一月

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

― Dr. Seuss 

January seems to be the month to be in. Besides everything that I wrote about in my last blog I have also participated in a Japanese speech contest, was a part of せいじんしき, attended a Rotary Club meeting, played soccer, went to aikido, volunteered, and met Jamie.

The speech contest was held at the number one school in Osaka, きたのこうこう (Kitanokoukou- Kita High School). To put it in the best way possible lets just say that I was the only one in the Japanese speech contest that hadn't studied for over two years. The wonderful thing about the contest was that once the speeches were done a band, a club at the school, came out and preformed jazz music! It brought back memories of the good old Northfield Swing Dance. Also, for giving a speech I received gift cards to a book store!

せいじんしき (seijinshiki) is literally translated "Adult Ceremony". It is a ceremony for all of the kids who turn 20 this year and become legal adults in Japan. My host sister turned 20 in September, thus participated in this traditional ceremony. The girls all get dressed up in kimonos and the boys in suits. They get to go all dressed up and listen to a special speech given by the mayor. *It also just so happened that is snowed a lot that day,  unfortunate for the girls.

I attended a Rotary Club meeting, which isn't all that unusual because I have a meeting at least once a month. What was special about this meeting is that it was at the first time I didn't have to give a formal speech in front of my entire club. I had to give a little self introduction in Japanese before dinner because we had a couple of new people joining us (soon to be outbounds!) but that was it. I truly got to just enjoy the dinner, meeting, and talk with the exchange students.

My grade had a mini sports festival for just my grade. Guess what we got to play.... SOCCER! It was wonderful to be able to play again, even though it was on a small field with little goals and only for 3 minute rounds. So the set up of the soccer game was different but the point is that I got to play soccer for a little bit and I had an amazing time doing it. My class won both of our games meaning that we get to play in a sort of finals next week.

This is what happens when you join aikido. I noticed the red cuts and bruises on my shoulders before but I just connected it with aikido and all of the うけみ (ukemi- rolling) we do during our practices. So, aikido, soccer, basketball (one gym class), and running (another gym class) left me feeling pretty sore this last week. The good news is that I kind of like that feeling because it shows that I am actually being active!




Valentina invited me to volunteer with her. So, on Sunday we help elementary kids decorate little jewelry boxes (mostly girls). We also helped a different group of kids tear apart old electronics (computers, phones, Thomas the Train toys) and rebuild them into something else like little decorative robots (mostly boys).

Then we went out for cake afterwards! We also received gift cards to a book store for volunteering.







On Monday I met Jamie, the new Rotary Exchange Student from Australia. She is attending my school but she is ichinensei (first year- the youngest grade). She seems very sweet and it will be fun to have another exchange student around, especially since my good friend Mark will be done working at the school in February.

*I just found out that I will have a second host family and that I move to my new house the first week of March!

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.

ふゆやすみ

Wow. That is the one word that I think of to sum up my winter break. I am going to break it down for you in the easiest way I can think of... A LIST! ^_^

Jan. 1- I must admit that missing the American Christmas that I am used to was kind of hard but the Japanese New Year definitely helped make up for the lack of Christmas! Japanese New Years is basically the best parts of the American Christmas. We ate traditional type foods that you rarely eat any other time of the year, read New Year cards (called nengajo- I got 4!!!), relaxed around the house, and spent quality family time together. There was no Christmas Eve service this year but I did get to participate in one of my host dad's Buddhist traditions/ceremony. I also received おとしだま (otoshidama), a special present- typically a little money. I have to say that my favorite part of January 1st was sitting with my host family that night and playing Nintendo64 as a family.

Traditional Bamboo New Years Decoration

Decoration to hand over the front door

Jan. 2- We went to my host grandparents house where I met my host aunt and uncle, received more 
おとしだま,  ate more delicious food, and got to hang out with my cousins. We went shopping, New Years is like Black Friday in the US- most stores have huge sales. I bought a sweater and Ojiisan bought all of the grandkids sweats. We also watched a scary Japanese movie and played cards.

Jan. 3- Risa, a friend from school, invited me to go to じんじゃ (jinja- shrines) with her. Visiting shrines is a traditional way to celebrate the New Year. You go and pray for a good year, health for your family and friends, or good grades. Risa and I walked from one city to the next city over, stopping at three shrines and one こふん (kohun). At the first shrine we went to we also got our fortunes told (making me 2/2 on getting the luckiest fortune) and bought fair type food- baby custard (like doughnuts except not fried) and candy apple.

This is Kohun- of course from where I was standing it just looked like a bunch of trees.

Jan. 4- I met Tia and Mai in number to watch The Hobbit. The movie was fantastic up until the ending. The book is not that long but a lot of things do occur throughout the story. So, I was surprised when the movie ended and we were only a third of the way through the book. After the movie we ate at Krispy Kremes and did a little shopping. The sales were still going on and all three of us managed to find something that we just had to buy. I got a nice sweater that was originally $170 for $20- YEAH FOR SALES SHOPPING! After shopping I went to Mai's house for a sleepover. Her family took us to a shrine, first time I didn't get the luckiest fortune, and out to dinner. The restaurant we went to was extremely fancy. We had multiple courses including (but not limited to) salad, lobster, steak, and dessert. The food was prepared on a grill/stove right in front of us. It was a bit of a shock to see the live lobsters being prepared for dinner but Mai and I were reassured that lobsters don't have the nerves that feel pain so being put on the grill doesn't hurt them... just cooks them... Back at their house, Mai and I decided watch the first Lord of the Rings movie before calling it a night.

Jan. 5- Mai and I met up with a couple of Japanese students and exchange students from her school and went to かいゆうかん (Kaiyuukan) the aquarium in Osaka. Then we took a ride in a ferris wheel, but not just any ferris wheel. "Sitting at the mouth of the Osaka Bay is the enormous Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel, formerly the biggest, tallest and most technologically advanced observation wheel in the world (now surpassed by the even more massive British Airways London Eye)." The view was absolutely amazing! Then I went back to Mai's house for another sleepover and we watched the second Lord of the Rings movie.

Jan. 6- I went to Mai's school so that she could work on an art project. At the school we met up with a couple of exchange students from the day before and had a grand old time giving each other riddles to try to solve. Then I returned home and prepared to return to my own school the next day.

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.