Well, my first day of commuting to JCMU while living with my host family has come and gone, and guess what, I still have all my limbs in my possession, most of them still attached where they're supposed to be. Rather ironically, I think I had a harder time getting around on the DC Metro Train than I did with Japan Rail.

I got up bright and early at six this morning to ensure that I got to JCMU early. Breakfast was toast, salad (in Japan these things happen), and a fried egg (Mum and Da, you should be so proud of me, 'cause I ate that egg right up, nasty 'ol runny yolk an' all). Then Okaasan drove me to the train station (because I wasn't quite sure which train I needed to get on, and we were unable to satisfactorily work it out verbally). The office staff at JCMU had given me a well laid out schedule for what train to catch, and when, so that not only would I get to Hikone without mishap, but I could even catch a bus that would take me by the Center. However, with my early rise and ride to the station, I was very early for my planned train, and being of the rather impatient sort, hopped right onto the (right) train and half an hour later stepped off with the kind of spring in my step that can only come from _not_ getting hopelessly lost in a foreign country where I only know enough of the language to look like a complete idiot.

I knew what bus I was supposed to look for, but since I was so early I had no clue about when the next time it would swing by the station was. So, being a lazy, and impatient kind of person, I started walking to the center, and an hour later, feeling a bit worn out (I set a pretty fast pace, and the weather today was so hot and humid that it was like breathing soup) I arrived at the Center.

Y'know, sooner or later I'm going to have to sit down and figure out just what I mean when I call myself lazy and impatient…

Class actually didn't go so well today, all things considered. I've been sleeping rather restlessly the past couple of nights, and for some reason that makes my dreams linger close to the surface of my mind. As I result, I've been experiencing a strange kind of synthesia, where various stimuli brings flashbacks to those dreams (the japanese word 'aruku' (to walk) makes me see a barren, rocky, airless, mountain range against a starlit sky, which is very very important, but I'm not sure why). For about a tenth of a second, I know exactly what I'm seeing and what it means, but then it's gone, and I'm left with just the image, and then that fades too. All things considered it's _very_ distracting. I'm hoping a good night's sleep will get rid of that (it has the few times this has occurred in the past). So in class today, I was a bit scattered, but I got through okay. I got back my weekly performance report, and in class participation etc am maintaining a solid 3.3 (out of 4).

Getting back home was almost an adventure, because first off, in getting all the various things I needed to get done this afternoon done (homework, updating this journal, checking out my favorite websites and bulletin boards et al) I lingered at the center a bit too long (or so I thought). I thought that dinner was supposed to be at six, and at five I was still at the Center (twenty minute bike ride to Hikone Eki (station), half hour ride to Yasu Eki, hour plus walk home [since I was driven in the morning, and said I'd be happy walking back in the afternoon]). And so I hustled my bustle to Hikone Eki, where I called Okaasan to tell her what had happened, and I was enlightened to the fact that dinner was not until seven. Lucky me. I then told her that I was still in Hikone, and that all things considered, I'd be back in Yasu by six, and home by seven. The ride back was just as uneventful as the trip in (and for me that is a rare a wonderful thing, like a unicorn, or better yet a unicorn steak…).

And that was where things went minorly awry. A lot of people got off at Yasu, and I went along with the crowd, figuring that well, out of the station is where I wanted to go. What I didn't know was that Yasu Eki had a city exit on each side of the station, and of course I got out the wrong one. I thought that something was wrong, but I wasn't quite sure, until I had walked for ten minutes, and not recognized a thing.

So I guessed my mistake, turned around and headed back for the station, going back through and going out the correct exit. And at this point I was feeling hot, sticky, tired (I'd done a lot of walking already today) and just a little discouraged. I started trudging along the route home, when hark! Like some saving angel did Okaason appear on the scene, as if somehow mystically sensing my distress, and coming to rescue me (well perhaps there's really nothing mystical about it. She is the mother of three (excluding myself of course, who probably count's for another two and half all told)).

Dinner once again was quite yummy, rice accompanied with a delicious chicken and egg soup, who's name I didn't quite pick up. I think I may have been downgraded, because I ate with the children today, although that might have been because Okaasan's Neesan (older sister) and husband arrived for dinner, and had something important to talk about (or so I'm assuming; I withdrew rather early as the tone of the discussion seemed to indicate a family matter of some sort).

After dinner, Kenta, Shohei, Imoutosan and I vacated for the television, where I saw Japan's 'Rescue 911.' Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive, but there seemed to be an awful lot of stupid gaijin on that show; like the kid who found a hatchet and chopped a patio down onto his head, or the one who ran with scissors until he stabbed himself, or the kids who like a magnet, ran to the car trunk on a hot summer day…

I'd be offended if that wasn't exactly what I remember it being like when I watched in the states.