Japan - Days 114-126

Shit, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last update. To everyone who reads this, as well as to myself when I read this in the future, I apologise. There's no way I'll be able to remember every minute detail, but I'll try to summarise the more interesting things that happened in some sort of order.
On Saturday 18th, the day after I went to karaoke with the large group, I went to Cybex again with Derek and Mirria. Jen had considered coming but she backed out. On the way there, Derek gave me a Christmas present - a Pokémon plushie (which completes the set of 3 Unova region starters of which I already had 2) and some Charizard stickers from the Pokémon Centre in Tokyo ^^ We got a 7 hour package, and stayed for about 6-6.5 hours. As the karaoke was all booked when we first arrived, we played a 3-way game of pool (well, after a fashion), which we had a 3-way tie on. Once we finished, we were assigned the same family room I had been in the previous night. For the first hour or so we had to put up with a screeching microphone, but after multiple attempts to stop the squealing one of the staff came and fixed the problem at last. By the end of the evening we were falling asleep; I'm pretty sure Mirria fell asleep in Derek's lap for an hour or two ^^' Still, it was great fun, though 7 hours for just 3 people was perhaps a bit much
On Sunday 19th, I had dinner at the Chinese restaurant with Derek and Mirria, though as I was trying to save some money I went for ramen as opposed to karaage. After finishing dinner, we sat in the restaurant for an hour or two just talking, which was fun :-)
I think it was on the night of Tuesday 21st that Derek asked if I'd like to come eat dinner with him and Mirria, as she was doing some home-cooking. In the evening, we met up at the Hirasuna community centre, and I gave them both their Christmas gifts, which I think/hope they liked. For dinner, we ate some star-shaped potato bites and Pikachu-head-shaped riceballs. Very good ^^ Afterwards, we sat and talked for a few hours, during which time Derek decided that, as Mirria was there and could look after him, him and me could have a drink together.
I think it was on Wednesday night that we had our drink, as it was the day before a National Holiday, the Emperor's birthday. We bought some vodka, cola and plastic cups from Coco, then sat on the bench outside and proceeded to do shots. Mirria's waiting until her 21st birthday to drink (the legal age in America), so she just sat and talked with us as me and Derek got a little drunk. We finished half of the (admittedly small) bottle of vodka, but as Derek was already fairly gone after that, he decided we should save the rest for another night, plus the two of them were going into Tokyo the next day so he actually had to be able to get up in the morning.
On the 23rd, I was woken at about 9am by a knock at the door. It was a deliveryman with a Christmas package from my friends in Yokohama :-) I decided to save it for Christmas Day, though, being traditional. I don't remember what I did on that day, but I probably went and cycled around a bit, before retreating back into the warm ^^'
On Christmas Eve, I still had lab and Japanese class. Derek and I discussed what we could do to welcome in Christmas, and we decided on okonomiyaki followed by Cybex. After messaging around a bit, the three of us, plus Michael and Molly, went to Kuraudo for dinner. On the way there, Mirria gave me a Christmas present - a phone charm and a key chain from the Pokémon Centre, with the phone charm being the counterpart to the one I already have ^^ Me, Derek and Mirria ordered the gyoza-flavoured okonomiyaki, which Derek had been excited about trying since I mentioned it to him. However, there was a snag - I didn't know the difference between 'Hiroshima style', 'Kansai style' and 'Korean style'. Turns out, Hiroshima style is a massive mound of okonomiyaki, whereas Kansai style is the flatter one, which is what I normally think of when I think 'okonomiyaki'. Therefore, my gyoza-flavoured one filled me pretty well, but the others struggled. In the end, Derek had 1/4 left and Mirria still had 1/2 left, in addition to about 1/4 of Michael's being left (Molly still can't eat okonomiyaki after the Spiritus incident, so she had a croquette instead). Even with my reputation as the human garbage disposal, I was only able to eat half of Mirria's leftovers and a sliver of Michael's, just to try, before I too was defeated, though the others applauded my efforts nonetheless, for making them seem less wasteful ^^' Afterwards, Molly and Michael bailed while me, Derek and Mirria went to Cybex. It was about 9pm by this point, so we got a 4 hour package which would see us nicely into Christmas. After the clock ticked over, the first song I sung was 'Christmas Is All Around' from Love Actually XD Also, we came up with a classic moment - in the song 'Welcome To The Black Parade' by My Chemical Romance, there's a line which goes 'Because one day, I'll lead you, a phantom...', but for some reason the word 'phantom' was in block capitals on the words on the screen. This prompted me to shout the word 'phantom' in an otherwise quietly-sung part of the song, causing all 3 of us to burst out laughing for a good minute XD Ah, good times
Christmas Day wasn't too bad, though admittedly, I do prefer family Christmases. Jen was busy drawing, so she didn't want to hang out, and I didn't think fair to intrude on Derek and Mirria, so after Skyping with Maria and opening my Christmas presents, I cycled to WonderGoo and bought myself a Pokémon Special Manga (yes, even on Christmas day, everything was open), before coming back and watching Youtube videos for a few hours before dinner. Me, Jen, Derek and Mirria met at gyoza for a slightly unconventional, albeit VERY tasty, Christmas dinner. Afterwards, Derek and Mirria invited me back to their hotel room (they stayed there a few nights to avoid the workmen who had to invade Derek's room to inspect the water pipes) to watch a movie - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Jen declined, but I went with them. The hotel they were in was VERY snazzy. Anyway, the movie was really good. It's about a guy whose life is basically a video game, so of course I was going to like it XD Afterwards, I decided to head off to see if anything was going on with anyone else that I could take part in; I knew some people were going to Shein's, but I wanted to check who else would be going before I went down there. As it transpired, some people were going to Cybex, so I went there too. It wasn't as fun as the previous night, but still, it wasn't too bad, as I got to try a couple of new songs :-) These included the Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh theme song, and 'Back In Town' by Matt Dusk (Brad, be proud ;-p). So all in all, not a bad Christmas ^^
On Monday, I checked with my supervisor what time I was allowed off from the lab - I booked off from Wednesday 29th until the following Tuesday, so I get a week off. On Tuesday, my last day before the end of the year, I was taught a new procedure - homogenising tissue samples. This essentially involved me making mouse organ milkshakes using a very phallic-looking device, which even one of the guys in my lab commented on with the Japanese word ちんぽ (chinpo). However, I underestimated the time this was to take, so even though I'd made plans to meet Derek and Mirria for gyoza, I only got out at about 7.20pm despite agreeing to meet them at 6.45-7, so I texted them to let them know I wouldn't get to go. However, as the orders for gyoza stop at 7.30, I cycled with all my speed towards the restaurant, and arrived at about 7.29. However, it turns out they stopped taking orders about 10 minutes early, so I wasn't able to order; I still got to sit with the others though. Although I told them I'd just get some food from the combini afterwards, they nevertheless allowed me to share their gyoza, despite my protests. Afterwards, as it was my last day of labs for the year, Derek and I decided to finish off the vodka from the previous week. I also had a bottle of Chu-Hai left from Christmas-night karaoke, so after the vodka was done, we mixed the Chu-Hai with coke and drank that, which made the taste less vile. Derek had one large shot of it, whereas I finished off the remainder of the bottle. We also bought another bottle of vodka, which we drank half of as vodka and coke shots, so we were, to quote Derek, "shit-faced". Still, it was very fun, despite the fact that, as we'd started drinking early, it was only about 10pm at this point. At one point, after coming back from a run to the 100 yen shop, Mirria managed to knock over a bunch of bikes while she was parking up, and SHE was the sober one XD When we decided to call it a night, at about midnight, as I had further to walk to my dorm than Derek and Mirria, Mirria walked with me to make sure I got there safe, which I'm grateful for, though I did say she should've gone with Derek. Apparently Derek did find his way back to his dorm safely on his own, thankfully. As I lay down to go to sleep, I felt really rough, and ended up throwing up over the side of the bed before falling asleep :-(
The next morning, Wednesday, I stepped around the puddle of vomit on the floor, luckily, as I'd forgotten it was there. It reeked something awful, so after opening the window and going to buy some tissues, as well as borrowing the dustpan and broom from the kitchen, I finally managed to clear up the mess, though the smell remained for the rest of the morning until it had aired a little. I messaged Derek at about 10am, figuring he should be awake by then, and asked if he wanted me to show him WonderGoo, as I'd been meaning to for months, ever since he got that puncture. He said he'd pass, but then called me an hour later, just as I was going to head out, and said we could meet in Tsukuba Centre at 12.30 and head up there then. So, I cycled up to Iias, used the McDonalds wi-fi, then headed to Tsukuba Centre in time to meet the others. After looking all around WonderGoo for an hour or two, during which time I bought 5 cheap Pokémon manga (I now have the whole RBY, GSC and RS arcs, most of the FRLG arc and the start of the Emerald arc), we went to Tsukuba Centre for a little. Mirria bought some bread rolls from Seibu so we could all feed the carp in one of the ponds just off Tsukuba Centre. The ducks kept getting closer and closer, competing with the carp for bread, so at one point I clapped my hands together and scared the ducks away, which was funny, though they became wise to it after the first time, and barely flinched on subsequent attempts. On two occasions, three HUGE ducks swam up and started eating the bread - seriously, they were at least 3-4 times the size of the other ducks in the pond, which surprised the hell out of all 3 of us the first time we saw them. After we ran out of bread, Mirria took pictures of Derek in a 'glass cage of emotion' (i.e. a phone booth; apparently a joke from Anchorman but I've not seen the film in such a long time I've forgotten that part), before we headed back to campus. As it was to be Mirria's last night in Tsukuba, we all decided to go for gyoza after they'd done some packing. After we agreed on a meeting time, I went to my room for a few hours before taking a quick cycle up to Ichinoya to give Jen back some money she lent me, then zoomed back to the gyoza place, which Derek and Mirria had already arrived at. As always, gyoza is a great dinner, and apparently the traditional way to make an exit from Tsukuba, as Jordan did it too on his departure. Afterwards, we decided to partake of another departure tradition - Cybex, making it the 5th time in 2 weeks I was going to be heading there (not that I'm complaining :-D). We got the 4 hour package, and ended up in a room on the left-side of the building, whereas every other time we've been on the right. The room felt bigger, however, so it was a nice surprise. As always, great fun ^^ As we were leaving, Mirria knocked the handset-charger off of the table, causing a loud crash as you'd expect, and prompting me to yell 'Shit, run!' as a joke. This caused some laughs, and Derek said, "We should come here more often - we get great quotes from you when we do" XD After leaving, we sat outside Coco for a while before heading inside. I said my goodbyes to Mirria, and wished the pair of them a good time in Narita for New Year, before heading home for some sleep.
Today, after a bit of a lay-in, I went up to Iias to use their wi-fi and buy some wrapping paper to wrap some gifts for my Japanese friends who I'm staying with for the next few days, did my rounds of the used-book shops (no new Pokémon Special v.v), then came back to my room. During the rest of the day, I did my laundry, played Pokémon, watched Youtube videos, wrapped presents and translated a chapter of my first Pokémon Special manga.
Well, that should bring you pretty much up to speed about my last few weeks. It's damn cold here, and since most students have gone home for the holidays, the central heating is off, leaving me with just my portable heater, which Jen has asked to borrow while I'm away. She was going to come borrow it tonight, but she wanted me to go out of my way to give it to her, and as I'd have frozen my ass off tonight without it, she eventually got the picture I'd been trying to allude to and asked to borrow it tomorrow morning instead, before I go into Tokyo. I've had a lot of fun hanging out with Derek and Mirria the past few weeks, even if I did feel a little awkward at times ^^' Still, it's nice that I have some friends who seem to enjoy my company and who are thoughtful and considerate. Just a shame that Mirria's leaving and Derek may leave in a couple of months too v.v My life is full of irony, ain't it?
Anyways, plans for the next few days - tomorrow morning I'm leaving early to get into Tokyo, where I'll spend a few hours before meeting my friend in the afternoon, and then go on to Yokohama to meet the rest of my host family from 5 years ago, and then stay with them until Sunday evening. Hopefully it'll be good fun ^^ I think a lot of their family is going to be there, so I hope my Japanese will be good enough to get me through. Anyways, I shall report back sometime next week and let you know all about it. Until then, adios, and sorry for the looooong update

Japan - Days 109-113

Sorry for the lack of posts again lately >< I have a terrible feeling I've forgotten some things again this week, but I'll write down as much as I can remember
Monday morning, I had a freaky dream where my friend Kat killed a bunch of people with poison canisters strapped to her coat o.O I survived, but then an old friend from secondary school was trying to run me down on a bike, which was kinda random ^^' Got to the lab at 9am for the seminar as per usual, but there were only a few people there; most people were on conferences and such. Anyways, it was the first day of Japanese classes since I got back from Shimoda - it wasn't bad :-) Ciaran's in my class again, and this time Derek's in my class too which is good ^^ There are 2-3 other people from last trimester too, so a few familiar faces anyway. In the evening we went for Korean food at kaiwa club (at my request :-D), again with me and Jen setting out earlier to arrive at the same time as the cyclists. And once again, very tasty ^^ I had my standard bibimbap, and Molly's soup XD Then I walked Jen home afterwards, before heading back to my room
Tuesday and Wednesday, I can't think exactly what happened between the two of them ^^' I cleaned the ICR mice on Tuesday and the USP2 mice on Wednesday. One of the two days, I went for gyoza with some friends, including Derek and his girlfriend Mirria, who I met for the first time. We all hung out by the combini afterwards, before the cold drove the non-drinkers inside, myself included as I had lab the next day (c'est la vie -_-). I also devised a plan for going to Cybex on Friday/Saturday (I eventually decided on Saturday)
Thursday was my first kanji class of the trimester. Looking at the front of the kanji book, I think my teacher might be one of the authors, so I need to shape up XD I can't really think of anything interesting to say about Thursday either, except that I stayed in the lab until about 7pm
Friday started off kinda crappy, but got better towards the end. I got to the lab at 8am, with the intention of finishing off a whole Western blot in one day. As I've said countless times before, best laid plans... The key wasn't where it was supposed to be, so I couldn't get into the lab until about 8.40am, when the assistant professor arrived and called security to get the spare key. The key was still AWOL when I left in the evening. I went to try and pay my electricity bill during a 90 minute wait in the experiment, but apparently they stopped accepting payment yesterday, so I'll pay next month instead, which is still fine. Also, I need to pay my rent for January, February AND March by January 17th; shitload of money V.V After finding that out, I grabbed lunch from the 100 yen store and made my way back to the lab. Anyway, at about 1pm, just before going for lunch/Japanese, I met Jen, who lent me her kanji textbook - I want to start from basics and work my way through the first kanji book too as there're still kanji I don't know in there. Anyways, Japanese class was alright again, and Derek invited me out for gyoza again in the evening. As I knew I'd have to go into the lab on Saturday anyway to finish off (I knew I didn't wanna stay there until 9pm), I decided to opt into gyoza - going in on Saturday is a trade-off I'm willing to make to hang out with friends. And eat gyoza, of course :-p When I set up the blocking step of my experiment, which takes an hour to run, I decided to collect my iPod (I set it on charge when I checked the electricity bill because it ran out during the course of the morning), but about halfway to my room, my chain came loose, and knocked the reflector off of my back wheel, so after unsuccessfully trying to reattach the chain myself, I walked my bike to the repair shop by my building and got it sorted out, as well as getting the tyres pumped up; the whole thing cost me 500 yen, but it needed doing. Anyways, I grabbed my iPod and still got back to the lab in time to set up the next step, again an hour long, during which I practiced kanji and listened to music. Once I set up the overnight step, I dumped my bag in my room and headed down to gyoza, where the others were already sat down, but hadn't gotten their food yet; Derek placed my order along with the rest of them. During the meal, we discovered that some people had taken my original plan for Friday Cybex, as Saturday's a nomihodai at Shein's, so we pondered whether to switch to Saturday. Me, Derek and Mirria hung around outside the combini waiting to see if Kat and Molly were Cybexing on Friday or Saturday, and they're both opting for Saturday, so we'll go then, which should be amazing :-D After finding this out, we walked to the 100 yen store (I got two cheap bottles of Chu-Hai for tomorrow *evil grin*) and then headed back to our respective rooms
And so here I am, looking for songs to sing tomorrow. I think I've got the male part for 'Need You Now' by Lady Antebellum just about down now, so I'll definitely sing that if Molly's there; she and Derek sung it last time, and I know she can do the country-ish female vocals. I'm also hoping that they have 'The Bells Of Notre Dame', as that's a Disney song I like which we haven't done yet. Still wish they had 'Make A Man Out Of You' from Mulan though v.v In case you can't tell, I'm excited for karaoke :-p
Anyways, I'll be off now. Going to the lab in the morning, followed by shopping with Jen, and karaoke; the day just keeps getting better and better :-D I hope the weather holds out though ^^'
[Edit: At about midnight, I got a text from Kat - everyone decided to go to karaoke tonight rather than tomorrow night, after someone's party which I'd heard nothing about *shrugs*. Anyway, thinking it would be fun to go do karaoke with everyone else as well as Derek and Mirria, I headed to Cybex, Chu-Hais in hand, to join in. We ended up in a family room doing karaoke, which was fun. One of the Japanese guys, Katsu, was really drunk and ended up hugging me a couple of times. I sang a Spice Girls song with Katsu's American girlfriend too, which was pretty funny. Throughout the course of the evening I drank a bottle and a half of the Chu-Hais I bought, so was pretty drunk by the end of the evening. I'd bought a 7-hour pack, not knowing what everyone else was doing, and it turned out that there was a split in 4- and 7-hour people, so after the 4-hour people left, I joined a few of the 7-hour people for a few metal songs, then we all migrated to a different room, which I stayed in for a while before leaving for home. It's funny, recently it's still been dark when we've been coming out of Cybex; first few times I went the Sun had already risen ^^']

Japan - Days 101-108

Wow, I haven't blogged in over a week :-O I hope I remember everything.
First off, Sunday. I went to go shopping with Jen, getting on the bus as I didn't feel much like cycling. I was going to meet Jen on the bus when it looped round to Ichinoya, but she was about a minute late, so we ended up walking to Tsukuba Centre. First off we went to Dayztown so Jen could get some vegetables, then we walked down to WonderRex to start Christmas shopping; I managed to find a plushie for one of my friends, and Jen browsed some figurines. Next, we decided to go to WonderGoo, and I thought 'Hey, let's take a shortcut', as I thought I'd figured out the orientation of the area between WonderGoo and WonderRex. However, I hadn't counted on the winding roads, so we walked for about half an hour through some fairly rural, out-of-the-way streets before coming to an area I recognised on the way to WonderGoo. Whether or not it was faster or not, I'm still not sure. Anyways, we looked around for a bit and I found a present for one of my family. Heading out again, we walked up to Tsukuba Centre, browsing around the stores and buying a few more Christmas presents, before going and getting groceries. On the way back, we stopped at the bakery (which was closed v.v) and Bulldog, where I bought the remainder of my family's presents, as well as some cards and wrapping paper. I don't even want to think about how much I spent altogether on that day... Anyways, at about 4.30pm, a bunch of us met outside the library, from which we went to Jon's goodbye dinner after about 2 hours of waiting ^^' Jon got me to transport one of his friends from Tsukuba Centre bus station to Hamazushi on the back of my bike, which wasn't too bad, even if she does look like a younger version of my Japanese teacher from last semester ^^' Anyways, once we got to the sushi place, we had to wait for a while as our group was so large. During this time a random guy from Dubai started speaking to me (in English), which was... random ^^'. The sushi was good, though I only ate half of what I normally eat, for reasons which I will explain in a few sentences XD After we finished eating, Jon's friend asked me to take her back to Tsukuba Centre bus station again, and from there we cycled back to campus. I passed through Oikoshi, however, and headed to Book Off, where I picked up the 500 yen copy of Tales Of The Tempest, using the money I would otherwise have spent on sushi; at least a game lasts longer, right? Then I headed back home and worked on my presentation some more before bed
On Monday morning, I went to the post office to mail my family's Christmas presents. After trying to get them all to fit into a box in such a way that they didn't rattle around, I realised I'd made a grave error when I saw the postage cost; again, not something I really want to think about, it's done now. After lunch with Jen, I practiced my presentation in front of a few people from my lab to make sure it sounded okay, and got a few pointers from them on how to improve it. In the evening at kaiwa club, we went to Fuji-sen. As Jen decided to come along this time, I wanted to show her the cat I'd seen last time I was there, but unfortunately it didn't show itself v.v Still, the meal was nice ^^
On Tuesday, I worked a bit more on my presentation, then went to meet Jen. While I was waiting for her, one of the organisers of AsOBiNet, the conference I was going to on Wednesday, came over and asked if I was able to go and eat lunch with the members who'd arrived the previous day. Unfortunately I was going to Japanese class orientation, so I was unable to. When Jen arrived, we headed to the ISC to find our class placements. Everyone was assigned to the next class up, so I was put into J400. We had an hour to wait until orientation began, so me, Jen and Molly went to grab some lunch; to save some money after the horror of Monday's postage, I opted for the bakery. At orientation, I got myself moved from the 10.10am class to the 1.45pm class, like last semester, and explained to my teacher that I'd be unable to attend the first 3 classes on account of the seminar, so I have to get my sheet signed off on Monday. After buying the workbook for J400, I headed back to the lab, and then to the mouse room where I cleaned out the cages, as I wasn't going to be there on Wednesday. After checking with Michael, I decided to go to the welcome party for AsOBiNet, so I left the lab a little early, once I'd finished up my experiment, and took a shower so I was presentable for the party. It was an hour late starting, and then when one of the organisers said to meet him at the 7-Eleven, me and Mike went to a different 7-Eleven following a misunderstanding, but in the end we got there - it was the same izakaya I've been to several times before. It was a nice party; it lasted a couple of hours, I got to meet the guy from Manchester who was attending, and the head of the conference spent about 10 minutes trying to help me work out some possible kanji for my name (during which time I noticed the previous Pokémon opening theme playing over the sound system, to my amusement XD). After the party was over, we headed back, and I finished packing my things for the trip into my rucksack, before sleeping.
Wednesday, the first day of AsOBiNet. After deciding against taking my laptop on account of space, I met up with Mike and we got the bus to the train station, where we met the others. After a rapid train to Akihabara and a Yamanote line train to Tokyo Station, we grabbed some lunch and then got the special express to Shimoda, which took about 4 hours all in all. Once at the train station in Shimoda, we got the bus to the Shimoda Marine Research Centre. The first thing I noticed about Shimoda as a whole was that it was a bit out-of-the-way. The buildings looked old, and it was very quiet once we got away from the bus station. First off at the centre, we dropped our bags off in our rooms (I was sharing with Mike, the other Manchester guy, and two of the Japanese guys who helped organise the trip), then took a walk into the city while we waited for the dinner party to begin. Again, the place looked a bit run-down, and apparently this was because it's now cheaper to go abroad than to stay in Japan for holidays, so the place hasn't had much tourism in a while, and consequently little income. We stopped at a little sweet shop where I bought some dango, then at a cozy little cafe where I got a 'Perry Ice' (chocolate and raisin ice cream). We walked around the city for a little while, before me, Mike and the professor decided to head back while the others went a bit deeper into the city. After resting up for a few hours, we got to use the showers before the party started. Now, as it turned out, the showers were traditionally Japanese; that is, multiple people, going in naked. Me and Mike bagged the shower first, and it was a little bit awkward, but we kept our eyes up and the hot water was sooo good after being out in the cold all day, though we did have to add some cold water to the little bath because it was scalding hot at first. Then was the party. The food was really good, and I finally got to try natto - I could personally go either way with it, it's not as bad as people say, but it's not something I'd buy myself. There was plenty of alcohol flying around too; I had a couple of beers. At about 10pm, as we were both shattered, me and Mike opted to head to bed as other people were also bailing out at this time. I went to sleep on my top bunk :3
Thursday was another early start. After breakfast, we headed to the meeting room where our presentations were going to be held. After sitting through a few hours' worth of these (with lunch and some coffee breaks in between), we put on some life jackets and went down to the beach a few minutes' walk away to collect some seaweed for observation. I found a really pretty shell which I thought I'd keep to give to one of my friends as a souvenir (there wasn't really a souvenir shop nearby), and spent most of the time searching for more shells ^^' Once we'd spent about an hour on the beach, we headed back inside, to a room which looked suspiciously like a classroom, and spent a few hours observing seaweed and little animals through microscopes. Me and Mike saw a hermit crab which looked like it was about to change shells, but after 10 minutes it was time to leave and it was still just sitting there v.v Then we went for dinner, which was again very tasty, and then me and Mike went for the showers again. This time one of the other guys walked in while we were in there, which resulted in awkward silence as the three of us were washing in what was essentially a 1-2 person bathroom. Anyway, after the shower, I worked on my presenation for a while before going to sleep.
Friday's schedule for the first half of the day was very similar to Thursday; breakfast, presentations, fieldwork. Today was the day of my presentation, which all in all went pretty well I feel :-) Today's field work involved going out on a boat, and pulling nets behind it to catch plankton. On the way back, we saw a dead sunfish floating in the water v.v Back at the centre, we looked at the plankton under the microscope, which is always fun ^^ Took a few pictures down the microscope lens, which didn't come out amazingly, but still, I got a few okay ones. After this, before the showers opened up, me and Mike went down to the beach to hunt for some more shells, finding a few nice ones. Once the showers opened up, I went in when I thought it was free, spending half the time in there with the organiser, which was, again, a little awkward. Then was the leaving party. Once more, great food, and once more, copious alcohol. Everyone ended up doing sake shots, which was amusing, and combined with a few beers, I was pleasantly buzzed. At about 10pm, I decided I needed to get some sleep, so I headed up to bed
Saturday morning, we packed up and cleaned up our room, before getting breakfast and then heading out to the bus waiting to pick us up. Why we couldn't get the train into Tokyo I don't know, but we bussed in instead. The trip to Tokyo itself took about 3 hours, plus a few comfort breaks, before we reached our first destination - Shibuya. Me and Mike walked around for a couple of hours, finding Book Off, a sign for a Shakey's Pizza restaurant featuring an Oreo, marshumallow and strawberry pizza, and a pretty epic-looking Disney store, but otherwise nothing too exciting. After meeting the others, it was on to Ueno, where we went to the Tokyo National Museum. Once we got inside the special exhibition about the Todaiji Temple, I realised that this was the same museum where I'd been on the homestay, when they had the Hokusai exhibition. There were some suited-up guys with bodyguards walking around the museum at the time too; I don't know who they were, but my first thought was 'yakuza' XD. As we spent so long in the Todaiji Temple exhibit, we didn't have time to look around the rest of the museum before meeting the others ^^' However, after a short bus ride (during which time I saw an English pub :-D) it was on to the place I'd been waiting all week for - Akihabara! :-D We only had an hour and a half to walk around it, so I had to move fast. First stop was, naturally, Book Off, where I found a copy of Pokémon Special 4, which fills a gap in my collection; I think I have all of the first arc of the manga now. I tried looking for a couple of books that Jen requested, but to no avail v.v Then, I moved on to the main street which I only discovered on that day - I scoured the whole place, stopping in every shop which mentioned the word 'accessories' on the front, and a few others besides, looking for either a core drill necklace, Ash Ketchum's gloves or hat, or an Ocarina of Time. I found nothing except a £100 core drill which didn't even look too much like the real thing colour-wise. Anyway, with about 15 minutes to spare, I dashed to Yodobashi and grabbed myself a Mijumaru plushie (they didn't have a Tsutarja, though I saw a triple-pack of starter plushies for a reduced price, but as I already had Pokabu it seemed pointless getting another). I made it back to the meeting point with a few minutes to spare, before we got on the bus and made our way back to Tsukuba. Once there, me and Mike got out of Sunday's campus tour (it seemed a bit pointless as we know the campus already) before heading back to the dorms. As I expected, I found that the package from my family had arrived while I was away, so I decided to pick them up on Sunday. After checking my messages and taking a shower, I went to bed.
Sunday. I got up at about 10am (after so many early mornings I needed a lay-in), and texted Jen; she said she wanted to go into town at about 1.30pm, which was a bit late for my liking, but it gave me time to scrub clean the shell I wanted to give her. I even went down to the 100 yen store to buy a toothbrush to help with the scrubbing, as the seaweed was stuck on very tight. Anyway, I got on the bus, and this time she was there ready for it. We got to Tsukuba Centre, and first of all headed to WonderGoo, where I managed to find another plushie for another friend, and Jen got her brother's present. We then headed to Dayztown for Jen's vegetable shopping, then to the international food store where I got some noodles, then Seibu and finally the post office, where I collected the packages from my family. We got on the bus to campus, got off at Oikoshi so I could dump my stuff in my room (Jen decided to buy the spare big box from me to send her family's presents home), then we headed out to a couple more shops. Firstly, the recycle store by Oikoshi, again with a nice array of stuff which I'd love to buy if I had some spare money, like little figurines, retro video games and a few manga. Then we tried the bakery again but it was closed v.v After waiting for the bus a little while, Jen headed back and I went to my room. I'd just poured the water on my noodles when Derek called me to ask if I wanted to go for dinner with him and his girlfriend, who arrived on Saturday, so I opted out. He said he was going to come and fill up some bottles of water from my tap later in the evening (his water's off until next month now, due to maintenance -_-), but later called again to change his mind as they were both tired. I uploaded my pictures from Shimoda, and did my laundry.
And that's about it for my past week. If I've forgotten anything important, I'll go back and edit. And sorry for the long post ^^'

Japan - Days 95-100

Holy moly, 100 days in Japan :-O And I haven't blogged all week, so I hope I can remember everything ^^'
Monday was the first of the two days of autumn vacation... for people with classes. For me, it was business as usual, except that I didn't have Japanese class. I can't remember anything particularly eventful happening in the daytime, except that the cafeteria was closed so me and Jen couldn't have lunch together; I cycled to the 100 yen store to get food, then cycled back to my room to take a quick shower, and was still back within an hour. In the evening, everyone met at 7pm to have dinner, as it was Jordan's last night in Japan. We went to the Chinese place by the izakaya, where I've been with my lab a couple of times before. It was very tasty, naturally, and I got to sign Jordan's leaving book during the course of the meal. Afterwards, we all went back to Mo's, after a stop at a supermarket (I got a Chupa-Chups with a Pokémon toy inside XD I got Entei). We ended up having cake and sitting around in Mo's bedroom talking for a couple of hours, with reminders to be quiet when we got too loud, as Mo's neighbours have been known to complain; it's surprising how many people you can fit in such a small room. At about 11.30, a lot of us headed back, I don't know how late the others stayed
Tuesday was a saaad day v.v When I got online before going to the lab I found a couple of my friends were sad, which put a bit of a damper on things. At about 11.30, I went to Hirasuna to meet everyone and say goodbye to Jordan, as he was heading back to the States. He got a lift down to Tsukuba Centre with his luggage, while the rest of us cycled to meet him. We then went and got lunch in the food court, though as I'd bought something beforehand, I just had an ice cream. We ended up shifting about 3-4 tables and putting them together, I'm pretty sure the staff weren't too happy but they didn't complain. Well, except when Jon was taking pictures, then they made him delete them v.v After eating, we headed out to wait for the bus, taking group pictures and the like. Lots of people were crying, and it was sad saying goodbye to him. A bunch of us ran after the bus as it headed down the road, but it got stopped at a traffic light so it wasn't hard XD Then we all headed back to what we were doing before; I went back to the lab with Mike. In the evening, I went to the Chinese restaurant with Derek for dinner, which was alright.
Wednesday was an okay day. I was going to have lunch with Jen, but she had to study for her level-up test in Japanese (she wants to skip a class) so she couldn't come v.v I went to the combini to get some food, then took a quick walk to Book Off during my lunch break, and was still back within an hour. In the evening, I went to the cinema with some friends. Because I was late getting out of the lab, I wasn't in time to meet everyone at Hirasuna; I missed them by 10-15 minutes. I called the others on the way, and I got Andrew to buy me a ticket for the film I thought we were all seeing: Harry Potter. I'd seen it already, but it was the first of the month so it was only 1000 yen as opposed to 1200, plus I wanted to hang out with everyone. However, when I got there, and the ticket was bought, I discovered that the two people who I'd seen Harry Potter with last time were going to see a different movie, Space Battleship Yamato, which they'd neglected to tell me. Needless to say, I was pissed off when I found out. We all went to the food court and had some dinner (I had a carbonara burger from McDonalds), before going to get some movie snacks from the cheap store and then going to see the movie which was, once again, good. Plus this time I wasn't dying from needing the toilet for the second half of the movie XD When we got out, all the shops in Iias (where the cinema is) were shut, so it was kinda weird walking around to get out and get our bikes. Once I got back I worked on my Powerpoint for next week's presentation, and ended up with about 12-13 slides.
Thursday morning, before paying my rent, I discovered that my phone wasn't working; I couldn't make texts or calls. I know a couple of other people had the same problem recently, but they were on pre-paid, not contract, so I was very confused. I asked my tutor when I got to the lab, and he said we could go to Softbank the next day. I got my slides checked over, and got some advice as to how to make them better. Me and Jen finally got to eat lunch together again; thankfully I could still receive texts so I knew she was ready to eat at the usual time. In the evening, I met up with Molly, Mike, his neighbour and his neighbour's friends (who I'd met at the first Harry Potter screening and Jordan's going-away party), and we all went for dinner at Hamazushi, which is always good :-)
Friday was a pretty good day, if expensive :-( For starters, I had to put down the 10,000 yen reservation for next week's trip to Shimoda for the conference (which is refunded at the end, thankfully). Then, I discovered that the reason my phone had stopped working was because my tutor had been late paying my phone bill -_- So, first off I had to pay 2 months' worth of phone bill, which came to about 16,000 yen (fuck). International texts accounted for about 2,000 yen, which I didn't understand, I didn't think they were THAT expensive. However, for the next 5 months my contract is free, so all I'll have to pay for is the add-ons, like international texts, calls late at night, messages to other networks, etc. Plus, the phone's now in my name at last. On the way back, my tutor took me to Tsukuba YouWorld (now I know where it is ^^) so I could buy a cable to connect my phone to my computer and transfer stuff (I just tried it and it's not working; I can't find the driver software, so I'll need to ask someone about that -_-). When we got back, I got my slides checked over again, and have to write a script and make some more adjustments over the weekend. I also met a couple of the people who are joining the lab in the spring. After labs, I walked back to meet Derek so we could go and eat. Ueda, one of the guys from my lab, came with me as he needed to get to the bus stop by Hirasuna, which was on my way. He ended up coming to have lunch with me and Derek at Fuji-sen (the Hirasuna cafeteria was closed). I never realised before, but the owners of Fuji-sen have a pet cat which was walking around :3 I petted it a bit while we were waiting for food, it was sooo cute ^^ After dinner, Derek headed back, and Ueda and I went to Coco to meet everyone. After a few drinks, and waiting for a bunch of people (who'd also been to Fuji-sen, a while after us) we went to Shein's. As always, a very eventful night :-p For starters, someone had brought out a permanent marker pen, and Shein was letting people write all over the walls. I'll admit, I went a bit crazy over the course of the evening XD I started by writing 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' ('This is not a pipe'), then drawing a pipe underneath it (a reference to a famous piece of French art). This got the attention of a bunch of African guys sitting nearby, and I got talking to them a little, though it made me realise how much French I've lost :-( After that, I got Ueda to write the Japanese incantation for the Indignation spell (in the Tales Of series), which he got a little wrong, which surprised me as he's a Tales Of fan apparently. Then I ended up writing a few movie quotes, a few spell incantations, and a couple of my poems which I had saved to my phone. A bunch of people were switching shirts, though I managed to get away with not doing so. I was also tricked into buying a drink: Shein came over and said 'Let me get you a drink', which made it sound like it was a freebie. Once he'd made it and given it to me, then he said 'That'll be 500 yen'. I should have known better, he's known for being a slippery character -_- At about 5.15am, I decided it was time to leave
This morning (Saturday) I slept through the alarm I'd set, so I ended up waking up at just past midday. I got up, grabbed a bite to eat from the 100 yen store, and cycled up to Iias for my usual McDonalds wi-fi run. On the way, I went into WonderGoo and found another 4 cheap Pokémon Special manga, bringing my total up to 14; I'm only about 1/3 of the way through my collection, as volume 37 was just released :-( Actually, I just remembered something - I have a couple of Japanese Pokémon Special at home, a present from my Japanese friend, so my collection is actually up to 16. Still, got a way to go ^^' After coming back from Iias, I made a stop at Dayztown to play DDR, but lost on the second stage as I chose Difficult mode :-( While cycling around, I debated over whether or not to buy Tales Of The Tempest for 500 yen from Book Off, but I decided to hold fire on that for now, as I've spent a lot these past few days, and I still need to do Christmas shopping; if it's still there in a few weeks, I'll get it then.
So now I'm back in my room. It's only 4pm, so I'll update again with what happens during the rest of the day at some later point. I may go to Shein's again for salsa night, depending on who else is going. I'll at least go and say hi to everyone outside the combini, even if I don't actually go to the bar. In the meantime, I should work on my presentation. Bye for now :-)
[Edit: In the end, I didn't go to the salsa night. Me and Derek went to the Chinese restaurant for dinner, after first trying gyoza, which was full, the cafeteria, which was closed, and Fuji-sen, which was also closed. We bumped into Cenk and Bianca there, and we all ate together. Then, Derek invited me along to Mo's with him for a tea party; we had scones and muffins and cake :3. I ended up falling asleep on the floor for about half an hour, only realising when I saw Mo had wet hair when I opened my eyes XD Then me and Derek cycled back at about 1am.]