The internet connects THE WORLD

My little host brother has gone partially deaf. It's...actually pretty bad. I guess it started about two or three days ago, but my host parents would be talking to him and he just wouldn't notice. At first they thought he was ignoring them, but then they realized that he really couldn't hear them AT ALL, so my host mom took him to the hospital. It seems that he has a really bad ear infection, so he's on antibiotics.

On a lighter note, I told my little host brother and host mom that I had posted a link to LHB's video and that my mum and friends had watched it and said that he was good dancer.

Host mom: Did you hear that?

Little host brother: Huh?

HM: Her mom and friends watched your video.

LHB: Video?

HM: The dancing one?

LHB: What? How?

HM: The internet connects the world, you know.

LHB: [wide-eyed stare] REALLY?

Also, I was talking to my host parents about traveling in Asia the other day, and somehow it came up that I'd never had kim-chi. "What? Never had kim-chi? Shock! Horror!" So my host mom gave me kim-chi tonight. It was not as bad as my father claims it is, although it certainly has a very...distinctive taste.

And guess what! You get more pictures! YAAAAY!

On the platform, waiting for the train to Osaka.

Okay, let's fast forward past the rest of the Osaka trip.

Here we all are on the train to Nara!

What an incredibly stylish mustache.

SHE IS A CAMERA NINJA. (In case you couldn't tell, we didn't have a whole lot to do for an hour on the train.)

Well, look who was being sensible and studying on the train. PSSH. (And our residential director was drawing him as a detective. Long story.)

Lunch. It was tasty.

HA HA, NO KIDDING.

Run, little girl! Run before the deer eats you!

Notice how I'm standing a safe distance away from the deer.

The pagoda at Koufukuji! And I don't have any other pictures of it, because they wouldn't allow people to take pictures of ANYTHING.

The walkway up to Kasuga Taisha was lined with stone lanterns. It was seriously like something out of a Ghibli movie!

Yes, those are heart-shaped ema. Kasuga Taisha's specialties are marriages and fertility.

Kasuga Taisha! WHOO! (The rope around the tree means it's sacred.)

I'm pretty sure this guy's job is keeping the man-eating deer out of Toudaiji.

Shrine in the middle of a lake!

Toudaiji! Also known as the largest wooden building in the world!

Purification by incense, also known as let's-give-Cal-an-asthma-attack.

Here're some pictures of the statues both inside and outside.

Here we have my classmate attempting to crawl through the space the size of the Buddha's nostril. And she made it!

This is Sentokun, the official Nara 1300th anniversary mascot. In the words of our teacher, "Sentokun is きもかわいい (creepy cute)." In the words of one of the students, "Is he a monk? Is he a deer? Is he a baby? I HAVE NO IDEA."

You know this is the real reason why everyone's here in Japan: men's pocky.

And now I need to go do homework! I'm doing a presentation on this article tomorrow.

Also, I'm going to get to teach a class in week 5 or 6 of the program, so I need to pick a reading and come up with some activities to do. I'm thinking of doing a reading from a light novel (because they're about at our reading level and no one in the class knows what they are but me, plus I have two of them with me), but I'm trying to decide which one I want to do, what the in-class activity will be, and what I'll assign as homework. Hmm. I need to turn in my lesson plan on Monday.

Anyway, g'night, everyone!

P.S. Opal, でも is more like "however." And in terms of formality, it goes (with formality increasing) でも、しかし/ただし/だが.

P.P.S. Okay, once again this has NOTHING to do with anything, but Ludo's new video came out yesterday. And MY GOODNESS. It is so low-budget (I mean, how much does whipped cream really cost?) and bizarre, but I love it for some irrational reason. (Mom, don't watch, 'cause if the toothbrushing turned your stomach, this'll make your stomach attempt to stage a jailbreak by way of your esophagus. Not even kidding.)

P.P.P.S. I want it with whipped cream on it~~~

P.P.P.P.S. ...but not literally.