Adina in Houston

The end of the story:

In order to go on in my blogging life, I feel it best to finish the story of my summer in Japan. The last few weeks were incredible. I was ready to go back home but had some of the best times in those last two weeks.

I crashed some festivals and picked up some dancing:

I was homeless for a week but taken in by great people:

I climbed a mountain (not Fuji-san):

I finally found that perfect Japanese boyfriend:

I discovered exactly how crazy-big T-town is:

(Really, it's that ridiculous--as far as the eye can see.)

That's pretty much the end of the story--Sayoonara Nippon 日本!

Fireworks in Asakusa

Well, as you may have noticed, I've fallen a little behind in my blogging again. After the fireworks with Isobe's group, I went to an even bigger fireworks show on the following Saturday (July 29) with other JSPS fellows. (It was a big week for fireworks in Tokyo.) We had a pretty fabulous time!

Nakamura Welcome Party

Actually, the welcome party for new people to the Nakamura group was July 19, but I just got the photos. Some of us newbies had already been around for a while when we had the welcome party, but it's rather difficult to get such a large group together! We went out for a traditional Japanese dinner and then karaoke!

Julia and I enjoyed performing some duets including Abba's "Dancing Queen" and the theme song for my summer in Japan: Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On."

A Day in the Life of...

...a grad student in Japan...Since I spend most of my time at work (despite what it may seem like from my pictures!) today I thought I'd include a few pictures of the lab...

In Japan, they have a convenient system for determining who's at work. This board contains tiles with everyone's name--in red on one side and black on the other. At the front of the row is the professor's name, and it goes down from there in pecking order.

Yeah, I'm not really the biggest fan of this system...

Okay, it might be kind of hard to spot, but my desk is in this picture. Look past the table in the front of the picture and to the left...a little more to the left...okay, the laptop in front of the red backpack is my desk...Takahashi-san's desk starts right after my notebook on the right side, and Takatsugu-san's is after that. The table is a common area for people to eat or have meetings. I would have to say our rooms are definitely Japanese sized!

Here's the lab where I get to spend most of my time. My hood is on the right immediately inside the door. I have learned so much in this room.

Fireworks!!!

So tonight has to be, hands down, one of my favorite times in Japan so far!! I went with my subgroup in the Nakamura lab, Isobe-san's group, to see a Fireworks festival. It was so much fun!!

Yesterday, Fujino-san and I went and bought yukatas (summer kimonos) at a store called Uniqlo. Then this evening before we went to see the fireworks, Isobe-san's wife helped us put them on correctly. She made her own yukata!

I'm not really sure where we were, but we took the train and then met up with the rest of our company on a big brigde. We stopped in the middle of the bridge, sat down on the concrete and had our Japanese style picnic--rice balls, some kind of balls with octopus, and cream puffs! There was faint music playing in the background just like many Fourth of July celebrations I've been to! Here's a taste of what we saw (please ignore the pole):

Our whole group:

We had such a good time, talking and laughing--definitely a night to remember!

Party with peeps from New Hope Tokyo

Yukie (next to me) is my friend who first took me to New Hope Church in Ochanomizu. Last Saturday we had a party with students and a few other CCC workers to celebrate the end of exams. We had some awesome Japanese food and played some challenging clapping, name-memorizing games!

The rest of my crib

Here's the inner sanctum of my room...my desk where this very blog was published...my coffee press (you'll hear more about that later)...tv where everything is in Japanese so it's mostly off...

My bed actually does fold into the wall!

This is one of my favorite features...the remote control air conditioner...now, I know you're thinking that this room may not be large enought to warrant a remote control, but I've used it!

Here's a feature I hope I never have to use:

Overall, I have to say it's been pretty cosy and homey (thanks to Jesus!).

My crib

fyi: crib is slang for house

Just in case anyone was wondering what my residence looks like, I thought I'd include some descriptions of my lovely abode this week...I am living in a guest researcher dorm/hotel-like place on campus, only a five minute walk from my lab.

Here is the door to my room...I have been living here, in room 210, for the past five weeks but for some reason (surely a good one), I will be moving to another room next Saturday for a couple of weeks...until the place closes for a week because of summer vacation (I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing during that time, but hopefully having fun).