Needed that.

I had a pretty great day today. While it started off slow - I went down town to apply for my re-entry permits so I can leave the country and still be able to come back, and they told me I have to go all the way to the other side of Sendai to some remote office to get them - it ended excellently. After class (which was pretty fun itself today), I met up with my conversation partner Taiga for about 45 minutes to, well, converse. Today's theme: friends and girlfriends (we decided everytime we meet, we'll have a theme to talk about so that it creates reasons to talk more in depth about things). It was a pretty good session, but I had to cut it short because I had to meet up with Takako (my tutor) and her friends Mayumi and Masayuki downtown. The four of us met in front of the Disney store and went to a bar to drink and eat dinner. It was a pretty cute little joint, with couches instead of chairs and simple little hand-made abstract artpieces on the wall, and our waitress just happened to be this girl Takako had been friends with back in junior high. Small world, this Sendai place. After our conversation got some good momentum (primarily based around Masayuki wanting to learn swear words in English and me explaining my dating experiences in the U.S.), we took off for karaoke. Then things got pretty silly, as they tend to get at karaoke, especially with the drinks flowing. Everytime Masayuki sang a song, he also had the entire choreography to the song memorized which was hilarious. And Takako and Mayumi (who is one of those real-deal, jaw-droppingly talented singers) stood on the couches dancing during most of their songs. Mayumi and I sang a couple Disney love songs together, generating some "aww"s from Takako and Masayuki. My last song was of course Bon Jovi's "Living On a Prayer", because you have to close out big. We paid our bill, took some purikura (sticker pics) and went home. Great night.

And I just finished my powerpoint for my presentation on my life in the U.S. to Suematsu Sensei's class tomorrow, so I'm going to sleep. Good night.