Today, I met two Dutch tourists at Bar This Way and the girl was all excited about Japan. She was asking loads of questions and I was answering honestly: The culture has its downsides. She kept asking questions and being really surprised (NO, Geisha’s REALLY AREN’T prostitutes. No really. Really. Why are you asking me how do I know and how I can be sure, how can YOU be sure? Don’t be arrogant) (Edit: I also asked Wim “Was I like that?”. Fortunately, he said no 😉 I tried to be more neutral about stuff, even though it’s still exciting to be here of course.)

Yesterday was my farewell party from RIMS, because today is my last official day of the internship. As always, there’s still plenty of work to be done, but next week I’m not going to work too much. I’ve asked my supervisor to take a look at my report and on Friday I should get some feedback and then we’ll see.

Right now, I’m working on some stuff I have to finish before Friday. My internship officially ends on the 24th and I’d like to have my report finished by then, even though the official (well, sorta official) deadline is “before September 1st”. Saturday, I went to my office to work. It’s a bit Japanese, I know. I would have stayed at home and worked at the computer room, but the air conditioning there has broken down, which is about the worst that can happen to you with the heat and humidity here.

Friday, we went to karaoke with a group of people from my house. First, we went to the Dutch bar, where I gave Wim a pair of clogs for his wife. I ordered them at Deshima. They didn’t have any in Wim’s size at the moment, but at least I got a pair for his wife 🙂

Yesterday, I went to see A Chorus Line, a Broadway musical performed at Kyoto Gekiji. Hai Minh had picked up two free Gaijin tickets, only to discover that this musical is mostly talking and only a little bit of dancing. At first, I thought it was my fault that it was boring, since I could only make out parts of the musical, such as “I want the job!” and people talking about their childhood and personal problems. Afterwards, I asked Hai Minh what he had been able to make of it, and as it turns out, I actually got most of what was going on. We concluded that this was boring. I’m relieved that Hai Minh agreed with me, because he went through the trouble of getting the tickets for us 😉

Wow, I don’t remember the last time I drank so much that I woke up still drunk. (Oh and rice wine, ouch. That stuff goes straight to your limbs and doesn’t give you a buzz like beer does, it just starts paralyzing your abilities but you’re still capable of thinking “Um, what?”. It’s really strange, it’s kind of like you’re a spectator of your own drunkenness. Or maybe I’m just not used to strong liquor, if I drink I usually drink beer, I can’t be sure. I’ll see if I can find some when I’m back home and I’ll ask the experts 😉 )

I think I’m officially homesick now 😉 I watched zwartboek (movie) two days ago and I’ve never felt more patriotic in my life :S On the other hand, I don’t really want to leave because I’ve met some nice people that I’ll have to leave behind if I go. I’ve watched some more movies with some folks and I’ve spent some time talking with an Estonian girl (Liis) and a Japanese girl about WWII. Later, I met Liis again, as well as Shige, a Japanese student who will be visiting Nederland for half a year starting next Februari. In short, I’ve met nice people here, some of whom I’d be willing to adopt if I could 😛 Actually, I promised Wim and Meika (owners of Bar This Way) that if I ever become rich, I will adopt them 😉

Just a brief report on karaoke. Yesterday I went to karaoke with Hélène, Etienne, Yuka and Kaze. You can see some photo’s below. Karaoke in Japan turns out to be what I said it would be, but totally different from what I thought it would be 😉 You’re actually in a very small room, it reminded me of the waiting room in the eye-hospital that my dad was in a couple of years ago. Someone had told me, when I asked what songs they have, that “they have everything”. Now this may not be entirely true, but they do have a wide variety of songs (see picture below). Notice, for example, “In Flames” in the list of artists, which I by the way only know because I know they’re in Sander’s playlist. Later, maybe I’ll go again and see what other remarkable things I can find, I think Hélène would like to go again too. Or maybe I’ll consider hitokara after all…

Oops, post rate is going down 😉 That’s to be expected of course, after a while.

Last weekend, I said I would go to Tokyo, then I discovered how expensive this was, then decided maybe to go to Osaka and lastly changed my mind again and just stayed in Kyoto 😛 On Friday I had dinner with some of my housemates at the common meal. This house organizes a lot of activities, the common meal is one of them. For the common meal, people can invite one friend from outside the house to join for dinner. Also, next week there’s an ‘international food festival’ where anyone can come and eat, apparently. (Not for free, of course 😉 )