Back tracking

Oookay

Today`s backlog is Yosakoi Soran!!!


Basically, its the freaking sh--
er... its f--..eh..

its really really great!

I`ll try to do a bit of what I understand as the explanation. It start in fishing villages or something, `soran` being the term/word/saying of the action of pulling fish in to the boat..ish..I think I could be wrong, but thats what I thought. You know what, I`ll just find a wiki-link...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi

Its dancing...except dancing on crack, think your stereotypical Japanese dedication and you`ll imagine how awesome it was to see these highly choreographed dances.

I can`t vouch for any of that besides that I saw the Sapporo festival, which was freaking sweeeeet. Apparently its a huge tourist draw. Hokusei has a team, and may I say there were awesome? They did this costume change half way through...it was great! One of my friends here is on the team that won two years in a row, and let me tell you, they were cool. Er... I`m running out of appropriate descriptor words. This is getting awkward....Ah..let me show you..i think...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWd_c7niTxs

This was Hokusei`s team!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-D0BIPSgWI&feature=related

this one was the winning team, actually starts the dancing around 1;43


This festival is definitely one of the things thats going to stand out about my experience here in Sapporo.

Funnily enough, recently I went on a bus tour to the Shakotan area of Hokkaido. Shakotan is west and I got to see some ocean action, which was fantastic. Randomly enough, at one of the stops Shakotan was having their own actual Soran festival, and the Hokkaido university yosakoi dance team was there, as well as the winners of the festival, (which my one friend is in) imagine our mutual surprise.

Still, I got to see two great dances live..-again- and this time without the huge crowd. Yay bus tours.


Eh, gotta run again, more on the random bus tours Ive been on later, definitely check out what I posted about Yosakoi!! Until next time, later!

Oh hey..

So ...apparently I`m supposed to be keeping up with this or something...who knew, huh? Sorry any and all who actually read this, its not that Ive been extra busy or nothing at all has happened...its just..well...Im lazy.


Reality hurts sometimes...anyway.

I think I`ll tell you all about Hiroshima. But first, let me say that today is the second day in the row its been around 28ish degrees Celsius. Do the math, its nice. Real nice.

SO. Me and three of my fellow BCA students went to Hiroshima over Hokusei`s sports festival long weekend! We flew from Sapporo to Tokyo, then Tokyo to Hiroshima on Wednesday. From the airport, we took a bus to Hiroshima station, which was pretty close to the hotel, so lucky us. If memory serves we hung out at the hotel, since it was kinda too late in the day to start anything

THURSDAY! We first went to breakfast, which was buffet style, which was nice. Afterward we made our way to the Hiroshima Peace Park via..what are they called...cable cars? Yeah..those things. Anywho, the peace park was pretty fantastic. First, it was big, and pretty. Also like...apparently all schools by Hiroshima do field trips so there were hundreds of little kids running around, some saying `Harro` in varying degrees of correctness to us. They usually got a kick out of us responding in the appropriate Japanese. The A-bomb peace museum itself was incredibly powerful. I don`t think I could quite do it justice..but I`m sure you could imagine what a museum dedicated to the horrors of the atomic bomb would be like, yeah? Very powerful to say the least. It turns out Hiroshima is the leading city (or something) in advocating for the disuse of nuclear weapons. Sort of figures....but hey, the more you know, right?

We did various shopping and walking around afterwards, it was a good time. The next day we went to Miyajima, which was awesome. Its this island a ferry-ride away from the city area. The one word I could probably use to describe it is touristy. They have soooo many shops with the exact same products in them. It was insane, but a good kind of insane. -My- kind of crazy. Anyway, there were also wild deer roaming around, so we had to watch where we were stepping. After the ferry ride we walked to the cable cars that brought us to the top of Mt. Misen! The main reason I wanted to go up there was to see the wild monkeys...unfortunately, the monkeys were in the forest eating, or so the signs said. NOT a single monkey to behold, and we did a lot of hiking (in not-hiking clothes) in thejungle with the giant bugs.

It was sort of fun though....


anyway, we went down and on the way I saw someone from the peace museum in another cable care, which prompts this tiny side story: I notice that wherever we go to visit, like when we were all in Honshu, you end up seeing the same random people from other sites since youre all hitting the same tourist areas, its kinda funny.

Where was I? Oh, we got back down and...OH. okay, so there was this giant Torii Gate (a red gate .....er..hard to explain, google it) that is in the middle of the sea...well not quite the middle but you can walk out to it during low tide, and when we got down it was low tide so..I ..walked...to it..

you following?

Yeeesh. anyway...yeah...it was cool.

I think I fail at blogging. That was pretty much it for Hiroshima, we werent there long, but it was a good trip, sorry for the lack of play by play... Anyway, currently, as I said, its a beautiful day out. I have class in about ten minutes, but not to worry, its a short one. (I knew you were)
I have about 3 weeks left, 3 WEEKS!? Yikes, the time flies. Im excited to go home but I can`t imagine leaving Sapporo. It has been surreal. I continue to love my host family. They recently gave me a I cant spell it..its like an old japanese two piece of clothing, you dont really wear it out but its okay to have...and wear inside..and for old people to wear..

yeah..

anyway, gotta run, Ill try to update more .... and not be such a bum

Memuro / Golden Week

I spent a good half an hour updating and the browser crashed.

I am not a happy camper.

Not at all.

Golden Week update;

Saturday was Hanami, sat around with the international club, Hi-C and hung out. Was lots of fun.

Sunday went to Memuro. Memuro is through the mountains about three hours away. It was amazing. The weather was fantastic. I enjoyed Memuro`s country-side-ish vibe too. It was definitely not a bustling city, but still, was nice.

Have I mentioned this is incredibly frustrating after I already typed all of this!?!?! Anyway...moving on.

We were staying at my host mom`s late husband`s sister`s / Family`s house. There I met my host mom`s other daughter and her husband and her 13 year old. He was a cool kid. He spoke barely any english..but that was okay. That day I went park golfing, which is basically short course golf with a bigger colored ball. I wasnt half bad. While there, we saw a helicopter going back and forth between a station and some trees right next to us at the course, but a little up a mountain/hill thing. It was spraying the trees, I supose with water...I mean if it was poison I probably wouldnt be here to talk about it...also probably not the safest thing to spray next to a golf course..yeah?

That night was my first experience with an Onsen. I enjoyed it...except for the..er...nakedness. Let me explain, an Onsen is a hot spring / bath house. And the Japanese do not wear bathing suits or anything there. In fact they barely wear even a little towel to cover anything up. I mean it`s a completley culural thing and wouldnt have been a big deal if I had grown up going to Onsens... but as it stands that was my first time being so..very...naked in public....Sure I was on the swim team..but even we werent so.....naked.

Okay..Im over it. It was a good experience, theyre nice, but..naked. Anyway, this is what happens, you de-clothe, and then you go to a station where you sit down and clean yourself up. Soap and Shampoo and the works, there was a shower head and a bowl where I was. After that, you pick a bath and slide on in. There are various baths, mostly hot. Some have jets, some are even hotter than the normal ones (which I could not do) and some are outside, which was really nice with the breeze and everything. There was even a hotter-than-Hades (Hades?) sauna, with a cold bath next to it. It was ...overall... a good time. Refreshing..but..so.....naked.

Anyway, the next day I went wild vegetable picking with the late husbands sister, my host sister, and the grand son. It was interesting...we picked these things whose names I cant remember right now. The were green and their stalks sprilaled at the top. They werent half bad either, apparently a good food to have. Later that night we had a BBQ! IT was amazing, they had all types of meat, and vegetables. I was especially a fan of the meat, as Im not such a fan of fish. I even had what I think was chicken neck..or something like that. Some things get lost in translation. There was even cheese inside potatos and just plain fried cheese. I passed on the fish.... BUT I did eat the asparagus, so points for me, yeah?

The next morning we all parted ways, the other daughter and her family left early, which was a little sad, I enjoyed my time with them, I really like my host family and her extended family. I hope I get to see them at least one more time before I go... Anyway, me and my host mom left around noon via fast train towards Shin Sapporo (which is a station that connects with the subway line back to the house). That was a fun trip, we got to get a close up again of the mountains, and can I say what a beautiful country side it was? I never get tired of living in the vicinity of such a gorgeous picture, even here I can look out the window of the school cafeteria or my classroom and see the mountains. Its nice, especially coming from Flatsville, USA.

Thats all for Golden Week. School is going well, and I continue to love it here. Take care all, and a special shout out to all Moms out there, but most especially mine! I`m sorry I can`t be home in person to wish you a very happy Mother`s day! I love and miss you very much, Mom! It was due to your influence that I went to St. Norbert in the first place. I can remember being a relatively uninterested college-searcher. Who found SNC with the Japanese program? That would be you. And here I am, in Japan. Thanks for always being there for me, even when I`m not in the country.

Take care all!

Of Aflack, weather, and other things...

SO. It`s friday morning and I was rushing Wednesday so here is le blog of the week. I try to incorporate all languages equally...


Anyway, so, you may be wondering why I mentioned aflack in the title of my blog, well....let me tell you. I was watching t.v, as I occasionally if not frequently do, and an Aflack commercial came on. Let the record show, in Japan, that duck is faaaar less obnoxious. His `Aflack` is more of a comforting duck-like presence, instead of an ear grating word that might give the listener a small death wish.

The weather was weird again. It rained and then snowed hard core on Sunday, but now its like 70 degrees out. Niiiiice.

Golden week traveling starts today I think. It`s today, Friday, until Wednesday (which I have off anyway) Lots of Japanese will be out and about, although I`ve heard many may have cancelled American and Mexican trips, one can only imagine why....

I think tomorrow I may be going to a `Hanami party`. This is when you go to a park that the flowers are blooming in and sit around and eat...among other things. Its seems like a lot of fun, or so I hear. Sunday I`ll be going to my Host Family`s other house 3 hours away. Im pretty sure its like a really old cabin. That`ll be for 2 days. We`ll see how that goes..

Judo is going well, they asked if I wanted to enter a tournament later in the month..hah.. I told them I`d gladly watch. Something tells me I wouldn`t be able to handle it actual competition, its hard enough to communicate when I`m doing something wrong. Lets add rules and regulations to that, please...

School is going as well as can be expected. 3 hours at a time is slightly taxing, but hey, what can I do? At least I`ll know some quality Japanese by the time I`m done here.

Ew, speaking of class, gotta run. Hope everyone is taking care and not catching the swine flu.

-Kevin

Wacky Weather, and other things...

Well, people, life is good.

Monday was a fantastic day, as far as weather goes. I threw on a shirt, forgoing the jacket. Put on the afghan, which I'm dubbing the "riding scarf" and away I went with Elias, Kate, and Nat on a nice bike ride. I can't get over living in close proximity to the school, which is right next to the cycling road. Riding my bike every day definitely feels reaaaaaaaal good. Tuesday it rained a lot, which was unpleasant.

I'm settling in with all this school business. 3 hours of straight Japanese is a little daunting, but I am enjoying myself, and am definitely learning quite a bit. I'll be pretty disappointed if I'm not talking more by the end of the class. I had been hoping that being in Japan would somehow mean I'd get over the procrastination bug. I was sadly mistaken. I managed to pull some movies from my friend Elias's hard drive....so Lilo and Stitch I have been watching, and I love it. My independent study is highly dependent on me reading the books on time, which I'm been attempting to do. Soooo much reading, then again, if I plan on attending graduate school, Jason says I should get used to it.

Oh! So. This weekend me and the host family went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was awesome, I should go to more museums, I've decided. It wasn't all just Japanese art, but the stuff I saw I liked! What's the saying? "I may not know art, but I know what I like" ?

Whatevs.

Today is another day of Judo practice in the evening. I like it a lot! I forgot how much I liked it, the last time I was in a martial art I was 15. It's nice to be at something physical again. I even got my own gi (uniform) to use from the captain, which is awesome!

A lot of my friends here have decided / are deciding whether to stay a year. I would love to, myself. I think I'm falling a little bit in love with this place, but isn't that expected? I have much too much to do back home, living in a house, being a freakin' Ugly to a great group of ladies (for those who don't know, it's a St. Norbert thing..) Not to mention I think I would miss everyone back at home too much. I was talking with a friend from Okinawa earlier today, Tati, which was nice. She said something that I agree with, it never gets easier moving away from people, which is kind of what I try not to dwell on while I'm here. It's great that I can meet all these wonderful people, people worth knowing, and I'll move away and in all probability, never see them again.

Booo sad thoughts. Again, I try not to dwell.

We do all we can in the time that we are given, after all, life isn't forever, hm?

In other news, I'm pretty sure I'm going to apply for the JET program. That'll mean after school I'll come back to Japan and teach English ( I think..) of coruse they won't tell me where they'll put me, so it's possible I'll be in the middle of Bufu, Nowhere, Japan, but such is life, yes?

Also, Golden week, which I mentioned before, I think I'll be going to a house 3 hours away with the family and chill for a couple of days with them..


Well that's all from me. Take care all, I'll be sitting here in this internet cafe, probably reading for my independent study, and not procrastinating at all, no sir.

Club Houses and The First Two Weeks

Good news, everybody!


Actually...I've got not much of anything I just really like saying good news. So, here I am, once again at the internet cafe. I already skyped with my parents and sister, which was fun, and I tried to skype with Justin and Jenn, but apparently skype hates me, so we failed.

Class has been good. It's 3 hours a day, every day except Wednesday ( our day off) Thursday and Friday we have additional classes with Jason Barrows. Thursday starts the Japanese Art class, which is comparing Impressionist art to a certain form of Japanese, I don't know, we're not that far into the subject yet. The other class is 3 hours of American Culture ( kill me). We international students are there basically to help Jason so far, as it's mainly geared toward the Japanese students.

Speaking of the students, I really like it here, so far I haven't had a bad experience with people my age here. Yay.

So they have a club house here, which holds, in all the various rooms, the circles or clubs. Ranging from a Tea-Ceremony group to music appreciation to Judo, it's packed with things to do. The first week back was heavy recruitment ( at least I think) and walking in was rather intense. IT was filled with people and I ended up signing up for a lot of stuff, ha! I looked at Aikido, Japanese Archery, hiking, and ran up to see the HI-C kids, (which is the club that helps us international peeps out, love those guys)

Basically what went down was this: I was really interesting in Japanese Archery, 'cause, you know:
"What did you do in Japan?"
"Pffft, freaking Japanese Archery, and what?!"

So yeah. But it was waaaay to expensive for me to just take for the one semester I'm here, so long story short, with the help of my friend Elias, I found Judo, and am going to meet them at 6 tonight!

Other than that, things are going well. It's once again Wednesday, therefore explaining my time spent at the internet cafe. I'm really enjoying my time here, I don't know what else there is to say! More about how clubs go I think, after I'm done with today.

Golden week is coming up, which means I'll have a few days off, don't ask me how I'm goin to spend them though. Also, it should be getting warmer, so the blossoms might actually be in bloom soon. I feel like I had more to say but I can't imagine what it was....

Take care all, I'll write again when something interesting happens, heh.

Honshu Trip

Woooooooooo!

Alright, let's see. Where shall I begin, dear reader? I suppose I can tell you, at least, where I am. Right now, I'm sitting in an incredibly quaint cafe, called "Cafe Coen" Koen means park, and it's a nice casual setting. So far I've had Earl Grey tea, the chicken meal (with a surprisingly delicious salad) and a mango/cranberry mix drink, which is also pretty 'dern good. I am finally back in Sapporo, which is in Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan. Currently, I'm downloading the software needed to upload all my pictures. But let's go to the beginning, shall we?


After saying goodbye to my parents I made my way through the Ohare security, and without much trouble, found my way to the gate. From there I wandered around to look for a money changer (highway robbery, by the way). Having exchanged my money, I went on to Jamba Juice, aka Nectar of the Gods. I really like Jamba Juice, and now you know this about me.

After that I found a seat and read my book until the plane boarded. I met a youngish guy who said he was doing something with aviation. I caught a glimpse of two BCA tags ( bright yellow baggage ties) and had my first look at Patrick and John, two fellow BCA goers. Turns out they (and everyone in this program) are pretty freakin' cool, if I may say so. The trip over there was your average 13 hour ish plane ride. I'm used to such lengths so I wasn't overly bothered by it. I had a window seat, which was nice, and next to me was a Japanese man, and next to him was an American going to Tokyo for an internship. He was pretty cool. Didn't get his name though, we could have totally facebooked.

Side note, I need to break that addiction!!

End side note.

After the plane ride I took yet another, but shorter ride from Tokyo to Sapporo. There we were met with the rest of the group. Everyone has been awesome so far, as I've said. Jason Barrows, our BCA director and chaperone for the trip...and tour guide...and translator...and etiquette teacher....is a great man. I'm really glad I get to take my two classes with him.

My couple days in Sapporo are a bit of a blur, but I met some Japanese students, Kotoro, Rise, Satomi, Mame, and Nori. Everyone has been really helpful and I can tell we're all going to get along very well. Satomi and Mame came with us on the Honshu trip, and I like to call them the Secretary Force, because they would run around buying the tickets everywhere we went.

The trip itself was phenomenal. As I've said the food was fantastic. I can't even remember all the shrines and temples we went too, which is dumb of me, but I'll figure it out when I put on the pictures. A stand out experience in Kyoto was that shrine/mountain, Inari. The entire place scaled up, with orange Tori-gates and most shrines were protected by Fox Statues. It was incredibly strenuous in my out-of-shape state. I think overall I gained some endurance on the trip.

In Nagoya we went Karaoking, and it was amaaaaazing. Lots of fun. Also, underground areas are a major part of the areas around train stations in Japan, from what I've seen. Underground shopping spanned for a pretty big distance. It's pretty fascinating.

I feel there was soooo much that went on. It was an informational trip. I learned more about Japanese culture and etiquette and more about my new BCA friends. We all get along pretty well. My favorite place was Tokyo. I didn't make it to the Sanno (sorry mom) But I did get into Akihabara and ended up seeing many Totoro stores. Uh oh. I need to make a trip back.

I met up with Nariya, who is studying in Tokyo, and we spent a good day together (on my free day) and I even got to see Miki, my conversation partner last semester.

After Toyko ( and by the way, we stayed at the Hotel Pacific, which was quite the upgrade from the traveler hotels we had been staying at, and it was faaaaantastic) we flew back to Sapporo, wait for it, ON THE POKEMON PLAAAAAAAANE!!! I kid you not, how lucky is that? I'm in Japan -and- got to ride the pokemon plane.

Anyway, we are back in Kirari, the guest house for Hokusei (my university) yesterday was orientation, today we took a placement test( ew ew ew) and tomorrow I go to move in with my host family!! Hopefully they'll have internet, then again, I do like this place right here.

Have I mentioned clubs yet? If so, forgive me! Here they have clubs you can join, ranging from Fashion club, to Aikido club, Judo club, Archery, music, dance, etc, anything really! I want to join one but I'm a little worried about the language barrier...



Well that brings us back to me sitting in this cafe. Tonight we're going to do some karaoke, I'm excited. So far, so good, guys, thanks for sticking with the long read, hopefully it was coherent...

Take care all, I'll come back to update soon!