From the Midwest and Around the World

   I cooked a whole fish for the first time on Sunday evening and here are the results! It was actually edible and it really tasted good. Here are the pictures:

   I visited Hikone-jo (Hikone Castle) today. With my student ID, I get in free... Unfortunately, since it is winter here, things are kind of gray and muddy. However, the view was wonderful!      However, the climb up to the main castle was a haul (as it should be deduced due to the view).        The castle was also really intimidating, but in a different way. However, the stairs inside the castle leading to the top were little death traps. They could not be called stairs because they were more like really steep ladder steps. I went up forwards...but I had to go down backwards. With my luck, it was not hard to picture myself falling down flat on my head. But here is a picture of the exterior of the castle. I will probably go again and get more pictures:     It was a really good experience and now I am preparing to Skype with some friends from college who also did JCMU a few years ago. I also ha...

   I hope everyone enjoyed not having to read my blog during my brief hiatus. Well, I'm back to bother you all again. It is Sunday evening after an interesting, restful, and spontaneous weekend. First off, let me tell you about the rest of my week. Before I started class in level two Japanese, I took a lot of walks outside on Monday and Tuesday...and I have not posted the pictures yet...so here they are: This is the road outside JCMU.  This is a view of the beach from a roadside park just between Hikone and Maibara (the next town over) <---- Another view of the mountains across the lake Obligatory picture of waves---> <-----It was really windy this morning and these poor ducks were just riding the waves. Here is a rock that is considered holy or attached to a diety  (forgive the Wikipedia explanation)---> The town you see here is Maibara and the Mountain behind it is Mount Ibuki---> <---Another look at Maibara <-...

Hey everyone! I got into Level Two and while there is not a lot of make up work, I want to make sure that I start all right...so please don't expect a new post until this weekend (either Saturday or Sunday)! Thanks and sorry I won't be describing my experiences as much (if you are on Facebook, I may post a short blurb if it's an important, interesting, or humorous experience...but I will update this blog asap!). Have a great day! Update: It looks like I forgot to tell you all that I did get my luggage on the day it was promised (Monday)! Yes I am all moved in!

   Today (Monday) was my last free day before I enter class on Tuesday. I will have to take a placement test (probably tomorrow), but I do not yet know when or where...so I will get back to you on that! While I do not look forward to having homework, it will be nice to have more structure in my day as well as the fact that I will get a bike tomorrow, so I can go a few more places. Tomorrow will probably be a tough day because I will have a test and then in the afternoon, I have my elective film class.    Of course, I will let you all know how tomorrow goes, what level of Japanese I enter, and anything else.    Highlight of the Day: This morning, I took a long walk along Lake Biwa and got to the outskirts of Maibara...it was so pretty this morning!

   Today was my first full day in Japan. I had a fairly restless sleep the night I got there, probably due to the time difference and jet lag. However, I forced myself to stay in bed until 6 AM. Then, I ate the bean bun I had bought the night before, which was very tasty. I also got some hot chocolate from the vending machine so I had a warm beverage. Then, I watched the sun rise and went for a walk with a bottle of hot green tea (again, from the vending machine). This is the view across the lake from the sidewalk outside the academic building. Here is the sidewalk. To the left is a Japanese-style garden outside the academic building.  <---Another view of the lake <---Here is the view outside my window. If I look to the right, I can see the castle in the distance    I had wanted to bike to the grocery store later that day, but since it is the weekend and tomorrow (Monday) is a national holiday, the person who is in charge of the bi...

   Well, I am finally in Japan! My plane ride was long, but it was fun to meet different people as well as watch movies and the "moving map" that shows what country (or ocean) the plane is flying over. I was in the middle of a three-chair row in economy comfort (so I had a little more foot room). Next to me, in the aisle seat, was someone who (I think) was French (based on his language choices on the screen). He seemed perpetually angry/impatient and was not too friendly...so maybe he was affected by the blizzard at some point as well and was just trying to get to his location, or maybe this attitude is just a French thing...In the window seat, there was a Filipino (who was very friendly and nice...but I suspect a little flirtatious as well). They kept us really well fed! We got three different "meals" (and all three of them were very generously sized). The first was "dinner" which consisted of Miso Yaki Beef, rice, a roll, shrimp cocktail (basically three...