School stuff, some soccer, sushi conveyor belt

I'm pretty far behind. I'll get right into it~

Monday, June 22, turned out to be a pretty important day at school. Unbeknownst to me and the other exchange students, it was the day we would be introducing ourselves in front of the whole school. It was a bit anxiety-inducing looking out on about 1000 students and all the faculty from the stage. It worked out really well, though. I said my piece, and it was met with a resounding "EEEEEHHHHHH!?" from the crowd. As a result of this, people realized they didn't have to stand there and look at me nervously and try to think of something to say in English when we met. Now students are always greeting me in the hall, from the balconies, and even a bit around town. AJATT is the only way, ladies and gentleman.

I had a pretty regular day of school. Incomprehensible English lessons, simple math, pottery, etc. Oh, I haven't mentioned that I'm attending a pretty low level school. It's quite apparent that there isn't a whole lot of studying going on outside the classroom here. They've been getting their tests from the first week back, and I've gotten used to the not-so-dismayed cries of へええ、また赤点？(eeeeehhhh, a failing grade again?) The class average on the math test was a 40. Not that I'm complaining! I think that a lower level school is ideal for a short term exchange. The students certainly aren't busy studying, leaving them time to do other things. Everyone is also really nice.

During cleaning time after school, however, the soccer coach came to my classroom. He had heard that I was interested in playing with the school team, and told me to go ahead and come to practice that day. I didn't have my cleats, but I agreed to come and check it out. So, I headed down to the gurando, the same sand/dirt surface where we have gym, where soccer practice is held. As is so often the case in Sendai during this season, it was raining. All of the guys were really excited to see me there, showering me with "harro"s as soon as I appeared on the, um, field (playing surface?). At any rate, I sat down and watched practice while talking with the coach and these two girls who act as managers of the team, Yuki and Shouko. It was great fun, and we ended up talking for about two hours. I headed home around 6:15, when I figured they would be wrapping up. However, upon asking, I found that practice went until 7:30. Practice every day from 4-7:30? I thought I might have misheard.

That night, my host mom ordered pizza. In Japan, pizza is a pretty rare treat, because they cost $15-$20 a pop. It was well worth it, however (not that I was paying...). It's not everyday you get a pizza with Camembert cheese.

The next day, the weather was very nice.

School was pretty good, seeing as we only had classes for the first half of the day. During the computer class, my classmates had me take online tests to find out useful information like the personality traits of my future spouse. The afternoon, however, promised to be interesting. There was a....I guess you could translate it as an annual fine arts appreciation event? At any rate, it entailed that the entire school had to walk to a performance hall near Izumi-Chuuo station to watch a Rakugo performance. From Wikipedia: "Rakugo (落語 literally "fallen words") is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller (Rakugoka, 落語家) sits on the stage, called the Kōza (高座). Using only a paper fan (扇子, "sensu") and a small cloth (手拭, "tenugui") as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters, the difference between the characters depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head."

Well, a few of my friends in the class didn't feel like walking all the way to Izumi-Chuuo, so we just walked to Yaotome station and rode the subway the rest of the way.

The Rakugo performances were very cool, and I'm really lucky that I was able to see something like that. Even many Japanese people have never had the opportunity to see it live. The first guy was especially cool. He specialized in 紙切り (the cutting of paper). While moving his body all around, he would cut incredibly detailed profiles/shapes with scissors. He even took orders, and cut out what people yelled out (Date Masamune, Godzilla, etc.) Photography wasn't allowed, but I managed to snap a shot surreptitiously.

After the the final performance (a very creepy one set in the Edo period), we exited the theater and had the rest of the day to ourselves. So, some of my friends in the class and I decided to go for 回転寿司 (sushi conveyor belt). We walked for about a half an hour and got there around 3:30. It was pretty empty because of what time it was, so we could make our orders directly to the people making the sushi. Everything was 100 yen, so we could pretty much go for whatever struck our fancy. They had all kinds of sushi: squid, octopus, egg, hamburger, hot dog...wait, what? Who thought it would be a good idea to put two wiener dogs on vinegar rice?

Everything I had, though, was delectable. Well, with the exception of one thing. I finally tried 納豆 (nattou). I was hoping I would like it so I could be one of those "cool gaijin" who actually like nattou, but I was sorely disappointed. It smells bad, and doesn't taste much better. Ah, well. Nattou and good stuff:

After we had had our fill of sushi, I broke out a gigantic bag of Starburst. They couldn't get over how cute the little candies were. I had a great time.

According to the girls I was with, the standard thing to do when out with friends is to wrap up the day talking at McDonalds. So, we did just that (at a two story McDonalds, no less). It was nice just chilling, talking, eating Mcflurries. In the middle of it all, Rinako got a call from her family and was informed that they had just gotten a puppy. We spent a while discussing what its name should be, which was fun. She ended up deciding on Maru.

From left to right: Kanna, Yuuri, Chiaki, Mei, Rinako, Moe

Overall, it was a great day.