032

Wuaaa I'm all old and stuff now. I had my 19th birthday on the 20th, which was quiet but nice enough. I got phone calls from Australia, Skyped and got loads of Happy Birthday's on facebook, so that was good. I had a Rotary meeting and Japanese lesson that day too, and not many people at Rotary realised it was my birthday but they made up for it the following week by bringing me a really nice cake lol.Because my birthday was on a Wednesday, I waited 'til Saturday to invite all my Exchange friends over. There were the exchangers, plus some Japanese friends, and my Chinese friend Ku-san. We went to Karaoke and then had yaki-niku at my host mum's restaurant. It was good :)

The stocking game also proved to be popular.. lol. (First one to be able to pull their heads out without using hands wins).

The next day, most of us met up in Sapporo at Dylan's suggestion. We went to a Leisure Centre, similar to Rejaspo - it had things like indoor roller-blading, ball-pits, mechanical bull, massage chairs, sports games and arcade games plus more. That was really fun too, and cheap, it was 1500yen for 3 hours of unlimited stuff.

Last week, the first snow fell. I was on the train to school with Sam, and I commented how it was meant to start snowing today - but it was clear blue skies. Yet just 5 minutes later, dark clouds rolled over and the snow started! It was VERY cold and I didn't have an umbrella with me so I got drenched because it was more sleety than snow. Not very fun. In the morning everything was white, but it melted and hasn't snowed since, so.. maybe soon. All the trees are still orange and red and yellow though - autumn is so pretty in Japan.

This Wednesday (Culture Day, public holiday) I had my friend Mayu come over. I just met her last week, because she's the daughter of my host mum's friend. She's super nice and her, Chiharu and I hang out a lot now. We ended up having a sleepover and we went to Karaoke across the road for like 2-3 hours. I'm going to miss Karaoke haha. The next morning it was raining heavily and we were bored, so I unveiled my Aussie cookie-cutters and we made Aussie animal bikkies. Yummo.

So yeah. It's November now, isn't that weird? It's only 2 months 'til I come home now. In all honesty I can't wait to get home. I feel like I've had my fill of Japan, and I can't wait to get back home and jump in the ocean and eat a pie for lunch and drive my car to my friend's houses. I'm going to try my best to make the most of these last couple of months, though.

Tomorrow morning I fly out of Hokkaido bright and early for my School Excursion. The 300 students in my grade are heading to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo over 4 days/3 nights. It'll be busy! But although I've already been to Kyoto and Tokyo (and Disneyland), it'll be good to re-visit and maybe see some new things. I could do without the 6am wake-up's and the uniform rule, though :P