Hall that was being put on by a group of undergraduate students. It was initially supposed to be an English Corner Nomikai, but seeing as only three members from English Corner could show up, we opened it up to our friends and made it into a birthday party for Tony. It was really cute how they had it all decorated it up with a huge Tanabata tree at the entrance as well as other sea themed directions through out the place. All the boys were dressed in suit attire and the girls were all dressed in yukatas.
Our waiter was named Totoro, which I found hysterical, and he was really funny and a good sport about me laughing and calling "Totoro-san! "Totoro-san!" like a five year old whenever I wanted to get something to eat. I think he actually kind of looked like Totoro, as weird and impossible as that sounds.The drinks were a little to sweet, but the food was awesome, especially
the Yakisoba, quite possibly my favorite Japanese food of all time. It ended up being really cheap (1200 yen split 8 ways for almost 4 hours) and a lot of fun. I bought Tony a little birthday tiara head band which he wore like a champ for the whole evening and Tomoko bought him a little Strawberry/lychee parfait that we lit candles over and sang him Happy Birthday, which about half the cafeteria full of students ended up joining in on once they realized that it was the foreigner everyone was singing to.They also had all the tables stocked with origami and instructions on how to make cranes, so of course there was an interlude where we all took a break to make 1000 paper cranes like Sadako...but I think maybe our patience and our paper collectively ran out around 20 or so. Takami did further prove his awesomeness however, by making a little origami sculpture of Godzilla before he had to book it because of early trip to Tokyo the next morning.
Rawr. This is Origami Godzilla. He will eat you.
After that some of meandered our way back to the Kaikan and played Rythm four (I'm actually getting good at this game), Pani Pani, Daifugo, Seven Up and other such Japanese games before calling it a night sometime around 1.
The next day, we of course, all slept in. Around 4, Tony, Adon and I went to Ikeda-sensei's (one of our Japanese teachers through the international student center) house, since she invited over all her level three (Tony, Adon and I) and level two (Elena and Maria) students over for dinner. I do not know what the heck it is her husband does, but dang they have a huge house. Its really nice by Western standards...so by Japanese standards...its a major...woaaaaaaaaaah, you're loaded kind of moment. O_O
They had a western foyer with a staircase and vaulted ceiling and on the second floor (that her kids eventually took us on a tour of) there is a whole sheltered balcony for drying clothes, the kids room and their play/study room in addition to the parents room. On the first floor, almost everything was wood except for the Zashiki (more on that in a minute) and their sink for washing their hands is bigger than, I think, my tub at the Kaikan. When we first were shown into the living room, I did a double take and then tried to figure out what it was that had this room making me feel so off putting...
Do you see it?
The next day, we of course, all slept in. Around 4, Tony, Adon and I went to Ikeda-sensei's (one of our Japanese teachers through the international student center) house, since she invited over all her level three (Tony, Adon and I) and level two (Elena and Maria) students over for dinner. I do not know what the heck it is her husband does, but dang they have a huge house. Its really nice by Western standards...so by Japanese standards...its a major...woaaaaaaaaaah, you're loaded kind of moment. O_O
They had a western foyer with a staircase and vaulted ceiling and on the second floor (that her kids eventually took us on a tour of) there is a whole sheltered balcony for drying clothes, the kids room and their play/study room in addition to the parents room. On the first floor, almost everything was wood except for the Zashiki (more on that in a minute) and their sink for washing their hands is bigger than, I think, my tub at the Kaikan. When we first were shown into the living room, I did a double take and then tried to figure out what it was that had this room making me feel so off putting...
Do you see it?
I'm going to go ahead with probably not. For most of you, this would seem a fairly normal living room. And by western standards, you'd very much be right. However, you'd be forgetting that I have come to live in the land of "They-who-love-t0-sit-on-floors", which means I don't remember the last time I saw a sofa outside of the love seats in the International student center. It actually felt weird to sit on a sofa, so our teacher had to tell us to go sit down several times (and even then we kind of looked at her like..."Really?! We can?!").
Her backyard was huge and they even had a place where they could barbecue and really nice
dining area where they also had telescopes and flow in the dark stars taped to the ceiling for the kids to look at (because lets face it...especially since it is now rainy season...I don't remember the last time I saw more than 5 stars in the sky at a time). Their kitchen was white and tile and gorgeous and was instantly very jealous (I don't have a microwave over here and my "toaster" doubles as my "oven" if you could call it that) And yes, that is Ikeda-senesei in the middle of the kitchen with her husband behind her, whose sweet potato and chicken tempura was to die for.
Now, for the Zashiki, as I previously mentioned. A Zashiki is a Japanese style room for entertaining guests. It has tatami floors, a low table, sliding doors lined with rice paper and a tokonoma. A tokonoma, is a space that, if you've ever seen a picture of a traditional Japanese room, were a little confused as to why one part of the room had a built-in recession...and that there wasn't much in it (logical western minds will say that for there to be something like that it must have a reason...but, to date, other than saying you're very wealthy, I still don't fully
understand its purpose). In it owners of the house usually hang scrolls that change with the season or holidays, hang other types of simple beautiful artwork, showcase flowers (such as bonsai or ikebana flower arrangements) or set out the necessary holiday decorations/food for holidays such as Hina Matsuri (Dolls festival) and Boys Day. The most expensive part of the whole thing is the one shining wooden post that attaches it to the rest of the room. It made from very fine Japanese wood, and is finally polished/hand sanded until it is smooth to the touch. I don't fully understand/appreciate it...but my Intro to Japanese studies teacher assured us that now a days, not many houses have them because they are so costly. Ikeda-sensei actually seemed a little embarrassed when I was asked her " Is that a Zashiki and Tokonoma!" because I was clearly telling her I knew what they were and was amazed because I knew of their cost. I was just proud that I remember that from the beginning of the semester. :3
Her backyard was huge and they even had a place where they could barbecue and really nice
dining area where they also had telescopes and flow in the dark stars taped to the ceiling for the kids to look at (because lets face it...especially since it is now rainy season...I don't remember the last time I saw more than 5 stars in the sky at a time). Their kitchen was white and tile and gorgeous and was instantly very jealous (I don't have a microwave over here and my "toaster" doubles as my "oven" if you could call it that) And yes, that is Ikeda-senesei in the middle of the kitchen with her husband behind her, whose sweet potato and chicken tempura was to die for.Now, for the Zashiki, as I previously mentioned. A Zashiki is a Japanese style room for entertaining guests. It has tatami floors, a low table, sliding doors lined with rice paper and a tokonoma. A tokonoma, is a space that, if you've ever seen a picture of a traditional Japanese room, were a little confused as to why one part of the room had a built-in recession...and that there wasn't much in it (logical western minds will say that for there to be something like that it must have a reason...but, to date, other than saying you're very wealthy, I still don't fully
understand its purpose). In it owners of the house usually hang scrolls that change with the season or holidays, hang other types of simple beautiful artwork, showcase flowers (such as bonsai or ikebana flower arrangements) or set out the necessary holiday decorations/food for holidays such as Hina Matsuri (Dolls festival) and Boys Day. The most expensive part of the whole thing is the one shining wooden post that attaches it to the rest of the room. It made from very fine Japanese wood, and is finally polished/hand sanded until it is smooth to the touch. I don't fully understand/appreciate it...but my Intro to Japanese studies teacher assured us that now a days, not many houses have them because they are so costly. Ikeda-sensei actually seemed a little embarrassed when I was asked her " Is that a Zashiki and Tokonoma!" because I was clearly telling her I knew what they were and was amazed because I knew of their cost. I was just proud that I remember that from the beginning of the semester. :3After our tour of the house, Ikeda's children, Waru and Karin and Karin's friend Saho presented Tony
with a birthday card and Adon and I with very elaborate cut out snowflakes before we played Nurf gun "darts" and Tony got gunned down accidently by Karin. After that Ikeda-sensei took the gun away and we played some fantasy game where your job was to collect your hero, place, villian, magical object, transportation and reward the fastest and then make a creative story including all the elements of your story. Waru was on my team so he made up the story, so I have no idea what happened other than there was a knight or king or something. Since neither Maria or Elena (who had arrived by this point) really speak that much Japanese, I made up their story for them (albiet it was a little stilted)...but it basically involved a princess being tricked into a cave by a dragon and then being freed by her midget hero in a boat who came and tickled the dragon with a feather in order to get away. :)
Dinner was a yummy spread featuring Maria's pasta, Mr. Ikeda's tempura, Salad, sushi and other various goodies. Karin clearly takes after her mother, as she took it upon herself to teach us all how to properly roll sushi. She and Sato were really cute.Since I said that I had never had Natto (fermented soy beans), Mr. Ikeda decided that there was no time like the present to try it, so I said sure, why not! I'd heard gross things about it from my cousin Nicole when she was here five years ago (and that girl will eat just about anything), but I figured it was just one of those Japanese foods you had to try. I didn't, however, expect it too look like this...
Lets just say that with the texture of slime. I was not able to stomach this.
We finished out the night with pizza courtesy of Tony, some of my no Bake cookies, a fruit cake and chocolate cake the Ikeda-Sensei's children baked and took great pains to frost "Happy Birthday Tony" (of course in Japanese across the top before we headed home for the night.
On Tuesday, I met up with my tutor Ayaka Chiba for the last time. :( Being as she is a graduate student, she does not have normal finals like everyone
else and only has one report. She wants to be a children's librarian in the future, and she just lucked out and got an internship at the Library in her home town starting next Tuesday, so we met up today to have some fun and unfortunately, say goodbye. I get the feeling I'm going to be saying that a lot over the next month :(
We originally just going to go the cafe where she works, but then I mentioned that i had never been to the Mito art tower (a rather odd looking tower in the middle of the city, that I found, does not actually house any art...though they do have an art
museum next store.)
Given that it was cloudy on and off raining, it was probably not the best day to go up the tower, but it did mean that we had the tower literally all to ourselves, and I thought we were able to see for a fairly good distance.
On Tuesdays - Fridays, no one physically mans the ticket gate at the tower, so you have to go to the entrance hall at the museum to get someone to unlock the doors and let you in. They had to turn on everything, from the video screens to the elevator air conditioning just for us, so I felt a little bad..but then again, that is there job...
The elevator was creepy. You go up the interior of the tower, which, if you look at that thing, doesn't have that many windows...so despite the fact that the elevator is all glass, you really can't see much except the creepy inner skeleton work of this oddly shaped behemoth. The top is just as oddly shaped as the rest of it, just with more "windows" (more likely oddly places port holes) at random intervals all over the place (this is again why I don't like modern art. It makes little to know sense. If the goal is 
give views over the city, put views on all sides of it, and don't have little portholes so low that you'd have to lie on your belly to see through them.)
Since the top of the tower wasn't all that big, we had a fun time with just the two of us, running around trying to find things we knew in the city such as the school, which we think we successfully located way off in the distance. It really put it in perspective just how out in the boonies compared to the main hub we were....This picture isn't it...but it was one of my favorites.
After I was finished playing pipe monkey from climbing all over the tower to see through different portholes, we headed back to the main drag of town to go to Cafe Rin, where Ayaka works on the weekends and where we've had cake and tea before.
Its very much a cozy little hole in the wall, where everything from the little alleyway its located on to the oddsnends tables and children's books that they have lying around and definitely is a place where I'd expect their to be regulars and were this America, the owner would be on the
first name basis with a lot of them. Its really a nifty little place, albiet a bit pricey. But their artistic plate presentation and biscuit with cream and raspberry sauce somehow makes it all worth it as you watch your wallet get thinner. ><
I got chocolate mint tea and Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. To die for.
Tell me this doesn't make you drool and I call you a liar.
On Tuesday, I met up with my tutor Ayaka Chiba for the last time. :( Being as she is a graduate student, she does not have normal finals like everyone
else and only has one report. She wants to be a children's librarian in the future, and she just lucked out and got an internship at the Library in her home town starting next Tuesday, so we met up today to have some fun and unfortunately, say goodbye. I get the feeling I'm going to be saying that a lot over the next month :(We originally just going to go the cafe where she works, but then I mentioned that i had never been to the Mito art tower (a rather odd looking tower in the middle of the city, that I found, does not actually house any art...though they do have an art
museum next store.)Given that it was cloudy on and off raining, it was probably not the best day to go up the tower, but it did mean that we had the tower literally all to ourselves, and I thought we were able to see for a fairly good distance.
On Tuesdays - Fridays, no one physically mans the ticket gate at the tower, so you have to go to the entrance hall at the museum to get someone to unlock the doors and let you in. They had to turn on everything, from the video screens to the elevator air conditioning just for us, so I felt a little bad..but then again, that is there job...
The elevator was creepy. You go up the interior of the tower, which, if you look at that thing, doesn't have that many windows...so despite the fact that the elevator is all glass, you really can't see much except the creepy inner skeleton work of this oddly shaped behemoth. The top is just as oddly shaped as the rest of it, just with more "windows" (more likely oddly places port holes) at random intervals all over the place (this is again why I don't like modern art. It makes little to know sense. If the goal is 
give views over the city, put views on all sides of it, and don't have little portholes so low that you'd have to lie on your belly to see through them.)Since the top of the tower wasn't all that big, we had a fun time with just the two of us, running around trying to find things we knew in the city such as the school, which we think we successfully located way off in the distance. It really put it in perspective just how out in the boonies compared to the main hub we were....This picture isn't it...but it was one of my favorites.
After I was finished playing pipe monkey from climbing all over the tower to see through different portholes, we headed back to the main drag of town to go to Cafe Rin, where Ayaka works on the weekends and where we've had cake and tea before.Its very much a cozy little hole in the wall, where everything from the little alleyway its located on to the oddsnends tables and children's books that they have lying around and definitely is a place where I'd expect their to be regulars and were this America, the owner would be on the
first name basis with a lot of them. Its really a nifty little place, albiet a bit pricey. But their artistic plate presentation and biscuit with cream and raspberry sauce somehow makes it all worth it as you watch your wallet get thinner. ><I got chocolate mint tea and Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. To die for.
Tell me this doesn't make you drool and I call you a liar.Today there was an international get together at the Shien kaikan (kind of like the less bustling,
smaller, dirtier Japanese version of the HUB I suppose?) for students across the prefecture...which was like just about every other international party I've been to so far. Not enough food and to many jikoushokais (self-introdcutions) that no one actually listened to or could hear for that matter. It got a little old, especially because we've all seen each other at some point or another, but not none of us really interacting with people outside of the ones we all ready knew, for various reasons, the biggest one being the distance between our towns. Oh well. The best part was when one guy, instead of saying he was from Bangladesh, introduced himself as Bangladesh...which Tony found great because after all, How many people can say that they've shaken hands with the whole country of Bangladesh?
smaller, dirtier Japanese version of the HUB I suppose?) for students across the prefecture...which was like just about every other international party I've been to so far. Not enough food and to many jikoushokais (self-introdcutions) that no one actually listened to or could hear for that matter. It got a little old, especially because we've all seen each other at some point or another, but not none of us really interacting with people outside of the ones we all ready knew, for various reasons, the biggest one being the distance between our towns. Oh well. The best part was when one guy, instead of saying he was from Bangladesh, introduced himself as Bangladesh...which Tony found great because after all, How many people can say that they've shaken hands with the whole country of Bangladesh?
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