M...my room...

IT WAS SO CLEAN!!! It was all *sparkle sparkle* and ＊キラキラ＊- I spent at least 3/4 of my day Tuesday picking up all the little, tiny, near-invisible pieces of trash and hauling boxes of paper junk downstairs.

AND THEN CHRISTMAS CAME.

It... it's like God doesn't even want my room to be clean. Ever. D:

Anyways, I enjoyed my Christmas here in Japan. I started the day by going shopping with Momoko. Well, we were planning to go shopping, but ended up just sitting and talking in a Starbucks for 2 hours. Then we went shopping a little ^-^ After that, I spent the rest of my day trying to get through some manga I bought (curse the kanji), watching Bones, and staring at all of my Christmas presents (unopened, of course). At 9pm my family and I started our Christmas skype. It was very nice and I'm glad I got to see all of them, but it's just not the same not actually being there. I would be lying if I said it didn't make me sorta sad. Family, if you're reading this, that's the reason I hung up early- I mean, I was plenty tired, but it was more of me feeling out of place than sleepiness. I love you lots, though, so don't think I hate you all or anything. It was just sorta hard. Oddly enough, one of the hardest things was not speaking Japanese- half the things I wanted to say would automatically go through the translation box, and then I'd have to think, "Oh wait, they won't have any idea what I'm saying." So I'll be very glad when Mom comes to visit me (now that I know she is! :D :D :D and I can show off speaking Japanese as opposed to in America, when speaking Japanese won't be a necessity and I'll just sound very strange outside of sushi bars.

But Christmas is over, and now it's almost New Year's!!! I'm SUPER DUPER excited. I'm going to a fancy ryokan in Osaka from 12/31-1/2 with a Rotarian, and then I'm going shopping galore with my school peoples. And if I read my mail correctly, one of my friends is going to show me a really good ramen bar, which is fabulous because there are a lot of mediocre ramen bars everywhere and only a few are truly good. And then I go back to school for 3rd trimester, in which there will hopefully be a lot more hanging out with friends than in the past one.

I love you all family, your presents will get there eventually, and thank you for all of your presents you sent to me (Dad, I just got the package, thanks a billionx10,000 for the video camera). Hope you all had a nice Christmas, and Happy almost New Year!

Jaa, ne!