Things are looking up

Ok, sorry again for the long hiatus. Believe it or not, I have been too busy having FUN to blog at all. So I created the ultimatum for myself, only to discover that I really only had one option: I HAD to stay. Let me explain:

Angie, our supervisor, came to see our site on Friday. Before camp began we had breakfast together (just her and I) and we talked about how I felt. Thursday was a rough day because the field trip left me fatigued...and so on Friday I felt ready to call it quits. Angie explained how EXPENSIVE it would be for me to leave early--since it nullifies my contract I would owe back part of my stipend and have to pay to get myself home. I can't afford to do that...so my only option was to make the best of my time here.

Later that day I got another piece of good news. Angie was impressed by the program we are running, she said it is one of the best she has ever seen! As a reward she has removed the buddy rule from our site, this means I can travel wherever I want and whenever I want to all on my own! This gives me a lot more freedom!

On Friday I went to Roppongi to meet up with the embassy kids to celebrate Jeff's 21st birthday! Afterwards we went to Shibuya and did Karaoke, we danced and sang all night! We had SO much fun we had to RUN TO THE STATION to make the last train, and then had to SPRINT to the subway to get on a train to Hiro-o. It was one of the best nights ever.

On Saturday (yesterday) I went to The Pokemon Center and Akihabara with Jeff and his director Hank. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see the Tokyo Bay for the first time (though it was an AWFUL view).

Earlier this week I got to go back to Ueno for shopping, visited the shrine as Asakusa and went to Korea Town with Shu and Brittney. Brittney was in Seoul last year and was craving some Korean BBQ. Shu ordered me some vegetarian fare that was SOOO GOOD (and Kimchee cooked is actually not that bad!). Shu and Britt ordered some bacon something...which was cooked right in front of me. It has been a while since I saw meat cook...so I felt a little nauseated after that.

For about 24 hours, I thought that Autumn might be able to come and visit me. She has always wanted to come to Japan, and having a place to stay the majority of the nights would have made the trip really cheap for her. Unfortunately her parents don't think the trip will be worthwhile because she won't be on a service project or working for school. Personally, I think all forms of traveling are educational and worthwhile....but I suppose there is nothing I can do to change this. I would be lying if I said I was OK that Autumn isn't coming. It really got my hopes up; I started to plan out things that we can do, I made inquiries about booking tours, I walked around Kamata for two hours last night doing research on all of the hotels trying to find the best deals. I really miss her a lot, and imagining how much fun it would be to have her here was so exciting. Hearing that she can't come now is a huge let down.

I do have SOMETHING to look forward to: next weekend I am going to KYOTO! I am so excited, I am so happy I was able to get tickets! I will be going with the Embassy, so it should be a TON of fun. I am also going to try to go with them when they take on Fuji-San at the beginning of August--there is SO MUCH GOING ON.

I need to take a shower soon because I want to check out a festival that is going on at a local shrine here in kamata (I saw them cleaning up yesterday, hopefully it is still going on!). Afterwards I am planning to go to Ikebukuro to see the Female Otaku Capital of the World (i.e. the Shoujo Manga and Anime burrow of Tokyo).

I will blog again and post more pictures soon! I love you all, miss you tons!