Saturday night Sean and I went to Kyoto and stayed in a place called the Gojo Guest House (we didn't want to get up at 4 in the morning on Sunday to get to the test). Gojo ended up being a really cool place to stay! http://www.gojo-guest-house.com/ We got up Sunday morning, followed all of the other Gaijin toward the test (we figured that almost all the foreigners out and about in Kyoto on a Sunday morning at 8am were probably going to take the test too). The test was difficult, but not impossible. I think it is possible that I passed (cross your fingers for me) but I am really close to the cut-off line at any rate. The test people were so serious and made the whole thing more stressful. Many times we had to sit there in dead silence for 10 minutes waiting before starting the test because every single test site in Japan had to start at the exact same moment! The proctors didn't even speak, all the instructions came over a loud speaker, even the 5 minute warning. It was strange (but then it has been awhile since I took a standardized test). One bit of excitement though: The reading/grammar section was really easy but they gave us 70 minutes, so I finished really early, checked all the questions several times and was still waiting for the 5 minute warning. I was getting a bit bored when all of a sudden they come into the room and accuse the Russian girl several seats behind me of writing funny things on her test (they thought she was cheating). She wasn't taking it though and starts yelling back at them in Japanese in the middle of the exam. They finally dragged her outside the room where we could all hear her yelling for another 5 minutes. I feel bad for her, but it was a great break in the tedium of the test. I also sortof think that if she could yell that well in Japanese she probably would have passed the test.

After the test I went to Osaka to do some shopping (but after trying on a few $300 shirts I decided that maybe shopping in Osaka isn't all its cut out to be). I met up with my friend Anja and we went to a restaurant called Cafe Absinthe. It was so cool. They have 7 or 8 different kinds of absinthe and have nifty absinthe cocktails (I had absinthe with burnt sugar and chcampagne poured over the whole thing). The food was fabulous too! (Musakka, Tapas, Kabab- so much more ethnic than you can get in Fukui). The woman who worked there kept chatting with us and answering all our questions about Absinthe- she even brought out a bottle of Russian absinthe that is made with wormwood still (the smell is so different from the Prague absinthe). She then gave us a suggestion for a club called Noon (formally called Dawn, but apparently dawn had passed and moved on to noon). http://www.cyberjapan.tv/contents/osakaclubguide/noon_e.html
They had DJs from Kyoto that were doing mixes with Jazz. Then there was a live group that came on and played. The club was great because it was funky and so small we kept running into the same people over and over and chatting with the DJs and the people who worked there. The only thing is that it makes me want to live in Osaka so I can go all the time! The trip back to Fukui at 6 in the morning after dancing all night was not a fun one.