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French Mustard [Wednesday November 15th, 2006 at 2:41pm] [ mood | but cheerful! ] So I found a computer in my school library, yes found. I think that its the librarian laptop but it was sitting out so.... anyway! I took the time out and read the other exchange students journals and I have to say that I am EXTREMELY jealous. It sounds like every one is having the time of their lives here!!! I remember before coming that I didn't want to be that one exchange student that had the crappy host family and bad experience and everything i didn't want came true. Well, u can't have everything. Well, my host family has treated me like crap for MONTHS. Basically ever since I got here. AFS Niigata had a music "Thankyou" party a couple of sundays ago, and ever since then my host mom has been being Super nice to me. Kinda late for that though now isn't it? At the music party I sung Glamorous sky with an AFS brazilian girl and I got all emo-d up and stuff. It was cool, but I don't have any pics. *tear* I also did Taiko drumming with Rosie. We have become the Taiko masters regardless of what u may say!!! mua haha! Every one did something different. Everyone together sung a couple of SMAP songs but we changed the lyrics into stuff that meant like "thank you for making me bento everyday!" It was really cute. We also had to sing the AFS theme song which is the GAYEST song they could've created. It goes "Swim across the Sea, Walk across the land. Summer or Winter we go from place to place with heart and joy and spirit of AFS". I accidently sung it wrong and said "Walk across the Sea..." LOL yeah, right Jesus. All the AFS boys did an air guitar band and it was pretty hilarious. My host mom and dad only came. My host dad started acting funny towards me after that but my host mom got super nice. Which is what I've been trying my hardest to get her to do for the longes of times. Whenever I would talk to her she would have the nastiest attitude towards me regardless of how nice I was, now she laughs and smiles at everything I say. ...? So yeah anyway. The air band was over. So before my performance Henata (the fat brazilian chic) takes me out to the hallway and says "About that question u asked me the other day. Yes, I'm bisexual. But I don't want u to tell anyone else, I'm afraid they might be homophoebes". I felt like I was in danger for my life just being alone in the hall way with her though. lol But we after the music party all the exchange students got on a bus to a place called "Shibata" for a week long homestay. On the bus an American teacher chaperoned us (who we already know) and was asking if we had any questions. And Chris (AFS american student-His voice is extremely deep) goes "Yeah, We were on the beach.....and everybody had matching towels!" good times, good times. So the next day we meet up again and Julien, the french guy, gives me a little keychain he got. And I was like "Chris never gave me any presents....Chris we're over! Julien ur my new boyfriend". WRONG thing to do, at least with a french guy. He was getting way too frenchy and alejandro (AFS costa rica student) can speak french and he would translate all the things julien said he wanted to do to me. And was sending me message late in the night. I had to leave early from Shibata though cause i had a dance competition. I felt bad cause on Friday night there was a huge party with all the exchange students getting drunk and having fun. But then I had thought if I would have stayed something surely would have happened. Damn french mustard. Just kidding just kidding. The homestay was alot of fun though. I have another entry to write. I want to change families soooo bad. I want to have fun in Japan. Its killing me. post comment

Just think happy thoughts... [Thursday November 2nd, 2006 at 10:32pm] [ mood | busy ] Wow....I haven't posted in like a month and a half. Well....nothing to talk about really. My friend told me to write about cute happy things but I've not one. For one I haven't been getting along with my host family very well, and for two I've been sick again, and for three I almost got raped by 200 pound lesbian at a party the other day. *sigh* Well Halloween passed. I actually wasn't all that sad as I thought I was going to be. I don't October is like one my favorite months though. You may think I'm crazy but it sort of has a "smell". Like the smell of autumn. Maybe I have cabin fever? I've been indoors dancing so much I never get to enjoy outside. Whenever I go out into the mornings or after school everything smells so wonderful. Today after bukatsu I went outside and that smell was there again and it was dark and there were autumn leaves everywhere and beautiful tree. It felt like at any moment Halloween decorations and trick-or-treaters would pop out of no where and I'd feel like I was home again. The thought was good, and it cheered me a lot. Well, I went to a BBQ with My host mom and Sayuri the other day. It was in Fukushima-ken. All the way at the foot of a mountain at a lake. It was really beautiful. It was for my host mom's office working people. I was the only teenager there, and I don't count Sayuri because she slept in the car the whole time), so I went by the lake and entertained myself by singing and jumping to and from the stones. Me and Sayuri had to help first with the cooking and all that but after that she was out like a light. That day was pretty interesting though because we went to a grape vinyard and the grapes were as big as my hand. They were really delicious too. Sayuri was getting kind of frustrated though because i made sure to peel the skin off of all of them very carefully and not touch the ones that had bugs crawling on them. And there were chickens running around also and I am SO not a farm person. My host family like that type of stuff though so they were just quite annoyed with my behaviour. That day though I was sick as a dog....Hmmmm I wonder why? Well it was just me and My host mom and Sayuri and my Host moms Boss. Some random guy I don't know. But we rode in his car for 2 hours all the way there. Which I found pretty suspect. I'm thinking the whole time "Does ur husband know what you're doing okaasan?". lol We had stopped at a seven 11 on the way (which japanese swear up and down is a japanese company) and before i got of the car another one hit us on the side trying to squeeze through....and then drove down the street and parked like it was nothing. There was a huge dint on the side of car though. and my mom's boss went and up to the car and here it turned out to be a first time driving 18 year old. Burner...we had to go to the police office and everything.It was okay though because the girl's car was fine and my mom's boss didn't make her pay for anything cause he had insurance or something like that. What else....Oh the AFS Niigata Music party is on Sunday. I have all day practice for it on Saturday. My friend Rosie from AFS AU is coming to stay over my house so we can go together. Its supposed to be a really big event actually. I'm not too geeked about it personally though. Me and Rosie are doing Taiko drums and Henata and I are also singing "Glamorous Sky" By Nana (mika nakashima). There is also another student coming from Saitama (from AFS USA) for the music party. Right after the music party all of are getting on buses and going to another part of Niigata to do a 7 day homestay. I have to come back early though because that same weekend is my Big Dance competition. Wish me good luck!! AFter the dance competition we're all going to Yakiniku! We get to eat as much ice cream as we want! I love "Murasaki imo Aisu". (Sweet potatoe ice cream). Yummy! So I have a lot of free time in the library at my school because I don't all of the classes as all of the other students. I found sooo many interesting books in English! Edgar All Poe, Anderson, C.S. Lewis, Arabian nights, Grimm Fairy Tales, Harry Potter. I've already read half of them too. They're so interesting. Makes me remember how in Elementary school I wanted to be a writer. Maybe its because I'm so sucked into fantasy when I read I feel like I'm in a whole new world. Why am I writing this on Live journal? How Emo of you Key. Well, I'm bored. Update soon...! post comment

今晩は [Monday September 25th, 2006 at 6:30pm] [ mood | hungry ] So, today was a normal day...I had japanese lessons like I usually do every monday downtown. I'm trying to convince my LP to let me go see a dance competition at Niigata International High School instead of another silly AFS event. I love AFS to death but When you have like 4 events in one week, thats just rediculous. I have a life. They make so many because they think that the AFS students are bored and lonely and need something to do. Don't you think after half a year we probably found things to keep ourselves occupied? Anyway I went to look for a cute cartigan sweater, but I failed. The only ones I found were at East boy and their 60 dollars, and I was like "no way Jose!" But So its going on 7 right now and the only person home is Ayaka (why the devil child only?). The thing is we eat dinner at the same time everyday. 7 o'clok pm. But no one is here. So I ask Ayaka if we're supposed to make dinner ourselves and she just kept saying "I don't know, I don't know" to every question I asked her. Lame-o. And then I said "well, where's mom?" and she was like "Obviously she went out somewhere". Okay, whatever. But I'm hungry. Why do they want to starve me? It sounds funny but I'm serious yo. kay, gotta go. see ya 1 jumped on thepost comment

Is it over yet.......? [Sunday September 24th, 2006 at 8:42pm] [ mood | ｍｙ eyes wont stay open ] Right....I haven't posted in god knows how long but a lot has happened. School started up and I was dreading every approaching minute of it. I had dance practice every day from 8:30 to 3:30 in the summer. I lost a lot of weight (53 Kg what what!). I hung out with my friends too! Me and my dance friends went out to this indian restaurant near our school for curry. it was fun. The first time I had hung out with them. The start of school was sooo lame though. Just sitting in the same spot for hours kills me. And then they open all the windows and doors to make it cold so that you don't fall asleep. Well, it works..... We had our first competition on Sunday downtown. We came in second place. (Our school is one of the best actually). But we're all stressed now because the teachers are trying to get us to study more so we only have about 3 weeks until the really BIG competition (Aki Taikai) and we still haven't nailed our dances all the way. The Shuuryousai (Bunkasai-Culture festival) is on Saturday at school and we dance first in the morning. Its going to be soo much fun though! My class room ( 4 Kumi) is turning into a store that sells Takoyaki. (fried squid balls). Japan doesn't have Halloween but I guess this can do. The dance contest on sunday was sooo cool though. Niigata international high school and the performing arts school are REALLY good at hip-hop dancing its just amazing. (and the guys are sexy too). But all my exchange friends came to see me and I was really excited. I left early to hang out with them and to go take purikura. While I was cutting the purikura my friend sam goes" hey aren't those the girls from your dance team kei?" and all my friends were standing behind me waving. hahaha they thought was really cool so they all took purikura with sam and individual pictures. Lol I had dance until 6 today. killing me, but I love it. AFS is kind of upsetting me. AFS japan sucks first of all. I am forever appreciative of the program bringing me here but they suck at everything else. One thing is that I wish I would've changed host families instead of pretending that everything would get better. Its been almost 6, 7 months and I'm still trying to get my host family to like me. am I trying too hard? I've had dance every saturday all day practice since I've come to Japan. My host mom knows that. Shes been making me bento everysaturday too. Yesterday though she didn't make it, and I didn't have any money to buy it, and she wouldn't lend me any. She was like "Oh you have dance today". I was like "yes, I even wrote up on the calender" her: "I didn't see it. I didn't make you anything either if your hungry take this..." and picked up a loaf of bread. I was soooo angry. I couldn't eat until I got home. I slept through lunch so that I wouldn't be hungry at practice. At dinner that night she said "from now on, if want lunch(bento) make it yourself". Me:"will you show me how to make a bento?" Her: "no". WTF........ I called my mom in the U.S in tears because I'm so sick of the way that they treat me here. This isn't the first time shes done it either. For about a month and a half straight I bought my lunch everyday because she didn't want to make it for me, but made it for everyone else. My mom said no to stop trying but to expect my host mom to treat me like one of her own because she's made it clear this year that I'm not and she doesn't want me here. I love my friends though, and thats all that matters. I can't wait to go back home though. I know its bad, but when ur in a place where no one wants you it does something to you. Especially for a year. What made my day today was though was when I was waiting for the train on the plat form a train a cross from my stop pulled up. There was this guy and his son( about 3) and daughter (about 7) and the girl was soooo cute and she played peek a boo with me until it was time for the train to leave. It was funny though because her dad , who was really nice, got off and introduced himself and his kids in English randomly. It was sooooo cool though. That made my day alot. （笑）Sayuri is okay I guess. She can be such a bitch sometimes though. Shes like "you and your friends shouldn't drink in the park" (some of us AFSers hung out the other night). Me: "i don't drink, I was just having fun with them while they were drunk". her:"but you were with them, if you get caught, then AFS will send you home!" me:"whatever it doesn't matter". her:"Yes it does matter!" Ummm Excuse me miss weed head, number one party hoar, got drunk all the time in America but who are you telling? She has to sneak out on the back poarch and smoke so my host family won't catch her. *gosh*lame... yup anyway other than that I guess I'm cool. After the festival on Saturday me and my friends are going to a Yakiniku to eat and hang out and have as much ice cream as we want! Yay!!! I think I have 133 some days left. I want to try and make it fun! Besides the fact that my host family hates me. Whatever! Kay I have to go to sleep now. Morning practice tomorrow. peace! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo 1 jumped on thepost comment

And I have seen...dark than ebony [Tuesday August 1st, 2006 at 6:39pm] [ mood | quiero comida! ] So today was okay. I had dance from 8:30 to 3:30 (burner...) its okay though. Its fun, and I'm not sitting around gaining weight and complaining about being bored. But now I have 3 songs stuck in my head. The songs that ni nensei are creating dances to. She bangs-ricky martin, Say I-Christina Millian, and Eyes like yours(ojos aci)-Shakira. The dances are really good actually. But I'm extremely hungry. So I woke up late this morning because...i don't know. But my host mom didn't make breakfast until 7....my train comes at 7:10. So I had to wait for her to make my bento too. So I caught the later train. As soon as I stepped out the house it started pouring down raining. I hopped on my bike, and was blowing it out to the train station. I get there say Ohayou Gozaimasu to the old men. There are 5 of them, they're neighborhood watch. They're at the station everymorning. I met them on my first day of school. But anyway so I park my bike and the one guy goes "Kei-chan, you can't put your bike right here. You're not allowed. Here. You don't have anytime so take your bike key (when u take ur key out of your bike it automatically locks..so cool!) and I'll put your bike up for you". I was soo happy. Wow, he didn't have to do that for me. So I said Arigatou gozaimashita a thousand times and was off. Also at school. I go to the koubai(school convenience store) to get something to drink. Theres a window that you go to, aks for what you want, and then the lady gives it to you. Shes so nice too! She's been working there for years. So always in her window are all these stuffed animals of Tarepanda and Totoro and just cute stuff. And today I said "Is Tarepanda for sale". So me and my friend started laughing and then she said "no, its not for sale, but I'll give it to you for free". Woah. I was sooo happy. And the best thing is, tarepanda plays "Fur Elise" and his head and arms move extremely slow while its playing super fast. Its sooo cute!!! So today, I come home. Change. Blah. Get on the computer. So Sayuri comes home. Then my host mom. (Ayaka was already here). And my host mom says to Sayuri really quietly to Sayuri in the kitchen "do u and Ayaka want to go out to eat?" and then they talk about it. And she goes "one of you go ask kei". And no one did. So about 5 min later she came in the room and said. Every one is about to leave, we're all ready. Didn't you hear us ask you if you wanted to go out to eat?" No you lying whore I didn't. So I say "No, but let me change". So go upstairs and start to change and my host mom starts yelling at me "Hurry up!" After that I was just like "I don't want to go anymore". host mom:"but there's no food. Can you cook yourself?" me:"Yes". (Im not an idiot). then she goes "there's no food in the house at all. well...lets go." whatever.... there is food. stuff that I brought from america. Well this week all the AFS niigata students have a short 2 day homestay in Nagaoka. (except for the students who already live there). I can't wait. I really wonder why my host family hosted. My mom sent me an email and it said "Just because you're not in a fun place, doesn't mean you can't make the most of your experience". And she is so right. So I will try my best! K 1 jumped on thepost comment

Kyuugitaikai is the shizzle [Monday July 31st, 2006 at 8:26pm] [ mood | ugh..... ] So yeah....I think I explained Kyuugitaikai in a previous entry. But anyway (i don't know about everywhere else) but on the last days of school every one has sports competition. Like class against class type thing its not co-ed though. First you have girls, and then boys. Everyone was particulary interested in volleyball though. My class (class 4) lost against class 8 in the first round though. But class 4 boys crushed everyone. Yay! Me and my friends stood on the side and did out Ooen.(like cheering). It was funny though because the two teams before us had like the biggest cheering sides. It was the final round for the girls volleyball. Like class 5 and class 7 crushed all the teams on day 1 so today they went against each other. But like my friends were on both teams so me and my dance friends really didn't know who to cheer for. But ANYWAY on class 7's side they had a huge group of girls, and then boys. And everytime they scored a point the girls would run out into the court with the players and they'd do a huge cheer "OOOOH! SEI!!!". And the huge group of boys on their side that were cheering for the class would get in a big circle and do their own cheer. On the class 5's side the girls would just clap and scream when they scored, but the boys were the funniest. Like they would get in a small circle, and in the middle of the circle this boy would crouch down, then he would gradually spin upward while everyone cheering. But occasionally they would forget about this one boy and while they would cheer he'd stand outside of the circle and point to himself like "hey..what about me?". Or when they'd score they'd act like they were going to cheer, and then they wouldn't. It was entertaining. Class 5 won. And all the girls ran out onto the court and celebrated and the group of boys, made a circle and started throwing the boy who would crouch down in the middle of the circle up and down in the air.LOl When me and my friend were cheering for our class of boys, whenever it someone's turn to serve we say their last name. Except we got mixed up and said the wrong name. lol ohmy mom wants to use the computer. see ya in a little while... post comment

DE... [Monday July 31st, 2006 at 8:12pm] [ mood | dance is killing me... ] So then, after we took the purikura we were heading home. Sayuri goes "oh, so we have to get on different trains because my suica card only works for the other train station." Me:"Okay, cool." But inside I'm like (what happened to us going home together?). So I get on the train and go home. I get home at about 9:30. My host mom tells me that I didn't wash the bathroom so when Sayuri got back we had to wash the dished together. Okay, thats fine. No. Why did Sayuri come back at 10:30. I was so pissed. But I didn't say anything. We washed dishes and talked and blah, and I told her thankyou for letting me hang out with her. Then she had to ruin my good feeling and say "I'm going to get in the tub first". ...You don't understand, when she gets in the tub, she stays in there for HOURS. Litterally. I was like, maybe she'll get out soon. So I tried to wait it out. .....12:00 came and went. I went to sleep and decided to take a shower in the morning. So I wake up extra earyl so I can get in the shower...because I still have school. (Summer break starts tomorrow...finally). But no, my host mom starts bitching at me about something really silly. I am definitely not a morning person...she keeps going on and on and on. And I'm like "Mom! Please!! Just please stop". And I go take my shower. I get out of the shower, while I'm changing she comes back and starts again. So this time I'm just like "Okay, whatever". Then she goes "hurry up and change so I can due the laundry...blah blah blah". Then a while later she goes "I put your bento on the steps". And I said "Hai". and she got really pissed and was like "say thankyou!". So I finally leave the mad house and head to school. Geeze Louise. Next entry is a happier one fortunately. 1 jumped on thepost comment

Squid's ink spaghetti [Monday July 31st, 2006 at 7:11am] [ mood | Its morning desu yo ] Oh my gosh. so much stuff happened yesterday. But I'll finish from the entry before. So anyway me and Sayuri and my host dad had went to the public bath. They have two sanas. One were its just really hot (like 90 celcius) and in it are some plastic chairs and a tv and a faucet that runs cold water so u can wet your towel. It looks like an animal pen. The other one is really nice though. Except its 120. No lie, theres a meter that reads for you. So its like these huge steps and on each one are 3 white mats that you lay or sit on, and then the tv. You can't even breathe. If you lay down though it helps. It was cool though because they were playing Ocean's 11 in Japanese. haha As soon as you step out of that bad boy though, oh my gosh, u feel like someone just let you of your throat after choaking you.(bad analogy). But yeah. So when we got home, which was 11 o clock. I called my mom in america. And then hung up so she could call me so I wouldn't run up the bill. We talked for a long time. Apparently, my brother is in a lot of hot water. Involving something with ants and gatorade fierce. Haha yup. So yesterday*: Lame stuff. SO, I went to the silly AFS meeting yesterday. I skipped dance practice just for that BS. All we did was sit there and think about what we're going to do for the huge music party AFS niigata has every year. And also ate lots of sandwiches. haha. It was col though because I showed my friends how to play "concentration". u know the game where you name a category(like-colors) and then everyone has to say a different color, its a hand game. its fun. Then they taught me some cow game. it was so funny. So, after we ate lunch we had a seminar on peace. Why did we have a seminar on the hollocaust? I was so pissed. I wasn't seeing where it was going at all. I'm like what about black people? lol My friend though was really pissed, and he was wishing that I would shut up. But they asked us really stupid questions like "who was the leader of Germany at that time?" And if we got it right, we got some candy. And everyone was always right. Plus there was a boy from Germany in there, he looked really sad the whole time. poor soul. But then we played musical chairs. Like everyone had a number on their shirt. they'd play the music blah blah blah and take two chairs away. The people who lost though were supposed to be the people who died in the concentration camp. If you made it into the next round, you got to eat food. I guess it was how it was. Then they someone who was a jew but who helped the leaders at the camp so he got to eat no matter what. If you lost, u were killed instantly. okay....so I won. Crushed it. I found the whole thing quite annoying though. But Sam(my AFS friend from Denver) got really pissed at me and was like "why don't you stop bitching all the time. why don't u just go out into the hallway and bitch to urself". I cussed him out. He got up and walked away. Whatever. He's always so rude to me, but I never say anything to him when he acts like a butt whole. Well, now I'm going to start telling him like it is. So anyway. After the AFS event Sayuri came....why? She was supposed to come at 2 when it started but instead came when it ended. She thought it was funny. i didn't. But she was like "do u want to go with me and my friends?" Sure, I though. I had really planned on mailing some stuff,but okay. It was me, her and her two funny looking friends. We went to this italian restaurant where we ate squid's ink spaghetti. DON'T DO IT. My teeth was black for hours. It's litterally the squids ink used as the sauce. Why did they do that. It was soo nasty too. So my stomach felt really weird after that. I thought we were going to get up and leave after that. no. sayuri and her friends sat there for 2 hours and talked about nothing. occasionally they would go "have you ever had sex before?". Or "would I be short in america?" After a while I got a little upset and told Sayuri that I was going to go home ahead of her. she said "no, we should go together". Okay. So we walk to the bus stop (we could have walked to the train station...) and we go to the station. There we take some purikura (i seriously didn't know there was a whole nother mall, and a game center in the train station). but it was kinda lame because then pen to draw on the pictures wasn't working. *sigh*. Oh! Thats my time. I have to go to school now. I'll tell yins the rest when I gets back! I'm from the projects.....lol 1 jumped on thepost comment

Hidii-ho! [Sunday July 30th, 2006 at 9:22am] [ mood | I feel beautiful today ] So, yesterday I went gift shopping for people. Manga for my friend that I was supposed to buy months ago, and a birthday gift for my mom's fiancee. It was interesting day. I skipped the silly AFS event to go to Teramachi (some city) and do the matsuri there. Only because I thought that I had to hold the Mikoshi(portable shrine) again, and I really didn't want to. (I'll talk about that later...). But it turned out that no one had to....oh. So all the exchang students went to the matsuri and I went downtown bymyself. It was cool though, because there was a huge arts festival and a live band and stuff. No free drinks. (as hot as it was yesterday they should've had something....) It was interesting because it was all college students and stuff that they made and all of it was sooo cool looking. I went to everystore, Mitsukoshi, Isetan, Nagasakiya, Village Vangaurd...everywhere. I could not find one gift for him(my mom's fiancee). The manga was easy to buy. But its kinda old manga so It took me a while to find it in that HUGE store(Konokuniya). So last night came home, read a little sailormoon, ate dinner, washed the tub, played on the Pasokon, and then later that evening I went to the public bath with Sayuri. This is my second time going with her. It's soooo relaxing. But I'm sorry, old people naked is just WRONG. We usually go in the day time, but this time we went at about 10 at night. It was so crowded though!!! This onsen (public bath) is really nice though. It's humoungus. But right now, I have to go catch my train. (For another AFS thing) Sorry for just cutting this short. haha! I really want to play like a video game or something.....they came out with final fantasy XII in march....okay. Bye!!! Oh! I lost weight!!! 54.kg!!! WAI---! ^_~ post comment

Lalala [Saturday July 29th, 2006 at 11:24am] [ mood | calm ] Yup, so here I am again. Well, I woke up this morning in a fairly good mood, until my host mom had to ruin it. I swear, that anorexic lady is going to be the death of me. Anyway, so she starts flipping out on Sayuri because Sayuri likes to walk around the house with no clothes on, and then Sayuri ignores her and she starts yelling at me. She yelled at the wrong one.....Don't mess with me! (Especially when I have my Seiri, I'm not the one). Well, I've been doing okay lately. I broke down at dance practice yesterday. I'm sorry, but Niigata is the most boring part of Japan I swear. Do you know what Niigata is most famous for? The biggest cultivated rice fields in Japan. What the hell? I couldn't help but laugh when I found that out though. Plus, I'm so alon here all the time. All of my friends at school study or have bukatsu. Everyday I've been doing basically nothing. So I really miss home. I was good for about 2 months. No homesickness, no more culture shock, just normalcy. But the thing is, whenever we have school events, I'm always bymyself because I'm an odd numbered student. And yesterday at dance I started crying, and my friends thought it was because everyone had dance shoes except for me, and they all took their shoes off and told me to pick the ones that I wanted. It was so cute*. I told them that I was crying because of the silly shoes. That it was because I just wanted to go home because I feel so alone here. They told me that I wasn't alone becuase they were all here for me. That made me smile alot. Plus that day, I saw Yuuta. And again, I'm not going to tell you what happened to him. Just that some girl stole him away from me, one of my really close friends in school. There was this huge mess with that, I don't want to get into it. Well the girl never talks to me, and she sits right in front of me in class. But yesterday she was walking with Yuuta up the steps and goes "Oh! Kei! Hey!". I was really pissed. So I have an interestin story. I was walking to the train station the other day to go home, and on my way there I saw a couple of birds playing around with each other. There was also a little boy in front of me too. There was one Big crow, and then a whole bunch of small brown birds. I was like "Awwww, how cute they're playing together". NO. Why did the crow pick up one of the brown birds in its mouth and eat it. Right in front of my eyes. Poor little boy, his mouth just dropped. I couldn't believe it! All the brown birds flew away and started making horrible screaching noises. I will never forget that. I asked my host sister about it in Tokyo and she said "Japanese Karasu(crows) are really bad. You better leave them alone, they can remember humans faces". What?! Next story. So every morning on my way to school I take a short cut around a temple and in front of a row of house that alot of elderly people live in and an elementary school along the way. Anyway, everymorning at the exact same time, there is this man, around 50 something riding his bike with a radio in his basket playing at full blast. You can tell hes not dealing with a full deck of cards, so I've decided to call him "Radio". haha I'm horrible. So I've started reading manga. I've read almost all of Sailormoon(haha, don't hate I'm obsessed with the sailorscouts), and Holic, and Nana, and Lovely Complex, and some other ones. Yeahp, its cool. I don't have anything else to do so I read alot. I've read all the cronicles of Narnia (in English silly) so far. I want to make brownies. Oh! Speaking of Candy, when Sayuri first came back. The very first day I mean. There is this cupboard in the kitchen that my host mom keeps all my food from america in. I had all my Easter candy in it. Sayuri had just came back the night before, I hadn't even talked to her yet, I went to go get a chocolate egg, and they were all gone. Black people do not play about food. I was on fire about my chocolate eggs. So at breakfast I go "Mom, Sayuri stole my candy! She didn't even ask me first!" "You know what thats okay, because she brought a whole bunch of reeses cups and snickers that she put in the fridge, I'll just steal some of those back". My host mom flipped out "Japanese people don't use the word "steal"!!!!" She missed the whole point of the conversation. I don't care about the damn word, I want my damn chocolate back woman!!! *breathes in and out...calms down*. Yeahp, so don't use that word. Its bad. Okay, I'm hungry......see ya! 2 jumped on thepost comment

Hisashiburi..... [Friday July 28th, 2006 at 9:57pm] [ mood | tired ] Hello all...... Well, *sigh*. I haven't updated because I haven't really had anything interesting happen to me. My summer break STILL hasn't started yet. (what a mother...) But, today and Monday are the last days of school so we have what is called "Kyuugitaikai". Its where all the classes compete in a sports competition. You compete in whatever sport you're doing in gym class. Gym class here (by the way) is much like extreme sports, and the military mixed. But anyway, my kumi lost. One of the girls was crying. I was like "its not that serious". Our sport was volleyball. My high school has to be the lamest of all high schools in Japan, I swear. The students go to school, then to Bukatsu(club activity), then to Juku(cram school), then to Home. And they do the same thing everyday. Even during my summer break, I have bukatsu everyday. My school is second best in the state so everyone is extremely serious about studying, no joke. I have no idea what's going on in math speaking of studying. For entertainment in school...........well, everyday during lunch all of the dance members go to the "gallery" which is the dance area, and eat lunch together. We take off our shoes and play kancho and talk and what not. Its fun. I get to go the library during Kokugo. But I have Koten. Wth...I really like the Koten teacher though, shes extremely nice to me. Except she makes me write essays in Japanese and translate newspapers for her everyday. Burner...... It's okay though, it ups my language a bit. The English Writing teacher is making everyone write two reports in English and hand them in by monday...so of course EVERYONE in the class was asking me to fix their papers. For the most part the English was just off the chain. I kept having to say "Do iu imi?" "What does this mean?" They would tell me in Japanese and then I would write it down. Everyone was my best friend today for some reason....so I'm collecting a purikura book now. (yay!!). Purikura is fun..so is karaoke. Free unlimited Ice cream for 5 dollars!! Can't beat it! Well, I haven't gotten into any more fights with my liason lately either. Except I can't understand her English and it frustrates her because she thinks I'm playing games with her. I'm so sick of going to those damn Japanese lessons. Oh my, I haven't told any of my stories yet. Well, Sayuri came back home finally. She is such a brat! Shes cool but my family is rich so she is spoiled rotten. She took me out to Karaoke with her and her friends the other day, it was soo much fun. I got to have my "yoasobi" for once. I've been having them alot since shes come back. She gained a ton of weight in America so now shes all anorexic. (But I weigh less than her. ha!). I feel bad though, because she goes to the number one school in the state and her school is making her go back to her ninensei year. That must suck. Oh...what really ticks me off is that she has three room in the house. She shares a room with me, but her side is so messy that she can't sleep in it, so she sleeps in the computer room. She Uses Ayaka's to study and watch tv. And now she is sleeping in the computer room and I have to go because she is illegally working at Mcdonalds and has to get up to go to her "Baito" so I have to leave the room now. I'll finish updating tomorrow. Oyasumi~~~! \~-~/ here are some pics as of late. http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e201/kaykei post comment

Ohanashi [Thursday June 29th, 2006 at 6:13pm] [ mood | sad and happy ] Well.....sorry that I haven't updated in a while. Well, alot has happened since the last time. I went to Tokyo to take my SAT's. That was soooo fun. Well, the SAT part wasn't. I took them at International High School of the Sacred Heart. I got to pick which High School. Its funny because there is also a Perry High school in Tokyo. LOL Wonder what thats like.....Japanese Ghetto. I took the Shinkansen to Tokyo. It took about 4 hours, then I met my temporary host family. My host sister was 20 and she was an exchange student last year with AFS to C.A. It was cool. AFter the SAT was over she picked me and we rode the train to Harajuku. That was soooooo amazing. I've heard all types of stories of lolita, anime, and rock dressed down people but never seen it. It was so cool. I didn't have my camera though. What a biatch. But there were SOOOO many people,(alot of foreigners) and the streets are extremely wide. Its just so great. There were extremely expensive parts and then extremely cheap parts. After Harajuku I went to Tokyo tower. That was nice. Scary though, at the top they have a window on the floor where you can look down, its really weird. I got to eat "Tokyo Banana" too. yum. Well, I've been doing okay so far. I've lost a little weight. Gained a bit of muscle. I swear every part of my able body hurts from dancing. I can spot turn now with out getting dizzy though! Yay!! It was funny yesterday I fell asleep in Biology and at the end of the lesson the biology teacher came beside my desk while my head was down and then said in English "Don't sleep in my class". LOL! Won't be doing that again. Me and my host sister are doing better than we were at first. Like she doesn't give me nasty looks anymore and we actually converse and laugh from time to time. Took long enough. My host sister Sayuri is coming back this week, so from then, I think things are going to be changing. I've figured why AFS Japan doesn't like me. Well a few things first. I got into another arguement with my Liaison about a month ago. She said that I'm "too american". My friends think I'm cool though......? 2 Weeks ago there a girl from massachusettes came to visit. She was an exchange student to Niigata 5 years ago and she was the last exchange student at my school. So she came and we had a good time. We stayed at her LP's house together. (who by the way is like rich, and was a jazz singer in a america). Her house is HUGE. It's from like a hundred years ago and it has all of this antique stuff in it. I have a story about that later. But anyway so the girl (her name is Holly) came up to me and said. "AFS is worried about you". me:"Why?". Holly:"They think you don't like Japan". Apparantley my "keepin' it real" has gone wrong. The volunteers are pests, and they annoy me really badly. I told her because I'm the token black person thats why. She laughed and told me that they had an exchange student last year from the america (the south) and his name was darryl. She said when he was over his LP's house (Holly's LP) they were going out into the garden and Ms.Hoshi(the Lp's name) said:"You can put on these sandals for the garden". Darryl:"Black people don't wear sandals". Lol So about the antiques. So we had a huge dinner at Mrs.Hoshi's house. My host dad and mom, HOlly, and some AFS people. Well we ate off of these really expensive pretty dishes. While we were eating, Mrs.Hoshi gets up to go and get something from the kitchen. I'm tryin to eat this huge yellow dumpling thing while I'm holding the plate in one hand and the dumpling in the other. But I ended up forcing my hand down and it flew down on the plate and the plate fell on the floor. Luckily nothing happened. Everyone gasped though it was funny. But when I picked the plate up it had a chip missing out of it. Oh shit son.......my host dad turned it around the other was so no one would see it. lol(I love people from Osaka) But later when we were eating dessert, (me eating off the same plate). I start to chew and this huge cracking crunching noise comes from my mouth. Everyone stopped eating and stared. I reach in my mouth and pull out the damn chip that was missing. I was eating the plate.....Yeahp. Well, I'm not going to tell you why I'm depressed right now. For one, I'm not one of those emo kids who write their deepest darkest feelings on live journal, for two the story is too long and I've already told it to 2 people in typing. But I'll say this girls and boys are the same wherever you go. Girls, you can't trust them. They're snakes. Boys, can't live with them, can't live without them. I have some more stories with about a retarded guy I dubbed "Radio", a taiko guy i dubbed "Bob" and japanese crows, and my amazing adventures with my friend from Australia. But I'm going to save them for later. Because I have exams in two weeks and I have to study and also have to eat. See ya! \>o</ post comment

Why, Hello There [Thursday May 18th, 2006 at 10:40am] [ mood | optimistic ] Hey, Last night I had Japanese drumming lessons. My hands are COVERED in blisters from those damn sticks! Lol They're called "Taiko mame" in Japanese. So, today in school, (as you know its exam week over here) before the exams began I went up to the teacher with my hands covered in band-aids and tape and said "Sensei!! Shiken dekinai! Pen mottenai, Te de Kakenai yo....! Honma itai! " (Teacher! I can't take the exam! I don't have any pens, or pencils, and I can't write with my hands! It really hurts!)And then I started to sob. Lol My friends thought that was so freakin funny. (really deep inside I was hoping that I wouldn't have to take the test....mwahaha). They said "Kei-chan, sore was MURI da yo!". (Kei, you know that's impossible). Lol, it was worth a shot. So I sit down, to get ready for the test and as they pass out the exams the teacher walks up to me (I already know what for.....they made a special test JUST for me....how thoughtful (+_+)) So anyway I lay my head on the dance a make a 'I dont wanna' sound and the teacher goes "Haha, Zannen deshita ne Kei-chan....daijoubu?" (Ha!That's too bad for you! Are u okay?) Me: "Daijoubu Ja nai! Te ga itai!" (I'm not okay, my hands hurt!). Lol She just laughed and walked away. So now I'm waiting for this lady to come back. I'm sitting in her house. She hosted a girl from Switzerland last year, and she part of the taiko team. Every night Taiko lessons sometimes go up to 10 and its inconvinient for my host mom to come get me, so I stay at this lady's house. She's super nice though! Shes a bit younger than my host mom, so its easier to ....i dont know communicate. I like her house a lot better too. Its confy, and when I come I have this huge room all to myself with a sterio and ACn it. It's layed out. yay! I like my host families house too. When Sayuri comes back, I have to share a room with her. I've never done that before so I'm looking forward to it. It was so interesting last night they had something on black history on tv, and I had to explain it to the taiko lady and her husband. That was interesting. Now, I'm really hungry. The Young Taiko lady is gonna take me out to lunch today. Yay! Food......I swear to you. My butthas gotten huge. Kay ttyl! Bye!! Oh one more thing!! ...........................Hard gay is the man U should click on the link and watch him......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjjvUO4xxlQ　 2 jumped on thepost comment

oh yeah [Wednesday May 17th, 2006 at 4:51pm] [ mood | chipper ] Oh yeah one more thing. The boys and girls in my school do not under any circumstances talk to each other AT ALL. Plus, the girls in my school all cut their hair when the weather got nice, so it was hard to tell who was a girl and who was a boy at gym class because everyone wears pants and a long sleeved shirt. I thought it was just co-ed gym...oops. post comment

Queen Bee [Wednesday May 17th, 2006 at 3:12pm] [ mood | chipper ] Hey, Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy with school and what not. Well, I've got alot to say; so if you're reading this be prepared. So the first weeks (3 weeks, or the first month shall I say) *the week after my first two days of school* I was sick. Very sick. First week: So the first day I woke up, everything was fine. As I was putting on my skirt of my school uniform though, I noticed that the skin on my knees was extremely red. It itched a little too. I didnt pay attention to it. So I put my knee highs on and go downstairs to eat breakfast. I sit at the table, and i pull my socks down to scratch and I have freakin humongous bumps all over my legs! It looked like little maggots on my body! So, I freak out and continue to scratch, my host mom calls my school and tells them I can't come. By this time, my legs and feet looked like they were filled with rocks. My host mom tells me to stop scratching. I start to cry because they had spread to my face and they hurt and itched at the same time, and plus I felt like one of the most unfortunate exchange students. My host mom gives me this chinese medicine, and i go to sleep. I wake up a bout 2 hours later after everyone has left and call my mom in the states. That made feel alot better. I've never had hives before, and I'm not allergic to anything except penicilin so i was kinda scared. Everyday that week though I broke out in hives. The week after that I had a fever everyday. The week after that, a swollen throat. My host mom kept saying "gargle water!". That was really frustrating me. She wouldn't give me any medicine when I had my fever and swollen throat and I felt like I was dying. She just kept saying, 'go to sleep'. I slept all day everyday, and my sickness still continued. Now in May though, I'm doing better. Japan is interesting. It makes me mad though because the students here don't "hang-out" like we do in the U.S. They study all the time, and then they have clubs. Plus my school is the second best in the state, so I'm required to study like them all the time....NOT the deal. If you ask any of the girls in my school about music or manga or pop culture they're like "....Huh?" I really took advantage of how much I was able to do back home in the burgh. My host family thinks that I don't have any friends here, they keep telling me to 'make friends'. I have soooo many 'friends' here in Japan. I say it like that because its sort of impossible to have any close friends here. Plus I'm the only one that lives in my area, so it's not like I can go visit anyone. Every one lives NEAR the school. Speaking of school, math is killing me. I feel so stupid, my friends keep saying "Why can't you do this? It's so easy!" Gee....thanx. Other than that, school is okay. I've gotten used to the boring lectures. You don't talk to the student, nor the teachers. The teachers voice should only be heard. Not even to ask a question. They only study to pass exams, not for anything outside of that. I don't have school today because I had to go on sunday and its also a break from exams. It's weird because every student in Japan takes exams at the same time. During exams though, there are no clubs or after school activities. I joined the dance club in my school. It's alot of fun. Except I have practice EVERYDAY saturday, and sunday. I have to stretch every night after I get out of the tub. I think its better that way though, that way I'm not just sitting around gaining weight.It's funny though because my friends like to play "Kancho". It's a childrens game where you put your hands in the shape of a gun and stick people up the butt. I also joined a Taiko team in my city. Japanese drumming. It's alot of fun, and its very interesting. Every wednesday night me and this girl from Australia go to lessons together. I've also taken up learning the piano. (You can tell I'm a bit bored huh?) I feel bad when I speak in English though. I really want to become fluent in Japanese. I know that its hard only being here for 2 months but still. I can understand mostly everything that people tell me but I can't speak really. My liason isn't helping either. Let me tell you about my Liason.....she is no help AT ALL. I'm sorry if I seem to be on the negative side in these posts and I used swear words sometimes but its only because they are needed. This lady is so freakin annoying. She calls my house like everyday for no reason at all. Liasons are people that are sort of like your 'mentor' while your abroad. I go to her apartment every monday for Japanese lessons. Except shes still teaching me stuff like "this is a pen, that is a pen, there is a pen over there" type stuff. She sits there and talks to me in Japanese the whole time but still teaches me "this, that, and that over there". Wth? The other day I threw a tantrum because I was really sick of going to her house. I told her that I wanted to learn something that would actually "help me" outside. She says she doesn't know how much Japanese I know, and she's only doing what AFS says. Then she got mad at me because I didn't want to continue learning colors and what not and she told me to get out of her house and go home, I would've been glad to, but I didn't want to be a smart ass. She started saying how she was a volunteer, and that she really didn't want to give me lessons, because she has more important things to do. And also that she has to pay for things for me that she doesn't want to. And that AFS doesn't give her any money. Whatever, I avoid her at all costs. Now, she doesn't really like me. another example, I have to take my SAT's in June. I gave the chapter president the date, and place. And she helped me get a travel waiver or whatever.(because its in Tokyo). I get the shinkansen (bullet train) a day before I take the test because its at 8:00 am. My liason got mad though, because I didn't tell her the time. She called my host father and told him that I didn't give her any information about the SAT. (when she was the one who faxed me the address). So my host family was all mad with me. So I called the chapter president again to let her know everything, she said she already knew. and that right now they are looking for a family to host me for the day. and then for some reason, she felt she had to add "We don't have to help you with anything, we are volunteers". What? Why was that relevant at all? I didn't ask them to help me, I could've done it by my self. The first month being here I was extremely homesick and really depressed, because for one, I was sick really badly and for two, bad stuff just kept happening to me one after the other. I felt really alone all the time because my host sister was always on her period and my host mom was constantly yelling at me for things I did wrong (this years host families in Niigata, my city, are a bit stricter than they were last year), and because of the whole not being able to hang-out thing. We had an AFS meeting a while back and they asked everyone if they were having any problems, and apparently, I was the only one. I was the only sick one, the only depressed one, the only black one....everything. The volunteers were just annoyed with me. I told them about my hives, and told them that my mom said that it might be the water. and they just replied with "No, its just you, Japan has the cleanest water in the world". Thanx for cheering me up. Later an AFS volunteer comes up to me and tells me some story about a boy from Sri Lanka who's family wanted him to say in Japan because if he went back he would be drafted by the war. But AFS didn't want to do anything illegal so they had to make him go when it was time. I was like and the moral to that story was what? ( i didn't say that of course) So, the volunteer says "so in conclusion, they're are people out there with worse problems than you." and my LP (liason person) says "when you don't smile, people don't like you". ...................... WHAT? Plus that same day, my host mom told the AFS volunteers that I didn't bring enough clothes with me and they all gave me clothes. Can it get any worse? I have clothes, I just love that one pair of Jeans I bought at the GAP. I brought about 10 pairs of Jeans. Wtf? My host sister wears the same outfit everyday. Should I start giving her clothes? My host sister who's in Texas now is coming back from her exchange there with AFS from the year. I'm so excited, she's coming back next month. I talked to her on the phone, and she's really cool. My host family is VERY japanese. They are going to have a hard time adjusting back with her....I can tell. I have few other stories. So, I go to the hair salon because I needed my ends clipped bad, and a straightening perm (...a relaxer). Those people did not know what they were doing with me. I don't have Japanese hair, they knew that from the start. Well, the end result was my hair is still locked in curls. They blow dried my hair out into an afro. (Two people always work on one head in Japan). It took them a whole hour to straighten it with the flat iron. After they were done with that, it looked SO beautiful. I was happy. But then they had to mess it up and pour a bucket of goo (I'm not lying to you) over my head. I was horrified. Then after the goo, they washed my hair again and blew it back out into an afro. Then they cut off all my hair. I payed 100 dollars for that mess. Another thing, I went downtown with one of my AFS friends for mother's day shopping, and while we were eating these two really random girls come up to us with a microphone and tape recorder in hand and ask us for an interview. We were like.....'uh....sure?'. It turns out they were from a really popular radio station and were getting opinions on the event that was going on. (I have no idea what kind of event it was. maybe a food festival?). That was interesting, except they were talking so fast my japanese was like "stumbly bumbly". It's funny because there are Yakuza EVERYWHERE. People are like 'don't be afraid of them. They're not scary.' But my host dad is like 'you are an american girl, a non-japanese. they will try to talk to you. Please be careful'. Lol Japanese fashion is really intersting. Besides the school girls, the college students are crazy. I went to mcdonalds the other day (which was interesting because the smoking and non-smoking sections are right by each other so its all smoking basically and its really small) and i look over and there is this group of cloned girls sitting there with their boots on the floor and feet on the seets. caking on make up and brushing there hair and smoking ciggarettes. they all had the same blonde dyed hair and basically the same clothes on. There is this shopping district called "Rosa" in downtown Niigata and all the girls have curly perms, and tan their skin darker than a natural brown skinned black person. They are all SO skinny too.(they are called "Kogyaru" in Japanese. 'cool girls') The shops down there are interesting though because they all play hip-pop music. They even have a weave/nail salon down there. Haha! I went to this mall called 'Bill Board Place' and inside they have a HUGE virgin records store. When you walk in they have a huge flat screen coming from the ceiling. That day when I went in they were playing a new music video by LL Cool J and Jennifer Lopez. I wanted to cry, not only is LL Cool J one of my Idols (because he's so SEXY) but I never heard the song before and i felt like I was missing out on my life back in the states. So I was happy and sad at the same time. It's hard sometimes because everyone back home are having so much fun being teenagers and stuff, and even though I wanted this with all my heart I feel so bored out of my mind all the time. I feel like I'm wasting away. Every day I get on the train and there is this school girl who is a kogyaru. She sits there and sprays hair spray in her hair while holding this enormous mirror in her face the WHOLE ride. 30 minutes. Her eyelashes are super thick and long (fake) and she sits there and does whatever to them. What is the world coming to. People ALWAYS stare at me. Japan still isn't quite international yet. People sometimes walk right up to me and stare me in the face. Its annoying, but u just kinda block it out. The other day though, my friends at dance practice came up to me, stared at me for a few minutes and then said...."Your eyes aren't blue.....and your hairs isn't yellow....and your breasts are small". ..............*cricket* I felt so bad. What a way to lower someone's self-esteem. The other day I had no choice but to wear my hair curly, and EVERYONE wanted to touch it. It was really interesting. Apparently now also Japan is on a bread frenzy. They love bread. They have this snack called "Meron Pan". Its bread shaped in a half a circle. They have about a million different flavors and fillings, and I've gained weight just from eating them. I love it....But I've decided that enough is enough and I will only eat it on special occasions.....like when I'm hungry. Lol Okay, I gotta go now. Excersise and all that jazz. I need it. Kay ttyl! Bye!!! 4 jumped on thepost comment

First Day of School.... [Thursday April 6th, 2006 at 2:44pm] [ mood | cheerful ] Hey so I haven't been updating because there is nothing really interesting that goes on here. I guess that's so because it's Haruyasumi (Spring Break)right now. But, I'll tell you. My host sister is the freakin devil....yo. So the other day, she wakes up with this funky attitude. And her mom asks her 'what's wrong with you?' 'Is it your period, school, friends, me?' Ayaka (my host sister) said NO to all of them. So, okay whatever. I'm all sittin there watching tv while I study. (lol). Then I hear some bickering in the other room, Ayaka storms up the steps and slams her door. (which is already broken from her slamming it, its a sliding door except it doesn't close all the way). My host mom walks out side, and as my host dad was on his way out the door also he yells up the steps ,to Ayaka, with a smile on his face: "Baka!"(Stupid-in this case). Oh shoot, why did he say that? Ayaka screamed, i mean, Screamed "BAKA JA NAI!!!!!" (I'm not stupid!) My host dad was crackin up, then he shut the door and went to work. Meanwhile Ayaka is causing hell upstairs. I'm scared as shit downstairs. (this girl is freakin tall too(well, taller than me), as a matter of fact these Japanese people are all tall here, she only 15). I'm all by my self, listening to her throw stuff around and scream at the wall and wail. I was scared to shut the door in the "living room". She stops crying and runs downstairs and does whatever. Then she runs outside and slams the door, starts talking to her self out side. I wanted to laugh, she would've probably gave me an asian death glare or something though. lol Later that night though she came up to my room and apologized , which I appreciated. She said that she had her seiri yesterday, and also high school entrance exams and she was stressed. So I accepted it. So, all is well that ends well, huh? Japan is an interesting country. I was watching Tv in my host mom's office the other day (which by the way was a brand name called 'The G-code') and saw the scariest thing. It was on the children's channel. Well, you know how on Sesame Street all of the characters are puppets? This was sort of like that. Except the puppeteers don't hide! There was just somebody sitting at a little table in a park dressed in all black. Like secret agent clothes. Except over his head it looked a freakin black kkk hat. It had two eyes poked out of it and it squared off eventually. And they just sat there with the puppets and did puppet stuff. I'm not shittin you. I was like "Wtf?" The toilets are interesting too. Oh also, they don't have hot water in the public bathrooms, yeah, I forgot about that. (it was the same when I was in Tokyo too). They also don't have paper towels. You have to bring your own little hand towel that you keep in your pocket. There is a whole bunch of other stuff but I can't think of anything right now. So yeah school. Today was my first day of school. That was interesting. My school uniform is semi-cute. (as in cuter than some of the other uniforms here but not as cute as some other ones). I'll put up pics later. Well, from my house to the train station I ride a bike, which was extremely difficult becaue my skirt kept flying up. (it's way too short, it's freakin cold out here). Well, at the station I forgot that you have to pay and walked through the gate and this japanese ladies voice came out of the machine lol. My host dad was like, 'just get on the train, don't worry about it'. I was on the train, and some other girls from a different high school got on. Except they hiked their skirts all the way up (when you're not in school, you're supposed to fold up your skirt so it goes higher) and their hair was dyed and they had make up on and all that jazz. I was jealous, their uniforms are so cute! they get to have the plaid skirts with a cute sweater. Mine is just navy blue, and they get all those privaleges...) but anyway, they were standing their and this guy was staring so hard I thought his eyes were going to fall out. His friend was busy talking and he wasn't even listening. Then finally he nudged his friend(they were college students) and was like "shit man, look at the girl right there with the skirt". I thought that was funny. Well today school was only 2 hours long because it was the first day. So there was a ceremony today, and I had to get up in front of the WHOLE school and do a jiko shoukai (self-introduction). When I got on the stage, I was looking at a sea of black heads. They all look the same! After the boring ceremony (which took like an hour of only talking) we all walked back to our classes. The girls kept squeeling "Kawaii!!!!". And they would stop me dead in my tracks and say 'Kei-chan! Hi!' (bitch, I don't know you, jk). They would try to speak in English because apparently I don't know any japanese even though I just did my self-intro in Japanese. So, then I left after homeroom. Gosh.　^_^;> Well, I've finally gotten over my jet-lag. It took about a week and a half for me. I've already lost 1 kg (like 4 lb) too, japanese food is so healthy! Man, I love the convinience store. Japanese snacks are bomb-shalaam. Meron pan........ Oh last week my host mom took me to steel drumming camp thingy. (another public bath...). Well we stayed at this place in down town Niigata (my city) for two days. We cooked are food, cleaned, everything. There was about 20 people, but only 2 teenagers, me and this girl (who spoke like fluent English, she's only 15). So, I stuck by her. Some people from a steel drumming group in Tokyo and Osaka came up and taught us how to play. Then the next day we did a live show. It was a lot of fun. Everything is so freakin expensive here!!! I haven't gone clothes shopping yet. I'm waiting until the weather breaks. Kay, I'll talk to ya later! BYE!!!! P.S. Everyone, EVERYONE stares at me. It creeps me the hell out....unless they're cute....*smile* 12 jumped on thepost comment

WTF.... [Tuesday March 28th, 2006 at 5:30pm] [ mood | melancholy ] Hey, what's up? Im fine. I'll tell you, what's been going on. Well 2 days ago we woke up had a little adventure with breakfast and then....I don't remember what I did until lunch time. But me and Ayaka (my host sister) made lunch. (Yakisoba). It was bomb-shalaam.(-yummy *achem*) Then we put our shoes on and took my host dad to the airport. Hd had to go to kobe on an business trip. there was some stores in the airport so they named all the different in it for me. Basically everything was mochi. (rice cakes, they're soft and yummy). My host mom bought Sakura Mochi whichi was delicious. I watched tv with Ayaka and then I took another extremely long nap until dinner. Oh yeah, AFter the airport, went to the mall, "Jusco". It had a supermarket in it. So I followed Ayaka around until it was time to go, then we went to another store. "Ito-Yokado". It's like Target or something. We picked out my bed sheets, then we went home. I took my nap, and ate dinner, and went to sleep. Yesterday I went to work with my host mom, I still don't know what shed does. But it was a cozy room with an interesting man in to (who asked me if I was lonely *suspect*). I sat at the desk and looked at some magazines from Niigata (my city). then I studied my Japanese. Then my host mom took me to the Alien registration building. I had no idea wehre we were until I saw the papers. She asked me to bring my passport and two pictures, so brought my ID card. Apparently that wasn't enough. We had to leave and go down the street where I took some passport size photos. After the whole alien thing we went back home. This house is FREEZING!!!! My host sister started doing her homework. which was making a collauge out of all the places she's been. Well the room was f-ing cold. I freezing my behind off. I sat there for 2 hours watching her then finally she said ("Samui?") "...are you cold?" but she said it in an annoyed voice. BIATCH yes I'm samui!!! Don't I look Samui? Im feeling the samuiness. when she said that though I was leaving anyway. I said ("iie") "no". she said ("Daijoubu?") "are you alright?" I said (hai) "yes..." by this time I was half way up the steps. I fell asleep and missed dinner again. Shes making this difficult for me. They don't have heat, just little electronic heater things that u plug in, in each room. You have to turn them off before you leave the room so you don't waste energy, because apparently you're never coming back. also you have to shut the door before you leave, and turn off the light or any other electronic. The whole house is wooden, and the doors all slide. I cry like every day. My host sister keeps on giving me awkward looks, one day maybe we'll get along... see ya! 3 jumped on thepost comment

Japon [Monday March 27th, 2006 at 1:34am] Hey guys Here's an update on what's been happening: Well, the plane flight to Japan was HORRIBLE! The showed the corniest movies and gave us the jivest food.. *sigh* anyway, getting through customs was easy. when we came out of baggage claim and customs there was some japanese people with welcome signs and AFS signs waiting for us. It was really cool. After the plane flight though, I was in SO much pain My chest hurt, and my head hurt. The AFs volunteers took us to Nikko Narita Hotel. Which was beautiful. And there we had dinner. But I fell asleep and missed it ^-^ So i had to eat later with the AFS students from Sri Lanka. It was cool. There was about 100 students from all over the world in the hotel together for just the one day. It was weird because they want you to keep your hotel room open at all time so that the doors don't automatically lock on you. That was strange. Also the toilets are very interesting. They've got all these buttons and hitech massages and stuff on them. After the first day the next day we all woke up and went to breakfast at a restaurant in the hotel. It was american, except their sugar for the cereal looked like white jimmies. Anyway, then we took a 2 hour bus ride to down town Tokyo, so we could go to our orientation site. Only some people went to tokyo though. There are three orientation sites, Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. They split us up. It was a nice trip, we passed Tokyo disney on the way, and some other cool looking stuff thingys. We went to the "Olympic Center" in Tokyo for the orientation. It was used for the olympian people when japan hosted. Its really big. Cherry blossom trees everywhere and what not. There we split into groups again and I had the slowest group leader. She was really cute, but she reminded me of myself just a little too much. We played games and had lectures on do's and don'ts both in Japanese and translated in English. We stayed there for about 3 days. 　It was really nice. There was only two things I didn't like. One was the public bath. and the other cleaning up. We all had to go to a public bath house on the campus (its not co-ed), because thats what you do when you go on trips to places like that. Naked people everywhere! Its the most relaxing thing though. Except you have to go in this room that has faucets for water and little stools you sit on. a divider between each row. , its steamy and warm and stuff. you take off all your clothes and then you sit down on one of the stools and you wash you hair and face first, then the rest of your body. then you rinse off, and wash your stool off. after that, you walk to the tub, and you get in. you're not supposed to put your hair in the water though, (which is what I did and everyone was staring). It was really awkward. then you walk out throught the slididng glass door, blow dry you hair (still naked) and walk onto the tatami so you can put your night clothes on. then you walk to the entrance put your shoes on in the 'genkan' and go back to your dorm. the other part that i didn:t like was on the final day you have to clean up. Seriously clean up though. They put tape on all of the doors and you're supposed to take the tape and get on your hands and knees and pick up every single strand of hair. and you share a room with 3 other people. there is a certain way to fold the sheets and we had to have like a little lesson on how to fold the sheets as well. if you do it wrong, u have to do it again. everything has to be PERFECT. yup, our group did good though. On the last day we went to Tokyo Station, about an hour from Shinjuku (Ｉｔｓ a district in Tokyo where the olympic center is). We got on the shinkansen (which is very fast) to get on the shinkansen (bullet train-which is very fast) to Niigata where we meet our host families. Host family:] When I arrived at the station My host family was there waiting with a "Welcome Kei!!!!" sign and a bouquet of flowers. It was really nice, my host dad kept taking pictures. it was funny. after all the meeting stuff, we went out to eat a steak house for lunch (because apparently all americans eat steak everyday). it was good. then we went to the house which is really beautiful. My room is a nice size,and I've got a huge window in my room where i can see the city from. It seems like everything in the house is ｃｌｅａｎ except for my host brother's room. He has work everyday, so Ｉ only see him late in the evenings or early in the morning. But, this place is nice． Today we went shopping at this place called 'Ito-Yokado'. I guess it's like Target or something,except they didn't really have materials, just a grocery store, cosmetic stands, and clothes. The mall was interesting as well. We came back to the house, and ｂｙ that time my jet lag started kicking in. I thought that maybe I could take　a nice nap, it was only 3 o'clock. I ended up sleeping until 12 midnight. I missed dinner and everything.....again. So now it is 1 am and everyone is sleeping so I'm gonna go　too. I've only been gone for a week, but I miss you guys. I'll try to email you all a little later. -Keyada P.S My host brother is FIRE! let me tell you. when he came in my let me tell you. when he came in my host mom was like, he ｃａｍｅ in my host mom was like, 'Hug!'. I like "Pshh! Gladle mom was like, 'Hug!'. I like "Pshh! Gladly!. lol kay ttyl 3 jumped on thepost comment

Farewell... [Friday March 17th, 2006 at 11:40pm] [ mood | crushed ] Oh my~. I had so much fun today with my friends. Me, Maika, Erica, Ashley, Alex and Tim. We went to Lulu's noodles and had a good time goofing off with my video camera, and singing 'La tortura' (well me and Erica anyway-Maika was like the back up dancer, Tim was the director, and Andy was the sound effects...lol). After Tim and Maika left to go to the GLCC, the rest of us headed for the Cathedral of learning because we knew it would be empty. First let me tell you what happened. We were standing outside waiting for Tim, Maika got fed up and fetched him from the boys bathroom. ^_^ I gave Tim and Maika a hugh ...........*sigh* Maika took advantage of my hug though and humped me..i felt so violated. I let it slide, cause it might be the last time i see Maika. so we go to the cathedral and Ashley and Alex's abusive relationship with each other began. they were tackling each other and what not. We all walked into the boys bathroom wich was humongous!! And surprisingly very clean, it smelled like big red. We went up to the Top floor (36). and video taped the view, we found our school smack dead in the middle and got a good view of it. Goodbye Schenley....Erica was telling me how the cathedral was haunted and stuff. I have to admit, it was a little creepy. It's all officy and everything is shutdown at night. So you're basically alone. Erica wanted to race Alex and Ashley downstairs, while they were on the elevator and we were on the steps...............to the frickin first floor! When we got to like floor 20 i couldn't even walk anymore! Erica's mom finally came around 9:30 and picked us up. Erica was a little upset with her mom earlier about some things. So, she wasn't in that good of a mood when her mommy called. Her mom drove me home for probably the last time. Erica broke down and started crying....oh my...i didn't cry until she left.....I'm crying right now. I can't do this...Oh my... 2 days...how tragic.... 2 jumped on thepost comment

life is boring and busy at the moment [Wednesday March 8th, 2006 at 5:31pm] [ mood | hungry ] Hey, sup everybody. I'm so frickin' bored!! I have so much to do, but I just don't want to do it! And I still don't know how to work livejournal! Okay, so i sent my visa stuff in the mail. Thankgod for that! I was runnin around like a chicken with my head cut off!!! I got my domestic info also for L.A. I fly from Pittsburgh (GOSTEELERS!!) at 7:15 am and I arrive in Pheonix for a layover (GODESSERT!!), and i get to L.A. at 11:00 am. *sigh* I'm still packing. I have to send a huge box to Japan (GO MONEY!!!...no really, it's going really fast...lol). I don't have my check card yet, and probably wont have it until i leave. So, I'm kinda hungry right now! and my brothers are playing "Kill KK, she's an assassin" game. Which isn't making things better. My mood will be hungry alot. I love food. Let's hope that i lost weight while im in Japan. So does that mean, i can eat whatever i want for the next 12 days!! Yes! Japan is my SAVIOR!!! I still have to clean my room....Okay. I'll post again tonight...maybe ^_^ Bye!!! 3 jumped on thepost comment

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