I'm slacking on updates here because of being suddenly slammed with midterms....I still have yet to get my videos up from the last entry as well...I'll add pictures to this entry soon, so check back.

Last week was busy, too. On the 12th I went to a Taiko drum concert put on by four reknowned taiko musicians. It was awesome to feel the viberations through the entire auditorium, and I highly recommend anyone go if you get the chance. If my dormmate puts up the video that she took, I'll post hers here.

Then, the 13th was a national holiday [Foundation Day], and the school had put together a trip to visit what is known as the the Pacific Culture Club. Its basically two little old ladies who invite you into their tradition style home and teach you various cultural Japanese arts [like kimono, ikebana, tea ceremony, ect]. She started the session with a traditional Shinto prayer [which was beautiful, despite only understanding the word "God"], and then she played the koto, which is the national instrument of Japan [I also have video of that that I'm hoping to post if youtube cooperates]. From there, we learned and tried our hand at calligraphy [the real kind, with the inkstone and brush].  After that, we got to try on kimono and parttake in a tea ceremony [the tea wasn't that great, but the sweets served with it were pretty].

After that, we headed to a real onsen [hot spring] and ooooohhh, was that nice. You scrub yourself off really good before getting in, and there are several different baths in the one we went to. Some are ice baths, some are really hot, some even have this electrical thing in it that is supposed to help your digestive system. I thought it was going to be weird being naked in front of all these people, but it was surprisingly not something I thought about once I got in there. I guess with everyone else walking around in the same state, it's kind of hard to think you stand out. One thing that threw me off was the fact that the water wasn't clear. Because it's full of some sort of minerals, it's actually the color of tea. The guys said that in their side of the onsen [yes, they separate it male and female] there was a bath that was green.

The Thursday that followed, I took the train after class to Tokyo city [it's like New York, New York, only not]. I went to the Imperial Gardens and the Tokyo Art Museum. Culture all around.

Sunday my roomies and I headed back to Yokohama and actually got to ride that massive ferris wheel. I was surprised to find that it doesn't stop moving. You get on and get off while it's in motion. It moves so slowly you don't realize that it's moving when you're in it, however.

And in news of things coming up, myself and two of the girls from the dorm are going to a J-Rock concert at a local club Friday [20th], Saturday I have a cosplay event to go to for the anime club, and there's a big group of us hitting Disney on the 28th.