Week 21 in Japan: Paper Balloon Festival and Kamakura Festival

      Two festivals in one week so of course it was a pretty great time. On Monday I went to the Paper Balloon Festival near Tazawako Japan. I went with my host family in Japan along with Ryouen and Asahi from China, Nessa who is American, and Ayu who is Japanese. It was around an hour and a half car drive so I slept about half the way there. Basically there was a large area where they were sending balloons up into the sky and that was the festival. There were balloons from various different groups like schools, and companines. Even though I think companies promoted or sponsored some of the balloons there was almost no advertising. The balloons had great designs of various different things like Geisha, mountains, or animals, not things like "First National Bank", haha. There was a lot of food being sold in tents all around the area where the balloons were taking off. Also there were two really big fires that you could stand by to warm up. One cool thing was that the balloons would take off from anywhere there was not a specific zone so you could be as close as you wanted to it when it takes off. There were small balloons and big balloons. The small ones were a lot of times sent of by kids and were maybe 3 feet wide by 5 feet tall. The big ones were very big. I'm not the best at estimating so you can just check out the pictures. The grand finale was pretty cool, 8 different balloons went up at once and there were also some fantastic fireworks which were definitely a surprise. It was a cool festival and it was all free too.

      The second festival I went to was Kamakura, a 10 day festival in Yokote, Japan. Kamakura are snow houses that are similar to igloos so it was basically a snow fort festival. I went by train with Teppei, Karen, Yunseok, and Palguem and we arrived in Yokote at around 3pm for the festival. In various areas in Yokote city there are Kamakura that have been built and also other snow sculputres like a giant horse that you can check out in the pictures below. One cool thing you can do at the festival is go into the snow houses and drink Amazake and eat some food. There are various Kamakura you can go in to warm up and chat. We took our shoes off at the entrance and sat around a little fire where they cooked a little bit of food for us. And we drank some Amazake mixed with rice wine. You can hangout in the Kamakura, have a snack, and a drink and it's all free too. It was interesting to make small talk with Japanese because that's not somehting that happens everyday unless you really go seeking it. Japanese people are not shy but they don't make small talk with strangers as often as other places in the world maybe do. The festival was great and I'm really happy I went.

     I leave for Tokyo this Saturday so the next blog will be late, but when it comes it will be awesome. I'll be going to Disney Land, Disney Sea, Studio Ghibli Museum, Shinjuku, Odaiba, and the Pokemon Center in Tokyo. I'm really excited. Thanks for reading, and check out the pictures!.. Oh also there is a video this week. I think I may try to add a video whenever I can from here on out. We'll see!

 Here we are at the festival. From left to right it's Teisuke, Ayu, Nessa, Ryouen, Asahi, and me.

 Me in front of a balloon with Son Goku on it. There was a big variety of different balloons.

 Yaay my first video for the blog. Sorry it's not perfect, I wasn't paying attention too closely to the camera, mainly just enjoying the moment ;)

 Here's a picture from the Kamakura festival that I I took. This is at the elementary school in the city. My friend Marina who is from Yokote said she used to go to this school and made the little Kamakura six different years.

 Here is a picture of Yunseok outside of a Kamakura fort. This one I think is like mid sized. At night there would be maybe a host inside that would serve you something warm to drink. Also a blanket or something to sit on and maybe a little fire too. Also that sign on the right says Kamakura.

 Again at the school with mini Kamakura. From left to right is: Palguem(Korea), Karen(Tawain), Teppei(Japan), Me, Yunseok(Korea).

 During the day the Kamakura are sometimes empty accept for a lightbulb at the top (not sure how they exactly do that). You can easily stand up inside of the kamakura. You can't see it well but we all had good smiles for this picture because the guy we asked to take the picture was getting snowballs thrown at him by his cute little kid.

 Pausing for a picture, I think we were on the way to visit the school during the day at this point.

 I can't remember the story on the hat I was wearing but they were offering for people to try it on. I think I felt cooler than I looked, but that's whats important right?

Week 20 in Japan: Finals, Bars, Work Trip

In January I turned 20 years old and now the amount of weeks I've been in Japan is 20. 20 is a big number and to me so much more than 19. Anyways I had a cool week so let me tell you a little about it. This past week was the last week of classes and so I had some reports to write, presentations to give, and tests to take. I think I did pretty well on all of it so looking back now at the hard work is a great feeling. Wednesday I had one of my more important tests at 9am. Despite of that I went to Karaoke with my friends Zen, Karen, and Yunseok until 1am. Some might say it was a poor decision to go have fun the night before a big test but it turned out alright because I got an A on the test. One key to studying, especially studying things you don't want to forget as soon as the test is over, is to study over time and put things into your long term memory. Studying 5 hours the night before a test stresses you out and you are prone to forget the things you learned after a few days. A lot of times forgetting things they teach you is alright but for me I want to learn the language well so I try to study things using the Spaced Repetition System. Anyways as for Wednesday me and my friends Yunseok, Teppei, Kaori, and Palguem planned out our trip to Tokyo and bought tickets for the bus and booked a hotel too. We used my credit card to book the hotel because I was the only one with one. I was actually able to pay using dollars rather than yen and that saved some money because the dollar is kind of stong in comparision to the Yen right now. I thought of my friend Tim James and his work with forex. Friday I went to a couple different bars in town with a group of friends. I went with Irina, Sebastion, Claudia, and Szilard who are all from Romania, and also Sasha who has is from Russia (and depsite the name is a guy). This was only my third time in Japan going to western style bars. Usually I go to places with friends where you have a private table sometimes in your own room where you drink. From Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon I had a work trip for my part time English job. The job is a fairly new organization on campus and is a place where students can come and study English. Students study to prepare for future exams, future traveling, and many other reasons. The trip this weekend was training for the staff on how to do different teaching methods for students who come. We also were planning out how things are going to go for next year. I work mainly with the special conversation circle nights that are twice a week. So me and a few others in particular are in charge of having that go well. So we come up with new ideas, and ways to improve it and to get people to actually want to come. Although it was a work trip it was a lot of fun because everybody who works there are my friends and the boss is really cool too. For the trip we went just a short ways to a town neighbooring Akita called Katagami. We stayed at a hotel where we had most of the meetings and training. The food was really Japanese style. The food was extravegant with so many different parts to it. I've been in Japan almost 6 months but I didn't know what some of the food was before asking. Thanks for reading this week and definitely come back to read next week because I'll be going to two different festivals over the next week that should be awesome.

 This is a picture of most of us on our way into the hotel, there were around 15 of us. You can maybe see me in the picture because I didn't take this picture.

 Here is the food from the dinner Saturday night. Things like squid, a couple different types of fish eggs, and some other crazy stuff.

 Here is me at dinner Saturday night.

 It's cool because you can drive just around 30 minutes out of Akita City and feel like you are far from civilization as you ordinarily know it. Here is a picture from the hotel.

Week 19 in Japan: Snow Festival and Taiko Drum Arcade Game

       This week there was a cool snow festival in Akita City. I think a lot of different snow festivals take place in February in Japan. A couple famous ones that come to mind are the one in Hokkaido Japan that is just called Yuki Matsuri or Ice festival, also one called Kamakura Festival that is in Yokote. These and also the one on Saturday in Akita City are all in Februrary. I was going to meet my friends Yutori and Ayano two Japanese girls from class and I saw the festival going on. After we ate and went to the arcade I suggested we check out the festivities. They didn't even know it was going on so I'm not sure if it's advertised much. Regardless of how much publicity it had there were lots of people at the event. There was lots of different thigns to do. I like that there are often events like this in the city. Seems like a great place to be a kid because there are things I know would be even better as a kid. For example they had constructed a hill for kids to go sledding down. Another thing they had for the kids was a pony pulling a slay that the kids could ride in. Plus everything except for food was free. They had other things too like snow sculptures, a place where you could help make mocchi, and some free amazake. Amazake is a slightly sweet fermented rice drink that was served warm. It wasn't my favorite thing ever but it was fun to try.
        That's already about it for this week but I can give you a quick view the other days of the week really quick. Monday there was a meeting about classes for next semester and which ones to pick. A couple interesting things for me are that I think I'm going to take a Judo class which is like martial arts, also I'm going to try to get into some classes that are strictly in Japanese (but not a Japanese language class), I'm supposed to be a level higher in Japanese to enter them but I'm going to try to get in anyways. Tuesday I met with my hostfamily for the second time. We had a good dinner and they always like to serve lots of drinks. On Wednesday there was a graduation celebration party for international students graduating either from a 1 year program or longer. There was lots of good food and drinks and it was fun to chat with everybody but kind of sad too. Sad because they are leaving and sad because I'll be in the same position in around 6 months. Most of them are staying for at least a couple of weeks before returning to their countries so I'll try and hangout with some of them a little before then. Thursday I had class until almost 6pm and Friday I had a final exam.
        I think that really is it for this week. I'm studying for my Kanji test now and I just took a break to write this. I've got a few pictures and as always I'll write a little along with them. Thanks for reading!

 Here's a picture from Tuesday night at the host family's house. On the left of the table is Ryouen and the one with glasses is Asahi. To my left is an American from New Mexico who I met that night... though I can't remember her name I do remember that she is from Akita International University which is a university maybe 45 mins from the city kind of out in the sticks. I've heard it's a nice univsersity. The little girl in the picture is the host families granddaughter Nao.

 On the left is Yutori, on the right is Ayano, and in the back is an ice pegasus. This was at the snow festival in town.

 This was a fun game at the arcade. I think it is called something like Taiko Drum Master. Its a rhythm but unlike most rhythm games it's fun even when you are a very beginner. I played it for the first time and had a blast. It's really cool because Taiko drums are actually an important traditional instrument in Japan and now because of the arcade game it is still very popular and known about. For the song I was playing with Yutori in the picture she didn't miss even one note! It wasn't on a difficult setting but that is still pretty impressive. I definitely recommend this game.

 We also took purikura pictures. It's always a good time.

Week 18 in Japan: The Cove Conversation and Preparing for finals

Week 18 in Japan didn't have any highlights like going to an Onsen for the first time but was enjoyable nonetheless. On Tuesday night at my part time job leading an English Conversation circle we talked about Japanese killing dolphins in "The Cove" in Taiji, Japan. We watched some clips from different news stations covering the killing of whales in Japan. Nobody there was against the killings of dolphins, I thought that was interesting to hear. The main thing for them was they didn't see it any different from killing cows, chicken or anything else for food. It's not like issues in America where the younger and older generation are a lot of times split. I watched the movie "The Cove" years ago when it came out but other than that a few news clips we watched I don't know much about the dolphin killings and neither did the Japanese people at the discussion. Also out of the roughly eight Japanese students there only one of them knew of a time where they actually ate dolphin. What I heard from a Japanese Professor is that a lot of times things lalbled as whale in the supermarket will actually be dolphin. Also I believe some of the dolphins are also captured for academic research. Anyways it was an interesting coversation time. On Friday I met with two friends Alina from Romania and Kano who is Japanese. We started planning our trip and looking for tickets to go to South Korea at the end of this coming summer. They want to buy things now so they are cheaper. I don't know anything about plane tickets but it seems like we should still have a little time before ticket prices start going up. Saturday I mainly did homework and some programming. It was actually well over 40 degrees too so I went outside and enjoyed the weather a little bit. Even if I don't have anything I really need to do I usually find a reason to get a little walk in everyday. Fresh air and a little movement are important I think. Sunday I was pretty busy mainly with an English thesis I'm correcting for my friend Keika. It's a final thesis for graduation and she asked me to find mistakes. I'm happy to help but it was about 30 pages long and was actually a lot of work. She was thanking me so much when I quickly and happily told her I would help and now I realize why. Anyways it feels good to work hard and also to do something important for somebody else. Not a lot to the blog this week but I hope you enjoyed it anyways. Thanks for reading!

 Heres the only picture I took this week. This is Palguem from Korea on the left, Karen from Tawain on the right, and Maru in the middle who is a dog we saw and were playing with for a little while.

Week 17 in Japan: Tazawako Onsen, Korean Drama, and Snowboarding

This week in Japan was really a blast! On Thursday me Yunseok, Palguem, and Teppei left for an Onsen in Tazawako, Japan. Onsen means hot spring but if you are speaking English in general you still use Onsen and not hot spring. Tazawako is about 2 hours by train from Akita City and thats how we traveled. The hot spring was natural which I think all the best Onsens are. Since it's natural you get a sulfer smell and some stuff in the water which I actually like. I think there are minerals and stuff in the water that are great for your skin and you get that from natural Onsens. Anyways I'll go a little more into detail on the trip. We had Thursday and Friday off of school because the campus was having exams for high school students wanting to go to college. This test is taken extremely seriously and spans multiple days for lots of kids to take it. Also to ensure there is no cheating nobody but high school students can even enter the university grounds. We met on Thursday around noon and took a train for about an hour before stopping in Daisen City. We got to explore Daisn City which had an incredible amount of snow. I have a few cool pictures from the couple of hours we spent in the city. We were in Daisen city waiting for our next train. The next train ride was again about an hour and it took us to Senboku City which is close to Lake Tazawako area where all the Onsens are. Most people call the area Tazawako but in 2003 Tazawako along with 2 other small towns were merged into one and the new city was named Senboku. When we arrived in Senboku somebody from the Onsen we were going to be staying at was waiting for us to drive us to the Onsen. When we got to the Onsen we brought our bags to our room and then we went outside to play in the snow. Although Tazawako area is further south than Akita City I think it gets more snow and is a little colder too. We took a walk and were just goofing around in the snow. Next we decided to go into the hot springs. Before you get into the natural hot spring water you shower off. The place we were at provided everything we needed in terms of bathing for free (well we were paying to stay). Towels, face wash, razor, aftershave, shampoo, conditioner etc. all available. They have some really cool face wash, which is interesting to say because it's the first time i've ever been excited about face wash (I don't even own any). They had one kind that was green tea flavored but it was really green tea not just flavoring. Then my favorite one was coal face wash. It was a grey color and had a little smell to it that isn't exactly fruity but I liked it. Not sure about the rest of the world but they use coal for a few more things than just a bbq in Japan. Anyways there were two tubs you could enter. One was inside and one was in a room that was similar to a garage. It was definitely colder and was not heated but not out in the open sky. I liked the one in the room with the cooler temperature. You get warm pretty quickly and can overheat in the one inside. I think the one that is completely inside had a hotter water temperature too. The one that had an outside feel also had windows so it was cool to be able to see the mountains. The indoor Onsen was nice too and had a giant rock/boulder in it that was maybe 15 feet tall. I think they just built the tub right around the mountain/ground. There was a smaller rock maybe 2 feet tall in the outdoorish tub. I think the water in the onsens are about 3 feet deep. After being in the onsens we had dinner. Dinner was awesome and was part of the fee we paid to stay at the hotel/onsen. We stayed up late playing cards and other games, didn't end up sleeping til I think after 4am. Breakfast was also great and was really something I loved because it was a buffet. One thing I enjoyed for the first time was raw egg, soy sauce, and rice mixed together or in Japanese Tamago Kake Gohan which translates to "egg over rice". It was surprising flavorful given the simple ingredients. I occasionally ate raw eggs before coming to Japan but it's interesting here that they see zero danger in eating raw eggs really quite the opposite from our view in America. I believe raw eggs may be one of the first foods a lot of babies eat here (not exaclty sure though). Anyways we went into the Onsen once more after eating and left the hotel with a free ride at 10am to the station. Everything that the Onsen provided was 50 dollars per person between the 4 of us. Defenitely a cheap price considering transportation 2 great meals, and a great room to sleep in too. You really need to go to an Onsen if you get a chance to visit Japan. We had a great time doing some sightseeing and hanging out on the way back so we didn't get back to Akita City until a little late. We had to either take a Shinkansen which is a little expensive or wait for the regular train. There were intersting places to visit and we were not in a hurry so we did various things to spend our time. One thing we did was visit a place that was all about the Korean Drama Iris. Iris is a famous drama in Korea and some of the drama takes place in Akita Prefecture. That brings a lot of Korean tourists to Akita Prefecture. The Tazawako area in particular is where some of it was shot so at the train station there was all kinds of Iris materials. Props from the series, pictures, signatures, free goodies, and more were available.
       On Saturday I went snowboarding at a mountain near Daisen City about 30 minutes outside of Akita City but about a 40 minute drive from where we departed. I hadn't snowboarded for about 5 years but I was still able to ride so that was a relief. Snowboarding is great but it can be hard to learn for a lot of people. There were a number of first time riders in our group and I know a few people who gave up quickly because it was too hard. My opinion is the two girls were too afraid to fall and get a little wet with snow to learn to ride. I think it's difficult to learn to snowboard without getting a few bruises and being a little daring. Anyways it was a great time and the conditions were great. Lots of powder to ride in and it snowed on an off all day but was not too windy so that was nice. On the lift up the biggest moutain when it wasn't too foggy/snowy you could see all the way to the Sea of Japan and Akita City. Really an amazing view. You could also look around and see different weather. Too the left maybe snowing and dark, to the right foggy/cloudy. I felt like delivering a weather forcast.
       I could really write so much more about the last week. So many fun things but I don't have the time or energy to write more right now and I feel like you guys have read enough too. Anyways I have TONS of pictures from the trip to the Onsen (most of them my friends took). I'll post some picutres and give you a few more details on the trip. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a good week.

 From left to right it's me, Palguem, Teppei, and Yunseok. Palguem and Yunseok are from South Korea and Teppei is Japanese. This was in Daisen City where we spent an hour two on the way to the onsen. We had a city worker take this picture haha.

 I took a nap on the train on the way there. I slept a lot the night before but was still sleepy and figured it would be a late night (and it was). Sometimes the train is packed sometimes it's not depending on a couple factors. The train had lots of open space so I think this was alright. Teppei said it was alright because i'm a foreigner (he likes to joke about that).

 Playing in the snow. This was basically right outside of the Onsen hotel. You can't really see the mountains here because we were kind of in the mountains. Also tons of snow.

 The whole time we stayed there we wore Yukata which is like a traditional robe thing that Japanese people where at these types of places I guess. 

 Here is a picture before eating supper. I was so hungry but I didn't really get completely full. I ate an awesome amount of food for breakfast the next day though because it was help yourself to as much as you wanted style.

 They had a big touch screen tv that you could you use to check out information on the television series Iris. You could also take pictures and then send them to yourself for free. Everything was free. I was kind of going King Kong mode on the building.

 The second floor of the station was all full of stuff about the series called Iris. I've actually never watched it but I'm assuming it's pretty good. One of the main actors is at least a little famous even in the U.S.. Lee Byung‑hun is one of the main actors and has roles in movies like Red 2 and GI Joe too so I was familiar with him a little. 

 One thing we did while we waited for the train was check out this old house/building where samurai used to live. Samurai are cool. Also most of the group pictures we took together we did with auto-timed capture so we are not constantly asking people to take pictures for us.

 Especially the other three really like taking pictures. Always taking picutres. Then when we got back to Akita City after the trip they wanted to go do Purikura photo booth. Which is fine with me I have nothing against pictures haha \(*^-^*)/. I wasn't ready for this picture at all haha.

 I took this picture with my friend Ginwook on the mountain. Ginwook is also South Korean. I wanted to get the scenery in and we had already went a little ways down so we turned around on the slope. Because we were turned around down the hill I'm acutally basically laying down in this picutre.

Week 16 in Japan: End of winter break, my birthday, Butch Cassidy

School started again so I've been busy lately catching up with school work and so once again the blog is a little late, sorry. Anyways Monday the 6th I was with my friends Teppei, Yunseok, Palgeum, Karen, Ryouen, Sebi, and Temuleun. People from Japan, Korea, Taiwain, China, Romania, and Mongolia. It's interesting hanging out with people from all over the world. In the U.S. most my friends are from Minnesota definitely not different countries. It's great having the opportunity to have friends from across the world. We went to Round 1 a building with all kinds of sports and games that I have talked about in a previous blog. We went from 11pm - 6am plus we went in a group so it wasn't too expensive. It's interesting in Japan you will find that with some places are cheaper if you go in the middle of the night. So if you go super late at night/early morning you get cheaper prices plus there are very few people there so we never waited in line to use things even once. Rollerblading and the batting cage were my two favorite things to do. When we got done we had to walk back because there was no 6am bus in that area. It wasn't very far so that was alright, I love walks early in the morning but I'm usually just not up at that time. It was funny on the way back I found a knit white hat on the sidewalk and later a nice scarf. It was funny because I wasn't wearing a scarf or hat so after I found the scarf I was joking that I had previously simply found my jacket etc. for free too. The hat I found is for girls but none of the girls wanted it. The scarf is actually really nice so I wear that sometimes. The next day me, Ryouen, and Conina met up with somebody I occasionally teach English to at 1pm. Only got around 5 hours of sleep but it was alright. It was fun to visit Kazuko and her husband. Kazuko studied in St. Cloud, Minnesota maybe around 40 years ago for a year as an exchange student. Her and her husband like to visit with international students on occasion and they are very great hosts. Kazukos husband makes really great pizza. From Wednesday class started again. Thursday after class I had dinner with my friend Yunseok at a place called Oden. I've been there a couple times now and Yunseok has been there many times so it definitely has a special feel to it. The restaurant opens at 6pm and for a place like that I don't think thats too uncommon. Had some Oden which was nice because it was kind of a blizzard that night. Also had some curry soba.

       My birthday was on Saturday the 11th and I had plans to meet with friends at 6pm to have dinner. It wasn't a party related to my birthday, it just happened to be my birthday too and I was definitely arlight with that. I didn't want any extra attention. I ended up getting a message that the party would be at 7pm instead. My friends ended up ringing my room phone to get in the building. When I answered my Japanese friend Teppei said 'package' so I let him in. I was expecting a birthday gift from my parents that day so I didn't expect anything other than that. Turns out that Teppei, Yunseok, and Palguem came to surprise me. It was the first time I'd gotten a surprise party and I was completely surprised. They changed the dinner time to 7pm cause they didn't want me to leave my place before they got there. They all gave me gifts and they bought a cake too. Luckily my room wasn't in too bad of shape so I didn't have to be too embarresed. I got a scarf from Palguem, headphones from Yunseok, and chopsticks and a daffy duck cup from Teppei. We were not at my room for long before we left for the international dormitory where Teppei made a tuna spaghetti dish for dinner. Ended up hanging out there basically throught the next day until around 6:30. Three Chinese guys joined us to hangout too. Yo, Wang, Saicou, and later on Sunday Toka was there too. We played various games and talked. On Sunday we had a big lunch together. The eating is slow so we kind of ate over maybe an hour and a half. It was two big bowls of soup over a burner. You take some into your own bowl eat it, then get some more. Over and over again. You keep adding meat as time goes so it never runs out. I think we had 7kg of meat and we ate almost all of it between the eight of us. I remember we watched some of a marathon on tv. It was a womans relay race (though some were as young as 14) and it was between all the different prefectures in Japan which is 47 total. Akita didn't do too well. I think they placed around 38th. First place was Kyoto.
      Thats all I have for this week. This week I'm going to a Japanese hot spring "Onsen" hotel and also snowoarding so I should have a cool blog for you to read next week. Thanks for reading!

 Heres a picture I took at the sports/games building called Round 1 of almost everybody. This was an area where you could shoot foam balls at each other and other foam ball related activities. The circle below me shot out a bunch of foam balls so I wanted to get a cool picture of it happening. Unfortunately only the test picture before it exploded with little balls (this one) turned out ok.

 After the pizza at Kazukos house we got desert too. It was two different cakes. One I remember had a little bit of a molasses taste but way better than what you picture after hearing that. Also some delicious jam stuff was put on the ice cream. Strawberries were great to eat as they are so expensive here I never usually eat them (although my favorite fruit). We really just chatted for a couple hours and ate.

 Here is a poster I saw at the Oden Restaurant. The owner likes old American movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and casablanca for example. The owner's kid also works at Ghibli studio which is like a Japanese branch of Disney as far as I know. Super smart. I saw his name on the back of one of my little brother and mine's favorite animations called "Ponyo".

 Here is a picture of my friend from South Korea Yunseok. She drew up ideas of an Android Phone app she wants to make. Not sure if it will ever come to fruition but it was fun regardless.

Week 14 in Japan: Christmas!

      So this last week was fun because winter break started and it was Christmas. Believe it or not classes actually didn't get done until the 26th so there were still classes during Christmas. Christmas is a fairly big holiday here in Japan. Lots of decorations and Christmas music but it's not a holiday where you get school or work off here.
      On Christmas Eve I went to the biggest mall in Akita City called AEON. On Sundays and Tuesdays the bus ride is free throughout the day so it was nice it was a Tuesday. As far as Christmas festities go there were not any at the mall. This surprised me because the mall often does events, especially for kids. My guess is they either did one on the weekend or on Christmas day itself. There were however a lot of people mainly young girls wearing Santa Claus looking clothes. We enjoyed our time at the mall and eventually took the bus. On the bus I met up with some Chinese friends of mine and we decided to go to a bar and get "Nomihodai" or a buffet of drinks. We found a place that was offering a good deal of 3 hours of drinks for only about 12 dollars. We talked and ended up doing some Chinese drinking games too. I find that Chinese people are good at drinking. After that me and two others who live in the same apartment went to see the lights in the park on the way back. It was about 11pm when we were in the park with the Christmas lights and there were other people there but everybody besides us were couples. Christmas is a very romantic holiday in Japan. On Christmas day in the morning I got to Skype with my family so that was really nice. I had a great time with friends on Christmas Eve and Christmas day but it's not the same as being with family like I have been every previous year. On the 26th me and 3 other friends got together and exchanged gifts in a random fashion. Two of the friends I met with are from South Korea and they made some Korean food so that was really great.
      This weeks blog is kind of short beause in general I'm going to save you from the details of every party and time I hangout with friends and mainly write things that are a little more interesting like about new foods or culture. I still have a few pictures for you to view and I hope you enjoyed this short blog, as always thanks for reading.










Me and a couple friends enjoying the Christmas lights on the Eve before the big day. I asked them what a good Chinese pose would be for a picture. This is what they did haha.

 On the left is my friend from Cambodia Linda and on the right is my friend from South Korea Balguem. I don't think the ice cream needs much explanation other than it was awesome.

 My two Korean friends posing by the Chrismas tree at the mall. I thought it looked better with part of the dinosaur advertisement in it.

 Us at the mall by the tree. Friends from South Korea, Israel (the one with glasses), Romania, Cambodia, and me from America. Pretty diverse group.

 The previously mentioned Korean food and friends on the 26th. Kind of a Christmas thing cause we did give presents.