Too much going on....

AHHHHHHH I am soooo busy I haven't even any time to check my email. Between a trip to Osaka and Fukui-ken last week and a marathon I ran on Friday, and another orientation this weekend, I'm pooped! I would have liked to have posted last week about Osaka, but I was too busy! Oh well.

So I will have to give a short explanation of my recent adventures. Going back to last Monday, I went on a little business trip with some Japan National Fuel Limited (JNFL) people and Sakamoto-san, a Rotarian. We went south, farther than Tokyo, to Osaka and Fukui. If you know anything about Japan, Osaka was once the capital of Japan; it is also the second biggest city. And was it big! I don't have a particular affinity for cities, as they are much too crowded for me, but this was definitely a sight to see! Definitely a blast! I also got to see a cool o-tera, I think one of the oldest in Japan. Well, not really, because it was partially destroyed during the Meiji Restoration, but then rebuilt exactly how it was before. It was still really cool. I saw turtles too.

I also went to Fukui, a little north, to see some nuclear power plants. I learned a lot, (even if it was all in Japanese) and now I think that Nuclear Power is a very clean and almost entirely renewable source of energy. I also learned a lot about how business goes about in Japan. This was a business trip after all.

And then the marathon.... On Friday, I ran a total of 18.1 kilometers, which is 11 and a quarter miles. I ran it in 2 hours flat. Boy was I tired. However, it was fun, and healthy, and my legs really hurt afterwords. Mr. Kerrigan would be proud than I'm keeping in shape for next year though.

And now the main event! Definitely an amazing weekend I just had. It was my second orientation of the year, this time in Goshogawara and Juniko Lake.　When I got there, I had to make a speech in front of a few hundred Rotarians, but it wasn't that bad. Then we shipped off to our cabins and talked until late into the night. As you may know, there are many hot springs in Japan. Well, the place we were staying had one, and each cabin had a hot spring bath right in the back. Although it was freezing and raining, we had to shower outside, but it paid off sitting in the hot bath for ten minutes. It was so nice. It was also nice to sleep in a real bed for once.

The next day we went to the mall, in which we shopped for the food we were going to make for each other that night. Everyone suggested that I make pizza, so I got the ingredients. We also were going to make okunomiyaki (おくのみやき - Japanese pizza) and sushi and shellfish and curried rice.

After that we began a journey across Japan, to the west coast, the sea of Japan (Nihonkai - 日本海) We went to two o-tera and the sea and a museum about Japanese ships. The first o-tera was actually mixed - both an o-tera and a jinja. It was also up a mountain, so we got to climb it to see it. The second was the oldest in Aomori, and it was popular for fishermen to go to to pray for a good catch. Then there was the sea, which was beautiful, and the foliage, which was also beautiful (I could hear constantly "sugoi kirei ne! which is japanese for amazing and pretty).

We reached another destination, Juniko Lake, or Twelve Lakes. I guess it mush have had twelve lakes or something, but we got there and it was dark enough so that I couldn't see. We were in the middle of the mountains, and it was cold. We began to cook our meals, each in our separate cabins. Unfortunately, we lacked adequate cookingware, like measuring cups, and so I had to trust that the glasses they gave me were the amount that they said they were. However, I don't believe they were right, because the dough was somewhat of a disaster, and took too long, and so it was a project unfinished. I was disappointed, but everyone said next time (our Christmas party) I would be able to make it. I'm going to definitely bring some English directions, and maybe even my own utensils. However, the okunomiyaki was amazing, and so were the conversations. I was able to take to some of the student outbounds, tell them what America is like, as them about Japan, and have some good Japanese conversation. And I found out that we might be getting an Australian boy in January. Another late night, and an early morning, trekking into the mountain and seeing the most beautiful, blue ponds I have ever seen.

Finally it was time to go home. However, we took the scenic route, straight through the windy, narrow mountains. The fall mountain were so beautiful and we saw monkeys!!! Except the damn creatures are so fast that I couldn't even get a picture of them. Oh well, it was so cool though.

Well, that's the most recent of my adventures, sorry about being so busy! It's good though, I'm not wasting my time here!

Pictures soon, for now go to my Picasa.

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Dakota M. Benjamin, JTD ダコタ　ベンジャミン Rotary District 7850 - Vermont, USA Hosted by Rotary Club or Rokkasho, Japan District 2830 - Aomori, Japan dakota.benjamin@gmail.com

楽しかった文化祭です！！！ An Awesome School Festival!

EDIT EDIT: Fixed it! Turns out it wasn't an HTML prob after all, for those who wanted to know... EDIT: For some reason while playing with the HTML of my blog, I deleted comments! I'm working on it! Ok! So, another exciting week for Dakota!

Let's start on Wednesday. Tuesday was The Autumnal Equinox, so we had it off. Tuesday was I can't remember what I did... Anyways, Tuesday was the start of preparation for the school festival, also known as 文化祭(ぶんかさい -bunkasai). I had a little hand in it – making pizza! But first, we had to get our homeroom decorated. Our homeroom was going to be the "えんにち", ennichi, or snack bar. For the next three days, we decorated, talked, messed around, and had a lot of fun. I made a lot of new friends, and I'm beginning to understand most of what they say to me; I can even give a sensible response.

Through this somewhat out of the classroom experience with people my age, I have learned that they are not so different from American teenagers. However, there are no cliques, I think, in my class of 54 second-years. Everyone seems to get along, however the separation between boys and girls is much larger than at home. The boys tend to group together on one side of the room, and the girls on the other. There is still lot of interaction, But it is just different.

On Friday, the festival began with the Opening Ceremony. There was a quiz contest, and a battle of the bands, which, to say the least, was awesome. I would have to say it was much better than the one we have back home. Saturday was the day I made pizza! Unfortunately, we had not the adequate tools, nor manpower to make the dough, so it wasn't really making pizza, but topping and cooking bread, however! never fear, dear reader, for the best is yet to come!

We sold all forty pizzas, at 800¥ each. Pretty good, I think. We then watched the school dance, which was awesome. I have tried to learn a little bit of it, but alas, it is chotto muzukashi... Maybe by the end of the year, maybe.

The final day was clean up day, where we tore down all that we had spent so much caring time placing for families to see. It was a day of rejoicing, for despite the rain, the festival was a success, and I had a lot of fun. At the end of the day, as the clouds receded, to prove that what we had done was good, we were shown this message from the sky:

And so that was my school festival. And I know, Dave, if you are reading this, I realize that I didn't make a real pizza, but like I said, never fear. One of okaasan's friends (recall Yumi #1) loved the idea that I can make pizza so much, that she took me to the store to make a REAL one! So on Monday, (which I have off because it is between-semester break this week - jeez, i sure do have lot of days off... But they make up for it by having only a three week summer vacation) I made six true, doughy, delicious, pepperoni-bacon-peppers-onions-and-basil pizzas. Did I mention they were delicious? Ume is a Rokkasho slang word, which probably no other Japanese will understand. It means, "Holy crap this is amazing". Yeah. Thanks Dave, for showing me how to bake a good pie.

Well, that's all for now, dear readers, a little tidbit of my life here across the world. By the way, you may have noticed the new colors. Tell me if you like it. Also, I realize I told some of you that I was going to talk about school life, and I really was, but I realized halfway through that it was not appropriate for this post. Don't worry, I will explain soon, probably within the next few weeks. It is very exciting. Well, さようなら！Sayonara! ダコタ　ベンジャミン

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