Yeh, we're going on a school trip tomorrow. A real, live 'ensoku'. And we're going all the way to Osaka, to see Univeral Studios Japan. How cool is that?! There's busloads of us going - all the biginner and intermidiate classes, and we're in groups of four (organised very japanese style, to precision), and each group has name. Ours is nashi (pear), as our class are all after fruits.

Today was god. After classes I met up with a Chinese girl for lunch, and it was a school festival, so our university was all decked out with funky artwork (it is an art university) installations, and tonnes of stalls all over the campus, with second hand clothes on sale, and lots of intersting looking food. We had our lunch there, as the university cafeteria was shut for the day. Apparently all Japanese universities stop for these annual festivals, and ours lasts four days. It's ace. I saw some Noh theatre (traditional Japanse theatre), some shimasen playing, some Japanese dancing samurai and geisha, a band, some ikebana (flower arranging). I also had coffee with a guy who came to our church once. He is thinking through some big issues to do with 'what is christianity underneath all the trimmings, and how could the church look in japan'. he has some cool dreams, which I encouraged him to pray about.

Today it was also a housemate's birthday. So tonight we celebrated with happy birthday songs and drinks. She was so touched she was crying. I think she had felt unloved all day and it just felt so good to have some love. 'Hatachi' (20) in Japan is a big age, which is why it has a special name. Now she can drink, smoke, and I don't know what else.

And... I have actually enjoyed making verbs into dictionary form tonight; just got really into it! And today in class we learnt '...nakerabanarimasen.' which means you MUST do something, regardless of the will of the actor. So for example, 'Passporto o misenakerbanarisen': 'you must show your passport'. It was a bit of a tongue twisetr but in the end we all got it.