Wooo school.  Most important developments thus far:  got placed in a school!  In a fifth grade class no less.  I can already tell that they're going to be awesome-sauce.  And I'm eager to start learning classroom management kinds of things since they can't really teach you that in a classroom.  Also, got a dress for friend's wedding!  (Hey friend in question, let me know if it's okay?)  Oh, and I have job now.  I'll be tutoring beginning Japanese for the University and not freelance this time, so whee! to that.  Um....yeah.  And then I'm going back to therapy, which will be good for me as of Monday.  Oh, and I took my oral proficiency interview for Japanese...I don't know how that will end up though.  Only sad part is that my medical stuff hasn't been resolved, but it will be in a couple weeks.  It's been kind of a bad week, but I think this one will be much better.  Oh, and my laptop is still borked, but the end of that situation is in sight.  I feel much more hopeful about it, in any case.  So there's my life.  More exciting developments when they occur!

P.S.  Hey little serenity, presnit or cookies?

Yeah, so I didn't post here all summer.  Because most of it was boring.  Seriously.  I got up, I looked for jobs, applied for jobs, occasionally even interviewed for jobs...and got no jobs.   Then I went to bed.  I mean, obviously I did some fun stuff too, but most of that, except for going to meet everyone at AX, which was epic and I really really wish it would have lasted longer.  Speaking of which, guys, if you're reading this, though I have no idea why you would, we need to figure out where the next one is going to be asap.  Because everything works out better when planned in advance with traveling and such.  But anyway.  School has started and I'm super-excited, mostly about my practicum, in which I first get to observe and finally get to TEACH.  Which is also scary, but I think I mesh much better with the group of women that I'll be working with (no guys this time) and most of them have actual teaching experience as opposed to tutoring, so I think I can ask them for help.  And and TEACHING!  Most of my other classes (so far, one won't start meeting until next week) are less exciting, except for my class on inclusive schooling.  Inclusive schooling basically means that instead of pulling kids with disabilities or other issues out of the classroom for special instruction, they learn more, both in a social and academic sense if they remain in the classroom and any additional support they need will be brought to them.  Our professor is very thoughtful, interesting, and is really going to work us hard and make us think.  She also uses a wheelchair because of a car accident she got in when she was 18.  (At the time, car manufacturers were not even required to put seatbelts into cars, and this car had none.)  And with a much lighter load this year, I'm thinking to do some volunteer work as well. 

They are writings. 


Hey construction guys!
I could kill you with that saw.
Try starting later!

Girl with the laptop
The words you're looking for: you're, niche
Please learn how to spell

The silence stretched on
You didn't know what to say
And I knew too much

These posts will likely become more frequent, now that I'm writing more regularly.

Something in this beat
Faster than the mind can see
Drawing me on, on
Past tired muscles, clock hands
Begging to hear one more song

And I'm going to post the good stuff here, in no particular order, only the first is titled:

From Nihon with Love

Karaoke box
Holding in the friendly night
Sheltering voices
From the silence of daybreak
And the heartbreak called goodbye


"I'm falling," I said
And I was afraid of you
I knew: no way out

Wake up from bad dreams
Cling tight, his heartbeat hides me
From my own hot sweat

Sometimes stories have three sides...

Waiting for fireworks
To blot out the werewolf moon
You held me gently
Flame-lit castle filled my eyes
My light burning steadily

Waiting for fireworks

That never came; for the end

Wishing you were here

So I held her, pretending

The moon and she would forgive



 

So, I had to read this young adult book for my teaching reading class.  I think my prof is really excited about it, because it's all about "omg the internets will change our lives such that we are all mindless consumers as the world falls apart and no one notices because we're all just so brainwashed."  Which I think is supposed to be thought-provoking, and actually is, at times. I was almost on the verge of getting that good book feeling, and then the book ended and I realized what was wrong.  Which is that the main female character isn't a character, really.  She likes the protagonist and is his girlfriend who is smarter than him and cares about the world and isn't a consumer-zombie.  However, she exists, *spoilers*
and eventually dies slowly and tragically, so that the main character can learn to not be a douchebag and also stop being a consumer zombie.  So despite having a superficial sense of depth, she's a prop so he can learn lessons.  And because he's a douchebag, I don't care that he's learned anything, I just want his skin to finish falling off so he dies.  (Yeah, their skin falls off.  Why?  It is never explained but probably has something to do with their cybernetics.  Point at which it stopped being believable:  when their open sores become a fashion statement.  Not kidding.  I don't care how many commercials get beamed into their brains, human beings will not ever find open sores to be awesome, because they are a sign of ill health.)  So now I'm just pissed and ranting.  There's also the analysis of what would happen if people had the internet in their brains, which is way too simplistic and...ugh.  It makes me so annoyed.  I'm pretty sure society wouldn't turn into the freak show this author has created, kind of like how I've noticed that violent videogames have not caused a massive uptick in youth violence.  It purports to be radical, but in reality the message is "Fear change.  Fear technology and what it will do to homg our children."  Not radical.

Everything else is good though.  Just ranty.

So I wrote a couple things.  Just for those who use this to see that I'm doing okay, I am.  School is busy and I hate the grind of 18 credits more than I did before, but that's natural, especially since I have three classes that only meet once a week, but do so for 3 hours, as well as an evening class that I hate, although the content is interesting.  Mostly I am tired and hoping for spring.  Also disappointed because Andrew has class on Valentine's Day, for three hours.  But as always, we will make the best of the time we have, even if that means the time we spend together is small.

But I am getting all longwinded suddenly.  Point is, I made these, enjoy if you can, ignore if you can't.

A couple seasonal ones:

Snow shows my footsteps
Though I feel a hand in mine
Their feet leave no marks.   (Singular "they" is back, guys!)

Storm ditch rivulet
Leaves dirt and grit on the grass
Remembering snow

And some sappyness:

Rubbing away sleep
Smell of oatmeal and brown sugar
Songs in the shower

Send me an adventure.  Or a new person.  Or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Or even just a way to travel and see old friends in their natural habitats...kthxbye.  (P.S.  If this happens and you identify Yourself, I will totes worship you, unless you send me a stalker or a dead body or otherwise unacceptable thing.)

In other news, almost done with the semester, looking forward to doing my final assignment and exchanging presents with mah kitteh, cause we're both impatient...well, mostly I'm impatient, but what's new?  And then I can go full swing into Christmas prep, with the presents and the cookies and the everything, really.  And in between, vidjagames and quality time with Andrew.  Can't ask for much more than that.  I AM, mind you, but that's because I'm a selfish bitch.

Gotta pay for what you have
There's never enough
So give yourself up
A few drops of blood
To a pound of flesh

If you can't pay, then steal
Burn their fat as your midnight oil
Take a virgin sacrifice or two
But be frugal; use them until they're dry
Waste not, but never stop wanting

Burn it for the money
Burn it for the glory
Burn it for passion
Burn through your own soul

So long as you burn for me

Note:  info about the leanan sidhe here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leanan_s%C3%ADdhe
(And yes, I am aware there should be accents and such, but I lack the proper keyboard settings.)

I love glasses.  I don't hate contacts or have problems wearing them, but I love glasses.  This was not the case when I first got them, since I was sure that any glasses I wore would make me look stupid.  (My first pair DID make me look stupid, but only because they were the most hideous things on the face of the earth.  Second pair too, actually.  My sense of taste has evolved very very slowly.)  But once that was fixed, I realized glasses were awesome.  Some people say that they like contacts better because they don't have edges and they don't fall off.  But those are the same reason I like them.  I like being able to temporarily dim my vision, so I can focus on what's important.  I like being able to create a space where I can't really see and it's okay because I don't need to.  Also sometimes it's fun to see "broken".  It's interesting to see what things melt into each other and what things remain distinct, almost like walking around (and bumping into walls) in an Impressionist painting.  And I even like the dramatic effect of my glasses coming off sometimes, or at least the symbolism of it.  If I'm headbanging hard, glasses will not stay on my head, and that's as it should be, because vision is supremely unimportant.  Looking at people's faces without my glasses is interesting too, because they turn into a pattern of light and dark, with only a few strong features that stand out.  Basically, taking off my glasses is a signal that what's happening is important and personal, (since listening and feeling are generally more personal to me than seeing.)  It's a way to separate those things from others and put them in their own blurry space.

What do you guys do that's similar?

I have to admit that I'm definitely not feeling the "historic moment" thing as much as a lot of people seem to be.  Maybe it's because of the demographic I'm in, but all I can muster up is "It's about time."  I found his acceptance speech very moving, but in a sort of disconnected way.  The sentiments expressed were what I wanted to hear, but I'm still not sure that that's what I'll get, given the nature of politics.  I can't decide if that's a kind of hope or a kind of despair.

Poem posted with small comment:  this isn't emo, if you think it is you're actually reading more into it than is there.  It also kind of sucks, but I feel like posting it, mostly so it won't get totally lost.  (mental packrat)

Crunchy rotting leaves
A sweet smell under my feet
If I could be so sweet,
Where could fear take root and grow
Though the blood rots in my veins?

I actually am not experiencing too much of the above, despite it being midterm time.  I only have one left and I'm more worried about my study partner, one of the first-year Japanese TAs, than myself.  She's still confused about some stuff and I'm not sure I can meet with her again before the test, by which I mean that I pretty much can't but don't want to tell her so.  I'm worried about her, because she knows the material pretty well, but she has trouble expressing herself, and she's under a lot of pressure I think, because the stuff from this class goes on her master's exam, and there's some kind of personal stuff in the background too.  I had her over this weekend for a study session and I just wanted to give her a hug so much, because that's what I do when I know I can't help anything but need to make some kind of gesture that says, "I have no idea what would help you, but I wish I did."  I hate most of all that feeling that there's nothing you can do for someone, even if it's really necessary that they do it on their own.  I hate just having to wait there, wondering if they'll fall and how best to catch them if they do.  Maybe I have too little faith in them or too much faith in myself, I don't know, probably some of both and just too much conceit.  Although I hope we did get through some things in review so maybe she understands better now.  I think I'm turning Japanese a little, what with my Mondays and Wednesdays being conducted almost entirely in that language.  But I am feeling a bit emo-ish today.  I miss my Japanese friends, mostly.  I tried to get a hold of two of them last week, but they were probably as busy as I was.  Maybe it's just the weather that makes me lonely-ish, because it's not cold, but it is very gray and unappealing, and the leaves are falling and whatnot.  If you're going to be emo and morbid and whatnot, it's a perfect day, because it's not bright enough to lift your spirits in spite of yourself, but you don't have any real struggles with the weather either to displace whatever thing is niggling at you.  Maybe I'm just tired...I spent too much time reading the Sakura Wars let's play, which is hilarious and highly recommended to anyone, but especially those of you who like the steampunk.  And Andrew fixed his kanji issues so woohoo for that, and hopefully that will improve everything greatly. 

We're talking about this concept in one of my classes called "mind patterns", which is basically a way of classifying how people learn and generally process information, and there's basically 6 types: VAK, VKA, AKV, AVK, KVA, and KAV.  The K stands for Kinesthetic, or needing to move or experience things, A for auditory, for listening/talking, and V for visual.  And basically the order of them denotes which one you use for what level of processing info, whether it's up front (how you first look at a problem), in the middle (how to make sense of info you've obtained) or deep processing (what relaxes you and helps you brainstorm creatively).  I think I'm VAK or AVK, although I'm still not sure which, although K is definitely in the back, given how hard I fail at "moving" sorts of activities.  Right now I'm leaning toward VAK, but still not sure.  And I'm trying to figure out what Andrew might be, though I'm thinking either KVA or VKA, because he gets really easily distracted by sounds, and he knows how to do movement stuff sort of intuitively, and also tend to think of things in pictures.  But we'll see.  I was reminded of it mostly because everything I suggested he do with his kanji failed, but he found a method that works for him that's more kinesthetic than anything I would think of.  Which isn't to say I totally buy into this mind patterns thing, because I don't and I feel like it's too simplistic to really tell one much of anything. 

Ugh.  I know I'm being way too emo if I start identifying with Real Folk Blues.  Time to think of other things, like Heroes and blueberry pie with Linzi.
P.S.  I love my school, because it's full of strange things.  Last week on Thursday there was a guy giving "free encouraging words" to people, which I took advantage of because I had the evil art history midterm that day.  He said I was a wonderful person, which was silly, but did improve my mood, so mission accomplished.  That day there was also a guy doing a confession booth, in which he told various people that he was sorry for his sins and the many many failures of Christianity as a whole to live up to what it preaches.  It was an interesting idea, but it made me a bit worried for him, since it seemed like he meant to take all those sins on his own shoulders and that seemed rather sad to me, because of course one person can't carry all that weight.  He was also rather cold since he didn't have a jacket, and hungry, so I told him a) get warm and fed and b) it's okay to screw up, so long as you learn something.  I kind of wanted to hug him too, but it didn't seem quite like the right time.  But yeah, there was also apparently a guy with a sign that said, "Everyone sucks but me."  I'm considering giving out free hugs again sometime in spring...
P.P.S.  People I called, please call back...but probably Tuesday would be a better day.  If not, I'll be calling you anyway, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

But I do want to talk about something slightly odd.  Now, I don't know if this is true of colleges everywhere or even of other bathrooms in my college, but the graffiti in the stalls of my languages building is really...erudite.  Occasionally inspiring.  Yeah, I know, it's stuff people wrote while taking a shit.  But maybe some examples will explain what I mean.  There's a poem written there in Spanish there.  I don't know what it says anymore, but I think I read it once in Spanish class.  Someone asked, "How do I tell my boyfriend I don't love him anymore?"  Someone else wrote, "Breakups are hard, but you have to be true to yourself.  He'll be okay."  There's a little picture of a gravestone inscribed with the words, "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."  Someone has put up a Kurt Vonnegut quote that memorializes his death and someone else has said that day is their birthday.  Someone else quoted someone whose name I didn't see clearly, since a girl came in and I thought it might look a bit odd to be reading the toilet stalls like a newspaper and I turned away, as saying, "This world is fine and worth fighting for."  I was also provided with the fun fact that, "Statistically the first stall is the cleanest, good choice!"  (I have no earthly idea if that's really true.)  And of course there was also, "So and so is gay."  But then there was, "So am I" and "I love women."  Did I have a point?  I forgot because I have a cold and I'm really tired.  Anyway, if anyone is still around, have they noticed this in other places or have amusing/interesting graffiti to share?  I could use some amusement.

Smirking werewolf moon

Watches a smoke and fire sky,

Lights the city’s lies

First off, I have to say that I'm sorry, since Sam's birthday was yesterday and I was too caught up in packing to make a post.  So, belatedly, Happy Birthday Sam!  I hope it was a really great day, and since the box of my stuff came, you boys can all get your presents!  They're still in the Pokemon Center bag, I think, and there's three of each thing for you.  I love you guys, and I'll see you really soon!
    But secondly, I want to talk a little bit about my birthday and the other stuff that happened since I last posted.  There really hasn't been all that much, but what there was was pretty spectacular.  First was Max's and my birthday party, where we went to karaoke at this little cheap place that Caitlin knew and had lots of fun, and then had to wander around the city for a while because it was still too early to take our reservation at the restaurant, which was less fun because it was very hot and there is no place to sit in Tokyo that does not cost money.  But the restaurant itself was the best.  So MUCH meat, and since you grill it yourself at the table, it could be anyway you liked it.  I got to try cow's heart and didn't much like that, but the rest was very yummy.  And not one person at the table ordered vegetables, so starved for meat were we.  After that were the last few weeks of classes and the start of finals.  Those were boring and I spent as much time as I could with my friends who I won't be seeing back at Madison.  A lot of times we just sat and did nothing, but it was good.  However, we also did a few fun things.  Max, Scott, Caitlin and I all went to Disneyland again, and much fun was had by all, even though they did not have the proper fireworks like usual, they did have a spectacular show.  And then the day before everyone Scott, Caitlin, Vincent and Max were to leave, we had an epic adventure.  First Scott and Caitlin and I went to Disney SEA, which can only be found in Tokyo and is more grownup than regular Disneyland and it was awesome.  And then we went straight to Akiba for all-night karaoke, which was really really amazing.  I could not possibly have had a better last day with my friends.  But then it was over, and everyone went home to get a couple hours sleep before leaving (or several in my case, since it wasn't time to leave yet).  And apparently most of us either cried, or felt like crying, although Max has not weighed in yet, since he's at a con.  There are pictures of both Disneyland and Disney Sea, but as far as I know they still are trapped in Caitlin and Scott's cameras.  Once they are freed, I will link them to you so you guys can see the awesome.
    I can only be a little sad that the year is ending and that I am going home.  It's true that I'm not likely to see those guys again for a good long time, but staying here won't make them not gone, and coming home will let me see all the other people I've been missing.  And besides, we all have to play in Vincent's Call of Cthulhu game as well as Scott's high school rp and Max's Vampire one too.  Anyhow, point is that we'll keep in touch and build a new kind of framework to be friends in.  Cause we're awesome like that.  And now that they are gone and school is over and teaching is over, there's nothing left for me here and it's time to go home and build new things and connect with old things and rearrange it so it all works and makes sense.
    As for this space, I don't know what will happen to it yet.  I may keep it up as is, but update only infreqently, because schoolwork is harder in the U.S.  I may friendslock it so I can post about more personal things.  I may just archive my posts and take it down altogether.  When I figure it out, I'll let you guys know.  You will definitely get pictures of Disney before that if I do take it down though.

P.S.  Sayonara isn't really "goodbye" in Japanese, you really only say it if you'll be gone for a while.  So this is an appropriate time to say sayonara to Japan.  I suspect I'll be coming back sooner or later.  Also, I discovered yesterday that Baskin Robbins is known as "31" to the Japanese.

Hi Mom, it's getting late in the year, I'm getting busy with finals and it's very hot, so I don't have so much to say.  Just that I hope you have a completely awesome birthday, I love you dearly, I miss you muchly, and I am thinking of you today.  I already got you a bag of many things, but if there's anything in particular you'd like, lemme know.

I just realized I haven't posted in about a month.  However, in truth, not much has happened until this weekend anyway.  I've been working my way through school, spending as much time with my friends as I can before we all have to leave.  And this weekend I went to Hiroshima for my final trip here in Japan, with Linzi.  It was pretty awesome, and I took lots of pictures for you guys.  We actually started our trip on Saturday rather than Friday, since Friday had more important school stuff going on.  But because the Shinkansen (bullet train) terminal is in Tokyo station, which is pretty far from my own house, I stayed over at Linzi's house on Friday night, and Sarah came over for a while like it was a regular movie night and we watched Sailor Moon Stars for a while.  The next day we got up sort of early, seven am, and got ready to go.  I didn't understand how Linzi's host family's shower operated, so I took a cold shower, but it wasn't so bad, since it was a pretty hot morning.  We caught the bus to the station and found the right shinkansen gate with no trouble, so we bought ekiben (short for ekibentou, or box lunch sold exclusively at train stations) for on the way and boarded.  The train trip itself was really nice, air-conditioned, smooth, and very quiet.  We spent most of it playing videogames or planning our first excursion to Iwakuni, which is a town about an hour outside of Hiroshima by train.  However, when we arrived we ran into a few obstacles.  Namely, Linzi had told me the name of the wrong hotel, and so when I used my awesome map skills to get us to THAT hotel, we discovered we'd need to make a fifteen to twenty minute trek to get to our actual hotel.  This displeased us greatly because it was one in the afternoon and 30 degrees Celsius.  But I once again used my awesome map skills to direct us to the right hotel where we gratefully dropped our stuff, before heading back to the station and from there to Iwakuni.
    Fortunately, the trip to Iwakuni was without incident, we took the train and then got a bus from the station to the location of Kintai bridge and the associated Iwakuni castle and park.  The Kintai bridge is seriously awesome, as you can see from the photos.  It was built in medieval times, but lasted for hundreds of years due to its unusually strong design, until an especially nasty typhoon flooded the river enough to finally wipe it out.  Fortunately, the original plans were still in existence, and after World War II it was rebuilt, along with the castle, which was destroyed right after the Tokugawa period began.  From the bridge we walked through a large park with two very large fountains and three man-made ponds (one of which was situated beneath the largest fountain).  The castle itself is situated on top of the mountain nearest the river, and we managed to catch the last going up to it that day.  From there we walked for a few minutes down a path through a magnificent forest up to the castle itself.  Inside the castle was a museum of sorts, displaying not only maps and records kept by the feudal lord of Iwakuni, but also weapons possessed by the family, including many very beautiful swords, which I took lots of pictures of for Andrew.  Then we caught the last cablecar off the mountain and dipped our feet in the largest manmade pond, since it was very hot and humid.  To our surprise, the pond was full of HUNDREDS of tadpoles, which was really adorable, because tadpoles are made of cute.  Before we left, we stopped at a small restaurant on the second floor of the bus station to have some Iwakuni-style sushi, which is best described as a sushi cake, with fish and vegetables sandwiched between layers of rice and then topped with more of the same.  It was delicious, as were the side dishes that came with it.  The restaurant also gave a really good view of the bridge and mountain.  We then went back home and crashed.
    The next day we had determined we would spend the whole day in Miyajima, an island which has a shrine complex famous for its beauty, as well as some other fun things.  Originally we had planned to take a streetcar to the point where the ferry takes one over to Miyajima island itself, but the cablecar to the top of the largest mountain on that island was undergoing maintenance and we thought taking the train might give us enough time to climb it instead.  So we took the train and then the ferry to the island, which is home to the same kind of deer that live in Nara around the Toudaiji temple, although these were much skinnier and less aggressive since Miyajima had enough sense not to let people feed them.  (They did try to go after my drink though, thinking it was food.)  They were also spotted, perhaps because it was summer.  We browsed quickly through the shops that lined the path to the shrine complex and I managed to find Giulia the yukata she was looking for.  Instead of going directly to the main shrine, we decided to try to get up the mountain first and take pictures of the view from up there.  Unfortunately, we had not really thought this plan through, as we realized about an hour and a half later, as we struggled up the 25th (or so) set of extremely steep stairs we encountered, sweating massively in the 32 degree heat, tired, and in my case, out of water.  And with one and a half kilometers of mountain to get up.  So we abandoned that plan, and turned towards the aquarium, where our friends who had gone before told us that we might be able to touch penguins, and see other fun marine creatures.  And we DID get to touch a penguin.  Their feathers, rather predictably, feel almost like fish scales, except without ridges.  We also found out that penguins like the backs of their heads scratched.  (The handlers first marched the penguins on a set path through the main aquarium building, then took them to a designated area where everyone gathered around in a circle and took turns kneeling down to pet their backs.  The penguin's heads were nestled in the trainers' crotches, presumably to keep them from seeing the hordes of squeeing people trying to touch them and the trainers scratched their heads to keep them calm.)  There were many other neat things in the aquarium, but my camera refused to take pictures of them, so I'll be linking to the ones Linzi took. 
    After that we had a yummy lunch.  Miyajima is especially famous for its shrine gate, called torii, which is a) enormous and painted vermillion, and b) stands a couple hundred yards out to sea in front of the shrine.  However, the water is rather shallow, and at low tide, the torii is left nearly high and dry and one can walk out to it from the beach, which is exactly what we did.  It's even more impressive from that close up.  After we let our sandals dry a bit, we went to the main shrine complex itself, which was beautiful, but uncomfortably warm.  Then we went to the pagoda and the associated hall, which is dedicated to the soul of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and contains many very old and pretty paintings, which Linzi mostly took pictures of, which I will be linking to later.  The day was winding to a close, so we got a few souvenirs (a couple cellphone charms and a hankerchief for me) and I tried the fresh roasted oysters that are one of the foods Hiroshima is famous for.  (It's because they're really freaking delicious.  I have never had any that good in my life.)  We did take the streetcar back to the station, since we weren't in any hurry then, and we stopped at a nearby restaurant to try one of the other delicious things Hiroshima is famous for: okonomiyaki.  There are many different kinds of this, the kind we had had a pancake-like base (but very thin), on top of which was piled cabbage, some kind of cracker, egg, fried soba noodles, delicious sauce, green onions and various toppings (mine had oysters, a scallop, and another egg and Linzi's had cheese.)  They made it in front of us and then we ate it right off of the griddle with little spatulas to transfer it from that to our plates and it was GLORIOUS. 
    The next day was pretty somber, not only because we were leaving, but also because we went to see the atomic bomb dome and the Peace Park with all of its associated monuments and museum.  Not exactly a happy place, although the park itself and the monuments therein were quite beautiful, and the museum was very informative.  I did find two things especially interesting.  The first one, which is serious, was that there was a separate monument to the Korean victims of the the bomb, because for a few decades, the Japanese did not acknowledge that many Koreans were killed and injured in the bombing, (many of these were conscripted laborers).  Although in the museum, it does take care to mention the other groups killed in the bombing, it does not highlight any of their stories in the same way it does those of selected Japanese people (this may be because material is harder to find).  The second much less serious thing is that I was somewhat heartened to find that the Peace Pond, a manmade pond in which sits the Cenotaph and the Peace Flame, hosts similar numbers of tadpoles to the pond in Iwakuni. 
    After this, we got on the shinkansen again and raced home, having gotten a few last minute souvenirs for our host families and such.  I should mention that I forgot my sunscreen for this trip and Linzi didn't have any, so I am rather lobster-like at the moment.  But it was still an amazing trip!
Pictures at these locations: 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2412798&l=f2ba3&id=8623921
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2412804&l=68e8a&id=8623921
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2412812&l=93684&id=8623921
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2412815&l=bfd93&id=8623921
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2412819&l=38ca2&id=8623921

Hope you don't miss me too much today Dad, and I really hope the floods didn't affect you.  I can't wait for you to see what I got for you.  (When you get my box, it'll be all the way at the bottom.  You'll know it when you see it, I'm sure.)  I love you, Dad, and I wish you could have come here like you wanted.  There's all kinds of stuff I'd show you.  *mwa*

In other news, midterms have all come back and are all awesome.  I somehow managed to pull off an A in Japanese and lit and Religious Studies both came out well, as did my first history paper which I was a bit worried about.  Linzi and I have finalized our plans to go to Hiroshima on the weekend of the 4th, it will rock and not break my budget.  I've been doing lots of karaoke lately, which makes me happy.  And I accidentally got punched in the face on Tuesday, which wasn't too fun, but now makes for a good story.  Max was demonstrating a move from Street Fighter on me (shoryuken for those who know the game).  I thought it was a body shot, so I leaned forward to give him a bit of extra room in the stomach region, but sadly, it's an uppercut and he got me right in the nose.  I'm fine though.  And of course, he felt really awful.  But it's still pretty funny.  Still can't believe I have to go home soon, but I will get accustomed once I remember that I can see my angel kitty after.  I miss him greatly.

I have a bunch of stuff I need to read as review for my lit midterm...and the website where said readings are hosted is down!

P.S. Hey guys, I'll be back August 4th, and I think I can visit you, Grandma and Grandpa, but it's going to be pretty busy, so we'll see how things go.  Try not to be crazy Mom.  I love you all, even as I freak out.