Last Tuesday, I joined the Tea Ceremony club at my school. Silly thing to do. I have club after school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and I don`t get back home until 8:30. I was already exhausted and then I had to go and add even more to my already overflowing schedule! See, aren't i silly? I really ought to think before I act. But the club IS really fun. So far I`ve learned the proper way to fold the orange cloth that is used to clean the bowl, tea scooper, and tea holder during the ceremony. Those things all have special names, but I cant remember them. I also learned how to act when offered tea. The whole thing is rather complicated. Also, on Mondays I do Japanese flower arranging. Ive only done it once, but it was rather enjoyable. We did a triangle style with daisies, carnations, and red branches(from a tree). Also since I joined the club, I`ve started walking home with two girls named Ayumi and Ayame. They`re both really nice. Yesterday, we were talking about America and I told them that I had seen obama in person. They were very amazed. Also last week, was my school`s sports festival. So much fun! Although I actually didn't do much, I only had two events in the morning and then I just watched for the rest of the day. But it was still fun. :) Most of the events were pretty normal, like relay races, and tug of war, etc. But some were really weird. Like when everyone got dressed in their club outfits and raced. They also had to do certain things at the checkpoints that had to do with their club. Like the kendo peeps had to perform a fighting sequence and so on. Yup. That`s about it.

So a while back(this was before I got my ipod)I was riding the train on my way home from school and all of a sudden this Japanese woman starts to talk to me in english. She asked if I was an exchange student living in japan. I was so surprised that I answered immediately. Then we got into a conversation. Apparently the woman was on her way to narita airport to pick up her sister who was returning home after spending several years living in America. The woman on the train had also lived in America(Michigan, I think) for several years. I told her I was here for six months as an exchange student, but I`d only been there for a little while. The whole experience was so surreal and unexpected, I really didn`t know what to make of it.

Well, I have to get off to take a bath and go to bed soon, so yeah. Oh! And tommorow, I have a day off school(don`t know why) and so I`m going to a Japanese history museum with my host mom. That`ll be fun, right? Anyways. Night.