'onaka ga ippai'

The literal meaning of that is my stomach is full...so its basically in this context...I ate a lot.

Thursday and Friday I worked in the main office of JCCU, the umbrella organization for Co Op Tokyo. There I listened to a few presentations and did some translation. Basically, we translated questions that Co Op Tokyo has for Co Op organizations in England, Italy, and Sweeden. It was all translations from Japanese to English...and it was actually kinda fun. The four of us from my program were all on the 11 floor of the big office building in our own room doing the translations.

Thursday after work I went out for sushi with my host family. Amongst the things I ate was more clam, squid, scallop, octopus, and crab brains. We also had sake made from flowers that was pretty interesting....(a bit strong).

The craziest part is that after we were done eating, my host dad was like...'So..you want to go eat some ramen'? So sure enough we went straight from the sushi restaurant to a noodle restaurant. We didn't end up getting ramen, but we got Mabo (a tofu dish), arabamen (noodles), and gyoza. I ate way too much that night.

The next day I went to the clubs in Roppongi with the fellas. But because it is obon this week, the place was dead. We did have a good meal at an izakaya though...which included raw horse meat! Very delicious.

Yesterday (Saturday), I went to a ramen museum in Yokohama with my host parents. It was pretty awesome, because they basically search throughout Japan for good ramen shops that serve different styles. Then they invite them to serve their ramen at the museum for a certain amount of time. So I was able to eat two styles of ramen I probably won't be able to eat elsewhere during my time out here. They were both fantastic.

One of the fun parts about this trip was that I burned a few cds for my parents so we listened to them in the car. One CD has Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, and Boston on it. I know its a weird mix, but it turns out my host dad was a bit of a rocker back in the day. Apparently he played bass guitar, and knew almost every old rock song I played from my laptop. He can also do the MOONWALK....which was mindblowing seeing him do it. It was pretty hilarious.

Anyway, I've only got about four days left in my program out here. Its gone by really fast...but there are a few things im looking forward to back at home*

-Family and Friends
-UCLA Football Season
-In n Out
-Finally seeing the Harry Potter movie.
-Good pizza for under $20
-UCLA Football Season
-A John Williams concert at the Hollywood Bowl with friends from Campus Tours!
-Mexican food.
-UCLA Football Season

I've been reading reports from UCLA football practice and it sounds like the team is clicking pretty well right now. I'm not going to get my hopes up too high...but it HAS to be better than last season right? Can't wait! I think this is the longest time I've gone in a while with out doing an 8-Clap. I'm starting to get jittery.