Shougou and his fiancé Machiko. I served with Shougou on my mission. They will get married in a month in Tokyo. I’m so jealous, but so happy for them.
Konpa- The five boys from Nagoya Univ. Two of the girls were from Nagoya and the other three from Sugiyama University. 
KFC for dinner. Even though it wasn’t turkey it was still good. The best part of the meal was actually the fries.
Sarubobo, the edible type. This is probably my most favorite Japanese omiyage that I ate so far.
Tsukemen at Osaka. It’s like ramen, but you dip the noodles in the soup and eat it. If you just throw everything in the soup I guess it’s exactly like ramen. The bugga was grinds! I wanted to stay in Osaka longer but maybe next time.
The weapons to inject the antigens so the rabbits will make antibodies that the lab uses. 
Yamamoto-san and Oi-san doing their thing. This rabbit was especially scared.
Yaya, me, and Yaya’s brother. Her mom gave me bread and a banana in the red bag so I could have energy to study. It’s such a blessing to be able to come to Nagoya and meet such nice people. 
A nice warm well balanced dinner made by Miho.
Church!
The new missionary at church today was in my chemistry class that I was a TA for about a year ago at BYU. The world is a really small place. After church, I went to Reiko and the gangs house to eat dinner. It was a relaxing day.
Mizutani-san (that goofball), Fukui-san, and Matsunaga-san making the Okonomiyaki. 
Mine-san (new technician), Okimura-san (new secretary), and Kametani-san (old secretary) that we had the party for. 
Me and the gang just enjoying the party.
My brother, Jon, and his girlfriend, Beth, dressed up as a missionary couple.
The drop biscuits my brother made for Sunday dinner. They were great! 
The view from my parent’s house. They just moved to Waialae Iki in April. Being at home was nice. There’s no place like home.
Me and Madoka in front of Higashiyama zoo, which is close to Nagoya University. 
The koala bear, which the zoo is famous for in Japan. In addition to your usual animals there was also a garden and amusement park which was part of the zoo.
The restaurant we ate at after the seminar on plant biology. Even though the service wasn’t that good, we had a fun time. 
Yamano-san having fun being surrounded by the girls in the other lab. The joke of the night was that we would tell his girlfriend that he is having so much fun without her.
Bobby Webster, he was the man in high school and still is. I remember all the younger girls would line up for his autograph for year book signing, and he was nice enough to write letters to each of them. We enjoyed new york fries with various dipping sauces for a light dinner snack. 
Me and Sam in the park playing chess. If you look closely, I have more of his pieces at this time, but in the end he accomplished his goal which was taking money from a tourist.
The next day I had my interview with NYU’s medical school, the purpose of my trip. The tours were nice and the campus was nice and the students there were very friendly. I was scheduled to interview at 1:30 but I didn’t start my interview until 3:00 because one of the interviewers didn’t show. If it wasn’t for another girl who was there waiting too, I would have gotten really nervous just waiting. The interview went well, but now it’s just more waiting. The intimidating thing about it was seeing the other students who were interviewing there who came from all the Ivy League schools and had already interviewed at like six top notch med schools. For me it was my first one.
After the interview the rain came down in New York. Even though I wanted to go to see the city it was raining so hard I just waited indoors until I went to the temple again in the evening.
At night I got to meet some of Bobby’s friends and we went out to a haunted house. I guess the haunted house being in New York added to the scariness of the atmosphere because I got the most scared in my life in a haunted house. People kept jumping out of everywhere and it was super dark and it was dangerous. I mean you had to climb over stuff, and because it was so dark we lost our way a few times. Anyway, it was a fun time and a good way to relax after feeling down about the interview.
On Friday I finally went out to see the city. I went to ground zero where they were re-building the world trade center. I then had lunch with my friend Carole-Anne who works at NYU. We ate Korean food and caught up on things. I then went shopping in SOHO on Broadway St. It was really fun but the shopping was a lot different because there was no mall, rather the streets were just lined with stores. After shopping for a few things to bring back to Japan, I just relaxed until the time came to meet with two other friends from high school, Tiffany and Eaton. We ate dinner at a nice place called “Peeps” and then we went to Eaton’s house to watch the UH football game. I think watching the game with people from high school that I haven’t seen in years in New York city was the highlight of the trip. We went through a lot of emotions as we saw Hawaii go down two touchdowns with minutes left in the fourth quarter before bouncing back to win in overtime over San Jose State.
Bobby, Tiff, Tiff’s boyfriend, me and Carole-Anne watching the UH football game. Eaton took the picture. 
Proof that we did watch the game. The quarterback of UH, Colt Brennan, who provided the emotional rollercoaster-ride for the night. We were all happy UH beat San Jose State in overtime.
At night we went out to the same bar we went the night before to a place called the cave with another friend from high school, Tanner. It was already past 1 o’clock and it was normal for people in New York to start going out at that time. I left early because I didn’t drink and I was a little tired.
On the way back home on the subway, the train stopped for about 35 minutes because someone passed out on the ground. I happened to be in the same car as the person. He was obviously hurt from something because he didn’t respond to anything. The cops and paramedics were called because he couldn’t get up. People kept yelling at him to get up so the train could go so they could get to work to provide food for his children as one person said. Finally after the cops arrived, the man was escorted off the train I finally made my way home.
I just realized from there how different New York subways are different from Japan’s. For one thing the subways are cleaner in Japan, absent of rats that pop out every few minutes. Also the times are known to the minute when the train will come to each stop rather than just waiting at the platform and sticking your head out to look down the track for a train.
I also had other interesting subway stories. When I was riding to NYU the morning before, the subways were really crowded. But for some reason the car I entered wasn’t that full. Five seconds after the doors closed I realized why. There was a homeless man at the end of the car that was sleeping on the seats. No one was around him because he was super stink. I mean not just a fart stink, but like diarrhea stink. I couldn’t breathe. So at the next stop I jumped into the next car with other people that made the same mistake as I did even though the next car was really crowded. Everyone in the car got to see a lot of people doing that, and when we saw someone coming in from the next car we all smiled knowing the reason.
The other evening when I was riding to the temple for some reason the stop I wanted to get off at was skipped. I later found out that someone jumped in front of the train so they had to shut that stop down. The people said that happens often.
After saying goodbye to my good friend Bobby, who let me stay at his place and took care of me the whole trip I made my way back to JFK airport. After the 13 and ½ hour flight then two hour flight back to Nagoya that got delayed, and a 1 hour train trip then 10 minute walk, I was finally back home to my dorm in Nagoya. What a nice trip to New York. I really appreciate all my friends in New York; they are all such great people. It was so good to spend time together watching the UH football game and having our home state’s team win. Even if I don’t get into NYU, this trip will always stand out in my mind.
Pengunis, the big walrus, and a strange fish.
Like the shirt says, some people were “up for it” and others weren’t. Mochizuki-san sleeping, and Yamano-san sporting the nonsense English shirt.
Matsuzaka-gyu (the red stuff) with vegetables! The restaurant was all you can eat and pretty good. I tried horumon, intestines, for the first time and it was, just like many might think, pretty disgusting.
Isejingu- after about a 25 minute wait in line, we came to the place to offer money and pray. The shrine is behind this and you can’t enter it. 
Tofu ice cream- oishikatta yo!
Dinner at the hotel with all the lab members!
Missing Link. They were my favorite group of the night. 
Just a random shot of the people there. 
Me and Shiota, who invited me! He’s from Osaka so he’s pretty funny!
A random picture of the lab’s bunny rabbit. The lab has several rabbits to make antibodies to be used for different experiments.
Sanma! I fish for 100 yen! Surprisingly super tasty! The mushrooms on the side were all right. 
Some of the member in the lab that barbequed- a really relaxing time!
This meal cost 1250 yen, and good ol' Shogo-san treated. The best part was the pickled cucumbers on the bottom right.
The group that gathered to play softball. It was hot and muggy! But fun as our team dominated.
Right outside my apartment. It’s like a mini forest. It’s really pretty, but at night the insects make lots of noises and it’s hard to sleep at times.
My new phone! It looks pretty normal. The only really cool feature is how you can send information through a remote type thing, like phone numbers and info so you don’t have to put it in manually.
The Toyota/Lexus Showroom! The Lexus cars look the same as in America but the Toyota vans are something else!After church today I went with members in the ward to a CES fireside. There I met my old missionary friend Mitsuo Honda. I wish I had a camera because of his fashion: gold watch, tuxedo shirt, and spiked hair. He looked like one of the club hosts that you see in the city. Anyway, it was really good to see him again after such a long time.
When I came home it was already past 6. So I quickly made some gyoza. 
30 pieces of gyoza. It doesn’t look good (though it looked okay lined up in the pan) and it didn’t taste that good either.
I realize what a blessing it is to live with family, especially a mom who cooks warm and tasty meals, or at least buys them now.
The old lady who sowed us the way and told us what to do. She was really nice but had a strong accent. That’s what happens when you go out to the country. 
Nagai-san with the fruits, well… potatoes, of our labor. We just dug them from the ground with our hands. It wasn’t hard at all. But finding a big one felt like digging for gold. But there weren’t too many big ones because we came about 2 weeks too early.
Look at all the white bags of goodness! Inside are the grapes that we came for. You could eat all that you wanted to but we only ate one bunch each.
Members in the lab: Fukui-san, Miura-san, Yokoyama-san.
A tire swing on Tarzan mountain. There were a lot of kids there but us college kids enjoyed ourselves as well. 
After eating the rest of the day we just went sightseeing in the country at a place called Kourankei. Seeing the nature of Japan was refreshing but the windy mountain roads wasn’t.
