Final Days of School

Things are beginning to come to a close. Last Friday was my last day of school here in Japan. Since I realized I didn't do a great job explaining everyday school life here I figured now is as good a time as ever.

After biking to school, Riku and I would park our bikes here. As you can see there are a lot of bikes. Biking to school is the most popular mode of transportation to school.

From the bike parking its a 161 stair climb to get to the school. All students enter through here to get to the genkan.

This is the genkan. As with most Japanese homes, you do not wear you shoes in school. Most students wear specific slippers that I believe are sold to them by the school. However, since my feet were way too big, I wore a pair of Nike slides that I brought from the US.

From the genkan, Riku and I walk to our classroom through the main hall where the above two murals are displayed. The one on top is made of many tiles. On each tile there is a message written by a student, myself included.

This is our classroom. Unlike in American schools, the students in Japan have a homeroom where they stay most of the day while the teachers move from class to class. Also pictured is the AC. The entire school is not air conditioned. Rather, individual classrooms have their own units. Also, these units are only used if it becomes really hot. Most of the time students simply opened the windows.

Every day after a short home room class, the students would clean the school. In Japanese highschools, there are no janitors. Half of my class would clean the classroom while the other half would clean the main hall.

During classes that were deemed too difficult for me to understand, I went to the library. While there I either read low level books in Japanese, or practiced writing Kanji, the Chinese characters that Japan also uses.

After school ends, most students go to clubs. I was no exception. I went to kendo club everyday after school. The above video was taken during parts of the practice deemed too dangerous for a beginner like me. Tomorrow is my last practice with them. While I'll miss everyone at school I'll probably miss my kendo teammates the most. Probably almost as much as my host parents.

Yesterday I went to karaoke with them and it was so much fun. We stayed there for about 5 hours just having a great time. Of all the people I don't want to leave behind, these guys are at the very top of the list.

Fun With the Kyuudo Club

My host brother, Riku is a part of the school's kyuudo club. So, when the club does something, I get invited along. Last Saturday, Riku invited the club over to his house and we all gathered to watch The Exorcist. In all honesty it was my first time watching it.

I'm going to be real and say I thought the movie was hilarious. We watched it in English with Japanese subtitles, so there wasn't an issue of anyone not understanding. Most of the girls were scared and so was Riku. It was a great time though, I made alot of friends in the kyuudo club that day. So, when I was invited to go bowling with them last Monday, I immediately said yes.

My bowling was sub par, but in the past few years I believe that was my 2nd time going bowling so I expected that. After bowling we went to eat at Big Boy's. I was kinda surprised Big Boy's even existed in Japan. However, the menu is very different. In Japan, Big Boy's is a steakhouse. The vast majority of the menu was steak which was a bit expensive. So I ordered my meal off of the sides menu. I had fried squid, fried chicken, and french fries. It was great! After that, Riku, and two other kyuudo members, Sosshi and Itsuki (who I've become good friends with), and I went to a game center. We played some arcade games for a while and took part in a bit of Japanese culture known as Purikara. Purikara is basically a photobooth meant for teenage girls. It takes photos and automatically does makeup, makes eyes bigger, and removes any blemishes. So when guys do it it becomes kinda comical. Some of the pictures can be seen below. In all the pictures, the one on the left is Sosshi and the one on the right is Itsuki.

I made food!

The title says it all. The other night I made takoyaki with my host family and tonight I made okonomiyaki with my host family. Here, I'm going to walk you through the process of what I made.

Takoyaki

This stuff is delicious. Basically it's a ball shaped pancake with octopus and other fillings with a special sauce and Japanese mayo (which tastes very different from American mayo).

The first few steps are simple, prepare the batter and fillings then oil and fill each cup in the pan.

After waiting a few minutes a skewer is used to check if the bottom of each one has hardened. If so, the skewer is used to rotate the bottom to the top to thoroughly cook the entire takoyaki. 

Once cooked sauce, mayo and seaweed is added on top. Looks good huh?

Okonomiyaki

To be honest, the taste of Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki is very similar. They are both basically pancakes with special sauce and mayo. However the differences come in how they are made and what goes inside. For Takoyaki, they are ball shaped and there's always octupus in side. Takoyaki literally means fried octopus. Okonomiyaki on the other hand, is flat and you can put whatever you want in it. Okonomiyaki can be roughly translated to fried "whatever you like". 

In Okonomiyaki, you can put larger fillings on the skillet first before adding the batter. In my case, we added bacon. Because you know, everything's better with bacon.

Next, batter and some smaller fillings are added. In my case, we added shrimp and squid.

From there on out, it's just like cooking any other pancake. When it seems ready, flip it!

Once cooked, the process is exactly the same as takoyaki, add sauce, mayo, and seaweed

The two foods above are my two favorite foods. They really are that good.

Daily Life

I realize its been a while since my last post, so I plan on making this one a big one. I've settled into daily life here in Japan. With school and Kendo after that, I haven't had much free time on weekdays. However, the time I've been spending at school is a ton of fun (compared to American school at least)

School

As I said above, school is a lot of fun. My school operates on a block schedule so every day is somewhat different. Most days have 7 45 minute periods with a 30 minute lunch period between 4th and 5th period. I was surprised to find that my math classes contained subjects that I had already learned back in America. I even taught my host brother a trick for memorizing the sine, cosine and tangent values on the unit circle. In my English classes, my teachers are taking advantage of having a native speaker in class, and often have me read out loud for the class to listen to. I also understand a lot of what's being taught in my biology class as I remember it from GBBE. I'm still very popular among the girls at school. Many of the guys find it amazing that I'm not that popular in the US. To be honest, it's really funny.

Kendo

Kendo meets daily after school until about 6:30. Kendo is relatively unpopular at my school with only 7 people aside from myself. As such, its very easy to become friends with all the members. Most of them don't know very much English, so communication can sometimes be hard. However, we're very patient with each other, so we can figure out what we are trying to talk about. The object of Kendo is simple: land a direct hit on the opponent's helmet, chest plate, or gloves. Doing so earns you a point. The first person to two points, or the person with more points when time runs out wins. I've been learning the basics such as the foot movements and how to properly strike. I've gotten blisters on my feet and hands from the practice, but it's worth it. I have so much fun whenever I'm at Kendo practice. I wore my helmet for the first time today and also got hit on the head for the first time today. I'll be honest, it hurt. However, I'll power through that and continue to have fun.

Food

Food here in Japan is fantastic. Over the past couple weeks I've been here, just about everything I've eaten or drank tasted great. The only exceptions have been asparagus and grapefruit juice and those I didn't like only because I don't like asparagus or grapefruits. Above is a picture of  melon soda. If you ever have an opportunity to drink this stuff, do it. It's great. The third picture down is okonomiyaki. If you ever have an opportunity to eat this stuff, do it. It's great. Seriously though, I think melon soda is now my favorite drink and okonomiyaki is now my favorite food. Yeah, they taste that good. Also pictured below is conveyor belt sushi. Japanese seafood is extremely fresh and also extremely tasty. Everyday for school, my host mother packs me an obento lunch. It is pictured below the cake. Authentic Japanese food is definitely something I'll miss when I return to the US.

Karaoke

The other day, I went to a karaoke place with Riku and a couple guys from the kyuudo club. As you may or may not know, karaoke is a Japanese invention. In Japanese, karaoke means "empty orchestra." Japanese karaoke varies greatly from American karaoke. Whereas in America, karaoke is typically performed in front of a crowd of people you probably don't know, in Japan, karaoke is a much more private activity. You and some friends pay for a room with a karaoke machine and spend time just having fun singing karaoke. I find the Japanese system much more enjoyable as it's not nearly as embarrassing when you screw up on a song among friends compared to when you screw up in front of complete strangers.

Scenery

Japan is a beautiful place. Among the following pictures, the first 5 were taken at attractions within the Tottori Prefecture. However, the rest of them were taken as we were driving or on my bike ride to or from school. I'm not one to usually sit and just look at my surroundings to take in the beauty of them. However, I find myself doing just that here in Japan. Everywhere I go it seems there's something nice to look at.

 

 

 

GeGeGe no Kitaro

If you ever visit Japan's Tottori Prefectue, you will quickly become aware of the existence of Kitaro. GeGeGe no Kitaro is a horror manga written by Shigeru Mizuki, a veteran was born in Tottori. Mizuki lost his arm in an air raid, so Mizuki wrote Kitaro single-handedly. Kitaro stuff is everywhere in Tottori. I became acquainted with Kitaro the moment I got off the plane. The hallway leading from the plane to the baggage claim had Kitaro wallpaper. It turns out Yonago's airport is named "Yonago Kitaro airport." On the road that drives past the airport if you drive a certain speed, grooves on the road literally sing the Kitaro theme song. I saw Kitaro characters on road signs, Kitaro characters in stores, I even saw Kitaro characters in my host family's house! I was intrigued so, before I started school when I had plenty of time to kill, I read Kitaro. I quickly became a fan. So, last weekend we went to Kitaro road. It's exactly what it sounds like. A road completely Kitaro themed. The entire road is studded with bronze statues of Yokai characters from the manga. It's an experience unique to the Tottori Prefecture, and one I'm glad to have taken part in.

 

4th of July

When July 3rd came around, I told my host family about the 4th of July and what most Americans do to celebrate it. Fireworks that is. We went out to get fireworks and on the 4th we set them off. It was a great time. I was able to share a part of American culture while at the same time I was able to see Japanese fireworks. We didn't get anything huge nor did we have to. An interesting example of Japanese fireworks is the octopus sparkler pictured below. It's five sparklers tied together with the outer four attached to the body via springs. Once lit, it will burn through the tie releasing the springy sparklers in a tentacle like wavy fashion. It's really amusing to watch. 

I think that just about does it for tonight, it's almost midnight, and it's been a long day at school so I'm exhausted. I'll try to post again soon!