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.