Week 39 & 40 in Japan: Team Shinkan and Yosakoi Festival

       ひさしぶり！Hisashiburi means `long time no see` or `it has been a long time` in Japanese and  so I`m saying it to anybody reading this now :). Week 39 and 40 were cool so Ill tell you a little about them. One cool thing was my football team had a shinkan which is like a welcome party for all the first year new players. So the whole team went to a cool restaurant ate drank and had fun. One interesting thing is that the first year students dont have to pay because it is their welcome party after all. That means everybody else has to dish out a little extra cash. Where we sat at the restaurant was random and I ended up getting the table with most the girls who are the team managers... so lucky right?! Haha but really talking to girls is much easier because young Japanese guys talk so fast and use so much slang that it takes a really high level of Japanese to follow. With girls conversation is usually more simple so for that reason it was nice to get placed where I did. Another thing relating to football is that I had a game against Hirosaki University on June 29th. Hirosaki University is a university in the northern prefecture of Aomori Japan. We won 40-7 if I remember correctly. Also I played well at full back and our inside linebacker got hurt in the last quarter so I got to play defense as well.
       On Saturday the 28th and 29th there was a Yosakoi festival in Akita City. Luckily I was able to go and enjoy it after football practice on the 28th. Yosakoi is a modern dance that is based on a traditional summer dance so it has a super cool fusion of a modern and traditional feeling. A lot of the movements of the dance are traditional and the music is more modern. I had seen Yosakoi various times throughout being in Japan but at the festival there was a lot more of it. As far as the dance performance goes I really cant express enough how energetic it is. The dancing is energetic, their outfits are colorful, the music is great, and the dancers`s expressions is always one that shows they are having a really fantastic time. I have friends in the university Yosakoi club and they are super passionate about it. Even if you are not someone who particularly enjoys watching dance I recommend seeing a Yosakoi dance as one of the top ten things to do in Japan. There are many Yosakoi groups that form at different companies, schools, groups of friends, schools etc. so at the festival there were many different groups that performed. Some with as many as around 60 people and some around 15. Anyways Im sure you can check youtube for some video of the dance but to appreciate everyone dancing together and the energy you have to see it in person!

 Me and the quarterback Koki at the football Shinkan or welcome party.

 I went to my friends rugby game. He plays for a pro team in Japan called the Akita Northern Bullets.

 After the game there was a little party celebrating the win. he gave me a rugby shirt of his from Fiji. The one im close friends with is on the right and his name is Manu (from Fiji).

 I went to the game with a big group of friends but here is a pick of a few of them. me, Ayeon, Teppei, and Hwyeon. The girls are from S. Korea.

 There was a dance event at the university. This a group pick of everybody who danced.

 This is the Yosakoi event. There are often big flags waved like in the picture.

 Some guy had a bunny sitting on his shoulder. it just sat still but was totally real.

Week 37 & 38 in Japan: Kabuki & Shabushabu

       On Saturday June 7th I saw a Kabuki show at the theatre in town. Kabuki is a classical Japanese dance drama theatre show. Kabuki has been around in Japan since the 1600s in Japan so it was definitely a great thing to see in terms of Japanese culture. I was surprised when talking to some of my Japanese friends that almost none of them had seen a Kabuki performance. The majority of the people who were at the show were old Japanese people and some foreigners. Another thing to note about the Kabuki show is that it was all in Japanese with no translation. Not only is there no translation but unless you around a native speakers level at Japanese you likely won't understand a majority of what is going on. I'm at an intermediate level and I went with some friends that were at an advanced level of Japanese but we didn't understand well becase the kind of Japanese the actors use is fairly archaic. One final thing that sticks out about Kabuki is that all the actors are males. Males do the acting of both the woman and man's parts so they wear makeup and talk in high voices and everything. That is the way Kabuki has been and that is how it has stayed. That is definitely one of the things that makes it such a unique theatre show in comparison to theatre arts in other places. I enjoyed the show but it was about 3 hours so it got to be long. Also because I wasn't understanding a lot of what was happening it was a little dull. I knew it wouldn't exactly be action packed when I bought the ticket to go but I wanted to experience it regardless and I'm glad I did.
      Next on June 10th I went to eat Shabushabu with my friends after classes. Shabushabu is thinly sliced meat that you dip in a pot of broth that is around boiling temp. Shabushabu is supposed to be the sound the food makes when you swirl it around in the water. The Japanese language uses a lot of onamonapia like shabushabu. At the restaurant you could order beef or pork which I think is pretty standard, we ordered a lot of both because we got the 2 hour buffet deal. Overall the taste was good but there is not a whole lot of flavor attached to the meat. You swirl it in a broth and then dip it in a sauce but it's not a flavor grenade in your mouth like fried meat can be. Also for people from western countries the meat may be a little pink/raw for your liking even after cooking. My friends probably dip the meat for around half as long as me (maybe around 15 seconds) because they are Japanese and they are worried about eating raw things. Anyways it's not my favorite thing to eat but it was a fun experience and even for the buffet it came to under 20 dollars (although from what I've heard that's an exceptional deal).
      I'm happy I got to share a couple experiences I had with you and stay tuned for my next blog cause I got a lot of fun stuff planned for my summer in Japan :)

 I ended up eating 20 trays of meat. All being either pork or beef. At the point where the picture is taken I ordered I think 8 trays at once because I was eating them real quick.

 My friends with me were Kano, Ebizo, and Hiroto.

 Normally there is a stage set up like a house or boat or something but this scene was a little diferent.

 The theatre was pretty packed. I was on the 2nd floor but I could see well enough. The art on the curtains was pretty awesome.

Week 35 & 36 in Japan: anime trains, class presentation, water festival

       First of all I want to talk about anime trains in Japan. You can sometimes see trains with cool designs of anime characters which is awesome. I saw one on my way to Yurihonjo for my English class. I haven't heard about the anime but it was interesting to see. I think it's cool that in Japan things that easily and usually so simple have something surprising like an anime drawn on it. Just a very small percentage of trains are blessed with something like this but I think it is fun. Something way more common is anime stuff on buses. A decent portion of the buses in Akita city have big paintings from the anime "One Piece" on them. Even the interior of the buses are decorated.
       Next I want to mention that I had a presentation in my multicultural communication class on May 29th. I was in a group with two Koreans Chansu, and Eri, and also a Japanese named Saki. It was a little bit like a science fair where people can move around freely and look at different presentations at their own pace and look at different presentations. The class is all in Japanese so it has been quite a challenge. Each week we usually make groups about a given topic and later that week we have to submit a report on it. This time was a little different because we had to make a poster as a group and do it. The presentation was about whether or not we agreed with using tax money for cell phone reception by building cell phone towers even in remote locations. The topic was kinda lame but it was overall pretty fun. I'll post a little video that somebody in the group made at the end of the blog.
      Lastly there was a water festival in Akita City on June 1st. The festival was all about water and how it is cleaned and different types of water. I took a taste test of four different types of water. One was un-softened tap water, one was softened tap water, one was bottled water, one was some new technology of cleaning water that uses less energy than the others... I think but I can't remember exactly. I got two of them mixed up when I did it but it was fun. I didn't stay at the festival long because I was there by myself and I just happened to be in the area so I checked it out. I just think it is cool how often events go on in the city. Also as usual with this type of thing there were tons of things to do especially if you were a kid around 5 years old.
      You've finished the wordy party of the blog and now you can see the pictures.
      Thanks a lot (^-^)/

 On the 30th I biked to the sea with my friend Shukutei from China. She wanted me to show her the route there so I glady obliged. I'm sort of an explorer so I know the city better than most students (even a lot of Japanese) so people somtimes come to me for this sorta thing.
 From left to right, Saki, Eri, Chansu, and lastly me. This was taken when we were making the poster and eating snacks.

Eri made this short video. I got a little air time at the end :) (Also I see the quality is really bad after I uploaded it to Youtube) meh oh well.

 Water festival

Week 34 in Japan: the best curry shop, baseball game, and free ice cream

For week 34 the first super cool thing was on Wednesday when after work I went with some friends to an awesome curry restaurant. It was my second time there and it didn't disappoint. One great thing about the place other than the obvious which is that the curry is great is that they have the most spicy curry that I know of in existence. There is I'm sure more spicy curry at various places in the universe but this is the most mouth/throat/stomach burning experience that I know of. The second thing that is awesome is that you get to have as much 'Nan' as you want which is the super tasty Indian bread/toast stuff you get with it. The restaurant is called Loc Sumey and it is and Indian curry shop. Also they didn't even pay me to write this.
       On Friday I started teaching again in Yurihonjo city at a kindergarten. Lots of fun and I love the train ride going there and back because it goes right along the ocean for a lot of the trip. After work there before going back to Akita I went with one of the teachers at the school Junko to a coffee place. Again it was my second time at this place and again I want to say that it is the best coffee place... That I know of at least. The place is a super fancy and the coffee is fantastic. The decorations and the cool vibes in the place are partially what make it great. Also the toast and fresh jam or honey is great too. It's a hard place for me to describe but it is awesome and maybe I'll get some pictures. On the way back from Yurihonjo the train was slowed way down because of the strong winds. The train tracks are right along the ocean so it's a great view as you ride but if the wind is strong a lot of times they have to slow the train down. I heard that a couple years ago because of the wind there was a big train crash in the same area because of strong winds so since then they have been very cautious.

       Saturday was actually for me one of my top ten days in Japan so far. Nothing too crazy but it ended up just being really simple and enjoyable. I spent the day with two friends from my part time job Kana, and Hikaru who are both Japanese. Anyways first we took a bus to the baseball stadium in Akita City and saw the Rakuten Eagles against the Seibu Lions. I was rooting for the Eagles because they are Akita's team (along with the rest of Touhoku Japan like Sendai). The Seibu Lions are a team from Saitama which is a city just south of Tokyo. The Lions ended up beating the Eagles 7-0 so that was definitely a dissapointment but still the experience was really fantastic. Being at a baseball game again was truly nostalgic and just an all round good time. One cool thing was that we got free Rakuten Eagles Jereseys when we got there so we were repping our team. Also the crowds in Japan for baseball are so energetic. There are special cheers for each player when they get up to bat. So for example the guy who played shortstop was Fujita, and when he batted people said something like "Fight, Fight, Fujji--ta!". And every single player had there own chant that is created by the fans. Also there were a lot of Seibu Lions fans there and they were the craziest. Runnining around and dancing with big flags and somebody had a trumpet. Soo much team spirit. If you follow baseball you may know Masahiro Tanaka who started playing for the Yankees this year. Tanaka actually came fromt the Eagles so I saw a lot of people with Tanaka jerseys on. Anyways after the game we went to go have dinner at an Italian restaurant my friend had told me about, supposedly it was real Italian food (the friend who told me about it was Italian and she works there). We got there and it was a super nice restaurant where somebody in a suit greets you at the door. Picture us going into the restaurant wearing Rakuten Eagles Jerseys haha. I didn't mind so much but the girls I was with were so embarresed. Turns out we could not eat there because everything was reserved but before we left they gave us free ice cream. Also it wasn't any ordinary ice cream, it was Italian ice cream and was some of the best stuff I've ever had. We each got to pick three flavors, I had Pistachio, Blueberry, and the third kind I can't remember the name of but it was my favorite. It was a really fun thing to have happen to us.. Free ice cream for the win. From there we went to a different Italian restaurant that had a place for us to sit. We had really great food and some good wine too. The girls actually changed out of their jereseys before going to the second place but I was repping the shirt the whole time :). Together we bought a bottle of wine and it was like 2800 yen if I remember right. So just under 30 dollars. It was the most expensive wine I had ever had. Can't say it was delicious but it was certainly noticeably better than some cheap wine I've had before.

I'm behind on blogs but I'm going to try and get more done soon~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I met a dog named Genta outside of the curry restaurant. Golden Retrievers are not so common here so I had to say hi :). If I remember right genta is 12 years old but still full of energy.

 This was a photo sphere I took at the game. I didn't realize photo spheres were so awesome~~

 Another shot of the field.

 People trying to get a look at the players as they head for the bus.

 Hikaru on the left, Kana in the middle and me on the right. I was crying cause the Eagles were losing so badly.

Week 33 in Japan: Freshmen English camp, Japanese Striped Snake

       It seems to me that with it being spring and the weather getting warm the nature of Japan is also coming to life. On my way to school I like to bike down this one way street that isn't super often traveled. I think the street might cut the distance to school slightly but mostly I just like how pretty the route is. When I was biking to school on Wednesday I came to a quick stop when I saw a snake on the road. The snake was a tan-ish color with black stripes going down it the long way. It was about 4 feet long and I found out later by checking online that it is called the "Japanese Striped Snake" and is not dangerous. It was pretty exciting to see the snake though, it was the biggest snake I've ever seen out in the wild. I've actually kinda liked snakes since I was real young so I spent a little time checking this one out and getting a little closer.. it was totally worth being late for class.
       On the weekend starting on Saturday I went to an English camp that was for the freshmen of the International Resources major. The camp was mainly to help the students get used to speaking English and I was invited to join the camp to help out. On my way to the bus I actually met a cool dog. I talked to the dog's owner lady a little bit as we were waiting for the light to change and she said her name was Momo which means peach in Japanese. She was really friendly and so was Momo. I actually see a lot of really cool dogs and want to take pictures of them but I don't want to be annoying so I usually don't. But lately I've been thinking is somebody is out for a walk with their dog they probably won't be bothered by their dog getting attention. Plus I think people love to hear their dog get praised cause everybody thinks their dog is the best dog anyways. Moving on we took buses to a building that was a mix between a hotel and a community center. The room I was in was nicer than the ones the students got so that was cool. I helped out with various activities on Saturday and Sunday and had a great time meeting a lot of new people. The camp was supposed to be for the students to use English only but they ended up speaking strictly Japanese. I guess it kind of couldn't be helped but I tried my best to have people use Engish. For example if somebody said something to me in Japanese I would reply in English. Then in most cases repeat it and rephrase it over and over til they understood. These students are better than average with English but they are still very far from being able to have a normal conversation with. All in all I think everybody had fun and that's most important haha. Also the food was good and although I didn't get paid the cost of everything was covered for me so that was nice.

 Kazuha and I at the camp in front of a stellar painting (see the cows?). I actually knew Kazuha before the camp because she is one of the managers on the football team.

 Here is a picture of the snake. I actually ended up getting pretty close to it. I felt like a super mild version of the crocodile hunter.

Here is Momo and her Master.

 Kind of an awesome dog. That's just the vibe I got.

 Some down time during the camp.

 <---- My Russian friend Sasha. Sunday night there was a fun barbecue outside because the weather was nice. This picture I realize isn't outside but it was from the party.

Week 32 in Japan: Japanese Magician, and Let it Go

      On Tuesday the 29th of April we had class off so lots of people went to enjoy viewing the Cherry Blossom trees one last time, including me. The two clubs i'm in Borderless which is an international club that doesn't really do much of anything usually had a meeting in Senshyu park for hanami. So I started out with the Borderless club and we ate and drank starting at about 12. I ended up leaving that group a little early and at around 4 o clock I joined up with my football team that was once again going to enjoy the Cherry Blossoms and drink together. Since there were lots of people there I actually ran into some other friends later in the night on Tuesday. Shuto, Yuta, Daichi, and Ryouta. Those guys are fun to hang around cause they are sometimes a little crazy. We were doing some sumo matches and climbing trees haha. One last thing about Tuesday that was cool was that there was a magician in the park who I watched. He travels around in the spring time following the blooming of the sakura trees and does his magic shows in places where people view hanami like Senshyu park. So he started in south Japan maybe a month or two ago and he finally made it to Akita. He also said it was his first time ever doing a magic show in Akita. Wednesday I woke up at 6:00am which is of course unusually early for me so I decided to go for a bike ride to McDonalds. I had class at 10:30am and needed to study for a Kanji test so I brought along my stuff and studied at McDonalds. I actually ordered food, ate, and then studied for about an hour. Then because I don't get to eat McDonalds breakfast very often I ordered another meal (a number 8 this time I think) and ate again. I then proceeded to explore around the city on my bike because the weather was great and I was feeling energetic.

      On Friday night I went out with some friends. Lately how it has gone is that me and my friend Sasha who is from Russia go to the dormitories and rally as many people as we can to go hangout or go on some kind of andventure. Friday night we played pool and later on when everybody else disbanded Sasha and I went to Omachi which is the most lively part of town with bars, restaurants, etc open throughout the night. The night we went we were surprised to see lots of police cars. I think I counted a total of eight. It seemed to be that somebody got into a fight or something. We actually saw somebody with blood running down his head in more than one spot. Of course it's not fun to see that somebody got hurt but it was a bit of excitement. We didn't end up drinking more in Omachi because the bars are expensive there and we thought ramen was a better choice :).
      The next day which was the 3rd I had a football game. This time I ended up playing kick offs, and quite a bit as running back. I had a couple good runs and it was a lot of fun but our team lost 0-7. Later that night I went with Sasha and 4 Mongolians; Maral, Temuleen, Dugmur, and Nayaka to karaoke. I think the favorite song for people to sing was the song "Let it Go" from the Disney movie Frozen. I hear that song fairly often so although I've never seen the movie I know it pretty well. That movie is sooo popular in Japan that it is STILL in the movie theatres. Let it go is definitely a song you'll here if somebody is just acting funny or is drunk haha. Then if I join in and they are Japanese friends they are a lot of times aww'd by my pronounciation haha. On Sunday I had football practice at 9am that lasted until around 3pm. It was extra long because we watched all the game footage.
       That's all for this week, thanks for reading~!

 More and more people came throught the performance. Look at how pretty everything is though :).

Week 31 in Japan: Hanami and a movie trailer festival

This past week has been really spectacular especially because I got to experience hanami which means flower viewing for the first time. Hanami is a big part of Japanese culture so it was fun to do it. Before I get to the cherry blossom tree viewing I want to mention what I did on Wednesday. Wednesday I went with Gal, Alina, and Yasuko, who are friends from my part time job to go to a movie trailer festival. Esentially it was at a cool bar and at the place they had a projector set up and they played movie trailers. Just 4 trailers were played and there was somebody who talked about the movie and kinda gave an in depth movie review of it. The movies were Inception, Zoolander, The Return of the Living Dead, Kids, and an old Japanese film that I can't remember the name of. I didn't understand a lot of what they were talking about with the movie reviews but I understood some so it was pretty enjoyable. Plus after they were done there was a couple guys who had a little concert that was pretty fun to watch. It was interesting because the people at the event were all super artsy people. An artistic group of Japanese from the Akita City area I guess.
      On Sunday I had football practice from nine AM til about one thirty. After that I met up with the football team again at 230 and we went to senshyu park to have a big picnic party. Lots of drinks and snacks and fun. Also the positions of the 1st year students were announced. Lots and lots of Japanese people go out to the park with a big tarp, bring food and drinks, and just hangout and enjoy the beautiful trees. It's really something that almost everybody does at least once while the Cherry Blossom trees are blooming. Overall it was a great time. I think we were in the park from about 3pm - 9pm. At night there are a lights so you can still view the sakura trees which is called Yozakura. I took a couple videos during some of the fun on Sunday so I'll cut my expanation short and you can check out the video if you are interested.
     Thanks for reading again this week. I'll post 2 videos this week. One of the videos has captions that I added so be sure to turn them on! Bye!
   

 Hana, Me, Natsuki, and Mari, 3 of the new managers of the football team. This was Sunday night.

 Found this picture from the Movie Trailer Festival on Facebook.

 Picture from Sunday night. So much Pink!

 This is a message for you guys from my friends. Also it has captions you should turn on. They took so long to add (-_-)

 This one doesn't have any captions because they take too long to add, but it's still interesting. The conversation was mainly about eating goldfish. Which Japanese don't do but I was saying I wanted to try it because there was a place you could get some at the festival.

Week 30 in Japan: First taste of Hanami at Sakura Festival, Earthquake info Seminar

      This week the weekdays were pretty standard. Going to class and all that fun stuff. My part time job at the university started this last week so that was fun to get into again. It looks like there is more interest than ever before as far as students coming in to practice English conversation. I'd like to think I'm partially to thank for that haha. On Thursday after class I did a little interview for my friend Richenmin from China. She needed to interview somebody about the weddings in their country. So I answered the best I could various questions about weddings in the USA. I was surprised with how similar a lot of the wedding customs are between the US and China. Like for example the average age is about 21 she said and I think it's about the same in the US. However Japan and South Korea have much higher average ages. The most interesting thing I found about wedding culture in China was that the weddings are basically always in the morning. Anyways after that we went and ate Okinomiyaki which is a delicious food most famous in Osaka Japan. It's already fun talking with Chenmin but I'm trying hangout with her more lately to help her prepare for an important English test she'll take in May called the TOEIC which stands for "Test Of English for International Communication".
       Friday we had Judo class where we began learning the basics of Judo like the stances, falling, and two basic takedowns. I'm enjoying the class more than I thought I would and I'm really looking forward to the next class already. Friday night there was a little party with some international friends as you may have seen some of the pictures on Facebook. Saturday I went to Senshyu Park with my friend Ayeon who is from Korea to see the Sakura trees and also the general festivities going on. There were singers, dancers, lots of good food, games, etc. There was a lot of people in the park to look at the Sakura trees and the trees are actually still far from being fully bloomed. Most of the trees are still not blooming at all but in the next two weeks it will get very pink and very beautiful around Akita Japan. The next couple weeks' blogs should have some good pictures of that. Regardless of the trees not being totally in bloom yet the park was fun and it was a good day.
      On Sunday I was invited to go to a little seminar talking about earthquakes in general and in particular the earthquake that hit Japan in March of 2011. There were around 25 people there and we split into groups and discussed various matters on the earthquake. Each group did a little presentation on what they discussed at the end. I have very little experience with earthquakes but I think I was able to give a different perspective on the matters because of that.
      I have some pictures and a video from seeing the cherry blossom trees but when I went the trees were not blooming fully yet. Next week I'll have some pictures that should include a lot of pink trees. Japan is sooo pretty right now! I love the spring. Anyways thanks for reading~!

 Had some good steak at this shop.

 Some flowers were blossoming!

 This guy is making Hiroshima Yaki.. like a pro.

 There was a giant stump. I had my friend Ayeon stand by it for scale.

 Check out a little video I took at the park on Saturday.

 Two Japanese and a Romanian in my group.

 Just me telling what's up with earthqakes and stuff.

Week 29 in Japan: Spring Semester, Football Game

       Classes started for me here in Japan so that's definitely the biggest news for me over the last week. I'm taking more classes and more challenging classes this sememster. As for the Japanese language classes I'm taking I've moved up to the intermediate level. It's interesting because at this point everything I'm learning about Japanese like new grammar etc. is being taught in Japanese so it makes it kinda difficult but it's working pretty well so far. It makes me feel good about how far I've come in speaking if at this point I don't need English to learn the language. Maybe the most fun class I'm taking this semester is a Judo class that I actually have this afternoon. Judo is a 'modern' martial art that was created in 1882. I don't know much about Judo yet but I know it involves a lot of take downs and not so much kicking and punching like Karate or TaeKwonDo. I joked with my friends about how I spent a short time learning boxing, wrestling, and some time practicing Taekwondo quite some time ago. After learning judo I joked that 'they'll have to register me as a lethal weapon'. I don't think anybody understood that it was a quote from the movie Lethal Weapon but they still laughed. Another funny thing was that on the first day of Judo class we were learning a little bit of basic history and information on Judo. It also had a listing of the techniques, me and my Russian and Romanian friends Sasha (guy) and Sebi (also a guy) were joking about the 'Sacrafice Technique' because it sounded so hardcore. Definitely going to be a fun class learning a little Japanese martial arts.
       Friday night there was a little welcome party for some students from Africa so they had some good food and lots of drinks. Me, Sebi, Sasha, and a few others were already planning to hangout that night so it was fun when we saw that another group planned to have one to so it turned into a bigger party. It has been really fun meeting lots of new international students over the last week or so. What is also fun is meeting my old friends' underclassmen. So I've met some Koreans and some people from Taiwan who are friends with some people I know who already went back to their country. That felt really hard to explain mainly because in English the word 'Kouhai' doesn't have a very good translation. If you knew the word I could have explained it easier I think.
       Saturday there was a short football practice at noon and then preparation for the game afterwards. I went with 3 others Genki, Koki, and Yoshimi to go buy food for the meal after the game. There was a feast of Curry, Yakisoba, and Yakitori. It was interesting because rather than buying rice everyone was just asked to bring a bag that could feed easily two people. So everyone brought a little bag of rice on Sunday. We met at 730am on Sunday to get things prepared for the game. The game started at 1030 and only went for about an hour including half time. Spring isn't exactly football season so I think that had something to do with why the game was only two 20 minute quarters. Very very few people came to watch the football game too. In Japan there just really isn't much interesting in football. Anways it was cool however to see the halftime show which was a Yosakoi dance. I actually had one friend who was on the dance team too. Yosakoi is a traditional Japanese dance but mixed with modern elements too. Honestly probably my favorite type of organized dance. As for the game I just played special teams so during the kick offs. I think there were a total of four kick offs. I hope to play more in the next game but I can understand why I didn't play much. Eveybody else who was played had been on the team almost a full year longer than me and seniority is a big deal in Japan. Plus the game was short so lots of people wanted to play. Anyways we won the game 19-0 (it's an odd score because we missed two field goals). I was lucky that I had 4 friends who came to watch the game and see me. Richenmin, Ka, Hwayeon, and Ayeon came. Also Hwayeon and Ayeon who recently arrived in Japan are from South Korea. They were able to stay after the game to eat and chat with the team.
      Anyways thanks for reading. I'll try and have the next blog on time but I got really busy with classes so I gotta start managing my time well again. Bye!

 I don't have any pictures from the game (maybe i'll get some eventually). This was after the game with most everybody from the team.

 Picture from Friday night. Keeping it real with my friend Ayeon from South Korea. She's friends with Yunseok who you might know I got to be fairly close friends with while she was in Akita.

 Buying lots of food.

 Painted the helmets Saturday to look nice on game day.

Week 28 in Japan: Fixing my bike, hanging with friends, football recruitment

      This last week on Monday I had to go and get my bike fixed because the back tire went flat. The first shop I stopped at said they could fix it for ¥3600 in 1 weeks time. I guess lots of people are getting their bikes foxed now that spring weather is here. Anyways I went down the street to check out a much smaller bike shop where a hunched over old man with great hair had a shop. He said he could fix my bike in 1 hour and he did it for cheaper too. I actually went and did this with my friend Ryouen who is much better at Japanese than me. Even Ryouen didn't understand some of what the guy was saying because he was using the Akita dialect. You could feel fluent in one area of Japan and have a hard time understanding anything in another region. Especially when talking to older people. The really crazy part is that this is true even though Japan is a fairly small country.
      Thursday was a busy day from the morning I had a short football practice then we all went to the university in our football gear and did had a table and handed out flyers promoting the football team. It was a day for all the clubs of the university to kinda get the word out about themselves. It was such a strange feeling to try to get people to join the club when in America only the best players can hope to play college football. Really the opposite here at least for the football team. Anyways I did that for a while but had to leave early because I had my English job at the university to go to. We had a meeting for about 3 hours getting things ready for the semester to start and therefore the part time job starting again too. Things like this with my job are fairly common and are also not paid. I don't really mind not getting paid much at all though because I enjoy it, I like the organization and the people who run it. Finally later that night I met my friend Tomomi and we ate Udon. As far as Japanese girls names Tomomi is definitely one of my favorites haha. Finally later that night some Japanese friends Yuki, Yoshida, Kano, Teppei, and Odaka messaged me they were having a little "Takopa" which basically translates to Octopus party. We made Takoyaki which is a very delicious Japanese food filled with octopus, and it's fun to make too!
      Saturday night I went to a club/bar because a friend of mine named Megumi was DJ that night and it was a special spring event. I didn't really want to go because I don't like to drink much (especially at bars because It's expensive) and I don't like to dance that much (especially around people I don't know) but I did anyways and ended up being glad I did too. I mainly chatted with my only other friend there Wakiko.
      All in all it was a good week. I have a football game on Saturday that I'm super excited about and hope to get to tell you that we get the win. It's an event that I think is held every spring and it's called the Namahage Bowl. We lost it last year but I wasn't there last year ;D. Anyways classes start this week so I'm getting even busier now! Thanks for reading!

 This is just a picture of Takoyaki I got from google because I didn't take one myself. My phone was actually out of commision for a while. Anyways Takoyaki is definitely in my top 5 favorite Japanese foods! Also don't worry about the ocotopus being nasty. It's really not a super abstract taste, just delicous.. I think most people would like it a lot.

 Watching video of our practice after practice and my friend Touno quick drew up who I was supposed to block after we saw me mess up on the video. Touno is a super helpful guy. Really nothing worse than not blocking the right guy and being the cause of a play going bad.

Week 27 in Japan: Chinese cooking, Going Away Party, and Sushi

Had a cool past week in Japan. On Monday the 24th of March I had dinner with 4 Chinese international students Hakusetuhi, Kankyoku, Won, and Chouukin. Also there was another guy from America there named Thomas. Thomas' mom is a teacher in Japan so he's here visiting her for a little while. We made lots of different Chinese food together. We met at 3 to buy groceries for cooking and didn't end up eating until after 7 so it was a lot of cooking. The main thing we made was chinese dumplings which were super good and fun to make too. I wish I had a picture of the food! Maybe I'll get one from somebody who was there eventually and post it in the future. On Tuesday I went to a going away party/birthday party for some friends. One friend Rahul from India went to Tokyo for a research job he got with the company Hitachi. Another guy named David was going back to Canada after teaching in Japan for about a year. Lastly it was my friend Mikan's birthday. On Wednesday the weather was really nice so I went out to take a walk. Just a short ways from the apartment I ran into my friend Shukutei who is from China. We hadn't talked for a while and she said she was going to a big electronics store to look at buying a computer. She then invited me to come along mainly just for fun but she also wanted my advice because she thinks I know a lot about computers. A handful of people think I'm a computer wiz because I fixed a friends computer once a while back. Anyways it was the first time for me to go for a bike ride since winter so that was great. Lots of people bike all through winter and snow but I gave mine a rest. Then came Thursday. First I had football practice from 9am - 1:30 which kinda tired me out but still much was to come. I went to a sushi shop with Rahul, Mikan, Irina who is a student from Romania, and Max who teaches English and is from London. Then we went and watched Rahul play in a pool tournament and played pool ourselves too. A friend named Silard also from Romania joined us at this point. We finished the night by going to a bar called Blues Power House. The bar was super small but really cool. The owner is a really interesting funny older guy who loves music like Bob Dylan and anything blues. He also takes music requests and if it's music from before 2000 he probably has it and maybe even non vinyl. The bar is only big enough for about 8 or 9 people total to sit down and no room for standing either. Anyways it was a fun night to say goodbye to Rahul one last time. Friday I did some shopping for some spring/summer clothes. Then Saturday and Sunday I had football practice. Also Saturday night I got together with my friends Alexander and Sebastien who are from Russia and Romania. They both had been gone for basically the entire spring break so it was fun for us three to finally hangout again.
       That was week 27 everybody! It was a fun week but nothing sooo interesting to blog about :/. Also I'm going to stop going to events and just asking people to send me pictures later because I found they usually don't. Also my phone is temporarily out of comission so maybe not many pictures next week either, I don't know! Anyways thanks for reading.

 Here is a picture of Rahul and I. There are better pictures of us but this is probably the best I have.

 Heres a picture of a few of the football guys in the weight room after practice.

 Usually the only time I take a picture of food is if people take out their phones to take picutres so I feel I might as well. This was a nice spread of sushi. Also that's Max on the left and Mikan on the right.

 Here is the Blues Power House Bar. The bartender climbs over the counter if he has to get out.

 Also I checked out Sega World on Friday.

Week 26 in Japan: Inaniwa Udon, Graduation Party, Cooking Class, and Tea Ceremony

      I feel like I've had a great last week so hopefully this will be interesting to read too. On Wednesday I had a bit of a schedule conflict because I acidentally planned to meet a couple groups of people at the same time. So I went with my two friends Chenmin and Uchii from China to go have dinner and then I was going to go meet up with the football team directly afterwards to have another dinner/drinking. We ended up meeting seeing and talking to the football team near the station and they invited us all to go together to drink and eat. It was a really nice bar/restraunt and the food/drinks were really good. It ended up being very cheap too because the captain of the football team Coki works there as a part time job. After that I actually swung over to a different party that was at the international dormitory. It was kind of a goodbye party for international students who were going back home. I thought this was strange because almost all the students have already gone home who plan on doing so before the next semester. Because of this there were actually no international students who were leaving at the party.
      The next day I met with a friend named Mari who goes to college in Morioka Japan which is like a 3 hour drive from Akita City. I had only met her once before but I actually know her mom fairly well because she goes to an English class I teach. We went and ate Inaniwa Udon which is a special type of Akita Prefecture udon noodle. Inaniwa Udon are much thinner than a regular udon noodle. Udon is a wheat flour noodle and you can eat it hot or cold. What we did was dip it into a little cup of soy sauce, onions, ginger, wasabi. But the cool part is you make the sauce yourself. When they give you your food it is all separate so if you wanted a more simple taste you could just put soy sauce and onions in. It is also best not to put it all in at once so you can adjust the taste throughout the meal. I like hanging out with people like Mari who are from Akita City because they know the best restaurants like the one we went to. Afterwards Mari's mom picked us up and we all three went together to the AEON shopping mall. Then I was invited over for dinner so that was great too. Mari's mom Takiko is a great cook. Also I hungout with her son Yuki. We mainly played the video game Super smash brothers brawl. It is cool because Mari actually likes Pokemon too so we talk about that sometimes too. Also Takiko gave me a bunch of card for learning Kanji that her kids used when they were younger. What better way to learn kanji than using what Japanese kids have used.
       On Saturday I went to the graduation party for Akita University students. This was for real students graduating with degrees, not study abroad students. I found out later that there was a graduation ceremony in the morning before the party but I didn't know about it so I didn't go. I feel like if they are anything like in the USA I saved myself a lot of boredom. Anyways the graduation party started at 12:30 and I would have been on time but decided to take long way to the destination and I ran into a friend who I talked with some. I didn't realize that it was a party where you are supposed to be on time, I thought it was more casual and you could show up whenever. I guess I should have guess this was the case because there was a strict sign up deadline and a 2000 yen entrance fee (not for me though cause I'm an international student(^-^)). There was a place where you could turn in your coat everybody was dressed really nicely. I luckily didn't where my shabbiest garb but I wasn't the best dressed either. Just passable. I was placed at a talbe with me and 10 other girls. 8 Chinese, a Cambodian, and a Mongolian. There was good food, speeches, and beer; I think that's a pretty standard Japanese party. One weird thing at the party was that when they were having graduating students stand up by their major they had us international students stand up too. Another strange thing was that our table was almost in the very front of the room so right with all the important people. Table number 6 out of maybe 25. Plus table six was not just towards the front but also center so that made it a little akward when I came in late.
       On Sunday I taught a cooking class to 8 people. I never thought I would be teaching anything regarding to cooking when I came to Japan. I had only planned on learning. Anyways Kazuko who organizes the English class I teach asked/insisted that I teach a class at the community center. I really didn't want to! haha. On Monday March 17th I had cooked french toast for my English class as a test run for the class on Sunday. It was weird because on Monday when I cooked the french toast it was the first time I've ever actually done it and had it turn out well in my life. In the past it would always be too soggy on the inside. Which I wasn't sure if it was cause the batter was not correct, I soaked the bread too long, the bread was too fresh/soft, or I cooked it with too high of heat. Maybe a combination of those. Anyways I was kinda nervous on Sunday but everything went well. It was really strange because I think they thought I was like a chef or something. When I was telling them that I was truly not a good cook, because of Japanese culture they probably thought I was just being modest. There was lots of other food too that afternoon so it was a great lunch. Also a little while after the lunch we had a tea ceremony. One of the ladies at the class was a tea ceremony lady. There is not a whole lot to the ceremony and no chanting or anything too crazy. It's kinda just making and drinking tea in a really strict way. Like only mix the tea up and down and not in circles for example. Another example is when you are done mixing (up and down) the last thing you do is draw の which is a character from one of the Japanese alphabets into the tea with the mixing tool.
      Those were some of the highlights of my week. I did some other things but I feel like my blogs are too long the way it is. I may or may not be leaving for a big trip across Japan on Saturday this week so I might have a great blog coming up for you! I'm not leaving you in suspense I just haven't decided if I will/can go or not yet. Anyways; stay tuned, thanks for reading, and have a great day!.. Oh and pictures too ;)!

 Here is a picture of some of the room after most of the main eating had taken place and the speeches were done for the time being. In the room was only ceratain graduating students. I'm not exactly sure how they split up the students. I think a lot of the Education major students were in there but I knew 2 people graduating with that major who were not. 

 My good friend Chenmin and I. Usually Japanese girls wear Kimono and guys wear suits when they graduate. We were not wearing anything as cool as that and we also were not graduating but we still took a photo.

 Blurry picture from the table. 

 Jerry Maguire back to the theater.. Yay? I've never seen it..

 Bonus story! It takes place in the Creepy night-time at the Senshu Park! I started writing it here but it's kinda cool so I'll give it its own post in a day or two.