White Day!!

Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!!!!!! GUESS WHAT??? There was an EARTHQUAKE last night!!!

Before you get all excited, I didn't actually feel it because I slept right through it. :(

But when I sat down to eat breakfast this morning, Yuko told me that she had felt it and it had woken her up, but the rest of us were all asleep lol.

It was all over the news and had turned out to be a 5 on the Richter scale, holy crap!!

Other prefectures actually had damage and stuff, so we got lucky!

I did my laundry after breakfast this morning. We didn't have class today. Instead, we had a kaiwa tesuto (conversation test). Chris and I had the first time slot, 10:05. But Kondo sensei would be there from 9:20, when class usually starts, for a review session.

I wasn't planning on going to the review session, but I finished my laundry before 8 (although I didn't have enough time to so the second load, so I told Yuko I'd do it after school since I planned on coming home around 2), so I left and walked to the station, where I caught the 8:17 train.

While I was waiting for the train, I went to the Nagoya Bank ATM to withdraw money. I'd tried to go last night, but there had been a 150 yen fee because it was after 6. Ugh. So I went again this morning. And I'm glad I did, because I saw the 150 yen fee is added on weekends as well.

I had a really fun day at school today! On the train to school, I finished the third love story in my manga (the one where the girl got her hair stuck in the train door lol).

I got to school at 9:10 and talked to my friends a bit before heading up to class. I also saw Chris and ran up to him to ask him a question. I'd seen him post on Facebook that he went to the Hokusai exhibit at the Boston museum in Kanayama, and that he'd been pleasantly surprised to find it was free for Nanzan students! So I asked him how long it was going on for because I wanted to go see it after I came back from Tokyo. He told me probably until the Sunday after this coming one. Agh, because I had plans with Yuko Saturday, that left me only the day it ended to go! He said he was going again today, so he'd check for sure and then message me! Yay!!

So I was the only one who showed up to the review session...

After I talked to Kondo sensei a bit about the earthquake (it had woken her up), she asked me some of the questions we had to review. We talked a lot! I found out she and her son are going to New York this summer, so I'm going to try to meet them when they're there!

We talked so long, we started Chris and my conversation a little late, lol. Oh well.

I messed up a bunch during the actual conversation, because Kondo sensei talked too fast or I forgot particles. But I asked Chris a lot of questions when it was my time to talk to him!

Afterwards, I ate my melon pan and strawberry jelly sandwich I'd made that morning (it was sooo good!) and practiced a bit for my happyou. Natalia came and sat with me after she finished her conversation test.

Then it was time for project work! Our guest turned out to be a lady named Manako, originally from Japan, who was currently living in France and teaching Japanese. She knew English as well!

I did a good job during my presentation, although I was super pissed at myself because I forgot the line about how the summer festival is celebrated for our ancestors. Rawrrr!! 

Then sensei and Manako san asked me questions about festivals in Texas, so I told them about the Japan festival, the Rennaisance festival, and the rodeo.

Then sensei played a song about sakura that's played during graduations all across Japan. She taught me the meanings of all the lines and then we all sang it together lol. 

Afterwards, I had to ask Manako san questions to practice my Japanese, which was perfect because I had a bunch of questions for her! She'd been to DC, Florida, New York, and Boston! Sugoi!

Then class was over! So I decided I'd head to lunch. As I got to the bottom of the staircase, I heard "Keito, Keito!" And some Japanese guy came running over to me!

It turned out it was Kazuki, from the first coffee hour! He was all like "hisashiburi!" (long time no see). Then when I said I was heading over to Dagane to eat lunch, he said he'd eat with me! 

At Dagane there was a Nanzan cheerleader giving all her cheerleader friends brownies. I guess girls do give each other chocolate on White Day if they're forever alone.

So the two of us had lunch together. Well, he didn't eat because he'd gotten kind of drunk last night and still felt sick, haha.

I had the balanced meal, which is 400 yen for rice, miso soup, and three sides of your choosing! Mmmmm. It was good! 

I talked all in Japanese to Kazuki. He talked super fast so a lot of times I had to make him speak more slowly haha. He was at Nanzan to help lead an orientation for the incoming freshman.

He told me he'd seen my pictures on Facebook and liked my new album title: 

"Nihon wa mecha sugoi" (Japan is hella awesome). He also said he saw the vagina festival pix... Hahahahaha. I told him I'm going to a chinko festival tomorrow and he laughed and told me not to say chinko because it's not lady-like lololol!

After we finished lunch, we walked back to R building so Kazuki could get to where he needed to be. I went into the CJS office and talked to Jose and Josephine who were in there. Jose gave me chocolate he'd gotten from one of the CJS staff as a thank you for chocolate he'd given her before. It was the truffle kind and it was soooo good! He let me have two! :D

Josephine told us that in Korea there's a day called Black Day where everyone who didn't get chocolate on Valentine's Day or White Day gathers together and eats chocolate together. That's fucking awesome. That's totally my kind of day! I'll have to ask Minju if that's for reals.

Then I left to go home so I could do the rest of my laundry while it was still daylight. 

But as I was going down that huge ass hill, I realized I'd forgotten to check my workbook with the answers that are posted outside the Japan Plaza. I wanted to do that today because I wasn't sure if chapter 10 would still be up after break, so I walked all the way back.

It's really funny how little decisions like this can change things so drastically!

So I went back and checked my workbook. While I was checking it, Mutsukawa sensei passed by and asked how the test had gone this morning. I told him and then talked to him a bit about my happyou.

Then I went home for real this time, thirty minutes later than I'd been planning to. When I got off the subway, I saw up ahead of me the lady who's always helping me in the CJS office! She was walking and talking with that super shy girl who's name I don't know, who I wanted to ask for the bunny sticker that time but chickened out.

So I went up to them and was all like, "konnichiwa!"

They told me they were going to the Boston museum to see the Hokusai exhibit, did I want to join them? Whoa! How perfect! I was like "sure!"

So I learned the girl's name is Cathy and she's studied at CJS before. She did a whole year in the past and then went back to America to graduate. She just graduated this December and then came back to CJS!

She also told me she lives with a host family a 20 minute walk from campus, but is moving out and into the dorms tomorrow.

When we got in to the museum, we met the lady's friend, Andy, who was a guy from Illinois whose a professional photographer and had been living in Nagoya for 30 years.

He was super knowledgeable about all the paintings and about Hokusai himself.

I found out that the Boston museum is actually just made up of paintings sent over from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Massachusetts. Lawl.

(Our tickets)

The first floor was a gallery with all Hokusai's Japanese-style paintings, including the famous wave one!

This one:

He also made seven copies of this Fuji one, adding more to each as he went along. It started with the first, which was just an outline. Then the seventh was the full painting.

(Sugoi!)

After we had finished looking through the gallery, we headed to the second floor which had more of Hokusai's paintings. These all had themes, such as ones with flowers and birds, ones with ghosts and monsters, ones with waterfalls, and ones with bridges.

The ones with waterfalls and ones with bridges were my favorites.

(My favorite waterfall painting)

I saw on one of the monsters paintings, that if you looked closely, you could see the one guy giving the other guy the finger, haha. So I snuck a picture!

(See it??)

There was a waiting room, too, with an amazing view of Kanayama!

(Today was such a beautiful day!)

The second floor had the Fuji painting on woodblocks so you could see how Hokusai used Hanga for his paintings, like I do in class!

When we were done there, we went down to the gift shop. There were these binocular things you could look through and see Hokusai's paintings in 3D, so Andy told me all about how he likes making his pictures into 3D and he showed me some pictures on his phone of two paintings side by side and I crossed my eyes and they morphed into one 3D painting! It was cool!

We finally left after two hours!! The CJS lady (gosh, I really need to learn her name!) and Andy took so long to look at the paintings, I found myself super bored a lot of the time. But I'm happy I went with them as opposed to by myself, like I was planning. I definitely learned a lot, and it made an afternoon where I would have just sat at home into a really interesting one!

Afterwards, Cathy, the lady, and Andy went to Starbucks. They invited me, but I told them I really needed to get home to finish my laundry.

Andy gave us all his business card. We each had a different photo on ours!

(Mine!)

After waking home and getting windburnt, I came home to an empty house. I immediately threw in my second load and took in my clothes from outside. It was dark when I finished my laundry. So I hung some outside anyway, and then Yuko and Miya came home and Yuko told me to put the rest in my room.

We had rice with edamame, meat, and eggs on top and soup. Then we had dessert tonight because it was white day!!

Ken had gotten Yuko a huge box full of Gaufres! I love Gaufres! I'd had them in America in Japanese Conversation Group, and they're delicious!

I learned that on white day, guys always give cookies, not chocolate like I'd thought.

I had a giant strawberry Gaufres! So good!

Miya had a giant vanilla one and two small chocolate ones.

Sadly there were no matcha ones. :(

Then we watched tv. Ribbon was sitting in front of the tv, though, so it was a bit difficult, haha. But he eventually moved! I went to sleep before Ken got home. Gosh, Japanese work is sugoku taihen!