Good News and Stuff!

Yatta! I have some good news to share, obviously based on the title. So I mentioned how I had my home stay interview the other day... but one thing I didn't mention is that there were limited spots, hence the interview. And when I say limited spots, I mean very limited. There at about 40 of us here and half of us wanted host families. Only 7 families had spots. And they don't necessarily base it on your Japanese skill level either. It's actually based on other factors, some of them rather shallow ones. They won't chose people who are allergic to anything, for example (besides dust or outdoor allergies- those are ok). If people say they don't like certain foods, or even show the slightest bit of hesitation, you are out. And that was hard not to do, because through the interview, they keep just throwing negative things at you to see how you react and if you think you can overcome them. They also, won't take you if you look a certain way. In Japan as well as many Oriental countries, they have one standard of beauty. Literally one. As in one, shared by all, no matter the race, no matter the gender, no matter the physical limitations, they are expected to conform to one standard of beauty. So people who are too outside the norm, like people who are tall, people who are bigger, weird looking people, they won't take them. It can be really hurtful if you don't fit this ideal.
We had the home stay interview on Tuesday, and I didn't think we would even find out until Friday at the earliest. But I'm sure you all know where I'm going with this, so today in my mailbox there was a slip of paper saying to go to the home stay coordinator's office along with Alex. After class today, Alex, Ivan, Alisa and I all headed over to that office since we'd gotten the slips. All of us were fitted with host families! :D Before the interviews, the interviewer mentioned that there were two houses that wanted two people. At the end of my interview the other day when I was asked if I had any questions, I mentioned that if possible, Alex and I would be willing to live together, but it not, then that would also be alright. The woman seemed excited by that, and as it turns out, one family accepted us! It's a 50 minute commute in total- we'll have to bike 10 minutes to the station, take a 20 minute train ride, then bike from the station to the school. All in the rain, mind you, because the tsuyu, the rainy season, starts next week-but that doesn't really matter to me, since I basically wake up at 7 or earlier every day. I forget our family's name, since I only briefly got to look at the description, but our host dad is 67 and doesn't speak a lick of English. He is an artist, and they have an art studio in their home and have a separate house where they have his art gallery. Our host mom is 63, and she loves calligraphy. She also speaks English, but only plans to let us default to it if there is a serious question we can't understand. Since they are a bit old, we're told to expect them to eat dinner early and to go to bed early. I talked about this with Alex, and we agreed that we don't have to literally eat every dinner with them, since we will want to do things with friends here at school, so we would just have to let them know before hand. As for their bedtime, the point is that host mothers, no matter how much you tell them not to worry and to go to bed, will stay up and wait for you. Although I would like to stay out late on weekends, Alex and I are fine returning by 10 (at the latest. We probably won't have much going on here on campus that late anyway). I'm sure since there are two of us, we could convince them to let us stay out later if we want to go out with friends and what not. Otherwise, we weren't given any additional rules. Unlike Ivan, who was told he's going to be receiving a manual from his family in the near future! XD I think it would be really neat to have other kids in the family, but I think it will be wonderful with Alex<3 
However, I feel bad for a lot of people. Before the program started, they made it sound like anyone who wanted a host family would get one. And they never have indicated otherwise until we already got here and started. So many people came here with gifts, expectations of being fed, etc, and now they're being let down. Like my roommate, for example, has the same fear that I had, where she won't be able to afford the food all the time. Not just the food too, but all the household things they make us buy: separate garbage bags, dish soap, bathroom soap, cleaner, laundry detergent, laundry baskets, house hold slippers, ethernet cords, silverware, and so much more. I don't envy their situation. Although it would be nice to live here in the dorms with friends, I think the benefits of home stay outweigh the benefits of the dorm. Because even the negative aspects of home stay life, to me, can be overcome. I just worry that Alex will wake up in time for the commute XD She is a girl who likes her sleep :P.
So tonight we had dinner with my tour guide from Shiga University, her 4 friends, and about 12 of us Americans XD. It was not supposed to be that way, I only invited a few people, but then other people saw us leave and then followed along, some people who were coming invited other people, and then two random American girls from the internship program sat with us. It was craziness. And loud. XD But the Japanese kids dispersed themselves, so every Japanese person had a few Americans to talk to. I sat with Yuu, the tour guide, and I spoke terrible Japanese, but it was Japanese. I told her interesting things and she talked to me in her Kansai dialect and I would be confused until she switched to standard Japanese :P. I ate hamburger steak, which is basically a hamburger with no bun in appearance, but it tastes like salisbury steak or meatloaf! It was delicious! And afterwards, Yuu and I split a yummy waffle like dessert covered with green tea and vanilla ice cream, ice cream fruit topping, sauce, and brown sugar syrup! It was amazing, and it was her treat! We had a lot of fun, and we stayed and talked long after dinner was over (2 and a half hours, to be exact XD). I have a lot to look forward to, so be prepared for more updates! 

^Part of the group outside Cocos

I know I haven't gotten around to some of the subjects I said I would talk about yet since every day has been filled with other stuff to write about. I plan on writing about Japanese shopping, Japanese tv, customs, speaking, and biking. If there are any other topics you want me to go more in depth on, please let me know! Or if there are any specific Japanese of the day words you want. As long as you guys keep letting me know you exist, I'll keep writing. 


Mary


Location: During the duration of writing this, I was in the tv room, Alex's room, and now at my desk
Mood: Excited (*^▽^*)
Listening to: Unicorn composed by Hiroyuki Sawano. Don't judge by the title, it's a good song.
http://www.mediafire.com/?gnlhn374rlld71h <---a present for you
Japanese of the day: やった！yatta! - Woot!/Hurray!

美しい日 (A Beautiful Day)

Let me start this entry by showing this:

今日、空はすごく青いだね。きれいだね。いい気持ちがある。だから、今日スカートをはいている。あー今日はきれい！

Kyou, sora wa sugoku aoi da ne. Kirei da ne. Ii kimochi ga aru. Dakara, kyou sukaato wo haiteiru*. Aa- kyou wa kirei!

Today the sky is super blue. It's so pretty. It puts me in a good mood. That's why today I'm wearing a skirt. Ah, it's so pretty today!

*I used the wrong verb. This is why I don't like speaking Japanese XD

Look how gorgeous today was! High of 80 degrees, blue blue sky (rare for the Orient, or so it seems to me)! All through class I couldn't help but stare out onto the water. There were so many people wind surfing because of the beautiful day and the chopping waves!

^Hikone-jo (Hikone Castle)

^a large heron flying over Biwako (Lake Biwa) 

^The Japanese Garden 

^Bluuuue

^This boat is named "Michigan" XD

And in the following video I talk about some stuff regarding the scenery you are seeing:

After class, we had a fire drill, which was kinda fun actually. Probably only because the weather was so nice XD. They blared an announcement through the building and we all had to go outside, and there was a mini fire truck waiting in the court yard. I wish I had brought my camera, but if my friend Ivan uploads pictures soon, I promise there will be a hilarious video involving me screaming "KAJI DA!" (Fire!), and running at a cardboard fire with a fire extinguisher and spraying water all over it. :P 

Afterwards, my friend Emily and I went out to the 100円 store since I needed an ethernet cable (yes, I finally got one :P). Along the way, I took some videos and pictures, and these videos here actually have a lot of explanation about certain characteristics of the city and the region.

There are also a few pictures here for you guys. The entire city of Hikone is filled with these gorgeous pink flowers. Today I actually saw a surprising number of people in Kimono, aka Japanese traditional clothes, which is rather rare to see as well. It makes the Japanese people stop staring at us long enough for me to whip out my camera and stalk the Kimono wearing people XD.

After doing homework, Emily, my roommate Chelsie, and her friend Nick went out to watch the sun set over the water. Emily then made us some dinner, quite good, and then after finishing the rest of my homework, another MSU student who I met on the trip who we call Lu, made us a second dinner- which was AMAZING. You give this kid three ingredients and he can make you a feast! I think I know where I'm going to be eating more often. XD

So today was a pretty good day, what with the weather, the easy homework, and the fact I got to skype with my mom and with my sister. I really ought to get to bed now since it's about 12:30 am for me. Oops. See what I do for you guys? This blog takes effort, I tell ya, man. ;)

Mary

Location: Kitchen table (cause I have an ethernet cord :D)

Mood: Happy (＾▽＾)

Listening to: Final Fantasy music that my roommate is playing to do her homework to

Japanese for the day: See the video up above! That's enough for today ^_^

Edit: Here is a picture Ivan posted of a bunch of us at the fire drill. You can see the little truck in the background XD

First Day of Classes

Yesterday, doing homework with Alex took hours. Literally hours. Even though I've already learned a lot of this stuff, the format of this class makes it more difficult. Class started at 9:10, and there were 12 of us in the class. Matsui sensei, one of my sensei's from 102 level at MSU, was our teacher. This was all review, but the format of the class...I can't really explain it. It's frustrating. But I guess there was supposed to be a Kanji review quiz today and I didn't know, so I spent my lunch break cramming. Even so, I still missed two of them. :/ There is more detail I could go into, but...today just killed my mood. The rainy season is about to start so it's cloudy and dark, for one. I had my interview for homestay today, but it seems like they keep trying to talk everyone out of it. I know they are just trying to make sure people really want to do it, but it's a mega turn off, when they have nothing positive to say about it. I feel that if I don't do it tough, I would definitely regret it, plus I could not afford the food if I lived in the dorms. I spent nearly $40 on a few day's worth of food. And those were just like gyoza and cup noodles. And Alex is feeling the same way, where she is having apprehensions about it because of the negative stereotypes about home stay. :/ Well, I'll leave it this way for now. I know this wasn't very exciting, since I didn't really talk about what we did in class. But to make up for it, I'll post the pics and videos I promised. Eventually more will show up on facebook.

Mary

Michigan Shuuritsu Daigaku Rengou Nihon Center

A shrine for soon to be born babies

Look how thick the bread is!

Biking in Hikone

Viva City, the mall

The view from Viva City

Mountains are EVERYWHERE here

fraands chillin the the tv room

The bridge to the castle

Downtown Hikone

"Produced by Lube Sheep". I <3 Engrish

Ghetto shower curtain

My food stash. More has been added since then.

Inside the classroom building there is a giant Michigan flag

Level 2's classroom. They are the biggest level.

View from the classroom window

Epic walking down the dorm halls

Tons of books for one class!

Toys R Us

Japan stole Stitch!

Location: Lobby

Mood: Moody (-__-)sigh...

Listening to: People talking in the Lobby.

Japanese for the day: ポケモンを全部キャッチしたい　Pokémon o zenbu kyacchi shitai! - I want to catch all the Pokémon!

Placement Test

Here guys, I made a video entry last night, but the internet wouldn't work, even with an ethernet cable. So I'm posting it this morning.

Mary

Location: Sitting on the floor against the door of my room because my ethernet cord is only one foot long.
Mood: Sleepy (- _ -)z..z..z..
Listening to: My roommate blasting punk rock music because she can't get dressed in silence
Japanese for the day: ありがとう　ございました  arigatou gozaimashita - Thank you very much

彦根 (Hikone)

So yeah, I am here at JCMU. I don't think I'll have any pictures today, since I didn't take enough to merit uploading them to the computer. But yesterday, the sun woke me up at an unreasonable time again, so I got up much earlier than someone my age ought to. I eventually went down for breakfast since the ethernet cable wasn't even working. Their special breakfast was bananas, OJ, and doughnuts. We then proceeded to have an orientation, in which the JCMU people exaggerated (yet again) every little thing about everything. They made it sound like us students would be get by cars on a daily bases, which is why we, and only we, are required to wear bike helmets. No one in Japan wears bike helmets. It's too hot to wear bike helmets. But if we don't wear our bike helmets, the citizens of Hikone call the school and tell them we weren't (we stand out, believe it or not). If that's the case, we get our bike privileges taken away for a week. And that reeeeally sucks since we are so far from everything else. They also talked about how bikes are stolen left and right, despite bikes being locked. I was thinking "how the heck can someone steal bikes THAT often? they'd have to be suspicious carried around pliers all the time...". But when I saw our janky old dilapidated bikes, I understand how they can be stolen. Locking up your bike does not entail wrapping a chain around your bike to a large fence or a tree. Instead, they just have a lock that closes around your back wheel so it can't spin. Which means that someone doesn't even need pliers, they just need a car with a truck bed, and they can just pick up the bike and plop it in the back. Not that there are many trucks here. Every single car, yes EVERY single car I have seen, is squarish. They are so ugly. I don't get it. It's not like a sedan would be any bigger. But they just all drive boxy cars. Anyway, I talked to Alex's roommate, Caitlin, who has already been here for two semesters, and she said that she doesn't know one person who was hit by a car, or one bike or one helmet that was stolen. So I tend to trust her rather than the people who have exaggerated every single thing they have told us so far.
At noon, we were all told to meet in the court yard to go on our bike tour of Hikone. Although it seemed like the guides were here, it took them 45 minutes to get started, during which time I was assaulted by a giant spider. It landed on my friend Alisa, and she brushed it onto me without noticing, and I suddenly felt something on my face. I thought it was a loose, tickley hair, but Alisa and another girl jumped back. She told me there was a giant-ass spider on my face, so I was jumping up and down yelling "Get it off get it off get if off get if off". No one helped me, but I somehow, through my flailing, made it fall off. It was a big spider. Skinny like a daddy long legs, but big. And yellow. ickity ick.
So every bike group had at least one more advanced Japanese speaker in it, because the tour guides (students from the nearby universities) were supposed to speak Japanese to us. I was the only person in our group who knew any Japanese, but that wasn't the problem. Japanese schools, including college, start in April. My tour guide was a freshman, meaning she'd only lived here for a month and she said she didn't really know her way around either. So we weren't going to get much explanation on the tour, I could tell. We were the second the last group to leave, so as we were riding along and one of my group member could tell something was wrong with her bike, my guide was freaking out because she didn't know who she could follow anymore. The group behind us stopped to help us as we tried to fix her bike- the tire was out of place on the metal wheel. Suddenly there was a very loud bang, like a gunshot, and the tired just popped. Luckily we had stopped and she wasn't riding, because that would have been really bad. The other tour guide called her brother who was another tour guide, and his group came back for us. We got the broken-bike-girl, Brooke, to be picked up by car, and the huge group of us went on the tour.
This guy seemed to actually know where he was going and what he was talking about. He wanted to speak in English so everyone could understand, and it was hilarious XD. We found the supaasentaa, or the super market, a lot like a meijers, and when we toured it everyone stared at us and parted like the red sea, despite the large crowd (since it was a weekend). One of the tour guides was laughing about this fact, and I asked her why they were this weird about us, since they are used to the JCMU students always being here. She said it's because they usually see only one or two at a time, never a group of almost thirty Americans taking a tour through a grocery store. 
We eventually stopped for lunch at a Udon place, and I got the same Udon I got last time I went with Mizuho, Alex, and Miho. After lunch, we rode to the train station where we parked in a paid parking lot for bikes that is watched over- that was a huge hassle- and then we took one stop on the train to the shopping mall, Viva City. Yes, it is called Viva City. Almost every store has an English name, or at least the name is only in the roman alphabet, which is called romaji, for example, the super market is called Beisia (stylized as Beisiə (note that ə is pronounced as "uh", so the name Amanda in IPA would be [əmandə]).
Although every other group had time to shop and whatnot, our mega group of 5 groups (we had accumulated more people at the station) didn't, so I paid to have my bike parked and to buy two train tickets for no purpose -___-. We literally just rode to the top of the mall with the escalator and back down. We made it back to the school in time, and some people went to go shopping before the grocery stores closed, but my butt was so sore from biking for 4 hours, I was not about to ride another 20 minutes to the store, shop, and then ride 20 minutes back with a heavy backpack full of food. So I just ate some of my microwavable yakisoba in the company of two school friends Emily and Alisa. Afterwards we just chilled in the lobby until we were kicked out.
Then this morning (gasp, I'm about to catch up with my blog!), despite my mostly closed curtain, I woke up at 6:15. Evil sun. But I refused to get up until my alarm went off at 8:30. Today was planned to ride to the 100円 (hyakku en) shop, aka the dollar store, where everything is literally just 100 yen. We knew of one over by the train station, but after discovering our map showed one right night to the super market, we thought that would be better than the 45 minute ride to the station. A dozen of us set out at 10 am, the sun already getting hot. I wore a dress, but I was smart enough to wear shorts underneath. No flat tires this time, and we just split up at Beisia first and planned to meet at the entrance in an hour. I found myself mostly getting drinks, since I get thirsty a lot and would rather pay 50 yen at the store than 120 yen at the vending machine for a drink. I still have microwavables for lunch, but I did need some stuff for dinner for the week. I bought a pre-made salad, some gyoza, somen noodles (they are like rice noodles I think) and the sauce for it, curry noodles, soba, peach cups, and a beer because I AM legal here. They don't card anyway though. A lot of things are based on the trust system. Such as the bike locks, the carding for alcohol, and if you lose your ticket on the train- you put your card in the machine as you go through and it punches it once, and when you leave your station, your put it through again to go out- they will trust you bought one, since you had to in order to get on the train, and they trust it's the right amount of money. I also bought some bread- the bread is cheap, but only had 5 slices. 5 HUGE slices. I can easily cut each in half. and still have a good sized piece of bread. I bought some bacon so I can make bacon sandwiches- basically my only protein besides the peanut butter I brought. Meat in Japan is rather cheap, but the reason for that is 1, because very small portion sizes, and 2, it usually expires in one to two days. Literally. That is why the bacon was so amazing, since it would be good for a month. 
Of course the whole time, people were still avoiding us like we had the plague. I know how to ask if there is a 100円 shop near by, but with everyone basically running away from us, I didn't know who to ask. We walked to where the store should be, but it was empty and abandoned. Yet another lie from JCMU. So I still haven't been able to get my slippers and things yet, because I don't want to pay more for them than I have to. Since we didn't want to ride back to drop off our groceries, then ride another 45 minutes to the station, we decided we'd do that as a group tomorrow. The rest of the day has been devoted to studying/blogging. I really don't feel like studying though. I know I'll be placed in the 300 level, it's not like I need to get 100%, I just need to know, well, what I already know. So. Yup. That's is for now.


Mary


Location: the tv room so I can get wifi
Mood: bored. （￣□￣；）
Listening to: Prelude to Paradise - Immediate Music (mah fav sooong ^_^)
Japanese for the day:　なんじゃこりゃ？ (nan ja korya?) - what the heck is this? (Japan made an anime Lilio and Stich but without Lilo and it's on tv right now)

新幹線 (The Shinkansen)

Ok, so as you guys know, I'm here at JCMU. I woke up at 5:45 this morning cause the sun was already way up and shining in my window, but I tried to get a few more z's before writing this entry. I will try to chug it out quickly since we have a continental breakfast at 8:45, and at the rate I'm spending money on food, I will not turn down a free breakfast.
So yesterday, Mizuho and I slept in and then ate a wonderful breakfast made by Mizuho's mom, who doesn't work on Fridays. There were omelets, aspabeefu, aka asparagus wrapped in beef (which was absolutely delicious), tomatoes, orange juice, toast, and peaches. The peach cups had peaches in peach jello rather than peach juice! It was all so good, and I was absolutely stuffed, but then Mizuho's mom gave me an adorable gift bag for the train, along with cheese-filled bread and some chips. Since I'd already packed the night before, I only had to rearrange the stuff in my backpack and purse. I then just had to say goodbye to A-chan, and she purred at me! Mizuho's mom then drove us to Azamino station in order to meet up with Alex.
When we got there, Alex was already crying and saying her goodbyes. Even Yuki was getting teary eyed. Mizuho was amazing as she helped us through the station and get our tickets for the Shinkansen. It was only about $112 per person, which is great. We looked for a purikura booth outside the Shin-Yokohama station, but we couldn't find one. It wasn't that bad, since even Mizuho kept getting confused by the signs in the station, so by heading back early we probably avoided missing our train. By the time the Shinkansen arrived, I was crying since I had to leave Mizuho. There wasn't much time for goodbyes, because trains in Japan are notoriously punctual, making you get on the train in only a few minutes time. Here are some pictures and videos from the Shinkansen (bullet train):

The scenery was stereotypical Japan, towns set at the bottoms of tree covered mountains, the roofs of the houses made in the Japanese style, multiple story buildings with laundry hanging to dry on every balcony. The downs looked severely slanted because the Shinkansen was climbing up, and you couldn't even feel it. We arrived at Maibara four stations later, and managed to get to the main station. From there, however, we didn't know how to get to our train from Maibara to Hikone, just one stop away. Alex and I were standing there clueless, when suddenly we heard a squeal of happiness. I turned, and Kaibara-san from our Japanese 201 class was running towards us for a hug. Kaibara-san is a graduate student who is married to a Japanese man, which is why she is studying the language. Neither of us knew she was doing this program, so we were so happy and relieved to find someone else to help us along our way. We asked a station attendant where we should go, but after following those directions, we were stuck in line behind a group of middle schoolers on a field trip. It didn't hold us up for long, but we missed our train because of how little time they give you to get on. We just had to wait 15 minutes for the next one, so that was no problem. I was a little disappointed though, because as we rode the train and looked out the window, I could see how absolutely rural and small this area is compared to where I had spent the last few days. It's...going to be very different.

We took a taxi from the station to the school, and it was only $15. But there was no way we could do the hour walk uphill with our stuff. Aparently though, there was a free shuttle that ran to the hotel next door, no one told us -__-. We were given our keys and my roommate was already here. She is interesting. She seems imposing- 6 feet tall, but she seems fun, and nice.

Alex, Jeff (another MSU student), and I ate dinner at a restaurant that is attached to the school called Cocos. We couldn't figure out for the longest time why they wouldn't come take our order despite my attempts to get their attention, but then a lady came over and pantomimed pushing a button. We found a button on the side of our table, and the waiter finally came to us. I had snacked so much on the train, I wasn't very hungry, so I just had french fires and a crepe. Alex had a glass of wine for just over a dollar. I ought to try the drinks in Japan sometime.

After we left the restaurant, there was an old man waiting outside for someone to pick him up. Somehow, Jeff ended up talking to him and dragging us into the conversation. I know my Japanese isn't the best, but the Kansai dialect...it's just so different. It takes me a long time to figure out what they are trying to say, and I don't know how to answer (but that's just because speaking Japanese is scary, especially to Japanese people). It turns out he is the head honcho of a flower arranging school, and he told us there is a festival in town some Saturday in July, and by the end of the conversation he was making us pinky promise we would go to the festival and talk to him there at his flower arranging stall. XD His wife came and picked him up, and we said goodbye.

Many of the kids still hadn't arrived because they were going as a group and there was a delay in one of the flights. Alex and I sat in the lobby trying to use the wifi, because the wifi doesn't work in the rooms. Once a few more people arrived we were having fun chatting and such, and the whole group arrived by 10 pm. We were kicked out of the lobby, and I went up to bed, excited about my new friends, but a bit disappointed about the location of the school. On the map of Hikone even, we are in the very very corner, surrounded by nothing but that place Cocos and that hotel. Riding into town will be a pain. I took an extensive bike tour today, and even so I have no clue where to go. It doesn't help that I am so directionally challenged that I can't find my way around my own campus in Michigan...Oh well, I'll work through that. But I don't have time now to talk about what I did today, because it's 9:30 at night. Yes, I did start this at 7:30. The internet went out and I had to stop but when I came back to it this evening, only the first two paragraphs were saved. So...that was frustrating. I believe I'll have sufficient time tomorrow to write, since there is nothing official planned, and I just have to go to the store and study a bit. So, until then!

Mary

Location: Lobby of JCMU

Mood: Sleepy (- - )z..z..

Listening to: Frannie playing the song "Dearest" by Ayumi Hamasaki on the piano

Japanese of the day: これは何ですか。kore wa nan desu ka? - What is this?

渋谷 (Shibuya)

Alright, I should have already posted this a long time ago. In fact, I was working on my blog and about half way done, when some guy comes up to us as we are in the lobby and is going "hi, I'm the hall director. We have quiet hours starting at 10, and you know, voices carry, so I'm going to have to kick you out". One, it was barely after 10, two, how were we supposed to know that, and three, the whole frickin group was there in the lobby because they had just arrived! Jerk. So anyway, I saved the blog and closed my laptop, but I guess the internet decided it didn't want to be open, because when I got back to my room (and borrowed an ethernet cord from Alex- I guess we were supposed to bring one :/), the internet was closed, my blog entry no where to be found...so. I am tired and frustrated, but I don't want to get more behind on blogs than I already am, so I'm going to start from scratch.
So yesterday Mizuho and I went to Shibuya, which is the crazy, busy, lit-up, tall-building ward of Tokyo that everyone pictures when they think about Tokyo. This ward is only 5 square miles, but its population is over 200,000 people. And google shows, it looks like this:

I'm pretty sure I crossed that street. But in the day time of course. And my own pictures go like this:

 ^the scramble

 ^golden stairs of the mall

 ^the 8 story mall Mizuho and I shopped at

 ^THE SCRAMBLE

 ^THE SCRAMBLE

 ^signs, signs, everywhere

 ^the Yoyogi building- the third tallest building in Tokyo, and the tallest clock tower in the world

^the new mall in Shibuya. Yes, that is a mall.

Here is some more detail about The Scramble:

So if you noticed all of those cross walks across the streets, that's for the scramble. All the lights turn red for the cars at once, and all people cross the street, every which way. Those pictures of mine up there with all those people are from the scramble. I couldn't film it because my camera battery died and it shut off, unfortunately. It was absolutely crazy though.
That mall we had come out of was attached the the Shibuya station, which is one of the busiest stations in Japan, with 2.4 million people a day going through on average. It's also HUGE. You have to make sure you don't get lost and go out the wrong door at the station, because  you could end up in an entirely different part of town. 
My experience at the mall was crazy- but I think on a day I don't have anything to write about, I will make a post dedicated to Japanese malls. They are VERY different than what I'm used to in the U.S. Mizuho's grandmother had given us some money for lunch when we saw her that afternoon, so we treated ourselves to some good food, but also to Japanese cake for dessert, which is almost too adorable to eat.
After leaving that mall and browsing the first two floors of the new mall (it was much too expensive, so we left), we found an arcade that had Purikura stations. Japanese girls LOVE purikura- even the guys like purikura (as long as they are with girls too, because doing it with just dudes seems more than slightly gay)- and it's an absolute must do if you're in Japan since there isn't anything like this in the U.S. So you go in a giant photobooth and you chose certain themes for your pictures, and then you are given a very short amount of time to chose poses in between each shot. You end up doing several close ups and one far one, and the machine literally talks to you and tells you step by step. After you take the pictures, you go around the corner and you have a computer with a stylus that works on the screen. You have access to stamps and pens and borders and fonts, and you decorate your pictures like crazy. But you are given only limited time, so we didn't finish all the pictures XD. Purikura pictures look different than regular photobooth pictures for other reasons beyond the decorations. The camera...does something...do it, and it makes Asian girls look adorable. It smooths their skin, it makes their eyes large and pronounced, it brightens your skin tone...but on foreign girls, it usually makes them look freaky. Well...you'll see what I mean. But some of them turned out alright! You can cut them out and peel the back off like a sticker, and Japanese girls often post them to cell phones or laptops. It's never very clear taking a picture of a picture, but most Japanese girls can get the pictures sent to their fancy phones so they can easily post them to the internet. You will just have to do with the picture of a picture.

We then took the loooong train ride home, where we relaxed for the night and I wrote my blog. A-chan finally accepted me. Too bad it was the night before I was leaving.

So I'm here in Hikone now, and I already miss Mizuho. It's so rural here- especially here at the university, in the corner of the city where there is nothing else but trees on mountains. But I will get to that tomorrow. I'm tired, and I have to wake up early tomorrow. Ja mata!

Mary

Location: At my desk in my dorm at JCMU

Mood: A bit sad (*￣m￣)

Listening to: Numquam Vicar - Yuki Kajiura

Japanese of the day: 今、何時ですか。(いま、なんじですか。) ima, nanji desu ka? - what time is it (now)?