March 4

Today was the first without my okaasan. It was also the day I thought I would be sick, but for other reasons. When my alarm went off, I didn’t want to get up, and having hit snooze, nine minutes went by without me noticing. I woke up with a very sore throat and feared I would have to eventually wear the white mask. When I finally got up and went downstairs, I found that both my host parents were gone (otousan must have gone with okaasan to see her off) and I made a fried egg as fast as I could. Despite the lack of time, I got out of the house with more than enough to catch my train.

At school, I just wanted to go back to sleep. I sat thorough two sessions of Japanese; kikitorirenshuu and reading. Since they were fairly simple (and taught by my favorite instructors) the classes went fairly quickly.

Afterward, my friend told me (and showed pictures) concerning the bird he and my other classmate had found after it flew into a window. Apparently, they brought it to class where it started hopping around in the hat they put it in and when they tried to free it afterward, it didn’t want to leave (go figure, with the weather as it is...).

I worked a little bit on the research for my short report due Friday before heading to Valor’s to get lunch, CJS for my papers, and the subway to get home. A lot of my friends were going to kaitenzushi (probably the one I had been to already) for lunch, but I thought I should probably save my money for a bit (after the expensive all-you-can-eat sushi last weekend) and get a nap too, since I didn’t want to get sick.

I did end up taking a nap, and it may have been as many as four hours long. Otousan hadn’t come home by the time I got home, but some time while I was sleeping he did. I didn’t see him though until dinner.

And what did we have for dinner? Curry, of course! Also, we had clear seaweed soup, left over fish and daikon, and salad. We talked about the 12000en (to each person) proposition to help Japan’s budget. When otousan asked, I told him I would probably put it in the bank (which wouldn’t solve the keizai problem). I also brought up the Toyota tour in which we would not see any cars on the assembly line.

After dinner, I did the dishes (and showed otousan how to use the dishwasher, judging by his expression), talked to my friend Diana on Skype, and wrote most of my paper.