March 30

It looks like I have the home sickness bad, since everything seems to be reminding me of my friends and family now.

Today was a pretty good day for cars, or things with motors in general. It started out with a yellow lotus on the way to the eki. Then, on the way to lunch, I passed by a Japanese girl with a white helmet (with a pink viser) on what looked like an American motorcycle (she’s my hero now). On the way back from buying lunch, I passed a blue (subaru blue) subaru decked out in so many sponsor stickers that it’s a shame there seems to be no motorcross-worthy space in Nagoya.

As for the day in general, it was pretty interesting. I screwed up my Japanese quiz (of course) though I studied more than usual for it. Afterward, Hanashiro sensei showed us his pictures from his highschool baseball-playing days. He covered his face with the plastic bag he had kept them in while we looked at them.

In shoudo class, we wrote “oto” in a very old style. It was frustrating (and not very pretty). Afterward was history, for which we are fortunate to have another canceled class, due to our instructor becoming the dean of the history department. The term paper for the class, as it turns out, only has to be three pages, and can be on the subject of our choice. I’m pretty happy about that.

After class, I went to CJS to sort out all my financial duties, and the lady who has been helping me made it really easy for me to get my government money (expidited due to my early departure from the country!). I still have to take care of my pension (meaning; sign up, defer, then cancel), but the same lady has offered to call the ward office when I go so that she can communicate with the clerk to explain what I can’t communicate in Japanese if I decide to go alone. Otherwise, I’ll ask okaasan to help me (since I need her to drive me to the office anyway), but not today because she said she was particularly tired from going to the hospital with otousan and doing all sorts of other things.

If all goes well, the Japanese government’s plan will backfire, meaning I will spend less money than I was planning to without their aid. This loophole is easily explained; I have a USD money source that would require full conversion to yen (thus becoming a financial loss if I did not use it to its full value in Japan and had to revert the remains to USD) as well as a source in yen. The source in yen is dwindling, not horribly, but enough to most probably require a portion of the USD source before I leave (the remaining portion would have a better chance of being spent in this form). With the government check, I should be able to subsidize the yen source enough to not need the (higher) USD source. On top of that, it would be nice if I received my (yen) safety deposite in time to use it before returning to the US (this one’s a longer shot). Thanks, Japan, I hope....

Since okaasan had told me she would get home late, I didn’t rush home, and coincidentally, that put me in the neighborhood just as she was pulling the car into the driveway. There was an obaasan across the street, and after saying good evening, I found she was okaasan’s bread-making friend (her bread is delicous, I should know because okaasan gives it to me often). We spoke the slightest as okaasan finished parking, and once I had gone inside, okaasan and obaasan talked about me while they made their transaction.

I came to dinner as usual, but okaasan had made my dinner ahead of time in case she was late, so I didn’t have anything to do, and I watched TV while she made our dinner. I had to eat semi-alone though because she made our (delicious) donburi (a bowl full of rice with meat, vegetables, and egg on top) one at a time. I have to admit though, I’m still not used to the raw egg that’s just put in there for some reason. I think I eat about two or three eggs per day, including the one at breakfast. Speaking of which, in Japan, you can buy them in ten, four, or six-packs, but not dozens. Moving on... we watched figure skating during dinner. It made me think of when I was a kid and I would watch it with my mom. Okaasan said that everyone in China (when the Chinese competetors had their turn) wore make-up, even the guys, because they want to be pretty. “kireihougaii” I felt kind of weird becuse I never wear make-up. D:

Okaasan gave me ichigo and dango (basically a mochi kebab), and when I offered her a dango (since she wasn’t having any) she told me she didn’t like it. I though every Japanese person liked mochi...

After dinner, okaasan went to her room to relax and I watched the rest of the figure skating alone. First of all, if you can wear a tux and figure skate (at the same time), that’s awesome (and exactly what the male gold medalist did). I’m unhappy I missed it (last week). I hope it starts a revolution of guys wearing pants while figure skating, because the tights thing is just weird. Second, the same guy skated to a medly of Seven Nation Army, Harder Better Faster Stronger, and the Kanye West version of HBFS. At times it was pretty cool actually, but for the awesomeness of the music, I was expecting more. I’ll hand it to the guy though for the music.