Roxy is now gone and back in minneapolis. Asuka and I both made the long treck to the airport to see her off. I think overall she had a pretty good time. It was a bit sad to see her go though! Before she left, we did a lot of fun things. I took her to Harajuku, where we visited the NHK building (the Japanese CBS). Inside you could do a lot of fun things, like pretend you are on the news, dub anime, and play weird games. It was a bit bizarre, but we had a good time. :)
Quiz: which is the real Roxy?
I also went to see the play Hamlet with my host mom and her school teacher and classmates. They all seemed very nice! The professor lady was a really funny and bustled us around from place to place. Because I don't really understand Shakespeare in english, I had no idea in Japanese. Luckily, I know the story to Hamlet, so I could tell what was going on. Ophelia was in particular delightfully insane at the end. My mama's classmates asked me how the acting was, but you really can't tell if someone is a bad actor in a different language. I find this goes both ways, for when I see english speakers in Japanese dramas, their acting is beyond terrible.
I also climbed another mountain, Mitake-san. Because it is winter and everyone thinks it is cold, it was relatively uncrowded. At the top of the mountain there is a small town and a shrine, whch was pretty cool to see. The mountain is about 1.5 hours away, but it was worth it to get out of the city for awhile. There was also a little snow up there, which made me very happy to see!
Me at the top of the mountain. I look a little insane.
Me and Lynette at the shrine with a horse statue.
Monday the 14th was seijin no hi (成人の日) is coming of age day. 20 years old is when you become an adult here and you dress up in kimono and attend a cool ceremony. Because both me and Su are 20, we celebrated together. We originally were going to go to the ceremony together, but Su was in her traditional Korea garb which would have been too cold to wear anywhere. (I was in my traditional American garb....pants and blouse). But Su got her portrait taken, and we went to a cool river area near her house. After that, we studied for our Art History test (which we make fun, but her host dad thought we were not studying!) I had dinner at her house, and her host mom gave me some wine to celebrate the holiday.
Su in her Korean Garb
Me at the River near Su's house. Yay for wide open spaces!
The next week I had a whole bunch of finals, which nearly drained me. They were all easy, but I am not happy until I overstudy....all of my finals are now over though, and I can finally rest! My last class is next Monday!
This last weekend I went to a really cool museum in Ryogoku. The museum is basically devoted to the city of Tokyo/Edo, and it has old documents and cool models of various sizes. For example, they had a real palenquin, and then a model one that you could sit in. The models ranged from very small to the actual size (which includes buildings!). It was a very interactive and well put together museum. The building it was in looked like a spaceship...very strange but cool.
Me in a model palenquin!
The next day I went to Akihabara, because a bunch of my friends wanted R4's (a nintendo DS game thing from china that lets you download games for free. Yes, it is very probably illeagal). We went to some shifty shops that definately contained bootlegged goods. But overall the trip was really fun. One of the people in my group has a job dressing up as an anime character and passing out fliers, so we made fun of him for while as well. :)
Also, today it finally SNOWED! The snowflakes were so big and I was very happy. I was so happy in fact that I went out without my umbrella, and then of course it turned into rain later. But for about 3 hours, we had snow! I hope it snows some more!
SNOW!!!!!!!
I also found out my camera takes movies! I was playing with it a little on the train- I will record something cooler later!
This weekend I will go to a sumo tournament! Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!
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