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Published: November 23rd 2007
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School Poster 1
A poster on campus... Representing America so perfectly... (?!) Taken w/ camera phone. Well, everyone. First off, I'd like to apologize for not having been on here in SO long. It's been pretty busy, and as the time added up, I wasn't anticipating playing catch-up. However, I will do my best, and I know everyone back home would love to know what the heck's going on!
Okay... Since it would take a book to write out all the details of the past month or so, I'll probably do a sum up of some of the highlights of the month.
November 2-5 was the school festival. It functioned a lot like the one I went to in Kawagoe. Lots of food. And even alcohol, which I found interesting, since they were selling it at a university. The Japanese are a lot more relaxed with alcohol here than in the states. For instance: It's perfectly legal to walk around the streets completely fall-down drunk. And even with open beer in hand. Get caught doing it in a car, or even on a bike, however, and you'll never operate said type of vehicle again. Highlights of this festival included okonomiyaki (literally "grill whatever," and consisted of mochi , with shredded cabbage over
School Poster 2
Another poster on campus (also taken w/ camera phone). I thought this guy was just so cute. that, with a fried egg on top of THAT. AMAZING!), students drumming giant taiko drums, and one really good Suntory cocktail. Lowlights included blistering the inside of my mouth on some particularly hot takoyaki (OW) and some tension at karaoke afterwards.
November 7th was my 21st birthday. That Monday, the 5th, I went with Lauren to a cool little clothes shop in town and treated myself to an AWESOME Totoro blanket! It's both incredibly warm and incredibly cute. I'm very happy with my purchase ^_^! I also received a birthday package from Dad and Carrie that evening: a WHOLE RUM CAKE, made with love (and rum.. and cake stuff) by Carrie! The evening of my birthday, I decided I had SO much cake that I couldn't help but to share the love. I invited as many people as I knew to come have cake with me on my floor's kitchen. I went out beforehand and bought some Hagen Das and a quart of iced cafe au lait (a readily available drink here), and we all enjoyed ourselves! Also that evening, Daniel's package to me came in. I got some stuff I wanted to bring from back home, plus some
TOTORO!
My awesome new (and very warm) blanket. Rocks my socks. REAL cereal, and the Jungle Book on DVD as a gift! YAY!! That Daniel... He's just the greatest. So, needless to say, my birthday was a happy one. Though ironically, I didn't have any alcohol that night. -Well, unless you count the smidgen of rum in the cake. A few days after, though, Lauren and Aimee and I went out to Doma Doma and I had a kiwi sour (kiwi and sake), which was excellent.
The 12th, I went with Shelley and ... dangit, another Aussie gal who's name I can't remember, to Haruka's house for a sushi party. That was incredibly cool. Her parents are the kindest Japanese people I've met here to date. There was also a lady there from the Kansai area -basically an area where they speak a whole different dialect of Japanese and have a VERY different demeanor. This woman, kid you not, was like a cartoon character come to life. SO SO funny! There was lots and LOTS of food, and lots of laughter. And Haruka's mom sent us all home with boxes of inari -rice and toasted sesame seeds wrapped in a sweet, sticky soybean paper. TOTEMO OISHII ^_^! I had a
Remnants
The leftovers of my delicious rum cake! wonderful time!
On the 17th, I went with Lauren and Aimee to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, my third time there. Sunshine City... is a very notable place in Ikebukuro. It's a 60-some story building, with its entrance underground. You go down an escalator and walk down a long, broad pathway, and then you're there. Think of it as... the largest, most amazing mall you've ever been to in your life. Only bigger. It's got dozens of import shops and cool restaurants. Including old favorites like Coldstone Creamery and Toys R Us. And Sunshine City isn't only shops and cool restaurants. It also has an aquarium, a theme park, a few hotels, and a museum. So even though it's only one building, it's easy to see why they call it Sunshine CITY.
On the 20th, I got to tour a house that I'd been looking at as a place for Daniel to stay when he comes here for Christmas. I'm happy to say that it'll be the place he'll end up staying! It's right in Higashikurume. Not only that, it's literally about a 5 minute walk away from the dorms! And he gets to stay in a Japanese-style room,
Side of Box (1)
Dad's handiwork on the cake box. and his roommates both speak English (2 guys; one from America, one from New Zealand), and I get to stay there with him at no extra charge! What a BLESSING! It's such a cool house, too! Looking at it, you'd never guess that it's surrounded on all four sides by really tall city buildings.
Today, I went with Lauren to Harajuku for the second time. Since we both had no classes, we went a little earlier so that we could check it out for longer. We got to see some really cool shops, and I even bought myself a pair of swanky (and CHEAP! 250 yen!) earrings. It was quite the adventure getting there. There's a lot of train transferring, and a LOT of people to wade in to get there. But we made it just fine, and I'm glad of that.
I also went to my fourth Life Group tonight in Hibarigaoka at a place called Saizariya's. Basically a really cheap pizza place. It was... very heavy. I won't go into too many details here, but I will say that it's very hard, and it's bringing me even closer to the Lord in a way that I
Side of Box (2)
More handiwork. never imagined.
Past that, in general, classes have been pretty fun. I'm starting to get into the groove with my language classes, and Kendo in particular is pretty great. We've been practicing different strikes with our swords. It's been very fun. Though all the doors and windows are open in the dojo, and it's COLD in there during practice. GOODNESS! I hope they close them up when winter hits...
Okay then. Sorry for the lack of pictures, or at least the lack of quality. I'll try really hard to get some good ones in the entries to come. I love all of you very much, and I hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving! -I went to a sushi bar for mine. Haha ^_^. And now I'm officially able to be in the Christmas mood! Wow, has the time really gone by so fast?
P.S. VERY IMPORTANT. Aimee found a video online a few weeks ago that featured Higashikurume. In fact, it's mostly featured on the very street I walk down to get to the train station for school each day. It's part of a show that features a TV character called "Hard Gay." In the segment,
Side of Box (3)
Even MORE handiwork. he's helping out a ramen shop that just moved to Higashikurume. Here is the link (note: not for the very easily offended/homophobic. Don't be a weenie.)
Way way funny and weird. Check it out!
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