http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/strkwtr/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from strkwtr en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:44:03 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:44:03 +0000 Well I most likely won't be updating for a week or so since this is the last week I have here in Japan. I am already sad. I have just finished 1 of 3 tests today and tomorrow. This afternoon is the religion final and tomorrow I have the speaking test for Japanese. I also have to type up my last paper. Then this weekend will be nothing but lasts... Friday I am going to dinner with Marie and her a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-362858.html Without my wanting it my time is starting to come to an end. I am almost done with all my final papers and test. I just have one paper left one kanji quiz left and 2 tests left. It is going to be strange coming back to America. I have adapted to the Japanese way of life and I fear that it will leave a permanent impact on my life. I wonder how many things I sayweardo will be considered strang http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-361322.html So winter break is over. We are in our last 2.5 weeks... tear... Winter break was pretty awesome On the 23rd I spent the day with Akemi we went shopping and ate lunch together. It was a lot of fun Then Yuki and I went to the train station and she left for Uchihara to go shopping and I went to Tokyo. I walked around Ueno by myself for a few hours I was so proud of myself and then finally m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-360175.html So two more classes left before winter break One today and one on Monday. YAY I don't know how often I will be able to update because I don't know when I am going to be going to the computer lab but I will try my hardest. This week has been a bit rough. I have had tons to do especially MC'ing the CHristmas party yesterday. I became decorator organizer and MC of the party in a very short t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-355475.html So this weekend was soooo much fun. Friday night I went to dinner with Chosan. Ate sushi and enjoyed good company. A lot of fun. Saturday I went to lunch with jie jie eina and walked around with her for a little while. Afterwards Mikako came to the dorm and we watched a movie and hung out for a couple hours with Hunter and Ryuta. Sunday Hunter and I went with Endosan the staff member who http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-352922.html So the weather is getting really cold. And it seems to still be raining even thought the rainy season is over. Even my Japanese teacher is saying that this is rare and we are lucky. So the 5 day break was really nice. Kashima was a lot of fun. If it wasn't for my friends it would have been really boring. At Takarazuka grave in Ibaraki town some of us did some really silly pictures. Then we went http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-350532.html So we have Mon Tues and Wed off Hurray. The funny thing is yes I know the Japanese don't celebrate Thanksgiving but this holiday is some kind of day of thanks holiday we have class when it is actually Thanksgiving. The exact opposite in America class Mon Tues Wed and off Thurs and Fri. Oh well. Tomorrow is the Kashima trip. Should be interesting if not a bit boring. All my Nihonjin frien http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-347160.html I posted some pics up. I still have more but it takes soooooo much time to post pics. It gets frustrating. So another Japanese test passed. With a B So I have gotten an A and a B on the tests. But that means there is only one test left. Our time is half way over... I'm So DEPRESSED I never want to leave Japan. I wish to stay here FOREVER Especially with my best friend Marie Futago PO http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-344923.html Sorry for the delayed update. This week has been an extremely busy one Um the other week was Halloween. I dressed up like Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd while my friend Ryo went as Sweeney Todd. I did both our makeup and we looked AMAZING We walked in and all of the sudden there were flashes going off in our faces because they wanted to get pictures of us. Then I sang while he played guitar. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-343440.html So this weekend was SOOOO much fun. Saturday I was at the Speech contest the whole day but it was actually a blast. We got to talk to people the whole time and then listen to some pretty interesting speeches and talk to more people and eat. Tons of fun. After the speech contest I went to dinner with Marie and her Aunt at a REALLY nice Japanese restaurant. The one where you have your own room an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-339185.html So this weekend is the school festival. Today I am stuck watchinghelping with the high school speech contest and tonight I am eating dinner with Marie and her aunt should be lots of fun. But tomorrow I am free to do everything at the festival which I plan on doing My roommate Nozomi is doing a Sato Ceremony Tea Ceremony. Definitely going to stop by there and I have to get some of Suzuki' http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-338123.html So this weekend was the BEST On Friday I went out to eat with Yuka Aimi and Hunter to a bar b que place Japanese bar b que not American. It was so good. And I finally got some salad which I had been craving for weeks now. there is no real ranch here all the ranch here is mayonnaise yuck But I found a sesame seed dressing which is AMAZING So yummy Then we watched a scary movie i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-336410.html I am exhausted. Classes have gotten a bit stressful lots of work to do EC and TA is getting exhausting and sleep is getting lost to studying. Yesterday I actually had a relaxing day. Stresses disappeared and I felt revitalized. Exactly what I needed. Noriko is back and I'm happy about that YAY. I plan on doing very little this weekend. it will be good. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-335301.html So the weekend was really quiet and kinda boring. Friday night went with Hunter Phillip Takaaki Aimi and Yuka to Kabasushi. It's the first sushi place I've been to since being here. It's funny even the crappy sushi in Japan is better than the expensive sushi in America. Anyways it's a place where the sushi moves on a conveyor belt andor you can order it and it comes on a really neat train. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-333773.html So the weekend was very restful. Friday I went with Hunter Phillip Akemi and Yuka to Takaaki's place one of my EC students and we hung out there for awhile. It was a lot of fun. Today we had our second week of EC. My first group went SOOOOOO much better than last week. I was missing one girl so there was only 3 of us but they wanted to learn the song Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-331330.html So yesterday Hunter Yuka Akemi and I went downtown and got our alien registration cards well Hunter and I got ours the other two don't need them. Everyone was saying that they had to wait forever at City Hall but we went in handed our papers in and after like 2 min we got our cards. Then the 4 of us went to soft bank. We were there for almost 3 hrs but Hunter and I are now the only peopl http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-330272.html So I followed the trend of my other travel mates and got skype. So now I can talk to people in the US on Skype I can even make phone calls well that is I could if I had a VISA or Mastercard I may check out paypal though we shall see.That's all that's been going on. A little lonely now that Chu is gone went to Power Mart with Anna which was interesting because she's English about as much as http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-329614.html So Friday a few people saved a kitten not even 3 weeks old from being run over and starvation so everyone in the dorm has been helping to keep her alive. Mainly Phillip Shu He and I have been taking care of her. I named her Chu or ChuChan because she kept kissing my nose. I was the one who got her to start eating. She is doing soooo much better now and she is going to a new home this eve http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-328859.html So my pop culture class was cancelled which meant after Japanese I was done. Ran into Akemi and she wanted to go to the mall and asked if I wanted to I said sure. So she drove which was extremely weird because in America I was sitting in the driver seat but not driving to the mall and we went up to the food court to get some lunch. I bought her KFC which was a million times better than ANY KFC http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-327694.html Ok so not much happening still. Lots of studying and stuff about it. I loaded two more albums but the bad thing is I thought it was 50 images per album no it's 50 images total. So I am not quite sure what I am going to do now. I shall think of some way of adding more images so what I am going to try and do take off an album and add an album a week see if I can do that. That's all I have t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ibaraki/Mito/blog-327282.html