Seijin no hi!!

Today is a national holiday in Japan because of what's known as Seijin no hi 成人の日「せいじんのひ」 (literally "Adult Day"), the coming of age day. It's held on the second Monday of January and on this day, all those who have turned 20 years old between April 1st of the previous year and March 31st of the current one are invited to join in the festivities! Those who attend usually dress up in formal attire when they go to celebrate their new maturity. For girls, this means a furisode, a kind of kimono with long sleeves that drape down and traditional zori sandals. Men used to wear a kimono and hakama (sort of like loose fabric resembling pants that goes over the kimono) but I'm told by my friend that nowadays men usually dress up in a Western suit and tie. (I think the kimono's cooler personally ;))

Having turned 20 just last July I was invited this year! Talk about good timing for my study abroad! I was originally not going to go though because my host mom told me the ceremony is kind of boring. But when I was finishing breakfast my host mom was like, "Have you ever worn a kimono?" and I answered no, and she said "You should wear one today!" and I was like, ".....WHAT?! SERIOUSLY?! o_O" So later she brought out all the pieces of the kimono (that she had hand made!) and started dressing me up! Kimonos really are a complicated process! First there's the white tabi socks which have to go first (it would be difficult to put on socks when you have all those layers on you and you're tightly strapped in!), the underdress (at one point she looked down and saw I was still wearing my pajama pants and laughed herself hoarse haha) which has long sleeves to fit into the long sleeves of the top layer, an underbelt to hold it up, a colored piece to show through the top color, the top layer which has to be adjusted to the right length at the obi (belt) which comes next and has to be wrapped around your waist a couple of times, then some more decorative pieces on top! （あぁ疲れた! "Ah, I'm tired!") Nowadays, girls dress up their kimonos a lot adding color ropes and even modern belts! Then my host mom helped me do my hair which I curled in the front, and she braided on the sides.

After all that this was the final product: =)

You can't see my feet in this picture but host mom kept having to tell me to put them angled at a certain way (one kind of pointing into the middle of the other) because that's how they used to walk. Weird, eh? Anyway, we're going to have a peek at the festivities today so hope you enjoyed this small bit!

Word of the day: 巻く、まく or maku。This is the verb you use when you talk about rolling or curling your hair!

UPDATE:

Okay so I just got back from the Seijinshiki (coming of age festival) and it was really fun! But there were SO many people!! I could barely move! The first thing we did was walk to the temple which had a ridiculous line and took forever to get through, as it usually does. As we were lining up I noticed a bunch of twigs that everyone was holding. I asked my host mom and she told me these are fukuzasa (remember fukubukuro?). Well I found out fuku means "lucky" so the fukubukuro is literally "lucky bag" and fukuzasa is "lucky bamboo leaves." Zasa is from sasa, bamboo leaves, but it becomes voiced (s -> z) when put with the first bit (thank you Linguistics...). So every year families buy fukuzasa and keep it for the rest of the year so it can gather your bad luck. Then when the next year turns, you bring the fukuzasa from last year to the shrine, put it in a big pile which is burned later, and then you buy a new fukuzasa for the next year which is supposed to bring luck and success.

Fukuzasa looks like this!

Unlike other times when I've been to temples, this time when we entered there were four priests holding long sticks with a bunch of strips of paper in a kind of pom pom type shape. When you step through, they shake it over your head which is supposed to rid you of all the bad things that happened in the past year. This is called おはらい、or oharai which means Shinto purification. Interestingly, there was another entrance on the side that said 「まぐろ」maguro. We weren't really sure what they were referring to but when we went in we saw that it was talking about a giant tuna! Lined up there was the tuna, vegetables, candy, etc. My host mom told me that this is an おそなえ, Osonae which means an offering to the gods. So everyone threw coins at the offerings (kind of like a wishing well); some people even stuffed coins INTO the open flesh of the tuna! It was a strange sight.

After that we got おみくじ omikuji, written fortunes. I got the same one that I got at New Year's! Highest luck with the God Yebisu! Coincidence? =3 It said things up until now have been bad (burns, surgery, swollen feet... lol) but from here on the gods will lend me power and give me very good luck and health. =) They also came in a really cute fish holder so, totally worth it haha.

We stopped to have some あまざけ amazake which literally means sweet sake or alcohol but it was non-alcoholic (go figure). It was outrageously delicious! It may have just become one of my favorite Japanese drinks! It's made from fermented rice and just has a great, sweet flavour to it. It was also really warm which felt great considering how cold it was outside. When we were done we wandered around the festival shops (there were loads everywhere!). They were selling lots of matsuri (festival) food: cotton candy, chocolate bananas, yakisoba, takoyaki,  candy apples, even candy strawberries and oranges! I bought a candy apple since I had wanted one the last festival I went to and never got it. *うれしい^^* Then we grabbed some yakisoba and headed home with the masses. Fun!

Word of the day: りんごアメ, ringoame which means candy apple! Yum! =)

それではまた次回！^-^

Bringing in the New Year: Sendai! ^^

After seven hours on the night bus, I finally reached Sendai! A much colder region of Japan, there was even some snow accumulated on the ground. I was so tired that they just took me straight back to my friend’s apartment where I iced and put up my foot, and ate breakfast and we chatted. We spent the day pretty much relaxing and talking. Then that night we went out to eat curry at this really nice steak place (they were probably pissed that they only customers they got ordered the cheapest thing on the menu) and then we went to an onsen! My first real one! It was a pretty cool experience. An onsen is a Japanese natural hot spring/public bath. So you do the same thing that you do with any public bath: wash and bathe before you enter the bath with a bunch of other naked women. But the difference with a natural onsen is that the bath is outside! The mixture of the piping hot water with the chilly winter air was blissful. So relaxing. There’s also a bunch of etiquette rules that goes with an onsen. For instance, you are given one small towel when you go in, about the size of a hand towel. You can use it when washing with the provided soap and shampoo but when you go in the actual bath you are not allowed to let it touch the water because that’s considered unclean. So you can use it to cover your parts when you walk out but make sure to move it to the top of your head (the typical spot) when you enter the water. You also have to sit down while bathing. You have two waterspouts, one out of a faucet, and one that’s attached to a showerhead. You use the showerhead to rinse your hair and then you fill a basin with the faucet and use it to rinse the towel, douse yourself with to remove soap. We talked with a Japanese woman while we were sitting in the onsen and she was surprised to see two white girls out in this middle of nowhere town. But it was a really neat experience and I would definitely go again.

I spent most of my week in Sendai eating, sleeping in, drinking, karaoke and going out. It was a really nice vacation and I had really great hosts. =) The small town feeling was a nice change. All of Harold’s friends were really nice and even drove us around. They also gave us loads of homemade, delicious Osechi, food for the New Year! One of his friends gave us a full out 3-layer box of Japanese goodies that were elaborately prepared by hand by his mother accompanied by homemade apple juice! We were also given homemade mochi from his other friend that we ate hot and it was delicious. Mochi is a kind of Japanese food that’s unlike anything I’ve ever had in America. It can be put in soup, stew, or eaten just as a sweet. Harold’s friend, Tajima, put it with sweet, handmade sauces that were really amazing. Mochi itself is white and it has a kind of chewy, melty, sweet flavor to it. It’s probably one of my favorite foods in Japan.

New Year’s was quite a different experience than I’m used to. In Japan it’s custom to visit the local temple at midnight when it turns from one year to the next. So we set out to the nearest one around 10:30pm. It was so cold! But we walked up the 220 steps to the top (and nearly keeled over) to stand in line to make our wishes for the new year. When the clock finally changed to 12am 1/1/11, we screamed out “Happy New Year!” in English among a thousand plus Japanese people which incurred a few looks. We also exclaimed the Japanese expression, of course. ;) The temple gates were opened and we filed in line to make our prayer/wishes. So customarily, you throw in a small coin, bow twice, clap twice, make your prayer, and then bow again. We found out from our Japanese friend that on New Years, if you throw in a 1 yen coin, it means you have a crush on someone and wish to become one with that person. You throw a 5-yen coin in if you already have a lover and want to continue with them. And then you throw a 10-yen coin in if you just want love in general to find you that year. I just threw in 11 cents for the year 2011. I sent my Happy New Years texts to all my friends and yes, the phone lines are just as crowded on New Year's in Japan as they are in America. It took about 5 tries to get it through. I did learn, however, that Yoi Otoshi Wo, which is what you say to others as a “Hope you have a good year!” type of saying is only used BEFORE the New Year. You’re not allowed to use it afterwards. Oops.

The Torii of the Temple we went to! We had to walk up all those steps >.<

Then after you finish making your wish, there’s a festival that takes place around the temple. We all picked 100 yen New Years fortunes for the fun of it and were pleasantly surprised! They were all good. =) Mine was apparently a very nice one, and it said I would have good health this year. (Boy could I use that!) The fortunes also contained one of the 7 lucky gods. I got Yebisu, the god of fishermen who is known for bringing good luck and health. Yay! His name is also known for a Japanese brand name of beer. *G* After that, we enjoyed some free, hot tea that they were giving us and it was so nice because we were so cold! The streets are filled with food stands you can buy from too. It was pretty cool to have a festival at 1-2 in the morning, though admittedly we were so cold we did not stay long. We bought some small sweets (chocolate bananas anyone?) and headed back to the car. On the way back, we heard this woman saying, “touch touch touch” in English behind us. We were really confused so we turned around and a woman and her five-year-old daughter were coming up to us saying, “touch, high touch.” They wanted a high five from us! It was so adorable! I guess they had noticed us because we were foreigners in a very local, not often traveled to area and wanted to say hello. So we wished them a happy new year and headed home. It’s also a custom in Japan to stay up and watch the first sunrise of the year but we were so exhausted we just passed out when we got home haha. Maybe next year!

When the year changes, it's customary for stores and homes to put up kadomatsu, a kind of new years gate decoration around the entrance door. It's placed to welcome ancestral spirits and house gods of the harvest. So there will be a pair (representing male and female), one on each side and they are usually made up of three stalks of bamboo that are artfully cut. These are placed at different levels and represent heaven, humanity, and earth.  Pine branches, and other decorative features like berries and fans can also be added to make it more e. I noticed them a lot around Miyagi and I thought it was a really neat tradition!

Now just imagine two of these framing the
doorways of Japanese homes and shops! ;)

On my last day in Miyagi we drove to the shopping area of Sendai for some last minute fun and so I could get omiyage (gifts) for my host family. We wanted to make sure we did purikura together to commemorate the trip so we did that first. It was really fun taking time to draw all over them and thoroughly add smileys, sparkles, and bows everywhere (there was no one behind us so we were able to take our time. Purikura takes a surprisingly long time because there’s so many options, tabs, colors, etc.- you’d be surprised!).  After eating (we found a diner!) and shopping around for a bit, it was finally time to leave so my friends took me to Sendai station to buy omiyage for my family. I asked them what food Sendai is most known for and the answer: cow tongue. Yeah. I did try it. It was actually pretty good but I don’t think I could actually eat it because the thought grosses me out. But I bought it for my family (who loved it by the way), said my good byes, and boarded the bus for home! What a great oshougatsu (New Year's Holiday)! ^^

Okay, that's all for my trip! Thanks for reading. <3 それではまた次回！

Word of the day: まつぽい or matsupoi is a word from touhokuben (the accent of the area of Sendai I was in) which means “really bright.” We used it a lot because of the reflection on the snow! ^^;

Phrase of the day: 明けましておめでとうございます！ Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! Happy New Year!

Tokyo Adventures Part 2!

So we finally reached Hachiko! We traded taking pictures with some other friendly American tourists. For those who are wondering what I’m talking about, Hachiko is the name of a very famous Japanese dog. The story is that Hachiko would always come to greet his master, after his long day of work, outside of Shibuya station. But one day, his master did not return. He had tragically suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. But for the next 9 years of Hachiko’s life, the dog continued to come to the station to meet his master, at the precise time when his train used to come in every day. Hachiko was given away after his owner passed but would escape to carry out the loyalty for his master. He noticed that his master no longer lived in their house but would go and search for him at the train station where they had spent so many years together. Over the years, many of the daily commuters had noticed Hachiko and would even feed and nourish him during his wait so his story became publicized. The statue remains fixed where Hachiko would always stand and is a symbol of loyalty to the Japanese people.

From there we kind of wandered to other highlighted prefectures. We visited Akihabara, the biggest electronics district in Japan that is also home to many anime, manga, and gaming shops to geek out in. We got to Ueno park pretty late in the day so it was actually kind of creepy with a bunch of weird, half drunk guys out. So I went around taking pictures, camera in one hand, mace in the other. xD By the end of all that, we were pretty much dead on our feet so we went back to Hatagaya and collapsed at our hotel.

The funny thing about visiting other places is that it makes you appreciate things about your home that you normally take for granted. Tokyo is fun for shopping and for a short vacation but honestly if I had come to Japan and just gone to Tokyo, I think I would have been disappointed. My vacation made me realize how much I love Kobe: the towns, the accent, even the familiar voice announcing my train station. You just can’t get a good feeling of Japan from Tokyo like you can from the less well-known prefectures. I’m happy to say it made me realize how much I love the Kansai region and that I picked the right place for my study abroad in Japan! Yay!

The next day, I kind of ventured out on my own. I went to the Ginza district of Tokyo, which is another big shopping area known for more expensive brands: Louis Vuitton, Apple, Sony, etc. I actually didn’t know how to get there so I asked a policeman at a Kouban (police box) for directions and he was this old Japanese man and was really awesome. He told me exactly how to get there. He was so nice and helpful! He seemed surprised that I could speak Japanese and kept switching back to English out of habit of talking to many English-speaking tourists haha. So I did some more shopping; got a few more articles of clothing and did some accessory shopping at a Forever 21 there and just kind of wandered. I met up with my friend midway through the day to hop a bus to Tokyo Tower. It looked exactly like the Eiffel Tower but... in Tokyo. *G* We rode up to the main deck and spent a lot of time taking pictures of the skyline and ourselves with the skyline.

Tokyo Towaa!

The view from the main observation deck =)

When I had taken my fill of pictures, I left to meet up with a few other friends to go out drinking. It was fun to kick back and chat for a few hours. We went to an Izakaya (bar) for nomihoudai until I had to go home to re-check in to the hotel. By the end of this day my feet were killing me so I took a long soak in the tub (much cleaner than American Hotel bathtubs). But I still woke up with aching feet so I took it easy for my last day in Tokyo. I debated going to Tokyo Disney but decided in the end it would just be too much walking for me to handle. And Studio Ghibli was sold out for all the days I was there *tear* so I went to Asakusa with some friends to visit the Sensoji Shrine, known for the 2 mighty gods, Raijin and Fujin, god of thunder and wind respectively. It’s the largest Buddhist temple in Tokyo and also contains a beautiful 5 story Pagoda. 

After perusing around the temple and taking pictures because it was a gorgeous day, I went to Harajuku to check out a bit of the nightlife, and then left to get my bus to Sendai!

The bus system was insane. The company had about 50 buses all going in different directions, and they were all late. There must have been about 2000 people waiting outside in the bitter cold for their buses. You had to sign in first when they called and then wait for the bus to be called by megaphone, which was hard to hear besides the fact that they were announcing in Japanese. So I got closer to the speaker so I could hear more clearly and bunkered down on my bag to wait because no way I was standing for that long. About an hour later, I heard my bus call and staggered to my swollen, aching feet to limp to the bus where I slept uneasily for the six-hour ride. Not the most comfortable part of my trip.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if my feet weren’t painful to move in any direction. So when I got off at 6am, I could barely walk and basically limped slowly to the subway and took one line to meet my friends. *しんどいわ*

Wait for the final installment of Nana's winter vacation! それではまた次回！

Word of the day: しんどい, Shindoi. This is an expression you use when you feel you can’t go any further like, “I’m beat!” or “I’m exhausted!” It has a feeling of, “I am going to die if I go any further. ~_~” Very useful. =3

Tokyo Adventures Part 1!

So arriving in Tokyo was like arriving in Japan all over again. What a completely different place! The people are less friendly and less fashionable, there are homeless people everywhere, even the atmosphere is stressed with overworked salary men. We arrived at a painful 6am, with luggage in tow, in the middle of Shinjuku, one of the busiest hubs in the world. The station itself is massive, with an underground map that looks like a bowl of spaghetti. I met up with my two friends who had elected to take a more comfortable bus than I was willing to pay for and we set off to figure out where to start.

Tokyo Subway Map o_O

Shibuya, Tokyo

So where do we go at 6:30am on a Monday morning in the middle of Tokyo? One of the only places open: McDonalds. Tokyo wakes up surprisingly late for how international it is. Normally back home people are out and about by 6:30-7 and it’s getting on to rush hour by that time. But it was dead here. Nothing open, nothing to explore. So after eating we went to visit some sites that didn’t require being open to see. We set off to see Hachiko, a statue of the most famous dog in Japan that’s located in Shibuya but we discovered that we could get an all day JR pass for 730 yen and we just couldn't pass it up. So since it was free to go everywhere in the Tokyo area, we decided to stop by Harajuku first because it was on the way. Harajuku is known as a fashion spot of Tokyo. Not for it’s high model fashion, but for its unique street fashion. It’s the known hang out spot for the crazy Japanese people dressed in cosplay and hair 3 times the normal size. It’s known to have an active nightlife because of these frequent goers. However, seeing as how it was still 7 in the morning, nothing was open. We did have a good look around though, and the stores are gigantic, 10x the scale of American ones! After getting lost several times on our way back to the station, we decided to come back to it later.

We continued on to Shibuya from there, the fashion district of Tokyo, which is one of the largest fashion capitals in the world. Our train was delayed though. A Japanese person had committed suicide on the tracks. Talk about shock. I had heard that Tokyo has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, but to have it happen in the first two hours of being in the city? On our line? Either it was a really big coincidence, or this is so frequent that we just experienced a regular occurrence. After you realize how frequent suicides are in Tokyo, the preventions Japan takes to preventing them seem more noticeable. I didn’t really pay any mind at first, but then I started noticing the walls put up around the tracks in almost every station that close and open with the train doors, the “happy bird” replica that plays at the station to give a less city like atmosphere, even the music that plays to announce the train coming is supposed to be an “uplifting” noise to get your mind off of depressing thoughts (though I found it quite annoying actually). It’s really crazy to know they need to put so much effort in just to decrease the statistics.

When we finally got to Shibuya, it was about time that the shops were opening up anyway so it was perfect timing. One of the first things we did was take the epic walk across the famous crosswalks. It’s one of the busiest crosswalks in the world, sporting five crosswalks connecting a four way street. Being in the middle of one of Tokyo’s busiest districts, when the walking man turns green, it’s like a swarm of people mashing together from all directions. Then I got a white mocha from the Starbucks that is located across from it. It’s always advertised in the background when showing this famous scene so I had to get something hehe.

I took this from the top of said Starbucks. Watch the madness unfold ;)

From this point on, we discovered the amazing stores that the Shibuya district houses. We spent a good two hours in Forever 21. But this was not like the dinky, one room Forever 21’s that you see in the States. There were no racks packed together, or articles of clothing and jewelry messily strewn about. This was Japan run, five floors of amazingly cute, cheap, women’s clothing, with a sixth floor just for accessories. We were taken hostage haha. After making it out of there, our wallets considerably lighter, we shopped around a bit more; hit H&M and such. We also got a free “3D” picture done outside of Shibuya 109 where we looked like we were on a tight rope over an ice glacier type thing, which was pretty cool. We then went in search of something to eat. Shopping is hungry work! So we went to look for something good but affordable, where we could sit down and rest after shopping/traveling all day on 2-3 hours of sleep. So what better place than MOS Burger? Lol The Japanese burger place that is second most popular in Japan, lagging behind only McDonalds in sales. I found out later that MOS burger stands for Mountain, Ocean, and Sun. We originally thought it was because it was saying that it served things from all those places; “everything under the sun” type deal; but it really only sells burgers, so the name is a bit of a mystery. The name used to be MOST delicious burger, but the T somehow got dropped, probably due to Japanese pronunciation. I actually prefer it over McDonalds. The typical burger is like, a beef patty, plus a sloppy-joe type substance, with a tomato and mayonnaise (the Japanese put Mayo on everything).

When we left to finally visit Hachiko, two Japanese people stopped us right before the crosswalks. They started talking to us in Japanese and asking us where we were from and held up this paper bag and asked us if we had ever heard of it. We told them where we had come from and no, we had never heard of this “fukubukuro.” They told us that near the New Year, Japanese stores start carrying these paper bags that can have really cool things in it, even a couple of hundred dollars. They asked us if our countries did this during the New Year and what we thought of it and then they were like, could we borrow you for a few minutes? And they started pulling out this video camera. And we were like, “ummm…” *thinking of our 2 hours of sleep and increased exhaustion from shopping* “suuure, I guess?” So we got interviewed on film about the fukubukuro and it will be broadcast on Japanese TV on the 5^th of January at 7:20am. It was pretty exciting! We even got free hugs from these Japanese people who were giving them out. And when we asked them why they were giving out free hugs, they replied that they just wanted to connect with foreigners and Japanese people alike.

Free Hugs! Isn't it adorable?

Okay, I'm going to put a break here in the Tokyo Adventures. Stay tuned for part 2!   \(^-^)/

Word of the Day: 電鉄、でんてつ。Dentetsu, literally Electric Railway. This is the kind of train I ride at home, which is different from a subway (Chikatetsu) or the JR line (Japanese Railway). The JR is the line that spreads across all of Japan. If you visit Japan for 30 days or under you can get a JR pass that goes all over Japan for just 200 dollars!

それではまた次回！

Surgery, Kouyou, and Ikebana!

Two Sundays ago, I went with my host family to my host sister’s field hockey match. Even though I couldn't understand the penalty calls I think the rules were basically the same as they always are, though I am a novice when it comes to sports. I did, however, manage to get some really great action shots of her playing! Afterwards, we went shopping with Rie (my other host sister) and my host mom in Sannomiya and ate lunch at a really good Italian place (I had tomato pasta that was really good!). Then we did some shopping around for clothes and I have succeeded in going one step closer to becoming Japanese! ;)

That Monday, I had the morning off, so I went to the hospital to have the bump on my face checked out. It’s been developing for a couple of months and it didn’t seem to be going away so I thought it best to make a plan to get it removed. It turns out that Japanese hospitals are amazing! I was registered as a new patient, saw the doctor, made an appointment for the procedure, and had a blood test done, all under 2 hours! The hospital was much better run than American ones. Everything was in order. Every desk gives you a waiting number slip and the consultations are quick and effective.

I helped my mom with her students again that week. We played a game with cards that had the past, present, and future forms of verbs on each of them. They all have a suit on them as well: clover means you take the pile, triangle means nothing changes, heart means you have to put all your cards down, and the last one means you can ask anyone in the game for 5 of their cards. I won! It was really fun. ^^

I skipped out on my Friday afternoon classes to go to the hospital with my host mom and have the surgery done. It was kind of a surreal experience. There were no less than FIVE doctors operating on me. And they started before schedule, which would never happen in America. They numbed my face, which felt like someone was cutting my face open but afterwards all I saw was bright light as I listened to this weird, depressing music that they put on in the background. It was something like titanic mixed with some other tragic defeat of a hero or something. It almost felt like I was dying lol. But it was quick and done in 30 minutes. The Japanese doctors were surprised that I could speak Japanese (as all Japanese people always are even if you can only say hello), so it was fun to listen to them talk even if I didn’t understand the medical jargon.

I caught this really graceful crane!

The following Sunday, me and three other ryuugakusei were taken to Kyoto by the Japanese friends we made a couple of weeks ago; the ones we had a sort of get together with that was originally only E class members but my teacher invited me to. We went to go see the changing colors of the fall leaves, (kouyou) which is amazing because Kobe and Kyoto are surrounded by mountains. So you can see different colored trees pan out across the scenery. It was truly beautiful. But there were SO many people! The streets were overwhelmingly crowded - just a sea of human heads. Everyone had come to see the turning of the leaves. While we were there we also went boating on the lake! It was really fun. We split up into twos and threes and took a boat. I was actually pretty good at it having done kayaking and row boating before so I was teaching my friend how to turn, go backwards, forwards, etc. We walked around a lot after that looking for shrines that we could go into but it was getting to like 430 and most of them were closing. But we had a nice scenic walk! After that I was thinking of going home early because I had a test the next day but light up night was starting soon so I decided to stay. They talked me in it! They even paid for me because I had run clean out of money. But I’m glad I stayed because it was so pretty! We paid to enter this walled off area that had a bunch of trees with lights underneath them that just lit them up spectacularly.

The Red Momiji (Maple Leaves)

They even had Take! (Bamboo)

Tuesday was such a great day! Tuesdays are usually awesome anyway because we have a short Japanese day and no afternoon classes. Tuesday’s also the day that we usually watch a Ghibli film (Miyazaki films are referred to as “Ghibli” here) so it just makes it all the better.  We’re currently watching “mimi o sumaseba” or Whisper of the Heart as it’s known in its English version.  It’s not a very well known one internationally but it’s really cute and is really popular among young Japanese girls. It’s about a girl named Shizuku who reads a lot of books and notices a pattern in the library cards. The same boy’s name keeps popping up: Amawase Seiji. So while curious about this mysterious prince of books she meets a boy her age that she finds absolutely infuriating. He teases her and calls her lyrics she made “corny.” But he happens to be the grandson of this shopkeeper she made friends with. She finds out that he wants to quit school after middle school and go to Italy to become a great violinmaker. His parents are dead set against it, but they finally agree to let him try out his talent on the condition that he apprentices there for two months. She thought it so admirable that he already knew what he wanted to be. And he told her that she should take writing more seriously because she had written a version of the song "country roads" and made it "concrete roads" and it was really good, he thought. So while he's gone she decides she wants to find a talent of her own and she starts writing a story about this doll that's in the shop: a fox carved out of wood. She gets in the mind set that she has to finish this story by the time he gets back after the two months so she works furiously day and night, forgetting about her studies. And when she finishes she realizes that she rushed too much. She saw Seiji getting farther and farther ahead while following his dream and that she was falling backwards. The shopkeeper is the first one she lets read it because it was about his doll. He tells her that her story is very good: rough stone that has a jewel inside that she now needs to polish. Seiji comes back and tells her that he's decided to try and be a violinist maker. He's going for 10 years but he'll be back. They both promised to work as hard as they can to aspire to their dreams and one day be together. It’s an adorable love story!  I highly recommend it since I don't think many Americans have heard of it.

Anyway after Japanese we had a special Kansai accent class with the Japanese students that had taken us to Kyoto on Sunday. It was kind of a practice teaching exercise for them and really beneficial for the few of us who were lucky enough to attend. The accents in Japan are much more drastic than those in America I think. It’s not just different intonation that differentiates them but completely different words and conjugations. For instance to say “must watch” you would usually say “minakereba narimasen” in standard Japanese. But in Kansai ben (the suffix ben means accent) you would say “mina akan.” You drop everything after na and add akan. For negative endings too, the conjugation is different. Instead of ~nai they say ~hen. So instead of “minai” (I don’t watch), they say “mihen.” They also end sentences differently, with combinations of ya, wa, and de and have specialized Kansai/Osaka words like “dekai” (really big), “akan” (bad/no good), bochibochi (so-so), etc. Kansai ben has slightly different intonation as well. They tend to make a lot more words have a rising intonation. So like the morning greeting “ohayoo” (good morning) which is usually said with flat intonation for “yoo,” is pronounced with an upwards intonation; the same with “arigatou” (thank you).  It was really interesting and helpful to learn somewhat formally. I had picked up a lot of the words already, but the conjugations and such are things that need to be learned in rule format to really use accurately.

I also had tutoring which was an amazing success this week! I usually only have two people who come consistently but in addition to them, I had six other girls come! Four came in a group, they were all freshman and all very shy and quiet, not used to voicing their opinion on anything. Then I had my two regulars, a friend of one of them and a random girl who came by herself just to get an essay fixed quickly before handing it in. It was quite a weird essay too! She used a lot of hard words that were right but sounded like she had copied them from something. Actually, at least half the essay was quotes; except she didn’t use quote markings. She would say like: blah blah blah, said Disney. It was about the Disney company and their production rate and stuff. Really weird.

But out of all of the students who came, my regular is still my absolute favorite. She’s such a riot! In juxtaposition with the new Japanese girls who came, I really noticed how much more outspoken and almost Western she is compared to the others. She’ll blurt things out and input her opinion while using all sorts of frantic body language to get her point across. But she knows so many random facts that when she tells them to us conversationally, no one will have ever heard what she’s talking about and she’ll start doubting her information and thinking she’s been lied to. “MY MOTHER LIED TO ME ABOUT THIS TOO?!?!”

I’ve also noticed a HUGE improvement in her English since the first time she came to the tutor sessions about a month and a half ago. Her essay this week was really good. She’s really getting a feel for the language and she’s getting so good! She was the one who talked the most out of all eight people! She said she’s been watching a lot of American TV (she found Hell’s Kitchen on TV and loves it! XD) and studying English every night. It’s really paying off! Even in her actions, I can tell she’s not quite as sheltered and held back as other Japanese people I’ve met. I brought ritz crackers for everyone to share and she ate like half of them haha. I was happy to give them to her! But usually, Japanese people take like one and then they’re like, “Yeah… I’m full…” I like her way better though! =)

When I got home, my host sister had gotten back from America! She had gone to visit the host family she had stayed with when she did study abroad 10 years ago. She brought all sorts of omiyage (gifts) back for us: letter blocks for Mama’s English class, travel bath and body works hand sanitizers that have these rubber travel cases, a doggy toy for Tiff that he absolutely cannot be separated from, various candies, etc. She even brought me back skittles and chewy sweet tart candies so I can take them to my next tutoring session! We spent a good part of two hours talking about what she had done and looking at her pictures. All the pictures made me miss home. The snow and one level shopping centers, snow angels, shots of her Thanksgiving dinner.

On Thursday I was lucky enough to happen into an Ikebana (flower arranging) lesson from a real master! The Art History class was having a demonstration lesson from the top president of one of the top ikebana schools in Japan and I heard and kind of just jumped on the band-wagon. He was such a wise old Japanese man. He told us that he really doesn’t like the translation of ikebana as “flower arranging” because “ike” can have three different kanjis associated with it: 活け, to arrange; 生け、to live; and 埋け、to enhance. Therefore, the job of ikebana is really to enhance the life of the flowers and arrange it in a way that gives it new life. And “bana” (hana) while usually referring to flowers, is really anything that is beautiful. So branches, leaves, even people can also have their own beauty and that’s why more than just flowers are used in ikebana. When the Japanese do ikebana, they make sure that all the flowers are happy and facing upward, like they would be naturally to grow towards the sun. He said you have to make all the flowers and plants happy. And as the artist, you have to find what’s most beautiful about the flower or branch and enhance that part of it. So if it has a really interesting bend then you should arrange it so that it’s apparent.

He also explained that how in japan, they dont like thinking about winter because its usually associated with death. Instead, when it becomes winter, they are already thinking about the spring. And when they write Christmas cards and wishes for the New year they always mention something about Spring. They are always looking towards the future and towards the new beginning. That’s also why everything in Japan starts in the Spring, around April, like the school year and even the fiscal year. We also found out that Japan always looks for things in odd numbers. He said that they always think of the one left over from even numbers as a hope for the future. So things are always found in odd numbers and they avoid even numbers because there will be nothing left for the future. He said that even tea sets and such usually come in sets of 5. Even though Japanese tables are made for four, six people. The speaker was so amazing! He’s been to around 35 countries all over the world teaching about ikebana and the tradition behind it.

So we were given chrysanthemums, small yellow flowers, and red leaved branches to work with because Japan is currently celebrating “Kouyou,” the turning of the autumn leaves. It was really fun to think so artistically and I think my group’s was my favorite!

That's all for now! それではまた次回！

Word of the Day: 紅葉　こうよう "Kouyou" or the changing of the Autumn leaves.

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！