Happenings Part II

Don't blame me, blame my mind. It has been calling this teacher Hatsuharu since the first day I saw him. I know, it's a disgrace to Haru's name.

Look, a Hatsuharu who has gotten older, lost all sense of style and really let himself go.

The day I got back from school camp, Cullen was meant to be coming to Tea Ceremony practice. However, I had only just learned that the practice was for only the third years and not for everyone but I figured they would be cool with Cullen and I coming if not just for the practice. So, we waited. And waited. And waited. The clock past 3.30 when it was supposed to start and then continued on travelling until 4.00.

I was annoyed and confused, I talked to one of the Sempai and they were stuck as they didn't have a key and no one had turned up which left me frustrated as we detoured to Kendo to fill the space of time. I could only stay until 5.00 as that was when Akane finished English club. After spirals of confusion, backtracking and aggravation they finally said it wasn't happening which just kind of left me pissed off. I mean, I could have been downloading anime. Angst. >_<

I told them Cullen wanted to see so they arranged for it to be done at 1.00 the next day as being the last day of school, everyone finished early. So, the last day passed fairly ordinarily, we farwelled Kris from our school. He is staying in Nagasaki though so we may still see him around, there were lots of speeches and an hour of cleaning in which time we got less done than in the usual 20 minutes as Cullen, Kiyo-chan and I were planning an outing before Cullen returned to America. Plans which are actually tomorrow. I'll tell you after.

So, with all things said and all things done, we waited torturously for school to end and discovered we had an hour to kill before tea ceremony started. Really we just talked to Kiyo, I played on the computer and Kiyo decided that since his club started at 2.00 he would like to come and have a look at Tea Ceremony as well.

Trudging down to the Tea Ceremony Club room, everyone was rushing around to prepare for us, the unanticipated guests. By everyone I mine all two students and the teacher. They explained a little and I had to translate, Kiyo helped me and then the Okashi came. Because we were doing it properly we were allowed to take two from the plate instead of the usual stingy one we are allowed in club practices.

I had to teach them how to move the plate between you and the following person, bow to excuse yourself from going before them before moving the plate in front of yourself, lifting it to show gratitude and then take your silly little sugary snack. All that fuss for a bite-size snack, honestly... And yet, when the tea came I felt myself feeling slightly overprotective, especially when correcting them. They reached for the tea with two hands instead of just the customary right hand. It reminded me of how foolish I must have been the first time I participated in one of these ceremonies back in Nagoya high school, three years ago. Funny how time changes things. Soon, it was all over and my legs were positively killing me.

Chie, our 部長 (Club Leader) was doing the proper ceremony in front of us which took more time than usual which meant even my patience swayed as I readjusted myself during the ceremony, something I don't usually do. Once it was all over, they showed us each tool and explained what it did and I learnt about some of the positively outrageous costs that they pay for such simple tools. The tea bowls we use, $100. The boiler which we have two of costs over $5000. The whisks are normally $300 but for some reason our school decided to buy $10 ones. That left me bewildered considering that they paid full price for everything else. Go figure.

After finishing tea ceremony Cullen was kid of like, "So, what do I do now? I can't catch a train until 4.00" so I was like, "Well, everyone is getting together at Ringer Hut and I'm heading down there now, you can come if you　like, it is only a 10 minute walk, after all. He agreed and that's exactly what we did. We headed down to Ringer Hut, home of Nagasaki Champon, Nagasaki's most famous dish and was suprised to see not only a small gathering of students but Kris and Jon Min as well.

((Jon Min makes me laugh, he's from China, speaks Japanese fluently and for some reason we just get on really well. He's kind of so awkward it's funny but endearing at the same time. ))

They'd finished eating so basically we sat down for 5 minuted before everyone got up, paid and left. It was after Kris and Jon Min saying they had to leave that I think it was Yuuri got the horrible idea of going to Elena for a repeat performance of desert. If you remember the time when 7 people bought a tub of ice-cream and ate it with spoons in front of the store, that is exactly what I'm referring to. Except this time it was nine people sharing the same tub. >_<

After that, I enthusiastically supported the notion to take Purikura, none of which has been sent to me yet so I can't show you unfortunately. I did ask them to send it, annoying children. So, you'll have to wait for the time being. We hung around the game arcade for like two hours, I was dismayed to find them offering live rhinocerous beetles as prizes. I only did one game, Mario Kart which I won despite being deplorably hopeless at. After everyone had done games and we were hanging around more or less, just for the air conditioning we got kicked out by a staff member. Fail. That was funny. Thus, we said goodbye and headed back off to the station and I went home. Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix was on that night and though I was tired and had Sadou the next day I had to watch it considering not only had I not seen it in ages but I'd planned to see the new, shiny movie on the 20th.

So, yes. The next day, my first day of holidays consisted of me getting up at the exact same time as school and catching the train to Isahaya Station and then waiting for Anan and Shibata, two other members of Sadou who were in my class. They were 15/20 minutes late and had been sitting inside Mister Donuts the whole time with complete disregard for my presence despite the fact I was freaking out. Ever so slightly annoyed.

As a result, we had missed the available buses and trains and had to walk the half an hour required to get to Isahaya High School. I was glad for that fact in the end, but nevertheless was annoyed at the time. We arrived 5 minutes late but no one really minded. Saturday was set for preparation for hosting actual customers on Sunday. It was hosted in the library because it had air conditioning and we transformed the room from a library to a veil of white. In truth, we just covered all the book stands in white sheets, set up the bowls and tables and kind of bummed around waiting for everyone to finish. It was pretty boring in truth although some of the covers to the novels were manga-style and therefore interesting to look at.

Around 1 o'clock, the second years finished their preparations. Anan and Shibata whisked out of there like nobodies business which left me standing there being like, 'Thanks guys, we walked here and you're just gonna leave me to get back on my own without help? Nice.' I know I'm not their responsibility but it would've been polite to check whether I was ok, or to offer me their phone to call someone. Not just leave me in a place I've only been to once. Luckily, I had the information that the library was nearby, not to mention that I did actually memorise the route from the station for the purpose of visiting the library in the summer holidays.

The school and the library were practically parallell to each other and thus with a short walk I decided to hae a look at the library's foreigner section. It wasn't anywhere as good as Kikitsu, no Stephen King but they did have lots of classics and some translated novels by Japanese authors. After deciding to borrow a novel called "Crossfire" about a Japanese girl with pyrokinesis which she uses to murder, and "Memoirs of a Geisha" I dawdled over to the media section, not intending to borrow anything but simply to see what they had.

I was browsing the movies and while mentally noting that they too had Edward Scissorhands, a call of "Ashley?" diverted my attention. Looking up, I was confronted with a gaijin. It was Cullen. I was taken aback by this, not having expected to encounter anyone I knew let alone the other foreigner in my class.

I said hi and also talked a little to his host father who said that they were about to go sightseeing and asked if I wanted to come along. I was a touch hesitant, both not knowing him and not having permission from my host family. He assured me that he would ring to inform them and would drop me home afterwards. Considering I didn't have a ride I said that it would be fine as long as he rung my family which he did and off I went on a totally unexpected sightseeing tour. First was a Japanese garden that stood behind Isahaya High School.

It wasn't the prettiest of gardens but it had some atmosphere and a cute olden style house, which we got to enter when I serendiptiously ran into one of Akane's friends whom I had dined at Joyfull with. She was part of her school's Sadou Club too and was also preparing for something, so she let us inside and did a quick explanation that it was 400 years old and about the fascilities and so on.

After that we visited Isahaya's megane bashi, I was given a free coke by Cullen's host dad and I wolfed down my previosuly bought Melon パン　for lunch. Then we climbed to the top of a hill. It was pretty small but it was all really deep steps and for some reason I found myself puffing really quickly. Shows how out of shape I am. T_T;

On the top was a nice view of Isahaya and a really huge tree which engulfed me in its absolute hugeness. I'm actually in the photo below you know, so is Cullen. Try and spot us.Then we travelled by car to some other place. Where? Don't know. It was between Nishi-Isahaya and Hizen-Nagata where I am currently living. We parked the car on a winding mountain path and then started to walk. You do have to remember that I am doing this on a fairly humid summers day in my uniform and loafers.

We walked in a blank circle once around a mountain path including a scary slope which was covered in moss and had a decent gradient to it. Then, after deciding we were going the wrong way and turned around I became horribly afraid that I'd have to go back up which would be much more of a challenge than going down. Considering I was wearing a skirt and my loafers had no grip whatsoever to them and that I had　to wear my uniform tomorrow and couldn't afford to get it dirty!

Luckily, we just took the tar road leading back to where we were previously without all the embarassment and hassle of mountain dangers. Taking the right fork this time, we were led up a smaller slope where we spotted fresh mountain water which I filled up my empty coke bottle with and the water was accompanied by orange crabs. We continued up the path until we reached a waterfall that didn't have water falling as much as trickling politely as to not splash anyone.

There was also a shrine where they prayed to the 水神, the water God, I declined to do such honour, the tucked away room was sweltering with incence and after Cullen's peculiar display of hitting every different gong instead of just one gong, two times I simply wanted to get back into the cooler air even though that air was still positively oppressive.

The lady talked for a bit about the place and how it was home to the water God and that they did purification rituals or something were a person (probably a monk or something) would wear a white robe and purify the person underneath the water. I also later learnt that that would be the place where we do the funny Shakan Shakan dance with the poles.

After that delightful lecture we made our way back down the mountain and Cullen suddenly became immensely interested in the miniature crabs after hearing the details of how his host father used to cook them when he was a kid. So, Cullen set off gathering up all the crabs he saw in the way. A grand total of four, he put them in an old plastic bag I found in my bag and then we drove back to his house, hurriedly dumped the crabs off to his host mother to cook for him before having the luxury of returning me home.

By this time it was about 6 o'clock. I was quite tired from the day but it did save me doing nothing I guess. Sunday was the day of the proper tea ceremony thing. The third years dressed up in Yukata's and everyone else was just in uniform. We had an unsteady influx of customers throughout the day and I mostly acted as the doorman, greeting them and giving them a piece of paper they would need in the ceremony.

It was pretty boring actually, although before the customers arrived we all got to have out turns. I also acted as someone's second. I'd only ever practiced the greeting before and not having practiced what came after and only seeing other people do it I did forget to give the bowl to my tea maker person and had to be prompted. I felt bad about that but I don't think anyone really noticed, I don't think it really mattered anyway. But I did say the greetings perfectly.

We also got the chance to have a go at Isahaya High School's Tea Ceremony club which was held at the building I had visted the day before with Cullen. There's was better to be honest, everyone was in Yukata and they all played their part very well. Though the room was fantastically hot and I had sweat rolling down my neck before we were ended, the snack was good though. It was the first time I'd eaten one the proper way with the little wooden fork instead of just my fingers. Seiza killed. Proper ceremonies seem to take forever. This is what our okashi looked like:

Once the day was over we had to return back to Kansho (on foot, I saw this bridge on the way, isn't it cute?)Arriving back we went to pack things up and then I played around on the computer for a bit before making my way to the station. It was really coincidental actually because I was talking to my Taxi Driver friend when my host mother showed up out of the blue, if I hadn't stopped to talk to my friend I would have already been inside the station.

((By the way, my Taxi Driver Friend is just a dude who drives a taxi but I walked past him heaps on the way to school. It started off with just nods, then waves, then greetings but this was the first time I'd actually talked to him. Odd, huh? ))

And now, I'm going to briefly cover the 20th, the day I went to see Harry Potter: to Nazo no Purinsu. The reason I say briefly is that I'm getting tired from all this writing, not to mention that my mind was already a little sluggish after having read "The Secret Garden" today all in one hit. 5 hours at the library will do that. I didn't actually know we were going for five hours, I just thought we were popping in so I could return my book after shopping.

We went shopping for Jumbei which is something you wear to a festival, Akane needed one as Kawa Matsuri (River Festival) was supposed to be on today but it rained so it's been postponed. I don't think I ever told you this but Yui's cousin made me a Jumbei for free. How nice is that? Lolz, I also bought the most hilarious top today at Shimamura. I thought it was too odd not to buy, I mean, when would I ever buy a shirt with frills? But it was too bizarre and I found that I liked it in a ridiculous sort of way so I bought it. I also got a black and white muffler with skulls for only $3. How amazing is Shimamura?

Warning: Small amount of Spoilers although they are book spoilers, not movie spoilers. If you've read the 6th book, you'll be fine.

Anyway, Harry Potter. We left for Cocowalk around 11. We met Anna at the station and were on our merry way. At first I was under the impression that An-chan wanted to see Harry Potter too but it turned out that she was there to keep Akane amused and I saw the movie by myself.

The movie was pretty good, Snape had his hair longer and thus was epic sexy of course, they changed around the events and thus Snape killing Dumbledore wasn't as dramatic as I expected but decent nonetheless. You'll also notice that the layout for Dumbledore's office has changed dramatically YET AGAIN. I know it is a magic castle, but I didn't think it was magic enough to change the configuration of the school and the rooms EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

I also spotted a mistake in the movie which I am proud of. It's only a silly little thing but still...

If you want to know what that mistake is, read the P.s.

End of Rant.

The great thing I found about Japanese movie theaters is that although they do not have frozen drinks and the subtitles are a smidgen distracting, they have merchandise shops! Merchandise for the movies. They had pens, keychains, book covers, notepads, diaries and all sorts of things. Of course, Snape was rare on these and it was Gryffindor stuff so the only things I bought were the two things with Snape on it.

One: an A4 plastic sheet holder and

Two: One of those things you put under your paper to stop the pencil/pen imprint going through to the next page. The whole day cost me around $40 but Harry Potter is so worth it. I don't think I'll see Public Enemies but I'll have to go and see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus cause it looks awesome and I'll be back in Australia for Alice in Wonderland so no worries there.

After Harry Potter was over and I died with happiness and fell in love with Snape for twenty billionth time we went and took some Purikura which again, I don't have a copy of. I need to be more persistent, I know Akane has one but Anna has the one I really want. I'll show you when I get it. Lolz, we met a giant Naruto before taking Purikura and I took a photo with him because I knew Jack and Ross would envy me for it.

Tadaa! How n00bish am I. I don't even really like Naruto but I got a headband and showbag all the same. So, after a fun albeit expensive day I got home, packed for Tokyo which was the next day and fell fast asleep. Told you Harry Potter would be brief. >_<

And with that, I leave you as I do dislike ditching my host family in order to blog, I know I haven't done it lately but that's because I've been so damn busy. Tomorrow, I am going to Karaoke with a bunch of gaijin (Cullen, Keri and Carlos, some guy from Latvia) which should be fun. So, I probably won't blog tomorrow. But I will after that about my grand and troublesome adventure to Tokyo and back. However, until then I simply will leave you with my fragmented mind.

Nutmeg Crochet Trumpet Sock.

<3

Ashley-chan.

P.s:

Spoilers:

Right towards the end after Severus has seductively murdered Albus (and I almost cried at how he must have been feeling) McGonagall raises her wand in like a salute to him. Everyone else follows suit BUT Hagrid is in the background. I swear I saw Hagrid holding up a wand. Does everyone not remember that after the Chamber of Secrets was opened the first time, Tom Riddle blamed it Hagrid saying that Aragog was the monster from the Chamber of Secrets and thus Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts and his wand BROKEN. The shards of which he then hid in a pink umbrella, therefore in the final scene,Hagrid should NOT be holding up a wand but a nice pink umbrella in homage to his precious Albus Dumbledore.

Happenings 1

Lots of things Happened this week. Lets start with...I don't even know what to start with. Monday was a normal day. I went to school and school went along as usual except that we did have an extra addition in our class. His name is Cullen, he is from New York, America and he is living in Japan for one month and stayed in our class for one week. I did my normal, everyday thing and Cullen did something a little bit different. He got to do what I wanted to do, he skipped some classes and went to music and cooking class instead, lucky bastard.

Not speaking any real Japanese except for Sugoi, Oishii, Dame, Hen and Baka which he uses frequently, I was gifted with the role of temporary translator for both him and Keri, a girl also from somewhere in America who came with the same company although is a year below.

I had been told a few weeks before about an English camp on the 14th and 15th of July. With no further information about where it was or what we would be doing there, I assumed we would leave in the morning and be returned to school at the end of the day. Asides from one conversation with Chris, who said it had been at some place on top of a mountain last year, I received no information. Tuesday at 11:10 took me to outside the front of the school gate where Keri and Cullen were both waiting with bags. I was like, "What are the bags for?" and they were like, "Uh...you know it's overnight, right?" and I was like, "Obviously not." Which left me panicking slightly, I didn't want to go anywhere without knowing whether or not I would be coming back or in what condition. I definitely didn't want to spend two days in my school uniform, that was for sure.

I informed the teacher that I hadn't brought anything as I never received any official information telling me what this was about, (it turned out everyone got a form saying what to bring except for me) which made me even more jumpy as I got into the teacher's car with the other two and headed off to who knows where. In the car, I was trying to calm myself, when we started heading in the direction I lived I eased up a bit and when I noticed the station that I leave from every morning and asked whether it was close from here, I was relieved when she said that it was fairly close from here. So, I figured I'd be able to do something, or catch a ride home for the night before returning in the morning. I wasn't staying there with only the clothes on my back. No way. I may enjoy studying but there is no way I am nerdy enough to sleep in my uniform. That's more of a Katherine thing. Jks.

Arriving at the camp, everyone was still in their assorted uniforms so I didn't stick out. Explaning to Miyamoto sensei, my Chinese teacher, that I didn't know it was a camp he apologised repeatedly and assured me that he'd get someone to take me home and bring me back to camp the next day. With that bland reassurance, we all were ushered into a room where we sat with our alternative schools. Kansho was easily the largest school there are we seemed to be the sponsoring school or something as all of our teachers were the ones that gave the speeches. I hate the awwardness that always hangs in the air at the beginning of camping experiences. Everyone relaxes so much afterwards but the first kind of half a day is always the most awkward. So, after the speeches which forced me into a sleep like state of boredom due to it all being in Japanese, everyone headed to their rooms to get changed. Oh noes.

Everyone was just like, 'Why isn't that freaky gaijin in the corner getting changed?' I just excused myself from the room and waited for everyone to come back out. People did offer to lend me clothes but I was like 'It's all good, I'm going home later 'cause I didn't know that it was overnight.'

With that explanation everyone proceeded to ignore my current state of attire and we started with ice breakers designed to break the frosty atmosphere so commonplace with strangers. The ice breakers consisted on Jun-ken trains, which is just Scissors, paper, rock with the loser of the match tagging behind the winner to eventually make a very large chain. As well as the game where you hold out both your hands and place the finger of your right hand in the palm of the person standing next to you, then when someone says Go! you have to try and get your right finger to escape and your left hand to catch. I was good at that game.

The program consisted of three workshops over two days. In the first workshop all of the gaijin (there were like 7 or 8 of us) were seperated and had a team of three or four Japanese kids. The Japanese people had to ask us about our school memories and we had to draw vague recollections of high school on a large piece of paper. Mine had was doodlings of the Formal, Guitar, Shakepeare, the Musical, eating outside...I was just trying to think of things that schools in Australia did that they didn't do in Japan. Then the Japanese guys had to explain my picture in English, they didn't get it all right but it was good enough.

Once we had finished that workshop we had dinner where one of the foreign teachers from my school, Kris offered to drive me home so I could get my clothes and drive me back. I thought about it over a dinner of Curry Rice, a dish which is extremely popular here and decided that I did want to stay and that it would be so much easier if I didn't have to go to school and then go back the way I came to arrive at camp late and thus informed him that I would be taking him up on his offer. Yamasaki sensei however did tell him that he had to be present for workshop two and thus we'd have to make our dash for freedom during bathing time.

Workshop two I thought was going to be lame but I found myself getting into it much more than I like to admit. Basically, it was a business game. We were all participants in a world bank which traded money for paper shapes. There were three groups A, B and C. A got the most materials, B got the avergae and unfortunately for C, they were given hardly anything and left desolate. The reason I probably got into it was because we were given an enveolpe with a big, happy A smiling up at me which meant we had a pretty damn good chance of winning. There were six teams in total. I took control of the group, which I am slightly ashamed to admit, as I batered with the other students who were trying to get their hands on our abundant amounts of equipment for the pitiful prices that they could scrape together from their limited supplies.

Rushing around for half an hour, making shapes from paper was much more fun than expected. Different shapes had different values and at one point in the game a circle with a diameter of 12cm became worth $50 for one minute only, I managed to make two in that time before they got taken off the market. It just kind of got you hyped up is all. In the end we came second with $720 dollars. We thought we had won as every group put up their final tallies, we were like $60 dollars ahead of the group behind us but then the B2 group came up and put up their grand total of $1160 and we were shot down in our prime. We still got some lollies. ^_~

After Workshop 2 we went and ventured off to my house which was an interesting adventure considering that not only was it dark but Kris had no idea of the way leaving me to give him directions. Something which is a very dangerous thing considering my lack of that particular sense. We somehow made it to the station as I only know the directions from there and we got there without any major difficulties. I rushed inside, quickly said hello to my family as I shoved unnecessary amounts of stuff into my bag and ran back downstairs.

I was fairly sure I took under five minutes as I jumped back into the car and being very careful of what Kris calls 'Gaijin Death Traps' (the really deep gutters at the side of roads) as we backed out we trucked on over to Lawson to buy prizes for his and Annette's workshop the next day. I bought a packet of Mitsuya Cider lollies which I've taken a particular liking to. Speaking of Mitsuya Cider I have a joke, it's a Japanese one so you probably won't get it but...

What do you get if you put Cucumber, Carrot and Lettuce in a bowl and mix it together? Mitsu yasai da! Told you you wouldn't get it... Mitsu means three, yasai means vegetables and da is just the plain form of desu. Anyways...

We got back in a timely fashion and held a steady conversation throughout the trip. I thanked Kris and gave him my old pair of headphones as a gesture of thanks. He did actually say he wanted headphones, I just don't give people random things. I bought cool new ones so I didn't need them anymore. Returning, I quickly bathed. I think I'm getting used to public baths now. Although I don't really do it all that much I'm not so freaked out anymore. It wasn't so crowded which was nice.

I bathed, which I'll just skip over once I got dressed and was brushing my hair the water kind of suddenly just cut out. Annette who is one of the other foreign teachers at my school was cleaning her teeth when it died. ((Annette is from Jamaica and has a very strong personality. If she has a problem with you, she tells you, right up front. But the way she does it can be a little harsh and it is for that reason that most of the students are a tentative around her. ))

She seemed really annoyed (truth be told, she always kind of does) as she had toothpaste all over her hand. She was furious that she had to return to the bathroom, where other people were showering naked and wash her hand. I think she was put out that she was expected to bathe like Japanese people at all. Soon after that, we went to bed which I was very much looking forward to. People may have talked but either way I didn't notice, I just kind of stuck in my earphones and went to sleep.

We woke up at the energetic time of 6.30 the next morning and we exercised. Who exercises? Luckily it was the Japanese version of exercise which is more like stretching than any actual physical labour. The most taxing of the moves was five star jumps. If you want to see it, Chiyo-chan does it in Azumanga Daioh at her summer house, listening to the radio and later Sakaki joins her because she too wants the cute cat stamps. With a breakfast of apple, bread and yakult, we ventured off to the third and final workshop.

The third workshop, run by Kris and Annette was more language based than communication based which suited me fine. We played Bingo were we had to figure out which questions matched which answers on our bingo sheet. That and another game where we had to make 30 words using the letters of the word 'Incomprehensible', that was a race which we won and were rewarded with Black Thunder. Black Thunder is a chocolate bar which has like coco pop like crisps in the middle and is covered in chocolate. I'll bring a bunch back, they are only 32 yen each. Do you know they have macha flavoured kit-kats? I haven't tried one yet though.

After that we had to return to our bedrooms to clean up and fold away our futons even though we slept on beds. They just put a futon mattress on the bed, lolz. They were pretty strict about that, then we took some photos, had speeches, lunch and returned to school.

Arriving back around one. I wasn't sure what classes I had so I figured I'd just lounge around with Cullen and Keri and the other students until the end of the day.

We ended up playing some game called Apples to Apples which I hadn't heard of before but both Keri and Cullen knew it so I tried to explain it to some of the Japanese kids. The rules are that everyone takes 7 red cards which have various things, names, places, events written on them and they take turns putting down a green card which has an adjective on it like 'weird', 'scary' or 'brave' and you have to put down a word that compliments that card. It can either be a word that is close, funny, or completely opposite. It just has to make sense.

For example if the green card says 'sweet' you put down marshmallows. The worst one that I did was the green card said 'Honourable' and I put down 'Terrorist Attack', I felt really bad about that one but I still won the card even though it was extremely bad taste on my part.

Sorry.

This photo was one that came by incidentally, someone had taken photos on everyones cameras so they were all lying on the table and I thought it looked cool so I just pressed the button before I picked it up. It's a photo of the screen of a camera through which you can see another two cameras. Don't you think that is cool?

So, all in all it was a somewhat hazardous camp and I'm sorry I've been slack and haven't written. I'll write again tomorrow detailing Tokyo and Sadou but I am done for today.

<3

Ashley-chan.

P.s: I've only got the Top Deck left. Oh noes!

Drama, Drama, Drama

And at a sports festival too. Who would have thought it.

I awoke yesterday at 6.00, was on a train by 6.30, arrived at school by 7.00. I had to sow on my numbers to my school shirt because I didn't bring it home. No one told me, how was I supposed to know? I ended up failing at life and Akane did it for me because my stitches looked like a three year old had done it.*sigh*

So, Taikasai. As you may have previously read, it is our sports festival. There are seven classes in each year level and at Taikasai the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years from each class get together and become a 団 which loosely translates as brigade. So, I'm in 2nd year, Class 5 and along with the 1st and 3rd years from Class 5 we became 五団。 Go dan.

Every dan had a colour:

一団：Yellow

二団：Orange

三団：Red

四団：Green

五団：Purple

六団：Blue

七団：Pink

In the morning, every one was bright and happy, ready for a hard day of fun and games.

By around nine, the sky was looking dangerously overcast and it had rained earlier that morning but the teachers still gave us the ok to do our sports festival outside. By 9.45 we were all wet. But we continued, nonetheless, inside and outside our tents dancing away, trying to prove that we were the best to the audience of umbrellas. Everyone was ridiculously enthusiastic, doing their best to remember all the moves and be energetic at the same time. Then it started raining harder and reluctantly the Kansho staff decided to take the whole thing into our school gym.

We all lined up, after having changed our shoes of course, for こうしん。 Marching. Everyone is very fond of complicated marching patterns but luckily this one was fairly simple. We marched to the front, did a little dance and then returned back and watched the other 6 groups do theirs. Everyone was still pumping.

After that came something I really didn't expect, the unveiling of each group's mascot. I didn't even know we had a mascot so it was all news to me. I think it was the job of the third years but they all came out really well. Ours was what looks to be a panther, either way, it is pretty awesome. It had a newspaper covering it initially with ''It's Showtime!'' graffitied on top, that being our group (5団). Then when they revealed our picture, our group all yelled, ''It's Showtime'' because we are awesome like that. Nana Dan had a pretty cute one too.

Once that was all over and done with, we moved in to the festivities, first up was つなひき　or Tug-o-war, which I participated in. Our match was first against Roku Dan, as soon as the guy yelled よい！and snapped his two pieces of wood together, we started losing. We then lost even faster due to most of the front half falling over. When I saw the dominoes starting to cascade towards me, I quickly let go of the rope and moved safely out of the way. I didn't feel like falling over and getting dragged along the ground in front of everyone. Roku Dan came second, losing to Nana Dan but it was close.

We returned to the classroom feeling slightly defeated but still pretty buoyant. I had a snack and we all prepared to do our little plate dance, のんのか。The thing we had been practicing for every morning and after school all week, not to mention for the last two weeks in P.E and this week, all day. We were all pretty nervous but we shouted encouragement to each other determined to do it and do it well.

((Side Note: My class also recently discovered my ability to yell English very loudly and thus, being Coccomi (an abbreviation of Kokusai meaning international, and Communication.) I have been recently used as the encouragement person. Basically, we gather around in a circle and I yell something like, ''Go Coccomi'' or ''We are Coccomi'' or ''Go-chan is really really deaf''. Don't blame me, they asked for that one, I just translated. Go-chan (Nakagami Go) is our home room teacher who is pretty nice but has a lot of trouble hearing students answers, especially Sayaka poor kid. She always ends up yelling.))

So, having discovered this ability they asked me to yell something before we danced. Lolz. We ran inside with another group on each side, flanking us. We all huddled in our starting positions, and it all quiet inside the gym, and Yuuri and Chika were like, ''All right, go!'' So, much to my public embarrassment I stood up and yelled, ''Let's win, Coccomi!'' And Coccomi cheered and then I sat back down and waited for the music to start.

How do I describe what happened next? Well, I guess we can just say we heard the faint, incoherent drifts of music from afar and thus, we, and the other groups all kind of looked around. The other groups moved forward and started dancing, someone quickly turned up the music all the while, our group was in the center shouting back, ''もう一回！'' and ''聞こえなかった！'' meaning, ''One more time!'' and ''We couldn't hear!''

You see, our beginning is quite impressive and it was a real shame to have us miss it, that being the reason that we persisted. However, when it became quite clear that the judges weren't going to restart it, we quickly rushed into position just in time for the basic dance. The rest of the dance went pretty well I thought, I, knowing the show must go on, slapped a smile on my face and tried to dance as well as I could to regain our lost credibility. In hindsight, I must have looked like an idiot, shouting something odd in English and then our group being all weird in the beginning. Great.

The dance finished, people clapped, I only made a few minor mistakes, I wasn't used to doing the dance with the plates which we are meant to clap together in time with certain moves. The plates are only small, two in each hand and very breakable. When every one stopped holding their final pose, it was only then that I noticed Anna, who was next to me, crying. I patted her on the back, slightly confused. Then as we were jogging out, it was only then that I noticed that nearly everyone in my class was crying.

I was like, WTF?

It was sad about the beginning, but it wasn't the end of the world. Was it? It must have been a real disappointment, as they had come first last year in Nonoka and with our catastrophe in the beginning, it was all but impossible that would win. Not to mention all of the effort everyone had put in practicing and Minori and Sayaka choreographing it and all but still...crying? It was only a dance.

After everyone exited crying, with all the other groups waiting for their turn staring and wondering what happened but not daring to ask, I searched for someone to ask where Rika pan (the sport were two people wear a giant pair of pants and run together) was as I knew it was coming up soon. However, I couldn't see anyone in my class that wasn't hopelessly sobbing to ask, so I asked someone who wasn't crying as much.

Getting to the place were everyone was assembled, I looked around for my partner, who hadn't arrived yet. Seeing a group of my class crying in the back, I went over to join them but I felt kind of odd not crying or showing any sign of crying. Then, some of the third years comforting them started crying as well. It just kept getting better and better.

We lined up and started moving towards the gym, arriving in front I was like, ''Uh...my partner still isn't here...'' and then everyone was like, ''Oh...'' and I was like, ''Thanks guys, that helps.'' (In my mind, of course.) So, I ended up sharing a giant pair of pants with Hitomi who I hadn't practiced with at all but we came second which was pretty good. However, everyone was still sobbing when we left even though they tried to look happy.

When we returned, everyone was sitting in the classroom looking depressed. The message I wrote on the blackboard kind of just sat there and mocked me. I nearly wanted to rub it off but I refrained. Yui tried to relieve some of the tension by getting everyone to dance but it ended up with everyone crying again. Then the third years came in, thankfully, they helped calm everyone down. Lunch was pretty awkward, it was all still pretty quiet.

After lunch, and the ran had stopped, the teachers decided to have another shot at holding Taikasai outside. Half of the groups did their おうえん which is like a group dance for the entertainment of the audience. That was followed by relays which we had a tendency to lose but I took some semi-decent photos, the one below isn't really one of them but it has Morishita running which is always amusing.

The relays were then followed by the third year's dance. Below: Mai Sempai who is a terrific performer, seriously, she puts everything into every move.

Guess what they danced to? All for One from High School Musical 2. That made me cringe and hate the irony of being in a different country but still being unable to escape hearing Zac Efron blasted over a loud speaker. Angst.

We danced our Ouen which was a combination of Japanese and English song parodies like most of the others, one of them being Mama Mia. ((Performed again by the boys and Yui inside the classroom.))I tried to sing when I could but having all the words in Japanese does make it a touch difficult. Then, the day began to come to a close. We all lined up in our class numbers, marched to the center, stood and bowed an unnecessary amount of times before sitting and listening to a few speeches before they announced the winners of events.

We became more and more disheartened as Yon Dan won a large amount of things, with only a few cheers for our group. When Ichi Dan won Ouen, there was a loud, collective, 'Ehhh?' from everyone. Then came Nonoka:

In 3rd place: Yon Dan.

In 2nd place: Nana Dan.

The tension was tangible in the air, everyone was clutching their hands together, and staring at the announcer who had left a dramatic pause just to tease us all a little longer. We all knew that after the fiasco in the beginning it would be impossible to win, but still...we had to hope.

In 1st place: Go Dan!

Everyone erupted in applause, squealing and flailing their arms in excitement and then the tears came rolling down everyone's cheeks in wracking sobs, all the while I just sat their with my mouth hanging open, thinking: How the bloody hell did we manage that?!?! My second thought was: God, these guys are emotional. My third was something like: At least we didn't let Sayaka down.

We came second overall for the whole day, whilst Yon Dan came first.

Naturally, it started raining again. We returned to our tent where the whole weird day had began and gathered around in a circle for the thank you's which are so ritualistic here. The third years thanked us for our effort, and apologised that we didn't come first like last year then they all started crying, including our 団長 who is the ultimate leader of us all.

We ended up doing our Ouen again, and somehow we ended up in a giant circle with all of the other groups in the pouring rain which then turned into a mosh pit as we all jumped up and down for no reason.

We returned to the classroom and everyone finally felt like taking some photos. I tried to take some earlier but I felt bad beause every one was still crying, I didn't get any in-action shots of me either, having no one in the audience I could trust with my camera. So, sorry. But I've got some photos at least even though it meant risking the rain, and putting my camera in my obentou bag and tying it to various poles inside the tents so it wouldn't get rained on. Kind of risky, but I had to get SOME photos, being my only Taikasai ever and all.

I would like to direct your attention away from my horrible looking self in this photo and instead look at Morishita who is the second boy on the right hand side. His pose is hilarious in the closeup.

My shoe schedule for the 11th of July: Loafers-Slippers-Sneakers-Slippers-Gym Shoes-Slippers-Sneakers-Slippers-Loafers. Imagine how much easier it would be if we wore only one pair of shoes, or even two instead of four! Four pairs of shoes in one day! Seriously.

Akane and I arrived home around 6.30-ish and much to my delight we went out to dinner to a very atmospherical restaurant called Nanayozuki. 七夜月。 It was traditional style with bamboo and plants on the outside and on the inside it was very dark, all the walls were black. It was very slick and streamlined with mirrors and dim lanterns, we had to wait in the foyer for around 20/30 minutes but when we finally got into our small booth, seperated by the others by a bamboo drape which gave it the exotic Japanese feel. We all had a mix of chips, karage, om rice, spaghetti. The food was very good, as was the desert.

Tadaa! Mini Chocolate Parfait which wasn't so mini...

Home came by car, I showered and quickly went to sleep, and now here I am, telling you all about it. Lolz. I watched Japanese cartoons this morning. Currently popular: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Fresh Pretty Cure, Yattaman and Detective Conan.

There are also some funny ads on Japanese television, so far I have seen Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sam Neil, Emmy Rossum, Tommy Lee Jones and someone else whose name I can't think of.

Here is a Japanese Ad which makes me laugh for no reason at all: Click Me! (Youtube)

And now, I'm going to go because I am hungry and I want some lunch.

<3

Ashley-chan.

P.s: Gosh, I'm tired. Lolz, I watched Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in Japanese on Friday Night and tonight they've got Prisoner of Azkaban on. Wohoo!

Read the P.S!!!

No, I'm not dead. Michael Jackson is but I'm still here.

Welcome to July, the time goes quite fast, doesn't it.

Yes, I am afraid it has been quite a while since I have posted but don't blame me, blame bloody　体育祭 (Stupid sports festival). Man, these Japanese really work hard at everything. This week, I wake up at 6.00, on a train by 6.30, at school by 7.00, practicing before school from 7.30-8.00. At 9.00 we start practice again until 3 with only a one hour break in the middle and then, guess what we do after school? We practice more until around 5.00. How horrible is that! T_T

I mean, I don't even like sport. But I am glad it is dancing, now there is something I bet you thought you would never hear me say, but dancing is infinitely better than running all day. 　We had Monday off to justify everyone coming to school on Saturday even though half the students do for club anyway.

So, I'll skip onto what happened on the weekend because that was fun. Saturday, oh yes, I forgot for a moment. We went out somewhere and did something in the morning that I don't quite remember...maybe it will come back to me. (See, this is what happens when I don't blog regularly) Then around lunch time we picked up Chihiro from the station and we went to Joyfull for lunch. I am becoming quite fond of Joyfull. I had the pepper hamburger set which is basically a meat patty with a sprinkling of pepper, two small roast potatoes and some beans, a small salad and a dinner roll for 699 円.

So, then we went back to the house and sat and talked for a while and looked over Chihiro and Akane's old yearbooks. We didn't do all that much. Then, Chihiro returned home and I slept at night like everybody else.

The following day was Yui's performance of an abbreviated second act of Romeo and Juliet, Yui was playing Juliet and invited people from class to come along. I went with Yui's family, being driven to Kikitsu station by Akane's mother and picked up by Yui's was a little strange but Yui's mother and I quickly slipped back into routine and talked on the way home.

When I got back to Yui's house and was prodded with onigiri's and banana's I didn't know what to say. I didn't say anything at first but it is usually customary to say something when entering the household. Then the dad came home and said お帰り (Welcome home) and I was like, ah ただいま。。。(I'm home) and then half as a joke, half confusion I was like...おじゃまします。 which means please excuse me for intruding. Then they were like, 'I'm home is fine...'

Lolz.

So, I went to Nagasaki with Yui's mother, father and grandmother who insisted on giving me lollies. Not that I minded at all...they sure know how to win me over. Unfotunately, it meant returning to the odd little community of international communication and understanding that is LABO. I had to sit through like 2 and a half hours of small children speaking bad english and singing english songs that nobody has ever heard before.

Once that was through, everyone else arrived. We watched Yui who was kind of decent as was everyone else, this is, of course, decent by amateur standards. Once everything was over the group of us who saw Yui went and ate icecream at Baskin and Robbins, went to Cocowalk and had a look around. I was dragged around lots of fashion stores which was a little annoying but I managed. We took Purikura, but I've only got one to show you, sorry. XD.

The following day, Monday, Akane, Mako, Anna and I went to see the movie Rookies which is pretty popular here at the moment, they even have Rookies onigiri's. Basically, it is a movie about a baseball. I wasn't that interested in seeing it as I am not that interested in sports films but it was a whole lot better than I thought. I even teared up at the end, but then again I ball in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, every time without fail so I guess you can't really judge. The guy on the very top right is really funny, he is ridiculously enthusiastic but not very good.

It was also a good practice for the 20th when I will be going to see this:



DUN DUN DAAAAAAA....ハリー　ポッタ　と　謎　の　プリンス。 Something which I am majorly looking forward to, it's the highlight of my year, seriously. Nazo no Purinsu actually translates much differently than the original title of half-blood prince. It just means mysterious prince but I'll be seeing it in English (non-negotiable, Alan Rickman's voice is too amazing to turn down) with Japanese 字幕 (じまく） subtitles. This is so Katherine can learn some Japanese while she's studying the evil language of the Red Army.


So, we also took Purikura on Monday and here it is:

For a reason that has something to do with mobile phones we could only get one normal size but the rest are here they are just much...smaller. Sorry. Most of the Japanese has to do with the upcoming sports festival which is, GAH! tomorrow.

We also had four of my class go to Autralia yesterday for three months, they are all staying in Melbourne so if anyone is there and find Japanese kids called Sayaka, Chihiro, Hikari or Arina say Hi from me and tell them to eat lots of Cadbury while they can still get it easily.

I'm really happy, I finally got to acccess Youtube and watched Demyx Time 11 and Pedro. Damn those guys are great. Jack's probably seen it, no one else but Kingdom Hearts fans will get it and even then you have to know a lot about Organization 13 (with 14 members) to get the jokes. Ah well...

(In order to get Demyx to leave)

Vexen: 'Hey look, a spider.'

*Demyx Runs away*

Vexen: 'Oh f**k, a spider'

*Vexen runs away*

Epic Lolz.

That's all for now, I'll probably post with Taikasai stuff on Sunday.

<3

Ashley-chan

P.S:

...

...

...

You just lost THE GAME.

＞＿＜ Sorry guys.

((For those who don't know the game, it is simple.

1. You are now playing THE GAME.

2. When you forget about THE GAME you are winning.

3. When you remember THE GAME you lose and consequently have to tell everyone else. ))

Even my super awesome mother knows about the game, I've been playing for around 3 years now I think, and Katherine will be reminded on her deathbed for introducing it to me.

Ashley's Moving Castle and Fireworks

My castle is my suitcase and it moves around. Anywho...

Woot.

So, on Saturday the 26th I moved house. I packed that morning, and tried to remember to get everything under wraps but as you know there always is something that has to be left behind, it is just rite of passage, isn't it? Don't worry, it was only my loafers, it was just lucky that I saw Yui on Sunday so she could return them to me before school started.

I left the house around 3-ish after having like a little Pizza Party thrown with the family, I don't know why pizza but it was nice all the same.

The family, minus Yui and Kouta.

When I gave them their thank you card they gave me cute little farewell notes in from each member of the family in Japanese, of course, which meant it took me forever to read them all but the sentiment was there and I did tear up a few times. Moving was harder than I though. I mean, I did live with them for three months, ridiculously loud and annoying or not.

So, 3-ish we (just the mum and dad) left the house, the hardest person to leave I found was Ojiichan. He is just the cutest little man and even though I didn't understand him half the time, we really did get along. He was just sweet in the whole, old-man way.

Ojiichan and Obaachan

We made our way to like, Higashi-Isahaya were we met Akane and her mother at the front of a big drugstore called Cosmos. When I saw the sign in the car I felt my stomach sink. Just the whole re-adjustment thing in itself would be hard, but Yui had previously said that Akane's mother sounded scary or something which made me scared. In truth, she isn't all that scary but just having the preconception that she was made evrything a little more tense and made me a lot more nervous.

But, we met and everything was fine. I cried a little when saying good bye but I tried not to so the next family wouldn't feel bad. I felt a little bit like property being handed over so simply, ah well...

In the car, it wasn't too bad, the house is pretty close and thankfully, it wasn't the hole I thought it to be. It isn't Nagasaki by a long shot but it also isn't the desolate little farm house I expected. I have my own room with a cooler to fend off all of the evil Japanese heat waves. Stupid summer. And I have a dog, it's not Lucy but Chako and it is nowhere near as cute but it is nice to have a dog again. Chako didn't really like me at first but we are already on our way to becoming fast friends mostly due to the fact that I continuosly pat him and give him the attention I've wanted to give to Lucy over the last three months.

The first night, Nozomi, the younger sister, had friends over. They were so cute and they asked for my autograph. Epic Lolz. So I wrote my name, signed it, drew a smiley face and dedicated it to them. They thought that was pretty cool, don't blame them, they are only like 10.

So, all in all the weekend itself went pretty quickly. On Sunday we went to the train station to figure out my ticket and did a little bit of shopping, I didn't buy anything, it was mostly 100 yen stores. Sunday afternoon, Akane and I went to check out some little local festival which happens like once a year, it is a Taiko (Drum) festival to celebrate having finished the harvesting of the rice or somehing. It basically consisted of the people in that area playing flutes and one big drum and two little ones.

Some of the kids playing the flute songs by memory. The girl on the left is one of the girls I gave an autograph too and the one on the right is Nozomi, the younger sister. After a while, one of the Dad's dragged Akane kicking and screaming up to play the flute for one song.

Most of the people there were just kids but I still think it is really charming how everyone knows these Japanese culture drum rituals that we wouldn't even think of in Australia. Just shows that it is different.

Sunday night, the most of Kokomi (Our class name) gathered together at a YakiNiku bar, one of the ones were you have your own little grill in the middle. For around 35 dollars you could get all you can eat from the menu, mostly meat and vegetables, and free use of the drink and fairy floss bar. The food was really good, it just kept you wanting more. The meat was really nice quality and it was always hot as it came straight of the grill. That was an offer too fun to pass up. In all about 30/40 students turned up, the party was a farewell to the 4 students going to Melbourne in a week or so and Yui who is going to Canada soon-ish.

This is Kiyo-chan, he is our 学院長 (gakuinchou) our class leader. His voice is quite high and he likes anime, he did the Suzumiya dance for me. Lolz. Oh, by the way, did you know a second season of Haruhi has just started. They've released two episodes so far.

This is Shigeru who everyone just calls Geru. Everyone pays him out about being dumb but it is always jokingly and he takes it in good humor.

After eating massive expanses of food, we did the whole 'illegal fireworks' thing that Japanese people seem so fond of doing here.

Kiyo with fireworks.

Arina with Morishita behind.

Mako, left, and Hikari playing with fireworks.

Akane, a.k.a Baby as we have two Akane's in the class. This is the one I'm not staying with.

Not to mention that we had a couple get together which is super cute but they are both pretty shy around each other still. Hopefully that will wear off. I think the class is making it a little awkward for them.

Kosaka and Anna

And can you believe that the guy in the above photo is actually the guy in the photo below too?

I have new train buddies, they are Akane's friends and they seem really nice. I hope we can go out in the holidays which are coming up pretty soon. I want to try and go out with people from the class a lot but not having a phone in the holidays is a definite disadvantage.

Today, we cooked Chanhan which is basically like Chinese fried rice but not so greasy and some soup with Carrot and Daikon (Japanese radish) that was for lunch and now, in like 10 minutes I have double sport. How horrible is that, we have double sport every day this week in preperation for Taikasai. Ewww...Lolz, sport is finished now and we had to decide on activities for Taikasai. How hilarious, I am doing tug-o-war and this odd race wear two people wear a giant pair of pants, one leg each, and run a short distance. That is going to be really embarrassing but it is a lot better than doing the 800 meters or something.

I got my Chocolate. Thank you mummy, absolute life saver. The book too, I don't know when I will be able to get to the library. For your trouble you can have a strange English t-shirt I found at Shimamura.

<3

Ashley-chan