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!