I love how I see women in kimono on the streets practically every day. Yesterday, I went to Shinjuku to meet up with the guy who first started tutoring me in Japanese four years ago when I was in high school (he was a Japanese student going to a college near me), and I saw women in kimono on three separate occasions. I saw a taiko drums performance yesterday as well, amidst all the neon lights, McDonald's, and people rushing around in business suits. In many restaurants, especially around where I am living, there are sections where you slip off your shoes and kneel on tatami mats while you eat. There are shrines and houses with traditional style architecture squished into corners, and tomorrow I am planning to go to an onsen - hot spring - in Odaiba. One thing I really respect about Japan are these little reminders of the past, despite being in such a huge city.

Homesickness and culture shock are hitting everyone this past week, however. Since classes have started, friends have been split up and more on their own now that we have different schedules, and the sudden loneliness is getting to people. I've been running into teary-eyed friends in the dorm hallways or breaking down after something stressful in class. My emotions have been thrown every which way, and I miss some western foods, my family and cats, and my sort of boyfriend very much. It's tough being so far away, with a 13- or 15- hour time difference. I quite miss Colorado (where I spent the summer) and the friends I have there, as well as the weather - Tokyo is incredibly rainy, and humid when it's not rainy. Even now, although today was the first non-rainy day where the temperature dropped to needing a sweater during the day. I miss reading books (too heavy to bring, although I have discovered e-books, which are surprisingly expensive but hey, at least I can read when I'm feeling stressed) and I hate not being able to read anything around me. Dratted kanji, I wish the Japanese had not borrowed that from the Chinese.....

But life goes on, and soon enough this, too, shall pass.

People have also started pairing off - some with other exchange students, others developing crushes on Japanese students. Foreign girls have an especially tough time with Japanese guys, who lead them on quite a frustrating chase... Apparently the usual etiquette, as explained to me by one girl trying to navigate dating a Japanese boy, is to tell your good friend that you like the boy. The good friend then passes on this information to the boy's good friend, who then passes it on to the boy himself. If the boy likes you, you'll go on a date in a group of people - although he won't call it such, and he'll probably ignore you during the event. Eventually you progress to one-sentence conversations. Another girl, frustrated by all this, broke in. "So by the time July comes around, we might get a kiss on the cheek, huh?" Meanwhile, the foreign boys seem to have a much easier time with Japanese girls - and are often only interested in Asian girls to begin with...

I find dating stressful enough in the US, where things tend to be more straightforward. (Although not always. Sigh.) People keep asking me if I have my eye on any Japanese boys - nope! Listening to my friends stressing over whether a guy likes her or not, because he ignores her and doesn't really talk to her (but apparently is interested) is quite enough. :p