The Blog

Last day

My last actual full day in Japan is tomorrow.

Today I went into Kokura again for the second time and my final train ride. I went to Riverwalk and that crazy strip mall place. In a music store I met a nice gaijin from Virginia named Eddie. We talked about music theory for a bit, and he suggested a music store where I might be able to find a cello. I found the store, but they had no cellos. Oh well.

At Riverwalk I finished up my shopping for people.

Tonight we had sushi for dinner at the kind of place with the conveyor belt. Is it a measure of convenience or cheapness to have the belt move as slowly as it does? The sushi was good though.

Tomorrow I plan on taking a final bikeventure around Yukuhashi and buying a few drinks such as melon cream soda to take back. If there was one Japanese drink I could make readily availible in the US, it would be that.

The day after tomorrow I have a really killer travel day. I go from Kitakyushu airport to Haneda, then on a bus to Narita, from Narita to San Franciso and finally to Denver. I arrive at the same time on the same day that I leave. Confusing.

Wrapping it up

I have less than a week left in Japan, time to start wrapping things up (literally and figuratively.)

Tomorrow is my last day at school, and my last day in Art Club. I have to try and finish a painting I started today... I have to get all my textbooks back to my teachers. I accumulated a ton of papers here, which I'm saving for the senior paper drop (woo). Most importantly, I have to clean my room. There's stuff everywhere. Toward the middle of next week I'll start packing and weighing bags. The weight limit is like 20kg per bag I think. I have no idea where I stand now.

Today I met my host sister An who lives away for school. Neither of us said much, but I gave her my 3rd Colorado shirt. The last one I'm leaving here for Takanoshin when he gets back from Oregon some time next year.

It's all very sad.

711

Today would be free slurpee day if the 711s in Japan had slurpee machines. :'(

I7m very sad I can't be at camp this year. Today when I woke up for some reason it smelled like a campfire, and I thought of camp. Then at lunch, two kids started singing Country Roads, and then Yuga did at dinner (except in Japanese). If I could only get up there I would volunteer for a week or 2...

Next week is my final full week here. Sad.

Kokura

Today I took the train to Kokura. It's a really big station, and you could go on a shopping spree just in buildings attatched to it. This is what I bought:

A lot of markers

Mother 2 (For only $6ish compared to the $70ish you would pay for it in english) for the <strike>SNES</strike>Super Famicom

3 engrish shirts (My target is to climb to the top of the rocky mountain who are very appealing, Hunting Thing and Union Stand/Best Team)

Cool pencil

Headphones at the 100yen store

Stuff for people (Its a secret.)

The pencil I got is the Pentel Ergonomix, which is what the Power Rangers would use if they had pencils.

Long time no type and whatnot.

So I had a 6 day weekend during the school's exams. Part of it I spent just biking around Yukuhashi, figuring out where everything is. I can get to all of the important places (Train station, supermarkets). This weekend I want to go into Kokura via train.

One day my host mother's parents took me out to Shimonoseki, famous for its fugu (blowfish). We went to an aquarium and there were dolphins. Then I had whale for lunch. It's like calamari but a little less chewy and black. That day really wore me out. They left some natto for us to eat for dinner (fermented soy beans) and I can now understand why everyone hates it. Imagine lima beans but smaller and covered with a thin but nasty and slippery film of goo. And fart flavored. Yeah.

I went to TV Panic, some sort of game store, as well as the used stuff store across the street. Used games here are so much better taken care of. I got Mother 3 used, and I'm playing it despite the Japanese. It came in the box with all of the manuals. It's also a treasure trove of SNES games, but I dont think I'll get any because they'll be in Japanese...

Exams

All of the students at Kokura Minami have exams now-tues which means I get another break :D At some point (Today?) my host mother is taking me to Shonyudo, some sort of cave which promises to be impressive. We drove up their a few days ago, but it was closed because it was Sunday I think.

In other news I think I found a close Copic seller that I can hopefully check out on my long weekend. I found 5 actually, but I didn't want to have to google maps all of them (it's a pain in Japanese) but the one I found is close to the Kokura train station (I think).

Trains aren't that hard as long as you know where you're going (as in how it's written).

Yukuhashi

This is my second night actually at my host family's house in Yukuhashi. It's a pretty interestign town, but I havent really seen much because its been raining really heavily here. When I got here I got a nice long text from the oldest son who is in Oregon right now via my host mother that was really friendly and told me to help myself to the fridge. mmm. My host brothers Seiha and Yuga are funny. Yuga eats a lot and Seiha plays drums.

I feel bad about neglecting facebook, so many people must hate me.

Prince Hotel

Leaving tomorrow

California, yo

I'm currently typing at San Jose State with all of the other JAFS recipients. The computer lab here is slow. Dinner now though, more on CA later.

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