Day 255 - 12th of May

11:08pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Well, once again I did not get my field report completed however, I did get my sakubun rewrite done, and got started on my oral for tomorrow; so that was something. Today’s weather was better than yesterday’s, although there was a bit of a chill in the air; go away winter… After getting ready this morning, I found Carly at the front entrance. She needed internet to get in contact with her parents, so asked if she could borrow my laptop for today. I didn’t see anything wrong with it, so handed it over and then went on my way to uni; I needed to quickly get something to eat for breakfast before class. Today was in fact our last Speaking class, and after receiving the last of the review sheets, and a last few words from everyone we were done. It really was a wonderful class, and I will miss Saigo Sensei; he was a great teacher. We’ll, I’ll still be able to see him a couple more times, that next being my oral exam tomorrow. I worked on that in the break, and got most of my thoughts down. I’m talking about how I think parents should raise their kids, and I have to speak for 3-4 minutes, while sensei interjecting with questions every now and then. I’m not too worried about it, as I have a pretty good understanding of the grammar, and it’s a topic that I enjoy talking about; in English at least. I’ll just have to write down a few vocab words (we get up to 10) and I’ll be sweet.

In Reading and Writing today, we got our sakubun back, and I got exactly the same as last time; lots of little mistakes again. The rest of the class was spent finishing reading the story and grammar patterns. I went straight from there upstairs, and crashed the Monsters class (for the last time). Today, Rose and Tori were drawing Pokémon all over the board, since they would be learning about it in class today; wish I brought my camera. Far from Pokémon, today in class we talked about third genders, transsexuals, and gender identity disorder that is, after Professor Hester finally got the computer to talk to the projector. This was my last Onna to Otoko class, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Probably the most interesting thing I learnt was that, a transsexual in Japan can get their official sex changed if they are over 20, not married, have no minor children and, get this, have no reproductive organs and genitals that resemble those of the other sex. So basically, you have to go the whole way; there’s no middle ground. We ended the lesson with the course evaluation, and then I made my way back down to the lounge.

I told Carly she could meet me back at the dorms, and then went grocery shopping; I was sorely in need of supplies. Getting back, I had enough time to make lunch before Carly arrived; we sat in the lounge and talked for a while. Then I got onto my sakubun, getting it finished in about an hour. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the report, and end up altering quite a bit of it; it’s because I care too much. At 7, I went up to eat, and found out that leftover okonomiyaki doesn’t taste all that bad. We watched a quiz show on TV; the one where they have to jump rope while answering questions. I was soon back downstairs, only to go back to the kitchen once more to make Carly’s dinner; Mac and Cheese. It’s annoying that guests aren’t allowed in the kitchen but, can’t be helped. While I was working on my report, Carly was trying to get her phone to work; international roaming didn’t want to cooperate for some reason. She was on the phone with a techie for almost an hour, but she thinks it’s all good now; I hope so. Finally, 10 came around and it was time for Carly to leave. Silly girl hadn’t brought a jacket so I lent her my jumper; she did bring her slippers today though, so that’s an improvement. I’m going to get some sleep now, so I can spend plenty of time in the morning preparing for my oral. After that, I’ll have a little bit of time to study before the Religion quiz…

Day 253 - 10th of May

11:16pm　セミナーハウス
天気：雨天
Just been working on my field report, and I’m about halfway through; gosh I wish I didn’t procrastinate so much. On the plus side, I did yet my homework for Reading and Writing finished this afternoon, so that leaves tomorrow afternoon free to finish the report… Today, it was raining, but the usual cold that comes with the rain was absent, so it wasn’t so bad. Getting to Speaking, five presentations took place, thanks to the fact that all of them were a reasonable length. We also got the schedule for oral exams and I’m up on Thursday; not really looking forward to it. I have no idea what I’m going to talk about. After class, I went over my sakubun a couple more times, sitting with Katie in the lounge. Soon, Reading and Writing came, and I actually did really well. I remembered the entire thing, and it ended up being just over 2 pages (800 characters), which is perfect; I’m hoping the content is okay. I got out feeling relieved (another thing to tick off), and went to have some Makkas for lunch. After that I rode home in the rain, and after putting the washing away, had a big long nap; I felt pretty guilty afterwards. But, I did get my homework done, and also made a list of everything I have to do so far as tying up any loose ends with the university; there’s quite a lot. At 6:30 I went and had dinner, and then sat in the kitchen till about 8:30, talking and watching TV; and laughing of course. Getting back to my room, I was soon visited by Rachael, who came to exchange FFVII: ACC disks with me. The one she got recently with the PS3 doesn’t have subtitles, so she swapped it with the disk that she originally gave me. It doesn’t bother me at all, since I’m sure I’ll buy the regular DVD version when I get home anyway. I sat with her in the computer room for a little while, helping her a bit with her presentation for tomorrow; she’s in Saigo sensei’s other level 4 class. Finally, I came back in here, and got stuck into my report. It’s only worth 20% of my grade, so I need to stop fussing and just get it done. As I write this, Carly’s is on her way here from Tokyo by night bus, so we’ll be seeing her at uni tomorrow I’m sure. It’ll be nice to catch up, and we’ll be able to finally plan Tokyo properly…

Day 252 - 9th of May

11:09pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Happy Mother’s Day!!! While I didn’t get to be there for mum, at least I got to speak with her and the family over skype this morning; I did that straight after breakfast and putting some washing on. We spoke for a bit over an hour, and then I worked on my field report for a few hours. By 1, I was getting really hungry, so had to eat lunch. Since I would be going out for dinner tonight, I ate the leftover yakisoba for lunch; I also made a banana milkshake since I had so much milk. After lunch, I played KH for a bit, and then worked hard to get my sakubun finished, and it basically was by the time 5 came around. Hugo had already gone (he’s still not back), and now it was my turn. I met Maarika, Midori, Ume-chan, Ann and Rose outside Toriki (they had just come from The Ring), and Mori soon joined us. After a short wait, we were seated and after we got our drinks, Midori took charge of ordering just about everything on the menu for us; no joke. The amount of things I got to sample tonight was incredible. We stayed there from about 6:30 till 9:30 and the food kept coming, bit by bit. I got to eat chicken cartilage (weird), wing, breast, skin, and some internal body part (even weirder); all on a stick. We also got heaps of the amazing naan dish and the deep-fried camembert cheese; far out amazing!!! To finish off, I got mango sorbet for dessert; very good. Almost the entire time, we were speaking in Japanese, which was really great; I got lots of practice in. The bill turned out to be very reasonable too, considering the amount we ate. Finally, the night came to an end, and Mori and Midori made their way home by train, and ume-chan soon went his own way; that left the rest of us walking home. It was a great night, and at least I feel semi-prepared for tomorrow’s sakubun; I’ll write it all out a few more times in the morning…

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…