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.

Week 24 & 25 in Japan: Football, St Patricks Dance

       I took another break from the blog this last week but that'll be the last time I do it. Anyways The first thing I'll talk about is that I joined the American Football team at the university. The team is called the Akita University Ogres. I play Half Back and for defense I'll probably be playing Defensive End. We practice 3 or 4 times a week and practices are about 3 hours long. Football practice is tiring but it's nice to have something to do during spring break. It's a great nostalgic feeling to be playing football again.

       On Tuesday the 11th I went to Round 1 again with my friends Maral and Emily. This was my third time going to Round 1 which is like a rec center where you pay a flat cost and can do tons of stuff all in one building over 6 floors. There is a bus that can take you from the station in Akita to Round 1 which is probably about a half hour walk away. The last bus is at 10pm and we got there a tiny bit late. As we were walking towards the bus maybe 100 yards away the bus left so I ran over to the stop light where I could cut it off. I kinda ran in front of the bus and he luckily stopped and let me on and waited for my friends. The friends I was with were Maral who is from Mongolia and Emily who is from Kenya. I played the drum Taiko game a lot that I've mentioned in the past. I like rhythm games and the drum one is really fun. When all was said and done we left at 6am. There is no bus in the morning so we walked back which isn't so bad, especially if you like morning walks.

       On Saturday the 15th I went to a St. Patricks day dance. The dance is at a club in Akita City and the St Patricks day dance is an especially big even that goes on yearly. It's cool because half of the profits for it go to charity. It was my first time ever going to a club and it was interesting. One of the most surprising things about it was how it was a lot like how I pictured it to be based on movies and what i've heard from people. Usually when you have a pre conception of what something will be like it ends up being completely different and in this case it was a lot like how I thought it would be. That ended up being something very surprising. There were maybe around 100 people there but I'm not too good with estimations. It was kind of a small club but it was very full with people. One reason I had never gone to a club was the cost but the cost at the club was only 1000 yen (about 10 dollars) if you showed your student ID. Plus you got a free drink when you get there. One weird thing about being there was everybody was older than me. I met a number of people there and the youngest one was 25 years old. Also throughout the night I asked 3 different people how old they thought I was when age came up in conversation. All three different times they thought I was 24 years old. Really weird haha. It was a little bit hard to connect with people because of age because age difference in Japan can sometimes be a bigger deal than in the USA. It depends on who you meet but there is definitely a lot more respect for somebody older than you, even if just by a few years. I met a lot of people but I would say I only made one friend while I was there. I talked to a girl because she was wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt. Ninja Turtles are not super popular in Japan and as I was passing I just randomly decided to talk to her. She ended up being really easy to talk to so we talked for quite a while. It was weird when I found out she lives in the same apartment building as me. Then even weirder when I found out she lives on the same floor just 2 rooms down from me haha. Anyways It is interesting to meet lots of people but realize that out of those only a small percent have a chance of being a lasting friend. Kind of sad but true. If nothing else lots of acquaintances made. I actually went to the party with Yasuko who is a good friend from my part time job. I went drinking with Yasuko on Wedneday the 12th and it was a fantastic time. I usually speak with people in Japanese but Yasuko spent a couple years living in Los Angeles so she can speak English well. Since I was able to speak English rather fluently with her I was able to speak my mind and say a lot of things. I can usually say what I want/need in Japanese but speaking with Yaskuko in English made it easy for me to just talk a lot. A combination of her speaking English and her personality I think made us talk about a lot of things that you normally only talk to people you have been friends with for a long time about. It was funny because we talked and drank late into the night and when we were going to go home she said she was going to take a taxi. Then I said we should just hangout until the first train that was at like 520am. The train ticket was less than 2 dollars but the taxi might be around 50 dollars so we hungout/waited around a little extra time til the train came. Anyways I went to the dance with Yasuko, Yukako, Kano, and an Israli named Gal. We actually all went and ate/drank before going to the club. Overall it was a great time. It's strange because for me it is a lot easier to talk to and befriend people older than me so that is kind of what I did/have been doing lately. This coming week the blog will be on time and might have a couple cool things in it. I teach a cooking class this coming Sunday. I'm really not a good cook but I'll be teaching some Japanese how to make French Toast. Which is the most American thing I know how to make within reason. Also I'll be going to my universities graduation ceremony. It is late so I kinda rambled while writing this so congrats if you read all the way to this point. Now I'll post one or two pictues.....

 

Here is a picture of Yukako on the left, me, and then Yasuko. It was lucky this picture turned out as well as it did. The light flashing on my face made this the best out of like 5 pictures taken in rapid succesion.

 Here is a picture I took of Maral on the way back from Round 1 on Tuesday. Theres a picture of us all but I didn't take it..

 Here is a picture from the dance I took of the DJ. Overall they played some cool music. Not just the hits of today so that was nice.