Monday, April 28
Ken had the day off today for some reason. So we all ate breakfast together. We ate at 6:15, so I had a lot of time afterwards. My tea was so hot I burned my tongue on it, so I left it and decided to come back for it. Then I went to my room, got dressed and then lay in bed for forty more minutes, because I decided I'd rather lie in bed than sit at the station waiting for the late train.
Yuko came to tell me I'd left my tea and I told her I was coming back for it, so I went back and drank it. Then Miya left and Yuko told me it was 7:40 already, so I headed out after her.
In class, we had our kanji test first thing. It was easy. I messed up and got one wrong, though. Then we played my favorite kanji game that we hadn't played in forever! The one where Kondo sensei writes down a kanji radical and we write as many kanji as we can think of with that radical.
Heather was in the lead. Tina wasn't doing as hot as she normally does, because she kept writing Chinese kanji that don't exist in Japanese. So when I saw that Heater was winning, I stepped up my game and soon Heather and I were tied! We were tied for the last three rounds with 24 points. When it was over, Kondo sensei was like, "ohh, yay! Heather and Cate won!" But everyone wanted a tie breaker, haha.
So sensei picked Natalia to be the radical writer. Then I decided Heather and I should write the kanji on paper instead of the board, so we wouldn't be tempted to look at what kanji the other was writing. So sensei sat us on different sides of the room, haha.
Then Natalia wrote the radical. It was a weird one, just a line with a hook. Like the middle line of 小. I only knew a few kanji with that. But then Dylan said "we wanted you guys to be able to write as many kanji as possible."
And that's when I realized that "radical" (I'm pretty sure it wasn't really a radical) they drew is in almost all kanji! Like 月 for example. So I drew a whole bunch of kanji with that. When time was up, Heather had only been able to think of one! I had drawn 7, but sensei only counted 6 of them because she said 刂wasn't a kanji. I was like, um, that's one of the first I learned! It's on the first page of the book, Kanji Look and Learn and it means knife. She didn't believe me, so I got out my kanji app and looked it up and showed her it really existed. She was surprised and said it's probably old and not used anymore. Psh.
But I still won!! I was declared the champion of kanji!! :)
Then Kondo sensei let us practice the play Dylan had written while she went to the Logos Center to set up for the party. So Dylan told me to come in like I'm searching for a boyfriend and then I say I'm searching for a boyfriend and he told me to add in that I'm lonely haha. Then later I say I want a hot Japanese guy. Then, when we meet the princess (Heather) and she asks what we wish for, I say a boyfriend. But then I say melon pan too, haha. And Natalia says I want too much stuff, and I say "but I love melon pan." So the princess grants both my wishes.
Gosh, Dylan knows me too well, haha.
After one run through, I ran to the cafeteria to get a knife to ice the cupcakes. Kondo sensei had told me how to ask and I forgot, but I remembered when I got there once I realized it was the grammar we had just learned! The cafeteria ladies were all cool and gave me a knife, no questions asked. But just to be say I told them it was for a party and one of the ladies was like "for a party??" And I was like "yeah, to cut the cake." And then they understood, haha.
I felt super suspicious walking back to my building carrying a knife in one hand and nothing else. I felt like people were giving me weird stares, especially when I passed a police lady. But no one questioned me!
When I got back, I ran through the play with everyone again. Heather was practicing the song she was going to sing so Dylan was saying her lines in a super high pitched voice. It was funny!
Then class was over, so I decided we'd better head over. I went ahead so I could stop by my locker and get the cupcakes and heart cake. But I still ended up being the first one there. Mutsukawa and Kondo sensei were there setting up, so I started icing the cupcakes. Mutsukawa sensei talked to me about how I felt now after my fever, what I'd done over the weekend, and how long it had taken to make the cupcakes. He thanked me for my hard work when I said three hours, haha.
Then everyone else came. But Ryan wasn't there. They said he'd run off to his dorm to get his guitar, but they'd showed him where the Logos Center was.
We waited over 15 minutes for him to get back and when he hadn't, we decided to go ahead and start. It was a running joke among the rest of us how Ryan always seems like he's stoned and never knows what he's doing. We figured he was probably sleeping.
First, we played the kanji game with the cards. Kondo sensei said I don't get any hints because I had won the other kanji game, and I was the kanji champion. I mean, do I ever get any hints?
But I ended up getting rid of my cards the fastest anyway! When we counted up our cards, Natalia had used one more kanji card than I did, but I figured I won anyway.
Next, we all sat in a half circle to watch those of us who were talented, show off their talents. Chris went first to read his poem. It was actually really good! I was surprised! He's so terrible at Japanese in class and gets really bad grades, but he wrote a really nice poem. And he read it really nicely too. I only understood a bit and I noticed he said "utsukushii" a lot (beautiful).
Right before Chris started, Dylan stood up and shouted that he saw Ryan. We saw Ryan outside walking over, carrying his guitar, haha. We went out to meet him and see what had taken him so long. He said he hadn't realized the party was today and his guitar hadn't had strings so he'd had to restring it. Oh, Ryan. Smh.
But holy crap. We were all blown away when he started playing. He was actually really good! And he said he'd made the song up as he was playing because he'd forgotten about the party today. Well, damn.
Then we performed the play! It was fun. I completely forgot to come in searching for boys. I kinda just walked in and stood there, lol. But Mutsukawa sensei laughed at my lines! Kondo sensei filmed it for YouTube. Ugh.
When it was over, Heather sang her song. She sang the Japanese version of "Let It Go!" from Frozen (or in Japan, Ana to Yuki no Jo). She said she'd memorized it all yesterday!! Sugoi! And her voice was so pretty!
I wish I had a talent. :( but I'm just average at everything. I always hate when people ask me my hobbies, because I literally have none. When I have free time, I usually just talk to people/hang out with friends, haha.
Anyway, after Heather sang it was finally time to eat!! We were all starving!
Tina made takoyaki. Two were regular, with tako, and one was kimchi. I stayed away from the kimchi one. Kondo sensei had brought chips, drinks, and snacks. I made the cupcakes and Natalia made rice pudding. Everything was so delicious!!
Everyone raved about my cupcakes and all the non-Americans thought the icing was the bomb dot com. In Japan, cakes just have cream on them, so Kondo sensei kept saying this was different from cream. Yeah, I know. It's better. Way better. I told her it's what's always on cakes in America, so she'll have to buy some in New York this summer.
After we finished eating, it was time for lunch, so we cleaned up and then headed out. I wasn't hungry after that, so I didn't want to buy lunch like Heather and Dylan were.
I reminded Natalia we had photography club, so we were going to head to that. But I didn't really want to go, so I suggested skipping and Natalia agreed, haha.
So she and I went to a bench to sit down. A Japanese guy sitting there looked up and smiled when he saw us coming over. I smiled back and said "konnichiwa." Then I saw Emma at the hamburger truck so I went over to tell her I had a cupcake for her. I saw Chris there too and wanted to give him a cupcake as thanks for the bike, so I went back to where Natalia and I were sitting to get one.
When I got back, Natalia was talking with the guy I'd said hi to. She was using crutches, so I be the used that as a way to start talking to her. I heard him say something to her that I understood and she didn't, so I translated for her and them she introduced me. But the guy seemed to only want to speak to Natalia.
So I grabbed Chris' cupcake and went to give it to him. He loved it! He was sitting with Taylor so I talked with her for a bit. Then I told Emma where we were and went back over to Natalia. Now there were more guys around her! What?? Was it her hurt leg that was attracting these guys or what?
When I got there, one of them who was over by my seat started talking to me. His name was Shogo. He was pretty good at English, so we used that. He was really into baseball, and asked if I liked it. I told him I played baseball a lot when I was younger, in two different states, and both times I was the only girl on my team! We talked about American teams and players. He liked the Red Sox and the Mets, so he wasn't too happy when I said I liked the Yankees. Whatever. Then he said he if he saved up enough money, he wanted to take me to a Japanese baseball game!! Whoa!
He also invited me to play baseball with him sometime. But he was a little disappointed when I said I didn't have a glove.
Then Emma came finally and they talked a bit too. Emma ate half the cupcake and didn't really like it, so offered the other half to Shogo. He tried it, but didn't like it either. It was too sweet for him, haha. He had icing all over his lips after he ate it. Also he took a picture of it! So I took a picture too, with him holding it.
So I have the rest to the guy Natalia was talking to and he liked it! Yay!
Then Shogo added me on Line and later Emma too.
Unfortunately, Emma and I had calligraphy, or I would've stayed and talked all day. Heather and Dylan came from lunch to help Natalia walk to sadou, the class they all had next. So all of us ryuugakusei headed off to class with Shogo and Natalia's guy a little bit behind. Dylan was all like, "Did you get a boyfriend, Cate?"
And I was like, "actually, I got invited to a baseball game!"
Heather was shocked, haha. But Dylan was just like "you know a baseball game's code for 'testicle play'?"
Smh.
Calligraphy was fun today! Sensei had made prints for us of the word in kanji we'd picked in each of the three different ways to write it!
Here's mine, "sakura blossom":
Then we practiced drawing whichever one we wanted the whole period and then finally drew it on the special board! We got two boards and we turned in the better one. I completely messed up on my first one, haha. The word was totally off center. I didn't like how the second looked either, but I stamped it with the stamp I made and then turned it in.
Then sensei gave us all our calligraphy creations from each week, as well as a rolled up scroll with our extra long one from last week! And we got to take home our stone inkan!
Also, at the beginning of class, while we were filling out the end of year evaluations, I saw an inch worm on my backpack and so I took a picture of it.
Sensei saw me, so I said "mushi" and showed her the worm. She took pity on it and took it out to the fourth four balcony. It was cute!
At the end of class, I took a picture with sensei because I saw Pearl doing it and decided I wanted to too!
I went downstairs after class to give Kano my last cupcake, since she helped me out so much this semester! She was really excited and told me she was going to bring it home to show her family, haha.
Then it was sadou time!
After we did our evaluations, it was time for tea and okashi. We all did the drinking and eating at the same time today.
Because it was the last class, we got special okashi! It was wrapped in leaves!
You unwound the string-like leaf and then peeled off the thick green leaves. Inside was this white sticky stuff. Then you ate the whole thing like a banana. The guys were all cracking up because the thing stood straight up and then wiggled like jello, so they were wiggling it around and laughing. Boys...
It tasted really good! Just like mochi. But I asked sensei if it was mochi, but she said it was called something else, but I forgot what she said. She said it's like mochi, though.
And we had matcha and made matcha. It was fun! And really sad at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed this class and I'm going to miss this aspect of Japan. That's the whole reason I came to Japan in the first place. I was and still am, so in love with traditional Japanese culture!
After class, I headed back to the CJS office because Takada had wanted to talk to me. She and Mitch asked me if things were alright with my host family and that I could tell them anything in confidentiality, so I talked with them for a bit and then left for home.
At home, I studied more until dinner. For dinner we had curry rice. I'd been planning on sharing the heart cake with my host family after dinner. But throughout the entire dinner, they didn't talk to me once. Then I was full when we were finished and Miyabi was eating super slowly. So I decided I'd just bring it to school tomorrow and went back to studying for my kanji test tomorrow.
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