On Friday I met up with Yuuki from my structure of Japanese lit class and tried Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Ice Cream for the first time! There are some pretty interesting flavors of ice cream here in Japan. The last time I was here there was Sweet Potato Ice Cream, I see Green Tea Ice Cream every where, I've been told (but never seen) there is Soy Sauce Ice Cream in Japan and next to the picture of the Sakura Ice Cream, there was a picture for Edamame (Soy Bean) Ice Cream. Sweet Potato, Green Tea and Sakura are all really good...but I don't exactly know how I feel about Soy Sauce and Edamame...
Tony joined my people and culture class, and we were paired off into our presentation groups that we will be working with for the rest of the semester. The class is apparently a first year humanities class, so my group mates, Yuuya, Akiko and Fumina, are all freshman. We had to fill out these forms about our name's meaning and names in our home culture, and then interview everyone else in the group. They taught me how to do 'Jon-Ken-Pon' (Japanese Rock, Paper, Scissors) to determine the interview order, and I later taught them the nose game to pick the group leader (Fumina lost :P) They all seem really funny and were really patient with me when I didn't understand things, so I think we'll get along really well. Though, I'm beginning to think that my name is really hard for Japanese people, because every time I get asked my name, I have to spell it out for them in Katakana; Ke-i-to-ri-n; and even then they sometimes have problems. Yuuya didn't even attempt to say it and proceeded to ask me my nickname...so now my whole presentation group calls me Kei-chan.
Tony's Tutor, Takami is the treasure of the English Speaking Society at Ibaraki, so after school we went to their meeting with him.(Not so surprisingly) there were a lot of people there that we knew, such as Takami, Ruhla, Adom, Yuuki, Miki and a girl from our People and Culture class named Nana. We played Password and and a game involving the Tongue Twister "How much wood would a wood chuck chuck...", so I had a lot fun explaining what a wood chuck was, and no, Yasu and Rinda didn't make the saying up, it is a very real thing in America.
After the meeting, we all went out to a Ramen shop around the corner from school.I sat with Tony, Takami and Yasu, the club president. Dinner with them proved to be really funny, and I taught them new phrases such as "Bombastic" and "They had to go out back and kill the chicken" (because my meal came at least 10 minutes after everyone else). Yasu proved that he had indeed learned English from movies, because when I called him "Yasu-kun", he was so taken aback since he says usually foreigners have problems saying his name, that it was "a beautiful sound to his ears" and I "took his breath away." Hmm...could get used to that, lol.
It seems to be the custom with clubs to go out and get dinner at restaurants together...and that none of the new members have to pay. O_o Tony and I pulled out our wallets for dinner and were promptly told by Yasu and Takami to put them back since new members don't pay. So that was really nice of them. :3
The next morning, I woke up freezing because I forgot to turn on my heater since we got home
so late from E.S.S. I turned on my heater and peered out the window to this. I literally just kind of stood there shell shocked and it took me a full minute to process that it there was indeed snow on the roof of the building across from me. Since I didn't pack any winter clothing, I ended up doubling up on all my clothes (even pants...and I still had to use a belt!) and drinking hot tea until I went out for the day.I had tried last week, to little success, to find JEK, the Film making club here at Ibaraki. I finally gave up, and using Tony's new cell phone to message the club president. I went to the school today to go to what I thought was a club meeting, but was really just a one-on-one meeting with the club president, Arai-sempai. She showed me the building that all the clubs are housed in, which was...really, really unique. the building has an interior court yard with three floors and rooms going all the way around. Multiple clubs share room space with makeshift walls, so its really, really cramped, but in a homey kind of way.
Arai-sempai showed me the JEK space, which was covered in movie posters and had a tatami and a little table in the middle and a big TV and DVD collection. I got really excited when I realized that it was one of those tables with a heater underneath and a blanket that you drape over your legs, because I had seen them in Manga before, but because I was coming in Winter, I never expected to see one. It was really warm and cozy and she proceeded to show me some of the movies club members had made such as "Gakuran Fighter", "Girl who shakes a lot" and "F*ckup" (which actually was in English...but Arai-sempai told me I should act as a script editor for some of the English movies, since the English was very...unique). She showed me the club cameras, the editing "suite" and then we went to a cafe for lunch.
Arai-sempai is really nice, and we have a lot in common, our birthday just for starters. We like a lot of the same kinds of manga and loved Sailor Moon as children. She also wants to go see Shutter Island and I think Alice and Wonderland with me (since we both have a professed love of Johnny Depp). She also proved to me that this school really and truly is just that small, because every person I knew, from Ayako to Yasu, she knew too ><. She also told me that because I am 20, by the Japanese academic calender, I am actually a junior, which was a surprise.
Because she doesn't really speak so much English, almost all of our conversations were in Japanese, which was actually refreshing, because outside of class and my Korean friends, most people try to speak English with me. Lunch was really yummy, but when I went to go pay for my lunch, she informed me, just like E.S.S., because I am a new member, I do not have to pay. But what I found out from her is that the money for these lunches doesn't come from some sort of club fund, the president and/or exec. committee has to pay for it out of pocket! O_O Of course I thanked her profusely, and she told me to stop by the JEK room whenever I wanted :)
Well, I'm going to check out the room and see if anyone is in the club room before going to Uchibahara (I think that's what it is called) with Tony later. TTFN!
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