What the heck is a “Smoop?”

Kai-Kai’s school friend’s family invited my host-family and me to another Onsen (bath house). It was so big! I’m really liking Onsens – they feel sooooo gooooood :)
Anyways, at this Onsen I saw someone with a bag that said in English “I <3 Baby Smoop.”

…come again? Yeah, I don’t get it either.


The family we went with had to daughters, one Kai-Kai’s age (Sarina, her school-mate) and one 6 years old, Rena. Rena was so adorable!!! Right after meeting me she took my hand and wouldn’t let go. She kept calling me nee-chan (big sister) all night. So cute!!!!


I finally started classes on Tuesday. Monday was respect for the elderly holiday, and tomorrow (Thursday) is another holiday so it’s a short week. Also, unlike the UW, teachers here don’t give you homework on the first day (who would of thought that teachers would be so nice!) so it hasn’t gotten busy yet. My Japanese language class is everyday, (actually it’s 4 times a week but the 5th day is a culture class that you have with the same people in your Japanese class) but all the rest of the classes are once a week. All my classes are taught in Japanese (scary!). Japanese language taught in Japanese isn’t hard (cuz that’s what my Japanese classes at UW have been), but taking other classes (like Anthropology) is super hard! Well, I’ve only had the Anthropology class so far, so I can’t say they are all hard yet, but I’m betting they will be. I think I’m going to drop the Anth class though, cuz that’s hard enough in English :P

My Japanese class is different depending on the day (Tuesday is speaking, Wednesday is reading, Friday is writing, etc.) and they are in different classrooms. Anyways, the Wednesday classroom makes a certain noise every so often (I think it’s the air conditioning). The thing about this noise though, is that is sounds just like the noise in Zelda when a wall-shadow is about to come down and grab you (those of you who don’t know Zelda, don’t worry about it). It totally freaked me out! When I heard it the first time I was worried that a huge hand was going to grab me and next thing I know I would end up at the building entrance. It’s funny how the mind associates noises that sound similar.


Speaking of air conditioning, it’s still freaking hot here. They say it’s going to rain tomorrow, and that today was the last hot day (they said, “from tomorrow, it’s autumn”), but I don’t really believe it will cool down that fast. I mean, it’s humid, right? Rain means more humidity, right? And even when they say cool, they mean like 75-80 degrees. Dude, I’m from Seattle. Japan’s hot is like, a volcano erupting in Seattle.
But in all seriousness, I think I’m adjusting to the temperature. Even though it’s the same degree, it doesn’t feel as hot, and even my hair isn’t as “LET’S HAVE A PARTY!” as before. It’s behaving better :)

BUT THE MOSQUITOES! They are eating me alive D: I got at least 10 bites from today alone. I really can’t wait for it to be too cold for them.





No pictures this time (sorry!). I really haven’t been taking any. Everything I do has “foreigner” stamped all over it, even if I do it exactly as a Japanese person would. I’m very hesitant to add “tourist” to all that. For someone who doesn't like to stand out, I picked the wrong country! :P