I had a good month this time. Let me start with the most interesting part. On the 13th I went on a trip with 2 of the 3 other rotary exchange students. (There are only 4 in my district, including me.) I went with a kid from California (Wess) and the other one is from Wisconsin (Jake), The third is from Mexico (Juanita, but she couldn't make it). We went to Hiroshima and Kyoto. Hiroshima was nice (again). We went to the peace park, and the atomic-bomb dome. The park was nice. In the park there's a museum, so of course we went in there. It had pictures and descriptions of the bombing. It thoroughly described the bombing. It had models and a lot of writing of the events before, during, and after the bombing. It was really interesting. Then at night the 3 of us went walking around the downtown  area. I was really surprised at how big Hiroshima is now. Then we went to Kyoto by way of the shinkansen (bullet train). On the shinkansen we made a friend with this girl sitting behind us. Her name was Yukari; she was an exchange student to Australia for a few weeks 3 years ago. She's now going to Kyoto University. Kyoto was also nice (again). So we went to some temples, a thing Kyoto's famous for. They have  soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many. We went to Kiyomizudera, Kinkakuji(the golden temple), and Ginkakuji (the silver temple). Then after the temples, I think we went to the old emperor's palace. I only think though. My home-stay mom said that while we were there it actually opened. It only opens about once or twice a year, but for some reason it was opened while we were there. I remember the Rotarian who was like our escort, saying that we were going to a place that only opened once or twice. But he didn't really tell us everything about it. So we went to a few places in that same day, he didn't really explain everything, so I can't remember it too well. My host-mom and dad were explaining all about it, talking about how only a few people have seen it.

And there's one place I remember that fits there description but it's sorta fuzzy. But anywayz, at Kiyomizudera I saw a maiko-san. A maiko is a geisha. They wear the white make-up and the kimonos and the wooden sandals and look all pretty and stuff. Everybody asked me the last time I went to Kyoto if I saw one, so now I can say I have. Then we went somewhere, I don't remember the name, but it is a big temple/building thingy and on the inside there are a whole buncha Buddha statues. They were all made by different people but in the shape of a model that they tried to duplicate, so they all basically looked the same. They looked like gold and the Japanese people say that you supposedly can see your face in one of them. I tried it, but none of them looked like me. I sorta saw me in one of 'em but I don't think it was me :o(. So after that we went to Eigamura, which means Movie Village. So there they make movies and stuff. Basically a really tiny Universal Studios without any rides. There I bought shurikens. And there was a game where you could try to throw 3 shurikens at a target. So I tried it and missed the target but luckily it stuck in the wallJ. I just need some practice. Again at night we went by ourselves to look around. Since we had no idea where the good places were, we would stop some of the locals and ask where we could go. So in doing that I made a friend who lives in Osaka and goes to Kyoto university. She was on her way to the train station to go home to Osaka, but instead she took us over to another street where there were a lot of nice shops and the sort. So we exchanged emails before we said goodbye. We had a great time. All the people are so nice here. We would just walk up to people and start talking and then hang out for a while. And since we were on a 2-day break, meeting people we wouldn't meet again, we would sometimes pretend we were college students, HA! It was really fun. We made some more friends that night, but a few didn't have e-mail so we can't really stay in touch. While out we went to Gion, which is a really nice part of Kyoto. People say that there are a lot of maikos that hang out around there. We didn't see any but we heard a lot about them. They said it cost $5000 to have one entertain for one night. They play a little guitar thing and do a dance that everyone says is really relaxing. I just think there weird. You'd pay $5000 just to have this girl play a guitar and do a sort of traditional dance, they're CRAZY. But anywayz, I find it really easier to talk to older strangers than to my teachers or host-parents. The language is really different. Using the more relaxed language to people you've just met is so much easier. I had no problems communicating. It was so nice. We had a blast at night in Kyoto. Then we came home. And for few days nothing much happened.

But just 5 days ago I switched families. They're Christian and have pictures of their baptismal and little proverbs around the house. The day after I got there my host parents went to a city about 2 hours away to go to church. They don't have kids so I was home alone the whole day. They left at 8am and got back at 11pm. So I made a snowman and some stuff but it was so awful. I had breakfast but then lunch and dinner were just sort of snacks I could get out of the fridge. And since the day before was just packing and stuff I didn't really know anything about the house. Except they have a TV where I
can watch CNN in English, and they get some other foreign stations as well. Which is pretty sweeeeet. Besides that not much has happened. I think next month is gonna be really interesting. Cause my family's Christian and there's Christmas to look forward to. +(Plus) the Japanese sort of go crazy with New Years festivals in Japan. Next year is the year of the snake/serpent. It goes rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, serpent, horse, ram, monkey, bird, dog, and boar in that order, for all of you who didn't know. But January looks pretty dull after the 11th or something cause that's about it for trips/festivals after that until February, which has valentines day. Which is a little different in Japan. I'll tell you about it when that time comes, so for now, this is Patrick saying o-genki de sayounara,

>Patrick (pato-chan)