July 15th

Yokoo house

Happy Birthday, Julia, but I think the gift I got today kinda pwns all yours' put together. I got a new host family, they're awesome!

I woke up a little later than I planned to, and almost missed breakfast. At our orientation, Victoria and a whole bunch of people had to leave during it, because they were being picked up or going to other parts of Japan. Our induction ceremony ended up having like 15 people out of maybe 80. I was a lot more confident this time, and didn't choke up on the podium.

The Yokoo family is awesome! Naoya is 16 years old, and already on summer vacation. He's been taking English for four years, and he's more or less fluent. Everyone else in the family is more or less fluent, too, especially Hirokazu.

After the ceremony, they took me to the Tocho government building, and this time we went in the south tower. The view from up there is amazing, and I got some photos this time. After that we visited Kouki's work, that curvy skyscraper I always walked by on the way to school. They had an art museum in there, and the collection was pretty impressive, it included Van Gogh's "Still Life with Twelve Sunflowers".

After a stop at an udon shop, we took the train home to Matsudo, in the Chiba prefecture. I met Kazuki and Hirokazu too, they're both pretty cool. Hiro lives in a dorm at his university and has to study a lot, but he comes back to the house for the weekends.

Before we went to bed, Naoya pulled out his Gamecube and proceeded to school me in the art of Daigasso Smash Brothers DX. I wasn't really in form, but I don't think the results would've been any different had I been.

July 4th

Mitsuda House

In class today, we started learning about adjectives and how to use them. So we went on a field trip to the Tocho Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices. It's one of the tallest buildings in Shinjuku, and we went to the top tourist floor (45th floor). I hadn't realized just how freaking huge Tokyo really is. It dwarfs SF and Chicago, and even LA or NY don't have anything on it. From the top of that building, there was nothing but Tokyo as far as the eye could see, and the eye could see pretty far. Go figure I didn't bring my camera. Oops.

I went to the Labo meeting again today. Nana and everyone was there, and we had a good time looking at photo albums and talking about differences in our cultures. Apparently Nana won't be able to make it next week, so that was the last time I could see her. I hope I'll find a way to see her again someday, I liked her.