4th of July

Happy July 4th everyone! No one here in Japan even knows what July 4th is and I'm beginning to suffer withdrawals from the complete lack of celebrating. And fireworks! I miss my fireworks!

I hope you all have a super day. Set off some poppers and sparklers for me!

The Consequences of Language Barriers

I'm beginning to think that language barriers deserve a bit more credit; they make life so much more amusing. Because of language barriers, I ended up singing in front of the entire school today. I'll explain.

During lunch breaks and after school the past few days, my class has been rehearsing choir songs, and not once have they let me sit out. They insisted (by way of hand gestures and body language) that I join them. It was so nice of them to include me, but I have no singing experience at all. I had absolutely no idea what we were singing, but apparently did a stellar job of BS-ing it. Okay, not entirely; I actually did manage to learn one of their songs, and the majority of the other one, which made them all very pleased and even more eager to include me in their practices. Then today the entire high school filed into the auditorium for their big choir competition! I probably should have seen that coming. I really didn't expect to be singing Japanese songs in front of the entire school though. The competition was a huge event. It took the entire day, and all of our classes were canceled because of it. We didn't win, but we still had a lot of fun.

So that's my story. The blond gaijin who can't really sing was in a Japanese choir competition today.

Go Eagles!

This evening my host sister, Midori, and I went to the Rakuten Eagles baseball game. It was so much fun! My host mom dropped us off at Sendai station and we took a taxi to "Kleenex Stadium." Our seats were in the very front, about six rows back, a perfect view over everything. It was crazy; we were nearly hit by flying baseballs numerous times.



After one of the innings, there was an awesome fireworks display, which made me so happy. I thought I'd be going the entire July 4th week without seeing any fireworks this year. That would have been sad. I got to see my fireworks though!!!

Before the lucky 7th inning, we sent up a fleet of crimson balloons for good luck. I guess it worked because that's when our team scored their home run. It was so weird standing on my toes cheering, and actually being taller then everyone around me. haha.

We won 4:0. Go Eagles!

The Things You Learn In Japanese Catholic School

This week has been back to school for me. I must say, there's never a dull moment there (except English class maybe). After a week of being gone, we had to start all over with everyone screaming KAWAII!!! at me every time I walk down the hall. I don't know how I'll ever live without it once I return to America. lol

When I got off the bus this morning, two of the little elementary school girls ran up to me and said something in perfect sing-song unison. They were so adorable!!! I felt so bad though, because their voices were so melodious that I couldn't for the life of me understand what they were trying to say. But they were the cutest things ever!

Homeroom this morning was hilarious. They passed these out. It's priceless, really. A full 25-page booklet, complete with illustrations, all in Japanese. This is the last thing I ever expected to be going over in an all girls Catholic high school in Japan.

Sendai Museum

The Sendai Museum was amazing. It was fascinating learning about the history of the city that I am staying in now. I saw some really incredible samurai armor, paintings of Masamune and his wife Megohime, and learned that Masamune was married off at the age of 13, to Megohime who was only 11. Also, Masamune went blind in his right eye from small-pox at the age of five, earning him the nickname “one-eyed dragon.”

A copy of Masamune's iconic helmet with the crescent moon

The Strangeness of Japan

Yesterday, after my lunch of jellied fish, and fish custard, we had squids for dinner. Whole squids with the head and tail and everything. I think this is the part where my sense of culinary adventure begins to wane. The squids kind of creeped me out.


Then today my host mom and dad took me to Sendai’s famous Kanezaki Belle Factory, where they have all kinds of kamaboko. Kamaboko is a processed fish loaf made from pureed white fish, and in my opinion not something to brag about. Whoever decided to process fish into a chewy piece of fish cake should be punished. Kanezaki also had some really weird mechanical fish contraptions. It was definitely one of the strangest places I have ever seen.

Ridiculous Japanese Bathrooms

I’m sorry if this is a bit crude, but it was just too ridiculous not to share. Yesterday we went to a coffee shop and I went to find the bathrooms. I opened the door and not only did the light automatically turn on, but the toiled lid automatically lifted as well. As if that wasn’t scary enough, the second you sit down, the most annoying elevator-type music automatically starts blasting as if the entire room is filled with speakers. Then the automatic hand dryer sounded like a jet engine taking off and completely drowned out the already-too-loud elevator music. Actually I was surprised to find a hand-dryer at all. They don’t exist here. Neither do hand towels. Everyone carries around their own little handkerchiefs.
… I thought the toilets with a million buttons were strange enough.