hurrah

this weekend was pretty productive.

saturday:  i had a violin lesson, in which i was force-fed chocolate biscotti and chocolate ice cream.  delicious.  my teacher only has 5 students at this point, and feeding them after their lessons has become her hobby.  i like her hobby.

sunday: stupid SAT class.  well.  i just took the test from 10 to 2, then went back at 5 for the "lecture" part.  but, again, there were no other students, so it was just me and sandy (my 20-something artsy-fartsy dark-curly-haired teacher) chillin'.  haha.  it was fun.  we went over the stuff i messed up, then we still had two hours left, so we kinda hung out and he taught me some cool math stuff.  eh.  i dunno.  i also discovered a huge slang dictionary, which, in all honesty, was one of the most amazing books i've ever seen.  it was about 1000 pages long, and it included every single slang word you could ever think of, as well as some really random sayings/phrases that i've never heard of.  ever.  for example:  "if his brains were gas, they wouldn't be able to power a flea's motorcycle around the inside of a cheerio" to describe someone's stupidity, or "if it were raining pea soup, i would get hit on the head by a fork" to demonstrate your continual bad luck.  wtf.  but it was so funny.  SAT class is kinda stressful though because i got a really good score once, so i feel like now i have to live up to it and it scares me.  blah.  oh well.

OH and today was the national dance competition!  ICU's girls' dance team got THIRD.  out of...like, 70.  which is pretty damned impressive.  their dance was called "hijo-guchi" which means "emergency exit".  basically their dance was based on those little running green men that represent the exit signs.  it was actually really cool, albeit a bit creepy.  all 47 of them were dressed in head-to-toe neon green (green hoodie, overalls, etc.) and had crazy intense makeup on.  heehehe.

and the boys got 6th!  woot.

thennn i went to hibiki's house (she's on the dance team) to work on our history project.  we had to make a russian newspaper, published anytime between 1870 and the end of WWI.  basically we were supposed to make it really patriotic and make people want to enter wars and stuff.  ahah.  it was pretty fun.  except i stayed up till 6 in the morning doing the layout and making it look perfect, because hibiki wrote virtually all of the articles.  she is SO GOOD.  so i felt bad, and made up for it by being a complete perfectionist.

monday:  we have today off, so i hung out at hibiki's and now i'm working on my english essay.  or not, because i'm updating this.  but whatever.  wow i feel SO unhealthy.  i got two hours of sleep on a weekend (which should just not happen), we ate copious amounts of chocolate last night, and we had the WEIRDEST dinner ever.  it was basically yellow.  ahah.  what i mean by this is that the meal consisted of pineapple juice, corn soup, and cheese toast.  oh, and rice balls and pork buns.  healthy.

big fat asian men in thongs

okay after venting my regret and anger, i just remembered something from this morning.

i was watching the news during breakfast with my dad, and i realized that sumo-wrestling is as huge in japan as baseball is in the US.  and yeah i know japan's known for their fat man-wrestling, but it's really bizarre to think of such a sport being followed so carefully.  like every morning during the "sports" section of the news, sumo stuff comes up along with baseball, tennis, golf and stuff.  it's so strange.  especially because sumo is still really...just.  not modern at all.  like the referee is dressed in traditional kimono-type wear and has this huge black hat thing on his head, and the sumo wrestlers wrestle on this wooden platform and if they get shoved, they go tumbling into the audience.  i don't know why people still sit there.  but yeah.

but i guess that's one of the things i love about japan.  i mean yeah, tokyo's extremely modernized and all about new technology, but there are some old traditions that will always continue to live on.  like the ancient tea ceremonies, the public baths with the circular, wooden tubs that only hold like three people at a time, staying in a "ryokan", a traditional japanese inn, and sleeping on futons on a floor made of grass/hay/something like that...and a lot more.  it makes me so happy.  like i can't imagine having...i dunno, colonial stuff in every day life.  

epic, epic regret.

AHHHHHH.  NOOO.

they're taking down out gym soon so they can build a new, cooler one.  so today we had a weird "goodbye gym" assembly/party in which all the clubs that use it (basketball, badminton, volleyball, cheer, dance, etc.) did random little skits aka we hit hi-chews at the crowd with our rackets.  THEN the cheer and dance teams performed the stuff they've been preparing for their competitions.  i took a video of cheer because i didn't have any cheer videos, but i didn't take one of dance because i was sitting behind some people and i already have like a billion dance videos.

WORST.  DECISION.  OF.  MY.  LIFE.

the boys' dance was actually THE cutest thing i have ever seen in my entire existence.  it was called "otokogokoro" which means "man's heart".  omgomgomgomg.  i am still spasming from the cuteness.  there are about 10 of them, and they were all wearing homemade shirts with these big different-colored hearts sewed onto them.  and basically the "plot" of the dance...the guys like a girl, try to ask her out or something, get laughed at (there was actually a girl laughing in the music) and get really, really depressed.  this part made me want to huggle all of them.  when they got rejected, they like fell onto the floor in anguish and all curled up into little balls and gathered in the middle, consoling each other.  then they get up and start primping (each of them did a different "primp move"...like styling hair, washing face, etc. etc. etc...for some reason loyd was playing guitar, i guess he just wanted to look cool).  and yeah you don't really know how it ends because nobody laughs or does anything, but i am seriously, seriously regretting my decision to not video it.  especially because they were making facial expressions which i will probably never get to see again in my life.  so, so ridiculously adorable.

i loathe myself.  

oh life.

life is so very, very monotonous.

yeah, school's...fun...i guess....not really.  i mean, sure, we have our occasional laughing fits, inside jokes, bonding moments, all that.  but it's really not that much to look forward to, is it?  i feel like i'm just going through each day, not really gaining anything.  literally just going through the motions.  i don't even think about anything anymore.  my dad wakes me up at 5:45 every morning, and i don't even complain - i just get ready for school and sprint to catch the train.  i go through each transfer automatically, settling into the day that is always the same as the one before.  even at school, i'm kind of just sitting in all my classes just absorbing (or not absorbing) information, and i really couldn't care less about any of it.  it's just so tedious.  then badminton's just a pain, but i go anyway because i feel bad.  and even when i don't have badminton, i come home and go to the gym downstairs because i feel like i should.  then every evening is the same, too - i practice, eat, maybe study a little, and go to sleep.  i feel so very far away from everyone back home, and i miss them so much.  it sucks because when i'm feeling particularly lonely, it really hits me that i'm so alone.  none of my close friends are here with me and...is facebook really the only thing connecting me with them?  what the hell.

so when i actually think about it and write about it, i feel really depressed.  but the weird thing is, the days seem to go by pretty fast.  i mean, yeah, it's boring, but i guess it's a mixture of complete, utter indifference and a serious lack of interest in anything that gets me through.  sounds weird, doesn't it.  but because there's nothing to look forward to and nothing to dread, each day just sort of slips by.  

wow, i really don't know what i'm trying to say.  because i mean, don't get me wrong.  i do have fun, i do like my friends, i do enjoy life.  but i also feel like there's nothing to DO.  and strangely, i feel like i'm not actually...living.  it hasn't hit me that i'm living here.  i come home every day and see the door to our apartment, and i'm like "oh hey here's the room we're staying in" as if it's a hotel or something.  i've been here for three months now, which is the longest i've ever spent in japan (other than when i was born).  but it still feels like i'm on vacation.  

AHHH.  i'm so confused and i don't know what i'm thinking and this was just all a very very convoluted post but i'm just gonna leave it because well.  maybe if i read it tomorrow i'll know what i was trying to say.

i suck at lyrics

am i the ONLY PERSON in the entire world who can't figure out lyrics for shit?  i was listening to "Get Up" by ciara today and no matter how many times i listened to the line after "i can see it in your eyes" and strained to hear the actual words, i always got "smooth as a muffin".

now that can't be right.

that is all.

so cool.

i recently discovered that japanese kids have the coolest way of studying for exams.  let's see if you can figure out what it is.  i will give you these clues:  1.)  a lot of the worksheets/workbooks have fill-in-the-blanks, and kids always fill the blanks in with red pen.  2.)  a lot of workbooks come with a random sheet of red thick-cellophane-type ...paper?  not paper, but yeah.  basically solid cellophane, if you can imagine that. 

any guesses?

well basically, once they write the answers in, they can cover their worksheets with the red cellophane, which causes the answers to disappear.  (you know, red light being reflected and all that.)  but you can still see the rest of the question, so it's basically like redoing all your fill-in-the-blanks.  and yes, i know you could just as easily cover the answer with your finger, but then you can't see the rest of the question!  plus this seems so much cooler.  i was intrigued.  i still am.  too bad i didn't know what the red cellophane in my earth science workbook was for a month ago.  cause i cut cute little hearts and stars out of it.  oops.

okay also really randomly, i super need a new email address.  and a new screenname.  cause pumfer418 is getting a wee bit old.  slash extremely old.  but i kind of don't want to change it right now because people know me as pumfer418, and i'm also too lazy to tell everyone.  plus, kids from greenwood and crs know pumfer418, and although there are some people i don't talk to, it's nice to have them know who you are when you IM them.  instead of getting a crude "who are you?" as a response.  so maybe i'll just change it next year.  for college and stuff.  

it's freaking freezing here.  okay it's not that cold, but it's still cold because i don't have clothing well-suited for this kind of weather.

extravagance?

first of all, randomly, i decided that taking precalc last year was the worst idea ever.  we went so ridiculously fast that i don't remember ANY of it.  like today i was reviewing stuff that i had supposedly already learned but i was like wtf we never did this.  stuff like complex numbers and derivatives and limits and shit.  gahhhh.  

also, today my dad and i went to this ridiculously amazing japanese grocery store.  ridiculously amazing because the prices were so obscenely high that it was hilarious.  the best thing that i saw was a $115 melon.  a single melon.  jesus christ.  and then there were less expensive melons that had "kinokuniya" (the name of the store...yes it's also a bookstore) written in gold on the melon.  oh, and by the way, these gold-emblazoned melons were the same type as the $115 ones.  except these only cost $40.  what's the difference?  the expensive ones had perfectly symmetrical, T-shaped stems attached.  $65 dollars for a friggin' stem.  great.

they were also selling strawberries - 15 very carefully arranged berries for $31 dollars.  no wonder japanese people have no money.  they're eating $2-a-berry strawberries.

weird...

okay first of all, i was trying to edit my blog settings, and i come across the "transliteration" option.  i wanted to enable it so i could use japanese, but apparently blogger only allows indian languages, like tamil, kannada and hindi. .....wtf.  

anyway.

woah.  i've been crazy busy lately.  not because i have a lot of homework, it's just that i feel like i don't have enough time to do everything i need to anymore.  i draw up a schedule for myself every day during school, and i usually keep to it because it makes me feel productive and efficient.  i've been getting back into violin, and i find myself having to rewrite my schedule multiple times to allow myself my desired amount of practice time.  it's usually not enough, but i also like to sleep.  it's weird though because i've been getting about 7 hours a night, but i am still SO RIDICULOUSLY TIRED.  i don't get it - i have like zero work, and i'm getting more sleep than i did in new york.  i think it's all the commuting and the whole school-in-japanese thing.  maybe it just takes more brain power or maybe i'm less relaxed or some weird shit.

also, i have to finish my freaking painting.  even in japan, i am the slowest painter.  surprise, surprise.  possibly because i'm a perfectionist.  but probably because i'm just slow.  so yeah.  i had to lug home my huge sketchbook on the train and now i'm trying to paint an hour a day, but so far i've only been able to fit it in twice.  oh well.  at least his jacket is painted now.  

but today i realized, very strangely, that i actually enjoyed my classes.  this is very very odd because at brearley, i hated them.  other than art, i found my classes so tedious and boring and i couldn't wait to get out.  but i was sitting in bio today (which i despised in 9th grade) and it was so interesting that i was actually doing my excited "bob" in my seat, waiting for our teacher to explain the next concept.  WTF?!  but yeah.  my friend naoko and i were so excited we kept harrassing the teacher, being like "wait but what about this?  and how does this work?  and why does this happen?"  he was like  guys.  shut up.  but OOH he showed us a PIRANHA JAW BONE.  complete with teeth.  those little suckers are crazy sharp.

and even in ancient japanese...i love our class (level 3) because we all actually try really hard.  because we're the lowest level, i guess we feel like we really need to learn stuff.  most of the kids in level 1 and 2 are always asleep, never listening to the lesson, but our class is always really vocal and stuff.  and it's really fun.  our teacher is so cute.  she puts hello kitty decorations on our exams/tests so we don't get too intimidated.  :)

field trippin'

on halloween, we went on a first-year field trip to kamakura!  it was so much fun.  kamakura city is about an hour away from my house by train.  it was established in 1192, during the kamakura period.  so it has all these cool temples and shrines and stuff - not to mention the best food EVER.

we were broken up into groups of 7 - my group was so kickass.  (okay you guys don't know these people but i figure you'll enjoy the japanese names) me, naoko, may, sachiho, saki, so and loyd.  (okay so loyd is half japanese.  as is may.)  we met at the station at 9:50 am, then walked to hachimann-gu, which is this hugeass temple.  we walked around, scared some pigeons, took some pictures.  then we bought these adorable candy apples for 100 yen.  you get two if you win in rock-paper-scissors with the vendor, but none of us did.  apparently that guy is god of rock-paper-scissors.

by then, other groups had kind of deteriorated, so we just went around together in a huge pack.  instead of being good students and basking in the glory of the temples and enjoying the ancient history, we decided we'd walk to the beach and stuff our faces along the way.  first, we stopped at a murasaki-imo store (direct translation:  purple potato).  they had THE BEST fried murasaki-imo things.  they're basically mashed potato patties rolled in bread crumbs and deep-fried.  delicious.  i had two more later on.

a little further on, we saw a parade of small children trick-or-treating.  so freaking adorable.  most of them were wearing ki-gurumi.  those of you who've seen my facebook photos, my friend naoko is wearing a large green dinosaur ki-gurumi.  "ki-ru" means "to wear". and "nui-gurumi" means "stuffed animal" so ki-gurumi is basically a wearable stuffed animal.  so imagine toddlers in full teddy bear, pikachu, and frog suits.  it makes your brain melt.

then closer to the beach, kaoka got this ice cream that was really yummy - it tasted kinda like pudding.  we also passed by this store called "colo colo burger".  just so you know, "colo colo" is the sound stuff makes when it rolls somewhere.  in japanese, at least.  so we really wanted to buy the burgers and go eat them on the beach, but miyu warned us that the seagulls are really aggressive and would just steal our burgers, so we refrained.

at the beach, we found loyd sitting by himself playing uno.  i don't know how you play uno by yourself, but he was.  so the guys joined him, while we took our shoes off and went frolicking in the water.  it was mad cold.  but still a lot of fun.  we also took some "screaming teenage angst into the ocean" photos, but then we got depressed with all the angst and took happy pictures instead.  

afterwards, we were all pretty much starved, so we walked back to komachi-dori, which is basically the main shopping street.  because everyone wanted to eat different things, we all split up.  naoko, may, hibiki and i decided we wanted to just roam and eat various things instead of having a sit-down meal.  so here is a list of things i ate:

-candy apple

-more purple potato things

-purple potato ice cream

-mitarashi-danngo (three balls of mochi covered in yummy sauce speared on a stick)

-warabi-mochi (mochi-like substance cut up into squares with sweet soy powder on top)

-tiramisu dorayaki (so dorayaki is the famous pastry doraemon loves.  but this time, instead of the customary red bean paste, it had like a whole freaking TIRAMISU inside.  wtf.)

-bite-sized sushi (no raw fish for me)

-pork bun ("niku-man" in japanese)

-BLT sandwich (...why the hell was i eating a blt at kamakura?  oh well)

-various types of senbei (japanese crackers)

HELL YEAH

i'm not eating for a week.  ha.

so that was basically our field trip.  it was awesome.  i don't know what the purpose of it was, but it was hella sweet.

i'm really enjoying life in tokyo right now.  midterms are over, we have virtually no homework, my friends are great.  but i CAN'T WAIT to go home for break.  i'm so excited to hang out with all of you guys.

laughable.

hello tharrr.

soo i have finally gotten all my midterms back.  they were fabulously, ridiculously, amazingly hilarious.  hilarious because pretty much all my scores were, in Brearley-terms, below failing.  but at the same time, i was pretty proud of myself because i was above average for all of them except earth science.  i always sucked at that....but yeah.  i'd expected to do horribly, so i'm semi-glad i didn't completely die.

just to give you a taste...

modern japanese:  44/100.  average:  41/100.  hahahaha.  epic fail.

english "lit":  80/100.  average:  68/100.  this was the most ridiculous exam ever.  all the writing stuff was fine, but there was one section about "general knowledge".  i absolutely failed that part.  because the questions were like, "how many times must a witch draw her magic circle for it to be effective?"  wtf.  i guessed three.

world history:  58/100.  average: 54/100.  i'm so mad though, because i spent like five minutes trying to remember how to say "communist manifesto" in japanese, and i couldn't do it.  turns out i could've written "communist manifesto" in english and it would have been fine.

math:  93/200.  average:  65/200.  well that's the average for level 3, anyway.  the average for level 4 was like a 21.  HAHAHAHA.  i got a 93.  out of 200.  which means a 46.5/100.  but ummm yeah i was pretty happy with this because we were tested on first semester material (which i wasn't there for) as well, but i didn't fail!!!  yay.

ancient japanese: 45/100.  average:  36/100.  even though i scored 20 points lower than the highest in the class, i was pretty proud of myself because i did the best on the "kihon-mondai", which means like "basic problems".  those are the ones based on the textbook and stuff we've learned in class.  the test's made up of two parts:  basics and like...challenge problems.

physics:  82/100.  average:  68/100.  eh, physics. 

earth science:  54/100.  average:  60/100.  i suck.

but okay.  the cool thing about all this is that i sort of got to prove myself.  i mean, i was expected to get like.  20's because i'm the new kid.  and this is the first time i've actually like really worked hard and seen results.  and i know, i know, my scores can't even be classified as "results" because they're so low, but i'm happy i even got that far.  like at brearley, i've been stuck in a grade rut for 11 years.  like in english, i can work hard, but still not see any progress.  on the other hand, in some classes, i can also not work and still be fine.  and you're stuck with this image of yourself that people have - for example.  i am good at math, french grammar, and some science.  even if i don't do that well in the classes, people don't really think about it that much.  but here, nobody knows what i can and can't do, so i just had to work that much harder to try to show people what i'm like.  it was kind of fun.  although my grades are still really sucky.  must study hard for finals.