Interpret the title in any way you want, it's multi-layered for your inconvenience.
It's been, what? 18 days since my last update, which was a delayed one on top of that. You guys must be at least 3 weeks behind me (hells, it's been 4 weeks since I started school and I've barely written about it).
I could tell you about how awful my current host family is, but it's not interesting and would probably be misinterpreted as whining, since most of you don't have a frame of reference. Instead I will just tell you about other, happier, things.
As of today, I have been in Japan for 7 weeks, which means tomorrow will be my 50:th day in this place (7x7+1 do the math yourself). Which can count as quite a lot if you consider that I will be in Japan for more or less 300 days, however, it is also just 1/6:th of my total stay (16.5% if you will), which in a depressing point of view makes it obvious that it's far from even halfway. My opinion on this matter varies greatly depending on my mood (and with the prior statement about my family, guess which mood I'm mostly in right now).
That aside, today was a great day for another reason, it was the first day of Bunkasai (school festival). It was great fun.
To be more specific, it all kicked of with a blast when the opening ceremony consisted of traditional Japanese dancing. The dancers were all dressed up (some even had make-up, one guy looked like a girl, fun times) and the drums were overpowering. The dance itself was amazing, it looked like a random madman's dance, but it was all coordinated and fit so perfectly to the drums' beat, I was enthralled.
After that, I mostly walked around the school area (occasionally with or without Truls and/or Amanda), looking at things (and talking about them, too). I did not have the time to visit my class' attraction, for which I had spent 2.5 hours the day before drawing a picture (of space!) which would be displayed. I did, however, see my picture framed before the opening ceremony. They had misspelled my name (Jorkim is the ugliest name ever, how did they even get that? They usually just call me something with an A and without the O, how the fook did they manage to switch the A to a consonant? Silly Engrish-speakers).
Some of the many places of interest I visited include: A stand selling Chocolate bananas (yummy, though they were out of bananas before I had the chance to eat another). A stand selling Ramune (tasted OK, cool thing with a glass ball in the flask). A booth where we were given a number and asked to find another student with the same number (I was 63, it took me all day, but eventually I found the girl who had it and we could then return to the booth to have our picture taken and be rewarded with candy, sweet!). A train model display, by the Train Spotting club (a freaking Train Spotting club. Suddenly the Butt Monkey from Katteni Kaizo is suddenly a lot more believable). And loads of other places unworthy of my mention.
A place I never got the chance to visit (despite standing in the queue for 15 minutes) was the Obake Yashiki (Ghost House), the queue was really long (the most popular of all attractions) and it must have been good, since I could hear the screams from the other side of the corridor.
While standing in a queue mostly comprised of Junior High students (this was before 12 o'clock, they had obligatory attendance and nobody else visited that early in the day), I was quite obviously identified as a Gaijin. I brought a lot more attention from these people since they are not at all as used to foreigners as the High School students (the Junior ones don't have exchange students, nor have they had any classes on other countries to help them eliminate the stereotypes and assumptions that still float in their tiny heads). So after a while of standing there, catching everyone's gaze, I was approached by a group of girls, who asked me if I knew Japanese and what my age was, which was then followed by a raised pinky-finger and the question "gaarufurendo imasuka?" (that is always one of the first questions I'm asked, have they no sense of tact?). After telling them so, they were shocked (the most common reaction to my answer) and one of them answered with "No, you should me".
I laughed.
Oh, my wonderfully beloved and awesome host family is back (Sarcasm brought to you by GOD himself), I need to leave the computer now, I'll make a follow-up later tonight.
