Peace

So, I finally figured out the word that describes how I feel right now, and for the past week. Peace. Sure, I have a million things to do and stress is a close second, but right now, everything is built on top of peace. I think that is amazing. Where my life had been a turbulent torrent of gale force winds ripping at the sea inside me, I now feel like a still pond fed by the morning mist.
I think there can only be one reason I would suddenly have this come over me. The blessing I got. It gave me amazing perspective and made me realize I was blowing things way out of proportion. There is no way that the things I was worried about mattered that much in the long run of things. If I get a bad grade, sure it will be upsetting for about a month, and then I'd move on. Before, it seemed nearly life or death. I've been caught up in the moment and lost my sight of the bigger picture. My blessing, though, made me realize. People could tell me over and over, but I just never let it click in my head, and that is what I needed.
I now know why the Holy Ghost is called the comforter. I have never had such a warm, still feeling inside me. I feel like I was wrapped in a giant down blanket and tucked in just right-- like my parents used to when I was a child. Perfectly warm with a feeling of being loved. It's magnificent.
Things will never be perfect, but life wouldn't be life without imperfection. I feel like I'm back to myself, being able to be who I am and what I want to be without having to be completely reliant on other things and outside forces. I feel good about myself and that's what matters. I like the person I am-- maybe not every aspect, but I realized that I don't need a complete overhaul. I am who I am and I can't and shouldn't change that.

Thanksgiving

Yeah, it's cliche, but I figure it is Thanksgiving. What better time to do a "what I am thankful for" posting?

I am thankful for:

• my family. They may be crazy, but I can always count on them.
• the fact that I don't have to constantly be watching over my shoulder. People are generally trustworthy and aren't out to get you. In other places, if you don't have one hand on everything you own, it will disappear. I worse places, if you don't have one eye on everyone you know, you might end up dead.
• availability of things at convenience. I have never had to slaughter my own animal. I just have to go down the street to have practically anything I could want at my fingertips.
• People's predictability. While some call it boring, I think it is a very nice thing to know how someone will react to something and be ready for it.
• opportunities I have to do anything I really ever want to do. If I want to make Jewelery, then I can run to the store and get stuff for it. If I want to become a mechanic, I can just go to the nearest school and learn it. If I want to study anthropology, I can just do research on the internet. Anything I want to do, I can.
• my friends. I know that I can always be helped out in a jam.
• freedom to choose. No one has ever told me that I must become something I don't want to... or at least I know I never ever have to listen to them.
• my puppies... yes this is cheesy, but I am thankful for their absolute loyalty. No matter what happens, they will always love me.
• being me. I haven't been myself for a while and I forget how refreshing it is to just be able to be my own goofy self with people who are used to it, and even find it entertaining.
• smiling. Either smiling myself or people smiling to me, it just is nice.
• good hugs. In my opinion, no one gets them or gives them enough... which is weird for me to say, becasue I have always been a disliker of hugs. I suppose things change.
• understanding. Things are so much easier when people understand what you are trying to say.
• having the knowledge that I do. I love learning and love knowledge. Though I am no expert in anything, I like to know what I do.
• the Church. I know my life would be so much worse if it weren't for the Church and the things it teaches me.

I don't count my blessings frequently enough, and when I do, I'm always blown away with how much I'm blessed with. I have forgotten lately, and to anyone I have hurt with my negativity and pessimism, I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Things I have Learned on My Drive with My Family

so, my drive to Tucson is only half over, but its really quite interesting the things I have learned so far.

I have inherited different things from both my parents. I drive like my father. I always thought I learned it from my mom, because, let's be honest, females tend to drive similarly. But, as I've seen my life flash before my eyes about a half dozen times, and being told by my friends and brother that I make them worry for life when I drive, I think I must drive more like my dad. I'm turning into my mother, personality-wise, though. I love my mother, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. She is quick to get offended and doesn't have the ability to let things roll off her back, especially when it comes to my sister. I always thought my thought processes were more similar to my father's, but as I get older, I seem to be turning more and more into my mother. Again, I do love my mother, but I like how I used to be chill. (on a side note, I learned from my sister last night that "chill" is a Utah term and, apparently, I sound retarded when I say that in the Bay Area)
I laugh like a maniacal penguin sometimes. I know that I have weird laughs. I can't help it... I always have. My brother has always made fun of me and when I was about seven, I became very self conscious. So, I changed my laugh intentionally. Unfortunately, I never really knew what I should change it to becasue I had never really studied laughs, so I had many laughs. That never really changed. So now I have about a million different ways I laugh, and I have no real control over it. So, sometimes I laugh like a donkey, and sometimes I laugh like a maniacal penguin. I also snort... that's always fun.

I'm the "crazy" one in my family. I'm full of songs and I'm not afraid to sing them. I go to church and believe it. I don't claim to be addicted to drugs just for fun. I, believe it or not, am the one to take the dares and make a fool out of myself for fun. We all have our crazy moments, but I'd say I have the most moments.

I get very re-sensitized while I am at school. My brother showed me a youtube video (yes, on the road because we have awesome internet :D ) of a guy with touretts and it amazed me how much it kinda hurt me to hear someone screaming the way he did. While I'm not a super sensitive person when it comes to cursing, and I actually think that people at school are generally way too serious about it, I was suprised how sensitive I was to it.

I have a place in my family. Believe it or not, I am the mediator in my family. I usually have the most level head in the family. I do have occasions where I go a little crazy, but majority of the time, I am the outsider able to give the most unbiased opinion. If I can't find my place anywhere else in the world, at least I know that I have a purpose in my family.

It's amazing how well blessings work. I'm not going to lie. I'm very skeptical about blessings, but this one seems to have helped a ton. Today, and most of yesterday, I'm finally able to detatch myself and look objectively at my whole situation. I now feel at peace inside about whatever might happen in the future. I know longer have this feeling of a hole left in the pit of my body that somebody decided to fill with metal bars that were actively twisting and breaking inside of me. Now, I feel the most normal I've been in a long time. It may not be how I want it to be, but I know that however it does turn out, I will feel okay about it.

I can never stop loving the people I have ever loved. Even if I don't think people who I love and who once loved me still do, I worry. I care for people... it just my nature. I still even love Nolan and it makes me very sad to see where his life has gone. I still love my friends from high school, and though I don't speak to them very often, or see them, I still... I guess check up on them would be the only way to put it. I like to know where my friends have ended up, and I like to help them be where they want to, if I can. In any case, I always worry about my friends and if they are okay, or going to be okay. I also love my family, as much as we don't ever show it. I miss them, though I was always raised to be so independent. I worry about them, too. I like to help... that's one thing I'm really happy I inherited from my mom.

I'm sure before I get to Arizona, there will be a million more things I'm going to want to put up here, but for now, I have said what I feel I need to... I have a feeling this will be the week of blog postings, though, for me.

I am Sea Glass (fixing it)

So, last night I did something that I have only ever done a few times in my life: I got a blessing. With my dad being inactive and all, I didn't grow up with the idea of doing anything but being self reliant when it came to most everything. When I have hard times, I find it difficult to turn to others and ask for help. I especially find it hard to turn to people, that, honestly, I barely really know and ask them to give me a blessing. Not to mention, the few blessings that I have had never worked out the way I wanted them to. I'm sure that there is some greater plan in which it worked out the best way, but in my limited view, I don't see how it works out very well for me.
Anyway, lately I've been forced to review my life and how I deal with things, and while it is not the worst possible way, its not very healthy for me, either. I've never had problems like I have had lately, and I'm not sure how they came along. I've been trying to fix things, but apparently I fail, so desperate times call for desperate measures and I finally gave in to the idea that I need help that's not just my own.
So, I got a blessing and I'm hoping that it really, really helps... and not hoping like I hoped BYU would beat Utah, but hoping with a confidence that I know things will work out. I learned about hope last night, and realized that I have not been a very hopeful person lately. I suppose once bitten, twice shy and I'm still not sure that things will work out the way I want them to, but I know they will work out the best way for me.
Anyway, in the last week or so, I've made a few realizations. There are worse things than having a complicated life. I have a friend who, lovingly, in the worst way possible is showing me the harsh realities of things worse than most things I've experienced. I'm not used to having a complicated life. Usually, I'm fairly simple and my life is fairly boring. I have my set schedule and I have people I'm friends with, but not great friends. I can take them or leave them, with few exceptions. Close friends makes life complicated, but I prefer it to my boring life.
Lately, things have not been so good, because something apparently has to be proved. While I don't agree with tactics, and I'm not sure that anyone fully understands what it is I need to learn, I have come to learn a few things.

I have a great appreciation for what I did have at one point.
Things are what they are and that's just how it is.
I am absolutely predictable in how I deal with things.
There are few things worse than losing a friend.
I can't make things happen on my own time.
There are few things in life I can truly control, but I can control what I do.
Patience is heavenly.
I need to cherish my friends and be thankful that I have them, no matter what the situation.
Things should roll off my back like a happy duck in the rain.
I shouldn't be the one to make my friends unhappy. If I am, what kind of friend am I, really?

I can think of about a million more things I have learned, but there's no way to form it into words. I know I feel different, but I can't describe how. I'm just not verbally skilled that way. I can't say that I'm done changing, either...

I'm like a piece of sea glass... always getting more and more polished. I'm still jagged, but eventually I will be smooth and beautiful. I can't expect anything instantly. Just like the sea glass, I'm still going to be rough for many, many years, but I'll continue to be polished for the rest of my life.

I think, though, that there are times in your life where, instead of being stuck between those two rocks, and only getting a corner polished, you are being tossed in the harshest of hurricanes through the coarsest of sand. It hurts, and it hurts bad, but once you get out of it, you are the most beautiful you have ever been. Right now, I’m in the storm, but I’m looking forward to the end. Hopefully, it will come soon.

I can’t claim to be fixed completely, but I think I’ve been given a hard kick and am hurdling in the right direction… I hope that that is good enough.

Good Times

Here's a post of all the crazy/fun times I've had this semester (not in any particular order than the natural flow of my thoughts).

• Dressing Heather Emo... turns out I learned a lot from Leyna
  
• Middle of the night trips to hot springs-- and getting my toes frozen off looking for them
• learning how to throw a football
• finding people who are as crazy as I am in band
• haunted houses-- and chatting with the ghosty people. Apparently some of them are gay and some have seen Jesus!
• Betos... enough said
• meeting a whole bunch of really awesome people
• becoming "one of the guys"... I may complain about it, but deep down, it's kinda fun :P
• Mooseburger... and learning that I will never look my age... and that some waiters are CRAZY!
  
• cooking... getting to de-stress and do something nice for my friends... can't beat that.
• camping trip where I learned that you actually can start a fire by blowing on it... and we couldn't find the toilet... and then we had to run back the mile to get TP... freaked out the whole time with only a lantern.
  
• pumpkin sacrifice!
• getting to try a cougar tail... its a big deal when you never get to eat at games.
• Games-- mainly UCLA... holy cow, that was a fun one
• RMYL 189 field trip. I found out that I have the strange talent of making animal noises really well.
  
• Freshman ward reunion... awkward as heck, but also very interesting... missions do strange things to people... and absolutely nothing to some people, too.
• carving a very sad pumpkin that fell apart the next day anyway.
• Getting to know you questionnaire at FHE...
  
• Eggs... which I don't even remember the story to anymore.
  
• Aspen grove... awesome stars and aeroball.
  
• signs... played it three times this semester and every time, its even more hilarious.
• Fridays in family rec... who knew that college students got together and played games every week for a grade?
• Tour of the stadium... I've been to every nook and cranny including the president's box and all that jazz.
• The Jazz... learning about basketball again... which I haven't done since high school.
• Telling my mom about the Jazz and having my dog, Jazz, react every time that my mom says it on the phone.
  
• being introduced to all the amazing places to eat around provo.
• nickelcade... who knew video games were actually fun, when you're with the right people.
• bowling... "I'm looking at your butt" makes Mal bowl worse, but strangely, makes Ian bowl better... not sure what that is saying.
• Haunted hotels... scariest night of my life... next to that one night dog sledding.
• dinner in the hot tub... found out it makes your stomach act very strangely
• Wingers... and fake wingers
• A field show with an electric guitar... who was amazingly attractive
• learning I can kinda play guitar... at least more than I ever thought possible
• Olive Garden and freaking out the waiter... on multiple occasions :P
  
• Heather's pumpkin pie... and the amazingly attractive waiter
• Late night trips to various food establishments and wal-mart
• Games at Ian's family's house... or just chilling there in general, especially when his sisters make him dance disco with himself. hahaha!
• tokyo tokkyou kyokakyoku
• nearly passing out in first aid... then doing the same to my friends :P
• band camp... crazy times every year... hot and miserable, yet, strangely fun...
• Bro. Mac: "Not to be obnoxious, but you've lost weight and you look good" hahaha... awkward
• discovering old people are very entertaining... and almost losing my life every time I got in a car that trip.
• Rugged Oompah Loompahs in my closet
• USU game and the amazing food band always feeds us... and the apple I found in my parka a week later (and it was still good).
• finding out I'm a lightweight... again, embarrassing, and yet strangely funny.
• Comedy sports... why are you asking me? I am a human! see my knee... here's my other knee...
  

I'm sure there are a million more things that I'll think of right when I'm no longer around the computer, but that's a pretty good list for now. If there's something left off that offends you, I'm sorry... I probably just didn't think of it at this precise moment.

Friends

So, I like to think that I would do anything for my friends. I like to think that, if I had need to, or I guess if my friends had need, then I would take a bullet for them. Lately, though, I have discovered that I may be blind.
What if what my friends need me to do for them is let them go? I had never considered that that could be the case. For me, I think that might be worse than taking a bullet, but I would do anything for my friends, right? I hoped to never be in that situation, but now that it may be very real, can I take a bullet? Do my friends really want me to take a bullet?

I hope they don't, and I hope I don't have to...

I'm not crazy!!!

So, as it turns out... I'm not as crazy as I thought. I was in my first aid class and we went over carbon monoxide poisoning. As we were going over the symptoms, I was like "I have that... and that... and that, too!!" And then I realized that our apartment's carbon monoxide detector has been going off every day for like a month and a half or so. We all thought that the detector was scitzo, so we always ignored it.
After my class, I went to the doctors because I can't get over this stupid cold cough thing I have and my mom thought it might be pneumonia (which it isn't... its just a new strain of some a-something-a-rather virus) and while I was there, I decided to ask about carbon monoxide poisoning. I told the doctor that I have been fatigued and dizzy and generally just icky before I even got sick. He said that sounded exactly like carbon monoxide poisoning, and put together with my detector going off, all signs pointed to me having a minor case of poisoning. Then he told me that if I took 4 ib profien three times a day for four days, it should take care of any symptoms I have from poisoning (assuming the leak gets fixed). Then he listed all the symptoms so I would know what to expect. One of them was... you guessed it: depression!!!
So, I may be crazy, but soon I should be back to my normal crazy and not my extreme state of unhappy craziness. I can't even describe how happy I am to find out there is a reason that I've been feeling how I have. Apparently, my brain is inflamed (according to my long-winded doctor) and I can actually feel normal again with a handful of pills.

I'm so happy!

Apparently, I can't handle my liquor.

So, I've been sick for a while. I have had this cough that refuses to go away. And its not like a once an hour you cough your lungs out... no. That would be nice. This one is a every deep breath I take I cough once or twice. Sometimes it is an every word you say, you have to cough in between kind of cough. Needless to say, I am quite irritated.
Last Friday, Mallory, Ian, and I decided to watch Remember the Titans, and about every three seconds, I would cough. It was really annoying, so I decided to go home and take some cough syrup. Normally, it knocks me out, but if I try really hard I can stay awake. Unfortunately, that night, I guess I couldn't fight very hard and I was asleep on Ian's couch within a half hour. I guess he fell asleep on the other couch, which left Mallory watching the movie all by herself next to me.
Apparently, I was still coughing in my sleep, though, because Mal told me that it sounded like I was laughing and would cough/laugh at all the right times in the movie... weird.
Anyway, so if I get woken up from a cough syrup sleep before about five hours after I've taken it, I'm pretty loopy. Unfortunately, I couldn't very well spend the night on Ian's couch, so Mal did the nice thing and tried to wake me up.
DISCLAIMER: Most of the following, I don't really remember, but was told by Mallory. All I can really remember is a little bit like a dream you have, but you can only remember the feeling of and no real details.
So, apparently it takes Mallory like twenty minutes to wake me up in the first place. I guess she tried taking my blanket off my toes, which I made a loud grunt at and re-covered my toes. She tried getting me to stand up... I guess I ended up on the ground. Basically, every attempt she made led to me making some really embarrassing mean grunt and rolling over and ignoring her. Honestly, she's probably lucky I didn't kick her or something.
Realizing she couldn't get me up, she woke up Ian to see if he would have any more luck. I guess he picked me up and put me back on the couch. Then he ripped the blanket off me, to which I woke up. And this part I remember: I opened my eyes and saw him and got really freaked out and exclaimed "where am I?!". I remember thinking I was in my bed asleep, but suddenly there was a guy standing over me. I was a little freaked out. After that, it gets foggy again. I think I fell back asleep, but somehow Ian got me to stand up.
I guess I couldn't really stand up, though, so he was holding me up. I guess I wanted my purse, and I couldn't talk... or maybe I wouldn't talk, or something, so I grunted at my purse and Mallory read my mind. Then I realized I didn't have shoes on, so I got Ian to let me go... or maybe he was still holding me up... and I put my shoes on. And then I had to walk back to my place. Ian was still holding me up, but I think at some point I made him let me go to prove I could walk on my own.
I walked... well wobbled into my apartment, and there were of course a million and a half people over, who all started snickering at me (that I remember a little, because I was embarrassed.... apparently before this I had no shame??). Then I realized I didn't have my cell phone which is my alarm clock, so I mumbled something about it to Mallory and then wobbled back to Ian's and just walked in and took my cell phone.
Then I came back and walked upstairs... I'm pretty sure I really just pushed myself up the wall, cuz I don't think I could have balanced and wobbled at the same time. Then I realized how thirsty I was and came back down to get a drink. Then I apparently started falling asleep with the cup falling out of my hands, so Mal sent me back upstairs. After that I remember texting Mallory and Ian, but I don't think I was all that coherent... or at least I can't really remember if the texts I sent were intelligible at all. After a while, I finally fell asleep.
The next morning was, of course, game day. I have never seen the sun so painfully bright, or the drum line so poundingly loud. I thought my brain would liquefy and just pour out of the holes in my face.
So, in conclusion, I apparently am a lightweight and can't handle a tiny cup of 10% alcohol. Who knew? I guess that's what I get for never really drinking alcohol in my life. If you ever want to see me really strange, though, now you know what to do :P

Happiness

I have never been an unhappy person... until lately. I don't really understand why, but recently I have lost the capacity to be happy for more than about a day. I used to not really feel much of any emotion, but now it seems like I'm on a constant roller coaster being completely miserable and then completely happy in a matter of hours. Even when I am having moments of happiness, though, I sense how fleeting they really are and always have a tinge of sadness. Whether on the inside or the outside, I feel like I am always crying. I don't understand and I don't know how to get better.
I have always been a little mono-chromatic in the emotions area. There's only really been one time before in my life that I have felt extreme emotion, but it was the good, happy kind. The kind that feeds your soul so you feel you no longer have need for food. It was the kinds of emotion that make you want to float on a cloud and constantly dance. Then I got hurt and I resumed my shutting down of all emotions.
I would say in the majority of my life, I have felt contentedness and maybe whims of other emotions. It has always really actually been a problem. I have never been able to express emotion on my flute and many teachers have called me out for it. Eventually, I learned to manufacture emotional sound, but I still can't really say I have ever felt a piece of music. Honestly, though, people could always tell a little that I was dead inside.
I'd smile, though, and fool a lot of people. It was my attempt at fake it 'till you make it, and I faked it enough that people thought I made it, and I was content.
Now, though, I've lost the ability to even be content. I feel like I have to now pay for the short time in my life when I was truly happy. Now I have to go through being completely miserable and being on a constant roller coaster of highs and lows with no stability whatsoever in life. I feel like I have to learn again how to be happy, but I don't know how to teach myself. I really just want to be able to shut down all my emotions again, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. I need to find something to fix me, though, because I can't continue to live in my current state for very long. It makes me want to curl up in a ball and avoid all human contact. I want to retreat to my dreams where life always seems to be better and I can actually feel happy. I want to run away to home so that I don't have to deal with everything that is so screwed up right now. I want to sever all ties from everything and anyone I know and start completely fresh. I want to reinvent myself to become a better person than the horrible one I feel I am becoming. I don't know how... and I don't really want to, I just feel like I need to.
Is this what living is like? If so, then I almost want to go back to being my boring, unfeeling self. It hurt a lot less and I was much more successful at it. I need a success in life so that I can feel like I'm doing more than just failing in every aspect. Is this what 21 is supposed to feel like? Where do I go to feel good? What in the world did I do to get this?

I need fixing.

Meanwhile, I'll wear my facade.


Help me.

Animals-- dogs

People think I'm weird. Well, they think I'm weird for a number of reasons, but a lot of people think I'm weird because I care about animals. To be specific, a lot of times I feel worse for animals than I do for humans in similar situations.
For me, pets and children are very similar. They are both innocent and completely dependent on others for survival. Therefore, when either one is hurt by those who take care of them, I feel very sad. That is why, if I see an animal being hurt on television, I am more likely to cry than if I see a full grown adult human being hurt. The animals have no control over their situation, whereas, nine times out of ten, the person does.
On top of that, dogs, specifically, are so sweet. They don't care who you are or what you have done, they still love you. They never turn their backs on you and it is really hard to get in a fight with a dog and have them sulk in hurt feelings or a week. Dogs don't care how old you are, if you are pretty, or how much you make. They will always do whatever it takes to make you feel better. All dogs know is love and they are completely willing to share it. Dogs don't withhold information or scheme on how to make you feel like trash. Dogs don't play favorites. If you've had a bad day, dogs are always there to make you feel better, and they want to be there to help. Dogs always love to cuddle and aren't ever afraid to show you they love you.
I grew up in a house where saying I love you or physically touching anyone was a little strange. Through a series of unfortunate events, I went to a school outside of my attendance zone, and, therefore, had no children my age to play with in my neighborhood. My dog, Taffy, was my best friend. She loved me and, though she obviously didn't talk, she showed me every day. Taffy always wanted to be with me and I could tell her anything and sh would still accept me for who I was. Anything I wanted to do, Taffy was right there at my side. Even if I was just playing at the computer, taffy would be right there at my feet so I could pet her with my toes. Every night, Taffy would sleep in my room, preferring it over her own bed in the living room. Taffy was an amazing friend. She was my best friend until the night she died in my arms.
I hope that all dogs really do go to heaven because Taffy is as much family as any of my actual family is to me. If anything, Taffy is the one in my family who taught me how to feel. She was the one who kept me sane for much of my life and the one that taught me that loving something isn't a crime. I miss Taffy terribly, but am grateful for everything she helped me through.
I will forever be a dog person and am so sad that I can't have one where I live. I feel like a peice of my heart is always missing, and you can think I'm weird for that, but that is just the person I am.

Japan Trip

So, summer of 2007, I took a seven week long trip to Japan and over the course of the seven weeks, I sent my mom multiple updates of how my trip was going and I thought it would be fun to put them here. Just warning, though... this will be a ridiculously long post which include several words and phrases in Japanese, which may or may not be obvious what the meaning is. Sorry.

Here it is though. Enjoy.

Let’s see, start from the plane ride. It was crowded, maybe one or two empty seats, but it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t sleep much, but I didn’t sleep much the few days before, anyway. I had my own tv, much like Jet blue, but, unlike Jetblue, it was on demand, so I could watch any movie/show anytime. That was pretty nice and I watched a few movies and a couple episodes of House. The food wasn’t bad either and it was kinda funny. The flight attendant came around with the food and looked at me, made a scrunched face and said “would you like to try some Japanese food?” I said yeah an the “Japanese food” turned out to be heavily Hawaiian teriyaki with some very weak somen noodles. I think the soy was watered down. The meal of course came with chopsticks so she made the same scrunched face and said that shed go and get a fork. “No, that’s ok… I know how to use them”. And so the fork offerings began. Apparently because I have blue eyes and blonde hair, I am automatically incapable of using chopstiks, or so all Japanese seem to think. I can tell you how many people, when they see me use chopstiks, have a huge surprised look and exclaim “Umai!!”. So I can pick up a pile of sticky ric with a couple of sticks… wow. They do it everyday and I don’t see them complimenting each other. Oh well, I guess I’ll just take the compliment.

After the plane was customs, which was fairly easy because nobody wanted to try to speak English to me and how could I possibly know Japanese. Basically, everywhere I went, I was just waved through. A lot like the border to California. I wonder if I looked middle eastern if they would do the same. Anyway, I got my bags, filled out the right forms, and exchanged my money fairly easily.

Then I had to get on the train. Buying the tickets was fine; the girl spoke English. After that, though. Papa didn’t tell me all the stations were huge and all I remember from when I was little is Shiojiri and Matsumoto stations, which are fairly small. So after figuring out the general platform I was supposed to be on, I couldn’t tell for the life of me which side of the platform my train would come to. So I had about an hour to spare, so I looked up and down the platform for anything that looked like it matched my ticket. It didn’t help that my ticket was in Japanese and I could only read like two of the Kanji. So I must’ve looked really stupid because the people they have just standing around that announce the trains came over and just kinda stared at me, so I figured that was his way of saying, “May I help you?”. So I handed him my ticket and said “koko wa doko desu ka?” Turns out I was on the right side. Yokkatta.

The train ride was fine. Longer than I expected and I was terribly afraid I’d miss my stop. I was dead tired, but couldn’t sleep. So after two hours of being totally zonked, I got to Shinagawa.

After about twenty minutes of wandering back and forth trying to figure out what exit I needed to go out, I finally decided to look at the paper papa gave me. It was very helpful and told me what exit to go out and then to look for a McDonalds and head toward that. So I exit the station and I’m looking and looking… no McDonalds to be found. Of course, I’m looking for a stand alone building with big golden arches. Very mistaken. If I didn’t know it was there, I don’t think I ever would have noticed a McDonalds at all. Anyway, I found a map by the eki exit and figured it out from there. And, of course, as I’m walking by it, I notice the McDonalds. I think its much like Pirates of the Caribbean: the McDonalds can only be found by those who know where it is.

Anyway, I check in. Again, no problem. It was funny, though. The guy who checked me in handed my a paper and said, “You have a massage”. I have a massage? That’s nice, but I don’t think I asked for one. So, I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean massage, so I opened up the paper and it said “Yukiko called 8:30 pm”. Ooooh a message. So, by now its about 9:10 and I go drop off all my crap in my room and head for a payphone.

Actually, really, I headed toward the internet café and figured I’d find a payphone on the way. Sure enough I did and I gave Yukiko a call. She told me to take the ten o’clock train from Shinjuku. Aw man, now I have to get up early. Plus, I didn’t know how long it took to get from Shinagawa to Shinjuku. On top of that, I had already bought my ticket for Shiojiri. So I get off the phone with her and try to find the Yahoo café. I can’t find it anywhere. You’d think it would be on the first floor, right? Wrong. Its on the seventh floor, along with the check in. Weird. So I got there and bought a friggin five dollar soda and used the internet to e-mail you guys.

So I finally go to my room and take a shower/bath because I really stunk! After an eleven hour plane ride and then a two hour train ride after an hour and a half in customs. It was a long day. I was gonna watch a little tv before going to bed, but I would’ve had to pay ten bucks just for regular channels. I figured for a half hour of TV I probly wouldn’t understand anyway, I’d rather not. Plus, I set my alarm for seven anyway and figured I’d probly need all the sleep I could get. Since by then it was about eleven pm, I figured it was time to sleep.

The next day (dang all that up there was one day?!?!), I went to their free breakfast thingy, which was actually very nice. It was a little awkward eating by myself, as was being in a hotel room by myself, too. I did have fun eavesdropping on the people next to me, who I think were from Texas. They were in Japan on business and I guessed it must’ve been their first time because they kept commenting on how sweet their omelets was and how weird it tasted. “Chickens must lay some different kind of egg”. Hahaha. Right… They also just kinda looked at me funny when I sowed up at my table with miso soup and chopsticks.

After that, I headed for the train station and exchanged my tickets for the ones Yukiko requested (all in Japanese, it was a little confusing, but it worked out alright). After another twenty minutes looking for the right platform, I asked one of the ticket sellers. I went over to the platform, but my ticket to Shinjuku wasn’t a reserve ticket, so I could get on any train. Unfortunately, I didn’t know which trains went where, so I went to ask on of the announcer guys. It was about 8, so it was rush hour. Way too many people! So, I’m trying to get to this announcer guy and theres just hordes of people and I’m three people wide with my luggage. I’m trying not to get in people’s way while trying to get to this guy and theres like flash floods of people every two minutes. I kinda reminded me of Frogger, the video game, when he’s trying to cross the busy street. So, I find a place where no one’s walking to wait for the next space I can walk. This place happened to be right in front of the stairs at the hand rail. Again, I must’ve looked very confused because a guy about 25, I’d say, came up to me and said, in English, “You not having to use stairs”. Ok. What the heck does that mean? So, I just kinda stared at him blankly. Then he said, “elevator” and pointed away from the stairs. Oh. He thinks I’m trying to use the stairs with my luggage. Geez I must look like an idiot. So, I replied, in Japanese “I’m riding this next train and I’m just trying to get over there.” My Japanese must have sounded just as bad as his English because he gave me the same blank stare. So, I just thanked him and he went on his way. I finally made it over to the announcer guy and he told me all the trains until like eleven am stopped at all the stops. They seemed to be coming about every two minutes, so I waited about twenty minutes until one came that wasn’t packed like sardines.

The ride was only about twenty minutes, so I had plenty of time to spare at Shinjuku station. The platform for Matsumoto was a lot less crowded and I could read the Kanji to figure out the platform, so it was a lot easier. Got on that train, no problem, except there didn’t seem to be a place to put my bags. The cluelessness, again, seemed to be very obvious and a man boarding the train pointed to a space behind the back seats and said “here”. I thanked him and started stowing my bags, but the angle was really awkward for my bags, so this other nice man, noticing my trouble, came and said “May I help you?” and stowed my bags for me before I even had the chance to say “yes, please.” I don’t remember Japanese men being so randomly helpful.

Again, long easy train ride and I was there. Yukiko was easy enough to find and we were off. I packed all my junk in her tiny compact car, which seems to be the norm in Japan, and we went to eat at the skylark restaurant. We shared this huge egg sandwich thing and I had melon soda, which, by the way, is fanta, even though daddy said he couldn’t find fanta melon soda. And, they sell it at all the convenience stores! Then we went over to Yukiko’s house. Her house, itself, hasn’t changed much at all, but you remember how she was surrounded by great big fields? Now its packed with houses so close that if anybody’s phone rings within the surrounding houses, you can hear it every time. And theres also a big park across the street from her. Anyway, I played with chappi, their dog, for a little while and then Yukiko drove me over to misawa-san’s house.

Misawa san is a hair cutter person and you’d know her if you saw her. She apparently cut my hair when I was four and she came to the U.S. with one of the tours with her daughters maybe ten years ago? Anyway, I recognized her, so you definitely would, too. Anyway, the first day at her house, we went and played ping pong at Matsumoto hospital (btw, is that where I had a rod shoved up my leg?). It was fun, but a little weird, since I didn’t really know anyone and wasn’t too comfortable with the whole Japanese speaking thing. After ping pong, we went out to ramen, where I was complimented on my hashi usage and told how strange I was for liking miso ramen. Apparently that’s weird for foreigners.

After that, we went back home and I said I probly should stay up a little late because I want to get over Jet lag, so I watched Shrek 2 in Japanese, then went to bed. The next day, I had no schedule and Misawasan said I could get up at eleven if I wanted to. I could tell this was going to be a fun house to stay at. I decided nine thirty was probly a little more reasonable for Japanese. By the time I was completely dressed and groom and eaten it was probably ten twenty, but there truly was no schedule for the day because Misawasan works. I watched a lot of television, including Laputa, and then went to Yukiko’s to help out. Yukiko’s was fun, except that she has me trying to teach them games, which I figured out by the third class that, instead of trying to explain pictionary, I’d just draw a picture on the board and tell them to guess. I’m also teaching elementary school kids, so they can’t really read. So, when they would draw a paper to know what they were drawing, I’d have to write what it was in hiragana on the board so they’d know what it was. Unfortunately, not matter how small or hidden I kept it, sometimes the kids would see what it was. Kinda a rotten system, I’d say.

By this time I’m zonked and I go back to Misawa’s. She has ping pong again, (I guess that it’s some crazy team she’s on because she’s single and she had a crush on one of the guys on the team, so she joined and got hooked on ping pong. Acording to yukiko, she also lost like 15 kilos because the guy she liked didn’t like her, or something like that) so I went to that. This time though, it was a collection of about eight old people who play very competitively. We were one of the first ones there, so everybody was very surprised when they showed up and a blonde was there. This one old guy, said something I didn’t hear to one of the other old guys and walked over to me. Then, like a mime, he made the action of playing ping pong, pointed to me, then motioned me over to him. I said, “sumimasen, kedo, ping pong wo yarimasen. Watashi tottemo heta desu.” He made a huge surprised face and just walked to his table. It’s really funny surprising people like that. So, I spent about an hour there and the son, Takeki, came and picked up me and Mizuki, the daughter (cellulite girl). I took a bath and went to bed, totally exhausted.

Next day was basically the same schedule in the morning. I was supposed to be helping out at Yoshida Shogakkou, but in Misawasan’s own words: “Mizuki no sensee wa baka!”, so I guess he was lazy and didn’t really want me there. He also said he needed a profile for the school, which I gladly wrote for him, in English of course. It would sound really stupid if I wrote it in Japanese. “I like school. School is fun. I help school. I help school very good. I’m good English. English yay!” I don’t think so, I’d sound mentally retarded. Anyway, he told Mizuki he couldn’t read it, and, instead of immediately forwarding it to the English teacher, he held on to it for a while. So, anyway, I was free during the days for about a week.

That evening, however, Misawasan took a hip hop dance class, so I went to that. It was interesting. A lot of hip moving and hopping around, which I’m pretty sure looked pretty stupid when I did it, but the teacher (who was a guy) said that I was very good and to definitely bring me back. Yeah, I’m sure I was great and the fact that I have blonde hair and breasts and have to jump around for the dance is not why he wants me to come back…

Anyway, after that was a yakiniku with some of misawasan’s friends. That was pretty fun, but I think most everybody, or at least all the men, were very drunk. It was definitely interesting, though, and they had fun with the gaijin. Everyone was talking really fast and, since I had only been there four days, I couldn’t really understand what the heck they were saying when they were talking so fast. After a while, though, Misawasan told them that I know Japanese, but they were talking to fast, so in their drunken state, they decided to talk to me in slow motion, like whale talk. I could understand what they were saying and they got a hoot out of me answering them. Then they wanted me to translate everything they were saying into English. Everything I said in English was followed by a chorus of “kakkoii!”

Halfway through the party, Mizuki had to go to the bathroom, but you had to walk through a small collection of trees to get to the community center where the bathroom is. For some reason Japanese people are very afraid of ghosts, etc., so I went with her to the bathroom. Inside the community center was the same mime guy! So I went to the bathroom and when I got out Mizuki was talking to him. He knew very well that I spoke Japanese, but still mimed to me eating and barbecuing and rubbed his belly as if he was full and pointed toward the park where the barbecue was. How the hey am I supposed to answer that??? I just said “Hai, oishikatta. Onaka ippai.” Then Mizuki told him that I learned the bald song earlier that day and made me sing it for him. That, too was rather entertaining.

After about another half hour of entertaining a lot of drunk guys, we went home. I watched a little TV, took a bath and went to bed.

The next day was Saturday and I went to Mizuki’s class for some parent visit thing. I went before all the parents, though, and made a whole bunch of tissue eyeballs. Not quite sure what for, but I think it might be for the stomp rally I’m going to tonight with Mizuki. After that, I went back home, ate lunch, and went back to the school for the parent part. I was apparently Mizuki’s adopted mother. It was rather entertaining but then all the parents went to the gym for some presentation. Mizuki told me that it was very boring and it would probably be better for me if I went back home. So, I did, but later that day was the huge tug of war, so after a couple hours, I went back to the school with Mizuki and participated in the giant tug of war. Unfortunately, I lost after the first round. Was still quite a show, though.

Oh, I forgot that on Friday, I went over to Yukiko’s because her husband came home early and wanted to see me before he went on his business trip to Hawaii (the lucky butt!). So, I went and visited for a while and then Yukiko and I took him to the station and then went to Yochien to talk to encho sensee about me coming to help out, then went to her friends coffee shop because Yukiko had to drop something off. Remember this coffee shop because I’ll mention it again.

So, the next day, I went to a matsuri with a family of total strangers, the Saitos. I guess they were friends of Misawasan, and they were really nice. Anyway, the festival was fun and much like I remember various festivals as a kid. They had the superball fishing and the goldfish fishing and the rubberducky fishing with the paper nets. They had the darts and the shooting game and the game where you try to knock down the milk bottles. They also had the one where you draw a number and you get a prize depending on the number and the water balloon yoyo game. I played the milk bottle game where you actually had to knock the milk bottles over the edge in three tries, so I threw my three balls and knocked them all down, but none were near the edge. The guy running the booth then handed me one more ball and said “one more try”. Then he moved two of the bottles really close to the edge so that if a wind blew they’d fall over the edge. Of course, with my lack of skill, I only knocked one over. I also played the draw a number game, where I won the smallest prize, and the yoyo game. There the guy running the booth was a “bad guy”. You know how they give you a hook on a strip of paper? Well they’re supposed to let you play until the paper breaks. I didn’t remember that, so after I got one yoyo, I handed it to him completely dry. He just took it from me and handed me the balloon and threw my hook away. Oh, well. It’s not like I didn’t have to pop the balloons the next week anyway.

At the festival, they also had carts being pulled by a whole heck of a lot of people. The cart itself was two stories with people riding the first floor and taikos and flutes on the second floor. On the roof were people moving power lines out of the way, which I’m not sure is too safe to do, generally speaking. They also stopped periodically and handed out paper flowers to the girls, which is apparently supposed to bring you good fortune. We followed one of the carts for a while and it finally stopped and gave me and Mizuki paper flowers. It was pretty funny when the cart came to a corner, though, because I don’t think it had an axle. So, basically, the people pulling the cart had to run really quickly so it would jerk the cart toward them and make it around the corner. It was fun, but a really long day when everything was done.

On Monday, I started at yochien. That was natsukashii. They told me to come around 8:30 to 9:00, so I showed up about 8:45. I think I was pretty close to the first one there. The kids showed up around 8:55 and I think about half noticed that I was different from them and the other half didn’t even blink. Anyway, we played on the play ground until about ten then the kids practiced the dance for their obon. I learned their little dance as they practiced and try to help by example. They had three different dances: one about doraemon, one about anpanman, and one that I couldn’t really tell. Then I helped them make little animals with bells for their little craft sale they have every year. I think that’s the same sale where I made a bagillion cup watches and you made towel bunnies. After that was lunch and then some other crafty thing, which I can’t remember. Then I went home.

The next day, I went back to Yochien, but it was raining, so the kids couldn’t play outside. Instead, the kids all played in the gym with the big foam blocks. You remember, the ones I used to chew on. I think they are the exact same set. In fact, I think I found my teeth marks in one block that I remember particularly well. So, I was constantly pulled from the classroom to the gym and back. Everyone wanted me to play with them, which was nice, but extremely tiring. After playing for a long time, they made these dolls wearing kimonos out of origami and paper towel tubes. I think that the dolls were supposed to be the teachers because they then attached messages like “Gambate” and stuff like that. Then, lunch and then we made more stuff for them to sell. They made toy milk carton cars. They were pretty cute.

After Yochien, I went over to the shogakkou to meet with the English teacher. She told me the topics we would be covering in class, and she had a pretty elaborate plan for each class, so I didn’t have to think of any games or anything. Plus, they also had an ALT (alternate language teacher??) who was from Canada. So, in the classroom it would be the English teacher, Yanik (the ALT), and me. Too many cooks, if you ask me.

After meeting with the English teacher, I went back to the house for a bit, then Misawasan, Mizuki, and I all went to see Misawasan’s best friend, who lives about fourty five minutes away. We stopped at apple land on the way, which, by the way, has changed a heck of a ton. There, we bought omiyage and continued on our way. We arrived at her house and went in to where there was a heck of a lot of food, like everywhere I went. BTW, I think you are most definitely wrong about losing weight in Japan because as soon as people find out I like Japanese food, they like to test it out. “Eat this. Now, eat this”. Yes, I like Japanese food… I am in Japan! Anyway, she did the same thing and made me eat at least eighteen different things. I was completely stuffed. She did comment on how cute I was because my face was tiny… not sure if that’s a compliment…Before we left, she did the Japanese thing and gave everyone omiyage. She even gave me omiyage: an entry way cloth thingy, which I forget what it’s called, and a Japanese dictionary. I guess she works either for a bookstore or a publishing company. Not sure which. Anyway, I rolled out of there stuffed and we went home and went to bed.

Next day was Yochien, again. It rained again, so it was basically the same drill. Lots of playing and lots of crafts. This time, we made fans for obon. It was a fun little craft, which I got to do, also. We used really thin paper and drew vegetables, modeled after the garden vegetables, then outlined it with a paintbrush and water. Then we ripped where the paper was. It’s a pretty cute fan, despite it having vegetables on it.

That night, after going to Yukiko’s, Misawasan had a dinner party. Or, at least that’s what I call it. I guess it wasn’t really a party, but the Saito’s (the family that took me to the festival) came over. I guess the husband went to culinary school, so he cooked like 12 different main courses. There was inarisushi, chicken skin, shrimp cocktail, mashed potatoes, ume chicken, Indian style curry chicken, and some other stuff. Mostly, I ate the inarisushi and curry chicken. He was obsessed with making sure that I knew that everything was his own original recipe. Yeah, ok. He was nice, but kinda weird. He later made me a good luck bracelet as a gift, which was nice, but I think he might be gay. It is a pretty bracelet though, and, in his own words, “It is a Jewel original”. This guy had a weird obsession with originality, I think. They stayed until like ten at night and then they finally went home and I got to bed around eleven thirty.

Next day was Yoshida Sho. That was interesting. Teaching styles were incredibly different from Yukiko and the ALT from Canada… turns out he’s French Canadian. So, he’s teaching “English” in an incredibly heavy accent and his grammar is all wrong on top of that. I swear it’s the blind leading the blind over here. It was fun, though. They incorporated a lot of games which the class seemed to enjoy. I did have to introduce myself four time, though. And the way the teacher wanted me to do it, I had to make it a guessing game. So, I’d say “can anybody guess where I’m from” and they’d usually guess Russia. Not sure why… maybe I look Russian?? After my intro, there was a Q and A for me, where I was usually asked things like how old am I, how many people are in my family, and what kind of guys I like. I was tempted several times to describe the boy who asked me what kind of guy I liked just to embarrass them, but though better of it. One boy, who I think’s parents must be American or British because he’s white and his name was Dylan, asked my how much I weighed. I told him in pounds because it has no meaning to them. There was only one gaijin kid and I swear he had some sever ADHD. He was just obnoxious. I kinda wonder if Nick was the same way. Anyway, I had the same lessons for two days, and then it was the weekend.

So, you remember the coffee shop? Well, I guess the son of the owner goes to a liberal arts high school and his “major” is English. So, he heard that Yukiko had an American friend visiting from Japan, and he wanted to take me to his bunseikai, I think it’s called? Anyway, it was his school festival. I think he really just wanted to be seen with a blonde because he’s kinda weird. Anyway, it was awkward, but sorta fun. I did meet his English teacher, who was hot, so at least I got something out of it. He was definitely only eighteen, though. Very immature, and he kept leaving me with his friends, who also had no idea what was going on. It was just kinda strange. Anyway, after that we took the train to a station, which I don’t even remember which one it was.

There, I was picked up by Yukiko’s other friend, who took me to dinner. Her husband works for Roland keyboards, so he goes to the US fairly frequently and his English is pretty good. Hers was also, and I think they really just wanted to practice English more than anything. Oh yeah. For dinner, we went to ramen, where it was a ma pop place and Japanese style seating. So, of course I kneel and kneeling sideways is very uncomfortable for me, so I just kneel normally. Well, the pop comes over and compliments me on my manners and how well I use hashi. Apparently, there had been someone from Sweden there earlier that day, so he said this was now an international store. I though that was pretty funny.

Anyway, after that, I went to the house where I was supposed to spend the weekend. They were the neighbors of the lady who picked me up from the station, so they weren’t total strangers… at least to someone. Anyway, when I got to their house, the husband was having a jam session with his brother in law. As soon as I showed up, he somehow knew that I played flute. He had an old flute from when his daughter was in High school which he brought out for me to try because he said the pads were really bad and he just wanted to see how bad they were. So, he brought it out and I looked at it. The pads looked brand new and it even looked recently polished. So, I played it and it played beautifully. I told him it was fine, so he played it and asked me to go get my own flute, which I did. We then played a series of duets. Then his brother in law joined us on guitar playing chords. Then after a while of that, he went and got a pianica and the neighbor who works for Roland (who came over with me) backed us all up with more chords and some rhythm. It was very entertaining. I did notice that throughout the night, each of the men drank a whole bottle of sake each. They were pretty smashed by the end of the night, but it was still very entertaining.

I spent the night there, as did the in-laws, and the next day, we went to the mountains where I guess the in-laws were planning on buying a bed and breakfast and living there. So, I guess they weren’t allowed to show up until two o’clock, so we all went to Hakuba and saw the ski jump. We also ate at McDonalds, where these poor gaizin, I’m guessing Australian, came in and had a heck of a time ordering. I would’ve helped, but I think I would’ve sounded just as stupid. Oh, and McDonalds no longer has curry rice L. It actually is nearly identical now to American McDonalds with the exception of the teriyaki burger. After that, we all went to the bed and breakfast, which I thought was cute, but the sax guy thought it was too old and needed some serious cleaning. I thought maybe some vaccuming, but not much more. The in-laws stayed there the night as a test, I guess, and we went back to Matsumoto, where we stopped at Matsumoto-jo which is a lot steeper than I remember it. After that, we went to the house, had sashimi for dinner, and went to bed.

The next day, I had until three with the music people and they decided to have a yakiniku with the neighbors. Unfortunately, only the father was available, so only he came over.

It was fun though, and I think I’m basically guaranteed a job with Roland after BYU as a proofreader because I guess they get a lot of complaints from the US about weird English that they can’t understand. That would be close to the perfect job with my major and minors, though. It uses English, Japanese, and Music. Anyway, we’ll see.

After the barbecue, we went to the Lawson shop down the street where I was picked up by Mrs. Tamagawa.

It was an interesting stay with the Tamagawas, and I’m not quite sure what I think about it. I went to Kikyo Elementary school, where I was treated as one of the students and expected to do the same things as the students, which was interesting. I was there for a full week (Tuesday to Tuesday, I believe) and was shuffled around to a whole lot of different classes. The first two days, I was passed through all of the second grade classes, where I did reading, writing, math, crafts, music (lots of uta utae, the song, not the action of utaing utas). I knew a couple of the teachers really wanted me there because they incorporated me into their lesson plans, like me reading a book in English to them, and then they read the same book to me in Japanese. However, I’m pretty sure I was more of a burden to other teachers who kinda scowled at me and didn’t say much to me. It was odd in those classrooms.

The second two days, I was in a third grade class, just one, and it was kinda nice not to have to shuffle around every period and actually get to know some of the kids. One of the girls, whose name I can’t remember, but have written on an origami somewhere, was at least half portugese and she was funny. She seemed much more outgoing than the rest of the class and attached herself at my hip. That was actually kinda nice because at the other classes, in the second grade, I had to wait around for someone to show me what were getting out and what’s going on, but she kinda acted as tour guide… or something along those lines. So, I spent those classes practicing kanji I’ve never even seen before in my life, making up math word problems in Japanese (which, as the teacher said, “was so good I could’ve mistaken it for one of my own student’s work.” I’m not sure being able to write on a second grade level, maybe, is all that much of a compliment, but…), and playing oni gokko at recess, which is basically tag played throughout the whole school. One recess, the Portuguese girl took me to the library to show me their book on the US and pointed at every picture and said, “Isn’t this amazing??” I couldn’t help but laugh when she pointed to a McDonald’s picture and said, “Sugoi jyaaaaaaan!” to her friend. It the last recess I was with them, they made little origami everything and gave them to me. One of the origami was a cup, which had at least six tiny notes showed into it. It was cute, and I still haven’t read the notes. I also got to do calligraphy with the third graders and that was fun. I did have an embarrassing moment, though. Everyone was getting their calligraphy stuff together, which included me. So, I had all the materials out and was working on making the black ink blacker with the little block that looked like concentrated charcoal. I was rubbing it against the little area in the dish that you’re supposed to to make it right. That makes a little sound, much like rubbing two large rocks together. I was in my own little world of repetitive motion, which always triggered me to fall deep into thought and forget my surroundings. Then the teacher called to everyone to stop and look up at the board. But, I was in my own little world. So the teacher called again. Still I didn’t hear. It wasn’t until the Portuguese girl laughed that I realized I was the only one moving. I blurted out a loud sumimasen and focused as hard as I could on the teacher. It was rather embarrassing, and I’m pretty sure the teacher thought I didn’t really know Japanese and I was just faking it all after that incident because after she explained everything, she came back to me and grabbed my hand, with the brush in it, and basically did for me what I needed to do. I then grabbed another paper and did the kanji (which was dai, or the o in anything that starts with o) flawlessly. Ha!

After that class, I was moved over to a first grade class for my last two days. They were cute, but rambunctious. It was pretty crazy. I felt a lot like yochien again. Rambunctious kids that wanted to climb all over me every instant they had. It was fun, but I felt kinda stupid sometimes. Like, during the time they all read out loud from their book, and I was struggling to keep up reading hiragana. Other times, I was just pretty much purely annoyed. My assigned desk was next to this chubby kid. After about an hour, I figured out why this desk was empty. The kid would not shut up. Everything he did, was just annoying. If we were reading from the lit book, he would sit there saying “I like onigiri” after we read a part about an onigiri or anything along those lines until I couldn’t even concentrate enough to read a single sentence. Or, when we’re doing math and he constantly turns the pages in my book. I would be well finished with the simple subtraction problems and start flipping through the book, just to see what else was in it. Everytime I’d turn a page, he’d grab my book and flip it back to the page we were working on. Even if I closed the book completely, and put it inside my desk, he would reach in and grab it and flip it to the page again. Then there was the constant question of “Hey! What are you doing now?”. What does it look like I’m doin’? Same thing as you bozo! You won’t let me do anything else cuz you’re the freakin page nazi! GRRRRRRRR! I also made the mistake of drawing Mickey Mouse in the drawing notebook of one of the girls, who asked me to draw her a picture. Of course, she showed it to all her friends who also wanted a picture of Mickey Mouse, so I spent every recess drawing Mickey or Minnie about a billion times. It was cute, though, at the end. The teacher wanted to give me an omiyage, so she had all the kids draw their face and then glued it to a giant card that said something along the lines of “Jewel, come again sometime”. I don’t remember off the top of my head, but I have it packed safely, so you’ll see it when I get home.

So, that was the school part of that week which was fun. I did have to go into the freezing pool everyday of, what happened to be the coldest week of my visit so far. I also had to do the cleaning with the kids, which usually meant sweeping, but I did have to do the thing where you clean the floor with a rag by running back and forth with your butt in the air. Not so much fun there, just kinda hurt a lot…

So, the actual family I was staying with was… odd. The mom reminded me a lot of a really whiney Merna Conover. She did a lot of really weird things like unplug her TV every second to save the half a cent of electricity. Talk about mendokusai. Then, say I left my room for half a second to go get something I left in the other room; she somehow had super extraordinary powers to be able to find me out of my room and actually walk in to turn off my light. Oh yeah, and you know how when you have someone over, you say they’re sleeping somewhere and then you don’t go in there and treat it as if it really is their room. No such thing to this lady, who, constantly was in and out of my room for no particular reason. OK. I can understand if it starts to rain like crazy and my windows are open, and I’m not home, but otherwise just stay out. She even came into my room one day while I was at school and unplugged my charging computer from the wall, which I think is what killed my last battery. Luckily, it had already charged completely, so it was ok, but no respect for space or stuff.

On top of that, there was the complete social awkwardness. The ride from the musical couple to their house wasn’t bad, but after that, she was just weird. For instance, the first day after school, I got home two hours before any of the kids would. Well, actually, everyday I did, but that’s beside the point. So anyway, I stayed at the kitchen table, which was basically central in the house, so as not to seem hermit like or anything like that. I didn’t watch the TV, cuz I didn’t want her to feel like I was blocking her out. So I sat there, expecting to be talked to, or something. Not a word. For two hours, she sat there bumping around the kitchen not actually doing anything for two hours. Talk about odd and insanely boring.

So, then the kids get home and do their homework because mom is whining at them to do that and nothing else. I felt sorry for them, but I can understand that she wanted their homework done, but it was still weird. Then we ate dinner, after mom whining at them again to katazukenasai all their school stuff, which was in a neat row anyways. After dinner, she forces them to play a board game with me, which I don’t mind playing board games, but I felt sorry for the kids again. I’m sure they would have been perfectly happy playing games with me without mom whining at them until they couldn’t stand it any longer. So we played a stressful game of life, where mom wouldn’t stop nagging them to hurry up so that they could get to bed at a decent hour. Basically, aside from the noise they made while playing the game, they kept quiet, too, because of the dreaded “mother’s nagging”. So, though there were three kids under the age of 14, you wouldn’t know it if you couldn’t see them.

The dad was a little less awkward, but still kinda odd. He actually talked to me, which was a nice change. He didn’t really wear the pants in the family, though, but the mother didn’t either. It was just kinda an odd setup. He works at Epson, so wanted to know all about daddy working at Epson. Unfortunately, my knowledge extends as far as the fact that he translated manuals…

Most of the days were about the same, I’d go to school, come home to awkward silence for two hours, then eat, play some games, and go to bed. I’d write this letter a lot, which is why it’s taken me so long to get you this third installment. Haven’t had as much time since I left the most dull place ever. I also watched a lot of movies, which I had to pause as soon as the kids came home, so they could immediately start their homework. I had to pause the last five minutes of Finding Nemo until after dinner. It’s five minutes! Sheeeeeesh. Anyway, it was all pretty much boring.

On Friday night, Mizuki invited me to go to a stamp rally (which I thought was stomp rally, then yukiko spelled it stamp lally on a schedule she gave me, so I was thoroughly confused), so I went with her. Misawasan picked me up at five from the Tamagawa’s. Then we went to her hip hop dance class, where I was completely lost because I missed two weeks. I felt really stupid, and I think I looked even worse, but oh well. Not like I’m going to ever see anyone from that class again, anyway. After that, we hurried back to her house, where we picked up Mizuki and drove to the school. There, we met with some of the girls from her class and their mothers and went off hunting for stamps (so, I figured out it must be stamp rally). We had to find five stamps and complete various challenges ranging from jan ken po to figuring out how tall tokyo tower was. I think I was not at all helpful, but Mizuki insisted that her mother didn’t come, so she chose the useless one. Anyway, we completed everything rather quickly and our group came in second. Then we waited for all the groups to come back and they announced who came in what place. Then we went to dinner at a yakiniku place. We all ate way too much and were thoroughly exhausted. We were also joined by some man, who I had’t met yet, who I surprised with my Japanese ability. I guess Misawasan didn’t tell him that I could speak Japanese. He still wanted to speak English with me though. I guess he worked in the US for a couple years and then he worked in Mexico and asked me if I knew “Mexican”. I told him I only knew the food. Later, I found out that he’s Misawasan’s secret boyfriend. I’m not sure why he’s her secret boyfriend, but I’m not allowed to tell Mizuki… very strange. After dinner, I ended up spending the night at the Misawa’s… no arguments here. Unfortunately, the next day I went back to the land of constant silence.

On Saturday, I went shopping with Tamgawasan (the dad) for a couple hours cuz he had to go to Matsumoto to buy some stationary. Why it had to be Matsumoto, I dunno, but we went to a shrine, too and that was kinda interesting. He took me to a department store after some cute little old fashioned stores, and I thought, “Wow, this guys weird. He expects me to go clothes shopping with him at the priciest store in all of Japan as far as I can tell. He’s crazy.” So, I bought some earrings from the super cheap teeny bopper place for three bucks, hoping that he wouldn’t feel like we needed to be there anymore. I’ve found that I feel stupid shopping with adults who aren’t my parents… The next day, we also went to a tiny matsuri, where there were about three games to play. I played the bouncy ball fishing game and got about five super balls, which I gave to a girl who recognized me from kikyo elementary (“Jueru sensee!!!!”). Then I played the shooting game, where I landed all three sucker darts on the board, so I got three erasers. Those were actually kinda cute, so I kept them. Then I got some kakigori and drinks were free, so I got a whole bunch of soda. Unfortunately drinks were also free, so there were a heck of a lot of drunk people around, including, I think, Mrs. Tamagawa, who was at least tipsy. It was actually kinda entertaining.

I forgot to tell you about the English teachers! They were interesting. There were two, one at the school, and one who was friends with Yukiko; she set up everything at the school through the first one. Anyway, they both had this thing that seemed like a nervous twitch, where they’d constantly say yeah very half a second. It was odd, but then I realized that that’s what they’d be doing in Japanese, so it was perfectly natural to them. It was really weird to me, though, because it made it feel like they were always in a hurry and never quite actually understanding me. I’m not sure which was worse: the constant silence or Mrs. Tamgawa, or the hurried nervousness of the two English teachers. Both were very unnerving. I did go and help with English lessons at Yukiko’s friends lessons. That was actually fun cuz the kids weren’t freakishly nervous sounding. The first time I went, we made pizza, of course with Japanese toppings. It was funny though. As she was making the dough, it came up that I’ve never actually made pizza before and she was amazed until I explained to her that pizzas in the US cost five bucks for a large. Then she was amazed at the cheapness. The second time, she made okonomiyaki, which was actually pretty good. She made it kinda weird, though. She made it a lot chunkier than daddy ever did and there were like whole heads of cabbage in one.

After that, it was basically the same thing for a couple more days, until I went to Yochien camp. The last day, however, the oldest boy pulled out his Wii… wow, I just realized that sounds really bad if you don’t know what I’m talking about. A Wii is a video game system. We played that all together and that was when the kids finally made real sounds and I actually heard one of them laugh. It was amazing. Overall, it was definitely an experience, and I’m definitely glad I didn’t have to go back there after yochien camp. Still feel bad for the kids, though.

So, I spent the night before yochien camp at Yukiko’s and then at nine, Mr. Shinozaki drove me to the Apple land parking lot, where everybody met for camp. As soon as encho sensee got there, he took my backpack and asked if I brought an obento. Unfortunately, I wasn’t informed that that would be necessary, so I didn’t even think about it. Apple Land was closed until ten, so that wasn’t an option. Mrs. Encho sensee told me not to worry about it, though, and right as the bus was leaving, she ran on and handed me a seven-eleven bought obento in a little bag. It was very nice of her, and, yes, I thanked her. After a little while on the bus, we stopped at a national park, where all the kids took a tour where the guide picked up dead bugs and pointed out trees that had funny names. It was actually fairly interesting… and gross. After the tour, everybody went to a visitor’s center where they had a huge collection, live and dead, of cabutomushi. Yes, I mean those giant, satanic, cockroach-looking, nasty beetles. It was so gross. This guy just kept fulling out bigger and bigger beetles until they were about the size of medium sized birds. Nasty. He also had all the yochien kids feel these nasty things. I opted out of that part. He also made them fight, which was kinda sad for the nasty things. Overall, that part was repulsive. Of course, right after that was lunch. Like I had the stomach for it. But we found a little place and all the kids laid out their tiny picnic blankets and ate their lunch. I had my cold, funny tasting cheeseburger, and my assortment of strangely topped onigiris. I think one of them was dried algae. It actually wasn’t too bad. Then, the kids got on the yochien bus, which previously held all the gear, but encho sensee dropped it all off while we were at the park. The teachers all rode the rest of the way in a car. Unfortunately, the air conditioned ride was only about ten minutes L. Oh well.

So, the camp is almost exactly as I remember it, which is funny because I didn’t remember it until about 6 pm when I had a flash back type memory while in the campfire area. It had been remodeled and there was a new sink area and the floor had been replaced. Other than that, though, everything, as far as I could tell, was the same. There were many rooms with two very short levels of tatami mat, basically like a giant bunk bed, on each side of the room. There was futon after futon lined across the tatami and a little strip of wooden floor between the two sides of tatami. At the end of the hall that connected all the rooms, was a smallish room which was one level and all tatami. That was the teacher’s room, which usually slept four, but with me there, had to sleep five. It was pretty crowded in there. Outside this area and up some steps were the bathrooms and ofuros: one giant one for boys and one giant one for girls. Lucky for me, down the hall from those was a private one, also. Needless to say, I used the private one. Down the same hall was the dining area, which basically looked like a cafeteria, but prettier.

So, we got there and the kids all set up their own bed and put their sheets on and everything. Then we all went out on the little balcony and had the little gelly cups that are illegal in the US. Then went over to the kitchen and helped prepare vegetables to go into the curry, which was for dinner. That was interesting, let me tell ya. These yochien kids had to peel and cut potatoes, carrots, and onions. Talk about friggin dangerous. They all did it fairly well, though. I only had to quickly grab hold of the knife to keep the kids from cutting their fingers off about three times. Mostly the same kid to, who insisted on cutting the half spherical vegetables at an angle headed straight for his thumb. I think in the end, only two kids cut themselves, and that was from peeling. I did have to make this kid go wash his hands after he wiped snot all over them and waltzed over to me and said “Hey! It’s my turn!” Needless to say, he had to wait until he washed his hands.

After all the vegetables and the dessert were made, we all went over to the fire circle where a log cabin fire was built already to the height of the tallest yochien kids. It was one huge fire. Then, the rules were laid down about where they could and couldn’t go (where I had a weird flashback dejavu experience and my camp experience came rushing back to me), and all the kids found tiny twigs to put on the fire. For some reason, they felt they needed approval from me to put the twigs on, so I was ambushed by a whole lot of kids asking me “Is this twig ok?”, “This one’s too big, right?”, “I think this one’s a mushroom!”. Yeah… not sure why I was final say, but all but the mushrooms went in.

After that was dinner, where I was waited on hand an foot, even though I tried to get up and serve myself. I was also constantly asked if I like it or if it tasted good. I have to admit, it was probably one of the best curries I’ve ever tested, though I couldn’t help but wonder how much snot was in it. Maybe that’s why it tasted so good… I’ll have to try that next time… Just kidding. Anyway, I had about three big platefuls because they made way too much and I, apparently, had to eat all the extra. I felt pretty sick afterward, but the taste was worth it.

Then it was campfire. That was an interesting experience. I don’t remember many details from when I was there as a kid, but it’s not like any Girl Scout campfires. First of all, the wood was doused in gasoline! Then, all the music was either played from a radio, or else a recording of the piano part which the kids were used to singing with was played for the kids to sing along to. They sang a bunch of songs including the kampu rahoy song, which there’s a dance to that I didn’t know, and a song about father Abraham and his seven sons who moved their limbs… that sounded awfully familiar, though the tune was completely different. Then they did the chicken dance, which is the same as here, except that they do everything three times instead of four… hard to explain correctly, but if you want, I’ll show you when I get home. Then to top it all off, they played a birthday song, where it went through all the months and if your birthday was that month, you had to skip around the fire. Let’s just say that was probably really dangerous and would never happen in the states.

After that, all the kids took a bath, well, I did too, and then they went to bed. It was actually quite comical. All the kids were so exhausted that they hit the pillow, said, “Oyasumi” and were out. All of them. Not even the usual defiant sleepers made a peep. I, too, was exhausted and wanted to go to bed, but then the teacher who was kinda my buddy teacher invited me to go have dessert with all the staff. As if I weren’t full enough, they then stuffed me with cake and crème puffs and other various sweets. Gah, I felt sick, but felt it would be rude to refuse with how they were offering it: “I promise it’s very tasty, but if you don’t think you’ll like it, you don’t have to eat it”. Geesh. So, there, Encho sensee apparently felt it was his job to inform me how much more Japanese I knew when I was little. Yeah… thanks. It was fun, though.

I finally got to bed around eleven thirty, and that was well before any of the other teachers. They came in about 12:30 and were laughing and talking in very loud voices. I’m surprised none of the kids woke up. They finally settled down and went to sleep. We were basically futon to futon and on more than one occasion in the middle of the night, I woke up with one of the teacher’s foot in my shin or something else like that. The next night was worse when I woke up so close to one of the teacher’s faces that we could’ve fallen asleep kissing. Talk about creepy.

The next morning, all the teachers woke up about five a.m. Maybe I was rude, but there’s no chance that I’m going to wake up at five after that day before that was the day before, so I fell back asleep. Though, when the kids started waking up, it was a very disturbed sleep. Kids are really loud when they’re with their friends. I woke up at about seven when my buddy teacher, Yukie sensee, woke me up.

It was slightly raining, so we went into the dining hall and did rajio taiso, which I didn’t get a photo of because I left my camera behind both times. It made me sad. Anyway, we did rajio taiso, and breakfast wasn’t quite ready, so we all went back and one of the teachers read a really creepy book about semi. Basically, it was about how semi are born and, you know how they basically split open the back of their parent and crawl out of them? Well, it was a book that made it so the semi on the inside could talk to the semi on the outside. Then it showed pictures of it splitting out. It was like alien. Talk about gross. Anyway, after that was breakfast. I can’t for the life of me remember what we had, but it wasn’t fish and it was pretty good.

Then, we all made onigiri (mine was triangular, as I learned how to make them from misawa san) and put them in our little obento sacks. Then we all put on lots of bug spray, which was quite comical, since the teachers decide to do it in a rather confined space. Lots of coughing. Then we all hiked down the hill to another park, this one much smaller, where we met with a guy who showed us a lot of caterpillars. That was actually quite interesting. He also showed us some butterflies which had just broken out of their cocoons about an hour before. Their wings weren’t quite unfurled and it was pretty cool. He also showed us a variety of dead birds that they kept in a freezer at the office. Kinda creepy and gross. Then, they had another hike with a different lady, who told them to pick lots of the plants for various games. Definitely wouldn’t do that in girl scouts. I gotta admit, though, one of the things was pretty cool. She had a bucket full of what looked like clovers and she gave out jyuu yen dama and the kids cleaned it with this clover looking plant. It worked amazingly well. I’m still wondering why nobody has marketed that as a spray or anything…

After that, all the kids hiked up a small, but steep hill, and went on the bus. The teachers and I went back in the car for yet another disappointingly short ride. We arrived back and then it was “nap time”. Ha! The kids were rambunctious as ever, except for maybe two or so, who were able to sleep. I happened to fall asleep next to some girls who thought it would be hilarious to kick me in the head. I didn’t find it so funny. I got maybe about two minutes of actual sleep within the 45 minutes we had, despite the fact that I was completely exhausted already and we hadn’t even had dinner. Btw, I just realized that we had sandwiches for breakfast; it was odd, but tasty.

So, after nap time was another story time to waste time because dinner wasn’t ready. I dunno what those stories were cuz I went to the teacher room and tried to sleep on my folded futon for 15 minutes. Like I said, I only tried…

Then, we all went to dinner, which was barbeque, specifically, shish kabobs. It was pretty delicious and each kid got a shish kabob on a skewer the size of their own arm! They were huge. I have a couple pictures, don’t let me forget to show you. Some of it was really interesting, too, when it came to the food. There were vegetables wrapped in ham and cooked that way. This included carrots wrapped in ham… kinda weird. It was unusually tasty, though, and I think the vegetable ham thing might have been a sneaky way to get the kids to eat their vegetables. It didn’t work, though, because the kids wouldn’t even eat the ham off of the vegetable. Half way through dinner, the teachers went around and cut off the meat for the kids who wouldn’t eat it attached to the veggie. It was kinda sad.

After that was another campfire, but it was really just a lot of fireworks. They were the run of the mill spark showers that you put on the ground and a heck of a lot of hand held sparklers for the kids. It was the teachers’ job to get all the kids sparklers lit with our own sparkles, so I probably did about twenty sparklers total without actually sitting there and watching a single one. Some of the kids would frek out when their sparkler was lit, too, and wave it around in the air. As if that’s going to do anything at all except actually make it dangerous when it wasn’t before. I’ve figured out that yochien kids don’t exactly think too clearly, or logically, for that matter. Of course, that was confirmed the day before when one girl peed her pants and just stood there as if she didn’t even know that she peed her pants. Aren’t kids in yochien potty trained enough to know, at least when they’re awake, when they have to go pee? Doesn’t make much sense to me, but oh well. Anyway, we finished the fireworks by the teachers having a race with those really tiny fireworks that barely spark and basically just glow a little. The one’s that are really fragile and you basically have to be a statue to make it so the fire doesn’t fall off. Well, I didn’t realize how weak they were, so mine were the first to go. Oh well.

After that, all the kids got ready for bed. I took a shower and went back to the teacher’s room to brush my hair, where I ran into one of the teachers. She told me, if I was tired, to go to sleep early. You don’t have to tell me twice. I think it was about 8:45 when I went to sleep. Later, two of the teachers came in and make a heck of a lot of racket. I pretended to still be asleep, cuz if I didn’t I know they would be a world of apologies, and that’s just annoying. Anyway, I over heard them talking and they said “Oh isn’t it cute that Jewel only uses the private bath?” “Oh yeah, it’s adorable” OK. That’s weird, but whatever. Then they started talking about the other two teachers, who I guess were still in the ofuro. According to on of they teachers, they were taking a really long time. Then the other one said they were “love, love” which I’m not exactly sure what it means, but I know it must be pretty close to what it sounds like it must be, cuz then the other teacher says, “Ahh! Kimochiwarui!!!”. Kinda makes me wonder if they really were lesbians… In which case, I had good reason not to go to the public bath. Eww…

The next morning, everyone put away all their stuff, which took a good portion of the morning considering none of the kids had ever packed their own stuff before and their bags barely fit their close to begin with. I think my main job was to fix Ziploc bags that had lost their top zipped. I think I fixed about fifty bags… and that was just for one girl. We also had to strip our futons of their covers and fold them… which also took a while considering kindergarteners aren’t too experienced at folding large pieces of cloth.

After that was breakfast. Fish. My favorite… I ate it, picking out all the tine pieces of rib bone as I went. It was pretty repulsive, but I ate it anyway. At least it wasn’t nato. There was kabocha soup though, which is my absolute favorite. Funny, for the longest time, I thought it was corn soup and always wondered why it wasn’t in the states, but if its kabocha, it makes a lot more sense. During breakfast, there were two bowls broken, but what do you expect with a bunch of six year olds? Mrs. Encho sensee decided it was her responsibility to make the kids who accidentally broke the dishes feel as bad as possible. She went on and on about how special those plates were and how encho sensee was personally attached to every single one and they weren’t replaceable and how the kids destroyed the whole set… please. She was successful in making a majority of the kids cry… that wasn’t fun, for anyone. After that, we all boarded the busses, despite the fact that the teachers were joking all along that the kids would have to walk home, and went to apple land, where we were supposed to all be picked up. There, Yukiko picked me up and we went to pick up my bus ticket.

Apparently, you can go pick bus tickets up at any lawsons, so that’s where we went. There, we used a little machine and out popped my tickets. We also ran into a girl who, I guess, went to school with Nick. Yukiko said, “Hey [whatever her name was], this is Jewel.” “Jewel, Nick’s little sister?” “Yeah, oh and Nick’s married now!” Not quite what I told her, but I’ve learned Yukiko likes to stretch the truth a lot. The girl looked amazed, but Yukiko had her Cookware party waiting at her house, so we had to skedaddle.

At Yukiko’s house, I took a shower and repacked all my stuff. I said my obligatory hellos to all the middle aged ladies at Yukiko’s house for her party, which I’m pretty sure is what her “part time job” is. She seemed to be selling appliances while everyone was eating. She also made me eat about five different slices of cake, most with a slight hint of garlic. That was kinda weird. I also did some laundry, which, due to the fact that it was the hottest day on the face of the earth, dried in forty five minutes hanging outside. After all Yukiko’s party left, I watched part of the pursuit of happiness, which Yukiko had bought earlier in the week. Then, I helped with one of her classes. After that, we went to the bus stop, where Yukiko was so nervous that I wouldn’t be able to figure myself out, that she asked some total stranger to help me out. Talk about annoying.

The bus ride was long and fairly uneventful. I t was cramped, though, and not the most fun I’ve ever had, that’s for sure. About halfway through, there was a restroom stop, or as Yukiko says “toilet time” (I was rather excited since I hadn’t had toilet time since I was five), where the woman Yukiko asked to help me gets off the bus, looks at me, and says “five”. I took that to mean that we have five minutes, since that’s what the bus driver had just said over the intercom. I swear, way too many people underestimate me… Anyway, the rest of the way was just as cramped and uncomfortable as the first half. I was supposed to arrive at about 8:30. At 8, daddy called me, but they get really annoyed if you answer the phone on the bus, so I ignored it and then daddy called again right as we were poulling into the stop, so I answered it. He thought I was gtting there at eight, so when told him we were just pulling in, he seemed relieved and he was right there when we got there. So, I got off the bus, and the helper woman seemed very surprised that I, in fact, didn’t need her help. DUH! I thanked her anyway, and she still looked very surprised as she walked away.

Papa figured that it might be too late to eat by the time we get back to the hotel and drop off my stuff, etc., so we decided to eat there, in Shijuku. Of course, that also happened to be the place where there was a Krispy Kreme, and daddy is still daddy when he’s in Japan, so we headed toward the Krispy Kreme. Unfortunately, there was a ridiculously long line despite the fact that it was nine fifteen, so we decided not to do that. We ended up eating at a place that had weird “national food”. There I learned that if you make eye contact with a waitress, she’ll come over and take your order whether you’re ready or not. I got a hamburg and papa got brougtworst, however it’s spelled. Boy was I excited to sleep in the same room as someone who had eight pounds of sausage for dinner! After that, we went to the hotel and went to bed.

Next two days were Disneyland, which there’s not much to talk about… plus I think that daddy wrote you a detailed e-mail or two. It was really funny, though: anywhere we went to eat, the people were really, really relieved to know that we understood Japanese. Especially at this one buffet place in Disney Sea where the waiter actually sighed “Yokkatta” as if we couldn’t understand what he was saying, even though we just said we could. It was pretty funny. Let me know if papa’s e-mails weren’t enough and I’ll fill you in on what happened. The second day, though, for dinner, we went to TGI Friday’s, which happened to be right across the street from our hotel. It was funny cuz daddy was talking about how funny it is that the place was packed with gaijin… then we realized that included ourselves. I said it didn’t count, though, since I’ve been in Japan long enough to deserve some normal food. It really was pretty close to the exact same as the U.S. TGI Friday’s, too. And they had real diet coke. I drank a whole lot of that. Good thing I’m just addicted to diet coke and not some special beer, or I would’ve been drunk like a monkey! We ended up eating at the bar, too, since there weren’t seats and it was pretty entertaining. The bar tender kept juggling his bottles and I was sure that he was going to miss and hit the whole wall of hundreds of dollars worth of alcohol. He didn’t, though, amazingly.

The next day, my train wasn’t until four, so I got to go to lunch with that guy whose name I can’t remember right now, but he used to have an office at daddy’s office, next to Greg’s. Anyway, it was him and his daughter, who I guess works for the company, too. It’s pretty sad because the guy looks like he’s two-hundred and seven years old, and his daughter looks the exact same as him, but with hair. She’s one very funny looking lady. Anyway, we went to a Japanese restaurant and had a long series of pretty nasty food. The sashimi was pretty good, but after that was salads that resembled nato and a tomato covered in mayonnaise. Then, there was a huge piece of fish followed by a cup of coffee. The Japanese eat some pretty bizarre things in some bizarre orders. Needless to say, I didn’t eat a lot of my lunch, but breakfast was a huge buffet anyway.

After that, we took the train to Shinjuku, where we went to kinokuniya and bought Harry Potter, which I hope you’ve read by now. I couldn’t stand knowing that everyone knows what happened but me. Now I know, too! It’s pretty good, but I predicted things long before Harry did… he was kinda slow in this book, but that’s ok. After that, we had a mister donut donut, and it was time for me to go back to Shiojiri.

I gotta say, right now, I’m thinking half in English and half in Japanese, and I’m sure these last two weeks are going to solidify what I know, but I’m definitely getting homesick. I can see why you were frustrated not really being able to have real intelligent conversations with anyone. Like I said, my Japanese skills are basically survival, which doesn’t help my predicament. I am learning more everyday, but I’m a long way from fluent and feel lost a lot. It’s annoying and I can’t wait until I get home. Japan’s fun, but this may have been a little bit long for the stay. And it’s dang hot!!! At least band camp will seem amazingly cool, right? And I’ve found that spf 50+ actually works. I think this time to Disneyland was the first time I didn’t get burned at Disneyland.

Anyway, when I got back, I spent the night at Yukiko’s again, where I watched the rest of The Pursuit of Happiness. Then went to bed. The next day, I was picked up by Mrs. Yanagisawa and her son, Satoru, who you’ll remember as the boy who stayed at our house the last tour. He was the one who was afraid of spiders, so he slept in the same room as Yukiko. Yeah, The freak. So far, it’s been interesting…

Apparently that was as far as I got before I came home and updated my mom verbally. I'll update this, soon, though from the things I remember.