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.