Day by Day

Back late again last night meant another difficult morning. None-the-less I managed to get up and get off to school. Today we had Yamada's language class all morning, but before the lesson Nabe-chan presented us with tickets to a baseball game Friday. Nabe-chan has really been going above and beyond for all of us, he's a really great guy.

After class I headed down to the cafeteria, but since I ate during the morning break I just grabbed a juice and hung out. I saw my conversation partner from yesterday, Chihiro, so I sat with her and talked for the lunch period. She's a really fun girl and very positive. I invited her to join our afternoon lecture since Japanese students were allowed to join. At the class I found out she was a senior and she was writing her senior thesis on us, the American exchange students.

Dr. Hayashibara gave us a lecture on Japanese Business and Industry, but it was more about bowing, our stereotypes, and the atomic bombs. Afterward I hung out in the hall with Seth, Chihiro, Haruna, and Ronnie as we waited for conversation partners. We all took turns putting on Seth's huge sunglasses and posing for pictures.

At conversation partners I worked with Seth and a girl named An. Her name is actually a lot longer, she's Thai, but An is much more pronounceable. She was very knowledgeable in language and worked us very hard, but we learned a lot and she was very fun. Today was probably the most enjoyable conversation partners I've had yet. I hope to work with An more.

Later we headed to the gym and played table tennis for a while. The guys in the table tennis club are incredibly good, I can't even follow the ball. I contented to playing with some girls at a much more enjoyable pace. Around 6:45 me, Seth, Yuu, and her friend went to Saizeriya, the Italian place I was at the other night. We had a good meal, Seth and me bought the girls desserts, and we ended up being there for almost 3 hours just talking about movies, anime, and video games. Eventually we headed back to the apartments where we hung out with Mike, Dani, and Roshan in Seth's room for a bit before Yuu and I left for our respective apartments. Back at my place I found Alex and Yuki. Mariko came down a bit later, and the rest of the night was spent just relaxing.

Seth plays table tennis with a club member.

I think every day I've been in Japan I've made at least one new friend. Today was An, yesterday was Chihiro. I know its mostly because of our special status at Keiwa that makes it easy to find friends, but the friends that I have found are some of the best people I've ever met. Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Chilean, American, we're all here and we're all having an amazing time. I try not to think about the fact that someday soon this will all come to an end and we'll all have to part ways. I think we all know it deep down, so that's why we're going all out with our friendships, letting them flourish even though we've all just met. I'll never forget the people I've met here, this summer semester has been the greatest time of my life.