Vacation Diaries, Part Three

Saturday morning was unfortunate. I mentioned that my host mother is obsessed with English Rakugo, right? Well, I've been recruited, and I had to go with her to practice. It was...boring. They made me do all the work setting up, and then made me perform first. Although it was my first time doing it, they explained almost nothing. And when I tried acting the roles out my way, the leader of the circle insisted that I play the characters her way. It seemed really awkward to me; probably a result of the language gap. Anyway, I've decided I'm done after the 17th (the day I'm being forced to perform). I need the time for piano practice anyway.

Luckily, I was able to bail out after an hour and a half, and took the train over to Doshisha. Seriously, do I just not understand what "vacation" means? I mean, I went to school and spent more than an hour studying every day, including Saturday. Next time I get a vacation, I'm really going to take a break. Like, go to an Onsen or something. In fact, today I actually went to the Fusokan (the KCJS building) and studied in an empty classroom for almost three hours. Around 5:45, I met up with Ryuji and headed over to Osaka for the party.

There were two KCJS students - me and Austen, a German guy from Ritsumeikan, and Ryuji, plus the girls he had invited. It was kind of awkward at first, and I had to take the initiative to open up conversation. We kind of just made small talk for most of the night, but by and large, that's pretty much where the conversation stayed.

After the nomikai, I had intended to return home, but when someone suggested karaoke, it was hard for me to refuse. Again, I knew way too many songs. One girl sang "Cruel Angel's Thesis", which I joined in for; another put on May'n's "Lion", during which I took on the backup vocals. Man, it was a fun night of karaoke. The girls didn't really try to interact with the foreign guys much, but I think everyone wound up having a good time, to some degree.

That is to say, everyone that could get home. I was cutting it REALLY close - I caught the last train back to Kyoto, and I wasn't sure I'd make it for the last one to Takeda, let alone Okubo. And I was cripplingly short on cash, so a taxi was out of the question. Somehow, I was able to catch both last trains, and I made it back home just after 12.