Here it is, people, the long awaited blog post (just humor me). Many things happened during the time I didn`t blog, the two most interesting being going to an onsen last sunday and to see Les Miserables today. I`ll discuss today first, since it`s still fresh in my mind.
So apparently my entire school goes to see a play once a year, for cultural purposes. Last year it was Elizabart, the emperor`s wife. (I probably got the title wrong, it was really hard to understand what they were saying.) This year was Les Miserables. My host parents were both busy today so I rode the train to the Imperial theater alone. I didn`t get lost, and I was very proud of myself. The only difficult part was finding the exit in the train station. The station had all these random tunnels and passage ways and ticket booths, and there werent any exit signs until you actually got to the exit, AND there were about 20 different exits! Seriously confusing. But I eventually found the exit ticket thingies and then ended up climbing this random set of stairs to get out. The stairs had about 4 flights and about 2 flights up(the station was underground) there was a barber shop. Weird huh? Wish I`d taken a picture...... Anyways once I discovered the exit I then went to the theater. The play itself was fine, with lots of special effects and a good orchestra. But since I couldn`t understand the songs it took a bit of the pleasure away. The costumes were good, though. It was fun seeing all those Japanese people in old fashioned western clothes. Also all the men had pony tails. Yay pony tails! And I mean the hairstyle, in case you`re thinking of anything weird. -_- Anyhoo, that was my experience with the play. I won`t be going to school tomorrow cause I have this Japanese proficiency test coming up in about a month and I seriously need to study. Also tomorrow my host parent`s 60 year old friends are coming over for a BBQ. So I need to mentally prepare for being told over and over and over how `kawaii` I am and how much they envy me for being young. Which is the stupidest thing to be envious over. They were young too, or have they forgotten? It`s a trial on the nerves to put up with them. Speaking of them, I nearly went crazy dealing when I went to the onsen with them. They came with me and my host mom. They DO NOT know how to use technology. A three hour car drive turned into a six hour one because they kept missing the turns that their GPS told them to make. They also COULD NOT stay concentrated. For example: Host mom`s friend A"oh look there are so many grape vines!" Host mom(while driving)"You`re right!"(HM looks around(while driving) and inadvertently steps on the brakes, causing cars to honk and swerve. HM&friends look surprised and wonder why they are being honked at)HMFA"Since their are so many grape vines, maybe there is a winery around that corner!"(The hell kinda logic is that?)HMFB"Lets look!" HM suddenly turns around the corner, causing cars to honk *surprise*HMFA "Oh, there isnt a winery" HMFB" maybe there is one around that corner!" HM" lets go see!" And so on. This continued for about 30 minutes before we found a place that sold wine(note, I didn`t say "winery" I said "place that sold wine". Then it took us a further half hour just to get back to the place where they first decided they wanted wine. But enough complaining. The onsen itself was great, it was at the foot(not literally) of mt. fuji so i got to take pictures, and it had delicious food and I got to wear a Yukata(just for pjs, though). The onsen also sold some really weird Japanese foods, which I wanted to buy but didn`t cause they were rather expensive. Well, anyway. The experience was worth it overall, if only to prove that I am pretty good at keeping my temper. HM&co. never discovered how incredibly annoyed I was. Anyways my host mom keeps looking at the clock and then at me so I figure it`s about time to get off. I`ll continue this post tomorrow, if I have time. Well, Ja ne.