My tiny, shoebox-sized Leopalace kitchen. I miss my kitchen at home so much! Four burners vs. one here. Two sinks vs. one here. Shelves and cabinets galoe vs. 4 small shelves here. Fridge and freezer and separate freezer! vs. bar fridge about 1.5 feet squared.

My nice tiny Japanese washroom! Complete with square tub.

Microwave, toaster, etc. This ensemble now includes a "cute" pink rice cooker.

My closet. Actually pretty big, for here, anyway.

My bed/futon, on top of my foamy red couch.

So, my apartment. I might want to post some pictures, I suppose, because everyone keeps asking me what it's like, how small it is, etc. It's apparently, about 23m squared. I don't know. It's quite tiny, but I don't mind it so much. It's a place to escape my life for a bit and sleep and relax. Please see the photos above!

Ah, Saturday in Akashi. Sitting in the cafe, with the rain pouring down outside the windows. You have to love fall.

I'm very glad the week is over. It was long and exhausting. The weather was the pits. It's been cooling off, luckily, but I'm not sleeping any better; last night I remember seeing the clock many times before 3:00am. (which is fine, if you stay up until then, but I went to bed at 1:30am!) Maybe I had too much coffee. I always find myself yawning, which is very offensive here, during class, so I nip out from some cafe latte from the vending machine.

This is my classroom in Akashi. It's small, but it's the biggest classroom at my school, believe it or not!



Last night, i was feeling homesick, so I splurged and went to Pastel, a restaurant near the train station which serves pasta and coffee. It's pretty nice.


From the outside, it's pretty: lots of lights. Very inviting place.


This is another cafe, the one I went to last Sunday in Sannoymia with Keiko and Mie. It's called Atelier Works; French culture and cuisine are very popular here in Japan.


Anyways, I need to haul ass out of this cafe. I've been here almost three hours now! They're probably starting to wonder about me. I won't have the internet for likely two more weeks, so these blog entries will be few and far between, but I'll do my best. Ciao.

PS - Tomorrow marks a whole month since I landed in Osaka. It feels like it's been a year already.
11 more months.