I know everyone has been saying "when do I get my next BMJ?!" while scratching themselves like a crack addict. Okay, maybe not so much like that, but people have still been wondering where I've been. These weekends are getting more and more intense. I'll try to explain what I mean in as much detail as possible.

I just finished all of my midterms, which was a fairly easy task. What bothers me is that now we have second midterms. Apparently, some of my teachers felt the first one wasn't enough, so there will be even more fun to follow.

I'm reading "Confessions of a Mask" in my literature class and I have to take the main character Ko-chan and put him in a dialogue with a character from another story. In my culture class I have to write a paper on the Japanese Freeters, discussing whether their unconventional lifestyle creates new ideas and passion for jobs or hurts the economy by making them lazy. I don't even want to talk about my communications class. I think I stopped paying attention to what's going on because my teacher says "you know" so many times. I actually counted for the entire class last time, and in an hour she had repeated the phrase 257 times. Maybe I can write a paper about annoying filler phrases like "like," "um," and "you know." Maybe I won't because it probably hits too close to home, you know?

Friday, March 2: A school-organized get-togeter called Culture Shock brought together the Japanese students and Study Abroad students. Food, drink and music are always good catalysts for social gatherings.

After class, we decided to go sing karaoke before going to Culture Shock. I didn't want to go because I didn't have the money, but my friends convinced me to come anyway. While there, my friends ordered too many drinks for them to handle. With 10 minutes left, there were eight cups of whiskey and four glasses of coke. I had to help the kids out so they wouldn't die.

Needless to say, Culture Shock shocked some of us more than others. I was fairly sober because I had to perform with my friends Yukka and Satsuki. I was just backing them up. I did end up becoming their "hype man" though, so that was pretty fun.

Shortly after this, I went home to drop my bags off, changed and headed for a diner called Gonpachi. Apparently, one of the "Kill Bill" sets was based on this place. Do you all remember the Crazy 88's fight? This is that restaurant.

Anyway, there were about 17 of us foreigners, buckets of Nomihodai beer and cards. One rowdy game of kings commenced and everything seemed to be going fine. Then people started getting sick. My friend James fell on a table and broke two glasses. A student named Paul started throwing up in a bag. This is after Mary threw up into one of the beer pitchers. We had to take her to my friend Bree's house because she was literally passed out. A fireman carried her out of the building and into a cab without her shoes.

Both Mary and I didn't have our shoes with us. In fact, I had also left my coat at the diner. Mary left her coat, purse and camera as well. I found out the next day, after returning to Akasaka shoeless, that the restaurant overcharged our entire group. Mary's shoes ended up at my hotel; her coat landed at James's house. Her camera was with Rayna and her purse was riding up and down the Hibiya line, after being left on the train by James.

She went on an epic quest for the rest of the weekend, retrieving her things. She lost all of them on a very sloppy night. After everything that happened, Saturday will be an easy-going night right? Yeah right.

Much Love,

Citrus