beginnings of new things and endings of others, like 13 year old toy poodles

　　I made it through one week of normal classes without sustaining any huge life-threatening injuries! Victory! I started normal math and science classes, which were...okay. The first day of class, it was seemingly normal; I had chemistry (uneventful) and 2 hours of Japanese, then 2 hours of off time, then Ethics and Christianity. This was very awkward, as I went to a different homeroom class with people I didn't know as well, but moreover, the teacher didn't seem aware of the fact that I was joining his class, so he treated me like a visitor, and then, when he kind of figured out that I was there permanantly, I was immediately assigned a project. It was all-around awkward, even if it doesn't sound that bad. Oh well.

　　Wednesday, I had what was labeled simply as "Dance PE" first period. Little did I know that "Dance PE" entailed not only dance, but hurdles and jump rope outside. I didn't bring sneakers, under the impression I wouldn't be needing them for dance, and thus, I was punished by having to write what the class did that day. I wrote a mini-essay about who was the fastest hurdler, who wasn't jumping rope, complete with illustrations. Very interesting. I was with two of my friends who also forgot their shoes, though, so it was very fun.

　　Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, I had math, which was pretty easy, since it is one of the "universal languages," and also because I have already learned what we're doing in class.

　　Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5th and 6th periods, I have an elective class--Cooking (which only meets on special days, so usually an off period, as it was this week), Shodo (Calligraphy), or Handbells. Shodo and Handbells are both with the 3rd graders (don't be fooled; they are the highest grade). In regards to Shodo, I really like it, though it makes me very frustrated because I am such a perfectionist, but it is very difficult, though the teacher makes it look so easy. I have so far written "cosmos flower" (the kanji literally means "autumn cherry blossoms") and my name in kanji. My name in kanji has its own small funny story; late one night when Natsu was doing homework and I was pretending to do mine, I was asking her about the different kanji (Chinese characters, each with its own special meaning, pronounced differently in combination with other kanji or alphabet letters, if you were wondering) used for people's names. Somehow this turned into us trying to kanji-fy my name, by means of Natsu's cell phone and an electronic dictionary. It ended up as 桜弩梨, which we originally though translates to "cherry blossom, violin bow, delicious pear," but my friend Momoko corrected me when I showed it to her. It really means "cherry blossoms, catapult, delicious pear." A minor difference. I like both translations, although I slightly prefer this one now. I think of flying fruit. Anyway, this is what I wrote during my second Shodo class. In the pictures, it is quite obvious which paintings are the sensei's (orange) and which are mine (black and generally messy).

　　Handbells? My family and some of my friends know that every time I have been an active audience member during a handbell choir concert, I have cracked up and disturbed the people around me. Actually playing handbells (well, anyway) requires a reasonable amount of concentration, so during the class I sometimes start laughing to myself, mess up, concentrate, relax, smirk, mess up again...

　　I did mention sometime in the past that I joined track and field, right? I think so. If not, I will assure you I did. Even though it is not rooted in ancient tradition that requires special inscense and attire, I am really happy with my track and field girls. I tried kendo club (Japanese fencing) on Tuesday, but it really wasn't the club I wanted to join. From what I could tell, they spent 20 minutes of practice bringing down the wooden sword in a special way while simultaneously jumping to and fro, then for the rest of practice donned seriously heavy armor-gear (rooted in ancient tradition) and hit each other over the head for the rest of practice in a fixed manner. I am not joking. I felt that I prefered not to sustain extensive damage to my brain cells, and I was already friends with everyone in track and field, and I really like to run a lot, so...anyway. I joined the club, though, and then promptly hurt both legs trying to naively teach myself the splits, then do hurdles during PE the next few days. A bit of bad judgment, ending in Japanese cooling compresses. =)

　　Just to make the chronological order of events in this blog entry more confusing, last weekend I got together with Julia Blood, who, 4 years ago (I think that's right) went on this exchange trip. She is now in Japan again for another year as a college student at a university here as a Japan major. It was really great to see her and talk with her, because in my opinion, I think we have a lot in common. Regardless, we had a lot of fun talking about Japan, its quirks and differences from the US. I was really happy to see her because, right now, in all honesty, I am not homesick at all, and really haven't been since the plane trip over (which I will add was one of the hardest things I've ever done.) Multiple people have told me that the 4-6 week point is when they get very homesick, but so far I have just been taking it all in and really enjoying how different Japan is and how amazing everyone I have met is. But back to Julia; she told me that she was really only homesick during Christmas, because she wasn't around her family then as she had been everytime before then. I realized that it's okay if I'm not homesick--there is no established standard of when I need to be. So...that was very nice to hear, because that had been bugging me that week. Also, we had dessert after lunch at this random coffee shop we found, contemplated ordering sweet potato icecream, but instead shared chocolate cake and acacai (sp?) icecream, which I only metion because it was a rainy day and the dessert was tasty, making the overall effect delicious.

　　Where was I on the chronological-as-possible week timeline? Okay, I think Thursday, maybe. No, no idea.

　　A random tidbit as I try to remember what happens next: my friend Kana on track and field team has a pet chipmunk. Another: Everytime I am conjugating verbs during Japanese class and I get to the verb "shinu," which means to die, Kobayashi-sensei talks about her toy poodle that died at 13 years of age. One more random thing is that in Japanese, the number 4 is pronounced as both "yon" and "shi," shi meaning death. I had heard before that sometimes buildings skip Rm. 4, the fourth floor, etc. On the train, though, I saw a parking lot with parking spots labeled 1,2,3,5. Also, in hospitals, there is no Rm. 4. I think that that is enough random tidbits for now.

　　On Tuesday, I went to Natsu's grandparents' house and ate dinner, as I do every week. Her grandmother (Obaachan) made a typical Japanese dinner for us, which was very good. I was trying everything, and was about to put something that looked reasonably normal in my mouth, when I noticed it, rather, they were staring at me. They were these very little skinny fish I was expected to gulp down whole and en masse. This was a bit of a disorienting goal--generally, I prefer my food to not be be having a face off with me-- so naturally, I spent about 10 minutes staring them down, then Natsu counted to 3 and I ate them (But not before a picture!) . They were salty. If you were wondering. Unfortunately, their name escapes me.

　　Reminder! Monday, there is no school, and I will go to the concert with Kobayashi-sensei!

　　Saturday, there was a half-day of school so we could come and listen to the daigakusee (college students) talk about hunger. At least, that's what I think they were talking about for almost 2 hours non-stop. I will openly admit that I had one of the most boring experiences of my life. I didn't understand about 99.32% of what they said, and I couldn't sleep, so I sat there with the same expression as the fish I ate at Obaachan's house (staring forward, mouth slightly open, dazed look). Afterwards, everyone wrote their feelings about the presentation. I wrote that I could tell that there was obviously a lot of effort put into the presentation (they had about 5 slideshows and talked the entire time); unfortunately, I was unable to appreciate it due to a linguistic barrier--aka I was pretty dang bored, better luck next time. Sorry for pessimism, but it was not a great, meaningful experience for me for obvious reasons.

　　But! In about 2 weeks, Sakurai-sensei has invited me to do a 5k (perhaps 10k, depending) Halloween fun run with her. That is exciting. I am looking forward to it, even though I didn't pack anything particularly costume-like for Halloween-fun-run-purposes. I am most likely going to go with the default no-fail 80's workout look, easily executed and maintained. Other ideas are welcome, too...=)

　　So, all in all, not the most exciting flare-and-fireworks week, but not a bad week, either.