finally

thursday was slow.

my host mother overslept.

i woke moegi up after my shower.

my host father dropped moegi and i off in front of the train station.

before school i finished homework for morimoto-senseis class, practiced kanji, and plowed through a japanese workbook. i ended up working ahead.

i decided to take a break from norwegian wood.

first and second hour were blocked, so i had two hours of volleyball.

i went in totally optimistic and tried extra hard, but by the second half of class i was dragging.

i bought lunch during passing time. i picked out a swirly pastry that looked a little like a cinnamon roll, a muffin, a stick of tiny cookies, and a bottle of pocari sweat.

third hour i studied japanese verbs and vocab.

next was tankyu research in the computer lab.

the computer lab was really nice. the computers looked brand new.

anyway, tankyu research is essentially independent study - extensive research on a topic of your choice.

after much deliberation, i decided on umbrellas.

lunch was great. the cookies were delicious. i ended up polishing off the whole tube by myself.

ive had pocari sweat before. as usual, it was refreshing. its a sports drink, kind of like gatorade except more mildly flavored. as the name suggests, it looks like bottled sweat.

i got to talk to ayumi and a friend of hers over lunch. ayumis friend told me all about traveling through europe and studying english and french. her french accent was very polished.

fifth hour i followed miki to japanese class.

the teacher told me right off the bat that the class would be too hard for me, which i didnt appreciate.

then she had me sit way in the back.

i interpreted this to mean that i wasnt expected to participate, but later she asked me to give a short self-introduction.

i said (in english), "im kate. im in A-gumi. this will probably be the last time i take this class." annoyed, i made no attempt to slow down or clearly announciate each word.

i had counseling with ms. mrozik sixth hour.

ashley showed up late.

taniguchi-sensei popped in to discuss schedules and clubs.

hyemi expressed interest in joining dance team, so i informed her that dance team members frequently grab each others boobs. i also told her that they had a sex toy party last year.

i stayed after school to help clean up imazeki-senseis classroom.

on the way home moegi and i stopped by a book store. moegi picked out a young adult novel written in english called samurai girl.

at one point this book caught my eye. the cover read, "zakkenayo! the stuff they dont teach you in japanese class." i flipped it open to a random page and started reading an excerpt outloud.

turns out it was a dialogue between two women going back and forth about foreigners having limp penises.

moegi freaked.

i dont know why, but whenever i think of flaccid penises i think of di.

that night, i watched thirty minutes of field of dreams (the second kevin costner movie in one week!) and got to bed early.

friday (4/16)

for breakfast, i had perfect little omelettes with hamburger inside. they tasted just like burgers from JTs.

i read norwegian wood on the train, snuck it into chapel, and finally finished it towards the end of first period.

it was really, really depressing for reasons i wont get into right now.

i had art class second and third hour. i got there super early and ended up sitting with ashley and a japanese girl.

after the class started filling up i switched tables. i sat with three girls, one of whom i recognized from homeroom.

one of the girls was making things out of balloons.

i was checking out this big sheet filled with step-by-step instructions and i noticed balloon corndogs, rainbows, and penguins. once again i was reminded of di.

the first unit in art is etchings. first were going to sketch on-campus scenery, and then copy our drawings onto bronze plates with needles. the bronze plate is then used as a stamp. the final product looks like a black-and-white print.

the teachers example was PERFECT.

with that, the teacher passed out big sheets of paper and clipboards, and everyone emptied outside and drew buildings.

i tried doing something different. my reason being, if my etching is unique, there will be nothing to compare it to, and no matter what it will turn out well.

so, i stayed inside and drew some scenery through a door with big windows.

ill probably end up scrapping it and trying something else, though.

i listened in on a nearby calligraphy class while i drew.

next was english class with ozawa-sensei. the homework was a breeze.

during lunch i attended a meeting about sports day. once again, somebody had me move and sit at the back of the lecture hall.

by ashley.

as soon as the meeting was over i rushed back to class and had lunch.

JSL was interesting. we talked about the legal ages to smoke, drink, and drive. ashley and i passed around our drivers licenses.

her drivers license is vertical. it looks like a baseball card.

after short homeroom i reported to the english office. ozawa-sensei handed out our new schedules, plus the gym clothes and tennis shoes we ordered two weeks ago.

the four of us headed to tea ceremony club once we were done at the english office.

the tea house is on the far end of campus, tucked behind the dorms. i knew approximately where it was, but we ended up having to ask a number of people for directions.

we finally made it there about an hour into the club.

the club leader met us at the door and led us into the main room, where a handful of girls were practicing sado (literally, "the way of tea"). she had ashley and susan sit at one end of the room, and hyemi and i at the other.

i loved it. hyemi and i joked back and forth. at one point an old lady sat next to hyemi and gave specific instructions, like how many times to turn the tea bowl in your hand and in what direction before taking a sip.

towards the end my feet were completely numb.

i took a few pictures of the tea house and finished off a roll of film.

that night i heard that alex committed suicide and was reminded of an excerpt from norwegian wood:

"Until that time, I had understood death as something entirely separate from and independent of life... Life is here, death is over there. I am here, not over there. The night Kizuki died, however, I lost the ability to see death (and life) in such simple terms. Death was not the opposite of life. It was already here, within my being, it had always been here, and no struggle would permit me to forget that."

im going to cut this short and finish up later.