National Pocky Day!

This past Saturday, 11/11,  was national pocky day! Of course Japan has to have a national pocky day ahah.

I started out my Saturday by helping out at my school's open campus. This meant performing a ~2 minute speech in front of middle schoolers. Since I was told on Friday that I'd be doing the speech, I had to write it on the train in the morning. Despite this, I didn't mess up, yay!

Then, since it was pocky day, everyone that helped out at the presentation got free pocky!


After that, someone who was coincidentally my friend bought $400 worth of pocky (wowza!) and was handing them out at the station. Since we're friends, he gave me extra :)

Pocky I got from my friend

Even though it may have just been pocky day, the city seemed more busy and bustling than normal. It feels great to eat some pocky with friends, so I'm happy this cute little holiday was created :)

I guess pocky day is my replacement for Thanksgiving!

Japanese High Schooler's Halloween

Although this halloween may have been the least dramatic halloween I've ever had, it was still fun in a sweet way!

There was absolutely NO way that we were going to be able to wear halloween costumes. Not even halloween makeup. However, that's to be expected, considering my school dress code doesn't even allow hair bands that aren't black or brown. Strict to the max! So on the surface, it seemed like a normal school day. But just entering the classroom, I could see that everyone was happy, cheerful, and in proper halloween spirit. Despite everyone never having trick-or-treated, I was shocked to hear my Japanese classmates saying things like "trick or treat!" and "happy halloween!"

In fact, most people (including me!) bought little snacks to hand out to our classmates. And sometimes, like people in America, they wouldn't give the candy out until the receiver said "trick or treat!" It was so cute! I was so glad I stopped by the convenience store on the way to school so I could also participate. Everyone was so energetic, even if they didn't understand the meaning of halloween. Wait wait, is there even a meaning?

I did miss trick or treating a little (this year is actually my first year not doing it!), but school turned out so pleasant that I didn't really miss it that much. At the end of the school day, one of the upper classmen even bought candy specially for me <3 and SOO many snacks at club, because the retired upperclassmen gave a lot to us. Yeessss!

I would also recommend everyone slowly eats their halloween candy. I ate mine all at once, and stayed up until 12 with stomach aches/problems. Pretty embarrassing to spend an hour on the toilet ahah!

As for costumes and make up, Japanese teenage girls get dressed up on the weekend before/after halloween, or for halloween themed events, and then take pictures in the Japanese photo booths. While walking downtown, I happened to see a lot of 'bloody' faces, maid costumes, etc. these past few weekends. It's been entertaining!



Hope everyone had a spooky halloween!
Cheers!

Going to a Japanese Birthday Party!

My slice of cake :)

Today I went to my first Japanese birthday "party!" I say party but it was more of a small gathering c:

It's interesting to see the differences between American birthdays and Japanese ones. I'd say it's a bigger deal in America, like "this day is all about me me me!" For example, I know Americans who will start telling everyone around them that their birthday is in two days, tomorrow, etc., while Japanese people will not say anything and the only way you find out is through their friends or looking at social media.

Today was a normal school day, so after getting out of school at around 5:30, I biked home, grabbed my present, and rushed to my friend's house.

The birthday gal and our other friend had already arrived, and we ushered the birthday gal into a separate room while we blew up balloons and prepared our presents. I made a scrapbook with pictures and captions about our memories together. My other friend prepared a HUGE box of snacks. Finally the preparations were perfect!

We placed party crackers in our hand and called out the b-day gal. Surprise!!!

Getting to enjoy a scrumptious birthday dinner really made me think about how much I love Japan. We ate teriyaki chicken pizza (SO GOOD), fried chicken, and a bunch of vegetable based dishes to balance out how much cake we were going to eat.

And that cake.

Ooh my goodness. Japanese cake is a gift from heaven. American cake is far too sweet; frosting tastes like a$$. However, Japanese cake manages to be the perfect amount of sweetness.

My friend loves T-Swift, so the cake has her face on it :O

Laughter rang through the apartment the whole time. Nothing can beat being with close friends and eating good food!

After dinner, we started taking Polaroid pictures with my camera. I'm so glad I brought it! The birthday girl got 6 pictures, while my other friend and I kept 4. Needless to say, I'll always love those pics.

Cooking in Japanese School!

This past Tuesday, I made food at school for the first time ever!

At my school, everyone is required to take Home Ec, and we  have it for two class periods in a row once a week. This gives us time to sew and cook, although we usually just read from a textbook. My teacher is really nice and has a soothing voice, so I'd say about half the class sleeps when we read. 

Before we could do any cooking classes, we had to sew our own aprons. When we did that, I used a sewing machine for the first time ever, and called the teacher over for help about 15 times ahaha. I was the only person who had never used a sewing machine before, which shows how thorough  Japanese school systems are with their Home Ec. I felt pretty proud when I finished my apron through all the sewing machine struggles. 

Everyone in their aprons preparing the dishes

So when we finally got to use our aprons for the first time this Tuesday, I was really excited! My only experience with cooking was grilled cheese and the occasional batch of pancakes, so I was enthusiastic about learning how to make a traditional Japanese dish. We made a dish called "Oyako-don," which means "parent and child rice dish." It's called parent and child dish because it contains chicken (parent)  and eggs (child). Cute, right?!? Speaking of cute Japanese names, they call the ends of bread the bread's "ears." So cute! 

We started with chopping onions and other japanese vegetables. My eyes have always been really weak to onions; they would burn from someone cutting onions in a whole other room. So of course, guess who decides to volunteer to cut the onions. I almost got through the whole onion. Then my eyes burned like hell's fires, tears were streaming down my face, and I couldn't see clearly. Not only was I the only one who cried from my class, but the stinging  came back several times so I ended up crying next to the teacher when she was demonstrating something to the class. It was pretty entertaing!

After making the food and washing the dishes, we sat down to eat. At first I was worried I wasn't going to be filled up, but it turned out to be far too much ahah. It was  delicious! But  I wished I had some salt and pepper or some kimchi to add some spice.

Oyako-don and some soup

Overall, I became closer to the people in my group and I also know an easy Japanese recipe now! I can't wait until our next cooking class :)

My Group!

Elementary School Sports Festival!

Today I went to my little host brother's sports festival :)

All elementary schools tend to have the sports festival on the same day, so my instagram was filled with pics and videos of these adorable little kids.

During sports festivals, the school is split into teams. My high school was split into 5 teams, but my brother's school only had two teams. Teams then compete in races and games split up by grade and gender, and whoever gains the most wins wins the overall sports category. Teams are also graded on their cheers, and the team with the best cheers wins the cheer category.

It's absolutely adorable watching little 1st graders racing for their lives over ~40 or so meters. I would say that races are the most entertaining things to watch. However, the games like Rope Pulling made me laugh.

Along with games and races, each grade will do a dance/performance. Sixth graders get to do the coolest performance (I may be a bit biased because my brother is a sixth grader ;) ). They made human periods and tested their balance by going into bridges, etc.

During lunch, parents meet up with their kids and everyone eats from giant bentou boxes. It was delicious, as usual :)

In the end, my brother's team lost the sports category but won the cheer category. Yay!

It was interesting to compare his sports festival to mine, because although the concept is the same, the difference between high school and elementary school is a VERY wide one. Sooner or later I'll make a blog post about my sports festival. I had mine a long time ago, so it'll be a really delayed blog post. I've been procrastinating it because I know it'll be a long one ahaha. I promise I'll write it sooner rather than later!

Here's to a good week!

A Little Homesick

I thought it wouldn't really hit me, but with the start of school again I've become homesick. It's nothing drastic, and definitely not to the point of crying, but it's still an aching feeling in my chest.

To describe it, I want to eat American food a lot right now. Don't get me wrong, Japanese food is delicious and I love it, but I could really use some chili or a Chipotle Burrito. I also think about my American friends a lot, as well as my school. What doesn't help is that this week is Spirit Week for my school back home. I see tons of fun pictures and end up missing my school more.

Another feeling I get when I'm homesick is a little bit hard to describe. When I remember places, it gives off a sort of feeling in my chest, like an aura. Rather than remember certain words or sights, I'll remember the feelings I had during that time. Now that I'm homesick, I keep recalling the auras of my past home, a Coloradan sunset, my high school, and sweet memories with my friends. And of course my wonderful mother, who I miss most of all!

Overall, this is a difficult stage of my exchange. I'm ready to have fun and get over these complicated feelings! I would say that when I'm laughing and messing around with my friends, that's when the homesickness goes away. It's moments when I'm alone or have time to think that it hits hardest, just like any sad thing ahah.

Hopefully by my next post these feelings will have gone away a bit!

First Week of the Second Semester!

This week was the first week of my second semester. Whooo time goes by fast!

The first day was absolutely crazy fun! I brought Tootsie Rolls and Hot Tamales that my mom sent me to give out to my friends, and boy that was a LOT of entertainment. It may seem like it would be a simple interaction when giving American candy to Japanese people, a simple little "Oh thank you!" And normally that's the way it is.

Not with Hot Tamales.

Japanese people cannot eat them. They absolutely despise them. I had a whole box, and I gave a bunch of people one hot tamale each. How many people ended up like them? TWO. 2. When I started giving them out in my class, people would chew off a tiny bit, chew silently with a face full of dread, and then start yelling out "Spicy!!! Spicy!!!!!" I managed to trick a few of my friends and say, "Oh no, it's not spicy at all! It's just cinnamon flavor!" Once that hotness hit them, they died.

My class/department is full of girls and few boys, so there weren't any super drastic overreactions. I still had a lot of tamales left over, so I decided to head down to the sports department, which has a ton of boys. The reactions there had my doubling over in laughter. One of my friends ate it and then ran into the bathroom, and another ran to the sinks in the hallway. And it was not a leisurely jog, oh no, they sprinted. One kid threw up a little bit into an old newspaper.

I wanna try giving them out again!

The other days were not quite as fun as the first, but they were still nice. I got to see all my school friends after summer, and it was just as great as I thought it would be. It helped me realize how much I grew even in the six weeks of summer; the way I treat people and handle situations definitely changed, as well as some goals.

It was a bit tough getting used to arriving home at 8 pm everyday again. Showering, eating, and sleeping is all I can do.

Now that I'm in the second half of my exchange, I'm really trying to make every day count. Here's to more happy weeks!