「新たな世界の入り口に立ち。。。」

Colin: *for no reason, skips over to the piano, where the group is gathered*
Di: アッ！　さすがお金持ち！　（~"Ah! As expected of the rich person!")
Colin:　ワァァァァァァ～　うれしい～　（"Ahhhhh, so happy~")

Oh, AIKOM. <#
...Yeah, though everyone in AIKOM seems to be receiving some kind of scholarship, most are JASSO (though the Japanese government) and haven't arrived yet, and mine is largest. XD+

Although there was, as previously noted, no party on Friday, last night (Saturday night) made up for it, I guess. XD
It was the Mitaka Ryou Ongakusai (Music Festival). It started out with a lineup of all the people and groups that had signed up to perform, and that went for maybe an hour and a half or so. All the performances were pretty great. Highlights include Alden being a pop star, and Sarah, who I knew was a great singer, nevertheless surprising everyone and moving a couple people to tears. Fiona on piano was also great, and there was another pianist who played for, liek, everyone, and who I met and talked to afterward, but can't quite remember the name of... D+ I'll have to ask Sarah.
And, of course, the AIKOMers sang ３月９日 ("March 9th"). We weren't very good to listen to, perhaps, but it was still a great, moving experience to do it with everyone.

Afterward was the customary Mitaka Ryou food and drink, the customary drunk Miyamoto, and the customary crazy dancing AIKOMers (and largely too-shy-to-dance Japanese student XD+ ). We also played cards, and I met many new people, including the (in?)famous Daisuke, as well Akine, Aki, Sho, the piano guy, and several others I remember but am too fail at Japanese names to remember the names of. We also played Mafia, which was pretty amazing that the group we played it with had effectively English-only speakers, effectively Japanese-only speakers, and the rest of us all somewhere in-between. In fact, they were possibly some of the best games of Mafia I've ever played. XD

Also yesterday I met Miwa, and we went to Kichijouji to buy me a mobile phone and electronic dictionary. We accomplished both of these goals. I'd had my eye on a super-cool phone, but upon closer inspection found that, aside from looking really, really cool, the additional features it had weren't too useful to me. So, although I have more set-up money than I could ever need, I got, liek, the cheapest phone, instead (...it's still much cooler than any US phone I've ever had). XD Since I can't use it when I go back to the states anyway, I figure it's probably a good choice.
We also looked at toys, he bought a model, and we we had lunch at Gasto, which was pretty fun. Hooray~