Ok, sorry, I have updated in a long while.

I went to Wakayama with my host parents for a day, that was fun. I am now a 3rd grader (senior) at Nagano High school. I’ve hung out with friends a lot. I’m going to Kobe for todays, tomorrow and Friday.

Wakayama was really fun! It was super cold, and snowing harder than I had ever seen in Japan. We saw a lot of temples and old Japanese culture. There were also a lot of funny things that happened. Anyways, it was a really enjoyable time for me, even though it was like a two and a half hour drive to get there!!

Right now, I’m on spring break. that lasts until the 9th of April, then I start school in the next grade. Japan works a bit different though, because the teachers move with the students. So I’m expecting a pretty seamless switch, besides being on the second floor, not the third, of Nagano High School. I also really want to improve my Japanese more and stuff.

During break, I’ve hung out a lot with friends and stuff. Karaoke, sight seeing, zoo, etc etc. It’s been really fun. A new foreign exchange student came, and I’m hoping to meet him next week and do something with him. A lot of my friends have already met him and stuff. Seems nice. From what I’ve heard, he’s like…really into Japan. More so than me. Anyways, today I went to the zoo. And that was really fun, then I tried to find a sushi place I had gone with Toyookasans, but couldn’t, so had to go to a different place and got home late. That sucks, because I’m so tired right now… Next week I also hope to get together with Fumiya and Tatsuya, so hopefully that will work out.

And I’ll be going to Kobe tomorrow to see Naval ships. Or something. With the head of my Rotary district. He’s part of KawachiNagano Rotary, which hosts me. I’m not sure exactly why he wanted to go with me, but, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing … maybe sight seeing. I’ll post how it went when I come back, and what I did and stuff.

Sorry for not updating so long!

~ Paul

My stay with the Toyookasans has been lengthened by a month at least, and up to two months!! Yay! I’m super happy, because I really love it here, and I didn’t want to leave April 1st, so this is very good news for me!

Apparently Rotary wants me to have 4 host families, but they can only find 3…so the Toyookasans are hosting me longer. They’re really nice, and it’s great staying here! Even without wireless internet for my laptop!

And tomorrow I must go to ESS and finish what we need to finish on the movie.

So yeah. Not much happening lately. Been on a week break, that ends Thursday. Then starts our 3 week Spring Break. After that, I move up to be a ‘Senior’ at school. It’s nice to be in Japan. Lots of time off at the moment! Of course, no snow days.

I spent most of this week hanging out with Yudai, which was fun. Today and yesterday though I just stayed home and did like nothing, which wasn’t really fun.

Yes, I am.

Now… yesterday I got to go to a movie and went to the mall with my friend. But it’s like really far away, so we hardly ever go… but we saw Ghost Rider. Which was ok, but not like the best movie. Not really any good movies in theatres right now, but the mall has like a brand new place, so we wanted to see how it compared to Osaka. Plus we got Starbucks and stuff, so it was pretty fun.

Today I went over to Yudai’s house and helped him with English homework. Yeah, that was fun. We also played PS2 for awhile, but he’s selling it soon, because he doesn’t really like videogames and wants money for America. He’s crazy.

Tomorrow I’m going karaoke with some friends. It’ll be fun.

And yeah, even though none of you noticed, this is actually on a new server, because I changed hosts. So thats all finished and I’m really glad. In closing, I’d like to mention that Bill O’Reilly should be taken off air. I’m getting so sick of his unbalanced conservative agenda that’s backed with misinformation. Just like when he claimed that Americans massacred a town in WW2, when the Nazis actually massacred American POWs. He completely disgraced our dead war heros. And folks, that’s just *one* example out of many. That’s my political thought for the day.

This weekend I will be going to Tokyo, because my host family is extremely nice and decided to take me! They told me at the end of December, so I’ve been eagerly waiting to go. We’re taking a plane on Saturday and then staying Saturday and Sunday!! Whooo! The plane ride is only like 45 minutes to Tokyo, it’s like driving to St. Paul or something from my hometown, nothing bad at all. Less hassle at the airport even because it’s a domestic flight, but I still think the airport is a big time waster in the end… So many lines to get through, and waiting, and getting there early… etc etc. But at least it’s not the 6 hours to Singapore.

ESS Club finally finished the movie. It’s horrible. Since people kept messing around, we basically ran out of time and had to wrap it up…when we were only like halfway through the script. So half the action never really takes place, and someone just ‘wins’ the game. How exciting. The best part is the end, where we put down the game and got Yudai’s homeroom teacher to play along and pick it up and walk away. But he mutters two things in Japanese that are hilarious. It’s nothing English speakers would find particularly funny, but Japanese people have a different sense of humour.

Tonight ‘Identity’ was on TV. Luckily it was bilingual so I turned on the little TV and watched it in my native tongue. I found it a fairly engrossing movie, and watched it all…although I had planned to turn it off midway through because I’m tired at the moment. The English option is not censored, so there were a bunch of ‘F’ words coming out of the TV. And, of course, the rest of my family didn’t bat an eyelash, it’s kind of weird. I enjoyed the twist, because I had read a true biography about a similar REAL person who had committed a murder…or murders, I forgot the body count. I found the real case a bit disturbing though, and put it back to head back for fiction.

Lately all I’ve been reading has been about murders and crime mystery. The Patricia Cornwell books that T-kun left have all been read by me now. The main character is a Medical Examiner, so those were all about taking bodies back to the morgue and stuff. Now I’m on to Ed McBain books, which are mostly about violent murders that Police Detectives solve. I think the latter author likes stabbings. It seems to be the most common type of homocide. Both authors also have excellent research though, so it’s engrossing to read. And, just in case I want to read something other than bloody murders, Nagano High School has a book entitled ‘Tales of Erotic Horror’. I honestly wonder what foreign teacher left that. Thanks (not). But seriously, the selection at my school is basically all murder mysteries, romance, nonfiction, or translated Japanese to English books. I miss Stephen King.

Yeah, I’ve been pretty busy lately…so I haven’t updated. Sorry. My video with Yudai got an overwhelmingly good response on YouTube, and got me a lot more subscribers so that was good. And a bunch more people emailed me.

I’m just excited to go to Tokyo at the moment though!

And next week is testing for Japanese students, so each day starting Wednesday is only 2 hours long! Monday is 4 hours, and Tuesday is off…so definitely going to be nice.

I might update my blog tomorrow, depending on how interesting my day is, otherwise I’ll do a full update about my second trip to Tokyo. And PICTURES! FINALLY! So you can expect those on Monday or Tuesday.

Ok, so the ESS Club movie is going horribly. Honestly. It’s so slow getting done. We mess around a lot, and if I try to be serious, then everyone gets mad at me. So…I think it may never get finished, but at the moment, I’m getting pretty tired of typing up the script, so yeah.

As far as school goes, the year is just getting closer and closer to ending. I can’t wait for the two week break between grades. This weekend I’m doing like nothing. Going to study with Yudai on Sunday though, because he wants my help on English. Saturday I’m just going to sleep all day long. I’m so tired right now, moreso than usual… uh.

And, that last video I did seemed to go over better than I thought it would. It has garnered 156 views since Monday night when I put it up, which is much faster than blog #3 did. I also got comments like ‘You’re a really cool American’, so obviously, I’m happy. ESS Club also found the video and watched it (without me knowing). The next day, they promptly informed me that I look much cooler when I’m not at school. Thanks, I think. Ben, the foreign teacher from Texas, also watched it by just stumbling upon it 3 days ago. Sometimes I forget that it’s not just Americans who will be watching the video. Haha.

Yudai’s state is WISCONSIN! And the person who is handling finding him host parents is in MINDORO! (Near to La Crosse!) Mindoro is only 2 hours away from my house.

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

I am so unbelievably happy! My best friend is going to stay in the next state over!! Same time zone and everything! Out of a RANDOM PLACEMENT in the 48 continental states, Yudai gets a STATE that is right next to mine. And Mindoro is right next to the BORDER.

God…really must love me.

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.

I’m a little disappointed. I have a Rotary function to attend with all the foriegn exchange students over here, which normally would be a blast, but it’s the 8th, and an overnight to the 9th. Implications? My birthday just got sucked up with an orientation.

I already had plans to go with my friends to Abenoboshi for a movie, and now I’ll have to change it to Saturday if they’re open for it. Then I had REALLY wanted to get to talk with my Grandmother near to my birthday, but that will have to most likely be moved to Saturday – me, and Friday – her time. One of my *biggest* pet peeves is schedule switching. I make plans. I want to keep plans. The world is in harmony. Even if it works out to my benefit, I’m usually not happy with change.

Besides my complaing about timing, I’ve been semi-interested with this new Republican scandal. I’ve officially cut all ties I have with that party [none, only psychological]. I’m now a consertive Independent. One of my projects for my senior year is to build my own party. Not worrying about that at the moment though, still working on an appropriate name.

So, I finally found something to entertain myself during classes I can’t understand: BranchFS, Branch Forum System. I’ve been actively reading my my PHP/MySQL book (half through! wow!) and I’m going to try my hand at the actual use of it. A big undertaking, but I need some experience before I jump into the other YouTube-ish Japanese site I want to start. This is a good testing ground. Time consuming, but possibly very interesting and definitely a learning experience. Hope it goes well, first I’d like to finish that book though. Only 300 some pages left.

Tomorrow I’ve got a fun subject to talk about. Yay. It’ll be a surprise for you.

Yes, I can hardly believe.  Today marks the one-month anniversary that I stepped into a plane bound for Michigan, leaving my family and friends to adventure into a country that spoke in a foriegn tongue and promised a different experience than my life in the US.  Was it worth it?  To me, it seems silly to even ask that question, because it was totally and completely, but of course you all don’t get to view my thoughts.  So I had to write that down.  I don’t regret joining the Rotary Exchange Program *at all*.  Everyday I learn more Japanese, get to wake up in Japan, go to a Japanese High School, meet new people…it’s all so worth it.  Ok, my little ode to being here a month is over.  I’m just very happy to be here, and thank God that he gave me a chance to be here.

Ok, so a bit of US-related news.  You all should be familiar with the new film “Jesus Camp” by now, and if you aren’t, Google it.  I find this very very interesting.  Half because I was interested in the subject of Pentacostal worship in the first place, but also just the film itself and the footage they have there.  Do I think they went overboard?  A little, but not by much.  I think during the ’70s and the whole “Freedom” theme with the Hippies, it pushed the US wildly Liberal as compared with the generations that led up to that.  Is the pendulum finally swinging back to a much more Conservative era for us?  I certainly wouldn’t mind more support in my home country, it’s getting to be too many people with empty words and no conviction or faith in my opinion.  Churches have become too afraid to do anything for fear of sparking political controversy, such as this film and Camp have been getting.  It’s about time someone riled up the youngsters for God though, honestly.  Let’s get some things right with kids.  As long as they’re not suicide bombers, it’ll probably been good for our society if they hold onto their moral beliefs.

I’m very interested in your comments, so send me an email to read about your thoughts on the film if you’re bored, can’t say I can reply, but I really want other people’s input on it, or thoughts on my thoughts.  Click the “Email” link at the top…or use paul.php -at- gmail.com, but replace ” -at- ” with @.  Just spam-guarding.
Ok, so next political World Event: Thailand Coup.  Some of you may not know that the same day I arrived at the airport for the Makis to pick up, that very morning their son had gone to Thailand through Rotary for his year abroad.  I am praying for Masafumi…I know if Japan had something similar, I’d be scared to death.  So basically send his prayers out for him in Thailand.  THANK GOD that his was a bloodless Coup AND that this new military values the input of students and actively encourage them to give them ideas.  It makes me think that this may be good for Thailand if they can set up a Democracy like they said they would.

Yes, I keep up on the news a lot here.

So, anything else to add on here?  Not really.  Finishing my PHP/MySQL book as fast as I can for my coming project.  Also going to buy that webcam next month hopefully so I can get a nice “Video Blog” up to outline my stay in Japan and record daily events and stuff.

Oh, I suppose I’ll mention some funny swearing stuff in Japan.  My little brother [12] says the “s” word a lot, which I find hilarious.  It doesn’t mean much here, as you can say the Japanese equivelent [kuso] and not get in trouble at all.  They don’t take foul language as seriously as we do, and I’d say we weight it too much.  My Japanese teacher was telling me all the swear words his foriegner friend had taught him, and the best was probably “Get the ‘f’ out of the way!”.   You won’t realize how funny it is until you  hear Japanese pronunciations, and the fact that they absolutely don’t care about saying it.  One of my friends said the ‘f’ word on the train the other day and no one even flinched.  I was like “Ah! What are you doing!?” and stuff, and she’s just like “What? No one knows what it means!”.  Foiled by logic.  It’s just a … weird experience to hear that.

Japanese class is also going really well, especially now that I have Japanese 4 out of 5 school days.  I’m definitely picking up the language, I’m guessing by the middle of November I can have a really good handle on the daily conversations if I work hard.

Time to sleep, very tired, good night everyone! [Actually it's good morning for you all, but, have a good Wednesday as I sleep into Thursday!]