Things are looking up!

I finally had a good day where I was happy all day and had no major issues (even though I had a really bad sore throat all day I think from being out in the rain that night)!!

Here's my breakfast :)

I talked to Yuko in Japanese a bunch at breakfast this morning and she invited me to come with the family to see the illuminations at the outlet mall Sunday night!

It was soooo cold today! 36 degrees :(

(The street next to my host family's apartment)

I wanted to return the bike light I bought yesterday. Even though I opened it, I just stuck the staples back in. It tire a bit but I was hoping they'd still take it off my hands. Daiso was closed though. 7 an is too early I guess.

So I caught my train and then subway and walked to school all by myself!

(Sign pointing to Nanzan Daigaku)

I got one of the free tissue handouts too!

At school I was early, but Rana was there too so I got to talk to her. 

Today was when we bought our books. They told me to wait until I knew for sure which Japanese class I was in to buy the second Genki book. So I just bought the paintbrush kit I need for calligraphy class.

Then we headed to the Internet orientation. There we logged onto the Nanzan computers with our username and password and changed our passwords. 

All the buttons and icons were in Japanese! So everything was so hard to read. But I managed! 

I also got an email address: 13r502@nanzan-u.ac.jp

Then we learned about the World Plaza which is a room where Japanese is banned. It's for Japanese students to practice foreign languages so they want is to help communicate with the Japanese students and make friends. :)

For lunch I went with a bunch of my friends to the curry cafeteria (Nanzan had like 20 different cafeterias on campus!) and got tonkatsu. It was soooo good!

I got a glass of water and the machine was so cool! You pressed your glass against the thing like you'd do in America, but instead of just water or ice coming out, it was ice and then water!

The weird thing was that all the other students in the cafeteria (all Japanese) were all guys! There were no girls. And there were a bunch of people in there. Maybe the girls don't like the spicy curry?

Our next orientation was to learn CPR. I've already been trained in CPR but it was cool to learn it in Japanese. Like you'd run over to the person and go "Daijobu desu ka? Wakarimasu ka?" Instead of "Are you okay?"

The room we were in was in an old building that was sooo cold! This was the bathroom:

(Why were the windows open when it was in the 30s outside??)

(And of course no heated seat toilets)

(And no hot water :( )

We had to watch a movie in Japanese about earthquakes. Then we went outside in the freezing cold for the fire extinguisher drill. It was totally awesome, though, because we got to shoot the fire extinguishers into the fountain! (They just had water inside)

Then I went to get another copy of the packet of kanji from CJS that I had gotten with my acceptance letter and then left at school last fall. 

As I was leaving with Emma and Pearl, we were stopped by two girls from a nearby university who wanted to interview foreigners. They were with this shy guy who decided to interview me because I wanted to do an interview too! They were all so cute. They told us they were nervous to speak English, but they were all very good! One of the girls added us on Facebook too!

Then Pearl left for her dorm and I walked Emma to the station (look at me showing people around now!)

While Emma and I were waiting for the train, Aya came over! She was with her friend Natsu. Emma got off at the first stop, but I was able to talk a LOT in Japanese to Aya and Natsu. They were both so patient when I didn't understand something. And Aya added me on Facebook! :)

When I got off at Kanayama to catch the next train, it was snowing!!!! Tons of flurries were falling, it was so exciting!

At Ichinomiya Station, I went to Daiso to return the light. The girl at the counter put her arms up crossed like "no" and I thought she was going to not let me return it, but then my tired brain processed her Japanese and realized she was checking to make sure I really didn't need it. And then she gave me my money back! Awesome!

So I think I must have been high on my success and the fact that for the first time it was still light out for my trip home because as I was biking home (the snow had stopped), I saw a SoftBank building and decided to stop. I asked the lady inside if she spoke English and she didn't, but I was like what the heck. I pulled out the Japanese phone a friend back home gave me and tried to get more minutes on it. She ended up not being able to help because I didn't know the number of the phone, but hey, I got a bunch of language practice in!

It was sprinkling on my way back home and it had gotten really cold. When I got home I had the house to myself for a bit. Then Miyabi and Yuko got home. I played with Miyabi and then we ate dinner. We had yakiudon and it was super good!

Then when Ken got home, I finally gave everyone their presents and opened mine from them. 

Everyone LOVED all the Texas themed stuff I gave them haha. And the cat and dog liked their gifts. And here's my gift. :)

Yuko made me strawberry caramel tea and talked to me in Japanese a bunch. She told me that the stroke order for kanji she learned in school has changed and Miyabi has to learn a different stroke order! I couldn't believe it. She told me all about the Japanese school system and learning kanji and stuff. It was so interesting! And my listening skills are rapidly improving!

Oh and guys, they have pink toilet paper. I am eternally jealous...

(Just so you know, I actually wasn't on the toilet while taking this)

And by request, pictures of Nanzan and my surrounding area:

(Hill up to Nanzan)

(Front gate)

(Foreign student building. It's so new :) )

(Awesome dude who works at Lawson's)

(Train ride home)

(Strange tall white tower)

(The river I bike past)

(My host family's apartment complex)

(Bikes)

(Ribbon with my present to him)

Tomorrow I'm going to Osu with friends! I can't wait!! :D