Japan: ANOTHER UPDATE! WHOA!
06/04/2006
Woke up decently early, packed up everything to get ready to leave and talked to my host father a bit (got the family's contact information so I can keep in touch). Had another delicious breakfast (I could get used to that) and then we were off to the train station. We took the train to the city where the Kendo exhibition was and walked to the high school. The gym was kinda stuffy and there were tons of people there.
After the "opening ceremony," the teams split up and there were about 8 matches going on at once. I didn't quite get the rules for it, but it was interesting to watch. After watching it for a while though, it did get a little... less interesting. You can check out a video of my host brother in action Here. Apparently we got to a point where my host brother lost though, so we decided to leave and grab some lunch.
Earlier they'd asked me what my favorite Japanese food was, so I'd told them お好み焼き (okonomiyaki). So that's what we had for lunch. We had the two different styles of okonomiyaki and it was very good. This was my last meal with my host family, so I said all the phrases I was taught to say (basically translating to thank you for taking care of me these three days, even though you were busy). They really were quite good to me and I really enjoyed my homestay experience. I also felt afterwards that my Japanese had improved immensely, haven't spoken mainly Japanese the entire weekend.
After lunch, I bid my homestay family adieu (well, I guess sayonara), except then のりこ (Nori-ko) and I went to see ダヴィンチコード (The Da Vinci Code). We'll pause for a moment to bring you the Japan Fact-of-the-Day-I-Post-a-Blog-Entry! Movie theatres in Japan are extremely expensive! In Fukuoka I paid 1500円 (roughly $13 or so) per ticket for a student discounted ticket. A normal ticket would've cost me 1800円 (maybe $15-$16). Even here in 高岡 (Takaoka), I pay 1200円 (probably about $10.50) for a discounted ticket.
In any case, the movie was alright, but I'd read the book and found faults with it too, so of course the movie would have the same faults. It was interesting to watch a movie in English with Japanese subtitles. Nori-ko said she thought the movie was interesting, but a little hard to follow. After the movie, she escorted me to my train stop and I walked back to the Seminar House.
Seems like I was the first back of the group, but when people started coming in, everyone was abuzz with their experiences. We all swapped experiences, then some of us went to KFC to have a nice "American" dinner. The KFC was a welcome change from all Japanese food, but it was kinda expensive.
Woke up decently early, packed up everything to get ready to leave and talked to my host father a bit (got the family's contact information so I can keep in touch). Had another delicious breakfast (I could get used to that) and then we were off to the train station. We took the train to the city where the Kendo exhibition was and walked to the high school. The gym was kinda stuffy and there were tons of people there.
After the "opening ceremony," the teams split up and there were about 8 matches going on at once. I didn't quite get the rules for it, but it was interesting to watch. After watching it for a while though, it did get a little... less interesting. You can check out a video of my host brother in action Here. Apparently we got to a point where my host brother lost though, so we decided to leave and grab some lunch.
Earlier they'd asked me what my favorite Japanese food was, so I'd told them お好み焼き (okonomiyaki). So that's what we had for lunch. We had the two different styles of okonomiyaki and it was very good. This was my last meal with my host family, so I said all the phrases I was taught to say (basically translating to thank you for taking care of me these three days, even though you were busy). They really were quite good to me and I really enjoyed my homestay experience. I also felt afterwards that my Japanese had improved immensely, haven't spoken mainly Japanese the entire weekend.
After lunch, I bid my homestay family adieu (well, I guess sayonara), except then のりこ (Nori-ko) and I went to see ダヴィンチコード (The Da Vinci Code). We'll pause for a moment to bring you the Japan Fact-of-the-Day-I-Post-a-Blog-Entry! Movie theatres in Japan are extremely expensive! In Fukuoka I paid 1500円 (roughly $13 or so) per ticket for a student discounted ticket. A normal ticket would've cost me 1800円 (maybe $15-$16). Even here in 高岡 (Takaoka), I pay 1200円 (probably about $10.50) for a discounted ticket.
In any case, the movie was alright, but I'd read the book and found faults with it too, so of course the movie would have the same faults. It was interesting to watch a movie in English with Japanese subtitles. Nori-ko said she thought the movie was interesting, but a little hard to follow. After the movie, she escorted me to my train stop and I walked back to the Seminar House.
Seems like I was the first back of the group, but when people started coming in, everyone was abuzz with their experiences. We all swapped experiences, then some of us went to KFC to have a nice "American" dinner. The KFC was a welcome change from all Japanese food, but it was kinda expensive.
posted by Christopher Luu at 3:08 AM
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