Kyou no Nihongo no Kotoba (今日の日本語の言葉): ikebana (生け花) - flower arrangement
This word has been brought to you by my effort to find an ikebana class. Japanese flower arrangement is such a zen art, and I would love to learn something of it while I was here.
Today was quite a relaxed day, and it was very nice just to spend some time exploring Japan and hanging out with Julien and Ian, rather than have some things scheduled that needed to be done. We decided that we'd meet at Yotsuya (where CIEE HQ is) and have lunch at Sophia University's cafeteria there (Sophia U is where CIEE sends its college students abroad, so they're located right next to the university). We hadn't made other plans beyond that at that point.
I woke up pretty early in the morning, and sat around chatting with friends on Skype until it was time to go down for breakfast. I try to help out with cooking and cleaning at every meal, since I don't want to be a burdensome guest, but it's difficult to tell whether or not I'm doing a good job of it. I hope I am!
Anyways, since it was the first school morning at the house that I've experienced (since I left for the opening ceremony yesterday pretty early), I wasn't used to the flow of things. Masahiro-san didn't eat breakfast for some reason, and when I asked, Yoshiko-san basically said that he wasn't eating breakfast because he came back home late last night (at around midnight?). I don't know how that could affect breakfast, but I asked no further. Maybe it's just... some custom? Do other Japanese businessmen do this? o.o
This morning, I also got to see Yoshiko-san make Ayuka's bento, and it's so darn adorable! I really want a bento lunch every day (I've talked to Yoshiko about using the kitchen to make my own, and thus we have agreed that I can make my bento every day if I want. YES!). Ayuka has an adorable lunch box, with an adorable utensil set, cup and everything. It all matches too. :3
For my own breakfast, I had tamagoyaki, which is the egg wrap thing. For those of you who know my eating habits in recent times, you would know that egg isn't my thing. But I told myself that I wouldn't refuse anything that came my way, and that I'd be as Japanese as possible, so I ate it. I guess when paired with a lot of rice, the egg wasn't all that bad (I think I might have drowned it out). The salmon was delicious though, and so was the edamame! VERY nice.
I left the house at 9:50, thinking that I'd get to CIEE at Yotsuya with plenty of time (we were going to meet at 11:00), and I ended up getting there at 11:00 exact. That meant that Julien was late, since he left his house after I left mine, and his trip there takes longer. We are very worried about our upcoming trip, which involves a plane, and we're wondering just how likely it is that we'd miss the plane because Julien overslept or something. -_-"
Anyways, on my way there, I saw on the screen that a line was stopped. There are notices like this all the time every day, and they're usually because of cable problems or, as I said before, "passenger injuries," but this is the first time that I've seen something happening because of an "obstacle thing." Can it get any more vague than that? I was laughing so hard that I was attracting attention.
After lunch at Sophia U (where I had kara-age don and ice-cream mochi), we decided that we would go to Harajuku. Ian needed some new running shoes, and I just love Japanese fashion to no end, so I really wanted to go shopping there anyways. Now I'm just glad I had friends to go with.
The shoes we found at Harajuku were too expensive for Ian (6,000 yen or above, which translates to about $80), so he ended up watching a soccer match in a store while Julien and I shopped around that busy shopping street pictured below. There were so many cute shirts and skirts and umbrellas, but I managed to refrain from buying anything (especially the shoes!), in hopes that I'd find even better selection and prices when I go to Shibuya. Maybe this weekend sometime?
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| Moustache rings! |
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| STRAWBERRY CROCS. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT. o.o |
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| What doesn't belong in this area...? |
Finally, it was time to go home. I didn't want to be out too long without telling my host family when I would be home (and since I don't have a good texting plan, and only when I receive calls are they free, I didn't want to communicate). So I decided to go home on the earlier side instead (I had expected to be home at around 3:00, and it was already 4:00 by then).
On the way back, I saw these two private school children on the train to go back home from school. Shannon had told me that it is very common for children (even ones so young as these) to go to and from school by themselves on the train, walking far distances and everything. I couldn't imagine being so lax in America, you know? Maybe there are just less instances of child kidnapping in Japan or something?
For dinner, I had curry rice, which was wonderful. This is my first homemade curry rice! It's a classic dish that I've seen in so many animes, and of course I've had it before in America and in Japan, but having homemade curry rice is just something else. It's a taste you can't imagine, and it's so good! Having it homemade also means it's a lot more nutritious too! See how many veggies are in it compared to restaurant curry?
While I was cleaning up, I took a peek in the fridge, and I found so much milk! It reminds me of Aaron's house's fridge, which has two one-gallon containers of milk at all times when he's home. It's ridiculous how much milk is in this fridge. I couldn't imagine my house having this much milk, honestly. And the only person who drinks milk are the two children, so they're going to grow very big and very strong!
Ja, we'll see how things go tomorrow. Thanks for reading today!
Oyasuminasai! (Good night!)
Maggie
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