Two weeks and counting.

I've been putting off blogging for two reasons this time:
1. I've actually been busy so I haven't had the time.
2. I've been lazy with my camera so don't have much in the way of photos to show you so I was waiting for other people to post some up on Facebook I could steal, but they are being too slow.

So here goes.

A week and a half ago on Friday, my host family left to go on vacation in Hawaii. I found it ironic that they went to America while I stayed in Japan especially with my homecoming so close. Because of their absence, I tried to fill up my time with stuff that got me out of the apartment which meant I was super social.

The day after they left, I went to Kate's house for a birthday party. We ate really yummy food, played with kittens, cats, and one dog, then lit a bunch of sparklers out in the street. Super fun.

Here's the group gathered for cake. Me, Kerry, Megan, Rachel, and Kate. Kerry and Megan left before we broke out the sparklers sadly.

This is the birthday cake! It says "otanjoubi omedetou Kate" That first part just means Happy Birthday. Japanese people seem to favor strawberry cakes for birthdays. Interesting.

This is one of the kittens investigating a bag of dried mango I'd bought earlier that day. I would have more kitten pictures, but once again I have two reasons that I don't: 1. kittens don't stop moving when you're playing with them so they're hard to get good pictures of and 2. I was far more interested in actually playing with them than snapping photos. This particular kitten is my favorite. They're rescue kittens and are all up for adoption so they don't actually have names. Kate calls him Marumaru and I called him puff ball though. It's sort of the same thing in the end ("marumaru" gives sort of a round image).

No more pictures from here on. Sorry. If I get my hands (digitally speaking) on some, I will do a picture post later on.

The day after Kate's party, my program had a farewell lunch gathering that included host families. Tomo and Hiro came (with Ryo-chan, of course) since my family was in Hawaii. If you don't remember, Tomo is Mami's younger sister, Hiro is Tomo's husband, and Ryo-chan is their baby (he's six months old now! He wasn't even born when I first got here!). That was nice though not terribly exciting. It's our last official gathering as a group, however. In reality, that was probably the last time I will have every seen some of them. I'm not exactly best buddies with everyone in the group.

Then the week of classes started. It could have been worse, but I'm really tired of class already. Thursday was cool though because my Japanese class went on a field trip. This time we went to a disaster training place (not sure what else to call it). We were taught how to correctly use a fire extinguisher, what to do in an earthquake, and how to escape a smoke filled building. All of these came with us actually doing these things (seriously they have an earth quake room that they make shake while you hide under the table). It was pretty cool.

After the field trip, Rachel and I had plans to go to Harajuku, but it was raining that day and so neither of us were actually terribly enthused. Rain sucks.

Friday I was incredibly productive in a boring way. I got a lot of pre-leaving Japan stuff done (my winter clothes have been safely shipped to Knox on a slow boat). Not much to tell really though I was excited to get all that stuff done. That evening I babysat and then the family I work for fed me dinner since they knew I was alone for the week. It was okonomiyaki which is a favorite of mine.

Saturday was the 4th of July. I missed Thanksgiving, Christmas was pretty lame, I was NOT going to miss out on having some fun on the 4th. A bunch of us went to Enoshima for a day at the beach. We were super lucky as the weather was warm and surprisingly clear. I swam, ate hamburgers, then when it got dark we lit sparklers and set off some fireworks! It was so much fun! I hope I can get some pictures from that day at least to show you.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went shopping in Shibuya with Cat and....Connie! Los Alamos Connie! Connie that I hadn't seen since graduation! She's in Japan for an internship so we met up to hang in Shibuya. Cat knew a little shop with really cute (and really cheap) dresses that were nice enough for us to wear to the SILS closing ceremony. We ate at Mos Burger and just had a good time hanging out.

And that's about it. My host family got home around 7PM last night so I'm no longer home alone. Only two more weeks here in Japan.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Saturday was Rachel's birthday. To celebrate, a group of us got together and went to Ueno Zoo. Rachel loves animals thus why she picked the zoo. Many of you probably know that Ueno Zoo is famous for being one of the few zoos to house a giant panda. Sadly this is no longer true as the panda died sometime last year before my arrival in Japan. So no panda pictures. Sorry. I would have been more disappointed, but I've already seen a panda since I went to the zoo in DC.

This was in the park outside of the zoo. We were passing by and saw this comic performance. They weren't saying anything so we could actually sort of understand what was going on. We had to meet another friend of Rachel's though so we couldn't stay to watch for long.

First animals we went to see at the zoo! Elephants! In Japanese, elephant is zou (pronounced with a long "o" sound).

This is a kapibara (I think it has a different spelling in English...) Like a giant guinea pig really ^_^

And here's the polar bear. There were a lot of people at his enclosure so it was hard to get good pictures.

This is an Asian wild dog. Cute right? There were three of them all napping.

This is a crane.

This is a reall cool looking bird. I've forgotten what type it is though. My memory is not perfect. Sorry.

I hope I don't need to tell anyone what this is a picture of...

In Japanese, tiger is "tora" (remember that the "r" sounds kind of like and "l" if you try to pronounce that out loud).

A peacock in a tree. I believe there were also monkeys in this cage.

I love gorillas. I think they're cool.

Here is an emu. He was very friendly.

Lydia and Rachel. Rachel has a very entertaining face there :-P

Little baby chick! Sitting in an incubator. This was in the children's area. The also just had chickens that were allowed to wander around. I stayed away from them because I don't get along with roosters.

Kangaroos! Little ones actually.

This guy is probably my favorite animal from the zoo. Doesn't he just look cool? Lydia said he looked like a dinosaur which is totally true.

Another one where I really hope I don't have to actually tell you what this is...

Cory and Rachel. This picture was generated when I said, "Cory, quick, do something creepy to Rachel!" and voila!

It was a pretty fun day all around.

Mary the Party Animal

The semester is nearly over! Today I have a final in my Japanese politics class then Monday I have my last class for both Japanese and Social and International Relations of Japan. That just leaves my Asian Religions class. So basically, I'm almost done! That means...party time!

I started a little early though. Last Wednesday was Asuka's birthday so we had a tabehoudai/nomihoudai (all you can eat/all you can drink). Sadly I couldn't stay too long because I have class Thursday morning and felt that staying out late would have a negative effect on my grammar quiz grade. I have a picture from then though. In it are Kathleen, me, Asuka (the birthday girl), and Rachel. Sorry, I'm not naming the people in the background since you can only see their backs anyway. It was lots of fun and we got to grill our own food (see that stove thing behind us?). I love do it yourself restaurants though they can get pretty toasty.

Friday I went to Harajuku with Lydia and Briana and Rachel joined us after her class. I got three new pairs of pants! Yay! I now have jeans that aren't falling apart. I also bought a really cute coat for only 3000yen. We also explored a wonderful poster shop, got hit on by a half hispanic half Japanese guy, did purikura (instant photo booth), and ate kabobs and crepes. All in all, a wonderfully fun evening.

Saturday, I was a bum. Nothing more to say about that.

Sunday I again went out (bad Mary!) and met up with Lydia, Briana, and a friend of Lydia's. The friend (his name's Juusong--not sure of the spelling here, he's Korean) invited a Japanese friend of his named Etsuya, and we had lots of fun. I stayed out a little to late and thus did worse than usual on my Monday morning kanji quiz (probably a B instead of an A is all). The picture is Etsuya, Lydia, and myself. This is one of the more normal pictures taken that night. We got a bit silly... There were supposed to be more people, but Rachel had a paper to write and Juusong's other friends apparently got into a fight with some yakuza (Japanese gangsters) the night before. Not sure I would want to meet them anyway. They don't seem that smart if the pick fights with yakuza.

Suguru's birthday

This was just too cute to wait so you get another post so soon! Today is Su-chan's 2nd birthday so we had a nice dinner though I doubt Su-chan really understood the concept. Anyway, in the picture is Su-chan blowing out candles. Sorry he's cropped funny, but it's impossible to get him to stay still long enough for a good photo usually. You do get to see the cake though. Let me tell you, the Japanese really know how to make a good cake. It was delicious. And my host family really spoils me as I got two slices (which is two fifths) of the cake. Yummmmmm.... I guess it's maybe too bad that my birthday is after I leave. Though I'd have to share it with my host dad. Though that could be pretty fun...


While at the Studio Ghibli Museum, I bought a Totoro plushie for Su-chan as he LOVES that movie (I'm sure by the time I leave Japan the number of times I will have seen that movie will be in the hundreds and I'm not kidding in the slightest). So here's a video of him playing with it right after he opened it. If you couldn't guess, the other two people in the video are my host parents. Enjoy!

Studio Ghibli Museum

Sorry, photos inside the museum are forbidden. Thought I'd get that out there before I get shot or something. I do have a couple of photos from outside though...

Anyway, I'll actually start before the museum with Friday. Friday it rained. Really really rained. As in I had an umbrella and still managed to get my legs and arms soaking wet. Not pleasant. However, it stopped raining in the evening which was good. That night Jeff, Rachel, and I went to a nomikai which is (adults close your eyes) a drinking party basically. There was food too. Delicious food. I had a lot of fun and met a bunch of really nice people including two Japanese boys that sat accross from us. One was Take (who was about my height and actually knew what area of the US New Mexico is in) and Shogu (who was adorably short as in about 5'2" and one ore two of those inches was his hair). In the picture is myself and Rachel. In Rachel's glass is this really yummy creamy stuff. There was also a delicious green apple drink and lots of beer. And soda and water if you wanted... Sorry we're all sweaty. It was really hot since we had little stoves going on the tables to cook our food. (Basically we dumped meat and veggies in sauces to cook then fished them out piece by piece with our chopsticks.)

So then yesterday was Studio Ghilbli museum day. As I said, no photos from the inside so I'll just have to tell you about it. They have several rooms that you go through and explore with stuff from different movies and there's always fun tunnels or tiny doors or spiral staircases to get places. There was also a big stuffed cat bus, but it was only for little kids so I could not play in it :( Anyway, there was lots of cool stuff so if anyone ever comes to Japan, try to get tickets (they have to be purchased in advance but they're only 1,000en). The only downside to the experience was getting the Ponyo song stuck in my head (Ponyo, Ponyo...those are the only words I know!)And in the above picture is Laura posing on the roof of the museum with the robot from one of the Ghibli movies I actually have not seen. Sorry.

Melissa, you can thank Kate for this photo as she is better at remembering food pictures than me. This was my lunch from the day at the museum. It's a "fish set" with fish, spinach, sweet potatoes and rice. They also served tea. Rachel was more successful eating her fish than me (or at least hers was prettier at the end). Stupid bones.

Also, in random news, birthdays in general are following my usual pattern (as in I always know people who share birthdays). Sarah (who was in the karaoke photos) has the same birthday as Mom, Su-chan's birthday is the same as Kathy's (which means it's also the day before Vammy's), and to top it all off, my host dad's birthday IS THE SAME AS MINE! Finally I've met another August 8th birthday! Though mine's still cooler being 8/8/88 and all (though it's less cool in Japan year as it's 8/8/Showa 63...silly emperors).

And that's what I've got for you today!