THE (obscure shape) STORE

So, today, I went shopping.

Walk twenty-five minutes towards Makino Station, winding your way through narrow roads, crosswalks where no one jaywalks, bewaring silent bicycles, humming mopeds and cars hardly audible compared to those in the US; then, you'll come across a charming line of shops, like a Japanese dessert shop and the "boutique se rappeler." Yes. I checked out some of the t-shirts, but found none novel enough for me to keep them, and went over to the bowling-arcade-pachinko place, which was perhaps as big and strange as the Sexodrome in Paris, just in a different way. They had EVERY modern Bemani game (Guitar Freaks, Drummania, Beatmania, Pop'n Music) except DDR. Shame.

I returned to Kansai Gaidai for the welcoming ceremony, initially scheduled for 3:00. Guess what time they changed it to right before the ceremony. 2:30. They changed it at like 2:08 PM, too. Thanks! Well, I got there right on time (3:00 on the dot) and that's when they started. No idea why they decided to call everyone to go over early when it takes 30 minutes to walk to campus from where the international students are housed and they didn't start then anyway.

The ceremony was epic; I felt like I was staring at a cross-section of the Japanese congress. There were about 74 people sitting in two groups of three rows facing towards the audience, all neatly dressed in suits and ties, listening to the speeches that ensued. It was worth it for Eriko's awesome speech at the end and the incredible all-you-can-eat-for-free dinner that followed the ceremony. I feel like I solidified a couple of friendships, too. There was supposed to be karaoke afterwards, but I couldn't find it for the life of me. Why???

Things in Japan are generally pretty confusing. T'was especially true today when I was on four hours of sleep and I was sloppy with speaking Japanese all over the place. I love it when I say "yes" to something and the thing completely opposite of what I expect to happen just happens. And I still don't understand how people think over here.

Let's take the (OBSCURE SHAPE) store. Yes, that's the name of the store, in the title. I have no clue on earth how you're supposed to pronounce the name of the store. It's seriously like an ellipse diced in two at a 35-degree angle from the vertical axis, and then the two parts separated but with something added back to one of the parts. What? When you go into the store, you are greeted with interesting deals, such as 5% OFF! on something that costs 1200 yen (about 12 dollars). There was also a SALE on shampoo, with the added comment, "FOR YOU WHO KNOW TRUE VALUES." Yes. I wanted to take pictures, but again, I was in the middle of a store without a bunch of rowdy gaikokujin. I'd probably look like a spy or a really scary foreigner. I'm going to find people to take pictures of these things with.

I love Japan. Japan loves me, too. I hope.
Alex