Parties and Fun things

Since I haven't updated in a while, I have lots of pictures. Today's entry will just be a big upload of pictures and a description of them. Yay pictures!, right?

Last Sunday, me, Stephanie, Azusa, and Sugako went to karaoke in Shibuya. First, since Sugako was running late, Azusa, Stephanie, and I stopped at a cafe for tea.

I had a chai latte and a red bean paste bun.
This was the karaoke room. It was the coolest karaoke place I've been to! It looked so high class and when you started singing, the lights would dim so it felt like a real live, or something. (Sorry for the bad quality)

Stephanie and Azusa:

Me and Sugako (ew I look horrible...):

I thought this was hilarious....in a terrible way. These posters are all over Shibuya right now. The guy is Nino from the popular boy band Arashi.

It says "Shopping will become Japan's strength." I was just like wow...I mean, I know that governments try to push shopping in order to improve economy, but I've never seen a slogan like this so blatantly everywhere. It was like a subliminal message to the people on the street...scary.

This is a picture of a music van. In Shibuya, vans drive by all the time playing clips of new CDs like moving advertisements. They're one of the origins of Shibuya's constant noise. This is a van for Kiss-My-Ft2's new single for winter. The music video has them all on roller skates...again. Johnny's Entertainment is just a constant repitition these days. Plus a bunch of underaged girly looking guys...why?? Lately, a boy band debuted from Johnny's called Sexy Zone and the youngest is 11 years old. All of them look like babies, so the name Sexy Zone just doesn't suit them at all. Instead it's a bit disturbing...Kiss-My-Ft2 is ok though. The guy inn the black vest is my favorite. Tamamori-kun!
Anyways, this is where Sugako, Azusa, Stephanie, and I had dinner. Sushi~Sushi~

It was a sushi rotary bar and every plate with two sushi was 150 or 250 yen. Super cheap~ I had eel, too! Yumm. There were a lot of foreigners there and Stephanie voiced what I had been thinking: "Why are all the foreigners you see in Japan strange foreigners?" The foreigners that you see in Japan are so strange looking. They're the kind of people that you wouldn't usually see on the street if you went to their country. And yet they are in Japan giving Japanese people the wrong impression of people from America, Australia, etc...

Wow wow! One week till Christmas! I have all my Christmas presents done for my friends~ I thought keychains would be the easiest way to go, like I gave the scholars.
Keychains for the manga club members:

Nakamura-san, Niinuma-san, Tomo-chan, Kikuchi-san, Kei-san. I gave them theirs at the manga club Christmas party and they were very happy! Kei-san was like "Omg this is the only one in the world!" Kikuchi-san put his on his bag right away, so it seemed he liked his, too. I was very happy.
Keychains for my dorm mates:

Stepanie, Hyo Jeung, Seung-san, Juan, Mateus. I can give them theirs on Christmas day.
Keychains for my Level 7 classmates:

Chris (from England), Lisa (from Germany), Alberto (from Barcelona), In (from Malaysia), Laura (from Germany), Hinata (from Minnesota), Miharu (from England), Kathleen (from San Diego), Camelia (from Croatia). I'll give them theirs next Wednesday, which is the last day of class before winter break!

The following pictures are from the manga club Xmas party:

Strawberry short cake is a must for Xmas in Japan.

The three manga club girls: Kei-san, me, and Tomo-chan

Not every member was able to come. Niinuma-san had his part time job so he couldn't come. In the picture is (left to right): Kei-san, Kikuchi-san, me, forgot his name..., Nakamura-san, forgot his name..., Tomo-chan. Hey, but I know more names than before, right!
And I conclude with my New Year's card for my composition class. In class, we picked a name at random of one of our classmates and had to write them a New Year's card. I got Catie who's from Washington state.
New Year's cards or 'Nengajou' are super popular in Japan. You can buy them already made almost everywhere--post offices, stationary stores, department stores, etc. Although writing letters has become uncommon, EVERYONE writes New Year's cards. Even if you aren't in contact with someone for the entire year, if they're still alive and know your address, they'll send you a New Year's card. That's how important they are in Japanese society. There are set phrases that are found on all of them. You can see mine for an example!

(I drew a pretty illustration just for fun~)

1. Ok, first is the New Year greeting which can be found in the red box. It reads as "Gashou" which literally means celebration of the new year.

2. Then a phrase of thanks: "Kyuunen chuu wa osewa ni narimashita" (literally "I relied on you a lot last year")

3. A phrase or two talking about your current status ie job, children, school: "Saikin Keio daigaku no benkyou de taihen desu ga, issho ni ganbarimashou ne." ("Lately Keio's homework has been tough, but let's do our best")

4. A personal goal for the new year: "Kotoshi wa motto tsuyoku natte, nihongo wo pera pera hanasu you ni naritai desu." ("This year, I want to get stronger and be able to speak Japanese fluently.")

5. A farewell, hoping the best for the new year: "Honnen mo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu" ("I hope we can get along this year, too.")

6. Date: Heisei 24. 1. 1

And that is how to write a Japanese New Year's card! Now all of you have to write one to me for homework! Just kidding.

Miscellaneous!!

First of all, the quality is not the best, but I finally got the picture with the manga club! Kei-san sent it to me :) She wrote to me saying that she's sad she didn't get a picture with me and that we definitely will get a picture together at the Xmas party. She's so nice~

Ahh I stand out so much...Anyways, up in front with the grey sweater is Nakamura-san. He's the guy who was sitting next to me while we drew portraits. He's really good at drawing! The guy 2 places to my left is really nice but...I don't know his name...The guy two places to my right is Niinuma-san. He helps me out a lot. The girl next to him is Kei-san. Other than that...I don't know anyone's name...It's really hard to remember Japanese names! I think it may be because they say their whole name or just their last name when they introduce themselves. I can only remember people's names if I draw connections with people I already know. For example, Nakamura Yuuichi is my favorite voice actor, so I remember Nakamura's name. Niinuma's name is written with the same character as my favorite date sim character and it rhymes with 'kuma' which means bear and his hair kinda reminds me of a teddy bear....ok, maybe that's a silly connection.

Second of all, the Donguri Xmas party! (I've decided that I'm probably only going to two of the Xmas parties...Donguri and the manga club one)

These were the Xmas presents I made my conversation club teachers: Nakamura-san, Sato-san, and the lady who always gives me books...They're peaches with cinnamon sticks.

 Food! Nakamura-san made the yummiest fried chicken. I told her it was delicious and she was like "Ah! I'm so glad! Then you must come to my house and I will make you yummy things!" She's such a cute tiny lady gah.

 This was the cake. Apparently, they got it from an American specialty store where everything is "American size" aka huge. When I first saw the cake and then tasted it, I was like "This tastes like American cake..." And one of the ladies told me all about this American specialty store. Apparently they have huge pizzas too. The size shocks Japanese people.

 This was the stupidest game ever...You had to shove the other person and the first to lose their balance and fall across the lines on the ground lost. I lost right away cuz I got this dorky guy who looked as if he was terrified to even touch me. If I hadn't made a move, the night would have never ended. So I pushed at him even though I knew it was going to make me lose.

 The English guy and Polish guy did a Judo demonstration.

Illumination in Nakameguro!

Lastly, today in my art class, I made wax tempura like the ones in the restaurant windows. It looks so real I want to eat it! Ebi fry~ and pumpkin tempura~

The end for now~

An Afternoon of "Momiji-Gari"

On Saturday afternoon, I went with Yuko and Stephanie to Yoyogi Park nearby Harajuku to do some "Momiji-gari". "Momiji-gari" literally means autumn leaf ("momiji") hunting ("gari"). In other words, you go walking around admiring autumn leaves. There's no real direct translation to English. Only a culture like Japan that has such a deep appreciation for nature and the four seasons would have such a term in their lexicon.

Even though it's already December, the leaves just turned colors a few weeks ago. It was like an overnight thing. After the Mita Festival, I looked out the window in class, and the huge ginko tree in the school court yard had turned completely a bright gold. It's really pretty.

Yoyogi Park was also very pretty with its mixture of yellow and red leaves and its active fountains. But, I took pictures! So you can see for yourself:

Afterwards, we went to visit Meiji Jingu, which is one of the main and high status Shinto shrines in Japan. Needless to say, it's a big tourist spot.
This is the main gate:

It was Yuko's first time to go to this shrine as well. She was marvelling at how once we passed through the main gate, the nature was so beautiful that it didn't seem like we were in Tokyo anymore.

Before you pass through this gate, you have to stop at a wooden fountain like thing where you purify your hands and mouth with the supposedly "sacred" water. And then you end up in a big square-like place:

 At the place up ahead, you pray to the "kami" for good fortune and health by throwing a 5yen coin into a wooden box, bowing twice, clapping twice, making a wish, and then bowing once.
Then, we went to see the wooden plaques called "ema" where people write their wishes to pass tests, for good health, etc.

 Since it's such a famous shrine, there were several plaques in different languages. A lot of different people from different countries have been to visit there.

This was one of my favorite plaques: "With a calm heart, forward, forward, I will go."

 While we were there, it seemed like there were two Shinto style weddings going on. I don't know if the people were famous or what, but there were camera men filming the wedding--who was in my way of taking a picture... Stephanie was surprised at how the couple was so serious. They didn't smile or anything. Yuko explained that this is because they believe that they are in front of god, so have the responsibility to remain solemn. The women all in white is the bride. The man next to her is the groom. The two women in front of them are Shinto priestesses (called "miko") and at the head of the party is a Shinto priest.

It was all a very interesting and fun experience and I love Yuko--she's so sweet.

Ahh it's the Xmas season~~~! Although this season can be kind of lonely especially when you walk down a street full of xmas lights all alone surrounded by what seems a billion couples.......I have at least 4 Xmas parties planned, one of them which is tomorrow. Ahh so exciting~

A little brightness on a cold and cloudy day

This morning, it was drizzling and the sky was a opaque grey. It was also so cold that my breath looked like a thick white cloud. When I got to the train station, all that was running was the local and thus slowest train, and even that was crowded. I'm really so sick of Tokyo trains. I'm sick of getting pushed in by the other people getting on the train. I'm sick of being pressed up against people I don't know. I'm sick of having to use all my body strength just to keep myself from falling onto the people sitting down. And even if it's not true, I'm sick of feeling like people are staring at me because I'm foreign.

But just as I was feeling all this this morning, I get my speech grade and class feedback in my Japanese class. I recited my speech on Wednesday and I worked for 4 days straight to get it memorized so I felt that I did pretty well.

Yesterday, I got an email from my Japanese teacher, Watanabe sensei, who wasn't there to see me in class, but she listened to my recorded speech. She said that I spoke very clearly and it was very easy to understand. She saw that I tried very hard and was very proud of me!

My presentation grade was an A-. The teacher who graded it, Ikeda sensei, wrote that, although there were some issues with my accent: "This was a very difficult theme, but you spoke about it in a very easy to understand way. You also explained things very well."

My classmates wrote (translated from Japanese):

"This was the best speech I heard. The content was very interesting and easy to understand, and she explained things very well. I want to hear Kenia-san's speech again sometime!"

"This was a very interesting speech. It was like a textbook :) Maybe she should speak a bit faster, though."
(It took all I had to speak at the speed I did. For now, I think it's fine to speak slowly, but gradually I hope to be able to speak faster.)

"She spoke so beautifully! The tempo was very good and her pronunciation was very nice, too. The theme was very interesting and her explanations were very easy to understand. It was a very fun speech to listen to."

"It was the first time hearing many of the things she talked about so it was really interesting."

"Finally Kenia-san's treasure box enigma has been solved."
(I have no idea what this means lol...I think this was probably written by Miharu though...)

"This was a very good speech. The topic was interesting and the content was very well explained. She also responded well to the questions that were asked."

"This speech was called "What kind of person am I?". It was really interesting! I'm really jealous of Kenia-san! Actually, I've studied Spanish since I was a kid, but I've forgotten all of it :("

"This was a really interesting speech. She said that English was easier for her than Spanish."

Ahh the positive responses to my speech make me soo happy! So happy! Next Tuesday, I'm going to perform the speech again in front of my conversation club during the xmas party. I have it all memorized, so I can recite it easily. I hope they all like it too!

Roppongi

Konbanwa~ Good evening~

I just came back from the 21x21 Design Museum. It was a quite interesting artistic dialogue exibit between famous American photographer for Vogue magazine, Irving Penn, and Japanese fashion designer, Issey Miyake. From the appearance of their designs, it really seems like artists live in a completely different world.

It's nighttime, so this photo didn't really turn out very well, but this is the museum from the outside:

 Also, Tokyo's illuminations are really so beautiful. During Christmas seson, there are special places in Tokyo's cities that are famous for their Christmas light shows at night. Roppongi is one of them. The museum was in Roppongi's Tokyo Midtown--a really classy place. I guess it's kind of similar to downtown Rockville...maybe a little more high class. I took pictures of the light show. It was sooo pretty!:

Christmas is coming~~ The weather has suddenly gotten really cold. It finally feels like winter.

Ikebukuro

Happy December 1st!

December came so fast. It also means that I've now been in Japan for about 3 months and now entering my 4th month. I suppose I've learned a lot so far, but I still feel like I have a lot to learn. I keep having dreams that I leave Japan already, but it's probably for the best that I'm staying for a year.

Today, I'll be uploading the pictures that I've taken recently. They include my trip with Stephanie to Ikebukuro during the break and the personification of inatimate objects.

First, my trip to Ikebukuro. I wanted to go there because it's the setting of an anime I saw called "Drrrr!!". From the anime, I heard of some famous places that were in Ikebukuro, so I wanted to see them in real life. Ikebukuro is a really nice town. It's a city, but not nearly as big and bustling as Shibuya. There was also a really nice bakery in the train station where Stephanie and I stopped by for lunch.

We first stopped by Sunshine City, which is pretty much a big mall. There are lots of stores, food places, and there's even an observatory and aquarium somewhere inside. It was fun looking around but we didn't buy anything. I've pretty much given up on Japanese clothes. They are too expensive. It's quite depressing when all the dresses you like are all around the $80 price range.

 This was a Hello Kitty store along the main road. There are lots of stores like this--the Disney store too--that make you feel like you're stepping into a fairytale world.

 The main road of Ikebukuro. There are a lot of game centers, shopping, restaurants, etc. It has a really nice atmosphere.

 This is a famous dessert place. The desserts are so amazing looking. But, when you're hungry, you want something more substantial than chocolate and cream...

 Stephanie and I spent a really long time looking for West Gate Park, which is this famous park in Ikebukuro known for the novel and drama that take place there. Unfortunately, we gave up by the time it was getting dark and cold. This was a pretty park though on the other side of Sunshine City. I really like these kind of trees.

 Ikebukuro Station

 Me with the Ike-fukuro. This is an iconic statue which can be found in Ikebukuro station. It places on the name Ikebukuro, which combines the characters for lake and handkerchief/bundle, replacing the second character with the character for "owl" that sounds similar. It then becomes "lake owl".

When there's something iconic, the Japanese have to create souvenirs. Here, they were selling Ike-fukuro shaped pastries with different fillings.

Mother and Daddy--you were talking the other day about how you saw a tv show where they were talking about how the Japanese personify inatimate objects. Apparently, this demonstrates a naivite and a love for cute things, as well as deeply ingrained Shinto beliefs that everything has a spirit and is somehow alive. Inspired by that, I noticed two examples in the station the other day:

 Here the ticket dispenser for commuter passes and fare tickets has a face and legs.

 Here is something specific that mother mentioned--the personified lightbulb to encourage saving electricity. I have seen the posters with smiling lightbulbs as well, but this is the poster that I've seen around the stations the most. A sleeping lightbulb. Oh, I didn't mention this before, but there are signs like this everywhere to encourage saving electricity. In bathrooms, hand dryers will be out of order, elevators will sometimes be out of order, and ticket buying machines will be out of order to save electricity. As many probably know, as a result of the earthquake/tsunami incident, the nuclear plant was seriously damaged. Thus, many people were afraid that there wouldn't be enough electricity to run Japan. To prevent this from happening, the whole country went into an electricity saving mode. In the train, I also see several advertisements for electricity saving refridgerators and heaters. One encouraged families to not be spread out while they're in the house, but rather gather in the same room and play non-electronic games like board games together. This restricts the use of electricity in the house and also works to strengthen family bonds. It's quite an interesting campaign.

Anyways, today is Thursday so I have class in the evening--composition and art. For art, we're going to a museum in Roppongi, which is a really chic part of Japan. I have to get there by myself, so I hope I don't get lost...

Happy Thanksgiving~

I compromised with my mom by having fried chicken AND sushi.
I spent the day alone today, but I met two people I knew and I got to see my family on skype. Good enough.