Ise and Harry Potter!

On Thursday last, I had class til 230, then met with my language partner for the first time. We only met briefly but she’s really nice and her name is Eri. Then I went to my English teaching class where I taught a team-teach lesson with my friend Richard. It went so so – I talked too fast. We had set up a whole lesson on how to express your opinion in English. “I think blank is better than blank and this is why.” Because Japanese people have a lot of trouble with this in English I think. They don’t voice their opinion in Japanese very often.

After classes on Friday, we went to Nishinomiya gardens to reserve harry potter tickets. The theater was so big and pretty! But apparently you can only make a reservation for the reservation. So I have to go back two days before it actually opens and pick the time and theater. Then we ate a bit at the panya (bread store) and had pomegranate juice which was delicious! It was 1000 yen for one cup but every sip was amazing: tangy and sweet and an explosion of taste in your mouth! Then we met up with our other friends at Sannomiya and went out for yakisoba (fried noodles) and a few drinks at a nice small bar. The only thing that sucked was that to go in the bar you had to buy at least 3 drinks which was 900 yen. It was a good time though. Japan amazes me because on the way home a man puked in the train and he held his puke in his hands for what must have been a solid 20 seconds and then 5 different people handed him tissues to help his cause! He cleaned it all up and the guy next to him (which I hope was his friend) took out pieces of paper to wrap all the puke tissues up and held it for him presumably until they could find a trashcan to throw it away! Disgusting but impressive. Only Japan!

On Wednesday I went back to pick the time and theater for our harry potter show. My Japanese friend couldn't make it so I had to do it by myself. I managed to book the time, reserve the specific seats for 14 people and make sure that we were seeing the English version and NOT the Japanese one. Success!

Thursday was the start of our second field trip. We took a bus three hours to moku moku farm. Yes, that was the name of the farm. The animals looked like they weren’t living the high life though. The pig was so cold it was shivering and the cow’s utter was so full of milk that it was literally dripping on the floor. We ate lunch at the restaurant there and it was surprisingly tasty: meat and onions and vegetables. All cooked by ourselves over a small grill inlayed in the table! It was a lot of fun!  While on the bus I started reading the Harry Potter book that my language partner lent to me. It's in Japanese. It's difficult but I know the story so well that I'm learning new words left and right! We took a ride to a ninja museum, which was a bit of a tourist trap but they had a show (only 200 yen) that was this awesome ninja fighting. It was sweet. They threw ninja stars (shuuken), had sword fights and did some awesome action fighting.

Then we went to a place where we made bracelets made of string. It sounds kind of lame, but it was actually quite relaxing and we all ended up with really cool multicolor bracelets at the end. There’s a spinner with a hole in the middle, and about 8 different strands of string (3 colors) were coming out of the middle and they were tied to really heavy, weighted spools. And you’d take two of them at a time and move them to certain places and it creates a pattern. Mine was purple and yellow and gold! It sounds like a weird color pallet but I think it turned out kind of Arabian looking. =) 

 

When we were finished crafting, we finally arrived at our hotel. And man, they weren’t kidding when they told us the hotels would be going downhill from the grand Hotel Okura where we first stayed. It was smoke filled in a kind of run down city and the rooms were cramped (their idea of a double was a single with an extra bed squeezed into it) and the bathroom doors had a large step up to them where the door had an extra 2 inches or so of space. Very interesting. But we only really used it for sleeping so it was alright.

We were put on our own to go out and get dinner. Our group ended up going to a yakisoba place. It was quite the experience. We had a hard time deciding whether or not we were going to eat there or not so we were standing up and a couple of the group members got a little loud and the waitress “shhh!”ed them really loudly. I couldn't believe this was still Japan. And there was a spider climbing up the wall! To which I freaked out at considerably. The food was sub par, the noodles were really saucy, and it was just overall not a win. After that level of disappointment, we needed a pick-me-up so we found the nearest combini (convenience store) and stocked up on junk food. And since Harry Potter was coming out the next day, we decided to watch the 6^th one has a group to get in the mood. We all crowded around in one of the tiny “double” rooms and watched it on a laptop. Fun times!

The next day, a few of us woke up super early and took a brisk morning walk to the temple that was close by. It was small but really pretty and with the sun still rising, the lighting was beautiful.  We went back for breakfast, which was a bit frightening but nevertheless, acceptable. We were saving a table of six so our group could sit with each other but this guy just sat down at the table we were standing at and stole the whole thing for itself! We couldn’t believe it.

Our first attraction of the day was the Gozaisho Ropeway. You take a cable car to the VERY top of the mountain to see the view. It was breathtaking. We were lucky enough to have amazing weather for both days so it worked out really well. You could see the whole city of Ise nestled in among the surrounding mountains.

Then we traveled to a smaller town that held the Ise Jingu temple of Amaterasu, the sun goddess. We at lunch at a ramen shop and did some shopping and then made our way up to the shrine. There are two major shrines (the inner and the outer) which form a path between them. It is said that if the sacred mirror of Amaterasu is hung from a tree opposite the cave in which she resides, she will come out and aid the Imperial Family. There was also a beautiful river flowing through the grounds and the way the light hit the water was just stunning. We all put on our model poses to match the backdrop. =P

The last stop for the trip was Meoto Iwa, which consists of two giant rocks connected with a thick rope that symbolizes the bond between a married man and woman. It was right on the ocean! It was really cool to realize it was my first time seeing the ocean from Japan. =)

We had a long bus ride back so we amused ourselves by making weird noises and messing around. When we finally got back, we split up for dinner and met back up again at Nishinomiya Gardens for Harry Potter!! Japanese theaters don’t mind you taking in food with you so we stocked up big time! 3-D is also way cooler in Japan. We were all given 3-D goggles that had adjustable straps just to watch the awesome 10 minute long trailer for Tron, which I wasn’t excited for at first but I have to say, it looks sweet. The movie was really much creepier than I had expected. They kept really true to the book. Most of the lines were direct quotes. They did change some things but overall I thought they did a really good job with it. Can’t wait for the second half!

Word of the day: 眺め　ながめ (nagame), or scenery. =)

それではまた次回！

Halloween and Festivals!

Saturday saw the beginning of the Halloween festivities so I helped my mama prep for her party with all her students. They ranged from six to twelve and were absolutely adorable. I made an appearance as a guest teacher. We played games in English like pin the spider on the web (which my mom named as such after I told her about the existence of Pin the Tail on the Donkey), a candy relay, tick tack toe and a scavenger hunt for candy. Then all the kids went trick or treating to designated houses around the neighborhood that were participating.

After that was done, I dressed up as a cat and went out to Umeda to meet my friends for eating/drinking before going to a club. There was no nomihodai but had some pretty, cheap drinks. We all went to club Onzieme after that which was having a deal for Halloween that if you wear a costume, you get free admittance. The only problem was, no one had told us how much of a costume was needed. They wanted a full getup so a lot of the ryuugakusei who had gotten dressed up in a smaller costume were expected to pay 2000-3000 yen to get in. I, luckily, got in for free even though I was only wearing cat ears and whiskers. The club was SO crowded; our friend who went out and came back in said she had to wait in line for FIFTY minutes just to get in the door. It was really fun and a lot us got rather crazy so I played the “keep everyone hydrated” role because I was worried. Anyway, we left around 4 am because one of our friends almost got into a fight because a few of us were sitting in the “reserved seating” and he wanted us to move. Our friend had a little too much and was going slower than the guy wanted so he pushed him off and well you can imagine. Nothing serious but we left to get Patrick who we had laid to rest at an internet café after he had downed a bottle of jager. Since we had about an hour or two until the trains were back up, we went to go get breakfast. In Japan, unlike America, it is difficult to plan a night outside of your own town because the trains stop around 12. So you either go home way too early or you stay out for the whole night.

I was recovering most of Sunday but my mama took me to a Japanese Costco! It was exactly like the American ones! It was like having an American establishment right smack in the middle of Japan. We got asiago bagels and dryer sheets (which she decided to try for the first time).

On Monday, I got my midterm scores back and I did pretty well so I was happy about that. I finally went to Aikido as I had been promising myself I would for the past 3 weeks. It was a lot of fun!  They were explaining all the instructions to me in Japanese and I understood most of it. =)

The next day I had that small Japanese get together that one of our teachers put together. It was only 4 exchange students and 4 Konan students but it was a really good group. We were only allowed to speak in Japanese but it was no problem at all. Self-introduction took up most of the allotted hour and then they introduced us to some Japanese snacks. One of them were nuts with small, dry fish heads which was really scary but I bit the bullet and tried some anyway. They’re actually pretty good, but still too scary for me to eat on a regular basis… They said that most Japanese mothers make their kids eat them at a young age because they’re really good for your bones. That day I also had tutoring, which again, went pretty well. The same girl came back and I helped her with the essay she had prepared. After that I found some of my friends in the Ajisai room (the main room for ryuugakusei) and we decided to go out to dinner at a really good, cheap Chinese place in town. I sat next to one of my Japanese friends and talked to him about kanji I could use for my name and he said the most common/cute one for “nana” is the kanji for vegetable repeated. (菜々)I told him, “I AM NOT A VEGETABLE!” (ななは野菜じゃないもん！)and he laughed at me haha. I didn't really eat anything though because my mama told me she made fried pumpkin for me, which is my now my absolute favorite dish here for some reason! It’s sweet and salty and has a good texture, yummm!

All of us had a day off on Wednesday so I met my friends at 1 and they came to my house to watch the notebook. Mama gave me money to buy juice for everyone (which was an adorable gesture) and then we made popcorn and had a good time. Afterwards we all went to umeda to shop. I finally bought a new pair of boots after much debate because I needed something to wear in the rain. We also hit Uniqlo (one of the most popular stores in Japan) and I bought a pair of skinny jeans to go with the boots. When we first went there we wondered why all the pants they sell were so long, especially for Japanese people it doesn't make sense at all. But we found out that once you decide on a pair, they tailor the length to whatever you want for free, sew it up and then you come back for it later! Gotta love Japan. I also bought a cute pair of gloves that have dogs on them! They’re finger gloves and then when you’re fingers get cold the dog part comes up to cover it like a mitten. =)

On Thursday, the ryuugakusei unfortunately had school even though all the Konan students have a week-long break. But there’s a festival going on until Sunday so we were able to join in after classes. There was food everywhere! We all tried fried ice cream, which sounds deathly (and probably was) but it was delicious! They also had a game show type thing going on all day; weird games they were, too. We only really saw the love game show where the contestants had to answer embarrassing questions like “Does he always use a condom?” and “Where was the first place you had sex?” and then they had weird matching games where they had to guess which elbow or leg belonged to their girlfriend/boyfriend. Very weird. I went home around 3 and then helped my mama with all her English students for the day. She had kids from the age of 6 to the same 14 year old I helped with about a month ago. The little kids were really cute and depressingly know more Japanese than I do. *sigh* We were teaching them different weather climates (cloudy, rainy, foggy, etc). The 14 year old is definitely the best though. She always reads something wrong and turns it into something hilarious (like the tomato throwing contest with people in sheets yelling paradise, paradise!). This time it was about thunderstorms and the passage read, “In summer there are lots of thunderstorms. Many people are afraid of thunderstorms because they make loud noises and people may be hit by lightening.” So she saw “loud noises,” “hit,” and “light” and thought it was about a new hit single called “thunderstorms” that they were performing under a spotlight on stage that everyone thought was loud and scary. XDDD

Word of the Day: 祭り、まつり, matsuri or "festival"

それではまた次回！

Midterms and Tutoring!

So three Fridays ago, my friends and I went out to eat Indian food near our school. Who knew Japan had Indian restaurants owned by Japanese/English speaking Indians? It was a strange experience; like we were stepping into another country. We were their only business at the time though and seeing as how there were around 15 of us I’m sure they were delighted to see us. After we ate, a few of us went shopping at Nishinomiya gardens. Though it’s always too expensive to actually get anything it’s a nice place to walk around. We met our friend Shogi on the train so we convinced him to join us and then after we got bread and ice cream, he showed us a nice place to have a couple of drinks.

That upcoming week was midterms, so I spent much of that weekend studying. Only the ryuugakusei had midterms which was a bit unfair. So that Monday brought me my first: Linguistics. It really wasn’t too bad after all. After that we went into town to Coldstone for our friend’s birthday. We all chipped in for an ice cream cake and it was promptly demolished by in about 10 minutes.

The next day there was host family party hosted by our school so our host families could meet our friends and their parents. They provided us pizza, onigiri (with fish eggs. Eww), fruit, etc. As I was talking to my mom in Japanese, one of her friends whose host student doesn’t know too much Japanese was listening and said, “You can speak with her so smoothly, that’s so nice…” with a longing tone which was funny.

As extra practice for Japanese I’ve been reading harry potter with my friend Hitomi. She reads it aloud and then I attempt to explain it in Japanese and gestures. It’s really a lot of fun; we’re getting through about four pages a session. =)

My tutoring sessions have gotten better as well.  This one girl has a really strict English teaching mother and whenever she tries asking her for help, her mom says, “why don’t you get it?!” and she’s like, “I’m sorry… I don't get it at all…. ><.” So in order to help her with expressing opinion and understanding grammatical structures, I told her to write an essay based on an opinion question from her book and then I’ll fix it when she comes in and help her incorporate grammar points. So for this session I was explaining the difference between “a” and “the” and when to use them, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds but I think I managed alright. Then we got off topic to American candy and Japanese candy – skittles, twizzlers, mnms, lays chips, Tostitos and salsa, a lot of which they had never heard of!

From about Wednesday on, it got MAJORLY cold in Japan. Within one day, it dropped about 10 degrees so I can really feel winter coming on now. I’ve started bundling up with scarves and long-sleeved shirts. That day I had my Japanese conversation midterm.  It went rather well. I used a lot of grammar points, and she was impressed enough to invite me to an E class event the next Tuesday where you only talk in Japanese so we’ll see how that goes. Then we added one more Japanese person to our Harry Potter reading so that was fun! I love it!

Friday brought on the end of tests. And although the kanji tests went extremely well, the grammar portion was eight pages and extremely painful. At least it’s over. The ryuugakusei were hosting a Halloween party that day but it was pretty lame; good food though (yummy cookies, pumpkin pie). Afterwards, everyone went to sannomiya for eating and shopping. We split up into two groups and I completely went with the wrong one. The first one I was with went to a crappy Indian restaurant that was overpriced and unsatisfying. So I changed groups and went shopping for a little bit and then ate at a yakisoba (fried noodles) place, which was cheap and delicious! We had fun playing a game that Patrick and Greg made up where you find someone who has a funny or unique look about them and then make-up a name and back story that looks fitting. This resulted in Professor Twin Steagle and Baker Afferforte, two chaps from England who are a Chemistry Professor and Investment banker, respectively. After dinner we hung out in the main square and ran into some drunk ryuugakusei which was extremely entertaining. 

Word of the Day: 中間試験,  "ちゅうかんしけん” chuukanshiken, or Midterms. 

それではまた次回!