It has been seven years since I was last in Japan, but I'm back! When I last updated this blog, I had just turned 21 and was a junior in college; now, I'm 27. How time flies. At this point, I've been in Tokyo for two weeks, out of a total of twelve. Having landed at about 3:00 p.m., I took an express train to Shinjuku, where I proceeded to search for the leasing office. This would have been much less difficult and stressful had I not been carrying seventy pounds of luggage. Then it started raining. The fun of the night was just beginning, though, first of all, because, as anyone who has traversed it knows, Shinjuku Station is a a crowded labyrinth. I spent several hours there, attempting to find my way to the ... read more

This festival, one of the three main ones in Kyoto, was rather interesting. However, I think that the Japanese people enjoyed it quite a bit more than I did. I only stayed for the beginning. I think that it's more enjoyable for Japanese people, in part, because their culture is related to the festival. I couldn't figure out what was so exciting about carrying torches, personally. They were chanting what sounded to me like "sai reyo, sai ryo," and I don't know what that means. It was still rather enjoyable. I went to a temple beforehand and, of course, took some pictures.... read more

Better late than never, I suppose. I took some 150 or so pictures on my Tokyo Trip, so I'm only uploading a few for now. Tokyo, I think, lives up to the hype. It's a huge city with plenty of attractions. The Tokyo Game Show itself, for me, was everything that I expected and quite enjoyable. Being completely surrounded by videogames is quite enjoyable for me. I also got quite a bit of free memorabillia. After the Tokyo Game Show, we went to "Electric Town," an are of Tokyo full of, it seems nothing but electronics stores. We were basically looking for videogames that we can't find in the US, as if we hadn't had enough gaming earlier. We also stopped by a Club Sega. Tokyo is quite crowded, as all of Japan is, it seems. ... read more

CDRWs are notoriously unreliable, and that's one of the reasons my Kyoto pictures aren't up yet. I'm going to have to get a USB flash drive. Tonight, though, I'm going to Tokyo -- by bus -- to the Tokyo Game Show, which means that, by the next time I make an entry, I'll have an obscene number of pictures.... read more

"I'm studying Japanese." To anyone who is reading this, I must apologize for the mundane entries as of late. Fortunately, some fairly interesting events are approaching. Sometime this week -- whether tomorrow, Thursday, or Friday I cannot recall -- about 10,000 Japanese students will be returning from their summer vacation. Additionally, next Friday I shall travel to Tokyo. I've been so tired lately. Yesterday, I had no meat during the entire day. For dinner, my host family cooked chaahan, because I said that I liked it. Chaahan is fried rice; it's actually from China, apparently. Inexplicably, Japanese people eat gohan (white/steamed rice) with chopsticks, but chaahan with a spoon. I asked for chopsticks, because eating rice with a spoon, for me, psychologically, is difficult. Every day, I ride at least 4 trains: two coming to school, ... read more