hairfish

Hayleigh and her new amazing DS that takes pictures!

Red Japanese maple leaves

My close friend Hayleigh, with her host sisters. Her host mother invited me to dress up in kimono and take pictures at a Japanese garden in Koshigaya.

Cheesu!~

More leaves! I gathered a bunch of them to dry in my travel journal

Hayleigh-chan~

Hayleigh's host family being adoreable

YELLOW!

Kimono covered bottoms.

the Garden was just gorgeous

Me.

I just finished a ten page history paper. Tomorrow is my last day of work and of school. Two weeks from now, Ieave Japan. To go home, that is. Crazy.

My host mother and a few other mom’s from our neighborhood had a small, Japanese-style bbq two weekends ago. Most of the kids in my neighborhood are all in Middle school or Elementary school, and since it was a relatively nice night, we played with hanabi (fireworks) until it started to rain. I haven’t had so much fun in a long while! All the kids were so sweet! And the food was fantastic. I was too busy stuffing my face to really take any pictures of what I ate but the sausage, grilled pumpkin, and yakisoba were my favorites, by far.

A peek of veggies grilling on the bbq

Food on the table lit by a lantern.

Good company in Kita-koshigaya

Hanabi all laid out, ready for the kids -- and me!

The boys divvying up the hanabi

FIRE!!!CRACKERSSSZZZ!!!

My lovely room in the glorious morning sunshine

I’m so tired I can barely see straight. You’ll be hearing a lot about my tiredness in the coming days, so you’ve been warned. Yesterday was a good day as I got home for the first time by myself without help and didn’t get lost. Well, to be fair, I walked about a block and a half away from my house but once I realized what I had done, I found my way back, so I got a little lost but not really. My walk home is about fifteen minutes (or less) from the bus stop, and within the span of fifteen minutes, all the mostquitos in Koshigaya had their way with my legs.

My legs are covered in huge, bright vermillion welts. They look like really nasty hickeys. This will make for very interesting lunch room talk, for example: ‘What happened to you?’ Answer: “I was molested by mostquitos.” As you all know or may not know, classes have started on this side of the world and I must admit, I’m sort of underwhelmed. However, I can assure you it’s just shock and the anxiety of feeling like a freshman even though I’m not. I forgot what it feels like to be the new kid in school and I was quickly reminded Monday morning. I hide out in the library, catching up on emails and being generally shy and mousy.

I only have one class on Monday (and Wednesday and Friday), thank Goodness since I have three Tuesday and Thursday, and it was history and I was reminded of high school. I don’t like to be reminded of high school, at all. The professor has written two books on Japanese history and is a very knowledgable, insightful person so that makes the class much more palatable for me. It’s dealing specifically with Japanese history after World War II to present day, and that is just my cup of tea. Prior to school, I had a run in with an ATM that was completely in Japanese. I couldn’t understand why it refused to give me my money until my host mother explained I was trying to take out 80,000 Yen (that’s a little less than 800 USD) and you can only take out 10,000 Yen. As if I needed 80,000 Yen…

Got my alien registration card so I don’t get scruffled up by the police and whatnot, but mainly so I could aquire the new love of my life, my softbank prepaid keitai (cell phone)

Cutest little phone ever. I still need to decorate it though!

Lucky me, one of Hayleigh’s friends who is a native of Tokyo took us to Roppongi to get our keitais. This is when I learned how evil Roppongi is. Think of New York’s Time Square with a dash of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile thrown in the middle of Tokyo. That is Roppongi. There is a reason it is called the gaijin ghetto…because it is. Every comfort from home (ie the States) you are missing, is right in Ropponigi. It’s overwhelming and loud in a way that other parts of the city aren’t. Especially living in a small suburb in Saitama, I’m just not used to that madness. Neither are my pockets. Anyways, SoftBank somehow had puureepaido’s out of stock so we were directed to the wonderous store that is Donkey Hotei Don Quixote.

If you are familar with Brandsmart USA, that is exactly what Donkey Hotei Don Quixote is, but thoroughly Japanese. We had to wait about an hour, but we left with our phones. All in all, it cost me about 76 USD for a 3G phone and 30,000 YEN worth of talk time (which I’ve since discovered is about 30 minutes of talk time. Oy). Oh, I also get free calls and messaging to other SoftBank users and unlimited mail to everyone else for 300 YEN a month. Japan is FULL of win.

Today, however, was frustrating. Someone got hit by the train on the Chiyoda line which is the line I take to get home. I left school at 3:30, got to the metro at 3:45 and got home to Koshigaya, around ten minutes to seven. I also got lost once, had to pay for another ticket after my first ticket was voided from the train accident. And I really do hope that person is okay. I tried checking the news but I couldn’t find very much on what exactly happened. My frustration didn’t stem from the accident but I was more upset about getting lost than anything. I hate getting lost. When I get lost, I feel as though I’m not grasping life here well enough and it makes just want to pack my things and go home.

But then my host mom and sisters show up and we go to a tutoring session together and I meet the funniest Japanese man ever, who cracks some jokes with me and makes me feel welcomed even though I stumble and fumble over my Japanese. And we have conveyor belt sushi and I eat until I burst and the girls beg to go to the conbini for some aisu, which I decline as usual, but opt for some chocolate and marvel at how expensive it is here. I walk in my room and my laundry is washed and folded to perfection as if my clothing were origami. I toss my futon out and read over my first few assignments with heavy eyelids.

And in the midst of my fustrations, I remember everyday I am here is an adventure, a challenge I’m trying to take on fearlessly, and I am comforted by the fact that even when I feel like I didn’t pass a test or if I’m being to hard on myself, I have a home to come to and people who are happy to see me and they’ve only known me for less than a week. That’s what makes this worth it.

Oh, Tokyo!

Koyuuki the Akita Inu, taken by Mii-chan

My host parents

My host sister, Mii-chan

Koyuuki, our puppy Akita

A little doggy rabu rabu

Today, I went to Dog Park Satte with my host family and their puppy, Koyuuki. Before hand, my host mother taught me how to take the bus to the Kita-Koshigaya eki (you pay after you arrive at your destination!), then she brought to my attention a clothing shop called Marche, the 100 YEN shop where I bought a laptop case for 525 yen or approximately 4.83 USD, a bento box for my lunches, some girly stuff, and a pencil case for 1,050 yen total. I’m in rabu (love).

Also at Marche, I found these very nifty diy ear piercing kits that cost about 1000 yen each but then I found a magentic earring converter for non pierced ears for 100 yen.

I met another homestay student in my area and we marveled over the immense amount of kawaii all over the place. Then our respective host sisters coaxed us into doing purikura which is stupid amounts of fun as it is an interactive photobooth that you can decorate with all sorts of art and what not.The girls went wild, and I had a lot of fun too.

Tomorrow is my first day of classes. Oy.

And so it begins…