7/23 Today was the day of KIT's IJST graduation. In the morning at 9 am I was the first one to return the laptop the school lent us. It was awkward when I said good morning with my horrible injured voice. XD
After this, I cleaned and packed until my one on one consultation. When I got there, it was stupid hot and the people ahead of me took a while so I was waiting for a half hour or so. When I finally did get in, it was very quick for me. Fuuji sensei told me how well I did with everything and that she was very impressed with my exit exam. She said people in Hoshi gumi had already gotten a high score on the entrance exam, but I improved 11 points on my exit exam. ^_^ Yay! She didn't have anything bad to say and I pretty much got all A's. Success! Then I had to fill out a quick questionnaire and it was back to the apartment for more cleaning.
The apartment inspection consisted of a woman coming in for like 2 seconds, commenting on how clean everything was, and then leaving. XD I guess I worried too much! I spent the rest of the time before the graduation on the internetz.
I wore the same outfit for graduation that I did for the opening ceremony. Before it started, all the teachers were thinking waaay too hard about how the students should walk back to their seats. It was kinda ridiculous. XD In any case, it went off fine. And I even got a Teacher's Award for my presentation! =D I got a t-shirt for that, too. Apparently, they were very impressed that I memorized my entire presentation (they told me). ^^
After graduation, I changed clothes and went to my last manga club meeting. I was sad because Matsui-san and Nagai-san did not show up. But I gave my e-mail address to a few people and got a group shot of the people there. I will miss them. T_T
When I got back to the apartments, there were some people going to hang out down town. I ended up not being able to go but I got to chill out with some people before they left and then with some Japanese students. It was a good, quiet, lonely night. I was up WAY too late. I was sad to leave.
Incidentally, it is perfectly okay to take luggage to Family Mart to ship at 2 am. I totally filled up my duffel bag and had to ship it, too. =(
7/24 I got up early, finished the last little bit of packing, and ran into Shingo in the hallway. =D He helped me fold some posters and take my luggage first to OIP to drop of my key and then to the bus stop. He sat and waited with me for the bus!! We got to chat and stuff. It was sad, because Yoshiyuki called and wanted to come say goodbye but the bus came before he did. My last memory of KIT is Shingo being such a good guy. ^_^
I took a Thunder Bird train to Osaka and then a Hikari Shinkansen to Hiroshima. It was pretty uneventful, but I found out I am unable to lift my wheely bag over my head by myself. @_@
When I finally got to Hiroshima, I checked into the hostel J-Hoppers. It was a pretty cool place! Very hip. lol The girl was very nice and spoke English. I feel bag because she took my bag to my room. On the third floor. T_T
There were 8 beds in the room, but it was not too cramped. I threw my stuff on the bed and headed out on a hunt for okonomiyaki. The girl told me before I left that there were fireworks going on tonight. That this it the only time of the year the Hiroshima does anything like that and that I am very lucky to have shown up today. ^^
I ended up waiting a while for this one place to open and I had their okonomiyaki. We chatted in English and Japanese and they helped me figure out where the fireworks were. The okonomiyaki was not great. I'm not a fan of Hiroshima-yaki. =/ Maybe it was just that one restaurant. *shrug*
After food, I followed a bunch of girls in yukata onto a tram. It ended up getting very very packed and the tram ride to the port was long. But we got to the port and I followed everyone to the festival. It was just like it looks in anime! Tons of food vendors! And people in yukata! I got a giant snow cone.
The fireworks were set to music, which is something most shows in America are severely lacking. Music makes it better. One of them was set to that song from Final Fantasy 8! ^-^ It was very fun! I wish I wasn't so full so I could've tried more of the food there.
7/25 This morning I went to a pastry shop called Boston. It is NOT a place to eat though, just a place to buy picture perfect sweets. I got a pudding with fruit and brought it back to the hostel to eat. It was around this point that I started feeling the judging eyes on me. I am very different from all the other people in the hostel. I am NOT a backpacker. I have a suitcase. I buy things. I eat out, instead of buying groceries. >_> No one talked to me at this hostel at al.
After I ate I went to the Peace Memorial Museum and Park. It was lovely and very very sad. I also went to the A-bomb dome. I tried to find the contemporary at museum but failed. Instead, I went to a mall nearby where it should be and puttered around waiting for the sun to go down.
I was by myself, but I did what I would have wanted to do with someone. I did purikura XD I went to a small cafe. I saw a movie. Incidentally, I saw Inception. For movie theaters here, you have to pick your seat. Another foreigner was sitting right next to me. Huh! Anyways, the movie was amazing and I cried a bit (probably due to the heat, exhaustion, seeing the museum earlier, and the fact that the movie had sad bits). I'm such a girl. XP
Btw, the movie theater was Warner themed. The cartoon characters were everywhere. Bugs, etc. It was cool!
Theeeen I walked back and slept.
7/26 I had breakfast at Cafe Veloce which is a chain I've seen in a few towns now. It wasn't bad, but I always feel weird in such places cause they are meant for you to stay and hang out and I eat fast when I'm alone. I briefly checked out the super Book Off across the street before heading to Hiroshima Castle.
Hiroshima castle is another rebuild but it was still epic. I went all the way to the 5th floor of the tower and could see very far. It was awesome! Also, in the moat thing surrounding the castle, there are TONS of turtles and carp! So adorable! When I waved at the turtles, they would clamber to the side of the wall and pile ON TOP of each other trying to get up. Awwww
I went to mall Pacela which has some of the most amazing modern architecture ever. It was insane. I didn't do much there, but I went to an awesome buffet. 1910 for unlimited food and alcohol (at least until they closed). The really cool thing I thought was that that alcohol was buffet too. It was just a huge spread of booze and you went up and made your own drinks! There were a bunch of groups of people who were obviously there after work. I ate way too much!
At one point I was reflecting on how I was alone. And then... "All by myseeeeelf. Don't wanna be..." You gotta be kidding me. That song ACTUALLY came on. Wtf.
7/27 Today I went to the Hiroshima Art Museum. This was a very Western museum. There, I saw works by Manet, Monet, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, and.. Best of all.. Van Gogh! They had one Van Gogh piece, the Daubigny's Garden that had the black cat painted over. The museum had taken on a huge research adventure and published a book about the black cat and other touch ups/changes to that specific painting. It was lovely. He was a truely unique artist. So many paintings look the same online or in books. But when I could actually SEE it and compare it to the paintings left and right, it was very obviously different. How he lays the paint on, etc. ^^ Eeee amazing!
After this, I finally found the Contemporary Museum. I was one of two visitors at the time. It was empty and odd. On the basement floor, there was this cool guy who was sewing children's drawing into stuffed toys. And it was like a forest of clothing.. It was so cool!
Upstairs was paintings, photos, and sculptures related to the Hiroshima bombing (it's the 65th anniversary). One of them was a room called the death of time or the death of numbers. It was an entirely pitch black room except for a line of LED along the walls that had counting numbers. It was fucking scary. T_T; Also, there was a painting that was HUGE and black and THIIIICK red paint caked on like blood.
Then, I got "lost" in the forest mountain. It was this place that was just high up and had walkways and roads and staircases to everywhere and nowhere. it was really peculiar. I finally found the Hiroshima Manga Library though. Yes, Manga Library.
It was just like a regular library, but it only had manga. I sad and read some Kodomo no Omocha before heading on. I went back to the mall from the other day and had some spaghetti. As I was finishing I noticed I was missing my flip video camera. FUUUUUU
I panicked and ran out and ran all over the forest. It was awful because it was so hot and I had gone all over that maze like place. It could have been anywhere! It could have gotten picked up or run over or god knows what. My asthma kicked in as I was running up and down staircases. @_@ I went to the Manga Library to see if maybe I lost it there and someone found it. I ran up and down the rows but didn't see it. Just as I was about to go up to the desk and ask for it, there it was on the desk. Omg relief. It was a birthday present. T_T;
After this I pretty much did nothing. I was so exhausted.
7/28 This morning Tim from IJST met up with me at the station before I had to leave. It was super nice of him and awesome to see him! We had breakfast at McDonald's and chatted. ^^
Then I was off again. On a 5 train adventure. @_@ Fuuuu- I was surprised I managed to find everything okay. While on the train to Kawaguchiko, an ita lolita go on. And got off at FujiQ Highland Park. Which was weird to me until I finally went to the park myself. I also saw monks on a train!
I finally got to Kawaguchiko and started walking to the hostel. The free pick up service van found me and offered me a ride. XD How nice! I checked in and stuff. This place was much more clean and white. Like, the other place was very homey and lived in. This place, K's House felt more like a hotel. 5 beds in my room.
I went right out for food. I went to this place Kusaku which supposedly serves the local speciality. It did. Houtou. Which is delicious, but it was a big portion. =( I felt bag not finishing it. The restaurant was GORGEOUS!
After food I went to Lawson and bought my ticket for FujiQ and the Eva thing. Annnd not much else this night.
Oh, so I saw Mt. Fuji this day. On the train and walking around town it was VERY OBVIOUS. I didn't take many photos, tho, cause I was figuring I had the entire next day to take photos. Hah.
7/29 It was raining today. And cloudy. You could not even make out the outline of Fuji. It was just gone. Fuck ><
I took a sightseeing boat ride. It was a short ride on Lake Kawaguchiko. One of the men running the thing chatted with me a bit. I also went on a rope-way cart thing on Kachikachi Mountain. Scary!! It would have been an amazing view of Fuji. Unfortunately, it was raining, so you could barely see out of the boat/cart thing. Oh well.
After this I bought some souvenirs and stayed in the rest of the day. The people in this hostel were much friendlier to each other. Strangers talked and chatted a lot. But still no one actually spoke to me.
This night, as I was in bed, late at night, two girls who had lots of suitcases and smelled way too strongly of perfume, came in, made a lot of noise, and left. They ended up sleeping on unmade beds because it was dark. At least I'm not the only one with a suitcase?
7/18 Today I got up relatively early and headed down town to check out some of the many museums in the Kanazawa area. First was the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. Or something. It's a circular building very white. There were definitely some awesome and interesting things. For example, a pool that was not a pool. It looked like a pool but when you looked into it, it was into a blue curved room and there were people! So it looks like there are people just chilln underwater. I also got to go down and be in the blue room hehe.
There were two main exhibits. Rather, there were two artists on display in the museum. One was very obsessed with bugs, crosses, skulls, and skulls eating dead animals. One room was full of crosses and skulls that looked like they were made out of bugs. Scary. Another artist was really into wood carving people. Large pieces that all kinda looked the same. And then drawings of those carvings. I think the most interesting things were the permanent installations to the museum. There was one room that was dim and has a slanted wall that had a large black spot on it and it looked like an endless hole. Another room was slanted and had a perfect square opening in the ceiling and was just...beautiful.
There was also a long term project room that was very dark and had part of a Japanese house in it, but more like the frame. It was very open. And it has someone speaking and in the house there was blue lights showing up on the floor where people were walking. You could see their foot prints and stuff. It was all prerecorded, of course. But it was really cool.
Outside there were some interesting things toooo and the gift shop had some very interesting things.
After resting a bit I headed up to the Ishikawa Prefectural Art Museum. This was museum was a mish mash of many different mediums and time periods. Anything that was made there, I assume, was there. Or some such. There were kimonos and samurai outfits, very modern paintings and dishes, and also lots of sculpture. I spent the most amount of time here. There was just so much! It was very interesting. =D
After this museum, I went to a Samurai museum. It was small and close to closing time so I didn't have much time. But it was basically the collection of one samurai family. The name escapes me just now. Upstairs there was the full regalia for a horse laid out. It was neato!
It sucks, but most of the museums did not allow photos. Sadness. Soon after the museums, I headed back to school cause I was exhausted.
7/19 Today I got up super early to go see The Borrower Arietty. Oh my god amazing. We got to the theater around 9 am for the first showing at 9:40 am. The mall wasn't open, but there was already a long line at the theater! You stand in line. Take the elevator up. Stand in line. Pick your seat in the theater and pay for the tickets. My ticket was only 1000 yen (about $11). Then I got a small popcorn and a small soda for 450 yen total (around $5.50). Cheap!!
This movie. Fucking amazing. It was GORGEOUS! The music was all celtic and <3 <3 <3 The art was gorgeous as always but even more so this time because of all the various color. I am so in love with it. Favorite. Ghibli movie. Ever. I bought the sound track. =D The movie theaters in Japan do it right because they sell stuff from the movie in the movie theater. ^_^
I don't believe anything of note happened after this except that I bought some steampunk jewelry.
7/20 Today we had our exit test in the morning. It was exactly the same test we took in the beginning. Everything. So, it was easy just like it was the first time. Boring. I was done pretty quick.
After this, I think some sort of lunch thing went on. And I also talked to the Service Center about all the places I need to get to. The lady was nice and helpful and wrote out a whole detailed itinerary for me. :D And then Rpro where we practised our presentations. It was silly. Afterwards, I asked Fudano sensei to explain the itinerary and she did so. She was shocked that I was travelling alone. XD Tokyo?! Alone?! Yeah, whatever. hah =D
After rpro, I went to club and bummed around for an hour and a half before going to the lounge for a dinner of instant ramen. I proceeded to print out every bit of information I could possibly need on all my hostels, trains, and directions. That was pretty good. I felt accomplished. ;D
7/21 The dreaded day of the presentation.
Woke up around 9 am, had a quick breakfast, and headed to the classroom for practice. I proceeded to practice as little as possible by talking to people online. However, I already had my presentation memorized. I ended up staying pretty late so I could go over it with a teacher, anyway. I got some hints on pronunciation and minor word changes so I'm glad I stayed.
Then lunch. Then. *gasp* Presentation.
We were split into two rooms. The "good" class (the one the teachers wanted the President of the school to see) and the other class. Or so everyone else said. Fortunately for us, the President could not show up. Also, we did not have to dress up. Also, no one except us students and our teachers showed up. It was awesome. I totally blacked out during my presentation in the sense that I have no memory of it. However, I am told I did well. I was number 10 in the "good" class. My presentation was on solar powered heating.
After that was over, it was like...NO STRESS ANYMORE! Sarah Stewart, Ruying, and I then planned to take on the down town. GIRL'S NIGHT OUT! We did a little bit of shopping, ate food, saw a movie, and went to karaoke! I also traded in my JR exchange order for my real JR pass and got a huge JR time table book. It is bamf.
We did nomihodai at karaoke and it was pretty epic. 5 hours of nonstop singing and drinking. X3 We left the place at 4 am and got back by 4:15 am by taxi. My voice was SO RASPY is was barely there! I then proceeded to stay awake till at least 6:30. ;D Screw 9:40 am class
7/22 Today was the very last day of classes for KIT. I was absolute exhausted from the late night previously. And my voice is still god awfully raspy. =x Teague says I sound Tara Reid raspy. It's true.
Got up just in time for class and printed out my paper. Then. Class. We discussed our feelings on the trip, the classes, the program, Japan, and the Japanese. It was an interesting discussion but I'm pretty sure everyone felt like it was a waste of time. During the break, almost everyone lied down and fell asleep. It was ridiculously hilarious. I will try to post a picture if I can find one. Apparently we were all up until stupid.
After class I grabbed a quick lunch of cold udon and was off to the Service Center to get my train tickets. It was really easy. I just showed them my Japan Rail pass and gave them my itinerary and they said to come back at 2 pm.
I came back to the apartments and bummed around on the internet for a bit before turning in my post-program travel form to OIP (Office of international programs). The one woman there also helped me fill out my luggage shipping form. =D Then it was back to the service center to pick up my tickets. Now I have 6 or 7 JR tickets. X3 After I picked them up I bought a KIT shirt for myself. Cause, c'mon. That is necessary.
I left and as I was outside I looked through the small stack of papers I had. And my little envelope with JR tickets...was missing. I flipped a shit and ran back up to the book store. And there the envelope was, sitting nicely on the floor in front of the tshirts. ><; fuck, I can't believe I almost lost ALL MY TICKETS!! Lucky for me I noticed so soon. *sigh*
After this I came back and waited around for everyone to figure out how we could ship our bags (have them picked up or go to convenience store). In the end, we headed to Family Mart. Shingo was very nice and carried my bag for me the entire way (which weighed over 60 lbs). When we got there (a bunch of ryuugakusei with bags and a few Japanese students), we kinda dominated the conbini. I felt bad. Anyway, I luckily brought a duffel bag with me and dumped the 10 lbs extra stuff into it, paid for my bag, and was all set.
Upon my return I have learned all about some fun internet stuff going on on 4chan. I am literally giddy over this whole mess.
7/17 Today I got to sleep in! I did laundry and cleaned up the apartment a bit and pretty much just waited until the fair well party which was at 2 pm. It's funny that we had a fair well party even though we have a whole week left!
Anyway, around 1:45 pm a bunch of us headed to the cafeteria Platz for the fair well party. There were already tons of people there! =D All the SGE students and some host families. I did not expect mine since they live two hours away and the party is two hours. So I sit and chat and stare at the food that we have to wait to eat. Then! My host family shows up!!! Hiroshi and Hisae and Hisae's mother even!! I was so happy and excited to see them!
They sat and we chatted together! =D And then the whole HUGE group of us (Freemans, IJST, SGE, and host families, and Teachers!) did a huge kampai! ^^ Then, we got to open our presents! =O Yes, the host family brought us presents! Omg wtf bbq they were amazing! Two posters from matsuri that go right by the families' house in Noto! And also, strawberry and blueberry jam that is famous from their area. And also big traditional snacks that I have no idea what they are but they're colorful. XD And two hand made little charms that Hisae's mother's mother made for us! Jackie and I each got two. They look like blue berries and have a bell. X3 And there was also pins from Noto and tissues from the matsuri. Augh, I know I must be forgetting something else. It was amazing! I wasn't expecting that.
We chatted a bunch and it was great! We had deliiiiicious sushi and sweets! Omg mini donuts <3 OMG SUSHI <3 After most of us were done, we all emptied the HUGE platter of sweets. Hisae's mother took a huge bag full home! Hisae and Hiroshi gave us their address, phone number, and email in Kansas and told us to come visit them in Kansas! They were very adamant that we call them if we are in Kansas. And we got Hisae's mother's address too! =D I will definitely write them! And we gave them our addresses, email, and phone numbers. They are such a great family! I really hope we can keep in touch. o^____^o
Oh, also, SGE presented us with tshirts and we got out host family to write on them. Hiroshi used the marker to do this really cool picture of bamboo! I was amazed!! After the party, we all went to the lounge and passed around t shirts. It was like year book time! I got a bunch of Japanese students to write on my shirt and vice versa. I am never washing it! I will hang it on my wall. <3
After we hung around for a few hours, most people went out for food. Then! The funness! After quite a bit of waiting around and confusion, we went to karaoke. For 7. Hours. SEVEN HOURS!!!
There were over 22 of us and we got two LARGE rooms with a mini stage and everything! Omg it was great. X3 We got unlimited soda bar and it was nice cause the machine for soda was right outside our room. I sang so many songs! I'm really happy cause I can sing Fuwa Fuwa Time now and I totally aced Summer Days! I can't wait to go to karaoke on Tuesday now! ^_^
I had about a MILLION melon sodas! Omg so good! Even better, this place is less than a half hour walk away, there's a conbini right across the street, and it was only 1600 yen per person for frikin SEVEN HOURS!!! Cote D'Azur was the place. ^_^ I wanna go again!
Lesse, I sang Fuwa Fuwa Time (K-ON), Voices (Macross Plus), Equal Romance (Ranma 1/2), Maps Opening song, Desire, Summer Days, Never Gonna Give You Up, and soooo many more! I sang along with a lot of people too. Fuuuck it was a good time. There were so many of us! And there was a constant stream in and out of the room for bathroom, drinks, and the other room. X3 By the end of the night there were people falling asleep lol
At one point, Taylor went out and was just like SWARMED WITH GIRLS! He is so popular cause he's a cute blond foreigner lol He even brought three Japanese girls back to our karaoke room and they sang and then clapped along with us singing. They told me I was cute. XD Other Japanese girls were marvelling at how small my face is. Lolololo wuuuut?
Then, there were these wicked drunk guys doing piggy back and demanding high fives! It was hilarious! Late night karaoke on Saturday is packed and fucking amazingly fun! I wish I had gotten to do this earlier! Even John Ertl, our culture teacher, came out. ^___^
To sum it up, fucking amazing day. This has been a pretty amazing past week actually! Yaaay!!
We walked home at around 3:30 am. X3
Tomorrow I am going to down town Kanazawa and I'm gonna go sight seeing. Then Monday, which is a holiday (ocean day), I'm gonna see The Borrower Arrietty (the new Ghibli movie) in theaters. Stooooked!
7/11 I slept in today and didn't really do much until 4 o'clock. I travelled with other classmates to down town Kanazawa where we met up with our culture teacher and other students at a restaurant whose name I've forgotten. It was a small, narrow, cramped restaurant but it was warm and homey. There was a projector set up on one wall where we watched Tampopo, a movie about a ramen stop. The way some other classmates described it, it sounded like the worst movie ever, but I actually thought it was pretty good and funny. It made me so hungry!!! @_@ At around 6:10, when the movie was over, we were all set up for nomihodai! (all you can drink).
I chose to sit at a table with Japanese students from our teacher's other class. The restaurant served us many different plates of foods and we could drink whatever we wanted and as much as we wanted. I had 3 or 4 beers (not sure, because Brian kept refilling my glass when I wasn't looking), a whisky high ball (which was weak as hell!), plum wine, some sort of orange mixed drink, and someone else's drink that they couldn't finish. In less than 2 hours, that was what I drank, because nomihodai ended sharply at 8 pm. At this point, everyone was going to karaoke which I would have loved to go to, but I was quite drunk. XD I decided to make my way home, Derek came too. Somehow, we were speaking solely Japanese most of the way. It was funny.
We found the bus stop and we found the time for the correct bus. And then I got us onto the wrong bus. ><; I remember that 32-35 goes to KIT. But for some reason this 32 DID NOT go to KIT. So, on the last stop, we desperately tried to explain our situation to the bus driver who, after trying to tell us how to get to the next bus stop by walking, told us to sit down. He drove us to a bus stop and when we got there, the correct bus had already gone and there were no more busses that night.
Luckily, Derek had a working phone and friends in Japan who knew the area. We stumbled about towards our destination, speaking animatedly on many subjects, made a few wrong turns, and were finally home. My feet hurt so bad! Getting lost in Kanazawa, at night, drunk ended up being interesting if not painful. It took us over 2 hours to get back. @_@ First thing I did upon my return: ice cream!! Yes, my night was awesome. =D
Btw, I chatted with a bunch of Japanese students which was great! I'm more comfortable speaking Japanese after drinking, it seems. But I guess that makes sense. One of them emailed me today. I wish I could remember which one it was. I'm so bad with names...
7/12 Today I had Rpro and Language class.
Rpro- I got the draft of my presentation back and had a one-on-one with one of the teachers going over corrections and explaining what I meant. I got some good feedback on something I wrote in a very short amount of time. XD Now it actually sounds meaningful. Hahaha I spent the rest of the class finishing up my presentation slides and matching it up with my presentation draft.
Incidentally, one of the students had a bike accident recently so the teachers were like "If the bike has no breaks, don't use it." All of us have been rather upset at the quality of the bikes. Almost all are broken in some form or another. Only two have working breaks. We paid 300 yen for maintenance costs and still nothing has been done. But Sara makes the difficult conversations. And I brought up in class to them all of the concerns we are having. The bikes are broken, they haven't been fixed, wtf. So, Fudano sensei, the head of the program, said she would have words with SGE (students for global exchange, they are in charge of the bikes). =D Yay. Hopefully something will be done, even though we have less than two weeks left.
I also brought up that I haven't been able to print from my laptop at all. I don't think that's gonna get fixed because my teacher said I should just e-mail her my files. *sigh* Inconvenience. It just sucks cause I have to rely on the kindness of others to get all my assignments printed out. I feel bad asking. T_T
During break, I had yummy ramen inspired by watching Tampopo last night. Then I went to the self study center and did internet stuff till language class.
In language class, we had a quiz on our daily kanji and on asking for directions. Then we reviewed some grammars. Theeeen we wrote down a bunch of things that were good about our trip and bad about our trip. After that, we were supposed to take one of those things and make a four shot manga out of it. *facepalm* I know this was fun for some people, but I can't fuckin draw. So I really just didn't. My story was dumb too lol. "Sara goes to Japan. Sara meets Japanese people. But they only speak Japanese, so Sara is confused. But she makes lots of friends anyway." Only partially true. e_e;; After that stuff, we were given a hand out to fill out with what we will say for our language presentation. We'll present on Wednesday with our project. I did a kanji project so I get to be like "Hey, look at my journal of kanji!" And we also got our portfolio index today. For some reason we have to turn in all our schoolwork and hand outs for language class as a portfolio... >_> weird
After language class I had some pizza and I slept. XD And then I did internet stuff and here I am.
6/13 Today we had Culture and JST.
In Culture we talked about gender roles in Japan. It was an interesting lecture but I didn't wanna go, like usual, cause I was so tired. x.X We talked about wimminz and how they're so super feminine here. And menz and how they are also super feminine here. ^^;
In JST we recorded our mini presentations. I did mine on furoshiki. When I went the first time, it was awful. I was nervous and left out a whole line! But I think I did really well the second time! It was embarrassing cause it was on video. @_@ They were recording us so that they could review it and give us tips on how to be better. So much of JST has been to prepare us for our final presentation and to make sure we don't embarrass the program when we give it. lol!
I honestly can't remember what else I did. XD
6/14 TODAY WAS BEST DAY
Language class was the last language class. We went over farewell phrases and things like that. I don't remember much. It was what came after that was so great!
I did stuff on the internet till about 2 pm and then went to the manga kenkyuu kai. There weren't many people there yet. Nagai san showed up and brought a bunch of new faces with him. Even girls! One guy, Junya, asked if he could record him and I while we talk and then use it in class. lol Talk to a gaijin! XD So yeah. And then we spent the next while talking about hobbies and stuff. And Justin gave me a pokewalker!!!! So now I have one again. And then I got my own copy of Grave!! <3 Grave is the club's doujin. The latest one is the one my page is in. <3 Proud. Junya drew the cover apparently and I got him to sign his name.
After we were all there, we got bikes, and headed to KARAOKE!!! My first time! We biked to Shidax which is nearby. The place was so pretty on the inside! It looked like pretty sky!
We split into to groups and each got a room. The room was pretty small but I was SO SURPRISED how well it was sound proofed. It was nearly silent in the hallway but we were BLASTING our music. We picked music and I was surprised because mine played first! @_@ Fuwa Fuwa time! ^^ Which I didn't know the full thing and I've never done karaoke before so I didn't sing loud enough. But Nagai filled in for me with the other mic. =D
Nagai was SO GOOD AT SINGING! So was everyone else! Oh man XD They were so intense! The guys would stand up and scream! I met a girl, Tomoyo. And she also loves Do As Infinity! We sang a bunch of their songs together! It was so much fun! For drinks, I got a cola float and melon soda. :D We sang for FOUR HOURS!!!! In the end, it was only 1400 yen per person! Oh man, so much fun!
After karaoke, we went to Matsuya for dinner. I feel bad because I couldn't finish my meal. =x Incidentally, there was a guy with a Japanese fro! It was so fluffy! I tried to ask him how he achieved it, but it didn't come out right. XD
After foods, we went to the arcade near by! Everyone is so good at the games, too! Man, they are good at everything! I played a little bit of popn music thing and this square rhythm game. I left soon after though. But that night was amazing!
6/15 Today we had culture class and I did not. want. to go. at all. Mainly because I had stayed up into illegal hours the previous night. Anyway, class was relatively boring all around. Though, there was a presentation on Pokemon and who doesn't love Pokemon? After culture, I got some lunchy lunch (cheese pizza) and puttered in the self study center until the JST final. Which was easy as expected. The sucky thing was that after we took the final, we had to wait around to have our one on one for presentation (video) evaluation. So I had an hour to kill in the self study center again. When I did have my one-on-one it was great. She had almost only good things to say. She says I should just be smoother instead of giving my words their own cadence or whatever lol :D Yay! After class....I fell asleep....
6/16 Today we had our language final. Honestly, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was pretty much all of our quizzes put together. What a relief! I was done in a half hour, so I had three hours to kill. What to do what to do.
I went to Book Off first and got the final volume of Eva manga that I've been looking for. I also got another Do As Infinity CD, a Puchi Eva DS game, and the Sakugan no Shana DS game. :3
I then went to the second hand store where I found interesting things but nothing worth buying. Might have to go back though, to look for a HS bag.
Then off to the 100 yen store where I got even more bento stuff (I found wrappers that let you keep the seaweed separate from the onigiri like in the conbini) and some hair things. X3
Then I came back, had a quick lunch of instant noodles and ice cream, and was off to one of the last Rpro classes. Class was awful and boring today. It was basically going back and fixing everything based on the teachers corrections. And then waiting 4 hours to have your presentation gone over. It was funny cause Suda sensei was going over Derek's, but then she was like. Wait, I'll do Jackson san's first cause hers is easier. XD lol
So, presentation complete. Now I just have to practice and then give the presentation on Wednesday. T_T
After class, I went to club. but only Matsui san was there! I was really surprised! Apparently Friday,a s well as Monday, are holidays! It was nice though, because then it was me and two other foreign students, Matsui, and Tsuda. And we just got to sit there and chat about Fuji san and onsens, travel and other things. Matsui san seems DETERMINED to get me to go to an onsen. XD He kept pretending to take off his shirt lol I was all "nooo! It's embarrassing!" I wasn't the only one though, cause the Mexican foreign student also had not been and said he would not because it's embarrassing. *nods* We don't have them in America!
After club, I went out to dinner with Tim and Matt. Omg we ate so much! The rest of the night I watched anime. And there was an INSANE lightning and thunder storm. I have NEVER heard thunder that loud. @_@ It was scary!!! And that was that lol
7/2 On Friday we all got up pretty damned early and met at 7 am to begin our journey to Osaka. After nomming some onigiri, we took the city bus to Kanazawa station. From there, we took a double decker bus to Osaka which took 5 hours. It was kinda great, because we were sharing the bus with some other ryuugakusei, but they were on the top floor. My "group" of Sam, Jackie, Tiana, Sarah, and myself got the front basically to ourselves. At one of the rest stops, the bathroom was frikin intense. Each of the stalls has a large light telling you whether it was occupied or not. And there was a map. XD
Anyway, we go to Osaka. Now we had to figure out which subway station to go to and which line to take etc etc. When we finally found our way to the subway station, while looking lost, we were approached by a very nice Japanese lady. This was my first time experiencing super over the top friendly Japanese people. Osaka has lots of tourists, so I guess this isn't surprising? Anyway, she was awesome and helped us figure out which lines and stops we needed and also helped us buy the tickets. Not only that, but she rode on the train with us and, we're pretty sure, she went beyond her own stop to make sure we made it onto the correct second train. ^_^
We finally arrived in Sennichimae and now had to find our hotel. This wasn't too hard in the end because we had a map. Our hotel, the Business In Sennichimae Hotel, was nestled in an alley of clubs and bars. It was right off one of Sennichimae's main covered paths that is full of restaurants and vendors. Everything smelled so good. *_* Osaka is so busy and full of so many people and SO MANY TOURISTS. It was great.
We were packing 5 people into a 3 person room, so 3 of the girls went and checked us in and dropped off our bags. And now it was time to find shopping! But first, food!! We went to an awesome okinomiyaki place and had delicious delicious okinomiyaki. *_*
After okinomiyaki, we pretty much just wandered about looking at all the amazing shops and arcades. There were a metric fuck ton of pachinko places with HUUUUGE signs.
Oh, and Evangelion was just about everywhere. Let's just say that I was in fan girl heaven. We went to lots of arcades and I spent way too much money. XD And we did purikura and that was fun! We had delicious delicious crepes and looked at adorable pets in pet shops. We wandered around until late and finally found Den Den town which was mostly just closing. But we had a first glimpse at some of the anime shops we'd be in the next day.
Oh yeah, in the arcade, these two boys won all four different type of eva headphones from this one crane game. My mind was blown! @_@ And there were also some gorgeous stylish girls playing project diva. X3
Then, return to the hotel, and shenanigans.
7/3 Today we went to Nipponbashi. And we shopped at a lot of anime shops. And it was insane and I can only really describe the insanity in pictures which can be found here and here.
However, we went to K Books (where I dropped over $40 on doujins), Animate, a capsule toy store, and...a crap ton of other stores that I can't even remember. There were a number of small Touhou only shops, a wig shop, and a few maid cafes. Sadly, no maid cafes were gone to. We did go to a small restaurant and I had yummy udon.
Oh man, the amount of eva everywhere is just. @___@ It fucking blows my miiiiind! Do want! This is the best time to be in Japan!! and Touhou Drinks!!
Today it rained a crap ton. It was a little ridiculous the down pour we had to put up with. @_@; Hm what else? In one of the anime shops, there was an employee cosplaying Naruto. o-O Of all the things... Anyway. We had dinner at a small place where you cook your own meat and the meal was just meat and was pretty good, but expensive, in the end. We also got ice cream yum yum yum yum. Annnnnd went to Don Quixote which is the insanest insane that ever insaned. Basically, a lot of shopping today.
7/4 Today, I had breakfast at the hotel which consisted of bread, a croissant, a hard boiled egg, and banana slices. While I'm on the subject of the hotel, let me mention their two computers. They have two computer with internet for customer use. These computers are old, slow, and I can't even believe they are still using them. They froze on me constantly and I couldn't just reboot it once. No, I had to reboot it three times because something always went wrong again the 2 first times. e_e;;
Then we went to the aquarium!! We got there via subway which we got to via underground MALL! Wtf! Not many things surprise me about Japan. But. Underground mall?! Insane.
Anyhow, we went to Kaiyukan in Osaka which is one of the biggest aquariums in the world. It has two whale sharks and tons of amazing. Oh, and too many fucking little kids and parents. I found out that day that Japanese children are just like American children. *facepalm*
I must also mention that the aquarium's gift shop was pretty much a Kaiyukan-themed department store. @_@
After the aquarium, we went to the mall right next door (but unfortunately we did not ride the 112 meter ferris wheel ;_;). The mall was also insane and was hosting Hawaiian Festival 2010 or some such. Bunch of hula-ers hula-ing. There were even amusement attractions in this mall. o_O TWO Sanrio stores, a ghibli store, and a million restaurants. We went to Coco's for lunch which was Western style dining and food. Omg it was so delicious. *drool*
Oh, I forgot to mention. I got to touch shark and rays at the aquarium! They had a...touching..tank... Weird and awesome =D
I got lots of nice omiyage (gifts) for people on this day. ^_^
After the aquarium and things, we got ebi yaki for dinner. It is an Osaka only thing, so say the cooks. Imagine takoyaki, but with shrimp instead. Omg to die for. So good!
7/5 Today we got up early, 6:30, and headed back to Kanazawa. We took a subway to the bus station and took the 5 hour bus to Kanazawa. There was a woman in a kimono on our bus. It was lovely and music themed and I have no idea how we was uncomfortable in that for 5 hours sitting. @_@ annnnd I got a crepe at a rest stop <3
Once at Kanazawa station, I grabbed lunch, and waited for the bus to school. Took bus to school, went back to apartment, and proceeded to pass out. Probably.
6/29 Today in culture class we talked about Nihonjinron which is a genre of books dedicated to "Japaneseness". Basically, what do all Japanese think, feel, and do. The thesis we read analysing Nihonjinron seemed to be against it, in general. I think these books sound interesting, especially thinking about how some books by foreign authors are in the genre as well. I wanna read some!
In JST (Japanese for Science and Technology) we learned about graphs and math terms and such n such. JST hurts my head because it gets really boring sometimes.. T_T
At manga club I mostly watched Oda-san play Biohazard (Resident Evil) and then I played Pokemon. I chatted with Matt Cillick and Justin Han (two students in the program from different schools) and left club not long after.
And I have no memory of what else happened since it was so long ago~
6/30 In Language class we did stuff for Tanabata. *_* It was very fun. We read about the legend and we wrote wishes! I made one wish for Teague and one wish for myself. I accidentally spelled Teague's name wrong. ;_; I was upset, but I used white out to fix it. Orihime will understand, I'm sure. All us gaijin got to put our wishes on bamboo outside of building 1!
After lunch and stuff I went to the Girl's Floor in the library again to revel in its glory. It was awesome.
I then went to Rpro (research project class) and realized I FORGOT my frikin laptop. >< I felt retarded since we use it every class and I needed to do research!! Thankfully, one of the teacher's lent me her laptop so I could make PP slides, but I had no internet for researching. It felt like a big waste of time. Mister grumpy pants from the past few posts was over an hour late to this class. (Classes are 2-3 hours). e_e
I took a nap in the afternoon and went to manga club pretty late. Justin (from RHIT) was there and we chatted about animes then went to Pizza Hut for experimentation time. A medium pizza was 2500 yen. @_____@ Awful price, but it was DELICIOUS! We got potato mayo gratin. It was pasta with cheese, potato, and mayo on top of pizza dough (no marinara). Yuuuuum!!
7/1 Culture class was about various chapters in a book we read. I read a chapter about the transnational movement of women as brides. Basically, Japanese women leave, all other Asian women come in (from/to Japan).
The afternoon was very less than stellar, almost entirely because of me.
I was upset at the beginning of JST and did not give two shits about the quiz I did not study for. I ended up doing very well, I feel. It was surprisingly easy. Then we learned about furoshiki and it was pretty silly. XD We watched fashion videos on how to tie furoshiki for different purposes. Lolololo
Did laundry tonight and Lupin III came on TV. Awww yeah! And also, Ultraman!! After laundry, I went to manga club. At first it was just sitting there not doing much. But after Nagai-san was finished playing BlazBlue, we chatted a bit. He's a funny and upbeat guy. I got to play with his cell phone and we exchanged skype names. I'm excited cause now I can practice my Japanese more!
It's funny, cause his last name means long and his first name, Katsuya, is the name of a restaurant in the area. XD
Theeeeen I watched lots of K-on before falling asleep!
6/24 Today we had class and watched a movie called The Ballad of Narayama. This movie was about an old Japanese village where, one the people get old enough, their eldest child carries them to Narayama mountain to die alone. It was a pretty weird movie. =x But it showed lots of cultural things about Japan, I suppose. Like family structure and ones responsibility to family as well as community. Yeah...
Theeen was JST which was as uneventful as ever. We learned about mathy terms and used them.
At manga club, I screen tone'd my page. It took about two hours. The little details were difficult. @_@ I left pretty much right after. Then, one of the kids from another school went to GEO (the rental place) with me to see what it was like. Then we went to Katsuya for foods and Marue for groceries. At this point I realized my blog post was due in a half hour!!
I get back and post it up quickly. I think it came out pretty badly. Everyone else's blog from hoshi gumi was looong.
6/25 Today in language class we went over daily kanji, host family phrases, causative, and...other stuff that I don't remember. XD One kid in class, who has been being awful lately, was even more so today. He was just very non responsive and dead in class. And disrespectful. Apparently he's said some awful things outside of class, too. =/
At Rpro (research project class) we learned more about search engines and got feedback on our topics. Mine is solar powered heating. We did a tiny bit of research and that was that.
I went to club for a little and it was mostly reading manga. I left pretty early because there was supposed to be a picnic/bbq thing by the apartments.
At around 6:30 I got to the picnic and there were lots of people and tables and food out. However, we didn't start eating for a while. It was pot luck so most people brought stuff they made. When we did eat, the food was awesome. *_* There was also a variety of juices and tea. It was really nice. But I left soon after because I wasn't really talking to anyone anyway and I got bored quickly.
I proceeded to stay up late doing homework. =x I'm boring.
6/26 This was probably the most interesting day of my week. Got up and dressed, ate, and sat in the lounge for a while doing internet stuff. Ended up going to the self study center because this one kid who isn't even part of the program was in the lounge. Did stoofs and blahblahblah. ~~~~
At 2 pm Jackie and I got picked up by our young host parents. It was raining. Their car was nice and had a...a what..a TV IN THE FRONT??!?!?! That's right. In the little console in the front of the car, upon a button push, a thin screen slides out and up. It was a tv screen. XD Insane! Anyway, the back seat had this cushie, yellow, quilted thing for us to sit on. We made small conversation with Hisae and Hiroshi (Sae and Hiro). What do we do for fun? How often do we study? What do we study? What do we wanna do after graduation? etc. We first went to a book store. Our original plan to swim in the ocean was scrapped since it was raining. The book store they took us to was amazing! It was called Kanazawa Beans. It was huge and white on the inside. Lovely! We found the dictionary section (I needed one) and found a perfect tiny English-Japanese, Japanese-English dictionary. But then we spotted a Hello Kitty dictionary. *_* It was bigger, twice as much in price...but it was leather and pink. XD The only reason I didn't get it was that it didn't have pronunciations, just kanji. =( We then looked at other parts of the book store (notably, manga). So many thiiings! Augh it was beautiful.
After that we went to a place called Don Quixote. This was probably my first real culture shock of Japan. We only visited one floor and it was...insane. Color everywhere. Signs everywhere. STUFF everywhere. And I do mean stuff. Everything ever. Contacts, accessories, ties, bags, wigs, sexy costumes, shoes for both genders, kigurumi, home decorations, toys, appliances, a GROCERY SECTION! All jam packed together on one floor. It was difficult to walk! @_@ I ended up buying myself a nice hello kitty watch for 999 yen because my watch battery died recently and I haven't been able to find one the right size here. Some awesome things I saw: giant HK pillows, Gloomy kigurumi, Eva car accessories (support our troops ribbons, except they were Eva related), skippy peanut butter... XD We didn't go to the other floors, but I hear there is an arcade on the first floor.
Then we went to a grocery store that I do not remember the name of. Outside, there were a bunch of foreigner muscle men. They all had long hair pony tails, were super tan, and had large muscles. I was like "SURFERS? HERE? WHAT?" It was SOOO random. Not American, though. Some random language... Anyway, the grocery store was like Wegmans compared to the Marue that we're used to here. *_* It has everything. Our family picked up what we (me and Jackie) thought would be dinner. But it ended up not being. Anyway, they bought us snacks and drinks for the road since it was a two hour drive to their house.
Two hour drive. I mostly slept but I also played a little bit of Pokemon. At one point we stopped and looked at the ocean since they live nearby.
Then we got to the house. It was huge and very very classic Japanese. They had sliding doors, a little shrine inside, a family shrine(?) that was almost all gold, tons of traditional paintings and even Japanese style dolls. But then they also had modern stuff like very modern toilets and I saw a power rangers figurine. XD We were brought to the tatami living room and saw that there were LITERALLY stacks upon stacks of okinomiyaki waiting for us. *____* OMG YUUUM!! We ended up waiting quite a while because the main table had to actually be sat. But we met Hisae's mother, father, and grandmother who are all very nice. The mother and grandmother had made dinner. The father reminded me of a crazy old american father. In the living room was a picture from Hisae and Hiroshi's wedding. They had a traditional Japanese style wedding JUST under a year ago. ^^ So beautiful! Hiro, who is very young and kinda looks like a punk, chatted with Jackie and I while we waited for food. He likes going out a lot, it seems.
For dinner, we had rice with beans, a DELICIOUS soup with potatoes and meat, and okinomiyaki of course. OMG it was all so good. <3 <3 <3 the Okinomiyaki had octopus in it that the mother had bought/caught THAT DAY I believe. We got to see Hisae cut up the rest of it for leftovers after dinner. =x It was a whole little octopus. Crazy! Apparently they walk to the ocean so...fresh fish all the time! Most of the conversation during dinner was a little awkward cause speaking is hard for both of us. But we managed. =D
The mother and grandmother were both nervous, Hisae said, because they've never had a foreigner over before. X3 After dinner was cleared away (we got to keep our leftovers!!!), we had cherries and pineapple for dessert. I showed them a picture of my family and they were very excited and I explained who everyone was n stuff. Then we chatted more. And then Hiro unleashed his secret.
When we met him the first time, he told us he had only been to Hawaii when he was young and that was it. Apparently, he's been living in America for 10 years, teaching, and knows English fluently. He lives in Kansas with Hisae. =x WTF! XD He explained that they decided to not tell us so we could have a "real Japanese family" experience. We both appreciated it, I think, since that was the point. But on the ride home we spoke all English. He said it was easier for him to express himself using English sometimes.
We gave them our presents just before we left at around 9:30. They LOOOOOVED everything! Lots of "sugoi" all around. Jackie and I were all giggly. XD They gave us our okinomiyaki and we were on our way back to KIT.
Apparently, Hisae and Hiroshi met because they both used to skate board a lot. And Hiro heard about the program through his father since KIT had been asking lots of employees if they'd be willing to host people. Lucky us! They showed us to onsen places on the way back that would be good to go to.
And that was that! =D
6/27 Today, there was a little freak out in the morning since Sam, Susan, and Marie (who all had the same host family) never returned the night before. We eventually found out they were staying overnight. Luckies!! =D
Today I stayed in pretty much all day. It was boring.
I did got out later to Marue and then watched part of Akira with Derek since he'd never seen it before and that is just WRONG!
6/28 Today I got up at the wonderful hour of 10 am since class started an hour later than usual today. *_* At Rpro, we did a weird "rap" thing with a new tongue twister. I think I've learned 4 now. Then we went over how to talk about figures, graphs, and tables in Japanese. Then we did research on our project.
A scary thing happened. This one kid, the one with the bad attitude from before, came to sit next to me since we have similar topics and the teacher said we could all work together if we wanted. Well, I work alone. And I told him so. Anyway...later in the class he just crumpled his progress report (we have to fill out a project progress report every class) and tossed it on the floor. At the end of class, one of the teachers came over to ask us all for our papers. He didn't say anything and she asked him for it. And he said "Ja ne" which is really informal like "later" and she was like whaaaat? And she kept asking him for the paper, really nicely and asking if he was done. And he said that he was "done with Japan" and then walked away.... It was super tense and really scary. @_@;;;;
Lunch time I had my okinomiyaki leftovers and then went to the library to study for the next class. In language class today we had a quiz and learned how to write letters to people. And then we wrote a thank you letter to our host family. I hope they like mine. =x I also hope Jackie's and mine aren't too similar since we have exactly the same things to talk about. XD During one of the breaks, Suda-sensei showed us that, on the 11th floor of the library, it is girl's only!! You have to have a female ID to get in. And the whole floor is just for girls. It's open and beautiful. Very colorful, comfy chairs. Tables for studying, small rooms with internet, a printer, and TONS of magazines! The bathroom had purple carpet and the main part is just a huge long counter with TONS of three-section mirrors and stools for doing makeup. XD And it has three western style new fancy toilets. INSANITY!! This place was like a girls-only paradise. I can't wait to go back! lol But it's only open 8:30 to 10 at night.
I tried to go back later, but my ID didn't work. I haven't been able to print, either. I wonder if they're related? I let a teacher know so hopefully it will get taken care of.
I tried to go to manga club today, but they basically shooed me out. They have the school fair or whatevs coming up and most of the room was taken up by a large wooden thing they were painting. XD
I came back and finished Akira and have basically been bored and doing not much since then. Lazy day~
6/20 Today Sam, Tiana, Sarah Sugarman, and myself went to downtown Kanazawa to do some shopping! Jackie was going to come with us, too, but she was feeling a bit sick so she stayed home. :( It was quite and adventure finding our way down there. Asked a few people for information about the taxi/train/bus and settled on the bus which ended up working perfectly. We got there and went straight to 109! We wandered the entire building which was full of clothes, accessories, and food! It was exciting and we even saw some real, live lolita! <3 In the basement there was a thrift store of 50's clothes and memorabilia. I bought an antique key that was made in Fitchburg, MA. XD
After 109 it was time to find Tatamachi dori, the fashion street that is said to have an anime shop. We wandered down the main street and I spent way too much money in a UFO catcher arcade where there was more lolita.
After asking a couple, we finally found Tatamachi dori and it was like another world where that world is a heaven of shopping and beautiful people. X3 We found the anime store and proceeded to freak out. It was not one, but TWO anime stores stuffed to the brim with figurines and all other sorts of anime memorabilia. My camera unfortunately died early into the trip, but there were so many things I wanted! LOVELY figurines. There was also an amazing BJD store up there. Very expensive, of course. The one anime shop had a crap ton of eva stuff. I am very happy to be here in the middle of the Eva revival. <3 There were bracelets (nice metal ones), shot glasses, pins (nice tack ones), cell phone stickers and covers, EVERYTHIIIING! There was also a wonderful Touhou corner with some figurines I've never seen before. <3 And a manga section full of screen tones, paper, pens, etc. And even costumes! I was definitely hyperventilating when I left the store. I saw an ad for an umbrella that looks like Saber's (Fate/Stay Night) sword! Right next to the anime shops was a crepe store. *_* And down stairs....it only got better. Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Angelic Pretty, Innocent World and even more that I don't remember!!!
It was amazing touching things I had only seen online before! Most shops did not allow touching though and all did not allow photographs. Signs everywhere that looked like no smoking signs but with cameras. Sarah Sugarman tried on a beautiful cream JSK from BTSSB and we even got Sam into an Alice and the Pirates aristocratic vest/coat. She loved it, btw. ;D Exciting!!
We wandered and headed to the bus just as it started pouring.
I made spaghetti for dinner and went to Jackie's to see how she was doing only to find her very sick. ;____;
6/21 Jackie was quite sick today as well.
Went to Communication class and it was much better than it has been. A lot of chit chat with the teacher. She's very nice and looooves roombas.
I came back for lunch and had pizza and talked to Teague which was wonderful <3 <3
We had no afternoon classes today which was very nice. I practised drawing in my sketch book and actually didn't do too bad. Then I went to manga club at around 4:30.
There, I showed them my sketches. The president told me that today I needed to start my page for their new doujin. I asked if I could use one of the better drawings I did (Reimu). He said yes and I proceeded to trace it twice. Once out of my sketch book, and second onto manga paper. It came out great. :D He said I would ink the next day and tone it Wednesday for the deadline Friday. Woooo!! Then I was pretty much ignored for the rest of the time which was nice because it means I'm "part of the club" now, I feel. I could do what I wanted.
I left around 7:30 and hung out with Jackie the rest of the night before going to bed, I think.
6/22 Jackie was still sick today T___T We're all worried. I think it was either today or yesterday she went to the actual hospital. T_T; They said she just had a cold, but she was miserable and I felt really bad.
I tried to print out my field notes in the morning and no matter what I tried it didn't work. >< Anger!!
In culture class, our sensei was hung over. It made the class a little boring. Most people fell asleep it seems. I was very tired, also.
At lunch I had katsudon which was a bad idea because the raw egg turned my stomach. :( After that, in JST, was talked about our fieldtrip the next day, had a quiz (AUGH I didn't study the kanji!), and did stuff with new vocab.
After class I went to manga club and inked my page. I used a "ji pen" which is a nib pen and a high tech (small ball point) pen to ink it. Lots of "waaah ii kanji desu ne" thrown around but it's probably cause I was trying really hard and a beginner. >_> Then I chatted with the president for a bit and showed him rhythm heaven which was hilarious. He left, then I left an hour later.
I got home and chilled out and blah blah blah. I did laundry and found moulin rouge (in english) on TV.
6/23 Today sucked. This morning I checked on Jackie and she was feeling much better but still not okay enough to go on the field trip which was to another college campus, a temple, and the origami museum.
After checking on her, I went to the metal stairs that was closest, not noticing that it had just rained and that they were soaked. I took one step and proceeded to slam down in the stairs, tail bone first and then slide down the metal stairs to the next platform. That pain ran up through my entire spine and in the moment I was terrified that I had broken part of my back. I struggled/writhed on the platform and just thought "Get on your back, lie down on your back." So I lied down on my back in a puddle and proceeded to writhe in pain, gripping unconsciously at the metal bars on the side of the stairwell. I remember being in a stupid amount of pain. It was hard to get out the groans that felt necessary to make. I worried about no one finding me since there was, of course, an all day field trip that involved everyone living in the apartments except for Jackie who was sick. I heard someone call up to me "What happened? Who are you? Are you okay?" I tried to answer best I could and was finally found by an unfamiliar Japanese looking face. She asked me what happened and how I was. I struggled not to cry and she helped me sit up then stand up.
At this point I was still in a lot of pain, but mostly better except for my tail bone and part of my left side. I felt I could still go on the field trip and I didn't wanna miss anything. So I went to my apartment to change while the sensei waited for me and exploded into tears. I didn't even know why, but it happened. I changed quickly, splashed water on my face, and took the elevator to the sensei's apartment. She got some pain killer and something she forgot. Now, I hurt just standing and told her I didn't think I could make it today, but just resting was probably best. She convinced me to go to the clinic, though, since it's free.
We met a lady from OIP and she was getting other students. We then met with Fudano, the head lady, and she was concerned but despite the fact that I was trying really hard not to cry again, I smiled and bowed painfully and seemed okay. I was dropped off into the hands of Kayo who took me to the clinic. There, I explained my problem and the nurse pushed on my back and asked if it hurt. It didn't, since it wasn't embarrassingly low enough to be on my tail bone. So she left and I heard her tell Kayo in Japanese that it wasn't anything. ><;;; I feel like everyone except the teacher who found me thinks I was faking to stay home with Jackie. Curse my pride!! The nurse put on a "cold pack" Which was a soft sticky cloth. They said it was cold and lasted 8 hours. Um... The second after she put it on, I didn't feel anything and have all but forgotten I even have it on. e_e
I told Kayo that if I hurt tomorrow I would go to the hospital for x-rays. I went to Jackie's then and cried some more while explaining what happened. We lied down most of the day and watched lots of Doctor Who. I made some spaghetti for myself and took a nap for a few hours. At 5, after everyone was back from the field trip, Jackie and I went to manga club so I could tone my page and she could watch. I explained what happened and that I couldn't stay long and they said I could go home and I could do it tomorrow.
Upon return we watched more Doctor Who. Know I'm in the lounge on my back and still in pain, but just less. It hurts to sit and it hurts to lie down right on my tail bone. *sigh*
6/12 Today we had our one on one discussions with the teachers about what classes we got into. I got into the star class!! This class is the highest level of the three classes. So proud of me. X3 I was told I had very good test results and did well on the oral test part. Yay! Then we got our school laptops! All of us went straight to the self study center and spent a few hours doing all the internet things we couldn't do since Monday. XD I had cold soba for lunch in the cafeteria after this. Then a few of us got onto the Notti bus and went to the center of town for shopping.
We went to a clothing store first which was full of more awesome sauce things than they have at an American clothing store. Then, we went to an electronics store where my head nearly exploded. All the cell phones were amazing! They even had toys here! One of the laptops was TINY! It made the EEE look huge! Next, we went to a shoe store and a gift store. The gift store was really an expensive store that was full of fun and interesting things. After, we walked to the flea market. This took a while because boys are stupid and can't read maps. But it was a nice walk, if quite hot, and we got to see a lot of country side and rice fields. One rice field had tons of tad poles. I saw my first Japanese school building (high school) on the way to the flea market. And a CUUUUTE doggy! At the flea market...it was PILED HIGH and made into very tight corridors. It had everything from antique tea sets, to kimono, to porn, to guitars, to refrigerators! Samurai helmets, old cameras, and even awards! After this we took the bus to the hyaku en store which I hadn't gone to yet. I scoured this amazing store for anything and everything I needed or wanted. There was a little Hello Kitty section! Everyone was much faster so I didn't get to go through the whole store but I spent like $13.
We walked back and went to the manga cafe for dinner. It wasn't a cafe so much as a restaurant with manga. I had omu pork don thing. It was....okay.... lots of fat. Meh. I read Doraemon while I was there but at this point I was in a REALLY REALLY bad mood because I was so tired and sore. I had a lot of trouble with the internet but finally figured it out and talked to Teague <3 and my parents. There is one kid here that plays Wow on his school laptop whenever he gets a chance. Wtf, man. Go out and explore Japan.
6/13 I got up early this day and was very tired. We all met up with the Japanese students which took a while. They split us up into two groups and our group took taxis to downtown Kanazawa for our fieldtrip.
We went to Kenrokuen which is a gorgeous park! I took SO MANY PICTURES!! I loved this place. There were tons of tourists and even women in kimono. There was a little island in the park too! I talked with the Japanese students a lot today and got more comfortable.
Then, we went to Kanazawajou, Kanazawa Castle. It was gorgeous, too, and everything was white. Lots of wide open spaces. Unfortunately, we just went through enclosures and never actually went INSIDE buildings. But I still loved it. Eee culture. There was a little boy there with shoes that squeaked when he walked. *_* There was also a boy scout with a gundam shirt on.
We went to the fish market, after the castle, and were set free for food! I've never been to an open market like this before so it was exciting. We got steak kabob and I got honey dango for dessert. Yuuuuum!! We checked out as many shops as possible! I got a little Hello Kitty hugging one of the main stone structures in Kenrokuen. ^^ Cute and culture! There was a Mister Donut in the market and everyone was excited for it. They had a ton of matcha flavored donuts. I chatted with even more students! At one point, they were making fun of Brian who had macha ice cream all over his face and it was very funny. It felt like a bonding moment. XD They gave me a chocolate filled taiyaki later which was sooo good! Then we took a bus and were gonna go to the art museum, but couldn't because of time. We passed a car on the way that had the lucky star characters on it! Eee! We also passed Kanazawa's 109 building and a Karaoke place. When we got back it was raining. The beginning of rainy season...
I had dinner at Champion Curry and it was hot, but still yummy. Maybe I'll try more curry from now on, though it still looks gross. >_>
6/14 Woke up for my first day of class! I checked my internet, did my homework and headed out. Hoshigumi (the third level class) it in Logos, the language lounge, and has comfy seats. Fujii sensei had us go over keigo, practice permissions and introductions, and us review a little bit of kanji. There were so many handouts this day!! In between, during the break, I grabbed a sandwich that I THINK may have had octopus. It was different.
Then Sam, Jackie, Wan-san, and Sakina-san and I went to Platz. I only got some snacks though. After lunch I made my new blog for communication/language class.
Then I went to Rpro. Research project class. We went over what the class would be like. We have to do a research project on a Japanese specific technology for conserving energy or saving the environment. I think they tacked this class on last minute cause now we have four classes... We moved to another room, got out our laptops, and research Eco House. This place seems kinda cool, but I'm not really thrilled about visiting it on the weekend. It seems like it's gonna be a lots work, since we're supposed to figure out our project topic based on the technology we see in the house. Then we had to write a progress report for the day which was dumb cause it was the first day and we didn't really do anything.
I went back home and napped. Because of this, I was late to meeting up for our first club experience. Woops! But I wasn't the only one. They gave us the list of clubs and we split into North and South campus. I was in North. Then we went as a group to find building 22 where most of the clubs were. I was cranky at this point and kinda pissed off that we were going as a group. The teacher didn't know where we were going and stopped a bunch of people on the way to figure it out. It was fairly embarrassing. Finally, we found the club rooms. A BUNCH of people decided they wanted to check out 漫画研究家 which is the manga research club. I was one. The room was small and full of stuff like in Genshiken. There were TONS of people there (for the room size) already which surprised me. It was awkward trying to stuff all the gaijin in. A bunch of people got right up to the table and were talking to the members. There was no room for me so I just stood behind everyone awkwardly... They all finally left to look at other clubs to make a decision on which to join (we have to join a club) but I already knew. I went right up to the one guy everyone was talking to and asked to join. He talked to the others and then said he couldn't make a decision since the club leader wasn't there. But then he called the club leader after I explained my situation and he said Okay! Yes I could join! *_* I was so excited. I sat and talked about what I liked. It's really hard to understand everyone there because they talk fast and super casually. And also use words and grammars I do not know. I read a lot of manga this day and was shown a bunch of the doujins they put out on there own. I also made a friend, the one female there at the time, Oda Mayumi. She LOOOVES Touhou, too, and works at the shop with tons of it nearby. She played through all of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil in front of/for me. *_* I left at around 7:30.
Then I went to dinner at Katsuya with Tiana and Jackie. After, I went to Marue (the grocery store) and got bread and soap. I came back and slept! I was so excited to find my little niche club. To be a part of the club, I have to come every day (Mon-Fri) and learn to draw. Eeee~
6/15 Woke up and had plain bread for breakfast. Then in our first culture class we talked about our "That's Japan" moments. Our teacher is very approachable and interesting. He's American and doesn't keep the wall that all the other sensei do because of that. It seems like it's going to be a fun class but a lot of work. I get to do a paper on the Japanese porn industry, though. ;D The room that the classroom is in is a music practice room, I think we were told. It doesn't have seats as much as a staircase like floor. It's all purple. The ceiling is covered in vertical mirrors to be pretty and reflect light but it scares me. I just imagine them falling and cutting us all into pieces!! ;_; I went to Sankyuu, a bread shop, for my lunch. OMG this place is AMAZING! I got a bread that had cheese, meat, and potato on it! I also got a thick waffle that was wrapped around cream and custard and was to die for! I can't wait to go back and get more pan!
In the afternoon we had JST. It was confusing which room we needed to go to. This class was pretty dumb. We spent the entire time "learning" how to type in Japanese which I, at least, already knew. We also spent a crap ton of time trying to install the printer driver which didn't go very well. It was kinda retarded. I felt really annoyed getting taught computer things by people who don't know anything about computers. I wish they had been more prepared. Oh well. We then all printed stuff and went off to the study center to print. One of the cool things about this is it seems we can send jobs from anywhere on campus and can only print them by signing in at the printer. Sweet! We also went over a bunch of basic computer terms like shut down, print, turn on, open (a file), etc. I hope we learn more of those words. Helpful! I went to the book store across the street to grab some folders. The paper here is slightly larger than in America and I really didn't think I'd be getting THIS many handouts! It's A LOT! I then went to my new club and was taught how to use the nib pen. At first, though, it was a bit awkward since I just sat and watched kids play Yugi Oh. Then Matsui san, the president, came over and introduced himself and taught me the pen. It was a bit embarrassing cause I don't draw well at all. ;_; It seems like I had to produce my first page for real in two weeks. And I'm not sure if this is correct, but I think he said my page would be in their next doujin since I'm going to be here long enough for it. Which is cooool. I guess they put one out every two months...or something. We talked about the things I like (video games, anime, manga) and they were all saying "You're Japanese!" as in, you like all the same things we do!! It was exciting. They seemed thrilled that I liked hellsing. XD After being there for quite a few hours I came back and went to dinner and dadadadada~
6/16 Woke up early as usual and did homework for my language class. In language class we went over humble words and then learned temple and shrine customs since we will be going to one on the weekend. Then we went over SUPER casual stuff. Like, dropping EVERYTHING in the sentences. I'm not used to speaking that way with ANYONE. It was hard! Then we went over the daily kanji and bloooo. I found a mah-jong key chain but I gave it to Derek since I do not play. At the cafeteria I had my first ramen in Japan. It was good, but a bit buttery/oily. After, I went to Marue to get groceries since I reaally needed some! I got pizza, oreos, pasta, pocky, pancake mix, eggs, tea, cheese, jam, and dumplings. Yumyum! I went home and napped for a bit before club.
At club, I did more practice of the nib pen and I was taught how to use screen tones! Yay! Now I can put the screen tones I have at home to good use, if I ever do manga... After I got there, a few other gaijin showed up and Matsui uprooted some nihonjin in the very crowded room to make space. Then more showed up. Then more. Then a ton. He was like "WAAAH!! DOUSHIYOU!!" I felt really embarrased cause the room was crowded even before I got there. The club is really popular. But in the end it was mostly me, Sam, and a few other guys that stayed. Sam is SO good at drawing O_O I felt bad cause I suck so bad. XD But it was fun to be there. I read a little manga, too, and talked a bit to the Nihonjin. I left around 8 with the other guys. Then I had my microwave pizza, did homework, and uploaded a crap ton of stuff! I also got to talk to Teague which was wonderfuuuul! <3 I went to bed really late!
6/17 Got up pretty early to finish my culture homework. In culture class, Ertl sensei talked about his life and career. Then we talked about the reading, Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Which was pretty boring. We also talked about the differences and similarities of America and Japan and what it means to be Japanese. After, lunch! I had ramen again. After, JST. We all got together and the Anamizu field trip was explained. Then we had the quiz which was super easy! We split up into our different levels and had separate class. We went to the comfy Logos room. This class was really hard. The teacher used a lot of words we didn't know, we learned knew vocab, AND new grammars. ><;; Difficult! She said at one point, in Japanese, "If you don't understand, it's okay to go to the easier class." She said it smiling and nicely, but you could tell she was pissed. I felt bad but it was hard!! After class we all got together in the self study room and griped about it. Everyone was really stressed out and thinking of going to the other class because it was scary and difficult.
I had to go to club at this point, but they went to talk to the teacher. I heard that, afterwards, the comment she made was targeting one person (she didn't say who) and that we were good students and she understood this stuff was hard for us. At club, I told them I couldn't stay long cause I had to meet my host family at 6. So Matsui san sat me down and taught me ACTION LINES! Then I drew a face and he corrected me. I read manga and was told to practice this weekend. I left soon after. I love the club because just being there makes me happy, if not always comfortable. It reminds me of my club back home. <3 <3 My people!!
I went to meet the host family. NERVOUS! Jackie and I were super lucky and got the same host family. Nakagawa. We were announced (like at a ball with mic and everything) and met the family. It was a young married couple. They were kinda hippieish and very cool. I LOVE THEM! They are ADORABLE! The woman loves fruit and the man LOOOVES America and American junk food. They are both very very nice. It seems like we're going to the ocean and swimming, going to a book store, and having seafood for dinner next weekend when we do the home visit. They are going to pick us up at 2 which seems a little late but we'll see. I'm so excited! I'm going to give them a picture book of new england and maple syrup, but I feel like I should be giving them so much more. Jackie and I decided to get a cake for them or so American snacks. Oh, the woman also wants to bring us to an onsen. *shiver shiver* I said yes, because...I can't just say no. ;_; But...uncomfortable!! Oh well...
After this Jackie and I went to White Canvas, the store with lots of Touhou and video games. I talked to Oda san for a bit and bought an adorable carved wooden key chain of Meiling. :3 Then I went to the book store and got a folder and a "sketch book." After, we tried to find others for food but couldn't. Jackie and I found a fantastic udon shop. It was a very nice atmosphere but was relatively cheap. The tempura wasn't very fresh though. After dinner, we went to GEO which is a HUUUUGE rental place. Manga, light novels, video games, CDs, DVDs. They had games for every system ever. I ran into Shakugan no Shana S which I haven't seen yet. I grabbed both DVDs and proceeded to find out how to rent there. I was lead through an application with a poor trainee employee. I felt bad. XD The only problem was I didn't have a phone number, but they used my American number. The card was free and I can use it a bunch of places! I got two DVDs for a week for 480 yen. Not bad, I think. Now I can rent whatever! Then we went to ANOTHER book store and I tried to find a dictionary to no avail. After that, we went to Baskin Robbins! Omg ice cream <3 I got three scoops! Chocolate, rocky road, and melon. They had SO MANY FLAVORS! One of them had POP ROCKS!! Then home and sleep for the early morning.
6/18 I woke up at 7:30 am which was a little bit late for the amount of stuff I had to do. I ate breakfast, looked up definitions, re-e-mailed the sensei my blog address, and made flash cards hasily. Oh! And I packed. Then I rushed over to building 1 where we were meeting. All us IJST folk got a bus to ourselves. I was worried cause I hadn't seen Jackie at all. ;_; But we got on the bus and it was nice and comfy. I played Pokemon and read a reading due Tuesday. Then we got to EcoHouse.
OMG THIS PLACE IS AMAZING! I want this house!! 45% of its energy is created by solar and wind energy. The roofs have solar panels and it has a wind mill thing that changes direction with the wind to get more. The roof also has solar powered water heating that's using in the house. The house is mostly covered with grey cedar to help deflect heat. There are plants planted that absorb 4x the amount of CO2 than other plants. And also trees that, in the summer, grow big and block the sun. Then in the winter they shed their leaves and let sun in. The house is light airtight insulated, too. Annnd the windows are double paned and the material holding them is resin instead of aluminum. The benches and pathways are all made out of recyclable materials. The rain water is collected on the ground in a basin that's connected to the hose for watering use! The inside of the house was very modern and lovely. It has an extremely flexible lighting system which allows many different parts of the house to be lit or not. They all use LEDs because they last long, take less energy, emit less heat, and don't attract bugs. The house also has a cute color energy monitor thing to see how much energy is being made and used. Also, if the house creates more energy than needed, they sell it to the energy company! The window are strategically placed for airflow. And the eaves of the roofs are longer than normal to block the high sun in the summer but let in the low sun in winter. And the living room has vaulted ceilings with high windows to let in natural light. There are automatic curtains for those. And the wall closest to the front door is made out of spongey rock and it absorbs water like CRAZY! We sprayed it and it was GONE! The house is made out local materials, too. And the living room is connected to the kitchen, but there is a cool sliding door that can be pulled across to separate the space (the house is designed for 3 generations). The door (looks like a rice paper door) has little "windows" that can be opened for air flow. All the sinks have wireless water. You press a remote from anywhere and the water goes. It was cool!! The bathtub is insulted and the bath that was drawn at 5 pm the previous day was till warm!! The water from that bath can be drained right into the laundry machine for use, too! The toilets are smart and open when you walk in the room. XD The ventilation thing above the stove purifies and recylces the air into the house. And also, the inner curtains of the windows have SILVER in them to help block the sun. I'm not sure how this works, but it's cool! Auuuugh just so many awesome thing about the house!! It cost $1 million, of course. But it's woooorth it. It was finished just a few months ago and it was created as a "model" for construction people to come, learn, and make more eco friendly houses. Japan is all about eco since it has no energy resources of its own.
Jackie got to eco house after we were there for a little bit. She was thankfully okay, she just had an awfully sore throat. After eco house, we stopped at a rest stop. I got takoyaki and ice cream. Yummy yum! There were tons of traditional sweets there. Then we headed to Nanao fisher man's warf. There we wandered for a bit. Everything was pretty but expensive. We got dinner at a very cool traditional looking restaurant and I had my first "Japanese" meal. Miso soup, steamed egg, tempura, rice, pickled daikon, potato salad, and sashimi! It was so good and only 1,000 yen! Mm mm! After this we quickly returned to the bus. Our next stop was the boat! We got onto this two deck boat that belongs to Kanazawa. It was so exciting. *_* We sailed around and island and got to the Anamizu seminar house.
We then had to walk up and excruciatingly steep road. x.x Once there, we greeted the staff went to the third floor for orientation. When I got up there, the one teacher at the door was saying something but I didn't hear. I was about to enter the room then she drags me, pulls me back, and pushes me down to bow. Apparently the room is like this "sacred place of learning." I hadn't been touched the much by a Japanese person before. It felt a little extreme. Anyway, she learned about the layout and the emergency exits. And the beds. e_e There is like this special way to make our beds and then how to fold everything up after we leave. They were like "Ask the Japanese students!" All the guys got Japanese students in their room, but only ONE female Japanese came. And we have lots of girls. So all the ryuugakusei girls were spread out over three rooms with ONE Japanese girl. It didn't feel fair. She was not in my room, btw, but I got awesome people in my room. Theeen we had three hours of free time. I napped.
Then the Japanese people arrived and we went down to the bay for barbecue!! There was SO much food there!! Exciting! And lots of people! I had a fresh scallop (it was still in its shell when we cooked it), a little sausage, some meat, corn, a rice ball, apple juice, and pumpkin. There were lots of people but they were all busy talking or cooking or eating so I didn't really talk to anyone most of the time. Creepy Japanese boy did try to chat me up and was like "You should come to the self study center lots!" And I was like "eehhh suuuuuure~" >_> I talked a bit to the culture teacher and figured out why he's so apt to introduce alcohol to our parties (apparently it loosens the Japanese up) and learned about different uses of katakana. He is an interesting guy. And 35 I found out. He's been in Japan since 95 he said. WOW =0 Yeah can't think of much that happened there. We walked back up which was TERRIBLE!!! Not only was it super steep but it was PITCH BLACK!!!!! T_____T
In any case, we got back up and everyone rushed to the baths. It was a shared bath like you would see in Ranma 1/2. The girls bath was much smaller than the guys, though. There was a room with cubbyholes and baskets for clothes then you got through the glazed doors and on the right there was an area for washing and the furo was on the left. I didn't use it at all, though. I just played Pokemon and slept cause it was around 9:30 or 10 at this point. I hear most people were up late, though.
6/19 Today, at the Anamizu seminar house, I woke up at 6 am to the sound of music playing over the PA. Then at 6:30 they played Pachabel's cannon in D. I was like "Curse you, pachabellll!!!" I got dressed and went to the gym for the morning gathering thing. I was the only girl there at first. The one guy put me in line according to my room number. Then everyone got there. You could tell the guy who runs the house was so super into his country. He sang the national anthem to music to the Japanese flag as the flag was raised. It made me giggle. Then, we did Japanese morning stretches. o_O It was so weird. They were weird stretches set to music and it made me laugh a lot. The one guy was really into it. But some of the Japanese students didn't even know what they were doing!
After that we had to put our bed back EXACTLY AS WE FOUND THEM! That means folding the four blankets they gave us PERFECTLY and placing them at a certain point of the bed with the labels facing a certain way. Super insane. We went to breakfast then and I brought my DS with me cause I was playing Pokemon. XD We had corn soup, salad, two small pieces of meat, a hard boiled egg, tea, two slices of bread, and some fruit with whipped cream. It was okay. After breakfast we had a half hour to rest before a lecture. I played more pokemon!
Then to the lecture which was more like an activity. Our American culture teacher started by attempting to get the Japanese students to pronounce his last name (Ertl). Hahhahaa. Then he brought up families and family trees. He then posed "Where do Japanese people come from?" Then he had us get into groups of four and interview each other on our family trees. Then we had to ask the Japanese where they think Japanese people come from. Most were unsure about answering. Then Ertl sensei told us about on of the kojiki (creation myths of Japan). He told us about Izanagi and Izanami. He said they were created by God out of Chaos. And that Izanagi poked Chaos with a spear and that created an island. It's a small island by Japan. Then they were on the island and walked around a pillar or whatever and had children (the main islands of Japan). But then Izanami gave birth to fire and died. So Izanagi went to visit Izanami in the land of the dead cause he could. She said "Nooo don't look at me!" And he said "I must!" But she was all ugly and stuff and he freaked. She said "You've seen me so now I will KILL YOU!!" He of course ran and she sent monsters after him. He put a rock in front of the entrance of the underworld. Izanami said then that since she was so angry, she would kill 1000 people every day. So Izanagi said he would birth 1500 people every day. Theeen...he like took a bath to get all the death off him. And he melted into a bunch of other Kami that went off and had adventures. Weiiird story. But we talked about how we had science and evolution and then creation myths and that they both involve a level of trust. And stuuuuff.
After the lecture I went back to my room and played more Pokemon! Incidentally, Whitney was a bitch to beat. Then lunch! Curry and salad. Meh. Theeeen we packed up and left in the busses. Jackie and I went together. It was off to the shrine with us! We got to the shrine and it was more like a bunch of shrines with one main one. There was a miko at the main one and she was lovely. *_* I took lots of pictures and videos. I got a fortune and it was the highest of good fortunes!! I still need to translate it, but the Japanese told me it was awesome! Then I prayed at the main shrine and bought charms for me and my family. I visited all the little shrines and it was just lovely and it felt sacred. <3 We got back on the bus after an hour and drove back to school. I had a "That's Japan moment" then. I saw a woman standing outside a hair salon bow to a car pulling out. Then she stayed, watched the car drive away, and bowed again. Then she went inside. So nice to customers!! "Customers are king" is the saying here. Now I just got back and I'm writing.
