Ryosuke's Undokai and Quiche Lorraine!

Kyou no Nihongo no Kotoba (今日の日本語の言葉): hayaguchikotoba (早口言葉) - tongue twister
This word is brought to you by dinner, at which I got much closer to both Yoshiko-san and Masahiro-san due to our discussion of tongue twisters, in both English and Japanese.

First of all, the picture above is something for which I'd like to thank my beloved godfather Moe for. As you can see, it's got the perfect amount of plug space, and I utilize it all! It's one of the most handy things I own at the moment, and so versatile an adapter is hard to find over here (I've tried to find one for Julien that works just as well, but to no avail). So thank you very much for having found this for me!

Now, on to today. It was a pretty relaxed day, and for that I am glad. I don't think I could have handled another full day, or even another day that involved the train. I just wanted to stay home, walk around a little, and rest. That's exactly what I got today, which was great!

First of all, for breakfast, I had yakisoba, kara age, and an onigiri (without the nori (seaweed)). It was wonderful and delicious, and oh, if I could have this every day without getting extremely fat and unhealthy, I totally would. I will never get tired of rice. I could never imagine a day in which that would happen. SO good.

Afterward, the family and I went out to Ryosuke's undokai, which is a sports festival that basically every school up to college/university has once a year. There's races, cone dodging, dancing, etc., all celebrating the spirit of sports. And what was I doing? I was sitting, watching this whole thing. No surprise that that's what I would be doing during a sports festival, ne? Hehe.

There was quite a bit of marching as well. They march very well, these students. Even the first graders. They have synchronized footing and everything. It's truly quite a sight. Though what broke the spell a bit for me was that the main marching song was... the Mickey Mouse Club theme song! I don't know why they use this song so much, but I've heard it about once a day since I've been here, for many different purposes, such as a celebratory song, a marching song, elevator music. Why are Japanese people so attracted to this piece? In case you guys don't know what it is, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ZOcIc_pKk
I guess at least they didn't play it with lyrics, so there was only the melody. At least.

Yep, they're doing push-ups!

I went home before everyone else because it was so hot! And since all I was doing was just sitting there, there wasn't much to distract me from the sunlight hitting my skin. I knew that I would burn if I stayed out there long enough (and in most sunlight, I don't feel that way; this one was somehow special). So I left early and went home to chill, read, and (this wasn't part of the initial plan) take a nap. 

When the rest of the family got back (without Ryosuke, who was having lunch with his classmates before more of then undokai happened in the afternoon), we had lunch. This is the first time I've ever had raw eggs with rice. I've had raw eggs with porridge before as a Thai dish, but never with rice. Nevertheless, it was pretty good, especially when eaten with umeboshi (pickled plum). I gotta say though, raw egg probably isn't for everyone. It's got a pretty specific taste, and though I don't like eggs much anymore, this wasn't bad. I just probably can't have it more than once a month or something, otherwise I'd get sick of the taste. 

After lunch, the family went back to the undokai and I stayed home to write my previous blog post about my night at the Honmonji temple. Again, sorry for being late with it, but I was just so tired last night that there was no way that post was happening. I barely even remembered to turn off my lights when I went to bed. So now you have the treat of two posts in one day! Hooray!

After the family came back, with Ryosuke this time, I went shopping with Yoshiko-san. I decided that I would make dinner, since Yoshiko-san was probably tired from all of the undokai festivities (not to mention the hot sun; how do Asian women protect themselves from tanning so well? They were wearing thick sweaters for God's sake. What is the price of beauty? Fainting?). 

More cool ice cream flavors

Look at those cute jam containers that look totally like ice cream!

After shopping, I went home and started on dinner immediately. Quiche is quite easy to cook, now that I know how, though it takes a while to prepare (like rolling out the dough, then refrigerating it, then baking it, then preparing the filling ingredients, then putting it all together, etc.). In my quiche, there was bacon, gruyere cheese, gouda cheese, zucchini, red & yellow bell peppers, and caramelized onions. Very yummy! I think it came out pretty well, and the family really seemed to like it. Yokkata!

In addition, we also had spaghetti salad for dinner. For desert, I had put the remaining pie crust pieces in the oven, then covered it with cinnamon sugar when it was done. This was more for the kids than anything else.

After dinner was especially nice though. This was the first time I've ever actively interacted with Masahiro-san aside from the odd question here and there. He was trying really hard to teach me to hear the difference between "kuki" (stem), "kukki" (cookie), and "kuuki" (air). And then that got us into talking about tongue twisters and alike sounding words. I tried to explain the meaning of that woodchuck tongue twister, eventually saying something like "how many pieces of tree can a beaver chop down with its teeth..." It was difficult. And then Yoshiko-san and Masahiro-san taught me a few Japanese ones, which I couldn't pronounce, and I daresay I don't quite remember. D:

Then afterward, we sat down together to watch the videos Masahiro-san recorded of today's undokai. It ended up in a ticking battle between Ayuka-chan and Ryosuke-kun on top of poor Yoshiko-san, who was trying her best to brush Ayuka's teeth.

Tomorrow I think will mostly be a studying and Skyping day. I want to learn tons of kanji tomorrow, and am very much looking forward to Skyping both dad and Aaron (though I'd love to Skype anyone else if they were around!).

Much love,
Maggie

First Day of School!

Kyou no Nihongo no Kotoba (今日の日本語の言葉): kantan (簡単) - easy

This word has been brought to you by my personal views on the class I'm in

Today was an early day! I woke up at 5:30 and did the usual morning stuff: reading, checking email, FB, etc. Then as the rest of the house started to wake up, I got ready for school, ate breakfast, and took a shower. I had more curry rice for breakfast, which was amazing as always. This is totally gonna be the food of my house when I have time to cook.

Ayuka's outfit for the day. I nearly died over how cute this was.

After breakfast, I went to visit a nearby shrine briefly (in order to know how to get there on foot, since this time Yoshiko-san gave me a ride), since there's gonna be a festival there tomorrow, and I'm totally gonna go after school! But since I'll be coming directly from school, I'll need to know how to get there on my own.

Then I got to Akihabara, one of the stations close to my school, at 10:00, and I wasn't due to meet anyone until 11:30, so... I of course went window shopping! And I guess I had the intention of actually shopping too, if something caught my eye. I went into the nine story shopping complex (mostly electronics) called Yodobashi Akiba and browsed to my heart's content, starting with the book store!

At the book store, I found the manga section (a whopping seven shelves, double sided), and immediately started searching for manga that I knew. I want to be able to read manga by the end of my time here, so I might as well start now, ne? I saw Emma, which is one of my favorites (though I hate to say that I've never gotten around to finishing it yet) and a few others. I stumbled upon the BL section, which was a hidden gem, but I couldn't find anything that caught my eye (Japanese manga spines are usually the same looking across a publisher, and thus can only be distinguished by their name, rather than their look, which makes it hard when you can't really read). So I moved on.

I found a plethora of cute things, including a book light that looks a little like No Face from Spirited Away, who is pictured below for your viewing purposes:

I've also discovered that the Japanese really love Disney, and they have the best stationery section ever! There are two isles of just pens (and when I say isles, I mean isles; as you can see below, the Japanese don't kid around when it comes to their stationery). Their planners are adorable, and they have so much decorative tape and page markers and cute things that I spent an hour in just the book store.

I then wandered onto the game level, a floor below, and found that they not only still had PS2 games, but that they had a whole isle of them. Pictured below is only a small part of that isle. It's rare in America to be able to find a game store that still has this that isn't seedy and creepy and vaguely dark and somewhat smelling of rancid cigarettes.

And then, much to my surprise, they even have a little section of PS games. You definitely seldom see this anywhere in America. This section for PS is bigger than almost any section for PS2 games I've ever been able to find in America. Why are they so quick to forget the great things of old, huh? PSH.

They refrigerate film... I guess I've seen some people do that
personally, but never in a store... 

I walked down to the beauty floor and was attacked by hair items. Honestly, there is one and a half isles of hair curlers. JUST hair curlers. The Japanese are so crazy about beauty sometimes, it amazes me (just like that store for just socks I saw yesterday at Harajuku).

They also have tons of nail polish, and, much to my glee, more stationery. The Japanese have cute down to an art form, and I'm just wondering why no one else latches on to this cuteness thing whatsoever. It's not like it's trademarked, America. If you're so into lucrative things, then jump on to this thing, because sales taxes from hair products and cute things are probably where the government makes the majority of its money, honestly.

One last thing about stationery, and then I swear I'll shut up about it. Their pens are really cool. You know those thick ones that hold multiple colors of ink and you can click down which one you want? Well they have empty ones with cool designs on them, and then a plethora of inks of every color imaginable from which you can pick to make your own unique pen! Cool stuff right there.

All right. I lied. One more thing about pens. I've found erasable ones. Yeah, that's cool. I've heard about erasable pens before in America (though none I've found have been able to erase as well as these Pentel ones), so what's so awesome? Well, there are erasable felt tip markers. Ain't that a cool thing? And also erasable highlighters. That got me hooked. I'm definitely gonna get a set, but I need to find the best price first, ne?

Even their reinforcers are adorable! 

Before school, I met up with Ian and Julien for lunch. I had a croque monsieur from Vie de France bakery. Then I accompanied the guys to an Indian place in the food court to eat some curry! Ian got a ridiculously large naan, the likes of which I've never before seen in my life. Like, woah.

Then after lunch, we headed to school. The teachers had told me to expect level 2 or 3 as a class, but I'm alas in level 1. It's not bad, since it's nice to review the basics, but, as I feared, it's SO SLOW. The skill difference between each level is insane, though, so I don't think I'd survive in level 2 (they're practically fluent in daily life kanji, and have started into the lesser known ones). When I talked to a teacher, they said that I was proficient enough in grammar to be in level 3, but kanji wise, it might be best to stay in level 1. So I decided I would. Plus, they're nicer people (lots of Thai people, who can remind me of the old days when I used to live there).

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that it isn't slow. I already finished the homework for the next two weeks. I was hoping that homework would get me working again, but it's so easy that I have nothing to do. And I'm bored in class. I can tell a few others are too. The problem is that they seem to teach us as if we live in America, and they don't seem to factor in the fact that we learn so much just from our daily lives outside of school that this class should be moving far faster than usual, ne?

Anyways, when school ended, I went to the stationery store nearby to get a folder for homework, and then hopped on the train. On the way home, I was listening to Truth by Arashi when I happened to look up at the advertisement in front of me, and lo and behold. There's Arashi posing for a Kirin ad. How great a coincidence is that? Plus this brought back so many memories of Mori no Ike (my one month Japanese camp in Minnesota), especially of Hinata-sensei and her crazy antics (she was the one who got me hooked on Arashi in the first place). Man I miss that place. (Which is why I'm hoping to go work there the summer after freshman year. It should be fun, ne?)

While I was walking home, I couldn't believe just how dark it was! It was only 5:30 or so, and it was so dark outside already. And it's not even winter yet! I can't wait to see how short the days can get when it actually is winter, though.

5:30 at night. Can you believe it? 

My cute little homework folder.

For dinner, I had pasta with tuna, with a side of mashed potatoes. Definitely not Japanese, but anything that Yoshiko-san cooks is bound to be delicious. And I'm sure most of you have spied the cayenne pepper hiding in the background. I've told this family just how spicy I like to eat things. Ryosuke has tried to imitate me, although I've discouraged him as much as I could with scary tales of ulcers and stuff, and even the slightest shake of that stuff onto his pasta made him unable to eat more of it. I hope he doesn't pull that stunt again, now that he's tried it and realizes that he can't stand it.

Lastly, pictured below is my first Japanese manga undertaking! It's volume one of Hana Yori Dango, which means Boys Over Flowers. I've never even read the Japanese one, and have never finished the anime, so this is my chance to read something that's sort of new, but is familiar enough to me that I know I will enjoy if if I can actually get through it. It's tough though, since most of the kanji isn't written with hiragana on the side, which means that I need to know the kanji itself in order to get by. That might sound hard, but this is all kanji that Ryosuke knows (that's how I read now; we read together, and occasionally I'd ask him what a word means or how I should say this kanji, and in return, I help him with his English homework—it's really tough explaining what the word "quite" means (as in "this is quite hard"); props to English teachers).

With that, I bid you all a good night! Tomorrow is bound to be full of more adventures! There's my morning bento search to look forward to, and then the matsuri (festival) at the Honmonji Temple after school! 

Much love,
Maggie