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.