Drama on Friday May 15th

Today we had our midterms. I thought that mine went well so that was nice. I talked to my friend Cameron and my mother again this morning. It is so fun to talk to her. J I got dome with my midterm long before anyone else besides Hannah and so we talked and sat downstairs. We all ate lunch and then headed over to the river to watch the parade. While we waited Alyssa and I walked down to the post office and got some money out of the ATM for next week’s travel week. The post office one is one of the only ones that would take foreign cards.
We then watched the Aoi Matsuri Parade, that was pretty cool. J Japanese parades are dead silent though so that was weird. A century ago, a famous Japanese woman wrote that this parade was something not to miss. It has been going on for 1400 years so that is pretty incredible. It in English, is called the Holleyhock parade—apparently a long time ago, the emprorer or someone decided that the gods were mad at the people for not giving enough to them because there was a really bad famine. So he had all of his priests go around and give money at all the shrines and encourage the people to do the same. They did and the famine ended, so, they called this parade the hollyhock parade. It was really neat and colorful and we had fun seeing all the horses and oxen. The oxen looked really mean though, so I was glad the people were holding tight. It was really interesting to see a silent parade, can I say that again? American parades are always loud and have many things going on. This one was so quiet and peaceful. I laughed too because I got a lot of stares from people, being one of the only blondes around.
After the parade Alyssa, Marcy and I went to the Tori gates. It was beautiful. I was really glad that we went because it was really neat. And they had cool stores along the way as well. The Tori gates go on for 4km and were in the movie “Memoirs of a Geshia.” The little girl runs through them. It is said that if you can run through all 4km without stopping your wish will come true. Interesting eh? We did not make it that far because it was getting to be really late. For once though, I wasn’t dragging Marcy up stairs and climbs up the mountain, she was dragging me. I started to feel a sharp pain in my abdomen on the right side. It was like a running cramp, one of the really bad ones so I wasn’t going very fast. Alyssa and I wanted to go back home because it was already six and we didn’t want to get home too late. We had to drag Marcy away from going higher. It was worth going even if we didn’t do all of it so that was cool. And it was one of the few places that had free admission so that was really neat. We went back to the densha and waited for the next one to come to take us to Kyoto Station. I was still hurting in my side and was exhausted so it was kind of weird. We got on the train and had to run from that one to the next one that would take us to our home stop. I almost couldn’t run because my side hurt so bad. It was excruciating. I kept rubbing my stomach.
We got on the densha and I had to crouch down because it relieved some of the pain. I asked Marcy to go grab any seats if they opened up and she found one for me. By then I was in large amounts of pain. I got to the point of excruciating pain and I looked up at Marcy and said, “I think I am going to pass out.” I was so dizzy and hot and fuzzy that I could barely say that. She came over and put her hand on my back while I put my head between my legs. The poor people sitting next to me were really wondering what was going on. I felt like I was going to throw up so I kept my sweatshirt in my hand. I was almost in tears it hurt so bad, I didn’t know if I would be able to get off the densha. I was feeling a little better so I was somehow able to get off the densha. When we got off I felt a little better. Marcy carried my bag at first while we got out (I felt bad because it weighed so much) and then I felt fine so I took it back. I felt a lot better but was still in pain, just not excruciation. We were mad because we didn’t have my family’s phone number on us so we couldn’t call for a ride so we walked back but it ended up being ok. We got home and had a fun time trying to explain. Marcy said my stomach hurt and shooed me to the bathroom so at first they probably thought I was constipated or about to throw up. We explained and my mom had me call Warnick sensei. We were all worried that it might be my appendix…Warnick sensei asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital, but I told him I didn’t have my insurance card so I couldn’t. I didn’t want to have to use dad’s insurance for it. I don’t think he would have been too happy. J So I just told him I was going to wait for a little bit and see if I got any better. I took Tylenol when I got home hoping that that would help. They gave me a cold pack for my forehead, which was hot, and put a blanket over me. They tested me for a fever (which was weird because you put it in your armpit) but I didn’t have one. Warnick sensei said that he would try to get a hold of BYU and get my insurance information. Poor guy, I felt awful that I was making him do this when I should have figured it out before I came out. Anyway, my father asked if I wanted a blessing.
My dad gave me a blessing and I only understood like three words, but it doesn’t really matter the language, I still felt that God loves me and most of my pain went away. I knew that everything would be okay. I cried, which probably surprised him because he probably thought that maybe I did understand it. I really didn’t understand anything though. After the blessing I slowly ate some soup and rolls and then took a shower and am going to bed a little earlier. I was feeling a little bit better and was able to sleep through the night. It was quite the day.