Making Friends
Yesterday started off by me not wanting to wake up and just stay in bed. But I needed to go to school, like always, so I reluctantly got up and got ready for the day. I get to school and we wanted a really funny movie in my first class! It was called "Otaku Fujoshi" if you can find it I recogmnend that you watch it. You should be able to find the subtitles to this movie. It's the most entertaining foreign film I have ever seen. Please watch it when you get the chance.
My next class had a movie too! We are coming to my favorite part of Japanese history, which is the Meiji restoration. Which is when Japan modernized in a little over 20 years which is just amazing. Then guess what happned? we watched a movie about what the instructor just lectured on. It was weird but I like watching movies so i didn't really care.
After classes I had a lunch providided by CIEE. They wanted to check in with us and see how we were fairing in Japan and if we had any suggestions for next year on how to improve the program. We had sushi! They orded the sushi with wasabi on it, and normally I'm ok with it, but they put too much wasabi on the sushi that I had to take it off. It was just too much. But the lunch was really good and I liked it.
Then I went to see a Rakugo performance. That is pretty much stand up comedy but instead of standing up, they are sitting down. He doesn't speak any English, he just memorized his routine in Enligsh. He made mistakes and everytime he made a mistake he told us to laugh. It was really funny. He was very difficult to undestand because his pronunciation was not the best in the world, but even if you couldn't understand him, his expressions were what made it even more funny. It was really impressive. Af this performance, I met a Japanese student and the first thing she says to me when she meets me is to friend her on facebook. She is a really nice friend. We exchanged numbers and have been texting each othe and chatting on Facebook. I was really happy to have met her.
I went home and did lots and lots of reading, by the time I was done I was so tired. It was really late. So I just went to bed.
Today I checked the weather before I left for school and it said that Yotsuya was going to rain and that Kichijoji was going to rain in the evening. So I made sure to bring my umbrella with me. And sure enough, as soon as I started wallking on the streets towards my building, it starts raining. The rain here hates falling down. It likes to come towards you at an angle. So no matter how hard you try, you will alwasy get wet.
After classes, I went to flower arranging and tea ceremony at school. My new friend came too. She sat next to me. We first saw the tea ceremony, it's very complex. It doesn't sound like it would so complex but it has a lot of steps and they have made it very ritualistic. Then we saw flower arranging. It doesn't sound like much, but it's actually a very difficult art form. We were able to do some flower arranging a bit after class, and it was really hard. Watching the guy demonstrate it seemed really easy but when you do it yourself, it's rather difficult. There are all kinds of rules that you need to follow in order to made something look just right. It was fun!
After the flower arranging demonstration and workshop, we were able to be searved green tea by the tea master. We were told how to properly drink the tea given to you by the tea master. It was very informative. Some people found it odd and couldn't take it seriously, but it was enjoyable to me!
A friend and I wanted to go shopping by my hotel for two reasons, I wanted to buy a dress, and my Japanese friend told me that her favorite place to shop is in Kichijoji. Since I lived there I knew where everything was. My friend who came with me, lives in Asagaya. So we spent about 2 hours shopping together and had a lot of fun! I did in fact find my dress and we bought some stockings. The style of stockings that they have here are becoming popular in the US but they are 3 times cheaper to purchase here. So I have been kind of going crazy over buying them. There are so many different kinds that it gets hard to decided on just one!
I went back to my hotel and did some laundry and while doing laundry I read for homework waiting for the clothese to be cleaned. Before we went shopping, we were talking about people who are nice and people who are not nice. The friend I was hanging out with is Chinese. She was telling me how in China, you can tell if a person is nice or not by their face. I told her that with American's that is not the case. You actually have to talk to them before you can know whether someone is nice or not. She asked me who I thought was the nicest guy in our program and I told her it was Grahm. She said that she thought he looked like he was a rude person like a player and I told her to try talking to him some time and she will see that he is a nice person. And right as I said that, Grahm appaears. She tells him we were talking about him being a nice person and he blushed a little and was very happy that we thought of him that way. He asked where we were going and we told him we were going shopping. He opened his mouth to say something but then just laughed. I asked what was funny and he said that he was going to tell us to enjoy ourselves but then he remembered that we were girls and girls always have fun going shopping so he didn't see the point in saying so. We laughed and parted ways and went shopping! Anyway, I am saying this now because while I was sitting in the laundry room reading my history book, he saw me and came in to ask how shopping was and what I had purchased, when I had answered him he left. He really is a nice guy.
I tried my clothes on when I finsihed my reading and laundry and felt Japanese in a way. Almost embarrassed. My husband really lliked it and so did my friend. I just am not use to wearing something so different that it was hard to be ok with it in public. When I tried it on in the store, it was a bit too Japanese. So I talked with the worker in the store and told here that I wanted t buy a dress but it was too Japanese to bring back home. She offered me suggestions and it really helped. JD really likes it, I'm stil unsure how I feel about the sleves of the shirt but we will see what kind of response I get tomorrow then. I hope it's ok.
Anyway, let you know how tomorrow is!
