Harry Potter + Japan being 14 hours ahead of Minnesota = Awesome

While all you Americans were cramming yourself into a movie theater at midnight, I leisurely went and saw a matinee of Harry Potter in Kawasaki, and still managed to see it before any Americans would physically be able to even if they went at Midnight.  I love how Japan is 14 hours ahead of Minnesota.  My movie was at 1:50pm, which is 11:50pm the day before in Minnesota, which is still before midnight.  I also saw the 3D Imax version, which, essentially, was sort of a waste as they only applied the 3D thing to the first like 10 minutes of the movie.

Besides that, though, the movie was really good! You should go see it.

(Oh and I saw it in English.)

Pictures of the Day

It’s a nice day out.  These are just random pictures from around my neighborhoodish area.

7 Features

Here is a list of 7 features my Japanese home has that I think are nifty (and that I don’t have in America)

1. A Japanese Toilet

It has a heated seat, as well as many other features.

2. An in-toilet Sink

The water you use to wash your hands fills the tank and is used to flush the toilet for the next person.  Not only is it economic, but also eco-friendly.

3. A rice Cooker

I love rice.

4. An…intercom thingy

I don’t quite remember what it’s called, but you can view who’s at your front door without having to open it as well as talk to the person who’s there.

5. A Japanese Style Entry Hall

While many homes around the world have entry halls, this one is special in that you must take your shoes off.  It keeps the floors in the house very clean.

6. A Double-lock Door

While annoying to lock, it’s a very safe door as you cannot kick it down (You can quite easily kick down a one-lock door. ) Though it’s somewhat unnecessary considering Japan is so safe.

7. A Japanese Bathroom

Another economic feature of a Japanese home.  You sit on the stool and wash yourself, and then soak in the tub that’s full of hot water.  It’s economic in the sense that everyone in the household uses the same bathwater (The bathwater is clean, after all, considering you washed off beforehand)

I got host family pictures today…

I got host family pictures today.  For the privacy of my family, I won’t be posting them online, but I will say they look quite…perfect.  I’ll probably post pictures of the family eventually when I, myself, have taken the pictures or am in the pictures.  (I have, however, posted the three pictures on facebook, but the albums are available to friends only) I will, however, crop one of the pictures and show a nice picture of Chouchou. More like Chubchub.  I think s/he’s rather cute. 

By the way, I learned this morning that the tags on my blog posts organize themselves alphabetically.  Before today, I was putting nifty little messages in the tags, and I realize now that the tags don’t make any sense and have really basic tags (i.e: The, a, I, etc.)

 

How…manly?

I finally (finally) got a host family today.

I have three host brothers, one of which is going to be an exchange student in the United States (I think. I couldn’t quite tell from the e-mail i got)

I’m going to be going to an all-boys school in Tokyo.

I’m going to be living in Kawasaki, between Tokyo and Yokohama.  Which is famous for it’s…festivals.  I’ll put it like that.  I’ll give you a hint and say the girls below aren’t riding a horse.

Image from babibubebo.com.

If you can figure out what the picture is, good for you. If you can’t, you should either think harder or just stop thinking about it all together.

EDIT: Image has been cropped due to a surprisingly high number of complaints (not from blog comments, from elsewhere).  Click on the image to see a gallery of images from last year’s event.  May not be work safe