Tomodarchis

Today was a meeting at school for all the American students, and then an event for all the students.  These things were about five hours apart, and I have no pictures from the latter event, so you will mostly be hearing about the in-between time.

This was written on the desk I sat in during the meeting.  In America, desk graffiti is not something I would photograph, because it's almost always hideously obscene.  In Japan, vandals just want you to know about their home town.  Anyway, after the meeting (we got shirts!), I headed back to my host house because I had missed my alarm somehow and had not shaved or straightened my hair yet because of it.  My host family was off doing something, so I just sat in the living room and watched TV until it was more or less time to leave.  I got lunch at a convenience store.  Here it is.  Not the greatest thing ever, but convenience stores will heat up your food for you, so it wasn't all that bad.

This is where I ate it.

I decided to walk to school (it's about fifteen minutes by bike) because in Japan, using an mp3 player while riding a bike is illegal, and I wanted to listen to 4minute's new song some more.  I did that.  As I walked I got a bit thirsty, so I stopped at a machine and got DRAGON BALL SODA.

It was orange soda and didn't taste all that different from orange soda in America.  The difference here, primarily, was DRAGON BALL.  I was never a huge fan when it was playing in America, but when given a choice between a can of coffee with a company logo on it and an orange soda featuring characters that can shoot world-destroying lasers, I will always pick the orange soda.

I ended up walking with some other American students to the station, and Sophie and Seon-Ah until about half way to their apartment.  Sophie was not feeling great today for reasons I cannot divulge here, but I almost ended up buying her an ice cream because I told her that's how Americans feel better.

This is just the school at night.




And this is a street near my house.  Also at night.  It's a bit frustrating that my camera is unable to capture the nighttime scenery around here very well, because Japan after dark has a special kind of ambiance about which I've dreamed for years.