Several things have been going on in the last little while. It would probably be better if I talked about them all in chronological order. So first, Tiffany got a new host sister! Yay! Only, she isn’t a ryugakusei. Her name is Ai-chan and she comes from Tailand and is staying in Japan to study in and graduate from a Japanese high school so that she can enter a Japanese university. She used to be a ryugakusei a couple years back, so her Japanese is fluent. I met her along with another one of her Thai friends and we went out to karaoke, Tiffany included. It was neat little karaoke place that I hadn’t been to before, a little expensive but - Free All-You-Eat Ice cream! After karaoke we discovered a Moss Burger right outside Odori eki and went there for supper. I’m trying to practice my Japanese more, so I only spoke in Japanese to Ai, even though she is also really good at English. Tiffany wanted to show me the anime shop that she always goes to (because Tiff is otaku >.<) so we went there next. I wasn’t entirely interested at looking at all the merchandise, but perhaps a little too excited about the costumes. Then I found out that we were allowed to wear the costumes and take puri kura with them! There was a single puri kura booth just sitting there beside the change rooms. Only hyaku en fee on top of the usual puri kura fee, which is amazing. Tiffany wasn’t keen on dressing up, so me and Ai picked out our costumes and took amazing awesome anime-chick puri kura. I wish I could buy a costume like that. I swear I would wear it around Odori. In fact, I have actually made the decision that I am finding and buying a panda suit. And I will wear that panda suit to many places.
Next on the docket; this actually comes in two parts. Last Friday I went out to Odori with Dylan. Of course, I took him to the same anime shop that I just talked about. Oh, but first we had Moss Burger, because it is right beside the shop, and it was Dylan’s first time going there so it is important to note. He actually ended up buying three burgers because one of them had shrimp in it, and he was hungry. Ah-hem anyway, our purpose for going to the anime shop was to dress in cosplay and take wicked puri kura. That was fun. I was dressed first, so I stood outside Dylan’s door waiting, and posed for the Japanese schoolgirls that happened to be browsing. I was going to take pictures with them, but the store clerk wouldn’t allow any pictures. After that we walked around the streets a bit. There is this place in that always mystified me. It is essentially a door leading in a black abyss. I had went down there once before by myself, just down the steps a little bit, then turned back and ran away. Then the second time me and Dylan went down together, a little farther, but again ran away. Because it was just all black with some lights at the bottom somewhere, and silent. We had no idea what it was. SO. We made a pact that the next time we saw this place we would just go down there once and for all and find out what the hell it is. This time, we actually did it. We went down the stairs, slowly, and this time was creepier than ever. It sounded like people were speaking somewhere inside, and there was another sound very similar to the sharpening of a knife. But we made a pact. So we went down and stood outside this door in a small hallway-type place. People were talking inside. Sharpening the knife. Me and Dylan are whispering to each other about what we should do. At one point he tried to go back up the stairs, but I wouldn’t follow. No way was I giving up this potentially amazing adventure. So he came back down. I was building up the courage to walk into the room and start talking to these strangers with the knives when one of said strangers walked into the hallway. He seemed a bit surprised to see two gaijin standing there. I asked what this place was, and to my surprise, he said it was a live music house. Holy crap! So, we walked into the place and sure enough to our left there was a nice sized stage, some disco balls, a few tables and lounge chairs, and a bar on the far right. We walked around the place for a little bit, trying not to jump up and down like little girls, and repeating ‘sugoi’ over and over again. Live bands played there every night, except this night was a holiday. We decided that we could come back tomorrow night.
And so begins part two.
Getting to Odori the next day was a bit of trouble. I got to my subway station, only to find out that the subways were all stopped on the nanboku line because of some accident. Someone must have fallen onto the tracks or something, I still havn’t heard anything from the media about it. So that sucked. I was so excited to go to this live house. But luckily I know some meager Japanese, and managed to elicit the pity of an older woman who also wanted to go to Odori. She was going to call her husband to give her a ride, and she let me come along with her. Thank god for Japanese people. I finally managed to meet up with Dylan in a bread shop. Odori station was packed full of people, it was crazy. I don’t know if it was because of the accident, or what. But we made it to the livehouse well before the bands started playing. I don’t know how many that were going on for the night, but we saw about three I think before we left. Each played a whole bunch of songs. Very very loud. Very Awesome. Our favorite band was Smarttail. After they left the stage, we went into the hallway place where they were selling band merchandise and bought one of their cds. The band members were all just hanging out back there, and we got a picture with guys from Smarttail. The lead singer even got a picture with us on his own cellphone! Smarttail actually has a music video for one of their songs. You can google Smarttail and find it if you want. decided that the next time we go there, we need to befriend one of the bands so that they invite us to more gigs, and to hang out. If we can pull this off, the ensuing awesomeness will be beyond epic.
Now for Minami’s sayonara party. It happened on Sunday. Minami is going to Kobe soon to enter university, so she had a going-away party with all the rotary exchangers and one of her good friends. Tiffany and Emmi were unable to come. The party was held at Minami’s house and mostly consisted of eating cheesecake, listening to Lady Gaga (and watching her video for Telephone) and making videos with her video camera. That was all really fun. We went out later to karaoke and then to an Indian restaurant for supper, sharing bowls of flavoured curry dip and three giant pieces of pita bread called nans.
(P.S, The people in the livehouse weren't actually sharpening knives, it turned out. They were scraping old paint off a part of the floor.)
Monday, March 15, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
First Trip to the Hospital, Among Other Things
In the last couple of weeks I had managed to finish my igloo. It got fairly big. In the back I had a sort of bed area, to the left was an entertainment centre and to the right was my dungeon. The dungeon was never really completed, since I needed icicles to make the bars and my house was void of such things. Anyway, after it was completed I had a little igloo party with my friends. I invited some people over and we watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on my laptop. A day later, the igloo caved in from the heat, so it was a good thing we had the party when we did. Now it looks a bit like a house from the Flinstones in the back, and in the front it looks like a cave.
I also finally managed to go out with some of my Japanese friends, Haruna and Yuriho. We went to Sapporo eki and saw the movie Valentine’s Day. It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, and I actually recommend it. After the movie we went to the game centre, took puri kura and played a shooting game in the arcade.
A few days ago I went snowboarding with my host dad, my counselor and Dylan. It was Dylan and my host dad’s first time snowboarding, so they went to a different slope for a couple hours to take lessons while me, Demura san and her boyfriend Kevin stayed at Teine. I practiced my front edge a couple of times before they decided that I had mastered it and that I was ready to go down Paramount and try doing S-curves. So we did that. Paramount is a fairly straight and easy-going slope that runs down the back side of the mountain, with some steep parts. A good place to learn s-curves. The first couple of times I fell, but after about the fourth try I was doing it perfectly. Both Kevin and Demura san were amazed at how well I was doing - and this was just my third time. The snow on the mountain was very chunky and hard. It hadn’t snowed for a couple weeks. As I was going down the final stretch of Paramount, doing perfect turns and picking up some speed, I hit a very jagged patch of snow and went back on my heels, lost balance and fell backwards down the slope. The fall would have been fine if I hadn’t put my wrists down so hard to break my fall. But I did, and when I did I heard a definite crunch, then felt said crunch a few seconds later. After a little while, I tried to get up and continue down the dozen or so meters to the bottom of the hill, but I fell again, on my wrists again, and it hurt even more. This happened a third time until I finally just took off my bindings and walked the rest of the way down. Since everyone has asked me this, you’re probably wondering too; no, I did not cry. So, we got down to the bottom and went inside a little rest shack. Had some coffee and watched my right hand swell up as Demura san called for a paramedic guy. Said paramedic guy came and looked at my hand, then gave me a ride on the special paramedic skidoo (which was fun). Then we took the lift down to the bottom of the mountain. It didn’t really hurt at all by this point, so I was fine. When we got to the bottom he put my forearm in a splint and I was free to go. Dylan and my host dad had finished their lesson and were waiting for me in the main building of the ski hill.
So the snowboarding day finished pretty early, sadly. We decided to get lunch. Off to Jimmy Browns! I love that place. It has the best almond cappucinos and BLTs that I’ve ever had. We spent maybe two hours in the café, talking about random stuff and having a pretty good time. After dessert we decided it was time to take me to the hospital. At the hospital, I got some xrays done on both wrists, and was sent home in a better splint. They suspected it was just a sprain, but since there are so many bones in the hand they couldn’t be sure that I didn’t break or fracture anything.
So today I went to another hospital again after school and got some more xrays. The doctor was concerned about a certain bone near my thumb, but couldn’t see very much from the xrays. He wanted me to get an MRI. Yay! My first MRI! So, we went to lunch before my appointment to kill the time. They have special new MRIs now. Instead of a long scary tunnel of darkness, it’s just a large cylindrical thing that they move over the part of your body that they want to do the MRI on. It took about 40 minutes, I’m not quite sure. I fell asleep for most of it. Afterwards, they ruled out the possibility of a fracture, but did discover that I had bruised the end of one of the bones in my forearm. I can’t remember it’s name. The bigger one, closest to the thumb area. So they put my wrist in a cast, and it takes a very long time to type on my computer.
Oh, another noteworthy thing before I finish. The day after the snowboarding incident, I was waiting for a friend in Odori eki and had a very long and interesting conversation with some Mormon missionaries. One was from America, and the other from Newzealand. Surprisingly good looking guys, too. The one I talked to the most was named Eric (USA), and the other one was Danny (NZ). They have been living in Japan for several years, and everyday they wander around the Odori area and just talk to people. Spreading their Word. That kind of thing. We actually didn’t talk about religion at all until about five minutes before I met my friend. They didn’t seem at all upset by the fact that I’m very non-religious, and they didn’t try to convert me. I did learn some interesting things about Mormonism, like how it was started and such. I even got the number of one of them, though I’ll never call him. You know, my fear of talking on phones. It was fun though. And I guess that’s it for a little while. I’m going to go concentrate on healing my wrist now.
I also finally managed to go out with some of my Japanese friends, Haruna and Yuriho. We went to Sapporo eki and saw the movie Valentine’s Day. It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, and I actually recommend it. After the movie we went to the game centre, took puri kura and played a shooting game in the arcade.
A few days ago I went snowboarding with my host dad, my counselor and Dylan. It was Dylan and my host dad’s first time snowboarding, so they went to a different slope for a couple hours to take lessons while me, Demura san and her boyfriend Kevin stayed at Teine. I practiced my front edge a couple of times before they decided that I had mastered it and that I was ready to go down Paramount and try doing S-curves. So we did that. Paramount is a fairly straight and easy-going slope that runs down the back side of the mountain, with some steep parts. A good place to learn s-curves. The first couple of times I fell, but after about the fourth try I was doing it perfectly. Both Kevin and Demura san were amazed at how well I was doing - and this was just my third time. The snow on the mountain was very chunky and hard. It hadn’t snowed for a couple weeks. As I was going down the final stretch of Paramount, doing perfect turns and picking up some speed, I hit a very jagged patch of snow and went back on my heels, lost balance and fell backwards down the slope. The fall would have been fine if I hadn’t put my wrists down so hard to break my fall. But I did, and when I did I heard a definite crunch, then felt said crunch a few seconds later. After a little while, I tried to get up and continue down the dozen or so meters to the bottom of the hill, but I fell again, on my wrists again, and it hurt even more. This happened a third time until I finally just took off my bindings and walked the rest of the way down. Since everyone has asked me this, you’re probably wondering too; no, I did not cry. So, we got down to the bottom and went inside a little rest shack. Had some coffee and watched my right hand swell up as Demura san called for a paramedic guy. Said paramedic guy came and looked at my hand, then gave me a ride on the special paramedic skidoo (which was fun). Then we took the lift down to the bottom of the mountain. It didn’t really hurt at all by this point, so I was fine. When we got to the bottom he put my forearm in a splint and I was free to go. Dylan and my host dad had finished their lesson and were waiting for me in the main building of the ski hill.
So the snowboarding day finished pretty early, sadly. We decided to get lunch. Off to Jimmy Browns! I love that place. It has the best almond cappucinos and BLTs that I’ve ever had. We spent maybe two hours in the café, talking about random stuff and having a pretty good time. After dessert we decided it was time to take me to the hospital. At the hospital, I got some xrays done on both wrists, and was sent home in a better splint. They suspected it was just a sprain, but since there are so many bones in the hand they couldn’t be sure that I didn’t break or fracture anything.
So today I went to another hospital again after school and got some more xrays. The doctor was concerned about a certain bone near my thumb, but couldn’t see very much from the xrays. He wanted me to get an MRI. Yay! My first MRI! So, we went to lunch before my appointment to kill the time. They have special new MRIs now. Instead of a long scary tunnel of darkness, it’s just a large cylindrical thing that they move over the part of your body that they want to do the MRI on. It took about 40 minutes, I’m not quite sure. I fell asleep for most of it. Afterwards, they ruled out the possibility of a fracture, but did discover that I had bruised the end of one of the bones in my forearm. I can’t remember it’s name. The bigger one, closest to the thumb area. So they put my wrist in a cast, and it takes a very long time to type on my computer.
Oh, another noteworthy thing before I finish. The day after the snowboarding incident, I was waiting for a friend in Odori eki and had a very long and interesting conversation with some Mormon missionaries. One was from America, and the other from Newzealand. Surprisingly good looking guys, too. The one I talked to the most was named Eric (USA), and the other one was Danny (NZ). They have been living in Japan for several years, and everyday they wander around the Odori area and just talk to people. Spreading their Word. That kind of thing. We actually didn’t talk about religion at all until about five minutes before I met my friend. They didn’t seem at all upset by the fact that I’m very non-religious, and they didn’t try to convert me. I did learn some interesting things about Mormonism, like how it was started and such. I even got the number of one of them, though I’ll never call him. You know, my fear of talking on phones. It was fun though. And I guess that’s it for a little while. I’m going to go concentrate on healing my wrist now.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Catching up Part 2
This post was written on February 20th by the way. I just hadnt gotten around to putting it up on the internet until now.
So. Most of the last twenty days have been spent attending mundane school and hanging out with exchange students on the weekends. However, don’t fear for my Japanese relationships. I hang out only with my Japanese friends during school time. The only reason why I don’t spend time with them on weekends or after school (except drama club) is because they are always busy studying or participating in their own clubs. Welcome to the life of your average Japanese high school student. Despite this though I’ve started really trying to crack down on them, and I’ve managed to get a couple of them to agree to hang out with me during spring break and maybe on some weekends. It’s tough work.
As for the foreigner fun, I’m not even sure where to start. Its all a jumble of awesome sauce in my memory. A lot of walks down Tanukikouji and Odori. A lot of evenings in Sapporo. One time, I had forgotten that school didn’t start until noon due to exams. I texted Tiffany in the subway station and she told me the news. I managed to persuade her out of bed and to the station to keep me company until we had to go to school. First we went to a Mister Donuts. It got kind of weird when this guy and girl came in. The girl seemed like she was either drunk or high on something, and the guy seemed like he came from the same party, but without as much stumble and laughing and coughing. Oh my god, the coughing. There was so much. And her voice sounded like there was sandpaper in her throat. She must have been a very heavy smoker. She kept stumbling around the front area and then leaning her whole body over counter. The worker behind the counter didn’t look amused. Not very scared, but nor entirely happy. Maybe even embarrassed. So that was a bit interesting. After our Mister Donuts, we decided to ride the subway lines and time how long it took from end to end. We only got through the nanboku line and half of the tozai line before we decided it was time to head for school. Riding chikatetsu is very very tiring. I don’t know why.
Another time, me and Dylan were in Tanukikoji. I know a number of interesting things happened, but I can’t quite remember all of them. This is why I need to blog right after I come home. Anyway, we went into a store owned by a Caribbean looking/sounding French guy and another guy presumably from Israel. It was a really expensive gangster-style clothing shop. The French guy seemed like he was on something, but the store didn’t have any funky smells so I wonder if his brain is just pre-fried. Or maybe that’s his personality. Who knows. Anyway, they were both really nice and we looked around a bit. Dylan tried on a pair of very baggy pants. The cost was originally 180,000 yen, but the guy said, since we were foreign, that he would lower it to 100,000 yen. A good deal I guess. If you’re rich. One hundred dollars is still pretty expensive in my opinion. After that we saw some buskers, all of which were pretty lame. Including some middle aged man in a boa dancing and singing to some obscure Japanese song with less than mediocre talent. (Still amusing though). Oh, and before we met in Odori station, Dylan had supposedly been given candy and 2,000 yen by some creepy old lady on the subway. She got off at his stop, at which point he ran away, lest he be chloroformed and dragged into some kinky ramen den.
There was also International Night. An evening where foreigners from all over the world, including a bunch of Japanese people, got together to talk about the environment and such. I have a feeling more than half of the foreigners were just given the registration forms and told to go. Like me, and all the other exchangers. It wasn’t completely boring. There were some presentations that lasted a couple of hours, and then we walked over to another building to split up into groups and discuss environmental-y things. There was some awesome Brasilian biologist in my group who looked like a detective. He wore a long leather jacket, a red scarf, long pony-tailed hair and a bowler hat. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a diamond-tipped cane in the umbrella rack of his house. He was very smart, but also very human. He swore at just the right times to add comic relief and simplicity to what he was saying. Overall, I wish he was one of my family members. After all the boring bits, there was a “friendly party” where we got to eat amazing cheese fondue and other food.
Lastly, quite recently (yesterday in fact), I went with Dylan and my host dad to a re-used sports equipment store to get snowboarding stuff for Dylan. That part wasn’t entirely eventful, but after that I had a whole bunch of time to kill before kung fu started at 6. So we went to a movie, The Lovely Bones (which was actually really good in my opinion). But the movie wasn’t the noteworthy part either. You see, I didn’t have much money with me, and Dylan had nothing except 40 yen and a mastercard that no one seemed to want to accept. So I was able to pay for my ticket, but he couldn’t pay for his. We both dug around everywhere for any little pieces of change to make up the 1,500 yen needed (including his 40 yen). Eventually we came up 200 yen short. The guy selling the tickets only offered up a ‘ganbatte’. So we started looking around for some magical fearie dust. Or a Meowth. Finding none, and beginning to feel a bit embarrassed (about five minutes of standing at the counter and looking around nervously had elapsed) we looked around for hopeful lenders. I managed up the courage to ask an elderly couple next to us, and they lent us the 200 yen. Yay! So, very very quickly and without looking back, we got our tickets and went into the theatre. But someone had already taken our seats (Sunday movies are always designated seating). So after about a minute of looking around at our seats that were already occupied, movie already playing, we decided to just sit in one of the empty frontish rows.
And I lied! The last paragraph wasn’t ‘lastly’. I just remembered some other noteworthy things, but I’ll only just touch on them.
There was Yuki Matsuri, the snow festival in Sapporo. I went to it twice, once at night with Lindsey and Kana and once during the day with Minami and Dylan. There was a guy on stage who sang, danced and stripped (down to spandex pants) during the nighttime one. The cratch area of his spandex wad covered in roses, some of which to took off and threw to the crowd. Kana caught one. During the daytime matsuri, we rode on a little kid choo-choo train (and almost got kicked off because SOMEONE put snow on my head, which I tried to through at them, but they dodged it and it hit the person behind them. Not my fault). We also made snow angels, tiny snowmen, Minami almost got sucked into a pokemon trap and so on.
I am also currently making an igloo in my backyard. I have decided to stop carving out the roof for fear that it may come crashing down on my head, but I can already nearly stand up in it. Its not done yet but at the moment it can fit about five people, all laying down. So it’s pretty big. Pretty awesome. I’ll get some pictures of it when it is done.
I went to Onsen as well for the first time when me and my host dad took a group trip to Niseko. I went with four other women, all of which were strangers. If you don’t know what onsen is, it is basically a nude hot spring. So it was my first time being naked in front of a bunch of people since I was a baby. But it actually wasn’t weird at all.
So. Most of the last twenty days have been spent attending mundane school and hanging out with exchange students on the weekends. However, don’t fear for my Japanese relationships. I hang out only with my Japanese friends during school time. The only reason why I don’t spend time with them on weekends or after school (except drama club) is because they are always busy studying or participating in their own clubs. Welcome to the life of your average Japanese high school student. Despite this though I’ve started really trying to crack down on them, and I’ve managed to get a couple of them to agree to hang out with me during spring break and maybe on some weekends. It’s tough work.
As for the foreigner fun, I’m not even sure where to start. Its all a jumble of awesome sauce in my memory. A lot of walks down Tanukikouji and Odori. A lot of evenings in Sapporo. One time, I had forgotten that school didn’t start until noon due to exams. I texted Tiffany in the subway station and she told me the news. I managed to persuade her out of bed and to the station to keep me company until we had to go to school. First we went to a Mister Donuts. It got kind of weird when this guy and girl came in. The girl seemed like she was either drunk or high on something, and the guy seemed like he came from the same party, but without as much stumble and laughing and coughing. Oh my god, the coughing. There was so much. And her voice sounded like there was sandpaper in her throat. She must have been a very heavy smoker. She kept stumbling around the front area and then leaning her whole body over counter. The worker behind the counter didn’t look amused. Not very scared, but nor entirely happy. Maybe even embarrassed. So that was a bit interesting. After our Mister Donuts, we decided to ride the subway lines and time how long it took from end to end. We only got through the nanboku line and half of the tozai line before we decided it was time to head for school. Riding chikatetsu is very very tiring. I don’t know why.
Another time, me and Dylan were in Tanukikoji. I know a number of interesting things happened, but I can’t quite remember all of them. This is why I need to blog right after I come home. Anyway, we went into a store owned by a Caribbean looking/sounding French guy and another guy presumably from Israel. It was a really expensive gangster-style clothing shop. The French guy seemed like he was on something, but the store didn’t have any funky smells so I wonder if his brain is just pre-fried. Or maybe that’s his personality. Who knows. Anyway, they were both really nice and we looked around a bit. Dylan tried on a pair of very baggy pants. The cost was originally 180,000 yen, but the guy said, since we were foreign, that he would lower it to 100,000 yen. A good deal I guess. If you’re rich. One hundred dollars is still pretty expensive in my opinion. After that we saw some buskers, all of which were pretty lame. Including some middle aged man in a boa dancing and singing to some obscure Japanese song with less than mediocre talent. (Still amusing though). Oh, and before we met in Odori station, Dylan had supposedly been given candy and 2,000 yen by some creepy old lady on the subway. She got off at his stop, at which point he ran away, lest he be chloroformed and dragged into some kinky ramen den.
There was also International Night. An evening where foreigners from all over the world, including a bunch of Japanese people, got together to talk about the environment and such. I have a feeling more than half of the foreigners were just given the registration forms and told to go. Like me, and all the other exchangers. It wasn’t completely boring. There were some presentations that lasted a couple of hours, and then we walked over to another building to split up into groups and discuss environmental-y things. There was some awesome Brasilian biologist in my group who looked like a detective. He wore a long leather jacket, a red scarf, long pony-tailed hair and a bowler hat. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a diamond-tipped cane in the umbrella rack of his house. He was very smart, but also very human. He swore at just the right times to add comic relief and simplicity to what he was saying. Overall, I wish he was one of my family members. After all the boring bits, there was a “friendly party” where we got to eat amazing cheese fondue and other food.
Lastly, quite recently (yesterday in fact), I went with Dylan and my host dad to a re-used sports equipment store to get snowboarding stuff for Dylan. That part wasn’t entirely eventful, but after that I had a whole bunch of time to kill before kung fu started at 6. So we went to a movie, The Lovely Bones (which was actually really good in my opinion). But the movie wasn’t the noteworthy part either. You see, I didn’t have much money with me, and Dylan had nothing except 40 yen and a mastercard that no one seemed to want to accept. So I was able to pay for my ticket, but he couldn’t pay for his. We both dug around everywhere for any little pieces of change to make up the 1,500 yen needed (including his 40 yen). Eventually we came up 200 yen short. The guy selling the tickets only offered up a ‘ganbatte’. So we started looking around for some magical fearie dust. Or a Meowth. Finding none, and beginning to feel a bit embarrassed (about five minutes of standing at the counter and looking around nervously had elapsed) we looked around for hopeful lenders. I managed up the courage to ask an elderly couple next to us, and they lent us the 200 yen. Yay! So, very very quickly and without looking back, we got our tickets and went into the theatre. But someone had already taken our seats (Sunday movies are always designated seating). So after about a minute of looking around at our seats that were already occupied, movie already playing, we decided to just sit in one of the empty frontish rows.
And I lied! The last paragraph wasn’t ‘lastly’. I just remembered some other noteworthy things, but I’ll only just touch on them.
There was Yuki Matsuri, the snow festival in Sapporo. I went to it twice, once at night with Lindsey and Kana and once during the day with Minami and Dylan. There was a guy on stage who sang, danced and stripped (down to spandex pants) during the nighttime one. The cratch area of his spandex wad covered in roses, some of which to took off and threw to the crowd. Kana caught one. During the daytime matsuri, we rode on a little kid choo-choo train (and almost got kicked off because SOMEONE put snow on my head, which I tried to through at them, but they dodged it and it hit the person behind them. Not my fault). We also made snow angels, tiny snowmen, Minami almost got sucked into a pokemon trap and so on.
I am also currently making an igloo in my backyard. I have decided to stop carving out the roof for fear that it may come crashing down on my head, but I can already nearly stand up in it. Its not done yet but at the moment it can fit about five people, all laying down. So it’s pretty big. Pretty awesome. I’ll get some pictures of it when it is done.
I went to Onsen as well for the first time when me and my host dad took a group trip to Niseko. I went with four other women, all of which were strangers. If you don’t know what onsen is, it is basically a nude hot spring. So it was my first time being naked in front of a bunch of people since I was a baby. But it actually wasn’t weird at all.
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