Three Weeks of Catch Up

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Hokay, so here's the thing, I really didn't go forever without writing. Truth is I wrote up a blog post last week. But then the website short circuited or something, and it went up in smoke. And, since it was late, and I was in a bad mood before that happened, I just decided to give up for the time being. Then I went on a four day trip, with no internet, then I had a ten page paper to write, then I had the Japanese happio, which I'm not really sure the requirements for, but I figure hey, I just wrote a ten page paper, screw it. Don't care. The good news is that, with the exception of any reading our Politics teacher might have assigned as some sad joke of an attempt to make our brains work after all that typing, I am finished with my homework. Heck. Yes.

ps. This might be one hell of a long blog.

But let's back up, way up. I don't even remember all the things I haven't told you! It's sad, really. But, I think I should talk about my trip to Nagoya before I talk about my trip to Nagano.

Host family! Blessed host family! Wonderful magnificent host family! With REAL food! I'd like you to understand that last week when I posted the deleted blog I ranted for many lines about the glories of the food. I do not remember most of that rant, seeing how it has dulled with time, but last week it was very important to me. VERY important. For one thing, I had grown sick of the dorm food. Did you know that the Japanese basically have soup with ever meal? Breakfast included? Sometimes it seems all they have is soup. Sometimes multiple types of soup. Sometimes there are funny floating balls of gunk in the soup. And you have that, and rice, to eat. I tell you, I'm getting sick of that floating gunk business. I wanted something I could bite my teeth into. Chew on. Eat. No more of this slurping business. And so I go to Nagoya, reacquaint myself with my wonderful host mom, who is as sweet as ever, and what does he make for dinner? PIZZA! So it was instant pizza, with mushrooms and peppers, but that was okay, because there was CHEESE! REAL CHEESE! and tomato sauce that didn't taste like ketchup. I tell you, it's those sort of little things that make life worth living. For real.

And that night was really cool. I met Kayoko, one of my two host sisters, who had lived in (I think?) Tokyo the last time I was here, and I was not able to meet here. Now she lives with my host family, working in human resources of a company. She speaks decent English because she went to America as an exchange student for a year. I was really happy to talk to my host family that night. They've forgotten a lot of English, but that was okay, because I learned a bit of Japanese over the last four years, and I felt like I finally got the chance to impress someone while I as here. They didn't make me feel stupid! Do you know how rare it is for me to meet a Japanese person who doesn't make me feel stupid? They were so excited that I could talk about school and work and family, which by the way is the three easiest things to talk about because it's what EVERYONE asks about, so I've had a lot of practice. I love explaining my family, because it's basically me rambling in Japanese for five minutes. I have yet to learn the word for divorce... that would really make the rambling easier.

Anywho, that night we stayed in their apartment/condo/manshon (Japanese word for condo). And the next morning we took a trip! To the Ocean! To stay in a ryokan (old style Japanese hotel)! And chill in the Onsen (hot spring bath thing)! and eat a crap load of raw fish (sashimi)! It was great. And kinda funny, since the raw fish didn't get me sick, but my host dad's driving had my stomach churning. I swear my host parents ordered the most expensive meal they could get from the ryokan. First they bring in this beautiful arrangement of sashimi, with lots of different types, and I had lobster for possibly the first time, uncooked, and it was tasty. My host parents were very pleased that I liked it. And then, after we ate all that, they came in with another course, some sort of duck, which was also tasty, and then a shared dish of something from an oyster, also tasty, and then there was another course, and another. While they did get progressively smaller, by the time we got to the end I just couldn't eat any more. Even though I wanted to, because it was delicious. I love being spoiled! And then after dinner we talked for like an hour, mostly in Japanese, and it was so great. I felt really comfortable and just sort of happy. Which doesn't happen a lot for me these days.

Oh, and I didn't tell you about the view! The ryokan was right next to the ocean (okay, it wasn't the ocean so much as a gulf, but it was a gulf directly connected to the ocean, so maybe it really was). And it was just magnificent. And I got to sit in a nice hot bath getting eaten by mosquitoes as I watched the sun set over it, and wow. Simply wow. It was a really good place to just go and relax, kinda in the middle of no where and what not.

We only stayed for one night, but on the drive there and back we stopped at a few different places. One of them was this very famous shrine that I forget the name of, but I learned about it back in my Asian art class so it's famous enough, I suppose. Anywho, it's like the emperor's shrine, and it gets rebuilt every 20 years exactly the same to show the continued life of Shintoism or something like that, and the entire place was gorgeous. It was raining all day long so I didn't get a lot of good pics, but it was really, really great. Then there was also this random pearl museum/island thing. Which isn't that random since the area is used to farm oysters, but still, I didn't expect to go look at thousands of dollars of jewelry. Sorry folks, I don't love anyone enough to spend that much money on gifts for you. But they were pretty. We were going to go to the aquarium, but it was really busy, so we opted out. Which was fine, cause I was kinda sleepy, but if we had gone I bet you I would have found some sort of whale postcard. If my friend had a thing for raccoons or penguins I'd have found like eight postcards by now, but no, it's whales. I've decided to give up on that expedition. Not important, moving on... On the way back we stopped by a different shrine, right by the ocean, and the day was beautiful and the shrine was beautiful, and it was awesome. It was a shrine that had to do with romance, and I got my fortune and it said much luck, but I don't think it was telling me the whole truth, because my luck has been kinda low lately... Well, kinda... complicated... but anyway, it also had a thing for frogs. I totally wish I could bring Mary, one of the girls I babysit, there, because she loves frogs and there were frog statues everywhere. There were also like these two stones, I suppose representing lovers or something, that were gorgeous, and I have a few really good pictures of them. Oh, it was just a great place. It's my new favorite shrine in Japan. I mean, come on, great ocean view, lover rocks and frogs. Top that.

But yeah, really enjoyed the trip, a great lot whole big thing. No, that was not a proper sentence, but it makes sense to me. I'm really glad I went, and I hope they have a chance to come visit me in Tokyo. I want to hang out with them and Naomi (other host sister). Naomi lives in Tokyo now, so at the very least I want to meet up with her for lunch or dinner, or a day on the town for shopping or whatever. I met her last time and she was really cool. I love cool people! But I was sad to have to say good bye to everyone. A weekend just wasn't long enough.

And then Monday came... Monday was a test. It was a stressful day for me. I'm not sure why. The test wasn't hard, but I know I made some mistakes on the listening, stupid stuff, and then I could only find one definite I-have-no-idea thing on the test, and that stressed me more, because if I get more than that wrong than I'm going to feel stupid. I'm doing this thing where I want more than 90% on every Japanese test here on out. Mostly because they tell me this class is the level I'm supposed to be at. I've had so many teachers saying I need this class, and really, it's getting easier. I don't know what to study for the tests. Because I know the grammar, and just memorizing words worries me. It's so easy to make mistakes, I'm worried I'll just screw up again. But on the test before this last one I got 95% and I wasn't really trying to do that good. Seriously, in America, I never get above a 90%. It's freaking hard. The level two kids mostly get Cs and low Bs. If that's the standard Japanese test score, and I'm getting without much effort, doesn't this show something is wrong? So, I want to keep doing it. Mostly just to rub it in everyone's face. Yes, I am vindictive. And I like to say I told you so. And it really will help me in the long run.

What pissed me off the most, though, was that the 300 level teacher in America wrote me an e-mail after I asked her if there was any way I could audit 302 or maybe take an independent study course telling me all about how I want to be in a class that's too hard for me for all the wrong reasons, and how I'm incapable of accomplishing it, and if I couldn't get a 90% on the first test I really do belong in the class I'm in. It just... she said she was being understanding, but everything she said just sounded bitchy. It sounded more like "Why are you still bugging me? You're stupid, deal with it." So I just want to get 90% on all the other tests so I can be like, "yeah... so, I guess I really did belong in thisclass after all. Since it was so hard and everything. I don't think I ever could have managed actually trying or learning new material. Would have killed me and all that."

Yes, I'm still bitter. This is why I've never written her back. I can't actually formulate a response that doesn't cuss at her in some way. Seriously, I want to, but I can't think of anything nice to say back to her. So I'm just not going to say anything. Hey, I did learn something from my parents...

Anywho, yeah, I think we get the tests back tomorrow. I'm more stressed about that then turning in my paper or reading my Japanese report aloud.

Anyway, two weeks ago I had my history midterm, and I do think I did so well. I didn't study as much as I should have, and I think I got a C, possibly a low C. I think it will be okay, because I do other things alright, but mostly I don't want the teacher to think I'm a loser, because I really think she's a cool teacher, and I'm in two of her classes, and it would suck if her opinion of me dropped completely. So I tried to do really well on my politics paper. I think I totally rocked it, I had a lot of fun writing it today, and I actually learned a lot doing it, too. I'm such a dork, but I enjoy the whole learning thing, and I love politics, and the interaction between government and society, and cause and effect, and my paper was all about Japanese pre world war 2 nationalism, and that's so freaking complicated and detailed, and just working through it and making sense of it, and then writing it out in a paper was a lot of fun. I feel like I can go back to America and be like, "Hey Ian, what's up. I bet you ten bucks I know more about Japan in world war two then you do," And that's freaking awesome. No joke. And now that I'm finished it's literally like a weight's been lifted and I can breathe again. Oh precious air! Never leave me again! But yeah, I'm actually excited to turn it in. The teacher's graded pretty easily in the past, on stuff that I half assed, and once *cough* wrote slightly not sober *cough* so on something I seriously tried on, I think I'll do alright.

But yeah, this last week I had a break down on Tuesday. There was just this thing with the Asian exchange students where we had to talk in Japanese, and my first partner was pretty cool, but then this girl who came in late got partnered with us and just wasn't listening to me, and was talking to me like I couldn't understand her, but really I just couldn't hear her, and when I asked her to repeat something she'd do so louder, many times, and I couldn't tell when the sentence began or ended, so I wasn't sure. And the grammar wasn't hard, there was just a word in there I couldn't understand, and that's what was slowing me down, but the girl kept repeating the same thing, and not saying it any different, and I just got really stressed and started crying. I don't even know why, but that was the day right after the test, when I was really stressed too. I just walked out of the class room, though. And then one of the teachers walked me back to our building and was being all nice to me and hugging me and stuff. But really, I don't want anyone Japanese to hug me. Unless it's a really cute guy or something, because Japanese people don't hug, so really I just feel awkward. But she was a really nice lady, I suppose, and brought me cookies. But she didn't speak English, so I didn't want to talk to her because I just wanted to explain that I'd be best left alone to collect myself, and I don't know how to say that in Japanese.

Then we had class again, and I was in there. And I had volunteered to write the skit or our class about daimon (or whatever. Crazy cat that makes gadgets that do cool stuff). But I had written it while car sick coming back from the ryokan in the car with my family, and it was sloppy with a lot of notes and stuff, and some parts I had trouble ready, but the teachers had told me to turn it in anyway, even though I was starting to rewrite it, and I asked them to let me rewrite it, but they said no, I didn't need to. And while we were all at the conversation thing they copied the damn thing and when we came back they passed out this horrible looking mess of Japanese that everyone had trouble reading, and I had to lead them through it because it was a rough draft, that was unfinished, and no one was supposed to see. And everyone was picking on me and stuff, and giving me a hard time, and I was just trying not to start crying again, because it wasn't really that bad, and I had used all the grammar that they told me to use, and written quite a bit, and made a story, but we hadn't gotten any time in class to work on it, so I wasn't able to smooth out the edges or incorporate everyone's ideas, or come up with an ending, so it was just kinda a mess, and I didn't want to deal with it. And when we switched classrooms to work in big groups I tried to get away, but mitsuhashi sensei stood there and waited for me to leave the classroom, even though I dallied, and I ended up in the other classroom anyway, but I couldn't deal with them tearing apart what I had done again, and Halley's freaking slow attempt to type it up to make it neater. She wouldn't let me do it, even though I understood the writing and have experience typing in Japanese, and am actually good at it. Halley didn't understand a lot of the basic vocab we had learned in class, which made it harder for her to type it up. I was just frustrated and got up and hid in the bathroom for awhile. Then Mitsuhashi sensei came looking for me and wouldn't leave me alone, so I just started repeating "I don't want to talk" because that was the easiest, most polite thing I could think to say. And she let me hide for the rest of the day, because I refused to do anything else. I found a really nice hiding spot on the fifth floor that I may return to sometime in the future.

Argh. I don't even know why I ge so upset. I think it was just stress over the test and being tired of dealing with people who pick on or don't try to make efforts to help me understand. Seriously, I've worked with foreigners before, in America, if they don't understand the first thing I say, I try a different way, then try again, then explain in the simplest terms I can think of. To make it worse, I had forgotten to bring my dictionary with me. It just wasn't a good day.

Anywho, then we went to Nagano. Which was AMAZING. But still... well, it emphasized the fact that I don't really have any friends in the program. It was like four days in close quarters with acquaintances that I know fairly well, or people I dislike altogether. I feel everything I do in Japan now is accompanied by "This would be so much more fun if my friends were here." I don't let it go further than that because life is depressing enough. I don't know, it's like, I come to Japan, and my boyfriend breaks up with me because of it, so my relationship life vanishes, or worse yet, just gets ucky and complicated. I come here and get sick, and don't get the chance to bond with anyone, then afterwards everyone already has good friends and I don't know how to integrate into one of the many cliques that had formed. Then we have placement tests and I screw that up as well, and am actually putting myself behind in school instead of the great leap ahead I had originally planned. I mean, living in Japan being able to try out and incorporate the new grammar into everyday life? That would have been amazing. Now I want to sleep through classes and feel like banging my head against something every time we "learn" something "new."

I'm not sad I came. I'm not. I don't regret it. But honestly, I think my life would probably be better if I hadn't. I would at least be happier, I'm almost certain of it.

It's funny, cause the only thing going right is my finances, but I never really was worried about that. I think that's why I don't care how much I spend on stuff, anymore. My number one concern is doing whatever I can to help me enjoy my time while I'm here. I spend as much money as I want to on myself, or on gifts for people, I spent a lot on gifts for people while I was in Nagano. It's just, what else can I do? I don't have anybody I'm really happy with, I'm so tired of trying to do school stuff when there's very little work to it, and if I spend my time thinking about home I just get even more depressed. I never imaged coming here would be so hard.

But yeah. Nagano. The IES staff pretty much shoved our days full with meticulously planned events. Let me walk you through them, yes?

On the way to Nagano we stopped by this Japanese drum place where we got to play the really big, awesome Japanese drums (forget the name of them) and it was so cool! I have never before felt capable of playing a drum, but I didn't do too horrible when we learned a song together. I wish I had one at home that I could practice on (yeah, they're only like a couple thousand dollars) because it really is a good workout, too. We had a grand master guy teaching us, and he was really nice. He told us some stories, and took us up to his drum collection filled with things he'd gathered from across the world. He had drums from Africa, other parts of Asia, America native American stuff, South American stuff, European stuff, middle east stuff, just all sorts of different drums. And we get up there, and we're looking at them, and he starts explaining a few then handing them out to people, and then he's like, go on already and mess around. Touch whatever you want. So we go crazy playing all the different random things he had in the room, and it was great.

After that we went to Matsumoto Castle, which is one of four castles that are actually real, all the rest in Japan are reconstructed models of castles that had been destroyed over time. I got some really good pictures of that place, but all of the pictures of me there have these lovely scrapes on my face from, if you can believe it, me washing my face too hard. To back up, I had dehydrated myself in the onsen at the first ryokan I'd gone to, then probably gotten a little sun tanned on the car ride back to Nagoya while sleeping, and my face was much too dry, and I didn't realize it, so I scratched some skin off and am only now almost back to normal. Anyway, that's why I look splotchy. But yes, the castle itself was gorgeous! We got o go inside, and I went all over the place. It's not too exciting, no secret doors or anything, but there were a lot of narrow freaking staircases. I don't know how samurai ran up and down them, in full body armor no less. There were pictures of fat samurai in the museum, how is a samurai fat when he has to climb so many freaking stairs?

Oh, and there was this funny sign that said something like "Don't appear to a verandah," which none of us really understood, but we kinda figured it meant, don't go out on the ledge. But we asked Shin san, who was outside and we could see through the window that, since we couldn't understand the rule, was it okay to break it? Shin san said sure, why not, and I got some pictures of people chilling out on the verandah. Twas fun. I didn't go out though, mostly because I would have wanted a picture, and I wasn’t cool enough to have other people take it for me, and I'd asked all the people I'd been hanging with if they'd take pictures for me already, and I didn't want to ask again, so I just skipped it.

But we went to the gift store, and I almost bought something for Dave, but now I'm glad I didn't because I bought something else that I think is better (yay!). And he's sure to like it, because if he doesn't I'm taking it back. It's not what I first planned to get him, which was funnier, it's a bit more like a real gift (if that makes sense) but I'm pretty sure he'll like it quite a bit. It's kinda like Ian's gift. It's very Japanese, but you know, not the sort of funny gag thing I tend to get people.

That was it for the day's adventure, then we went off to the Ryokan for the night. Me and Tricia and Caitlyn (my new kinda friends) shared a room, and after a not too appealing dinner we went out together to explore the onsen. We only went to one, but it was cool, I suppose. I mean, it was really nice. I'm not self conscious about the whole naked thing, so it wasn't bad at all, and the water was like the perfect temperature, and it was very relaxing. Afterwards returned to our room and broke out the apple wine. Nagano is famous for its apples, so we figured we'd give them a try, eh? I didn’t get drunk, though, darn 4% alcohol content, but we had fun chatting and what not, then of to bed.

The next morning we got up too late for breakfast, which is just as well, because over all I found the Ryokan's cooking to be vaguely gross. But our first stop was an apple orchard, where, don't you know it, we ate apples. Yummy yummy, juicy apple goodness. After a round of apple picking, with a very amiable guy telling us about how red apples with yellow, not green, on the bottom were the tastiest, we headed back towards the main building to do our next event.

Mochi making! I've heard stories about it, and it really is kinda fun. What you do is, you get this sweet rice, and then put it in a big wooden bowl, and then take a big wooden hammer, and then hit it a bunch! Just about everyone who wanted a turn got one (me included) and I tell you, that hammer is a lot heavier then it looks. I mean, it looks heavy-ish, but it's like "Whoah, what the heck?" heavy. I don't particularly like mochi, but I ate it anyway, and it was fun.

Next we went off to a couple of museums. Art museums, to be specific. The first was of this famous hokusai guy's artwork, he's the person I wrote my Japanese mini report on. You've seen his art work, it's the big wave in front of Mt. Fugi (got an in-front-of-door hanging thing with that picture on it) and the bridge in the rain... yeah, you've seen them, but it was really cool to look at some of his original art work. The next museum was a guy I don't know, Takai Kozan, who had some really weird stuff. I bought post cards and fans, and the nice shop clerk gave me another apple and a free post card. Weird, but cool. Anywho, the pictures are REALLY freaky, like, I don't want to keep the fans cause they're a bit disturbing. Just monsters or what not. But I know my friends will like them. Yus, yus.

Then we had like an hour and a half to do nothing in a place that didn't have very cool gifts and the only restaurants served soba. I didn't want more soba. NO MORE SOBA! yush yush. It was dull. Then we went to this power point thing about this lady, Sarah M. Cummings, who did some cool stuff in Japan, but I'm mostly just glad I wasn't the only one in the room sleeping during the presentation.

off to pot making! It was fun, I thought we'd be using the spinning wheel things, but really we didn't. We had a pre-made pot like thing that we used as a mold, and shaped the clay around it so that when we pulled the clay off it had the same shape, just slightly bigger. It was a lot of fun, and I actually made like a cup instead of a pot, because I didn't want a pot, and then we went to the store and I spent too much money on gifts I'm not going to talk about. (I bought gifts from just about every stop we made, no you don't get to her about them, because with the exception of my mother I've bought something for anyone who might read this. Unless Terra and Patricia read this. In which case I bought Terra's gift ages ago, and I know what Tricia's getting, I just don't know where it is).

Then back to the ryokan, where dinner was once again a disappointment, then I started with Tricia and Caitlyn with the onsen, then wandered off alone, then ended up hanging with my sorta friend who's name I forget, so obviously we're not that good of friends, but he was locked out of his room and I chilled with him and chatted about the difference between boys and girls onsen experiences, among other things, while we waited.

The next day was cool. We went to the Zenkoji temple, which was... not too eventful, and walked around in an underground tunnel that was pitch black and supposed to give you a spiritual experience. Mostly, I wish it had more turns to it. And was a maze. Underground. That they shove Gaijin into to see if they can make it out alive. Mwahahaha. Yes, I failed the spiritual test.

Then onto Soba noodle making, where I screwed up the soba, and the nice person who probably thought we were all idiots started over for us and did it really fast, and then I let my group members handle it. I don't know, I found this part boring, tedious, and not that cool. Soba doesn't have much flavor to it, eating it wasn't great.

The next art saved the day. Ninja theme park/museum!!!!!! Okay, it's not like an actual theme park, it's like a small kiddy theme park, the one's that don't have rides, more like petting zoos. No, this did not have a petting zoo, and I didn't spend too much time in the museum, but I did do other stuff. For instance, there were the "ninja tasks" as we called them. The first was the ninja house, which was amazing. You go in, and it's all filled with secret passages and false staircases and doors behind walls and under fireplaces and through paintings, I mean, it's like a dream house. It even had one room that was at like a 45 degree angle to the rest of the house. The whole point was to find your way through, kinda like a haunted house, only more fun and less scary. I don't have any good pictures, but trust me, AMAZING! then, outside, there was the ninja wall, whee you had to use the ledges to climb across. Funness! And the ninja walk across ladder thing (no, that doesn't sound scary) which wasn't that awesome, but I still did it. I did not do the ninja tight rope, cause really, I'm not kidding anyone. I can't do the ninja tight rope. There was a big tower, though, which you could go up to the top floor and make it rock! Craziness. The ninja bridge was like a normal bridge, except if you ran across it it bounced. And then for 150 yen you could throw ninja throwing stars, and while me throwing them was quickly followed by me jumping back in fear because it looked like it was going to bounce back and eat me, I had much fun. The ninja park was great.

And back at the ryokan! Another bad dinner! And then we went to find the grave yard other people and went to the night before. That kinda got ruined, cause it was just me and the friend who's name I forgot, and we lost everyone else and we didn't go through the funny arch way we found because it was freaking scary, like monster shaped big mouth scary, and we had no sacrifices to die for us if things went bad, and when we went back for cute girls and black guys (cause don't they die first in all the movies?) there were none to be found. We did find the grave yard, though, but it's not as fun with just two people who aren't going to end up making out, so after a little while we went back for the night. P.S. I'd love to go back to this place with Ian Dave and... Dave. And probably Whitney, because she's a cute girl who's cuter than me, and... wait, no, she'd be part of the love interest possibly triangle thing and I'd still die first. Okay, well, I'd just like to go back at night and check out the creepy stuff and just have no one die, kay?

The next morning was our last, and we packed up the bus, then got on a smaller bus, then went up into the mountains, then got off the bus, then walked for twenty minutes, up stairs and hills and what not, and then got to our goal.

MONKEY HOT SPRINGS!

Seriously, there were hot springs, were the monkeys went to chill out in. They were snow monkeys. Big snow monkeys, baby snow monkeys, mommy snow monkeys carrying babies on their back, it was cute, it was great, we weren't allowed to touch any of them, but we did get really close. We were encouraged to walk amongst them and frolic. Okay, not frolic, but wouldn't frolicking be fun? Anyway, I really enjoyed it, because it's probably the only time that I'll be that close to monkeys, and they were so cool, and it was really fun. Like, some of them were really big and scary, and one of them stole Marcus's plastic trash bag, and that was really funny, the park rangers had to chase after him because they're not supposed to eat plastic or garbage... so if Marcus killed the monkey it's kinda sad, but overall it was cool, and I got tons of good pictures, and I considered it a good end to the trip.

Okay, that's a really rushed account, because it's getting late, but I wanted to catch you up so at least I did that, maybe I'll reference things again later or fill in some blanks at another time, but at least now you have a vague notion of what I've been up to. ^_^

Have a good night/morning every (it's morning in America... yesterday morning). I'm off to sleep.

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Photos

Host dad
Host dad out in the rain, it was hard to take pictures of him while we were out an about because he always walked so far ahead

Me at the Ryokan
Not the best pic, but I wanted to show you the view, and me, as proof I was there

Kayoko at the Ryokan
Pretty much the same thing, but with Kayoko instead

The view from my bedroom
Gorgeous!!! Simply gorgeous

Host parents!
We each got to wear a cool yukata while we were at the Ryokan, here is my parents at dinner

Me and host parents
I figured out how to get my camera to wait 10 seconds before taking the picture for this one ^_^

Me at the Ocean Shrine
Not a bad pic, if I do say so myself

The two rocks
I freaking love this picture, I don't know, the rope means kami, which is god, and I really find them awe inspiring and what not

Host family and Two rocks
All of us standing in front of the frog statue I really wanted the picture to be of, but with he two rocks in the background

Room of drums
All the people from my school chilling in the room of random drum stuffs

Me and the Drum
This is the drum I drummed on, sorry I don't have any pictures of me planning it

Me and the castle
It's a horrible picture of me, but the castle in the background is worth it

Storming the castle!!
As the title says. Me and Niki and Pat could totally take on them samurai

Shin San
Shin san outside the castle, making those cool faces as he tends to do

Do not appear to a verandah
Disipher that for me, would ya?

Castle!!
Gorgeous! I say that a lot, but that's just because everything in Japan is so pretty

Me and the STAIRS OF DOOM!!!
Yeah, so, tall and narrow. Good work out for your thighs, though. I would not have been a fat samurai

Me at the orchard
Me climbing a scary ladder and picking some apples!

The orchard
Just a cool pic of some of the trees and some IES kids around

Mochi Making
Me pounding at the mochi. I may not have pounded so very hard, but I had excelent aim, you were supposed to try to hit the middle, and I did so every time, yush!

My Pot
At the pot making place where I made my pot, um, cup

Yukata Picture
At dinner a the ryokan, where we were all given yukata to wear

Zenkoji Temple
Where we walked around like blind people, it really was a little fun

Outside the Shrine
Everything in Japan is beautiful, I'm just showing off some beautifu Japan surroundings

Caitlyn Making Soba
She was actually good at it, unlike me, who ruined it... kina... it just needed to be restarted

Ninja Attack!
A fake ninja in the ninja mueseum, but I though it was cool enough to photo

Throwing Star Lynda
I hit the target twice! Out of like seven or eight... I bet you Ian would have won the fan

Lynda and Monkey 1
Isn't it cute!

Lynda and Monkey 2
Why am I talking in third person? I look like Patricia in this photo

Lynda and Monkey 3
Me with the monkey in the back ground in the onsen

Comments

[David Corey]

^^
"ps. This might be one hell of a long blog" ... ain't that the truth! :D The more I read you blogs the more I want soup. But I can simpathize with your blight. Soup everyday for every meal gets really old fast which is why I want some, cause I haven't had any in a while! x3 But isn't that also true about finding ppl in America that don't make exchange students feel stupid? xD Then again Japan does seem overly complicated about things. Ryokan! ;o; I want to go to one of those! I will read the rest later! Mom wants me to do something!

[Mom]

When
Hey sweetie, when are you coming home!