It has been a few days since my last post.

Sooooooooooo ummm to recap the previous few days

Monday, nothing exciting, sit in room listen to rules. meet people. yep
Tues, sit in room, listen to rules
Weds, dumb test
Thurs, dumb interview
Fri, not the same.

So friday we got to pick classes. The classes i am taking this semester are:
Japanese I
Japanese speaking (a conversation class working on fluency and stuff)
Study on japanese art and culture (movies, games, theater, ETC)
karatedo (yes, karate)

there was also "english day" where we spoke english and played games to get to know other people, all in all kinda fun at some points. then later that night some hanging out with people living in my building. a nice break from the week of orientation and reading packets about what we can and cant and have to do and blah blah blah. also the test we all had to take, a long long test that showed how ill-prepared i had come to this country in terms of language knowledge. it was hard to say the least. picture of english day follows. (i made an origami bear, it was one of the activities.)

SATURDAY
i woke up and decided that i needed to do SOMEthing with my saturday. so a couple of us walked out to kanayama station, about a 20 minute walk away. while there we got some food and also explored, we found an arcade and hung out there for a while. then after we came back we almost immediately turned around and went back with a group of 7 of us. we found another arcade and pictures follow. basically i wish that i spoke fluent enough to waste my time playing these games, i'll explain why as captions to the pictures. Then one of the students Naoya, who knows a lot of the memphis students, met up with us and showed us around to some of the food places and we got some dinner at a resturaunt who's name i forgot already. pictures of food follows as well. but i got some chicken wings, they were AWESOME, a couple other people got a dish i forgot the name of but it was pig intestines and i tried some and the was fantastic and will probably be getting that when we go back. afterwards we went to a karaoke bar right by the station and spent 2 hours there, then made our way home. on my way home, and at the karaoke bar there were a few men, middle aged, and a couple in their 20s that rubbed my stomach and gave me a grin, i mean that's it i didn't provoke them at all, it just happened, while i was standing at the bar at the karaoke bar, or when i was standing at an intersection waiting for a light. it was odd to say the least, gotta be something with budda, but yeah, still odd. (the karaoke bar, by the way, 1500Y for all you can drink that comes to just over 16$. Nice, Cheap evening. more pictures will follow again

TODAY (sunday)

At 1 we played soccer in the feild behind our house, we played a few games with the theme mostly being japan vs america. then swiching it up from time to time, playing 5v5. it was fun, and exhausting. then i went to the store, got some chicken and friend that up, made a sandwitch out of it for dinner. and now i'm here trying to figure out whats going on tomorrow since it is a holiday here tomore, which one i am not 100% sure, heard something about it being "elders day" but i'll have to look into that.

PICTURES: (look)

English day:

green bear

i am not meant to make origami....

At kanayama station there was some celebrity, singer, giving autographs and having people take pictures with him. Debated going down there and getting my picture taken as well, decided not to, there was a long line. 

OK SO  THIS IS WHAT I MEAN! There are so many of these around, and they look like fun, you buy card packs like magic or any other TCG and place them onto the screen that lays flat, the machine reads the cards and depending on the formation of the cards it effects what is on the screen, this is a Square Enix game similar looking to FF and it's called lord of vermillion, i watched some people play and it looks like something i would pump so much money into if i could read it. it looks so awesome, you can see that guy has his cards arranged in a square, when he plays he moves them all around and it effects how the peple on the screen move, where they face and what direction they cast spells, etc. It looks awesome, and this isn't the only one there is a whole level of this arcade devoted to these types of games including the next one which looks ever more awesome. 

this is a soccer game under the same mechanics, you position your players on the screen and have 6 slots for subs, you buy packs of cards and then arrange what ever team you want, there are people trading and getting really into it and it's just so awesome looking and watching them playing it is fun enough, i would love to play them, but my japanese isn't to that level yet where i can fumble my way through it....

i found DDR

group of 8 of us at the resturaunt, it was a traditional, i guess that's what it would be called? where you remove your shoes to enter the small room where you sat in a table with a hole dug out beneath it, so you sit on the tatame mats with your legs below the table. it was a great resturaunt, and we get our own private room which is even nicer. 

enjoying beers before the food comes. 

We all got one of these before we ordered, its a soft boiled, sortof poached quail egg swimming in something with ginger, i think, and green onion on top, it was odd and idk if i'll have another anytime soon....

Dinner, wings, spicy, delicious.

Karaoke bar to finish off the night.