The Roommate – Kate, born in CT, now goes to NYU and lives in the city.  A 5′ 2″ redhead hippie, she is so similar to me its terrifying sometimes.  All my life I have never had many close female friends, but I have never had such a fast friendship as Kate.  She is only 19, but she has the spirit/wisdom of someone far beyond her years.  I really couldnt have asked for a better roommate – frequently we talk about how its so weird that we have gotten sick of each other yet for all the time we spend together.  Like all people, she has her contradictions.  She is very open and extroverted, but very guarded at the same time.  She says she has a stoner laugh, left over from doing drugs, but I think it suits her.  The way that Kate looks at things is so fascinating to me, and she is very artistic in all of her expressions.  She has been my own private teacher for Japanese and she would make an amazing art or language teacher someday.  I owe a lot of my Japanese knowledge to her for teaching me when we are bored or walking to the bus stop every day.  Her family has definitely shaped the way that she thingks about life and evyertime I learn something new about her it helps me to understand the way that she thinks.  Many times, we will sit in my room and smoke cigs, have a couple of drinks, and talk about life or tell each other stories of people we know at home.  I cant wait to go visit her when she gets home this summer, and it will be really tough to leave her in January.

The Significant Other – The first time I saw Ted I told him that he belonged in some coming of age-teen movie.  He would play the comedic football player that gets along with everyone and doesnt really care if he sounds goofy.  Besides the movie part, he has turned out to be all of these things and more.  6′+ with blonde/brown hair and hazelnut colored eyes, he is like no one I have ever met before.  He is so much of a guy, but at the same time, he is very sensitive and thoughtful.  We spend a lot of time together just talking about life.  I really enjoy hearing his perspective on things.  He was born and raised in New Paltz, NY and coming to Japan was the first time he has ever been away from home.  Now that he is here, he wants to stay and go to a Japanese school.  Its been so much fun seeing him grow and change in the short time that I have known him.  He is 19, so the youngest person I have ever dated, but he is young in spirit, but very, very smart.  His Japanese is at the same level as Kates, which is so impressive to me because I came here knowing nothing.  Seeing someone so passionate about one thing is very inspiring and makes me pensive about my own passions.  I wonder if I come across as very passionate about anything in my life.  I hope that I do.  I was a little apprehensive about falling for someone that I knew in a short time I would be leaving behind, but even so, I couldnt really stop myself from doing that.  Im very happy and content right now and getting closer to Ted makes us both feel more at home and settled here I think.  Its been so long since the person I was dating was already one of my best friends and I think thats a lesson I will take back home with me.  Recently, Kate, Mikita, Ted and I have been hanging out a lot together and I really enjoy that a lot because we all mesh together pretty well.  We are quite the crew: a 30 y/o Japanese guy, two tiny white girls, and a huge blonde American guy.  Its very entertaining and always a lot of fun.

The Mom – my host mom, or okaasan in Japanese, is such a character.  She leads a very atypical Japanese life.  She is a single mom, but also runs her own successful engineering company, and is loaded.  She is also a borderline alcoholic.  She knows very little English, but the phrases she knows are always hilarious.  One day she told Kate and I that she was “alcohol almighty.”  I can really see that Kate, Okaasan, and I are a good fit because we are all very forward about what we think and feel.  When we think something is good, we say it;  similarly, if we think something is not right we arent afraid to speak up either.  Okaasan is 51 years old, and she has been in the engineering and architecture world for about thirty years.  She never went to school for it, so that just makes it that much cooler that she is now so successful.  Whenever she takes us around the city, she always points out the buildings or structures that she designed – she also built the house that we live in now.  She has crazy waking/sleeping hours, but it works for her because when you own your own business many times you can set your own schedule.  She also drinks Everyday.  When she drinks she gets really philosophical, but also really hilarious.  Sometimes its a little much because she will forget things that we tell her when she has been drinking and then it can get a little frustrating. But mostly its okay.   This last weekend we had our boyfriends over and Kate and I made a Thanksgiving feast and okaasan invited a bunch of people over and it was a really really great time.  It made up for not being at home on Thanksgiving and not being able to eat turkey and pumkin pie!

The Little Sister – Yukino, age 9, is our host sister.  She is both the coolest little kid and the most annoying little kid in the world.  Its been weird living in a house with a younger sibling because I have never had to do that in my life.  Im very used to being the only child/person living in a space that it has been interesting having three other women in the house.  Yukino is SO smart – she is seriously a prodigy.  She has been playing piano since she was two and has been taking english lessons for years already, and she is just plain smart.  I think because she is smart, and an only child to a wealthy mother she is kind of high and mighty on herself and sometimes can act a little spoiled, but shes just a kid so who can blame her.  Okaasan wants to send Yukino to a high school in Malayasia where she can get the best education but still be close to home, and I know that Yukino will do great things in life. 

The Other Significant Other – I have mentioned Mikita a few times already, but he hasnt gotten his own section.  Mikita, or Mickey, is a Japanese student at the University we attend.  He is 30 years old, and has just moved back to Nagasaki from America.  He lived and studied and worked in the Los Angeles area for three years previous to that.  Mickey is really one of the coolest Japanese people that I have met, and I hope to keep in touch with him when I return home.  Mickey and Kate have been seeing each other for awhile now, and I really like it a lot.  Not only is he an awesome person, but there are definitely a lot of perks – he knows Nagasaki really well, and also happens to have a car. haha.   Mickey is really chill and he and Kate get along really well even though the difference in their age is so great.  The four of us have been hanging out a lot lately, which is so much fun.  I hope Mickey enjoys hanging out with us Kids, but I think he must otherwise I dont think he would do it as often as he does.

Okay – my fingers are tired from typing so much at once, but I will write more later and fill you in on the crazy – wonderful people that I have met here in Nagasaki!

Otherwise… things are pretty much normal from day to day, I am doing well, and am Very happy.  This week I am going to see the Michael Jackson movie (whoo!) and also this weekend is a Halloween party at one of the professors houses.  That should be really fun, and I will definitely take many pictures! I just put up the pics of the school festival.  I have a mohawk! Check it out!!

Friday at school Kate and I made friends with this group of Chinese students, who speak little to no Japanese, and know even less English.  We had so much fun trying to talk to them.  We invited them to come to the Monkey Wrench with us and a bunch of the JASIN students that night and they ended up coming and having a great time.  Something that is really humbling about this experience is that I am truly at an International School.  All school materials are printed in English, Japanese, Chinese, and sometimes French! Its been really nice making friends with people from all over the world.  I like it a lot. 

The Kunchi festival was the week before last and that was a lot of fun.  I didnt get to attend as many things as I would have liked to but what I did attend was a lot of fun.  Kunchi is a Shinto celebration that is celebrated around Japan and it is supposed to mark the voyage of all the Shinto gods to this town up north.  The celebration of Kunchi in the town up north is very holy and solemn, but the saying “When the cat is away, the mice will play” holds true here.  In Nagasaki, Kunchi is this three day festival full of eating, drinking, and celebration, because the gods are not in Nagasaki at that time so people can bevhave however they want to.  The old neighborhoods in Nagasaki spend months preparing for the Kunchi festival: they learn specific dances, play music, and contruct these huge boats that they parade around the city during the festival.  The boats were my favorite part.  At the show that our Okaasan took us to, about thirty or so guys my age would spin this Huge boat around in circles and then they would race to one end of the stage and then stop abruptly to see if they could stop it before it fell off of the stage.  Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didnt.  The crowd was enormous and everyone was shouting and clapping  – it was like being at a professional football game!

Thats all I can think of to talk about for now, stay tuned!

We went to Chinatown one night this week with a couple people from school.  It was a lot of fun and the food was Excellent.  This weekend was a blast!  On Friday night a huge group of us went and did karaoke and then we went to the Monkey Wrench and had a couple drinks afterwards.  It was poppin.  We were late getting home but we called Okaasan, so it was okay.  Saturday morning we went clear across the city to our new job:  giving English lessons to Yukiko, a 13 y/o Japanese girl.  Its a really nice gig and the money is pretty good too.  After that, we went down to this park right on the bay where we had a picnic for school.  I met a couple of the English professors and they all seem pretty cool.  We  stayed there all afternoon and played games and soaked up the sun.  After that we we wandered down to the shopping center, Hamanamachi, by Chinatown and some of us went to a Shabu place for dinner.  It was excellent. 

On Sunday, we got up and headed to Ohato, the bay area and took a ferry over to Ioujima for the day.  We got snacks and drinks and spent the entire afternoon at the beach.  Because its not the popular season to go to the beach, we had the entire place to ourselves.  When it started getting dark we walked back to the hot springs/bath house.  That was definitely an experience.  They have separate rooms for men and women and each room has a bunch of jacuzzis, a sauna, and showers.  Sitting in the outdoor hot spring, staring out into the Nagasaki Bay, with the mountains in the background, it was impossible to believe that life could ever get any better.  It was so peaceful and relaxing.  After we caught the boat back to the city, we had supper and went home to crash.  It was an exhausting weekend but I loved every minute of it!

When we got home, we helped make dinner.  We made this kind of fried meatloaf patty thing that tasted really good and we had pasta with it. My stomach was so happy to have food that it was at least a little familiar with.  After dinner we went down to Sumiyoshi to see what the nightlife is like here in Japan. I had my first Japanese beer, straight from the vending machine.  We found this cafe that is fashioned after Hollywood, CA and is made up to kinda look like a tiki-bar.  It is going to be my American paradise.  They had American soda (Dr. Pepper, the first I have seen since I got here!!!!!!!!),  music (they were playing an American radio station), treats (Snickers and push-pops) and even cleaning supplies (Bounty, Gain, and Febreze!)  We sat there and had a couple drinks while we took everything in. We shared a bowl of ice cream and then walked home. I had a great time and it ws nice to be in a place where things were familiar to me.

(later that evening)

I got to talk to home today!!! YAY! It was so nice to talk to friends via facebook/email!  Two very awesome things I learned today: 1) Tonight I had Bacon for dinner! I didnt even know they had bacon in Japan!!!  2) They have these fresh pears that taste Exactly like blue Mr. Freezies!  Today I picked out my classes and they start on Monday.  I:m going to take: Japanese lit., culture, society, history, intro to Japanese, and maybe to an independent study.  Tonight for dinner we had `shabu shabu`.  Its a boiling pot of water on the table and you use your chopsticks to dip thin pieces of meat in it.  Because the meat is sliced really thin, the boling water cooks them in like 10 seconds.  It was Really Really good. After dinner we were going to go out and explore, but instead we stayed home and played card games with Yukino.  She taught us Japanese games and we taught her to play American games to. It was really fun.

This morning I had to find the express bus to Nagasaki, and I accidently went to the train station first instead of the bus station.  Oh well…haha. Now Im on the bus that will take me to Showa-machi and from there I will have to take a taxi to the school.  All morning I have been bouncing around in my seat and snapping pictures because everything is absolutely beautiful.

In America, juice boxes arent seen with anyone over the age of 12, but here Everyone has them… middle age men in suits walking down the street drinking out of a juice box. haha.

(later that evening)

Today has been one of the greatest, most confusing days of my life.  Upon arriving at school, I dropped off my luggage and was thrown into orientation.  I met people from NY, the Midwest, and even someone that goes to St. Olaf. haha. My high english proficiency is Not helping me at all, and my Japanese has nowhere to go but up.  After orientation, we were taken to our host familys house.  Yukino(the daughter) is So smart – she is a piano prodigy and takes english lessons.  She is very very smart for such a young girl.  My host mom or `okasan` is really cool as well.  She doesnt know much English at all but she is very sweet.  My roommate is bomb.  She is everything that I could want in a roomie abroad: her japanese is excellent and is super cool. 

For dinner tonight we had some kind of small fish cooked whole, with rice.  There was a little kind of hasbrown-like thing and it was really good.  We had some veggies too, and a mushroom filled with cheese and corn and it was pretty good too.  I just have eaten whatever is placed in front of me. haha.  There are two levels in the house: first is kitchen, living room, and bath and the second floor is bedrooms.  I have my own room, and its really hot but I love it!  The family loved the book that I gave them (pictures of NE iowa) and it was so funny trying to explain home to them.  tomorrow we are going out and exploring the city.  Im so excited to see all of Nagasaki.  The school sits on top of a mountain(seems like a mountain anyway from where Im from haha) and overlooks the whole city.  Its so beautiful- so very beautiful.

The first thought that crossed my mind when I was trying to navigate through Tokyo was that I never knew exactly how little I know about the world.  Its frightening and scary, but its also a challenge to see how much I can learn.