Saturday, February 10, 2007

GOMEN!!!

Sorry it's been SO long since I've written on my blog. It's just been one whirlwind after another since Christmas. That AND... all my pics were lost when my hard drive broke. Nope, not crashed... I had to replace my hard drive in order to finish my papers and things for end of semester. :-) Wheee... gotta love technology. There are students all around who have these really flash, tiny Sony Vaio laptops... and all I think is... I REALLY want one!! But have NO money. So, for about $120 dollars I got a much bigger hard drive. Could have been worse.

I'm really loving my time here in Tokyo. I really wish there was some way that I could stay here and not have to go back to Hawaii. Not sure that's possible, but I really wish there were a way. Oh, well... we can't have everything we wish for, can we?? ;-)

In just over a week I'll be going back to Fairbanks for just over 3 weeks (counted it, it's 24 days!). I think I made a bad judgment call when I booked my tickets for that long, but I can't really go back now. Not without quite a bit of expense. SO if there's anyone who will be in the Fairbanks area from Feb 19th-March 14. Let me know... I'll be very bored a lot of the time. However, I'm going to try to improve my fitness level over this break by xc skiing as much as possible. I've been telling all my kendo friends that I'm going to come back with more muscles in my arms and shoulders. So... here's to hoping for some decent weather when I'm back.

I had a really funny experience the other night at a drinking party with the kendo kids. Funny, flattering, interesting... these kinds of things always happen over drink here in Japan. Anyway, I got to talking with Yoshida-sempai (the word for someone of a higher rank than you). And we started talking about how Japanese girls are way TOO skinny... and that it's really bad. That and then he was saying how one of the other, girl, sempai was saying how she was really sad because I am skinnier than she is. :-( I felt bad, it may be true, but it's tougher for Japanese girls to be a little bit bigger than it is for American girls. Then... Yoshida-sempai gave me a huge compliment. He said that whenever I practice with the kids group (an hour before the university kids start) all that they can hear in the changing room is my kiai (the sounds you make when practicing kendo). I was a bit embarrassed until he said it was a good thing.

So... funny stories.

Have more... like... A few weeks ago, was walking to the station mid-morning and I ran into a group of hoikuen (pre-school) kids and their teachers. Well, one very genki (cheerful, in this case) boy looks at me and says "konnichiwa!" That was all the invitation I needed to strike up a conversation. So, I asked him if he was good (Ro, I know that's not proper English - but how do you really translate "genki desu ka?") and asked where they were going. When I asked that, he turned to his teacher... she gave him the answer and he repeated it. It was SO funny! Every time I asked him something he looked to his teacher. Hahaha... That experience made me miss my old job... big time. I miss the energy that kids have for anything. They are amazing little people. And even when you're really tired... they can give you a boost. :-)

Anyway... there's more mini-anecdotes to be told... but this is already a very long entry, so I think I'll say toodles and try to do better with posting in the future.

love,

A