolite, but I think it's pretty common to turn on the tv while you eat, so I watch it every night. I find it similar to mexican television shows and korean television. People have similar whole shows. Lots of celebrities coming on, reality shows, what else. The comedy I watched was really similar to Korean comedy.

Q: Please explain the word kawaii.
A: My FACE! hahahahah joke. um. well. In japan, pretty much anything can be kawaii. This chair I'm sitting in is kawaii. That desk. Yeah. That's kawaii. Your computer. Totemo kawaii! I think it's a term with a broad range of meaning and usage. Like you can use the term kawaii and even cute in so many various situations. Like.. well this is kinda off topic but my mom, when she describes people who are not actually very good looking, she calls them kawaii. She acutally uses the korean word. But wow anything can be cute. Even if it's really weird. Like think of  bulldogs. They're acutally kind of ugly, but they're the cutest things! So kawaii isn't a word that describes beauty. I don't think cute describes beauty at all.

Q: What do you hope to have accomplished after the LSA is over?
A: [nail biting] I guess just being able to communicate comfortably around Japanese people with them clearly realizing that I'm a gaijin. And to have conversations with my family that won't involve them explaining half of what they're saying.

Shuumatsu.

Today was rather hot. But not too bad. Had my first bike ride in Japan today. Almost died only once! But it was really fun. Yuki has a little seat on the back of her bicycle where Rei sits, it's amazing how she can pull him along when she's so tiny. Looked really heavy. Speaking of being tiny, I call Rei "saru-chan" because saru is monkey and he likes to jump and climb all over everything and has a lot of energy. So tonight he called me Zou-something (I didn't catch the last word). Zou means elephant. Yuki asked him why he called me that and he replied, because she's big! Five year old boy: 1, Self-esteem: 0. Anyway, so we biked to the Panya bakery place and picked up some breakfast. I had choko-meeron (chocolate melon) bread and some blueberry thing. We brought it home and had it with a hardboiled egg and salad. After breakfast I did chores!! I've already mentioned this about Japan, but I'd just like to re-emphasize: EVERYTHING IS SO CLEAN. All the time. They take great care to clean everything. First I put my laundry in- I dont know if this is a common thing among Japanese households, but they don't have a dryer and everything is put on these handy close line hook things that go outside. The washing machine first does a spin of all the clothes, I think to weigh it, then decides how long the wash should be for. I had a small load and it decided it would only take twenty-seven minutes. So while that was in, I vaccumed my wooden floor with this convenient little light-weight vaccuum, and dusted. Then my laundry was done, so I hung that out to dry.
Then we biked to the suupaa to get some groceries and something for lunch. They dont use grocery carts in their grocery stores, I've learned. Just baskets. Last time we went, Rei pushed a little cart for us. It was very cute haha. Also, once they're done at the checkout, they take their baskets to another little shelf thing against the wall and bag their own groceries! So efficient! After lunch, I rested a little while because Yuki took Rei to his taisou-shitsu (gymnastics class). Then they came back and we biked to a store called uniqlo, which is reaallyyy popular here, because they had a sale, then biked to a small gas station like store (without the gas part) where we met another homestay mother, Miyuki, and her two kids and got ice cream before going back to Miyuki's house. While at the gas stationish store, I was looking at this teen magazine. I was so surprised to find some of the stuff that was in there!!!! Japanese girls want to look more like westerners so they dye their hair lighter and draw on their eyeliner such that it goes below the actual bottom eye lid, to make them look bigger. It was really scary looking!!
After Miyuki's we went to another HUGE 100￥store. they had a HUGE art section too and everything was only a little over a dollar!!!!! I got a sketchbook, 12 pencils in a box, and a pencil sharpener for $3.80. They also had oil paints, water colors, acrylics, pre-gessoed board, palletes and all sorts of stuff for 105￥!!!! I almost fainted. Considering going back there and picking some of that stuff up... since it's only a dollar each... (Still in shock.) After that we went to this place for dinner called...... um. shoot. something-ya. ukiya? blah I already forgot. Anyway the inside kind of reminded me of a fast food restaurant, but the food was SO GOOD! not like any fast food restaurant in america (once again, shocker.). The food was reeallyy fast though. Then we went home, did the ofuro, and now here I am. Oh! Also at dinner, instead of bringing water free of charge like in america, they brought tea!!!!! So great.
Tomorrow I'm biking to Miyuki's and going with Gaby (my fellow gakusei) to Jing's party! Hopefully we dont get lost..... Yay good times!
Jya~

byouinnn.

Today was an experience. Right now I'm sitting on a bus going home. It:s almost six and there are a lot of Japanese school girls sitting in the rows behind me. They're pretty funny. I went to the Japanese doctor today! It was amazing! The difference between the American medical system and the Japanese one is crazy. Dorsey-sensei and I walked to the place, which was like ten minutes from the school. We got in, signed in, and were seen in about ten minutes. I did my own height and weight and temperature (in my armpit...?). oh, and blood pressure. Then I recorded it, and waited five minutes before the doctor saw me. I don't have Japanese insurance and the price of the visit was the equivalent of $44.75!!!!!! Then I got three different types of common cold medication after waiting only fifteen-twenty minutes: one for sinus/fever, one for cough, and one for.... I forgot. But that cost was only around $22...WITHOUT INSURANCE. Whaaaattttt... I was so amazed. The Japanese really have it figured out. I was also really happy because Dartmouth payed for my illness. And every single person in the palce told us as we were leaving "o daiji ni" or "ki wo tsukete" which means take care. I also learned the phrase "yukkuri yasunde" which is literally "slowly rest" but acutally means relax. Also the entire medical facility was absolutely spotless. Not that I was surprised about that... haha. So anyway, I got my meds and went back to the school, talked to one of the office people for about forty minutes, and now here I am, on my hour long bus ride home, sitting next to this lady who probably thinks it's weird that I'm typing on a bus. I was lucky enought to have caught the 204 bus almost right after I got to the bus stop.
Now it's the weekend!!!! Tomorrow I'm going by bicycle (everyone here rides them and it's rather dangerous. You have to be pretty skilled to maneuver the streets. It's going to be..... interesting.)  to a panya or bread store/bakery. Japanese bread is SO GREAT!!!! More on that later. Then Sunday a bunch of us are going to Jing's host family's house for a party. Should be delightful. But it's farrrr away. So I have to go to Kyoto Eki (Kyoto Station) and take a train to wherever it is.. I have yet to figure that out bahaha. So if you don't hear back from me.., I'm lost in Japan, no big deal. Oh I almost forgot, in the other post I wrote my email incorrectly. It's fixed on there now, but in case you need it again, it's gatewood@softbank.ne.jp . sorry about that.
Japan really is great. The people are nice. It's really safe. Things aren't that cheap, but I mean nowadays what is haha. Right across the street from school, however, is a Hyaku En store or 100￥. just about everything in there is 100￥ or around a dollar. I had onigiri (rice ball!) and some weird veggie potato snack things that Juliana bought. It's impolite to drink or eat food while walking or in public places. Also, I find that almost no one talks on public transportation, and when they do, they cover their mouths so it's even more difficult to understand. Coincidentally, I ran into my homestay mom on one of the busses yesterday. I was so surprised! Bikurishita!! Today I learned words for cold (catching a cold), liver, to put on (sauces), buy something that's new, and rare. Well that's all for now!
Jya~

Headachessss

I have many.
There's SO MUCH LEARNING GOING ON.
Makes my head hurt. Literally I've had a headache for like three or four days. Everything you do takes more time to comprehend and respond to because you have to think so hard about it, rather than it just being natural.
I've also noticed that there is a lot less water available here, which is a bummer because I drink a lot of water. They drink a LOT of tea, which isn't really surprising.
Also, another thing I've learned is that they don't eat grape skins here. The squeeze the grapes with their fingers while they're in their mouths and then put the skins on the plate.... whhaaaaatttt.
Baha. Yesterday we did this art workshop where we made bracelets--dyed them and braided them! So much fun. Mine is green and brown. Haha then today we went to this awesome place an hour away and did kiyomizuyaki. which is japanese traditional dish painting. we made cups! Painting was so much fun. You had to take care to mix because there was only one color, but depending on how much water was mixed with it, once out of the kiln, it will come out darker or lighter. Then the host showed us around the place and took us to this olllddddd kiln that's been around for apparently a hundred years. They used to make grenade shells there, so the shells were ceramics. The whole place was really hot but so interesting!! It was a long ride home and I feel rather sick. Might go to the doctor tomorrow..
Jya~

Ohhhhh hey, Japan.

Wow.

What a whirlwind of a couple days. Frankly, I’m exhausted.

We’ve done SO MUCH already I feel like I’ve been here for two weeks. It’s craaazzyyy. I’ve decided to label this trip Gaijin Smash (Gaijin meaning foreigner) because wherever we’ve gone so far, it’s been foreign infiltration. Basically.

Anyway. The flight was superrr long, but not too bad because I slept for around five hours of it and sat next to a very pleasant woman from North Carolina who was visiting her sister who was teaching near Kyoto and an adorable little asian boy. Probably Japanese. The food was TERRIBLE, but I was just happy to get food.

The airport was crazy. Never gone through customs before, but it was all good. That was the first time I used Japanese!! Told the lady that we four were together. Then she didn’t hand check my bag. Win.

So we took the bus to our hotel, which was really nice, and got settled and all that. Explored a little, had great food (okonomiyaki), it was really fun.

So next day we went out to get denshi jisho dictionaries and ketai cell phones! That took a while because we were trying to find the lowest prices, which still ended up being rather expensive. But it turned out okay. Still trying to figure out how to work the jisho haha. The ketai is a bit difficult to work, only because it takes so long to type. But my email address on my phone is Gatewood@softbank.ne.jp so feel free to email me there! After that I think was when we went to kiyomizudera temple, which was absolutely beautiful. The view of the city and the trees was amazing. Washed our hands in “holy water” I think. And walked a lot. But it was so fun!

Friday we went to more temples (tenryuuji and kinkakuji and one other but I forget the name) and a place called arashiyama (storm mountain) which incidentally is a five minute bus ride from my homestay house hahaha. We basically spent that day making up pokemon and spirit animals for each other and putting ourselves into harry potter houses. Tenryuuji had a beautiful stone garden where apparently the monks rake into neat, tiny rows every day. There are fifteen stones and apparently you can’t see all fifteen at once and if you do, you reach enlightenment. Well Christian found this place at the right side of the temple where you can see all fifteen… so I guess we were all enlightened that day. HA! I almost forgot, that day we also (the white kids, that is) felt like celebrities because this group of Japanese school kids saw us and wanted to take pictures of with us. They came up to the girls and said “Kawaii! Kawaii!!” which is cute cute! Yeah, they liked us. Haha They tried to practice their English with us and that was amusing because they kept reading it off a paper and speaking in very broken English. One girl shook my hand for like a minute and called a couple of my friends prince and princess. Middle schoolers are so amazed by white people. Especially in the more rural areas. Anyway, the temples were really pretty and the people are all SO NICE.

Saturday! Saturday we met our homestay families! In the morning we traveled from our hotel to the school, KICL (Kyoto Bunka Nihongo Gakkou or the Kyoto Institute of Culture and Language) via taxi. We got there and had an introductory review class, the teacher was really funny, then we had a campus tour and met our families/did introductions! Messed mine up kind of and forgot to say my major, but they got the gist.. Then we went back to our houses!!!!!

My family is Yuki (mother,32), Kitagawa (I forgot his first name.. father, 36), and Rei (son, 5). They are soooo aweeesssoooommmeeeeeeee. I’ve been having kind of a hard time understanding everything and I was definitely overwhelmed the first day—yesterday. But today I feel okay! I learned about the house and basically how the routine goes. My tsuukin(commute) to the school is an hour longggg. Gaaah. But I’ll get some good reading in. or homework…. Haha. Hopefully I don't get lost. I only need to take two buses, and so only have to look for two streets to get off at. After we got back, we used the car to go get me a bus pass for now until the end of july. That’ll be useful since I’ll be riding the bus every day haha. It is so hot here. SO HOT. And sticky. Last night I used my first ofuro! In a Japanese home, they have a room with a toilet (toire or otearai) and a room with a shower/laundry/sink (ofuro!). Every night, you go in the ofuro, stand on the left, shower off, get in the boiling hot tub of water (40 degrees C!!!! omg)/some salt thing for like six minutes or however long you want, get out, wash off again with soap, get back in the boiling hot water, and get out then dry off and put your pajamas on. Then…. You do whatever haha.

Last night I thought I was going to die of heat. I sleep on a thin futon with a towel-feeling thin blanket because it’s SO HOT. There isn’t any air conditioning that’s kept on besides the one in the kitchen-diningroom-living room room. So I really never spend any time in my own room because it’s so mushiatsui (hot and humid). Before I sleep, I’m allowed to put the eakon (airconditioning) on, but it’s on a timer, so it goes off after like half an hour or an hour or something. I woke up this morning in a sweat. Kind of uncomf. But today was so much fun! There isn’t any internet besides on their realllyyyy old lap top, so I’m most likely going to be posting this while I’m at school at some point. The traditional Japanese breakfast is miso soup, rice, tamago (egg), osakana(fish), tofu, and something else I forget. So I ate that, then we went and dropped off kitagawa at his bike and picked up yuki’s friend(I forgot her name darnit!)/went to the suupaa(supermarket). Then we went back and hung out at the house and made sukiyaki (a noodle dish) and okonomiyaki!!!! Okonomiyaki is one of my favorite Japanese foods—it’s egg and cabbage and some other things I can’t name off the top of my head. Anyway that was delicious. Then we went to this place called kanshundou and made wagashi! I have pictures I’ll attach eventually but I think I left my camera cord at home so I can’t now. But it’s basically these beautiful sugary creations haha apparently later we’re going to the same place(with my Japanese class) and making something else!! Bikurishita!! It was so much fun! Then we came back and had…. Oyakodon. Which I think was rice and chicken and egg…. Everything here is delicious and healthy. Also, Yuki is a cook. She teaches cooking and is a “keeki-sensei” or cake teacher. I think she said that because I didn’t understand the actual Japanese word for it hahaha. I LOVE JAPANESE FOOD!!!! I still have another amaimono (sweet thing) that I made to eat, so I think I’ll do that now. Class tomorrow!!!!!!! Woaaahhhhhhh I’m nervous. But it’ll be funn. Also I’m inquiring about a singing club and a dance class… I think. And the hour bus ride-excursion to school. Hopefully I don't get lost……

Before I stop for today, here are some more things about japan:

-people are really particular about taking off your shoes and where you put them.

-there are vending machines EVERYWHERE

-there are trash cans NOWHERE

-Kyoto streets(at least where I live) are SO thin

-no one wears seat belts in the back seat

-lots of green tea drinking happens… allllthetime.

-you can smoke basically anywhere

-apparently you’re not supposed to eat and walk at the same time

-a lot of young people wear SOMUCHMAKEUP

-everyone walks around in high heels all the time-the women anyway

-lots of people take parasols with them when they walk because they don't want to tan haha

-I’m really tired. So that’s it for now!

            Ja~

Woah.

Four more days left in the US.
Kinda freaking out.
Stuff left to do:
_Pack
_Inquire about charger things
_Do laundry
_Buy host gift
_Finish album
_Charge things
_Read LSA handbook
_LEARN JAPANESE?!?!?!

Aaaaaaand I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.
But that's it for now. Father's Day Sunday, California tomorrow. woot.