Zzzzzzzz

We got home a while ago, but I fell asleep.... I'm still really tired. I didn't sleep for 25 hours, then only got 4 or 5 hours of sleep... Just wanted to let you all know that I'm back now.

Narita!

We're at Narita now, sitting in the United Red Carpet Club. I had ice tea.... In a beer glass, because beer glasses are bigger. :p
Good news for us here.... We got upgraded! We were Economy Plus, but they put is in BUSINESS class! That's right, business class! I'm excited about it. :p My dad says the food is better, and that is always a plus.
Well, we're headed down to our gate pretty quick, so I should pack up my laptop. We have a 2 hour layover at Sea-Tac, so maybe I can get on then. :) I'm going home soon!!!

Today's the day...

Mixed feelings... I love flying, so I'm looking forward to the flights. I'm looking forward to going home. I'm looking forward to seeing Ret-Ret.
When I get home, what will it look like? The house is on the market again... My bed is already down in Creswell, in storage. I told my mom I didn't want my desk or dresser, so those might be gone too. Kento has moved out. Mistow is gone too. Ret is at the kennel.
I'll need to rush to get registered for spring term... MTH 112 only has 9 spots left, and WR 122 is full. I could take speech, but I don't know if I'm ready for that. I could take the night WR 122, but that's 3 hours straight once a week. I'm not sure if I want to commit to that. HE 275 is a possibility too, and does have 7 spots left. I still need to be admitted though, and then get all my stuff set up to register.
I'm going to miss Japan too.... The kids, as annoying as they can be, are great. They've been my best friends for the last 2.5 months, and once I leave I probably wont see them for a couple more years. I'm going to miss them. I'm going to miss everyone. Even Sam-chan, despite how loud and annoying she is, and I still think she shouldn't still be alive (cats should not live to be 21... That's just weird)...

6.5 hours until our flight. 14 hours until we arrive at Sea-Tac.

Wheeeee!!! :) continued

I forgot about The 13 Doors. Probably because I hate getting startled, and haunted house things tend to thrive on startling. My dad went first, so he got startled first, so it was OK. Otherwise I would have probably freaked out several times. :p I have a terrible startle reflex. The thing wasn't really scary at all, but those things that startle...
We did that after Wonder Drop.

OK. Where did I leave off? Oh, Linear Gale.
After going on LG, we went into a building called Geopolis. It was then that we decided to have lunch.
In Geopolis was a place called Baseball Cafe. We went to the restaurant part (it was connected), and it was decorated with a lot of baseball stuff (not too surprising). I laughed when I saw that they called themselves an "American Grill". THey had red, white, and blue everywhere. It was kind of funny.
I was feeling very American, so I ordered the hot dog and pretzel meal. My dad got a steak thing. My hot dog had cheese on it, and they gave us true American ketchup... Heinz! :) That was very nice... I miss my Heinz ketchup! My hot dog was rather bratwurst-ish, but it was good. The pretzel had that sweet cream cheese in it which tastes kind of weird, but it was good too. After lunch I had a "frozen strawberry stadium". It was basically a scoop of ice cream surrounded by frozen strawberries with chocolate sauce drizzled on top.
After that we went back into Geopolis and headed to the rides in there. First we went to Zombie Paradise, which I thought was just plain funny. It was one of those things where you get in the cart and it drives you around in some place with scenes around you.... In this case, zombies. The zombies seemed very happy to be there too. Some of them were smiling. I thought that was very funny. It was that dumb sort of supposed-to-be-scary thing. When I was little it would have terrified me, but now I just laugh.
After that we went to "Hyper Illusion". The name, although maybe kind of dumb, sounded fairly promising. Illusions tend to be fun. I was greeted by funny English... :p One would think that in Tokyo there would be SOME translator or proof reader that would know not to say "Have a nice riding!". Oh well. I laughed. Then we went into a room and got into huge chair things. It turns out "Hyper Illusion" was one of those movie things where the seats move, and they're supposed to simulate you in the movie. It may have made more sense if I knew what they were saying... But I didn't, so instead I ended up watching the movements, and realizing they were really not synchronized. I'm still trying to figure out why it said 1966 at the end of the movie...
After that it was time for our last ride.... A little roller coaster called GeoPanic. It was sort of a kiddy coaster, but it had an interesting element to it..... Darkness. There was light at some points, but it was usually twinkling lights on the sides, or things like that that end up kind of disorienting you. It was pretty cool. At one point we went through this tube over that went out over the Geopolis lobby a little bit.... That was pretty cool. The darkness really worked for it. I don't think there was much that would be classified as really scary, but when you can't see it coming, even only a few drops has an effect.
After that we left. I wouldn't have minded staying a little longer, but we were tired and ready to go.

Besides that not much has happened. We're back at my grandma's house now... I've had my last dinner in Japan, and my last bath.... It's funny how just a few days ago I was saying "I'm ready to go home." but now I'm saying "Has it really been 2.5 months?". I will be glad to see everyone at home though. Especially Retnuh.... I can say that, since everyone back home knows that already. ;) At least they should, or they don't know me as well as they should! :p

I'll maybe be getting more pictures up, but I'm not sure. I do know I'll probably still be posting some when I get home.... In less than 24 hours I'll be on the plane.... Wow. Tomorrow I'll be going home.... If you think about it, tomorrow I'll be home. Not in this time zone, but it's Monday in the states, and I arrive noon on Tuesday. It's been a GREAT trip. I'll probably write some little reflection things when I get home too. It's been an amazing trip....

Wheeeee!!!!! :)

My dad and I went to an amusement park!!!! :)
It was in Tokyo Dome City.... It was so much fun! We had ride bracelets, so we did (almost) EVERYTHING! :)
First we did the "Tower Hacker"! It was one of those free fall kind of things.... Something I always wanted to try, and was very happy about doing so. :) It brought us up really high, then dropped us, and it was SCARY! I thought for a second I ceased to exist.... Strange, but true. It was scary, but fun! The weightless feeling kind of freaked me out. My dad and I agreed that once was enough for us.
Then we went to the Spinning Coaster. We joked around in line... There was a guy in a suit and tie waiting to ride this kiddy coaster type thing.... A "very official rider" as my dad put it. The spinning coaster was really fun.... The car swiveled, so it was spinny. :)
After that we went over to another part of the park, and went on the big ferris wheel! I got pictures up there. I'll get them up someday. :p Got some of the tower, so you can all see that... ;) I also got pictures of what we did next.... Definitely my favorite...
THUNDER DOLPHIN!!!!!!! Yes, it's a kind of strange name... But it was so much fun! Thunder Dolphin is their big roller coaster. It's certainly one of the most creative designs I've seen, though that I had to appreciate from the ferris wheel beforehand. It starts right off with a huge drop. You go up a hill, peaking at 80.5m (about 264 feet), and then before you know it you're flying at 127km/h (about 79mph) down a 74º hill, dropping 66.5m (about 218 feet). Then the track goes onto the roof of a shopping center, though I wouldn't have known had I not seen it before hand. There's a hole in a thing sticking out of the side of the building that the track swerves through, and then it threads through part of the ferris wheel. After more twists and turns and lots of fun, it's over. 1124.8m (about 3690 feet) of fast paced fun! We agreed we should go again. :)
Before getting in line, though, we went to look at the "high-tech ride photo". They take pictures at two points of the ride. One at the very beginning and one somewhere in the middle. It cost ¥800 to get the picture, but I wanted it.... Especially because my dad and I were named the "best couple"! :p I have no idea why, but that's OK. We got a sticker... And I bought the picture. It's a really good picture, or two pictures I should say. I took a picture (of the picture), so it'll come up here eventually.
After that we walked down to the "Wonder Drop", which is a water ride. Many people waiting in line had bought "ride ponchos", but we were both willing to get a little bit wet. We waited in line for probably about 30 minutes... That may have been the longest wait we did. Considering when I went to Six Flags I spent 2.5 hours in line for ONE ride, that is not bad at all! I'm not sure if it was worth the wait though.... It wasn't terribly exciting. The big splash at the end wasn't even that big! Not to say that it wasn't fun.... It was! :) But if I had to choose between waiting in line for Thunder Dolphin or Wonder Drop... Well, you can probably guess what I'd choose!
After Wonder Drop we walked across the park to "Parachute Land", where we rode Sky Flower. It was basically this big thing with parachutes tied to platform things. We got into the platform thing (it had cage-like sides), then the parachute was pulled up and dropped... Twice. It was fun. The view was nice, and it was no where near as fast or sudden as Tower Hacker was.
Then we decided to go on the one ride that at first we both said NO WAY to. After watching it go it didn't look bad, though, so we went for it. Linear Gale it was called. It was similar to the Superman at Six Flags, but scarier looking. If you're not familiar with the Superman, it shoots you up this hill really really fast, and then you go back down (backwards, of course) really fast.
Linear Gale was similar, but not quite... Because Linear Gale was in a U shape. Also, LG was suspended. Instead of the cars being on the tracks they were hanging from them. The suspended part was what first made me say no, but after watching it looked alright. We got on (near the front), and got all fastened in... Then we shot forwards and up. We soon went backwards, and up (backwards). This happened three times, and was not scary in any way shape or form.

Well, there's a few more things to write about, but I think I'll go take my bath first. I'll probably finish writing afterwards.

Tamagochi!

Speaking of tamagochi, mine died a few days ago, because I forgot about it for a day and a half... Oops. So I had to start from first generation all over again... Oh well. Whatever. I've put off getting pictures up, because I have. Yeah.... So I'll get some up now, and I'm sure I'll put some more up after I get home.


This was my first gochi in its kid form.... I think it looks like takoyaki.


This is my second one (second generation) in kid form... I call it the deformed heart.


This is my third one in adult form, with a baby... And my hand. The baby is my 4th one, the one that died.

Darn bad connection....

Well, looks like the internet isn't going to cooperate. It wont let me post.

Maybe it'll let me now...
While I'm here I'll say I had sushi for dinner.... I had a bunch of maguro... My favorite! It was so yummy.
Oh, and my last post was my 100th post! :)

Well, it looks like the internet DID let me post earlier. I just couldn't tell because my blog wouldn't load. :p So I'll just delete that first part from this post.

This darn unstable connection...

Hey. Sorry I didn't write yesterday. I actually could have, but I was battling with an unstable internet connection that I didn't think I'd even have. I'm in Kanda now, and I have not been able to get internet here before.... I have a connection now, but it's really weak and likes to give up on me a lot.

Yesterday we got up, had breakfast (hot dogs), and watched TV for a bit before leaving. Yuko and I left and took a train to meet my dad. We had Italian food for lunch, and my dad and I had teramisu for dessert.
After that my dad and I went to meet Kanda. She and I would go back to her house, and my dad had to go somewhere for work. I was supposed to go to a Mekiki Jr. thing tonight, but I ended up not going.
I haven't done much here at Kanda's.... Battled with this internet connection, mostly. It comes and goes.... So while it was gone I sorted through and arranged some stuff on my computer and played with my sudoku widget.
We went to dinner at a place.... I had a combo meal with a little hambag (hamburger type thing), little steak, and a shrimp thing. Very yummy. Kanda also shared some ebi fry with me, which was yummy too.
After that we came back... We got cake on the way, so we ate that. I battled the internet connection again, but apparently it works worse at night, so I gave up. I watched some TV... Found some bilingual stuff to watch.... And I read a bit before bed.

Today I got up at about 10:00... Had toast and an apple for breakfast. I did the whole internet thing again.... Did sudoku whenever the internet gave up. I also watched the opening baseball games of the Pacific league here in Japan. There were three games, and I only really know what went on in one of them.... I know there was Softbank Hawks vs. Lotto Marines, Eagles vs. Fighters, and Lions vs. Orix. Atakawa Shizuka did the opening pitch for the Lions game.... I only really know what happened in the Hawks vs. Marines game.... The Softbank Hawks won 7-2. My dad says the Marines gave 8 players to the WBC team, so they should have been good.... But then he said they were maybe jetlagged and stuff from the WBC..... I thought since Oh-san was the manager coach guy of the WBC team and now he's back being the manager coach guy of the Softbank Hawks, he knows how to play against the players he had on the WBC team. :p
Part way through the games Kanda and I went shopping. That's why I don't really know what happened in the end of the games. We went to some big stores... There was a grocery store kinda place, and then there was a place with lots of little booth kind of things everywhere.... The second one was really crowded and confusing to me.
After we got back I started watching sumo.... I found bilingual sumo.... They have interpreters. :) So I'm watching that now...

3/23 night post

3/23/2006
Less than five days now... Wow.
I got up later today... I think it was 9:00. Had a doughnut and a couple omosubi for breakfast. Then I watched TV for a bit and wrote up that entry I wrote earlier (about yesterday).
At about 11:00 we went to Nao's school. I watched Ako for a little bit there, then Nao came down. There were lots of byes and stuff going on... I guess spring break is starting up.
Then we came back to the house. On the way we picked up some takoyaki. Good takoyaki! :) We had that for lunch, along with some really pretty sushi that someone brought by earlier. Sounds odd to call sushi pretty.... But it was. :p I'll get pictures up.... I will I will I will... Someday.
Then we goofed off a little. Ako brought out a Fisher Price zoo set, and we played with that a bit. It made funny sounds. :p Nao and I had fun with that... The zebra was making seal sounds.
Then Nao and I decided to watch Harry Potter. The second one... Chamber of Secrets. That is such an awesome movie. Even though I can't watch when they go see Aragog.... Too scary!!!!!! We also watched bonus stuff... It was good. :)
We also colored, and stuff like that.... We played around today. It was fun.
We had tonkatsu for dinner.... So good! Tonkatsu is good anywhere anytime.
Then we watched TV.... There's an animal show that's on Thursdays. There were tigers.... Too cute! And lions too. And dolphins, pandas, a chimp.... Oh, they were all so cute! There was one place with an inoshishi, tiger, and labrador in the same cage...... Very cute!
Today was fun. It was just playing around, but that's fun.

3/23 night post

3/23/2006
Less than five days now... Wow.
I got up later today... I think it was 9:00. Had a doughnut and a couple omosubi for breakfast. Then I watched TV for a bit and wrote up that entry I wrote earlier (about yesterday).
At about 11:00 we went to Nao's school. I watched Ako for a little bit there, then Nao came down. There were lots of byes and stuff going on... I guess spring break is starting up.
Then we came back to the house. On the way we picked up some takoyaki. Good takoyaki! :) We had that for lunch, along with some really pretty sushi that someone brought by earlier. Sounds odd to call sushi pretty.... But it was. :p I'll get pictures up.... I will I will I will... Someday.
Then we goofed off a little. Ako brought out a Fisher Price zoo set, and we played with that a bit. It made funny sounds. :p Nao and I had fun with that... The zebra was making seal sounds.
Then Nao and I decided to watch Harry Potter. The second one... Chamber of Secrets. That is such an awesome movie. Even though I can't watch when they go see Aragog.... Too scary!!!!!! We also watched bonus stuff... It was good. :)
We also colored, and stuff like that.... We played around today. It was fun.
We had tonkatsu for dinner.... So good! Tonkatsu is good anywhere anytime.
Then we watched TV.... There's an animal show that's on Thursdays. There were tigers.... Too cute! And lions too. And dolphins, pandas, a chimp.... Oh, they were all so cute! There was one place with an inoshishi, tiger, and labrador in the same cage...... Very cute!
Today was fun. It was just playing around, but that's fun.

3/23 entry for 3/22

3/23/2006
I forgot to write yesterday. I could have while I was stealing internet from the iMac, but I didn't.... And after that I got busy. So I didn't write. Oh well. It doesn't really matter, since I didn't have internet. ;)
In a twist of events, I was up at 8:00 yesterday. I was followed by Yuko, and then Ako (who kept falling asleep again).
I had a chocolate muffin for breakfast. Yum. Then we watched TV. I watched the end of CSI.... And now I'm probably in danger of getting addicted when I go home. At least I wont ever run out of things to watch. ;) With Law & Order and CSI, there's always one or the other on (in the states, I mean).
Speaking of going home.... Only 5 days left. Well, 5 days and 7.5 hours.... Roughly 5.25 days. :p
Anyway, after CSI some weird movie came on.... I was very confused and the only thing I got out of it is that they were all on drugs....... So after a little bit we decided to watch I-Robot instead. They have the DVD.
We started watching that, but then Ako woke up... Again.... She had breakfast, then we went shopping. I went too.
First we had lunch, since it was about lunch time. Ramen.... Really really really good ramen.... Then we went to the store. It was something like an office supply/craft store, or something. That's what it looked like to me. It was a fun place though. ;) I got a great deal on an old mouse.... It's not optical, which is annoying, and it uses these insanely small batteries that I'm not sure if I can find in the states, but it was only ¥500! :p It used to be ¥5480, so that was a steal. It works with my laptop, so it'll be nice to use sometimes... Especially because it's wireless. :p And it came with a P2P->USB adapter, which is nice... Since I'm an Apple user now I may not have a use for it at the moment, but that's OK.
I also want to mention the parking at this place.... It was something I imagined in the past, but didn't know it was being utilized anywhere. If I'm right, you park the car, then it moves somewhere. Moving parking spaces, or something. I imagined this before, and I think I even have it written in one of my 5th/6th grade stories (the long stupid fan fictions), but didn't know it was actually used.... So that was cool. :p
Anyway, after shopping we went to Nao's school, intending to pick her up.... But she had already left, so we came back to the house.
After that I played with Ako for a while. I used the computer while she watched Stitch... They have an iMac (not one with a built-in iSight, but it's still a good looking piece of machinery ;)) that I borrowed ethernet from to get online.... Then Ako came and wanted to play again, so we played with some clay stuff.... I made a walrus. :p And a crocodile that looked more like a platypus... And a turtle, frog, and snake..... Small ones. It was fun. :p
Then we had dinner. Tempura!!!!! :) So yummy. After dinner Nao and I watched I-Robot, because I only watched the beginning earlier. That was a good movie. My favorite line was probably in the beginning when Spooner says "Hold my pie!" to someone... I loved that. :p Just that he was walking down the street eating a pie was pretty funny. Though "Because there's a cat in my trunk, and he's homeless." was funny too. Poor kitty.
After that I took a shower, then Nao and I went to bed... We ended up talking for a while.... And then going to sleep.

3/21/06 entery

3/21/2006:
I almost typed 2005.... Actually, I did, but I fixed it... Kind of the same thing.
Anyway, big happenings today, even though they're not really big! :)
I got up today, and ready to go for a few days. Like I said before, I'd be in Tokyo for a few days, so I had to finish getting ready for that. I grabbed some breakfast, got my stuff together (what I didn't do last night), and then headed out. Tomoko was driving us.... Grandma and the kids came too. I guess they were going... Somewhere.... Shopping or something. I don't know.
First we met Kanda at my grandpa's grave.... Cleaned up a bit, then headed back to Kanda's house. My dad gave us a call with news....
The World Baseball Classic finals were today, incase you didn't know. Japan vs. Cuba.... My dad called to let me know there were two outs, top of the first, and Japan was leading by four!!!! :) That was enough to get me moving.... I wanted to get to Kanda's to watch the game!
We went back to the car, and turned on the TV in the car.... But since we were moving, the TV ended up being like radio, which didn't do much for me.

We finally got to Kanda's and I headed upstairs to watch the game with my dad! I don't remember what inning it was (4th, maybe) but the score was still 4-0 Japan leading.
When asked about lunch, I said I was watching the game! I wasn't alone.... Yuutaro and Nanako both wanted to stay and watch, as did my dad (who had a bad back ache so probably wouldn't have gone anyway...). We ended up ordering pizza. Seafood for me, of course! :) I shared with my dad.... And had a piece of the teriyaki pizza too.
We all watched the game, and it was great.... Some annoying plays (the shortstop KEPT DROPPING THE BALL!), but they made a couple GREAT double plays, and some good offense too! We were all happy with the result.... 10-6 Japan with the victory!!!!! :) We watched the celebrating a bit.... The hugs, high fives, and what not. It was fun. :)

After that my dad and I left. We planned to get a snack before coming to Nao's family's house. We stopped at a place and got yummy yummy food... I got a ridiculously big sundae of strawberry and creamy goodness. Huge, and equally delicious! :)
After that we headed to the train station, and caught the train. We switched trains once, and finally got where we needed to be. We walked to the house, and were let in.
After that we just kind of hung out, doing stuffs.... We had dinner, yum! Sushi.... Yum yum yum. Watched a movie (Lady & The Tramp), I took a bath, that kinda stuff. I played with the little kid too... ;) Ako-chan. A carbon copy of me when I was little. :p We just played a card matching game. I stopped playing, but she's still going. :p It's funny. She just said she is the winner, even though she wasn't playing against anyone. :p

Anyway, I'm having fun here. The wifi is closed here, and for now I'm not sure how to get into it... So this will have to wait for now. :) It'll go up when I can get it up.

Ah, what a fine day for coding! :)

Not much went on today. I got up pretty late.... Actually, I woke up around 9:00 or 9:30, but I used my computer for a while before going out... When I did my grandma wasn't there anyway. I don't know where she was. I decided that was a sign for me to continue using the computer.... So I did. I ended up talking to Kento.... Until lunch time. At about 12:30 I ate lunch.... My grandma left for someplace, so I ate then went back to the computer. Talked to Kento more.... This time about domain names and hosting. I ended up heading over to TOUMWS (my main website) and doing quite a bit of stuff there. I worked on TOUMWS almost all day.... Hence the fine day for coding... I wonder if Kento caught that reference... ;) I'll have to wait and see what he says.

So I spent all day coding... I could go into what I did, but I don't want to confuse anyone.... I don't think everyone reading will know about slash links, redirecting, and all that fun stuff. :p

Tomorrow I'm going to Tokyo to stay with Nao's family for a few days... I don't know how much internet time I'll have, so if I disappear, don't worry,,,, Though with how I've ben getting behind lately, it may not even seem like I disappeared. ;)

I knew I forgot something!

Something about Thursday. I knew we did something else, but I couldn't remember what.... And I got mixed up.

We watched the game while we ate lunch, but after lunch my dad and I left. The game wasn't over yet then.
We walked to the school. My dad wanted to meet my teacher, and we brought my lunch money while we were at it. Everyone seemed surprised to see me.... ;) They thought I was gone for good on Wednesday, I guess.
After that we made a detour on the way home to get ice cream at MiniStop... Yum!
THEN we went home and watched the end of the game.


So it's not a big thing, but just something I remembered... This is why I shouldn't let myself get so behind. :p

Few days behind again

Sorry about that. Not sure why I let it happen. Time to catch up.

Thursday: My dad got me up a little before 8:00... I had hoped to sleep in, but with my dad here it wasn't happening. I had breakfast with him.... Yogurt! I love Japanese yogurt.... Mix in a little sugar, then dip fruit in it.... Oh, so good! I had apple slices with it, since we were out of strawberries. Absolutely delicious!
After that I used my computer for a bit. My dad was working on my grandma's computer, so I went in the office with him.
At a little after 10:00 I went with my grandma and aunt to Jasco (or however you spell it). My dad stayed home to do some work. We got a couple 2nd grade kanji books, some takoyaki for lunch, and I bought lots of snack foods for Kento and me. I also did some stuff with the dekagochis.... This time I got 300 gochi points on the game one, but spent way more than that with the tamamarket one.
After that we went home and had lunch. Takoyaki.... Really good takoyaki. I think the herb salt one was my favorite. So so good....
We watched the world baseball classic game while we ate. Japan against Korea. Japan lost to Korea in the Asia series, but as 2nd place they got to go to the world classic anyway.... :) We tuned in a little late in the game, probably about the 6th or 7th inning. Apparently we hadn't missed much though, as the game was still 0-0. It remained so until the 8th inning, when Korea got two runs in, putting them in the lead. Japan managed to get a home run in the 9th inning, but it was only a one run homer. They were still behind one point. They got someone on first, so we were hoping for the best..... A batter was up, great hit, going... Going... Going.... FOUL! It was so close! We thought we had it for sure, but no! A foul! Ugh..... Japan lost 2-1.
I later found out Japan still had a chance, however. If America lost to Mexico after allowing at least two runs, Japan would advance to the semi finals! With such rules, however, it seemed unlikely.
After the game I don't think we did anything special.... Computer, dinner (sukiyaki!), bath, sleep... That kinda stuff.

Friday: My dad left in the morning.... I don't remember being woken up or anything, though you never know with me. But anyway, I slept until about 9:00. I decided I didn't really want to sit through the graduation.... As much as I like the 6th graders, the graduation practices were enough for me.
I got up and had yogurt again... This time with strawberries! Yum! My grandma was somewhere.... I'm not sure where. After breakfast I went back to my room and goofed off on the computer.
My grandma got back later, and informed me that we were going to Ishido-san's house for lunch. Gyoza! :) Yum! This was all fine by me. Yuutaro and Nanako came too.
Ishido-san picked us up, we ate, we played for a while.... It was fun. Then she brought us back home, and I resumed my computer use.
I didn't find out until later that America had indeed lost to Mexico, 2-1. You know what that meant? Japan was going to the semis! :) They would seek revenge.... Playing Korea for a third time! I had really been told earlier, but misunderstood and thought they didn't make it. I think I found out on the news.... But I can't remember for sure. My dad called and told me also. :)

Saturday: I got up around 9:30.... Grandma and I were being picked up by some people at 10:00 to drive around and go to lunch and stuff. We went with them, and the first place we decided to go..... A strawberry farm!!!! :) Basically we paid, and then they led us into the greenhouse where we had 30 minutes to eat as many strawberries as we wanted. The catch... They all had to be eaten there. We couldn't bring any out. That was fine by me.... I had skipped breakfast (woke up too late and didn't want to bother), so I dove right in! The berries were so sweet.... So delicious.... It was great. Absolutely great!
After we were all full of berries, we drove a bit.... To a dam. I'm not entirely sure why, but we did. It was nice... A very nice day out.
After walking around a little, we went to lunch. Soba... Yum! It was my first time having real soba.... And I loved it! I got some amazingly delicious tempura too.... Yum yum yum! It was so good!
After that we drove to a flower place, where grandma bought some flowers.... I petted a kitty that tried to eat me.... And saw some HUGE koi! Then we dropped by the strawberry place again, this time to buy a box of berries to bring home. After that we were dropped off at home.
I got on the computer for a while after that. My dad was coming at around 7:00, but I had a few hours to kill... So I did online stuff.
At 7:00 my dad came. I was talking to Kento about iMacs and all that good stuff. We were discussing what to get with our iMacs... Kento decided to get one too. I'll probably go with the 20" though, and he's planning on the 17".
I said bye to Kento, and we ate dinner. Good dinner. Chickeny stuff, pork stuff, inari, and stuff. Lots of stuff. Stuff I don't really know how to explain.
After that I got on the computer again, and talked to Kento more. My dad finally told Kento to go to sleep after a while, so he did. After that I e-mailed, played games, and stuff. Regular what I do online stuff.

Sunday: That's today! I got up around 9:00... And had yogurt and strawberries again! :) My dad had already eaten, but he watched TV. He stayed until about 9:30, when he had to go again. I said bye, then got on the computer again.
Pretty soon Kento was on, so we chatted. He was at work, but didn't really have anything to do. We chatted most of the day.... Just about stuff. I played games and whatnot while we did so. At around 2:30 or 3:00 I suddenly realized... Japan was playing Korea again today! I turned on the TV, and found the game still on... Yay! It was the bottom of the 8th inning, so I was pretty late..... But Japan was leading! The score was 6-0. Apparently Ichiro was right when he said they wouldn't lose to the same team for a third time! They had an amazing 7th inning, which I wish I caught.... I read the play-by-play online, and it sounded great! Five runs in the 7th, one in the 8th.... And Korea still hadn't gotten any! I watched the very end of the game.... Japan won!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! They took advantage of the second chance they got and did it! They beat Korea and advanced to the finals!!!!!! The final score was still 6-0. Japan will play Cuba on Tuesday (Here... Monday in the US).
After the game I kept talking to Kento.... We talked until about 6:00, when I had dinner. Oden, if I'm spelling that right. It was yummy!
After dinner was my usual Sunday thing... I was picked up for the English Bible study. It was my last week, so they had a cake that said "Good Bye Emi" on it with chocolate chips. :p And I had a goodbye candle.... That was interesting. :p They didn't sing though. ;) Well, not besides our usual singing at the end, anyway....
We got into some pretty good stuff today... Lots of stuff about temptation and how far it has to go before becoming a sin. We also talked about the "eye for eye" phrase, and that brought me to wondering about the death sentence, so we talked about that a little bit too.
I think it was about 9:30 when we finally finished that up... We sang a bit, then prayed. They prayed for me, which was really nice.
After that we chatted for a bit longer.... About various random things, varying from ice cream and cheese to America's justice system. Like I said, various things.... :p
I got to stay a bit longer than they usually let me.. ;) We left last, while usually I get brought home first. I enjoyed that. Staying for the various chatting was fun.

That's been about it the past few days. I haven't really had much exciting stuff to write about, though when you get it all together it's quite a bit, isn't it? Anyway, I'm hoping to get some reading in before bed, so I better go get to that! :) I'm really enjoying LOTR... Good stuff!

School is out and my dad is here!

All in all it was mostly a typical day.... Up and off to school, of course. I did lots of kanji this morning. I'm up to about 85 now, and can write my full name. :)
After the first lesson I had to do my little goodbye speech thing. I think it went well. Considering I hate doing speeches in English, I think I did alright.
Then we had to go to the rehearsal! Dun dun dun. For the graduation, of course. The gym was pretty cold, so I sat in the back by the really really big heater, which was very very warm. I ended up getting sleepy and watching instead of doing much work.... But I did a little kanji.
After that we went up to the classroom again... Then to the English room with the rest of the 6th graders. I don't totally understand what went on then, but the teachers didn't sound too happy.... The classes ended up discussing stuff for a long time. I really don't get what was going on, but I went back to the classroom with my teacher and chatted with her for a while.... And sat by the heater. Nice warm heater.
After that the rest of the class came back to the room and it was lunch time! :) Curry rice... That wasn't very spicy because it was at an elementary school, but it was enough for me! :) And it was yummy. After lunch I played Set, then helped clean the entrance again.
After that we got to cook! I helped mix stuff, then cut out doughnuts... And ate stuff. I ate stuff too.... But that was after we cleaned and all that good stuff. My group made doughnuts, jello, and some weird things with jam in the middle that were actually fairly good. It was fun... And it all turned out pretty good... But it made me crave stuff even better.... Mainly my grandma Thorp's cooking... ;)
After we ate, cleaned, and all that good stuff, it was time to go. Time to say bye to everyone... My 6th grade era was over, and it was time to go home. I said bye, got my shoes, and left.
I got home and got online, of course.... No big surprise there. At 6:15 we left the house to go meet my dad at the train station! :) Then we went to eat sushi, and walked home. I installed iLife '06, finally fixed my iPod (mid-update for 2 months and within a minute or two it's back to normal), ate some strawberries, and took a bath. Now my dad and I are just sitting around in our room. Flipping through channels on TV, me typing this up.... It's nice. :)

Missed a day again

Oh well.

Yesterday.... Did anything interesting happen? Well, let's see... Nothing special that I can remember. Pretty typical stuff. Up and to school, of course. Math, Japanese, etc. in the morning.... Then they practiced the graduation stuff.... AGAIN! This time I sat off to the side and worked on my Japanese.... Out of the way, and doing something productive.... It worked well, I think. Then it was lunch time, and then our free time.... I got out Set, which was in my backpack, and started playing... Fun stuff. I explained it to Kawana-sensei and she found a couple sets too. :) Then it was cleaning time.... I helped sweep the entrance hall. Then we went outside and played kick ball, and a little dodge ball. Kick ball is something I haven't played in YEARS.. I'm as bad as ever, probably worse. But it was fun.
After that, I came home. Got on the computer, talked to Kento and my dad.... Ryusuke ordered pizza, so we got to eat pizza again... :) This time I ate a whole seafood pizza on my own...... I probably shouldn't have, but I did, and loved every bite! :) After that I got online again, took a bath, went to bed... All that normal stuff.

Oh, here's something I don't think I've mentioned yet.... Tomoko and the kids (that is, Nanako and Yuutaro) went to Guam this weekend. They just got back tonight. So anyway, they were gone, so most of the time it was just Grandma, Ryusuke, and me (Tatsuya was around too, but usually he was at work). It was very quiet most of the time... Which was kind of nice, but I'm glad to have them back now. :)

Anyway, today.... Up and to school, of course. Well, I guess maybe not of course, because it's Tuesday, isn't it? I didn't go to KIES though, because they were just talking about earthquakes, and that didn't matter much to me. So I was up and off to school.
Our school day started out interesting... All the desks were pushed to the back of the room, and we went and sat down on the floor in front.... For story time! Someone came and read a couple books to us.... It was fun.... Made me think of my mom, doing her youth librarian stuff.
After that we set up the desks right again, and wrote.... The other kids wrote to their parents, and I wrote to the class.... Tomorrow is my last day, so I'm giving a little goodbye speech thing. I wrote it in English, then my teacher translated (and I wrote the translation in hiragana and a little kanji).
After that, big surprise (sarcasm here)... Time to go to the gym to practice! I sat to the side again and practiced kanji.... I think I have about 75 now, but I'll quiz myself after I post this to know for sure.
Then it was lunch time.... And the root of a long misunderstanding on my part. I was told of a "Baikingu kyushoku" which I basically heard as "biking lunch". I found out today, much to my relief, that no bikes are involved.... And I must have sounded like an idiot talking about bikes before. :p But oh well. Life goes on, and I think that was a legitimate misunderstanding.... :p
So it turns out that this "biking lunch" was actually a buffet lunch! Which was a very happy thing.... Because I'm not a good biker, and I love buffets. We had omusubi, inari, takoyaki, tamago, yakisoba, gyoza, meatballs, chicken, french fries, soup..... It was great!!!!!! And I can't forget the fruit cocktail stuff, the chocolate cake, and the orange juice..... Oh, it was so good!!!!!
After that huge lunch where I probably ate too much, I went back to the classroom and played Set again. I haven't played in a long time, but now I'm re-addicted.
Then I helped clean... Sweep the front area again. After that we went and played with 1st graders. Yes, you read right. We played with 1st graders. I basically have very little understanding of what we did, but that's OK.... I didn't have a 1st grader to partner up with, so I didn't do a whole lot... I tried, but I was confused a lot. The 1st graders then gave us things.... A card thing and an origami thing. I got a crane. It's not a masterpiece, but it's very cute.... The attempt is very cute. The card is funny, because it says (translated) "Good luck in Jr. High!". There was really no reason for them to think otherwise, so that's what was written... And that's fine. It really doesn't matter much. :p
After that we went back to the classroom.... For a 6th period. A long day. The last class was calligraphy.... I was loaned the stuff I needed, and gave it a shot.... Four shots, actually.. For a first time, I don't think it was bad. People were saying I was doing good, but I don't know how true that is. I took a picture (to send to Kento), so I'll put it in here sometime....
After that I came home, got online, ate dinner, took a bath, all that good stuff. The kids and Tomoko got back from Guam and gave me some stuff.... I learned that Guam is a territory of the US.... Which I had no clue about before.

That's about it here.... I may get some pictures up later. I hope I do, but it depends on when I fall asleep and what happens.
Tomorrow is my last day of school here. My dad is also coming back tomorrow night. Should be a good day. We'll see.

No pictures, but.....

Well, I meant to get some pictures up today, but I got busy.

I got up this morning and got ready to go.... I decided to go to the Japanese service at Hatazawa Christ Church today. :) It was nice. I got the general idea of what was going on.... And was able to join in the singing because it was mostly hiragana. :)
After that we had lunch, and they had the general church meeting. I sat in because I needed a ride home. ;) Keith, who is a fellow Pacific Northwest native, translated for me..... Even though it really wasn't important for me to get what was going on. It was nice though. He translated EVERYTHING, which was kind of funny. The translators on the news basically just give a summary, but Keith translated every word. :p
After that I got my ride home... :) And since no one else was home, I got online. I would have got online anyway, but that's besides the point. Kento signed on shortly after, so I chatted with him. My dad also got on, so I chatted with him. I also ate some melonpan.... Yum. :p
I chatted for a while, then Grandma got home. She got dinner ready, so I signed off and ate. Then I got ready to go to the English Bible study group. :)
That was fun, as usual. We talked more about prophecies and stuff, which is what we've been talking about for the past couple weeks. We mostly succeeded in wandering off subject though.... We talked a bit about the beatitudes, which led into other conversations..... It was fun as usual though. :)
Then I came home, and now I am here. Not a lot went on today, but it kept me busy. I'm back to school tomorrow.... In all honesty I'm not excited about these last few days..... I know A LOT of graduation practice will be involved, which is when I basically sit and watch.... Maybe I'll ask to sit in the back and work on my Japanese or something.... That would probably be a bit more productive for me..... And I wouldn't be in the way.

Well...

I did get some pictures up, though not as many as I had hoped.... There's always tomorrow though!

As for today.... I went to class in the morning, of course. That went well. I'm up to the counter section now, which is one of the last things, and probably the last thing I'll really have to work at to remember.... They're tough! :( But kind of funny to read.... I like "flat thin things".... :p

After class I met Grandma at APITA and we went shopping. Then we ate at McDonalds! :) I had the double cheeseburger again.... And the good old nostalgic grape soda. ;) I also got a shake... Apparently substituting for a shake isn't an option here... So I ended up with a soda AND a vanilla shake. But they were both yummy, so that's OK. ;) I also ate a TON of fries because Grandma didn't want most of hers..... And that was fine by me, because McDonalds fries are really good......
After lunch we walked home.... And I've basically been online since..... Excluding dinner and bath, of course.

Assorted food

Here are some random pictures of food that I've taken throughout the past month or so.


Here's the tonkatsu I had at Ishido-san's house... Yum! (February 11)


Chicken Teriyaki pizza! (February 25)



Seafood pizza!!!!!!! :) (February 25)


This picture is kind of blurry, but I love it when ketchup is called "Fancy Sauce".... (February 25)


Takoyaki! :) (February 29)




Okonomiyak! :) If you can't guess which one was an attempt of mine at writing, I'll be very sad. (March 5)

I think that's it.... For assorted foods, anyway.

Kamogawa... Part 2

OK. Where did I leave off? (see last post if you haven't read it already)

Oh yeah, the underwater walrus pics. I got some underwater pics of the walruses, then we wandered around in that lower area for a bit....
After that we went back up to ground level and went to a gift shop... I didn't see anything that REALLY stood out though, so we decided to look at another gift shop. On the way I got another medal thing.... The "stupid tourist" item that I love... :p A coin in a pendant (or keychain, but I always get pendant) with the date and your name engraved in the coin.... This is my 3rd Kamogawa one (this time I got a beluga one).
We then went into the tropical area.... I really wanted to, so we did. :p They had this AWESOME tank..... It was basically a wall, and there were rays, turtles, sharks, fish..... It was everything I'd want in a fish tank! :p So cool.... Of course there were also beautiful reef tanks that I loved.... Pictures were hard to get, but I did my best.
After that we went to the gift shop by the gate.... Much to my dismay, there was even less there than at the other gift shop! So we decided to go BACK to the other one.... Why can't these places just have one gift shop? It's annoying. :p
So we walked back to the other one (it wasn't far....) and I did my shopping.... Got Kento a funny looking little walrus, and got myself an eel like thing (otsubo) and an orca.... I spent more than I thought I was going to, and I'm still kind of kicking myself for it.... But oh well. The otsubo was about ¥1000 more than I thought.... Oops.
Then we went and caught the end of an orca show.... I can only put pictures up if I figure out how to do frame shots in movies, because I did a movie of it.... That also means small pictures, but oh well. I guess I did get a couple just pictures too.
The exciting thing about the ora show.... A baby! :) Less than a month old, and SO cute! It was born on February 25th, and it was in the tank with the rest of the whales during the show..... I loved it. :) That's why I did the movie.... I wanted to be sure to get the baby on film!
After the show ended we headed back to the bus. We went through the mambo (mumbo, manbo, whatever) building to go back, because we could.... :p Then we left.... So sad.

When everyone got back on the bus, we left. I played Pokémon.... Big surprise, huh? ;) We made one stop on the way back.... Where we bought strawberries! And I ate ice cream. Then we headed back to the meeting place.
When we got off the bus, we were all handed flowers.... EVERYONE got flowers. It was crazy. :p
Ishido-san was giving us a ride home, so we went with her.... Got everything in the car, then we left.... To dinner! Sushi! Yumm...... There was 4 of us (Ishido-san, me, grandma, and the other person we were dropping off)... We went to one of those sushi places with the track carrying things around.... But since there wasn't enough people yet, we were just yelling out orders and getting them. Which was in a way nice.....
The others ordered this one kind of sushi, I still don't know what it was. They asked for 3 of them, but got 4.... So I said I'd give it a try. It was really good..... But there was one thing that freaked me out. One side of the plate was occupied with the sushi, and the other, well, I need another sentence to explain..... There was a head and a tail.... The tail had the center part of the fish still there (the area with the spine, but the rest had been cut off).... That was standing up with a stick, and then the head was sitting there.... Eye and all. It scared me to look at.... There was no particular reason for this, I think.... It was just there.
On the other hand, the sushi was great! :p

After that we dropped the other person off, then were dropped off ourselves. :) I talked to Kento online, got a bath, ate some food.... And posted, of course.... Then I read, and went to bed.

All in all, a VERY good day. It was a bit drizzley all day, but it was still a lot of fun! I think I almost typed fin.... Actually I almost typed fn, but fin would have been funnier.

There was only three! THREE!

I was up and off as usual this morning, except not as usual.... Because I left at about 8:10, and I was not alone.... That, and I wasn't going to school......
Ishido-san came and picked Grandma and me up. There was another person with her. Then we all together went to the place where the KEIS group (the place my Japanese classes are) was meeting.... To go to Kamogawa! :)
We got there, boarded the bus, then waited.... And waited.... For other people to show up. I passed time by playing Pokémon.... Fire Red, which I started last night. :)
Finally everyone was there, and the bus left. People started talking (over the mic thing), and I listened.... And kept playing Pokémon. I had to introduce myself at one point, which I did in English, because I really didn't know what was going on.... Then I continued playing Pokémon. :p
We stopped a couple times on the way to Kamogawa... Once at some little store place, and again at Rosemary Park.... Which in all honesty really didn't interest me much.
Finally we got to Kamogawa, and went to a hotel.... To have lunch! :) It was a yummy lunch of lots of stuff... I took a picture of the spaghetti and the dessert... They'll go up once I get caught up with my pictures (I'll try to do that soon.... Didn't I say that a while ago?). After lunch we took a couple group pictures, then we left......
Finally, what I had been waiting for the whole time..... Kamogawa Sea World!!!!! :) We got our tickets, group tickets because we were in a group... ;) I was probably the only "child" in the whole group. :p That probably means I was cheaper... Yay! :p
Then we got to go in. :) We kind of split up a bit after that.... Grandma, Ishido-san, and I went through a building.... Where there were mambo (ocean sunfish)! :) I tried to get pictures, but none turned out very well.... I'll see if I can at least get a decent one... Maybe do some adjustments with iPhoto.
Then we went out, and some other people from our group came and started talking about a sea lion show.... So I led the way to the sea lions..... I remember the way well. ;) It's been a while, but I do love Sea World... :p Some things I just don't forget.
We found our way to the sea lion performance area, but there was still time before the show.... So I ran over to the walruses, which were right next door. :)
I was met with a shock.... There were only THREE! Last time I came I believe there was four, and then another was born about a year later.... That leaves two unaccounted for!
I went back to the sea lion performance area, wondering where the other walruses went. We watched the performance, which was VERY cute. Good ol' stellar sea lions..... I know them well. ;) Oregon has lots of them (sea lion caves, anyone?).
Then I went back to the walruses.... The other people in our group went to watch another show, but Grandma and I stayed to watch the walrus feeding.... And I got some cute walrus pictures. :) Then we went down to the below water level, and I got more pictures.


I think I'm going to leave it at that for now.... My wrists are kind of bothering me tonight..... I got my wrist braces on again tonight (only the second time since I came....), so they'll probably be better tomorrow.... I just don't want to do anything weird to them tonight (as I tend to do in my sleep).
So I guess I'm off to read LOTR now. :) I will finish up the Kamogawa stuff tomorrow.... And get at least some pictures up! Maybe not the Kamogawa ones yet, but I'll get something up. :)

Sam-chan is loud

Let's see... Not much to write about, which is good because I should head to bed soon.

Up, to school, sweep the walk... Then I did some math and Japanese... We also got into groups and looked at cook books. :p Apparently we're making yummy food next week and had to decide what to make.
Then it was to the gym for MORE practice.... For the graduation, of course. I sat and probably got in the way again.
Then we ate lunch, I helped clean the bathroom, and I came home.

See? Not much. Of course at home I got online.... Played some Game Boy.... Ate food. Watched the news... Some stupid 14 year old in Tokyo burned his house down, killing his baby sister.... It creeps me out to know I have things in common with the kid. Apparently he burned the house down because his dad got mad at him for not going to school.... I also stopped going to school when I was 14 (well, 13 actually....), but I didn't burn any houses down about it.... Of course I also became legally homeschooled.... But that doesn't really have much to do with anything, so I think I'll head to bed now. I want to read some LOTR before sleeping.

It seems I got behind again.

Nice job Emi (emphasis on the sarcasm)....

Alright... I posted on Monday, but just my old pictures.... Nothing about Monday itself....
So, Monday. Everything was pretty normal. Up, go to school, come home, waste time. A normal day. See?
So, a bit more into what we did at school on Monday... It is our week to do volunteer stuff in the morning, so I helped sweep the walkway when I got there. I see a lot of irony in calling it "volunteer" work when we're assigned a week to do it.
Then I worked on my Japanese stuff while the rest of the class switched seats and stuff.
Then we made sandwiches. That's right, we made sandwiches. We made some for teachers, then we made some for ourselves. They were good too. There was ham, cheese, egg salad, tuna, and butter.... So we got to mix and match with that a bit.
It shouldn't be a surprise that after we MADE sandwiches, we ATE sandwiches! :) Yes, we ate our sandwiches for lunch. Along with some soup (as always), some strawberries, and some cake. That was a good lunch..... :)
After that, our usual after-lunch free time.... Where many people in the class practiced jump roping. The contest was after cleaning, so it was their last minute practice.
Then, of course, cleaning. I'm cleaning the 2nd floor bathrooms again.... Wiping the floor and all that. It's not too bad.
And finally..... The contest. Competition... Whatever. The 6th grade jump rope competition! They had the long jump ropes, the kind two people turn while other people jump. One for each class, of course. Two people did the rope thing (whatever the proper term would be...) while the rest of the class ran through.... The point was to get as many people as possible through in 3 minutes..... Then another 3 minutes.... Then another 3 minutes. There were short breaks in-between. Add the three totals together, and whoever has the highest number wins.
Class 6-4 got 211, 224, then 238, which gave us a total of 673.... Over 100 less than the 3rd place class, who got 780..... Obviously jump roping is not this class' strong point.... And I wasn't even trying... Yikes!
So that was a sad time for 6-4.... Not that we expected anything better, but still.

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday. I kind of like Tuesdays, because they're extremely easy to blog about. The only thing worth mentioning is Japanese class at KIES. I'm not usually to fond of Tuesday classes..... I usually have a lot of trouble following what's going on. Yesterday was good though. I think I got it all OK.
By the way, Chinese really confuses me. Everyone else in the Tuesday class (yesterday, anyway) is Chinese, so I heard quite a bit of it.... And I was so so so confused. I'm glad I don't have a reason to learn Chinese.... Just trying to differentiate sounds made me confused.
The rest of the day I just did, well, nothing worth mentioning. Computer, mostly.... I coded the transcript of the second Matthew West chat for TOUMWS, but probably no one who reads this cares..... Unless someone from the MW boards actually followed my link.... I know one person did, though I don't know if she's still reading... If so, hi froggie! :p

Today. Yes, today. Started off normal.... Wake up, eat stuff, go to school. Did the "volunteer" stuff, did some Japanese, then, to be totally honest, was bored...... A Jr. High teacher came (because the 6th graders will be gaduating next week) and talked about, well, I can't totally be sure.... But I was told it was about cell phones and dangerous stuff on cell phones or something..... I'm guessing they're talking about inappropriate sites and all that. Of course it was all in Japanese, and didn't really matter to me anyway, because I wont be going to Jr. High here.
Then we went to the gym... The 6th graders practiced some stuff for their graduation ceremony.... I sat and watched, and probably got in the way, though no one said anything (except for when they asked me to move my chair forwards a little). They sat up straight, stood up straight, sat up straight... Lots of that stuff that would make a lazy American like me tired. :p Then they practiced going on stage, receiving the graduation diploma thingy, bowing, then going off stage...... Every single one of them, one at a time. Then they did some more sitting/standing/whatever stuff..... And bowing. And reading a thing. I just sat there, and may or may not have been getting in the way.
After that was done, finally, we went back to the classroom. I did a bit more Japanese, then it was lunch time. I don't entirely know what we ate, but it was food.... And that's what matters to me. :p
After lunch we immediately went to cleaning. I helped clean the 2nd floor bathroom again, of course.
Then, it was an early release! Yay! We got ready to go, and were FREED! :p
Well, except for one thing..... I was told to walk home with the kids today. No one was home, and I am the only one of us with a key. It's true that I was the first out, and could VERY easily have been home to let them in, but I had already agreed to wait.... So wait I did. And wait, and wait, and wait. They must have been let out 15 or 20 minutes later than me. In that time I stood by the gate, waiting. Lots of random people said hello (or konnichiwa, and sometimes sayoonara) to me.... Later I was surrounded by 1st graders again.... Maybe some other grades too. I can't really tell. They all tried to talk to me.... And some just stared. One kid just kept looking up at me with wide eyes and his mouth wide open.... It was hard not to laugh.
Finally Nanako and her friends showed up, and a minute or two later, Yuutaro. We walked home, and I still had a couple kids attempting communication. :p I'm sure it's good for me and all that.... I know. It is also moderately annoying, though more than that, funny.
Finally we got home, and with my key were able to get in no problem. I off course headed to my computer.... Later accompanied by a thing of Mother Farm ice cream! Yum! Tomoko got home around 5:00, and thanked me for being able to let us all in.......
Then at 5:30 we all left. Tomoko, Nanako, Yuutaro, and me. We went to Nana's swim practice.... Yuutaro and I mostly played games the whole time, but that's OK. ;) After that we went to dinner.... Yum. Dinner. I ate a pizza (seafood pizza!) and a plate of fries.... Probably not a WHOLE plate because we got an order to share, and then we also got some other side orders that also came with fries.... But there were lots of fries, anyway.
It was about 9:15 when we got home.... I took a quick shower, then came back here to my computer... Grandma got home not long after I finished my shower.

So that's about it.... Oh and today was hot! I wore my sweatshirt in the morning, but took it off while we were in the gym.... Had my "History Maker" T-shirt on... :p It wasn't HOT really... It was warm, and VERY nice. I was wearing all black though (no, I am not "gothic"... My random choices sometimes end this way), so it got hot for me sometimes.
People seemed to have trouble believing I wasn't cold.... Especially in the evening. It got a bit chilly in the evening, but we weren't outside long enough to make putting on a sweatshirt worth it, so I didn't bother. It wasn't that chilly anyway.

Pictures from other a month ago!

Yeah.... These are from February 3rd.... It's been a while. So procrastinator-ish of me.

They're my dondonyaki pictures, so I tried to find a bit more about dondonyaki.... But Wikipedia didn't have it, and I didn't get much with Google either.... This is all I found:
"DONDONYAKI is the bonfire currently performed more at the beginning of the year in ancient times, and burns New Year decoration etc.It is said that there is divine favor in good health in the fire of DONDONYAKI."

That's about as informative as my "It's a big fire." description.... Well, OK. It's more informative than that. but I think I like "It's a really big fire." best. Anyway, pictures. They're all a lot a like, so I'll try not to do too much... Oh, and there's some food too.


Tonkatsu sandwich.... My dinner that night. :p The before-dondonyaki dinner, anyway... We ate stuff there too.








This would of course be the big fire. Yes, I love the fire pictures..... This is only about half of them.... I have 15. ;)


So there, finally, is Dondonyaki! It took long enough to post..... The incentive is getting my Mother Farm pictures up, and staying in order.... ;)

*cough hack hack*

Yes, the return of the cough.... Ugh.

Anyway, yesterday..... Bad me, I didn't even go to bed after posting.... I couldn't sleep until 3:00 AM! I started getting really anxious, I'm not sure why.... So then I suddenly felt a desperate need to get in contact with someone in Oregon, preferably my mom.... I'm still not sure why. I e-mailed her, and she got back to me and told me that everything is fine..... And I talked to Kento and my dad, and though Kento is also sick, they seemed generally fine..... So I don't know what that was all about. I guess I was tired, even though I couldn't sleep, and rather irrational.....

Anyway, yesterday MORNING. Got up for class, had a quick breakfast, and went to Japanese class.... That went fine. Worked on some adjectives, some town stuff... Stuff they did in JPN 102 (yes, I am a bit behind... Except in kanji :p).
Then I came home.... Had a quick lunch, got my bag ready, and grandma's friend, Ishido-san (I'm not sure if I'm spelling that right... Sorry! I can edit it if it's wrong... ;)) picked us up to go to Mother Farm.... Mother Farm is on a mountain, so there was a curvy mountain road involved..... I love mountains, and I'm usually fine in cars.... But curvy mountain roads aren't really my friends. There was a time or two when I thought I would get sick for sure.... But we made it with no major sickness, thankfully. Once we got up there I was fine... No problem. The mountain air was nice.... And it was warm enough that I didn't need my coat!
We walked from where we parked up to the entrance to the farm. We had coupons, I guess, so we got in... Free? I think.... I don't really know.
Anyway, after that we went to the animals... It's a farm, so where else would we go? ;) We went to look at the sheep.... Adorable little lambs were there, and the pictures will come eventually.... They were so cute! The big sheep were, well, sheep-looking.... But the lambs were absolutely adorable! There were also some pigs and a couple little horses.... Not as cute as the lambs. :p
Then we went and looked at some rabbits, and an odd little guy.... There were a whole bunch of rabbits, and one guinea pig. It was cute, but looked on in the pen with all the rabbits.... We also went down and petted some goats.... One of them was scratching its head on a tree.... It looked funny. :p
Then we went to look at some cows.... The cows were kind of muddy.... But they were cows, so they were cute. We wandered into a barn, which apparently we weren't supposed to go in.... Oops! Then I ate ice cream. At Mother Farm, eating ice cream is a necessity. I then went to pet a horse, which in turn wanted to open my C.C.Lemon bottle.... Which startled and amused me. :p
After that we rode the "Wanwan bus" (shaped like a dog) to the top of the mountain.... There were rides there that I remembered well from the last time I was in Japan, and went to Mother Farm to watch fireworks. We walked down the hill a little bit and got to a store, where I bought some adorably adorable stuffed animals.... I got two cows (one for Kento... Identical to the one I got last time we were there) and a horse.... My cow's name is Bokujyo (which means "farm") and my horse's name is C.C.Lemon. ;) Kento and my dad named his cow today, but I can't remember what they named it.... So Snorkel, you can put the name in your comment. ;)
Then we went to the dog run area.... They were having a frisbee competition, which we watched part of. Apparently dogs are welcome in the farm, which I think is awesome. You probably have to pay to use the run area, but it seemed nicely set up.
Then we watched ducks. Yes, it's true. I, Emi, watched ducks. Shocking, I know. I don't think they liked me... Two of them tried to eat my shoe.... And the feed didn't get that far back! Gr. Maybe they were mad at me for muttering "Aflac" so much.... I think they were both white ducks................
Then we went down to the entrance again. A long walk down the mountain.... While we passed by the sheep again we saw that they were taking one of the little white lambs out for people to pet... So I got in line. I'll have to ask Ishido-san to e-mail us the pictures. I'd like to put them on here.
After that we went to the store by the entrance.... We had to buy ice cream. :p Grandma bought the ice cream, then we left.

I was really sleepy on the ride home.... Fortunately I didn't feel sick this time! We stopped for dinner on the way back.... I didn't feel sick, but I didn't feel hungry either.... And I was really really sleepy. I had some takoyaki... Small, but enough for me. Then we came back home and I went to bed.

When I woke up is about where I left off yesterday.... And like I said above, I ended up being up until 3:00 anyway..... Ugh.


So this morning.... I woke up maybe around 10:30.... Around noon I went upstairs to have lunch. I played on the computer between then.... And also afterwards. I started coding the second Matthew West chat transcript for TOUMWS (another of my websites)... It's proving tedious. Grandma got home a while later.... Then at around 5:45 I went upstairs to have dinner with the kids.... Okonomiyaki! :) Yum.... We put lots of different stuff on it.... The first one had cheese, the second one I'm not sure if we put anything special on, the third one had potatoes, the 4th had egg, and Ryusuke made another with corned beef....
We had fun with the sauce.... Writing characters with mayonnaise is NOT easy. Yuutaro is a lot better at it than I am. I got some funny pictures of my attempts... Those will go up eventually.
Then I played with Yuutaro and Nanako for a bit, then went to the Bible study. I brought my computer today, and ended up doing a lot of random wikipedia searches... :p It was fun.
That's about it for today.... I'm sorry about lagging so much on getting photos up... I'm a total procrastinator. I'll try to do that soon.... Really, I will.
That's all for now.

Why am I so tired?

We went to Mother Farm today.... So I have stuff to write about and pictures to post.... Later. Yes, Emi is procrastinating again. Shame on her. :p

But really, I'm exhausted.... I fell asleep when we got home, woke up a few hours later, Been up for 40 minutes, and I'm ready to sleep again......... I'm not entirely sure why I'm so tired. It might have something to do with the slight return of my cough and my sore mouth (which is getting better)... Which I can't explain at all. It just appeared.... So we can strongly hope I'm not getting sick again.... That would not be cool.

So much stuff, so little time!

This is likely to be a long post... Sorry. :p

Where to start? Morning, of course... :p Get up, breakfast, leave for school. Not terribly exciting. I watched my class practice jump rope for a bit (there's another competition on Monday... I think I wrote about it in a previous post), then we went in. Then some 1st graders came in and gave us little picture frames with our class picture in it. I didn't get one for some unknown reason.... There was one for me, but I didn't get it at the time. Then we practiced singing with the rest of the 6th graders, then we went back to the classroom. They talked about stuff I couldn't follow at all...... Bear with me if I'm getting a little mixed up. I was tired this morning... I'm always tired on Fridays. Most people wont know the difference anyway... ;) In all honesty that part wasn't terribly interesting.... What came after, now THAT was cool!
I am talking, of course, about the farewell party! The 6th graders walked in with 1st graders, so the 1st graders came to our class first. We got paired up... I shared a first grader. :p Apparently there wasn't enough of them. ;) But that was no problem. We walked down to the gym, then went in. It was dark, and most of the school was already there.... In fact we were the last. Everyone was clapping... It was kind of weird. Of course it was for the 6th graders, and I was just there because.... But it was still fun. We walked under an arch thing, down the center, then around to our chairs. We got chairs because we're special. ;)
In all honesty I didn't follow quite a bit of the party too closely either... With the help of the program, though, I can try. :p
First up were the 3rd graders. They played Puff The Magic Dragon, and I sat in the back being amused.... Americans will probably understand this quite well.... Why I was sitting there laughing to myself. They did a good job though.... They also did some skits, and sang a song. Complete with pompoms.... That was interesting. :p Nanako was somewhere, but I'm not sure where....
After that were the first graders! They did Jyugemu (a whole skit/dance/song kind of thing), which was very cute. Some of my American readers (are there anymore? I don't even know, since no one COMMENTS *hint hint*) may know it as my bad spelling... Gigemu... The long name that I randomly say sometimes, though I only know the short version. ;) Yuutaro was up there, but because I was in the back and have bad vision (and I always forget to wear my glasses....) I couldn't really tell where.
Now let's see if I get this right.... I know from the program that the 4th graders were next, and I THINK they were the ones doing the Kappa thing.... But I may be mixing stuff up now. Either way, the 4th graders did their skit, and either way it was good, because they were all good!
After that were the 2nd graders, and if I'm remembering right (but this might be getting mixed up with the 4th graders.... I can't remember for sure) they did a skit/dance/song thing that I really didn't understand.... I only got the rabbit part.... And then only that they were rabbits. Other than that, they lost me on that one.
Then the teachers were up! This one I was basically completely lost on... There was some singing, some talking, people were laughing... The visual was pretty amusing, at least from what I could see.... I don't know what they were saying, but it was fun to watch!
And then... Finally the moment we weren't really waiting for but whatever..... The 6th graders! Of course, being class 6-4, we were last.... Actually, 6-3 was up first. They did a cool dance thing that I guess is popular in schools around here.... It was fun to watch, anyway. Then 6-1 and 6-2 did their songs.... I think it was 6-2 that had the AWESOME marimbas, but I don't know for sure.... And finally, we were up! I was admittedly nervous.... But I think we all did fine, and it was fun! The tambourine isn't terribly exciting, but I think I did alright.... It would have been better if I flipped it over so I wasn't hitting the side with the pins, but when I noticed it was too late.... There's no cool way to flip over a tambourine mid-song... Or quiet way, for that matter. It wasn't a problem.... One song one time through isn't that much.
Then we lined up like we've been practicing for the past several days, and sang a song. I surprised myself right before I started posting by starting to sing the song here.... Obviously I don't know all the words, but I do know enough to start on my own, I guess. Anyway, we sang our song.... Then we sang another song (Smile Again) with the rest of the school.... Then the principal talked for a little bit. Finally after that we were told to sit down.
I believe it was then that the 5th graders did their thing.... It was several things, actually. Stuff I couldn't completely follow.... But the end, oh the end! This was my favorite part of the whole thing, not because it was the end but because it was SO COOL!!!! All the lights were turned off, and the 5th graders had glowsticks..... Blue, pink, yellow (which for glowsticks is actually a kind of light green), and green. They waved them a little bit.... Probably singing a song, though I was a bit too focused on the visual to notice much.... I have some stupid fascination with glowsticks..... I love them. But then.... THEN!!!! This excites me to write about, even though it'll only take a sentence or two.... I'm dragging it out for suspenseful dramatical purposes (I don't think dramatical is a word).... They started making WORDS with the glowsticks!!!!!! Since I was in the back, I stood up to see better.... It was so cool! One color was "サヨナラ" (Sayonara in katakana.... Probably because katakana is more angular, and thus easier to make characters with glowsticks... And I may be spelling it wrong), another said "アリガトウ" (also in katakana, of course... It says Arigatou.), and the others (I'm not sure if there was one or two) I couldn't read.... It was all VERY cool though. Being coordinated enough to hold up glowsticks to make words..... Cool! They made the words for a little, then all lined up along the aisles.... Then they waved the glowsticks kind of as "borders" to the aisles as the 6th graders walked out.... Very cool! Very very cool! I wish I could have a picture of it.... It was awesome! We left the same way we came, but without 1st graders and between glowsticks..... Very cool. Who can tell I liked it? ;) The 5th graders are awesome.

OK... Time to calm down now... ;) Just writing about it got me all excited again... :p I'm so dumb. Is glowsticks two words? Probably, but it looks better to me as one... It sounds like one when I say it, so I'll let it look like one too. :p
After the very cool farewell party it was lunch time. We had jello (made me think of Kento.... He'll know why. ;))... And rice and stuff that I didn't fully understand. I don't even always understand the food here.... Crazy. :p
After lunch I went out to watch my class practice jump rope again... They take these competitions seriously. :p Then it was inside to clean.
After that was done, we went to the classroom to write. We wrote about the farewell party... I wrote a little bit, drew a picture (because we had to draw a picture), then had time, so wrote some more. I ended up using the space provided on the front as well as most of the back for my writing.... I wrote a lot. :p I kind of joked about how it was like my long over-due elementary school graduation, because Winterhaven didn't have one (as a K-8 school, there was no particular reason to). ;)
Oh yeah, and I also got my little picture frame thing.... I should take a picture of it (a picture of a picture!) to post on here.... It's cute. :)

Then I got to come home. Used the computer for a bit, had dinner.... Then the family upstairs got home. I refer to them as the family upstairs to maintain some privacy... ;) Obviously I know who they are, but in this blog they are "the family upstairs" because they live upstairs.
Anyway, they got home, and they had dinner down here, probably because my grandma gave it to them. Then Ryusuke (my oldest cousin... He's 18) came down, so he ate too... We ended up just sitting around, eating, talking, and watching TV... I ate some more.... Fruit and ice cream, though I probably shouldn't have.... Oh well. :p I'll live. It was fun for some reason.... I'm not entirely sure why.
I ended up watching some show, even after they left.... It was some game show type thing.... Japan has the strangest TV shows. It was some sort of blackjack type thing.... But human blackjack.... The people at the table pick a person (there's cards with the people's pictures on them on the table), then the person they pick has to go essentially act stupid. There's a whole selection of guys to choose from.... Then there are these women who put a ball in their mouth, then try to keep it there while watching the guy act stupid..... It was very strange, but a concept I caught onto quickly. It's hard to describe in text, though.... I think the idea is that the women aren't supposed to laugh, but of course some do... And when that happens of course the ball falls from their mouth. Then they count the balls, and that many points goes to the person at the table who picked the card.... And they keep picking people until a winner is decided (wither by getting a "blackjack", 21 points, or by everyone else exceeding 21).
It was pretty stupid, but kind of funny.... Mostly stupid. I watched it though, and ended up watching until 10:00, when it ended...... Then I had to get my bath. I meant for it to be short, but I don't think 30 minutes is short..... Oh well. Now it's almost midnight.... Did it really take an hour to type this? Sheesh!

Oh, and before I go.... For your listening pleasure, I found this online! No clue if it's legal or not, but it's online already.... I'm just linking to it. This is the song we preformed today! We didn't sing though.... Anyway, here you go!
Seishun Amigo

An awesome book!

Yes, it's true.... I forgot to post Tuesday AND Wednesday.... Catching up shouldn't take long though...

Tuesday: Get up late... Something like 11:30. Ate lunch, went to class, came home, got online. That sums it up. I was chatting with Kento and playing boggle when I realized I forgot to post, but I also realized since I can say all I did in one sentence, maybe it wasn't terribly important.

Wednesday: Up for school, breakfast, go to school... Japanese, math, more Japanese (they did social studies, but I did Japanese), then some fun stuff! We made these "medals" for the first graders.... They're cardboard circles hanging on a ribbon... Not terribly exciting, but oh well. We decorated them, wrote messages.... I made one for Yuutaro. I wrote the WHOLE message in hiragana and a little kanji! I was proud of myself.... :p Sure, it was mostly about cows and takoyaki, but it's for Yuutaro, so that's OK. ;) I drew a mumbo (ocean sunfish) on the other side.... It's not as extravagant as some of the others, but oh well.
We worked on those for a while, had lunch, worked on them some more, then on a normal day we would be done. Or at least I would.... I always go home after 5th period, and usually everyone else does too.... But Wednesdays are long days. Usually I would go home anyway, but this was a special long day.... We had to practice our performance for the farewell party. Sixth graders graduate this month, you see.... Japanese school year apparently ends in March.
I stayed for practice, of course. It was fun. The other 6th grade classes were practicing too... We kind of went through the whole 6th grade section.... We got to watch the other classes, which was fun. Since we're 6-4, we're last.... Well, actually all the 6th graders are last, because they sing a song as a group.... I kind of just stand there. I try to sing what parts I've caught onto.... I'm pretty good at catching on to lyrics (I've been told it's amazing), but it's not as easy in another language.... I try though, and I can do some parts.... Probably not on my own, but sort of a keeping up with everyone else kind of thing......
After that we went home.... It was probably about 4:00 when I got home, an hour later than usual. Maybe a little later... I can't remember for sure. After that there's nothing worth mentioning... Same as any other day.

Thursday: That's today! Let's see.... Up, breakfast, walk to school. Yuutaro walked with some friends, so I was on my own today. Not that I really cared... Got to school, did some math, did some Japanese. Math was fun, because I got to make a tessellation! :) I need to start making those more often... They're so much fun! I made another dog one... But this one was just the head. The one I made back in 6th or 7th grade was also a dog... But it was the full dog. It could have been a goldfish too.... But I decided to make it a dog.
After that it was time to practice again! We went down to the gym and went through the 6th grade performances again. It seemed pretty good to me... Which is good, because we're doing it tomorrow!
After that they did something.... I'm still not totally sure what, but moral studies is what's written in my schedule. They watched a video.... Something about Hell, lots of people making scary sounds..... Then they read from a book, which apparently is what the video was of.... I don't know. I was confused, so I just sat there.... And was mildly freaked out by the sounds in the video.... Hell sounds scary. :p
Then it was lunch time.... Some brilliant thing known here as "Soup Spaghetti", except in katakana... :p It's just what it sounds like.... Spaghetti in soup. It was very good too.
After that it was down to the computer lab.... Slow computers galore! :p We played the typing game over the network again.... Some random punching of the keys 1, 2, and 3... And some other stuff too. There were some romaji practice things.... Which would have been fine, except that the kanji was too hard.... But I got some help. Mostly from the teacher, but once or twice from another student.... And they did do 1st grade kanji once, for me. :p It turns out that apparently I'm a human representation of Japan in the Olympics.... I kept getting 4th place. :p

Then I came home, had a snack, used the computer, read..... That would be where the title of this post comes from. I finished The Hobbit today, and it was AWESOME! :) Yes, I finally read it. Now for all those people bugging me to read LOTR... I'm starting it tonight. I haven't yet, but I will.
So I read for a while, talked to Kento and my dad for a few minutes (my dad is at Kento's apartment now...), used the computer more, had dinner. I watched the news in English... NHK news. Then I watched some CNN news too. That thing about the fugitive in Kentucky who was supposed to donate a kidney to his son.... That was sickening.
After the news I took a bath, and now here I am. So that's it.... I think I'm off to start LOTR now!