busybusybusy

Oi! This week certainly was a buzz! Sorry it took so long to post, I barely have time to check my email sometimes, but nevertheless, I post!

So last week was pretty boring, but starting Thursday was testing at school, so I got to go home at noon Thursday, had no school on Friday or Monday, and half-days Tuesday and Wednesday. So, I did tons of stuff. Here's how it went:

Thurday

On Thursday my family had a welcome party for me. It was really just dinner with a bunch of people, but that's a party. It was my okaasan (host mother), otosan (host father), grandma and grampa (obaasan and ojiisan, respectively); my host aunt and uncle (obasan and ojisan, respectively); okaasan's friend Yumi (Number 1), her husband, and her two daughters Mami and Satomi; okaasan's friend Yumi (Number 2) and her husband. I have so much fun talking to people, learning Japanese and teaching English too.

Friday

Along with my host counselor, 種市さん (Taneichi-san), his son, and some other Rotarians, we climbed a mountain. It was a smallish mountain, much like the one's in VT, yet so different. At the top was a little Shinto shrine dedicated to the kami of the mountain. What you do to "pray" to the kami is open the door, put your hands together, bow twice, clap twice, and bow once more. I say "praying" because that's what it's called, but it seems to be more like showing respect to the kami that it is there protecting the mountain.

After the mountain adventure, I went to a barbecue at Taneichi-san's house. I really like the way the Japanese have a barbecue. Everyone sits around an open grill and puts on the food they want to eat. Pretty fun, and then after I watched Harry Potter dubbed in Japanese. Hermione had the wrong voice, but otherwise it was ok. Except for the part where I couldn't understand it. But that is life in Japan.

Saturday

On Saturday I woke up at five-thirty (not much earlier than usual) and traveled east to Goshogawara and Hirosaki! First we went to Goshogawara, for Satomi's basketball game. Although she was not playing (she had an operation on her leg awhile ago) I did get a chance to go to a jinja (shinto shrine), and walk around the area a bit. After the game, (they won) we went to this Tachineputa　museum. Actually, it's the place where they build and store the Tachineputa floats. Tachineputa is a festival where they drive HUGE floats down the streets. For more info, http://www.enjoytsugaru.com/areaguide/gosh/tachineputa_festival.html, and there's picture's of last weeks floats on my Picasa (Go to the link under Pictures on the sidebar --->>>) We then went back to see the final basketball game, in which they won. That team is going to Tokyo for the Winter Cup, which is a pretty big thing. And then after that, Yumi, Mami, and I went to Hirosaki Castle! Make sure you look at the pictures, it is beautiful. In the spring it is especially popular for it's cherry blossoms. We walked around and then went to meet okaasan who got a haircut. Okaasan and I took the train home from Hirosaki, but first we ate at a restaurant where each table was its own private booth, which was kinda cool. The train ride was pretty boring, an we got home pretty late.

Sunday and Monday

Sunday and Monday were not nearly as fun as the rest of the weekend, but that's OK. I went with okaasan to Hachinohe, where we met up with Mari (my host sister) and had cake and chatted. Mari knows English, and I guess there were some things that okaasan had to say to me. It is really difficult when you cannot communicate to someone about what you need, and sometimes you can work through it, but others you need a translator. It wasn't anything bad, just normal essential stuff.

Then on Monday (I had no school, it was a holiday) I went to Towada to see where my host family's ancestors are housed. Then we went to Misawa to a jinja. We went to bless this vial of some liquid that later obaasan drank from, probably for her health. So I got to watch a cool ritual happen.

The rest of the week

was pretty normal, between school, Japanese lessons, archery, and another barbecue at Yumi (Number 1)'s house, which is like two blocks away from our house.

Saturday (today)

Today was awesome, because I got to go to church! Okaasan was kind enough to find and bring me to a catholic church in Misawa, where I got to take communion. The funny part is, though, that the whole service was in Japanese! However, the priest was French Canadian, and could speak English. Unfortunately, Misawa is an hour's drive away, so I can only go every once in a while.

Well, that's all. I think that one post a week seems fair, so I'll try to keep up. 私はやがて再度書きます!!! 舵誇太

Culture Shock! Japan!

Ok! today we are going to learn about what I've learned about the Japanese so far!

They are crazy drivers, but but are really good. It is really hard to get a lisence and it costs something like 300 dollars to get one in Japan. So you have to really want to drive if you want to drive.

Many Japanese don't like sugar and sugary food. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think its because most of their traditional foods are not sugary at all. However, the Japanese do have sweets in their tea ceremony. Also, nowadays they have some of the best tasting candy I've ever had.

They have very hi-tech cell-phones, and love to glitz them out. There is this really cool thing on most everyones where you can send your profile to another phone using an infrared sensor. You can also get pictures and songs, anything, from it. They also like those little plastic gem-things that they stick on their phones. some are completely covered with them.

One thing that Japanese girls really like are "pikura". they are those photo booth machines that you see in the malls. Well they have them too, but ten times more decked out. So far I've been taken to two of them. Using the infrared you can get your pictures on your phone, and you can print them out too.

They are extremely fast shoe-taker-offers. It usually takes me like a half a minute to put my shoes on, sitting down, and yet it seems like they just walk right into them. It's because they never wear their outside shoes inside (except in stores), so wherever they go, they need to take off their shoes and put on some slippers.

They are also really fast eaters, and can eat really hot food just as fast. I have not mastered, or even begun to master, the fine art of Japanese slurping. It is considered impolite to not slurp your noodles, soup, or hot o-cha (Japanese tea). Why, do you ask? Because it's freakin hot! Slurping cools the stuff right down! And yet somehow I always end up splashing everywhere. Ah, with practice comes perfection.

For some reason, they always want to know your blood type. I have no idea why. (mom and dad, whats mine?)

Everybody, young and old, are obsessed with American culture. Mostly Disney, the Peanuts, Elmo, but also girls are especially into playboy, and teens Jamaican culture (two people have told me that it really has nothing to do with marijuana, but I'm not convinced)

They have vending machines everywhere. And I mean everywhere. We were driving through a pretty farmland/woodland type area, and right on the side of the road, next to some garage or warehouse, was a big vending machine. In school, the malls, at the car repair shop my host grandfather owns, in front of any given building you might happen to walk by. Also there are rows and rows of those little souvenir machines, you know the ones you put 50 cents into and out comes a little plastic ball with some cheap toy that breaks the next day. Theirs are better quality, but cost 100 yen.

Every hour, for about a minute, I hear about between 2 and 4 different chimes from about 6 different clocks in my house. It's my alarm clock in the morning, and I almost never don't know what time it is. In every house I've been to so far there has been at least one chiming clock. Most of them have a Western theme, like the main one in my house is a Peanuts Gang clock, and there's one that plays Greensleeves.

Alright, I can't think of anything else, that's a pretty big list I've been compiling over the past few days. I love and miss you all, I know your prayers have been going through, because I have been having an amazing time!

Love, Dakota ダコタ

I went to California, and then I saw the statue of liberty

No seriously, I did. On Sunday I went to the Misawa Air Festival. The Misawa Air base is US territory, so techincally I was on US ground. Unfortunatley the weather was bad, so there was no planes flying. But tons of Americans. Instead went went sightseeing. We went to this park that was the same latitude line as the Statue of Liberty in New York, so they built a miniature sized Statue there!! It was so cool. We went to the mall too, and almost saw Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Too bad for you guys, I get to see all the good Japanese movies before you. So there. I won't understand them (yet) but I will have seen them. I've been having an awesome time here, and I hope it only gets better. The people are all so amazing and helpful and patient. I've eaten so many different and new foods. I just had natto (なっと）　yesterday. It is a sticky bean paste made from fermented soybeans. It smells funny, but it really healthy. It was pretty good. My grasp of the language is getting better too. I've joined the archery club at school, and I am going to start an English club with my English teacher. I've been keeping busy, and having a lot of fun. Don't know what else to say. If you want me to tell about something, please comment or email or whatever. 舵誇太

Orientation weekend!

This past weekend I attended a Rotary orientation for all the inbounds and outbounds. I got to meet the other students in my district. They are all really cool! There are four of us: another from the states named Hanley, a girl from France named Sophia, a girl from Australia, Emily, and me. Then there were a whole bunch of rebounds (those who went and came back) and they were all really awesome and helpful. It was funny though because Hanley and I were the only boys there. I made a lot of friends there, especially since most of the rebounds knew English! The youth hostel we stayed at was at this farm called Kamaya Green Farm, and there were cows and sheep and horses and stuff. We got to make sausages, and eat them, then we had a barbecue where we cooked our own food. Then they tried teaching us the Japanese version of rock, paper, scissors, and I won. I did not realize that winning meant that I had to cook and ostrich egg! I made scrambled eggs for everybody (one egg fed them all) and it was (surprisingly) oishikatta! delicious. We had fireworks and creemees (real creemees! from the cows at the farm!) and in the morning we got to milk cows! we milked into cups and drank right on the spot. Then we went and made butter, which was really cool too. For lunch we had nagashi somen. It was the craziest thing ever! no pictures yet, but heres how it works: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnDz6GSJTMs After the orientation, my host mother, sister, and my sister's friend went to see Hancock. It just came out. I will get pictures up soon, I promise!! I am trying to get Picasa, and I'm also not on my computer right now. But soon. Maybe I'll do a video blog once too. Anyways, that's all from me, I'm having an awesome time here, but I still miss you all! Sayonara!!! ダコタ　ベンジャミン