A Sunday spent baking cupcakes

Sunday, April 27

So I went to the 8 am mass today because I Natalia wanted me to come earlier to make the cupcakes I wanted to make for our 300 class party tomorrow.

All the tunes of the songs at Mass are different now that it's after Easter. Argh, just when I'd finally learned to sing them! Oh well, at least the words are still the same, so I'm ganbatte-ing!

I went home and Yuko had left breakfast out for me: salad, jello, and two pieces of bread. As I ate, they all bustled around getting ready. Yuko told me they were heading out because her grandma had broken some bones, so they were going to visit her in the hospital. And after that they were taking Maple to get a shampoo. And then they might meet Yuko's mom, so they weren't sure what time they'd be home, maybe at night.

Yuko asked when I was leaving and what time I was getting home. I had no idea what time I'd get home, so she asked me to text her.

Yuko hadn't put out anything to put on the bread and I hate eating regular bread plain, so I was eating it really slowly, so I'd have a piece left over after they left and then I could put honey on it.

But when they left, I rushed to go put my laundry on so it would be done before I left and then I called my parents. When my laundry was done, it was time to go, so I sort of spread it out on my floor to dry and then rushed out the door, completely forgetting about my bread! I'd left it sitting on the table with my empty glass. Crap!

I found Rainbow House super easily this time because Natalia had sent me good directions. On the way, I passed a park where these middle school girls were running around (I was shocked since it was so hot and their uniforms were long sleeved with long skirts) in a playground and playing the game of played with Miya and Saki chan in Handaa that time, where one person is the oni and they shout a color and everyone else had to touch something of that color. So the girl who was the monster shouted "ao" (blue) and only one girl went to the one blue thing, a bike rack. The other girls went to a green bench! I blame Japanese and it's weird association of "ao" with green things ("aoringo", literally "blue apple", is the word for green apple and the green on a traffic light is called "ao". I don't understand...). So yeah, that was funny to see as I walked past. 

At rainbow house, I had to knock a few times before she answered, but at least she was there this time! It was really hot out and I was tired from the walk up here, so when Natalia offered me a drink, I was so happy because I'd drank all my water. She gave me a peach water! Yes!! I love that stuff! 

She had hurt her leg more this weekend, so was hobbling around on her crutches. But she helped me find the things I needed so I could start making the pancakes. It turned out their oven was this tiny little toaster oven. And I thought she had had a cupcake sheet, but she didn't. Luckily she did have these metal cups that I put the cupcake papers in and used to make cupcakes. She only had three, though, so I could only make three at a time even though I could have got four in the toaster oven.

So it was a long process. But Natalia brought down her textbook so I could study for the kanji test we have tomorrow, while she wrote her papers for her business and politics classes.

Two hours later, I had the nine cupcakes I needed: one each for the seven if us students and one each for Mutsukawa and Kondo sensei. I ended up making three extra and then I wanted to make more with the rest of the cupcake papers I had, but it had taken so long, I just used the rest of the batter to make a heart shaped cake, haha!

(This was from the first batch where I put too much butter in, haha)

(The heart cake!)

Then I put everything in the box I'd brought and cleaned up. In all, it took three hours!! Gosh, baking in Japan is so hard because ovens don't exist! Most people, like my host family don't even have an oven! They just use the microwave. The thing I thought was a little oven, Natalia told me is actually a fish grill. Wtf. It's weird to see how different the priorities are over here.

As I was leaving, I saw Natalia and her roommates had a huge stash of the Asian pear soda I love with little pieces of pear in it. I told them how much I love it and asked if you could buy it at the supermarket near the rainbow house. Natalia and one of her roommates who had come into the kitchen to eat lunch told me I could take a couple because no one really liked them, haha. Awesome!! I took two of them and then Natalia and I headed out. She was walking part of the way with me because she wanted to go to the supermarket.

(Pretty flowers on the way to the station)

These flowers are everywhere! They're the ones I took pictures of by the Nanzan sign. They're all around Nanzan and the dorms, in Ichinomiya, in Sakae, and over by Rainbow House too!

We parted ways at the supermarket. I thanked her for letting me come over to make cupcakes and then I headed to school. There, I dropped the cupcakes and icing off at my locker before heading home.

When I got home, the car wasn't in the driveway, so I figured no one was home and I could go get my bread off the table and eat it before they saw I'd left it there. But when I got inside, Yuko and Miya were already there and my bread was gone. Dangit!

So I went to my room to study for the kanji test until Ken got home and Miya came in to tell me it was dinner time. She made me race her to the kitchen, but when we got there, I was right behind her so she tried to close the door on me and I stuck my hand out to stop it. Ken gave Miya a talking to because that's dangerous and she'd almost shut my hand in the door. 

On the table was the takoyaki maker and Ken had just finished putting in all the stuff to make it. Yay, we were having takoyaki! Yuko sat next to me and Ken and Miya sat on the other side. Everyone talked a lot to me tonight. It was great!!

And I was in a good mood after finishing making the cupcakes, so I talked a lot back. I told everyone how I had a test every day this week and a ton of homework. And Yuko asked about the party tomorrow and who was doing what. And then she asked how many people were in the 300 class and how many other levels there were and which level had the most people. And they asked what level Rana was in too.

I can't believe they don't know this stuff after all the exchange students they've hosted! But I found out the student they previously had, who they're in love with and talk about all the time was in 500. No wonder they loved her. She must have been able to communicate with them pretty well.

After I got full and Ken continued cooking takoyaki for his lunch and leftovers, I brought up the fact that I was staying overnight in Obara over golden week. I should have just finished eating and left and brought it up another time when they were busier, because Yuko took this opportunity to completely grill me about the people I'm staying with and ask me all these questions about my life back home and stuff that I just didn't want to talk to her about. Then she'd talk about it in Japanese with Ken for a bit before asking me another question. She was being super nosy and didn't stop even after I started giving her one word answers only (obvious social cue for I don't want to talk about this). 

Finally, I said "gochisousama deshita" and left the table and retreated to my room. I was really, really, tired but had to wait until after 10 for everyone to finish showering.

Sadou, and Kiyosu jo with Ayuko!!

~*~ Right now the wifi at home is broken, and it only works on my phone... Therefore, pictures for this post will be uploaded when I go to school tomorrow, so please be patient!! Sorry! ~*~


Saturday, April 26

It was kind of freaking me out that Yuko still hadn't said anything about the bike or scolded me... So I ended up bringing it up at breakfast.

And btw guess what we had for breakfast?? Not cereal!! We had salad and toast! Whoaaaa. 

Hisashiburi, toast!

 

Yuko asked me what time I was leaving for the sadou party and then made other small talk. Why wasn't she bringing up the bike? So I told her about how I'd brought the bike home yesterday and what a great bike it was and how well it worked and stuff.

And she said she knew, Kanno had told her. And then she said "nande oshiete" or something like that, so I thought she was saying "what did she tell you?" Because "nani" or "nan" is "what", so I hesitated, thinking of how to say what Kanno had told me, but then Yuko said, kind of angrily, in English:

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Oh, that's what it meant...

 

So I told her about how I'd thought they'd wanted me to take care of it on my own, so that's what I'd done and hadn't wanted to involve them (since they'd made it clear they weren't helping me). And she just kept telling me I should have told them, that's what they'd wanted, and on and on. And then she was like "that was my favorite bike", which I knew was a load of bs because her first suggestion after I got run over was for me to dump that bike and buy them a new bike. 

So Chris was right. I was going to get scolded. It's weird she held all her anger in until I brought it up, though. I wonder if I never had...

So I apologized and she stopped scolding me after that. Miyabi had just been sitting there awkwardly the whole time, I felt bad. Even though she couldn't understand the English parts, she could still tell what was going on.

 

Yuko came into my room as I was getting ready and said now I had to go pay to have the other bike, "her favorite", thrown away. I was like, "don't you want to keep it? I mean, it works fine"

And she said she did, but she thought it was dangerous to ride.

I told her I've been riding it every day! I mean, I even speed biked on it one day when I was late and it worked perfectly.

So she said she'd talk to her husband and then she said I was going to have to "make up Japanese words" to tell him what I'd done with the bike, because "that would make him happy".

Okaaayyy. 

So great, something else to look forward to when I get home today. I said I'd probably be home around 5 and then I headed out.

 

It was cool going to Nanzan on a Saturday. It made it feel more like a college campus. Usually, it feels like a high school because everyone has the same class times and same breaks, but now there were older people, probably alumni, strolling around and a young couple with a kid playing in the green area. It was nice.

The sadou party was in the tatami room, where I have my sadou class. I was worried because I'd gotten there about 20 minutes late, but I walked in and there were these girls dressed in suits at a table at the entrance. They were really nice and spoke in broken English when I didn't understand what they said. It turned out that because I didn't have a ticket, I had to buy one. Then they showed me in to half of the the tatami room. The doors to the second half were closed and the entryway, which is normally all open, had a traditional Japanese screen divider thing closing off half of it.

So I sat in there in seiza position, waiting. There were two older ladies in there too, admiring a wall scroll. Then they opened the second half of the room and I saw a whole bunch of people (some men too!) sitting around in tea ceremony position. Then they got up and filed out. That's when I realized it was set up so we could arrive at any time we wanted from 10 to 3 and then you went in to do the tea ceremony in groups. They let the two ladies and me go in next. I was the only foreigner there, so I was happy my group was small in case I messed up! Also, everyone in the last group had been dressed up, as were the ladies in my group, so I was happy I wore a skirt and nice shirt today!

There was a girl in a suit already sitting in the first position, I guess to show us what to do. Then two other girls came in, wearing kimonos. They must all be part of the sadou club. One girl in a kimono was the first host, who talked to us and brought in the sweets, and the other girl in the kimono was the second host, who made the tea.

 

The girl in the kimono talked to us a lot, very little of which I understood, and the we had to bow. Then she brought in the okashi. They were beautiful!! They looked just like iris flowers. Obviously I couldn't take a picture because this was a legitimate tea ceremony, but I found this image online that looks exactly the same, although they didn't have the green leafy parts.

The first girl said the stuff we'd learned in class. I was happy she was in front of me just to give me a refresher as to what that was. So then I said it perfectly. And yeah, the old ladies had no idea what they were doing, haha. I'd been sure they knew tea ceremony like the backs of their hands, but they really didn't! They just kind of mumbled something close to what the girl had said and then ate their sweets lol.

The iris okashi had anko inside! Mmmmm! It was really good, but I was still getting over my sickness I guess because I wasn't too hungry, so it was a little hard to finish.

 

Then we got tea! My feet were burning at this point! I'd assumed sitting in seiza for a long time would hurt my knees most, but my feet were prickling so much, they felt like they were on fire! All my body weight on top of them for the past 20 minutes had not been okay. So I sort of sneakily pushed them to the side while I drank my tea, but I'm pretty sure everyone noticed. Ah well, playing the gaijin card.

But hey, I knew how to say all the stuff! The girl in front is only supposed to say two things, to the person to the left and to the host, because she doesn't have anyone on her right. But everyone else, if they aren't the last person, is supposed to say three things, to the left, the right, and the host.

So I said "mo ippuku ikaga desu ka," to the first girl, because she was to my right, but she didn't respond!! Whaaat? Do they not teach that in tea ceremony club? So then I just continued, saying the stuff to the lady to my left and to the host and then drank my tea. 

The lady next to me sort of said it. And the last lady, who was older, just didn't say anything haha.

 

After we'd all finished tea and they cleared our cups, we watched while the girl in the kimono finished cleaning up. She was moving so slowly I wanted to scream! My legs hurrrtttt. T-T 

But she finally finished and after they thanked us and she told us to be careful as we left, we all bowed and we were free to leave. They opened up the sliding doors between rooms and I saw the waiting room area was full. Wow! I really got there at the right time. I could only imagine how much pain my legs would be in if I had a full room and had to wait for all those people to finish receiving their tea and then drinking it!

Kondo sensei was part of the next group! She saw me and was like, "oh! Keito!" And asked me if it was "oishikatta" (delicious) lol. I told her it was.

 

Then the girl in the kimono who had been our main host, the one who talked to us, walked us out. We thanked her and then the old ladies said I was really "jouzu." Awww!! I thanked them and then explained to them and the girl that I was taking a tea ceremony class right now, actually in this very room. They thought that was awesome.

So yeah, it wasn't a party like I thought, but it was still cool! It was fun getting the opportunity to do an actual tea ceremony after I've been practicing for one for so long!

 

Because it was barely 11, and now I had a ton of free time, I headed to J building to write my blog until 1:20 when I left to meet Ayuko at Oasis 21.

 

Ayuko was waiting for me at Starbucks. We caught up while she finished up her lunch. She had done sadou this morning as well! She's taking sadou lessons and learning to make okashi! I'm super jealous! But she told me she has to sit in seiza for 2-3 hours!!! Ahhh, I could never do that, haha.

 

I got on the Oasis 21 wifi to look up a place in Sakae to do purikura, because that was something we wanted to do together before I head back to America! We ended up finding the same place where I went with Rafa, Esteban, and Dylan way back in February, where if you're in your school uniform and it's after dark, you're not allowed in. And I ended up choosing the same machine, haha!

 

It was so much fun, as always!! Purikura is one of the things I will miss the most! Ayuko said you get way longer to decorate now than when she was in middle school and high school. There were even improvements since I'd come last in February! There was a new machine now (the one Minju, Emma, and I had used at Sushiro actually), and on this machine, there was a new "sepia" setting. Gosh, purikura is constantly getting better and better.

 

Although, there's still some bugs. Like if you wear green.

I learned that today...

Never wear green when you do purikura!!!

 

Because it's a green screen. Duh!! I should have realized haha. Yeah...

 

Damn, my green skirt looks so cute now, huh?

 

 

My favorite!! I decorated it :D

 

 

 

Yay, I love purikura!! 

 

Next, we went back to the station to take the subway to Nagoya and the JR to Kiyosu, since it was getting late and Kiyosu jo closed at 4:30.

 

At Kiyosu, I showed Ayuko the way I'd walked to get to Kiyosu jo last time. On the way, we talked a lot about Tech and our mutual friends, which was nice because I've been starting to really miss home and my friends lately! So it's nice hanging out with Ayuko who reminds me of home. ^^

 

Pretty daisies we saw on the way

This was Ayuko's first time in Kiyosu!! Whoa! We went up the overpass to cross the busy street before the castle, and marveled great view you can get of the castle up there. 

 

 

It wasn't as pretty as when it was surrounded by all the pink sakura, but it's still gorgeous!

 

We entered in and Ayuko bought me a ticket. She's so sweet!! We took off out shoes and put on these slippers that kept falling off my feet! First we looked at an exhibit that told about the history of the castle. We learned it was rebuilt in 1989, which is why it looked so new inside! Ayuko translated all the important stuff for me. I'm so jealous of the fact that she's bilingual!

Then we went upstairs where there were more exhibits, like replicas of the samurai armor! There was a floor above that playing a movie. That floor had a bunch of fun quiz questions you could answer with fun facts about Kiyosu and what Obu Nobunaga introduced to Japan. I learned he introduced buttons and konpeito (the cute little candies I like!) Ayuko told me about this historical comedy movie she likes, part of which is filmed at Kiyosu jo! There was a little section about that movie, too.

 

And then the best part for last, the balcony!! There were huge golden dragon fish things that Nagoya is known for up there and you could touch them! There was a also a drum you could hit and it showed you how to stand and hit it like they did back then. And then we walked around the balcony.

 

 

The view was amazing!! I could see Nagoya station in the distance. We also saw the Asahi factory, which looks like a bunch of beer cans. I told Ayuko about how on the way yesterday with Father, we had driven past the Kirin beer factory and it reeked of beer! Ayuko told me that the people of Kiyosu jo really pushed to have the castle rebuilt because they wanted to keep up the traditional parts of their city.

 

See the Asahi factory? That smudge is something on my camera...

Ayuko playing the drum

Me playing the drum

Entrance and the rock garden (those pebbles were hard to walk in!)

Cool carp streamers over the river

 

When we got back to the main floor, they had already closed up the castle, so we grabbed our shoes and headed out another exit.

Ayuko and I took a picture on the bridge and then I wanted to go look at the carp streamers. A yuki told me they're called "koinobori." They were so pretty!! We took a bunch of pictures of them!

 

All over the ground were brown crunchy things that Ayuko told me were dead sakura petals. I've been seeing those all over, it all makes sense now! Wow, they look so ugly when they're dead! 

 

This is such a gorgeous picture!

Sakura flower with dead sakura petals

Koinobori over Kiyosu jo!

Oote Bridge

Ayuko and me in the face holes! I'm the woman, haha

Then we headed back to the station. We passed by so many factories and kept commenting on how ugly they look in such a nice city! Although one smelled really good, like Spearmint. Maybe a gum factory? We also passed a shrine near the castle that was a shrine for help with studies. Just like the one we saw in Inuyama!

 

At the station, we took a JR home. I got off at Ichinomiya while Ayuko continued on to Gifu. I invited her to my closing ceremony, so hopefully we will see each other again there!

 

No one was home when I got home. So I went to my room to do my Hanga. I'd gotten it out of my locker after the sadou thing today, so I could finish it up this weekend. Miya and Yuko came home then, so Miya came to my room to play.

She thought my Hanga was awesome!! I taught her how you do Hanga and how it's used to make pictures. I showed her my Rilakkuma print as well as my ink covered Rilakkuma block. Then she sat there and held all the wood shavings I made as I finished carving my block. Even when I messed up, she kept saying "sugoi!" It was cute!!

 

Then we played this game on top of my Hanga knife box called "osumou" where we each had a little folded piece of origami that we stood up on the box. Then we both hit the box over and over and whoever's paper fell first, lost. It was fun!

 

While we were doing this, Ken got home and it was time for dinner, so we went into the kitchen.

And guess what was at our places when we arrived??

MISOKATSU!!!!! I was so excited! I really wish Yuko had said she was making it and then I could have watched her. 

But it looked just like it does at school, so I was really excited and touched they had made it since I'd mentioned a while back that it was my favorite food. And they had miso sauce too!! So I dug in.

 

The miso sauce was great! It tasted just like the one at school. The katsu, not so much... Actually, it was really bad. Like the misokatsu at Yabaton, it was filled with huge chunks of fat I couldn't eat. I had to surreptitiously spit them out into my napkin when I was wiping my face. I noticed Miya doing the same thing.

Yuko and Ken just ate the fat I guess?

But yeah, it made me want to gag because there was less meat than fat, so it wasn't edible.

 

After that disaster, I went back to my room. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but I had to wait for everyone to shower. So I worked on homework.

Then Yuko came in and asked me to come talk with Ken now. Miya was on the couch in the living room watching tv and Ken was sitting at the kitchen table. So I went in to sit at the table with him.

Then Yuko said she'd come and be the translator, so she closed the door between the living room and kitchen and sat with Ken on his side. So it was the two of them facing the one of me. Talk about intimidating.

So I told Ken in Japanese how I'd gotten the bike from Chris, gotten a friend to help me being it here, and now it was outside for them to go look at. And I told him it was a really nice bike. And I said I'd brought the old bike inside, so it was right outside the door, like Yuko had asked. 

He was still sitting there staring at me, so I turned to Yuko and asked it I was supposed to say anything else and she told me to apologize. 

So I did.

Then Ken launched into this explanation about how I should have told them, blah blah blah, everything Yuko already said, but at least he was nice and acknowledged the fact that I wasn't hurt and now they had a new bike so everything was good.

Neither of them thanked me for going and getting them a new $140 bike.

 

So I was about to get up and leave when Yuko said "that bike was given to me by my father" (oh gosh, I knew it was old! That means I've been riding around a probs around 20 year old bike!) and they were like "but we've decided it's too dangerous to ride, so we don't want to keep it. Now you have to go to the konbini and buy an 800 yen sticker to throw it out as well as pay to have the new bike registered"

Just, just, just, I can't...

I'm so happy it's only three more weeks with these people and then I never have to see them again!!!

 

So yeah, I'm going to stop complaining about them now because I don't want to fill my blog with crap about how much I hate them and they're ruining my experience. No, this supposed to be a fun, positive blog and I'd like to keep it that way! ^^ ne?

 

Yay, new bike! (Thanks to Chris!)

I woke up this morning feeling back to normal, just a little tired. But I decided I'd go to school anyway. I was supposed to memorize a dialogue for my dialogue check today and I hadn't been able to yesterday, since I'd basically slept all day. I figured I'd memorize it as I walked to the station. Since I'd been driven home in a taxi yesterday, my bike was still at the station.

I went in to the kitchen to say good morning and Yuko saw how good I was feeling and took off her mask. She kept saying "sugoi" since I'd gotten better so quickly. So she put out cereal for me and I ate with Miyabi.

Then I headed out to school. I memorized the dialogue about halfway to the station. While I was crossing at one of the crosswalks, this old Japanese guy heading the opposite direction was like (quietly, so only I could hear), "Good morning. How are you?" 

In English!! It took me a second to register he'd spoken in English, so all I could get out was "hi" and I'm pretty sure he didn't hear me. I turned around to look at him, but he had just kept walking. So strange!!

It had taken me a while to walk to the station and I'd left kind of late, so I ended up catching the latest of late trains. The 8:17. I'd caught it once before, so I knew I could get to school on time still, but it's cutting it close.

The subway was pulling away as I got to the platform because some bitch on the escalator had stood on the walking side and held everyone up. This is like a sin in Japan at rush hour.

So I had to wait 6 minutes for the next one. I ended up getting to school at 9:10 and had just enough time to look up my classroom and go up to class. Kondo sensei was all worried about me and made sure I was feeling fine today.

It turned out there'd been a fire in one of the dryers at YKK (one of the dorms) last night. Everyone had been fine though. Heather and Dylan said they'd gotten out but Ryan had slept through the alarm apparently and ended up breathing in a lot of smoke so now he had a sore throat and couldn't come to class. Wow. Dylan said it was the other Dylan's clothes who were in the dryer that had caught fire.

Even though I'd had my dialogue all memorized perfectly this morning, I forgot parts of it when I presented it. Rawr.

Kondo sensei passed out these flyers for the tea ceremony club's sadou presentation party sort of thing tomorrow. It's 400 yen but you get okashi and matcha!! Yay, I wanna go!

After class, I went downstairs for project work. I ran into Emma who wanted to know how I was doing. She's heading to Kyoto this weekend. I talked to her for a bit and then I had to run and find Chris to make sure I could pick up his bike today.

I found him down in the office and he said it was fine, we could go get it after I made up my test from yesterday. So I ran to class.

I'd completely forgotten that today we were going to go listen to the presentations of the 400 kids. Yay! When sensei and I walked in, the 400 kids, their sensei, and three guests were already there. Two of the guests were young girls, probably in their early twenties. One started talking to me and asked my name and Japanese level. Then she asked if she could add me on Facebook! Whoa, we met like a minute ago. But I let her and she was like, "yay! Another Facebook friend!"

The 400 project work sensei introduced the guests, including me, and then my sensei (Fukutomi sensei) asked if the 400 kids knew me. They all nodded. She was surprised. Does she think I only hang out with 300 peeps? Psh!

Then the 400 kids all presented their projects. They'd all gone around to stores around Kakuozan station and picked one to present about. And they got to present in pairs, so not fair! First was Tom and other Dylan, and then Rashaa and Esteban. 

Then, before these two people I didn't know (a guy who looked Spanish and a Korean girl who seemed better than 400 level of Japanese) went, they gave us all matcha and okashi because the shop they were talking about was an okashi shop!! So cool!

Afte they presented, the 400 project work sensei had each of the guests give their impressions. All the other guests, being native Japanese speakers, used a lot of words to say they liked it and learned a lot and stuff. I was hoping she wouldn't ask me to give feedback, but then she did and everyone chuckled. >:(

So I said that I thought everyone had done really well! But yeah... I realized just now I should have said "totemo jouzu da", since I was using "to omoimasu"... Fml.

But everyone laughed (in a good way) so it was cool.

Then it was time to go. The girl who had added me on Facebook shared little okashi from Tokyo Disney World. She had this huge tin full of them!

(Front with Mickey)

(Back with "Tokyo Disneyland")

They were like a cluster of cornflake-like things covered in chocolate (heh... alliteration). Man, they were good!

I didn't eat either of the okashi then, though, because I was still feeling un-hungry lately after I was so sick. Which is totally weird. Because every day this semester I've been starving an hour after breakfast, haha. Maybe being sick lowered my metabolism?

I talked to everyone quickly before I left. I asked other Dylan whether his clothes had been okay (yes, they had) and Esteban told me he'd catch me up on what I'd missed in Folklore. When we were walking back to our class, sensei asked if they were all my friends, and I told her they were. She thought that was cool, lol.

In class, she had me practice reading the sakubun I'd written last week about the results of my interviews. Then she asked if it was okay to invite the 400 sensei and students to listen to me present next Friday. No way!!!! 

But I said yes... T_T

When class was over, I ran downstairs to take my makeup test. I've finally gotten over my fear of the microphone, so I was able to call for Kondo sensei. She came out and looked around for a room for me to take my test in. Every room we passed was full of Japanese students eating bentos! So this is where all the Japanese students go during lunch, into empty classrooms.

Finally, Kondo sensei went into a room with only two girls and kicked them out so I could take my test in there, haha. The desks were super tiny, so she let me have the big teacher desk.

The test was pretty easy. We had to write a 10-12 sentence nayumi, though, and I had a little trouble writing enough for 10 sentences. But I managed to do it!

When I was done, I headed down to find Chris. Kanno was on lunch break, so Chris and I went to YKK to get his bike. When we got there, one of the ladies who runs the dorm came out to meet us (according to Chris, she was the nice one). She told us she'd wiped down the bike for us already (Chris had been planning on doing that)! Wow, so nice!!

Then Chris rode it around a bit to make sure it was good and it was, so we walked it back to R.

Back at R, Kanno had returned from lunch so we talked with her about the bike. She said she'd called my host family to let them know I was bringing it today and apparently Yuko wasn't happy that I hadn't told them ahead of time, because now she wouldn't be there to thank whoever was helping me bring the bike back (because she had her class).

Kanno told me it's Japanese custom to let people know everything at each step of the process. And she said that I was going to have to apologize for not letting them know what I was doing.

Why, though?? They were the ones who told me to figure it out on my own and get the bike from my friend on my own. Why was it their business as to who with, when, and by what means I was doing it?   Well apparently because it's a bike for them? I don't understand...

Kanno said it's a lesson in Japanese culture for me and I should view my mistake as part of my learning experience. 

Anyway, as we were leaving, Chris told me to prepare to be scolded when I got home. Great...

We walked to the Logos Center together where I was meeting Father John. Kind soul that he is, he'd agreed to pick up the bike for me and take it back to Ichinomiya!

When Father showed up, he and Chris lifted the bike into the trunk. Then he gave Chris and me each a can of tea! So nice!! Then I thanked Chris and said goodbye and hopped in with Father to head back to Ichinomiya. 

I made sure to talk a lot on the way home so he could practice his English. His English is so good!

I told him he could go back to the church and I could ride it home, that was fine, so that's what he did. He ended up having a man waiting to speak with him at the church, so after we unloaded the bike and I thanked him, I headed home. The bike is sooo nice and rode so smoothly! It has a bell, a basket, a built in lock, a light, and high handlebars. Everything I could want and need. And it's shiny and sleek and I love it! Truly a $140 bike. Chris is so great! I really hope my host parents are happy. They really should be and Chris agreed they should be. I mean, they're getting a new, expensive bike for free!

At home, I told my parents the good news and then went to lie down for a bit. When I couldn't fall asleep, I wrote my blog.

Yuko and Miya didn't get home until after dark. We ate dinner and Yuko asked how I was feeling. I told her I was still really tired. She asked if I'd taken the medicine I'd gotten that morning and when I said no she got kind of upset. She was like "You need to take your medicine to get better!" 

But she didn't mention the bike at all! And no scolding. She told me I could go ahead and shower since Ken would be home late, so I did and them I went to sleep.

Influenza??

Thursday, April 24

I knew I couldn't go home without something else major/drastic/tramautizing happening to me. I'm just not that lucky, never have been.

So this morning was a typical day. I got up, ate my cereal, got ready for school. Then I left super hayai and took the 37 train to Nagoya, so I could use the wifi there to call my parents.
I sat there for about 15 minutes talking to my parents about everything Kanno and Chris had discussed with me yesterday.
I found out later that Una had been in Nagoya station that morning and had seen me! Small world!

Anyway, I wasn't positive when the 8:07 train came into Nagoya, but I made a guess and ended up timing it perfectly, so that when I got off the phone with them, I swiped through the gate and was just able to hop onto the train before it left! From there it's a short ride to Kanayama.

At Kanayama, I was standing in line, waiting for the subway, when someone came up and stood right against me, so our arms were touching. I turned towards them with a pissed off look and realized it was Sara!!
She laughed and asked if I was "bikurishita" (surprised). Lol, you could say that. So we rode the subway to school together. On the way, I started feeling sick to my stomach and kind of naseous. I was like, aw, crap, I finally ate too much chocolate.

I was able to hold off until we got to school, where thankfully Sara broke off to get a drink from the vending machine. I told her I'd see her later and rushed to the bathroom. When I came out, my stomach felt better, but I had an overwhelming feeling of naseua and tiredness. I really wanted to just lie down and sleep.
I was thinking, oh man I stayed up too late watching Free! each night this past week. But I hadn't gotten less than 7 hours a night! And last night I got 8 hours. But I just figured I was overtired, so I headed to check which classroom I was in (because once I finally got down what room I was in each day, the Japanese students came back and it all changed). But on the way, I saw Heather at the elevators, so I didn't have to, I could just follow her to class. I must have looked bad because she asked what was wrong. I told her I felt kind of naseous.

In class, we had a photographer coming in to take our pictures for the brochure. Mutuskawa sensei had warned us about this, telling us to make sure we looked nice. So I'd worn my bow in my hair. All I wanted to do was put my head down, but I couldn't with the camera man there. So the next twenty minutes were really hard.
Mutsukawa sensei was talking about the Lost&Found on campus and asked us if we'd ever lost anything. I was the only one who had, so he asked what I lost. I told everyone about losing my 3DS and they were shocked I'd lost it, but happy I got it back, lol.

Finally, the camera man left. I put my head down right after he stepped out the door. When I still felt bad, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. When I got to the bathroom, I couldn't stop shaking. I felt really, really cold.
I went back to class and Natalia noticed me shaking and asked Mutsukawa sensei to turn the heat up, but he wouldn't do it, because there were rules against using the heat in April. Lame. I wish I had brought a jacket, but this morning I'd been fine!
I sat there shaking horribly for the last thirty minutes of class until the break between classes. My head felt super heavy, and I got to the point where I couldn't keep it up anymore, so I just put it down and closed my eyes and tried to listed to the lecture. Mutsukawa sensei never asked me to pick my head up or pay attention. I guess he figured I have the best grades in the class, and I know this stuff anyway. But I actually don't know anything about what we're learning now.

At breaktime, Mutsukawa sensei was all like, "Biseru san, daijoubu?" And I was like, "no." 
I told him I couldn't take the reading & writing test we had next period and I was going to go to the clinic instead, but he said if I did that, I'd only be able to get a 90 or below.
So I decided I'd stay and take it. But I kept feeling bad, and so I just knew I wouldn't be able to do well at all, and maybe if I could take it when I felt better, I'd get a 100, which would give me a 90. 

Natalia wanted to know if anyone in my host family had been sick who I could have caught it from. I was about to say no, when I remembered Miya throwing up Tuesday night. And last night I'd sat next to her and played with her. Crap!

Mutsukawa sensei left to call the CJS office and then came back to tell me that they said I could go home right after the test. But I didn't think I could take the test, so I told him I was going to go to the clinic. So he said I could go, but stop by the office first.

In the office, Kanno jumped up when I walked in and asked if I was okay. I told her I wasn't. So she asked if I wanted to go home, because they could send a taxi to take me home. But I said Ichinomiya was kind of far, so she said there was somewhere in the clinic where I could rest. Ah, yes, that's what I'd been hoping for!
Then she walked with me to the clinic. She kept her hand on my back the whole time and talked with me (in Japanese) the whole way, and kept saying we were almost there. She's so sweet! I kept telling her I was really tired and all I wanted to do was lie down, haha.
So when we got there, they led me straight to these rooms with beds. The beds looked super comfy with big comforters on them. When we walked in I was all like "ii desu!" and Kanno laughed.

So I got to sleep!! It was beautiful. Everything I wanted. And I didn't have to wait the hour and a half it would take me to get home. Oh man, I was in Heaven.

I woke up and looked out the window and saw Japanese students eating bentos on the steps of the gym. I looked at my phone and saw it was 12:45. I went out to find the bathroom. I ended up finding a lady who showed me where the bathroom was. I thought I'd been feeling better, but once I started walking, I felt cold and queasy and super tired again.
When I came back from the bathroom, one of the nurses took my temperature. It was 37.8. I couldn't remember what body temperature is in Celsius (I just knew it was in the 30s), but she said I had a fever. Then they all started bustling around and calling people. They wanted to know if I'd eaten lunch yet, but I told them I didn't want to eat lunch. The thought of food made me want to throw up. Thankfully she let me go back and sleep. She asked if I had water, which I was happy about because I'd finished my water bottle earlier and was dying of thirst. She gave me a bottle of Pocari Sweat.
I've been wanting to try that, especially after I saw the guys on Free! drinking it. But I was expecting it to taste like water. I almost gagged because it was all nasty and sweet. So I didn't drink anymore of it and just went back to sleep.

I woke up again around 2:30. Sun was pouring in the window even though the blinds were closed, so I was super hot and sweating like crazy. I wanted to ask to switch beds, so I stood up to go out and ask. But when I stood up, I was hit with a wave of exhaustion and just collapsed back onto my bed and decided I'll just sleep in the sun. Thankfully, the nurse came in then to ask if I wanted to go to my 3:15 class, Folklore. She saw how hot I was and let me move to the next bed. She only spoke in Japanese, but thankfully spoke slowly and super basic Japanese so I could understand her. Then she asked if I liked the Pocari Sweat (she said it was a sports drink), or if I preferred something else. I told her I'd prefer water, so she brought me a water bottle. Thank goodness!!
I said at first that I did want to go to class, but when I stood up to switch beds, I was still really tired and figured if I went to Folklore, I'd just put my head down the entire time anyway, and at least this way, I could actually get some sleep in.

So I told her it would probably be better if I slept. She left and then came back to take my temperature. It was 39.5. She kept saying "sugoi netsu" (bad fever) and "takasugiru" (too high), but I think my body might have just been overheated from the sun.

(I look so sick and gross in this picture, which is exactly how I felt. But when I took it, I thought I looked great, haha!)

She let me sleep more until a little after four when she came in and woke me up to take my temperature again. It was 39.3. She left and then another lady came in, who spoke English as well as Japanese, and asked to take me to the hospital. I'd refused earlier because whenever I'd had a fever when I was younger, I'd just slept and it went away. But they were scaring me because they were saying my fever was really bad, it hadn't gone down, and I might have influenza. I was like, what's influenza?? And why did it sound like one of those plagues that killed everyone in my history books?

So I agreed to go to the hospital. They put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me out to the taxi that was waiting at the curb. It was super awks because all the Japanese kids walking outside were staring at me and the taxi because cars hardly ever drive down the main street of campus.
I was allowed to lie down in the back seat of the taxi, which was nice, but I was starting to feel back to normal at this point and kind of regretted going to the hospital.

When we got there, I got to walk in this time. I gave them my health insurance card and then they led me to the back room where I got to lie down again. A nurse came in and asked me something in Japanese that I didn't catch. Thankfully she was able to ask in broken English when the fever had started, so I told her "kesa" (this morning). Then she left me there for a few minutes before the doctor came in. He had a super deep voice and talked really fast, so I didn't catch what he said. So he switched to English. He told me they were going to test if I had influenza. He made me cover my mouth and then he stuck this long stick down my nose. Ah, it hurt so badly!!!

After he whipped it back out, he pointed to where there were tissues on the floor and then he left. After a while, I heard him talking with the lady who had brought me, Takada. He took his time coming to me to tell me what was going on.

When he finally did, it was to tell me I'd tested negative (I knew it!) and he was going to give me anti-inflammatory medicine and then let me go.

So a few minutes later, I got my medicine. They made me pay $20 for it and I left feeling robbed. So I guess in that respect, Japanese hospitals are the same as American hospitals.

Kanno was in the lobby with one of my fellow ryuugakusei. I don't really know him that well but he's roommates with Dylan from my 300 class. I guess he was sick too? Takada took me back to the taxi. The driver was asleep, but she tapped on the window and he woke up.

I got to lie down in the back again while he drove us all the way back to Ichinomiya!! Sweet! I looked at the fare when we got there and it was over $100!! Good thing Nanzan pays for the taxis!

At one point, I sat up to see where we were and Takada saw I was awake and was like "ohayo!" It was cute. She asked if I recognized where we were because it was in Ichinomiya, but I only did a bit. I think my host family and I had driven past it on our way home from one of the places we went to.

When we got to my apartment complex, Takada gave the driver the paper saying Nanzan takes care of the bill and then asked him if he would take her to Ichinomiya station on the way back and he said he would. Then she walked me inside. I was about to unlock the door, when Yuko opened it. Miyabi was behind her and they both were wearing face masks. Yuko sent Miyabi back into the kitchen and then told me I could go sleep. Ribbon also came out and Takada really liked her!

I went to my room to lie down while Yuko and Takada talked for a while. Then, when Takada had left, Yuko came in and gave me this ginormous bottle of Pocari Sweat that Takada had left for me and told me to keep drinking it so I'd have to pee a lot. Then she gave me a face mask and told me to wear it whenever I was around the rest of the family.

Then Yuko asked if I wanted dinner and I said I did, since I hadn't eaten lunch and plus I'd started feeling better on the way home. So Yuko said she'd bring me some. As I lay back down, though, I started feeling bad again. I was nauseous and really cold like earlier, and I didn't think I could stomach dinner. I figured I should go tell Yuko I didn't want dinner anymore, but I was too tired to get up. And anyway, I figured I could at least try to eat it when she brought it to me.

She came shortly after with my dinner. It was a lot!! There was a bowl or rice, a bowl of meat, a salad, and a bowl of something else that I forgot. I thanked her and let it sit there for a while to see if I'd feel better, but the smell was making me more nauseous. So I went over finally to try to eat a piece of chicken. But I just couldn't do it. The thought of eating made my stomach turn. I was too tired to chew the chicken, so it took me forever to eat. But I finally ate the one piece! And then I couldn't eat anymore.

I texted my parents that I was sick, which really worried my mom, so I tried to call them. But the wifi in my room has started sucking again, so I put on my mask and went out to the kitchen. I passed Ken in the living room and he asked if I was "daijoubu?" I confirmed that I was "daijoubu". I probably sounded ubrupt, but I was so, so tired. 

Then I asked Yuko (in English, because I was too tired to speak Japanese), if I could call my mom somewhere. She let me have the kitchen and she and Miyabi went into the living room.

After I talked to my parents, I told Yuko I couldn't finish dinner, so she came in to get it. I think she was kind of upset and I felt really bad, but I thought I'd be able to eat it since I'd started feeling better on the way home. I apologized, though.

She let me keep the glass of water though. Then I went into the kitchen to fill my water and Yuko told me I should drink the Pocari Sweat, though, because it's made to help your body. Yeah, no. I don't believe any of those ads. Water is forever and always the healthiest thing to drink.

After that, I went straight to bed. I was so tired I didn't even shower, brush my teeth, or change clothes. It was wonderful!

Going home orientation and Farewell coffee hour

Wednesday, April 23

When I came into the kitchen this morning, Yuko asked if I'd been able to sleep last night and I said I could. Then she didn't say anything else, but I'm pretty positive she was referring to Miyabi getting sick.

I ate my cereal while she went to tend to Miya. When she came back, she said something again, making sure of slept well and I told her I heard, but I was stil able to fall asleep because I was really tired.

Then Miya came in to eat too, so it looked like she was feeling better. Yuko said they were going to go to the doctor later today.

After breakfast, I got ready for school and then headed out. I had to stand on the JR from Ichinomiya to Nagoya, but at Nagoya, it emptied out so I went to get a seat. I don't like sitting in seats with both of the seats open because then I have to slide in to the inside and that's pointless when the ride from Nagoya to Kanayama is so short and I'd have to climb over people to get out. I saw a single aisle seat open a few rows back, so I went to that one.

But people were starting to come in the doors on this side, and a man was heading to this seat too. I got to it literally a millisecond before he did and slid in. I felt bad about it, but I mean I'd been standing for twenty minutes and kind of wanted to sit now. But yeah, it was kind of awkward. Especially because this guy couldn't get the seats behind me because they were nabbed by people entering from the other door, so I think he had to stand.

Ah well, in Japan it's like a life or death race to get a seat on a crowded train. No giving up your seat to a lady or any kind gentlemanly things like that.

The subways were super crowded like always. It's so fun to listen in on people's conversations when you're on crowded trains or walking through crowds because literally everyone says "yabai" after every other word (that means dangerous), so you just hear "yabai", "yabai", "yabai" from all around you!

I decided to walk out the entrance of Yagoto Nisseki that's the longer way, but you only have to cross one street. And it's a good thing I did because there were people passing out super cute packs of tissues!!

See??

I caught up with Esteban at the light, so we walked to school together. And then we hung out with the rest of our friends in the office before class. I told Emma how this Japanese guy who lives in the dorms and is friends with a bunch of the ryuugakusei who live in the dorms had friended me on Facebook last night even though I'd never talked to him before. But I'd added him back anyway because he was cute, haha.

In class, we had our last ever vocab quiz!! Woohoo! It was super easy. I'm going to miss those easy 100s though.

Then we had to practice noun modification, so Mutsukawa sensei was all like "you all want boyfriends or girlfriends, right?" and I was like "ohh yeah" and he thought that was hilarious.

So he made us describe our perfect boyfriend/girlfriend. I said cute and likes to talk to me. And he asked what I want to talk to him about and I said my life, haha. But then I realized I should have said smart too, because everyone else was saying smart. Dangit. But every time they did, Mutsukawa sensei would ask if that person wanted their significant other to be smarter or dumber. Chris said dumber, but then the girls said smarter. Heather kept going on about how sexist that was, that the guys want to be smarter than their girlfriends.

At the end of class, Natalia brought up Japanese tongue twisters and asked Mutsukawa sensei to teach us some. I was like "omg I already know a bunch!" So Mutsukawa sensei had me say the ones I knew. I said "basu gasu bakuhatsu", which is Miyabi's favorite, and then I was like "my favorite is the momomomo one," so Mutsukawa sensei wrote that one on the board too.

"Sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi."

Hahahahaha!

Then he taught us the most famous one in Japan, that everyone knows. And I asked if he remembered the frog one, because I couldn't and he knew that one too!

I headed over to Dagane with Heather for lunch. 

My balanced lunchi with misokatsu as a side, yay!

 

When we got there, Emma was already there eating, so we joined her. We started talking about Avril Lavigne's video for her new song "Hello Kitty" and I brought it up on my phone and played it. It was strange... Haha. It's been getting a lot of hate on the Internet now because she's trying to be all cutesy and Japanese, but her accent when speaking Japanese really sucks! Like she says "air-ee-gatou." I think she's not so popular in the US and Canada anymore (since she's been around since the early 2000s), so she's catering to her fans in Japan, because everyone loves her here! She's always doing concerts over here.

But yeah, the first thing she says in the movie is "Mina saiko arigatou." Heather, Emma, and I couldn't for the life of us figure out what "saiko" meant! We asked Esteban, Rafa, and Rashaa, who were sitting at the next table over, but they didn't know either!

I had to meet Kanno (the lady who's always helping me out in the office - I finally remembered her name!) to talk with her and Chris about the bike at 12:35, so we headed over to the CJS office. Outside the office, we saw Mikki, who's in 800, so we asked her what "saiko" means and she said "the best," so Avril Lavigne was saying "thank you everyone for being the best." Ohhhh!

The song's catchy, I'll give her that. But I liked her way better back when she was doing "Sk8r Boi."

So when Chris showed up, he, Kanno, and I all sat at a table to discuss the bike. The current problem was that Chris couldn't find the little proof of registration paper he got when he bought the bike. And in Japan, everyone has to have their bike registered with the police so that if it gets stolen, it will be returned to whoever's name it's registered in. But the problem is there are super retarded laws like if you don't have the original registration paper, then you can't cancel your registration.

So now that Chris has lost his paper, the bike will forever be registered in his name. So if one of Yuko's future host students loses the bike, it won't be returned to Yuko once it's found. 

Kanno called up some places though and apparently Chris can write a letter saying he turns the bike over to Yuko and then sign the letter and that should work the same as canceling his registration.

But they said Yuko might not like that idea, and want a new bike instead. Arghhh, this is so taihen!

And theeeen, Chris explained to me that there had been some confusion between me, my host family, and Kanno. He said apparently it was rude that I went and got the bike fixed on my own and then said it worked and was fixed. 

I told Chris, I thought I'd been helping out, getting it done on my own and I hadn't meant to be rude. He said he knew that, but apparently it sounded like it came off as rude to Yuko.

Then Kanno was all like, "the Japanese way is to put yourself in other people's shoes and look at things from their point of view. So put yourself in your host parent's shoes, their bike is broken, so you see what they want?"

And I was like "yeah, I know, they want a new bike." But really, if that's the Japanese way, how come they didn't put themselves in my shoes? I'm completely new to this country, can't speak the language, and I just got hit by a car. Like, I wished they had tried to help me more and talked with me instead of talking through the school.

Afterwards, Emma, who had come about halfway through our talk, told me she would have started crying with the fact that they kept telling me I'd been rude and everything. But I told her I'd been too angry to cry.

After Kanno left, Emma, Chris, Tom, and I just sat there for a while fuming about stupid Japanese laws. Chris was super pissed off about not being able to go up, show his ID as proof he owned the bike and renounce his ownership. But instead, he needed a little paper that he'd deemed unimportant and probably threw out.

Then it was time for the "going home orientation" that everyone in CJS leaving next month had to attend. So we headed upstairs to this huge room where almost all of our fellow ryuugakusei (those not staying past May) were sitting. When we walked in, we got a packet of paperwork as well as a big leather folder thing that we can use to hold the diploma we're getting at our closing ceremony. I was disappointed that it didn't have Japanese on it. It just said "Nanzan" and had some Latin with the Nanzan crest. But it did open backwards like Japanese books do!

Diploma thing

 

Heather described this perfectly: "A packet full of sadness"

 

We talked about all the things we have to do before we return home, like close our bank accounts and cancel our foreigner cards and health insurance. I found out we can't keep our pretty, colorful foreign resident cards. This makes me so sad, because I figured I'd be able to. But we have to give them back at the airport on our way home. :(((

We also got questionnaires about our host family. Ooh, that will be fun to fill out!
Although I didn't have too great of an experience with my host family, I really loved Nanzan!! It's such a great school and I had fun everyday. I actually looked forward to going to school. I wish I hadn't underestimated myself, thinking I wasn't outgoing enough to be able to make Japanese friends, because I have! I have so many Japanese friends at Nanzan now that the Japanese students are back and I definitely speak more Japanese at school than I do at home. In a perfect world, I would go back to America to work this summer and then come back to Japan to spend the fall semester at Nanzan, when the Japanese students are there all semester and live in the dorms and continue my Japanese studies...

Anyway, during the orientation, Mitch talked about what kinds of things we'll feel when we get home like sadness, like we're misunderstood, whatever. And then he told us about the stages you go through when you study abroad. I thought they were interesting because they were actually true for me, and from the sound of it, most of my fellow ryuugakusei as well.

1st-3rd month in a foreign country is the Honeymoon stage, where everything's new and exciting and you're having a blast, etc.

4th-6th month is the Hostile stage, where you're all like what the heck? Why do they think like that? Why is that their culture, that's stupid! I miss my country, where everything makes sense.


Wow. Those are exactly the sorts of things that Chris, Emma, Tom, and I had just been saying downstairs...


6th-12th month is the Sympathetic stage. I didn't really hear what he said for this one because I was still reeling from what he had just said about the Hostile stage. I'm guessing it's where you start to see what the country's values are all about and try to follow them to the best of your ability.


12th month on is the Understanding stage, were you finally understand the culture of the country for the most part and are able to fit in and live life like the natives of that country.


So I guess I actually did go through the two stages I was supposed to for doing a five month study abroad. Huh, funny.


Anyway, then the orientation was finally over. And I guess as thanks for sitting through the entire thing, we got T-shirts!!
I already knew we were going to get them because I'd gotten all jealous when Emma got a shirt for being picked to write about 400 in the Nanzan brochure, but Mitch had told me we'd get better shirts tomorrow.
And these were better!! Because guess what? They had Japanese on them!!! Whoo!!!! I wanted a Japanese Nanzan shirt! The bookstore ony sells English ones.

It has the Nanzan crest in the frocket area

 

Heather and I were trying to figure out earlier who got picked to write about the 300 class, because neither of us did and Natalia hadn't said she'd been picked. Then I saw Mitch give Ryan a shirt. Had he been picked?? He always sleeps through class and never has any idea what's going on when he gets called on!

Anyway, when the orientation was over, it was time for the Farewell coffee hour! I convinced Emma to go. When I got there, I saw Kazuki and then Sara, Yukari, and Hotaru. There were the usual drinks and then both sweet and savory breads as well as a bunch of packages snacks.
Emma left right after she ate because she's lame. So she missed out on the event.
The coffee hour leaders had a basket with slips of paper. Each slip had a question in Japanese on it about what we liked best about Japan, what was convenient, a cool experience we had, etc. And them ryuugakusei could go up and take one and answer it (in Japanese) in front of everyone. Some people had trouble reading the kanji, but the girls who were leading the coffee hour would read out the kanji and the ryuugakusei always understood then. I didn't know a lot of the words though. But then again I was the only one in there in 300. Everyone else was above 400. :/ So when Kazuki, Sara, and Hotaru tried to get me to go up, I wouldn't do it because I was too afraid I wouldn't be able to read it or if by some miracle, I could understand it, I wouldn't be able to say what I wanted to say. If they had pushed me a little more, I probably would have gone up, but they didn't. And then the leaders said only two more, and two people volunteered, so it was over after that.
Although later, with just Sara, I went up and pulled one out. I forgot the kanji for "benri," so she told me it and I realized it was asking what the most convenient thing was, so I said the trains and she liked that. Maybe I could have done it. Oh well...
Then we all took a bunch of silly pictures!

But I like this one with Sara that she took of us. :)

After that, Sara left, so she missed the big group picture they took. I left right after it and did some homework. Then I went out to the green area to lie down because it was that nice time of afternoon/evening (prevening for you Big Bang Theory fans), where everything looks golden because the sun's really low in the sky and everything is casting super long shadows.

The green area is like a baby Drillfield.
But Japanese people don't sunbathe or sleep on it like we do on the Drillfield at VT :(

All the bushes around Nanzan and the dorms around Nanzan are blooming with beautiful white, pink, and purplish-pink flowers! Here are the purplish-pink ones in front of the Nanzan sign.

 

 

Then I made my way home. Here's a pretty totally filtered picture I took by the bike parking area at Ichinomiya station.

When I got home, Miya dragged me into the living room to show me the new Hoppe keychains she'd gotten in the mail. These things are all the rage in Japan right now. All the preteen girls have them attached to their cell phones. Rana's host sister has two of them on her phone. And even Yuko has a brown one (I'm sorry, but the brown one can never not look like a pile of poop), on her phone. I had finished almost all of my homework, so I let her show me all of them and then she arranged them all plus the bear and her stickers so I could take a picture, haha.

Then I brought my homework into the living room to do while she did hers because I haven't been doing that recently since I've had so much and didn't want to be distracted (jk, the real reason is because the wifi has started working better in my room, though not completely perfectly). Well having a lot of homework is actually part of the reason.

Yuko came in and saw me sitting cross legged and told me not to sit like that when I'm wearing a skirt. So I showed her that it was actually a skort. But she was like, you still shouldn't sit like that. And then she made some comment about my tight tears too. At least these tears weren't as bad as the last ones she saw!

Ken came home for dinner, so we all ate together. Yuko asked if I'd decided where I wanted to go with my mom and sister yet and I told them I had and then listed the places I wanted to go. Yuko then told me it would probably be better to get a hotel the night before our flight home (instead of staying with them) so we'll be closer to the airport since our flight is so early. I agreed, so Yuko sat on her iPad and wrote down some hotels for me while I drank my tea.
The hotels were all super expensive. Also, she wrote everything in kanji, I guess forgetting that I'm not Japanese, haha. So I asked her what some of it meant, thinking she'd get the hint and write the rest with furigana. She didn't.

I went back to my room after that to start my homework for Friday. I was doing it when Miya came in to tell me it was dessert time! There was a box of a bunch of individually wrapped long oval-shaped hazelnut cookies with a thin layer of chocolate on top. They were delicious! I had three of them.

Then I went back to my room to eat more chocolate and watch Free! like I've been doing every night. I need to stooopppp. Every morning I come to school and am like, "Emma, I ate too much chocolate last night," haha. She said I'm starting to sound like a broken record.