On Monday, I will have exactly 4 months left of my stay in Japan. And in a little bit longer, I will have been here for 6 months. Part of me is thinking, Gee that was quick, but then the other part is missing home. Especially when we have a beautiful day. Clear blue skies, a nice breeze and a decent amount of sun. It makes me think of shopping with my mommy in Santana Row or something like that.

日本舞踊 is really fun. I bought two sets of really pretty fans, or おうぎ and everytime I go to class (2/month) the grandmas tell me that I am really good, and they clap and everything, and I get really embarrassed. And apparently I really look like one of the grandma's daughters when she was in high school. Everyone agrees. And then they look at me with something akeen to fascination. But I'm close to finishing one dance, and my teacher told me this morning that soon I will be able to perform.
Horrifying.

Anyway, it occured to me that I can understand most of what these grandmas are saying. That in itself is a bit of a miracle because I had trouble understanding grandmas/grandpas in English, or Chinese. Especially Chinese. But actually, the grandmas here just use a lot of dialect. And once I figure out one or two words it all makes sense.

School is also a lot more fun now that I've made some closer friends, AND I'm starting to memorize people' names- which is a major accomplishment, I might add... well, my brain has just come to a complete standstill, but I'll update again soon. I PROMISE MOMMY!

This was my first week back to school- and it was LOONG. Even though it was only 4 days. I had forgotten how cold it was with a few measly layers instead of a bubble jacket and jeans. i was feeling all proud of myself during brreak, too. I thought it wasn't as cold as before, and I figured I was getting adjusted. Ah well.

The first day back, we had a "uniform" check. They had us all stand in lines in turn, and checked the length of our nails, our hair (and hair color) and for makeup, for signs that we had pierced our ears, and also whether or not we tweezed our eyebrows. Needless to say, I was horrified. I would never stop tweezing my eyebrows. wtf? And of course, it was really obvious that I pierced my ears. I just grinned at them.

Yesterday (Saturday), I had my haircut. It was the longest, most detailed thing I have ever thing. I am used to all those Chinese women who take about 10-30 minutes to cut my hair, but this woman went layer by layer, and sometimes, returned to lower layers before moving on. It took at least an hour, but prrobably more. It's cute though.

After, I went to the Asukaen New Year's Party. If you've never seen a Japanese party, it's basically everybody pouring drinks for each other. And because it's polite to do it for everyone, people basically rotate around the room to pour a drink for everyone else. So you see people downing full glasses so that the enxt person can pour some more in their glass. (After all, you can't pour beer into an already full glass.) I had a tiny tiny bit because one of the men sitting across from me insisted. It was time for the toast, and at that point there were no other beverages out, so I did. I have to admit, beer was not as bad as I thought it would be. Anyway, the look on the poor guy's face when he found out I was the "American exchange student" was priceless. The whole night, guys kept looking at me funny- like I had antennaes or something.  I didn't mind, because a lot of them were drunk, and usually they don't bother trying to talk to me until they're.. loosened up a little.

It was fun. When we came back though, I went upstairs to put away my stuff, and when I came back, I was shocked to see them all drinking again. Maybe around 5 or 6 guys had to sleep downstairs- they were much too intoxicated to drive, AND they lived far far away. So that was my Saturday. Interesting, wasn't it?

It's crazy that it's 2006 now. And that I've been in Japan for nearly four months now.
The last week has been pretty good- my host brother from the O.C. (yes, THAT o.c.) is visiting home and let me tag along with him a couple times when he went out with his friends.  One of his friends is a girl who also studied in America (Ohio) for a year and she has an electric piano for me to tinker around with.
Christmas was odd- it was an impromptu "sleepover" at the aforementioned girl's house, and I got about 3-4 hours of sleep that night. We had a little cake, a little wine, and I met some guys who could play the guitar- like electric, folk and bass. I also found out that they used to be in a band in high school, and I watched a video of it- pretty cute. My host brother played the drums.

New Year's was anticlimatic. Mostly because I wasn't even aware it was New Year's Eve until like.. 11:30 and I was wondering why everybody was still up. We ate noodles on New Year's Eve, and I watched a little bit of the RedWhite Competition thing on TV. Went to bed right after midnight because I had a killer headache. The next morning my host family (including the grandparents that live next door) drove up the big mountain hill we live on and up to the family.. tombstone? They left some fruits, changed up the flowers, and filled the flower... holder thing (it's not exactly a vase) with this clear sports water. We burned some incense and said a few prayers and then returned home. There was this thing that you do where you pour sake for the person next to you into a little bowl 3 times (not 3 bowls, just 1 bowl that you fill up by tipping the pot 3 times). Actually bowl may be a little generous- it was more of a plate, and probably the size of my palm. But anyway, we also had to eat these two other things that I don't know the name of, but have definitely eaten it before. Very Asian.

Anyway, tomorrow is the Seijin Shiki which is the celebration for people who turn 20 and therefore are legal adults in Japan. I'm crashing the party and wearing a furisode kimono. It should be interesting. I probably will be very uncomfortable and embarrassed and not understand anything, but hey- there could be cute guys there!

Now my current project is trying to learn how to knit. It's coming very slowly and quite badly, and my host mom has the patience of a saint. The fact that I'm not discouraged yet is evidence that I've developed a bit more patience since I've come. Interesting, isn't it? Speaking of changes, last night my host parents told me my face became pretty. I'm not sure what to make of it, because my face is quite the same, but something nice in any case. Also, I met some guy who nearly blew a gasket when he discovered I was 17. He thought I was his age (21) because apparently I give off the impression of being intelligent. Hmm.. impressive. Probably totally untrue though.

Anyway, my white scarf still has a good 500 rows to go, so we'll see how that goes. Happy New Year's everyone!

I'm a day early, but I have this premonition that I'll be too lazy tomorrow so here I am. Winter break offiicially started today, but only for me. Everybody else has winter break school from mondays-wednesdays. And the kicker is our last day (Thursday) was spent entirely on "closing" ceremonies that left all of us shivering uncontrollably and grabbing our feet in pain (it was that cold). And of course right when I was thinking that the weather was warming up a bit, I woke up Thursday to find a world of white. Snow. And of course I fell down on the way to school and my skirt flew up so I was basically sitting on ice in my underwear. Hah. My friend asked me if it was the first time I saw snow, and I said no- but it was the first time I was out in the snow with a skirt on. She found that quite amusing. This is what she (and most of the other girls) were wearing. Dress shirt, sweater, jacket, skirt. Me: tank top, long sleeve, dress shirt, my mom's thermal sweater thing, the school sweater, school jacket, big big coat and skirt. I love how I had like seven layers on top and a skirt on the bottom. But even with all that, I was freezing after about 2 hours of sitting in the gym. And my hands and feet were in serious serious pain. Seriously.

 

I was thinking about how I had wanted to live in New York and live that. fast, sophisticated lifestyle. Now, I don:t know if I ever want to see snow again. On the other hand, I wouldn't be required to wear skirts. And even if I were, I'd most definitely wear skirts with more substance like wool or something. And knitted tights. And knee- high boots. And a fantastic coat.

 

I've been whining a lot, but the truth is it's not all that bad. The people are the nicest ever, and I've got my little gas heater even if it does smell and make the room incredibly dry. And it's the holidays! And it's vacation! For me, anyway. My English teacher who is really the guy who tells me what's going on at school told me that it was up to me to come to school during vacation, but if I wanted to, I could. I stared for a full 10 seconds trying not to grin. HOnestly, I could tell he meant he thought I should come even though I dont have to, but like I could give a damn. So I said, thanks, but that's alright. I think I'll suffer through having 2 weeks off from school. And then I took off because I had about 10 minutes to get to the train station and it usually takes me 15-20 minutes. PUAHA.

 

Anyway, I LOVE YOU ALL and merry christmas and happy new year. Actually, I'll probably update in time for the happy new Year, so MERRY CHRISTMAS. i hope you all get what you want.

Hmm.. I've been sick for over a week now, but at least I feel better. A little. I love how I have no idea how to name my colds because one day my throat is killing me, and the next I have an unbearably runny nose and headache, the next I've got a tummy ache and my throat is killing me and my nose is runny and my head is going to split open.

 

Anyway, I consider it a great thing that I have a voice again. Still can't hear anything though... No idea how I'm going to make up for all the ballet classes I've missed, but I'll figure it out.

 

So I was talking to the ALT at my school, and found that he really really really hates this place. I mean, really. Apparently, there's nothing to do around here (it's hard to dispute that) and if you miss a train, the next one isn't for a good hour or so. But I find it amusing that he's having a much harder time with this place than I am (and I'm living in a even smaller town- not city) and I remember he told me his hometown is about the same size as Kashima. It goes without saying that San Jose is quite a bit larger. Jeez, I bet even Cupertino is a lot bigger than the city. Also, I met another JET who is also working as an ALT at some other school somewhere during the JLPT and we were talking about where we lived and when he didn't recognize the name of my town, I said it was a little farther than Kashima City and wayyy up in the countryside. (The test was in Hakata- quite bigger than Saga, the biggest city that I had gone to.) He got all excited and told me he lived in the countryside too- in Saga city. I laughed. Very loudly. I have to take an hour long train ride to get to Saga city for my ballet class.

 

In any case, New Year's is coming up (Christmas  in Japan is good only for cake. Do we eat cake in California?) and apparently I will be wearing a kimono. Also, on the fourth of January there is a big.. party/festival thing? for twenty  year old women who will dress up in kimonos and.. do something. My host mom asked me if I wanted to go, and when I pointed out that I wasn't exactly 20, she paused and said... well it SHOULD be okay.. after all it's not like you'll be here when you're 20. So I will be crashing that party. Interesting...

 

I love the tags on this site that I never use- they always suggest the weirdest things, although this time it says.. SUGGESTED TAGS: big city, city of love, city, the city.

I love the city. This week that I've been pretty much bedridden I've had a ton of dreams, all weirder than the next, and all with my dear mommy in them. Can't remember what they're about, but if there's anything I'm sure about, it's that I am definitely a city girl. Even being in Kyoto where there are big tall buildings and traffic and rushes of people walking around gets my energy spiking. I love this town- it's beautiful and kind of sweet in it's own way, but I always feel tired and sleepy and dreamy.

 

I miss... the way my mom always has the coldest hands and the way they feel on my forehead when I'm sick and burning up. And the spontaneous trips to Santa Cruz where we'd spend a good 20-30 minutes driving and spend 20-30 minutes staring at the ocean and then drive home. And Santana Row. And shopping. And I miss SF in all it's dirty, windy glory. And Starbucks and Westgate and all those hours wasted drinking Frapps and reading chick lit. But it doesn't exactly bother me that I miss so much about home, because when I'm on the train with nothing to do, I always pull out a memory and it always makes me smile. I bet the people who see me on the train everyday think I'm crazy. But at least I'm better than the boys who are grooming their hair and checking out their eyebrows in their cute little compact mirrors. No joke. I actually took a picture one day- couldn't resist. You'll have to remind me to show you when I get home.