I've been in Japan for 4 weeks and I'm not even breaking a sweat. I love it here. I've got enough friends to keep me sane, and my home life is really nice. I even feel healthier in the way of posture and everything like that... Judo can really mess you up in ways you can't imagine. As my one month anniversary approaches, I've been recalling all the good times I've had here already.

I remember, my 2nd night here, I couldn't sleep (I was totally sick after my reception) and my host dad stays up late anyways, so he showed me his Air Force yearbook. Very cool. I also remember the first day I met Akane (my first day of school period) she drew me a picture of Sailor Moon for me. 've been thinking about a lot of these things as if I'm going to leave soon... I'm glad I'm not. Here's some of the recent fun I've been having...

 Next week is going to be exams, but I'm not goiong to take them. I'm going to have to go to the library and study. I was talking with Akane and Mizuna, and they invited me to join them for some karaoke after the exams because school ends early. Whoo-hoo! I've never been to a karaoke bar. Akane and Mizuna are super nice. So is Kaio, but she's exploiting my cool foreigness for that crazy safety video.

As I said last week, I met my sister Akiko. I didn't get to meet Kouki, my brother, but I did meet my cousin. She was nice, and the 3 of us had fun watching some really childish anime (like Doraemon) and eating sushi for breakfast. On Saturday, they had to go to their grandmother's house, while I had to go to the Rotary function.

The function was very nice, but I don't care what anyone says... Ueda is far. It's probably like going to Kendal from Hollywood or something. But, I had a lot of fun. I got a bit of stage fright when I had to go one stage and introduce myself. At the regualr Rotary meetings I go to, I feel very comfortable, but I don't know what happened that day.

All the Rotarians told me my Japanese was good anyways, so I'm not kicking myself. I also felt really good that I'm doing a lot better than some of the other students. Before the big banquet, we had to listen to a lecture, and us students had to fill out a survey. Some of the questions made me laugh... "Are you a good liar?" I hope so. I put "Sometimes" out of "Always" or "Never," cause I'd be a bad liar if I said those other 2. Heh heh.

I met a girl Eva who was super nice and lives close. I've yet to e-mail her, but we want to go to karaoke together or something. Her Japanese is really good, but she has a big of trouble at her host parents. Funny story... She met her "grandfather" one of the first days in Japan, and the day after she met him, he died. Eva got to see a Buddist funeral. How lucky! She got to see them pass the cremated bones from chopstick to chopstick. It's not "ha ha" funny, but it's just one of those things...

School is fun, and it's really easy for me because my homeroom teacher (who is kind of your councelor) and the school councelor are both Rotarians. There are certain classes that I can't handle, even if I was fluent because I'm way too late in the year and such. Japanese schools start in April. So, when it comes time for those classes, I either go to the library, or the English/Japanese teachers' room and study or help them out. This is also helping me get community service hours for which I need to graduate in America. I'm killing two birds with one stone, man! (poor birds...)

Home life here is good. My host father loves to teach me about the family or culture. My host mother is very nice, and bought for me a Sailor Moon sketch book, and bentou box for my lunch. Also, today, I noticed that the hole in my Cookie Monster socks have been sewn up. How nice! I gotta get her a Snoopy thing. Or a giraffe. She likes those.

Anyways, I gotta go work on my HTML class stuff. I'm glad Ivan decided to go bug The South, and not South Florida. Peace!