Azure Eden

Tuesday, March 18th - 8:09 AM

     Well, it looks like I'm leaving a few months early.  It seems kind of sudden, but I've been thinking about it a lot lately.  I feel like I've already reached the highest point of my exchange and now things are just going down.  I've experienced the whole routine and everything, and now I'm getting bored.  I feel like if I leave now, I'll have accomplished everything I could and had a perfectly good exchange, whereas if I leave in June, things will go sort of sour.  Just because I'm leaving early doesn't make this a failure; I want the Rotary people to understand that.  I've grown a lot over these seven months, and hopefully I've left good impressions on a lot of people.  I don't think I'll accomplish much more in the remaining three months.  Overall, I think I'll be happier if I go home at this point.  Even going back to America, I'll experience many new things and keep growing.  Hopefully, I'll be able to apply some of what I've learned in Japan to my life in the US!
     I guess that's the end of this journal too.  Doesn't feel like very good closure.  Looking back at all my experiences here, it felt really long, but it passed by quickly.  Even if I wasn't having fun all the time, I had good times and I was certainly always learning.  I'll definitely never forget this experience, and I'm grateful to everyone who made it possible.  I'm sure it has affected me in ways i don't even understand.  Going home and "relearning America" will be my next adventure!


Thanks for reading!!

Friday, March 14th - 2:13 PM

     This might've been the longest week of my exchange so far.  I did almost nothing memorable, and somehow that made time slow to a crawl.  The weather's been bouncing back and forth between pretty spring-like days and gray cloudy days.  For the most part, my mood follows the weather.  Or does the weather follow my mood?  Haha.  I've been reading a lot.  I finished Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I had left on the plane ride here by accident.  It was a somewhat story with an interesting premise, but I wasn't a fan of Ishiguro's writing style.  He used the word "anyway" enough times that it started to annoy me.  I think he was trying to write the way the protagonist would speak, but something seemed to be missing to me.  The story itself had very little conflict, and I often felt like I was just drifting through it.  The good part about the book was that it left me imagining what such a world would be like.  After that, I read Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect by Read Montague.  It was extremely interesting, and it actually sort of helped me realize exactly how interested I am in neuroscience and its related fields.  I was especially impressed by how the author explained that the "slowness" of our brains compared to computers may actually be an adaptation to conserve energy and that brains are superior due to their efficiency.  Other than that, I've also been reading my host brother's old comics, haha.  He's home from college for spring break, so I also go to play Call of Duty 4 against him on PS3!
     I've been exercising a bit too.  Went running on Wednesday and played tennis on Thursday.  I've improved a lot at tennis, and I always feel this urge to just go back to the US and play on the CF team, hahaha.  Jake says they just started yesterday.  And there are only 13 people on the team compared to about 30 last year!  Wow!!  Though I can't play for them, the fact that it's already tennis season shows how far I've already come.  By the time the season ends, I'll have a little over a month left!

Saturday, March 8th - 12:28 PM

     The ski trip was fun!  Mr. Amagasa and Mrs. Yokoyama from Amelia's rotary club picked me, Amelia, and Meg up and drove us to Niigata.  We stayed at the Prince Hotel in Naeba.  It was a pretty nice hotel.  There were three other exchange students living in Niigata.  They were kind of shy, but we got along rather well.  On Thursday, we skiied from 2 PM to 5 PM.  I've gotten pretty good, thankfully.  Amelia's been snowboarding for about half her life, so she was really good!  It was Meg's first time, but her ice-skating skills seem to have been helpful.  She skiied for about two hours without falling.  But then she fell, and I guess she hurt her shoulder pretty badly.  So the rotary people made her stop.  After skiing, we all had dinner together.  Out of the Niigata students, Lisa from Germany talked to us the most.  Her Japanese was really good!  After dinner, Meg, Amelia, and Lisa went skiing again.  They said it would be more fun because there wouldn't be many people.  Meanwhile, I helped Rachel from the US and Pan from Thailand find the game center.  It had some fun games, so I wasted about 500 yen on a drum game and some other rhythm game.  Now that I think about it, arcades are inexpensive in the US!  The expensive ones are about 75 cents, while here the average game's about $1.50.
     When Meg and Amelia came back in, I wandered around with them.  I don't know how it started, but we started talking to these two young guys in one of the hallways.  Later at about ten, we went back to the arcade and ran into them again.  Their names were Yoshi and Saku.  They wanted to give us their mail addresses, but their phones were in their room.  I had a bad feeling about it, but I couldn't just let Meg and Amelia go to Yoshi and Saku's room alone.  They turned out to be pretty nice guys, fortunately.  Yoshi actually came to Meg and Amelia's room at about 11:30, and we all talked for a while.  He works part-time as a DJ in Shibuya, but his dream is to succeed with the band that he's in.  He left at about 1:30, and I went back to my room.  I woke up at 6 the next morning even though breakfast was at 8.  Since I had so much time to kill, I made some tea.  Then I made coffee, but it wasn't that good.  So I poured it out.  I listened to music for the rest of the time.
     After breakfast, we went skiing again for two hours.  Meg's shoulder hurt, so she didn't go this time.  Amelia and I stuck together most of the time, and we also went down the slopes with Mr. Amagasa and Mrs. Yokoyama a few times.  The snow was pretty firm, so on our way in we had a little snowball fight!  Hahaha.  Because we all live in Gunma, we had to leave after lunch.  We got back pretty early, so we had dinner in Kiryu.  Meg, Amelia, and I also gave gifts to Mr. Amagasa and Mrs. Yokoyama because normally Gunma doesn't participate in Niigata's ski trip, and we got the feeling that they brought us because Amelia had said she wanted to meet other exchange students.  We all figured a gift would be a good way to show our thankfulness.  Anyway, I got back to the Kawahoris' house at about six, but only my host mom was there.  I went to sleep at 9:30 and woke up at 11:30 this morning!  I must've been tired.

Wednesday, March 5th - 2:49 PM

     I moved on Sunday!  Now Meg is living with the Shodas, and I'm living with the Kawahoris.  I've only been here three days, but I get along pretty well with everyone.  Of course, I miss being with the Shodas (Meg still thinks of them as my host family, haha), but I'll be able to visit them a few times.  Getting used to living in a different home has not been too difficult, but I'm glad I'm not doing it again!  I'm living in Mr. Kawahori's son's former room.  It has a lot of comic books, so I've been able to keep myself entertained.  I've also been reading the books my family brought.  I already finished Sophie's World and 1984!  Re-reading 1984 was a good idea; I got a lot more out of it.  I think people overemphasize the political aspects.  I tend to think more of the individual character of Winston Smith.  I kept trying to put myself in his place, but it's difficult because I've lived in a completely different world from his.  I have a lot of confidence in my inner strength, but would I really be able to stand up for my beliefs if I were in his situation?  It's really hard to say.  Sophie's World was also fun.  it provides a good overview of the history of philosophy as well as an interesting concept in the plot.  I had thought of something similar before reading the book.  Sometimes when I read, I think about how this whole separate world comes to life simply through my interpretation of symbols on paper.  Then I wonder what makes the world I'm reading about any more "fictitious" than the one I inhabit.  Our world could be composed of neural activity in the brain of someone who's reading a book or something similar.  In that respect, I like the Platonic concept of a world of "ideas" from which all material things are derived.  I just started Existentialism and the Modern Predicament, and it'll certainly take me a while to read.  It's very dense.  I'm only nine pages in, but I'm enticed by the author's description of "estrangement."
     This week is the finals at school.  I only took the math and physics because English takes place during a Rotary ski trip tomorrow and Friday.  For not studying at all, I was pretty pleased with my Math score: ninth in the class.  Neat-o.  Anyway, I am looking forward to the ski trip a good deal.
     Oh yeah, last week at a Rotary meeting, I had to give a five minute speech.  I talked about how my reason for coming to Japan was in order to be influenced and to influence others.  I also thanked Rotary and said that if I can make a small improvement in the world, then the combination of all exchange students can make a big difference.  The principal of my school was there, and I guess he was impressed.  So I actually got to go talk to him after school the next day for about fifteen minutes.  That was cool.  I also went to the graduation ceremony on Saturday (every student had to go).  It was only about two hours, and it'll be fun to compare it to mine in June!!

My business hotel the night before the test thingy.  Completely unadorned, but I couldn't say it wasn't charming :-)



A jazz music store that I checked out in Shinjuku.  It was expensive (like everything in Tokyo), so I didn't buy anything.



A voice-over session for some cartoon.  It's hard to see because they're behind some sort of window.  It was probably the coolest part of Akihabara.  I wasn't a big fan of the area.



Oh, I thought this was Harajuku because of the weird clothes.  It's actually Akihabara.  Those girls are giving out brochures and stuff.



This one's Harajuku!  It was filled with kids wearing interesting clothes.  As someone who just likes to wander around looking at stuff, Harajuku was great!



This guy was making and selling art.  It was pretty neat.  I haven't seen many street artists in Japan.



X-Sliders.  Some sort of new thing from Korea.  They seem pretty cool.  It's more fun to see in motion!



Some colorfully dressed skateboarders.  There were a lot of them!  The sign on that gate says "No Skateboarding" by the way ;-p



Some more teenagers, either high school or college students, in Yoyogi Park.  It's very lively on weekends, so I was a little disappointed when I took my family there on a weekday and no one was there!



Dancing artist dude.  Of course, since he was dancing, a photo doesn't really do him justice.  Some people might find him kind of gimmicky, but I enjoyed watching!



A picture from our hotel room in Ikebukuro of Mount Fuji and the setting Sun.  I'm really not a good photographer.  But it was pretty in real life!!

Monday, February 25th - 8:11 AM

     Wow, so it's been a while.  On Thursday the 14th, I took the 12 PM bus to Narita airport to pick up my family!  They were staying until the 25th during Jake's spring break.  It was so exciting to see them after half a year, and I was actually sort of nervous beforehand.  Certain things had changed, but everyone was basically the same as I left them, thankfully!
     We stayed for a week in Ikebukuro and checked out a lot of places in Tokyo.  Our hotel was right by the station, so that provided us with easy transportation.  It's a lot tougher to get around and do things with so many people (especially the baby!), but we managed to do a lot of fun stuff.  It was fun to see a lot of the weird funky areas like Akihabara and Harajuku.  Ueno Park was a pretty place that I had never been to before.  We also had a good time checking out Asakusa and Tokyo Tower.  Of course, we also spent a lot of time hanging out in Ikebukuro and the hotel.  That area might've been more entertaining if we were into shopping, but being together and catching up on things was probably the best part.  On the 21st, we went together to Kiryu.  We stayed at Park Inn, a business hotel next to the station.  We didn't actually leave the town, but the hotel's location was convenient.  Friday night, we all went to a restaurant with Hayashi, Meg, and Hillary.  It was nice that everybody got to meet.  Hayashi said he had a good time talking with Dad and Jake.  He's my best Japanese friend, so I'm glad they got along so well!  Saturday morning, I went running with Mom.  She's been exercising a lot, and I could really see the improvements she's made.  It was also nice for me to go running again.  If Mom and Dad hadn't motivated me, I may not have bought running shoes!  In the evenings throughout the trip, I talked with Jake and watched movies with him.  It was great to be able to hang out with him again.  I can't wait to see him (and everyone!) this summer!
     Saturday evening, we went to an Italian restaurant with the Shodas.  I had to do a lot of interpreting, but it went really well!  Afterwards, the Shodas took us to their house.  They were so good with Carter!  We also talked and played some video games.  The Shodas are so kind that I'll be pretty sad when I move on March 2nd.  They said I can come over any time, though, and I would definitely like to see them a few more times before I leave.
     On Sunday, my family left for the hotel in Narita and stayed overnight for their flight on Monday.  It was kind of sad to part, but I'll be seeing them soon enough!  I'm just going to enjoy everything here for the rest of my exchange.  I had been worried that my family's visit would make me homesick afterward, but instead I feel refreshed.  It also helps that spring is coming and that I have a lot to look forward to!

Tuesday, February 12th - 8:49 AM

     The weekend was really random.  Sunday afternoon, Amelia and I went to karaoke in Ashikaga.  I hate the concept of karaoke, but when I'm with a friend, I'm usually not too shy.  It was actually really inexpensive.  The trick is to not go over the amount of time you reserved, otherwise the rate goes up.  After that we wandered around the town for a while.  We even found a billiards hall!  The price was by the hour, so we played a couple games.  I managed to pull off a couple movies like jumping the cue ball over a ball and sinking the one behind it.  The trick is to just do it without thinking!
     At about seven, we didn't really feel like going home.  I had been invited to Naoko's birthday party, so I asked her if Amelia could come too.  We tried to intrude as little as possible, but there wasn't really a problem.  When everybody got tired, we went to Meg's room and talked a lot.  The next morning, I woke up at eight, before Meg and Amelia.  Naoko had to go to her part-time job, but she said her dad wanted to talk to me.  I sat with him at the kitchen table and we had coffee while talking.  We talked about many things, and he made a great impression on me.  He's a really great guy, and he invited me to come talk to him again sometime!
     When Meg and Amelia woke up, Amelia and I headed toward Tatebayashi to see Hayashi's softball game.  It took a long time, so we got there in time for the last couple innings of his third (and last) game.  They lost all three games, and he said it was good that we missed a lot of it!  At about three, we started heading toward a station.  But instead of going to the station we came from, I decided we should go to a different station that looked closer on the map.  We ended up walking for nearly an hour!  Amelia was probably annoyed, but she's really calm and cool about stuff.  So I couldn't tell.  I apologized anyway, maybe too many times.  I tend to do that when I do something that inconveniences others.  If it's just me wandering around, I don't really care, but yeah... I ended up getting back to Kiryu by about seven.  I didn't hear about it until the Shodas told me, but soon after we left Naoko's house, her family had gotten a lot of bad news.  Her grandmother had collapsed, and her older sister was prematurely in labor.  I can't imagine how difficult and confusing everything must have been for them.  Meg will be moving somewhere temporarily and then staying with the Shodas from March to May.  I'll be switching to Mr. Kawahori's house in March.

Friday, February 8th - 8:54 AM

     Wednesday, I went to Sano after school and met up with Amelia.  She wanted to learn some Japanese, so I had prepared some stuff that I tried to teach while we were at a ramen restaurant.  I think I started with too much stuff and went too quickly, so I offered to lend her the first Japanese textbook that I ever used.  After that, we just sat in the restaurant and talked (that's a good thing about Japanese restaurants.  They don't care how long you stay).  This was the first time I've been with just Amelia; normally Meg or Hillary is there (we like to travel in groups, haha).  She's a pretty cool person, but I never really noticed because she doesn't talk as much when we're in a group.  I also found out we're having a Rotary ski trip in March.  I don't know why people don't tell me these things.  It's always, "Oh, you didn't know about that?"  There's also a concert in Tokyo in April that Meg, Amelia, Hillary, and I are hoping to go to.  It's a bunch of punk bands.  I don't really know much about that kind of music, but I'm always up for something new.  I looked up a couple of the bands on youtube, and they weren't too bad.  At about eight, we headed toward the station and too trains to our respective towns.
     Yesterday I played tennis again, as usual.  I got a lot better in those two hours!!  The coach just gave me small pieces of advice like "try closing your stance more," but I improved immediately.  My goal for now is not to be able to his a fast shot but rather to have consistent shots that I don't have to think about.  I've noticed a lot of the kids seem to try to smoke the ball every time, but that method can be inconsistent.  After fixing up my form a bit, I was able to return those fast shots with a neutral, 70% stroke.  Tennis really is more about control and skill.  Once you gain enough technique, you can start adding power to your shots.
     Yesterday was Naoko's birthday, and she's having a party on Sunday night.  We have Monday off, so I'm going to try to go.  I've been a little more social lately.  It seems like the less I care, the more people talk to me!  Haha.  One of my friends, Hayashi, has a softball game on Monday, so I'm going to try to go to that, too.  Anyway, I watched Superbad online last night (it came out the day I left America, so I wasn't able to see it!), and it was pretty funny.  I laughed a lot throughout the first half but only sort of chuckled throughout the second.  It was kind of crazy, but it really reminded me of the U.S. in a lot of ways!

Monday, February 4th - 8:30 AM

     Not a ton going on.  I played tennis on Thursday, which is always fun.  I'm improving but not enough for my standards.  The best part of my skills right now is my serve; I can hit an okay, medium-to-slow paced topspin serve that goes in almost 100% of the time.  So I'm happy about that.  I also finished reading Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.  I heard the English translation wasn't very good (it was one of his earlier books, so it was translated by a different guy), so I'd like to give it a look.  I have no idea what I'm going to read next.
     Friday after school, my bike's back tire was flat.  I haven't really checked to see if it's just flat or if it's broken in some way, so today I walked to school.  I actually prefer walking; it's more leisurely and fun.  So maybe I'll just walk everyday from now on.  I prefer not to be in a hurry anyway.  On Sunday, I had a bit of a cold, and I actually ended up sleeping most of the day!  I still feel kind of sick, but I'm better for the most part.  Also, lately I've been watching American movies online.  Haha, it's kind of good for when I'm bored or homesick.  I saw Juno, which was a pretty sweet movie.  I was surprised by its quality.  I also watched The Matrix.  I had forgotten what a good movie it is.  Though some special effects looked outdated, for the most part it's holding up well in spite of its 9-year age.  It has a good message and a lot of ties to philosophy.  And that led me to lots of thinking and reading Wikipedia.  I was surprised by how similar Descartes's "evil genius" idea is to some things I've thought of.  Also, the book that Neo has in his apartment was apparently required reading for most of the cast.  It's by a French philosopher, and it looks pretty interesting.
     Ten more days until my family arrives in Japan for a visit!  I'm really excited to be seeing them for the first time in half a year.  If I've learned nothing else throughout this whole thing, I've certainly realized that I'm capable of living independently of my family.  These next couple years will present a lot of changes, but I'm ready for them and believe they will lead to good results!

Monday, January 28th - 8:27 AM

     Friday after school, I went to Tokyo by myself.  I had the SAT Subject Tests Saturday morning, so I had to stay overnight the day before.  It was a really good experience.  After school, I packed a camera, iPod, change of clothes, an orange, and a couple bread rolls into a bag and headed to Kiryu station.  My route took me to Shinjuku through Oyama and Akabane, and each station was bigger than the last!  It was actually more simple than I expected, and if I had any problems, I just asked for directions.  It's really pleasant to sit on a train and look out the window while listening to music, completely anonymous.  There's a certain comfort in being alone in a crowd of people, unrecognized and unacknowledged.  Shinjuku was extremely busy, and from that point, I did a lot of standing on trains until I arrived at Tama station.  It seemed to be in a more outskirts-type area.  The business hotel that Mr. Shoda helped me reserve a room for was right next to the station.  A single night was 7,350 yen, which isn't too bad at all.  The room was very plain, but it had a bathroom, a shower, and even a stove, so I have no complaints.  I dined on my orange and two bread rolls, set my alarm for 6:30 AM, and went to sleep.  Well, it took a little while to get used to sleeping alone in a large city.  Glad I had an iPod!
     Saturday morning, I took a shower, gathered my stuff, and checked out of the hotel.  Using the directions I printed out online, I had a pretty easy time finding the testing center, the American School in Japan.  It was kind of weird; in the middle of these Tokyo outskirts was this, well, American school.  I read that it's for kids of Americans living in Japan, like people employed in the military and stuff.  Anyway, I get the feeling my tests didn't go too well.  It was sort of hard to prepare here in Japan, but I really have no excuses.  I'm not going to worry, though.
     After the tests, I figured I'd spend the rest of the day checking out Tokyo.  I considered going to Hello Kitty Land since it was close, but it might've been kind of boring.  I decided to go back to Shinjuku and take a walk.  I really loved the activeness of the area; there were all these people going to so many places.  I looked around in a jazz shop, but the CDs were close to $30!  That kind of price rules out random selection in hopes of chancing upon something I really like.  I also went to Kinokuniya bookstore, which was seven stories tall!  There was a really good selection of books, but having nothing in particular in mind, I didn't end up picking anything up.
     Next, I took a train to Akihabara, which is known by some as "electric city."  It was okay, but I don't think it's all it's hyped up to be.  Maybe I'm just not as into computers, video games, and cartoons as I thought.  It was kind of cool that there were shops where you could buy custom computers and places that sold really old video games and computer parts.  But that's basically all it was.  Products and consumers.  Maybe I didn't spend enough time there, haha.  I did have a fun time watching part of a voice-over session at this anime center.  And just walking around absorbing the atmosphere is always great.  That was basically the purpose of my wandering around Tokyo!
     The final location I visited was Harajuku.  I liked it as soon as I got out of the station.  There was this relatively famous bridge (forgot the name!) where young people gather, especially young people wearing interesting fashions!  It was pretty colorful and wild.  There was also a guy dressed "American style" singing along really loudly and out of tune with random songs on his stereo.  At one point, Dream On by Aerosmith came on, and I couldn't help but smile.  Near that bridge was Yoyogi Stadium, which I believe was used for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.  But I may be wrong.  After walking around there, I went to Yoyogi park, which was one of the coolest places I've been to in Japan.  There were skateboarders, runners, artists, people playing frisbee, etc.  The skateboarders also had this new thing from Korea called an X-slider.  It reminded me of two platforms each mounted on two swiveling wheels not unlike the ones found on shopping carts.  It was pretty sweet, and I can see them becoming popular.  They almost seem like something out of a sci-fi book or movie!  There was also a dancing artist guy!  He had this stereo/beatbox thing hanging from a strap around his shoulder, and he danced while making crazy paintings!  I was really impressed, hahaha.  After the park, I went and checked out all the clothing shops that Harajuku is famous for.  There was nothing that I would wear, but it was neat to check it all out.
     At about five, I started riding trains back to Kiryu.  I got back at about 8:30 and went to bed soon after.  It was eerily quiet after spending so much time in Tokyo.

Monday, January 21st - 8:34 AM

     The school week was the usual.  Kind of neutral; nothing boring, but nothing exciting either.  One good thing is that I'm almost halfway through that second Murakami book, and it's starting to pick up.  There's a sense of humore to this one that I haven't noticed in his other writing.
    Friday, I didn't feel too well, so I took the day off and slept.  Aside from lunch, I slept from 8 AM to about 3 PM!  I guess I really needed the rest.  I definitely feel better now, and I think it was a good preventative measure against catching a cold.  The next day, we left at 6:30 AM for Kusatsu, the place we stayed before that's famous for its hot springs.  This time, we went skiing.  I used Mrs. Shoda's older brother's clothes, and they fit perfectly.  The first thirty or so minutes, I spent most of my time on my bottom, hahaa.  But after a while, I got used to everything, and it was more fun than I expected!  It's not something I'd go out of my way to do, so I'm really grateful to the Shodas for bringing me.  I may never have tried skiing were it not for that opportunity!  That doesn't mean I'm going to go skiing a lot from now on; I mostly agree with everything Larry Miller says!  I kept waiting for a goat to come out of the bushes at the peak and start talking to me.  I did try the advanced slope, which is basically a cliff, but I stopped halfway down before it got really steep because I had been falling on the easier part.  If there were no people, I would've gone down in a straight line since I'm good at that :-)  But you're supposed to kind of weave side to side to keep your speed down.  I'm not awesome at sharp turns, so that didn't work out.
     After skiing, we went to an indoor pool/hot springs.  Mrs. Shoda and Tsugumi went to the hot springs while Mr. Shoda and I went to the pool.  He slept and took a rest, and I did a 50-lap workout that I made up.  The pool was about half the length of an Olympic pool, I'd say, so it was a decent workout.  We had an early dinner at about five and then returned to the hotel.
     Sunday, I returned to Kiryu with the Shodas, and we all rested.  I've been playing "Everyone's Golf" on the PS3 against Mr. Shoda, and we've had some pretty close games.  The last one on Sunday ended in a tie after he missed a rather difficult birdie and got par on the last hole.  Pretty intense, haha.  At about 10, I went to my room.  That's my usual routine.  Sometimes I use the computer and stuff, but I usually go right to sleep.  I missed the call from my family since it was getting kind of late and it was a school night, but they called the next morning.  So I was happy about that!  I'm not sure it talking to them makes me sort of homesick, but I enjoy talking to them either way.  It feels much more realistic than emails!

Monday, January 14th - 8:50 AM

     22 weeks down, 22 weeks to go.  That's pretty crazy.  I never really imagined how long ten months is when I entered Japan.  I feel glad I'm really going to stay the whole time.  At this point there's definitely no turning back.
     Saturday and Sunday, I went out with the other exchange students.  Saturday, it was me, Meg, and Hillary.  We kind of just wandered around talking.  Eventually, we had dinner at this awesome Indian restaurant run by Indian people.  We ordered a 3 person thing, but it wasn't until we got the check that we realized they had given us 3 of the 3 person dinners!  Needless to say, that turned out to be pretty expensive.  It was really good though, and a good break from Japanese food.
     Sunday, Hillary couldn't make it.  Me, Meg, Amelia, and our friend Hayashi went to a nearby ice skating rink.  Meg's really good at ice skating, but it was Hayashi's first time.  So there was quite a skill gap.  It seems pretty much the same as in-line skates, so I didn't have a hard time.  There were a lot of people though, and they got in the way with their slowness!  After the skating, we all went to a café that had free refills on drinks.  I had about three cups of coffee while Meg tried every drink, haha.  We all ended up going to this taco place/bar for dinner, too.  It was pretty cool, but definitely not the best tacos I've ever had.
     On Monday, I skipped going out with everyone so that I could spend time with the Shodas.  At this point, I have only two more weekends with them!  It's amazing how quickly time went by.  If my next four-month homestay feels this short, it'll be June in no time!  We went to this Safari Park place.  It was kind of cold, and the animals weren't that active, probably because it's winter.  But I enjoyed it.  Next weekend, we're going skiing.  I'm kind of nervous, but I'm looking forward to it!

Friday, January 11th - 8:15 AM

     Wow, looking back, I've been complaining a lot lately.  But all of a sudden, I feel better.  I think being kind of homesick and keeping to myself for a while provided me a good break from the constant immersion in Japan.  The best thing to do is embrace your bad feelings and trust them to subside.  I'm not naive enough anymore to think I won't get homesick or lonely again, but now I definitely know I'll get better when I do feel under the weather.  Hahaha, under the weather.  I usually feel kind of junky during the middle of the winter, so I'm pretty sure I would've felt down even if I was in America.
     Yesterday, I was playing tennis with the group I've been playing with every Thursday, and Kamazuka-san showed up!  He's the guy I met near the beginning of my exchange who bought me the shoes.  Now that I have a cell phone, I got his number and mail address.  It really put me in a good mood practicing again with him for a bit, and I realized how bad my tennis form has been getting, haha.  I'm going to try to pay attention to my form like he's there all the time.  I asked Mimura to play tennis over break, but he had a lot of school related stuff going on.  He promised that we'd play sometime though!
     Also, while I was sitting in my room last night, Kamazuka-san called my phone.  We just talked about stuff like how I'm doing at school, how winter break was, etc, but it was really nice of him to call.  It sort of reminded me why I'm doing this exchange; meeting interesting people is one of the biggest reasons I came here!  Anyway, I have Monday off for a national holiday, so hopefully I'll find something fun to do!!

Thursday, January 10th - 8:39 AM

Well, I'm back at school now. I wish I could say I'm having an awesome time and making lots of friends, but on the best days I feel average. During winter break I asked three of my friends from school to hang out, but they were all busy studying and doing homework. I guess it's just a different culture. So the only people I've been going out with are Meg and Hillary. I don't because we have a lot of fun. I feel bad because I've just gotten really tired of Japan and the language and everything. I'll be halfway done with my exchange in exactly a week, but I would feel no regrets if I went home right now. It sounds really negative, but I prefer to be straightforward and honest.
Two nights in a row now I've had dreams about being back in America on the tennis team. The first dream I was playing doubles with Josh in a tournament, and the second one I was doing preseason training in the gym. Ha, I can't even imagine going back to America and being able to communicate freely with anyone. I guess I'll just keep going and see how I feel after my family visits. Then again, by that point it'll be early March and there'll be such little time left it would be pointless to go home early. Basically, as long as I can make it through January and February, I'll be fine.
Yesterday was a Rotary New Year party thing. It was pretty fun. As usual, Meg and I were the only young people there. Meg wore a kimono, but it didn't look particularly comfortable. Glad I'm a guy ;-p. I was asked to play piano as background music for a while, so I played two Chopin preludes and Satie's first Gymnopédie. I was kind of disappointed that I was just playing such beautiful pieces as background music, but if everyone was focused on me, I'd probably have been nervous, hahaha. At least I didn't have stage fright, and I only messed up once on a part I expected to mess up on. Lately I've been working on Chopin's 4th Ballade, but I looked it up online and discovered it's supposed to be one of the most difficult Chopin pieces. Probably way above my level, not only technically but musically. Nevertheless, I've memorized the first two pages, and if I just work one measure at a time on the really difficult parts, I think I can do it. It may take over a year, but it's not like I'm pressed for time. It's a beautiful song, and I definitely want to be able to play it. I've embedded one of the best interpretations I've heard (by Zimmerman).

Part 1:


Part 2:

Friday, January 4th (2008!) - 4:45 PM

     Oh jeez, it's been a while!  I haven't written in this journal since before winter break.  Time really flies when you don't keep track of it, but I want to remember most of the stuff I've done.  Christmas was really nice.  I got gifts from relatives, which really made it feel like Christmas!  Thinking about other people and showing that you care about them is an important part of the holiday.  The French chocolates from Mom and Dad and Jake and Carter were really special, and I shared the bar of dark chocolate from Nana with my host family.  I received two sweaters from my host family, and I'm actually wearing one of them right now!  I may save the money I received from Nana Di for later, like when I'm back home.  And I'm not sure what I'd like to buy with the Amazon gift card from Grandpa and Anne; I'd like to put it to good use!  I brought Tsugumi to the nearby church with me on Christmas morning.  It was her first time.  She's not Christian but she goes to a Christian school, so she thought it would be a good idea to check it out.  She had to go to English class afterwards, but I went to the Church's Christmas party.  It was really nice to meet so many people from different places like Spain and the Philippines.  Everyone was really merry, and I hope to go again at least a few more times.  On Christmas night, Mrs. Shoda made a diverse meal with several Japanese foods, as well as tacos (they had a box of taco shells they bought while on vacation in Guam once)!  After that, I got a call from my family.  They were in Philadelphia on vacation.  It was so great to hear their lively voices and to think about how close February is!
     New Year's was fun too.  We had a quieter celebration than usual because it's a custom here not to have celebrations on New Year's when a relative has died that year.  I got to try some more Japanese foods, and we watched some weird TV shows.  I'm not a huge fan of Japanese TV, but sometimes it can make me laugh (not quite out loud.  Actually, I watched the first half of Eurotrip on the internet, and I laughed a lot!  It was a good reminder of how funny movies can be if they're well made.  I also finally saw that "Shoes" video on youtube.  It's crazy!)
     I haven't done a whole lot with my break.  It's mostly been spent playing video games.  I already beat Final Fantasy IV, but I'm playing through it again for extra stuff.  Tsugumi and I battled for a while over high scores in Tetris.  She broke my record of 150,000 with a surprising 210,000.  Then I got 280,000... but within a day, she got 290,000!  I've given up, hahaa.  We also talked to Mihato over Skype.  She seems to be having a great time in Oregon.  She's changing to her second family in mid-January; it's an older couple with no kids in the house, so I hope she won't be too lonely!!

Friday, December 21st - 8:15 AM

     I've been a lot more relaxed and happier lately.  I attribute it to getting exercise.  My goal is to get into a routine of running about 30-40 minutes every weekday.  Well, I play tennis on Thursday evenings, too.  I've gotten a lot better, but I'm still not nearly as good as I'd like to be!  I would love to go back to America just for CF's tennis season, hahaa.  I would actually be a decent asset to the team this time, I think.
     Actually, now that I think about it, I've been keeping myself busy with a lot of things.  The secret to being a happy exchange student is to keep yourself from getting bored!  I've been playing video games, reading books, studying programming, writing this journal, and occasionally going out with friends.  The only thing I feel bad about is that I haven't properly studied kanji in a while.  I sort of stopped once I reached 500, but the ones I studied have stuck for the most part.  I should definitely keep going, but lately I've been able to read almost everything I need to.  It seems like just looking the characters up when I come across them in literature helps me remember them better, even if it's not a formal method of study.  I won't consider myself completely literate until I can read at the level of a high school senior, but there are a lot of kanji that do not seem that useful in daily life.
     Today is a half-day where we have some sort of "end of the semester ceremony."  People are surprised when they hear that in America we just have a normal day of school and then break starts "just like that."  Both methods are fine by me.  I'm looking forward to winter break.  I don't my host family is doing anything for Christmas, so I may go out with friends (probably the other exchange students since they celebrate Christmas and most kids from my class have extra study classes all throughout break... some "break", haha).  New Year's is a bigger celebration here, so I'm looking forward to seeing what we do.

Monday, December 17th - 8:16 AM

     Friday was the school marathon, and it was pretty fun.  It was 6 kilometers long for the boys.  I came in 36th out of about 200 kids, so I was happy.  Afterwards, I didn't have class.  I planned on spending the rest of the day resting and doing stuff at the house, but Meg and Hillary invited me to go shopping with them.  I had to buy a gift for the Rotary Christmas party present exchange, so I figured I should go.  We ended up going to this mall-type place in the nearby town of Sano, but because we didn't know any of the train or bus schedules, we only had an hour to look around.  I guess that's not long enough?  So the next day we came back at an earlier time.  Amelia came too because she had been dropped off at Meg's house that morning (she was staying the weekend there since her town is so far away and we had the Christmas party Sunday).  The four of us went this time, and it was pretty fun.  Meg's a little too crazy for all of us, and I had to do a lot of explaining to some of the random Japanese people she talked to, hahaha.  A lot of the jokes she made don't really translate well into Japanese, so I had to explain sometimes.  Next time, I think I'll just play the "I don't understand Japanese" card, lol.
     Sunday, Mrs. Shoda and Tsugumi went to a wedding most of the day.  I went to have lunch with Mr. Shoda around noon after using the computer most of the morning.  I was able to talk to Jason and Sharon for a while, which was fun.  They're doing well, and talking to friends back home makes me feel better about being so far away.  Sadly, Jake signed on at about 11:45, so I couldn't talk long.  After lunch, Mr. Shoda wanted to kill some time, so went to a used books and hardware store.  Everything's really cheap there, and he ended up buying a DDR dance pad, the original DDR for playstation, and Tekken Tag Tournament for less than $20 in total!  The DDR game was kind of old and had a limited song selection, so it was kind of boring.  But Tekken was a lot of fun.  My host dad said he used to play it a lot at arcades, but he was a little rusty.  We played over 50 rounds, hahah!  I couldn't believe we played it that much!
     From six to eight, we all went to the Rotary Christmas party.  It was actually mostly the friends we invited and some former exchange students.  I invited Akuzawa, Hayashi, Abe, and Mimura.  It was a fun party.  The best part was this Beatles cover band made by some Rotary members called Stag Beetle.  Their playing and singing were really good, and their impressions were cool.  The drummer even wore a fake nose to look like Ringo Starr!  Some kids danced... I didn't, hahaa.  It was mostly a couple of the girls.  All the guys just stood around and talked.  The gift exchange was fun.  I gave a white scarf; Mr. Shoda received it, actually.  I received a bathrobe, but it was too small, so I had to give it to Tsugumi.
     I'm at school right now, but winter break starts after this week.  Yay!!

Thursday, December 13th - 8:45 PM

     Not too much going on the last couple days.  I've been getting back into programming.  I forgot how much I like it, but it's amazing how much I've forgotten (or didn't learn in the first place)!  I also beat FFTA2 a couple days ago.  I spent 72 hours on it, and there are still 200 optional missions left... so I'd say I got my money's worth!  The DS remake of FFIV comes out on the 20th, so I'll pick that up.  It might actually not come out in America, so lucky me for being in Japan!  I recently got tired of being tired of Japan, so I'm having a lot more fun.  It also helps that I no longer have to worry about college applications.
     Today after lunch, my stomach really hurt.  And I didn't think gym class would help, so I asked to go home early.  Unfortunately, the bike garage is locked during the school day, so I had to walk.  It only took about twice as long, but with a stomachache it's not so pleasant.  I feel better now, but I hope it stays that way.  The school marathon is tomorrow morning!  It's 6 km for boys and 4 km for girls.  Everyone has to participate.  I'm looking forward to it!

Monday, December 10th - 8:20 AM

     The last week went by really slowly and really quickly at the same time.  It felt really long but looking back I can't remember half the things I did.  This morning my stomach has been hurting.  It's nothing serious; just this uncomfortable feeling that doesn't seem to want to go away.  It doesn't help that school is really boring and we have to go listen to the principal talk for forty-five minutes again.  Every two weeks, we all have to go stand in the gym and listen to him talk.  It's because we're in a private school that does whatever it wants.  It seems like kids are always telling me that most other schools are different from ours.
     The weekends are always kind of fun because my host family's so cool.  We usually go somewhere for lunch and then either go check out places our or return to the house.  They always say they don't take me anywhere, but I've been to so many places with them!  Kusatsu, Asakusa, Disneyland, Tokyo Tower, various places within an hour from town, etc.
     Sunday was one hundred days since my host mom's mother died, so we all went with Mrs. Shoda and her relatives to pray at the grave.  It seems like America doesn't have anything after the funeral, but Japan has a lot of customs.  It must have to do with the whole respecting of elders thing.  After that, we all went to lunch.  It was pretty good food, and I got to talk to my host uncles.  After lunch, Tsugumi, Mr. Shoda and I went to the mall to get prints from their digital camera.  We had to wait over half an hour, so we checked out the music store and the game center.  Game centers here are much different from arcades in America.  It's mostly games of chance and gambling, like slot machines and pachinko.  I don't really like them, haha.  We ended up spending over an hour there, so I'm glad I brought my DS!
     When we got back to Kiryu, I got my Tulane scholarship application done.  I plan on mailing it after school today before English club.  This week there's a Rotary meeting on Wednesday and a Rotary Christmas party on Sunday, so there's something outside the usual schedule.  Winter break starts on the 21st.  I can't wait!

Me and Mimura doing the peace sign, which everyone does for pictures for some reason.  I'm not a big fan of the gym class outfits, but we had to wear them at the hotels.  This is from the first night when I was teaching Mimura how to play Go.  It was pretty fun, and we ended up playing about four times throughout the trip!


Some random classmates (well, the farthest two were part of my seven-person group).  From farthest to closest: Shimizu, Hara, Fukushima, and I don't know, hahaha. 


One of the many temples we saw.  I liked the pond and garden around this one.  I feel bad because I don't remember which was which in any of these pics!  But I did enjoy seeing so many pieces of Japanese history.


A big pagoda, I think at Ginkakuji (Silver Temple, not Kinkakuji, the Gold one).  You can't really see the spiral thing at the top even when you're there, but this monk showed us a picture of it in detail and explained how much work it took to make.  It was really pretty, and he talked to us about how some people spent their lives working on that kind of stuff, which isn't even visible by normal means!


A deer park!  It was crazy.  I've never been that close to a deer.  They were all tame.  In fact, you can feed them wafers made of recycled pulp from newspapers, and they're trained to bow to you in exchange for one.  I didn't know that, and I wasn't even holding any "deer-biscuits" but one of them bowed to me!  I was so surprised that I just bowed back.  I must've looked funny, hahahaa.


The biggest Buddha in Japan!  It doesn't look big in this picture, but his middle finger (kind of bent in the more visible hand on this pic) is six feet tall!!!


Not even sure who's in this picture, but I liked it.


I remembered this diner from Universal Studios in Florida, so it was pretty nostalgic!  Universal was pretty fun.


This picture is brought to you by my fantastically ridiculous whims.  Our group of seven was walking around Universal, and I saw Sesame Street characters.  So I was like "Ono!  Here's my camera!  Take a picture of me with Bert!"  Akuzawa also joined in, hahahaa.  That's him on Bert's right.  This'll make a good memory twenty years from now (or even eight months from now, haha).


Being an American in Japan automatically makes one a celebrity.  That's what I found out, hahaha!  This lady and her friend just walked up and were like "Sorry, but can we take a picture with you?"  I only saw about three white people there (there were a lot of Korean people), so I guess I'm pretty unusual here, hahaha.  I don't mind the attention too much, but it feels kinda weird and embarrassing sometimes, lol.


On the way out of Universal, I got my picture taken with Eiji's group (he's on my left).  He's really friendly, and I get along well with him.  He especially helped me out at the beginning of the school year when I had no idea what was going on.


From left to right: Akuzawa, Hara, Abe, and me.  I actually thought I had lost my right contact lens at the hotel, so I wore glasses the last two days.  Turns out my right contact lens somehow got stuck to my left one, and I discovered that after the school trip!  I guess I was pretty lucky, not that I have a shortage of contact lenses.  But it would've felt like a waste if I had actually lost it.


Hara and Abe again at pretty much the same location.  This was during one of the rare times when we had free time to walk around wherever we felt like.  It was around the Arashi-Yama area, and I liked the river.


Ono eating takoyaki, or fried balls of octopus.  It sounds weird, but it's not too bad.  Kids say Ono looks European, hahaha.  I think it's mostly because of his hair.  This picture doesn't really show it too well.  He's an interesting kid.


Murakami Satoshi, or Ikkun as everyone calls him.  He's really quiet, but I like to talk to him.  He's really good at drawing, but he's shy about his skills.  He didn't really want to be in our group pics, so I had to get a photo of him when he wasn't expecting it, hahaha.  I want to have pictures of everyone in my group so I can remember what they looked like.  Our group was made up of Murakami, Akuzawa, Shimizu, Abe, Ono, Hara, and me.  All the previous pictures have them in some way or another even though we didn't officially take a "group shot."


That really famous rock garden in Kyoto.  I'm not a very good photographer, but I also think photos don't convey the peacefulness and elegance very well.


Kinkakuji, the gold temple.  I apologize for the random person's head.  I'm not a good photographer, and there were so many people, and they always wanted us to keep moving!!  I didn't really like the gold, but I liked that it looks like it's on top of the water.


A big famous gate... somewhere.  I feel so bad that I don't remember specifically where each pic was, hahaha.  That's the end of the pics, or at least the interesting ones.  My homeroom teacher said he was planning on giving me a CD of all the pictures he took, too, so I'll post some of those if I get them!