OK, so there is always so much to say.

Friday we went camping in the mountains, I don't know where exactly because I keep forgetting the name, but it was lots of fun. There were 13 students and our professor and we stayed in a cute little Japanese style lodge. We had chicken, salad and french bread (I love french bread and we never eat it over here). Then we made sukiyaki and sat around talking all night. The next morning we didn't roll out of bed until around 10 and then we went hiking. Actually I woke up at 7am and went on my own hike before everyone else got up. There was a beautiful waterfall and stream near the lodge, so I took my shoes off and walked up the stream. When my friend Rebekah got back from her hike we discovered that there are leeches in Japan. I had never seen a leech before so it was a new and interesting (if somewhat gross) discovery. We all went on a longer hike up to another waterfall, and a few of us decided to brave the leeches and went into the water. Once we got back we realized that the people who went into the water didn't have problems with leeches (although there was one in my shoe it hadn't bit me yet). Apparently the leeches sit on the shoreline and climb up people's socks. Someone even said that they will fall out of trees onto you. EWWWWWW!!!! I kep having nightmares about leeches.

Sunday Rebekah and I went to an Ikebana exhibit. Some of the arrangements were very pretty, but some of them I wondered what the people were thinking. There were a few hideous arrangements. After the flower show we went shopping in JR towers (which is a mall on the 12, 13, and 14th floors of a building over the Nagoya train station). We went to a fabulous Italian restaurant and had tiramisu for dessert. YUM! I should have studied in Italy. They don't serve fried green gelatin there. After lunch we went to the Nagoya City Museum and saw a Magritte Exhibit. It was really incredible. The museum's permanent collection had a really wide variety of peices, from Chagall to Frieda Kohla to Diego Rivera. It was really neat. We went to a yakiniku place for dinner (which is like Korean Kalbi). They had tongue which was delicious, but the stomach and intestines were not so good. A bit too chewy.

Today was my first day of Japanese Econ and the professor is a riot. He said the whole class is centered on what is wrong with the Japanese Economy. He said that there is nothing in Nebraska but cows (I thought Lindsay would appreciate that) and that Japanese students are lazy and stupid. He is writing a book in English and thinks his editor is crazy and he was asking our advice about certain words to use and told us we should write to his editor and tell her she is crazy. Jonathan (also from GW) and I want to put him in a suitcase and bring him back to GW. ''Pres. Tractenberg, we brought you a new professor.'' Now I'm off to see what the swim team is like. Wish me luck.

Oh, and I made friends today!

The banks here are the coolest thing ever! No really. So you slide your bank book into one slot, place your cash into another slot. It counts your money for you, asks if it is the right amount, and then balances the bank book for you and prints out the balance. I never have to balance a checkbook again (In Japan) The machine does it for me! I LOVE LOVE LOVE technology. So wonderful.

I'm reading a book called White Oleander right now. It is really amazing, but it made me realize that I would never be a truly great artist or author. I'm simply not tortured enough. Oh well, guess I'll have to find something else to do. The book was apparently on Oprah's book club, and I tried to explain that to my host sister and mother, but I just got blank looks. I get a lot of blank looks. We watched part of The Man in the Iron Mask last night. Terrible terrible movie! How anyone could like Leonardo DiCaprio is beyond me. There are so many actors who have more talent and are more attractive. My host sister is in love with Leo though. She has apparently watched the movie over 20 times (from what my host father said) and she runs around singing songs from Titantic. And I thought that trend had finally ended. Oh well.

I learned how to make tempura last night. Oh so yummy! My host mother is going to teach me how to make Pumpkin Koroke's soon. That is different from Karaoke. They are kindof like mashed pumpkin (or potatoe) inside a fried bread crumb. Yummmmm!!!!

I'm going to get a bank account today! That will be exciting! HA HA HA! That is assuming the crazy bureaucracy doesn't eat me. It is like a crazy monster! Yesterday I actually managed to buy a train pass. It was a very exciting moment for me, mostly because it took me so long to figure everything out. They really don't like to make things easy in this country.

This is cool: Terri Benitez taught me how to do debate in high school.

So quick summary of the weekend:

Friday: McDonald's day. We have started a trend of giving in and treating ourselves to McD's once a week. It's really not too expensive, the sizes are just smaller (aka normal). After school we went to dinner at the spagetthi house and then sang karaoke! I love karaoke!

Saturday: After breakfast I was recruited to the kitchen. Whoever said Japanese moms don't make you cook was wrong. Very very wrong. I helped to make these odd little dumplings called dango. They tasted like gooey rice. I made 60 of them. Then I had to make rice cakes covered in bean paste. I didn't actually get to eat any of it because it was all taken to the grave of my host grandmother and offered to her. It was interesting to get to cook though. Saturday night we went to an Italian Restaurant because Okasan (mother) was too tired to cook. It was pretty good food, but the best part was that we saw Taiho. He plays for the Dragon's baseball team. No�@one in America will have the slightest clue of who he is,�@but over here he is very popular, so it was exciting.

Sunday: Rebekah and I went hiking at Nagiso. We caught a 7:30 am train but missed our stop because the refreshment cart wouldn't get out of the way. We were really mad. So we got off at the next stop. Got bad directions and wasted an hour hiking up and down a mountain (although we got to talk to a little old lady on her farm, and there are cows in Japan, I heard one). Then we walked 3 miles back to a different train station where we got to our original desination around 2pm. Then we took a bus to the top of a mountain and saw a bunch of little authentic villages and hiked down the mountain. The whole area was incredibly beautiful. Sunday night Shana, the Fukuoka's last exchange student, came out to dinner with us. She is very nice, and is going to teach English near here for Aeon. The cool thing about Aeon is that they have Ewan McGregor on all of their posters. I'm trying to obtain one for Liz. It's tres amusing.

Monday: Another holiday off from school (this time for the Autumnal Equinox) I finished up some homework. Took a nap, was incredibly lazy. I took a walk for a few hours just to get out of the house. I found the 100 yen store (which is about 90 cents). And I hiked up a hill to a temple that overlooks 3/4 of Nagoya. It was a beautiful crisp day. Not hot, but not quite cold. I could see most of the city contrasted against a clear blue sky. When I got to the top there was a man playing jazz on his saxaphone. That really made my day. When I got home I was again recruited into cooking, this time it was good food though. I made pumpkin curry and what looked like cheese eggrolls, and some other stuff. If I keep helping out with the cooking I will be a gourmet chef when I get home.

Join the trend! It's CHOU cool!

So I remembered where I had read about Kannon (although this describes a different temple than the one I saw):

''[Kannon] is a goddess. She was born in China nearly three thousand years ago. Her father desired her to marry, and on her refusing ordered her to be decapitated. The sword of the executioner shivered across her neck, and did not harm her, so she was condemned to be smothered. When her spirit reached the abode of the unhappy, its presence rendered the place so enjoyable and beautiful that Ema placed her on a lotus-flower, and sent her back to earth and life. Soon after [Kannon's] return her father fell sick, whereupon she fed him with the flesh of her arms. The authorities gave orders for a statue to be erected to her, but the sculptor, instead of merely representing her with two arms, gave her a thousand. For many centuries there was no temple to her in [Toyko]; however, one day a Ronin noble, who, in order to earn his rice, was reduced to fish in the Sumida River, was hauling in his net, when he found in it only a small figure of [Kannon], which he returned to the stream. He repeated his cast in a number of places, and always drew in the same figure. Struck by this singular occurrence, he quitted fishing, and taking the goddess to a shrine that stodd near the present temple, deposited it, and from that grew the mighty fabric we now call the Temple of [Kannon]. [As for the lone fisherman] he renounced his occupation, turned bozu, and died a saint.'' --- Young American in Japan, by Edward Greey

So something usually happens to put life back into perspective. My host mother's mother died on Tuesday night. I feel really bad for my family, even though I didn't know the grandmother. Everything has been very chaotic since then. My host mother ran out of the house with my host grandfather (it was his wife who died) around 8pm in a mad panic. Then my host father and sister came home. My host sister was a wreck, then they left again a few hours later and didn't come home until 1am. Yesterday I saw my host father and sister for a combined total of 30 minutes while we rapidly ate sushi and then they left. I don't really understand what happens when someone dies in Japan. I know that people are cremated, but the funeral rituals confuse me. Probably because noone has been in my house to explain them. It has been really lonely at home. It is hard being in the house when they are going through such a painful personal experience. I feel like an outsider that doesn't belong.

Tonight I am going to a step aerobics class and a fight attack class with Rebekah at her gym. It should be fun. I've been jogging a little in the park near my house and it is absolutely beautiful. Especially now that it has cooled down, although I lied. The mosquitoes are back in full force. And my Ikebana teacher only speaks in Japanese. It is difficult to figure out what he is saying because it is all about 45 degree angles and the subject and object of the arrangement. I'll figure it all out eventually. I took a lot of notes that I don't understand and need to go home and translate them.

Things that are beautiful:

The first red maple leaf to fall to the ground
A swarm of butterflies
The evening sun against the kitchen wall
A small girl watching a bug
Mist around a waterfall on a warm summer day

So this weekend was loads and loads of fun! I went to Karaoke in Sakae (an area of Nagoya). We found a Karaoke place that was cheap and included drinks, so we were very excited. Saturday Rebekah and her family took me to Kyoto. First we went to Sanjusangendo Hall. It is a shrine to the diety Kannon. There were 1001 statues of Kannon, all of them gold plated life-size statues with 33 arms. Well all except the giant one that also had 11 heads. It was really really amazing.

We went to the Kyoto National Museum after that and saw an exhibit on the history of the tea ceremony. My favorite part is that I was able to see several paintings by Mu-xi. Denise understands this. Mu-xi was a 13th century Chinese artist under the Song dynasty. He painted a picture that is called Six Persimmons and is really cool. I was so excited to see some of his other works (and not just out of a book). It was neat because of my art history class there were a lot of the paintings and statues that I recognized.

We ate lunch at a fabulous little tempura restaurant in the Gion District that only had 3 menu choices and 15 seats. By the time we left there was a line around the block. You may have heard of the Gion district, it is famous for being the home of many Geisha houses. We were actually able to see a Geisha (only 1 though). It is apparently very difficult to see Geisha (unless you are a rich man). We did some shopping, saw some Geisha houses.

Then we went to Nijo-jo. Nijo-jo is an amazing old castle. It doesn't look like a castle from Europe, but it was huge. It had 2 moats, the main house had 33 large rooms. All the rooms had gold paintings covering the sliding doors inbetween the rooms. It was all so beautiful.

Monday we didn't have school because it was 'Respect for the Aged Day' I made my host family french toast and then studied and took a nap. It was a nice mellow day. It has started to rain here, which is fabulous! Normally I'm not the hugest fan of rain, but it made the mosquitoes go away and cooled down the weather, so now I like rain a lot!

From Friday, because blogger hates me:

So much to say.

I hate bureacracy first of all. I tried to buy a 3 month train pass this morning, after 4 different people had told me that I could use a credit card at this one specific stop (which was out of my way). But I went there this morngin before classes. Then they won't let me use a credit card, then they speak really fast in Japanese so I don't know what they are saying, then they won't let me back on the train. I snapped at one poor man and was going off in my broken Japanese and the guy didn't know what I was saying. He finally made a call which I know invovled the workd Gaijin (foreigner) and probably the word crazy repeatedly and then let me back on the train (without the pass though). I was ready to pull my hair out by the time I got to school this morning. They just can't make it simple.

I talked to my host mother and host sister yesterday about my host father. For those of you who don't know I've been having some problems with my host family. They assured me that he doesn't hate me and that he is just very blunt. My host mother's advice was to suck up to him. Fabulous. It did make me feel better to talk to them about it though, at least they know how I am feeling now.

I get to take Hanga again! They opened up another section, which is sooo exciting! That makes me love CJS again. CJS is the center for foreign students, and they have been so accomadating it is incredible. Especially after dealing with so much GW bureacracy all the time, it is refreshing to find someone that cares about the students. I also love my two culture classes. One is on Society and Language and deals with sexism in Japan and the heirarchy system as it is expressed through the language. The other one is the view America has of Japan (as expressed through fiction). We watched part of a movie about Mr. Moto. Mr. Moto is a Japanese international policeman, but he is played by a Hungarian man. The only actual Japanese actor in the whole movie is killed off in the first 10 minutes.

NO MORE GREEN GELATIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE GREEN GELATIN!!!!!!! Especially when it is fried. She just keeps trying to serve me leftovers of the nasty green gelatin. It is called konyaku and made from potatos, but is still nasty and greasy. Another food I don't like: Melon Bread. Really really weird.

I would once again like to thank my lovely friends. Anyone who sent me e-mails on my cell phone (Kat, Kate, and Erin) and anyone who is sending me tea from a random country that shouldn't have things like constant comet (Denise).

Summary of today: The weather cooled off, fried green gelatin should never be served for breakfast, I passed my first Japanese test, and green tea icecream is the best thing in the world. I wish there was more I could tell you, but that is all I have the energy to write. Oh, and I definitely look like I am coming down with the chicken pox. The moquitoes here must be quite creative because they are turning my body into a piece of art (albeit red, polk-a-dotted art). I can definitely make out the shape of a frog on my leg. I'm wearing so much bug spray that I smell like the forest. Maybe people will think that is the newest scent in America and I can start a trend!

I was reading Denise's blog about the Iraq war thing. I've been having the same problem explaining that I don't support everything that my government does. My host father got in a long argument with me about how noone in the world supports the U.S. attacking Iraq. He didn't seem to understand that I agree with him and think it is a very bad idea. I hope that the war doesn't start. My mother laughed at me today and said now she can rub it in that she didn't vote for Bush and I did. Bad mistake (me voting for Bush I mean).
Reasons Bush is stupid

I'm not getting any marriage proposals though (I guess you are alone on that one Denise).

Well Hanga was in Japanese, but I apparently didn't need to worry. I got kicked out of the class. I've never been kicked out of a class before, it was quite an experience. They said I was just too rowdy (ha ha ha). Actually there were too many people in the class and so they took names out of a hat and 10 people had to leave. I was one of those lucky ten. Yippee! I'm actually very disappointed because Hanga is the one class I have really been looking forward too since I left the US. We watched a video on making Hanga before I got kicked out and that just made it worse because I really wanted to do it. IT is so neat the way they carve the wood and layer the different colors onto the paper. But alas, it is not meant to be. Gotta run, I'm going to be late for dinner (more tofu and fish, I never realized there were so many different ways to prepare fish). Love to all!

Denise is going to be so proud of me, I'm learning all about baseball, because we watch baseball every night. My host sister jumps up and down screaming at the dinner table. It's hilarious just to watch her (she is 14 and very spirited about everything). Everyone in Japan is very interested in baseball. Ichiro is like a national hero, and they are all absolutely devoted to their teams. My host grandmother in Kanazawa (she was 83) would start jumping up and down yelling when her team got a home run. She was so cute.

If anyone is putting together a care package (hint hint) and wants to know what to put in it I would love love love Constant Comet tea. That is the only flavor I can't seem to find and I am desperately craving it. Even one package stuffed inside a letter would be wonderful. I can find a lot of American foods here (I even found Baskin Robbins candy), but there are a few things that I can't find. Most of what I eat is fish and tufe and vegetables, which is very healthy. But every once in awhile I want meat, so the other day I had to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The funny thing is that they were playing American Country Music inside. I felt right at home.

Hanga (woodblock printing) class starts in a few minutes, so I have to be going. I really really hope that it is not in Japanese, because Shodo is taught entirely in Japanese. Ugh! Hope to hear from you all soon!

I hate hate hate blogger sometimes. I had just typed a long message and it all got erased. Here goes again:

I went to Karaoke with my family last night and was starting to bond with them a little bit. We sang lots of Beatles songs which was great, except that they all sound like professionals and anyone who has ever heard the pleasure of my singing knows that I can't carry a tune to save my life. But we had a good time and they tried not to grimace too much when I sang. I should explain Japanese style Karaoke: it's not in a bar like in America, but you get a private room with just your party so you can sing more songs and not embarrass yourself in front of lots of strangers. Much better idea. We ate dinner at the Karaoke place and my host mother ordered beers for us, which was nice.... if she had stopped there. After the beers they ordered SOJU!!!!!!!!! Christy understands the torture that I am speaking of. Soju is a very, very, very strong Korean alcohol that tastes like rubbing alcohol. I didn't want to be rude, so I said that I would drink some. But everytime I managed to gulp down a little they would refill my glass. Apparently the rule in Japan is that when you don't want anymore you leave your glass full. They should have mentioned that in the orientation, it would have been very helpful (I would say as helpful as take off your shoes when you go into a dressing room). Anyhow, I have no idea how much I drank but by the end of the evening my singing had greatly improved. I remember ending with all of us doing the twist around the room (my 60 year old host father, my 40 year old host mother, my host sister and myself) while my host brother sang Pretty Woman. It was quite a riot, but I didn't feel so great this morning. But Kate sent a message to my cell phone which made me feel loved! That was especially needed because this morning I felt like death with a handbag (a very cute new Japanese handbag, but I still felt like death. Even dressed fashionably death doesn't look so good). But kate loves me!

I'm only going to look at the positive. I'll be like Pollyanna and play the happy game. Saturday Rebekah (a friend from California) and I took a walk through a beautiful park near our houses. It has a temple and graveyards and ponds and a lake, it's really neat. The moquitoes ate me alive too. It's a good thing I don't have to worry about Malaria or West Nile Virus here, I would definitely be dead by now. Saturday night we watched Independence Day, but it was dubbed in Japanese and had English subtitles. I have to say that Will Smith speaking Japanese is an absolute riot. I almost died laughing (Japan really is a dangerous country, I'm having all of these near death experiences). Sunday I laid around the house watching TV (on their giant plasma flat screen TV) and reading. My host father made tempura which is absolutely wonderful! We dipped it into special salt which is (get this) fortified with calcium and gold. The Japanese believe that eating gold is healthy for you. I actually have had tea with gold in it several times. I bought a vial to put in my cooking, more for amusement purposes than health reasons. I like pretty food, and with gold in it the food has to be pretty!

Today was the first day of classes. Before class we�@went to a bank to exchange our traveler's checks. no can do. There is only one bank in all of Nagoya (maybe a slight exaggeration, but the only one I can find) where you can exchange money. So we went this morning (after checking two other banks) and it turns out you can only exchange money between the hours of 10 and 3. Which happen to be the hours that I have class. We tried to ask why, because it really doesn't make sense. But of course no one could answer that for us. Japan is a strange country. There are certain ways that everything has to be done, and as a foreigner I don't understand why. In America if you can't do something, you find another way to accomplish it. Go to another bank, call someone. Here there seems to be only one way. They are very inflexible about things.

So we were late for class after the bank experience, but they hadn't started. We just did things that were review, but I really don't want to switch to a higher level. I have a feeling that it is going to get a lot harder and I am perfectly happy where I am. My Econ class this afternoon was canceled. YEAH! Tonight I am going to do Karaoke with my host family and my host father's son from his first marriage. We are going to sing Beatles songs! I will actually be able to read the words. I am so excited.

Ok, so things haven't gotten any better with my host family. I don't really fit into the family, and I don't feel at home in their house. I know that things will eventually get better, but it is difficult to be happy and enjoy this experience when I don't want to go home. My host mother is nice, my 14 year-old host sister seems more interested in the baseball games on TV than me, my host grandfather is very sick, but he is nice. The problem is that he doesn't speak any English, so we don't communicate very much. I have seen my host father once, he grunted at me the first time and said one word to me the second time. Once classes start I won't be home very much.

Speaking of classes, I signed up for them yesterday and got all of my books today. I'm taking Intermediate Japanese, Japanese Culture: Japan in Fiction, Japanese Culture II: Language and Society in Japan, Flower Arranging (Ikebana), Woodblock printing (Hanga), and I'm auditing the Japanese Economy class. It's a heavy load, but I should be ok. The language classes are 3-4 hours a day, and then the other classes are only once a week. I'm really excited about the art classes. I'm also applying for a work permit so that I can tutor English a few hours a week. It will give me a small income and let me see if I like teaching English.

Another exciting thing: I finally got a cell phone. If you want to call or e-mail me it won't cost me anything! My e-mail address for my phone is 09017825847@jp-c.ne.jp You can't send messages more than a few sentences though or it will cut them off. My phone number calling from the US is 011-81-90-1782-5847. Not that I expect anyone to call me, but just in case.

Not much else to tell. I'm going to a club with a bunch of Gaijin (foreigners tonight). The club is called Plastic Factory. It should be fun, and if nothing else will get me out of the house. (Don't worry Sharon, you won't have to bail me out of a Japanese prison, I promise....). Hope everyone is having a good time in their various parts of the world.

Met my new host family yesterday. I am having a lot of trouble because they are not as welcoming as my host family in Kanazawa was. I miss my okasan and otousan from Kanazawa. I will just have to see how it goes, I am sure that as we get to know eachother it will improve.

Don't forget that I want to get lots of letters:
Carissa Monfalcone
Fukuoka
4-116 Heiwagaoka
Meito-ku, Nagoya 465-0097
JAPAN

I do not have a lot of time so I will just give you some websites to go visit so you can see what I have been doing in the last few days.

Gassho Houses

Nagoya, my new home!

Goldleaf

My home for a week, and a fabulous city: Kanazawa!

Nanzan University