Christmas Time is Here

My recent adventures via pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024618&id=1230390045&l=bf2794838a

Japan really loves Christmas. All over the place, they are doing illuminations and they're gorgeous. Hard to take pictures of though - you can't really just stop in the middle of the sidewalk (or street, of course, haha) to take a picture. It's always crowded and you will be moved.

The man who did ame-zaiku with Ayane and I came to my school to do it with exchange students. I decided at the last minute to do it again. I loved it! I'm actually really into it now, I wish I could try and try again. My bunny looked significantly better.

Last Friday, I went to an Accenture (as in the company) Christmas party. Elizabeth's dad used to work for them and has connections. Elizabeth didn't want to go alone, so I went with her! And it was really fun! Spectacular really - the food, the entertainment, etc. We met the president of the company too!

And after that really classy event, we went to McDonald's because they're selling Pokemon toys in the Happy Meals now.

School lets out for winter break on Wednesday, the 23rd. It's convenient that the Emperor's birthday is on Wednesday so they feel more compelled to give us a holiday.

Going over to the Vander Haaks to celebrate Christmas again :) I'm very excited! Yesterday, I spent the day with Emily hanging out in Shibuya. It was just wonderful! And I'll be seeing her again soon as I'll be coming over to her house on Wednesday. I'm glad I have a place to go for the holidays, it sounds so lonely for some of the other exchange students who have no plans in any shape or form.

Tomorrow, my Japanese class is going to the Natural Disaster Prevention Center...I'm not sure that's the official name for it, but we get some sort of training of what to do in case of emergency situations - like earthquakes and typhoons. Speaking of earthquakes, there was another one the other day. It was at 5:45 in the morning. I felt my bed shaking and I opened my eyes and realized what was happening. At first, I was okay with it but then it didn't stop for a while, I got nervous. I closed my eyes and just waited for it to stop; hoped my mirror wouldn't fall and break, and that nothing else catastrophic would happen.

Later that day, we talked to one of my Japanese teacher's about earthquakes. The ones that go side to side are relatively okay, the ones that go up and down are more dangerous. Up and down ones are when you should open the door so it doesn't get wedged shut permanently and you can't get out. Yikes!

Oh, and another thing about the center I'm going to - I like how my teacher said to us, "please don't wear short skirts or high heels, girls. You may have to run. And also, everyone, you may want to bring a rain coat"

Tomorrow is going to be INTENSE.

No Place Like London (Home)

Arrival, Settling in, Sumo, Random:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Yabusame:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

Night Stroll!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

Performances and First Night Out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5

Halloween!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

More Miscellaneous:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022079&id=1230390045&l=319d3e2ac2

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(Currently listening to Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street soundtrack. I find it amusing to put either song lyrics or song titles as subject liners when I cannot fathom one better. I will do this from now on, if I can't think of something relevant. The last one is from the soundtrack of the movie Paprika - which my gooooooooooood friend Carrie advised that I watch. I finally got around to watching it and I loved EVERY minute of it. Anyway, I digress...)

My plane ticket home has already been bought, courtesy of my mother. There goes my iron will to not come home until August. There are foreigners (such as some of the teachers at AGU) here in Japan who have not been home in years - I'm not ready for that yet, I suppose. It's just a three week visit from the middle of February to the beginning of March, and then back in Japan until I come home for good.

Only thing I'm not looking forward to are the people who will think I've become fluent in the time that I've been here. I'm not a genius and Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn, so says tons of sources. There are several times during one of my Japanese classes where I look at my assignments or just trying to process what is being said to me, and I wonder to myself: "Why did EVER I think this was a good idea?"

I could have kept up my Spanish and probably be a lot less stressed out. But no, I wanted to take Japanese. It certainly has lead me to meet the most interesting people though. My friends and I have discovered that the secret prerequisite to studying Japanese is that you must be at least little weird (in both good and bad ways). Japan seems to attract people like this, you see, for some reason. You can argue against this, but due to the intensity of the trend, I will stay true to my theory.

But as with most challenges, it's worth it right? Ganbarimasu...

In other news, today, I got to play with babies! Two little 2-year old boys who speak Russian and Japanese (Japanese fathers, Russian/Uzbekistani mothers). and the point was to start instilling English into their little heads by playing games, reading, singing songs, and other things of that nature. I was in my element. They were a little uncomfortable with us at first but they warmed up after a while and we had lots of fun. Honestly, it's Cat's job but she invited me because she knew how much I love working with kids.

I effectively got one of the children to definitely say "circle," "giraffe," and "oops."
I feel like a winner.

Meditational Field

Arrival, Settling in, Sumo, Random:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Yabusame:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

Night Stroll!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

Performances and First Night Out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5

Halloween!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

More Miscellaneous:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022079&id=1230390045&l=319d3e2ac2

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My birthday was wonderful! The taiko performance was beyond amazing. Exhilarating and very entertaining. I loved every second of it. The man who came to teach us taiko, who gave us discounted tickets to the performance, looked so much more inhuman as he drummed for an hour straight without stopping. And when he came out, he was the same funny guy from Osaka that wanted to show some foreigners his favorite thing to do. It was great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Kymm6RNW0
The man in this video is Ikki Hino, the man who is amazing. When he and his team perform live, its much more fantastic than this. Believe me.

Afterward, we went for yakiniku which is basically when you order some raw meat and you get to cook it yourself on the little grill on your table. It's delicious. We had a toast for my 21st and my friends paid for my meal :)

That's about it really. I try to not let it get to me that two other friends of mine, had birthday parties that were thrown for them by the same people, one of which has the same birthday as me. She got a cake with her name on it. They invited me to take a picture with her as we had the same birthday, but it was still her cake. Yeah. I'm gonna let it go. I'm trying. I'm just a little....hmm, hurt? I guess. I feel like I'm not as appreciated. But whatever. I'm trying to get over it. I got something, I should just be happy. End of story.

Anyway, my mom has brought up the idea of me coming home for some time in February (preferably, after February 13th, because I discovered that Paramore will be playing at the same venue where I went to see those Japanese bands. But oh man, I LOVE Paramore! I hope I can get the tickets before they're sold out!)

I wanted to be incredibly cool and not be homesick and be able to just travel around the world now that I'm out here and I have the money to do so with the scholarship I gratefully received....

But, the idea to come home and see my family, my friends, drive a car again (which includes singing along to the radio), eat the foods I miss (Chipotle and my mom's cooking, specifically), play the video games I haven't been able to touch for the last few months, possibly go dancing - its getting more and more tempting.

And then reality hits me again and I know that I can't go to all the places I wanted, even with my scholarship. Whomp whomp. I have to make choices. And I feel bad because I want to visit all my friends but I'm just not going to be able to. I hate making decisions sometimes.

There are cats screeching outside my window again.