Shao Chan's Hokkaido Adventure - シャオちゃんの北海道の旅

So yes, classes have finally evened out, and a livable equilibrium has been reached...I think. I'm now in Adv Reading 1, Intm Writing 1, Adv Kanji 1, Intm Oral Comm 2, and Adv Grammar 1. (6 japanese classes per week, because communication meets twice) Each class is 1.5 hours long, so its a lot of Japanese for sure. (9 hours a week, more than Madison even!) On top of that I also have 5 english classes: World War 2 contested memory, Reading Films, Field Bioscience, Japanese Society, and Comparative Japanese Culture.

So this week there are 2 1000+ word essays due. To be honest, I haven't done this much homework since Madison (5 months ago) Is that sad? I think i've become laaaazzyyy....

The weather here is becoming colder and colder every day, the average temp lately has been around 50 degrees F, with alot of random rain. The other day my bike's kickstand broke, so i had to ghetto tie it with a plastic shopping bag...yup.

Its so weird sometimes when i leave for class on my bike in the morning. I look around, hear the crows, smell the decaying leaves, see the fall colors, and even smell that wonderful "farm" fresh smell, and it seems like it could be Wisconsin, but in reality im in a foreign country. I almost have to keep reminding myself that this isn't normal, i've just become used to it...lol.

This weekend me and Andy went to this AMAZINGLY cheap kaitenzushi (rotating sushi restraunt) that cost me only 1200 yen (less than 12 dollars) for 16, yes, 16 pieces of good sushi. I was considerably satisfied XD

Ohhh! And I finally got the internet in my room, although we had originally planned to set up a wireless network, the wireless router that's been 'pased-on' from previous years DOESNT WORK ANYMORE, so i guess *I* have the internet for now. My friends may have to buy a new router, which in Japan costs over 100$ for the CHEAPEST one. In the US, they only cost 50$... go figure. But otherwise, the connection is very fast, I can download at over 2.5mb a second, thats definitely as good as the UW Madison connection. Its just that I had to wait 4 weeks for it to come in the mail...(they sent a DSL modem)

On Tuesday-Wed-Thurs Regina is coming to visit me!! So im very excited to see someone from home...now i'll just have to find a way to skip classes....lol.

Ahhh, and yes, I did go to a halloween 'party' on saturday night, by no means as amazing or violent as the one on state street, but i was able to get sufficiently drunk wearing a sort of pirate costume nonetheless...haha. Then we all went to A-Life, a Dance Club in susukino until 2:30 am...that was fun!!

AAANNNDD
here are the new pictures for the last couple weeks:
http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286957&l=1706e&id=8630626