Today was my last PII cultural activity: oshie (literally "presssed picture"). Along with a cohort of other PII students we went to the Ishikawa International Lounge where we were each seated in front of a small craft kit to make an oshie cellphone strap:
Above is all the pieces of the kit, both in the bag and laid out. On the back of the fabric was a piece of shaped cardboard. You cut slits into the fabric to make it easier to shape around the curves, and after putting glue on the cardboard you pulled/pressed the fabric until it conformed to the shape of the cardboard.
The finished product!
The most interesting part of this experience was that a comedy duo from a legitimate Japanese television network came to film/talk to us. (My host father knew who they were, I'm just spacing on their name right now...) One guy wore a red tracksuit, the other wore a blue tracksuit and played the guitar, especially at the punchline of a joke. All their reactions were very exaggerated...and apparently I had the funniest comment. When they entered they said "hi" and we said "hi" back. They promptly went "your Japanese is so good!" and I responded, "How do you know if it's good or not, we only said hi."
Anyways. The clip is going to air in August and hopefully PII or the people who work at Rifare will tape it and somehow share it with us so we can see ourselves on TV.
Then my friend Kat and I went to a coffee shop called Oh Life, which was advertised as a book cafe. It was glorious inside...simple and clean with books (mostly food books) everywhere. The owner is a baker and made delicious kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) scones...
Some of the books for display/sale.
Cafe o'lait.
Behind the counter. Note row of tomato cans?
There's a very good lunch deal (soup, sandwich, drink) at this shop so I'll probably be back within the next week to take advantage of the quiet, out of the way atmosphere and get some reading and/or work done.
Above is all the pieces of the kit, both in the bag and laid out. On the back of the fabric was a piece of shaped cardboard. You cut slits into the fabric to make it easier to shape around the curves, and after putting glue on the cardboard you pulled/pressed the fabric until it conformed to the shape of the cardboard.
The finished product!
The most interesting part of this experience was that a comedy duo from a legitimate Japanese television network came to film/talk to us. (My host father knew who they were, I'm just spacing on their name right now...) One guy wore a red tracksuit, the other wore a blue tracksuit and played the guitar, especially at the punchline of a joke. All their reactions were very exaggerated...and apparently I had the funniest comment. When they entered they said "hi" and we said "hi" back. They promptly went "your Japanese is so good!" and I responded, "How do you know if it's good or not, we only said hi."
Anyways. The clip is going to air in August and hopefully PII or the people who work at Rifare will tape it and somehow share it with us so we can see ourselves on TV.
Then my friend Kat and I went to a coffee shop called Oh Life, which was advertised as a book cafe. It was glorious inside...simple and clean with books (mostly food books) everywhere. The owner is a baker and made delicious kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) scones...
Some of the books for display/sale.
Cafe o'lait.
Behind the counter. Note row of tomato cans?
There's a very good lunch deal (soup, sandwich, drink) at this shop so I'll probably be back within the next week to take advantage of the quiet, out of the way atmosphere and get some reading and/or work done.
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