Sunday, November 19, 2006

Japan is treating me well...

Lately I've been having some awesome Japan time. It's just all coming together. So much that I really don't even want to bother going back to Hawaii to finish my degree. BUT... I will. Because I don't quit things... even when it's REALLY tempting. ;-) Haha...
Last week there was a big kendo tournament that I went to watch... and I took my camera and took some really cool pictures... so I thought I'd share. :-)
This is an action shot.... a tiny bit blurry... but that's how you can tell they're moving. Haha... This pic is actually warm up between Yamamoto-sempai and Kawaguchi-sempai. They're both really, really good... very fun to watch as well.









This is a pic of the girls all lined up removing their men (helmets)... I just thought it looked cool is all. :-) The boys are further down in the blue.




This is a really cool, samurai-esque picture of our captain, Yamamoto-sempai. I just managed to click this one and thought it looked really cool. Very much like the lone warrior or something. Heehee... you get all sorts of funny ideas when watching kendo... but it is really inspiring at the same time. :-)













This next picture is of Toda-sempai. I just got this at the right time. It's just a really cool picture and I had to share it. :-) I may not be a great photographer.... but sometimes I get lucky.




This is the last pic.... it's a pic of the girl sempai (means older, wiser members). They just happened to be sitting around in their cool happi (ha-py; jacket things) in a semi-circle like that. I just thought it was cool. :-)

Anyway, there are my kendo pics. There's TONS more, but not enough time to post them all. ;-)

love,

a

Sunday, November 05, 2006

does it get any better...

So... as all of you know... I practice kendo. The group I joined at Waseda has been a little, well, difficult to fit into. Not for lack of trying on my part (or on the part of my good friend, Shivani's either). Some days we were barely getting an aisatsu (greeting) in return to our rather genki greetings. We tried and tried... our last hope was the drinking party on Thursday. We figured if we made no headway there... we'd write everyone off and kind of stop trying...

Luckily... we won't be doing that... because the drinking party was a success! :-)

Thursday, we practiced kendo as usual... and afterwards, at 9:30, the nomikai (drinking party) would start. Shivani, much better at doing the Japanese thing, asked one of our sempai (older, more experienced kendo members) if we might attend. To which he responded, sugoi (wow! cool!). Always a good sign, I was chatting with some of the other girls at that time... and when that sempai passed me he also asked if I was going... and I said yes. Once again... favorable response. Yay!

Well, Shivani and I were both starving... so we followed the other girls down to the bar (turns out this bar is the "center" of Waseda drinking culture!) and headed to the McD's for a quick bite before starting to "binge" drink (in Japan they drink out of tiny glasses, so you can't really binge!).

We headed back to the drinking establishment and were met by Ito-sempai, who had formerly been rather unfriendly. But she got us sat down and situated with Kimura and Ichimura sempai. It was great... we started drinking and actually talking to some of the people we'd been practicing with for over a month... and the great thing was - they are SUPER nice people. Of course they wanted to know the basics... whether we like beer... where we're from... what we study... all that. And then they got us started trying to get others to drink!

Basically, that entailed taking a bottle of beer over to a sempai and saying, dozo (in this context that means, please drink!) and getting them to chug the remainder of the bottle. It was rather fun, in fact that's how I got switched to a different table... after forcing someone to drink I just hung around and talked a bit.

Then I got kidnapped by Matsugaki-sempai and two other sempai (one was Kawaguchi and the other.... I don't remember his name!). We got to talking about all sorts of things... mostly related to drinking. But they realized that I was quite strong (in comparison to Japanese people) at drinking. So as a consequence when anyone said something amusing, one would say "Love Beer!!" and we'd all finish our beer and pour another round. It was great!! And at the end of the night... I wasn't too drunk... if only I hadn't had to carry my bogu home... then I would have been ok...

Needless to say... Shivani and I have bonded with the kendo people... and we're definitely IN!!! :-)

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

one great day...

Yesterday was just one of those great days... that becomes great through no prior planning of your owm. It just is.
I had a test first thing in the morning. BUT... I studied and actually think I did pretty good. Yay!! Then I had Sonoda-sensei's class... He is this really genki (energetic) Japanese guy who it just fun to have class with. Plus, it's a class about cultures in Asia, so I find the subject matter really fascinating. :-)
After class I headed out the door to watch hockey!! THAT was fun... I watched Gakushuin and Jindai (two universities in the Tokyo area). The game was really aggressive and highly charged. The end score, 4-0, didn't really reflect the entire game. It was an overall good game to watch, even though the team I was rooting for lost. During the game there was a hotly disputed goal... that dispute took about a half hour to resolve, thus the game ended a bit late. So, I ran out of the game because I needed to get home and get my kendo stuff.
I got on the train... and shortly thereafter two elementary school kids, a boy and girl, got on the train. I was plugged into my ipod, so was only half paying attention. Suddenly, I see the boy take his little hat off and gesture in my direction with it, saying to the little girl, "Gaikokujin da!" (Look, a foreigner.) To which I take off my headphones and ask him, "Really??" (in Japanese of course) When I realize I've embarrassed him, I instead ask the two kids what grade they are in... they're first graders. At this point the lady next to me joins in and we end up talking a bit... the little boy was SO embarrassed that he buried his head in his hat... and soon enough my station came. Little boy had removed his hat... and I wished he and the little girl good luck in their studies (benkyo ganbatte kudasai!) and walked off the train!! Too cute!!
Then I rushed home, got kendo stuff, and rushed out the door again.
Kendo was really good... I was totally knackered so was happy that all the people I worked with wanted to focus on fundamental skills instead of running me ragged. And the thing is... I felt like I got a lot out of it. Yay!!
My friend Shivani and I headed home from kendo, saying out otsukaresama's on the way out. We got in the elevator at the 4th floor and made a stop at the 3rd to pick up a group of high school boys (4). The first two that got in the elevator were kind of timid, the second two looked at us and yelled "hello!! how are you??" It was hilarious. And, in true form, I said, "Good, how are you??" Everyone was good... and the first boy says "My name is Sho." And I shook his hand... we went around to Yuya, Kota and the last boy says... "My name is Eminem." Quickly followed by "American joke, American joke!" (He was actually called Hide.) We parted with the boys at the front doors of the sports center with a "Bye bye" and a "ki o tsukete" and were off.
My friend Shivani then asked if I'd ever met those boys before. To which I replied, "no." She found the whole situation really amusing and was astounded at how I reacted to the whole thing... mainly, without skipping a beat. :-) All I could say is that it happens all the time and I don't mind, especially when it's students. :-)

Yesterday was an exhausting day... but it was SO much fun!! I would gladly relive it... minus the loss at hockey!! Hope these little stories make you smile. ;-)

ttfn,

A