Rice and Ramen

Every time I look over at my desktop calendar at work, I have to do a little double-take: what do you mean it's already July? And yet the mind-melting midday temperatures and humidity consistently remind me that, yes, it is in fact the height of summer in Japan. That means it's time to take daily frigid showers and do whatever it takes to not miss garbage disposal day or risk your apartment smelling like a decomposing trash heap. I know, that's the image everyone definitely wanted when they opened to this post. So I'll move on (but, in case anyone is interested, you can put food scraps and stuff you don't want to smell into your freezer until you're ready to throw it out!) Moving on for real this time. A few weekends ago, I got a shot at redeeming the fun yet somewhat haphazard  Golden Week Nikko adventure . Having learned from the previous trip, we bought train tickets in advance and confirmed exactly where and when transfers would occur and this ti...

Sunday was part 2/2 of this weekend's series of AFS events. This one was more personal, since it was the goodbye party for my chapter, Tokyo Nerima. Relatively earlier than I'd like for a Sunday morning my family and I (as well as one of Ryo's friends, who had stayed over the night before) took the train over to the ShakujiKoen Center where the event was held. It was also the same place that the chapter welcome party was held all those months ago. The first part of it was, for most purposes, uninteresting. Lots of speeches, including one of the three I had to write. So I can check one of those off the list! WHOO! It didn't go too badly, if may say so myself. Even though it was only in front of host families and AFS volunteers, I was more nervous than I needed to be. But I was confident in the Japanese I had written, and everyone said they understood it clearly, so that's all good. Huang, the other AFSer in my chapter also gave a speech. Then we both recieved sm...

...that must be why we're always asked to put on performances and attend functions and whatnot. We are paraded out, say our little spcheal ("I love Japan, I have made so many great friends and I don't want to go homeeeeee!"), put on a performance and BOOM! Instant intercultural event! Just add some insanity and mix thoroughly.  Today there was a "Cultural Exchange" at Kokushi high school with some local AFSers and exchange students from two Universities. The exchange students were going to give introductions and a few performances, and the high school was going to demonstrate taiko, other traditional instruments, and allow us to try calligraphy and tea ceremony. The AFSers all walked from the train station together, and once we'd met up at the high school all of the exchange students were asked to give a brief self introduction. With the self-introductions out of the way, the students started with their demonstrations. After the taiko and koto (which...

Down to 23 days now (yes, I am keeping a countdown). Winter break is over and it's back to school as usual. I thought my work would be over and I'd be enjoying my last weeks here with my friends. Apparently, I was severely kidding myself. I have been assigned three speeches to write and present in front of large groups of people, all within a week of each other. One of them you already know about, my speech about rock paper scissors that I was toying around with. I did decide to go with it, and over winter break I spent an obnoxious amount of time trying to translate the version I wrote in English. Here's what I wrote in English: あいこでしょ                 There is a saying that goes “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. It can be applied to books, of course, meaning that you shouldn’t judge the quality of a book based on the quality of its cover—or, things are not always what they seem—but it can also be applied ...

Hip hip hooray for AFS events! Today was the Jenesys Festival, an event marking the end of the five-year program that brings people from Asia and the Pacific to Japan. (It was sponsored by the Japanese government, and the contract expires this year.) Most AFSers from around Japan and all of the Jenesys students on the two-week summer program gathered in one large room for this festival. All 1500 of us. That made for a very crowded and hot room. But I got to see people I hadn't seen in a long time (as much as four months). It made for a lot of shrieking--"AAAH, I haven't seen you in FOREVER! HISASHIBURI!" type screaming. It was a large family reunion. Everyone hit it off great, which put worries that most of us would have grown apart, to rest. The festival itself wasn't the most interesting. Mostly speeches by important government officials affiliatd with Jenesys, AFS people, and short statements by representatives from each of the thirteen Jenesys countries....

On Monday a group of seven Jenesys scholarship students (Jenesys is a program that lets highschoolers come to Japan from Asia/Australia/New Zealand etc.) came to Saitama. They are in their second week in Japan, and as part of their trip they would be spending two days at a school. My school. So AFS and Jenesys coordinated to have us spend Monday at Tokyo Disney (and they paid for everything...train fare, admissions ticket, lunch...it was incredibly generous). AFS also called my school and got permission for me to be absent, so I was literally all set to go. I took a train or two down to Nerima station, where I met up with my LP and three of the people; two girls (one from Australia and one from Malaysia) and the unofficial chaperone, a teacher (also from Australia). Also present was Hiroshi Tanda, who is going to be an AFS exchange student next year, and as such has been to lots of the events this year. (I take one moment to brag: easily the most fluent non-native speaker, I felt...

It is time for another wonderfully long post about what Claire does on her weekends. All of the interesting things I do now happen on Saturdays and Sundays, usually because they're related to AFS. Last Tuesday, Valeria and her LP invited me to join them to make mochi, which is pounded rice and traditionally eaten during the winter/new year and to go to a sento: a public bath. (Different from onsen, which is natural hot springs.) So I took the train out (gradually getting better at navigating trains!), and Valeria, Akira (Saitama chapter volunteer) and I went over to a local elementary school where they were making the mochi. Mochi is pounded rice. First rice is put into the wooden bowl (for lack of its proper term) and mixed around with the two mallet (again, for lack of the proper term). Then it's smashed with the large mallet (too heavy for me to swing properly!) while a second person turns the rice during reloads. Slightly dangerous, since if they get the rhythm wrong t...