Gracie on Ice
Alright, so my midterm is finally over with, so I can start writing about some new stuff now. I guess I'll pick up with the visit to my host family's house. It was a VERY long day. I originally thought that she was coming to pick me up at 12:30, so I took my time getting up and ready for the day. I wanted to clean up the place a bit before anyone saw the mess in the main room, and I hadn't wrapped Manami-chan's present yet. So you can imagine my horror when the doorbell rang at 10:30 and they were all waiting for me in the car. In Japanese, "Juuji han" (10:30) sounds a lot like "Juuniji han" (12:30). I guess I misheard her over the phone. Whoops. I should get a medal for how quickly I was able to finish wrapping, do something to my face, and bolt out of there. I think I did it all in five minutes or so. But in that mad rush out the door, I managed to forget my camera, and I was very self-conscious all day about the state of my bed-hair. I could smack myself for forgetting the camera--so many great pictures that will never be posted! Actually, it worked out, because I honestly don't know when I would've been able to take it out and record anything--I was moving around a lot.
So Tamara-san (the mom) drove me over to their house with Manami (the birthday girl) and Yuuki (a friend) in the backseat. Their house is huge, at least by my standards. On the ground floor, there's an entryway area for shoes and such, a dining room, kitchen, laundry room, a shrine area, a storage room, and space for the piano. Upstairs, there are about three bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, and a place to crawl out on the roof. It's actually kind of funny, but I think I walked right by their house when I went walking to Mount Fuji last week and didn't even realize it. I may have actually taken a picture of the house accidentally, completely clueless that it was my host family's. Remember this picture? I think their house may be just to the left, under that overhang.
I got there, and it was still a while before lunch. Manami and Yuuki were only too eager to keep me entertained, though. I'm beginning to remember now why I swore I'd never have kids of my own--nothing against those kids at all, they're incredible cute and adorable, but I don't think I'd be able to deal with those infinite amounts of energy all day. The time seemed to fly by, though. They showed me the piano (I did so horribly that I had to go to the music room at school and practice this week in order to redeem myself next time), played Mario Cart with me, went outside for quite a while and played tag/volleyball/dodgeball, and finally settled on teaching me origami. I'm absolute rubbish at it. It's like being back in fourth grade, with everyone else's paper swan perfectly folded, and mine looking more like a misshapen duck. I got a little better, but I don't think I'll ever be able to do more than an origami heart.
Lunch was delicious. I can see why Tamara-san disappeared for half the morning to make it. It consisted of curry, rice, ramen, fried carrots and vegetables, potatoes, grilled garlic, pickles, and then this amazing birthday cake for dessert. I'm serious, I've never had a cake that awesome before. It was a layer cake of strawberries, kiwi fruit, blackberries, and delicate white frosting. And I think she made it herself. Unbelievable. Very light and fluffy. I can speak highly enough about Japanese food. Oh! By the way, I think I've found something that I may like even more than mochi, if that's possible.
Just one of the awesome things that Japan has to offer.
I swear, it's like eating heaven. I buy it every time I go to the store now. I figure that I may never eat it again after returning to America, so I might as well kill the addiction while I can. That and the raisin bread that I buy every week.
But back to the host family. After lunch, I gave Manami-chan my present, and she seemed to like the scarf. Tamara-san liked it, too. So much, in fact, that she stole it from her daughter and wore it for the rest of the day. o_O Okay... I'm not sure how I would've handled that as a ten-year-old, but I'm guessing it was all in good fun. The father, Tamara-san (actually, I'll call him "Makoto-san" to avoid confusion) doesn't seem to like the cold, so he stayed rooted in the dining room for most of the time. Traditional Japanese dining tables are awesome. I started sitting down like you're supposed to--on your knees with your feet tucked under you--but they they gestured under the table. It looks really tiny and low to the ground, but if you look under the tablecloth, there's a hidden underground compartment for the feet with a built-in furnace. So you sit with your feet hanging over the edge and the coals underneath keep you warm as you eat. Very, very convenient in cold weather like this. So that's why Makota-san was reluctant to leave the table.
Around 2:00, the girls decided that it was time to go ice skating. Ah, yes. This is the part where I leave my dignity at the door and embrace my shame. As I mentioned earlier, I was a moron and left my camera, but it's remarkable what you can find on the Internet. imagine my surprise when a Google search turned up an image of my exact likeness. The resemblance is actually quite incredible.
Uncanny, no?
So I went ice skating. I mentioned that I had gone roller skating one or two times for a birthday party as a kid, but I guess Tamara-san interpreted that as "I'm really good." Let's just say that they were misinformed. They had told me to dress warmly for the ice rink, but I actually found it too hot after a while with the amount of physical activity involved. It's interesting to feel the sweat literally freezing on the back of your neck. Too graphic? Sorry about that.
The first difficulty was figuring out my shoe size. All the increments were in centimeters. I could tell you my American size, but I have no idea how many centimeters long my foot is. The people working there ended up taking my shoe away from me and disappeared into the back for a while. I'll also take this moment to point out that I was the only American there, but I'm used to that by now. When they got back, they presented me with a pair of 50 cm ice skates. Tamara-san is 45 cm, I think. Right, then. So I laced them up as I tightly as I could, and promptly fell over. Try walking on normal ground with a centimeter-wide blade sometime. It's fun. Tamara-san and the girls seemed to be restraining themselves a bit--I know that I would've found that hilarious to look at, so I don't blame them at all.
Then came the actual ice. They had to clean it first, so everyone stayed off it for about fifteen minutes while these giant street-cleaner-looking things came out and smoothed it out. As soon as they were done, everyone rushed out onto the ice. I kind of...skittered. More like crab-walked. Okay, I hugged the wall like my life depended on it. It was not a proud day, but it's a good thing that I found it as amusing as everyone else. Once I convinced myself that I wasn't going to keel over if I loosened my death grip, I eased off a bit...and fell flat on my face. I think I may have slid forward a bit on my stomach. *Thumbs up* After a lap of two, I was able to "kind of" skate with only one hand on the wall. But it was incredibly exhausting. I decided to grab a drink for a second.
When I got back, Tamara-san and the girls were waiting for me with...a CHAIR. Yes, a chair. As in, they push me in it on the ice, while I sit there and try not to hide my face in my hands. So, imagine this. Everyone literally skating circles around us, and I'm being pushed by a ten-year old and her friend. A very proud day. To make matters worse, one of the kids there recognized me. I guess he was in that fourth-grade class I visited the other week. So he came over and tried to talk to me, only to realize that I was borderline mentally retarded in the areas of Japanese and ice skating. I dare you to try putting a sentence together in a foreign language while putting all concentration in your feet. He's, like, nine or something, and he speed-skated backwards the whole time while talking to me. And how old am I? ...Twenty. *Groans*
Fortunately, though, everyone took turns with the chair. I found that being the one pushing from the back is actually kind of good training--really gives you something to hang on to besides the wall. After a while, I kind of got the hang of it. I was able to let go of the wall, at least. But I still couldn't help the occasional fall. Fortunately, none of them really hurt. Well, except one. It wasn't actually the fall that hurt. As I was going down, my right leg bent back and hit the side of my wrist with the side of the blade. Kind of hurt. As I lay there on my back, laughing at what an idiot I was, it occurred to me that it might be broken. 'Cause there are a lot of tiny, fragile bones in your wrist, right? So that freaked me out a bit. Not only am I in a foreign country with different medical procedures, but I have a midterm on Wednesday with no functioning right hand! No! But then my thought process took a geeky turn and I was thrilled. Wait, that means that I'll be in solidarity with Stephen...kind of! I mean, I'd have to switch my WristStrong bracelet to the other hand, but it would just be the wrong hand, right?
Turns out it's not broken, though. In fact, it's barely bruised a few days later. I played the piano for an hour today and felt nothing. I'm just a complete nerd with nothing better to think of aside from my recent obsession.
But where was I? We skated around for about two hours, before exhaustion really set in. During that time, I took a few more falls, but nothing too major. At one point, though, it was particularly humbling to have a group of high school girls come over and laugh at the clumsy American girl while she's on the ground. Yay. It was really fun, though, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'm confident that I'll do better next time, with a little more practice.
So it was back the house and a few more hours of playing around. Dinner was equally amazing: fresh takoyaki (octopus) made right at the table, another bowl of ramen, and fried chicken. I forgot to mention, but I've been buying takoyaki lately from this vender guy next to Ogino (the major supermarket around here). It's an acquired taste. It's basically a slice of octopus in the center with fried bread on top, wrapped in herbs, sauce, and a bit of thinly-sliced tuna. Soft on the outside, crunchy and chewy on the inside. The first time I ate it, I nearly spat it out, but I had paid 300 yen for that, by God, and I was going to finish it! It's growing on me. I figured that I had to see what Jessica keeps raving about. The homemade takoyaki at the Tamara household was much fresher and more palatable. Still, though, I can only eat about four before pushing my plate away.
Not long after dinner and cleanup, it was time for fireworks! Just so you guys know, it was some sort of festival that day--the hina-matsuri, to be exact, in celebration of young girls. Manami and Yuuki-chan were trying to teach me the song that goes with the holiday all day. For my Japanese-speaking friends out there, here it is:
あかりをつけましょぼんぼんりに
あなたをあげましょももの花
五人はやしのふえたいこ
今日は楽しいひなまつり。
There you go. I could sing it if I had the paper in front of me. It's actually really pretty. We all piled into the car and headed out for one of the Five Lakes of Mount Fuji, about half an hour's drive away. I think it was Lake Kawaguchi, but I'm not sure. On the way over, Juu (the little boy) decided that my leg resembled a percussion instrument, and took great pleasure in playing his own version of the festival song on my leg. It didn't really hurt, but it definitely didn't help with all the ice-skating bruises underneath my jeans.
We finally got there and it was COLD. And I mean COLD. I'm so, so glad that I listened to Tamara-san and brought an extra jacket and scarf. I was wearing a T-shirt, long-sleeve turtle neck, my huge UCSC sweatshirt, a big downy jacket, two pairs of socks, and gloves, and I felt like I was wearing a camisole and flipflops. It had to be below freezing. I wouldn't know--I didn't check the temperature. I promptly wrapped the scarf around my face to keep my nose from falling off and pulled my hood up as far as I could. The wind was near-hurricane force at times, so it was hard to keep it on at times.
But the lake itself and the fireworks were incredibly beautiful. I wish it hadn't been freezing, but I think it was still worth the trip. We got there at about 7:00 and spent an hour in this somewhat-heated room with other families. They had toys for the children to play with, and I spent most of the time helping Yuuki and Manami-chan with this balance trick. Basically, you grab some stilts made out of bamboo and try not to fall over. Very tricky. I disqualified myself immediately because my feet were too big for the holds, and I didn't want to REALLY break my wrist, Stephen aside. They managed to walk a few feet after a lot of practice.
Then, at exactly 8:00, the fireworks started right over the lake. They definitely went all out with the selection. It went for about half an hour nonstop, and they never seemed close to running out. At the edge of the water, they had a speaker hooked up so that traditional Japanese music and chanting could play during the show. The only downside: we had to leave about halfway through. Juu was getting fussy and cold, so we had to go back to the car. I was admittedly disappointed that we couldn't watch the whole thing, but he's two--what are you going to do? The part that we were able to watch was amazing, though. Sorry, no pictures. Here's something to give you good idea, though.
The night was pretty much over after that. The girls were falling asleep in their seats, and Tamara-san was nice enough to drop me off right in front of my apartment at 9:00 or so. A very, very long day, but it was definitely worth while. I got a call at 7:00 this morning (and usually would have been sleeping if I didn't have the midterm), and Tamara-san invited me back for dinner tonight. In fact, I should probably start getting ready for that. They're coming in about an hour. With that said, I'm going to get to cleaning the room. See you guys!
So Tamara-san (the mom) drove me over to their house with Manami (the birthday girl) and Yuuki (a friend) in the backseat. Their house is huge, at least by my standards. On the ground floor, there's an entryway area for shoes and such, a dining room, kitchen, laundry room, a shrine area, a storage room, and space for the piano. Upstairs, there are about three bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, and a place to crawl out on the roof. It's actually kind of funny, but I think I walked right by their house when I went walking to Mount Fuji last week and didn't even realize it. I may have actually taken a picture of the house accidentally, completely clueless that it was my host family's. Remember this picture? I think their house may be just to the left, under that overhang.
I got there, and it was still a while before lunch. Manami and Yuuki were only too eager to keep me entertained, though. I'm beginning to remember now why I swore I'd never have kids of my own--nothing against those kids at all, they're incredible cute and adorable, but I don't think I'd be able to deal with those infinite amounts of energy all day. The time seemed to fly by, though. They showed me the piano (I did so horribly that I had to go to the music room at school and practice this week in order to redeem myself next time), played Mario Cart with me, went outside for quite a while and played tag/volleyball/dodgeball, and finally settled on teaching me origami. I'm absolute rubbish at it. It's like being back in fourth grade, with everyone else's paper swan perfectly folded, and mine looking more like a misshapen duck. I got a little better, but I don't think I'll ever be able to do more than an origami heart.
Lunch was delicious. I can see why Tamara-san disappeared for half the morning to make it. It consisted of curry, rice, ramen, fried carrots and vegetables, potatoes, grilled garlic, pickles, and then this amazing birthday cake for dessert. I'm serious, I've never had a cake that awesome before. It was a layer cake of strawberries, kiwi fruit, blackberries, and delicate white frosting. And I think she made it herself. Unbelievable. Very light and fluffy. I can speak highly enough about Japanese food. Oh! By the way, I think I've found something that I may like even more than mochi, if that's possible.
Just one of the awesome things that Japan has to offer.
I swear, it's like eating heaven. I buy it every time I go to the store now. I figure that I may never eat it again after returning to America, so I might as well kill the addiction while I can. That and the raisin bread that I buy every week.
But back to the host family. After lunch, I gave Manami-chan my present, and she seemed to like the scarf. Tamara-san liked it, too. So much, in fact, that she stole it from her daughter and wore it for the rest of the day. o_O Okay... I'm not sure how I would've handled that as a ten-year-old, but I'm guessing it was all in good fun. The father, Tamara-san (actually, I'll call him "Makoto-san" to avoid confusion) doesn't seem to like the cold, so he stayed rooted in the dining room for most of the time. Traditional Japanese dining tables are awesome. I started sitting down like you're supposed to--on your knees with your feet tucked under you--but they they gestured under the table. It looks really tiny and low to the ground, but if you look under the tablecloth, there's a hidden underground compartment for the feet with a built-in furnace. So you sit with your feet hanging over the edge and the coals underneath keep you warm as you eat. Very, very convenient in cold weather like this. So that's why Makota-san was reluctant to leave the table.
Around 2:00, the girls decided that it was time to go ice skating. Ah, yes. This is the part where I leave my dignity at the door and embrace my shame. As I mentioned earlier, I was a moron and left my camera, but it's remarkable what you can find on the Internet. imagine my surprise when a Google search turned up an image of my exact likeness. The resemblance is actually quite incredible.
Uncanny, no?
So I went ice skating. I mentioned that I had gone roller skating one or two times for a birthday party as a kid, but I guess Tamara-san interpreted that as "I'm really good." Let's just say that they were misinformed. They had told me to dress warmly for the ice rink, but I actually found it too hot after a while with the amount of physical activity involved. It's interesting to feel the sweat literally freezing on the back of your neck. Too graphic? Sorry about that.
The first difficulty was figuring out my shoe size. All the increments were in centimeters. I could tell you my American size, but I have no idea how many centimeters long my foot is. The people working there ended up taking my shoe away from me and disappeared into the back for a while. I'll also take this moment to point out that I was the only American there, but I'm used to that by now. When they got back, they presented me with a pair of 50 cm ice skates. Tamara-san is 45 cm, I think. Right, then. So I laced them up as I tightly as I could, and promptly fell over. Try walking on normal ground with a centimeter-wide blade sometime. It's fun. Tamara-san and the girls seemed to be restraining themselves a bit--I know that I would've found that hilarious to look at, so I don't blame them at all.
Then came the actual ice. They had to clean it first, so everyone stayed off it for about fifteen minutes while these giant street-cleaner-looking things came out and smoothed it out. As soon as they were done, everyone rushed out onto the ice. I kind of...skittered. More like crab-walked. Okay, I hugged the wall like my life depended on it. It was not a proud day, but it's a good thing that I found it as amusing as everyone else. Once I convinced myself that I wasn't going to keel over if I loosened my death grip, I eased off a bit...and fell flat on my face. I think I may have slid forward a bit on my stomach. *Thumbs up* After a lap of two, I was able to "kind of" skate with only one hand on the wall. But it was incredibly exhausting. I decided to grab a drink for a second.
When I got back, Tamara-san and the girls were waiting for me with...a CHAIR. Yes, a chair. As in, they push me in it on the ice, while I sit there and try not to hide my face in my hands. So, imagine this. Everyone literally skating circles around us, and I'm being pushed by a ten-year old and her friend. A very proud day. To make matters worse, one of the kids there recognized me. I guess he was in that fourth-grade class I visited the other week. So he came over and tried to talk to me, only to realize that I was borderline mentally retarded in the areas of Japanese and ice skating. I dare you to try putting a sentence together in a foreign language while putting all concentration in your feet. He's, like, nine or something, and he speed-skated backwards the whole time while talking to me. And how old am I? ...Twenty. *Groans*
Fortunately, though, everyone took turns with the chair. I found that being the one pushing from the back is actually kind of good training--really gives you something to hang on to besides the wall. After a while, I kind of got the hang of it. I was able to let go of the wall, at least. But I still couldn't help the occasional fall. Fortunately, none of them really hurt. Well, except one. It wasn't actually the fall that hurt. As I was going down, my right leg bent back and hit the side of my wrist with the side of the blade. Kind of hurt. As I lay there on my back, laughing at what an idiot I was, it occurred to me that it might be broken. 'Cause there are a lot of tiny, fragile bones in your wrist, right? So that freaked me out a bit. Not only am I in a foreign country with different medical procedures, but I have a midterm on Wednesday with no functioning right hand! No! But then my thought process took a geeky turn and I was thrilled. Wait, that means that I'll be in solidarity with Stephen...kind of! I mean, I'd have to switch my WristStrong bracelet to the other hand, but it would just be the wrong hand, right?
Turns out it's not broken, though. In fact, it's barely bruised a few days later. I played the piano for an hour today and felt nothing. I'm just a complete nerd with nothing better to think of aside from my recent obsession.
But where was I? We skated around for about two hours, before exhaustion really set in. During that time, I took a few more falls, but nothing too major. At one point, though, it was particularly humbling to have a group of high school girls come over and laugh at the clumsy American girl while she's on the ground. Yay. It was really fun, though, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'm confident that I'll do better next time, with a little more practice.
So it was back the house and a few more hours of playing around. Dinner was equally amazing: fresh takoyaki (octopus) made right at the table, another bowl of ramen, and fried chicken. I forgot to mention, but I've been buying takoyaki lately from this vender guy next to Ogino (the major supermarket around here). It's an acquired taste. It's basically a slice of octopus in the center with fried bread on top, wrapped in herbs, sauce, and a bit of thinly-sliced tuna. Soft on the outside, crunchy and chewy on the inside. The first time I ate it, I nearly spat it out, but I had paid 300 yen for that, by God, and I was going to finish it! It's growing on me. I figured that I had to see what Jessica keeps raving about. The homemade takoyaki at the Tamara household was much fresher and more palatable. Still, though, I can only eat about four before pushing my plate away.
Not long after dinner and cleanup, it was time for fireworks! Just so you guys know, it was some sort of festival that day--the hina-matsuri, to be exact, in celebration of young girls. Manami and Yuuki-chan were trying to teach me the song that goes with the holiday all day. For my Japanese-speaking friends out there, here it is:
あかりをつけましょぼんぼんりに
あなたをあげましょももの花
五人はやしのふえたいこ
今日は楽しいひなまつり。
There you go. I could sing it if I had the paper in front of me. It's actually really pretty. We all piled into the car and headed out for one of the Five Lakes of Mount Fuji, about half an hour's drive away. I think it was Lake Kawaguchi, but I'm not sure. On the way over, Juu (the little boy) decided that my leg resembled a percussion instrument, and took great pleasure in playing his own version of the festival song on my leg. It didn't really hurt, but it definitely didn't help with all the ice-skating bruises underneath my jeans.
We finally got there and it was COLD. And I mean COLD. I'm so, so glad that I listened to Tamara-san and brought an extra jacket and scarf. I was wearing a T-shirt, long-sleeve turtle neck, my huge UCSC sweatshirt, a big downy jacket, two pairs of socks, and gloves, and I felt like I was wearing a camisole and flipflops. It had to be below freezing. I wouldn't know--I didn't check the temperature. I promptly wrapped the scarf around my face to keep my nose from falling off and pulled my hood up as far as I could. The wind was near-hurricane force at times, so it was hard to keep it on at times.
But the lake itself and the fireworks were incredibly beautiful. I wish it hadn't been freezing, but I think it was still worth the trip. We got there at about 7:00 and spent an hour in this somewhat-heated room with other families. They had toys for the children to play with, and I spent most of the time helping Yuuki and Manami-chan with this balance trick. Basically, you grab some stilts made out of bamboo and try not to fall over. Very tricky. I disqualified myself immediately because my feet were too big for the holds, and I didn't want to REALLY break my wrist, Stephen aside. They managed to walk a few feet after a lot of practice.
Then, at exactly 8:00, the fireworks started right over the lake. They definitely went all out with the selection. It went for about half an hour nonstop, and they never seemed close to running out. At the edge of the water, they had a speaker hooked up so that traditional Japanese music and chanting could play during the show. The only downside: we had to leave about halfway through. Juu was getting fussy and cold, so we had to go back to the car. I was admittedly disappointed that we couldn't watch the whole thing, but he's two--what are you going to do? The part that we were able to watch was amazing, though. Sorry, no pictures. Here's something to give you good idea, though.
The night was pretty much over after that. The girls were falling asleep in their seats, and Tamara-san was nice enough to drop me off right in front of my apartment at 9:00 or so. A very, very long day, but it was definitely worth while. I got a call at 7:00 this morning (and usually would have been sleeping if I didn't have the midterm), and Tamara-san invited me back for dinner tonight. In fact, I should probably start getting ready for that. They're coming in about an hour. With that said, I'm going to get to cleaning the room. See you guys!