台風。。。と後 Typhoon and after

 So, what were you all doing Thursday (or I guess it would be Wednesday back in the islands)? My guess is that you Hawaii people were relaxing at work or home or...doing something otherwise mundane and boring :p For those in Okinawa, we had a much more fun time. But, not quite for a fun reason. We were informed on Thursday that we were in a 暴風 warning (gale warning). That was at about 10:30 or so. I left to go to my office/classroom/research room at 10:00. In the winds that were already at that strength -_- That sure was fun. HAHAHA. The top picture is all the open space that was next to me since only 3 of us actually were there and for the most part, we didn't want to be there but since we had arrived before the warning, we just stayed to finish our work. On the plus side, we did get some awesome colors outside. These pictures don't do it justice. We got some purple and we even got to glimpse some blue sky! Went outside to take the pictures, and soon after realized that wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do as the winds and rain made it so cold outside!
It is starting to feel like autumn now (compared to how hot it was last week -_-)

I believe that I've been putting off my promise of introducing my office/research mates. So far I can only show 3 of us, but hopefully I'll be able to get the fourth person soon (Ricky is his name and he recently had a baby so we'll celebrate soon...maybe get a group picture then? We'll see).

(Sorry all the pictures are kind of dark. We'll go into why later...)
The person on the far left is Tanaka Kentaro, Tanaka-san, my senpai. He's currently a third year PHD student finishing up his degree and graduating this coming March. He's super nice and has been so much help to me. His English is quite amazing! I was happily impressed so while I'm trying to use Japanese, if I ever can't express what I want, usually I can say it in English and he'll understand.

 Lets see, to my right is Kinjo Haruka-chan. She is a fourth-year (senior) and will be graduating this coming March. She's actually from Okinawa originally so hopefully I'll be able to learn some Okinawan from her. (^^)v She's recently been showing me some of the ropes on how to perform some of the various different experiments and stuff that I'll eventually have to do once I start getting my experiment going.

The third person in my office/research room is the one with the cap on (the middle guy). His name is Kawasaki Yukito-kun and hes been the one (for the most part) that has been taking me all around getting my various things that I need (you know, things to cook with, sleep with, and general things that are just needed). Oh yeah, also went to get my cell phone and all those important things together. He'll also be graduating this coming March but will be returning as a graduate student the following spring semester.

Now, onto the reason for the dark pictures.

We went to an 居酒屋 (drinking place) as a sort of welcome party for me. 2 hour all you can drink! It was fantastic but I definitely need to not drink that much next time. Haha, Wasn't quite to the drunk point, but was definitely having fun! Actually, I think we were all having a great time (at least, I hope that is the truth). We stayed there for more than 4 hours. Since it was Halloween weekend, all the waiters/waitresses dressed in costumes and there was even Halloween specials.

After finishing the 飲み会 (drinking outing), a few of us went to the 留学生会館 (international students meeting hall) and joined some of the festivities that were going on (the Halloween party mainly...).

All in all, Friday ended up being an awesome day.
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Oh yeah, forgot to mention the best part, my scholarship money finally came in on Friday so I'm finally able to book my trip over to Fukuoka. 1/4~1/11;12. So, should be lots of fun ^^