Boof!

Last night, I'm not sure why, but I was so sleepy at only 8. I couldn't study and for some reason I felt very apathetic about it. That's not good!
This morning, we had our 3-hour Communication class. I couldn't even...well, the quiz I did so-so on. I forgot so much Kanji this time. But I didn't really feel that panicky Oh-my-gosh-I-don't-know-this feeling. This is so unlike me. What's going on? During class, I was tearing up when Tom and Laurent nominated me as the leader to speak our views on a video I didn't understand. Apparently, that's what I got for wearing my Panda dress because I was dressed "kawaii" according to them. Blast it! Panda dress, you have betrayed me.
Anyways, I kept thinking of how much time and effort I've put into studying and I can't even have a basic conversation. I'm just going through this whole self-doubt phase right now. Then, I compare it to exercise (of course) and it's like well, I still have to build up to be stronger. One does not simply do an hour and a half Jillian workout with 10 lb. dumbbells right away.

I just felt like, after 4 years, I should be better than this. I guess I really lost out on practicing conversation skills and didn't push myself hard enough there.

But today, I was teaching Kirsty exercise moves and she kept saying "I can't" or "I'm not fit enough." And I kept telling her she could and she did do a few moves before fizzling out. But I try to compare how I can't keep saying "I can't" and stuff. I think I'm going to make that a goal for this month. Shut up and stop saying "I can't" and just try harder, listen, and learn. I thought I was doing this, but I think I have to try harder.

One funny thing did happen with my confusion in Japanese. We were going through speaking exercises and Tom and I were partners. I started off in Japanese with:
"Kendo was so hard yesterday!"
"Oh really? You do Kendo?"
"I've never done Kendo before in my life."

Tom is in Kendo and I thought I was supposed to mention that to him and then he asked me if I've ever done it. lololol. Well, sometimes not knowing Japanese very well can be funny.

I'm just a frustrated bunny right now.

After lunch, Kirsty and I went to the gym. She was on 1 hour of sleep and no lunch, so I'm not quite sure how she got herself to do that. I tried to instruct some moves to her and do them with her, but she was more in the mood for the treadmill, so we went our separate ways on that one.

After showering and stuff, we planned to go to Shinjuku to find Grant's place so I can meet him when he gets here on Sunday ^____^.  Here's some stereotypical tourist building shots for you:

 More liquor stores for Grant...

 BOOF!

 I don't think this movie being in Japanese can save it...
SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

  "I can see the Statue of Liberty already. Very small of course." Oh, Fabrizio

Yeah, I thought Shinjuku Station was pretty crazy, but it just reflects how insanely busy it is outside in the city of Shinjuku. Kirsty left early to meet with her sister and probably crash. She was too tired to walk around to find Grant's place. Sadly, I don't have a GPS and couldn't go looking for it >___<. I may try again tomorrow. At least I found out which train to take and stuff.
I walked around for a bit on my own, but it was just chaos. There were so many places with so many people. And it probably didn't help that it was a Friday night. I felt a bit anxious and decided to go home soon after. Oh yeah, and after stumbling down a street that was pretty much Japanese Bourbon Street. I saw huge mechanical robot women that I think fight like battle bots or something. It's like the new Deadmau5 video with Gerard Way, but instead of awesome battle machines that they control, it was really gross looking women. Halp.

I stumbled upon this store on the way back:

 It was even connected to a Baskin Robbins. Holy Lauren Paradise.

Lauren

Shawn

I asked two girls that were around the eating area if they've ever heard of Junie Moon. They hadn't, but I tried to explain what Blythe dolls were and they haven't heard of them. I really have to start bringing a picture around. Don't worry, Lauren. Everyday is closer to the day I will find this place or other stores with Blythes.

 Oh yeah! In between classes, Hanaka found me and gave me a birthday present! This birthday just keeps going XD.

Cutest Calender ever. And it opens up so there's some storage area! And this awesome Alice In Wonderland type tiny card. And a really nice notebook! I actually really wanted a calender and another notebook, so this was perfect. This was so nice of her ^___^. It really helped to make my day better, too.

I'm so excited for Grant to get here. It's been. too long. I can't believe he's bringing another suitcase so I can use it when I go back to bring all this stuff. Guys, all this stuff. Beth, this stuff. All of it. Stuff.

So pumped.

Hey, No Skipping!

It's been staying pretty simple this week here. Yesterday, I went to go get a cat present for my Grandma at that one cat store with all the cat stuff, to add to the letter I wrote for her. Cats.

Of course, the one place I wanted to go was closed.

WUTWHY?
Oh well. I went around searching for another cat thing around town and ended up buying presents for Lauren, Beth, Timmy, and my grandma. I still haven't found the perfect gift for MoMo yet. It's always "well...maybe," but never like "OH GEE WIZ, THIS IS PERFECT FOR HER!," like the other presents.

Here's some Japanese food. I was probably very rude for walking in, taking pictures, and walking out. In several places. Lauren, I really am building quite the reputation here.
I feel like they actually cooked this stuff that day and it didn't come shipped to the store in a plastic bag, refrigerated for awhile, and then taken out to sell *cough*, like some stores back home...*cough*.

 And a bakery...like Mitsuwa has! I wonder how they compare in taste.

 Wut. Hot dog croissant-kind-of-things.

And passed a tiffany lamp store and thought of MoMo.

They were much prettier in person, I swear!

OH YEAH. AND THEN I GOT SKIPPED BY THIS WOMAN. I still have to get used to this. If you're standing somewhat distant from the line, you will get skipped. If you are looking the other way while standing in line, you will get skipped. This happened again by a business man when I went to another grocery store a half-an-hour later. I almost pulled a Beth, and instead of saying "Sir, after you!" with a dramatic hand wave, I had to stop myself and just said "Okay then!" and walked away into another line. If you want to keep your place in line, you have to mean it. You have to look it. You have to be. the line. darnit.

Then, there were these awesome guys at a boutique:

 Coin purses!

 And then I found necklace versions and phone chains! There was a multi-colored tongue in the one where I'm opening it's mouth, but you can't see >___<. Just imagine the greatness.
This wasn't at the boutique, but I kind of wish it was.

 No matter how hard they try, I don't think putting them in ice water again is going to save them. I didn't want to tell them though.

WHY WAS THIS MEAT SO CHEAP? I don't understand. So I bought it. And ate it this morning. Omg, zo good.

MoMo, this Raspberry Nectar tea is insane. It smells like a popsicle. I must try it cold sometime. Thank you again! ^___^

Rather than venturing a bit more, I've been studying a lot. And when I take a break, I've been playing Animal Crossing in Japanese, which is called "どうぶつのもり/動物の森、” which means Animal Forest. I've hardly gotten far. It's like oh yay! Time to relax and do some errands for some animals and go fishing and talk to the workers. Then, they bust out really strange Japanese. It's all casual speaking, the kind that kids use. In school, we've learned mainly formal speech, so this is just crazy stuff. I haven't even finished doing the simple errands for Nook yet. lolol. It takes a year and then some to figure out what they're saying and after looking up the random Kanji they use. It's kind of tiring, but still really fun.

Today, we had the 3-hour class again. Dying. Slowly dying. lolol, it's just really very fast-paced and brutal to your brain.
But we were able to watch this video. I think Lauren might enjoy it a few times.

Basketball was really fun today. I'm getting to know the other students better, too. And they're passing me the ball XD. haha, yay! The teacher is so funny. She's full of energy and is always yelling stuff that I don't understand some of the time. She's like the "best friend's young and eccentric grandmother" you wish your friend had.

Here are my new basketball shoes. They were totally required.

I like how I needed to buy new shoes for school, but no books. These are Men's ones, too. They only had 2 really ugly girl style ones. Da frack up with that. I was like no plz.

I forgot one of the student's names (WHY AM I SO BAD AT THIS?) but he's been really nice to me 'cause he knows a little bit of English and sometimes helps me when the teacher says something that I don't understand. Something I thought was funny was when he asked if I knew the brand American Eagle. Apparently, it's really desired, but really expensive in Japan. I asked if he knew what "preppy style" was, but he didn't ^___^'.

I decided to drop Calligraphy after not much debate in class. It was. Really boring. We practiced the same 4 Kanji for an hour and a half. But here's my name in calligraphy that the teacher gave me:

Last week, he had a tough time figuring out how to write my name. I told him "neko," which means "cat" would do. So he did and gave this to me today.

It's pretty early right now. Yesterday, I found out while I put on some TV briefly, that we're receiving some random channels for a bit. One had Hamtaro playing! but it also had this big sign blocking the channel. Maybe we're not supposed to be getting it. lolol. Well, Bijou here is pretty pumped about it.

And something that's cool about some Japanese TV shows is that they have Japanese subtitles to go along with the show, so it's nice when you're trying to learn and can read and listen to it. I captured this really awesome shot.

 And then some programs have a little display, like in this one, on the top right, of people watching the same thing you're watching. Just so you can see their reactions to what's going on.

lololwut.
I got to mail the letter for Grandma today, so I'm really excited for her to receive that.

But yeah! This is what's been going on. Kirsty and I are going to go to Shinjuku tomorrow to find out where Grant is living so I don't get as lost trying to find his place when he gets here this weekend! ^____^ So awesome. So pumped.

Time to study now though. =^.^=

Oh yeah, here are some pictures Asato san gave me today of the lunch with the American Embassy a few days ago:

Please note that my tongue is sticking out in 3/4 of the photos. I can just hear Mum saying, "Ughh, Kathleen." and shaking her head while smiling and then getting distracted by a baby bunny in the yard and totally forgetting it.

Simple Days

w00h00! Survived the typhoon! It started earlier than Monday, at about 6 p.m. Sunday evening. The wind gusts were pretty powerful here and there. There actually wasn't as much rain as I thought there would have been. It really did sound just like Harvest Moon 64. I was happy that Grant could come online while it was happening to hear it. I was also a bit terrified at first, but it got better after awhile and then it was just kind of cool. I woke up the next morning and it was already done. It was actually a really beautiful day. You would have never known there was a typhoon.

We had one of the 3-hour classes and then the American students from Seijo (Me, Evan, and a graduate student) were invited to have lunch with some people from the American Embassy. Or something. One of the men came here and gave a speech on Green Innovation and how to save the earth and stuff. Deep stuff. They were all pretty formal, so I don't think I quite fit in. I kept asking them questions and the woman next to me was very nice. She was the easiest to talk to, but then the man kept looking at me like he wanted to ask me something but didn't. So, I kept asking him questions as I ate a sandwich I wish didn't exist. I told him he should go to Shibuya and Harajuku, but a foreign woman with a cool accent said that she would recommend other places as those are more for the young crowd. But I insisted he should try Karaoke and a sushi kaiten. I'm not sure if I convinced him though. It was nice of them to invite us to lunch though.

After lunch, I scurried home to change for track practice. I met up with Yuuki and it was just us and Sou so far. Mondays, usually everyone does their own thing. Sou went to the training center and Yuuki wanted to go for a long jog, so a jog we went on! It was really fun talking with him again. We explain to each other things in our languages that are confusing to the other person. We ran for maybe 45 minutes? It didn't seem like it. It was really awesome to see new parts of the town I haven't explored yet. Yuuki said he looked at the UWM site for possibly studying abroad there. Oh jeez, is he ready for Milwaukee? XD

After grocery shopping, I went home and pretty much just did homework, studied, and then read a little bit.

Today was a rest day today (boooo, hate these days) so no working out. I went to the other 3-hour class and I really liked my outfit today...

My expression, not so much. lolol. Those shoes and hat are from the adventure in Harajuku pt. 2. Please, note the towel. NO SHOES INSIDE.

Wendy and I got to have lunch with Yuki and Yuuki today. Wendy said she was going to the gym after. I'm really proud of her! She's also bringing her own lunches to school. I think that's just really awesome. I had to fight the urge to go with her.

I came home and got to video chat with Lauren, Shawn in the background, Beth, and Grant for a bit. The effects don't get old...well the sound effects do. BETH.

 After, I went out to venture town a bit. Well, my intention was to find Daiso, which is only 6 minutes away but of course I missed a turn somewhere and ended up not going. lolol. I did find a discount store, which was really creepy, and another used bookstore.

 I have no idea what these are. They were actually blue in person.

After walking into the station by my house by accident, which was a good thing 'cause then I actually knew where I was, I ventured out a bit more, stopped, and realized I didn't really feel like being out. So, I walked home.

I've been mainly studying here since and thought that I should post some thoughts about being here I've had on my ipod Notes that I write at random times throughout the day.

"I dreamt of Pam spray. I must really miss it."
They actually don't have cooking spray here, that I know of. I miss coconut spray more. Almost, dream, almost.

Oh here's a growing list of some of the things I like here:
"Smart microwave
bathroom sound button
cleanliness
boys take care of their hair
can take a train to anywhere
a lot of bikers and walkers
parasol for the sun"

So my microwave knows when the time I put in is too much. It's crazy! I put a potato in the microwave and it stops a few seconds later if it thinks it will overcook with the amount of time put in. Amazing. Thanks for the awesome potatoes, microwave. We had our differences at first, but I think I'm getting to understand you better.

Bathroom sound button. 'nuff said.

Cleanliness. This is both a plus and a hindrance. Big word, I know. There are certain days to throw out certain garbage. For example, Tuesdays and Saturdays in this town are for combustibles. So you put your trash bin in the designated area.

Today was cardboard paper, paper, and cans day. So, those had to be stacked in another area in town. It gets kind of annoying hanging on to all the stuff and not being able to throw it all away at once, but it's kind of nice at the same time. And another thing about cleanliness, it's really a shock seeing a cigarette or any other garbage on the ground. So it'll be weird going back home.

Boys take care of their hair. So do girls really. I noticed that when I'm in the bathroom, girls are like this in the mirror for a few minutes:

 I noticed this after I did this in the mirror:

Teeth check, man.
Then I see boys doing their hair in mirrors, store's glass wall reflections, and just on the streets like this:

And then I'm like this:

TEETH CHECK, MAN.

So really, there isn't much difference with guys and girls for hair care here. But apparently there's a difference between Americans and Japanese people. I'm proud to represent.

And then the trains. 'Nuff said. They're just awesome. Except when you take the wrong one. >___<

Heck yes, take me to Harajuku.

Then, there's a lot of bikers and walkers here always. There are quite a few places that people "park" their bikes, like this lot:

This isn't even including half the rows in just this lot alone.

And then there's the whole "protect me from the sun because I have beautiful porcelain-looking skin" in the form of parasols bit that I think is a great idea.

Yeah, I totally tailed these guys to take a picture for you even though you could probably imagine this image just fine if I described it instead.

There are also really funny sun hats that look like oversized poker visors that people wear when biking. But they probably are great for protecting your eyes from the sun without getting a funny tan, too.

Yeah, I totally didn't hunt this woman down to take a picture, but this is what it looks like.
There are also sun sleeves you can wear. It's pretty much what it sounds like. Slip on sleeves and they protect you from the sun. I haven't seen too many people wear those though.

So yeah, that's it for now. I mean, I love so much more, but those just needed to be written down and explained. I'll have another post for the Notes I wrote for "Customs Not Used to Yet" another time.