In repentance for the skipped weeks, I'll attempt some more writing.

For the past week or so I've had trouble with my knee. At times it was too painful to actually walk. I am such a grandma. What's worrying is that there is a softball game coming up. I think that's what it's called. Running around with bats, hitting balls in this heat is nonsense. Maybe I can blame my knee and get out of it? Also, I don't have any sports clothes. That  may be a problem as well.

This weekend I undertook an enormous task and washed the kitchen. I know, I am so awesome.
On Sunday we went to the city centre and I bought a projector connector thingy for the laptop and headphones. The headphones aren't too comfortable, but they were very cheap, which makes me slightly less unhappy. But maybe next time I'll try to be less of a greedy little goblin and shell out on a decent pair. But the cheap ones are pink, so I forgive them :)

In Japan there seems to be a lack of colour choices that are usual for Latvia, but they make up for it with an abundance of others. Blue items aren't that common as well as grey, but they have a ton of pink and things like turquoise or lime.

Right now it is really hot in Japan (which is normal, since it's summer). It's practically impossible to live without an air-conditioner. I am sort of considering buying opera style gloves that girls here wear. It's to do with sun protection and keeping your skin white. The white part doesn't interest me so much, but the sun protection element I like. Maybe next time we drop by Hikari no Mori.

Skipping

Even though I said I'd try and update every week, I skipped 2 of them already. Why? Well, last weekend and part of this week was spent franticly getting the presentation ready for my Wednesday class. The week before that was my birthday. So I was super distracted from doing anything else.

So, my Birthday. It was great really. In the morning we cleaned the house some and did the washing - very un-birthday-like. Then we went shopping to Hikari no Mori (光の森) - a shopping mall about 30 minutes away y train. We bought a ton of things, and there was this weird thing near one of the elevators.

It's seriously huge!

When we were inside, it started raining. So when we were leaving to go to the station, the rain was in full swing. Not so bad, since I had a ton of shopping bags to protect my precious locks.

In the evening we went to a French restaurant. The same one we went to last August when I was leaving to go back to Latvia. Or was that the August before last. I can't remember. My passport, however, claims it's been 2 years already. Even more surprising was that the waiter remembered us. I suppose, foreigners rarely come there, since it's quite expensive and totally in Japanese.

It was delicious. And I really like the atmosphere of the place. They also bring out a huge number of cutlery. I am always a bit nervous that I might use the wrong one. But it usually turns out fine.
I had a really lovely birthday thanks to my wonderful boyfriend.

Now, during the past weekend I was rushing to write the presentation. I tell you, my hands were hurting a lot by the end of Tuesday. On Saturday Shiv went on a night hike from Aso back to Kumamoto. So he got back Sunday morning. His feet were in a right state.

I have to admit that because there was no one to scold me for procrastinating on the presentation, that is what took up most of Saturday. I also skipped out of helping to set up screens in the Hall for students to pin their work on Tuesday. But I did finish the presentation on time, and it went rather smoothly.
Also, Tanaka sensei taught me how to print papers double-side and in sets. I shall have to try that later by myself.

Local Bar

About a month ago we went to a bar that served lots of pork stomach kebabs. They also served all sorts of sake, which I didn't drink. I got my さんざし.

Shiv found on the internet that if you order sake from Tohoku, a part of the money you pay goes to charity.

It was pretty fun.

After the bar we bumped into my teacher who was out drinking with other teachers. I had no idea what to do. Shiv talked and I smiled and bowed or more likely nodded :)))

Sudden memory loss

I forgot I had a second lecture today... Total memory lapse.

今日は、二つのじゅぎょうがあるのをわすれていました。。。

Routine days

Let's see. This week we were preparing for the debate again. I did manage to get data from my other class, but we didn't use much of it I think. Had to meet on a Saturday too. Our team won though :)

The week wasn't very eventful. I honestly can't remember much of what I did. Thursday's meeting took a really long time. I ran away before it finished (as always). I really want to know what the upperclassmen are doing though. I spent Friday preparing the 2-week report. As usual I do stuff at the last minute. Got to work on that.

I try speaking with the students from the lab a bit. Even my tutor girl forgets I don't understand much and just rambles on in Japanese until she sees my eyes glaze over :))) Well, I suppose it's good practice. I also told Shiori-san I might start attending the competition meetings next semester or the next competition they have. The current one's description was so confusing and vague, I just gave up.

Shiv says I should write my blog every day, at least 2 sentences or something. Isn't that what twitter is for?
I might try it though.

On Sunday we went to the city centre. Did some shopping and fighting :(
I finally bought that make-up thingy, but not sure yet if I like it as much as I thought I would. Need to experiment a bit more with the application.

So serious.

I think the most enjoyable part for me was drinking the honey-au-lait and stealing Shiv's pumpkin cake.


In the spirit of practicing my Japanese more, I shall attempt to write some stuff -->

今日のディベートで私のチームはかちました。とてもうれしいです。
ディベートちゅう雨がとてもはげしいふっていました。

The Rainy Season

And so it started. It's been raining practically non stop today and the forecast promises more to come.

Basically, the rainy season is about 3 weeks of rain with high humidity and moderately high temperatures. Beforehand I've been told scary accounts of how it's going to be (むしあつい), but so far it hasn't been too horrible. Certainly better than the rainy season in Latvia, where it gets pretty cold in June. And practically always rains on my birthday. The weather makes my hair all fizzy and I feel sticky, but better this, than the August heat.

Still waiting for my marriage document resolution. I guess it's no big deal if we don't marry in June.

I tried taking some pictures of the rain today. As I got the camera out, I noticed that the battery was dead. Off to the charger with it. I took my phone to try and get at least something. But it refused to cooperate, saying the battery was too low. Put that on charger as well. Conclusion - no photos :(
Not like you could see much in that wall of water.

Another Week

This week I was a bit more free, since we no longer had the debate preparation meetings. So nice. Tomorrow, though, we will get a new debate topic and the troubles will start all over again. Hopefully, this time there will be someone in my group who speaks English.

Right now it's all about the campus project. But the more I listen to what the teacher says, the less I understand: gradation story? requirements/conditions for space? Huh? Am I being thick?

On the other hand, I'm hoping that my Japanese is improving slowly but surely. I do try and talk more in the lab. I guess I 'have' to, because one of my pals speaks not a word of English. It's fun though. We share some similar interests.

On Friday we tried to get married, but the City Hall officials had other ideas. All our papers were in order, it's just one of those things - one of my documents was of a new type, different from an older version (no longer given out). We'll wait a bit and see what the embassies say.

On Saturday we went to the city centre. To get my shoes from the cobblers' (the place is too upscale for that word...) and buy some walking shoes. Shiv persuaded me to buy slightly larger ones. Buying new jeans for Shiv was also on the agenda. He looks pretty good :D

Today we had the campus project meeting, and afterwards I went to play catch-ball with some of my lab mates. It was fun, but I got bitten by mosquitoes and am now super itchy.