Yes, apparently these are the greatest concerns of the moment in my life. 9_9 Don't bother answering the question; it was basically rhetorical, and I'll probably just delete the fake entry after enough time has passed for the people who had commented earlier to forget that they had commented, and thus not realize that their comments had been deleted. ;o

Anyway! Today David and I took a field trip!

TO THE POLICE STATION!!!

So, there are these two bikes that are always outside our dorm. Hibino-san, my landlord and the priestess of Kayadera Temple, gave us the keys to them at the beginning of the year. Apparently the bikes are registered under the temple's name.

Today, I had plans to go meet up with some people in Akihabara. David was over at my place already so I suggested that we ride the bikes over, 'cos it'll be faster. So we do that, but like, 10 minutes into the ride we pass a Police Box, and one of the policemen stopped David to check his registration--pretty standard procedure, what with being gaijin and all. Of course I stop next to David as well, which was when the policeman realized that I too was a foreigner.

So we both had to show our registration and stuff, but then he asked us whom our bikes belonged to, to which I replied that both were borrowed from the Kayadera dorm which I stay at. He said he just wants to check our bicycle registration real quick, so he rang up headquarters and read to them the license numbers.

...aaaand it turned out that NEITHER of the bikes were registered under Kayadera?!

The policeman kindly told us that it's cold outside so please! Just come into the police box and take a seat, it won't be long at all! As soon as I sat down I quickly called the temple, and Hibino-san's sister Megumi-san picked up. After explaining to her our situation, she asked to talk to the policemen, and she explained to them that the bikes are registered under somebody else's name because they were donated to the temple by them. Okay! No problem!

Except for the fact that, um, only ONE of the bikes was registered under the person's name she gave, while the OTHER bike--that is, the blue bike I was riding--was registered under somebody completely unrelated! And not only that, after they did a check on that bike, it apparently showed up that it had been reported as missing years ago!?

After Megumi-san first got my call, she had her sister drive over to clear things up, so Hibino-san soon arrived outside the police box to save our asses. But then the cops tell her about who the other bike was registered under, and she was like, "...EH??" So she was there dialing back to the temple asking if anybody knows what the crap was going on and who this other guy was whose name was listed as the owner of the blue bike, while David and I were just sitting there half rolling our eyes and half laughing on the inside at our situation.

But when the police van came to pick up the bike to take back to Headquarters ALONG WITH DAVID AND ME... well, either our inner laughter got even louder, or it got shut up right there. I'm really not sure which it was.

So we were taken to the Police Station in the police van with the bikes, Hibino-sensei following behind us. And then after we got there, they put me and David into separate rooms for QUESTIONING. Which mostly consisted of them just asking me where I was from or what school I go to, and then them stepping out of the room to discuss amongst one another while I text people on my phone being all "lol I got arrested."

It wasn't until one of the cops brought a certain form into my room that the situation's true degree of WTF hit me. I gathered that it was something they wanted me to fill out and sign, but Hibino-san was in the room with me, and as soon as she got a single look at the form, she turned livid (well, as livid as Hibino-san could get) and snatched the paper from the policeman, exclaiming, "WHAT IS THIS?!"

The cop insisted that it wasn't a big deal and "Don't worry about it, give it back," trying to pry the piece of paper from her hands, but Hibino-san refused to loose of her grip, and somewhere down the line she stated to them that "I AM NOT HAVING HIM SIGN THIS." She further went on to say that David and I have nothing to do with the bike since we couldn't possibly have known that it didn't belong to the temple since SHE's just discovering this fact herself, and since we were just riding it, SHE should be the only one who should T-TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT, and stuff??

S-so the policemen talked amongst themselves for a bit more, and finally they brought her back a different form for her to fill out, all the while Hibino-san reconfirming that I won't be signing anything there at the station. After they gave her a definite answer, she calmed down a little, and a different cop asked the both of us some general information such as our name, height, weight, blood type, shoe size?, and a description of what we were wearing...?

After that was done, I asked Hibino-san for a little bit of clarification, and she responded that she thinks the bicycle that was reported as missing is probably the work of a student from some years ago who must've mistook the bicycle as the temple's property, since it turns out the bicycle belongs to somebody who lives in the neighbourhood so it's possible that the bike was left in front of the dormitory building. She also briefly went on to say that "they gave me the wrong form and I got really angry" in English, but before she could elaborate, the policemen let us out of the HQ, albeit one bike short, two and a half hours after this whole incident began.

Hibino-san drove David back to the dorm while I followed on the remaining bike. After we met up again and Hibino-san went back to the temple, David told me Hibino-san had told him in the car that the form they originally wanted me to sign was a confession of theft.

asjdlk;fdafha;fjkla

I-I don't know what the second form they brought Hibino-san was after the whole hoo-hah concerning the first form, b-but um. Th-there were, uh, FINGERPRINTS involved, and uhjjaskdl;fj jalsd;kf;jda

OH MY JESUS CHRIST I THINK GOT THE PRIESTESS ENTERED INTO THE CRIMINAL RECORDS JLSK;JFSDAK;FDAHK;FJDLSFAFDJAF

I need a break from winter vacation. :(

In spite of this, every English lesson with Hisashi-san, save for one, have been accompanied by a whole banquet prepared for me by their maid. In addition to the first feast the temple family treated me when I moved in, during our first tutoring session, I was treated to dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant on the top floor of the Yodobashi Akiba building (a ginormous electronics department store in Akihabara where I spend at least three hours browsing every time I happen to be in the area). After that, there was also sukiyaki, oden, BEEF, assortments of other Japanese dishes, t-tacos...? Clearly they seem to be paying me to live here.

Recently, Hisashi-san asked me if I would like another tutoring job; this time with his little brother, Namioka Shinzou--also a dentist--along with a friend of his. The difference, however, is that for this job, I am to be paid in cash. 8)

So far we've only had two lessons though; the first lesson was a little rough, since I was gauging Shinzou-san's English abilities (...um...not quite on par with his brother's >_>), and also at being kind of taken aback by the fact that his friend turned out to be a 20-something ladyfriend (whereas Shinzou-san looks to be in his 40's), and gauging her English abilities as well. The week following that, Shinzou was sick so that lesson was cancelled; and then the following week's absence I had already detailed in a previous entry.

Consequently, for this week's lesson, I had arrived early by half an hour and called Shinzou-san to confirm our meeting location. When it came time for the lesson though, I received another call from him telling me to go to this cafe, sit down and order a drink while I wait for them to show up. I followed his instructions up to the point where I was supposed to enter the cafe; it was some nice-ass place inside a hotel in Shibuya, and I felt awkward sitting in there on my own, especially considering I was wearing, like, lame cargo pants with a hooded sweatshirt. 6_6 So I sat on the lounge chairs outside and waited.

But 20 minutes went by and still no sight of him or his girlfriend. Another 10 minutes and I started getting paranoid. Like, what if this was all some sort of passive-aggressive revenge? Like, maybe because I sucked at teaching them English, and then had them wait 40 minutes for me last week to NOT SHOW UP, they decided, "Ha ha, wouldn't it be funny if we had him go into the super-expensive cafe and never show up LIKE HOW HE DID TO US LAST WEEK, and force him to pay for his drink himself??" I was just about to pat myself on the back for not following through with entering the cafe when Shinzou-san's girlfriend Sayaka-san finally arrived, with Shinzou-san following shortly after. Turns out they were buying new cell phones. ;o

So the lesson went fine. They had bought textbooks, but I needed some time to look through it, so we just did what I normally do with Hisashi-san; that is, we talked, and I taught them new vocabulary and phrases where appropriate. They treated me to a hot cup of milk that cost 850 yen (like I said, some nice-ass place in Shibuya), and afterwards Shinzou-san paid me the usual fee, even though I had feverishly tried to decline it this time to make up for not showing up last week.

I suppose I shouldn't be too self-conscious about my English teaching ability. I mean, there was a reason why Hisashi-san referred his brother to me, and not my flatmate, right? Like, I must be doing something right in my English lessons, right?? B-but still, I don't know if how I'm teaching them English now is actually effective or not, and at this point I really have no way of knowing either...?

Well.

BASICALLY.

IT'S A GOOD THING THAT I'LL BE GETTING PROFESSIONAL TRAINING TO BECOME A PROPER ENGLISH TEACHER.

SINCE I GOT HIRED BY GABA AFTER MY SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THEM ON TUESDAY, AND ALL.

In case you were worried that I went out and got smashed in order to ESCAPE THE TROUBLES OF MY LIFE FULL OF MISFORTUNES yesterday, fear not; that last photo in the previous entry was from, like, a month ago, from one of our CSU monthly group dinners, the first two of which have been at izakaya, or Japanese drinking restaurants. Generally these nomikai are all-you-can-drink, so at the time I figured, well, if I'm GOING to be drinking here in Japan I may as well take the opportunity to try out different drinks so I know WHICH drinks I should order if I were to ever actually pay for the drinks (the group dinners are already paid for out of our study abroad tuition). But um.

...I-I guess I should confess that I totally threw up probably 10 minutes after that photo was taken. 8D() I don't think it was because of drinking too much per se though; I basically had been half-starving the whole week prior to that nomikai, and then the nomikai hit and I basically travelled to everybody's tables hoarding these GLORIOUS FRIED CHEESE BALLS to myself. So I think I probably threw up moreso because my stomach was simply holding too much STUFF inside than because I had too much alcohol specifically...?

...I-I guess I should also confess that, when I threw up, I accidentally did it, um, all over the toilet. ...in the stall of the girl's bathroom lolololol THE DOORS WERE LABELED FUNNY IT WASN'T THE NORMAL MALE/FEMALE KANJI AND THERE WEREN'T THE TRADITIONAL STICK FIGURES EITHER AND AND AND yeah I didn't realize this until after I cleaned up the toilet, stepped outside and a woman was like standing there waiting, and then looking at me with a...what was that expression she wore? Well, with a look. And yeah. I sumimasen'd myself out of there real quick. 9_9

So um. No, I don't drink very often here.

For reals.

And I totally didn't get drunk off my ass last night either.

...Unless you count being drunk off POKEMON!!!!!!

Incidentally, here are the Pokemon that will go in my final team:

Team 1: Crobat, Lanturn, Scizor, Houndoom, Breloom, Flygon

Team 2: Fuwaraido, Kaburaisu, Dorapion, Yukinooo, Jibakoiru, Erureido

Okay, so I got indecisive so I made two main teams instead. >( (I also have some other teams planned out, such as a Single-Type Team where every Pokemon is only of a single type, since my current two teams are all dual-type Pokemon; and another team of water Pokemon, plus yet another one of Genderless Pokemon.)

The thing is, I don't think I'll be able to, like, actually catch half of these Pokemon until after I complete the Shinou Pokedex?? D; Well, whatever; mom's sending me my Leaf Green and Emerald, so hopefully I'll get to transfer my some of the Pokemon I have on there over. 8) NO! I have to complete the Shinou Pokedex to transfer Pokemon from those games too!! ARGH!!

Okay, well, here's the team I'll have when I first fight the Elite Four, I guess, >(:

Team TEMPORARY: Dotaitosu, Golduck, Crobat, Rapidash, Lukario, Rentoraa

Ohhh my Jesus, after writing my entry yesterday I totally had PLANS to write about all the FUN and EXCITING things I've been doing here in Japan the past month and a half, but then GOD SHAT ON ME and so I'll write about THAT instead??? T__T

So today was the day that I go to this Info Session for a English Conversation Teaching company, GABA. I was referred to it by our program associate so I figured I may as well, since I'm doing two private English tutoring sessions a week anyway and going to a professional company for this might offer me some, like, real training so that I don't give sucky lessons?? Right, well, IN ANY CASE, I couldn't find the office. Because I made a wrong turn out of the station. And I ended up running around the neighborhood for like 10 minutes trying to find the goddamn place, and it wasn't until three minutes past the time the info session started that I found it, which I'm lead to believe is kind of really horrible, especially since I SWEATED FOR LIKE FIVE MINUTES AFTER I GOT IN AND SAT DOWN AND SHARED MY GROSSNESS WITH THE WHOLE TABLE. ARRRRGHHH ::rips things into little tiny pieces::

They scheduled a second interview for me and shit, but um, I-I don't think that will make a whole lot of difference after today's embarrassment. 8( Not to mention I was late for my class this morning before the info session, and then I had to sneak out of it 15 minutes earlier to try to make it on time to the info session (WHICH I OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T LAWL), and then after the info session I had another class but I didn't have the supplies for it with me so I DIDN'T GO TO THAT CLASS AT ALL and instead went back home to nap, nap, NAP RIGHT UP TO 15 MINUTES BEFORE ONE OF MY ENGLISH LESSONS THAT HAPPENS TO BE IN SHIBUYA WHICH BTW IS 50 MINUTES AWAY BY TRAIN LOLOLOL so I called the guy all "ya sry will be 30 minutes late" but then I was like two minutes away from Shibuya when he called me (SINCE IT WAS 40 MINUTES LATE BY THEN) saying that he has an appointment later so this week's lesson will have to be cancelled!! So I figured I'll just stay on the train and ride back to my station and I won't have to pay any extra fare since I never got out of the the train righht?? But then my Suica card WOULDN'T WORK when I tried to exit the turnstiles so I asked the train attendant and (FUCK MY HONESTY) told him I had gone to Shibuya but came right back, and he was like "OH, you went to Shibuya, did you?? THAT'S 250 FUCKING YEN I'M GOING TO CHARGE YOU FOR THAT TRIP." OH YEAH, AND LET'S NOT FORGET THE SUIT I BOUGHT ON MONDAY SPECIFICALLY FOR THE INFO SESSION, WHICH I FAILED.

FUCK ME!!!!!

ALCOHOL MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER!!!!!!!

::slits wrists, by which he means plays Pokemon:: >(

Eh! I guess we'll pick off where I left off two entries ago, where the second point I mentioned I would bring up in the near future was my close encounter with the Japanese popos:

This may appear to be just a casual photo of me on my mama-chari (apparently short for Mama-Chariot, which refers to the bicycles here with the baskets attached at the front), happily gliding away, hair blowing back in the wind, not a care in the world. But, if you'll look closer, specifically in the area just over my right shoulder, you'll notice a certain vehicle that appears to be sporting a set of bright...red...sirens...?

...Soon after, we were blasted with a megaphone something to the extent of "Please pull over to the side of the road" in Japanese. Of course, we'd get pulled over; David was swerving halfway into the middle of the street as he haphazardly tried to take a photo of me, obviously not paying any attention to where he was riding his bike into. Rolls eyes!

But then Mr. Omawari got out of his car. And went straight to me. And then said something along the lines of "HAY YOU, YOU SHOULDN'T RIDE YOUR BIKE WITHOUT YOUR FEET ON THE PEDALS!! IT'S DANGEROUS DESU YO!!!"

...Well, sure enough, as you can see back in Exhibit A, I certainly didn't have my feet on my pedals. You know why?? Because we were going downhill. And you don't need to be pedalling when you're going downhill. Because if you tried to pedal while going downhill, you'll sooner get your face planted into the back of a truck. +_+

So, we had been warned previously that police here are notorious for pulling aside gaijin and asking to see if they've got their registration on them. But not even giving any mind to the very obviously not-Japanese David, who already had his Waseda ID card out to show the cop, he proceeded to drill me with questions about myself, my bike, my place of residence. Eventually he asked to see my registration card, which I don't think I had at the time so I showed him my passport instead.

It wasn't until after he scrutinized it for a few moments while asking me more irrelevant questions that I finally thought to show him my Waseda ID card as well. After which it seemed like a lightbulb clicked in his head, and he let us off.

::punches Tokyo in the face::

I realize that I wrote this as if I'm actually spiteful of the Japanese cops, but really, the same day I think I ended up running into, like, four more of them, and more than half of the time they were rather helpful; I had rode my bike to Waseda from by apartment near Ueno, which took three hours getting there because I kept getting lost, so on the way back I had to ask a cop at a kouban for directions; the trip back ended up taking only 50 minutes. Shrug! You win some, you lose some. ;o

So, the third week of class is starting at Waseda. In addition to the required Japanese language course, I'm also taking Cultural Anthropology and the Practicum in Japanese Arts. During the first day of Cultural Anthropology, the professor used the typical scare tactic of acting like a short-tempered tyrant, which managed to effectively cut the class size down by half. Last Wednesday when I took her class, she seemed to be in quite a jolly mood, and I think she might have even smiled...? As for the Practicum in Japanese Arts goes, I wasn't originally planning on taking an art class while I was here; this year was going to be my break from six-hour studio classes that always managed to sufficiently drain me every semester I took them at Calstate. However, as it turns out, the class is only about 30% studio work; the rest of the time is spent going on field trips. When we finally do start our studio work, I'll be taking woodblock print class, which is probably just about as stereotypically Japanese Art as you can get, but heck, why not?

There are six levels of Japanese language classes in Waseda's School of International Liberal Studies, and for some reason I managed to slip into the level 5 class. Of course, it's a little difficult for me as I was wholly expecting to place in level 3, 4 if I was lucky, but this is just fine since I guess I should probably put a little more effort into studying the language now that I'm here for the next year. However, this past Friday one of my Japanese teachers (the one focusing on vocabulary and listening comprehension) asked me during our break in class whether I thought the class was too difficult, and if I would like to move down...? Granted the kanji quiz from the first week weren't too hot, but I did perfectly fine on the tests this week, especially on the vocab tests from this specific teacher which I know she graded already, so I'm a little miffed that she asked me this. :\

Before Waseda classes started, the CSU group had gone on our first daytrip together to Narai and Matsumoto Castle up in Nagano prefecture, about three hours away from Shinjuku by bus. My camera was running low on battery so I only got a few photos of Narai, but my cell phone managed to catch a few more of Matsumoto. While I can't say I was all too greatly affected by the trip considering that it was all pretty formulaic as far as visiting old places in Japan goes, I do get to accept the honor of being CSU's first Japan study abroad incident.

That is, I hit my head underneath a bridge after carelessly standing up too fast. And after curling into a foetal position and being laughed at for a few minutes, I took my hand off my head to find it soaked in blood. 8D

Of course, the other students in the class were all like "holy shit"; David may or may not have felt bad about having snapped those photos of my agony from earlier; and the Resident Director Dr. Shek, a usually cheerful and petit man of good humour, quickly changed his mood as he muttered a solemn "Oh my." At first I didn't think it was a big deal since, despite the blood, it hurt just as much as any other time I've ever hit my head. But, after being repeatedly warned not to fall asleep in case I had a concussion, I started to worry just a little...?

Long story short, the periodic snaps of camera phones going off behind me from the Japanese students trying to take a picture of the band-aid that was sloppily applied by Takako (the program associate who has been working with the CSU International Program for 20-some years, who had suggested shaving my head for the band-aid to hold a little better) as they exclaimed how "kawaii" I looked in my pitiful and injured state served as a good enough hint that I most likely was going to survive if I decided to take a nap after all. (Which I did, because what the hell else are you going to do riding home on the bus for three hours, right?)

We were told during our orientation that pretty much everybody falls into a cycle when they study abroad, especially in a place like Japan where the society is so contrary to what we're accustomed to in the United States: first, you're elated about your new surroundings and everything is absolutely splendiferous; then, once that feeling has died down, you start feeling homesick, and eventually everything you loved about your new living situation turns into everything you hate about it; and finally, you adjust, and you come out of it a better human being.

I don't know if I'm just being optimistic or not, and I honestly hope I'm not deluding myself, but so far I don't think I'll ever be hitting that second stage of the cycle. I've yet to find anything about this city that I actively dislike; rather, I still find pleasure just walking around on the streets on my own and indulging myself in the urban atmosphere. Furthermore, in spite of the language barrier, I feel more at home here than I ever did going to school in America. Well, who knows. I was always kind of socially awkward back in California anyways, so anything's a step up from that, am i rite??

I'm hungry again.

I shall elaborate!

I finally went back to the ward office to pick up my alien registration card this afternoon. Namioka-san, the sister of the priestess of the temple, took me in her hot red sports coupe. As soon as I got the card, I thought to put it in my wallet, but seeing as Namioka-san had an appointment to make, we rushed back into the car. What followed was a complete lapse in my memory that lasted until we had arrived back at my apartment:

Last night I had borrowed money from Namioka-san's husband because he took me to shop for a computer desk and the place we went to only took cash, and since I stopped by the ATM earlier today, as I got out of the car I handed the money to Namioka-san to give to her husband and then waved her goodbye. After she drove off, however, I thought to myself, "Hey... did I...ever put that registration card into my wallet...?" I had my wallet in hand since I drew out money from it for Namioka-san, but when I opened it back up to check if the card was there... Nothing.

Checked my bags, checked my jacket, my jeans, inside my boxers... Nothing.

There was a typhoon today so I dropped my things off in my room first before running back out to the temple, not minding to take my umbrella with me since it was only a short distance away. I told Hibino-san, the priestess, about my situation, and she gave her sister (who had already left for her appointment) a phone call to see if the card was anywhere in the car. After a few minutes, Hibino-san returned saying that it wasn't. I suggested that perhaps it was in the wad of cash I handed to her. Hibino-san told me that she'll let Namioka-san know about it after she gets back. I return to my apartment and took a nap.

Two hours later I got a call from Hibino-san: apparently the card was nowhere to be found in the car, nor in the wad of cash. I told her I'd check my stuff once more and I'll call her back if I find it, or if I don't find it for that matter. Did my rounds through my belongings. Still no good.

Now by this point I was really hating myself; earlier when I was taking the train back home, I ended up jumping onto the train going the opposite way. ...And then after that I took it one stop too far past my station. Suffice to say I was probably in no condition to be seen in public. And then, of course, this whole ordeal with the very-vitally-important registration card happens, and I was just about ready to throw my arms in the air, declare today as the Worst Day in Japan Evar, and then starve myself as punishment and eventually go back to sleep.

...But before that, I thought to check outside the apartment again; maybe it was somewhere on the ground between the entrance of the apartment and where I got dropped off (an area of about 10 feet in diameter which I had already checked earlier, but perhaps not quite so thoroughly). Billy was just leaving his room at the same time to stop by the konbini for some drinks, so I whined to him a little about my situation, and he sympathised.

The rain was a little harder now than it was earlier when I had ran out to the apartment so I had my umbrella in hand. I followed Billy out the door, and quickly raised my umbrella and clicked it open.

...POOF.

...My alien registration card.

It flew out.

Of my umbrella.

ffja;kdkfajsfhdklsadf;jaskdla WHAT.

I-I mean, thinking over the situation a little more, it kind of makes sense how it could have dropped into my umbrella without me noticing it, especially since it wouldn't have made a sound. But. Still.

...WHAT. LKJFKALSD;FKDASJF.

Of course Billy laughed at me. And then I called Hibino-san to let her know about it, and she and Namioka-san probably rolled their eyes out of their sockets at me from behind the phone. Either way, my opinion of Japan has been briskly rescued away, and I celebrated by buying 1000 yen's worth of food from the konbini tonight. 8D

Other things have happened over the past week and a half (class starting for one, in addition to my near-death experience and run-in with the law), but that stuff can be saved for another day.

。。。欲しい。

(There's still a chunk of Directions of Destiny orders that haven't been sent. After I finish giving all the shipping instructions to my mother, she'll have it taken care of. Apologies!)

... I'M JUST JOKING, GUYS. I didn't smoke just now. Really. ...Although to be honest, I did end up following up on my suggestion from the last entry to give it a shot. 8D() It was a few nights ago when apparently I was "comically plastered", as David put it, and I appear to have a few e-mails in my Sent folder that offer the ugly proof. :( Apologies for my obnoxious drunken revelry? Anyway, so I had like three puffs of these menthols, and I'm pleased to say I didn't keel over coughing my kidneys out like a noob! However, I am not pleased to report the stinging bite it had in my throat, so I suppose this puts a short end to my assimilation into Japanese society, as far as tabacco consumption goes. (Progress down the Alcohol Consumption route of assimilation TBA.)

What else is going on... Ah, yes: I gots a cell phone! I-I don't quite understand it completely yet though, partly because I got a completely Japanese cell phone rather than one with an English language option, because I'm vain and I needed to have the only black model they offered, so that it could match with my black DS Lite. D8 (And they go so well together too, trying to figure out how to change my wallpaper settings on my cell phone while using my DS to translate what the crap all the kanji mean. OTP!!) In any case, I get unlimited text messaging between AU customers, and like 1500 e-mails or something, SO, if you are ever bored, I suppose you are welcome to zap a buzz into my pants at: slimu [at] ezweb.ne.jp.

Today, I slept and then I slept some more and then I played video games (Tokyo Game Show came and went and I did not attend; more on that later) and then I went to eat SQUID INK PASTA that stained my mouth and then everybody laughed and laughed at my grossness. No wonder Japanese people commit suicide. D8 (Incidentally, the squid ink pasta wasn't that spectacular either; it wasn't offensive or anything, but I guess I have no incentive to eat it ever again, really. Particularly because it actually had squid in it; if it was just the pasta with the ink sauce and like some broccoli or meatballs or something, it would've been spectacular. But for now, I've decided from here on out that I am not a fan of squid.) After that we went to light fireworks and cause ruckuses, and stuff--be proud of me, for I turned down alcohol TWICE tonight, and instead had an apple juice!!

Yesterday was the Autumnal Equinox, and as such, many people were visiting their family's graves in the cemetary outside my window. Since I'm getting free rent from the temple for this apartment (ssscore), I was obligated to help them out for a few hours (which is why I could not attend the Tokyo Game Show; I was supposed to work both Saturday and Sunday originally, but they cancelled my schedule for Sunday since they were getting less customers, but by the time I got the memo it was too late to head out for the show. Oh well). I originally thought they were just going to have me conduct manual labour or something, but I ended up staying in the lobby for the majority of the time serving tea and cleaning back up the cups.

By which I mean, KEIGO MUTHERFUCKERS!!!

Did you know that I am completely gay for keigo? :( Did I mention last year on the plane ride to Japan via All Nippon Airways, there was a rather dashing male flight attendant wearing a nice uniform vest and tie, sporting a commercial-worthy smile, who spoke keigo at me despite my obvious lack of proficiency in it? I think I developed a very mild crush. (The female flight attendants were pretty nice too, but they spoke English at me for the most part after they noticed how incompetent I was in my broken responses, but Mr. Dashing went all out the whole way through. Long sigh! I wouldn't mind being a Japanese male flight attendant for a day...)

So I was actually assigned to just clean up the cups from the tables while this girl (Ushio-san) served it, but it got so hectic during the day that eventually our jobs became intertwined. It started out with just me giving out candy to some children, but sometimes there would be like three separate parties coming in to sit down, so the job of server unofficially transferred to me as well. They told me that just saying "Douzo" would be fine, but eff that; I had a male flight attendant fantasy to fulfill!!

Basically, what I mean to say is, どうぞ、お茶を召し上がってください。 8D

Oh my God. Japan. :<

Snaps, they fed us blowfish and I'm still alive! There was also toro. And of course the nihonshu, which tasted really sweet (unlike the sake from two nights ago that tasted like rubbing alcohol) ...Basically the whole dinner consisted 90% of stuff I've never had before, and I was pretty content with life. (There was another nihonshu later in the course that I didn't get to try though, for reasons that can be deduced from the first paragraph.)

Umm as far as my room goes, it is quite cozy? The existing furniture and curtains here are absolutely dreadful (if I were a gay interior decorator, I'd have jumped out the window by now; instead I just whine about it on LiveJournal), there are stains on the walls that I'll need to wipe off before I start putting my stuff in place, it looks like one of the closet doors got a hole in it because there's this piece of fabric covering a corner (I was thinking of covering it up with something slightly less ugly, but I think I'll just paint over it with acrylics to match the colour and pattern of the rest of the closet door--put my Beginning Painting skills to some sort of use) and somebody wrote/drew a bunch of crap on the refrigerator ("ICECREM SHOP", with an "A" floating above the "E" and "M", plus arrow. Either somebody living here before was not a native English speaker, and the next tenant corrected them, or it could be the same tenant who wrote it in a night of drunken stupor, and later correct themself), but it's got its own kitchenette and toilet (sorta--the toilet is right outside the door and nobody's going to use it besides me), the room itself is actually quite spacious compared to what I had been prepping myself up for after all the horror stories of Japan's lack of square footage, and I've got more closet space than I know what to do with (so far I've been using the top shelves to hide the more offensive-looking crap that came with the room).

Billy (guy living below me) assures me that the 20,000 yen rent a month for this place is actually all going towards utilities, and that the rent itself is pretty much free, save for the two times a week where we teach somebody in the temple household English, and when we tidy up the temple a bit (it doesn't look like I'll be able to wear a hakama for this after all, but we'll see!).

I want to talk trash about some of the people on the CSU International Program here, but they probably read this. :( But actually, most of the people here are quite tolerable, if not downright enjoyable (interpretation left to the reader!), and hopefully they're not talking trash about me in their LiveJournals? All Japanese guys are at least 40% gay, but we all knew that already.

I probably won't start smoking here even though it appears to be The Thing To Do next to excessive alcoholic consumption, but maybe I'll try a cigarette once while I'm indoors, just so I can say that I smoked indoors and it was completely socially acceptable.

Here's my shopping list:

coffee table
computer desk
beige tablecloth
computer chair
resting chair
floor pillows
bed pillow
ladder
bookends
scissors
bathroom cup
hair dryer
trash can(s)
laundry basket
tylex
laundry detergent
slippers
router
jet black DS
TV with DVD player
paint supplies

The Clear Skin Regimen works and my life is forever changed. Too bad I've got no energy to do apply it to anywhere besides my face. Oh well; Japanese onsen will just have to wait (until my body decides to finally move past adolescent puberty, or something).

In conclusion, I played with for like three days straight before I left America and you didn't; nya, nya, nya!

((TLDR))