Thursday & Friday

Thursday, April 10

This morning when I went in to say "ittekimasu," Yuko asked me if I was okay and said I looked really tired. She was right, I did! Idk why.

Maybe I'm just stressing out about the bike too much, I don't know.

The commute to school every morning makes me want to kill myself. It's so so so bad. Today I was first in line and when the train came, it was stuffed with people!

And then one guy got out. Only one freaking guy!

So I got in and was like ok, it's full to bursting now, everyone else will take the next train. Yeah, right. Cue the pushing and shoving until everyone who had been behind me had stuffed themselves onto the train. At least the air was on full blast so I didn't sweat to death like that other day!

And theeeeen the subways! When I got down to the platform, one of the train guys was shouting for everyone to keep moving down the platform. The lines stretched all the way to the other side of the platform, where people were waiting for the train going the opposite way. It was so, so terrible. And to make things worse, the subway was late. Arghhhh, I miss Americaaaaa. :(

When I got off the subway, I saw Emma. She always gets off at the farthest away point on the platform, which is how Esteban and I always beat her to the gate, but today I was at the farthest point too! So we walked to school together.

When we got to school, she started talking about the news this morning. There'd been this girl on there crying because all this research she'd done on stem cells turned out to not be true or something. I'd seen it this morning too and Yuko kept saying "aww, kawaisou." "Sou" is what you add on to adjectives to say "it looks," so I was wondering why Yuko was saying she looked cute. But then Emma taught me that "kawaisou" means "looks pitiful." Lol oh.

I sat in the office to finish my homework. I hadn't felt like doing it last night, figuring is so it in the way to school. Yeah, I forgot how I'm body binded on the trains now. So I was racing against the clock. Emma let me use her Genki II book, though, so that made it easier. But people kept wanting to talk to me, so that made it harder! I still had two sections of the worksheet left when class started. But I did them like a boss right before we had to hand them in. I was so sure I was going to get the entire thing wrong because I did it so fast, but I only got two wrong and then a bunch of particles because I didn't realize you had to change を to が in potential form. Rawr.

For my snack during break, I had the other donut I won in rock, paper, scissors with Ayuko and Mami. And I put the matcha sugar on top. Everyone was so awed by the matcha sugar. I think it's super cool too, because I loooove matcha!

Anywayz, class was pretty boring. We had Mutsukawa sensei for the first half and then Kondo sensei for the second half. And then it was lunchtime.

As I was walking to lunch, Autumn saw me and was like "Are you okay?? I heard you got hit by a car!"

What the heck? Who's telling everyone?? But she's so sweet! She totally was freaking out because she thought I was more hurt than I was.

My wrist is completely back to normal, but I have huge nasty purple and red bruises on my knees. :(

Haha btw this was on one of my papers I got back today from Kondo sensei:

(It says: "Are your wounds okay? If they start to hurt more, please go to a large hospital!" Awww, she's so adorable!)

Then I went to Dagane but the lines were really long and the place was so crowded. So I headed to Lawson's, but the line was super long there as well... :/

In Lawson's though, I ran into Kazuki! He was like "Keito!" And then asked me if I was okay after getting hit by the car and everything.

I think I'm kind of famous now! That girl who got run over by a car.

Then he said I looked "kawaisou" in the picture of me bandaged up (I'd posted it on Facebook). Damn, now that I know better, I know he wasn't calling me cute, but pitiful. :(

While we were talking, Hotaru saw us and came over with her new friends to say hi! Then I headed to Dagane. I saw Esteban sitting alone, so I decided to get in the long line and join him to eat. I got the balanced meal, which is the only thing that's price didn't increase with the new tax! It's still 400 yen and is the best deal because I was stuffed when I was finished. I are pretty fast too, because we wanted to go watch the anime we had to watch for Folklore, Mushi-shi. 

On the way to the library, we ran into Sara and Yukari and Yuka. They all freaked out when they saw me and hugged me even though we'd just seen each other yesterday, haha. I love them!

In the library, there was only one copy of the DVD, so we took that down to watch. But for some reason, they made us go downstairs to watch it. And they said we wouldn't be able to watch it together downstairs. So we each took a disc. Esteban wanted the first one and I let him have it because he'd waited for me to finish eating to go watch it, but I really wanted to start at the beginning too.

I took a look at the tvs and saw there actually was another jack! So I pluggedy headphones in there, and boom! We could both hear the movie. Yay!!

It took us a while to figure out how to work everything and then Esteban pushed buttons on the remote and messed everything up, but he fixed it after a while. And then I figured out how to make the subtitles not be cut off.

So finally we were able to watch it! And we still had enough time to watch more episodes than most everyone else in the class did. Although Esteban fell asleep after like the first two and then left, so I just watched as many as I could on my own. I think I was in the middle of the fifth or so when I had to stop to go to class. I'd thought class started at 3:30 instead of 3:15, so I got there at 3:27. Whoops! But she hadn't even started yet. She was talking about making up last week's class.

Class was horribly long as always. Two hours and 15 minutes is just way too much for my attention span!

And we got out a few minutes after 5:30 too, so it was already 6 by the time I caught the subway.

But I caught the nice train on the way home. The train bound for Maibara that comes at 6:30ish on Thursday nights is the most beautiful thing. It arrives completely empty and I'm usually among the first in line when it comes, so I always get a seat! The only bad thing about it is that it makes an extra stop before Ichinomiya.

As I was walking home in the dark, Manaka rode up behind me on her bike! She hopped off and walked her bike so we could talk. And I was able to talk to her a lot in Japanese! It was before the church when she saw me, so she walked her bike a long way. I felt bad, but she said it was fine! She told me the reason she was getting home so late was because she had archery club. She has it every day after school and so every day only gets home at 7! Gosh!!

And her younger sister has English class on Friday nights and doesn't get home until 8! Wow. That must be stressful what with the amount of homework Japanese middle schoolers have. 

I remember middle school being a joke for me. Although high school was a bitch.

So we walked all the way to my apartment complex and then she said we'd communicate by email to decide when to make the misokatsu! Yay! And then she biked home.

I got inside a few minutes after 7. I was in a good mood and told Yuko and Miya about running into Manaca. All I had for tomorrow was a vocab quiz, so I played with Miya before dinner. I've been keeping a list of Japanese onomatopoeia words ever since Ayuko and Mami taught me some last Sunday. So I showed it to Miyabi and she added some more to it. Now whenever she uses an onomatopoeia word, she adds it to my list, haha.

We had curry over noodles for dinner. Yuko just gave Miya rice because she had curry at school today. We talked about Miya's classes and teachers and stuff.

Then after dinner, I asked if I could make the kit kats (except I used the work "tsukau" instead, which means to use. Because "tsukuru" is to make. Embarrassing!) But Yuko let me make them, so I made four and shared them with Miya and Yuko again. Yuko out them in for less time tonight so they didn't end up so burnt. I kind of liked them better more burnt though...

Yuko wrote down what line and time to take the train Saturday night after I get back from Kyoto and what station to get off for Handaa. Then she told me she'd be at the station waiting for me.

And then she dropped the bomb. She told me she'd called the bike shop and they said they wouldn't be able to fix the bike, so I have to buy a new one. And new bikes are usually around $100.

Well there went my good mood. That was outrageous! Especially when it wasn't even my fault! 

I asked her if we were still going to get it checked out tomorrow, and she said no.

So I decided I'd go on my own.

This is turning out to be way more stressful than I ever dreamed it would be and I have no one I know who can help me out!! Tomorrow I'll try to ask the CJS office for advice.

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Friday, April 11

Because it was Friday and I left later, the trains weren't as bad this morning. The subways were the same, though. I was hella tired this morning and worried about the bike and just all around in a crappy mood. So class wasn't fun. We played a weird kind of bingo where we made our own boards, which I didn't feel like playing. And four people could win it turned out, but people were teaming up and helping each other win, so it wasn't really fair anyway. 

Then I had project work. I had only been able to interview those two guys and they'd basically said the same stuff, so I merged their answers into one person. But I'd been asked to interview two people. Thankfully this girl was sitting in the lobby area, so I went over to her and interviewed her. Her name was Mizuki. Here are her answers in case you're wondering:

1. When you hear "America", what's the first thing that comes to mind?

New York, awesome!

2. What do you like about America?

Happy places

3. Who's the president?

Obama

4. Do you know of any American singers, songs, or movies?

No, none

5. How many states are in America?

50

In class, after Fukutomi sensei went over the data I'd collected with me, she said I could go around the lobby and interview the last three people I needed. But there weren't many people who weren't in class. So she told me I could go to the cafeteria. 

I headed over. The cafeteria was full of people, but they were all busy eating. So I went to the area outside of Lawson's. I found two guys there who weren't eating and went to ask them. They were fun! But again, only one, Riku, really answered. 

1. America is always at the front, ahead of all other countries

2. Electronics

3. Obama

4. Cameron Diaz

5. I don't know

When I finished interviewing them, I went into K builiding where students were buying school supplies. There was a girl sitting alone on a bench, so I asked her if I could interview her. Her name was Yuki and she was very cooperative and friendly and we talked a bit after the interview too!

1. Fast food (lol, I was waiting for this one)

2. Compared to Japanese, Americans are more friendly and easier to become friends with. (I didn't understand her answer for this one, so I had her write it down and sensei explained it to me later. It was such a nice answer though!!)

3. Obama

4. Lady Gaga

5. 50

Finally, I had one person left to interview. Every day, there's a huge line of Japanese students waiting to buy books. So I knew I could find someone there. I saw a cute guy by himself in the line, so I headed for him. Like everyone else, he agreed when I asked to interview him. When I was on the quiz part, a friend of his came over and started trying to answer too, haha. When he came over he was all like (in English), "Hello, my name is Shota!" Haha it was cute! Then while I was asking them questions, I noticed girls behind me taking pictures of me interviewing the guys with their cell phones. When I turned around, they freaked out and stopped, haha. Everyone around thought it was so awesome that I was interviewing people about America.

Here's what this guy said:

1. The President, Obama 

2. Baseball

3. Obama

4. Spider-Man

5. 50 (well he was like 50, 51 lol)

His friend, Shota, was really funny and for the first two said "big food" hahaha. Oh and he said The Beatles for number 4, smh.

Sensei was super impressed when I got back with the last three done in only 30 minutes! Then we went over what I'd collected. I was so shocked that everyone I interviewed knew Obama and even more that almost everyone knew that America has 50 states!! I had no idea how many prefectures Japan had, but sensei educated me. It's 47. And btw I just got my 35th on streetpass today! :)

After class, I passed the Japan Plaza and saw a group of Japanese girls all eating lunch together. They all had homemade bentos and it looked so cute and I wanted to go in and eat with them! But I had to go home and settle this bike situation. So I bought the sushi and inarizushi combo I love, as well as bananas and a matcha Crunky bar for the bus ride tomorrow.

Then I took the train to Nagoya. There I ate my lunch while using the wifi to call my parents. At Ichinomiya Eki, there was a sale on the matcha chocolate with cookies under it that I love. It was only 71 yen!!!! It's 130 at Lawson's and 100 yen where I usually get it. So this was a steal!!

And I saw packs of two taiyaki for 100 yen, so I bought one of those too. Now I have a bunch of snacks for the bus!

Then I went home and talked to Yuko. I told her I wanted to go try to show them the bike and see what they thought and if they could fix it. So she drew me a map to the place and told me it's a 20 minute walk away.

So off I went. It was really hard pushing the bike all the way there, but I finally got there! 

The man there was super old and basically didn't even want to try to communicate with me. He told me the bike was too old to fix, like I guess the wheel wasn't being made anymore. Then when he saw the paper Yuko had given me with questions to ask and her phone number, he sent me in and the lady in there called Yuko to tell her what the guy had said and how much a new bike would be.

It turned out a new bike would be $140!! And then it's $5 to register it with the police, and $6 to trash the old bike. So I'm going to have to pay over $150 for something that wasn't even my fault!!!

I can't believe it. This is such bullshit and I'm pissed.

When I got back home, no one was home, and they didn't get back until 7:30. While they were gone, I fixed the chain on the bike because it had come loose. Then I went to the grocery store. I bought the granola bars Dylan always eats in class, because they look good and I they're the perfect snack.

I tried them right when I got back home and they were delicious despite how thin and hard they were.

When Yuko and Miya finally got home, Yuko made hiyashichuuka, which is Chinese cold noodles. She put shredded cucumbers, carrots, and ham on top, as well as half an egg. It was sooo good! She told me it's a meal that's often eaten in the summer, when it's hot. We had cut up pineapple for dessert!

Ken got home around 8 and then Yuko packed the car. They told me they'd be leaving at 9, but they were out of the house around 8:45. And then I was alone. I was exhausted and had to get up at 6 the next morning, so I took a shower right away and then went to bed.

P.S. Here's what one of the girls I met at the Festa texted me:

See? Told ya everyone always says I'm "itsumo kawaii" (always cute) :)