Rotary Students, UNITE!!!

Holy cow. So much has happened this week I don’t even know where to begin. I want to share every little piece of info, so this is a warning that this will take a VERY long time to read. Good luck! がんがて！

Last weekend was fantastic! Saturday was spent fretting over my speech on Sunday. I wrote and received much need help from Mama Akane on how to say certain things. She was very, very, very, very, very, very helpful. I wouldn’t have been able to give a speech in Japanese if she hadn’t helped me. What a great thing inference is, because I think she would have been able to figure anything I was trying to say out without it. It took a long time and practice, but we finally figured it out.

That evening, I went to an adult Aikidou class. The Wednesday and Friday classes I have been attending have been for young people, usually in elementary and junior high school. I have been going to those classes instead of the adult ones (which are immediately after the younger class) because my host brother and sister go to that one and I get to spend time with them. I also kind of have to because they are my ride! The adult class was a lot of fun! All of participants were black belts and very willing to go teach me. Everyone was willing to slow down the entire class so I could figure out some of the moves! It was a very fun and educational experience. I think it helped that Kiana Asada (RYE student 2012-2013) went to the same dojo last year. Everyone speaks a little English and there is an English teacher in the dojo, but I can usually get by with just actions. This seems to be the case for most sports. Not a lot of communication is necessary to understand what I should do next because I can just watch and learn. I think I will continue to attend the Saturday adult classes because they are two hours and what else am I going to do on a Saturday night? (For the Americans reading this, that was actually not sarcasm)

Sunday was a fantastic day. Papa Kazuhiro and I drove to Izumisano City for the first Rotary Student Orientation meeting. Izumisano is located right on Osaka Bay near the Kansai International Airport (KIX). The meeting was held in a building full of meeting rooms. We were the first to arrive, so we sat and drank water. The governor of my district was already there as well as a few counselors from various clubs. Eventually, more people trickled in along with Rotary Students! Yay! The first to arrive were Jaimee from Australia with here host family, the Akegami’s. Hiroko Akegami was an exchange student to Minnesota this last year, so it was a nice reunion. The other students that arrived were Erika from Mexico, Maya from Germany, Brianna from Illinois, USA, Mika from Ohio, USA, and Talitha from Indonesia.

Altogether, there are six of us and I am the only boy. This doesn’t bother me so much because my class in school has only seven guys out of 35 students, so I am used to it. The meeting started out with every student singing their countries national anthem in front of everyone with a microphone. Woot! Next, we each gave a three-minute speech about ourselves, our country, why we came to Japan, and what we want to do this year. That was followed by the RYE students and Rotex (former RYE students) gathering into a group and talking about Japan. All the adults went to the other end of the room and discussed what to do if there was trouble with a host son or daughter. Overall, I think that we had the most fun! We all exchanged country pins and various small gifts from our countries. I gave novelty bills about Minnesota and Minnesota Twins baseball pins. I received pens from Australia, a bookmark from Indonesia, and personalized pins from different countries. It was a lot of fun meeting up with other students that are going through the same thing as I am. It was also really refreshing and I feel like it renewed my own reasons for actually being here. There was some doubt on my part as to why I had actually come to Japan, but I know now that I want to help something make progress in Japan. I’m not sure what that is yet, but I hope I can figure that out by the time I am comfortable with Japanese.

On Monday, there was no school because of a national holiday, so Papa Kazuhiro, Mama Akane, Nanako, Mitsuki, and I went sight-seeing in Nara and Wakayama Prefectures. We drove south out of Osaka Prefecture into Nara. Our first stop was Totsukawa,a giant pedestrian suspension bridge.

It is the longest steel wire suspension bridge in Japan, at 297 meters in length and 54 meters high. It was very scary walking across it. The floor is made of wood planks that bend under the weight of people. Also, with every step the bridge swings from side to side. Dad, you wouldn’t have liked it one bit! Nanako, Papa Kazuhiro, and I went across while Mitsuki and Mama Akane stayed behind.

Our next stop was Kumano Hongu Taisha, a Shinto shrine in Southern Wakayama Prefecture.

It is a very important place for both Buddhists and Shinto practitioners because they believe that the remote mountains are home to ancient Japanese deities. In fact, Shinto and Buddhism have joined together in this region and are a combined religion. There are many shrines in Southern Wakayama. In fact, there are quite a few pilgrimage routes that run through the area, with most ending at Kumano Hongu Taisha. The entire network of routes is called the Kumano Kodo and have been used for thousands of years by pilgrims as they have traveled to shrines to worship. The symbol for the Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine is crow with three legs. Usually, crows are thought to be a sign of bad luck in Japan. But a three legged crow is good luck, because crows are very smart and, with a third leg, they are able to get more done than one with just two. This is also the same symbol that the JFA (Japanese Football (Soccer) Association) uses, so there is a lot JFA related gear in and around the shrine.

Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine used to be located on an island in the middle of the Kumano River, but a flood in the late 1800s destroyed it. It is now located just up the mountain from the original location. You can will walk through the ruins of the old shrine and there are many old-growth trees lining the path. At the entrance to the old shrine is Oyunohara, the largest Shrine archway in Japan. It is, indeed, very tall.

We continued to drive south to an area full of hot springs. There is such a large amount of geothermal heat in this part of Wakayama that you can dig a well and create your own personal hot spring. We went to a river called Kawayu Onsen (hot spring). It is full of hot springs.

There is a small stony beach on the side of it and many people have dug pits for sitting in. It was great fun! The river is very deep at that point and it was almost surreal swimming through warm, clear water with fish everywhere. The great thing about Japanese Onsen is that it is a chance for people to finally relax. A lot of the time everyone is running around being efficient and working. At an onsen, the only thing you can do is sit there and relax. It is a great way to unwind after a long week.

Our final stop of the day was just up the road from Kawayu Onsen. It was a small village built around a large hot spring. There is also a temple and public bath there. We bought five eggs and walked down to the spring where we set them into the water. 12 minutes later, we were eating hard-boiled eggs! It was really cool to use water straight from the Earth to cook food!

On Wednesday, I went to soft tennis club after school. There, I learned how to serve and I participated in my first doubles match. It was a small round robin of four pairs. I was first placed with the sensei of soft tennis, but he later switched with my friend Kei. The losers of the round robin had to run, so the stakes were very high! Sensei and I won our first match, which brought us the championship round. At that point, sensei switched with Kei. The championship was an hour long battle, but eventually we won! Wow! It was really exciting winning my first tennis match!

On Thursday evening, I went to a Japanese class that is sponsored by the city of Kawachinagano. It is for foreigners that want to improve their Japanese. My private Japanese teachers that come to Nagano High School during the week invited me. It was tons of fun and I learned quite a bit. In attendance were students of all ages from Sri Lanka, Egypt, Germany, Italy, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. It was refreshing to know that I was not the only person struggling with Japanese. The Japanese class is held weekly, so I expect to be a regular in order to hit my learning curve as hard as possible.

The week was relatively normal, except for the fact that I was preparing for another speech on Friday at Nakamura Elementary School. I was told it had to be 15 minutes and about the US and Minnesota. All week I spent writing it. It was such hard work to write that much in Japanese! Mama Akane was also a humungous help! She spent a late night and early morning helping me to finish it. I am so grateful to her for giving me that much of her time. Along with speech, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation. On Friday morning, Soo Jin, the YFU (Youth For Understanding) exchange student from Korea that goes to Nagano High School, and I were picked up by the principal of the elementary school. We drove to Tondabayshi where the school is located. On the way I learned that my 15 minute speech had to be shortened, so I quickly ran through it and crossed out difficult passages and uninteresting information for children. Nakamura Elementary School is very small. There are probably only 10 classes of 30 kids each in the school. When we arrived, we were shown to a break room where we had a little time to prepare ourselves. Also there was another YFU student from Germany. Her name is (phonetically) Vibka. It turned out that we had met each other the night before at the Japanese class.

It was fun to talk with both of the YFU students and learn more about their exchange year. They both arrived in March and will be returning to their respective countries in January. Finally, we went to the second floor to give our speeches. Our first audience was a group of fourth graders. They were all so excited and talkative! I gave my speech first. I think the highlight for the kids was finding out that Snoopy (A Peanut’s cartoon character) is from Minnesota! Next, Vibka gave her presentation on Germany. She talked a lot about the location and weather of the island she lives on to the north of Germany. Soo Jin finished up the rotation with her presentation on Korean food and pop culture. She brought along a Korean kimono that she surprised the students with by putting on a random girl. It was tons of fun and all of the students were eager to ask us questions. In the next hour, we repeated the same process to a fifth grade class. Before we did so, however, each of them introduced themselves in English (!), gave their birthdate, and something that they like. It was really cute!

We ate lunch next. Soo Jin and I ate with a first grade class while Vibka ate with a second grade class. Elementary school lunches are new to me! The students serve one another and the servers are required to wear face masks and kitchen garbs.

Once everyone had a lunch in front of them, we simultaneously shouted “ITADAKIMASU” or, in English, “LET’S EAT”! It was an awesome lunch period. The meal was bread, soup, milk, pasta, and fruit punch (it has actually fruit pieces in it!). Every student introduced themselves in English by stating their name and one thing that they liked. Their pronunciation was excellent! It was super cute to see them all sitting at their desks chattering to one another and to Soo Jin and I. After lunch, it was recess. The first grade class we ate with had Soo Jin and I play dodge ball with them. They built the court by pouring water in the dirt in lines to make the boundaries. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun playing dodge ball before! I was hit a few times but didn’t manage to get any of the jumpy kids! After recess, the three exchange students retired for a brief break. We all agreed that elementary school is way better than high school. Everyone is more talkative and the teachers seem to actually want to connect with the students. Also, there is so much energy floating around that it’s impossible for anyone to fall asleep during class! The lessons are very interactive as well, whereas high school is just straight lectures.

Next, we went to a third grade class where we played a game. It was great to see all the smiling faces and hear the endless chattering. Plus, elementary school students are very touchy. I haven’t been touched this much since I reached Japan! They gave hugs, shook hands, high fived, and climbed all over me. To finish up the day, we went to a fourth grade class where we built giant origami cranes from gold and silver paper. The students were great teachers and made sure I understood how to make another again in the future! After we made them, the class presented each of us with a gold and silver crane, a bunch of paper cranes on strings hanging together that have an origami panda on top, and a book with origami bears, mushrooms, a photo of Nakamura Elementary School, and our names. It was such a nice gesture! I feel like I need to do something in return because of how nice they were. When we tried to leave, it was really hard. None of us wanted to go back to high school because of high awesome the elementary school was and the students didn’t want the foreigners to leave because they were apparently fun. Some students came up and gave us origami flowers. Everyone was so great! Today was probably the most fun I’ve had since I’ve arrived in Japan. I definitely want to visit Nakamura Elementary School again!

The vice principal of Nakamura Elementary School was walking around taking pictures all day, so when I get ahold of those pictures, I will post them to the full album which you can find to the right side of the text.

When I returned to school, the day had just ended, so I walked to my host family’s store. From there, Obaasan and I walked to a concert hall nearby for a concert that was sponsored by Rotary. It was an incredible concert! The band was called Knit and played traditional Irish music. They were made up of a guitarist, a flautist (classical and Irish), and a fiddle/Irish drummer.

It was an incredible performance. In all honesty, I was almost moved to tears by how beautiful it was and how precisely everything was played. I loved it so much! After the Irish band, a local dance company took the stage. The dancers ranged from 8 to 25 and all of the dancing and music was hip-hop. I was surprised to hear some the music that was played. Quite a bit of it was American and I don’t know that they would have picked the music if they realized what exactly was being said in it.

The dancing was impressive! Before and afterwards I was able to carry out a couple conversations with different Rotary members! Improvement!

This Saturday, I met up with Rotary students that I met last Sunday. We all went to Namba together. In attendance were Jaimee, Mika, Erika, and Risa (Rotex that went to Australia last year).

We walked around Namba and mostly shopped. It was a lot of fun! There was a lot of English spoken, but we did have some Japanese conversations. We went to a store that had Purikura booths. Purikura is a photo booth that you can go into with a bunch of people and take pictures. When you are finished, you can edit the pictures. Part of Purikura is that everyone’s eyes are increased in size. It’s a very weird thing that looks super strange!

We also went into a SEGA arcade and played Mario Kart Racing on giant arcade racing machines. In Dotombori, we took a lot of pictures in front of the famous Glico running man who is the symbol for a Japanese sweets company. We also went to an area called America Town that has many stores of clothes. We went to an international foods store there. There was food from everywhere! I bought an extra-large dark chocolate Hershey’s bar because I couldn’t help myself!

We went to a place called Party Time, which sells frozen yogurt in bulk. You serve yourself into your bowl and then it is weighed so you pay for however much you decided to take.

I might have taken a little more than I thought I was! Today was tons of fun and it was really sad to say goodbye to everyone. I can’t wait to hang out with everyone again!

This week has been long and I haven’t had a lot of time to write, so I’m sorry if this blog is your source of excitement for the day. For the sake of myself and your reading queue, I will try and write more often so I am able to add more personal thoughts and keep the amount of writing lower.

Oh, by the way, it looks like I’ve been in Japan a month and 11 days! Yay!

またね！

Wes