Before Any Thing Else Happens

Episodes:
• Cell phone: learned a bunch about the pre-paid cell phone stuff here. If you get a pre-paid cell phone, you need a prepaid card. One card per phone number. there is no sharing. Next, 20 is the legal adult age in Japan. The big one, you can drink, and more importantly buy your own cell phone! XD I was denied, and had to get special permission from the school...and Kenny was given a hard time by the cell phone company since he's even younger. the last JSP student who isn't yet of age got her phone from some place in Harajuku. Lastly, your phone account won't be deleted unless it has not seen any activity in the last 360 days. Thus this means that if any future JSP students want to borrow a Japan phone from a predecessor, you can. lol, so now I have double the amount of phones than I have ears! ha ha, my parents had teased me about getting stopped at the air port on the way back home at the end of this semester cause I have so many. - Air port security might think i'm a terrorist...then I'll need to give up one of them and launch into a lengthy explaination of why I have them, what they do(n't). So me phone number will be changing in about a month, when I start using my own phone. ^_^
• Sunrise from the TOP of Fuji!: Darn, that was a long one. Yoshida Trail. Start: train station 5:40am, get to a post office some where in shinjuku by 730. Absolutely amazing timing for one of us who was running late. She made it on the bus with a couple minutes to spare. Got to Fuji with a tour group to the station u spend a few hours at, then it's on your own, at your own pace. Overnight huts -  not over night, didn't sleep. Reach the top w/the other hundreds of people who want to do the same in the dark to watch the AMAZING sunrise ^_^ good experience. Summit: 3776m above sea level. Cold, windy, beautiful, tiring, fun, community building, hmmm... the descent. After the sun rise, we were all like... we gotta climb down now don't we? aww, man, never thought about that part. ha ha, good times. totally worth it. this pitiful description doesn't do it justice. There was also an onsen included in the tour package. ~(-.-)~ ahh.... 'twas wonderful.
• Bus Ride one night: got lost ^.^''' yes, it was storming with lightning and thunder - da works man. Ran into my friend Kenny at the train station, and he lent his umbrella to me cause it was raining real hard. Time: about 8-9pm. I took the wrong bus, realized it before the fare went higher than my pass would cover, got off, and started back tracking until i hit an intersection i thought i recognized, continued along that road to an open shop, asked for directions using the map i had in my bag. Fortunately enough, there was also a HUGE map, the size of the wall in the store too! what luck! The walk was about 40 minutes long i think. Good exercise. Got back home just as my host mom and sister were about to leave the house to go look for me. Host sister was upset i came back when i did, she apparently saw it as some kind of an adventure, to go wait for/look for me at the wrong bus stop (the one I was supposed to go to). Later, come to find out that in my haste to get off, I had forgotten my wallet on the bus. Didn't figure that out until the phone rang, and i heard my host mom talking about it. We got it back the next day thank goodness ^_^. Every thing was still inside too.
• JSP Undou Kai: a couple days after fuji. slightly sore, but fun. I got to be goalie when we played soccer stuff. Jammed my finger into the ball, but it'll be fine in about a week. don't worry, we played japanese games too. Japanese dogeball. like shambattle, but not. and this other game that involved tails made from strips of plastic bags, teams, and lots of running. Get as many tails as you can, once your tail is pulled you're out, and the last team standing wins! Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and wanted to do it again. We played on the fields you see in movies...except it was muddy in certain areas from the rain. ;p all the better right? ppl slipped, tripped, slid, and made funny noises.
• Traditional/old fashioned Candy lane: MUST GO BACK before I return to America at the very least for the candy that looks like sushi and taiyaki! There were like 6 different kinds of tai yaki there! and a billion different candies, intermingling with around a hundred plus different kinds of potato snacks...there was also this bread thing that was like 3.5' long.

Things to come: 
Tomorrow is Ruru's Undou Kai, and sushi!!!!!! XD Sunday - Make Beef Stew and learn how to make a sweet potato thing...I really want to make and take my own bento for lunch! via supplies from the 100 yen store! <- some day in the near future though ^_^ Monday - no class! Another lesson in fashion from Host family's junior high school cousin :D always studying...some thing ;p going Harajuku. School...homework...yea. oh, then holiday on thursday! an school friday. Should make plans for Thursday. hmmm...that's about it for now. I should go to bed, seeing as it is almost half past midnight here. goodnight!