火の祭り！

Haha so there was another festival in the area, 'hi no matsuri'; in English: 'The Fire Festival.' And man, they weren't joking about the fire part...

So, we had our midterm that day, so we were free after class (yaaaay freedom!! There was a super long break, it felt nice). A few of us wanted to dress up in yukata, so we spent some time trying to figure it out on our own (I didn't really do anything, because I was wearing easy clothes). John and I switched clothing, so he wore my yukata, and I wore his ....man-clothes? (haha I don't know the word in Japanese).


We're so awesome. From left to right: Courtney, Judy (aka Pan-chan), me, and John

Anyway, we took the train over, and then we just wandered around. There were a lot of interesting food stalls

Curros!! (Spain~!)

some-kanji-I-can't-read Burgers!! (America~!)

And Italian Spabo (?) (what? What is Spabo? Supabo-?)

Group picture!! (but Leif couldn't come because he had no money). I love all of them!! From left to right: Chiu, Courtney, Janelle, Kei (in the front with orange), Victor in the back, Gloria, Stephanie in the front with white, Samantha being enthusiastic in the back, Judy in red, me, and John.

So basically, they had those pillar things like this small one and the tall one behind me lining the middle of the street. It was very hot walking past them, and the smoke and ashes got in our hair and food, but we had a good time. One of the pillars collapsed right as we were walking by, so it created tons of smoke! My eyes watered up like crazy!! It was cool, because something like that has never happened to me before.


We also visited a shrine. Trust me, it was a lot bigger than this.

Sooo that was the fire festival! That was last Wednesday. Then on Thursday (? or Friday), Victor, Janelle, Stephanie, and I went with Victor's host mother to the high school she teaches at (I think...). While riding on the train to get there, it kind of hit me hard how beautiful Japan is. I had the same feeling while the plane landed and I could see the land beneath me, but this time it was more of a feeling like I was so happy to be here, and that I hoped that this place has a spot in my future. I would be glad with working in either America or Japan, but I really feel good living here. Even though my language skills are....doubtful most of the time, I think I belong here.

It was on that train ride that we realized that it was our one-month anniversary of living here. We didn't celebrate, or go out to dinner, or do anything special, really, but a lot of realizations came and hit me that day.

The high school was absolutely amazing. I'm used to it now, but you take off your shoes before entering, as with most other buildings in Japan. It was all indoors, and we just walked around and looked at various classrooms. I had a chance to play a koto, which is a traditional Japanese string instrument. It's long and lies on the floor, and you pluck it. I got to play that 'sakura' song that's pretty famous (if you listen to it, you'd know what I'm talking about). It was so much fun!

Then we walked around some more. We went inside a normal classroom, and this is the view it has:

It's like, WHAT THE HECK THIS HAS TO BE A PRIVATE SCHOOL OR SOMETHING!! A PERFECT VIEW OF MT. FUJI FROM YOUR CLASSROOM??? No. Frikn. Way. It left me stunned how amazing it was. And then I realized, oh crap, I'm going to die. We're climbing that thing in two weeks. Better start writing a will.

And it's funny because the fire festival is the marking of the closing of climbing Mt Fuji; people can only climb it for a short amount of time during the year due to religious reasons. And we're climbing it two weeks after it closes. I don't get it.

Ok! Stuff I still need to talk about, but can't now because I'm going on for too long: our crazy Leif-venture (as Janelle calls it), dinner with Courtney's host family, tomorrow's matsuri and parade, and other stuff...probably


I'm imitating the penguin that got cut off by my arm. Alright, 又 next time!

Man, I'm far behind...

So I've got three (or four) things that happened that I want to talk about, but I'm only gonna talk about one here (...多分）. Hmm...let's see....so there was the Saturday with my host family, the fire festival, visiting a high school, and what we did today, which was hiking up a mountain and swimming in the river >u<

~~~

Responses to last entry:

mom>> I bought two more creme-filled breads yesterday. It's amazing. haha I have a bread buddy! He loves breads as much as I do.

1cheezymonkey>> OMFG next time you have to go!! It's way too much fun!! haha yeah, it's just regular cantaloupe. Trying to make it fancy? I dunno.

Ahh, thanks~ Now I'll remember France's and Netherlands's flags >w<

~~~

So two (?) weekends ago, I spent the day with my host family. It was really nice! I met the mom and her daughter at the train station, and from there we drove to the house at which the mom was born and raised. It's a traditional style house in the same town, a little more out where the farming and rice fields are. There were a few other people there (family friends and other members of the family). There was stuff set up for nagashi soumen, which is a traditional Japanese summer food where you have a long chute with water running down, and you drop soumen (thin noodles) down it. Then you use your chopsticks to catch them and put it in your cup of sauce and veggies. (Sorry mom, but you would be bad at that hahaha). It was tons of fun! We later tried it with little tomatoes, but that was too difficult XD (they went コロコロdown the chute)

After that, we went inside, and I talked to the daughter and her friend/cousin/I have no idea. Man, I'm so awkward; it's hard to communicate.

Oh yeah, the daughter is either finishing up school, or just out of school. So around that age.

The mom, daughter, cousin/friend, and I drove back to the house the mom lives in now (I think her parents live in the house we ate at). The mom showed me ikebana, or Japanese flower arranging. It seems more difficult than I thought. She told me how there needs to be a balance of color and flower types, and that it is ideal if there is a triangular shape. She was really good, and it was beautiful when it was finished! They're giving us one or two ikebana classes sometime next month I think...I can't wait to take them!

Oh yeah, I also got to meet the other grandmother (who I assume lives there too) and the older daughter, who has two small children!! Soooo cute!! The boy is about 2 or 3, and the girl is still very young, maybe less than a year? Way. Too. Cute.

After that, the mom brought out an old kimono she wore when she was young and let me try it on. It was a beautiful Prussian blue with some flowers on it. And I swear I had to have her repeat herself five times, because I thought I was hearing her wrong when she said she was going to give it to me before I left. I have no idea what to do!! I can't accept something that expensive!!

After that, I went home. Their house is actually very close to mine hehe.

So that was it. Sorry, no pictures this time.

Actually....

Gloria's cup!! Isn't it cute?

K, that's it for now. Later~

ひいいいいい〜〜〜

I have lots of energy right now!!

Oh yeah, but I figure I'll respond to comments at the beginning of posts from now on....

1cheezymonkey>> Yeah, there are tons of people, but it's not that scary! (as long as you know enough Japanese to ask for directions hehe).

jackleenrose>> It took about an hour and a half..? So not too bad >w<

All the huge bugs I see are already dead...so that makes me happy

Yeah, my host family has two out-of-college daughters, and one of them has two babies >3<

Sucrose>> hahaha I'm sure that trap will work very well on him (ohoh France/Germany?).

Yeah, my wallet semi-died, but I basically ran away when I got the chance to stop myself from buying more

Mom>> I still have no idea what movie you're talking about haha but now that you've explained it to me, I want to watch it. Talk to you next week, hopefully!

So! I was going to talk about my Saturday with my host family, but I'm going to talk about food instead.

We went out to kaiten sushi!! It's the thing where you sit at a bar and the food rotates on a conveyer belt in front of you and you take what you think looks good. The price is determined by the plate color. Cool, huh?

Denmark and France Netherlands kept on passing me

Here is the progression of my tray:



I thought they were caramelized apples, but someone told me they were potatoes, so I had to grab them!! Seriously, Japan has awakened within me a deep love for potatoes.

In the end, it didn't cost that much. The only thing about it was that the train doubled the expenses, so I won't be able to eat there often.

And I thought melon pan couldn't get any better......but this one was CREME-FILLED!! I was saddened by the fact that I had eaten the whole thing and was kinda expecting there to be more or for it to refill itself or something....


Ok, for you Hetalia people. When Arthur did his magic stuff and summoned Ivan, Ivan answered with "Yonda?" And also! He wore a panda suit at one point....so I had to take a picture of this!! I hope this amused you.

Anyway!! My new phone!!!

Gaaahhh it's so awesome!!! It was the only phone in the store that was red and black (and attractive). In Japan, it's so awesome, if you want to send your profile or a picture, you can do it by infrared!! It's waaaaay too awesome!! And apparently I get free internet, but I'm going to make sure before I use it > > oh! but I receive emails for free, so message me!! It's like texting, but through email! My address is 111kats@ezweb.ne.jp ˚∆˚ Message me if you're bored. It'll make me feel special.

So, short week this week. Thursday and Friday off, and the next Monday and Tuesday. Next Tuesday is the matsuri!! We actually get to be in it!! hahaha they only had room for two of the girls to be "hime-sama" (princesses), so the rest of us have to be samurai (I would've chosen to be a samurai if I had a choice).

The weather is getting cooler. Surprising, because I thought the heat would be a lot worse. Maybe I just got used to it.

Some kid that lives nearby plays the flute and I can hear them practicing. And then when we walk to school, there's always some piano class going on in some building. It's nice to hear instruments again.

Sooo ok...I should go eat dinner. I think maybe Stephanie and I are going to make soumen! yum yum! Alright, 又！

˚_˚ eh?

What day of the week is it?

Ok, so it's Tuesday.

Man, I get more confused every day.

(*warning, nerdy ramblings ahead*)

Anyway....COMIKETOMFG ˚∆˚ SO. MANY. PEOPLE.

I have never seen so many people at one place at one time before!!

It only took an hour and a half to actually get in, but it was in the sun and since it was so crowded, I wasn't allowed to open my sunbrella. And I got burnt. Not too bad, but I really hate getting burnt. Actually, I just really hate the sun.

ANYWAY

THAT WAS THE LINE.

AND IT KEPT GOING

for a while

haha actually, that was when we were walking to get to the back of the line; the people standing on the right are in the line.
Here's a view from the top :D Lovely, huh?

The first thing I did when I got "inside" was ask for directions to my CD 8DD I had to stand in line for that too. Oh yeah, me, John, and Chiu split up once we got inside. I was a little worried, because none of us had cells, but we designated a place and time to meet (at the frikn GIANT RED SAW sticking out of the ground. No joke, it was like 25 feet tall).

SO I got lost, found the line for 俺様CD, and bought it!!! 8DD eeeeeee I wanted to listen to it!

After that, I went to the book selling area *o* So.....much.....Hetalia....oh wow....After I bought what I had to buy (Cocca, stuff for other people), I kinda just wandered and was tricked by pretty cover art into buying the book. Damn, I even bought a novel. Oh well.

And why do some artists leave so early!?!?! I was down at that area by 1:15, and people were starting to leave!! I mean, it started at 10 AM for God's sake!! > <

hahaha buuut that's ok, because I came back with a nice big fat stack of lovely stuff.

It's called "FRANCEDOG"!! I had to ninja this picture. The ironic thing was that that section (ソ) was where the majority of the Hetalia was >w<

Everything worked out perfectly. We managed to find each other and get back to Tokyo station. We thought we might have to transfer more than once, but we found a train that went straight from Tokyo to Otsuki, then from there we went to Tsuru ;D

Look!! It's a dead bug!! Isn't it huuuuge?

John said he saw a girl faint. Yeah, it was really hot, and I made sure to drink a lot. But I had fun. I was the only white girl there, I think. So strange XDD But I'm used to it now, I guess.

So John told me it's polite to ask to skim through the book before buying it, so I would always ask "見てもいいですか。” And so, apparently I completely turn 180 when I'm in a situation I'm not sure about, or feel inferiour (like in class, or just hanging out with Japanese people in general), so I would always ask that really quietly. And this one artist kinda flipped out and was like "かわいい！！" (aka "OMG SO CUUUTE"). PFFF I was extremely amused, because I was all sweaty and gross, but my actions still made me "cute" XDD haha

あっ！それで！なあ。。。コスプレがあまりないけど。。out of what was there, ヘタリアのはいっぱいよ！写真を取りたかった！！でも、I didn't know if I was allowed to so...できなかった。。他のところはコスプレの写真を取ってもいいけど、行かなかった。ざんねん。きれいだった。プロイセンがいっぱい！うれしかった！五人ぐらいプロイセンのコスプレをした。かっ、、かっこいい。。。

I'm glad. I didn't spend as much as I thought I was going to spend. Only about 12,500 in gifts and things for myself. Oh yeah, I bought Oresama CD for my tutor, and I gave it to her today. She tried to pay me back for it haha I was expecting that. In the end, she took it *success~!*

I wanted to talk about my Sunday too, but this post is really long already. I spent time with my host family! (I'm just sticking that there as a reminder to myself haha). Sorry for the dorkish rant, to all you normal people!! (aka my family haha...well, you guys aren't that normal, I guess) K, 又バイバイ！

忙しすぎるぜ。。。

`A´ So busy lately. I really should be napping now, but ahaha I want to update this instead. Soooo I have my alien card now! (heehee I'm an alien) I can buy a phone! But I'm still thinking about it....might not get one because it costs money. But theeen Janelle said I could always use it again when I come back for JET, so maybe it'll be worth it.

It has to be black and red. Or black. White would be ok, but I like black better. And black + red = my favorite color combo.

Anyway, I went to the matsuri!!

From left to right, Ta-chan (my tutor), Kyouhei-kun in the back, me (dur), Gloria, and Chiu.

Me and Ta-chan!! Isn't she cute?

Just chillin'

Our wonderful tutors! I can name most of them now haha....gotta work on that

留学生のみんなさん〜！

Here's the entrance to the matsuri! It was at Lake Kawaguchi. Every year above the five (five..I think) major lakes around Mt. Fuji, they hold a firework celebration, and the one we went was the last of the five (err...I think that's what the announcer lady was saying). Anyway, there were toooons of food booths! I wanted to eat them all!! So I grabbed this:

...but not exactly that. I got a sprinkle-covered one, but it was good. I also had some okonomiyaki (err...dunno about the spelling of that).

Here's kinda what it looked like. The walking area was to the right of the tents. We all travelled in our groups, and I was with my tutor, John, and his tutor. We also ran into other people, and we katamari-ed and eventually sat down to watch the fireworks.

Yay!

(man, my hair was long...and that was only a week ago).

I took a lot of videos of the fireworks, and I'm really really surprised how well they came out. *pets my camera* Ahh camera, don't die on me...

OH! Had my first getting-squished-in-a-train experience while going back. It was funny.

Oh man, I'm glad today's Friday. Crazy week. And TOMORROW!! AHH TOMORROW!! I'm going to Tokyo!! YEESSSSS gah it's gonna cost 4,000 just to get there and back, but ahh I hope it's worth it. Gonna go to Comiket!! (bye bye money). But that'll be the last thing I spend on in a while (errrr for two weeks. Two weeks later, we're planning on staying in Tokyo for 3 days > < ) ahh I hope the booths are open long enough for me to buy everything I want! ああああ！俺様CD！！！！聞きたいよ！！！イエイ！！

This bread.....it is deceiving. It looks like normal bread, doesn't it? BUT ACTUALLY it's covered in SUGAR and MAPLE FLAVOR. See that blob of sugar on the right? I saved that for last.

And now I leave you with a picture of the view from my classroom. My apartment is next to the bald spot on the hill toward the right.

(Later) Okay, so I went to the cake shop to pick up a cake for a surprise birthday, and they were marking down the bread because it was getting late. So I found this really good looking one with whipped cream and chocolate for only 103, so I bought it. I had to eat half of the bread to realize that it wasn't chocolate. It was red bean. Stupid bread deceived me. (It was still delicious, though)

Responses~

Alright, so I wanna thank everyone for first off, actually reading this, and second, for surprising me with how many comments I'm getting *o* really, I'm shocked hahaha I love you all so much~! So here's my responses to your comments..? I guess > > ehe I'll make a real post soon, with pictures from the festival and all that.

OH!! So Saturday...? Sunday? What was it? Anyway, there was an earthquake! It was a 2, so it wasn't bad at all. AND THEN there was anther one this morning! At 5!! (like I wasn't having enough trouble sleeping already...jeez). Ok, so apparently it was a 6 at the epicenter, and a 4 over here! Crazy huh? It felt the same as the 2 though, because I was half asleep. But man, two in half a week? So crazy awesome.

So, responses:

fegie>> Yes, humidity sucks here...but I'm slowly getting used to it (lol sleeping naked helps cool down at night =w= )

Oh! and my tutor (we all get student-tutors that help us? I guess haha more like hang-out buddies than tutors) is into Hetalia!! So we listened to Iggy's CD and we laughed at the AHAHAHAHHAAA part. Made me think of AX. Man, I miss that weekend so much ;A;

And I have no idea what Jesus Body does....I will look into it

Miss you bundles, and I hope you're having fun/had fun at the beach~!

1cheezymonkey>> I can't wait to go back to Animate again =w= We're planning on going to Tokyo in two weeks (and hopefully drop by Otome Road *o* hohoho)

Amanda>> HEYO!!! MANDER!! I miss you!! Yes, lets Purikura in Irvine! 8DD what are you up to? It's been a while~ still summer school?

phantasiagirl>> *loves you even though you are late, though your boss might not be as pleased* ♥

Of course I heard the preview ahaha and I will be buying it this Saturday~! Hopefully!

hehe yes, open-eyed Italy is super cute, huh?

ahh the dessert was green-tea flavored ice cream...? I think > > It was good

oh man, NCorp Purikura would be the best thing everrrr

Mom>> I'm glad I managed to make you laugh ♥ I love you lots, and give everyone a hug for me! (haha I almost typed guh instead of hug)

ワニャ>>　もちろん！！プリクラをしお！！楽しみだなあ！

Skypeの名前って。。。忘れた。。。ちょ。。ええ。。kat11189と思ってるけど。。うん、あれかも　あはは (`¬´ )

Jeff>> HEY!! How are you?? Ahh I'm glad you find time to read this stuff hahaha what are you up to? I wanna know how all you Irvine guys are doing!

Michelle>> D'aawwww it's been a while since we last hung out!! What's up? heehee thanks for reading~

Alright, almost dinner time!! (in three hours). But I'm looking forward to it because I made it with my tutor and Stephanie two nights ago, and it was frikn AMAZING delicious and really easy to make. I think we're gonna have, like, 8 people eating in one apartment! So much fun! K, till next time!