From the land of the dead

By which I'm referring to my appartment. My terrace to be more precise. When I arrived in my appartment I was surprised to find my terrace (in all its 1,5x0,5 glory) being squatted by a rather large and definately dead beetle. At first I thought it was a cockroach, but to keep my piece of mind I firmly decided it be a beetle from then on. Well, one day I was hoovering (it's only been that one time, really), and I diligently removed the squatter from my property. However, the next day I awoke to find a dead cricket there instead. I didn't think much of it until I brought my brand new rubber ducky into the house. It'll only float belly up :( In a week or so I'll probably have darkhaired japanese ladies crawling out of the tv and hiding in the cupboard. Too many japanese horror movies? Me? No way!

Imminent doom aside; on Monday we (the MaiDreams-crew as we now call ourselves) went back to Tokyo in hopes of finding the Imperial East Gardens open this time around. Which we did. It was a nice day for a walk in the park, sunny, but not too hot. The Gardens are as beautiful now as they were when Eirik and I went there 4 years ago. Nothing had changed at all, it was as if (pardon the clichè) time had stopped. As we went into the corner of the gardens with the small streams and the koi fish I got a huge lump in my throat, because I could so vividly remember the times when Eirik and I walked there. We were being so silly and romantic in that garden, so when I now stopped at the waterfall where we got our picture taken last time, I had to stop myself from crying outright. God, I miss that man so much sometimes. But maybe we'll have time to return there when he comes in January to watch it in winter. If it's open that is.

After walking down memory lane we decided to go to a whole other side of Tokyo, both literally and geographically; Harajuku. The district was bursting at the seams with people from the moment we went off the metro; it's kind of crazy looking at such an amoun of people in the same place, when you come from a small town like Molde. Molde's population could probably fit in there ten times over. We didn't do much there except looking at the japanese street fashion, but that was an experience in itself. Karianne and I briefly (we had two guys with us) snuck into a few stores, but we couldn't really find anything we wanted, which is kind of amazing taking into consideration that this is a shopping district. In our defence, a lot of the stores are big brand stuff like Gucci and Tiffany's and that kind of stuff. I was afraid they'd charge us for breathing their air if we went in there, if the appearances of the shops where anything to go by.
We crossed trough Harajuku into Shinjuku, but by the time we got out from the arcade we wandered into it was about time to head back to Togane. We stopped by a small bookshop at the station to buy some manga before we left, and I bought the first volume of Vagabond. I've read it before in English, but in a fit of wild confidence in my abilities I decided I was ready to read it in Japanese. After looking at it when I got home it was appearant that I'd need a new kanji dictionary, plus a heavy dose of patience.
So the day after I went to Wonder-Goo (electronic's shop, and yes, it's the real name) to buy a Nintendo DS. Why you say? Because appearantly a DS is cheaper than buying the electronic dictionaries they want as to get, and the program you buy for it lets you look up words and kanji just as well. Plus I found a used Super Mario game for 1300 yen, you can calculate into your preferred currency yourself, I'm too lazy to get up at the moment.
I did not, however, find the program I needed for the DS dictionary that was the whole reason I bought the thing, and after checking the electronic's store close to school it seems I need to go way across town to check the store down there, and if they don't have it there, head in to Tokyo. I hear we'll be going there at some point for a school trip though, so hopefully I won't have to go to Tokyo just to get that one thing.

Today started out as one of the worst days here yet. I was woken up by the doorbell at 8.30 by the rest of the crew, who were all ready to go to school. I was certainly not. After a whole lot of swearing I spent the next ten minutes washing, drying and straightening my hair, while getting my clothes on, putting makeup on and packing my pack simultaneously. Fast forward another 20 minutes, and I start wondering whether I unplugged my straightening iron before I left the house. I decided I did (I always have, though I always think I've forgotten), and we went off to school. The first period the teacher decides to give us a pop quiz. On the first day! Now, I had studied for this lesson; studied the kanji and read the dialogues and written notes in my textbook. I did not memorize all the vocabulary for that dialogue, which was exactly what the test was for. Good grief.
By the next lesson I am seriously worried about my straightening iron, and the whole lesson through I picture dark smoke on the horizon and the smell of burning houses. My anxiety aside, it was a great class. Our teacher turned out to be Akiko, who was our assistant teacher last year. She's such a sweet person, and I'm glad to have her preparing us for the JLPT's.
After this lesson I borrowed Yumi's bike, and zoomed back to my place to check on my straightening iron, all the while imagening a Togane in flames on the news accompanied by violins and the sound of crying children. The iron was of course turned off, so I swapped into pants (after showing my thighs off to the locals when biking home) and zoomed back to school.
I arrived for our last lesson of the day red-faced, sweating like a pig and with legs as mushy as the noodles I chowed down at home. From there on, however, the day turned itself around, much to the honor of which goes to our new teacher, whose name I have written down on a piece of paper that has mysteriously vanished at the moment. All in all a great guy; cheerful and with a good dose of humor and self-irony (if that's even a word in english). He had us all introduce ourselves and state our hobbies etc, and when he found out I played Dungeons & Dragons he called me hardcore :D
He must be a real smart guy too, because from what I could make out (he spoke only in Japanese, and very fast), he's studied at pretty much every big university in the US, including Princeton. Intelligent and made of awesome. I already I know I'll love this class :)

The latest news is that we'll get our bikes tomorrow after the opening ceremony, which may not sound like a big deal, but it really is considering the distances in this town. So yay for that! Now I'll just have to try and survive the next few months, since appearantly people get run over all the time here (when they're not jumping off bridges, we've been warned of traindelays).
Also, Kobayashi (our student councellor) says we'll get internet in the first week of october, and since october starts next thursday, I think I can manage. Though keep in mind that the time Josai runs on is usually slower than the one the rest of us follow. But for now, I'm thrilled at getting a bike, and now that I have a date to look forward to for the internet it'll be much easier to cope :)

Note to self: update more often to avoid wall-of-text's. Obasan out!