Oh no. Oh yes. Japan, summer 2010.

I got back from Japan a week ago. Oh my. Where should I begin.

This will be very disjointed and all over the place. Bear with me.

There is no way I can write about the entire month. 絶対に無理だよ。As a whole, it was an incredible life changing trip. Parts were not as wonderful as I would have hoped, but I was so determined not to let this one little (can I say it? Okay, I will) bitch ruin my trip that I mostly ignored her and forgot about everything related to her after I returned so I was only left with my awesome memories that will literally stay with me forever.

Let's make a few lists, shall we?

Food
- Airplane food: no matter what country you are flying to or from, it SUCKS
- Convenience store food was decent
- The bigger the place, the crappier it was
- Tsukiji sushi: expensive but SO GOOD
- Unadon adventures with Kelsey
- Western style food wasn't great, and the service at these restaurants was similar to that of western restaurants, unfortunately
- Okonomiyaki: WAY too much food but still めっちゃおいしかった :)
- Slightly disappointed with home cooking?
- ICE CREAM
- Not much water but plenty of nasty barley tea
- Vending machines were everywhere, but they carried everything except for basic snack food. Most had drinks, and a few had cigarettes, beer, and ice cream
- The super expensive places were sometimes weird and not that great

Japanese people
- SO NICE.
- LEGIT.
- People in stores ACTUALLY WANTED TO HELP YOU
- Japanese children were SO CUTE
- Japanese men need to keep their minds out of the gutter. Way too much porn.
- They all knew way more English than we knew Japanese...

BASEBALL
- Ouendan
- Ouendan
- Ouendan
- 'nuff said
- Oh and GO CHIBEN! They won both their games and are going to the national tournament later this month :)

Purchases
- Super cheap HP DVD at a sketchy stand in a train station. It turned out to be a rental. Whoops
- Some anime toy for my brother. I had no idea what it was, but I recognized the name on the tag from his ramblings about anime
- Ice cream. Lots of it.
- Toy Story picture book. I could understand it. WIN
- お土産 for all IRL friends and family, postcards for CoWs
- Purple Converse and green shoelaces. Be jealous

Non-purchases
- Convenience store porn. Just because I didn't buy it didn't mean no one did. And I am disgusted at those individuals.
- Engrish shirts. SO MANY but I was poor :(
- CD's and DVD's. They were so expensive
- A talking Buzz Lightyear that SPOKE IN JAPANESE. I was practically crying over this, I wanted it so badly.
- A yukata, even though most people did. Thankfully, my student from last year, Mami, brought me one when she visited America :)

Let's go back to simply talking. It's hard to explain why this trip was so incredible, because it was more than just being in Japan and experiencing Japanese culture. I went with a group of 14 kids from my school and most of us became really close by the end of the trip. There was some drama, yes, but it all made the trip so much more interesting and real. I loved hanging out with everyone, Chiben kids and TJ kids. We all got along so well and I simply felt so comfortable around them. Being in Japan was just different. I was a different person over there. I was confident with my Japanese skills and felt like I could go back and be okay by myself. I was able to be myself and make the other kids laugh. I found myself picking up aspects of the language, as well as a newfound love for the culture. There is so much more to say about the trip but I'm too lazy to write it all out. Let's just say this trip was the primary topic of my two college interviews and completely changed my future plans for everything. I will live in Japan someday. Or else.