A long post of culture and class 6/12-6/19

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.