So this post is a couple days late. Woops!
Anyway, after my first homestay the rest December passed both slowly and quickly. Then suddenly, Christmas. I spent Christmas Eve sleep deprived, on account of staying up way too late finishing a project for my Japanese class, but still had a good time. I went to the station to eat crepes with a friend and then we went to the 300 yen shop and bought each other presents! She got me this adorable Kappa roll thing. I named it Kappamaki. I also picked up a present for my Secret Santa. When I returned home, I skyped with my Aunt in Germany for a couple hours. On Christmas we still had class, though no work at L-cafe. I spent the day skyping with my boyfriend and then went to a Christmas party. There was lots of food to be had and secret Santa gifts exchanged. Pretty fun. The 26th of December was the 25th in California, so I skyped my family on the 26th as the last bit of my Christmas. I missed everybody back home, but it was a pretty good Christmas. The 26th was also the first day of the New Year holiday at Okayama University. We return to school on the 5th, though work at L-cafe won't start again until the 8th. I spent the first few days of the holiday relaxing and skyping with my crazy Lion Dance friends back home. I miss them a bunch, and it's hard to be away during the New Year time, when the Lion Dance team does a bunch of performances and everybody gets to chill and hang out. New Year in Japan is very much a family holiday, like Christmas in the West. But I didn't spend it alone! I got to do another homestay with a different family in Okayama. It was pretty great. They picked me up on New Year's Eve and I got to visit with their family and eat Soba, play games, watch tv, and arrange the Osechi Ryouri (traditional New Year food) for the next day. I also discovered I really like Sea Cucumber (namako)! We all went to bed after 12 and woke up around lunchtime the next day. Lunch was Osechi Ryouri, which tends to have a very Japanese taste. I liked some of it. I then got to participate/ in Hatsumode, the first temple/shrine visit of the New Year. It was super cool! I lit a candle for good luck in studying for the New Year and Kotone and I lit incense. The was a ceremony we went to, and I prayed with the family to the many Buddhist statues and was given ashes and grain to throw around my home. I then got to try amazake, which has an interesting ginger flavor. I stayed one more night, and was able to eat toast for breakfast. Toast! I didn't realize how much I missed the ability to make toast. Kotone and I then went to parikura (I think that's what it's called) and took pictures together that made us look like dolls. It's kinda creepy looking, in my opinion. Especially on me. Lunch was more Nabe! Mm, Nabe... After that, they took me home. Kotone and her whole family were very nice! (And they wouldn't let me pay for anything...) I had a great visit full of delicious food and fun games. I also came back with several presents. Ukyou, the 16 year old son, gave me a DVD of The Devil Wears Prada (a movie we watched while I was over) and a book on conversational English, which I think I may be able to use to learn conversational Japanese. They also sent me home with sweets. Now that I'm back home, I get to go back to studying. Huzzah. But I think the holiday was a nice break. For the New Year, I'm hoping I can get my studying back on track for my Japanese courses. My goal for the New Year is to learn new skills, improve my writing (and write more often!), and have fun. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with my life, but that's okay. So, Happy New Year!
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AuthorHatty is a CSUMB student. Archives
October 2015
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