I can't believe it's already halfway through December! Whatt. At least now my friend can wear her gloves and scarf, which she is very happy about. Winter scarves are very popular here, for both genders. Happily my host sisters gave me a warm scarf and mittens for my birthday, which are very useful for biking to and from school. Also shoutout to Aunt Cathy for sending me CuddlDuds; they are very appreciated! So far I've seen my room get down to 51 degrees and I won't be surprised if it gets colder.
It being December, I'm now ok with Christmas-themed things, which is good because they are everywhere. My school has a tree and lights outside, wreaths on the doors and a manger scene inside, and the daily morning song is "Joy to the World" (in Japanese). Last weekend I had two Christmas parties, at my tea ceremony sensei's house and with my Rotary club.
At the tea one, there were about 10 older ladies, I think students of the main sensei. Although when I have lessons, usually one of them teaches me. The beginning was traditional; two of the ladies made tea for everyone and we had the usual red bean paste sweets to go with the strong matcha. But after the traditional part was over, all the ladies suddenly burst into festive activity, bringing out a snowman tablecloth to put over the tatami mats, putting on the Frank Sinatra and other classic Christmas music, and serving cheese and crackers and cakes. They had a lot of fun with the sparkling wine, and being embarrassed over their pink faces. We had all brought $10 presents, which my host sister and I, wearing a Santa hat and cape, randomly distributed. Overall it was properly fun and Christmas-y, and just amusing to be with a bunch of excited old ladies :)
Sunday evening was my Rotary Club party, and my sisters and I made it to the right room in the hotel without even getting lost. It was a nice dinner program, mostly with the older Rotarians I had met at previous meetings, but with some families too. We were serenaded by the club's lovely choir, some people talked, I was reintroduced, again, and said a few things, and a hip hop dance club performed. There were first graders through high schoolers, and they were all impressively skilled, even they first graders. Then we played Bingo, which I thought was very fitting, and everyone was a winner. So again it was a pleasant time, although I'm getting tired of disappointing my counselor every time I see him by still not having been to Prague.
This last week I went to two more seasonal festivities. Thursday night, I went by train to Kobe to see the luminarie, an annual light festival to commemorate a big earthquake in 1995. The big streets are closed off around it, and filled with a huge stream of pedestrians. We walked with the crowd for 15 minutes before getting to the place itself, because there was fencing up to handle the traffic, and that was actually really pleasant. The weather was clear, although cold, but I've finally decided it's cold enough to be worthy of my winter coat, although most people have been wearing them for weeks, so I was warm. The main part was about a block fully covered with lights, and at the end there were more big light decorations. It was really beautiful. After that there were many food booths, mostly selling beef, on skewers, in stew, in buns, and rice things, so I finally got to try Kobe beef. It was good :) Actually the next day I had an expensive lunch of Miyazaki beef, which is also famous, so there was just a lot of beef those two days.
Last Saturday night there was a local festival near my house. We missed the beginning so I'm not sure how it started, but when we came there was a huge bonfire. Then a bunch of shirtless men, wearing the traditional pants and boots everyone had at the danjiri festival, ran at the fire with big bamboo poles. There was a big crowd so I couldn't really see what they were doing, but I think they were knocking down the logs in the fire to make it die down. When it was mostly glowing embers with only a few flames, guys ran across it carrying someone who represented a god. I'm not quite sure what the whole story behind the festival is, my sisters were unclear too. Then all of the shirtless guys ran back and forth across it, yelling, until the embers were more scattered and burning less. Then it was open to the crowd, which surprised me. But then I went too! It was very hot in the middle but happily my boots came out unscathed. After everyone that wanted to had run through, they poured water over the embers to put them out, creating a lot of smoke. This was apparently good luck, so many people went into the smoke, but my sisters and I decided we didn't need to smell for days. One of my favorite things about Japan is definitely how well they're connected to their traditions.
I also finally made Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies with Hannah, and they turned out well! My family loved them. It was way easier than the pumpkin pie because Hannah brought measuring spoons and cups from America. We had some trouble finding baking soda, though, because everywhere only had baking powder. A nice store lady finally pointed us to a drugstore where we got it in little sodium bicarbonate packets, which was interesting.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Mix-Up
Look! A timely update (might have been pressured into it).
My cold got the better of me last week, very unpleasant. It was weird, whenever I said I had a cold or someone asked if I did, they would immediately ask if I had a fever. I generally separate the two. One day I went home early because I was tired of being sick and just wanted to sleep, and of course had my temperature taken (as I thought, I didn't have a fever). This was done by putting the thermometer under my shirt in my armpit, which is how it's done here. Huh.
On the plus side, I seem to be growing accustomed to my cold room, and it doesn't really bother me anymore. Or maybe my heated rug is just amazingly effective, which it could be. Japanese houses are generally very cold in the winter, someone said because they can't make them very solid because of earthquakes. I don't know. But anyway, this means there's a big industry around staying warm. I was in a department store a few days ago, and there was fuzzy EVERYTHING. In addition to a huge selection of fuzzy socks/booties, there were fuzzy arm warmers, leg warmers, belly warmers, underwear shorts things, onesies, and onesie/sleeping bag things, as well as all the outdoor gloves, mittens, scarves, and hats.
I also went to an outlet mall, and it was scarily identical to ones in America. All the store names were even in English, but going inside all the clothes were definitely Japanese. There were SO MANY SWEATERS it was ridiculous! ALL the stores had big selections. I was looking for something to wear for Christmas parties, but there were literally no nice dresses or skirts in the entire mall. We even asked someone which stores had dresses, and she could only come up with four, each of which only had a few and completely wrong styles. So that was strange and annoying. I'll try somewhere else later.
Random- the cucumbers are really small but the carrots are really big. Somewhat related, I am constantly afraid I'm going to mix up the words "ningen" and "ninjin." "-jin" often means some type of people, like I am an "Amerikajin," Japanese people are "Nihonjin," French people are "Furansujin," etc. So of the two words, you'd think that "ninjin" means human, but it actually means carrot and "ningen" is human. So I always have to check myself to make sure I don't refer to people as carrots or talk about eating people.
So this Sunday it was really sad. All the inbounds (like me) of my district and the Rotex (people who have gone on exchange and come back) had planned to go to Nara on Sunday, and I was really excited to spend the day with them and see Nara. My Rotary club counselor had emailed me, asking if I was going with the Rotary club to Nara on Sunday, and I said yes. I thought it was a little strange that he said "with the club," but I was told it was the same thing and assumed a number of clubs were going or something. The district trip planned to meet at a main train station, but I was told to meet people on the train at my station, where I thought we'd just go to the main station together. When we didn't go there, and gathered with all the club members at a different place, I thought maybe we were just going separately as a club. On the train, however, I found we weren't even going to Nara; we were going to Kyoto. I was soo disappointed, first having just been there two weeks ago, and second not really wanting to spend the day with senior citizens, as nice as they are, instead of my fellow exchange students. But it turned out to be a pleasant day anyway, if not as fun as Nara would have been. Luckily there was a nice Korean grad student, and we became friends as the two youngest people. It felt really good to be able to mostly converse in Japanese, but she had pretty good English too, being in linguistics. We went to a totally different part of Kyoto than I went to last time, too, so there were no repeats. We visited the house of Joseph Hardy Neesima, a famous guy who studied in America in the 1860s and returned in the 1870s to teach about Christianity and English, founding a university. It was really cool because there's a TV drama about him right now that my family watches, so I knew about him. The house is built in a Western style, a very new thing, and even has a waffle maker! We visited some very nice temples and walked through pretty parks, and the weather was perfect. A bonus of being with the Rotarians was that they are all rich so we had a very expensive lunch at a fancy French restaurant and an expensive dinner at a famous eel place that was SO GOOD. I'm still sad about not going to Nara, but hopefully I'll get there at some point.
Happy Thanksgiving!
My cold got the better of me last week, very unpleasant. It was weird, whenever I said I had a cold or someone asked if I did, they would immediately ask if I had a fever. I generally separate the two. One day I went home early because I was tired of being sick and just wanted to sleep, and of course had my temperature taken (as I thought, I didn't have a fever). This was done by putting the thermometer under my shirt in my armpit, which is how it's done here. Huh.
On the plus side, I seem to be growing accustomed to my cold room, and it doesn't really bother me anymore. Or maybe my heated rug is just amazingly effective, which it could be. Japanese houses are generally very cold in the winter, someone said because they can't make them very solid because of earthquakes. I don't know. But anyway, this means there's a big industry around staying warm. I was in a department store a few days ago, and there was fuzzy EVERYTHING. In addition to a huge selection of fuzzy socks/booties, there were fuzzy arm warmers, leg warmers, belly warmers, underwear shorts things, onesies, and onesie/sleeping bag things, as well as all the outdoor gloves, mittens, scarves, and hats.
I also went to an outlet mall, and it was scarily identical to ones in America. All the store names were even in English, but going inside all the clothes were definitely Japanese. There were SO MANY SWEATERS it was ridiculous! ALL the stores had big selections. I was looking for something to wear for Christmas parties, but there were literally no nice dresses or skirts in the entire mall. We even asked someone which stores had dresses, and she could only come up with four, each of which only had a few and completely wrong styles. So that was strange and annoying. I'll try somewhere else later.
Random- the cucumbers are really small but the carrots are really big. Somewhat related, I am constantly afraid I'm going to mix up the words "ningen" and "ninjin." "-jin" often means some type of people, like I am an "Amerikajin," Japanese people are "Nihonjin," French people are "Furansujin," etc. So of the two words, you'd think that "ninjin" means human, but it actually means carrot and "ningen" is human. So I always have to check myself to make sure I don't refer to people as carrots or talk about eating people.
So this Sunday it was really sad. All the inbounds (like me) of my district and the Rotex (people who have gone on exchange and come back) had planned to go to Nara on Sunday, and I was really excited to spend the day with them and see Nara. My Rotary club counselor had emailed me, asking if I was going with the Rotary club to Nara on Sunday, and I said yes. I thought it was a little strange that he said "with the club," but I was told it was the same thing and assumed a number of clubs were going or something. The district trip planned to meet at a main train station, but I was told to meet people on the train at my station, where I thought we'd just go to the main station together. When we didn't go there, and gathered with all the club members at a different place, I thought maybe we were just going separately as a club. On the train, however, I found we weren't even going to Nara; we were going to Kyoto. I was soo disappointed, first having just been there two weeks ago, and second not really wanting to spend the day with senior citizens, as nice as they are, instead of my fellow exchange students. But it turned out to be a pleasant day anyway, if not as fun as Nara would have been. Luckily there was a nice Korean grad student, and we became friends as the two youngest people. It felt really good to be able to mostly converse in Japanese, but she had pretty good English too, being in linguistics. We went to a totally different part of Kyoto than I went to last time, too, so there were no repeats. We visited the house of Joseph Hardy Neesima, a famous guy who studied in America in the 1860s and returned in the 1870s to teach about Christianity and English, founding a university. It was really cool because there's a TV drama about him right now that my family watches, so I knew about him. The house is built in a Western style, a very new thing, and even has a waffle maker! We visited some very nice temples and walked through pretty parks, and the weather was perfect. A bonus of being with the Rotarians was that they are all rich so we had a very expensive lunch at a fancy French restaurant and an expensive dinner at a famous eel place that was SO GOOD. I'm still sad about not going to Nara, but hopefully I'll get there at some point.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Bazaar, Birthday, and other Business
Oh goodness it has been almost a month since my last post and so this is going to take a while :P My fault I guess.
Random things: Ok first this has nothing to do with Japan but I still think it's really interesting. Gabbi, Hannah, and I were talking and found that the word "quite" has a very different meaning in American English vs British and Australian English. In America, it means "very," so "it is quite sunny" means "it is very sunny." In Australia and England, however, it is more like "fairly," so it is only "fairly sunny." It doesn't seem like a big deal at first, but If you think about it this is actually a huge difference. If you say someone is "quite pretty," you could be saying they are just so-so. All three of our minds were blown, trying to figure out how to use it the opposite way.
When young people go out, they often do purikura, which are advanced photo booth sessions. They enhance your features and afterward in a limited time you can decorate them with writing and clip art and pick the backgrounds. Note, this takes skill. Hannah and I tried it on our own once and completely failed. But my classmates are really adept by now at fully decorating all the pictures before the time is up. Anyway, this is of course a popular thing for couples, and after going out with their boyfriends the girls bring in sheets of the resulting purikura to cut out and share with friends. They stick these on their rulers, so almost all the girls have rulers with pictures of all the current couples. Kind of strange but cute.
Sort of relating, the girls really pay attention to each other's relationships, and have all their friends' monthly anniversaries written in their schedule books.
November eleventh, 11/11, is Pocky Day because all the 1's look like Pocky! So lots of people brought Pocky sticks to school :) Also there is a Pocky game, where two people start at different ends of the same Pocky and race to eat the most. It's also a game of chicken, testing how close people will get to each other. My classmates had much fun taking pictures of each other almost kissing.
Gabbi told me this earlier, and I've come across it myself. There are clothes you wear at different times of the year based on the calendar, not the actual weather. Like at some point most people switched to their uniform sweaters instead of vests, even though it was still warm, and they were surprised that I continued to wear a vest because it was hot. Gabbi said the same happened with the switch to warmer weather, and that there is different clothing you wear not only based on season, but based on the beginning, middle, and end of seasons. It's been chilly recently, especially when biking, so I've started wearing gloves to school and some people wear scarves. I was talking with my friend who also bikes to school (all in Japanese ^_^) and she was complaining about how cold it is and how she wants to wear gloves and a scarf. So I told her, "then wear gloves and a scarf," but she's like, "no I can't do that, it's still November! I can't wear those until at least December." And I'm like, "well that's stupid I use gloves and I'm warm." She looked at me longingly and I'm like, "you can too..." but she insisted that she couldn't. To each their own I suppose.
Also I think I forgot to mention earlier in my description of Kenmei that everyday after the last class the students all clean the school. I sweep in the classroom, where we have a whole system to move the desks around, and other people run across the floor with wet rags, clean the windows, take out the trash, and clean the chalkboard. Outside the class I don't know what happens as well, but I've seen people sweeping the halls and stairs and cleaning the rooms that aren't regular classrooms. I'm not sure about the bathrooms... Cuts down the need for janitor service.
Ok, I left off just before my school's bazaar. This was on a Sunday, and we had to come in half an hour earlier than usual. So seven days of school in a row! First all the students filed through the gym, which was filled with things people brought in, like a garage sale. This was run by parents. Actually, I think a lot of the bazaar was. There were many many towels, cleaning products, and other random things, but the most popular items were bags of snacks at a cheap price. Then everyone went back to class to study for an hour, which I thought was cruel after already bringing them in half an hour early on a Sunday. Then the festival part started. There were booths lining the soccer field with games and more random things to buy, drink tents and the coffee/tea tent my class was in charge of. In the middle of the field there was a mini train track for the elementary school children (so cute!). In a different field area there were food tents, a big eating tent, and a small stage with dance performances. Everyone wandered around, and this lasted the rest of the day. Like the shureisai, it was a prime time for couples, who walked around together. Later that evening, most of my class met for dinner, which was really nice. We went to a place with buffet-style raw food on skewers that we brought to our tables to deep fry in our own personal deep fryers. Lovely.
They were at least nice enough to give us Monday off, so I decided to make a pumpkin pie with the pumpkin can Suma had kindly brought me. Easier said than done. First there were no pie pans to be found anywhere, because they don't really make American-style pies, so I had to improvise with a cake pan that was about the right diameter, if the wrong shape. There was some trouble getting ingredients, but it wasn't too bad. The hardest part was measuring out the ingredients, because here everything is done in grams. But the scale didn't show decimals, and there's a big difference between one and two grams of salt, so I had to guess at all the teaspoon measurements. NOTE to future exchange students: if you plan on baking, it would be very useful to bring a set of teaspoons/tablespoon, and wouldn't take up much space. Hannah did, and I think I'll borrow it next time. Despite this, the pie tasted WONDERFUL, although the crust was kind of strange. I love pumpkin pie.
And thennn was Halloween/my birthday!! In the morning my friends gave me presents and it was very sweet :) Being Halloween, many people brought in sweets and snacks to share with everyone, creating a festive atmosphere. Unfortunately, for all the build-up to Halloween, with decorations everywhere and pumpkin-themed food, this was their only actual Halloween celebrating. I think Christmas will sadly be the same, on a bigger scale. There are already Christmas trees out, and I think they go crazy with decorations and music and other Christmas-themed things, but don't actually do much on the day itself. It's apparently more of a date day than a family day, and all my single classmates are desperate to get a significant other by Christmas. For my birthday lunch, I went very American, with a pb&j, yogurt, string cheese, and apple that wasn't peeled or cut or anything, to the astonishment of my classmates. It was pretty cool. Hannah and I also decorated the English Lounge with some decorations I had brought from home, determined to make it Halloween-y. In the evening, my host family surprised me with a very nice cake and presents, which I didn't expect until later. It was overall a good day :)
The next big thing was a day-trip to Kyoto. I took a day off of school to go along with a friend of my host family and some other friends of his who were visiting him. As soon as we got there in the morning, we rented kimonos to wear around for the day, which was really fun. By the end of the day though, I was ready to get out of mine. It limited my movements to short fast steps, which used different muscles than normal, so my legs were worn out by the end. Also the obi, the big bow that ties around the waste, was surprisingly heavy after a while, and all our backs were sore. Still an awesome experience though! We shuffled around, going into the little shops, and had a traditional lunch of rice, tea, miso soup, and tsukemono, which are various pickled vegetables. Then we went to Kiyomizu-dera, the most famous temple. It's perched on an impressively old 13 meter high foundation of logs to support it on the mountainside, built without nails. Under the main building is a totally dark passage, where you feel your way along a rope of wooden beads, supposedly to recreate being in the womb as a ritual of rebirth. It was amazingly dark, but the whole rebirth part was ruined by people talking loudly the whole time. Still cool though. Nearby there was a love shrine, with two stones set 20 feet apart. If you can walk between these with your eyes closed, you will find love soon. After Kiyomizu-dera, we visited another smaller temple before returning our kimonos and going back to Osaka.
Last week I went to a "song and dance show," which was literally a bunch of dance numbers with singing. I think all the dancers were ballet trained, so it was really cool. It was interesting because they did songs from popular musicals like Cats, Sound of Music, JC Superstar, Wicked, A Chorus Line, and some others, and of course lots of Disney, but it was all in Japanese. That was strange but amusing.
Today I met with my district's inbounds again for a Japanese culture day, which was a lot of fun! We wore kimonos, then did part of the tea ceremony and flower arranging. We weren't really instructed in the flower arranging part, just kind of given flowers, but it was fun. It would be awesome to learn more at some point though. I feel so lucky, because I have already done most of this with my host family. I had my second tea ceremony lesson yesterday, and finally learned the last part of my odori dance routine, where I get to wear a yukata almost every week.
Emotionally, I have been ok, but was often moody last month. Lately it's been getting better though, especially when I get sleep. Sleep is such an important thing! I have a cold now though, which is not fun :P I really miss the water bottle culture of home. I remember in Uni looking around a class and sometimes seeing water bottles on half the desks. Here there are no water fountains and you can't drink during class, and everyone thinks it's really weird and impressive if I drink two bottles in a day.
It's gotten colder lately! But I guess it's allowed because we had almost two months of perfect weather. I'm a little concerned though, because heating is terrible. One night, I looked at the thermometer in my room at around 8:30pm, not even the middle of the night and not winter yet, the days are still in the 60s, and my room was 58 degrees!! Eek. Since then I have discovered that my carpet is heated, which helps, but I am still thankful for the fuzzy belly warmer a friend gave me for my birthday, which I thought was funny at the time but now really appreciate. At least the toilet seats are heated, always a pleasant surprise.
My Japanese is improving, which is really exciting! I love hearing and understanding things I have just learned. It was really cool, the other day I was watching a Japanese drama about this girl who wants to be a pilot, and the episode was set at an aviation school in North Dakota. They had a lot of communication problems, and it was awesome being able to mostly understand both sides.
Closing random amusing story: One day in school I was walking down the hall and passing a guy from some other class that I don't really know but is one of the bolder ones that says hi to the American. He raised his hand in what I thought was a high five, so I went to high-five him. Turns out it was actually a wave, and he moved his head so that I full out high-fived his face. I immediately laughed, and it would have been fine if he did too, but instead he looked at me like, "what is wrong with you?" and left. I was confused by that at the time, but now I realize that maybe he didn't understand what happened and thought I randomly smacked him in the face. Kind of embarrassing now.
Random things: Ok first this has nothing to do with Japan but I still think it's really interesting. Gabbi, Hannah, and I were talking and found that the word "quite" has a very different meaning in American English vs British and Australian English. In America, it means "very," so "it is quite sunny" means "it is very sunny." In Australia and England, however, it is more like "fairly," so it is only "fairly sunny." It doesn't seem like a big deal at first, but If you think about it this is actually a huge difference. If you say someone is "quite pretty," you could be saying they are just so-so. All three of our minds were blown, trying to figure out how to use it the opposite way.
When young people go out, they often do purikura, which are advanced photo booth sessions. They enhance your features and afterward in a limited time you can decorate them with writing and clip art and pick the backgrounds. Note, this takes skill. Hannah and I tried it on our own once and completely failed. But my classmates are really adept by now at fully decorating all the pictures before the time is up. Anyway, this is of course a popular thing for couples, and after going out with their boyfriends the girls bring in sheets of the resulting purikura to cut out and share with friends. They stick these on their rulers, so almost all the girls have rulers with pictures of all the current couples. Kind of strange but cute.
Sort of relating, the girls really pay attention to each other's relationships, and have all their friends' monthly anniversaries written in their schedule books.
November eleventh, 11/11, is Pocky Day because all the 1's look like Pocky! So lots of people brought Pocky sticks to school :) Also there is a Pocky game, where two people start at different ends of the same Pocky and race to eat the most. It's also a game of chicken, testing how close people will get to each other. My classmates had much fun taking pictures of each other almost kissing.
Gabbi told me this earlier, and I've come across it myself. There are clothes you wear at different times of the year based on the calendar, not the actual weather. Like at some point most people switched to their uniform sweaters instead of vests, even though it was still warm, and they were surprised that I continued to wear a vest because it was hot. Gabbi said the same happened with the switch to warmer weather, and that there is different clothing you wear not only based on season, but based on the beginning, middle, and end of seasons. It's been chilly recently, especially when biking, so I've started wearing gloves to school and some people wear scarves. I was talking with my friend who also bikes to school (all in Japanese ^_^) and she was complaining about how cold it is and how she wants to wear gloves and a scarf. So I told her, "then wear gloves and a scarf," but she's like, "no I can't do that, it's still November! I can't wear those until at least December." And I'm like, "well that's stupid I use gloves and I'm warm." She looked at me longingly and I'm like, "you can too..." but she insisted that she couldn't. To each their own I suppose.
Also I think I forgot to mention earlier in my description of Kenmei that everyday after the last class the students all clean the school. I sweep in the classroom, where we have a whole system to move the desks around, and other people run across the floor with wet rags, clean the windows, take out the trash, and clean the chalkboard. Outside the class I don't know what happens as well, but I've seen people sweeping the halls and stairs and cleaning the rooms that aren't regular classrooms. I'm not sure about the bathrooms... Cuts down the need for janitor service.
Ok, I left off just before my school's bazaar. This was on a Sunday, and we had to come in half an hour earlier than usual. So seven days of school in a row! First all the students filed through the gym, which was filled with things people brought in, like a garage sale. This was run by parents. Actually, I think a lot of the bazaar was. There were many many towels, cleaning products, and other random things, but the most popular items were bags of snacks at a cheap price. Then everyone went back to class to study for an hour, which I thought was cruel after already bringing them in half an hour early on a Sunday. Then the festival part started. There were booths lining the soccer field with games and more random things to buy, drink tents and the coffee/tea tent my class was in charge of. In the middle of the field there was a mini train track for the elementary school children (so cute!). In a different field area there were food tents, a big eating tent, and a small stage with dance performances. Everyone wandered around, and this lasted the rest of the day. Like the shureisai, it was a prime time for couples, who walked around together. Later that evening, most of my class met for dinner, which was really nice. We went to a place with buffet-style raw food on skewers that we brought to our tables to deep fry in our own personal deep fryers. Lovely.
They were at least nice enough to give us Monday off, so I decided to make a pumpkin pie with the pumpkin can Suma had kindly brought me. Easier said than done. First there were no pie pans to be found anywhere, because they don't really make American-style pies, so I had to improvise with a cake pan that was about the right diameter, if the wrong shape. There was some trouble getting ingredients, but it wasn't too bad. The hardest part was measuring out the ingredients, because here everything is done in grams. But the scale didn't show decimals, and there's a big difference between one and two grams of salt, so I had to guess at all the teaspoon measurements. NOTE to future exchange students: if you plan on baking, it would be very useful to bring a set of teaspoons/tablespoon, and wouldn't take up much space. Hannah did, and I think I'll borrow it next time. Despite this, the pie tasted WONDERFUL, although the crust was kind of strange. I love pumpkin pie.
And thennn was Halloween/my birthday!! In the morning my friends gave me presents and it was very sweet :) Being Halloween, many people brought in sweets and snacks to share with everyone, creating a festive atmosphere. Unfortunately, for all the build-up to Halloween, with decorations everywhere and pumpkin-themed food, this was their only actual Halloween celebrating. I think Christmas will sadly be the same, on a bigger scale. There are already Christmas trees out, and I think they go crazy with decorations and music and other Christmas-themed things, but don't actually do much on the day itself. It's apparently more of a date day than a family day, and all my single classmates are desperate to get a significant other by Christmas. For my birthday lunch, I went very American, with a pb&j, yogurt, string cheese, and apple that wasn't peeled or cut or anything, to the astonishment of my classmates. It was pretty cool. Hannah and I also decorated the English Lounge with some decorations I had brought from home, determined to make it Halloween-y. In the evening, my host family surprised me with a very nice cake and presents, which I didn't expect until later. It was overall a good day :)
The next big thing was a day-trip to Kyoto. I took a day off of school to go along with a friend of my host family and some other friends of his who were visiting him. As soon as we got there in the morning, we rented kimonos to wear around for the day, which was really fun. By the end of the day though, I was ready to get out of mine. It limited my movements to short fast steps, which used different muscles than normal, so my legs were worn out by the end. Also the obi, the big bow that ties around the waste, was surprisingly heavy after a while, and all our backs were sore. Still an awesome experience though! We shuffled around, going into the little shops, and had a traditional lunch of rice, tea, miso soup, and tsukemono, which are various pickled vegetables. Then we went to Kiyomizu-dera, the most famous temple. It's perched on an impressively old 13 meter high foundation of logs to support it on the mountainside, built without nails. Under the main building is a totally dark passage, where you feel your way along a rope of wooden beads, supposedly to recreate being in the womb as a ritual of rebirth. It was amazingly dark, but the whole rebirth part was ruined by people talking loudly the whole time. Still cool though. Nearby there was a love shrine, with two stones set 20 feet apart. If you can walk between these with your eyes closed, you will find love soon. After Kiyomizu-dera, we visited another smaller temple before returning our kimonos and going back to Osaka.
Last week I went to a "song and dance show," which was literally a bunch of dance numbers with singing. I think all the dancers were ballet trained, so it was really cool. It was interesting because they did songs from popular musicals like Cats, Sound of Music, JC Superstar, Wicked, A Chorus Line, and some others, and of course lots of Disney, but it was all in Japanese. That was strange but amusing.
Today I met with my district's inbounds again for a Japanese culture day, which was a lot of fun! We wore kimonos, then did part of the tea ceremony and flower arranging. We weren't really instructed in the flower arranging part, just kind of given flowers, but it was fun. It would be awesome to learn more at some point though. I feel so lucky, because I have already done most of this with my host family. I had my second tea ceremony lesson yesterday, and finally learned the last part of my odori dance routine, where I get to wear a yukata almost every week.
Emotionally, I have been ok, but was often moody last month. Lately it's been getting better though, especially when I get sleep. Sleep is such an important thing! I have a cold now though, which is not fun :P I really miss the water bottle culture of home. I remember in Uni looking around a class and sometimes seeing water bottles on half the desks. Here there are no water fountains and you can't drink during class, and everyone thinks it's really weird and impressive if I drink two bottles in a day.
It's gotten colder lately! But I guess it's allowed because we had almost two months of perfect weather. I'm a little concerned though, because heating is terrible. One night, I looked at the thermometer in my room at around 8:30pm, not even the middle of the night and not winter yet, the days are still in the 60s, and my room was 58 degrees!! Eek. Since then I have discovered that my carpet is heated, which helps, but I am still thankful for the fuzzy belly warmer a friend gave me for my birthday, which I thought was funny at the time but now really appreciate. At least the toilet seats are heated, always a pleasant surprise.
My Japanese is improving, which is really exciting! I love hearing and understanding things I have just learned. It was really cool, the other day I was watching a Japanese drama about this girl who wants to be a pilot, and the episode was set at an aviation school in North Dakota. They had a lot of communication problems, and it was awesome being able to mostly understand both sides.
Closing random amusing story: One day in school I was walking down the hall and passing a guy from some other class that I don't really know but is one of the bolder ones that says hi to the American. He raised his hand in what I thought was a high five, so I went to high-five him. Turns out it was actually a wave, and he moved his head so that I full out high-fived his face. I immediately laughed, and it would have been fine if he did too, but instead he looked at me like, "what is wrong with you?" and left. I was confused by that at the time, but now I realize that maybe he didn't understand what happened and thought I randomly smacked him in the face. Kind of embarrassing now.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
2 Months +
Already more than two months! I can't believe how fast they went. And sorry, I've been reprimanded for not updating.
Observation: People go all out dressing for whatever activity they're doing. A while ago I went to an acorn cookie-making thing with Mayuko, my oldest sister, and Yuzuki, the 10-year-old, at a really big park at Osaka. It was fun, we went on a short walk and collected acorns, then made cookies out of them at picnic tables with tabletop grills. The weather was awesome. But anyway, the walk was like 15 minutes, mostly on a sidewalk, but at one point going about 20 feet off trail onto some grass. Not intense. But people had full out hiking gear, like boots, khaki hiking pants, big backpacks, and those hats with neck flaps. Goodness. I've noticed this a lot with running, too. Almost everyone looks like they're dressed for a 20+ mile run, which maybe some are but I highly doubt everyone is. Even when it was hot out, many people had long sleeve tech shirts and tights under tech running shirts and shorts, and lots of various leg braces. And then full running belts or even Camelbaks. I feel very plain in my shorts and cotton t-shirt, but they work just fine.
Soo what have I been up to? A lot apparently since the last post... my bad. First there was the acorn-cookie thing in the park. After it was over we walked around the park and found a "free market" (although we had to pay to get in), which was a large parking lot full of people with tarps and tents, selling pretty much anything, like a giant yard sale. Lots of old clothes, shoes, accessories, toys, crafts, and other random stuff. So that was interesting, it seemed more like things I've seen in other countries, not something I'd expect in Japan. After that we found a little place in the park that gave free 10 minute hot lavender water foot soaks. We had to wait a little bit, then were given the choice of a pretty outdoor pool or a hut with a trough in it. We chose the hut because it was sunny out. So that was also cool, and felt really nice :)
My class returned from France! Yay. They brought me chocolates, cookies, and sweet chestnut paste ^_^ It seemed very fun, but they were all tired. There were mixed reactions to the food; everyone loved the bread, but most people weren't big fans of the other things, some recognizing that while it was probably good, they weren't used to it. They visited a school and were surprised by the lack of uniforms and said that everyone was very expressive. Unfortunately there was apparently a fight between the girls in my class, not open but the subtle girl kind. So now they're friendly on the surface, but don't eat lunch all together like they used to, which is annoying because now I have to keep switching around to still be friends with everyone. Drama. It's nice though, I'm starting to form more actual friendships, not just the initial, "yay an American!" ones. And my Japanese is steadily improving, so it's getting easier to communicate. Now I can understand a good amount of what people are saying to me, because they use easy Japanese. I still can barely understand when they talk to each other, though, but I can sort of grasp the subject.
The following weekend was the main weekend for danjiri festivals, although I think they'd been happening in different areas for the past few weeks. Each neighborhood or something, I'm not quite sure, has it's own festival, which I believe celebrates it's founding? Feel free to look it up, I don't have wifi at the moment. Mine ran for three days, Friday through Sunday, and I went Friday and Saturday nights. Mainly, there are wooden floats carried on poles by about 30 guys, who look like they're dying from the weight. I think I noticed a rotation system to give them some relief. I've also seen pictures of other festivals where the floats were on wheels and pulled by ropes. There are four children in the float, beating a drum, and a couple people on top. I'll get pictures up on Facebook at some point. Each float has a large entourage, with girls following behind with big fans, people to keep the crowd back, and maybe some other random people to help chant. Everyone wears a special outfit, with traditional-like pants and shirt and cloth rubber-soled shoes with a split separating the big toe from the others. Each float has different patterns on their clothing, and I think different outfits on different days. All the girls' hair is super intense, cornrowed and braided and teased. One of my classmates said her hair took four hours. I was surprised by all the dyed hair, since Kenmei doesn't allow dyeing, and I guess I haven't seen large gatherings of young people elsewhere. Along with the spectrum of brown to blonde, there was green, blue, orange, red, purple, and probably more. It was like a rainbow of heads. I felt kind of left out, until I realized that my hair is already light. At one float, two of the lifters were Westerners who were head and shoulders taller than me, and I was blown away by their height. I forgot people could be that tall! Most people are at most half a head taller than me, but I don't really notice because everyone is and I can't see myself in comparison. These guys looked like giants.
On Friday night, each float paraded through the streets and ended in a small square a block from my house. There they chanted and lifted the float up and down and moved in circles, which I think they also did periodically while they were parading. Then each moved into a large cubby for the night, followed by confetti, streamers, balloons, or smoke. Afterwards, all the people involved helped sweep up, and somehow seeing all the guys with little brooms struck me as very Japanese. On one side of the square there were also a handful of old-fashioned and well-used looking booths selling food, toys, and old-fashioned games. I played one where I had to catch as many goldfish as I could with a paper scoop before it fell apart. The guy took pity on me and gave me a second free one and some tips.
On Saturday, I think they paraded throughout the day. They were out practicing when I left for school and a number of my classmates were absent. They had been practicing for weeks. Hannah, the girl from Florida, said she lives right next to a building where they practiced, and she could hear the drums and chanting when she woke up and when she went to sleep. On Saturday night the floats were all in a circle drive area, and they moved around and did the same things as Friday, lifting up and down and turning around. Also, the people on top threw towels out to the crowd (I'm telling you, they're everywhere). Some people gave speeches, too, but I had no idea what they were saying. We didn't stay as long on Saturday because the weather suddenly changed, getting cold.
Around this time I discovered my great love for omu-rice. It's tomato sauce-based fried rice with an omelette on top, served with ketchup. Not strictly Japanese but soo good.
That Saturday I also had my first traditional tea ceremony lesson. I think Yuzuki was also a beginner, and we mostly learned how to accept someone else serving us and how to fold some cloths that we'll use while making the tea. My host family is so great at giving me all these cultural experiences.
On Sunday, I went to Universal Studios Japan with the other Rotary Inbounds and Rotex. I found that one of the Rotex actually goes to Kenmei, so that's nice. It was fun and great to spend time with them, but a busy day to go to USJ. We only got to two rides, both with two hour lines. It's amazing how standardized these places are all over the world, it looked so American. I'm sure I'll go back; it's a main place to go in Osaka.
The next week was test week, where the students took two or three tests in the morning, then left by lunch time. This seemed kind of mean right after their France trip; I think they should have switched them. It meant a fun week for us exchange students though! The first two days we played a surprisingly fun role-playing game with one of the American teachers. Thursday we watched Princess Mononoke and Friday we actually worked, which is kind of a first when we're all in the English Lounge together. We wrote responses to Princess Mononoke, in Japanese, and it was actually kind of fun. And then there was a two day weekend, hooray.
That week I also had a wonderful visit from Suma, a family friend, who had a workshop in Nagoya and was nice enough to come see me in Osaka. She stayed a night with my host family, and it was a fun evening for everyone. Yukiko performed the tea ceremony, Yuzuki did her odori routine (traditional dance), and Suma gave all the females henna, which they loved. My classmates were all very interested in mine, so I taught them about it, too. She also brought stuff from home, so now I can make a pumpkin pie with the canned pumpkin she brought :)
On Sunday, Hirona, Yuzuki, and I went to a special program about dolphins at Osaka's big aquarium. It was cool, we watched them being fed and got to pet and feed them ourselves. We also made toys and then threw them all in the water hoping the dolphins would bite them and drag them around, which they sometimes did. The trainers can't really instruct them to play, though. But still, I pet a dolphin!
This week wasn't terribly eventful, but everyone got their tests back. I think tests are harder here... I don't know about the other subjects, but the class averages for the math tests were about 40, and I think the other subjects were similar. So it was considered good if the score was in the 50's, and really good if it was higher. Scores in the 20s and 30s were common. It was weird because at Uni, most people get at least a 70 on tests, and many people in the 80s and 90s. So I don't know what's up with that.
Tomorrow is Kenmei's bazaar, which I don't really understand yet, but should be fun! These school events, like the shureisai, are apparently the prime time for romance, which I noticed at the shureisai, but now am really noticing. Like the two weeks leading up to an event I guess is just a good time to confess to your love, and new couples form. It's great, Gabbi and I are thoroughly enjoying all the drama. Her friends do things like eating their bentos during the morning break so they can go buy bread at lunch, just in case their third year sempai crushes see them there. Hannah actually got a boyfriend, and apparently the teachers saw them holding hands and they're all very worried for her because she's an important person. I did my best not to crack up as one of them was telling her about their concern.
I felt my first homesickness the past couple weeks, as the weather got colder and reminded me of fall things. Again, morning is always the worse, but then like magic everything always gets better by lunch time. And there's always someone to hug. So, still doing ok.
Sorry for the lateness and length!
Observation: People go all out dressing for whatever activity they're doing. A while ago I went to an acorn cookie-making thing with Mayuko, my oldest sister, and Yuzuki, the 10-year-old, at a really big park at Osaka. It was fun, we went on a short walk and collected acorns, then made cookies out of them at picnic tables with tabletop grills. The weather was awesome. But anyway, the walk was like 15 minutes, mostly on a sidewalk, but at one point going about 20 feet off trail onto some grass. Not intense. But people had full out hiking gear, like boots, khaki hiking pants, big backpacks, and those hats with neck flaps. Goodness. I've noticed this a lot with running, too. Almost everyone looks like they're dressed for a 20+ mile run, which maybe some are but I highly doubt everyone is. Even when it was hot out, many people had long sleeve tech shirts and tights under tech running shirts and shorts, and lots of various leg braces. And then full running belts or even Camelbaks. I feel very plain in my shorts and cotton t-shirt, but they work just fine.
Soo what have I been up to? A lot apparently since the last post... my bad. First there was the acorn-cookie thing in the park. After it was over we walked around the park and found a "free market" (although we had to pay to get in), which was a large parking lot full of people with tarps and tents, selling pretty much anything, like a giant yard sale. Lots of old clothes, shoes, accessories, toys, crafts, and other random stuff. So that was interesting, it seemed more like things I've seen in other countries, not something I'd expect in Japan. After that we found a little place in the park that gave free 10 minute hot lavender water foot soaks. We had to wait a little bit, then were given the choice of a pretty outdoor pool or a hut with a trough in it. We chose the hut because it was sunny out. So that was also cool, and felt really nice :)
My class returned from France! Yay. They brought me chocolates, cookies, and sweet chestnut paste ^_^ It seemed very fun, but they were all tired. There were mixed reactions to the food; everyone loved the bread, but most people weren't big fans of the other things, some recognizing that while it was probably good, they weren't used to it. They visited a school and were surprised by the lack of uniforms and said that everyone was very expressive. Unfortunately there was apparently a fight between the girls in my class, not open but the subtle girl kind. So now they're friendly on the surface, but don't eat lunch all together like they used to, which is annoying because now I have to keep switching around to still be friends with everyone. Drama. It's nice though, I'm starting to form more actual friendships, not just the initial, "yay an American!" ones. And my Japanese is steadily improving, so it's getting easier to communicate. Now I can understand a good amount of what people are saying to me, because they use easy Japanese. I still can barely understand when they talk to each other, though, but I can sort of grasp the subject.
The following weekend was the main weekend for danjiri festivals, although I think they'd been happening in different areas for the past few weeks. Each neighborhood or something, I'm not quite sure, has it's own festival, which I believe celebrates it's founding? Feel free to look it up, I don't have wifi at the moment. Mine ran for three days, Friday through Sunday, and I went Friday and Saturday nights. Mainly, there are wooden floats carried on poles by about 30 guys, who look like they're dying from the weight. I think I noticed a rotation system to give them some relief. I've also seen pictures of other festivals where the floats were on wheels and pulled by ropes. There are four children in the float, beating a drum, and a couple people on top. I'll get pictures up on Facebook at some point. Each float has a large entourage, with girls following behind with big fans, people to keep the crowd back, and maybe some other random people to help chant. Everyone wears a special outfit, with traditional-like pants and shirt and cloth rubber-soled shoes with a split separating the big toe from the others. Each float has different patterns on their clothing, and I think different outfits on different days. All the girls' hair is super intense, cornrowed and braided and teased. One of my classmates said her hair took four hours. I was surprised by all the dyed hair, since Kenmei doesn't allow dyeing, and I guess I haven't seen large gatherings of young people elsewhere. Along with the spectrum of brown to blonde, there was green, blue, orange, red, purple, and probably more. It was like a rainbow of heads. I felt kind of left out, until I realized that my hair is already light. At one float, two of the lifters were Westerners who were head and shoulders taller than me, and I was blown away by their height. I forgot people could be that tall! Most people are at most half a head taller than me, but I don't really notice because everyone is and I can't see myself in comparison. These guys looked like giants.
On Friday night, each float paraded through the streets and ended in a small square a block from my house. There they chanted and lifted the float up and down and moved in circles, which I think they also did periodically while they were parading. Then each moved into a large cubby for the night, followed by confetti, streamers, balloons, or smoke. Afterwards, all the people involved helped sweep up, and somehow seeing all the guys with little brooms struck me as very Japanese. On one side of the square there were also a handful of old-fashioned and well-used looking booths selling food, toys, and old-fashioned games. I played one where I had to catch as many goldfish as I could with a paper scoop before it fell apart. The guy took pity on me and gave me a second free one and some tips.
On Saturday, I think they paraded throughout the day. They were out practicing when I left for school and a number of my classmates were absent. They had been practicing for weeks. Hannah, the girl from Florida, said she lives right next to a building where they practiced, and she could hear the drums and chanting when she woke up and when she went to sleep. On Saturday night the floats were all in a circle drive area, and they moved around and did the same things as Friday, lifting up and down and turning around. Also, the people on top threw towels out to the crowd (I'm telling you, they're everywhere). Some people gave speeches, too, but I had no idea what they were saying. We didn't stay as long on Saturday because the weather suddenly changed, getting cold.
Around this time I discovered my great love for omu-rice. It's tomato sauce-based fried rice with an omelette on top, served with ketchup. Not strictly Japanese but soo good.
That Saturday I also had my first traditional tea ceremony lesson. I think Yuzuki was also a beginner, and we mostly learned how to accept someone else serving us and how to fold some cloths that we'll use while making the tea. My host family is so great at giving me all these cultural experiences.
On Sunday, I went to Universal Studios Japan with the other Rotary Inbounds and Rotex. I found that one of the Rotex actually goes to Kenmei, so that's nice. It was fun and great to spend time with them, but a busy day to go to USJ. We only got to two rides, both with two hour lines. It's amazing how standardized these places are all over the world, it looked so American. I'm sure I'll go back; it's a main place to go in Osaka.
The next week was test week, where the students took two or three tests in the morning, then left by lunch time. This seemed kind of mean right after their France trip; I think they should have switched them. It meant a fun week for us exchange students though! The first two days we played a surprisingly fun role-playing game with one of the American teachers. Thursday we watched Princess Mononoke and Friday we actually worked, which is kind of a first when we're all in the English Lounge together. We wrote responses to Princess Mononoke, in Japanese, and it was actually kind of fun. And then there was a two day weekend, hooray.
That week I also had a wonderful visit from Suma, a family friend, who had a workshop in Nagoya and was nice enough to come see me in Osaka. She stayed a night with my host family, and it was a fun evening for everyone. Yukiko performed the tea ceremony, Yuzuki did her odori routine (traditional dance), and Suma gave all the females henna, which they loved. My classmates were all very interested in mine, so I taught them about it, too. She also brought stuff from home, so now I can make a pumpkin pie with the canned pumpkin she brought :)
On Sunday, Hirona, Yuzuki, and I went to a special program about dolphins at Osaka's big aquarium. It was cool, we watched them being fed and got to pet and feed them ourselves. We also made toys and then threw them all in the water hoping the dolphins would bite them and drag them around, which they sometimes did. The trainers can't really instruct them to play, though. But still, I pet a dolphin!
This week wasn't terribly eventful, but everyone got their tests back. I think tests are harder here... I don't know about the other subjects, but the class averages for the math tests were about 40, and I think the other subjects were similar. So it was considered good if the score was in the 50's, and really good if it was higher. Scores in the 20s and 30s were common. It was weird because at Uni, most people get at least a 70 on tests, and many people in the 80s and 90s. So I don't know what's up with that.
Tomorrow is Kenmei's bazaar, which I don't really understand yet, but should be fun! These school events, like the shureisai, are apparently the prime time for romance, which I noticed at the shureisai, but now am really noticing. Like the two weeks leading up to an event I guess is just a good time to confess to your love, and new couples form. It's great, Gabbi and I are thoroughly enjoying all the drama. Her friends do things like eating their bentos during the morning break so they can go buy bread at lunch, just in case their third year sempai crushes see them there. Hannah actually got a boyfriend, and apparently the teachers saw them holding hands and they're all very worried for her because she's an important person. I did my best not to crack up as one of them was telling her about their concern.
I felt my first homesickness the past couple weeks, as the weather got colder and reminded me of fall things. Again, morning is always the worse, but then like magic everything always gets better by lunch time. And there's always someone to hug. So, still doing ok.
Sorry for the lateness and length!
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Rotary Adventures (Misadventures?)
Rotary things! In the past two weeks, I had my first district conference, finally getting to meet my fellow inbounds, and gave my big presentation about my life in America to my club. Neither went exactly as planned, but I took it all with a smile and it was just fine.
On the day of my district inbound orientation, my host family was all busy so I had to navigate the train system for the first time by myself. I had to change trains three times, and I just knew something was going to go wrong. It was all fine until my last changing, where I had to switch to a different train of the same line that branched off to where I was going. I barely had any time to switch, so I wasn't able to check very well which train I was getting on, so I ended up just switching from the express I had been riding to the local train, instead of the special branch line. I realized at the next stop, and didn't stress out or anything, but I lost time waiting 15 minutes for a train back the other way. I then had some trouble finding the actual building, and had to ask a few times, but eventually I got there, only about ten minutes late.
I walked in to a girl singing the Mexican national anthem, karaoke style, and then a girl singing the German anthem. I wasn't looking forward to "The Star-Spangled Banner," but apparently I had missed it, so I didn't have to. Then the chairman said, "ok, now please give your three minute speech reconfirming why you want to be here, and your plans for the year, in Japanese," and I noticed that all the other inbounds had full sheets of paper, covered in writing. That was a nasty surprise. So I whispered to the nice Rotex next to me, "uhhh no one told me about a speech..." and she and a nice man on my other side helped me quickly scribble something. I was third, so there wasn't much time, but I did my best and thankfully this not getting nervous about public speaking thing has been holding, so it was ok but way worse than everyone else's. I later found out that the chairman had emailed everyone the week before, but he had my address wrong so I didn't get anything.
The chairman then gave a lovely welcoming speech about how if we even broke one rule, we'd be sent home, and then I finally got to talk to the other students. There are six others, from Minnesota, Ohio, Mexico, Germany, Indonesia, and Australia, all with good English. The girl from Australia has already been here six months, so she can show us around. They're all girls except the boy from Minnesota, and I really like all of them and am excited to spend more time with them. It was sad because some of them met on Saturday, but I had SCHOOL and couldn't go :P Even though everyone's in France anyway and Gabbi was gone. Actually it was really random, instead of studying like usual we watched a movie, in English, about the Holocaust, then wrote an essay about it. So cheerful. While everyone else was out having fun. Anyway, the Rotary meeting ended fairly quickly, and my club counselor was very nice and gave me a ride home.
This Monday I met with my host club for the second time, to give my PowerPoint presentation about myself, and that got off to another rocky start. This time there were no problems with the train, the meeting was only two stops away from my station. However, there were great problems in the hotel, trying to find the room. First I went to the third floor, where it was last time, but no one was there. So I went down to the desk to ask, and was told to go outside to the adjoining building. I went there, and the ground floor was just a small lobby with elevators, so I took one to the eighth floor, which was the first one accessible by elevator, realizing I had no idea which floor it was on. The eighth floor was just a few blank halls with blank doors and no one around, so I decided to go back down and over to the desk to ask which floor it was. The guy called over a lady to help me, and we went back over to the adjoining building. She read the signs, put me an elevator telling me to go to the eighth floor, and left. So I went back up to the totally blank floor and decided to open a door, which happened to be the door to the Sakai Rotary Club office, but not meeting. Soo I went back to the main hotel side to the third floor again, because I had seen some people there before. I found some other important looking event, with cameras and people wearing sashes, definitely not my meeting, but I asked the hotel staff outside where the Rotary one was. So one of them went with me to the desk again, but this time asked someone who actually knew and was able to point me to the fourth floor this time, where I finally found my meeting. They could not understand how I had gotten lost in the hotel for 25 minutes, but it happened. Thankfully the meeting hadn't started yet, I was just supposed to get there early to set up my presentation. So I tried to do that, but it turned out my host family's big laptop that I had lugged around only had 8% battery left, and it died while I was setting up. Luckily the presentation was on a flash drive, so this awesome butler dude who had been helping with the projector was able to find a different laptop somewhere. The presentation itself went ok I think, but I had to give it mostly in English because I don't know enough Japanese. My counselor helped translate, but I feel like a lot was lost. Oh well. They gave me some adorable little towels as a thank you, so Japanese. I think my club and counselor are mostly amused by me and all my mishaps, so that's good. However, they were all a little concerned about me going home alone, which I did just fine, thank you.
On the day of my district inbound orientation, my host family was all busy so I had to navigate the train system for the first time by myself. I had to change trains three times, and I just knew something was going to go wrong. It was all fine until my last changing, where I had to switch to a different train of the same line that branched off to where I was going. I barely had any time to switch, so I wasn't able to check very well which train I was getting on, so I ended up just switching from the express I had been riding to the local train, instead of the special branch line. I realized at the next stop, and didn't stress out or anything, but I lost time waiting 15 minutes for a train back the other way. I then had some trouble finding the actual building, and had to ask a few times, but eventually I got there, only about ten minutes late.
I walked in to a girl singing the Mexican national anthem, karaoke style, and then a girl singing the German anthem. I wasn't looking forward to "The Star-Spangled Banner," but apparently I had missed it, so I didn't have to. Then the chairman said, "ok, now please give your three minute speech reconfirming why you want to be here, and your plans for the year, in Japanese," and I noticed that all the other inbounds had full sheets of paper, covered in writing. That was a nasty surprise. So I whispered to the nice Rotex next to me, "uhhh no one told me about a speech..." and she and a nice man on my other side helped me quickly scribble something. I was third, so there wasn't much time, but I did my best and thankfully this not getting nervous about public speaking thing has been holding, so it was ok but way worse than everyone else's. I later found out that the chairman had emailed everyone the week before, but he had my address wrong so I didn't get anything.
The chairman then gave a lovely welcoming speech about how if we even broke one rule, we'd be sent home, and then I finally got to talk to the other students. There are six others, from Minnesota, Ohio, Mexico, Germany, Indonesia, and Australia, all with good English. The girl from Australia has already been here six months, so she can show us around. They're all girls except the boy from Minnesota, and I really like all of them and am excited to spend more time with them. It was sad because some of them met on Saturday, but I had SCHOOL and couldn't go :P Even though everyone's in France anyway and Gabbi was gone. Actually it was really random, instead of studying like usual we watched a movie, in English, about the Holocaust, then wrote an essay about it. So cheerful. While everyone else was out having fun. Anyway, the Rotary meeting ended fairly quickly, and my club counselor was very nice and gave me a ride home.
This Monday I met with my host club for the second time, to give my PowerPoint presentation about myself, and that got off to another rocky start. This time there were no problems with the train, the meeting was only two stops away from my station. However, there were great problems in the hotel, trying to find the room. First I went to the third floor, where it was last time, but no one was there. So I went down to the desk to ask, and was told to go outside to the adjoining building. I went there, and the ground floor was just a small lobby with elevators, so I took one to the eighth floor, which was the first one accessible by elevator, realizing I had no idea which floor it was on. The eighth floor was just a few blank halls with blank doors and no one around, so I decided to go back down and over to the desk to ask which floor it was. The guy called over a lady to help me, and we went back over to the adjoining building. She read the signs, put me an elevator telling me to go to the eighth floor, and left. So I went back up to the totally blank floor and decided to open a door, which happened to be the door to the Sakai Rotary Club office, but not meeting. Soo I went back to the main hotel side to the third floor again, because I had seen some people there before. I found some other important looking event, with cameras and people wearing sashes, definitely not my meeting, but I asked the hotel staff outside where the Rotary one was. So one of them went with me to the desk again, but this time asked someone who actually knew and was able to point me to the fourth floor this time, where I finally found my meeting. They could not understand how I had gotten lost in the hotel for 25 minutes, but it happened. Thankfully the meeting hadn't started yet, I was just supposed to get there early to set up my presentation. So I tried to do that, but it turned out my host family's big laptop that I had lugged around only had 8% battery left, and it died while I was setting up. Luckily the presentation was on a flash drive, so this awesome butler dude who had been helping with the projector was able to find a different laptop somewhere. The presentation itself went ok I think, but I had to give it mostly in English because I don't know enough Japanese. My counselor helped translate, but I feel like a lot was lost. Oh well. They gave me some adorable little towels as a thank you, so Japanese. I think my club and counselor are mostly amused by me and all my mishaps, so that's good. However, they were all a little concerned about me going home alone, which I did just fine, thank you.
Shureisai and More
Lots has happened! My school festival, first Rotary inbound orientation, and the departure of my entire school grade to France. Except me and six others.
First more observations!
Food is a really big deal here. There are many TV shows about food, not just about cooking, but watching people eat. These just make me hungry. A common conversational question I get is what I had for dinner the day before. Whenever I eat anything in school, everyone asks if it tastes good. There's a focus on all food being delicious and pretty.
There are no stop signs! Instead, there are just white lines painted on the ground, often with とまれ (tomare, stop). Also there aren't many sidewalks, only on main roads. Pedestrians and bikers just walk in the road, on either side. I think I'm figuring out some biking etiquette, though, in that if someone is biking at you on the wrong side of the road, you have to go around them. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents. Actually, a middle school boy from Kenmei was recently hit by a car and killed as he was biking home from school, so that was really tragic.
The shureisai, my school festival! I had heard much about school festivals before coming, and knew they are a huge deal and everyone puts in a lot of effort preparing for them. However, it was totally different than I expected, and honestly a little underwhelming. I knew that my class was making popcorn, and we worked after school for a week and spent the whole day before making decorations for our classroom. I imagined that most of the festival would be like a fair, moving between the different classrooms. I knew the dance club and some other clubs had been preparing performances, and I pictured everyone watching these outside or something.
Instead, on the first day (it was two days) we all filed into the auditorium, and I had to sit in the very last row because the rest was all full. Happily two very nice friends stayed with me. I thought there would just be a couple opening things, but instead we sat in there all day, from 9am-4:30pm, with a break for lunch. Mostly the middle school classes performed dance numbers or skits, and one did a really cool puppet show. The skits were apparently funny, but unfortunately I couldn't understand them so they were lost on me. In the dance numbers, there were always one or two people who knew what they were doing, and then everyone else who looked like they had been unwillingly dragged into it. There was one girl who kept trying to leave the stage, but was pushed back on. I think I have been spoiled by the amazing talent show at the CSRYE conference in Grand Rapids, where everyone actually had impressive talent.
Then at some point in the morning, just as I was thinking how nice it was not being the one on the stage for once, Gabbi, Hannah and I were called up to give our comments on the festival. They had some poor boy try to translate our English, and the whole thing was very confusing.
The handbell choir was impressive though, I had never seen one of those. They played songs from Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera. The baton/cheer club was really good as well. The English Speaking Society gave brief presentations about tourist sites in Osaka, which I thought was cool but no one understood. Also, at the beginning of each day, their main English-speaking teacher, who is sort of in charge of us exchange students, would shout, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Kenmei's 2013 shureisai is now opennn!!!" met with absolute silence instead of cheering. My friends were like, "I think he said something about 2000 people?" The same thing happened with the head student of the English Speaking Society. He asked "How are y'all doing todayy?!" Silence. "I said, how are y'all doing today??" And finally Hannah shouted out, "We're doing great, thank you!" Awkward... On the whole, though, the day was very long and honestly boring, at least for me.
The next day was better. There were a couple performances in the auditorium to start the day, then we went back to our room to finish preparing it for selling popcorn. There were many other classrooms selling food, all more intense than popcorn. To get food, we needed tickets specific to that item, which we had bought the week before. Tickets were also sold the day of, but they sold out quickly. I ate chocolate hottoku, which was basically a filled pancake, tamosen, which was like egg and some sauce and other things between two big crackers, and yakitori, a chicken kebab. I tried to get things that looked Japanese, but there were also frankfurters, pancakes, hashed potatoes, muffins, waffles, yakisoba, and udon. Also the school was giving away free "pan" for some reason. I worked in our class collecting tickets, which was kind of silly because then I had to be the one to keep explaining that we were out of popcorn for the moment, with my lack of Japanese. There were two haunted houses as well, and I went to one with some friends. The decorations were pretty good, and it was mainly people jumping out at us. After a few hours, most people had used their tickets and the day started to drag again. We had a brief closing ceremony, and finished.
Ok I realized this will be too long with Rotary also, so I'll make that a different post. I have been on some interesting outings with my host family, though!
Last Monday, which was a school holiday I believe for the fall equinox, I went on a fishing/BBQ/airplane-viewing excursion with my host mom and two of my sisters. We got all dressed up in rubber boots, aprons, and thick gloves, and got on a little fishing boat with two other families. After a few minutes we stopped and watched one of the men take in fishing cages, with little fish and lots of octopi. They were so cute. We moved to a different location and took in a large fishing net. We all got turns with this one, mostly catching more little fish and some big crabs. I'm sorry, I have no idea what types they were, I'm not good at seafood names. Since we were also conveniently near the Kansai International Airport, we spent the next 45 minutes cruising around waiting for airplanes to take off or land. We saw about three, and I can't say it was thrilling but I found the whole idea amusing, and it was nice to relax on the boat. Back at the harbor, we watched them skin and gut the catch, and each family was given a platter with fish, octopus, oysters, sausages, and corn on the cob to grill on these long grills. Soo good and fresh. So it was nice experience and I didn't even get sunburned! Something else I've noticed is that barely anyone wears sunglasses, even on this sunny day out on the water. Unfortunately, I forgot mine in America and haven't gotten new ones yet.
This Sunday I went out again, with my host parents and little sister, to Minoh waterfall on the outskirts of Osaka, about an hour of train rides away. The place looked like a cute little resort town, and we stopped to have soba in this beautiful outdoor restaurant overhanging a picturesque river. We also ate the specialty of the area, deep-fried momiji, small Japanese maple leaves. I didn't actually taste the leaf, just the sweet deep-fried batter. It was a pretty shape, though. The walk to the waterfall was about 30 minutes, on a paved path. The whole way was beautiful, through a valley full of maple trees. Apparently it's breathtaking once the leaves turn. I think we might be going back to see that. I saw a number of foreigners along the way, and many runners. It looked like an awesome place to run. The waterfall was nice, and my host dad and sister stopped to sketch it, which they are both good at, while my host mom and I went to look at a temple. It's so nice how these beautiful nature places are so accessible, so I can have that, the big city of Osaka, and the area where I live, which is quieter and mostly residential, all connected by the train system.
In school right now it's really sad because my whole grade is on their school trip to France for two weeks, but I wasn't able to go. That would have been soo much fun! Instead I go to school until lunchtime only, thankfully, with Gabbi and the other six students who didn't go. We actually have to study, but it's good because I've worked on my Japanese a lot more than I had been.
Also, I leave the country for a month and a half, and I learn that the government is shut down?!
First more observations!
Food is a really big deal here. There are many TV shows about food, not just about cooking, but watching people eat. These just make me hungry. A common conversational question I get is what I had for dinner the day before. Whenever I eat anything in school, everyone asks if it tastes good. There's a focus on all food being delicious and pretty.
There are no stop signs! Instead, there are just white lines painted on the ground, often with とまれ (tomare, stop). Also there aren't many sidewalks, only on main roads. Pedestrians and bikers just walk in the road, on either side. I think I'm figuring out some biking etiquette, though, in that if someone is biking at you on the wrong side of the road, you have to go around them. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents. Actually, a middle school boy from Kenmei was recently hit by a car and killed as he was biking home from school, so that was really tragic.
The shureisai, my school festival! I had heard much about school festivals before coming, and knew they are a huge deal and everyone puts in a lot of effort preparing for them. However, it was totally different than I expected, and honestly a little underwhelming. I knew that my class was making popcorn, and we worked after school for a week and spent the whole day before making decorations for our classroom. I imagined that most of the festival would be like a fair, moving between the different classrooms. I knew the dance club and some other clubs had been preparing performances, and I pictured everyone watching these outside or something.
Instead, on the first day (it was two days) we all filed into the auditorium, and I had to sit in the very last row because the rest was all full. Happily two very nice friends stayed with me. I thought there would just be a couple opening things, but instead we sat in there all day, from 9am-4:30pm, with a break for lunch. Mostly the middle school classes performed dance numbers or skits, and one did a really cool puppet show. The skits were apparently funny, but unfortunately I couldn't understand them so they were lost on me. In the dance numbers, there were always one or two people who knew what they were doing, and then everyone else who looked like they had been unwillingly dragged into it. There was one girl who kept trying to leave the stage, but was pushed back on. I think I have been spoiled by the amazing talent show at the CSRYE conference in Grand Rapids, where everyone actually had impressive talent.
Then at some point in the morning, just as I was thinking how nice it was not being the one on the stage for once, Gabbi, Hannah and I were called up to give our comments on the festival. They had some poor boy try to translate our English, and the whole thing was very confusing.
The handbell choir was impressive though, I had never seen one of those. They played songs from Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera. The baton/cheer club was really good as well. The English Speaking Society gave brief presentations about tourist sites in Osaka, which I thought was cool but no one understood. Also, at the beginning of each day, their main English-speaking teacher, who is sort of in charge of us exchange students, would shout, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Kenmei's 2013 shureisai is now opennn!!!" met with absolute silence instead of cheering. My friends were like, "I think he said something about 2000 people?" The same thing happened with the head student of the English Speaking Society. He asked "How are y'all doing todayy?!" Silence. "I said, how are y'all doing today??" And finally Hannah shouted out, "We're doing great, thank you!" Awkward... On the whole, though, the day was very long and honestly boring, at least for me.
The next day was better. There were a couple performances in the auditorium to start the day, then we went back to our room to finish preparing it for selling popcorn. There were many other classrooms selling food, all more intense than popcorn. To get food, we needed tickets specific to that item, which we had bought the week before. Tickets were also sold the day of, but they sold out quickly. I ate chocolate hottoku, which was basically a filled pancake, tamosen, which was like egg and some sauce and other things between two big crackers, and yakitori, a chicken kebab. I tried to get things that looked Japanese, but there were also frankfurters, pancakes, hashed potatoes, muffins, waffles, yakisoba, and udon. Also the school was giving away free "pan" for some reason. I worked in our class collecting tickets, which was kind of silly because then I had to be the one to keep explaining that we were out of popcorn for the moment, with my lack of Japanese. There were two haunted houses as well, and I went to one with some friends. The decorations were pretty good, and it was mainly people jumping out at us. After a few hours, most people had used their tickets and the day started to drag again. We had a brief closing ceremony, and finished.
Ok I realized this will be too long with Rotary also, so I'll make that a different post. I have been on some interesting outings with my host family, though!
Last Monday, which was a school holiday I believe for the fall equinox, I went on a fishing/BBQ/airplane-viewing excursion with my host mom and two of my sisters. We got all dressed up in rubber boots, aprons, and thick gloves, and got on a little fishing boat with two other families. After a few minutes we stopped and watched one of the men take in fishing cages, with little fish and lots of octopi. They were so cute. We moved to a different location and took in a large fishing net. We all got turns with this one, mostly catching more little fish and some big crabs. I'm sorry, I have no idea what types they were, I'm not good at seafood names. Since we were also conveniently near the Kansai International Airport, we spent the next 45 minutes cruising around waiting for airplanes to take off or land. We saw about three, and I can't say it was thrilling but I found the whole idea amusing, and it was nice to relax on the boat. Back at the harbor, we watched them skin and gut the catch, and each family was given a platter with fish, octopus, oysters, sausages, and corn on the cob to grill on these long grills. Soo good and fresh. So it was nice experience and I didn't even get sunburned! Something else I've noticed is that barely anyone wears sunglasses, even on this sunny day out on the water. Unfortunately, I forgot mine in America and haven't gotten new ones yet.
This Sunday I went out again, with my host parents and little sister, to Minoh waterfall on the outskirts of Osaka, about an hour of train rides away. The place looked like a cute little resort town, and we stopped to have soba in this beautiful outdoor restaurant overhanging a picturesque river. We also ate the specialty of the area, deep-fried momiji, small Japanese maple leaves. I didn't actually taste the leaf, just the sweet deep-fried batter. It was a pretty shape, though. The walk to the waterfall was about 30 minutes, on a paved path. The whole way was beautiful, through a valley full of maple trees. Apparently it's breathtaking once the leaves turn. I think we might be going back to see that. I saw a number of foreigners along the way, and many runners. It looked like an awesome place to run. The waterfall was nice, and my host dad and sister stopped to sketch it, which they are both good at, while my host mom and I went to look at a temple. It's so nice how these beautiful nature places are so accessible, so I can have that, the big city of Osaka, and the area where I live, which is quieter and mostly residential, all connected by the train system.
In school right now it's really sad because my whole grade is on their school trip to France for two weeks, but I wasn't able to go. That would have been soo much fun! Instead I go to school until lunchtime only, thankfully, with Gabbi and the other six students who didn't go. We actually have to study, but it's good because I've worked on my Japanese a lot more than I had been.
Also, I leave the country for a month and a half, and I learn that the government is shut down?!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
One Month
Has it been one month already?? I can't believe I've been at Kenmei for almost four weeks. Are all my months going to fly by this fast? I hope not, I rather like it here.
First, some more random observations.
I didn't even think about this until earlier this week, but the tap water is good here. While I'm a pretty adventurous eater, I am very picky about my water. I have been spoiled growing up on Champaign-Urbana's Mahomet Aquifer water, and I usually have troubles in other parts of the US. When traveling internationally, the tap water is often unsafe and and we have to drink only from water bottles, which is a pain and I prefer not to drink bottled water, which often tastes stale. So anyway, I realized the tap water here is clean and tastes good, and I am grateful for that.
As cold season is approaching, more masks are coming out. At first, when I saw people with masks, my natural reaction was, "Oh my gosh what disease do you have, stay away from me," but now I barely notice them. People use them at the slightest signs of a cold, which is really considerate. As more people become sick, others wear masks, especially when using public transportation, when they are healthy, too, to prevent themselves from becoming sick. One of the American teachers at Kenmei told me that now she wears a mask during allergy season and her symptoms have dramatically improved. It's really a very smart concept, but unfortunately if you wear one in America people will think you have some dangerous contagious disease. You might try it though, if you get bad allergies. Also, a few of my classmates with colds wear little compresses on their necks and foreheads, and I think it's sort of cute and quaint.
The water bottles here are all Thermos-style, with screw-on caps. I haven't seen any clear plastic ones.
Everyone has these large forearm muscles that I don't have. I think it's from using chopsticks.
I went out shopping with friends a few days ago, and noticed that in a number of stores, the shopkeepers were constantly calling out "irasshaimase!" (come in), and possibly some other things, usually in the same high-pitched nasally tone. Even at the back of a big store, there were these two ladies on ladders in nearby aisles, folding or arranging clothes and not even looking at anyone, but continually yelling in their kind of annoying, robotic way, "irasshaimaseee."
More high school things - Because students stay in the same room all day, always at the same desk, they can leave their things by their desk and store schoolwork in a compartment under the desk, so there are no lockers. Well actually there are little cubical lockers right outside the classroom for storing books, but there aren't the full sized ones.
The desks and chairs are unattached, and the desks have a bar underneath that serves as a built-in foot rest. This means there is no need to rearrange desks so the one in front of you has that basket thing under the chair, if you know what I'm talking about.
And now, how have I been doing?
Still well, but things are less exciting. Also I am still really not a morning person. There are harder mornings, where I have trouble being friendly and cheerful to everyone, but by lunch things almost always improve. Gabbi says the same thing happens to her. My class is still being really nice, and I've been developing closer friendships. Natasya from Indonesia, who came to Kenmei the same day I did, left on Monday, which is really sad. I'm sure it was the first of many "It was so awesome knowing you, I'll miss you and probably never see you again"'s that will happen this year. That's a major downside of exchange I think.
Last week in school, one day everyone was taking tests, so us exchange students were told that we would just be in the English Lounge all day. Instead, some teachers from another school were visiting, and to make a good impression they had us greet them. I had to greet and bow to them at the door, hand them a bag to put their shoes in, point them to the Kenmei slippers, and replenish the shoe supply, with some more bowing thrown in. Natasya collected business cards, and Hannah handed out water bottles each in their own plastic bag, which we had filled earlier. Unfortunately, after many testing days in the past where Gabbi had to sit in the English Lounge on her own all day, with no one even checking on her, she chose to skip this morning, when we actually had to do something.
That's another thing. These little white plastic grocery-like bags are everywhere and used liberally. When the students buy their "pan" at lunch, they put their already individually wrapped goods, even if they only got one, in a bag for the walk to their classroom. It seems strange in a country that otherwise strikes me as efficient and resourceful.
I've been to three traditional Japanese dance lessons, and it does not come easily... Most of my dance is done in this uncomfortable pigeon-toed crouch, which just feels really awkward. It can look good when done right, though.
I finally started running again! It felt good and it's a nice way to get to know my area. I think I plan to keep a base of an hour run, every other day or so. I have been gaining weight, as everyone told me would happen, but I refuse to accept this :P
I met up with three friends from school to go shopping on Monday, because we had the day off! Unfortunately, there was a typhoon, and while my area of Osaka was unaffected, others had heavy storms. This meant some of the trains stopped working, and we had many difficulties meeting up. But it all worked out. At some point I really need to get myself a cellphone, but so far I have been borrowing my host mom's when I go out. I went to look at phones earlier, but all the plans were for two years, which I don't want. Gabbi is using the same company and got a nice plan, though, so I'll try to do that.
Our main shopping event was going to this jewelry store and all making bracelets together, which is now all the rage in my class. It was actually a really intense process, and took a couple hours. This super nice and patient shop lady helped us, working through all our indecisiveness. First we had to figure out our bracelet size, and then there was a board with indented circles in the various sizes to arrange the beads in. There were many choices of beads, in different sizes, and they all had meanings, like birthday stone, significant other, best friend, studying, and other things I didn't understand. Finally after our couple hours of changing out colors and patterns and sizes, we paid way too expensive prices and left them for a couple hours to be put on elastic string. The next day at school, we all proudly showed off our new bonds of friendship, and the next day other girls followed suit. Oh also the lady put on a little letter for all of our names, but they didn't have any "B"s, because I guess names don't start with "B" here! So I had to have an "H" instead.
After that I did my first purikura, which is like really advance photo booth that is very popular here. I was amazingly bad at it, because the picture always took longer than I expected, so I was generally caught coming out of a pose. But I'll be prepared next time! The setup was a photo booth, where five photos cost about $4, and an editing station outside to adjust eye size, face size, color, lighting, background, add text, and I'm sure other things. There was a limited amount of time to do this though, so people can't take forever. Then we could have the photos emailed to us as well as printed out, which I thought was a pretty good deal.
We had okonomiyaki afterward, which are kind of savory pancake-like things, with batter and shredded cabbage and then a variety of other toppings, like meat, seafood, egg, vegetables, or cheese. Some of them also have noodles cooked in, which is my favorite. Then sauce and mayonnaise is liberally spread on top, as with many things. It's fun because each table has its own griddle, where the servers make the okonomiyaki, and then we cut into them with our own little spatulas.
Things are about to get exciting, though! Tomorrow and Saturday is our big school festival, which is a hugee deal in Japan. We spent all day today preparing for it. Then on Sunday I finally have my Rotary district meeting, and get to meet my fellow Rotary Inbounds. Yay!
First, some more random observations.
I didn't even think about this until earlier this week, but the tap water is good here. While I'm a pretty adventurous eater, I am very picky about my water. I have been spoiled growing up on Champaign-Urbana's Mahomet Aquifer water, and I usually have troubles in other parts of the US. When traveling internationally, the tap water is often unsafe and and we have to drink only from water bottles, which is a pain and I prefer not to drink bottled water, which often tastes stale. So anyway, I realized the tap water here is clean and tastes good, and I am grateful for that.
As cold season is approaching, more masks are coming out. At first, when I saw people with masks, my natural reaction was, "Oh my gosh what disease do you have, stay away from me," but now I barely notice them. People use them at the slightest signs of a cold, which is really considerate. As more people become sick, others wear masks, especially when using public transportation, when they are healthy, too, to prevent themselves from becoming sick. One of the American teachers at Kenmei told me that now she wears a mask during allergy season and her symptoms have dramatically improved. It's really a very smart concept, but unfortunately if you wear one in America people will think you have some dangerous contagious disease. You might try it though, if you get bad allergies. Also, a few of my classmates with colds wear little compresses on their necks and foreheads, and I think it's sort of cute and quaint.
The water bottles here are all Thermos-style, with screw-on caps. I haven't seen any clear plastic ones.
Everyone has these large forearm muscles that I don't have. I think it's from using chopsticks.
I went out shopping with friends a few days ago, and noticed that in a number of stores, the shopkeepers were constantly calling out "irasshaimase!" (come in), and possibly some other things, usually in the same high-pitched nasally tone. Even at the back of a big store, there were these two ladies on ladders in nearby aisles, folding or arranging clothes and not even looking at anyone, but continually yelling in their kind of annoying, robotic way, "irasshaimaseee."
More high school things - Because students stay in the same room all day, always at the same desk, they can leave their things by their desk and store schoolwork in a compartment under the desk, so there are no lockers. Well actually there are little cubical lockers right outside the classroom for storing books, but there aren't the full sized ones.
The desks and chairs are unattached, and the desks have a bar underneath that serves as a built-in foot rest. This means there is no need to rearrange desks so the one in front of you has that basket thing under the chair, if you know what I'm talking about.
And now, how have I been doing?
Still well, but things are less exciting. Also I am still really not a morning person. There are harder mornings, where I have trouble being friendly and cheerful to everyone, but by lunch things almost always improve. Gabbi says the same thing happens to her. My class is still being really nice, and I've been developing closer friendships. Natasya from Indonesia, who came to Kenmei the same day I did, left on Monday, which is really sad. I'm sure it was the first of many "It was so awesome knowing you, I'll miss you and probably never see you again"'s that will happen this year. That's a major downside of exchange I think.
Last week in school, one day everyone was taking tests, so us exchange students were told that we would just be in the English Lounge all day. Instead, some teachers from another school were visiting, and to make a good impression they had us greet them. I had to greet and bow to them at the door, hand them a bag to put their shoes in, point them to the Kenmei slippers, and replenish the shoe supply, with some more bowing thrown in. Natasya collected business cards, and Hannah handed out water bottles each in their own plastic bag, which we had filled earlier. Unfortunately, after many testing days in the past where Gabbi had to sit in the English Lounge on her own all day, with no one even checking on her, she chose to skip this morning, when we actually had to do something.
That's another thing. These little white plastic grocery-like bags are everywhere and used liberally. When the students buy their "pan" at lunch, they put their already individually wrapped goods, even if they only got one, in a bag for the walk to their classroom. It seems strange in a country that otherwise strikes me as efficient and resourceful.
I've been to three traditional Japanese dance lessons, and it does not come easily... Most of my dance is done in this uncomfortable pigeon-toed crouch, which just feels really awkward. It can look good when done right, though.
I finally started running again! It felt good and it's a nice way to get to know my area. I think I plan to keep a base of an hour run, every other day or so. I have been gaining weight, as everyone told me would happen, but I refuse to accept this :P
I met up with three friends from school to go shopping on Monday, because we had the day off! Unfortunately, there was a typhoon, and while my area of Osaka was unaffected, others had heavy storms. This meant some of the trains stopped working, and we had many difficulties meeting up. But it all worked out. At some point I really need to get myself a cellphone, but so far I have been borrowing my host mom's when I go out. I went to look at phones earlier, but all the plans were for two years, which I don't want. Gabbi is using the same company and got a nice plan, though, so I'll try to do that.
Our main shopping event was going to this jewelry store and all making bracelets together, which is now all the rage in my class. It was actually a really intense process, and took a couple hours. This super nice and patient shop lady helped us, working through all our indecisiveness. First we had to figure out our bracelet size, and then there was a board with indented circles in the various sizes to arrange the beads in. There were many choices of beads, in different sizes, and they all had meanings, like birthday stone, significant other, best friend, studying, and other things I didn't understand. Finally after our couple hours of changing out colors and patterns and sizes, we paid way too expensive prices and left them for a couple hours to be put on elastic string. The next day at school, we all proudly showed off our new bonds of friendship, and the next day other girls followed suit. Oh also the lady put on a little letter for all of our names, but they didn't have any "B"s, because I guess names don't start with "B" here! So I had to have an "H" instead.
After that I did my first purikura, which is like really advance photo booth that is very popular here. I was amazingly bad at it, because the picture always took longer than I expected, so I was generally caught coming out of a pose. But I'll be prepared next time! The setup was a photo booth, where five photos cost about $4, and an editing station outside to adjust eye size, face size, color, lighting, background, add text, and I'm sure other things. There was a limited amount of time to do this though, so people can't take forever. Then we could have the photos emailed to us as well as printed out, which I thought was a pretty good deal.
We had okonomiyaki afterward, which are kind of savory pancake-like things, with batter and shredded cabbage and then a variety of other toppings, like meat, seafood, egg, vegetables, or cheese. Some of them also have noodles cooked in, which is my favorite. Then sauce and mayonnaise is liberally spread on top, as with many things. It's fun because each table has its own griddle, where the servers make the okonomiyaki, and then we cut into them with our own little spatulas.
Things are about to get exciting, though! Tomorrow and Saturday is our big school festival, which is a hugee deal in Japan. We spent all day today preparing for it. Then on Sunday I finally have my Rotary district meeting, and get to meet my fellow Rotary Inbounds. Yay!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Kenmei Gakuin
Wow I just realized that I already did talk about Kenmei. But now I'll say more! :)
The totally different class schedule every day is still confusing. But since I don't have to change classrooms, it's ok. The different format is interesting. I think I counted 17 different classes that I have in a week, some meeting several times, some meeting once, so they cover many more subjects, but can't spend as much time on them. I'm confused about math, because I have three different math classes, "Math," "Math II," and "Math B," all covering different subjects, with the same teacher for two of them. Also, it's strange how behind they are in math, even though they have it so often. Apparently my class is the one with people who want to be doctors and stuff, and their chemistry, biology, and physics classes are pretty advanced, but in math we have been finding the length of lines and learning about slope. The whole class, and even the teacher, were like, "WOAHH GENIUS" when I knew the relationship between the slopes of perpendicular lines... Also, home economics is surprisingly intense. They were talking about the chemistry of laundry detergent, with the soap molecules having hydrophilic heads and lipophilic tails and everything. PE continues to be completely different from what I'm used to. This week we worked on somersaults. What.
Almost all of their work is worksheets, or "purinto"s, which they get many of. I think every morning they have an English quiz and a math quiz. Also so far since I've been here, everyday they have had to fill out a sheet of 50 English words, which they write out 10 times. Sometimes I think they have two sheets, which is a thousand words!! I don't think they ever have to type up papers though, or have many long-term projects. Jealous :P Not that I have to do much work here. I do as much as I can, usually able to follow most of math class because the sensei, my homeroom sensei with incredibly long limbs, is nice and tries to write the English for important words. Sometimes I understand chemistry, but other than that it all kind of washes over me as senseless noise. I can't even do English, since I can't translate to or from Japanese. I have a conversational English class once a week with two American teachers, though, and that's fun. They teach things like, "Do you wanna hang out?" and have them try to count how many times Taylor Swift says "ever" in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." I can pretty much leave for whatever classes I want to, and I generally leave for Japanese and Geography, because in those I understand nothing, and go to a little room called the "English Lounge." Sometimes I time my breaks with the two other high school exchange students, Gabbi from Australia and Hannah from Florida, who came at the end of last week and will also be here for a year. They're really nice and fun and we've found a surprising number of shared interests.
I am working to learn Japanese, though. One day last week I was supposed to have a two period long calligraphy lesson, but I guess the sensei was gone, so instead my homeroom sensei, whose height I still cannot get over, and some other sensei came in and said, "We are going to teach you Japanese." And then began the long and painful Japanese/Kanji lesson, exhausting for everyone involved since their English wasn't great for explaining things, and my Japanese isn't great. At some point the other sensei had to leave and by the end my homeroom sensei had brought in four other senseis to try to help, none of whom spoke good English. I found the whole thing very amusing. Now, every morning my sensei just gives me more kanji worksheets, and doesn't suffer through them with me. One free period one of the American teachers was also in the English Lounge, and she was extremely helpful with explaining everything the others couldn't, so hopefully I will be able to meet with her more.
Kenmei is a private Catholic school, which is interesting because Japan is less than 0.5% Catholic. So far this means that we briefly pray at the beginning of the day, before lunch, and at the end of the day. I think we'll do something special for Christmas, so that will be fun. Also there's a religion class once or twice a week, but that's one of the classes where I understand absolutely nothing.
Another interesting thing is the little sequence we do at the beginning and end of every class. One student leads, calling out きりつ (kiritsu, stand) and at that point if I'm in the English Lounge and I don't know when a class ends I can tell by the sound of hundreds of chairs scraping. Then きおつけ (kiotsuke, attention) and everyone stands straight, れい (rei, bow), and then おねがいします(onegai shimasu, please) at the beginning of a lesson and ありがとうございました (arigatou gozaimashita, thank you) at the end. They might say other things too, but I don't know because most people just mumble this part or shorten it to "'masu."
Lunch - For lunch most people either bring bento from home or buy "パン (pan, bread)". So far I've been doing half and half, as some mornings my host mother gives me a bento, and some mornings she gives me money. Bento are basically lunch boxes, usually in the form of one or two plastic containers. I generally have a container of rice and a container of other stuff, which snap together with a compartment for little plastic chopsticks on top. The containers are completely packed with a variety of different foods, meat and vegetables and egg, usually separated by little dividers or cupcake-paper-like things, with several bites of each thing. Almost everyone's look similar, generally artfully done. It's so much more intense than my school lunches at home, where I'd throw in a sandwich, apple, and a yogurt or something, and it's amazing how everyone has them. Unless, of course, they buy "パン," which is several bins of a large variety of cheap bread-based things that the students all dig through. There are cheesy bread things, sausage bread things, onigiri, which is rice wrapped in seaweed, a few sandwiches, and many different sweet bread things/pastries/baked goods. Actually, I think the majority of the items are sweet, and I was surprised by how many students make their lunch a chocolate-covered pastry and a cream-filled pastry or something. I generally get a sandwich, being the only thing with vegetables, but also lots of mayonnaise. So far all the bread I've encountered is thin white bread, which is kind of boring. I've found that while everything tastes great, I've been missing fresh produce. All vegetables are cooked, except when we get a leaf or two of cabbage as "salad," and only now and then we'll all split an apple or peach as dessert. So yesterday I took a detour on the way home from school to buy an apple. I felt like such a rebel.
Also there are no drinking fountains anywhere, which is killing me. But most people bring small water bottles, which are all like the metal thermos type here; I haven't seen any plastic ones.
Social stuff- here people don't really use Facebook, instead they use LINE. I made an account, and it's been helping my Japanese to chat with friends. The girls are playful and touchy, like randomly hugging and tickling each other, but my host sister says her high school wasn't like that. They love taking selfies, and have pretty advanced camera apps on their phones, clearing skin and widening eyes. I think people generally don't go to each others' houses, but hang out by shopping, watching movies, or karaoke. Relationships are different here. Most people have their "loves," whom they generally admire from a distance. Gabbi said there was a major crisis yesterday when the crush of one of her friends saw the friend looking at him, and that people will run away and hide when they see their crushes coming. It's kind of cute. Apparently the main couple activity is walking home or to the train station together.
Also, not related to school, I saw Kabuki last week, traditional Japanese theater. The whole experience was very interesting. It was a big theater, with a very wide stage. We were fairly far back, so we had binoculars, and a number of other people did too, which I haven't seen very much at home. There was the whole spectrum of clothes, from very casual to yukatas. Beyond the ticket gate but outside the theater itself there were several tables selling snacks and kabuki-decorated little towels and many other things. What I found most interesting was that everyone had brought dinner, which they brought out during intermission. People crowded around a few little tables and whatever counters and benches were in the ticket area, with bento or bread things, much like my school lunches. Apparently bringing food, which surprised me, is not actually allowed, but everyone does it anyway. As for the show itself, it was cool for a while but then it got very long and I think I dozed off for the ending... The main characters had heavily painted faces, all white, and everyone wore traditional Japanese clothes. They talked slowly and very dramatically, doing all sorts of weird things with their voices. It's old Japanese, so I think it takes a while to get used to and appreciate, like Shakespeare. After the main show, which I didn't understand, there was some dancing, which wasreally cool. The best part was at the end, when these two guys with big wigs that went onto the floor danced and were whipping the wigs around in circles. It was amusing but also impressive. Also, I think the crew were dressed as ninjas. They were all wrapped up in black, and they moved like ninjas too. They should start doing that in the US, it was pretty cool.
The totally different class schedule every day is still confusing. But since I don't have to change classrooms, it's ok. The different format is interesting. I think I counted 17 different classes that I have in a week, some meeting several times, some meeting once, so they cover many more subjects, but can't spend as much time on them. I'm confused about math, because I have three different math classes, "Math," "Math II," and "Math B," all covering different subjects, with the same teacher for two of them. Also, it's strange how behind they are in math, even though they have it so often. Apparently my class is the one with people who want to be doctors and stuff, and their chemistry, biology, and physics classes are pretty advanced, but in math we have been finding the length of lines and learning about slope. The whole class, and even the teacher, were like, "WOAHH GENIUS" when I knew the relationship between the slopes of perpendicular lines... Also, home economics is surprisingly intense. They were talking about the chemistry of laundry detergent, with the soap molecules having hydrophilic heads and lipophilic tails and everything. PE continues to be completely different from what I'm used to. This week we worked on somersaults. What.
Almost all of their work is worksheets, or "purinto"s, which they get many of. I think every morning they have an English quiz and a math quiz. Also so far since I've been here, everyday they have had to fill out a sheet of 50 English words, which they write out 10 times. Sometimes I think they have two sheets, which is a thousand words!! I don't think they ever have to type up papers though, or have many long-term projects. Jealous :P Not that I have to do much work here. I do as much as I can, usually able to follow most of math class because the sensei, my homeroom sensei with incredibly long limbs, is nice and tries to write the English for important words. Sometimes I understand chemistry, but other than that it all kind of washes over me as senseless noise. I can't even do English, since I can't translate to or from Japanese. I have a conversational English class once a week with two American teachers, though, and that's fun. They teach things like, "Do you wanna hang out?" and have them try to count how many times Taylor Swift says "ever" in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." I can pretty much leave for whatever classes I want to, and I generally leave for Japanese and Geography, because in those I understand nothing, and go to a little room called the "English Lounge." Sometimes I time my breaks with the two other high school exchange students, Gabbi from Australia and Hannah from Florida, who came at the end of last week and will also be here for a year. They're really nice and fun and we've found a surprising number of shared interests.
I am working to learn Japanese, though. One day last week I was supposed to have a two period long calligraphy lesson, but I guess the sensei was gone, so instead my homeroom sensei, whose height I still cannot get over, and some other sensei came in and said, "We are going to teach you Japanese." And then began the long and painful Japanese/Kanji lesson, exhausting for everyone involved since their English wasn't great for explaining things, and my Japanese isn't great. At some point the other sensei had to leave and by the end my homeroom sensei had brought in four other senseis to try to help, none of whom spoke good English. I found the whole thing very amusing. Now, every morning my sensei just gives me more kanji worksheets, and doesn't suffer through them with me. One free period one of the American teachers was also in the English Lounge, and she was extremely helpful with explaining everything the others couldn't, so hopefully I will be able to meet with her more.
Kenmei is a private Catholic school, which is interesting because Japan is less than 0.5% Catholic. So far this means that we briefly pray at the beginning of the day, before lunch, and at the end of the day. I think we'll do something special for Christmas, so that will be fun. Also there's a religion class once or twice a week, but that's one of the classes where I understand absolutely nothing.
Another interesting thing is the little sequence we do at the beginning and end of every class. One student leads, calling out きりつ (kiritsu, stand) and at that point if I'm in the English Lounge and I don't know when a class ends I can tell by the sound of hundreds of chairs scraping. Then きおつけ (kiotsuke, attention) and everyone stands straight, れい (rei, bow), and then おねがいします(onegai shimasu, please) at the beginning of a lesson and ありがとうございました (arigatou gozaimashita, thank you) at the end. They might say other things too, but I don't know because most people just mumble this part or shorten it to "'masu."
Lunch - For lunch most people either bring bento from home or buy "パン (pan, bread)". So far I've been doing half and half, as some mornings my host mother gives me a bento, and some mornings she gives me money. Bento are basically lunch boxes, usually in the form of one or two plastic containers. I generally have a container of rice and a container of other stuff, which snap together with a compartment for little plastic chopsticks on top. The containers are completely packed with a variety of different foods, meat and vegetables and egg, usually separated by little dividers or cupcake-paper-like things, with several bites of each thing. Almost everyone's look similar, generally artfully done. It's so much more intense than my school lunches at home, where I'd throw in a sandwich, apple, and a yogurt or something, and it's amazing how everyone has them. Unless, of course, they buy "パン," which is several bins of a large variety of cheap bread-based things that the students all dig through. There are cheesy bread things, sausage bread things, onigiri, which is rice wrapped in seaweed, a few sandwiches, and many different sweet bread things/pastries/baked goods. Actually, I think the majority of the items are sweet, and I was surprised by how many students make their lunch a chocolate-covered pastry and a cream-filled pastry or something. I generally get a sandwich, being the only thing with vegetables, but also lots of mayonnaise. So far all the bread I've encountered is thin white bread, which is kind of boring. I've found that while everything tastes great, I've been missing fresh produce. All vegetables are cooked, except when we get a leaf or two of cabbage as "salad," and only now and then we'll all split an apple or peach as dessert. So yesterday I took a detour on the way home from school to buy an apple. I felt like such a rebel.
Also there are no drinking fountains anywhere, which is killing me. But most people bring small water bottles, which are all like the metal thermos type here; I haven't seen any plastic ones.
Social stuff- here people don't really use Facebook, instead they use LINE. I made an account, and it's been helping my Japanese to chat with friends. The girls are playful and touchy, like randomly hugging and tickling each other, but my host sister says her high school wasn't like that. They love taking selfies, and have pretty advanced camera apps on their phones, clearing skin and widening eyes. I think people generally don't go to each others' houses, but hang out by shopping, watching movies, or karaoke. Relationships are different here. Most people have their "loves," whom they generally admire from a distance. Gabbi said there was a major crisis yesterday when the crush of one of her friends saw the friend looking at him, and that people will run away and hide when they see their crushes coming. It's kind of cute. Apparently the main couple activity is walking home or to the train station together.
Also, not related to school, I saw Kabuki last week, traditional Japanese theater. The whole experience was very interesting. It was a big theater, with a very wide stage. We were fairly far back, so we had binoculars, and a number of other people did too, which I haven't seen very much at home. There was the whole spectrum of clothes, from very casual to yukatas. Beyond the ticket gate but outside the theater itself there were several tables selling snacks and kabuki-decorated little towels and many other things. What I found most interesting was that everyone had brought dinner, which they brought out during intermission. People crowded around a few little tables and whatever counters and benches were in the ticket area, with bento or bread things, much like my school lunches. Apparently bringing food, which surprised me, is not actually allowed, but everyone does it anyway. As for the show itself, it was cool for a while but then it got very long and I think I dozed off for the ending... The main characters had heavily painted faces, all white, and everyone wore traditional Japanese clothes. They talked slowly and very dramatically, doing all sorts of weird things with their voices. It's old Japanese, so I think it takes a while to get used to and appreciate, like Shakespeare. After the main show, which I didn't understand, there was some dancing, which wasreally cool. The best part was at the end, when these two guys with big wigs that went onto the floor danced and were whipping the wigs around in circles. It was amusing but also impressive. Also, I think the crew were dressed as ninjas. They were all wrapped up in black, and they moved like ninjas too. They should start doing that in the US, it was pretty cool.
Still doing well, and enjoying school! But really, school on Saturdays is inhumane.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Observations
I'm sorry, I've been meaning to write for a while. This may become a common theme... First I have some random observations about Japan, and then I'll talk more in depth about school.
Little towels - everywhere. Everyone just has these little hand-towel sized towels that they bring around, for sweat or drying their hands (there is usually nothing for drying hands in the bathrooms) or any other purpose (like as a pillow or head cover for sleeping in class). My family, at least, also uses these as bath towels. At first I was surprised because they're smaller than I'm used to, but actually they work just fine. It hasn't really hit cold season, but I think people also will carry little washcloth-sized towels in place of tissues.
Aisatsu- There are lots of little set phrases used in daily life. For example, when coming and going. When you leave somewhere, you announce, いってきます(itte kimasu, I go and return), and everyone else responds, いってらっしゃい (itte rasshai, go and come). Then when you get back, you call out, ただいま(tadaima, I just came back), and whoever is home replies, おかえりなさい or おかえり(okaerinasai or okaeri, welcome home). Before eating, you say, sometimes with hands in a praying position, いただきます (itadakimasu, I will humbly receive), and after eating, ごちそうさまでした(gochisousamadeshita, it was a feast). Then there's all the various greetings for different times of the day, and in school whenever I pass a teacher, I bow and say おはようございます(ohayou gozaimasu, good morning) in the morning, and こんにちは (konnichiwa, good day) in the afternoon.
They don't eat the skins of their grapes. Sometimes, if the skin is loose, they suck the insides out.
Orthodontistry is not big here. It's made me realize how many American smiles are artificial.
In school, there is a big focus on neatness. Everyone always has their rulers out for any lines or charts or boxes they may need to make in their notes. They also have plastic sheets that they put under the page of their notebook that they are writing on, so there won't be writing bumps on the other side. My philosophy is that as long as I can understand my notes, they're just fine...
The TV shows are so bright and colorful, and the hosts often wear interesting costumes. They seem so normal here though, but I realized at home they would be very strange.
Manga and anime are big here, obviously, but I didn't realize how big anime/manga porn is. On the streets of downtown Osaka, there are large posters of scantily-clad/naked anime girls.
They constantly are taking their shoes on and off, or changing pairs for entering and exiting buildings or specific parts of buildings. Having not been doing this my whole life, I am much slower. I don't quite understand the indoor school shoes, because while you carefully change from the walking-to-school shoes to indoor ones without stepping on the "outside" floor, you can then wear the indoor shoes anywhere on school property, which includes outside areas.
I feel like I had a few more observations, but I left my notebook that had them in school. I may update this in a couple days. Also this post is getting too long, which makes my iPad glitch, so I'm actually going to write a separate one about school.
Little towels - everywhere. Everyone just has these little hand-towel sized towels that they bring around, for sweat or drying their hands (there is usually nothing for drying hands in the bathrooms) or any other purpose (like as a pillow or head cover for sleeping in class). My family, at least, also uses these as bath towels. At first I was surprised because they're smaller than I'm used to, but actually they work just fine. It hasn't really hit cold season, but I think people also will carry little washcloth-sized towels in place of tissues.
Aisatsu- There are lots of little set phrases used in daily life. For example, when coming and going. When you leave somewhere, you announce, いってきます(itte kimasu, I go and return), and everyone else responds, いってらっしゃい (itte rasshai, go and come). Then when you get back, you call out, ただいま(tadaima, I just came back), and whoever is home replies, おかえりなさい or おかえり(okaerinasai or okaeri, welcome home). Before eating, you say, sometimes with hands in a praying position, いただきます (itadakimasu, I will humbly receive), and after eating, ごちそうさまでした(gochisousamadeshita, it was a feast). Then there's all the various greetings for different times of the day, and in school whenever I pass a teacher, I bow and say おはようございます(ohayou gozaimasu, good morning) in the morning, and こんにちは (konnichiwa, good day) in the afternoon.
They don't eat the skins of their grapes. Sometimes, if the skin is loose, they suck the insides out.
Orthodontistry is not big here. It's made me realize how many American smiles are artificial.
In school, there is a big focus on neatness. Everyone always has their rulers out for any lines or charts or boxes they may need to make in their notes. They also have plastic sheets that they put under the page of their notebook that they are writing on, so there won't be writing bumps on the other side. My philosophy is that as long as I can understand my notes, they're just fine...
The TV shows are so bright and colorful, and the hosts often wear interesting costumes. They seem so normal here though, but I realized at home they would be very strange.
Manga and anime are big here, obviously, but I didn't realize how big anime/manga porn is. On the streets of downtown Osaka, there are large posters of scantily-clad/naked anime girls.
They constantly are taking their shoes on and off, or changing pairs for entering and exiting buildings or specific parts of buildings. Having not been doing this my whole life, I am much slower. I don't quite understand the indoor school shoes, because while you carefully change from the walking-to-school shoes to indoor ones without stepping on the "outside" floor, you can then wear the indoor shoes anywhere on school property, which includes outside areas.
I feel like I had a few more observations, but I left my notebook that had them in school. I may update this in a couple days. Also this post is getting too long, which makes my iPad glitch, so I'm actually going to write a separate one about school.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Introductions
Well, it's been a busy and exciting two days. I guess three now. Monday I went to school for the first time, but only half a day to sort of be shown around, yesterday I had my first day of actual classes, and after that I went to my first Rotary meeting.
I bike into school, which takes about 10 minutes, and it's pleasant. At least now, when the weather has been decent. So far, I have been biking in with my host sister or dad, but I hopefully know the way by now. Today one of my classmates biked home with me, so that was nice. I love my class. They have all been super helpful and nice, and seem older than I expected. They are second year high school students, which I believe is like 11th grade, or Juniors, which is good so they won't graduate on me part way through. I already have a few friend dates set up :) Japanese high school is three years. It's set up so that we mostly stay in the same room with the same people all day, and different teachers come. The schedule of classes is completely different everyday, so that's confusing. So far I've been having a lot of math and science classes, which is good because I can understand equations at least, while I understand nothing in classes like geography. I'm excited for home economics where we'll cook and stuff. Today was something to do with clothes, and I was so confused. My classmates do their best to help me though, which is really nice. P.E. is interesting, and definitely less intensive than Uni P.E. They do a lot of stretching, and currently the sport is jump roping! Like with big ones that two people hold. I'm definitely improving, and it's amazing how much of a workout it is. They all assured me that being pink in the face is cute, as tends to happen to me to an embarrassing extent, but I'm not sure about that... The gym has a big stage at one end, and doubles as an auditorium, and it was interesting that to change for P.E., everyone just sort of found places backstage. P.E. is gender segregated. It's been a little intense, so I might cut some classes out and get free time.
It's a good school, Kenmei Gakuin, with nice facilities, in a complex with the elementary and junior high school. The uniform is a pain though, although it doesn't look too bad. The girls wear ties or bowties. But there are four different pairs of shoes (inside gym shoes, outside athletic shoes, inside school shoes, and going to and from school shoes)! That's very annoying because most of the girl shoes don't go above a 7, and I'm size 8, so I have to have boy shoes which are too wide and definitely more masculine looking. And they didn't have my size in a number of the other pieces of clothing, so for the next couple weeks I have to wear a winter skirt, which is way too hot. Oh well.
Kenmei is very into cultural exchanges, through Rotary and other programs, frequently sending their students on exchange, often to Australia, and taking students in. Right now there is a girl from Australia named Gabbi, who has been here for 6 months and has 4 more, a boy from the US who I haven't talked to yet, and a girl from Indonesia who will be here for three weeks. There might be other ones, but I'm not sure.
School clubs are very big in Japan, and most people stay until 6. Today I toured a number of clubs, and was served tea at the Japanese culture club, but I'm not sure what I want to do yet. Right now, I don't want an intensive one that has to practice all the time. On Friday I'm supposed to be visiting some sort of Japanese fighting club, so we'll see about that one.
There are all school meetings on Tuesday mornings, and I was told I would introduce myself next week, so I was a little taken off guard when I was told to go up to the front, but I've been surprisingly not nervous lately for all these mini speeches, even though I'm normally not exactly into public speaking. Maybe it's because I'm talking in a different language, from some of the sentences my host mom helped me make about being excited about Japan.
Those came in handy again at my first Rotary meeting after school on Tuesday. My club is much smaller than my home club, with only about 20 people, mostly old men and some women. I gave my Japanese intro, then talked briefly in English about my hometown, but I'm not sure how much got
across. It was at a nice hotel, and we had an artful dinner. The meeting got a little weirder and more amusing as the old men drank more alcohol. One began gleefully doing card tricks for my host sister Mayuko and I, who was nice enough to come, and they were actually pretty good. One man said he would take us to somewhere with delicious food, since hotel food isn't that great, and that he used to like taking older women out, but now he likes younger ones because they're more easily surprised. My favorite was this very old man, quite pink in the cheeks, who I think had been to Illinois and knew it has a lot of soybeans, who said, "Wait! She needs a nickname! Lets call her Miss Soybean!!", and insisted on that for a while. But then I told them my lovely new school nickname, "Buri-chan," which is better than Miss Soybean but will take a little while to get used to... As entertaining as it was, Mayuko and I were glad to finally leave.
I'm looking forward to going to school tomorrow, because the people are so awesome, but we'll see how long that excitement lasts... I have to go to school on Saturday, which is definitely not cool, as I am still not a morning person and that leaves only Sunday to sleep in :(
I bike into school, which takes about 10 minutes, and it's pleasant. At least now, when the weather has been decent. So far, I have been biking in with my host sister or dad, but I hopefully know the way by now. Today one of my classmates biked home with me, so that was nice. I love my class. They have all been super helpful and nice, and seem older than I expected. They are second year high school students, which I believe is like 11th grade, or Juniors, which is good so they won't graduate on me part way through. I already have a few friend dates set up :) Japanese high school is three years. It's set up so that we mostly stay in the same room with the same people all day, and different teachers come. The schedule of classes is completely different everyday, so that's confusing. So far I've been having a lot of math and science classes, which is good because I can understand equations at least, while I understand nothing in classes like geography. I'm excited for home economics where we'll cook and stuff. Today was something to do with clothes, and I was so confused. My classmates do their best to help me though, which is really nice. P.E. is interesting, and definitely less intensive than Uni P.E. They do a lot of stretching, and currently the sport is jump roping! Like with big ones that two people hold. I'm definitely improving, and it's amazing how much of a workout it is. They all assured me that being pink in the face is cute, as tends to happen to me to an embarrassing extent, but I'm not sure about that... The gym has a big stage at one end, and doubles as an auditorium, and it was interesting that to change for P.E., everyone just sort of found places backstage. P.E. is gender segregated. It's been a little intense, so I might cut some classes out and get free time.
It's a good school, Kenmei Gakuin, with nice facilities, in a complex with the elementary and junior high school. The uniform is a pain though, although it doesn't look too bad. The girls wear ties or bowties. But there are four different pairs of shoes (inside gym shoes, outside athletic shoes, inside school shoes, and going to and from school shoes)! That's very annoying because most of the girl shoes don't go above a 7, and I'm size 8, so I have to have boy shoes which are too wide and definitely more masculine looking. And they didn't have my size in a number of the other pieces of clothing, so for the next couple weeks I have to wear a winter skirt, which is way too hot. Oh well.
Kenmei is very into cultural exchanges, through Rotary and other programs, frequently sending their students on exchange, often to Australia, and taking students in. Right now there is a girl from Australia named Gabbi, who has been here for 6 months and has 4 more, a boy from the US who I haven't talked to yet, and a girl from Indonesia who will be here for three weeks. There might be other ones, but I'm not sure.
School clubs are very big in Japan, and most people stay until 6. Today I toured a number of clubs, and was served tea at the Japanese culture club, but I'm not sure what I want to do yet. Right now, I don't want an intensive one that has to practice all the time. On Friday I'm supposed to be visiting some sort of Japanese fighting club, so we'll see about that one.
There are all school meetings on Tuesday mornings, and I was told I would introduce myself next week, so I was a little taken off guard when I was told to go up to the front, but I've been surprisingly not nervous lately for all these mini speeches, even though I'm normally not exactly into public speaking. Maybe it's because I'm talking in a different language, from some of the sentences my host mom helped me make about being excited about Japan.
Those came in handy again at my first Rotary meeting after school on Tuesday. My club is much smaller than my home club, with only about 20 people, mostly old men and some women. I gave my Japanese intro, then talked briefly in English about my hometown, but I'm not sure how much got
across. It was at a nice hotel, and we had an artful dinner. The meeting got a little weirder and more amusing as the old men drank more alcohol. One began gleefully doing card tricks for my host sister Mayuko and I, who was nice enough to come, and they were actually pretty good. One man said he would take us to somewhere with delicious food, since hotel food isn't that great, and that he used to like taking older women out, but now he likes younger ones because they're more easily surprised. My favorite was this very old man, quite pink in the cheeks, who I think had been to Illinois and knew it has a lot of soybeans, who said, "Wait! She needs a nickname! Lets call her Miss Soybean!!", and insisted on that for a while. But then I told them my lovely new school nickname, "Buri-chan," which is better than Miss Soybean but will take a little while to get used to... As entertaining as it was, Mayuko and I were glad to finally leave.
I'm looking forward to going to school tomorrow, because the people are so awesome, but we'll see how long that excitement lasts... I have to go to school on Saturday, which is definitely not cool, as I am still not a morning person and that leaves only Sunday to sleep in :(
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Life in General
Whew now that I finally wrote about Nara I'd like to talk about my life here in general, so I don't have to message everyone individually. On that note, to my lovely friends, don't be offended if I don't get back to you much. I've found that whenever I become immersed in something English, like a conversation with a friend, my book, or a show on TV in English, I forget where I am and it's a shock when I hear people speak Japanese or "Buriana?" and remember that I can't actually understand most of what people are saying. I need to keep my head in Japan and stay focused. However, I'll still do my best to blog :)
My household is currently in summer mode. I have four sisters- two in college, one in high school, and one in elementary school, and none have started school yet. I start tomorrow, and I'm pretty nervous. My host mom helped me make a short speech in Japanese, though, which was really nice. Mostly everyone just hangs around during the day reading or watching TV or something, and I've been working on Japanese. Before we went camping, it was very hot and humid, and they don't really use A/C, so that was unpleasant. Everyone always had an iced drink in hand. I've noticed that they drink lots of coffee or watered down coffee, at every meal and throughout the day. Sometimes we eat together, and sometimes separately, usually in the kitchen watching TV, which is almost always on. I'm loving all the Japanese food, which surprises them, because apparently most exchange students don't like things such as seaweed. Oishii ^_^ I wasn't too thrilled when they got McDonalds though. Last night we made takoyaki, which I think are specially associated with Osaka. They're little round dough balls filled with some herbs and octopus pieces, and they're really good and fun to make. Note to outbounds: help with the dishes and whatever household chores you can!
Other things- I cannot get over how tiny the streets are! Often they're just wide enough for two cars to pass if they both go all the way onto the shoulder. Around my house, the streets barely fit one car, and you have to have exact timing and go onto the curb a little to make it around corners. The Japanese are definitely masters of compact- the roads, cars, houses, everything. It was strange to go into my room and not have a bed, instead folding out a sleeping pad that takes up the whole room at night. Definitely a more efficient use of space, but not as comfortable as a real mattress. Also interesting was my pillow at Nara, which was filled with hard little beads. At first when I laid my head on it, it felt like a rock and I made no impression on it, but when I made a dent with my hands, it held my head nicely and kept the shape all night. Old-fashioned tempurpedic, I guess.
My family is Buddhist, so I'm excited to learn more about that. I briefly saw their neighborhood temple, but we only stayed for a few minutes. They have a beautiful shrine in their house, and before we left for Nara they lit some candles and all kneeled in front of it, chanting in unison in fast monotone voices. It was really cool and powerful. At Nara there were these water station things outside of a temple, and they taught me the ritual of washing your hands and feet. This was really useful when I pulled a Brittany, breaking my flip flop and skinning my toe, right next to one.
Also, I'm going to learn traditional Japanese dance! I just went to my sisters' weekly lesson, and it looked really cool. They wear yukatas and kimonos and everything. The sensei was a super nice and smiley woman. Apparently I was not as much of a robot as most exchange students their first time, so hooray.
My household is currently in summer mode. I have four sisters- two in college, one in high school, and one in elementary school, and none have started school yet. I start tomorrow, and I'm pretty nervous. My host mom helped me make a short speech in Japanese, though, which was really nice. Mostly everyone just hangs around during the day reading or watching TV or something, and I've been working on Japanese. Before we went camping, it was very hot and humid, and they don't really use A/C, so that was unpleasant. Everyone always had an iced drink in hand. I've noticed that they drink lots of coffee or watered down coffee, at every meal and throughout the day. Sometimes we eat together, and sometimes separately, usually in the kitchen watching TV, which is almost always on. I'm loving all the Japanese food, which surprises them, because apparently most exchange students don't like things such as seaweed. Oishii ^_^ I wasn't too thrilled when they got McDonalds though. Last night we made takoyaki, which I think are specially associated with Osaka. They're little round dough balls filled with some herbs and octopus pieces, and they're really good and fun to make. Note to outbounds: help with the dishes and whatever household chores you can!
Other things- I cannot get over how tiny the streets are! Often they're just wide enough for two cars to pass if they both go all the way onto the shoulder. Around my house, the streets barely fit one car, and you have to have exact timing and go onto the curb a little to make it around corners. The Japanese are definitely masters of compact- the roads, cars, houses, everything. It was strange to go into my room and not have a bed, instead folding out a sleeping pad that takes up the whole room at night. Definitely a more efficient use of space, but not as comfortable as a real mattress. Also interesting was my pillow at Nara, which was filled with hard little beads. At first when I laid my head on it, it felt like a rock and I made no impression on it, but when I made a dent with my hands, it held my head nicely and kept the shape all night. Old-fashioned tempurpedic, I guess.
My family is Buddhist, so I'm excited to learn more about that. I briefly saw their neighborhood temple, but we only stayed for a few minutes. They have a beautiful shrine in their house, and before we left for Nara they lit some candles and all kneeled in front of it, chanting in unison in fast monotone voices. It was really cool and powerful. At Nara there were these water station things outside of a temple, and they taught me the ritual of washing your hands and feet. This was really useful when I pulled a Brittany, breaking my flip flop and skinning my toe, right next to one.
Also, I'm going to learn traditional Japanese dance! I just went to my sisters' weekly lesson, and it looked really cool. They wear yukatas and kimonos and everything. The sensei was a super nice and smiley woman. Apparently I was not as much of a robot as most exchange students their first time, so hooray.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Nara Trip
Hello! I meant to write this a couple days ago, but stuff happens. Anyway, last week my family went camping for three days at Nara, a couple hours drive from Osaka. For everyone who was wondering, no, it wasn't exactly camping, which I was having a hard time imagining. We were in a pretty nice two-story cabin, in a complex with other cabins, but it was made out of logs and had a nice woody scent, so I guess that's enough to qualify it as "camping." And there was a grill on the porch, so we could make some traditional "camping food" from the large camping recipe book. Still, it was very fun and soo beautiful. We were up in the mountains, so everywhere I looked there were wonderful views. I'm having difficulties uploading pictures onto here, but I'll see what I can do. I may just put them onto Facebook, so if you're friends with me you can see them.
Our cabin was set on this beautiful mountain river/stream, which was clear and cold and a pretty blue shade from a distance. We spent a couple hours there every day, swimming and trying but failing to catch fish. It was very fun and good bonding time with my host sisters. One day after leaving the river thoroughly chilled, I was finally able to appreciate the genius of the Japanese bathing system, since it was too hot in Osaka to take a bath (right now thankfully it has been raining so these past couple days have been much cooler). In the bathroom there is a deep bath with a cover that retains heat well, next to a showering station with a stool and shower hose at about waist height. First you efficiently wash, then are free to relax in the hot bath without having to worry about cleaning and getting the water all dirty. At home, usually even if I want a bath, I'm too lazy to wait for it to fill up, but here it's usually already filled and waiting, so there's no reason not to soak. Yes, everyone uses the same water, but it's really not that bad because everyone is freshly washed.
Anyway, back to Nara. One morning we went on a hike. They told me the trail was 2.4km one way, and that the whole hike should take a couple hours. I thought, "Wow, a couple hours to walk three miles? They must be really slow." Then they all brought little towels for sweat and these candies for replenishing salt. Again, overkill, I thought. Turns out the 2.4km was straight up a mountain, and we were all soon drenched with sweat. Even so, the woods we went through were lovely and the view when we got to the top was breathtaking. But next time we went out, I followed their example and brought a little towel.
The first night after dinner, I was dying to play cards, because for me, camping simply requires cards. So I was very happy when they brought them out! This family is great. I learned some new games and found they play BS but call it "dauto" (doubt), so that was interesting.
On our last morning (which was confusing because they had told me we were staying another night, so when my sisters packed up their stuff I'm glad I followed suit), after swimming in the river and taking 3 minute public showers, we visited some nearby caves. There were mostly just lots of little stalactites, and a little shrine with some animal bones that were apparently a thousand years old? But I don't know if I understood that correctly. But when we came out of the caves we had this wonderful snack at the little lodge outside. It was these clearish sweet jelly cubes, dusted with I think a powdered peanut mixture, that we ate with toothpicks. Sooo good.
After that we returned to Osaka, which I determined from the GPS since I still thought we were possibly staying somewhere else, and it was sad to leave the mountains and return to the bustle and heat of Osaka. But I'm sure I'll grow to love it here!
Our cabin was set on this beautiful mountain river/stream, which was clear and cold and a pretty blue shade from a distance. We spent a couple hours there every day, swimming and trying but failing to catch fish. It was very fun and good bonding time with my host sisters. One day after leaving the river thoroughly chilled, I was finally able to appreciate the genius of the Japanese bathing system, since it was too hot in Osaka to take a bath (right now thankfully it has been raining so these past couple days have been much cooler). In the bathroom there is a deep bath with a cover that retains heat well, next to a showering station with a stool and shower hose at about waist height. First you efficiently wash, then are free to relax in the hot bath without having to worry about cleaning and getting the water all dirty. At home, usually even if I want a bath, I'm too lazy to wait for it to fill up, but here it's usually already filled and waiting, so there's no reason not to soak. Yes, everyone uses the same water, but it's really not that bad because everyone is freshly washed.
Anyway, back to Nara. One morning we went on a hike. They told me the trail was 2.4km one way, and that the whole hike should take a couple hours. I thought, "Wow, a couple hours to walk three miles? They must be really slow." Then they all brought little towels for sweat and these candies for replenishing salt. Again, overkill, I thought. Turns out the 2.4km was straight up a mountain, and we were all soon drenched with sweat. Even so, the woods we went through were lovely and the view when we got to the top was breathtaking. But next time we went out, I followed their example and brought a little towel.
The first night after dinner, I was dying to play cards, because for me, camping simply requires cards. So I was very happy when they brought them out! This family is great. I learned some new games and found they play BS but call it "dauto" (doubt), so that was interesting.
On our last morning (which was confusing because they had told me we were staying another night, so when my sisters packed up their stuff I'm glad I followed suit), after swimming in the river and taking 3 minute public showers, we visited some nearby caves. There were mostly just lots of little stalactites, and a little shrine with some animal bones that were apparently a thousand years old? But I don't know if I understood that correctly. But when we came out of the caves we had this wonderful snack at the little lodge outside. It was these clearish sweet jelly cubes, dusted with I think a powdered peanut mixture, that we ate with toothpicks. Sooo good.
After that we returned to Osaka, which I determined from the GPS since I still thought we were possibly staying somewhere else, and it was sad to leave the mountains and return to the bustle and heat of Osaka. But I'm sure I'll grow to love it here!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Arrived!
Well, here I am laying on my futon, in Japan. (!) The flights went smoothly, and I had a nice seat-mate who went through Narita with me. I surprisingly saw Robyn Cler in the airport, a fellow outbound to Japan from my home district. We had come on different planes, but my gate to Osaka and hers to Nagoya were next to each other and leaving around the same time.
My meeting with my welcome group was decidedly awkward. My first and last host families were there (I think I'll have four), one of my high school teachers, and my Rotary counselor and his wife. First, I came out of a different door than the one they were waiting at. Then, I couldn't think of anything fitting to say in Japanese, and only a few spoke English. But they were very encouraging of my attempts, and I'm glad I learned as much as I did.
We drove home, and Osaka definitely seems like a pretty big city. I noticed there were random vending machines on the streets, even in the neighborhoods, which was interesting. The home is traditional, with lots of tatami mats and sliding screen doors. I have my own room upstairs, with a futon I lay out at night to sleep on. My family is all really nice, and laugh easily, and sometimes I understand why! My oldest sister, Mayuko, is pretty fluent in English since she went to Canada through Rotary, so that's helpful.
So far, so good!
My meeting with my welcome group was decidedly awkward. My first and last host families were there (I think I'll have four), one of my high school teachers, and my Rotary counselor and his wife. First, I came out of a different door than the one they were waiting at. Then, I couldn't think of anything fitting to say in Japanese, and only a few spoke English. But they were very encouraging of my attempts, and I'm glad I learned as much as I did.
We drove home, and Osaka definitely seems like a pretty big city. I noticed there were random vending machines on the streets, even in the neighborhoods, which was interesting. The home is traditional, with lots of tatami mats and sliding screen doors. I have my own room upstairs, with a futon I lay out at night to sleep on. My family is all really nice, and laugh easily, and sometimes I understand why! My oldest sister, Mayuko, is pretty fluent in English since she went to Canada through Rotary, so that's helpful.
So far, so good!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
3 Days!
Hello, everyone! As you probably know if you are reading this blog, I am about to embark on a year abroad as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Osaka, Japan. I leave in only 3 days, and I still have a lot to do (eek)! My Japanese is... minimal, and all my contacts in Japan keep telling me how terribly hot and humid it is over there, but still, I am incredibly excited to begin this adventure. I will do my best to keep you all updated throughout the year.
See you in Japan!
See you in Japan!
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