No Picture! #1

Just writing for today. The previous pictures may have been worth many words, but not necessarily all of the words that I want to use.
The weather has been consistent with the weather reports, but not very consistent with itself. Rain two or three days, warm, hot, warm, rain again, and who knows what else. I brought my umbrella to school on a warm day, and when I walked into class my teacher asked me if it was going to rain, and I said, "I don't know whether it'll rain or not, but...(雨が降るかどうかよく分からないけど) ", and then everyone laughed, for some reason. Maybe it's all in the delivery?
Have I told you guys that I live in a mansion? Technically, yes, I do. If you come to Japan, or just learn many things about Japan wherever you are, you'll learn about what's called "wasei-eigo", or "Japanese-made English". In wasei-eigo I can say, "I took a limousine from the airport to the R&B Hotel, and then moved into my mansion the next day." But in English it actually means that I took a shuttle bus from the aiport to the R&B Hotel (which has nothing to do with James Brown or Marvin Gaye, but I wish!), and then moved into my one room apartment. My apartment is indeed only one room, but it's big enough, it's not like I'm gonna be running around in here. They refer to these kind of apartments as mansions (manshon), and if you didn't figure it out, they refer to the shuttle buses as limousines. Our UCEAP staff member that met us at the airport actually kind of laughed when she showed us the bus, "We'll take the limousine to the hotel, but, ahhaha, it's not really a limousine." She went UCD for four years and worked in SJ for seven after, so her English was perfect.
So, hmmm, this is in fact Japan. I do finally feel like I'm in Japan. There are so many things here that I could write about that I really don't where to begin. Actually, I do. Here. With my bike. With prices, and exchange rates, and Japan being Japan, I doubt I can find something that I can get more yelp for my yen out of than my bike. It was the cheapest one there, and I've calculated travel costs by other means (like commuting to school by train), and I've already saved a ton of money that way. I think part of the reason my bike was cheaper than the rest is that it's slightly smaller with the mid-size wheels, but still kinda heavy. But that's not gonna stop me from flying past people up and down the river to get to school. Most importantly, my bike has been my way of seeing the city, giving me freedom to choose my own path, even if it means getting lost regularly. Possibly the coolest thing about it is that you can actually unscrew a lot of its parts pretty easily, and break it down into smaller pieces. It's not very flashy, and actually has it's share of scratches and small dents from previous owner(s). I'm assuming it'd be hard to sell because of that, so I think it's something that I'd want to send back home to America if possible. I could see my older sis riding it around anyway :)
So this has become long pretty quickly, so how about one more topic? The dining hall at my school RULES. It has the UCSC dining halls beat on all bases. There's free hot and cold tea, and water, in ready dispensers in the seating area. I usually hang out there before class studying or writing ideas I had on the bike ride over. The food has been very good, and very cheap. Only the vegetable bar can be expensive, but I avoid that, as part of my policy of eating my vegetables at home because that's, surprise surprise, cheaper. The dining hall doesn't have as many options as the dining halls at UCSC, but what they do have is better than everything the UCSC DHs have. Probably because it's Japanese food :)
Well, thanks for reading all this! I'll be back with something tomorrow, be it a photo, video, or another written entry!