Well, here I am, sitting in the CIE (Center for International Education) Lounge on the second Monday of classes, just beginning week three of the Japan experience. I think I'm going to spend a lot of time in the CIE Lounge. I have class every morning and class every day from 4:40-6 (sometimes with some classes in between), so I have a lot of free time every afternoon. My Seminar House is only a few minutes away by bike, but sitting in the lounge sort of gives Japanese students an OK to talk to you (whereas otherwise they might not - culturally not wanting to disturb/inconvenience you with a conversation you dont want). I like talking in Japanese. I relish the opportunity to do so.

I had the best weekend last weekend. If you want, you should check out the pictures on my Facebook. If you're not my friend on Facebook, then I might not want you looking at my pictures... In any case, I began the weekend (after getting out of class Friday at 6:15) with a lovely dinner at the okonomiyaki place right next to the seminar house and a few beers from the vending machine outside (yeah, that's right, there are BEER vending machines). I went with several gaijin friends to karaoke and we all sang the songs of our childhood, etc., etc. They do a thing called nomihodai which is all you can drink for a certain amount of time for a flat fee. I didn't partake (damn you mom and your low alcohol tolerance! Damn you genetics!), but several of my friends did. Also, though I had only "gone to karaoke" with four or five people, apparently all the Kansai Gaidai international students decided that Friday was the day for karaoke. The makeup of the place was probably 75% foreigners and 25% Japanese people. It was super fun to be able to walk into any room I wanted and know some people and sit and sing for a sec. Also, they had a tambourine and no one else could really shake it in time so I was tambo-ing all night. I actually cut my knuckle because I was shakin' it too hard for too long (heh). However, I did come to Japan to hang out with Japanese people, so I was a little annoyed.

Thank God for Saturday night, then. The school put on a "fireworks show" for us early in the evening. By "fireworks show", I mean they bought a shit-ton of sparklers and other handheld firework-y things and gave all two hundred students who showed up like ten fireworks. It was SUPER fun. After that, though, the night became one of the best of my life. My friend Tomoki was DJing (and absolutely killing it) at a tiny club near the train station by my seminar house. It's owned by a Kansai graduate and attracts a lot of Kansai students/recent graduates but almost no international students. In fact, my friend Emma (a 28 year-old Aussie) and I were the only two white people in the place. I was speaking only in Japanese all night. The people there loved that I was conversational and kept buying me tequila shots so that we could drink together. Damn, I hate the morning after tequila. But I do think I have found my new "watering hole," so to speak. It’s great to get out of the international student bubble, and this club/bar/whatever seems like the perfect place to do it.

On Sunday I also had a fantastic day. I met up with my speaking partner Kyoko and went to Fushimi-Inari, which is an old old temple in Kyoto with thousands upon thousand of torii gates (those orange gates you think of when you think of Shinto). The make a path up a mountain - it's probably four kilometers to the top (also, I've been thinking in meters and kilometers since I've been here - fuck the 'Murrican system base ten makes so much more sense). I had gone there when I came to Japan previously but only gotten about half an hour up. Kyoko and I walked up for almost two hours and reached the top. It was AWESOME. And after that I met up with some Wesleyan friends who are all studying in Kyoto this year! Im lookin' at you Biko/Alex/Niko. You the homies. I was hardly at home all weekend, but it was the best way to be in Japan. I can't wait for next weekend - I hope it lives up to this one.