So, more of school. Last Friday we had our ( Chorus Festival. )

Also, this past weekend the local university had their school festival, so I went to check it out with a couple of people on Saturday. It was a pretty good time- the couple contest was funny (sort of like cosplay contest, but you have to do it in pairs), and the dance competition was really good, especially when they had the guests/judges get up and dance. This one guy did the best robot I've ever seen, ever. It was pretty much awesome. XD

Now at school, where this week we have parent-teacher(-student) conferences, so everyday has only four periods, I have nothing really to do today. But I do have 7 classes again this week! (Seven- my lucky number?)

In which I was bored at school, so I did this meme:

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

( Originally stolen from athena-crikey, who asked me these questions: )

( Second verse, same as the first! Except this time with questions from the lovely Arisha. )

Feel free to ask for questions (or try to resist) if you want. XD

By which I mean, ( Hey, guys, I went to my first enkai last Friday!! )

On Saturday, I bought myself some (green) Japanese pumpkins and carved some jack o' lanterns with my friend K at D's house. We also ate stew and pumpkin pie and candy, watched a scary movie and played worms. Also, Puzzle Fighter. ^^ It was good.

Downside to the end of Halloween, though, is that I'm now back to having pretty much no classes. Two this week, yay! :DDDD /sarcasm. There was no shirogane this week, either, since yesterday was a public holiday. Instead, I spent the day catching up on facebook and DA pretty much. Also, gonna buy my tickets for Australia soon, hoo-yeah!

P.S. The weather is finally cooling off. Hello, Fall.

So, I'm updating. 久しぶり、皆！！

I guess the last time I checked in was after the ekiden, eh? So about two weeks ago! Since then, not that much has happened.

The second term of school has started.

Last last weekend there was a little international fair put on by the Tamamura International Association, so I spent some time on Saturday baking for the American table, and then on Sunday taught some kids go-fish and wore a kimono. (Pictures when facebook stops hating me!)

Later on Sunday I went to a little festival at the local shrine, which I think was for the dolls that they dedicate to the shrine so that kids will grow up well. There were lots of pretty lanterns, and saxophones, and a dragon.

Through these things met some of the international students at the university and the elementary school ALTs.

I actually had classes last week! And this week! I figure it's because of Halloween.

My school came down with the pig flu.

So I spent this past weekend hanging out in my house and keeping warm, mostly, except when I went out with K-chan to buy new shoes yesterday. They have laces!

Be end!

So, the ekiden is basically like cross-country. Except it only happens once a year. And they only run 2.5 or 3 kilometers. Oh, and also, it's a relay. But still, pretty much a cross-country race.

On Sunday I stopped by the Tamamura-machi Sports Festival- quite a bit of it was hilarious. The teams were based on the various districts/neighborhoods of the city, so all of the races had people from elementary schoolers to senior citizens. It was pretty great.

On Monday, I basically sat around for the day off. ^^

In other news, guess who's rewatching Avatar as a part of her quest to finally watch the ending? That's right! (Although, I've been interspersing it with breaks to read Watchmen fanfic, wtf self.)

Uhh... I'll change that title to Japanese later. Probably.

Anywho, there have been a couple of exciting events this week.

Number 1:

Going to at least some club activities, even if you don't join a club, is something that practically EVERY JET recommends. Thus, I've decided that at least once or twice a week I'm going to stay after school and hang out with one of the clubs.

Thus on Tuesday, I went to see the ( Judo Club Practice. )

Probably the most interesting thing, though, was that the practice was almost entirely run by the team captain, supported by some of the other second years. The coach literally showed up at about 4:45 to give the captain instructions and then left again. This is pretty much standard practice for Japanese clubs, so far as I can tell. I find it pretty amazing, because I can't think of a single American school that so consistently leaves its students in charge of themselves.

Number 2:

( Taifun 18! )

Number 3:

Today I went outside to the ( Track Club Practice )

I have to say, though, that I am totally behind this "Go to club activities" thing. Given that I've been going to, like, no classes (I seriously think something is up with the system we have now), this week alone I've spoken more English with more students than in pretty much any other week. Some of those second year boys who didn't seem to be practicing that much spent quite a bit of time talking to me, and I spoke with some of the girls too. Definitely encourage people to start hanging out with some of the clubs if they've got time. ^^

Tomorrow at about 8:15, S-sensei is giving me a ride over to Isesaki, so I can watch the Ekiden. So far as I can tell, it's some sort of cross-country relay? I'll report back later!

So, the big thing to happen last week was obviously the sports festival. It did, in fact, rain on Wednesday so I could actually go, yay!

Wednesday itself (ie, the Gunma-JET workshop thing) was alright. As per usual came away with some okay game ideas and got to talk to everyone, which was excellente. ^^

Thursday was pretty amazing though! At my school at least, when they say "Sports Festival" what they really mean is "School-wide Track Meet". Within the years, the classes compete against each other, in sprints, middle-distance runs and some field events. Also, the relays. Ahahaha, the relays. ^^ Everybody has to do at least one thing. ( It was wicked fun. ) I think the closest comparison would be some sort of mix of Spirit Week and a track meet. *nods*

The big news of this weekend was that I got internet! YAY!! Someday, I will catch up on things. ^^;

The big news this week is that on Friday, NASA is crashing the LCROSS satellite into the moon in an attempt to discover whether significant amounts of water exist on the moon's south pole: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html (having already confirmed the presence of trace amounts of water: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/moon20090924.html ).

So, it's been a while, I guess. Mostly what happened was the five-day weekend, which was pretty excellent, although admittedly it messed up my hard-won school-matching sleep-schedule. ^^;

( I went to a place called Sunshine on the Sunday. It was sunny... ) On the way home, I had an epic, probably two-hour long battle with Lavos, which ultimately came to naught. So I'm having to level up all my characters, qq.

Then I kicked around for a day. On Tuesday I went to ( Ueno Zoo. )

Then I kicked around for another day, and then it was back to school for two days before this weekend, in which I did nothing except watch Sasuke (aka Ninja Warrior). Man, that is one tough obstacle course. >.>

This week should be pretty busy, although I'm still pretty much hoping for rain on Wednesday, so that the sports day will be moved to Thursday and I can actually go.

In other news, I possibly sabotaged my own efforts to get internet by included the phone-line in the box I sent back with the modem. ^^; I mean, my pred told me to put everything in, and there was a picture of the phone-line on the sheet which told me what had come with the box, so I threw it in, but. When I managed to get across to my supervisor that my phone hasn't been hooked up since then, it seemed like that might be the problem? >.>

When the windows are closed, the shoe-locker area smells like shoes. I know! I was shocked too.

In other news, yesterday we had ( Student Council Elections. )

Basically, the third-years are stopping all student activities in order to concentrate on their exams, so things like the Student Council have to switch over. (All sports clubs and things are currently first and second years only- think Eyeshield 21.)

More observations:

Japanese toilet paper tends to be double-length, and also (at least the places I've been to) really thin.

It's really true that nowhere in Japan do they provide paper towels or anything in public bathrooms. Sometimes you'll find a blow-drier thing, but almost all of the time you have to bring your own towel with you. Also, sometimes they don't provide soap, so traveler beware!

This weekend is a five-day weekend, so Hello, Tokyo! Also, Nikko. Since I still don't have internet at my house, I'll update y'all when I get back. *hopes for miraculous internet arrival*

Also, I'm going to say it a day early. Happy Birthday, Littlest! <3

You know what's really different here? The bugs. Except for, like, one butterfly, all of the bugs look really different. There's a little bit of that with plants too. I mean, cats and dogs and deer and things are basically the same everywhere, I think, but I never see weird Japanese hornet-looking things on tv. ^^;

Pretty much noone who's above middle-school age wears a bike-helmet. *fights peer pressure*

I'm learning to eat my soup with chopsticks.

Almost all Japanese advertizing makes use of celebrities. Really. Regardless of what it is, you're almost certainly going to see some sort of celebrity on the commercial. (This feeds into my thoughts on the Japanese media world/pop culture as a vast circle, but tl;dr.) Also, I think they're a bit shorter?

(I totally just had that moment when students comment on your eyes and things. This had never happened to me before! Also, apparently I smell good, which... I don't really know what to make of.)

Japanese students have way more responsiblity for their school and school life, I think. Like, they don't have a janitor because the kids are supposed to clean everything themselves. I think they also tend to run things like clubs mostly by themselves. In some ways, it's pretty different.

Rice looks pretty much like other kinds of wheat. I'm not really sure what else I was expecting? ^^;;;

Crap. Now I have Disney songs stuck in my head.

So, I`m back in that place again! The place where updating my lj seems like a good way to spend half an hour. Although, also a loud way. *feels sort of guilty*

The last time I updated it was the beginning of my first full week, aka, ( last week. )

( The Weekend )

( The week so far )

Hopefully I`ll get my internet in the next couple of days, since I applied on Monday, and then I can more consistent, instead of doing these huge posts. ^^;

So, I finally started going to school.

( Shenanigans )

Then began the week-long marathon of "find semi-legitimate stuff to do while at school because they`re not going to need you in class at all until Friday of next week". As you can see, I`m reduced to including updating lj in that list. >.> I`ve gone through most of my JET materials, written postcards, am so up-to-date on my e-mail (and facebook) and have even started going through my old Japanese textbook. I`ve also started to get used to the school day and Minami-chuu, though.

( Typical School Day )

Other than the boredom factor, though, my school has been really good so far. All of the teachers are really nice, and they`re also really relaxed amongst themselves. There`re are a lot of fun-sounding conversations and things in the teachers` room. Even though I almost never understand the joke, it`s a lot more relaxing than being somewhere where nobody ever talked to anybody and just worked all day. ^^

( In other news: Gundania! )

I`m going to lose internet at my house after today you guys, while it switches over from my pred to myself. Luckily I`ll still have internet and stuff at school, so I probably won`t lose contact. But if I actually get busy at work, I might be a little slow in replying. A girl can dream, right?

Things I forgot to mention:

The first couple of nights I was here were really stormy. Like, the thunder was so long and loud it shook my windows, stormy. IT WAS AWESOME.

The first week I was here, I experienced not just my first, but my first three earthquakes. Each of which shook my couch and some of my lights, but did not rattle my windows. Talk about confusing. ^^;

Tamamura may not have the most exciting views, being a flat, flat place, but it has some serious history! People have been here since 500 AD or before (the explanation was mostly in Japanese, okay?). Also, the Tokugawa family comes from Gunma-ken; Tokugawa Ieyasu is totally buried in Nikko. I am definitely going there in September.

I totally just got paid for a month of basically being useless. This isn't actually true of all JETs, since a lot of them go into school during summer break, but L and I were not needed. I feel kind of guilty, but hey! Free paycheck?

Onigiri are delicious, either warm or cold, but three is too many. ^^;

The green onions in this town are huge- I bought some last week that were, like, two-and-a-half feet long maybe? RIDICULOUS.

On a totally different note: who would have guessed when all of this started that Dean would end up being the good son?

So, I kind of left off in the middle huh? Also, two weeks ago. ^^;

P.S. "We" in the following tract generally means myself and L.

( I'll try to go quickly (tl;dr) )

Tomorrow I'm going to do more sorting and cleaning, as well as run some errands, and then Friday we go to the Gunma History Museum with some people from the BoE, after which we get our first pay. Ridiculous, no? XD

Wow, hard to believe I've only been here for a week and a half total. When we last saw our hero, she had just returned from a (slightly unnecessary) visit to Roppongi.

( To continue: )

I had intended to write more tonight, and then I noticed how many typos I was making. Apparently I'm wiped. So I'll sign off with a final note of Congratulamations to Arch and Ian. I'm so pumped for you guys!

But first!

( Orientation )

( A roundabout adventure )

I'm tired now. I'll write about the trip up to Gunma later. Besides, I need to have more photos before I can do that. Suffice to say that I'm in my apartment all safe and sound. ^^

( Vancouver )

( Japan ) THE END.

So, perhaps ironically (considering the name), I had a total blast at the BBQQ. We played:

500
Badminton
Pass-minton
Radminton
Mafia (Cthulu-style)
Mafia (Werewolf-style)
Mafia (Comic-book style)
Whiffle-ball
Fugitive
Rummy
Uno
The M-game &
Calvinball

And possibly a couple of other things I forgot. We also went swimming, ate delicious bbq and cake and had some good chats. Some people slept in tents! I was not one of them. This meant that I was able to sleep in until breakfast appeared. Heh heh heh. I will see many of the people who were there on Wednesday, but it was really awesome to be able to spend a whole uninterrupted weekend with everybody. Though exhausted, I am happy.

STR:3
INT:13
WIS:13
DEX:8
CON:7
CHR:13


I'm tempted to delete my strength score. >.> I guess I'd have to be (sucky) mage or cleric then, yay!

Ganked from Ian, at http://kevinhaw.com/add_quiz.php

Another Portcon is over. It was pretty awesome. Extreme Geek sucked, and the cosplay managed to happen despite the tent and the huge distance between the green room and the stage. There was tons of help. The only downer was that I lost my voice by, oh, Friday. >.>

Team N-feaux 4-evah! :p