The past week.

Let's see, it's been a while since I have updated. I've been busy doing homework for about 5 hours a day outside of 4 hours of class, so there hasn't been much time for fun and craziness. But I manage in my little ways. I went out to dinner three days ago with Hiroshi, Yoshi, Seiichiro, Jason, and Elmer to get Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is, well, a Japanese savory omelette. It has an egg-based batter upon which other stuff is added. It is brought to the table essentially cooked, but then it sits on the big ol' steel griddle in the middle of the table, and keeps warm and cooks up more. Mine had soba noodles, some beef, okonomiyaki sauce (which is like a molasses based BBQ sauce actually), parsley, and fish flakes. Yes, fish flakes, but they really don't taste like anything, just add some texture. I also add the spicy sauce to mine. It was extremely delicious, and an excellent experience. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I have to go back with more people some other time. I've enjoyed doing a few different things. Every night, we (three or four of us: Robert, Eric, sometimes Alan, and I) go on our nightly constitutional to Hokano Lawson's to get ice cream. Ice cream time is always fun, and we all enjoy it, as a break from homework. Yes, it's a break from homework that we take at 930pm. How sad is that? I really haven't had the time to do many interesting things. Class is keeping me busy with everything we have to do, but I find time to make some oishii (delicious) food every night, or get out to a restaurant, which happens less now that I found the grocery store that takes VISA. I have made Gyuudon (beef, onions, garlic, sauce, and rice) and Katsu Curry (deep-fried pork cutlet sliced up over Japanese curry [very mild] with rice, and, my favorite pickled things). There are pictures of these both going up in my Photogra account. Within 24 hours or so. Oh, also, on Tuesday, I participated in the cultural activity which was Ikebana, or flower arrangement. They were telling us how they take three things, set them in a triangular form, at different heights, to make a three-dimensional, pleasant arangement. In other words, we got a bunch of flowers, or, in my case, branches, and jammed them into a little square of nails in a vase, and when we think we are done and happy with it, the old Japanese Ikebana lady comes and changes it all around, because it looks better when she does it. So it was kind of pointless, but amusing. At least I got a picture of it before she got to it. My plans for tonight are to watch Tampopo, the Japanese movie about ramen, going to [i]eat[/i] ramen, then playing some ping pong before crashing. Saturday I am going to hold a Bring Your Own Meat Barbeque out front, since it's going to rain like hell here. There is a typhoon coming from Taiwan, and we're going to feel some of the effects of it. Just rain, though. In any case, I have survived this week, and I plan on continuing my survival. If you have any questions, tthen comment or email me. Or suffer consequences. CONSEQUENCES, I TELL YOU!!!!! Oh, and if you watch The Shield at all, JASON and BUD, you had better watch the Season finale. Now. NOW.