Christmas

Today was actually really fun!!

I started the day by skyping with my family for the first time in a month... it was broken.  But I discovered the gmail chat thing, so I got to see them again :]

Then lunch [cause it's vacation, and I sleep late.] which was pretty great because it was soba, which is my favorite Japanese food.  I'm not actually going to tell every little detail of my day, I just am mentioning this because it was the second great thing of the day, which also happened to be the 2nd thing that happened for me today.  It was the beginning of a streak of greatness.  [i guess the skype would have been the first, but i think i'm being too analytical.  as usual.]

Host Grandma gave me a pretty snazzy leather jacket.  I've always really wanted a leather jacket, but felt guilty about the wearing-the-skin-of-a-comrade thing.  The problem has been averted by someone else giving it to me.  I still bothers my conscience, but then again, I eat meat now [just this year! and I do feel bad about this on a moral level... perhaps even more for abandoning my ethics, but I really don't want to burden my host family and also I don't want to limit my experience of Japan.  Cultural experience > personal ethics, I guess.]  Anyway, once again being overly analytical.  Simple version:  I like my new coat.  [You can see it below!]

In the evening, I went to Ina and met four of my friends.  We did Purikura for a very long time.  [Purikura=Japanese photo booth.  Not like the US ones at ALL.  I think I put up a picture in a previous post from it.  I'll put up another one now!]
And then we ate ramen at the mall.   I was going to take the train home, but Erika and her mom offered to drive me.  There is an art to accepting an offer.  It's like a game... how long can I refuse without them  thinking I truly don't want it?  Who will give in first?  Whoever holds out the longest is the most polite, but if you actually want what they offer you have to give in first, so you have to push it to the last possible moment before caving in. It was nice not having to wait for the train in the cold :)  And the whole evening was very fun too of course!  It was such a different way to spend Christmas, but still a great day!




Random Note about Great Things:
During my interview with Brown [over the phone, 3 days before I got in...very last minute!] my interviewer and I were talking about Japanese things and shodou came up.  I told her I take lessons, and she said, "Oh really!?  You should see if you can get lessons from a Buddhist priest sometime!  They really are the best!  In Tokyo, [where she lives] I can't get them from the priests-- they're to busy!"  Or something like that.  And I guess I never realized how awesome it is that my shodou lessons ARE from a Buddhist priest.  And my 1st host dad is such a good shodou teacher that other Buddhist priests take lessons from him.  Benefit of living in a small town I guess!