As I write this, most of my possessions are either sitting in the small suitcase across the room, or sitting somewhere in Kansai International airport in my checked luggage ( Read more... )

Time seems to move so quickly here -- today was my final exam for Japanese class. My presentation (a speech in Japanese about Japanese bread) was last Friday. I leave on Monday.

But let's slow things down; this afternoon, after we had all thoroughly exerted ourselves on our finals, a bunch of us JCMU students decided to visit a local sentou -- a ( Read more... )

With all the busyness of the end of the semester -- yes, the semester is only a week and a half away from over for me! -- I can offer some excuses for my lack of updates. Still, I wish I could've kept up; at this point, I have a pretty big backlog of things I want to post about. For today, I'll cover my day trip (March 29) to the nearby town of ( Read more... )

Oh, dear, it's been a while since I last updated. I can mostly blame this on my own laziness (blog entries with pictures take some time to make), but I have been active with some other things too. Either way, this will be another picture post -- first, pictures of my trip to Kyoto (two weekends ago), and second, at long last, some pictures of ( Read more... )

Although I have been using my space heater up until yesterday, today the weather felt so ridiculously springlike that I hopped on my bike to go grocery shopping without bothering to grab my winter coat. Apparently, this winter was pretty bad by Hikone's standards. Either way, as spring is my favorite season, I'm looking forward to more mild ( Read more... )

I can't believe that I've been here for nearly two months. I check my calendar again and again, adding up the days, and yes, it's true. It doesn't feel like it's been that long.
( Things are a bit different here )

My Friday Project this weekend was Aikido (a kind of martial art), and on Saturday, I took a day trip to Osaka, where I spent pretty much all of my time in Den Den Town, the electronics shopping district (like Akihabara, but smaller).
( Just an ordinary weekend in Japan )

It's been a little while since my last entry; I haven't done anything "big" since then. The weather out here has been pretty awful -- over the weekend the winds were horrendous, and snow has been falling almost every day for quite some time now. According to my Japanese sensei, this much snow is very unusual for Hikone; I guess I brought Michigan ( Read more... )

Last weekend I had the opportunity to stay at the home of Eichi and Etsuko Ishisaka, a Japanese couple in their 60s who live in Kusatsu. Since I had a chance to journal while still at their house, this will probably be pretty word-heavy.
( Living under a kotatsu )

As my excuse, I can only say that I've been busy and my next entry should be about the homestay I did this past weekend :) And now, Tokyo, part III of III.
( DAY 3: Nature in the city // Bright lights )