It's really hard to believe that I've been here for three weeks already. I guess that's because school has only now started picking up. It's also been very rainy so no one really wants to go out and do anything. I met my host family a week ago. They seem very nice, they're both school teachers, although the husband doesn't speak English well. The wife teaches health, so I've been pretty psyched about that considering I'm a health and society major and all. We're hopefully going to go traveling with them soon.
We've had two three-day weekends in a row, Monday we had off and Friday we had off so it's been pretty lazy here. Some of us had planned to go hike up Mount Chokai (鳥海山 Chōkai-san) which is the second tallest mountain in the Tōhoku region of Japan and is 2,236 m (7,336 ft) tall according to Wikipedia.
Mount Chōkai is regarded as sacred by followers of the Shugendō branch of Shinto and is popular with hikers; it's one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan. Unfortunately, it was raining, and no-one wanted to go for an eight-hour hike in the rain. We will probably try again later.
Otherwise, I've pretty much contented myself with video games since no-one wants to go out in the rain. Unfortunately, my computer keeps crashing on me, even on the lowest graphic's card settings. Luckily for me my Manga Mania professor knows a website to order computers straight from the Sony Manufacturers. On October 16th a Sony VAIO F series with graphics cards the likes of which gamers only dream of is being delivered to me! I'm basically getting a computer that's $5000 in America for around $1000 here in Japan. Life is awesome.
I've also started planning a trip to Kyoto in November for my friends. It will be expensive, but if we pool our money we can get a decent price on a night train car, a few rooms in a traditional inn, and a guided tour around Kyoto. It's kind of intimidating being the one planning all this, but I'm also excited too. Maybe I'll also plan a little trip to a hot spring in December if I have enough money left. We'll see.
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