Ok ladies and gents. I totally forgot to blog about my hike to the top of Mt Fuji!!! So this trip occurred during the first week after I arrived in Japan. It took eight hours to travel to the top of Fuji-san, and out of the eight hours four of them were excruciating. Climbing Mt. Fuji is not an easy task. I would not recommend it to anyone that is has not grown up in Japan to climb this mountain without exercising hard. I say this because the Japanese people walk or bike everywhere mostly so they have leg muscle to handle the climb plus the lung capacity. I can not imagine how long it would have taken me to reach the top if I did not exercise at all this summer. This trip can only be done by the brave and the bold, as well as the determined. There were many times I felt like giving up, but Charlie-san, Lakeland College Japan staff, helped me tremendously, and I am truelly grateful for that. Fuji-san is not something to take lightly because people have died trying to climb to the top; eight people died in July 2009 and I climbed it August 2009. One wrong step could be the end of you, seriously. I am glad that I made it to the top because I was able to see the sun rise, which was beautiful. Not only that, I have a sense of accomplishment for beating the greatest physical and mental challenge I have come across in my life. But, there is a proverb stating "a wise man climbs Fuji-san once, a fool climbs it twice." I do not see myself trying that feat again, at least not anytime soon. Anyway, um... I think I passed my Japanese test with an 'A', maybe. I have another test for Eastern Religion Traditions this coming Friday, and that is the only class I am worried about, but hey....I love a challenge. This is just another day in the life of me.

Ok, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday I took a test in Humanities, and I think I got an A....hopefully. Anyway, right now I am studying for my Japanese test. I believe I will pass it too, I just got to make sure I do not make careless mistakes which I have been doing on past homework assignments. So since I have been here most Japanese people, especially on a train, treat me like a disease and are afraid of me, at least that is what I think. It really irritated me, but I can not do anything about it. However!, last night on the train I was trying to study Katakana and then a Japanese older man started to kindly help me. I could understand certain words he said and used context clues to figure out what he was saying. Basically i was writing the Katakana in the form of 'a e i o u' but he said it was wrong to do it that way, it is actually 'a i u e o'. So there is 45 'a i u e o' characters such as ka, sa, ta, ra, ma, na, ha, etc. It felt nice that someone looked at me like a normal human being. Today is gonna be a good day! This is just another day in the life of me!

Ok, ladies and gents. So I spent most of the day studying Japanese, Humanities, and Eastern Religions. I have a test on tomorrow, thursday, on Humanities. Then on friday I have a test on Japanese. Humanities I cover pre-historic European, Mesopatamia, Ancient Egypt, Cyclades, Minoa, and Phoenicia cultures. I hope I past this test and any other tests in Japan because if I do not....well say bye bye to my scholarship back home. My scholarship program requires me to have a 3.2 gpa at least every semester and to obtain a grade higher than a C in every class. But WAIT... even getting straight B's is out of the question because thats a 3.0! I know, thats kind of harsh. Oh well. Life goes on....but between you and me.....I LOVE the challenge in it. I get a natural high off of challenges....you can say its my anti-drug. Anyway, this is just another day in the life of me.

Hello ladies and gents. So I went to Tokyo Disney Sea yesterday and it was freakin awesome. That was my first time attending a Disney theme park....ever. So Tokyo Disney park is split into to park which are Disney Sea and Disney Land. My first impression of disney sea is that its huge, but there is another half I have not explored yet. Apparently, compared to Disney Land in the U.S., Tokyo Disney combined is small! I need to visit the park in the U.S. My favorite part during my adventures at D.S. was the attraction shows. They had several throughout the day. My favorite one was the very last which was during the night. It was beautiful. It was epic....it is really hard to describe. There are seconds in life you can record, instants you can capture, but then there are those events that can only be experienced. Those events are hard to describe because sometimes you feel words can not capture the moment nor describe it. It felt wonderful to say the least. I am enjoying Japan extremely, except for the insane prices they have here lol. Til the next time in another day in the life of me.

Hola

So, I've been in Japan for about three weeks now, and its great. They have
some cool/weird stuff here. The first thing I saw when I got to the airport
was in the bathroom. The toilets have buttons on them besides the regular
flush, which I found to be very hilarious. The cell phones have 8.1 mega
pixels cameras on them, tv, 3d viewing capabilities, and other great stuff.
Plus unlimited txt messages and internet plan is very cheap...relatively. The
women....the women are beautiful! I would say that ...one in every 7 girls
in america looks "good", but in japan one in every 4 girls looks good. So no
matter where I walk, im not bored for even an instant since the women
outnumber the men by a huge amount. Anyway, im living with a host family
called the Shimizu. They have a 3 year old daughter that is really cute. The
worst part about living with the family is that they live over an hour away
from my school which really sucks. That brings me to my next topic. The
transportation here is crazy expensive. I just bought a train card for like
300 dollars and that is only because I have a discount since I am a student,
and if I wasn't the price would double. The food here is expensive too, but
it is really good. The bad thing is that you buy food with more money for
smaller portions, which is what i am not used too. Just another day in my life :)