18/10, 19/10, 20/10 Ikebukuro and sign-making

18/10
Tired from the day before, E and I allowed ourselves to sleep until we woke up. And guess when we did? At 13:30!! It seemed it was a much needed 11-12 hours... So because we woke up so late, we didn't get ready to leave until at 15:00. We were going to Ikebukuro again, to check out the place E wanted to see, the Ikebukuro West Gate Park. :D It's not a park per se, but more like a gathering spot mostly made of concrete. Afterwards, we went to the huge Sunshine City shopping mall to get something to eat. We had crepes, of course. ♥

They actually had a small slice of chocolate cake in the crepes! Awesome. :D But still doesn't beat Harajuku's. And I love the robot sticker E has on her camera!

19/10
I haven't mentioned it here before, but I had talked with a couple of the other exchange students about doing something for Amnesty's World Day against Death Penalty. I'm not usually the one to take part in something like this, but this time, I thought, why not? I am against it after all and Japan still has the death penalty. They pride themselves in having a law against war, but at the same time still practices the penalty of legally killing people. Dubbelmoral much? Anyway, so on Sunday, I went out with A and met Sv and D to make some preparations for the event. We bought (or D bought...) large sheets of thick paper and markers and we proceeded to go to Sv's place to make signs. Don't worry, it wasn't for a demonstration or anything like that. We were only going to take pictures of ourselves holding the signs and then send them to Amnesty.

Doing this took longer than expected and we were unable to take pictures on the same day because Sv and D had other plans to attend to. The rest of us went home. E had to go back to Ninomiya a couple of hours later so I walked her to the station.

20/10
This Monday marked my fifth week in Tokyo. I can't believe time passes so fast and it's even harder to believe that half the course had already gone by. The first couple of days after coming to Japan were the slowest, probably because everything felt so new and the impressions kept rolling in. As the weeks went by, Japan went from "woah oh my god!" to a daily life-thing. I still don't think I can live here for a longer period of time (except when going to Tokyu Hands and wanting to get all these cute home decoration goods!) but I'm starting to think that I can somewhat handle the life here. As far as appearances go, I blend in with the crowd, but then I have this constant fear that everyone expects me to be able to speak Japanese fluently because I look Asian. And when it turns out I can't I can't help but think that people get disappointed. Of course, they never show it and they most probably don't even think like that, but I think I have a little bit of an inferior complex to the Japanese because I'm Chinese... But I shouldn't! And no one ever should! Be proud of yourself no matter how you are! My ethnicity is a large part of my identity, and I don't want it to be a reason for shame or any negative thoughts. I am me first and foremost!

So getting back on the main road after this sidetrack... After classes had ended for the day, we took the pictures for Amnesty. And you know what? I had spelt dödsstraff as DÖSSTRAFF! And I didn't even notice it until O pointed it out! What the hell was wrong with me? Now all the Swedes who saw that are going to think that I can't spell. Urghhhh. (I also couldn't help but think that they would think that I can't spell properly because I'm not Swedish. Oh, silly thoughts. They wouldn't, right? Or would they think that I am a Fjortis and therefore can't spell?! Oh gosh please don't let it be like that) It was too late making a new sign but we used tip-ex and made DÖSSTRAFF to DÖDSTRAFF instead. It's still missing an S but didn't look as bad as having no D. I still haven't gotten any pictures but I will put them up as soon as (if) I get them.