STUDY ABROAD:WEEK 30

MARCH 23

I went shopping again today. There’s no more time to look around, so I bought a one-piece from GU, some foundation and make-up things at the hyaku-en shop, and finally a belt and bag from the underground shopping mall. Couldn’t find any good shoes, so hopefully what I have is good enough. Tomorrow night is the Send-Off party, and before that is the actual Graduation Ceremony. Mixed feelings~

MARCH 24

The day starts early so I can find my way to the Graduation Hall by 10am. The venue isn’t on campus, probably because there is no large auditorium at the Nagoya campus. The event hall they chose was one stop away from Kanayama, and a couple blocks walk away from the station. I figured out I was going the right way when I was surrounded on all sides by young men in suits, and young women in kimono and hakama. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream, even though we were all headed to the same place.

I arrived at 10am, but the actually ceremony didn’t start for an hour. During that time I was able to greet many of the other seniors that I haven’t seen for months. Of course, I found the BPM members also. Our greetings were brief unfortunately, as everyone seemed to either have family or close friends with them. I simply floated amongst the groups until we were able to enter the auditorium. Then it was the same drag as with all Graduation ceremonies: band introduction, some speeches by teachers and heads of the school, more band music, and finally having representatives from each major receive their diplomas. The individuals didn’t receive their diplomas until afterward, when they were separated into rooms by major.

(Female graduates dressed in kimono as we watched the school band perform.)

As I watched the events go on, I realized that in a way, today was also my graduation ceremony, too. Officially, I wouldn’t graduate from university until the end of the spring semester, which was May back in the States. I wouldn’t be going home for that event, so today was my day, too. The process is the same anyway. Congratulate your friends, hope you can see them again, and then reminisce before returning to real life. For me, real life meant I had to leave the event hall around 2pm so I could go home and get ready for the Send-Off party tonight.

The party was held at a restaurant on the basement floor of a building near the station. If anything, you could say it was a real classy bar. We had the whole place rented out. It was 5000 yen to get in, but part of that money also went to paying for the senior gifts. The graduates weren’t set to come until a little later, so I talked with some of the students from the Toyohashi campus. The food wasn’t brought out until the seniors arrived, so even though it was buffet style, we weren’t able to finish the food.

Each of the seniors in turn gave a small memorial speech, a thank you for the past four years they spent in and out of BPM. Hearing that even some of the amazing members that I respected for their dance pursuit had conflicts over the years, and even considered giving up dancing gave me more inspiration than anything to continue to dance. To somehow make them proud; even if I couldn’t meet them again, I wanted to show that I was grateful somehow. But, despite, even my best intentions, I have to accept the fact that our time together has been too short. We may always be distanced because of that fact. It’s not a culture thing, simply a matter of time.

MARCH 25

Last night after the Send-Off Party ended at the classy bar, we continued the night down in Toyohashi. It was another night of endless drinking for them, and another helpless time for me as I watched over them. I don’t mind if they drink, but over-drinking is a serious problem amongst these university students. I’m tired of watching my friends get sick from drinking. If they weren’t also watching after each other, I think I would condemn the act more harshly. There’s always someone to have their backs, at least for that I am grateful.

I caught the first train back to Nagoya again, which meant I didn’t get home until about 9am or so. Today was Tuesday, so the only plans I made was to go to dance practice. Surprisingly, several people showed up, even though they had been partying late last night.

MARCH 26

Today, I just needed a break from everything. No training this week, which means I’m not leaving my room today. It’s just time for some good ole R n’ R.

MARCH 27

More dance practice today~ I’m starting to worry about how this choreography is going to turn out for the showcase. We’ve made little to no progress on the choreography since last week, and the showcase date is on April 15th. Not only that, but we still have a whole second song that hasn’t been decided yet. I trust they’ll figure it out, but I really wish it was set so we can practice properly.

MARCH 28

Tomorrow there is a BBOY EXPO up in Seto. A couple of the graduated break dancers wanted to get some last minute practice in, but they had already turned in their student IDs so they couldn’t rent out the studio. I wanted to practice some more as well, so I rented the studio for them. There were only four of us, but we had fun time practicing. They even helped me out with new handstand freezes.

Friday is also Open Mic Night at Heart n’ Soul Cafe.

 Rachael has wanted to go for some time, but we couldn’t go in January because I had training, or in February because she was in Korea at the time. We ran into a lot of people who we haven’t seen since the Christmas Cake party back in December. The performances were also amazing, everyone was really talented. I think Rachael should try to perform there once before she leaves because she’s such a good singer! She seems like she wants to sing there, too. Now I just have to figure out how to convince her to do it.

MARCH 29

I woke up a little later than I should have, but I tried to start my adventure to the BBOY EXPO on the right foot. It was my first trip to the city of Seto, so I was careful to memorize the train changes as best I could. Unfortunately, my mind had been too focused on the transfer I needed to take at Ozone, that when I was changing changes at Hisaya-Odori I accidentally exited the station. As soon as I passed through the ticket gate, I felt like I was in the wrong place. Why my brain didn’t comprehend my location faster is a mystery to me. I ended up having to buy another ticket, for about the same amount as the first one, just to catch the Meijo Line train to Ozone. Once boarded that train however, it was smooth sailing.

Usually I try to arrive at an event right before it starts, but when I arrived at the EXPO it was already well into the 1st string. Knowing more people outside of BPM made the overall experience a lot more fun. I was able to cheer on more teams, take videos for people, and exchange casual words with familiar faces. My new friends often asked me, ‘Are you dancing today?’ But I had to say ‘No.’ They are very encouraging; I’m the only thing holding me back.

This time I stayed until the end of the EXPO. Since I went to the event alone I didn’t have to come and go on anyone else’s time. But, at the same time, when it was all over, I was heading home alone as well. I would have liked to hang out with someone, but everyone seemed to have their own plans.

 (The level at this event was incredibly high as well.)

STUDY ABROAD:WEEK 29

MARCH 16

It didn’t seem as though anyone was going to the park to practice today so I went shopping. I was scoping out all the stores in Sakae looking for an appropriate dress of some kind for the Senior’s Send-Off Party. I brought nice clothes when I came to Japan, but those were ‘presentation-worthy’ nice clothes, not formal wear. GU has a lot of dresses to choose from, and their LL size fits me fine. However, the styles are just too cute for me. That and many of the dresses are really short, which is not good for me at all. GAP also had some promising styles, but I ended up buying a pair of jeans instead. The prices were reasonable, to say the least, so if I can’t find anything else, I’ll probably come back next week and choose something.

MARCH 17

More shopping around today; this time I looked a little closer to home at the Meieki Department store above the station. I knew they had plus size shops in there somewhere, but it took me quite some time to figure out how to reach the floor with the advertised large sizes. I did find it eventually, but I was quickly disinterested when I saw the price tags. Everything in those stores was hundreds of dollars, not fifty dollars or so, but hundreds. That was way out of my budget. The shop keepers tried to talk me into things, but I excused myself as gently as I could.

After leaving the department store I headed down to the underground shopping mall. Maybe I would find shoes at least; I had seen shops with large sizes for women, so it was only a matter of price and style. As my luck would have it, there was no glass slipper to satisfy both my budget and my tastes. Four hours of searching only to end up empty-handed once again. Now, I feel like I need to take a break from ‘shopping’ for a while.

MARCH 18

The strain in my back has considerably lessened!! That means I slept well last night. As for today, it was back to dance practice, only this time I was doing some hip hop. With the new semester approaching, it’s time to prepare to invite the new freshmen into our club. The best way to advertise our club is with a showcase of course. I have wanted to do a showcase again for a while now, so when the girls asked me to join their hip hop group I jumped on it. I forgot how aerobic hip hop can be, especially when you are practicing the same routine over and over non-stop. It was a great reminder to myself how fun hip hop is. Break dancing is fun, too, but on a different level. If only I could combine them in real life like I do in my head.

MARCH 19

It doesn’t look like things are going to slow down for a while, so I took a break while I could. Started doing some spring cleaning, but generally I just lazed around until it was time to go to training.

MARCH 20

Practice was so much fun today! We didn’t make much progress with the hip hop choreography yet, since our two leaders are still thinking it out, but we did have practice in the multi-purpose room again. After moving from the small studio (where we were working on the hip hop choreography) back to the practice room, I was shocked at the sudden increase of break dancers.

At first, I didn’t know anyone outside of the BPM members. Some of the faces I was able to recognize from past events, including SOUL BREAK. I found myself a little corner of the room to keep practicing until we moved the practice outside. During a brief break, all the guest dancers gathered in the Mini Stop. I happened to come across them when I bought a cup Ramen, and with one acquaintance at the table, I inserted myself into the group. There was little communication between us until I decided to put my broccoli in my ramen to cook. That started our conversation, and by the end of the night I had seven new break dancing acquaintances, even one BGIRL who I tried to introduce myself to before (but clearly failed to do).

MARCH 21

So…funny story. During training today I was left to run the kid’s class. The teacher gave me a line out print of a flag and instructed me to show the children how to color it. I clearly did not read the instructions. During the coloring, I chose three bright colors that the kids recognized very well: blue, red and yellow. I thought things went well until the teacher came back and gave me a really confused look. She asked me, ‘Why did you color the German flag like this?’ Suddenly, everything made sense, and the words appeared on the page for the directions on which order to color the flag. That’s what I get for assuming this was just another free activity; reading instructions has always been a weakness of mine.

With that slip up against Germany under my belt, I proceeded to go to a party at Chi and Tobias’ new apartment. Their internships were taking place in Nagoya, so they simply moved to a different apartment, closer to the station and International Center. Several of the upperclassmen and international students had gathered, so we had a fun night playing different card games.

MARCH 22

The party-goers slowly went home on their own accord, until it was just me a couple people remaining. Those people soon fell asleep, and then the Germans turned on the soccer match. That meant the party was over, so I headed home at 5:30am and slept until the afternoon. Then it was back for another day of training.

STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 28

MARCH 9

SOUL BREAK!

I started my morning out with a good breakfast, stretching, and mental preparation. For all the good that did. At around 10:45 I went to Nagoya Station to meet with Yusei at 11am. My nerves were calm until literally the clock struck 11am. Then all the nerves hit me like a brick. There was also some miscommunication between Yusei and I; we planned to meet at the Silver Clock, but for some reason he was waiting just outside the station, probably no more than a twenty-feet from me. Once we sorted that out, we headed to Pineapple Studios.

The studio was already full of people when we arrived, so there was little room to warm-up and practice. I greeted other members from BPM, shyly admitting to the fact that I was going to participate in the battle today. Our new co-captain assured me that I would be fine since I was always practicing, but his kind words did little to settle my nerves.

Other things that I had been oblivious to also came to light once the battles started. Yusei and I were the third battle in Group B. As we watched the first battle, I finally internalized the meaning of a 2-move battle. Each member of the team would dance twice… twice! I only planned for one move, and even that was iffy. The level of this competition was also ridiculously high because the teams were competing to battle against BBOY Taisuke. There’s nothing like trying to debut in a place that you don’t belong.

Our turn came quickly. Yusei and I stepped into the circle to face our opponents; I heard encouraging cheers from the BPM members, but I couldn’t feel them. I was too busy trying to face the situation before me. I was resolved; listen to the music, don’t stop, don’t give up. It was a strong mantra, but once the music started, all rational thought went out the window.

Time seemed to pass slowly, but I jumped in first. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but during the move I kept slipping on the floor, and there was just no strength in my arms. It felt like I was just messily rolling about the floor. Then of course, our opponents with the 80s mullets, were quite good. Three more moves passed before I had the chance to mentally come back to the present. It was my move again. I looked at the judge for confirmation, and he gestured for me to start. If the first move was passable, I don’t know what to call the second move. It was mostly the same, since I had nothing else prepared. However, it felt more emotionally taxing, and even though I hadn’t really expected to win the ‘we already lost’ feeling was apparent.

After our defeat, I quietly floated around the room for a while. My brain kept replaying the battle in my head. Eventually, I went outside to take a walk and clear my head. The walk helped. Without deciding whether it went well or not, the fact was that I tried. Part of me wished I could try again, just undo and reattempt the battle with a different perspective. With that personal assurance I headed back to the Studio. The number of people in the studio had increased as the time for BBOY Taisuke’s battle was coming closer. Mark had also come for the same reason.

I had no interest, so I spent a lot of my time wandering around and people watching. Dancing may not be my strong point yet, but making new friends and simply talking to people seems to be. I made a few new acquaintances and enjoyed the rest of the event after all. Just like last time, we headed to Ken’s house afterward for a post-battle hang out. Yusei just got his license, but Zawarun let him drive his stick-shift car to Ken’s place. It started off a bit rocky, but he picked up on it quickly.

During the drive we happened to pass a Burger King near Tsurumai! I had never ever seen one in Japan before, so I assumed there wasn’t any. I’ll have to try to find it again one day.

We hung out, ate sushi, and played cards for a couple hours before I had to catch the subway home. It was around 11pm or so when I arrived back at Nakamura Kuyakusho Station, but rather than going straight home I went for another walk. That’s one of the nice things about my neighborhood; I can just take a walk at 11pm without any problems. It was very peaceful, and with today done I’m ready to move to the next level.

MARCH 10

I cut my hair this morning. I think I over did it, but thankfully I was using thinning sheers, so it was a gradual mistake. Mostly the bangs are too short I think. Oh well, it will grow back.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had the chance to hang out with Akane. Today, we hung out in Anjo and went bowling, and then Jon won these from the arcade. It is Okazaemon, the mascot of Okazaki City.

After all that fun and excitement, I wasn’t too happy about the fact that it was snowing again. There was even a rumor that it might stop the trains from running! All the more reason winter should end. Things seem to still be pretty unfortunate back home— lots of snow, low temperatures, an unrelenting winter. Despite those rumors, the trains proceeded with no problems, and after bowling we met with Jessica and Zi for curry. I can’t believe Jessica’s leaving at the end of the month! We’ve barely had any chances to hang out. Hopefully, we can get one more hang out in before she’s gone, too.

MARCH 11

The soreness lingers on. It’s bearable throughout the day, but it’s starting to get hard to sleep. I’m not even sure what the best approach to relieving it is. I’ve tried taking hot showers, simply relaxing, and stretching it out, but nothing relieves it. For now, I’m just going to go on with my life and keep going to practice.

Speaking of which, the seniors have finally finished coming up with the choreography for their showcase tomorrow. I wish I could go, but I have training down in Gamagori. I probably watched their final practice a dozen times over, and I’m still just in awe of their teamwork and skill level. We’re having a send-off party for them in a couple weeks… say it isn’t so!

MARCH 12

I really don’t want to go to the doctor, but last night I could barely sleep at all because of the strain in my back. I naturally rotate around when I’m sleeping, so getting stuck in one position contrarily upsets my sleep cycle. I also prefer to sleep on my side, but that’s when I feel the strain the most. Oddly enough there is a chiropractor on my way home from school, and I’ve also looked up what sort of doctors are in the area, just in case. But, I really don’t want to go. I just don’t like going to a doctor, period.

In other news, I have committed myself to going to see a HUGE dance event in Tokyo next month: Dance@LIVE. It’s the finals off the competition that have been going on all year long. Remember, I went to watch Dance@RIZE back in September to cheer on BPM? It’s the same competition. I don’t know if anyone from BPM is going, but my friend and I are going to go for the weekend and check it out!

MARCH 13

Dance practice Thursdays! All day from 2pm to 9pm, just trying to improve somehow.

MARCH 14

Today, March 14th, is White Day! It’s the “answer” day to Valentine’s Day, so in this case the men give something back to the women. And, nothing special happened to me whatsoever. Not even some return chocolate from the random people I gave chocolate, too. Of course, I didn’t see anyone today except for the people down in Gamagori. That may not be a bad thing since many of the White Day gifts are white chocolate (not a big fan) or marshmallows, which probably have gelatin so I can’t eat them.

MARCH 15

I had another day of training down in Gamagori. Recently, I have been helping out with the Eiken classes a lot. Part of the reason is because I can quickly understand the answers, without the need of the answer book. Another reason might be because a few of the upper level students have lived abroad, or somehow are at a high level of English recognition, so I can even explain the definition of words to them in English. I try not to use Japanese, but sometimes I catch myself slipping into Japanese because certain things are just easier to say that way. The only problem with working with high-level students is that it’s hard to see if they are progressing when most of the studying is dedicated to learning new words, out of the two-thousand or so that are part of their current level. I have this same problem studying by myself; there are just so many words. If I study, I can remember them, but continuing to study is the challenge. I’m thinking about taking the N2, the second highest level, in the Japanese Proficiency test, in July.

STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 27

MARCH 2

No dance due to “rain”, or rather a lack thereof. Then again, everyone was tired from practicing so much recently that I think we all just needed a break. We’re going to try again tomorrow.

In other news, Joy and the others are back from Korea! I think… I haven’t heard or seen them yet. They weren’t in their rooms, and they haven’t replied to my messages yet, so maybe they’re out somewhere, or in a coma from the trip. Mark was still around, and it had been a long time since we have had the chance to hang out. He didn’t go to Korea, so he came to dance practice a couple times, but mostly he was traveling and hanging out with the other exchange students.

We tried to go eat at the Ramen place near our apartment, but it was closed! It was a huge disappointment. We didn’t want to walk to the station to find a place to eat either, so we just grabbed some food from the convenience store and watched TV in Mark’s room as we caught up with our recent adventures. Even when our conversation ended I stayed to watch TV— the TV in my room has been unplugged for months, one to save energy, and to because I have had no time to watch it. I even missed the overly dramatic commercials. The show that I was watching was called “Homecoming”, and I learned an interesting fact that one in every twenty-eight Japanese people are married to a foreigner. That seems like a lot, but when you consider big cities like Nagoya, or even the heavy Brazilian population around Toyohashi, I guess it makes sense.

MARCH 3

Dance practice today was strangely lonely. For a while it was only me because I showed up a little early. Then Ken and the others were coming late, so it was a solo practice for most of the time. In the end, only three people including myself showed up, and we all seemed kind of drained. After only a couple hours I decided to head home and rest up. Tomorrow I can still practice at AIDAI. The looming battle is also starting to weigh on my mind— I don’t feel like I have accomplished any new moves, my body still feels heavy, and I can’t dance as fluidly as I want to. I don’t want to let Yusei down… I’m all out of ideas at the moment though.

MARCH 4

I almost injured my arm today at practice. Though, I say ‘almost’ injured, but it was more of a scare than anything. I was practicing a freeze on my right arm, without going into a full cartwheel. In order to perform the move, you have to put your body weight over your left side. I have no problem going into the move, but reaching the freeze point is a bit more difficult. After a few warm-ups I was able to reach the full extension of the move, however, I couldn’t hold it so I quickly set my legs back down. It was close, so I thought I’d give it another try and push a little more.

I threw my legs up, over my head and to my left side. Freeze. I held it, but suddenly my arm locked and I just collapsed. It didn’t hurt from the fall, and I didn’t break any bones. If anything it was a muscle spasm in my arm. I couldn’t really lift it right away. It was as if all the strength had left it. Mentally I was panicking a little: if it did turn into an injury, I didn’t want to explain it happened while dancing. I also didn’t want to bother with going to a doctor. We have a very good health insurance plan, which costs us less than 2000 yen a month, and if I did go to the doctor the insurance would cover 80% of the costs. So, no, money wasn’t a problem.

As I walked around the practice area, I checked to see if anyone had noticed my fall. They seemed preoccupied in their own practice, which was both a relief and small disappointment. A few minutes passed and I was able to quite literally shake it off. The feeling was back in my arm, and I could return to normal practice. I just won’t be practicing that move for a while.

Practice ended early for me anyway. Totoro is heading home to Thailand on Thursday, so tonight we’re going to Yamachan for some of its famous tebasaki, chicken wings, for the last time. Junko also came; we haven’t seen her since December, but as it turns out she just started her training session at work this week. Soon, she and the upperclassmen will officially graduate from the university. The German students, Totoro and the Chinese and Taiwanese students who started their program last March will soon be returning to their countries as well. I can’t say I’m looking forward to this change.

MARCH 5

We spent another day out with Totoro and the gang. Of course, we had to eat Naan Curry for lunch. It’s all smiles and joking around the table, as if nothing has or will change. Tomorrow morning I’m going to wake up early to take Totoro to the station before she heads to the airport.

(Our last lunch together: curry and naan bread.)

MARCH 6

I woke up at 6am to help Totoro take all her bags from our apartment to Nagoya station. Yesterday, she had the final check for her room, so she stayed with us in Chambre 72 for the night. I woke up only with the intentions to go to the station, but as we were crossing the subway station with her luggage I just decided to join Joy and go all the way to the airport with her as well. Three other students from AIDAI who are also studying Thai came to see her off as well. Up until it was time for her to go through the security check we hung out in the airport lobby, joking around and taking pictures. She kept on smiling that wide grin, similar to the character she’s nicknamed after. We didn’t see tears from her until she was passing through security and saying her final goodbyes. It was hard to watch her go; slowly, the realization was setting in that we wouldn’t see her around anymore.

The five of us that saw her off grabbed a quick snack and drink from the Starbuck’s in the airport. We talked casually about our studies, and our study abroad programs. It was nice to have the distraction, but at the same time, I wasn’t in a mood to make new friends.

Regardless, we hung out for some time, and then we all started to head back to Nagoya on the same train. Joy and I actually got off a few stops later at Tokoname; since we had traveled all that way, we decided to take the opportunity to try and visit the Costco. Once we got off at the tiny station, we followed the map on Joy’s phone for a few blocks, before arriving at the said location and finding nothing… The map was no help, but we knew beyond a doubt that Costco was there, somewhere. It was a gigantic warehouse store, how could we miss it?

We back-tracked and headed down the main road towards the highway. I remember seeing that Costco was very close to the highway back when Akane’s mother picked me up from the airport. We drove right past it, so I was confident that if we headed toward the highway overpass, we would find Costco. My internal GPS didn’t let us down. Soon we came upon the large parking lot packed with cars outside of the Costco building. All we wanted was a slice of pizza. Now, it’s common knowledge that places like Costco and Sam’s only allow members to enter. However, according to Joy, the Costco in Hawaii has their food court outside, so anyone can by their snacks. We hoped it was the same at this Costco, but it wasn’t so. After trying twice to enter, just to get to the food court, we had no choice but to relinquish our quest and return to Nagoya.

It was hardly past noon when we reached Nagoya station, but by then any motivation was evaporated. Initially, I planned to head down to Toyohashi for the buropa, BPM’s party/event, but it wasn’t going to happen. We ate McDonald’s “crack fries” fur lunch (they’re really called ‘classic fries’, but the first time I read the sign in Japanese I misread it as ‘crack’— the name stuck). Then we spent the rest of the day lazing around Rachael’s room, munching on all kinds of snacks left over from past parties. Then, we ordered pizza from Dominos. That was my first time ordering pizza in Japan, which we did on the Internet. It was really good pizza, but the size was smaller than expected and it was a bit more expensive than in the States.

None of that really mattered. I didn’t care what I ate, or about doing anything. Maybe that was my subconscious way of dealing with Totoro’s absence. It’ only going to happen again, and again, so I need to spend as much time as I can with my friends before we are all pulled back to the reality that exists after this study abroad is over.

MARCH 7

I still don’t have much motivation to do anything, but the show must go on. I actually didn’t make many plans today except for one; dinner at SUSHI-RO. I set up the “event” so that everyone would have a chance to hang out together, catch up and kick back. That was the plan. Are you shaking your head yet? Do you know what’s coming? Yeah, things didn’t go as planned.

What could have been a big gathering withered down to a whopping four people Mark, myself, and two Japanese students, both of whom wanted to practice speaking English. Actually, one of the students has been… very interesting, to put it politely. When he sees either Mark or I on campus he has a tendency to interrupt whatever we are doing, even during conversations, just to say ‘Hi’. He also tends to start conversations, but not finish them and walk away. We receive messages from him in the same manner. I can’t really understand what he’s up to. It was actually more natural speaking to him in Japanese for some reason, so the evening wasn’t completely awkward.

(At 105 yen per plate, it’s easy to go overboard. One of us ate 20 plates!)

MARCH 8

Practice! Gotta practice!! It’s my last chance to accomplish something before the battle tomorrow!

Mark actually joined me at the park for practice. Even though he hasn’t been practicing lately, he, like the other dancers, was quickly able to slip into moves and do hand stands and what not. My only consolation is that he, like the others, has been dancing for years. It’s natural to them. I try to remember that, but I’m still jealous.

My arm/shoulder/upper back is feeling a bit strained. I suspect the muscle is really tight from all the hand stands and shoulder freezes I have been practicing lately. It doesn’t just while I’m actually doing the moves, only when I’m resting… or trying to sleep. I hope it’s gone before the battle tomorrow.

STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 26

FEBRUARY 23

Yesterday, Saturday, my throat started feeling a bit weird. By the time I came home from Gamagori I had a full-on sore throat and a fever. I did not leave my room today. I barely left my bed. I was so tired that I even messaged Mark to ask him to bring me some juice (since once again I had nothing in my fridge). Thankfully, he replied before I pushed myself out of bed to go to the convenience store myself. Apple juice, orange juice, and a veggie mix. I drank juice. I slept. And I continued to sleep for the rest of the night.

FEBRUARY 24~FEBRUARY 28

I woke up on Monday morning feeling significantly better. The head cold has now condensed itself into sinus drainage, which is usually a sign for me that it’s coming to an end.

The Hawaiian students are heading to Korea for a week with Chaerim. They, like most of the other students, are using their spring break to travel around Japan, or visit their families in Korea/Taiwan/China. Of course, traveling to Korea from Japan is really cheap, so it was a good opportunity to go. I had more reasons not to go than I had to go. I wanted to hang out with the others, but at the same time, the only thing I knew about Korea was through Korean Pop, and in that sense, I really just cared about the dances, not necessarily the groups. Also, Chaerim said that most of the dishes over there use pork, and it would be hard to find something that I could eat. But above all that, I wanted to stay in Nagoya so I could get more practice in, more training experience, and more rest. I’m still wiped out from the Hokkaido trip.

I only had to go down to Gamagori once this week, on Wednesday, so I was able to spend as much time as I wanted at dance practice on Tuesday and Thursday. Many of the members are planning for another small event down at the Toyohashi campus. They’re calling it buropa, but they said it doesn’t mean anything. Only the break dancers seemed to be having a normal practice session, which was perfect since that’s exactly what I needed. I also went to the park on Friday and met a new member. He kind of dabbles in various kinds of dance, all of which he’s learned from watching videos. He’s also incredibly springy; he can do back flips, and just about anything if you show it to him. I’m not sure if I’m jealous or simply overwhelmed with the fact that he can just DO things. Okay, I am kind of jealous, but of the fact that he’s willing to challenge things head on. I need that kind of confidence for dance more often.

MARCH 1

Our first month of spring break has passed so quickly! Everyday has been busy with training and dance… Honestly, these last few weeks have been something of an ideal lifestyle. Wake up when I want, dance, go to “work”, repeat. No pressures of homework, presentations or deadlines. I’m living at my own pace, and doing the things I want to do. Who could ask for more?

Today was another great day dedicated to dance. There weren’t that many people at the park, despite it being Saturday, but Ken, Sato and a few other members filtered in over the course of the day. I could have stayed and hung out with them all day, but by 7pm I had no more energy left. I booked it home on my bike and made it just in time to buy groceries from Aoki before it closed at 9pm. This is a small side note, but it was my first time using the public bike-lock meters. I’m always worried that they’ll shut and I won’t have the money on me, so I haven’t used them at all. Today, however, all the other bike parking was full, so I used the public bike-lock right outside the store. It said the first thirty minutes were free, so I hurriedly bought my groceries and was in-and-out with time to spare. Free is good.