Masai is not only a tribe of people in Kenya

Yes, this is true. I will do a little synop for your sis, re for your cap, hakuna for your matata...

Part 1 --Masai

Masai is the name of the annual school festival that is perhaps the pinnacle of one's school life existence if you go to St. Margaret's. Very big deal. So much goes on in the planning--everyone takes it sooooo seriously (some people had been doing serious preparations for 3 months in advance!). Every club does something, whether it be a booth or an exhibition. I was most impressed with the Tea Ceremony club--the girls all wore kimono, and for ￥２５０ yen, you could be seated, served tea they made in front of you, and eat a traditional Japanese sweet. It was seriously intense. I am in track and field club, but when I was "working the booth," as they say, I was in the IEP (international exchange room) doing my thing--namely, putting my fantastic persuasive advertising skills to use and yelling, "国際交流！見て行って下さい！中二Bです！" which basically means, "IEP Room! Check it out! Room 2B in the middle school!" I guess it's enough of a spectacle to see a foreigner shouting her lungs out in a different language, so the advertising worked--the number of people who came was pretty successful. When I wasn't working (which all but an hour of the time every day), I was hanging out with my friends and taking loads of pictures. Everyone can bring a camera to school during Masai, and everyone took advantage of that. On the second day of the festival (it was 2 days), if you remember (and if I mentioned it earlier in the blog), my friends cajoled me into doing a quiz with them on stage. I had no idea what this involved, but I did it anyway. There were 3 parts to it, I found out on stage...1. answer the question, 2. guess what the person on your team is writing as an answer to the question, 3. guess what you are touching in the box blindfolded. #s 1 and 2 were okay, but #3 was embarrassing--I was standing up at the front blindfolded. I guessed what it was, and they told me I was right. However, it turns out I was a little late and was the only one standing there blindfolded reaching out into midair like an idiot. Alas. It was so so so fun, but again I can only put up pictures of my friends and assure you it was suberbly enjoyable--at the end, many girls were crying because of the effort they had put into it and because it was fun for 2 days, and then ended.

Part 2--Boys' school's festival

Because of the strains of Masai preparations and work, everyone had Sunday through Tuesday off. Sunday, Natsu, Tomoka, Ringo, and I went to a boys' school's festival where they had friends. Natsu in particular had a guy friend she who she said wanted to meet me. I did eventually meet him, but he was really really shy (even Natsu said he was acting really shy!) so we bid him adieu (in Japanese, of course) and floated around the festival for a little bit. I have to say that in my opinion, Masai trumped this festival, but it was still really fun. We didn't do too much there, since there wasn't anything seriously compelling to do there, but we met their friends at the school and listened to bands that were out of tune and really loud. It was fun.As we were walking out, a guy ran up to me and said "すみません" [excuse me] and asked for me phone's email address (the way you text message someone in Japan). I gave it to him, and my friends then proceeded to explain "なんぱ" [nanpa] to me. In Japan, if a guy meets, no, sees, a girl he likes, he goes and asks for her phone's email and then later introduces himself via text message. She then can respond or blow him off, accordingly. I personally contrast this with some guys in America ("Hey, babe!" *proceeds to hit on a random girl who is mouthing, "Help me!" to her friends*) I didn't blow this guy off, but I tried to stay within my phone's texting budget. Anyway.

Part 3--Tokyo DisneySea

Yes, the wonder, the enchantment, the excitement of Disney! Sea! I was really excited going in, and it was really fun, but I have to say that DisneySea doesn't have quite the same flare as DisneyLand--if I remember DisneyLand accurately from when I went in elementary school--because DisneySea has all the alternative Disney animations, the ones that weren't as commercially successful as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and the gang. Think Chip and Dale, the woodpeckers, Sinbad, and other really obscure Disney creatures that no one remembers (who?). The magic was slightly lost, but I was with my friends and we regardless had a super-awesome time. I went on my first upside-down rollercoaster, and they forced me to go on the "Tower of Terror," which I thought at the time was a really bad idea. The first time, after much failed persuasion, I sat outside and waited (My logic was this: if I get really scared, I will lose a lot of sleep for weeks upon end, be unable to learn Japanese or function wholly, get kicked out of my school here, go back home early, do badly in school there because I missed so much, be unable to get into college, have a bright future, and die a broken person. It was too big of a risk for one ride.) They convinced me (somehow, I'm not sure) but I went. Check out the picture I took of the in-ride picture. I'm wearing the gree fleece. =) At the end, we got おみやげ (omiyage, or souveneirs) for everyone we knew--this is a very big deal in Japan, because it shows that even though you didn't see X person, you still remembered them when you were out haveing fun. Very important. Anyway, Tokyo DisneySea is pretty far away from where Natsu and I live, so we got up about 5:30-ish (am) and left about 9:30-ish (pm!) and at the end, we were tuckered. Literally.

Part 4--P.S. Piano lessons

Every Tuesday, Natsu has a piano lesson. On these days, after school/club we go to her grandparents' and then (if I haven't fallen asleep in their tatami room =] ) we go to her piano lesson. Her teacher and co-students are so nice! They made sure my nampa text messages in Japanese made sense, were spelled correctly, etc. =)

Part 5--P.P.S. Halloween

A lot of people have asked me about Halloween in Japan. Essentially, it is an imported holiday that exists mainly for commercial reasons (ex. DisneyLand's October theme). In some areas, people do do Halloween-y trick-or-treating sorts of things, but mainly, as where I live, it's not common. I, for one, celebrated Halloween by reading Stephen King's Carrie.

soooooo...bye bye for now.