Annoyance by proxy

To think, today is the first time I've been online since Thursday! Ghastly, I know. I'm really finding it quite irritating dealing with no internet access at home (and stubborn proxies on campus), and I'm reallyreallyreally quite tempted to buy a router and set it up at my host parents' place, though not yet tempted enough to outweigh the headache I anticipate maneuvering my way through a Japanese operating system and an undoubtedly Japanese instruction guide for the router itself. Just thinking about it makes me break out into a sweat.

In other, but somewhat related news, I started uploading my photos onto my google/picasa account thing (since the school proxy apparently doesn't like Flickr), and I have a few I wanted to share, simply because I absolutely love messing around with fireworks settings and nighttime scenery. That's what you'll find floating around this entry.
One thing I noticed I have not yet figured out is the idiosyncrasies of Japan's weather. Though somewhat similar in relation to Northwest weather, it's definitely different enough that I find that the chilly morning does not indicate a chilly day, and that a scarf added to my sweatshirt will just be hot and uncomfortable and subsequently removed once I get to school, though I may desire to remove it before that time. October and November have just been so much warmer (at least during the day) than at home, and I find myself suddenly questioning why I am complaining about this. Perhaps I am just in a whiny mood.

On another note, I remember now that I haven't updated about the meet and greet (more like meet and eat) that Tokyo Cowgirl and I had the weekend before last. We went to this ramen shop in the area of my school and feasted on deliciousness after convincing the server that, yes, we did know it would cost more to pay for things separately instead of in a lunch set, could you please just take our order? After talking for a while and buying drinks (and receiving little trays of food we didn't order... I have a sneaking suspicion this was to keep up appearances that we weren't loitering and had an actual reason to still be in the little shop), we headed out for a walk in the area and had a pretty good time. Though, for some reason, I ended up being quite tired at the end of the expedition. We plan to hang out again on Friday. Happy happy joy joy for getting to converse with another American who isn't studying abroad.

Alright, this update turned out a bit more boring than I expected, but the weekend was too full and I have too little time for a proper entry. Enjoy the pictures at least, and I'll try to update again tomorrow or Thursday!