Day 1 was good. Jazmin picked me up at the airport, thankfully and brought me to Ayumi's house, which is only 8 stops away from her house. We had dinner, which I mentioned previously, chatted, and then i passed out at 11 in a nice warm bed.
Day 2 was windy. But I had no idea, because I spent most of it sitting in my room trying to finish my paper which is due on Jan 1st, EST, which means I have til like Jan 2 at noon here, thankfully, cause I really need it. I now have about half of it done. I spoke with Ayumi's grandparents, again, super cute, and had tea and then headed off to Jazmin's for dinner. Dinner was delicious, as always, and everyone's English is pretty good. I only wish I knew as much Japanese as they know English. Epic fail America.
New Years Eve isn't really a big deal here, but we headed out, met up with people from Jazmin's school and chatted. Everyone has been soooo nice. They say they're shy, but I just think they're nice. We rode trains, and arrived at Tokyo Tower for the celebration. Jazmin spent a good amount of time teaching me how to countdown from 10 and repetetively told me how to say "Happy New Year!" The actual countdown was not that flashy, the Tokyo tower was lit up and rather pretty, but the best part was right at new years. There people holding a couple hundred balloons, clear, plastic ones, that all got released at midnight. I really wish I had a picture. But as they were all set free in front of me with a Buddhist temple in the background, I was completely awestruck. For about 2 seconds. And then the wind blew them in different directions and they scattered and were still pretty, but not quite on the same level.
Afterwards, we left the area and went back to where we all met up to go drinking. For 2100 yen you can have all you can drink, which apparently is cheap, but i really should have had more to drink. I think the best part of the night was my extensive use of Spanish. Yes, you read correctly, Spanish. Unfortunately my brain doesn't seem to have different language settings, but rather, first language or foreign language, and in most cases foreign language for me means Spanish. So as I had more to drink I spoke more Spanish with Jazmin and other people on the program who knew some from high school or were learning it here in Japan. So cute. I did learn some Japanese, don't worry, and I try to pick up more everyday. Drinking was fun, we stayed out til 430 ish, talking, and looking at cute people and then eventually headed back to Jazmin's where I spent the night.
Day 3. New Years Day is a much bigger deal here. Instead of Christmas cards, people send New Years Day postcards, which magically all arrive on New Years Day. It's also a day to spend with family, which is where Ayumi and her family are right now as I update my blog and then continue to work on my paper.
But for the coming hours it's me and Chemistry journal articles before I can really enjoy this wonderful place (which is super bike friendly! more on that later)
Lissette:
ReplyDeletedid you see people in kimonos everywhere on Jan 1st? no temple visits? stupid chem paper. bet your glad its all behind you!