絶望した！ケーキは絶望した！

This is the box.

This is the seal.

This is the Haroll.

It's a little cake.

It makes me happy.

It's in my stomach.

That is all.

絶望した！

絶望した！荷物は絶望した！

It's been two months.

Sorry for the delay, but up until this point, there honestly hasn't been a whole ton to write about. While at the beginning of this journey, I am sure that I was writing about every little minute detail, things have really settled into a routine as time has gone on, to the point where I would actually consider what I have over here now to be something that at least resembles 'normal life'. As such, I decided to wait until I had a good set of things to write on, and then pour them all into one big beautiful post. Then, after two months, I decided that my lovely viewers at home needed an update, so here we are.

School's been rolling along steadily and surely. I definitely made the right call in switching from JLP to KIP at the semester break - I am so much happier this semester with both the scheduling and content of my classes. Of course, things can hit a bit of a dry spell from time to time, but in all, things are going really well and I am getting a lot of satisfaction from my courses. One of the nice thing about this semester is that whereas last semester was plagued with exams on a nearly constant basis, this semester is almost entirely graded on attendance and papers - two areas that I really excel in. What's more is that the paper assignments have already been distributed for the entire semester, so if I wanted to, I could power through seven more papers (on top of an already complete four) and be done with coursework for the semester save three small exams (two in language, one in culture) and one presentation. There are also a couple of class trips that have happened (one to a Buddhist temple and another to a kimono sale) and at least one more is coming up, a banquet at a teahouse in Asakusa with geisha. It's been a lot of fun, and we're not done yet.

The downside of this light workload is that I have recently found myself at an occasional loss for things to do. Only this afternoon did I finally realize that after the terrorizing gauntlet that was JLP Level 3, I've become used to that level of intensity and therefore have a lot more momentum and energy than I have things to spend on it. Luckily, several things have opened up to serve as remedies to this issue.

First off, things have been really busy with church lately. Today was Choir Sunday, when we in the TUC Sanctuary Choir replaced the weekly sermon with a performance of a piece that we've been working on practically since the end of Christmas. What we did was selections from Karl Jenkins' "Stabat Mater". It was a really cool piece and we had a lot of fun rehearsing and performing it (though it was still really tough) and it was very well received by the congregation. Now we're moving on to a couple of special projects and, believe it or not, preparations for the Christmas season will be underway in a couple of weeks. They waste no time over here, but we all enjoy it immensely.

I'm back up to teaching three classes a week at different branches of Tokyu Sports Oasis:

• Group Step at Jujo (they took me back for my last month - yay!)
• Group Kick at Musashi Kosugi
• Group Power at St. Luke's Garden

I've also started taking Zumba right after my Group Power class - if you've never tried Zumba before and have the chance, I highly recommend it - it's one of the best hours of my week now. We're finally launching the new BTS April 10 programming (there's a two-month delay so that the Japan branch of BTS can localize the program releases and translate them into Japanese) and so far it's been really well received. If you remember from previous posts, we only just launched the Group Step program a few months ago, and already the response has been phenomenal. When teaching the new programming for the first time this last Saturday, it was like teaching to a roomful of pros who had done it before. It was a great encouragement to me as an instructor to see not only that they were enjoying the new programming, but that they were able to pick up on the nuances and new elements of this new release so quickly. I'll be teaching my first rounds of Power and Kick this next weekend, so we'll see what happens with them. Also, since Oasis employees are paid on a monthly basis, my contract will end at the end of this month so that my last paycheck will arrive in my bank account shortly before I leave.

The other thing that has really started to draw my attention is the ever-looming prospect of my return to the States. We've booked my air ticket for August 3, long enough for me to finish classes, get my last paycheck, settle all my affairs (rent, phone, work, etc.) and have a little extra time to play around and do some of the things I haven't yet had a chance to do because of how busy I've been. Among these special excursions are a trip to a beach outside of Tokyo (probably Zushi, just because of the ease of access - I miss the sea), and a pilgrimage to Fuji Q Highland, a theme park with exceptional roller coasters and, opening in July, a life-sized model of Evangelion Unit 01 as part of a new attraction. I missed the Gundam in Odaiba earlier in this trip, so I'm definitely not missing this one. I'll probably also make trips to the Ghibli Museum, Karuizawa, and some areas of Tokyo I've still not been able to get to.

Even though my fly-out date is still two months in the future, being the obsessive planner that I am, I've already started making preparations for various elements of the journey home. I've started scouting out places that might be able to accept used furniture donations (there is a Salvation Army over here, along with several other similar businesses), shipped things home in order to lighten the load I have to carry when I go to Narita Airport, and made reservations at a hotel in Narita for the night before my departure. My flight leaves early, and the airport is somewhat far from here, so it just made sense to be close and have a fresh, easy start in the morning. Heaven knows that the trip itself is going to be tough. I have a very roundabout flight path - Tokyo to Beijing, Beijing to Vancouver, B.C., and finally Vancouver B.C. to Portland. It's a long and dull flight, but it saved us a good chunk of change on the ticket price. Hopefully I don't devote too much of my attention at this point to my return trip, because if I were to miss the last two months of my time here by thinking only about my flight home, that would be a tragic waste of the opportunities I still have open to me over here.

For you sports buffs, you'll be happy to hear that Keio has finished the season at the top of the Tokyo Big 6 league. The final matchup, as per tradition, is between Keio and its rival school, Waseda University, and are held at Jingumae Stadium, one of the professional baseball venues in Tokyo. Tradition states that if Keio loses the game on Sunday of the matchup, then all classes at Keio on Monday are canceled in order to allow students to go to Monday's game to cheer on the team. My friends and I, being opportunists, took full advantage of the day off to do absolutely nothing associated with Keio or baseball. Instead, my friend Dana and I met up and went to what is now one of my favorite restaurants in Tokyo. I think the name says it all.

Yes, the restaurant is just called "Eat". The food is un-be-lie-va-ble, and the prices follow suit. We each had a Kobe Beef burger, with all the trimmings, for 1,050 yen per person, with old-school 1950's diner-style fries. It's really good, and the place is really fun - it's really just a tiny little dine-and-dash style place - barely big enough to hold around 15 customers at a time. The problem is that this place is cheap enough and good enough that we both want to eat at Eat all the time now, which has led us to agree to live by the mantra, "Eat is a sometimes food."

Still, it's all right if I don't eat at Eat all the time - I've finally started branching out with my own cooking. Earlier tonight, I took one of the really big steps of a fledgling cook - I took my first stab at preparing fish. I figured that if there was a place where I should learn to prepare fish, it should be where the best fish in the world is available. I went over to Maruetsu (my nearby grocery store) and found a very appetizing salmon fillet that looked like a good candidate. I found some instructions and tips online to help me with prep, and I made my first attempt - foil-wrapped baked salmon with salt, pepper, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. All together, it was a very tasty dinner of taters, fish, and biscuits (buh!). Seeing as I haven't keeled over yet from food poisoning, I'm ready to consider this one a success. I had a pork katsu curry last week that threw my stomach for a loop (heavy enough to keep me home for a day), but that's all in the past now. I should note that Japanese ginger ale is fantastic for settling an upset stomach.

Well, I suppose that's enough of an update for now - like I said, things are moving along slowly but surely. There are a few big events coming up in the near future that I'll be sure to write about, so I may be posting more frequently than I have been recently. Again, sorry about the two-month delay - I'll try to do better (though it would be hard at this point to do worse ^_^) on keeping you all updated. Until next time...

絶望した！