I am truly sorry for not writing much in here, but I have no excuse but just being forgetful.
I'll bring you up to date on what has been happening lately. Please enjoy my Tokyo Tale!

Monday 25th
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Today was the departure of half of my form. They are all going on exchange to America and Canada for a year, and today the ones going to America left. The rest will be leaving in a few weeks (they had problems with VISAs in Canada.. leaving it to the last minute!). We all went to the station to see them off and off they went. The ones that will be going to Canada, will be going near where Adrian (the Canadian student at my school) lives. One of them will be actually going to his school! Hopefully one day I will get to see them again in either Japan or Australia (if they come!).

Sunday 24th
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Today we woke up early as we had to go to Mr.Goiya's house to go with him and Brian to see a little bit of the dance festival. Today's dance festival was of many people from each little suburb/town of the city who built a group to dance to music on the street. Some of the dances were interesting and had a traditional feel to them, but some resembled line dancing with yodelling music. It was about time to go to Carly's Rotary Club meeting and have lunch. After the meeting, we watched a little more of the dancing and sweated (it was very very hot and humid) our way back to the station. I had to be back at Tokyo station to catch the bus by 4:40 so we went home. We ended up having a bit of time and I got my hair cut for 1,000 yen (by buying a haircut card from a vending machine and then handing it to a hairdresser). Very cheap.. but the cut was not toooo bad. We went to the station, bought some tokyo souveneirs for my family and I got on the 4 hour bus trip home.
Now ends the tale of my trip to Tokyo. Maybe one day I will come again.. if I have any money (train tickets end up being very expensive!!).

Saturday 23rd
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Today I had to get up relatively early as we were going to Sakado today. We went to Harajuku to have some kaiten zushi for lunch, and then Carly had her interview for the Japanese TV Show. I thought I would wait for her to finish it and then we would go together, but after I found out I would have to wait about 1 hour and a half, I decided to go on to Sakado without her and meet up later. I took the subway and followed the directions of a man I asked, and headed off to Hon-Kawagoe station (near Sakado).. which was where a Rotary Orientation Day was for this disctrict (which Carly and I were invited to). After finally getting there (thinking I was going the wrong direction and getting off the train to ask for directions again). I was on the right train, but just didnt see the name of the station I wanted as it was in very very small writing. In the end I got there and found the building it was in. The only problem was, where in the building?? Minami's sister wasn't answering her phone, so I called Carly and eventually she called Kota (who was at the orientation). We all had the meeting and a buffet lunch in the hotel and I was able to meet up with Ashleigh (yes she is alive!) and had a chat to her (but didn't understand her much with her AMERICAN accent! :O). I later met up with Minami and went off to see the town's festival with her, her mum, Megu's mum, Ai who went to Brazil, Brian an exchange student from America who had just got there 3 days before and Carly. We all had dinner together and then everyone (apart from Brian as his host dad said he had to go home) went off to karaoke.

Friday 22nd
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Today I was meeting Takuya as his band was having a live band concert and I said I wanted to go. I met him and he told me it was at the arena and to meet him there. When I saw the arena and it said that tomorrow night here was Disney on Ice, I was thinking wow his band must be good. But he led me off to another little place where about 5 different bands played. His band was the first and the youngest. I think they played well and Takuya didn't play much guitar, mostly sang as the lead singer. There were a few other bands and they were good too, but very loud! My ears were still ringing the next day. It was good to meet up with Takuya!

Thursday 21st
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I slept in till about 12 and then went off to search for my shoes again. I finally decided that I must go for the Orange shoes in Harajuku. I explored the city a bit more.

Wednesday 20th
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I travelled around the near towns using the handy train system and searched for the perfect pair of shoes. I finally found some, but there was none in my size, and also the colour that I wanted. I was told by Carly to meet her in Shibuya so we can help her buy a present for her friend who we were having a party for tonight. We searched a little for my shoes and still no luck for my size, and finally bought the present. Apparently the party tonight with Carly's work friends was going to be in a theme restaurant called "Alcatraz E.R". As we walked into the "restaurant", we had to push a button of our blood type , once pushed the door opened and a girl wearing a nurse outfit came up to us holding a big syringe. She asked us which person she should lock up and she locked up and jabbed the needle (ending up being just a big stamp) into Carly's Indonesian friend's arm. We were then led off to our cell. All 14 of us squeezed into a little cell and then the doors were locked and our shoes taken away. We were told if we wanted something, to bang a metal cup thing onto the bars and the nurse or doctor would come.
Halfway through the night some interesting music (Mission Impossible theme) and some guy speaking Japanese (nobody understood a thing.. just things about Hannibal escaping). Suddenly some sort of monster ran into our room. Eventually the nurses captured the madman and injected him with the huge syringe up his butt.
We then all went to a small (very small) nightclub called Gaspanic. It wasn't that interesting and the people working there kept saying to us that we must buy drinks. We ended up leaving about 12:00 as everyone had work the next day (except me!).

Tuesday 19th
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As Carly has work everyday, I had to fend for myself during the day in Tokyo. Luckily, she lived next door to Shibuya and I was able to easily get there and shop, not that I like shopping much, but I ended up deciding that I should buy a new pair of shoes and also a new shirt.

Tokyo Tale
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Monday 18th
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Last week I spent the week in Tokyo and was able to go to many places and see many people.
I will start from the beginning. I left early Monday morning on the highway bus after a late night. The night before we had a birthday party sleepover in a far away land (Hosoe, very country) and so I had to get back in the morning on the normal bus to my house, without having had much or any sleep. I made it on time, and then my host dad comes and tells me we have to leave earlier because he has some kind of meeting and then he will take me to the bus stop. I ambled along to his meeting with some sort of metal-product making factory's president and chairman. I sat and drank some iced-tea while they chatted about who knows what! After about 30 minutes, one of the guys asked me if I would like a tour of the factory. It was pretty interesting, with all the special machines and computers to make these metal things (i.e. engine parts, cutting metal with special marks and holes, etc).. anyway, by the end I was hoping I would be getting on my bus or else I would be late to meet Carly. The bus trip took about 4 hours (usually I would take the shinkansen if I was with someone.. but seeing I was with myself and had to pay, I chose the cheaper option). The bus trip was alright, I slept most of the way, but the girl sitting next to me kept falling asleep and banging her head on my shoulder. After about 4 hours, I finally arrived at Tokyo in the middle of a big traffic jam. I still had about 1 hour to meet up with Carly and I still had to find where we were meeting. It wasn't that hard to find where to go and I wasted some time till carly met me.

That night we had a concert to go and see, the Lucksmiths playing in Shibuya, but also accompanied by some other bands. The concert was fantastic save for the band at the start. When we arrived at the concert, we heard these noises like tuning up guitars, the singer singing notes over and again as if warming up her voice and also testing instruments, but we soon realised that this was the start to their first song. Very interesting... especially when they brought out the plastic whistle, and some sort of tube that slightly resembled a didgeridoo. The other bands were a Japanese band and another Melbourne band, Art of Fighting. When the Lucksmiths finally came on, they played some great songs from their new album. In case you don't know who the Lucksmiths are, they are another Melbourne band who play nice happy bright music http://www.thelucksmiths.com.au/

FERNANDO's departure.
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Franzi, Mika, Lalo and now Fernando have left. On August 11th we all headed out to the station to see him off. Mark was going to come and say goodbye, but he missed his train and arrived just as Fernando left.. which was a bit of a shame. Many people came to say goodbye, and Fernando (with thousands of bags and also a large kite from the kite festival) left on the shinkansen. After he left a few of us went off to karaoke, not to party because he left ;), but because we had time. Fer will be missed by all of us!This now leaves Mark and I as the only exchange students in the district. Very soon though, more students will come and hopefully I'll get to meet them soon. The next trip together is the climbing of Mt. Fuji on September 8th and 9th.

Just want to wish everyone in 'A Chorus Line' at Maroondah Good luck (opens tonight). CHOOKAS!!!!!