Day 241 - 28th of April

8:54pm　カラオケ　－　枚方市

天気：晴れ

I’m at Karaoke with Brett, Katie, Liz, Sam, Priscilla, Chelsea, Julie, Rebecca and Rachel; we’ve been here since about 7. Today was a warm, sunny day, and even walking to the bus stop this evening was pleasant…I woke up at about 7 this morning, and made scrambled eggs for breakfast; I didn’t want to buy anymore milk for cereal since I’ll be going away tomorrow. I got to uni a little early, and took a final look at my vocab list before going into the test. Well, I think I did really well on everything except for the listening; even Saigo Sensei said it was difficult. Oh well, hopefully the other sections will bring up my mark. After that, I went to Katie and Sarah’s class to watch their skit; I couldn’t miss it for the world. I hadn’t realised until now, but their Sensei is my Sensei from last semester; Miyauchi. He remembered me, and was happy for me to stay and watch; he even gave me the slips of paper to comment on. As for their skit, it was absolute chaos in the best way possible. They basically condensed all three LOTR’s movies into 10 minutes, switching between about 10 different characters between them in fast succession; it was well done. Then they had a plethora of stuffed animals portraying the orcs, the Balrog, and Shelob; it was hilarious. I stuck around and watched the other two skits, but Katie and Sarah’s was definitely the most entertaining.

After that, I had a little bit of time to revise for the vocab quiz in Reading and Writing. Well, it wasn’t my best, but it wasn’t terrible either; last one too. We spent the rest of the lesson going over the grammar points. Then we had to complete the course evaluation for the class; I took this one to the office too. After that, it was time for Gender and Sexuality. Today we talked about the gay identity in Japan, before looking at a representation of lesbians in Japan with the animation, “Plicachan”. It was a clever, funny, and cute film, but also brought up serious issues about the way lesbians are viewed in Japan; it was really very interesting. And that was that, I was home-free; well, after picking up some bread for lunch. After lunch, I talked with my family for a good two hours, and then I got my blog up to date, before making dinner; it was about 6:30 by then. I had to hurry up, since we would be going to karaoke by bus at 7:50. I made, and then wolfed down a huge okonomiyaki, and then showered and dressed. Hugo is leaving for Tokyo tonight, so I wished him a good trip, and then went to meet the others… I don’t know how late I’m going to stay tonight, since I’ve got to get going for Hikone in the morning; I’ll see how I go…

Day 101 - 9th of December

10:54am　大学
天気：晴れ
Sitting here in the garden, on a cold marble bench, listening to my iPod, with the water in the background, and the sound of shoes on stone, as the students make their way into university. Just finished my skit; it went well I think. We got a couple of good laughs out of it. As there was nothing else to do, class finished early. I would be sitting in the CIE lounge now, but they’re using it to film a movie, “@ Campus”. So I’m out here, in the warm sun. Just finished a 薩摩芋 (satsumaimo – sweet potato) soft serve; really yummy. Ah, my pen is dying…

11:11pm
Just finished packing the Christmas box; going to send that tomorrow hopefully. After Reading and writing Japanese, I basically came home, ate lunch, studied, and talked with family in the afternoon. Dinner was scrambled eggs with tuna, and I got plenty of fruit, and cookies from Carly, for dessert. At 9 did kitchen cleaning. It was nice to see so many people participating; I really didn’t have much to do. Got back and spent the rest of the evening labelling and bagging the presents. It was fun to try to get all everything to fit; I think it is fine. Tomorrow got my CEL quiz, which I’ve been studying for, and last History and Reading and Writing classes. Now, sleep…

Day 94 - 2nd of December

11:17pm　セミナーハウス
天気：晴れ
Just had a shower, washed my hair (it was starting to get really grotty; I hadn't washed since Saturday), and shaved, and cut my toenails. All clean and refreshed now; to much info? I felt so tired today. Hokkaido really did wipe me out. But I guess it's not just that; the stresses of exams and the end of semester are coming down hard. We had our first round of skits today; they were all so funny. After my Reading and Writing class, and lunch, Rachael and I practiced out skit for a couple of hours. We recorded it a few times, and had a good laugh at all the stuff ups. We're getting there though, and I feel ready for tomorrow. It'll be good to get it done. So afterwards, got home and had a nap. And of course, felt like crap when I woke up, just in time for the seminar house meeting at 6.

I was a little worried that Diego wasn't going to make it, but he got here just in time. The major focus of the meeting was people checking out and getting to the airport on time. I'm really glad I don't have to worry about any of that this time around. After the meeting, I went up to the kitchen and everyone was cooking. I waited to cook, and talked with Katie about my trip and other stuff. I had food coming at me from all directions; Carly's pancakes, Katie's chocolate milk, Diego's omelette (covered with the mozzarella cheese I bought him), and Jo's white chocolate mint biscuits. I almost didn't feel like any dinner afterwards. But, I made some anyway, and enjoyed it; yakisoba with pork. It was about 8:30 at that point. Spent the rest of the night practicing skit and doing homework. Now... sleep.

Day 93 - 1st of December

6:43pm　和室
天気：晴れ
In koto now; my legs are aching. Just finished lesson with sensei. I think she's teaching Midori sempai a new piece now. Wow, I really have to cut my nails when I get home. Don't know what I'm going to have for dinner. I got chicken out of the freezer so I need to use that. Maybe I'll just do yakisoba? Today is the first of December. The last month here in Japan for so many of the friends I've made. I did my grocery shopping this morning, but will probably go to Fresco and Kirindo to pick up some other stuff after koto. After Speaking, Rachael and I got to practice our skit for a while and figured out what props we're going to bring. Tomorrow more practice, then Thursday perform. In History, we're up to the Christian century, which started out promising, but ended with practically all foreigners being killed or driven out of the country; fun times.

After history, I bumped into Dan and we chatted for a short time. I told him I had to go to koto and left. Before koto though, I went to Makkas, and enjoyed a hamburger, fries and strawberry sundae. Now, I'm just listening to the girls practicing with sensei; not long left. We practiced Hanagoromo today, and are playing that, along with a piece from Totoro (hopefully), in a Christmas concert in a few weeks...

11:35pm　セミナーハウス
Trying desperately to get my blog up to date, but it's going very slow. After koto I did go to Kirindo and Fresco and got some good buys. Got back and made dinner (chicken with pasta and sauce), and watched "Liar Game" . It's a crazy drama involving gambling. It's very funny (in a disturbing way) to watch. Well, now I'm getting to bed.

Day 88 - 26th of November

10:19pm　セミナーハウス
天気：晴れ
Another nice day today; I got to do the laundry. There was so much, and I was going to do some hand washing, but I didn't have the time. I got my Japanese homework done, and then struggled to learn all the vocab for the quiz this morning. It turned out fine, I knew them all; I'm glad that my memory is decent. For the rest of Speaking, we watched this really good short movie called "The Wedding Simulator". I won't go into the plot, but it was really interesting, and I could understand most of it! It had a very unexpected twist at the end too. After my other classes, I got some money out, had a strawberry milkshake from Makkas, and went to the computer lab to fix up our skit; gotta finish that off tonight. At 5, we all got together to plan what we'd be doing in Hokkaido, and I turned out to be very successful. We have a pretty good idea of what we're doing each day, how to get there, approximate times and costs, and back up plans if the weather turns nasty; It should be fine though. Got home had spaghetti bolognese for dinner, and watched TV for a while (there was a show on about the end of the world in 2012). Gotta finish packing now. We have to get to the station by 9:30, then train it to KIX airport, and by 3:10 we'll be in Hokkaido!!! So excited...

Day 86 - 24th of November

11:54pm　セミナーハウス
天気：雨天
The rain continues to dampen our spirits (no pun intended... well, maybe). Time has escaped me so I'll keep it short. I woke up at about 8:30, had breakfast, did some stretching (really need to do that more often), showered and then freaked out that I didn't have my script done for Japanese speaking. I quickly rushed off to uni at 10:30 with what I had, and hoped I'd meet Rachael beforehand. It was after my classroom came into view that I realised I didn't have class until 12. So, I went back down to the CIE lounge, bumped into Rachael, and spent the next hour working on the script. We still didn't have it done by the time 12 came round but we were getting there. Got in and got our last lesson test done. It was pretty good actually; hopefully my results reflect my confidence. After that, Rachael and I went to the cafeteria and I ate while working on the skit more. We got it pretty much done before I had to go to History; I left her typing the rest out, before handing it into sensei.

In History we watched a really old (well, from the 70's) Japanese Movie, "Ran". It was very confusing, and a little boring, and the SFX were very sketchy. Our professor was very kind to make us lots of popcorn though. We have to write a short reaction paper on it, but unfortunately I didn't get to watch it all since I had koto at 4:30; it went for about 3 hours I think. Oh well, I might borrow it out and watch the ending... maybe. Koto was good. Since the sensei didn't come, we didn't have to clean, and got straight into playing. We got new music today, including a piece from Totoro; yay!!! For this piece, we had to tune the koto in a new way (much like a piano), and that took a while. It also has three parts; koto 1 and 2, and the 17 string (bass) koto. I don't know if we have a bass koto; Mark said there was one upstairs? Koto 1 has the melody for the first bit, and then it goes to Koto 2, and then they come together in the last bit (melody and harmony).

We're going to have another small concert before the end of the year, and I hope we can perform the piece for that. We spent the last half having a meeting, trying to find another date to go out together before people return home. Every time a date was suggested, some one had some thing to do; it was a little frustrating. Finally, we decided on the 17th of Dec, but even that is tentative. By this time it was raining, and I was really glad I brought my umbrella. I went grocery shopping before returning home. It wasn't a very pleasant walk but, I had my music so it was bearable. Made yakisoba for dinner, and ate an apple that wasn't as crunchy as I would have liked. Unsatisfied, I swiped one of Diego's ice creams. Spent the rest of the night enjoying the fact that I don't have anymore homework for the rest of the semester, for Japanese speaking at least; soooo good. We're talking with the Gaidai students tomorrow in class. That should be... interesting. Anyway, enough, time for sleep