Yes, I’m still alive, I’ve just been busy and haven’t given myself any time to blog.

Let’s start a couple weeks back, after Midterms I guess.  Since then I’ve…I’ve…Ok, I can’t really remember everything I’ve done.  I guess the first thing that comes to mind is my BIRTHDAY. WHOOOO.

Unfortunately I had homework on this auspicious weekend.  On Saturday I bummed around Kyoto a bit with some friends after planning our trip to Tokyo.  We have some bitching plans, I gotta say, but unfortunately the pillows concert I wanted to go to was sold out after 4 days of ticket sales so I won’t be going to that T_T

There was a parfait party going on because a bunch of other people have October birthdays, but I wasn’t feeling up to going, so a friend and I got dinner and parted ways shortly after.  The next day was the cool day, but first some background.

Having a host family is hard.  I haven’t really discussed my host family too much, but I will now.  It’s been difficult to really feel at home.  About a month ago they threw a welcome party, which did make me feel welcome, but there’s so many things that make me apprehensive.  I worry if I’m being intrusive, if I’m doing something wrong, if I should do something differently, if I’m too quiet, etc.  It’s just really hard to feel at home, like you’re with family, because there’s the language barrier, and trying to be a good guest, and etc.

This was all getting to me and I felt like I was a little bit of an outsider (the understatement of the year), so I woke up on my actual birthday and went downstairs to eat lunch.  At lunch, my otousan asked me, very politely, if I could take earlier baths, for some reasons that I didn’t really catch.  I felt bad after this, so I retreated to my room and did my work, along with things which weren’t work, and I also went downstairs to do some work in an attempt to be social…but no one was in the living room.  It came close to dinner time, and I learned that we were going out for sushi, and it turned out we were doing it because it was my birthday!

On this adventure I did my best to talk, with some success.  We got to the place, and there was a fifty minute wait, but it was ok!  We ended up doing a little shopping, and I finally got to talk to my imouto (younger sister) a little, which was a first.  My imouto is cute in an interesting way, and she’s really chill, so it was fun to talk to her, and I followed her around while shopping.  After this new experience, I also managed to talk to my older brother a little, although not as much as with my imouto.

We finally got to the sushi, which was conveyor belt sushi.  sounds kind of cheap, but I think that most people do conveyor belt sushi, because any other kind would be really fancy, and thus too expensive.  Plus, conveyor belt sushi is fun!  There’s the novelty of picking up whatever looks good, plus you can order whatever you want on a little screen and it’ll come up pretty quickly.  Also, there’s a little slot at the end of the table where you put in your dirty dishes, and for each 5 plates you put in, a little electronic spinner starts up, and if you win, you win a little plastic ball with a cell phone strap and a coupon in it!

In addition to these fun times, I tried natto for the first time, and I can now safely say that it’s disgusting, and I got some presents from my host family!  They weren’t very expensive, but they’re really cool!  I got a Domo-kun folder, pencil, and notebook, and I also got a pokemon pencil case.  For those of who don’t know, Domo-ku is a big, brown…rectangle with what, I guess, could be called a face.  He’s really famous for some reason.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and given the anxiety I’d been feeling, it was probably the best way to dispel said anxiety.  Since then I’ve tried to feel more at home and not worry too much, but I’m still making efforts to talk and make sure I’m being a part of the family.  For instance, this wednesday is a national holiday, and I’m going to play tennis with my host family.  However, I don’t know how to play tennis, which might be a problem…

After that exciting weekend, classes resumed.  Now the question remains: what the fuck do I do with my time?  Maybe I’ll start going to temples and shrines again, since I haven’t gone to that many recently, but the main issue is that I’m running out of stuff to do again.  Wait, I should still try going to music clubs, I’m interested in going to some rock and blues places, but what else can we do?  Exploring is kind of hit or miss.  I think it’s time to extend our exploring arm to Osaka and Nara, because lord knows there’s tons of stuff to do over there.  Well, I guess there are still things to do.  We’ll see how they turn out.

In the meantime, it’s work, and enjoying the food.  Have I mentioned how delicious the food is?  I can’t get over it.  It’s just so good.

~Shimon