21!

Well, it's official! I am finally officially 21 years of age. I pretty much feel the same and haven't gained any new privileges in Japan, but it's still weird to think about. I had a great weekend to celebrate on my birthday. The big day, last Friday the 13th, was a beautiful day -- my day started off on a good note when I skyped with a friend from home, and things just got better from there. My Japanese sensei was super sweet and wrote "Happy Birthday Anna" on the board, and we didn't have a quiz in that class for only the second time all semester! (Remember that I have that class five days a week....) After school I had some free time and I wandered around the area taking pictures before meeting up with a bunch of people for dinner. A group of about of 20 of us went to Shinjuku to eat at Sweets Paradise -- an amazing pasta/cake buffet restaurant. It was so so so so so good. One of my friends had set up the reservation the same day and had told me that it was too little notice for them to do their "birthday special," so I was expecting just to have a nice dinner with everyone. But, in the middle of the meal the staff came out and sang to me and brought me a special plate of desserts and a t-shirt as a present! It was a great surprise and really made my night. After dinner, pretty much everyone came back to the dorm for a party -- it's not technically allowed, but the dorm manager ended up hanging out with us.... so water under the bridge I guess. It was a great night spent with great friends. It was weird not to be in the US with a birthday, but I couldn't have asked for a better day!

Speical birthday dessert! アナ＝Ana :)

The dinner group!

Saturday was another great day because we had a "furin-making" workshop with CIEE - furin are the traditional Japanese wind chimes that are made by blowing a ball of glass, then cutting off the bottom and hanging a chime inside. We got to blow the glass ourselves, which was really cool, and saw the kiln and the shop owner did a lot of demonstrations. It's amazing what he can do with the glass. After our glass had cooled, we were able to paint it ourselves. It was tricky because you paint the inside of the glass sphere -- so you have to do the characters backwards, and start with the small details you want to be visibile on the outside of the glass before doing the "base coat." I'm certainly not the most artistic person in the world but I followed a template and was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Everyone's furin turned out really well, and since each one is a slightly different size and thickness of glass, they all make a different sound! It's really cool. Definitely a highlight of my semester here so far.

The master at work!

On Sunday, I played soccer again with a bunch of people. It's so much fun to be on the field again, although it's not really a "field" -- we played on the same patch of grass by the river that we played at last week, so the grass is a bit high and we have to play with small goals. But, we played for about two hours and it was a lot of fun -- I did a real cool down after this time, so I wasn't quite as sore on Monday. Monday was another beautiful day -- I had my classes which were uneventful, although I really like my economics class. In the midsts of all this cultural immersion/language learning, it's nice to have somewhere where I am on an equal footing and understand what's going on (since the class is in English I have an advantage on most of the students, and I've actually learned a lot of what we're going over before). But, it's a good review and it's interesting to apply it to events in Japan -- for example, last class we talked about hanabi (fireworks) displays, which are a big tradition here in the summer, but they are a public good so the economic theory says that the private market will undersupply when compared to the socially optimum equilibrium. Etc etc.

After class on Monday I went to Harajuku with two friends to do some SHOPPING. I actually haven't really bought anything other than food since I've been here, but yesterday I found a shoe store with really cute shoes that FIT ME and we also went to Forever 21, which has the same sizes as the US! I was really excited and got some cute dresses and a new pair of shorts. I'm going to take my parents to the shoe store to "help me decide" which pair to get.... :D (did I mention it was my birthday a few days ago....  although my mom did send me an amazing birthday package with AMERICAN CEREAL and a really cute top! Thanks again mommy!).

Today, Tuesday, is kind of a rainy day, and I came back home after my Japanese class to take a nap before going to a friend's birthday dinner tonight. Trains are a big part of every day life here but our commute from the dorm is longer than that of most people we have come across (although one of my Japanese friends does commute two hours each way every day). So, it's kind of a hassle to come home in the middle of the day, but I was feeling really exhausted and knew I needed to nap if I was going to make it to dinner tonight. Plus, I need to be fresh for THURSDAY when my FAMILY ARRIVES!!! I'm so excited for them to come, and will be staying with them at their hotel -- which is literally 3 minutes from my 9:15am class! It should be another great week!