STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 17

DECEMBER 22

While still in Toyohashi, I had a small interview, or briefing session, for a possible job opportunity. It’s a small cram school located near Toyohashi station, but here is the current situation:

1) The new location that they are moving to in March is a bit farther from the station.

2) The new building is actually a one-story house, in which I would be able to live. Classes would be from the evening, so during the day I would have the place to myself.

3) From February I can start working there a couple days a week to build experience until my study abroad is over, and then I can start to work full time.

4) Gathering students and promoting will be necessary.

At this point there are a lot of unknowns, and I have a few concerns, but I think I’ll try the place out for a bit and see how it goes.

DECEMBER 23

Rio and Yuki invited us to join them at the A Cafe for a Christmas gift exchange. It was kind of last minute, but we met them there for lunch. It was the same cafe we always had the English Cafe at; however, we had never tried to the food before. We ordered a large plate of fries for the table, and two dessert pizzas (apple cinnamon). The gift exchange itself was kind of interesting. I brought Nutella, which is more expensive here in Japan. My gift in return (all was drawn from a lottery) was a pen. It’s a good pen though, with red, black and blue ink. It’s also erasable, my favorite part.

DECEMBER 24

Survey class presentations: comparing Christmas and New Year’s celebrations between Japan and our home countries. Everyone was able to do their presentation in a group, except for Totoro and me. The Hawaiian students presented on New Year’s, and also some special traditions they have in Hawaii during that time. I mostly focused on Christmas, since we’ve always had a Christmas gathering at my grandma’s house ever since I was little.

In the same spirit, since today was our last day of school before winter break, I sort of arranged a Christmas potluck during lunch. As usual, more people showed up than I thought would, and one even dressed up as a reindeer. We feasted ourselves on all kinds of snacks and chatted through the whole lunch break. We didn’t even finish all the food in time for the next class, so we had to hurry and throw all the extra food in baggies. I’ve been sharing the leftover goodies with random people all day, so thankfully there’s none left for me to carry home.

DECEMBER 25

Merry Christmas! Let’s go on a road trip!

Mark, Long and I made plans to join Long’s friends on a trip out to Nagashima’s outlet mall. I was looking forward to it because I hoped I could find a lot of discounted clothes and shoes. Not so much. All the stores were top-brand names, so their idea of discounts seemed anything but. I did, however, buy an Adidas hat on sale, and also some gloves and a shirt from the Gap. I guess there were time sales also, but we missed most of them.

(Nagashima’s artistically designed outlet mall.)

It was about 6pm when we left the mall and I assumed we would then return to Nagoya. Again, not so; turns out that our driver and one of the girls were dating and he wanted to take her to see the famous illuminations in Mie Prefecture, Nabana no Sato. I had a hard time enjoying it the second time around, but I did my best for the couple. It was also 2000yen I didn’t plan on spending, so when we put in our money for the rental car and gas, I had to borrow my portion from Long.

At least I got to eat the beef rolls again~

DECEMBER 26

Tonight is the Christmas Party/Winter Break Party that I set up at an izakaya called Nezumi. In preparation for the party, and the 19 people that said they were coming, I stopped at the hyaku-en shop and bought 19 different odd items. Then, I wrapped them and stuck a number on them, which the party attendee would select at random.

We started to gather for the party just after 6pm. Once all the members had arrived I tried to say a short ‘thank you’ speech, but that was overridden, so I just passed out the numbers and let people receive their gifts. It was interesting to see some guys receive pink and purple patterned tissues, while other people received portable ash trays and they didn’t even smoke, or a light for their bicycle, when they don’t have one. As for the menu, at first, it was just an all-you-can-drink deal, but in order to get that deal there must be at least one food order per person. We could have all ordered a 300 yen stick of meat, but in the holiday spirit we ate all kinds of food. In the end, we even managed to keep the bill at less than 3000 yen per person!

When we left Nezumi it was nearly midnight, but I’m not sure if we had to leave because our group was so loud, or if we just decided it was time to go. In any case, we had to take the party to karaoke!

All in all, it was a successful end of the year party. Hopefully, that’s the last one that I have to initiate.

DECEMBER 27

No plans today except to take it easy until Jordan’s party. I headed down to Toyohashi around 4:30, but it felt as though it was already getting pretty dark. This was a special Christmas party because we were having tacos!! Jordan invited one of his coworkers, and her friend, and also another ALT. It was a small, but fun party. And, of course, it’s been so long since I’ve had tacos~~!! I can’t thank him enough for that. Had I known it would have been so much fun, I would have stayed all night to play games. However, tomorrow I plan on playing futsal, so it’s back to Nagoya for me.

DECEMBER 28

I’m still feeling a bit under the weather. It’s not a full blown cold, just fatigue and sinus drainage. I ended up deciding against going to play futsal, which I regret a little because that was the same time that it started to snow: the first snow in Nagoya. Then again, I don’t want it to get colder…

As a side note, I learned that I can roast a sweet potato on my little stove if I wrap it in foil!

STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 16

DECEMBER 15

Chaerim and I went to get our hair cut today. My hair was really short when I first came to Japan, and up until now it’s been growing out, so it’s at a weird, unattractive length. I had to get it reshaped up, so it’s kind of short again, but it’s a lot better than it was before. We also received a discount for booking our appointment early though the Internet so it was only 1600 yen! That is a great price compared to some places which offer only the haircut for 2500 yen or more.

The rest of the day I was doing homework and updating my website. I can’t believe it’s already December!! Where did the time go? I still have over half of Kurokenshin to draw. It’s the last book in the series and I would like to have it done before my birthday!

DECEMBER 16

Last Monday we were supposed to meet with Mrs. Yamamoto’s seminar class again, but they were busy with job application forms. Today, they were still busy with the process, so it doesn’t look as though we’ll be seeing them again this semester. With a free afternoon, the ‘cool kids’ headed to CoCo Ichiban for curry. Level 6 cleared.

I also got locked out of my bank account this morning because I couldn’t remember which number was my ‘secret number’. Fail. This is what happens when you try to use a different number for everything. Now I need to go to the bank tomorrow to clear the issue up.

When the evening rolled around I found myself with a lot of things on my mind. I wasn’t stressed out with anything in particular, but there’s been a lot going on recently. Maybe I’m tired, or maybe just worried about the bank situation. I went for a run to clear my head and ran into Tobias on the way back. I’ve rarely had time to hang out with the German exchange students, so I felt like I still knew nothing about them. We talked for a while, and I found out that when this semester was over, the three German students would continue their studies by doing an internship. That’s great for them, but now it has me thinking. How can I make the most of my time with all these people who are leaving? And, what am I going to do when this is all over? If I’m going to work in Japan, I need to start looking for a job.

DECEMBER 17

I’ve had a fever on and off all morning. I haven’t gone to the bank yet to fix my account, so I haven’t been able to pull out any cash yet. Just going to go home and rest.

DECEMBER 18

I finally cleared up my bank issue. It was as easy as filling out a form and waiting for them to input the information. I won’t forget that number again!

I went to the bank during second period, so I couldn’t go see the English class. My headache cleared up a little bit; no other cold symptoms yet.

Also, on the way home I bought a WAON card. It’s basically a charge card that can be used at Aeon, and its related stores, such as Mini Stop. That will be good to keep around for grocery money.

DECEMBER 19

No English Cafe today I guess. We didn’t receive word that it was canceled, but no one showed up. It wasn’t that big a deal, since we didn’t have any other plans until lunch. The group of AIDAI students who go to Heart n’ Soul Cafe all met to eat at Sukiya in the school cafeteria. The cheese beef bowl is too good; most of us at the table ordered it.

I would have liked to continue to hang out with them, but my body wanted to dance. It had only been a week, but that felt like a long time. I danced for a few hours, until about 5pm, and then I had to call it quits so I could some home and finish my presentation for tomorrow’s culture class. This is my last presentation for the culture class this semester, which is why I volunteered to get to done during the first week of presentations, before winter break. This time we can present on anything we want, traditional or modern. I have chosen to make my presentation about the comedy duo called Downtown. I watched a lot of their skits when I was studying Japanese, so they’ve had a big influence on me. Also, they will have another ‘No Laughing…’ special on New Year’s Even that I want to tell the others about~

DECEMBER 20

…That was not my best presentation.

First of all, AIDAI’s promotional team showed up to get some footage. They were also at dance practice last night, and I had made a point to avoid them. Then they show up to film the first few presentations, including mine. There I was with an oncoming sickness and all of the video links I selected for my presentation were for some reason blocked on the school’s Internet. It was almost as if I was starting from 0. I tried my best to present, but my brain was foggy. It was just embarrassing.

DECEMBER 21

I refuse to be sick!!

Today was HAROMASU, a Halloween and Christmas party organized by the ESS. Despite my runny nose, I went to the party anyway dressed in my Tigger costume. I even bought a pack of face masks from store on the way, only to find out that they were the children size.

The party was fun, but it was lacking in drinks like tea and juice, which I really wanted. We played a lot of games, like bingo and something like telephone, only with drawing pictures. Many people were dressed up, too, so there was a costume contest. I’m not sure how, but I won the “coolest” award at the contest. My table’s team also won one of the games, so we received a huge bag of umai-bo. There was also a prize for winning the costume contest, but I had to leave before they passed it out.

I had made plans to hang out with Jordan in Toyohashi. We ate curry again and then headed back to his apartment to play some games. He had a huge TV set up with his computer. I had never played on that big a screen before, so I was trying out a couple games like Skyrim and Fall Out: New Vegas. Every three months or so I need to either watch a bunch of movies, or play a video game to de-stress; this hangout came just in time for that. Now, I’m feeling more focused.

STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 15

DECEMBER 8

Did nothing today but sleep, homework, and then sleep again.

DECEMBER 9

I mentioned before that the shoes I brought from the States, the black ones that I usually use for dance, have worn out: holes in the soles, and no more cushion. Even so, I still want to wear them a bit longer. That’s why I went to the hyaku-en shop today and bought some cheap shoe inserts. It’s just a simple cushion to line the bottom of my shoes, but it makes up for the lack of any cushion at the balls of me feet. Simple as it may be, it makes a difference. At least I can use these shoes until I find a new pair.

Sadly, today was the last International Cafe of the semester. Though exams are not until mid-January, soon we will have winter break, and once we return from back it will be time to prepare for the examinations. In other words, people will be too busy studying to come and hang out in the cafe. With that in mind, when the Cafe time ended we took the party back to the apartment for a nabe and tenpura party, courtesy of Rachael. I helped her buy groceries on the way home, but not from MaxValu. Instead, she showed me a little shop a block east of MaxValu which sells produce for significantly cheaper than any supermarket. This is because some of these items are bruised, or their sell-by date is approaching soon. That said, I think I might try to shop there for my fruits and veggies from now on.

DECEMBER 10

Yesterday, when I was at the super cheap grocer I saw a bag of mikan (mandarin oranges) for only 550yen. This was a HUGE bag, with at least two dozen mikan. Normally, a bag barely have that size would be about 400 yen or so. However, when I went back there today after class, the bags were all gone! Instead I bought a bunch of bananas, not just five or six, but literally a bunch of bananas for 250 yen. With bananas, sometimes you can get the value bag with three to five bananas for 90-150 yen, and if they ever sell single bananas, they are usually about 60 yen. I have probably a dozen medium-small bananas now, and most of them are perfectly ripe. There was also a pack of apples, two for 100 yen. Apples seem to be generally expensive. A single value apple will still sell at 150 yen, so of course I bought two of these 100 yen double packs.

(Huge bunches of bananas for only 300 yen, the night before I bought them for 250yen!)

Later, during dance practice I felt a bit sluggish. I wasn’t very motivated to go today, but I’m not sure if that’s partially because of the weather or if it’s just a mood. I went anyway and practiced for a bit before it felt like I pulled a muscle in my leg. Not sure why it happened all of a sudden, but maybe I didn’t warm up enough. I was also practicing handstands a bit, so I was stretching the one leg a lot more than usual. Who knows, it doesn’t feel that bad. I’ll just stretch more next time.

DECEMBER 11

Mikan flavored melon pan (a sweet bun that looks like a cantaloupe) is delicious!!! Usually on Wednesdays, Joy and I stop in the Mini Stop to grab a melon pan between first and second period. Today, on my way to school I stopped by Maxvalu and they had mikan flavored melon pan. The top layer is crusted with orange flavorings. It made up for the bag of mikan that I was unable to buy yesterday.

After second period, we all headed to the drama classroom to eat lunch. By chance I ran into Yuya, one of the poppers from BPM. He asked if I was going to Toyohashi tomorrow, and I said ‘Yes’ without really knowing what was going on in Toyohashi. I messaged another one of the members, Gakki, to find out what was going on. It seems as though they are going to have a little party in honor of the seniors who will be graduating in March. In place of usual club activities, the party will go on tomorrow, Thursday night, until morning. I’m looking forward to being able to hang out with BPM again outside of practice. Though I am friendly with a lot of the members, I’ve never hung out with them in such a large group before. I think it’s worth losing sleep over again, haha.

DECEMBER 12

It was an easy-going, event-less morning. No one was practicing in Nagoya that afternoon, so I simply waited until 4pm to meet Gakki. Together, we boarded the Meitetsu train for Toyohashi. She’s told me before that she is going to study abroad in California for the month of March, so I had her practice speaking English with me. Somehow we got on the topic of jokes and humor. I’m not a skilled joke-teller, nor do I know that many jokes off-hand, which made trying to explain American jokes to her interesting. I taught her the ‘Interrupting Squid’ knock-knock joke, which was the extent that my brain could explain. I wish I could have seen us from the other passengers’ point of view, randomly speaking in English and Japanese, and then throwing our hands in each other’s faces.

Once we arrived in Toyohashi, we jumped onto the Atsumi Line (the local train line). It was a few stops out to the nostalgic Aichi Daigaku Mae (in front of Aichi University). My memories of the campus came flooding back to me, nothing had changed, save we were looking at the campus at night.

The party was held in the building across from the student union; the same building that I had looked at with awe as dancers practiced in the studios across from the dining hall. It’s amazing how all these little things are tying together. I never could have imagined standing in those same studios, celebrating our senior members. Half the studio was lined with blue mats to keep the floor clean from eminent spills. There were a variety of snacks, sodas and tea, and some 3% alcoholic drinks, or ‘juice’ in my opinion. The seniors all gave quick little speeches, one by one. One of the seniors gave a long speech that sometimes seemed to be going on tangents. However, as he spoke, our current club leader was crying. That had a big effect on the other members, too. As I listened more carefully, the words and the stories became more meaningful. They had gone through so much together, and whether it was hard or not, they did it together. It doesn’t matter if they are the best, as long as they keep trying.

I am going to keep trying. I wish that now, more than ever, I had come to AIDAI sooner and joined BPM. These people, the upperclassmen, are the same age as me, but I respect them and look up to them as if I really was a new freshman member. From now until March I hope I can get to know them better, and that starts tonight.

The speeches were done, and the party started again. Drinking games continued on into the night. Those of us who didn’t drink found places to dance in the hallways, and in the open half of the studio. Yuta played DJ most of the night, playing off various tracks for the bboys and the poppers. At one point, Koudai and I took over for some karaoke, which gave rise to a whole different party vibe in the studio as others started to request songs to sing. As they sung on, a small group of us went down to the convenient store near the campus for ice cream and snacks. The night pressed on in good spirits, but around 3am many people began to nod off. Those that stayed awake, myself included, played a mystery game called Jinro. Each player assumes a character and each round they try to figure out who is Jinro, or the werewolf. If they can’t guess correctly, the player rolls change and some are killed off. The person who is Jinro doesn’t want to be discovered, so they hide their identity and try to convince other players that they are something else. It was my first time playing the game, and I’m fairly sure that I still don’t know how to play it well.

DECEMBER 13

Last night turned into another all-nighter straight into a Friday morning class. A few of the other students and I caught the first train from the station around 6:30am. A few of the freshmen girls and I ended up on the same train back to Nagoya together. They had brought a change of clothes, so they looked fresh for the day. I, on the other hand, didn’t know what to expect so I was going home in the same clothes. They were still clean, but they smelled a bit like smoke. We arrived in Nagoya around 8am, which meant there was no time to go home and change. Thankfully, I didn’t have to prepare anything for class today, so I went as I was. As per usual, once class was over, it was back home for a nap.

A few weeks ago I made plans with my host sister to go to a sendo, bath house. A sendo, is similar to an onsen (hot spring), but it is of course all man-made and in the city limits. It was going to be my first trip to a public bath house. I’m glad she invited me almost a month in advance, because in a way that gave me time to mentally prepare myself. As someone who grew up in a culture based on modesty, the idea of being naked around other people was nearly incomprehensible.

But, it was just a culture thing, right? It’s a tradition that goes back many centuries. It’s normal. Though that idea itself is interesting because many Japanese people are very aware of their personal space, yet when it comes to hot springs or crowded trains, they meld with the situation.

The sendo we visited was just a few subway stops from Nagoya Station at a place called Higashi Betsuin. From the outside, the location looked like a pachinko parlor, but maybe that was because it was right next to one. The first floor was actually a little cafe restaurant. The second floor was the entrance to the sendo itself. After passing the reception desk, we walked into a large lobby with various entertainment and relaxing stations. One could read manga, or watch TV, or sit in massage chairs; all the luxuries for only 700 yen. From the lobby, there was a grand staircase that led up to the changing rooms, where the women and men would be separated.

Don’t let your face show you’re uncomfortable, or they will notice. That was my mantra for the day. I just went through the motions in my own little bubble of a world. We undressed and put our things in a locker, save for a small towel to cover our privates. Once I realized everyone was just minding their own business, enjoying their own little bubble, and then I started to relax. We tried each bath, from the hot tub, to the sauna, then up to the top floor for an open bath, much like a natural onsen.

After the initial bath experience we changed back into our clothes and went down to the first floor to eat dinner. I became very sleepy. My host sister went back into the baths again, but I was more content to sit in the big pillow chairs and watch TV. I think going from bath, to dinner, to a comfy seat was the most relaxing experience I’ve had in a long time. I could have fallen asleep right there.

The night wasn’t done however. When I finally gathered up the energy and motivation to grab my things from the locker room, my host sister was also done with her rounds of bathing. We went back to Nagoya station and caught the tail end of Open Mic Nite at the Heart n’ Soul Cafe. It was literally the last 10 minutes, but we had the chance to see two wonderful performances and sample the green tea smoothies. My timing is never that great, but hopefully we can go to the next Open Mic Night.

DECEMBER 14

BIG BANG CONCERT!!

Today was my first concert ever! To be honest, I didn’t actually plan on going to a concert, but actually, the sister of a friend of mine invited me a couple months ago. The tickets were a lottery, so I didn’t actually know that we were going until a couple weeks ago. Joy, Rachael, and Chi (one of the German exchange students) are also going, but we will all be in different sections.

The doors to the concert venue would not open until 4pm, but when we arrived at 10am there was already a significant crowd. For those of you who don’t know, BIG BANG is a Korean Pop band. My friend Lynnette would have died to come to this concert and see them live. Since she could not be there, I made a point to get her some merchandise. My friend’s sister, Ai, and her mom who also came, also wanted to buy some of the concert goods so we arrived at the venue at 10am. We thought it was early enough, but it took us two hours in line to reach the merchandise. I bought a sports towel, tote bag and earrings for Lynnette. It was a little expensive in my opinion, but it was the least I could do. The ticket for the concert itself was also 9500 yen.

To my surprise, and relief, I was treated to lunch. The venue, the Nagoya Dome, was right across from an Aeon mall, so we went to a buffet there, and then killed time until the venue opened. We ran into Joy, Rachael, and Chi for a bit, but once we entered the concert hall I was back with my friend’s family. Our seats were a bit far back, but they were just off center, so we had a great view of the concert overall. One of the things that you can only appreciate by going to a live concert in Japan is the crowd’s synchronization. Almost everyone had a light-up wand, made specifically for that’s concert’s performers. As the concert goes on they all bop and wave their wands with the music.

I have mentioned before that I have bad timing, due to their being different rhythms in one area. In this case, while everyone is bopping their wands at a steady 1-2-3-4 pace I had a tendency to follow the flow of the music more, which often varied from the standard. It was fun though and we stood up for the whole concert, which only made me want to dance (not enough room). That was my only unmet hope at the concert, I would have liked to see more dancing in the performances, but I understand that’s harder to do when the music is live. I’m not sure if I would pay for the same giant concert experience, but I can say that I have more respect for BIG BANG’s members now. I know how hard it can be to pull together a performance like that—well, theoretically I know. Just for the whole experience itself, I’m glad I had the chance to go.

STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 14

DECEMBER 1

Dancing at the park today~ woot!

My bike still isn’t repaired yet, so rather than take the subway three stops from Nakamura Kuyakusho Station to Sakae I decided to walk. Each two minute stop is about a 10-15 minute walk, meaning my walk was about 45 minutes long. It was a good warm-up. I was the first to arrive by a long shot.

It was just past noon and it didn’t seem as though the other dancers would arrive until 2pm. I slowly got used to being there by myself and did some stretches. I had just started practicing some footwork that I learned this week when Furipo showed up. Though we practiced separately, I was able to move freely once he arrived. Two people practicing dance isn’t as strange as one strange girl from who knows where trying and failing to break dance.

We continued to practice for a couple more hours when it seemed like no one else would show up at the park to practice. That’s when we decided to take a break and go check out Osu, which was just down the street. Again, I wanted to look at the shoes. My favorite pair of shoes had two giant holes in their soles now, and I hoped to replace them with a similar pair. The Adidas I bought last time were still pretty good, but I was looking for street shoes.

Osu does not disappoint, as with most every shoe store we passed by there was a nice line-up of dance shoes. Usually they were brand names, selling at a discounted price, but even that discount was out of my budget. Furipo suggested we check out Parco, one of the department stores to see if their prices were better. Of course, they were more expensive, but I found a lot more styles that I liked. Maybe one day, if they’re ever on a super sale.

At about 5pm we decided to head back to the park. Somehow, we got flipped around when we left the department store and we walked nearly twenty minutes in the wrong direction before it hit us. By the time we actually got back at the park it was past 6pm. Some other members had started to gather to practice, but at that point I was done. My hole-y shoes did not have enough cushion to be walked around in for over six hours.

I came home, showered, and I am going to bed. If something is going on tonight with the international students, I’m going to miss out.

DECEMBER 2

Nobody went out last night. And, once again, there is no food in my fridge… 1574 yen on groceries.

Before I went home I helped another student who was applying for the study abroad. He had the interview coming up, so he wanted to practice speaking. He also wanted advice on how to answer the tough questions, like ‘Why do you want to study abroad?’ and ‘How will you deal with a problem during your time in another country?’ Basically, I helped him translate what he wanted to say into English. He wants to study at my university as well, so that makes at least two people I know who are trying for Toledo. If only two can go, let it be the ones I helped!

DECEMBER 3

It was a pretty easy school day for me. The second group had their presentations in the morning, so I was able to sit back and relax. During lunch I met with Rika, in part to talk about the upcoming interview. As we were talking, a friend of mine messaged me and asked if I could go to Tokyo that weekend to see the World Dance Competition Finals. I wanted to go, and I even went so far as to look up the bus times, but in the end, it was too short notice. It also would have cost about 3-500 dollars (between the shinkansen ticket, hotel, meals and event ticket). This time I had to pass.

After lunch, it was back to helping people with their English assignments in the library. A couple girls had to write an essay on racism and one of their main points was class separation, for example upper and lower class. I explained that it wasn’t racism, it was simple discrimination. They ended up changing their topic.

Then, it was back to dance! I’m starting to get the hang of these few moves they taught me; slowly, but surely, my balance is improving and I can almost do the ‘baby freeze’ and ‘six step’. Something is a little off with my rhythm, I think. I don’t know if it’s because I’m still slow or if I’m doing it wrong. The others can just whip around like nothing. My body is still too heavy for all that, but I’ll keep trying! One step at a time.

DECEMBER 4

Nothing special about today; we just had regular classes. We are watching a crime drama now called Aibou, Season 5. I could easily watch the episode, if not the whole series in one sitting! Watching chunks at a time is stressful, especially with a crime mystery. Our previous drama was called Legal High, and it was also a sort of mystery, but it had a comedic flavor to it also. This current series’ is much more serious. Not quite as hardcore as Law & order, but comparatively serious.

DECEMBER 5

Today was go, go, go! From class to English Cafe, where I found out my lunch spilled again! To dance practice from 2-5pm; Honami and I started to learn the choreography for a korean pop song called Growl. It’s going to take a while to learn if we only do it between break dance practices. Then I rushed home to take a shower, all the while being bombarded with messages from the other students asking ‘Where are we meeting? What time? Who’s going?’

(Maeda had made our reservations under my name.)

All I knew for the first plan of the night was that we were going to yakiniku with Maeda’s friend, and then maybe Kentaro and Yohei wanted to go out later. They ended up joining the yakiniku party instead, and our numbers somehow jumped from eight to thirteen. We filled up the biggest space they had available at the restaurant, and it was still a little crowded. The meat was great of course, but with the number of people, we had to make multiple orders, multiple times. The bill wasn’t that bad for those of us who weren’t drinking, only about 2000 yen.

The fun continued on to all-night karaoke! Maeda’s friend was actually Chinese, so when he requested some songs that I recognized, I was able to sing with him. Really, I was just backing him up at the parts I knew. I wish I didn’t forget so much Chinese and maybe that I had continued to study it. I still have all my notes back home, I wonder how hard it would be to refresh my memory…

DECEMBER 6

No class today!! Why? Because tomorrow we have our last cultural experience of the semester: Taiko drumming.

After karaoke a lot of us slept in this morning. Despite that, as soon as we woke up, we all ended up going to school to hang out in the library discussion room. It’s our home really; we just sleep and party in our apartments. Actually, the reason we went today was just to kill a few hours. We were invited to a Christmas Party at the Heart n’ Soul Cafe; the cafe was closer to school, so it made sense for us to meet there and walk together, since the other students did not know where it was.

As it happened, the five of us who were going to go initially withered down to two, me and Mark. However, we had a great time there! It was a part of their English Cafe Night series, so many foreigners who lived or worked in Nagoya were at the party. That also meant the food was as close to home as I could get: cookies, cider and my favorite peppermint bark!

Did I mention that the second floor of the cafe also served as a sanctuary for their church? They didn’t meet at the same location every Sunday apparently, but many of those English members also came for church services.

I also made another connection in this small world. One of the girls there was actually from Ohio. Not only that, but her family hosted Takahiro before he started his study abroad program at my university! I should have known she was connected to that circle of events when Rafael introduced her to me. She was one of the people who helped make the peppermint bark, and I was duly grateful for it. It turns out that tomorrow afternoon they are going to have a cake decorating party! How can I pass up that opportunity~

DECEMBER 7

Cake decorating party~~!!! Oh, wait, jumping ahead.

First! Our Saturday morning started early, as most school days would. We met in the arena before 9am to help set up chairs as the taiko group made their own preparations. Most of them were middle school students, but they had been doing taiko for some time. The group itself was also going to appear in a contest this coming Sunday. Given that, when they showed us their act they were flawless.

For two hours, they taught us various patterns in taiko, and different ways they hit the drum to make different sounds. My rhythm is average at best, but when there are other sounds going on at the same time I sometimes have the tendency to join them. Though we were all seriously practicing the routines, the others were able to goof around a bit as well. I did my best to stay focused on the rhythm and hitting the drum correctly. However, as the two hours wore on, the strength in our arms started to wane. By the time the experience was over, we could barely lift our arms.

Those of us who were going to decorate cakes afterward stayed together and at lunch at McDonald’s. It was only my second time while in Japan, so I think I’m doing pretty well at avoiding it. Only because it is something I could easily go to in America. Then, as the strength in our arms slowly returned we headed to the game center back by campus. Purikura, table hockey, and some crazy people like Rachael and Totoro actually played the taiko game. After the first song, they remembered how tired their arms were, so they score went from awesome to my level (aka, not-so-awesome). Jason also hit the jackpot on one of the machines and he won a huge bagful of Black Thunder chocolate. Lucky him~

It was soon time to head to the cafe, so our group split again. Totoro, Rachael, Chi, Margeaux, Marie, Aurianne and I all went to the cafe together. There we met up with Rafael, Haru and other students from AIDAI. I expected the cake decorating would all take place in a calm, organized manner. As you may have already guessed, that was not the case.

First, all the participants were split into teams. My team included myself and the three French girls. We had a 700 yen budget and one fruit (we chose apple from amongst the free options). Then the race began. One and a half hours to gather more ingredients (the cake rounds itself were already provided), rush back to the cafe, and decorate the cake. At first all the groups casually left the cafe, but this is a time trial after all. As if in unity, my group started to run. We sprinted to MaxValu ahead of the other groups, though some started to run as well.

We entered MaxValu with two themes: Christmas colors, and caramel. The apple we received would supply the red, but we needed something green. We were unable to find many green items, but there was a lot of green tea flavored treats. That’s when the idea hit me. I grabbed instant green tea packets and some whip cream, and then we also grabbed a jar of caramel and some cinnamon sugar. We were the first group back, but we still had a lot to do.

Cut and peel the apples (2), mix the green tea with the whip cream (without making a huge mess, our baking supplies were limited so we didn’t even have a bowl), spread the caramel on the first layer of cake, dice up apple pieces to place on top of the caramel, and proceed to the second cake level. As the French girls layered the whip cream and apples I was cutting out “Merry Christmas” from the apple skin. We were so focused on our own cake that we didn’t notice the creations around us until time was up.

All four teams lined up their cakes on the judges table first for a theme presentation. Glancing over the other cakes I saw a towering theme, quite literally, as they were built up with cookies and chocolates to look like Christmas trees. At last minute we made a tiny tree out of apple slices, but in contrast to the chocolates and strong colors of the other cakes ours was simple. At that moment, we wished we had seen what the others were doing, only because they made quite a display. Our focus was flavor. When it came time for us to present our cake the French girls left it in my hands. I tried my best to explain our fusion of Western and Eastern cultures with the use of caramel and green tea, and also the contrast in the sweet and bitter flavors.

Then, it was time for the taste test. Some cakes had troubles being cut because of the cookies or extra layers of candy. Ours too was a little difficult to cleanly cut through because of the apple slices on top. Regardless, each of the four judges sampled the cakes. The Christmas tree cookie cake won for its appearance, but when it came to flavor and the judge’s overall favorite cake, we were shocked to hear we won. I am still a little bit in shock, but I’m glad that we pulled it off. As the winners, we were able to take pieces of cake first. It was the first time I had tried our concoction. Everyone agreed that the green tea flavored whip cream was brilliant. It was delicious! I am ready to make it again!!

(Our winning cake!)

For the rest of the night, we all hung out at the cafe, chatting and playing various party games like Fruit Basket Turnover.