Japanese class seems to be going well, I like my teacher a lot, because she has so much enthusiasm. Also multiple times this week, not just in Japanese class but other places with Japanese figure heads, any time someone sneezes they offer to turn down air conditioning. I am amused by this cultural practice. :)
Kanji class is hard! Like there's a lot of kanji I forgot and a lot I need to learn to catch up to where the textbook we're using starts for this class. But the teacher is really nice and I have Micah to
In ceramics class I've moved on from wedging and onto pinch pottery which is what it sounds like. After getting air bubbles out of the clay we pinch it into shapes we want. In addition to this we've learned coiling which is starting with a base and rolling strips (coils) of clay and going around that base and pinching it together, then repeating with more coils until you're satisfied. Using this method I've made triangle cup thing, square thing, square round square cup thing, and cup thing.
Actually today in ceramics (tougei, tougei, tougei; I always forget the Japanese word for it and no one knows it by ceramics), we learned to make plates and cups that are more perfect than coiled ones. We do so by flattening out the clay and cutting it and then rolling it on newspaper wrapped around cans or rolling pins or other nice surfaces that are cylindrical. Then we do... Stuff (connect the 2 ends to make it a full cylinder), and other stuff (connect a bottom on a hand wheel and smooth out any inconsistencies and the top), it's interesting. Using this method today I made one cup, and made 2 plates which use this flattening method as well but doesn't get rolled up, just the corners are moved up- to be plate-like.
Oh and we learned to use half air dried clay to make bowls by using the bottoms of other bowls. But I didn't have any half air dried clay. Soooo.
Did I mention my women in economy class was canceled Monday? That was a thing. It's a 3 hour class (2 class periods back to back) and I have no idea why it was canceled or when the make up date is. But oh well.
My host parents have been feeding me. :) I even had raw eggs one night. Sukiyaki is a dish where you have meat and vegetables and dip them in raw egg to eat. It was super good! Now I'm sure you're all concerned about salmonella, but Japan literally doesn't have it. At. All. In fact I was speaking today to a Japanese friend who had studied at my university in Wisconsin last year and he said he ate some raw egg in America because he didn't know you weren't supposed to. Luckily nothing happened to him, but not everyone could be so lucky.
Anyway, I trust Okaa-san and Otou-san to give me safe food, it's also very delicious. I've been drinking lots of tea and juice, and eating lots of Japanese mayo. They also give me lots of bread, like more than I have ever eaten before and I can tell you now, fresh Japanese bread will be among the things that I'll miss most when I return home. There's so many varieties and they're so yummy- and don't get me started on melon bread. (By the way the Japanese word for bread is the same as Spanish- Pan.) Speaking of snacks I'm eating a particularly tasty sweet potato pie that Otou-san bought today.
As for lunches... I pretty much eat curry every day. It's so good, I know I'll miss that too. That and melon soda. Melon flavor is best flavor, I will fight people over this. >:O
Oh and another thing, every day at 5:30 a little song and someone talking goes off all through town. I asked Okaa-san about it today and apparently it's a nursery rhyme playing and the person is telling children to go home because its getting late (and the sun is starting to set). Interesting.
Oh oh oh, so here's what I have coming up as far as activities outside of school:
- Saturday I'm going to go to Kuzuha mall (a short train ride away) with some friends and grab lunch and probably watch a movie with a smaller group of friends. I won't be able to understand most of it, but I'm still excited. I'll be watching Kimi no Na wa (What is Your Name?).
- I haven't officially joined the Kendo club, but their meetings start next Tuesday (13th). I think Micah was planning on coming too to the first one so we'll see how that goes.
- On the next day (Wednesday the 14th), from 6:30pm-8:30 there is a summer festival held at the school. I sent out an email saying I planned to attend and told my host parents I would be eating dinner out that day. The activities include a shooting game, making pictures out of rice crackers, and eating crushed ice, and of course making friends!
- I'm signed up for a night walk with the university that goes from 2pm October 1st until 9am October 2nd, yes. Night. Walk. The info is really vague (because it's written by Japanese students partially), and actually says there'll be secret missions and free food and a free t-shirt. So it seems like fun.
That's my big update, thanks for reading guys, I gotta go study kanji now!
-Why are 間、聞、問、and 門 not related in meaning...?
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