It's been 2 weeks since I arrived here. It feels like so long, and yet so short. I fell so used to everything here already, but it feels like time has gone by too quickly. I think I've adjusted okay so far. The food is okay with me now. I think I was too excited at first. Now, I'm eating the same foods without a problem. I think the only problem is that sometimes, there's just too much!

 For breakfast, I eat a thick slice of bread with butter, with melon (either watermelon or honeydew), a little bowl of cereal (Frosted Flakes to be exact, but it's entitled Corn Frosties here... Both have Tony), a glass of milk, and sometimes a small bowl of soup. Geez!

 Then for lunch, I'll have 2 onigiris (that's those triangular rice patties filled with meat, all wrapped up in seaweed), then I have a little rectangular box packed with misc. foods. I also have a big thermos of green tea. It really fills me up.

 Dinner is crazy. I always have a bowl of rice, and then about six small plates all to myself. Sometimes, I can't eat it all just cause it's so much...!

 

 I love bathing here. First, you shower and clean yourself with soap. Then, when you're all clean, you hop in the hot bath. The family's got the house wired in a way where the stereo in the living room will play into whatever room you set it to. For a while, I was jamming to Queen, but then I changed it to Abba. It's really cool. (By the way, those are the family's CDs. I'm happy my host mom and I can rock to Bohemian Rahpsody together in the car).

 

I started school Friday... What a time to start school, huh? It's been okay so far. I don't have many friends yet. I only have Fumina (my translator's younger sister, who went to Canada for three weeks) and Mari. I thought Fumina was the only chick, but Mari was hiding in the back. There's also Akane, Mizuna, and some other girl who never gave me her name. She's cool cause she's got a big swiss army knife hanging off her pants, and it's apparently okay...!

 

 School here is almost the complete opposite of what I thought it would be. It's really lax here. I still get a bit surprised sometimes... Kids call out, and they don't need a tardy slip or anything. They just come in and apologize. There's some funny teachers who will jokingly hit the late kids. There's this one young teacher who does that, and he also flicks sleeping kids in the head. Today, he ended class a bit early like he usually does (he is really young...) and he beat all the kids who stepped up to arm wrestle. It's really fun here, even though I don't understand ANYTHING in certain classes. I know I wouldn't even understand if it were in English, so I'm not beating myself up.

 

 Last weekend was cool. I went to minbu class on Friday evening... Minbu is Okinawa Folk Dancing. It's WAY cooler than it sounds. On Saturday, I went to a hoola class, and that was way too hard. I think I'm just going to stick with minbu. On Saturday evening, Fumina, my host mom, Toshiko (the lady who took me to the minbu class), and I went to matsuri. It was a festival, sponsored by a local temple. I took some pictures, and video footage. It was cool.. Those Asians know their fireworks! We got close to where they were setting them off, and since Fumina is so short, I had her ride on my back. My old bookbog weighed more...!

 

 On Sunday, I went to my favorite store: Tsutaya. I bought lots of manga, some CDs, and a DVD. While I was waiting for my host mom to pick me up, I sat around and read one of the CD's booklets, when from the corner of my eye, I saw a black guy. It was funny cause I did a double take. I've been too used to Japan, as you can see... We stared at each other and then he asked if I spoke English. Of course I do. So we started talking, and he's an English teacher. He was new here too. We were cracking up cause we were surprised to see each other, in a way... 

 

 Anyways, school's been good, as I said before. We had to swim in P.E class, and I felt really embarassed cause I can't swim frog-style. Nobody said anything though. Nobody ever really talks to me... Fumina told me it's because my classmates don't know if I can speak that good of Japanese, so they don't want to try and converse and embarass me. My host mother also told me the same thing. I've tried starting conversations, but I guess I'm not trying hard enough. I'm getting there though.

 

 Anyways, I'm gonna go read some Japanese news. A volcano errupted here in Nagano, which was cool. The lava just bubbled up higher, and a lot of ash was blown about. We weren't affected though. Well, until next time...!