The Blog Post of All Blog Posts: A HUGE UPDATE

How have I come to not post in nearly two weeks you're wondering? Well it's quite simple really; once school started two things happened simultaneously, the first  being I got exponentially more busy, and the second being that that said business is not particularly entertaining to discuss, because at most it's maybe a paragraph worth per day of either what I learned in class, or insignificant inside jokes (to outsiders). So anyway here's how I'm gonna tackle this post, I'm gonna break stuff up into School, After School (club), and Other fun miscellaneous things; most of which will receive their own category probably. We'll go as chronologically as I possibly can for what I can remember. But first, a couple of housekeeping notices (ew, I sound like a teacher).

1. If you need my mailing address to send me stuff (I have a birthday coming up ;););) ~) message me on facebook, in fact if you need any contact info just message me on facebook. My number still works for texting thanks to T-Mobile's awesome automatic international plan, however calling me will still give me international charges. Sometimes it may be easier to just message me via facebook, as it seems to be more reliable.

2. I forgot to mention something I got at the mall! I bought the first book of a series somewhat popular with maybe middle schoolers in Japan? The series is called Moribito, and the book I got is called Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. The first two of twelve books came out in English, but it wasn't popular, likely due to heavy Chinese and Japanese cultural and mythological homages. It just kinda fell flat. Anyway I watched an anime adaption of this story over the summer before coming to Japan, so I figured hey, I should get the first book. Let me make this really clear though, I can't read this book. I mean, I phonetically can read it, but I have very limited understanding. I'd anticipate in maybe 2-3 years I'd have the vocabulary to be able to read it somewhat decently. So consider this an investment in my education. Here's some pictures! Pages are read right to left, downward.

Alright onto that good stuff; if this post is too long to read in one sitting I suggest splitting it up by the bullet points:

• School:

 Since the last blog post I think I've had 3 Kanji Quizzes, and 2 Japanese Quizzes, I have a Test coming up in all of my classes (including Women in the Economy, but excluding Ceramics) within the next couple weeks. To be clear again, Kanji is the Chinese character writing used in conjunction with the two Japanese alphabets (Hiragana for Japanese words, and Katakana, an alphabet exclusively for foreign words, such as Ke-ki/cake, and lots of less obvious things like ba i ku which means motorcycle). The reason these classes are split instead of just one Japanese class like everywhere else is so that we specifically spend time learning the Chinese characters, their multiple readings, and their multiple uses in words. It's important because you can't watch the news, read the newspaper, or fill out MAIL SENT TO YOU BY THE MUNICIPAL OFFICE if you can't read it. :)

So in Japanese class I've learned quite a bit, the most useful two of which are "I would like" and potential form. As in, I can write in Japanese/I am capable of ___. Extremely useful, rather than you know... saying I AM DOING THIS THING, when that's not what you mean. :/ Kanji class is just... like vocabulary I guess. But there's been some interesting and useful stuff in there too.

In Ceramics we started using the spinning wheel. It's lboth easy and hard to use. I'm getting better at centering the clay on it now, but there's a lot of steps to it so I'm pretty sure I always forget something when making cups by myself. Also cutting the final project is hard. The first time I did it perfectly and now I do terrible lol. Maybe I had beginner's luck? Also we've been using brown clay, which is like the white clay we've been using, except brown. It looks like peanut butter when wet. :D Please don't eat it.

In Women in the Economy we've just talked about labor graphs, stuff like what makes women drop out of the work force, statistics over the years, statistics comparing the U.S. and Japan, statistics of ages of women in and out of the workforce, types of jobs, family sizes, location. Basically lots of statistics. It's really interesting. Also really long. It's a 3 hour long course at the end of my Mondays... so I'm usually really tired for this class. I said next time I'm going to buy and bring coffee with me. Also since the first class was canceled we have to make it up sometime. I have no idea how we'll manage that unless we have class on Saturday. :/

• After School:

 I joined Kendo club! It meets on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. I've been to the practices the 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, (20th was a typhoon so no one went), 21st, and 23rd (24th, today, I went somewhere with my host mom, we'll get there.) The first practice I watched, the next three were spent on footwork (Okuri-Ashi) almost entirely. The way you have to stand in Kendo is balancing you weight, 50/50 on your right flat foot in front, and your left foot, standing on the toes slightly behind it. Fun fact: you left foot is not used to this. In addition, the way you move is by sliding your right foot forward, and following with your left. When I say slide I mean slide, do not lift it. Same going backwards except leading with your left foot and following with the right. On the 21st I got to spend time working on strikes some, before watching them practice sparring (which they also did on the 17th). I'm actually going to a Kendo tournament tomorrow to cheer on my club-mates, and I'll be taking pictures, so that'll be in the next blog post, hopefully much sooner than this one came! I did indeed get blisters on my feet however, which have now healed, and re-blistered since then lol. Hand blisters are incoming too, I just haven't gotten them yet.

• School Summer Festival (Sept 14)

This was a really cute and small festival! I went to it after Kendo club and basically all it was was shaved ice with free flavoring (I got melon), a rubber band shooting game (I did terrible, but still won candy), and rice cracker art with sugar. I drew a happy couple and a dog, it was great! After the festival, we went to Sukiya for some basic dinner. I had some kind of cheese dish, I don't even remember lol... it was good. :) Here's my rice cracker art!


By the way there's kitties in my neighborhood at night!

• Tsukimi Festival with Sam's Host Parents! (Sept 15)

Tsukimi is literally moon viewing, and it's a festival celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Japanese traditional calendar! It's a mid-autumn festival, which is ironic, cause it's so hot out. The bunnies are there because Japanese tradition says that the moon has rabbits living on it, and they're pounding rice. This was a really interesting festival. Myself, Sam and his family, another Sam (the one from when I first arrived in Japan at KIX airport), and Sam's friend Mindy met up at Hirakata City Station and went to the nearby Hirakata Park station (next to an amusement park too), and in an open field across from the theme park were all these stalls and stuff set up. We listened to some taiko drums, some poetry, and then they did this really long praying ritual that was so long and hard to understand, apparently even natives only understand around 33%, and also get very bored. We got really excited at the end though, because the moon actually came out! It was after the praying though, lol, and during some Spanish/Japanese musical performance. We had a really good time, mostly talking and eating together and enjoying each others' company. After the ground lantern pictures is a picture I took walking home that night. I thought it was pretty.

 

•  Sunday (Sept 18th): 

Here's why this is interesting! Initially I was planning on spending this day going to Kobe to visit some Japanese friends who had been exchange students in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, but halfway due to lack of planning, halfway due to my parents telling me to stay home because I seemed to busy; I didn't go. There was a reason though! My host parent's son Shinichi, his wife Kyouko, daughter Akari, and son Kazuki, came to visit for dinner! I'm pretty sure this day was "Respect for the Elderly Day," so basically grandparents day. It was a really fun dinner! We went to get Shabu-shabu or Japanese hotpot! Basically it was like taking raw meat and throwing it in super boiling hot water with vegetables and then dipping it in sauce and praying not to burn your mouth (I do that last bit a lot in Japan). Unfortunately there's not a lot of pictures, but it was super huge and super delicious. Plus I got to learn some stuff about their family! For example Akari, who I believe is 12 (?) plays Tennis and has been studying English for 7 years. That's a long time. However she claims she can't speak it... we'll see about that next time we hang out! Kazuki is really extremely energetic, and he likes playing his 3DS, specifically youkai watch.


After dinner we went back home and played some card games. We played things like Old Maid, a game of straight up matching (2 to 2, 3 to 3, etc.), and some really confusing game... Then I taught the kids and Shinichi how to play Golf, which my brother Matthew, and sister-in-law Kris, taught to me. :) At first they were kind of confused but they got the hang of it pretty quick. Kazuki and Akari weren't ready to quit until they had won. But alas, it did get kind of late, and while they didn't have school Monday due to it being another national holiday, I did. Before they left, Kyouko invited me to go with them to Japanese Universal Studios! I said I'd love to go, so now all we need to do is find a time that works for both parties. I'm pretty much willing to drop anything to go to that though lol.


Wow this post is exhausting... Alright, gotta keep going!~

• Tuesday (Sept 20th)

School was canceled due to a typhoon passing through. Nothing all that special happened, but I had homemade Okonomiyaki for dinner! <3

• Friday (Sept 23rd)

Let's start with lunch. I had no money for lunch so I waited in line... for 45 minutes for an ATM... riiiight next to the smoking area. During lunch break. So. I cried. Meanwhile my friends were eating. ; -; I got my money, broke my bill at the convenience shop where I bought my lunch, and joined them for maybe 5 minutes before lunch period was over. After school, and after Kendo practice, Myself, Micah, Anna, Sam, and Mindy went to this place for dinner called Torikizoku. It was right near (as in, in the same building as) the Karaoke place we've gone before. Every item there is 280円, which means drinks are expensive, and food can be cheap. Mostly it's skewered food. I only got 5 items worth, but some people got up to 13 items. I had melon soda and ice cream as two of my items. It was super great. :D Really tasty food, and a pretty good deal if you're gonna eat a lot (but not so much that it should be a buffet). We also talked for probably the longest since we've been in Japan and had a really good time telling stories and jokes. I especially like the story about the ghost in seminar house 4. It's a good one. Anyway, I consumed the food, so you might as well consume the pictures with your eyes!

• Saturday (Sept 24th)
  

Today was a REALLY fun day. I didn't go to Kendo practice cause I got to do something cooler! I went to a play with my host mom in Osaka! Hyogo... Somewhere. :)? The play was called オハヨウ母さん！！ (Good Morning, Mother!!) The content matter was definitely deeper than Kimi no na Wa (the movie I watched at the mall two weeks ago), so this was certainly more difficult to understand, but it was very worth going to all the same! I'll admit though there was one scene where I was falling asleep... but so were other people so I don't feel as bad. :P  Mostly it seemed to be about a mother of teen to grown kids who was often very busy doing housework, shopping, laundry, etc. But also wanted to take care of her father, who it was revealed through the play had Alzheimer's. He would forget the name of the daughters, and would act somewhat irrationally. At some point a police officer escorted him home and basically warned the family to keep their eye on him. There was an instance where the family climbed a mountain together and the grandfather had a monologue while the rest of the family went ahead. I'm pretty sure it was one of those life is sweet cherish it while you can type things, but as he spoke cherry blossoms were falling from a prop tree. I felt like this was a representation of his memory. In addition there were lights on in the 'sky' now, which I swear were blinking out, so I think that was also a representation of his memory.

It ended the same way it started, with the family being really busy. But in the first scene they were busy getting ready to leave for work and school, in this case they had just left, and it was him, the mother, and the youngest daughter left for dinner, he was non-verbal, and they just ate around him. Then there was some kind of breakthrough scene where he stood up and the light shone on him, and the family proceeded to do dreamy-like things. I felt like it was a playing back of his fondest memories of the family; perhaps a metaphor that he still remembers the happiness deep down, before he died. (It's not explicit that he dies, but his condition gets progressively worse, and he sat on the couch for a good 15 minutes towards the end of the play, literally doing nothing.)

All in all it was a really interesting play, I wish I understood a little bit more, as always, lol. Also my host mom totally brought in drinks and candy when there's signs saying not to! :OOOO After that we rode back to Osaka proper, walked across some of it to get to a different train line's station, and then rode home. Today I got a bunch of street passes on my DS, as well as Pokemon on Pokemon Go! Once home we had dinner, I showered, and then I plopped down here to write this. It was worth it! Tomorrow I'll go to Osaka again (convenient I've already gone once now), and watch my Kendo friends fight it out in a Kendo tournament at the Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium!

So why did this post take so long? Truthfully because I'm lazy when I get free time, and my free time has been few and far between. I guess some things never change. :D Oh also I've been reading a lot of webcomics, darnit. That, and playing Hearthstone... I just want to rank up... Oh also Overwatch... Aaaand League of Legends. Free time eaters, I swear. But honestly usually the first thing I do with my free time is call my Mommy, then homework, then I plan to write these. Usually I fall asleep after calling home though so... Yeah, you can see why it's been so long. Woopsies. Oh well, everyone have a great Saturday~ I'm gonna hit the hay so I can watch Kendo tomorrow. Woo!

-Sleep, Sleep, What is Sleep?