Oh! We're half-way there! Wooow! Living on a prayer!

So I looked at the calendar the other day, and to my surprise I've been in Japan for over two months now. Weird. I suppose the whole week of midterms should have clued me into this development. But honestly? I had other things on my mind. So there. Anywho, I thought I'd share some lists of things with you all. (And yes, I meant to put three things in each list. Got to narrow them down somehow!)

Things I miss: (Besides the obvious friends and family, y'all know I miss you!)

1. boneless fish, I don't mind picking the bones out so much as I mind that it takes so long to do so with chopsticks!

2. living 5 min. from my class, I like walking, but some mornings I just don't want to deal with the trains.

3. pants that fit! So this one needs a bit of explanation. At first I couldn't figure out why I was losing weight. I wasn't exercising that much. I mean, yeah, an hour and a half of walking 5 days a week, but I used to have 4 days of fencing practice, which is much more exhausting than my walking. And I walked plenty around campus, both to classes and whatnot and just for fun. I haven't really gained or lost a significant amount of weight since sometime around my second year of high school. So why this sudden loss? Well I figured it out. That date I just said? My second year of high school? The last time I gained a large amount of weight? Also the same time I started eating cafeteria food 24/7. And this semester is the first time in the last five years that I haven't been eating cafeteria, specifically Sodexho, food for the majority of my meals. That whole freshmen fifteen thing is soooo not a lie! Though it might just be the Japanese food, which is supposed to be some of the healthiest food in the world. I'll have to see what develops along these lines next semester. France: your food will be put to the test! Can you win against the Japanese???? Tune in next spring for the results!
Things I don't miss:

1. cafeteria food, obviously! Did anyone NOT see this one coming?

2. Rain. Specifically Roanoke's rain that drizzles then pours then goes away completely. The rain here pours and pours all day for a couple of days and then it goes away again and hasn't been back in weeks. I value consistency, especially in weather. Hirakata's weather has it's own problems with inconsistencies throughout the day (like being freezing in the morning, warm at 10, hot at noon, then cool at 6, and cold again by bedtime), but each day is strangely similar to the day before and the day after. I could get used to this.

3. I can't actually think of anything else that I don't miss. I keep thinking of other things I miss. This is making me sad, so time to move on.
Things I've grown to like:

1. tofu, especially when drenched in soy sauce *licks lips*

2. onions, Okaasan buys these small onions (or maybe that's just the normal size in Japan?) They would fit in the palm of my hand. She cooks them whole either in the microwave (rangi) or in a pan with oil and then she, Otoosan, and I each get one, Kayoko doesn't like onions. We eat them in layers, usually with various dressings on top.

3. cabbage, When I was little I thought this was just a different name for lettuce, because they looked the same in the grocery store. I never ate any though and thought that it sounded nasty. Well, it's in a lot of dishes here, and it doesn't taste that different from lettuce. There's a slight difference in taste, but not an overwhelming one, and it doesn't taste as nasty as it sounds!

Things I still haven't done:

1. Climbed a Japanese mountain, which will hopefully be checked off after tomorrow (Saturday).

2. Drunk sake, Surprisingly I haven't actually had any alcohol, even though I'm legal right now over here, and will be legal in the US in a week. I just haven't felt the need. Probably a large part of the fun has gone out of it as it's not a forbidden pasttime now. Also, I realized that I have no idea what is good or bad or what I like, and I don't really want to start experimenting on my own. I've made friends here who could definitely help me out in that respect, but I'm not sure I trust them quite enough yet. Also, none of them live near me, and I don't want to try walking/riding the train back home drunk. Just sounds like a bad idea all around. If anyone can recommend some good stuff to try, I'll look into it though.

3. Found a balance between people time and me time. *Sigh* This is going to be a long explanation. Disclaimer: Ranting will probably occur.

For the first month or so, I was doing the whole meet-as-many-people-as-possible and talk-to-everyone-all-the-time thing. But these last few weeks the very thought of sitting down in the CIE lounge causes a gut reaction of HIDE! Part of this is caused by the fact that everytime I sit down in CIE alone, and pull out a book or some homework, I immediately find myself the to-go-girl for Japanese students to come talk to and especially to ask questions for their neverending interviews! They are usually in groups of two or three, and they seek out those of us who are sitting alone, because we are "easier to talk to". I don't mind helping them out with their homework, and I do want to meet them and practice speaking Japanese/English with them. But after a while it becomes a bombardment! It seems that if you are in CIE you are signaling your willingness to talk. You are NOT left alone, even if it is obvious that you are involved in something! So the reaction of HIDE is not an exaggeration. Even retreating to the library or the benches outside is not a guarantee of being left alone!

I've taken to finding unused classrooms in order to get a few minutes of quiet reading/alone time. I've also found a park near Hirakatashi station that is a nice retreat. It's next to the Yodogawa River (although river is a bit redundant, because kawa or gawa means river in Japanese, かわ、がわ、川). The park is very large, but my favorite part is a wide grassy area with large boulders randomly scattered around it. I, and other people, sit on the boulders and enjoy the sunshine, read, write, study, etc. It's very peaceful.

I think the world has had enough of my hiding out though. The last couple of groups of Japanese students I've run into have actually wanted to talk to me and learn about my culture and share theirs instead of just wanting me to answer some questions. And then today, well, first a guy from one of my classes apparently lives near-ish me and we ran into each other today at the train station. This incident is odd because although I've seen several other Kansai Gaidai students along my route to school, I've never seen him in these last two months! We ended up having a really interesting conversation about the class we share, and then how it relates to our home colleges and classes. I enjoyed talking to him, and it didn't feel like an invasion of my private time, even though my trips to school and back are the times I'm guaranteed to be alone. He got off at the station before me. However, I was not left alone for the rest of my walk to school. I ended up walking next to one of the girls who I worked with last Saturday at the English Camp for Elementary School Kids. We had a good conversation too! All about our various trips to school, our morning schedules, classes, etc. When we got to school, she ran off to class and I was left to make my own way to my class. This morning I was interrupted, not once but twice, during my daily dose of me-time, but they didn't feel like intrusions. I have two thoughts about this: One, I'm clearly becoming used to being interrupted and may actually be adapting to the more social lifestyle I'm living in the middle of over here. And two, the universe thinks I spend too much time alone, and need to get out more! The universe is probably right.

That's the end of my lists. I hope they gave you some insight into how my first two months in Japan have gone. If you have other suggestions of lists for me to do, I'd like to hear them. I'm disappointed in myself that I couldn't think of more!