Tadaima!: Honey, I'm Home!

so, actually, i got back on saturday. but i've been smoothing things out here and too lazy to sign in to this blog. not a lot going on here anymore. just catching up with friends and getting geared up for christmas.

so, i'm home now, but i haven't yet documented all of my adventures. i know i'll see most of you soon enough, but i probably wont be able to tell all the stories. should i continue to write to fill in the gaps and complete the story, or since i'm back, are people not really worried/interested anymore?

i might write them anyway, just as a form of detox, but if people show an interest, i might be more enthusiastic about it, so be honest. leave a comment, send me an email, give me a call. whatever.

so that's pretty much it for now.

ttfn

Travel Plans

for those who are concerned, or worry more than they should, my travel plans are as follows:

my flight leaves nagoya airport at 8:30 in the friggin' morning on saturday here. i have to get to the airport on my own, but i've had some help setting it up. I should arrive in chicago sometime saturday afternoon, local time. i'm hoping at that point, someone will be nice enough to come get me so i don't have to wait seven hours for a 45 minute flight home, especially since i have to uncheck my bags for customs.

• (5:45am) take a short taxi ride from my school to Kanayama train station. this is normally walking or biking distance, but with baggage, this is pointless.
• (6:15am) tak a train from Kanayama to Nagoya airport. this should pull right into the airport itself at around 6:45
• (8:30am) my flight leaves for tokyo.
• fly from tokyo to chicago.
• either someone will pick me up at o'hare, or i will wait in a 7 hour layover and fly into bloomington.

that's about it. now i have to try to write yet MORE papers. fun fun.

The Final Week... in more ways than one...

So not only is this my finals week, but it is actually my "final week" in Japan. and it's got me driving up a wall.

i know i promised so many articles, but, obviously, with so many things to write articles about, it's been quite busy. i'll give the short version now, but i have a feeling, part of my winter break de-tox is going to be writing these up for anyone who is still interested. i'll give the SUPER short version now.

• Home-stay was awesome. i had to turn down their follow-up christmas party because of all this crap i have on my plate in the last week, but that's how it is.
• We did make it to Kyoto and it was was even more awesome, but it is definitely agreed that it is more than a day-trip. A bazillion and three pictures have to come off my camera now.
• i won't be going back to the onsen, but since i went with my host family during home-stay, i'm not as worried about it.
• I wanted to go to a manga kissa while i was here, but it doesn't look like i will. what is that, and why do i want to go? that in itself could be another blog, so i'll leave it at that for now.
• this past weekend, i made it back out to sakae. actualy, it's my third time now. i went a few weeks ago on my own and had a really cool time exploring the area. i also went to nagoya-jou (nagoya castle). but those will wait their turn too.
• it hasn't been looking like i'll get back to oosu (see pronunciation guide), but i may have an excuse to go in the middle of this week, so you never know.
• i also made it out to nagoya-kou, the port, with my roommate. that was awesome.
• i've sold my bike. *tear* i called the airline today and found that it was just way too much trouble at this point. plus, it wasn't really made for the kind of hills we have in BOTH towns i live in. I've sold it to a friend of mine who will move into the seminar house next semester (he lives off campus now). we'll actually carry out the actual transaction later this week.

most people don't have a clue about half of what i just said. this is fine. tanoshimi ne? just look forward to it, and know that i've been a very busy bee these last few weeks, outside of classes. All will be reveald, once i've regained my sanity.

What am i up to now?

well, finals. i'll just lay this out now, for those who are wondering.

• i have a written test on friday for my grammar class.
• also on friday, i have an oral or interview test. it's supposed to be completely on the fly.
• i have a speech and paper tomorrow in my society class (which should furiously pick up after this, but i need to detox).
• i have a short paper for religion due on thursday.
• i just emailed in my final project for my art and culture class. that's what's got me so wiped right now. i was up literally all night on it, because, as usual, it turned out to be much more of a task than i originally thought. it's a time-line of most of the stuff we went over in class, which is pretty awesome stuff. it's not what i wanted it to be, but it's still pretty cool. it's online so you should check it out, but if you comment, please do it here, not on the site, because my teacher still has to grade it. i'll put more on that later.
  

so, yeah. um... oh yeah... travel plans. i'll put that in a separate post in a second here.

so, yeah. that's what's been up here. most people have been all like "gannbatte!" (do your best!) to me, but i feel a lot more like "shikaishirou!" (Hang in there!)

*and my roommate just handed me some korean nori, some of the best sh*t on the planet.*

oh, yeah, and here's the link to my time-line. it's a pretty cool class. it's a seminar on japanese culture and art focusing on modernization. it starts in the late edo period with traditional ukiue wood prints, and progresses through westernization (and the opposite "japonaise"), kabuki, noh, and few wars, impressionist movements, ceramics, and finishes off with japanese cinema, special effects genre shows and movies (godzilla/ultraman), and even venturing into anime and manga (think pokemon, but a million times better). and here it all is in chronological order:

http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/Modernization-of-Art-and-Culture-in-Japan

again though, please don't comment on the site itself (if you even can), my teacher still has to see it. comment here, send me an email, or talk to me in person.