monday night

Today was a lot of school - two Japanese classes in a row and then lunch, then a class of Japanese culture. Which doesn't sound that bad, but two classes in a row is pretty rough for me - I get kinda tired after one!

Anyhow, after class we went to the station with a new Japanese friend, Shinya-san (no photos, sorry) who taught me how to read half-price, which is pretty important I guess. Turns out, a lot of bars are half-price around the time we get out of school, but not the one we've been frequenting... (which we call 'bar restaurant'). So thats a pretty important lesson, too bad it's in the last week. For the record, he also pointed out a few bars that are all you can drink for 90mins, for around 10-15 bucks. Yeehaw, desu.

After that, my host mother escorted me around the giant mall complex and took me to dinner, so I've got another photo of me eating. At least I'm not smiling look a goofy idiot in this one.. ha! The other photo is me in front of a giant float sorta thing, one of about 30 that high school kids made for a parade/festival in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, I missed the actual parade (it was Friday night, while we were partying in Susukino) but Shige-san took me took the high school Sunday morning to check 'em out in the daylight, and they're pretty impressive.. I think the kids made them entirely themselves, and had to carry them by hand around the neighborhood. My high school was different.

I went ahead and posted a few pics of the night-time parade, even though I wasn't there, because it's pretty cool.