Yamagata Trip

So this past week has been a change of pace, I’ve been hanging out with several of my new friends a lot more, which is really nice. They’re quite amazing people, and I’m really glad I’ve met them. Liu, the girl who lives two doors down from me shares fruits with me all the time, she’ll just call up at like 7:00 at night and ask if I am home (She just dialed my room phone # lol) but she brings over Kiwi, Grapefruit, Watermelon, all kinds of awesome fruits and we chat while noshing on various snacks. I’ve also met several new Korean students, Choi and Sol, who I’ve hung out with a few times, I have lots of classes with Choi, so we run into each other all the time. The way we met was kind of strange, as there was a misunderstanding at first, but as soon as that was solved, I found he’s honestly one of the nicest, genuine guys I’ve ever met. There are plenty of other friends I’ve been hanging out with recently as well, and it’s refreshing, nothing against my old friends, but theres only so much you can talk about with the same five people all the time.

Anyways, onto the topic at hand, this past weekend, my friend Naoko invited me up to Yamagata, her hometown to visit. The trip there was about a thousand times more difficult than it should have been. The night before was the TryMe party, which was good, and people came back to my room for a little party. Several people couldn’t return home until later, so a few people crashed at my place. My friend Kei and I stayed up chatting until about 5:30am before we both crashed. I was supposed to catch the 2:30 train to Yamagata, and I set my alarm for 12:15, but my phone was turned to silent mode, so the alarm didn’t go off. I ended up waking up at 1:25, and realizing how late it was, I packed really quickly, got ready, washed my hair very fast, and was out the door by 1:40. I made it to the bus stop quickly, but the bus would be 10 minutes, so I waited for a taxi to pass, but it ended up being 8 minutes until one did, I still rode it to Minami Yono, rushed to Omiya, and got my ticket at 2:05. Plenty of time. I ran up to the platform, and waited for my shinkansen. I was on the Hayate 119. I asked a conductor which train was mine to be sure, and he pointed to the train on platform 14. I jumped on grabbed a seat, and chilled as we passed several stations along the way. When we arrived at Fukushima, the station before Yonezawa (my destination) I noticed something weird. The train said the next stop was Sendai… which is in the wrong prefecture. It was too late to change trains, so I ended up riding all the way to Sendai, having to switch trains there, and head BACK to Fukushima, which was about 20 minutes away… 40 minutes wasted. When I got to Fukushima, I had to switch to another platform, but only had about 4 minutes to do so. The platform I was on only had a elevator, and while I was technically on the third floor, the building was 6 stories tall, each floor being a double floor. So the elevator took forever to come up and back down, so I had about a minute and a half to get to my train. The other platform had an escalator, but I went to the down rather than the up escalator first, and had to run all the way around, and run up like two and a half stories worth of stairs and I jumped on the train just as the doors were closing. I was finally on my way to Yonezawa… Then I noticed the ticket I had bought was to Yamagata Station, not Yonezawa Station, so I had ended up paying like 20$ more than I needed to for my ticket–and there is no refunds. Blech.

Once I was in Yonezawa I met up with Naoko and we headed to her house where I met and chatted with her family for a bit, then we went to the Black Lion festival, which is a special festival for the area Naoko is from. We watched the festival for a while before some of her friends picked us up to go to a party. The party was really far away… two and a half hours by car away, and we only stayed for about three and a half hours, before the return trip in the morning. We got back and crashed at one of Naoko’s friends houses and her parents came to pick us up four hours later. I was still kinda drunk when we headed out, and Naoko, Her mother and Sister, and I went to the Takahata winery, where we got to have free samples of a dozen kinds of wine. As much as we wanted to drink as well. I ended up having 6 or 7 glasses worth of wine before the trip was done, and then I ended up buying 5 bottles of various wines, some cheese, and some sausage. After the winery, we were supposed to go visit Naoko’s grandmother, but she was busy or something until 5:30 or 6, so we decided to go visit a nearby shrine and the gravesite of the feudal lord who build Naoko’s school 300 years ago. I got my fortune and it was a nice trip, as I was just sobering up from the Winery, Naoko told me she wanted to take me somewhere, so we walked for about 25 minutes and made our way to a Sake Brewery. The brewery was really cool, and then we got to the sampling room. They had 16 bottles or so, and handed you a shot glass when you walked in. After sampling all the kinds, which were actually all really really smooth and easy to drink, Though, I was pretty drunk again. There were several bottles of really expensive sake as well, but those you had to pay for a drink. The 100$ bottle of sake was $1.50 for a shot. So Naoko and I grabbed a shot of that as well, it was some of the best sake I’ve ever drank in my life. We headed back to Naoko’s grandma’s house soon there after and had some of the best 焼肉 (kinda like BBQ) I’ve ever had, and Naoko’s grandmother made me like a 8 course meal. It was way too much food, but it was all so good, so I tried my best to eat all that I could, without dying. We talked for a little bit, but her grandmother had a thick dialect and accent, so it was kinda hard for me to understand some of what they were saying. But soon I had to get back to the train station for the last shinkansen of the night, and I was on my way home back to Saitama. When I got home to Saitama, Jiyoung came over for a bit to chat, and then Seba, Jason, and Liu all wandered over as well, and we ate some of the cheese and drank some the wine that I had bought. After chatting for a bit, everyone headed off to bed, and I got some much needed sleep. It was excellent.

Yamagata is far removed from the big cities of Japan, it’s really rural, which was such a relaxing environment and to be honest, the place reminded me so much of Michigan, just very green, and there were lots of farms and the cherry wineries. Naoko made me swear I’d bring her to the Cherry wineries of Traverse City up in Michigan next year, as well as up to gaylord to the lake house, I’ll bring all the students up there in the fall when it’s too cold to swim but perfect time to just enjoy the lake. Perhaps for my birthday weekend… We’ll see.

Japanese people live in Japan?

So, A few weeks back, things got pretty bad. I was pretty torn up, and I really wanted to go home. I felt like my social network had pretty much collapsed on me, I was homesick like crazy, and I just was having a pretty miserable time. However, I underestimated my optimism and extroverted personality, because before long, I had suddenly made a handful of really awesome new friends, gotten a little bit more involved, and realized that things weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they were. I’m so glad things have worked out like this.. It’s back to the point where I don’t want to go home again… however, I do gotta say, It’s weird, the status Japan is for me… There’s really nothing in this country binding me to it, except the (mostly foreigner) friends I have here, and the language. My last class on Friday is a class with only foreigners, so it’s all Chinese, Korean, and other Asian students in it. We’re all around the same level of Japanese (Except they’re much better at Kanji…) so its easy to talk to them, they don’t really use words I don’t know, I don’t use words they don’t know, and we can express just about every concept we want to each other without any real problems… The whole weekend, I spoke Japanese, but again, only with the international students (many of them don’t speak English) by the time Monday afternoon rolled around I met a Japanese person, and had to stop myself from asking them where they were from… It had totally slipped my mind that Japanese people even lived here….in Japan.

I really wish I had more than three months left here… if I had more, it would make everything much more convenient.. So many new opportunities have presented themselves lately, but I feel like perhaps I’m being held back by the amount of time I have here…

Sunny with a high of 75.

These last two days were quite fun. Three Swedes came down to Tokyo from Sendai this past weekend. Eric, who I’ve met (and kicked in the balls—seriously, I’m sorry!!) several times; along with his two friends Jonas and Pär. They came down on Friday, and we promptly went out to an Izakaya (These Europeans drink like nobody’s business) where we had way too much to eat. We followed that up with a trip out to Club Asia in Shibya, where there was some great Techno playing. On the way, we kinda got lost–well we didn’t actually know where the club was, so it wasn’t so much lost as it was just wandering. We stopped at a 7-11 to ask for directions. But it just so happened that the people we asked were DJs at Harlem, a club we frequent. I traded phone numbers with him, and he said he’d get us into the club cheap in the future (and put us on the guest list~Woo!)

We finally made it to the club, and there we enjoyed ourselves some dancing and whatnot. We headed home just after 5am, and stopped at the best post-clubbing place, Yoshinoya/Sukiya/Matsuya which is just a cheap fast food-esque Gyu-don shop. We rode home tired as hell, and we all slept on the train. The girl who sat next to me on the train was out cold and kept falling over and laying her head on my shoulder, until she finally fell over with her head in my lap. the whole ordeal was pretty funny. I’ve never seen someone that dead asleep on a train before. When we got off the train, she woke up and wandered around, realizing she had over-slept her stop by… quite a bit. About 12 stops. Lol.

Anyways, we all went home and crashed, sleeping pretty much all day. By the time I got up, it was pretty late, and everyone was out at Carl’s Birthday party (which, not surprisingly, I wasn’t invited to–not sure if I would have gone anyways…) afterwards the swedes + peter (Carl doesn’t club) and I went out to Ageha, the largest club in Asia. Steve Aoki was headlining, and the place was packed. The line for the bus that takes you to Ageha was about 15 times longer than I had ever seen it before. Ageha was pretty much fully open (only the beach was closed) and the place was at capacity. Lots of people having a great time, and the techno music was amazing. Aoki kept spraying the crowd (and me) with champagne, which was pretty cool. He tried to crowd surf once, but Japanese people don’t do that, so they weren’t really expecting it, and he knocked over most of the crowd like bowling pins. Later on in the show, some girl climbed on stage and was dancing around. He tried to get her to crowd surf, but she didn’t realize what she was supposed to do, so he just picked her up and threw her into the crowd. Being about 6 inches taller than everyone else, and being exactly where he threw her, she landed right on my head. After making sure she didn’t die, she started talking to me, but I had no idea what she was saying. After she repeated herself three or four times, I realized she was saying ‘What are you up to?’ in English…

umm, I’m at a club/concert right now… Kinda an awkward question.

But the rest of the night was pretty awesome, I was soaked throughly from the champagne, sweat, people’s spilled drinks, and the supersoaker Aoki was spraying into the crowd. Still, one of the best times I’ve had in Japan. Great music, and a great time.

But, it’s back to school today, so I’ve got a week ahead of me, back to the grindstone until next weekend. Almost out of cash though, which.. well, is a problem, only about 50$ left to my name… Wish I still got that scholarship.

Such is life though. And in closing, Lyrics. =) Thank You, Relient K– (though not the song the title of this post is stolen from)

[Bite My Tongue]

I was gonna spell it out
In detail but
I dropped the call
Before I spilled my guts
The floor stayed clean
Like my conscience would be
‘Cause if you heard anything
You didn’t hear it from me

I’m sweeping up the seconds
That tick off the clock
Save them all for later
When I’m too ticked to talk
And I need some time
To search my mind
To locate the words
That seem so hard to find

And sometimes I say things that
I wish that I could take back
The most crucial thing I lack is the thing called “tact”
And if you’re always so intently listening
Then the smartest thing to say
Is to tell myself not to say a thing

Yeah I gotta keep quiet quiet
Don’t let it all come undone
‘Cause if I dare open my mouth
It’ll just be to bite my tongue
To bit my tongue

I said I’m always close-minded
With an open mouth
And the worst of me
Seems to come right out
But I’ve never broken bones
With a stone or a stick
But I’ve conjured up a phrase
That can cut to the quick

And sometimes I say things that
I wish that I could take back
And the smartest thing to say
Is to tell myself to keep

Quiet quiet
Don’t let it all come undone
‘Cause if I dare open my mouth
It’ll just be to bite my tongue
Yeah I gotta keep quiet quiet
Listen to your voice
Because the power of your words
Can repair all that I destroyed

And when I finally do
Let it come from you
The peace of understanding grips my soul
You’re the reason I
Have meaning in this life
Is so I swallow all my pride
And give you control
I give it all to you

And I gotta keep quiet quiet
Don’t let it all come undone
‘Cause if I dare open my mouth
It’ll just be to bite my tongue
I gotta keep quiet quiet
Listen to your voice
Because the power of your words
Can repair all that I destroyed
And I gotta keep quiet quiet
Don’t let it all come undone
‘Cause if I dare open my mouth
It’ll just be to bite my tongue
Bite my tongue

Everybody wake up, it’s time to get down–’Goldenweek Style’

So, the past few days have been rather crazy. Several awesome days of clubbing behind me, and several awesome days at Izakayas. First off, Whitney’s friend Karen came into town, she’s actually a student at NGU, which is one of the Universities which is actually partnered with my university as well. Anyways, the first night she was in town, everyone went out to an Izakaya in Shinjuku called Yamato. It’s a small bar, but its got three floors which gives it a lot of space. It was Whitney, Karen, Jackie, Me, Seba, Jiyoung, and Alessio. We ordered a shitload of food and a shitload of drinks, but Karen was putting down drinks like nobody’s business. She had 5 or 6 Umeshu drinks by the time we had finished half of our second beer.

We were having good conversation, and Whitney and Karen started singing Hakuna Matata, from Lion King. Alessio and Seba joined in, but in their native languages, which just sounded strange to us Americans. We brought up the question of the Japanese lyrics, and since everyone in Japan loves disney, the best way to find out would be to talk to random people. So we started talking with people at random tables, and pretty soon we were all spread out across the bar at different tables chatting up the random Japanese people. After about an hour though, it was time for us to go, and we headed home on the last train.

So then we went home and slept off our hangovers in time to go out for Makoto’s Birthday. Makoto is one of the students coming to BGSU next year as an Exchange student, he’s also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We wanted to bring his 22nd birthday in with style, so we went to a lounge-club named Microcosmos in Shibuya. We had a group of 20+ people, most of whom had already previously been drinking. The club itself wasn’t very big, which meant that most of the people there were somehow related to our group. This relationship between everyone made it really easy to make conversation with people, because for the most part, you had at least one common friend so no one was complete strangers. The night went fast, as it always does when Ryotaro is there. We started taking shots quickly and in rapid succession. It wasn’t long before I was 10 shots in and 4 mixed drinks. But everyone was pretty gone and it was really good to get my mind of things. There were tons of really cute girls there as well, which was really nice, By about 3:20, Alessio and Karen wanted to go to another club, so all the exchange students was getting ready to leave, but the next thing I knew, everyone except Peter was gone, and had left the two of us there with our Japanese friends. After 40 minutes of crazy dancing and tons of beautiful girls on the dance floor, all the exchange students filtered back in–the club they had gone too really sucked, so they came back to Microcosmos. By the end of the night, I had met several really nice girls (and traded phone numbers with 5 of them~) and Me and Peter finally headed out because everyone had left us there… again. It was the first time I had been drunk in a really long time–it might not seem like it, but I generally drink really slowly and try not to pass my limit. But it was really nice to just let go for a night and be free… and it paid off, I think =) The next morning I woke up with 4 text messages all from girls I had met that night saying how we should go out clubbing again sometime in the future. Already have made plans to go out next week. Pretty excited.

The next day, again, we slept off our hangovers and we went out with my friend Naoko to several places in Tokyo that she recommended us to see. First was Sugamo, then we went to Tsukijima. We met up with Naoko at Toda-Koen, where she lives, and dropped by her friends house to see a little shine they had set up for Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day) It was very traditional, and after a cup of tea, we headed out for Sugamo. On the way, Naoko described Sugamo as the ‘Harajuku’ for Obaasan’s. Harajuku is one of the centers of Japanese fashion and underground counterculture styles.

I don’t wanna see Old ladies wearing maid outfits, etc.

Luckily, that’s not what it was.. she meant it was an area with lots of shopping–which there was. It was nice, we stopped by a temple and got our fortunes, Prayed, and I donated a little bit of money to a monk who did a chant for me, then I bought a ‘happiness’ dango for a statue. (Dango are three little dough balls on a stick covered with a sauce.. very tasty). So My fortune was ‘little bit of luck’ with some average luck and a few barely better than average categories. I still tied it onto the bad-luck-get-rid-of-branch. We headed out to Tsukijima next, which was nice, I had been there before back in mid March with Kayoko, the girl I met in Korea. It’s a nice area, I didn’t remember that we had been there before, so I felt kinda bad, but still, we went and got some Monjya which is a famous dish from Tokyo. Very tasty, and not very expensive. Had a good time seeing Naoko again, I’ve not hung out with her very often, as she’s already graduated, so she’s not around Saitama very much anymore, and she works a lot. She’s already returned to her hometown in order to get ready to move back to BGSU for next year. (which will be a blast~)

And that was the end of golden week. I’ll update about clubbing that happened tonight some other time. It’s already late and I’m tired. Blargh…

Golden Week

So it’s golden week here in Japan, if you don’t know what it is, I’ll let Wikipedia give you a brief rundown.

Golden Week (ゴールデンウィーク), also known as Ōgata renkyū (大型連休) or Ōgon shūkan (黄金週間), is a Japanese term applied to the period containing the following public holidays:

April 29
Emperor’s Birthday (天皇誕生日), until 1988
Greenery Day (みどりの日), from 1989 until 2006
Shōwa Day (昭和の日), from 2007

May 3
Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日)

May 4
Holiday† (国民の休日), from 1985 until 2006
Greenery Day (みどりの日), from 2007

May 5
Children’s Day (こどもの日), also customarily known as Boys’ Day (端午の節句).

†: “kokumin no kyūjitsu” or “citizen’s holiday” is a generic term for any official holiday. May 4 was until 2007 an unnamed but official holiday because of a rule that converts any day between two holidays into a new holiday.

So with that, Classes are all on vacation, and theres nothing going on. It’s been raining lately, like crazy, but it seems to have gotten better. The weather report says sunny and warm for the whole week, which is good. I’m excited. I plan on going somewhere, It’s already the first, so I’ve only got a few more days, but hey, I’ll make the best out of it. Lots of friends have already asked to go places or do things, which is good, I’m not decided yet though, on what I’ll do.

Just a few days ago, we had a BBQ at the near by park, Since it was on the 29th, there were tons of people in the park. It was good to get out into nature again, even if just a park. We had a few beers, some Barbeque, and generally enjoyed ourselves. I’ll grab some pictures to throw up here, as that’s what I’ve been not doing. So here goes:

Some people sitting around chatting at the BBQ

Hinano is absolutely insane, but she’s a really nice person, once you get to know her.

Mateusz and Hinano, being crazy.

Yesterday, we decided we’d have a CoCo壱番屋 Level 10 Curry challenge, so as soon as Seba finished classes, we all headed out to CoCoIchi, and ordered ourselves a big plate of curry. We all ate the whole plate, but Seba had a Large, and I had a normal, and Jiyoung just ate her’s slow.

Then we decided to head to the DVD store, rent a dvd, we spent about 20-30 minutes browsing the selection before me and Seba both chose a movie. After filling out the membership forms, we realized it was Friday, and Dorakichi had 200 yen beer, so we headed down to the place, and took a seat. Had a few beers, a long chat, and enjoyed some bar food. It was a relaxing night, then we headed home to the dorms, and we all went back to our rooms and headed off to sleep.

Slightly off topic, but too important to not post.

下に、日本語版があります。
아래로, 한국어판이 있습니다.

In 2005 my Grandfather passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease. He suffered from the disease for many years before losing his battle with it. It was a very painful progression to watch, and since his diagnosis my family has been active in supporting the Alzheimer’s Association and related causes.

Four years ago my family began participating in local Alzheimer’s Memory Walks. The first year we raised over $1,400. We immediately decided we wanted to aim higher for the next year and set our goal at a lofty $10,000. We fell short, but still reached a total of $2,400. Last year was a good year, but we still didn’t reach $10,000. We’re still aiming for that mark.

I sent this link to ask if you might be able to contribute to our goal or our personal mission as a family. I realize you are all probably busy and may give to other causes, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. Anything at all would be greatly appreciated, be it the donation of money or simply words of encouragement for my family and those who support us. Whatever the case, please know that we appreciate your support.

This year, I will not be able to join in the Alzheimer’s Memory walk, as I will still be in Japan when the walk takes place, so this year, I would like to support my family as much as possible.

Thank you again, so very much.

http://memorywalk2010.kintera.org/columbus/chimie45

日本語：

2005年に、私の祖父は、アルツハイマー病の合併症から亡くなりました。彼の戦いを失う前に、彼は、何年間も病気に苦しみました。彼の診断以来、私の家族はAlzheimer’s Associatonを支持しています。4年前に、私の家族は、「Alzheimer’s Memory Walks」に参加し始めました。

初年度の間、私の家族はチャリティーのために1,400ドルのドルを集めました。その次の年のゴールは、1万ドルの私たちの目標をしました。 私たちは、それゴールのお金を増やすことができませんでしたが、合計2,400ドルに達しました。昨年、再試行しましたが、私たちはまだ1万ドルに達していませんでした。
私たちはまだそのマークを目指しています。

私は、あなたが家族として私たちの目標か私たちの個人的な任務に貢献できるかどうか尋ねるためにこのリンクを送りました。皆さんが、たぶん忙しいとわかって、他の原因に与えるかもしれませんが、私は、尋ねてもよいのを計算しました。とにかく何でもよろしくお願いします、私の家族と私たちを支持する人に対するお金の寄付か単に奨励の単語であることにかかわらず。私たちがご支援に感謝するのを知ってください。

すみません、私には、警護が本当に難しいので、私はインターネットから助けを使用しました。（笑）

今年、私は、「Alzheimer’s Memory Walk」に参加できないでしょう、散歩が行われるとき、私がまだ日本にいるときです。それで、今年、できるだけ一家の暮らしを立てたいと思います。

本当に、ありがとうございました。

http://memorywalk2010.kintera.org/columbus/chimie45

한국어:

2005년에, 나의 할아버지는, 알츠하이머병의 합병증으로 돌아가셨습니다. 그의 싸움을 잃기 전에, 그는, 몇년간이나 병으로 고생했습니다. 그의 진단이래, 나의 가족은 Alzheimer”s Associaton을 지지하고 있습니다. 4년전에, 나의 가족은, 「Alzheimer”s Memory Walks」에 참가하기 시작했습니다.

초년도의 사이, 나의 가족은 자선을 위해서 1, 400달러의 달러를 모았습니다. 그 다음 해의 골은, 1만달러의 우리들의 목표를 했습니다. 우리들은, 그것 골의 돈을 늘릴 수 없었습니다만, 합계2, 400달러에 달했습니다. 작년, 재시행했습니다만, 우리들은 아직 1만달러에 이르고 있지 않았습니다.
우리들은 아직 그 마크를 목표로 삼고 있습니다.

나는, 당신이 가족으로서 우리들의 목표인가 우리들이 개인적인 임무에 공헌할 수 있는 것인가 아닌가 방문하기 위해서 이 링크를 보냈습니다. 여러분이, 아마 바쁘다고 알고, 다른 원인에 줄지도 모르겠습니다만, 나는, 물어도 좋은 것을 계산했습니다. 어쨌든 무엇이든지 잘 부탁합니다, 나의 가족과 우리들을 지지하는 사람에게 대한 돈의 기부인가 단지 장려의 단어인 것에 관계 없이. 우리들이 지원에 감사하는 것을 알아 주십시오.

미안합니다, 나에게는, 경호가 정말로 어려우므로, 나는 인터넷으로 도움을 사용했습니다. （웃음）

올해, 나는, 「Alzheimer”s Memory Walk」에 참가할 수 없지요, 산보가 행하여질 때, 내가 아직 일본에 있을 때입니다. 그래서, 올해, 될 수 있는한 일가의 생계를 꾸리고 싶습니다.

정말로, 고마웠습니다.

http://memorywalk2010.kintera.org/columbus/chimie45

I wanna g-g-g-g-get awaaaaaayyy from here!

To say this last week has been disappointing would be an understatement, but again, Its not like I didn’t know this would happen all along, just somewhere down in side I kinda hoped I would prove myself wrong or whatnot. But I guess I actually am still young and naive, haha. Which is kinda ironic. I talked with my father about this whole situation a few weeks ago when the troubles first started up. It’s funny how much wisdom those parent types have on things like this.

*Note to the younger readers: your parents are almost always right, listen to them; They know what they’re talking about. They’ve been in the situation before.*

(P.S. Stay tuned for the rest of the post after the lyric jump~ Oh, but please, please, read the oh ever so pleasing lyrics.)

(P.P.S. And well, I mean, I guess it’s all kinda interesting because I know who reads this blog.)

La la la la la la la la la la~
I wrote her off for the tenth time today
And practiced all the things I would say
When she came over I lost my nerve
I took her back and made her dessert
Now I know I’m being used
But that’s okay man cause I like the abuse
I know she’s playing with me
But that’s okay cause I’ve got no self esteem

Oh way-o, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah

We make plans go out at night
I wait till two then I turn out the light
this rejection’s got me so low
If she keeps it up I just might tell her so

Oh way-o, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah

When she’s saying, oh that she wants me
Then I wonder why she sleeps with my friends
When she saying, oh that I’m like a disease
Then I wonder how much more I can stand
Well I guess, I should stick up for myself
But I really think it’s better this way
The more you suffer
The more it shows you really care
Right? Yeah!

Now I’ll relay this little bit
It happens more than I’d like to admit
Late at night, she knocks on my door
She’s drunk again and, looking to score
Oh, I know, I should say no, but
It’s kind of hard when she’s ready to go
I may be dumb, but I’m not a dweeb
I’m just a sucker with no self esteem

Oh way-o, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah

When she’s saying, oh that she wants me
Then I wonder why she sleeps with my friends
When she’s saying, oh that I’m like a disease
Then I wonder how much more I can spend
Well I guess, I should stick up for myself
But I really think it’s better this way
The more you suffer
The more it shows you really care
Right? Yeah!

To be honest, listening to this song makes me just feel a whole lot better. A whole whole whole lot.

Anyways, Next week is Golden Week. I wanted to go see the Ocean and go to an Onsen with Moon, but I guess that’s pretty much out of the question now lol. Anyways, Naoko, Jiyoung, Seba and I are all free during Golden week, as Seba and Jiyoung’s plans fell through, so we’re thinking about just renting a car and driving somewhere. It’ll be good to get away and just relax with my best friends. (Seriously, the three of them have been fucking amazing these past two/three weeks when I’ve basically been a whiny little bitch[Sorry guys]–I owe them a lot. You’re all getting seriously amazing gifts sometime soon.) No matter what happens in terms of Golden week, I’m going somewhere.

Sunday night I got home from a bit of drinking and discussion and got on Facebook at about 6 or 7am. Not the normal time for me to get on Facebook, but with the 14 hour time difference between BG and Saitama, it’s 5 or 6pm in the States, so I suddenly had 100+ friends online on Facebook (which is something I’ve not seen in a long time). I suddenly got a huge influx of messages from friends I’ve not seen in a while, and I messaged a few of my BFFs I needed to talk to just to vent and clear my head a bit. My Mom got online just by chance, and well, Just even seeing her name caused me to get so homesick I felt like I had been re-punched in the gut. I sent her a message, but decided to call her on Skype instead. The moment I heard her voice, I just fucking cracked and started bawling my eyes out. Just all the shit that’s built up over the past few weeks finally all came exploding out of me. I feel bad, I know it’s not something any mother wants to hear, having something like that happen to their baby child when they’re 7500 miles away. I kinda jokingly said I wish I could get a plane ticket home for Golden week (which is next week, btw) so I could come home and just be in my own existence for a while. Much to my surprise, although it shouldn’t have been, the first thing out of my mother’s mouth was to ask how much a ticket cost. I guess when a mother is needed, mother’s don’t fuck around. God bless my Mother, I love that woman more than words can express.

It’s been a long time since I felt like this, and lets just say, it’s not a feeling I missed.

A little blue.

My life has been such a roller coaster lately, it’s really starting to get to me. I’ve just been really depressed again lately, which I guess shouldn’t surprise me.

I mean, I guess there are quite a few reasons for my foul mood lately, First off, it’s rained 10 out of the past 12 days. I don’t know if I’m depressed because of the weather, or the weather sucks because I’m depressed. I’d say it’s a little of both.. Theres a lot of fractionalization going on within the group of people here, which again, shouldn’t surprise me, but still, it really has been bothering me. People talking behind other people’s back and what not, I feel like the same shit that happened Freshman year, the same problems, drama, issues, are all coming back up again. The same old shit that always happens. I can’t help but think it’s my fault too, which to be honest, it most likely is… it was last time, so I can’t help but think it is this time as well. Last time when this happened though, when I fell into my worst, I found a person who was just what I needed to pick me up. I thought I had that here as well, this time around, but I think I might have been mistaken. A combination of all of these efforts, piled up on my history, along with the added stress of harder classes this semester, work that eats my soul, tighter finances, and well, you know. These factors all have just given me a even greater urge to want to go back to the USA. I want to get out of this country–don’t get me wrong, I still <3 Japan, I just can't take some of the shit that is going on here at this school any longer.

This weekend.

Well, this Friday I only had one class, it was Speaking and Listening IIA class, which I won’t be attending again. I’m dropping the class as of this Monday (I don’t need the credit anyways) The class was just too ridiculously boring and simple. It is supposed to be an S class, but the teacher remarked there were a lot of people from S class there… apparently people from B class and C class were there too, which is fine, except then that doesn’t make it a S level class. It was half in English and really simplistic so I decided I’ll not be coming around a second time. That leaves me without any classes on Friday, which, well, is very nice. I’m still thinking about picking up another class for Friday, but I’ll have to see what’s on the schedule of classes.

Later on Friday was the TryMe party. It was a weird time, there were maybe 90 people there, as it was the first meeting of the year. I’m sure the numbers will steadily decrease, just as they did last time, but it was packed as hell, but it was good to meet a lot of new people, I’m sure I’ll be getting more waves and hellos from random Japanese people I don’t remember from now on. After the party we decided to go to Dorakichi, the normal Izakaya that we go to after Tryme. Most of the people went to Saizaria, but I don’t like their food and their beer is too expensive. So Seba led us the ‘back way’ to Dorakichi, which meant we got really lost. In the rain. Cold Rain. It sucked.

When we finally got to Dorakichi, it was already full. Luckily there is another Izakaya right down the street, so we went there and got in the warmth. After chatting and drinking for about an hour and a half, we decided to head home, and when we went outside, we noticed it was snowing. Oh joy. None of is really even had coats, just hoodies or windbreakers so it was dreadfully cold. It wasn’t even snow it was ice. Hurt like hell as it pelted your face. We finally got home and all went our separate ways back to our dorms.

Then came Saturday, it was the party at Mateusz’ house. I was a little cautious about his parties, because they tend to have a lot of guys who are really interested in getting with Asian girls, and there tend to only be a few Asian girls there, so its just like a scene of guys hitting on one or two girls, which… well, gets a little annoying. The atmosphere gets a little funky. Still, Everyone was going, so I figured I’d go as well, Mateusz is my friend as well, so I figured I’d stop by because he invited me and all. The night was… well, interesting at best. I got to meet a lot of the people from Beplant, who I had -met- several times before, but never really got to chat with. So this time, I talked a bit with them, and it was really cool.
I guess more importantly, I had a long talk with Moon about where we stand and had that all straightened out, which while it wasn’t exactly the most ideal situation, we’re at least on the same page now and we’re both fine with it. So, It’s a relief. but still, the whole situation was a little bit draining, so when I finally got home at 5am, I slept until just a bit ago at 7:30pm. Guess the week starts up again soon and I have a 9am class on Monday, so I think I’ll be going to bed early today… I guess this is how Sundays were meant to be?

Class

So yesterday was my first day of class, because I accedentally slept through my only class on Monday (Japanese History), so I was kinda nervous about going to normal Japanese language only classes. I hadn’t taken one since I’ve been here, so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to understand something, or I wouldn’t have the right forms for something and I would get in trouble or something like that. My first class of the day was Sports-Badminton. Yes. I am taking a class on Badminton. Anyways, it’s the first day so they had a meeting in a classroom to get the basics down. I was expecting something between 25 and 50 people, so when I walked into the assigned room and it was a huge (and I mean HUGE) lecture hall with like 200 people in it (the room was less than half filled) I suddenly got really nervous. I didn’t know a single person in the room, and people kept staring at me. I mean, that’s nothing new, but I felt so out of place that it made me really uncomfortable. Anyways, I found an open seat, and people kept looking at me, and until the professors came out and started talking there was kind of this awkward air around. They passed out a little paper that had lots of information to fillout, like middleschool/HS name, what clubs we were in (sports related) etc. They also asked for emergency contact info, address, blood type, etc. (I can’t imagine too many serious sports related injuries related to badminton though…) The teachers explained what the class was about, I didn’t have any problem understanding what they were saying so it was relieving. Sure enough though, the teacher spoke to me in English–very very bad and nearly unrecognizable English, but English non the less. I still spoke back to him in Japanese, I figure soon enough he’ll exaust his ability in English and switch back to Japanese. That’s generally what happens. The professor asked me where I was from, so I said America, he asked what state, and I said Ohio. He then asked if I went to Ohio State, and said he was a huge Buckeye fan.. /sigh. Even 7000 miles away I can’t escape the reach of OSU. Ugh.

Anyways, there was a form I didn’t know about that I didnt have that needed to be turned in, so just as I expected I was already behind. but still, I was feeling pretty good about my first real class. Even though it’s Gym and not really a class, lol.

My next class of the day was Intro to International Politics. I was excited for this class because its related to my major and it’ll help me get better at Japanese at the same time, more than a Gym class will. Again, it was in a huge lecture hall with several hundred people in it, which surprised me, but this time I had quite a few friends in my class with me, so I wasn’t worried. Several of my friends though warned me saying the professor sucked and that I shouldn’t take the class. However, the teacher handed out a printout of the slideshow, which had quite a few Kanji I didn’t know on it, and several words I didn’t know. But as the prof went over the slides I had no problem understanding him. Many of the kanji were of words I knew, I just didn’t know the symbols for, or I could figure it out really easily by the context of the sentence. It was again a huge boost in the confidence level of my Japanese. I spent most of the period looking up kanji and writing down vocabulary. However, I was multitasking in listening to the professor speak in Japanese and I was understanding it. It was interesting, because I normally can’t listen and understand Japanese while doing something else, I normally have to focus on what I’m hearing. Again, it made me feel really good to realize I had gotten that far in my language ability.

After class, I handed out flyers for some clubs that I’m in with my club-mates to try and get the new freshman to join the club (April is the beginning of the school year here in Japan, so the freshman just arrived). After handing out flyers for a bit, I called my dad and had a nice conversation with him for a while. I can’t wait to get back to the states so I can have more conversations with him. Over the course of the 7 to 8 months I’ve been here, he’s been very busy at work, and I’ve been busy in school, and with the 13/14 hour time difference, it has made talking very difficult to the point where we’ve only been able to chat 2 or 3 times.

Today I have my first Japanese Language-Learning classes, so I’ll see how those go this semester. Hopefully they go well, they’re with one of my teachers from last semester, so I’m excited cause she was one of my favorite teachers.