Alrighty...so...my last 2 weeks here in Shinjo has officially started. T_T That's so depressing.

I'm at my last host family. I arrived just a little bit ago. And they seem REALLY nice. I think it'll be a nice stay. They have 6　family members. Their oldest daughter goes to the same school as my first host family brother. xD In fact...they are in the same class. LMAO! I find that extremely amusing.

My last host family was pretty freakin' amazing. It was just a older couple but I met the wife last year. Mathias stayed with her. But they were so nice that I felt like I was taking advantage of their kindess. But they had a HUGE ASS HOUSE. But I think I've mentioned this before but I'm not sure.

Anyway, Naoko Takeuchi who we all know as the auther of Sailor Moon is married to the manga artist Yoshihiro Togashi who is best known for his work of Hunter x Hunter. Guess where he was born? SHINJO! And where am I again? SHINJO! Yeah...both him & Naoko-san lived in Shinjo for a while. And guess who's house that was?　MY HOST FAMILY'S. That's right kids...I lived in the house that BOTH Naoko-san & Togashi-san lived. And both my host parents met them. And apperently still talk to them because they still get gifts from the two. HOW FREAKIN' AWESOME IS THAT?! I got to eat this expensive looking chocolate that was apperently from them. O.o And it was DELICIOUS!

Oh man...I'm tired. I fail at this updating thing. *sigh* Hopefully things get better once I'm on Tokyo. I still haven't heard from Ken yet if he found me tickets. I'm assuming he didn't. Oh well...that's alright. I get to see Nakashima Mika so that makes up for it. :D Yay!

Be safe everyone. Love you! :D

(p.s. ANNIE!! Friend my other journal too!!!!!!)

Ok people...I swear I'm not dead. ^^; Just...insanely busy &/or exhauseted. >.< But I am updating since I have time & I don't want to go to bed since my Arashi show that I've been wanting to watch since I've gotten to Japan is showing here in Yamagata (its normally only shown in the Tokyo area...^^;), I'm staying up until midnight to do so. ^^; Right now I'm watching one of my favorite music shows Hey!Hey!Hey! & afterwards is a J-Drama that I've been obsessed with since I've gotten here called "Proposal Daisakusen - Operation Love [プロポーズ大作戦~Operation Love]". It has Yamapi in it. If you know who I'm talking about, then you should know that's all the reason I need to watch it. ^.~ But its very interesting. For real! But I'm sure none of you want to hear about that. I mean...I could go on & on and fangirl for hours but I'm sure you guys want to hear about my time in Japan. ^^; If you're really interested in the show, you can google or wikipedia the show & learn about it. And I'm sure there are sites that have it up for download. I know I'm going to look for it so I can find the earlier episodes. Tonight is the Finale!! *sqeaul*

Anyany...you guys are going to have to wait on what happened the first 2 weeks hear. I'm going to have to sit down with trip intinary & really think about what happened since SOOOO much did in 2 weeks. So I apoligize. Instead, you guys will hear about my month of teaching in Yamagata Prefecture. :D This may take a while to read so you might want to bookmark this & read this over a period of a couple days. Gomen ne!

I have to warn you...there may be random rambles & rants &/or whatever since its kind of late and I'm not fully fuctional...though I did take a 2 hour nap after school today so I'm not entirely that tired.

Ok...I'm done rambling! On to the good stuff....^^;

( Schools )

( Host Families )

( Just My Time Here In General )

I apologize for my rambles, bad grammer &/or spelling. Its late here & I'm a little tired. Apparently I've been here for so long that I'm not speaking English anymore but actually Engrish. xD I'm too tired to go back & double check everything. I need to go to bed. ^^; I hope everyone is doing fine! I'm thinking of you all!

And those who like Hana Kimi: J-DRAMA OF HAMA KIMI STARTS ON JULY 3rd!! YES!!! I'm SOOO watching!!!

Day 1! Yay!

Day 1 started off extremely early at like....4:00 am. ^^; And I didn't sleep one wink. xD Merlena came over at about 11-ish (I wasn't even home. ^^; I was taking Amanda home) & hung out & talked while I did last minute packing & stuff. She eventually knocked out at about 2-ish to get some sleep while I decided to putt-putt away trying to entertain myself so I don't sleep. xD

Anyway, at about 4:15 am, my dad drove Merlena & I to DIA and dropped us off at the American Airlines drop off place thingy. Merlena hung out near the desk while I checked in for my flight. I'm flying standby so I had to make sure I checked in early & got to my gate. But we got to DIA like, 20 minutes earlier than expected so I hung out with Merlena for a little bit before I had to leave her by herself & wait for everyone else to show up at 8:00 am. They don't fly out until like....11 or something. かわいそう！T_T Anyway, after I left Merlena, I went to security which didn't take as long as I thought it would. Since I'm wearing my super kick-butt boots with the stiletto heel & pointed toe (its the only shoes I can wear with my nice dress pants. I have to wear basically a business suit since I'm flying First Class AND standby so yeah..if I had cute, smaller non-boot shoes to wear with these pants, I so would. >.< My pants would drag so bad on the ground if I didn't wear these boots. *sigh* The cost of looking good...LOL!!!!), I thought it would be a major pain to take them off & put them back on again. But it was fine. Security wasn't so horrible. After that, went to my gate & just waited for about an hour before they boarded.

I was the 2nd to the last person called & I didn't get first class. T_T It was full. But the guy they called afterwards got the last first class seat. WTF?! ^^; I got put in the very back. Literally. It was kind of depressing. It was next to a family of 4. I eventually fell into a nice, comfortable light sleep as we took off but was abruptly taken out of it when one of the flight attendents woke me up & told me they would be moving me to the front of the plane (right behind First Class) so the family in the back could be together. So that wasn't so bad. I got to my new seat & went back in to my sleep where I slept for about an hour. Enough where I can feel rested but not exhausted while I'm at LAX and also to be able to fall into a nice deep sleep as soon as I get onto the BIG plane off to Japan. I should have no problem getting First Class on this flight since First Class tickets Internationally are ridiciculously more expensive than Domestic flights which means First Class will not fill up & I get to sit there. ^_^ Yay for Aunties who work for Airlines!! よし！

Anyway, when I woke up from my sleep, I looked out my window & saw one of the most beautiful image in my life! We were flying over the mountains of California when I saw the clouds covering the city. And it was magnificent! It looked like a white ocean & the mountains made their own little islands. Some of the clouds were kind of floating above each gave it a look like a wave crashing against the steep sides of a cliff. God...I don't think I'm actually doing justice for this amazing image I saw with my words. I totally suck at expressing things like that. But OMG it was beautiful! The worst part though; MY CAMERA WAS IN MY BAG IN THE OVERHEAD BINS!! WTF ARLET?! Seriously!! I couldn't believe I missed a beautiful opportunity to show everyone it! ARG! I'm so mad at myself! It was moments like these where I LOVE flying! The people behind me were complaining about not being able to see LA! Dude....seriously. You get to see something as beautiful as that everyday. And LA sucks anyways. :P

So yeah....I landed at LAX at about 8:30 LA time. I went straight to the bathroom. LoL!! But the "cool" part was when I exited the bathroom. So as I walked out of the bathroom, there was a small convenience-type store thingy there & guess who I saw there? Kobe Bryant. Yep. And his wife. Kind of cool but I really don't really care but it was still really cool. He's still a celebrity so it was just cool to be able to see one at the airport. Anyway, after I shrugged it off, I went to my gate & that's where I am right now. Just sitting around, will be waiting for about 3-ish hours before I start boarding. I'll be boarding at noon & the flight is at 12:40 pm. And I'm starving. ^^; There is a Chili's 2 near by so I think I may go grab a bite to eat since well....this will be my last time I can eat a REAL BURGER. So I think I may go get something to eat. Hmmm....burgers....*drools*

So yes...I'm going to go grab a bite to eat & fantasize about who may be in First Class with me. *cough*Gackt*cough*Arashi*cough* ^^; Oh man...I'm going to Japan!!!!

Hey guys! This is going to be my cell phone # in Japan. SO...if any of you are willing to spend the crap load of money to call me (^^;), you can do so here:

+81-90-5006-5469

I don't know the email address for it yet though...I'll let you all know what that is if you want to send text messages/emails since those are cheaper. ^_^

And check out the model I'm getting:





Pretty niffty, huh? Not sure what color I'm getting...probably black but that's still cool! I won't know until I pick it up at the hotel's front desk.

Alrighty, gotta make that email list & bake that cake. :D Catch ya'll later!

So yeah...this journal hasn't been written in for awhile. 1)I'm not in Japan anymore & 2)I completely forgot to post all the journal entries I wrote to put on here. ^^; Oops...

Anyway, since I'll be going back this summer, I'll be going back to this journal to *hopefully* do a better job at showing you guys things & writing stuff. ^^; I kinda didn't do that good of a job last time but I'm hoping to be a little better.

I may go back & post some of the entries I wrote up here just because. :D

I'm so excited to be going back!

And now for the grand finale!!! *drum roll*

( SHINJO MINAMI KOKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

*sigh* I miss these kids already...;_;

And now for the Middle Schools! :D

*WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY!! NOT DIAL-UP FRIENDLY!!*

( Tsunogawa Middle School )

( Tozawa Middle School )

That does it for Middle Schools! Enjoy!

Hey guys! I'm gonna try & start posting some of the pictures I have. The 1st ones I'm gonna show you are the WONDERFUL kids that I got to work with. On the last couple of days I spent in Shinjo/Tozawa, I went around to all the schools I visted one last time & took pictures of the individual classes. I didn't get all of them unfortunately because some weren't there & were on a trip or I ran out of time. BUT, there is a lot so I'm gonna seperate the post by elementary school, middle school & high school. :D First, let's start with the elementary kids!!

*WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY! NOT DIAL-UP FRIENDLY!!*

( Furukuochi Elementary School )

( Jinden Elementary School )

( Tozawa Elementary School )

( Tsonogawa Elementary School )

ENJOY!! :D

So today I discovered my first crush on me. I may have had others but today was the first time I noticed it in a boy. Let me tell you the story...LoL!

*warning: you're gonna need Japanese fonts on your commputer read what's on here...may not be entirely needed but it will be helpful*

( Awwww...aren't boys cute....XDDD )

So I'm in Japan. I made it safe & sound. The plane ride was the best plane ride I've ever ridden in. XD Thank you Auntie Conchita! ^^;

( Adventures on the first day )