The weekend turned out to be great despite the change in plans. I made it to Costco and got a bunch of stuff I was looking for, so that was great. It's a little different from America but that was to be expected. I ended up there for a couple of hours, helping the couple from the American Studies Grad School figure out how to get things delivered. I find it funny that I end up translating for people a lot when my Japanese is not great to begin with. Oh well, everything has turned out okay in the situations where I have had to do it.

After Costco, I took a train for about 45 minutes out to Himeji to visit Regan. I got there a bit later than expected, but we stayed up late talking so it was a good night all and all. The size of her apartment made me a bit jealous, but then again, there is a strong possibility she'll be here more than a year. We didn't have time to visit the famous castle at Himeji the next day (and my camera charger ws still in Hawaii, haha) but we got lunch at a really good ramen place and wandered into a bookstore with a huge foreign titles section. Forrest, I managed to find Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride - if I don't like it, it's all your fault. ;)

Saturday afternoon I headed to Osaka after Regan and I parted ways. I caught up with two of the other Fulbrighters, Bryan and Lisa, at a huge mall there. We discussed our housing and school situations and wandered around the Virgin Megastore for a bit. Bryan and I ended up catching dinner at a Korean restaurant after Lisa had to leave to meet up with her host family (Cindy, the bibimba was really good and made me think of you). Then Caitlin, another Fulbrighter, joined us and we watched a black and white movie from the '20s called "Freaks" on the rooftop of a bar in Osaka. Not your average Saturday night activity, but fun nonetheless.

I crashed at Bryan's large apartment in Kobe for the night and then we just went through the shopping district of Sannomiya during the following day. I have never seen so many Louis Vuitton bags in my life! Kinda nuts... Finally I had a long trip back to Kyoto, made it back in time to get all my stuff delivered from Costco.

Yesterday my camera charger, winter coat, Grey's Anatomy and Smallville dvds arrived (Thanks Mom)... I proceeded to binge on the Grey's season two episodes I missed (and cried three times in the meantime, haha). Since I have my camera charger back I should be able to take pictures of all the amazing stuff around me... so you can all look forward to that. I've decided that every weekend I am in Kyoto, I will go to a different temple every Sunday. There are a lot, so that shouldn't be too difficult. But I figure that I am here, so I might as well take advantage of all the historic stuff Kyoto has to offer, right?

Okay, this post has been fairly boring, I am sure... sorry about that... just thought I'd recap the current events of my life.

OH OH OH! Good news - the fine folks at Yahoo! BB should be installing internet in my apartment next Tuesday! YAY! So then I will be able to respond to emails in a more timely fashion, will actually be online, and can Skype with people. If you're interested in my Skype number which will allow you to call me from a phone in the US for no more than it would cost you to call any American number (I have a 213 area code for it), email me and I'll give it to you.

That's it for now. Take care!