I am very excited.. today was the first time I can remember recently where I went to sleep while it was dark outside, and woke up and it was already past sunrise! Yes... I slept at normal hours! Even more exciting was I was asleep before 11pm! Watched the Blues Brothers on TV, then rolled over and was fast asleep by 10.30 at the latest.. not to stir until almost 6am. (Ok, I need to work on the sleeping til a reasonable hour thing, but Im getting better).
My excursion for the day was to find the Immigration office and get a re entry permit in my passport. This is not necessarily for re entry to Japan (shudder), but to be an extra bit of proof when talking to the American embassy in 11 days time that I do intend to leave America.
I had a rough idea of where to go (OK, I knew it was on the other side of the station, thats it), so onto the bike and off I tootled. I was rather amazed at the amount of greenery I could see today - spring has sprung, and the cherry blossoms are all gone, replaced by actual leaves on just about every plant. I took some photos which are up in the Scenery album.
It took me about an hour of searching when I finally decided to stop and ask - just knowing which side of the railway station is not sufficient direction finding... at least not this time.
I called in at a little police box and recieved very clear and simple directions: "See that petrol station? Turn left there, its about a hundred metres down the road. Cant miss it."
Wow.
Walked out of the police box, was almost tempted to drive there, because the resident police car (big heavy Toyota Crown) was sitting there, door open, key in the ignition, engine running, and no other humans in sight. I decided to leave it where it was and take my bike, because the flashing red lights on the roof do tend to stand out...
Immigration closes for lunch at 12. It was five past. Oh well... headed back across the tracks to Sendai and lunched in a little curry place waiting for them to open again. I was very impressed by the speed taken to grant me re entry permission... I only had to wait 25 minutes. Mr Lee in the Japanese consulate in Melbourne could learn a lot from these people.
Back in to uni to check my email and update the Wombat - as I sit down at the computer I notice the backs of my hands are slightly pink... yes, I got myself sunburned! Nothing much, just a pinkish tinge to my hands and arms... and nose... and the back of my neck, too.. Oh well... at least it's warming up... its nearly seven in the evening and still 20 degrees.
Mmm

21

Today is 'Green Day', the first public holiday in the series known as Golden Week. Used to be the old emperor's birthday, but he carked it a while back and the new bloke has a different birthday (of course), but the people didnt want to give up this holiday... Ol' Hiro liked trees and stuff, so they re-named the day Green Day and kept it a holiday.
I can see why Japanese people get so excited about Golden Week... for the most part, the idea of having TWO days off in a row is a rare luxury, though people who work in offices often get Saturdays AND Sundays off every week. Wow.
Ask any Japanese in the work force here how many days off per year he gets... but remember to mentally deduct 52 from that number because each and every Sunday is counted... sometimes take off another 52 if he's lucky enough to get Saturdays off too.
Anyway, Golden Week is such a big deal because most people (except shops) get today off where they can sit around and be Green, then next week they get the 3rd off for Constitution Memorial Day (why on earth they devote a public holiday to remembering that America wrote their constitution for them, I dont know), the 5th is Childrens Day where people fly big carp from flagpoles. Yes, thats right, carp. I'll try and get a picture.
The 4th was declared 'Citizen's Holiday' too, in an unchacteristic display of logic by the government, so people can have a long run of holidays together instead of having to go back to work in the middle for a day... now all they need is to declare April 30th a holiday too, so people can actually have a week off instead of a day off, a day at work, the weekend, then three more days holiday.
Still, its a long break indeed for workers here, and many many people are in the habit of taking a sickie on the 30th and really letting their chopsticks down.

22
(The new Emperors Birthday holiday is the 23rd of December, which is close enough to Christmas but the 25th is not a holiday...)

I went to the Grammar class today that Tohoku determined was 'best suited to my abilities'.
It was, as I suspected, a complete waste of time, though I can find some comfort in the fact that it was not any different to most of the last three months anyway.
The teacher talked down to everyone as though we were five years old. She kept repeating herself over and over again using simpler words each time, along the lines of
"I think apples would be better suited to my dessert this evening than pears would.
I want apples for dessert, not pears.
Apple Good, Pear Bad.
Me Hungry.
Food."
Oh, and she spent a full hour of the 90-minute class explaining what the word 'with' means.
I will not be missing anything by leaving here.

Good news: scheduled an appointment with the embassy to get a visa that lasts longer than 90 days! I'll let you know further developments!

23 (hopefully)

The kitchen in the kenkyushitsu is better equipped than the one for everyday use in my burrow! Its mainly the same, two gas burners, hot water unit, sink, but the one here in the uni has a microwave, AND a toaster oven as well.... maybe I should come here to try making a pie again...

The search for escaping Japan is looking promising. Ive found a flying school in Bloomington who are more than happy to help me through the paperwork for getting a visa to America, though we arent sure how they get their paws on a form I-20M. Anyone been down this road and could help me out, I'd be much appreciative. If I cant get the student visa, then I can still go flying on a tourist visa, but wont technically be able to get any endorsements added... though this is not necessarily a bad thing, because I will need to be checked out on everything once I get back to Australia to satisfy CASA anyway...
My other option is a 6 month tourist visa - need to apply for that one, make a trip to the embassy anyway, because just turning up at the airport means I could only stay for three months... and from today that would limit me to the end of July... when I have to stay at least until early September...
Seems pretty straightforward to get any visa issued though... Im not a terrorist, after all.
Cant wait...

41?

Last night was the TUFSA (Tohoku University Foreign Students Association!) Welcome Party for 2004.
Pictures are up in the Culture album, so have a squizz. Apparently about three hundred people were there, which was interesting considering they budgeted enough food to feed one hundred, and then crammed as many people as possible into the one little room for food. See the vultures feeding photo. People here were in two categories: those who were standing right next to the food tables, who never moved, piled their plates high and shovelled food into their mouths non stop, or people like me, who were actively blocked from reaching the food until there was nothing left. I ate two leaves of lettuce.
Everyone then decided it was a good idea to stand in the foyer, and avoid the dance floor on the lower level. Why, I'm not entirely sure, but they did.
I went with the intention of trying to meet new people and have a good time, but the only person I met was an elderly chinese woman with broken Japanese who insisted on conversing with me, though I'm not entirely sure what she was trying to say. She was weird, so I left. I was hungry, too, after being promised free food, seeing copious quantities of pizza disappear down about three people's mouths, being promised fun and exciting people, having strange chinese women babble at me, and being promised good music and hearing Kylie Minogue, I decided to go back to the burrow and make some real food to eat.
Sigh.
I was also too excited about the possibilities of actually escaping to care much about learning Chinese.

Its Anzac Day!
I was planning to have bought a little taster oven by now so I could try my hand at making Anzac biscuits... I guess if Im here for much longer I might, but I really am just counting down the days...
Excellent idea of the week has been to escape Japan and go do some flying training in America - I'm just waiting on hearing back from a couple of flight schools, and of course the Embassy.

Things are definitely looking up! Yay!