Welcome to this page full of text that describes my adventures in the land of nintendo, aka Japan. I'll be going to Sapporo, which is in Hokkaido, Japan. I'm doing an exchange there, so I will be staying with the Tamaki family. After staying there for a month (June 23 - July 21, 2004), I will be returning with Hiro Tamaki. But anyways, this will be a page full of stuff that I do.

Well, I'm all packed up and ready to go on my trip! I've got two suitcases, a very heavy backpack (loaded with japanese books / programming books / books / magazines / lots of food), and my laptop case. Plenty of electronics too. Be sure to send me an e-mail! I will still check my normal e-mails, but not as much as this new one: danjapan at pagemac dot com I'm off to bed for a few hours... gotta get up at 4am, so it's not for THAT long! I'll probably post again before I leave. 0 comments

Ah, it's 4am and I feel great! EXCEPT NOT!! It's too early... bleh.... anyways I'm leaving for the airport now... won't see this place for quite a while.... let teh trip begin! 0 comments

Well, I finally get the oppertunity to post this! It's 2 days old. I will post another when I get the chance. JAPAN ROCKS!!! ------- 6/25, 9am: Well, here I am in Sapporo, Japan. After a tripp that took like, forever (I lost Thursday in there somewhere... I left on Wednesday and woke up andt's Friday.) So anyways, let's go over my little adventure... I woke up at 4am on Wednesday after a nice 2 hour nap. Went to the airport, waited for like 2 hours, then left fo Atlanta. That was no big deal, I've been to Atlanta dozens of times. Slept most of the way. So I got off in terminal A and got to ride the whooooole tram to te interntional terminal E. Got on the plane and I was off... after a nice saftey video presented in English, Japanese, Spanish, Frensh, and Korean (??), we were off. Boy did that planeride take forever! Fortunately, you get a little TV screen and remote with a choice of 8 channels. They had two 3 hour tapes, so they replayed them a few times but since there were multiple channels it worked out. I watched 5 movies... Welcome to Mooseport, Cheaper by the Dozen (twice), 50 first dates, and Along came Polly. Plus a few Disney shows that aired. (and some crappy british/canadian shows, which SUCKED btw) So with the movies it really wasn't that bad. One of the channels was also a live GPS that showed you where you were, how fast you were ging and everything, so that was pretty neat. We flew up across the US, through Canada, over Alaska and down to Japan. I arrived at the Narita International Airport, and it was pretty nice. I was led right to Immigration (by a bunch of cute Japanese ladies, of course), where they just looked at my passport and let me through. After tha I got my luggage and went through customs, where all he asked was to see my passport and how long I was staying, then let me through. I got into the main airport which was mega crowded (and wth 2 suitcases it was kinda difficult to get around), but I asked at the help desk where to get a us ticket, then purchased one very easily at the counter... Only 3000 yen! Now the bus was very nice. They had people who ran up to look at my ticket, took my luggage and let me on. It was a nice coach bus Not only was the Friendly Airport Limousine fast, efficient, and very nice, but they had a cute girl who always got on after the stop and said "Arigatou gozaiumasu!" and bowed at every stop. How nice! Oh yeah and you're not allowed to use a cellphone because it might annoy your neighbor... And then they had Nokia ads on every seat.... Ha.. The trip through Tokyo was pretty cool, and took about an hour and a half. I took a few pictures. (ya know Japanese people at Disney who take pictures of everything and stuff? Yeah that was me...) It was cool... Although I couldn't read anything on signs o buildings, I saw some that I recognized... Toyota, IBM, Mitsubishi.. Anyways I eventually got to the Haneda airport. So I walk what I assume is the correct door, and everythin is in Japanese. All this signs, announcer, etc, so I had no idea if I was in the right place. Luckily they all speak Engish. I walked up to what looked like a checkin and she pointed me to where I needed to go to get a boarding pass. After that I ent to check my luggage. Might I add that they were very fast and efficient.. Wtf is wrong with our airports in the US? From there I moved on to the security check (which doesn't have a line, btw) and they thanked me for doing so. Everyone always said arigatou gozaimasu after everything... I give them my heavy lugga to hoist up, arigatou gozaimasu. I give them all my stuff to be scanned, arigatou gozaimasu. They give the stuff back to me, arigatou gozaimasu. From there I went to the gate, or actually the loading area. It's basically a big room filed with chairs, in the front is about 10-15 busses, in the back is food. You get on a bus and they drive you to the plane. So anyways I waited there fo about half an hour. I tried to use the payphone but I couldn't figure out how the heck to use it, because whatever I dialed someone babbled on with some gibberish, so I gave up. Then I tried to get on the internet, but the "BigBird" network was passworded. All that was left was for me to play solitaire and listen to the propaganda TV, which was tricking me to buy stuff. By the way, everyone here really does have gadgets... Mosly fancy little flip phones that are way cooler than the ones we have here (I was looking at Hiro's phone and it's pretty whicked.) So finally people start walking to the gate I had to leave from, and I walked through and got on the bus that they cram people into. The bus got to the plane, and everyone hurries to get on. Surprisingly this was very efficient. Everyone got on the plane quickly and there were no holdups which we experience on like every plane in America. Now Japan Airlines is some nice stuff. They have nice soothing music in the background, cute stewardesses who offer you everythng from newspapers to comfy blankets (not those cheap things from Delta). And they are all very nice too. At this point I was extremely tired. I had only slept for 2 hours in the past 24. I couldn't help passing out. I really don't remember anything because thought I closed my eyes for a second and all of the sudden there was 7 minutes left in the flight! But it was definitely the best flight ever... I wish our airlines were like that. They even had a camera in the front of the plane so you could watch takeoff and landing! So after that I got off and went to baggage claim (which is also fast...), got my bags and walked out to meet the Tamaki family. We took some pictures and walked out to the car. Now I understood some of what they said, but the father and Hiro both speak a little english. I basically said whatever I could in Japanese, although there was still a lot English. Ha, it's funny, their cars are backwards and they drive on the other side of the road. From there was a 30 minute drive home. We stopped at a sushi restaurant but they were full (I said "konbanwa" to the hostess, it was funny). So from tthere we made aa quick stop at the house to drop my stuff off, then went to another restaurant. It seemed like a regular Japanese restaurant. Fortunatly the menu had pictures because I couldn't read word. I ordered some shrimp tempura, which was super-good. I also hd some squid tempura which was pretty good too. I tried some other stuff that I don't remember the name to, but there was nothing that I really didn't like. It was cool! After that we went home and I got the tour. Everything is pretty small (including the doors.... Ow) but still cool. They have 3 apples... Go figure. The shower was traditional Japanese style, but it wasn't bad - kinda cool actually. Oh and you know what puts them so far ahead of us? Remote controlled toilet. Yeah baby. That's what I'm talking about. As for the TV, it has some all-Japanese station, some channels which you can change the audio to either English or Japanese, and some English channels with Japanese subtitles. Sleep came quickly for me that night. I woke up at about 7:50, for some reason. Went downstairs with Hiro and to my surprise, they were eating Frosted Flakes. Best breatfast ever. I also had some toast with honey, which was also pretty good. So, Hiro left for school, his sister left for school, the dad had already left for work, and that left me and okasan (mom). She does not speak much english at all, but e managd to have a little converstion Anyways, I guess I have the day until Hiro gets home. I think I'm going to study a little Japanese! Love, Azure ---- This was from friday, and now it's sunday. I will post more! I Miss you all! 6 comments

Okay, so I know it's tueday and all, so let's start where I left off on Friday. After my frosted flakes, I spent some time writing that last entry. After that, one of the mom's friends came over. She was really nice but also didn't speak that much english. We drove to an italian restaurant, which was surprisingly similar to italian restaurants here... I had some spaghetti with tomato sauce and some pizza... it was pretty goood. So after that we drove to the Hokkaido Jingu (Hokkaido temple). That was some cool stuff. I took a bunch of pictures there. Like, before you go in, you have to drink this water and "clean" yourself... lol. There was also a sumo arena there... too bad they weren't fighting at the time. :/ Anyways, so we went home after that. The mom and I went out after that. First we went to the bank. I wanted to get some change for my 10,000 yen bill (like $100), so she showed me this cool change machine... you stick the bills in this slot, it counts it up, then you select what kind of change you want. It was neat. So then she had to use the ATM. While I was waiting, I decided I wanted a few coins from my 1000 yen bill. So I went over by myself to the machine, stuck it in, and pressed the 500 yen button once and the 100 yen button 5 times. As it turns out, I didn't push the right button. It spit out a bunch of roles of 1 yen coins. Wee. So here I am , standing in a bank in Japan, holding like 15 roles of coins. How funny. The mom came over and we started laughing. heh, fortunatly we were able to exchange them. So we also went to a supermarket and some other places, but nothing that interesting happened there... After Hiro got home from school at about 5, we played a few video games on his PS1. And to my surprise, he also had Unreal for his mac!! Sure it was slow to load and ran at like 10 fps... but it was Unreal! woo!! When we go back to Florida I'll have to show him how it's really meant to be played... some coop too, and then of course, UT. Okay so saturday was the day I had the most fun. Hiro and I rode bikes around the Sapporo area. It was very cool. I saw his school and all. Oh, and I also had Pepsi! Wooo! There are vending machines everywhere here, and the drinks are pretty cheap... haha but the pepsi comes in 500ml cans instead of the crappy 12oz. It was sooo good. We also went to a "soft cream" store. It's basically i ce cream... it was also good stuff. After that we went to an arcade. And of course, it was super crazy. I sucked at this throwing game, and this basketball game, but then I beat him at air hockey and a driving game. Wee. So then we went home, and Hiro's friend was there, Masohiro. Maso is pretty cool. He speaks a very good amount of english. We played some Unreal for a bit, then headed for the subway. From the subway we went to oddorii, which is like the downtown area. We walked around a bit and went to an awesome store called Yadobashi Camera. This store owned. It's like best buy, except 100x crazier and 100x cooler. It was great, and HUGE. They had like every peice of technology equipment you could think of... and free wireless. So then we went to another italian restaurant, lol. I had some more Pizza and some other stuff that I don't remember. It was also very good. Following that we went to a mall-type thingy. heh, it was called "Stelller Place Center". Nice name. Their little catch phrase was "eat up the sunshine"... heh, sometimes the english on signs like that are funny. We looked around for a bit, then went to the top floor where the movie theater was. Movie tickets are really expensive here! For a student (lol they accepted my student ID... I don't think the lady at the counter even knew what it was) it costs like 1500 yen... that's like $12! Then for an adult it's 2000 yen.... super expensive. Anyways, we saw The Day After Tommorow... it was in English with Japanese subtitles. Oh and they also have assigned seats in the theater.. kinda weird but I suppose it helps when the movies are really crowded. So that's about it for saturday. Letsee, on sunday we had a rotary thingy for all the students that are leaving on the exchange. I had to make a short speech in Japanese, but I think I did ok. Ha, there was also an engllish lesson for the kids.. I helped teach them. I tought them slang like "Yeah" and other such bad english. So far I actually haven't met any other americans here... only canadians and australians. Hmm... oh well. After that we headed to like a party or whatever which was for my arrival... It was at like 4:30, but I guess it was considered lunch. Everyone was really nice there (and there were a few pretty girls too, lol). Then after that we took a cab to the downtown area, where we walked around a bit... it was pretty cool. We met the father's younger brother and his family, then to my surprise, went to dinner! Gah, we had like just eaten too... since I usually don't eat much at home I wasn't hungry at all, but I ate a few things... the restaurant had wifi so I surfed the net a bit. Tuesday (yesturday) was like, the real rotary meeting. I had to make my speech again, but afterwords they gave me an envelope with money... 10,000 yen!! That's like $100... well it was cool! After th e rotary meeting we (the dad mom and I, Hiro had school) stopped by starbucks for a bit, then the dad and I went to Bic Camera, another awesome computer store. He bought a router for his network setup (he only had a modem and a hub, and that of course won't work for more than one computer). He had to go back to work, but he let me stay... I wandered around for an hour and it was sooo sweet. Their laptops are incredible... this one was like the size of a PDA, but it was a full-scale computer! Another one had a built-in 3D screen... it was like those 3d movies, except WITHOUT glasses! It was whicked sick. I looked over some of the games too, and they had Unreal 2... lol it was 7500 yen! That's like $70! So then, all by myself, I manage to get out of the store, find the subway, buy a ticket, change trains and get all the way home... haha I was proud of myself. The other day when I was on the subway, something happened to my ticket so when I tried to get out, it kept rejecting it and wouldn't let me through... fortunatly that didn't happen when I was by myself. So that about covers it so far.. last night was cool because everyone was just talking and I was actually participating.. like Hiro making fun of his sister, lol, and who is the best at english... it was fun. Anyways, tommorow I'm going to the middle of Hokkaido, where it's su pposed to be very pretty. So I probably won't be able to post or do e-mail for a few more e-mails. Ja ne! P.S - Speedy, lol AIM express crashed or something (I dunno it disappeared and a box came up, and it's in Japanese so I can't ready it), and I just didn't feel like getting back on, soooo yeah.... 18 comments

The title of this article says "Daniel is cool", btw... a little Japanese script for ya. Anyways, I've been having fun. On Wednesday we were going to go drive around the Hokkaido area and see all of the beautiful island, but the weather was pretty rainy that day, so we instead decided to go to the nearby port town of Otaru. We walked around the mall there for a bit, then went to the aquarium. The father wanted to show me some of the fish that he catches (he is big into fishing). lol it was just your basic aquarium, except hundreds of school kids aged from like 5-12 were running around everwhere on field trips. Then we went to lunch at this old Japanese house. They had some great tempura there, totemo oishii! After we ate we walked around the old house. It was so cool... all the old-style Japanese stuff and all. I took a bunch of pictures of it (which I probably won't be able to upload until I get home). following that we walked around the Otaru area, where they have a lot of glass stuff and seafood. It was pretty cool. So then yesturday was kinda a day on my own. Hiro, Satoko and Ikue all went to school, the father went to work, and the mother went out. What do I do when I have free time and a city in Japan in my hands? Go to a technology shop, of course! So I headed out on my own and made it Yadobashi Camera... yes subway trasnfers and all (I be good). There I spent a good 3 hours just kinda looking at stuff. I was looking at laptops mostly because my stupid laptop here broke on the way over... that's right, the blasted screen cracked somehow while I was on the plane, rendering it almost useless. Argh. But it would be cool to bring back a Japanese laptop. Still, they aren't that much cheaper... actually they are the same, just different brandnames... no HP's, Compaqs, Dells or Gateways... instead it's Sony, Panasonic, NEC, and other such brandnames... but they are still good laptops. I also checked out some of the programming books.... wooo, C++ Japan style! Too bad I can't read it. So then I was hungry and they had a McDonalds inside the store, so I settled for that. I somehow manage to order two cheesburgers and a coke. McDonalds is good by the way ( dunno if I already mentioned it, but if I did you get to hear about it again). The burgers are basically the same size and taste the same, as far as I can tell... don't know what they're made, of, don't really care as long as they taste good. The french fries are a little different, but not in a bad way, just different. The drinks are of course smaller, whereas their largest size is smaller than our medium size back at home... kinda sucks but they have vending machines everywhere so I was fine. So anyways I came to the digital music area, where they have tons of MP3 players and MD players. MiniDiscs are very popular here, not at all like in the US. Flash=based MP3 players are also quite popular, they have a very wide variety. They have iPods (but not iPod minis yet), although they are a bit more expensive. So anyways I found these really cool headphones. They hook onto your ear nicely and have great sound (even bass). But the coolest thing is the wires zip back into the headphones... haha, finally I don't have to worry about the stupid cord being tangled up! I'm guessing we'll be seeing these in America in a year or so, as they are very popular here... I see a lot of people wearing them around. So, I think that's about it. Tonight I am going to Satoko's school festival, so that should be pretty fun. I'm supposed to meet up with an australian exchange student who has been here for 5 months now (damnit, what's up with all the canadians and australians, don't americans come here too??) see ya 8 comments

Yes so I actually didn't go to Satoko's festival... I went to the oppening night of a festival, but I don't know whos... I think it was for this other exchange student that was in it. Anyways it was just singing for the opening night, and of course I can't understand that part but I suppose it was still pretty good music. Letsee, on Saturday Hiro and I went out. We dropped by the mall first to get some lunch (we rode to downtown by bike, and that's a good 30 minutes... I wish we'd take the subway more often lol... but I suppose I need the exercise). There was a mall-wide sale going on so it was pretty crowded. Actually it was a lot like a regular American mall, since it's a lot of US stuff... right down to the surf shop... why they have that I dunno since the nearest ocean is like 30 minutes away and there aren't any surfable waves, ha... but yeah we went to a Katsu restaurant, which is basically breaded pork.... it's good stuff (chicken is better though). And of course lots of gohan (rice). I love that gohan... they eat it all the time too, which is great... yeah so mom, how about having rice every dinner? Why don't we do that? Anyways after that we rode around downtown in search of an entertainment complex... after crusing around the same block a few times we finally asked a police officer who pointed us in the right direction... and damn are those places cool. We're talking 8 stories of entertainment. That's 3 huge floors of video games, 2 for bowling, 1 for karaoke and another for an internet cafe. I could live there. Unfortunatly, according to Japanese law, it's illegal to play games for money or prizes, so no goody prize counters. But the games are still fun. Hiro and I played soccer a few times, and of couse I suck at it... we also played street fighter, and again I suck... (damnit we need some UT action). Still fun. But the coke is more expensive inside, it's 150 yen for 300mL (where it's 120 yen for 500mL on the street). Although I tell you, I love having a vending machine everywhere... I mean the instant you think you're starting to get thirsty, there's a vending machine right there. Woooo.... I want to have a vending machine within 15 seconds walking distance from my house. Yeah so we bowled for 3 rounds... We each got like 2 strikes but we also suck at bowling... I think one game I bowled a 47... But I'm getting better. We played the next day and I got like 104... still kinda sucky but hey I don't bowl that often. It was cosmic bowling too, which made it a lot more fun... (cosmic bowling at 4pm?! who'da thought!) Yes so after that we over to the TV tower, which is directly in the middle of Sapporo and stands 150 meters tall. Yeah so it's a complete and utter tourist trap, but it was a nice view... I got a little coin that has the TV tower on it and I engraved "Daniel and Hiro In Japan" on it, so it's a pretty cool souviener. The next day I slept in, and when Hiro got home from his practice we were dropped off at that school festival, which was in full motion that day. It was prety cool. Basically in a gakkousai (school festival - sp?) each class does something to earn money... sell drinks, serve ramen, even a casio... and yes being surrounded by a bunch of Japanese school girls does own. Unfortunatly, neither Hiro or I knew anybody there, so it wasn't as fun. We only briefly saw Sana, a girl from the rotary, but she had to go. So with nobody there, we left within like 30 minutes and headed for the bowling ally again. That night we drove up the mountain that's overlooking Sapporo. It's a great view. I got quite a few good pictures before the stupid battery died. There was a cool gift shop that reminded me I gotta get stuff for everybody back at home. But I didn't get anything. After that we went to a bar-b-q restaurant which was good... yes there was a little stove on the table (which was so low I litterally could not fit in it, I had to stretch my feet out into the aisle) and they brought you raw meat you get to cook.... it was good stuff. And of course a nice big bowl of rice! So then today was Monday, and Hiro was off to school... yay sleep in. I didn't do much during the day... basically just stayed in my room and studied some Japanese, read some books, etc. Not too bad. Oh and I found a tiny hotspot in this one corner of the house... yay well at least I can type an e-mail on my PDA from my bed then walk over to the corner and send it... their neighbors must have WiFi or something. So once Hiro got home we took a bikeride to downtown for his weekly English lesson. This time I just waited outside while he did the funny listening exercises... had a nice chat with the registration lady, though. And I had a nice refreshing coke. So when we came home we had gyoza for dinner... oooooh soo good... of course I still am working on my chopstick skills so I would sometimes drop them but it's good. They are basically like... uuuh.... I dunno... kinda like big tortilini with pork inside? I dunno but its good. ha, fun times with the family too... Apparently last night when we went to dinner at the mountain, Satoko had a date... so at dinner I was like "so Satoko.... datto wa do datta?" (how was the date?) and everyone started laughing.... hahahaha it was great. Then I said "ja, kare wa kakkoi datta?" (Was he handsome?) and she was like "no commento"... lol it was funny. Later Hiro, Ikue and I ended up playing monkey in the middle... and I went to get the ball behind the couch and got stuck upside down... yeah so we were crazy but it was fun. Anyways I'm gonna take a shower then go off to bed! 3 comments

Well I know it's been a while since I posted stuff about Japan, but hey, I've been pretty busy lately. By the way, the title of this is the interesting message that appears when you turn on the Tamaki's car... why it does this nobody knows, and probably never will... it's a great mystery... Anyways, starting all the way back with last Tuesday... a whole week ago. This was one of the fathers days off, so we got in the car and driving around southern Hokkaido, which is very pretty. It's not too far, only about an hour away. Funny thing about the roads in the Hokkaido countryside... on the side of the road there are poles with arrow signs pointing to the ground about every 20 meters or so... I wondered, why are those there? Some kind of gas line under the road or something? Turns out it's for snow... when it snows so much here you don't know where the edge of the road is so you have to use those signs. Anyways the first place we stopped at was lake Shigotsu. (sp?) It was kind of foggy so you could see much but it actually created a cool effect on the water. Got a few pictures of that... and a coke. Following that we drove down to another lake, the name I forget. Anyways these descriptions don't serve much use without pictures do they? Yes we also went and saw a mountain in this cool little town but I don't have means of uploading pictures right now so I'll just skip down a bit. Yes. So. The good part. You know what Japan is somewhat popular for? The natural hotsprings. Those are some nice things. My host father and I went into one and I tell you, you haven't truely been relaxed until you've been to a hotspring like that. They've got tons of pools of varying temperatures (not swimming pools... you soak in them like a hot top) ranging from pipin' hot to cool. Once you get over all the naked old men, it's very nice. And no I don't have pictures of that... they have signs that say no cameras, heh... wouldn't you get a little weirded out if someone walked in with a camera? The next day, both of my host parents and myself drove to central Hokkaido, where it's very pretty... a great country side, and lots of flower field. Got quite a few good pictures of that! We stopped off at a restaurant called "Gosh" (funny name but oh well) and I had a BLT. At another flower place we went to, there was all these Taiwanese people... I couldn't really tell the difference as far as looks, but definatly in the language. Japanese is very pronounced and jagged, where every sylable is clearly spoken (unlike English/Spanish/French and other western languages)... and Taiwanese is kinda... I dunno weird, like hoing boing zoing crazy stuff... anyways my host parents were like "It's like we're in Taiwan".... Hokkaido is apparently a very popular tourist location for Taiwanese. Oh yeah and they had some good soft cream too... Have I talked about soft cream? I think I have... it's basically frozen yogurt, like at an ice cream shop, but a little softer and a little sweeter. Very awesome. They have it everywhere here.... EVERYWHERE. Yeah so this flower place we went to had some purple soft cream and it was good. Anyways, there's not much else I can say about Furano (central Hokkaido area) without pictures... except that, oh yeah, my stupid iPod mini broke... it's all staticy and distorted. I checked around the internet and apparently it's a manufacturing fault... so when I get back to the states I'll have to exchange it... although probably for a regular iPod, I don't want to have to deal with this problem again. That leaves me with no music for the plane ride home... argh... So then, beyond that, stuff at home is quite fun... generally everyone stays up to about midnight... and I'm almost always the first one to go to sleep (but also the last one to wake up at 9am, heh). Hiro and I have fun, be it running around town or playing soccer in the park... at home we play on his PlayStation, but of course he kills me at everything. We also sometimes play darts and batmitten (sp?)... fun fun. His sisters are fun to play around with too... I also told them about the nickname I have, "Danny Boy" (hey reader, have I met you in real life? If not, don't even think about calling me that), to which laughed... hmm... in Japanese, the word "Dani" (Danny) means tiny insect... yes so now I'm tiny insect boy... oh well it's fun. I am also loving having a vending machine on every corner... theres once that's about 30 feet up the street, so one time I was playing video games with Hiro in the living room... I felt like a coke so once I died, I ran out real quick and got one. Man I wish we had that at home... I have to go all the way to the grocery store if we're out. :/ Yes so anyways, Saturday was the rotary meeting for all of the students in the exchange. That's everyone who came to Japan and everyone who's leaving shortly leaving for another country. It began with an hour meeting of discussing... I dunno something about the exchange, it was all in Japanese so I dunno. After that was a break, so me Hiro and a few of the other students were allowed to go out for lunch... ha, Hiro and I were the only boys. Anyways, they chose "Mister Donut" for lunch... I would have preferred Makkudonorudo (McDonald's), but hey donuts are fine. I ate 3 and the girls were laughing... hey I was hungry. And then I wanted to keep my flexi-straw that came with my drink and they asked "Do they not have those in America?" and I was like no they do, I just like flexi-straws, and then they called me crazy. > But it was all in fun. After that we met up with some of the students who have been doing the long term exchange, and we all went to those photo boxes... you know like at arcades where you get in the box it takes your picture and prints it out? Yeah those are pretty popular here (mostly among schoolgirls), they had a whole section in an arcade. So we got a few pictures, and it was fun. Wee! So then we hurried back to the meeting which we were now 30 minutes late for. We all marched in and they clapped and stuff. We sat down, they had introductions, and then it was time for the short-term exchange students to give quick little speeches. Anyways, there were 2 other girls besides me who came to Japan for a month. The first one basically did not know any Japanese. I had asked her earlier Nihongo ga hanasu? (Do you speek Japanese?) to which I received a blank stare... hmm and that's a pretty basic sentance. She claimed she *meant* to study Japanese before she left but ran out of time... Anyways she said a few things in English for here speech. The other girl spoke a tiny bit of Japanese but didn't know she had to make a speech so she just said a few things in English. After that I said my speech, which was in Japanese... haha it was perfect but hey I was the only one on the short term exchange to do it in Japanese. The Japanese students said their speeches in English, and they were pretty good. Of course, Hiro's was the best... he had his all memorized. So then after that, the long term students wanted to sing some songs... they started singing that Green Day song... hmm what was the name... I forget, but anyways I knew the words and was kind mouthing them so they sent me up too. lol then all the students came up and we sang a variety of songs in Japanese and English.... including the Macarina, although that didn't turn out as well. After that, to finish the meeting up, was the best game every. They brought out this huge box full of stuff... cookies, crackers, toys, candy, everything... everyone lined up, then ran to the box and grabbed stuff... then you go back for more! Hahaha it was the greatest game ever! I ended up getting some butter cookies, M&M minis, pringles, some other crackers, one of those fan thingys, and a water gun. Yay. I talked to lots of people there. There were two girls from Mexico and I started speaking spanish, but then Japanese words started creeping into my sentances... I think I already forgot spanish. Oh well, Japanese is cooler. The long term students were all talking about how great it was... they've been here for a year and it's gone so fast, all of them had really enjoyed it. It really made me wish I could stay. I definatly don't want to leave Japan next week. This place is the best, and I have to come back... I was talking to my host father (who used to be the Rotary vice president here) about maybe trying to do the long term exchange again next year... I'm not sure, something to consider.. I just keep thinking this is the place where I want to spend my life! heh, I was joking around a bit... my passport says I am allowed to stay in the country for 90 days and I was like, ow dangit, I broke my arm I can't come back... or whoops lost the tickets, guess I'll have to stay longer... (but don't worry, I am still scheduled and planning to come back on July 21, even if I don't want to :p) Yes so on Sunday I spent some time with Hiro... we cruised the gift shops looking for some gifts but I couldn't find anything good that wasn't too expensive. So then we hung out at the arcade for a bit, then went to the CD shop. I got a CD that is pretty popular here, the singer's name is Utada Hikaru. It's good music. I bought a cheap CD player at Yodobashi Camera so I could listen to it without using my laptop. Good, now there's something for the planeride home! After that we headed to Spiderman 2. Great movie it was... and yes it is in English, it has Japanese subtitles, like most American movies that play here... (and all of the popular ones are here). Some of them are dubbed but of course then I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. Oh yeah, you know in the movie theaters here you have assigned seats? I suppose it's more efficient for crowded movies but it kinda sucks if you get someone stupid behind you and then you can't move. Letsee, on Monday we had the real rotary meeting. I and Hiro and one of the other exchange students all made our speeches again to the rotary club. Other than that the meeting was kinda boring, but at least there was food. After that I.... hmm, well I bought my brother a gift, but I suppose I can't say it since this is the internet, eh? Anyways it's nice, he will like it. Today was my free time... I spent some time on the internet this morning, then headed out... first I hit the CD shop where I bought by Ai Otsuka... definatly an awesome CD. Really awesome. Anyone who rides in my car from now on will be forced to listen to it... hahahahahaha. I went downtown and hit McDonanlds and Bic Camera, but I was just looking around. It's just fun to be walking around in Japan! I think that about covers everything up until today. Tommorow I am going fishing with my host father, and that should be pretty fun. Haven't fished in a while but I do love the water so it should be great. So, time for dinner now! Itadekimasu! 13 comments