1 - MangaFox has posted Hetalia, making it the first organized place I know of outside of the comm to read it.
2 - I've been participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the first time, but I won't be making the goal of 50,000 words by the end of the month, so some friends and I dreamed up having another month to finish, and made a comm for it here: http://community.livejournal.com/letcha
I'll try to post some catch-up cosplay and news stuff soon...
In the mean time, enjoy my new icon.
- Location:Doooorm~
- Mood:
cranky - Music:Dress - BUCK-TICK
Up and at `em early in the morning. I was excited to meet up with Akina-san, and woke up at six, so I edited pictures from Saturday for a little while, then got up and dressed and had breakfast. I even put on makeup (shock). lol
I caught the 10:00 train to Kariya because we planned to meet at 10:30. Since I had been late the day before, I wanted to be early. I got to Kariya and to our meeting spot outside the ticket thingie around 10:10, since Kariya`s just two stops away. And waited. I thought maybe she`d be early. Nope, not that train. Not that train. 10:30 came. Neither of those trains. So I waited for the 10:45 trains. She wasn`t on either of those. I kept seeing girls with small rolling suitcases coming in off the trains and going the same direction. Some of them had sword-cover-bags like I have for my shinai. I started to suspect that either they were all cosplayers or there was a kendo tournament. lol Then some girls came who had their bags all decked out Eva-Style and stuff and one of them had a cute Reborn! bag and it confirmed all my suspicions. I started to get a bit worried about Akina-san. Finally, she came on the 11:00 and I could tell she felt bad about beign late. She seemed really rushed and kept apologizing.
We went to the convenience store outside the station to grab something to eat because she hadn`t had breakfast. I got a bottle of tea and wrapped it in my handtowel so it wouldn`t sweat all over the inside of my purse (a nifty trick I`ve learned from observing the locals). We got to the location, which was nearby. I was really excited to be going to a local event!
To get in, I Akina-san and I each had to pay 1000 yen, but looking at the list we got off lucky. Girls, regardless of if they were cosplaying or not were only 1000. Boys were 2000, unless they were cosplying, then they were still 1500. T_T At least it was a small local event. I hear at some that you have to pay to use your camera. O_o
I went into the main room and sat awkwardly at a table, feeling awkward, awkward, awkward, while Akina-san went upstairs to change (you can`t come in cosplay or anything you have to change there in designated areas). The room was really cool, I thought, and ideal for taking pictures. There were maybe a dozen or more photography backdrops set up, some furnature here and there like school desks or an inflatable couch, some pool toys, a table of cosplay magazines and flowers that could be used as props. There was a state area where people could take picutures too, against the grey wall on on the wooden floor, or use it to get up- or down-shots of people. There was a curtained off area for doing makeup and a section of tables for keeping your luggage. It was boss. I
After a little while, she came back down, in her regular clothes saying that she forgot her cosplay shoes and the ones she was wearing just wouldn`t work at all because they were cute sandals. I asked what cosplay she had brought and she said that she got us early in the morning and made young Prussia (Hetalia) just to wear today. I WANTED TO SEE IT SO BAD!!! But there was no helping it.
We walked around a bit and took a few pictures. I was too embarassed to ask people, for the most part. At home, I`m totally chill with it, but here I felt so weird being an American in normal clothes asking for pictures in Japanese. That, and I made some totally hacked busines cards the night before, and it turned out they were the wrong size and not very pretty and one had a typo on it. But I gave one to Akina-san anyway, and then she kept encouraging me to exchange them with the other cosplayers. >.< Embarassing, but I felt it was the proper way to do things, so I went with it.
We took pictures of Spain and Prussia (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
Akina-san came back in her cosplay (like, half an hour later! It took forever for her to change!!) and was SO CUTE as young Prussia!!! I was super-imperssed that she had made it in a few hours that morning. We set off again.
A brief note about the boots she borrowed. Typical, popular-style cosplay boots here have big platforms and even bigger heels. I don`t know why, other that wantign to compensate for height or something, but if they`re all short, then what`s the matter? I`d personally rather have my shoes be in character. I think that`s American style. >_> That, or they try to make it cheaper by re-using the same boots for every cosplay. lol
We made a half-hearted lap around the floor, then went upstairs to see what was going on there. I thought it was just the balcony up there, where I had seen people walking, but there was another area with huge windows on the side and tons of people were up there taking pictures. We stopped to get pictures of England and Sealand (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
Did I mention that everyone there has this HUGE AMAZING cameras? I want one. I`ve been wanting a bigger, better camera for a little while now (honestly, because of cosplay in the first place) and this solidified it. That`s what I want for my birthday. And they bring their own reflectors and stuff. It`s madness. And I love it.
We went downstairs and some came rushing up to ask Akina-san for her picture over at a particular backdrop. It was pink and red and I didn`t think it suited Prussia at all. After that, she asked what I wanted to do and I asked if I could take a couple of pictures of her. So I picked a backdrop that I liked, but thinking on it, didn`t really suit Prussia at all. haha~ (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
We found the Austria we`d been looking for and asked for her picture. (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
Well, it had been longer than it sounds like, but Akina-san went to change. I hung awkwardly around a group of Gintama cosplayers before finally asking for thier picture. They were Gintoki, Ginpachi-sensei, and Paako. I`d been secretly loling at them all day. (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
We went upstairs for one last spin and ran into a cute America and England set that Akina-san had lent tape for last-minute-costume-fixing (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
We got to Oasis 21 3:30-ish, thinking that it started at 4:30. We walked around a bit, tried to get tickets and found out they were sold out, I got a shirt, and we found a place to watch from. Then we found out it didn`t start until 7. >_> oops. There were a bunch of cosplayers hanging out so we walked around and looked at them. Akina-san got some pictures of Switzerland (Hetalia) and soem Persona people. I wanted to take a picture of the big Reborn group but they seemed busy. I got a Hetalia group, a Full-Metal Alchemist group, and a TYL Mukuro.
We went to the JUMP store. FAB! I was really excited. It was a dangerous place - your money can fly away from you in places like that. I resisted the temptation to buy the Reborn bag and Mukuro pillow and Mukuro fan and other stuff I wanted, but I did leave with a gashapon box (that turned out to be Tsuna), a gashapno poster (that turned out to be Tsuna >_>) and the equivalent of a crushed penny (except it was just a piece of copper) with Mukuro on it. ^_^
We found a spot and sat down a little over an hour before the finals. Then I went to the Pokemon Center briefly for a gift and came back. Finally, there was a commotion on the other side of Oasis 21 and I figured that the cosplayers had arrived. At that point people stood up and pushed toward the fence. Then it was time.
The cosplayers came on by country, and walked across the stage, pausing on the catwalk in the middle as their brief intro video played on the screen, and their names and series they were cosplaying was shown along with a butterfly whose wings were the country`s flag. I realized exactly how bad our spot was and was reminded of the weakness of my little camera, which was doing its best for me. Japan didn`t do a walk-on. They were a `to be announced later.` >_> Here`s what people were from:
Australia - BubbleGum Crisis
Brazil - Full-Metal Alchemist
China - King of Fighters
dunno - dunno
dunno - Trinity Blood?
France (?) - Magical Knight Reyearth
dunno - Romeo X Julilet
Korea - Fate/Stay Night
Mexico - dunno
dunno - Macross Frontier
Spain - Candy Candy
dunno - Detroit Metal City
America - Cardcaptor Sakura
Japan - TBA
And obviously there`s someoen in there I didn`t get a picture of >_>
The skits began. I really enjoyed the Detroit Metal City one and France did a cute magic show. America was really, really cute. Australia looked really cool, but I think it`s beacuse I don`t kow BubbleGum Crisis, but I didn`t get it at all. Japan turned out to be cosplaying Sengoku Basara and looked really great doing it.
Time for awards. Everyone came back on stage. America was announced first. They got the Brother Award, which is basically 3rd. (http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
Then we went home. Great story, huh? On the way to the station we saw the Eva-01 costume from the day before in the storage area `backstage`. It was kind of a lol.
I was dead tired when I got home especially from not sleping much the previous nights, but very, very happy. And with that, it has taken me - with lunch and talking to people on facebook - almost 4 hours to write this. I`m outta here!
Kariya pictures: http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
Summit pictures: http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
On a completely unrelated note I wonder if there is something about Japanese mosquitos that irritates me extra. Or maybe it`s the medicine I bought recently to put on them. It makes my skin turn weird colors around the bite area. Well, I don`t know if that`s the medicine or my body`s reaction. They`re definately the worst mosquito bites I`ve had in my life.
I`d also like to comment on Japanese bathrooms/restrooms. Basically, I think their toilets are awesome and whoever invented the seat-warmer is a god. Sorry if that`s too personal for all of you. >_> Now to complain. I don`t mind so much that places are just as likely to have means of drying onjes hands as not. I was prepared for that and hae a bunch of hand towels and I`m always carrying at least one. What I don`t get is the lack of soap in some places. They don`t even have dispensers. And one of the restrooms at school (the building I have my classes in) hasn`t had any soap in the dispenser since I got there. And now that restroom has also been ocmpletely out of toilet paper for two days. >_> Geh.
I find myself thinking to myself as if I`m writing my blog at that very moment only to forget all about what I wanted to tell people when I actually sit down to write.
I`m working on postcards again. I have yet to mail on, even though I`ve had three done fora couple of weeks now, and now I`ve got some more done, but Hiroshi-san isn`t sure if normal postage for a postcard is okay for sending it overseas, so I have to check that on Monday. And buy a box or two to send stuff home in. >_> I have to decide if I`m going to lug my Zero-Sums home. They`re big and heavy... and my second one doesn`t even have a Loveless chapter in it. Sigh.
- Mood:
tired
Last week, on cosplay.com I found a thread by someone looking for someone else going to the Cosplay World Summit to go together with. I checked out her stuff - she seemed cute and harmelss - and said I was up for it. So, we arranged to meet before the second parade on Saturday at the Osu Kannon Shrine in Osu. Cool.
The first parade was scheduled to atart at 11:50, so I left around 9:30 and caught the train around 10. I got into Nagoya and switched to the subway, which I took to Sakae, where the first parade was. I got off the subway around 11:30 and started walking, map in hand. Well, it was raining, of course. >.< At least I had my trusty sunbrella with me. I found a street on my map and started walking toward the street I needed to be on. So I thought. After several blocks of wondering when I was going to get to the big interesection on the map, I finally turned around and asked a nice old lady at the bus stop. I told her the street I wanted and asked how to get there. She gave me a bit of a pitying look and told me where to go. So I went that way. And turned the wrong direction again. Not seeing anything and the parade was starting, I started heading back toward where a main road should be, finally guess that I had my map flipped. I was right. >.< I found my street and walked as fast as I could to the parade site. Sigh.
I ended up at the end by the reporters and all the people were shoving, and between them and the umbrellas, it was hard to see. Then France`s repersentatives or somebody stood right in front of my line of vision. And the lady kept pushing us to the side to keep us out of the press area. Phooey.
I got to see America ( http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
In the mob, I met another girl from America. She`s from DC, but she`s teaching English in Japan, and now they`re on summer break, so she was traveling around. We agreed to get coffee after the parade, and started heading to a place she knew near her hotel. This German guy came up to us, told us he was a reporter, and started asking questions about our interest in cosplay and if we do it ourselves - he was covering the event, but new to cosplay. We told him we were going for coffee and he could join us there to ask questions (it was still pouring and the street was crowded with people leaving the area).
We got to the cafe place, attached to a hotel, got our coffee, and found the reporter guy at a table near a girl in cosplay. GOOD CHOICE, SIR! And she looked foreign. I tuned in as soon as she spoke and identified her as American. Score. Anyway, so the guy interviewed us about our cosplay history and why we cosplay and what it`s like to do it and where we do and why we came to the summit. He was pretty nice. When he was getting ready to leave, and it looked like the girl in cosplay was leaving (some of her tablemates were), we kinda jumped her, asking what she was cosplaying and if we could have a picture. German guy had already made a break for it because a couple of the cosplay participants were suppsoedly talking down the block at a small press conference. (By the way, it`s Thursday now, and Hillary sent me a link - she found the article on Yahoo - here it is: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090805/lf_
So anyway, it turns out Renee (that`s her name) was one of the American represnetatives last year, and since she`s teaching English in Korea, she came over for support. ^_^ And she was cosplaying Jeanne from Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne (I think that`s what it`s called... >_> ) ( http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
Then all of the cosplayers started coming into the connected hotel. O_o We hopped up and over there to go take pictures. ( http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
We stopped harassing the poor people who just wanted to eat their quick snack and take a break and touch up their stuff before the next parade. I chatted with America`s mom a bit. Her daughter was the one in the orange in the morning parade. She was telling me about her major in Japanese for her masters and all the interesting things she`s done in regards to cosplay. It was really cool, I don`t want to make it sound like it wasn`t. I was really into it. But then I had to go, to meet my internet person.
I didn`t get very far. As soon as I left the hotel, I saw Euphie (from Australia) lugging some big things through the rain. In front of her was Suzaku and their helper, but it was still raining and I felt awful for her, so I ran up and held my umbrella over her. It turned out what they were carrying was their prop for the next day. We ended up walking through te subway, so I wasn`t really needed, but I stayed and talked >_> and sometimes held Euphie`s skirt so she could go up or down stairs easier. ( http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
I said I would wait from 2-2:30 at a certain location at Osu Kannon, but I didn`t even get there until right at 2:30 because after helping Team Australia, I had to get on the subway, take it a couple stops, change trains, went to the wrong side of the platform, so I missed one train, had to wait for another, got a bit lost looking for Osu Kannon beause I came out of the wrong exit and THEN I finally got there. Luckily, I was still able to meet Akina-san. I explained my (poor) excuse, and she was really sweet about it.
We walked around a bit, since we were still early for the parade. Took a few pictures... There were about a million Vocaloid cosplayers, some Gintama... we found Seychelles and Japan and Hong Kong from Hetalia and we were both happy because we both love Hetalia too much. ^_^
I learned something about Japanese cosplay then. O_o They all have business cards. At least the people who cosplay seriously. It has their picture and online accounts and contact information on it. Really handy! It`s better than fumbling for a pen and paper at a con, only to lose it later. They`re really organized. Akina-san`s are really nice. They`re photo paper and have a picture of her (the one I have is of her as Russia from Hetalia) and some CG effects and her contact information on it. Big difference. I`m sooo making nice ones like that when I get home. (Maybe not THAT nice~)
We grabbed a stop near the beginning of the parade route about half an hour before the parade began. I had to get home for the fireworks in the evening, so we weren`t sure if I`d have time to see the end of the loop.
It began~ The country representatives were in the front, then followed by whatever cosplayers wanted to participate in the parade. There were tons! Some of the highlights for me were Eva-01 ( http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
That`s about it for the parade. Akina-san and I went home. My family was having a party for the Okazaki fireworks and we were both a bit tired of the crowd, so instead of hanging out for pictures, we left.
I got home about an hour before the fireworks were supposed to start. A bunch of the guests were all ready here, even though I thought they weren`T coming for another half hour. Not my problem. I just felt a bit rude. We were having a cook-out of the roof, from which you could see the fireworks very well. Not too long in - maybe 20 minutes (it`s a 2 hour show), it started to rain, so I ran downstairs to bring in my laundry really quick. By the time I made it back upstairs, it was pouring and everyone was fleeing the roof. We almost forgot Gackt (the dog). O_o
We ended up watching the fireworks from the room next to mine, which was fine except that room doesn`t have airconditioning and it was hot, so we turned on the airconditioning in my room, and opened one of the sliding doors to let the air flow. Well, that wasn`t cool enough for one of the men so he gets up and TAKES THE DOORS OFF THEIR TRACKS. O_o So my room was totallt exposed. It`s not like it`s a huge mess or anything, but my stuff is a bit spread out and there was some stuff piled on top of my suitcase looking messy. I was rather flustered, so Yoshiko-san got out a towel and we put it over my suitcase. I don`T think anyone cared but me. Or they were good at pretending. It was jsut awkward. >.<
There was a girl there about my age. She`s majoring in Japanese at the language school in Nagoya. Someome made a comment about her being Japanese and studying Japanese, but then someone pointed out that I`m majoring in English and I`m American. Ha. Anyway, she was nice and we talked about anime and manga and cosplay and music.
Then it was late and everyone went home. I made some pathetic meeshi on my computer and printed a few out because Akina-san and I had made plans to go to a local event in Kariya the next day and I didn`t want to seem like a total n00b or rude or anything because I didn`t have business cards. >.<
To be continued...
All of my Cosplay Summit pictures are here: http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
Pictures from the local cosplay gathering I went to on Sunday are here: http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
The article, once again, is here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090805/lf_
Sorry I didn`t write much again. >.< Still way behind!
Sigh~ Days add up so quickly when I don`t write. >.< Even when there`s nothing terribly exciting to report. Still, I can`t believe it`s been a whole week. I`ll write about the weekend tomorrow. It`s too exciting to lump in with the rest of this.
MONDAY:Breakfast was Frosted Flakes. Except the box said Frosties (in Japanese). But they were the real deal - Tony the Tiger and all. Just by a different name. I was commenting on this to Dan and Jamie and Jamie said they`re called Frosties in Britain too. That`s dumb. ^_^ Just kidding, Jamie.
At school, we had class for the first hour then a short break. I went to DOMY with Jamie and Dan because we were hungry. Around the time class was finishing up and we were heading out, there was an earthquake. I had no clue. I didn`t notice a thing. I heard about it later at home. O_o How do I keep missing them?! I was even awake this time! One dead in Okazaki and three in Toyota (neighbouring city).
Back at school, it was time for calligraphy. `Shodo` in Japanese. >.< It`s done with a brush and ink. We used ink from the bottle - we didn`t take the time to make our own (a form of meditation). I was fine at the practice. I learned the strokes decently enough to practice writing `sora` (sky). Then we could either write `sora` or another kanji of our choosing on a final, pretty piece of paper, and it would be put in a display we were given. Nifty, right? I thought so... Anyway, I decided I wanted to write `yume` (dream), so the shodo sensei did an example for me of how it was supposed to look in a calligraphic style. I practiced and managed a few pretty decent ones, so then I did my final one. It was horrible. O_O The lines at the top were fat and the ones on the bottom half were thin and it`s not pretty to look at at all. >.< It`s not calming, inspiring, pretty, or anything. In fact, it gives me a rather unsettling feeling when I look at it. I took it to mean my dreams would never amount to anything. >.< We were given our brushes to keep. I think I might buy some pretty paper and give it another shot. The display is nice, but I would never display that piece I did. I was more of a nightmare. Seriously. And no, I won`t show any of you. It`s that bad.
After class, several of us met at AEON (we`re not much better than mall rats, really. >.<) to play around at the game center. I tried my hand at Taiko Drummer. It was great fun, and I was rather awful. ^_^ Jorgen and Jamie played together and Carlotta and I played together. Carlotta and I played `88` (from `Reborn!`), `Cruel Angel`s Thesis` (from `Evangelion`), `RAMP!` (from `Cowboy Bebop`) and `Caramelldansen` (T_T) and one or two others. Jamie and Jorgen played `Caramelldansen`, so I knew it was there and when we couldn`t pick a song, that`s what we ended up doing. >.<
We split up and I showed Carlotta the nerd wonderland that is ANIMATE. I checked the prices of the Sebastien (`Kuroshitsuji`) Nendoroid and Mukuro (`Reborn!`) figure, but they were too much. Sorry, Mukkun, I don`t know if I can bring myself to pay that much for a figure... and as for Sebastien, if it had been Grell, I probably would have done it, but alas...
After dinner (I had a quick, early dinner of inari-zushi and pumpkin croquettes), we met up at karaoke. We planned to meet at 7 so we could go home early. >_> Anwyay... what did I sing? `Doten` (`Gintama`), `Sorairo Days` (`Gurren Lagann`), `ALONES` (`BLEACH`), `TONIGHT, TONIGHT` and `Hit in the U.S.A.` (ORANGE-RANGE), `Hamaguri Bomba` (Yazima Beauty Salon)... and some others. I don`t remember. Nothing as exciting as the first time. I wanted to do something from Wicked and `It`s Raining Men` but even though they were in the book, they didn`t seem to be in the digital system. >.<
The boys (Jamie, Jorgen, and Dan) did all-you-can-drink alcohol. Since that`s expensive, and it was a school night, the girls (Carla, Carlotta, and I) all got all-you-can-drink other drinks (sodas, juices, etc). Well, at first I had just a couple sips of Jamie`s... then they ordered too much and had all ready had too much to drink (especially Dan!) so I was helping them drink it. >_> I called home around 10 saying I was going to be a bit later than I planned, and we`d probably be leaving at 11 instead of 10. I was told to call back and they`d pick me up. So, by the time 11 had rolled around and we all had too much to drink (well, not Carla and Carlotta), I called and said we were leaving and asked if we could give Carlotta a ride too since she and I had walked together and she was on the way back anyway (and it was late and stuff). I had an awful time talking Carlotta into getting into the car. I`m sure she didn`t want to impose. I felt a bit sick by the time we got home. I`d had less to drink than last time, but in a shorter amount of time. >.< Shower and bed.
TUESDAY:
Felt a litle grody in the morning. More cereal (not much). Went to school. Class was boring (bet you`re tired of hearing that. Met too) other than the presentations. I don`t know if I mentioned this before, but all of the students who are leaving have to give a short presentation about their time in Japan. This is usually 5-10 minutes and they show pictures they`Ve taken while here.
I went with Jamie after class to check out Student Villiage. I`ve never been inside, so I was curious. He showed me around~ Then we went to Wing Town, which was fun. I got some manga and umaibou. Back at SV, we talked for a little while (until a little after 5!) when I headed home. Everyone was cooking dinner together, but I had all ready said I`d be home for supper, so I went.
At home, I realized that I bought volumes 2 and 3 of the manga, not 3 and 4. >.< Argh. I all ready have 2 (got it at Book-Off!) and I read 1 online (should probably get it though...). I mentioned this over dinner and Yasuko-san said it was best if I return it right away, so after supper, we all got in the car and went to Wing Town to exchange my book. Sigh.
Home, shower, bed.
WEDNESDAY:
Field trip day into Nagoya. Jamie met us at the train station to catch the train to Nagoya, then transfer to the shinkansen to Osaka. I was very sad that he was leaving. Very sad indeed.
In Nagoya, we had three places we were going. The first was a ceramic place. Apparently famous. It was... fine. I`m not much of an art museum person. First we were in a painting gallery, because we wanted to get in out of the rain and the guy who was probably the artist was sitting quietly at a table in the corner. Then next to that was a gallery of really cool carved wooden things, and the dude was sitting there carving some more. Then we went to the factory/museaum part. That was a little more interesting. Maybe it`s porcelain... I don`t remember. Dishes and things... Pretty ones. Painted in a very lovely way. The museum had some creepy dolls.
Next was lunch. We ate at a kinda nifty place with nothing vegetarian on the menu. So I ended up with udon (AGAIN!!!!) and they nicely switched the meat in it to veggies. And rice. Ah, well.
After that, we made a brief stop at a couple of shops that sell candy and sweets wholesale. Awesome. I got some ... ph gosh, I`m blanking SO HARD on the name right now... anyway it`s a sugar-candy that`s expensive WHEN they have it at Tensuke at home.
The third and biggest stop was a fan shop. This guy whose family has been making fans for 150 years or so taught us about fans, then we got to make our own. We each got the all ready folded paper and a box of colored pencils. I had no clue what to do, so I drew some crappy-looking sakura (cherry blossoms) and called it a day. My troubles were only beninning.
After drawing, we had to open the small holes in the bottom of the paper so we could insert the spines of the fan. He had instructed us to do it by blowing. Carlotta and I soon found that to be impossible. I used my fingers to squish and press it open. It was tricky, though. Those holes are small. After that, we took it up to our fan sensei and he showed us how to hold the paper in one hand, and the bamboo (or whatever kind of wood it is) part of the fan in the other hand and insert it into the holes in the paper. Easy for him to do! He`s probably been doing it for more than 50 years!
Finally, I managed to get the spines in all the holes without dropping one or breaking anything and presented it to sensei. He looked at it, made sure it was on correctly, told me it was good, and then took it back off. He said that was practice. O_o Then he put glue on wooden part and I had to do it again. The glue was sticky so making a mistake would be a problem. >.<
I got it on, then he moved it firther down, to where it should sit, then banged it around (didn`t really understand that part) a bit, then bent the end pieces inward at the top, clipped the ends, and gave it to me. I had to put a small paper band around it and wasn`t allowed to open it for at least an hour.
Carlotta and I were done rather a bit before anyone else, and jsut kinda sat there. Then eventually we went to look at the shop. I got another fan I don`t need (but it has kumadori - kabuki make up - on it!) and Carlotta bought the One Piece fans she had snatched on the way in. ^_^ The shop people gave us some candy that turned out to be really grody. >_>
We walked to the train station and went home.
THURSDAY:
Nothing thrilling in class. First day without Jorgen, which was weird. Of course, Jamie was gone, and Paul left our program too. We were also suppsoed to lose Aida, but Canada imposed a new rule about Mexicans coming through the country, so she needed a visa and has to get it, so she`s stuck in Japan for two extra weeks. O_o That`s gotta be hard. As awesome as Japan is, being stuck somewhere - ANYWHERE - you didn`t plan to be for two weeks has got to be hard. Her dad`s helping her pay, so at least she can stay in class with us.
We did do some brain teasers (in Japanese) at the end, though. Which was fun. And we got new students. Michlle from Hawai`i (but teaching English in Japan, and so has been living her for two years) and Morgan (from England). Sadly, neither of whom is very nerdy.
Home right after class to go to the bank. Also went to a neat little place called APITA which is kinda like JUSCO. Groceries and everything.
I don`t think I did anything else Thursday... worked on my translating of "Black Bird" (shojo manga I bought the wrong volume of).
FRIDAY!
Classes normal. I felt less than no initiative to go to class because my best friends are all gone. >.<
After class, (and another fabulous lunch at Kurumi, which by the way was something that was supposed to have tiny fish in it, but Aida nad I managed to get it without fish, because they grod us out) I went with a couple of people to DOMY for a snack.
After a while, it was time for practice for those doing the mikoshi. Sorry, I don`t really know how to explain it, so here `s a wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoshi Anyway, we practiced picking it up and hoisting and and turning and stuff. Then we got a break, then did it again. Then we got a break and some bread and tea or juice and we got our hapi to wear. We also got towels for whiping sweat or holding the wood or whatever.
Eventually, we made our way downtown to where the mikoshi parade was going to be. Out tiny wooden one looked rather sad next to the fancy-schmancy ones other people had. Oh well. We had foreigners! Carla, Carla, and I had to go to the restroom, so we asked someone and found it... only to be confused. It had urinals and stalls, but wasn`t labeled and there was only one door. O_o For both. We got out of there as fast as possible. CULTURE SHOCK.
Finally it was time for the parade to start, and we lined up. Then had to wait some more. The group in front of us had a big plastic trashcan full of beer that they were all drinking. It also got splashed on their mikoshi because the gods/spirits (whatever you want to call them) like alcohol, and shaking. So when you carry it, you also supposed to shake it. It`s really hard to describe this.
I was in a bad spot (between two of the main beams), so when we went to start, it when up, then immediately came down on my head. It hurt a lot. Not only is ths entire things wood, but a bunch of people were pulling it down. >.< I got hit in the back several times, bnut managed to avoid being hit on the head. I abandoned it a little more than half way through. It was actually a rather short parade route, it just ooka while to do becuase of the weaving back and forth on the street and the stopping for traffic lights (to let cross-traffic through) and performances in front of the judges.
All-in-all it was a very Japanese experience, and I never would have done it but I was suer I`d never have the opportunity again, so I went for it.
Afterwards, we got 1000 yen coupons for the campus bar. I got juice, chips, and a kaluha and milk drink with mine, then went home. And ate some real food.
NEXT TIME! Look forward to hearing about the World Cosplay Summit and what a local cosplay event is like in Japan!
For breakfast I had yaki-onigiri (rice balls fried in soy sauce on the stove) and miso soup. It was fabulous. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that on Friday I had mochi and yaki-tomorokoshi (corn) both cooked on the stove in soy sauce. Both very yummy. And more yaki-ness for breakfast. <3 I love yaki-onigiri, so I was rather happy. ^_^
Tyson, Jorgen, Jamie and I met around 11 at the train station to go into Nagoya on Saturday. In Nagoya, we switched to the subway (we bought all-day passes for the subway) a made our way to the zoo. Well, it`s called an animal park, but I`m pretty sure that`s just the Japanese phrase for zoo. Anway, we got there and started making our way around. In parenthases, for the ones I know, I`ll be putting the Japanese name of the animals).
First we came to the rhinos (raino?). They were big and the enclosure was way too small. Also, the preventative measures the zoo had taken to keep the rhinos from escaping seemed... a bit lacking. Next were the elephants (zou). We were pretty sure they too could escape if they really wanted to. It was odd to be on the same level as them. At home, either they`re up or we`re down usually. Not on the same level. And there`s a big moat or whatever seperating us. It was just really different in this little zoo, compared to the massive one I`m used to in C-bus.
And we started to notice that the animals seemed depressed. It could have been the heat. Or it could have been their environment. Jorgen called the zoo ghetto... and we all kind of agreed. And kept that rolling the whole time we were there.
Penguins were next. We felt awful for them - they had to be hot. Even though they had water and some mist-ers it had to be awful for them in the heat.
Next were the deer (shika). Now, before I saw the deer were from India, I had a good chuckle at their name. Axis Deer. I thought they were Japanese, and that this was too funny, but I was wrong. Still funny. Axis Deer in Japan. They were cute and little and spotted even when full-grown, unlike white-tail deer which are only spotten as fawns.
Moving on to the big animals section, we came to a beautiful lion (raion?) who was panting so hard~ I felt really bad for all these animals. He was hidden in the tall grass, so you could only see his head. Again, his enclosure was rather small. And he was all alone. Next was a tiger (tora) of some sort. It was quite small and not a Bengal. I didn`t take a picture of the sign, so I don`t remember what it was.
Next were several kinds of bears (kuma). They looked miserable, too. A couple of them were pacing back and forth. Their pools were dry and we started calling them acid pits, assuming it was jsut for when the poor thing died of heat and horrible atmosphere, they dunked them in there. Then we saw one that had water in it. Still called them acid pits. Noticed that none of the animals that had them full were in them. They knew the danger . O_o
By the way - I`m sure this isn`t funny to you all. It was a real had-to-be-there kind of thing. I`m making a note of it more for myself to remember.
Giraffes (kirin) were next. They were cute. Then a polar bear. I called him Ralph. It seemed like a good name. Poor thing kept trying to go into his (cell) room where it was probably cooler than out in the sun, but his (bars) door was closed, and eh kept rubbing his head against it. Poor thing. We decided he had a skin disease.
Koalas (koara) were next. They were in a (presumably air conditioned) building. There was a sign that said in fun-tastic English "CAUTION! Because koala is sensative animal, please be quiet here." ^_~ The poor Koalas were all lethargic, so we made fun of that >_> It didn`t help that they had pictures and names posted and they looked ever-so-much like memorial pictures are funerals, it just added fuel to our fire.
Not too far after the koalas, outside a restroom, there were a ton of people with big ol` camera with the redic lenses pointed up at some trees. NO CLUE AT ALL what they were all keen on. Probably a bug of some kind... It was weird.
We stopped for drinks at a small shop. For the first time I noticed they were selling beer at the zoo. O_o Japan sure is different.
Raccoon Dogs (Tanuki). I thought tanuki were fictitious creatures. Really, I did. I realize now, that all I knew about was the fictionalized version. The real ones are durn cute.
There were some bumper-car-looking things. Tyson paid to drive around in the Hello Kitty one. We laughed and considered pretending not to know him, but in the end Jorgen filmed the whole thing.
We moved into the botanical garden part of the park. It was nice, but we were all kind of getting hungry and flowers and plants are just that... nice... so we didn`t stick around there too long. There was a particular plant, though, that Jorgen had just been telling us freaked him out miserably, when I pointed to an interesting-looking plant and learned that (oops) that was the one that scared him. Not too much later we saw them again. Bigger this time. So we left. The catci were kinda nice, though.
Back in the zoo (after we passed some old-looking statues of Snow White and the seven dwarves... and not too far away three of the dwarves again >_> ... that was weird) we came to the sea lions. They were cute and talkative. One of them was sliding back and forth on his tummy. Glancing back at the poor polar bears (there were two) they were both trying to get back into their cages.
We saw some ant-eaters and wild cats. It was starting to rain. Then we came to the gibbons. Or whatever those monkeys were called. Anyway, as we were getting close, one of them swung in their cage, which made me jump. Then they started making a lot of noises. For whatever reason, that really, really, really freaked me out. Without meaning too, I started walking backwards, my heart was pounding, and I was almost crying. I told the boys I was going on ahead. Then one of the monkeys made a noise that sounded like a man screaming. I walked a lot faster, totally freaked out. How could anyone like those things? They were terrifying!
We saw some more big cats. The puma was totally watching this old lady across the road from us. He locked on and followed her. O_o Musta been starving. I took a picture of the `Common Raccoon` for fun. We went into the little walk-about (like John Locke!) area for the kangaroos and got rather close to them. Then it started to rain harder and it was 3 and we were hungry so we left and caught the subway back to Nagoya station so we could go to curry house (where we went the other day).
There was some funny English on the menu at Curry House, discovered by Jorgen (on the English menu provided for us). "This dish uses the delicious and juicy meat lavishly and will make you satisfying and filling as the hand-made dishes." lol~ Phew! My picture of the menu turned out really bad, so it was hard to read it and type it in here, but I assure you, that`s what it said.
Because I had learned too late last time that the sauce did in fact have meat in it, I didn`t get curry this time. I ordered salad and cold pumpkin soup. The salad was fine. I managed to find dressing that wasn`t grody (I don`t like the dressings my family has, so I suck it up and eat my salad naked here >.<) and it was fine. The soup, however, was really grody and I couldn`t eat it. >.< Boo~ I wasn`t terribly hungry anway. I`d had a big breakfast. (two onigiri, a bowl of soup, and a bit of pineapple).
Into Takashimaya and to Tokyu Hands because Jorgen and Tyson hadn`t been. I tried for what will officially be the last time to get Maka in the Soul Eater gashapon. It is officially the last time because I got Blair again. That makes five times over the course of five months that I have gotten Blair. I will not be trying again. I will only buy the figure knowing who I am getting.
We went over to Big Camera, which is a nifty store with mostly electronics, but some other stuff. Jamie and I found the nerdy section that was more our style. On the second-to-top floor, there was a section of anime models and toys and stuff. They had a lot of neat stuff and they were cheaper than Tokyu Hands by a little bit. They had the Lelouch figure I`ve been wanting (the `It`s such a nice day~ Oh, look, it`s Suzaku` one) but he was on display and I didn`t see any more. I finally got up the nerve to ask a sales person if there were any others. He went and looked. No, he said, no others. I asked `may I buy that one?` even though it had been on display and was a bit dusty and missing his support stand (I`ve been wanting those two figures since I saw the video!!) and he came back and told me that no, it couldn`t be sold since it was a sample figure sent out by the company. DARN!!!!!!!!! (And I felt like THAT gaijin... but at least I asked and I don`t regret it! Other than feeling really, really stupid).
At 6, Jamie was supposed to meet some people from Yamasa (including a girl from Columbus) for dinner. I was curious about the other Columbus person, so we all went to meet them with him. After fifteen minutes, they weren`t there. Jorgen and Tyson went home and Jamie and I went in search of the matsuri that I had seen advertised that morning on the news.
We took the train to Sakae, where I thought it was, and looked around, but didn`t see anything. And it was raining pretty badly. I called home to find out where it was. Hiroshi-san said `Shinsakae.` Oops. We`d gone to the wrong one. We took the subway to Shinsakae, feeling greatful for our all-day passes. We didn`t see anything. Even worse, we saw less than anything. As in nothing. And no one. We decided to walk to the brightly lit tower thingy, hoping that was it, since the matsuri was supposed to be at a radio station or something. We walked a long way and finally got to it. Nothing there. We discussed giving up, since we had walked all the way back to Sakae and were right at the train station where we had started (but the other side of the building). Then Jamie wanted to walk to where the green search light was. So, we walked there. And found the matsuri. It was tiny and one turn around took less than 15 minutes and we easily saw it all. Oh well. It was an adventure. We went home.
TODAY (KYOU)
Today was ninja day. ^_^ I went to Iga with Hiroshi-san and Yasuko-san. It was fun. We left at 9:30 and it took us two hours to get to Iga-Ueno. (Iga is the historic ninja villiage, but relatively recently, in the 2000`s I think, Iga and about 5 other towns joined to form one city called Ueno. So as to not get it confused with the other Ueno, it`s called Iga-Ueno).
Historically, Iga is home to Hattori Hanzo and the Iga ninja - one of the best renowned group of ninja in history. (And Hanzo and other famous ninja feature wonderfully in some shojo manga I`ve read... <3). The villiage was destryoed by Oda Nobunaga, who also slaughtered many of the ninja, but then relented and allowed some to survive. Hattori Hanzo went on to serve Tokuwaga Ieyasu along with many other far less famous ninja, through a long time in the shogunate until they were dismissed somewhere down the line.
Lunch was at a soba/udon place. We had been heading for a tofu resturaunt, but learned it closed. So we went to the other. I thought the soup was tasteless. >.< The only good part of it was the bathroom had a ninja revolving door. ^_^ Cool~ Everywhere in the area had little cartoony ninja on their signs and stuff. It was cute.
We went to the ninja museum area. It seemed to me like they had their hand out every two seconds. >.< I didn`t get a chance to add up how much it all was however, becuase I always stand back with Hiroshi-san while Yasuko-san pays. I tried to be assertive and pay once or twice, but I always got shooed away, so I gave up. To go into the ninja house tour thing was extra. >_>
The `ninja house` was neat. And since I was in the crowd (and actually, another American woman too) they had these neat pull-down English explainations (no funny English here. It was flawless). The guide - who talked too fast and whose voice didn`t come clearly enough through the speakers for me to understand at all - showed us several passages and tricks a ninja house could be expected to have - revolving doors, secret passageways, places for storing weapons and secret documents and stuff. It was cool. I want my house to be like that. Seriously. It`d be a blast.
We went into the museaum where they had actual artifacts and replicas both on display - weaponry like shuriken, kunai, and swords, and equipment like a coat with chainmail (not fishnet, lol) and shoes for walking on mud (not water, said the English explaination, but I wish I could have read the Japanese one because sometimes, when I can read them, I have found that they day slightly different things, and it looked to me like the Japanese one said `water`). We didn`t have much time to look, though because we wanted to go to the ninja show at 1 (guess what, that cost more >.<).
It was kinda neat. They demonstrated a few weapons like swords, kunai, shuriken, blow-darts (from what looks like a flute and from a normal blow-dart...thing), a knife that looks like a flute and a couple of others. There wer ea couple of choreographed fights... which I thought would have been a lot more enjoyable had the soundtrack not included exaggerated sound effects. T_T But you have to admire their timing, doing it live. One guy demonstrated various tricks a ninja might learn to disguise himself as an acrobat of sorts (one of the seven popular disguises of ninja) including balancing a Japanese umbrella on his forehead or rollign a square wooden box on top of the umbrella, or a coin on the top of a smaller umbrealla. They were neat and he was cute in a cute way.
Done with the ninja stuff (there was disappointingly little, I thought), we went over to the castle. I think it`s called Ueno Castle. >_> Not sure. As Hiroshi-san pointed out, I have now been to 5 castles. ^_^ Uenojo`s building is a re-construction. I didn`t understand if it was reconstructed in the 1930s or if it had been reconstructed before then and rennovated in the 1930s. Anywya, what makes is famous is the foundation on which is is built - and the origianal part of the castle. The foundation includes a 33 meter stone wall (ishi-gaki). I think I read that construction was begun in... 1605 (or something like that... 160-something). It was impressive. At the time it was built, they were the highest stone walls in all of Japan. Nothing ever broke that record. (Of course, buildings are taller and stuff, but it has the highest stone walls).
As we were leaving the castle, there were two little ninja posing for a picture for their parents, trying to climb the castle wall. It was really cute and a took a picture of it myself. The place rented (for ￥100 or ￥200) ninja costumes and a whole bunch of kids were running around in them in all sorts of colors. Really, really cute.
We went to another building in the area which had soem festival stuff in it. It was kinda intersting... In the area, there were some `no littering` signs. I took a picture because I couldn`t help but notice that the person in the picture who was littering was blond. >.<
I got a t-shirt that says `ninja` on it... I haven`t decided yet if I`m going to wear it while in Japan. I don`t know if I`m that brave. I`ve only worn my Naurto shirt once. It just makes me feel like THAT gaijin.
Lauren - I took a picture of a koban. Also - I`ve taken it as a personal mission to try all of the kinds of BOSS. So far I`ve had Rainbow Mountain (so far my favorite flavor), Cafe au Lait, and Short Break (my favorite can).
Manjusha - I was watching a TV program tonight over dinner and I thought I saw YamaPi on it, but missed the name his introduction, so I kept watching... turned out it was someone else with stupid curly hair and a super cute face. I think it was that other cute guy from NEWS... what did you call him? Tegopi? Oh, and I looked into the Super Junior matter. It seems that it`s jsut their CDs being released, and they did a Japanese version of "Sorry, Sorry" which is on the CD as a bonus track for the Japanese release. It`s not like an all-Japanese D or anything.
Meaning: female ninja
Tidbit: Kunoichi comes from the way you can use the hiragana `ku`, katakana `no`, and kanji `ichi` to spell the kanji for `woman`. Like this: く ノ 一 = 女 (You have to have the East Asian Languages pack enabled on your computer to see it.)
Pronunciation: koo-no-ii-chii
On the way home we stopped at a rest stop (rest stops here are either called `service area` or `drive-in` and I can`t distinguish between the two, but I think it`s funny) to stretch a little and use the restroom. The predicted rain finally came. When we were inside it began POURING. There was thunder and a bit of lightning and TONS of water. I think we waited more than 20 minutes for it to subside, but I didn`t check the time, so I don`t know. It was crazy and out of nowhere it just began. Then we ended up driving back into it and it was almost impossible to see. Near home, however, there hadn`t been any rain at all. Isn`t it weird when that happens?
Oh, and at the rest stop I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said `HADOUKEN!` really big on the front. ^_^ And another guy whose shirt said something I forget on the front, but it was a sentence fragment, like it should be finished on the back, so I waited until he turned around and there was nothing... I was confused, disappointed, and felt like I was missing something. >.<
Tomorrow is calligraphy in class, I think. That should be fun. I think that`s it. Nighty-night!
This`ll be a short post. O_o Nothing happened today, but I wanted to write about it anyway, so it doesn`t get tacked onto another long set of days which may or may not come up. I don`t predict them, they just happen.
Breakfast today was another doughnut (I think I forgot to mention yesterday that berakafst yesterday was also a doughnut - green tea flavored) and yogurt. Today I took the cake I got for Nakamura-sensei. Everyone paid their bit. The first two classes were boring. After that, Kawaguchi-sensei gave me some money so Jorgen and I could go buy drinks and forks to eat the cake with. Well, they didn`t have forks. >.< So we got chopsticks and some drinks (tea, Aquarius, CC Lemon, Calpis). After the third class, we set stuff up and got Nakamura-sensei to come back over.
We sang Happy Birthday (in English... dunno what the Japanese do in that situation.. and someone just started singing it, so we all did). She blew out the five candles and was all flustered-excited. She kept saying thank you. Jorgen cut the small cake into 13 slices (10 students and 4 teachers, but Carla didn`t want any) and we all had some. It was yummy. And a nice gesture, I thought. I wasSarah had also brought some green tea flavored castella (cake) and Aida brought some Mexican sweets for Nakamura-sensei.
Lunch was Viking. You might remember it from my first day of classes. A big buffet place. I got black bean curry, edamame, tamago-nigiri, miso soup... and I think there`s something else, but I can`t think of it. Oh, potato salad. I felt a bit bad that Nakamura-sensei kept thanking me in particular. Everyone paid. I just brought up that it was her birthday and picked up the cake.
I might as well add today`s to it.
I feel like there was something that happened last night that I want to talk about, but I have no earthly idea what it is. Other than I talked to Arisa, which was cool.
Class was boring. >.< Again. I feel bad saying that, but sometimes I feel like I`m learning nothing (I came here more for re-enforcement, but it`s so easy-going!!) and I know for a fact I`m forgetting kanji left and right. I found out that not only Joren and Jamie, but also Aida and Paul are finishing up on Wednesday. The week after is Carla and I think Sarah. Next week we get a new student, I think... I don`t know. It`s shrinking~
Lunch was at Kurumi. A rice with carrots and stuff mixed in. I talked briefly about my homestay with someone who wanted to know (from the school), then came home. Talked about weekend plans (or lack thereof) with Yasuko-san an Hiroshi-san.
Worked on uploading pictures for a couple hours.
Ate dinner. Omurice <3 with Incan potatoes (yellow potatoes, cut into chunks and baked like fries ^_^) and some kind of pasta salad. It was yummy. The potatoes were very filling.
Back upstairs to write this. Here I am.
Word of the day: nomihodai
Meaning: all-you-can-drink
Tidbit: ... did this at karaoke. The food version is called tabehodai (like at a buffet)
Pronunciation: no-mii-ho-die
On a side note, I`m a bit addicted to this manga called `Shibobi Life.` It`s not even that good, but it`s dramatic and has enough romance to be cute. <3
Tomorrow, I`m going to the zoo with some people, then on Sunday, I`m off to ninja country with my homestay family. <3 Ninja~~~ (Got a little pre-occupied with the thought, so I hunted down some shojo manga with ninja and ended up with Shinobi Life)
I`ve started posting some pictures in my photobucket. They`re out of order and not nearly all there (even all of my sumo pictures aren`t there yet) but it`s a start! And it`ll give you a general idea of what I`ve been talking about. Hopefully you`ll see some stuff you recognize from my blog!
http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m132/a
- Location:Okazaki, Japan
FRIDAY (KINYOUBI):
I wrote this backwards again, so this is the last part for me, even though it`s the first for you. I`ve been at this a while now! I bet supper will come between me and finishing this at this point.
(Just as I suspected. I`m back from dinner. We had chirashizushi, macaroni salad, pumpkin, miso soup and edamame. YUMMY~~ And Hiroshi-san and I discussed WWII as Yasuko-san was on the phone with Tomoko-san and Shoko-tan was on some kind of talk show on TV. It was hard to pick out one person to listen to! >.<)
Okay, back to Kyoto. Breakfast was at 7:30, but Carlotta thought it was 6:30, so she was up way early until we finally asked what she was doing so early and she said she was leaving for breakfast and we told her to hold up about an hour. Breakfast was really interesting. Again. There were little things at each place setting that looked like those oil burners where you light a small candle in one part and the scented oil in the upper part makes the room smell nice except the candle in the lower part in this case was cooking ham and an egg in the upper part! The ham was already in there as they came around and lit our thingies. I didn`t add my egg and the lady misunderstood that I didn`t understand how to do it, so she kindly did it for me. I gave my ham to Tyson and egg to Jorgen. >_> After it had been cooked in the ham grease. >.< There was also rice and soup. I think there was something else... I can`t recall at the moment and I can`t seem to find a picture either.
After breakfast, we packed up and put our stuff on the bus. We started walking. We ended up in a super-crowded area that we soon realized was a parade route. For my dear family who knows what I`m talking about - Rozlynn has nothing on Declan. For those who didn`t follow that - our guide WALKED REALLY REALLY FAST. Almost like he was trying to lose us. Or didn`t care if we got lost. We didn`t stop and watch the parade, we shoved our way quickly throug the crowd along its route. Which was aqwful for trying ot understand what was going on or see anything. If you were anywhere near Declan, somtimes he muttered interesting facts. I wasn`t that close to him. I spent most of my time hanging on to Jamie and trying not to get lost, while trying to take the occasional picture over the heads of people as I walked. >.< Eventually we crossed the street using subway tunnels and Declan gathered us, told us we were going to have free-time until x-time and that it was worth hanging around at least a bit to watch one of the floats turn the corner. Then we split up. I headed to the corner to see the floats turn.
There were a couple kinds of floats, all pulled by people. They were all on wheels, but propelled by pure manpower. In the case of the large ones with perhaps 20 people on top playing various instruments there was a whole team of them. (For the time being, until I get my own pictures up and linked, here are a few links to vaious pictures on another website. I didn`t take them, but here`s the style of float I`m talking about: http://mikazuki81.deviantart.com/art/pul
The larger floats are several hundred years old and can only go straight. They can`t turn. So, when they get to the corner, an amazing thing happens. Using bamboo, water, and body-power, they turn them in three turns. (you can get a rough idea of waht I mean by watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y1TUCcwi
After standing in the crowd, pressed in like sardines, pouring sweat, for the duration of one large float rounding the corner, we headed off. I mean, it was interesting and all. And they`ve had hundres of years of practice to learn how to space the parade so that when the large floats are taking time to round the corner, the rest of the parade is stopped, but doing something interesting too. I saw a couple of people wearing shirts that said `Gion Matsuri - Since 869.` That`s a long time, my friends.
Anyway, I ended up with Kevin, Kristen, and Jamie (admittedly, my favorite people to hang out with). We did soem shopping around (I bought a couple of fans for myself and a souvenier for my mom) and had lunch at a ramen place. The nice girl working there saw us looking at the menu outside and brought out an English menu for us. ^_^ I got Shiro Miso Ramen (white miso ramen) since shiro miso is a specialty of the Kyoto area (The Okazaki/Nagoya area has red miso) and the others for soy-sauce flavor. It was very tasty.
After lunch was a bit more shopping and wandering. Oh! While we were looking for a place to have lunch, we happened past a host club! I took a picture of the board with all the hosts pictures out front! (For those in polite society who don`t know what a host club is - and there are also hostess clubs - it`s where you go to a fancy place and pay for fancy, expensive alcohol, and a good-looking, charming guy to sit next to you and help you drink it). We didn`T stop and stare, but I didn`t think they guys looked that great at a quick glance. Not that I`d ever go to that kind of place, Daddy. ^_^ It`s too skeezy.
We wandered past a shrine that is apparently famous for being in a drama or something. Ijsut took a picture of it because it was cute. (My photo - http://satinkitten.deviantart.com/art/Ra
I bought a fortune at the shrien where we were meeting and where we had seen the Shinsengumi the day before. I had to ask Yoshinaga-sensei what it meant beucase I coudln`t read it and she said it was about average - it said that if I kept going doing things the same way I`d been doing them, everything would be fine. Lucky fortunes you can keep as a good luck charm, but since mine wasn`t lucky, I tied it up with a bunch of other fortunes to keep it from coming true (mine is tied out of this picture, but to get an idea of what tying fortunes looks like, here`s another picture of mine - http://satinkitten.deviantart.com/art/La
After meeting up with everybody, we walked to a nifty hill of shops via a cool wooden alley of sorts. I really don`t know how to descrieb this area. Sorry. >.< Near the end of it (after we had stopped for a bit of browsing and pictures with the wooden Totoro there near the Gibli store) we saw two fake maiko. Wanna know how to know if they`re fake? They looked all pretty and done up - but that`s part of it. Real maiko don`t dress until late afternoon/ evening. And these two were out in the early afternoon. Also, their walking was loud and not graceful. Real maiko spend over a year learning how to walk properly. So, we saw fakes - probably tourists dressed up for fun.
We went up a big hill full of shops which were interesting. At the top of the hill was Kyomizu temple. Unfortunately, at that time, my camera battery died. Phooey. It was pretty, but as usual with Declan around, we dindP`t have much time to enjoy it anyway. A bunch of us went to drink from the spring waterfall. There are three waterfalls there (all from the same spring, I think) but if you drink from a particular one, its particular property is supposed to help you in... that. The problem was, we had had different lectures or remembered different things as to if you could drink from only onr waterfall or two (we all agreed against all three) and what property the falls had. I thought they were health, love, and money. We agreed on something long those lines, but din`t know which was which. So we guessed.
Now, in order to drink from the waterfall, you stand behind it and use a long-handled dipper to cath the water as it falls. These dippers are then allegedly sterilized using UV light. I say that`s a load of hooey. But if I suddenly get cancer, I know what I`m blaming. Anyway, we decided it was maybe okay to drink from two, after observing other people, we wouldn`t tell. And did one drink from one, then the other or make a coctail? I dunno. I drank from what I figured was love and money, making a coctail of it. If nothign else, it was a nice, cold drink. >_> Ah, well.
After that, it was back on the bus and home. At home, I went through all 520 of my pictures from the trip with my host family, pulling out my laptop for the first time since I`ve been here to finally unload them. >.<
SATURDAY (DOYOUBI):
I was working on my kirie picture in the living room when Yasuko-san`s friend came to visit. We all went to lunch together. We went to a soba place and got this crazy tenzaru soba set that came with three courses of different styles of soba noodles (tea noodles, something kinda white colored, and regular) as well as tempura! It was so much food!
After that I went to meet people at the mall. We met up in the game area and went to see Harry Potter. We lucked into the theater having a student discount that included college students and accepted Yamasa as a college. So our tickets were only 1500 each instead of 1800. >.< The movie was pretty good. Jamie and Kristen forgot how it ended so they had a suprise coming. ^_^ The theatre was packed! We saw it subtitiled, but I think they were also shoing it dubbed at that thetre, at other times.
We all did purikura together after the movie. Purikura is short for `print club`. We went in the booth (shoved all seven of us in there) and took the pictures, then went to the side of the little booth to edit them and write on them or add little effects. It was pretty fun. Another check off the list of things I wanted to do in Japan. And I did it before Kevin and Kristen left. Yay~
Jorgen left for dinner at home and the rest of us decided on cury udon in the mall for dinner. It was pretty good. Got all of us sniffing. -^_^- Our plans were to meet over at the karaoke place at 7:30 because I wanted to leave by 10, so I wanted to start early.
We met a little later than 7:30, but whatever. We got our room and ordered the all-you-can-drink-in-two-hours plan. I think we went through six or eight pitchers of beer and we each got a Kaluha banana drink of some sort. It was a lot. O_o I know I`ve never drunk so much before, and certainly not that much beer. I`m just not much on it. I was THRILLED to see some songs I really wanted to do that MOMO2 in Columbus doesn`t have. I made sure to sing `Amai Koibito,` and `Sakura Addiction.` Kevin and I sang `Cruel Angel`S Thesis` and Aida and I did `Ouka Saki Some Ni Keri` (my favorite D song, I was so excited to find out she knew it!!) and `Revenant Choir` together. Yay~
I definately drank too much. My mouth and hands felt numb-fuzzy and I was getting a little dizzy. >.< Okay, been there, done that, don`t feel keen on doing it again. I went past my 10:00 that I wanted to be home by. We ended up leaving not long before midnight. I thought about calling for a ride but it was late, so I didn`t want to impose. It maybe a 15 minute walk, so I figured I`d just go myself. After I`d started walking, I thought maybe I should at least call and tell them I was on my way. I checked my phone and saw a missed call from Yoshiko-san. I called her back and told her I was on my way home and that I should be fine and where I was and I should get there soon. When I got close, I saw Yasuko-san waiting at the end of the block for me. Guilt set in hard-core. She said if I was going to be out late I should call because it`s dangerous. I hadn`t seen anyone on the streets, and thought it seemed pretty safe, but as I was about to say that some motorcycle revved reaby and she told me that there are bike groups - I don`t know if gang is the right word - in the area and she worried for my safety. When we got inside, she asked that I be home by 12 in the future. I felt so bad. I should have just left when I said I was going to. I didn`t call for a ride becuase I didn`t want to impose, but I just made them worry more. Shower and bed.
SUNDAY (NICHIYOUBI):
I was hot from drinking the night before, so I turned my air condidioner down to 17 degrees. In the morning, the sliding glass door to my room (like a traditional Japanese sliding wood and paper door, except with glas instead of paper ^_^) was wet! And hard to open! It turned out that the air temperature difference between my room and the one next to it created a lot of condensation and that had dripped some, makeing the bottom of the door swell. I turned off the air conditioner immediately and opened my windows. >.<
To escape the enduring heat, my host parents suggested we go into the mountains for a while. We loaded up and headed off to a cool plateau area. (Yoshiko-san passed in favor of sleeping on ehr day off) We stopped for lunch and had udon and some sort of starchy-miso-mochi thing... It was okay... and ice cream. BUT THE ICE CREAM WAS SO COOL! The flavor options were vanilla, green tea and sake. For real! Sake flavored ice cream! Yasuko-san and I got that one. It was interesing. Just the subtle taste of sake in the vanilla ice cream.
We got back on the road and ended up at a place that is a ski resort in the winter and in the summer people go there for a cool picnic with a view or something like that. At least, Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san go there for picnics when it`s hot in Okazaki. ^_^ There was a small lake with swan-shaped boats on it full of enormous koi. Everywhere has huge fish here! And there were tons of them! They were practically on top of one another! We took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain. It was my first time on one and it wasn`t as scary as I thought it would be. Phew. On the way up, Yasuko-san pointed out flowers and told me thier names. She said usually there`s more, but just not that day. On a clear day, Hiroshi-san said, you can see Mt. Fuji from the top of the mountain we were on, but it wasn`t a clear day. ^_^ It was cool to the point of being a bit chilly. IT felt nice.
We left after not too long and went back home to the heat. >.< I finished the kirie I was working on and Hiroshi-san put it on a while background for me and added a green tint to the leaves. I forget what dinner was... but Yoshiko-san ate in the living room where she was watching a Gackt concert on TV. ^_^ I watched part of it, but he`s really not my cup of tea. A bit too weird and pretentious... and he has weird vibratto.
MONDAY (GESTUYOUBI):
SUMO!! WE didn`t have to be at school until 10:10 and even then, we just met at the station instead of the school. We all gathered and hopped a train to Nagoya. We got to Nagoya station and split into two groups for lunch. I went with the miso udon group. I`ve been eating a bit too much udon for my taste, but the alternative was some sort of meat donburi, so udon it was.
We went into Takashimaya, the huge department store I went to with my host family when we were in Nagoya a few weeks ago. In the udon resturaunt, we ordered and donned huge paper bibs (lobster-style) so we didn`t get any of the sauce on our clothes. We all looked stupid. The udon was hot hot hot! It came in metal bowls (iron?) and was boiling under the bowl used as a lid. The procedure was to fish the thick noodles out of the thick broth and put them in the other bowl to cool before eating them. I found that made them hard to eat, so I dipped them back in the broth before eating them. They were a little tough and chewy, but sensei said that`s just the style. I dunno... I`m a soba person myself.
After that we had some free time. Carlotta, Jamie, Kristen, Carla, and I wanted to go to the observation area on the 51st floor where you can look out over all of Nagoya, so we set off to find it. Only... we got lost. Of course. We ended up in the office building attached to the one we needed to be in and ended up asking a poor office worker what to do. He was sweet and told us that thw building we were in didn`t have a 51st floor (just 50 >.<) and that we had to go abck to the 12th floor and over to a special elevator in the other building which led to the 51st floor. So we did that. Then finally got there only to find that it wasn`t a viewing platform like we had expected, but a couple of pricey-looking resturaunts. We picked one where it looked like we could afford something - a cafe that sold small cakes. It was expensive, but about average for Japanese cakes. >.< I got a mango crepe thingy where it was a pile of a ton of crepes cut into a wedge shape and with mango on top and a little inside. It was very, very yummy. We got seats where we could see the view (keshiki) but it was cloudy and even rainind a little bit so it wasn`t particualrly spectacular, but it was the first time any of us had been up that high in a building so it was a bit thrilling.
We all went down to the floor that had music and books and split up. From there Jamie and I went to Tokyu Hands. I managed to find a souvenier for my dad (finally) and older brother. And I found the gachapon section there. Well, Jamie did. And I tried again (stupidly) for the Maka figure I want so badly. Guess who I got? Not Blair! I was excited it wasn`t her, but it wasn`t Maka either. I got Black Star. He looks pretty cool, but I think I`ll probably try to get rid of him. >.< Jamie tried for Sora from the Kingdom Hearts set and ended up with Axel.
Everyone met up at the golden clock in the train station and we headed off to Nagoya Castle via the subway. Nagoya-jo is a reconstruction. The original was burned down during air raids during World War II. >_> Oops. Oh, America. It`s... really obviously reconstructed. O_o It includes an elevator and you can leave your shoes on. Basically they re-constructed the outside and the inside is all modern museum-style. It`s a bit weird. There was a 3D theatre which told the story of Nagoya-jo and that rebuilding is still in progress. On the top floor (which was awful to go up the stairs to. For whatever reason my legs locked up and dind`t want to move. It really hurt ot climb up there.) there were windows on all sides and those pay-per-view things you only find places that have a nifty view. There were also donation boxes to help with the re-building of the outer palace part where the shogun lived. I contributed a little to `The Guilt Box`, as I thought of it. Tyson found a vending machine that sold Dr. Pepper but didn`t tell me until too late, which irked me because I`ve been trying to find Dr. Pepper in Japan because the cans are really crazy-cool and my host family said they`ve never tasted it before. And I love it. Anyway, we weren`t at the castle long because it was time to go over to the Sumo tournament!
The sumo tournament building is literally next door to the castle. We walked over there and got to our seats. I sat with Jamie on one side and a Japanese couple on the other. It was coooooooooooooool to see live! I`ve been watching the tournament a little on TV and it was neat to be there in person. Jamie and I bet on it. 10 yen per bout. In 26 bouts it turned out that I only owed him 10 yen. Cool. We had a chart showing who was fighting whom and their wins and loses so far in the tournament. We used that to judge who we wanted to pick and took turns picking first.
Sumo wrestlers really are athletes. They aren`t just fat. I think we all appreciated it more after having tried our hand at it a few weeks ago. We got to see the current Yokozuna (top-ranked sumo wrestler) from the East (I mean Eastern Japan) and West fight. It was cool. All the ceremony and stuff is cool. I wanted a sumo pkushie, but they were like, 1800 yen for the small ones, and that was just too much. >.< I haven`T looked at my pictures on my computer yet. I hope I can zoom and crop them so they look cool. We`ll see. We were far away from the action in the cheap seats, but the cheap seats in that arena were a lot closer than the cheap seats in any arena I`ve ever been in.
One time, one wrestler threw the other down and out of the ring and he fell onto one of the judges. O_o I bet that hurt. A lot.
After sumo I was going to go home, but a bunch of people were staying around Nagoya for dinner with Kristen and Kevin, so I called home and said I`d be late and was having dinner out. We wandered around and ended up at a curry place. Jorgen, Dan, and Kevin discovered that you could order various portion sizes by how many hundres of grams of rice you wanetd. Dan and Jorgen each got 600 grams, I think, and Kevin got 500? Dan also got spice level 4. Normal was 2.
After that we got on the train home. Jorgen and I caught the same bus heading to our homes. I was still a big hungry after I got home so I had a little more to eat. Yoshiko-san was having her dinner at that time as usual, since she gets home late every day.
TUESDAY (KAIYOUBI):
Today at last. Today was a sad day. Kristen and Kevin left to go home. :( I`d hung out with them more than I had Alex, so although I was sad to see him go, I think I`ll really feel the loss of Kristen and Kevin. :(
This morning, I went to school at the usual time. As I was getting out near the bus stop, one pulled up - that`s always nice. I saw Carlotta riding her bike. Got to school. Kristen and I went to get our refund for taking the airport shuttle bus (limousine bus, haha!) which we had both forgotten about, and then went to class.
When we got back, we found out that the presentations were going to be first thing, since Kristen had to leave. She and Kevin were going over their presentations with Monmoto-sensei and I was sent off to the room where everyone was writing letters to them. I wrote a letter to Kristen on cute paper with a panda and Kevin`s had strawberries on it (lol).
They came in and presented about their time in our class. Then we took a picture together and got a break. We said goodbye to Kristen. :( Two more classes - we talked about seeing the sumo tournament, the sounds Japanese use as words (like the word they have for chattering teeth or a rumbling tummy). Break.
During the break a bunch of us were outside trying to see the eclipse. It was only 80% in our area, but it was still cool. Unlike some people out there, none of us had purchaced protective lenses or anything, so we just squinted and hurt our eyes trying ot see. Well, mine hurt, so I didn`t look long. It was cloudy, so we had to wait for the cloudy to gap so we could see it. I tried and failed to get a picture, but you have to have more than an average camera take pictures of eclipses, I think. Was the eclipse only viewable on this part of the world? Is that a stupid question? I don`t know much about eclipses. >.<
Last class was talking about Japanese festivals and more of the above. Lunch was at Kurumi. I was some kind of donburi - bowl or rice with something on top - but I`m not sure what it was called. They made an eggplant version for me, and it had a strong miso flavor. It was... okay. Dunno. It came with the weird eggdrop soup, tea, and soem fried pumpkin and Japanese pickles.
After lunch, we got our hankies that we had tie dyed. It was fun to take off the strings and reveal the pattern. I think mine turned out quite pretty. ^_^ Well, they all did.
Then, Kevin, Dan, Jamie, Aida and I went to ANIMATE. Kevin and I took the bus. I really wanted to get the special-edition thingy ZERO-ZUM puts out (the name escapes me at the moment) but I haven`t read the ZERO-ZUM I bought yet, so I talked myself down. There was some other stuff I liked there, but I couldn`t justify buying it. If I really want to justify buying something, I can. So I must not have wanted it that bad. Hetalia stuff I saw: clear file, shitajiki, CD album (if it had been sturdy or zipped shut, I`d have gotten it), mini Alarm clocks (they had France, England and America - sorry, Ash. I already got your souvenier. >.<), and `Happy Birthday` France and America keychains that were nothing special. I got all googly-eyed over all the super-cute Reborn stuff. I left without buying anything. I really like to go, though. It`s fun. I wish that was my room.
Then we went to AEON and got ice cream at Coldstone. It`s fun because they really have about a million cute little songs they sing. It makes me happy to go. I`ll never enjoy American Coldstone nearly this much. It`s yummy, but not fun. We looked briefly at cakes, but they`re so expensive. Tomorrow`s Nakamura-sensei`s birthday and we wanted to get her a cake. ^_^
We split up, and I went home. Yasuko-san and I went to a cake shop where she used to work and I picked up a cake for sensei. People`ll pay me back tomorrow. It`s still small for the price, but I guess that`s how it is in Japan. >.< And here I am...
Word of the Day: nishoku
Meaning: Solar Eclipse
Tidbit: There was a complete solar eclipse today at about 10:55, visible in southern Japan (Okinawa). Where I am, it was only 80%. A Lunar eclipse is called `gesshoku`
Pronunciation: knee-show-ku
I`m going to see if I can go to Tokyo this weekend. I think the next interesting thing we`re doing in class is calligraphy. I think that`s on Monday. I`m also going to try (I know I keep saying this!) to work on pictures and postcards tonight after dinner. I think next week Jorgen and Jamie leave. :( And we get a new person.
Oh, and as a side note - Japense toilets continue to accost me from all sides. I really hate those things. >.< Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy do they still exist in a country so taken with Western things and that loves to put all those nifty buttons on western toilets? Who could possibly prefer them? By the way - for those who don`T know what a Japanese toilet looks like. Picture bacically a uninal. On the floor instead of on the wall. >.<
- Location:Okazaki, Japan
- Mood:
sad
Before I start. Manjusha: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GfXj7MDl
WEDNESDAY (SUIYOUBI):
In class we did sado - tea ceremony. For that, we got to dress in yukata. Sarah and I brought our own. I was hoping to learn how to tie the obi, but the yukata sensei just did everything for us. Girls were dressed in one room, then boys in another. After that, we went over to another room together and watched a short video on sado which involved a rather 90s-looking American woman learning sado. Then we went outside and through the garden where we washed our hands and then crawled one by one through a small entrance to the tea room (designed that way for the time of samurai) which was really ankward. Even though it was designed to be entered while wearing kimono, it would have been easier to do in pants. Oh yeah, that remind me - sado is a very formal, traditional thing, so it`s normally done wearing kimono (but nice clothes are okay... at least for gaijin, and if people are involved in a club at schoo, they just do it with their uniforms on).
The tea sensei showed us the procedure and handed out thick paper napkin thingies that we put in the front of our yukata. Those of us not making or serving the tea at any given time could sit in a more relaxed manner (not in the formal seiza style), but I found it difficult to sit any way but. I mean, I could kinda sit to the side, but looked horribly awkward, so ended up sitting in seiza the whole time. I wasn`t so bad, though, because a couple people in, I got my change to make the tea. For those not familiar with the procedure, I`ll do my best to describe it. We had summer-version tea... not sure how it`s different other than the bowl, but whatever. Oh, and my camera was dying, so I have, like, no pictures of this. >.<
The person making the tea got a colored handkerchied tucked into their obi (belt-thing) to signify their tea-maker-ness. Then, sitting in seiza in front of the water, with sensei off to our side we began. First thing into the bowl is two scoops of powdered green tea, using a wooden scoop. I think I put too much in. >_> Then with a wooden ladel dipped into the water heater, pour half of the ladel-full into the tea bowl. Then the rest of the water goes back in the heater. Then with a bamboo whisk, briskly whisk the tea top to bottom (different from winter tea... dunno why) until frothy. At that point, use the whist to write the character `no` in the bowl, which brings the bubbles to a nice mound in the center, apparently. >_> Then serve. Jamie got mine. Poor guy. I sat in front of him, turned the bowl two quarter turns (okay, I forgot to do that, but that`s the procedure, so I lied here) and presented it to him, bowing.
Jamie drank it (probably lied) and said it was good. I rinsed out the bowl, returned it, and a few people later, got my turn. I sat on the mat we were using to designate who was drinking. First you eat the snack, which is sweet, so that when you drink the tea, which is bitter, it creates a nice balance. The snack was a ball of red bean paste wrapped in some wort of bright blue ... thing. Neo-Japanesque traditional candy, I guess. >_> Anyway, it was yummy. Jorgen and Jamie laughed at me saying I was eating it like it was the most delicious thing in the world. >.< Oh, I forgot to mention that you use the stiff napkin thing as a plate of sorts for your snack., then fold it in half when you`re done and tuck it back into your yukata (kimono).
I forgot whose tea I got. Aida`s? Maybe... anyway, we bowed, I said `chodai itashimasu,` and I turned the bowl two quarter-turns so the design would be facing out, then drank the tea in three sips, making a small slurping noise on the last one, to show that I was done (that`s how it`s done, folks, not me being rude!) and wiped the place where my mouth had been on the bowl, then touched my fingers to the napkin to clean them off. I turned the bowl counter-clockwise two turns, thanked (uh, whoever it was... I think it was Aida) for the tea, and was done. I tucked my used napkin into the sleeve of my yukata and moved off the mat.
Alex ended up drinking tea three times. lol It was his last day, which was a little sad. He was fun. He got his participation certificate and we all took a picture together. The next day he headed off to Hokkaido (northern Japan) for classes at the Yamasa branch up there.
Lunch was Kurumi again. It was fried rice with tiny eel-like fish thingies in it. >_> I thought I could handle it was but I was wrong. I wussed out and didn`t eat it. I was too freaked out. I`d have gotten the pasta, but it was meat-sauce day, so that was a no-go.
I wanted to show Kevin and anyone else who was interested ANIMATE, so we planned to go and invited everyone. Jorgen and others wanted to go to, but wanted to go to Mos Burger first. Having not eaten and also being curious about Mos Burger, I was all for it. Kevin and I walked, everyone else biked. >.< They got there way ahead of us, or course. I was going to get the veggie burger but ended up getting the green tea/red-bean parfait thing and fries and onion rings that came together. It was yummy. I checked Mos Burger off the list of places I wanted to go. (The other burger place I want to visit is called Freshness Burger). Here`s the website for Mos Burger if you want to check it out! http://www.mos.co.jp/index.php As a side note, the like, four onion rings I got were AMAZINGLY AWESOME. The batter was really good.
So, after that it was off to ANIMATE. Kevin and I waited for the bus at a nearby stop, but it was rather late, so we decided to start walking. Of course the stupid thing came when we were right between two bus stops. We gave up and walked to Okazaki Eki and got a bus from there. It took a little while that way, but we got there. The others had stopped at another bookstore before going to ANIMATE so they hadn`t been there too long yet. I got a couple things for myself. And I`m done getting crap for Ashleigh now. >_> I got a CosMode (cosplay magazine) for myself. <3 <3 I`m excited. They`re always at least twice as much at home.
(Listening to Seishun Amigo right now. I`ve been making my way through NEWS songs on YouTube. Now I`m here. ^_^ Moving on to Kat-Tun after this)
I forget what supper was. >.< After supper I practiced putting on my yukata and learned how to tie my obi. Yasuko-san helped.
THURSDAY (MOKUYOUBI):
We had to be at school by 7:30. Hiroshi-san drove me. : ) We had a bus rented for the occasion. The younger sister of someone who works for Yamasa joined us. Our accompanying staff was Yoshinaga-sensei and Declan. I sat next to Kristen and Jamie sat across the isle from us. It was a small bus. It was a coach, but it was short, and only had two seats on one side, then one on the other, with seats that could fold down into the isle if needed. It was a long trip. Well, not THAT long, I guess, but I couldn`t really sleep, even though I`d gotten up early.
Well, I dozed a tiny bit, and woke up about as we were getting to the port at Nagoya - one of the largest in Japan. It was pretty cool. I tried to take pictures out the window, but you know how that goes. >.< We drove through ninja country, including an area called Shiga, which had a ninja on its sign.
About the sign, along the highway cities and areas have signs labeling them, complete with the name in Japanese and English and a picture representing the area. Okazaki`s picture, for example, is fireworks over Okazaki Castle. Also, Japan`s highways are all toll roads. I guess that way they probably don`t pay for them with taxes or something. Also, it probably encourages people to use public transportation like trains. And the people who never travel outside of their area or by car don`t have to worry about paying for something they`re not using. The tolls are expensive too, I think! Like, 1000 yen and stuff. That`s a lot.
At the rest stop I learned why the toilets are capable of the flushing sound. I`ve learned never to pass up a sign in English because it`s probably funny, or you`ll learn something funny that they need the foreigners to know. The flushing sound is to `cover toilet noise` the sign said. LOL~ So, question answered, whoever posed it earlier - Lauren or Hillary. That`s why. *~_^
We got to Kyoto and Declan (our tour guide of sorts) pointed out the Incline as we came into the city. It looks like a railroad, but it was really for transporting boats in and out of the city. Nifty tidbit there.
We headed to Niji-jo (Nijo Castle) which was built to serve as the home of the shogun when he was in residence. Whis was less that 20 years in 250. Wasteful. >.< It was cool, though. Beautiful outside and in. Of course, it was a no-shoe-zone. Also, no pictures inside. The coolest feature of the castle is definately the Nightingale Floors. As a way to detect intruders, the floor is built with tons of tiny hinges that squeek when you walk on it. It`s nifty, but sounds a bit awful with a bunch of people walking on it. Imagine having to go to the bathroom or something in that place. How embarrassing.
The garden was lovely, too. Declan told us a humorous story about the waterfalls in the garden. It used to be the popular thing to have waterfalls in gardens, but when castles or what have you were built on a flat area or at the top of a mountain, there was no where for the water to come down from, so it was the job of a servant to, whenever the master (in this case, the shogun) would be walking by, to tip over a barrel of water to create a waterfall for the duration of the time the master was passing. I want that job.
After the castle, we went to lunch. It was crazy - lots of little bitty things. Cold tofu and squid and on and on. After lunch we had a bit of free time. Jamie, Kevin, Tyson and I crossed an apparently famous bridge and went to a small shrine on the other side which was really cute and fun.
After that, we went to Ryoanji Temple, a place famous for its rock garden wher eyou can only ever see 14 of the 15 at any given position. I liked the green garden better than the rock one. It was prettier.
Between Ryoanji and the Imperial Palace, hedge happened. I don`t remember how it came up, but Jamie said somethign about the worst thing he`d ever tasted was `hedge`. I thought I was missing slang, so I imagined him taking a bite out of a bush, but asked what `hedge` was through my laughter. It turned out he meant that kind of hedge. That was just about the funniest thing ever. Still is. I`m laughing right now.
The Palace was cool. Very pretty. Pretty buildings. Pretty over at the shrine part of it too.
Uh, sorry, I know I`m not giving a lot of detail here. I`m sleepy and fading...
Then we went to the ryokan (Japanese style inn). I ended up in a room with Kristen, Carla, and (joining us that day for the first time) Carlotta (from Italy). We had some tea and snacks provided in our room, then walked down the street with some of the guys. We wandered down a small shopping area and over to the big temple at the end of the street. While we were there, there were a lot of people gathered. I thought I heard a woman say something about `Shinsengumi` but firgured I was mistaken in my little fangirl mind. No. Because then the Shinsengumi came walkeing across the street and up onto the steps. O_o Of course, they were just re-enactors or whatever, dressed up at the historic Shinsengumi, but it was still cool. I fangirled my little heart out.
Back to the ryokan for dinner. DInner was... O_o Well, among other things, there was a whole fish (ayu), a small whole fish (meant to be eaten whole) with its mouth gaping open, and more edible things like corn tofu. Most of us had beer with dinner. Me included. In this case, it meant getting a whole large bottle to yourself. It was a bit of a struggle, but I defeated mine. Jamie took a momento picture for me.
After dinner, it was time to get ready for the matsuri. I went to take a quick shower in the room and change into my yukata. It turned out I was the only one who brought one. I was sad, but determined. Sekakku Nihon hi ita kara... and all. So I put it on and was ready to go. So, we were starting to leave, and this lady comes hurrying out of the ryokan and asking me to let her help me fix my yukata. I looked at Yoshinaga-sensei and asked if I`d done it wrong. It turns out that no one had noticed (myself and sensei included) that I had put it on left-over-right which is only used for dead people. O_o I was THAT GAIJIN. How embarassing. It took me only about five minutes to change. I declined the nice lady`s help, but she touched me up when I was done anyway. I was so embarrassed, I could have died (appropriately!). When I finished changing, I found that most of the group had left. Only Yoshinaga-sensei, Sarah, Carla, Aida, and that sister girl were left. Fudge. I had wanted to go with the others.
We set out. I felt stupid. Horribly stupid. In the train station a little old man stopped and said he thought it was wonderful and I looked cute wearing yukata. I thanked him and felt stupuid some more. Then, all night, I was THAT GAIJIN. (For those who haven`t figured it out, THAT Gaijin, is the foreigner who sticks out above all ofthers for one reason or another - usually either trying to hard to be one of the locals or not trying hard enough).
We got to the street where all the happenings were and it was cool. It was lined with street vendors selling food and a few games. I eventually ate candy-coated strawberries (liek candy apples, except I picked strawberries instead, and the candy doating was grody, so I just ate the strawberries) and I tried potato mochi (which I thought would be sticky and chewy like mochi, but was just kinda... there. Ah well. I tried Japanese fair food. ~_~ I also tried my hand at goldfish scooping. Kingyo sukui (I think). You get a small plastic hoop covered in paper to make a paddle of sorts and a metal bowl with a bit of water in it and you try to catch the fish from a shallow pool full of them. I guess a lot of people fail and break the paper. Maybe they go for the large fish, deep in the water. I was going for quantity over quality, since I wasn`t going to keep them anyway, and I figured out that you have to scoop shallowly and get the ones near the surface. I got 8. My net still wasn`t breaking and we`d been there a while, so I went for a big one and broke it. It was fun, though. I felt accomplished. The guy running it was impressed and told me to come back next year.
We saw groups parading through the streets, dressed in the same pattern yukata, playing flutes and uh, chime things. And saw one of the floats for the parade the next day. It was pretty cool.
The police closed down the matsuri at 10:30 for the night (like a fair closing - if you`ve never been there at closing time, the police move through and shoo everyone out. It`s normal - nothing bad happened) but the police were armed with riot gear which was a little unnerving. I went into a McDonald`s to use the restroom was was THAT gaijin. I heard people talking about me. >.<
We got back to the ryokan at 11:30. I guess I was lucky to get off with only one blister and it hadn`t even popped. Cool. Turns out tht the rubber sole part of the heel of one of my shoes had been lost sometime in the night. Sigh. I hate shoes that are ruined the first time you wear them. I`ll probably try to figure out a way to fix them...
That reminds me. I`d like to take a moment to inform you all of a terrible plague that has taken a firm root in Japan. There seems to be no stopping it. I`m talking abotu Crocs. TONS of people wear them. It`s awful. There`s a Crocs store over at Wing Town and everyone from toddlers to adults can be seen wearing them. It`s awful. At least my host family doesn`t like them either. Phew~ Well, at least Yoshiko-san thinks they`re ugly, and it hasn`t come up with Hiroshi-san or Yasuko-san.
Word of the day: okane-mochi
Meaning: to have a lot of money
Tidbit: It`s awkward being asked if your family is okane-mochi because you have air-conditioned cars at home (and your family has several of them). My host paernts heard from their son that air-conditioned cars are really expensive in America. Which led them to ask...
Pronunciation: o-kah-nay-mow-chi
Sorry. I`m tired. I`ll try to work on this tomorrow after I get home from watching Sumo. ^_^ Things to look forward to in the next edition: second day in Kyoto, Harry Potter and all-you-can-drink karaoke. Please forgive me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eGmiolj
One last thing (more for MJ than anyone else, but anyone can check it out): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Bhq4E-f
- Mood: sleepy
A very, very, very few pictures are up over at my Deviant Art account.
http://satinkitten.deviantart.com/
I`ll try to get more online soon!
SUNDAY:
I wrote this blog backwards, so I`m getting to this last. it`s 10:00. >.< Up early because I was excited about the castle. We left just after 9, heading for Hakone and a real castle. I guess it`s about halfway to Tokyo and driving it took us a while to get there. We stopped at a rest stop a little after 10 and got ice cream. What a crazy, sweet-loving family. ^_^ BUT WAIT. My soft-cream was murasaki imo flavored. For those of you who don`t know Japense or didn`t believe your eyes, I ate purple (sweet) potato flavored ice cream. It was a bit weird, but nice. Back on the road.
We stopped not too far from Hakone at a famous sweets shop and got some cheesecake, orange cake, and yokan. <3
I`m not sure what time we arrived in Hakone, but it was about lunch time, so we parked and looked for lunch. We went into a shop with a ton of cute things in the window. I was going to buy a phoen strap with the town mascot on it (Hikonyan, a white cat wearing a read kabuto) when Yasuko-san took it and said she`d get it for me. Then asked if I liked a bag, and I said it was really cute, and she said she`d get it for me. O_o So, I ended up with the charm and the bag. I wonder if she`s sick of my tacky bright-pink bag I carry all the time. ^_^
Lunch was soba again. I felt a little bad. Although I could eat soba forever, I think, I felt bad they were having it two days in a row. Apparently, the area specialty is beef, so that`s what most places serve.
After lunch, we went over to the castle. The grounds are very large. We walked around part of the moat, full of enormous koi and some cute turtles and paid admission to be allowed in up by the castle. Then we started to climb. At the bottom, the steps look really relaxed, on a gentle incline, but it` really steeper than it looks, and takes a lot of effort to climb the long, oddly-spaced steps. Hiroshi-san said it was a tactical defense thing. At the top (finally - honestly, I was a little worried about Hiroshi-san at the end, there), we went in one of the old castle buildings. It was built high up and we had to cross another bridge to get to it. Inside, we had to take off our shoes and wear the slippers provided to walk around. Perserving the old wood, I guess. The cieling beams were darling, I thought. Most of them weren`t straight, and I thought that was cute, so I took a bunch of pictures. The support beams all had circle-shaped shallow dips in them all over, obviously intentionally cut that way, but I didn`t understand Hiroshi-san`s explaniation as to why. It was really hot insde there.
More climbing to get to the actual castle. Very pretty. White, three or so stories. Very nice. Hakone Castle. At that point, Yasuko-san opted out of going in the castle, and opted into sitting in the shade by the jihanki (vending machines) and mini gift-shop. The other three of us went inside. No slippers this time, but shoes weren`T allowed either. We all got plastic bags to put our shoes in. I had worn my Berkinstocks, so I was barefoot. >_> Walking around a really old castle. I was cool, except for the STEEP STEEP STEEP steps. I was okay going up them, but knew I`d have trouble going down. That`s the thing. I can go up ladders and stuff, it`s going down that I have anxiety over, for whatever reason. As I predicted, going down was hard for me. I gripped the rail tightly and went SUPER SLOOOOOOW. After the first one, I decided to go down backwards, and that helped. I went a bit faster and was a little less concernicus over it.
We left the castle, shoes on, and met back up with Yasuko-san. I was pouring sweat (most people there were), and we were all mopping it up with our hankies. I went to get a Pocari Sweat or Aquarius (sports drinks) from the vending machine, but found it had Gatorade instead, so I got that. It was weird. You know how Gatorade is rather watery, not a lot of flavor, and translucent? Well, this stuff was... thicker. Not thick like jelly or anything, but thicker than normal Gatorade and the flavor was weird. It was like Japan-i-fied Gatorade.
We got shaved ice. Yoshiko-san and I had... red (not sure what flavor it was supposed to be - probably Strawberry) and Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san shared lemon. The ice was fluffy! Like it was spun, more like cotton candy than sno-cones I`m used to here! It was nice. VERY sweet, though.
Back in the car, the thermometer read 39 degrees. HOT!!!!!! Yoshiko-san and I fell asleep in the back.
Not long after we got home, we went out for dinner. Unagi (eel) at an unagi resturaunt. It was a bit of a wait to get in, and what I thought was a really long wait for our food! Actually, I was wondering if we had forgotten to order, because I didn`t notice when it happened, when our food finally came.
Home, shower, bed.
MONDAY:
Breakfast was toast, strawberry yogurt, and peach. I felt awful for personal reasons >_>. I took to bus to school, and we talked about grammar. >_> Boring. Oh, I forgot. Last class of the day was tea-tasting. That was fun. I got to try some yummy teas. There was one pickley, fishy tasting one that I couldn`t drink all of. It was just grody. And I found out that Cameron had left that morning ot go home. Apparently he had some pretty bad anxeity and couldn`t sleep or anything. >.< How awful! Lunch was at Kurumi as usual, and I had the pasta because the alternative was dry curry and I think the accompanying sauce had meat. >.<
After lunch, Kevin and I took the bus to Aeon where we people - watched (mostly commented on how PRECIOUS all of the little kids were) ... gosh that makes us sound like creepers. They really are cute, though. Anyway, we people-watched for almost an hour as we waited for Jorgen, Kristen, Jamie and Dan to arrive. Dan was goign to rent a bike. For whatever reason, he couldn`t, so I guess while the others rode their bikes, he ran all the way to Aeon. O_o Once assembled, some of us were hungry (Kurumi isn`t very filling for anyone) so we went upstairs to the cheaper fast-food court. Jorgen got udon, Dan got some kind of hot-stone-bowl dish, and Jamie and I got crepes. They were a lie. <_<
The display shows them having, like, 400 times more filling than they actually do. IT looked like you got quite a bit of fruit in the thing, but that WAS NOT SO! I got strawberry with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. The crepes were huge and made fresh right there, which was cool. Then she squirted a thick line of shipped cream onto it. It was a good tart, but then I think I got less than a whole small strawberry. >_> And a small (well, Japan-sized) scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup, then rolled up into a cone shape. Jamies`s was the same, but kiwi-version. All in all, it was yummy, but over-priced, and I really felt decieved by the display. Ah well. Another food I wanted to try in Japan checked off my list. ^_^
We were on our way to the game center after that, but some of us hadn`t been, and others forgot where it was. >.< So we wandered around a bit. Then we lost Dan. Then Jorgen stopped to look at some shirts and the rest of us kept going. Then Kristen and I saw bargin sunbrellas (the parasol-like hi-gasa) and stopped to buy them. We each had come to the mall wanting to buy them, and there they were on sale! I got a compact-style one so it won`t be a problem to carry around or try to get it home on the plane. Kristen got a bigger one. We both got black, and mine has lace trim. I think they`re supposed to be used for rain too... at least ours are supposed to be okay. (Today when we were walking around with our higasa, I told Yasuko-san that I`d gotten mine at a bargin price of 980. She said hers was over 10000! >.<)
Then we went to the game center. Played some Mario-Cart, which was fun because it was like driving the car. I got kinda sucked in and almost got dizzy a couple of times. I tried a couple UFO catchers, for the lols. Failed. One, I cought something by its tag, then it got stuck on the claw and wouldn`t come off. >.<
Kristen and I went to the Sanrio store and wandered in a couple others. We got split up somehow in the toy section of JUSCO and after making about five laps looking for her, I left. I wonder which of us gave up first. So, I went home. And ate a pudding from the grocery store the other day. I don`t know why I was endlessly hungry yesterday, but I was. It was weird. I already can`t think of what dinner was. But I ate all of it. And a small mountain of edamame and watermelon. And a small bit of cheesecake. Finally, I was full. I was a horrible battle.
Later, I learned that that day, Yoshiko-san`s boyfriend had proposed to her. O_o I didn`t know she had a boyfriend. It took Yasuko-san explaining about four different ways that Yoshiko-san is going to get married before I was sure I was hearing correctly. So, congrats to her!!!! Yay! **confettis everyone reading**
Shower, SMAP on Mr. Brain. Bed.
TUESDAY (today):
Breakfast was toast, strawberry yogurt, and mango. Hiroshi-san drove me to school. He seemed to be on his way out anyway. I got there rather early (25 mintues!) and the building I have classes in was locked, so I went to the other one and kinda dozed in the common aera for about ten minutes, then went back over to my building. Jamie saw my Vampire Knight necklace which I wore today to show him and share the love. <3 Kristen wore the super-cute dress she got the other day at Wing-Town.
We had a new classmate! Kinda weird, because it`s not Thursday, and I don`t know why she started a couple of days early, but whatever. Her name`s Aida and she`s from Mexico. I didn`t talk to her too much, but she seems nice.
Not much to say about class. We talked about grammar, sado (tea ceremony) manners, and Kyoto temples and shrines. I learned from Kevin there was an earthquake last night. I had no idea.
Lunch was Pizza Hut. CB and CC classes split into boys and girls to read the menu and pick three pizzas each for the culture course to have for lunch. Thr girls picked a vegetarian, the Idaho Special, and Tomato Garlic. The boys picked some weird stuff. ^_^ Sensei called to order it and we went out to the lobby area and waited at a table with drinks. One of the sensei and some of the guys went over to DOMY and got some food for the waiting times. Which was good, because I think if we`d just had the pizza it wouldn`t have been enough. The waiting food was croquettes (8 pumpkin and 8 of something else... beef?) some maki-zushi and inari-zushi and a box of takoyaki. The pizza finally came and it was SMALL!!!! I don`t remember if we got mediums or larges, but they were smaller than a Pizza Hut small here, I think... Somewhere between a small and a personal. O_o We were all a bit shocked (the Americans, at least).
I`ve got a picture of me with a Pizza Hut box and whatever poor anime it`s supporting now on the cover. ^_^ I really need to get pictures up. >.<
Right after I finished eating I left because I was going to go to the bank with Yasuko-san to the bank to cash some of my Travelers`s Checks. I got home and Hiroshi-san drove us to a different bank than we`d gone to before. The exchange rate was AWFUL!!!!! 91 yen to a dollar. >.< I changed several hundred dollars, though because I don`t want to have to go to the bank often, and what if it gets worse?! >.<
We got back from the bank and I went with Yasuko-san over to Tomoko-san`s for a jewelery-makign gathering. Several ladies - 4, including Yasuko-san - go to Tomoko-san to learn. ^_^ We were the last to arrive - right at tea time. The tea was yummy, the azuki soupy stuff with dango was yummy... the pickles were not. Sorry. No matter how much everyone else said they were good, I thought they were really gross and I had to try really hard to eat them all. >.< But I did it! Phew~
Tomoko-san commented that the design on my bag reminded her of insect-repellant coils people burn here. Everyone agreed. O_o I wasn`t sure how to take that.
Then, together with Yasuko-san and with the donation of a couple stones from one of the other ladies, we made a gift for my mom. ^_^ Sorry, I kinda gave away the suprise, Mom. ^_~* It was fun. The ladies talked to me a lot, which left me at a loss sometimes, but in general, I was okay. One of the ladies was making a belt, one was making a glasses chain and one was working on shaping stones. We had coffee (I had tea instead - I tried to refuse the coffee because I didn`t feel like drinking anything, and instead magically ended up with tea...) shortly before we left and the snack with the coffee was pretzel chunks. But they were `Cremey Caramel` flavored Snyder`s pretzels. >.< Have any of you ever had flavored pretzles? Sweet ones? I haven`t. It was not to my taste. Snyder`s are usually break-you-teeth-hard, too, and these weren`t as hard as I`m used to. Perhaps because they were chunks, so you got a lot of the middle and less of the outside.
After we left, I parted ways with Yasuko-san because I wanted to go to Animate. O_O I`d spotted it when we went to the bank last time (the other bank, the first time I changed money) and I`ve been wanting to go ever since. So I walked. It`s a dangerout place to have only perhaps a 20 minute walk from my house. O_o
It was wonderful. I found it, and made my way up to the second floor, where I was greeted by gashapon machines. ^_^ I wandered inside and tried to keep my inner fangirl smashed down inside. It was a bit hard. The first thing I picked up was all of the Hetalia swing-tab gashapon they had left. ^_^ They were so cheap~~~ Online, you can get them in a set for about $180 or individally (only sometimes) for like, $10-20. >.< Then I got Germany`s character CD. Because I love him. Try and stop me. Then I got a basket and walked around. Next to go in was a Germany hand towel, the same micro-fiber style as my favorite Mukuro hand towel. Score~ (and I got Russia and China since there were there) ^_^ And the Hetalia phone strap... I looked at a ton of Reborn stuff I wanted... but didn`t get any of it. Today. >.< I thought about getting a Hakuren Oak (07-Ghost) phone strap, but I haven`t cosplayed him yet, so I put it back... I`ll probably get it, though. They had a bunch of Eva stuff~ Oh, and Cosmode magazines and wigs and seiyuu issue NewType. It was heaven. I can only imagine Akiba. >.< Outside after paying, I got a Ciel (Kuroshitsuji) phone swing charm gashapon and a Mare Ring, and teeny-tiny box weapon charms (Reborn).
Home, I opened my Hetalia gashapon. I got (of couse no one I wanted) Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, and Seychelles. I`ll be selling them. If they don`t sell, I`ll be happy to keep them, but I`d rather see them go to homes where people love them. Of the four of them... I probably like Estonia best. Just because he`s cool. Although I think Belarus or Latvia get the most panel time (and that`s not saying much for this group). Ah, well. I listened to my Doitsu CD in the living room with Hiroshi-san (he offered!) and we talked about Germany... >_>
Supper was ramen. It was yummy. From Hokkaido. I had miso-flavored, and topped with bamboo, corn, onions, spinich, egg (>.<) and lots of bean sprouts. Yummay~
Yoshiko-san mentioned the earthquake. I guess she has some sort of subconcious earthquake detector because she always wakes up a few minutes before them, I learned. ^_^ Everyone`s got talents, eh? But I kinda wished I`d experienced it. Although I probably would have freaked out. I guess one person in Okazaki died from it. :( Also in the news, a big boulder fell from high up on Mt. Fuji and killed a person in his camper. O_o
Word of the Day: sentaku
Meaning: Laundry
Tidbit: I was really confused by this word at first. It took me a couple days to actually understand the routine around laundry. The first time Yasuko-san tried to use this word with me, she tried to translate it as `cleaning,` which is perfectly acceptable, but I thought she meant like, house cleaning, not laundry, until she showed me the washing machine as she tried to explain it. That was awkward. Also, the weather report sometimes says if it`s a good day to hang your laundry or not. ^_^
Pronunciation: sen-ta-koo
I`ve been listening to SuJu and TVXQ on YouTube while typing this. Manjusha`s fault - for bringing it up today. >.<
On the subject of music, Ju-chan - if you haven`t already, check out 七夕祭り by テゴマス (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYO1jIzBM
The omurice was AMAZING~ It was a perfect half-moon shape, no tears, the ketchup-rice inside was fab and the whipped potato salad was very good. Good, good meal. I was a very happy camper. Simple things. ^_^
Thursday night I saw a couple of nifty programs on TV. The first one was where amateur comedians had to make a random assortment of a group of judges laugh withing one minute, or they didn`t pass to the next level. IT was fun. Then I saw Arashi was going to be on the next program, so I took a quick shower, came back and MatsuJun had just said something apparently bad because he said `yabe~i` and there was a big audience reaction. Then there was some kind of vote as to who was `the worst` member of Arashi. Of course, it was MatsuJun, and he got dumped out of the chair he was siting on, into the pool below. >_> Gosh, I love Japanese TV. Then later, the guys had to be mannequins in a store while a girl came in and looked at them and picked one who looked cool for a beach date. It seems like they got to pick their own clothes from a selection backstage with the theme `beach date`. One at a time, they were selected... MatsuJun was left unsold because of the clothes he had picked. ha ha~
Lesse.... Friday, huh... Breakfast was cereal. I mentioned that previously, didn`t I? Yasuko-san or Hiroshi-san remembered that I said I usually eat cereal for breakfast and so they bought me cornflakes. NOT JUST ANY CORNFLAKES! T
Class was just review. Sarah joined our class. (by the way, the level of class I`m in is called `CC`. How`s that for sick irony?) After class was lunch at Kurumi with everyone. We`re such a big group now that they reserved some tables for us! The options were Oyako-don (chicken and egg, it means parent-child, which I think is sick) or the same pasta... I was going for the pasta when the Kurumi lady asked the teacher about the group`s vegetarian and said they made up some without chicken if I`d like that. Since they`d gone to the trouble, I got that. It was a little eggy for my taste, but the mushrooms they used instead of the chicken was nice and it was terribly nice of them to do that for me. It came with tea, some veggies, and egg-drop soup. Gosh that soup is different than in the US... It tastes... so Japanese. It`s heard to describe. >.<
Over lunch, I found out that Jamie cosplays and likes Vampire Knight - can you say `besties`?! I can. We went to Book-Off after lunch and he got the first couple VK books. I looked at some Junjou, checked on 07-Ghost and Black Bird, looked at soem other stuff by the manga-ka of Junjou, but decided to pass for the day. And what`s up with them only having one D CD (which I already bought) and no LM.C? >.<
I ended up getting hom rather early. Hiroshi-san is teaching me kirie. He was having me work on a picture of Matsumoto Castle that he was working on, but it was a little rough going since I was starting on some delicate parts - leaves, so we switched me over to a big picture of some kind of flower for me to work on. I worked on that for a while and then went grocery shopping with Yasuko-san.
We went over to CommTown which is a shopping center closer (but in a different direction than) AEON. It`s got several stores in it, and it`s pretty durn nifty. The best part is a store called Eiden. Why, you may ask? Becuase it has a small isle in the toy section full of anime figures and blind-box style gashapon and a bunch of gashapon machines around the store! ^_^ For those reading who don`t know what gashapon are, they`re toys you buy knowing several options that you might get, but it could be any one of them. Like a gumball machine, but with toys. Also comes in box-form. I WAS SO EXCITED!
We got ice cream in the food court. It was yummy. Soft-serve is called `soft cream` here. Still yummy.
Grocery shopping was fun. I asked what some stuff was. ^_^ The rest of the world sure eats interesting things! I`ve never seen sooo much of the stuff I see here - fresh-food especially. Fruits and veggies I`ve never seen before - not to mention the bazillions of types of mushrooms! Yasuko-san keeps telling me to let her know if there`s anything I want to eat in particular. I feel like enough of a mooch, so I usually don`t say anything. We decided on that mixed rice she made the other day and grilled fish (>_>). She asked if fish without bones was okay, and I said sure, I`d do my best. I really did try the day the fish had bones... I just couldn`t hack it. And there was too much other food that was easier to eat. >.< She offered pudding, and I got one she said Yoshiko-san likes (one for each of us ^_^) and I got a veggie-juice drink I haven`t tried yet, after being offered. I did ask for one thing. Kabocha-croquette. Basically mashed pumpkin in a breaded deep-fried patty form. It`s fab. I had one the other day. Since it`s cheap, I didn`t feel too bad asking (and it was like the third time since we`d been in the store that she`d asked me if I wanted anything. ^_^). She got two from the freshly-made area and a bag from the frozen foods section, saying she hadn`t known such a thing existed. ^_^ Then she proceeded to fit more than a basket`s worth of food into two plastic bags that she re-uses. AMAZING. That`s being a mom at its best right there. They can do anything. For realzies.
Back home, I did some more kirie practice. Then it was supper time. Supper was grilled fish, the mixed rice, miso soup, left over potato salad, watermelon, and edamame, and I got one of my pumpkin croquettes. SO MUCH FOOD! I ate the fish, which really wasn`t that bad at all, drank the soup, ate the salad and my croquette and was finishing up with a bit of watermelon and edamame when I realized I had completely neglected my rice, and I was basically full. >.< Yasuko-san said it was fine, not to worry about it. I feel bad. It`s not like I didn`t like it or anything. I just forgot about it. So, in the end, I worried about it.
After-dinner conversation got onto my schedule, since their printed one didn`t have the optional weekend activities marked, I fetched my version and we went over them together. It was fun. Again, they marveled at the nifty activities I was doing that Japanese people never do. And how busy I`m going to be. ^_^
We watched Music Station as it came on, having changed the channel from "Harry Potter and the Sorceror`s Stone" (dubbed). The groups I mentioned earlier were on. As was Koda Kumi (barf) and a group called Perfume, who obviously digitally alters their voices because they sound electronic. I`m not saying it`s a bad sound. That`s just how it is. And Orange Range and some other people were on there too...
Yoshiko-san came home and had dinner while I was still at the table in the kitchen, watching TV with Yasuko-san. I offered her my other croquette. Yasuko-san commented that she`d never heard of it before and Yoshiko-san backed me up saying they were fab and she eats them all the time. ^_~* I`m glad she likes them.
On TV was some famous Japanese comedy movie. The main character was called Su-san. I`d really like to research this further and see if part of the joke of Sweden in Hetalia is that he`s called Su-san. I want to know if there`s a connection! <3
I ended up goign to sleep around 10:30 because I was really sleepy. I turned off my TV just as Harry was confronting Voldemort in front of the Mirror of Erised.
I woke up too early, which happened to be a little after 7. I watched some TV. Nothing great. I changed the channel from Yugi-less Yu-Gi-Oh and kinda flipped around for a while. I watched some of Deltora Quest. I would have sworn on ... I dunno... Gus(?) that Ishida Akira voiced the main character, but I checked on it jsut now and it`s not him... weird.
Downstairs for more strawberry cornflake goodness. And some peach. Yummy. I leanred we were goign to Kame-han for lunch. I wanted to go to CommTown and Yasuko-san said she was going there too, and they opened at 10, so we could go together adn I could make my way back whenever I was done, but to be home by 12. Cool. Oh, and we`d go to Osu (in Nagoya) together after lunch, since it was supposed to be a fun place for young people and nerdy people alike.
In Eiden, I discovered some CLAMP in 3-D land figures for 200 yen each, so I figured I`d try a couple, since it was cheap and I would be really happy with Doumeki, but I really wanted to get Seishiro to match my Subaru. I got a couple Code Geass voice dolls, hoping for a LeLouch (or Xing-ke or Suzaku) for myself and a Rolo for Ashleigh. There were a bunch of puchi Eva figures too, but I didn`t get any beacuse I`d only be trying for Koworu for Lauren and she`s too easy to buy for. Manjusha too. Stop doing that! (But if you really want me to pick up one or two I can, since there`s about half of what they`d cost at home and they`re light)
I paid for those then moved on to the gashapon machines. I inspected my options. There was no Koworu figure in the Eva one, so no need to try there (Lauren - I think the rest of us have more fun adding to your collection that you do ^_^), and I debated a small clear file of FMA, but passed for today. Instead, I spent my money on Reborn. There were voice drops and little TYL chain-figures. Guess who I was after. I went for the voice drops first. I got Hibari on my first try, then scored Mukuro on the second. Moving on to the chain-figures, I got TYL Ryohei, then stupid-anti-whatever-rays-suit Reborn, then on my third try I got TYL Mukkun. I think I was pretty lucky, really. I didn`t open them and leave the ball there because I felt a little embarrassed allready to be an adult going after the kids stuff. So I fled with my goods.
Leave the store I was behind a guy wearing normal clothes... and geta. Cool.
At home I inspected my loot. The results of the CLAMP boxes were Kohaku and the dark-haired CLAMP School Detective boy. Boo. I mean, I like Kohaku, but I had my hopes set on the other two. Ah well. It was discounted. I`ll probably try again. Obviously no one else wants them. The Voice Dolls were another failure for me - none of the boys I wanted for myself. I did score Rolo. Sorry, Ash, the box is in tatters because they tape them shut and so I had to tear that off, then try to open the piece of junk... I hope you didn`t want it. And I got Gino. >_> Okay, I guess. I like him. I just wanted JunJun. Looks like all my luck of the day went into Mukuro. ^_^
We went to Kame-han-san and Yasuko-san gave Mrs. Kame-han-san a small box which I suspect was for taking care of me the other day. I wondered if I should do something, but I didn`t know what would be appropriate, so I didn`t. >.< She was pretty discreet, but I feel bad that she did it for me. Anyway, today was safer. Taisho made up a plate of inari-zushi and a pretty roll with egg, cucumber, and a coulple of other things in it for me. It was easy to eat. <3 I could have eaten fish, too, it occured to me, if it was in small rolls. Maybe next time. The Miso soup was safe - no shell fish. The egg custard was a trap, though. It was really not to my taste, but I was trying to eat some, and make it look like Iook like I`d eaten more, so I was stirring it and discovered a fish cake and chunk of octopus at the bottom. No wonder it tasted fishy. At trap! Anyway, it was fun to go back and not be almost crying.
We set out for Osu. From Higashi Okazaki Eki we went to Nagoya and from there took the subway to by Osu. It was crowded, especially in Nagoya. I can only imagine (in my nightmares) what it must be like in Tokyo. Not too far out of the station, there was a shop filled with gashapon machines. I wanted to go in, but held back, figuring we`d go past it again on the way back. We went down the main shopping street that`S populer wit hthe youngsters in Osu which is like a covered alley. It`s really nifty. I wish I could fit into those clothes. >_> We found a shop selling some cosplay stuff (one iof hte featured outfits out front was a Gintama Shinsengumi uniform) but there wasn`t al ot of cosplay stuff inside.
We stopped after a little while for something to drink. I`d been rather thirsty but hadn`t wanted to say anything. I was debating saying I wanted to get a drink from the vending maching really quick when Yasuko-san mentioned benig thirsty. We went into a shop and got juice. That was more ice than juice. And over-priced. Boo.
Back outside, I saw two nerdy stores right next to each other. I went in the first one and came out with (I paid for it!) a set of white A10 nerve clips. I`ve been wanting them for a while, and I jumped on the opportunity when I saw them in the store. There were some cute Koworu phone strap gashapon I wanted to buy Lauren. >.< I fled for the second time in one day. Outside, I rejoined Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san and decided to try an FMA chain-figure gashapon machine they had there. I got Riza Hawkeye. I would have preferred an Ed, but that`s cool. Hawkeye`s so legit.
No more nerdy shops. We looked around a jewelry shop for a while. They sold new and used. They also had a display of antique and `semi-antique` jewelry. I failed miserably at explaining my opinion to Hiroshi-san that `semi-antique` was a gimmick and marketing tactic to create a desirable item. Oh well.
At the end of the strip was a super cool shrine. We made a small offering. I wanted to see what my luck was like, but didn`t want to ask. We`ll probably do that in Kyoto anyway. I think Hiroshi-san said it was a shrine for Kannon - the most imporant kami...(?)
Outside the shrine we caught a taxi to the Naogya JR station (drat - we didn`t go past the gashapon shop again after all!). We went into this huge department store (I mean huge - well over a dozen stories. I think the top floor was 51... I`m serious). Lauren had mentioned something like this before but to see it myself was something else. Literally, you could get anything you could want from this place, I think. (Well, I thought was lacking in the nerd department, but maybe I was in the wrong part). I did get some post cards, so everyone e-mail me your addresses. I got soem kabuki stickers too. By the way, stickers here are called seals. Huh...
Oh, I braved a Japanese-style toilet. That`s all I have to say about that.
We shopped around some, then got dinner at a soba resturaunt on the 14th or so floor. It was yummy. We got tenzaru soba, so cold soba noodles and some tempura. Yummy. The hostess lady was obviously also in charge because she kept cheking up on us and apologizing that our food wasn`t out yet (we had just ordered...). She was kind of annoying. Dinner was yummy. Then I got a bit of a suprise afterwards when the thing in the teapot they brought wasn`t tea. It was the water the soba had been boiled in. We were supposed to pour it into our sauce that we had been dipping everything into and drink it. Well, I had a lot of sauce left. Not expecting to have to drink it, I had poured all of my sauce from the bottle I was given into the bowl. >_> Yasuko-san drank hers, then poured some of my sauce into her bowl and watered down the rest of mine. It was actually pretty tasty.
We looked at some Hello Kitty stuff in the toy area and left. In the trainstation stores we got some desserts. Hiroshi-san pointed out a sumo wrestler, probably in town for the tournament, unless he`s a local. He wasn`t the first person I`d seen today in yukata (I`d seen several kimono and yukata wearing people), and he wasn`t really that big (though kinda tall) but what made him stand out was his hair. He had a mage or topknot. I learned th otehr day that sumo wrestlers have to use their own hair for this, by the way, and if they can`t manage it for whatever reason, they can`t be sumo wrestlers. COOL SEEING ONE. We bought a bento to Yoshiko-san, got our train tickets (erserved seat ones~ they were comfy!) and went home.
That`s about all. It`s long enough anyway and after I take my shower, it`ll be the latest I`ve stayed up in Japan. Not that I`m not sleepy, but I guess it`s proof I`ve adjusted to the time schedule here. Yay.
Word of the Day: Jihanki
Meaning: vending maching
Tidbit: It`s short form something longer I can`t remember, which means automated selling ... something. Anyway, Yoshiko-san tried to teach me this word the other day when we weer shoe shopping, but I forgot. She pop-quizzed me Thursday and I forgot so I made a special point to memorize it and tell her Friday night. These things are everywhere in Japan and sell just about anything.
Pronunciation: gee (as in gee-wiz) hawn (as in Han Solo) key. Gee-hawn-key
Tomorrow we`re going castle-seeing! All four of us together. ^_^
Anyway, over an hour later, we arrive at Nagoya University and after trying to go the wrong way a couple of times, we figures out where we needed to park, and walked to the sumo building. It was a small, unairconditioned building, but the coach explained that they we unfunded and that they had built it themselves (or at least raised the money to do so - I didn`t catch what year it happened - if it was recently or further back in club history). Most of the area was taken up by a large dirt floor and a circle in the middle of it. Off on one end of the room, there was a sizeable wooden platform where they seemed to keep things, and had all their awards and tribute to kami or something... (I didn`t really understand if there`s a particular god sumo people go to or if it was just `kami` in general) One room off to the side was a small kitchen area and another door led to a VERY SMALL changing area, shower room (one at a time), and toilet (one at a time).
We came in, took our shoes off and were hanging out on the platform thingy. The coach talked to us some about sumo. Then we went in sets of three or four and had mawashi put on us. Mawashi is the sumo name for the fundoshi (underwear >_>) they wear during the match. Guys were wearing them over their boxers, but we girls got to keep our shorts. Thank goodness. It was all ready embarassing enough having a guy help you put enormous underwear on when you were WEARING shorts. >.< Most of the guys took their shirts off. Again, we got to keep ours. Once we were dressed, the coach was explaining more things about sumo and their particular team while the members changed. And they wore only the Mawashi. It`s gotta take a self-confident guy to do sumo, I think.
Then the club members watered and swept the ring (I`m not really sure why they spread water, maybe to keep the dust down, and sweaping aroudn the dust in the ring... I really didn`t get that either). Then we got to learn some of the warm-ups. When you think of sumo-wrestlers, do you think of them lifting one leg at a time and slapping it down? Well, we did that. It`s really hard! It`s for bulding leg muscles but also for balance practice. We did it, like, 12 times, and I was only able to do the first couple because then my balance, which is always rather poor, was all used up. ~_~
We learned how to sonkyo. Heck yeah! We did that in kendo! Standing on the balls of your feet, you squat, knees spread. From that position is where sumo wrestlers put theri hands on the ground and begin the match.
I forget when in the warm-ups it was, but we learned another ritual, done while in sonkyo, that sumo wrestlers do, symbolizing that they have no weapons and calling kami`s attention. Hands are held out to the sides, palms down, then brought together in the front, then a big clap (calls kami`s attention). Then, pinkies together, opened to show still no weapons. Then arms are opened and lifted, palms up to a little above the shoulders. This is for something like peace in the world... I don`t really remember. It was all explained in Japanese with some English phrases, becuase apparently the coach knows at least some English.
That done, we got to do a sort of walking exercise. It involved big, shuffling steps across the ring while holding your hands out like you`re about to grapple with somebody. For the most part, we all looked like idiots. Then we got to push them across the ring. We started in sonkyo-crouch position, then hands on the ground. Then, the wrestler we were up against, who was standing in front of us, arms spread, would slap the waistband of his mawashi to signal he was ready and we had to shove them, putting our hand just under their arms on their chest. We had to do it twice. He was so sweaty, my hands kept slipping. That and, no matter how unimpresive they look in clothes, or even when you first see them jsut in mawashi, they`re basically a wall of steel. I couldn`t really move him. He ended up kinda of scooting backwards for me. What a dear. I really appreciated it. And thanked him.
After that, we watched a couple of them go at it for a couple of bouts, then we could try. I passed, along with the rest of the girls, but most of the boys tried their hand at it. A couple of them - especially Dan - were pretty darn good at it. Some of the others... it was easy to tell that the wrestler let them win. Like, one was just leanign on Jamie, feet on the bags that marked the ring, laughing, and let Jamie push him out. Cameron didn`t get to win. It ended with the wrestler picking him up by his mawashi and carrying him out of the ring!
Btw - one of the guys in the club was really cute. Like, heck yeah~ Even after he changed, he was walking around in jsut his boxers... but I guess that`s nothing when you`ve been wearing a mawashi around... much more revealing! And I think he`s the only one who didn`t shower before we left anyway, so he was still probably grody. He was sweet. He talked to me a moment or two. I had laughed at some things he said to someone else (who hadn`t understood) and he said he thought I understood Japanese pretty well and asked how long I`d been in Japan. <3
We had chanko for lunch. It was nabe. ^_^ They had a special little pot for me without meat. Theirs, on the other hand was an ENORMOUS pot with about 8 or 10 packs of meat in it. Yorn ate like, 7 bowls. Dan had at least 4. Yorn said she still wasn`t full. I couldn`t really finish two, but was still a little hungry when we got back to school. So yeah, we ate while sitting on zabuton (floor cushions) on the platform then thanked everyone and went home. At school, we all went over to Domy (a really close supermarket) and got ice cream. ^_~*
I caught the right bus home. I asked one bus driver if he was going to my stop and he said no, but told me which one to get on. It pulled in shortly threafter and he even got off his bus to make sure I had seen that that was the correct one. That was sweet.
I used my house key for the first time. Cool. When Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san got back from the store, Hiroshi-san and I had some cake and tea. ^_^ And we all talked for like, an hour, then I remembered I had to go to the store and buy a contact lense case because I can`t find mine, and I wore contacts today for sumo. I bought one. When I was heading home, Yasuko-san came around the corner. I think she was coming ot make sure I found it okay. ^_^ They`re really too sweet to me. Sunday we`re all going (Yoshiko-san too!) castle-seeing!
Word of the Day: chanko
Meaning: food served in a sumo place or made by a sumo wrestler, usually eaten by sumo wrestlers
Tidbit: Apparently most Japanese think that chanko is some specific recipe, secret all but to sumo wrestlers, but it`s actually anything cooked in a sumo place or by someone who does sumo. As the coach tod us, it can be really fancy Italian food, but it`s still just chanko.
Pronunciation: chyawn-ko
Tonight`s dinner is going to be omurice and potato salad. I`m excited to try omurice. ^_^ And the potato salad! It`s funny! Yasuko-san was mixing carrots and cucumber in with whipped potatoes and mayonaise and putting them into a bowl. I asked what she was making and she said potato salad! I told her that in the US it`s usually cubed potatoes... but I`ve never seen whipped. ^_^ It`s kinda pretty. I said I want to make it at home and show people and she said we`d do it together next time.
I SAW EVA TODAY! O_o But you can wait for that until after everything else. ~_^
SO I didn`t come back and write after dinner because when we were done, I was told that some friends were coming over. I didn`t need to be present, but part of the reason they were coming was to meet me, so I stayed downstairs the whole time they were here (about 2 hours). We had coffee. Then tea. I talked some, but mostly kinda sat there, sometimes watching whatever was on TV. For, like half an hour, there were these weird little shorts about the 4 Pocky Sisters. Which were horrid. Very stupid. Like, drawing sticks of Pocky out of a champaign glass (after carefully selecting one) and then toasting with them. Like... REALLY REALLY STUPID!
Then I took a shower and went to bed. Thrilling...
First we went in a shop to cinfirm when we were going to be learning about shibori. Then we had to go to the bank next door. In both places, everyone EVERYONE working there was wearing yukata. Our teachers explained that it was for Tanabata (remember - from the previopus entry). It seemed normal for the shop ladies to be wearing them, but it was really weird to see everyone working at the bank wearing them too. Then a mascot came out from the back room. O_o I don`t know if it was the mascot for the bank or Arimatsu in general, but it was this indecernable THING wearing some shibori-cloth. We got pictures with it. O_o And the guy at the bank gave us each a box of tissues. >_> That we then had to carry around all day. lol
Then we walked around the town to see some sights, but basically just got lost. Not my fault! I was just following. Like, we were going to visit a shrine, but at first we coudln`t find it, then we thought we found it but it was now an elementary school? Or preschool... I don`t know what it was but the kids were adorable as anything! They all had on their bright yellow hats and they were running around barefoot in the courtyard when we walked up to try and find the shrine. Temple? I don`t remember which we were looking for. Anyway, they were playing with water in soap bottles. A group of them were trying to make a puddle (or maybe a lake or ocean, but it was really jsut a puddle). Some others were squirting each other. They were really well behaved though, because for the most part, they just squirted each other`s bare legs after their shorts ended - no wet clothes.
We gave up on that and went to look for a parade float. Got lost agian. Ended up eating lunch at a nifty udon-ya. They made the udon there and it was yummy. We had mugi-cha to drink (my first time drinking it in Japan. It was yummy). There was a huge tanuki statue outside. A bit creepy. A bit loveable. This nice lady in there (another customer) started talking to our teachers, then us a little. Then we got some senbei (healthy snacks, rice crackers...) either from her or from the shop people, I wasn`t sure. Three bags. Probably the shop people, because they explained that that day was the expiration date... either way, it was nice.
After lunch we went back to our starting point. We got to go upstairs in the shop and watch a video abotu the history of Shibori (in English) and then try it ourselves on a hankie that had a design printed on it. It`s a flower with fireflies around it. Part of it was sewing, part of it was jsut winding abd tying, but I can`t wait to see the result. It was a lot of fun. We left them there to be dyed. The result of the vote was blue, so blue they will be. I bought some things in the gift shop - a shibori eco-bag and furoshiki for myself, an omiyage for Michelle, and one for my mom. Haha!
Back to school. Most of us slept at least part of the way back. We went around by a Yamasa mini-bus so we were among ourselves, noone else. We got back to school around 4 and parted ways. I walked to the train station, waited, and got properly on my bus - Higashi Okazaki-eki Mae. >_> WRONG BUS. Apparently, there are two routes to get to that location. On of them goes to my house, the other DOESN`T. I rode the bus for almost an hour and a half, and was rather upset and lost. At last the bus had doubled back and I was looking for anything I could recognize. I thought mayb we were on the same side of town as Kame-han Sushi-ya. Indeed we were. I saw it, and got off the bus at the next stop. Then my bus card didn`t want to read. I had been on the bus a long time and the bus driver even asked if I was sure I wanted to get off there (he could probably see I was a horribly confused foreigner who wanted to cry) and I think he cut me a huge break on my bus fare...
Anyway, I walked to Kame-han and tried to compose myself. Mrs. Kame-han-san met me at the door, and welcomed me inside, saying that she saw me crossing the road and thought it might be me. I tried to explain - in my extremely flustered state - that I was lost. What should I do? Kame-han-san offered me some watermelon... >_> and Kappa-maki... (he`s really a sweet guy with a sense of humor). I was about to ask if I could use their phone to call home, when Mrs. Kame-han-san re-emerged from the kitchen saying she`d just called and said she was bring me home. And so she took me home. I don`t know how to thank them for being so awesome.
I got home and was explaining the situation to my family. Good thing I hadn`t tried to call them because they hadn`t been home until just before me and I found out that they hadn`t heard the voicemail yet (I thought she spoke directly to them). Hiroshi-san called Kame-han-san and got the situation in plain Japanese. I`m sure between my broken, flustered talking to both of them, between them they had it figured out. Yasuko-san said I was lucky because they (Kame-han) normally aren`t open that early and they would have been in their house and I woudn`t have known what to do. O_o So, yesterday I was really lucky - getting a bus fare under 300 yen when it probably should have been closer to 700 or 800 by that time, and that Kame-han-san and his wife were at the shop and saw me and are such wonderful people. What a day.
Today was jsut review in class. Nothing really special. I got to talk to Masumoto-sensei some, which was really nice. Told her everyone said hi. She said SPEAC 4 is really hard. lol I found out there`s suppsoed to be a Beard Papa`s in Jusco (really close to my house) but I checked breifly today and didn`t see it...
We went to a ramen-ya for lunch. I wanted to miso ramen, but it had meat in it... >_> So I got the regualar ramen (sans meat on top) and some rice. It was fine. I wasn`t big on that store`s flavor. I guess I`m jsut used to the ramyun at Diaspora. ^_^
After lunch was Eva. Well, I saw after lunch, but it wasn`t until 2:50. Here`s what I think is a spoiler-free run-down: it has very little (I thought) in common with the show, story-line wise. A lot of stuff is changed. Kaji-san speaks English and I couldn`t understand a word of what he was saying. We got to see 3-goki and 5-goki. It was really pretty. Lots of rainbows (seriously). The music is AWESOME. It was really, really awesome. Download that stuff, ASAP. Kaworu only has two lines during the movie, but stay tuned for after the credits. I spent the last ten minutes or so of the movie with a `WFT?!?!?!?!` look on my face. It was great, overall. I really enjoyed it. When Kevin and I left the movie theater, my heart was racing. They were sold out of the movie pamphlets for Eva. :( Sorry Lauren, I wanted to get you one.
There`s a chaing that`s going to be selling Eva-01 shoes, but I think that`s not until next month, and they`re 128 yen a pop. But it`s a chain store doing it, and there`s one of the stores in the mall where we went to see the movie.
Dinner tonight was okonomiyaki!! I mentioned last night that I was interested in trying it and today we made it at home! They have this big hot plate thing. Yasuko-san made up bowls of okonomiyaki stuff and we spread our own little pancake on the griddle and she showed me how to add the other toppings to it. Then I got to flip it~ It was fun! And pretty good. I actually prefered it with mayonaise over the okonomiyaki sauce. hmm~
I`ve been forgetting the word of the day!!!
Word of the day: kyoumi
Meaning: interest
Tidbit: People kept asking me `kyoumi aru` and I parced it wrong, like `kyou, miaru` and I was really confused. Yay for learning new words.
Pronunciation: kyo-mii
Tomorrow we`re going to a university in Nagoya to visit their sumo club... and try sumo. It`ll be interesting, I`m sure. Also, we should have a couple of new people joining us, so that`ll be a nice introduction...
It`s shower time. Nighty-night!
- Mood: sleepy
So, I gave up the other day. It`s hard to write every day and harder to write after more than one day because then there`s so much to write!
Saturday night I slept in the tatami heya on a futon. It was cool. Actually, it was kinda hot. The day had been cool and not too terribly muggy, and with the windows in the computer room and tatami room open there was a nice little breeze. I even had a summer futon cover (blanket thing) but I was still kinda hot. And the sunlight in the morning was EVEN WORSE in that room. I had taken my Mukuro hand towel, though, as is my practice of late, and the first time I woke up and it was too bright, I put that over my eyes. ^_^ It helped. Tatami smells wonderful, by the way. I want a tatami air-freshener for my room. And car. And everything.
Sunday, Yasuko-san, Hiroshi-san and I went to Okazaki castle. It`s a replica, since the original was torn down by the anti-shogunate government which followed it`s fall. But it`s still pretty durn nifty. The original moat is still there, and some of the original wall stones, but that`s about it. We walked around, and Hiroshi-san was telling me about the history. We entered the shrine part of the castle where there were spirit gates and a shop selling charms. I didn`t realize it was a shrine too, until I asked. I was suprised to see charms being sold at a castle. >_> Anyway, we tossed change in the donation box and they showed me how to bow and clap my hands and stuff. Fun~
Hiroshi-san explained what all the young mothers were doing in the shrine with their babies and the miko (uh... temple-ladies?). They were bringing babies who had jsut passed a month old to ask for a blessing of sorts of good health. We also saw some women in formal kimono and Hiroshi-san went over and asked them what was going on. They explained that there was a going to be a wedding at 2, but that the bride was dressing at that time(it was somewhere around 10). Cool beans. I tried to take stalker-pictures of them. Kimono is so cool.
We went into the tower and looked at all the stuff like armor and weaponry - both replicas and artifacts. The observation-deck part at the top of the tower was nice. It wasn`t terribly high - maybe five stories - but it had a nice view and there was a refreshing breeze.
After we exited the tower, the wedding party was outside getting pictures (before the wedding, I guess, since it was nowhere near 2 yet). I was content to oo and ah to myself, but Hiroshi-san said I should take a picture. He asked, and it was fine. I was more than happy. She was gorgeous in her traditional white kimono and he looked rather dashing in his own kimono and hakama. THEN HIROSHI-SAN ASKED IF I COULD BE IN A P
The rest of the castle was fun, but nothing was quite as cool after that. It was too exciting. We went to another museum-thingy, and had maccha (traditional, thick, frothy green tea) which was delish, and the snack we got with it was representative of the Milky Way. It had gold flecks in it to represent stars. I ate gold. O_o Oh, at noon we caught the performance of the clock in the main courtyard. At noon, the clock opens up and a mechanized Tokugawa Ieyasu performs a noh dance. It was pretty cool~
We left Okazaki Castle and had lunch at a tofu place. Again, I must say it was delish. We got soup, some veggies, and a big bowl of rice, with a bunch of cooked tofu on skewers with some sort of sweet sauce on it. The desert was dango in a kind of cold red-bean soup.
Home - didn`t do much (at least that I remember...) Watched TV, I think... some show where people ask random people if they can stay the night in their house, or stop in and have tea with them or something. I don`t remember what we ate for supper either. >.< When I was writing my last entry, Sunday night, Yoshiko-san came home and gave me some moisturizer samples. She words for Shiseido, a makeup company (that also makes things like yummy juice with aloe chunks in it). I hope that helps. MY skin has been breaking out TERRIBLY because of the humidity and I don`t know what to do. Ironically, I think moisturizer might help.
I slept in the tatami room again, this time using the airconditioner in the computer room. The temperature was a lot better, but I think I`ll stick with the bedroom for now. Although I`m free to use the tatami room whenever I want. ~_^
Monday was school. The review in the first session wasn`t much. Then we got to wear kimono. Heck yeah. We went over to the house where all the culture seminars are. There, some nice girls helped us girls to dress, and the older sensei-lady helped the boys. At first, I was going to wear a gorgeous green kimono... guess what... I was too fat... well, the fat wasn`Pt the problem as much as my boobs. I wouldn`t have closed right, so that came off and I got a teal one. Which was cool. If a little (way) too big. The way kimono are worn, though, they`re a sort of many-many-size-encompassing thing, so I was on the small side of that one, is all. It looked cool. I got a gold obi which was neato and a hot pink himo (string around the middle of the obi). All of our kimono (the girls) were furisode - long-sleeved kimono for young unmarried women. They were pretty~ The boys looked cool in theirs. ^_^ We took a lot longer to get dressed, but there were two sets of kimono with hakama and all, and a couple of plain kimono (uh, without the hakama... they looked like yukata to me, but I wouldn`t be able to tell the difference...). I swear I`ll get pictures up sometime. >.<
We also wrote Tanabata wishes. Tanabata is a celebration where legend says once a year, Orihime can meet her love Hikoboshi. If they skies are clear. If it rains, they cannot meet. It`s overcast today. I don`t know what that means. That`s too bad, becuase I think that Tanabata (07/07) is supposed to be the starries night of the year or something. Anyway, it`s tradition to write a wish on a piece of colorful paper and tie it to a bamboo tree. They have these at the mall and all over, but we have one at the culture center at Yamasa, so we did it there. I wished to become better at Japanese. More about Tanabata here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata
After lunch, we went to the nearby supermarket and then over to Wing Town (the small mall with a movie theatre that I`d been to the other day with Yoshiko-san) which is really near Yamasa Student Village. We got some food there, and then I managed to forget my umbrella. So, we had gone, like, a quarter mile or so and I realized that I`d left it. I had to go back alone and get it (this was all walking, btw). Then I was supposed to meet them in about half an hour at Aeon. So, I went back, got the umbrella, and made my way to the street Aeon is on. Aeon is waay down near my house, so I was supposed to catch a bus.. Well, I didn`t see any bus stops so I walked all way there. I took more than half ab hour and I was walking right along, so I think it was well over a mile of walking. >.<
Jorgen, Kristen, and I shopped around Aeon a bit. I got Manjusha`s birthday present. I think I have her omiyage too, unless I manage to see something else I was looking for for her. Two down. Yes! I got a D album for myself. We split because Jorgen was going home to make dinner for his family (Kraft mac and cheese from the import store, grilled cheese, and rootbeer floats - well, most of that was from the import store) and Kristen and I were going to Book-Off. I checked for more Black Bird and for Junjou, but no luck. I need someone to check which Loveless volumes I have so I can get the rest of the series in Japanese~~~
By the way, if anyone REALLY REALLY wants a volume or two of something in Japanese, and wants it nice and cheap and second-hand (they`re all in marvelous condition), ask nicely and I`ll see what I can do for you. I might be able to ship it back with some of my stuff, but you`ll have to pay me back a little extra over the cost of the book to help pay for shipping.
As Kristen and I were leaving Book-off, this guy stops on his bike and starts talking to us in broken English and Japanese, asking where we`re and I think he said he was from Okinawa (which is maybe why he was so hard to understand, maybe not), and he thought we were English teachers. Sorry pal. We got out of there as fast as we could think of a way to. >.<
Nothing particularly special last night... Yoshiko-san picked up a bus card for me (I paid for it!) which was great and shoud save me some money. Cool. You pay, for example, 5000 and the card is worth 5600.
I think I`ll write about today after dinner. TTFN~
- Mood: melancholy
Oh boy. This is another two-day-er so it`ll probably be long... we`ll see~
I`m sad to say that I didn`t make it through Evangelion. We watched Music Station over dinner. I don`t like Tohoshinki`s latest single >_> Then I went into the living room and Hiroshi-san, Yasuko-san, and Gackt joined me, to watch Eva. Before we got an hour into it, I was nodding off, so I went upstairs, took a quick shower, and turned the TV in my room to Eva. Well, I didn`t last another ten minutes even, and had to turn it off because I was fading fast. ^_^ Durnit. It was a special edition, too (not that I probably would have noticed the difference at all, having only seen it once before).
Saturday, Yoshiko-san and I were slated to go shoe shopping. Of course, I woke up early. Well, 8. But still, I had been encouraged to sleep past lunch. What do you do in a situation like that, anyway? Does that mean give them a break from you or just do whatever I like and don`t feel pressured to get up early? Well, I wasn`t sure, so I got up at 8, but I kept to my room, watching TV and stuff. I doezed for a while, then watched random shows on TV. I was lucky enough to catch a Kyou Kara Maou re-run (from way back when Yuuri-tachi are in Calorie-ville and they run into Sara and Berries and Yuuri falls in love again) and Reborn episode 140. Dunno if that`s the latest or what. But co~ol just the same.
I finally got too hungry and went downstairs at about 11. I realized that I had forgotten to take my laundry down the night before when I saw my basket of clean clothes sitting where it normally does. >.< Brunch was awesomly yummy. I got a fruit sandwich and some more fruit and a Japanese confection with red bean in the center of a jelly-like substance. I drank pineapple juice and green tea. Yummy~
After eating, I hung out a bit with Yasuko-san in the kitchen, the she shooed me out so she could make lunch and I moved into the living-room with Hiroshi-san. He asked me what I wanted to do - places I wanted to see and such while I was in Japan. I said Shizuoka, (to see my friends ^_^), of course Tokyo and Kyoto, and that I`d like to see the castle across the river. We got onto the subject of Japanese castles. He told me that most of the standing castles in Japan are reconstructions - Okazaki castle included. He whipped out an article with pictures of various castles, telling me about which ones were real, which ones were reconstructions, which ones had been torn down to erradicate memory of the shogunate (like Okazaki castle) and which had burned down in wars (like Nagoya castle). It was intersting, what I understood of it. ^_~ He offered to take me to Okazaki castle the next day and I was like `heck yeah!`I joined Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san for a spot of lunch. Well, it was just me tasting a bit of the food because I was still full from lunch. ...what was it? >.> I forget... that`s why I should try harder to write these every day!! After lunch was TV with Hiroshi-san. I tried to get some manga-reading in. It`s slow going because I`m taking the time to look up everything so I understand it completely. No rush. It`s a good chance to learn new words and remember grammar and stuff. Hiroshi-san said he`d heard Yoshiko-san in the shower. Good news. Eventually, I wandered into the kitchen and talked to Yasuko-san and Yoshiko-san who had come downstairs.
Up to my room for more reading.
After Yoshiko-san ate and got ready, she took a look at my yukata for color ideas and off we went to buy geta or sandals. First we went to a shopping center with a movie theatre (where I`ll go see Eva). No luck at the shoe stores there, but there was a store full of SUPREMELY CUTE things like Hello Kitty and her friends and Rilakkuma and Pooh... ^_^ Oh and the Totoro section was cute too! We browsed briefly at a store selling kanzashi (hair ornaments usually worn with yukata and kimono, I think) but decided they were a little expensive. The movie theatre has ladies night on Wednesdays, so it`s only 1000 yen to go then. Uh, that`s when I`ll be going. I think that`s expensive enough! I don`t want to pay the full 1800 or whatever it normally is! Oh, but we went to the bookstore there and I bought Hetalia and a used Jero CD and I SCORED A ZERO-SUM!!! I was excited because Lauren said she couldn`t find it when she was in Japan, so I had a real `GET!` feeling. ^_^ It was the last one, too~ Oh and in the bookstore I saw Jorgen (one of my classmates) and we chatted. It was nice to run into him. ^_^
Since that wasn`t successful, we went back to Aeon, where I had been with Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san before. We went to the store where Yoshiko-san used to work at the cosmetics counter and I met a bunch of her friends. No good shoes that fit there. Darn my high arch. That`s where the problem is. Length is okay. Yoshiko-san bought a top and an enormous bag that I wanted to joke that Gackt could fit in it, and she could carry him around - but I didn`t know how...
We looked in a couple stores to no avail, and a Hello-Kitty-filled store for fun because we both love Kitty-chan. ^_^ Then we found a store with a bunch of sandals out front on sale 2 for 3000 yen. Cool. We found the perceft shoes! They`re geta-esque in that they look like a black-laquered wood with goldfish painted on them and a red flip-flop like strap. WOULD THEY FIT? Well enough. Hopefully they don`t kill my feet. I they don`t seem terribly comfy, but they`ll probably look good. Today, someone suggested that I wear them around home to see if they will loosen up or at least find out if they rub somewhere, so I know to take band-aids. Anyway, the shoes were 2 for 3000 or 1 for like, 1980 or something. I was not going through the trouble of finding another pair I liked that fit and I don`t really need more shoes, so I asked Yoshiko if there were any she liked, figuring we could split it. She picked out a pair of sandals and when I went to take out my share of the money at the register, she said it was a present! STOP BUYING ME THINGS!! I don`t know what to do... So, I said thank you. Then apologized a lot. I think that`s what Japanese people do... apologize? Anyway, the shoes are great and they even patch my purse, which has goldfish on it!
After the shoes, we checked around for kanzashi again. I picked up the same one I had looked at at the other store. It seemed to have the same prices, so that must have been the going rate. I was walking around, looking at all the cute things (like the teeny-tiny top hats that I jokingly held up to my hair and asked Yoshiko-san what she thought and she said I could use it for cosplay!) and other cute stuff, when I recognized the voices on the radio! Tohoshinki~~~ I didn`t recognize the song until later, I realized it`s their new single that I heard the night before and didn`t care for. Meh. Whatever, it was still funny. My ears perked up on Yoochun`s voice, confirmed it with JaeJoong`s voice, and removed all doubt with Junsu`s. ^_^ Bought the kanzashi.
Before we left the mall, I wanted to stop in the bookstore quickly to see if there was a ZERO-SUM for Lauren, since there was a nice Saiyuki cover and stuff. In there I bought Lauren`s omiyage unless I see something more suited. That was easy. Dunno what I`m going to get anyone else.
That all took several hours.
After we got back, we went to dinner with Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san and the four of us went to a sushi-ya owned by their friends. It`s called Kame-han - Half turtle. >.< I think it`s funny, but I also feel bad for the turtle. I wish I`d taken my camera. I will next time. I think there will be a next time... >_>
So I met Kame-han-san (the Taisho) and his wife. They were both very sweet. I would say that Kame-han-san is jovial in a very Japanese-manly way, if you have any idea what I mean. Let me preface this by saying that I`m trying to try things once in Japan. Even if it almost kills me or makes me throw up. That said, I we were all promptly presented with a small dish with two chunks of octopus and a piece of daikon in it. omg. Why?! What did I do wrong besides try to make people`s lives easier and eat fish?! Anyway, I said I`d try it, so I did. I managed to eat a piece of octupus but couldn`t even stomach the though of eating the second piece. I apologized but said that octopus probably wasn`t good for me. >_< Muri datta.
Next we all got two nigiri-style (that`s where a piece of fish is over some rice) maguro. Well, let me tell you all something. If you think you`ve had sushi before in America you`re probably incorrect. Japanese nigiri-zushi has bout 1/3 less rice and probably three times more fish. Not only was it difficult to fit it all in my mouth, it was hard to chew because it was soo thick. I forget the order it came in but we also got some kind of white fish (2), something he cut up on the spot that was HUUUGE when presented (1), then he made a couple of things for me - salmon (1) and some squid (1). I had almost thrown up due to the overwhelming amount of food in my mouth on the other huge one, but the squid, no matter how much I chewed, just didn`t... chew! I seriously, seriously thought I was going to throw up. Yoshiko-san saw I was having trouble and said it was okay to spit it out if I couldn`t take it. OMG. Probably the second-to-worst thing I could do to poor Kame-han san would be spitting it out. (The first would be throwing up, which I was precariously close to doing). I said no becuase it was embarassing. I barely managed to swallow it. Then I said I was full. It was pretty durn close to the truth, but I knew I couldn`t take any more.
Yoshiko-san and Yasuko-san got asked for the fried egg. I expected them to get it nigiri-style, but it was a huge chunk of fried edd, slit down the middle with rice stuffed inside! Pita-style! It was pretty darn nifty!!
So then, um... Mrs. Kame-han-san asked if miso soup was okay. I was very relieved and said yes and everyone got it. I opened the lid of my bowl and there were tons of I dunno... some kind of shell-thing inside. I jsut kind of stared at it. Yoshiko-san was on my said and said she didn`t like them either. She was the bigger person, though, and ate it anyway. I gave up on `try it once` for the night, plucked all 80-bajillion on mine out, put them in my lid, and offered them to Yasuko-san, taking advantage of her having said she loved them. I drank the soup. Then Mrs. Kame-han-san brought out yellow watermelon! YELLOW!! It was a little extra sweet. It turns out that Yoshiko-san doesn`t like watermelon, so she gave hers to me. Poor Kame-han-san made a comment about coming to a sushi-ya and eating watermelon. I felt awful. He was so sweet, but there was just too much fish on those things. I don`t think I have a small mouth and seriously, it didn`t really fit in there. I don`t know how everyone else did it. He asked what I did like. He asked if inari-zushi was okay. I said yes, and that I also liked kappa maki, but I figured since they weren`t fish that it was a no-go. He said it`s fine and to tell him sooner next time! I still felt awful. I hope he didn`t feel too upset. I mentioned my main problem to Yoshiko-san and she passed it on to him. I don`t want to ask him to make his sushi any differently for an American who can`t handle his awesome Japanese-ness. >.< I don`t know if we`ll go again. Probably, unless I really insulted Kame-han-san >.<. I`ll try again (to eat it, not to insult him!).
I`ll have to write about today tomorrow, if that makes sense. I`m too tired. >.< I won`t even get to paint my nails at this point tonight for fear of messing them up by going to bed so soon. Look forward to tomorrow where I`ll write about sleeping in a futon, the AWESOME event at Okazaki castle, and Kimono!
HAY YOU GUYS! HMM-HMM-HMM!!
Okay, so after finishing this yesterday, I took a walk to Book-Off and Circle-K (I thought it was called Maru-K here, but apparently it`s the same). Book-off was fab~ I was really excited to see aisles and aisles of manga that was only 105 yen a volume! I looked at the CDs and manga, trying not to stand out too much. I felt a little awkard, but whatever. I got 07-Ghost books 1 and 2, Black Bird vol.2 (I read the first volume online and liked it and the second has yet to be scanlated, and I like the manga-ka), and a pretty-looking one called `Olympos` (Like Olympus, but spelled wrong >_>). It turned out that Olympus was Zero-Sum (that explains why it was near 07-Ghost and Loveless). I`m just really attracted to the art styles they pick for that magazine, I guess!
I went to the Circle-K and took a lap around, trying again to not look too conspicuous in my cultural absorption mode. ^_^ I ended up buying a Shiso-flavored Pepsi soda drink and some Chupa-Chup lollipops. I debated getting the last Puchi-Eva gashapon box, but didn`t. Maybe next time I go in, if it`s still there... do you want it, Lauren? I didn`t check to see what all is in the series. It`s a heck of a lot cheaper than at a con. It was 450 I think.
I came home and took Olympos, my soda, and electronic dictionary to the living room where Hiroshi-san was. I worked on it for a little while, reading slowly because I was looking everything up on my dictionary so I understood clearly what was going on. Hiroshi-san asked if I could read it (fair question - I said I`m really bad with kanji) I told him yes, slowly. He showed me a really cute little children`s book about mukashi, mukashi (long, long ago) that I read a little bit of it but struggled with some parts because it was hand-written (it was printed, but the style was hand-written). I think he said it`s a local-history kind of book. Probably a local author.
Then we got onto the subject of school. I said we`d worked on some kimono (kitsuke) words and grammar (bunpo). I know he really likes cultural stuff, but it seems he has a bit more of a vested interest in this subject because he explained to me that his father had a kimono shop, and his sister had one (I think she probably took over for their father). He pulled out a book (he`s always pulling out books, it`s really amazing) of different kimono - tons of pictures and stuff. I asked him some questions and he knew most of the answers but for some he said that even though he was the son of a kimono shop owner (and there`s a special name for that type of shop, that is only used for that type of shop, but I forget it) he was a bad son and didn`t learn properly (I think that`s what he said) and now he can`t remember because it was a long time ago.
Supper was Aji-gohan (I think...) which was rice mixed with carrots, mushrooms, sake, sugar and soy sauce. It was nice. Tamagoyaki (egg roll - by the way, Japanese like their eggs sweet, and it`s just weird) and... I don`t know why I`m having trouble remembering what we ate. It was just yesterday! >.<
After dinner, we got on the subject of me being a nerd or whatever. They said if I wanted to go to Akihabara, I`d probably see cosplayers. I said that I wanted to see them because I do it to. So it was up to the computer to show pictures. >.< It was just Yoshiko-san and Yasuko-san, but they seemed interested. ^_^ They said Joseph (they saw him as Spanner) was an ikemen (lol).
Not much else, really. I painted my nails, took a shower, watched a bit of noh (it`s always on channel 9 at night) and went to bed.
I woke up a bit early (as in an hour) but whatever. I kinda dozen for a little bit, then went ahead and got up. I turned on the TV and half-watched TV taisho (radio taisho on TV!) while I penciled my school schedule into my planner. I got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.
Breakfast was toast again, with strawberry jam that I learned Yasuko-san had made. I had pineapple juice and some awesome cut-up peach. Did any of you know that there is a Golden Kiwi? I had no clue! I asked what the thing next to the orange was in the dish up cut up fruit and Yasuko-san told me about it. It`s sweeter than green kiwi. I like green kiwi better, but golden is nice too. ^_^
Hiroshi-san drove me to school and dropped me off. Class was kinda there... we did have a lecture about furoshiki, though, which was bitchin`! We learned a couple of different ways to tie one - two different ways to tie a bottle and one for a book (we used our notebooks). Hurhur. Furoshiki. Tottemo benri, desu yo~
Lunch was at the place Kristen and I went to on Wednesday. The options were pasta with meat sauce or some kind of ship and rice thingy. I got the rice. It was full of teeny-tiny shrimp O_o It also came with egg-drop soup and a few veggie tid-bits and tea.
Yasuko-san picked me up from school today and on the way home she told me that the first Evangelion movie ("You are [Not] Alone") would be playing on TV tonight. Now, Lauren sent me a message about this, but I wasn`t sure what channel it would be on or if we even get it. I think maybe downstairs we have cable, but not upstairs. That makes sense. Anyway, she said that if I had plans, she could tape it for me, otherwise, I should watch it, since it`s going to be on. AND WHAT`S MORE! She said that she also read in the paper that the hour before the movie starts, on Music Station, Tohoshinki is going to be appearing. ^_^ So, I`ll be watching that, too!
We went to her bank again (well before 2!) only to find out that they couldn`t do traveler`s checks at all! >.<# So we went to a bank they reccommended, a bit further away and that worked out. I was able to pay her back for the yukata. On the way out of the bank, I noticed that there is an Animate store across from it!!! YAY! I`ll have to go check it out! Maybe next time I go to the bank.
After we got back home, we went on a test route of the busses. Yasuko-san was sooo nice to suggest this, and I feel a lot better about it now. In the morning, on the way to school, there are several busses I can take. We hopped on one headed to the train station and got off there (220 yen) and then got on another, headed toward another station (that one cost only 160 yen)! A 60 yen difference! Weird~ Yasuko-san and I walked to the drug store which isn`t far past the house. Nifty~ because I`m a Japanophile...
When we got back, Yasuko-san gave me this nifty drink made by Yoshiko-san`s company (Shisedo). It was a mango drink with chunks of aloe in it, drunk with a straw similar to ones used for bubble tea, but a bit smaller. Super delish~
Hiroshi-san whipped out a video about a festival and we watched that. It`s called something like Kaze no Bon or something and it was pretty interesting, even though I could only understand part of what they were saying. What I gathered was that there was a parade-like dancing thing (very formal) that went through the streets for two nights (the festival is three days) and the dancers dress according to if they`re married or unmarried women. There was a famous woman instrument player (I can`t think of the name of the instrument - it`s of Chinese origin with three strings, and a bow is used) who is a single mother (I don`t really know why that was important, but both Yasuko-san and the video pointed it out, and I mentioned it here for Lauren). Hiroshi-san pulled out a photo album from the time they went to the festival. He`s done kirie of several of the pictures.
After that, here I am.
Word of the Day: ikemen
Meaning: good-looking guy
Tid-bit: Slang. The `ike` means good-looking and the `men` has a double meaning - men meaning face, and men also being like the English word.
Pronunciation: ee-keh-men
I think it`s raining now. It was a nice day. A bit over-cast, but cool and not muggy.
See you tomorrow!
- Mood:
complacent
Gobs of stuff happened yesterday, but I was tooooooo tired from lack of sleep (I haven`t slept properly in over a week) kept me from blogging yesterday. This`ll probably be a long one.
Let`s start at breakfast yesterday. I ate the three-day-old donuts. They were good. Tasted just fine. Maybe the humidity kept them moist because it was yummy. >_> I had more of the awesome cider/juice, mango and cherries.
We left at 8:15 - Yasuko-san, Yoshiko-san and I. Yasuko-san drove Yoshiko-san to the train station and then took me to school. At first we were at the wrong place - a hospital instead of the school. In Yasuko-san`s defense, when we were directed to the correct place it looked almost exactly the same.
So, we got to the correct building and I found other gaijin (foreigners) who I asked and they suspected I was in the correct place. At that point Yasuko-san left. Tim (a British gaijin) took Kristen (the other new person - she`s from Norway) took us to another room, where he gave us a run-down of the program and a tour. After that, we met with a sensei (whose name I forget) and she talked to us (in Japanese - poor Kristen is self-taught and I know she didn`t catch much of what was said) about what our classes would be like. Then she talked to us individually to determine our placement in the class levels. I placed in the highest. >_> I guess they were expecting people to not know much Japanese at all when chosing to do the culture program because I`m sure as heck not very proficient - no matter how much the Japense people I talk to BS and say how `jozu` (check out that non-JSL spelling) I am.
The school, Yamasa, is built on land which was once a huge factory owned by the Hattori family. The factory made large pots for school cafeterias to cook rice in. Part of the factory is still up, but is in the process of being torn down, and I`m pretty sure Yamasa is aiming to grow. I think the Hattori family is still its patron. It`s their pet school to teach gaijin and also to teach locals more about their own culture. Anyway, the culture part of the school, where we`ll have all of our practical classes like kimono and sado (tea ceremony) there, whereas the rest - language and stuff - is taught in a classroom, the culture part is taught in what was - until 5 years ago - the Hattori family house! It`s huge and gorgeous and so very Japanese. The garden is lovely~ the building is lovely~ I can`t to sweat my bum off in it (I bet it isn`t air conditioned)!
After that, we were free. Kristen and I wandered over to the Domy (it`s a supermarket) nearby to look around. Then we had lunch at one of the food places connected with the school. It`s either actually part of the old Hattori house or adjacent to it, I can`t tell. I got some kind of pasta and she got pork chahan (fried rice).
Yasuko-san picked me up at 1. On the way home, I mentioned wanting to buy a yukata sometime, and asked where a good place to get one was. Kristen and I had been talking earlier about wanting one. Yasuko-san said Jusco or Aeon (same building - Aeon`s a gigantic mall and Jusco a store in it. Yasuko-san called it a supermarket, but it`s more like Super-Walmart of Meijer with both clothes and food), and asked if I wanted to go then. Well, sure. So we went home and talked to Hiroshi-san a bit. Since they were in the same place at the same time (living room) I took advantage of it and gave them the omiyage I`d brought. The first night didn`t seem too appropriate, and the second day, Hiroshi-san went to the hospital and was there over-night, so it was really my first chance. They seemed to like the collectable Ohio spoon and bottle opener. I also gave them a tiny ornament shaped like Cracker Barrel and a Cracker Barrel map. I was trying to explain where I worked, but I`m not so sure they got it. There was a box of Esther Price chocolate that I`d been worried about melting, but it seemed to be okay... I hope they were okay... Hiroshi-san really likes ice cream and chocolate (VERY out of the ordinary for a Japanese man, as I understand it from my data collecting through manga and anime and dramas) and on top of that, he really likes American chocolate! Even stranger! So I lucked out. We chatted about places in America while looking at the Cracker Barrel map, and it was easy to show them where I was in relation to places they knew or had been.
Off to Aeon! It took us forever to find a parking spot. Yasuko-san remembered Yoshiko-san saying something about a sale, which explained it. We went to a bank in the mall, but they said that they could change money from dollars to yen. I wonder if it would have made a difference if I explained they were travellers checks. Probably not. So, with that failure, we decided we could look at yukata then and I could come back and get it after I`d changed money. Cool.
We went to one store, dunno what it was. We browsed the racks of yukata and a sales girl was lookign with us. I said I didn`t really want to pay more than 200 yen because although I`d have a couple of occations to wear it here in Japan, I won`t really have any at home. Hiroshi-sa suggested blue or green. I was touched that he was helping. I don`t know if he just liked those colors or thought they would suit me, but it was nice to have the say of a man. ^_^ The sales lady nixed his ideas, though, saying in a very polite way that a dark color would be more flattering on my figure. >_>
Yasuko-san found a really pretty one that was black with red butterflies on it, and the saled girl helped me put it on. Points to her for trying, but it didn`t fit properly. I mean, it kinda fit, but it needed a bit more room to close straight and properly (she gently said because of my hips) and it would be impossible for me to sit down. And the top wouldn`t close as well as it ought to. She said Jusco (it`s so cute the way they add `san` to the names of stores!! She actually said `Jusco-san`) had `tall` sizes and I should try there - they`d been having to direct other girls there too. Again, points to her for dealing with the fat gaijin.
So we went to Jusco. Right now, Jusco has a yukata commercial on TV which hadn`t really annoyed me until I heard it a million times while looking in the yukata section. >.< We looked for a while and found the `tall` ones. We finally got a sales person to come over and she put a regular sized yakata on me, saying she thought it would fit. Finally, she concluded that I needed not the tall size, because that was the same as `free` (the regular) but just longer. I needed a bigger size... (yutari or something like that. I need to look it up) again she said because of my hips... and boobs. Again, very polite. Again, Yasuko-san found one I liked. It was dark grey with pink and white flowers on it. I tried it on and it fit. Yay~ Time to pick out an obi. Since I`m suppsoed to be learning how to tie it in class, I wanted an untied obi (they also come in already-made bows). I picked out a white and gold one I thought might look nice, but I was told (as I had been with a couple of my yukata choices) that it was for older women and would make me look old. I found one that was gold on one side and reddish-magenta on the other. That one worked nicely.
Shoes! Geta to match would be nice, I thought. Hiroshi-san agreed. We looked, and the sales lady said that now-a-days girls were rately wearing geta because they`re uncomfortable, but more likely to wear sandals. Well, we looked anyway. LL is the largest size and fits me length-wise, but my foot was jsut too darn fat to fit into the straps. Again, awkward! Whatever. The lady suggested okutsuya-san (a shoe store).
A purse! I wanted a purse, so we looked at purses! I didn`t bring any purses and they wouldn`t have looked good with a yukata anyway, so we picked out a purse.
Yasuko-san said she`d pay for everything today and I could just pay her back. The purse was a present from them. Aw~ I had most of the money but not quite enough, as I had suspected would be the case. The yukata and obi came to almost 18000 yen. Not bad.
After that we went to Coldstone. For RE~AL they had a Coldstone in the mall! It was too funny. They had some different flavors and stuff - lots of different pre-concocted Creations. The guy behind us in line said something and his girlfriend told him to shut up so I wondered if he had said something about me. >_> but I hadn`t been paying any attention to him, so I don`t know. Hiroshi-san and I both got some kidna of mango Creation and Yasuko-san got a green tea one. I picked up a menu as a souvenier if anyone wants to see it sometime! As the people there mixed, they sang a song., which was weird and I couldn`t help but laugh. I mentioned it to my classmates today and they said that they sing in America too, if you tip them (or they get fired). I guess I wouldn`t know because I`ve never tipped.
After ice cream (which was of course eaten while sitting in the store) we went to Jusco for groceries. It was nifty. The seafood section was HUGE and like nothing I`d ever seen before! We got some groceries, nothing too special there. I asked what some of the things were that I`d never seen before like nagai-imo (long potato - lol). Hiroshi-san didn`t come in the store with us but sat in what seemed like a waiting area for the husbands outside the store with a bunch of benches and a large flat-screen TV tuned to the news. lol
Last night I was trying to study in the living room downstairs and Yasuko-san came in and turned the TV on for me. Well, I wasn`t studying that hard anyway, so I flipped through the channels. I found Naruto, but it was just ending. I must say, the current ending is stupid. Then Yu-Gi-Oh came on... boy was that special >.<
Hiroshi-san was in the room with me and we started talking about various things... flying, was it? And he took out a plaque to show me. Something like it was in commemoration of his first flight (was he in the military? I couldn`t tell). It was from a long time ago... it was from year Showa 44, but I don`t know what year that is. Anyway, I could tell he was proud of it, and it was very nice, but it said `First in Fright` and I felt bad that such a nice thing was ruined by rather humorous Engrish.
Then, he was opening his mail, and showed me his letter opener, saying now it was just a letter opener, but asking if I knew what it was before. Well, it was pretty and seemed old, but I had no idea, so he pulled out a book (he has lots of nifty Japanese culture and history books, it seems) and showed me that it`s the knife that went in the side on a katana sheath. EFFING COOL, I thought, and said how cool I thought it was and that I`d never seen a real katana before, so he was all like `do you want to see one?` and I was like HECK YEAH!!! So we went upstairs to the tatami room that`s too hot for me to sleep in and in the little alcove there, he took out a long cardboard box and a something long, wrapped in a veritible sheet of fabric. First, he opened the cardboard box and took out its contents. It was a set a long sword and short sword like samurai would carry. He explained that it was just a toy, but I told him that his toy beat mine all to heck (in other words) because mine was cheap and probably from China. He laughed a little at that. Then we got to the real deal.
Hiroshi-san was un rolling the fabric around the other. First he pulled out a knife which was impressive, but then he got to the Katana. BEAUTIFUL. Well, the outside wasn`t very elaborate. It was a flat wooden handle and sheath, and I probably wouldn`t have thought it was a sword at a glance. He drew it slowly, shoing me the correct way to do it (first you kinda pop it out with your thumb, then draw, you don`t just rip it out of the sheath). He explained to me that it was 400 years old, dating back to the Edo period. The blade was goegeous, and he told me I could hold it, but to be very careful because it was still sharp and I could cut myself. COOOOOL!!!!!! It was heavy. The toy had been heavy, but this was heavier. And cool.
Since he had a 400 year old katana, I thought it would be okay to ask if his family was bushi (samurai). He said yes, on his mother`s side. This was a time when I really, really, really wish I spoke better Japanese because he was telling me the history of his family samurai who was the retainer of a lord with a small holding nad lots of other stuff, but I really couldn`t understand him at all! >.< He took a couple picture of my holding it. I tried really hard not to smile becuase I knew I`d probably look like a maniac if I did - I was THAT excited to be holding it. Can you imagine it? 400 years old! Both of the old swords had little pieces of paper in plastic attached to the sheaths and he explained that it was an `okay` from the police and without them he could get in trouble for having the swords. I guess it`s like a gun license but by the individual sword instead of an all-around thing.
I went back downstairs and tried to study but I was basically falling alseep, so I gave up and took a nap. After about an hour, Yoshiko-san came to get me for dinner. DInner was ten-zaru udon (cold udon with tempura). I couldn`t finish all my food! I felt bad because I was already having a hard time slurping my noodles between being half asleep and afraid of choking (even though slurping is an indiaction that the noodles are yummy). I had some of the onion tempura, skipped the shrimp, and didn`t make it over to the mushrooms (the tempura was in a plate at the center of the table). There was also fruit and long potato (which looks like a long potato but is a bit crunchier and slimer and odd but not bad) uh, a couple of other things I can`t think of right now. Oh well. I don`t know how interested you all are in the food I`m eating here anyway. It`s always tea to drink with dinner. Yummy.
After dinner, I tried to chat and be social, but it was hard. I was half-asleep and failing fast. Around 9 I felt free to leave and go upstairs. I took a shower and went to bed.
I slept solidly until 7. SCORE! I had armed myself with my Mukuro handtowel to guard against the sun if I woke up early (even though I really hate having thigs over my eyes) but no worries. I konked out and stayed down until my alarm went off! I got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast.
Breakfast was the thickest slice of bread I`ve even eaten, toasted, with butter and strawberry jam. I had more cider/juice, more mango, and some watermelon. Oh, there was corn soup. We ahd gotten it at Juso and it was Campbells. ^.^ I tried it and was suprised by how sweet it was, so I commented on it, thinking it was normal. HJiroshi-san tried it and said it was too sweet for him. Odd... I liked it. ^_^ There were hard-boiled eggs too. At first I was afraid they were soft-boiled eggs, which I`ve never had and don`t really care to try, but there were there too. I felt compelled to eat one. >_>
Off to school. Yasuko-san and Hiroshi-san took me again today. They said they`ll take me tomorrow too, but starting next week, I`m taking the bus. More than I ever could have asked for. I don`t mind taking the bus. The route to school is pretty easy. I get on the bus in front of the house and take it to the train station (almost all the busses go to the train station) and wakl a couple blocks from there to school. It`s the route home I`m concerned about. I don`t know which bus goes which way, since it`s a bit off the main street and turned around, I don`t know which one to take! I`ll have to get that figured out. >.< I do know where to get off the bus...
I met up with my classmates for the first time and we went to our classroom. Well, today it was a different room, so we moved. There are only three other people in my class. I`m the only girl. Two of the boys are in my level, and I think the other boy is in the level below me, but the four levels are grouped in twos, so Alex (from France) is with us. The other boys are Jorgen (I think that`s how he spelled it. In Japanese it`s Yo-n-san) from Chicago and Kevin (from Pennsylvania).
Class is super easy and relaxed. We reviewed the vocabulary, read soem stuff out loud, listened to things on the computer, and did a couple of worksheets. Easy-peasy. After class was over (11:50) we went to lunch. Kristen and Carla (from Brazil) joined us. We went with one of our sensei (I forget her name) to a place called Viking for lunch. It was a cool buffet/yakiniku (yakiniku is grilled meat) place. I got some veggie black-bean curry and white rice, miso soup, inari-zushi and sushi that had nori wrapped around it and corn in some kind of sauce on top. Yummy. Oh, and I tried dango. I`m not sure how I feel about it. We all got different stuff. Alex, Jorgen, and Carla did the yakiniku thing, since all the tables had the grills regardless. Jorgen just kept eating and eating! It seems he`s a swimmer, but STILL! Both of his legs must be hollow because he was still eating when it was 1:00 and I had to leave because Yasuko-san was waiting for me at school. I walked back by myself and apologised for being late. On the way home, I asked Yasuko-san if there was a 7-11 in the area, since my friend had said their spaghetti was good. She said she didn`t think so.
We came home and I started to work on this. Then Yasuko-san said she had forgotten I wanted to go to the bank to change money, but since it closed at 3, we should go now if I wanted to go today. Se we went.
We parked and went inside. We got a numbered ticked (like at the cold-cuts counter in a grocery store) and sat down. Four people later, it was our turn. We went up to the counter and Yasuko-san inquired about changing dollars to yen. The lady said they stop doing that at 2. It was 2:30. So we left, and neither of us knew why they stopped changing money at 2. >.< On the way home, I spotted a 7-11. Yasuko-san said she had never noticed it before. I totally know how that is. I don`t know where tons of stuff is in Springfield or Columbus because I never SEE them.
Word of the day: mushiatsui
Meaning: humid
Tidbit: This time of year is rainy season, so it`s very, very humid. Also, I think it`s the same kanji for mushi as in insect.
Pronunciation: moo-she-ah-tsu-ee
It`s taken me, like two and a half hours to write this! After this I think I`ll explore the Circle-K or nearby drugstore or maybe I`ll wander all the way down to Book-off. And paint my nails. Maybe a nap... we`ll see.
- Mood: content
Oh, my dream last night! For those of you who don`t know Naruto, feel free to skip this. Okay, so Lauren, Manjusha, and I were hanging out, all sannin-de, at what was kind of (but not exactly) my local skating rink. For WHATEVER reason, Kakashi, Tobi, and Sasuke were also there. They started out as cosplayers, but somehow in the course of my dream became the real thing - not like they morphed into them or anything, but like the dream made it seem like they had always been the real thing. Anyway, at one point, Kakashi was talking to Tobi, and Sasuke was there, lurking, in his Camp Orochimaru - I mean, Shippuden - outfit. Tobi says something to Kakashi, then tells him his name, sounding it out slowly. Kakashi repeats it, then a look of realization dawns on him and he says back `O-bi-to` and slowly removes Tobi`s mask. I`m behind Tobi, so I can`t see, but I know he`s revealing Obito under it (even though in my dream, Tobi was kind of a chick >.>). I lean back around the corner I was creeping from, and duck into this closet space where Lauren and Manjusha are waiting - it seems to be our club house or something - and tell them what happened. Then I lean back around the corner and stage-whisper over to Sasuke "You need better friends!" Back in the clubhouse, Lauren is rather incredulous, saying, "Did you just tell Sasuke he needs to get better friends?" I say I did, and the three of us giggle. Then I woke up. >.> I think this is because I was thinking about JUMP before I went to bed.
They do have one of those crazy toilets here. With a bunch of buttons and options. I have not been brave enough to try them >.> So I know how to flush it and that`s all that matters.
When I`m talking, I keep trailing off because I`m unsure of what I`m saying and when I do that, I keep leaving off the most important part of the sentence - the part which makes it polite! I feel really bad about it, so I`ll have to start being more concious about it.
I think they expect me to eat a lot because I`m fat or American or something. Really, I don`t normally eat a lot. I`m just fat because I don`t eat very well (health-wise) and never exercize. I`m kind of hungry this morning, though, so unless I get a bunch of fruit given to me again, I`ll probably eat two of those donuts... which are now three days old >.>
Manjusha - check out the drama `MW` (pronounced muu - lol). It`s starring Chiaki-sempai as some kind of criminal/murderer... thing? I caught the tail-end of it last night and saw a couple of adds for it. It looks dark. And he looks hot. Check it out. I think Mame-Shiba might be in it too... Speaking of Chiaki-sempai, I saw him in another commercial, this time for gum, where a liquid monster slapped him in the face after he bit into the gum. I love Japanese commercials.
Word of the day: yowake
Meaning: daybreak
Tidbit: I learned this word from a song called `Daybreak`s Bell.` Also - something that comes far too early in Japan (at least this part >.<)
Pronunciation: yo-wah-kay
I woke up from my nap at 4 because I set an alarm, and I would have slept longer, I`m sure because I was fast asleep when it woke me up. I dozed for about fifteen minutes, then got up and went downstairs. Yasuko-san was back. She said that they moved Hiroshi-san`s test from tomorrow to today, and so she was going to take me over to her friend:s house until she got back.
So, I grabbed my bag-o-dictionaries and off we went. I met Tomoko-san who was super-cool. She is the owner of Gackt`s (the Tsukamoto family`s dog) mother (named Ron - which apparently is Chinese for `dragon`) and his sister (named kame, which is the word for `turtle`). They barked so long and loud that I thought they might not warm up to me. When I sat down, though, they got quiet and wanted me to pet them. Tsundere dogs... I think maybe it`s a breed trait for dachshounds. Or maybe just that family line. >.<
Tomoko-san (who is Yasuko-san`s "best-best friend") and I chatted a bit about her hobby, which is jewelry-making, or at least shaping the stones and affixing them to something. It seems that noone in Japan has small or easy hobbies. They`re amateur craftsmen who would put professionals to shame. This conversation was a case where anime saved my butt. Who knew that watching over 100 episodes of `Kyou Kara Maou` would come in handy? Thanks to that show, I knew the word `houseki` which is jewel, gem, or precious stone. It helped. ^.^
I had to look up some things, though, and my electronic dictionary was a speedy-deedy way to do that. It really helped keep the conversation going, and I think I just need to have it on hand whenever I`m talking to someone. Allready, not knowing one word or phrase has stopped some conversations. Being able to look it up keeps it going.
I played with the dogs while Tomoko-san got the dinner fixin`s ready. We were making sushi. I got to help. ^.^ I moved the rice from the rice cooker bowl into the wooden bowl. Oh, and I mixed the natto. Natto is a Japanese food which is fermented soy beans and mustard, kind of whipped together with chopsticks until it`s frothy and gooey.
First, we made inari-zushi, which is sushi rice inside fried tofu. She showed me how to do the first one, then my job was to fill them after she squeezed excess moisture out of the tofu. I ripped my second one, but I got better, and they turned out okay. (I took a picture, but I`ll have to get it off the camera, onto my laptop, edited, and on here, so it might be a while before you see it).
After the inari-zushi it was time to make nori maki (that is, a sushi roll with seaweed on the outside). We spread the sushi rice onto the seaweed sheet, and Tomoko-san put a long section of cucumber, three strips of fried egg, and a mixture of canned tuna (which she called `sea chicken,` and I thought it was hillarious until I looked it up in my dictionary and realized it`s their way of distinguishing the canned stuff from the, I dunno... fish stuff), mayonaise, and corn. She rolled up, and it was my turn to try. This time we made a roll filled with natto. It was just natto inside the rice. Then back to the tuna mix stuff, natto again, and tuna mix again. We ended up with four rolls, which I thought was waaay too much, and that was confirmed when we cut it (6 pieces per roll of the tuna mix and 4 each for the natto) and ended up eith a ton~ on top of the inari zushi.
THEN, as if we didn`t have enough food, Tomoko-san goes into the kitchen and dishes up a cold cucumber and seaweek dish (this is a different kind of seaweed, called `wakame.` When she asked, I had to explain that American`s don`t distinguish - it`s all just seaweed to us) and tofu soup. Too much food~
I tried the natto roll but couldn`t eat it all. I got through one bite before it really hit me, but Tomoko-san said it was okay, that lots of Japanese don`t like it, including Yasuko-san, even though it`s very healthy.
I ate two inari zushi and one of the tuna mix rolls, in addition to the tofu soup and the cucumber salad thing (both of those were really good) but after that, I was full. I wasn`t very hungry to begin with, and basically all I did today was eat and sleep. I didn`t exactly work up an appetite. Gobs of the sushi came home with me for the us to eat tomorrow.
After dinner, Tomoko-san told me she was going to give a pendant necklace to me as a present. She picked out a dolphin with a place for a stone and offered it to me. I love dolphins~ (thanks to `Naruto` I know the word for it! Iruka.) She picked out a raw piece of turquoise. We went into her workshop area where she has four little sink-like things with spinning wheels (like pottery wheels). She buzzed it right down to the correct size with her wheel. It was pretty impressive. Although the stone wasn`t terribly huge, and was already in the round shape of a circle, the way she ground it down so perfectly was really cool. Then she attached it to a stick with some wax, and showed me the way to wiggle it on the next thing she set up on the spinner. I did that with three different tops, she touched it up, and it was done! A bit of polishing, and she glued it onto the dolphin necklace and it`s really nifty! I`m going to wear it tomorrow. ^.^ Yasuko-san does this too - makes the jewelry with her friend. When I read on the information that her hobby was `jewelry polishing` there was a big communication error. Now I get it.
Oh, here`s something funny. She put it in a bag and a box, and I took a picture of it like that, but no~ I couldn`t do that! she got out a velvet-covered display board (not unlike the one Hiroshi-san used for his Noh mask) nad set it up prettily with a large raw turquoise for me to take the picture.
Then I watched TV while Tomoko-san cleaned up. I felt bad, but I didn`t know how to offer to help, and I probably would just have gotten in her way anyway. I watched some variety shows. I saw one with the guy who played Mame-Shiba in Mei-chan no Shitsuji, and a commercial with the girl from Hana Yori Dango, and a commerical with Chiaki-sempai from Nodame Cantabile. Nifty.
Yasuko-san picked me up and here I am. I thought of some things I forgot to write earlier, but I can`t think of them now...
Oh, when they showed me my room yesterday, they were careful to point out which directions the windows faced. I guess Japanese really do care about that kind of thing! (for those of you who haven`t taken 3rd year Japanese with JSL at OSU - we spent part of a lesson learning a conversation about apartment shopping and it really mattered which way the windows faced). For those who are curious, I have an east-facing window and a north-facing one.
You already got your word of the day, but I guess I`ll do another.
Word of the day part 2
Word: ame
Meaning: rain
Tidbit: it`s raining right now. The word for candy is quite similar and spelled the same way when you use romaji. Only the intonation and way of writing it are different.
Pronunciation: ah-may
Being here, and I`ve only been here a little over 24 hours, but it doesn`t feel weird. I thought it would. I haven`t really been out of the house, but it`s jsut different, not uncomfortable or strange, really. I`m quite comfortable beyond the language and culture barriers. Just play it safe, I figure. No panicking. ^.^
Oh, and Arisa had to cancel on me this weekend because her mother`s got a cold. It can`t be helped - everyone gets sick sometime, and I would`t want some strange gaijin in my house when I was sick, so I understand. It jsut means I won`t be meeting up with OSU people who are here for the summer. Ah, well.
Anyway, up at 7 tomorrow, and Yasuko-san is going to drive me to school for my first day. After that it:s up to me to take the bus. Fine with me, as long as I can figure out where to get off. >.< And I get some change.
BTW - I remembered their daughter`s name. It`s Yoshiko.
HEY EVERYONE!! So I`m in Japan now, borrowing my host family`s computer to do this because they don`t have wireless and there`s no way I`m going to try to mess with their cords to plug my laptiop in. Maybe I can use my computer over at school. I`ll find out tomorrow. Here`s what`s gone down so far:
My flight from Dayton to Detroit was fine. The guy next to me seemed a bit odd and the guy across the isle from me looked vaguely like Jerry Springer. In the Detroit airport, there`s a tunnel connecting the two concourses. That tunnel is AWESOME and that place it the niftiest airport I`ve ever been in. The tunnel is lit with lights shone on the walls that change color, and there`s nice music playing. You can walk the long tunnel or use one of the two moving sidewalks (one on either side) to cross it. Way cool. Also - all the signs in Detroit were both in English and Japanese. Nifty.
I found my gate, bought an orange juice nearby, and waited. I tried to call my family, but had no success. >.<# So I called Manjusha and Lauren to talk to them. I boarded at 3:00. I ended up sitting next go a kinda grumpy man (maybe Dad`s age or so) and a much younger girl and her infant son. Now, that guy and I were two of maybe a dozen white poeple on that plane (I saw fewer, but I imagine there had to be at least that many!). The girl was Phillipino, I think, and that`s where they were headed - my flight had a connection to the Phillipines. Her son was ADORABLE and very well behaved. He only started to fuss three times, but quieted quickly. She changed him at our seats twice. >.< The guy... was obviously with them. I couldn`t tell if he was her father or husband. >.<
My food was pretty good - supper especially. Thanks, Daddy, for telling them I`m vegetarian. ^-^ First, kids got their meals, then me, then everyone else. Mine was curry and rice with rasins and almonds in it. I got grapes, canteloupe and uh, something else. I can`t remember. I did not, however, get the Milanos that everyone else got for dessert! >.< We got movie snacks - I thought mine was better again - I got grapes and carrots and everyone else got a weird little sandwich with hardboiled egg and pickles in it. Breakfast was fruit and something I already forget because I didn`t like it. The jerk-face flight attendant pouring coffee for the guy next to me held it over me while doing it and dripped coffee on my white sweatshirt. >.<#
The first in-flight movie was ``He`s Just Not That Into You`` which I watched and it passed the time. The second was something with Renee Zelweger and looked stupid and I don`t really like her, so I tried to sleep. I didn`t watch the third movie either.
The in-flight radio had a J-rock channel and it played ``Doushite.`` I looked in the magazine to see what was on the cycle, and I didn`t like any of it, really, but laughed a little when I saw that on the list, so I listened to it until I caught it. I thought you`d like that tidbit, Manjusha.
About half-way through the flight, I got a horrible knot in my back, in the vicinity of my right shoulder. It hurts. Still there. >.<
So, I survived the flight. I slept about 4 hours, only had to use that scary toilet twice, and made some progress on ``Good Omens`` which is a fabulous book on recommendation from Lauren and I`m furthuring it. READ THAT BOOK!
I got off the plane, managed to get through customs without getting arrested or deported or anything, got and tried to figure out where I was going. I asked at information and they direceted me to the bus area. I stood in line, bought my ticket (thankfully, the machine had an English setting) and got on the bus. I had to sit next to someone which was awkward, but whatever. I`ll get used to it, I guess. The bus ride from the airport to Okazaki station was almost an hour and a half. I was a bit confused as to which stop I was supposed to get off at. There were three stops with `Okazaki Station` in the title! There`s East Okazaki Station, Okazaki Police Station (or something like that) and just `Okazaki Station.` I took a gamble and went with the last one. Turns out it was correct. I got off the bus, not knowing to drop my little slip into the collection place until the driver motioned for me to do so. >.> And there was a guy with a Yamasa sign waiting for me. He didn`t really say much of anything, but drove me to my homestay.
I met Hiroshi-san and Yasuko-san my host father and mother respectively. They were in the middle of dinner, but Yasuko-san put together something for me to eat too, even though I said I was okay. She made some onigiri (rice balls), gave me some miso soup, and some sort of egg custard thing. I have my own cup, which was filled with green tea. ^.^ I got a tour of the house. I have my own room. Although I wanted to sleep in the tatami room on a futon, they said that it was too hot and since it was late, I should just use the western style room with a bed for now, but I`m welcome to try the other, and use it if I like.
There are many slippers and remotes. O.o A pair of slippers for around the house, a pair for my room, and a pair for the bathroom. In my room there is a remote for the light, one for the air conditioning (individual rooms are air conditioned, not the whole house, and it is to be turned off when you`re not there), and one for the TV. The TV doesn`t have cable, so it`s looking like I won`t get to see a lot of anime, but that`s okay. And maybe I just have to catch it at the right time. I don`t know when or where anything is shown, so it`s just luck whatever I see.
They have a dog - a dachshound named... are you ready for this? Gackt. FOR REAL!!! Apparently, their daughter (who lives with them and whose name I currently forget) is a big fan, and she named the dog. He`s sweet. Once he got his barking out of the way, he`ll come right up to me and want to be petted. He`s a long-hair, but he`s shaved for the summer, except for his head and a lion-like tuft at the end of his tale. It`s actually pretty cute on him.
I woke up at 6:30. >.< I watched some TV, and tried to go back to sleep, but by 8 I gave up, got dressed, and went downstairs. They were having breakfast. Hiroshi-san had finished and offered me his chair. I had a donut from Mister Donuts (hehe) which I suspect the box was for my benefit, and some mango. Yummy. Gackt got the juice from my mango dish on some minced apple after he ate his normal food because apparently he loves apple. Oh, and I had apple juice. It was a nifty mix between apple juice and cider, but perhaps that`s the norm here.
After breakfast, I chatted with Yasuko-san some at the table. The news was on in the adjacent room and we talked about it some, and various things. With both of them I have trouble understanding, but we can communicate basically. I can understand better than I can reply, but still I have a hard time understanding. For example, after I was shooed away from the kitchen so Yasuko-san could start on lunch, I was in the living room downstairs with Hiroshi-san and we talked about Kabuki and his paper-cutting hobby (I can`t remember the word for it! It sounds lame, but it`s super cool. I`ll have to take a picture of one of his works and show you all). But there was a HUUUUUUUUGE loss on my part when he was talking about what I finally figured out was poetry. He seriously was talking for about fifteen minutes before I realized he was saying `haiku.` >.< And he was talking about some other form called `Waka` which I don`t think I`ve heard of before - or at least forgot. Then we talked about paper-cutting and `Kojiki` (the first book in Japan - its creation legend and stuff) where, again, I was HORRIBLY lost.
By the way - this keyboard is really har to use. I have to use keys which are in slightly different places (some are totally different). They QWERTY part is the same, but the latent function of the keys and where those little extras (the apostrophe in particular) is different and odd to access. I just found quotation marks... It`s the secondary function of the 2 key.
Oh! Hiroshi-san showed me a noh mask he has. As I understand it, his friend made it a long time ago. It`s really cool. He keeps it in a beautiful cloth bag (he says it`s because Yasuko-san doesn`t like it and says it creeps her out), but he took it out and let me touch it and stuff. Then he got a plaque-like mount sort of thing, hung it on there, and took a couple of pictures. He says he`ll print them out and give them to me to take home to show people.
To Mom, who probably wondered why I NEEDED to get brand new underwear for this trip - it`s because I had the sneaking susupicion it would be seen by like, everybody. I was correct. It seems I`ll be washing my clothes together with the family, and my clothes from yesterday - down to the undies - are currently handing outside to dry. >.<
Lunch was my nightmare almost come true ALREADY. Fish that looked like fish. Well, it wasn`t whole. It was half. And it didn`t have the head, but it had bones. UGH!!!! I tried to eat it. They even gaev me a fork, but it was too hard and I gave up for today. The fish won. Yasuko-san also made fried egg roll (which is sweet), fried eggplant, and of course, rice.
Right now, they`re at the hospital for an appointment. Something to so with Hiroshi-san`s heart. They had an appointment yesterday and one tomorrow too. I didn`t really understand, but I guess he has a bad heart. He took several pills this morning. :( That`s all I can think of for now. I wanted to go to the convenience store or something (I have a house key and everyting) but I think I`ll wait until they get back. I`m going to take a nap now. Leave me your questions, comments, concerns.
Oh, I already forgot to do my word of the day.
Word of the day: kasa
Meaning: umbrella
Tidbit: It`s the rainy season right now, so when you go out, it`s best to take an umbrella!
Pronunciation: The same as the Spanish word for house. Cah-sah.
Oh, and since they call Satoshi (their son, living in LA) or something like that... anyway, long story short, they said it`s really cheap to call the US and that I may use their phone to call home (they said e-mail is one thing, but they`re sure Mom and Dad want to hear my voice). I`m not sure I will. >.< I feel nervous about the cost, no matter what they say. Maybe just a quick hello or something sometime soon.
- Mood: sleepy
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chasethestars
chasethestars