Quick update

So just quick update-ness.
Last week was bus trip to Himeji Castle, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Nara. IT was amazingly fun! Then I switched host families, from the Hiranos to the Kuritas. I miss the Hiranos a lot, but the Kuritas are also very kind.
Next week we may host Sri Lankan students.
Haha thats it. I don't feel like writing but I don't wanna feel like a slacker.

Nagoya, Numazu, Hate speech

On Thursday, Otousan and I went to Nagoya. In the morning, I had a admissions interview with a Columbia alum. I think it went well. Then we went to Nagoya Castle, Atsuta Shrine, and a Japanese garden. IT was really, really fun!
Saturday, Addison and I went to Numazu for the international skills olympics. We figured out the trains all by our lonesome... yay. There we met Kathi and Melina and then Vanessa, from Canada, for the first time. GOOD TIMES GOOD TIMES. Ahh hahaha it was so amazingly fun. Ah hahahahahahahhahaa.
Today i hung out downtown with Kei and Chihiro and Josefa and Addison. Good TIMES. More good times...
Then at night, there was a van patrolling downtown, broadcasting hate messages against foreigners. It was really, really, really disturbing and really frightening. Like seriously. So me, Josefa, and Addison ran after the van screaming at the top of our lungs and giving the peace sign. We figured, like (I think it was) the Apostle Paul said, that It's better to fight hate with love. (Do not overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good.) But it's a very rare occurence to see those vans, but today there was two or three going around downtown. Did I mention it was really scary? Chihiro and Kei had left because they had to study for exams so it was just me, Addison, and Josefa. We tried to ask Japanese people what the announcements were; they wouldn't even look at us when we tried to get their attention. But we figured what they were saying because my host sister had alreayd told me about them, and we understood words like "foreigner" "America" "Japanese." and lots of negative words, like "don't learn" "don't understand." It was so friggin scary. You walk down the street when the hate messages are playing and nobody looks at you and avoids your glance. But anyway, it's like 4 people in the entire country who think like that and Japanese people are generally extremely welcoming and hospitable to foreigners.

One thing from Kendo, and Kimonos and a Farm

On Friday, I forgot to say that we had actual duals in kendo club, not just practice duals. So I was last in the order. Since my section was a bit slow, it was just me fighting another boy, and the whole team was watching. He got two points, I got one. But everyone was cheering and screaming for me. Afterwards, Kuno-sensee came up to me and was like That was so good! But he told me I have to keep my back straight. It's really difficult. Because I always have such bad posture.
On Monday, I walked into the gym expecting kendo practice but there was none! IT was a pleasent surprise because it's always so exhausting. So I wandered around school and found Sakiko Maria. Maria is a third-year student who is half-Filippino, half-Japanese. She used to live in the Philippines. She's really cool and we sit next to each other in Spanish class and never pay attention. So we walked downtown together, and on a whim, called Kei. Kei is another third-year student who spent a year in Topeka, Kansas, as a Rotary exchange student. She was in a kimono shop looking for a gift for some friends. So we went and helped her. The shop was so elegant and everything was so beautiful. THen we went out for coffee at Tully's in the train station and just sat there for two hours, talking about the differences in Japan, the US, the Philippines. What we thought was good about each country; what we thought was bad. It's really interesting on my exchange; I've really been getting a perspective from people all over the world.
Then today, I went to Kakegawa for some Rotary Group Study Exchange party. Group Study Exchange is a month-long program for young professionals to experience another culture. This group was from Thailand. The dinner was at a farm and it was outside. IT was a bit cold, but the food was delicious. It was really funny, I saw Watanabe-san, one of the really nice Rotarians I went fishing with a few weeks ago and haven't seen since because he's from a different club. He comes up to me, and he's like "I want you to meet the president of my Rotary club." So I'm like, okay. So he introduces me to the president, and the man is looking at me for a while, and then he's like "OH YEAH! YOU'RE THE REALLY SMART ONE!" And I'm like "Ummm..." So apparently I have some sort of reputation getting around in the local area.

Serial Killers and A Bus full of Japanese Tourists

So on Friday, my host sister, Shiori and host mom left for Yokohama. Shiori took her university entrance exam on Saturday morning... she said it was really difficult. We'll find out this Thursday if she passed, so we're all on pins and needles.
On Friday, Otousan and I went out for Korean BBQ. IT was so adorable because my host mom is so picky about his diet. And he was like "We're gonna eat so much tonight, but don't tell Okaasan!!!" It was sooooo delicious; I love me some Korean BBQ.
Saturday morning, I had kendo. Then Addison and Max and Laurent and I saw a band concert at school; it was actually really, really good. Then we went downtown to see the movie "Disturbia." It was okay; it's about a serial killer, but it's exactly like the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rear Window."
Laurent has a new host family now, which is good. He really likes his new host family, and they don't speak English, which is good. That was a real problem with his first host family. Anyway, we took the train to his house and spent the whole night watching stuff on Youtube on using messenger to talk to our respective friends in Belgium and the USA. Then we had to wake madd early this morning because we went hiking. It turned out to be one those stereotypical Japanese bus tour things. So we boarded our little Japanese bus and went on our little highway to our little park, where we stopped every fifteen minutes for a break because there were so many obaasans and ojiisans (old people.) It was really beautiful; it was hike through green tea fields and mountains and things like that. It was really fun; Laurent and I did a lot reflecting over our past three months here, about our friends, culture, language, life in general. He said my French has gotten a lot better in the past three months; that made me happy! Yay! Then we went to a temple. THere was a Daibutsu (huge statue of the Buddha). And then a fish market. Yes, I also don't know how hiking, a temple, and a fish market are connected in the minds of Japanese tour operators. But it was really fun!
Now that it's fall, we eat a lot of stuff from the onabe. Onabe means pot. So you have the pot in the middle of the table and put meat and vegetables and broth into it and its soooo delicious. Then after its all done you put rice and egg into the broth and eat the rice. IT's soooo good and typical autumn food.
Ah I'm so exhausted tomorrow and I don't wanna go to school. Tuesday I have to go to Kakegawa for some Rotary thing; Thursday is my interview with a Columbia alum in Nagoya; and then next week (this is like the 234th time ive said this) is Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima. I'm deliriously excited.

Rotary District Conference and other such topics

So this weekend was the Rotary District Conference. It was so much fun to hang out with all the other exchange students in this district again. Of course, I didn't sleep much. On Sunday morning, I participated in a panel discussion on international goodwill. It was rather... interesting. Then after that, Kurahashi-san, one of the important Rotarians in charge of exchange, came up to me, and was like "Please do a two minute speech in about ten minutes." So I was like, okay... so he takes me backstage and before I know it he ushers me into a huge auditorium of about 500 Rotarians. And then he's like, okay, make your speech now. I had nothing prepared, so I just talked from the top of my head. My host club, Hamamatsu Minami, started cheering for me. They're so adorable! Afterwards, Kurita-sensee, the president of the club and my next host father, adressed the entire club and told them how I upheld the name and reputation of the Hamamatsu Minami Rotary Club.
Monday I was so exhausted from the hard work from the weekend and still a bit sick so I stayed home.
I've been away from kendo club for the longest time (one week and a half) due to Rotary thingies and university stuff and sickness and the like. But today I went again! It was so much fun! Everyone was like "WHERE WERE YOU!??!" Haha. Then we had actual duals today (with the signal flag things), not just practice. The first person I fought was a second year student... that was a tie. The members from the opposite team were cheering for me... it was so adorable. Everyone loves a gaijin! Then I fought another second year student, and she won. Ah, well. I've only been doing it for like two months so I can't expect to be a pro. But ganbarimasu! (Im doing my best!)
So next Thursday I'm going to Nagoya with my host mom. I have an interview with a rep from Columbia Univ. After the interview, we're gonna hang out at Nagoya Castle and one of the most sacred shrines in Japan. Yayyy!

What a week!

So much happened this week! On Tuesday at school we went to a service trip to a pre-school. We played with the kids and read to them, etc. It was insanely fun. The kids were insanely cute. Some of them were so scared of me because I'm foreign, but they got used to me. Some didn't even notice the difference. I really wish I had brought my camera, because they were perfect photo ops, like little kids climbing all over me and insisting that I pick them up.
Today we had a Halloween party at school! It was so much fun! Today in Foreign Cultures, we started discussing American culture, and because I'm the only American in the class, they have quite considerately given me the right of reply. We're watching parts of Bowling for Colombine now, and we watched the part with the parody of American history. I told them that, yeah, it was true, yeah the dates were a bit weird, but every country has dark histories, so you should learn them so you don't have to repeat them. (Corny, I know, but I'm getting so tired of people pointing fingers at the USA. I couldn't care less before, but I think I've gotten more patriotic. Yeah, the Constitution is as good as toilet paper according to that idiot Bush, but no country is perfect, and the USA is a large part of the world's problems, but it's also a large part of the world's good things. The ideas that the USA were based on were AMAZING, and the government needs to get back on track. End rant.)
Then during the last period, I started to feel sick. I told Taka to feel my forehead, and he insisted on taking me to the nurse's office. She gave me a thermometer, and quite innocently, I placed it in my mouth. Then everyone gasped in horror and told me that you're supposed to place it in your armpit. Whoops... Anyway, I had a slight fever. Of course, half the school (well, not literally) gets up in arms to make sure I'm okay. They insist that I skip kendou and go home. So I call Okaasan and she picks me up in front of the school. "We're going to the doctor now," she said. Well, I was quite surprised. It was just a slight fever. But to the doctor we went! The doctor was Kurita-sensee, the president of my host club. (Rotary connections much?) He sat me down and started using all these Japanese medical terms. I can speak Japanese conversationally now, but, mind you, I barely know medical terms in English. Then he took out a long cotton swab. I asked him what it was and he really didn't answer. Before I knew it, he was jamming it through my nostril (not the most pleasent feeling in the world.) Then they told me to rest a bit, so I did what I was told. It is really the most disorienting thing in the world to have a panel of nurses fussing around you in a foreign language, telling you to do things that you'd barely understand in English because you feel so bad. Then he told me I didn't have the flu, which was good. Then he told me to rest again, and then he changed his mind and told me I had the flu. So they made me get in bed, hooked up an IV, and gave me some shots. Quite a difference from how Americans treat the flu: take a few pills, sleep a lot, and hope for the best. Then he gave me a face mask to wear. I actually feel perfect right now; just a bit tired. Other than that, I'm genki mori mori! (Heartily healthy, I guess is the best translation.)
Tomorrow is district conference! Yes! I get to wear a facemask and look completely Japanese!
By the way, I wanted to say that, in the USA, I always refused to take naps. I NEVER took naps! But now in Japan, all I do is nap: in cars, in class (it's perfectly acceptable), in performance venues, everywhere.... I love my newly acquired napping skills.