申し訳ないが、今回は時間のため日本語なしで更新します。次回から絶対！m(__)m
Friday night nomihoudai was great! Started with a group of maybe 5 SatsuDai exchange students and a Japanese friend of one of them. By the end of the night we had around 15 people all crammed into the tiny back room of the bar. Spent most of the evening talking with Tristan, Suzanne and three Japanese girls who were all from Hokkai Gakuen University, which was a lot of fun. Managed to pace my drinking considerably better compared to Monday with the extreme sports guys haha
Saturday was the much-anticipated hanami (literally, flower watching)! Basically, every year in spring there's maybe a two-week period where the cherry blossom trees in Japan are blooming. During that time it's a tradition to go to a park with lots of cherry blossom trees and sit around, drink, eat, chat with friends, etc. So that's what we did! Me, Hokuto, Yuuji, Nara (another friend of Hokuto's and a super cool guy), Suzanne, and RaBekah. Normally during hanami in Hokkaidou you'd eat something called 'Genghis Khan', which is grilled lamb, but the preparation for that is kind of annoying so we just bought a bunch of sushi and snacks haha Just sat around, chatted, ate, drank. Got kinda bored at one point so Hokuto, Nara and I went to buy some balls to throw around, which was a fun adventure and gave us something to do at the park.
After hanami, Hokuto, Yuuji, Nara and I got ramen at a place I'd never been that was just amazing, then went to a store called Mandai. Basically there are lots of 24-hour stores that sell used games, CDs, DVDs, books, clothing, etc all over the more rural cities of Japan. They're always pretty sleazy (from the outside they look like a gambling establishment, honestly, and they're probably run by the same type of people haha) but have lots of cool stuff to look at/buy for decent prices. The other guys played crane games for the most part, but I just wandered around and looked at things, reminiscing about my idol days :P
Sunday, went with Hokuto and Yuutaro (one of Hokuto's bandmates) to a brass band/orchestra concert on campus. Extremely talented performers, as one would expect, but what I didn't expect was how fun and light-hearted it would be. The band split into groups by instrument (sax, trombone, percussion, french horn, etc) and each played a different song, and everyone in the audience was given a card upon entering to vote on which group was best. During the second half, the conductor also invited people to come onto the stage and conduct a portion of a song. That was especially fun because even little kids participated and there were some…interesting results from that haha Had a great time and really glad I went.
Hung out with Yuuji for a bit Sunday evening, although he didn't have a lot of time so we basically just ran over and got me signed up for a rental card at GEO. Will actually go look around and start renting at some other point.
Nothing particularly special happened on Monday or Tuesday. Hung out with Hokuto a bit Monday night and just kind of watched TV, chatted, etc.
Wednesday, joined a new class - intercultural communication. This is the one class I'm officially signed up for that's not for 'Japanese learners'. Went well, I think…the teacher went ahead and assigned me to June 12th for my presentation and afterwards he had me come to a meeting to chat for a bit and meet some of his colleagues. Was kind of unexpected and a bit out of my comfort zone, but I wasn't about to say no.
After class, went with Hokuto and Nara to see if a different GEO from the one near campus had better stuff (it didn't) and then went to an open air bath/sauna. Open air baths in Japan are that exactly - huge open areas with a few different kinds of baths…which also means a bunch of naked dudes, including yourself haha I'm comfortable with it, personally, but I can see why other people wouldn't be. Spent maybe an hour or so in the open air bath chatting about various 'guy things' before washing up and moving to the sauna. Started with the hottest one…felt great, but after about 15 minutes it got hard to breath and I could feel my heart beating faster so we got out of there. Quick break, then we moved to the next level down for maybe another 20-30 minutes, and finally went back to the bath again for another hour or two. On the whole a great bonding experience and very relaxing and refreshing. Definitely want to go again.
Thursday, everybody went out for kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi) with Hokuto, Nara, Yutaro, Tristan and Ryouma (another of Hokuto's bandmates). Ate 17 plates worth, which was at least 30 pieces of sushi and a piece of cheesecake lol Tasted great!
Friday's study abroad support group only had one Japanese student show up, so it was me, Michael (England) and Ching (Australia) teaching one student. Actually worked very well, feel like the guy who showed up learned a lot and it went much smoother than with a larger group.
Post-class, went to another of Hokuto's band (THE MARCYz)'s concerts. Other than THE MARCYz, every band playing that night consisted of high schoolers, so the crowd was pretty much entirely high schoolers outside of friends of THE MARCYz. Let me tell you, Japanese high schoolers en masse are not a force to take lightly…by the end of the night, one kid had a bloody/broken nose and another had lost a tooth. It was a rowdy crowd, to say the least, but at the same time it's kind of refreshing and encouraging to see that kind of energy. I feel like I kind of got a feel of what the term 'seishun' (青春) really means haha (it's a term that technically means 'youth', but has a specific nuance of nostalgia for that time in one's life - sounds straightforward, but it's a distinctly Japanese concept in spite of that)
Decided to hang out after the concert, first we went to a game center and just kind of wandered around. The Japanese guys I run around with are really into crane games, so they did a bunch of playing that and then we took a commemorative purikura together. At this point we realized the last train had already left, so we had no option but to go for all night karaoke…! So that's what we did haha Lots of fun, of course, although staying up until like 7 in the morning isn't exactly a specialty of mine.
Saturday, slept in until like 4PM and then a bunch of the extreme sports guys came over that evening for a takoyaki party. Lots of drinking, goofing off, hanging out. Good times all around, although we were up until like 4 in the morning.
Sunday, slept late again (noon), then did a bunch of nothing before going over to Yuuji's place for some yakiniku with Yuuji, Nara, Hokuto and Suzanne. Very tasty, of course. Tomorrow it's back to school!
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