Karaoke and Osaka Castle

Hey everyone,
Wow, I can't believe it's only been a week! So much has happened that I don't even know where to start!
Monday in my Management class there were a few extra students. . . and not white people! I started up a conversation with the nearest one and he ended up being a Japanese student studying English. He speaks very little English but he's going to attend two of our classes as he wants to become a translator. Also he's one of the language partners for us to study Japanese with. If you have been looking at any of my most recent pictures you will already know him, his name is Norihiro. Tuesday we had the day off because of a holiday and Sarah and I wanted to see a movie so we invited everyone, including Norihiro, on Monday after class.
Tuesday rolled around and only three people showed up for the movie: Me, Sarah, and Norihiro! Poor Norihiro is so shy, probably one of the most typically Japanese boys I've met so far, but he braved us. He spent the whole afternoon with us and took very good care of us, helping order our food at lunch and buy our tickets at the movie. We went to Planet of the Apes, which I really liked, and then out for ice cream. When we went to buy our ice cream Norihiro insisted on treating us. It's a habit of his, to be very kind and want to treat people, I've noticed. We met up for the movie at 12 and didn't leave until 6 so we had a lot of time to ask Norihiro a lot of questions. He asked many in return as well. We found out that it was his birthday on Friday, he turned 20, so we insisted that we had to go out with him and he agreed.
Friday rolled around and we all met up, all of the exchange students and Norihiro, and went out to dinner and Karaoke. There are quiet a few pictures on Facebook if you care to see. I officially went to Karaoke . . . and I didn't get home until 8 AM! It was a lot of fun though and I got to see some really fun sides of my classmates that I haven't seen before. Some of them have sides I'm not so fond of . . . I'll tell you a little of what I learned about some of them :)
Norihiro: True to character he tried to help pay for dinner and Karaoke, even though it was his birthday and we wanted to treat him. At both the restaurant and Karaoke he took care of everything, speaking to the waiters and bartenders. In a Karaoke box when they bring drinks they have to take the equal number of glasses out, so they don't pile up. At one point in the night there weren't enough empty glasses so, Norihiro taking care of us, downed some large shot of something strong to give the bartender the glass. I laughed as he coughed when he finished and asked if he was ok. Soon thereafter his English speaking abilities increased, as did his courage. We ended up being able to talk him into showing us him stomach muscles after hearing he was strong. It took a little coaxing but finally he lifted his shirt up with a bashful smile. I think mine and Sarah's jaws hit the floor and all the other boys turned a shade of green. This skinny little 20 year old Japanese kid has a very amazing 6 pack! Sarah even got a picture of it. . . it's on Facebook . . .girls, seriously, go look at it. It made my night :)
Ismail: This scrawny little boy from Morocco got me to show my "Cox". At one point in the night he got a handful of my bottom as I walked past him. I went nuts on him. I don't think I've sworn much since coming here, amazingly Japan brings out a mellow side of me, but I sure let him have it. I even gave him a solid, extremely hard, punch on the shoulder. He apologized and insisted he was drunk and he didn't mean anything by it. He didn't learn his lesson though and kept trying to put his arm around me and even asked if he could hold my hand or kiss my cheek. I sure let my mouth fly with him though and for the rest of the night. . . and even today when I saw him, I pretty much ignored him and blew him off when he tried to speak to me. He had WAY too much on Friday, he couldn't even stand, but I'm not sure I want to go out with him around again. He's lucky I'm nice and didn't hit him in the face. He's so tiny I could snap him in half and almost did. Sarah was proud of me for freaking on him though.
Madison: Silly boy from Australia only speaks Japanese when he's drunk! I'm not sure what that's all about but it made me laugh really hard. He turned to me while we were at Karaoke and said something so fast I couldn't understand a word of it. I told him to speak English and he looked at me like I was crazy. He then proceeded to break down what each word he said was. He's nuts lol.
Sheng: He speaks very good English when he's drunk, increasing a lot. For some reason when he's sober though he has a hard time with simple conversation. But when he's drunk he understands everything. At one point in the night someone asked him if he wanted another drink, he loudly announced that he was drunk and if he had anymore he'd be able to speak as good of English and me and Sarah. We laughed so hard. He doesn't talk with a drunk voice, he just sounds normal, so in very clear English he will say "I'm drunk" and it almost sounds more like a joke lol. He has an amazing singing voice though so Karaoke, with him singing in Chinese, is a lot of fun. He's also very willing to dance when Sarah and I ask and willingly attempts to sing English songs he doesn't know. I've said it before and it still stands true: Sheng is one of my favorite people here.
Sarah: Sarah doesn't go too crazy when she drinks but at the end of the night, when we left Karaoke, we went to a bar because she wanted some food and Xay wanted a few more drinks. We ended up talking about our breasts, for some reason, which resulted in her grabbing my chest to compare our sizes (I'm kind of used to it with my crazy sisters and friends lol). I couldn't stop laughing though so Sheng, who was sitting between us but had been leaning forward to talk to Colin, didn't know what had happened. He leaned back and insisted to know what we were both laughing so hard about. We didn't explain to much but instead asked him to teach us how to say "big boobs" in Chinese. He did, with much giggling whenever we would say it. Sarah then proceeded to get Colin's attention. She called his name, when he looked at her, she simply said what Sheng had taught us. Colin, very comically, placed his hand over his heart and gasped. He insisted that his heart was pounded just at her words. Sarah then got Xay's attention and said it to him too. He just laughed as we all giggled over how freaking hilarious we think we are lol. This has now become a sort of calling card for Sarah and I so Sheng lol. Today, when we saw him in the morning, we randomly said it and he gave us a huge smile. We also made ourselves some labels during one of the classes, Sheng taught us how to write "big boobs" in Chinese, and we included a label that said "made in Australia" for Sarah and "made in America" for me. We took a picture. . . that's also on Facebook . . . along with Colin asking how much they cost lol. Please no one judge me, I can't be held responsible for my crazy girly behavior with Sarah. We just have so much fun.
Saturday I mostly slept, trying to recover from such a crazy sober night!
Sunday I went to Osaka Castle with Norihiro and Louis. Louis later told me that they planned to go and that Norihiro asked if Louis was bringing anyone else. Louis said no but said it was ok if Norihiro did. Norihiro then invited me. I feel special :) I suppose it's because I told him on Tuesday when we went to the movie that I really wanted to see it. Either way I was so happy he invited me. Osaka Castle was amazing! Pictures are on Facebook. Norihiro, of course, bought our lunch despite our trying to stop him. He also bought our tickets into the Castle without so much as a word. He turned around from buying his, we were standing in line, and handed both Louis and I a ticket. I gave him a look and said his name in a very "How could you?" kind of way. He just smiled and insisted "Daijyoubu!" (It's ok/don't worry about it). He's crazy stubborn about his kindness. The kid's going to go bankrupt taking care of us so much.
When I got home on Sunday I showed some of the pictures to my host mom. She got one look at Norihiro and said "He's pretty! So handsome!" and insisted I had to bring him over sometime. This set us both off giggling and I ended up telling her about his amazing stomach too lol. Since her reaction to him was so positive I showed his picture to my host dad. He simply smiled and gave a very approving nod. I think they both like him because he's Japanese and speaks Kansaiben (the dialect they speak) lol. Either way my host mom loves it when I bring "pretty boys" over to the house. Both she and my host dad really like Xay. But Oniisan likes him because Xay brought him Sake, not because Xay's pretty lol. I told Xay that my Host Mom calls him pretty and this made him very happy. His response was "I am pretty".

As you can tell everything here is good. Every day is an adventure. I'm studying like crazy and hopefully soon I can start speaking more Japanese then basic "good morning" type stuff. Nihongo o muzakashi! (Japanese is difficult) On the upside of that my English is getting worse, from speaking very basic, broken sounding English with people, so maybe my Japanese will get better lol. I'll come home sounding like an idiot I'm sure. All is well though. I love and miss you all. Please take care! Until next week xoxo