I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive and well in Japan. I just haven't been able to use the internet in awhile. I've been working at the kindergarten, writing TOEIC questions and hanging out with my friends. Last week, I got to see a Japanese heavy metal band, that was pretty exciting. Yesterday I went to a Chinese bar that looked like Hell for my birthday and then did some karaoke. I love karaoke. In a couple of days I'm going to Okinawa for 4 days. After that, I'll post some pictures and write more. Hope everyone is doing well. My mac webpage actually didn't expire, it's still working and I updated it with more pictures. So feel free to check that out: homepage.mac.com/brightiedgrl. Peace out.

Ok, so I've been home for the past two and a half weeks. I came home for my Grandpa's funeral and to spend time with my family. I haven't done too much, but it's been a good time. Things I did accomplish while home: wrote/edited a bunch of questions for my TOEIC job back in Japan, got supplies for my kindergarten job that I amazingly still have, helped my mom at school a lot, ran random bitchass errands for my parents, saw Jarhead, Brokeback Mountain and Walk the Line(Brokeback Mountain was my favorite, I couldn't stop thinking about it afterward, that's when you know you saw a good movie), got really into the show Fullmetal Alchemist, talked to Kathleen a lot (something that I've really been missing doing), watched the Daily Show and Jon Stewart host the Oscars, got a new wallet, new shoes and bubble tea, went to Borders and was disappointed by the new store layout which seems designed to discourage people like me from loitering and started seriously thinking about what the hell I'm going to do after college. I'm about to go to Chicago, see Wicked, get some Dunkin Donuts coffee and hopefully purchase my first legal alcoholic drink in America. It's not so exciting cause I've been drinking legally in Japan for the past 5 months and illegally in America for the past 5 years, but at least next year I'll be able to go to 21+ shows in Chicago, and way more good bands go there than to Tokyo. I guess Tokyo is a little out of the way. Whatever. So that was my trip home, if I didn't get to see you, sorry. This one was more about being with my family than running around trying to see all my friends. Also, I have a new picture page, so you can see pictures from my trip to Sapporo and Kyoto/Osaka/Nara, it's: http://community.webshots.com/user/brightiedgrl ,so feel free to check it out. My next trip will be to Okinawa in a couple of weeks. So goodbye for now friends, family, America...I'll see you again in only 4.5 months.

So I know I haven't posted in a long time. But Kyoto, Osaka and Nara were good. Sarah and I took a long torturous ride on the Bijinessu line night bus and arrived in Kyoto at 5 in the morning. We proceeded to loiter around the train station for a few hours cause most of the temples didn't open until 8:30 or 9. Then we looked at lots and lots of temples on the first day before finding our hostel. The golden pavillion was probably the most famous one we went to and the Inari Taisha Shrine was the coolest. It had rows and rows of tori(those gateway things you see outside of shrines) that you could walk through. They probably went on for a mile. It was awesome. The hostel was also really nice. It was clean and cheap, I couldn't really ask for more. I kind of felt like a hippie staying there though. Especially after we walked by the community room one night and some guy was playing Blackbird on his guitar. Plus it was called the Backpacker's Hostel. But it was a nice place and we weren't there that much. On the second day we went to Nara to see a giant golden Buddha and a famous park full of deer. Then we went to Osaka to see Osaka castle and happened to catch an awesome free music festival. I bought the c.d. of some band called Suppries. I don't know if the name's supposed to be ironic somehow, they just can't spell in English or the name Surprise was already taken, they were really good though. After the music festival, Sarah and I sought out an okanomiyaki restaurant, cause Osaka is famous for their okanomiyaki (sort of an egg pancake, that they cook on the table). We wandered around for awhile before I finally asked someone, and believe it or not, actually understood their directions. So I got some tasty okanomiyaki and then we went to an Irish Pub for Sarah, cause she doesn't like Japanese food. It was funny, whenever I picked the food, we tried some new Japanese food and whenever she picked it we ended up with fast food. Then on the 3rd day we checked out Nijo Castle and the Old Kyoto Imperial Palace. It was raining and kind of crappy weather, but they were still interesting and I still took lots of pictures. Then Sarah and I ate a giant pitcher full of ice cream... probably our greatest accomplishment. We took lots of pictures of ourselves with it before and after eating it and I'm pretty sure the people in the restaurant thought we were crazy. Then we went and did some karaoke, because I love karaoke and my parents requested a video of my singing. I sang "Everybody was Kung-fu Fighting" sober for the first time. Plus Sarah and I sang "Backstreet's Back" and "I Feel like a Woman." It was good times. On the last day, we went to a few more temples and waited for our night bus to come, and that was about it for Kyoto/Osaka/Nara. My next trip will be to Okinawa near the end of March. I should be able to put up some pictures from my trips soon too, but I have to find a new picture page since my .mac account is about to expire. I'll keep you posted. I'm also about to be 21 soon, so please drink lots of alcohol in my honor.