It has been more than a week and I stil haven't talked about my trip to Izu, so that I may remember the details that seemed funny at the time, I will now include a quick summary of the trip:

• there was a typhoon coming, we all knew this, still, we thought, "what does one do when a typhoon, torrential rains, and flooding occurs?". the simple answer to this is to go to a beach side resort and plan on swimming.
• 9 people + gigantic bus of a car we named Birdie (and by we, i mean me and eric) made for a fun trip, especially when you have ADD Steven at the wheel... Seriously, this thing was so huge that we barely fit on some of the roads. we became aware of this fact when, unable to make a sharp turn on a mountain road, we slid into the ditch a little...
• driving on the left side of the road with the driver on the right means that when the driver wants to look at scenery off the left side, he will lean across the passenger to see. when this is over a cliff, as most scenery in the Izu/Shimoda area is, is does not infer you with a feeling of safety. Girlish screams then ensued from all passengers, male and female, for steven to get his eyes back on the road.
• hotels at tops of cliffs that have a curfew are not too much fun to get to in aforementioned vehiles of mammoth proportions
• i am not a fan of washoku style dinner. having a full fish presented me on a plate with a side of seaweed is not how i enjoy dinner. dinner was thus very hard for me to come by. what is also interesting is that we would find a restaurant rec on a map, enter its coordinates in the GPS, battle tiny roads wet with rain, shove Norman out of the car to check the prices and then usually go to another one.
• playing Snap with Sunny and drinking beer, listening to Stacy swear, is hilarious. repeat as often as possible.
• going to an onsen is an interesting experience. while it feels wonderful to soak in jacuzzis and showers and baths, taking off all your clothes and lounging around naked, with other naked people, is kind of weird in retrospect. especially if you are a foreigner with a tattoo, as you get more than your share of covert stares.
• being at a revolving sushi restaurant and then looking up to realize that you are in the "eye" of the typhoon and everyone responds by running to the car and going swimming in huge waves, but then getting told by the lifeguard that since their is a typhoon swimmers can't go out too far
• after going swimming you realize that the shower places are closed due to the typhoon so you hotwire a hose next to a convenience store to try and wash off only to be caught by the obachan running the place
• waking up on your lastday thereto discover the typhoon has passed and the weather and waves at the beach are awesome
• not planning on going swimming thelast day so only go in up to your knees but a wave comes and Norman coerces you into swimming anyway, so you jump into the waves, still fully dressed
• going out too far into the water and getting caught in the current and having about 5 seconds where you panic b/c you can't get back
• listeing to bad hip hop in the van on the way back and listenig to eric proclaim "this is why i'm hot"
• getting home,unpacking your bags, and having sand go everywhere and having to wash all your clothes again b/c sand stuck to everything
• getting home in time to do course registration for 3rd year and think that maybe, this year will actually be interesting..

nik