Day 233 - 20th of April

11:24pm　セミナーハウス

天気：雨天

Well, although the weather has been crappy, at least it’s warming up. The sakura are almost done, the blossoms are being exchanged for fresh, green foliage; it’s come to an end so fast. Now, a plethora of other flowers have started to make their appearance; the university especially is exploding with colour from a number of azalea varieties… In Speaking this morning, Saigo Sensei showed us a really funny website about the correct and incorrect ways of looking after babies; it was great. Then, we listened to a song by Hilcrhyme called 春夏秋冬 (Shunkashuutoo – lit. “Spring Summer Autumn Winter”). Soon after it started playing, I recognised it, having heard it many times in shops; it’s a nice song though very fast Japanese. After all the fun, we covered just one grammar point, now in the final chapter of doumo; last vocab quiz tomorrow. After that, I went to lunch with Kim, Nathan, Jo, and Sarah in the 3^rd cafeteria, and we sat upstairs; I’d never been up there before and it was actually quite nice. Eventually we all got back to the CIE for our next classes; it was still raining heavily. Getting to the lounge, I spotted Rachel and Katie; they were sitting with four Japanese girls. This was the perfect opportunity for me to ask my questions about the Great Barrier Reef; two of the girls had even been to Australia. We talked together until class, and many good ideas were generated.

In religion, we talked some more about karma, merit, the two main types of Buddhism (Mahayana, and Hinayana Buddhism), and a concept called Upaya; sounds like a tasty fruit to me. Upaya (or Hoben, in Japanese) is actually a method or means, which might not make sense at the time, but helps to “push” people closer to Nirvana. Bodhisattvas (which are all around us according to Mahayana Buddhism) are the usual performers of Upaya. Bodhisattvas are beings who have gotten to Nirvana, but have decided to stick around to help out others. They are of a lower rank of Buddha, but still possess special abilities, like changing their form, and are basically here to help humans; the most prominent bodhisattvas in Japan are Kannon and Jizo. It really is quite fascinating how religions justify how everything works. Anyway, after that, I went down to the lounge with Julie, and spent the next couple of hours trying to do my Reading and Writing homework; they were questions that I would have trouble answering in English, let alone Japanese. Eventually, it came time to get ready for koto club, so I went to the student affairs office to get the key, then had a quick snack, before waiting for the others to arrive in the club room.

And I had to wait about 15 minutes until someone showed up; Maarika. We took the cleaning stuff down to the room, and waited for the others. Unfortunately, the others never showed up, so I decided we should just do the vacuuming, and that would be good enough. Then we got three koto set up (two for us, and one for the sensei), and then practiced together for a while. Sensei soon arrived, and we had a half an hour session with her; I am so glad she gave us breaks otherwise my feet would have died. We got through the first couple of pages of Miyabi (her playing the second koto, and us the first), which was very fulfilling; we have one last performance in two weeks, so we’re well on our way. At about 6:30, Mori Sempai arrived, and she got a one on one lesson for the next 30 minutes. Then they had a very long and deep conversation together about the struggle of life. It was interesting to listen to though, and I could pick up a few things; sensei speaks very fast. After she left, Midori sensei arrived, and we spent the last of the time talking, the three helping me with ideas for my Great Barrier Reef speech; we ended up getting onto politics, which is always fun. After packing up, we made our way home, and I went straight up for some dinner; yay for leftovers. I stayed in the kitchen for a little while, and then finally wrenched myself away to spend the rest of the night writing up my findings from my interviews today; glad it’s done…

Day 223 - 10th of April

8:37am　普通

天気：晴れ

I’m on the local train to Amagasaki, to change over for 姫路 (Himeji – lit. “Princess Road”); I’m with Rachel, Rachael and Sarah. I got up at 6:30 this morning, showered and had porridge for breakfast; and a very hasty breakfast that was. The four of us left for the Hirakata station at 7 by bus, and then took the train to Kyobashi. There, we went to the JR ticket office and picked up an all day rail pass to Himeji, which was really convenient and saved a bit of money too. We’re at Amagasaki now…

8:58am　新快速

Now we’re on the “special rapid” (never been on one of these before) to Himeji; just got to sit down. It’s a beautiful sunny, warm day today, and it may actually end up being too hot; especially since the line to get into the castle is going to be very long. Oh well, it’s definitely going to be worth it. I’m going to do a bit of study now; well, try too…

5:00pm　新快速

We’re back on the special express now, home bound! My feet are very sore, but it was definitely worth it; I knew it would be. The only problem is I’m too tired to write about it now; I’m going to doze for a bit…

10:51pm　セミナーハウス

Feeling a bit better now that I’ve had a nice hot shower and I’m lying down. Today was… gosh I can’t even describe it, but I know I have to. I just have to say right now that I’m so, so glad that I decided to go; it really was an amazing experience…We arrived in Himeji at about 10, and after I picked up the second volume of Reborn from a book store in the station, we made our way through an underground shopping arcade, and up onto the main street. Already, we could see the castle, standing proudly at the end of the busy main street; I already had both cameras out. Walking there, we past many interesting statues, an information centre with a cool model of the castle, and also got some food from the convenience store to eat when we got into the grounds, since there aren’t any food stalls within; I just got some onigiri, anpan, and a bottle of orange juice. Getting closer, we noticed the remains of the outer walls of the original castle town, now not much more than grassy mounds topped with ancient trees, with stone skirting their bases. Soon enough, we had reached the end of the street, the castle looking increasing grand; a huge moat, and stone walls surrounding the bailey; the “White Heron” proudly standing atop a cloud of pinks and greens ~ it is sometimes referred to as 白鷺城 (shirasakijo – “White Heron Castle”) because of it brilliant white exterior.

We crossed the white arching bridge, and entered the gate to the bailey, and were soon surrounded by 100s of sakura trees. We really had come at the perfect time! Just about all of them were in full bloom, or just past, which meant that we not only got to appreciate them at the height of their glory but also, when the wind blew, the petals would be caught in a flurry, before landing silently on the ground; it was truly a magical sight. And believe me when I say, I got my cherry blossom fill today; there must have been at least a thousand trees on the grounds if not more. Since it was still relatively early in the day, we decided to tour the castle first, before eating lunch. Already, a patchwork of blue tarps skirted the sakura, families and business colleagues enjoying their meals and the shade; it was actually getting quite hot. Waiting in the line-up to purchase tickets proved to be relatively short. Upon entry, Rachel bumped into one of her classmates, and they chatted for a bit with we planned our next move. After passing though another gate, we decided to check out the gardens first, before entering the main keep; cherry blossom heaven. I noticed that the palace was nearby (like the one at Nijo castle, this one was also called Nishi no Maru), and asked if the girls wanted to walk through it. It was free to go in, but when we got to the entrance, we had to take off our shoes and carry them with us in plastic bags; this was understandable, but odd. The interior was all wooden, and at some points very low or narrow; the stairs, which were almost ladders, were especially scary. “Stone throwing holes” were one of the cool features of the castle, which was a long curving structure of interconnecting rooms, almost all of them offering a view of the main keep.

Exiting at the other end, we put our shoes back on, disposed the plastic bags in the designated bins, and then made our way back through the garden; I found some pin dispensers on the way, so now I have two more. Even though they were doing a lot of construction work already, for the most part it didn’t obstruct the beautiful scenery. There was a giant crane set up next to the main keep, but even then you could easily take photos that didn’t include it; they had positioned it at an ideal angle and distance away. Unlike the line to the admission booths, the line to get into the main keep for far from short; our “siege” didn’t seem very dramatic at such a sluggish pace. When we finally found the end of the line, we were in a small courtyard with a well that someone had apparently been thrown into for being “naughty". By this point, it was very hot in the sun, and my bag was feeling heavy, but I endured; we were soon in the shade of the trees and the wall. In the same way that I couldn’t get much study done on the train this morning (because I was too distracted by the scenery), I didn’t have much luck reading Reborn. Even going at that pace, there was so much to see so in the end, while it took about an hour to get into the keep, it was far from boring; incidentally, I noticed Natalie in the exiting lane about halfway up.

I would have been very difficult for besiegers to even get to the main keep; the castle is such an intricate complex of paths and walls. The walls themselves have holes of alternating shapes in them, and each one could potentially have a rifleman on the other side, poised to fire. When we did finally get to the entrance, we went through the same procedure as the palace. Carrying my bagged shoes in one hand and my video camera in the other proved to be a little unruly especially when climbing the stairs. The central tower was six storeys high, and there were a few historical artefacts displayed throughout, including samurai armour, scrolls and rifles and spears; it had a very different feel to the museum-like set ups of Nagoya and Osaka castles. It was lit only by natural light, which meant that it was actually quite dark in many places. Like the palace, it was relatively unfurnished. It was quite crowded and near the beginning, Rachael and I got separated from Rachel and Sarah. We ended up getting to the top first, because the other two got stuck in the crowd at the bottom of the stairs on one of the lower floors, in order to limit the number of people in the top. At the top, we took in the amazing view of the grounds and the city beyond; it was very impressive. Interestingly there was a shrine, 刑部 (Osakabe), on the top floor, which was actually originally situated on the hill that they built the castle. They ended up moving the shrine during construction, and then relocating in inside the tower when they were finished; I think that’s really cool.

Going up the stairs was a bit worrying, but coming down was even worse. Like the palace too, these stairs were precariously steep, and I had to bend over to get under the crossbeam near the top. Going back down though, I had to basically climb under it, which was no easy task, especially when the stairs were slippery and I was in socks; Rachel, tall like me, had a similar struggle. We met up again on the 4^th floor, and then made our way back down, past more interesting artefacts; including a model of the original castle town. Again exiting from a different side, we made our way back out of the main keep, our descent much faster than our climb. Feeling very hungry, after a few more photos we exited out into a park and sat down on a rock for lunch, watching playful pigeons. After a bit of a rest, we continued exploring the grounds coming across 姫路神社 (Himeji Shrine), which was absolutely beautiful; I could understand why I would be a popular location for weddings. We walked through more gardens, and climbed to the top of the wall surrounded by the moat, finding a fiery ginger cat sleeping in the top of a water feature; it wasn’t running. We were now on the east side of the castle, were the construction work was much more obvious. It had gotten cloudy, and subsequently cooled down, so walking back around to the front of the complex was much more comfortable. To the left of us was another park filled with people enjoying the sakura, and to the right, a zoo. Once we got to the south east corner, we took our last few photos of the castle, with two shachi (tiger-headed fish) in the foreground. It was about 3:30 by this point, so we decided to call it a day, and headed back towards the train station; the castle would be closing at 4 anyway. On the way back, we past a market, and went over to a convenience store so Rachel could pick up some food; she hadn’t eaten yet.

Finally, we went to a ダイソー (Daiso), a100 yen store. It was basically three floors of cheap goods, most of them 105円; cause of the tax. Sarah was looking for gyoza press (which she found), and ended up buying a whole heap of other things; reminded me of Mum a discount shop. I found a big teddy bear to cuddle and some children’s books, one of which was kobutorijisan (the story we read in Reading and writing); I didn’t end up buying anything though. Before leaving for the station, both Rachael and I bought bread from the grocery store on the first floor. We made our way back to station, and were soon riding the special rapid back to Amagasaki. I was so sleepy and dozed off a couple of times. Rachel on the other hand, was too intent on seeing the sea to sleep; understandable since she lives in the middle of America. Once we got to Amagasaki, we hoped platforms and took the limited express back to Kyobashi; not that it made much difference since it stops just as frequently as the local. I read a little bit more of Reborn and now I’ve only got about 10 pages left; glad I bought the second volume today. Once we got to Kyobashi we went over to the Keihan side and Rachael suggested that we try to use the all-day passes that we got today on the Keihan line. So, I went up to ask one of the station attendants if we could use the ticket, and he said no. But he directed us around to an office, and said we could exchange the all-day JR ticket for an all-day Keihan ticket; very cool. So we relinquished our JR tickets, which were stamped twice, and then we received the Keihan tickets; so we ended up saving 320円.

After getting back to Hirakatashi, Rachael, Sarah, and I took the bus home, while Rachel decided to walk; she does like to walk. Getting back, I dumped my stuff in my room (Hugo-less) and then went up to make dinner. Ash was there, and I talked with her about her day; she had gone to Shinsaibashi and bought some magazines and a costume of one of her favourite anime characters. Sarah soon joined us, but just as soon left; I hadn’t even started eating dinner. I mixed the leftovers from last night with the rest of my pasta, and it turned out very nicely. It was very quiet in the kitchen (everyone was out), and apart from Ash and I, there were only about 4 other people in there, including Sam. He had wanted to come today, but hadn’t woken up; I wonder if he’ll go tomorrow with Jazz? Katie was next to join us, and she recalled her wonderful day in Kyoto, seeing the Philosopher’s Path and 平安神宮 (Heian Shrine, which I still want to go to), all transformed by the sakura. I think that seeing Himeji castle during sakura season tramps almost everything else, so I’m extremely glad I went; can’t say that enough. Katie soon left, and Rachel replaced her and we continued to chat for a while going our separate ways. To end this post on a rather dramatic note, I found out something from Ash tonight that I couldn’t believe; this was later confirmed in an email from the CIE. One of the students from Kansai Gaidai was arrested for the possession of marijuana!!! Who in their right mind would be stupid enough to think they could get away with something like that, especially in a country like Japan that has zero tolerance of drugs; obviously someone who isn’t in their right mind. Ash and I were speculating who it might be, but it might be someone we don’t even know; so many questions left unanswered. Needless to say, there will be severe repercussions for whoever did it, including detention without bail for up to six months, and deportation from Japan for up to 10 years. Absolutely crazy…

Day 221 - 8th of April

11:28pm　セミナーハウス
天気：晴れ
Well the weather turned again, and while it wasn’t as warm as Tuesday, at least it was nice and sunny… I woke up a bit after 9, and took a while to get ready; I wanted to look good for the koto performance. I ended up wearing my new shirt, with a vest over the top; I was really happy with the look. It also kept m warm enough that I didn’t have to bother with a jumper. I got to uni at about 10:30, and after dropping my bag off in the performance room (Midori and Mori Sempai were already playing), I had a bit of a walk, and took photos of the events going on, including the cheerleading, and rock band performance. I got back to the room for 11, and soon enough, it was our turn to perform in front of a small group of freshman; potential entrants to our club. Our first time through Sandan went okay, but Kyoningyo no yume was actually pretty terrible to be completely honest; my pages were out of order so I completely lost it at one point. After Maarika and I had played, Midori and Mori Sempai again took up playing, Mori offering my some glue to stick the Kyoningyo no yume sheet music together; good plan.

During this time, Rose and another guy (I’ve regrettably forgotten his name) came in, and were promptly served tea by the tea ceremony club, all garbed in kimono; and very beautiful kimono at that. Just as Midori and Mori Sempai had finished playing, a girl in the audience dropped her tea bowl; since it was ceramic it smashed. In a way, it was a fitting end to an intense piece like Kagaribi. Then we were up again, and this time we did a lot better at both pieces although, Kyoningyo no yume still wasn’t as good as Sandan; and it’s supposed to be the easier piece! Oh well, we have practiced sandan longer after all. Natalie had arrived by this time, so she played hanagoromo, and Maarika and I helped her; it turned out… okay. As soon as we finished, I had to rush off to class; it was a bit of a shame I couldn’t stay and support everyone. I ended up being a little late, but Saigo Sensei understood; he always does. The class was in the middle of watching a video about origami, but I caught the majority of it; it was quite funny actually. After that, we got into the serious stuff; as serious as Saigo Sensei’s classes can be that is.

In the break between classes, I got my homework done, and read a little more of the interview write-ups. In religion, we went on to discuss them all; some in more detail than others. Mine, which showed a pretty “typical” (the professor liked to put that word in quotation marks) representation of a Japanese person’s religious beliefs, was only glossed over, which was understandable; I didn’t have anything to add. Overall, it was really interesting listening to every ones ideas and input on other’s write-ups, and this is further helping to shape my perceptions of Japanese society. After class, I went down to check my mail, and there was another letter from Nanny and Poppy. Then I made my way back home, as I was extremely hungry. However many distractions lay in my path and it was a battle to get through them. First of all, the marching band and colour guard were performing out on the basket ball courts, so I had to watch that; it was so good. Actually, the band performed the theme from Mario Bros, which was so cool; I got it on video! After that, I saw Rebecca in the crowd and went over to talk to her; she was helping to recruit new members to her circle. I talked with her and a few Japanese people for a little while, and then finally had to excuse myself; I escaped.

I noticed Katie as I was heading towards the bike parking, but thankfully our interchange was relatively short; she had to go to Fresco for groceries. Riding home, I took a few photos of the Sakura across from Komatsu. Of course when I got back, I practically raced to my room to dump my stuff, and then went up to the kitchen to eat; so satisfying. After lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Alex. She wants to go on one last holiday together over Golden Week, so we were looking for a good place and accommodation; we’re thinking 彦根 (Hikone) at the moment. I also talked with Dad for a while, which was really nice; we don’t often get to talk for very long. 6:30 rolled around, and after getting in my laundry, I went upstairs for dinner; yay for leftover yakisoba. I stayed up there and chatted, and watched TV (lucky TV personalities going around Disneyland and eating all the food), until just after 8:30. Then I came back down here, and got my Reading and Writing homework done; that was a bit of a mission. The rest of the night was pretty chill though…

Day 216 - 3rd of April

10:03pm　特急

天気：晴れ

It’s a beautiful, sunny day and Julie and I are on our way to Nara, to do some sightseeing; it’s going to be amazing. Although we’re standing up, at least we’re not squished up against the doors like we we’re on the way to Tambabashi earlier this morning. After walking around for a while in Nara Park, we’re going to get back on the train to go to Tenri, to meet with the class for the field trip.

5:09pm　天理

We’re on the train, in the station, just about to make our way back to Tambabashi; have to change over at Hirakata. Today was wonderful… After getting to Nara, Julie and I slowly made our way over to Todaiji; we went a very roundabout way. We walked past the ward office, under the road, and through a suburban area, to 吉城公園 (Yoshishiro Koen); I had been there before with Diego, Jessica and Carly. After walking around the garden, we continued on, past houses and temples. On the train, we had seen so many sakura in the distance, flying by…

5:24pm　特急

We just changed over at 平端 (Hirahata – not to be confused with Hirakata)… but now, we were up close and personal with hundreds of sakura trees, most in full bloom; overload of beauty. We were also able to get up close and personal with the deer; Julie was so happy. They were all looking a bit stuffy, but I put that down to the fact that they were losing their winter coats. We made our way around the back of Todaiji, and went up into the hills, passing groups of painters and sketchers; they were all amazingly talented. Julie described the area as heavenly, and I had to agree; Nara is breathtaking! We walked back down the hill, which was covered in sakura, and there was this beautiful big old tree green on one side with moss. As we were making our way over to Todaiji, a foreign woman come up to us and asked if I could take her picture; turns out she was from Sydney. I was of course happy to oblige, and in return, she took a photo of us, and then wished as a happy trip; little did she know we were actually studying here. After that, we marvelled at Todaiji (I’m always amazed at the sheer size of it), and then continued back out of the complex to enter the deer park. There was a huge open space skirted be sakura, and many people were picnicking, kicking around soccer balls, or just enjoying the fine weather; although, it was starting to get a little cloudy.

We sat down in the park, and I enjoyed my apple after spraying myself with a nearby bubbler; it shot so high. A deer came up to us, and I fed it my apple core, before it proceeded to slobber on my bag. We rested for a bit longer, and then made our way back to the station; again taking a very roundabout route. We walked to the pagoda, past Nanendo and down to the lake I had been to before; the one with all the sunbathing turtles. There was a guy nearby playing the shamisen; I really want to try playing it one day. We decided to go back to the station via the shopping district, which was bustling. I bought a butaman (pork dumpling) from a convenience store and it’s seen me through till now; I’m really not that hungry. We walked past a shop where two guys were pounding mochi in a big barrel with wooden mallets; I was so glad to finally see the process. One thing that wasn’t very heavenly about Nara was the lack of ATM’s that would accept our cards; we were both low on funds. Seeing us in one of the cash corners in the shopping arcade, a young woman kindly gave us directions to another ATM (one that “might” work), knowing that these one’s wouldn’t.

So we decided to try it. Funny thing was, when we exited the arcade, the woman suddenly reappeared and redirected us to a different building which was just across the street; I wondered if she had followed us. Unfortunately when we got there, we found nothing resembling an ATM. So, still unperturbed, we tried two other ATMs nearby, and even these wouldn’t accept our cards; there was one that was exactly the same as the one at uni too! Finally, we resigned to the fact that we’d just have to go without; we had enough for transport, so that was the main thing. We went back to the station, and took the train to 大和西大寺 (Yamato Saidaiji). There, we had to wait quite a while for the train to Tenri; we looked around the shops and munched on a few free samples. By the time we got to Tenri, we were about half an hour late. There was a very helpful map right outside the station, and it proved to be really easy to get to the Tenrikyo headquarters; directly east through a shopping arcade. This arcade greatly contrasted with that of Nara’s; it was quite dead, and it just had an old fashioned feel about it. And when I say old fashioned, I don’t mean ancient, I mean about 30 years ago. Emerging from the arcade, an immense Buddhist-looking building came into sight…

6:13pm　特急

We’re on the train back to Makino now. So, where was I? Oh yeah… big, impressive, Buddhist-looking building; one to rival Todaiji in fact. This was the Tenrikyo Sanctuary!!! We were both awestruck as we marvelled at its size and beauty, before coming back down to earth and realising we still had the task of finding the class. Having no idea where they could be, we decided to just enter the building, taking our shoes off at the bottom of the steps. The interior was equally impressive, tatami mats spanning out before us. Miraculously, we soon spotted the class on the other side of the hall. We found our way around to them, and sat down on the tatami; the class was asking Hiroshi, our guide, questions. We’ve made it to Kuzuha…

9:18pm　セミナーハウス

I’m just about to go to karaoke with Rachel and Ash. We’ve been playing an awesome card game in the kitchen with Julie, Brett, Sam, Chelsea, Jeremy and Liz, called “Mad Scientist University”. Basically, each round someone is the teacher, and they draw a card from the “assignment” pile, and dictate that to the “class”. Then it’s everyone else’s job to come up with ideas about how to best complete this assignment using the “unstable element” they are dealt; the more outlandishly demented the idea the better. I felt a really silly at first, but after a while you just get into it and say the stupidest things, and as long as you come across as confident, you’re sweet; it was an absolute cack…

10:04pm　カラオケ　－　牧野

We just got to karaoke; Rachel and Ash generously payed for me. Well, I guess I should finish off telling my day… After the questions, we prayed (clap 4 times bow – long, clap 4 times bow – short) and then continued the tour through the sanctuary. We had another session in front of the “residence” of the founderess, a focal point for prayer. Hiroshi explained that the founderess basically withdrew from her physical form, after realising her being alive was causing too much trouble for her followers; there was a huge crack down on religions other than Shinto during the Meiji restoration. However, her spiritual form continues to reside in Tenri. She has a house, and every day they draw a bath and serve her food, and they even change the linen; I find it fascinating. After another round of questions, we prayed again, and then went on to yet another room of worship. Here, Hiroshi explained Tenrikyo follower’s beliefs about death. They believe in Reincarnation but, unlike Buddhism, which is pretty much all about pain and suffering, Tenrikyo promotes the pursuit of happiness; you are continuously reborn in hopes that you will achieve lasting happiness. Also there is no heaven or hell; earth itself can be heaven if you obtain true happiness. In this room, there were three mirrors – the central one dedicated to the leaders proceeding the founderess (after her, there haven’t been any other female leaders); the one on the right, to the high ranking ministers and; the one on the left to all the followers of Tenrikyo. We prayed to each respectively, and then made our way back around to the front of the complex.

After getting our shoes on, Hiroshi showed those of us who were interested how to do the 手踊り (te odori – “hand dance”), which is accompainied by a song, as part of praying and other services; it was actually pretty cool. Then rest of the class went off to the sakura, but was soon caught up with them anyway. The professor knew where there was a huge tree, but unfortunately we found it to have already lost most of its flowers. It was such a shame, because it was absolutely massive and would have looking incredible in full bloom; to others of similar size nearby were in the same state. All the branches were supported by an intricate arrangement of poles and brackets. Finally, we made our way back to the main building and got a group photo in front of it, before parting with Hiroshi, and making our way back to the station. On the way, Julie noticed there were banners that were wishing “oyasama” (the affectionate name for the founderess) a happy birthday, and I remembered Hiroshi was just telling us about the fact that they celebrated her birthday, and it was coming up soon; it’s actually the 18^th of this month. It supposed to be a really huge event, and there is heaps of preparation going into it.

Getting back to Makino, Julie and I got our bikes out of the gutter; we had parked them there on purpose to escape receiving a ticket for not paying for parking. Unfortunately that didn’t end up working out so well, and we found the warning tickets on both of our bikes; I guess it really just depends on how anal the particular security guard that’s on duty at the time is. Indeed, I’ve got away with parking there at least twice; oh well. Anyway, we rode back and Julie went straight up to the kitchen feeling starved; she hadn’t eaten much all day. I soon joined her after dumping my stuff in my room. I put on a pizza (margarita) and was soon enjoying that; so cheap and tasty. Not sure whether or not we would be going to karaoke tonight, I waited in the kitchen, hoping Ash or Rachel would turn up; and they did, Ash just as we started playing Mad Scientist University, and Rachel about 3 rounds in…

11:21pm

Well that was my day. Now it’s time to enjoy the rest of the night singing…