Nadav in Japan

May 2009

2010-01-13T13:16:00.000-08:00

Should have uploaded this post a few weeks ago, but never got around to it....

Well, it’s about time to update the blog again. After this post, I won’t have too much left! 3 months, to be exact. Anyways, I finally have some free time ‘cause I was done with the fall semester since December 19th. I was supposed to take a winter class, but it won’t happen ‘cause I decided to stay in Utah for a month instead of 2 weeks. Furthermore, the snow storm we had on December 19th really screwed up my plans -__________- Moving along to the May!

May…. Was a pretty fun month. It wasn’t too eventful, though. We had a break from the 2nd ‘til the 6th ‘cause of Golden Week (a series of consecutive holidays in Japan). So! Ayumi and I went to Hakone for the weekend preceding Golden Week. We had a lot of fun :D We rode a pirate ship and walked quite a lot. We also saw a really cool shrine. All in all, a very enjoyable trip.

On the 3rd, if I’m not mistaken, Ryohei had a house party at his place in Mejiro. A lot of people came and again, we all had tons of fun. The police showed up at one point because it was a bit loud, but in the end, they went away because we managed to keep it quiet. Oh, I forgot to mention that on the way to Ryohei’s place, I saw that crazy Russian woman again… This time, I saw her on the train. The moment I sat down, I noticed that she sat in the diagonal seat from me. As soon as I noticed her, I stood up and changed to a different carriage. Luckily, she didn’t notice me XD

During this month, I started to hang out more and more with Michiko and her son, Hiroki. I’m pretty surprised that I haven’t mentioned them until this post… Anyways, Michiko used to be one of my students at Maskal. She’s probably one of the most unique and nicest people I met in Japan. She kind of took the rule of being my host mom during my time there. Anyways, we pretty much started to have sushi almost every week in Roppongi Hills in a place called Pintokona (a conveyor belt sushi place). Their sushi was sooooo delicious. Reminiscing about it makes me drool >_< Anyways! On the 23rd, I finally met her husband, Masaki. Masaki is a very nice person. I felt a bit intimidated when I first met him, because I wasn’t sure how to speak to him (formal vs. very formal Japanese). Michiko told me not to be intimidated and just speak with him a relaxed manner. The day I met him, they took me to a really old-fashioned sushiya (sushi place) in Roppongi. Michiko kept on saying that Arnold Schwarzenegger ate there and that I must eat there, too. The sushi was amazing. The otoro (fatty tuna) tasted like meat. I’ll be honest, though. I prefer Pintokona’s simple rolls.

For some reason, I can’t really recall anything else that happened. I guess I was right about May being not so eventful…. If I do remember anything, I will sure to add it. I’ll try and write about June as soon as I can as I have a lot of time off this month!

April 2009

2009-11-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Since I have some time and since it’s been quite a while (again), it’s finally time to update the blog! I know, crazy, isn’t it? :) No worries, though. As I said before, I do plan on finishing it. So… On to April!

April…. Wasn’t as eventful as March. Well, school was back in session. The first “major” thing that took place was the placement test at AGU. We had to take it again. Frankly, there was no point for us (the people from the past semester) to take it, because in the end, we were bumped a level. I actually did ok XD Considering the fact that I haven’t studied at all for it XD I think that I got 158/200. Anyways…. The second “major” event was the Seder (Passover dinner). It took place in the Hilton Tokyo hotel. The dinner was a bit expensive (¥8,000 ~ $80), but since I was a student, I paid ¥6,000 ~ $60. When I got to the ballroom where the dinner took place, the Rabbi was shocked to see me XD I have been “out” of Chabad for a few months and he thought that I already left Japan. After kinda-sorta catching up with him, we proceeded to praying and then to dinner. The dinner was great. It was a full course meal. It’s been a while since I ate chicken, so it was very satisfying. Oh, also, at dinner, I got to see Sarah, a girl that I met in Korea’s Chabad. I also met Samantha, a girl from Australia who was studying at Waseda at that time. After dinner was over, it was then that I decided to go to Chabad every Friday night, ‘cause it is located in the same station where I worked, and since services took place right after my job was over, hey, I thought, why not? I didn’t attend the second Seder, though. I celebrate it the “Israeli way.” :D

So the following week was pretty much hellish ‘cause I had worse food restriction. During Passover, I couldn’t eat bread or anything wheat. Also, I technically couldn’t eat rice. So…. I had to deal with matzos, which is kind of “cracker bread.” It wasn’t really a cracker. Well, I guess you can call it that. Anyways, my mom sent me some from the states and luckily, they arrived the next day with a few more goodies. So, I was able to survive XD At one instance, though, I snapped at Justin (my roommate), ‘cause of something really stupid…. The lack of food kinda triggered it…. I apologized to him after that.

The day before I went back to school (Sunday, April 12^th), we had a spring excursion with school. We went to pick strawberries and had lunch at Chiba. The excursion was a lot of fun, albeit I couldn’t really eat anything except for the strawberries. I don’t think that I’ve ever had that many strawberries as I did on that day in my life O_O They were very, very delicious, especially because of the condensed milk sauce. Ahhhh… Just thinking about those strawberries make me hungry…. After we were done with picking strawberries, we went to eat lunch. I just ate some vegetables. Couldn’t really eat anything else -_- So… We got back at about 4-5, I think… And then, I remember that I had a lesson or two. Actually, yeah, two lessons. I was pretty much starving that day XD

Hmmmm…..What else…. Well, my private lessons finally started to pick up! I started having more and more lessons :) I was really relieved, ‘cause I was actually less and less worried about money and I was able to eat out more and have more fun memories with my friends!

On the 18^th of April, Eleanor came over from Korea, so she stayed at our place. She stayed until the 22^nd or 23^rd, can’t remember….. Anyways, I took her to the same places I took Melissa to and she had tons of fun! It was really nice having her. I showed her Aoyama, too, and she met some of my friends. Oh, she also cooked fried rice for us with tuna! Umakatttttttttttttttttttttttta!!!!! (It was delicious!).

I had a few days off before classes started (April 11^th). Since I didn’t have any classes that day, which was a Saturday, my classes technically started on Monday. So yeah, classes started again, and I had very interesting teachers, to say the least XD My listening class in Japanese was ridiculous…. There were a lot of words in some of listening comprehensions that I’ve never heard of in my life… So… In the beginning, it was pretty difficult XD Other classes were ok. I was planning on taking 14 credits, but I decided to drop one class (financial institutions? Or something like that). I had been pretty busy with other things, so I couldn’t take it in the end. Actually, I think that I dropped it in May. Yes, it was May when I decided to drop the class. Other classes that I took -> this time, I was able to take the 4 classes of Japanese, art, Japanology, and Nihon Jijyou. That’s it! So my schedule was quite relaxing.

I think that that’s it for April…. May was a bit more eventful? Well, I think it was as eventful as April XD Anyways, I’ll try and update soon~ I have 2 more weeks before finals start, so I won’t be able to update until the later part of December. But! I will definitely do so! XD

P.S. Forgot to mention that I also took performance studies. My teacher happened to be an American woman that moved to Israel when she was 9 years old and lived there for quite a while. It was a really funny thing 'cause I was able to converse with her in Hebrew and everyone in class was pretty surprised :D

March 2009

2009-10-03T13:16:00.001-07:00

It’s been quite a while since I updated my blog, but it’s about time I do so XD I plan on finishing it off ‘cause a lot of stuff happened between March and August. Anyways! Moving along to March…

Roee and I woke up really early on March 1st because we planned on going to Kansai! (Western Japan). We woke up at about 5:30-6, and boarded the train at 6:30-7. The train ride to Kansai, which is supposed to take about 3 hours on the shinkansen (bullet train), took us 9 hours ‘cause we were using the Seishun Juuhachi kippu (Youth 18 ticket), which limited the trains we could have taken, but saved us quite a lot of money. Nevertheless, the ride was very long! At about 4, we reached Kyoto. Kyoto station was beautiful. Much nicer than Tokyo’s stations. After we finally arrived in Kyoto, we met with Erik, a friend of mine from Tokyo who was staying with his girlfriend nearby Kyoto at the time. After that, we checked Roee in his hotel and started to explore a little bit. My first impression of Kyoto was kind of a… disappointing one. All I saw were a bunch of brand stores and one shrine. Erik said to not fret ‘cause we will explore even more tomorrow! And that’s what we did :)

The next day, we visited Nijou castle, Kinkakuji (Temple of the golden pavilion), and Kiyomizudera (a temple that overlooks Kyoto). The sights were beyond spectacular. I was really happy to visit those places because it definitely gave me the right impression of Kyoto (being Japan’s capital before Tokyo). At night, we didn’t do much. We just went back home.

The following day, we went to Fushimi Inari shrine (a shrine with many, many torii gates), Sanjusangendo (a Buddhist temple with more than a 1000 temples), and we were able to check out Osaka. I really enjoyed myself today. Fushimi Inari was amazing because of all the gates, and Sanjusangendo was also amazing. It’s really too bad that we couldn’t take any pictures of the statues… Anyways, Osaka kind of reminded me of Tokyo. We haven’t been able to check the main part of it today, because I kind of messed up :D

For our final day in Kansai, we went to Osaka again and later, to Kobe. This time, we were able to check out the main part of Osaka (Dotonburi, I think…). It was pretty cool. It had a lot of neon signs and whatnot. After exploring Osaka for a bit, we went to Kobe. I kind of screwed up in the directions, so we ended up going to the wrong place XD After I realized that, we went the right way. When we arrived at the station, we grabbed some Kobeyapan (some bread and pastries). I didn’t realize it, but after eating the food, I accidentally dropped my wallet…… So, after exploring Kobe for about an hour or so, we reached the harbor. It was a really beautiful sight at night. When we checked out a souvenier store, I was just about to grab my wallet, when I finally realized that.. It was gone O_O I started panicking for a bit, but then we traced our way back. In the end, we found out where I dropped it near the station. I felt so relieved when I found it….. After we found it, we headed back to Kyoto.

The next day, we returned to Tokyo. The ride, again, was long and pretty exhausting. I also had to work that day, so it was very annoying.

On the 18th, Roee and I went to Korea for a week. Before going to Korea, though, I showed Roee a bit more of Japan. We traveled around Tokyo almost every day. One day, we went to Asakusa and from there, we walked all over the place. We went to Ueno and Akihabara and passed through some other places, too. In the end, we saw Tokyo Tower, so we decided to try and walk back to Shibuya. And… We did so XD It took us a long time, but it was worth it. We could barely walk after we got back to Shibuya. The distance from Asakusa to Shibuya is about…. 15-16kms (roughly 10 miles). That’s the most I’ve ever walked in one day.

The next day, we went to Kamakura to see the big buddha statue. Kamakura used to be Japan’s capital a long time ago (I think before Kyoto was the capital, which was the capital before Tokyo). Anyways, it took us a bit to find the place, but finally, we did. We also saw the beach of Enoshima. The weather was a bit chilly and rainy, but the smell of the sea made up for it.

On the 17th, Roee and I went to Shibuya to hang out with Steven. He came back from his trip to South east Asia, so he wanted to hang out before Roee and I were bound for Korea. It was fun seeing Steven after a month or so. That night was kind of annoying, though. Just before Roee and I were about to leave Shibuya, Roee realized that he lost his wallet -_- We ended up looking for it and missing the last train. In the end, it was in Omotesando’s police box. Apparently, someone picked it up in front of Shibuya’s main post office and dropped it in the police box. He stayed annonymous ‘cause he didn’t want any prize for finding it. I forgot to mention that Roee had about 40,000 yen (~$400) in it O_O So it was very nerve wrecking. Since we missed the last train, I told Roee that we should try and walk back. He offered to pay for a taxi, but I said that I wanted to try and walk back home from Shibuya anyways, so we decided to go for it. It took us about 2.5 hours (about 12-13kms). The most annoying part of it, though, was that once we got back home, we had to pack for Korea -_-

On the 18th, we went to Korea. The trip to Korea was a lot of fun. Seoul reminded me of Tokyo, but it wasn’t exactly the same. We got to Seoul pretty late. After getting our luggage and exchanging our yens to wons (it was really annoying ‘cause the highest bill they had was 10,000 won, which equals about $10), we got on a bus to take us to the city. It took us a bit of time to find our hostel (we got there at midnight). After we settled in the hostel, we went to 7-eleven to buy drinks and snacks. After we ate, we went to explore a little. We went to a place called Hongdae (Hongik University), which is a place where students hang out. to We toured lots of places in Seoul. We went out a lot and really enjoyed it. It finally gave me more time to spend with Roee because back in Japan, I had to work a lot. When we were in Korea, though, we spend all of our time there together. While in Korea, I was able to see my exchange students friends from Fall semester (only briefly, though), Ken and his friends, who are students at Aoyama Gakuin, Melissa, who came to visit me in January, and Eleanor, who studied Japanese with me back in MD, and Gene, who used to live in the University’s Language House two years ago. The places we went to included Seoul Tower, Seoul’s world cup stadium, some palaces, and different districts of Korea.

Also, on Friday night, we went to Chabad. It took us a very long time to find it. Just as we were about to give up, we found it. There, I ate beef for the first time in 6 months. I was very happy :D After that, we went out with Melanie, a girl we met at Chabad, to a karaoke box. Karaoke boxes are a bit different than the karaoke places in Japan. It was fun, nonetheless.

On the 24th, we went to the DMZ (the border of South and North Korea). It was a really cool experience. We went to the 3rd tunnel the North Koreans tried to dig in the 70s. Some info about it: they planned to dig it all the way up to Seoul. 10,000 soldiers could have passed through the tunnel in one hour. When it was found by South Korea, North Korea claimed that there was a coal deposit there. Geologically, it was impossible to have any coal there, so the North Koreans were caught lying. Anyways, we were able to see a bit of North Korea, but unfortunately, we couldn’t go on the tour to Panmunjeom, which is where the Joint Security Area is, and where North and South Korean soldiers stand in front of each other. After we took a few pictures, we went back to Seoul. I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I remember that it was very cold XD It was flurrying at some point. The next day, we went back to Japan, and it was great to be back!

For the rest of March, I don’t think we did anything special. We did go back to Akihabara to buy some more stuff, like presents. As you noticed, March was a very busy and fun month. It was definitely one of the funnest, if not the funnest, month I’ve had in my study abroad experience.

Anyways, I will try and update the blog more. I will definitely finish it. I’ve started it with the goal of finishing it and it will happen. I will try and update it during the weekends! Until next time :D

February 2009

2009-06-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought it was about time to update the blog…. I have been awfully busy lately, so I had no time to update it… Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m still awfully busy :D

Anyways! Off to February…. Now… What happened in February…. Well, quite a lot of things did. First, Justin and I slowly adjusted to living in Mizonokuchi. I’m really happy we moved. It did cost us an arm and a leg, but it was well worth it. By slowly adjusting…. Well…. We didn’t have an internet connection until the 9th, which really sucked…. Other than that, everything was ok. On the 4th, we had a farewell party at school for the Fall semester students (people who came to study at Aoyama for either that semester or for the entire year -> April 08 – February 09). The party was a lot of fun, although it was quite emotional. A lot of people cried (well, for the most obvious reasons), but overall, everyone enjoyed it. After the party, we went to an after party, which was a lot of fun, too. And after that, we went to an all night karaoke. After the 2nd party, it happened to be my birthday :D I’ll be honest, though. It was great, and I really enjoyed it, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t celebrate my 21st in America. Oh well…..

On the 6th, if I’m not mistaken, I submitted my final essay for Asian politics class and that pretty much marked the start of our break! I had a lot of lessons and whatnot during this month. I tried and worked as much as I could, which turned out pretty well! I finally started to have plenty of regular students.

On the 22nd, Justin and I had a house warming party. About 13-15 people showed up and we had a lot of fun, although it was quite tiring. On a completely different note, Roee, my Israeli friend, and I talked on the 21st. Roee just finished his army service and didn’t really feel like starting to study any time soon, so we talked about a possibility of him coming over to Japan. He told me that he might be able to come on the 28th. Anyways, on the 23rd, Justin left for Korea for a month, leaving me in the apartment by myself. I thought that it’ll be a bit lonely without him for a month.

Lo and behold! I got a call from Roee at about 6PM….. He told me that he’s coming to Japan on the 25th! I was reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllly excited. I haven’t seen him since January of last year and I was really looking forward to it. He called me to ask me if I wanted him to bring me anything from Israel XD So I told him to bring me some sweets. On the 25th, I went to pick him up from the airport. The ride to Narita is…. Very annoying. It was the first time I kind of got on the wrong train, but I still managed to get to Narita, although it took some extra time to do so. Anyways….. I felt kind of bad when I finally saw him XD He looked extremely exhausted. He had the worst flight ever and it took hell of a long time to reach Japan because he had a layover in Austria. After heading back home, we went to grab some sushi. He was really happy to eat sushi right after he got here :D

We didn’t do too much until the end of the month. Actually…. A really weird incident happened on the 28th, the day before we headed to Kansai (関西, western Japan). We went to shop for ingredients for dinner. After we shopped at Donki, I told Roee to wait for me at a nearby building ‘cause I wanted to grab some salmon at Maruetsu (a supermarket next to that building). Anyways, I went in to get the salmon, and to my surprise, I ran into a woman that I saw a few months ago at Mizonokuchi’s Donki. When I saw her at Donki, she started to talk to me and asked for me phone number and stuff (she claimed to be French, but I kind of had a hunch that she was actually Russian). Anyways, stupidly, I started to give her my real number, but I saw that she screwed up, so I didn’t bother to correct her. So…. I ran into her on that night…. And… She started to talk to me again. Asked me where I was from and whatnot. Again, stupidly, I told her that I was from Russia. I told her that I didn’t have any time to talk because my friend was waiting for me. So I grabbed the salmon and ran to the register. Who do I see waiting for me at the register? That woman. After I paid, she started to curse me in Russian O_O Not only that, she started to hit me with her umbrella @_________@ I was completely shocked at that moment XD It’s actually really funny when I look back at it now, but it was really bizzare at that night. Anyways, I ran for the door, but since it was an automatic door, it took a few seconds for it to open, so she managed to kick me O______O When I was far enough away from her, I yelled back at her. Shocked, I entered the building Roee was waiting for me at from a different entrance. Roee had no idea what was going on XD I told him that there’s a crazy woman who tries to beat me up. After that, we went back home. Later on, Roee told me that he saw the whole thing, but he didn’t recognize me because he didn’t wear his contacts at that time XD I also forgot to mention that she apparently wanted to “play” and “hang out” when I first met her. God knows what that meant…. A pretty bizzare end to a great month, huh?

Update

2009-05-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while... I've been quite busy since the last time I posted. I'll try and update as soon as I can. On a different note, I got my ticket back home. I'll be coming back to the US on August 10th and I'll be going to Utah on August 12th until the 26th!

January 2009

2009-04-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

So continuing last post.... New year's was great. We got back to Tokyo on the 1st. For the rest of the break, I haven't done much. Well, I count procrastinating as not doing much XD I had a few papers to write and some exams to get ready to, but.... You guys know me :D I'm a terrible procrastinator ^_^ So! School was back in session on the 7th. January was a very busy month. I finally got more and more lessons. Also, I started to work for Maskal. I had only one lesson, there, though. Thursdays at 7. The students are a lot of fun :D Other than that... I had to write 2 reports and I had 3 finals, if I'm not mistaken... The reports weren't hard, and the exams, with the exception of the economics exam, weren't terrible. Actually, since I focused on the last chapter of econ, I managed to do well on the final :) I can't recall anything really important happening in the month except for my American friend's (Melissa) visit, and the move on the 31st. Melissa is currently teaching English in Korea. She came to Japan on the 26th and stayed here until the 30th.

Since she came all the way from Korea, I decided to take her to a few places. First, I showed her around Shibuya. I wanted to take her to Meiji Jingu, but we were too late. She got to my place at about 3, and after I put her stuff back in my place, we went to Shibuya only to find out that the shrine has already closed for the day. So! We didn't do too much that day. The next day, I took her to Asakusa (浅草), where Sensoji (浅草寺) is. Sensoji is a big Buddhist temple. Just outside of the temple, there's a nice street market. By the way.. Before we went to the temple, we tried to look for a place to eat. When we didn't find any "suitable" place, we got some sushi at the supermarket. It was Melissa's first time eating sushi! Sorry it couldn't have been sushi from a restaurant >_< After we were done wandering around Asakusa, we walked all the way to Ueno (上野) to check out Ueno park (上野公園). Ueno park is pretty cool. It's reallllllly big. After a nice walk in the park, I told her that we should go to Akihabara (秋葉原). I wanted her to check it out. If it wasn't for it's weirdness, it would have been an ok place XD All-in-all, we walked a lot that day XD Next day, I was able to show her Meiji Jingu. On the way to Meiji Jingu, lo-and-behold! We saw a woman walking around with her pet monkey.... Yes, a pet monkey XD Anyways, we were able to make it on time to the shrine. After showing her around, we went to the usual conveyor belt sushi place. I think that's everything I did with her.... The next day, she hung out with Justin and went to karaoke with him and his friends 'cause I had some classes. Overall, we had a lot of fun :D

And then, moving day on the 31st..... It was pretty ridiculous -________- Minami, a fellow student at Aoyama gakuin who I already mentioned in a post a few months back, helped Justin and I to move. I can't describe how annoying it was... It started off with Minami not reserving a truck (at Mazda in Takadanobaba) 'cause he thought that we would be able to find one on the day of the move. First place we went to didn't have any trucks. After making a few phone calls, we were informed that there's a truck back in Saitama. Saitama is about 40 minutes from the place we were at that moment. I was a little nervous because I already told people that we would come pick up things from their places and we didn't have the truck yet.... Fortunately, we found a Toyota rental car in the same place we were and they had a truck in stock! I was very relieved... After picking up the truck, we stopped at about 6 places. We got everything we needed. Unfortunately, I had to use my phone's GPS 'cause Minami's phone was dead. He has an unlimited plan, so it kinda sucked using mine, especially because I ended up maxing the amount of packets I could use XD For that day alone, I had to pay ¥4,000 XD My cellphone bill was pretty high 'cause of it, but it was well worth it. Anyways! We decided to rent the truck for 6 hours, but guess what.... It took much longer than that.... After we stopped everywhere, we had to stop at my place and at Justin's place to pick up our belongings. We ended up having the truck for almost 12 hours, and it was 15 minutes before the Toyota close for the day (10PM). On top of that, we had to refuel the car >_> So... There was no way we could have made it on time... Luckily, we only had to pay ¥6,000 extra to convert the 6-hours rent to a 24-hour one. If we returned it before, we would have to pay an extra ¥1,500 or ¥2,000 for each additional hour (¥9,000-12,000). In the end, it worked out perfectly. After we were done with everything, we decided to grab something to eat.... We were extremely exhausted and hungry. Justin and I treated Minami 'cause he kicked ass for helping us out. We ate at Watami (an izakaya at the center of Mizonokuchi). Overall, January was a hectic month, but it felt great when it ended XD

Stay tuned for February....

The Long Awaited Post? December 2008

2009-04-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

Let me apologize again for not updating the blog in a realllly long time. I've been busy with all sorts of things last month. Roee came to visit me from Israel and we've been all over the place, so I couldn't really update the blog. Anyways... I'll probably try and write about the passing months, so I'm going to write 4 long posts... Well, they probably won't be THAT long 'cause I'll be trying to write everything from memory. So here it goes!

December... Was kind of an eventful month. Other than the same routine of going to school and having very few private lessons that finally started to pick up at the end of the month, I went to an end-of-the-year party, which is called a bounenkai in Japanese (忘年会), on December 7th. It's funny, 'cause it literally means a gathering for forgetting the past year XD I was invited to the party by Akie, one of the women that works at the chat room. I went with Kazuki, one of Akie's acquaintances, and Yusuke, one of the chat leaders. It took place at Akie's house somewhere in Yokohama. I had to wake up quiet early, but it was well worth it. We got there at about 10-10:15. It was the first time I saw people drinking so early XD I had to pass, so I just drank a soft drink. During the party, they had a barbecue. The only thing I was able to eat at the party was the sticky rice, called mochi (モチ), that they made. I also had the opportunity to make mochi, and it was ridiculously fun. After steaming the rice until it's very sticky, you have to put it inside a mortar, and then hit it with a big hammer. All I can say that it's a lot of fun :D After talking for a bit, we left at about... 1:30 I think.

On December 13th and 14th, a few of us participated in a weird psychology research O_o It was about listening to the phrases "11:30" and "Is that so?" and circle the appropriate emotion we got from the speaker based on the tones. First day, we just listened to the phrases. On the second day, we actually got to see the speakers, too. In any case, I got ¥8,000 for 4 hours, so I was quite happy :) The research was weird, nonetheless. On the 17th, we had a really cool workshop. It was about candy art (雨細工 Amezaiku in Japanese). The guy created really cool animals out of really hot taffy. After he made our animals (I asked him to make me a phoenix ^^), we tried to make one ourselves. I wanted to make a rabbit, but I ended up making something that looks like a ghost boar XD

On the 19th, we had a Christmas party at school. They didn't serve a lot of food, but it was a nice amount. The party was followed by another party at the bar Steven works at for Waleed's birthday. I don't remember much about it, but it was a lot fun. A lot of people showed up. I think we had an after party... We might have gone to karaoke.

If I recall correctly, Justin came to Tokyo on the 12th, so he stayed over at my place for a few days. It was a bit cramped because of the size of the room, but we managed to live as comfortably as we could during those days XD It was fun having someone 'cause you do become a bit lonely after a while....

Our winter break started on the 23rd and lasted for almost 2 weeks. The break was great. On Christmas day, I went to Disney Sea with some of my friends. Actually, until Justin showed up, I was the only guy with them >_< Even though it was ridiculously crowded, we managed to get on a bunch of rides. My favorite ride was the Tower of Terror. I've heard that it's not as good as the one in Orlando's MGM studios, though. The main reason we went to Disney on Christmas day was because of the night show they put up for Christmas. It was a pretty cool show. Other than that, they put up other shows, which were pretty cool, too. You can expect nothing less but great shows from Disney, unless.... They get canceled -_- The fireworks show was canceled because it was windy... In any case, Disney was a lot of fun :D

At the end of the month, I went with my Korean (Ken, Jieun, Jieun, Yumi, and Ken's friend) and Thai (Chutima) friends to Ken's host family house for New Year's. It was a great experience, because I got to have an authentic Japanese New Year's. We stayed at the Fujii's house (Ken's host family) for 3 days. Other than having tons of food those 3 days, we didn't do too much. The visit to the local shrine on midnight was a very nice experience. Then, on the next day, we did a hatsumoude (初詣), which is the first visit to a shrine on New Year's. I'm not sure that the visit before midnight counts XD Actually, it probably did :D I forgot to mention that we made mochi!!! Again, awesome times ^^

Overall, December was a blast of a month! January will soon follow ^_^

Update

2009-02-23T10:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry guys for being sooooooooo terrible at updating my blog. I will try my best to update as soon as I can. I'm kind of busy at the moment with private lessons and whatnot. A lot of stuff happened since December. I'll try and summarize everything so that I won't have to type my whole journal up. Anyways, my friend Roee is coming to visit me from Israel on Wednesday. I'm realllllllllly happy that he's coming 'cause Justin left for Korea for a month and I was supposed to be here by myself, which is a bit lonely 'cause the apartment is pretty big XD Anyways, I'll try and update very soon. Sorry >_<

Update

2009-02-03T20:32:00.001-08:00

I finally moved! Justin and I settled in on the 31st. The new place is great :)
I will update as soon as I can! I won't have an internet connection until Monday....

Another Update

2009-01-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

Really sorry I haven't updated... Right now, I'm busy with papers, exams, and also, I'll be moving in 9 days, so I'm kind of stressed out :) But as soon as I move, I will be able to update! So please, look forward to it. I'm updating my journal every day, so don't worry! I'll post everything when I can!!!! So far, I've been uploading a lot of pictures on facebook, so you're welcome to check it out there :)

Update

2008-12-26T20:24:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been really busy lately >_< My break finally started on Tuesday and will last until Tuesday in 10 days. I will try and update as soon as possible :)

December 1, 2008 - Day 82

2008-12-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

Went to Japanese. After Japanese, I went to eat lunch. I was supposed to meet with Sonmi at 3:30, but she had to cancel, because she had a flu. So... I hung out at school. At some point, I went to the computer lab to work on my int'l institutions paper. I was quite happy that I started working on it yesterday. By the time I left the computer room, I was 2/3's done with it. After I left, I went to wrestling practice. Practice today wasn't as intense, so it wasn't too bad. After practice was over, I worked out for a "little bit." Soon after, I went back home.

November 30, 2008 - Day 81

2008-12-14T09:59:00.001-08:00

Today, I woke up at 8:30. We had another hike with professor Duignan. This time, we went to mount Kobayama. The hike was much less intense than the last one we had. At the beginning, we had a beautiful view of mount Fuji. At about 12:20 or so, we picked mikan (mandarins). For ¥400, we were able to eat as much as wanted as well as to take 1kg back with us :D Overall, a fun experience. After that, we continued with the hike. When we reached the final point, we had an opportunity to go to an onsen. I didn't feel like going in, so I decided to go back home. I got back home at about 5. I was supposed to meet with Kenjun today for a trial lesson. Kenjun is a guy from south-west Japan, form the island of Kyushu. Right now, he works in the IT industry. His English is probably the best out of all of my students. I really like him ^o^ He said that he'd introduce me to othjer people as well. After the lesson ended, I went back home.

November 29, 2008 - Day 80

2008-12-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

I had to wake up for business class today -_-; Ugh, I was really tired when I woke up, so I ended up going back to sleep. I was kinda late for class, but the professor didn't mind. After class was over, I ate lunch. After that, I hung out at school for a bit. Justin came at about 5:30 or so. We went to the arcade to play some video games. At that time, I vowed to myself to get better XD After we were done, we went to an all you can eat/drink (soda) Indian buffer. I saw an advertisement yesterday, so I told Justin that we should go there. They 3 different kinds of curry, and 2 of them were vegetarian ^_^ I was really happy. Afterward, I'm pretty sure we went back home.

November 28, 2008 - Day 79

2008-12-14T09:23:00.001-08:00

I had a quiz in econ today. It wasn't too bad. Ahhh.... The teacher returned our exams back.... The highest score was a 68 o_o The average was a 37.8. Again, I got above the average. I need to work a little harder, though. The material is quite annoying and doesn't make any sense. I'll probably ask my cousin about it. After class was over, I went to eat lunch. When lunch was over, I headed to Japanese. After Japanese was over, I chilled at school. Justin ended up coming again. He had to do some stuff at Aoyama. At about 5:20, a lot of people gathered in fornt of the school's Christmas tree for the lighting of it. It was a very nice event, even though I felt a little awkward XD At 6:15, I left for Fujigaoka. I was supposed to meet Keigo, a Japanese guy who wanted to have a trial lesson, at 7. Keigo is a pretty cool guy. His English is not bad at all. After our lesson was over, I went back home to eat and take a shower. After I finished everything, I went back to Shibuya. I was supposed to meet with Seun, Shiori, and some other people. Justin, of course, tagged along. We decided to go clubbing with Waleed and his buddies. We went to camelot. It was a lot of fun XD After we were done clubbing, we went back at 5:20.

November 27, 2008 - Day 78

2008-12-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

I went to sleep really late last night because I finally caved in and bought the skype monthly plan. For anyone who's interested, my number is 301-760-4963. Try and call during mornings or evenings EST. Anyways, I ended up not going to Asian politics. After I woke up at 11:45, I sent an email to my classmate in order to check up on what was going on in class. Apparently, (was canceled! Woot! That means that it was completely fine to sleep in ^o^ Anyways, I got to school just in time for Japanology. We had sumie (su-mi-e) today. Sumie is "charcoal" painting, if I'm not mistaken. It was a lot of fun. After class was over, I didn't have much to do. I was supposed to meet with Hisako, but unfortunately, she had to cancel class because she got sick. I ended up staying at school for a bit. A little later, I went to Steven's place. At about 8:20, I left. I went to an English pub to meet with friends of friends. My friend, Kazu, knows a Japanese girl who was hosting an Israeli girl for the week. It's always nice to meet Israeli people, especially in Japan 'cause it's so random XD When I got to the place, I met the two girls. Their names were Makoto and Reut. Makoto goes to Waseda and Reut is currently looking for a grad school in Japan. Kazu came at about 10:30. I left 10-15 miniutes later. I was starving like crazy XD

November 26, 2008 - Day 77

2008-12-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

I went to Japanese today. I did pretty well on the big "quiz" we had last week. After class ended, I hung at school for a bit. At 4:30, Steven and I went to the chat room. When the session was over, I went to the library. I wanted to see if I can find anything for my essay that is due next Tuesday. At about 6:30, I left for Shibuya station. I had my first trial lesson at Maskal (the Juku I mentioned in post 11/19). It took place at Shinagawa at 7:30. The students' names are Kousuke and Shiori. The third student that was supposed to show up, who I forgot his name, couldn't make it today. Anyways, the lesson was kind of fun. The students were really quiet XD They go to the 7th grade. Their English is good for their level. They didn't do much talking, I had to switch back and forth from Japanese to English. Overall, I think they enjoyed it. At about 9, I went back home with Andre. I really like him. He's like a mentor to me. He's been teaching English for quite a hilw, so he offers me some pointers from time to time. At about 10, I arrived back at Fujigaoka.

November 25, 2008 - Day 76

2008-11-30T07:54:00.001-08:00

I didn't have environmental politics today :D So... I went straight to international institutions. I can't believe that we'll have only 3 meetings of this class.... We haven't even handed in our first paper yet XD After that was over, I ate luinch. Then, I had Japanese culture. Same drill every week... Kanji quiz :D I have to admit, though, that I actually like kanji :P After class was over, I headed to Shibuya station. I had to meet with Sonmi. After the lesson was over, I headed to Le Boheme. Professor Duignan invited us again to dinner again, but we had to cover ourselves this time. It was a lot of fun. I got to meet more new people. At about 9:45, I went back home.

November 24, 2008 - Day 75

2008-11-30T07:51:00.000-08:00

I woke up at about 1. I made breakfast for Justin and me. At 2, I was supposed to meet with Hisako at Aobadai. After our lesson was over, I went back home. At 5:50 or so, I left for the station. There was a lecture at Temple University that professor Duignan invited us to attend. It was about Japanese-American ecnomic relations. It was pretty interesting. At about 9:20, I headed back home.

November 23, 2008 - Day 74

2008-11-30T07:45:00.000-08:00

Justin and I went to check Aobadai, which is a station prior to Fujigaoka. It is located only 500m from my dorm, and it takes only 10 minutes to get there. When we got there, we looked for a place to eat. We settled on an Italian place. After we ate pizza, garlic bread, and past, we left. We just hung around Aobadai until 4:30-5:30. At 8, we were supposed to meet Hinako and Mei. We were gonna get dinner with them. They also invited their upperclassman, Taro, who brought his friend, Wada, with him. We went to eat at the same place we went to after the Halloween party. It was a lot of fun ^_^ After that, Taro and Wada left. At about 12:45, Mei, Hinako, Justin, and I went to an all night karaoke. We stayed there until 5. We took the first train back home.

November 22, 2008 - Day 73

2008-11-30T07:37:00.000-08:00

I went to business class today. After class was over, I chilled at school. Some of us were supposed to go to dinner at about 6. At about 5, Asami got to campus. We hung out until 6. At 6, we went to Hachiko to meet Anna and Marika. I felt a little bad for Marika. Most of us are quite tall, and she's really short (1.50m) XD After we kept looking for a good place, we ended up going to Ohara, if I remember correctly. There, I ate an ikura don, which was salmon eggs on rice. It was quite delicious :D After that, we went to drink beer at an izakaya. Soon after, we went back home.

November 21, 2008 - Day 72

2008-11-30T07:32:00.001-08:00

I didn't wake up on time today because I was really, really tired. I ended up not going to econ. Today was one of those days that I didn't really feel like going to class. So.... I went to Japanese. After class, I went to eat. I hung out at the cafeteria for a bit. After that, I went over to Steven's place. At about 4:20, I went back to school. Today was the last session of the Japanese class that I was attending for the past 5-6 weeks. After the session was over, Steven and I went to wrestling practice. It was quite tiring XD When I finally got back home, I made me some food. At about 1, Justin came over. I let him spend the weekend at my place. In return, he treated me to some meals ^_^

November 20, 2008 - Day 71

2008-11-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

Today, I woke up at 9:40 because I was supposed to have Asian politics. When I got to class, only a few exchange students were there. Apparently, class was canceled -_- So all of us decided to go to the cafeteria. After our "extended" lunch was over, we went to Japanology. Today's class about the tea ceremony (茶道). It was quite interesting. After it was over, I hung out at school for a bit. At 4, I headed towards Hachiko. I was supposed to meet with Sonmi, a Korean woman who wants to improve her English. We had a 2-hour lesson today, which went by quite fast. Sonmi is a very nice woman. Her English is not great, but I hope she'll have more confidence as our lessons go on. After our lesson was over, I met with Takashi, Waleed, and Dominique. They grabbed spome tendon. I decided not to get anything 'cause I had enough food back home. After a bit, I decided to split. I was really hungry XD I actuallt wasn't as good as I wanted it to be XD Soon after, I went to bed (probably at about 1-2).

November 19, 2008 - Day 70

2008-11-30T06:40:00.000-08:00

I had a "big" test in Japanese today. Well, it'll be more correct to say that it was a big quiz. It wasn't too bad. After class was over, I grabbed something to eat. at about 3:55, I left for Shibuya station. I had an interview to work at a juku (塾 - a preparatory school) at 4:30. When I arrived at Shinagawa station, I met Mr. Yamazaki. He is one of the owners, I think. There, I saw Andre again. Mr. Yamazaki explained everything that was needed to be explained. About 20-30 minutes later, Mrs. Otani, the woman who opened the school, arrived. After they explained everything to me, they told me that they'll call me soon. I had a really good vibe from them. After the interview was over, Andre and I went to a nearby conbini (コンビニー Convenience store). We talked for a bit. After that, I left.

On the way back, I had to do some grocery shopping, so I stopped at Mizonokuchi. Ugh, it was quite annoying 'cause I didn't find any ATM that would take my card, or so I thought.... After 3-4 ATMs, I tried to put in my card in a different way, and it.... Worked -_-; I didn't withdraw the money, though. It required me to withdraw in increments of ¥10,000, and that was twice than I needed. I continued my quest of finding an ATM. By chance, on the way back to the other ATMs, I spotted a Japanese Post office. I thought that it was closed because the first ATM that I went to was a JP post office ATM and it was closed. Apparently, it wasn't closed O.o After I was finally able to withdraw money, I proceeded to do the shopping. When I got back home, I made myself some spaghetti with the sauce I bought. This time, I bought a Barilla brand sauce. All I can say is that it was amazing beyond words and that I never go to crappy pasta sauce. At about 2 or so I went to sleep (I think).

November 18, 2008 - Day 69

2008-11-30T06:33:00.000-08:00

I had my usual 3 classes today. Global environmental politics wasn't too bad. We talked about energy and topics that are related to it. Next, I went to lunch. After lunch was over, I went to international institutions. We talked about stuff that's related to international law. After that, I had Japanese culture. When class was over, I met with Hinako at the front gate. She asked me to burn her a CD with Israeli music on it. Then, I headed back home. I didn't do much when I got back.

November 17, 2008 - Day 68

2008-11-30T06:04:00.000-08:00

Went to Japanese. After Japanese was over, I grabbed some lunch. After that, I hung around campus. At about 6:30, we had our 2nd coffee chat meeting. There, I got to know more people. It was pretty cool. After that, a bunch of us went to an izakaya. We had dinner there. It was a pretty cool atmosphere. All of the people that went are pretty cool, so it was fun. At about 10:30, we headed back. When I got back, I was really, really exhausted.

November 16, 2008 - Day 67

2008-11-30T06:01:00.000-08:00

For the most part, I stayed at home today. At 1 or 2, I went to meet with Andre, a South African guy who's been living here for the past 5 years. He was one of the teachers of the preparatory school I wanted to work for. He's a really cool guy. When I got back home, I didn't do anything and that's pretty much it XD

November 15, 2008 - Day 66

2008-11-30T05:35:00.000-08:00

Today, I woke up at 9:45, even though I got woken up at about 9. I was too tired, so I decided to keep on sleeping for a bit longer. Anyways, we had breakfast and at about 11:20, we headed back to the station. At about 12:50, I got to Shibuya. Today's business class was interesting, but the professor wasn't very happy with us.... We felt kind of bad :X After class was over, we stuck around to ask him some questions. He told use some crazy stories about the Yakuza. It was really interesting, but scary at the same time;. After that, we went to grab lunch. I had to meet with Hisako at 3:30, so I ate pretty fast. After the meeting with Hisako ended, I went back home. I didn't do much tonight. I just relaxed for a bit.

November 14, 2008 - Day 65

2008-11-30T05:07:00.000-08:00

Midterm O_O The midterm was... so-so. I think, well, at least I hope so, that people did between average to ok on it. After the test was over, I went to grab lunch. When lunch was over, I went to Japanese. We had to deliver a speech about manners/attitudes of different types of people, so I did mine about the attitudes of foreigners. It was... ok. After class was over, Anthony and I went to Kiddy Land (a big toy store in Omote Sando). I had to buy something for Asami because it wouldn't have been a good idea to go to her birthday party empty handed. After we were done there, we went to Meiji Jingu. It was Anthony's first time there. When we were done looking around, we went back to school because we had that Japanese class at 4:30. Today's class was pretty good.

After class was over, I met with Alex and Asami next to the front gate. Then, we headed to her place. She lives at Saitama (north of Tokyo). It took us about 40-50 minutes to get to her place. She lives in a very nice house. Her parents were very nice to us. Asami has a cute cocker spaniel. Anyways, we had a great dinner. Her parents bought sushi and it had Ootoro (大トロ), which is the best quality tuna out there. In addition to that, her mom cooked some oden, which was also very delicious. After a bit, her 2nd friend, Yuka, came over. I forgot to mention that when we got to Asami's station, we waited for her friend, Noriko. Anyways, Yuka brought a cake with her. The cake was amazing.

After we were done, Alex and I started to create our first cake ever XD It was a lot of fun. I made the caked, while he made the frosting. The caked turned out very well for beginners. Alex had to call his mom via skype in order to find out about the frosting. I'm glad that he did because the result was great. There was one flaw, though. The bottom of the center part wasn't "fully" baked, but it was still delicious. After we were done with everything, her parents went to sleep. We just talked until 3 or 4 and then, I fell asleep.

November 13, 2008 - Day 64

2008-11-30T05:05:00.001-08:00

Asian politics. I was able to concentrate better in today's class. After class was over, I went to grab lunch. Afterward, Steven and I headed to Japanology. The ikebana lesson continued today. The arrangements that were done today were marvelous. After class was over, Alex Scharft and I went to the international supermarket down the street to get some cake ingerdients. Asami invited us to her home to celebrate her 20th birthday on Friday, so Alex decided that we should make a cake for her. After we were done, I went back home. I ended up studying pretty late.... Oh well -_-

November 12, 2008 - Day 63

2008-11-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

Went to Japanese. After Japanese was over, I went to the front gate to meet Asami. Wednesday is her day off, so she decided to come to Shibuya. After I grabbed lunch at the cafeteria, Alex, Seun (Korean exchange student), Megumi, Tim, his girlfriend, Asami, and I went to play a game of bowling. I ended up getting the highest score ^_^ I think it was 118 points. After we finished playing, Megumi and I played a game of taiko. It's been a while since I played it. As always, it was very enjoyable. I love drumming to the music of mario XD After that, Asami and I went to Alex's place. We hung out there until 9 or so.

On the train back, I sat in front of an American guy. We had a long conversation about different things. He was an interesting guy. When I got back, I had dinner. Later, I finally began to study for the economics midterm.

November 11, 2008 - Day 62

2008-11-16T04:15:00.000-08:00

Global environmental politics was a bit more interesting today. After class was over, I headed to the cafeteria. For some reason, the spot where we usually sit at wasn't lit up. When lunch was over, I headed to international institutions. Even though it's about humanitarian law and stuff that's related to it, it's a very interesting class. After class was over, I went to take my weekly kanji quiz. After I finished the quiz, I headed to the UN University. There was a talk about the 60th anniversary to the creation of human rights. It was interesting, but I was a little tired. I didn't keep up with everything. After it was over, I went back home. I better start studying for my econ midterm (it's on Friday o.o).

November 10, 2008 - Day 61

2008-11-16T04:11:00.000-08:00

Another new week O_O It's passing by too fast >.< I'm already 2 months here... Anyways, after Japanese class was over, I went to eat lunch. At about 3:20, I left school. I had to meet with Hisako. This time, we had the lesson in a cafe that is located right in front of school. It was a very productive lesson. I helped her with a couple of things. After the lesson was over, I went back to school. Steven and I had to go to wrestling practice at 6. Today's practice was more intense, but it felt really good. I actually felt like I had a great workout. My body hurt a bit after it, but it was well worth it. I plan on keeping up with it. After practice was over, I went back home.

November 9, 2008 - Day 60

2008-11-16T04:06:00.000-08:00

I didn't do much today.... Except for.... Cleaning! I actually vacuumed and organized the room. It felt really good ^_^ The room is a little bit shinier now XD That's pretty much it :P

November 8, 2008 - Day 59

2008-11-16T04:01:00.000-08:00

I didn't enjoy today's class as I usually do. I was a tad bit out of it. It was fun, nonetheless. Professor Duignan is such a great professor. He makes class so much interesting. After class was over, I hung around at the cafeteria for a bit. At 3:30, I met with Asami, a Japanese student who goes to Aogaku's Sagamihara campus. We grabbed some lunch at an Italian restaurant. After we were done, we hung around Shibuya. At about 5:40, we left for Sangenjaya (三軒茶屋), where we were supposed to meet wtih Alex Scharf. We we supposed to cook dinner at his place. At about 6, we met with him nearby the station. We went to buy the food. After that, we headed to Alex's place. Tomoka, a Japanese student who goes to the Shibuya campus, joined us later. It was quite a lot of fun :D At about 10:30, we headed back home.

November 7, 2008 - Day 58

2008-11-16T03:49:00.000-08:00

Econ.... Theoretical econ can very.... uninteresting. Before class was over, the professor handed the quizzes back. The highest score was a 7 (out of 10), while the average was 3.2 XD Lets just say that I scored above the average ^_^ Also, the professor is planning to grade o a curve, so that's pretty good. After class was over, I went to lunch. After lunch, I had Japanese. I had a quiz, which I totally forgot about.... :X When class was over, I went to Hinako's lecture in Japanese. It was the first time I've seen so many kanji written on a blackboard XD I was very, very confused by it. Also, it was a science-related class, so I couldn't keep up with all the vocabulary.

After class was over, I went to that Japanese class that is taught by students. All of the exchange students who attended today's class were very out of it. We were all tired o.o After class was over, I hung out at school for a little longer. Later, I went to an Okinawan restaurant with some people. The food there was relatively cheap, and it was very delicious. The portions were a little small, though. At about 10:40, Hinako and I left. I arrived at Fujigaoka at 11:40 or so.

November 6, 2008 - Day 57

2008-11-16T03:27:00.000-08:00

Went to Asian politics. After class was finally over, I went to grab lunch. Then, Japanology. Today, we learned about Ikebana (生け花), the art of arranging flowers. It was... Interesting. We have another lecture about it next week. After class was over, I hung out at school. At 4:30, I went to the chat room again. This time, Akie was the chat leader. She is a very nice older woman. Currently, she's taking night classes at Aogaku. After the chat was over, I met Hinako at the front gate. I gave her some of the omiyage I bought at Shizuoka. She was waiting for her friend Yuki. A bit later, we went to drink a beer at a bar. Anthony Matissi (another Anthony XD) tagged along. After we were done, we went to the tendon place. I didn't have tendon in a while, so it was a good dinner. Soon later, we went back home.

November 5, 2008 - Day 56

2008-11-16T03:22:00.000-08:00

I didn't do much today. I had Japanese for 3rd period. After Japanese was over, I went to grab something to eat. Sorry that the "usual" posts are getting more and more monotonous. I can't help it XD At about 4:25, Steven I went to the chat room. We had a chatting session with Nozomi again. When it ended, I met with Waleed. I hung out with him and Dominique for a little bit. After that, I went back home.

November 4, 2008 - Day 55

2008-11-16T03:12:00.000-08:00

I woke up at about 8 today. I felt really tired -_-..... I probably went to sleep at like 5 the day before. After I woke up, I got ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good. It was kind of a buffet and there were some fruits and vegetables. After I was done with breakfast, I picked up my "luggage" and went to the bus. About 45 minutes later, we arrived at a Buddhist temple. All of the temple's statues were beautiful and well crafted.

About an hour later, we left for the soba-making place. When we got to the soba place, we were divided into groups. We had fun making the soba. In the end, we got to eat it with some vegetable tempura. When we were done, we waited for the other people to get back from the temple. When they were back, we went back to Shibuya. Oh, I had some "sakura" flavored ice cream at the soba place. It was... very unique tasting :D Anyways, on the way back, we stopped at a rest stop. At about 4:30-4:40, we got back to Shibuya. I ended up going back home because I was really, really tired. I hadn't done much after I got back.

November 3, 2008 - Day 54

2008-11-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 7 today. We were supposed to meet up at the front gate at about 8:30. I was ready to leave at about 7:30. At about 8:20, I arrived at school. We got the trip's schedule soon after. There were 3 buses. I was assigned to be in bus 2 with some people I knew. The ride was.... not bad. We played some DS games against each other. Also, everyone on the bus had to introduce himself using a microphone. At some point we played "pictorial" shiritori. Shiritori is basically a game where you say a noun in Japanese and the next person has to say another noun. using the last syllable of the last noun that was said. The rule is not to say a noun that ends with n (like mon - 門, gate). For example, lets say I said ringo (apple). The next person will have to think of a noun that starts with go, like goma (sesame).

After a bit, we stopped at a rest stop. A Japanese rest stop is quite big, but it reminded me of an American rest stop. After we departed from the rest stop, it didn't take us very long to reach our first destination. Our first destination was a grape vineyard. We went there to pick grapes XD The grapes were very delicious. It was a bit weird, though. I'm used to eating grapes with skins, but this time, I popped them out of their skins and ate them skinless. After we finished picking grapes, we ate lunch. A bunch of us had a "vegetarian" lunch, which consisted of a fish, rice, and some udon soup. The other people had bacon and vegetables. The vegetarian lunch was very good ^_^

After that, we departed for Tokino Sumika (時之栖). It took us about 45 minutes to one hour to get there. When we got there, we had about 30 minutes of free time. Before we got to the hotel, there was an advertisement that caught my eye. There was an advertisement of the dead sea in Israel XD I almost flipped when I saw it. After we put out things away, it was about time to gather in the next door hotel's conference room. When we got there, we got divided into 12 groups. Each group had to discuss one question. In each group, there were Japanese and exchange students. The foreign exchange students in my group were Megumi and Shin (a Korean guy who has lived in England for about 7 years). The question our group had to discuss had to do with discrimination of foreigners by Japanese in Japan. It was quite a sensitive topic, but we had to talk about it. Megumi shared her story that had to do with the topic, which surprisingly enough, happened only last week. I, on the other hand, didn't have much to add, because I had only gotten here in September.

We had about an hour to discuss it. The discussion was pretty slow in the beginning. About 30 minutes into it, some of the Japanese students started to participate more, especially a guy nicknamed Busshu, and no, not because of Bush :P After the discussions were over, a member of each discussion group talked about the group's findings. When all the groups finished talking, Yoshiba sensei, the head of the IEC, talked for a bit. When he finished talking, we had about an hour of free time. I decided to check the town out. It's located in a very remote place, but it's a very nice and quiet place. I went to the souvenir store to buy omiyage (souvenir) to people who didn't come to the trip. After I bought the omigyage, I took a few pictures. At about 8, we all went to an all you can eat restaurant (a "viking" restaurant XD). We had 80 minutes to eat as much as we could. Surprisingly, we had free beer, too, so I had a couple of beers. After dinner ended, I was completely stuffed, so I had to go sit somewhere. I felt kind of bad because I did over stuff myself....

After about 20 minutes, I got out and sat down with Ken (one of the Korean students) and two Japanese girls who came with us on the trip. We talked for a bit. Afterwards, we all headed back to the hotel. Ken and I went to the hot springs and some other people joined us later. It was quite an experience ^_^ It felt warm and nice. It did fee lot of people from the trip gathered there and had a party. It was a lot of fun! After the party ended, a bunch of us went to a nearby mini "mountain." It was really cold and dark. It was filled with a lot of Buddha statues. At some point, I tripped -_- It was a little painful XD After we were done checking it out, we went back to the hotel to sleep.

November 2, 2008 - Day 53

2008-11-16T01:47:00.000-08:00

I went to the Ao-sai again. I woke up at 12 and cooked myself some rice. Since it takes about an hour for the rice to cook, I went back to sleep and woke up again at about 1. I had quite a lot of rice XD I haven't had rice in quite a while, so it was really nice. At about 14:50, I arrived at school. I met up with Hinako, a Japanese student who goes to Aogaku. We wandered around the booths. She introduced me to people, and I introduced her to some people as well. We got some kind of a deep fried Bulgarian "pancake," as well as moffuru, which is a waffle made out of mochi. After that, we went to the stage to see what was happening there.

At about 5:30 or so, more people joined us and we decided to go to a pub. We went to a place called the Hub (a "British" pub). I had a beer, while other people took advantage of the happy hour. At about 6:40, I received a phone call, from Dvora, my Israeli friends' mom. She told me that they were having dinner at an Israeli couple's place, and asked me if I would like to join them. I happily said that I will. At about 7 o'clock, Meir, the guy whose place I was having dinner at, came to pick me up in front of Hachiko. It was the first time I rode in a car in Japan. On the way to Meir's place, Meir and I talked for a bit. Apparently, he works with diamonds, so he knows my relative, Avi, who used to live in Japan and work with diamonds as well. After 5-10 minutes, we arrived at Meir and Judith's (his wife) place. Their house is quite big and nice. Dinner was Middle Eastern style, so I had some hummus, pita, tehina, and whatnot. It was very delicious ^_^ At about 10, we all left. I went to sleep pretty late because it took me some time to get ready for tomorrow's trip, as well as cleaning up a little bit. To be honest, I was just lazy, so I kept pushing everything back XD

November 1, 2008 - Day 52

2008-11-06T08:47:00.000-08:00

I woke up at 2:40 today XD I would have probably kept on sleeping if it wasn't for the school festival that was taking place this weekend. At about 4:20, I arrived at school. I wouldn't have been this late if it wasn't for me forgetting my pasmo at home (again -_-). I met up with Steven and we just hang out around school. A lot of clubs and circles (clubs with particular interest, but not as intense as regular clubs) ran food booths to raise money for their nomikais (drinking parties), probably. I couldn't eat 80% of the food they sold. Most booths sold takoyaki, which is fried octobus balls. After checking some of the booths, we went to see the "main" stage. Random bands were playing. Overall, it was a very fun experience. Everyone was so friendly, but Prof. Duignan "warned" us of that. He said that during the Ao-sai (school fes), everyone will be very friendly in order to try and sell you stuff. After the fes ends, everything changes back to normal, according to him XD I got back home at about 10:40. Didn't do much after that.

October 31, 2008 - Day 51

2008-11-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

Halloween! Woohoo! I've been waiting for today 'cause tonight, we had a party (a nomihoudai) with over a 100 people!!! Before the party, though, I haven't done much at all. I slept 'till almost 2 because we had a day off. At about 6, I went to do some grocery shopping. I didn't finish my run two days ago, so I had to complete what I was missing. I finally got more rice (5 kgs!) and some vegetables, too. When I got back, I made myself an omlette with tomatoes and onions.

After I was done eating, I took a shower and got ready. My costume was a lazy man's costume. I wore something that resembles a yukata. When I got to Shibuya, Alex gave me his pink baseball cap and Anthony gave me his black sunglasses. Two people told me that I looked like a celebrity in a resort XD The place we had the nomihoudai at is called J-pop cafe. It's a very pretty place. Takashi, Jaydeb, and Kelley also came. It was a lot of fun. After that, a bunch of people went to a club. Antoher bunch went to an izakaya, so I joined that bunch. We had lots of fun there, too. At about 5 AM, we went to McDonald's and ate a bit. When we were done, we left for home.

October 30, 2008 - Day 50

2008-11-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

Ahhh.... Asian politics. I love history, but for some reason, it's a little difficult to concentrate in this class. After class was over, I went to grab lunch. When lunch was over, we headed to Japanology. The class was surprisingly small. A few people were absent. Today's class was about Japanese puppetry. The puppets that were presented in class were quiet magnificent. After class ended, I hung out at school for a bit. At about 5:40, I left for Hachiko. I was supposed to meet Hisako, a Japanese woman who want to practice her conversational English. At about 6, after I met her, we went to a coffee shop inside Shibuya station. Hisako is a very nice woman. I think that she's in her late 20's, early 30's. She told me that she came to Tokyo to become a singer. She actually released 3 singles and 1 album.

At about 7:15, we left and we decided to meet again on Monday in 10 days. After that, I met up with Waleed and some of his friends. They were all looking for a Halloween costume. At about 8:30, we met with Maggie, Jenna, and Akim at Hachiko. Waleed wanted to take them to an okonomiyaki restaurant. An okonomiyaki is basically like a big omlette that contains whatever you want and you actually get to cook it. I chose one with only vegetables. Unfortunatley, we couldn't all sit together, so I ended up sitting with Minami (a Japanese student at Aogaku who went to elementary school in New York). He actually helped me out XD The food was great ^_^ After we finished eating, most of the people went to camelot, while I went back home. I was kind of tired, so I decided to go back.

October 29, 2008 - Day 49

2008-11-06T08:29:00.001-08:00

Had Japanese class today. After Japanese ended, I grabbed lunch. When lunch was over, I hung out at school. At about 4:30, Steven and I went to the chat room. This time, we had a chatting session with Nozomi. After that, we went to the cafeteria, where the monthly coffee meeting took place. I got to meet a few people there. There was actually a "bingo" there, where people had to find people who they didn't know (9 overall) and put their names on the bingo sheet. Each person whose name was drawn out had to introduce himself in a few sentences. I was like the 20th person to be drawn. Overall, it was a very nice event. After that, I went to Mizonokuchi with Joy and Nicole to buy some stuff at donki. At about 9:30-10:00, we headed back.

October 28, 2008 - Day 48

2008-11-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Ahhh.... The most annoying day of the week -_- Oh! I forgot to mention that yesterday, I got ¥10,000 back because of signing a contract with AU (cellphone company)! That pretty much created that "go crazy and buy food this week" incentive. I was quite thrilled ^_^ Anyways, classes were pretty boring. Same old routine... After classes ended, I hung out at Steven's place for a bit. Professor Duignan invited a few of us to dinner at La Boheme, an Italian restaurant. Since it's located at Omotesando, there was no point to go back home. At about 6:30, we left for Omotesando, where we met Megumi, and Roy. Soon after, Zarrah joined us and we headed to the restaurant. We met a lot of interesting people and it was a lot of fun. At about 10:45, we left for home.

October 27, 2008 - Day 47

2008-10-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Monday o.o; Time is going way too fast.... Oh well.... Went to Japanese today. After Japanese was over, I went to eat lunch. After that, a bunch of us stayed at the cafeteria and played some puyo-puyo pop. Everyone left the cafeteria at about 4:15. At about that time, I met with Steven, so we went to the cafeteria because he was hungry. Alex joined us, too. After 2 hours or so, Steven and I went to the wrestling club. I was taught some moves, while Steven actually "fought" some people. I actually got "beat" up badly, but it wasn't too bad. Everyone is really nice. Coach Ota is really cool, too. After we were done, we spent about 30 minutes in the gym. AFter that, we left for home. I went to sleep pretty late tonight -_-

October 26, 2008 - Day 46

2008-10-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today, I woke up at 6:40. Professor Duignan invited us to go hiking. We we supposed to meet at Shinjuku station at about 8:00, so I left at about 7:00. The place we went is called mount Mitaka (三鷹山). It is located in the outskirts of Tokyo. I found it hard to believe that we were still in Tokyo O.o; It was... Kind of rural. The scenery was amazing. The hike was quite intense.... The most intense part was a lot of "steep" hills at one time. It wasn't THAT bad, but I slept for about 5 hours, so.... Quiet tiring. At the time we ate our lunches, we were really hungry. Our tour guide, Michael, is a nice American who's been living here for a while.

In the end of our hike, we went to a Shinto shrine. I was quiet excited because I haven't been to one yet. It was quiet a spectacular site. After that, I got myself some mizu ame (水あめ), which literally means sweet water. It was a little sweet (obviously), but it wasn't too bad. The only major problem was that it was sticky.... I got some of it on my sweatshirt -_- I looked like a little kid :X On the way back to the station, we took the rail car down the hill. After that, we had to take a bus. On the train back, Steven and I fell asleep. We were realllllly exhausted. When I finally got back home, I stopped at the supermarket and got some cream of corn soup mix. Then, I went back home. The soup was... Very delicious :D I also made myself a great sandwich consisting of 2 fried eggs and bonito with mayo (basically, almost the same as tuna and mayo). After that, I went to sleep relatively early.

October 25, 2008 - Day 45

2008-10-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Went to int'l business today. This class is definitely the best class I have so far. Professor Duignan is very engaging and it seems that he likes to teach. After class was over, Steven, Anthony and I went to grab something to eat. When we were done, we went to a used clothes store to see if we can get something for Halloween. Some of the prices weren't that bad. After we were done looking around, at about 5:30, we went to Shibuya. Steven was supposed to teach his student today, so he brought Anthony along. I asked if I can tag along and not get paid because I wanted to see how it is. Steven asked the guy and he said that it was fine.

When we got there, there were other people besides the student (his friends). The guys treated us to a few beers and it was quite a lot of fun. When we first got there, there weren't a lot of people in the bar, but by the time we left, it was completely packed. We were about to go sit down at a different place (Izakayaー居酒屋), but there were some complications O_o; Anthony brought a friend with him, some random Japanese guy he met at the bar. The student, who was pretty drunk by then, didn't like it because he thought that the Japanese guy was trying to mooch of off him, so he got pretty loud. We ended up leaving the place. After that, we left for home. I ended up missing my train stop on the way back o.o; I feel asleep on the train. In the end, I got back at about 1:10 or so.

October 24, 2008 - Day 44

2008-10-28T10:47:00.001-07:00

Today, I had a quiz in econ. I should have prepared for it much better than I did.... Oh well, it was kind of a wake up call, so next time, I'll do better. After that, I went to lunch. When lunch was over, I headed to Japanese. After Japanese class was over, Alex Nelson told me that he can't go to today's Japanese teaching thing and that I'm welcomed to go in his place. I became really happy ^_^ I just needed to get the approval of the woman that was responsible for it, and I was good to go. So.... I waited until 4:30 in the cafeteria, and then, Alex (Gordon) and I went to the room we were supposed to meet everyone. After asking the woman, I got the thumbs up. The two hours went by pretty slowly, but it wasn't too bad. They also bought us a drink from the vending machine. Anyways, the student teachers were very competent. They taught their lessons very well. After the thing was over, I took the train to Mizonokuchi to buy some stuff at donki. After that, I went back home.

October 23, 2008 - Day 43

2008-10-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...... I was really tired when I woke up. I went to Asian politics. Quite boring.... After that, we went to grab lunch, and then, headed to Japanology. Today's Japanology class was definitely the most interesting class we had so far. Today's class was about Rakugo. Rakugo is a type of a comical story telling. It cosists of one story teller that talks about a story that has a punch line in the end. There were 3 story tellers today; two students, and one famous one. I was pretty surprised because I understood most of the first story, and a bit of the second one. The third one.... Not so much XD

During the "intermission" between the second and third stories, there was an entertainer who perfomred some really, really cool tricks. He juggled and at some point, he balanced quite a lot of things using his forehead, etc. To say the least, a very talented person. I definitely enjoyed today's class.

After class was over, a bunch of us went to the IEC. I was interested in finding a part time job, so the lady who was there told me what to do. After that, we hung out a little bit. At about 4:30, we went to the chat room again. I was quite surprised that Mizuki (my tutor) was working there because I didn't see her yesterday. Today, we had a chatting session with her. After the session was over, I think that I went back home. Tonight wasn't a very eventful night :P

October 22, 2008 - Day 42

2008-10-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Even though I sat the alarm for 8:40, I woke up at 8:55 because I was really tired. The other day, Alex told Steven and me that the boxing club meets on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 10:00 to 1:00, so Steven and I decided to meet at school at about 9:30. I got there at about 9:50. After I met Steven next to the school's main gate, we went to the club's room. No one was there, so we went to the cafeteria to do some homework. At about 11:50, we went back to see if there was anyone there.

When we got there, we saw some people training. We asked the assistant coach about the time of the meetings, and she said that they go from 11:00 to 3:00, but 1:00 to 3:00 is "free" time. Steven and I said that we'll be back again next week. After that, we went to grab some lunch. When lunch was over, we went to our Japanese classes. I finally began to notice that my Japanese is improving, but quite slowly. Hopefully, it'll improve a little bit faster after I join the clubs I checked out. After class was over, I hung out at school for a bit. At 4:30, Steven and I went to the Japanese chat room. I'll probably start going to the chat room on a regular basis. After we were done, I left for home. I haven't done much when I got back.

October 21, 2008 - Day 41

2008-10-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday.... Ugh, I don't like Tuesdays that much. Tuesday is my long day, so I never look forward to it. First class was environmental politics. It was quite boring :X After that, I ate lunch. When our lunch break was over, we were supposed to have int'l institutions, but our professor didn't show up 30 minutes after class started, so most of us left. I studied for my kanji quiz for a bit, and then, I went to the computer lab. When it was time to head out for class, I left the computer lab. This week's kanji quiz was not bad. I think that I got everything right. After class was over, I hung out with Steven for a little bit.

At about 5:00, I left for Omotesando station. I was going to Chabad, again. I went there to celebrate simchat Torah. When I got there, we didn't have 10 people, so we waited for about an hour. More people showed up at about 7, so we were able to pary. After we were done praying, we ate a big dinner. At about 9:30-10:00, I left for home. I ended up going to sleep "relatively" early because I wanted to check the boxing club tomorrow.

October 20, 2008 - Day 40

2008-10-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

Monday again.... I can't believe how fast the time is passing... It's almost been a month and a half since I got here o.o.... Anyways, I had Japanese today. After Japanese, I went to grab something to eat. After that, at about 5, Steven and I went to the gym. It's been a long time since I lifted weights, so I thought that it was about time to do so. After our "training" we went to check the wrestling club out. Steven was interested in it. The coach is a really nice guy and was very welcoming. We might join the club, but we'll only go twice a week, because they meet 6 times a week... Also, I'm interested in the boxing club, so we'll have to coordinate with that, too.

After that, I was about to leave for home when I noticed that I had two missed calls from Nave, an Israeli guy who is doing an exchange in Waseda University. I called him and he told me that today is Simchat Torah (another Jewish holiday), so he's going to Chabad. I told him to make that it is indeed today. Anyways, I got a call from him about 15 minutes later. He told me that there was something going on over there and that I should come. I thought that the holiday is supposed to be either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. In any case, I went there and ended up celebrating Sukkot (another holiday). I had some good food, so I didn't feel bad ^_^ When we left, the Rabbi told us to come again tomorrow 'cause tomorrow is Simchat Torah. I ended up getting back at about 10:30-11.

October 19, 2008 - Day 39

2008-10-23T09:43:00.001-07:00

Today, I woke up at 2:30 XD First time in a while that I woke up this late.... Today was a pretty boring day. I didn't do much. I went to the 99 yen shop at about 6 and that's pretty much it. Watched some more anime and went to sleep :P

October 18, 2008 - Day 38

2008-10-23T09:32:00.001-07:00

I ended up waking up relatively early 'cause I fell asleep before the time I planned on going to sleep... I had to finish all of the readings, so I've done that when I woke up. After that, I ate, and left for school. I forgot to mention a mysterious phenomenon that occurs on the trains here. Whenever a Japanese person is putting his/her head down, it means that he/she is sleeping or about to fall asleep. While I was observing this a couple of times, I noticed that when the sleeping person is about to lean on the other person's shoulder, he/she straightens up right way. It's really funny XD To observe it, that is. It's kind of uncomfortable when someone is about to lean on your shoulder, which happened to me a few days ago (maybe yesterday? :-X).

Anyways, I made it to class on time. I was the 2nd person to deliver today's speeches. It went pretty well. It was about the effects of "falling" oil prices, on its exporters. After class was over, I grabbed lunch and then hung out at school for a bit. Afterward, I went back. Steven kind of encouraged me to go out tonight to a club called Camelot. So.... I left home at about 11:10 and got to Shibuya at 11:50. We got to the club at about 12:50-1. Everybody danced and had lots of fun. We stayed in the club until 3:45-4. I ended up taking the first train home and got back to Fujigaoka at about 6AM.

October 17, 2008 - Day 37

2008-10-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

Macroecon was pretty boring. We have a quiz next week, so I need to study for it -_-; I was able to receive photocopies of the 3 chapters that we'll be studying from a Japanese student :D After macro, I went to lunch and then, to Japanese. It felt very "nostalgic" to go to Mihara-sensei's class because I didn't have her class since Monday of last week. After class was over, I hung out at school for a bit. I was supposed to attend this Japanese teaching thing that we got paid ¥2,000 for doing so (2 hours). Apparently, I wasn't even on the list of "accepted" students... I never got the email that said that I wasn't selected. I was quite angry to find out about that... But whatever. At about six or so, Steven and I went with Waleed and his French and Danish friends, Jenna and Maggie, to grab some tendon. Jenna and Maggie came to Tokyo for two weeks, so Waleed was showing them around of Shibuya.The tendon, as always, was delicious. I haven't had it for quite a while... Speaking of stuff I haven't had for a while, I better start eating some more sushi....

After we were done with the tendon, we went to an arcade and took some purikura pictures (camera booth pictures?). When we were done with the pictures, we hung out at Shibuya for a little longer. We went to the ¥50 arcade. Over there, I stupidly tried to exchange a ¥10 coin for 2 ¥50 coins because I thought that the ¥10 coin was a ¥100 coin. Anyways, I told what happened to one of the guys who worked there and he brought the technician. The technician showed me that there's no way the machine woul dhave done that because it doesn't accept ¥10 coins. I looked in my wallet again, and the ¥100 coin was still there -_-; I felt quite embarrased, so I apologized to them. After that, Dominique beat me in Tekken 6 quite badly. Right before I left, I apologized to the guys again. After that , I pretty much lefre for home. I had to get ready for my 1-minute quiz and for my presentation. After that, I went to sleep.

October 16, 2008 - Day 36

2008-10-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to politics class. Wasn't too bad.... After class ended, I got some lunch. After that, all of us went to Japanology. We had a guest speaker who talked about anime. That guest speaker is the president of Studio Pierrot, which is a pretty famous animation studio. They produce animes such as Naruto and Bleach and they also produced Yu Yu Hakusho. It was a pretty interesting lecutre, but I wish that I could have understood more of what the guy said -_-; After that, I hung at school for a bit and then, I went back home. Before going to sleep, I watched some more one piece :P

October 15, 2008 - Day 35

2008-10-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to Japanese. After Japanese, I decided to go to that academic English class I mentioned a long time ago. It's a funny class, but it seems that I won't be able to participate in it because I'm not technically signed up for it. It's a shame goes it looks like a fun class. After class, I got something to eat and hung out at school for a bit. Then, I headed back. I haven't done anything special when I got back. Just relaxed and watched some more one piece. Don't get me wrong. I DO study. I just don't bother to mention it in detail, because it's quite boring :D

October 14, 2008 - Day 34

2008-10-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

Was really tired when I woke up today..... I had 2nd period today, so I had to wake up at 9:30. After taking a shower and having breakfast, I left for school. Global environmental politics wasn't as boring as it was in its first meeting. After class ended, I went to lunch. I didn't have 3rd period, so I had lots of free time. I hung out with some people and ate some kitsune soba (different kind of noodles). After a while, I decided to go to the computer lab to update this blog. After a few minutes, Risa, one of the Japanese students who I sat with during lunch, came up to me and said that since she didn't have her student ID, she couldn't enter the library, so I let her use my computer.

While she used my computer, I studied for my kanji quiz. When she was done, I went back to my computer. After mylong break was over, I went to class. I knew all of the kanji except for one (煙). Completely forgot it when I was taking the quiz..... Today, we watched some video about Kyoto (京都). Kyoto's scenery is amazing. I can't wait to finally go there. After class was over, Megumi, Joy, Alex (a different Alex), and I went to a karaoke.

It was a pretty nice place. For ¥240 an hour, we could have drank whatever soft drink their list offered. While everyone sang pretty adamn well, I was pretty horrible. We ended up staying for 30 extra minutes. After we finished, we headed back to the station. I stayed for a little longer because I wanted to check how expensive was a 3.5mm to RCA converter was at Bic Camera. After that, I went back home.

October 13, 2008 - Day 33

2008-10-19T08:04:00.001-07:00

I didn't do anything . Well, actually... I watched some one piece and updated my journal :D About time, isn't it? Other than that, nothing special happened.... Nothing exciting. I feel kind of sick, so I didn't feel like doing anything. We didn't have classes today because it's a national holiday (another one XD). Sports appreciation or something like that :D I really like these random holidays. Oh, I actually made myself a great sandwich for lunch. Hard boiled egg with tuna and mayo ^_^ It was quite delicious. That was pretty much it for today. I didn't go to sleep before I studied for my kanji quiz :P

P.S. Megumi informed me of a discrepancy in the Tokyo tower post. Apparently, it's taller than the Eiffel tower by about 7 meters... Also, I forgot to say that.... Someone actually committed suicide in my station the other day O_o Thank God I wasn't there to see it happening >_<

October 12, 2008 - Day 32

2008-10-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the Tokyo Game Show! It's basically a really big convention that showcases all the upcoming video game titles that are planned to come out this year. After I woke up at 7:30, I took a shower, talked a bit with Sachi, and ate breakfast. I actually had cereal with milk XD People told me that Japanese milk tastes kind of weird, but to me, it tasted completely fine. At about 8:30, I left for Fujigaoka station. I was supposed to meet Alex at 8:51 at Shibuya station. When I got to Fujigaoka station, I realized that I forgot my pasom (metro card) at home.... I wasn't very thrilled to find that out.

After I went back, I got my card and left for the station again. I put an extra ¥1,000 on my psmo so I would have enough money to get to TGS. It took place in Chiba (千葉), so it was a little far. After I got to Nagatacho station (3 stations after Shibuya), I met with Alex (I told him to go there because I was going to b late). I felt bad because he waited 25 minutes for me due to my stupidity.... Anyways, we boarded the Yurakucho line nad headed to Shin-kiba station. When we arrived at Shin-kiba station, we switched to the Keiyo line and headed to Kaihin Makuhari station. We finally reached our destination at 10:10. We were supposed to meet Jaydeb and Kelley in front of the station, but they took the wrong exit, so we ended up meeting each other not too far from the convention center.

After we met, we bought tickets to get in (¥1,200), and we went inside. All I can say that it was HUGE! So many people, so many booths, so many games O_o; Overall, we had lots of fun. I actually got to play two games I really wanted to check out. The first one was the new castlevania for the DS, which pretty much offered the same gameplay as the other castlevania games, but a new it was a completely new game. I'll definitely get it as soon as I can. The second game, Shining Force Feather for the DS, was a really good game. While I was in line to play the game, one of the women who worked in the booth came up to me wiht the instructions and asked me if I can read them. I said not really, so she said that it might not be such a great idea to play the game because it'll be a little difficult for me to follow it. I insisted, and she said ok. I actually got to beat the battle :P which was the objective of this version of the game (TGS demo version). It's too bad I couldn't tell her that I managed to play through it because she was replaced by someone else when I was 5-6 people away from playing.

After we were at TGS for 4.5 hours, we decided it was time to leave. We were also very, very hungry, so..... We went to a nearby place that had lots of restaurants. Most of them were a little expensive, and we almost went to an Italian place, until we came across an Indian place that had a buffet for ¥998! I was quite happy because they had some vegetarian stuff, too. Overall, it was freaking awesome. After we finished eating,, we left back for home. I didn't do much, but relax. When I got back, I was really exhausted, so I was on the computer. I went to sleep at about 2AM.

October 11, 2008 - Day 32

2008-10-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

I ended up waking up at 12:40 O_o; That, whatsoever, wasn't my intention because I had class at 1:10.... I thought that my alarm was set, but it wasn't... So I pretty much got ready very quickly and left for school. I arrived at Shibuya at about 1:30 and at about 1:40, I got to class. I was suppose to deliver a speech, but the professor told me to do it next week. After class was over, Steven, Anthony, and I went to the lunch room. The lunchroom is in the basement of a building that is next to the front gate. In the ground floor of that building, there was a small art exhibit.

In that exhibit, drawings of American and Afghan children were displayed. It was really sad to see what they had to go through during that time. I didn't really know how both suffered, especially the Afghan children, because I was exposed much more to 9/11. In any case, it was a very deep view of the matter as it was seen by the eyes of innocent children.

After we left the exhibit, we went to grab lunch. Today, I found out that I could eat more stuff in the cafeteria! The other soups they have are fish-based (I asked if the soup contained any shrimp, meat, shellfish, and it didn't!), so I got myself some kitsune udon. When we were done eating, we went to Harajuku. Steven wanted to get a cross-necklace, so we went there.

After wandering around Harajuku, we left for Shibuya station. Just as we were about to get on one of the main street that intersects with Harajuku's Takeshita Doori (竹下通り), a crazy British guy handed us some flyers. He said some stuff that I found offensive, so I didn't really bother to read the stuff he gave us in depth. Anyways... After we left Harajuku, Anthony and I parted our way with Steven because he was walking back to his dorm.

After we arrived at Shibuya, we said our goodbyes and left for home. I actually stopped at one of the stations that is on my way back. Apparently, there's a donki at Mizonokuchi (溝口, where I stopped), so I did some shopping there. Also, I found a store that sells all sorts of things (mainly candy and snacks) for quite cheap, so I got some stuff there, too. After that,I headed back. Waleed tried and insisted that I should go with him and his friends to Camelot (a club in Shibuya), but I told him that I felt too weak, and also, I have to wake up at 7:30 tomorrow, so... I ended up not going and went to sleep at about 11:30.

October 10, 2008 - Day 31

2008-10-16T01:50:00.000-07:00

Went to macroecon. There were quite a few people who missed class today. I told the teacher that those students were probably too depressed to com to class because the nikkei, Japan's "NASDAQ," lost about 9-10% of it's worth this morning. She laughed and started to teach class. Gah... I thought that this class would be a little more interesting than it is.... I hope it'll become interesting soon....

After that, I headed toward Shibuya station because I had to meet Waleed at the closest Mitsubishi's bank branch. We ended up meeting at the branch located between school and the station. We wanted to complete our auto-debit application for our rent (basically, every month on the 27th, ¥65,000 will be deducted from our accounts) and Waleed wanted to inquire about wiring money to his account from France. What we didn't know was that there are privately owned branches, or whatever it was, so the guard kept telling us to go to the other branch that is up the street.

We went there, but there were only ATMs there... We ended up going back, and one of the ladies that worked there explained to us what to do. After that, we didn't really have enough time to deal with that because Waleed had class, so he went to school, whilel I went to the post office to get a photocopy of my bank passbook. After that, I went back to school and had lunch. When I finished my lunch, I went with Megumi (her 4th period got canceled) to the IEC to give them my rent-subsidization form (that's why I had to photocopy my passbook) and to sign up for the annual exchange student trip. I ended up being number 10 on the waiting list -_-; It's a very popular overnight trip to Shizuoka. I really hope I'll be able to go on it, because we'll be staying at a Ryokan (Japanese-style inn) and there's actually an onsen (温泉 - hot spring) there! Not only that, it's only ¥5,000 (30% of the actual price)! I couldn't sign up yesterday because I wasn't at school....

After I was done with everything at the IEC, Taka (Takahiro), a Japanese student, waited for Megumi and I next to the front gate. He went with us to the bank to help me out with the issues I mentioned earlier. He's a really cool and funny guy. At the bank, he helped me fill the form from before and he also asked the teller about Waleed's question. The teller gave us the bank's swift-code, which is basically a code that contains most of the essential information about the bank. The only thing that I need to do now is to actaully send the bank-stamped auto-debit form to Kyoritsu maintenance, which is the company I am currently renting the room from. After that, Megumi and I said goodbye to Taka when we arrived at school because he had some stuff to do at school. We headed back home. After I got back, I relaxed for a little bit and for some reason, I felt kind of weak later tonight....

October 9, 2008 - Day 30

2008-10-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

Since I went to sleep quite early last night, I woke up early. Well, the Rabbi knocked on my door to wake me up for services, but I was already awake. Services were long.... Morning service lasted for about 5 hours and 20 minutes, so we only had a 30-40 minute break between morning and evening services. During break, I hung out with Daniel and Yuliy, an American guy who's in Japan under the Fulbright scholarship. After we went back, we only had 2 more hours of fasting! After services ended, we had some refreshments.

There were quite a lot of people at the evening service. From what I've heard from Noah, an American guy who's been living in Japan for about 40 years, it's always like that during the evening prayer of Yom Kippur all over the world. After some people left, the rest stayed for "breaking the fast" dinner. This time, I ate to the point that I wasn't 100% full, but I actually felt like my appetite had been satiated :D

After we finished eating, Daniel, Yuliy, and I went back to Shinagawa station. On the way, we stopped at an Okinawan "shack/restaurant," where we got ourselves some Okinawan ice cream. They both got a potato flavored ice cream (I know it sounds weird, but it tasted like taro, so it was very delicious), while I got coconut ice, which was really good, too. After that, we went back. Wehn I got back, Waleed told me that I didn't miss anything special in Japanology because all they did today was play more Go.

October 8, 2008 - Day 29

2008-10-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

Today, I only had one class (Japanese). After class was over, I went straight to Chabad because today was Yom Kippur's night. In Yom Kippur, Jews fast and usually do nothing but pray. It depends on the denomination, I guess... Anyways... Right before Yom Kipuuer started, which was at sun dawn, we had the arucha mafseket, which basically means the meal before the fast. I ended up stuffing myself and I felt a little bad during the beginning of services.

During the arucha mafseket, the Rabbi informed me that I was welcomed to stay over because his family, who was supposed to return today from Israel, couldn't return today due to a mix-up on Uzbakistan Airlines' side. I was quite happy because I didn't want to use the train on Yom Kippur. After services were over, I went with Daniel, an American graduate student at Princeton who came here to work on his Japanese, to Shinagawa station (品川駅). After we got to the station, we parted our ways and I went back to Chabad. I ended up going to sleep quite early ^_^

October 7, 2008 - Day 28

2008-10-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

I didn't have global environmental politics today because our professor had to go to Copenhagen... Lucky him... Anyways, I went to int'l institutions. I think it'll be an interesting class 'cause I might have some arguments with the professor ^_^ After class ended, I headed to Japanese lang & society. I had a kanji quiz, which I thought that I was completely ready for, but... I didn't know a few of the readings... I knew probably 85-90% of it, though. During class, we actually watched a video about the different festivals in Japan (obviously, not all of them). Pretty interesting, but too bad it was still too hard to understand everything completely.

After class was over, a bunch of us hung out at Aogaku's lunchroom. We played abit with our DSes (I was pretty bad XD) and then, we headed back. Later tonight, I bought some stuff at the 99 yen shop. After I left the 99 yen shop, I got a small salad at the supermarket. I finally had a nice dinner that consisted of a soup, a salad, spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese, and some chocolate for dessert. After that, I stayed up for a bit longer and then, went to sleep.

October 6, 2008 - Day 27

2008-10-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

As much as I've disliked Mondays in the US, Mondays here are pretty nice ^_^ The main reason for that is because I have only 1 class on Mondays and it starts at 1:10. Also, the teacher (Mihara-sensei), is really nice and cool. I enjoy her class quite a bit :D After class was over, I went to grab something to eat. I hung out at school until 6. At 6, Waleed, Anthony, Minkyu (one of the Korean girls), Will and I met up with Ken, a Japanese student at Aogaku who spent a year in France. Ken had free tickets to a football game at Tokyo Dome today.

After we arrived at the station closest to Tokyo Dome, we got ourselves something to eat and took it with us to the stadium. Pretty nice and convenient :D Anyways.... The game was.... Pretty bad XD The final score was 62-0 to one of the teams..... After the game ended, we headed back home. When we arrived at Fujigaoka, Waleed and I went to the supermarket to get some groceries. After that, we headed back to the dorm.

October 5, 2008 - Day 26

2008-10-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

Did absolutely nothing. On one hand, it feels great not having to work. On the other, it makes you realize how much of a couch potato you are. Not only that, but couch potatoes tend to gain weight, right? In my case, I seem to be losing weight, so it's technically being a little bit of a couch potato... But you know what? I've been working like crazy this summer in order to partially finance this year, so I feel like deserve "some" resting days :P Anyways, the only thing I did today was laundry. Didn't have too much, so it wasn't too bad. Other than that, I just relaxed in my room :D

October 4, 2008 - Day 25

2008-10-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

Went to the business class today. I volunteered to give a 2-minute presentation next week -_- After class ended, we went to grab lunch. I got myself some fried fish. I really like it :D After we were done eating, we went to Donki. According to Megumi, they sell a drink called Pepsi Hawaii (or something like that) that has a similar tase to Pepsi Blue, which is one of my favorite drinks. Of course, they didn't have it . They either didn't have it, or we were very lousy searchers. Anyways, after doing some shopping, we left for home.

October 3, 2008 - Day 24

2008-10-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

School, school, school, school....... Went to macroecon. It wasn't too bad. After macroecon, a bunch of us headed to lunch. Yet again, I had miso ramen. After lunch ended, I went to Japanese. When Japanese was over, I hung out at school with some people. It was a mixture of Japanese students and exchange students, so we talked in Japanese and English, but mostly in Japanese. It's the best practice I can get ^_^ I really hope I'll be able to do that 3, 4 times a week.

At about 6:45, Megumi and I left to Hachiko. Nori, Alex's tutor, planned a "surprise" party for him. So... We went to a nomihoudai again. It was quite a lot of fun. I actually had more food this time ^o^ After it ended, a bunch of use went to another place. We hung out there for about 30-40 minutes before we parted our ways.

October 2, 2008 - Day 23

2008-10-13T08:43:00.001-07:00

First of all, sorry about not updating the blog sooner. It was a combination of being busy/lazy when I had some free time. Anyways....

Same as always. School, classes, lunch, and, if I'm not mistaken, home. Today, in politics class, the professor gave a background of the Cold War. It wasn't boring, but I was a little out of it because I was tired. After class was over, I went to lunch. When lunch was over, my friends and I headed to Japanology. In Japanology, we learned about the game of Go (囲碁). It's a pretty interesting game because it involves lots of strategy. I kind of got the hang of the game. Afterward, when class was over, I think that I went back. Well, that's what happens when I don't update daily o.o; I start to forget things x_x......

October 1, 2008 - Day 22

2008-10-05T09:14:00.001-07:00

I decided to go to Chabad today for the last day of Rosh Hashana. I didn't register for the Tue/Wed Japanese course because I have a conflict with the int'l institutions course, so it was ok not to attend this week's Japanese Wed class. I got to Chabad a little late, but we had enough people (at least 10 are needed), so we were able to pray. I actually did an aliyah (aliyah la'Torah), which means to "read in the Torah." After we finished praying, we ate a delicious lunch.

During the prayer the Rabbi received a package, and that package contained.... homemade honey cakes that were made by the Rabbi's wife and was sent from Israel. The cakes, which were held in customs for 3 days, took 3 additional days to deliver. Nevertheless, the cakes were.... beyond amazing. During the past two days, we ate the cakes they made here, which were good, but I can't compare them to the ones from Israel.

After we were done eating, we chatted for a bit. I forgot to mention that on the first day, I met this old Japanese man who goes by the name of Moshe (Moses). A really nice/cute old man XD We talked for a bit two days ago :D After we finished chatting, I headed back home, 'cause I wanted to relax. I went to sleep pretty late because I actually watched some anime on TV XD I probably understood about 20% of it :P Maybe more, who knows?

September 30, 2008 - Day 21

2008-10-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yet again, I was late to school, but I have a good reason! Well, it's not that good, but I had a terrible stomach ache when I arrived at Shibuya.... If it wasn't for that, I would have made it on time. After I got to school, I felt a bit better. Today, I had 3 classes. The first one was global environmental politics, which is taught by professor Ota. Honestly, I'm only taking this class because it counts toward my degree requirement. It seemed like a pretty boring class.... After that, I had lunch break. After the break ended, I went to my international institutions class.

This class is taught by professor Popovski, who is also teaching at the UN university, which is right across of Aogaku. This class deals with human rights and int'l law. I hope it won't frustrate me :P After the class ended, I proceeded to my Japanese lanuage & society class. I had no idea where it was because it didn't meet at its original location, so I had to go to the IEC to ask where it was takinbg place. After I finally found it, I apologized for being late. This class is taught by Kawabata sensei. Hopefully, it'll be interesting. After class ended, I hung out aaround school for a bit and then, I left for Omote Sando station (表参道駅, nearer to school than Shibuya station) in order to go to Chabad again.

After arriving at Shirokanetakanawa station (白金高輪駅), I hung out there for a little bit because I got there a little early. I checked the nearby supermarket out to see if there's anything else that I can eat. Found quite a few things ^_^ After that, I headed to Chabad. This time, there were only 15-20 people. Most of the French students didn't come. After we finished praying, we ate dinner (which was amazing :D). Soon after, I went back.

September 29, 2008 - Day 20

2008-10-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

Went to school.... Again :D After Japanese ended, I didn't do to much. At about 5, Steven and I went to professor Sagawa's seminar. We talked about certain things and answered some of the questions the students asked. Oh, before I forget, I forgot to mention that I had an interview on the 26 in order to become a chat leader at Aoyama's English chat room. I thought that the interview went pretty well, but when I went to the chat room today, I found out that I didn't get it...

Anyways... After the seminar ended, I went to Chabad to celebrate Rosh Hashana (Jewish new year). It was a very interesting/different experience. There were about 30 people there and the majority consisted of exchange students from France. Anyways, the meal was amazing... I haven't had that much food in a while, so I was very happy ^________^ Additionally, I can't even tell you how happy I was to eat kosher chicken(!) after not having meat for almost 3 weeks... After the dinner ended, I went back.

I forgot to mention that on the way to school, Waleed and I were greeted by an old couple, which made me very happy ^_^ It was the first time that such thing happened :) and hopefully, not the last :P

September 28, 2008 - Day 19

2008-10-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

Today wasn't a very productive day. We planned on going to a karaoke place at Shibuya. We made plans to meet at Shibuya station at about 4. Waleed and I got to the station at about 3:34 (Fujigaoka), and the train was....... very late -____________-; which is very, very, very unlikely in Japan. I gave up at about 5:10 amd we both went to the 99 yen shop to do some shopping. When we headed back, we stopped at a bakery that is located next to the post office. I ate a chocolate filled pastry and some baked bread with cheese and tomatoes. It was pretty good ^_^ After that, Waleed went back to the station. I decided not to go 'cause the train didn't arrive yet (later, Waleed told me that it got to the station at 6:30). So.... I ended up going back to my room.

September 27, 2008 - Day 18

2008-10-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

I decided to check out the business class that is offered today, so I left at about 12:05. I got to school at about 1:10. The class, called International Business (I think), is taught by prof. Duignan. Professor Duignan is from Ireland and he's been in Japan for quite a while. He's a very interesting guy. I'm sure I'll enjoy his class. After class ended, we went to grab lunch. When we finished lunch, we went to Shibuya, and, of course, to the arcade. I can never get old of the Taiko game ^____^ It's so much fun!!

After we were done playing, we wandered a bit. Steven saw a girl who was drinking a bubble tea, so he decided to ask her where she got it, 'cause he wanted go get one for himself. With the help of Megumi, we fond out that there's a bubble tea place at Shibuya 109, which is a tall building filled with numerous stores that are geared toward girls. After people got their bubble teas, we decided to split. It was still early, but I thought that it was enough for one day. Megumi, Joy (another exchange student), and I took the dento (denentoshi) back home. I ended up going to bed quite early.

September 26, 2008 - Day 17

2008-10-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

Same routine as always. Woke up, had breakfast and went to school. Today, I had macroeconomics and Japanese. First time I'm taking an econ class, so I hope it'll be a good class. After econ ended, Takashi came over to Aogaku to have lunch with me and some of the other Aogaku students. Mizuki was also able to join us, so it was pretty nice. I had some fried fish :P After our lunch period ended, we made plans to meet in front of Hachiko (ハチ公 - a statue of a dog in front of Shibuya station) at about 5:30. After Japanese class ended, I hung at school until the time we planned.

When we met at Hachiko, we went to a thing called a nomihoudai (飲み放題), which technically means "bottomless drink." It was planned by Megumi, one of last semester's exchange students. It was ¥3,000 and they also served some food. Unfortunately, I couldn't eat most of it 'cause it contained meat. I did have some pizza and fried fish, though. Nomihoudais usually last for two hours, so we left at about 8:10. It was quite a lot of fun :D After it was over, some people went karaoking, but I thought that I spent a little too much already, so I headed back home. After I got back, I made myself some rice and watched the Spiderman movie on TV...... Dubbed in Japanese O.O; Was quite funny, to say the least XD

September 25, 2008 - Day 16

2008-10-05T05:45:00.000-07:00

We were late to school again -___- Thanks to someone *ahem*Waleed*ahem* My first class today was Asian politics. Professor Takagi looks like a very smart man. The class is about Chinese foreign policy, so I hope it'll be interesting. After the class was over, I grabbed some lunch. Yet again, I got the miso ramen. After lunch, all of the exchange students went to a class called Japanology. In Japanology, we learn stuff about Japanese culture and society. Every time, someone else comes to speak. The first professor, who's name I forgot, spoke in Japanese pretty fast @_@ I probably understood only 10% of what he said. At the end of class, I got to meet some of the exchange students who came to Aogaku last semester. To say the least, they're a cool bunch of people.

At about 6 or so, Waleed, Dominique, and I left for Shinjuku. Waleed had to meet Shoko there to give her her umbrella back because she forgot it at his place. After we got to Shinjuku, I took, yet again, loads of pictures. While Waleed met up with Shoko, Dominique and I wandered around. I am not 100% sure, but I think we walked through Kabukicho (歌舞伎町), which is a district in Shinjuku that is filled with hostess/host clubs, pachinko parlors, and... Sleazy places -_- Oh, we also went to Donki XD That place never gets old. After wandering in Shinjuku for quite a while, we met up with Waleed again. Frustrated, he told us that policeman stopped him for questioning.... Quite weird, if you as me o.o;

After we met him, Dominique grabbed something at Burger King, and Waleed and I went to McD's again. We got 2 filet-o-fish & some fries and a drink. After finishing everything, I decided that I've had enough of McD's (8.5 in 3 days, forgot to mention that I had 2.5 yesterday XD), and that I probably won't eat there for a while..... Every time I ate there resulted in a bad stomach ache. After that, we headed back to Shinjuku station and back home.

September 24, 2008 - Day 15

2008-10-05T05:26:00.000-07:00

Today, school was back in session. I only had Japanese, though. After the class was over, I hung out with Waleed. I went to check his academic English class, which was.... very interesting XD We talked about puns. The teacher is an American guy who's been here for 10 years or so. There are 4 Japanese students (2 guys, 2 girls) in addition to Waleed, a Korean girl that we know, and me. I talked in class quite a bit, so at the end of the class, one of the guys insisted that I take this class so that I would help them (Japanese students) with their English. In exchange, they would help me with my Japanese.

Afterward, I met with Takashi in front of Shibuya station. We wandered around in order to find a place to eat. In the end, we found this udon (noodle) place. Udon are basically thick noodles. I can't really describe their taste, but they taste pretty damn good. I got a kitsune (fox) udon. Obviously, there's no fox meat in it, but what it did have was a piece of sweet tofu. After we were done eating, Takashi and I went to a McDonald's that is right next to the Udon place to get a filet-o-fish. After we left McD's, we met up with Waleed. Waleed was quite hungry, so we went to McD's again. After Waleed was done eating, we hung out at Shibuya.

At about 8:20, we boarded the train that head to Nishigahara (西ヶ原). Well, to be more correct, we boarded a train to somewhere, and then we had to transfer. We went to Nishigahara station because we went to pick up my TV! Finally, I'll be able to watch basic Japanese TV and play some of the games I brought. The guy who sold me the TV, Juan, is a Colombian grad student who came to study at Tokyo University (also Elec Engineering XD). His place wasn't very far from the station, but carrying the TV back home was quite a workout -________-.... Soince it's a 21" TV :X When we got back, we had to climb the "Hill of Doom," which was not fun... I forgot to mention that Juan also gave me a compartment with plastic drawers (for free! ^O^), so I had something to put the TV on and some more storage space. So I was the one who carried the TV, and Waleed was the one who carried the compartment and my backpack. After we got back, I pretty much collapsed on my bed XD

September 23, 2008 - Day 14

2008-10-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't updated in a while... Sorry >_< I was quite busy these past two weeks.... Anyways! Didn't do anything special today. Woke up, had breakfast, and relaxed in my room. We didn't have classes today because today was a national holiday (Autumn Equinox day, or something like that...). At night, I met one of Waleed's Japanese friends, Shoko. She came to visit him, so he introduced us. After she left, we went to McDonald's because there's a promotion between the 18th and the 28th of this month. One filet-o-fish costs ¥100! YES!!!! I ate 3 and got myself a small milkshake. Here, the sizes are pretty normal. Well, it's good and bad at the same time because back in the US, small = medium+ size. Here, small is miniscule... After that, we went back home.

September 22, 2008 - Day 13

2008-09-23T01:39:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of classes!!! Woohoo! I woke up at about 11, talked with Sachi for a bit and then headed to school. Waleed and I left a little late, so we were late for classes. My only class started at about 1:10 and I got to it at 1:20 because I had a hard time finding it. After I found it, I saw a note on the door that said that the classroom has been changed -____- After I got to the right classroom, I felt a little bad about being late.

Soon after, I got to meet my new Japanese teacher, Ms. Yuko Mihara (裕子三原). Mihara-sensei is a very nice woman. I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun in her class. When my class ended, I went to the cafetaria with my fellow classmate, Alex. It's Alex's 2nd semester, so his Japanese improved quite a lot. Hopefully, my Japanese will improve like that, too. After I finished my luinch (vegetable miso soup/Inari(いなり)-Bean curd), I said bye to Alex because he went to the school's gym with one of the Korean exchange students. I decided to join my other classmates, who decided to go to a small coffee shop next to school. It was quite expensive and I don't really drink coffee, so I decided to leave.

I tried to contact Dominique because I wanted to go to the arcade. He was in class, so we decided to meet later. So... I ended up wandering around Shibuya. In the end, I went to Roppongi (六本木) O.o; It's a place in Tokyo where most of the foreigners live. It's an interesting place because it caters to foreigners quite a bit. I saw lots of signs that had to do with sleazy place, so I was a little turned off by it. The fact that I saw so many foreigners there also turned me off. I ended up checking Roppongi's Don Quijote, which was much more spacious and less crwoded than the one in Shibuya. After leaving Donki (Don Quijote's acronym), I headed towards Tokyo Tower, which was quite nearby. Tokyo Tower is kind of like the Eiffel Tower, but much smaller in comparison.

After taking loads of pictures, I went to the nearest koban (交番-Police box) to ask where the closest train station was. After hearing the policeman's explanation, I proceeded to the station because I had plans to meet with Dominique. I was quite late because I boarded the wrong train when I had to transfer trains. After I got off at the right place, I tried to put my ticket in, but for some reason, it didn't work... I kept trying, but it still didn't work. The station attendant called me over and started to speak to me in English, so I replied in Japanese He told me to go to the fare adjustment booth. After talking to the people at the booth, I got a "corrected" ticket and I thanked the station attendant for helping me out. I finally got to the right line (Fukutoshin line - 副都心線), which headed to Shibuya.

When I got off at Shibuya, I ran into Farrah, another exchange student at Aogaku. She told me that she and some other exchange students are having dinner at a European style resaurant. It was then that I found Dominique and the rest of the guys I had to meet. We went to si to one of the ohter guys who was having dinner at that restaurant. We ended up going to the same place I ate the tendon the other night because we didn't feel like joining the other guys. After eating the tendon, we went to the arcade, which got me quite riled up. It can be be quite frustrating, but nonetheless, it's a lot of fun. Luckily, I "only" spend 300円(yen). After we left the arcade, we waited for the other guys from before. We ended up going back home at about 10:30.

September 21, 2008 - Day 12

2008-09-23T01:38:00.001-07:00

Today was very similar to yesterday... Didn't do too much. I went with Waleed to the 99&100 yen shops to get some stuff. After we got back, we did the rest of our laundry. Ended up being a pretty boring day.

September 20, 2008 - Day 11

2008-09-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

After I woke up at about 10:30, I left my friend's apartment and headed back to Fujigaoka. Today wasn't a very eventful day. I pretty much stayed in the room all day long, with the exception of going to the laundry room to do some laundry.

September 19, 2008 - Day 10

2008-09-23T01:17:00.000-07:00

Today, again, I went to Shibuya. At about 2:20PM, Waleed and I arrived at Aogaku to meet up with our tutors. I've been trying to meet up with Mizuki for the past two days, but she's been sick, so it didn't work out. Today, luckily, she felt better, so we were able to meet ^^ After we met at school, we went to Bic Camera, so that I could get my cellphone.

On the way there, I talked to her about Sachi because she was quite curious about her after I mentioned her (Sachi) earlier today. After I described Sachi to her, she kept on complimenting her, and I smiled and agreed, saying "yes, she is," etc. Then, Mizuki mentioned that it's not very Japanese to receive compliments and Japanese people usually shut them off as soon as they're being complimented. In spite of that, se said that people shouldn't act like that if they're in a relationship because, after all, girls like to be complimented and praised. She was really happy that I was doing that and she really looks forward to meeting Sachi.

After we arrived at Bic Camera, I selected my phone. It was then that I realized that I forgot my alien registration certification back at Fujigaoka... I felt quite stupid -_-... I ended up going back because I had to bring it. I got back to Bic Camera at about 18:50. After 30-40 minutes, my phone was activated and I was able to use it. Soon after, a few of use went to a party hosted by one of the exchange students at his place back in Shinjuku (新宿). It lasted way after the trains stopped working, so I spent the night there.

September 18, 2008 - Day 9

2008-09-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

I woke up and ate breakfast. I finally started to get used to the hour difference. Today, I went to Shibuya with Waleed to open a bank account. Before opening an account, we met Waleed's tutor, Nori (his nickname), Steven, Ripley, and Ripley's tutor (don't remember his name...) at Shibuya station.

After we met them, we went to a conveyor belt sushi place, where most of the plates you grab cost about ¥105-110. You can also order a set lunch. I ended up ordering an oyako don (親子丼), which is literally a "parent and child" don. An oyako don usually consists of chicken and fried eggs on rice, but at the sushi place, it consisted of salmon sashimi and salmon eggs (Ikura - いくら) on rice with some vegetables. It was the first time I had sushi in Japan and it was the most delicious sushi I've ever had.

After we were done eating, we went to open a bank account. After that, some of the guys got cellphones. I decided to wait because I didn't find a phone I really liked. After that, Waleed Dominique, one of Waleed's friends who is studying at Keio University (慶応大学), and I went to the arcade again. There, I experienced my first virtual beating by a Japanese guy in a game of Tekken 6. Waleed had to leave in order to meet his other friend, so only Dominique and I stayed at the arcade. We got to hang out at Shibuya for a while. We ate dinner at a really nice and cozy Japanese place. I got an order of tendon (天丼) and soba soup (そば), which was fish based. The tendon consisted of fried vegetables and rice. I must say that it was quite amazing.

After that, Waleed met with us and we went with him to get some krispy kreme donuts. Soon after, we showed him the place where we ate because he was quite hungry. When he was done eating, we headed back home. After we got off at Fujigaoka, we went to the supermarket to get something for tomorrow's breakfast. We got some mango French bread with whipped creme. I already had it a few times and I have to say that it's one of the best things here ^_______^

September 17, 2008 - Day 8

2008-09-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

After I woke up, Waleed and I went to the ward office (区役所) in order to try and get our alien registration card. I forget to mention that we got our commuter passes yesterday, which are saving us so much money... One ride to Shibuya from Fujigaoka costs ¥260 and a monthly pass costs ¥4,090. Not only that, but we can stop in between those stations for free (there are 17 stations in between). The ward office is located in Ichigao (市が尾), which is one station away from Fujigaoka. Yesterday, they told us at school that the residents of dormy Fujigaoka (us) and dormy Eda are supposed to go there (ward office) on Thursday, the 18th. We decided to try and go for it anyways because we wanted to get our certificate (it takes 2 weeks to get the card) so we could open a bank account and get a cellphone right away. Unfortunately, they told us at the ward office that it would take about an hour and a half to issue the certificate, so we told them that we would come back tomorrow, because we were quite late for the orientation.

We got to school at about 10:35-10:40. Today's orientation was about course registration, etc. We got to the information session that was conducted in Japanese. We felt a little bad, because it wasn't required to attend that session because the English one took place a little later that day. We couldn't help feeling bad, because we could have gotten our certificates today. After the information session, I found out that I placed in level 3 (out of 5 levels) of Japanese. At first, I felt a little disappointed because I thought that I would be able to place in level 4, but then I realized that level 4 would be quite hard. 3 Korean girls placed in level 5, 3 (I think) other Korean and 1 Spanish girls places in 4, the majority of us placed in 3, and the rest in 2 and 1. The Korean girls' Japanese is very good. They can speak the lanuage with little to no problem at all. The Spanish girl is quite good, too. She lived in Japan for a year two years ago and she actually managed to pass the 2nd level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT - ２級), which is the 2nd hardest test foreigners can take.

After the Japanese information session ended, we had an information session about Aogaku's English chat room. There, we can make ¥1,200 an hour as chat leaders. After the information session ended, we went to the English version of the course registration information session. When that ended, I went to visit the dormitory of my fellow American students, Steven and Ripley. They leave about 20 minutes away from campus.

At about 4:50, we left for campus, where we met my tutor, Shiori. Shiori introduced me to professor Sagawa, who is teaching a seminar about Judaism at Aogaku. To my surprise, about 22 students are enrolled at it, and one of them is Shiori. Professor Sagawa invited me to take part of the seminar in about two weeks. He also invited me over to his home. After that, we went to try and get cellphones, however, we couldn't because we needed a bank account in addition to the alien registration certification (which I didn't have at the time, but the others had). After that, we parted our ways and went back home.

September 16, 2008 - Day 7

2008-09-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

After waking up, Waleed and I went to school. Today, we had our welcoming lunch. It was called a welcoming lunch, but what I got to eat could barely be classified as a proper lunch. Most of the things that were served had seafood or meat in them.... I ended up having some vegetarian sandwiches and some desserts. At the welcoming lunch, we got to meet the director of Aogaku's IEC. I mistakenly thought that Ms. Nagasaku is the director, but apparently, she's not. Nonetheless, she's also one of the important people at the IEC. After professor Yoshiba, the director, talked, we got to meet some other people as well.

After lunch, we went through some things that had to do with living in Japan and such. After that, Ms. Kyoko Yoshida, who is also part of the IEC, had a quick talk to us about living in the dorm. When she finished talking, Waleed showed me an arcade where it costs only 50 yen to play fighting games. I actually got to play a game I always wanted to play called Taiko, which is basically a Japanese drum. It's one of the 100 yen games, but I didn't mind that because the game is quite enjoyable :D

After we were done playing, we went back. On the ride back, I literally felt like a sardine inside a can of sardines -___- The train was completely packed with people. Waleed "warned" me before that the Denentoshi line (田園都市線) is notoriously known for it's "huge crowd" during rush hours, but I guess I underestimated what he said. I forgot to mention that before we got back to the station, Shibuya was very, very, very crowded. After we got back, I ate some tuna with mayonnaise and pasta and went to sleep.

September 15, 2008 - Day 6

2008-09-21T06:28:00.001-07:00

Today wasn't a very eventful day. I woke up, ate breakfast, and went to a nearby 99 yen shop (like a 100 yen shop) to get some food and utensils. After I left the 99 yen shop, I went to a 100 yen shop to "complete" my shopping. I bought more stuff at the 100 yen shop, mainly because I got "more" for my money, as opposed to the 99 yen shop I went to earlier. After that, I went back and relaxed for a bit. At night, I went to the local supermarket to get some rice. For dinner, I used my rice cooker for the first time to make some rice. It was the first time I was really happy to eat rice ^_^ I went to sleep at about 12 or so.

September 14, 2008 - Day 5

2008-09-21T06:07:00.001-07:00

Today, I woke up at a normal time. I think it was about 9:30 or 10:30. Anyways, I had plenty of sleep. At about 10:40, I left for Shibuya to meet up with Justin, another student from UMD who came to study abroad in Japan. When I got to Shibuya, Justin told me that he was waiting for Aino, a Japanese student who went to study at UMD last year in an exchange program. After she arrived, we went to Harajuku. We went to eat at an Italian place where I ordered a small pizza and some garlic bread. Everything was pretty good, but the pizza was as thin as a sheet of paper....

After we were done eating, we went to the largest 100 yen store (3 stories). I looked for some cooking utensils there, but unfortunately, they didn't sell pots. So... We ended up taking some pictures at a "Print-Club" booth. After that, we went to a nearby shrine. It was quite a unique site. One of the things that I like about Tokyo is the blending of modern & old things. For an instance, you could walk down the street and see numerous LED signs on your right, while ou see an old Buddhist or Shinto shrine on your left. When we got to the shrine, a Japanese wedding took place.

After we left the shrine, we went to Don Quijote (ドン・キホーテ), which is a store that carries everything for quite cheap. It was then that my quest of finding cheap cooking utensils finally ended. I got a frying pan/pot set for about ¥1270 (roughly $10.5-11). Afterward, we went to a karaoke place. We stayed there for an hour and a half and we had quite a blast ^O^ When we were done karaoking, we went to Bic Camera, where I bought my rice cooker.

After we left Bic Camera, we said goodbye to Aino and went to Ikebukuro (池袋) to see another fellow UMD student who's studying abroad, Jaydeb. It took us forever to find the park Jaydeb and his friend where at when we arrived at Ikebukuro. Eventually, we found it and went to eat some Indian food. At about 9PM, we left and went back to Fujigaoka.

September 13, 2008 - Day 4

2008-09-20T01:08:00.001-07:00

I woke up pretty early again... For some reason, I wasn't "adjusted" to the time difference yet, so that probably caused the early "wake-ups." At about 10:30-11AM, I went to the post office to withdraw some money. Right across from the post office, there is an elementary school, so I decided to take some pictures. After that, I decided to check 7-eleven out. It's pretty much the same as the 7-elevens back in the states, but.... there's no slurpee -_-, which is one of my favorite drinks.

After I got back, I relaxed for a bit. I had plans to meet with Takashi at about 6:30PM, so I didn't do too much 'till then. When Takashi arrived, we went to Home Viva, a store like Bed Bath and Beyond (I think?). I was looking for some cooking utensils, but most of them were a little expansive, so I didn't buy anything. After that, we went to a 100 yen shop (１００円ショップ), which is like a dollar store. Takashi was my savior. He helped me out by telling me what food had what in it. He also wrote me the kanji (Chinese characters) of stuff that I can/cannot eat. As a thank-you, I treated him to dinner at a place called Johnson's. I had some good pasta there. When we finished eating, we went to a pharmacy to buy some groceries. Apparently, food at that pharmacy was relatively cheap, so I bought a few things there. After that, I took Takashi back to the station and went home.

September 12, 2008 - Day 3

2008-09-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

I woke up at about 4AM and couldn't go back to sleep O.o; I ended up talking to Sachi for 80% of the time (I had to leave for Aogaku (青学) at about 9AM or so). Whether it was anxiety or not, it didn't feel so great to wake up so early. Don't get me wrong, though. I had fun talking to Sachi ^_^ Anyways, at about 8:55AM, I think, Waleed and I left for the station. It took us about 35-40 minutes to arrive at Shibuya (渋谷), where our school is located.

We got there 10-15 minutes before 10AM. We met other exchange students and Ms. Nagasaku welcomed us and talked for a little bit. After that, we had a small tour of the campus with our tutors. I got to meet my other tutor, Shiori. Like Mizuki, Shiori's also a very nice girl. Afterward, we ate lunch. It was a little hard finding something to eat, but I ended up eating a small salad with tuna. When we finished our lunch, we went to the room we all met at in the beginning in order to take the Japanese placement test. The test wasn't too bad. When I finished my test, I went with my new friends to meet another friend of mine, Takashi. Currently, Takashi is attending Todai (東大, Tokyo University). He's a good friend of mine from high school.

After hanging out with Takashi for a bit, Takashi had to go back to school, so it was just me, Waleed, and a UF student called Will. I wanted to go visit Harajuku (原宿), where all the goths/lolitas gather, so Waleed took Will and me half-way there, because he felt like going back to the dorm, so it was just Will and I who went there. Harajuku's a pretty cool place, and from what I've heard from Takashi, it's ridiculously crowded during the weekends. After hanging out at Harajuku, we went back to the station and parted our ways.

September 11, 2008 - Day 2

2008-09-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

I woke up and organized one of my suitcases. Actually, I think that I organized two of them. Afterward, I went to a convenience store (there are so many of them here... you can actually pay your bills there, too. Now that's convenient, isn't it?) to buy me something for breakfast. I ended up getting an apple danish. I also got a great tuna/egg salad sandwich. Japanese mayonnaise is unbelievably delicious. After that, I went to Yamada Denki (ヤマダ電機), a big electronic store, to get a 3-to-2 prong converter for my laptop and one of those multiple sockets things. For some reason, there are quiet a few electronic stores that are called ____ Camera, even though they sell pretty much any electronic appliance.

After I got back, I got a call from the dorm manager. She told me it's ok to use the phone. I decided to ask her about the internet, because she told me that I wouldn't be able to use the internet for a few days, because my application has to be processed or for whatever reason. Surprisingly, I was able to use the internet the night before, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to do so, so I told her that the internet did work and I asked if it would be ok to continue using it. She was quite surprised that it worked and told me that I should go ahead and use it. About an hour later, she knocked on my door and asked me if I can explain to the other exchange student how to connect to the internet. I went down the "hall" and met Waleed, an exchange student from Paris, France. Waleed's a really cool guy and we got along pretty well. I didn't do too much later. At about 11-12AM, I went to sleep.

September 10 - First Day in Japan

2008-09-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

After I finally landed, I went through immigration. It was only then that I finally realized that I'll be living in Japan for a year. I got excited, yet a little shocked, when I realized that. After I went through immigration, I picked up my suitcases and went through customs. I was greeted by Ms. Aya Nagasaku, the director of the International Exchange Office (IEC) of Aoyama Gakuin University after I headed to the "welcoming booth." Ms. Nagasaku helped me send one of my suitcases via Takkyuubin (宅急便), which is a delivery service. Afterwards, she helped me get a bus ticket to the metro station of Tama Plaza (たまプラーザ).

At 6PM, I boarded the bus. After about 2 hours, we finally reached our destination of Tama Plaza station, where I was greeted by Yuria and Mizuki (my tutor). They pretty much spoke to me only in Japanese, which was overwhelming at first, but I got used to it relatively quickly. After we boarded the train at Tama Plaza, it didn't take us too long to reach the station of Fujigaoka (藤が丘), where my dorm is located. When we reached the station of Fujigaoka, the girls offered to take a taxi, which I utterly refused to because I knew that taxis in Japan were quiet expensive. So we decided to walk to the dorm. It was quiet a bad walk because I had to carry one 50lbs suitcase and one 70lbs one. They insisted to help me, but I kept saying daijoubu (大丈夫), which means, "it's ok." After walking up the "Hill of Doom," we reached the dorm. They left me there, where I was greeted by the dorm manager.

After putting everything inside my new room, the dorm manager went through some stuff with me. I was very exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. While she was explaining everything to me, she gave me some barley tea. Even though she only spoke Japanese, I luckily understood at least 50-60% of the things she said. After she was done explaining everything to me, I went to the local supermarket. I bought some bread, Philadelphia cream cheese, and paper plates/plastic forks/paper cups. I noticed that stuff in Japan is quite expensive, but I can't do much about it. After I got back, I finally ate and went to sleep at around 11PM.

September 09, 2008 - Day of the Flight

2008-09-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

After waking up from a pretty short sleep due to me trying to beat Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core for the PSP, Sachi, my uncle Tzachi, and I headed to the airport at about 6:35-6:40AM. We had to squeeze everything because my uncle's car is quite small and because I brought way too many things with me.

After saying goodbye to them, I headed to NWA's counter to get my luggage checked in. Stupidly enough, I thought that I was permitted to check-in two 70lbs suitcases, but that was not the case. I could only check two 50lbs suitcases. Luckily, I had the option to upgrade my ticket to business class for only $150 each way. With this upgrade, I could have checked in up to three 70lbs suitcases. Unfortunately, I could have only upgraded the flight from Dulles to Detroit, even though I only wanted to upgrade my ticket from Detroit to Tokyo. In any case, I did the right of upgrading the ticket because if I didn't do that, I would have had to pay $50 for my two overweight suitcases, and probably $150 for my carry-on, which had to be checked-in, because it was oversized. After finally checking-in everything, I proceeded to the security checkpoint.

I was quite dumbfounded when I realized that my flight was at 9:22AM, and not at 8:22AM, like I orignally thought. When I boarded the flight to Detroit, I found myself in a quite comfortable seat. I never flew in any class other than economy class, so I was able to relax comfortably on the flight.

After I arrived in Detroit, I looked desperately for something to eat. It was about 11:00AM, so all the places stopped serving breakfast to my dismay. I had to compromise, so I ended up going to Burger King. After that, I went to NWA's lounge, because I figured, "hey, I paid for business, so shouldn't I be able to access the lounge?" Apparently, I couldn't... Only because they had an open bar over there and I am not 21 yet... So after spending some time on my computer, I finally boarded my flight to Tokyo. On the flight, I sat next to the window, and luckily, no one sat in the middle. In the aisle seat, this guy from It turned out that he was born in Tel-Aviv :D Anyways, we had a few nice conversations throughout the flight. After we finally landed, it was about 4PM Japan time.