Fall Semester

Alrighty, it would appear that what began as an almost daily activity has become sort of a monthly special. This is mostly due to the fact that I do the same things every day. Maybe I'll take up some sort of hobby just so that I can entertain you guys...but then again, probably not.

So, my job is still going well. I really enjoy the people that I work with and I've finally begun to feel like I'm not completely useless. That has been my biggest beef with this new job--trying to do something to make my presence in the office worthwhile. I hate feeling like I'm stealing people's money. So this week I spent most of the allowed 19 hours setting up the online grading system and getting everyone's assignments online. I'm fairly familiar with how the program works now, so it's surprising to me when my other teachers in different departments aren't using it.

You cannot believe how frustrated I felt when I realized that the majority of my new classes don't post anything at all online. I wanted to get on there, find all of the course syllabi, print them and take them to my new classes today. Unfortunately, only two of my six classes have anything online yet.

Anyway, I did well in my First Term classes, better than I had done during Summer term. Either I'm getting a hang of this new college thing, or I just got smarter at picking classes. I think that it's probably a mix of both.

This semester will be my first semester here. I was feeling so proud of myself for going to college and getting good grades and then suddenly I realized something. The two terms that I just finished (when combined) are equal to one semester. That means that this semester is going to be 3 months long. I've been here for 3 months. And let me tell you, those 3 months seem to have started forever ago. How am I ever going to survive?

My classes include Japanese 101, English 201, History 201, Psychology 111, Book of Mormon 121 and Self Defense. After this term I will have close to no GE requirements left and will therefore be able to focus solely on my major once Winter starts. So this is the last semester that I will take that will feel like high school, after this it'll all be business. I'm really excited.

I have officially found my (semi)permanent ward. After a ton of confusion (which was completely out of my control), I have finally settled into the 8th ward here at BYUH. I had originally thought that I was supposed to be in the 8th ward, however after being told twice that I was actually in the 7th ward, I gave in. A few weeks later, 8th ward demanded me back. The very day I came back to 8th ward, they gave me a new calling as Visiting Teaching Coordinator. I find this calling a little bit frightening as I've never actually had a visiting teacher before...(I'm beginning to think that the wards here are incredibly disorganized. I've been here for 3 months and I've had neither visiting teachers or home teachers.)

In addition to my ward calling, this Sunday I'm going to be giving a talk, please wish me luck. I think that the last time I gave a talk I was about 14 years old. But then again, maybe I'll just mess it up so badly that they never ask me to do it again. haha

I went to FHE on Monday and had a fabulous time. We played dodgeball for about an hour (way too long if you ask me), but I was with my friends so it was actually pretty fun. The ward is huge now, so tons of people showed up. So many, in fact, that when we were finally ready for refreshments, there weren't enough plates. So the girls paired up with one another for a plate to share, while the guys had to share the two icecream buckets. Sometimes, one really has to appreciate being born a girl.

Anyway, while I'm happy with the classes that I'll be taking this semester, I'm even more happy that I'll get a chance to go home this Christmas. It'll be nice to be in Utah again, even though it snows there!!

First Term

It has been exactly 2 months since my first class started here at BYUH. It has also been 2 weeks since my 2nd term started. Now that's a lot of twos.

Anyway, I have my brand-new classes and I really like all of them. I also finally started my job. Yay! Yesterday I even got my first paycheck!! This is the first time I've gotten paid since April...that is a long time to go without getting paid. I'm a teacher's aid...

So far I have set up the online coursework for the classes Teacher Dude will teach during Fall Semester, I have formatted a ton of his old assignments and finished up designing a powerpoint presentation for him. Lately, I have been helping him transcribe the scribbles that he writes all over his papers into a word document. I've just got to thank my dad for that one, without his horrible handwriting I wouldn't have the right skills for that last job. :)

I like having a busy schedule, but at the same time I don't like that I don't have any free time until at least 4 pm, and usually 5 pm. I am busy all day, and once I do have time to myself its time for dinner and then homework. Not that I have very much homework this term.

My Biology teacher is from Africa, but spent 7 years in France. This means that he has a mix of a French and African accent. Usually I can understand everything he says, but whenever he cracks a joke I am always confused! Its like I can only understand him when he's speaking about Biology, anything else and I have no clue to what he means. However, I think that this experience is good and I actually picked this teacher because of his accent (and the fact that his class started so early in the morning). What makes it even better is that he gives very little homework and his tests are multiple choice.

English is not my favorite class because it is too easy and because all the students there are fresh out of high school. Some of the people in this class remind me why I was so excited to leave high school. It is, however, easier to relate to the other students in this class than in my other classes. I have found way more friends here than anywhere else.

D&C is interesting, but we don't really have a structured system for learning the material. We basically spend the 2 hours of class time asking questions. Strangely enough, there never seems to be a lack of questions and we always ask someone to save their question until next time.

Today I will be working with my friends (both from Singapore) on our Biology Presentation. We'll be doing it on the effects of humans on the environment. It only has to be 10 minutes, so it shouldn't take too long, right?

So, even though it's Saturday, I'm not really doing anything "fun." But like having a day to relax. This new schedule is exhausting! I can't wait until I finally get used to it.

But, that's all for now. I don't have anything even vaguely interesting left to say. :)

Nearing the End

I really need to think of a more creative title for these updates, but I'm too lame for this one. Maybe next time..? :)

So its nearing the end of the term, in fact less than two more weeks. I can't say that I'm sorry for it to be over. It's going to be such a relief to not have Ceramics anymore. Today I finished my last clay project in that class. After tomorrow we can't make anything else because otherwise there won't be enough time to finish everything. We'll be glazing and taking tests for the rest of term.

For my last project I decided to make a teapot. That was a mistake. It was really hard. Plus, I'm not really finished. I still have to stick everything together and make a new lid. I pretty much knew that I would have a hard time doing it, but I tried anyway. My teacher said that we needed to challenge ourselves, so I did. I never want to see my teapot ever again. But it will still be there. Maybe I'll feel better about it tomorrow.

So, the novelty of the beach has pretty much worn off, I haven't been there at all in the past two weeks. I keep thinking I should get down there, but then I'd have to walk. It takes about 20 minutes to get to Temple Beach and about the same amount to find a good place on Bikini Beach. Mostly I'm just lazy.

I have, however, gone to the temple (its closed though, so I just looked at it and went into the visitor's center), visited the Bishop's Museum, been to all of the major shopping centers and saw the Honolulu Fireworks on the 4th. The fireworks were huge, they actually made me jump a couple of times from the sound (much to the delight of my friends).

The power goes out here on a pretty regular basis. Today, it kept going on and off. I took a shower and wondered why the water kept fluctuating between really, really hot and the temperature I wanted it to be...but didn't find out until I realized that my fan was off. Honestly, I never turn my fan off. Once when the power went out in the night, the fact that it wasn't on woke me up.

I am officially really bad at playing soccer. Out of all the sports, why is that the one we play the most in gym? Why not volley ball or tennis? I can actually kind of do those ones, but soccer is completely out of my league. Luckily, we're doing book work tomorrow.

One thing I've learned that's completely not school related is that mailboxes are important! Since moving here, I get mail all the time. Sure it's mostly about my new bank account and school stuff, but if I didn't have that mailbox I would be at a serious disadvantage.

I have started disliking the caf, its not that the food is gross per se. But they definitely need to get some more variety. We have chicken for 2/3 meals offered every day. As much as I like chicken, why can't we get some beef or even some fish thrown in there every once in awhile. I mean, we're surrounded by water right? Fish should be everywhere!

Really though, as many things I have to complain about, I actually love being here. Going to college, even with the classes, is really fun. At the end of the day, I realize that i haven't actually done anything, but somehow I really enjoyed myself anyway. Maybe I am turning into a low-key, relaxed Hawaiian after all. :)

1/3 of the term is over!

So it's been awhile since my last blog, but being in Hawaii is a lot more low key than Japan was. I've settled into living by myself and haven't cried myself to sleep too many times. I was feeling really lonely my first week here, but I've made more friends since then and I try to keep myself busy.

Ceramics has gotten better, we're working on the potter's wheel now. It was really difficult at first, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I do better when my teacher isn't watching though. I just get so nervous when he's watching everything i do wrong!! But he is really helpful too. :)

Science is officially not my favorite thing, but that's okay too. At least I'm not failing, right? I'm actually doing fairly well in the class and mostly keep up on studying. Mostly.

Gym is almost fun, except when we are getting tested. I wouldn't say I have friends in that class, but I talk to almost everyone in there.

I have explored a little bit more of my surroundings. I went snorkeling at Shark's Cove, that's where I discovered that I don't really have a phobia of fish, but a phobia of unknown live things in the water. If that makes any sense at all... I swam to China Man's Hat at high tide, it was really difficult and I probably won't do it again, but climbing to the top was really cool. One of my really good friends, Jonah, took me to Kaneohe yesterday. It's prety much the only mall around here. It's not all that far away, but here the speed limit ranges between 25-35mph, so it takes a pretty long time to get there.

Last night my roommate and I water ballooned some of her friends as they were coming home from work, it was way funny cause even the guys started running away yelling. The only crummy part was waiting 30 minutes in the bush for them to arrive. We got so excited about our plan that we left early (just in case).

Umm, the ward I have been attending has agreed to take me in. They requested my records, so I should be an official member (of their ward) soon.

I really like being here because I get to meet people from all over the world. Learning about different ways of living is one of my favorite things, so I think that this is a really great opportunity for me.

First few days of College!!

So as many of you know, I stopped e-mailing while i was in japan because of some complications with my computer's charger...anyway, those are all fixed and I am now in Hawaii. :)

This is just gonna be a quick overview because I have done tons of things since getting here last friday. On my first day I met my roommate, shopped and unpacked, that's as far as I got with anything. On Saturday I said goodbye to awesome mom and went to the beach with my roommate, Emma (who is amazing, she lets me follow her around everywhere).

Sunday I went to church with the 16th ward (the ward Emma is in), apparently you don't get assigned to a ward unless you're attending one of the semesters (the next one is Fall). The rest of the day I spent napping, because for whatever reason, the time zone change has had a ridiculous impact on my sleeping habits. :(

Monday was my first day of school and also the day I got my TB screening shot. Then I got my Insurance Cleared (but at first the lady tried to convince me that I hadn't signed up for it...) and finally got my student id! Yay! Without that little piece of plastic, I hadn't been able to open my dorm door!

In my first class, EXS 177, I heard the people behind me speaking in Japanese. So I started talking to them (in English of course) and after awhile, the guy invited me to join Japanese club with offers free conversation classes to its members! Another yay!

Next I had Ceramics where I met a kid whose also in my EXS class, his name is Brent. At first I was thinking that we could be good friends, but then I found out that he's taken tons of classes in Ceramics and therefore has skills (I haven't taken a ceramics class in 6 years). I told him that I'd feel bad when all his projects look better than mine. lol

Afterwards I have PHSC 100 with Mark Cannon who happens to be one of Jeremy's classmates back in the day. He was really excited to meet me, I'm still trying to decide whether or not this turn of events is a good thing. In this class I also made a friend, her name is Meagan, but she's only here for Summer Semester. I'm gonna be really sad when she leaves cause she's the only person that I hang out with (other than Emma of course).

Today I only had Ceramics and I spent 2 hours overtime perfecting my pot. Ridiculous I know, but my teacher said that this is one of the hardest classes in the entire school (I thought he was kidding, but if this is the first project, he might be right...).

I spent the rest of my day doing my PHSC homework and I'm really glad that I'm not taking any other classes. I would be swamped. My homework from PHSC had only 13 questions and then 2 chapters from the textbook but it took me the better part of 3 hours to finish all of it up!

Maybe I'll get faster as I get more homework...I should have taken more than just one science class in high school. I should have taken a science class my senior year rather than my sophmore year, maybe then I wouldn't be so dumb at it. I really think that the class is interesting, I even almost enjoy the textbook, but it is SOOOOOO hard!!

Anyway, that's it for today. Tomorrow I have all 3 classes again, but on thursday I only have ceramics (not that I'll have any freetime afterwards at the rate this class is going, we have a new project due every day).

Laie

So basically, I am now in Hawaii. You should be totally jealous and yes, I do think that I'll take up residency here. It's amazing. I'm in Laie going to school for now, but once I graduate I'd like to move to Maui (much less crowded than Oahu, not that Laie has any people living in it. I mean, the nearest walmart is an hour drive away).

This is a really short post because I'm really too lazy to write very much more. I'm super tired because I spent the past few hours at the beach. I can't believe that I'm finally an adult. Not that being a college student is really all that cool. Anyway, ciao!

Tokyo

Our train left at 6:04. It took 6 hours by the slow Shinkansen (Hikari I think the name was), but the whole distance traveled was over 1,000 miles so it was still pretty good. When we arrived, Bro. and Sis. Utagawa (Shelly's Dad's friends) met us at the station.

Right after that we performed baptisms for the dead in the Tokyo Temple, we were really lucky cause we got their just in time. The people there tried really hard to speak english for us, but they really didn't need to go to all that trouble. I was so tired that I wasn't really concious.

While Shelly's dad was still in the temple, Sis. Utagawa took Shelly and I to Shibuya (japan's most famous shopping district). Here we survived the famous Shibuya Crossing, here's a link for what we experienced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtOdSgf6Ic&feature=related

It was here that we went to the Cafe Comme Ca and had the best mango cake thing in the whole world. The mango was perfect! It was defnitely not a comme ci comme ca cafe (so-so cafe).

On Sunday, Shelly and I went to the Studio Ghibli Museum with some random girl (her name is Rachel) that we met at the hostel we're staying in. Tickets for this museum are extremely difficult to get a hold of (according to our teachers), and while easier, they aren't so easy to get in America either. In fact, Shelly and I managed to get some of the last tickets because Studio Ghibli Museum closed the next day (they do this twice a year).

It was one of the coolest museums I have ever been to, and we got to ride the special bus all the way there (from the subway station).

We went to some station to wait for Shelly's dad, but we got there about 30 mins early so we stopped at a bakery called Saint-Germaine. The best french bakery with the best croissants I have ever had outside France. It was amazing, I definitely want to go back.

Afterwards, the Utagawa's had prepared us sukiyaki, pizza, unari zushi, assorted fruit, desserts, drinks, ect. for dinner. Overall, way too much food. Really good, but waaaay too much.

This morning, Shelly's dad woke up at 6. He's not very good at being quiet. But I pretended to be asleep until Shelly and her dad went to go take a shower (at about 8). When her dad came back he said, "I woke up at six this morning." And I was like, Yeah, I know!

Today, we went a really big shrine, not to far from us, but I can't remember the name. After that, we went to Akihabara which is japan's most famous electric shopping district. There I bought a cheap japanese-english (and vice versa) machine, apparently they are really important if you want to learn jaapanese...plus it was pink! lol

Then we went to Harajuku to see the weird people all dressed up, but they weren't there (because it's Monday rather than the weekend) so we just shopped around. I bought an undershirt, but instead of putting it in a plastic sack like normal, I scored a really nice, zip up bag. It was pretty exciting. We also stopped at another shrine before getting back on the JR line.

Shibuya came next, but Shelly and I were out of money by then so we just bought some of those mango cake things again and . . . Tokyo Disney Tickets!! We're going to Disney Land tomorrow! I've heard that Disney Land sucks here (from someone who hadn't even been), but I'm really excited anyway. Plus, we have nothing else to see here except shrines and temples.

I don't really like seeing shrines or temples. I mean, people actually pray and believe that they're prayers will be answered in those things, so I feel awkward going cause I don't. Plus, they pretty much all look the same.

But that's it for Tokyo (except Disney Land) and tonight's dinner (which we have no idea what it will be). I think I've figured Tokyo out though, at first I was so amazed by how big it is and couldn't imagine how you could ever find you're way here. When you get up somewhere high, all you can see is buildings. They're never ending! But after 3 days, I feel pretty confident about finding my way. Plus, I'm really good at asking directions.

Last Week in Fukuoka (pt. 2)

I am actually in Tokyo right now (and have been since May 9/yesterday), I will tell everyone about it after we move to the next city (this wednesday). So this is gonna be a really short update.

On thursday we didn't do anything beyond go to school. We told Irene (our friend from the Philippines) that we would attend movie night, but we fell asleep and didn't wake up til really late (9pm-ish).

Friday was a sad day. Shelly and I were late to school (by about 10 mins) cause we were so busy with our last minute packing. After arriving, I realized that I had left the postcards and our remaining rice at home--we wanted to pawn the rice off to someone who would use it. We had our graduation, but I didn't prepare a speech so I pretty much had nothing to say. Shelly, Rionero-san and I graduated that day which was funny cause we're all in the same class.

Shelly went on to Hakata Station to meet her dad and get a rail pass. I went home to grab the postcards, rice and my rail pass voucher. It took me about an hour, even though I took the subway, to get to the dorm, drop off the gifts and finally arrive in Hakata. At about that same time, Shelly and her dad decided to go to the dorm to find me...

An hour later (exactly when I decided I was going home), they came back to the station and found me waiting by the JR Rail Pass office. I had Shelly's passport, so she wasn't able to get her rail pass.

While Shelly and her dad got their rail passes (I had already gotten mine), I went to the bakery and got some awesome food. Then Shelly's dad treated us to dinner--which was delicious--and then flavored ice--which was also delicious. Finally, we made it back home in one piece.

Shelly and i had bought waaaay too much junkfood for our going away party, so we had to give some of our treats away. I felt really sick afterwards and I will never look at an Oreo the same way again (Shelly's dad brought us 2 packages of Oreos).

Anyway, that's it for Fukuoka. On our 2nd to last day in Japan we will leave Hiroshima and arrive back in Fukuoka for the night. Then we will fly back in the morning. Love you all and Happy Mother's Day!!

Last Week in Fukuoka (pt. 1)

So on monday we went with Yohei-san, his wife and Utahn friends to go see Yoshigonari Historical Park. The tour we followed was in Japanese, so one of the guys (his name was Boston) translated for us. But he was being funny, so he told us all sorts of lies. Basically, I don't really know anything true about the site. I know that it's really old, the people were polygamists, man and wives slept in different houses, and that supposedly (but how anyone would know this, I don't understand) there was the rich people and the poor people side. But here's the weird part, the rich people never left their enclosure. They were too "special" or something (Yohei's wife translated this part, so we know that the tour guide said it). I don't know if I believe it though. The enclosure was really small.

It would have been really fun, but it rained a ton and my legs were soaked nearly to my knees (I'm not sure how that happened, I never step in puddles). It was really cold and Shelly and I had to share an umbrella. It sucked.

Afterwards, we went to a little Hakata Dontaku festival to eat noodles out of bamboo pipes. You have to catch the noodles as they slide down, then you put them in your broth cup and enjoy! It costed 300 yen, but Yohei-san insisted on paying. It was interesting, but I don't really like cold noodles. Shelly does, but I don't like not being able to taste the broth. Tasteless noodles are kinda gross.

Then we went to some shopping district that it built around the second largest ferris wheel in the world. Here Shelly and I bought yellow watermelon and huge sweet potato fries (japan makes tons of different things out of sweet potatoes, you can even get sweet potato candy).

Then we went to a Ramen shop--it was delicious, but then again, Fukuoka is known for it's awesome Ramen.

Yesterday we went to Kumamoto. We dropped our stuff off at Evan's home (or maybe it was his mother-in-law's, I was confused) the headed off to a soba dojo. Here we mixed, rolled and cut our noodles. After we finished they made it into either hot or cold soba. I, of course, ordered hot. While all of this was going on, it went from rather hot to hail. It was very interesting, plus our Philipino friends had never seen hail before. They were really excited.

Afterwards, we went to Jigoku (Hell) Onsen. It was amazing, but it was a hot spring so it smelled really bad. There were 3 different kinds of baths, the hell onsen (straight hot spring) and 2 different regular onsens. Unfortunately, you couldn't wash your hair here. It kinda sucked cause I really needed a bath.

Then we had a japanese bbq (which was really good) and watched hilarious japanese tv. It was really weird, I don't know how to explain what we watched. But I did learn that japanese humor is really weird. The acts that I thought were the funniest scored the lowest. The ones I thought were just plain weird, scored the highest.

Today, we went to the cleanest onsen in japan. It was really nice, but really, really hot. I was really glad though, because here they provided shampoo/soap because you are required to wash yourself before getting in (otherwise it wouldn't be the cleanest onsen anymore).

Then we climed up Mt. Aso. I didn't really like it. Oh, and did I mention? Mt. Aso is located inside the largest (I think) volcano in the entire world! People live inside this valley! But only the crater is active and the last people to die were tourists viewing the crater (and that happened 30-40 years ago). There are mountains inside the volcano. And the edge of the volcano is so far away that you can hardly see it. It was unbelievable.

Then we went to Kumamoto Castle, but we only had an hour so we just climbed up the main tower, got a picture with a ninja and toured the palace (but you can't even see all of it). Finally, (at about 8) we were back home. But this is only home for 3 more nights.

3rd Week in Japan (pt. 2)

I forgot to mention that we had English Class on Wednesday, not very many people showed up since it was a holiday, but the people that were there were very excited to see us. Instead of having a lesson, we split into groups and just talked for about an hour. There we met Yuki who offered to take us on a tour of Fukuoka (even though he claimed to speak really bad english, he was quite good).

On thursday we had nothing to do (beyond school) so we went shopping (again), but I don't remember what we bought...

Friday was the same, we had nothing to do, so we went shopping once again. I don't really know what we got then either, we just went shopping too much this week. :P

On saturday we had agreed to meet Yuki at Takamiya Station at noon. He was a little late, and we were very early, so we had to wait about 30 mins (we were 20 mins early...). First we went to a hyaku en ramen shop (100 yen ramen) and it was actually really good. The weather was very warm though, so I felt really hot after eating my noodles. Plus, I'm not actually that good at eating noodles. Even when I have a fork I'm pretty awful. And I definitely can't slurp the noodles like you're supposed too.

Next, Yuki offered to take us to Daizafu temple, but since it was over 40 mins away, we decided to go to Hakata Port Park. It was really interesting and we got to go up this really tall building, from up high, we could see a boat race which was really cool. Here we met this girl and her dad. Her dad was pretty adamant about her asking us questions in english (she was about 8) and I kinda felt bad for her, but she seemed to really like us and her dad definitely did.

After that we toured this shopping/aquarium thing. Here we met two really nice obaasan who kept asking Yuki which one of us was his girlfriend (I pretended to not understand what they were saying). They talked to us for a looooong time and gave me a ticket to a dance party thing (which we didn't go to).

Next, Yuki took us to a closer temple that had an ancient tree in front of it. It was one of the coolest things I've seen here. We also drank some of the temple water by using the weird bamboo ladels. It was really fun. We talked and walked around the temple grounds, chased some pigeons, found a pinecone, had little kids chant the abcs for us, and finally went home.

Yuki repeatedly thanked us for going with him, even though it should have been us that were thanking him. He's the one who insisted on paying for our ramen, drinks and icecream--not counting gas, parking, ect. Plus he was nice enough to take us around Fukuoka!

Afterwards, we went to canal city (even more shopping!) There was a big party going on because it is Golden Week and Hakata Dontaku started on today (sunday).

On sunday, we went to church and said our goodbyes. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring presents. We also promised to come back one day. A couple in the ward invited us to go see some ruins with them tomorrow, they have some friends coming from Utah so they thought we would like to go to. Of course we agreed. They told us that we would probably leave really in the morning, which in japanese means 9-10am (I had been thinking as early as 6).

Afterwards, we went to Tenjin to see the Hakata Dontaku. Overall, I thought that it was pretty overrated, but it was still fun. We tried all sorts of things including, chocolate covered bananas, shaved ice with milk, fresh strawberries with hard candy over them, fried mochi with red bean paste in the middle (i really don't like mochi), unflavored cotton candy, and okonomiyaki on a stick.

They have a game where you can attempt to catch goldfish with a paper wand-like thing, but I didn't know that you can also catch turtles. If I lived here, I definitely would have tried to catch a turtle!

We watched a guy make amazing balloon animals, and attempted to see the parade (people here forget that we have a gaijin perimeter when there is a parade).

But that's it for this week. So far on the agenda for next week is the ruins trip with the couple in our ward (mon), mt. aso with our school (tues and wed), genki jacs graduation (friday) and leaving for tokyo (saturday). I'm really going to miss being here.

3rd Week in Japan

I can't believe that I let so much time pass before posting!

Sunday night was the bishop's son's farewell party that he didn't actually come to. We made okonomiyaki with more egg and flour than at the pro's house--I think it tastes much better without all the cabbage. We also cooked yakisoba and fried tofu. The other kids teased us with the cow liver--which we weren't actually afraid of eating--but we never even opened it. There was also lots of candy.

On monday we met our new classmates. Apparently we caught up to one of the other students. His name is Linus (I think, the japanese pronunciation is really weird) and he's from Chicago. He's over forty and really nice--he even offered to buy our ramen on tuesday.

We also met Irene, she just arrived this week and she is from the Philippines. All the japanese people think that she's japanese and are confused when she doesn't explain to Shell and I how things work. Irene is 22 and loves shopping, so that's what we did with her on Tuesday after school. It was really fun, but by the time we left the book/dvd store, the yukata shop was closed.

But back to Monday, for FHE we had to meet at the stake president's home which is located under the Fukuoka temple. Getting there was really easy and it was fun to meet all the people from the Fukuoka Central Ward. The missionaries were particularly happy to see us which was pretty funny. We met a guy who will be attending Snow College after getting off his mission.

On Wednesday we went to Marine World where we got to see a dolphin show and tons of different kinds of fish. It was actually pretty neat, but my favorite part was trying to get there.

Shelly had copied instructions off the website that were completely wrong, so we had to make our own way there. Transportation was pretty expensive even though we got a day pass because there were 3 different kinds of trains.

While waiting for one of the other trains, we stopped at AM/PM (a convenience store) to buy lunch and some snacks (which was really smart cause the food at Marine World was really expensive). We stopped in the park (located right next to the station) to enjoy a small breakfast. There we met some friends.

I don't know their names, or really anything about them, but I do know that they were very interested in us. One boy in particular was really funny. He asked us "what" we were. First by calling us "daigakuin" (college students), I corrected him by saying ryuugakusee (international students). We then introduced ourselves as americans. Which completely confused the poor thing. He kept saying the wrong place with an incredulous tone. The other kids knew what we were saying, but he couldn't understand what county we were from.

Shelly said, "genki desu ka?" (which is basically, how are you?) And he adamanlty replied, "Genki ja arimasen" (not good at all), we thought his answer was hilarious. I think that he was surprised that we knew what we said. Several other pleasantries passed between us, the most memorable being "you should go buy a japanese teacher."

Finally, we finished our food and were able to leave the snot-nosed brats behind us. However, I will probably count the encounter among my most favorite.

After Marine World, we went to Wonder World. It like Lagoon times 10. It's huge and has a zoo in it. We saw the monkeys, pet the capibara, admired the pony ride (the guys incharge of the ride were really excited to see us and weren't shy at all, but they were on duty, so we couldn't talk), teased the goats, and saw tons of other semi-exotic animals.

Then we went on the ferris wheel, truly admired the size of the place, bought some shaved us (melon flavor with milk stuff on top). Then Shelly went on the rollercoaster, I voted to stay behind and watch the bags. While Shelly was gone I noticed that almost no one stared at me. It was like they couldn't tell that I was a gaijin. I guess it's because my hair is kind of the weird red-color that is so popular here. Only 3 kids noticed what I truly was while Shelly was gone.

Then we went through the haunted house that was actually pretty scary. I didn't understand the stories behind the scenes, but getting attacked by blown air will make anyone jump.

Today we have nothing to do, so we are currently "napping." I can't wait until next week though, because the school is hosting a Mt. Aso trip. We had to pay extra, but it's an overnight trip so it was totally worth it.

Anyway, good bye for now!

2nd Week in Japan (pt. 3)

Thursday was a really long day (or so it seemed). Shelly and I really wanted to buy some yukata, so during our 1 hour lunch break, we did just that. I bought a light pink yukata with light purple and bright pink flowers with a matching obi (one side of the obi is neon pink, the other side is dark purple). Shelly got a white yukata with light blue, dark yellow, light pink and light green flowers. She has a matching yellow/green obi. But we didn't get geta there because they were too expensive.

We went to Claire's (yes they have Claire's here...) and got some accessories for our yukata. I got a bright red flower thing and Shelly bought a daisy flower thingy. They're perfect for our yukata.

We got to school just in time for class. After class we talked to Mai-san who knew of an even cheaper yukata store that sold you the yukata, obi and geta in a package deal, but first we had to get through culture class.

Culture class was a maid cafe (which only boys go to), but first we stopped at a Johnny store. Johnny's is a store where you buy the pics of hot japanese guys. It was really awkward going there (mostly cause I had no idea who any of the guys were) and the japanese girls that were there thought we were hilarious. Shelly bought a Johnny's calendar for Sara's omiyage (gift) so she had to carry around a huge, bright yellow Johnny's bag.

At the maid cafe, you have to call you're waittress with a bell. The waitresses wear french maid outfits and have special maid nicknames, they also speak in really high voices. Maki-san (our culture class planner/chappereon) made us ask our waitress at least one question. I asked how she made her voice so cute (she said that it was natural and that she only had one other voice--her angry one).

While we were there, the whole rest of the school showed up (picture 20+ foreigners in the cafe that holds less than 30 people). After they showed up, most of the other customers left.

When that was over, we went to the super cheap yukata store where I bought some geta and Shelly bought a whole new yukata set (this one is dark purple with yellow flowers and pink cherries).

After that, we went shopping for tabi (only later did we learn that you don't wear socks with yukata).

On friday, we had to pinky-promise our sensei that we would study. It was embarrassing, but she does have a point. We haven't studied at all (so far).

I think that we continued our yukata shopping after school, but I can't really remember. We were going to do Okonomiyaki with the ward, but then we realized that we didn't know where it was. So we stayed home. Later, Atsuko called to tell us that the time/place had been changed so it was good that we didn't try to find it.

On saturday we went back to Canal City where I bought some presents. The Pokemon shop there is amazing. It's definitely something you should see at least once in your life.

Then we came home and took a 3 hour nap. After that, we had a picnic at the park--but it was really cold so we didn't stay long. We bought some more hot chocolate and some sugar on the way home. Took a cold shower (all the hot water was gone) and went to bed.

So far today, we have gotten really cute and gone to church. It was stake conference so curry was served after church. The little primary girls invited us to come sit with them on the little chairs, but we decided to eat with the big people. There we tasted pickled things that you put on your curry. I actually like the weird skin colored ones better than the little red ones.

The people around us asked us about the kinds of food we liked and were surprised that we like unagi (eel), sushi, red beans (although I don't really like them in donuts), fish in general, umeboshi (pickled plums are pretty good in moderation), the weird curry pickles... The only thing that they asked us about that we didn't like was natto (fermented beans) and we haven't actually tried that. One guy commented that we were definitely nihonjin (japanese). It was pretty funny.

We also set up a date to try on kimono, there's a professional kimono lady that really wants to dress us up. We're going to meet at the church on friday at one (which means that we'll have to skip the second half of class, but it's just review, so it'll prolly be okay). We don't speak very good japanese though, so we have to have a translator to help us.

Tonight we are going to the bishop's son's mission going away party. For whatever reason, we were also invited. I'm excited, but feel kinda awkward. The ward is including us in everything that they're doing even though we're leaving in less than 2 weeks.

But, that's it for now. Sorry for taking so long with this update.

2nd Week in Japan (pt. 2)

Tuesday was pretty uneventful. We went to school, didn't make bentos, bugged the busy store dudes (Mika-sensei made us do it!!) and then went to culture class. It was tea ceremony so we got to dress up in really pretty yukata. I don't have any pics cause we used Shelly's camera. So maybe I'll send some later.

Tea ceremony is very intricate and detailed, you have to do everything perfectly. I think that a lot of it was symbolic, but I don't know what of. Tea ceremony is the most kata-ized part of Japan (that I have witnessed). We also got to try our hand at making the o-cha. The sensei had to help me cause I'm apparently a bad o-cha maker. Shelly had inherent skills, of course.

Then we tried our hand at making yakitori (again). This batch wasn't very good because we didn't use enough sauce (but we didn't know that until we got to school today cause it was our bento).

Today, Mai-san gave us some herbal chammomile tea which is really yummy! It smells like sweets and when you add a teaspoon of sugar, it tastes like them too! Mai-san is really nice to us, I guess she has a Mormon friend. She even chased down the missionaries for us so that she could get the address of one of the churches.

We had okonomiyaki class for culture. Okonomiyaki is called japanese pizza, but it is nothing like pizza at all. It's more like an omelet. The key parts of okonomiyaki are the cabbage (you use tons), the egg (we used only 2) and some flour (approx. 1/2 cup). You can put anything you want into it after that. Our okonomiyaki had onion, bacon and beef in it. Then you top it off with a special sauce (oyster--I think--sauce mixed with ketchup--just like takoyaki sauce) then you put some mayo on it (the japanese love mayo) and lastly, we added bonito flakes (which are kinda gross and move around after you put them on your okonomiyaki). It was pretty good, but it's not one of my favorites. Shelly and I will be making it again on Friday with the ward.

After that we went yukata shopping because we are convinced that we need some before Dontaku (a festival in May). Shelly found a store that sells used yukata that we can definitely afford. Now it's just whether or not we can still find it.

The church was holding an english class for anyone who wants to come. The missionaries are in charge of teaching, but they had us help explain "I might as well." Which makes perfect sense to me, but when I try to explain it, I can't. A lot of the japanese people could catch the meaning. Then we introduced ourselves once again and helped a lady translate her class schedule. Later, we played "Do you love your neighbor?" which was pretty fun (but since we were helping the lady, we were late and I didn't want to join half-way through).

Afterward, I was forced by Elder Orths (from Australia) to say the prayer. Lots of people thanked me. We made friends with this ojiisan (grandpa) who said that his name was "Andy." He is really funny and asked Shelly and I out to the next english class (after we let him know that we would be there). Apparently he really likes Country Music.

Then we rode the subway home. I bought a flan thing on the way (I'll send a pic later) and Shelly bought a grape jelly one. I thought they were both good, but Shelly hated hers.

But that's it for the past two days. We really haven't done anything beyond what we always do.

2nd Week in Japan

So on Sunday we prepared to go to church, figured out exactly where the easier to find church building was, left 2 hours early just in case, rode the subway 3 lines down, saw a church on our way there, found that there was no church where it was supposed to be, went back to the church we had seen earlier, found it was the right one, met the sister missionaries, realized we were an hour and a half early, took pictures of the river that has no water, went back to the church, accidentally sat in the priesthood, met all the relief society ladies, had an awesome time in young adult's class, had sacrament last and finally returned home.

The people there were really friendly, and if I went into detail, it would take forever to tell exactly what happened.

We also went shopping that day cause we needed leggings for the tea ceremony (apparently we have to take off all our clothes in the same room as everyone else so that we can put on our kimono).

We had a huge lunch/dinner of cold noodles (I can't remember what they're called) and tempura donburi. It was really good, but the noodles were really slippery, plus the dude in the next booth over watched our pathetic attempts at eating slippery noodles with chopsticks.

On Monday we went to school and got out at 2:30 cause it was early day! Yay! But we had to buy a bento cause we didn't cook on Sunday. Then we went shopping (again). I got some more leggings (everyone has them here, there are whole stores devoted to only socks/leggings) and we ate sakura mochi that had cream in it and some other stuff that wasn't very good. For dinner we had dumplings and gyoza. Which isn't really good for you, but tastes really good.

Then we met Atsuko (one of our friends from church) at Starbucks (after getting confused by the 24 hour clocks) who guided us to FHE. At FHE we had to introduce ourselves and listen to a lesson that Atsuko translated for us, laughed at the missionaries (they're from Pennsylvania and Australia), played jenga and ate awesome food. In America we have brownies and drinking fountain water for refreshments (unless we're at something nice). Here we had chips of all kinds, mini doughnuts, assorted chocolates, sweet potato sticks, rolls, icecream, icecream in the rolls (one of the funny leader guys said "aisu hambaga!" to us), chips in our icecream, egg salad in the rolls, sausage and egg salad in the rolls, and tons of other stuff. And there were no paper plates. Everything was either china or plastic. The spoons, of course, were metal.

Plus, Shelly totally has the hots for Miyamoto-san. I can't remember his first name and I only know his last name cause Atsuko was nice enough to tell us. And on Wednesday, Atsuko invited us to join them for English class. I asked whether or not it was okay that we already knew English and she assured us that they would love to have us. Plus, we are going to the cooking class that they are having on Friday, we will be making Okonomiyaki. Little do they know that we are learning to make that on Wednesday at school and will therefore be pros.

2nd Saturday in Japan

Okay, so I have gotten very lazy and haven't posted anything in the past few days. Gomen ne!

On Saturday, Shelly and I spent a long, lazy morning getting ready. It wasn't until 10(ish) that we finally left the dorm. We took the subway to Canal City where we went shopping. I bought some studio ghibli totoro slippers (now I can finally give the dorm lady back the slippers she lent me). Canal city is known as "the city within the city," but is really just a shopping district. It's not as big as people make it out to be, but the mall/building has many floors.

There are all kinds of stores from region gift shops to clothes to restaurants or every kind (chinese, mexican, traditional japanese, KFC, Wendy's, Dipper Dan's). We accidentally ordered grapefruit icecream (Shelly said grape, register Dipper Dan girl heard grape, other ice ceam scooper Dipper Dan girl heard grapefruit).

Basically we spent the day shopping, without actually buying anything. Apparently there was some sort of spring celebration going on so many stores were having sales. We also watched a magic/pantomime act and listened to a few local bands.

Through our existance in Canal City were drew lots of attention, some say kiree (pretty) others say gaijin (foreigner), instilled fear in children and were defeated by a door (it was locked, you're supposed to use the other door). We had unadon for lunch and had a bunch of boys say "hi" and attempt to introduce themselves in english.

Then we went to a park that was nearby where we met Karim. He's french and wantd Shelly and I to visit him one day in Paris. He spoke with us until his friend (also called Karim) arrived. While at the park we witnessed the awesome phenomenon of a hand-stand while peeing chihuahua. One leg was not enough.

At 4ish we escaped the frenchmen and got home just in time for dinner. Chicken with some weird sauce (whose name escapes me at the moment) and of course, rice. We also had some strawberries.

After all that we had a very lazy evening and that is where I'm going to leave off. You see, it's almost 11 and that is one of the latest times I have eve stayed up here. Plus I'm gonna have a busy morning. I still have to do tomorrow's homework and take a shower. Anyway, bye for now. I will catch you up later. ^^

6/7th Days in Japan

On thursday we had class as usual, but today we were to be taught by the school's only male teacher. Yuji-sensei is kinda creepy (to be blunt). Really funny. But creepy. Really good teacher. But, again, creepy.

Anyway, class went well. We learned how to actually say things to people. Things that you might actually use in public. Oh and we tried to beat him while putting the hiragana in order. We lost.

After foundation, we had culture class. This time we were painting hakata dolls. These dolls are actually quite famous and were the first Japanese doll to be designated by the Nat'l Government as a traditional arts/crafts industry.

The dolls that we painted are very cute and make a bell-like sound when you shake them, but I worry that they won't make it home as they are very fragile.

Once we got home we made sticky rice and stir fry for our bentos. Right around then I got my first migraine while in Japan. In fact, this is the first full on migraine that I have had in a very long time. I can't really explain why I got it. I had had a good lunch, sure I had some candy for snack, but... Basically, it must have been triggered by something I ate. Probably the soy sauce, but again, I don't really know. Not only was this the worst headache I'd had in months, it was also the fastest growing migraine I think I've ever had.

Generally, I know hours before I get a migraine. Or rather, I know whether I have a potential migraine. Kinda like the weather man telling you that there's a 20% chance of rain. I noticed that I might get a migraine while I was at school, but I ignored it (which I always do unless it gets worse). Then, while cooking, I noticed that it had indeed gotten worse and I decided that if it progressed, I would take a pill after I finished cooking. Basically, yesterday was no good.

Today was our last day of school for the week. After next week, we start intensive language training (that means that culture is replaced by another 2 hours of language). Monday and Friday are short day, so no culture today. We went home, started our first batch of laundry (which is still drying outside) and while I watched the washing machines, Shelly bought and cooked chicken for tomorrow's bento.

At 5:30 we left to go back to school for the Shabu shabu party. It was awesome! Shabu shabu is delicious, and plus the waiter guy totally made eyes at Shelly and I. ^^ At about 8, Shelly and I left early to explore the mall. We got lost (after touring the mall) in the red light district. I don't know how we got there, we just did. It really isn't that much different from the rest of town except that it smells like beer. And there are tons of guys. And a few scantily clad women. We saw a love hotel sign and a club that cost 100,000 en (about $100) for 40 mins. (an hour was 150,000 en).

We asked the 7/11 man which way Ohori Kouen was--the opposite direction. He was really nice and even tried to speak to us in English. Then we found the subway and asked the subway lady which subway to take (of course the one a ten minute walk away--still in the opposite direction of the red light district). Then we asked a random convenience store girl which way to go before we recognized the Daiei sign. From there, getting home was easy (but still about 15 mins by bike).

We didn't get home until 9:30 (our dorm's curfew is at 10). Anyway, this is the latest I have stayed up while in Japan, so I'm exhausted.

School Blog

Shelly and I made it onto the school's blog on only our 6th day in Japan (that would be our 4th day of school)!! Here is the link: http://www.genkijacs.com/blog/index.php/item/348
I guess that no other students have ever brought home-made bento to school before. Ours were just egg, rice and carrots the first time. But today we had stir fry (with only beef and peppers) and rice with an umeboshi (pickled plum--but maybe it was a pickled cherry?). Anyway, it's a special honor to be included in the schools blog and now you can see our growing fame! ^^

2nd/3rd Days of School

I am already starting to get lazy with my posts! Luckily, I forced myself to write this last night. ^^

On Tuesday we went to class as usual. We had foundation from 9:30 until 11:20 and then we have an hour break for lunch. We went shopping and bought some really cute bento boxes. After shopping, we were almost late for class and didn't have enough time for lunch so we bought soda from one of the vending machines along the way (there were at least 6). Unfortunately, in our hurry to get back to school, we turned at the wrong street. We ended up being 10 minutes late.

After our second block of foundation, we have culture classes on Tues, Wed and Thurs. Tuesday was calligraphy. I am really bad at calligraphy, so my name stamp looks kind of awful at the top. I got better by the end, so the last character in my name is nearly perfect.

We also painted the kanji for dream--after practicing a dozen times--on really nice paper. But first we had to make the ink, which is a long process of scraping an ash stick thing around in water. Shelly and I both put the kanji off-center, but our sensei told us that it was okay because where we signed our name and put our stamp fixes it. It is not a word, but a work of art.

Then we went home, and had dinner in the cafeteria with the other girls. No one talked to us, but one student in particular kept smiling at us. Unfortunately, we didn't know that you are supposed to use a card when you go in there--and no one was brave enough to tell us. So we got in trouble with the dorm lady, who is actually quite scary.

After that we were going to give the dorm lady a present when I fell asleep. Shelly came into my room and scared me half to death, and then I didn't wake up until 6.

Today, we went to school, weren't late at all and learned tons! We had Wendy's and crepes for lunch. It was delicious but quite expensive, so we won't do that again. We also signed up to go to the Shabu Shabu party on Friday--which was also expensive--but I am sure that it will be well worth it.

Culture class today was pottery. We went to a pottery master's home where he taught us that pottery is a fun art, unlike kendo and judo which requires "serious students." We won't get our cups until next month though, so maybe Maki-sensei (the teacher in charge of planning the culture classes) will have to mail them to us in America.

After getting home we made our first meal--onigiri (rice balls) with sake (salmon) in the middle, scrambled eggs and chopped carrots. It doesn't actually sound that good, but before we put everything in the bento boxes (and totally smashed our huge onigiri) it tasted quite good. I'm rather excited to show Mai-san (the receptionist at Genki JACS) our awesome, however untraditional, bentos.

Then we made friends with one of the other dorm girls. Her name is Ayumi (she specifically asked us not to use any honorifics with her, which you only do with good friends in Japan). She is studying American/English Literature at Kyuushu University. She was quite excited to meet us and she even complimented our Japanese (obiviously flattery as we are completely horrible!!).

Now we are getting ready for bed, even though it's only 8. Changing time zones is actually very difficult, especially without any sleeping aids (beyond benadryl).

1st Day of School!

I have to take a shower in 20 mins or else I'll be late for school, so this is gonna be short and sweet.

Yesterday we had our first day of school. We were 15 mins late due mostly to stupidity.

It was the first day of school for 3 other students as well, all of which were definitely past their 30s. Their preliminary tests were rather long. I was kinda worried, but not terrible. I mean, how worried can you be when you already know that you're gonna fail horribly, right?

Finally it was my turn and I could answer the first question, and then I had to admit my inability to speak the language.

Then, we were placed into classes. Shelly and I are the only ones in the beginner level. Mika-sensei was our teacher that day is she is incredibly nice. I'm so glad that we came to school here and that we finally have homework!!

We learned basic greetings and how to introduce ourselves. Today we have a vocabulary test, but it shouldn't be too difficult.

At the school, we rented some bikes for the rest of our stay here, a phone and a cooking set. Overall, it was kind of expensive, but I am very glad that we have bikes. Even though they are hard to ride and avoiding peds is nearly impossible (in Japan bikes ride on the sidewalk with the peds).

We also went to Daiei which is like a mall with a produce section. It is huge. We bought a bag of rice and tons of other essential food items. But we forgot to get salt. I really want salt. And we also didn't get bento boxes so we can't take a box lunch to school. We will start cooking today.

We had takoyaki (octopus dumplings) for dinner and they were amazing. We watched a movie called Nana so that we wouldn't fall asleep before 9. Shelly cheated and slept during the movie. I didn't notice until she started snoring though. Of course I woke her up.

In the end, we both went to bed at a reasonable hour. But I still woke up at 4:30 this morning. But hey, that's 30 mins later than yesterday. And a whole hour later than Sunday morning! Yay!!

Oh and japanese cream puffs are awesome. We bought a pack of frozen ones for Easter and then forgot that we had them.

2nd Day in Japan

Today was equally eventful as yesterday, however, I am much more tired than yesterday. As I mentioned earlier, I have been awake since 3 am. That means I have been concious for the past 16 hours.

First order of business was once again a shower. It is very humid here, in fact it is very warm every day. The weather is perfect. So far it has been cloudless and somewhat hot, but always with a nice breeze.

After our shower, we ate a quick breakfast of rolls with butter and some pocari sweat. Then we headed out to go to church. We expected to find some more breakfast along the way as the church was a very long ways away. We got about half way there before admitting that there was in fact no hope that we were going to find it.

Just before we decided that we were lost, we were stopped by a local who apparently wanted us to come to his beauty shop (hair/make-up/ect.). We took his card, but I doubt that we will go there. But, this was our first encounter with a local who wasn't required to care about us.

As we came home, we found that there was a grocery store about 2 blocks from our dorm (much better selection than Lawson's). We bought some icecream as it is easter, 2 hamburgers, lots of discount onigiri, noodles and some spagetti sauce. Until tomorrow, we still don't have any cooking utensils, but it is good to start getting some of the essentials now.

After eating the 3 pack of onigiri (seaweed, hamfried rice and pickled cherry flavors) and almost dying of grossness, we set out to find the Nishi Park. It took us about 5 mins. We passed 2 shrines on the way, the bigger of the shrines makes a sqwaking sound as you drop money into the prayer box.

The Nishi Park is more of a forest trail than a park. It has several playgrounds within it, but none are visible until you are almost on top of them. The best part about this park is that no one actually goes into it. We were almost completely alone and therefore, not stared at.

We headed home for a quick study session (we still needed to learn the katakana before tomorrow). Then we went to the Ohori Park once again, as there was nothing else for us to do. There we say tons of children! We had missed them yesterday because we had fallen asleep. We also saw many gaijin.

The funny thing about the other gaijin is that they are all men. The other weird part is that they don't acknowledge our presence beyond giving us a double take as they walk by. However, one of the gaijin did stop us and we had a pretty pleasant conversation about the weather, why we are in japan, why he is in japan, ect. He was a rather loud speaker, but in the end it was rather nice finally speaking to someone other than Shelly. Even though I do love her dearly.

Lastly we went home, attempted to eat our discount onigiri (mine turned out to be okaka flavor which is fermented fish--I gagged and had to spit it out), asked when dinner was, got told that there was no dinner on sunday (or any other meal), pouted, went grocery shopping, bought lots of drinks, tasted some milk, bought a butter knife (which we definitely needed), got some salmon for making good onigiri with, and finally came home once again.

Now I am going to sleep. ^^

Oh, yeah and no one will accept my debit card. The internet says that the major store chains should accept my plastic, but so far no store has (including Lawsons, 7/11, ect.). I am starting to feel very upset about it. But there is a post office right across the street from us.

First Day in Japan

Welcome to Bike Land!!

Okay, so I should have blogged yesterday's events this morning when I woke up at 3 am. Unfortunately, I was trying way too hard to go back to sleep (I never did get back to dreamland). It is now 3 pm and I have only had one 30 min nap.

Yesterday, Shelly and I basically explored the area. First we tried to find the ocean, what we really found was the marina. It's cool, they are definitely real fishing boats there (none of those joy boats that everyone in south jordan owns).

Then, we headed toward the Ohori Park. It is huge!! You can't believe how pretty it is! There is an entire lake in the middle of it. Around the lake is a track that lots of people walk/jog on. Along with their dogs so you have to watch out for piddle.

The Ohori Park is actually quite famous, and after seeing it, it isn't hard to see why. It's a borderline national park! There are tons of things to do in it. You can take the swan boats onto the lake, play baseball, play on the huge playground, walk on the track, explore the foresty areas and go fishing in the designated fishing areas. There are also free theatre productions every once in awhile.

Everyone here stares at us. I did not realize that we were Fukuoka's only gaijin (foreigners). Actually, there are 3 other foreigners in our dorm but they are all asian.

Shelly and I are sort of a novelty here at the Wings Nishi Koen Dorm. Everyone knows that we can't speak english, so they don't say anything to us beyond "konnichiwa" (hello) and "ohayo gozaimasu" (good morning).

After a rather sad breakfast of riceballs and soda from the pluthera of vending machines (they are literally on every corner) we decided to once again find the ocean. Unfortunately, we went the wrong way.

Luckily, after touring a greater park of the inner city, we stumbled upon our school!! Huzzah! That was easy to find . . . Anyway, touring was not very fun, mostly because I was quite tired.

Then we went shopping! Not actually that exciting. We bought butter, some chips that taste like Kudos, milk, grapefruit juice and Pocari Sweat (like Gatorade).

Now, after getting lost several times, we were ready to find the ocean. And we did, after a very long walk. We went under the free way and along a really long road. It must have been over 10 blocks from our house.

But, it was all worth it! The beach was kinda overgrown with grass. I don't think that people actually swim in the ocean because we found lots of washed up jellyfish. And even saw one that was still in the water. Ew.

There were a few other people at the beach, of course they all stared. As we were making our way home, we found the Yahoo! Dome. It is very large. It is where the Fukuoka Hawks (Fukuoka's baseball team) plays. They actually had a game on the day that we arrived.

We found a fruit/vegetable store on our way home and bought expensive strawberries, but we were soooooo hungry! It was definitely worth it. Especially since we ate them for dinner too.

After buying the strawberries, we happened upon a 7/11, here we bought dinner and the rest of our lunch. We stopped in a park and finished off some more riceballs and gyoza.

Finally, we arrived home. We decided to take a nap and that we wouldn't sleep more than an hour. Shelly slept for 6 hours before waking me up. By then it was bed time. Hence the reason I woke up at 3 this morning.

But today we have vowed not to sleep at all! Not until at least 9pm, otherwise we will be very tired at school tomorrow.

Our Journey to Japan

Okay, so I am definitely in Japan now!! First off, airports are not actually that difficult to navigate. With that said, on with the story...

The SLC airport was a breeze, except for security where Shelly and I held up the line. But the people there are really nice, so it was okay.

LAX was hard, but mostly because we had to take a shuttle and Shelly thought we were supposed to go one way while the shuttle-man told us a different way. And because we are obviously smarter, we got lost finding our own way, and in the end, found that the shuttle-man was right.

Then we sat for six hours. It was really boring, so we browsed the stores. And watched people. And slept in our chairs outside the terminal.

Finally, we boarded. We were fed really gross noodle things, but there was tons of soda so that was good. I didn't go to the restroom the entire fligth, which is actually quite amazing because the flight to Tokyo was approx. 13 hours. I don't know how I did it.

We watched 3 movies on that flight and slept the rest of the time.

Finally, we were in Japan. Here we were herded to quarantine, which was a breeze. Then immigration. Then customs. And then, security once again. The Tokyo airport is nice because there is only one way to go. There is no chance of getting lost.

We got to our terminal with 30 mins to spare, and sat some more. The flight to Fukuoka was horrifying because Shelly and I did not sit next to eachother. But it was okay. The men on either side of me kept to themselves (aka, slept).

Once in Fukuoka, we got our bags and hailed a taxi. The taxi doors open by themselves, so you should never touch them.

20 mins later, and after asking a few people on the street, we found our way to our dorm. The taxi man was very helpful, even though he spoke no english at all.

Then the dorm lady greeted us and gave us a tour of the dorm. She was really nice too, even though she doesn't speak english either. The other dorm girls are all japanese--they don't speak english--and they think that we're funny looking, but I think it's gonna be okay.

Shelly's and my room are right next to one another.

Figuring out the gadgets in my room was interesting. I can work everything very well except my remote control for the heater/air conditioner and the lamp on my desk. I successfully made my bed, which is harder than it sounds. I am completely unpacked and ready to head out on the rest of today.

Anyway, sorry for being so long/boring!! It's only 7AM here (on Saturday), so I haven't woken Shelly up.

Take Action Tour

So I went to my very first (real) concert on Tuesday.

I wasn't really all that excited, I consider concerts more of a right of passage rather than a party (had we been seeing The Pussycat Dolls or Lily Allen it would have been a different story). Unfortunately, my friends were very excited so I kind of dampened the atmosphere.

They made me drive. Which was pretty funny because I had no idea where we were going. Her parents were giving me directions, but I'd never driven that far north so I pretty much just smiled and nodded. The only part I remembered was that we had to drive on "Main Street." And I was thinking, Hmm . . . I wonder where main street is . . ."

We got to the concert though, even an hour early. Just in time for the doors to open. All the tickets were general admission so we smashed each other for the best spots. Or rather, they smashed while I watched.

The performances were pretty good, they were local bands so there weren't any fancy effects. Of course the band we were there for performed last, but I figured this way I could brag about all the different bands I saw. 4 different bands performed and I managed to get a Meg&Dia t-shirt.

The only problem with the whole thing was that it was loud. Like really loud. Like, I should have brought earplugs loud. Or maybe my sound blocking headphones. Did I mention it was LOUD?! My left ear was still ringing until this morning. Do you understand how annoying that is? I, mean, it would have been one thing if both my ears were ringing, but no. My right ear recovered within 30 mins after we left for home.

Anyway, I'll quit ranting. I can officially say that I've been to a decent concert.

Oh, and yesterday, Nick held my hand for the first time ever. This was our 6th or 7th date and he finally got the guts. I was pretty sure that he would, what with all the hand twitching on our last date, but . . . it was still pretty exciting. ^^ Maybe next week he'll kiss me?! lol

Daylight Savings

So I knew that it was daylight savings. I knew that my clocks wouldn't change by themselves. However, I had faith that my cell phone wouldn't fail me. I thought that, just like 6 months ago, it would change on its own.

I was wrong.

So now, I am over an hour late for church. Not that I mind really, it's just that I promised the new girl that I'd sit by her again this week . . . oops.

What's funny though is that my sister came into my room to ask me for a ride to church, I was far too tired at that point and refused. I thought that she had some sort of meeting an hour early. But no, she was off to attend church. Unfortunately, she didn't mention her decision to anyone (asking me for a ride doesn't count). My entire family, except Alyssa, was absent today.

Oh, and The Annoyance gets back on track tomorrow. Too bad that missing hour means I'll have to put up with him an hour earlier that I would have otherwise.

I can't wait until I leave for Japan, I've heard that they don't have daylight savings or The Annoyance there. What a brilliant country.

First Post and The Annoyance

I'm not sure that my first post should be centered around the person I most dislike. However, I have a savage nature and must vent.

To begin, I run a carpool for my mother. Basically, my neighbor takes her 3 kids and my brother to school in the morning, and I pick them up after school. I liked this setup as I tend to sleep in well past 9 (kids have to be to school by at least 8:30).

Now, the two girls that I drive are very well behaved and--beside complaining about the dumb boys at school--polite. However, the boy (whom I will refer to as The Annoyance) drives me nuts.

I like the heater on while driving in february, I would assume most people do. I prefer not to freeze while waiting for the four kids to jump into the car. Unfortunately, The Annoyance is taller and has longer legs than the others and almost always makes it to the car first. He gets in, complains about the state of the carpet and then vegetates for about 5 minutes. It's like he's in a coma.

Then, without fail, he will complain about the heat. By this time, everyone else is in the car and ready to go. I say, as nicely as possible, "Maybe you should take your coat off." Then a one-sided argument ensues on why he should definitely not take his coat off. Sigh. I have to lock the windows or he will roll them down. Even if it's a blizzard outside. Sometimes, my brother reminds me to lock them, so its not just me that finds his antics annoying.

Upon one occasion, The Annoyance jumped into the car as usual, but instead of complaining about the candy wrapper on the floor, exclaimed that there were coins on the floor!! In his excitement he scooped them all up and then claimed "finders=keepers."

Had this been anyone else, I wouldn't have cared. But of course it was my arch nemesis stealing from me, so I cared. A lot. I tried to explain that the rule does not apply when in someone's car. It just doesn't. Just like you can't claim finders keepers in someone's house.

In the end, I guilted him into putting the 89 cents down, but it took most of the ten minute drive home. And help from his sisters. He's going to give me an ulcer I swear.

But, luckily, The Annoyance is off track!! This means that I don't have to drive any of the kids home for the next two weeks! Huzzah!!