so i guess everything's okay

I'm dealing with it. In response to a vicious session of mixi.jp (Japanese Facebook) complaining, my good friend Akiko from Duke responded as such: "That's too bad that things aren't working out. Well, gambatte ne! (keep doing your best)!" Such a Japanese answer. And such a perfect one. You see, the typical American response would be, "Man, your host parents sound like tools. Get the hell out of there as fast as you can and have some fun this summer!" But the Japanese love trying hard. And I think that's what I'll do. When in Rome and all that business. After all, day to day it's really not all that bad. Otosan had his birthday a few days ago and we celebrated on Sunday with seafood spaghetti and Okaasan-made cake. I even got to play basketball with my neighbor Oniisan (my host older brother-in-law, married to my host older sister) and my host cousins. I think i just need to get used to living here, and to the rituals of my family and their ins-and-outs. It is still hard sometimes, but what the hell, i'll gambatte like the rest of them! Thank you Akiko for your Japanese ingenuity.

I've been biking to school intermittently, and along part of the way is a staggeringly beautiful view of a port along the sparkling ocean. The ride is mostly flat and not that trying on the muscles, but the way back is up a steep mountain and not pleasurable in most senses, but my legs are getting used to it. As per a speech-writing assignment, I wrote a speech about my views on whaling, and I need to memorize it in about a day to present it to class. It's already gone through two drafts, and today i sat with my teacher after class while she hammered me with demands for quick responses to quick questions, such as how to rephrase a number of sentences, and she transcribed my reponses onto paper as i said them. This was almost too stressful to bear, since i usually blunder through broken sentences to get my point across, and rarely speak in grammatically correct and well-thought-out written prose. Regardless, i need to rewrite the stupid thing and hand it in again tomorrow, and since the presentation is in two days i will have but one day to burn it into my brain. I would also like to mention that this speech contains terms like "endangered species" and "overfishing." Gambarimasu! (present-tense form of gambaru, to try hard in the face of difficulty with the intent of succeding... yes, it's a beautiful language).

Going to Sapporo this weekend to visit Mike Donohue, my friend from Duke. He's doing his Master's Project research on agrotourism in Hokkaido, and i'll be staying with him and his girlfriend, i think. Until next time!