Obara *GW Days 3 & 4*!!

Monday, May 5

So today I was going to visit the parents of my friend back home, Kuya! I was really excited. They live in a city called Obara, which is in Aichi ken.

So I ate breakfast with my host family and then headed off to take the train. It was raining, which sucked. I decided I'd walk to the station, so I had to walk through the rain. :( I caught the 10:02 train at Nagoya and was on my way. I realized on the train that the first stop was Kanayama, so I could have saved money and caught the train at Kanayama instead. Crap. Well, I hadn't bought my ticket for the way back yet, so I'd do that for the return.

The train was so empty!! I was shocked! I played Pokemon (I'm addicted again) while we passed the stations I'm familiar with. Then, once we got to the rice paddy fields and the country side, I looked out the window. It was so beautiful!

The ride was exactly 50 minutes. When I got off at Mizunami, I saw a guy at the other side of the station waving at me. I waved back and ran over to the other side. The guy was Kuya's dad. He introduced himself as Shuichi.

The rain had picked up and now it was pouring like crazy!! He and I got in the car and then he took me with him while we went to buy groceries and then a cover for his keyboard. I helped him out because he told me that they were my parents for the next two days and I was their daughter, so I should help out. It was really nice that he included me in the family like that!! My host parents never let me help out ever and it makes me feel awkward!

So I carried the groceries back to the car and the keyboard cover into the house. On the way home, Shuichi told me about how they all lived in India for two months! So cool! 

At their house, I met Kuya's mom, Nagako. She was so sweet!

Both Kuya's parents were really impressed I could speak some Japanese. So we spoke a little in Japanese at first and then it was mostly English with some random Japanese inserts lol. They were both so good at English and all their children have studied abroad! But Shuichi had told me he learned English when he was in China of all places! Because there were a bunch of English speakers staying in the same place as him, so he got to practice speaking all the English he'd studied for six years in middle and high school, and gradually remembered English.

Their house was super cool!! It was made of wood and 200 years old!! They had a little pit full of charcoal where they had a fire going and a pot hanging of above it where they cooked their food. So my clothes and hair soon smelled of woodsmoke. I love that smell!! They showed me to their guest house, which is where I was sleeping. Ahh, so nice!! I felt like I was being super pampered.

First, we had lunch. Nagako had made bread using her bread maker and it was delicious! It was this huge slab of raisin bread. Mmmm. My favorite! And they had blueberry jam for me to put on it. There was also potatoes and salad. It was all so good! And for dessert we had little okashi given to them by friends of theirs. They were cute little sakura themed okashi! What was interesting about them, was they were white anko on the outside and kuri (chestnut) on the inside! And the little flower petal thing was an almond shaving! 

We talked a lot during lunch and learned so much about each other. They were really curious about America, so I told them everything I could!

Also, when I told them about my happyou Friday, they wanted to hear it, so I started reciting it for them. They were really interested in what Japanese people thought of America and gave their answers for each of the questions I asked haha. When I finished the first part about foreigners' image of America, I stopped, but Nagako was like "sore de...?" (And then?), haha so I ended up presenting the entire presentation for them!! I messed up a bit, but all in all they were super impressed I'd memorized all that Japanese!

Before we started eating, Nagako opened the present I had brought them. I'd given them one of my Totoro Hanga prints as well as some chocolate from Texas and cotton seeds from Alabama (where I lived before Texas). They loved it all. It turns out Nagako has been making thread from cotton recently, so she showed me the cotton she was using. The Japanese cotton seeds were a lot smaller than the American ones. It was funny.

After lunch, they told me they were going to take me to the Fuji matsuri!! I'd heard Ken's relatives talking about that when I was in Kamezaki, but I figured it was in Tokyo because it was related to Mt. Fuji. But Shuichi and Nagako told me Fuji is a type of flower! It's purple and long and hangs down. So there are Fuji matsuri in all different parts of Japan. Cool!!

We got back in the car and drove through the rain to the matsuri. First, we stopped in a field so they could show me the koinobori, since today is "Kodomo no Hi," or "Children's Day." There was a long rope of them, much longer than than the ones at Kiyosu jo! I was so amazed they were so big. Shuichi and Nagako told me they're bigger out in the country. I should have taken a picture, but it was raining so they were all wet and hanging down instead of out flying, or "swimming" in the wind like they should be.

Then we continued on to the Fuji matsuri. 

Origami decorations made of flyers for the Fuji matsuri

The origami ball things were hung all along the fence!

Banner for the Fuji matsuri

We walked all along a the marked path that had Fuji flowers all along it. Nagako told me that last year, they'd come too late and all the Fuji had already wilted. So this was the first time they were really seeing the festival.

There were pink ones too!

And white!

Cute mascot. Because everything in Japan has to have a mascot!

 

We passed a small area with some yatai and then continued on down to where there were some white Fuji! But these hadn't started blooming yet. We ran into some people down there who had just gotten there and were starting from this side. They were bummed that the Fuji weren't blooming yet, but Shuichi and Nagako told them that where we had just come from had perfect purple ones!

Because the white Fuji were the end, we turned back around. This time, we climbed up a staircase that led off the main path. At the top was a koi pond! Shuichi and Nagako asked me of people raise koi as pets in America, lol. I told them usually only at Japanese restaurants or Japanese gardens. But I told them about the salt water fish tank my dad had when I was younger.

This path led back to the area with the yatai. It was in front of an elementary school. Inside the gym of the elementary school were a bunch of middle schoolers watching a group of guys playing guitar and singing. The group was pretty good! We stood and watched them for a bit too, before heading back to the car.

Back at home, Nagako wanted to have a tea ceremony since I told them I was in sadou class and really like sadou and matcha, haha. I was so impressed that she had a complete sadou set! So she had me be the one leading and I got to show off my matcha making skills! :D And then I got to show off the fact that I knew everything you're supposed to say as well, haha.

We sat in a tatami room next to the kitchen because it had a real kotatsu!! I finally got to sit under a real kotatsu! It was really cool out with the rain, so this was nice! Underneath the kotatsu was a grill and under that was real charcoal that Shuichi lit!

Then we ate more of the okashi and we each got to have one of the Texas chocolates I brought! They liked them, which I was glad about because most Japanese people think American desserts are too sweet, haha.

Then Nagako brought in a different kind of tea, this one iced tea, and we each got to have one more okashi because they were expiring soon, so Nagako and Shuichi wanted to finish them up. They were so delicious!!

Then Nagako and Shuichi cleared off the table and got out their computers. Nagako had told me earlier about how she teaches English and she had all these sound files with questions and answers in English that she wanted to use for a test, but she wanted to edit out the answers. So she hoped since I was a computer science major, that I'd be able to help. I've had to do that before, so I figured I'd be able to do it.

It took a lot longer than it should have because I realized Movie Maker, the program I'd downloaded to use only worked with a movie along with the sound, so I figured they wouldn't want that and then uninstalled Movie Maker. But Shuichi said that wouldn't be a problem. So I had to reinstall it and that took a while. But I finally was able to make the sound file for them, because to my delight, it turned out there was an option to save just the audio!

Nagako and Shuichi were sooooo happy!!! They thanked me over and over. Apparently Nagako had been stressing over this for the past few days and I'd just lifted a ton of weight from her shoulders! I was happy because it made me feel like I had given them something other than the small present I'd brought, since they were giving me so much plus food and a place to stay!

We took a break to have dinner. We ate at the kotatsu because it had gotten pretty cold now that the sun had set. We had a takoyaki party and made takoyaki using their takoyaki maker! Nagako poured a whole bunch of batter in the first two rounds, so it was difficult for me to make them and I probably didn't look as jouzu as I usually do. The third round was the right amount of batter and we made perfect balls.

They were really good! And they were made with only octopus, not weird fillings like cheese and hot dogs like Miyabi likes. I ate soooo much! We were all seriously stuffed when we were done! We'd been planning on eating more chocolate after dinner, but we all felt like we were going to burst haha!

After dinner, they had me step through the sound file editing again and then they wrote it all down and had me watch them as they did it to make sure they did it right too! They kept apologizing for making me do this, but I didn't mind at all!

Then Kuya got online, so we all Skyped him, which was fun. I was sooo exhausted afterwards. I'd started getting tired around 8 and it was after 11 now. Thankfully Nagako noticed and filled up the bath for me.

I've been spoiled at my host parents house, because they know I like showers. So Nagako showed me to the bath and was all like, "This is a Japanese bath, but I know you know how to use it," and then left before I realized that no, I actually have no idea how to use a Japanese bath!! She'd made a motion with the little wooden bucket thing like filling it with water from the bath and then pouring it over her, so I assumed it worked like the baths at the onsen. So I just did that. The water was really hot! But yeah, I probably did everything all wrong haha.

Then I said goodnight and went to bed. It had gotten really cold, but I'd been stupid and hadn't packed really warm stuff. Oh well, my futon was nice and warm!

Tuesday, May 6

The next morning, the rain had stopped and it was really warm, sunny, and beautiful! I was happy Yuko had taught me how to fold a futon at obaasan's house, because now I knew how and did it perfectly! :)
Anyway, Nagako and Shuichi weren't around in the kitchen or kotatsu room, so I figured they were still sleeping. I decided I'd sit on the front stairs and admire the view for a bit.

And that was when I saw them walking along the rice paddy field (which they'd said it's just a rice field lol. They'd never heard the word "paddy" before lol) in front of their house. They said "good morning" to me and asked if I slept well. Then Shuichi let me cross the stream over this wood plank (I was super scared to cross it since their house sandals were kind of big and hard for me to walk in, but he told me no one's ever fallen before haha) and then he showsd me their rice field. He told me it can grow 300 pounds of rice!! And they use that grain to make all their rice. Sugoi!

Then he showed the various bamboo structures they have around the house and told me they're all made from bamboo he cut from the bamboo forest next to their house. Omg that's so freaking awesome!!

We had breakfast after that, which was regular bread (again made by Nagako). It was also in a giant slab that I cut. We had it with jam and salad and potatoes. They told me about a Japanese paper museum nearby and asked if I knew of Japanese paper. I said I used it all the time in Hanga class and about how I went to the Japanese paper store with Shiichiro. Also, yesterday I'd told them about habachi grills, which my whole life, I always assumed were Japanese, since the name is Japanese and they're always in Japanese restaurants. Well, turns out they aren't!! Neither Nagako nor Shuichibhad ever heard of them! Well it came up in conversation again this morning, so I brought up a movie of one on my phone and showed it to them. It was perfect because it had the huge fire I'd been talking about as well as all the usual spatula tricks and food tossing. They loved it!! They thought it was the bomb dot com, so I told them to come to America and I'd take them to one!

Then friends of theirs called to invite them over for lunch. I heard Shuichi saying that they had a guest over now, but when his friends heard I was American, they asked him to bring me too!

So at 11:30, we hopped in the car to travel to their friends place. Nagako asked if it was alright to give them one of my box of Texas chocolates and I agreed, so she had me give it to them. They ended up being really nice!
Their house had a trickling stream behind it with a waterfall! It was so beautiful. The inside was huge and super modern. They had a balcony on the back that overlooked the stream below.
There was a lady, Shizuko, and her husband and then an older lady. I had to guess the older lady's age, so I said 70. It turned out she was 95!!! And she still moved around fine! She was the patient of Shuichi. She has a bunch of hobbies including calligraphy, hanga, playing the string instrument that I got to play at the International party (I showed her a picture of me playing it and she thought that was awesome!), and painting. Her paintings were hanging all over the walls and they were amazing!! They looked like photographs. She also showed us one of her hanga prints that she'd done in color!

When we first got there, we had a tea ceremony. The guy was the one who made the matcha and then served it to us. He was the host. Shuichi told me that guy wanted to practice English with me, because he's trying to learn English. But he didn't speak much English and whenever I talked to him in English, I couldn't tell if he could understand me or not...
They had these adorable little koi okashi for Kodomo no Hi!! I got first pick, so guess which one I chose? :)

Then while Shuichi went to go work with the older lady (he does physical therapy and acupuncture and stuff), the man (gosh, I can't remember his name!) showed Nagako and me all the pictures he's taken. Most of them were of flowers. I asked him if the flowers were all ones behind the house, and he told me they were! Whoa! Then he showed us a bunch of pictures he took while in France. He's a really great photographer! And he had printed all his photos on big papers so they were all pretty and glossy and stuff! Finally, he showed us pictures he took of sakura around Obara and a special Aki Sakura, that is unique to Obara and blooms in the autumn, as well as a landscape photo of a spot nearby. I showed him my Mt. Fuji from the airplane picture and the rainbow over the shrine. He told me my angle was good in the rainbow picture!

Then Shizuko gave me a flower pin that doubles as a barette. it was so beautiful, I can't believe she gave it to me! So we took a picture together with me wearing it.

In the background are the decorations for Kodomo no Hi, the kid's hat and the koi plushies

Then we took a picture with me, Nagako, and Shizuko and the man printed it out for me and gave it to me. He also gave me the landscape picture he'd shown me before! So nice!!

 

Then we had lunch. It was a huge spread of food that Shizuka had made all herself, by hand! Wow!! There was fish, rice, salad, soup, tea, and more! She also had a ton of hobbies, including cooking. Then another older lady, the 95 year old lady's sister came out to join us. She was 90! We all had a fun lively conversation at lunch. The man talked about how when he was in France, he got confused about the difference in the English word "change," because it has two meanings, lol.

For dessert, we got to have oranges and bananas. Ayuko had told me that it isn't usual for Japanese people to not eat the orange skin, which made me wonder why Yuko had thought I was strange for eating it. But Shuichi and I were the only ones who ate it today!

After lunch, we had to head back. It was sad. These people were so nice!!

Back at home, we drank tea and Shuichi and Nagako told me about how those people are always giving and never asking for anything in return. They're hontou ni yasashi hito. ;)

Then I went to pack up my stuff and Nagako brought me the guest book to sign. So I wrote them a nice message and then signed it. They had so many other messages because they've had so, so many people stay with them before!

Then we took a picture of the three of us outside the house and all got in the car to head to the station because it was already 3:30. When we got there, Nagako ran out and bought me a ticket home even though I insisted that she didn't! She was so, so nice!! But I wish I had bought it before I left! At least I told her Kanayama, so she saved 130 yen.

And then I was off. The train, when I got on it, only had three people on it! But soon it filled up. I was really sad on the way home. Shuichi and Nagako had been so, so much better than my host family! They really made me feel at home. And after only two days, I already felt like I was leaving my parents! I was not excited to return to Ichinomiya, that's for sure! Shuichi and Nagako were surprised when they heard the homestay program at Nanzan isn't a volunteer program, and they said I could have stayed with them for free. Gosh, so kind!

At Ichinomiya, I stopped at Lawson's on the way home because today was the day the Korilakkuma bowl came out! And there were only 20 available in each store. I'd been saving my stickers to get on! But when I got there, they said the bowls were all gone already. Nooooo!! :(

When I got home, everyone was about to eat dinner, so I sat down. We had noodles in this cold soup and salad. And the salad was covered in cheese. Really? I was gone for a day and a half and Yuko already forgot I can't eat cheese?

She didn't even realize until I made a big deal of picking out the things I could eat and then she saw and apologized. I said it was okay. But I accidentally said it in formal, because I'd been speaking in formal to Shuichi and Nagako. But I don't speak in formal with my host family. Oh well.

I told everyone about the fuji matsuri and the koinobori, but only Yuko really seemed interested. Ken seemed to be in a bad mood.

I saw later on Facebook that they'd bought Miyabi a huge cake full of cream and fruit for Kodomo no Hi. Gosh, it looked good! And then Miya told me they saw Rana today. And sure enough, there were pictures on Facebook with them and Rana and Rana's host family. Man, I would have wanted to go hang out with Rana! I can't believe they never told me!!

Then Miya and I played together. We chased each other around the house, flinging rubber bands at each other and Yuko laughed.

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.

Sadou, and Kiyosu jo with Ayuko!!

~*~ Right now the wifi at home is broken, and it only works on my phone... Therefore, pictures for this post will be uploaded when I go to school tomorrow, so please be patient!! Sorry! ~*~


Saturday, April 26

It was kind of freaking me out that Yuko still hadn't said anything about the bike or scolded me... So I ended up bringing it up at breakfast.

And btw guess what we had for breakfast?? Not cereal!! We had salad and toast! Whoaaaa. 

Hisashiburi, toast!

 

Yuko asked me what time I was leaving for the sadou party and then made other small talk. Why wasn't she bringing up the bike? So I told her about how I'd brought the bike home yesterday and what a great bike it was and how well it worked and stuff.

And she said she knew, Kanno had told her. And then she said "nande oshiete" or something like that, so I thought she was saying "what did she tell you?" Because "nani" or "nan" is "what", so I hesitated, thinking of how to say what Kanno had told me, but then Yuko said, kind of angrily, in English:

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Oh, that's what it meant...

 

So I told her about how I'd thought they'd wanted me to take care of it on my own, so that's what I'd done and hadn't wanted to involve them (since they'd made it clear they weren't helping me). And she just kept telling me I should have told them, that's what they'd wanted, and on and on. And then she was like "that was my favorite bike", which I knew was a load of bs because her first suggestion after I got run over was for me to dump that bike and buy them a new bike. 

So Chris was right. I was going to get scolded. It's weird she held all her anger in until I brought it up, though. I wonder if I never had...

So I apologized and she stopped scolding me after that. Miyabi had just been sitting there awkwardly the whole time, I felt bad. Even though she couldn't understand the English parts, she could still tell what was going on.

 

Yuko came into my room as I was getting ready and said now I had to go pay to have the other bike, "her favorite", thrown away. I was like, "don't you want to keep it? I mean, it works fine"

And she said she did, but she thought it was dangerous to ride.

I told her I've been riding it every day! I mean, I even speed biked on it one day when I was late and it worked perfectly.

So she said she'd talk to her husband and then she said I was going to have to "make up Japanese words" to tell him what I'd done with the bike, because "that would make him happy".

Okaaayyy. 

So great, something else to look forward to when I get home today. I said I'd probably be home around 5 and then I headed out.

 

It was cool going to Nanzan on a Saturday. It made it feel more like a college campus. Usually, it feels like a high school because everyone has the same class times and same breaks, but now there were older people, probably alumni, strolling around and a young couple with a kid playing in the green area. It was nice.

The sadou party was in the tatami room, where I have my sadou class. I was worried because I'd gotten there about 20 minutes late, but I walked in and there were these girls dressed in suits at a table at the entrance. They were really nice and spoke in broken English when I didn't understand what they said. It turned out that because I didn't have a ticket, I had to buy one. Then they showed me in to half of the the tatami room. The doors to the second half were closed and the entryway, which is normally all open, had a traditional Japanese screen divider thing closing off half of it.

So I sat in there in seiza position, waiting. There were two older ladies in there too, admiring a wall scroll. Then they opened the second half of the room and I saw a whole bunch of people (some men too!) sitting around in tea ceremony position. Then they got up and filed out. That's when I realized it was set up so we could arrive at any time we wanted from 10 to 3 and then you went in to do the tea ceremony in groups. They let the two ladies and me go in next. I was the only foreigner there, so I was happy my group was small in case I messed up! Also, everyone in the last group had been dressed up, as were the ladies in my group, so I was happy I wore a skirt and nice shirt today!

There was a girl in a suit already sitting in the first position, I guess to show us what to do. Then two other girls came in, wearing kimonos. They must all be part of the sadou club. One girl in a kimono was the first host, who talked to us and brought in the sweets, and the other girl in the kimono was the second host, who made the tea.

 

The girl in the kimono talked to us a lot, very little of which I understood, and the we had to bow. Then she brought in the okashi. They were beautiful!! They looked just like iris flowers. Obviously I couldn't take a picture because this was a legitimate tea ceremony, but I found this image online that looks exactly the same, although they didn't have the green leafy parts.

The first girl said the stuff we'd learned in class. I was happy she was in front of me just to give me a refresher as to what that was. So then I said it perfectly. And yeah, the old ladies had no idea what they were doing, haha. I'd been sure they knew tea ceremony like the backs of their hands, but they really didn't! They just kind of mumbled something close to what the girl had said and then ate their sweets lol.

The iris okashi had anko inside! Mmmmm! It was really good, but I was still getting over my sickness I guess because I wasn't too hungry, so it was a little hard to finish.

 

Then we got tea! My feet were burning at this point! I'd assumed sitting in seiza for a long time would hurt my knees most, but my feet were prickling so much, they felt like they were on fire! All my body weight on top of them for the past 20 minutes had not been okay. So I sort of sneakily pushed them to the side while I drank my tea, but I'm pretty sure everyone noticed. Ah well, playing the gaijin card.

But hey, I knew how to say all the stuff! The girl in front is only supposed to say two things, to the person to the left and to the host, because she doesn't have anyone on her right. But everyone else, if they aren't the last person, is supposed to say three things, to the left, the right, and the host.

So I said "mo ippuku ikaga desu ka," to the first girl, because she was to my right, but she didn't respond!! Whaaat? Do they not teach that in tea ceremony club? So then I just continued, saying the stuff to the lady to my left and to the host and then drank my tea. 

The lady next to me sort of said it. And the last lady, who was older, just didn't say anything haha.

 

After we'd all finished tea and they cleared our cups, we watched while the girl in the kimono finished cleaning up. She was moving so slowly I wanted to scream! My legs hurrrtttt. T-T 

But she finally finished and after they thanked us and she told us to be careful as we left, we all bowed and we were free to leave. They opened up the sliding doors between rooms and I saw the waiting room area was full. Wow! I really got there at the right time. I could only imagine how much pain my legs would be in if I had a full room and had to wait for all those people to finish receiving their tea and then drinking it!

Kondo sensei was part of the next group! She saw me and was like, "oh! Keito!" And asked me if it was "oishikatta" (delicious) lol. I told her it was.

 

Then the girl in the kimono who had been our main host, the one who talked to us, walked us out. We thanked her and then the old ladies said I was really "jouzu." Awww!! I thanked them and then explained to them and the girl that I was taking a tea ceremony class right now, actually in this very room. They thought that was awesome.

So yeah, it wasn't a party like I thought, but it was still cool! It was fun getting the opportunity to do an actual tea ceremony after I've been practicing for one for so long!

 

Because it was barely 11, and now I had a ton of free time, I headed to J building to write my blog until 1:20 when I left to meet Ayuko at Oasis 21.

 

Ayuko was waiting for me at Starbucks. We caught up while she finished up her lunch. She had done sadou this morning as well! She's taking sadou lessons and learning to make okashi! I'm super jealous! But she told me she has to sit in seiza for 2-3 hours!!! Ahhh, I could never do that, haha.

 

I got on the Oasis 21 wifi to look up a place in Sakae to do purikura, because that was something we wanted to do together before I head back to America! We ended up finding the same place where I went with Rafa, Esteban, and Dylan way back in February, where if you're in your school uniform and it's after dark, you're not allowed in. And I ended up choosing the same machine, haha!

 

It was so much fun, as always!! Purikura is one of the things I will miss the most! Ayuko said you get way longer to decorate now than when she was in middle school and high school. There were even improvements since I'd come last in February! There was a new machine now (the one Minju, Emma, and I had used at Sushiro actually), and on this machine, there was a new "sepia" setting. Gosh, purikura is constantly getting better and better.

 

Although, there's still some bugs. Like if you wear green.

I learned that today...

Never wear green when you do purikura!!!

 

Because it's a green screen. Duh!! I should have realized haha. Yeah...

 

Damn, my green skirt looks so cute now, huh?

 

 

My favorite!! I decorated it :D

 

 

 

Yay, I love purikura!! 

 

Next, we went back to the station to take the subway to Nagoya and the JR to Kiyosu, since it was getting late and Kiyosu jo closed at 4:30.

 

At Kiyosu, I showed Ayuko the way I'd walked to get to Kiyosu jo last time. On the way, we talked a lot about Tech and our mutual friends, which was nice because I've been starting to really miss home and my friends lately! So it's nice hanging out with Ayuko who reminds me of home. ^^

 

Pretty daisies we saw on the way

This was Ayuko's first time in Kiyosu!! Whoa! We went up the overpass to cross the busy street before the castle, and marveled great view you can get of the castle up there. 

 

 

It wasn't as pretty as when it was surrounded by all the pink sakura, but it's still gorgeous!

 

We entered in and Ayuko bought me a ticket. She's so sweet!! We took off out shoes and put on these slippers that kept falling off my feet! First we looked at an exhibit that told about the history of the castle. We learned it was rebuilt in 1989, which is why it looked so new inside! Ayuko translated all the important stuff for me. I'm so jealous of the fact that she's bilingual!

Then we went upstairs where there were more exhibits, like replicas of the samurai armor! There was a floor above that playing a movie. That floor had a bunch of fun quiz questions you could answer with fun facts about Kiyosu and what Obu Nobunaga introduced to Japan. I learned he introduced buttons and konpeito (the cute little candies I like!) Ayuko told me about this historical comedy movie she likes, part of which is filmed at Kiyosu jo! There was a little section about that movie, too.

 

And then the best part for last, the balcony!! There were huge golden dragon fish things that Nagoya is known for up there and you could touch them! There was a also a drum you could hit and it showed you how to stand and hit it like they did back then. And then we walked around the balcony.

 

 

The view was amazing!! I could see Nagoya station in the distance. We also saw the Asahi factory, which looks like a bunch of beer cans. I told Ayuko about how on the way yesterday with Father, we had driven past the Kirin beer factory and it reeked of beer! Ayuko told me that the people of Kiyosu jo really pushed to have the castle rebuilt because they wanted to keep up the traditional parts of their city.

 

See the Asahi factory? That smudge is something on my camera...

Ayuko playing the drum

Me playing the drum

Entrance and the rock garden (those pebbles were hard to walk in!)

Cool carp streamers over the river

 

When we got back to the main floor, they had already closed up the castle, so we grabbed our shoes and headed out another exit.

Ayuko and I took a picture on the bridge and then I wanted to go look at the carp streamers. A yuki told me they're called "koinobori." They were so pretty!! We took a bunch of pictures of them!

 

All over the ground were brown crunchy things that Ayuko told me were dead sakura petals. I've been seeing those all over, it all makes sense now! Wow, they look so ugly when they're dead! 

 

This is such a gorgeous picture!

Sakura flower with dead sakura petals

Koinobori over Kiyosu jo!

Oote Bridge

Ayuko and me in the face holes! I'm the woman, haha

Then we headed back to the station. We passed by so many factories and kept commenting on how ugly they look in such a nice city! Although one smelled really good, like Spearmint. Maybe a gum factory? We also passed a shrine near the castle that was a shrine for help with studies. Just like the one we saw in Inuyama!

 

At the station, we took a JR home. I got off at Ichinomiya while Ayuko continued on to Gifu. I invited her to my closing ceremony, so hopefully we will see each other again there!

 

No one was home when I got home. So I went to my room to do my Hanga. I'd gotten it out of my locker after the sadou thing today, so I could finish it up this weekend. Miya and Yuko came home then, so Miya came to my room to play.

She thought my Hanga was awesome!! I taught her how you do Hanga and how it's used to make pictures. I showed her my Rilakkuma print as well as my ink covered Rilakkuma block. Then she sat there and held all the wood shavings I made as I finished carving my block. Even when I messed up, she kept saying "sugoi!" It was cute!!

 

Then we played this game on top of my Hanga knife box called "osumou" where we each had a little folded piece of origami that we stood up on the box. Then we both hit the box over and over and whoever's paper fell first, lost. It was fun!

 

While we were doing this, Ken got home and it was time for dinner, so we went into the kitchen.

And guess what was at our places when we arrived??

MISOKATSU!!!!! I was so excited! I really wish Yuko had said she was making it and then I could have watched her. 

But it looked just like it does at school, so I was really excited and touched they had made it since I'd mentioned a while back that it was my favorite food. And they had miso sauce too!! So I dug in.

 

The miso sauce was great! It tasted just like the one at school. The katsu, not so much... Actually, it was really bad. Like the misokatsu at Yabaton, it was filled with huge chunks of fat I couldn't eat. I had to surreptitiously spit them out into my napkin when I was wiping my face. I noticed Miya doing the same thing.

Yuko and Ken just ate the fat I guess?

But yeah, it made me want to gag because there was less meat than fat, so it wasn't edible.

 

After that disaster, I went back to my room. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep, but I had to wait for everyone to shower. So I worked on homework.

Then Yuko came in and asked me to come talk with Ken now. Miya was on the couch in the living room watching tv and Ken was sitting at the kitchen table. So I went in to sit at the table with him.

Then Yuko said she'd come and be the translator, so she closed the door between the living room and kitchen and sat with Ken on his side. So it was the two of them facing the one of me. Talk about intimidating.

So I told Ken in Japanese how I'd gotten the bike from Chris, gotten a friend to help me being it here, and now it was outside for them to go look at. And I told him it was a really nice bike. And I said I'd brought the old bike inside, so it was right outside the door, like Yuko had asked. 

He was still sitting there staring at me, so I turned to Yuko and asked it I was supposed to say anything else and she told me to apologize. 

So I did.

Then Ken launched into this explanation about how I should have told them, blah blah blah, everything Yuko already said, but at least he was nice and acknowledged the fact that I wasn't hurt and now they had a new bike so everything was good.

Neither of them thanked me for going and getting them a new $140 bike.

 

So I was about to get up and leave when Yuko said "that bike was given to me by my father" (oh gosh, I knew it was old! That means I've been riding around a probs around 20 year old bike!) and they were like "but we've decided it's too dangerous to ride, so we don't want to keep it. Now you have to go to the konbini and buy an 800 yen sticker to throw it out as well as pay to have the new bike registered"

Just, just, just, I can't...

I'm so happy it's only three more weeks with these people and then I never have to see them again!!!

 

So yeah, I'm going to stop complaining about them now because I don't want to fill my blog with crap about how much I hate them and they're ruining my experience. No, this supposed to be a fun, positive blog and I'd like to keep it that way! ^^ ne?