June 30, 2010

Wow, I can't believe that it is basically the end of June! It just blows my mind that I have been here for like half a month already. I'm so blessed to be here! I am so glad I still have another two months left to go. I feel like I have already grown so much, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in the near future! Ok, now to today. It went pretty well. The weather was so much better than yesterday, so we were able to go to the pool and everything. The kids were really, really more well behaved than they normally are, even though of course there were still the whiners. As usual, we had crackers for snack this morning. I feel like that's what we always have. Crackers for breakfast snack, and also afternoon snack. In the beginning they gave us cheese with the crackers, and even though it was only the fake white American cheese, at least it was something . Now we're downgraded to just crackers. Lol. But oh well. At least its something. Morning snack comes just when I'm hungry for breakfast, since I don't like eating it right when I get up. I really like when the afternoon snack is cookies like it was today. Cookies are at least something to break up the different types of crackers. Also we get yogurt like once a week, although yogurt is not one of my favorite things in the world. Today the kids who forgot their swimming suits were like super sad. Mr. Buzz and I were like, kids. We swim the same two days every week, just tell your mommy and remind your parents to bring your swim suit so that you can go swimming with everyone . Of course Nikolas would be one of the ones who forgot his swimming suit, so even though swimming wasn't until after lunch Nikolas was complaining about it literally all day long. He was so adorably annoying. Lol. "Ms. Jasnim, wiiiiil you call my mommy. Ieeeeee, ieeee neeeeed it. "We just had to tell him what we told all the other kids though that we couldn't interrupt their parents work two times a week whenever they forgot their swimming suit. He was not pleased with that. Robert, one of the new kids, was really upset when we finally had to leave. He was crying because we could swim longer. I was like dude, we've talked about this. You can't cry every time you don't get your way. Waaaaahhhhhh. Ugh. He has a deep voice too for a little dude. Sounds like he's already been through puberty, but he's only six. Like freakishly deep voice. Oh Robert. Finally at the end Ryan got him to go change with the rest of his guys back into his normal clothes. When we all met on the other side of the changing rooms we all got our kids together so we could do a head count before we walked back. Of course we were missing a kid. No one bothered to tell us that his mom came and picked him up while we were at the pool, and we didn't really remember his face too much because today was his first day. Thankfully it was solved, but seriously. This child center needs to get more on top of this whole checking out thing. I can't believe they haven't lost children yet. My whistle was still working really really well today! Best thing ever. I am posting a picture of the note that my kid Chandler wrote yesterday that I found. So cute. Cutest thing ever. It says through the child speak "Trey and Robert like eachother and they play with each other and they went together." What the kid actually wrote on the paper is "Trey and Robert like e chuder and thee pla wid e chuder and did wint up tog gedr. Frm : Chandler "Well, he spelled his name right. At least he did that. And he did some good sounding out. Finding that note on the floor was one of the most precious things ever. I asked Chandler about it, and he was so proud. "I wrote it all by myself!" After work, (ha, calling it work now. Payless work in a different country !!!!) we all went to dinner at the Blue Mountain Grill on base and had the all you can eat pasta buffet. So awesome. It was like build your own pasta. Best thing ever. Right before that, Jenny and I walked over to the gym to get our punch cards. Through the Single Sailor program that I am doing the Mt. Fugi climb through if we get ten hours punched at the gym, we get a free walking stick. That sounds like a super good deal to me! Ten bucks less I have to spend man. But, the Fugi climb will rock!!! Three more weekends to go! This weekend is still the Hakone spa. I looked up the place, and its super awesome. There is a wine bath, sake bath, green tea bath, waterfall bath, footbath, etc, etc, etc. Going to be the most relaxing thing ever. As far as I could figure, we paid already to get in and that includes all the baths. Also, it includes the transportation which can add up quick on the trains. But if we want a massage or something we have to pay. So going to do that probably, although soaking in the baths might just be enough for me! So excited for one of our trips to be just relaxing rather than walking around all over the place, and I still get to experience the culture. Probably the best part of my day today was fixing my awesome nine dollar watch I got at Wal-Mart before I left. Got it the day before I left, and it broke on the plane. Then when I got to Japan I bought a cheap watch at the 100 yen store. Definitely not waterproof like my awesome original one from Wal-Mart, and definitely wore it in the shower this morning. Epic fail! It broke of course, and I was kind of sad. So then I looked around with everyone trying to find a mini screw driver so I could maybe fix my old one. I finally got one from Jenny, and I opened up my Wal-Mart watch, took out the battery, and put everything back together! Success !!!!! I was so proud of myself, and now it works fine. And it has a light which my cheap 100 yen store watch didn't have !!!!! And the lights are three different colors! Woot woot! Watching the Bachelorette now and writing this blog. Hopefully I'll agree with Allie's choices this week. Night!

June 29, 2010

So today was super awesome, although I just found out my pictures have not been uploading right, so boo. The kids listened so much better today, probably in part due to the fact that Jenny let me borrow a whistle! One whistle meant sit on the carpet, two meant stay where you are and be quiet, and three meant sit at the table and stop talking. They did pretty well with it, and it was nice not having to yell to get their attention. Saved my voice a lot. The whole swimming thing was a huge hastle today. We got them all changed, and then the main guy, Ted (who is leaving next week anyways, but keeps bossing everyone around about ridiculous things and getting angry at us for no reason) told us we had to cancel swimming because it might rain, even though it never actually did. So all the kids were whining, but we let each group have half an hour where they went outside and played in the water as the counselors sprayed them with hose water. They loved that! Nikolas was running really fast even though everyone told him the rules were to walk, and he ate it on the playground turf. He had one of the biggest bumps I’ve ever seen sticking out of the back of his head. I swear I’m not exaggerating, it was the size of a golf ball sticking out of his head. It reminded me of the bumps cartoon characters get on their heads when they are hit. So he cried for like a minute and we filled out an accident report, and I sat icing his head. This was the least I’ve seen him cry, even though his side profile had a huge boulder sticking out of it. He starting asking to go back outside right away. I was thinking, goodness, kid. The one time you have a legitimate reason to cry you decide not to. Silly kids. That’s pretty much all that went down this weekend. Last night pretty late a bunch of us went and signed up for trips through the Single Sailor. This weekend we are going to the Hakone hot spa, which should be cool. Its like hot springs and stuff. Then the next weekend is Disney land Tokyo!!!!! Then the seventeenth, we are going to Mt. Fugi and climbing on up to the top of the mountain! We also get free walking sticks which will be cool. That will be quite an adventure! The other one we signed up for is an overnight stay in the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo, which will be super tight. Woot! More tomorrow. Maybe swimming will actually work out, although I’m not opposed to not getting wet.

June 28, 2010

Today was pretty cool. I think it went really well for the second Monday of the Camp Adventure summer. The kids went a little crazy, but compared to last Monday, they were little angels. We had like five new kids today, which was kind of trying because what consistency we had gotten with signals and such the week before was lost with all the new faces. On top of that, all of the new kids were extremely whiney and loud. Well not all, but some of them were. So incredibly loud. So we worked again for part of today on everyone sitting and being quiet when my hand or Julie’s goes up. And also on the silent fox signal. This week’s theme is Toy Story, so I dressed up as Woody. I had a cowboy hat and a red bandana tied around my neck. Even before we told the kids what the theme was, some of them were like, I know! You’re Woody! It was super cute. I’m pretty sure that they recognized me because Toy Story 3 just came out here this week. Speaking of which, I’m going to see that tomorrow! I’m so excited. Its like directly after work, so its gunna be a run to see it, but It’ll be amazing! We had so many criers today. The new guy Robert was whiney and didn’t want to do anything, Nikolas threw a few tantrums, Nilanie cried about absolutely everything, Destiny was screaming, Murray started bawling at the drop of a hat. My room is just always so loud and sad sometimes. Murray was crying several times because he thought Jayquin was looking at him funny or something, Nikolas as always just didn’t wanna do anything. At one point, we were putting everything away and Nikolas kept coloring so I had to go over and ask him firmly to put his stuff away. Finally he slammed down his paper and threw the pen where it belonged and started sulking and crying. I pulled him aside and was like, Nikolas we talked about this. Go sit in the corner in this chair for two minutes without crying or yelling. He was mad, but he did it. While he was sitting in the chair, he pulled his shirt over his head and was pouting quietly. So cute. The pic I have doesn’t show his face so I’m allowed to put it on! So stinking funny. I had a long talk with Nikolas this morning about not pouting and stuff today. I told him he was my special buddy, and I wanted us to be good friends, but it was hard to do that if he made it difficult for me to trust him. So I told him if he was better today I would give him my cowboy hat at the end. He is so cute and my favorite kid ever. I ended up giving him the hat because he really really was better today, and I am trying to get rid of most of my costumes anyways to save room and weight in my suitcase on the way home. Nikolas’s dad picked him up like a minute or two after I gave him the hat, and for the first time ever, Nikolas was whining because he had to leave and couldn’t stay for the closing songs. Progress yay! At least he wasn’t crying because he had to leave. I adore this kid so much, even though he is evil. Today the weather outside was insane. Probably the hottest and the most humidity we’ve had since I’ve been here. It was absolutely horrible! Julie and I had a jump roping club outside, and we all only lasted like fifteen minutes before we carted everyone inside and played other games. I’ve never experienced weather like this before. I literally felt like I was drowning while walking outside!!!! More tomorrow.

Week 1 Kid Quotes

Sara -"Water isn't healthy"
Nikolas- "Yes it is!"
Aaron- "Yeah, I think even water from the sky is healthiest of all"

Marcus- "I'm going to go chase a bird"

Paige- "I love the smell of hand sanitizer. It's my favorite"

"If we run out of air when we are swimming are we allowed to come up and breathe?"

Me- "Don't step in the dog poop"
Nikolas- "Hey miss Jashnim, I think maybe a dog pooped there. Actually, I think it was my dog. I know it."

Nikolas- "Buuuut Ieeee thought we were going there after we got done at the theaaater."

Nikolas- "Ieee Don't wanna do that. I wanna do something else. I wanna color."
Me- "That's what we're doing."
Nikolas- "Buuuut Ieeeee wanna draw a picture, not color."
Me- "Its the same thing."

"Do you have any principles? You know like presidents?"
Me- "Well we're in charge, so kind of."
"Are you Barrak Obama's wife then?"

Aaron- "Its the United States of the USA"

Me- "Tell me what your favorite thing in the whole world is."
Kenta- "Sitting on chairs."

June 27, 2010

Today was pretty awesome. We went out to explore more of Tokyo today. We started out going to downtown Tokyo, which was really cool. Out of all the places we’ve been that reminded me the most of my trip to New York City. We tried to go to the Imperial Palace, but the gate to it was closed. So instead we explored the Exterior Garden to the Palace, which was basically like the Central Park of Tokyo. It was absolutely beautiful! In a lot of the ponds and stuff there were these huge huge coy fish. Definitely interesting. I took lots of pictures of it. I got so incredibly hungry there. I packed 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but I couldn’t find plastic bags. So I cut up the sandwich into little pieces and put it into a Tupperware container. Ha ha. After that we went to Aoyama, which had one of the biggest Prada stores ever. I guess its like the second biggest attraction for tourists in Tokyo after Disneyland or something like that. I’m not sure if I believe that, but whatever. It was absolutely huge, and the entire building was made out of these huge glass squares. It was really cool to see. They had some of the neatest buildings I’ve ever seen all throughout Tokyo. Especially in Aoyama, since they had a huge like super expensive shopping district. They had Prada, Gucci, Dolce and Gabana, etc. Super awesome, but super unaffordable. Lol. I could totally get a pair of shoes or something if I wanted to spend my entire stipend in one go. Ha ha. How about not. Next we went to Shibuya, which is more of a shopping district. We didn’t stay very long, but we found this really awesome store called June Bug or something. It was the cheapest most adorable store ever! I got four shirts/ button ups, and a pair of shorts that came with a belt. Not doing much now. Got back from taking the train all the way back and walking to base. We got here in record time of an hour and a half! That’s like 45 minutes less than the others have gotten back. We asked a Japanese lady for directions and she told us a different way than we had previously taken. Woot. Tomorrow starts the week of programs that Jen and I put together. Should be good! Hopefully the kids have calmed down a bit over the weekend. Couldn’t find a whistle anywhere. Maybe I’ll find one at the NEX tomorrow or something. So hard to yell over those kids. Til tomorrow!

June 26, 2010

Today was amazing! So the first group of us left around nine this morning to head to Kamakura, which is where the big Buddha is located! It was super awesome! Although it took like forever on the train to get there. Later on in the day our first group of people who left found out from the other half that left later that we got off one station too early, and that’s why our walk to the Buddha took like half an hour. That walk was not fun, but the rest of it was amazing! Although the weather today was absolutely awful! It was kind of raining, but kind of not and really humid. So my hair that looked super awesome for the first little while of the trip looked like a giant kind of curly frizz ball by the time we actually got to the Buddha. Fail. One thing that will be nice about being done with Japan eventually will be an end to this awful humidity. The Buddha was like the biggest thing I’ve ever seen! So massive! It was awesome going to it also, because all the Camp Adventure people from every base in Japan came together to take a really really huge Japan Camp Adventure group photo. So, I got to see all the people I trained with from WSU who were placed at different sites in Japan. It was really cool. We took a WSU group picture in front of the giant Buddah. Cool cool. Although we were all girls, surprise. It was really cool that we got to actually go inside the Buddha also. It was super hot inside of it though. At one shop right near the big Buddah I finally found postcards! I have been looking for them everywhere for like ever, but they were always too expensive or just lame and so I hadn’t gotten any yet. Who would have thought that postcards would be so hard to come by. Well anyways, I finally found them so I will be able to write those out and send them to people! I’m glad that on our base we are able to send letters through US mail, since it’s a US base. It makes getting and sending letter way easier. After we went to that a few of us traveled about ten minutes to Hasadera, which was another temple. Probably the second most popular after the big Buddha. Woot. This one was really cool. They wouldn’t let us take pictures inside this actual temple, but it had one of the biggest statues of Buddha I’ve ever seen. It was all gold, and people were lighting candles and praying there. We had to wait about an hour until it was our turn to walk through the hydrangea garden, so while we were waiting for that we ate at the restaurant next to the temple. It was so interesting. When we went in there to eat, you didn’t order at the table. We put our orders in by pressing a button on this vending machine looking thing and then put our money into it and got a receipt. Couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I ate the nastiest maybe thing ever. It was like rice balls or something. It was five puffy rice balls that were cold with teriyaki sauce all over them. The texture was probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced. Kind of gooey, but sticky. I don’t know. The first one was ok, but by the fourth on the stick I couldn’t eat anymore. The hydrangea garden was amazing! We walked up, and got to see the thousands and thousands of flowers of all different colors and sizes. It was amazing. Then we went to the cave they had at the temple. You could go in and get little Buddhas to write things on and leave it there. All the walls were lines with tons of those little things. The roof of the cave was really short. Randi and Julie were short so they were able to stand up, but I had to bend over to fit through most definitely. We also saw another smaller temple and walked around, but the first two things were the most amazing. Then we went to the 100 yen shop and took the train back to base. On the way home, a super attractive asian guy sat next to me! I was super excited. But he fell asleep on me. Like literally started to doze off and landed on my shoulder for almost the entire train ride until we had to switch trains near the end. Frankie and the others took pictures of me with him like putting my arm around him, pretending to kiss his head, laying my head on his etc. Ha ha ha. It was sooooo hilarious. We were all dying, because the guy was totally konked out and not even aware that he was totally all up in my space. It’s a good thing I didn’t mind at all because he was so attractive ;). When we got back to base, we got pizza and I had ice cream. That was the first full on American meal I’ve had since I’ve gotten here. I think it was much needed. I love trying new Japanese foods and such, but sometimes you just need a greasy ol’ American pizza. The ice cream was awesome too. Only like a dollar fifty on base for two huge scoops. I love buying things on base! Now we’re watching Now and Then. I’ve never seen it, but Frankie and Lauren swear it’s the best movie ever, so we’ll see. Lol. Til tomorrow! Going to be off to explore more of Tokyo.

June 25, 2010

All I can say is TGIF!!!!! This was a really really long week with getting used to being with the kids and everything. It was a lot of adjusting, but the week went by really really fast altogether. Today went a lot better than yesterday listening wise, but it got progressively worse as the day went on. I have decided for sure that I’m going to try to remember to by a whistle this weekend. At least that way I can get sound above their screaming without blowing my voice. But they are still so precious. Today we kind of had a week’s end mini party for the kids and we had balloon decorating, face painting, water balloon tossing, duck duck goose, bean tossing, etc. It was really fun and the kids seemed to love it, especially the water balloon stuff. Although the kids got really wet from it, and then their shoes got muddy and they dragged the mud into all the rooms. It was kind of disgusting. It also wound all the kids up so after that they had trouble settling down and listening. Ryan, our like main leader, also called Mr. Buzz, came in and read our kids a story and then Julie read one. That calmed them down a little bit, which was good before their afternoon snack. Oh my gosh. Nikolas today was absolutely ridiculous. Not only did he throw his normal little whining fits, today he was full on like rolling on the floor whining and kicking his legs and stuff. I was laughing every time he wasn’t looking because it was just ridiculous. It was over super stupid stuff too like not getting to play chess during art club, or not getting snack ahead of another kid and stuff like that. I was just like what the heck dude. I finally resorted to threatening to call his mom and counting down from five to get him to listen. He was in timeouts and sitting in corners and stuff for more than half the day I’m pretty sure. Cutest whiner and crier ever. I completely adore that kid. And even when he smiles, it’s a sad whiney smile. So incredibly precious. I love him lots. After we were done with the day we had pie the counselor, which is when we draw the names of five kids who have gotten tickets during the week for being good and then they get to pie a counselor of their choice. Thank goodness none of them picked me, although many of the kids who didn’t get drawn were like, Ms. Jasmine, if I got drawn I would have pied you. Its like oh thanks little kids. But no thank you. I’m so grateful I wasn’t pied! Then after work some of us went bowling. It’s so cheap here on base. It was only 1.75 per game, and we played two. Haven’t been bowling in forever. I didn’t do so hot. Only got like in the eighties, but whatever. Now we’re watching the Dark Night Batman movie, and writing this blog. Given up on loading pictures on facebook. They changed the way its set up and it sucks hard core! Peace!!!

June 24, 2010

Today was absolutely insane. We took the kids on a field trip to the Tokyo Done Amusements. You would think they would be able to behave since the Kinders the day before did a good job on their field trip, but no. My kids were absolutely insane!!!!!! I have the worst headache ever after trying to maintain control of my group the whole day. Every five seconds the kids would run away to chase birds. I have absolutely no idea what their massive fascination with birds is, but they literally would see a bird, run away from the group, and chase the bird. So incredibly odd. I don’t think I will every understand them. This is the first day I have been incredibly frustrated with the group, and it was super hard not to lose my cool. I would ask them to do something, and then Julie and I would have to take like ten to fifteen minutes trying to get the kids to be in a straight line. Why is a straight line so hard!!!! This one kid, who was there for the first time today, was named Cade. He was an aweful little addition to the group! He wouldn’t listen to anything. He unbuckled his seatbelt on the bus and was jumping over people, he chased birds, he was yelling at kids, and he complained about everything. I don’t understand why he kept misbehaving when we were talking to him very gently but firmly and asserting ourselves and stuff. What the heck. And Nikolas, and Justin, and Murray, and etc. etc. etc. They were all so naughty! But they are so darn cute! Why does pure evil come in small packages!!!!! One of the best parts of the day though was when Shad and Kenta went on the Ferris Wheel with Julie and I. They were too scared to go alone, so each of them sat with one of us. They were so adorable. I took a lot of pictures, but sadly I am not allowed to post pictures of any of the military kids on facebook. L. But I will get to put them in a picture album and show people after I’m back. Shad and Kenta were like grabbing onto us for dear life until they relaxed and figured out that Ferris Wheels aren’t that scary. I personally think that Ferris Wheels are horrifying, but this one was enclosed so I was good. They were doing ninja poses and stuff in my pictures. So precious! The other best part was when we took them to get a snack, and there were enough other adults with our group that Julie and I got to peace out for a little bit to ride the roller coaster. It was my first Japanese roller coaster ever! Julie and I got on together, and she was freaking out and had to hold my hand. It was super funny. The roller coaster surprisingly was extremely high and quite scary. They did a good job. I haven’t been on a legit roller coaster for a while. Woot! I loved it! We had two pukers on the bus who thank goodness made it to the garbage, and by the end of the trip when we were loading up the bus, our entire group was in tears. For ridiculous things. I am so glad today is over. After that we had an inservice for lifeguarding, which is like a review. It wasn’t so bad. Just sooo tired. Need to sleep!

June 23, 2010

Today was much rougher than yesterday. The kids at first listened right away, and it was awesome. I was so impressed. I raised my hand and they all immediately knew what it meant. They all ran to the table and sat down quietly and put their hand up. It was amazing, and I was so looking forward to the rest of the day with these much better behaved kids. But then everything went downhill and the kids were all way out of control. Like crazy crazy out of control. They were yelling and running all over the place, and they wouldn’t listen to anything Julie and us said. So incredibly annoying. Why are these evil little kids so stinking cute! And the supplies for my art club still wasn’t here today and so I had to make up more crap for them to do. At the beginning they were asking “what are we doing today.” In response I’m like “Hey you know I can’t tell you because it’s a surprise!” When really I had absolutely no idea what we were going to do. Ha ha. Good thing they don’t know that, and they think I’m this like amazing person who plans all these awesome crafts for them. Gotta love how easy kids are to please. The best part of the day though was definitely when since we couldn’t go to the pool and stuff we gathered all the kids in the theater room and had them watch two movies. Some of us counselors were falling asleep during the movies rather than the kids though. I know during Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory I was like passed out for almost all of it. Good thing the center had some of their own staff that were kind of watching the kids while all of us were asleep. So freaking tired. And during the second movie it was the same thing, but I didn’t get to sleep as much during Lion King 1 ½ because two little girls kept going up to me and were all like “my teeths are wiggly, and I need to get a paper towel!” I was like, ok that’s awesome, go get it and come back. Then they gave me some of the paper towels also to hold so that if their teet did fall out they would be able to put them somewhere. Which was also fine. But they were poking me like every five seconds talking about their teeth. I wasn’t annoyed or anything because they were so cute, and so excited about losing some of their teeth. Nothing came out as of yet, but maybe in the next few days or something. Probably the cutest thing of the day was when we were all walking to the theater several times little Nikolas took out his fricken huge umbrella. Picture this. He was only a little taller than my knee, the umbrella went a full like foot over his head standing tall when it was closed, and then it was even bigger when it was opened up. I’ve never seen an umbrella that big. It was bigger than anything I’ve ever seen before. All the other kids who forgot their umbrellas stood under his, so there were like six or seven kids under this massive umbrella waddling towards the theater. So cute. I can’t even describe how amazing it was to watch them. I definitely took pictures! When we got back all of us counselors had a meeting and then played mafia. That was super awesome, and fun! Because the aquatics is separate from day camp, it was nice to get to hang out with absolutely everyone! Now we are sitting watching this weeks episode of the bachelorette while I’m writing this :). How fun! Tomorrow is our first field trip, but hopefully it goes super well.

June 22, 2010

Today was absolutely incredible, even though the kids still have a lot of learning to do, and I was incredibly tired. The kids calmed down quicker today when we kept doing the same signals and stuff we did yesterday to calm them down. We didn’t raise our voices, and we just kept repeating the same things over and over again until they would stop talking and be able to hear us. Which took a while, but definitely not as long as yesterday. We did silent fox, which is putting the middle and ring finger on your thumb to make a fox looking thing, and then we raise our hands when we want them to drop what they’re doing and come sit quietly at the table. They did so so much better today, and I’m very optimistic that every day they will improve more and more. Snack times went way way better also, which was nice, so at the end of each snack and meal we didn’t have food thrown throughout the room and like hanging from everything. Although I liked the food they served yesterday much much better. We went to the pool today, which we only do on Tuesday and Wednesday. That was very interesting. The kids were all insane, and they were super hard to keep track of, and they kept running away and going where they aren’t supposed to. We had two little kids puke, two pee their pants, one go missing (she ran away to the kiddie pool when we were supposed to leave), and many, many criers. These kids are CRAZY! And Nikolas again, (I learned how to spell his name today!) was just ridiculous with the things he was whining about. Even when he is talking normally it sounds like he is whining by the way he drags words out. “Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee don’t wanna color.” Then sit down. “Buuuuuuut I wanna draw a picture” That’s what we’re doing. “Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut iiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee don’t wanna do dat. Iiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee wanna, wanna color a picture iiiiinnnn.” Ah! There is no reasoning with him. And his thing today was that he says “Aweeeee” with a really sad face everytime we tell him to do or not to do something. It is just freaking adorable, and I can barely stand it. If it was morally ok to kidnap kids, I would definitely kidnap him. Or adopt him, whatever. He is so freaking cute. He is definitely my little buddy and holds my hand everywhere I go. I love him most of all the kids, even though I’m pretty sure the other counselors think he is an evil little child. Which I’m not exactly arguing with. Today during art was really interesting. The supplies still hadn’t been gotten, which was kind of annoying, cuz I was stuck making up stuff to do. The poor director and coordinator in my group though. I can’t even imagine how frustrating this all must have been for them. But yeah. w/e. Today after camp six of us went to see the new Karate Kid movie, which was sick! Disney did suuuuuch a good job remaking it! Can’t even begin to tell how much I got into that movie and enjoyed it. SOOOO tired! Hope tomorrow goes well. Although it was kind of cool getting to use the bag of tricks (which is fun stuff like madlibs, coloring stuff, puzzle, cards, etc.) for the kids to do since like four of my little guys didn’t bring swim suits. And that meant I didn’t have to get in the water woot! Although I know I will in the future. Hopefully they will let me be one of the ones that stands and observes rather than gets in. Oh well. Only two days a week. Oh, and before I forget, even though I have not been yelling or anything with these kids, I can’t believe how much my voice is going out. I have to be super careful cuz I really don’t wanna recover from losing my voice! Its just so much talking to these kids from eight in the morning til five at night. It adds up! I have heard from my teachers in music at Wazzu that teachers often lose their voice and have trouble with that kind of stuff, and now I understand why. I am trying to raise the pitch of my speaking voice to make it healthier, although it feels like I am a talking Disney character when I do it. But I guess most people’s voices in our culture are lower than they are naturally supposed to be. Unhealthy. We’ll see how this goes in the coming days. Til tomorrow! Night!

June 21, 2010

Today was pretty awesome. We got all of our campers today, which was really tight. I got the little six and seven year old first graders with Julie, who is called Ms. Tink by the kids. At first, we only had like three people in our room, and I was like. Ok, whatever. Not too bad, at least I will get to know everyone. But by like half an hour after we got there, we had so stinking many kids. We ended up with like seventeen I’m pretty sure. Since they were like super young, but not too young, they were not as bad as the kinders, but they were HORRIBLE children! I feel like a lot of them are probably never ever ever disciplined at home, or because their home lives are so chaotic from moving or having parents deployed and such they are just not as structured. Whatever the reason, they were absolutely aweful when it came to listening and doing anything that we asked them to do. One kid named Nicolas whined about absolutely everything. We asked the kids to sit down, “I don’t wanna sit, I wanna play,” asked him to color a picture, “I don’t like coloring,” asked him to play a game, “I wanna color my picture. I just wanna sit down here. I don’t wanna play with everyone.” Wah wah wah. And its like super cute though because he drags out the first syllable of the word really really long, so its like we ask him to come with the group, “buuuuuut I don’t wanna.” Why does such an evil little dude have to be so freaking adorable! And he has the cutest curly hair and long eyelashes that get all puppy dog looking when he is whining. No wonder some of them are spoiled when they are so fricken cute. I completely love him and all the other kids even though they gave us so much crap today. And the schedules for everything are so incredibly weird because the kids eat so much. They get breakfast right before we get there at like seven, a morning snack at nine thirty, lunch at noon, afternoon snack at two thirty. And these kids were like packing away food, holy cow. I couldn’t believe that like during lunch and stuff they were all coming up for seconds and thirds and stuff. Julie and I were trying to scarf down our food while the kids were eating and trying to run around with their food and coming asking for milk or water or more food and it was almost impossible to eat. They were so hard to control. We had to get them to sit down with food, stand in lines, etc, etc, etc. The lunch was actually really good though. Like pork stir fry over white rice and pears. Yum. But maybe it just tasted that good because I was so exhausted from working with all the little monsters. And I mean monsters like the adorable ones in Monsters Inc. But seriously, who feeds kids that much? It was nice during the day when we did rotating activities because we got to get some different kids, although when the Kinders rotated into our room it was much worse. You would like ask them to sit and half of them would just stare at you like I am speaking a foreign language or something, and the rest of them were staring at something else like the wall or walking towards a stuffed animal or something. Like literally I don’t think they heard one word any of us said. Some of the groups were good though, mostly the older ones. They listened a lot better, and it was easier to get them to do games. Although one of the guys in room five, which was the eight and older room, said the only reason he did camp was so he could drown a counselor. Don’t think he was serious, but Julie and I were like what the heck? Teenage angst to the max. I also liked when we split up into our clubs for the week. There was art, science, and drama for this week, and I was stuck alone with the art kids since only seven wanted to do that and like fifty of them wanted to be in science. Although none of the supplies that were supposed to be provided were so I had to improvise. And of course Nicolas and Jayquin and Aaron (three of the crazy non-listening boys) ended up in the art and just wanted to throw the balls that they found at the pool tables. Its just like insane. Tomorrow we are going swimming too, so that will be super interesting. I think though that after a week or so of Julie and I implementing the same rules and the same expectations of them they will simmer down and see us as authority figures. Woot, tomorrow should be good.

June 20, 2010

Today we all went to Yokahama! It was pretty intense. I didn’t know this, but Yokahama is the second largest city in Japan. Pretty legit. It was really cool walking around the city and seeing all the cool towers and everything. We walked around the city for hours and walked near the ocean, which was really cool. It was a lot less humid than everywhere else we’ve been, which was super nice. It was probably be because its near the ocean, and the breeze was amazing. We were all still wearing Tank tops and shorts, so its not like the breeze made it cold or anything. It was just really really refreshing and nice. Near the ocean, we saw the Landmark Tower, which is like one of the largest buildings in Japan or something. Also near the water was this huge amusement park with like the second largest ferris wheel in Japan. So awesome. It had this like huge clock on it. I would have really liked to go on it, but I’m pretty sure that’s one of the field trips we’re going on with the day camps, so I’ll get to do it later. Even though I’m super afraid of ferris wheels, but this trip is all about expanding my horizons!!! After that, we walked to Yokahama’s China Town, which is the biggest one in all of Japan. On the way to China town, we got some awesome ice cream stuff. My ice cream cone had soft serve ice cream put in first, then a scoop of mango sherbet, chunks of kiwi, mango, and blueberry, and then slivers of dark chocolate on top. All in a handmade waffle cone. It was pretty much the best thing I’ve ever had in my life. I wish that they had desserts in America like that, although if they did I might weigh like twenty thousand pounds more than I do now. Also on the way to China Town, we passed this weird jeep display. They had a Japanese model standing on a track that the Jeeps could drive over. Then people who had been standing in a line got to test drive the Jeeps over this like obstacle course that turned the Jeep almost completely sideways. I think it was to show the stability of the vehicle or something of it ,It was sooooo much less ghetto than the one I went to in New York. That one was like crazy sketchy. This was all nice and clean and stuff just like the rest of Japan. It was hard to find the cheaper stores, but after a while we found awesome ones. At one of the stores I found an awesome like flower plate that I got, and then two side bags that were super cheap. I also got a panda oven mitt, which was like the cutest thing ever. China Town also had this like awesome. It was super fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so tired though. Came back and have to work on programming and we’re figuring out everything for tomorrow when I get my adorable little five and six year olds!!!! Night.

June 19, 2010

Today totally rocked. The whole group woke up at like idk, super early. We all met at eight to go to Tokyo today. With delays within the group and taking the trains, we got to Tokyo at like ten or so I think. Which really isn’t bad timing for like a huge group of fourteen people, and the two we met when we got to Tokyo. When we got to the train station, we all bought pasmos. A Pasmo is this card thing you put money on, so instead of buying tickets for specific trips on the train, you swipe the pasmo when you get on and when you get off and the machine deducts that amount from your account. And then when you run out of money you just refill it. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever, I don’t know why we don’t have those things in America. And the pasmo card doesn’t even have to be out of a wallet or anything to be scanned. I left it in my huge thick wallet, and some people left it in their bags to be scanned. All you do is hold the thing that contains the card up to the scanner, and it lets you through. I can’t even tell you how enthralling I found those machines! When we actually got to Tokyo, we got lunch at a Japanese restaurant. I didn’t like this place as much as the one we went to on base. Probably because everything in there smelled like fish, and I’m not really a fishy kind of person. I got seaweed miso soup, which for me is a huge stretch because I don’t really eat things that have been in the sea, and especially not things that are green. But it actually wasn’t bad. I’ve had miso soup before, but not with like the seaweed chunks. The texture of the seaweed just kinda weirded me out. Basically everyone else I went with got sushi, which I had tried once before and definitely didn’t like. But I figured, hey. I’m in Japan, and I need to expand my horizons a little bit. Oh my gosh. The part of a roll I ate was so incredibly gross! I was like gagging on it. I couldn’t tell if it was the texture, taste, or smell, but my body definitely didn’t enjoy downing that sushi. I’m sure the face I was making wasn’t the prettiest sight in the world. After that we ended up running into the entire group that we had split from to eat lunch, we all went to the Tokyo Towers. It is bigger than the Eiffel tower or whatever, but it looks exactly like it. I was contemplating getting a key chain, but most of them looked like they could have been the Eiffel tower, and then resold in Japan, or they were extremely expensive. The tower went up so high! We went to the main observation deck, but we didn’t go all the way to the top cuz it was pretty cloudy, and it looked like everything would be hard to see unless it was a clear day. It was super freaky riding that elevator up and looking down. They had these glass floor things in some places too where you could stand on it and look down to the ground super far below! They even had like a Tokyo Tower anime mascot thing walking around and we got pictures of it. It was so weird. Tokyo Tower was right near Roppongi, which is a cool like shopping and bar district, but it is pretty much not a good place to be at night from what we’ve heard. There are horror stories about people getting drugged or followed in the night clubs and such. Definitely staying away from that area at night time. After the towers the group split again, and some of us went to Harajuku to shop and stuff. This Harajuku and Roppongi are both different districts of Tokyo. Harajuku is like known for people dressing in crazy things and very elaborate. We saw people there in like lingerie looking outfits, huge huge platform shoes, crazy curly hair, huge fake eyelashes and nails. It was very interesting. While I was there I got some Japanese clothes. I think their styles are super awesome, even though they do some weird things with them sometimes. If I was shopping by myself, I wouldn’t even know where to start when trying on clothes in those stores. Thank goodness I was with Julie. She would pick stuff off the racks for me, and I would try them on and they would work perfectly! Best thing ever. I got four shirts and a super cute skirt. I can’t wait to get back to the states and wear all these foreign things that no one else will have. Everything in the stores included hello kitty. It was slightly ridiculous. Finally after a long day we sat to eat dinner at this other restaurant. It was Chinese, but that’s close enough right? Still Asian food. I got the pork dumpling potsticker things. Oh my gosh best thing ever. The ones we had on base had better sauce with them, but these tasted way better. So good. Everyone’s food was amazing, but Randi got this like chicken stirfry with lemon that ended up being like nasty and slimy looking. Basically, it looked like the cooks dumped corn startch all over everything on her plate. Not very appetizing. After dinner of course was dessert. We all got these crepe ice cream cone things. What they do is take a crepe, roll ice cream, whipped cream, and fresh fruit into a cone shaped delicious goodness. I got kiwi and ice cream. So amazing. Fresh fruit just makes everything amazing! It was only like seven thirty by that point, but we peaced out and decided to go home because we had been out for so long, wanted to go out the next day, and knew the train ride back would take a while. The trains are so incredibly interesting. It is proper etiquette for no one to talk and for everyone to be quiet while on the train. They even have signs and stuff for turning off your cell phone on the train, and no one is supposed to talk on their cell phone ever on the train. It is very very different. Also, when going up and down escalators and stuff when transferring trains and such you have to stand on the left side if you are standing and the right side if you are going to walk up. It makes so much sense, I don’t know why no one in America has ever adopted this. We all just stand wherever and block people’s ways. But this way people who are in a hurry can get through, and everyone else can just chill. While we were on the long train rides, Julie and I were looking for Japanese “meanwhiles.” Frankie told us this system to talk about cute guys without being completely obvious. If a hot guy walks buy, you use “meanwhile” in the conversation. If he is alright, you say “sometimes” and if he isn’t good you say “anyways.” Genius right, cuz it works right into normal conversations. Julie and I though were the only ones really looking all the time, cuz we’re the only two who kinda have a thing for Asian men. There were defiantly some pretty good “meanwhiles” on the trains and out in Tokyo. It was such a long day! Yokahama tomorrow should be super awesome! Night!

June 18, 2010

Wow, today was a good day overall. We finished making the posters, which was insane. I’m betting altogether we have around like 70 posters and expectations sheets to hang to decorate the rooms during the coming weeks of camp. The posters are all so colorful, and the ones we finished are super impressive. That afternoon we got to eat a barbeque, which was awesome, and the hot dogs were super huge and juicy. It was Kelly’s birthday today, and we got to go out on the town and celebrate. Before that though, all of us gathered in the lounge to watch nip tuck, and some of us were figuring out the Disneyland Tokyo trip we wanted to go on sometime in July. We surprised her with cream pies, both oreo and turtle pie or something, and got ready to go to karaoke. Definitely walked in the rain for ever to get to the karaoke bar, and when we got there they didn’t even have karaoke even though it was in the actual name. We still had a super fun time, even though it literally rained the entire day today. So hard. Tomorrow is Tokyo, so we’ll see what awesome stuff happens then.

June 17, 2010

Today was an awesome day. It was super long though even with all the excitement. We spent basically the entire day making posters and expectations lists for the coming weeks of camp. We made so so so many posters. At first, well really for most of the day, we didn’t have projectors that we could use to like trace pictures and stuff. A few of us freehanded pictures by looking off of images online, and that was super super hard. Not gunna lie though, I was extremely impressed with my free hand drawing skills. I really loved doing that, cuz its not often I’m the artistic one. Lol. My favorite free hand was probably dori and finding nemo. So cute. Forgot how much I love drawing. I don’t get to do it that often. Not was much to talk about today since that was pretty much what we did all day. Finally near the end we got the projector and started cranking out the posters. We have to finish up the rest tomorrow. My camp a shirt I wore now has yellow paint, a silly putty stain, and coffee spill on it. So fail, but they are camp awesome stains of the summer. If we tie dye our shirts also, it will all be covered and the slate will be wiped clean. Silly putty stain you ask? Not sure if I wrote this already, but on the plane ride here, the silly putty I put in my bag of tricks on the plane ride here to japan, and somehow it melted through the container and through the little bag onto my white camp adventure shirts. And yes the silly putty did not get on anything except for the camp adventure shirts. Oh well. Stuff happens. So tired, til tomorrow.

June 16, 2010

Wow. Today was a really interesting day. One odd thing was the weather. All night and early morning the rain was pouring and pouring, and it was miserable outside. Then about the middle of the day the sun was out, and it was probably ninety degrees. So humid, and so hot. Wow. That was definitely more of the weather I was expecting going into this, although when its been rainy the weather has still been extremely warm. I approved of the sun and temperature, I just really really wish the humidity had been lower and there was even the tiniest breeze. I have at this point completely given up on looking the least bit attractive. I start the day out all nice and pretty in our air conditioned hotel, and then the second we even step into the hall all of our faces are oily and greasy and I feel like I’ve been out running a marathon or something with the way I am sweating. Oh well. Hopefully my body will get used to it! Probably one of the most odd and yet amazing days ever. It started off pretty interestingly when there was some confusion about medical records. At first I just needed to get the dates of my polio records, and then I needed the actual records scanned and sent over since this is the only base that needs them. So that was a huge hassle, and everyone’s patience and energy were wearing down. The group I went with to get my medical card was fun though. I brought my new orange squishy ball thing that I got for having one of the best costume wardrobe and bag of tricks. It is like the coolest thing ever. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be way more entertained with that than my friends are. But anyways, we were sitting in this room for like ever, and the lady was deciding whether or not to accept our documentation. Poor Julie had to get another TB test, and a few others had to get polio shots, which I’m so glad I didn’t have to do. So that part was a huge hassle on top of getting all the information we didn’t know we needed from our parents. And then we were waiting around for stuff to happen and it was kind of frustration. But in the end, it could have been a lot worse, and I’m just super thankful I didn’t have to get shots. No thank you! Part of the time when we were waiting for our Project Coordinator to get there, all of us picked which themed week we wanted and started brainstorming ideas for posters and such. I teamed up with Jenny, who is from Oregon, and we are doing Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story. That’s not exactly what the themes are technically called, but that’s the just of it. I thought it was funny because our names are themed Disney, and we picked the only two themes that are Disney. I am so excited to start planning stuff tomorrow and actually making the posters for the summer. Wearing the costumes for the different things will be awesome too. The only Alice in Wonderland stuff I have though is like a crown for like the queen of hearts or something. That one was hard to come up with ideas for costumes for. After Angie came and talked with us, she showed us to the train station and we found our way off base! FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE WE”VE BEEN HERE! It was so much fun to go explore the city and go around to stuff. I took so so so many pictures, which is like what I do. They are so awesome! Everything is so cute and animated and small. I love it so much! We went to the 100 yen store, which is the Japanese equivalent to the dollar store, and I got some awesome chopsticks and cute bowl to use in the hotel and stuff. Probably the coolest thing there was the printed toilet paper, which sounds odd, but I thought it was awesome. It was blue toilet paper with flower designs on it. And then we went to a Japanese grocery store, which had the most colorful ads and the most candy I’ve ever seen. Oh, and oddly, the alcohol was sold in like the biggest bottles I’ve ever seen. Holy crap. Someone would get so smashed with that kind of stuff. I wish the noodles for the most part didn’t need to be refrigerated or I would buy so much and bring it home. Most of the group stayed to eat at the sushi bar, but some of us came back and ate at the BEQ. We sat in these huge comfy chairs in the lounge on our floor and watched the television. Sadly, on the way home I got stopped for having shorts that were too short, even though they went all the way to my finger tips and a little past. The lady guard person was anal. I have never once in my life been stopped for inappropriate dress because I am a modest person, so I was a little bummed that it happened. Jenny and Kelly had to walk all the way back to the BEQ, grab me some pants, and bring it back to Randi and I who were waiting at the gate. So lame. But I guess the lady was kinda rude to Julie and a couple others so I didn’t feel quite as bad. And better for this to happen on the first week than in the middle when we’re supposed to know everything. Altogether, an amazing amazing day!!!!! I loved seeing Japan and getting off the base!

June 15, 2010

Today was quite a day. We did a lot more orientation where we had to watch like three health and food safety videos and a child abuse one. The food safety ones were pretty hilarious. One of the acronyms they gave to us to remember was like FAT TOM. I have no idea what the actual letters stood for, I just remember the acronym because it’s hilarious. Probably not the way the video intended it, but whatever. Lol. All three of the videos on food safety included chicken salad with bacteria, viruses, and fungus and crap. Definitely probably never going to go near chicken salad again. Very scarring video. The child abuse stuff was sad. I hope I never have to deal with that when we start actual camp with the kids next week. During lunch, I finally got to go to an actual Japanese restaurant that’s on base, and I got real Ramen. It was pretty bomb. The Potstickers were the best thing ever, although I don’t remember what they were actually called. We got to sit on the ground on little pillows and eat with our shoes off. My legs definitely started to fall asleep after a while, and it was very difficult. After we were done with that stuff a bunch of us went to the commissary since it was actually open and got a ton of food, which was super nice. It was kind of depressing looking into an empty fridge several times a day. Although this is the same fridge I couldn’t even find the first day we were here. Yeah, that was kind of fail. On our way back from the commissary we had so much stuff between me, my roommate Carley, and Julie that we had to borrow one of the carts (which was filled to the very top) and push it back to the BEQ. Of course stopping by the food court on the way back to grab napkins, silverware, and other things. We are very resourceful in my room, and we feel like certain things don’t need to be purchased ;). Before the commissary though we went to the Single Sailor and Recreation place to figure out some weekend trip things. We get the same discounts that the Single Sailors do through their programmed trips, so it is going to save us tons of money. The trip five of us girls are going on to Hakone, only cost like 20 dollars. So fricken tight. Although it is going to be us five “single ladies” (as we call ourselves) and one Single Sailor. Either he will be super attractive, which might turn into an ugly situation, or super unattractive and annoying, which would be unfortunate, or average, which might be the best situation. I think our group is going to be crazy fun to travel with. Then we went to dinner, which was awesome because Ted, we call him Teddy Bear or Pooh Bear now (sticking with the Disney theme), bought dinner for all of us. I think that is like the nicest thing in the world. I am so incredibly drained, it is almost ten thirty. Oh shoot. Awesome. Just found out we are going to the big buddah the weekend we already planned that trip with us five girls. I can’t wait, because that’s one of the places I really really wanted to go, but at the same time I hope we can get our money back or reschedule or something. Shoot. I wish we would get a schedule of everything so we could actually plan stuff well. Oh well. Everything happens for a reason right? I am going to try more on this trip to go with the flow. Oh, almost forgot. I met two of the campers today on the way back from the commissary! Their mom was talking to us. The two little girls looked like little blonde twins, even though they were just sisters. I was talking with the youngest one and almost gave out my real name til I remembered that I am now Jasmine. However, when I disclosed my camp name of Jasmine, the older girl was like, “oh like the Bratz doll!” Definitely not. I said, “No like the princess on Disney” “And the bratz doll?” she insisted. I thought that was so hilarious. She then told me her Bratz name was Chloe. Not the name of a Bratz doll, but the Bratz doll she most resembled. So interesting, guess Bratz are like the thing now. Hope these kids will catch me up on what’s “hip” this summer. Ha ha. Well, so going to bed, so incredibly tired. Plus, more rain tomorrow. Glad we got in at least some sun today, even if the sky was mostly overcast and muggy.

June 14, 2010

Wow, I am tired, and it’s only nine thirty here. Orientation started today. A lot of it consisted of listening to people talk a lot. That made me even more tired, but parts of it were definitely interesting. I loved being shown around the base, although the rain didn’t stop the entire day. Well, I don’t know if rain is exactly the right word. Maybe mist. Like the misters in theme parks like Disney Land when the weather is hot. Only the mist was everywhere and it wasn’t very hot. Fail on my part I straightened my hair this morning. I thought, hey if the humidity curls it a little, whatever. Yeah, my hair was definitely in ringlets near the end of the day. Not all the way around in an attractive way of course, but just the front. I will have to buy some mouse and gel at the commissary tomorrow since it wasn’t open today. Oh, guess what my first meal in Japan was this morning! MCDONALDS! There is one right across from the BEQ where we are staying, and we were all starving before orientation started. I figured, hey. We have ten weeks to eat Japanese food. One day’s not gunna matter. At orientation, we also toured all the rooms in the building we were going to be conducting our Camp Adventure activities in. One of the rooms had these chairs that were like hands with the five fingers sticking up. Have you ever seen Arrested Development? If so, they were very similar to the red hand chair Buster used. Although it looked super comfortable, it definitely wasn’t. Such a disappointment. But don’t get me wrong, the day was amazing! I wouldn’t let a little thing like an uncomfortable chair get me down when I’m in a place like JAPAN!!!!!! We also picked out our names for Camp A. We had a Disney theme, and all the counselors would pick a name they thought described someone. I got Jasmine, although I put in my input, which might have been cheating ;). I absolutely love the group I am doing Camp Adventure with. Even though we’ve all been together for about two days, they all seem amazing and nice, and we all seem to get along really well. I am excited to see how things develop in the coming weeks! Til tomorrow!

June 13, 2010

Today I finally got to Japan after like a thousand hour plane ride. Well at least what seemed like a thousand hours. All things considering, I was actually very surprised at how fast the plane ride went. I boarded the plane at ten o’five Spokane time and ended up sitting next to another camp adventure girl named Anita. We had no idea we were going to be on a plane together, but we recognized eachother from training. Talking with her made the first plane ride to Salt Lake City Utah way better, and it went by super fast. Why we went backwards before going to Japan, idk. But at least we ended up getting here eventually. The whole experience seemed much more real when we finally settled into the twelve hour flight from Salt Lake City to Tokyo, Japan. I don’t know why it suddenly became more real since I was asleep for more than half the ride, but it did. We landed around four o’clock time in Japan, which is however many hours difference. It’s eleven o’clock here right now and seven there. So however many that difference is. I’m jetlagged and can’t figure that math out right now. Ha ha. After a couple of hours, all the flights got in and I got to meet my team. Everyone seems very nice, and it will be cool to see how our interactions develop in the coming weeks. There were of course a few bumps on the road knowing me. Like forgetting my jacket in the baggage restroom and spilling blue stuff all over two of my white camp a shirts. Overall however, very few setbacks. One of my favorite parts of the day was probably exchanging some of my American money for yen, and buying a peanut butter sandwich and tea at the airport. My first Japanese meal!!! Even though it wasn’t authentic Japanese, the wrapper was not in English, so that’s good enough for me. I can’t wait to try new things and begin this amazing summer experience tomorrow. Right now however, I feel like I’m dying. So tired.