Catch up and chili

　　I feel like I typically start each blog post with an apology. Here's one now: sorry for not posting in a more timely manner--I try to write once a week, but even the best of us fall off the blog-wagon, right? Also, this post, I think, is not as animated as the others, perhaps--I'm tired...

　　So, the concert: as in America, classical music is not nearly as appreciated by the younger generation of people as a whole, thus about 97% of the attending audience was over 50, as an observation. This is always the first thing I notice about classical concerts. The music was really good. I wish I knew where the program was--there was a really really good Saint-Seans piece (it sounded remniscent of Carnival of the Animals' "Fossils," though...) and as a whole was very very good. Unfortunately, I was very very tired, so I was stuck between a rock and Kobayashi-sensei as I tried not to nod off--it was very hard, though. Oops...I'm just not usually one to fall asleep during concerts--although there was this older man behind us who was a real snorer. Nice touch to the concert, I think. This was interesting--at the end, the orchestra played, as an encore, "Stars and Stripes Forever," which, oddly enough, seemed slightly out of place with the general setting. I asked Kobayashi-sensei about it, and she thought that it was because the conductor usually conducts in NYC, but still, it was very strange.

　I have had track and field practice every day except Wednesday this past week, as everyone is trying to get ready for the school sports festival. And I now randomly digress: In general in Japan, I definitely fell like it's: "Jump" "How high?" scenario all the time...but that is the culture, and I am trying so many more things because of it--the one thing I feel that people lose in this sort of societal feeling is the ability to be as self-controlling and opinionated...everything is ultimately for the greater good, and about thinking for the group first before anything. People automatically put the group's self interest first, and this is the reason for the large-scale harmony that sets Japan apart from America, for one. As my host father said to me, "Japanese people have a very difficult time saying yes or no." This has both its pros and cons--I really do love the utopian-esque feeling I have had on multiple occasions when I had difficulty with something (eg, getting home on a different train) and the group of people I am with stop everything, give me directions, send a person to show me where to go, give their cell phone numbers, check in on me later...and this isn't only me, although this treatment is often an immediate precaution to any question I have since I frequent the Tokyo scene as the touristy lost exchange student. Anyway, they go the full 9 yards for each other, too--all for the well-being of the bigger picture. However, this atmosphere in the status quo does limit out having big rebellions or talking out or openly hating the government, unless, of course, is it a colossal majority movement across the nation--and even that would be well thought-out, organized, and the definite consensus. Pity, since I wanted to have a large-scale protest at my girls' school...not. Maybe later.

　　Later last week, I tried to find a store selling traditional Japanese souveneir-y things (being the adamant tourist that I am) that Sakurai-sensei told me about because 4 friends at home had their birthdays and 2 here have birthdays coming up--most unfortunately, I couldn't find it, but as I was in Kichi-joji, which is a bigger part of Tokyo and has this really cool park, I decided to walk around and chill in Inokashira-koen, the park. I mosied (moseyed?) around, and strangely enough, ran into my homeroom teacher/track-and-field coach, which is pretty unlikely--considering the 12 million people in Japan, the probability of knowing very many, and then both people being at the same place in a city as huge as Tokyo. After the park and meeting my teacher briefly, I went back towards the shopping area of Kichi-joji and found this small card and stamps shop. I bought some cards to send to my birthday friends, but not after finding out that one was intended as a wedding card. Regardless, I bought it, though (*cough* tourist *cough*) because it was so beautiful and who will know besides me? And you, but you won't REALLY know.

　　Fast forward to Sunday. I went to MISHOP, an international peeps fest, and helped my friends, including Mami, Sayuri, and Erika in their Phillipines booth (all of the girls had gone as exchange students for a little while). This involved, as I soon found out, general tent setup, wearing their Phillipines school uniform, wearing a sandwich sign advertising Mango Banana Ice Cream they were selling, and yelling about the booth while meandering around the festival. (Well, I will admit the sandwhich sign was my own idea, but that was only because a) I have always wanted to wear a sandwich sigh, and b) I already felt like an idiot as an American non-Japanese advertising for a Phillipines booth in a random uniform.) When wearing this sign, I would typically yell one of 3 things:
・いらしゃいませ！Irashaimase! = General "welcome," used by vendors of any sort
・マンゴバナナイ食べませんか！mango banana isu tabemasenka? = wouldn't you like some mango banana ice (cream)?
・おいしいよっ! Oishiiyoooooo! = very delicious!
This was a novel experience, as wearing a sign and shouting in and of itself requires little inhibition, but then to be the non-related American shouting in Japanese wearing a school uniform and sign is more than a novel experience--it's like a complete fantasy series. (novel? series? never mind....) I took some pictures, but I have to admit that it's a bit hard to post them because I look so awful...but wait! afterwards! I got a haircut! That was novel; definitely. I went to the haircutter Okaasan and Natsu go to and basically requested (or rather, asked my host mother to translate) a haircut that got rid of the dead ends and looked cute. After much ado, I left looking a lot different then my general previous haircuts usually turn out, but I really like it! I was really scared when the person was cutting, because I haven't had bangs before, but now I really really love my haircut!
Interesting thing about the salons here--would you like your hair washed by a person or a machine?


　　But Sunday wasn't over yet! I had volunteered before to make Mexican food for my host family. They held me to my offer, and I was really worried about my cooking, since it can go awry--as I started to worry it would, starting with shopping, as I forgot the recipe I was using and guessed at what was supposed to go in my crunchy chili tacos. We luckily seemed to have gotten everything necessary, so everything was going smoothly until Okaasan decided it was going to take too long, and transferred the chili the the intense pressure cooker. I was really apprehensive--I had visions of the pot exploding into shards and chili splattered on the wall in a Jackson Pollock-esque manner--but all was well, and I have to say that I think it was successful.

　　Today I had Ethics and Christianity again. I have to do a project about Christian history (specificaly, the pope) for the class in my assigned group. This could be interesting--but, before anything is interesting, my group has to do some work, which we can't do now, due to an unforseen language barrier. It will be okay, since Natsu is in my group and speaks English reasonably well, but today she was sick, so it was an unproductive affair. Very boring, but should improve. After school, club was optional, and I was tired, so I was going when I met my friends Ruriko (better known as Muffin, as the nickname I gave her randomly stuck) and Asako on the train. Of course, purikura followed.


　　Tomorrow is the school sports festival, which means that I jumprope, do a 3 person line relay、a 3 person carrying relay, a 1k, and hurdles. Sports day is a very big deal, but there's not too much to explain at the moment--but many pictures to follow!

　　
　　Wednesday is the PSAT! Ka-ching shazam! I'm excited--don't ask me why. =)

　　Must sleep....must sleep....must.....sleeeeeeep.....must....