2 pictures starting here.
"Nursing school" is for Nurses, not "Nursery school" which is for Kids
So, I met elementary school students, High school students, and today I met some university students that don't really have international students. The school happens to be Eisei Kano Daigaku, which to English was translated as "Akita Hygine and Nursing school". A few things about Eisei Kano, first of all being a nursing school its 99% girls, it has somewhere between 100-200 students, and its located in Yokote city, about 1 hour drive away from AIU. We were actually told that the school was only recently moved to a new building in Yokote (maybe 2 years ago), and actually used to be located in Akita City.
We were invited to come by Naganuma-Sensei, the school's English and international communications professor. After the 10 of us took the 1 hour drive in a mini-bus we were met by the first of two groups. The first group we met were "Senpai", or upperclassmen. The students were extremely outgoing and eager to meet us (the professor actually later told me, that they were more outgoing then usual). The class had less then 20 students by the way. The teacher gave us a format to follow, but we did not stick to it, the high school students could use this format, I had not issue talking for 1 hour and a half to these guys.
We were given a 10 minute break before meeting some of the Junior students for another 1.5 hours. I enjoyed both of my conversations, but..some of the students in the junior group made a more lasting impression on me. The junior group was much bigger with 38 students, in the senior group I was talking to 3 students, here there were 6. What was the conversation? its funny when this happens, you have a great conversation with someone, yet for the life of me can't remember what it was about. Its almost like an adrenalin rush, I know I talked about the countries I went to, and playing the piano, and some other things. Eventually the teacher gave us a board game of sorts, pretty much you rolled a dice and moved our pawns. Each place had a question sort of "Typical breakfast", "Childhood trip", "High School memory". Probably the most interesting one that everyone ended up landing on was "First Love". Well, we all found some silly childhood story to tell about that one, actually one of the girls named Shizuka, told the funniest story that she confessed she loved someone when she was 4, and the guy did not feel the same way. Later she came up with a Kanji spelling for my name, yay! Hopefully I'll figure out how to type it, but its 3 Kanji, Asian-Traveler-Dream.
I ended up giving away two remaining gifts that I brought from the states. Note about Japan, you can never bring enough gifts here. Me and the other AIU international students ended up being waved Good-Bye by a huge crowd of students who looked like they were ready to cry. So, it was great fun, and with the AIU Halloween party tonight it might not be over yet!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Debate
So, I wanted briefly talk about debate class. The teacher, who describes himself as the Debater of Japan, ok, I will post his name as soon as I find it. I can definitely characterize him a little bit, he is a follower of the teachings of the "Book of the Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi, who is considered as the greatest of all Samurai. Our debate is clearly based on those philosophies.
Generally our debates go something like this, we break into 3 groups, the positive side, the negative, and the Judges. Each side has 3 people, a Rock/Air Person, a Fire/Water person and a void person. The void judge is the head judge. According to the teacher's philosophy Air represents logic, Rock represents Fundamentals, Fire represents Emotion, and Water represents the coming of everything together. The void can become any one of these. These are by the way the titles of the 5 Rings in the "Book of the Five Rings". The way the debate goes is the positive side's Air/Rock person makes an "Air" speech based on "facts" as to why their side feels the way it does. The speech is usually about 2 minutes, after wards the other's side "Air/Rock" person cross examines them by asking questions for about 2 minutes. At this point the 'Void' can jump in if someone becomes stuck. After this part, the sides are switched, and the Negative's side's person makes an "Air" speech while the other side's "Rock" cross examines them.
After this is done we have a "Saka debate" or "Free" debate. Where both sides throw arguments at each other, and try to respond to each other's challenges. This is organized somewhat differently from debate to debate based on the Judge's feelings. Afterwards the negative "Fire/Water" person makes a "Fire" speech. The purpose of the "Fire" speech is to sort of put some emotions into your argument rather then facts. The positive side also makes a "Fire" speech. The debate is then concluded by two "Water" speeches. The purpose of the "Water" speech is to calm everyone down, thank their opponents for their good debate and make sure that everyone leaves happy after ward, but each side also re enforces their points.
The judges then make their decisions on who they felt "won" the debate. The "Air/Rock" judge mostly judges the "Air/Rock" person, while the "Fire/Water" person judges the "Fire/water" speeches. The Void judge makes the overall decision and serves as a tie breaker.
Some of the questions we have debates so far include "Bushido (Code of the Samurai) can mix with Christianity", "Beautiful women are more successful in careers then not so beautiful women", and "Barack Obama was more influenced by his Mother then his Father". Debates are usually made with minimal research and are based on personal experience rather then facts, both sides take about 20 minutes to prepare for the debate, we generally do not get to choose what side we are on.
Several things I can, its amazing, what 3 heads put together brain storming can up with with very limited information. Like for today's debate I had to debate against that "Barack Obama was more influenced by his Mother then by his Father". Now, what we did know was that Obama's father left when he was 2, he met him once, and he visited his grave. This was a difficult side to debate, but after some thinking my group came up with a point, that the absence of a father could have been more influential, or rather was the root of Obama's relationship with his mother, therefore making his father more influential by not being there. I don't know if really agree with this, but this argument allowed us to go head to head with a side which seemed to have the better points.
The other interesting thing, is when you start becoming convinced by the arguments that your side is making, at times I disagreed with the judges and felt like "My side won because they convinced me of something I did not agree with before. " So, debating is fun, I don't know what next week's debate is going to be except that it will have something to do with "Jealousy".
Generally our debates go something like this, we break into 3 groups, the positive side, the negative, and the Judges. Each side has 3 people, a Rock/Air Person, a Fire/Water person and a void person. The void judge is the head judge. According to the teacher's philosophy Air represents logic, Rock represents Fundamentals, Fire represents Emotion, and Water represents the coming of everything together. The void can become any one of these. These are by the way the titles of the 5 Rings in the "Book of the Five Rings". The way the debate goes is the positive side's Air/Rock person makes an "Air" speech based on "facts" as to why their side feels the way it does. The speech is usually about 2 minutes, after wards the other's side "Air/Rock" person cross examines them by asking questions for about 2 minutes. At this point the 'Void' can jump in if someone becomes stuck. After this part, the sides are switched, and the Negative's side's person makes an "Air" speech while the other side's "Rock" cross examines them.
After this is done we have a "Saka debate" or "Free" debate. Where both sides throw arguments at each other, and try to respond to each other's challenges. This is organized somewhat differently from debate to debate based on the Judge's feelings. Afterwards the negative "Fire/Water" person makes a "Fire" speech. The purpose of the "Fire" speech is to sort of put some emotions into your argument rather then facts. The positive side also makes a "Fire" speech. The debate is then concluded by two "Water" speeches. The purpose of the "Water" speech is to calm everyone down, thank their opponents for their good debate and make sure that everyone leaves happy after ward, but each side also re enforces their points.
The judges then make their decisions on who they felt "won" the debate. The "Air/Rock" judge mostly judges the "Air/Rock" person, while the "Fire/Water" person judges the "Fire/water" speeches. The Void judge makes the overall decision and serves as a tie breaker.
Some of the questions we have debates so far include "Bushido (Code of the Samurai) can mix with Christianity", "Beautiful women are more successful in careers then not so beautiful women", and "Barack Obama was more influenced by his Mother then his Father". Debates are usually made with minimal research and are based on personal experience rather then facts, both sides take about 20 minutes to prepare for the debate, we generally do not get to choose what side we are on.
Several things I can, its amazing, what 3 heads put together brain storming can up with with very limited information. Like for today's debate I had to debate against that "Barack Obama was more influenced by his Mother then by his Father". Now, what we did know was that Obama's father left when he was 2, he met him once, and he visited his grave. This was a difficult side to debate, but after some thinking my group came up with a point, that the absence of a father could have been more influential, or rather was the root of Obama's relationship with his mother, therefore making his father more influential by not being there. I don't know if really agree with this, but this argument allowed us to go head to head with a side which seemed to have the better points.
The other interesting thing, is when you start becoming convinced by the arguments that your side is making, at times I disagreed with the judges and felt like "My side won because they convinced me of something I did not agree with before. " So, debating is fun, I don't know what next week's debate is going to be except that it will have something to do with "Jealousy".
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Google Analytics
Ok, so a few days ago following the advice of certain people I placed Google Analytics on this blog. For anyone who does not know, Google Analytics pretty much collect information about where the people visit your site from, when they do it. Initially the results were almost boring and uninterestsing, but after a check a few moments ago I couldn't help but but be awed. Japan and the US of course are currently leading as the two countries that I get the most visitors from, interestingly enough I have twice as many visitors from Japan then the US. However, after Japan and the US I got some surprising results. The country in the third place with the most readers after the US and Japan is...Pakistan...yeah, so Salam! Thank you for reading, um, comment if you can, I'd be very interested to learn about you. After Pakistan I have received one visit from the following countries since Google Analytics was put in place: Italy, Ukraine, India, Canada, Russia, and the Philippines. It seems I have a lot of diverse people checking out the blog, its pretty awesome!!
Let's see, With the help of my Japanese debate classmate, Rika, I have proofread and translated my piano entry in Japanese. It was edited and shortened somewhat, I foolishly thought that the editing process would take about half an hour, it took about one hour and a half, and if Rika had more time, it probably could have taken even longer. I will post the Japanese version soon, it needs some tweaking before being posted, and I might place somethings back that were removed in the interest of time.
Let's see, With the help of my Japanese debate classmate, Rika, I have proofread and translated my piano entry in Japanese. It was edited and shortened somewhat, I foolishly thought that the editing process would take about half an hour, it took about one hour and a half, and if Rika had more time, it probably could have taken even longer. I will post the Japanese version soon, it needs some tweaking before being posted, and I might place somethings back that were removed in the interest of time.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Yokobori Elementary School and Yuzawa High School
Pictures are here.
Ok, so today I met with Yokobori Elementary school students and Yuzawa High School students. Both meetings were fairly short and both took place on campus.
The first meeting with the elementary school students went, well I met them in the designated place, they got all excited and started shaking hands with me (Being western). Several of them wore New York Yankee sweat shirts, so they got all excited when I said I'm from New York. Afterward, we had a brief English lessen with them. The international students were broken up into pairs and the students were broken up into groups. The international students were moved from group to group of students playing different games with them. My partner was Haishi from Taiwan, our game was pretty much to put a bunch of flags on the ground and all out country names, the kids would then have to pick the correct flag. Note, I know quite a few flags, surprisingly American was not one of them. After the game, we went to lunch with them in the cafeteria, talking a little bit with the teachers.
My second meeting was with High School students and pretty much just involved talking to them in a classroom. There were 4 groups of 4-5 people. 3 groups of girls and 1 group of guys (Maybe its an Akita thing, but seems women greatly outnumber men here). Oh boy, you poor High school students, what did they do to make you so shy? For the first 2 groups I was alone, I did my best to keep the conversation going, but beyond "What's your favorite food?" things did not seem to go too well. I was hoping that the group of boys would be more outgoing...they were probably the shyest. I tried counting and saying the days of the week in different languages, I think they found it interesting but I can't be sure. About half-way through Sarah from England joined me and I was in a pair, she spoke quite a bit of Japanese so she could translate. I did not take a picture of one of the group of girls. The best conversation ended up being with the last group of girls that turned out to be surprisingly outgoing. We asked a variety of questions about which countries they want to visit, what Manga (Japanese comics) they like, what movies they like. They asked me if I have a girlfriend and what kind of girls do I like (yes, I got checked out by Japanese High School girls, I hope some of the older girls share their interest.) At one point, the boys were merged in the hopes that they would talk, no such luck, me and Sarah pretty much continued talking to the "outgoing girls", we tired to include the boys in the conversation but they just remained stone quiet.
Ok, so today I met with Yokobori Elementary school students and Yuzawa High School students. Both meetings were fairly short and both took place on campus.
The first meeting with the elementary school students went, well I met them in the designated place, they got all excited and started shaking hands with me (Being western). Several of them wore New York Yankee sweat shirts, so they got all excited when I said I'm from New York. Afterward, we had a brief English lessen with them. The international students were broken up into pairs and the students were broken up into groups. The international students were moved from group to group of students playing different games with them. My partner was Haishi from Taiwan, our game was pretty much to put a bunch of flags on the ground and all out country names, the kids would then have to pick the correct flag. Note, I know quite a few flags, surprisingly American was not one of them. After the game, we went to lunch with them in the cafeteria, talking a little bit with the teachers.
My second meeting was with High School students and pretty much just involved talking to them in a classroom. There were 4 groups of 4-5 people. 3 groups of girls and 1 group of guys (Maybe its an Akita thing, but seems women greatly outnumber men here). Oh boy, you poor High school students, what did they do to make you so shy? For the first 2 groups I was alone, I did my best to keep the conversation going, but beyond "What's your favorite food?" things did not seem to go too well. I was hoping that the group of boys would be more outgoing...they were probably the shyest. I tried counting and saying the days of the week in different languages, I think they found it interesting but I can't be sure. About half-way through Sarah from England joined me and I was in a pair, she spoke quite a bit of Japanese so she could translate. I did not take a picture of one of the group of girls. The best conversation ended up being with the last group of girls that turned out to be surprisingly outgoing. We asked a variety of questions about which countries they want to visit, what Manga (Japanese comics) they like, what movies they like. They asked me if I have a girlfriend and what kind of girls do I like (yes, I got checked out by Japanese High School girls, I hope some of the older girls share their interest.) At one point, the boys were merged in the hopes that they would talk, no such luck, me and Sarah pretty much continued talking to the "outgoing girls", we tired to include the boys in the conversation but they just remained stone quiet.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
@#%(@#$%()
Ok, so 2 behaviors that are extremely anti-social and annoying:
1. Having headphones in your ears when you're walking
2. Starring at the ground
Seriously, don't do either of these, if it someone I know, I will seriously just yell your name out next time. Furthermoe, new pictures are up including those of the shrine. What else? What else? What else? I am seriously considering translating this blog into Japanese, it might be my new project, but so far I found myself in a serious lack of motivation. Perhaps I'm just a little tired from all the running I've done over the last 2 month. Which also means I am about half-way through my study abroad, as much as I don't want to come back, in a way I am curious, sure the place I'm coming back to probably didn't change much, but I have, I am curious to notice things that I have not noticed before.
Ok, unorganized entry, I am a little frustrated, let's see: there are 1 out of 6 people on this campus that I really want to see right now!! I am pretty sure 3 of them are not on campus right now...geez, I practically live with them and yet I miss them when I don't see them for too long, ok very random entry, but I guess it happens
1. Having headphones in your ears when you're walking
2. Starring at the ground
Seriously, don't do either of these, if it someone I know, I will seriously just yell your name out next time. Furthermoe, new pictures are up including those of the shrine. What else? What else? What else? I am seriously considering translating this blog into Japanese, it might be my new project, but so far I found myself in a serious lack of motivation. Perhaps I'm just a little tired from all the running I've done over the last 2 month. Which also means I am about half-way through my study abroad, as much as I don't want to come back, in a way I am curious, sure the place I'm coming back to probably didn't change much, but I have, I am curious to notice things that I have not noticed before.
Ok, unorganized entry, I am a little frustrated, let's see: there are 1 out of 6 people on this campus that I really want to see right now!! I am pretty sure 3 of them are not on campus right now...geez, I practically live with them and yet I miss them when I don't see them for too long, ok very random entry, but I guess it happens
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Rice Shrine
Ok, I would have posted pictures of this place, but blogspot was down and I am no longer in my room to upload them. I will do so later, anyway about a 30 minute walk a way from the school there is a shrine, while I've taken pictures of other shrines especially at the last bus trip this one is nothing like them. First of all, it stands alone on a hill, in the middle of the rice fields. There are no shrines around it, and almost no people.
If there was any time I would believe in a supernatural presnece, this would definitely have to be it. The first time I went to this place was at night...it was very scary and very ovewhelming, quite a few people that I talked to have agreed with this evaluation. Last time I went there, while I was taking pictures, a wind started blowing "into" the shrine...could shrines be positioned in such a way so that the wind blows into them? I don't know, but I decided not to try its patience. My pictures are only of the entrance, I did not dare taking pictures of the inside. I will try to use words to describe the place.
You can see it in the pictures, there are two gates that you go through, after the gates you reach the hill with the stairs going up. Once you reach the hill, this is where the actual shrine is, one thing to keep in mind is that there is no building here to enter, it is outside. The entrance is guarded by two stone lions, anyone entering will be starred by both of them very directly. There is a walk way forward towards, with pillars at each side. If one hasn't been in as shrine, its hard to describe the end of the walkway, its sort of a "house" that you bow to, to pray.
If there was any time I would believe in a supernatural presnece, this would definitely have to be it. The first time I went to this place was at night...it was very scary and very ovewhelming, quite a few people that I talked to have agreed with this evaluation. Last time I went there, while I was taking pictures, a wind started blowing "into" the shrine...could shrines be positioned in such a way so that the wind blows into them? I don't know, but I decided not to try its patience. My pictures are only of the entrance, I did not dare taking pictures of the inside. I will try to use words to describe the place.
You can see it in the pictures, there are two gates that you go through, after the gates you reach the hill with the stairs going up. Once you reach the hill, this is where the actual shrine is, one thing to keep in mind is that there is no building here to enter, it is outside. The entrance is guarded by two stone lions, anyone entering will be starred by both of them very directly. There is a walk way forward towards, with pillars at each side. If one hasn't been in as shrine, its hard to describe the end of the walkway, its sort of a "house" that you bow to, to pray.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Writing
Ok, so just when I was getting pretty bored of my Japanese class, of memorizing a ridiculious (30) number of Kanji per day the teacher told us that we have to make a speech as a presentation next week, the speech also has to be memorized. While everyone else was busy complaining about the length of the speech, and debating the teacher on how long it should be, and the fact that its smooshed right in between two tests, a comletely different thought flashed through my mind. The first was "I get to write!! and I get to share my writing with people." My second thought? "I can ask all my Japanese friends for help! This is going to be awesome."
I actually had trouble focusing for the rest of the class, because there were ideas floating in my head as to how I should go about this. The teacher wanted us to write about our country's 'Manners'...yeah, I felt somewhat unethusiastic to write about American manners. (Never admit defeat in an argument, no matter how ridiculious you sound, its how Congress and FoxNews do it). Of course all the teacher wants is for us to include a certain grammatical item in our speech, besides that he, as I expected is very flexible with the topic. I am thinking that I will translate my piano entry with minor modifications to include the grammatical rule.
I actually had trouble focusing for the rest of the class, because there were ideas floating in my head as to how I should go about this. The teacher wanted us to write about our country's 'Manners'...yeah, I felt somewhat unethusiastic to write about American manners. (Never admit defeat in an argument, no matter how ridiculious you sound, its how Congress and FoxNews do it). Of course all the teacher wants is for us to include a certain grammatical item in our speech, besides that he, as I expected is very flexible with the topic. I am thinking that I will translate my piano entry with minor modifications to include the grammatical rule.
Some blog statistics
Just a brief thought about the blog:
Approximate number of hits per day:
When I first started writing: 20
When I removed the link from facebook and stopped daily updates: 8-9
When I put thel link back on facebook: 80
So clearly the number of readers skyrocketed over the last few days. As of now I can only guess who is reading, I initially thought that maybe its AIU students, but perhaps because of all the pictures I posted on facebook, some people that I haven't spoken to in a long time may have become interested. Nobody from AIU has commented, either on the blog or to me personally, so until someone does i can only guess.
Approximate number of hits per day:
When I first started writing: 20
When I removed the link from facebook and stopped daily updates: 8-9
When I put thel link back on facebook: 80
So clearly the number of readers skyrocketed over the last few days. As of now I can only guess who is reading, I initially thought that maybe its AIU students, but perhaps because of all the pictures I posted on facebook, some people that I haven't spoken to in a long time may have become interested. Nobody from AIU has commented, either on the blog or to me personally, so until someone does i can only guess.
Piano in the cafeteria
So, I guess this is also more of a reflection piece. There is a very nice piano standing the middle of the Komachi Cafeteria. I don't know much of the backstory about the piano, but apprently it belonged to a student that passed away during his studies and a a memorial plack stands on top of it. The piano is kept nicely tuned and is free for the students to use 24/7.
I remember during the first 5 days when I heard Airi play it, it was lunch time and I couldn't help approaching and complementing her on her playing. I stopped playing piano about 2( or is it 3 now?) years ago, this was honestly the first moment in those 2 years that I regretted stopping. I was very impressed by the depth of her music. Over my time here I heard a variety of students play the piano enough, that at some point I dug up some sheet music of a Beethoven piece I used to play. However, it wasn't until I heard another girl I met here named Yuna play a few pieces. Her playing also impressed me very much, finally enough for me to sit down and try playing. So yes, on October 19, 2009, at 1AM in the morning I sat behind a piano for the first time in 2-3 years and started playing. Perhaps this was also the first time I truly played because I wanted to, rather then because somebody was pushing me.
There is something that started to concern me here, about many piano players, for a long time I thought I knew a lot of good piano players, however, I know realize that perhaps "good" is not the correct term to use. A better term would probably be, "Good technicians". These people can play the most difficult pieces in the world, but their music is empty, it puts you to sleep, and yet in fear of sounding "Unsophisticated" none of the listeners will ever admit what their music lacks.
I remember during the first 5 days when I heard Airi play it, it was lunch time and I couldn't help approaching and complementing her on her playing. I stopped playing piano about 2( or is it 3 now?) years ago, this was honestly the first moment in those 2 years that I regretted stopping. I was very impressed by the depth of her music. Over my time here I heard a variety of students play the piano enough, that at some point I dug up some sheet music of a Beethoven piece I used to play. However, it wasn't until I heard another girl I met here named Yuna play a few pieces. Her playing also impressed me very much, finally enough for me to sit down and try playing. So yes, on October 19, 2009, at 1AM in the morning I sat behind a piano for the first time in 2-3 years and started playing. Perhaps this was also the first time I truly played because I wanted to, rather then because somebody was pushing me.
There is something that started to concern me here, about many piano players, for a long time I thought I knew a lot of good piano players, however, I know realize that perhaps "good" is not the correct term to use. A better term would probably be, "Good technicians". These people can play the most difficult pieces in the world, but their music is empty, it puts you to sleep, and yet in fear of sounding "Unsophisticated" none of the listeners will ever admit what their music lacks.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Where are the kids?
New pictures here
(I don't know if there are issues at Google, but I can't seem to be able to add captions, I will try again later)
Ok, the title of this is a serious question I want to ask, but not about Japan, but about Long Island. Having lived in Akita for a while, I see people of all ages and families with their kids all the time. Weather its at the city, in the mall, even sometimes on campus, I always see kids. This sounds normal, until I start thinking about back home, and feel like I never see families. There is certainly a possibility that I simply never paid attention to this before, but at the same time I feel like this isn't something I could have missed. There is always something so positive about a family out with their little kids, I guess I'll find out when I come back.
Today, I spent the day at a "Community center" with my "host family" or rather just the Host mother as well as a large group of Japanese people and 6 AIU international students. We began the day by cooking lunch. I can't remember the name of the food that we made (I'll make sure to ask), apparently the food is unique to Akita. It pretty much involved taking rice, mushing it for a while. Taking a pair of chopsticks (single use, not taken apart), putting the rice on it so it in around shape so it looks like a "Rice corn dog" and then fry it. Some of the rice was then taken off, and put into a vegetable and meat soup. The Korean international student also made some "Korean Pizza" that I tried at the AIU festival
We had a very nice meal in the Tatami room (Japanese style room), before playing a bunch of I guess Japanese kids games. I'll try to remember the rules of the games we played. The first one was the one I understood the least, one person called out a number and then you had to sit in a circle with people of that number. The music then played and you did sort of a dance, and the process was repeated. If the music ended, everyone who was not in a circle (because they couldn't make one of that number of people) lost. The second game involved two circles of people, one on the inside, and one on the outside. The music would play and the people on the inside of the circle would challenge the people on the outside of the circle to "Rock, paper scissors". If the outside person won, then the inside person would have to go challenge someone else on the outside. If the inside person won, then the two switched places. This would continue for about 10 seconds, then the people on the outside would join hands walk in and sort of "playfully kick" the people on the inside. Once again the game continued while the music was on.
The third game was one I played before at an AIU ice breaking party, everyone walked around and challenged others to "Rock, paper, scissors", the loser would put their hands on the winner's shoulders and follow them around. This would continue until there was one large snake. The third game was tag in slow motion, still not quite sure how that worked, you pretty much had to run away from the person that was "it" or as they call him in Japan the "Demon", but you had to do it in exaggerated slow motion. The final game was also tag, but this time the "Demon" came up with a "walk" and everyone had to follow that. For example you had to walk on all 4's or you had to pretend that you were swimming, or you had to jump on one foot.
One interesting custom that seems to happen here, that I only thought was done in elementary school is that at the end of the day before everyone leaves, the guests are expected to give a short reflection on the day. In this case it was the 6 AIU international students. Later on the drive home, Maxwell, one of the students that was with us who talked to his "Host Mother" told me a little more about the group that we were with. They are known as the "Hippo Families" (I think) and they pretty much get together and study languages by listening to tapes. They then interact with families around the world sometimes sending their kids on exchange. Thanks to these tapes, some of the adults can speak 10-12 languages on a basic conversational level.
(I don't know if there are issues at Google, but I can't seem to be able to add captions, I will try again later)
Ok, the title of this is a serious question I want to ask, but not about Japan, but about Long Island. Having lived in Akita for a while, I see people of all ages and families with their kids all the time. Weather its at the city, in the mall, even sometimes on campus, I always see kids. This sounds normal, until I start thinking about back home, and feel like I never see families. There is certainly a possibility that I simply never paid attention to this before, but at the same time I feel like this isn't something I could have missed. There is always something so positive about a family out with their little kids, I guess I'll find out when I come back.
Today, I spent the day at a "Community center" with my "host family" or rather just the Host mother as well as a large group of Japanese people and 6 AIU international students. We began the day by cooking lunch. I can't remember the name of the food that we made (I'll make sure to ask), apparently the food is unique to Akita. It pretty much involved taking rice, mushing it for a while. Taking a pair of chopsticks (single use, not taken apart), putting the rice on it so it in around shape so it looks like a "Rice corn dog" and then fry it. Some of the rice was then taken off, and put into a vegetable and meat soup. The Korean international student also made some "Korean Pizza" that I tried at the AIU festival
We had a very nice meal in the Tatami room (Japanese style room), before playing a bunch of I guess Japanese kids games. I'll try to remember the rules of the games we played. The first one was the one I understood the least, one person called out a number and then you had to sit in a circle with people of that number. The music then played and you did sort of a dance, and the process was repeated. If the music ended, everyone who was not in a circle (because they couldn't make one of that number of people) lost. The second game involved two circles of people, one on the inside, and one on the outside. The music would play and the people on the inside of the circle would challenge the people on the outside of the circle to "Rock, paper scissors". If the outside person won, then the inside person would have to go challenge someone else on the outside. If the inside person won, then the two switched places. This would continue for about 10 seconds, then the people on the outside would join hands walk in and sort of "playfully kick" the people on the inside. Once again the game continued while the music was on.
The third game was one I played before at an AIU ice breaking party, everyone walked around and challenged others to "Rock, paper, scissors", the loser would put their hands on the winner's shoulders and follow them around. This would continue until there was one large snake. The third game was tag in slow motion, still not quite sure how that worked, you pretty much had to run away from the person that was "it" or as they call him in Japan the "Demon", but you had to do it in exaggerated slow motion. The final game was also tag, but this time the "Demon" came up with a "walk" and everyone had to follow that. For example you had to walk on all 4's or you had to pretend that you were swimming, or you had to jump on one foot.
One interesting custom that seems to happen here, that I only thought was done in elementary school is that at the end of the day before everyone leaves, the guests are expected to give a short reflection on the day. In this case it was the 6 AIU international students. Later on the drive home, Maxwell, one of the students that was with us who talked to his "Host Mother" told me a little more about the group that we were with. They are known as the "Hippo Families" (I think) and they pretty much get together and study languages by listening to tapes. They then interact with families around the world sometimes sending their kids on exchange. Thanks to these tapes, some of the adults can speak 10-12 languages on a basic conversational level.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Bus Trip #3
Pictures here.
Yesterday I went on the third trip organized by Student Services. I think only about 3/4 of the students went on it (almost everyone went on the first trip, and very few people on the second one because of its timing).
I finally figured out how to turn off the flash on my camera, that way I could take pictures out of the moving bus without the flash reflecting in the window. A lot of the pictures did end up really blurry and I ended up deleting them. We arrived close to the western coast to the ocean and all the places we visited were very "scenic".
The first place we visited was full of shrines. One thing to note, you generally have to give money to the shrines (There is usually box). The Kamis (Spirits or Demi Gods) prefer 5 or 50 yen coins because they like the number "5" and because those two coins have wholes in them, which makes them similar to ancient Japanese money. I ended up running out of 5s and started giving 50s, I better have a lot of luck coming my way. The shrines were awesome, see the pictures.
After the shrines we ended up having lunch at a train station that overlooked the ocean. Good lunch, good view, good pictures. The third place Mt. Chocoate (I think that's the name). We drove onto the mountain which was full of very colorful autumn trees. We also had some great views of the ocean and the cities below us.
The final place we visited was also near the ocean. I actually took a picture of the description written I very nice English.
Yesterday I went on the third trip organized by Student Services. I think only about 3/4 of the students went on it (almost everyone went on the first trip, and very few people on the second one because of its timing).
I finally figured out how to turn off the flash on my camera, that way I could take pictures out of the moving bus without the flash reflecting in the window. A lot of the pictures did end up really blurry and I ended up deleting them. We arrived close to the western coast to the ocean and all the places we visited were very "scenic".
The first place we visited was full of shrines. One thing to note, you generally have to give money to the shrines (There is usually box). The Kamis (Spirits or Demi Gods) prefer 5 or 50 yen coins because they like the number "5" and because those two coins have wholes in them, which makes them similar to ancient Japanese money. I ended up running out of 5s and started giving 50s, I better have a lot of luck coming my way. The shrines were awesome, see the pictures.
After the shrines we ended up having lunch at a train station that overlooked the ocean. Good lunch, good view, good pictures. The third place Mt. Chocoate (I think that's the name). We drove onto the mountain which was full of very colorful autumn trees. We also had some great views of the ocean and the cities below us.
The final place we visited was also near the ocean. I actually took a picture of the description written I very nice English.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Japan: a reflection
Ok, so I will not let this blog die, I will try to keep it at least 2 entires per week. This shouldn't be difficult this week as tomorrow Bus Trip #3 is coming up with hopefully a lot of pictures. Sunday I am visiting my "Homestay family", so its definitely a very busy weekend.
So after 2 months here, my Japanese language skills are steadily improving, but one thing that is improving more than that is how I understand myself, and others. As a matter of fact I am wondering if my biggest issue for many years was that I completely misunderstood myself and how I think? Some things I learned is that I am very much a "people" person, I don't get tired of people no matter how much time I spend with them. I get a lot more done if I am sitting next to someone and discussing it with them rather then sitting alone in my room, as a matter of fact I get very little done that way. Another thing is that when you look at personality tests a lot of them will compare a person that makes decisions carefully by logic vs. a person that makes decision on instincts and impulse. I always thought of myself as the first time but lately I think I follow a very middle ground between those two. There are times when I think I made a decision based on "logic" on to later realize that it was very impulsive and I actually thought very little about it. Still, I think its a good way to make decisions, logic can be very flawed and sometimes you might be reasoning about something and your instincts will tell you that something is not right. My instincts rarely lead me astray.
About people, I am definitely more social here then I ever was. Back at Stony it seems that I would feel embarassed and would look for reasons not talk to people. Here I started doing the complete opposite, having a feeling that a person might be interesting or just seeing somebody's face a too many times in a day (which happens here) might be a reason to introduce myself. A good place I found to just start talking to someone is on the bus or at the bus stop. The bus ride is about 15 minutes (to either the station or the mall), so if the person does feels uncomfortable or does not want to talk to me they don't have long to wait (I don't think that happened do). At this point I pretty much have two ice breaker phrases for the Japanese students, the first being "Where would like to Study Abroad?" or "Where did you study abroad?". The second one that I like is "What does "Otsukare" mean. "Otsukare" is a Japanese word that is impossible to translate into English, it is generally used as a "Good bye" but you would only use it in certain situations. If I had to interpet it, it would be something like "It was nice to work with you, you've worked hard, please rest". In other words you would use it with someone you've worked with and that person would be tired by now, so you're thanking them for putting so much energy into this.
About my appearence, this is something I admit I cared rather little about. In the morning I would take as shower, brush my teeth, sometimes shave, put on what's clean and go out. This has changed, I shower, while doing so I shave, wash my face, brush my teeth. When I'm done I put on after shave lotion, deodrant, cologne, comb my hair. I am seriously considering going cloth shopping, to wear something that I think looks good rather then any other reason, but perhaps I will hold up until I come back home. I also brough hair gel today because I got tired of seeing my hair being messy in all my pictures.
So after 2 months here, my Japanese language skills are steadily improving, but one thing that is improving more than that is how I understand myself, and others. As a matter of fact I am wondering if my biggest issue for many years was that I completely misunderstood myself and how I think? Some things I learned is that I am very much a "people" person, I don't get tired of people no matter how much time I spend with them. I get a lot more done if I am sitting next to someone and discussing it with them rather then sitting alone in my room, as a matter of fact I get very little done that way. Another thing is that when you look at personality tests a lot of them will compare a person that makes decisions carefully by logic vs. a person that makes decision on instincts and impulse. I always thought of myself as the first time but lately I think I follow a very middle ground between those two. There are times when I think I made a decision based on "logic" on to later realize that it was very impulsive and I actually thought very little about it. Still, I think its a good way to make decisions, logic can be very flawed and sometimes you might be reasoning about something and your instincts will tell you that something is not right. My instincts rarely lead me astray.
About people, I am definitely more social here then I ever was. Back at Stony it seems that I would feel embarassed and would look for reasons not talk to people. Here I started doing the complete opposite, having a feeling that a person might be interesting or just seeing somebody's face a too many times in a day (which happens here) might be a reason to introduce myself. A good place I found to just start talking to someone is on the bus or at the bus stop. The bus ride is about 15 minutes (to either the station or the mall), so if the person does feels uncomfortable or does not want to talk to me they don't have long to wait (I don't think that happened do). At this point I pretty much have two ice breaker phrases for the Japanese students, the first being "Where would like to Study Abroad?" or "Where did you study abroad?". The second one that I like is "What does "Otsukare" mean. "Otsukare" is a Japanese word that is impossible to translate into English, it is generally used as a "Good bye" but you would only use it in certain situations. If I had to interpet it, it would be something like "It was nice to work with you, you've worked hard, please rest". In other words you would use it with someone you've worked with and that person would be tired by now, so you're thanking them for putting so much energy into this.
About my appearence, this is something I admit I cared rather little about. In the morning I would take as shower, brush my teeth, sometimes shave, put on what's clean and go out. This has changed, I shower, while doing so I shave, wash my face, brush my teeth. When I'm done I put on after shave lotion, deodrant, cologne, comb my hair. I am seriously considering going cloth shopping, to wear something that I think looks good rather then any other reason, but perhaps I will hold up until I come back home. I also brough hair gel today because I got tired of seeing my hair being messy in all my pictures.
Monday, October 12, 2009
AIU Festival Day 2
Day 2 photos have been uploaded
Day 2...280 pictures taken. There were tons of performances, more food, fireworks, an the Kanto Team (As epic as ever), an epic closing ceremony. I don't think there is much else to say, I should have the pictures up in a few minutes and I think they will speak for themselves.
Day 2...280 pictures taken. There were tons of performances, more food, fireworks, an the Kanto Team (As epic as ever), an epic closing ceremony. I don't think there is much else to say, I should have the pictures up in a few minutes and I think they will speak for themselves.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
AIU festival Day 1
Pictures are now here
Today was the first day of the festival, and yes I took a few pictures and will definitely take more tomorrow. The festival became with the opening ceremony which involved some speeches in Japanese, and the releasing of the balloons. There was then a variety of rock performers all day, different clubs on campus organized booths with food from all over the world. I would definitely describe the feeling as having a "globe" in my stomach. In one day I tried food from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Mexico, some other places that I am not sure of. I will definitely try more tomorrow. A variety of bands performed on stage, few of them however, really caught my attention. At the end of the day there was a performance by a professional band called "Karasu". They were ok, I can see why they are called professional but I think the music could have been more suited to my taste. After the band there was a "candle lighting", and path of candles was lit on campus. A group of Okinawan students (An island south of Japan) performed a traditional dance among the candles. We then had some hot coco.
Today was the first day of the festival, and yes I took a few pictures and will definitely take more tomorrow. The festival became with the opening ceremony which involved some speeches in Japanese, and the releasing of the balloons. There was then a variety of rock performers all day, different clubs on campus organized booths with food from all over the world. I would definitely describe the feeling as having a "globe" in my stomach. In one day I tried food from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Mexico, some other places that I am not sure of. I will definitely try more tomorrow. A variety of bands performed on stage, few of them however, really caught my attention. At the end of the day there was a performance by a professional band called "Karasu". They were ok, I can see why they are called professional but I think the music could have been more suited to my taste. After the band there was a "candle lighting", and path of candles was lit on campus. A group of Okinawan students (An island south of Japan) performed a traditional dance among the candles. We then had some hot coco.
More on Aikido
Aikido practice is becoming increasingly interesting. During our last practice we practiced with actual wooden swords. (Rather then before, when we practiced with short wooden staffs, meaning you could grab the tip). We learned some cool moves to disarm an opponent armed with a sword as well. (Yes, not too useful in today's world, but still pretty cool). We also learned this interesting move that involves grabbing the wrist a certain way and cause intense pain. Definitely something I want to try again.
Yesterday I went to an Aikido demonstration (and actually participated briefly). One thing about this, Aikido is extremely traditional and we had to follow some very traditional rules during the demonstration. (Definitely did a few "faux pas", our Aikido Sensei usually stopped us before we did something too wrong). Here are some of the rules:
1. Do not make noise or speak loudly around the changing rooms.
2. Bow to the Senseis when you pass them
3. Follow the special bowing ritual before getting into the performance area (get on your knees, bow twice, clap twice, do a third bow that you hold for several seconds)
4. All performers are to sit on the floor, when others perform you are either to sit in the Senza position (on your knees) or with your feet crossed. (Unless the Master of this school demonstrates, then you have to sit in Senza).
5. When all the performances are done, every group that performed bows to the "home" group. The "home" group remains until everyone else left the performance area.
What I definitely learned about this, is that sitting in the Senza for extended periods of time really hurts. Also that Aikido is absolutely awesome. Especially the last 2 performers, the second to last performer did a bunch of moves including knocking 8 people to the ground. The very last performer was the Sensei of the school and I believe the highest ranking master in all of Akita. He challenged his students to attack him in any way, he would send them flying in the air no matter what they did. The guy was probably in his 60s, not someone you want to get into a fight with.
Pictures on this are...coming, Since I didn't know how things would work, I did not get a chance to get my camera out of my bag and I ended up taking a lot of pictures but with my Sensei's camera. I should be able to pass those on, once I get them.
Yesterday I went to an Aikido demonstration (and actually participated briefly). One thing about this, Aikido is extremely traditional and we had to follow some very traditional rules during the demonstration. (Definitely did a few "faux pas", our Aikido Sensei usually stopped us before we did something too wrong). Here are some of the rules:
1. Do not make noise or speak loudly around the changing rooms.
2. Bow to the Senseis when you pass them
3. Follow the special bowing ritual before getting into the performance area (get on your knees, bow twice, clap twice, do a third bow that you hold for several seconds)
4. All performers are to sit on the floor, when others perform you are either to sit in the Senza position (on your knees) or with your feet crossed. (Unless the Master of this school demonstrates, then you have to sit in Senza).
5. When all the performances are done, every group that performed bows to the "home" group. The "home" group remains until everyone else left the performance area.
What I definitely learned about this, is that sitting in the Senza for extended periods of time really hurts. Also that Aikido is absolutely awesome. Especially the last 2 performers, the second to last performer did a bunch of moves including knocking 8 people to the ground. The very last performer was the Sensei of the school and I believe the highest ranking master in all of Akita. He challenged his students to attack him in any way, he would send them flying in the air no matter what they did. The guy was probably in his 60s, not someone you want to get into a fight with.
Pictures on this are...coming, Since I didn't know how things would work, I did not get a chance to get my camera out of my bag and I ended up taking a lot of pictures but with my Sensei's camera. I should be able to pass those on, once I get them.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Shabu Shabu
So, earlier today I went out to dinner with some international students to have some "Shabu-Shabu". Someone said that it means "Winter's coming", not sure in what language. It is considered a witner dish that is eaten year round, it definitely warms you up. The way it works is that a gas oven is placed in the middle of the table and sauce is poured in. The oven is then turned on. You then go to the buffet and collect some vegtables and side dishes. Meanwhile, the waitress brings thin slices of pork and beef to the table. As the sauce in the pan over the gas stove warms up you can use your chopsticks to put the pieces of meat in. Since they are thinly sliced, they are done in seconds, you then dip them into another cooler sauce and eat. You can also put the vegtables in to fry as well. This definitely required some superior chopstick skills, I had trouble gettig the pieces out of the pan over the gas stove sometimes.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
JCF Otsukimi party
Ok, so I finally have pretty decent entry about the Otsukimi (moon viewing) party organized by the Japanese Conversation Friends club. Technically the party should take place during the full moon and we did it one day after that, and because of the rain you couldn't really see it but it was still fun. I did unfortunately forget my camera again (grr...I'll write it on my hand or something). The party took place in the Japanese style tatami rooms on campus. The first part of the party involved making Rice cakes, this was pretty straight forward and just involved mixing rice flour with water and then rolling balls out of it.
While the rice cakes were cooking, we ended up playing a slightly different version of Human Bingo. This time all the questions were in Japanese, and after we were done names were actually pulled out of a bag. When a person's name was called, they would introduce themselves in Japanese and you would cross out their name and try to get "Bingo". The winners got some chocolates.
The Final part of course was eating the rice cakes. The rice cakes were put in the middle of the table along with red bean paste, brown sugar, soy sauce, and syrup. Everyone would use their chopsticks, dip the rice cake in one of those then eat (not dipped in anything the rice cakes themselves had little taste). We also had green tea ice cream, that everyone pretty much dipped their chopsticks in and ate separately.
During the night I did talk to some Japanese and international students. I think I knew all of the international students that were there, including Sophia and Austin from Taiwan, Tracy from Malaysia. Rina my Japanese Conversation partner was there, and I did talk to a girl named Yuki most of the night. Yuki actually spent a year in Saratoga Springs, NY for Study Abroad in High School (Only went to the city once). She hopes to go to Italy for her Study Abroad.
I will briefly also talk about AIU festival preparations, with 1 week to go a lot of the Japanese Students are busy preparing. It seems like there are going to be a loot of "Dance routines". I was also told that the entire campus would be decorated including a giant boat made of chopsticks in the cafeteria.
While the rice cakes were cooking, we ended up playing a slightly different version of Human Bingo. This time all the questions were in Japanese, and after we were done names were actually pulled out of a bag. When a person's name was called, they would introduce themselves in Japanese and you would cross out their name and try to get "Bingo". The winners got some chocolates.
The Final part of course was eating the rice cakes. The rice cakes were put in the middle of the table along with red bean paste, brown sugar, soy sauce, and syrup. Everyone would use their chopsticks, dip the rice cake in one of those then eat (not dipped in anything the rice cakes themselves had little taste). We also had green tea ice cream, that everyone pretty much dipped their chopsticks in and ate separately.
During the night I did talk to some Japanese and international students. I think I knew all of the international students that were there, including Sophia and Austin from Taiwan, Tracy from Malaysia. Rina my Japanese Conversation partner was there, and I did talk to a girl named Yuki most of the night. Yuki actually spent a year in Saratoga Springs, NY for Study Abroad in High School (Only went to the city once). She hopes to go to Italy for her Study Abroad.
I will briefly also talk about AIU festival preparations, with 1 week to go a lot of the Japanese Students are busy preparing. It seems like there are going to be a loot of "Dance routines". I was also told that the entire campus would be decorated including a giant boat made of chopsticks in the cafeteria.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Brief update
So, I am not writing as many entries, or entries as long as I used to. There are of course several reasons for this, I can get quite busy with schoolwork, and probably now that some of the culture shock has passed things that might have surprised me before don't really surprise me now. Well, I did recently discover that in addition to selling cold drinks, some of the machines actually keep the cans worm and sell hot tea in cans. Now, its been one month into the semester and people will sometimes tell me that it will be over before I know it. This is not something that needs to be repeated to me, I never thought of a semester as being a long time.
Now I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea that a lack of entries means that I am in any way bored. The people and the campus community here make it very hard to ever be bored. I rarely stay in my room for too long, simply because it gets boring and I want to go out, go to a lounge, see if I meet anyone. Today is my first 'free friday' in quite a while. Generally I go somewhere on a Friday, like to an elementary school or just into the city. I will go into the city tonight, however, I should probably keep in the back of my mind to plan something on Fridays. Other people have class during the day, so it can be quite boring after I'm done sleeping in and there is nobody around. Well that's it for now, the AIU Festival that I mentioned before is coming up on October 11-12th and a lot of the Japanese students are busy preparing for it. I will try to take a lot of pictures, and hopefully will have a nice blog entry too.
Now I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea that a lack of entries means that I am in any way bored. The people and the campus community here make it very hard to ever be bored. I rarely stay in my room for too long, simply because it gets boring and I want to go out, go to a lounge, see if I meet anyone. Today is my first 'free friday' in quite a while. Generally I go somewhere on a Friday, like to an elementary school or just into the city. I will go into the city tonight, however, I should probably keep in the back of my mind to plan something on Fridays. Other people have class during the day, so it can be quite boring after I'm done sleeping in and there is nobody around. Well that's it for now, the AIU Festival that I mentioned before is coming up on October 11-12th and a lot of the Japanese students are busy preparing for it. I will try to take a lot of pictures, and hopefully will have a nice blog entry too.
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