It's not a real festival 'til there's a drag queen

I think I will start off this blog post by saying that if there's anything that makes an exchanger feel  proud, it's acknowledgement that they have assimilated into their host country's environment. Let me explain:

The day after the end of my last blog post, marked the beginning of American week in my school: when a group of Americans from our sister school in the US come to Tokyo, and are hosted by Bunkyo students, while participating in school activities (only the girls come to Tokyo, the boys go to another part of Japan). I'd been aware of this for awhile, as my school adviser had asked me if I wanted to participate in some of the extra Japanese activities that the girls were doing, and because I would not be left alone until I had taught every one of my classmates how to correctly pronounce each girl's (there were nine) name. That task was never fully accomplished.
Anyway, I thought that it wouldn't be such a big deal for me, I mean, once you've been around Americans for fifteen years, they kind of lose that foreign appeal. My class would be hosting one girl, Cynthia (or Shinshia, according to my classmates). But as soon as she came into the room on her first day, I was at a loss. Do I speak to her in English or Japanese? Should I act like a Japanese or an American? I went over to introduce myself, and ended up just standing there. This happened twice. Twice. I have no idea why my brain can't handle to make the switch (although that visit has made it easier), and even now, I will bow and speak in Japanese to any foreign stranger, even if they talk to me in English. So yeah, just keep that in mind, people back home.
 But other than that, my ego was absolutely spoiled by these girls. They thought I was fluent, that I lived in Japan, that I was amazing at kendo, that I'm learning Japanese so quickly (after I told them that I'd only been seriously learning since I got here). It was pretty hard not to get kind of a swelled head (that got cured right after they left though...) It was nice, though, to realize that I have made at least some progress this exchange year, and it definitely gave me motivation to work harder at improving my Japanese. がんばります！

But you all just want to hear about what we did and see some pictures right? Well, fear no more, your patience has been rewarded!

Wearing kimono for the first time!

This picture brings me to the first of my extracurricular activities with the Americans (I unfortunately couldn't go to all of them, since I couldn't miss too many classes or practices): kimono wearing! My school brought in these two elderly kimono master ladies with these absolutely beautiful kimono (this kind was especially for young, unmarried girls- you can tell because of the long, wide sleeves). It's actually a fairly lengthy process to put the whole thing on, and seemingly difficult to do by one's self. I'm astounded by the Japanese women that do it every day of their lives!

There's so much intricacy that goes into this work, too. This is probably the third or fourth "draft", if you will, of my obijime

As you may be able to tell, every last detail must be perfect, or the whole flow of the look will be off. And in the final result, you should not be able to tell that any effort went into it at all. I think I'm starting to detect a pattern in the traditional Japanese arts...

Then on Friday, I got to take the morning off to go with everyone to Asakusa for something I never really considered to be a typical Japanese activity...

Making fake food!

 It's surprisingly easy! Granted, we were given the easiest food to make, but still! There were plenty of much more amazingly realistic foods in the shop below, which would usually be quite a sight, but not right before lunchtime...
Anyway, the food we were tasked with to make: tempura and cabbage.

My final product

Why did they have to look so realistic?

The fake-sushi clock was pretty cool though.

There was also a giant (probably 4 foot) wax fish hanging from the ceiling. I really don't know why I didn't take a picture of that...

That day (a Friday, by the way) after school was their goodbye party. Of course, there were games, and speeches, and plenty of tears, but my emotions were pretty stable until Cynthia (who I'd actually gotten pretty close after I sorted myself out enough to finally talk to her) reminded me of my own goodbye party. I don't even want to think about it, but I'm almost at my five month mark! Where did the time go!?

I'm going to miss all of them, but the goodbye was not so hard, seeing as they live in the neighboring state. If any of you are reading this, I hope we will see each other soon! I'm going to need someone to practice my Japanese with once I get back home!

Which brings me to the next part of this post...

That following weekend, two men from Bianka's Rotary invited us to come with on a boat ride around Hayama harbor (not sure if it's famous or not, but apparently it's got some great tuna).
Now, the fact that I can get horribly motion sick is nothing new to me. I've been like that as long as I can remember, and depending on the vehicle, I know how to deal with it. And usually with boats, if they're big, and I don't stay inside for too long, I don't normally get too sick. So my host mom told me that we would be "cruising" around the harbor. When one thinks of cruising, they think of a big boat right? Well, as I thought that would be the case, I didn't take any precautions against motion sickness, and here is what awaited me when I got to the harbor...

It was a pretty cool boat though

So I ended up spending most of the boat ride wrapped in a blanket, huddled up next to Bianka with my eyes firmly shut (if I can't see the choppy waves, I can pretend they're not there). Did I mention it was also freezing cold?
But there were some good points. For example, our guide/guy-who-drove(not sure if that's the right word)-the-boat was one of the most amazing people I had ever met. From a small, average town, he used to be a deliver goods by carrier to different ports of the world. He is now one of the most cultured people I have ever met. He has some basic knowledge on pretty much every single country in the world (as well as advanced knowledge in both the US and Hungary), he's an avid classical music fan and reader, and he speaks great English, which he claims just to have "picked up" from Australian ports. On the outside he just looks like your average elderly, Japanese fisherman! So, if you're ever in Japan, visiting Hayama harbor, I suggest you look this guy up (he runs a yacht service there). I also suggest you try the popcorn tuna. First time I've ever liked tuna!

You'll know you're in the right restaurant if you see this fishtank.

And to finish off November, I went to--can you guess?--another school festival! This time, I went with Maxim and Bianka to Keio University, where my friend Kiki goes to school. Kiki is the daughter of a family friend's friend who went to high school in the States, and has also been kind and helpful guide during my time here so far. But anyway, her school's festival was like most of the others I've been to: plenty of stalls with great food, a few interesting attractions (we went to go see a very amusing fortune teller), and, of course, plenty of ridiculous dress-ups.

Just one of many

Besides cross-dressers, there are always an abundance of cosplayers (people who dress up like anime characters), and other crazy costumes of unknown origin.

I honestly have no idea what they were supposed to be...

Bianka and I also discovered a little shop/stand that sold old Japanese snacks, and now we are both absolutely addicted. We went on two shopping sprees there. Seriously, corn potage is the best flavor any snack could have.

Everything there was also in mini

After that, Bianka and I met up with some of my friends from school for karaoke to finish the day and my November!

I'm not sure when I'll be able to get my first December post up, as my internet here is quite...well, it's absolutely terrible (from 10-20 minutes to upload one photo). But thank you everyone for your patience! I really appreciate it!

And a late Happy Hannukah/Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (which I hear is going to be quite an occasion over here)!

じゃあね！


P.S. While writing this post for a second time (because I'm pretty sure blogger hates me), I went with Bianka and Antonia to see both Breaking Dawn Pt. 2, and Les Miserables (loved both of them!), and we happened to see a most curious ad before both movies, that I think people will enjoy. Believe me, this is SO Japanese.

I Can See Mt. Fuji From My House! (November Pt. 1)

November, as I mentioned in my previous blog post, began with the first of my three changes in host family. The move itself was pretty smooth and uneventful. I think the transition is going well, my host family is really kind, although there are many differences between them and my last family, but as an exchange student it is my job to adapt. The only thing I left out was pictures of my house, mainly my room. So here you are!

I actually get half of the third floor to myself (the other half is my host brother's), which includes my room, two balconies, and a storage closet. I mostly use the balconies for laundry, but one of them has an amazing view:

To the right...

...And to the left. Yes, that is Mt. Fuji

That weekend, I decided to go visit my friend Veli's school festival (which I admit, was probably a bad exchange student move seeing as it was my second day with my host family, but my host mom said she didn't have anything planned for that day, and that is was fine with her) and Maxim came to join me. By the way, September through November is the season of school festivals, which is why I've been going to so many.
We spent a little while at Veli's high school, visiting a few of the classrooms. I saw some cool posters from former exchange students (since exchange is pretty popular in that school), many of whom had gone to the US, and some really awesome dinosaur skeletons made out of cardboard.

Like so

I also discovered that ROTC classes exist in Japan, which I found surprising in a country where the military is not nearly as prominent as it is in the States. But hey, there are plenty of things in Japan that have surprised me way more, haha.

But the real fun was Gakushuin University's school festival. Gakushuin, Veli's school, consists of all schools from primary to university (and possibly a kindergarten, I'm not sure), and although they are not all on the same campus, the boys' senior high and the university are next door to each other, luckily for us. And since this was a university festival, the students had a lot more freedom to do whatever crazy things they wanted.

Like around the grounds as a drunk Jack Sparrow

Actually one the most entertaining parts of the festival was the vast amount of people dressed up, mostly as movie, tv, or game characters. And yet they were still surprised when we said we wanted their pictures...

Not sure if you can tell from this picture, but she also has magenta hair

There seemed to be a multitude of horse-headed people at Gakushuin...

Throughout the festival, there were numerous dance/singing groups performing on a large stage near the center of the university. For some reason almost all the ones I saw felt some need to incorporate cross-dressing (usually by a guy) into their routines. Can you find the one in this picture? 

Also, near the end of the festival, a bunch of the characters we had seen throughout the day, plus some others, got up on stage and danced a pretty hilarious version of Gangnam Style. Sadly, I was too far away and could not get a good video of it.
We even got some nice guides to the festival when Veli introduced us to Gakushuin's university exchange students. They were a pretty international group, including France, Italy, and South Korea. They were really nice about letting us tag along with them, and from the way they described how their exchange had been so far, it made we really want to do another exchange when I go to college.
We made some other friends too, when Veli decided randomly go take a picture with a group of guys he saw standing in the window of one of the university buildings:

Apparently they were just on their way to a party

Moving on to the next weekend! Saturday we had a pretty boring Rotary orientation. I had to make a two-three minute speech about my life in Japan so far, which I think went pretty well. (although you can never really tell how good your Japanese is from a Japanese person's reaction. I get told I have amazing Japanese for saying things like "Nice to meet you" and "Get well soon") There was also a sad moment when we had to give advice to next year's outbounds, in English, and several of the inbounds spoke better than I did...By the time I get home next year, I'm going to have to pretend I'm still an exchange student to make up for my inability to speak real English.
Afterwards, Bianka's host parents took me out to dinner with them (Italian!) which was super nice. I actually really love Bianka's host family. They let me come over all the time, and eat their food (sometimes they even leave food for me), and just treat me kindly overall. Plus, they live really close to a big shopping/hangout area!

But enough of me gushing, let's go on to Sunday! On Sunday, the Rotary club of Kyose invited whatever Rotary-involved people (inbounds, outbounds, Rotex, Rotaract, Interact) that were interested, to join them for an imonikai, which is a big Japanese potato eating party that happens just after their harvest. First, though, since this is Rotary, we had to do some community service, which involved cleaning all the statues along the area's street-side art gallery. But they weren't actually very dirty, so it was mostly us pretending to actually clean while the Rotarians took pictures like they were the paparazzi.
After that, they took us to the imo (Japanese potato) plots, where they had already dug up a bunch of the imo plants. All we had to do was hit the dirt off and break apart the potatoes, which we could take home to our families. I happened to keep getting really big plants, so in the end I had a ton to take home. More than my host mom wanted I think...

My "harvest." I'm still not sure what my host mom ended up doing with these...

The imo plants looked pretty funny after you pulled all the potatoes off. In my case, I got on that looked like an alien's shrunken head (or more specifically, an Ood for any Whovians out there)

Then came lunch! Using the imo, and a whole bunch of other things, the Rotarians had cooked this huge stew (in what looked like a giant barrel), that is now one of my favorite Japanese foods (which may also be because of my love of stews...). It was sooo good!

Trust me, it's tastier than it looks

After everyone made their short introduction speeches, the Rotarians decided that it was time for some games, to work off our meal. The first was a jump rope competition, where all the team members (about fifteen to twenty people) had to jump at the same time, and whichever team got the most jumps without stopping, won. And my team, despite our location disadvantage (we were on a slope) managed to come out victorious!
Second, was a huge game of kick the can where, instead of having two sides for each team, we could use the whole giant park, and there were no boundaries. I had alot of fun, and my team managed to win that game too. I think that's the most I've run in a long time!

I forgot to mention what a nice town Kyose was. It's climate and landscape reminded me of some kind of place you would find out on the Cape.

The imonikai ended at around 3, which means we still had a whole afternoon free, so Bianka, Maxim, and I decided to go out for dinner together. Bianka knew about this buffet that she had been to before with her friend, so she took us there. And it was so cute! In the entrance to the restaurant, there is a line of waiters that yell "Buongiorno!" as you walk in. Probably because the buffet serves Italian food, but along with many other Western and Indian style foods. I was pretty hard to find something I didn't like. They even had crepes and Belgian-style waffles for dessert! The only thing was that it was rather expensive, but that might be good thing, seeing as if I could go back whenever I want, I would get so fat that no one would be able to recognize me!


So that's about it for your first part of November! Sorry it's so short, but believe me, the next one will be much longer, featuring American week, when a group of girls from Connecticut came to my school!

Happy Chanukah everyone!

じゃあね！