Last Night

Jumping ahead a bit here.

I apologize for not updating the past...couple of weeks? I got pretty busy, especially during this past week. I'll be sure to finish up once I'm back in the States.

I've had so many incredible experiences and met so many great people. I can't believe it's actually coming to an end.

I'm getting up at 6 AM tomorrow to walk to Rinnouji one last time.

Wish me luck with my 37 hour day tomorrow~~

6 Japanese students, 6 exchange students

karaoke, purikura, walking around downtown Sendai

one of the best days in Japan

The Week of June 28-July3

A few highlights of the school week:

On Monday, the koten (old Japanese literature) teacher took the class to the "Japanese room" of the school, basically a large tatami room. She wanted to introduce me to the game 百人一首 (hyakunin isshu). A description and rules from Wikipedia:

The game of hyakunin isshu involves two types of cards.
100 "reading" cards with drawings: yomifuda
100 "grabbing" cards with words: torifuda
There are whole phrases of waka (a style of Japanese poem) from the collection called Hykunin Isshu written on the yomifuda. Only the lower phrase of the waka is written on the torifuda. When the reader reads out the waka on the yomifuda, the player quickly searches for the card among the torifuda to look for the phrase that matches the one that the reader is reading. These are the basic rules:

1. Mix up the deck of torifuda, and lay them out on the floor. Players sit around the cards.
2. The reader reads out the waka.
3. When you know the lower phrase by only hearing the upper phrase, you can take the card with the lower phrase.
4. If you haven’t memorized the whole waka, then you have to wait until the reader reads out the lower phrase.
5. When someone takes the yomifuda, the reader moves on to the next waka.
6. When all the cards are read, the person who has taken the most cards wins the game.

None of the people in my group had any of the waka memorized (yay, low-level school), so we were just waiting until the teacher read the lower phrase. Well, I say read, but it was actually more like singing. Check it out:

In the end, I managed to get 8 cards! I was very proud of myself.

Had pottery that afternoon and made some plates. After that assignment, though, I really got down to business.

Tuesday: The girl in the far left of this picture was all like, "Chin peace!", so that's what happened.Went to English club for a bit before soccer on Wednesday with Kenneth, Rebecca, and Eva. We drew a rough map of the US on the board to show where we lived, but it ended up degenerating into Rebecca and I drawing our respective states (North and South Carolina) big enough that it would cover the other. It was a good time, though. The girl I'm with in the picture below is going to England next week for an exchange!

Had soccer every day, followed by delicious meals at home. In the soccer picture, you can see the first years trying rake some sand over the puddles while Kei-san looks on. The food pictured is shabu shabu! A description from, well, you can probably guess where: "Shabu Shabu is a Japanese variant of hot pot. The dish is related to sukiyaki in style, where both use thinly sliced meat and vegetables, and usually served with dipping sauces. However, it is starkly different in taste; shabu-shabu is more savory and less sweet than sukiyaki."

On Thursday, there was no soccer, so I went for a pretty long walk after school. One thing I enjoy doing on my walks is going to the top of mid-rise residentials and taking in the free view. It's not necessarily spectacular, but it's a nice way to see the area I live in from another angle.

Next, I walked to Rinnouji, the temple that I visited with my host dad on my first day in Sendai. I walked around the graveyard that surrounds the temple a good bit, which was very peaceful. It was raining just slightly, and except for a few monks, I was the only one there.

Of course, there's the ever-present contrast between old and new. Face one way:

Face the other:

I love it.

At school the next day we had another assembly. This time, a few police officers came to talk to us about protecting our bicylces against theft, because there were rumors that thefts may have occured 4 years ago at a high school in Okinawa. Ok, not really. But what I'm trying to say is that I think they have bigger problems to worry about, like getting the students to study (see below for my class's average grades on the tests from the first week).

Watched a movie about four Japanese high school guys in the 60's who loved rock and roll. It ended with them singing "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles at their school festival. The kids in my class were glued to the screen.

Finally, though I by no stretch of the imagination enjoy the rainy season, there is one nice thing about it. The vice principal told me that there are flowers that only bloom during this season, and there are actually some right in front of the school.

This was the week I felt like I had really gotten into the swing of everyday life. Wake up, go to school, go to soccer, come home, eat, sleep. Throw in some great experiences. It's a nice feeling.

A nautical weekend...yeah, I got my flippy-floppies

What went down on the days June 27-28 made for a great weekend.

On Saturday, I set out on a trip with three other exchange students living in Sendai: Rebecca, Kenneth, and Sora. Oh, there were also about 100 fifth graders from Meisen (the school my host mom used to work at that has the staff comprised of gaijin, or foreigners). All I knew is that we were going along with these kids on a field trip to a museum about a boat that sailed to Europe and oh yeah Spanish people may have also been involved WOOO a boat!

So, we boarded the Meisen buses and spent the 1 hour ride talking about various things. My favorite topic was regional differences in American English. Rebecca and I represented the South while Sora and Kenneth represented...Michigan. We also talked about words we had heard they say in other states. "What? They call water fountains 'bubblers' in Wisconsin?" "Do they seriously say 'hecka' in California?" I really enjoy that kind of thing.

Anyway, we got to the San Juan Batista (the name of the ship) museum around 1. The first thing we did (after being like "aww yeah ocean) was go to an a mini movie theater to watch a 20 minute video about the noble vessel. There were a lot of samurais and spanish monks. Here's what basically went down: it was a Japanese ship built in Western style that took a Japanese embassy to see the Pope. There were storms that made the trip difficult and long, blah blah blah...I was just as fascinated by it as you probably are by me telling you about it. However, what made it a truly memorable experience was the theater itself. I thought it was kind of strange when we had to put on seat belts before the movie started. It turns out the seats are on a large machine that makes them move up and down to simulate the feeling of being on a boat. It was almost like an amusement park ride during the storms. Very crazy stuff.

Of course, the only reason I came was to stand on the deck of the boat, take a picture, and put it in a facebook album with the caption "I'm on a boat, and...".

HOWEVER, the boat was being renovated and we couldn't go on it. This saddened me greatly.

All the same, we had a nice time just walking around the museum, talking by the ocean, eating the many snacks that our respective host families had given us, etc. Fun!

Sunday was the day my host parents had picked out to take me to Matsushima. Wiki: Matsushima (松島) is a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands (shima, 島) covered in pines (matsu, 松) – hence the name – and is ranked as one of the Three Views of Japan. A well-known apocryphal haiku often attributed to Matsuo Bahou indicates that the poet is at a loss for words: Matsushima ah! A-ah, Matsushima, ah! Matsushima, ah! I can't write about out everything I did at Matsushima. There was simply too much. I'll try to give the basic run-down, and elaborate when I feel it's appropriate. I went to this very cool shrine set out on an island that you see above. Oh, check out my shirt. I also got my fortune, and I found I was to be very lucky! The pieces of paper you see twisted around the rods above are those of the poor souls whose fortunes indicated that things wouldn't be so great. After that, we stopped by this little shop to eat some senbei.

Then came the main event! Actually being on a boat!

Well, more accurately, a ferry that would be taking us through the islands. This was such an amazing experience. It was incredible seeing the islands, naturally, but what really made it unforgettable were....the seagulls. They sold seagull food on the boat for 100 yen, and people stood on the deck and throw it to seagulls that follow the boat the whole way. I'll let the pictures/videos do the talking:

What really killed me:




If you held out the food, the seagulls would swoop down and take it straight from your hand. If you threw the food out, they would race to catch it no matter where you threw it. It was amazing. Truly a memorable experience.

After the boat ride, we went some very old caves that had graves in them. I think some of them dated back to the 1300s.

Next, we visited a temple that made Rinnouji look small. No pictures were allowed inside, but I wish I could show you some of the rooms in it. The walls were covered with gold and paintings of dragons, temples, mountains shrouded in fog, etc. One of the rooms was where the kept the bodies of the samurais who committed seppuku when their lord, Date Masamune, died. Imagine standing in a room with a history like that.

Next, we went to a dango shop and got a couple of plates of them. They were, of course, delectable. The green stuff (actually crushed edamame beans that have been sweetended) you see on one of the plates is the Sendai specialty, Dzunda. I do love Japanese sweets.

Next, we went to a store that sold sasakamaboko, or...bamboo leaf fish cakes. I guess that's how you would translate it. Anyway, those are fun, because you get to roast them yourself.

Finally, we ended the food sampling tour at a great seafood place. Just look at those plates.

Oh, then we came home and had dinner: curry ramen!

After dinner, went for a walk.

LIFE IS GOOD.

Koibana, Soccer Practice, Cleaning up Sendai

Wow. Just had the obligatory had-a-pretty-long-post-written-up-and-then-it-got-deleted blogging experience. Kind of hating life right now. I'll try to get the basic gist of what it was.

Thursday, June 25, was nice because we had 午前授業 (only morning classes). My boy Onomasa listening attentively in math class:

The reason for the lack of classes in the afternoon was made clear after lunch. They were bringing in an author to speak to the whole school. He was supposed to tell us how he became an author, and his talk was entitled, "Until I Can Reach the Sky". I could barely contain my excitement.

There's no auditorium at my school (or any Japanese high school?), so we all carried our chairs from the classroom to the gym and set them up in rows according to class (2-9 represent). It was, as they say in Japanese, hot as a demon, and I know that at least 2 people collapsed due to the heat. I settled in for what promised to be a rousing two hours. The principal introduced him, and the author stepped up the mic and prised us by saying:

"Guys, honestly, I broke up with my girlfriend of 3 years yesterday."

Surprise and sympathy from everyone.

"I think I would feel better if I just talked about it. Hey, maybe I'll be able to look back at it and laugh! Anyway, we were sitting in the parking lot of a 7-11 at 4 AM yesterday..."

Stunned silence followed by the exchange of looks of disbelief as he went on to tell 1000-plus high schoolers a story that culminated in his girlfriend exclaiming, "I thought you promised you would grow up!" and storming out of the car. I couldn't fathom what convinced him that what he as doing was a good idea. Eventually, he went on to talk about how he became an author, at which time I began playing shiritori with Moe and Rinako. Here's the big man himself:

I did manage to learn a new word from it all, however: koibana, which is a shortened form of the word koibanashi, or talking about one's love life.

After school, I went to my first actual soccer practice. I was pretty dismayed to see that the dirt/sand playing surface, already tough enough to adjust to, was covered in puddles. This led to a lot of the ball suddenly stopping and very muddy group of guys. All the same, it was a great time. I'm by no means one of the best. In fact, I'd put myself in the around the 20th percentile. But, playing with guys who are mostly better than me can't hurt, right? We ran a bit, stretched, did a couple of drills, practiced set plays, and then broke up into three teams and scrimmaged for a good bit. Not too different from America...except that it lasts about 3.5 hours! I exchanged phone email addresses with a couple of the guys and headed home around 7:40. I'll go more into detail about soccer when I do a post on my daily routine.

The next day, we again had classes only in the morning. But first, here's the view from the room where we have history class:

As I've mentioned, Japanese schools don't have janitors. The students clean up the school. However, my school decided that wasn't enough! That afternoon, the whole school headed out to clean up the entire neighborhood around the school.

I was given weed-pulling duty, and it wasn't bad at all because I got to work with the English teacher from Montreal the whole time. He told me all about how he got to Japan (JET Program) and some of the troubles with Japanese bureaucracy he's had in is 13 years in the country. It was a nice conversation. All the students looked on in awe because we were speaking in English.

Went to soccer again. Had to do some killer muscle training that made Coach Bob's boot camps seem like elementary school gym.

Came home to a delicious meal!

Fridays are also nice because my host dad comes back home. He works in another prefecture during the week, so it's nice to have him around. He often brings goodies from the city he works in, as pictured below.