remind me to talk about the blood type thing someday, and tv music

This was taking too long to do - so i decided to pull a Jen, and post the day in two parts.

Part One:

So last thursday ended up being one of the best days Ive had here so far. To begin with I thought I was going to have to come home and rant like crazy, but the rest of the day was so good that it blanked out everything bad.
The bad: I just about clubbed Julie like a baby seal. In fact, it was only enormous strength of will that kept me from doing so. That morning I felt like not looking like a bag lady, so I put on something relatively nice, and did my makeup a bit. Now, Julie is one of those girls that is always, always made up. ..possibly excessively so. I come into class, and she says in her very best sarcastic condecending tone "Someone put on makeup this morning! What`s the occaision?" So instantly I feel as if something has gone horribly wrong - like my eyeliner has run like crazy or something. But no, everything is fine, just apparently any girl but her needs a permit to want to look nice. I felt very self-concious, and very violent. i HATE when people do that. It wasnt even "oh you look nice for a change". Nope, not even a left handed compliment. That being said, 80% of the time she is nice, in general. Its only sometimes that I wish she was anywhere else.
Now, the good: First class was Japanese Society and Culture, which is usually pretty good. We studied a new pop song .. which is always hilarious. The teacher hands out the lyrics, and plays the song, and then she explains the lyrics and we are all supposed to sing along. Of course, the class (mostly chinese boys) sings along every time she plays the song.. and we try very hard not to laugh. Imagine a class full of boys singing a girl`s love ballad. Total magic. Thursdays song was almost as good as that. It was a boy band singing the japanese version of "my grandfathers clock". Nope, Japanese alone isnt funny enough, we have to have a boy band harmonizing for the emotion filled "tick tocks". And then add in my class singing along. Thank goodness we had sat near the back, because I snickered into my lyric sheet through the whole thing.
After that class we leave for lunch, and on our way out, a random japanese boy stops us and introduces himself. He then explains why he has come to meet us. Unfortunately, we had no clue what he was saying. He said something about his two friends (girls) coming to meet us as well, so Scott invited him to have lunch with us. During lunch (Omurice - yum!) he explained again - thank god - and this time I caught it. His name is Kazuya, and he comes from Kansai GaiDai in Hotani, where they have no exchange students. He (and his friends) are very interested in learning more English, and about English speaking cultures (ie, American, but they didnt want to offend us) so he came to our uni to track us down and make friends. A little creepy if you really think about it, but we are happy for any Japanese friends that will have us. After lunch we hung out with him and his friends, Akie and Miika (who, to Scott`s leering glee, were both adorable). They were very nice, and dressed up like nuts, and i was so glad to not look like a bag lady. When they asked about Canada, both americans piped up "cold!" Both girls shrieked when i started my answer to our normal winter temps. (i said minus and then paused to think). They took our emails, and said they would email and get together with us sometime. Spiffy.
The rest of class was just class, aside from Julie making some remark about how much cooler americans are.. and how she wouldnt be a canadian if she was paid. ( i bet there are some things you could pay her to do though... ) Anyway, after class i raced home because i knew that Okaasan and i would be going to her Sadou (tea ceremony) lesson quite early.

Which leads me into the very best part of my day. Okaasan comes home, and lends me some totally white socks (apparently required?), and we set out. We drive into Hirakata as it is getting dark, and everything lights up and is pretty. Okaasan comes up to an intersection with the light already yellow, and says 行きましょう！(Lets go!) As she hits the gas, the light turns red, and as she speeds across the intersection, she says something i took for "Ah, missed it!". I felt very much at home. On the way the radio played "Stayin` Alive" and i thought about line dancing in gym.
After about a half hour drive, we arrive at her Sadou teacher`s house. As we go in, she is already kneeling just past the entrance, in a pink kimono. Okaasan told me later that her teacher wears kimono all the time, everywhere. She was about sixtyish, and very very sweet. She spoke some English, so all the explanations were a strange mix of English and Japanese that i am starting to get very used to. We took off our shoes, and walk through some tatami rooms to the garden outside, where we used water from this stone thing to wash our hands and mouths, in order to make them pure. We sit in the larger tatami room to get everything ready, and i realize that i cant properly sit on my feet like i should, because it makes my ankle hurt like a bitch. Crap. Lovely Sensei sees it, and gets me a little wooden stool thing to sit on.. it was better, but i wish she hadnt. I felt like a bull in a china shop already, and all the extra effort for me made me wish i could just get swallowed into the floor. For about ten minutes I feel beyond awkward, and then the magic kicks in.