Observations for today:

Floppy socks are not attractive. I don't know why, but apparently part of the required uniform for Japanese girls is wearing these hideously over sized socks pulled up to the calves. These things have to be glued into place to keep them up, and hang in big, ugly old folds down almost over the heel. It's not the most hideous act I have ever seen committed in the name of fashion, but it does rank up there somewhere near the top.

(and because some people keep asking, yes, socks aside, the Japanese schoolgirls are uniformly cute. Now lay off).

Shopping went much better today. Since I didn't have to watch out for the hip checking housewives of doom I was able to finish my grocery shopping at my leisure. I was wrong in my previous reports that food prices aren't that bad here. In hindsight, I've spent nearly a hundred dollars on food, but in actual acquisitions I have about half of what I normally would've gotten in the U.S. For example, I caved in to my cravings for a little taste of home and plunked down the equivalent of five dollars for a little twelve once jar of Skippy crunchy peanut butter. Rice, unlike you might expect, is hideously over priced, but that, I believe, is part of the national effort to protect the rather unprofitable native rice farming industry.

To my freshman academic advisor, wherever you are, thank you for screwing me over. If you hadn't assured me that those classes would transfer to my new major, I would've altered my class load accordingly and graduated this semester. Now if had done that I don't know where I'd be right now, but I'm sure it wouldn't be Japan. Counting on timely graduation, I had applied to the JET program to come over and teach after graduation. Since I didn't graduate, I had to pull my app. And I'm glad I did. Several other people I know, more qualified than me, also applied to JET, and were rejected. If I had made it in, I think I would've been completely overwhelmed when I made it to Japan. So far I've been highly intimidated by the change in setting, but I'm not going this alone. At JCMU I'm part of a group, so I don't feel isolated or out of place. Whenever I screw up, there's always a half dozen other gaijin close buy to share the laugh.