Hotel Daimatsuso Matsushima

... communities" for the most part, but I'm lucky enough to be placed in Yoneyama, which is about 10-15 minutes away from every other town, making it easy to get to the more "urban" ones whenever I want (once again, not too unlike New Braunfels).

We arrived at the BOE and jumped right into things. Walked up stairs to the BOE office, were eyed by the 30 some-odd staff, then were shuffled into the superintendent's office. We then went through a very official ...

... 8220;Hana”.

I didn’t cry as much as I thought I would during “Waterfall”, the last song. However, I had this strange feeling in my chest. It was like my heart was going to burst out but not because it was pounding hard. I still don’t quite get it, but I think it was a good feeling. That song definitely moves me whenever I hear it.

Right after the concert, Monica had to rush to catch her train. I lost ...

... Forus. Bad idea. I came out with a pair of Sixh pants (Sixh being a label created by a couple of visual kei artists who worked under h.Naoto), a shirt from Peace Now with a sailor collar, and Ayabie’s “Aitakute” single. To be fair, the pants are wicked cool and the Peace Now shirt was 70%, which made it closer to $30 instead of $90. Good deal if you ask me, and it’s cute.
Sendai, Miyagi, Japan maverickranger

... pack rat.

For my last real meal (breakfast and lunch tomorrow are going to be scavanged), I debated between Café Gati and my student’s family’s gyutan place. The latter won since I’m not going to have the opportunity to eat gyutan back home. Or hayashi rice, which is what I ordered (it had gyutan pieces). My student’s mother gave me watermelon as a sort of bonus when she found out that I was leaving. It made me ...

... last time we’d be hanging out as a group so we made it count. I will miss life here so much. T_T (I've been using this emoticon too much, methinks.)

Glossary
Comiket - "Comic Market",a gathering for amateur artists to sell their work
Natsu Matsuri - Summer Festival
hanabi - fireworks
meishi - business cards
abunai - dangerous
yukata - informal summer kimono, made of cotton
combini - convenience store

... a band that played children’s songs for a short bit, but they didn’t hold my interest. Then, when I was getting picked up, a hard rock band came on. The lead singer was definitely trying to channel Hyde with his growly voice and falsetto note (also his longish wavy hair). They were pretty cool, but I had to leave.

For dinner, Michael W. picked me up to go ...

... England and France beneath the English Channel). The next part of our journey was about two hours and we arrived in Sendai even more exhuasted than we did in Hakodate.
We were able to overcome our fatigue and head for the island of Matsushima, listed as one of the three most beautiful places in Japan. Our first order of ...

I am writing this entry on the last night of our stay in Tokyo. Unfortunately this means we are rapidly approaching the end of our trip and the dreaded return to grey and depressing normality of our droll lives and office jobs. Kind of like The Matrix in reverse. Still we have Mount Fuji still to come so there is a real feeling that the best isn't behind us yet. Last night we returned to Shinjuku for the third time, but this ...

... are very reserved: they applaud and cheer softly. Anyway, I am eternally grateful that Emi came over when I was trying to ask for a photo of the band. Domo arigato gozaimasu! (Thank you very much!) Not to brag, but they were flattered to have an American fan. I invited them to play here, to which the lead singer replied that he would like to very much. I'm super stoked to have met them and shook their hands (remember J-rock fangirl here :D). The deer ...

After rice cakes and tea breakfast at our hotel, we walk to a sports store we had read about that sells a lot of soccer jerseys, shorts and accessories. We are also desperately searching for an international ATM. We have success on our fifth try when we just exchange money instead of using an ATM. We then begin the wild goose chase of finding the soccer store. Finally, we stop a young guy and ask him if he know it, which he does and says follow me. He leads us down a ...