it was late and i was tired

pretend every entry starts off that way.

here, fluorescent lights are everywhere. i probably never would have noticed had i not read a book that touched on the subject.

at one time, japanese people essentially lived in perpetual darkness because of the way their houses were set up. this is a big part of why japan is so crazy about fluorescent lighting.

yesterday everyone kept asking if i was okay, daijoubu, daijoubu? my guess is because i hardly touched lunch or dinner.

speaking of lunch yesterday... all four of us had udon at this cute little restaurant at the mall. moegi was flipping through the menu. on the menu was BRIGHT GREEN soda. i almost fucking peed myself. i was absolutely freaking out over this green soda. i was informed it was melon-flavored.

anyway, it was later brought to the table along with my meal, and it was practically GLOWING it was so green.

and to top it off, it was delicious.

heres a picture in case anyones interested.

i spent like, two hours yesterday pointing out song names for my host father and mother to translate. it started with me expressing interest in learning how to play "sakura sakura" on the piano. seeing as my host mother is a piano teacher, she busted out a thick book filled with japanese childrens songs. pretty soon the three of us were translating every single song title into english. it was a good time.

although, lately ive been questioning my decision to get a job as a japanese-english translator.

todays been all right. i woke up at 9 a.m., just like yesterday.

but this time, no one was around, even though the kitchen table was set and everyones shoes were accounted for... it was pretty disconcerting.

i found out later that my host mother had gotten up extra early and left somewhere. without her there to wake everyone else up, my host father and sister overslept.

i concluded that without women, japan would cease to exist.

anyway. i had an american breakfast this morning. the japanese equivalent of frosted flakes and glazed donuts and fruit juice. i loved it.

other than that i spent most of the day in my pajamas going back and forth between surfing the internet and chatting online. i got to talk to pat and di and matt. pat told me all about how his birthday went and di told me about school and matt harassed me, like always. i complained a lot about japan, but really, things have been going pretty well so far. every morning i wake up and think, "holy shit, im in japan." ill let you know when that stops. stay tuned.

also, a large chunk of the day was spent folding origami. we started out making paper cranes, which ive done many, many times. then we jumped straight into really complex origami that required twelve sheets of paper.

at one point moegi started gluing the various pieces of paper into place.

my first thought was, "only pussies need glue." i wanted to say it outloud, but i knew that doing so would mean spending the following twenty minutes explaining and punching words into my electronic dictionary.

but everything kept falling apart and pretty soon i, too, was using the glue.

which, i realize, makes me a pussy.

after that we moved on to boxes and spinning tops and turtles.

i had a pancake filled with pork and cabbage for lunch.

then my host mother and sister and i walked to a strip mall a few blocks away so i could get a passport-sized photo taken for my school id.

it was really refreshing, being outside. it was a little cold, and the sky was milky and the ground was slick with rain.

i killed time online after we got back.

my host father picked up my pictures an hour or two later. they came in an envelope with a pretty picture on the front, three seemingly unrelated objects - a bike, a top hat, a window. everything was orange.

i asked my host mother if i could keep it, which she apparently found amusing. i taped it into my scrapbook along with a brief caption. i spent a long time on it, making sure everything was just right.

dinner was really tasty. we had beef stew and macaroni salad and white rice. a choice of water or iced tea.

once everyone was done eating i helped clear the dishes.

moegi and i played a game similar to jenga, except the blocks were colored and you rolled a die to decide which color you should remove. it was fairly challenging. moegi lost both times, so i suggested we play the american way, completely disregarding color, and that time i lost.

after that, cards. we played old maid and sevens and memory. games that were easy to explain. my host father and mother joined in for a few rounds. we ended up sitting around for hours talking about school, japanese holidays, personalities.

i found out why, in video games, the blood type of each character is often listed. i guess blood types are somewhat similar to astrological signs in that they supposedly say something about your personality.

i asked about my blood type, a positive. my host mother and sister talked a little and finally decided on an appropriate word, which moegi then typed into her electronic dictionary. she showed me the display. "methodic, logical, punctual." three words that do not describe me at all. my host mother thinks it appropriately describes me. my host mother, a woman who has known me all of two days. i tried explaining that im always late to school, that i dislike math and science, that i like drawing and writing and music. i dont think i was very convincing.

i have yet to discover how addresses work, though.

i was telling pat awhile ago that streets arent named in japan, and he immediately blurted out, "how can you deliver pizzas?" i heard that they give directions by referring to landmarks, but i dont know how its possible to deliver mail (or pizza for that matter, but pizza isnt very popular) without street names. japanese addresses do, however, have prefectures, districts that exist in cities. i think prefectures are the key.

i promised pat id ask someone, but so far ive been hesitant to do so. my japanese isnt good enough to hold my own in that kind of conversation.

this is completely off-topic, but i found out today that my bed can be raised and lowered. so for instance, i could turn my bed into a chair and read or something. i was so excited. im going to have to give that a test run one of these days.

and speaking of my bed, its almost midnight, so im going to get some sleep.

di said that daylight savings time started in the states. spring forward in spring, fall back in fall. that means its 8 a.m. where pat is and 10 a.m. where everyone else is. my parents, my friends.

im planning on writing here on a daily basis since i dont want to forget any of this. well see how i keep that up. school starts on the 9th. in addition, theres an open house on the 7th and an opening ceremony on the 8th.

the japanese are big on beginnings and endings.

oh, and one more thing. yesterday i was helping out with dinner and i had to ask what pretty much everything was. we had gone to the grocery store a few hours before and i couldnt identify over 90% of the foods therein.

50% of the time, id ask what something was and itd be fish. but one of the non-fish items was called takenoko. i didnt know what to think of takenoko. its cone-shaped and its surface is covered with little hairs.

because it was so peculiar-looking, a name alone didnt suffice, so i asked more questions. my host mother said something about it coming from bamboo.

i didnt even know bamboo produced fruit.

she said, "it is bamboos child."

i liked that. takenoko is bamboos child. i was satisfied with that answer.

heres a picture of takenoko.

but like i said, its late and im tired.

oyasumi nasai.