足助 and others

friday was such an amazing day on so many levels! my title says "asuke" as that was the area we went to. it was about an hour away from school, but it was so amazing. an old style city in the middle of the forest and hidden deep in the mountains. the trees were just starting to change and most were ginko or maple trees. the maple trees near the river that cut between the area we mainly stayed were hand planted by a Buddhist priest who chanted sutra's as he did so back in the 1600s hoping to bring beauty and prosperity to the area. there are a lot of shrines and temples in the area so it looks amazing. the houses were filled to the brim with authentic and handmade items from the area and i....HAD NO MONEY! i forgot to pull some from the ATM before we left and no where took credit cards and there were no ATMs in the area. go me go... luckily, i managed to ask my friends to help me out and they agreed. :)

i tried this AMAZING food called "gekeimochi" (i think) that was mochi (pounded rice to be like paste pretty much) covered in a sauce that reminded me of bbq sauce but was ubber sweet and such. it was GREAT!



for about an hour and half we got to walk around the entire area, but i was worried we'd get lost and most of us were hungry. we were ok and all and thankfully i knew the map well enough to get us to see so many sights. i wanted to see the damn temples, but oh well. it was still loads of fun walking around.

it was then time for the activities to start. i was doing hattaori which is cloth weaving. it starts off with a giant loom that already has yards of cloth all ready and since there were just three of us, we got our own personal little lesson.

here are pictures of the process:


here's the loom. not the one i worked at, but one near me

the pedals i used. you press the middle ones to switch the pattern up and down

this was the material i used at my loom and the yards of fabric waiting for me

now behind the tool there used is the finished product. once done, you use this tool to tie the string 7 times around the bamboo and cloth


when it was done we use this glue across the cloth to keep it in place


the end result! aren't they so pretty?! look at that piece of work! all handmade, baby!

before i made that loveliness, i also wandered around the town and took quite a lot of pictures of the area. here are just a few lovely shots of my time in this wonderfully peaceful town.



















































































































































































































































also, there were school kids there. they were all about 8 or 9. they couldn't get enough of us, especially my senpai (older classmate) r-chan, as she's really tall and they thought her touching tree branches like godzilla was amazing! haha!

now, over the weekend i was EXTREMELY busy with halloween parties, UN/hetalia day, and the school fesitval. the school festival was awesome and i really loved attending my first one. i especially liked seeing the boys up on the stage dancing! :D
but i was also a part of the foreigners who put on a play. we did the lion king! i have included the links below to the videos. if you want to see more pictures from asuke and from the halloween party i went to on saturday, check out my facebook!

starting midterms next week, so don't expect updates for awhile, although next tuesday i have a random holiday and plan to go out with my friends, so there might be pictures or so

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy6ZR16qSSs
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXt-dTiIXJQ
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQcTIrxbALU

thanks you all!

~星子☆

what a week!

so this week has held AMAZING surprises for me, both bad and good. i won't go into detail about the b ad as many of you already know the news, so i'll skip to the good!

let's start with monday night. after a certain bad incident took place, i went over to my friend's new apartment. she had moved out of the dorms i currently reside in and took up residence in the apartments that they offer just down the street. i had never been there, so it was very interesting to see the place. it was SO TINY! i couldn't believe it. my bathroom is bigger than her kitchen and my entire dorm is bigger than her apartment. but we still managed to have fun. there was quite a lot of us and cake, salads, fried shrimp, and one giant bag of skittles. plus 5 cameras. fun shit went down to keep me happy. my friends here really helped me out.

tuesday is a day i managed to recoup. after monday's event. my mood really cheered up then and has yet to go back down.

we'll skip to friday when the action started. so i had been working on a project for the past two weeks and friday was the day to present the information in class. i was supposed to go fifth, but when the third student goes up to present, i realize... mine's the same as his, but we don't have the same topic. i freak out and ask my teacher if my presentation was on bamboo weaving. she looks shocked and says, "it's on cloth weaving!"
i am about to cry because yeah... so i quickly write up an entire new script in japanese in 5 minutes (because that's how long all the presentations are) and stand up, give my new presentation that only lasted 3 minutes, sit down, and just CRASH. oh man, the stress was awful

so then i go home and there are two birthday parties going on. i get excited and run downstairs because there's some partying going on. i didn't sober up until about 2 am or so...

saturday was an amazing day. there was a cultural exchange party going on at the school and i really wanted to go. there was a chance my host family was there. so i got up (without a hangover, thank god) and went with some friends. there were SO many types of food and activities. there were also a lot of children from families there as well and i got to interact with them from time to time, but many were too shy. i talked a LOT of japanese that day and met so many nice ladies. i even got invited to two different parties (one this weekend and another later in november) all of which having to do with helping children get more involved with foreigners.

i think that's the aspect of this area i really like the most. while there are still a lot of people unwilling to be close to foreigners, the entire area is changing rapidly because of the interest in foreign affairs and so many families and communities are coming to my school to get to know us. it's really uplifting because they just want to promote things such as working together, exchanging cultures, and understanding one another. i really love that about japan. and it's not just in japan, but other countries too because there are a lot of people from different countries here speaking different languages. it makes me so happy.

oh yeah! i also got to play the taiko drums! i'll have the video up on another post for everyone to see. it's a short clip so i hope you enjoy it. (it won't be of me playing, just of the performance in general)

sunday was an amazing day. we all went to nagoya city to go to animate again as new hetalia merchandise came out. on the way there, i noticed an older lady getting on the train and started to get up to give her my seat. she grabbed me, startling the hell out of me, and told me that it was ok. she grabbed my arm and was all, "no no! you're so young! it's ok! don't get up, you cute girl" i was like, "oh thank you, thank you". she then proceeded to talk to us all the way to nagoya city, asking us where we were from, our ages, why we were so cute, and if we went to school nearby. when we said we were exchange students, she was BLOWN away. she was all, "oh no no! that's too hard! i'd never EVER do that! i wanted to when i was younger, but...wow...you girls are so strong! good luck! i'm proud of you!"

it was hella uplifting and totally made our day. which...was pretty amazing, lemme tell ya. animate just always makes me happy. (SO MUCH IGGY STUFF!)

so... yeah. this week is a bit hectic as there are more tests and eventually, there's going to be a new placement test so i can HOPEFULLY move up in my kanji class. i'm so done with that class... and possibly move up in my language class too, but i'm pretty satisfied with where i am in that class. this friday, i'm going to an old town to do cloth weaving and to see the sights, so i'm excited about that. also, the party is this saturday AND a super special secret update on sunday.

love to you all!

~星子☆

kabuki lecture

so i have a very informative blog this time around. my school is allowing a number of students to go to a kabuki play next week. sadly, i forgot to turn in the paper and...i'm not going. but i went to the lecture today instead! that was awesome-sauce beyond words! the teacher talking to us was in a television show that portrayed the life of a kabuki actor a few years ago. he had props and everything. sadly, i forgot to bring my camera...

first off is the word kabuki. 歌舞伎（かぶき）is broken up into three words. ka 歌　（か）is the same kanji for song (uta) 歌, bu is the same kanji for art 舞, and ki is the same for dance. therefore, kabuki means song, art, dance. originally, it was called kabuku 化負く which means unusual or out of the ordinary.

this is an appropriate term as kabuki started off in a very unusual manner. started back in 1603 in the river bed of kyoto by a woman named izumo no okuni (okuni of izumo). at the time, women wore kimonos and were forbidden to show anything past their neck. izumo lifted her kimono up to her knees in order to perform her dancing, which, at the time, was extremely odd and made no sense to go with her odd music. this was seen as almost prostitution at the time.
over time, kabuki became very popular as more and more women joined izumo and it attracted the wrong type of crowd. because of this, women were thus banned from kabuki in 1629

after around 1630, men came into kabuki. it was thus transformed into what's now known as yarou kabuki or young men kabuki. young men would then perform the stories, including the female parts, opting to cross dress and create a form of kabuki theater still popular today known as onnagata, where men would raise their voices to match a woman's. it's a very impressive thing and those who can master it are given a title that's named after the guy who did the best woman's impersonation (sadly, i didn't write down his name).

in the 1700s, many of the traditions in kabuki seen today were created. they are listed and described below:

* 語る　（かたる）－kataru which is the style of talking used in kabuki. because kabuki is a theater of unusual devices, the manner of talking is extremely elongated. so to say good morning in japanese would be the normal ohayou gozaimasu (おはようございます）, but in kabuki it would be more like oooooooooohayoUUUUUU goZAIIIIIImasuuuuuu.
this is similar in sumo when the referee/ shinto priest is introducing the sumo wrestlers (which is why that guy in the bond movie talks that way, dad. i finally figured it out! haha!)

*唄う　（うたう）- utau which is the style of singing commonly used in kabuki. singing is very important in kabuki as it moves the story along and is in time with the music used in the play.

*鳴らす　（ならす）- narasu which are the sounds and music involved in the theater. the music used include the clapping with the wood blocks onto of slabs of wood (called kitotsuke) that go in time to certain scenes (dramatic or fighting scenes especially) and are meant to be extremely poetic. certain sounds represent different meanings.
for example, the stereotypical sound of kabuki (the slow DING DING that speeds up) is meant to represent the cicadas most commonly heard in summer. this is normally seen when an actor is frozen, then slowly starts to move, and then does a strange dance on one foot. that type of dance is called: じょはきょう　(johakyou) which is broken down into three meanings. jo in this word means no rhythm, ha in this sense means starting of the slow rhythm, and the kyou here means quick, fast rhythm. it's meant to symbolize the sound of space because as a cicada comes takes off or lands, it starts off slowly and then gets faster and faster. when it lands, it's very wobbly and messy which is portrayed in the wood clappers. it takes 10 years to master jumping on one foot the way they do and looks very hard considering everything else they have to wear.

the cymbals used in the plays are played during women's roles or dances.
there's also a very long rod with many small cymbals on them that priestesses (or miko) shake are what're used to call down the gods.

drums and flutes are also an important part of kabuki music and play. it's roughly $300 for the wood block and $2,000 for the clappers...and that's the cheapest and worst ones to get. the ones actually used in the plays are MUCH more expensive...

*踏む　（ふむ） － fumu is the stomping or long steps seen regularly in kabuki performances

*見得　（みえ）－mie is the poses seen regularly in kabuki performances.

*さしがめ－sashigame are the people who dress all in black are meant to be viewed as invisible in the play. they carry sticks that have bugs or other things attached to them. in this, they create atmosphere.

last, but not least is the most exciting part of kabuki

*立ち廻り （たちまわり）－tachimawari, which, again, can be broken down into parts (there's a pattern here). tachi means to kill and the mawari is to spin around. that's right, this is the action part of the kabuki plays. not all kabuki plays have an action scene in them, but when they do, it's not the same.

we were shown the props used in the action scenes. the katana created is actually not a real katana at all. it is a bamboo sword with a silver leaf laid over the bamboo. the teacher said he thinks the process involves egg white and knows that there cannot by any air between the two. sadly, because this is such an intensely hard production, there are only 1 or 2 people left in japan that can make these swords. it takes 10 years, also, to master this art as well. probably even more to just get credit enough to sell anything to a kabuki production.

when the katana was shown, we were also given a very nice and short history lesson on why the katana is called "katana". the sharp edge of the sword, also called the ha, (歯) or tooth, is on one side of the sword, it's called the katana. if both sides were sharp it would be called a kataha. there are some double edge swords, but it's rare and they're called something else.
there's a blunt side because if there's a fight that doesn't call for blood shed, the wielder of the katana can just knock their opponent out with the other side of the sword.
katana's in kabuki aren't heavy at all, so the actors have to pretend like they are heavy.

seppuku (せっぷく) is the famous stereotype of japanese suicide. it is actually known as the honorable way to die because it allows the person dying to call out surrender and repent (in a sense) while keeping their family's name and land still in tact. they hold a paper or a cloth while they grasp the sword and then cut open their gut. but that doesn't just kill someone. a second person, called かいしゃにん　(kaishanin) is there to then cut off the head. the government, back then, recognized this as an honorable way to die.
however, if one was a criminal, they would get their head cut off without any ceremony and lose all their name to their family and land, thus completely extinguishing the name.

fighting scenes in kabuki go along with the wood clappers that play in the background and are almost comical. the actors make faces and move like a robot. it's kind of like an overly dramatic death seen in funny television shows.

finally, in kabuki is an important part. normally, one can't just decide to join kabuki and then become an actor in kabuki. if you want to be in kabuki, too effin' bad. kabuki is strictly within the family names or the kabuki houses (家元制度 iematoseido). this is not just with the actors, but with the musicians. so every actor and musician now that is involved in kabuki had their father, grandfathers, and great grandfathers involved in kabuki and were raised solely to be involved in kabuki. even the guy in the horse costume had his father in the horse costume (sucks for them...). they also didn't jump around from different parts in the theater. if you were a horse/actor/sashigame/musician...then your family was it for life.

in order to know who was who in the plays, old men made to look like they fit in with the crowd join the audience and shout out the actors names when the actors pose. it's part of the play and no one else in the crowd is meant to shout out as well. apparently this was a problem last year as students did that and we were told not to repeat the same action. it was pretty amusing.

to close this off, the teacher ended by showing us these little balls of paper strands that are flung out during the plays. he called for three volunteers and i instantly jumped up. i got to go second and mine didn't go as far as everyone else's, but DAMN there was a lot of paper in that little ball. it was amazing. i rolled it back up and took the mass home with me. haha.

so that's it for the day! sorry i didn't take any pictures. i hope you enjoyed this little lesson and kudos to you for getting through the entire thing!

～星子☆

normalcy

so it's been over a month now since i invaded japan. i still have yet to fully take it over, but i'm starting to find ways to do my best to just fit in. i know this will never be possible, though, and frankly...i'm a bit glad i won't fit in.

my clothes have changed a lot recently and i wear a lot more clothes that normally i wouldn't wear in the states. it's jsut the clothes in japan are irresistible and i can find anything to my liking. but see...this is where japan has accomplished something i don't think america quite grasps. in america, there's a high demand or, in some cases, just a medium demand for something and it's granted with excessive amounts for the masses to be happy. in japan, there's a high demand for something...too fucking bad. if it's gone, it's fucking gone. when they say it's seasonal, it's seasonal. if you see it one day, you might not see it ever again.

i find this extremely true with almost everything. it's a bit annoying because if i really like something, but decide i'll sleep on it for a few days or i just plum forgot to bring enough cash, i can't buy the item. if i go back, it's gone and it's GONE. this is very true with clothes. that's where most of my money has vanished to...clothes. i just can't help it. i find new clothing stores every single time i go out, even in my small little town of nisshin. sakae...oh my lord... i've found 5 different places to go shopping all of them are something in the range of 5-7 stories tall of just fashion for girls. osu was more of a guy's place, but it was still cute! even had some loli stuff! (too expensive, though!)

but i've stopped my spending (today was literally the last day until i get my next scholarship payment), so it's food buying ONLY until then. i'm only going to buy my stamps for letters and that's it.

so an update on my health: a lot better. i still have a bit of a cough that seems to only act up at night when i lay down or sometimes, if i sit for too long. not quite sure why, but i'm going to have the doctor take a look at it later this week.

classes are going well and i might be bumped up sometime soon. i'm excited if that happens, though my other classmates in the section right above mine tell me to stay down because theirs is too hard. from what i see...it's more like they're self-taught and the teacher doesn't actually teach them. could be just how they do it, but i'm not totally sure. in any case, i would rather be higher and learning than reviewing.

so as this post title says, things have settled into a state of normalcy and i'm starting to find my pace. i've made quite a nice bunch of friends and while i generally get along well with the people in the entire house, there are still some people i stay away from or some i'd rather not see. but if things get tough, i know i can always come to my room where i have decorated it with pictures of home, friends, family, and my cats. always a plus.

ah! on a final note! i got the new kingdom hearts game and i can hardly put it down! it's so much fun! but it doesn't get in the way of studying, i swear.

much love!

~星子☆

quick post of nothing

this post isn't anything spectacular. i'm updating some of my friends about an issue regarding a video i promised

it seems that megaupload, mediafire, and my own e-mail won't take the video i created (either zip format or not) and even if i upload both parts of the video onto youtube, it still won't work. i'm not sure what to do. i'm going to go to the local bakery some time this week and use their internet as i was told they have better internet.

in any case, classes have gotten extremely hectic and sometime this weekend i'll have an update.

until then! i'm sorry i haven't been present recently! know that i'm getting better (sickness wise) and that i'm still having a great time out here in the land of the (early) rising sun and (early) setting sun. (more on that on a later post)

~星子☆

three posts in one

so i have three different topics i'd like to talk about in this post. (it's been that fun filled past three days)

so the other day, a friend of mine here got really down on herself and i decided i'd organize a trip to the karaoke place to cheer her up. we went around 8 and stayed for 2 hours. it was loads or fun and she, thankfully, really cheered up. for awhile, though, i was in a little bit of an odd place because of something one of the residents here said something about me. (don't worry, i'm over it now).

the karaoke itself was fun, but the walk back was most interesting. while japan is relatively safer than say, america, it doesn't exclude it from weirdos and bizarre people (actually, in my area i've seen a lot of mentally and physically handicapped people than i've seen in america in the past 5 years. it's quite amazing).

on the way home, i was singing a song with my friend and this car stopped and backed up. i didn't notice, but my friends did and laughed about it. i looked back and saw this guy following us. i instantly pull out the phone, showing the driver i had a phone and could call for help if need be. the driver pulls up next to us and one of my friends leaned over to see in the window. i had the phone halfway to my ear when i hear the guy shout, "I FUCKING LOVE YOU" and BOLT out of there. we all died of laughter especially when my friend said, "i think that guy was hispanic or a really ugly japanese guy!"
it was priceless and we still laugh about it today. we're not sure who he said it to. we joke he said it to our male friend with us, but he might've been saying it to me or my friend since we were singing a song. he might've been a fan. (btw, the song was pub n' go from hetalia, so we joke he was a hetalia fan)

second topic!
i FINALLY got to have my okonomiyaki!
fact: okonomiyaki is a very famous dish of japan and is referred to (mainly by me) as the japanese pizza. it's made from flour, mayo, vegetables, and choice of meat or seafood like shrimp. it differs on how it's made, though, depending on the region and restaurant. some restaurants serve the dish already completely made, some regions have it where you cook the meal by yourself (this way you can add as much sauce or mayo as you want, but the vegetables and flour are already premade), or, like in osaka (where it's extremely famous and known for having the best taste), the cooks make it for you. YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO FLIP IT IN OSAKA! it's a big deal down there. osaka is KNOWN for their cooking and food. they get temperamental about it. it's kinda awesome.

i went with a rather large group of gaijin and the restaurant we invaded was the one where i got to cook the food myself. it was pretty intimidating and i was nervous, but it all turned out great! i made a mistake and picked ham, though, making bacon (i hate bacon), so next time i'll get the shrimp since i LOVE that kind. pictures will be at the bottom with the karaoke pictures

after the okonomiyaki, i went out for a pleasant evening walk with three friends and just talked about life and things in our lives. it was a lot of fun and i feel so close to those three now. i talked about my family, friends, my boy, and school. we laughed a lot and i'm sure we bothered people trying to sleep (but it was no later than 9...i think...it gets really dark here REALLY early, so i'm never quite sure). i still had fun and it lifted my spirits.

confession: the homesickness definitely set in these past three days. and worse, i was so swamped with things to do or it was at a time in the day that no one in the States was awake. i felt alone, despite the fact i was always with someone. it was silly and i'm glad i was FINALLY able to get past it today.

which leads me to my third topic! the reason i got through my depression was because...

CLASSES FINALLY STARTED! it's a miracle! i'm so excited!
classes start every weekday from 9 and last until noon with no break. fun stuff! i change rooms every day, but that's because sometimes i mingle with the other sections and every tuesday is kanji day. on days we don't mingle, we're in a smaller room and that excites me to no end. 4 hours of close interaction with a smaller class size (there are only 7 in my group, including me).

unfortunately, our teachers decided to skip review in the class and gave us 8 pages of homework all of which is review. i was completely blown away for three reasons: 1) 8 FUCKING PAGES RIGHT OFF THE BAT?! 2) hey, new shit i don't know, but i can easily learn 3) oh man...i know so much of this, i feel better! the kanji homework, thankfully, isn't due until next tuesday, so i got another 3 pages off my chest.
(i just finished my homework 2 hours ago and i've been home from school since 3 or so...it's midnight. that includes small computer breaks, dinner, and uno games).

i went to my culture class (really loving this class) and came home to find a package from my family! it was my PRINTER! i was VERY excited to get my printer! this means i can print out photos of everyone and decorate my walls and fill my photo frames. (and, yes mom, i was very happy to get the other stuff too, especially my wrist guard and the towels)
next on my list...figure out how to mail packages to friends and such...because i have special notebooks, postcards, and gifts to mail home...

in any case! here are the pictures!

the machine we use to pick the songs. it changes to japanese, english, and korean songs.

the machine itself. there was more on the sides

the GIANT book of just japanese songs to look through. there was an english book of songs somewhere in the place too, but we couldn't find it. it's ok, we knew exactly what we wanted

SPICE GIRLS!

i honestly don't know what was funnier, our singing, the music choices we made, or the videos in the background. because we mainly picked english songs, the copyrights to the music videos weren't given to the store, so there were random videos to fit the song. they didn't fit at all and most of the time i made fun of the pictures.

ON TO OKONOMIYAKI!

what it starts out like. it's all in a bowl like this

BOO YEAH! that's mine and yes i ate the entire thing and even half of someone else's. i really REALLY love this stuff (it's up there with my love for omuraisu and sweedish pancakes)

flipping the okonomiyaki

YAY!

いただきます！(time to eat!)

tomorrow, a lot of people are going to this zen experience. i signed up for it, but my body feels a little worse for wear and i opted to stay home and rest. while i know zen= peaceful and relaxation and all...i just wasn't up to it. i have a sore throat (no, it's not swine flu and no i'm not getting a cold) from the constant change in temperature and partially the karaoke. i get HORRIBLY hot and then go into a room and the air conditioner is blasting, only to walk outside an hour or two later and be sweating again.

i'd rather not test the limits especially since three of my friends ARE sick, so...yeah. gonna clean my bathroom and do some more laundry and such... maybe FINALLY do a video log.

in any case, i'll keep on updating as long as you guys keep commenting. i honestly only know, like, 5 people who read my blog out of you guys (aside from the parents) and i know more of you...do read it, but i wanna know for sure. sorry, but i just, yeah. selfish request will be demanded!

～星子☆

SUCCESS!

やった！！！！
(i did it!)

i made me some omuraisu! oh yeah! and it was successful.

not nearly as good as kotokotoya's omuraisu (place where i first had it), but it's still REALLY good for my cooking ability. now i'm confident in my cooking abilities as i made my favorite dishes and that it turned out okay

and that's all i did today. i went to that anime store and bought a lot of stuff, but kept it under $100, so go me go. most of the stuff i want comes out next month anyways.

HERE'S MY PROOF I COOKED SOMETHING RIGHT!


~星子☆