I went to the Symphony last night. My host mother forgot to tell me about it though, so I ended up wearing jeans and tennis shoes. Slightly embarrassing, but being a gaijin (foreigner) I can get away with almost anything. The symphony was great though, they had a fabulous conductor who was so energetic that he looked like he was always about to fly off the stand. He was throwing his arms every which way. It was really fun!

One slight complaint- the Japanese don't believe in heating. They have every other technology under the sun, but they don't believe in heating. They don't heat the classrooms, they don't heat the houses. Even worse, they leave all the windows open. It is freezing, you can see you breath, and the windows are open. I want to yell at them all "We aren't living in a barn, shut the windows!" That means I really am turning into my parents. My personal mission in Japan is to close every single window!