Please, don't touch me for the next week. I Got horribly sunburned this morning on my face, arms, neck, and legs. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think my legs are actually the worst! I have been wearing pants ever since I got here. I only have one pair of shorts (which are swimming trunks) so obviously my legs are white as snow. I really, really hope that I start changing colors after this one...
So this weekend we went to Karuizawa for the second time funded by the Japan Study program. This time however, a lot of the kids in my program were either lazy and didn't feel like coming, or had work and could not get away (mostly the former.) Out of the 30-some people that are here, not even half of them went! To make up for this, there were a lot of Japanese students that came along with us. They are Waseda students who are going to GLCA colleges for a year study next year. Over the weekend we became pretty close friends. Also, the 5 students here from my school also came with us, but I didn't get to speak with them too much. Michiyo said that they were trying to keep the Case kids and the Japan Study people separate because they are not associated with JS at all. Still, I wish I had the time to meet all of them a little!
So on Saturday morning we I woke up at 7 in order to catch the bus at Baba at 8:45. I actually managed to get a decent amount of sleep because I did not stay out on Friday night. It took 3 hours to get to Karuizawa. On the bus I got to know a few of the students such as Yuji and Yosuke. I also convinced everyone playing mariokart to switch over to tetris. We had a 6 person tetris game going on! It was a lot of fun. Don gave us a choice of stopping at somewhere he called a "volcano park" which everyone voted against as there was no molten rock. It was supposedly just a museum and an old volcano that we may or may not have been allowed to climb. Instead, we chose to have an extra hour or two of free time at Karuizawa.
As soon as we arrived we had a short meeting once again explaining the rules of the place. Throw trash in the right bins, rent out equipment if you need it, watch out for wild boars, ect. Everyone then did a short, 10 second introduction with name and college. Then we were forced to explain a little bit about what happened on our spring practicums. Only one person per group had to go, but since I went alone to Niigata I had to speak. I could go on for hours or even days about Niigata, but think I got my point across in the 5 minutes allotted. It sounded like Aaron had a hellava time at the ski resort Hakuba, and Kanjina and Joe also did at the Zen Temple. I'm just glad I got to play with kids all day. I have been thinking about Niigata recently and need to give them a call sometime in the future...
Now we had lots of free-time until dinner. 4 hours to be exact. Some of the Japanese kids went to play basketball in the rain. I declined and played ping pong with Louvie for about an hour. By this time both my hands were completely frozen so we both decided that it would be best to go in and heat up by the heater. I found John studying and Michael playing DS in our room. I joined Michael and passed the rest of the time until supper.
After dinner we finished up the meeting that started earlier. This one was geared towards the Japanese students going to America this fall. We explained some of the dangers of college parties, roomates, and drugs. There were some interesting skits by student on our side. They were completely improve, but everyone did a good job. Finally, we ended our session by talking about re-entry into America for all of us. It is finally setting in that I will be back in the states in a mere 8 weeks.
Obviously I am not looking forward to being back in the states again. Well... That is not completely true. I want to mix different aspects of both worlds and create my own, new one. I have 8 weeks to finish up all of the things I want to do here, ship all my stuff home, and say goodbye to everyone.
Which brings up another point; Are all these friends I have made over the past year simply going to disappear? I got some phone numbers this morning and realized that I have over 115 contacts in my phonebook. At least half of those people I email on a weekly or even daily basis to ask if they are free to hang out. All of these people have had such a big impact on my life that I can't just let them go. The problem is when will I ever get to see them again? They all have their lives, I have mine. Our paths will probably not cross too often in the future because of the huge 13 hour plane ride between Japan and America. It is very depressing. When I look back to even my college friends, besides Vaso, I have had little to no contact with any of them. An entire year being separated from everyone will have a huge impact on our relationships when I get back.
That is why I have decided to finally start using Facebook. I never bought into the whole "Social Networking" or "Internet 2.0" websites, but like so many other people I have finally come around. Let's face it, E-mail does not work for keeping in contact with people. For some reason I cannot seem to use it for anything other than getting news about school or different internet newsletters. It is amazing how many people are really "into" Facebook now. Even most Japanese college students have an account. Currently the only way I have to contact people right now is through my cell phone, which will be rendered useless once I get back to the states. I may still be able to text message people though my American phone, but I would need one with Japanese support (I-phone?) in order for that to be of any use. Therefore, Facebook seems like a good way to go.
Sorry about the ranting but it is all true. After the meeting was over, we had the drinking party. It was not nearly as extravagant or loud as the last one. It was much more calm because of the lack of people. Actually, none of the big party people from our group showed up so it was a nice change of pace from normal nomikai's. I finally met all of the Japanese people. Under Sonja's influence, we started up a game of pictionary. I had some great ones like moon, and train. Yeah, not my game of choice.
The party moved to one of the sleeping rooms, but turned into a nice pillow-fight. All of the futon, pillows, and blankets were spread all across the room making a giant bed. It was amazing. The highlight of my night was when Asuka gave me a massage! I was lying down and out of nowhere she jumped on top of me. I paid her back the next day when I wasn't under the influence. We had a bunch of dogpiles withing all of the futons. It was great fun. Sadly, nobody stayed to sleep in that room when the party was over. A group of us went to Askua's room which had 8 bunk beds and slept in there. I think it was the right choice because I slept all through the night.
The next day I was not hungover! Just still a little drunk and dizzy. After downing my liter of water that I brought, all was well. The entire morning was ours for the taking! It was bright, sunny, and warm. We spent the day tossing the frisbee around trying to get an ultimate game going, but once that failed decided to play something else. The game was volleyball and it lasted for over 2 hours! We had to put up the nets ourselves, but it was totally worth it. This is most likely where I got my sunburn from. Surprisingly, I was quite good compared to some of the other people. I was getting in a lot of spikes and only made a few mistakes when it came to bumping the ball. It was nice playing with both Japanese and Americans because there were words flying around in both languages. The best part was that everyone understood what was being said. This was the most fun I have ever had playing volleyball.
So after that we packed up and came back to Tokyo. I got a little sleep on the bus, but ended up talking to Rui and Megumi most of the ride back. I am seriously going to regret spending all that time outside tomorrow. My arms and legs are already starting to burn!
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