Day 264 - 21st of May

9:54pm　特急

天気：晴れ

I’m on my way to Toji; alone! I slept in, so I was 30 minutes late to meet Carly. I’m guessing she’s already on her way, and I don’t blame her; I’m really not doing a very good job keeping time. I might catch her when I get there; hopefully I can find some nice souvenirs at the market today. I don’t really know what I’m looking for. I’m just coming out of Kuzuha now, so got a little while before I get there. It’s sunny, but there’s a thick haze in the air; no doubt because of how much humidity there was yesterday…

5:43pm　快速

We’re on the way back home now; hurting all over. Today was intense!!! When I got to the markets, I spent a lot of time browsing and buying. I bumped into Katie with her friends, and a few other people from uni, and I eventually found Carly; she was already laden with kimono. Since it was open to the public, I decided I’d go have a proper look at the pagoda; it was even more impressive up close. What was really cool was the fact that I could actually go inside the structure. The central pillar was surrounded be statues of Buddha; it was very special. I think it was about 1:30 when we finally left the markets, and I was really happy with all my purchases; I got heaps of gifts for people, and I even got a new wallet made from sea snake skin. Actually, having a wallet made from snake skin is supposed to be good for monetary luck. Now I just have to get used to it; it feels so light in my pocket. We walked to Kyoto station, and I noticed that the new mall wouldn’t be opening until the 4^th of next month; I was really disappointed. We walked through the station in the cool (it had actually turned out to be a really hot day), and took the subway to Shijo. We decided to go to Sweets Paradise for lunch. We were so hungry and exhausted by the time we got there that it was absolutely wonderful.

I got lots of cake, jelly and ice cream, and felt like I was going to explode; I will miss Sweets Paradise!!! We got out of there at about 4, and then went over to Teramachi once again; well actually, the street running parallel. On the way, I stopped at a few more places to pick up more gifts. Walking along the street, I spotted the sign for animate and had to go in; yet again, more gifts, and a few things for me! By that point, I had so much stuff that I had to buy my bag to put it all in. I decided on one from the store I had gone to yesterday. It’s a duffel bag, and I’m hoping it’s going to fit a lot of my clothes; it’ll be my second checked bag. Now I just need a carry-on bag and I’ll be sweet. There were a few there, but they were pretty pricy. So I’m going to wait. As you can imagine, we’re very sore by now and as soon as I get back I have to get straight into cleaning and packing; Yuji’s coming to inspect at 7. Then after that, karaoke time; I’m going to die…

10:07pm　カラオケ　－　牧野

Just got to Karaoke; feeling good… As soon as we got back to the seminar house this evening I started stressing, and got considerably worse over the next two hours. It was 7 by that time, and Yuji was already asking if I was ready for my inspection; of course I wasn’t. So, I was graciously given until 8:30 to get everything done; admittedly, I freaked out a lot. But, I got through it, and Carly was a lifesaver, doing most of the packing and helping to clean. It ended up that we got till 9, since Yuji was preoccupied; I needed every second. I didn’t end up cleaning out my kitchen box or fridge; there just wasn’t enough time. So Natsuki has to check that tomorrow; Yuji’s going to be out. After all that I was sweating like anything so had shower and washed my hair. It didn’t help that as soon as I got out of the shower I was sweating again. In that time, Carly had weighed my bags, and I’m a few kilos over. But, I think I’ll be fine because I still have to buy a carry-on bag, which I can stuff with the rest of my stuff. It just means that I’m not going to be able to buy anything in Tokyo!!! Oh well, I’ll still be able to do some awesome sightseeing. It’ll mean I have some money left over too... Ash and Roisin have joined us, coming from the 黒執事 (Kuroshitsuji – “Black Butler”) musical. Rachel’s flailing all over the place, envious that she didn’t get to go with them. They bought the program and a heap of other merchandise; looks like it was a lot of fun. Anyway, all night karaoke now, and then graduation at 9 tomorrow; YAY!!!

Day 251 - 8th of May

10:35pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

I’ve just been eating skittles and biscuits in the kitchen with everyone. Liz’s boyfriend sent them to her, so she shared them out to everyone at the table; I never thought skittles and chocolate chip biscuits would go together so well. Anyway, as for the rest of my day well, I got a bit done… I ended up leaving karaoke at 2; I just got really tired all of a sudden. The girls stayed until 5, and Rachel told me tonight that they’d completely filled the last 100 songs playlist; now that’s an accomplishment. Somehow, I managed to get up at 9:30, and after breakfast I got started on my field report. After about 3 hours, I managed to get about a quarter of it done, which I’m really happy about. I’m going to try really hard not procrastinate about it, and get the rest of it done by tomorrow. The professor only grades it as a pass or a failure, so as long as I do a reasonable amount on it, I should be fine. At about 1, I went to Sanko for groceries, and bumped into Rachael while I was there. Getting back, I made lunch and then watched TV for a while, before getting back into it.

Since the video from my camera was still uploading, I played KH for a little while, and then when the video was finished I let the laptop rest for a while. This meant that I got started on my sakubun, and the fact that I got over half of it completed made me very happy. I’ve just started writing about the plot for Reborn, and while it’s proving to be difficult, I’m getting through it; have to get that finished tomorrow as well. At around 6, Hugo had guests (three lovely Japanese girls) and they sat together and tried to keep a conversation flowing; I couldn’t help but get distracted. They left at about 7, and so I went up to make dinner; yakisoba. I ended up spending the next three hours in the kitchen, watching TV and talking with Rachel, Ash, Chelsea, Julie, Liz and Jazz; it was lots of fun. I also received and envelop from Natchan, containing 2000円 that I can use to pay for ingredients for my Milo biscuits. I really don’t need very much (I’ve got most of it), so I was thinking I’m going to go to Don kihote one more time to buy Tim Tams for everyone; they won’t want to eat more biscuits then! Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, so I’m definitely going to talk with family; wish I could be there. Then, at 6 I’m going to Toriki for dinner with the koto club; it’s our farewell party…

Day 250 - 7th of May

10:12pm　カラオケ　－　牧野

天気：雨天

I’m at karaoke now. Ash, Rachel and I were bummed out about the fact that there was no free time the other day, so we decided to come again tonight! However, I haven’t been here as long as they have. I just came from 王将 (Osho – “King”), a gyoza place right next to Midori; there’s one near Hirakata station too, but we opted for this one since it is closer by bike…

10:21pm　カラオケ　

Just sang; Yay, I feel good… So yeah, I went with Chelsea, Rebecca, Brett, Liz and Julie to Osho and it was amazing. Since it is a gyoza place, of course I had to get some and it was delicious ~ 餃子 (gyoza) is basically a Chinese dumpling that consists of a meat and/or vegetable filling that is wrapped in thin dough; it resembles ravioli. I also tried the チャーハン (chahan), Chinese fried rice, which was equally yummy. We got there at about a quarter to 9, so spent a good hour sitting and talking, which was great. Also great, was how cheap my meal was; I got to finish off Liz’s and Julie’s meals as well. As for the rest of my day, well… It was raining quite heavily up until about 5 or so this evening; not fun. In Reading and Writing today, we read part of the story in chapter 6, called むかし夕日の公園で (Mukashi yuuhi no koen de – “Once upon a time at the park of the setting sun”). It’s really well written, full of description, so it actually feels like we’re reading a real Japanese story.

It’s actually turning out to be really scary. This kid, who’s in a park surrounded by tall buildings at sunset (so it’s quite dark already) all alone, is thrusting his arm deep into to sandpit in the corner of the park, trying to gauge how deep it is. He’s arm is submerged up to his shoulder, and his fingers have just hit something. He can’t quite grab onto it, but what feels like women’s hair is starting to twine around his fingers… and that’s as far as we’ve gotten; so much suspense right now!!! After that, I went to my speaking class and dived straight into my presentation, and that went pretty well, although I did go overtime; we all did. And this time we really knew about it because Saigo Sensei brought in a time, and it beeped rather obnoxiously after 5 minutes; he was on the ball though, and was quick to silence it. That done, I went over to the club room and practiced Miyabi with Maarika and Mori Sempai until about 1, when I had to get to class; I ate some onigiri in the lounge before-hand.

In Gender and Sexuality, most of the lesson was taken up watching “Shinjuku Boys”, which was a documentary about Onabe, working in a club in Shijuku. Onabe are women who identify more strongly as men, and display hetero-normative masculine behaviour; the male equivalent is Okama. You could say they are transgender, and a few were taking hormone treatments; gender re-assignment surgery was illegal in Japan at the time. The doco cented around three “women”, who worked at this particular club where Onabe dress up as men (and act like men) and serve women; presumably straight women. It get’s stranger… two of them were in a relationship, one with a girl who identifies herself as straight and sees “him” as a guy, just with a penis, and the other one is with a drag queen who had had his genitals removed; that was a very interesting case. The third was more of a play “boy” (it serious didn’t take me long to refer to this person as a he), who reminded me of the guys in the host club in the other doco we watched; basically playing on women. I found the whole think fascinating. We also got our review sheet for the quiz next week, and the final take home exam criteria sheet; that was just depressing. Somehow, I’m going to squeeze everything in.

After class, I went to the club room once more, and after a bit more practice, we got set up in the club hall on the first floor, in preparation for the all the culture club presentations. This went from 5 till 6:30, and there were some great performances; I wish I had brought my video camera. Before we performed, two guys played an amazing piece on acoustic guitar and after us was the chorus club. They sang Angela Aki’s “Tegami”, which made me mega happy; it’s one of my favourite songs to sing at karaoke. It made me miss high school choir a lot though. It was nice to see that there were two international students in the club (both guys), which was great considering there were only two other guys. I would have been right there to support them, had I not joined the koto club. But then I think, “been there, done that”, and I’m glad I’m trying something new. Our performance went quite well, and I think that’s the biggest crowd I’ve performed in front of; at least 30 people. I’m really happy with the progress I’m made, and when I look back, I really have come far from my humble beginnings playing Sakura sakura. Maybe, I’ll be able to pick up the koto again someday. The event ended with the dance club, and we got to see ballroom, tango, salsa and contemporary; the cotemporary performance was definitely the best. By that time, it was 6:30 and after packing up, I had to rush home in order to make it in time for the meeting at 7; well, I didn’t have to rush that much.

I had time enough to get back to my room, and talk to Hugo about the night bus. He recommended a site to me that was really comprehensive, and we found a bus from Hirakatashi to Tokyo, which is wonderful. I’m going to have a lot of luggage, and I’m not going to want to lug it too far. So, I have to book that very soon. The meeting, our last meeting, was over in about half an hour, and afterwards Yuji approached me about the farewell party a.k.a. “Academic Party” (I love Yuji so much, xD), and asked if I would make my Milo biscuits for everyone again; I guess they really were a hit. Since I would receive money to pay for the ingredients, I was more than happy to oblige. Also, I get to play the koto for it; that’ll definitely be my last time. I’m going to try and play Miyabi; I’ll have to fust the first and second koto parts so it doesn’t sound too empty. So, that’s something else to look forward to. After that, we were pretty much off, as so as everyone was ready. Since Julie didn’t have a bike, she rode on the back of mine; I was a bit wobbly at first, but soon got used to it. Suddenly, I’m feeling very tired. I’m going to have a good sleep in tomorrow, and the get my sakubun done; hopefully…

Day 245 - 2nd of May

11:55pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Well sadly, karaoke was atrociously anticlimactic tonight. Because it is Golden Week, Makino Karaoke is not offering free time; we only found this out after getting to the counter. So, we ended up just doing two hours, which was over before it had begun. At least Ash got to spend a bit of time with her friend Roisin, who is staying in Osaka for a while; she studies at NUFS with Alex. Maureen, Tori and another girl from NUFS also joined Ash, Rachel and I. Anyway, back to today… I got up at 9:30, and after breakfast (which was porridge with water), I put some washing on, and then showered and shaved; I had certainly been neglecting that. After putting out the washing, it was time to get into my blog. I worked on that until about 12:30, and then talked with Carly; 6 days until she comes! We really have to start planning Tokyo, but first of all I have to buy the tickets for the Ghibli Museum; get onto that this week. After talking, I went grocery shopping at Kirindo and Fresco, and came home so much food; I was very low on supplies. After lunch, I relaxed for a while (it’s still a holiday), playing some of KH: 358/2 Days; it’s looking really good so far, and I ‘m having fun reading the Japanese.

I worked on me blog until dinner, and managed to get up to Friday done. It was a bit after 7 when I was sitting down with my yakisoba, and soon after I was rushing to get ready for karaoke; we left at 8. After getting to Makino, we waited a bit, and then the others found us; they had been waiting a little further up the road. After another purikura session (I just love it), we made our way in to Karaoke, sharing one room; it was fun, but too short. And I think that’s about it, after getting out we took Roishin back to the station and walked home… oh, the moon tonight was really beautiful; it was glowing yellow. Ash and Rachel have decided to walk to Fresco since they’re not tired, but I want to try to get up early tomorrow, so I opted not to join them; gotta get started on my presentation…