April 3

So, today was pretty normal until the train ride to school. At one point, I almost missed my transfer due to spacing out. It was pretty kondeiru (packed) on the train, and at the last moment before stopping at my station, the train decided to jolt, and I (having gone without using the handle hanging from the ceiling, with hands in pockets and balance alone) ended up falling into someone (mostly my backpack). I said “sumimasen,” and was a bit embarrassed at my lack of grace. However, Keily and Julie, who were also on the train, decided immediately that the guy I slightly crushed was rather attractive, and I ended up blushing a ton while they gave me crap and talked about why they thought he was attractive. According to them, I’ve found my husband. Good thing I’ll never see him again. d:

Class itself was pretty interesting. I overestimated the simplicity of the test, so I messed up the section on particles. I don’t really want to think about it. Afterward, we had class with Takeda sensei. I can’t seem to get anything right when she teaches. Afterward, we had the half-time break in our four-hour class, and my Lawson’s adventure began. Anna has been collecting Lawson’s points (stickers on certain products from Lawson’s) because if you get twenty, you can trade them in for a Rirakuma plate. Since she’s about five points past the goal, she said she would give them to me, so now I too am collecting for the plate. During the half-time break, I got another point by buying an an (not a typo) danish (and card to stick the points on). The hunt is on, but two of my friends are also now trying to get plates of their own, so I will probably have to buy a bunch of pastries from Lawson’s by myself.

When I got back to class, Linsan (and Hanashiro Sensei) was looking out the open window at all the freshmen and club recruiters in the main street three stories below. I went to join them, and when people we knew walked by, we called their names and watched as they tried to figure out where the voices were coming from. When class did begin, I have to admit I wasn’t paying much attention, since David had gotten a free wind-up car (that looks suspiciously like an evo) with his coffee and we played (quite comparably to the way a five-year old would) with the car. It’s a shame though because Hanashiro sensei was talking about Japanese gift-giving, and it was pretty interesting.

The last instructor was Fukatomi sensei, and she really didn’t stand a chance by that time, because Matt was now also in on the car action. There was an interesting point though, when we were going over new grammer points and we were asked to give examples. Mine basically translated to “this year is the year I will buy a sports car.” Fukatomi sensei was surprised and told me I gave off a yasashii impression, one that by no way indicated my interest in cars. When I was asked what kind of sport car I liked, an argument (but by no means a dispute) broke out over whether a miata was an actual sports car or not. Class was fun but hard to focus on today...

Afterward, I grabbed some lunch, skimmed the paper, and wrote my report for my afternoon class. Youtube was broken. Most of the people in the computer lab were fellow students also writing their papers that were due that afternoon. I talked with Mike online (ironically) though he was sitting at the desk in front of me.

When the last class did start, it was boring as usual. I found myself spacing out again. I was happy when it ended. Okaasan had suggested I go to hanami with my friends this evening, so I wondered if she would make her own plans for the evening. I called to see if it would be alright to come home.

When I did get home, I set the table as usual, but okaasan gave me a talk about asking if it was alright to come home, because, as my home too, of course it was okay to come home. My use of Japanese is incorrect, apparently. I always feel like I’ve done something wrong or inconvenienced her when okaasan says so. Oh well, I guess I just have to get over it and be a bit more forceful with my Japanese in saying that I want to do things, rather than asking if it’s okay. Somehow though, the use of the word ‘want’ makes me feel like I’m being indignant or selfish.

Okaasan made African chicken and mushrooms (like the first day I was here) and we tried watching doraemon for a while, but it was kind of stupid (we agreed) so we turned to news (as usual) and surprisingly, it was, as okaasan said, the most interesting thing on TV. (If I’ve learned anything from Japanese, it is how to write run-on sentences.) There was a segment on a country in Africa where people are very good at the Japanese game where you try to catch a ball on a string in a concave hammer head. There was also a segment about a Japanese man in Brazil who showed people in slums how to be clean, got people to use five different kinds of trash cans (like in Japan!), and designed beautiful buildings and landscapes.

After dinner, I did the dishes, but only because I told okaasan I would do it for her. She said she was a bad host family because she doesn’t clean up much. I know she doesn’t like to (who does?), so I offered to clean more for her, but she turned me down. I’m not sure what to do... I can’t cook, but I can definitely clean, so I’m at a loss for how to show my gratitude to my host family.