goodbye kashiwa

owari

school is donezo.
yappari, went by super super fast. really strange feeling.
although it still seems like ive been here for a million years.
i'm scheduled to fly home this sunday, but i'm not going to.
i've been invited to stay in Kobe, Japan (8 hours southwest, near Osaka and Kyoto) with my friend
Lena and her mom and grandmother. It'll be nice to spend a few weeks out of Tokyo in the Kansai region
where the people have the Japanese equivalent of a southern accent and its only 5 bucks to travel
to Kyoto. Which i've been hoping to do for a long time. Really grateful for the opportunity.
Crazy that my homestay is going to be over too. I'm really going to miss "home". And my "parents".
I'm so used to everything now..... its going to be very weird packing up and leaving.
Gonna be super sad seeing my new friends go home too, i've met some really awesome people.

I've only recently become a hit in my neighborhood as well... the little kids that live all around me wait for
me to get off the bus everyday and start yelling TOMU SANNNNN as soon as i approach. Then i get stuck
playing with them for an hour or so. Not that it's a bad thing though. Theyre adorable. and super funny.
bummer i didn't get to hang out with em more in the beginning of my homestay. hanging around little kids
seems to be the best way to pick up japanese as well. though i kind of hate the fact that 5 year olds are a million
times better at speaking then i'll ever be. duh.

this'll probably be the last entry of my journey in Kashiwa/Tokyo.
can't believe its been close to 4 months. unreal.

i'm on hold with Delta airlines now and it sounds like Kermit the Frog is singing.
it sucks.

Next time i post here i'll probably be in Kobe.

Oh yeah and i'm seeing Wilco at Zepp Tokyo on Friday. Oh god yes.

Alas...
all good things must come to an end...

but another chapter of my journey awaits......................

the last thing i wants ta be doing in japan right now is writing a 10 page paper
about a cult that released poison gas in the train i take every morning.
uhgguhgguhhhhhhhggug

detroit metal city

very unique experience on saturday night...
host dad invited me and a few friends to a metal show--
one of the bands playing was Chucky, who he used to be a member of.
The place was called Wild Side(?) Tokyo, a small grungy basement in a back alley
of Shinjuku. Nirvana opened for Sonic Youth there a million years ago. Sweet.
About 5 bands played. They all ruled. It was like glam-metal. or hair-metal.
kind of a motely crue kind of feel. but japanese, so it was super sick.
after the show we hung out and helped the musicians load up their gear,
and afterwards we went back into the concert hall where couches and tables had been set up
with food and drinks.
hung out all night and talked to the musicians, made some good friends.
hair metal friends.
Shall never forget that night.

花見

つぶあんパン

i didn't think april fools existed in japan,
so it didn't even cross my mind.
this morning my host mom told me a bomb
went off in the tokyo subway so i wouldn't be able to go to school.
after trying to keep a straight face watching my reaction, "USO!!! HONTO NI???? YABAI!!!",
she asked me what day it is. I said, "thursday?"
she cracked up and said, "no, no, what month is it? what day is it?"
i thought about it for a second, and then we both started laughing hysterically.
it was great.

then getting off the bus today, there were some kids playing outside. the wind blew my hat

off so they all laughed at me and ran over to me to let me know how funny they thought it was.

they asked me if i was american. when i said yes, one of the little boys yelled "AMERICAAAAAAN!!!!!!!" which sent at least 10 more little kids running over eager to talk to me (and jump on me). a few of the probably 8 year old dudes really wanted to know if i've ever kissed a girl before, and when they got the answer they wanted they looked at eachother and went "HEEEEEEEEEE!!!!????". then they asked me to take pictures of them. one of them thought it would be cool to pretend he was Buddha. i hope they let me hang out with them again soon so we can talk about girls and video games.

went to a baseball game tuesday night at yokohama stadium.
tokyo giants vs. yokohama bay stars.
i rooted for the home team, but only because they gave me free yokohama gear
and sat me right in the middle of the yokohama crowd, which went absolutely ballistic the whole
game. the cheers they came up with for japanese baseball are completely outrageous.
it was a blast. and i caught a foul ball.
and also, on the train to yokohama, which is about a 25 minute straight shot south from tokyo,
i finally saw mount fuji peeking out in the distance. i seriously bolted up out of my seat and yelled
MOUNT FUJI! the Js on the train thought it was pretty funny. i didn't get over it for the rest of the night.
beautiful sight.