Week of May 27, 2007

Saturday, June 2
I slept late this morning (until 9:35), got up, got ready, and then went straight to the Palace Side Hotel (south of my university campus, and across the street from the Imperial Palace) to attend choir practice. I had been invited last week at church. It was a lot of fun; my favorite part was learning a hymn whose words and music were both written by Japanese. Afterwards, the woman from my church who had invited me to practice took me out to lunch. The food was good, and we had a good conversation about future plans, cultural differences, and other things. I came home, did some more studying and more writing, and made my "pirate-y" dinner.

In this picture are:
- My candle, this time being used to give the meal a more historical feel.
- Rum Coca-Cola. It occurred to me while I was shopping, "hey, I can drink actual rum now if I want to!", but I couldn't find any.
- Tropical mango juice (very yummy!)
- Some leftover rice with peas in it. I believe Puerto Rico, which is in the Caribbean, uses rice in its cooking, so that's my excuse for using it here.
- Salted Fried pork.
- Hardtack Ritz crackers with cheese.
- A tropical fruit salad, because savvy pirates know how to avoid getting sick. :-)

Friday, June 1
This morning's kanji test went very well, and so did my speech. I memorized most of it, which made me feel really good about giving it. In our speech class, after Michael and I had given our speeches, the whole class discussed the results of the interviews we'd held with Japanese people. I was in the half of the class that gave short oral reports on our findings today (yes, we had all prepared them in advance). Ellie's survey results were the most interesting, in my opinion; she had gotten three very different perspectives on Kyoto as a place to live.
The midterm in my Friday afternoon grammar class was a little difficult, but it was all right. After that class was over, I went to the computer lab for a while, and then went home. The entire day, I was in a happy, carefree mood and my imagination was soaring, all due to the combined effects of the movie I'd just seen and the start of Script Frenzy, so I felt like doing something silly and spontaneous, and I did. Instead of going straight home, I stopped by the imported food store and two convenience stores to pick up the ingredients for a "pirate-y" dinner. I got home at about 6:00, and was just about to start cooking when one of my friends knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to go out for curry. I decided to go, postponing my special dinner until the next day. We had a very good dinner at the curry restaurant, and then I came back to my apartment and worked on my writing projects, which went very well.

Thursday, May 31
I took my first midterm of the semester this morning, and I think it went pretty well. I spent some of the afternoon in the computer lab and some of it at home, studying for the next day's midterm and kanji test. I also practiced my speech a couple more times. Then, in the evening, I went out to the movies with my friends again, this time to see the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. It was almost as confusing to follow the multiple double-crosses as in the last movie, but visually it was an absolutely incredible experience, and I enjoyed it very much. I came out of the theater on a huge adrenaline high, so when I got home, I washed the dishes and then got started on my stage play for Script Frenzy, ten minutes after midnight. That was a lot of fun.

Wednesday, May 30
Today was mostly unremarkable, except for the weather. It rained in the morning, then cleared up by midafternoon, then a thunderstorm rolled in after dark. I got to watch flashes of lightning from my room tonight, which I always think is cool and exciting. Since I got home, I have been doing homework, including studying for my first midterm of the semester, which is tomorrow. I'm feeling pretty well prepared for it. I'm planning to spend some time tonight planning for June's writing endeavors.
I also finally took pictures of those paintings I did last Friday. Click to see larger versions (1200x900).

Tuesday, May 29
During my break between morning and afternoon classes today, I went to a very small independent music store on Shijo and bought a CD as a present for my friend Andrea in Chicago. I will probably go to the post office and ship it on Friday afternoon. When my afternoon class was over, I took the subway back to Shijo, then transferred to the Hankyu train line to go to the baseball game. This line took me out into the western side of the city, where there is a large city-owned athletic park with several different kinds of sports stadiums in it.
Tonight's game was the second in a series of three games between Doshisha and one of our major sports rivals, Ritsumeikan University. I had heard from my friends at lunch that we won yesterday's game, 9-3. We lost today's, 3-5, but I still had a huge amount of fun. Spectators at sports games in Japan, or at least college sports games, just have team spirit in spades. There were students passing out sheets of paper with the words to the school songs and cheers, as well as those inflatable cheering sticks, at both sides' entrances to the stadium. I had yakisoba noodles for dinner while watching the game. I've picked up on the fact that in Japan, yakisoba is the food most typically sold and eaten at outdoor events. Doshisha had a huge pep band, and our cheerleaders were just amazingly energetic and worked really hard throughout the entire game. Unlike at high school football and college basketball games I've been to in the United States, most of the spectators actually followed the lead of the cheerleaders, shouting cheers along with them and beating their cheering sticks together in rhythm. The cheerleaders weren't just another spectacle for the fans to watch; instead, they brought the fans into the creation of the spectacle. They also held up signs to let us know what words we were cheering, often incorporating the names of whoever was batting or pitching for our team. Also unlike in the States, the cheerleaders and pep bands from the two sides often played or cheered at the same time as each other, rather than following a protocol of taking turns. This wasn't as disorienting as it sounds, because we were in a baseball stadium; the two sides of the stands were not directly facing each other, and they were farther apart than in a football stadium.
Jane came and joined me about halfway through the game, and we went and sat with some of the other international students who were there. What happened after the game had ended was also very interesting. All the players on both teams stood in two lines facing each other, radiating out from home plate at the 45-degree angle right in between the foul lines, and bowed to each other. Then, all the players turned to face the Ritsumeikan side of the stands, and their pep band, cheerleaders, and hakama guys went through the same routine of playing the school song, cheering the school cheer, and yelling that they had performed at the pep rally a few weeks ago. After that was finished, all the players turned to face the Doshisha side, and we did the same thing. All of this was a show of mutual respect between teams.
There was a long line to buy tickets for the train back. Jane and I went home on the train together, and didn't get home until about 9:30. It was a very fun day.

Doshisha has a huge pep band.	A cheerleader holds up a cheerleading sign. No, I'm not entirely sure what "kattobase" means. I think it's probably a combination of katsu, "to win," and tobasu, roughly meaning "to make something go away."
Our very enthusiastic cheerleaders.	The two baseball teams, lined up during the exchange of cheers at the end.

Monday, May 28
Classes this morning were just as usual. In the afternoon, however, it was a little different than usual. Because I went to the Friday session of Japanese Culture last week, I didn't have to go to that class today. (Today, the other half of the class did sumie paintings.) I went to the computer lab and got some e-mailing and other work done. I am pleased to say that all but two of the major end-of-the-year tasks for the UCSB chapter of NSCS are now taken care of. I'm waiting to hear back from the two UCSB staff I nominated as Distinguished Members, and I don't know whatever happened to the plan for member participation rewards. I shall assume the best about it, which would be that Mary N. took care of it. Next year, we have another chance to get everything right.
After that, I went to meet with my teacher for speaking class. I practiced my speech twice, and she said my rhythm and intonation had really improved. Now I have to memorize the thing. From there I went to handbell choir, and that was fun, but kind of frustrating because we only had five people this week. I am definitely starting to get better at playing two bells with the same hand, though. I had a good conversation about future careers with Keiko-senpai on the subway going home. She wants to become a teacher, which is great. I think she's really cut out for it.

Sunday, May 27
What a joyous Pentecost it has been! I wore my new red shirt to church (and was the only person there to wear anything red, but I didn't care). At the Peace, everyone who knew another language (besides Japanese) said "The Peace of the Lord" in their own languages, while holding up a piece of posterboard with those words written on it in those other languages, complete with katakana pronunciation guides so that everyone could try out another language. That was fun. Right after church, I gave the English lesson I had planned. It was a joy and an honor to speak in front of the congregation. Before I started teaching, I talked a little bit about how I want to use foreign languages to minister to people, and encouraged everyone to use the different languages they knew to share their faith. Then, I led everyone in saying the Lord's Prayer twice, in English. It turned out that I hadn't made enough copies of it, but fortunately, the really nice older woman who talks to me after church every week had brought some additional copies, so we used those. The two sets of printouts had slightly different versions of the texts ('debts' vs. 'trespasses,') and I did my best to explain that the core meaning was the same, and I got through the lesson all right. The current plan is for my friend Lina to give a similar lesson on the Indonesian language next week. I'm so happy about this.
After church, I came home, had my last package of instant soup from my care package for lunch (the Chipotle Black Bean soup, which was really good), and then went out again, to go to a party. I had been invited last week by members of the international exchange circle at one of Kyoto's other universities, who had come to Doshisha to invite some international students there. Only two of us came, and I didn't know the other one, but I had fun making friends from other universities. We met at the most popular arranged meeting point in the city: the southeast corner of Shijo and Kawaramachi, in front of the Hankyu department store. From there, we walked a long way up Kawaramachi to a bowling alley (I didn't know where one was in this city before today), which was on the third floor of an entertainment complex that also had billiards and arcade games. We had a group of about 60-70 people, taking up 12 entire lanes. I was on a team with one guy (the best bowler) and four other girls, two of whom, Sayuri and Keiko, I became friends with by the end of the night. We all bowled two games, and I bowled a truly embarrassing 33 and 54, but I still couldn't stop smiling for the majority of the time I was there. The energy and camaraderie within the group of exchange students and Japanese students was just wonderful.
After we'd finished bowling, we all went across the street to a restaurant and bar and had dinner. The organizers of this event had made reservations for the group in advance, so for 2700 yen, each person got two games of bowling (including shoes), and dinner, and unlimited drinks within a 2-hour period. Dinner included pizza, spaghetti, French fries, chips, cookies, chocolate peanut clusters, and Pocky. I had a "cacao milk," which was cold, chocolately, had some kind of alcohol in it, and was very good, and two Cokes. I had a lot of fun talking to people, and my new friends from the bowling team walked back to the subway station with me. Today was a very fun day, and now, I'm very tired.

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