Well this is it folks, I’m a-going home. I’ve lived through 3 months of rice, tea without milk, crazed Japanese females, Lots and lots and LOTS of badminton, and occasionally buying ridiculously awesome limited edition video games (Ill give you a hint, it rhymes with Kingdom hearts final mix).
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at where we left off last week, with my little problem of spending waaaay to much time at school. So what I did was (like a good exchange student) talk to my councillor in Japan. She talked to my host family, who then talked to the head of JFIE kyoto, who then talked to my councillor who then talked to a giant mascot shaped as a chicken who then - well you get the idea. It’s funny how sometimes you think you’re in the right about an issue. But then, even though you know you’re right, nothing changes. And so even though a lot of talking happened, nothing actually got achieved. So, tired of talking and getting down about having to spend so much time at school. I called my NZ exchange organiser. He completely saw things from my perspective and told me he would try and do something about it. To be completely honest, after talking to him I didn’t mind having to spend everyday at school. Just to have someone try to help me was enough, I think to get me through the rest of this exchange. The moral of this little problem (because I want to make it easier for my exchange experience to be converted into a very successful child’s book) is that “a little win goes a very long way” (don’t you feel gooey inside with this new wisdom?)
Overall I have had a pretty good exchange. I have had my fair share of low times and high times, and looking back over this blog, I think I have done a pretty good job of presenting this exchange. But honestly the truth is that this exchange has been hard. Very hard. Its funny: I think back of that first interview of applying to be an exchange student. The Organiser said it wouldn’t be easy. But to me back then, difficult was deciding which type of food to have for lunch, or trying to beat Guitar hero on extreme. Nothing could have made me comprehend the level of difficulty that comes with doing this.
But (and there is a big but…hehe), what I have learnt and how much I have grown, outranks all the difficult times combined, times 30. Looking back on that foolish, bohemian boy who left New Zealand thinking that it was his “destiny” to go to Japan, well that place I thought was Japan doesn’t exist, and that boy hasn’t been me for a long time now. No this exchange was not about those times when life has been easy, or hard, or bad. This exchange has been about the times when I first went to a sushi train with my host family, or first tasted that amazingly good meal that I didn’t even know existed (cough cough Yakisoba cough). The times that I got caught in a snowstorm walking home from school, or first visiting the beach after a very terrible day, the time I got a free glass of juice after sitting through a 4 hour seminar or the time my contemporary Japanese teacher wrote to me in a notebook. My exchange has been about the many times I went for a walk and discovered something new, or ate some new snack, or met a new person. The one constant thing that hasn’t changed about me over all these experiences, is that I have never once turned down an opportunity while I have been here.
So there it is folks, in the last part of the posting of this blog we finally realise what the purpose of me doing this exchange was. For 16 years of my life I have turned down many opportunities, its unthinkable. And you know what I am doing when I get home? I am spending 3 days at home, then I leave to Waitomo for caving school. So where ever you are reading this, be you friend or family, young or old, or even a future exchange student (and I would love this to become a resource for future exchange students), I ask you this: Think back to what you have done lately, have you turned down anything that you would like to have done now? are you living the life you want? because If there is one thing that I have learnt the most over these past 3 months, its that life is as much or as little as you make it.
………….”Ben?”
“yes brain?”
“that was positively the most cheesy thing I have ever heard. Ever.”
“….good to have you back”
Ben - This post was written with inspirational music playing in my head the whole time.
You know, I would have liked this spring holidays to go nice and smoothly, I really would of. But unfortunately either I have bad Juju (hey, dont laugh, its a serious problem for me OK?) or my life just isn’t that simple. Why all this ominous foreshadowing going on? why am I so awesome? And why do rice balls taste so good? all this after the break!
……..
Anyway, my soulful tale starts on one day just like any other, when My host sister and I were coming home from school by bus. Scene 1 finished. Scene 2: It seems due to the fact that My host sister and I are both the same age, and are left home alone due the current school holidays, it seems that the people of Tsurugi (who I was told all know each other very well, as only a partially isolated community could do) have started spreading rumours about this fact. Thus my host family has “asked” that I go to school at 9 am every morning, and don’t return until 5 at night. In the spring holidays. With none of my friends. This was “supposedly” acceptable because I spend 3 hours a day at school (its funny how much putting speech marks around a word Can change it. eg “wombat”). But have you ever tried killing 5 hours at school, in the holidays, by yourself? Its not easy people.
So due to my reasoning (we’ll get to that later) I asked my host family to let me home just a little bit earlier (as compromise to not having to go to school at all). I spoke with sincerity, passion, and explained my reasoning with such assertiveness that it would have made my assertive mother proud (and not assertive like “I’m gonna eat you if you don’t do what is say”, but more like “you are taking away something that I need” assertive). I spoke long and hard and exhausted myself trying. They flat down refused me… So then I called my councillor, and she is taking the matter to her headquarters in Tokyo, because really, I need some time at home…
So in my over thinking fashion, I have arranged the whole matter into little boxes in my mind. First there is the cause. Although quite culturally offending, It is Japanese culture to not let a boy and girl of the same age home alone together, so I just have to let it go. On the other hand there are the reasons that I need to be at some for some part of the day. one of the major reasons is that I don’t want to be at school for 7 hours a day. I have nothing to do for most of it, and then I just end up going on facebook, which in turn makes me feel homesick and etc etc. Also there are the benefits of being at home. I can relax when I am at home (and we all know, Ben without chillaxment time is a very unhappy Ben). The answer to that argument was, what can I do at home that I cant do at school. I have many answers. Sleep, video games, watch tv, dvds, not wear a uniform, sleep, go for walks, eat new foods, sleep. And really, even If i could do all of that here it still wouldn’t be home. I think as an exchange student, It is my right to spend time at home, to have a home to go to. So in debating terms (made up on the spot debating terms that is-) the correct term would be ” Checkmate booyah!”
So there is my weekend, and Like I said, wouldnt it have been so much easier if everything had gone smoothly for the last week. You know what, I think i must have bad juju. Dammit
Ben- Bad juju, is the joke dead? find out after the break.
woo, am I exited about spring! No longer will my hand suffer daily for the lack of ski gloves on them. No longer will random snow storms wait exactly until I leave from badminton before attacking. No longer will angry ninja booby trap my green tea with exploding kunai…
OK maybe that last one wont stop with the arrival of spring, but hey at least the sun be shining (that’s right, I know use gangsta punctuality, fo heezy) and I don’t have to lug around my heavy ski jacket with me every where I go.
And spring in Japan= spring holidays! Cha-ching, no more school. It was a little sad to say goodbye to my classmates, but honestly I was glad for the change. Towards the ending of school (that being the last two weeks) I found it increasingly difficult to concentrate, or even find the will to want to concentrate. It was a bit like having the last week of the school year in New Zealand, except times 10 as I didn’t understand any of the classes, and copying down Kanji had all but lost its interest for me. so it was a great relief to know that my daily six hour mental vacation had come to an end. That is until I realised that my 5 day a week badminton routine has now increased to a six day a week badminton routine. And during those 6 days I have to get up at the same time, wear my school uniform and catch the same train as I did at school. So really, not much has changed…
Strangely enough, my all but finished homesickness has stuck back in a most unusual fashion. I feel a kind of longing for New Zealand, but not so much For NZ as much as the little differences between NZ and Japan. I long for a place where I don’t have to wear my school uniform on the holidays (or wear a school uniform at all), Where students are allowed to go to the arcade enter, or Internet cafes, where radio doesn’t suck (there are many things which I like about Japan, but two things that I retain the opinion that in NZ they are much better are Radio and teaching. Its not that the teachers are bad people, its just that they don’t know how to keep their students interested in the subject, and really if you think about it, its no wonder that students falling asleep is a major problem in Japanese high schools), I long for a place where I can use my NZ slang without having to explain it, or where my parents treat me more like an adult (there is a flip side to that last one though, If my host family is treating me like a kid, it means that they are accepting me as part of their family, which is good), and finally I long for a place where Video Games aren’t seen as being as bad for your health as taking drugs (its ironic to think that the leading country of video games in the world is possibly the most strict country on video games as well)
Strangely enough I notice the pinnacle of difference in Japanese and New Zealand culture as how they treat their adolescent society and how that effects them. For example in Japan, Teenagers are seen as old children as opposed to young adults. This is seen in many ways (from the lack of dating, or boy girl relationships of any kind in schools among other things) but most recently I noticed it in the attitude of junior high school students. These year 11’s (which were at Kanazawa high school picking up their new uniforms) looked and acted like very old intermediate students ( I think I may have actually saw one skipping away from the high school with his uniform under his arm…). compare that to NZ year 11s, who are in the mid stages of reaching adult hood, and are quite mature when you think about it, the difference is amazing. I often wonder which is for the better, to retain this level of innocence after so long, or to become adults and mature at possibly too young an age? It makes you think…
And I often think of New Zealand and how it views Japanese culture. Of how I percieved Japanese culture. To think that almost 3 months ago I thought sushi was (on some level) a big part of Japan. But to be completely honest, Sushi is to Japan as to what spagetti is to New Zealand. Its a food that they eat here, it isn’t even that popular. I am starting to (rightly) think that currently,Sushi has more to do with NZ culture than it does with Japanese. There is no where near the amount of sushi shops on Kanazawa as there is in Wellington.
Finally, my trip is winding down. From this Friday I will have two weeks in Japan before I return for NZ. I thinkits time to tell some of the lessons that I have learnt.
I have learnt that we know nothing, because at some level, everything we know will be wrong. Its the difference between belief and knowledge. I have learnt that if I do over cardial sports I have a hard time getting my breath back afterwards, I have reaffirmed the opinion that you should never get romantically attached to an exchange students ( If the common exchange student understands twice as much as I do, then I can guarantee you its a bad idea)… (not that I have gotten romantically attached to anyone over here. You guys just love reading more into my words than I mean, dontcha?). I have learnt that the only way to win in life is give absolutely 100 of yourself to everything, and I mean everything. And finally I have learnt how much more to life there is if you don’t turn down any opportunity.
Ben- I have decided that Fanta is the New taste of spring. That’s right, I have been elected the new national season taste deciderer. Mwaahahahaha the POWER
Hey all. Hows it going. I am making a point to say “hows it going” as much as possible. It impossible to remark it to anyone over here without explaining what it means, and what the expected counter remarks are. As this usually takes about five minutes (which can really dampen a 10 minute break), I find it better to just bite my tounge and ask in Japanese.
Anyway how are you going faith full readers? I hope your days are as contrasting as mine. What have you got planned for the upcoming spring holidays? Nothing? me neither, I have badminton alot. No really! ok you really want it!? between now and the day I leave, I have 6 days where I don’t have badminton after school, or in the holidays. That equates to me doing 5 days of badminton a week, for 3 hours a pop. Take that!
And yet you would think that I would be better than average at badminton, on account of all the practising I have been doing. Contrary, i am the worst one there. For example, Last week I won for the first time. That means I Had played for 2 and a bit months before I won at some small trivial game. And what kept me going after I failed time and time again? It was 2
things. The first was Meatloaf. No not the food, the singer. Everyday he goes out and gives it his all (singing amazingly i might add), despite his serious asthma. If meatloaf can risk his life for singing, the least I could do is give some badminton game my all. The second is the realisation (as simple as it sounds) that losing makes you better. simple but true.
Bu yes, one major factor of my life is badminton. Another major part of it is school. Ahh school, my daily 6 hour mental vacation. I have a love hate relationship with school. One the one hand,I have a place where whether I pay attention or not has pretty much no consequence (but I do like to pay attention for the good classes- strangley enough, contemperary japanese language being one of them). But on the other hand, I have to put up with 7 hours of teachers lecturing at me in a languange that I don’t understand(most Japanese teachers use the technique of: the louder i speak, the more they will learn). But as my title states, I only have a week of this shez-nat before I have a month long holiday. Damn Straight!
But today wasn’t so bad. Two of the spells were replaced by watching a movie in the schools theater. I didn’t even know we had theater! Fortunately the movie was in English (with Japanese subtitles). Unfortunately It was one of those 50s cliche love stories that really are just terrible. Strangely enough I didn’t mind it too much. The only problems I had with it were those terrible cliche moments (oh smithy, I love you soo-) and with the tearjerker purpose of the general movie. Other than that there were some interesting situations.
One thing I have noticed recently is a certain irony among the stereotype of Japanese food and people. In New Zealand, Japanese food Stereotypically is seen as the strange exotic food (barring sushi)Raw fish, Tofu, seaweed? Its all quite unique. Thus you would think that Japanese people would be open minded to different foods. Well you (as I was ) wrong there. When I offered to cook traditional Nz foods ( I was thinking of pavalova, really we cant credit ourselves with much else), my First host mother outright refused (barring the fact that she was a chief). This second host family only just accepted on the provisions that I showed them a picture of what i was going to cook (and it looked delicious). Adding to this strange situation is the fact that the Japanese stereotype for Japanese people is that they are open minded and eat every food, no matter how strange it is. And yet the people I have met suggest otherwise…
Ok, Ive rambled on for a bit too long, so Ill make this quick. I’m starting a running blog segment (or blogment as I like to call it) called: email Ben questions so he can sound intelligent while answering them. The title explains it all. If you have a question about Japan, relationships (I’m good at answering those) or anything in generall, write me a message. Ill include and answer the best one in my blog posts. Simple is it not?
Ben- get repetedly asked if I like a tv show called Kiwi husband. What is kiwi husband?
Wow. 2 whole months. That’s intense. And really, what more can you say. Except raspberries. There is always time to say raspberries (Rule number 6 in my guide to life). Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm Raspberries…
Ok Ben, time to get out of crazy land, we have a post to write. So last week I moved host families. And to be honest I was looking forward to the change, you see, I was living my days on autopilot, and not really “embracing” this place. So it was to my extreme pleasure ( the kind of pleasure you get when you manage to gurgle your name in cola while moon walking… hey, don’t judge until you’ve tried it) that this new household, and new lifestyle is more to my liking. For starters its and hours train ride from home to school. That is one hell of a long way. But the long train ride means that I can chillax for an hour before school (When you are an exchange student, and a busy one at that, well being comes in currency of two forms. One is sleep ins. The other is chillaxment time). And this new household is in the mountains. Ahh rocky mountains, how I missed your…. um, rockyness? But prior to my arrival, this new room doubled as a storage cupboard. Long story short, lets just say that when I wake up in the morning, I have to actually focus not to trip over any of the many items that needlessly crowd my room. Honestly, my last room was small. This room is tiny.
And my days arnt too bad either. every now and again something really awesome happens, just to make me feel good. For example I was on the train one morning, when I spotted a Gaijin (like myself). When you live among, like, a gazillion small Japanese people, It a real treat when you spot someone as strange and out of place as you feel. I have maybe seen 5 different foreigners in Kanazawa since I got here. Anyway, as I saw this Gaijin, our eyes met (he he…. Shut up brain) and even though I had never seen this man in my life, hadn’t even spoken a word to him, we both thought exactly the same thought at the time. The thought was: “we are so out of our depth right now”. You really haven’t lived until you have had a freaky mind conversation with someone you have never seen before.
I have also been to library, even got myself a couple of books. And it was this way that I have started to read Sherlock Holmes. What? Have you ever been so exhausted of reading material that you turn to reading basic English textbooks. Well I have, and its not pretty. And beside at the library, there were only two types of English books available. One was Sherlock Holmes, and the other was a bilingual on the world economy. and honestly, any book that has the word “bilingual” in its title is bound to be able to put you to sleep, in any such language that it is in.
And you know what, I think I have changed. Not that i feel any different, Its just that i look at the boy who left New Zealand, and he just seems so different to I. So much more foolish, and less mature. And I suppose that the biggest change is that I have learnt how to express myself so much more. I look at the first post of this blog and It seems someone completely different who is writing them.
Ben- By God, I hate it when “adults” tell you: “its not that we don’t trust you, its just common sense that we shouldn’t leave you and some other girl in a private place for more than 5 minutes”. Excuse me for being a teenager.
Hey all! Sorry about my failed attempt at posting messages, I guess tumblr doesn’t like me… well to that I say: I never liked you anyway!
I’m sorry tumblr, will you forgive me? I feed you juicy information, and meaningless rants that fly out my mouth from time to time… But alas, my attempt at breaking down the 5th wall has ended in tragedy. I did it to try and make you (the faithful reader) picture yourself in my position. To put yourself in my shoes as such, in an attempt to make you See that I am a human, not just some mere image who spits stories out from time to time. It is in this way that I am not an author of this blog, but more of a person who accounts what has happened.
On that note i would just like to state my reasoning for doing this blog. when I started doing this, I promised that I would not distort any of this information, and only present it in the way that I, myself perceived it. I have always been a firm believer in the truth, and That is what I try to write with. I have been presenting mostly the good information (who likes to focus on the negatives?) but this, in turn has lead to a “this is it” type situation. I will not focus on the negatives, but Just remember that my life, or any life in general, is full of rosy smile and cherry blossoms.
It seems the routine of being an exchange student has finally found me. Which is ok I guess, it certainly helps me get through the day on autopilot…
Anyway, I have learnt some things over here that have made life easier. For starters, how to survive sitting through 6 hours of boredom, 6 days a week. My tips for you (if you are ever misfortune to be in this situation) are these:
1 put yourself into random situation (in your mind) and see you you come out. For example: a giant mascot comes up to me and starts abusing me. When I try to run away it brings all its mascot friends to gang up on me. What do you do? Well my two first thoughts were transform into a giant pikachu mascot and electrocute them, or use spirit bomb. You will never guess how many problems in life can be solved by using spirit bomb…
2 try to get your heart rate up, just by thinking it. Its more difficult than it sounds…
And so the list goes on… Do I hear you saying that I should be paying attention in school? well excuse me nameless critic, are you an exchange student? have you been so bored that your main form of entertainment was comparing the sound your tongue makes on each of you teeth?… I thought not. But you would be surprised what you learn about yourself when the only thing you do for 6 hours a day, 6 days a week is self reflect. For example, I learnt that in my head I use the word “henceforth” alot more that I say in real life…
Anyway, I realised that I am more than halfway through my exchange now, how quick time is moving. It is this fact that has made me put the rest of my exchange into perspective. For example, Next Friday I move host families. The Monday after that I have my 6 month anniversary with a certain babe-alicious character. And that Thursday I will have been in Japan for 2 month. Then there is only 3 weeks of school left, and a week of holidays before I head on back to New Zealand. Not that long at all is it?
Finally, I have made a grave mistake. It has affected my usually peaceful life in the most serious of ways. I have let it slip that I greatly enjoy thumb wars… How is this a bad thing, you ask? Well now, random students ( a great many random students I might add), have taken to trying to defeat me. In fact, in the time it has taken me to write this post, I have been challenged twice. Needless to say, I have very sore thumbs…
So life moves on, and slowly I am getting through this exchange.
Ben- Kingdom hearts birth by sleep. More like Kingdom hearts, birth by frickin AWESOME.
p.s. Because I am curious, I want to do a Blog experiment (more like a self esteem experiment…). I want to see how many people are actually reading this. Am I a great influence on many peoples life? Or am I actually rambling on to myself?
So If you have read this, or are following this blog, or even have randomly stumbled across this on the Internet, I want you to write me a message in the space below. And you know what, The best one, I will post with my next blog. What to write? It could be anything, from how your day went, to asking a serious relationship issue (ok maybe not so much the latter…)… (please keep it m rated people, this is a family blog. That means I’m told my Grandad is reading this)
What do you want to say?
What? two post in one week? This is almost an overblog. AHHHHHH
Fear not faithfull supporters, I am absolutely fine! My head has not exploded from the effects of overblogging. No This is an extra special blog for 3 reasons. 1, its my Brother’s birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BROTHER! 2, I survived valentines day without crazy women mugging my with chocolate ( actually the only chocolate I did get was from guys. No comment)…( and you know what else? Today -the day after valentines day- I saw suspicious amounts of female students eating heart shaped chocolate…. I want some chocolate!). 3, I have had one of the most interesting, boring, and emotionally exhausting days of my life.
It started with one of my very rare and treasured sleep ins. I was going to savour every moment of sleep filled morning… That is, until my host mother informed me that I would be going to Kanazawa city (by myself), to meet with my exchange councillor and have an exchange student forum, in the very near future. Like 10 minutes to get out the door future. Skipping past the hurried breakfast and getting ready, With map in hand I marched to the train station exited about the upcoming day. And why not? I was going to meet foreign people!…….wait a moment…
Anyway arriving at Kanazawa, I navigated my way to the chosen building ( a place called Rifare). I arrived pretty much buzzing (navigating to some building in a new, foreign town is a very exhilarating experience, you should try it some time). And there I met my exchange councillor, Mori- san ( I had only seen her once upon my arrival at Komatsu airport. I thought I had a conversation with her on the train, but It turns out that was someone different. Which leads to some very interesting questions about who I had a 20 minute conversation with…).
One thing you could say about Mori-san is that she is fast. She walks fast, talks even faster, and manages to get through activities at inhuman speed. If there was a athletic pace walking while reading out the dictionary, while having a conversation with somebody - sport, I would seriously consider sponsoring Mori-san. So We had traversed down 3 floors and back before I fully realised What was going on. It turns out I would be helping Mori-san set up a seminar. So I did (I have to thank my mother for some experience in this Field, but usually she pays me...). After 2 gruelling hours of sticking up photo’s and setting up seating (and some very bad green tea- it turns out bottled green tea is allot stronger than normal...) and introducing myself to everyone that came in (including 2 very bewildered high school girls) It seemed the seminar would finally start. It was then that i realised two things. 1, I was actually doing this work for Mori-san’s real job (not any exchange organisation) and 2, I was expected to sit through this seminar.
So I did. For 3 hours. About the importance of water. In Japanese. You could tell I was more than a little frustrated at, well , everything by the end of it. Fortunately I was invited to the after dinner celebration (as a reward I foolishly thought). Fast forward to the restaurant, and the dinner was going to cost 50$. 50 big ones! I was expecting a feast! When the beers came round, (mine was expertly swapped with a cold glass of juice) I was chatting to one of the workers. Now I don’t know if you know about after work dinners in Japan, but the workers get pretty lively. except for the boss. He just sat there, staring at me in his little man evil way… (reminded me of freiza actually...). But I didn’t mind, I was going to get a feast!
It was just as they were bringing out the entry (beef tabaki, fresh prawns, delicious looking chicken wings) that Mori-san crushed my dreams. I was instructed to drink my juice, given my 50$ back, and whisked out the door back onto the train before I realised that there wasn’t any food infront of me anymore. Crushed, tired and confused it was on the train ride home that I realised I had gotten a free juice. The whole effort of that day, 4 hours of setting up and sitting through this boring seminar, equated to a free glass of juice.
FML
Ben
You know what, I really don’t know how to start this. I have sat here for like 20 minutes straight on this computer trying to start this blog in a way that is interesting and witty and you know the best thing that I have come up with? ‘Who decided that turtles are green?’.
Ok now that I have that out of my system I will start over.
Hi, how are you? are you good? see any interesting moves lately? Me? well Im a bit to busy these days. would I like to go out to coffee sometime? No, But thanks for the offer…
what was I doing again… Oh yes Blog in Japan.
Being homesick has effected me strangely, to say the least. I’m not sad all the time, or mopey at all. No homesickness has made my emotions go crazy. I could be Happy one minute and sad the next. To be honest I’m up and down harder and faster than a little Ben shaped yo yo. But to be honest, Japan has been a different experience to what I expected. Not bad, mind you, Different. You see, back in New Zealand I thought that Japan was this really awesome place where everybody always had either manga or a video game in hand. Where people ate Kara-age everyday and Tv had crazy game shows 24-7. Where massive shines lined each corner and samurai walked the street. ok maybe not that last one. But to be honest, looking back at NZ now, I think many people had that image of Japan In their head. Unfortunately that place doesn’t exist. Japan, in reality, is a Real place with Real people, who go to work and school, and pretty much work their asses off just because that’s the way they were raised. I think its just that the Media has built up this powerful image of stereotypical Japan, that people believe. My opinion is this, If you think you know Japan, look past the anime, the crazy giant dancing soft toys and the astro boy shaped cookies. Japan is an awesome place, but it is real. And just because I like to contradict myself I’m going to post some crazy game shows that I have seen.
Ok now that Ive had my serious talk I would just like to say one word. One simple word that can mean so much, and practically raise buildings off the ground. That word is: Pocky. If you havent tried Pocky, slap yourself. Right now. There is two simple truths that reign over Japan. 1: Japanese Girls are very scary (but we’ll get to that later). 2: Pocky is delicious. And on one of those days when Im feeling down, I like to out and go a little crazy on Pocky. One particularly nasty day I bout 5 packets of Pocky and it cost me less than 10 dollars. Compare that to the 7 dollars it costs for 1 packet of Pocky in NZ. This is mutiny I say. MUTINY!
But alas, It is approaching valentines day. This means that Girls are getting more and more bold with each passing day. And why is this a bad thing. Well For one thing Japanese Girls are scary. Why is this you ask? Well for one thing, out of class boys and girls do not interact. Ever. After school friendship is frowned upon and Dating until university is absolutely restricted (it does leave you to question what kind of relationship Japanese adults have if they aren’t brought up with the ability to interact with the opposite gender). This leaves the female population to remain like little girls who giggle over the notion of boys. So a bunch of these frighteningly immature girls assulting me with chocolate. Lets just say that I have thanked the heavens that Valentines day is on Sunday and I don’t have to go to school (by the way, here in Japan boys don’t give chocolate to girls on Valentines day, only the opposite).
That’s all for now folks. So until next time, be minty (what a great adjective!)
Ben, really really misses Moro bars. Ahh yes, all the things I could do to a Moro bar right now (and I meant that in every possible dogey way you can think of)
