Current stuff...

I survived the architecture midterm. I probably didn't do very well, but maybe I did well enough that I'll still be able to pass the class. I took my history midterm on Thursday, and it was fairly easy. I have another Japanese test tomorrow which I should study for, but I probably won't.
On Friday night (technically Saturday morning, I guess -_-; ) I was up until like 3 AM finishing reading The Lies of Locke Lamora... it was a damned good book, but I wish I hadn't felt the need to stay up all night finishing it.
Then, I spent a couple hours walking around with one of my roommates looking for stuff for some type of Halloween costume. Came away with a ridiculous tie and a bandana, which was more expensive than it should've been. Also, got thoroughly soaked, as this was all during a typhoon and I didn't have an umbrella.
Today, I went to the Urayasu city budokan, where I observed the Urayasu city Iai-do club's class. It was nice; thirty people all there to train in iai. Also, the people there were all significantly more friendly and welcoming than anyone from the Tokyo JCC was. I'll probably be joining up with them, though I doubt I'll go with a suggestion that one of the yodans made (which was that I should try to test for my Japanese shodan in Iai-do in April).
I also got assured by the top administrator in charge of this program that a certain confrontational individual will no longer be an issue, as he was given a stern talking-to. Wow, I sure do love bureaucracies. Oh yeah, I had to bus over to Kaihin Makuhari to be told this, which was about an hour round-trip and cost me 420 yen (though I'm supposed to be reimbursed for the money).
Additionally, my PSP now runs PS1 games, as well as PSP games. I am very impressed with the technology of the PSP; I can even check my email on it!
Also, I will be going on a trip to Nagano (where I won't have internet access) for 4 days starting on Wednesday morning, so I'll be incommunicado until sometime this weekend.
I hope everyone back home is doing well, and I'll see you all in a couple of months.

Since last time

Still fighting with IES to get them to do their job regarding a certain issue. They seem to be trying to make it so difficult for me that I get frustrated and give up. They obviously don't know me very well.
Tonight, I ate a skull for the first time. It was a fish that I ate whole. It wasn't very good, though my roommates liked it.
Tomorrow, I've got my midterm for architecture. It is going to suck hardcore, as the prof seems to be of the opinion that we should all either be architecture majors or be spending all of our free time doing readings for her class. Everyone who I've spoken to in the class feels like they're going to fail the midterm (which is worth a full 30% of our grade in the course). I'm comforting myself by telling myself that she can't possibly fail all of us. It's a nice theory, anyway.
I'll be heading over to the Budokan near Meikai on the 28th to watch a class of the local Iai-do dojo. I will probably end up joining, as they are fairly inexpensive and I need to get some Iai in. Also, because nobody there speaks English very well, it'll also be more practice for my Japanese.
I think that covers most everything. Hopefully next week will suck less.

Time for another update!

Rennis got in touch with me. He sent me some info on an iai dojo near Meikai University (the college where I'm taking most of my classes). I sent them an email asking if / when I could observe a class. I kinda messed up my rib again last Friday, but it's doing okay now. I've been eating lots of really spicy Korean instant ramen. It's cheap and delicious. I've found that frying it is really tasty as well. On a less-food-related-topic, I came within inches of beating the shit out of the neo-nazi in this exchange program. I think most of the people who were near us at the time were surprised that I didn't pound the crap out of him, but it would've been somewhat awkward as it was in the middle of class. I am, however, probably going to start carrying my knife again. It's kind of annoying, though, as I was kinda hoping I'd be able to continue going places unarmed for a while. Oh well. Also, I've got two tests coming up next week... hooray -_-. I've also got to make a presentation on the differences between Japanese houses and American houses... what fun... I think that covers just about everything. Matta ne.