OK, I guess I'll start off with my calligraphy teacher. Her name is Kitagawa-san (I call her sensei (teacher) though). She's turning 60 this year, but looks maybe 45. I think that's typical of Japanese women, not that I want to be st ereotypical or anything. Well she has 3 daughters, ages ranging between 24 and 30 - 2 of them are married, and the youngest lives with her at home. Sensei is very used to foreigners because (a) one of her daughters is married to an American and lives in the States, and (b) she's had many gaijin students. So this is actually really good because she knows what I will find interesting about Japan, and what I might find completely different. Sensei is an extra, super nice lady. Every week I go to her hou se for calligraphy lessons, and she always has something new for me to try, food-wise. And it's always yummy. And she's very patient in waiting for me to understand Japanese, because that's our language of communication although she's not so bad in Engl ish. And then there's the calligraphy lessons themselves, which are really great. Sensei has been learning calligraphy since she was a child and still takes lessons. It's really, really difficult. She's a part-time teacher - a very smart woman. My bo ss tells me that she went back to school not too long ago and did her PHD in Philosophy or something like that. *whew*, am I ever impressed!

Bianca is this Australian gal that I used to know way-long ago back in Gr 9, when we went to Lisgar (high school) in Ottawa. In Gr 10 I moved to Jakarta, and later she moved back to Australia, but somehow we both managed to be in Tokyo this y ear. By the time I arrived in May, she had already been here for 6 months on an exchange program with a university here. A mutual friend of ours, Katherine, got us in touch with eachother because neither of us knew of eachothers' whereabouts, etc. Anyw ay, I only ended up seeing her two or three times, but it was lots of fun to talk with her, and to hear what she had experienced in Japan herself.

Wakako-chan, or Wakako-chan, or Adachi-san, is someone else I mention a lot in my journal. She's a 26 year old Japanese girl that I met learning how to play the game mahjong. She's very interested in learn ing English (she's quite good, I think) so we made a deal that we would teach eachother our languages. But really, we just hang out, and occasionally go off into a tangent that may ressemble a language lesson. Anyway, she's lotsa fun, and she has introd uced me to many of her friends who are also crazy!

Kon-san is one of Wakako-chan's friends, that I met when we (Wakako-chan, Kon-san, and Yodashi-san) went to Gumma for a day. She's 26 and married, and it was her mother's house that we went to visit in Gum ma. What a place! Oh and Kon-san plays badminton, and she likes to make crafts and things. Nice gal!

Yodashi-san is just hilarious. I met her through Kon-san, when we all went to Gumma that day. She's 23, and an art student (studying textiles, of all things) at a university in Tokyo. She's really bubbly and, well, artsy. Just crazy.

Toshimi-san is another of Wakako-chan's friends that I've met a few times. The first time I met her was when she came to my place to have pancakes with Wakako-chan. Lotsa fun! The neatest thing is that Toshimi-san is also a runner... actually, she's a MARATHONER!!! Woah, I'm awe-struck!

Ai-chan is one of Sensei's calligraphy students. She's 21 and studying to be a nurse. She's been taking lessons from Sensei since she was 6!!! Her brothers also take lessons from sensei -- that's Go-san and Jun-san. Oh, and she rides a mot orbike.

Keiko-san is also a student of Sensei's, and she's been taking lessons since she was 16 (although Sensei swares it's been much, much longer). She's 25-26, and a real estate agent. Funny gal, and really good at calligraphy!

Go-san, Ai-chan's oldest brother, is also one of Sensei's students. Like Keiko-san, he's a real estate agent, and I think he's 26. Supposedly he's really good at English, but he rarely speaks it to me. It's funny because he's a pretty small guy (by Canadian standards) but he rides this HUGE motorbike, woah it's big. He gave his older (and smaller) bike to Ai-chan, and that's the one that she rides.