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!
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.
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