I'm meant to be writing a speech for conversation class! I was meant to hand in the draft 2 weeks ago. I still haven't done anything. I can't think of anything to write about and I feel I have better things to do than spend my remaining 3 weeks in Japan studying Japanese. I know that last remark seems ridiculous but I'm feelin' pretty burned out on the whole Japanese thing. Its my own fault I suck at it. I haven't studied as much as I shoulda, I haven't made much effort to speak it everyday... The problem? Love! Not hearts and flowers love but the fact that I need people! People who are like family... people I need in my life! People who are gonna spend most of their lives on different parts of the planet to me! People I wanna spend my time with instead of writing reports or essays or studying for tests. Being a Sith, and dealing in absolutes, I see it like this... getting an A or loving your friends!? Not a hard choice. Its funny, cos most people don't think of me as "loving"... , it would surprise alot of people (family mainly) to hear me say this stuff! But 6 years ago my love for people back home, and the fear of losing them, nearly broke me. Now I'm faced with a similar situation. Being a veteran manic-depressive, I'm more capable at coping than I was when I was 20... at least I think I am... Who knows...? Love may kill me yet!?
We got a long weekend at least. Friday off, though as evidenced by my self-pitying mini post below, spent too much of it brooding. Worked on Kate and CAlex's Pop Culture class project, a commercial-spoof of Revenge Of The Sith, with Matt and I in the roles of Obi Wan and Anakin respectively. Anything for a good lightsaber fight! Unfortunately back to class tomorrow and a test I haven't studyed for. Hopefully, I can wing it as usual... If not then I'll suffer the consequences, which is no more than I deserve. Hey ho! Sorry! This has been another miserable post so far... I'll try to do better!
On to someone who's actually good at this life thing! Matt received his placement for JET the other day. He's in Seto, the city just a little north of here and it seems like a pretty sweet set-up! I think they're gonna have an awesome time, by the sounds of things and its very much deserved. Please go congratulate him and Danielle! Maybe I should apply for JET....?
" Hi! My names Dav...!"
" PISS OFF, LOSER!"
Or something like that! I should shut up now! I really should!
Love peeps! "Do you have the time, to listen to me whine..."

The general all-round dislike I have for myself sometimes can't be good......!?
I guess my promises don't count for much as this isn't a real update either. Somethin else to add to the list....

INFP - the Healer You scored 18% I to E, 10% N to S, 0% F to T, and 52% J to P! You are more introverted than extroverted. You are more intuitive than observant, you are more feeling based than thinking based, and you prefer to go with the flow rather than having a plan. Your type can best be summarized by the word "Healer", which belongs to the larger group of idealists. You have a capacity for caring that is deeper than most. You strive for unity, are fascinated by the battles between good and evil, and can be something of an idealist. Only 1% of the population shares your type. As a romantic partner, you are usually supprtive and nuturing, however, you have a high need for individuality. Harmony is extremely important to you as you are very affected by conflict and tension, which also makes you resist confronting your partner directly about problems. When you get angry, you usually blame yourself, rather than your partner. You can also be stubborn and unyielding when you feel you are being criticized or mistreated. You feel the most appreciated when your partner listens to you carefully. You need to be understood. You need to hear your partner express their feelings, the more often, the better. Your group summary: idealists (NF) Your type summary: INFP NIGHTCRAWLER!!! Holy crap! You are:

If you had the power to teleport ANYWHERE at ANYTIME, where would YOU go? Actually, you are more rational and spiritual than the average X-Men, Night Crawler is always out to do the right thing. In real life, you're probably the "perfect" man or woman that everyone looks for, but you're too good a friend too see like that. Wow, can't ever get a break, eh?

You scored as Emo. Your Totaly Emo! Emo 80% Rocker, Mosher 60% Goth 55% Skater 50% Trendy 45% Prepy 25% Chav, Townie, Rude Boy, Ned, Kev 5% What Group Are You? Chav, Rocker, Skater, Emo, Goth, Trendy, Prepy Ect created with QuizFarm.com Woah! I bet no one saw this coming!

You scored as Louis. You are the passive oh whoe is me type look at it this way you"ll live forever! Spike 75% Louis 75% Lestat 67% Marius 67% Angel 67% Blade 67% Dracula 67% Armand 50% Deacon Frost 50% Akasha 25% Whose your Vampire personality? (images) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Emo Kid. You listen to emo. 'Nuff said. You know how to dress. You usually feel as if nobody understands you. Emo Kid 67% Punk 67% Goth 47% Jock 40% Loner 33% "Ghetto" 27% Stoner 26% Geek/Nerd 20% Prep 20% Hot 0% What Highschool Clique Do You Belong To? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler is a very symbolic X-Man. He is persecuted by society because of his devilish looks, but it is his faith in God that gives him strength. He is a very gentle x-man but he does know how to fight and he enjoys fencing. Powers: Teleportation Nightcrawler 75% Storm 70% Jean Grey 55% Iceman 50% Colossus 45% Wolverine 45% Gambit 40% Rogue 35% Emma Frost 35% Cyclops 30% Beast 15% Most Comprehensive X-Men Personality Quiz 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Gryffindor. You have been sorted into Gryffindor! You're brave, loyal, and perhaps a little short tempered- if someone says or does something you don't like, you'll make sure they know- and everyone else too- regardless of the consequences. Gryffindor 85% Ravenclaw 60% Hufflepuff 50% Slytherin 30% The Hogwarts Sorting Hat! created with QuizFarm.com

Which FF Character Are You?
Your results:
You are Venom

Venom 50% Mr. Freeze 29% Mystique 22% The Joker 21% Dark Phoenix 14% Lex Luthor 13% Dr. Doom 13% Two-Face 10% Apocalypse 8% Magneto 8% Kingpin 7% Juggernaut 6% Green Goblin 2% Riddler 0% Poison Ivy 0% Catwoman 0%

Strength, disguise and adrenaline are your greatest weapons.

Sad times are ahead! This Monday, we lost Ben, our 7 foot French brother, to an early exit from Japan. It was sad seeing him leave and reminded us of the times ahead, when we all too will say our goodbyes. This Thursday marked the 1 month countdown to the 15th of July, when the first batch, including Kellie, Matt and myself, well fly off into the sunset (or sunrise, depending which way we're goin!) By a weird, bitter-sweet twist of fate Matt and I have ended up on the same connecting flight to Tokyo! That's gonna be a pretty emotional plane ride!!! Sarv and Matt have both blogged recently about the total suckiness of leaving, but as Sarv says, we've become like family here! We all look forward to seeing our friends and family back home but we're trying to focus on the here and now! Hopefully, we'll always be family, despite our being all over the planet, but we'll never be able to share this experience again so we're gonna "savour every moment of it!" (Name that song! Again.)
On another sucky note, our plans to climb Mt. Fuji have gone down the shitter as the school believe we are all gonna die in the attempt and thus want no part of it. Meaning no school bus, meaning the trip would cost, like, 20,000 yen and we'd have to follow a tour, which starts half-way up the mountain! That blows big-time... we don't wanna be climbin' half of Fuji! As a result, Matt, Sarv n I have decided to ditch that plan and make the first act of our first reunion a climb of the WHOLE Mt. Fuji! Its cool to have that, cos it makes the reunion thing that bit more of a reality! And no-doubt Cass'll be pleased!!!
On a positive note (woah!) I'm updating on my shiny new i-Book, which FINALLY arrived this past weekend! Being technology-retarded, its gonna take some practice and extensive help from lap-top-savvy friends, but its 'bout time I got into this whole computer crap! And its gonna be a mobile, multi-purpose way to stay in touch with friends all over the world! Which makes it pretty essential now. On another topic, about which I'll say nothing more for now... Matt, Danielle.... Thanks!!!
Peace, peeps! Bye Ben! Goodluck and all the best!

Muchos Congratulations to my cousin Rachel and her (now) hubby Richard,
who got married this past Sunday! Wish I coulda been there, just for
the day!

Our grand trip to Nara and Iga has come and gone and it was back to class today with my usual half-asleep, monosyllabic gusto! Well... Nara and Iga....? I've been to both places already so it was nothing new, cool all the same, though I spent the Nara trip being a miserable git and walking round on my own! The day got off to a bad start... anyone who even remotely knows me will know I H.A.T.E getting up in the morning! Well, the bus was scheduled to leave at 9:30... not too bad a time... only they start demanding we board at 9:11! Way I see it, if it leaves at 9:30 and I'm on the bus at 9:29.... whats the freakin problem!!!?  This was followed by a loooooooooooooooong bus journey where noone really talked and I had gone and lent my i-pod to Kellie! Got it back when we stopped to rest but my "I'm a Creep.." mood had set in and being the mildly self-destructive emotion junkie I am, I let rip with my emo-heavy playlist and sulked the rest of the day away! At least I can say I walked round the Todaiji listening to Taking Back Sunday!!!

The day was spent dodging deers (or taking photos with em if you're Clif!) and schoolkids looking for autographs (or getting autographs off schoolkids, if you're Clif!), CAlex and Clayton arguing over whether photos could be taken in the temple (they could! Yay for CAlex!) and our entire group, (BAlex, Holly, Clif, Carter, Matt and myself) being the only group to get all its members through the Buddha's nostril (a small hole in the base of one of the temple's support pillars, the same size as the Buddha statue's nostril hole. Crawling through is said to bring good luck). It is a small hole, no prob for the average Japanese but most of us needed to be pulled through (or pushed too if you're Matt or Carter!) And I didn't feel lucky... and its the second time I've been through it! Matt n I room-mated it back at the hotel, but I continued to brood the rest of the day away, missing out on all the group fun and photos until Matt snapped me out of it, as he often does! Check his xanga soon for the pics and a more upbeat account of the trip!

Me emerging from the "Buddha's nostril", though this one was taken in March by my Uncle on my first trip to Nara. Was too busy being sulky to have photos taken this time...

Ninja Village the next day was fun. Mood mostly restored + Ninja = Good Day! Took in the Ninja weapons demo, Ninja House and surrounding scenery. Ninja scenery! Back at I House by 5pm! Observation of the weekend! Matt and I noted how people who are scornful of their native country's religion tend to turn all respectful and sanctimonious with regard to those of other countries! People will bitch about, say, Christianity if they're American or British or whatever, but get all holier-than-though if you, say, take pictures in a Buddhist temple! Double standards much?

Peace Out. Warning! Deers steal donuts! 

So this week has been pretty easygoing so far... We've taken the oppurtunity to relax and generally not study... enjoy the casual pace of "Reading" Week and the early Japanese summertime weather, before the country turns into an small nuclear fusion reactor powered by the constant chirping of the entire cicada populous of Japan! I've been trying to get my student loans for next year arranged, but the student finance company's website is being predictably git-ish and Sarv and I have been attempting to get Simple Plan's "Addicted" added to the reception song list at Matt and Danielle's wedding! (July 22nd! Lets show the love people!) Why? Sarv and I sing it semi-ironically to Matt at karaoke just about everytime we go and we know he loves it! Danielle seems... errrr... less than impressed...!!!

On another big-landmark-type-thing topic, during the first week of July Mount. Fuji opens to the public and there's big plans in the works for a large proportion of us exchange students to go climb it! Those of us hardcore enough are looking to do the full 3000 meters, no easy task, so today Matt n I decided to walk from the dorms to Sakae! That won't mean much to anyone who isn't a NUFS alum but it took us a good 4 hours, including stops at parks, a castle site and desperately trying to find (Western style) public toilets after realising that carbonated drinks and long walks are not kind to the stomach! (Urrgh!) OK TMI! I know... The sun also left us both with bright pink shoulders! This is why I don't go out in the sun! I don't tan! I get pink blotches on my ridiculously pale skin! It sucks! 

Anyway, this semester's big trip, an overnight stay in Nara followed by a trip to the Iga Ninja village, begins tomorrow. Let the games begin!

Peace and Love! I'm Addicted to yoooouu! Heart-breakeerrrrrr!!!!

I`ve been brooding.... Its a waste of the start of this week off but
its an unfortunate habit of mine. I can`t help but dread the
impending 15th of July when I jet out of here back to the UK, so ending
this most awesome of times in my life! Its not that I don`t love
my peeps back home, I do ( m/ Homies. You Rock!) but when you`ve known
people for, like, 16 years and have grown up together in the same
town, it creates a certain sense of relationship security!
Words are insufficient to express the love for my peeps here, people
I`ve only known 8 months or so, but who have been my family here in
Japan! `Specially Team EMO... (you guys...!!! My eyes have no
more tears to cry, so my heart will weep as we say goodbye! )
But after just 10 months together we`ll likely be spending most of our
lives on different corners of the planet and being ridiculously
insecure I get a little.... well, insecure! Have I been a good enough
friend? Am I really worth the effort? I get a whole Radiohead: "Creep"
type feeling....

Grrrr... Must be positive!!! OK! Today a bunch of us headed out
to a sweet, not-so-little park a train ride away for a barbeque with
some Japanese folks. All part of the
Well-of-Language-speaking-English-to-Japanese-learners-Coffee-Hour-thingummy
that Matt, Mario and a few others participate in from time to time. It
was freakin hot, `specially if you`re a pale-skinned Brit boy so I
decided to cool off in a nearby fountain. It was one of those
sprays-at-intervals-geyser types and I got totally soaked! Whats more,
a bunch of Japanese kids started copying me! Mwahaaahaaa! Role Model!

So I spent the day in gradually drying clothes chatting, eating,
drinking (2 chuhai included... Matt and Mike will be pissed..!) and
watching Canadian Alex (CAlex) get drunk on chuhai! You sooo cra-yzee,
CAlex! After, CAlex, Matt and myself rented boats, went out on the lake
and spent the next 15 mins. ramming each other before taking a long
walk round Nagoya! And so was our day!

Before I sign off, one more thing. "Welcome Back Robyn!" A NUFS
alumni from last semster, return-ed from Australia to spend the
remaining time here with fiancee Angel! All the best, you crazy kids!

Peace Out! "I`m a Creep..... I`m a weirdoooo.."

READING WEEK! One more day to go and we have a full week ahead of us to engage in self initiated reading and study outside of school.....! Translation! A WEEKS HOLIDAY! Waahaahaaa! Couldn't come at a better time really cos this past week had me thinking two things; 1) I reeeeeeeeeeaally suck at Japanese! 2) The most aggressive and overbearing religion is Atheism! The second thought came to me as I sat in a semi-dream like state staring at a mock-Nikyu test for an 2+ hours this past Wednesday in class! Nikyu is the 2nd highest form of Japanese language proficiency test and it was so far over my head it might as well have been a passing comet, caught by the Earth's gravity and sent into a steadily decreasing orbit before burning up in the atmosphere and raining down over a chain of South Pacific islands where the indigenous peoples, largely untouched by the outside world, took it as a sign of the impending APOCALYPSE!!! Errrr.... what I mean is, it was a bit difficult and I now find that hearing or reading Japanese sends me into this coma-like state and I have to be prodded with a pen by Kate or Krystal, whoever sees my head drop first!

So yeah! I have just to get through tomorrow's Kanji test and Kaiwa (speaking) class and can then relax into a week of chillin', hangin' and crashin'. What's more, theres a trip at the end of next week to Nara and the Iga Ninja Village in Ueno! I've been to both places before and they were pretty cool so the return trip will be well worth it. I mean, Ninjas! What is cooler than Ninjas!? (Ninjas with lightsabers....? Hmmm... maybe!)

Anyway time is ticking away too quickly for my liking on this whole "Exchange Student In Japan" chapter of my life, so I intend to milk every moment I have here for all its worth. Which is alot easier when you're not in class! I know thats the reason I'm here but the coolest part of this all is the people! The awesome friends I've made have made this experience for me and all the temples, shrines, castles and mass-produced electronics are nothing next to you guys!

Must sleep. Before I sign off I just wanna add something I posted in a comment on Matt's blog    ! I turned 26 (NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!) in March and Matt put up a picture in his post. Thanks everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday. It really meant alot to me! 

Peace Out! Ninjas with lightsabers! 

Its nearly 2am and I should be in bed, rested and ready for class tomorrow! But then I "should of" been in class this past Friday taking Kanji tests and such forth! But I wasn't! I'm a reprobate! I've definitely been missing too many classes of late... The ever consuming temptation to stay in bed coupled with often unhealthy, introspective brooding  has led to a pretty non-preductive habit of "Ahhhh F**k it!" syndrome! Matt being Matt has taken to giving me multiple wake up calls in an attempt to save me from myself and I disappoint him more often than I'd like! Just wish I could summon the enthusiasm! Its a shame that whilst everything else is sooooooo cool here, the actual Japanese language classes are soooooooo freakin' BORING!!! 

Anyways, Fat Day rolled around again. The day the original 4 gym-junkies (Myself, Matt, Mike and Mario) forego our strict, healthy eatings and pig out on chocs, pizza, donuts and other such high calorie treats! However, it has de-evolved recently due to our relaxing of our strict diet regime (high fat foods are GOOD before and after a work out! No... really! REALLY! They get... errr... metabolised....err, and stuff. R.E.A.L.L.Y!) and our somewhat scary, decreased appetite for sugar, spice and everything nice! I actually wanted a cucumber more than a pizza earlier! Dear God.... whats happening to me? 

Well bed and Kanji makeup tests are calling! But one more thing. Please welcome another new xangan, our saber-staff weilding, karate master friend and comrade Sarven! His new xanga is simply sarven ! Thats how he rolls!

Peace Out! Eat a cucumber!