Bonsai Blog

Sorry, I’ve been really busy this week with stuff.  Finally outlining how my school trip went!

I left Kansai Airport at like 1 and got to Singapore at like 8.  But, Singapore’s time was 7.  No problems with any passport stuff, so that was nice.  Singapore has guards at the airport with huge military guns, which is a bit unnerving.  Not the best first impression.  After getting out of the airport we got on a charter bus and went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  I don’t like Chinese food, so it wasn’t particularly appetizing to me.  Nagano students packed the place, and that was only half our grade.  We had been split into two different flight times so the groups could fly in and eat without being too large.  Then we checked into the hotel and slept and stuff.

Singapore was very hot.  It’s something you notice when you step outside.  Unlike Japan, Singapore’s airport was airconditioned.  You also notice a lot of Indian people walking around, which is a change from me seeing Japanese (and other Asian) people 24/7.  It’s also a very modern looking city and has tons of skyscrapers and many hotels.

Basically over the next days of our stay we went to an Orchid garden, on a bus tour, went to a high school, went to a Bird zoo, and finally on a night safari.  Food-wise it was almost ALL Chinese, which was…not very pleasing to me.  It almost felt like hypocrisy after coming to Japan and people making me all the different traditional Japanese foods to experience the culture, then when Japanese people go to a new place…they stick with Asian food.  While Singapore is composed of many Chinese citizens, Indian people also make up a large percentage of the population.  It’s my opinion that we should have tried Indian food more, which I would have preferred.  Or picked better Chinese restaurants.

Over all I wasn’t very happy about the ‘Trip on a Script’ feel, I like a more spontaneous type of adventuring around the world.  But it did give me a fun look at Singapore, which I enjoyed.  But for political reasons I can’t say I’d like to live in Singapore, as it’s very low in the Human Rights Dept.

And tomorrow I’m going to Cost Co. which is like Sam’s Club, which carries many American things.  Yudai’s family is taking me because they have a card to get in, and Yudai said things are really cheap, which sounds fun.  I think I’ll spend around 4,000 yen in stuff, just for fun.

Ok, I’m putting off Singapore for the moment.  Why?  Because it’s going to be a long entry and it’s past midnight at the moment.  And I’d rather discuss two movies I watched today.  Singapore was pretty fun, but too structured for me to completely enjoy it, besides the last day when we got to go on a tour of Little India and basically freeroam together.  And it was practically all Chinese food, which I dislike.  So right now I’ll suffice by saying it was overall positive, but I’m happy to be back in Japan.  For the record, I don’t like hot weather, and prefer a cold climate over a very hot one.

So, first up is Hotel Rwanda.  I watched that today with Yudai at my house.  His choice of movie not mine, I had absolutely no interest in it really, but he apparently wanted to see it.  In the end, it was very sad, but a good movie.  It’s those kind of ‘based-on-true-event’ stories that make me hate the world.  I will never understand what drives genocide.  I believe a comparable situation is happening in Darfur at the moment, and, as they say, history does repeat itself.  So if you can watch Hotel Rwanda and not feel anything towards situations of genocide that are happening across the world, congrats, you can call yourself an American.  A quote from that movie that stood out was something along the lines of ‘People will watch this footage, say ‘That’s horrible’ and go back to eating their dinner’.  So.  True.  That was refering to footage of a village being slaughtered.  In particular, a lady getting a machete in her back and neck multiple times.  There’s a point where I feel I can’t address people anymore about it without screaming in their faces.  What is not understood here?  Hate. Is. Bad.  Racism, which is what Hotel Rwanda focused on, will get you nowhere.  Discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, beliefs, ANYTHING…it’s all USELESS.  And yet people still find the nerve to keep that alight in their mind.  Myself?  I do have a problem with racism just based on looks for a certain race.  Yes…I’m admitting it.  But the sooner people realize they have a problem, the better.  Because hiding it really isn’t going to do anything good either.  We all have our problems, and trying to pretend like we don’t will just set us up for a bigger fall.  So I need to work on what I need to work on, and I’d highly recommend that we all take a step in the right direction.  If everyone did, the world would be a lot better.  I’m honestly just sick of all the hate that’s in the world, and it’s hard for anyone to like anything filled with hate.

That was a lot more than I was going to say on that…but, it just came out.  I have experienced racism in Japan against myself, personally.  Purposefully hurtful.  Twice I think.  Anyways… Yudai and I watch a lot of DVDs now.  It’s just become a fun thing to do to hang out.  I don’t have a PS2 or anything over at the Toyooka-sans house, but, there is a DVD player!  Yudai has a PS2 though luckily (haha).  And his father’s cousin died like yesterday.  And the funeral was today.  Very sad, although he didn’t know her.

The second movie I watched was The Descent.  Very scary movie, rated R in America but only ‘Above 15′ here.  Usually, I don’t watch horror movies because books outpace them tenfold.  Movies will use gore to visually shock, while books can be a lot scarier because they set a certain mood and it’s a lot better than shock factor.  Movies based on Stephen King books however I usually watch.  IT is up next on my ‘to-watch’ list, although I think I’d rather read the book first.  So, the reason I picked up The Descent was reviews.  I had read a fair amount of them, and the movie piqued my interested because it was said to be an actually good horror movie.  Which doesn’t come around very often, trust me.  And it was really good.  It’s about a group of women who go spelunking together.  Sometimes it’s what you don’t see in this movie that makes it so scary…because you get to see what’s hiding, and then you don’t.  And as the camera screens around the darkness, you don’t know who’s next or where the enemy is.  And then factor in some other elements between the women and it’s awesome.  Gore?  Yes…it is pretty bloody.  Not used too much for plain shock value though, and it’s not cheesy.  I watched Freddy Vs. Jason, and while entertaining, that just had blood and shock-value-deaths.  And the ending for The Descent is just awesome.  The whole movie is good in my opinion, so if you’re into the horror genre, I’d suggest it.

I did go a lot further on Hotel Rwanda than I planned.  But what I said is what I believe to be true, that there is a whole ton of hate in this world that goes through unchecked, and for no reason or the fact that we can’t understand something.  I could list a hundred recent news articles about death that are fueled by hate.  The general population of the earth obviously doesn not understand what’s so … obvious.

And, venturing in the political realm for my last bit of update, I thought I’d let you all know that I can vote in the 2008 election.  Hilary Clinton looks like the early candidate of my choice personally.  I can’t help but look at how America was when Clinton was president and think we have a shot at it again with her as President, and the ex-President close at her side.  Although if I see any more scandals I’d be sorely disappointed.  At the moment I’m feeling neither Democratic or Republican though.  The Rep has been tarnished in my view forever though, and I can’t help but feel like I finally opened my eyes after coming to Japan.  That party really has nothing to offer our country anymore in my opinion.  Democratic control though, I can’t say I agree wholly with their platform either.  I’m stuck with a fairly liberal point of view at the moment, and dissatisfaction with the liberal party.  I could go on about how our country’s politics are dreadfully faulty though.  It needs a reform badly.

Tomorrow I have a break from school!  Yay!  Not sure what I’ll do though.  Hopefully update on Singapore, eh?  I have lots of pictures to upload too!

Just wanted to let you all know I’m back in Japan safe.  Blog coming soon detailing the trip.

Just a short post to say I’m leaving tomorrow.  Really excited to see all the new stuff.  I’m more apprehensive to go then I was for Japan though actually.  It just feels different leaving from a country that isn’t even your own to go to a completely different place.  Haven’t even completely settled into Japan and going to visit a whole new culture.  Although it’s only for a short time… it’s just how I feel as a foreign exchange student.  A little nervous.  But a lot excited.

 So yay!  I’ll be getting on a charter bus with all my friends in my class to go to the airport and stuff, it’ll be awesome.

Pray for my safety while I’m over there, thanks!

So, today went well in Umeda.  Although, it was honestly kind of boring with not much to do.  So although we went around to different stores and saw stuff, by 2:30 we were wondering what else we were going to do.  We DID eat the Mega Mac, but Yudai couldn’t finish his!  Honestly…Japanese people have not learned the art of eating big amounts of food.  I ate mine really fast (it was good) and he just stared at me, and couldn’t believe it.  It was a really comical look he gave me.  It was…definitely good.

We decided to go back to Tennoji and go to a movie.  Even though tickets are around $13 here, it was something to waste time.  Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing good playing.  And we had already gone to Eragon and James Bond last month.  Yeah, I think I left out that we went to see Casino Royale over Christmas break.  He had a free ticket thing, so we split the cost of one ticket and it was … almost as cheap as America.  That was an absolutely awesome movie.  The reinviting of the series was great.  It had enough action, but it was also a lot more believable, with a great plot … not one that just got an action scene to the next.  Definitely enjoyed seeing that movie.

After deciding that the theatre was a bad idea, we resorted to the Japanese backup for any social situation when you want something fun to do- karaoke.  Unfortunately, the only one near by was absolute packed with teens, and we didn’t want to wait to do something that was only a back up plan.  So finally Yudai just said we should go back to his house and play Playstation then go to Fujidera for dinner and look for the new backpack.

So yeah, we just hung out at Yudai’s house for the remainder of the afternoon, and then his parents decided to order pizza for us, so that was cool.  Watched some TV, etc etc.  It was fun.  I also got to see the scrapbook his host mother in Canada made him when he stayed over for a small time in the summer!!  That was really cool, looks like he had an awesome time and a nice family.

I also spent around $35 dollars on books this morning, $27 of that being for a really nice Kanji workbook.  I really do care about my education in Japanese, and being able to write and recognize kanji is very important here.  So that should also help me with my proficiency test as well.  I believe it has the first 750 of them…wow.  Got some memorizing to do.  It also does Hiragana and Katakana.  The latter I actually need, as I don’t do too well reading katakana, and have only fully memorized the hiragana alphabets.  Japanese is so confusing.

But I had a really good day with Yudai, so I was glad.  5 days without your best friend isn’t cool at all.  But Sinapore will be fun.

Just to let you all know, I will check my email last on Monday night, but that’s Monday morning for most of you in the US and then again when I get back on Friday night for US peoples.  Late-night that is.  So any emails sent imbetween then will not be replied to until I get back, and I’d like to ask people to refrain from emailing me and making it difficult to catch up with replies.  Thanks!

So, been packing for Singapore and getting stuff ready.  It’s pretty exciting.  Singapore is also one of the safest cities and stuff, so that’s kind of reassuring.  Although really strict rules.  I think littering is a $500 fine, in Singapore dollars.  Possibly $350 US dollars.  Definitely don’t want to get in trouble here.

Also, if any of you noticed, there was a huge earthquake in the ocean, and tsunami warnings across the East side of Japan.  I’m safe, so don’t worry.

Yesterday, I had Rotary.  Of course, after writing my speech with Takashi-sensei and then practicing it a lot, ends up that there’s no time at the meeting.  In some ways…that was a lot of time wasted.  But in some ways, I’m glad.  I don’t like giving Japanese speeches because I feel like I have a big American accent and sound stupid.  After that, I was waiting until Japanese class started, and I was looking at MP3 players at a department store I have to go through to go up, and this lady walked up and started talking to me.  I didn’t know her at all, but I’d guess that she was learning English and wanted to practice.  She was 57 and had a daughter attending University in America.  She asked me the usual stuff, and told me stuff about her, and then after like 10 minutes, she seemed satisfied and said goodbye and just went up the escalator.  Stuff like that just happens sometimes.  It isn’t the first time someone I don’t know has just started talking to me.  Then I went to Japanese class and studied for an hour on kanji and general Japanese for the proficiency test, which has been moved until April.

Then I walked back to school and spent some time in the computer lab while I waited for Yudai to finish looking at clothes or something.  He was also on a computer looking at American clothes.  Then we met up with Tsutomu and Shioli and took the train home.  Yudai and I went to dinner together though, since I won’t see him for and he wanted me to try a new Japanese food.  So we ate at a Monjayaki place, which is like Okonamiyaki, but different.  Basically it’s shredded lettuce, a little red pepper, pork, and I also had mochi (rice…cake?) in there as well.  And basically the table is special because it’s like a cooking surface in the middle of it, and you make it right in front of you.  But I definitely like Okonamiyaki better, it’s one of my favorite foods in Japan.  It’s an Osaka dish, while Monjayaki comes from Tokyo.  So it was good to try a new food.

Back to today, I finished the book I had been reading.  I’m not sure if it’s just lack of English books here or what, but I… could not stop reading.  I was book-starved.  So I read it yesterday some at school and then two hours before I went to bed and then finished it off today by basically reading since 1:45 until 4:45 with some misc stuff imbetween.  That was like a 450 page book too.  Now I have nothing to read.  I also go Macaroni and Cheese for dinner!  Toyooka-sans has bought it at my request at a supermarket that we went to, it was made for foreigners and had a lot of American food!  It was really good!

Then Yudai emailed me saying he had finished his English thing he had today.  But he has it every Saturday until July when he leaves.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Obviously this put me in a very bad mood.  My best friend cannot hang out with me on Saturdays now, and Sundays are open, but it’d be more likely that the Toyooka-sans want to go somewhere, because my host father doesn’t hav work.  Ugh.  Luckily Yudai and are spending tomorrow in Umeda.  I need a new backpack and bag.  Nothing wrong with my old one, but there’s a different style here, and over-the-shoulder backpacks looking exceedingly nerdy, and I’d rather try to fit in.  It’ll be a long trip because I won’t get to see my best friend for a week.  But Singapore will be fun.

But I am really disappointed about Saturdays. Luckily it’s only a 3 hour class, so we can do things around lunch time and dinner time.  Still, very annoying.  EF (his program for going to America) is not getting any points in my eyes.  They are even stricter than Rotary.  Yudai had to take all tests like a normal student, and if he consistently gets bad grades he must go back to Japan.  Not my idea of a fun year.  But I’m sure he’ll have a good time.

 UPDATE: Tomorrow in Umeda, Yudai and I will both be buying the Mega Mac from McDonald’s.  It’s something we agreed upon last week.  It has 4 beef patties in it and it is huge.  Plus I’m going to make him supersize his fries and drink and stuff.  It’ll be fun, I hope I throw up like on Supersize Me.  But this is a new thing in Japan, so of course we have to try it.

Today, students all took tests.  Like I was saying yesterday, mine was hard and in no way related to anything I study.  Whoo.  Not that it actually matters in the long run how I score on it.

But today, a great idea struck me.  I’m in Japan which is the perfect place to film a show!  For YouTube of course.  Some have been done recently, and they’re hilarious.  Really well made too.  God, Inc / Chad Vader / etc…they’re awesome to watch.  So I will be writing my own, hopefully having about 7 minute episodes.  I’m choosing to do a mockumentary about my life in Japan as an exchange student, specifically life in school.  I’ll make the ESS club participate because it’ll be in English.  If you don’t know of a good mockumentary, NBC’s The Office is a perfect example.  That’d be so fun to make.  Tsutomu is awesome at video editing and effects… this is my good idea of the week.  Hopefully I’ll stick with it, it’d be an interesting diversion.

 Other news today, someone sat next to me on the bus.  I don’t feel so lonely anymore.  Although, my new phone says ‘Hello reject’ to me everytime I turn it on.  I can’t edit that, and I have no clue why it says it… Wow.  Insulting phone.

I spent the whole day on YouTube after my test basically.  I have nothing else to do, and they just tell me to go to the computer lab with the Canadian student. Can’t say I mind the break though.  Then went to Japanese class and finished my speech.  Then went home.  Tomorrow I have Rotary meeting, then I’ll dinner out with friends.

So, basically, I just have a series of unrelated notes to make about my life lately and life in Japan.   Not that much has actually happened, besides school starting.  Which is back to life as normal, no more traveling around Osaka.

At school today, one of the major stresses was relieved.  The 5 minute speech I had to prepare for Saturday’s trip to a High School was cancelled with the trip.  Apparently Shiomi-sensei did not submit the application and thus I cannot participate.  This frees Saturday so I can PACK for Singapore, and PACK a box that I need to ship home.  So that also relieved stress from having no time to do anything with.  This is like a God-send, honestly.  I was really stressed out about all the stuff I had to do today.

 I also decided that I’m not going to be sining a Japanese song at Rotary.  I have a Japanese song book of very traditional children’s songs.  That Japanese itself is fairly easy, but actually putting it into lyrics makes it a lot harder.  And honestly, I don’t feel comfortable singing in front of Rotary.  Kawachinagano Rotary is a very nice group of people, but they are very… formal.  If it was a group of adults who were more loose, I’d feel more ok with it, but in front of many old men in business suits, I just can’t do it.  There’s a difference between doing English karaoke with your close friends and … singing in Japanese in front of Rotary.  Plus I have to do a speech anyways in addition to that anyways.

Going along with the Rotary subject, and speeches, sometimes I wonder if they ask too much of students.  I mean, the other foriegn exchange students don’t have to do that.  But they don’t get to go to Tokyo by a plane, or go to Kyoto or those kinds of things either.  In some ways, I guess you have to pay the time to work on things like speeches and such to be able to do those things.  You have to wonder though, who’s having more fun?  Going more places, but having extra stress?  Or hanging out with friends and paying your way to someplace you want to go, with your group’s permission?  Sometimes, I do have to wonder.  I feel a lot of stress coming from Rotary to be a *ultra-good-student*.  Even though they don’t do 24 hour moderation, they just press the rules so much that you feel like one toe out of line and … It definitely is something to think about before becoming a foriegn exchange student though, seeking out a program that fits you.  I chose Rotary because it was well represented in my town, and $3000 less than a program that was shorter and didn’t have as many advantages.  Not saying Rotary Youth Exchange is bad at all, but just musing over thoughts, and I have recieved a surprising number of emails from hopeful exchange students for Japan, so food for thought.

Right now, I’m feeling pretty good because the speech and Saturday plans were cut, and I gave up the song.  (And the song is what prompted thoughts on Rotary.  I was goaded into saying ‘ok’ to sing a song in front of Rotary…but I am just not that brave, and need to work on my Japanese more.)  So one speech and having a full day to pack makes my life SO much easier, and I can feel better about going to Singapore.  Then Sunday I’ll be going to Umeda with Yudai, since I won’t see my best friend for a week.

Last thought is on expectations Japanese students face.  Today in gym we started the long running…which is horrible.  Today I did 20 minutes of straight running, which equates to once around the track and 5 times around the perimeter of the school, which is BIG.  I believe it’s over two miles.  No walking either.  Afterwards, my legs felt better though.  I hadn’t run in awhile.  But we increase the distance over the next two weeks, to make it 3 miles of straight running.  Which we do twice a week.  Seriously, I think CFHS needs this program.  What is a better way to fight the growing problem of American obesity?  I mean, did you ever think students would long for the days of ‘The Mile’?  Make it three and REALLY work them.  Then tomorrow is testing.  Last test to make sure the student can get into the next grade.  In Japan, it’s really not just a give-in, you have to work for it.  Again, I think America could learn from this (half sarcasm).  I have a Japanese test, and possibly take the English tests.  The Japanese test is really not that well thought out though.  Last one was on KANJI.  Do I study kanji in my Japanese class at school? No.  Do I study it in my Japanese class out of school? No.  So why do I have a test on it?  Honestly, it’s not based on anything I actually learn in either class…and in the end it doesn’t affect anything anyways.  I’m lost.  I wouldn’t even mind taking a test…just, please make one that corresponds to what I learn!!

 Basically, if I were an actual Japanese student, I would hate Japanese school.  A lot of customs that are kept because of ‘tradition’ and a teacher yells at the students at every whole-school gathering in the gym.  It’s the kind of thing that would make my political interests flair and I’d have to do something to make the school more student-friendly, and more suited for easier learning.  But, luckily I’m here as an exchange student and I can’t understand most of the stuff, and do not participate in the impossibly high standards Japanese teachers set.  It does, however, show me that America is definitely relaxed, no matter how hard students complain about a certain teacher’s tests.

 Ok, lied, one last thing.  Lately, I have been noticing a LOT of people staring at me, and I don’t know why.  Today at McDonald’s I looked up and a 20-something year old woman was holding her sister/daughter’s head around to look at me.  A second after I look up, she turns her sister/daughter’s head back to the front and hurries to a table and sits down.  Then yesterday at another McDonald’s (healthy eating in Japan? pfft.) a group of young boys kept taking turns glancing at me.  And tonight on the bus, I was the only person who had no one sit next to them.  I was just alone in a two person seat, and there were no more seats left.  Sometimes…you just feel really really different here.

 UPDATE: I just wanted to add that at the moment I’m in a really good mood because of less stress and other factors.  So even though this blog sounded sort of complain-ish (I guess) it doesn’t reflect my mood at the moment.  Just musing and stuff.

Because I am way too lazy to recount all that’s happened, I’ll give some summarized stuff.  It’s why I put off writing a blog, because New Year’s was really really busy and stuff.

- New Year’s Day I went to my host father’s parents house and ate lunch.  Then we did a traditional tea ceremony, in a separate building they have.  Their home is VERY nice.  The next day we went to my host mother’s parents house and ate lunch and dinner, and we also went out for karaoke, and I did some calligraphy.  Through this all, I got to participate in the Japanese custom of money getting, so I actually got a lot of money from different relatives. 

- I also visited Kyoto to go to two different temples.  It was extremely busy, and the streets were absolutely packed.  So, it was fun but way too busy for my tastes.

- Then it was back to normal winter break.  Yudai and I went out for karaoke, which was supposed to be 4 hours.  Which is average I guess for students, 2-4 hour sessions.  Anyways, because of a booking mistake, we actually ended up getting 4 extra hours free…so we stayed for like 7 hours.  I was really tired after that, but it was definitely fun.  We were supposed to go to Osaka for dinner, but then we didn’t really have time.  So we took the train to Tondabyashi to go to an Italian restaurant Yudai had been to.  It was pretty good.  Then we were walking around looking for someplace cool to go, when I saw Joshin!  Which is where I wanted to go to in Osaka.  I was a bit too preoccupied with the thought of going there, and stepped off the road and into the cement water-trench that lines the road, and it’s about a foot deep.  And had some water in it.  So I scraped up my hand trying to catch myself, and managed to soak the knee of my pants.  Luckily, Joshin has a bathroom and I cleaned up stuff as well as I could.  Then Joshin closed, before I actually got to look at anything.  It was only 8, but Japan closes really early.  So, we walked back to the station and got on the train back.  Before it left though, I realized…my phone was gone.  Somewhere it had gotten out of my pants pocket.  Logically, we assumed it had fallen out when I fell in the trench thing.  We walked all the way back…but it wasn’t there.  Yudai tried calling it, but it said it was off, which was a really bad sign.  Because it had been on.  So as we walked to Joshin, I saw something white lying…on the train tracks.  Apparently it had fallen out right as we crossed the train tracks.  And, as luck would have it, fell right on the actual track, not imbetween them.  And…getting even luckier now, a train (or three?) had gone on that track while we were walking to Joshin and back to the station.  So, my cellphone was THOROUGHLY crushed.  And, as we were walking back, I realized…that it was only half the phone.  Yes, I found the upper half, and it had been ripped apart at the hinge.  Of course, we had to go back and see if we could find the other half.  Nope.  Gone.  I have no idea where half my cellphone is.  Not that we could’ve put it back together or anything.  I have pictures!!

It was prepaid, and the major inconvience was no email, and calls were extremely expensive.  At least all the minutes had been used up.

- Went to Bowling / Karoake / Volleyball / Dinner with ESS Club two days ago, which was really fun.  We all enjoyed seeing each other, and it was an all around good time.  Plus, I hadn’t been bowling since leaving the US.  Basically same as American bowling.  Then yesterday I went out to Namba with Yudai and we had a great time just walking around, went to Wendy’s for lunch, Starbucks for a snack, and Shakey’s for dinner again.   I love the Shakey’s buffet.

- Today I got a new cellphone with an actual monthly plan, after jumping through a lot of hoops.  Terribly expensive, but such is life, and now I have unlimited emailing and use of Japanese mobile-web service.  (But, believe me, I’m paying for it)  I only have like 25 minutes a month, but I don’t actually use calling except to host parents.  Teenagers all use email here.  If you go on a bus or train, 70% of people have their cellphones out and they’re doing something other than talking on them.  I also had lunch out at a really good spagehtti restaurant.  My phone’s half an MP3 player, so it’s got 1 GB of space and is supposed to play for 30 hours straight of music.  Hard to believe you could get that out of the battery, I doubt it.  Anyways, it’s made by Sony and is branded by the Walkman logo.  Good phone, and it’s the sliding kind, which I like.  Picture BUT I have black with gold, not pink with silver.  Although Shiori (in ESS Club) has the pink one:

So school starts Tuesday, but it’s just a four hour day.  Then even more tests.  Tomorrow I’ll be going to Yudai’s house, because I need help writing a speech for visiting a school.  Ugh.  Plus I need to write a second for Rotary, and practice singing a Japanese song.

And I got a new video blog up, and you can see it here.  Turned out better than the last ones in my opinion.

 My host father leaves for America on Tuesday!  He’ll be there one week.  Then a week from Tuesday, I leave for Singapore for a week!  Whoo!