My days are become less filled with awesome things, and more waiting at the bus stop, paying for things in yen, hanging out with some friends....and lets just face the fact that I'm still me and get sad about stupid things like my own procrastination and pessimistic nature.

Not sure - I think these are trash collectors.
I thought it was interesting that there was a line of them
headed somewhere down the road.
Sure did stick out on a grey, rainy day.

People take the rain seriously here.

A majority of my time is spent at classes, hanging out with people, and really forgetting so many things it makes me question my own sanity. Really, how can I forget peoples' names so fast? How do I get lost after being shown the way somewhere, or forget about how much yen to dollar exchange rate is when making purchases? Or even forgetting words I used constantly last year like 経験(experience), or how to construct simple sentences, or understand what people are saying to me. I get to hang out with interesting people like Natsumi, but it's so difficult to talk with her, and others, we both tend to fall into awkward silence.

This is Natsumi

Luckily, I'm still pushing forward, and I've actually heard similar complaints from others, including the infamous "I don't know Kanji!" or  "Damnit, what was that word..." or "単語…”. As for giving it my best, as I constantly get told by everyone (gambare/gambatte 頑張れ・頑張って - it's a common saying), I went out this weekend despite my wishes to mope inside and pretend to study hard all weekend.

On Saturday I went to the sports festival, in which the majority of the time was spent freezing my ass off with everyone else. In fact, my neighbor Tim (also an exchange student) caught a cold from the cold. Something like eighty Japanese and exchange students were outside for four to five hours with a lunch break at 12:30/1pm. I did not surprise myself in being absolutely horrible at what I tried to do.

Sometimes the sun came out,
but it was cold the entire time.

First was the multi-legged race.

As you can see, their feet are tied together.

Another event was a dizzy relay.

This would have been me if I had participated.

I have no explanation for this.

Unfortunately I participated in this.

When you got tagged 'out' you went
to the sidelines.

You could catch the out of
bounds balls and try to tag people on the other
team to get back in. I didn't get back in.

Some cool people I met.

More cool people.

There was also multiple person jump rope. 

It was slightly unsuccessful due to lack of some people's (me) coordination.
Also, Look at that girl's sweatshirt! I wonder if she knows that it says "HATE".

There was also a regular baton relay.

And folk dancing, which broke down quickly,
some people just did the macarena.

On Sunday I went to a Buddhist meeting, at which I fell asleep. They were all very nice, and I'm betting it was actually interesting, but it was very, very difficult for me to try to translate everything. I have my good and bad days with understanding what people are saying in Japanese, and that was not a good day. I got to learn more about Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism, and the prayer of "nam myo-ho renge kyo" which means something to the effect of "I give my life to the mysterious law of cause-and-effect". Apparently, in Asian Buddhism, it is more common to talk about physical health as well as spiritual, which my friend Hideko (she's from India, as mentioned before) was unfamiliar with. 

The praying (which I tried out) is just repeating that phrase over and over, in a rhythmic tone, and nothing else, for about ten minutes, twice a day. For the time I have done it, it was extremely relaxing, and helped me clear my mind. I recommend it, even though I'll have to see how well it works over the next few weeks to really tell you what it's like.

On the way there we saw several interesting signs.

Like this: a barber shop,
not a butcher shop.

We ate ramen after.
It was quite good.

This is something quite close to the house where we had
the Buddhist meeting.

This is Hideko insisting that we had to visit the shrine-like
place sometime.

Neat neighborhood view from the walk. We didn't walk
the whole way; there was also a 30 minute bus ride.

And then, Monday, back to classes. Though, I did have fun hanging out with friends. I walked in on a conversation that was based around Gary teaching a couple of Japanese students dirty sayings in English. This is the point at which I realized I get a ton of my humor from my brother; I couldn't stop laughing. 

I love the faces people were making.

Tiffany and Ayako

Especially this one that Ryan is giving me.
I forget what he was explaining, but it certainly warranted
the face for me taking a picture of the conversation. 

Both me and Alex are apparently prone to forgetfulness, etc.

So, again, I can't believe it's already been another week. Unfortunately, this one hasn't been as eventful as the first. I forgot to mention before, but I basically caused an accident. A motorist crashed in front of me because I got to close to the crosswalk. He's fine. In fact, I know it was me because he tracked me down and asked if i was OK and gave me a lecture about watching lights and being careful (all in Japanese, of course, so I only caught the gist of it).

At Takoyaki Party

Okonomiyaki Party (spontaneous gathering)

I also forgot to mention that, occasionally, Okaa-san's daughter's dog, Maru-chan, has been staying with us. He has been very fun to have around but is kind of loud.

Maru-chan

However, after the Kyoto Tour, I ended up having some sort of sprain or problem with my right foot, and started limping around because it hurt so damn much. Then, spent wasted good money on a trip to the local clinic, which was labeled as a surgery clinic (kind of creepy). A CIE staff member escorted me, and another exchange student from Australia, to and from the clinic and pharmacy (where I picked up some pain patches for my foot). Hopefully after going for Alien Registration with my Okaa-san and also signing up for Japanese National Insurance, I'll get some money back.

Patch on my foot. Doesn't even cover my toe.

Alien Registration, by the way, is something that you have to get while living temporarily in Japan. Japanese National Insurance is a government sponsored insurance that costs something like 2200 yen a month and covers 70% of all hospital costs. Hospitals here don't accept foreign insurance, so that's where my problem came in. I had to pay in cash, which I was able to. Luckily it was only around 5000 yen.

I still don't know what this sponge is for.

Other misadventures include getting horribly, horribly lost to and from my home-stay home. My Okaa-san probably thinks I am incapable of traveling by myself. I finally figured out on Friday, thanks to a kind old Japanese lady, that I had been waiting at the wrong bus stop the last four days. Wednesday I had taken the wrong bus, and walked around from wherever I disembarked in Hirakata for about 1.5 hours before I asked a young construction worker where Kansai Gai Dai was. I was pretty much in tears at that point, as I had been the day or so before when I got lost on my way home and was literally a block away from my house. In the dark, with back pain from too many books, and foot pain from the injury and taking a ridiculous round about way home (something like 1.5 hours instead of 30 minutes), I just couldn't figure out which street had my house, and what it had looked like. I got home at something like 8 pm from my class that ended at 6:10 pm.

This is the front entrance to my homestay house.

I would take the bus, save for the fact that it's 220 yen one way, 440 two ways, and adds up to 2200 yen a week if I'm just going straight home from school. Luckily, today I met another exchange student who lives very, very close by. He goes to school in Boston and also only has one Okaa-san for his host family. He rides his bike every day and so we will ride together on Monday. We might even have the same class. I'm honestly quite afraid of going riding without a helmet, but I pretty sure the bike shops here don't have any. I'll make it a point to stop by the one across from the main gate and check, but I've been indecisive about it because it would increase the number of Japanese who already stare at me (for whatever reason....).

The three things circled on this bus map are:
Kansai Gai Dai, Hirakata Station, and Shodaiguchi;
the bus stop next to my house 

As far as classes go, I'm taking Speaking Japanese 4, Reading and Writing Japanese 4 (if I pass the test on Monday), Monsters, Ghosts, and the Making of Modern Japan, Sumi-e, and Visual Anthropology. For the last one, we had to take pictures of each other as an introductory portrait assignment. I got paired with Tiffany, who I met last week when a bunch of exchange students decided to spontaneously go to a close-by Okinamiyaki shop.

Tiffany Chu
(She actually has a chinese name but,
 it's hard for me to pronounce)

In Monsters, Ghosts, and the Making of Modern Japan, my first lecture was very interesting, and I got to learn about monsters like Azuki Arai (red bean washer), Yuurei (ghosts), Tsukumogami (old, mistreated household objects that come to life, Oni (demons), and Tanuki (raccoon dog tricksters with giant scrotums). We discussed the transformation from Mononoke, literally a strange thing, or happening, to Youkai, literally an alluring, strange thing, or better translated, something that is a solid, tangible strange thing like a ghost or monster.

How do you tell if a person is really a person and not a Tanuki in disguise? Other than realizing that the carpet you are sitting on in his home is actually his furry scrotum stretched over the floor, you can challenge them to a wrestling match. If you can pick them up and throw them across the room easily, it's still a Tanuki, because they still weigh the same as a small animal even in disguise.

Tanuki statue next to our front door.

In Sumi-e we started working on brush strokes, and had to turn in a doodle-like painting for her to 'grade' at the end of the third class this week. Sumi is ink, and 'e' (pronounced like the e in cafe) is picture.

Sumi-e studio at school.

On Tuesday I, along with several of my foreign exchange students, went to a takoyaki party at my friend Sae's apartment. It was so small that Sae was cooking on the floor while we were all tightly crowded around her living room table. Since we were all pretty hungry, and had gone shopping with Sae for the ingredients, we had screw drivers and straight sake before we ate, which, for us lightweights did us in pretty quickly. The takoyaki was delicious none the less. Apparently, the machine here is only about 1000 yen, and can be used to cook balls of things, like takoyaki, or pancake balls. I am thinking of buying one.

I don't know everyone's name, but from the right, that's
Sara, Keifer, Betsy (goes to WSU), and Gary.

Takoyaki ♥

Sae mixing on the floor

Sae's friend cutting green onion

The next day, after I got horribly, horribly lost, and missed my two morning classes, I was approached by 4 second year students who ended up barely being able to speak or understand English. They asked if I was free to talk, and so I went to coffee with them. It was a very fun experience.

Maiya, Haruna, Natsumi, and Ayumi.

I unfortunately missed my appointment to meet with Hideko in between classes in all the confusion of Wednesday, but luckily ran into her yesterday. We had lunch, then she came with me around to the convenience store (I keep wanting to use Japanese words, like conbini) and campus book shop. Because the books there were so expensive, we decided to take a train down to Hirakata Station from the closer Gotenyama, as I was trying to stay off of my foot as much as possible.

Hideko at lunch

Curry Udon, green tea, water, and green tea ice cream

Hirakata Station

Hideko

Hirakata Station has a kind of shopping center built around it, and has a large bookstore next to it, complete with Starbucks. So we went there and looked around for a few hours. There's also a craft store right above it, so after failing at finding a cheaper Kanji and pocket dictionary,which were 2600 and 1600 yen respectively at the campus book store, I went up and bought a Hanko stone, a stamp used in Sumi-e as a signature, for my class to carve, as getting them carved for you is immensely cheap. Our teacher offered us the use of her carving tools.

Wool felted things at ABC crafts next to their supplies

Very interesting looking manga

Kyari Pamyupamyu is an interesting representation of
Japanese Pop Culture

Picture of Hideko with a manga her and her mom like.

I also bought a brush pen, because I love them, but the ones I buy usually wear out very quickly. However, it was quite a pleasant surprise when I found out the pen I bought for less than 200 yen, actually had hairs to make up a brush tip. I stayed up very late having fun drawing with it.

 

After shopping after school with Hideko, I got so engrossed in talking with Okaa-san about sumi-e and the fact that she had just given me what looked like professional copies of ukiyo-e prints. and other things that I forgot to shower. I kind of wish I had, as most of the Japanese have no central heating, and conserve the use of their room heaters in the winter, so hot showers are nice. I also wish it were a bath, but unfortunately her bathtube broke before I came. :(

Small but delicious! 

OMG SO DELICOUS
I now understand why people like strawberries.
And fruit. Why is fruit not sweet in the US?

Today was fun, even though I woke up late. Okaa-san showed me some of her origami, and I tried riding the bike around a bit. I also met my neighbor, Tim,  who is also an exchange student and, thanks to Alex (my brother) helping me last semester with network problems, for something like 4 hours, I was able to help him get his wireless on his laptop. I'm sure it will only get better.