I have a whole new set of stuff to do now, speeches for Rotary on Friday and Sunday and now ESS Club is doing a movie and I’m writing the script for the 10 minute production.  The writing shouldn’t be too hard, but ESS members can’t decide on a story…and it’s basically a frusterating situation.  Yudai left early because he was feeling really sick, and I went with him just because the hour trip is really boring alone…I’ve had to do it after Japanese Class, and thought it’d be nice as his best friend.  He’ll probably be in school tomorrow even though he’ll still be sick because Japanese students, well, don’t like to miss school I guess.  Personally, I have only been sick twice so far, and don’t know how someone can make it through the school day like that.  The halfday that I did go to school and was sick for was not fun at all.

CostCo last Sunday was really fun.  It was like stepping in Sam’s Club back in Minnesota, and we even had the pizza for lunch!  It was really delicious.  And American pizza…wow I miss that.  Bought some butterfingers, pretzels, and swiss miss.  Just assortment of stuff that looked good that wasn’t too expensive.

We’ve been running in gym lately, like I may have mentioned, and finally we worked up to the 5 kilometer run today which was NOT fun.  I got 26:45 on it, which is average.  I beat both my best friends in my class though, so I was pleased.  Although I could definitely improve…  Last week we did something similar to just a mile, and I should be able to run it in about 5:45-6:00 when I get back to the States.  I guess Japanese gym pays off.

I was watching a REALLY funny TV show tonight with Toyookasans.  The contests had to pick up beans with their chopsticks before it went into the next persons area (on a converbelt) but if one fell out of the box, you also lost.   If you didn’t pick up one, this Japanese guy in a showgirl-ish drag outfit (with a feathery wig) would stick beans in his nose and then shoot them into your mouth.  It was absolutely hilarious…and disgusting.  Two other guys would hold the contests mouth open.  It was really really funny!  The same guy did it twice and everyone on the show was laughing too.  Then the last one was an apple slice they had to pick up…and that same guy got it to his mouth, then it slipped out.  And the other guy in drag comes out, grabs an apple slice and puts it all in his mouth.  Then he puts it so it’s half in his mouth and half out, and puts it in the other guys mouth while still holding on.  He did it for like 5 seconds at least and after…the guy contestant had lipstick on his lips and the apple in his mouth.  Japanese TV is absolutely crazy….but hilarious.  Then there was a sketch like you’d see on MadTV or SNL followed by a competition where two girls faced off, and the really badly dressed one got to pick a piece of clothing to swap from the rich girl (who was only half Japanese).  Of course, the full Japanese badly dressed girl won all of them and they basically changed outfits.  It was a funny TV show.  And usually I don’t like Japanese TV.

Also, lately I’ve been really into reading Patricia Cornwell books.  The Finnish exchange student left after Singapore and donated his books to Nagano High school, so I have them to read.  It’s basically CSI in book form, but with better plots and stuff.  And the main character works in a morgue so the focus is more there than out on the scene, besides the beginning.  And it’s usually about serial killers.  Kind of graphic…but I actually think it’s by a  Christian author, a lot of the books have a related Bible verse out in front.  But the research behind the novels is really solid, which is why I’ve gotten into them.  Pretty good reads, the first of the series is Postmortem.

 That’s all for now I guess.