Been a pretty slow week here in Japan- classes, sleeping, etc.

It is now 9pm and it is still raining. When Norman and I were coming back from campus this afternoon the sky was black with clouds and it has been downpouring for about 3 hours now. I don't mind. After most of the thunder and lightning moved on I went to the grocery store at Matsubara and bought some mini cheesecakes and some ice cream, which could quite arguably be the most junk food I have had since arriving here, unless you count chocolate bars and oreos... And the one time I had iced Tirimasu, but seeing as though that was in a restaurant, I am not counting it!

Tomorrow the JLSP students are going to the Disaster museum where we will get to experience an earthquake simulator, a typhoon room in which we will get absolutely soaked, and then try to crawl out way through a smoke maze! Does travel life insurance cover disaster museums?

A few thing I have noticed in my ramblings around Tokyo:

- women generally wear high heels all the time. They will run around in them, wear them all day, and try to squeeze themselves in the door of the trains all the while teetering around on toothpick heels. How do they do it?
- I sometimes see these three elderly women at Ichigaya Eki wearing kimono, or yukata, or some version thereof. These are Japanese traditional costume- but what is Canada's? The first nation peoples'? Or the traditional outfits of the many immigrants who live in Canada- the french, british (what is the british traditional outfit? shakespearean fanfare?), polish, spanish, ukrainian, portuguese, german, irish?
- elderly women like to wear white gloves, but of winter glove material, not light cotton...
- there are many stores catering to solely men's fashion. In Canada and the US we have suit stores that are exclusively for men, but most other stores that carry men's clothing are integrated with women's fashion (H&M, Abercrombie, American Eagle, Hollister, Sears, even hot topic!) but here in Japan there are stores just for men- business, casual, athletic, formal, etc. Do these even exist in North America? and if they do, why don't I remember seeing any?
- McDonalds employees are very nice if you don't know what the word is for take out. They will point to them, and then to outside. Sign language makes everything much easier.

You know what bugs me? When a person is rude to a teacher during class. I know I have been guilty of falling asleep occasionally (and in the case of Astro, almost always), but putting on your headphones, opening a book, and ignoring the teacher in a class of only 8 PEOPLE AND THE PROF IS LOOKING AT YOU reeeeaallly pisses me off. I almost hit the guy after class. Not only is it rude and disrespectful, but for god's sake you are in another country. Try and have a little common courtesy, you douche bag.