First of all, I'd like to reassure you all that I survived the Korean missile attacks earlier this week. I'm guessing that you all survived as well since the missile that was supposedly able to reach the United States failed within a minute of launch. That's communist technology for you.:-) I still can't believe that they launched the missiles on the 4th of July, how much more obvious can you be about wanting attention from the U.S? It's really kind of pathetic. It's big news hear in Japan though. Mainly because N. Korea could actually potentially hit Japan and because I swear Japanese people are naturally paranoid. My host family is always telling me about how Japan isn't safe anymore, just because there have been a few weird murders in the news lately, and I've heard people worry that the next terrorist attack will come against Japan. Let's all hope that N. Korea doesn't do anything too crazy. Anyway, I've been busy lately with projects for school, paper etc. When I have free time, I often spend it playing with my host sisters babies, Kenta and Shuta, who came home from the hospital on Saturday. They are so cute! Other than that, I've continued to practice with the band. We're recording tonight, which I'm a little nervous about because I have a sore throat. Hopefully I can sing okay. Other than that, I've just been hanging out with my friends and trying to figure things out for my parents visit, for my apartment next year in Chicago, etc. Anyway, this will likely be my last entry because I only have one more week of school and after that I'm going to be busy taking finals, finishing final papers and packing. But I hope that you all enjoyed my blog. If you'd like to see more pictures or something, I'll be home after August 6th, just give me a call.

Sorry,I haven't updated in awhile. I've been busy, with schoolwork, my job, the band, hanging out with friends etc. I'm down to the last stretch here, since I only have about a month left in Japan, so I'm trying to spend as much time with my friends as possible. At the same time, I just started practicing with my band a couple weeks ago and we're nearing the end of the semester so I'm getting busy with schoolwork. But things have been good. This past weekend, I had band practice. It was our second practice and it went much better than the first. For the first practice, our guitarist and the only person who knew where the studio was, ended up being 40 minutes late, so we only got to practice for about 15 minutes. But this last practice was better, we got a full practice in and actually got all of the way through our first song, Island in the Sun by Weezer. Friday night we're practicing again and we're going to start to play a Nirvana song, so I'm excited about that. It should be a lot more fun than Weezer. Than on Friday night I went out to eat/drink with a group of friends because one of my friends just had a bad breakup and we wanted to cheer her up. So we went out for Mexican because what's more cheerful than Tequila? Then on Saturday some people from my church had a BBQ and I went to that. It was really fun, plus I got to eat a home-grilled hamburger for the first time in a very long time and be around lots of cute babies. I like American babies because when I smile at them, they usually smile back, whereas Japanese babies get scared and look away or start crying, I guess because of my scary yellow hair and spooky green eyes. Then yesterday I went to church and then attended a charity concert afterward to help people suffering from the earthquake in Indonesia. The artist who played was apparently quite famous, I think her name was Jian Jinhou. She played a string-instrument from China called the erhu. Anyway, the sound was really interesting. Some songs sounded sort of like Chinese bluegrass music if you can imagine that. Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately, now I need to go do some homework. Peace out.

I know it's been a while since I last wrote, but for the record I tried to update my blog on Friday but the site was down for maintenance. My weekend was good. On Friday night I went out with a bunch of my friends to celebrate two of our friend's birthdays. We ate Mexican again and then went and did karaoke. It was a fun time. Then on Saturday I went and met with a Japanese high school english conversation club. One of my professors had asked me to do it, because the students wanted to talk with foreign students. I'm glad that I did it, because the kids were really cute. They were very nervous to speak English, but they had a list of questions to ask me about America, American college life, my experiences in Japan, etc. I think the funniest question that I was asked was "Do you think Japanese boys are cool"? Of course asked by one of the boys, and of course I said yes(I didn't want to turn them off, by saying no, I don't think Japanese boys are cool). I also got asked what the phrase "stay cool" meant, by a kid who had heard the phrase, but forgot. Oh and one of the boys said, "I think foreigners are really unique, how can I be unique?" I had no idea how to answer that question so I just told him to be himself. It's not that we're particularly unique anyway, we just seem unique cause we're living in Japan and we're not Japanese. But it was a fun time. Then I got home, all ready to begin studying for the Japanese test that I had on Monday and my host parents were like, "Hey, lets go out for sushi!". Don't get me wrong, I love going out for sushi, but everytime I go out with them, they get me so full of sushi and drunk on beer and sake that by the time I get home all I'm able to do is pass out. So that's exactly what I did. Then on Sunday, I met up with Maiko, a Japanese friend of mine who I hadn't seen in awhile, and her high school friend Miyuki. They wanted to come to church with me cause they had never been to a christian church in Japan. So I brought them to church, we ate lunch at church and then went to karaoke and out to dinner. On the way to karaoke, I also fell down the stairs at Shinjuku Station. It hurt like a bitch, but now I have a huge cool-looking bruise to show for it. I can't sleep on my left side anymore though, because it hurts to put weight on it. Oh well, at least I didn't break anything. After that I managed to get to karaoke in one piece and we had some fun singing. Then we went out to eat and talked a lot. Both of them are really sweet and they want to come visit me in Chicago now, which I'm really excited about. Hopefully they'll actually be able to come. So yeah, that was my weekend. Oh, and I got an A on my Japanese test despite the fact that I hardly studied. Moral of the story: alcohol+sushi+not studying=good grades. I think it's why the Japanese are so smart. Well, I should go do some homework now. But if any of you guys can think of fun things to do in Chicago, please let me know. I'll have to start planning for when my friends come.

So this week was a time of much busyness and studying. I had my 2-day marathon of a Japanese mid-term and an IPE mid-term. But I think I did alright on them, it's the weekend now, and I'm mid-term free until next Friday, so I'm in a pretty good mood right about now. I'm going out with Ana and Maja tonight to celebrate this week being over with some Mexican food and hopefully a large margarita. They have kiwi margaritas here, and they are seriously delicious. So what's new with me? This week I pretty much just studied, worked oh, and went to a used kimono sale to find my aunt a kimono. New kimonos are really expensive here, but if you can find a used kimono sale, you can generally find quality kimonos at decent prices. I really lucked out at this last sale, because most of the cheaper kimonos weren't very good quality, but I happened to find one that was 100% silk and one that I think has never been worn(the stitches were left in). So that made me happy. Apparently, I'm a good kimono bargain shopper, both my host sister and mother said that I have good taste. I just make sure to look for the kanji that means silk, because polyester kimonos don't really do it for me. It's been really hot and humid here this week. So hot that I'm actually looking forward to the rainy season (when it will rain for a month straight), because then at least I won't be sweating all the time or the rain will wash away my sweat if I am. July and August are going to be awful though, I'm dreading the painfully hot weather almost as much as I'm dreading having to listen to my parents bitch about the hot weather when they come to visit.:-) Oh, the bands starting up soon, probably within the next two weeks. I'm pretty sure we're going to suck because we're not going to get to practice much before I have to go back to America. But it should be fun, just hanging out in the studio and attempting to be a band. I can't quite imagine myself in a band, but sometimes I can't really comprehend the fact that I'm living in Japan either. This past year parts of my life have just seemed somewhat surreal. Living in Japan, hanging out with people from all over Asia and Europe, going to Sapporo, Kyoto, Okinawa, sometimes I just look up from it all and think, is this for real? It's crazy to think that I've been here for 8.5 months already. So much has changed, people have graduated, babies have grown and been born, relatives have died, friends have gotten married. No matter where I'm living, life goes on just the same, I guess. My friends are probably different, I'm probably different too, I guess I'll find out when I return to the states in a couple of months. Sorry for the introspectiveness, but I only have 8 weeks left, so I'm starting to think about what all my time here has meant. You know me, I think too much. Well, I'm just rambling now, so I guess I'll go do some research now. I'm writing a paper comparing the recent French immigrant protest movements to the American immigrant protest movements and I'm pretty excited about it, cause I'm a dork like that. So sayonara peoples.

I forgot to mention, check out the outfits the men are wearing. They wear traditional Japanese customs, which often consist of a short robe and some white thong underwear, which leaves their asses hanging out for all to see. I discreetly took a picture of one them.

Sorry I haven't written much in awhile, but I've been busy. I had a good weekend. I went out to eat with some friends on Friday night, and got to hear my friend Jumpei's theory that wherever President Bush goes there is also a secret service guard carrying a button which enables him to launch a nuclear bomb at a moments notice. He insisted that this button was with the President at all times, that when he goes swimming, an agent swims behind him holding onto the button, when he goes jogging an agent runs behind him carrying the button, etc. We had a good laugh over that theory. Then on Saturday, I went with Ana to see the Da Vinci Code. It was really good, I really enjoyed the movie. It got poor ratings from the critics, but having read the book I really enjoyed seeing it on screen. Then we had coffee at Starbucks (I am addicted to the banana mocha frappucino)and hung out for awhile. Then on Sunday I went to a festival in Asakusa called the Sanja Matsuri. It's a really big festival, people march through the streets carrying these big portable shrines called,Omikoshi ,which are supposed to carry the spirits of different gods. When they carry the Omikoshi through the streets they believe they're spreading the divine spirit of the gods throughout Asakusa. There were LOTS of people there and many different food stands, etc. It was really fun. My friend, Yusuke, lives in Asakusa, so he took us around the festival and tracked down some of the Omikoshi so we could see them. I took some pictures, I'll post them on here. So that was my weekend, during the week I've pretty much been busy with school. This semester has been a lot busier than last semester. I've already had 5 papers due, done a presentation, taken 3 tests (in Japanese)and probably taken over 15 quizzes, the majority of which were in Japanese. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy the pictures.

Okay, the first two pictures are of Maja, Ana and I on the day that I made ravioli, then come the wedding pics.

Here are some pictures from the wedding:

So here's my biggest news of the week: Minako had her babies yesterday! They were a bit premature, so they're small but they're also healthy. They'll be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and then they'll be at the house with me. :-) Other than that, this week has been pretty uneventful, I had a lot of schoolwork, so the week has seemed very long. But it's over now. This weekend I'm going to a Japanese wedding, which should be interesting. Some people from my church are getting married, so at least it will be actual christians getting married in a christian wedding. Usually christian weddings here are fake, done for Japanese people who have no christian beliefs and often performed by westerners only pretending to be priests. I guess they just want to wear the pretty white western dress. So that is what's up with me, nothing too exciting. Happy Mother's Day to any mothers reading this!