Wednesday, January 13th I don't really mind being home alone so much until it gets dark. Once the sun sets though, and I'm still home alone, then I get lonely. In other news, I'm going back to school tomorrow. In the US. [karma: 5 (+/-)] Katie on 01.13 at 04:01 Monday, October 5th Very Bad Day So homesick and frustrated. I want it stop raining, why is it always raining here? I feel used. I don't mind sharing my space, but it feels like I'm being treated like a mom, not like a friend. [karma: 7 (+/-)] Katie on 10.05 at 01:33 Wednesday, September 30th Updates, Ramblings, Need to photograph apartment ASAP To tell you the truth, I should be doing homework right now. It's a Wednesday evening and I'm bored out of mind, so the logical thing to do would be homework. I should write my reading log for my literature class. I've already read the short stories. I've taken notes. I should just finish the log and then I can put away the binder which is on my desk forcing me to hold my elbow at an awkward angle in order to type. It would make sense. Clearly, I'm not going to. Lets see, some highlights of the last couple weeks: 1) made friends with a DJ from France who is in my Japanese class, put me on the guest list for a club that we went to a couple weekends ago 2) found the CS church in Tokyo, took two hours to get there. The Board of Directors is coming last Sunday of October though, so I'll probably go back for that 3) learned how to make crepes and sauce from scratch...am actually generally becoming an accomplished improv chef 4) joined koto club, therefore learning to play the koto 5) received a pillow case in the mail from mom. Sophistication increased exponentially. Um, there are several other awesome things going on as well, I am certain, but nothing is popping up. I did laundry this morning, and it is getting cold, and there is no heater in my room. I have one blanket and am scared that I'm about to start being cold all the time like I normally am in the winter. Am not looking forward to it. Cold weather does mean that my gokiburi roommates have moved on, which is welcome. Also have learned to make amazing mousse out of tofu. Recipe: Vegan chocolate mousse - one pack soft tofu (don't know which one that is, so just poke them and find the softest kind) - two bars dark chocolate - vanilla (if you're fancy) - cinnamon (if you're really fancy) 1) stick the tofu in a blender, put on the blender's lid, blend 2) using the double boiler method (or a microwave, depending on laziness) melt the chocolate 3) throw in some vanilla and/or cinnamon 4) put it all in the blender again, once more put on the lid (remove lid before adding anything, by the way...it works better that way), blend again Yeah, that's it. Also probably delicious with graham crackers, but those are unavailable in 日本. Are delicious in sweet crepes with banana and peanut butter. Actually had that for breakfast today. I paid my insurance today, but I am completely baffled by my gas bill. Were they the ones that were going to bill my credit card? Perhaps I should check and see if I've been billed...doesn't look like it. I took it to the コンビニ and showed the girl, and she was just super confused. I'll ask miho or hideki to glance at it and help me figure out the world. I would just be unhappy if my gas were shut off=no cooking, no hot water=sad Katie. Very very sad Katie. I am exploring Tokyo. I went to asakusa and a park in yoyogi, where I got accosted by a very creepy 外人 who asked if I could speak French (no!) and then tried to tell me in broken English that he liked me and that I'm very beautiful. I am glad that he didn't assume that I spoke any Japanese, because that would have made my escape even more difficult. I did flee back to Nora and Kim and we stuck together after that. We had a picnic. Tokyo has taken it upon itself to host the summer Olympics at some time in the teen years. They are heavily recruiting, signs everywhere proclaiming "日本だから、できる!" Optimistic. Also people performing elaborate taiko routines and wearing shirts and generally showing off how awesome the city is. We ran into one such exhibition on the picnic day outside the park where it connects to Harujuku. すごくentertainingよ. Classes are generally good, in a noncommittal sort of way. I don't loath Japanese like I did over the summer. It's generally chill and easy. Today I wrote an essay about how hemlines and the economy 似ている, and how in the future, although I don't particularly like dressing skankily, I hope that clothing is sort of revealing, because it means that this 不景気 is over. I felt a little ridiculous. Other classes are just easy: I've elected not to do the reading for music because there are only two copies of the textbook in the library, it's out of print, sold only in used bookstores in England, and the teacher refuses to put pdfs online for us because of legality (out of print = totally legal). So, I have decided that the world does not want me to do the reading. I have also decided not to do the reading for my Japanese Society class, but that is simply because I am bored and miserable in that class and it's easy. So painfully easy. It's just a lecture, and I just take notes. The notes that are written on the board for us. It feels like middle school all over again. It's funny, because ICU is one of the best colleges in Japan. Up there with Tokyo University and Wakeda and Kyoto. But it's a joke. Literature class, more of the same. I do do the reading for this though. I actually like it. And the first hour or so, is generally entertaining. We do small group discussion and I break up with James and Anna and other intelligent people and we really dig in to the story. And then when we go back to lecture (why would you ever lecture in a lit class), it all goes downhill. It's alright, I take my knitting to class so that I am less miserable and less tempted to chat or be otherwise disruptive. It's a good compromise. Also nice is relative lack of homework, although I should get my outside reading going for my lit class. Because I should. As a side note: Watch "30 Rock" if you don't already (you should be already doing so, because you are awesome). But we're watching it almost every night here, and I am so addicted. Not even funny. Tonight is pasta. We're teaching little Josh how to cook because he can't even manage pasta. A travesty for a college student. So he's joining us. And I need to すぐ、迎えに行く since he doesn't know the back roads to our apartment. I should also sweep, but that won't happen. I did more or less straighten my bed and remove the laundry I had hanging from my drapes, so I'm going to call my room presentable. I might even get fancy and throw out the garbage--It's only paper, don't be disgusted with me!--that's been sitting on my desk for three weeks. Radical I know. Alright, I'm off. If I'm lucky, I can wake up James (who sleeps like the dead) before I go, and then he can be awake instead of asleep when we come back and start cooking. じゃ、ね！ [karma: 6 (+/-)] Katie on 09.30 at 03:00 Thursday, September 10th So, life. Well, classes started yesterday. I was at first quite a bit terrified about my Japanese class, to be quite honest. I'm at advanced intermediate now, which is you know, right below advanced, and there are actually some native speakers in there. Or at least there were during the summer course. While I think there may still be, I'm not 100% sure. And I was so on top of everything yesterday, I understood everything, I did the homework easily, it was just very nice. We basically spent the first hour doing introductions and then the second writing a two page essay on our hobby. I wrote about music. It was a dramatic retelling of my love affair with the piano. I have, unfortunately, forgotten kanji and I had to ask how to write 帰る. Embarrassing. Also forgot 練習, 影響, and 後, which were also very humiliating. I remember them now, so life will be better. Someone told me later that he was having a hard time following the teacher, which means that I'm not at the bottom of the class anymore, which will be nice. I got my first B ever in the summer courses, so I'm hoping not to have a repeat performance this semester. I'm mostly fine with it, but one is enough, you know? I also had my Modern Japanese Literature in English Translation seminar yesterday. I don't know how I feel about it. On one hand, the class itself seems like it has the potential to be interesting. It's very broad though, so we won't be able to go into much detail, and there are a ton of people in the class, which I'm not sure I'm thrilled with. It's like 40 kids, or something. I don't know. We watched a movie in class. We have a 3.5 hour block, and we can't really do discussions, so she's planning on lecturing, which I don't feel is the best way to do English classes. The reading load is also really light, which should be a good thing, but which actually has me a little perturbed. Its all short stories, which are lovely, but I'd like to dig my fingers into some novels, really get into them. Read what the people are reading, because, let's be honest, how many people carry around short story anthologies? No one. You carry about your novels, and you read those. So if I really want to connect with modern literature, shouldn't it be novels? Today we have Japanese again, of course, and then Introduction to Japanese Society, which should be interesting and not very much work. I can't believe I'm saying this, but my biggest concern might actually be the lack of work, not that there is too much. Life has fallen into a routine. [karma: 9 (+/-)] Katie on 09.10 at 05:08 Saturday, September 5th Hokkaido endings/Apartment beginnings The end of my time in Hokkaido was a blur. I assume we went to interesting places and did interesting things, but I can’t really tell you for certain. I made enchiladas. We couldn’t buy tortillas so we tried to make them from scratch, with interesting results. I had to eat so many flops before we finally figured it out. Then we couldn’t find sour cream. りゅう子 didn’t understand how much we needed it for sour cream cheese enchiladas. She had burritos once, and she was stuck on that idea, so when I kept saying “if we can’t get sour cream, we cannot make the enchiladas,” she kept thinking we could use something else. False. She also kept talking about other toppings and lettuce and such. Eventually I just turned and said that “Burrito とEnchiladasを比べるのはmiso soup とsushiを比べるよう．その二つは日本料理だが、それだけで似てるよ。I think she got the point, because she got home and made some calls and got me some sour cream. But wow, cheese is expensive in Japan. For the enchiladas, it was about 1000yen for the cheese and another 1000yen for the sour cream. Insane. Anyway, the closing dinner was fairly low key. I sat and talked with Moi and went and chatted with the other students. My enchiladas were a hit; they disappeared so fast. Kim’s apple pie was also delicious. Like, no kidding. So was the soba that her host dad made. It was actually the best soba that I have ever had, so that’s something. Okay, weird thing about Japan. They’re really big on expressing your emotions in front of other people, so at the closing dinner they made us all stand up and say our thank you’s to our families in front of everyone and express how the time made us feel and such. Very awkward and uncomfortable. Some of the people started crying. I think I did a good job, people said I did. The next day was the last day. We went to Hakodate where they were going to have a speech contest. I had mentioned a few days earlier that I had no interest, so we escaped. りゅう子wanted to bring James because she has decided somehow that we are dating, which is not at all true, but she’s been weirdly fascinated with him. I ran interference and didn’t let her. So, during the speech contest we instead drove along the shore, sandwiched between the ocean and the mountains through these tiny little towns. It was so wonderful; everything looked like it could have come from Ponyo. We drove out to Esan and went hiking and found mountain berries to eat. Then we drove home and went to a natural hot spring in the ocean and went swimming. Then back to Hakodate where we went to a nunnery and explored their gardens. We had lunch in a restaurant where we had our own Japanese style room with a whole wall of windows overlooking the ocean. I watched the waves crash against each other and examined the pattern of light and dark marine while I sipped tea and ate tempura. We met everyone at the airport. I got the very last ticket, meaning I was the last person there. I saw everyone; I had missed them more than I realized. The flight was an hour and a little, so simple. We landed in the other airport, Haneda, and then took the monorail to the 山手線, the 山手線 to a local line and then took a cab from chofu駅 to our apartments. The cab drivers actually got lost, which was entertaining. They had to call in to get better directions. So glad we had them though, as we would have never found them on our own. We got the key from the landlord and then moved James’ mattress into my room and pushed them together and then the six of us: James, Kim, Geoff, Nora, Anna, and me slept squished together on the two mattresses. It was a tight fit, but we made it. The next morning Geoff, Anna, and Kim moved into their other housing and the three of us started figuring out our own apartments. For the next several days it was just sort of a blur of settling in. My room is the kitchen and dining room, so we bought small shelves for food and a Japanese style table. We also called about internet, which is being installed today, finally. We went to Kim’s family and found her house, which is quite a bike ride away. We hung out in kichijoji. I bought a very cheap guitar that I need to tune so badly. Too bad I left my tuner in Texas. But once I get internet I can totally tune from that. The apartments are small, but totally livable. They seem much more spacious once you’ve moved in. I mean, there are some interesting features, like my room doesn’t have a shower curtain, and James’ has an awkward hole in the top of his closet, and we found a cockroach in his room the first night (no incidences in my room), so now every night before I go to bed he checks my closet, curtains, and bed for bugs. I mean, it’s a first apartment, right, so not much else to be expected. I actually feel very proud of myself for this apartment. It feels really adult to have your own apartment and your own bills and cook for yourself and everything. It’s a big step, and I did the whole thing in Japanese, so that’s something to be proud of. And I’m glad Nora and James are here, because now it feels like Friends, or something. Kim’s always about to, and when she doesn’t go home she just crashes with me, which is a little tricky in a single bed, but we’re figuring it out as we go. Orientation started, and it’s boring, and very pointless, so we’re only sometimes going. We had club demonstrations yesterday, and I’m pretty sure that I’m going to join the hip-hop club, because they were actually like very awesome. That is unless one of the other clubs just seems cooler, but I don’t see that as being likely. I mean, okay, the hip hop clubs modern and jazz interludes were lacking, but when they just stuck to strict street dancing, it was nice. I’d like to be part of it. We hung out at global house yesterday in the lounge. Apparently Patrick and I are friends again, which is a nice surprise. Also, there are a lot of really interesting people living there, so I’m pretty excited to hang out and meet them all. I’d like to be friends, you know? So, since today’s Friday, hopefully we can all go do something together. I don’t know, I guess that’s everything. School started in Claremont on Wednesday, so I’m sort of missing people from there, and I haven’t heard from my family in a while, so I’m a little curious about what is going on in their lives as well, but I have people here so, I wouldn’t say that I’m homesick. I’m actually just pretty happy and really liking Tokyo. Despite all of my complaints about this city and country, it’s really a great place and I am enjoying it here. It’s a good place. [karma: 4 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 11:01 Persimmons and Giant Stitch And so I find myself once again a day behind. Yesterday, Tuesday, started bright and early (surprised? I’m not). We had breakfast, I had a persimmon for the first time, and I must say that they’re pretty delicious. I’m loving this having fruit thing. There were also grilled cheese sandwiches with tomatoes. It was weird for breakfast, but it was still amazing and made me a little homesick but more just happy and feeling more comfortable here. I never thought that more than the language and the people staring at me and the different customs and such that the thing that would make me feel most isolated and alone is the food. I’m never as homesick as when I sit down at a table and can’t recognize any of the food. When everything I taste seems strange and the flavors and overwhelming, not comforting. When I can’t stand to be in the kitchen because the miso is so thick in the air that I’m nauseated, when the very smell that drives me away is the smell of home and family for the people I’m with. I think that’s why I like cooking for myself so much: I can make things that seem like home to me. After breakfast we went to the same elementary school we went to the day before to help carry the shrine for the matsuri. We were a little early, so we joined the school kids in their garden and helped harvest edamame. You know you’re in a rural area when the local elementary school has a garden and takes class time to teach the kids how to grow and harvest vegetables. Actually, it’s really nice. There are fields everywhere, and most people have big gardens and grow their own vegetables and such. Really refreshing and comfortable, and while it’s not like my home, it reminds me of homes in general and I feel freer. It’s a little like camp in some ways, with it’s rural aspect, and I’ve actually always loved the rural areas outside if Cedars, so its all good. We then donned our Happy Coats (incorrect spelling, I’m sure), traditional matsuri clothing and universally unflattering (and more specifically, extremely unflattering for me) and picked up the shrine and joined the elementary school kids and their parents and a car topped with a giant Stitch (he really is universal here…like picture chopsticks with Stitch on them) and walked up and down the neighborhood streets, stopping in front of houses to throw the shrine up and bless the house and collect monetary gifts from the residents. It was hot and the kids got tired quickly. I mean, I was pretty exhausted pretty quickly as well, to be completely honest. They let us stop often, and people came out with drinks or ice cream, so it wasn’t too bad, but I was still so tired. At one point I just slipped my coat off my shoulders and let it hang from the obi. This went well until I realized that it was probably inappropriate. See, I was wearing a tank top with a cardigan, but I had taken off the cardigan when I put on the coat, and bare shoulders are pretty scandalous in Japan. I do it often in Tokyo, but Tokyo is different and I’m foreign, and here I’m family, so I had to put the coat back on, in all of its horror. When we finally reached the end they threw all the kids (and me and Chi who was with me) into the back of a pick-up truck and took us to the same place where we made mochi. We would have eaten bento there (they gave us some), but instead we just went home and had lunch there. I had a peach and asian pairs and some typical festival rice which has like nori and egg and such put in it so it is really colorful. Delicious. Then we were picked up and went off to the local high school which is actually an agricultural school. It was so awkward. The kids were so open about staring at us that even Kim, who is normally so oblivious, felt very uncomfortable. All the boys openly gawked at the two of us, and the braver ones spoke to us, saying “hi” and trying to speak English and giggling together. One even interrupted my 自己紹介to repeat my name and make sure he got it right. So embarrassing. We then joined some 3rd year students who are focusing on dairy products and made ice cream. It was super delicious and really fun. We then headed out to meet their animals. We saw a calf and she frolicked over and talked to us and nibbled on my tights. We then meet the sheep and the pigs. All was going well until the guide told us that they were going to eat the pigs. I almost started crying then and there. Like, I still cannot deal with that. I’m actually tearing up right now. Man, I just can’t handle it. How can people do that? Like, I guess I can understand eating meat, if you don’t think about it, but how could anyone raise an animal and then eat it? It just doesn’t work like that. People don’t work like that, or at least I don’t. It actually disgusts me to think about. And the people who do that…well it’s sort of the same way. We went to the matsuri after that to watch children sumo. It was extremely cute. Then Chi’s おじいさん bought us all these things, yaki something, which were like pancakes with cream in between which they cooked. Delicious. We walked home after that and soon after りゅう子left and I was home alone. I napped for a while and watched Never Been Kissed and played the piano too loudly. When she came back, we ate dinner and then walked to the final portion of the matsuri, which consisted of a drawing (I won a prize) and then this weird tradition by which the men go up on the roof and throw the mochi that we made the day before of the roof and you try to catch it in your bag. It’s wrapped so if you can’t, that’s fine, just scoop it up. So fun, so weird, so Japanese. I mean, who would ever think of pounding rice with a hammer, making it into a ball, and then throwing it off the roof? Home, shower, bed. My head was pounding by then and I just needed sleep. Alright, so today. It started slowly. I got up at 8:00, we had breakfast and then chilled until 9:30 when my bus arrived. We picked everyone else up and then went to some sort of “college”. Or so I thought. It was actually some sort of retirement activity group. Sounded super lame, but was actually awesome. We introduced ourselves, first in our native language and then in Japanese, because the old people were studying languages, so may as well. When I started my English introduction, I said “Hi” and it came out with such a thick drawl that Kim on the other end of the line started laughing. I was すごくembarrassed. Horrifying, really. Then we were each sent to our own table. First we played a game of, without speaking, lining up in order of our birthdays. They didn’t really get it, and so my table was basically all wrong. I think they thought they were lining up by birth year, but no, not at all. Then we played charades. This was done by table, in a line, with you acting for the next, and then for the next, like telephone. And it was all sports. My table was the only one to pass it all the way to the end correctly. 水泳, swimming. This was followed by a language share: we answered questions about our language, and they explained to us some of the special things that are said only in Hokkaido. It was basically 20 minutes of talking and sharing and was a little confusing because it’s very hard to understand old people when they speak in Japanese. Or at least it’s very hard for me, but it was still enjoyable. Then we had karaoke, in several languages. Then lunch which was bento that I mostly couldn’t eat, accompanied by the ritualistic discussion and explanation of vegetarianism. Slightly better with adults than with children, but still a pain. Then we danced. The women taught us some old dances, sort of like the Macarena that everyone knew and could do to the songs. So old. Everyone was quite impressed with my ability to do jazz squares. Like, when I walked back to my table everyone stopped me to tell me how good I was. Well, that’s 13 years of ballet paying off for you! We left soon after that, all saying our final remarks and then walking down the double row that they had formed for us, shaking hands with all of them and getting good wishes. It was enjoyable, but like I said, a little awkward. Then to the 2nd house for ikebana. Mine was simple, using mostly reeds and actually only one white flower and a few buds. Pictures were taken. When the sensei was describing all of them later she said mine had a fall feeling as well as a very adult feeling. I think that’s good. I think it might be sophisticated? Here’s to hoping, at least. Then I crashed on the coach listening to my ipod and then came over and crashed too and we basically just collapsed on top of one another. Like global house. Nice. Then the afternoon was spent with Kim’s family. I played games outside with the kids. Hopscotch, volleyball, dodge ball, races. The verdict: I’m good at hopscotch, I can run like no one’s business, even in flip-flops, I can hold my own in volleyball, do not make me play dodge ball or things just won’t end well. They didn’t end well. Also Kim rocks at all things sporty. Then we had dinner, which was delicious and comfortable: miso soup, rice, and some sort of fried corn bread thing, followed by apple cake and coffee with Kim, sitting and talking, followed by tea with Kim and her お母さん. We sat and talked for well over an hour in Japanese, and it was sort of how I want the host experience to be. We chatted about boys and food and slang and made jokes and stuff and it was super informal. At 8:15 I went home because I told りゅう子that I would be back around 8. When we left I gave Kim and hug and then her mom gave me a hug too, which was so nice because the Japanese don’t really hug. I talked with りゅう子a little and watched some TV and then took a super quick shower and spent the next 45 minutes writing this. Shouldn't have taken me that long, to be honest, but my English spelling is going so quickly it’s embarrassing. I mean, it wasn’t good to begin with, but now it’s taking me forever to write because I actually can’t spell the basic words. I’m also failing at grammar left and right, as I’m sure you must have noticed if you wove your way through this disaster. Terrifying. Well, that’s all for now, and now I’m all caught up, so おやすみ！ [karma: 5 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 11:00 Winning a suika Yesterday may have been my best day since coming here. In the morning I slept in until 8:30, then was called out of bed and scramble to get ready. We picked up An and then went and joined some nice older house wives to make mochi for the matsuri, which was yesterday and continuing into today. They talked to me, and were really amenable with their speaking, so we were able to get along really well and have a good time. Um, they were impressed by my Japanese, not so impressed by how I made mochi, but I got better over time. More comments on my appearance which caused me to blush again…so what else is new. Actually, it was really pleasant and I didn’t feel alienated like I have in similar situations, so that was really nice. Then we went off to an elementary school. There were three of us at ours, An, Ji, and me. First we went and made kirigami with 3rd and 4th graders. It was really fun, and I got to bond with the kids sitting next to me. Particularly the girl, who was not so skilled with her scissors. After that we went to class with the 5th and 6th graders. We talked about our countries (it was actually 10 minutes for all three of us, so I took about 4, since the other two were both from Korea). That was interesting, and really painless. Like, the words came naturally and I could think of plenty to say and wasn’t stressed at all. Then we played junken and then we taught the kids the words in English and Korean (rock, paper, scissors). After that came Fruits Basket, which is a Japanese game, that we again taught in the other languages and played. Korean is hard, yo. The accent is insane. (PS: that yo is just one example of how Japanese is invading my everyday life. That wasn’t a gangster yo, that was the Japanese emphatical informative yo. Basically, I was saying, it really is and I’m telling you so). Then we had lunch with the 5th and 6th graders. We talked a little about baseball, where I had to reveal my painful lack of knowledge. Then we went and played in the gym with the first and second graders. I played basketball and once more impressed them with my ability to get a ball through a basket. Then we passed in a circle, and I taught them big mama, so that was really fun. Then we went to Takasaka’s second house. Yesterday’s cultural activity was kimono wearing. And it once more confirmed my deep-seated belief that kimonos are not meant to flatter an American figure. I look incredibly awkward in them, but they’re still fun to wear. Mine was an actual legit kimono, which meant that it took three people to tie it all up. Dark red with a white and ivory and gold obi. Very pretty. We wore kimono and talked and drank tea and played Othello. I am still undefeated. Yeah, basically I dominate. Not true, I’m just super competitive and I can see the table, like visualize it. Sort of like I can with Set. Then we went home, this time with Erika, An, and their grandmother. Takasaka went off somewhere else, so we hung out for a while, I played piano, and then we had dinner. りゅう子さんstill hadn’t returned. When she did, we went off to the matsuri which was right down the street. We arrived right in the middle of this game that they play where they fill baskets with fruits and vegetables and then get five people on stage, let them pick it up, and then guess the weight of it all together. We went to the shrine first to pay our respects before returning to in front of the stage and the game. I went up once, because I found myself accidentally in line when I was talking to Moi. The man was super surprised and asked me where I was from and if I understand kilograms, and was even more shocked when I answered him clearly in Japanese. We guessed, and was super close, but someone else was closer so they won it. Then the winner gave me the bag, since he worked at the matsuri and couldn’t technically win. Ji’s host father tried to by me beer, but Moi helped me translate (he is super hard to understand) and I was able to stop him. Then I hung out with all the kids from the elementary school, since they all came to it. I talked to Moi about Stitch and why he is so popular here, and a few minutes later I was presented with a stuffed Stitch doll that she had won. So cute. As the evening was winding down, they needed more contestants for the weight-guessing contest, so they dragged me back up for the last one. This one they had a suica that weighed 7.7 kg in addition to the other fruits and vegetables. All together, they equaled 14.2 kg exactly. I know this because that was what I guessed. I won it all. So we gave the other bag to Ji’s family. You have no idea how valuable 14.2 kg of fruit and veggies is in Japan. After the game they had an auction to get rid of the extra stuff, and then we went home. We went to an onsen right before bed and then I crashed because today was super busy too. [karma: 2 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 10:59 Hokkaido weekend I guess here’s where I try and sum up all of the weekend at once. So, I guess this was really my only weekend in Hokkaido. It was pretty good, all things considering. I’ll go through it like normal, since really, there isn’t anything all that special to highlight. Saturday morning was chill. りゅう子さんwent to the hospital to do something, volunteer or something, so I had the house all to myself. I was even able to avoid the humongous breakfast that normally awaits me. I took a long shower and shaved my legs, I belted out music and played the piano, I read magazines that Kim’s mother sent her, I watched Nottinghill, I slept. It was all very wonderful. When she returned, we had lunch. We went over to her second house and had somen, which I have decided that I don’t like all that much, and I had to meet a lot of people and they didn’t speak slowly for me or anything, so I just sat in silence. There was a lot of food. It was not fun. On the way home, we stopped at a spring and filled up giant pet bottles with water. That may be my favorite thing about Hokkaido so far: there are just springs and you can just get sparkling fresh mountain water there for free. It’s amazing. At 1:30 Kim came over and the three of us met up with some other people and went to the top of a mountain. It was lovely. We had to leave quickly thought because moi-chan, this little girl who came with us, had karate. We then came home and had tea and dessert, the three of us, and sat and talked for a while. At a reasonable break, Kim and I left to just go for a walk. We wandered about hokuto talking, and it was really pleasant and nice, and I really like Kim a lot. Also, on a side note, I think I want to pierce my ears again. We returned and went up to my room and sat and talked some more and just lay on the floor. It was pleasant. We cooked dinner. It was delicious. There was a lot. Kim totally understands my complaint. Then we had tea and dessert. りゅう子さんmade Kim and me play Othello, which isn’t a good idea because I’m so wicked competitive. Then she pulled out her knitting, so I got mine, and we sat and talked some more and knit. Finally, I played a little piano for them, then Kim went home and the two of us sat and watched Little Women (I left about halfway as I was super exhausted, but I can only assume that she finished it). Sunday was relaxed. We got up, and had a monster breakfast. Here, I actually have a recount of this: two types of rice, two types of bread, two types of soup, tomato and basil salad, vegetables, tofu, juice. Yeah, I know. She keeps bringing more over while your eating, and then it just appears on your plate. Then I was about to write in here, when I was swept over to her other house. This was the worst part of the weekend. I just think I don’t really like this second house. Not so many good experiences there. She had invited over a bunch of older women and three slightly mentally disabled middle-aged men. I spent the morning feeling alienated by both groups. I cleaned and de-vined tomatoes. Then I cut milk cartons and folded them into triangles. I’m not sure why. There was a festival, so we saw the elementary schoolers with their shrines, which was really cute, but that was the only really good part. Then we had tea with a lot of sweets. Then we made lunch, and I had to be in the kitchen with all the strong smells, and people telling me to do things, but not explaining clearly and not talking slowly. Or doing the opposite. See, they’ll tell me to cut something, and I’ll ask them which way they want it cut, and they look at me like I’m stupid and tell me to cut it, and I say that I understand but I need to know how they want it cut, big, small, long-ways, short-ways. It’s horrible. And then lunch. Equally horrible. I couldn’t really get through it. Man, if I have to eat another tomato, I just might cry. We will probably have tomatoes for breakfast tomorrow. Then we went to a brass band concert in the same park that we went to a while ago. That was really nice. I wandered a bit, away from the group. Met this little kid who was fascinated with me. He stared and asked questions loudly to his mom, so I came over and introduced myself. Then I lay down in the grass and listened. That might have been a taboo, as people kept looking at me. Everyone in Japan brings blankets or chairs. What’s wrong with the grass? People also kept trying to give me hats, as it is popular in Japan to be pale. I had sunglasses, why would I need a hat? Then I left with another host girl from Korea, An. We spent the evening at her host family’s house. They have a 4 year old daughter named Erika, who is the cutest thing ever, and four cats. One is a kitten. I played with them a lot, and they sat in my lap, and now I’m feeling a little bit sneezy which isn’t good. Erika talked a lot, and played with paper airplanes with me and sat and leaned against me. She actually got a huge kick out of sitting in front of me when I’m lying on my side and leaning back. People in Japan aren’t very big on physical contact, so I guess it surprised her. I had leftover spaghetti for dinner, because what everyone else was eating wasn’t vegetarian. It was really good and tasted like spaghetti should. I was offered tomatoes, but had to say no. Better yet, when I said I didn’t want something, they actually believed me, which made me happy. I know it’s a cultural thing that you ask like a million times, but I want just once to say no and have it just plain old mean no. Then I came home, had dessert with りゅう子さん, took a shower, and now I’m writing here. Tomorrow I’ll be at an elementary school. They want me to do a 10 minute presentation on America. I’m going to wing it. We’ll see how that goes. Anyway, that’s all for now, and I’m beat, so おやすみ！ [karma: 4 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 10:59 Hokkaido and middle schools Today was the first day of our school exchanges. We have more of them next week (actually Monday-Wednesday). We were broken into two groups of 4 and went to two schools, one an elementary and one a middle school. I was in the middle school, and the car arrived at 8:15 this morning to pick me up. So I got up early to have breakfast with りゅう子さんand get ready. We had more tofu (this time in miso soup form) and some kimchi, which I’m pretty certain I’m not very fond of as well. I was the first student they picked up, so I got to ride along to everyone else’s house. At the middle school, we started with a little introduction, then for the next three periods, we went around to all the classes. My favorites were 7th grade math (because I rock at pre-algebra regardless of language), music, and of course, English. English class was the one I stayed in longest, and I helped with pronunciation and such. It was sort of funny, they were learning how to order fast-food at a McDonalds, and I just kept thinking, so stereotypical. But I guess it’s really not a bad thing to learn. Most difficult was the word “or”, because there isn’t a very good Japanese translation, and because the pronunciation is just very difficult for them. The r and such. After time spent wandering, we went with them to gym. You see, the school is very small. 3rd year is 10, 2nd is 6, and 1st is 5 students. So they have a really good relationship with each other and with their teachers. They would even use casual speech with their teachers, which shocked me. We had to play volley-ball, which as you can guess, was a cause of some consternation to me. Once again I had an awkward encounter due to the fact that all of my features, even the ones I don’t like, are desirable in Japan and here I’m seen as exotic. I was put on a team with 3rd years, and when I was hanging out with some of the girls, they just sort of looked at me and were like “キャサリンさん, good body.” I mean, their English wasn’t great, so I don’t think they were quite certain how embarrassing this was, but I blushed such a bright red, that this became a running joke all afternoon. Anyway, my team was fairly decent, and I turned out to be pretty good at volley-ball. Well, at least when playing with middle-schoolers. I can serve, at least, and fairly accurately. We played 4 games, and won two of them, lost one, and ended in the middle of the fourth (although I’m pretty sure that we would have lost that one…there were 6 people on the other team, and only 4 on mine). Then we retired inside to lunch, which is taken all in the same room all together. They make the food, so everyone has the same thing: it was rice, miso soup, milk, milk pudding, breaded shrimp, and some sort of meat dish. I gave all the meat to Tee Pan san because he’s a 18 year old boy and needs to eat all the time and there was no way I was going to eat it. We spent most of the meal talking about being vegetarian, with a brief interruption to talk about how awesome my nose and eyes are. More awkwardness. We junken-ed to see who had to do dishes, and since I won, I was free. Then we went off to a cultural event, which was at りゅう子さん’s other house. Origami. We sat and folded paper, then had tea (black tea, delicious) and pocky. There was a man there who was slightly mentally disabled who spoke English with Kim and me most of the time. Sort of uncomfortable, but it was an excuse to speak English, so I appreciated it. I’m getting so sick of not understanding and not being understood. I mean, I get by, but I can never fully express myself. When I speak in English, I feel like I can fully say what I want, and I know that my speech is so fully colored by florid language, idioms, plays on words, innuendos, slang, that’s just how I like to talk, and really how I am comfortable talking. In Japanese, I can’t replicate that. I’m getting a little able to do sarcasm, and add a tiny bit, but I can never be quite as free as I am in English, and it’s a little frustrating. Anyway, we then all took an adventure out into りゅう子さん’s garden and ate tomatoes off the vine and she gave everyone else vegetables to take home (of course I didn’t need to). Then we went home, and りゅう子さんwent off somewhere, so I’ve been home alone. I rocked out on the piano for a while, and then read one of the magazines that Kim’s mother sent to her (People, I think), and now I’m writing this. I planned on playing the piano again, but I couldn’t find the light switch for the hallway, and the sun has already set. Tomorrow is Saturday, and I don’t really have plans, but I think Kim is going to come over in the afternoon and we can go for a walk or chat or something. It’ll be fun to be able to relax, because as much as I adore my host mother, sometimes it would be nice to just have some chill time. Like this evening has just been so wonderful, and it would be very fun to be able to just hang with a friend. I’m sure she’ll be home soon, and we can have dinner. I would have made it, but I’m just not sure what we’re doing. I think she said spaghetti, or something, but I can’t be certain. Then, she mentioned something about an onsen, so maybe that’s the plan? That would be nice, but to be honest, I’d almost rather just bathe here. I need to shave, and that’s a little awkward at an onsen. [karma: 4 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 10:57 More Hokkaido So, today my alarm didn’t go off and I slept in until (gasp) 9:00 AM. I think I actually worried りゅう子さんa little, because she started calling for me at about 9:20 when I was getting ready. That’s fine, she’s just such an early riser. Also, we had somewhere to be. I ran downstairs and was greeted by breakfast in all of its leftover dinner glory. In Japan they don’t distinguish between breakfast and dinner foods. Lunch is different, since that is normally taken separately, as a bento or something, but breakfast is the same. We had jazzed it up a little: there were two kinds of tofu. I have eaten tofu for almost all of the meals here. I still hate tofu. I also still hate pickled vegetables. But she’s big on them, so I eat them. Whatever, it’s fine. Did I mention that she grows everything in her greenhouse? She also apparently makes her own jam (it’s delicious). She’s such a hippy, it’s wonderful. And we’re getting along well, we have conversations and stuff. On the 30th, Japan is having their big election, like our presidential one, and so we’ve talked about that, and about the situations in America, the world-wide recession, the middle east, I don’t know, a lot of stuff. After breakfast, we got in the car, picked up two women at their houses, and then went to a play group where moms and their children sat and listened to all of them women read books to the kids. Then the same group (there were 5 women, each with a book) went to a day care and repeated the process. Chi (a girl (well is 26 a girl?) who is also doing the exchange) and I came a long. At the day care, the kids were a bit older, and they were fascinated with me and asked my name and tried to speak a little English. Everyone here is fascinated with me. Not as many foreigners in Hokuto as there are in Tokyo. So, I guess I spent the morning with the old women of the town. On the way home, we stopped for soft cream (I tried the green tea, it was delicious) and milk, and then went to this absolutely beautiful park. We didn’t have much time (my bus was at 1:10, but we walked about a little. りゅう子showed me how to make a boat out of a leaf, and we talked to some fishermen and saw what they had caught (they were alive in a bucket of water and very little). We then went home and had a very quick lunch, and chatted about some of her previous host students (she keeps in touch with them all) and then I went out for scheduled activities. It was so nice to get to hang with the other kids. Particularly Kim and Tee Pan, because I can speak English with them. Sometimes you get a craving to be understood, you know? But mostly it was all Japanese anyway this afternoon. But it was Japanese without any pressure, just however I happened to speak it, which was nice. I just work so hard to be polite and correct for her, it’s nice to know that my mangled language will be understood and forgiven regardless. (Which I’m sure it is, but I just want it to be right for her, you know?) Our first stop was the cement factory. We had to wear hard hats and listen to a lecture and then go see the mining site and some huge machines. I can now tell you first hand that cement is just as boring in Japanese as it is in English. But the tractors were awesome! I was such a boy, I like climbed up and sat in the drivers seat and took pictures and really really wanted to drive it but you know, couldn‘t. Still, had the desire to. Then we went to this little park, which was beautiful and had waterfalls and a river and we frolicked in the rain a little bit. There were huge bugs! Like huge, and one bit me, which was unfortunate. We had a freak out when the swarmed the bus as we tried to enter. The cute Japanese intern, Izumi (he’s my age, and so cute) was our savior and shooed them outside while acting all manly and like most 20 year old boys do when they banish insects and are cheered on by 7 girls their age. It was hilarious and endearing. I was laughing…I probably shouldn’t have been. This was followed by a trip to a museum about this potato farmer who lived in hokuto. It was so weird, they had like the oldest car in Japan, one of the oldest in the world, yet the man let us touch it, climb into it. So not like an American museum. They had original letters from this man when he studied abroad in England in the 1800’s. They were in plastic sheaths, but they let us hold them to read them and translate them. So amusing. Finally, while it is still raining a little, we go to a golf course. They’re debating not making us play because of the rain, but this was overruled by the appearance of ponchos—blue for the girls, long and white for the boys. Japan is so fumy about colors and genders. For instance at Pa Pa Pasta, the place by ICU, they have glasses with colored bottoms, and the girls always get pink and they boys get blue or green. I enjoy throwing the servers for a loop by intercepting one of the glasses that was headed towards a man. They always look a little disconcerted when they have to hand the pink glass to a boy. It never stops being amusing. Anyway, at first I was disappointed that I was going to have to play golf, but it was actually amazing. They paired us all up with another student from a different country (I was with Chi again, who is from Korea), and then with one of the old men who was at the club. We then played what was sort of a mix of real golf and putt-putt. For instance, the longest hole was about 100 meters (a little over 300 feet). The balls were much larger, sort of like what you would use for pool or croquet. My group went really fast and we were the only ones who got to play all 18 holes. I didn’t keep score, but it wasn’t too awful. I mean, it was well over par, but not like, wow, two times par. Wow, you fail. Not like that. It was so much fun, and the man who was with us was so funny. He would say “Wow! And Okay! And すごい” and other cute things like that. And when we said good-bye, he said “Chao” to me, maybe because he mixed up English, but it was still endearing and adorable. Home, and dinner, which was Indian style curry and so good. She used brown rice instead, of white, which was really delicious. And there was fruit for dessert: cantelope with homemade strawberry jam. Oh! Here’s something to try at home. It makes the most amazing sweet caramel spread. You can also harden it, or wrap it in rice paper and serve it as a candy: Nama Caramel 1 can sweetened condensed milk Boil a pot of water. Take the can of sweetened condensed milk and drop it in the water (still in the can). Boil for two hours. Remove from water and let cool. Open. I know, too simple to believe right? Also amazingly delicious! Try it, really. More importantly, serve it at dinner parties and wow your guests with homemade caramel. After dinner we went to an onsen and cleaned up and relaxed. Then I came home and went upstairs to write this and go to bed, since I have to get up early to go to a middle school for the day tomorrow. Should be fun. I hope my Japanese doesn’t fail me and that I don’t look like an idiot, but it should all be good. I guess I’ll write more about that later. I really wish I had internet so that I could be posting these gradually, but I don’t, so this’ll just have to do. [karma: -2 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 10:56 Hokkaido beginnings I’m just going to go ahead and claim preemptive victory in the “coolest host family” contest. On the boat, I had my bath, and then suffered through a somewhat nauseating breakfast of scrambled eggs made with mayonnaise, and bread and some sort of mango jello thing. I barely survived it, I think. I could actually feel myself getting a little nauseous, which was weird because I am so over the seasickness thing. Anyway, after breakfast, I went and whiled away the morning on the deck, until we had orientation, which was long and painful and basically said all the things that we already knew. We had to write down our favorite word and then define it. Serendipity is quite hard to define in Japanese. 三角関係is much easier. Kim took that one. It’s wonderful, no? Then we had to take our pictures, then I needed a nap so badly, but James didn’t want to just have to be alone since he was the only boy, I think, so we napped in chairs up in the observation deck. The others couldn’t find us for lunch, so when we woke up we went and got it. Disgusting Japanese curry. It is not like Indian curry, which I have become addicted to and will be learning how to cook and we will be eating at home. It is bland and sweet and gross. But they had vegetable curry as an option, so at least I could eat it, no problem. Then we just sort of played out on the deck until we docked. Then we were straight into a bus to Sapporo, where we spent the night. If I had to say, I’d compare Sapporo to Portland or Seattle. They’re both lovely cities, with temperate, moist climates. We checked into the hotel, Ramada, which was very nice; Kim and I shared a room. Then we went out (all of us from Pomona) and wandered about. We would have been more inclusive, probably, if it weren’t for the language barrier, which made associating with the other students just much more difficult. We frolicked in the park, ate barbecued corn and took pictures, and basically had a great time. Then we went in search of a crab restaurant, because that’s a big deal in Sapporo, so that’s what you eat. We finally found one that was in a basement and very local, very reasonably priced and really nice. Everyone said it was delicious. I did not eat, because, you know how I am with food like that. It was actually not so bad, because it was already cut, but James cracked one piece of his, and it just sort of tied my stomach in knots. After that, we went in search of food for me, but got distracted by a festival in the same park from earlier. I danced the bon odori with them. I think there is video evidence, which is fairly terrifying. Then I was curling up in a ball around my stomach and dying, so we went and found a café where we wanted to get a parfait anyway, and I got a pizza. Then we split six ways this 3600 yen parfait. It was huge! But it was so delicious. We returned to the hotel and everyone crowded into Kim and my room and we watched “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” It was so glorious. At about midnight we crashed. Then it was out of bed at 6 AM, to shower, pack, and bring all the luggage downstairs. We got breakfast at the hotel buffet. They had cereal! That was exciting. As were the Danish. Less exciting: the mayonnaise scrambled eggs. Then on the buses for a trip to the Ainu museum. The museum was interesting, but it was also the most alienating experience I have ever had. When we sat down for the presentation, the guide went through and asked people about their home countries. He picked out people, and I felt sort of objectified and awkward when instead of referring to me by my shirt color, like he did for everyone else, he called me the pretty girl with the light hair. Then, when I said America, he told me that the presentation was in Japanese and asked if it was all right. Even though I said yes, he proceeded to, throughout the entire presentation, look at me and try to translate. I understood! It was so embarrassing and humiliating. He did it to the Korean people too, I guess, but it was still awful. Then back to the buses and we drove an hour to lunch. We cooked vegetables and meat on stove-top tables and dipped them in sauce and ate them with rice. It was fun, and actually really delicious. Then we said good-bye. James actually left right there to his family, making him the first person to get to his family at about 1:30. I didn’t arrive at my town of Hokuto until 5:00. But before that there was one terrifyingly embarrassing moment when I actually made them stop the bus at a コンビニso that I could use the bathroom. Just me. I let them think that it was because of my period. I love being a woman. When we arrived in Hokuto, we had another mini-orientation and then hung out until 6 when we had a welcome party with all of the families. Then we had to sit in front of everyone and introduce ourselves. I was so nervous, but I didn’t make an idiot of myself. Then I met my family, some 6th graders danced for us, and it was really just wonderfully fun. We took out food later, and I assumed it was for the next day. No, it was for that evening, immediately upon returning. We came home and I was shown my room. Well, make that rooms. I have the entire second story of りゅう子さん’s second house. Yeah, on the way home she took me to the first which is used entirely for charity purposes: she works with mentally disabled children. The second house is two stories, Japanese style, and has a green-house out back, where we get most of our vegetables from. I have the upstairs bathroom and both rooms. They’re tatami with sliding screens and the whole bit. When I came down, we ate the food we took out, plus more fruit and candies with our tea. Luckily I mostly took watermelon. But I swear she is trying to fatten me up. There is always so much food! Then, at 9:30, we got in her car and went to the top of the mountain in the neighboring city of hakutate (I think that’s right), and looked at the ocean and the bay as it was lit up at night. It was so beautiful. Then we went home and to bed. I slept until 7:30, and then was ready by 8. We went to an onsen to bathe and spent an hour or so there and trying out all of the different baths. It was wonderful. Then back home, and we met up with some other 留学生 and their host families and we traveled all over hakutate. First we went to a department and there was some sort of weird lecture that I ignored and instead spent time talking to the other students. They had a tester to see how 元気you were. I held it in my hand and the arrow shot over to the other side, past the end of the bar. Apparently I’m just too 元気. Then we went to another Ainu museum, then soba for lunch, followed by wandering around downtown hakodate, a visit to the old antique British consulate, and then some soft cream. It was so nice. Then back to the house, where we did 切り紙and sat and talked. More people joined us, including a 4th grade girl, and we played with toys and I played the piano, which was wonderful. Did I say that りゅう子さんhas a piano? Because she does. Amazing. I learned how to play Othello (I won!) and then we watched The Sound of Music in English with Spanish subtitles. I was trying to translate live and it was going so-so. But it was fun. Then we had tea (because we have tea every afternoon) and talked. I’m learning how to make Nama-caramels, which are a Hokkaido specialty. It is made out of sweetened condensed milk, I believe. When everyone left, I just kept watching the movie and started writing this. I think dinner will be soon, I offered to help, but was rejected. I feel a little awkward about that, but I did do all of the dishes today, so I guess that helps a little. Now we’re just chilling out, and I assume fairly soon I’ll be showering and maybe getting to bed early. I’m quite tired. Everyone else seems to be having a good time, from what I can tell, but I’m still pretty certain that I have the best situation. りゅう子さんis just one of those people who is good and loves people and she seems like some sort of important person in this program. She is fine with being vegetarian, and she does charity work and she used to teach fourth grade, and basically it’s just a really really good situation. I’m so happy here. [karma: 0 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 10:55 Going to Hokkaido I watched the sun rise over the ocean today. Well, I tried to. There were so many clouds that all you could make out was a gradual lightening over the waves. It was still beautiful. I stood there in my sweatpants and a T, hair tangled from sleep and the wind, arms wrapped around my body to shield out the wind and I had never felt quite as isolated. On the Hokkaido program, we, those of us from Pomona, are the only Americans, which means that us girls are the only white people on this entire boat. It’s a large boat. And I stood there and heard Chinese and Korean and the occasional Japanese word or phrase (they throw it in like we do with our English) but mostly just felt alone. My one friend, Chan, speaks Chinese and we chatted a bit in Japanese in the morning, but it was cold and he went inside. The beds were about the width of half a twin, and just barely long enough. They didn’t shut off the lights, and we all slept dorm style on the floor of this one huge room over the engines. It was so loud. The rocking of the boat lulled me to sleep, but it was fitful, and I awoke with little muscle sores up and down my spine. I tend to toss and turn and sprawl when I sleep, and it’s quite hard for me to rest soundly without space. Hopefully tonight will be better, as we’re in hotels. Kim and I are sharing a room. Since we’re going to the same town, we’ve basically been attached at the hip this whole trip. Which is nice, because it means that I wont be alone in my city. I’m still a tad bit skeptical about the hosting situations. Lets see, where to begin. I guess I really need to go all the way back to Fuji. Which still needs a separate entry. So let’s suffice it to say that after the beauty of the Fuji weekend, we moved on life went insane. I devoted myself entirely to my studies, working a ridiculous number of hours a day trying to keep up and learn and it was super stressful. It got to the point where the only part of the day that I really looked forward to was lunch, because it was the little pocket of rest that I got; the time after classes (which were a special kind of misery on their own) and the time before homework (which was all consuming and a bit torturous). I didn’t even like the food for lunch, which was normally egg salad sandwiches, one of the very few vegetarian items available. Yes, I like egg salad sandwiches, but this was a bit too much, even for me. You have no idea how much I just wanted something warm so many days, and couldn’t get it. That time blurred up into a mess of quizzes and tests and I guess I can’t really give a full recount. I got closer with the many of the people here, whom I still love and adore. I had a falling out with some of them. Well, one of them. He has decided that I don’t like him and will no longer talk to me, which everyone agrees is ridiculous, so that’s good. I’m not alone in being perplexed. But I am hurt, because I hate when this happens, even more so when I don’t know why. But I’ll work on it. He’s here for a whole year, so I’ve got time. Of course, on top of all of this work we’re still cooking dinner together every night. Now our group is changing a little though. James and I still cook every night, and Kim is still with us most of the time. But sometimes Viktor joins us, and sometimes it’s still Pat, but less and less often. Sometimes Nora or Anna joins us. For the last week or so, Viktor joins us for every night, and Pat stops eating with us. Not unpredictable, and I adore Viktor. He is at the same time very paternal and very much a child. He has his life figured out, he’s a grad student and engaged to a wonderful girl, Makiko, and is happy and it’s very nice. We disagree on a lot of things, and I think he worries that I hold our dissenting opinions against him, but I don’t. People don’t tend to realize that I am simply so used to seeing things differently that I hardly notice it anymore. He gives me a goodnight kiss on the forehead or cheek every night, and never complains about my being picky. He makes fun of the fact that I turn bright red, but tells me that I shouldn’t be self-conscious. We make him set the table and do the dishes when we cook. That next weekend was fun. I guess we did a pretty good job of having fun on the weekends. (This would be the weekend before the last week of school now). On Friday night, a whole bunch of us went out to an izakaya. By a whole bunch, I mean Nora, Jack, Pooja, Viktor, Kim, James, and me. We were later joined by 元気Ryan and Miho. I think that was the group, but I’m not 100% certain that there weren’t a few other people. It was fun; we mostly just sat and talked. And of course they drank, and I had my grapefruit juice and made sure everyone was safe. There was some interesting conversation that prompted a new inside joke. Now I can never see people stretching with their arms above their head without laughing a little. We biked back together without incident. Then on Saturday, we had a sleep over in my room. Viktor, James, Kim and I sat and watched Anastasia (with commentary from Viktor who grew up in the Soviet Union), and then Stardust while we ate Japanese snacks from the 99 and 7/11 and chatted. They had brought mattresses up and covered my floor with their futons. We then crashed in my room, curling up in our beds and sleeping until the mid-morning. (I, the earliest riser, woke first at 10, but James reset his alarm and made me sleep for another half hour). We made banana pancakes together, using up the last of the mix that we got for Kim’s birthday. Japanese pancakes are super thick and dense, so I had been messing with the mix, and I finally got it right so that we could have lighter, more American ones. I’ve become a pancake making and flipping master. The next week was the one leading up to our final on Thursday and our Presentation on Friday. It was…a bad week. The only redeeming value was that at some point a guitar showed up in the lounge, and just hung out there. It was acoustic, so the strings were closer and metal, so it took some getting used to, but it helped ease that dull pain that I had been feeling for a couple of weeks whenever I thought of my music. On Tuesday, our teacher told us that we had 60 additional kanji to learn for the test. I guess that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I mean, we had a quiz on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, tons of homework everyday leading up to Thursday. I barely had time to study. Most days, I got home from lunch at 1:30 and did homework until midnight, with only a couple hours or remission when we cooked and ate dinner. Tuesday evening, I made the mistake of musing aloud about whether I would shave again that week. This prompted Jack to write a song about how I don’t shower. It’s a beautiful little piece, I adore it. (I feel like it’s a small problem that even though I have tons of musician friends, the first piece ever written for me is about my lack of hygiene). It’s alright, one of the lyrics is about how Jack loves me as much as the people he knows that do shower. Also, just disclaimer, I do actually shower. The night before the test, I sort of lost it at about midnight. I went outside and started sobbing. Viktor found me and was, I think, quite honestly terrified. He sat down and gathered me up and gave me a hug and made sure I was all right. He made me promise to go to bed, and he checked for me when he got back from his walk. There was a facebook message the next morning from him making sure that I was fine, and then he checked on me again the next morning during breaks. See, that’s what I love about the people here. The test was grueling and terrifying, and I ended up with a high C on it, which I’m not happy with, but there was nothing else I could have done. I studied a couple hours every day for it the week leading up to it. The day before I studied 14 hours. I mean, I don’t know. I think I got a B in the class. I mean, I got my speaking test results back: 11/12. And my essays went pretty well in general, although I’m quite annoyed that we didn’t actually get any of our essays back until the last day of class. They had the same complaint for two or three of them: that I didn’t use complicated enough grammar patterns, which would have been incredibly easy for me to change, but I didn’t know to work on it until I had already submitted all of them. The lowest grade I got on any of them was 10/12. Thursday afternoon, I went to a watermelon smashing party with Lisa, Nina, and Akiko. I forgot the technical name, but basically they blindfold you, spin you in circles until you’re dizzy, give you a huge wooden practice sword, and then yell directions at you in Japanese as you wander over to the watermelon that’s been placed somewhere on the ground and then try and cut it open. We were surprisingly successful. Then we ate the watermelon, which is so delicious here. It’s like a completely typical summer thing, and very expensive here. I love it. Thursday night I wanted to relax, but really couldn’t, because of the presentation. We cooked our last dinner together: salad and garlic bread and pasta with vegetables and alfredo sauce. We felt like adults having multiple courses, and then sat around and drank tea and talked. I worked on my presentation in the lounge later, and Jack gave an encore performance of my song. I got up at six and biked to the station to get coffee for my presentation, and then gave it first. I was done by 9 AM, and just had to sit through all the other ones. It was so painful, and went so poorly, even though I knew what I wanted to talk about. I guess that one of the few redeeming points was that I did an awesome job answering all the questions (since I was first, people weren’t completely zoned out yet), so I looked knowledgeable (which I am!) and capable (which I am sort of!). People enjoyed the Coffee Jelly too. The last hour of class they made us spend reviewing the test. That seems a bit cruel to me. We had our good-bye lunch, which was wonderful, and would have been even better if I could have had most of the food. They did have tempura, which is amazing. And hot tea and amazing deserts and fruit. We took a ton of pictures, and I got to hang with Pooja, which was good. I’d missed her. I spent the afternoon packing and doing laundry. I accidentally put my towel in the laundry and had to wear my toweket. Then I had packed or washed all my clothing, so basically I wrapped myself in the toweket and spent all afternoon in it. Comfortable, liberating, a little awkward when I found myself randomly in mixed company later when I was visiting Kim next door, but whatever. I was decent. Friday night, we all wanted to spend some time together. We went out to Papa Pasta for dinner, because it’s amazing. We would be Kim, James, Viktor, Nora, Anna, and Me. Then we went back and tried to decide how to spend the evening. We were going to go up to the izakaya again, and just get a room and sit and talk with everyone, but people sort of wanted to just stay in global house and drink, which I wasn’t thrilled with. Pooja called me, and because of busses and trains and such couldn’t come to global house. People were unwilling to change their plans for her, but I really desperately wanted to see her before she left and I had already promised her and myself Friday night. So I told her I’d go meet her. She had called Lisa to, so we made plans, and then James came along, because he does things like that. We went up to the izakaya and mostly just talked. I got kiwi juice, which was actually remarkably good. Then we spent about an hour doing karaoke, also fun. We saw Pooja off to the station, where she barely made the last train home at 1:05. We cried as we said good-bye, and I’m going to miss that girl so much. I hate good-bye’s, I really do. We came home, the three of us, to find people fairly intoxicated. It was actually a little worrisome, and I was super glad that I hadn’t been there the whole time, because it would have been unpleasant. So James and I stayed with them and made sure that they all got up and off to bed safely. Saturday morning we had to finish packing and be out of our rooms by noon. We turned in our things for storage. I had a suitcase and a small bag of papers. James stored our food, and Nora stored kitchen supplies for the apartments. Kim wasn’t feeling well, and called me sounding like death right as I was about to sit down to my eggs. I felt like a horrible person, but I scarfed the eggs as quickly as I could, because cold eggs are disgusting. I took my toast to go and ran over, to find her more or less still in one piece. She felt awful, and had somehow managed to get food poisoning from the farewell lunch (she insists that it wasn’t all from alcohol, and I believe her, because she would know, right?). I helped her finish packing and made sure she was fine. I talked to Chrissie and little online, and then brought all of my stuff down. Then James, Anna, and I headed out to our hotel. (Oh, on that tangent, there had been some hotel drama and the six of us (the other three being Viktor, Kim, and Nora) had to split hotels. They stayed in a ryokan, and we were in a real hotel. We couldn't get anything, so Viktor’s Makiko helped us since she used to work as a travel agent). We got a little lost, because the trains were confusing and said one place but went to another. Well, actually there were just two trains at the same platform, but that is still confusing. When we did get to our hotel, it was super nice. We then wander over to get lunch (I grabbed something at the コンビニ because James and Anna wanted sushi). We spent the afternoon napping because we were all so worn out, and then met up with the others in Shinjuku where we got amazing Indian food. Which, by the way, may be my new favorite type of food. I love it, so much, it’s sort of becoming a problem, and when I get back to Texas, we will be finding a good restaurant/learning how to cook good Indian food because I won’t be able to live without. We went back to the hotels after some sauntering and talking, and then I took a long shower and shaved and went to sleep and it was wonderful. In the morning, Anna and James showered and I ran and got us food from the 7/11 and we sat on the beds and ate and then just goofed off before meeting up in Shinjuku for a final lunch before our adventure to Hokkaido. We actually, had a lot of time to kill, because they had to leave by 10, and we didn’t have to meet in Tokyo until 2. So we spent some time in Tully’s coffee shop, where I got an Annin Shmorkle, or something like that. Which was basically a sweet tofu blended drink. I’ve found that I actually do like tofu, but only in some forms. It’s the texture that does it for me, you know? Then we went and got soba, went to the station and into Tokyo, where we had to say good-bye to Viktor. He’s in California, so he’s totally visiting us again/we’re visiting him, but it was hard. He gave us all hugs and Kim and I got kisses on the cheeks. Then we met up with our Hokkaido group, where, as I mentioned, we are the only white people. All directions are given in Japanese, because it’s the only common language. We got on the busses and went to ooara, and then we got on a boat, and here I am, in the economy room on this huge boat. Last night we ate bentos, and then I spent hours on the deck talking, I love boats so much. Then I nearly missed this meet-and-greet thing, but I did get there in time to be added to the June month team for a competition with Japanese brain-twisters. I was the first one to figure out this puzzle with moving matches, and some other girl found out one with texting and phone buttons and stuff, so my team ended up tying for first place. We had to junken for it, but lost, so we got the second place prize. Then we wandered the boat, goofed off more on the deck, and crashed at about 11:30. Then I got up at 4:30 from the noise and saw the sunrise. All and all, very nice, and I’m getting pretty excited about this next leg of the adventure. Now I’m off for a nice long bath followed by breakfast. [karma: 0 (+/-)] Katie on 09.05 at 10:54 Monday, August 3rd Apartments and Purikura Life once more dissolved into the crazy blur which is classes. The fourth week was as hard as the others, if not harder. Three quizzes, an essay, and another epic test. We cooked and studied, but really didn't do much else. On Tuesday we took a field trip to the edo-tokyo tatemonoen (江戸東京たてもの園）and looked at some pretty awesome old buildings. We talked to all the volunteers and had some truly horrible sakura tea. Then we wrote an essay about it. Of course. In our private meetings, we had to listen to our speeches. It was horrifying. I actually just hate listening to my voice in general, so listening to it in Japanese is awful. Also, apparently I have sort of 変なintonation on a few words. Most tragically 私 which is supposed to be rising, but which I do falling. So embarrassing. I was turning so red listening to myself. Oh, something I have learned since coming here: I blush a lot. Like turn bright red blush. I knew I blushed, but I didn't realize that it was so obvious to everyone else. But yeah, now it's become some sort of game to embarrass me so that I change. And I can feel it, I can feel it start in my cheeks and then spread out to my ears, my neck and chest and everything. The test wasn't as horrible as the last one, mostly because we had an idea of what would be on it, so basically knew what to study, as opposed to last time where it was just a shot in the dark. That last one didn't actually end so well. So, here's something. They say it takes you a month to really get to know people. We're rounding out the month, and so I'm starting to see it. Starting to see who I really like and who I don't, etc. And here's what I have to say. The people here are really amazing. Particularly James and Kim, who I just think are great people and who are making this experience wonderful, but the others too. Lisa who is so sweet and wonderful, Ryan who is hilarious and so easy-going it should be a crime, Jack who talks big but has the tenderest heart, Nina who talks too much in English and too little in Japanese but no one cares, because she always has something worth listening to to say, Evan who is one moment ridiculous and the next gentle. Pooja, of course, who is so fun and supportive and lovely. Victor, who is sort of like an older brother and sort of like a great friend. One thing in particular that has struck me, all the men here are such gentlemen. I don't know if it's the situation, or if it's them, but they are always there for you, always looking out for you. Regardless of who it is, I feel protected whenever I'm with any of them. And that's amazing. They open doors and carry things, etc, but they also look out for you in the trains and other public places, they catch you when you trip and help you out. That's one thing that I really look for in a guy, a gentleman的な人. And the boys in california aren't so much. They are more in Texas, and more at camp, and apparently more here, and I really really am enjoying that. Then on Friday James, Nora, and I biked to Mitaka and signed for our apartments. I'm in 316, James is in 317, and Nora is in 314. All on the first floor, I think, which seems weird to me, but I guess we're probably in the 3 building, on the first floor. They're small buildings, with hallways to the outdoors. I feel very adult having an apartment and a contract and all of that. And I got to show off my Japanese by discussing fancy things like deposits and rent and regulations and amenities etc. Officially, we can actually have the apartments for two years on our contract, we just have to give a move out day a month in advance. Pretty spiffy, actually, particularly as our visas are only good for a year... After that, Nora went home and James and I hopped on the train to kichijoji and met up with Pooja, Kim, Lisa, and MIKI! We didn't have much time there, but we did go and take purikura, which was weird but fun. The pictures were sort of interesting. Miki had to leave then, which was really tragic, but she had a prior engagement and just had to. So we said goodbye, and then wandered a little bit, browsing hats and such, before we went home to get an early night. Kim and I sat around and did some homework, and then we turned in. I was asleep by ten, which was good because Saturday morning was Fuji. [karma: 6 (+/-)] Katie on 08.03 at 01:33 Friday, July 24th The third week Like I said, weeks are crazy. Sunday we went apartment hunting, which actually just consisted of going to this person and talking to her. Nora and James had already done everything else, and then she ended up having an extra apartment in their building, so we're all living together on the first floor. She took us there (we rode in a car!) and we looked around. It's itsy bitsy, with a little hallway/kitchen, bathroom, closet and then room which = bedroom/living room/study. So a studio. But a really small studio. I'm going to get a futon that I can sleep on so at least that won't be a problem. Because the mattress takes up about half of the room. Anyway, there is airconditioning at least, and a bath because those are sort of a big thing in Japan. And the rent is reasonable. And the land-lady seems really nice. Only problem: we aren't allowed to play instruments in the apartment. This is a problem for me. But I can always just sit on my porch and play. That shouldn't be a violation, right? Anyway, she wanted us to sign on friday, but they don't take credit cards and none of us could get the money, so we postponed the meeting until next Friday. I shouldn't have a problem because Mom contacted Bank of America for me and they upped my withdrawl limit, so all should be good. Monday was alright. You know, typical Monday. Classes, which I didn't want to go to, and then another private meeting with my teacher to discuss my project. That went alright, I guess. We got our tests back. Scores were dismal. I am killing myself working for this class, I spend hours everyday, yet I'm having such a hard time. And I'm really worried, because it counts in my GPA. Goodbye good GPA after this. No way am I getting an A. Hopefully I can manage a B. It's super stressful and I just don't want to worry about it. I want to enjoy Japan. But as it is, I'm constantly struggling to do well in these classes. Tuesday was a little better. It's always better on days when we have nishiwaki for two hours instead of matsumoto. She's just more fun. Then we went to the tea ceremony in the afternoon. We had to sit on our knees, which is painful, and eat sickly sweet candies and very bitter green tea. I decided that I will not be making a study of traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. Then I spent the evening studying for a vocab quiz. Wednesday was Kim's 20th birthday, which is a big deal in Japan. Actually, it's the most important birthday that they have. It's when you become an adult in all manners. Class was fun. For the first hour we watched Spirited Away because we have a field trip next week to see some of the buildings that the drawings were modeled off of. There was also a solar eclipse during class, so we all got to run outside to see it. Pretty amazing, actually. After class, James and I snuck up to the station to get things to make pancakes for dinner and then to pick up a cake that we ordered on Monday and to pick out some champagne. I let James do that, because I had no idea how. Also my foot was bleeding and I had to go clean it. Another bike incident. I think it's funny that I have never been in a bike crash, and then I have two in the same week. It's just getting used to a new bike. Then we got a call from Nora, saying she was at Mitaka but had lost her wallet. So we biked over there to find her, but she wasn't there. We couldn't contact her, so we waited a while. Eventually she answered, said that she didn't need help anymore. So we went home again. Snuck the cake in, and studied for a while (grammar, kanji, and speech the next day) and then made pancakes, had a birthday party etc. Thursday class was so painful, but we got through it. We had two quizzes and a speech. I think the speech went better than last time, but who can really be sure? Then we realized that we had very little homework, and were super happy. We went and got our alien registration cards. Mine has a horrible picture, but at least it looks sort of like me and says that I can live here legally. I had to take the photo in the booth there, and I just look sort of stunned and unhappy and sweaty. We got lunch at a sobaya there, and it was pretty delicious. We came home and did the little work that we did have. We made stuffed tomatoes and watched 30rock and just had a really fun relaxing time. Friday after class we went to zen meditation at this buddhist temple. I am never becoming buddhist. Too much sitting and thinking. And then we had to eat dinner in a very fancy way that was so unfortunate. Like, bowing to everyone, eating by holding everything with only two fingers and a thumb. And I just can't do it! So horrible. Then you know, you have to eat everything. So I had to eat tofu and eggplant and beans (two kinds). I made myself swallow everything, but I was so not enjoying it. Everyone else liked it though, so that was good. In the evening, we all crowded into Victor's room (kim, james, nora, me, victor, hideki, kotaro, miho, and then later jack, john, and evan) and watched accepted and they drank and we talked and it was super pleasant. We went to bed at about 12, and then James and I got up and make pancakes this morning for us, kim, patrick, and victor. Did some homework, and now I'm thinking of going out to find a used guitar. Also I need to get a belt. I can't maintain my weight here, and now all my pants are falling off all the time. So a nice classy brown leather belt that I can wear everywhere. [karma: 10 (+/-)] Katie on 07.24 at 10:12	main January 2010 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 April 2009 March 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 email