I did not feel very well on Monday, and yesterday I just got caught up in living life in Japan (I had a wonderfully normal day), so I have not posted a blog entry since Sunday.

On Sunday evening I did not sleep very much, and then I ate a huge bag of doughnuts on Monday afternoon, so my tiredness and the energy crash I experienced about an hour after eating the doughnuts left me with a big headache. I went to sleep early on Monday evening and felt refreshed on Tuesday when I woke up.

I decided on Sunday evening after staying up really late finishing homework and studying kanji that the Japanese class in which I currently study is too difficult for me. I do not even know all the concepts or kanji the students in the second highest class study, so why am I in the highest class? Then on Monday morning I received my grade for my second test, and I was quite pleased. I still think that the Japanese class is very hard, but I'll take this next test two days from today and see how I do on that test. If I do well again, maybe my current class is doable with a lot of work on my part.

Yesterday evening Okaasan taught me how to make okonomiyaki. It is literally a meat, seafood, and vegetable pancake, and the batter is made of egg and flour. I believe okonomiyaki may be a sort of style of cooking as well, because you can incorporate many types of vegetables and meats into the pancake to cater to one's own liking, and there are many okonomiyaki restaurants across the country. But back to last night, I was beginning to feel a little antsy while preparing dinner because Okaasan was doing most of the cooking and I was just watching. I know it's her kitchen, and she's probably used to doing things her way, so she may feel that she does not need help in preparing dinner, but I want to experience Japanese cooking in a hands-on sort of way. But after watching her cook four of the pancakes (one is similar in size to a buttermilk pancake, but thicker), she said she needed to pick up Otousan at the train station, and she handed me the bamboo spatula. I was able to cook two by myself while she was out of the house. She still won't let me use the gas stove if no one is home, but it was fine for me to use this iron pan because it plugs into the wall. I did a good job cooking the okonomiyaki, according to Okaasan, so I was happy to have that opportunity.

There's supposed to be a typhoon coming in tomorrow morning, and accompanying the typhoon will be extremely strong winds. School may be cancelled tomorrow, but I'm not sure yet. I'll watch the news tonight and find out for sure tomorrow morning. I've never experienced a typhoon before, so I'm feeling slightly anxious right now.