A few more days...

I had an eventful weekend. On Saturday I went out with some AIKOM friends. Aside from New Year's, it was actually my first time staying out all night here. In many ways, I think one of Tokyo's most convenient points is its public transportation system. With trains and buses every few minutes, and a seemingly endless number of stations... It can take time to get places, but it's not generally difficult, it's safe, and you can chat or read (or, as often happened on mornings this last semester, cram) on the way. One of the big difficulties of using this system, however, is that it's all closed down between about 12:30 and 5 am. So you have to either get on the last train, or commit to the first train. In this case, we took the first train.

Anyway, after a few hours of sleep at home, I left with Joon Woo to go to Tamachi, which was a lot farther than I expected. We went there to participate in a Chadou demonstration. That's Chadou with the same dou as judo(u) and kendo(u), meaning "way" - in this case not the way of the sword or something, but the way of tea - also a very formalized traditional art which people teach and practice. Mikiko, who I know from Chabashira, had organized it, and apparently does it quite seriously. Her chadou sensei gave us a lecture about it, while she and some other students prepared tea. People always say how beautiful Mikiko is, but she always looked pretty but not extraordinary to me... But, I have to say, in her kimono (which, to me, usually doesn't really make people look better, though sometimes worse) and traditional hair style, she was quite a beauty. It was really amazing. XD
We also got to try making tea, and went though the whole process of drinking it and eating okashi... It was quite interesting, and a lot more complicated than I realized, and I knew that there was a lot to it. I was also very pleased that I understood almost all of the sensei's lecture. Unfortunately, right now, a teacher's lectures usually are often easier for me to understand than the chatting of friends, though. XD+

Afterward some of us went for dinner (where I totally failed to follow the Japanese conversation between Kenji and Akabane), and then, after that, some of us went bowling. I'd been intending to go home earlier, to get some work done, but I'd also been talking about wanting to find bowling in Tokyo for a couple weeks, so... XD
We did normal bowling, at which I did sort of decently, getting second place behind Akabane, who was miles out in front. But then we did bumper bowling, and I think I came in last. XD Not that anyone was seriously counting anyway. Memorable moments include Kenji picking me up off the floor unexpectedly from behind when I got a strike, and me accidentally smashing my knuckles when I jumped up in celebration of someone else's, and finding that the ceiling was lower than I realized. XD+

Yesterday I went to school and wrote my last Special Relay Lectures report, which was due at 3pm. The topic of the last lecture was multilateralism and Japan. I was able to complete the essay, about 1,000 words, which is long for a SRL essay, from initial brainstorming to printing in about two hours. I think this was actually because it was related to my major. Not that I've taken a lot of political science classes yet, but I was sort of able to put on my PS cap and go, applying things I've learned in PS courses. So that made me feel good, as I'm often a little uncertain about my choice of major. The essay may not have been especially inspired, but I think it was at least reasonably intelligent, which is all I can really aim for most of the time.
I then finished my Museums paper, and then had dinner at Gasuto with folks in celebration of Mina's birthday. It had started to rain in the afternoon, and as we were walking to Gasuto, around seven, it turned to sleet. Before long, we looked out the window and saw full-fledged, undeniable snow! The first (and quite possibly last) snow of the year in Tokyo. It was really cute, since for Fiona of Australia and Trang of Vietnam, it was actually their first time seeing snow. It actually did stick a bit, eventually, though probably less than an inch accumulated on the ground. But that didn't stop some (very dirty) snowman building and snowball fights. XD

Today my plans of making a big start on my Literature essay were thwarted by Mina asking me to go to lunch for her birthday. Although we already had dinner... I felt obliged to go. It was a good time, with just four of us, though the food wasn't amazing. When I finally made it to campus, I didn't get a whole done, sadly.

Also, the internet in my room is dead again. Like last month, I paid, and yet... So hopefully that'll be sorted in a couple days. In the meantime, I'm back to computing at the computer lab...

On Thursday I'm with some friends, mostly AIKOM, to DisneySEA! Everyone says it's way better than Tokyo Disney Land (which is supposed to be the same as every other Disney Land), so I'm excited. I'm hoping to finish all my essays by Sunday night... But we'll see. +P Only literature and External Relations left, but I'll need to do a significant amount of research for each... Sigh.