Go, Harry Potter, Yakisoba, Tea ceremony...

coming tomorrow morning.

日食

The Japanese  word for eclipse is ni-shyoku, which broken down means "Eating the sun."  Today there was supposed to be a partial eclipse but instead the sun was completely eclipsed

by clouds.

My day was still a lot of fun, but homework lasted until now and I still have about an hour left.  And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.

High:Playing soccer with Koh after school.  It felt great to run around.

Low:My legs hurt a TON today during the tea ceremony, but I'll explain that tomorrow.

Hero:Mamasan for bringing me passionfruit juice at like 2AM while I was studying.  

Museum!

Today after school I went to the museum that had stuff from the Ainu people (the indigenous tribe that lived here before the Japanese.)  After looking around (but no pictures; its a museum) we used origami paper to make what is basically deluxe paper snowflakes.  It was a lot of fun!  I'm keeping today's entry really short because I want to sleep more today. But I'll make up for it some other day!

High: I found out I'm going to see Harry Potter with mamasan on Thursday!

Low: In two days we have a big paper due I haven't started...

Hero:  My real family who I'm slightly homesick for! That includes you grandparents!!

PS- Ratatouille in Japanese is called "Remy's Tasty Restaurant!"

Love Parade and Flower Fire

Yesterday:

First off, the Love Parade! It was Shinon's high school festival, so mamasan and I went and met Shinon there.  The school is an all girls school and it was packed with highscool girls and some boys who were visiting the school. 

 It was madness! I went to a fashion show and a band concert, and afterwards ate a green tea waffle and got all kinds of little candies and stuff.  The highlight of the trip was the Fashion show though.  So much screaming! The girls in each class made a dress, and anytime their class or one of their friends was on stage they would chant or yell "Cuuute!"

After the festivities, it was time for me to study, after all I had a test! But I found another distraction, because later when papasan wanted to go to the hardware store I tagged along.  And wow I'm glad I did! the store was huge, and randomly also included a petstore.  Dogs and cats are much more expensive than in the US, with  even cheap dogs going for a bit over $500.  While I was looking at the dogs, I see an employee with his hands in a cage.  I go to inspect and it seemed like he was trying to catch a brown blur.  When it finally slowed down enough, I recognized it as a ground squirrell.  As a pet! it blew my mind.  But this thing was absolutely fast as all get-out, and I could already tell what was going to happen. Yep! There it goes, it escaped!

Next thing I know, there is a chipmunk loose in the store, tailed by several employees.  It got inside a rack of stuff, and to get it out they needed 4 people (myself included, I volunteered quickly to help with this strange occurance). Super fun.  Only in Japan.

Today: Test went fine, it was definitely hard but I think it was alright.  After class we had a special required lecture on Japanese linguistics- it was pretty interesting and I definitely learned things, but it could have been a tad shorter.

K time for interesting stuff! After school, I went to a Mikia's house for a birthday BBQ! Since I'm the only one who lives close enough, I was the only HIF kid to go, but it was sooo fun!  Mikia has three little host sisters that quickly fell in love with me, and we played games and ran around and had fun.  Immidiately after returning home I donned a Kimono, because it was time for fireworks!!

Traditionally Japanese people wear kimonos to all festivals, but now its split about 60-4o against probably.    I felt super Japanese, and since you only wear boxers underneath it was very nice and breathable.

I got an awesome picture of mamasan.  Anyway though- after watching HUUUGE fireworks, eating a shaved ice, and buying some pokemon cotton candy (of course), I went home and started homework.  And now its bed time.  It was a marvelous day!

High: Finding out what Ratatouille is called in Japanese.  Take a wild guess, and I'll post the answer next post!

Low:staying up mad late yesterday

Hero: Mikia's little siblings! So cute!

How do these relate?

Today was a really long day, but full of fun. TEST TOMORROW AHHH!!  Bedtime. Tomorrow, I will tell the tale that connects the above chipmunk and hardware store.  Logical connection no?

Huge Fun at Mini-Volleyball

Today (technically yesterday...I'm writing this the next morning) was awesome! Early in the morning I headed off to a new culture class: Japanese candy making.

Japanese candy was very fun to make, and the base is almost always a red bean paste.  First we would watch the professionals do a step, then we would copy them and struggle to do what they made look easy.

But it worked out fine! Our candy was pretty darn tasty and I brought all the extras back home for my family.

Here's what the professionals candy ended up looking like.  That mushroom is actually candy!

Next we went to the Russian Festival.  The russian festival consisted of a big play, russian food, lots of sodas, and a gift area.  The play was absolutely packed full of people so we couldn't get in.  Instead mamasan and I bought lunch and ate it together.  I also bought a Squid-Ink soda, which didn't taste too different from big red.  Russian food on the whole was pretty good, even though mamasan didn't like the specialty russian drink she got- it was fermented black bread made into a tea.  Had a really interesting flavor- sort of tasted like the chicha they make in Peru.

When we were leaving, two other HIF kids ran into us and Mamasanoffered them a lift.  We all ended up going to one of mamasan's favorite relaxation places: a small chinese tea shop.  It was really cool, with a ginormous menu full of different exotic teas.  We stayed and talked for a long time, and I learned new vocab that ranged from "ninja star" to "a manly man who eats meat."

Finally after a fast dinner: MiniVolley time! So fun! It's played on a small court with a badmitton net, and you aren't allowed to jump.  The ball is a big inflatable rubbery one, but aside from all these differences the rules of Volleyball apply.  Super duper awesome.

Alright time to get going! Today I'm going to another festival, this one for Shinon's Highschool!

High: MiniVolley.  Also everyone there was so nice! There was a guy and a girl there about my age, and the boy really liked pokemon and soccer so we bonded fast.

Low: I had a stress dream last night that involved having two huge papers due tomorrow that I hadn't started.  I think I had it because tomorrow I have a big test and all sorts of stuff due....but that's not going to stop me from having a blast at today's festival!

Hero: Mamasan! Not only is she completely badass when she's all decked out in her Volleyball gear, but also when I woke up this morning I realized she had sewn up my Davenport shirt that had a small rip in it!

♪Whoah-ohhhhhh Hakodate!♫

Today was the day of a big outdoor spectacle that told the history of Hakodate.  It was superduper cool! The pyrotechnics,  costumes, staging and lights were fantastic, and while I'm sure the dialogue was also wonderful I didn't understand most of it...

Walking in there was one of those put-your-head-though-the-slot-and-take-a-picture things, so of course I had to do it.  It made me become Hijikata Toshizo, the hero of Hakodate who was a complete badass during its history.

There were lots of really epic scenes, some happy and some sad. 

Here is depicted when Perry and the Americans first came to Japan! Woo America! At least for right then.  Later in the spectacle we dropped the atomic bomb on Japan.  But luckily no one tossed me out and I got to see the happy sing along ending involving chanting about Hakodate.

High: The amazing spectacle!

Low: not understanding nearly a single word of the play... but I got the meaning pretty well (I think) so I still had a blast.

Hero: Hijikata Toshizo, who is actually crazy badass and I really didn't know much about him before today.  He's the Davy Crocket of Japan.