Well, sorry for not updating sooner, I`ve been really busy, and have little time to check emails and stuff with using the family computer.  I still use my laptop frequently, but it`s playing solitaire for about an hour each day.  I got bored of Minesweeper, that was last week`s game.  I see next week being Hearts.

 Anyways, I`m at school right now.  No Japanese class today, so two hours of free time!  What could be better?  Plus I have a free hour in the afternoon since no Judo…so half my day at school is just sitting on the computer.  At least I can catch up on watching Heroes, since Toyooka`s house doesn`t  support YouTube.

The Australian kids are here, and they`re all pretty strange nice.  Their accent is some kind of weird mix between English and America, leaning more towards the former.  We went to Universal Japan in Osaka on Saturday, which was awesome!! I didn`t talk to them that much though, I was being kind of anti-social.  Some Japanese person walked by us really quick and gave us a thumbs down sign and blew a raspberry at us.  It was the first outright sign of racism in Japan I’d seen, and it really offended me.  It gives me a balanced view on life though, as now I know how minorities in America feel when they’re discriminated against.  Baseline, it sucks.  Which is why I hate racism.

I also saw a dead cat on the road.  It was really sad.  There was a pool of blood around its head and its eyes were still open.  I was depressed that day, after being confronted with such a stark view of death.

My house life is pretty good.  I’m really enjoying my time with the Toyooka family, and they’re very nice.  Yesterday, we all went to see my host father’s work, which was really impressive!  He’s the president of a company that supplies Intel and Samsung, and more.  The company basically teflon coats a bunch of different things for many different uses.  I saw his two factory areas, and the third one with a lab that’ll be open in December.  Very cool.  Then for dinner we went to a sushi bar with the rotating track that brings plates around!  I like sushi now, especially salmon.  That’s kind of sad.  I’ve got a taste for raaaaaaaaw fish.