Candy will be the death of me

Little candy shaped like Pokemon and Totoro :)
So cute and DELICIOUS...but deadly.
I had 4 of them.
My hands wont stop twitching.

Nara ( The Land of a butt-load of deer)

These deer are crazy with a capital C! If they so much as see you with some food they will literally charge towards you.
But after you feed them they let you pet them and oh my gosh they are so soft and tiny and adorable that I was able to forget the fact that the same deer rammed head first at my rear just a few seconds ago.

Unfortunately I now have an irrational fear that a deer will sneak up behind me, head butt me and somehow eat me.

My t-shirt still smells like fish...

I witnessed a guy literally pull a giant maguro (tuna) out of a tank, chop its head off, skin it (while the fish's body was still spasming) and then proudly display it.
But the fresh sashimi tasted great. Until my host mothers friend told me that she saw my fish move on my plate as I poured soy sauce on it...
It smelled bad.
Like, really REALLY bad.
But it was alot of fun to see all the weird fish for sale.

Oh and also I saw a Kamen Rider show (*ahem Japanese 3 :) )

Frozen

This country has an unhealthy obsession with this movie...
But that obsession produced some very tasty bread.
If I hear "Let it Go" one more time (English or Japanese) I swear I'll start swinging.

Toaster

I wasn't kidding around about the toaster guys. Its very real.

Summer Festival

It was a magical evening. I think it might have been the best day I've had so far on this trip :)
Oh and that last picture of me standing in front of a poster pointing to a red dot, well that was a game of luck where a spinny-wheel thing rolled out a colored ball and it determined your prize. I got the red ball. Which is the jackpot. I am now the proud owner of a new Japanese toaster.

Cleaning and Gifts

Well I've been in school for a while now so I decided to give my closest friends a small gift from the U.S. I don't think I've ever seen anyone get more excited to get a bag in my life. They were full on fangirling. It made me very happy :)

After school also we have to sweep the floors and basically wipe down every single nook and cranny until you can eat off the floor. (The teachers put extra emphasis on that last part. They're scary strict.) But we get to wear cute little aprons so its ok :)

The Great Gatsby Body Wash

Now you can be poor farm boy but smell like a rich man.

Rita

This cat I swear...>u <

Food <3

Just some of the delicious food my host mother has made for me. She is the nicest person ever. But at this rate, she'll make me fat ;P But I don't care, its all so yummy! For my welcoming dinner we had a sushi feast. It was heaven <3

Japanese School

I don't think I've been called cute so many times in my life. My first day of school and I'm already, as my new friend Konoka put it, a superstar. I was a rare and foreign specimen that was exploring new territory. But instead of feeling lost and overwhelmed by all this attention, it was welcoming. It was refreshing to know that everyone was anxiously awaiting my arrival.
My school is going overboard with regulations. They had to make sure that my hair was natural and not "dyed", it has to be in a ponytail, black shoes for outside, white slippers for inside and you have to wear a uniform that is way to long and heavy and makes me feel like a nun (quite literally, because there were nuns everywhere at this school) Its actually pretty hilarious because the uniform they gave m was way to big and way to short for me. The American teacher at the school was joking because their past American transfer students were much shorter and uh...bigger. They were so surprised that I was super tall( I found out 2 hours in my first day of school that I was the tallest student...word goes around fast at this school).
But all in all, the girls a this girl are super sweet. They think everything I do is super cute, they are amazed by my Japanese and they fight about who's gonna sit next to me at lunch :)

P.S. There is a 40 min lucnhtime AND NAP TIME !!!! For 15 min we just sleep. It is GLORIOUS!!!

Berkley Orientation

So, the first part of my adventure has finally come to end. And what a fantastic journey it was. Many a memory was made inside the Putnam lounge and dorm rooms at Berkley University.
The plane ride itself was a pleasure. After switching places with a woman from Economy to Business class, I thoroughly enjoyed a 5 hour flight balancing studying for the ACT and watching Almost Human, Elementary and Thor :-).
After realizing how simple my Japanese is, embarrassing photos, AN ALL YOU CAN EAT COLLEGE STYLE BUFFET for every meal ( I honestly believe that I gained 2 pounds from all the fro-yo I ate ), and classes that drilled into our brains to NOT DO THE DO!!!, I was finally ready to embark to Japan.
But of course, fate and bad luck loves to screw with me and had a completely different plan for me and my fellow exchange students. We got stuck in an elevator.
For an hour and a half.
With 22 sweaty people.
In the heat.
And sweat.
Did I mention that it was hot as hell itself?
Yeah it was that bad. But I'm thankful that no one got seriously dehyrated or worse. But lets just say that personal b inoundaries were trampled on and completely destroyed. But being stuck butt to butt ( literally) with a cute sweaty dude wasn't so bad at first at least ;-). It was unanimously agreed that, and I quote, " Our dignity can suck it, is effing hot and I'm taking mah shirt off!!". So everyone,EVERYONE, started stripping. It truly was a moment bonding through skinship. I would have taken time to admire everyone's physique, but ya know, I was occupied with trying to BREATHE through the moist air.
So an hour and a half later, a whole playlist of kpop songs and several life stories later, were finally free!!!! The head of the orientation staff greeted us with a "yay you guys are freeeee and naked wooo".
All in all, it was a pretty swagtastic orientation. I made lots of new friends and I am so ready to go to Japan :-)
Also I think that technology failed epically because when we landed in Tokyo it said we were off of the coast of Africa....

FORGIVE MEEEE

I would like to start off by asking all for your forgiveness for my extreme tardiness in actually posting anything. I have a legitimate reason though!! Hear me out, the  prefecture that I am saying in has yet to allow homes to allow wifi (its really weird I know) so in order to post anything I have to go to the mall which is a bit far from my home. But have no fear :) I now have a bike so I can easily get to and from the mall so I will try to post as many things as I can :) Expect something once or twice a week. I will post as much as I can so please bear with me :)