Pep Rally, Coffee Hour, and a legitimate Hanami with Japanese friends!

Day 2 of feeling like I was going to faint on the trains. I was only like two minutes early again, so I was close to the last in line and had to be squished in. But I was pushed in farther this time, not by the window, so it was really hot and claustrophobic... Within two minutes, my forehead was wet with sweat and they didn't turn on the air like they did yesterday. It was so, so, so, so bad. I can only imagine what summer is like...

 

Anyway, my friends in 400 had a conversation test today, which meant they all came in at different times throughout the morning, so I walked to school alone today. I stopped at Lawson's so I could get something to eat for lunch while I watched the martial arts guys perform. But it was too early in the morning. The employees were still stocking the shelves. But I got an anko sandwhich which got me two bear stickers!

 

When I got to school, the football players were in the entranceway again! No other Japanese students were around, so it was just me walking hitori de through all those guys. They didn't say anything (because they don't really shout at us ryuugakusei), but then #1 (remember the cute one from yesterday?) turned around and saw me and shouted "Ohayou gozaimasu!" so then all the other football players chimed in after him with "Ohayou gozaimasu!" And then #1 like stuck out his chest all confidently and said "Morning good!"

Omg hahahahaha. He was all cocky and he said it completely wrong and didn't even realize! It was so adorable. I just laughed and was like, "Good morning!"

 

 

We had Mutsukawa sensei again for class today. He was back from America and had caught a cold because it was rainy and windy in Philadelphia. He told us that this week was all freshman orientation and the rest of the students aren't coming until Friday! What??? There are so many kids on campus already, and this isn't even all of them? Geez!

At the end of class, he was trying to write our full names in katakana and said he has to read them out at graduation.

I told him I wanted him to say "Keito dake" (only Keito), so he said he would, and fixed it. And then other people started asking him to change their names too, but he wouldn't do it, lol. I feel special. :)

 

Then finally, class was over! Emma had gotten the last time slot for her speaking test, so she got done at 10:50 too. I was happy because I'd invited her to eat with me on the green space to watch the martial arts guys. While I waited for her, I signed up for the field trip to Kyoto! I'm so excited for it!! I didn't realize it cost ￥2000, but thankfully I had that with me! Τhen Emma signed up while I went to Lawson's to get more lunch now that I was later. I'd been worried the Lawson's on campus would be packed at lunch time, but it wasn't! I think a lot of the new kids had brought their own bentos.

 

So I got my favorite sushi (the one I had on the Shinkansen) and orange juice. The raise in tax made my lunch a lot more expensive than I thought it would be. :( The sushi had gone up 10 yen!

 

Anyway, I went down to the green space and saw Emma sitting there already. It was such a beautiful day!! We waited a while, and finally at 11:30, the cheerleaders came out and did a show. They're called the Koalas. It's weird. Nanzan has two cheerleading teams, the Koalas and the Rustles. I don't understand...

 

Emma and I mused about how different Japanese cheerleaders are. They're way peppier, their voices are way more high pitched, and they're more cutsey than slutty (like American cheerleaders).

Also, they ALL look exactly alike. It's kind of creepy.

 

Here's a movie of them:

They also did some awesome things with their pom poms! I wish I'd known they were going to do them and I could have taken a movie, but at least I got these good pictures! They did everything really fast, too, so it was hard to take them.



Nanzan!



An emoticon! It's face changed :D



Enjoy (with a music note!)



Ichinensei! (it means freshmen)  I love how I got the girl flying!

Emma had the same sushi I did, haha! She loves it too. It really is good sushi!
She also bought three dango, so she gave me one! Springtime dango (the three-colored one) is what is traditionally eaten when you do hanami. It was good!

Us with our dango! And the sakura tree in the background.

There were sakura petals falling all around us, it was beautiful! See them in the grass?

 

After the cheerleaders finished their show, this guy with an armband came out and shouted stuff and then directed the cheerleaders in a song, which I think may be the school song. It was cool!

 

Here's a movie of it:

 



 

 

We waited around after the cheerleaders were done performing, but nothing more happened! I saw some of the martial arts guys standing around in their uniforms, and thought they would do a show, but I guess we missed it! Argh, oh well!

 

Then Emma and I decided to head in because I felt like I was getting sunburnt. We ran into Heather and Natalia on the way and Natalia wanted to take my picture with the sakura, so I let her do a mini photoshoot, lol.

 

Then Emma headed off to the movies to see Frozen (she was seeing it in Japanese) and then I went to coffee hour.

When I walked into the building, right away I saw Kazuki! He thanked me for coming and said hardly anyone had shown up today. Oh no!

I had expected that because most people had plans for this afternoon, but when I went in, there was only Brendan and this other guy Eddy (from China) and then the coffee hour leaders. Where were the Japanese students?

 

This shy girl came in then and then a bunch of freshmen after her. For the next hour, because we had so little people, the coffee hour leaders decided not to play the games they had had planned, but to instead just let us mingle the entire time. That was awesome, because I got to really practice my Japanese.

The students all stuck in groups with their high school friends, so I just went around to various groups talking to different people. I met these two freshmen girls who were half Brazilian, half Japanese, but have been in Japan for a long time so their Japanese is just about perfect. Their English was pretty good too and they are going to do the two year English program at Nanzan and then hopefully study abroad. Then I talked to the shy girl, who I found out just came from China five days ago and is going to start graduate school at Nanzan. Her Japanese was also really good, because she studied it in China for four years! Her English was also great. Argh, I was jealous, haha. Kazuki came over while we were talking and I asked him what about the hanami party he'd been planning on throwing. He said maybe we could go tonight to see the sakura.

 

After that, I ate some food and talked with these two Japanese girls (below me and to the left in the picture below). The one in the leather jacket really wants to go to New York, so she asked me a lot about New York.

 

Then we took this picture. 

After the picture, two new girls came in, and one of the coffee hour leaders took them over to me to talk. They were adorable! They were from the same high school as well. One was studying English (her English was about at the level of my Japanese, maybe a little better) and the other, German. I talked to them a lot about different things. The one studying German was shy and talked really fast, but the one studying English (her name was Haruka) talked really slowly so I could understand!
I talked to them all about American music and tv shows. Haruka watches Glee, so we talked about that. She also likes Avril Lavigne and Taylor Swift!! Ahh!

Too soon, coffee hour was over. Haruka gave me her email so we can keep talking. Then the Chinese girl (the kanji in her name is "hotaru" in Japanese (that means firefly, so pretty, right?) so that's what everyone was calling her) came over and asked if we were doing hanami tonight. I was surprised, because I didn't realize it was actually happening! She went and got the two Brazilian girls and then I grabbed Kazuki. I said I couldn't do it tonight because I'd said I'd be home for dinner, but how about right now? They were all free, so we decided to do it. I felt bad for Hotaru, too, because she lives alone in an apartment and hasn't made any friends yet.
Kazuki said he'd meet us there, so we all went to the station to ride the subway to Tsuremai Koen (another famous place to see sakura). No one knew the way to the subway station or how to ride the subways, haha (the Brazilian girls were from Okazaki (about as far out as Ichinomiya), and so didn't come around here ever), so I had to teach everyone. They told me it was awesome I was so good at navigating!

Communication was a bit difficult. They all really wanted to practice English, so we did for a bit, but they kept reverting back to Japanese because it was easier for them. It made me really sad that I suck so hard at Japanese...

When we got to Tsuremai station, it opened right into the park! The park was beautiful!

Lots of food stalls!

I love these lanterns!

 We took pictures by the sakura! We kept asking random people to take them so we could get all of us, haha.

Sign for the park

 We walked around the areas where people were doing hanami and took more pictures. Then we left that part and went to the less crowded part where there was a beautiful bridge and lake.

Cherry blossoms that fell in the water

And we took more pictures by the lake

We also found this pavilion thing that had music notes along the railing. It was so pretty! It was in the center of a large amphitheater, so there must be concerts there!

 

 

Then we headed back over to a gazebo sort of thing by the lake to sit down and wait for Kazuki (he'd called and said he was in the park). The sun was all golden and shining on me and everyone started obsessing about my eyes, telling me how pretty they are and how they wished they had blue eyes! It was so nice!

Hotaru was also in love with my hair color lol. She likes her the color it is now, but was telling me how hard it is to dye.

 

Finally, I saw Kazuki on the other side of the lake, so Sara (one of the Brazilian girls), whistled super loudly and he saw us and walked over. He had brought Jose with him too.

 

We all walked around the lake some more.

 

Cool little rock bridge crossing the lake

 

Kazuki took a jumping picture of us, haha

 Then we walked more around the park. After we left that lake, we were standing while Jose looked up something on his phone. Sara leaned over and pulled a sakura petal out of my hair! I thought it was cool that a sakura petal had landed in my hair, and then everyone told me it means good luck!!! Whoaaa! I didn't know that! Awesome!
Afterwards, we found a pretty area where the sakura hung over the lake.
 

 

There was a huge group of college kids having a hanami here. It looked really fun. They had drank a lot. We got them to take a picture for us. Then Kazuki started talking to them and they talked for a bit. We all laughed about how quickly he had made friends!

 

Us by the riverside. These are from Hotaru, who likes to edit pictures like crazy, haha!

We walked some more, heading back towards the hanami area. Kazuki and I saw a lot of couples. So cute! I felt bad because he kept saying things to me that I didn't understand... T_T why is my Japanese crap??
 

 

It was getting late, so we went to get alcohol. Even though I tried to tell him not to, because they were expensive, Kazuki bought me a beer. He asked me if I wanted Asahi or Kirin, so I asked which is better, and he said he'd get me his osusume (recommendation). It was Asahi. Everyone else had brought bottles of water or tea.

Then Kazuki asked the beer dude if we could have some of the empty boxes, so he let us. We tore them open and used them to sit on since we didn't have a blue tarp like everyone else. We were able to find a little space of ground and we sat next to a large group of sakuru (club) members that Kazuki thought may have been from Nanzan. 

 

 

 

 

Getting dark

 

After we did kanpai, Kazuki told us that usually at hanami, everyone starts by introducing themselves, so we all went around and did jikoshyoukai, haha. It was fun! When we'd finished them, it was time for me to leave. The Brazilian girls and Hotaru were leaving as well, so we headed out and Kazuki and Jose picked up the boxes and then left as well.

I really wanted to stay until dark because Kazuki said the lanterns light up, and the sakura look really pretty at night. He ended up going back that night, and I wanted to too, but I live so freaking far away. That's one of the disadvantages of living in a homestay. :(

 

But I'm going to try to go back Saturday after the concert, since the concert venue is nearby. Hopefully the rain won't have washed away all the sakura.



 

All that beer!!

 

Blurry, but there were a ton of food stands!

 

We all parted ways at the station. On the train home and while I was riding my bike, random Japanese words kept popping into my thoughts in place of their English equivalents. It was so weird! For example I'd be thinking "Yeah, crossing the street first is better," but what I'd actually think was "Yeah, crossing the street first is no hou ga ii" Ahhh, it happened a lot. Probably because I'd just spent the past five hours converting everything I wanted to say into Japanese.
I think this is one of the first steps to thinking in Japanese/speaking fluent Japanese. Heck yes!

I got home just before 7, but Yuko was still making dinner. I played with Miyabi. She showed me her new nerukeshi (moldable erasers). I asked her what she did today and she said she'd gone with Yuko on their bike to a park and did hanami. I was jealous! I asked her if she ate anything and she told me she ate oobanyaki. I looked that up and saw it was the circular anko filled bun Mariko had tried to buy for me at the zoo.
Ah, I want to try it!
Maybe I'll get to at the Inuyama festival Mami invited me to this weekend!

Then Ken came home and we had dinner. It was pasta with bread. Even though I see her do it every day, it didn't sink in until tonight that Yuko microwaves the bread to toast it!! Do toasters not exist in Japan? How weird!

After dinner, I had a bunch of texts from my new friends. Hotaru had created a group text on Line, so we could all talk to each other and send pictures. I failed with my attempts at texting. I accidentally said the word for yesterday, when I meant to use the one for tomorrow. But it was all good!
The girls all want to do karaoke together some time and then have a goodbye party for me in May. They're so nice!! I really wish I wasn't leaving Japan so soon!

I studied for my test tomorrow and then went to sleep, because I was exhausted and had a bit of a headache.

Hanami and photo shoot with the sakura!!

Today I didn't feel like going to classes, so I slept in and then Skyped friends until it was time to go to the photo shoot with Emma.

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April Fools!!! You fell for it didn't you? Didn't cha? Don't lie to me ;)

Haha anyways...

This morning, Yuko gave me a lot of breakfast! Two onigiri, meat and vegetable soup, leftover fried tofu and fish cake things from last night, tea, and orange jello. Phew!

After breakfast, I straightened my hair and put in makeup to pretty myself up for the sakura photo shoot!

I ended up taking a while and so it was already 7:46 when I was unlocking my bike. Crap! I was going to miss the 7:57! So I biked like my life depended on it to the station and ended up setting a new record! I made it in SIX minutes!!! Uwahh!

I was at the end of the line today, and I guess the trains were more crowded because college kids are starting up again? But I really had to squeeze myself in. I almost didn't make it in, but I pushed people and ended up smashed against the door for the entire ride. But I'm glad because the glass was cool and it was SO freaking hot on the train. The humidity from all the bodies was causing my hair to curl, but I'd been smart and brought my straightener to school! ;)

At Kanayama, I met up with Esteban and we went to school together. He told me he'd talked to the swimming club yesterday and it turns out ryuugakusei can join, but practices are four days a week. Agh, that's kind of a lot when I'm already so busy! Idk, we'll see.

Then I told him about how the entrance ceremony is today. He asked if I got all dressed up for the football players, haha. I said that was just an added bonus. But I doubted the football players would be there again.

Boy, was I surprised though! The football players were there again! And they were saying "omedetou gozaimasu" to all the new students! There were a bunch of freshmen, all wearing suits coming in. Some stopped to take a picture at the front gate by the sign welcoming students in. And then they all had to walk through the football players. The football players were really cute, bending down and putting their hands out like they were showing off the new kids and shouting congratulations!

We walked in, Esteban and I compared flyers. He was all pissy because people kept giving me flyers as we walked up the hill (it had been crowded with Japanese clubs passing out flyers), but completely ignoring him, haha! He was saying how I got all the flyers and Rafa was all like "I wonder why..." But we told him they were girls who had given me the flyers, not guys, haha.

I was sitting talking with Devon, who was playing the Pokemon April Fools game on Google Maps, when Emma came in. She and I decided to go take pictures of the football players, haha.

When we got down there, two of them saw us trying to take their picture, so they came over to us. The cuter one (with the #1 jersey) was all like, (in English), "I'm from One Direction! I'm Harry!"

Hahahaha! It was adorable!

Then they posed for us!

Haha!

 

I wanted to get a picture with them, but they told me they couldn't right now because they had to welcome people in... :/

Ah well. Emma took me with them in the background!

Then Emma and I saw a pretty cool lizard!

We had to rush back after that because it was class time. Today was the last day of having Kondo sensei every day (Mutsukawa sensei had been on a business trip in Philadelphia). When class started she told us she wouldn't be here on April 7 when we have our test, so was it cool if we had it today instead. I was like "no!"

But Natalia was all like "I think we can do it guys, we've got this!" 

I was like "hell no, are you on drugs? These are chapters I haven't learned yet!" (I didn't actually say that exactly).

But yeah, then Kondo sensei held up a paper that said "April Fools" and we all felt like idiots. I can't believe she tricked us when we're the Americans!

Minju told me later her sensei played a similar trick, telling the class she'd gotten married (she's not married yet) and everyone flipped out, only to find it was an April Fool's joke, lol.

So yeah. Class was fun though! We played a game where Kondo sensei would say a word and we had to write it in kanji on the board. We played rock and paper (a Japanese game like rock, paper, scissors, but without scissors) to decide teams. Heather whispered "paper" to Dylan, Natalia, and me, so we all put paper. It didn't end up in even teams at first, but when we played again, everyone else put rock. Haha. 

So Tina got stuck with the two worst people in the class. But it ended up being fair because she's freaking Taiwanese and knows all the kanji already. Gosh, she wrote them all so fast, the rest of us hadn't even started writing the first kanji by the time she had finished her word!

But we ended up tying because I knew a lot of the kanji already!

At the break between classes, I heard shouting so I went to look out the window. They were announcing things over the loudspeaker and all the freshman were walking in a line. Kondo sensei came over and asked me if I was looking at the football players, lol. I told her no. Then she asked if I am going to join the football team at VT. I told her it's only for guys. So she asked what about team manager? I told her there aren't girl team managers in America, but there are water bottle girls! I always see girls at the football games giving water bottles to the guys during timeouts. I've always envied them, but I have no idea how to become one of those girls. Hahaha.

Also, I apparently have a bit of a reputation at school. I find it funny though, and so does everyone else. But yeah... apparently everyone thinks I'm crazy for Japanese guys... I knew Esteban and Rafa thought that because they're always teasing me about it, but now people I didn't realize thought that have started to as well! Dylan told me today he saw me "on the hunt" yesterday. And Heather told me he'd said "look there's Cate searching for dudes again". And Natalia once said "every time I see Cate, she looks like she's scanning the area for guys."

Haha so yeah... I'm getting kind of famous at school...

At lunchtime, I talked to Brendan. I told him what Yuko had said last night and that maybe he should talk to his host parents more, but he said he's too afraid to speak Japanese because he's afraid he'll mess up. Yeah, I know the feeling. I told him I hope our families will do something together sometime. That would be fun!

He had a lunch box and said his host parents make him lunch each day! Ahhh, jealous!

He, Emma, and I walked through the crowded main street (clubs were still recruiting) to Dagane. There, I got the balanced lunch and Emma and I ate together. While I was eating, Rana came over and told me her host dad had bought Kit Kats last weekend (I assume when they all went to Tokyo Disney Land for Haruka's graduation... Argh I was so jealous Rana got to go with them!) and they were weird flavors, so she brought me some! Ahhh it was so nice!!

I had really wanted to try the wasabi one, but I was too scared to buy it!

I was stuffed after lunch! Emma and I went to the lockers so I could get my hanga stuff. We ran into Esteban there and he told me all about how he'd shaken hands with one of the football players, haha.

Then we had hanga. I worked on a drawing of Totoro in class today. Sensei came over to see what I was drawing and was all like "ahh, Totoro" haha.

After class, Emma went to send an email and I was going to head to the lockers to fix my hair and then we were going to meet there. But when I got outside, I saw the football players all outside R saying goodbye to the freshmen as they went home. So I ran back in and grabbed Emma so she should could take a picture of me with them. I asked them for a picture and they said okay, so Emma got ready to take it when one of the team manager girls told Emma she'd take the picture and Emma should be in it too lol.

So here's Emma and me and the football players!

Lol. So then Emma went back to send her email and I headed to the lockers where I touched up my hair. Emma came in and dropped her stuff and then we headed out.

On the way out, we heard shouting coming from the green area, so we decided to check it out. It turned out it was some sort of pep rally type of thing for the new kids. The cheerleaders were putting on a performance to some American song.

I was amazed at how much this looked like America. Japan is becoming so Anericanized! There were all the American stereotypes. Football players, cheerleaders, and American pop music.

(Cheerleaders wearing football jerseys)

Then these muscular guys with no shirts and oiled chests came out. They flexed their muscles to a Linkin Park song. Smh.

They reminded me of the Low Techs at VT, but they're moves weren't quite as sexual, haha.

Everyone shouted "Encore!" after they left.

 

A movie of them showing their stuff:

 

 

 

Then these fat guys came out, also without shirts, and also danced to Linkin Park. Lol. Emma and I left then.

 

 

We took the subway to Mizuho Undojo-Higashi and walked west towards the river.

Street lined with sakura

 

We found the river easily. It was beautiful!!

First we headed over to the bridge to take some pictures there.

 

Ahhh!!!

We met this Asian looking girl taking selfies, who spoke really good English and she took a picture of both of us for us!

 

Emma and me!

Then we headed back to walk along the river, which was completely lined with sakura. It was gorgeous! Now I see why it's one of the most famous viewing areas in Japan!

 

 

 

 

We walked for a while and then decided to head to a konbini to buy booze and do hanami the right way. Emma wanted to get one of the sake filled juice boxes, but then I found this pink alcohol that looked really good and was perfect for sakura! Then Emma got ice cream and a cheese cake, and I got an anman. Ugh, the tax had made everything 8 yen more. So taihen!

We must have turned the wrong way out of Family Mart because soon we were lost. We found this man with his toddler son and asked him where the river was. He put his son on his shoulders and walked with us a bit until he could show us where to go. We thanked him and followed his directions. It was a bit of a walk, but we found the river easily!

 

Cool drain cover!

Takoyaki truck!

 

Then we found a bench where we sat and ate and drank. The alcohol was fizzy and strawberry flavored. It was good!

 

 

Where we ate

Stray kitty

Tree we ate under (and sign for the bathroom lol)

I shared the Kit Kats with Emma. The wasabi one actually tasted like wasabi! It had little spicy green specks in the cracker part, so I wasn't a big fan and was happy to only eat half.

 

Little green spicy wasabi specks inside

 

The strawberry cheesecake one was really good, though!

It was late then, so we headed back. We weren't sure how to get back to the station we'd come out of, so we headed to the closest subway station. It ended up being on a different line, but we didn't care because it was already 6:30! Emma was okay because her host parents are gone for this week, but I needed to be home by 7. Obviously I was going to be late!

Cute tile on the street

Cool mural in the station!

 

So I switched back to the right line (missing the train by seconds, argh) and then ride to Kanayama. It was kinda expensive... :/

Then I took the JR home and booked it on my bike. I got home and 7:20. Everyone was home and already eating. I apologized, but Yuko said it was fine. She'd wrapped up my food for me and then got me out a steaming bowl of rice. :) We had katsu, tofu soup, salad, and more fried tofu. It was yummy!

I asked Yuko and Miya how Ana to Yuki no Jo (aka Frozen) had been because they'd come to see it today. It turned out they'd seen it in English! Yuko said it was really, really good and she cried three times haha. I want to see it!

After dinner I went to memorize my dialogue for tomorrow.

Whatchu lookin at?