A picture with Onuma-sensei after class.At lunch I walked around and hung out with the many different groups of people I had met during my stay. Anne was absent again today as she had another meeting, but at least this time I knew about it. Seth walked around with Professor Brown's video camera, capturing some memories for him as he was busy in class. Lunch ended and it was time for us to take our Japanese language final.
We headed up to the exam room (which just so happened to be the same room Anne was having her meeting in) and waited for test time. I talked to Anne briefly as we passed by. I asked her why she hadn't told me "ganbate" (good luck) and she answered because I didn't need it. The test was actually bullshit. Half of it was in katagana, which we had not been required to study. Many of the katagana questions were on terms that we had never seen before, thus making them hard to answer even if we could read them. Those who already knew Japanese (Seth, Alex, the twins) all said that it was completely unfair to test us in that manner. Needless to say everyone is pretty angry about the test, even before the results.
As most of us finished the test in less then 20 minutes, we had a lot of time to kill. We wandered down to the cafeteria where we found Onuma-sensei and Nabe-chan. I sat and talked with Nabe-chan while the others talked with Onuma-sensei for a bit before joining me. Takuya dropped by and we went over to the gym and played basketball. I started getting sweaty and nasty after we started playing 3 on 3 so I quit and headed back to the cafeteria. I ran into Anne on the way and followed her inside. I talked with Mariko and some other JCLP students about the test before joining Anne and Hitomi. Eventually they had to go to class so I went up to the conversation partners room and upon seeing it empty, headed back downstairs. I hung out with some JCLP students before going home as a light drizzle started.
The light drizzle became light rain as I left the apartments to do some local shopping. I went to another bookstore that I had never been in and finally found some manga I had been looking for. Then I headed to a clothing store called Uni Qlo. I found some shirts I liked and bought them (hoping upon hope that they fit) and then walked home. At home I cleaned myself up and put on one of my new shirts before heading back to school. At 6 I met up with Anne and we rode the Keiwa bus to Sasaki Station. From there we rode the train to the next stop, Nishishibata Station (West Shibata Station). We walked in the rain under Anne's umbrella across the street to the mall.
Once Anne and I reached the mall's restaurant area (not the food court but actual restaurants) she asked me where we should eat. This led to a humorous argument as I had no clue what each place served, neither did I care. Eventually we both decided on a Chinese restaurant. Inside, much to Anne's frustration, the menu had very view pictures and lots of kanji. To give you an idea of how difficult kanji is, Anne has been here for 3 years and she still has trouble with menus, and that's not saying she's not bright because she's the smartest person I've met here. We decided to share a sort of "All You Can Eat Provided it Happens in 1 Hour" dinner. She ordered off the list (sometimes guessing) and I watched. She actually made some great choices and I was absolutely stuffed by the time we finished. Surprisingly Anne nearly kept up with me in food consumption, which is pretty damn remarkable considering her size. After our hour was up I paid the bill and we wandered out into the mall.
After consulting her little train schedule, Anne discovered the next train stopping at Nishishibata and going the right direction wouldn't be for another hour. So we spent the next hour sitting on a bench in the middle of the mall talking. Most of it was fun conversation, lots of us making each other laugh. Anne did manage to squeeze in some questions I can only describe as "difficult". Suffice to say they were designed to make me tell her I liked her, but for more then one reason I managed to avoid the final answer she was looking for (yes, one of those reasons is that I'm a wuss). Eventually it was time to go and I walked with her to the station. We sat inside the platform building together and waited for the train to arrive. More jokes and conversation followed. She handed me her umbrella since I would be walking about 2 kilometers home in the rain. The train arrived, right on time (as all Japanese trains do), and I saw her off, telling her to be careful. As the train left I wandered off into the night, getting home around 10pm. I talked with Mike for a bit about tonight before heading to my room to call it a night.
Tonight in the platform building, sitting together in the little blue bench/chairs I felt closer then ever to Anne. She's and absolutely amazing girl, and completely unlike the Japanese girls. The culture she comes from is incredibly deep, and she herself is uniquely deep as well. From the way she uses a napkin to cover her mouth when she chews to the hilarious faces she makes when she doesn't understand her electronic dictionary, I just can't stop liking her more and more as I get to know her. Saying good-bye to Anne will be incredibly painful, but meeting her, spending time with her, and tonight, have made it worth the pain.
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