Busyness

Okay, I'm totally not keeping up, but I'll try to get some pics over the weekend, and I'm going to Hiroshima for sure in March. So there's that to look forward too. Mostly I'm just doing schoolwork right now though, school everyday ack! I am doing the Japanese Sign Language club on Wedensdays though, and that's really fun. And the Japanese Students start back in March, so I might join a club then too. Maybe when I get some free time I'll post about my classes, some of them are really fun. Like in my Body Comm. class today we did interrogations to see whether you can tell if someone is lying by Body Language. Anyway, today's Japan fun fact is: The 3 main American Candies they have in Japan are Snickers, M and M's and Kit Kat, and the Kit Kats come in tons more flavors here, like strawberry, cherry (in honor of the cherry blossoms) and oddly enough Melon (lots of things come in Melon here that I don't understand)

I'm updating the main slide

at the bottom of the pae to just Japan Pics, but it might take a while. I was in class all day today and then in Language Lab, so not a lot of fun stuff to report. Today's Japan Fact is courtesy of my roomate. Apparently Japanese puzzles have a form included with them, so if you are missing a piece, you can just fill it out and send it in, and they will send you that piece.

This Weekend

So far I have done karaoke, seen a Japanese freeway, found another Bookoff and bought a gameboy color for approx. $8. Also watched this really good Korean drama "Princess Hours". It did rain on Friday, so I couldn't get any campus pics, but it's supposed to be clear Tuesday. Here are some random pictures, and I'll upload the rest of them tomorrow after I've taken some of my dorm.

Ugh

Class all day, but only one class tomorrow (at noon mom, so try not to call before 10 please). And apparently we have Monday off for foundation day (I think it's like fourth of July, but no fireworks) So that ought to be fun. And I'll have time to get all the stuff I've been needing to do done. So yay. And I've decided that as I'm time deprived so I can't really do a lot of lengthy post I will try to make up for it a little by posting a Japan fun fact when I do post, so for today, something I learned in body and comm. class, apparently the onomatopoeia for eating in Japan is pacu pacu, so that's where pacman's name came from. Now go forth and spread this rather useless/geeky knowledge. Or not. I wonder if those guys who did the real life pacman game in NY for a film project know? Ah well, I'm going to bed now. It might be raining tomorrow,but if it's not I'll post some pictures of campus too.

Today was a class day,

I had Japanese in the morning and then both of my other classes in the afternoon. After that I came home to drop off my stuff and then me and some friends went out to eat. Yummy omuraisu (rice omellete) I also had to get my bike lock changed as I lost my key, so I did that. And then a fun hour of homework, followed by an actually fun half hour of DS Lite. Oh and I also did some laundry. The dryers here DO NOT work, so everyone hangs there laundry on the balcony on these poles. I ran out of space on mine and since I didn't have any clothesline I hung up my socks and stuff on some dental floss. Which is working suprisingly well. I think I will buy a clothesline next time I go to the store however, as I am slightly worried about the floss breaking and my underwear falling off my balcony into the courtyard below. Anyways, I never got around to talking about my Osaka trip last night, so I'll do that now and post pictures later. I'll probably link in some friend's pics too. So we went to Osaka at 1 since we were waiting for Josh and hadn't wanted to get up really early anyways. We took the Train (like the RER in France, kind of a subway, but above ground) and then we walked to DenDen town once we got to Osaka. It takes a while to get there walking, but we went past all these really big designers, like Tiffany and Co, and Gucci and stuff. My mission of finding a DS Lite was harder than I expected, all the stores where sold out. I finally got on at this place called Media Recycle, but it was an American import and so it was a little more expensive. Still less expensive than in the US though. Josh also got one, but he got the black instead of the pink like I got. I also got a couple games for it at Sofmap, that are in Japanese, but are kind of kids games, so I can handle 1 of them and almost handle the other. And Josh and I both got Kanji Dictionaries which are awesome, since they have input where you can write the kanji on the screen and it recognizes it. It also has some other cool features, but most of them require a higher level of Japanese profeciency than I have. So we took the train home and I got off at Hirakata shi with Trevor and Josh and had dinner with them at this restraunt that had this amazing asparagus tempura (fried and breaded). Then I took the bus back with some other girls I met from my dorm since the boys had their bikes. And then I studied. And that's about it. Tomorrow I have to go to the city to do Alien Registration. So that ought to be fun (sarcasm due to hatred of bureaucracy, which since I don't have a kanji name I can't get a name stamp and therefor my signature/all letters ever have to look EXACTLY the same) I'm not exaggerating, and I can get witnesses from the banking session. Filled out the paperwork so many times.... But after that I'm going to shop so that will be good.

Technical Difficulties

I was all set to do my big post and the internet broke, so I'll try again sometime later this week. But I've got class all day tomorrow and Thursday, and the first meeting of the Japanese sign language club (run by one of my professors, and one of the few clubs that continues when the Japanese students aren't here) on Wedensday. So I'm not exactly sure when I'll have a lot of time again before Friday. Hmmm. Well if not before then, I'll definitely do it then. Osaka was cool. I got my DS Lite, although it was difficult to find, more on that later. I'm going to bed now as it's almost 1 my time.

I'm going to Osaka today,

so tomorrow, I'll post all the pictures of that and Kyoto. I'd post them tonight, but I've got a test in my Japanese class. Mostly review, but I need to study for it. On the bright side I have all afternoon tomorrow off, so I can update all my slide stuff and work on this lots. Kyoto yesterday was fun. We went to this place called the Book Off and I got some manga and some Gameboy games that were only 250 yen a piece. Unfortunatley my gameboy is at home, but I can play them when I get back. Then we went looking for lunch and ended up at the McDonalds, which we went to because Trevor wanted to try the supermac that was only going to be around till today. It's a crazy giant burger. I've got pics of that, which I'll post later. We went to an arcade and did photobooth pics which are beyond awesome. We also went shopping, there are all these crazy corridors with tons of shops in them. Anyway, I found apple cider in one of the vending machines at the kyoto subway station, so that was awesome, along with all the other fun stuff we did yesterday. Today I'm out to find my DS Lite and Kanji dictionary, along with some other stuff. So I'm gonna go do that now.

Class all day

Blah. But tomorrow I'm free most of the day, and Saturday and Sunday I'm journeying out to Kyoto and Osaka, so more pics and stuff. And a DS Lite (hey they make a kanji dictionary for it which I'm getting, it's school related). Anyways just wanted to say hi. and that I'm still around. And give hope for a longer post one of these days.