I feel somewhat obliged to share with you this video of Danny the stormtrooper dancing in Shibuya. It does seem like a basic requirement of anyone blogging about anything to do with Japan. But, good stuff it is.

In other news, the impending doom that is my departure date is finally beginning to have some effect on me. Up until now, while I have been aware that the difficulties I face will are beyond comprehension - they have been just that. I cannot imagine how difficult it will be, therefore I don't especially fear it. However, it has begun to dawn on me that all my friends won't be coming along, and I have become to appreciate my time with them more than ever. If there is something I fear it is the, hopefully initial, lonelyness.

Not necessarily the fact that I will have to face a myriad of problems alone, since that is only to be expected, but that I wont have my friends to support me. Just going to hang out with friends to relax won't be such an easy option. Instead I will be blundering (or gaijin smashing) my way through many social situations, hopefully making friends with the more patient of my peers, or those wishing to practice their English with me. Those will be in for a dissapointment as I am (at least currently) adamant that I will learn the language, and will insist on exclusive use of nihon-go. Luckily for me, Japanese are apparently rubbish at English.

It amuses me how many people are shocked to find out that my host family probably wont speak English, and that I will be going to a Japanese school. Such an attitude in my opinion, misses the essence of an exchange trip, which I think is throwing yourself into a challening adventure from which you emerge as a stronger person... or  a gibbering wreck.

Yesterday I went to see a crap movie. Reflecting back on it however, I was going to see a crap movie anyway, but then convinced the rest of the people in the group that this might be a better movie. Whether it was better I don't know, but we all thought it was crap. Some of us however, saw it's comedic value. ScaryGirl (Nickname atrributed not due to a particularly scary appearance, but to a basic survival instinct which occasionally kicks in, telling me to run, run far... and hide.) sat on my right, spending the time cracking jokes about the movie with me, which often degenerated into subject matter not appropriate for this blog. On my left sat ScaredGirl (self explanatory really) who was cowering for most of the movie, and even shed a tear, although I was later assured that was during the pre-movie trailers.

As I feel obliged to review the movie to some extent, I will say that it was essentially Will Smith and his doggy hanging around in Zombie town. Between the zombie scenes, which involved snapping jaws an screaming at the cameras, we were delighted by scenes of Will (I forget the name of the character) spending his time in abandoned New York.

Congratulations, now you have seen all the good bits in the movie, and a bit more besides. If you want to see the filler, such as his conversations with the mannekins in the record shop, please do go see the movie. You might also want to go see Fred, my favourite character, who has a particularly stylish hoodie.

 Now there is one Will Smith movie I am looking forward to... perhaps wrongly so.

For your daily dose of WTFIWWTC! And for those too stupid to figure that out what that stands for: What the f*ck is wrong with that country?"

I think its time for some practice... 

 A Japanese aquaintance of mine whom I have been in correspondence with lately sent me these great videos on Japanese culture. The first one delves into the amazing world of origami...

The second one is a step by step guide for apologising in Japanese, have a look on YouTube for more in the series.