I really should be doing other stuff right now, but I'm motivated to blog. For those of you who don't know, 10 years ago we hosted a boy from Japan at our house. His name was Akira. And that's about all I remembered about him.
A few weeks ago Dad suggested that I try to find out where he is and meet up with him while I'm in Japan. All we had was his name, home town, and the year he came to our district. Luckily, we have the amazing power of the internet here! My host dad looked for a rotary club in his home town and we found his sponsor club. We sent them an email explaining the situation and asking if they knew any way to contact Akira now.
As it turns out, Akira's father is a rotarian at that club. He got the email and immediately got us in touch with Akira. Akira emailed my host dad, who gave him my email, and then he emailed me. He was so excited to hear from me and he said he never would have imagined that I'd be in Japan now. He was so happy I remembered him and asked how the family is and such. I gave him the basic updates. It was a really nice email from him.
Akira is now engaged to be married! The wedding is next month in Fukuoka. I've been invited. At first I thought, no I won't go. It's too much of a hassle to arrange it with Rotary and school and his family will be really busy anyway. I'd just be in the way. But I guess they really want me to come because the Fukuoka rotary club sent a formal invitation to my rotary club for me to go down there. My host dad offered (without me knowing, I heard this later from my host mom) to go with me to Fukuoka, but my host club president said he wanted to take me. So, it looks like I'm going to Fukuoka with my club president.
Today I find out that my host club's president can't or isn't going for some reason. I'm not sure why. So, now it looks like I'm going to Fukuoka by myself. I still have no idea what's going on with how I'm getting there or anything. Honestly, I've been hearing all of this besides the email from Akira through my host dad or my host mom, who hears it from my host dad. Who knows what's going on?! I'll just let the rotarians decide what they decide...
Friday, February 20, 2009
Busy Days
I'm sorry I haven't blogged for a while again. I have been really, really busy. Today is officially 6 months, which is crazy. I honestly don't understand how the time keeps going faster. Tomorrow I change families. Which is a lot of the reason I haven't blogged. I've been super busy trying to get everything ready to go., but more on that later.
So, I'm going to try to make this pretty quick, but that might be hard. On Sunday, February 8, some of my Rotarians took me to Harajuku. It was AWESOME! Harajuku is like a really famous teen-shopping district of Tokyo. Parts of it are pretty cheap, too! :D We went to the different stores that we wanted to see and we had lunch at a really good pizza, pasta, and curry buffet. The rotarians were so nice and one brought his daughter along, so that was fun. They took me and Iliana. For Saki, the rotarian's daughter's sake, we used a lot of Japanese. Iliana wanted to speak English, but I felt bad not letting her into the conversation at all so I tried to turn it into Japanese. I know what it's like to not understand your friends when they are joking and having a good time... It's a little frustrating. I ended up buying a cute skirt and a really cheap scarf, which is also cute. I tried looking for shoes, but they don't have my size. I am going to be in serious trouble once these ones wear out. And believe me, they are getting close. So, I definitely plan to go back to Harajuku a few times.
Harajuku!
School has been going much better (not that it was ever going poorly) lately. Lots of different girls have realized I almost speak Japanese now so I have more friends and lots of people talk with me between classese and such. After winter break was over we changed our cleaning duties. I used to be on the classroom, where you just sweep the floor with the help of 6 other girls. Pretty easy. Now I'm on the bathroom! :) Of course. But I actually don't mind it. I have a good time with the other girls during cleaning.
Happi and Yuki-chan. They are such fun girls!
Rinna, Nozomi, Me, and Happi. You've gotta love Toilet Souji.
On the 11th I had they day off school so I made dinner for my host family! I made PASTIES! It was so fun! And they turned out really good. My host mom and I did it together, which was probably the best part. I really enjoyed mine, and my host parents liked it a lot. Wataru ate his without complaining, but I could tell he didn't especially like it. Toru, well, Toru didn't want to eat his. The first thing he said when he saw it was "oishiikunai, yo!". That literally mean, "That's not delicious". Then my host dad told him he had to eat it because I made it. Then he cried. I felt bad and told my host dad I didn't care if he didn't eat it, but they made him eat it anyway. So, there were lots of tears and loud crying. He ended up eating a tiny bit of the inside. How bad could it be? It's just vegetables. The next night Mie wanted to try making quiche, so she did. It turned out really good. The kids asked, rather hesitently, if tonight was American food, too. haha! They were disappointed and Toru refused to eat his dinner once again... Oh, well. New food is hard for little kids.
Toru, Wataru, My host dad, and me.
Mmm.. pasties. Did you know these are like 800 calories?! My host mom was shocked! (me too!)
On Valentine's Day I was invited to go to a Young Single Adults dance at my church here. I'm not really old enough, but I look like I am and I go to the YSA meetings on Sunday so they let me come. It was really fun! It was all social dancing, which I am really bad at, but it was fun to talk with all the different people. I practiced a lot of Japanese, but lots of people knew English, too. Lots of guys asked me to dance, so that was fun. Don't worry Dad, they were all too old. :) Most people I talked to asked me what my major was. I go: ...umm. I'm a high schooler. Then they go into shock. Then they'd usually stop the next person walking by and have them guess my age. They'd usually say something around 22 or 23. Only 6 or 7 years off, right? I'm pretty sure my age became a topic of conversation for people that weren't talking to me because everyone had "heard that" by the end of the dance... odd. So, it was lots of fun and it gave me an excuse to wear one of my dresses for the first time here. It was really formal dress, so I wore that cute black and green one I have that only AnnaMarie and Caroline know what it looks like. Sorry, but I didn't take any pictures there. I didn't know anyone.
Last Sunday, the 15th, I had a Rotary trip. We all went down to Kamakura. It was awesome! We saw the temples and Big Buddha and stuff. I'd seen it all before, but it was fun to see again with a different group of people. It was also really fun to see everyone again. We got to experience zazen. Zazen is buddhist meditation. It was.... okay. A really good cultural experience, but it made my back hurt. We did three 12 minute sessions. The monk, who was very nice, walked around with a big bamboo stick gently correcting people's posture. And if you signal him by putting your hands together in front of you, he will "help you focus your mind" with his "stick of encouragement". He slaps you on the back twice on each side. It's between the spine and the shoulderblade so it's not supposed to hurt too much. I didn't understand you had to ask him to do it to you until the last session and I was just about to signal him, but his seat was just to the left of mine, and he was walking from that direction, and then just as I was about to put my hands together... he sat down. The last session was over. It would have made a better story if I'd gotten hit....
Me and Iliana. Thanks Katja... :P
Then we got an exclusive tour of the temple there and ate lunch the same way the monks do. It was actually good food, but they made extra salads and stuff for us because we are guests and most of us were still hungry. No wonder those monks are all so skinny. All they eat is rice and soup every day. And no meat. We had tofu though... yumm.
Felipe, Ruan, Me, Vincent, Iliana, Korn and Katja.
After it was over we went to the beach and stood on the wet sand for a while then went to a mexican restaurant at Yokohama for dinner. It was fun. I was so tired by the end of it though. And I've been tired ever since.
Vincent, Camille, Katja, and Abbey
I can't even believe how this week flew by. I am spending my last night in this house tonight! Well, for 3 months at least. There's a good chance I'll be coming back which takes the sadness out of leaving. Dinner was sukiyaki! I love that stuff! Its like meat and vegetables cooked in sause and then you put it into your bowl of raw egg and mix it all up! Y-U-M! I will definitely be making that when I go home...
So, I now have almost everything packed. Just my school uniform and random things I've been using this week. Like computer cords and such. I think everything is going to fit in my suitcases and bags. Most of the new stuff I have now are big things like 3 coats, 2 school uniforms, shoes for school, and a whole bag of school books and supplies. At least I don't have to deal with a weight limit now. Hopefully the house I'm going to has an elevator or I'm on the 1st floor. :) Now I have to go sync my external hard drive and clear all my stuff off of this computer. I'll try to blog soon and tell you all about my new family. I still haven't seen the house, but it's supposed to be big! I'm excited, a little nervous, and still slightly stressed about all the stuff I still have to do.
I'm pretty sure that this is my favorite picture of the whole 6 months I've been here. And that ice cream was awesome! Sweet Potatoe flavor. We tried taking the picture from farther away first, but we had to get a little too close for comfort and I kinda freaked out... haha.
So, I'm going to try to make this pretty quick, but that might be hard. On Sunday, February 8, some of my Rotarians took me to Harajuku. It was AWESOME! Harajuku is like a really famous teen-shopping district of Tokyo. Parts of it are pretty cheap, too! :D We went to the different stores that we wanted to see and we had lunch at a really good pizza, pasta, and curry buffet. The rotarians were so nice and one brought his daughter along, so that was fun. They took me and Iliana. For Saki, the rotarian's daughter's sake, we used a lot of Japanese. Iliana wanted to speak English, but I felt bad not letting her into the conversation at all so I tried to turn it into Japanese. I know what it's like to not understand your friends when they are joking and having a good time... It's a little frustrating. I ended up buying a cute skirt and a really cheap scarf, which is also cute. I tried looking for shoes, but they don't have my size. I am going to be in serious trouble once these ones wear out. And believe me, they are getting close. So, I definitely plan to go back to Harajuku a few times.
Harajuku!
School has been going much better (not that it was ever going poorly) lately. Lots of different girls have realized I almost speak Japanese now so I have more friends and lots of people talk with me between classese and such. After winter break was over we changed our cleaning duties. I used to be on the classroom, where you just sweep the floor with the help of 6 other girls. Pretty easy. Now I'm on the bathroom! :) Of course. But I actually don't mind it. I have a good time with the other girls during cleaning.
Happi and Yuki-chan. They are such fun girls!
Rinna, Nozomi, Me, and Happi. You've gotta love Toilet Souji.
On the 11th I had they day off school so I made dinner for my host family! I made PASTIES! It was so fun! And they turned out really good. My host mom and I did it together, which was probably the best part. I really enjoyed mine, and my host parents liked it a lot. Wataru ate his without complaining, but I could tell he didn't especially like it. Toru, well, Toru didn't want to eat his. The first thing he said when he saw it was "oishiikunai, yo!". That literally mean, "That's not delicious". Then my host dad told him he had to eat it because I made it. Then he cried. I felt bad and told my host dad I didn't care if he didn't eat it, but they made him eat it anyway. So, there were lots of tears and loud crying. He ended up eating a tiny bit of the inside. How bad could it be? It's just vegetables. The next night Mie wanted to try making quiche, so she did. It turned out really good. The kids asked, rather hesitently, if tonight was American food, too. haha! They were disappointed and Toru refused to eat his dinner once again... Oh, well. New food is hard for little kids.
Toru, Wataru, My host dad, and me.
Mmm.. pasties. Did you know these are like 800 calories?! My host mom was shocked! (me too!)
On Valentine's Day I was invited to go to a Young Single Adults dance at my church here. I'm not really old enough, but I look like I am and I go to the YSA meetings on Sunday so they let me come. It was really fun! It was all social dancing, which I am really bad at, but it was fun to talk with all the different people. I practiced a lot of Japanese, but lots of people knew English, too. Lots of guys asked me to dance, so that was fun. Don't worry Dad, they were all too old. :) Most people I talked to asked me what my major was. I go: ...umm. I'm a high schooler. Then they go into shock. Then they'd usually stop the next person walking by and have them guess my age. They'd usually say something around 22 or 23. Only 6 or 7 years off, right? I'm pretty sure my age became a topic of conversation for people that weren't talking to me because everyone had "heard that" by the end of the dance... odd. So, it was lots of fun and it gave me an excuse to wear one of my dresses for the first time here. It was really formal dress, so I wore that cute black and green one I have that only AnnaMarie and Caroline know what it looks like. Sorry, but I didn't take any pictures there. I didn't know anyone.
Last Sunday, the 15th, I had a Rotary trip. We all went down to Kamakura. It was awesome! We saw the temples and Big Buddha and stuff. I'd seen it all before, but it was fun to see again with a different group of people. It was also really fun to see everyone again. We got to experience zazen. Zazen is buddhist meditation. It was.... okay. A really good cultural experience, but it made my back hurt. We did three 12 minute sessions. The monk, who was very nice, walked around with a big bamboo stick gently correcting people's posture. And if you signal him by putting your hands together in front of you, he will "help you focus your mind" with his "stick of encouragement". He slaps you on the back twice on each side. It's between the spine and the shoulderblade so it's not supposed to hurt too much. I didn't understand you had to ask him to do it to you until the last session and I was just about to signal him, but his seat was just to the left of mine, and he was walking from that direction, and then just as I was about to put my hands together... he sat down. The last session was over. It would have made a better story if I'd gotten hit....
Me and Iliana. Thanks Katja... :P
Then we got an exclusive tour of the temple there and ate lunch the same way the monks do. It was actually good food, but they made extra salads and stuff for us because we are guests and most of us were still hungry. No wonder those monks are all so skinny. All they eat is rice and soup every day. And no meat. We had tofu though... yumm.
Felipe, Ruan, Me, Vincent, Iliana, Korn and Katja.
After it was over we went to the beach and stood on the wet sand for a while then went to a mexican restaurant at Yokohama for dinner. It was fun. I was so tired by the end of it though. And I've been tired ever since.
Vincent, Camille, Katja, and Abbey
I can't even believe how this week flew by. I am spending my last night in this house tonight! Well, for 3 months at least. There's a good chance I'll be coming back which takes the sadness out of leaving. Dinner was sukiyaki! I love that stuff! Its like meat and vegetables cooked in sause and then you put it into your bowl of raw egg and mix it all up! Y-U-M! I will definitely be making that when I go home...
So, I now have almost everything packed. Just my school uniform and random things I've been using this week. Like computer cords and such. I think everything is going to fit in my suitcases and bags. Most of the new stuff I have now are big things like 3 coats, 2 school uniforms, shoes for school, and a whole bag of school books and supplies. At least I don't have to deal with a weight limit now. Hopefully the house I'm going to has an elevator or I'm on the 1st floor. :) Now I have to go sync my external hard drive and clear all my stuff off of this computer. I'll try to blog soon and tell you all about my new family. I still haven't seen the house, but it's supposed to be big! I'm excited, a little nervous, and still slightly stressed about all the stuff I still have to do.
I'm pretty sure that this is my favorite picture of the whole 6 months I've been here. And that ice cream was awesome! Sweet Potatoe flavor. We tried taking the picture from farther away first, but we had to get a little too close for comfort and I kinda freaked out... haha.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
February Orientation Meeting
Every first Saturday of the month is our "orientation meeting." That's where I give my monthly speeches. This month's went well. I hadn't seen very many of my rotary friends since the last meeting, so it was really good to see everyone again. My speech went well. It was short though, because I really didn't do a lot of speech-worthy things in the last month. I was always really busy, but I can't really remember with what now. Yikes...
After the meeting almost all of my rotary friends went to another exchange student's birthday dinner. I tagged along just so I could see everyone. There were over 20 exchange students there! It was crazy! Pretty much every exchange student from the area that I knew, plus a few more. We all went to T.G.I. Fridays for dinner. I stayed a little bit, but left early with Katja. For one, T.G.I. Fridays is SO expensive. Also, Katja said there was a "free jazz cafe" by her station that night. So I figured I'd go see what that was with her.
We bought dinner at a convenience store and then went to find this jazz cafe. She'd seen a sign for it, but didn't know exactly where it was. We found it pretty easily. It turned out to be an old guy playing a saxophone to a little tiny coffee shop full of even older people. And it was packed! We probably would have gone in and stayed for it if there had been any seats...
After wandering around her station and looking at all the little shops, Katja mentioned that there was a grocery store that sold lots of cheap snacks if I wanted to go there. It was probably like a 15 minute walk, but it was nice. I loved the store! It had tons of random snacks, including several things I haven't seen since I was in America. And everything was pretty cheap. We ended up buying a bag of banana chips and a bag of rasins and splitting half and half. It's proabably a good thing I don't live by that store. By the time we got back to her station it was a good time for me to head home. I had eaten an unhealthy amount of dried fruit on the walk back, too. It was a really fun night though. I love hanging out with Katja because we just do random, cheap things. And she is so fun to talk with!
As I was waiting in the train station I sat down on a bench. The lady next to me leaned over and asked where I was from and we started talking. It actually turned out that she was taking the same train as me when we changed at Yokohama station, so we talked for quite a bit. She was really nice. It surprised her that I was only in high school. When I mentioned my school was catholic, she asked what kind of catholic (Japanese people get the terms catholic and christian mixed up sometimes) school it was. When I looked a little puzzled she was like, "like mormon, or ...." I said, "oh! It's just catholic, but I'm mormon!" It surprised me that that was the first denomination on her list, so I asked her how she knew it.
It turns out that she goes to the mormon church closer to my school every Thursday for english lessons. Apparently, there is a weekly english class that anyone can take offered there. She said at first she thought I was a missionary! She isn't mormon herself, but it sounded like she might have gone once or twice. She was such a nice woman. She said she likes to try to talk with foreigners and practice her english, which was actually very good. It was really random, but it was fun to talk to her. It doesn't happen too often, but occasionaly someone will talk to me on the train and ask why I'm here and such.
Okay, sorry this is a pretty boring post. And there are no pictures. I'll get a better one up tomorrow about Harajuku. I have to keep my posts chronological though, or this would be confusing to read.
After the meeting almost all of my rotary friends went to another exchange student's birthday dinner. I tagged along just so I could see everyone. There were over 20 exchange students there! It was crazy! Pretty much every exchange student from the area that I knew, plus a few more. We all went to T.G.I. Fridays for dinner. I stayed a little bit, but left early with Katja. For one, T.G.I. Fridays is SO expensive. Also, Katja said there was a "free jazz cafe" by her station that night. So I figured I'd go see what that was with her.
We bought dinner at a convenience store and then went to find this jazz cafe. She'd seen a sign for it, but didn't know exactly where it was. We found it pretty easily. It turned out to be an old guy playing a saxophone to a little tiny coffee shop full of even older people. And it was packed! We probably would have gone in and stayed for it if there had been any seats...
After wandering around her station and looking at all the little shops, Katja mentioned that there was a grocery store that sold lots of cheap snacks if I wanted to go there. It was probably like a 15 minute walk, but it was nice. I loved the store! It had tons of random snacks, including several things I haven't seen since I was in America. And everything was pretty cheap. We ended up buying a bag of banana chips and a bag of rasins and splitting half and half. It's proabably a good thing I don't live by that store. By the time we got back to her station it was a good time for me to head home. I had eaten an unhealthy amount of dried fruit on the walk back, too. It was a really fun night though. I love hanging out with Katja because we just do random, cheap things. And she is so fun to talk with!
As I was waiting in the train station I sat down on a bench. The lady next to me leaned over and asked where I was from and we started talking. It actually turned out that she was taking the same train as me when we changed at Yokohama station, so we talked for quite a bit. She was really nice. It surprised her that I was only in high school. When I mentioned my school was catholic, she asked what kind of catholic (Japanese people get the terms catholic and christian mixed up sometimes) school it was. When I looked a little puzzled she was like, "like mormon, or ...." I said, "oh! It's just catholic, but I'm mormon!" It surprised me that that was the first denomination on her list, so I asked her how she knew it.
It turns out that she goes to the mormon church closer to my school every Thursday for english lessons. Apparently, there is a weekly english class that anyone can take offered there. She said at first she thought I was a missionary! She isn't mormon herself, but it sounded like she might have gone once or twice. She was such a nice woman. She said she likes to try to talk with foreigners and practice her english, which was actually very good. It was really random, but it was fun to talk to her. It doesn't happen too often, but occasionaly someone will talk to me on the train and ask why I'm here and such.
Okay, sorry this is a pretty boring post. And there are no pictures. I'll get a better one up tomorrow about Harajuku. I have to keep my posts chronological though, or this would be confusing to read.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Ramen Museum
I finally did it. I went to see the oh-so-famous Ramen Museum. If you ever try to google Yokohama, Japan one of the most popular results (for reasons I still don't understand) is this Museum. Wednesday (February 4) was another day off school. Due to the tests I explained in an earlier post. I made plans with my friend Rinna to go there. She thought it was funny that I wanted to go. It seems like everyone here knows about the museum, but nobody has actually gone to it...
In front of the "Shin Yokohama Raumen Museum"
Anyway, I met Rinna at Shin-Yokohama station, which I discovered has bullet trains! I'll get to ride one some day. It was my first time to this station. We set off to find the museum. She had brought with her a really cool little book of maps of different sections of the city with lots of details. (I liked it so much I asked her where she got it, and was planning on going to get myself one. The next day she brought it to school and gave it to me! Rinna is so nice!) The museum was, I'll be honest, slightly disappointing. When you walk in you see the gift shop and hidden behind that is the short history of instant ramen. That was fun to look at. The main attraction is downstairs. It is a replication of a section of Tokyo in 1958. The life size replication goes around the outside of the room, and then down in the middle area is the "ramen restaurant mall." There are 9 different ramen shops in this little area.
Probably the best part of the museum... :) I'm not sure what it is there for...
1958 Tokyo looked just like this!
When you have 9 ramen shops in an enclosed area that has poor ventelation (because it is in the basement) the smell is pretty overpowering. Each shop is of a different region's ramen, so they are all different flavors. We ate Fukuchan Ramen. It was good, but not the best ramen I've ever had. On the way out, we decided to do the ramen purikura. It was fun.
The middle area with all the ramen shops.
So, the museum itself wasn't that great, but it was tons of fun to go with Rinna. After that, we decided to go to the Nogeyama Daibutsuen (Zoo). It is a free zoo! I didn't even know about it until Rinna told me about it. We looked at all the different animals and had a good time talking. I'm pretty sure that my favorite part of the zoo were the cute trees shaped like different animals at the entrance. I know there's a word for that, but I can't remember it... Topiary! (I had to google it. haha)
Topiary!
This was the petting zoo. It was really icky... just mice, chickens, and chicks. The chicks were cute.
This was really cool! Rinna noticed that there was a female peacock near, and when it walked away this poor guy's feathers all sank down and then wandered after her. It was kind of funny...
After the zoo we went home to have dinner with our families. I had a really nice day with Rinna. It was so fun to get to know her more and talk with her one on one. Sometimes I feel like even though I have lots of friends at school, I don't really them that well. That's probably because I don't. Everyone is really nice, but its hard to make really close friends when you can't communicate fully with them. I hope it will get better now though. :)
In front of the "Shin Yokohama Raumen Museum"
Anyway, I met Rinna at Shin-Yokohama station, which I discovered has bullet trains! I'll get to ride one some day. It was my first time to this station. We set off to find the museum. She had brought with her a really cool little book of maps of different sections of the city with lots of details. (I liked it so much I asked her where she got it, and was planning on going to get myself one. The next day she brought it to school and gave it to me! Rinna is so nice!) The museum was, I'll be honest, slightly disappointing. When you walk in you see the gift shop and hidden behind that is the short history of instant ramen. That was fun to look at. The main attraction is downstairs. It is a replication of a section of Tokyo in 1958. The life size replication goes around the outside of the room, and then down in the middle area is the "ramen restaurant mall." There are 9 different ramen shops in this little area.
Probably the best part of the museum... :) I'm not sure what it is there for...
1958 Tokyo looked just like this!
When you have 9 ramen shops in an enclosed area that has poor ventelation (because it is in the basement) the smell is pretty overpowering. Each shop is of a different region's ramen, so they are all different flavors. We ate Fukuchan Ramen. It was good, but not the best ramen I've ever had. On the way out, we decided to do the ramen purikura. It was fun.
The middle area with all the ramen shops.
So, the museum itself wasn't that great, but it was tons of fun to go with Rinna. After that, we decided to go to the Nogeyama Daibutsuen (Zoo). It is a free zoo! I didn't even know about it until Rinna told me about it. We looked at all the different animals and had a good time talking. I'm pretty sure that my favorite part of the zoo were the cute trees shaped like different animals at the entrance. I know there's a word for that, but I can't remember it... Topiary! (I had to google it. haha)
Topiary!
This was the petting zoo. It was really icky... just mice, chickens, and chicks. The chicks were cute.
This was really cool! Rinna noticed that there was a female peacock near, and when it walked away this poor guy's feathers all sank down and then wandered after her. It was kind of funny...
After the zoo we went home to have dinner with our families. I had a really nice day with Rinna. It was so fun to get to know her more and talk with her one on one. Sometimes I feel like even though I have lots of friends at school, I don't really them that well. That's probably because I don't. Everyone is really nice, but its hard to make really close friends when you can't communicate fully with them. I hope it will get better now though. :)
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Setsubun
What the heck is a Setsubun, you ask? That's a good question. Let me go google it... haha
Okay, for real I didn't understand what the holiday was for. Communicating specifics is still rather difficult, so sometimes I don't ask. All I knew is that we were going to throw beans and then I was going to eat 16 of them (because I'm 16 this year).
Fukumame!
As I just learned from the wikipedia article, setsubun is like a celebration of the change of seasons, and although it technically refers to the change of all four seasons, it usually refers to the spring because that is the only time it is really celebrated. Today is the last day of winter, or the eve of spring.
With the going away of winter you also throw out bad luck or things that have happened in the last year. This is why we threw the beans. The beans are dried fukumame. I'm not sure what fuku is, but mame is bean. And these are lucky beans or something. Lucky in the asian sense of things being lucky. Which I think is a little different than the western sense of luck, but it doesn't translate to anything closer.
Toru, Mie, and Wataru trowing their beans!
Me throwing fukumame.
Anyway, Then you eat the fukumame. (Different fukumame, not the same ones you just threw off your 5th floor balcony.) You eat as many fukumame as you are years old. I'm 16 so I ate 16. My host dad turned 40 today (Happy Birthday to him. I might stay up till he gets home to wish him it. It's already 11pm, so I hope he gets home soon.) so he will eat 40 of them.
Toru and Wataru
It was a fun little tradition they have. :) Wataru (7) asked if we had setsubun in America and didn't understand why not. haha. Then my host mom told him about how parents hide easter eggs with money inside on easter in america. I had told her about it before. I had to remind her that it wasn't the parents! It's the Easter Bunny! haha He asked, rather hopefully, if they did that in Japan too. My host mom just laughed. What kid wouldn't like the idea of finding money-filled eggs in the house?
We did all this after dinner. Which was sushi! :)
So, today I had off of school, but not because of setsubun. I have today and tomorrow off because they are having entrance exams for my high school. So, even though the high schoolers aren't taking exams (grade/middle schoolers are taking exams to get into this high school) we get off school. Sounds good to me!
However, because it wasn't a holiday that people get off school for, it was only my school. All my school friends had already made plans with other people or their cram schools so I had nothing to do. But, I had decided that I was at least going to get out of the house for a bit in the afternoon so my host mom could get any errands that she wanted to do done without feeling bad for leaving me alone in the house.
In the morning I got to talk on Skype with Dad, Michael, Caroline, Benjamin, Christy, and Ryan. And I got to witness Calvin's first real crawling. All thank to the magic of the internet! :) It was really nice to talk with everyone. Ryan says some of the funiest things I've ever heard. And some of the saddest:
Ryan- "Abbey, why don't you live here anymore?"
Dad- "Because she is visiting in Japan for a while."
Ryan- "Oh. I remember when you used to be here." short pause and now in the saddest little Ryan voice you can imagine, "I just want you to come home, Abbey."
aww! I'll be home in a few months. :)
After I got off the computer with them, I found my host mom just starting to make an Apple Pie! This doesn't happen very much here. Or ever since I got here. We had gotten this huge box of apples and manderine oranges from my host mom's mom the other day, and I think she wanted to use some of the apples. This was real apple pie too! From a recipe book of American recipes in Japanese. Written by an American woman. So, I helped my host mom make apple pie as we had a nice chat. I really love my host mom. I'll miss her when I change host families. When she asked what to do with the extra pie crust dough, I showed her how to make rolly pollies! She liked them a lot! And the pie was dang good too! That's funny because I didn't even like apple pie when before I came here...
While the pie was baking, we made Yakisoba for lunch. I love that stuff. After lunch I decided (with a little encouragement from dad in the morning) to go on an adventure! I decided that I wanted to go to Chinatown and have a wander around. I've been there a couple times, but I'd never really stopped in any of the shops before and I figured that would be more fun to do by myself than anything else on my new "to do/see around Yokohama and Tokyo" list. So I set off.
I knew from looking at a little map on the internet before I left the names of the closest station, and the next closest one. I was planning to go to the closest station, but it turns out that that's on the subway, not on the train line I took. So I just decided to get off at the next closest one and see if I could find it. (For those of you who don't know, this is coming from possibly the world's most directionally challenged person. And I wish I was kidding.) I get off at the station, wander through the Motomachi shopping district for a bit and then find Chinatown! Yay! So then I wandered through Chinatown for a while and took some pictures. And I looked around the different shops.
Motomachi Street. It's a pretty famous shopping district of Yokohama.
Chinatown!
A couple hours later, I was on the train home. I didn't get lost or even temporarily confused at where I was. haha. I feel so proud of myself. It was nice to get out and just walk around and see a little of the city. I plan to do it more often now. Honestly, if I do get lost it's not really a huge deal. Even with my poor Japanese skills I can ask for directions to the closest station, and from there it's easy. haha. Maybe I won't always be so directionally challenged after all. :)
Okay, for real I didn't understand what the holiday was for. Communicating specifics is still rather difficult, so sometimes I don't ask. All I knew is that we were going to throw beans and then I was going to eat 16 of them (because I'm 16 this year).
Fukumame!
As I just learned from the wikipedia article, setsubun is like a celebration of the change of seasons, and although it technically refers to the change of all four seasons, it usually refers to the spring because that is the only time it is really celebrated. Today is the last day of winter, or the eve of spring.
With the going away of winter you also throw out bad luck or things that have happened in the last year. This is why we threw the beans. The beans are dried fukumame. I'm not sure what fuku is, but mame is bean. And these are lucky beans or something. Lucky in the asian sense of things being lucky. Which I think is a little different than the western sense of luck, but it doesn't translate to anything closer.
Toru, Mie, and Wataru trowing their beans!
Me throwing fukumame.
Anyway, Then you eat the fukumame. (Different fukumame, not the same ones you just threw off your 5th floor balcony.) You eat as many fukumame as you are years old. I'm 16 so I ate 16. My host dad turned 40 today (Happy Birthday to him. I might stay up till he gets home to wish him it. It's already 11pm, so I hope he gets home soon.) so he will eat 40 of them.
Toru and Wataru
It was a fun little tradition they have. :) Wataru (7) asked if we had setsubun in America and didn't understand why not. haha. Then my host mom told him about how parents hide easter eggs with money inside on easter in america. I had told her about it before. I had to remind her that it wasn't the parents! It's the Easter Bunny! haha He asked, rather hopefully, if they did that in Japan too. My host mom just laughed. What kid wouldn't like the idea of finding money-filled eggs in the house?
We did all this after dinner. Which was sushi! :)
So, today I had off of school, but not because of setsubun. I have today and tomorrow off because they are having entrance exams for my high school. So, even though the high schoolers aren't taking exams (grade/middle schoolers are taking exams to get into this high school) we get off school. Sounds good to me!
However, because it wasn't a holiday that people get off school for, it was only my school. All my school friends had already made plans with other people or their cram schools so I had nothing to do. But, I had decided that I was at least going to get out of the house for a bit in the afternoon so my host mom could get any errands that she wanted to do done without feeling bad for leaving me alone in the house.
In the morning I got to talk on Skype with Dad, Michael, Caroline, Benjamin, Christy, and Ryan. And I got to witness Calvin's first real crawling. All thank to the magic of the internet! :) It was really nice to talk with everyone. Ryan says some of the funiest things I've ever heard. And some of the saddest:
Ryan- "Abbey, why don't you live here anymore?"
Dad- "Because she is visiting in Japan for a while."
Ryan- "Oh. I remember when you used to be here." short pause and now in the saddest little Ryan voice you can imagine, "I just want you to come home, Abbey."
aww! I'll be home in a few months. :)
After I got off the computer with them, I found my host mom just starting to make an Apple Pie! This doesn't happen very much here. Or ever since I got here. We had gotten this huge box of apples and manderine oranges from my host mom's mom the other day, and I think she wanted to use some of the apples. This was real apple pie too! From a recipe book of American recipes in Japanese. Written by an American woman. So, I helped my host mom make apple pie as we had a nice chat. I really love my host mom. I'll miss her when I change host families. When she asked what to do with the extra pie crust dough, I showed her how to make rolly pollies! She liked them a lot! And the pie was dang good too! That's funny because I didn't even like apple pie when before I came here...
While the pie was baking, we made Yakisoba for lunch. I love that stuff. After lunch I decided (with a little encouragement from dad in the morning) to go on an adventure! I decided that I wanted to go to Chinatown and have a wander around. I've been there a couple times, but I'd never really stopped in any of the shops before and I figured that would be more fun to do by myself than anything else on my new "to do/see around Yokohama and Tokyo" list. So I set off.
I knew from looking at a little map on the internet before I left the names of the closest station, and the next closest one. I was planning to go to the closest station, but it turns out that that's on the subway, not on the train line I took. So I just decided to get off at the next closest one and see if I could find it. (For those of you who don't know, this is coming from possibly the world's most directionally challenged person. And I wish I was kidding.) I get off at the station, wander through the Motomachi shopping district for a bit and then find Chinatown! Yay! So then I wandered through Chinatown for a while and took some pictures. And I looked around the different shops.
Motomachi Street. It's a pretty famous shopping district of Yokohama.
Chinatown!
A couple hours later, I was on the train home. I didn't get lost or even temporarily confused at where I was. haha. I feel so proud of myself. It was nice to get out and just walk around and see a little of the city. I plan to do it more often now. Honestly, if I do get lost it's not really a huge deal. Even with my poor Japanese skills I can ask for directions to the closest station, and from there it's easy. haha. Maybe I won't always be so directionally challenged after all. :)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Rotary Dinner
Last Friday night (January 30th) I went to a dinner party for rotary. They have these dinners every 5th Friday of the month, if it has one. It's just to socialize and, because this was the first one of the new year, this one was kind of a new year's party.
That means they did a few extra things to make it more fun or something. First of all, they had some kendo people come and do a demonstration.
Then they had a band. It was made up of a few of the rotarians and one rotarian's brother on lead guitar. It turns out that he is a famous Japanese idol. Or was in the 80's at least. He was lead guitarist for the band "Hound Dog." It has a wikipedia site, but it's in Japanese. :) My host dad was pretty excited when he found out who it was... he was really really famous for that generation. My host dad went over and shook his hand later in the evening. haha. I didn't actually meet the guitar player, but he was really good at guitar! It was very cool.
A rotarian and his younger brother (the rock star).
After we had this amazing performance by this super-star guitar player, it was my turn! haha. I'm not kidding...
They had a karaoke machine and a few people from the different clubs were selected to sing. And guess what?! They picked my host dad and I... to sing Dancing Queen... in front of 120 rotarians. bahahahah!
I had a good time with it, actually. It was fun. I'm not saying I sounded good. Far from it really, but I had fun. Here's the video. :) I'm so glad other people in this world are more talented than me when it comes to singing...
Well, I was going to put up the video, but it was too big. It was 132 mb and the limit is 100. And I don't have any software to edit it on this computer. Sorry guys. I'll get it up on Michael's site eventually.
Hashimoto-san and me. She was nice enough to take that video for me.
That means they did a few extra things to make it more fun or something. First of all, they had some kendo people come and do a demonstration.
Then they had a band. It was made up of a few of the rotarians and one rotarian's brother on lead guitar. It turns out that he is a famous Japanese idol. Or was in the 80's at least. He was lead guitarist for the band "Hound Dog." It has a wikipedia site, but it's in Japanese. :) My host dad was pretty excited when he found out who it was... he was really really famous for that generation. My host dad went over and shook his hand later in the evening. haha. I didn't actually meet the guitar player, but he was really good at guitar! It was very cool.
A rotarian and his younger brother (the rock star).
After we had this amazing performance by this super-star guitar player, it was my turn! haha. I'm not kidding...
They had a karaoke machine and a few people from the different clubs were selected to sing. And guess what?! They picked my host dad and I... to sing Dancing Queen... in front of 120 rotarians. bahahahah!
I had a good time with it, actually. It was fun. I'm not saying I sounded good. Far from it really, but I had fun. Here's the video. :) I'm so glad other people in this world are more talented than me when it comes to singing...
Well, I was going to put up the video, but it was too big. It was 132 mb and the limit is 100. And I don't have any software to edit it on this computer. Sorry guys. I'll get it up on Michael's site eventually.
Hashimoto-san and me. She was nice enough to take that video for me.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Bikes and Scooters!
This one's for Daddy! :D These are some pictures of the bike-parking-place near my station. A lot of people ride those scooter things, and even more people ride bikes. You see every kind of person riding bikes. Old men, mothers with a 4-year-old in a basket thing on the back and a 2-year-old in another seat on the handle bars, women wearing skirts, business men in suits, and students in uniform. So, I think it's safe to assume that they have places like this at pretty much every station.
And a note about the scooters. Even though I am pretty sure it's not legal, they always go in between or along the side of the cars on busy streets. Especially at stoplights or in heavy traffic. And occasionally you see people zip up onto the side walk and then back onto the street to avoid waiting for a red light. What is it with these scooter people?! They just think the rules don't apply to them or something!
And yes, I go past here every day in the bus. Every time I pass it I think, "I should take a picture of this for Dad. He likes to see these kinds of things." It only took me 5 months to finally walk back the 2 minutes and take some pictures. Mostly because I am usually in a hurry to get to the station and because you look rather stupid taking pictures of all the bikes. haha
The first half or so is bikes, and the back half is scooters. What an awful place to forget where you parked.
I love you, Daddy!
And a note about the scooters. Even though I am pretty sure it's not legal, they always go in between or along the side of the cars on busy streets. Especially at stoplights or in heavy traffic. And occasionally you see people zip up onto the side walk and then back onto the street to avoid waiting for a red light. What is it with these scooter people?! They just think the rules don't apply to them or something!
And yes, I go past here every day in the bus. Every time I pass it I think, "I should take a picture of this for Dad. He likes to see these kinds of things." It only took me 5 months to finally walk back the 2 minutes and take some pictures. Mostly because I am usually in a hurry to get to the station and because you look rather stupid taking pictures of all the bikes. haha
The first half or so is bikes, and the back half is scooters. What an awful place to forget where you parked.
I love you, Daddy!
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