Meeting dem Japanese boys at lunch!

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.

(Yummay! Natalia the gimp in the background)

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":

(I don't like this one. The kanji for "hana" looks like the hiragana, fu ふ)

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!

(Me holding my mess up of my kanji board. We got to keep that one)

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! 

(Today's set up. For children's day)

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...

(All wrapped up!)

(Unwrapped! Mochi-like stuff inside!)

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.

A Sunday spent baking cupcakes

Sunday, April 27

So I went to the 8 am mass today because I Natalia wanted me to come earlier to make the cupcakes I wanted to make for our 300 class party tomorrow.

All the tunes of the songs at Mass are different now that it's after Easter. Argh, just when I'd finally learned to sing them! Oh well, at least the words are still the same, so I'm ganbatte-ing!

I went home and Yuko had left breakfast out for me: salad, jello, and two pieces of bread. As I ate, they all bustled around getting ready. Yuko told me they were heading out because her grandma had broken some bones, so they were going to visit her in the hospital. And after that they were taking Maple to get a shampoo. And then they might meet Yuko's mom, so they weren't sure what time they'd be home, maybe at night.

Yuko asked when I was leaving and what time I was getting home. I had no idea what time I'd get home, so she asked me to text her.

Yuko hadn't put out anything to put on the bread and I hate eating regular bread plain, so I was eating it really slowly, so I'd have a piece left over after they left and then I could put honey on it.

But when they left, I rushed to go put my laundry on so it would be done before I left and then I called my parents. When my laundry was done, it was time to go, so I sort of spread it out on my floor to dry and then rushed out the door, completely forgetting about my bread! I'd left it sitting on the table with my empty glass. Crap!

I found Rainbow House super easily this time because Natalia had sent me good directions. On the way, I passed a park where these middle school girls were running around (I was shocked since it was so hot and their uniforms were long sleeved with long skirts) in a playground and playing the game of played with Miya and Saki chan in Handaa that time, where one person is the oni and they shout a color and everyone else had to touch something of that color. So the girl who was the monster shouted "ao" (blue) and only one girl went to the one blue thing, a bike rack. The other girls went to a green bench! I blame Japanese and it's weird association of "ao" with green things ("aoringo", literally "blue apple", is the word for green apple and the green on a traffic light is called "ao". I don't understand...). So yeah, that was funny to see as I walked past. 

At rainbow house, I had to knock a few times before she answered, but at least she was there this time! It was really hot out and I was tired from the walk up here, so when Natalia offered me a drink, I was so happy because I'd drank all my water. She gave me a peach water! Yes!! I love that stuff! 

She had hurt her leg more this weekend, so was hobbling around on her crutches. But she helped me find the things I needed so I could start making the pancakes. It turned out their oven was this tiny little toaster oven. And I thought she had had a cupcake sheet, but she didn't. Luckily she did have these metal cups that I put the cupcake papers in and used to make cupcakes. She only had three, though, so I could only make three at a time even though I could have got four in the toaster oven.

So it was a long process. But Natalia brought down her textbook so I could study for the kanji test we have tomorrow, while she wrote her papers for her business and politics classes.

Two hours later, I had the nine cupcakes I needed: one each for the seven if us students and one each for Mutsukawa and Kondo sensei. I ended up making three extra and then I wanted to make more with the rest of the cupcake papers I had, but it had taken so long, I just used the rest of the batter to make a heart shaped cake, haha!

(This was from the first batch where I put too much butter in, haha)

(The heart cake!)

Then I put everything in the box I'd brought and cleaned up. In all, it took three hours!! Gosh, baking in Japan is so hard because ovens don't exist! Most people, like my host family don't even have an oven! They just use the microwave. The thing I thought was a little oven, Natalia told me is actually a fish grill. Wtf. It's weird to see how different the priorities are over here.

As I was leaving, I saw Natalia and her roommates had a huge stash of the Asian pear soda I love with little pieces of pear in it. I told them how much I love it and asked if you could buy it at the supermarket near the rainbow house. Natalia and one of her roommates who had come into the kitchen to eat lunch told me I could take a couple because no one really liked them, haha. Awesome!! I took two of them and then Natalia and I headed out. She was walking part of the way with me because she wanted to go to the supermarket.

(Pretty flowers on the way to the station)

These flowers are everywhere! They're the ones I took pictures of by the Nanzan sign. They're all around Nanzan and the dorms, in Ichinomiya, in Sakae, and over by Rainbow House too!

We parted ways at the supermarket. I thanked her for letting me come over to make cupcakes and then I headed to school. There, I dropped the cupcakes and icing off at my locker before heading home.

When I got home, the car wasn't in the driveway, so I figured no one was home and I could go get my bread off the table and eat it before they saw I'd left it there. But when I got inside, Yuko and Miya were already there and my bread was gone. Dangit!

So I went to my room to study for the kanji test until Ken got home and Miya came in to tell me it was dinner time. She made me race her to the kitchen, but when we got there, I was right behind her so she tried to close the door on me and I stuck my hand out to stop it. Ken gave Miya a talking to because that's dangerous and she'd almost shut my hand in the door. 

On the table was the takoyaki maker and Ken had just finished putting in all the stuff to make it. Yay, we were having takoyaki! Yuko sat next to me and Ken and Miya sat on the other side. Everyone talked a lot to me tonight. It was great!!

And I was in a good mood after finishing making the cupcakes, so I talked a lot back. I told everyone how I had a test every day this week and a ton of homework. And Yuko asked about the party tomorrow and who was doing what. And then she asked how many people were in the 300 class and how many other levels there were and which level had the most people. And they asked what level Rana was in too.

I can't believe they don't know this stuff after all the exchange students they've hosted! But I found out the student they previously had, who they're in love with and talk about all the time was in 500. No wonder they loved her. She must have been able to communicate with them pretty well.

After I got full and Ken continued cooking takoyaki for his lunch and leftovers, I brought up the fact that I was staying overnight in Obara over golden week. I should have just finished eating and left and brought it up another time when they were busier, because Yuko took this opportunity to completely grill me about the people I'm staying with and ask me all these questions about my life back home and stuff that I just didn't want to talk to her about. Then she'd talk about it in Japanese with Ken for a bit before asking me another question. She was being super nosy and didn't stop even after I started giving her one word answers only (obvious social cue for I don't want to talk about this). 

Finally, I said "gochisousama deshita" and left the table and retreated to my room. I was really, really, tired but had to wait until after 10 for everyone to finish showering.