Hello! Yes, I am now back state-side. I had really wanted to write this while I was still in Japan, but the end was very busy and there was no time. And then I was immediately busy after I returned to America too, so this is the first time I have had to write a post!
My last two weeks after the sports festival were kind of crazy, I saw friends whenever I could and spent all my time preparing for the end, writing speeches, buying souvenirs, making things for my friends, and figuring out my return logistics. School was fun as we all felt the end approaching, and made an effort to have as good a time as possible.
On Sunday a week before I left, I took the train an hour and a half to go to the beach with my German friend Maya in Wakayama, where she lives, an area south of Osaka. It was beautiful, with fine light sand and palm trees, very unlike my regular image of Japan. It was full of surfers and actually may not have been open to normal swimmers, but whatever. It was ok anyway because we randomly met a surfer dude from California who showed us how to surf for the rest of the day! That was really nice. I stood up a few times! But then I had to say goodbye to Maya because it was my last time with her, and it was sooo sad ;( I also got a bad sunburn on areas I hadn't sunscreened well enough, and slept with cooler packs on my thighs…
On the Tuesday of my last week, I gave my final speech to the school and received a certificate from the principal. Then two of my best friends came up and read things to me, and they started tearing up so I did too and it was really sweet. We sacrificed a math period before lunch to have a takoyaki/bingo party with my class, which was great. We all made takoyaki, something I've greatly improved at, and slipped large amounts of wasabi in a few as booby traps. And, of course, we had to play Bingo. We had all brought presents as prizes, and it was great because one of my best friends got my Illini t-shirt and was really happy :) And then, because it had come up the day before that I had never done it before, I got to try watermelon breaking! It's basically piñata with watermelon. I was blindfolded and had to spin around a bat five times, then with everyone calling out directions, walked toward the watermelon lying on a tarp and took a swing. I hit it with my one and only try and made a crack!! I had baked chocolate chip cookies for everyone and they were a huge hit, everyone wanted the recipe. People don't seem to do nearly as much baking here as in America, so when I do, everyone is always really interested. And when they do make cookies, they are usually small hard sugar cookies that they cut out with cookie cutters, so my cookie dough blobs were completely new to my host family.
Thursday was my last day of school, because tests started on Friday so there was no point for me to be there. It was only a half day, and the morning was normal classes. I talked with everyone I could during breaks and goofed off with friends during class, and there was lots of picture taking. Then was the hard part. After cleaning and our normal finishing business, I went up to give my final words. I had a list of what I wanted to say but it was still hard, and people started crying. Then my other two best friends, who hadn't spoken at the school assembly, read things to me and neither could get through without stopping to cry, it was really touching!! So then I was crying too and it was very emotional, all the pictures after that don't look so great. I gave everyone my business card with notes on the back, which had taken an unexpectedly long amount of time to write, and Take 5's that my parents had brought because they're my favorite candy. I also made small boards with pictures and writing for my four best friends, but I hadn't had time to finish them all yet so I asked my family to get them to the school later… I think my Japanese actually improved a lot in this last month, writing all these speeches and notes/letters to my friends. My friends worked incredibly hard to make a wonderful album fulll of pictures of us, and with pictures and notes from everyone in my class. I also got a bento box and chopsticks from other classmates, notes, chocolate, and two other albums. I am so overwhelmed by how much time they must have put into the albums, they're beyond amazing. After everyone had taken their last pictures and said goodbye, it was just me and my four best friends, crying and talking until our sensei dragged us out. My friend Kaede wanted my blonde bobby pin because you don't see those here, and then it was kind of funny and weird because they all wanted a strand of my hair. My sensei was like, "Just so you know, this is not a Japanese thing, it's just them." So I took one of Kaede's hairs too lol. Some of us biked, and some took the train or walked, so I think we stood outside the school in the rain for literally fifteen minutes trying to figure out the logistics of parting ways, it was so confusing and hilarious and it kept raining harder. We were one umbrella short so the girl who lived nearby had to be walked home, and then the bikers walked to the train station with the girl who took the train, and then we finally had to say goodbye at the station. It was hard, but we went away with smiles, knowing we'll still be in contact and maybe someday we'll see each other again.
I spent Friday with the Takanos, my first family, and I always just feel so at home there. We made a cake and had a nice dinner with some cooking drama, and it was a lot of fun. I definitely need to see them again!
On Saturday I went on my last adventure! Three of my exchange student friends had gone earlier to get their ears pierced (double lobe or cartilage piercings), but my other friend and I had been busy. But we still wanted to do it, so I went with her and my friend Hannah who decided she also wanted one, and we found the nice clinic they had gone to with only a few complications. Once we got there, it was very straightforward and the people were friendly and helpful. I got my upper left cartilage pierced. The piercing itself was kind of intense. I was taken into a separate room and put on a bed that raised up, then covered with towels "so your clothes don't get dirty." I was like, "uhhh what are you planning to do??" Then three nurses came in and were swabbing my ear, and finally a doctor with a mask came to do the actual piercing. It was fast and didn't actually hurt that bad, and afterward there was a dull pain but mostly my ear just felt hot. They took they towels off (still not sure what those were for) and let me free, and now I have a cute new exchange reminder :)
I spent my last day packing, which actually wasn't too bad and I finished before supper, and also fit in a long run. My parents had taken some stuff home so I was able to fit everything into my two suitcases, each with a 50lb limit, and I made it with .4kg over the limit, shhh. Unfortunately, I had somehow caught a cold, which started a couple days before and was the worst on this Sunday. We had a big delicious sushi dinner, and I ate enough of the wonderful sashimi to set me up for a while. We took pictures and talked, and I actually wasn't feeling very emotional because the fact that I was leaving wasn't really hitting me yet, mostly I just felt sick and tired :(
On Monday morning I fit my last things in my bags and made it to the airport. Because it was a Monday morning, almost everyone wasn't able to make it :( My principal and the Takanos showed up though, and my friend Wesley with his parents who were visiting were awesome enough to come. Again, nothing was really sinking in yet, I was thinking more about getting through my long 26 hour transit, so I was able to say goodbye without tears.
The plane rides went smoothly, no problems or delays, and I had a good neighbor on my long flight. In Hong Kong though, where I went first before going to Dallas, I had to keep stopping myself from speaking Japanese to everybody. That was when I started realizing that no one is going to be Japanese anymore, and I was really sad. It was kind of strange and intimidating waiting at the gate with a bunch of Americans, I hadn't been around that many in a long time. I'm glad I was able to sort of get used to it there and in the airplane before being fully immersed in Dallas. It was still a shock to hear English all around me and be able to understand everyone, but I got used to it fairly quickly. I arrived in Chicago and was greeted by my parents and aunt, got to the car, and finally made it home.
I'm planning to write another post soon about return feelings, but for now, I'm back.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Sports Festival
Last Friday was my school's annual sports festival!! I think it was one of the most fun days of my year! We had been preparing in PE since April, learning our dance routine and marching routine, and in the past couple weeks things really picked up. Students spent any free time practicing for the events, even skipping lunch and staying after the bell in PE, a dedication I wouldn't expect to see in America... The week before the festival, we took half a day off of classes to hold preliminary rounds for the 6x100m relay and do a practice run-through of the other events. The relay is the biggest deal, and only some teams get through the preliminaries to race at the festival. My class is fast, and both of our relay groups got second in their rounds and one would have gotten first but a girl fell. It was really intense, we all screamed when she fell, and there were a lot of tears afterward from the classes that didn't make it.
Finally, full of nerves and excitement, we all met Friday morning at a large indoor arena obnoxiously far away. I had to wake up at 5am and my friends who live farther had to wake up even earlier. The other classes came in their PE uniforms but us third graders had to wear our fancy uniforms for our formation marching, something only the third graders do. Like at the fall school festivals, everyone tried to look their best, girls sneaking eyeliner and wearing their hair in the braid styles they'd been practicing, boys trying to get away with hair gel. The entire day was filled with cellphone selfies and general picture taking.
After some last marching practice before the other grades arrived (they staggered us so we wouldn't overflow the transportation system), we had our morning assembly and started the day's events. One of my events, the 50 meter race, was first, which I was glad of. I got second in my heat of six and most of the girls from my class got first. Then was my favorite event of the day, bōhiki! It's kind of difficult to describe, and being in it I couldn't take pictures, but I'll do my best. The participating girls (a girls only event) from each grade were divided in half, on opposite sides of the arena, with eleven ~12ft poles lying on the floor in between. There were three rounds, all with different girls, and each side was broken into groups of four for each pole. Everyone ran forward to grab the poles and take them back to their sides, with a tug-of-war when people from both sides got a hold of the same pole. The best part was that after we were done with our first pole, we could go help with other poles still being fought over, so there were sometimes 40 girls swarming one pole. It got kind of violent, with lots of screaming, and everyone watching said it looked really scary. It was a lot of fun, and my side won all three rounds :D
Then was the relay, and unfortunately one of our fastest boys was injured on crutches and another was in trouble with the police for driving a motorcycle without a license or something and couldn't come... So neither of our teams did as well as they could have, and there were some tears over that :( Our 10 person/11-legged race team did well, however! I liked how they had big mats at the end so the teams could collapse face forward to finish. The cheer/baton club performed and were very impressive because they practice for hours everyday. The dance club was also very good, in cute Mickey/Minnie outfits. My second favorite event to bōhiki was kibasen, where teams of three boys carried a fourth one wearing a baseball hat and ran around trying to steal other teams' hats. It kind of reminded me of kangaroo boxing, with the guys frantically pawing at each other's heads. My class' group did decently, sneaking up on people from behind hehe. There was a lunch break and more relay racing, weeding out more teams, and then jump roping. Each class was divided into two teams of 20, to try to get as many collective jumps as possible. The middle schoolers had 2 minutes to get as many jumps as they could, but the high schoolers only had one try. Our first team messed up on their first try and got 45 jumps on their second, but unfortunately it didn't count because they'd already used one try. The second group, mine, got one before messing up, so our class had a total of one jump, kind of sad. When they had announced the totals at lunch, my class, G, had been well in the lead, but everyone was kind of down after the failures of the jump rope and relay, both with big points possible. The final event was the third graders' marching. The grade was split into two groups of guys and two groups of girls. We made pretty rows and columns and walked in various patterns, and it went really well! The girls also had a brief dance routine after the marching. The guys were especially impressive, I wish I could have gotten pictures but again I was participating!
Finally, all the students gathered on the floor in our well-practiced rows for the finishing speeches and announcement of results. Aaaandd somehow, even with our mishaps, G WAS THE CHAMPION!!!! I was so happy!! Some of the girls cried over that too, it was a very emotional day. There was more picture taking, and everyone was in great spirits.
The next day in school, everyone was sleepy and sore, but feeling pleased and bonded. I am really glad this festival was at the end of my exchange, now that I can understand what's happening, feel a part of my class, and could generally appreciate everything. After class on Saturday, our sensei threw us a celebratory party with snacks and it was really nice. That night, we all met out for dinner and more pictures/purikura, it was wonderful. My purikura (the fancy photo booth) skills have improved a lot from the beginning! Yes, it takes skill. I feel so close to my class now, lately school has been good every day, which will just make it so much harder to say goodbye! My flight is in exactly two weeks from today and my last day of school in a week and a half, wahhhh. I need to think of some good last words, I foresee tears ;(
Finally, full of nerves and excitement, we all met Friday morning at a large indoor arena obnoxiously far away. I had to wake up at 5am and my friends who live farther had to wake up even earlier. The other classes came in their PE uniforms but us third graders had to wear our fancy uniforms for our formation marching, something only the third graders do. Like at the fall school festivals, everyone tried to look their best, girls sneaking eyeliner and wearing their hair in the braid styles they'd been practicing, boys trying to get away with hair gel. The entire day was filled with cellphone selfies and general picture taking.
After some last marching practice before the other grades arrived (they staggered us so we wouldn't overflow the transportation system), we had our morning assembly and started the day's events. One of my events, the 50 meter race, was first, which I was glad of. I got second in my heat of six and most of the girls from my class got first. Then was my favorite event of the day, bōhiki! It's kind of difficult to describe, and being in it I couldn't take pictures, but I'll do my best. The participating girls (a girls only event) from each grade were divided in half, on opposite sides of the arena, with eleven ~12ft poles lying on the floor in between. There were three rounds, all with different girls, and each side was broken into groups of four for each pole. Everyone ran forward to grab the poles and take them back to their sides, with a tug-of-war when people from both sides got a hold of the same pole. The best part was that after we were done with our first pole, we could go help with other poles still being fought over, so there were sometimes 40 girls swarming one pole. It got kind of violent, with lots of screaming, and everyone watching said it looked really scary. It was a lot of fun, and my side won all three rounds :D
Then was the relay, and unfortunately one of our fastest boys was injured on crutches and another was in trouble with the police for driving a motorcycle without a license or something and couldn't come... So neither of our teams did as well as they could have, and there were some tears over that :( Our 10 person/11-legged race team did well, however! I liked how they had big mats at the end so the teams could collapse face forward to finish. The cheer/baton club performed and were very impressive because they practice for hours everyday. The dance club was also very good, in cute Mickey/Minnie outfits. My second favorite event to bōhiki was kibasen, where teams of three boys carried a fourth one wearing a baseball hat and ran around trying to steal other teams' hats. It kind of reminded me of kangaroo boxing, with the guys frantically pawing at each other's heads. My class' group did decently, sneaking up on people from behind hehe. There was a lunch break and more relay racing, weeding out more teams, and then jump roping. Each class was divided into two teams of 20, to try to get as many collective jumps as possible. The middle schoolers had 2 minutes to get as many jumps as they could, but the high schoolers only had one try. Our first team messed up on their first try and got 45 jumps on their second, but unfortunately it didn't count because they'd already used one try. The second group, mine, got one before messing up, so our class had a total of one jump, kind of sad. When they had announced the totals at lunch, my class, G, had been well in the lead, but everyone was kind of down after the failures of the jump rope and relay, both with big points possible. The final event was the third graders' marching. The grade was split into two groups of guys and two groups of girls. We made pretty rows and columns and walked in various patterns, and it went really well! The girls also had a brief dance routine after the marching. The guys were especially impressive, I wish I could have gotten pictures but again I was participating!
Finally, all the students gathered on the floor in our well-practiced rows for the finishing speeches and announcement of results. Aaaandd somehow, even with our mishaps, G WAS THE CHAMPION!!!! I was so happy!! Some of the girls cried over that too, it was a very emotional day. There was more picture taking, and everyone was in great spirits.
The next day in school, everyone was sleepy and sore, but feeling pleased and bonded. I am really glad this festival was at the end of my exchange, now that I can understand what's happening, feel a part of my class, and could generally appreciate everything. After class on Saturday, our sensei threw us a celebratory party with snacks and it was really nice. That night, we all met out for dinner and more pictures/purikura, it was wonderful. My purikura (the fancy photo booth) skills have improved a lot from the beginning! Yes, it takes skill. I feel so close to my class now, lately school has been good every day, which will just make it so much harder to say goodbye! My flight is in exactly two weeks from today and my last day of school in a week and a half, wahhhh. I need to think of some good last words, I foresee tears ;(
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Fukushima, Parents, and Speechifying
Hello again, for once not too long an absence! The past few weeks, as usual, have been busy in a good way :)
When I last wrote, I was about to go to a Rotary conference in Fukushima. I was initially concerned about traveling to Fukushima, the area hit with a terrible earthquake three years ago that caused radiation leakage, but the place I went was far inland and perfectly safe. My fellow exchange students and I with two Rotarians travelled there by Shinkansen and normal train, about five hours total. It was extremely unfortunate because one of the girls, Mika, missed the Shinkansen!! They had said, "don't be late, the tickets are pre-reserved so we can't wait for anyone," but these things never actually seem to happen. It turned out that she suddenly got really sick though and was glad she stayed behind, but it was still sad. On the way we met two other exchange students, from France and New Zealand, and at the conference I think we met nine new students total and a lot of great Rotex. One of the guys, Ryne from Indiana, I had met before coming to Japan so it was cool to see someone I knew! It was soo great meeting everyone, all long-term exchange students just seem to have this immediate bond and understanding with each other, and there's always a lot to talk about. It was really interesting hearing about everyone's totally different experiences, and realizing how lucky I am to live in Osaka. Here there are always places to go and I can easily meet friends and travel around independently by train, while the people in smaller towns are far from their friends, don't have much to do, and can't easily go out on their own. As for big cities, it's cheaper than Tokyo, and reportedly friendlier. There is so much luck involved in exchange, with location, families, school, Rotary club/district, and exchange student group, all of which can really impact an exchange, and I somehow managed to get on the lucky side of all of these!! It's amazing. Anyway, at the conference there were speeches with some visiting Austrian Rotarians, and we all had to work on presentations about the earthquake but it was very confusing so it was mostly left to the Rotex... We had a fun midnight bath (gender segregated), enjoying the outdoor area with a great view of the whole valley that the hotel looked out over, and it was perfect weather, just beautiful. It was a very late night/early morning—I love exchange students—but somehow we got up to give our presentations and say goodbye. It's so harsh, we meet people, bond, and then it's like, "goodbye, have a nice life!" since most of them live thousands of miles away and we'll probably never meet again. At least there's Facebook!
Shortly after my Fukushima trip, I picked up my parents from the Osaka airport for a ten-day visit. It was strange having my dad tower over me, I'm not used to being towered over. My host family was very generous and took my parents in for their full stay, in the grandparents' house. They enjoyed having them though, and were especially amused by all my dad's antics, like eating a whole umeboshi (very sour pickled plum) in one bite, which just isn't done. My parents were kept busy, going places with me when I was free and being taken around by my host family when I wasn't. I think they got a good taste of Japanese life, which is difficult without a home stay. I dropped them back at the airport just a month before my departure so it wasn't a terribly hard parting, except maybe for them having to leave this lovely Japanese lifestyle ;) It was a lovely visit, I was glad they came :)
Last weekend, I gave my final speeches for Rotary. On Sunday I had my last District meeting with the other exchange students and Monday was my last club meeting. Actually, my Indonesian friend Talitha's flight back was Sunday before the meeting, so we all gathered there to see her off. It was soo saddd, we just kept coming back to our favorite group huddle and it was so hard to break apart. Tears were mostly kept in control because I think it was just hard to comprehend what was happening, that our exchanges are finishing and if we see each other again, it may not be for years. It's too strange. So with our number sadly depleted, we hung around before the meeting and I finally got to ride the giant Ferris wheel by the airport, a goal since my first night here. Everyone's presentations at the meeting were good and all very different, it was really interesting. Mine was somewhat choppy because I had lacked the motivation to practice... There were definitely tears at the meeting though. Mika should actually be on her plane back to America as I write this, so after the meeting was our last time out with her too!! I can't believe it, it doesn't seem so long ago that we were at our first meeting introducing ourselves and finding out who our companions would be for the year. Although at the same time, it really was a long time ago and we have all changed and grown so much...
The next day, I skipped school for my performance at my club. They had asked me to show something I had learned on my exchange, either the tea ceremony or traditional dance. I had practiced neither for months and I had never been able to actually do the tea ceremony on my own yet, but I didn't particularly want to dance and my current host mom and grandma teach the tea ceremony to high schoolers, so I chose that and speed-learned it. But then I visited my first host family, the Takanos, with my parents, and they made me try my dance for them. It turned out I mostly remembered it, so they called my club and told them I would be dancing too :P So on Monday I wore a yukata, danced, gave my final presentation, and performed the tea ceremony with the help of my host mom and grandma, and I was actually pleased with all three of my performances. I'm incredibly lucky to be with a family that could do this and had all the materials and experience for serving tea to 25 people, that's uncommon. The Takanos said it was the most entertaining final exchange meeting they'd been too ;) I'm glad for these final presentations because they give me a sense of closure, having to summarize my year in one talk/slide show. If I hadn't had to prepare for them, leaving my life here would feel too abrupt.
My end is rushing up on me but I'm doing my best to pack the remaining time with fun things. Tomorrow is my school sports festival, I'm really excited!! It's a huge deal, I'll try to make a separate post about it. Until then!
When I last wrote, I was about to go to a Rotary conference in Fukushima. I was initially concerned about traveling to Fukushima, the area hit with a terrible earthquake three years ago that caused radiation leakage, but the place I went was far inland and perfectly safe. My fellow exchange students and I with two Rotarians travelled there by Shinkansen and normal train, about five hours total. It was extremely unfortunate because one of the girls, Mika, missed the Shinkansen!! They had said, "don't be late, the tickets are pre-reserved so we can't wait for anyone," but these things never actually seem to happen. It turned out that she suddenly got really sick though and was glad she stayed behind, but it was still sad. On the way we met two other exchange students, from France and New Zealand, and at the conference I think we met nine new students total and a lot of great Rotex. One of the guys, Ryne from Indiana, I had met before coming to Japan so it was cool to see someone I knew! It was soo great meeting everyone, all long-term exchange students just seem to have this immediate bond and understanding with each other, and there's always a lot to talk about. It was really interesting hearing about everyone's totally different experiences, and realizing how lucky I am to live in Osaka. Here there are always places to go and I can easily meet friends and travel around independently by train, while the people in smaller towns are far from their friends, don't have much to do, and can't easily go out on their own. As for big cities, it's cheaper than Tokyo, and reportedly friendlier. There is so much luck involved in exchange, with location, families, school, Rotary club/district, and exchange student group, all of which can really impact an exchange, and I somehow managed to get on the lucky side of all of these!! It's amazing. Anyway, at the conference there were speeches with some visiting Austrian Rotarians, and we all had to work on presentations about the earthquake but it was very confusing so it was mostly left to the Rotex... We had a fun midnight bath (gender segregated), enjoying the outdoor area with a great view of the whole valley that the hotel looked out over, and it was perfect weather, just beautiful. It was a very late night/early morning—I love exchange students—but somehow we got up to give our presentations and say goodbye. It's so harsh, we meet people, bond, and then it's like, "goodbye, have a nice life!" since most of them live thousands of miles away and we'll probably never meet again. At least there's Facebook!
Shortly after my Fukushima trip, I picked up my parents from the Osaka airport for a ten-day visit. It was strange having my dad tower over me, I'm not used to being towered over. My host family was very generous and took my parents in for their full stay, in the grandparents' house. They enjoyed having them though, and were especially amused by all my dad's antics, like eating a whole umeboshi (very sour pickled plum) in one bite, which just isn't done. My parents were kept busy, going places with me when I was free and being taken around by my host family when I wasn't. I think they got a good taste of Japanese life, which is difficult without a home stay. I dropped them back at the airport just a month before my departure so it wasn't a terribly hard parting, except maybe for them having to leave this lovely Japanese lifestyle ;) It was a lovely visit, I was glad they came :)
Last weekend, I gave my final speeches for Rotary. On Sunday I had my last District meeting with the other exchange students and Monday was my last club meeting. Actually, my Indonesian friend Talitha's flight back was Sunday before the meeting, so we all gathered there to see her off. It was soo saddd, we just kept coming back to our favorite group huddle and it was so hard to break apart. Tears were mostly kept in control because I think it was just hard to comprehend what was happening, that our exchanges are finishing and if we see each other again, it may not be for years. It's too strange. So with our number sadly depleted, we hung around before the meeting and I finally got to ride the giant Ferris wheel by the airport, a goal since my first night here. Everyone's presentations at the meeting were good and all very different, it was really interesting. Mine was somewhat choppy because I had lacked the motivation to practice... There were definitely tears at the meeting though. Mika should actually be on her plane back to America as I write this, so after the meeting was our last time out with her too!! I can't believe it, it doesn't seem so long ago that we were at our first meeting introducing ourselves and finding out who our companions would be for the year. Although at the same time, it really was a long time ago and we have all changed and grown so much...
The next day, I skipped school for my performance at my club. They had asked me to show something I had learned on my exchange, either the tea ceremony or traditional dance. I had practiced neither for months and I had never been able to actually do the tea ceremony on my own yet, but I didn't particularly want to dance and my current host mom and grandma teach the tea ceremony to high schoolers, so I chose that and speed-learned it. But then I visited my first host family, the Takanos, with my parents, and they made me try my dance for them. It turned out I mostly remembered it, so they called my club and told them I would be dancing too :P So on Monday I wore a yukata, danced, gave my final presentation, and performed the tea ceremony with the help of my host mom and grandma, and I was actually pleased with all three of my performances. I'm incredibly lucky to be with a family that could do this and had all the materials and experience for serving tea to 25 people, that's uncommon. The Takanos said it was the most entertaining final exchange meeting they'd been too ;) I'm glad for these final presentations because they give me a sense of closure, having to summarize my year in one talk/slide show. If I hadn't had to prepare for them, leaving my life here would feel too abrupt.
My end is rushing up on me but I'm doing my best to pack the remaining time with fun things. Tomorrow is my school sports festival, I'm really excited!! It's a huge deal, I'll try to make a separate post about it. Until then!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Fourth Family
Hello everyone, look I'm still alive! It's been a while, leaving more to write about and proportionately less will to begin writing. I give you my highlights:
Mainly, a month and a half ago I moved to my fourth and last host family! It's a really good family, and I'm glad I have a relatively long stay with them. It's even closer to school than my last one, about a ten minute bike ride. I have a middle school brother who also goes to Kenmei and a 16-year-old sister who goes to a different high school. My host dad is a policeman, so like most of my host dads he comes home for dinner and is generally around, unlike the typical salaryman. My host mom and grandma teach the tea ceremony to high schoolers and perform at various venues. This is great because when I am free I receive the benefit of free tea ceremonies in beautiful temples ;) The house is relatively big for Japan but still comfortable, in a complex with the grandparents' house. My grandpa used to be a policeman but now he is a farmer, so we always have fresh vegetables from our giant garden and whatever else he brings home. My family strangely doesn't like sweets or snacks, and I am thankful for that.
One of my favorite things about this family is how my mom and siblings somehow have a more worldly view than most people I meet. It's hard to explain but many people tend to make these big generalizations about Japan versus America and other countries, and I spend a lot of time trying to clear this ignorance. I do my best to be patient, but I find myself needing more and more deep breaths before responding to things like, "That massage chair feels good to you?? I thought only Japanese people got sore shoulders!" *facepalm* So it is wonderful now that when my grandparents or someone ask a question like, "Everyone in America has little square gardens, right?" I can sit back and let my host mom, who seems to have endless patience with these things, be the one to say, "No, there are in fact a variety of gardens in America and not everyone even has them." So everything is good on the host family front.
Along with changing families, the other challenge I was preparing for was changing classes in the beginning of April with the start of a new school year. But on arriving to school, my sensei directed me to the shoes area of my same class, now HIIIG instead of HIIG, and told me I am here to stay until the end. I am so happy!! So it's very comfortable but at the same time kind of boring. I was ready for change but everything is the same, the students, classroom, and even sensei, who usually changes. I am glad though, I was not looking forward to being with even younger students. I have been paying more attention in class this term, trying to actually follow along, and it's getting easier. PE is fun, we're preparing for the big sports festival in June. We've been working on marching in formation, surprisingly difficult but fun, and a dance routine.
Something that was interesting was a school day devoted to physical check-ups. We were separated by girls in the morning and boys in the afternoon. They tested height, weight, sitting height, eyes, ears, and some organ test where we had to remove all upper clothing. The week before, everyone (except me ;)) had to collect urine samples as well, and apparently in elementary school they also had stool samples. They were all surprised and jealous when I told them I'd done nothing of the sort in America.
Last month, Easter happened! Thanks to a dye kit sent from home, I introduced egg dyeing to my family and they loved it! They even saved the dyes so they could do another batch. On Easter morning, I hid chocolate and jelly belly filled plastic eggs (curtesy of said care package) around the living room and had fun with my confused family ("What bunny came? Do you mean the dog?? What??"). Once they caught on they really enjoyed it, and afterwards especially liked trying the variety of jelly belly flavors. Actually the next day in school a girl in my class somehow had a bag of Tabasco flavored jelly bellies and was offering the "apple" beans to whatever poor person passed. The taste was surprisingly accurate.
Last month I also went to Kyoto for a day with my Rotary district, where I met other districts for the first time! There were 15 new exchange students, which was kind of overwhelming after barely meeting any new ones this whole year. We were divided into teams of 5 or 6 with Japanese Outbounds and Rotex included, given bus passes, a map, and a location. Once we got to our location, we sent the Rotex coordinators a picture of us at the goal and received a new location, with the winning team going the most places the fastest. We went to some beautiful temples and shrines, which are everywhere in Kyoto, and since we never bothered to eat lunch, we got first place!! I got a pair of awesome chopsticks with a spoon and fork on the handle ends as a prize and it was exciting. I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet those other students again, but it was a fun day.
Just two days after the Rotary Kyoto trip, I found myself back in the same place where we had gathered but under completely different circumstances, wearing my uniform and sitting in rows with the entire Kenmei third grade on a field trip. A week before, we had been split into small groups and told to make a plan, being allowed to go anywhere in Kyoto as long as we had lunch at Kyoto University. After taking attendance at the Kyoto train station, we were set loose, an amount of freedom which surprised me. We got the all day bus pass again, so by now I am practically an expert on Kyoto buses. It's a good system with many buses so it's a very doable city. Again we went to a number of shrines and temples, all of which were new to me, and it was funny because I was the one showing my friends the way to wash their hands and bow and clap properly, having gone to many more of these places than they have recently. I wanted to tour Kyoto University to see what a Japanese college is like, but none of my friends were interested so we just went to the cafeteria and left. It was a clean and pretty cafeteria though, with a good selection of Japanese food. Far better than most American dorm food in my opinion.
Soon after that, Golden Week began, a time around the beginning of May when a number of Japanese holidays are bunched together, so I had six days off of school. The break mindset is very different here. In America I wasn't allowed to have homework over school breaks and used them as the name suggests, "breaks from school." Here students are piled with homework and the senseis tell them "the fear is that you will forget your study habits. While there is time to play, and that's good, make sure you use this time to study a lot too." It was only a six day break! Over the slightly longer two week spring break between terms my friend was like, "I'm going to forget how to hold a pencil!!" (Although they had plenty of homework over that one too). They can't even comprehend our several month summer break.
Anyway, over this break, along with some good sleeping, friend-seeing, takoyaki-making, and an interesting Cinco de Mayo celebration, I harvested takenoko (bamboo shoots)! My host family owns a small area of mountain to the south of Osaka (apparently fairly cheap since there is so much mountain here) with a bamboo grove. The edible shoot is a brown cone-shaped plant rising several inches to a little over a foot straight up from the ground, which if let be will grow into full bamboo. To harvest it we used pick-like tools to clear away the dirt around the base then chop it at the roots. The hardest part was moving around the grove because the mountainside was so steep. After harvesting, we peeled their husks off and boiled the takenoko in a large pot over a fire for about an hour. After this they are nice and tender but still slightly crunchy and ready to be used in rice, other dishes, or just as is with some flavoring, my favorite. The takenoko season is about a month long and my grandpa went to harvest it nearly every day, so for a time there was almost always takenoko at dinner. I never got tired of it :)
I just came back from a one-night weekend Rotary trip to Hiroshima. I'm disappointed that we don't have any longer trips, I love my group. I was excited to ride the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the first time, and it was amazingly fast and smooth but I found the pressure on my eardrums from the number of mountain tunnels that we sped through very unpleasant, like what happens on an airplane but more frequent. Hiroshima is an incredibly beautiful city, full of trees and grass and flowers. We had perfect weather, warm with a slight breeze, and somehow standing there on the banks of a beautiful sparkling river, birds chirping and music from a small band drifting across the water, made it even worse to look at the shell of the Hiroshima Dome building and hear about the atrocities of the atomic bomb. We went to the museum and it was sickening, but I think the worst part was learning about how much nuclear activity there still is. I don't think most people, especially the post-Cold War generations, realize how serious and horrifying the possibilities are, affecting literally all human beings. The next day was a happier day, with a visit to Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima. The shrine is mostly built over water with bright orange-red wooden walkways, and there is an iconic orange-red gateway standing alone in the bay. It's classified as one of the three most beautiful places in Japan. We had a delicious oyster lunch and a short visit to Hiroshima Castle before heading back to Osaka. Happily we don't have to say goodbye for long because we have a Rotary conference in Fukushima this coming weekend!
Last Friday I gave a speech to a hundred cram school teachers who came to visit Kenmei, beginning my season of speech-making as my time here reaches it's end (nooo). I think I'm getting better though, so I am glad for the experience.
I am going through so many emotions right now, with only a month and a half left in my exchange, which I'm sure is going to fly by like the rest has. My flight back is Monday, July 7. With the Fukushima trip and a few other Rotary meetings, my free weekends are scarce so I'm feeling stressed about fitting in seeing everyone I know and doing everything that needs to be done before I leave. There is too much to do still but no time! Everything is so normal now that it's hard to accept that this won't be my life anymore. At the same time, I do miss home of course and friends and family, so I'm excited to go back to America. I miss diversity and especially ethnic foods, because while I seriously love Japanese food, I was brought up with a wide variety of flavors and Japanese cooking uses a relatively limited palate. But I do love it so I'm really not looking forward to leaving it behind! There is soo much I'm going to miss about Japan, including of course all the amazing friends I've made and people who have taken care of me. I'm going to miss the general Japanese mindset, which is what drew me here in the first place. I know I'll come back, but probably not for years and it won't be the same. I am however getting tired of being in high school and am really excited for college. But I love my school friends and don't want to leave them! So basically, there are all these conflicting emotions running around and it's very confusing.
I have an exciting and busy time ahead, with presentations to make and places to go and people to see (oh hey my parents are visiting next week). We'll see how much blogging happens, but I'll try not to make it as long as this time!
Mainly, a month and a half ago I moved to my fourth and last host family! It's a really good family, and I'm glad I have a relatively long stay with them. It's even closer to school than my last one, about a ten minute bike ride. I have a middle school brother who also goes to Kenmei and a 16-year-old sister who goes to a different high school. My host dad is a policeman, so like most of my host dads he comes home for dinner and is generally around, unlike the typical salaryman. My host mom and grandma teach the tea ceremony to high schoolers and perform at various venues. This is great because when I am free I receive the benefit of free tea ceremonies in beautiful temples ;) The house is relatively big for Japan but still comfortable, in a complex with the grandparents' house. My grandpa used to be a policeman but now he is a farmer, so we always have fresh vegetables from our giant garden and whatever else he brings home. My family strangely doesn't like sweets or snacks, and I am thankful for that.
One of my favorite things about this family is how my mom and siblings somehow have a more worldly view than most people I meet. It's hard to explain but many people tend to make these big generalizations about Japan versus America and other countries, and I spend a lot of time trying to clear this ignorance. I do my best to be patient, but I find myself needing more and more deep breaths before responding to things like, "That massage chair feels good to you?? I thought only Japanese people got sore shoulders!" *facepalm* So it is wonderful now that when my grandparents or someone ask a question like, "Everyone in America has little square gardens, right?" I can sit back and let my host mom, who seems to have endless patience with these things, be the one to say, "No, there are in fact a variety of gardens in America and not everyone even has them." So everything is good on the host family front.
Along with changing families, the other challenge I was preparing for was changing classes in the beginning of April with the start of a new school year. But on arriving to school, my sensei directed me to the shoes area of my same class, now HIIIG instead of HIIG, and told me I am here to stay until the end. I am so happy!! So it's very comfortable but at the same time kind of boring. I was ready for change but everything is the same, the students, classroom, and even sensei, who usually changes. I am glad though, I was not looking forward to being with even younger students. I have been paying more attention in class this term, trying to actually follow along, and it's getting easier. PE is fun, we're preparing for the big sports festival in June. We've been working on marching in formation, surprisingly difficult but fun, and a dance routine.
Something that was interesting was a school day devoted to physical check-ups. We were separated by girls in the morning and boys in the afternoon. They tested height, weight, sitting height, eyes, ears, and some organ test where we had to remove all upper clothing. The week before, everyone (except me ;)) had to collect urine samples as well, and apparently in elementary school they also had stool samples. They were all surprised and jealous when I told them I'd done nothing of the sort in America.
Last month, Easter happened! Thanks to a dye kit sent from home, I introduced egg dyeing to my family and they loved it! They even saved the dyes so they could do another batch. On Easter morning, I hid chocolate and jelly belly filled plastic eggs (curtesy of said care package) around the living room and had fun with my confused family ("What bunny came? Do you mean the dog?? What??"). Once they caught on they really enjoyed it, and afterwards especially liked trying the variety of jelly belly flavors. Actually the next day in school a girl in my class somehow had a bag of Tabasco flavored jelly bellies and was offering the "apple" beans to whatever poor person passed. The taste was surprisingly accurate.
Last month I also went to Kyoto for a day with my Rotary district, where I met other districts for the first time! There were 15 new exchange students, which was kind of overwhelming after barely meeting any new ones this whole year. We were divided into teams of 5 or 6 with Japanese Outbounds and Rotex included, given bus passes, a map, and a location. Once we got to our location, we sent the Rotex coordinators a picture of us at the goal and received a new location, with the winning team going the most places the fastest. We went to some beautiful temples and shrines, which are everywhere in Kyoto, and since we never bothered to eat lunch, we got first place!! I got a pair of awesome chopsticks with a spoon and fork on the handle ends as a prize and it was exciting. I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet those other students again, but it was a fun day.
Just two days after the Rotary Kyoto trip, I found myself back in the same place where we had gathered but under completely different circumstances, wearing my uniform and sitting in rows with the entire Kenmei third grade on a field trip. A week before, we had been split into small groups and told to make a plan, being allowed to go anywhere in Kyoto as long as we had lunch at Kyoto University. After taking attendance at the Kyoto train station, we were set loose, an amount of freedom which surprised me. We got the all day bus pass again, so by now I am practically an expert on Kyoto buses. It's a good system with many buses so it's a very doable city. Again we went to a number of shrines and temples, all of which were new to me, and it was funny because I was the one showing my friends the way to wash their hands and bow and clap properly, having gone to many more of these places than they have recently. I wanted to tour Kyoto University to see what a Japanese college is like, but none of my friends were interested so we just went to the cafeteria and left. It was a clean and pretty cafeteria though, with a good selection of Japanese food. Far better than most American dorm food in my opinion.
Soon after that, Golden Week began, a time around the beginning of May when a number of Japanese holidays are bunched together, so I had six days off of school. The break mindset is very different here. In America I wasn't allowed to have homework over school breaks and used them as the name suggests, "breaks from school." Here students are piled with homework and the senseis tell them "the fear is that you will forget your study habits. While there is time to play, and that's good, make sure you use this time to study a lot too." It was only a six day break! Over the slightly longer two week spring break between terms my friend was like, "I'm going to forget how to hold a pencil!!" (Although they had plenty of homework over that one too). They can't even comprehend our several month summer break.
Anyway, over this break, along with some good sleeping, friend-seeing, takoyaki-making, and an interesting Cinco de Mayo celebration, I harvested takenoko (bamboo shoots)! My host family owns a small area of mountain to the south of Osaka (apparently fairly cheap since there is so much mountain here) with a bamboo grove. The edible shoot is a brown cone-shaped plant rising several inches to a little over a foot straight up from the ground, which if let be will grow into full bamboo. To harvest it we used pick-like tools to clear away the dirt around the base then chop it at the roots. The hardest part was moving around the grove because the mountainside was so steep. After harvesting, we peeled their husks off and boiled the takenoko in a large pot over a fire for about an hour. After this they are nice and tender but still slightly crunchy and ready to be used in rice, other dishes, or just as is with some flavoring, my favorite. The takenoko season is about a month long and my grandpa went to harvest it nearly every day, so for a time there was almost always takenoko at dinner. I never got tired of it :)
I just came back from a one-night weekend Rotary trip to Hiroshima. I'm disappointed that we don't have any longer trips, I love my group. I was excited to ride the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the first time, and it was amazingly fast and smooth but I found the pressure on my eardrums from the number of mountain tunnels that we sped through very unpleasant, like what happens on an airplane but more frequent. Hiroshima is an incredibly beautiful city, full of trees and grass and flowers. We had perfect weather, warm with a slight breeze, and somehow standing there on the banks of a beautiful sparkling river, birds chirping and music from a small band drifting across the water, made it even worse to look at the shell of the Hiroshima Dome building and hear about the atrocities of the atomic bomb. We went to the museum and it was sickening, but I think the worst part was learning about how much nuclear activity there still is. I don't think most people, especially the post-Cold War generations, realize how serious and horrifying the possibilities are, affecting literally all human beings. The next day was a happier day, with a visit to Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima. The shrine is mostly built over water with bright orange-red wooden walkways, and there is an iconic orange-red gateway standing alone in the bay. It's classified as one of the three most beautiful places in Japan. We had a delicious oyster lunch and a short visit to Hiroshima Castle before heading back to Osaka. Happily we don't have to say goodbye for long because we have a Rotary conference in Fukushima this coming weekend!
Last Friday I gave a speech to a hundred cram school teachers who came to visit Kenmei, beginning my season of speech-making as my time here reaches it's end (nooo). I think I'm getting better though, so I am glad for the experience.
I am going through so many emotions right now, with only a month and a half left in my exchange, which I'm sure is going to fly by like the rest has. My flight back is Monday, July 7. With the Fukushima trip and a few other Rotary meetings, my free weekends are scarce so I'm feeling stressed about fitting in seeing everyone I know and doing everything that needs to be done before I leave. There is too much to do still but no time! Everything is so normal now that it's hard to accept that this won't be my life anymore. At the same time, I do miss home of course and friends and family, so I'm excited to go back to America. I miss diversity and especially ethnic foods, because while I seriously love Japanese food, I was brought up with a wide variety of flavors and Japanese cooking uses a relatively limited palate. But I do love it so I'm really not looking forward to leaving it behind! There is soo much I'm going to miss about Japan, including of course all the amazing friends I've made and people who have taken care of me. I'm going to miss the general Japanese mindset, which is what drew me here in the first place. I know I'll come back, but probably not for years and it won't be the same. I am however getting tired of being in high school and am really excited for college. But I love my school friends and don't want to leave them! So basically, there are all these conflicting emotions running around and it's very confusing.
I have an exciting and busy time ahead, with presentations to make and places to go and people to see (oh hey my parents are visiting next week). We'll see how much blogging happens, but I'll try not to make it as long as this time!
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Third Family
Heyyy soo it's been even longer than usual... apologies.
A lot has happened, mainly moving to my third host family a month ago. Again, everything is totally different, and lots of fun! I love this family, but sadly I'm with them for an even shorter time than the last one! I only have a week and a half left :( I have two brothers, seven and eleven, although the seven-year-old looks like he's nine. They both take karate and are generally typical boys, so it gets rowdy. But it's an improvement, I found my patience wearing thin living with the little ones... My parents are fun and lively people, and my dad works only 3 minutes away so he's home in the evenings. It's great just sitting and having conversations with them. My host mom grew up around here so whenever we go out, all the shopkeepers know her. Also, her mom and older brother run a sushi shop across the street and the mom lives next door to that, so it's very convenient. We've only had sushi from there once though, but it was good. I'm a 15-minute bike ride from school again, which makes me very happy :) I think it's the nicest way to go to school. The rest of the family usually wakes up before 6, I'm not sure why, I think they just like it, so everyone goes to bed by 9:30 or 10pm. I, however, wake up at seven, so I've been averaging about nine hours of sleep a night, which also makes me very happy. Sleep just makes everything better. The house is more typical than my last one, small and cozy, which I think I like better. Other than the bedrooms, there's only one room with kitchen, eating area, and couch/kotatsu/TV, so everyone is always together. Since I get home long before dark now and the days are getting longer, I can also finally run regularly again, which was needed.
With my family, I finally got to an onsen, a public bathhouse. It is of course separated by genders, and everyone is naked. It's slightly awkward, but doesn't really bother me. In fact I think it's kind of nice, having no barriers and no judgement. First there are washing stations, then a variety of pools, inside and outside with normal, moisturizing, or herbal water, places for lying down in shallow water, mini wooden tubs, jet seats, and these terrifying seats that sent electrical pulses through the water from the sides. This was extremely uncomfortable and kind of paralyzing. There were also saunas, including an interesting "salt sauna" where you rub salt all over yourself. Overall the onsen was a very pleasant experience, and I felt very clean afterward. Then last weekend we went to a big place in the middle of Osaka, Spa World. As well as baths there was a small indoor amusement park with several slides for both genders, in swimsuits. People were more modest than in the US, with fewer bikinis and more over-clothes. The bath part was interesting, there were different rooms with European themes like Greece, Rome, Atlantis, Finland, and Spain. Spain had tables with foot baths where you could order food and drinks, and it actually looked really appealing. Baths are so nice.
Last weekend with my family I also finally went to Nara Koen, a park in Nara that's full of people-friendly deer. We fed them bread-like stuff and special deer crackers, and they were really cute but expectedly pushy from everyone feeding them. Nearby is Tōdai-ji, a Buddhist temple and possibly the largest wooden structure in the world. Inside is the largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana, so it was a generally impressive place. My favorite part was a small square hole at the bottom of a pillar that is supposedly the size of the Buddha's nostril, and those who crawl through will be blessed with enlightenment in their next life. Unfortunately, the line was too long, and I don't think I would have fit anyway.
Another interesting place I went to with some school friends was a huge sports complex called Spo-cha that seemed to have all sports. We paid about $16 each for 3 hours, then were free to play anything we wanted. There were a number of floors, full of small courts and ranges and lots of things. The courts had timers on them for 10-20 minutes if other people wanted to use them. We played badminton, basketball, golf range, baseball range, archery (fun!), roller skating, bucking bronco, shooting range, air hockey, and ping pong. We were all pretty tired by the end. There were also soccer and other baseball games, mini golf, fishing (!?), pool, darts, karaoke, a kids area with slides and ball pits and stuff, and a room with really comfy-looking reclining chairs and manga. So awesome! I had no idea places like this existed.
Three Tuesdays ago was Mardi Gras, and I felt compelled to educate everyone about the fun traditions. That day Hannah and I were told to write about our time in Japan so far (in Japanese), buut that's hard enough to talk about in English so instead I made a colorful Mardi Gras report, much better. Then I made a king cake with my host mom and hid a button, having no babies, and everyone had fun. My host dad got the button. And thenn the next day, just a day too late, I got a king cake in the mail from home, oops. But it happened to be my host dad's birthday, so it worked as a birthday cake too.
Something else that happened this month was the blooming of the ume (plum) blossoms. These look similar to the more famous sakura (cherry blossoms), but bloom a month earlier and have completely rounded petals, while sakura petals have a small v-shaped indent. My host mom and I went to a park known for its ume trees and sat in a grove amongst all the other couples and shared our embarrassing stories. The weather is getting warmer so it was a beautiful day, very pleasant :)
As of Monday, the third and last school term is now over, so I'm on a two-week break before the new school year starts in the beginning of April. Normal classes actually ended some weeks ago, and then there was the final test week, which seemed so awful. I understand now why everyone has such relatively bad scores. There are no other tests, only all at once in these finals weeks, and because they take so many different subjects, they have two or three finals every day for all five days. So they just study as much as they can then give up on a lot of the material. For Hannah and I however, it meant an easy week of half days in the English Lounge. We wrote those reports one day, watched Howl's Moving Castle, had a calligraphy lesson, then had a cooking day! Ohh the life of exchange students, I'm going to die next year. The home ec sensei was going to teach us how to make okonomiyaki, but sadly Hannah doesn't like it or literally any other Japanese food we could thing of other than fried rice, so we decided to turn it around and show the sensei how to make macaroni and cheese. One of the American teachers was thankfully there when we were planning and joined the party, and was able to say useful things like "you know, the cheese here is mostly really processed and doesn't melt properly," so we had to go to a foreign foods store to get actual meltable cheese. It turned out really well, despite all the senseis being horrified by the half a cup of butter (which really isn't that bad for two big pans...). Then after test week there was a week and a half of seminars, extra classes until noon. Last time I was with my class, which I like better, but this time Hannah and I were consigned to more boring English Lounge time. We were given practice problems for the JLPT (Japanese Level Proficiency Test), and it was cool because I was able to do it, so I might look into taking it later.
Monday, the last day of school, was really sad because it was my last day with my class. I don't know which one I'll be with after break, but it will be yet another grade lower :P I was surprised during the closing ceremony when twelve teachers who are leaving gave speeches. Twelve! I don't think it was related, they all had various reasons like trying something else or moving away, since most were young. All of them had only been at Kenmei 1-3 years, so maybe a high turnover is more normal here. Several of them were teachers I really liked, one of them being the only one who seems to care about what Hannah and I do during test/seminar weeks and is the one that plans any activities for us, so that's sad.
Other random things: Elementary school students mostly go to school by themselves, by train/bus/walking, so there is a system that messages parents when their students arrive and leave.
I don't know why I haven't mentioned this before, but almost everyone hangs their laundry outside. No one I have been with has used a dryer, which apparently tend not to work well here.
Because Japan is such a hotspot for natural disasters, everyone has disaster supplies. Kenmei had tins of crackers and water bottles that lasted for five years, and those five years were up, so all the students were sent home with bottles and tins.
Soap doesn't seem to be stressed as much as a necessity for washing hands, which is a little worrying.
Dodgeball here is completely different. One day after school we had a big tournament between all the second grade classes, which was really fun. They only use one ball, two at most. In the beginning two people from each team start behind the opposite team, and they can hit people from the back. If they do, they can go home. When people get out they go behind the opposite team, and the goal is to have less people there than the other team at the end. Because there is only one ball, the game has much more of a rhythm, with everyone backing away from the front when the other team has the ball, then away from the back when it's thrown to the back people.
So recently I've been doing really well, with a great family and friends, but I have some changes coming up, switching both families and class in a week and a half. My whole exchange experience is different with each family, so hopefully this next and last one will be good!
A lot has happened, mainly moving to my third host family a month ago. Again, everything is totally different, and lots of fun! I love this family, but sadly I'm with them for an even shorter time than the last one! I only have a week and a half left :( I have two brothers, seven and eleven, although the seven-year-old looks like he's nine. They both take karate and are generally typical boys, so it gets rowdy. But it's an improvement, I found my patience wearing thin living with the little ones... My parents are fun and lively people, and my dad works only 3 minutes away so he's home in the evenings. It's great just sitting and having conversations with them. My host mom grew up around here so whenever we go out, all the shopkeepers know her. Also, her mom and older brother run a sushi shop across the street and the mom lives next door to that, so it's very convenient. We've only had sushi from there once though, but it was good. I'm a 15-minute bike ride from school again, which makes me very happy :) I think it's the nicest way to go to school. The rest of the family usually wakes up before 6, I'm not sure why, I think they just like it, so everyone goes to bed by 9:30 or 10pm. I, however, wake up at seven, so I've been averaging about nine hours of sleep a night, which also makes me very happy. Sleep just makes everything better. The house is more typical than my last one, small and cozy, which I think I like better. Other than the bedrooms, there's only one room with kitchen, eating area, and couch/kotatsu/TV, so everyone is always together. Since I get home long before dark now and the days are getting longer, I can also finally run regularly again, which was needed.
With my family, I finally got to an onsen, a public bathhouse. It is of course separated by genders, and everyone is naked. It's slightly awkward, but doesn't really bother me. In fact I think it's kind of nice, having no barriers and no judgement. First there are washing stations, then a variety of pools, inside and outside with normal, moisturizing, or herbal water, places for lying down in shallow water, mini wooden tubs, jet seats, and these terrifying seats that sent electrical pulses through the water from the sides. This was extremely uncomfortable and kind of paralyzing. There were also saunas, including an interesting "salt sauna" where you rub salt all over yourself. Overall the onsen was a very pleasant experience, and I felt very clean afterward. Then last weekend we went to a big place in the middle of Osaka, Spa World. As well as baths there was a small indoor amusement park with several slides for both genders, in swimsuits. People were more modest than in the US, with fewer bikinis and more over-clothes. The bath part was interesting, there were different rooms with European themes like Greece, Rome, Atlantis, Finland, and Spain. Spain had tables with foot baths where you could order food and drinks, and it actually looked really appealing. Baths are so nice.
Last weekend with my family I also finally went to Nara Koen, a park in Nara that's full of people-friendly deer. We fed them bread-like stuff and special deer crackers, and they were really cute but expectedly pushy from everyone feeding them. Nearby is Tōdai-ji, a Buddhist temple and possibly the largest wooden structure in the world. Inside is the largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana, so it was a generally impressive place. My favorite part was a small square hole at the bottom of a pillar that is supposedly the size of the Buddha's nostril, and those who crawl through will be blessed with enlightenment in their next life. Unfortunately, the line was too long, and I don't think I would have fit anyway.
Another interesting place I went to with some school friends was a huge sports complex called Spo-cha that seemed to have all sports. We paid about $16 each for 3 hours, then were free to play anything we wanted. There were a number of floors, full of small courts and ranges and lots of things. The courts had timers on them for 10-20 minutes if other people wanted to use them. We played badminton, basketball, golf range, baseball range, archery (fun!), roller skating, bucking bronco, shooting range, air hockey, and ping pong. We were all pretty tired by the end. There were also soccer and other baseball games, mini golf, fishing (!?), pool, darts, karaoke, a kids area with slides and ball pits and stuff, and a room with really comfy-looking reclining chairs and manga. So awesome! I had no idea places like this existed.
Three Tuesdays ago was Mardi Gras, and I felt compelled to educate everyone about the fun traditions. That day Hannah and I were told to write about our time in Japan so far (in Japanese), buut that's hard enough to talk about in English so instead I made a colorful Mardi Gras report, much better. Then I made a king cake with my host mom and hid a button, having no babies, and everyone had fun. My host dad got the button. And thenn the next day, just a day too late, I got a king cake in the mail from home, oops. But it happened to be my host dad's birthday, so it worked as a birthday cake too.
Something else that happened this month was the blooming of the ume (plum) blossoms. These look similar to the more famous sakura (cherry blossoms), but bloom a month earlier and have completely rounded petals, while sakura petals have a small v-shaped indent. My host mom and I went to a park known for its ume trees and sat in a grove amongst all the other couples and shared our embarrassing stories. The weather is getting warmer so it was a beautiful day, very pleasant :)
As of Monday, the third and last school term is now over, so I'm on a two-week break before the new school year starts in the beginning of April. Normal classes actually ended some weeks ago, and then there was the final test week, which seemed so awful. I understand now why everyone has such relatively bad scores. There are no other tests, only all at once in these finals weeks, and because they take so many different subjects, they have two or three finals every day for all five days. So they just study as much as they can then give up on a lot of the material. For Hannah and I however, it meant an easy week of half days in the English Lounge. We wrote those reports one day, watched Howl's Moving Castle, had a calligraphy lesson, then had a cooking day! Ohh the life of exchange students, I'm going to die next year. The home ec sensei was going to teach us how to make okonomiyaki, but sadly Hannah doesn't like it or literally any other Japanese food we could thing of other than fried rice, so we decided to turn it around and show the sensei how to make macaroni and cheese. One of the American teachers was thankfully there when we were planning and joined the party, and was able to say useful things like "you know, the cheese here is mostly really processed and doesn't melt properly," so we had to go to a foreign foods store to get actual meltable cheese. It turned out really well, despite all the senseis being horrified by the half a cup of butter (which really isn't that bad for two big pans...). Then after test week there was a week and a half of seminars, extra classes until noon. Last time I was with my class, which I like better, but this time Hannah and I were consigned to more boring English Lounge time. We were given practice problems for the JLPT (Japanese Level Proficiency Test), and it was cool because I was able to do it, so I might look into taking it later.
Monday, the last day of school, was really sad because it was my last day with my class. I don't know which one I'll be with after break, but it will be yet another grade lower :P I was surprised during the closing ceremony when twelve teachers who are leaving gave speeches. Twelve! I don't think it was related, they all had various reasons like trying something else or moving away, since most were young. All of them had only been at Kenmei 1-3 years, so maybe a high turnover is more normal here. Several of them were teachers I really liked, one of them being the only one who seems to care about what Hannah and I do during test/seminar weeks and is the one that plans any activities for us, so that's sad.
Other random things: Elementary school students mostly go to school by themselves, by train/bus/walking, so there is a system that messages parents when their students arrive and leave.
I don't know why I haven't mentioned this before, but almost everyone hangs their laundry outside. No one I have been with has used a dryer, which apparently tend not to work well here.
Because Japan is such a hotspot for natural disasters, everyone has disaster supplies. Kenmei had tins of crackers and water bottles that lasted for five years, and those five years were up, so all the students were sent home with bottles and tins.
Soap doesn't seem to be stressed as much as a necessity for washing hands, which is a little worrying.
Dodgeball here is completely different. One day after school we had a big tournament between all the second grade classes, which was really fun. They only use one ball, two at most. In the beginning two people from each team start behind the opposite team, and they can hit people from the back. If they do, they can go home. When people get out they go behind the opposite team, and the goal is to have less people there than the other team at the end. Because there is only one ball, the game has much more of a rhythm, with everyone backing away from the front when the other team has the ball, then away from the back when it's thrown to the back people.
So recently I've been doing really well, with a great family and friends, but I have some changes coming up, switching both families and class in a week and a half. My whole exchange experience is different with each family, so hopefully this next and last one will be good!
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
The Big 6!
Although I am over halfway through my exchange, today was the official six month mark. And somehow it makes more of an impression on me, six months sounding much more legit than 5 and a couple weeks. I feel like I should have some wise reflections about my time so far and my current feelings, but I can't think of any... maybe I'm just tired. So I'll just talk about some more little things in my daily life.
I'm taking some really fun and interesting classes right now, doing things I never did in America. I have an art class with the middle school 3rd years (like high school freshman), and we're making wooden spoons! We're all given saws and big files and are free to hack away at our blocks of wood as we like. The sensei goes around helping, but I was surprised by the amount of freedom the students have. I feel there would be more safety regulations in the US. In music class, there are like 40 guitars so there are enough for everyone to learn how to play! Right now we're split into groups and given one of six parts for the Mickey Mouse March. With everyone practicing at once, it's noisy but really fun :) I also go to a Japanese Manners class, and we are currently learning how to sit, stand, and bow properly, and how to handle a fan. I think it's so cool how this is a part of modern Japanese culture, since there's really nothing like it in America. Finally, we cook in home economics! Today we made crêpes and rolled cakes (those are incredibly popular here). My group definitely had the most struggles though... We had the wrong amount of ingredients in things, so the first crêpes didn't cook right and turned out looking like scrambled eggs. The cake ingredients were wrong too, so we had to triple everything. And then we put too much filling on the rolled cake, or maybe the cake part was really thick since we had so much batter, so it ended up more like a taco, and less like a roll... But I'm pleased to say that all tasted good ^_^
I may have mentioned this before, but they never eat apples without peeling and cutting them. So it was a big adventure tonight when I got tired of doing that and ate one normally, and all the kids wanted to try. And I guess it takes more skill than I realized. Also, they don't use peanut butter nearly as much here, but for some reason my family had a few jars so I've been teaching them all the ways to eat it. They only seem to eat it plain on bread or toast, so no wonder they don't like it, all sticky like that. Literally no one has heard of peanut butter and jelly, and they think it's the weirdest thing. I really don't understand how it's such a universal sandwich in America but America alone. I've also taught them about peanut butter on apples, bananas, and celery, all equally alien ideas.
More on Valentine's Day. Even though I didn't go to school on the 14th itself, I still got a huge amount of sweets. It actually started two days before, and continued on Saturday, Monday, and even Tuesday. There were a variety of cookies and chocolates, some awesome chocolate pudding tarts and even mousse. The presentation is also important, so everything was in cute little bags with ribbons and doilies. Wow actually just this moment I got another one, in a cute pink bag with pastel teddy bears and bunnies. And ooh it's a macaroon! At home it was even more ridiculous. I have never seen so many boxes of chocolate outside of a chocolate store. I had to self-impose a ban on chocolate for a couple days. But it was really fun!
I'm taking some really fun and interesting classes right now, doing things I never did in America. I have an art class with the middle school 3rd years (like high school freshman), and we're making wooden spoons! We're all given saws and big files and are free to hack away at our blocks of wood as we like. The sensei goes around helping, but I was surprised by the amount of freedom the students have. I feel there would be more safety regulations in the US. In music class, there are like 40 guitars so there are enough for everyone to learn how to play! Right now we're split into groups and given one of six parts for the Mickey Mouse March. With everyone practicing at once, it's noisy but really fun :) I also go to a Japanese Manners class, and we are currently learning how to sit, stand, and bow properly, and how to handle a fan. I think it's so cool how this is a part of modern Japanese culture, since there's really nothing like it in America. Finally, we cook in home economics! Today we made crêpes and rolled cakes (those are incredibly popular here). My group definitely had the most struggles though... We had the wrong amount of ingredients in things, so the first crêpes didn't cook right and turned out looking like scrambled eggs. The cake ingredients were wrong too, so we had to triple everything. And then we put too much filling on the rolled cake, or maybe the cake part was really thick since we had so much batter, so it ended up more like a taco, and less like a roll... But I'm pleased to say that all tasted good ^_^
I may have mentioned this before, but they never eat apples without peeling and cutting them. So it was a big adventure tonight when I got tired of doing that and ate one normally, and all the kids wanted to try. And I guess it takes more skill than I realized. Also, they don't use peanut butter nearly as much here, but for some reason my family had a few jars so I've been teaching them all the ways to eat it. They only seem to eat it plain on bread or toast, so no wonder they don't like it, all sticky like that. Literally no one has heard of peanut butter and jelly, and they think it's the weirdest thing. I really don't understand how it's such a universal sandwich in America but America alone. I've also taught them about peanut butter on apples, bananas, and celery, all equally alien ideas.
More on Valentine's Day. Even though I didn't go to school on the 14th itself, I still got a huge amount of sweets. It actually started two days before, and continued on Saturday, Monday, and even Tuesday. There were a variety of cookies and chocolates, some awesome chocolate pudding tarts and even mousse. The presentation is also important, so everything was in cute little bags with ribbons and doilies. Wow actually just this moment I got another one, in a cute pink bag with pastel teddy bears and bunnies. And ooh it's a macaroon! At home it was even more ridiculous. I have never seen so many boxes of chocolate outside of a chocolate store. I had to self-impose a ban on chocolate for a couple days. But it was really fun!
Friday, February 14, 2014
Halfway Already!
Soo it's been a while, sorry about that. I passed my halfway point a couple weeks ago, on February 1st. Wow. On the one hand, it seems like I haven't been here that long, but on the other hand, August was a long time ago. I still have five months, which I think is about right.
My family is fun, although sometimes a little trying when I am tired. There was an episode a few weeks ago when my host mom left for a couple hours, and the 4 year old Taichi didn't take that well, since before I came she always had to take them with her. I still have scratch marks on my hand from keeping him from leaving the house, in the dark, to find her -_- But I think he felt bad later and was super nice the next day. I only have a little over a week more with them, so fast!
Now that I go to different classrooms once a day, I'm meeting more people and going through all the beginning interactions again. Everyone tells me in English that everyone else "is crazy," and asks me lots of questions. And I realized that nearly everyone asks me what food I like, which is not something I normally ask about when meeting someone, going back to how important food is here. One class was having some struggles, though, first asking "DO YOU LIKE FOOD?" (the boys often shout their English at me) instead of "what food do you like?", and I'm like "...yes." And then, trying to tell me someone was gay, "HE IS HOMO SAPIEN." "Why yes, he is." I'm not sure how they knew that word, but I was impressed.
A couple weeks ago I had my odori performance, which I guess went as well as it could have. It was at a showcase of various traditional Japanese arts, mostly with music on bamboo flutes and kotos, large stringed instruments, and a group doing awa odori, an upbeat festival dance. My sensei, two sisters and I were the only ones doing the slower style with fans. Thankfully the audience was relatively small, about 100 people. We wore nice kimonos, again quite a process, and the others painted their faces white with red around the eyes. Apparently it looks strange on westerners, though, so I didn't. It wasn't terribly encouraging after the rehearsal, when my sensei was like, "Hirona, you can fix this. Yuzuki, this. Brianna..... *smiles kindly and pats me on the back*" But I had only been dancing once every couple weeks for five months, not years, so there wasn't much I could do about not being nice and smooth, so I didn't worry about it. I think it was one of my better performances, I didn't mess up at least, so it was fine. But afterward during the scene change I was brought out with my sensei to be interviewed by the announcer lady, and it was definitely not my best Japanese, so that was kind of embarrassing. But at least it's over, and I'm not sure yet whether I'll go to more lessons.
There's a fun ritual on February 3rd, sestsubun, the day before Spring. To drive away the evil spirits, usually the male head of the household wears an oni (demon) mask and stands outside, and everyone else throws roasted soybeans at them while saying "oni wa soto!" (Demons out!) It was really fun, and we all took turns at being the oni. Then you usually eat as many roasted soybeans as your age for luck, but we didn't. We actually did it on the 2nd because on the 3rd I was going to Tokyo. I think there's also something with eating uncut makizushi (the rolled sushi) but we didn't do that either.
And then I went to Tokyo for three days!! With my four host sisters from my first family :) It was so much fun!! We got a nice package for the airplane, hotel, and Disney. We flew out at 7 Monday morning (I just kind of skipped three days of school), and it was a little under an hour to Tokyo. It was exciting being in an airport again, and I really wanted to be flying off to a different country (nothing against Japan, but I love traveling!). It was my little sister Yuzuki's first flight! We put our bags at a luggage drop-off service and took a bus straight to Tokyo Disneyland. It was a nice day, kind of cold but clear, but I was surprised by how many people there were for a random Monday in February. There were many college and high school students, and a lot of the high school girls were wearing their uniforms because I guess it's cool to be all matching. But they wore their skirts rolled to past mid-thigh, which I have no idea how they can stand in the cold. I've been seeing this all winter, how cool it is to show a lot of leg. Definitely lots of goosebumps at Disney. Many people also wore head accessories, Mickey/Minnie ears especially and other character hats. A lot of girls even had their hair in two buns to make Mickey/Minnie ears of their own. Eventually I got a Minnie bow too and the others got character hats. The rides were pretty identical to all other Disneylands', the food expensive and not great, and the parade at the end was nice, lots of lights. Almost all the princesses and princes were Western actors. My sisters knew many finger games to keep us occupied in line, which was fun. We bussed back to the hotel where we had a nice standard room with five single beds. I forgot how nice it was to have a good stand-up shower and actual bed, my first since coming here.
Tuesday we bussed to Disney Sea, which has more jet coasters and things than Disneyland. But again, there were surprisingly many people and we didn't time things as well, so we only got to three things plus a cute "Under the Sea" show. It was cold and drizzled throughout the morning, turning to heavy snow after lunch, which was fun and pretty. We became skilled at making our four umbrellas into a little shelter against wind and snow while moving through the lines. But by the end my boots were soaked through and freezing, despite the feet warmers, and it was good to get back to the hotel. Artificial warmers are very popular here, hand warmers and feet warmers and squares with sticky backs to stick all over your clothes.
We had to be at the airport by 2pm on Wednesday, and made plans to do as much Tokyo sightseeing as we could before that. But somehow it just didn't work out and we seemed to spend most of the morning riding trains. The only tourist site we made it to Asakusa, which has a famous Buddhist temple, Sensō-ji, where I drew a really bad fortune. I always get bad fortunes, and I dropped and broke the foot off of the horse good luck charm I got at New Year's, so I'm kind of scared. After that we had awesome savory creeps for lunch and went to some famous chocolate shops. From the little I saw, Tokyo looks much more international than Osaka, with more international restaurants, the best part. I would love to spend more time there. There were also many more foreigners riding the trains, particularly businessmen. We had to go back too soon, and it was back to school life. Omiyage, souvenir-like gifts, are a huge part of Japanese culture. People get them for family and friends after any trip, even day trips, and bring them whenever they visit someone's house. Often they're snacks– cookies or rice crackers or other sweets. I got presents for my family and friends and cookies for the whole class, which seems to be typical whenever someone misses school for a trip. But it was really awkward when the container lied and we were several short... oops.
Last weekend I went to Ise Jingū (Ise Great Shrine) with Rotary, an hour and forty minute train ride from Osaka. It was soo much fun, I love my fellow inbounds. Ise Jingū of the most important shinto areas in Japan, and the shrine is rebuilt exactly every 20 years, the last time in 2013. It was interesting to see the new fresh one next to the old one. We had a fancy traditional lunch, which I seem to be having a lot of lately. We all agreed that the highlight was the quality bathroom, which not only had especially fancy toilets but everything from free toothbrushes/toothpaste to hairbrushes and a hair dryer. Afterward we went to a busy street full of little shops and food stalls, and it was great because my friend Maya is shameless about taking everyone's free samples, so we tried a lot of things. Tofu doughnuts are actually good. We found a train-themed purikura booth in the train station on the way back, so great.
On Valentine's Day here, traditionally girls make or buy chocolate or chocolate-themed sweets to give to the person they like. Then on White Day, March 14, boys do the same. But in recent years it has extended so now girls give sweets to all their friends. So Thursday night I stayed up really late making Hershey's Kiss peanut butter cookies, only to have a snow day on the 14th! Well, school was still open, but I guess it was too hard to drive from my mountain to the train. But it was a nice day anyway, I slept and we made an igloo and sled hill in the backyard.
It's Olympics time! But unfortunately most of the things are past my bedtime, so I haven't seen much. PSA, please take note of the figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, you'll know him by his gold metal. So beautiful. And bonus points for his good luck Pooh Bear tissue box that he brings to all his competitions. What I do see is mainly reruns, and most of those are of this guy.
I was so sorry to hear some bad news earlier this week. My deepest sympathy to the Viswanaths, Prama was a smart and wonderful girl who will be dearly missed. Also prayers for Uncle David and the Uhrigs, thinking of you.
My family is fun, although sometimes a little trying when I am tired. There was an episode a few weeks ago when my host mom left for a couple hours, and the 4 year old Taichi didn't take that well, since before I came she always had to take them with her. I still have scratch marks on my hand from keeping him from leaving the house, in the dark, to find her -_- But I think he felt bad later and was super nice the next day. I only have a little over a week more with them, so fast!
Now that I go to different classrooms once a day, I'm meeting more people and going through all the beginning interactions again. Everyone tells me in English that everyone else "is crazy," and asks me lots of questions. And I realized that nearly everyone asks me what food I like, which is not something I normally ask about when meeting someone, going back to how important food is here. One class was having some struggles, though, first asking "DO YOU LIKE FOOD?" (the boys often shout their English at me) instead of "what food do you like?", and I'm like "...yes." And then, trying to tell me someone was gay, "HE IS HOMO SAPIEN." "Why yes, he is." I'm not sure how they knew that word, but I was impressed.
A couple weeks ago I had my odori performance, which I guess went as well as it could have. It was at a showcase of various traditional Japanese arts, mostly with music on bamboo flutes and kotos, large stringed instruments, and a group doing awa odori, an upbeat festival dance. My sensei, two sisters and I were the only ones doing the slower style with fans. Thankfully the audience was relatively small, about 100 people. We wore nice kimonos, again quite a process, and the others painted their faces white with red around the eyes. Apparently it looks strange on westerners, though, so I didn't. It wasn't terribly encouraging after the rehearsal, when my sensei was like, "Hirona, you can fix this. Yuzuki, this. Brianna..... *smiles kindly and pats me on the back*" But I had only been dancing once every couple weeks for five months, not years, so there wasn't much I could do about not being nice and smooth, so I didn't worry about it. I think it was one of my better performances, I didn't mess up at least, so it was fine. But afterward during the scene change I was brought out with my sensei to be interviewed by the announcer lady, and it was definitely not my best Japanese, so that was kind of embarrassing. But at least it's over, and I'm not sure yet whether I'll go to more lessons.
There's a fun ritual on February 3rd, sestsubun, the day before Spring. To drive away the evil spirits, usually the male head of the household wears an oni (demon) mask and stands outside, and everyone else throws roasted soybeans at them while saying "oni wa soto!" (Demons out!) It was really fun, and we all took turns at being the oni. Then you usually eat as many roasted soybeans as your age for luck, but we didn't. We actually did it on the 2nd because on the 3rd I was going to Tokyo. I think there's also something with eating uncut makizushi (the rolled sushi) but we didn't do that either.
And then I went to Tokyo for three days!! With my four host sisters from my first family :) It was so much fun!! We got a nice package for the airplane, hotel, and Disney. We flew out at 7 Monday morning (I just kind of skipped three days of school), and it was a little under an hour to Tokyo. It was exciting being in an airport again, and I really wanted to be flying off to a different country (nothing against Japan, but I love traveling!). It was my little sister Yuzuki's first flight! We put our bags at a luggage drop-off service and took a bus straight to Tokyo Disneyland. It was a nice day, kind of cold but clear, but I was surprised by how many people there were for a random Monday in February. There were many college and high school students, and a lot of the high school girls were wearing their uniforms because I guess it's cool to be all matching. But they wore their skirts rolled to past mid-thigh, which I have no idea how they can stand in the cold. I've been seeing this all winter, how cool it is to show a lot of leg. Definitely lots of goosebumps at Disney. Many people also wore head accessories, Mickey/Minnie ears especially and other character hats. A lot of girls even had their hair in two buns to make Mickey/Minnie ears of their own. Eventually I got a Minnie bow too and the others got character hats. The rides were pretty identical to all other Disneylands', the food expensive and not great, and the parade at the end was nice, lots of lights. Almost all the princesses and princes were Western actors. My sisters knew many finger games to keep us occupied in line, which was fun. We bussed back to the hotel where we had a nice standard room with five single beds. I forgot how nice it was to have a good stand-up shower and actual bed, my first since coming here.
Tuesday we bussed to Disney Sea, which has more jet coasters and things than Disneyland. But again, there were surprisingly many people and we didn't time things as well, so we only got to three things plus a cute "Under the Sea" show. It was cold and drizzled throughout the morning, turning to heavy snow after lunch, which was fun and pretty. We became skilled at making our four umbrellas into a little shelter against wind and snow while moving through the lines. But by the end my boots were soaked through and freezing, despite the feet warmers, and it was good to get back to the hotel. Artificial warmers are very popular here, hand warmers and feet warmers and squares with sticky backs to stick all over your clothes.
We had to be at the airport by 2pm on Wednesday, and made plans to do as much Tokyo sightseeing as we could before that. But somehow it just didn't work out and we seemed to spend most of the morning riding trains. The only tourist site we made it to Asakusa, which has a famous Buddhist temple, Sensō-ji, where I drew a really bad fortune. I always get bad fortunes, and I dropped and broke the foot off of the horse good luck charm I got at New Year's, so I'm kind of scared. After that we had awesome savory creeps for lunch and went to some famous chocolate shops. From the little I saw, Tokyo looks much more international than Osaka, with more international restaurants, the best part. I would love to spend more time there. There were also many more foreigners riding the trains, particularly businessmen. We had to go back too soon, and it was back to school life. Omiyage, souvenir-like gifts, are a huge part of Japanese culture. People get them for family and friends after any trip, even day trips, and bring them whenever they visit someone's house. Often they're snacks– cookies or rice crackers or other sweets. I got presents for my family and friends and cookies for the whole class, which seems to be typical whenever someone misses school for a trip. But it was really awkward when the container lied and we were several short... oops.
Last weekend I went to Ise Jingū (Ise Great Shrine) with Rotary, an hour and forty minute train ride from Osaka. It was soo much fun, I love my fellow inbounds. Ise Jingū of the most important shinto areas in Japan, and the shrine is rebuilt exactly every 20 years, the last time in 2013. It was interesting to see the new fresh one next to the old one. We had a fancy traditional lunch, which I seem to be having a lot of lately. We all agreed that the highlight was the quality bathroom, which not only had especially fancy toilets but everything from free toothbrushes/toothpaste to hairbrushes and a hair dryer. Afterward we went to a busy street full of little shops and food stalls, and it was great because my friend Maya is shameless about taking everyone's free samples, so we tried a lot of things. Tofu doughnuts are actually good. We found a train-themed purikura booth in the train station on the way back, so great.
On Valentine's Day here, traditionally girls make or buy chocolate or chocolate-themed sweets to give to the person they like. Then on White Day, March 14, boys do the same. But in recent years it has extended so now girls give sweets to all their friends. So Thursday night I stayed up really late making Hershey's Kiss peanut butter cookies, only to have a snow day on the 14th! Well, school was still open, but I guess it was too hard to drive from my mountain to the train. But it was a nice day anyway, I slept and we made an igloo and sled hill in the backyard.
It's Olympics time! But unfortunately most of the things are past my bedtime, so I haven't seen much. PSA, please take note of the figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, you'll know him by his gold metal. So beautiful. And bonus points for his good luck Pooh Bear tissue box that he brings to all his competitions. What I do see is mainly reruns, and most of those are of this guy.
I was so sorry to hear some bad news earlier this week. My deepest sympathy to the Viswanaths, Prama was a smart and wonderful girl who will be dearly missed. Also prayers for Uncle David and the Uhrigs, thinking of you.
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