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.
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