I apologize in advance for the long post, I don't have the ability on this app to have an lj-cut. :(

Sorry for not writing for the past few days, it's been quite tiring... So on Saturday we went to Harajuku, Shibuya, Tokyo Tower and then came home. We walked past the Johnny's shop before anyone was in there. :) we didn't get in the huge line to go into the shop though, as we had other places to go and we couldn't spend all day in line (even though I would go back and get in line if we had one extra day). So we went to this knock off kind of place near Takeshita-dori, where I bought a pink "I ♥ 8" t-shirt (although it's the infinity sign, I just can't type it on my phone) and a cute dress/shirt. :)

Went next to Shibuya. It was cool! Took pictures of the billboards (Tegomass, NYC Boys, Maki and Sho, YamaNade, and BM2), went into HMV. Going back to Shibuya right before we leave, because I want to raid the drama section again. XD

Tokyo Tower was awesome! I have lots of pictures and video on the walk there, will upload those when I get back too. I'm scared of heights, but surprisingly it wasn't that scary up there. :)

We had planned on going to Akihabara, but it was getting a bit late, so we headed back home. But before we took the bus from the train station, we stopped at Book Off (officially our favourite store, great items at cheap prices). I bought a lot of manga (I don't read much usually) at ¥105 a book (great price right?). And then I bought Mei-chan no Shitsuji DVD set. :D

On Sunday we went with our first host family to Tokyo Disney! I like Tokyo Disney a lot better than Magic Kingdom because the rides aren't meant to scare little children. :) and then we went with our new host family out to dinner (which is not a common thing in Japan, but since it was our last day with them...). We had fugu, shabushabu, and lots of other yummy things.:)

Monday we rode the Shinkansen to Kyoto (I gotta tell you, Kansai people are soo nice!!). I saw snow for the first time in my life XD. Went to Nijo-jo, Sanjusangendo, and Kinkakuji (golden pavilllion).

After dinner we headed out to find a bookstore (because I needed volume 5 of zettai kareshi to complete my set), and while at the bookstore I found Kanjani8 OC fanfiction manga! It's really funny and cute (and not terribly OC, because there's not a romance between the OC and a member).

Oh, btw, outside our Ryokan is this:

Koyama. :)

Yesterday was more touring. Tried zen meditation (popped my hip), tea ceremony, and had a mini-soukon in the first shrine. Then went to Lawson and saw this (didn't see the special bread that inala mentioned though):

Will be in search for the bread tonight (we're going to Hiroshima). :)

Also found ya-ya-yah manga. It's so cute and chibi.

Also, we walked a long time yesterday and found a DVD/CD store on the way back and got the tegomass DVD a few hours earlier than other people. XD

Will report more, and tell you if I find the bread!

So today was the last day of class on the trip. Starting Monday we are off to tour more of the country. Tomorrow we plan to go to Harajuku and Shibuya and Tokyo Tower and Akihabara. We haven't been to any of those places except for Harajuku (we want to go back and buy clothes and look at the johnny's store).

Today was kinda boring... Yesterday we had a guest speaker who is an enka singer. He was pretty awesome. Today was a guest speaker who graduated from my college and is now working in Japan. He told us a lot about living and working here.

Oh, and I swear I'm being bombarded by cute guys here. See a few really good looking ones a day. Too bad only the high school ones even look at me...

So at lunch I was waiting outside the mcdonalds while others bought food (I bought my food at a conbini, Japanese food. I didn't come here to eat American food.). And a few tables away from me in the tables outside was this really cute guy. He looked a bit like Takaki Yuya, so I wanted to be sneaky and try and get his picture. My phone camera wouldn't zoom in enough, but he didn't even look up when I pulled out my regular camera to take a picture of him. XD I'll post that picture later.

On the train ride home there was a good looking guy directly across from me; so being the creeper I am, I took pictures with my phone (only plural because I was trying to get one of his face). XD

LOL. I'm such a creeper. XP

And finally, after shopping a bit in the plaza, we headed back towards the bus stops. Got drinks on the way there. I finished mine and noticed that we still had time before the bus came, so I went to throw it away. As I came around the edge of a sign, a guy (also cute) was on the other side. I went right to avoid him, and he went the same way to try to avoid me. So then I went left. It was back and forth until I jumped out of the way, and then he continued down the sidewalk. It was odd. Later I came up with the idea that I should have let him hit me and then say, "help me." in Japanese. XD LOL

Well, big day tomorrow. Too bad I didn't get to see YamaNade tonight... Oh well, I'll watch it when I get back in a little more than a week. :)

So I'm on the train to school, but I'm going to be late because the bus was late and then there was an accident that held us up for 10 minutes...
Yesterday was fun. We went to Kamakura and toured the shrines and temples there. And saw the big Buddha. When we got back to our home city, we went shopping at a bookstore in a department store and saw the Happy Bath Day campaign! It made me smile.

Sadly, yesterday during our Tokyo Tour Kura and I learned that Nozomi-chan (the daughter in our homestay) caught the flu. Therefore we have had to move to a different host family. It was a very sad event because even though we had only been with the family for 3 days, we really liked them and connected with them... They asked us to visit this next weekend when we have two free days. We really want to go back and visit them one last time before we leave, so that will be a perfect time.

On the Tokyo Tour we went to Meiji Shrine and prayed. It was a really cool experience because on the walk to the shrine there were a lot of beautiful ice sculptures. I will upload the pictures when I get back to the states, because this computer is really confusing (Japanese computer).

We then went to Harajuku. We didnt go to the official Johnnys store, but we went to 3 other Johnnys places along Takeshita-dori. Got some papa pics of countdown and other events. Hopefully we can go back to Harajuku and go into the official store on one of the free days...

Then was Senso-ji Temple. I presented the information about this place to the class. ^-^ And when we were about to enter the walk to the Temple from Kaminari-mon, a group of highschoolers walked by and one of them turned to me and very enthusiastically said "HI!" to me. It was really funny because other people earlier that day had done the same thing. One guy even asked to take my picture. LOL. I guess its because Im blonde. XD

Today was a sad day. The rain outside fit the mood that Kura and I were in. We really didnt want to leave the family, but its not up to us to decide. The new family doesnt have any kids.... the mother is a junior high english teacher though, so communication will be easier, but we had already had a good system with the other family even though they didnt speak english other than what was in a phrasebook or little words.

Oh well.... GNight friends!

First, to answer your question Gen, I have permanently switched host families to Kura's family. My original host family's daughter caught the flu and is better now, but I'll still stay with Kura because it's really hard to communicate with the family and I don't want to leave her by herself in that type of situation. Also, she really helped me when I had a panic attack, so I want to kinda be near her incase another one occurs. :)

So anyways, yesterday was a very good day. I felt a lot better and less nervous. We went shopping with the host family, and when we reached one floor of the department store WE SAW THE NEWS RUSS-K LINE hanging up with their pictures (like in the ads). The host family noticed our excitement as we named all the members.
Makoto-san (father): "Sugoi"
Chisa-san (mother): "I like SMAP!"

It was really cool to sort of bond with them like that. We later showed our knowledge of Japanese TV (and Johnny's) and watched SMAPxSMAP with the family. Nakai was hilarious btw. ^_^

Bought a hankerchief at the ¥100 store. Had DELICIOUS udon and shrimp temura with rice for lunch. And then for dinner the family took us out to a Sushi bar. It was sooooo good!!! I did learn one thing through these eating experiences though; Kura and I don't eat as much as Japanese people do..

Well, gotta go take a shower. We are touring Tokyo/harajuku/meiji shrine/asakusa/watching sumo today.

Here's the view from our window at 7:00am.

Btw, @Gen: KURA SAYS HI! *waves*

Sorry for not writing the past two days... It's been really hectic here. My host family doesn't speak ANY English, so I'm worried... I had an anxiety attack last night. I think I scared the family... But it's okay now. I'm staying with a friend from school at this host family, so she helped calm me down a lot. I can't imagine what would har happened if I wasn't with her...

Anyways, here's a picture of the koban near the trainstation and IES center. I'll update more later today.