Karaoke!

Guys there's only 20 days. You have no idea how sad that's making me. So I won't talk about that.

I'll entertain you with my week instead.

This week there was no 別府 nor any 神社, and to be honest, it was really nice to get back to my regular schedule. Don't get me wrong, winter break was awesome and I got to do so many things I didn't even know there were to do or experience. However, it was really nice to see everyone at school and have some structure to my week. On Monday I had my last trip downtown before break was over with Andres, and then it was back to school on Tuesday. School that day was a little different than usual. We had one huge souji first thing in the morning (which felt really weird, considering it's usually right after lunch), THEN ate lunch and then had an assembly for the whole school. I'm still absolutely amazed at the discipline that Japanese students show at those things. They talk up until the speaker begins speaking and then it's this sudden dead silence. And then when people have to scoot their rows over or move in any direction, everyone moves at the same time, and people still aren't talking, so all you hear is a really eerie padding sound (from everyone's socks). It's going to be interesting to go home to an assembly at my school in the States...

In any case, the rest of this past week was fairly uneventful. We had another uniform check on Tuesday as well. Those days always make me laugh because you see everyone running around making last-minute checks to see that their nails are cut, skirt's not rolled up, hair is neatly pulled back, etc. The boys were even having other classmates give them mini-haircuts before. Now THAT'S a sight to see. They hold a trash can under their head and the cut hair falls right on in. I imagine that if that happened in the States (at least in Chicago at my school) it would be considered ghetto by at least some people. I just think it's entertaining. This time, when our hair was getting checked (for if anyone had dyed theirs or needed to cut it), the teacher exclaimed (totally kidding), "茶髪だ！" She was basically just (sarcastically) exclaiming that I had brown hair.

On Saturday my host mom and I went to the mall. I ended up buying a bunch of omiyage (souvenirs) for people back home. Gotta say that's greatly reduced my stress level of the past few weeks. And they (almost all) had Kumamon on them! 

Today was probably the most interesting day thus far. I went downtown with two friends from school, which was really nice since I hadn't done that in a while. We went to... wait for it... KARAOKE! Yatto! Finally! I know it's really late for me to have just gone, but that's how it happened. Now, when I first proposed doing this earlier in the week, I really only suggested it because I figured that if I go to Japan, I absolutely have to go to karaoke. After having spent an hour longer than we had intended, I can honestly say that it's one of the most enjoyable and entertaining things readily available for you in Japan. They're EVERYWHERE. We ended up going to one in a side street which made it look really shady from the outside. I'm sure my friends were joking, but they made me go in first because they were too 'scared'. 

It's pretty dark in karaoke buildings. I didn't get a picture of the entrance, but I did get a picture of the room. The entrance had a counter to one side to pay and get your room, and the rest was a bunch of chairs for some reason. I guess in case you have to wait for a room...? There wasn't really anyone there in the middle of the day, however, so we got our room and settled down for our... ahem... beautiful singing.

 That's what you see when you walk in, and then if you turn around to look at the door...

 They're really small rooms, but it makes for a much cozier experience. Before we even went, everyone was saying that they didn't want to sing. That totally turned around when we were in that room. I hate singing in front of people, even if it's not that many. But for some reason, this ended up being totally different. I'm pretty sure that all places have English songs too. This one had quite the selection; and they were all fairly recent! I ended up singing one Japanese song by myself, and then sang along (without a mic; there's only 2) with a few other ones. By the end of the 2 hours that we spent karaoke-ing (can that be a verb?), my throat hurt pretty bad. I readily admit that I'm a pretty awful singer, and I'm certain that I don't actually know how to use my stomach to project rather than just my throat. I'm pretty sure that's also why I was in such pain afterwards. I'd do it again tomorrow anyway. That's how fun it was. As far as the price goes, I'm under the impression that it was a pretty decent price. For 2 hours, the total (per person) came out to 620 yen each, and that included a drink. They have a bunch of meal-type foods too, but we'd just eaten so we didn't need any of it.

The other highlight of my day was this beautiful thing:

Bananas, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, corn flaky cereal, and a whole thing of PUDDING. I was so happy the whole time I ate that.

So yes, there you have my fascinating week. The weekend's not even over quite yet (I don't have school tomorrow), but I figured I'd update this when I had the chance.

もうちょっと！：（

OIEFJFIDJKPOEFPOJERJDO
-Ellie