I couldn't sleep well last night. I sleep until exhaustion mode wears off, and then I wake up in the middle of the night to find it difficult to get back to sleep. I managed to sleep about three more hours, however, before I woke up yet again, giving up the battle. I figured 8:00 AM was a good time to get online and see people on facebook from back home, though. And it was! It makes me so happy to get comments and to chat with everyone!

After computer time, Kaylie and I headed off to campus. I took a video of my walk there and I hope to have it up on youtube sometime! Please be waiting for it! We left a little early so we could go buy phones, but alas -- there was a huge line of us foreigners and before we knew it , they ran out of phones. We're going to try again tomorrow though!

We then headed over to the CIE (Center for International Education) lounge to meet my speaking partner, Megumi! It was sort of stressful waiting for her... She didn't send me her picture, so every Japanese girl that walked by, I got a bit nervous! But, she found me!

We went and had lunch at the McDonalds. IT TASTES EXACTLY THE SAME!!!! I was so happy! It was like a little bit of America was there just for me! The chicken nuggets tasted a bit different, but for the most part, everything was deliciously McDonalds tasting. Although, at Japanese McDonalds, there's better service, of course. There were no chicken nuggets, so instead of having me stand there and wait, they told me to go ahead and get the rest of the food. The cashier helped me carry my tray. Although, I was a bit dismayed to discover that Japanese McDonalds does not serve water. I had a Coke instead. My first pop in nearly four years, I think! It wasn't bad though.

We talked for about an hour and a half - my longest continuous Japanese only conversation. I think I did pretty well ! There were only a few times where I wasn't able to explain myself fully. We talked about all sorts of things! We discussed our favorite music artists for a bit. She asked about if I had a boyfriend or not, so I talked a bit about Bryan. I felt cool that I got to throw in the traditional "aitai yo!" line (I want to meet him / I miss him).

I asked her if she can drive a car and if she had a license, which she does. Driver's licenses here cost about $3,000 to get! She was astounded to discover you can get one here for about $20. We compared licenses too! Ohio's license is pretty advanced compared to Japan's. You can't even scan a Japanese one, and it's not plastic like ours. You can't scan it either. But I guess that's because it's not used as an ID, since most Japanese people do not have driver's licenses.

We talked a bit about our families. She has a 26 year-old brother. I told her all about my siblings. She also asked me if we all lived in a big house. I told her that I didn't think it was that big. She then asked if I had a pool, and I said I did. She laughed and said "Yeah, you have a big house!" I guess any American house is big compared to a Japanese one though!

I told her about the Nihongo House -- it took a bit of effort to explain the concept of a campus theme house, but we eventualy got there! I was trying to tell her about how we did Mameshiba skits at the international dinner last semester, but I wasn't able to explain it properly :/.

We talked about so much....it's hard for me to remember! Eventually, I had to go to orientation activities, so she walked with me outside, and immediately started saying how cold it was. I laughed a little, and told her how for winter, the weather here is very warm! I'd say the temperature was about 45 degrees. I was actually sweating a bit in my coat because of the sun! I'll have to find out what the usual temperature for an Ohio winter is in Celcius so I can tell her.

I went back to the CIE in order to open my bank account! The whole process is so precise and detailed.

1.) You must not make any mistakes on the form. NONE.

2.) You are not allowed to write over any lines. Example: when you write a lowercase "n," you usually go down, then trace up the straight line to make the hump. Japan does not allow such activities on official papers!

3.) Your name must be written in the exact order of how it is in your passport, and you have to write it exactly how the text appears. Example: You have a "J" in your name. If the "J" does not have a line over the top of it in the passport, but you write it with a line, it will not be accepted.

4.) If your name is in all caps in the passport, you have to write your name in all caps!

5.) We had to create our own hanko signature! A hanko is a stamp that bears your own special signature that you usually use to stamp official paperwork. However, since we do not have stamps, we had to create it in such a way that we could write it EXACTLY THE SAME WAY four times. I guess mine were passable.

Interesting cultural note: On bank papers, you have to write your birth year in terms of the year of a certain Emperor's rule. I was born in Showa 63, the 63rd year of the last emperor. The current year is Heisei 22, the twenty-second year of the current emperor.

I successfully completed my papers, then went and paid off all of my fees at the Shomubu (Faciliites and Logistics office). Kaylie and I went over to the CIE again to sign up for a tour of Kyoto! I'm very excited! Then we went and took pictures of campus before heading home.

We're about to go on a field trip to the convenience store -- I need some food! I already was able to purchase some almond crush Pocky (the best kind :P) and a chewing gum called "Fit's." I've seen the commercials for Fit's on TV before, so I was really excited to see it live and in person! It tastes pretty good too. I'll be putting up some pictures in my next entry, but for now, I have to get ready to go on the trip.

Mata ne~