Dinner with Kaneda-sensei and family...

Tonight, Kaneda-sensei invited us to dinner with his family; his wife, two daughters, and his grandson. We went to a sushi restaurant and had a lot of very good food. My highlight of the evening (besides talking with his daughters who spoke great English) was the grandson... he will be 2 in February, and he was hilarious! He was very curious and always running around, dancing, talking, or getting into something. I feel for his mom- his dad is a surgeon and is traveling right now, so she is alone with the little guy. It is definitely a full time job! He is adorable, and very entertaining! I believe I scared the crap out of him, though. We were sitting at the dinner table when the rest of the family arrived, and he was the first one in the door. When I waved at him, he freaked out and started walking backwards away from me as fast as his little legs could take him! I doubt he's seen many people as pale as I am before. :) Throughout the night, he got up the courage to come to my side of the table and hand me various things. He was still pretty shy, though, but I bet if we had more time together, he would start getting used to me. I think he could probably teach me Japanese- he definitely knows more than I do! He enjoyed the game where he would pick up random things off of the table and throw them. He started playing with Dr. Kaneda and was laughing this big belly laugh that had me rolling for awhile... I don't remember hearing a little kid laugh so hard! He also cracked me up when he took one of the wooden serving dishes from the table and threw it, but he accidentally threw it up in the air and it came down and bumped him on the head. He immediately started walking backwards (I think it startled him) and he fell on his butt! Luckily he didn't start crying. He had Kaneda-sensei and I cracking up. My favorite thing was at the end of the evening- when we were saying goodbye, he bowed! That was probably one of the cutest things I have seen a little kid do here. He ran around quite a bit, so I think he won't have much trouble sleeping tonight. (I hope not, for his mom's sake!) I realize how much I miss working with kids, but it also reminds me why I want to wait a few more years before we think about having any. :)
I guess that's about it for the day. Other than that, I have been working, and knitting quite a bit. I have several scarves that I would like to make before I leave so I can give them as gifts. I have gotten over half-way on one in the last 2 days, so I think that in my 49 remaining days in Japan, I can probably find time to finish all of my projects. My work will start picking up soon, too, so hopefully I'll be able to get everything done and still enjoy Japan as much as possible. Casey and I are planning to go to the zoo on Sunday, which should be fun. More pictures to come, of course. :)

-Ash

Haircut in Japan

Success! I got a haircut without much miscommunication, and I like it! The experience was really funny (in a good way). Four or five of the employees came up to me and spoke whatever amount of English they knew, which was fun (and Tanaka-san was my translator which was very helpful!). I kept getting the same questions over and over: "Where are you from? Where in America do you live? How long have you been in Japan? What kind of food do you like? How old are you?" I think I answered each of these about 3 or 4 times, but each person knew a different amount of English so it was very interesting to see how much I had to use hand gestures or how detailed I could get.

The haircutting experience was fun also. At first, we had a consultation with Wase-san, the guy who cut my hair, about what I wanted. I brought the pictures, and after a round of questions and many hand gestures, I was finally able to tell him. (Okay, Tanaka-san did, but his English wasn't bad so it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.) Then they washed my hair (I forgot what the girl's name was who did this, but she was very cute and nice and asked me a bunch of questions.) She was surprised that I was 24, the common age of most of the employees in that salon. Then we went back to the chair and I waited nervously for Wase-san to come back. He had many customers (I think there were more guys getting their hair done than girls, actually) so some of the other employees came over to talk to us. They showed me pictures of different food and quizzed me on where I have been and what I have eaten. Everyone said they wanted to come to America (New York, to be specific) and asked me if it was dangerous there. Compared to Japan, KANSAS is dangerous! So yes, I told them that if they go to NY they need to be safe, but I also didn't want to scare them away. I think they enjoyed speaking English, and I enjoyed hearing it.

Soon Wase-san came back and started to cut my hair. After the first cut, they conditioned it again. Then I got a quick massage (I didn't realize how uptight I had been about this whole thing until that point... it was a nice treat!) then he cut a bit more. After that, he and another girl blow dried my hair at the same time (2 dryers, one on each side of my head). Then they straightened my hair, and cut it one more time. (You'd think I don't have any hair left, right?) The end. :) Wase-san was very funny and we all laughed quite a bit. I think it was partially because of the awkwardness of the language barrier, but mostly because he had a good sense of humor. He said he wanted to go to Spain before the US (and then apologized for wanting to go there more than the US, like I would be offended!)... he said he wanted to run with the bulls (although he called them cows at first which we all laughed about also). I told him it was very dangerous, but he said, "Japanese men have strong souls." I said, "Ohhh... Good luck! (thumbs up sign)" He thought that was really funny. I also patted him on the shoulder before I left and said, "Good luck in Spain!" and he laughed all over again. I think the best part of the experience was attempting to speak English with everyone. Then they all gave me their face cards (business cards with their face on it) so I could remember them. I will probably never see them again, but if I ever live here, I will definitely go back.

Casey's home so I should go make dinner now. I'll write again later!

-Ash

Eventful Weekend...

This will probably be a fairly long entry, so either go grab some popcorn and relax, or save it for a time when you are bored and have nothing else to do. :)
Saturday, I went on a bus tour with Yanagi-san and a group she is with called Amigos. They coordinate various events with International students. This trip was fun- we went to Osaka Gas Company, and Himeji Castle. Casey worked on Saturday so he was not able to go with us. I know he would have enjoyed Osaka Gas Company a lot because there were a lot of experiments and fun chemistry-related things to do. He wasn't there to explain it all to me, though, so I didn't understand quite as much, or have as much fun as I would have if he were there. I took a bunch of pictures so he could 'experience' it also. Either way, I'm glad we got to go- the experiments were fun, and the bus tour was enjoyable even though it was raining a lot. I also got to meet quite a few new International students so that was a good time.
Himeji Castle was pretty exciting, although I should probably tell you a few things: First, it rained all day, and Casey and I couldn't find our umbrella in the morning before I left, so I was the only fool without one. Also, I don't remember learning anyone's names on this trip, so I will be rude and just label them.
So we get to Himeji Castle, and one of the International students, a really nice guy from Brazil, offered to share his huge umbrella with me all day. I learned that he speaks Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and English- in that order. A few times I was talking to him and inserted a few Spanish words into the conversation just to make it easier for him. To anyone else it probably sounded really strange. It was fun hanging out with him and staying dry. :) I also enjoyed hanging out with two guys I had met at one of the International Student parties- one from Cuba, and another from Fiji. They were both really funny so we laughed quite a bit throughout the day. It made it much easier not to focus on being cold and wet as we explored the castle.
Anyway, the castle was really neat. It's the only one (in Japan, if I understood them correctly) that has not been damaged by war or a natural disaster. It is over 400 years old. It is sort of like a maze- there are tiny hidden rooms where people would hide from the enemy during war. All in all, I am glad I got to see it- it is 5 or 6 stories high, and we walked through the entire thing. Lost of stairs, as you can probably imagine.
I got home around 5:30, and Casey and I went to Okamachi for dinner and ran a few errands. It was a nice, relaxing evening.
Then yesterday morning, we got up and headed to Kyoto for an archery competition. There were about 2,000 or more participants, and they were all dressed up in kimono or other traditional attire, which was neat. I didn't realize there would be so many girls in the competition, but that is almost all we saw. We enjoyed people-watching, and took quite a few pictures of all of this (http://photos.yahoo.com/lilbitfromks, Japan trip 8:Kyoto album). After the competition, we headed toward the area that Casey took me to last year with a ton of temples and shopping streets everywhere. It was fun to see all of the tourist-trap places, and eat various snacks along the way. Then we made our way toward the Geisha district, in hopes of seeing a real one. To our surprise, there were many out last night! I think we ended up seeing 7 or 8 of them, and got some pretty bad pictures of them in the process. It was dark, and they walked pretty fast, so it wasn't easy. Casey and I both tried to photograph them... the ones that are decent are in the same album above. (I'll post one for good measure.) They were like celebrities! There was a party or something going on in one of the restaurants, and I think 3 or 4 went in there, just during the time we were standing outside. There were also a bunch of people- foreigners and Japanese alike- standing outside waiting to get a glimpse of one. I felt guilty standing there taking pictures of them like that, but they didn't seem to be too bothered by it. I am glad I got to be near the real thing, and I have pictures to prove it now. I think if we would have had the patience to stand there longer, we could have seen more, but standing there for almost an hour was enough for us.
After that, we went to Shakey's for dinner. Again, very good pizza. There were some strange toppings again- I think one was squid and corn, and another had fish eggs and potatoes in it. It even weirded Casey out! :) After that, we came back home, watched some TV, and went to bed.
I think that's about enough for one day. There are quite a few pictures from this weekend, so those will probably be more interesting than the recent albums. Hope you enjoy them!

-Ashley