"Decide to go on a diet. Give up ice cream."

This needs to be me. Hahahaa~

Japanese text books can to oh so very ridiculous. These two images came from a section on "daily routine," where they first made a detailed play by play of this guy taking a bath (including humming to himself cheerfully) and then his day takes a turn for the worst when he finds out he gained weight. He resolves to go on a diet and gives up ice cream. I know that when I give up ice cream, I lean dramatically against the door of the freezer and will with all my might that I will have the strength to resist... or I just stick the easily-accessible chocolate into the freezer in order to discourage myself from eating it on a whim. Same difference.

But honestly, speaking of translation... tomorrow a group of five girls is coming to Aki on the "Japan-America Grassroot Program." All five come from the U.S and are part of a larger group that arrived in Kochi yesterday ( about 50 of them). I guess the group is having two days of orientation and tours around the prefecture (in a more general way) and then they get split up and sent off for four days to live with host families in various cities around the ken. What do I have to do with this "exchange of friendship and culture"? I get to translate the Mayor's welcome speech! I received the document last week and finally got around to making a comprehensive translation of it this morning. It just reminds me..... Japanese can get away with the most convoluted and run-on-y sentences that only makes English faint. I mean, SERIOUSLY. I turned one sentence into a six sentence paragraph at one point because there were so many points hit upon in the one, it just wouldn't make sense to spit everything out in one stream with out some breaks and explanations. I think the thing I've discovered that's oddest about Japanese, is that you can throw the most random shit into the middle of a sentence, and it'll still make sense.

For the most part, I think I actually did a really GOOD job at translating the speech and making it go from the non-nonsensical ordering of Japanese into something a group of American girls is gonna understand. Good accomplishment for a random Wednesday~

Also, me and Sea made FUNFETTI cake last night... talk about AMERICA. This cake sums up America in all of it's delicious, lard/sprinkle-filled glory.