Not a whole lot has been going on, except that last Friday, two Japanese guys came up to my friend Tine and I while we were hanging out in the lounge before meeting two other girls to go out to eat with and to do karaoke!
“Hi, we’re students at Kansai Gaidai and want to make international friends. So let’s be friends, ok?”
That’s literally what they said before we talked for two hours straight, and I’ve come to learn that this is the process called gaijin hunting. Japanese people seek out international students to befriend them. It doesn’t matter who you are… they will attack!
Anyway, they invited us to lunch on Tuesday, and Tine and I agreed. However, Tine bailed on me because she’s not the sociable type when it comes to random people who just want to be your friend because you’re an international student so I went alone. One of the guys didn’t show up, but the other took me to a large group of his friends to talk, and at first, he wasn’t going to sit by me, but then he did. Can you say awkward? He’s the one who invited me!
Anyway, I was thinking of things to say, and immediately brought up the Hanshin Tigers, the baseball team for the Kansai region (they are the equivalent of the Cubs…not very good), and suddenly, his friends became interested in the conversation. I said I wanted to go to a Hanshin Tigers game so Koki, the guy’s name, said that we could go on April 26th, and I’m looking forward to it! I think baseball is more popular in Japan than in the US. I read that people stand up while their team is at bat, and they have cheers for all the players…sounds crazy to me! Hopefully, it will be awesome!
For the rest of the time, I talked with Koki, and he suggested that we play catch and said he wanted to do karaoke. He also did a magic card trick for me…haha! It was interesting, but we haven't really talked a lot since then.
And now I have an update on Big Daddy…he is no longer cool in my book! He basically threatened to take away my friend Tine’s participation and attendance points (25% of the grade) just because she looked like she had a bad attitude, but she didn’t. I wanted her to tell someone because it’s unfair, but eventually, she got upset with me for pressing the issue and just wants to forget about him so I will.
On the bright side, for the past 3 weeks, I have written 36 pages to a story (all together), but I’m slowing down, and this week, I’m dedicating to editing my stories. I made a pact with my friend Kathleen from back home that we will be writing accountability partners and will encourage each other to write/ have weekly goals that we work on. This week, my goal is to edit two chapters so that they are pretty cleaned up…I’m not doing too well though. I moved to one of my older stories to edit/ I haven’t been doing a lot of editing/writing at all, which is bad on my part, but in my defense, I’ve been pretty stressed this week. Mainly over the weekend, but some of the effects of the weekend are still lingering. Also, I’m updating my blog for you lovely people.
I’m not doing a good job at writing, but as long as I keep writing and editing and working on stories then I’m happy. As long as I don’t stop, I know I’m making progress.
This weekend, I went to Osaka Castle in Osaka with a handful of people and got to see all the cool Sakura trees. While we were there, this guy that really loved America came up to us and asked us where we were from and which states we came from. He then shook our hands saying nice to meet you. Then he said “Obama” in hopes to make us smile and asked if he could take a picture with us, and we said he could. He then shook our hands three more times and said, “You make me so happy! Have a great day!” I asked if he was drunk or something, and one of the girls said that they just think he has an obsession with America. It probably should have been a little creepy, but it was mainly entertaining.
Then we went to this restaurant called sweets paradise, where you pay 1500 yen to have 70 minutes to stuff your face with as much pasta and cake as you can. The sweets were ok, but there’s nothing like the super sweetness of American cake icing. I quickly got tired of the cakes and ate mostly pasta, which was ok, but there is this Italian restaurant that has pasta that tastes a lot better. Everyone loves the place, but I’m indifferent to it.
After that, we went to a manga store, and everyone else is buying a series in manga that is in Japanese so I decided I would do the same thing. One manga I wanted to buy, I couldn’t find; another, I couldn’t find; another, I didn’t think to look for; so I bought 12 manga books (out of the 17) for Lovely Complex which is this lovey dovey manga (which isn’t the type of manga I normally read, but I love the story). I will now proceed to give you a short description of it. The shortest guy and the tallest girl in a class don’t get along and joke about each other’s heights, and everyone in their class, including the teacher, thinks they should get together. So it’s about whether they will get together or not, and it’s pretty cute. I also find it relatable because Risa, one of the main characters, is considered to be tall and is more tomboyish…Anyway! It’s a nice manga, but I might buy another series too since the books are so cheap here. I can get three here for the price of one back in America. The only thing is that I don’t understand most of it!
It is helpful though because I practice the speed of my reading and pronunciation, and I get excited when I understand one phrase about every other page! Hopefully one day I’ll be able to understand all of it!
Finally, I went to karaoke with the girls and had a lot of fun. I’m always up for a good night of karaoke! XD
Also, I just realized I only have 4 more weeks after this one in Japan, and I really don’t want to leave! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, but I’m going to miss the friends I made here and being in Japan. Who knows though? Japan might be in my near future (when I say near, I mean a few years at least).
Also… Also…in less than a week, I’ll be 21! Imagine that!...oh my gosh, I have to be more mature and responsible than this past year…I must do something crazy before my birthday…like dancing in public in Japan! Or dancing in public at Kansai Gaidai…I already get stared at by the Japanese students, might as well give them a show of crazy awesome dancing right? Right!
Anyway, I’m going to work on my dance routine. I hope you’re enjoying some nice warm weather!
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