Friday 7/28/06 Ok I’m going to write these posts each day as much as I can to avoid writing a book all in one sitting, though I may post these entries in one or two lump sections. Yesterday after work Ko-san was kept in late in a meeting with some important Taiwanese clients so I ended up taking the bus to Gifu station to meet everyone. When I arrived I had about an hour to kill, so I grabbed a snack and headed to the bookstore for my all time favorite hobby of book browsing : ) I really lucked out [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 7/27/06 Well yesterday I gave Masenori-kun and Ishii-chan the macaroni and cheese, which they loved XD *happiness* I made them both little bento with the pasta and Israeli salad, which I placed in cute little containers and wrapped in pretty cloth. Ahh..I’ll made such a good Japanese mama someday ;) hehehe! Then last night I had my Japanese lesson at Gifu Station, where I learned quite a bit of kanji and some more grammar. I really lucked out with this teacher, because she’s so good. After I talked to Charlene for a bit, but it was already quite late so [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday 7/26/06 This is just a little update to tell everyone about our dinner party last night. After work Ko-san and I went to Apita (the grocery store) to get what we needed for dinner. I bought the ingredients for Israeli salad and mac and cheese (of course!). When we got to Shou-chan’s house, only Shou-chan was there because her dad had to work late. Shou-chan lives together with her father. Her sister recently married and her mother died when she was in elementary school, so it’s just the two of them in the house. Anyway, when we arrived, Shou-chan had [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday 7/25/06 Well it was an eventful weekend, as always, but I didn’t take a lot of pics this time, mainly because my subjects were rather camera shy :P Saturday morning Ko-san showed me a shrine near her house which I hadn’t seen before, but which was quite beautiful. The shrine was divided into 2 parts—one on top of a large hill and one at the base. The one at the top actually used to be a palace I believe, and was over 1000 years old. It had this amazing fishpond with tons of beautiful, multi-colored carp swimming in it. These [View Full Entry]

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Friday 7/21/06 So last night was way fun! After work Ko-san and I stopped by the book store to pick up what I thought was the last chapter of Fruits Basket, but to my surprise, I think there will be one more!!! Yay!!! Ahh, this chapter was so good though, I had chills at the end. I also ordered the first “Genki” book, which is the #1 Japanese Language book for English speakers, and, although it’s $30 in the US, it’s less than 10 here!! So I may just order the new edition of the second volume as well because it’s [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 7/18/06 Well it has been quite an eventful last few days! Thursday dinner went well and everyone LOVED the macaroni and cheese. I made it with 2 different kinds of cheese so it was particularly yummy : ) Then Friday at work a few of us pooled some money and had a pizza party!! It was soooooo good!! I had been craving pizza for the longest time, and thankfully they have Pizza Hut in Japan!!! Wai!!! The only bad thins is the pizzas are WAY expensive, about $20 for a medium, and the mediums aren’t much bigger than American personal [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 7/13/06 So the last few days have been fairly uneventful, but fun all the less. I have discovered that living with a host family is definitely the way to go if you want to learn a language. Total immersion baby! Shouchou speaks English really well, but Okaa-san, Ojii-san and Masenori-kun don’t speak any at all really, which means I’m forced to use Japanese and find ways of understanding what is said to me. Every day Masenori drives me to work. I’m really glad I got the chance to know him better because at work he is really quiet and I [View Full Entry]

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Not much to update right now, but I thought I would post some pics of my old apt./neighborhood...enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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Monday 7/10/06 Well it has been another eventful weekend here in Gifu city. Friday night I went out with Asai kun to dinner at a cute little ramen place and then to a CD shop. We just hung out and talked and it was really fun. He showed me some really good Japanese bands, which was cool, and it turns out that we both like the blues brothers ;) Saturday was the BBQ at Adachi’s house. It was amazing!! First of all it’s way up in the mountains about and hour and a half outside of Gifu city. Its beautiful, green [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 7/6/06 Wow. What a day, what a night! Ok so yesterday was the release of the 2nd to last chapter of fruits basket!!! Ahhhh!!! However, all my attempts at getting to a bookstore failed!! The store near me was closed in the morning, and then, at lunch, our classes ran late so I barely had enough time to get something to eat before the bell rang. (In Japan even offices run on bells) Then, after work was the welcome party for all the interns. There were maybe 20 of us there and it was AWESOME!!! Hayakawa san arranged the whole [View Full Entry]

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