Mr. Potato Head's very busy last 24 hours

In the past day or so, Mr. Potato Head and I have been super busy. First, I was sucessful in finding Starbucks after walking around for almost an hour before I caved and asked for directions. However, I ended up reading them wrong and ending up by the train station. However, when I was at my lowest, I looked up and like an angel in the heavens revealing itself, so I saw the green mermaid and her green glow. They have different flavors of Starbucks here. They have the usual mocha, carmel, etc. However, they also had matcha (green tea) flavor. I would have tried it, but I was craving for some home-ness, so I had dark mocha chip.

While it WAS delicious, I will never complain about Starbucks being expensive EVER again in the United States. It was 560 yen for a grande mocha frap... that's like, 6$. However, it was totally worth it. I also had McD's for breakfast, which I never complained about being expensive, but wow. 240 yen (little less than 3$) for a egg Mcmuffin, except it was like, fried chicken. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS THOUGH, OMG. But yeah... I've been feeling SUPER homesick. I've barely been here a week, and yet I am still really missing home, but more on that later.

So yesterday we had about five hours of Japanese language / etiquette lessons. It wasn't as terrible because our teacher was fun, plus we got to go out and see things / talk to people. I am TERRIBLE at Japanese. I cannot understand it at all... I've been doing this language for almost four years, and I could barely understand the lady at the flower shop who I asked about buying flowers. That's really the worst thing so far... language. EVERYTHING is in Japanese, but at the same time, there is still a LOT of English. While this is a BIGGGG stretch, I kind of sympathize now with the Burmese / Mexicans in my home town who rely on things being in their language to understand what the heck is going on. I know that it's selfish of me to want to hear / see English, because I'm in a different county, and everything SHOULD be in their language. I'm just super frustrated with being so sucky in my language skills.

After lessons, I did karaoke for the first time, which was actually super fun. They had a lot of songs in English (since the only song I know in Japanese is "Ashita Ga Arusa" so I got to belt out to fun things like "You and I
 and "Monday Monday" and the ever-famous "Fat Lip". It was fun to hear people sing. However, it turned out to be WAYYY more than I wanted to spend.. 2500 yen (that's more than 26$ for two hours of singing). I certainly don't plan on doing it anytime again soon.

Today was a really, really mixed up day. I woke up to find my screen cracked (I have a nice big black spot on my screen now)... I have no idea if it's covered by limited warrenty (probably not), so I have to budget to get that fixed, which will probably cost more than the computer did. However, with my scholarship, it shouldn't be TOO terrible, just gotta eat / live super cheap for two months or so. Also, we had to spend 2000 yen to put on our pass card so we could travel to Kamakura... not sure if we're getting reimbursed. The train ride was super long too..... okay, that's enough complaining right now.

So we went to Kamakura, which if I'm right, was the capital of Japan from about mid 700s to 1149 or something like that. It was really, really pretty. There were lots of trees, and shops, and it was SUPER sunny, but also windy. There were a lot of shops, and it felt a lot more like a city than a HUGE ASS PLACE like Tokyo. We went to the big shrine (which I can't remember the name right now... opps) and prayed. I got to get a fortune (Omigushi?) and it was a pretty lucky one. After that, we broke for lunch, which apparently Sundays are a terrible day to try and do things cause everyone is enjoying their only day off (for the most part). I wish I had just stayed on the shrine grounds and gone to all of the temples, since the grounds were so lovely.

So the best part of the day was going to the  大仏 aka "Big Buddha" at Kamakura. The feelings I had when I saw it was kind of interesting. The moment I did, I forgot how home sick I was, or that my screen was busted, or that I was super hot and dehydrated. Everything just kind of left me, and I just kind of stood there in awe of this giant statute. The even MORE impressive thing about the Big Buddha is that it isn't even the biggest one. However, I was so happy to see it, because it was one of the main things I've always wanted to see in Japan. It was certainly a moment that made my whole day and travel worth while.

I'm still really homesick.... I've craving American food like I craved Japanese food in America. I could go for a HUGE thin-crust cheese pizza from pizza hut and a homemade quesadilla like whoa.

I'm also meeting the host family tomorrow. However, I will be able to write how that goes.... if they have wireless.