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| Well, seeing as i left this incomplete, lets wrap it up. this is the last entry.
That weekend, when i talked about doing AFS papers and stuff, well,
most of them I didn't even have to do. I ended up only having to do a
small anket. I had some other things to do for school, but otherwise my
weekend wasnt too busy. I bought a very nice picture frame for my host
parents as a present that I would give them when i left.
On Monday after school, I was supposed to go to Karaoke with the Judo
club, but the intercultural club held a "going away party" for me,
which they told they were doing that day, so i had to go to them. The
quotes are because it wasnt really organized, and Kouno Sensei (who was
supposed to have organized it) ended up coming in like the last 5
minutes of the thing. He gave me a going away present and a card, then
had each member of the club say something about me at the end. Then
they gave me a bag full of assorted food and a good luck charm for
studying (which I officially carry around with me now). Then we all had
to go home because Kouno Sensei told us we had to. It was only like 5
so i thought about going to Judo, but I didn't for whatever reason. I
didn't do much at home.
Tuesday consisted of a really unnecessary gym class since it was raining so we couldnt run.
Wednesday had another unnecessary gym class due to rain. The caligraphy
teacher was sick so i couldnt do my final lesson. After school I
finally went to Karaoke with the Judo Club for around 3 hours. We went
to a place near my house so it didnt take long to get there. We sang a
shitload of songs, oh man it was so much fun. Afterwards Tsuyuguchi and
Mariyama had to go home, but me, Kensuke, Kiyokawa, and Muuchan went to
eat some ramen. AFterwards I went home and started to pack.
On Thursday there was a going away party for me thrown by my homeroom.
We played a few games and did some stuff. Afterwards I made a small
speech in english because I didnt prepare for it before and it didnt
matter if it was in english. Then Mr. Yoshioka, who was also there,
made a speech about me in Japanese because he cant speak englihs. I
wish he would have slowed it down for me to understand, but i still
caught a good amount of it. He said things like "Jeff looks like a
japanese student, and that is what i think about him. I have enjoyed
having him in my class. If I look around, when everyone is studying, so
is Jeff. If I think about 209 homeroom, its 209 and Jeff, he's a part
of it." Afterwards I recieved presents from my homeroom and from
Hasegawa. Then I went to see the Caligraphy teacher and he gave me all
my work from his class, plus a really nice print he had done himself
for me. Then I went around the school saying goodbye to teachers and
such, because I didnt expect to go again friday. But after doing some
things there, and realized i had alot more to do, I realized I really
should go on Friday. Then I went home and packed some more and such,
then went to bed for my last day of school.
Friday was my last day. I went the whole day and everything. I cleaned
out my desk, got a book from Nagano sensei and some pictures, had my
last gym class, in which we ran the last 5km time trial. I got 20:04,
which beat my previous time by like a minute and a half. Then I took
some pictures with Mr. Ishimaru and with my whole gym class. My final
lunchtime, I ate a shitload, and some people gave me extra food too. It
was a good final lunch. After school, I took pictures with my friends
and some other people, and then we decided we would go downtown
together for a while. But first, I had to say goodbye to a few more
teachers and I had to say goodbye to the Judo club. I would have
practiced with them that day, but I wanted to go downtown one last time
and I had also just gone to karaoke with them that week, so i decided
not to. I went downtown with Otachi, Masuda, Ohkita, and Shirakata. We
didn't do too much, but i still had fun hanging out with them one last
time. We first bought a box of bean-paste filled japanese sweets, still
fresh and hot. once we finished them, I decided we should buy another
box, so we did. Then we walked for a little bit and went to an arcade
for like 20 minutes. I was the only person to do anything, I played a
boxing game for a while. Then there wasnt much else for us to do, so we
went all the way back to in front of my house, and talked for a while,
then they all said goodbye to me and left. I then went inside, cleared
all my files off the computer, packed a little more, had dinner, then
started packing alot more. Ms. Futagami and Bjorn came over and gave me
a small present and then I said goodbye to them. Then I started packing
fulltime, only i ran into one huge problem. first off, i got a shitload
of presents before leaving, something i didnt prepare for, so when i
was close to done, not only did I have all these extra things, but it
ended up that i actually had alot more than I thought I did, and I
couldnt fit it all. If there was no weight limit at Matsuyama Airport,
I might have been okay, but there was, so i got screwed. I had to tell
mom and Dad that I couldnt fit everything, and dad was a little mad,
which gave me the impression that he just wanted me to be out of his
life already. Finally, Misato proposed that she mail the things i
couldnt take with me to me later on. I felt so bad about accepting
this, but they refused not to do it. Finally, I got everything packed,
wrote my going away cards to Parents and Misato, but didnt have time to
write one to Junka, which i still feel bad about. I also realized that
I had to leave the present that Ms. Futagami had given me, which I felt
bad about as well.
Saturday was the longest fucking day ever. it lasted around 30 hours or
so, due to time difference and shit. i woke up at like 7:30, but was
too nervous and sad to eat or anything, and I just couldnt believe I
had to leave. Finally, we left the house around like 8:30, saying
goodbye to grandma and then we were on our way. We arrived at Matsuyama
airport, to find Ms. Fukuda and Otachi waiting for me. Ms. Fukuda told
me that everyone wanted to come, but she had just realized how good of
friends me and Otachi were, so she only let him come, and everyone had
to go to saturday lessons like usual. Otachi then gave me a small bag
of presents. Finally, we went up to the security gate. We talked for a
little bit, and everyone said what they wanted to say to me. Dad told
me something that made me feel better about how our relationship had
been during the entire experience. See, we didn't talk so much, and i
often felt uncomfortable around him because of it. He was also very
strict with me throughout the entire thing. however, he told me
something that relieved me of all the crap I had felt about our
relationship. He told me "during your stay here, everyone was so nice
to you, but I was always so strict. I know you didn't like it
sometimes, but I know, and can see, that your heart god bigger as a
result. I think what I did was right. Do your best always." This made
me feel so much better about it, and he was smiling serenly when he
told me this, so i knew he was serious. Finally, the time came when it
was time to leave. Everyone was crying, but in my usual fashion, I
wasn't. I went up to security, put all my shit through, then turned
around and said to everyone "またね！" At this point I nearly started
crying. I went through security, got on the plane, sat down, covered my
face with my arm, and started to cry. I realized what I had to give up
by leaving, and I realized how I really felt about the whole thing. I
was very sad about it, but eventually I stopped crying and accepted it.
I opened the bag of presents to find a set of two nice pens, 5 pencils,
a small notebook, and a caligraphy pen, plus a letter (im not gonna say
what it said). In tokyo i was happy to meet alex again, but i was
already depressed because I hadleft Matsuyama. On the way back to
america I couldnt sleep because there was so much i was thinking about.
I realized how much I didnt want to deal with american people again,
and I started to say to myself "ive come to realize that everyone in
america is an asshole, and that Im one of them, but i dont want to deal
with them again." In Los Angeles I was tired as hell and I just wanted
to go home. Me and alex said bye to the kids we had met during the
trip, then checked our bags, went to the gate, sat down and ate some
burger king. We met up with Misha at the gate, and he told us that
security had just taken his kendo sword, which had to suck. Finally,
after waiting like 4 hours, we got on the plane and headed for Chicago.
I slept the entire flight, I just couldnt take it anymore. Finally, at
O'hare, I met with my parents and Tafhim who was also there. I felt
really glad to see them again. I went home, hung out with Tafhim and
Benjy, and finally went to bed at like 3 when I felt like I could.
I slept until 3pm the next day. around 4:30, I decided to call my host
family and tell them I had gotten to America fine and that I already
missed them alot, and all that stuff. Misato wasnt there at the time,
which sucks, but its okay. I felt alot better after calling, but i
little pissed because i realized that my japanese listening skill had
slightly decreased because i used nothing but english the day before.
Since the monday after that day, Ive been back in school. Its hard to
work because Im still jetlagged, depressed, and because of other shit i
cant explain. I just dropped philosophy in an effort to lighten my
workload, but also because I dont need the class and i prefer asian
studies over philosophy.
Well, thats it. I hope that those of you who were here the whole time
reading this, that you enjoyed reading it. Well, this is it. thanks for
reading, and have a good life.
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| Damn good day today. but first, a little bit leading up to it.
Sunday went to Kagawa prefecture and climbed all the 1380 or so stairs at the temple there (the name evades me). Afterwards bought some japanese sweets for the teachers at school, and then went to a really really awesome udon restaurant and ate the best niku udon ever.
Monday didn't do much. I didnt go to judo all this week because there was shit i had to do at home and such. tuesday didnt go to school and caught up on some sleep. wednesday was another 5km time trial in gym. my time was 22:08, which actually is more towards the worst, lol. problem with this day was i somehow fucked up my foot while running, and it hurts to walk on it. thursday no gym or judo, but i did give a speech in front of the whole school, my last one. Came home thursday and iced my foot some more in preperation for today. heres why
so, at chuo high school, every year there is a marathon that everyone has to run. about 22km for boys and like 10km for girls. problem with this is that its on february 7th, 3 days after i leave, and all we've been doing in gym is training for the marathon. so i find out on monday from my homeroom teacher ms fukuda that she organized a "pre-marathon" just for me that would be on friday (today). 16km for boys, about 8km for girls, and also there were 5 or 6 teachers running in the marathon (ms. futagami, mr. oyama, mr. nagano, mr. yamamoto, and a few more i dont really know personally), but of course the gym teachers of that period as well (my gym teacher mr. ishimaru, mr. morita) and also ms. ishimaru did the marathon on a bike, which was funny as hell to watch. Its funny because yamamoto told me before the race "i know i cant keep up with you, but ill do my best" Now, remember that i have a foot injury here, but two days of heavily icing it helped alot, and today, it didnt start hurting until the last like 6 or so km of the marathon. Its funny because all most of the teachers running are over 30 and i know smoke, so therefore nagano and yamamoto finished towards the end, but the younger teachers and mr. oyama actually did fine. two teachers finished before me. The surprising part about Oyama is that im sure he's in at least his 40's, but now that i think about it he looks like he's in really good shape, so in a slight way im not surprised he finished before me. The course of the marathon started on the school's field, then we did a half circle and went behind the school and to the side, then out the front gate, around the school to the river path behind the school, went that way for around 6km, crossed a bridge and back which is about 1km, ran another 1km to where ms. fukuda and two other teachers were standing, turned around and did the same course in reverse order. we met several teachers on the way, such as my math teacher mr. yoshioka. it was hillarious when we got to him, because he saw that i was running right alongside mr. ishimaru, and he was like "‚ ‚ A‚·‚²‚¢‚æIΊۂƈê‚É" and then he gave me a high five while i was running. Anyway, everyone was waiting at the finish line when i came back, and they held out the ending tape for me and everything. then we got to see most of the other people come back. its funny because a few people didnt finish and some other people had to go look for them, but in the end, everyone came back.
anyway, no i have to brace myself for a busy weekend filled with afs's papers and shit like that. wish me luck. thats all for now. | | |
| So, ive decided to do a small update.
not much is new. I sent more stuff home and now i have only one package left to send. Im at the two week mark. One of the cats is sleepy bottoms up next to me. anyway, we ran 17km in gym yesterday. we left matsuyama thats how fucking far we went. Tomorrow im going to Kagawa prefecture to a temple that has at least 1000 stairs leading up to it, but also for udon because thats what kagawa is famous for.
anyway, thats about all. i dont feel like writing now. as much as im enjoying myself, i also want to go home. we'll see how things go when i get home. thats all, later....... | | |
| So, its more than a week later, and i havent felt like writing lately, but i've decided that I would right now. anyway....
First I have to add the fact that I've had badass headaches for more than a week now. I was actually convinced i was really sick, but after a day of rest (yesterday) and some deep thought into the matter, i've ruled it out as a mental thing. im guessing its either about me wanting to go home, or about not wanting to leave, im not really sure which one.
On monday I finally went to Dogo Onsen, but before that we went to a few temples in the area, like Ishite. At the second one we went to there was a public throwing of rice cakes and I got one. Its funny because the people there are really extreme about catching them, and I heard that Misato's aunt had broken her back there like 2 years ago because someone jumped on her to get a rice cake. luckily, nothing happened to me or Misato. When we finally got to Dogo Onsen, me and Misato did the second most expensive ticket where you get to wear the Yukata and you get to eat traditional Japanese sweets after the bath and drink tea. The only difference between that one and the most expensive is with the less expensive you eat Sembe, and with the most expensive you eat Botchan Dango (i'm thinking thats a kind that they only have here in Matsuyama). Now, the actually bath inside Dogo isnt anything like totally glamourous or anything, but im glad I went because now I can say that I've been there, since it is the oldest and most famous hot spring in Japan. I also got to go into the rooms and see the bath that are reserved only for the Emperor of Japan and his family when they visit Matsuyama. I also got to see Natsume Soseki's room in Dogo (I talk about him further down). After that we went to a restaurant right next to Dogo and had Matsuyama-style Japanese food. its was fucking delicious, notably the Mochi gyoza.
Anyway, school started on tuesday, so im back to my usual schedule, except that now the gym classes are nothing but running, and for the whole fucking period, so ive decided that its crucial for me to go to bed earlier, so ive been going to bed around like 10:30 this week. On tuesday we only ran like 6 or 7km, and it really wasnt that hard. wednesday was 5km time trial (five times around the school). It took me 23:00 exactly to do that, which isnt really good or bad. best time was about 15:30 by my friend Aibara in my homeroom. Thursday (like every week) there was no gym. then today, we ran around 15km in about an hour and a half. Im sure next friday will be somewhere around like 17km or something, since thats now the gym period where there's enough time to run that much. Anyway, after lunch, my homeroom went to the group home (known as the old folks home in america of course) near to the school and entertained the elder people for about 2 hours. I, being american, was afraid that the old people might not like and shit (because of the atomic bomb and the stuff like that), but i was totally wrong about that one. The elder people were so nice, and i had a good time entertaining them for a while.
I have to add in here that because I've been a bit bored lately, ive been reading alot more lately. they're famous Japanese novels, but translated english versions. So far I've read two books by Natsume Soseki, "Botchan" and "Kokoro." Both were very interesting. Botchan was quite interesting because about 90% of the book took place in Matsuyama (Its an actual part of the author's life), but it also reminded me alot of "Catcher in the Rye" because the main character hated just about everything, especially Matsuyama. It also reminded me of Hiro because the main character was from Tokyo and he hated all country people, just like how Hiro hated the kids from Nagano for the exact same reason. Kokoro isnt a true story (i dont think), but its still interesting. We're currently reading it in Gendaibun class anyway, so now I might be able to follow along at least a little bit. I did get to show the two books to Nagano Sensei after class on Wednesday and he asked me if I'd ever been to Dogo and if I'd eaten Botchan Dango and that kind of thing, and then he told me to tell him my thoughts about the two books when I was done with them. Now I'm reading this book of short stories by Kenji Miyazawa, another famous Japanese author (I think). We read a poem of his in Gendaibun a while back, so I decided to pick up a translation of one of his stories. Its a really really childish story, but Its still good.
anyway, thats about all there is to say for now. I've begun sending my stuff home already. I've already sent home more than half of my books and some of my games, but i still got alot more to send. thats all, later........ | | |
| So, how about an update?
So New years was quite fun. Japanese new year is a big thing, much bigger than christmas, so we did alot. On New Years Eve I helped my host father make Soba (one type of Japanese noodles. my least favorite type, but still good), which is a tradition every year. On New years eve, the men make the soba and the women don't have to do anything cooking related. Anyway, the result was pretty good, except my father is convinced that we used a little too much water (however thats possible, since theres only like 1 cup of water in the whole thing), since the noodles ended up being a little sticky. either way, they still tasted fine. During New years, theres also a really special sweet sake that you only drink at new years which we drank over this time. Misato then left a little bit later after all this. She was going, dressed in a Kimono, to a temple with some friends to hear the bell ring 108 times at midnight. for those of you who don't know about this, at the beginning of the year, most Japanese people go to a temple to listen to the bell being rung, and the reason its 108 times is because in Buddhism, its believed that every person has 108 desires, and the bell ringing cleanses you of the 108 desires at the beginning of the year. Anyway, Misato went to a temple, but me, mom, dad, and Junka stayed at home and watched tv until midnight. the new years programs are fucking hillarious, lots of like celebrity karaoke type shows, which are really funny. Then we did the countdown (im somehow surprised they do that here, but whatever), and then everyone basically started drinking after that. Around 1:30 am, we went to the nearest Shrine (i went there for the first time when i had been in Matsuyama for about 1 week, and this was the second time), whose name i seem to have forgotten, and did the wish thing. I actually did mine in Japanese, but only because I had been thinking about it like 10 minutes before we did the wish thing. then we took a walk inside the shrine building, and I got a fortune. I got the best one possible, which I think is a good thing. After all this, we finally went home, and father insisted that we all go to bed because we were having a sort of lunch party with mother and father's english teacher and her husband, as well as father's mother (who lives next door) the next morning.
Woke up around 9:30 the next morning and helped prepare for the party. the table we always eat meals at can only cater around 4 or 5 people (just enough usually), but theres a special setup for dinner parties. in the living room, we put two tables together and eat sitting on the floor. Anyway, it took us roughly like 45 minutes to set up, and then the people came. Their english teacher and her husband are both native Sri Lankins, but they've lived in Matsuyama for like 5 1/2 years now, so they're Japanese is perfect, and of course so is their english. Theyre both really nice people, and I talked with them for a while. they have one daughter who is probably about 1 or 2 years old right now, and they named her Sakura. Sakura really liked me for some reason, and she always smiled when she looked at me, even if she wasnt before. she also kept trying to say my name, but all she could say was "Je." Next I got my Otoshidama (new year money) from mom and dad, grandma, and Mom's mother (who i still havent met yet because she lives like an hour away from Matsuyama). The total amount I got was 25000 yen (around $210), which I think is quite steep, but I obviously can't just give it back, so I'm quite happy about it. After eating and everything, we all went to the Shrine again, except for Misato and Grandma. At the shrine we first looked at this one haiku that grandma wrote a long time ago that is carved into a pillar at the shrine. Grandma is really really good at writing haiku, and she has been all over the world for haiku contests. Anyway, after this we went into the shrine again, but I was temporarilly seperated from the group because I saw Robert (the American guy from Chicago who helps teach english at Chuo, and who has been for roughly 2 1/2 years) and talked to him for a good like 20 minutes, and then i found mom again and we did the wish thing together, and then we found everyone else and went home. After all this, I didn't do too much for the rest of the day.
On monday, alot of different stores had new years sales, and the stores were quite hectic because there were lots of little kids running around trying to figure out what to buy with their Otoshidama. I went to Book market twice that day and to a few other places, all of which were, like i said, hectic.
Next is yesterday. Me and Misato were supposed to go to McDonalds (lol, yeah, im not kidding there), but Dad convinced us to go to the Children's playground in Tobe (one of the towns next to Matsuyama) with him for this little new years festival type thing. Dad worked there like 3 years ago, and its no surprise since he's really really good with children. First off we met my dad's old boss. He was really nice, and just like dad, he had some really intellegent views on things. I also have to point out that I picked up right away that he is a bit older because he used ‚킵 instead of Ž„. Anyway, after this, we first did Mochizuki (i think thats what its called), which is where you help make rice cake by pounded on the really hard dough with a sledgehammer in an effort to soften in up a little. It was hillarious because dad started it off (since he was volunteering that day), and he was going for a while and then he started getting really slow and then stopped and was like "‚í‚ŸA‚µ‚ñ‚Ç‚¢‚ÈI" Anyway, after all of this, we ate some rice cake, had a little lunch, and then we went on next to kite flying. Even I'm surprised by the fact that I've never flown a kite before, and I wish that wasnt the case, because that's quite fun. It was funny because the wind wasn't all that strong, so to get the kite to launch, you had to run with it behind you and let it catch the wind. anyway, I'm actually not too bad at kite flying, and plan to probably do it again in America sometime. After this we did Japanese top, which was also kind of fun. I'm actually okay at it if i concentrate when I'm doing it. After this we left the Childrens playground and went to an Udon restaurant not too far from the park, which was as usual, fucking delicious. Then we went home, picked up mom, went to the video store, book market (again), and the super market, then came home. Not much else happened after that, but man, what a fun day the way.
Anyway, thats about all that I've left out since last time (i think). later.......... | | |
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