The Last Supper

Well, I leave tomorrow. I just finished my last full meal in Japan. I love it here, and I really don't want to go, but I know I have stuff to do when I get back. Lots of memories, lots of pounds gained. I don't really feel like writing about leaving, it makes me think about it more. So, I'll leave you with pictures of my dinner to make you all salivate.

Red Robin loses

Up until this day, I held the belief that the Royal Red Robin Burger was the best burger ever made. I was mistaken. Today I ate the greatest hamburger that has ever been conceived by humankind. It was called the Takumijyuudan baaga, and it came from the Japanese fast food chain Mosburger. This burger had all of the elements the Royal Red Robin Burger has, egg, bacon, cheese, plus one added feature: Teriyaki sauce. But this wasn't just a normal burger with teriyaki sauce hastily slapped on it. It was like every ingredient on the burger was part of special ops team; and the Teriyaki sauce was their delicious captain, orchestrating a strike on my unsuspecting taste buds. The burger was delicious, but what was the amazing part was the experience of ordering and receiving it. I told the employee what I wanted, and rang it up, but then paused to inform another employee what I had ordered. She immediately turned around to start making it. Normally, you order your food, and you wait at a table with a number for someone to bring out your burger on a tray. This happened to Gun and Hitome, but instead of bringing food first, the employee brought out an artsy paper placemat (which I will bring home) along with a fork, knife, and spoon, and said something polite in Japanese about waiting a little bit more. I looked behind the counter, and I see not two, but three people standing around this burger, building it to be perfect. They brought it out and placed it in front of me, and handed me a card with a bunch of Japanese on it. I'm still not sure what it says, but I like to think it bears the signature of approval from the CEO of Mosburger. Anyways, I devoured that thing in probably 40 seconds.

Takahashi

So a couple of days ago, Gun and I took the Shinkansen down to Tokyo to visit Mr. And Mrs. Takahashi. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, Mrs Takahashi is my Grandmother's cousin, who wanted to meet me when I came to Japan. The two days we spent with them were great. They were very hospitable, and Mrs Takahashi cooked all order of good Japanese food for Gun and me. On the first day, we went to see Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, Mt. Fuji didn't want to see us, so the top of the mountain was totally covered in clouds. I also wasn't feeling so well when we were up there. This hurts my Colorado pride to say, but I actually got a headache and started to feel sick from the altitude, even though Mt. Fuji is only like 3000 meters. Being at sea level for too long makes you a wimp.

oooh, my head hurts... This place is almost as high up as the altitude I was born at.

After Mt. Fuji, or lack thereof, we drove to a real Japanese Onsen. I was really excited, but confused because I didn't bring a swimming suit or anything. Then I remembered that nobody wears anything at an Onsen. Great. The Onsen was quite possibly the most relaxing place I have ever been. Huge pools of steaming hot water, surrounded by dense Bamboo and rocks. The sauna was also awesome. Smearing salt all over yourself is kinda strange though.

ahhhh....This is the real Onsen, where all the hot water comes from. These onsen are way too hot and way too filled with Hydrogen Sulfide to bathe in.

YFU party

Because the Japanese YFU students are just about to leave for America for a year, and the American ones are about to go back home, YFU decided to throw a party for us. It was great fun. Everybody helped cook a big meal of Japanese food. My favorite was the Okonomiyaki. Everyone talked about their favorite parts of Japan, and we all told the new exchange students how great America is. I also got to play Taiko drums. The party was great, but it served as a depressing reminder that my time here is almost up. I hadn't even thought about coming home until then (well, I did think quite a lot about how I'm going to switch to polyphasic sleep when I get back). Fortunately, I was financially wise and saved as much money as possible for the last week.

I've decided that I really love wa-shitsu (Japanese style rooms). Tatami mats are awesome.

Here are two girls Kevin would have loved to talk to (they both speak only German and Japanese).

School Festival

Sorry I haven't been updating. I now have a great deal of things to blog and only 300MB space to upload, so I'll do several updates as often as the server will let me.

The first thing that has happened since the last update was my finishing school. Luckily, my last day of school coincided with the last days of school before summer vacation, which is when the entire school has a big festival. Ikuei's festival is not too over the top; each class sets up their own table area where they sell food or display artwork from the year. The students work together to sell whatever needs to be sold (In our case, fried potatoes and Ramune), and the extras walk around to the other class' kiosks. Luckily, our table was right next to one of the all-girl classes who sold shaved ice. Even more luckily, selling shaved ice is an intensive job that requires no fewer than 8 cute Japanese girls' attention at all times. Needless to say, I ended up eating a lot of shaved ice.
Mmm...

The table across from us was selling bananas and marshmallows dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles for 100 yen a stick. 1500 yen well spent.

The festival winded down and I said goodbye to all of the awesome people who go to Ikuei. I had such a great time at school. I'm still a little annoyed that I couldn't play in their orchestra, though.

coming up next: YFU party

Festival

Here's the pictures from my fun at the festival. It was so wet, and we only had 2 umbrellas between the six of us. I've never had so much fun in the rain (besides maybe that one time playing soccer with my dad).
Ai wore tom's aviators for the entire night, well past the sunset. I have no idea why.
Tom sure had fun in the rain.
The guy ducked behind Tom was from Denmark. He looks a lot like Spenser.
All in all, I'd call the night a success.

Tha Weekend

This weekend was way busy. On Saturday, we went to a YFU follow up meeting where Gun and everyone else who went to America talked about their experiences and such. After that meeting, Gun was on a panel talking to all the kids who will be going this year through YFU to America. Here's, a small world story: one of the kids going to America is Jeff's host sister from his stay 2 years ago. So I got to meet both his host sister and the girl from Virginia that they are hosting this summer.
This is the only picture you will see of me with the peace sign thrown up. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Anyways, the meeting was cool, I got to meet a lot of cool people who spoke English, and I also met a guy from California who's coming to my school. Oh, Jeff, they said they really loved the watermelon.

Yesterday was a blast. I met my Kiwi friends Tom and Matt in Sendai Station, where we took a train out to this big arena called "biggu arinaa" to watch Ikuei (my school) compete in a Japanese cheerleading competition. Ikuei didn't win, but I still consider the event a success.

These Girls have even more enthusiasm than their American counterparts, if that's possible.

After the event, we went back to Sendai to meet Paula (from Bolivia), Ai (Japan), and their friend from Denmark to go to A festival and Firework display. Paula and Ai were dressed up in full Yukata, which is a summer Kimono. Ai kept asserting that Tom and I must buy Yukata, but neither of us had enough money. It ended up not mattering, we saw plenty of people there without them. It was supposed to be a nice cool day, but unfortunately as soon as we got off the train it started raining cats and dogs. I ducked into a nearby Jusco and got an umbrella, but Between the six of us we now only had 2 umbrellas. Tom and Matt ended up getting absolutely soaked. The festival was great, but really muddy. I kept trying to get Ai and Paula to mud wrestle, but to no avail. I'll add all the pictures in another post next hour.

Daily Life: Part 3

Ok, so I left off with going to the afternoon classes with the rest of the kids. The teachers in Japan are way more apathetic to who is listening and who is not, so lots of them talk all throughout the lesson.

Yes, this guy is actually wearing a mask while sleeping on his desk. Maybe he's doing Uberman sleep and this is one of his necessary naps?

After 3 hours of class, I have from 4-5:20(when the busses leave). I usually either hang out in the computer room some more or go toss a rugby ball around with the Kiwis. I neglected to mention there are 2 other New Zealanders who know enough Japanese to be fully integrated into the classes. There is also one guy from Kenya who is in a different JSL class.

Paul is the most quirky person I have ever met. He doesn't speak a lot of English, but he gets along fine with a hybrid of English and Japanese.

After the bus ride home, I get back and have Dinner right away. Did I mention that my host mom is the best cook ever? Take a look at this okonomiaki:

In the evening, depending on the day, I either stay home and do homework, or go to English class with one of Gun's friends. After returning, I take a shower ( one of those hand held ones where you have to sit down) and go to sleep on a futon in Gun's room.