So if you missed the first part of this post, its right here. CLICK.

Over the winter break Chris and I went went off to a wonderful place called Tokyo and more importantly, Tokyo Disneyland. After our first day in Tokyo was spent at an anime museum, we went off to the most magical place in all of Japan, Tokyo Disneyland. Our Journey was started by taking the train from our hotel (tiny tiny room) to the Tokyo Disney train station. They had their very own train statino complete with the Zip-a-dee-do-da song when trains arrived and left the station. We left the station to find an insane amount of people everywhere. The train dropped us off near the biggest Disney Store in all of Japan but we decided to visit it after the day was done at our first park.

Tokyo Disney consists of two parks and a bunch of hotels. The first park is basically a remake of the Disneyland in California and the second is a new park that is unique to Tokyo Disney. It celebrates all things about the sea and is called Disney Sea. The first place we decided to head off to was Disneyland. This was mostly due to me buying tickets a long time before heading to the park. It was a good choice because this was a magic day. This was also the first time that Christina had ever been to a Disney park. I’m so happy that we got to go.

Disneyland is such an amazing place. From the moment that we walked into the park I had that feeling of being a little kid. I love that feeling. I always have nothing but good memories when I step foot inside this park. As we walked in I looked at Christina and all I saw was her smiling. It’s so wonderful to see her smiling. Her eyes were lit up and then we saw the famous flowers arranged in the shape of Mickey Mouse. Past that was the World’s Market which is the same as MainStreet USA in the California Disneyland. It was just amazing to me to see such a great place rebuilt for the Japanese market. This Disneyland had an even grander scale to it. Finally off in the distance was saw the castle with the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey holding hands. I’m pretty sure at this point I hugged Chris. If it had just ended here I would have been happy. Every penny would have been worth it just because Chris and I were happy. Instead, we had the most amazing day ahead of us. It was a day filled with joy and an amazing amount of good food. The first thing we had to decide was what ride to wait in line for first. We opted for Splash mountain.

We looked at the map and headed off towards the cartoonish mountain in the distance. We walked over to find that the line was going to be about 4 hours in waiting time. We decided, no, we don’t want that this badly. Instead, Disney does something amazing. You can get a pass that will allow you to return at a certain time and ride the ride then. We got passes for 9:00PM. This was not by choice by the way. This was just what they gave us. In my mind I was thinking that this would be a good way to end the day. The day still had to continue though. We ended up starting at Pirates of the Caribbean. The wait was a manageable 40 minutes. This was one of the shortest waits at the park. It didn’t matter though. We were having a wonderful time with one another. We waited and I could feel the excitement build as we got closer to the boats and could hear the music from the cafe that was built in the front of the line. As we got in the boat and it set off, we were whisked into a world of fantasy. I looked at Chris who was smiling, I was happy.

After the wonderful ride that was Pirates of the Caribbean, we were quite hungry. Luckily Chris had plotted where all the food was on our map. We headed straight for the turkey leg stand. This was the best sight I had seen in Disneyland. As a side note, we don’t eat that much meat here so the turkey legs were a welcome change to our diet. I’m sure the grins on our faces could have been seen as far away as Tomorrowland. This was the first of many amazing foods that we had this day. It was also the first of a couple times eating turkey legs that day as well. Other foods that we had and in no particular order were popcorn with flavors such as curry, strawberry, honey, normal and others, we also had many uniquely Japanese foods like steamed buns in the the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head. The food in general was, to put it simply, amazing. That said, this wasn’t the best part of Disneyland. The best part was just seeing everyone there so happy.

A lot of the rides in Disneyland were dressed up for the holiday season with snowflakes and other things. Its a small world was dressed up in a really cute way. It had snowflakes inside and out. This was actually the first time that I had the chance to come to a Disney park in December so for me this was a first to experience this unique decoration. There was one other ride that was just simply astounding in the way they dressed it up. This was The Haunted Mansion. The ride is usually just a haunted house with loads of special effects but from October to December they dress it up too be Nightmare Before Christmas themed. The inside and outside are completely overhauled.

The way that they do the decoration is simply amazing. They make the outside of the mansion to look like a pumpkin patch with various decorations that are Christmas themed but with a Halloween twist. There is even a scarecrow made out to look like Santa Clause. The roof has a ghostly sleigh as well as holiday wreaths that are alive. Its quite simply amazing. The inside is just as amazing. The inside is decorated and completely changed to the theme of The Nightmare Before Christmas. There are floating presents as well as ghoulish children playing. As The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favorite movies, this is always a treat for me. Chris couldn’t stop talking pictures. It was quite amusing for the entire time. It let us do something since she and I were waiting for an hour to get in. We even ate turkey legs in the line.

Still, this day had to come to an end. We had to move on and head on back for our sleep and rest. The next day was going to be just as big as this day. I sometimes wish though that we could go back and have another great day at Disneyland.

-Kyle

Exciting news everyone! I finally got the pictures and videos for Tokyo and Tokyo Disneyland. This is exciting because this was one of the best trips that I’ve ever taken, and I took this trip with my lovely best friend, Christina. The trip started off wonderful as Chris and I left for Kyoto Station at around 9:00am so that we could catch the 9:30am, and I’m not making this name up, Super Rapid Express train. Obviously this is faster than the Rapid Express and the Express trains. This was the beginning of a grueling journey that led to the Mecca of fashion and gizmos, Tokyo. Along the way we transferred trains around six times all the time carrying our bags. It was a long trip that was made long by us being cheap. It was cheap because we only took the local trains the entire time. It could have been a shorter trek if we had taken the Shinkansen. That’s the super fast bullet train that only takes two hours instead of our eight. Still the trip was brilliant and gorgeous.

Still we had an amazing time just getting there. After trekking through all the trains we finally ended up at our hostel that was tiny as all getup. It was a 10ft by 6ft room with tatami mat floors. Tatami mat is a comfy woven traditional grass mat that is in Japan. Still, this thing was tiny beyond belief for a big tall strapping American as myself. We didn’t rest though that night. Instead, we decided to head out to Akihabara. This is a district of Tokyo that is known for its electronics and overall nerd culture. There we saw people dressed up in maid costumes inviting us into appropriately named maid cafes. We also saw many otaku running around. Otaku is a name given to those who are obsessed with any culture but primarily anime and electronics culture. Its even evolved into one specific type of person and dress. They are kind of creepy actually.

This lovely trip into the nerd paradise was made even greater by the discovery of a gyro stand in the heart of Akihabara. One thing that is hard about living here is the lack of meat in the daily diet. Its a luxury that you can’t really afford to eat here on a daily basis. Beef alone is usually twice the cost it is in the United States. Because of this, the gyro I ate in Akihabara is going down as the best one I’ve ever eaten just due to overwhelming hunger and lust for meat. I had a beef gyro with a spicy sauce. Chris had the chicken. After that we decided to check out all the various shops that glowed beneath their incredibly bright neon lights. One thing I should mention, this post isn’t about Tokyo or Disneyland. This is a post about food which you will see played a huge part in this trip.

The next day was dedicated to Chris and I heading to a museum for a movie studio. This might sound like a boring place to go on a trip to Tokyo but hear me out. This studio is responsible for some of the finest quality animation in not just Japan but the world. The studio is called Studio Ghibli. It is responsible for many classic movies in the anime style of animation. The studio is known for its high quality art and stories. Its even won an Oscar or two if I remember correctly. This was an amazing place that was filled with many exhibits on traditional animation and art.  The building itself was quite amazing in its own right. The building was built in the middle of a gorgeous park on the outskirts of Tokyo. Its shaped to look natural in the setting and is just magical to look at. Christina took some wonderful pictures and most are posted here. Sadly you could not take pictures inside of the building but the way they explained it was as such. They wanted you to experience the world through the eyes and keep the memories as something you’ll cherish. I completely agree. Still, they had an amazing garden on the roof you could take pictures of. It also had an amazing statue of a guardian from the movie Castle in the Sky. They also had a special beer that was only sold in the snack area as well as a store that sold exclusive merchandise. Overall this was an great place to go. I bought some fun little things for myself such as a giant dust bunny and a cellphone charm. It was great to see little kids having a wonderful time playing on a giant catbus. There was that and the wonderful ice cream that I had. It was raspberry. Of course, much it was stolen by Chris.

The next post is right here. CLICK

-Kyle

its been ages since I’ve written anything on here but that is changing as I type away my recap and newest adventures for your amusement. So away I type!

Chris and I went to Tokyo over our winter break. That was over two months ago so what happened to that post about our wonderful adventure to the heart and capital of modern Japan? Well, I keep forgetting to get all the pictures from Chris. As such an event has yet to take place, I will wait until I do. It was a great trip that does need pictures to be explained properly. Instead, what I describe to you is how my semester went. It went well. I learned so so much of the language and culture that permeates Japan that no blog can contain it. All that needs to be said is this: Its a wonderful place, and I’ve made wonderful friends. Each day I find something new and wonderful to add to my collection of ideas and experiences. Ritsumeikan University has been great to me. I’m looking forward to my next and last semester. Hopefully I don’t forget too much over the spring break.

So as I stated, it’s my spring break right now. In the United States, this would mean a break that was a week or two long and that entire time would be spent somewhere warm and preferably near water. No, not here. For one, it’s February, it’s cold. Second, the spring break in Japan is more akin to the United States summer breaks. This is the time between the school years. This is when you are supposed to go home and find a job. Also, hope that you don’t lose too much knowledge over that time. Seeing as its hard to leave this country and that would defeat the year abroad for me, I’m staying here. So 1) Going home. As for the getting a job part, yes, I’m doing that. I haven’t found work but instead have created work for myself. I’m working on various programs for projects and ideas I have. So far so good. If I finish something proper, I’ll post it. Otherwise, I’m not going to bore you with my computer mumbo-jumbo.

So what am I doing with all that free time I have found myself with? I’m doing some traveling in and around my city Kyoto. I’ve been to see all the temples and shrines that are worth seeing or at least trying to see. Honestly, there are hundreds if not thousands of them around this city. I’m also trying to see the area around the Kansai region. Kansai is, as it I typed, a region in Japan. Its a very old and populated region of Japan. It has many great cities in it such as Osaka, the third largest city in Japan, and it has Kobe, known for its fantastic beef. All this awaits me. I’ve been blessed with the luck of being in Kyoto. Kyoto is smack-dab in the middle of these places.

I went, for the first time, today to the large city of Osaka. We started off early and by ‘we’ I mean my friends Chad and Ayla and me. We went to Hanazono station to catch a train bound for the city. We wound up getting to the train station right as it left so we were forced to wait in the cold room. This room wasn’t cold but instead was quite the opposite. Its a room you can wait in so that you are warm. Those stations can be mighty drafty so its a great place to just wait. Finally we were off on the 10:40 AM train headed for Kyoto Station. It was just wonderful to know that we were headed to a place we had never been before. While at Kyoto Station, I bought a card for the trains so that I don’t have to buy any more tickets. Its like a prepaid ticket that works on all Japan Railway trains. I’m excited by this and will demo it in a video sometime. Any who, I digress. We were off to Osaka. Even though Osaka is about 30 miles away it took us only 30 minutes to get there as we took the Super Rapid Express train. This doesn’t mean that the train flies, instead it means there are less stops. There were only two stops between us and our main destination, Osaka Station. From Osaka we went to another part of the city called Namaba or Minami as it is known to the locals. Minami is the word for South in Japanese. This disteric is known as the shopping center of Osaka.

As we walked out of the station, we saw some Japanese youth practicing there dancing in from of a giant mirrored wall. This is much more common then one might think actually. So we really didn’t look twice. Instead, we headed upstairs to the open air and were graced with the presence of a great building that is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. We took pictures of course and then went on our way to find a place called America Town. Sounds wonderful, right? There is always places you hear of in bigger cities in the United States named “Little Italy” or “China Town.” America Town was nothing like those. This wasn’t a place of Americans yelling at one another in Southern accents. Instead, it is a fashion district that all the younger generation flocks to. It is filled to the brim with the latest styles and little boutiques that sell over priced pairs of used pants. It was fantastic. There are people there dressed in things you’d never have imagined existed let alone was worn by someone. That was American town. It was a place where fashion is King and we are its humble servants.

For now, I’ll finish this story up tomorrow as this post is getting rather long.

-Kyle

Everything is finally coming together for Winter Break. After about two weeks of planning, Kyle and I decided to take a five day trip to Tokyo. We’re leaving the 26th and returning the 30th. The 27th we’re going to the Ghibli Museum, the next two days will be spent at the Disneyland in Tokyo. The little things are what excite me the most. This morning I bought the tickets for the Ghibli Museum. The main convenience store here is called Lawsons, and they are indeed convenient. Not only are they everywhere, but they’re open 24/7 and you can pay any kind of bill there. So far I’ve paid my gas, electric, and even health insurance bills there. They are also apparently the only place to buy tickets for the Ghibli Museum in Japan. So this morning I walked the fifteen feet to Lawsons and spent about thirty minutes fighting the little ticket machine. Though the site shows you how to get tickets, some steps are left out (as it often happens). Simple things like being denied for a specific time slot can be very confusing when you don’t know the language. There was even a part where I had to enter my name in the slot for Japanese names (the writing system for Japanese and foreign words is different), and then change it into katakana (just nod), even though there was a lower slot for katakana… Very confusing…

Kyle has also bought the tickets for Disneyland, and I’ve booked a hotel for us. The hotel is called Hotel New Azuma, and my mother can’t get over how tiny everything is. Each room is three tatami mats, which is 6 x 9ft. It’s just a futon, pillow, and a tv. Everything else is shared. I’m pretty excited. They even have a drink machine, a Japanese essential.

We’re also slowly compiling a list of shows, restaurants, and rides we’d like to see in Disneyland. Just so we don’t miss anything.^^

Well, that’s all for now. またね！

Chris.

Tonight I got a surprise call from one of my friends, Ceili (Kay-lee). She lives right next to me, and we often visit each other. Today she popped up at my door with a last minute invitation and I got ready in two minutes flat. We joined five other people and headed downtown, to a light up at one of the temples. Kiyomizu is a pretty famous temple, and is known for being built on a waterfall. I’d been there twice, but this was the first time I went the whole way through. It was pretty amazing. It wasn’t lit by lanterns or anything as romantic as that, just normal lamps. However, the light bouncing off of the buildings and the autumn leaves created a stunning effect. It was also raining (as it seems to almost every day here in Kyoto), and that seemed to caste a slight fuzzy glow to everything. Or that may have just been the blur of my camera. Nevertheless, it was pretty nice, and I hope to maybe go again before they stop the light up.

(sorry for the sideways picture…)

After the temple, we walked for a bit and found a restaurant. I wasn’t very hungry, so I tried something from and oden. Oden is kind of a weird soup that has chunks of vegetables or meat in it. I ended up getting this:

It’s kind of a tofu bag filled with something that has the consistency of melted mochi. Very… strange. I still don’t know whether I like it or not. My stomach is also unsure… Maybe it just doesn’t know how to digest traditional Japanese foods. I don’t really blame it, though. Sometimes it’s kind of hard to judge what exactly a food is. But that’s really part of the fun. I love not knowing what I’m ordering half the time, and when I do recognize something, I’m almost tempted to get a different mystery food, even if I know what I want. It bothers me all of the people who come to Japan and don’t want to try new things. Or they get tired of this one dish, but aren’t brave enough to try another (as I write this, I know that karma may come and I may have to eat my words… pun not intended). However, I am kind of biased. I love most Japanese food, and have found few dishes that I outright dislike. If I were traveling to a place like India, I may be less adventurous because while I like their food, I do not like all of it. Japanese food in general is simple, most times mushy, and has meat with slabs of fat still attached.

I’ve been here for about two and almost half months now, and I’ve learned a lot in the process of traveling around the city of Kyoto, Japan. The biggest things I’ve come to realize is that tourists are all the same no matter where you go. They are all kind of odd. They are all kind of rude. They are trying their best to see everything that they can while at the same time not realizing they are in a place where people live and work. This may seem like a bold statement or statements depending on which sentences you read. I think I can make a good argument on to why I’m at least slightly correct just based on my experiences here in Kyoto.

When I hurt my back awhile back I had to ride the train to and from school because I didn’t want to hurt my back. Where my school is, there are a lot of sights to see. The train I take even has maps that you can look at to see which stops service the various touristy things around. Over the course of that two weeks that I took the train I saw more then my fair share of tourists being tourists. One particular afternoon a family of four came onto the train all dressed in tank tops and shorts. If that wasn’t a big enough give away that they were tourists, as people in Japan rarely dress that way, they were also wearing huge cameras and were not Japanese looking at all. In fact, these people were German. Now we mostly think of Americans as the loud obnoxious type but I think its honestly just how people are outside of their normal lives. They are loud and obnoxious when they are trying to figure things out. These Germans were not exception. They walked onto the train and started talking at the top of their lungs. Japanese trains are very quiet normally. If you talk, you whisper. You are just being thoughtful. So the second thing that these people did that made me quite ashamed was talk to the driver of the train. Don’t do that as all the trains are on a tight schedule. They all share the same track so that they minimize space and trains pass one another at the stations. Because of this, we don’t talk to the driver. The driver didn’t speak English and the Germans didn’t speak it well to say the least. To hurry on this conversation, I helped out and let the driver be. We finally got it worked out and it turned out the people were on the wrong train so I told them how to get back to where they wanted to go. They got off at the next stop and another crisis in tourism was averted. On a side note, the driver let me ride for free that trip.

I was down at Kyoto Station and decided to go check out the souvenirs in the shops. I decided to go look at the people paying. This was an exercise in not laughing out loud. There was a couple around the age of my parents buying gifts on what I assumed was the last day of their trip. They had found some item that they wanted to buy and took it to the counter. The lady behind the counter was speaking English to them and while it wasn’t wonderful English, it was passable. At least I thought so. The Americans buying the gifts looked like deer looking into the bright lights of international relations. I was just browsing nearby when I was rushed over by the lady. She asked it I spoke Japanese. I said I could and she seemed relieved. I told the person that I was going to speak for the people. The lady told me that she was speaking English and seemed very destraught that these Americans couldn’t understand her. I said just speak Japanese to me and we will leave quickly. The people left and I started speaking in English to the lady and she said she was thankful. I assured her that they just freaked out over something small like a lot of Japanese do when they hear English. It was an odd experience to say the least.

Overall, these two experiences have shown me that everyone in the world has a hard time being a tourist. I personally think its very stress full. Its also amazing to see the tourist from a different point of view here. Everyone just needs to remember to not be rude and be calm. The world will be a better place for it.

-Kyle

Holidays in Japan are interesting things. They tend to celebrate the more popular American holidays in the more consumer aspect. Halloween is a good example of this. Halloween in America is a commercial holiday through and through. We have giant shops dedicated to costumes and entire rows of candy in the supermarkets dedicated to Halloween candy. We then have parties that are for grown ups to just dress up in fun costumes. This is very much how Japan views Halloween. The difference is that it isn’t as big here. Things like costume shops popping up around this time aren’t really existent. Instead you’ll have a small section in a store just for costumes and props. There is a store in Kyoto called Loft that had most of a floor dedicated to the Halloween stuff. That was quite fun.

The school I go to had a Halloween party that I attended as the embodiment of America. It took awhile to find everything that I needed for my costume, but most things were found at a $4.00 Store. Its like a nice Dollar Store. So my costume was cheap. Some people had never celebrated Halloween so they went out and bought expensive costumes from Loft and other stores. The party over all was interesting to watch because it was just like a normal party except people were in costume. This is kind of how Japan views things. The interesting part of this was the costumes though. Japan has a strange sense of humor and that was reflected in the costumes. Things like wigs that blow off to make it look like a topee falling off. It did get weirder but its hard to explain. This wasn’t as present in the party I went to. Most people dressed up as zombies or witches. Some people did go all out and make costumes that were pretty cool like this.

Over all Japan views this Holiday as a reason to be different. Its an interesting social observation to say the least. Oh and they don’t really sell Halloween candy. Its sad. Kids don’t really go around trick or treating either. Its just not a Japanese thing to do I guess.

-Kyle

Hello everyone,

First off, we have new pictures! I know it’s exciting. They can be found here. They are pictures of the first three weeks or so. I know I haven’t been updating as regularly as I should but that’s okay because I plan to change that starting right now. Just so I can amuse you, I’ll give a brief rundown of my boring life here.

The first couple of weeks were already covered for the most part but the major thing that happened was covered in my last blog post. I broke my back during the second week of school. It wasn’t too bad, and I’ve healed well. Now I can ride my bike again. The bike has been a wonderful investment. It was about $22.00 total for something I will easily get $23.00 worth of use this year. I need to actually take a picture of the thing at some point It’s a blueish bike that is very typical of an Asian bike. This means that it has no gears and has a front basket. You’d know it if you see it. You could just look it up on your favorite search engine (e.g. Google, Yahoo, ect.) if you want to know and can’t wait for my pictures.

Now on to school! School is in its fifth or sixth week at this point. I’m not quite sure but it has gone by really fast. I’m finally in my mode of doing school work here. It took quite sometime for it to sit right with me as its quite different then what I’ve been experiencing the past two years at UNM. The classes are structured more like my high school was. At the same time they are more like a University in the sense that they are only once a week if they are normal classes. Mine however are not normal at all. I have different classes that are always with the same people.

Japanese Reading and Writing

This class is a great class. This is the only class that I have everyday but its the only one I really need to have everyday. This is the basic language class. We do vocab, grammer, kanji, and reading everyday. For those who don’t know what kanji is, it’s the writing that is used in Japan. Each character represents an idea and has a meaning. There can be many different ways to actually read the kanji based on the context. Its complicated but makes reading a lot easier since a lot of Japanese words are the same but they just mean different things. So anyways, I have this class everyday but there is a different teacher almost everyday. I have one teacher twice and she’s the nicest one. So it’s a lovely treat. I do have another teacher again but she teaches another class. I should mention that this class is entirely in Japanese. No English is spoken. Fun, huh?

Japanese Culture

This class happens once a week and is taught by a teacher I already have. This class is my most confusing as I have no clue what is going on usually. This class is taught entirely in Japanese as well. I’ve gotten better so this has become less confusing. Still, it’s hard. This class though just focuses on the over all structure of Japanese society, history and various other things. Its a very fun class. I had a test the other day that I did well on. How? I don’t know.

Japanese Speaking and Listening

This class is exactly what it sounds like. This class is all speaking and listening skills. Its ALSO in Japanese but its not as hard as you think it would be. We just talk for the most part and fill in sheets of paper based on all the conversations we hear. The only thing of note we’ve done so far that isn’t just what I described is we had a speech on our home country or in my case, state. I did well. We had to write a speech, she corrected our grammer errors then we read. I really hope that we do something else like this again. One last thing, we have this class twice a week. I really do enjoy it.

Japanese Society

My only class that’s in English. Its a course that focuses on Japanese society and Japan’s role in the world. It’s taught by a guy who has an accent I can’t tell. He’s a very nice guy and has a child on the way. I wish him well.

Japanese Ceramics

This is a fun class that I have for half a day on Saturdays. We just make stuff out of clay. I’ll talk about it more once I have some actual finished product.

So that’s really it for all my class stuff. I think I’ll end this post for now as its approaching one thousand words. I’ll finish with a picture of me doing something weird. In this case, its me in my Halloween costume!

-Kyle

How is everyone today? Well I’m doing well right now. Last night and this week was another story. I’ll tell you right now.

On Tuesday I fell going up the stairs to my room. I was going up the second step when I misjudged that step and fell forwards. This didn’t seem like that big of a deal until the next day. About 1:00 PM I started to feel like I had a slipped disc. I couldn’t stand up all that well. To top that off, I had to walk two miles with my bike back to my dorm…in the rain. Not making that bit up. It wasn’t a very good day. So I really couldn’t stand up all that well so I just stayed in my dorm for a day or two. Luckily (oddly) we had a typhoon the next day. My classes were canceled so I got to rest that entire day. It was quite nice. As for Friday, I felt fantastic in the morning. It was a good morning. No pain. Once I went to school (I took the trolley because of my back and fear) my problems started up again. This time, it was something completely different. It was a muscle tensing to epic proportions. I was massaging my back for my entire class period, which is an hour and thirty minutes. I went home and was in pain.

Last night was one of the longest I’ve had in a long time. I tired to sleep but my back kept me up. This was to the point that I was crying. If you know me, most people know I have a severely high pain tolerance. I tried to fall asleep at around 4:00 AM. I ended waking up at around 6:30 AM due to the my muscles tensing up again. I started to shake (I do that when I’m very sick or in a lot of pain) so I decided to go see my Japanese friend in the room near me. She is a lovely girl who gave me some medicated patch. It worked well I must say. Well I felt the effects after I went to a medical clinic. So after she gave me this, I had to wait until 8:15 AM to go to a hospital. (bi yo0 i n) Once there we had to wait until 9:00 AM to be seen by a doctor. He didn’t speak English so it was fun.

Once there, he asked if I was in pain or where the pain was. I said in my back but now there is no pain. So he tried to get me to say “ow.” It didn’t work but they did end up taking X-Rays of my back. Once those were done we went back to the doctor (i shya) to see what was the problem. It turns out that I fractured one of my vertebra. Its not as bad as it sounds but basically I’m going to be in pain for the next week or two.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m perfectly fine (except for the pain), and that I can still go to school and function in normal society. The only thing I won’t be doing is riding a bike or any other sports.

-Kyle

Well, this morning was our first typhoon in Kyoto, which is worthy enough for me to break my blogging fast. Since I’m a desert woman, any more than an inch of rain makes me worry. So I had no idea what to expect from a typhoon. I was relieved in the morning (most of it passed throughout the night) to find that my apartment was unscathed. Actually… everything was fine. A few branches fell off trees, and there are leaves everywhere.

Though during the night it seemed pretty dramatic. I woke up once to find my whole apartment lightly shaking and another time to the wind. The city sirens went off around 2-3am, but apparently I’m the only one who heard them. So now I can stand proudly and say I’ve lived through a typhoon! I’m sure my grandchildren will be amazed.