So I haven't posted anything substantial in awhile because last week I had mid-terms and I was sick (still am) so I haven't had a lot of spare time. But mid-terms are over now, yea! If I could just get over this sickness, than things in Japan would be peachy. Other than mid-terms, I did enjoy 3 Thanksgiving dinners in Japan. Wednesday night I went over to my friend Sarah's house which was really fun, it was her host-mother's first time to make a Thanksgiving meal but it turned out well becuase Japanese women tend to be excellent cooks. Then on Saturday, I had Thanksgiving with my family. I helped with the cooking all day long, stirring, peeling about 25 potatoes and countless carrots, mashing potatoes and making green bean casserole and Aunt Karen's baked beans. It was just Fukiko and I cooking for 20-something people, so it was a lot of work, but it was worth it because the food was delicious. We had turkey, green bean casserole, baked beans, mashed potatoes, corn bread, stuffing, creamed corn, carrots and pumpkin, apple and pecan pie. It was very tasty. My recipes, for green bean casserole and baked beans were also big hits. Apparently Japanese people like beans. Anyway, it was really fun, I had 4 American friends and one Japanese friend come over for dinner(I tried to invite Americans who I thought would miss Thanksgiving) and they had a good time. My host father got really drunk, was saying crazy things and falling over sitting down, plus his face was the color of a tomato all night. It was a good time. Then the next day, I had my third Thanksgiving at church. After the church service we had a big potluck, which was also fun. Then I came home and we had Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner. I'm getting a little sick of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes...who'd have thought I'd get sick of Thanksgiving food in Japan? So yeah, that was my 3 Thanksgivings, I hope everyone reading this also had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm still sick though, because my weekend was busy, so now I'm going home to sleep. Peace out!
P.S.-Random fact: the Japanese kanji character for wife literally means, "inside the house" and the kanji for husband means "master"...talk about a culture with discrimination and gender identities built into their language.

Here on some pictures of Thanksgiving with my family: of Fukiko cooking, of the array of food and of my American friends enjoying some Japanese style Thanksgiving on the floor.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Here are some of the pictures that my second graders drew of themselves. Notice how the girls are supercute and the boys look like scary monsters with sharp teeth. Japanese children don't really look like that, just for the record. :-)

So I started my BEST program this week. It went well. I was a little nervous about how it would go because we were short on members in both of my groups, but the kids were supercute and it was fun to play with them. It was difficult to communicate with them, though. I don’t understand Japanese that well sitting at the dinner table with my family. When you put me in a crowded classroom with 30 children screaming at the same time it becomes substantially more difficult for me to understand. But we were able to communicate well enough to introduce ourselves and help them make their passports. We only had a problem with one of the kids in my Tuesday session. One of the groups had a kid who when asked what his future dream was answered, “to kill and mutilate people”. A few minutes later he threw his pencil box across the room. I think maybe he needs to lay off the Japanese horror movies and manga and possibly get a little bit of counseling. Other than him, though, the kids were really good. So yeah, I’ve been really busy with BEST this week. Also, I have two midterms next week, which I need to start studying for. My Japanese language mid-term is 3 days long, which I think is a bit ridiculous, plus I have my politics midterm on the second day, so I have to memorize a bunch of random facts about Japanese Prime Ministers and factions. Should be a fun weekend. Last night, I was talking with my host mother about my family and I mentioned that my Grandpa was in Japan after WWII, during the occupation and that he loved Japan. She talked a little about what she thought of American soldiers when she was little (she was 8 when WWII ended) and she said that she had a good impression of them. So that was good to hear. Well, I need to go do some reading now, or more likely, go to the library with the intent of doing reading and end up talking to someone for the next 2 hours. I hope everyone is well. Peace. P.S.-Does anyone know if Everything is Illuminated has come out yet? I'm reading the book now and I really want to see the movie when I'm home. Movies are too expensive here. I also want to the Chronicles of Narnia cause I'm dorky like that.

Whoa, I totally just figured how to put pictures up on my blog. That's great. Though, I'll continue to post them on a separate page, cause it's easier for me. That's me and Tim Kasher by the way, it's a bit dark, I know.

This weekend was good. Friday night I went out for Shabu-Shabu, which is a kind of meal where you boil meat and vegatables at the table and dip them in different sauces. It was fun and oishi (delicious). I went with 3 Americans, 1 Japanese girl and a guy from the Phillipines, and I swear that the restaurant lost money on us because we ate so much. Every time I looked over the guys were ordering more beef. It was an all-you-can eat Shabu-Shabu, so we had an hour and a half to eat all that we could. After that, I met some friends at a Salsa club. It was fun, except I don't know how to salsa. One of the friends we met there insisted that it was really easy and she would teach us. Yes, the basic step is easy...but everyone at the club was really good and doing a lot of complicated steps, dips and spins. It was fun though. Only one of the guys I danced with was skeezy and molesting on the dance floor. He wasn't Japanese, he was some sort of Latin. By the time we left the salsa club, it was after 3 in the morning. In Tokyo, the trains stop running at 12:30, but none of the clubs open until 10:00 or 11:00, so if you want to go to a club, you have to stay out all night and catch the morning train. So we went to Starbucks and sat and had coffee until we could catch our train at 5:15. Then I went home and slept until my parents called at 12:00. Then yesterday, I went to the Cursive concert, and it was awesome! The two Japanese bands before them were good, and then after the show, all the band members came down and I got to talk to them for a little bit. I got a picture with Tim Kasher on my cell phone, it's kind of a bad picture cause it's a keitai picture from a dark club...but it was great none the less. In Chicago, they wouldn't have come down to talk to people after the show and I think I would have felt weird trying to talk to them and asking for a picture, but here it's different. We talked a little about Japan, and about how they never play in Davenport cause there's not a big enough place to play. They were super nice. Okay, that's enough of my rambling on about the concert, but I was excited. Now I can add a picture of me with Tim Kasher to my ever-growing album from Japan. It's my facebook picture right now, cause I'm a huge dork like that. :-) I also went to church yesterday morning for the first time. I went to a church that a couple of my friends go to, called the Tokyo Church of Christ, and it was really nice. I think it was the most friendly and welcoming church I've ever been to. So I think I'm going to start going every week, if I can. The service was 2 hours long, I guess asian churches have long services, but I didn't mind. It was in Japanese, but they had an english translation, though we did have to wear a giant earpiece to hear it. Then afterward, there was a potluck. I guess I liked the feeling of community it had. I haven't been very religious lately, I've kind of gone in phases of faithfulness and nonfaithfulness throughout my life. In Chicago last year, I never went to church because I always worked and I don't like the church we belong to in Davenport, so I never went. So I guess I'll just see how this goes. It would be crazy if I found faith in Japan though, since only about 1% of their population is Christian. Well, I have to go do some schoolwork now, but I hope everyone reading this is well. :-)

Also, I put a bunch of new pictures up at homepage.mac.com/brightiedgrl, from my trip to Oku-tama(Mitake Shrine and my hike up Mt. Otake), from Lake Kawaguchiko near Mt. Fuji and of my trip to Mikasa...so feel free to check those out. Peace. :-)

Things are going well here. I feel like I'm getting busy. Last week I had a paper to do, this week I have a presentation and a few tests. Also, I'm starting the BEST program, which is where we go to a second grade class at a local elementary school, play games with the children to help them learn about foreigners and the international community. I think it'll be quite fun and a good experience. But somehow I got appointed group leader for two out of the three days, so I think it's going to be quite a bit of work. Today I have to run a meeting and explain the program and I'm supposed to be recruiting people. I don't generally like leadership positions because A.) you're responsible when other people flake or screw up and B.) you have to boss people around, which I don't like. I think this will be okay though. I'll let you know once the program starts next week. It'll be fun to play with the kids and see what a second grade class is like here, as opposed to my mom's class at home. My last weekend was good, I went to a coastal town with Sarah on Saturday. We went there to see the Mikasa, which is one of only 3 historical ships in the world. It was used in the Russo-Japanese war. Her uncle is big into old war ships, so we went and took pictures/bought souveneirs. Then we hung out in the town and did some shopping. I bought a couple of sweaters because it's starting to get cold here and I'm realizing that I didn't bring very many winter clothes. I'll have to layer it up, I guess. The town had a U.S. Navy base, so as we were walking around we kept seeing American flags, Navy souveneirs, English signs, signs saying that bars accepted dollars as well as yen...it was kind of crazy. The American Navy people sort of infected the entire area. I guess that's why people don't want us setting up shop in their countries, we come in and americanize everything. I got hit on by a really strange Japanese man, he kissed my hand Barasel-style(that's an inside joke many of you won't get). But it was a fun trip, all in all. Other than that, I just hung out, went for coffee and worked on the mountains of reading I have to do. If any of you reading this have good Thanksgiving recipes, please let me know. My host family is having a Thanksgiving dinner and I'm supposed to provide the recipes. They keep asking me for a turkey recipe...is there a recipe for turkey? I thought you just stuffed it, basted it, stuck it in the oven and didn't let it burn, but perhaps I'm oversimplifying. So yeah, in a few weeks I'll be experiencing Thanksgiving in Japan, it should be interesting. It's kind of a weird holiday for them to celebrate, what with the whole pilgrim-indian theme, but I guess they started celebrating to make their exchange students feel at home, which is nice. Well, I have to go run a BEST meeting now, but I hope all of you reading this are doing well. Aunt Snookie, I hope you get well soon! How's the weather in the States? Cold enough yet? I'm glad none of you are in France right now...crazy, huh?

This past week I've been on vacation. On Tuesday, I went to my school's festival. That was interesting. All the clubs earn money by selling food at this festival, so they pretty much attack you in the street saying, "Would you like to eat this"? That was a bit intimidating, but it was fun. A lot of the different Sophia clubs and groups perform at the festival, I got to see a Japanese Gospel Choir (quite the experience) and two jazz bands. Then after the festival, I went out for Sushi and shopping with a friend of mine from Portugal. We went to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, which is where different kinds of sushi come around this conveyor-belt and you just pick the kinds that you want. You have to be careful though, cause some of them can be really expensive and the only way you can tell the difference is by the plates, which are slightly different designs and colors. Then on Wednesday, I went to a lake near Mt. Fuji with some friends. We did some hiking, went to a viewpoint where you could see Mt. Fuji, went on a speedboat ride around the lake (really fun!) and went to see a shrine. It was a really fun day and the area was very pretty. The leaves are starting to change color now. Then yesterday, I had to actually do some schoolwork, since I had a paper to write and a kanji quiz to take. So that's what is up with me in Japan. Now I just have to finish my one day of class for the week and then it's the weekend again. I hope everyone reading this is doing well. :-) I miss you!