SOH-CAH-TOA

So, I should probably be blogging about something culturally interesting and different, like my school's sports festival that was on Tuesday... But I just don't want to. There are a lot of pictures and it is kind of 11:30 pm here and I just don't have the energy to sort through all of the pictures and things that happened that day. Instead I am going to blog about Math! 

 I know it sounds totally nerdy and it will sound cliche in a moment but try to refrain from judging. I must say thank you to all of my wonderful math teachers back in Northfield because you have provided me the key to understanding the international language of math. It is seriously the only class I can completely understand and follow along with for the entire period- even English class is taught mostly in Japanese. Math is an international language.

For the past week we have been working with sin, cos, and tan but fairly simple definitions of what these are. Today, we actually started to apply sin, cos, and tan to graphs and the unit circle and figure out things like "what is the angle if sin=1/2". I have to say I was a bit confused as to what was going on at first during class today because all of the instructions were in Japanese... but then it clicked and my year of Pre-Calc came rushing back to me! I was able to quickly finish the worksheet the teacher had given us and was pleased to see that all of my answers were correct (he had been doing the problems from the worksheet on the board as notes for the class... I just kind of did them and went back to check that I had done them correctly- I did!).

After class a lot of the kids were still working on the problems and still a bit confused. To be fair the way the teacher was teaching them was to draw it all out on the graph,  use different lines to determine the angles, and I am not even sure what else it was just a really confusing way to teach it (totally my opinion, besides this I have really liked my math teachers teaching style). If I were learning this for the first time I would be confused too.

My friends were shocked that I completely understood what was going on and asked why I wasn't confused. I took this opportunity and in a mix of Japanese and English I explained to them the way I learned how to solve these problems: SOH-CAH-TOA. With a lot of pictures and diagrams they were able to understand and actually took notes from me! Of course I don't want to be rude or disrespectful to how our teacher was teaching us, so I told my friends they should probably still do it his way and that mine is just another way to look at the problem. In the end both ways come up with the same answer. I was just super excited that I was able to help my classmates in a topic other than English!

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!

Animal- Prof (beware it is the explicit version!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDDf9FkXMx0

I was a little nervous when I woke up and it was raining out and cold! This morning was the very first time I have felt cold in Japan, I actually had to go dig out a sweater from my luggage. I was nervous because today my family planned to go to the zoo- thankfully a little rain didn't stop us.

I love animals, I always have and I always will- my favorite movie growing up was "The Lion King". So, when I mentioned this to my family a couple of weeks ago we made a plan to visit the zoo in Osaka city. They even let me invite Mai, the other girl in my Rotary Club!

For me, going to the zoo was exciting this time because it is in a different country. Otherwise I love going to the zoo and I have gone almost every year since I was little (so not a big deal besides being in a different country part). It turns out that my family hasn't gone to the zoo in almost 15 years and Mai hasn't gone in 10 years! I was shocked, how can you resist going to the zoo for such a long time?!?

Now begins your first Japanese lesson. Along with the pictures I have the kanji/hiragana/katakana Japanese name for each animal, the romanji (English letters but Japanese word), and the English word for each animal.

キリン - Kirin - Giraffe; シマウマ - Shimauma - Zebra

ワニ - Wani - Crocodile

チンパンジー - Chinpanji - Chimpanzee

象 - Zo - Elephant (one of my favorites)

シロクマ - Shirokuma - Polar Bear

フクロウ - Fukuro - Owl (aka Hedwig)

カンガルー - Kangaru - Kangaroo

ペンギン - Pengin - Penguin

レッサーパンダ - Ressapanda - Red Panda

オオカミ - Okami - Wolf

虎 - Tora - Tiger

ヒョウ - Hyou - Leopard

ピューマ - Pyuma - Mountain Lion

鷹 - Taka - Hawk

ライオン - Raion - Lion

ハイエナ - Haiena - Hyena

 That is definitely not all of the animals I saw... I might have had over 200 pictures from the zoo today... no big deal. Mai and I were taking pictures before we even entered the zoo.

Mai explained to me that the tall building is going to be the tallest mall in Japan, once the build is completed in 5 years. It will be 60 floors high and approximately 300 meters tall. 

One last piece of exciting news is that Mai has invited me to go to Yoshino with her next weekend. It is a small village up in the mountains and it will take about 2 hours to get there. We will be going with her host sister, host sister's husband, their child, and maybe a couple more people for a barbeque then spending the night in their log house. I am very excited so stay tuned for that adventure.

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.

How To Form A Sentence

I have finally done it! I have finally learned how to form a complete, grammatically correct sentence in Japanese (I know if have talked little bit about this already in my last post but I am just so excited!). Up until just a few days ago, my vocabulary has of course been building but I had no idea how to put it all together to form a logic sentence and now way of explaining to my family or teachers at school that that was what I was struggling with. That is, until I met Mark! Mark is a teacher at my school from Ireland who is doing a home stay while he teaches at Kanan. He has offered to help teach me Japanese during the periods when I am in the library (if he doesn't have a class). It has been wonderful to have his help. Not only has he gotten me to understand the grammar of a simple sentence in less than an hour, he has also been teaching me a bit about the Japanese culture and the Japanese culture behind some of the words and phrases I can say.

Mark is also great in the fact that he is like me and does not like textbooks... where as any book in a Japanese persons mind is amazing and makes everything better (Nihonjin dakarane, shaanaine~ it's the Japanese way, it can't be helped). In the past two weeks it seems like any time I see my home room teacher, Mr. Kita, he has another new textbook for me to use to help me study Japanese. I liked the way Mark phrases his opinion on all of my textbooks- textbooks are fine and dandy if you have a long time to study them... but I am only here for a year and need to learn quickly. Textbooks are also a bit stuffy and always in the proper form, not very conversational.  So, it has been a great few days! Mark has taught me the layout of a sentence, particles, verbs, nouns, adjectives, and some words people use in conversations to make it more personable.

It feels great to be able sit with my host dad (who knows minimal English) and have small conversations at dinner. For the most part I have been able to understand the broad topics of conversations but could not respond in Japanese- he was so proud of me when I was able to respond in a complete sentence the other night!

I feel like I am progressing fairly quickly now and able to take in even more vocabulary now that I understand the structure of what is being said. So, it was funny to me when Mr. Kita came into the library the other day (after I had gained all of this new information from Mark) and said that he wanted to spend thirty minutes with me studying greetings... I think you can understand my relief when Mark walked in just after the first few minutes of greetings practice with Mr. Kita to take over my lesson- I learned greetings before I came to Japan over a month ago, talk about a giant step back in my learning.

Just a quick note of other things I have been up to this week:
1. Today I taught and played frisbee with Otousan
2. I practiced wadaiko (Japanese Drums) for the very first time- it is super difficult!
3. Prepared for my schools sports festival (on Tuesday):
               - I am competing in a frisbee throwing relay and I amazed the sannensai (3 graders~ seniors) when I was able to throw the frisbee the entire 30(ish) meters in just one throw, during a practice run of the event. It takes everybody else at least two throws.
               - I am also competing in a 200m run. The girl in the lane next to me is also in my gym class and saw me run earlier this week. When she saw that I was in the same heat as her, she nervously asked me what my time was for a 200m run. I had to tell her I was sorry because I don't know how fast I can run a 200m (it's been a long time since I have tried) and she responded with something like "oh... well your really fast, so...". I felt bad but it was also pretty funny because I am already psyching out my competition and I haven't even gotten a chance to run my fastest yet (I was only jogging in gym).
4. Otousan and I went to watch the kindergarten sports festival today (Okaasan was working at it). The little kids are still adorable as ever!

Happy because they won.

My cute Momo class with their parents.

They were cruising! Look at that determination- tongue out and everything.

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.

Cats!

The Lazy Song- Bruno Mars (There are just those days where yo don't feel like doing anything. That is one of the many plus sides to exchange, I have free time and can have a lazy day every now and again!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLexgOxsZu0

Rising Sun- Exile (My favorite Japanese song!... One of the three Japanese songs I know but still I like it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3WxhfO2O4E

I Do- Colbie Caillat (My relationship with Japan)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0oyglKjbFQ

This last Saturday I was supposed to go to Nara but because I was sick we had to postpone that trip. Instead my host grandparents were going to come to my house around noon with KFC for lunch. Well, they ended up at our house at 9:30 am with a ton of food for lunch- in Japan the way to get better is apparently to eat a lot of food and then just keep eating  more.

It turned out to be okay that we cancelled our trip to Nara because it was extremely hot and instead my Ojisan (grandpa) decided to take Otousan, Okaasan, and me to a river that is tucked in between some beautiful mountains. We drove the 20 minutes to get there then walked down to the river bank. It was so fun and full of life! People were barbequing, swimming in the river, and just enjoying time together. Not to mention the scenery was absolutely amazing!

Ojiisan decided he wanted to test the water and see how refreshing it was- he approved.

Kids enjoying the water

Turns out a lot of the kids were catching Kaeru (frogs) that seemed to be everywhere!

People swimming in the very pretty river.

Ojiisan skipping some rocks.

Just sooooo pretty.

And there is my Hogan Brothers shirt! When I get home, free hogie here I come!

Just thought the tree was very unique looking.

 Then we walked back up the hill to the car but before we left Ojiisan bought us all ice cream because it was so hot.

The ice cream treats are sold in individual sizes only and the choices are really fun!

 For the drive back home we took the scenic route and stopped a couple of times so that I could talk pictures. At one of the places we stopped we were greeted by an army of cats! Seriously, they were everywhere!

A water dam that Ojiisan seemed to be very proud of.

I hope this picture helps you visualize just how small the roads can be here, with blind corners as we drive up and down through the mountains. It is literally one car width, barely... but it is a two way street!

Once home with Obaasan we ate all of the food Ojiisan and Obaasan had brought me for lunch. Of course I shared but they kept saying over and over again to keep eating, the food was a gift to me, eat all of the food, etc. It was not from KFC because KFC wasn't open early enough for when my grandparents decided to show up but hey I am not complaining. The food was amazingly good like always.

The next day I was in a pretty bad mood, just woke up to a bad day... but yeah for Rotary which completely turned my day around! This meeting was much better than my first district meeting. It was shorter and for a majority of the time the exchange students got to chill in a different room with the Rotex. We all introduced ourselves (I offered to go first! It's what being an exchange student is all about) and one Rotex told us about her exchange to Denmark. Then they told us about this program they are starting, which is basically the same thing as the X-group I started back home, where each Rotex member is a buddy to an exchange student- there to be a friend, hang out, teach Japanese, etc. This Rotex program also entails some fun day trips to other cities in Japan and some barbeques! After the explanation of the group we had free time to just talk. There is a new girl from Canada that I got a little time to get to know, but I mostly caught up with Mai and Tia and talked with Rotex.

Tia and I representing Minnesota!!!

Our little Rotary Exchange Student Family.

After Rotary, Otousan and Okaasan let me choose where we would go to eat and I selected an Indian Restaurant they have told me so much about (Erik you will have to tell me if this looks like legitimate Indian food). Again, I will never be disappointed with the food I eat here in Japan- that is probably one of my only constants is that the food is always good and always will be good!

School has been pretty regular. I must say I am enjoying my free hours because I either get time to rest and read a book or journal or take Japanese lessons with Mark if he is at school. 1. I don't have much time to rest because during the week I am up by 6:30am to get ready for school and don't get home until 8pm because of Wadaiko Club practice and weekends are busy with my family. 2. Mark is a teacher at my school from Ireland, he is doing a home stay (so like an exchange) while he teaches at my school!

My view from where I sit in the Library.

 Reasons why I am so thankful to have Mark:

-he is the only other native speaker that I know of that lives in my area and that I can see/talk to on a regular basis at school
-he has offered to help teach me Japanese and about the Japanese culture
-he is the first person to understand the fact that I want to learn how to form a sentence! It is the grammar and lack of knowledge on verbs and particles that I have been struggling with the most- without those it makes it a bit difficult to form a simple sentence
-he doesn't like teaching out of textbooks. He says that they are good resources for if you have a lot of time but I am only here for a year so I need to know the important basics as of now (like verbs and particles). Thank goodness because that was what I was looking for but the other teachers here just keep buying me more textbooks! I have tried to ask them to stop and I will continue to try because I seriously have so many now that there really is no logic reason to have so many. I agree that textbooks are good and that I will keep working through the first couple I brought but am also glad to finally be moving forward at a faster pace with Mark

I have been dying to talk these next couple of pictures for a long time. The first picture is of the street I walk down in order to get to school! The second, third, and fourth are of a dinks vending machine. This vending machine is everywhere!- in reasonable locations like at a shopping center and busy areas but they are also in the middle of no where (like the one I pass as I walk to school). This vending machine also makes me laugh because I think of some friends back home every time I see one.

Can you find the car?

Just a vending machine next to someones garden on a fairly empty street.

Like a boss!

A couple more things about school. Today I bought a school lunch for the first time- curry! It was a huge serving in a giant bowl that was very cheap for it's size.

I wish I had taken a picture with my hand next to it so you could see a comparison of just how big it was! My friends didn't think I would be able to finish it... but it was so good. Curry, rice, and meat.

After lunch I played FRISBEE with some friends! It has been over a month since I have played and I was really starting to miss it. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me to document this wonderful moment but maybe next time, my friends asked if we could play again tomorrow and of course I said yes! Playing with them is a bit different than what I am used to at home but what can you expect when they didn't even really know about frisbee until I came along and told them how much I love it.

One last thing then this blog will come to its end. Tonight I had another Rotary Club meeting (it was fun, I got to talk with Mai most of the time). So, after school I met Okaasan in Kawachinagano (where our connecting train is) for a quick dinner. She let me choose and I decided I was really craving a good burger. The last time I had one was when Shiho and I went to Namba (and that was at a McDonald's). We went to this cute little burger restaurant and I introduced Okaasan to french fries dipped in shakes! She loved it so much she almost the rest of her fries dipped in the shake... and not only dipped but back for seconds with a double dip! I love and respect my host mom but that just put it over the top! It was so fun.

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.