At the prompting of vertfonce , I'm posting an update to all my crazy misadventures.

Ummm... so to start, I wish I've been keeping a detailed journal of everything that's been going on, because like I was telling my dad the other day (or last week...?), everyday there is just something new that I see or I do or that happens that's amazing. For example: men in kimono on scooters. Pretty much the greatest thing since sliced bread. OR. Young men in business suits on scooters. Girls in business skirts and heels on bicycles. Old women in kimono on the street car. Taxis with lace doily seat covers. Drinking in a bar and not worrying about what drunk meathead is going to try to rape you on your way home. Eating lunch on a bench at the campus across the street and watching all the college students with their awesome outfits walk by. Watching ridiculous game/talk/food tasting/random shows on TV, and not having any clue whats going on, but laughing at it anyway. Being greeted like you're a celebrity by twelve awesome second graders who group hug you so hard you almost fall over. Walking around in lolita knowing you're being stared at because you're a blonde haired pale-as-hell foreigner, and not because you're dressed "like a freak." Buying used manga and Jpop CDs for 250 yen a piece!!!! (that's about $2.50)

I could keep going. Maybe later I will, but for now I guess I'll talk about today. First, I spent way too much money yesterday, but I finished my furisode kitsuke finally, and I found red and white striped socks to go with my bunny pocket skirt. However, then I realized that I still need to pay my student loan and cell phone bills next month and my meagre savings is dwindling. So not only am I not gonna make it to Tokyo, I've decided not to make a trip to the Fukuoka Meta shop either. It would be $40 round trip to get up there, and then I'd just be spending money on top of that. So instead I'm going to order the stuff I need from Baby (which I'd rather own anyway) and have it shipped to my host family's house for MUCH cheaper than it would be to ship to the US. I don't mind paying $30 for shipping if I'm already spending $260 on a JSK, but all I can afford right now is the stuff I need: pink socks, white socks, and a white headbow, and it's not worth it to have them shipped to the US. I'm gonna be coming back here someday. For sure. And a trip to Tokyo will be in order.

Also today, we had our most favorite kindergarten class full of monsters. Really just two monsters. Sho and Jyunnsei. They're hyperactive, full of their own importance, don't listen to instruction, and have a knack for disrupting class. Today they spent the first ten minutes talking about Caitlin R. and I behind our backs... or really right in front of our faces b/c we can't understand that much Japanese, calling us names of some kind. I'm sure it wasn't malicious, but when someone is calling you something you can't understand, and everyone else seems to think it's hilarious, you kinda want to smack them. Later in class Sho was running around while he was supposed to be playing BINGO and ran right up to me and grabbed my boobs. Like, full on grabbed a handful. He let go right away, but all I could do was go "No! Nooo!" and shake my head. He did the same thing to Brittney a couple weeks ago apparently. I don't know what to do with this kid.

On the way home I finally ran into the cute geek-chic college guy that lives across the street. I saw him last week as he was leaving his house, but he must have been late because he RAN down the stairs. Today I saw him riding toward the stairway on his bike so I picked up my pace a bit to see if I could catch him. Luckily he was walking up the stairs really slow... but he had his headphones on, so he didn't realize I was there until I tried to sneak past him. Then he was like "Oh!" *pulls out earbuds* "Herro." Me: "konnichiwa." Him: "Ah! Gaijin!" Me: *sigh* "Hai!" He didn't realize right away? I dunno. But his name is Hiroyuki, he's in college, but he's only 18. Maybe a little young for me. Plus, maybe not so much with the English. I keep running into the ones I can't have a conversation with. *shakes fist* Joni, maybe I can bring him home for you. XP

Anyway, dinner was chicken, tofu, pasta salad, bean sprouts, and rice. And we watched the news which even I could recognize about North Korea. It's kinda scary being this close, and they talk about it on the news everyday, so I'm sure everyone is really worried about this nuclear weapons thing. I said something to my host mom about how I wished we had never gone to Iraq because then we would have the man power to help now (though I'm still a bit conflicted about the whole US policing the world thing), and she was like "Me too, me too." And then she said that years ago N. Korea kidnapped some Japanese people and they were never seen again. I don't know the whole story about that, because her English is not very good, and my Japanese is not very good ("we have same heart" she said on my first day <3), so I don't know exactly what she was talking about. Sorry to bring up politics, but I figured I'd offer the broad scheme of the doings and goings on.

Okay, I feel that I've rambled long enough, and if you've made it this far, I applaud you. I (might remember to) post again later, in the meantime here is a link to my Nagasaki Photobucket album, which doesn't have everything, but it's got a good random sampling. And if anyone has any random questions (my dad wanted to know what Japanese bathrooms are like) please feel free to ask!

http://s628.photobucket.com/albums/uu7/okami_loli_chan/Nagasaki/

Oh yeah, and Atashinchi no Danshi is a Jdorama that is currently airing in Japan (watching it on primetime right now!) about a homeless girl who marries a rich company owner in exchange for him paying off her father's debts to the yakuza, which is what made her homeless in the first place. I hope that makes sense. The actress is Maki Horikita who also played Mizuki in the live action Hana Kimi.