Happy 30th anniversary, Iwade Rotary club!

Hey, so I decided that because I'll be studying for exams all next week (Yikes!) I'd make a blog post now, even though it's a little short.

The main topic is going to be about Iwade Rotary Club's thirtieth anniversary! So what exactly does this entail?

Well, first it means a long, long band concert in which the brass band played a lot of music. We played stuff like a Deep Purple Medley (and I do indeed mean the old American band. I really liked the arrangement of Burn.) momokuro (I have no idea what that means, but it sounded really cool) and other various Japanese tunes that I didn't know. We finished it off with a concert with the Iwade middle school bands. We played Aladdin and generally had a grand old time.

Immediately after, some Rotary people took me to a kimono shop to get fitted. And wasn't that an experience. I have never felt so decadent in my life, wearing about thirty pounds of heavy silk. It was incredible, and walking was very difficult because I had about fifty percent less room to move in. Also, the shoes were about six sizes too small, so walking anywhere made me feel like I was going to fall over.

Aaaand I'm complaining. It was still gorgeous, and the most expensive thing I think I've ever worn. Here are some lovely pictures. Look at the detail on this thing!

Exquisite, is it not?

But OH MY GOODNESS, I had to eat dinner with this thing on.

Let  me repeat: I had to EAT DINNER with this kimono on.

I thought I was going to die. I must have covered my lap with about six inches of napkins. That was the most stressful thing I've ever done, EVER.

Speaking of, the food was quite delicious. I was very pleased with the selection. I was also tricked into eating some super spicy Japanese herb, but that's neither here nor there.

I had a job at this event, though; I would stand there and look pretty. No, just kidding, that was only one of my jobs. My actual job was to carry a tray to the president of the Rotary Club and stand there so he could take the awards and stuff that were sitting on it. I did not fail, thankfully. I think. I didn't fall, so I guess that's the best I can hope for.

Other than that, it's been business as usual. Brass band still practices, I still rib the Australians (we played this Japanese board game the other day. HAHA. HAH. I nearly won, but then I got sent back to the end. And then Dimitri got first, and then Ronen got second, until it was just Jaida and I. But there was this one square that we kept landing on that sent us back to the same point in the game. I eventually made it, but she didn't. Now she has to write an essay in Japanese about her weekend.) I found out my last host family (I will be having three, instead of the two that I'd originally assume), and the last family seems like very nice people.

Sayonara!

Error in Posting

Hello everyone. You all must be very surprised--three blog posts so close together! However this is not actually a blog post. It's an apology. Because see, the last blog post I made, some things made the final draft that I'd definitely intended not to put in. So I'd like to apologize profusely for my hastily edited post. Please enjoy your day, and I'm sorry again for the confusion!

Speechy speechy, and the Playground Movie Star

It must seem strange that I'm posting so soon after the first one, doesn't it? Well, I have a reason for that. Today I actually don't have anything planned until six, and it's almost five. No one's home. so I'm just hanging around doing nothing. I figured it was a good enough time to make a blog post as any.

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes! Special shoutout to the parents, Liz Denius, Marilyn Sands and Ella Rose for the birthday gifts. I had a blast on my birthday in Japan; I went to a sushi round table, where there's this sushi conveyor belt, and on it pieces of delicious fish scroll by, just waiting to be picked up. I had six plates, which is apparently very little; my host mom had ten or so. She's amazing. Here are some pictures and short videos of what it was like.

My meal.

Short video of the little conveyor belt above the automatic one. Here, you ordered your food from a little screen, and the little conveyor belt brings it right next to you. Really cool.

The unagi sushi I ate (and loved), and a bowl of soup next to it. Super tasty.

And here's a video of the automatic conveyor belt!

Pretty rad, right?

So you may be curious about the title of the blog post, as you probably should be. I'll start with the first one, speechy speechy, because that has become a big part of my life here in Japan. 

Apparently when you're a Japanese exchange student, your only purpose is to write many, many speeches in Japanese. To give you an example of how many I've said so far: in the last two weeks I have given three speeches. One was at a Rotary meeting, one was a presentation on America to a bunch of high school students, and the last was at an elementary school. But I'll be getting back to that later. 

See, the thing about speeches (I call them 'speechy' in my head, because the Japanese don't use plural, and they use katakana for the spelling, so it ends up sounding like speechy) is that I can't speak Japanese all that well yet. I'm not being modest. I'm getting a lot better at comprehension, but my speaking skills are still pretty poor. This of course means that when I first write my speeches, they're pretty simple. They're basic Japanese, all of which I can understand, and easy to read. 

Then of course I have to ask my sensei or my host mom for help. 

They usually take one look at my speeches and go, 'No'. Just no. Then they take my speeches from me, so lovingly crafted, and completely rewrite them until suddenly I have no idea what I'm saying. 

It's getting better. But it's still really difficult. For those of you who want to become foreign exchange student in Japan, be prepared to stutter your way through a ton of speeches every month. 

Now I'll go back to the elementary school, which is the second part of the post title. 

So Thursday and Friday I and the other exchange students went to an elementary school to give a speech to an English class. Thursday where the fifth graders, and Friday were the sixth graders. Here's what my first day looked like. 

Twelve o'clock, get driven to the school. Meet with the principal, and have about fifteen minutes of awkward, stilted conversation before getting sent up to the classrooms. Meet the small children. Have lunch with the small children. 

Now these kids, when they first saw us, didn't think we spoke Japanese at all. So they were speaking a little English to us, and running away and giggling every time we responded. The first time I said, "Sumimasen, nansai desu ka?" (excuse me, how old are you), I think my table rioted. One little boy screamed, "NIHONGO SHABBERERU!!!!" (SHE SPEAKS JAPANESE) really loudly. After that we managed to communicate a little better. 

After that, we went to the playground to play dodgeball. 

I won't bore you with the details of the dodgeball game, but something really cute happened during it. A bunch of little kids--and I'm talking TINY CHILDREN, I think they must have been first or second years--ran up to the us and said, "SAINKUDASAI!!" (Please sign!!). Then they gave us their notebooks. I think I must've signed at least thirty notebooks that first day. I didn't mind, though, because they were so adorable. My goodness. 

Then we gave our presentations. It went much the same the next day. It was really fun, and we got out of school early, so I'm counting those two days as my best memories of Japan so far. Here are some pictures!

Well that took a while....

Yowza, it's been such a long time since the last post! I've got an excuse, though--I've been insanely busy. Which is good! And exhausting at the same time.

Time for a linear progression of events--shall we?

Okay, so last month before testing, all the other foreign exchange students came to the school. There's one from China, whose name is Tei; both her English and her Japanese are fantastic, because she went to a language school. She's very nice, and usually helps me when I get confused with Japanese. Unfortunately we're not together as often. Then there're the Aussies; and boy, what a bunch they are! There's Jaida, a girl, who's color scheme is very, very orange; both her hair and her eyes are orange. It's kind of cool, actually. Then there's Ronen, a guy, who's very funny, and likes making fun of America. We get along just fine. Then there's Dimitri, another guy, who's very serious and doesn't talk all that much. The only thing they have in common is they all like making fun of America together.

They're cool people, though; we study (and sometimes procrastinate) together, and I introduced them to cream puffs. Good stuff.

Speaking of testing--guess who got the highest score! That's right. Of me, Dimitri, Jaida, and Ronen, I got the highest score. Even though it wasn't very good (62? Blegh). I'm not entirely satisfied with that score; I've been studying a lot to try and get a better one for the next test, which is at the end of the month. (AIIIIIII--)

What else....oh! I saw a Japanese Noh performance, which was pretty awesome! It's traditional theatre kind of stuff, with drum beats and chanting and....all sorts of interesting things. Though....they did very little in a very long amount of time. Here's some pictures.

Tres cool.

Next. Went to an island called Tokoshima, went to Japanese temples, and ate Japanese pizza. Went on my very first open-ocean ferry ride and did not get sick, which was very pleasing. The view was gorgeous, of course, as Japan is very photogenic. I wish I could post some pictures of the temple, because it was very cool, but unfortunately you're not allowed to take pics there. 

We also went to Koyasan, which is a world heritage site, and has definitely earned that title. It was absolutely gorgeous; there's a view at the top that stretches for miles around, which is unusual because normally there's always a mountain in the way. There are many, many mountains in Japan. It's very pretty. It sucks for biking. I got some pretty good pictures

Us and the group eating food at Koyasan. And....

Enormous Koyasan buddhist temple. Awesome!

Me, determined to get a really good picture. Thanks Michael for taking the picture.

So yeah, cool sightseeing. Nice destinations. Very nice.

Okay, what now? I guess I should talk about the things I've joined, since they're such an important part of my life!

I go to badminton every Saturday nights, and let me tell you, it's really fun! Everyone's very serious about their playing, but they also know how to have a good time. We're a pretty big group, so there's always someone new to play with and against. 

On Monday evening and Sunday morning I have aikido, and guess what--shodan test in April or so! Super excited for that. The aikido in Japan is really different than American aikido, though, because it's mostly kihon, rather than a variety of arts. It's really challenging, but that's the way to grow, right? The sensei is hysterical, though; my second day, he came up to me and showed me a magic trick. During class, he says, 'pretend I'm a pervert!' before attacking. 

On Thursdays I have Volunteer club at the school, and everyone in the club is super nice! My first day there, they all threw me a party; we had drinks and snacks. And the leader of the club said to everyone, 'Only English, okay?' (I immediately said, no. Please don't. Let me muddle through my Japanese a little.) It was very thoughtful of them. 

Finally, BRASS BAND. 

I have brass band every day after school, which ends at six o'clock. That's on average two-three hours of practice a day. At first it just about killed me, because a) we don't practice that much in the states, and b) I think if I burned all of those chairs I would be doing the band a favor, because those things are literally the most uncomfortable things I've ever sat on. They should've gotten something at least a little more comfortable, like. You know. Rocks. I think my butt is permanently deformed. 

But anyway. 

I'm used to it now; the only thing I really have trouble with anymore are the weekends, because then we practice from 9-5. (On Sundays I have aikido, so I only have to come after lunch to five. Still, that's four hours, usually five because the Japanese are insane and love practicing. I'm kidding. Not really). 

Band is a ton of fun! I love it dearly now. Everyone is super nice; the other saxes are a ton of fun to be around. Just the other day the band went on an overnight to a location about four hours away from the school. We stayed in a nice hotel. Here are some pictures. 

At the giant band performance, one of our school sensei's conducted a song that apparently everyone in my school knew the dance to. Excellent photo opportunity. 

Katsura is pretty, ne? I suppose the four hour bus trip was good for something.

The first year students say hello! It was pretty funny; after this picture was taken, Kana, a first year, ran up to me and said, "GRACIA-SENPAI! Hug!" And I said "COME HERE YOU ADORABLE SMALL CHILD I WILL GIVE YOU MUCH HUGS!!!' and we had a hug fest.

God Mae stop photobombing my pictures!

Me and the team. Peace signs are in, apparently. 

In the hotel room. All of us were saxes except for the girl second before the end. Poor clarinet was surrounded on all sides by the enemy. 

Very serious game of Uno. Minami(on the left) and Yuzuna(on the right) were duking it out for last place. You know, I can't remember who won. I do remember that Yuzuna kept having to draw cards. 

Uno game before the epic one v. one between Minami and Yuzuna. Left to right: Minami, Reika, me, Yuzuna.

The saxes before leaving. I've already named the other three, but the girl on the very left is Fuki, a first year. She's super adorable, but I'm pretty sure she has secret evil schemes. Nah, just kidding. (Or am I?)

Well, that just about sums it all ups. I'm writing many speeches, getting better at Japanese. Life is good. Life is hard, but life is good.