slow, short strides

it was a good day overall :)
nothing too out of the ordinary.
i skyped with matt (several times actually!) and hung out with friends.
then there was the religion field trip to senbon something or other temple.
(maybe i'll talk about that in another post...)

anyway, i got home in pretty high spirits.
then during dinner, the way my host mom was (repeatedly) telling me to travel over spring break really rubbed me the wrong way. i don't know why. i know she had good intentions, but i felt like there was some slight passive aggressiveness that came along with it.

long story short--- i'm recovering from a cold and intensive exercise would not be a smart idea, but i needed to cancel my gym membership starting the month of april. and i had to take care of that today. so i went to renaissance and had it figured out within ten minutes. there was no miscommunication due to the language barrier :) i understood her japanese, and she understood mine. i also filled out a questionnaire (about the cancellation) in japanese with ease. so that made me feel better.

but not to the point where i was ready to head back home. so i decided to take a walk. i went straight and accidentally found myself where i wanted to be---katsura bridge (knew it existed, but didn't know where it was). i took my time looking over the water and across the river at the city lights. the sad part is, i'm sure many people thought i was about to commit suicide. (i'll blog about that later.) anyway, an hour later and i still didn't want to go home. i could've easily walked for another three hours, but i knew i had to go home v_v

and i hated that feeling. the feeling of NEEDING to "report" to someone after two years of independence and freedom at midd. my strides became slower and shorter as i got closer and closer to my host family's house. i was within 100 meters, and then i decided to take a detour to delay returning to my (spacious) jail cell even later.

no motivation to do hw as of this moment.
taking a nap for a couple hours.
and i'll see where i am then.

j'adore le français

again, in a nutshell:
[perhaps i'll elaborate later... but maybe not lol]

the oral "exam" went fine. i could've done a lot better (as compared to language school), but i'm satisfied with how i did. ben (wesleyan) and becca (wellesley) are two of my favorite people in the program ~ our oral interviews were one right after the other, so we went out for coffee in shijo afterward.

then i met up with mia at shijo eki and walked to kyoto eki from there. we went to see the robert doisneau gallery at an art museum on the seventh floor of the station. i miss french sooo much. even before the gallery, i've often thought about picking it up again. so i might. senior year :)

for lunch, subway! it was one of the most delicious lunches i've had in a while. first time in nearly six months. since there was nowhere we could go to just sit and do some studying, we settled for the mister donut food court. and we sat there and didn't do much studying lol.

i walked thirty minutes back to shijo eki, where i get on the hankyu to go home. talked to matt (who should've been asleep!) on skype until dinner. put in three endorphin-filled hours at the sports club, came home, shower/ofuro, and now i'm finally finishing this post that i started hours ago XD

sooo much more to say than just this superficial stuff, but i'll forget entirely later on if i don't get something down now :)

oh yeah, placed request for sun tzu's the art of war at the doshisha library.

and i have my japanese reading/writing class midterm tomorrow at 9am.
haven't studied. i might *think* about it tomorrow after breakfast.
....what's the point? i wouldn't do much better with lots of studying anyway.
it won't be a piece of cake, but i don't imagine it being very difficult at all.
:P

the 100th post!

...and it's nothing special XD

the internet is down at my house for maintenance until tomorrow, so i'm on some other wireless network. anyway, i got home and freaked out when i couldn't get online v_v

i am wayyy too dependent on the internet.
not a good thing.

but i killed 3+ hours at the gym tonight :)
yay!
^_^

p.s. tomorrow and valentine's day are going to be absolute insanity.
just wait for it :)

les étoiles!

they were out tonight!
accompanied by a beautiful full moon ^_^

i arrived in kyoto around 6:30am from a three-day trip to tokyo.
stories later. mia + danielle ♥ !!!

i tried sleeping in for a few hours after a restless night on the bus,
but that failed miserably, so i...

• watched two episodes of the L word in bed <3
• talked to a certain someone ♥ && it turns out i really was just paranoid (mia & danielle ~ i know, i know. i should've listened to you from the start LOL)
• downloaded some movies ~ which i will watch on my ipod at the gym
• spent three hours working out ~ 1 hr 45 min of intense cardio, weight training, flexibility/cheer stuff... it was soooo nice ^_^
• took a hot shower followed by the even hotter ofuro

.....going to bed now. write more later.

p.s. just putting this out there ~ i will never stop thinking that japan is crazy. and i will never stop thinking about how i could be at midd or at home with family. BUT ~ there is no self-pitying or anything of that sort to be had. i'm not wishing my time in japan away (with which i've been blessed). sometimes i just wish that i could experience the next three months on fast forward and finally get to go home ^_^

the beginning of the second half

first day of japanese "class" went really well :)
sooo excited for spring term.

japanese religion was also scheduled for today, but it was canceled because the professor caught something on the plane ride over to japan... hope she feels better soon.

worked out to my heart's content this afternoon :)
so much free time today! i got back from the gym earlier than usual and still had some down time before dinner ^_^

....and tomorrow's friday! just one class in the morning. then a friend is throwing an all you can eat/all you can drink party at a bar that i have to get directions to---to which another friend responded, "don't bother. she'll just get horribly lost. i'll take her."

hahaha XD

it's about time i fly again ^_^

for whatever reason, i decided to practice some cheer stunts (on a wobble board) after stretching at renaissance tonight.

then a trainer comes up to me, and i thought i was about to be scolded for doing strange things on the wobble board in the stretching area. instead, she started to say something about cheer, but then she saw the middlebury cheerleading shirt i was wearing. やっぱり (after all/as it turns out/"i thought so"), she says.

long story short, she's on a cheerleading squad based in osaka and wants me to join ^_^  practices are saturdays and sundays from 11am to 5, 6pm.  if it's both days every weekend, then i might have to reconsider, but it's much better than what doshisha's squad requires.

i had contacted the doshisha cheer angels in september, but all hope was lost when i found out that practices were three weekdays (at three hours each day) and once or twice on the weekend (at six or seven hours) PLUS, having to cheering for doshisha's sports teams at their games. furthermore, practices are held at tanabe campus, about an hour an a half (one way) from imadegawa campus, where i have my classes. it's also expensive for me to commute there because my 定期 (commuting passes) take me nowhere near tanabe.

so until tonight, i thought joining  a cheer squad in japan was pretty much 無理 (impossible)

^_^

my crazy sports club ^_^

another quick post.  

because it seems like it's all i can handle nowadays :) 

and i'll get to "updating" those three missing weeks of october soon.....

so i happily going along on the elliptical when a trainer approaches me---the same one who i had orientation "g" with.  i already knew what she was going to say.  one, i should do more weight-training. i've been avoiding that part of the gym because i didn't do orientation "i" yet. two, there was a period of time that i had been absent. i got sick, and homework had piled up. 

at renaissance, everyone has a file---but it's hardly private. at the end of each session, one puts the file in a separate place for review (and gets filed away by a trainer afterward for easy finding the next time one goes)  so they know everything i do on any given day.  members also take their blood pressure+heart rate and note their weight before and after each session. maybe that's how it's also done in the US, but it seems like this sports club is intensely attentive. they greet you several different times when you arrive and say お疲れ様でした at least twice on separate occasions when you leave; they are always floating around, and meet with you at regular intervals to discuss your progress, goals, etc.

it gets a little suffocating at times, but i think i'll get used to it. i just dislike that feeling of guilt if i don't do a full workout---and knowing that the trainers know i didn't. for instance, i had one really busy night in which i was lucky i was even able to go at all. i only spent thirty minutes on the elliptical ~ so that day's column was practically empty >.<  and it shows... oh well, not my problem :P

i <3 precor ellipticals

renaissance sports club.

day one: 

• left house around 8:30pm. during the 3-minute walk, i was hoping that i wouldn't do something embarrassing, but i really wasn't nervous since the gym is like my second home
• gave my membership card to the trainer at the front desk and started to head upstairs to the locker room. unfortunately, i didn't know that in exchange for the membership card, one gets another card that serves as a key to a locker... so she chased me halfway up the stairs
• got to the locker room. took shoes off before stepping onto the tatami-like part of the floor. then i couldn't figure out how to work the locker with the card, so i asked the two naked older women next to me
• after they helped me, i got changed freely. japan does that to you. nudity in public areas... not an issue for me anymore-- it's become relatively normal.
• went to the machines/equipment part of the sports club. found my file, took a clipboard/pen, and headed straight for the elliptical. didn't know where to put my record, so i just placed it on the floor beside the machine. apparently, the file goes into a little box in front of the elliptical, which i had failed to see. luckily, i was told by a familiar face. it was a trainer who had i done orientation with a week earlier
• became THRILLED when i realized the elliptical was precor. [ same company that midd uses ] most everything was in japanese, but i understood what i needed to understand :)
• not having brought water with me, i stopped several times to drink from the fountain. the elliptical had reset all my workout stats the first time i took a break, so each time thereafter, it was on an interval so i could easily recalculate (and add on to) what i had already done.
• after burning about 850 calories, i figured it was a good place to stop. went to the stretching area, took a mat, set it down, and began cooling down.
• returned locker key card at front card and received membership card back. walked home while texting mia about the embarrassing moments ^_^

i forgot socks. yeah, pretty gross >_<  but i wasn't about to let that be an excuse to leave and return to my comfort zone that is my homestay house :)  my feet are okay for the most part. no blisters, thank goodness! but stretching barefoot was a little awkward XD

i also knocked off my mp3 player that was resting on the "magazine holder thing" TWICE [ or was it three times...? ] it made a lot of noise, and i had to step off the elliptical to retrieve it each time. now that was pretty embarrassing >_<

but aside from all the little mishaps, i'm happy i can finally get back to a regular exercise routine =]

even more to be thankful for

• i think my host family knew early on that i liked sports and being active, but i probably left no doubt in their minds after soccer with shinpei and kento's field day this past weekend :) my host brother keita, who lives right next door with his wife shinobu & three kids, suggested this sports club [for me] to my host mom-- to which she took me tonight ^_^ sometime this week, she's going to help me officially sign up for a membership. i'll have to do a formal orientation, but i was already given the tour of the building tonight. [it's huge btw. more details later] there's a gym at imadegawa campus, but i hear it's relatively small. furthermore, class is early enough as it is, and timing-wise, it'd probably be very inconvenient.  
• my friends and i have been talking about a "girls' night" for some time now. i mentioned it to my host mom last week, and she did research on public baths and massage parlors in katsura [where we live] for me. papa's going to get me directions to a nearby onsen, outdoor hot spring. and as for the massage parlor, it's actually right across the street from the sport club, which is a three-minute walk from my house :)  AND, since mama and papa are going away to a botanical garden this coming weekend [mama, for painting & papa, for photography], she suggested we do the girls' night then-- so that we can have the house to ourselves! and because the girls are planning on spending the night, mama's going to pull out some mattresses for them.

• the temperature severely dropped last week. so i went from sleeping with the AC on to waking up freeeezing almost overnight. i found some more blankets though, so it was warm and toasty last night :) anyway, papa bought a new heater/AC combo for me and will install it sometime next week.

• going back to the sports club ~ i'll need to submit a 3cm x 2.5cm picture of myself [probably for the membership card], so papa took pictures of me tonight-- and i'm guessing he's going to do the cropping and printing of the picture for me.  *just a feeling* oh, and papa also set up wireless printing on my laptop for me last week :)

• mama also took me to get my official alien registration card this morning in kami-katsura. i thought i'd be going by myself sometime after class... getting to the municipal building from the kami-katsura station (next stop after katsura on the hankyu) isn't too difficult, it takes twenty minutes by foot though. the two doshisha students had taken me there during orientation to get my temporary one, so i had a pretty good idea of how to get there. well i woke up this morning to find directions on the kitchen table that papa had printed out for me using google maps. i definitely should not be getting lost now, i thought. it turns out that instead, they had called a taxi to eliminate all possibility of me losing my way lol ^_^

• i love peanut butter. mama knows that. before the current jar of peanut butter is even empty, another new jar appeared in the fridge this morning. and then at dinner tonight, i commented on how yummy the bread was. she asked if bagels were popular in the u.s., and i said, yes. well, i guess she's going to buy me bagels now.

• it's been rainy lately. instead of using my mom's plain umbrella, she went out and bought me a new one. it's got cute flowers on it. and they're PINK, lavender and baby blue. ちょうどいいだろう？ ^_^

kento's field day :)

kento ~ far left

my host cousin kento [technically host nephew...] had 運動会, a field day at kindergarten, and i was invited to go with the family :)  the events themselves were nothing out of the ordinary, but quite a number of things surprised me. for starters, i didn't see even one chubby kid. in the four weeks that i've been in japan, i've seen very few overweight adults. it is said that because japanese food is much healthier than american food, people in japan tend to be on the slimmer side. i don't disagree with that. however, japan still has sweets, desserts, and other unhealthy foods, so there must be a better, more comprehensive reason. 

anyway, update later about other surprising things.

toward the end of field day, everyone [including alumni, parents, and friends] was able to participate in a [very long] relay race and tug-of-war. i did both ^_^ it was definitely my cup of tea. i wasn't as competitive about the relay because there were sooo many people running in it. tug-of-war, however, i really wanted my team to win. and we did. both pulls :) after the event was over, i ran laps around the schoolyard and practiced some roundoffs and handsprings. i also did several sprints with shinpei, which earned me some brownie points with him. and the fact that i have a DS now and my love for soccer also helped ^_^

soccer with shinpei ^_^

the extremely beautiful park entrance

shinpei taking a quick break from soccer ^_^

"red light, green light, 1-2-3"

naoki hunting for bugs?

i walked to a nearby park with mama and my host cousins. [technically, they're my host nephews... but that's a little weird]  anyway, 9-year old shinpei loves soccer, and i'm so glad! we juggled, passed the ball around, and played some one-on-one ~ it was just what the doctor ordered :)  we kicked the soccer ball over the fence into the kindergarten playground and had to jump it several times in order to retrieve it. it was very entertaining to say the least. 

the younger ones were playing a game similar to "red light, green light, 1-2-3" with mama. they are so adorable! after the game, 5-year old kento and 3-year old kazuma disappeared to somewhere else, while 7-year old naoki quickly became preoccupied with finding ants and other bugs...?  lol

right before we left the park, i showed them some simple gymnastics--roundoffs, handsprings, etc.  they loved it ^_^

my legs and body in general were really sore the next day ~ which is actually not a bad thing. [to me, that means a good workout haha]

:)

sometimes anger & frustration are the best kind of motivation

[ ughh... i keep breaking the language pledge for this blog ]

we received back our tests from friday this afternoon.  i was sure that my cumulative grade so far was around a C+. well during the short meeting with the head teacher, i find out that in fact, i have an A- right now. i apologized and asserted that i was a bad student. his response? my standards are probably really high. (i don't think so, but going by what past teachers have always said, i guess some things never change.) according to sensei, if i try really hard, i might be able to earn an A. i guess the other teachers also think that entering third-year was probably a good choice for me. that made me feel better. but only ever so slightly.

soccer practice. fun. as always. however, i must have stopped about ten times to try to alleviate the pain from the blister. (moleskin, advanced healing blister band-aid, more moleskin, and finally, athletic tape to hold everything in place.) i've come to really love soccer ~ even the hard practices. we have an important game against the portugese school this wednesday, but i really doubt i'll be close to 90%. the problem is, there must be two (maybe three?) female players on the field at all times, so i'll have to be on top of my game. i did order new cleats ~ but i won't have time to break them in---they'll be arriving just hours before the game. *sigh*

i've calmed down since this afternoon, but...

love the water...

[ again, in the interest of keeping the blog updated... english only]

because the blister had turned into an open wound, it's nearly impossible to wear anything but sandals/flip-flops. after dinner, i had planned on using the bike at the gym in flip-flops, but then decided it was probably a bad idea once i got to the fitness center. since danielle was going swimming, i entertained that possibility. even though i didn't have my bikini with me, we thought i could likely get by with shorts and a t-shirt. (we were right.)

i got a pretty decent workout in the pool, despite being a poor swimmer. actually, i'll probably swim as my main mode of exercise until my heel/back of the ankle gets better.

next game is wednesday against the portugese school. we'll probably have an unofficial practice on sunday, in addition to a scheduled practice on monday. i REALLY hope (with the help of band-aid's "advanced healing blister cushions") that i'll be close to 100% by game day. *crosses fingers*

やった！ 勝ち！

今日、サッカーの試合があって、ヘブライ語学校とあらそって、５対３で勝ちました！　楽しかったけど、スパイクで水ぶくれができた。
>_< 小さいすぎるかもしれないから、明日新しいスパイクを買おうと思う。

hooray! victory!
we had a soccer game against the hebrew school today and won 5 to 3! i had fun, but i got a blister from my cleats.
:(
i think i'm going to buy new cleats tomorrow because they're probably too small.

staying active!

i joined martial arts, soccer, and volleyball as planned from day one. so far, it's been incredibly enjoyable. martial arts is every tuesday afternoon at 2pm. today's class was led by my friend elliot, whose focus is kung fu. the sun was beating down on us, but i loved learning the various kicks and the introductory kata. it was very rewarding!

tomorrow, i have my first soccer match against the hebrew school. we've only had two official practices, but i've been scrimmaging with some of the guys from japanese school---so hopefully, we'll be okay. after yesterday's practice of running warm-up laps, doing drills, practicing [easy] plays, scrimmaging.... i realized that i really missed organized sports. these nine weeks are hardly any time at all, but i'll take what i can get!

i'm not an amazing volleyball player, but i can hold my own. although the volleyball club has a set practice time, one can usually find a group of people playing on the court at any given time. i've walked past with an agenda before, only to stop what i was doing and join in on the game. and i just want to note that my teachers are SKILLED.

when these clubs aren't meeting, my friends and i hit the gym and/or pool. lately, i've been warming up on the elliptical for about thirty minutes, and then do some lifting (up to 70lbs on the lat pull now!) and abs/balance/ flexibility exercises (for cheerleading). i have yet to conquer my fear of swimming in the deep end of the pool, but i hope to overcome that soon. just before language school, while swimming in the big eddy (bath, nh) with jen h. at one point, i found myself not being able to touch ground. however, instead of panicking, which i expected myself to do, i calmly treaded water (while yelling for jen) and got myself back into "swimming position". after this experience, i'm confident that i'd be okay in the deep end---but still, it's a psychological thing...

今度週末は大変かもしれない

今日のショーテストは易しかった。　でも、今度週末インタビューをしなくちゃいけない。　それから、作文を書いて、月曜日に出して、火曜日に発表しなくちゃいけない。　友達にインタビューするなら、やさしいけど、先生にはとても難しい。　敬語を使わなくちゃいけないから。

中級一が大好きで チャレンジだ。　ちょっと大変けど、この方のほうがいいだろう。

この五日はとってもいそがしかったよ！　でも、ジムに行ったり、泳いだり、サッカーやバレーボールをしたりできた。

this weekend is probably going to be tough
today's short test was easy, but i have to do an interview this weekend. afterwards, i have to write an essay, turn it in on monday, and give a presentation on it on tuesday. interviewing friends is easy, but since i'll be interviewing a teacher, it's probably going to be difficult. (it's because i'll have to use honorifics, extra-modest expressions, and humble expressions--which require irregular conjugations.)

third-year is a challenge and i love it ^_^ it's a little tough, but it's probably the better way to go.

the past few days have been extremely busy! however, i did get to go to the gym, swim, and play soccer and volleyball.

やさしすぎたよ！

今日の授業はやさしすぎた！　楽しかったけど、ちょっとつまらなかった。。。　明日、中級一の授業にいってみるつもり。　話すことや聞くことはもっと練習しなくちゃいけない。　文法と漢字は大丈夫かもしれない。

昼御飯の後で友達と一緒にプールにいった。　まだ泳げないけど、ゆっくり習い始めている。　日本語でめかくしおにをした。　とても楽しかったよ！

too easy!
today's class was too easy! it was fun, but it was a little boring... tomorrow, i'm planning on going to the third-level classes. i must practice speaking and listening more. i'm probably okay with grammar and kanji though.

after lunch, my friends and i went to the pool together. i still can't swim, but i'm slowly beginning to learn.　we played "marco polo" in japanese. it was so much fun!

and the countdown begins.

i'm down to my last few hours before the signing at 10:45am. orientation was surprisingly entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. my teachers are so incredibly nice and welcoming. there are 80 of us in the japanese school--20 are middkids :) 300 applied. student to teacher ratio is 4:1. 2000 paper cranes will be made this summer. i can't wait! i'm signing up for martial arts, soccer, and volleyball. the list of activities is extensive, and i plan to take full advantage of what language school has to offer.

after hatasa-sensei's closing remarks, i found myself more inspired than i ever thought i would be to follow closely the language pledge. this means i won't be calling home often, checking facebook, talking to my friends in chinese school, or listening to american music (contrary to my intentions before arriving on campus). i'll stay on top of my email, but i can't promise the usually long responses.

おやすみなさい [oyasuminasai], or good night!