Day 252 - 9th of May

11:09pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Happy Mother’s Day!!! While I didn’t get to be there for mum, at least I got to speak with her and the family over skype this morning; I did that straight after breakfast and putting some washing on. We spoke for a bit over an hour, and then I worked on my field report for a few hours. By 1, I was getting really hungry, so had to eat lunch. Since I would be going out for dinner tonight, I ate the leftover yakisoba for lunch; I also made a banana milkshake since I had so much milk. After lunch, I played KH for a bit, and then worked hard to get my sakubun finished, and it basically was by the time 5 came around. Hugo had already gone (he’s still not back), and now it was my turn. I met Maarika, Midori, Ume-chan, Ann and Rose outside Toriki (they had just come from The Ring), and Mori soon joined us. After a short wait, we were seated and after we got our drinks, Midori took charge of ordering just about everything on the menu for us; no joke. The amount of things I got to sample tonight was incredible. We stayed there from about 6:30 till 9:30 and the food kept coming, bit by bit. I got to eat chicken cartilage (weird), wing, breast, skin, and some internal body part (even weirder); all on a stick. We also got heaps of the amazing naan dish and the deep-fried camembert cheese; far out amazing!!! To finish off, I got mango sorbet for dessert; very good. Almost the entire time, we were speaking in Japanese, which was really great; I got lots of practice in. The bill turned out to be very reasonable too, considering the amount we ate. Finally, the night came to an end, and Mori and Midori made their way home by train, and ume-chan soon went his own way; that left the rest of us walking home. It was a great night, and at least I feel semi-prepared for tomorrow’s sakubun; I’ll write it all out a few more times in the morning…

Day 245 - 2nd of May

11:55pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Well sadly, karaoke was atrociously anticlimactic tonight. Because it is Golden Week, Makino Karaoke is not offering free time; we only found this out after getting to the counter. So, we ended up just doing two hours, which was over before it had begun. At least Ash got to spend a bit of time with her friend Roisin, who is staying in Osaka for a while; she studies at NUFS with Alex. Maureen, Tori and another girl from NUFS also joined Ash, Rachel and I. Anyway, back to today… I got up at 9:30, and after breakfast (which was porridge with water), I put some washing on, and then showered and shaved; I had certainly been neglecting that. After putting out the washing, it was time to get into my blog. I worked on that until about 12:30, and then talked with Carly; 6 days until she comes! We really have to start planning Tokyo, but first of all I have to buy the tickets for the Ghibli Museum; get onto that this week. After talking, I went grocery shopping at Kirindo and Fresco, and came home so much food; I was very low on supplies. After lunch, I relaxed for a while (it’s still a holiday), playing some of KH: 358/2 Days; it’s looking really good so far, and I ‘m having fun reading the Japanese.

I worked on me blog until dinner, and managed to get up to Friday done. It was a bit after 7 when I was sitting down with my yakisoba, and soon after I was rushing to get ready for karaoke; we left at 8. After getting to Makino, we waited a bit, and then the others found us; they had been waiting a little further up the road. After another purikura session (I just love it), we made our way in to Karaoke, sharing one room; it was fun, but too short. And I think that’s about it, after getting out we took Roishin back to the station and walked home… oh, the moon tonight was really beautiful; it was glowing yellow. Ash and Rachel have decided to walk to Fresco since they’re not tired, but I want to try to get up early tomorrow, so I opted not to join them; gotta get started on my presentation…

Day 232 - 19th of April

10:28pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Just been in the kitchen, re-watching Jazz’s Japanese game show debut; she had finally received the recording from them. Everyone sat eagerly in the kitchen, awaiting Jazz’s entrance, but we ended up having to wait almost 40 minutes before she did; there was a whole bunch of other stuff on beforehand. Anyway, it was cool to see that again; it’s already been more than two months since it occurred. Well, today was a nice warm day, albeit a bit cloudy… I woke up with little time to get ready, so I just had a banana, got dressed, and got out. There was no need to rush though, because basically as soon as I got to class, it was over. Today, we were meant to go around and interview Japanese people about our topic that we’re going to present in class. Instead, Jo, Nathan, Kim, and I sat around and talked, and also got a bit of homework done, in the cafeteria; I would ask Mori and Midori Sempai later. It soon came around to Reading and Writing though, and we did have a proper class; finished off the reading, and answered lots of questions. After class, I went to Kirindo and Fresco for groceries. When I came out of Fresco, I noticed a taiyaki stand set up, and decided I’d buy a couple; custard-filled of course. I was really glad I did, because the guy gave me and extra one for free; I thought that was really nice. So I enjoyed one fresh during the ride home, and saved the other two for dessert; yummy!

Getting home, I had lunch and then got a little bit of homework done, before having a nap. I also got to read a letter from Nanny, and I got an insight on why letter writing has become such an integral part of her life; it was very interesting. When I get back, I’m going to have to write down all of Nanny and Poppy’s stories of their early life; I think it would be fascinating. Eventually it was time to get back to uni for koto club. After a snack, I got to the room and found Brittney and Maarika. Neither of them was practicing, but I decided I would practice for a while anyway; stumbled through Miyabi a couple of times. 6 o’clock came round, so Mori arrived, and we got everything moved down into the practice room; I think for now on, I will pick up the keys for the room on both days. Natalie and Kirianna, and eventually Mori Sempai also showed up, but there was no sign of Riho or Miki; which was a bit of a shame. I worked on the strumming technique, which I found out is simply a tremolo. It was quite funny, because Mori Sempai told us the name for the technique in Japanese トレモロ (toremoro), and I looked it up, thinking it was a Japanese word.

When I found out it was an English word (well, technically Italian), I smacked myself, and so did Mori Sempai; she knew it was a katakana word, but never realised it was a borrowed word. Anyway, I’m getting slightly better at that; I’ve just gotta try and not be so tense. Since I lent Maarika one of my tsume, I spent the last 20 minutes talking with Mori and Midori Sempai about the Great Barrier Reef, which understandably they didn’t know that much about. Still, we made some interesting assumptions about what would happen if it suddenly disappeared; chain reaction. I’m going to talk with them some more about it tomorrow, and I’ll have to find some other Japanese students to ask questions too; hopefully I can get something out of it that I can use for my presentation, which seems to be the point of the exercise. After packing up, I rode back with Maarika and Mori, and then basically went straight to the kitchen; I was hungry. I made a heap of yakisoba, and I had hoped it would last for three meals, but it never seems to go that far; oh well, two is better than one. So yeah, spent the rest of the night in the kitchen, and now I’m going to get some sleep; Hugo and I are going to try to make an effort to get to bed earlier…

Day 221 - 8th of April

11:28pm　セミナーハウス
天気：晴れ
Well the weather turned again, and while it wasn’t as warm as Tuesday, at least it was nice and sunny… I woke up a bit after 9, and took a while to get ready; I wanted to look good for the koto performance. I ended up wearing my new shirt, with a vest over the top; I was really happy with the look. It also kept m warm enough that I didn’t have to bother with a jumper. I got to uni at about 10:30, and after dropping my bag off in the performance room (Midori and Mori Sempai were already playing), I had a bit of a walk, and took photos of the events going on, including the cheerleading, and rock band performance. I got back to the room for 11, and soon enough, it was our turn to perform in front of a small group of freshman; potential entrants to our club. Our first time through Sandan went okay, but Kyoningyo no yume was actually pretty terrible to be completely honest; my pages were out of order so I completely lost it at one point. After Maarika and I had played, Midori and Mori Sempai again took up playing, Mori offering my some glue to stick the Kyoningyo no yume sheet music together; good plan.

During this time, Rose and another guy (I’ve regrettably forgotten his name) came in, and were promptly served tea by the tea ceremony club, all garbed in kimono; and very beautiful kimono at that. Just as Midori and Mori Sempai had finished playing, a girl in the audience dropped her tea bowl; since it was ceramic it smashed. In a way, it was a fitting end to an intense piece like Kagaribi. Then we were up again, and this time we did a lot better at both pieces although, Kyoningyo no yume still wasn’t as good as Sandan; and it’s supposed to be the easier piece! Oh well, we have practiced sandan longer after all. Natalie had arrived by this time, so she played hanagoromo, and Maarika and I helped her; it turned out… okay. As soon as we finished, I had to rush off to class; it was a bit of a shame I couldn’t stay and support everyone. I ended up being a little late, but Saigo Sensei understood; he always does. The class was in the middle of watching a video about origami, but I caught the majority of it; it was quite funny actually. After that, we got into the serious stuff; as serious as Saigo Sensei’s classes can be that is.

In the break between classes, I got my homework done, and read a little more of the interview write-ups. In religion, we went on to discuss them all; some in more detail than others. Mine, which showed a pretty “typical” (the professor liked to put that word in quotation marks) representation of a Japanese person’s religious beliefs, was only glossed over, which was understandable; I didn’t have anything to add. Overall, it was really interesting listening to every ones ideas and input on other’s write-ups, and this is further helping to shape my perceptions of Japanese society. After class, I went down to check my mail, and there was another letter from Nanny and Poppy. Then I made my way back home, as I was extremely hungry. However many distractions lay in my path and it was a battle to get through them. First of all, the marching band and colour guard were performing out on the basket ball courts, so I had to watch that; it was so good. Actually, the band performed the theme from Mario Bros, which was so cool; I got it on video! After that, I saw Rebecca in the crowd and went over to talk to her; she was helping to recruit new members to her circle. I talked with her and a few Japanese people for a little while, and then finally had to excuse myself; I escaped.

I noticed Katie as I was heading towards the bike parking, but thankfully our interchange was relatively short; she had to go to Fresco for groceries. Riding home, I took a few photos of the Sakura across from Komatsu. Of course when I got back, I practically raced to my room to dump my stuff, and then went up to the kitchen to eat; so satisfying. After lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Alex. She wants to go on one last holiday together over Golden Week, so we were looking for a good place and accommodation; we’re thinking 彦根 (Hikone) at the moment. I also talked with Dad for a while, which was really nice; we don’t often get to talk for very long. 6:30 rolled around, and after getting in my laundry, I went upstairs for dinner; yay for leftover yakisoba. I stayed up there and chatted, and watched TV (lucky TV personalities going around Disneyland and eating all the food), until just after 8:30. Then I came back down here, and got my Reading and Writing homework done; that was a bit of a mission. The rest of the night was pretty chill though…

Day 211 - 29th of March

10:18pm　セミナーハウス

天気：曇り

Well, spring breaks over now, and once again, it’s time to get back into the routine that is university. Today’s weather was far for routine however. It went from sunny, to rain, to sunny, to sheet, to cloudy, to snow, back to sunny, rainy, and finally cloudy. The only thing that remained regular was the cold; I want warm weather already!!! Anyway, today was pretty lax; didn’t exactly get dropped into the deep end… going to uni this morning, I realised I hadn’t ridden my bike for over a week; I missed it. I got to Speaking just in time, and after Saigo sensei explained what our next presentation would entail, we basically spent the rest of the lesson talking about spring break. And, we also got our mid-term exams back; I was happy enough with my grade. In the hour break, I got productive writing out postcards, after buying a new pen from the convenience store. I sat with Sarah, Katie, and Rachel in the lounge, and only ended up getting two finished, since one was in Japanese; I realised that I could fit a lot more in when I wrote in Japanese.

In Reading and Writing, We also talked about our spring breaks, and then did a bit of kanji revision, before finally getting our results back from mid-terms; also pretty happy with my grades. To end the lesson, we watched La Maison en Petits Cubes, or つみきのいえ (Tsumiki no ie – “the house of small cubes). It’s a Japanese animated short film that won an academy award in 2008; I remember reading about it in Japanese back at USC. It was cool to finally be able to see it, and it was a very moving, beautiful short; only went for 12 minutes. After class, I went back down the lounge and sat with Sarah, finishing my postcards. That done, I rode to the post office and sent them on their way, and then went grocery shopping; oh, and did I mention it was also very windy today. Getting back home, I unpacked my groceries and then had lunch. Last week Rachel let me try some of the fried squid (kind of like calamari) she had bought from Fresco, so when I saw it today, I decided to get some; had it on rice for lunch.

After that, I put some washing on, and then read some more of Reborn. Half an hour later, I put the washing out, and then went to the gym. I felt good getting back into it, and I spent a good hour there. Getting back, I was able to get in contact with dad over skype, except his microphone wasn’t working, so I could only see him and try to read his lips; not really, he just typed. So, hopefully I’ll be talking with mum tomorrow, to find out what happened on Sunday. After that, I did my reading for Relgion, and then had a nap, getting up when Hugo returned at about 6:20. I uploaded some more photos to facebook, and then went up to make dinner. I used the rest of the fried squid in the yakisoba, and it turned out really well; I also had to use the rest of the lettuce, since it was getting old. At 8, a bunch of us went down to the lounge to watch “The Prince of Egypt” to celebrate Passover, since Rebecca, Brett, and Simon are Jewish; although Simon didn’t end up watching the movie. Yuji and Natchan were also among the viewers, and I think it would have been pretty interesting and informative for them. It was so funny – Natchan fell off her chair, and Yuji promptly piped up with “Moses, save me”; best call ever!!! Since I hadn’t seen the movie in ages, I really enjoyed; the music and songs are so beautiful. Well, guess it’s time for bed now; more uni in the morning…