Yes I do exist! + (host) Family trip to Bessou

Oh hey everyone HAAAY yes, I do still exist! I've just been really busy this past week. But, as promised, this post will have pictures!

Let's start off with last Saturday, the day before I moved in with my HF. I met up with Yuki, my conversation partner from last year, and Maki, Kelli's conversation partner from last year!! We met up in Cosmo World in Yokohama, and by we I mean Emily and I met Yuki and Maki. Originally, Kelli was supposed to come too, but she had some... issues with packing and ended up not being able to! Sad times. But still, it was a lot of fun!

Emily, Maki, and I. Oh, and Mr. Polar Bear. This was inside one of the attractions in Cosmo World, an amusement park. This particular attraction was known for the inside of it being... wait for it... NEGATIVE 30 DEGREES CELSIUS. Which means about... NEGATIVE 22 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. It was... so... damn...cold. Here's another picture, this time with Yuki:

We went on various rides, all of which were a lot of fun. However, Yuki and Maki are pretty weak when it comes to rides that... well, move, to be honest. Here's them before the ride started:

And here's Emily and I:

The ride was super fun and not scary in the slightest, but Yuki and Maki screamed the whole time. It was hilarious, and I wish I had taken an after picture! You guys really went for it! Good job :)

After cosmo world, we went shopping for a bit, and I bought the most amazingly adorable pair of boots in the world. Here they are:

Yes, they were rather expensive.

Sadly I didn't take very many pictures on that outing, but next time I definitely will! Can't wait to see you two again!

The next day, as I posted about earlier, I moved in with my host family! Here's some pictures of my room:

One side of it, with a little built-in desk.

The other side, with bookshelves. Yes, those are all the books I brought or have purchased since I came here. Of course I just lied. You didn't almost believe me right there, did you?

There's also a skylight! Of course, I never open it, because it lacks a screen. What if a bird got in, what would I do then?? Now you may be asking yourself, where the hell is the bed? Well, shoot son, I'm getting there! (In case you're wondering, why yes, I do happen to be listening to rap right now!)

I have a futon! In the daytime, it's stored in the closet. Surprisingly, it's really comfortable. They told me before I slept on it the first night that if I didn't like it, they had a couch-bed they could bring in for me. No need! :D

Here's the view from the sliding-glass-door that leads to one of HM's little garden things.

And the view from the other window.
And perhaps my favorite thing about it?

Internet access... in My ROOM. Leave it to me to note this as one of my favorite things about my current living arrangements.

Nothing exciting happened until Friday, when we had this... Misono Seminar. It was a joint seminar with some KGU students who were studying English. The seminar itself was... well it was ok. Good points and not so great points, etc. The fun part of course, was the party afterwards. We went to a restaurant near Yokohama station, and had some food and dranks. Yeah, dranks. You read that correctly. Blame the rap.
Here's some pictures from that!

Emily! What's with that face? You were just so excited about that water you were drinking, I suppose.

The sole-male-exchange student in our group, Alex from Arkansas and... I'm sorry, I don't remember her name. Failure!

A more normal picture of Emily, drinking her beverage of choice: water. She's an angry drunk apparently, so she stuck with water.

Miho and I! She was one of the people in my group for the seminar.
Amusing story; during the party, they suddenly decided to make the exchange students give their opinions on the seminar, one by one. Of course, English was fine. But when they got to me, the leader-of-sorts told me to do mine in Japanese. I spoke in English first, then switched to Japanese. People were impressed. I was really happy. :) Afterwards the professor that directed the seminar came over to me and told me I was really good at Japanese, and to keep giving it my best, etc. It was really nice.

Afterwards we went back to the station, but since we weren't entirely sure how to get back to the station, we had one of the seminar students walk us back. And by us, I mean a portion of our exchange-student-group. I spent most of the time receiving compliments from said student about my Japanese, and complaining about... certain...people.　あの空気が読めないマイペースな三人。The people who know what I'm talking about, know what I'm talking about. That's totally a legit sentence right there.


The following morning, I left (at 8:00am, mind you) with HM, HD, and HG to Bessou! Earlier when they told me we were going, HM said that HD is always wanting to go to Bessou every weekend. I had no idea where Bessou was, other than it was about 3 hours away by car. I assumed, as well, that they stayed in a hotel when they went, which translated as a very expensive getaway. Too expensive to do every weekend. I was in for a surprise.
Before we got to where we were staying, we walked through this park with lots of little shops and cute Halloween displays!

Here's one of the displays~

HM, me, and HG~

Another display!

HD and HM!

HG and I!

A pretty view from... somewhere.

Anyway, after lunch (which was super delicious curry), we got to where we were going to stay for the weekend. Which was... their OTHER home, in Bessou. Shock! It was really lovely, with wood everywhere. By wood everywhere, I mean... well, you probably know what I mean. Floors and what not.
After relaxing for a bit, which included me up and falling asleep, we went to an Onsen. A hot spring that people bathe in. The baths are separated by sex, which obviously is telling. What you do, is in the first room you take off your clothes and store them, then you go into the next room and shower, then when you're done there, you can either go into the indoor bath, which is heated by the hot spring water. Or you can go outside and relax in the outdoor spring. We went into both. Luckily, in the bathing room the steam from the baths is so intense, I couldn't wear my glasses, which meant I couldn't see anything! Had I been able to see, I probably would have been five million times more embarrassed. Tons of naked people. Apparently the men have a harder time with it; HD was saying that he still gets embarrassed, and he's been to these loads of times.
Overall, it was nice! The water was sooo warm, and I'm looking forward to going to a bigger one next week; the exchange students are going on a 'study tour' to Nikko, and we'll be able to go to one then.

The next day, we went to this craft bazaar, which reminded me of all the craft bazaars mom and I have been to! I tried on a hat at one of the stands. Well, actually, the stand person came and told me it would look cute and put it on my head. I was surprised at the forwardness, but then I noticed she was from Kansai, and it made sense. Kansai people are not so reserved as those from Kanto. (Quick lesson: Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and others are Kansai, whereas Tokyo and Yokohama, where I am, and other areas are Kanto). The hat did look cute, surprisingly, but I ended up not buying it. It was 4000 yen (about $43!).
After wandering throughout the bazaar, HD turns to me and saying, 'So how about that hat? You liked that white one, right?' I told him, that it was kind of expensive and I didn't need it, but he told me it was no big deal, because HG is rich and she'll buy it for me. And she did! The stand-person was very glad, and so was I! Thank you, HG!

Odd side note; sometimes I translate the things my HF says to me into English in my head. And sometimes it comes out as Gangsta-English. As in, "Guuurl please, Gramma's rich fo shizzle. She'll hook you up." I think if I ever have a job to put subtitles on something, I'll make an extra version translated into gangsta-English.

But I digress; here is a picture from on of the souvenier shops near the bazaar:

Canned bread!!! Sadly, this was a gimmick. Apparently the stars are very pretty at night in this area, and so they had this whole space exhibit in the shop.
After this, we went to lunch, but on the way there, we stopped to take some pictures:

Mount Fuji!

More Mount Fuji!

The hay bales looked like little tee-pees!

The surrounding area~

More surrounding area!

HD and HM!

HM, HG, and I! The sun was so bright, looking into the camera was difficult and painful!
Then we went to this... cool place. Apparently lots of samurai movies were filmed there!



A statue of famous director Kurosawa Akira! I hadn't heard of him before this though, to be honest.

Cool costume.

Kurosawa's 1963 film "天国と地獄" (Tengoku to Jigoku) was translated into "High and Low" for the English title. I think "Heaven and Hell" would have been a more appropriate English title, considering tengoku means heaven and jigoku means hell, but whatever, I'm not the professional translator.

More of the place!

The view from the parking lot!

More view!

That night, we went to a Shamisen concert! We went to see 吉田兄弟, the Yoshida Brothers, and their style of shamisen playing is not the standard that you usually hear. It was more of a rock-style. I didn't believe my HM at first either, when we described it to me, but I found out that she was right! The music would've easily suited a guitar. Here's how good our seats were:

A perfect view of the stage! Of course, it was just the two brothers rocking out on their shamisens. Wearing hakama. Leah, you would've loved it. Here's a picture of them, courtesy of Google:

And here's a video of one of their performances:

Watch that, Dad, you would've loved the concert for sure.

The next day, we headed back to their house in Yokohama. But before I got a few pictures in!

Cute owls~ HG collects them.

Well, its the side of the house. With HD making an appearance in the corner.

HM, HD, and I. I'm wearing my hat!

HG and I!

I took a heaping bushel full of pictures of Mount Fuji on our way back. Here's one of them!

I must say, my camera takes some sweet pictures sometimes. Usually it annoys me, because when there's not enough light and I can't use flash, no matter how still I hold the camera, the picture will blur. You really came through for me though, camera!
Anyway, I took loads more pictures of Mount Fuji, so if you want to see them sometime soon, let me know!

Then we came back and I finished my homework.

And now it's 12:30 and I have class at 10:40 tomorrow, so I'll say goodnight for now! Enjoy that shamisen video. You better watch it, I am not kidding. I expect long comments, with a ratio appropriate to the length of this entry!

Goodnight, everyone!