An update to tell you.......I'm going to update.

I know it seems I haven't posted or wrote anything for the last few days (weeks or months actually), but I have been finishing posts in the background to publish at a later date. I just have been so busy and the next week or so I have plenty of time to get this blog up to date. This blog will have around 70 entries (I need to double-check this) when completely updated. I am currently writing a big entry about my first taste into Kyuudo (what my first impressions were anyway) and it was taking up a huge time.

I also went to Hokkaido and South Korea and I have been working on catching up on things and such. This last week will provide the time to work on entries, but I must focus on work and writing my progress report (400 characters min. in Japanese) for the scholarship that I received at Hakuoh from the Japanese government. That's due today, but I've been so busy that I had to wait until today to get it finished.

I now have a micro-stalker-helping social networking account on twitter. It has been added to the side pages.

This is a promise, and not just a "I'm going to say I update, but not" entry. Even if I feel like I can't write something, I am going to try to write it. Now I must get ready to go to school.

Final Days of Classes at Hakuoh:Reflection

Today was the final day of classes at Hakuoh and had all of Iijima-sensei's finals today. The tests in essence were not completely hard at all. They weren't easy however. Iijima spent most of this semester focusing on correct Japanese pronunciation and by the tone someone used in speaking, you had to determine the emotion involved in the question. Obviously, being here for a while, you know when someone is asking you a question as generally in most languages the final part of the sentence in a question is raised. But, the hardest part of those tests where mainly the words with the same pronunciation in dictionary form. The words with the same pronunciation tend to be pretty difficult even in conversation. I heard that people from Tochigi cannot pronounce the difference between words such as 橋　and 箸　both read as hashi (hah-she), but the first means bridge and the second one means chopsticks. Of course, this example is pretty obvious and easy to figure out, you don't eat with a bridge. But, without the Chinese characters, the meaning is the same in the other writing systems in Japanese....and this is one reason translating from Japanese to English is pretty hard, but I'll make a separate entry for that sometime.

Earlier in the week I had to pull out all the mad rushes. I've been skipping a few of the Intercultural Understanding class just to get projects, speeches, and reports due on time. I should really stop hanging out at the International Center or my friends around these times. I was so literally pressed for time that I seemed to half-ass my way in Adachi's paper for Japanese culture class. I wrote about the Japan-America relations following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I originally had an idea for the paper, but as I wrote it (writing in Japanese first, one of a few times I have done only that completely straight) it changed mainly that both sides had these perceptions of each other and that the US tried covering a lot of the information from their own people and the Japanese themselves (at least, until 1952 when a plan went in effect and ended most of the occupation). Alc's online dictionary helped great heaps here.

I also had a speech to do for Takahashi's class. I first made my powerpoint slide, and had a lot of materials and such, but didn't feel like translating the slides nor the pictures (which would involve some photoshopping on a few), so in basically one night (and skipping IC again) I translated the entire thing in a word document to give to the class. Business Japanese is not my forte and once again ALC's dictionary, plus several other dictionaries (to cross check a word I choose to make sure it doesn't have any unintended nuances in Japanese) and was able to finish it. Many in the class were surprised that I was able to do it. I also spoke in a mix of Japanese and English (though, my written Japanese was better than my speaking) trying as much as possible of being understood and speaking as much Japanese as possible.

This semester compared to last semester was better. Sure, there were 4 of us (IUPUI students) last semester, but things outside of the classroom and school were just unneeded and were quite disappointing. The classes were more interesting (probably because I understood a LOT more than I previously did) and I already had tons of friends in many different classes. The classes seemed to fluctuate again between difficult and easy again, but with only two American students, matching Keleih or I's level was a lot easier than last semester with 4 students. After the first semester of it's unbalancedness, I basically treated the classes as Independent study and asked quite often a lot of questions that were slightly off topic of the main class work. I think this worked out for me the best in the end because I couldn't just go off to what was being presented before me.

Thanksgiving

On the 27th, Tomo, Boss, and I went to a Harvest Walk Viking (Well, in Japanese it is viking, but in English is it known as a buffet) for celebrating of the Thanksgiving Dinner.

A little lesson on Japanese Buffets: The amount varies depending on Lunch or Dinner time (same as the US), the word for buffet in Japanese is indeed viking (basically referring to the meal had either before or after a battle with vikings), and the fact that you are TIMED and usually have 90 minutes to eat at the restaurant (very different than the US buffets). Now, the timing is not like they'll be keeping a watch on you and dog you with a stopwatch, but it's more or less that you pay when you leave and the 90 minutes sometimes is just a rule, but it isn't really enforced. Most people though abide by this rule however, as rules are generally followed in public places in Japan.

We had only 45 minutes when we came in before they start putting everything away and closing for the evening so we had to rush and eat as much as we really could. I shot several videos of that night, but I have yet to upload them somewhere on internet. Anyway, we all ate too much (I'd admit I haven't ate that much since I left for Japan), and Tomo said he threw up several times when he got home. But, other than that, it was a fun night up stuffing our faces like Americans do back at home. Of course, it wasn't without the thankfulness part....we all had something to be thankful for--that we didn't eat the same amount of food in the same amount of time ever again after that.



(Between three people we ate this much)

Nasu Revisited

Today Tomo, Rin, Gary, Yuu, and I went to Nasu to visit hots prings (onsen) and go to Nasu-dake (or Mt. Nasu). I previously had been to Nasu once before with Prof. Takahashi and such for Golden Week, but that was a while ago previously.

We stopped along the way to see some Kofun in the natural fields along the road to Nasu. I was surprised because I thought that kofun (or ancient burial mounds) only were in the kofun period in Japan, but this one kofun we went to housed one of the Tokugawa clan members.



(This sign points out the 8th spot found of a kofun)



(This sign explains the largest of the kofuns and the history behind this particular one)



(Tomo pointing out kofuns on the map that lists all the ones in the area)

Next, we went to Ashino Hot Spring (onsen) to take a relaxing bath. Onsen (hot spring in Japanese) are public baths in Japan where men and women (usually seperate, though co-ed springs do exist) get undressed and enjoy several natural cold/warm/hot springs. This particular spring had a sauna too, as I tried it because I previously never been in one, and it was suffocating to the point I couldn't spend more than a few minutes in the sauna at a time.



(Tomo pulling a nana (another friend of ours) in this picture showcasing Ashino onsen)



(This is a picture of the sign of Ashino Onsen).



(This is the guardian spring of Ashino Onsen)

After that, we went to Nasu Kougen. We realized small patches of snow were lying around, so we realized that it must have snowed. Sure enough when got to Nasu-dake, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. It got harder to climb the path near the top of the pathways because of the ice that was on all the paths. Gary and Yuu never have seen snow before so it was very amusing to watch them and we had tons of fun having a snowball fight on the mountain and sliding down the paths.



(A picture of the big Jinzo statues again. People put hats and or clothes on the statues to be respectful. In other places Jinzo represent dead babies/children or aborted fetuses and women whom lost children in childbirth/abortion come and put clothes on the statues.)



(Tomo, Rin, and Gary with snow)



(Each Jinzo statue has a hat)



(It's Gary's first time seeing snow up close)

We later went to a good Italian restaurant for pasta for dinner, another place to sample wine, and then on the way back through Utsunomiya we stopped at Penny Lane and got some bread. Overall it was much more funner this time around as we weren't on some real schedule to go do things on.

Translating

Today I went to Nogi to translate for a world famous violinist named Janos Mote. Mr. Usui and Miller were wanting someone to be able to do it, and considering my background in classical music (I played the viola for 7 years before finally putting it down before I entered college), they were leaning towards me to do the translating.

When I got there I was picked up by Ayaka, the student that was going to be helping me interpret. I already met Janos Mote before, I went with Fumi and Rin to see him and several other musicians perform at the Nogi auditorium a few weeks previously. So, I had no problems talking to him or anything. I found him to be pretty fascinating myself. Even though he was born in Hungry, his English was pretty good and I could easily communicate with him (despite numerous natives saying my English speaking style has changed since being here).

After formalities were over, we soon started the event. He was going to talk a little about himself and answer questions from the audience, then give some violin lessons to several people that shown up. He was concerned about this because he had never taught beginners or near beginner levels lessons before. Then, the translation session began. At first I thought I was going to be translating from Japanese to English for him, but I realized that wasn't what I was doing and I was actually translating from English to Japanese for the rest of the audience listing to him. Luckily there were only maybe 15 or 20 people there, so I wasn't that much pressured to perform, but my main concern was being understood by audience. For the most part, with my lack of knowledge of more vocabulary (I always feel this), I felt I was understood most of the time. When I did have trouble in finding something how to say, I asked Ayaka about it, and most of the time she was able to figure it out unless it was a special expression in English that most non-natives don't know. When questions came, I translated his responses back into Japanese, but sometimes I didn't know how to phrase something properly (even one guy joked he didn't understand me at all, but I think honestly he was kidding anyway). Afterwards, I watched him give lessons to the people that wanted lessons and it was over.

I reinforced something that I learned a while back with Japanese. Sounding foreign is directly translating from your own language into another language, but you have to utilize the target language in order to be best understood. Especially in Japanese, since the language itself isn't too direct and there's often very simpler ways of saying something.



(Ayaka is on the left, her friend Keko is on the right)



(This is after the performance at Nogi. Janos Mote is on the far right.)

Hakuoh Festival!

(Me with some of the cast of "Who Moved My Cheese?")

The Hakuoh Festival this year was from 11/1 to 11/3. I don't know of anyone else (a exchange student anyway) that was as busy as I was during the festival, but it was fun, but exhausting.

My preparations began pretty early for the festival. I recently fully joined ESS, but the other members were already going through the final rehearsals of the play. I originally had nothing to do with the play until one day when I was in the classroom ESS sometimes uses for meetings during lunch, Glenn rushed in and told me that Keita (one of the members that is doing the play) was in the hospital with a sore throat and didn't know if he would get better in time for the play. I would probably be the only person that probably could learn all the lines be the time they would have the play (he asked me on Monday and the first performance was to be on saturday of the following week). He later received a call from Iyo saying that he would be able to do the play, so I wouldn't have to replace him. However, I decided to learn his part anyway just in case something happened to him. I decided to attend most of the ESS practices of the play. Considering that I just entered ESS and the play is the main thing they do during the year, they appreciated any help they could get. I shot several practices for them as the practiced with the real stage the day before the play. I only could attend the Saturday performance though. At the last minute, Glenn decided to cast me and another 4 year that also had arrived the previous day before as extras in one scene, though. I was surprised.



(The entire cast including Glenn from Who Moved My Cheese?)

My other involvement was with a club I seem I have "abandoned", Kyudo. I haven't been to a practice once since I had the training camp in September. I don't know if I am actually busy or just saying I do not want to practice, but I really have let myself down in that department. I should go more often when I do get breaks, but of course because I am behind everyone else I will have to work at my own pace. It seems though in the later part of the semester all there really is to do in the club is go to events and have tests or competitions, which because of my level of ability I couldn't bother myself with going, but I should have went anyway.



(Rin taking a shot at the Kyuudo booth. He's kakkoii "cool" in this picture)

Enough is with the past however, I decided to help my original club I entered when I first came to Hakuoh after running into Mitsue and then the group the day before Friday (a holiday to prepare for the festival). Of course, like with most events Kyudo does it's usually at the break of dawn. Basically the kyudo booth had targets and normal people that came to the booth had a chance to use a real kyudo bow to aim at the targets and win prizes. Of course the shooting style for the customers is vastly different than kyudo (and they are not fully pulling the string either). I actually got to use the bow here too, with a bow and arrow. The tension of course was the lowest setting possible for the bow, but yet in the end it was still kind of hard to do.



(A shot from above the kyuudo booth, taking from the room where the play was taking place)

The last club I was involved with was SAP or Study Abroad Programs at Hakuoh. Tomo told me that they wanted Keleih and my help because we are both exchange students from the US and that they were trying to have a Halloween themed party so, we already have had experience with the holiday. The day before the prepping day I carved a pumpkin for the first time. It was strange to never do it before in the states, but to do it here in Japan were pumpkins of a normal "American" size cost $10 or more. I couldn't think of really any costume, so I bought a mask of the great daibutsu and decided to scare the crap out of people using this mask.



(Look at the tools I was using to carve this thing. Kitchen knives. The black is from the calligraphy pen I accidentally used to make my lines, it made a mess everywhere)



(Gary with the finished carved pumpkin!)



(Hahaha, some people and I at the SAP booth. Yes, I was wearing that hideous mask with my kyuudo uniform)



(I really like this picture of Eiko and Yukari; it is also the only one I have of both, as both normally hate having their pictures taken. But, it was a festival~!)

We made a few parades during the course of a few days, and I have to say it was pretty successful for the group. On the last day, there was a fireworks display from the main baseball field and it was pretty amazing. I felt way too busy during the entire time and I should have also helped the Exchange student's booth, but I decided not to. Mostly because I wouldn't have had as much fun if I was only there and instead of doing other things with other people. Plus, with the American exchange students here at only two, and the other student having no connection with anything with the festival, it's kind of hard to enjoy things when majority of the exchange students would be speaking in their native language.



(The sign that was used by the International Students booth)



(Everyone that was helping cooking at the International Students booth)

The foilage of Nikko.

(A Tree on Chuuzenji-Lake)

Yesterday, Tomo, Rin, Fumi, and I went to Nikko to see the 紅葉　（こうよう）　or the changing of the leaves. We were planning on going to Nasu first to play Disc Golf, but because it rained we probably couldn't have played, so we went ahead to Nikko instead of going to Nasu first.

It was a good thing we didn't stop at Nasu first because on the day we wanted to see the famous Kegon falls, there was some accident up along the famous I-ro-ha road (this road has a certain amount of turns representing good luck I think) and it took us about two and a half hours to get to the top, but after that we had really no problems with the rest of the day.



(A picture of the very long line on I-Ro-Ha rode leading up the mountain.)

We parked near Chuuzenji lake a very famous lake and it was beautiful! The lake with all the trees changing leaves were a very pretty sight! I just wish that cameras had the ability of the human eye because there is no camera around that could have captured the same atmosphere. We goofed around for a while making videos and taking pictures, but on our way to find lunch there were three monkeys on the roof of one of the buildings really close to us! I was surprised because I heard that monkeys are in the area, but I never thought they would be close to human establishment!



(A picture of the lake with the foliage of trees in the background)



(Monkeys!)

We decided to eat at a ramen restaurant and the food was good. More and more am I finding that I am becoming sort of like Brian was to Pan (bread) as I am to Ramen. Ramen is known in the states usually in the form of instant ramen, but real thing is 100 times better. Plus, if you have a cold (which I did at the time) you feel all the better after eating a warm bowl of what is essentially soup and noodles in a bowl. The weather was freaking cold though. Because we spent most of the time near mountains or chuuzenji lake, the wind could be easily felt.



(The road we were on with all the restaurants)

After lunch, we went to Kegon-no-taki (Kegon falls) to see the waterfalls. We picked up some Chestnut ice cream, which I didn't get, but I got to taste it and the taste was interesting. It was like if the ice cream itself was of a peanut like flavor, but the taste was authentic.



(Rin, Fumi, and I at keggon falls)

After that we went to Ryuutou-no-taki (Or dragon's head falls, because the waterfall looks like a dragon's head). I don't really think the waterfall looks like a dragon's head, but it does look a lot like the normal kanji character for ryuu (or dragon). I think that's where the resemblance comes from.



(Dragon's Head falls, in all it's glory)

http://www.japanesetattoo.co.cc/images/Japanese%20tattoo-kanji.jpg

(Compared to the Chinese Character for Dragon)

We wanted to see Toushougu (it would be my second time seeing it), but because it was getting late as the sun was going down and there are no natural lights around the shrine area, it would have been pointless to go to see everything so we made a promise to go back sometime. I dunno if Tomo and Fumi will return before Rin and I have to return, but I am willing to see the place in the winter (which will probably be 10x worse with the coldness, but I bet more beautiful than it was today.