Last Full Weekend in Japan

Friday, June 11th, 2010, 7:05 a.m.

I'm still waking up before 6:00a.m. every morning. It is completely light here by 5:30a.m. Usually I stay in bed until 6:30a.m. or 7:00a.m. though, and am still able to get about seven hours of sleep.
This weekend I am going on a trip with the school. We are going to the Japanese Alps to hike, and I'm really not certain what else we are doing. I think it should be really fun though. I'm not sure why, but it seems that so far I have only made friends with boys. For one thing, there have consistently been more boys in my classes, and I think at Yamasa in general there might be more boys. But secondly, it seems that a lot of the girls who have come to school here, came with other friends, not alone, which means that they already have stronger friendships with other girls formed. I'm not complaining at all, I have made a lot of really good friends and met a lot of incredibly nice and interesting people since coming to Japan, it just seems like the majority of the people who I talk to and spend time with outside of class are boys, which I really don't mind at all. I just think it is kind of interesting. However, this weekend none of my friends are going on the weekend adventure with me, so it will be a good chance to make some new friends. I'm pretty certain that I am not the only student going on the trip this time...
Here's the excerpt about what we are going to be doing that I copied from the website.

The Japanese Alps (Hakuba, Nagano)

This is a 2 night trip to the alpine regions of northwestern Nagano prefecture. Leaving Yamasa on Friday afternoon, we visit Matsumoto for dinner and a visit to the famous Matsumoto Castle which is illuminated at night, before heading to Hakuba.
On Saturday we will be hiking in the national park above Tsugaike, please bring walking shoes/boots, hat, wet weather gear & a towel. On Sunday we will make our way gradually from Hakuba back to Okazaki via Lake Aoki, Komagane onsen, the wonderful Iijima Jinya and Tenryu Gorge.

Today I am moving up into a higher level class. I'm kind of nervous about it, mainly because I don't know what to expect. I'll have all different teachers, and I'm not sure who my classmates will be yet. This is a picture that my class that I studied with last week took together yesterday. (My German friend is missing from it though- he was sick).

Alright, have to go get ready for class. I'll write about my trip and upload photos on Sunday or Monday night.