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！
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