"It's like I'm the muffin man!" "Sugei sugei!" = a week full of magic

I haven't written for about a week and a half, by my very accurate estimate. My apologies. But, to paraphrase...

　　　Now two Fridays ago, Natsu and our friend Chika and I went shopping in Meidaimae, which was nonconsequential. Afterwards, we went to Chofu and did purikura and got !!!Dippin' Dots!!! Ice Cream of the Future! That ice cream always makes me feel really, well, cool. I only mention Friday because I took a picture of all my purikura so far...everyone keeps asking me what they look like, so here's a picture; also another below...(not the Totoro pic)

Last weekend, Natsu, my host mother and I went and met up with her sister and family who live outside Tokyo, about 2 hours away. Her sister, whom (grammar police, is that right? whom?) she told me to call "Oneechan" ("big sister," so kind of funny for me as the exchange student to be addressing her as) has 2 sons, Ahari-san and Haruku-san, who are my age. We went to lunch with all of them, and the adults were at one table while us 4 non-adults were at another. This was possiｂｌｙ one of the most silent lunches I have ever attended. The boys were so shy to be talking to a gaijin (foreigner, if you remember), and a female gaijin the same height as them at that, that either they talked with Natsu, or the huge majority of the time, said nothing at all. At first cute, this was very boring by the end. After lunch, we dropped off the boys and their father at their apartment, and oneechan, my host mother (hereon referred to as okaasan, by the way) Natsu, and I went to the "Herb Garden," which is as it sounds. We first toured their (guess what?) herb garden, then went in and walked around their store. Natsu and I dtermined our favorite and least favorite herbs (best: peppermint, spearmint, eucalyptus, lavender, geranium, red rose petals, jasmine...worst: hop and chaste tree. I had a stomachache and headache after smelling them, as well as a minor coughing fit.) We had iced tea after that, during which I discussed the concept of Wal-Mart, the "Keep Austin Weird" campaign, and general capitalism with them. More importantly, I found a Totoro-shaped pastry! Score....

Monday was off, as was this last week for the mostpart--but mroe about that--because of the prior exams...sooooo, Natsu, our friend Kuu-chan and I planned to go to a school festival outside Tokyo where they both had friends. On the way to meet Kuu-chan, Natsu and I went through Shibuya and walked throught the entire 109 (Ichi-mara-kyu, which is this colossal mall.) Shibuya itself didn't impress me as much as I thought it would, since it is so famous, although there were so many people that in that sense, it was very remniscent of NY. However, we only stayed within a few blocks, so I guess I can't really judge. Anyway...we met Kuu-chan at the festival, and we went though from classroom to classroom. The only things that really stood out were the gameroom--in which we had to complete various tasks along with the multiple elementary school children arround us; I felt slightly idiotic, but it was really really fun fishing balls out of a kiddie pool and catching kleenex with chopsticks--as well as this mass organized dance the school dancers did in Harry Potter-esque costume (think robes--check the picture)--and a play we went to there that was in Japanese, meaning that I only understood that at the end this girl dressed as a guy was about to commit suicide...in case you were wondering. We subsequently left, (obviously) and went and did, of course, purikura. We got off the train at this random start and Natsu got us lost, but right before we were truly really lost, we found a purikura place, so it was okay =) After doing purikura in this random place in Tokyo, we walked out and there was a shrine's festival going on. It was very cool and interesting timing.

So, even though this last week most everyone didn't have class, I still had Japanese (language never ends, right?). Some clubs still went on, and after my classes on Tuesday, I ate lunch with the dancers. This was a bad idea because somehow they got the idea that I should try their club. I knew it was not going to work--I just am not a dancer--but I went, because they are my friends and everything deserves a try within reason, right? My suspicions that it wouldn't be the club for me were confirmed, though, when they all stretched at the beginning and did stretches I didn't believe possible for a natural human being. I ended up watching them be the brilliant dancers they are (no sarc--they are really amazing.) At the end, they performed this dance called "Buddhist Heaven." It was so perfectly synchronized, choreographed...it was the best dance I have ever seen, no joke. I got chills watching them.

Regardless, I came to the ultimate conclusion that dance was not going to be the club for me. I tried for the rest of the week track and field. Like everyone else here, the girls on the club are so incredibly nice, and I had so much fun during track and field. The setback was that I do long distance, while they do primarily sprints and hurdles, both of which are something I have never done seriously (especially hurdles--the last time I did hurdles, I was in 5th grade and instead of a flying jump, I did a very exact faceplant into a sandpit.) Needless to say, afterwards, I was sore. For 2 days. But (sorry to start a sentence with but, but...) that hasn't deterred me; I told Kai-sensei (who is both my homeroom teacher and the track and field coach) that I was a long distance runner, and yesterday I went took about half of the team on a 30 minute non-stop run. Very fun, for me at least. To be honest, I will still try out kendo and handball, if Natsu makes me (re: handball--too intense, maybe?) but I think I will probably join track and field. It is really fun, something I like a lot, and I love the girls on the team.

Like I said, for the most part, the girls had the week off, however: 2 days this week, everyone got ready for the school sports festival by practicing various important things, like 3 person walking (column, not side by side = tricky) and 2 people carrying a 3rd person to the finish line of part of a relay. For this, I was with 2 of my friends, and we carried Kuu-chan, who, everytime she was more than a foot off the ground, started to scream, shriek and laugh "KoOoWWaIiI!" ("scary!"). It was so funny, and probably funnier to watch--us 2 running and carrying a hysterical screaming/laughing Kuu-chan to the finish line. Once we had sufficiently carried, screamed, and shrieked, there was an organized jumproper per homeroom class. This entails 2 people on each of the rope swining it....for 48 people who have to jump simultaneously. That was hard. I think we got to 5, though others got to about 3x that....I guess that mass jump rope is not the class talent. Pity. That was Tuesday. Thursday involved the opening ceremony (middle and highschool march in divided by color team--I am blue--to Stars and Stripes Forever, then proceed to do the school excercise routine. What? Your school doesn't have it's own warm-up?) Mind you, it was sweltering humid and hot = so gross.

Yesterday night after track and field, Natsu and I went to a discount shop. We looked around, the usual. I got some great earrings, but the interesting part was when I found this cute dress that was too expensive for my overly-cheap self, especially since it had a slight bleach stain...but I digress. I previously last week asked a museum employee if I could photograph their toilet. Yesterday, I tried to bargain for a discount on this dress in a discount store in a language I cannot, for the most part, speak. Alas, my discount attempt went awry, although I did try. Though--if it was an English reply, the store clerk I would defy. It would satisfy my--chi. Heh heh.

I was super-disappointed today when rain caused practice to be cancelled, thus I was under the impression today would be lackadaisical (PSAT word)...but instead [new paragraph]

I went to Okaasan's work at the pharmacy with Natsu, and while she was working I played babysitter for her coworker's 2 girls, ages 4 and baby. It was so much fun, because I love kids--they are so non-judgemental and it's so much fun to make them happy =) I exerted my interesting things to do for fun energy bar, though; I drew a face on my thumb, had a sock puppet (both of which spoke Japanese, thank you), I made paper-people chains, I cut out clover, stars, butterflies, an apple, totoros, I sang, I danced, I ran in circles, I did string tricks, I did poorly-executed magic, I hid and pretended to be scared, I lifted them in the air, I held mini-races, I created dance moves with umbrellas--okay, okay, that's enough, but that was tough work, but very much worth it.

And the best part of today! I went to hanabi (literally means flower of fire = fireworks display) and wore yukata (casual kimono, not to be confused with the kimono itself, or the yakuza, the Japanese mafia. I made both of these mistakes and would like to spare you, my friend.) This was such a good way to end the week. I included the Totoro picture at the top to show you my expression literally the whole time I wore the yukata. Add the outfit and me chortling ("heh heh") and some fireworks, and that is a very accurate representation of me tonight. It was such a novel thing for me because in America, there essentially is no native dress that the majority dons for big events such as fireworks. I was so enthralled with the style of dress, though; If I could wear a yukata or kimono daily, I would--it felt so elegant. The fireworks were great. There was this really cute Chinese exchange student who spoke Japanese who was right next to me, too, to my lingual embarrasment ;) Speaking of awkward moments, though, there were backless urinals there, right in front of the fireworks. I got a picture, for the sake of taking pictures of toilets. About a couple thousand people were at these fireworks, which lasted about an hour.

BTW: I really love this photo of Natsu and I--too bad the right-side-up version wouldn't load. =(

I above mentioned the PSAT. I, unfortunately, do not get to defy the practice rules that govern the practice test, so in about 2 weeks, I will go the American School in Japan (ASIJ, if initials float your boat, sink your moat, wear your coat, leave you a love note, carry your tote, upon you dote. More later.) I have a big slightly-outdated practice book I started reading for fun--sad but true--about a week and a half ago. I am good at English grammar and the nitpicky like, but I need to really work on long paragraph comprehension (I tend to skim and scan while losing all meaning out the other ear) and do a wee tad of math review. For the most part, though, I think I will be okay. Oh, and I need to check out this vocab list. If you were wondering about my hefty PSAT plans. <--fragment