Chasing The Day: Learning English Through Action

Another couple of excellent days! My entire grade went to a college that is close to our high school and everyone attended some sort of lecture. This meant that I got to sleep in two extra hours! I also got to meet more friends at the train station so that we could travel together to the college. Once we were there I became a bit nervous... none of my friends were taking the "Learning English Through Action" lecture class, so I had to go off on my own in the exact opposite direction my friends were headed. I should have known that this would actually turn out to be a good thing:

1. I found the initial meeting room alright and most of the teachers that were there were ones that knew me and were very helpful.

2. Being away from people I knew forced me to be outgoing and make new friends- which I did!

The girls were all very nice and they welcomed me into there group right off the bat. They spoke in fairly simple Japanese so that I could follow along in there conversations and when they spoke in English it was a good exchange of teaching them English and learning some new Japanese words.

The classroom in which our lecture was held (we moved from the initial room to the lecture room) had little kids books in it, almost all in Japanese but one in English with the title Goose Pond. This set off a great exchange of languages. I explained the them the concept of a goose verses geese and they taught me more animal names in Japanese. I learned that kame means turtle and through very hilarious acting, my friend was motioning by pushing her hand down and repeating "kame.... kame... kame... die!", that kame are killed by cars squishing them. What important lessons my friends teach me! Sorry that was a bit random but we seriously laughed over that interesting communication for the rest of the day.

3. I was so glad that I decided to go to the English lecture because I understood almost the entire class (English and Japanese parts). Our teacher for the lecture essentially had me be his helper in order to give the class examples of what he wanted us to do, since I understood the English instructions without the need of examples. Our lecture consisted of:
- We had a warm up of sitting in a circle and saying "Hello. My name is... Goodbye"
- Listening to instruction in English and doing as your are told (I was the helper for this one). "Get up. Go to the window. Open the window. Look outside. Say hello."
- Sang nursery rhymes and did the actions! This was my favorite part because I have obviously known all of the songs and actions since I was little- my friends called me kawaii because I starting singing along right away. We did Jack and Jill (went up the hill...), Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Ring Around The Rosie.
- Came up with fake profiles in English then asked a partner about it (ex. What is your dad's name? His name is David Beckham)

4. Once the lecture was over, my new friends asked if I would like to go to lunch with them. I agreed and we walked 20 minutes to get to a sushi restaurant. My knee is a bit sore because of it today but the food was good and I enjoyed talking with new friends, so it was worth the long walk. My friends were also very kind because they wouldn't let me pay for my part of the meal. They said I was their new friend and that they wanted to pay for me. I thanked them a lot and was happy to know that I had indeed made new friends.

It was a bit stressful trying to get home after lunch because I knew we had a long walk to get to the train and that my Okaasan wanted me home at a certain time so that we could leave in order to get to a Rotary meeting. It all ended up working out all right and I made it home.

The meeting was for my Osaka-sayama Rotary Club (not district). There is one other Rotary exchange student in my club and her name is Mai- she is from the UK and I had met her at our Rotary District meeting earlier this month. It was great to be able to see her again and speak in English! The Rotary members actually left our room to have the meeting somewhere else so that gave Mai and me some time to catch up. We talked about our experiences so far and decided that we actually live fairly close (one train ride away) and should hang out more often.

Once the Rotary meeting had finished, the members returned to pick us up and we went to a restaurant for Mai's and my welcome party. They took us to an extremely fancy restaurant where the view was spectacular, there was a pianist who took requests, the waiters waited on you hand and foot, and there were multiple courses to the meal. The food was amazing- tako (octopus) and tuna as a first course, then ham and salad, some sort of soup, then steak and vegetables that cooked on our own individual hot plates that were in front of us, rice, Japanese tea, and finally soft cream (I had vanilla but there was also the option of green tea soft cream) with a wafer and some type of crunchy flakes at the bottom of the ice cream (the flakes looked like frosted flakes without the frosting). I was so full that I felt like I would burst!

Today was another day of food! I had pan with cheese baked in it for asagohan (breakfast). Then for hirugohan (lunch) I made my family cranberry and blueberry pancakes, they really seemed to enjoy the pancakes and the syrup that I brought from home as a gift. Then for bangohan (dinner) Shiho got to decide on a restaurant as an early birthday dinner because she will be leaving on her birthday (September 4th) for California for the month. We went to an Italian restaurant.... it was definitely an interesting experience.

Tia (another exchange student in Japan from Minnesota) warned me that the Italian restaurants here are not like the Italian restaurants we are used to back home. I think that was partially correct. The food was very good but it was definitely Japan-ized. We had multiple courses: two different types of salad, fried rice balls (very good!!!), two types of pasta, cheesy risotto, and pizza. I left a restaurant for the second night in a row with a food baby (<-Maggie Miland that's for you!) meaning I definitely over ate and I am full!

On the way home from the Italian restaurant we stopped at Baskin Robbins. *Side note: I was told that no one in Japan calls it that, they simply refer to it as 31 Ice. I got a scoop of Rocky Road (with real marshmallows!) and Chocolate. I was very surprised when we didn't sit down to eat the ice cream, instead they packed it up and we were back in the car heading home. I was pretty disappointed because I assumed the wonderful ice cream would be melted by the time we got home- it is very hot here... I was very impressed with Japan because the ice cream was as cold as it was when we got it from 31 Ice. How did it stay that cold for a 20 minute drive in hot Japan? Here is the really impressive part, on top of the individual containers of ice cream, 31 Ice puts a piece of dry ice on it to keep it cold! Shiho and I had fun playing with the dry ice before we ate our ice cream.

Oh, another quick side note. August and September are the rainy season and on the way to the Italian Restuarant we watched a huge storm building in the distance. Here are some pictures of the clouds, rain, and rainbows we saw.