I know I have not been keeping up with my blog this past weekend... I've just become very busy, and I am always up late and waking up early, which leaves me rather exhausted. If you know me, you'll recall that I need sleep in order to function, so a schedule of staying up late doing work and waking up early to eat breakfast and go to school has probably led to my being somewhat moody and quiet. I do notice that I am quick to become frustrated, angry, or sad.

I suppose I'm used to Israel, where I had a lot of fun without having to do much work. But this is a year of my university education, and I came here expecting to study a lot. I feel irresponsible for putting off my work at the expense of enjoying Japan, but then again, I did come here to enjoy Japan as well as to study.

I had an amazing time yesterday with my host brother. He calls me a chatterbox (in a teasing way, I hope), yet he puts up with all my "chatter." We ventured to... Well, maybe I should ask him the name of the place and try to remember it, but long Japanese names are difficult to remember. It's a huge shopping district in Osaka, and it's famous for people's interesting sense of fashion. Interesting, in this case, has several meanings: literally interesting, but also figuratively funny, unusual, and downright weird. I also went to a street that I call the Michigan Avenue of Osaka; it is home to various expensive, fashionable, popular American and European brands such as Chanel, Tiffany & Co., and Hermès.

According to my host brother, Osaka is also famous for fried octopus, so he led us to one of many restaurant stands so we could sample the dish. He warned me before I even saw the food that it was difficult to eat. I asked him how one eats fried octopus, and he replied that I must see the food first and then figure it out. Venders take two large, orange rice crackers, drizzle them with a special salty sauce made for eating with fried octopus, add some other sauce (it looked and tasted like mayonnaise), and stick two balls of fried octopus in the middle. It is an awkward looking food, although my host brother and I, who normally don't normally like the taste of octopus, agreed that we would gladly eat fried octopus any day, because it is delicious.