Happy

Boo everyone. Its been a while, hasn’t it? Right now, I’m typing this up on word and guess who I’m talking to? My host brother(who is in Australia right now)Naoto. Typing this up at home, and today has go to be one amazing day. I’ll cover this first, because everything else that has happened since I last posted is at the bottom of my “important things to blog about” list.

Since I moved, I have to get a new teikiken(train pass). I got one this morning with my host sister (her name is Yoshie, and its pronounced “YO-SHI-EH” not the turtle thing from Mario) Either way, we bought the teikiken from one of them “high tech” ticket machines and all we thought of it at the time was “gee, its expensive”. School is school, as usual, but today in home management class we made sweet potato cakes~!(more like sweet potato buns, but its all the same) I have the recipe for it, so we can make it when I come back. Its easy.

Anyways, after school Yanaga-san and I went to work on our costumes. The convention is this coming Sunday, and I haven’t even gotten half of it done yet. (Yanaga-san still hasn’t gotten the wigs and she still has to style them.) Either way, I don’t like their sewing machine because it has one of the weirdest (and to some point, stupidest) designs ever. Instead of having a foot pedal, you have a start stop button near the needle that you push to operate the machine. You set the speed of the needle using a slider on the right hand side of the machine. It’s good because you don’t have to use your feet, but it’s bad because you have less control. For the whole 2 hours I was working with that machine, I broke 1 needle and kept trying to start and stop the needle by moving my foot. It was hard to guide the cloth as well since you had to keep one hand free to push the button. After we worked for a bit, I considered going to badminton, since it doesn’t end till much later and it would be wise not to slack and not go for a whole week. However, I decided not to go anyways, and I’m more than happy that I didn’t go now.

On the way home (with Yanaga-san) I was looking at my teikiken, and we noticed how much more expensive mine was compared to her’s. It didn’t make sense, since she lives further than me from the school. She told me to get to looked at by the station staff, but the staff at the station near the school said I had to take it to the station I bought it at. So I had to face the station staff at Oogori by myself (Yanaga-san gets off a few stations after me.) It didn’t go well. I couldn’t make myself understood in Japanese, but thank goodness this guy (who was registering for a new teikiken) beside me spoke English. He helped me figure out what was wrong, and helped me get the correct card. He apparently studied in Thailand for a year, so that’s why he could speak English (that and something else, but I don’t think it would be fair to put this on the internet without telling him.) After I got the new card (and the new 10,000yen bill in my change) he gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him if I ever need help. I was giddy all the way home. No Ivan, this doesn’t mean you have a new father.

Now comes the really good part. I noticed that he had the same bag and uniform as my host brother (I snooped around his closet. Not like there was anything in there other than his uniform, his school bag, a pair of old runners and stacks of half empty CD cases) Ｉ decided to mention the incident to my host mother, because he might be one of Naoto’s friends. I showed my host mom the paper with his number (his name is Seitaro) and my host mother immediately ran to get her cell phone. She looked up the name in her phone book, and lo and behold: its Naoto’s best friend. What a coincidence! She called him, and they rambled on for a bit about the incident (she thanked him for helping me) and about Naoto. I would call Seitaro, just to ask him if he wants to go somewhere (as two associates, not a “date” or what have you) but I have a feeling it will be taken the wrong way. Ah well, maybe I’ll see him around on the way home sometimes.

I’m still talking to my host brother. His English is good. He has definitely picked up lots of Australian slang, but I still understand him. He seems like a really nice guy. I can’t wait to meet him in person. Too bad I’ll only be around for a month after he comes home. Now I wish I was here longer, but at the same time, I wouldn’t mind going home either. His sister on the other hand… I mean, she’s nice (we listened to her MD during the ride to school) but sometimes she keeps to herself too much. Perhaps it’s a result of living with an older brother; she’s learned to keep to herself. It’s just a guess, since I’m not her, and I’ve never been in such a situation.
I think I’ve blathered enough for today. I could still go on about all the other stuff I’ve done during the week, and my interesting neighbours, but I’ll save that for some other time. I had Sir Lankan tea just a while ago, so I’m rather awake. I should make good use of this time to study Japanese. Btw, Adam, I read your comment, and thanks for the heads up. Do you guys have any other ideas of sending songs? And also, Fi: if you wanna send pretty emails, send them to　fujiiroyume at hotmail dot com make sure you but something recognizable in the subject, or your pretty email might end up in the trash. (By accident of course.) Alright, going to go work off all the sweets I just ate today (that and maybe throw in some studying while I’m doing those sit ups and push ups) Ja.