The Amazing Machines of Japan

Apparently, alcohol isn't nearly as big of a deal here as it is back home. 1) It's cheap and and 2)
I don't know if you can see the prices, but the soda-sized can is 250 yen (or so), which is about $2.50. The big ones are 300 yen ($3) and wine coolers are 200 yen. This vending machine happens to be in our hotel right next to the ice machine, but I've seen other ones. The other day, I went to a mini-mart and bought something that said grapefruit freeze but turned out to be a wine cooler. Oops.

Our other find at 7-11 was this, which can speak for itself.
Make sure you read the small black subtitle next to his head.

Today we're going to have more Japanese lessons, then present our posters about our what our research this summer is supposed to be (this will be a giant joke to everyone except the people who organized it), and then we get to go home with our home stay families. For those of you who aren't familiar with how a home stay works (I wasn't), a Japanese family volunteers to have a student come stay with them for a period of time. It's pretty popular here, both with domestic and foreign exchange students. We're going to be staying for tomorrow night, all of Saturday, and come back on Sunday.

I actually got to meet my host family yesterday, or at least part of it. The mom and the nine-year-old daughter Mitsuki (when I told her my dog's name, Minski, she thought that we named her Mitsuki and got a little offended but in a cute way) came to our 'cultural experience' night. We got to do origami, calligraphy, and watch part of a tea ceremony and drink the tea. I didn't realize that my host family was coming, so I'd started doing the calligraphy when one of my friends came over to say that my family was here. I tried to get up to go, but Izumi-san (the old lady teaching us) would not let me go until I'd finished my two practice characters and the final one on the fancy board. They're real big on doing things the way they're supposed to go, even if there's no good reason. For instance, the doors here at the Sokendai guest house are closed between 11PM and 7AM, so if you want to go running in the morning, you better not want to come back in until 7:00 sharp.

Wierd Japanese thing of the day:

There are two kinds of toilets at the guest house. One is a very nice ceramic hole in the ground, and here's the other.
Check out the buttons on the side. They say that they spray, bidet, and heat up the seat. You can control the strength and warmth, too. We're all too scared to try anything but the heater.