Let's see now...

The town I live in, Omi-hachiman, is very rural (as much as a Japanese city actually can be), but there are a lot of buildings and shops, not tall ones, but they're there. It's a pretty fair sized city; it's not gigantic, but it's not tiny either. There's a lot of farmland around, it's actually quite nice. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom! I haven't been able to get a good picture yet, but I will post it one as soon as I can.

The school looks like a pretty normal private school, except a lot better landscaping. My school seems to be K-12 (by american standards), although it really isn't that crowded. It's a huge school though, with more clubs than any other. We also seem to have the best girls volleyball team in Shiga (Shiga is HUGE). I get there by my host mother driving me, and I seem to be pretty lucky after hearing the kind of trips the other exchange students have to make.

Usually my host mother will make me a bento box for lunch (esentially a very compact, very delicious lunch box consisting of rice and a main dish, such as meat or shrimp cooked various ways). Other times I usually eat the leftovers of the previous night's dinner (which is not a complaint in the least).

The school seems to be very christian, but not many of the kids are christian. Most are shinto and buddhist (the typical combination in Japan). But people here aren't so uptight about different religions. Take, for example, the big thing with "under god" in the pledge of allegiance and the children being forced to say it every day in school. In Japan, lots of different religions coexist and thrive. I was given the example that in the normal Japanese life there is a shinto ceremony for birth, a christian wedding for marriage (they are becoming increasingly popular here), and a buddhist ceremony for death. So no one really minds, it's still an awesome school (although I don't know how kids accept the Bible Studying class, I assume they learn it but don't practice it).

I'm actually in a whole bunch of different classes, none of which I can seem to read. I got my host brother to read my schedule, but it was a while ago and I've forgotten.

I'm really tired now, even though it's Friday I think I'm about to collapse.

Ja ne.