grrrr. I hate when people ring our bell and it's no one I know. Just now that happened and I had to go out in my bathrobe and see what was up. It was some woman with like six children trailing after her wanting to know where Endo-san was. Like I know?! I'm mostly annoyed that it gave those kids a big fat chance to stare at me, the disheveled gaijin, and I'm not really in the mood for that when I'm in pajamas and a bathrobe. Stupid kids.

I guess I could have picked up the phone and talked to her through the intercom (fancy Japanese door-answering technology! Some homes even have a video screen where you can see the visitor). But that's so strange to me that I never think I can really do it.

I'm also a little annoyed because we had a Japanese test on Tuesday and got them back yesterday, and I didn't do very well. In my defense, neither did many other people in the class, since no one knew what to expect (we weren't told what would be on it, just that we'd have a test) and they graded it pretty harshly. Then also, we switched teachers, so now instead of the three teachers, our class has one (and one of the old three on Thursdays), and she's the most irritating one. She does that thing where she talks to us like we're children, way too happy and smiley, and I hate when teachers do that. I want my old teachers back!!! I hate this switching around thing. The whole point of a class is to build up a good relationship with your teacher. Even though we had three, I still liked all of them. Now we only have one and I don't like her at all. This does not bode well. We'll switch again in another couple of weeks but I still don't like how they're doing this.

I also ate a Pokemon-themed bread thing yesterday. It was a curry bread, so inside it was flavored like curry. Which, I like curry, but not inside the middle of bread, that was weird. I got it because it was the Vulpix bread (each bread had a different Pokemon on it) and that was my favorite Pokemon. Inside is a little sticker thing of another Pokemon that I'm going to give to Bekah. I wish I could mail her some Pokemon bread but it would definitely have gone bad by the time it got to her. Oh well.



My nose is still stuffy (I think I've lost the ability to smell) and my throat hurts from time to time. Hyung-Hye is convinced I need to go to the doctor and she says if I'm not completely better by next week, we're going. I just don't understand, because I feel fine overall, what's with these persistent symptoms?

Well, today was certainly interesting. Part of the Keiyo Line that we take to school broke down because some cable(s) caught on fire or something between Shin Urayasu and Tokyo, so when we got to the station to go to Japanese class this morning, no trains were coming and it soon became apparent that there weren't going to be any for a while. (Our station that we stop at, Shin Urayasu, was also completely shut down.) The alternative the station people were giving us was to take a free bus ticket, get on a bus to Gyotoku Station, and use that line to go to where you needed to go. Or take a taxi. Riiight. Fortunately for us, class was canceled entirely!! :D But it was just so interesting to see people arrive to the station (one woman even got off her bus and started running to catch her train!), realize they couldn't get past the ticket gates, and come back and mill about. Just like ants when a part of the anthill is destroyed, or lemmings with some obstacle suddenly set in their path. But we were ants and lemmings too. We just went home, and Brette was going to walk up to the area by Gyotoku Station to get her gaijin card and then get Mister Donut, and I went with her and got some doughnuts. Mmmmmm Mister Donut is soooo gooood. I got three doughnuts and, instead of saving one for later like I thought, ate them all. soooo goooood!

I also took advantage of our extra time to do my laundry (I was really down to my last articles of clothing) and take a nap. My afternoon class, History of Tokyo, was a field trip, so around 1 I left for that. It was at Ryogoku, the same place we saw sumo, and we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. That place is REALLY COOL. All the exhibits are things like miniature models of a samurai's living complex, life-size representations of merchant houses, models of famous buildings, and it was all just so hands-on and interesting. A really, really cool museum, and now I understand what Melissa was talking about over Janterm when she raved about it.

After that, Lisa, Anna and I went back to Kaihin Makuhari and we went to the Mexican cafe/restaurant place in one of the area malls. I got a quesadilla and some ice cream for dessert. The quesadilla was definitely good but you could tell it was a form of Japanified Mexican food. Oh well! We just stayed there for a while chatting, and then I went home around 7 or so. The Keiyo Line was up and running again so I could take that home.

Oh yeah, and before work yesterday I got my gaijin card. Or rather, my alien registration card, but everyone calls it the gaijin card. If you're going to be staying in Japan longer than like a month or so, you have to go register and get one. We already did the registration and this week we could go pick it up. If a policeman asks me for it, I have to show it to him, and if I don't have it then legally he can take me to the police station and question me for hours and even make me come in to court for it. Seriously. There's some horror stories floating around online that you can read where that's happened to people. If I hadn't been planning to just carry it in my wallet all the time, then you can bet after reading that I definitely would have!

Still have a little cough/sometimes sore throat/occasional sniffle but I hope it's continuing to clear up more and more. Lisa finally went to the clinic yesterday after having like a three-week cold and I guess if it holds out that long I'll have to do the same, even though I don't want to.

Okay. I have been sloooowly but surely getting better. Maybe. I hope. Today my voice returned (since it cruelly abandoned me over the course of the cold), which I took as a good sign, and even though I'm still coughing, it's getting to be more of a normal dry cough and less nasty sounding. Last night was weird in that my forehead and cheeks started feeling really hot like I had a fever right before I fell asleep, but I took an Advil and went to sleep and was fine in the morning, with my voice restored. So, hm.

It's RAINING here, and I didn't bring my umbrella. On the bright side, tonight I'm going to Lisa's host family's house for dinner, and we get to take the CHIBA MONORAIL, which I am ridiculously excited about using. It is suspended from the rails. What's not to love?!

There's more, but I can't really think of it at the moment, so I'll just update more later!

Tokyo Game Show 06

I went to the Tokyo Game Show today. I went by myself to Kaihin Makuhari (it's called Tokyo Game Show but actually held in Chiba at the Makuhari Messe, which is in the same city as the IES center) and then called up the girl geeks of IES, who I rarely hang out with but I hung out with today because there was, honestly, no one else I was friends with going, aka TK, Heidi, Caitlin, etc. Went around with them, played the Kingdom Hearts DS game trial in order to get the Roxas wristband, saw cosplayers, saw Seki Tomokazu (♥), and so forth. It was quite, quite fun.

wah, after yesterday when I felt just fine all day, I woke up today and went to class only to realize that I was feeling even worse!! My voice is going (even though my throat doesn't hurt that much), and I just feel all blah. Even so, it's not terrible, I can still do things, but class was just too much for me. I told Ishikawa-san at IES about it, and she asked me if I wanted to go to the doctor, but I said no, it's not that bad and it'll be expensive... I think I need to sleep for the rest of the day, and rest over the weekend, and if it's not better by Monday I'll go to the doctor then.

My guess is that it's the seasons changing. Every day it's a mixture of warm and cool, some days more one extreme than the other, with rain every couple of days, and that can really wreak havoc on your body. (You'd think I'd be used to it, though, living in Texas!)

On the bright side, today walking to school I definitely saw at least 5 people who are Disney performers going to work. It's really easy to pick them out. We have too much fun doing it.

(blonde girl with sunglasses riding a bicycle goes by)
Brette and I: (look at each other) ...Disney.

I'm siiiiiiiiiiiiick! wah! It happened after all. My head hurts a tiny bit and my nose is all runny/stuffy. So I didn't go to work today, which really kind of sucks because I had stuff to do. But, on the plus side, in their reply to my email that I wouldn't be in today, they want me to translate the FAQ manga!!! yesssssssssssss :D I hope this means I did a good job on the script preview thingy!

Doug is currently working on trying to study abroad in Japan himself next spring. yay!! Go Doug! Texas Tech makes it a LOT harder to study abroad than Austin College does (reason #32442124 why I'm glad I chose to come here after all), so he has a lot more hoops to jump through than I did, and I'm hoping he gets in (and gets all the money he'll need to go)!! I'm really thinking more and more that study abroad is a really great opportunity that everyone should take at least once if they have even the slightest interest in it, because you'll never get the chance to do it again. After college you have to either work in or simply visit a foreign country; you can never live there temporarily as a student.

I'm all sniffly right now and I've been sneezing all day; my throat also hurt a little when I got up. I might have a cold or something. That better be ALL it is because I decided I am not going to need to use the Japanese medical system while I am here because it is too confusing and too expensive and too gaijin-UNfriendly. It probably won't come to that point but I am just saying this now! I will not get sick while I am here!!

Today was the first day of anime class. It was interesting. The lecture was a little boring, but I think it's going to be okay. I actually wasn't going to take this class because I knew there would probably be people who couldn't be mature and who would just annoy me, but then I changed my mind once I got here, and decided that if I do work for Tokyopop someday, it couldn't hurt to be educated on the history of manga and all of that.

We also had our third Japanese teacher today for the first time, and that was interesting too. Sometimes I miss the instructions for what we're supposed to be doing next and I get all confused and feel stupid, which, as I've said before, is a new feeling for me in a Japanese class. I actually really need an electronic dictionary, even though they are $200. I hope this weekend I can get into Akihabara and purchase my electronics. It turns out my camera still works, the batteries had just been drained (AGAIN. It happens so fast!! That is why it is slowly breaking). If I find a good deal on a new camera, I think I will get one, though. I'm just so sick of dealing with this bad old one.

I also only have $85 or so left of the $500 I brought with me. I wanted to make it last until the end of September but that's probably not possible. It's not like I've been squandering it (okay, not much) but stuff just really adds up! So pretty soon I'll have to withdraw money and hope I can be better about stretching that.

I think I'm already pretty fully adjusted to life here. I don't really think too much about wishing I was back home, and in fact it surprises me when I go on Facebook and see pictures from my AC friends doing stuff without me (and then I miss them a lot and realize things are going on without me, but most of the time that thought doesn't enter my mind; that's just how it is). It actually feels like, starting back in June, my year has been/is going to be divided into three big chunks of complete location changes, adjusting to a new area, etc. First was California and Tokyopop; now is Japan; the spring will be France. So it's kind of gotten to the point where moving around feels almost natural, and it's not hard at all to settle down into a new place again. The study abroad people were all "It's hard for split year students because they feel like they just got used to one place, and then they have to go to a different one" but, even though I bet I will experience a little of that, it won't be that bad for me, probably because of what I just experienced this summer, which was in fact a really good preparation for study abroad. We'll see, though. I won't lie that I'm really anxious about France, but I still want to go because it's my best chance to experience as much of Europe as possible. I decided to do a homestay there and I hope that works out too.

Third Week In Japan

Okay, with this post, I'm done catching up, and now I'll just post normal updates here, instead of everything in one batch. There's also no pictures here either, unfortunately, still stuck on my phone. I even tried to take my camera to Asakusa on Saturday only to find that it wouldn't turn on!! Howww annoyinggg. Maybe it's finally bit the dust; it's been acting up for a while. Well, there's no place better to purchase new electronics than Japan. Whenever I finally get into Akihabara I'll look for a good deal.

Week Three: September 11-18, 2006

Second Week In Japan

All right, here's the next bit of my Japan blog, still trying to catch up on past entries, sorry! Eventually I'll be up to date. This one has a LOT less pictures (sorry!!) because I started using the camera on my phone to take pictures so I didn't have to lug my actual camera around. Unfortunately, I can only pull those pictures off the phone with Bluetooth, which my laptop doesn't have. I have to wait until someone with a Bluetooth-equipped laptop will let me use it to get the pictures off. That was supposed to happen this week, but DIDN'T. :(

Week Two: Sept. 2-10, 2006

First Week In Japan

Here is my first attempt to catch up on what's happened so far. For those in my family, here is some background information you might want to know. I am studying abroad through a program called IES; they organize our housing and classes. We could choose to take our Japanese classes either at the university IES has been using for a long time now, Kanda University, or at a new-for-this-year university, Meikai University. I chose Meikai since that program focused more on language, but I also have a few area studies classes at Kanda (taught in English). When I went to Japan in January, that program was also organized by IES, so I already knew some of the employees there from that time. A new employee there is actually my friend/former Japanese language resident who went to my college last year and worked as a Japanese assistant teacher (Hyung-Hye). From my school, there are three other people going that I know, all boys (Casey, Aubrey, and Alex).

If there's a Japanese phrase/pecularity I include here, I'm only going to explain it once, so you better remember it! Lots of things are pretty untranslateable so I usually keep the Japanese term in most times. Okay, I think that's it, read on!

Week One: Aug. 28-Sept. 2, 2006

welcome!

woohoo! I'm renewing this blog to talk about my study abroad experience in Tokyo, Japan this fall of 2006. I'll post detailed diary entries and pictures here. よろしくおねがいします！