More pictures...

Yeah, the crazy thing is that I can only post four pictures at a time. I guess it's better than only one at a time though. THAT would be annoying...

 

Sceenic pictures

Here are some pictures from the place we were staying for Prayer Retreat. It was close to the mountains, so it was a bit cooler than Tokyo. It was nice to see some nature. And I have no idea why there was a giant windmill in the middle of this park. Japan has strange things like that all over the place. Seriously, I find Statue of Liberty replicas all over the place!


 

I'm back.

Yeah, I've been gone a while. Sorry. It's been crazy busy lately. Last week I went to a church camp (all in Japanese) followed directly by a Prayer retreat (I was a co-leader). Both were good, but it was the week before classes started and I was running low on sleep to begin with. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep. But I had a good time at both places. Here are some recent pictures. The first one is the day I got back, I went to see the band. It was a really good day. So after they played, I managed to get them to pose for me. It was dark, so I had to edit the photo so you can actually see them. But it's a pretty cool shot. I like it. :-D
The next picture is an example of traditional Japanese food. I'm not really a fan of whole fish though. I really don't like food that looks at me. Yuck. I tried to eat some of it, but thankfuly there was so much food, I could honestly say I was full and couldn't finish.

The next two pictures are of the girls traveling to Prayer Retreat. Fun stuff. Hopefully I'll get around to posting more often again. My first week of classes was good. I made it through the week. Now to make it through the weekend. LOL!

 

Sunday

Sunday was a good day too. It was a four man live. (four people were playing) Nice.



Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. The guy in the white shirt sitting down is Shisshi. (prounounced kinda like CC) He plays guitar for the other band and sometimes comes to the street too. He's really good.

Then there is a picture of Harumi working while everyone else talks. She's awesome.

And last, Mako.

I won't be updating for a while. I'm leaving today to go to church camp (in Japanese) and then a prayer retreat (in English). I'll be gone for a week.
 

Saturday

Saturday was a fun day. Saw lots of foriengers. There was a cute litte Chinese kid, two Korean students and this weird American guy.
The first picture is with the two Korean guys. They are in the front middle. Nice guys. Cute.

The American guy was really annoying. He talked to me when I wanted to be talking to the band. More about him later.

Next picture is Kumi. She just decided to put down the chair while we were waiting at the stop light and sit down. She's cute.

Then the last two pictures are from the train ride home. Nice thing about going home lately is that Mayu, (the girl using the cell phone) ususally goes home by Taxi. Recently she's been giving me rides since my house is kinda on the way. Super nice.



 

Finally home.

So yesterday was Bethany's birthday, so we had a party for her. Bethany and I went to a type of "Japanese spa" (um yeah, don't ask if you really don't want to know.) Then we had some pizza and watched a movie. It was nice. But we and another girl stayed up all night, and by all night I mean until like 9 in the morning, talking. We took a short 4 hour "nap" and then went out to try to get forms to register for the Japanese Language Proficency test. Fun stuff. They were out, so I didn't get one. Then we talked more.

I got home right at 7:00, but then I only had 10 mins before I was to meet a student for dinner. I had a nice dinner of eel with my student, her neice (who apparently really likes me) and a former student who has been training with the Japan Self Defense Force. He wants to be an accountant, but he still has to do all the basic training stuff. He's really not happy about the hand grendade training. LOL.

Anyway, made for a really long two days. It's nice to be back home. I'm definately about to crash.

Anyway, these are two random pictures from my collection. The first one is a young bird taken around springtime. The second is a nice Japanese looking bell. There is really no point to either picture, but I just want to put pictures in my blog now. Ok, time to sleep. 

My new hat!!!

So today on my way home from a meeting, I randomly decided to go shopping. :-)

I went looking for a new purse, since my old one recently broke on me. (I seem to wear out my poor purses rather quickly) I found one. But in the process, I also found me a new hat!!!

Actually, I made the hat. I found the basic baby blue cap at the hundred yen shop (think dollar store). One buck. Add in cute blue flower hair clip, one buck. I've been seeing all these really cute girly caps lately, with chains and lace and stuff, so when I saw the hat, I figured I could make one for way cheaper than they sell in the stores.

Next stop, the 300 yen shop (three dollar store). There I found two cute necklaces. (total, 6 bucks).

Then, at home, I proceeded to dismantle the necklaces and use them to decorate my new hat. This is the results. It's actually cuter than the pictures show. So now I have a cute new hat. Total cost, some where around 8 bucks. If I tried to buy something similar, it'd be between 20 and 30 bucks. Hehehe... I win! :-D I really enjoy creative spurts! Guess what I'm wearing tomorrow! Hehehehehehehe. 

My House is Clean!!!!

Well, I've decided to change the way I do titles. I used to make them all so you could read them as "Reflections: of... whatever" But that's getting really annoying. So I'm just going to write titles however I feel like it from now on. :-)

So anyway, yeah, I had a home party. It was good. I am totally wiped. I don't think I'll schedule a home party after a live again if I can help it. I felt like a zombie towards the end. But it was fun.



So here are some of the pictures from the party. 13 people came, 14 with me. It was a good number. There were even some new faces. And this might be the first time I actually knew everyone who came. LOL. At least their names.

Everyone really enjoyed the food. I'm glad it turned out well. Although it was very expensive to make tacos. Maybe because of all the fresh vegetables. Oh well. I'll try to make it cheaper next time.

I don't really have good A/C in my house, so we were doing with open windows and fans. Eventually a bunch of people went outside to smoke. It was actually cooler outside. So, Sing decided that we should eat watermellons outside. The bottom picture is everyone outside about to eat the watermellons.

EVeryone was pretty laid back for this party. They seemed to have fun, but most of us were tired. I'm really impressed at how hard Harumi worked. It's also really funny everytime I invite these people to my house. People like Kumi end up making theirselves at home. They do all the clean-up, and last night, they decided to make hot tea for Sing, and just helped themselves. It was really funny when they brought the tea outside and I was wondering what they were doing in my house. But I guess it means they feel really comfortable with me. And when I think about it, I have friends in America who would feel comfortable enough in my house to do those things too. So I guess this means I really have been accepted by these people. It's a nice thought.

But my home parties are always kinda bittersweet. Because there are so many people in a small space, it's kinda hard for me to have conversations. And there is SO much Japanese flying around my head. I think it was easier when I didn't understand as much Japanese. Now I can understand many words, but I still can't follow the whole conversation, so it's a bit more frustrating. But something I noticed last night was I've forgotten how beautiful the language is. Sometimes it's just nice to listen to the sound of the language. The more words you understand, the more you are trying to figure out what is being said. But when you just listen to the sound, it's kinda like music.

I probably could have participated more if I had tried, but I was really tired, so I just kinda took in everything. But each time I feel like I get closer to different people. So it's nice for that to happen.

The great thing about home parties: afterwards, my house is clean for at least a couple of days. And I always end up with food in my house. (usually I don't have food in my house. It goes bad before I can eat it.)

And Summer vacation is almost over now. I have this week left, and next week is a church camp all in Japanese and then a prayer retreat. After that is work. I was afraid I would be really bored during vacation, but it turns out that I was really busy. Partly because I agreed to keep meeting with my director during the vacation. But that's ok. I think I also had enough time to just not do anything either. It's a good balance, and a change from the normal. Good times. 

of waiting for guests...

So it's almost time for my party to start. But no one is here yet. So I decided to write here again. I forgot to mention this morning that I was given Sing's set list from the show. I know you can't read it. But this is what it looks like. I even got everyone to sign it. :-) I'm happy!!!
So this is what my house looks like right now. Still a bit messy, but cleaner than normal. I ran out of batteries, but I might try to get more and then take some pictures of the party. :-D

And Finally, the last picture is Harumi. She worked really hard today. She prepared all the vegetables for me and everything. She was a lot of help. It was fun to work together.

But we went to bed so late, she's really tired. 

of Annie Live...

Tonight was my fourth time to go to Annie Live. It was lots and lots of fun. Here is a picture of me with two of the girls. Notice how curly my hair is!!!! Cool! :-) My tie was a big hit too.

Here are some pictures from the live. This is Sing playing the guitar. It was a really good show.

This is the lead singer, Miho, and Shi-shi in the background. He is a really good guitar player. He plays really cool pickings and stuff. I forget the real terms. And of course Mako is in the background on the drums. You can't see Sing because he's not in the picture.







This is Haruna. She had all the band members sign her arm. It's really cool! :-D

I had a really good time tonight. Tomorrow, er, today... is my home party. Tonight Harumi is spending the night and she will help me get ready for the party. (She is reading this as I type it too!!!) We mostly speak Japanese, so it is good practice for me. But apparently she can read some English too! Maybe we should just write to each other!

Well, it's really late now. So, I should go now. But I've decided my blog looks much better when I use pictures, so I will try to use them more often from now on. :-) 

of Trash...

So I guess a typhoon came today. It messed up the weather. It was hot and humid. I woke up today with a headache, and it didn't go away all day. One of those headaches that advil doesn't fix either. So I basically did nothing today. I was supposed to clean my house. Didn't happen.

I should still have some time tomorrow... I hope...

But I did go out to see the band tonight. I figured it was pointless to be miserable in my house and do nothing. The music does seem to make me feel better.


It was a good set tonight. They had four members tonight and many people stopped to listen. They really are a good band.

They also played my favorite song and I was able to record it, so now I can listen to it whenever I want to. I'm happy.

And since I had my camera out, I took some pictures and I decided to go ahead and post some of them here. So these are some of my friends. They guy in every picture is Sing (aka Leader).

Anyway, I think I'm going to go to bed. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

OH, and random information of the day. It's really hard to find hamburger buns in Japan. But not so difficult to find taco shells. So the menu for the home party has been changed from Hamburgers to Tacos. Fun stuff.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now. Hopefully I'll manage to clean my entire house tomorrow before the concert. If not, I hope I can fake it. ;-) 

of "Street" friends...

So this is me(the one who is not Japanese and takes up half the picture), Mako (the guy in the hat), Haruna (the girl in the front) and Harumi (the girl in the back).

These are some of my friends from the band. (Mako's the drummer) If you look real closely, my hair's kinda curly. I'll try to get a better picture, but yeah, my hair's gone all curly thanks to the humidity. Imagine that!

I had fun taking pictures tonight. Maybe I'll put up more later. Now it's time for bed. I have an early day tomorrow too! ack! 

of summer "work"...

So today was a long day. Not bad, just long. I had a meeting with my director today. We were scheduled to plan a retreat together, but we ended up moving her office instead. It was good. Of course, I'm tired now. Then we went out to dinner together and ended up watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 together as well. It was a great movie! I was so pleased. It was worth 12 bucks to see it. Anyway, it was good. I'm tired. Time for bed. I work again tomorrow. I have make up lessons. But oh well. It's all good!

of surprises...

God is pretty cool. So in a series of random circumstances (usually involving me procrastinating) I got a nice surprise today. I decided I should probably eat something other than dry cereal today, so I finally got dressed and went out to dinner. (cheap sushi, gotta love it) But before I did that, I decided I really needed a nap. So it was almost 8 when I left my house. Well, I ate slowly at the sushi place and they messed up my orders a couple of times and was really slow with my ice cream. (green tea ice cream, love it) Well, this all turns out to be a really good thing.

So the funny thing about living in a place like Japan, is you often run into people you know while you are out and about on your own business. It's a very small town/community feel. And of course I stick out more than most people too.

So anyway, last week, I decided I was going to try to fix one of my cheap fans (the cool folding kind that are really pretty) that was falling apart on me. Well, glue didn't work. But I had been fixing it in front of some of my students and their parents. There was a whole conversation about my fans in the process. Well, one of my students, Jun, studies kendo (think swords only bamboo sticks instead). Today he was competing in Tokyo. Well, apparently, while they were there, they saw a fan for the building they were in (a pretty famous building). Jun's dad remembered my fan problem (I don't think he knows that I have like 5 fans, but that's ok) and they bought me a souvenir fan! How sweet is that! I'm sure it was expensive too. (my fans all cost like a dollar). Anyway, they thought they wouldn't be able to give it to me until September when school starts again. But while I was walking home from dinner, they were driving home from Tokyo and they saw me walking! So they stopped the car, and ran to catch up with me. I'm sure it must have been something for the other pedestrians to see. I was wearing my headphones so I couldn't hear them so well, but they were shouting "Amber Sensei, Amber Sensei" to get my attention. (actually, it was his mom doing the shouting). So cute! So was that perfect timing or what? I got a really nice new fan from my student for the summer. I'm going to use it so much!

And today must be Jun day (in August no less {Jun-June}). I got an e-mail on my cell phone today from my friend Jun (Jun's a popular name). He got a new cell phone and was giving me the information. Funny stuff.

Anywho, that's my day. I talked to Marlo a lot. I washed my towels. I napped. I ate. I got a present. I came home. Ahhh, the joys of being on vacation. Fortunately, tomorrow and Thursday I actually have things to do. Come to think of it, Friday too. Then of course is the weekend with all the joys that brings. And I have plans for Monday as well. Horray! I really hate being at home bored all the time.

of summer festivals...

Well, Summer is officially here. I know that sounds strange for everyone living in America. You are thinking, well yeah, summer's been here for like 2 months already! Well, Japan's strange. Summer is just now starting. And I get a nice vacation to go with it. The weathers been really strange this year though. Rainy season started early and lasted late (causing some unfortunate flooding in some parts of the country). And the past few days have been suprisingly cool. Such strange weather...

Anyway, today was my first day of vacation. These past weeks seemed really busy, but I suppose they were pretty normal. My classes are going well. My students still seem to like me. Some are plotting my marriage to make me stay in Japan forever. The parents seem to like me and the kids have finally warmed up to me. I've fallen pretty much into a nice routine, which for me is not so great. It means all my bad habits are in full swing. I need to work on that a bit this summer.

Things with the band are still good. I really feel included. Sometimes they even call me when I'm not there to make sure that I know where they are. It's really a nice feeling. I will have another "home party" this month for them. I'll cook hamburgers. Hopefully it works out. This of course forces me to do some major cleaning of my house. Which is good because my house definitely needs to be cleaned.

Today I saw some small festival celebrations happening. I guess the main ones start tomorrow and the next day. Last year it was very interesting for me to see the festivals. But this year, it just makes me sad. Watching the people carrying the heavy shrines... It just makes me realize again and again how sad it is. The people are just like the shrines, pretty and happy on the outside, but empty and hollow on the inside with no power. I ache so much for the people here. It's times like this that I feel so small and helpless. There are so many people who need to join God's family. I want them all to be saved. But what can I do? Sometimes I feel happy with the work I am doing here, the relationships I am building, the classes I am teaching, the conversations I am having. But it's still so small. Have I really done anything at all? I want so much to see this country freed from the false gods that hold it captive. The only thing I can do is pray. It seems like such a small thing. I love this country so much.

I don't know if I should go out tomorrow or not. The festivals might overwhelm me. But I just found out I'm meeting someone on Wed. in the middle of the festivals. I guess I'll have to face it sooner or later.

of....

Couldn't think of a title.

I'm sick. Stupid sinuses. They are always so hard for me to get rid of too. Yuck. Hopefully it will go away soon and I won't have to go to the doctor. It really is a pain to go to the doctor when you can't communicate so well on your own. And it's a pain trying to find someone who speaks English who is willing to take time out of their day and go with you. :-(

Things are still going OK. Got a package from my parents. Pop tarts, cereal and a cute top from my mom. Along with some DVD's I asked for. We are going to watch one in class today. Horray for DVD's.

And finally my co-worker got married last Friday. I don't know whether to be annoyed or amused by all the people who ask me how the wedding went and then ask me when I'm going to get married. I guess I'm at that age. Even the old lady in the bakery across the street asked me if I was next. *sigh* Don't get me wrong, I would certainly like to be next. Just doesn't seem very likely at the moment.

But after watching so many wedding preparations, it almost makes me not want to have a wedding. Seems like if you do it the way you want, everyone is just upset. I'm not sure why. After all, it's your wedding right? But, I don't know.

And strangely enough. I get sick, and do my laundry. Go figure.

of the weekend...

Well, my weekend was pretty nice. Had my Bible Study on Saturday then went to lunch with two of the students. It was nice. Then I came home and got ready to go to the live show for the band. They were playing at a club again. This time it was for a whole hour. It was a really nice show. The sound was good and everything. I had a good time.

My Japanese is getting in a slump though. It comes and goes. Lately I've been feeling really dumb when people try to talk to me. It always seems like a group effort to have a conversation with me. Someone who doesn't speak English (like Mako or Miho) will try to tell me something, usually complicated, and I of course don't understand. So they stop everyone's conversations by calling out "What is this in English?" And everyone has to become involved in the conversation so that I understand. It's rather embarrassing. Also I tried watching a TV show only in Japanese yesterday. I really didn't understand anything. It's frustrating.

The bad news of the weekend is that Sing got sick. He has a fever. He tried playing on Sunday night, but it ended up with Mako on guitar and Shi-shi came (he's the other guitarist for the other band they are in. He's new and has recently been coming to Jam with them on Sundays if he can. It's rather fun to watch) so there were two guitars. Sing just sang, and occasionally hit the drum. I felt really sorry for Sing. He looked pretty bad. I hope he gets better soon.

Monday I met some girls for lunch. One was Japanese, the other was Chinese. We went to this really nice restaurant. I really liked the food there. And it was pretty reasonably priced too. It was a nice afternoon. Then I just kinda bummed around. I should have been doing things, but I didn't. I'm often that way. But there was a spectacular thunderstorm last night too. Very loud. If I had been in Texas, it would have been tornado weather. But they don't have tornadoes here.

But Thunder storms are different in Japan. They only last like 30 mins. Its so strange. Not that I'm complaining. Just different from the thunder storms I'm used to. Also, they aren't so beautiful here. The main reason being you can't really see the sky. In West Texas, I can see for miles and miles and so I can watch the lightening strike the ground and light up the sky and it's very beautiful. Here, you just see cloudy sky, and a flash and then hear the really loud thunder. Not as dramatic or romantic. Oh well, guess you can't have everything.

Well, today begins another work week. Horray horray. Mika will be back this week and the next because Tami's getting married and can't work right now. I'm looking forward to that. I miss Mika.

I'm pretty sure summer's officially here now. I'm pretty much always sticky and icky when I don't have good AC in a room. (like when I'm in my house...) Fun stuff, humidity.

All right, that's about all for now. I really don't have anything too interesting to say at the moment. I should get ready for work now. Possibly eat before work. That's probably a good idea.

byebye

of .... not sure.

So yesterday we had this thunderstorm. It wasn't so bad for what I'm used to, but being away from West Texas for a while put my guard down a bit I guess. All of a sudden, the rain just turned on. It was fine one second, and the next it's just dropping sheets of rain. Then like 5 mins later the hail starts. Now the church I work at has lots of big windows. Let me tell you, it was loud. It started just in time for one of my students to get completely drenched leaving class. I feel sorry for him. I kinda wished I had ended class for him like 2 mins early, but how was I to know? Anyway, I had less than an hour break until my next class. Well, this terrible, loud thunderstorm was over in plenty of time for my next student to come regardless. Too bad, I was kinda hoping to cancel class. I'm a terrible teacher. :-P

Anyway, apparently this is typical of Japanese thunderstorms. They come, rage and then are over in less than an hour and you continue with your day. How strange. I'm used to them lasting so much longer. Ahh, the adjustments.

So today I ended up with a bit of a surprise. The hazards of my job. I decided to dress a bit down today, it was a little hot, so I went sleeveless. Not my most flattering choice lately. Well, of course today was the day I got a surprise observation. Not just one kid, but two (siblings) AND their mother wanted to watch class too! AHHH! My previous class had been a bit late getting out, and then I find this mother and two new kids standing around and I didn't know they were coming (apparently this had been real last minute.) Well, recently I don't really "plan" so much for my classes. Yeah, it's sad, but well, I'm good at winging it. Well, this caught me off guard, so I had to "plan" a really good lesson for two new students (who I didn't know their English level) and have their mom watch the whole process. Ick. Fortunately it went pretty well. I'm good at faking it. ;-) The kids left saying it had been a fun class. I was surprised. Not bad for on the fly teaching.

But it made me realize how much Japanese I've been using in class lately, just because it's easier. Most of the time the moms want us to only use English, but that's hard sometimes. But having the mom watch makes you really self-conscious. It was interesting, but the boys were pretty good and didn't have so much trouble keeping up. If they join, that'll bring that class up to 6 kids. My kids classes have been getting a bit larger this year. I guess that's good. But it does change how I plan er... "plan" lessons. Fun fun stuff.

And randomly, I've discovered a cute new hair style. (I'm constantly changing my hair style depending on season and length of hair) I cut it pretty short last October, and now, just in time, it's long enough to put up again. Not so long, but at least long enough to keep off the back of my neck. Well, I've discovered this "messy bun" look. I put up most of my hair in a messy pony tail with little bits left trailing out. The humidity works for me here and those stray pieces become nice and curly. The rest, I kind of just pin up wherever. The result is this really cute messy look. I like it and it's cool. So I'll probably wear it for the rest of the week. Until I get tired of it. Unforunately, I think I look better with my hair down, but I pretty much can't stand to have it down in the summer, so it'll probably be various up-do's for a while. That's ok, I like up-do's.

Well, tomorrow is Friday. I like Friday classes. They are always fun. Then comes Saturday, which will include a Bible Study, and then I get to go to the band "concert". Yep, fun stuff. Time flies though. I can't believe it's that time again. Wow. But I totally understand the people who live for the weekend now. I might become one of them soon. ;-)

And you know, Kids are great confidence boosters. I have this class of four little girls today. They are super cute. And they love me. It's great. Took forever for them to warm up to me, but now I'm happy. Yeah, I eat it up. I love it when the kids love me. Hehehehehe. The middle schoolers don't seem to care one way or the other, but oh well, you can't win them all. I'll take what I can get.

Ok, I think that's all the random rambling for now. I should go to bed because I have to get up early for prayer meeting tomorrow. I have to figure out when I'm going to do my Japanese homework too. Hmmm... That's what I get for procrastinating.

Ok, later.

Oh yeah, this is post 105. If you break it down, that's my birthday. 10-5. Hehehe. Yeah, totally random and meaningless. Kinda like my life. Yeah, I shouldn't try to make deep connections after work. ;-)

of toilet paper holders, long days and humidity...

So I've decided if I ever move back to the States, I'll have to install Japanese toilet paper holders in my residence. Why? They are amazingly easy to use. I don't know why America doesn't have more of these things! I mean, changing the toilet paper used to be such a pain. This is so easy. Yes, Japanese toilet paper roll holders are the best. Take my word for it.

Well, it's finally come, Japanese summer. The humidity is sinking in and making everything sticky and icky. The temperatures only getting into the low 80's, but still, it's icky. And it's still rainy season, although there's been sun the past few days. Well, the good news is, I survived the last summer. LOL

Yesterday was such a long day for me. I spent 6 hours with a group of my beginner students. It was rather tedious. Then I had to come back and teach the rest of the day. Long day. My students are all cute little grandmas in that class. They decided they wanted to take me to a Napoleon Exhibition. I don't know why. I mean, wasn't he a bad guy? I don't know. But what surprised me more is how many people were at this exhibition. I mean, Japanese people must love museums. It was so crazy. I was being jostled and it was hard to move and our group even got separated (there was only three old ladies!). It was worse than babysitting at an amusement park. And far less interesting. Then of course, I had to go to lunch with them, and then out for tea. And their English is not so good, so it was very draining for me.

I guess I'm just not a good socialite. I'm far too ADD to do things I don't like for very long. I'm amazed they didn't figure out I was bored out of my mind. And, it just goes to show how much of a baby I am. People do things they don't like everyday. And I whine and complain about it when I have to do it. Poor me. ;-)

Ok, time for my next day of classes. I just want to make it through the week. Saturday the band plays live. I have my ticket already. And it's close by so no trains or anything. AND they get to play for a whole hour, so I'm excited about this performance.

Monday I get to go out as well, so that's good too. I get to go to lunch with two girls and then go to dinner with a guy. Fun stuff. But it'll definitely hurt my pocket book. But it's pretty much the only way to spend time with people in Japan.

Ok, enough rambling. Time for work.

of random thoughts while at work...

So my student just called and canceled, so I have like an hour of free time before my last class of the day. Thursdays, I have the most classes, 6 plus a Bible study. But four of them are only one student in each class. Fun stuff.

Anyway, so I`m at the church computer typing, because I just felt the urge to blog. Don`t know why. But Japanese keyboards are a little different from American ones, and so it`s a bit annoying to type on this keyboard. And, all the tabs and everything on my screen are in Japanese right now. Good thing I pretty much know what all the tabs do, or I would be really confused right now.

Random thought of the day: it`s easy to get nori (aka, seaweed) stuck in your teeth. I wonder why it`s always green things that stick in your teeth...

So tonight is the big soccer game against Brazil. It`s gonna be at 4AM. There is no way I`m going to watch that. I`ll just wake up in the morning and check the net to see how much Japan lost by. Oops, I`m not supposed to say that! ;-) I want Japan to win, but honestly, I don`t think it`s going to happen. After all, Brazil is Brazil, and hard enought to beat as it is. But Japan hasn`t won any games yet, so it`s even harder (have they even scored any goals? I don`t think they have...) They have to win the game by two goals in order to advance. Sad for Japan. If only they had scored against Croatia...

This month looks to be busy. Which means I`m REALLLY going to have to watch my money this month. I guess I really need to improve my eating habits and spend less on food I don`t need, so I can save money to do all the things that need to be done this month. I`m meeting several people (always invovles going out and spending money) and going to a couple of meetings (transportation) and the band has a concert next Saturday. I wanted to buy some new CD`s from them too, but it looks like that will have to wait another month. I really don`t like only being paid once a month. Oh well. Can`t be helped.
I`m also waiting for the exchange rate to go down so I can send some money home. This is a really bad time to send money to the States. I always end up loosing like $50-60 in the process. It`s annoying.

Hmmm.... what else? I can`t really think of anything else that is remotely interesting to say (not that anything else here is interesting). Well, other than my cooking Party is Saturday. Not so many people are coming, but there might be around 10 who show up. So, not so bad. Hopefully it will go well.

Well, OK, I think that`s about all for now. I`m going back to paying minesweeper...

PS. Oddly enough, the Japanese version of Blogger doesn`t have a spell check function. Guess it`s because words are auto finished on Japanese computers. So, forgive the spelling errors. No spell check.

of small accomplishments...

Well, anyone who knows me, must know my loathing for all things homework. busy work, paper work etc. Well, the good news for this week is that I actually managed to finish all my Japanese homework. And I have quite a bit of homework. Class is today (I have it twice a month, because I can't really afford more than that...). I've decided to study for this Japanese Language proficiency test. I want to communicate more, so I needed my classes to get more serious. But it's a pain learning all this new vocabulary and grammar. Hopefully some of it will sink in. But Japanese is a crazy language. There are so many different ways to communicate. There's the really casual way, which pretty much everyone speaks to me in, then there's the polite form, which is what I learned first, so I revert back to that a lot, then there's a super polite form, that they sometimes use in stores. Let me tell you, it's confusing!

Anyway, my second accomplishment was waking up before 10 mins before class. I actually have enough time to shower before class. Well, if I stop writing in the stupid blog I do.

Blah, I don't like mornings! Oh well, another day.

Today is a bit crazy. I have 5 classes, but there are all these little breaks between them. Not really long enough to do anything with, just long enough to be annoying. Oh well, such is my life. I should at least get done a bit early tonight because I only have one student in my last class. Getting done early is always a good thing.

Ok, time to get the day started!