２０１４年７月１０日−１２日

July 10th:

Back to work. It was really rough waking up early the next morning. I had to be at the lab by 9 to do 8 extrusions; coffee was a necessity. It was a hot day. I was sweating lots by the time I got to lab and the hard work hadn't even started. As a reminder, an extrusion is where a metal sample, then when it is at the heated, more ductile state, you cram it through a small hole to form a long rod. To do this, I had to wear jeans, proper shoes, a fireproof jacket, and two layers of gloves. The work involved standing near a 400 degree C or 1000 degree C furnace, handling glowing hot metal samples, and lifting heavy pieces of metal to prepare the extrusion press. It is dangerous and tiring work. But together, Imai Sensei and I got through all 8 samples together in the morning. Here are pictures of the results:

Spent the rest of the day cutting these samples into specific dimensions for all the tests I would be running on them the ensuing weeks. It was a hard day of work, and nice transition back to what would be 2 weeks of intensive lab work. I got home just in time for a lovely yakiniku dinner with the hall mates.

July 11th:
Friday! And check out all the samples I prepared:

All the samples I cut are in the bags, and all the ones I molded and polished are in the plastic container. That is MANY hours of work. 

I stayed so late at the lab that I decided to just go straight to the karaoke to meet my friends for a night of fun. It was Erika's birthday party karaoke and we all had a great time singing songs til dawn. Met a good friend Tommy there who is as much a musician as I am. It was especially fun singing a bunch of harmonies with him all night. Here are pics:

Erika, Saran, Pramod, and Shinji (left to right) 

Tommy, I forgot your name sorry!, and Kitty! Kitty also has a great voice!

Taking a break from singing and hitting up the children's playground outside

Johanes had too much fun with these. 

The sunrise that never gets old.

July 12th:

I slept in after a day of hard work and a night of fun. This Saturday would be a pretty wild day. Two girls in the dorm had planned a big cross-dressing party for the entire dorm. That's right, I said it, cross-dressing party. And we all went all out. The girls lent all the guys dresses and make up, and we lent the girls suits, hats, sunglasses, etc. My friend Erika needed help with her hair, so my buddy Kevin and I did our best to cut her woman's wig into something that resembles a (anime fan's) Japanese guy's hair. Also, here are other pictures that might do it justice. Check em out.

before

after

Getting my makeup done.

Post make up. Looking like a drag queen.

Many chose the more traditional Japanese route.

All the Americans. Oh and the one next to me was Queen of Tsukuomdai!

A name for each boob. And some nice cat ears.

Looking looking like a true gentleman. Rose in hand an all. 

King of Tsukumodai

Stevce looking classy.

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD

My friend Felix (pictured) made this penis and boobs-as-balls piñata by hand. The point was to first pick the "king" and "queen" and then give them a stick to break the piñata, which was our representation of sexism, a serious problem in Japan and many other countries in the world.
Anyhow. There are plenty more hilarious pictures from the night. It was a lot of fun and thank you to those who organized it. I learned how awful and how much stress make up is. Women go through a lot of trouble to impress men. Thank you.