GO!BACK!JAPAN!!

today was a last day of staying at UMSL!

we went to the City Museum! there were a lot of kind of amusement! i played with Shinobu, Riho and Daisuke H. i had a lot of fun!!!!!^^

After this, we went to a mall called Gallaria mall, and hung out with Shinobu and DaisukeH. we had soooooooooooooo mush fun. i love them so mush.

i dont want to go back Japan... so i will have fun time as much as possible rest of time in UMSL

Cardinals Game!

Hello, it’s Shinobu.

We stayed at host-family's this weekend instead of at UMSL's dorm with friends. Some people stayed with another student and some did by themselves. I was with Naho which was really good for me to stay with her. I missed rest of friends at UMSL though☹.

At host-family's house, we did shop at mall called St.Clair Squares mall and go to Illinois State Fair and see many animals such as horses, cows, and lamas. They were so pretty and also reminded me of my puppy.

Today we watched Cardinals game at stadium! The game made us so excited and we were screaming and singing all the time!!! lol

I dont wanna go back to Japan...

Host-Family

Hello, this is Kenji again.

We are currently at host-family's house, so we will update the blog when we come back!

So please wait and be excited to read them up : )

Business Plan DONE

Hello, this is Kenji

Today, we officially finished our Business Plan. woot woot!

My group had to give our presentation at 10:45AM.

Chuck, Aki, Riki, and Shinobu did great job on their presentation! yay!

I was really really nervous today, so I don't think I did not do well as I wanted to do. But I am sure I did my best.


I am happy that we are all in same group, I believe we did such as great job from August 1st!


But hey, we only have six more days until going back to Japan!

I am excited about host-family this weekend! I can't wait to see Nathan!



Though, I really miss my friends in Japan : (

Practicing the Presentation

Hello, it’s Shinobu.

We had an opportunity to give classmate our presentation of our business, YO!PARLOR. I guess we all did great job! Professors gave us good feedback, which gave us a huge confident. We are having final presentation tomorrow.
After the final presentation, we are moving to new dorm so we have to pack our stuff and get ready tonight. Also we will meet our host family and eat dinner with them, I cant wait to see them!

Business Plan : )

Haiiiiiiiiiiii!!
It's me! Mario!!

oops, It's me Rikiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!

These days I always sleep with Bu-chin. I go to her room or she comes to my room. Last night Aki, Riko, Bu-chin and I talked until 4:00am. Me, Riko and Bu-chin slept together in 1 bed. It was a little squeezed but we were able to sleep well.
At Ron's class we focused on financial plan and at Mr, Hauff's class Bu-chin presented it. She did well!

Tomorrow is the day we have to submit are business plan, so we're working on it now in the laundry room. We're eating snack. Me, Aki and Bu-chin decided to go on a diet after e went back to Japan. I'm going to do tofu diet!!

See ya!

yeah(^o^)/

hiiiiiiiii! I'm Aki yeah!

The other day, I sent an email to my host family, and he answered my mail. according to him, there are 4 people in his family, he, his wife, his daughter who is 20 years old and his son who is 3 years old! I'm look forward to seeing them this weekend even if I visit them alone^^

After field trip, some of them (about 15 people?) went to the gym. They played bascketball, badminton and volleyball. I played volleyball with my friends and enjoyed very much! I wanted to play volleyball longer time, but there were little time, so we had to go back our dormitory to eat dinner. I promised my friends to go to gym again, so from now, I'm look forward to it(^^)

bye!

Chicago Trip!

Hello this is Kenji.

From Friday, August 13th till Sunday, August 15th, I visited Chicago, Illinois, to see my old friends!

I lived in Chicago for five years from when I was thirteen years old till eighteen years old.

-Friday, August 13th-
As you can see, I left on "Friday of 13th", I knew something not great will happen :(

On Friday, my plane took off at 7:10PM. As my plane was approaching Chicago Midway Airport, the captain said that there was a storm in entire Chicago area. So the captain decided to circle around to wait the storm to pass away, but it unfortunately did not.
Obviously, the plane will run out the gas for circling around for hour, we had to go to Rockford Airport (18 minutes from Chicago Midway Airport) to refill the fuel. ughh.
We had to wait about one hour to refill and get ready to go to Chicago Midway Airport.
Finally, the weather in downtown Chicago got better, so we could finally arrived our destination.
I was supposed to arrive in Chicago just for an hour, but it took almost four hours. ;'(

Well my friends who came to pick me up waited extra two hours, so I could meet them, thank you! :D


I went to McDonald for dinner, and arrived at my friend's house at 1:00AM

-Saturday, August 14th-
I slept until 11:00AM. After that I went to Panda Express with my friend and his girlfriend. I was surprised about the amount they served me, because I could eat all them up when I was a junior in high school.
After eating, they dropped me at Woodfield Mall, which is one of the biggest malls in the nation, while my friend had a football practice. I went to Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, Gilly Hicks, Starbucks, Godiva etc. I also met five friends there and I chatted for awhile.


After that, one of my friends drove my around where I lived, so I could see my house where I used to live! It was really weird that I could go there.


Then I went back to mall to get picked up from friend who went to football practice. We went to eat at Chipotle Mexican Grill, watched Inception, went to the high school I used to go and went back to his house.


-Sunday, August 15th-
Again, I woke up around 10:00AM. I was packing all the stuff I bought at mall, and waiting for another friend to pick my up to drive me to Midway Airport. Prior to going to airport, I went to Mitsuwa Store, which is a Japanese glossary store. We ate lunch there and headed to Chicago Midway Airport.

I rode airplane successfully and Chuck, who is my RA, came and picked me up at St. Louis Airport.

Overall, my weekend was just awesome! I already miss time in Chicago. My friends promised that they will visit Japan someday, and I am really ready to guide them up in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka!


I only have ten more days in UMSL, so I will work hard on our business plan. In addition, I can't wait to go to host-family!

Wayz(Kenji) is gone...

Hi it's shinobu. as you can see from title, wayz(Kenji) left here this evening to Chicago to see friends there. He seemed so excited about it before leaving. we wish i could go with him...lol
Wayz! have fun we are missing you bro! :)

we went to target by Metro today. i got a bunch of snacks for my friends and family and large mocha frapecccino(im not sure how to spell it) at starbucks!! i could not eat it all, so i shared with everyone...

Shopping tomorrowwwww! yayyyyyy!

Fun Time

haaaaai!!!
It's Riki time!!

we are now doing group work at the laundry.

today's class was soooooo FUN! usually it's boring and i just concentrating not to sleep. BUT today, maybe because I drunk coffee , I didn't even got sleepy.! at 1st period, our group decided each others background and it was really exciting. we laughed a lot! and 2nd period, we did practice of tomorrow's presentation. that was exciting too! on 3rd period, Kenji did presentation about marketing plan. Thank you!

tomorrow is my turn to present our plan. so from now, i have to work on my preparation. i hope i can sleep...

see yaaah!

Baseball game

Hiiiiiiiiiiii!!!I'm Aki.
I enjoy my school life in UMSL every day. Today, we played baseball after class! It was so enjoyable and fantastic. However, there were a lot of bugs in baseball stadium, so sometimes I felt bad.

After playing baseball game, some of us played Keidoro game which was like Onigokko. I took part in police. It was fantastic, but I was also so tired...(++)

From now, I have to work with my group members, so I will not be able to sleep today... I want to sleep!!!!!

Regular Day

Hello, this is Kenji

We had a regular day.

We went to Ron's class, which follows up the Business Plan.
He said our group is ahead of the schedule, which made me feel relaxed.
I am a little bit stressed out, because my part, which is Marketing Research takes time to complete.
Now, I am researching the competitors of our restaurant in Chicago.

Today, Mr. Matsunaga came to UMSL from Japan. He will be here in St. Louis from Tuesday until Saturday.


Oh, today, I bought tickets to Chicago! I will be there on this weekend to meet my old friends. I'm excited! woot!

Field Trip!

Hi! Riki yeah!

The school started this week again!
We had classes in the morning as usual, and after eating lunch, today we went to fieldtrip.
We went to Hillermann Nursery and Florist. It took us about an hour by bus.
At there, we met Sandi, who is the president of the nursery. We heard a lot about her job. There were many flowers and machines. She served us lemonade and cookies. Nice!! Today was so hot but fieldtrip was fun.

Now, I did beach volleyball. Sand is all over me. I enjoyed!

See ya!

Six Flags!

Hello! I'm Aki.
Today, we went to Six Flags in St. Louis. There were a lot of attractions such as roller coasters, water sliders, and so on. Six Flags had a huge land! So it was difficult for us to walk all attractions. As a result, we couldnt ride every attraction; however we could ride most of roller coasters like Bad Man and The Boss. Every attraction was so exciting and fantastic! However, I think they were not scary comparing with Fujikyu Highland in Japan. Therefore they were not satisfactory to me!! But it had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it too.

After we enjoyed Six Flags, we went to Asian restaurant. There were Japanese restaurant, Chinese restaurant and Mongolian restaurant. But I ate only Japanese food such as sushi. It was very delicious!!!

Today was a busy day, but I had a lot of fun! Now, I'm very tired.. so maybe I will wake up late tomorrow^^!←

St. Louis Mills Mall

hello readers! this is Shinobu.

We went to a mall today. Everyone was so excited about shopping!
I spent a lot of money like $200 for clothings, snacks, books, and stuff for friends and family. That was so much fun. I guess today might be the most enjoyable day since I came here in St. Louis.

SIX FLAG TOMORROWWWWWWwwwwww! yay!

Party!

Hello, this is Kenji.

Today was such an interesting day!

As usual, we had classes from 9:30AM until 3:00PM. I'm sad that UMSL shuttle bus does not run from next week...:[
We had to present our basic foundation of the Business Plan in front of everyone. I am happy that our group is working smoothly to accomplish the project. I really enjoy making this Business Plan. Want to know what our Business Plan is? Well, I will keep it as a secret until we go back to Japan on August 25th! :]

From 5:30PM, we had JASA party. JASA stands for Japanese American Student Association. Students from Rikkyo University and students from UMSL who have interests in Japan and Japanese culture had a party. I could meet the friends I met at Rikkyo when there was a Conference between Rikkyo's COB and UMSL on May 21st, 2010. I hope I can keep in touch with them from now too.

Moreover, I called five friends in Chicago! I talked with them for hour and half for total. I miss them!

Tomorrow, we are going to Mills, which is a shopping mall. Also, my friend in Chicago is visiting me! I'm so excited!
I hope I can find something good for omiyage, too : )

See ya!

A lot of things to do!

Hi! It's Riki!
Today is 5th day in UMSL. I already have taken 350 pictures! I'm surprised! I'm going to take more than 1000 pictures during my stay. I think I'll take them easily.

Right now, I'm at club house and doing my works with everyone. I just ate dinner so I'm full. I don't want to get fat but I ate too much tonight;; But for lunch, I'm eating salad! Healthy!

Today, we had classes and after class was free time. I slept with my friends. Taking a nap is very happy thing for me. Outside is so hot so it's fun staying inside of room and talk or sleep.
I ate dinner after my nap and now I'm writing this blog. I took the picture now.
We are studying! After we finish are work, we're going to do something FUN!! I'm really enjoing my UMSL life☆

See ya!



ｾ

Botanical Garden

hello it's shinobu.

We have just started Business Plan today. it is very difficult and complicated.

Today, we went to botanical garden after school, it took us about 20
minutes to get there by bus.

At botanical garden there were many bushes and trees, also they had Japanese Garden which was "Karesansui", wood bridge and so on. it was very beautiful!

Byebye :)


This is Kenji.

For some reason, my apartment's floor and some carpet got flooded. : (
We don't know the reason, but everything is ok now!

Good night!

enjoy UMSL!

Hi! I'm Aki^^

Today we waked up at 7:50. Yesterday night, I slept with Sara in a bed and talked. I enjoy that talking.

I shared the room with Coco and Katarina, but Katarina will start to stay with us from 8/5, so now we live only 2 people. However, always there are a lot of our friends in our room, so I don't feel sad.

Today, our classrooms are started. Of course we have to listen and speak English, but I'm not good at English so it is hard for me to understand what they are saying perfectly. On the other hand, these classes are also interesting for me. Therefore I want to do my best, and improve my English skills.

But I want to enjoy playing with friends, swimming, talking and so on(^^)hahahaha

Now, I'm going to concentrate the group working! bye!!

We Arrived at UMSL

Hello, this is Kenji.

We arrived at UMSL yesterday!
We were really tired from the long trip which was about 17 hours including waiting.

We first went to our apartment. I'm with Daisuke K. and Daisuke H.
Next, we went to Sweet Tomato for the dinner, it was delicious!
After dinner, we went back to our apartment to get rest.
Daisuke K., Daisuke H. and I went to sleep at 9 pm! haha

After the long sleep until 7 am, we woke up and had a breakfast.
After breakfast, we went to campus tour. Also, we got our own ID for Internet service, which allows us to update this blog!

The classes are going to start tomorrow. I will sleep early like yesterday to get ready! woot woot!