=(

Today was a rather weird day. Not because it was bad, nor good, but it rates somewhere in the middle. I was actually able to sleep and be fully rested (\o/!), I finished up two papers (\o/!), I called my Daddy (\o/!), Daddy-O was in the hospital (-_-;), Daddy-O has an infection in his pancreas (-_-;) and my best friend's health isn't doing so well either (-_-;). It rates as a "bleh" day on my meter. Pretty much the only other thing I did was go to the local shrine and pray for both of their healths.

Say what you want about pagan, heathen, whatever religions...I never felt more serene and calm in a church as I have in an outdoor shrine in Japan.

I wish the best for both of their sakes. As much as me and my dad are as different as night and day and regardless of his past, he's still my daddy ;~;

Exchange Pains

For those of you who said I shouldn't worry myself with the entire economy going down the crapper don't know how much the exchange rate depends on stock trading and how badly its effecting me. It's currently 100 yen to 1, which is 1:1 ratio. This makes me very uncomfortable and worried and I pray for a speedy recovery.

Wherein I get a lot of use out of my bike

The legs, they burn with a righteous fury. I have done not well by them. Biking everyday to class and back, futzing around Fuchu and what not. Yeah, they're angry. But at the same time, the more I don't bike, the more it hurts. So biking feels good, strangely. Just not when it's raining, it's dark, and I have to put the lamp on my bike which is pedal powered (making it twice as hard to pedal).

Today was another one of them "long days". You're probably asking, well, it's a Sunday, what could be so long. It's the weekend, it's chill time, it's all good.

Au contraire, mon frere.

Today was not just any Sunday, but I had an early student today who wanted to meet in Mitaka (so basically, near my school). Seeing as how I am an early riser, the 9:30 appointment was of no issue. Woke up, ate some yogurt, pedaled to Mitaka to the McD's, got a quick breakfast (om nom nom) and waited for Sho (my student) to arrive.

Sho is an older gentleman, older than my first student even, and was much more relaxed and not as rigid as the first student. He's a surgeon who specializes in gastro-intestinal cancer and anything pertaining to the gut area. We talked a lot and that's pretty much what he pays me for: to talk. Strange, isn't it?

What is stranger is that he ended up needing to leave half way through our trial lesson and on top of that, he paid me more than THREE TIMES my price. That's right, what was supposed to be about a 1500 yen session became a 5000 yen session.

Holy fuck.

I see him again on the 18th. He's biweekly, considering how busy the schedule of a surgeon is. Dare I hope that I get 5000 yen each time @_@

So I pack my stuff up from McD's and go to pull out my bike when a wild Rachael appears! Not wanting to go back home only to ride back two hours later for a make up class session, I decide to follow her to this English speaking church she found. It wasn't until we were riding for like a half hour when I realized that we had rode from Mitaka to Kichijouji. Color me amazed since I was like, "Holy crap, I've rode from Fuchu to Mitaka to Kichijouji! There's nothing I can't do!" We met up with Katie, Abigail, Greg, and two others whose names I cannot remember and headed to the church.

I won't go much into the church thing. It wasn't really engaging, and I dunno...didn't really "feel" anything there.

So, after the service runs late, me and Katie have to haul ass back to campus for our make up class (We have the same class and are both on Festival Committee). On our way back we pass Inokashira Park and see some sort of awesome festival/open market thing happening and we're both like, "To ditch class, to not ditch class..." Considering that after class we were all going to a Korean Yakiniku restaurant, we opted for class. It didn't seem as long as it normally did, which was nice. Probably because it was done earlier in the day.

Note to self: Korean food is tasty, when you can avoid the really spicy food.

It was really nice to be able to talk to my classmates in a more relaxed setting. Noe is half-Japanese half-American, born in Tokyo but lived in the States for awhile and went to school here, Mizuki (or "Miz") is really awesome too. She lives in Kichijouji. Both have offered to hang out with me and show me the ropes of Tokyo, for which I am grateful.

Then it was the long ride home. I'm hot, I'm tired, my legs are sore. I'm going to go chill for a bit and study for my quiz tomorrow.

Dean's Reception and Yasukuni Shrine

The last few days. Woo. How tiring. Wednesday I all but passed out. Thursday, I went home after class and vegetated before going out to Shinjuku to tutor my first, permanent student (for now). Then I came back home and vegetated some more. I was sore as hell. The biking has been working my legs hard and all the walking around I have to do...woo. I've lost like...3 kilograms since I arrived, no lie.

Friday was one of those days. I had my second major Japanese test and afterwards I high tailed it to the library to forward my annotated bibliography to myself so I could print it off for my History class later in the day as well as renting out books for my other History class' research paper on Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After classes, it was straight to the Festival Committee Workshop to paint and socialize. Rena and Maya were very talkative and Yuka was a new face. The four of us were on the inside of the workshop cutting out foam letters and numbers and painting them black. Yuka was a major help as she forced me to talk in Japan and actively engaged me in conversation instead of ignoring me like everyone else.

I also ordered my commemorative festival 2008 hoodie and happi, so when I come back home I will have some special items to remind me of my time in the committee.

After painting in the workshop, it was time for the Dean's Reception. This was basically another forced get together for all us September students to get together, get a free dinner (Mmm, curry and dim sum? Yes plz.) When there I was given a bamboo flower vase that was cut that day (Thanks to Maria, from Spain!). Free food aside, it was a fun shindig. Then it was the long bike ride home. I promptly fell asleep.

Today I was up at my normal time (6:30-7:00) and started to get ready for my trip to Yasukuni. Takeyoshi was kind enough to suggest hanging out and going to the Shrine was a good way to kill two birds with one stone. I'd get to go to the Shrine for my project and I'd have a native speaker to help me find my way around the craziness that is Shinjuku station.

The Shrine was beautiful for something so controversial. For those uninformed, Yasukuni Shrine is where the souls of Japan's war dead are enshrined as kami. This includes everyone from the lowest peon soldier to those who were found guilty of Class A War Crimes (I.e. Hideki Tojo). The reason the shrine is so controversial is when Japanese leaders, such as Prime Ministers and the heads of Government Ministries visit it. The rest of Asia is not quite happy with how those in power seem to be glorifying Japan's war past (vis a vis the worshipping of the souls there, including the Class A Criminals). Yasukuni is in a way to Japan like our War Memorials are to us back home.

We ended up going to the museum attached to the Shrine (the Yushukan) so I could inspect the exhibits to see from what scope they were presenting their own history, as was to be expected, it never once cast Japan's aggression in the Pacific in the negative light. Everything was, "Japan was fighting against evil Imperialist forces to protect their Asian brothers." Heck, it even white washed older Japanese history (ie. Hideyoshi's aggression in Korea in the late 16th century). It was not surprising, all things considered. I did write my Senior Thesis on how Japan's government actively tries to re-write history...

Throughout the museum, Takeyoshi was lightly ribbing me. I think he has a crush on me, because when we were looking at the amulets the miko (Shrine Priestess') were selling, he pointing out the one for finding boyfriends. Starting inquiring if I had a boyfriend, etc, etc. He's called me cute on several occasions and likes my Japanese pronunciation...

He wanted me to go home with him after the museum to watch a movie but I opted out of it, you know...just in case my favorite mild mannered Osakan was really a crazy repressed Japanese guy who would potentially harm a small white chick ^_^;...

I bought a few Hinomaru (The name of Japan's flag) stickers, a cellphone strap, a metal komon sticker (Family Crest. Oddly enough, it looks like the same crest used in L5R for the Imperial family...whichever one is sitting on the throne, that is). I got my brother something I know he will love, that crazy goof. I hope he likes it.

There'll be a photo update on my blog shortly :D

Love you all~

Long Days, But Worth It!

My Wednesday's are perhaps the most hellish day of the week for me. I have class from 10:00am to 7:00pm, non-stop. That's right. Nine hours of class in one day. Granted it gets my once a week class out of the way, but it's nothing short of mind breaking when today was the first day of Kousen (my particular group in the Festival Committee...we're basically PR and advertising) began working in the workshop on the banners and signs and wooden constructs to put up around campus for the festival. That went until about an hour ago.

Before I headed there, I lounged in the library for awhile and ran into Takeyoshi again. He stopped in his tracks and looked at me like I had grown a second head. Apparently my outward appearance (read: HAGGARD) caused such an alarm that he dragged me to some chairs to sit and talk for a bit. I've been sleeping fine, it's just mostly stress and all that jazz from the past two weeks, my prior depression, the failing of a quiz, stuff like that. I'm also pretty lonely and don't go out much because I don't really have many friends to go out with.

That's when he told me that any time I want to go out, I just need to call him and we'll go hang out. He's new to Tokyo too (Takeyoshi is originally from Osaka) so we're exploring it together. I just get the bonus added of having a fluent Japanese speaker with me so I don't get lost, end up in Roppongi working at an S&M bar...

I really had fun today all things considered. Painting in the workshop felt great, and everyone was so friendly. I still get a little giddy when they call me "Erykah-chan!" and the occasional "Kawaii"'s throw me through a loop...but they like me, think I'm cool and are happy to have me on board. And I'm happy to be there.

Woo. Tomorrow I have my second trial tutoring session with another old Japanese business guy. This one seems like serious business, so I hope the impression I make is a good one. Go, go Money!

Tomorrow I'm also taking my Camera with me to Workshop and subsequently to Yasukuni on Saturday and to class (yes, class. A makeup period) on Sunday because after class, the entire group is going to a Korean restaurant for dinner. Yum yum. Time to see the professor get drunk XD

Now, back to homework!