Building Newsprint Boats and Racing Sewer Mains

My apologies for the lack of updates this past week. A combination of school related busyness and waiting in hopes of pictures being posted has delayed me a bit. (As consolation I have included a picture from my cellphone of some cherry blossoms in full bloom). In any case, much has happened since I last wrote!

This past weekend was fairly eventful. On Friday night a large group of people from I-House I had planned to go to a karaoke place, and it sort of ballooned into this giant thing that included most of the SKP study abroad students. So in a giant herd of bicycles we headed downtown for a Friday night deal that included "free time" and "飲み放題" for only 2380円 (or around $24). As karaoke places in Japan work much differently than karaoke in America, groups are given rooms that fit anywhere from 10 to 20 people and all the songs are punched in electronically (with fancy touch-screen devices, of course, this is Japan after all). Our "deal" allowed us to stay as late as we liked (some karaoke places here are open 24hrs on weekends) and order as many drinks as we liked off a set menu (which fantastically enough also included ice cream).

Karaoke was quite a blast. I ended up in a room with lots of Americans, so the songs we sang were all familiar and everyone could sing along (which is the best kind of karaoke). From Everclear's "Santa Monica" and other nineties classics to the The Beatles' "Oh! Darling" and Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee", we sang our hearts out. Many hours later, when we felt our $24 had been sufficiently spent, we retired for home. However, as I was with the SKP buddy Junko, the only remaining I-House I resident at this point, we ventured off to retrieve a few stragglers at a bar called "Moon Walk". After gathering up the last few SKPers, we had some "kebabs" (which were not so much kebabs but pita sandwiches and prepared by a very Japanese man) and finally made the long journey back to I-House.


Saturday was mostly a recovery day. I spent it indoors watching movies and doing homework. On Sunday, as the weather was beautiful and the sun was shining, I went on a picnic with a small group of people to a park near Kyoto Station. We bought "弁当" or Japanese lunchboxes at a conbini and snacked on them in the grass (as you can see above), playing frisbee and soccer until we were generally exhausted and ready to make the 40 minute bike ride home, ha.

By Sunday it had also become clear that I was losing my voice. Mostly from karaoke, but I believe a cold was also partially suspect. As I woke up on Monday with a very sore throat and feeling generally unwell I decided to stay home from classes and rest my voice for a day. For the next few days my speaking abilities slowly recovered, and as of today I feel I'm mostly back to normal. I had my first test today, and I feel it went very well. I have no immediate plans for the weekend, though I'm sure I will be outside frolicking if the weather is nice. I hope all is well back home, I love hearing from all of you, so please keep me updated! I shall try and do the same for you. :)