Monday, September 17, 2012
4:39 AM
Ohayo gozaimasu! (Good morning!) It's super early right now. I had a fun but exhausting day, so I'm not sure why I'm not tired. I've been meaning to update my blog for the longest time, but it seems like activities, school, socializing, eating, friends, and pretty much anything else gets in the way of doing so! As of today, I've been in Japan for nineteen days. I can't believe the end of September is already approaching!
Two Saturdays ago, we drove three hours away to a city called Karuizawa for a short weekend trip- Saturday through Monday. Karuizawa was absolutely beautiful. There are mountains, trees, flowers, lakes, and waterfalls everywhere! I had the best time meeting new Bunkyo Gakuin University students, spending some much needed time with my close friends (also BGU students) whom I met last Spring when they came to St. Ben's/St. John's for three weeks, hanging out with the rest of our study abroad group, sight seeing in gorgeous nature parks, experiencing a Japanese onsen for the first time, eating delicious Japanese food, and shopping at a huge outlet mall! The weekend trip came and went so quickly, but it became one of my favorite parts of the semester thus far, and I am really happy I got to spend it with so many wonderful, funny, and kind people. We returned to Bunkyo-ku Monday night and for the rest of the week, I had class.
Throughout the semester, I'm taking various classes: Japanese, Japanese Politics, Shinto & Buddhism In Japan, Japan & International Community, Life In Japan, Japanese Business, "Cool" Japan, Social Development In Japan, Japanese Traditional Arts, and Study Abroad Seminar (with our CSBSJU program Director, Jeff). I have Japanese language class every day, otherwise, the classes rotate weekly. I have two to four 90-minute classes Tuesday through Friday (no school on Monday!!!), and sometimes we have a field visit to a nearby location, too. Japanese language is definitely the most difficult class for me since I've never studied Japanese before and it's taught in Japanese, however, I think that I've already learned a lot, and I'm really enjoying the class! It's so fun being able to recognize certain words and sometimes somewhat understand what people say to me when I'm out and about in Tokyo.
Yesterday (Sunday), our group participated in the Nezu Shrine Festival. We previously visited a Shinto shrine that's only a few minutes from our house, and this weekend, there were numerous food, drink, and game booths set up around the shrine. We tried out the food a few times throughout the weekend, and on Sunday, we shouldered a shrine. The boys wore loin clothes (essentially, thongs... ha ha) and traditional robes (which happened to be very short... ha ha again) and the girls wore traditional robes. We put a super heavy shrine on our shoulders and walked around Bunkyo-ku in a parade type thing. There were people lined up on the sides of the streets cheering and chanting. We shook and bounced the shrine off of our shoulders, because the action is believed to intensify the power of the kami (Spirits/Gods) that are seated in the shrines and helps to bestow good luck. We shouldered the shrine for about 2.5 hours. It was such a unique, fun, cultural, and exciting experience, but it was so exhausting! Everyone was dead and had bruised, red, and swollen shoulders by the time we returned to the shrine, and I don't know how many people are going to be able to move in the morning!
Today's Monday, so we don't have school. I have another small Japanese test on Hiragana (the first of the three alphabets) on Tuesday, so I'll be spending part of the day studying for that!
I made two new videos:
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-HZQSixetw&feature=g-upl
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vqTUQ_WXPw&feature=channel&list=UL
And I put a lot of new pictures up on Facebook!:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4347762893487.2175729.1270010880&type=3&l=72820a1e46
ENJOY!
Aishiteru 愛してる (I LOVE YOU!)
XOXO, Abby
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