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Well, it’s over. Officially. The semester finished up today, following my second straight day of sitting in front of a computer at the SALC, carrying 2 heavy bags with me everywhere, and in general stressing about everything. After the 2 worst days of the semester, it ended with one of the best nights.

Yeah, almost everyone is leaving tomorrow, but that’s not horrible. It will be weird, of course. No A-Team assembling, no sitting at SALC computers doing nothing, no sitting at Y’s, Saize, or IES making fun of the scabies around us. For that, it’s a little sad. Not like I’m never going to see these people ever again. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll see a bunch of them sometime later.

Technically I’m not done with all my school work, although I sure wish I was. Stress level definitely plummeted though, which is good otherwise I would have had to jump in front of a train. I need to go to school on Tuesday to finch up some video editing (not really editing, I need to make CDs of the class videos, blah); also I still need to finish writing my History final paper sometime soon and e-mail it to the Prof. Didn’t finish it today, nor go to class since I was in the video comp lab. Ah well, the Prof didn’t seem that mad.

I was going to write a whole bunch more here. Thought about it all the way walking home from the station. I was going to mention about how I don’t think I’ve ever been able to “enjoy” a going away party, a final party, a graduation, etc… I’m always busy with something, like videos, computers, running errands, etc. Even tonight, after the IES Video was shown, then Spiderman, it felt like such a rush for me to walk around, say goodbye to some people, and leave. I thought to myself that maybe I’ll be able to sit back and enjoy my retirement in around 30 years, but even that is doubtful.

I’m going to get some sleep now. I haven’t been doing that much these last few days. Tomorrow I have to wake up reasonably early to go see some people off at the airport. Even if I didn’t go, I guess it wouldn’t be horrible, but I suppose it would be nice. Bryan, Ari, Mikey: you guys might be reading this in a day or two after you get home. I’ll probably write more tomorrow also. It was a great semester. I really did meet a lot of awesome people (I honestly think that was my biggest worry before coming here, a bunch of dorks etc). And now it’s over. It will definitely be strange to leave here in a week.

Tonight a bunch of us went to Bikkuri Ramen. Originally, tonight was going to be a huge eventful night, but since we’re all getting slammed pretty hard with final exams and papers, we ended up just going for Bikkuri. However, this wasn’t completely uneventful, as me, Bryan, Mikey, Seth, and Derek were there to do the long-awaited gyoza (pot stickers) eating contest. Mii and Isoroku were there too, but not competing. Anyways, Seth got a good second place with 1 bowl of ramen and 6 plates of gyoza. Me and Bryan tied for King with 1 bowl of ramen and 7 plates of gyoza. Nevermind the fact that we both felt so full we had to puke.

Between the 7 of us, I think we ate around 145 gyoza. Man they’re good. And cheap!

In other news, this has been by far my busiest week in Japan, especially when you consider it’s all for school/school-related work. Tomorrow’s my day off, but I’ll be spending all day at Kanda working on videos (Spiderman movie and also an IES video for the Sayonara party). For some reason, this reminds me of the end of senior year of high school. And also the end of freshman year at IU. I always tend to pick up video projects or something when it comes down the last minute…

Snippet of an IM conversation I had with Sunny about the IES Photo Slideshow video I’m supposed to be working on:

her: you should use some sad songs since we will all leave and probably won’t see each other again.

her: (although i know you don’t like some ppl in IES and are very happy to see them leave)

me: i wish there was a song titled “good lord i hate you all”

me: hahahaha

her: there is a song called “I will kill you”.

Hahahahahahaha.

Fairly eventful day means a fairly long blog post. Endure through it and read if you like.

Started off going out to Kaihim to start working on the Spiderman movie for Jissen Nihongo class. We planned on meeting and starting at noon, but of course the time kept getting moved back and we really ended up meeting around 3. First thing we had to do? Why, create Captain Kougai’s (the villain) costume. Basically, he had a claw and helmet made out of aluminum foil, shoulder pads made of plastic bottles and duct tape, and a cape made of a bedsheet. He’s supposed to be a trash/pollution monster, after all. For the 20 minutes we spent on making the costume, it looked kind of cool. Kind of a backyard wrestler or something.

So we filmed most of the Spiderman movie. Derek’s Spidey costume definitely draws a crowd. I think we’re going to have to film at school on Monday to finish things up, and also to draw big crowds of girls again, haha. Taping and everything went pretty well for how unprepared and unorganized I was. The only problem with the late start was that, since it’s winter, the sun went down around 4 or 4:30. Meaning that we were filming the fight scene as the sun was setting. By the time we were done and packing up, it was dark. Hopefully it will look decent (maybe make it look like the fight took a long time?) Not like I’m going to re-do it.

After that, went to Sega Land for a bit, then Outback with everyone for dinner. Man those ribs were good. Also, since I had no money and couldn’t cash traveler’s cheques today (no ATM card yet after the whole Monday fiasco), it was a good chance for me to pay for everyone’s food with a credit card. Then I got the cash. Bingo.

That was about it I guess. This upcoming week is gonna be a lot of editing in the SALC.

Well today at the high school was busy as ever. Why do I keep volunteering myself to go to more classes and help? I even went to 2 parents (I should say mothers) classes today. Yep, the moms come and learn english too.

For the first time all semester, I have a lot of school work to do tonight. It’s a miracle. And oh man I’m so tired I don’t want to do any of it. So to waste time I’m going to sit here and watch Matthew Minami. Blah work.

IUSTV seems to be popping into my head every once in a while. In a way, I think more than classes or school, I am looking forward to going back to IU to work at IUSTV (student TV organization). I’ve been away from it for some time now, but I’m really looking forward to getting back in and starting up a new show or two. I’ll also get back to do some work on Hoosier Date?, our dating show, to make it even better. Honestly, it took me a long time to figure out how to “manage” stuff there right. I mean, I had almost an entire semester in charge of a team that pretty much did nothing and failed. With the new Programming Team, I was able to get the dating show started, and I actually had something to show for my work. I want to get even more TV shows made this spring, which means I’m going to have to kick the entire team into gear. I have a feeling that a bunch of people are going to quit once I get started again. Once I weed out the stragglers, and get some new staff who are really there to get stuff done, it will be awesome (and a lot of fun).

And on that note, would you guys kindly post (under comments here) what kinds of TV shows you think would be good for a student TV station? Please? Note that “student” means fairly low budget, and something that students would want to watch. I’ve got a bunch of ideas in my head, and need to sort them out. Also, my own odd taste and that I’ve seen so much strange Japanese TV lately probably puts me a bit out of sync with what would really be popular…