do i really have to go home?

So inserting pictures into my last post was complete fail on my part...I totally forgot that I was going to that until now, oops. -.-' But today I'm updating from my laptop (for once), so all my pictures are in easy access! This time I will definitely have pictures!

This past week has been full of shopping and friends (not so much studying, which could be bad...), because I've entered souvenir-buying modehile also trying to see people while I still can. Anyway, as a result I've been having lots of fun (and spending lots of money...).

On Wednesday, I went ice-skating on plastic! (Or just plastic-skating, I guess). It was a very tiny little rink and was much harder to skate on than actual ice, but it was definitely an interesting experience. I had imagined that it would be some sort of really special plastic, but really it was just kind of ordinary plastic boards. I discovered that I am worse at skating than I thought I was, but my friend Evan evidently is naturally talented or something, because even though it was only his second time skating ever, he had really good form and looked like a pro going around the turns...not fair. :P Anyway, I am very happy that Evan and Andy came with me that day, because everybody else bailed. -.-'

Jana and Eunjin playing taiko!

On Thursday in my Japanese class, we had a farewell party for all the people going back home this semester - a grand total of six out of twenty. People put on little performances, and it was really entertaining: singing a song about tofu, playing the ocarina, teaching Korean sign language, playing taiko drums, imitating the teachers/classmates (everybody almost died laughing), singing a traditional Scottish song. They also gave the people who are going home presents, which was ridiculously nice and a complete surprise! I opened it later and it was a pretty little bowl plus chocolate. :) It was a nice celebration, even though the next day we had class as usual. -.-' Still, it was a great way to wrap up the semester; even though academically this class has been really hard, my classmates are awesome so it's also been really fun. <3

And then on Friday, I went to one of my classmates' dorm for dinner! It was a spur-of-the-moment event, but in the end there were 9 of us, plus the three other classmates who lived in the same dorm. We all helped make Indonesian fried noodles and fried rice, which were really yummy, and just joked and talked and had an all-around good time. :)

Mary in the light tunnel!

The next day, my host mom took me and my friend Mary to Nabananosato to see Christmas illuminations! We'd been seeing commercials for it on TV for a while, and I wanted to go but it's kind of far from Nagoya, so I didn't think I'd be able to. But I did, and it was awesome! On the way there we stopped at Kariya Highway Oasis, the place with a ferris wheel that we went to way back in September (or October?), which also had some cool illuminations. The ferris wheel was visible from really far away, while we were still driving there, because the spokes were all lit up and there was nothing else visible around it. Then we headed to Nabananosato! It's a really popular place, so on the way there we had to park somewhere else and take a shuttle there, after waiting in line for a while. When we finally got there though, it was pretty awesome. There were Christmas lights everywhere, plus light-ups for the momiji, or Japanese maples, which were also really beautiful. There was something called Island Fuji, which was basically a moving observation deck that started on the ground but slowly moved up to way high in the sky - none of us had any idea beforehand how it worked, so when we saw it we were all amazed (but nobody around us was). It looked like a giant UFO, actually. I would have loved to go on it, except the lines were ridiculously long (again, very popular and crowded place).

Me and my host mom!

Then we got to the tunnel of light, which was exactly what it sounds like - a giant tunnel made of millions of lights, all in the shape of little flowers. It was really cool and also really long, so we just kind of wandered around surrounded by twinkling lights - it was great. Then we came out and saw the main attraction: Fuji and the sea. It was gigantic Mt. Fuji made of lights, plus a huge 'ocean' that spread out from the foot of the mountain up to the spectators. It was quite a big area, and also I think it may have been on top of a pond. The lights would change colors to imitate waves, and Mt. Fuji also periodically switched from blue to pink and purple and back again. There were even dolphins that 'jumped' in front. It was pretty breathtaking. :) After that we braved the crowds in the gift shop to buy souvenirs, because with the admission ticket you get 1000yen worth of vouchers to use inside, which we figured would be a waste not to spend. And then we lined up to take the shuttle bus back to the parking lot, which ended up taking an hour and fifteen minutes! It was crazy how many people there were waiting and how long it took for all of us to get back to the parking lot - I'm pretty sure there were still tons of people waiting after we got on our bus. So in the end we didn't get to eat dinner at all, but survived on donuts that Mary had brought us, and got home late and tired, but happy. :)

Collection of our student IDs, where most of us look really different!

And then yesterday I went shopping with my classmate Lily! I managed to find some souvenirs and we had noodles together before heading to Nagoya Station, where we met up with a bunch of our other IJ600 classmates for dinner! Our German classmate Jana said that the restaurant we were going to had the best tonkatsu in Nagoya, and it was delicious! Kind of expensive, but you could have as much salad and rice as you wanted, so we all came out very full. Then we wandered around to look at the illuminations around Nagoya Station for a little bit (not as cool as Nabananosato, of course, but still pretty!), before going back up the towers to sit around Starbucks and talk. I think we were being a very obvious and noisy/obnoxious group of foreigners, but it was lots of fun. And then we walked to Fushimi Station together (because my commuter pass doesn't include Nagoya Station), and then I went home.

This morning I went with my host mom to do official stuff like canceling my national health insurance, which really made me realize how little time is left! This time next week, I'll be on a plane on my way home, probably either sleeping or watching movies, which is hard to believe. I'll definitely be very sad to leave (I'm already starting!), but at least I'll know that even after I go home, I'll have friends all over the world (and lots even just in the US) who have offered me a place to stay if I ever visit, so that's a comforting thought. :) Anyway, there's still some time and lots of things to do before I start getting (too) sentimental, so for now I'll focus on those and end here! There should be time for at least one more post before I leave Japan, plus maybe some reflections during my final layover in Toronto, so stay tuned! :D