Teacher Langley says...: Three weeks left...

Listening to: Heads will roll by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Currently drinking: One of my own beautiful creations... drip and white mocha

I'm just going to come right out and say it, I don't want to leave Japan. Lately I've noticed that, several times a day, I stop and think, "I'm so going to miss this when I get back to America." I get to do so many amazing things here, things that would probably never be possible for a normal person in America, and I continue to be floored by the countless blessings that have come my way during my stay here. Today was no exception, and was yet another experience that made me realize how much I will miss life in 日本.

I told you the other day about Toyota-sensei giving us tickets for suite seats to the Nagoya Grampus soccer game, and today was the day of the match. Sensei picked us up around 5:30 and drove us to Toyota Stadium with plenty of time left to wander around, get comfortable, and meet our fellow "suite mates" (haha pun).

The stadium... sooooo cool

Apparently this bridge was built to
look like the skeleton of a whale... the more you know

The game was itself wasn't too action packed, several of our teams' players got injured, but other than that it was rather ho hum for a pro soccer match (the game ended up being a tie). The best part about it was the noise from the fans. Each side had specific chants and cheers that they would battle out against each other during the game; the synchronization of everything was incredible. Entire sections would jump up and down in unison, everybody new the exact chants and claps to go with each play, and the reactions made by the fans to the plays were perfect.

The person sitting in between Amanda and I
is the actual owner of the soccer team 0..0

The starting players

Warming up during half time

The stadium after the game... soooo cool ^^

I really don't know how stuff like this happens. I mean, during my stay here: I've been invited up to the secret VIP room (probably owned by the yakuza) in club Pur, been featured in a commercial and asked to be a model for our school, been a special guest at a ryokan with the rest of my classmates, gotten prayed over and received special permission by a Buddhist monk to club up a 500 year old gate (it was closed off to the public), and schmoozed, ate with, and watched a pro soccer game with the owner of the team, along with a ton of other special moments (too many to count)...

Friday we had ikebana, or the practice of flower arrangement. It actually turned out to be incredibly complicated and involved a little bit of math and critical thinking (haha not my strongest subject). Anthony and I partnered up and ended up creating, what I think anyway, a beautiful masterpiece of awesome.