Backdated entry 3/3
Well, it's been a while since I wrote my last update (a couple of days) but you wouldn't know that, seeing as how you really have no idea when I'm writing these, because I still have no internet. Well, I did have it for a few minutes today, seeing as how we were setting up our email accounts. What to say about this weekend, what to say...
Ah, Maki-san, my host mother is an English tutor, and her group of tutors had asked for an English theater troupe to come and do a play for the town of Kasugai. So, the group that came was named the White Horse Theater group, and the plays that they put on were both abridged versions of "A Pinch of Salt" and "Romeo and Juliet". There were a lot of kids for the first, seeing as how it's really kind of a fairy tale type thing (though I have no idea who wrote it), but then they all left. I got to help set up behind the scenes with the actors and such, seeing as how we're all native speakers of English (they're real Brits!). In between plays, we went to a Japanese MacDonald's where I tried my first ever Japanese hamburger. It was called tsukimi cheese. Heard of it? I thought not. It's basically a sunny side up egg on top of a burger with cheese and some special sauce that I don't really know what is made out of exactly. But it was good, and relatively cheap.
They went on to play the "Romeo and Juliet" which I warned every Japanese person that I could that it would be difficult, but they really had no idea how difficult the English of the play was until it started, and then mostly everyone zoned out. My host mother actually said that she fell asleep for a minute or so, lawl. But, it was well performed, and I could understand it. Funny that my first Shakespeare with actual british players was seen in Kasugai city in Japan, where there are almost no westerners at all. Seriously, I get stared at all the time because I'm a Caucasian woman living in a little Japanese city.
We went out with the players to a yakiniku restaurant after that, which was described to me as being Korean barbeque. Basically, you order what meat and or vegetables that you want, and then they come and give you this charcoal fire pot to put in the center of your table, and you get the stuff raw and cook it on that. So, being with Englishmen, of course we order the beef smorgasbord, and have tons of beef products to enjoy. There was this one thing that was called minno that they couldn't remember what it was exactly, but it was relatively okay, so when I found out that it was actually cow's stomach, I was surprised, really. I had my first legal drink, which was actually Calpis chu-hai, or this drink that's called Calpis with whiskey and Japanese whiskey in it. It was really good, so for a first legal drink, I chose well.
The next day we went with the English people to Inuyama Castle, which is a national treasure, as it's one of the only standing original castles they have in Japan-so far, no typhoons or earthquakes have knocked it down in the 500 years that it's been sitting on top of that hill in Inuyama, so so far so good. Pictures are of course forthcoming, when I get my camera chord. It's really pretty, with really narrow and steep stairs, and I think we picked the hottest day ever to go there. By the time we got back down the hill, everyone was so hot that Maki-san got us icecream-I got black sesame, which is actually an amazing flavor that I wish we could find in the US. Then we got back to the house, because they had ordered bunk beds for Mei and Ayaka-chan and they were coming that day. I got invited to go with one of the LABO tutors that I'd talked to the night before to "The Magic Flute" opera, but because we wouldn't get back in time, I couldn't go. So, instead, I went to the Japanese grocery store with Maki-san, and learned that just about everything of nutritional value (ie. fruits, vegetables, meat…) costs an arm and a leg here. Seriously, a cantaloupe is like $15, and let's not even go into how expensive milk is. We got back and watched this weird anime that's one of the only things the girls are allowed to watch on TV called "Sazae-san," which is basically like "Family Circus" Japanese style.
The girls are obsessed with the "Journey to the West" story. You know, Son Goku, Sanzo, Hakkai and Gojyo, a la Saiyuki except the original story. I'm going to have to read it sometime, as I can't really hear their audiobooks when they play them in the car. Still, it's got me really wanting to app Hakkai, although I don't know how that would work out, seeing as I don't really have enough internet time for two characters, let alone three. *sigh* Hopefully it'll all work out once classes have started and I've had laptop orientation, which will be next Wednesday by the way.
I got into the level that I wanted to get into for Japanese, so I'm happy about that. Don't have enough credit spots as I would like to, so as of now I'm taking Japanese, Elementary Translation, Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, Japanese Linguistics, and Japanese Arts and Culture. I'd really like to take Calligraphy, but that's going to have to wait until next semester, when I've taken all the linguistics credit classes that I can take, and have time for things like that. Wood block printing sounds like a lot of fun too, so. We'll see.
I have to work up the courage to talk to Maki-san about privacy, though. My room isn't really a real room, because it's connected to the girls' play room via a curtain, so even if I shut the door to my room, they can still get through via the curtain, which I don't really like. I can't do anything about the curtain situation, which is why I'm going to have to ask her to tell them to leave my things alone. Seriously, the first day I got back from orientation, Ayaka (the 6-year-old) had used my camera without asking, and then the other day they started fighting over my ipod and basically played tug of war with it. And Mei brought her friend into my room without asking me if it was okay, and I really don't appreciate that. They play with the sock monkey, and they climb on top of my suit cases in the closet, which could fall over and kill them, by the way, and I'm not really happy with it. I just don't want to come across as saying "please discipline your children" because I know she wouldn't allow it otherwise. (EDIT: Problem solved. Talked to Okaasan, and learned the magic words to get Ayaka to stop.)
In other news, I JUST GOT RICKROLLED BY JAPAN! Seriously, they played the song on the radio while I was on the phone with Sot. LAWL.
Ah, Maki-san, my host mother is an English tutor, and her group of tutors had asked for an English theater troupe to come and do a play for the town of Kasugai. So, the group that came was named the White Horse Theater group, and the plays that they put on were both abridged versions of "A Pinch of Salt" and "Romeo and Juliet". There were a lot of kids for the first, seeing as how it's really kind of a fairy tale type thing (though I have no idea who wrote it), but then they all left. I got to help set up behind the scenes with the actors and such, seeing as how we're all native speakers of English (they're real Brits!). In between plays, we went to a Japanese MacDonald's where I tried my first ever Japanese hamburger. It was called tsukimi cheese. Heard of it? I thought not. It's basically a sunny side up egg on top of a burger with cheese and some special sauce that I don't really know what is made out of exactly. But it was good, and relatively cheap.
They went on to play the "Romeo and Juliet" which I warned every Japanese person that I could that it would be difficult, but they really had no idea how difficult the English of the play was until it started, and then mostly everyone zoned out. My host mother actually said that she fell asleep for a minute or so, lawl. But, it was well performed, and I could understand it. Funny that my first Shakespeare with actual british players was seen in Kasugai city in Japan, where there are almost no westerners at all. Seriously, I get stared at all the time because I'm a Caucasian woman living in a little Japanese city.
We went out with the players to a yakiniku restaurant after that, which was described to me as being Korean barbeque. Basically, you order what meat and or vegetables that you want, and then they come and give you this charcoal fire pot to put in the center of your table, and you get the stuff raw and cook it on that. So, being with Englishmen, of course we order the beef smorgasbord, and have tons of beef products to enjoy. There was this one thing that was called minno that they couldn't remember what it was exactly, but it was relatively okay, so when I found out that it was actually cow's stomach, I was surprised, really. I had my first legal drink, which was actually Calpis chu-hai, or this drink that's called Calpis with whiskey and Japanese whiskey in it. It was really good, so for a first legal drink, I chose well.
The next day we went with the English people to Inuyama Castle, which is a national treasure, as it's one of the only standing original castles they have in Japan-so far, no typhoons or earthquakes have knocked it down in the 500 years that it's been sitting on top of that hill in Inuyama, so so far so good. Pictures are of course forthcoming, when I get my camera chord. It's really pretty, with really narrow and steep stairs, and I think we picked the hottest day ever to go there. By the time we got back down the hill, everyone was so hot that Maki-san got us icecream-I got black sesame, which is actually an amazing flavor that I wish we could find in the US. Then we got back to the house, because they had ordered bunk beds for Mei and Ayaka-chan and they were coming that day. I got invited to go with one of the LABO tutors that I'd talked to the night before to "The Magic Flute" opera, but because we wouldn't get back in time, I couldn't go. So, instead, I went to the Japanese grocery store with Maki-san, and learned that just about everything of nutritional value (ie. fruits, vegetables, meat…) costs an arm and a leg here. Seriously, a cantaloupe is like $15, and let's not even go into how expensive milk is. We got back and watched this weird anime that's one of the only things the girls are allowed to watch on TV called "Sazae-san," which is basically like "Family Circus" Japanese style.
The girls are obsessed with the "Journey to the West" story. You know, Son Goku, Sanzo, Hakkai and Gojyo, a la Saiyuki except the original story. I'm going to have to read it sometime, as I can't really hear their audiobooks when they play them in the car. Still, it's got me really wanting to app Hakkai, although I don't know how that would work out, seeing as I don't really have enough internet time for two characters, let alone three. *sigh* Hopefully it'll all work out once classes have started and I've had laptop orientation, which will be next Wednesday by the way.
I got into the level that I wanted to get into for Japanese, so I'm happy about that. Don't have enough credit spots as I would like to, so as of now I'm taking Japanese, Elementary Translation, Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, Japanese Linguistics, and Japanese Arts and Culture. I'd really like to take Calligraphy, but that's going to have to wait until next semester, when I've taken all the linguistics credit classes that I can take, and have time for things like that. Wood block printing sounds like a lot of fun too, so. We'll see.
I have to work up the courage to talk to Maki-san about privacy, though. My room isn't really a real room, because it's connected to the girls' play room via a curtain, so even if I shut the door to my room, they can still get through via the curtain, which I don't really like. I can't do anything about the curtain situation, which is why I'm going to have to ask her to tell them to leave my things alone. Seriously, the first day I got back from orientation, Ayaka (the 6-year-old) had used my camera without asking, and then the other day they started fighting over my ipod and basically played tug of war with it. And Mei brought her friend into my room without asking me if it was okay, and I really don't appreciate that. They play with the sock monkey, and they climb on top of my suit cases in the closet, which could fall over and kill them, by the way, and I'm not really happy with it. I just don't want to come across as saying "please discipline your children" because I know she wouldn't allow it otherwise. (EDIT: Problem solved. Talked to Okaasan, and learned the magic words to get Ayaka to stop.)
In other news, I JUST GOT RICKROLLED BY JAPAN! Seriously, they played the song on the radio while I was on the phone with Sot. LAWL.