to be continued

saturday was uneventful. i did some laundry, dropped off a roll of film to be developed, made chocolate chip cookies. the highlight was eating out at a family restaurant called royal host. i ordered a plate of hard-shell tacos. on the way out i browsed my neighbor totoro merchandise. i found dis stuffed catbus!

sunday, april 18th, 2004

sunday morning was productive. i got up at 9:30 and took a long hot shower and put lotion on every inch of my body. did one last load of laundry, finished up a letter to pat. inside i enclosed two photos (one of me and the pup, another of moegi and i posing under a cherry blossom tree) and my rice paper painting.

at the post office, i handed the letter over to one of the clerks, who looked it over and said, "amerika desu ne!" basically, "america, huh?"

after that my host family and i hit the mall. moegi made a beeline for the stationery department. in the meantime i looked at birthday cards, although i didnt realize they were birthday cards till five minutes in. this is despite the fact that "BIRTHDAY" was written, IN ENGLISH, next to each card.

im really good with birthdays. ironically, it took me a long time to get pats birthday down. and i cant remember when in august gregs is (the 20th?) even though i spent hours and hours working on his present in ms paint.

anyway, back to recapping sunday.

the four of us took the escalator to the basement level and went grocery shopping. once again i couldnt identify over 90% of the food, so instead i tried free samples. at one point i was offered a drink in a paper cup. it looked kind of like grapefruit juice. the employee manning the table said something in japanese, but all i caught was, "is that okay?" i was just about to take a sip when moegi turned around and blurted, "keito, keito! osake!" keito is my name in japanese, and, although most people think of japans famous rice wine when they hear osake, it is also a general term for alcohol. embarrassed, i handed the cup to the store employee and said in english, "sorry, but im way too young for this." she smiled politely and gave a little bow.

up until sunday, i had been putting off using the air conditioning unit in my bedroom. i knew that once i used it id develop an AC dependency. i ended up giving in, though. it was 77 degrees, which is definitely my line in the sand. as i predicted, ive been using the AC on a somewhat regular basis ever since.

that night i made an important decision regarding pat that im (still) very happy with. at first i had planned on waiting to break the news to pat. for a number of reasons. but i dont like keeping secrets from him (even though it was more of a surprise than a secret), and i couldnt see myself changing my mind, so i told him. im not going to write about it here, but eventually ill probably write a private entry about it.

monday, april 19th, 2004

we started listening to charlie and the chocolate factory on tape in english reading. hayashi-sensei asked me if id read the book before and i answered, "yeah, of course." right after i said it i realized that ive actually never read the book, just seen the movie. whoops. anyway, apparently hayashi-sensei hasnt seen the movie, so i sang her what little i remembered of the oompa loompa song. she got a big kick out of it.

next was cooking. we made a chinese dish and egg cake for dessert. both were delicious.

moegi had to attend an emergency chorus club meeting after school. mimiko (the chorus club president) was pretty upset because club members have been slacking off recently and not showing up at practice. the meeting ended up running over an hour.

midori and taki (the tea ceremony club president) kept me company while i waited for moe-moe. they drew shogun and geisha on the chalkboard and confirmed my theory that all japanese are inherently good at drawing, probably because of all the time they spend perfecting kanji. also, midori filled me in some trivia about shogun: when dressing, shogun always put the right side of their kimono under the left side, like this. that way, they could easily pull out their wallets from inside their kimono (assuming they were right-handed). this is also why swords were carried on the left hip, blade facing outwards so they wouldnt accidentally cut themselves (heh, that would be embarrassing). however, after a shogun died, the left side of his kimono was put under the right side instead. i do not know why this is, but its still interesting.

fast-forward. moegis club meeting finally finished up and we headed home. at that point it was pouring outside. by the time i got home i was completely soaked. my jeans, my backpack, my bus pass and school ID.... everything. i was actually considering folding up my umbrella and just letting myself get drenched, but in the end i decided it was too cold. plus, i didnt want to damage my text books. (katie: are you disappointed?)

later that night, after returning home, i remembered my obento ("box lunch"). i hadnt gotten around to eating it because id been so stuffed after cooking class. looking back, i should have just refrigerated it for the next days lunch. but instead i ate it in my room. with the door locked.

before i continue, i want to point out that i do not have an eating disorder. i dont have low self-esteem, either. for example, since ive been in japan ive looked totally hot.

with that said, the whole time i was eating, all i could think of was how neurotic i felt.

tuesday, april 20th, 2004

i didnt go to school on tuesday. class was cancelled because of a huge schoolwide physical that the exchange students were exempt from. unfortunately, i woke up with a sore throat and spent most of the day in bed.

wednesday, april 21st, 2004

wednesday, i stayed home sick. the entire day was a blur. the high point was eating strawberry ice cream.

thats where ill leave off for now. its already midnight. yikes.