Friday and Saturday October 20 - 21, 2006

Sadly, I've been busy this week with a bunch of little stuff, so there's no one big thing like last week (Mid-terms) that I can point to and say "THAT's what's making me go crazy". This week I've had friends here have breakdowns, a pimple from hell (yes, you needed to know that because I can't deal with it anymore), I'm entering a photo contest with this photo, renewing my stay here (I have to fill out paper work for next semester, everyone has to do it), lunches with people, and to top it all off I slept wrong on my mats Tuesday night and I couldn't move my neck for all of yesterday. It sucked and I tried my hardest to massage it out an to play it off as a joke, but by the end of the day I was exhausted and going to check my mail box when I bumped into Maria and her new boyfriend-type person Victor. As we were talking about how tired I looked (and felt) she finally burst out laughing and said, "I felt bad for you all day, since you were walking like this (mimics me with my head slightly turned and not moving)" So much for poise and grace. :3 atleast today it feels a lot better so I have the ability to turn and face people when they talk to me without turning my whole body.

Anyway, the whole point of this was to talk about my weekend or atleast the first part of it. Friday I was so tired from exams that I didn't want to do a single thing. Maria found out she didn't do so well on an exam and went home early and so I had to tell Hilda we couldn't go out to our favorite bar for an end of exam hell week drink. She didn't mind she was equally as exhausted so it all worked out. I went home and went to sleep early because I wanted to get up super early to meet up with Kim at the train station to go a Kyoto flea market at Toji Temple. I had the sinking feeling Kim wouldn't be there at 8:30 and low and behold I was right. She doesn't have a cellphone and also does homestay so it's really hard to set up stuff with her, she promised she'd ask her host family if she could go with me, but as I found out later on Monday she got nervous with her hostmom getting upset about something on the phone and didn't ask. >__< damnit Kim, I knew she'd back out on me when she said on Friday, "yeah, umm if I'm not there at 9, you should go without me." Well, I went ahead at 9 and had a good time anyway. The Toji temple is still a functioning Buddhist temple behind Kyoto station (that HUGE one that Pat and I took pictures of Astro Boy at). I wandered around the complex and they were selling all sorts of things, antiques, crafts, food, plants, trees, furniture, the list goes on and on.

Needless to say my Mom would've died and gone to Asian yard sale heaven. It was awesome, sadly she's not going to be in Japan on the 21st because that's when they hold this market everymonth. Pat will be here so I told him we have to go since he'll be able to find a good sword for his collection. There were a million things I wanted to buy and I kept getting lost in all the little side streets of booths that were set up and due to the massive amount of people there. I saw a TON of gaijin (foreigners) so that kinda disrupted the mood, especially when they misread yen. I know I know, I'm the same way and all tourists in a foreign land can make mistakes, but this woman seemed like she'd stepped right out of Nina Hellmans and into this booth filled with expensive trees, "Oh my God, is that tree $3000? Is it really worth it? Oh, it's only $300, that's not too bad then." It's still a tree and I can't do her voice justice here, but rest assured if you've ever been to Nantucket you've heard it. When you hear it, it makes your skin crawl.

The things I did end up getting was some awesome food:

Chicken nuggets on a stick and some coffee thing I picked up at a conbini (okay convience stores here are not called Cumbies, 7-11, etc. they're tons of chains from the aforementioned 7-11 to Lawsons and so from here on out they're going to be called conbinis. It's what we call them and it's just easier to type. lol). I don't have a picture but I had a pancake sandwich with red bean paste in the middle ealier. Seriously, I've grown to LOVE red bean paste, it is filled with delicious and awesome. There were tons of other types of food for sale at the booths, I have pictures on flickr, but to high light a few, they had seaweed still in salty water for sale as well as all types of spices, meats, beans and finally pine tree branches with all the needles on them. Now, I don't know if this was meant to be eaten, but they were a hot item and at this point I wouldn't be surprised.

My booty (yar) I ended up with is as follows:

There's one thing here I didn't get that I really really wish I had, it was an actual board for playing Go. It had little feet and everything! Even if I don't really know how to play Go (it looks like Othello) I could've used it as a little side table. It would've looked awesome in my dreamhouse living room. The kicker? It was only $20 (2000 yen) ;____; I couldn't have gotten it to my host family's house let alone get it to the states. The pictures is here *SOB* It was juuuuust to big to carry easily. Gah, anyway the things I did get were pretty cool. First I'm sure you noticed the Tanuki, it's geisha tanuki. :3 I there was a little booth with
a dog sitting on the tailgate of this car and I wandered over to say "hi" because it was a chiwawa looking thing (I did not go over to make friends with a german shepard) and it was super friendly. He was hanging out right next to this table of stuff and I caught the sight of the girl tanuki out of the corner of my eye. I fell in LOVE with it. I noticed that she was also pretty cheap (about $10 or 1000 yen) and I was psyched, then I noticed there was another tanuki. She's pouring sake and there's a boy tanuki (also in kimono) holding out his glass. He was also $10 and now I was faced with a dielma: I only wanted to get one and they were seperate, but I should I split them up? Well I had a flashback to the movie Whispers of the Heart (or the Cat Returns I don't remember) either way, in the movie there's just the boy cat statue and it's very sad to be split up from the girl statue. So I figured what the hell, I'll tell Pat I got us two tanukis and he can't hold it against me for long. So, I got them both, but since they were wrapped so nice and I want them to make it home okay I only unwrapped the girl for the picture. I do have the sinking feeling that just looking at this my mom is going, "Oh my God that thing is ugly, what the HELL does she see in that thing?", maybe there's plenty of you doing that. I just have a feeling it's one of those things I like but Moms just don't get. Pat my think it's ugly too, but it's perfect and is going to become a Prugh/Nicholas family heirloom that will be passed down for generations and that everyone thinks weird and no one wants, but it's Great-Grandma Manda's favorite thing from Japan, they'll have to keep it around. :3 My furture grandchildren are so screwed.

I also picked up a plant for $1:

I know, if I can't have a pet I get a plant. I'm hopeless. Anyway, it's supposed to have flowers like foxgloves on it and I'm trying to keep it alive. It's still really warm here, but it getting colder at night so a lot of plants have been dying yet the leaves have a few more weeks (so I've heard) before they change color. So far I've done really crappy on the "taking good care" scale. I live on the third floor of my little Japanese house and to give it more light (the man I bought it from said direct light was best) I put it up on the railing of my balcony. Yeah, I also have to hang out my laundry and in doing so knocked it off the balcony and didn't notice until I was leaving later that day. ;____; I found it in pieces on Minami's bike and immediately tried to get it all back together before anyone noticed and it died. Later that night after my bath I snuck outside and was trying to find more dirt to repot it (it fell out of the pot no less) when my Otoosan came home. Picture
this, it's late (like 9pm) you're tired from work and you're just coming the gate when the gaijin comes out the front door holding some sort of little plant and is looking around in the dark for dirt. After the oblitgatory "What the HELL" look from Otoosan I quickly explained that I dropped my flower (I didn't know the word for plant) and I was trying to fix it (again, don't know the word for dirt or repot). I pointed to my room and showed him my plant and he smiled and was SUPER nice and gave me a little trowel and showed me where I could get some dirt from a windowbox they weren't using, then he wished me luck and went inside. This was an act of fate that he came home when he did, I was very close to giving up on finding dirt I could use from their plants and do a 5AM ninja mission to the neighbor's yard to get some soil. I know I should've asked Okaasan or Otoosan in the first place, but I didn't really know how and I didn't know if I was allowed to have a plant in my room/balcony. I don't really see why I wouldn't be able to and in the worst case they'd make me keep it in the garden with all the other plants. I thanked him later and he said "you're welcome" and smiled again, so I'm going to assume that they don't mind my little plant.

Now, what you guys can do for me is NAME my plant. It needs a name and you can either email me or leave comments with the name idea and I'll pick the one I like best. If I pick yours I'll give you something cool from Japan. I have a few things already and depending on who wins I can tailor it to them.

As for the rest of the pile-o-stuff: I got the geta (Japanese sandles) for $10 and I found out later that they could fit my feet, but the straps are too tight so I can't fit my feet in them. If you have smaller feet than me and want some sandals, let me know. I got the manga at the book-off (used book store chain I'm addicted to) near the train station. I try to hit any book-off I see because they're all over Japan and they have different things depending on what the people in that area have been turning in to the store. The most expensive book I've gotten is around $5 and most times (like the three you see here) are $1 a piece. The one on top is a series called, "Zombie Power", I haven't read past the first chapter, but with a name like "Zombie Power" how could I not. The thing with the pig and flowers on it is a little towel because 2007 is the year of the pig/boar so they're already gearing up for it. I haven't opened it and I might give it to Grandma since it's nice and she's in need of a present. Plus it has no Japanese on it - Bonus! The stamp is the kanji 恩 which means grace (on), my great grandmother's name was Grace and I like the way the kanji looks and I wanted to get a Japanese stamp to use on my books as "this is Manda's book" type mark and I found this in a box of stamps at total random. It was $3, so I had to. :) The final awesome thing I got has several pictures in flickr, it's a padlock. I don't know how old it is and I highly doubt it's a millions years old and belonged to the Empreror. That would be nice, but I bought it because I really liked it. It was in a booth with a bunch of other locks and the one I got wasn't even out when I stopped to look at them. The really neat one was one shaped like a fish that was $70. I guess what makes me like them so much is that instead of numbers they use kanji (Chinese characters) and when you match them up the lock opens. I took pictures of the ones that were out, since they were cool, but way too expensive for me to justify getting a giant fish shaped lock. As I was looking at one and trying to read the kanji the owner of the booth walked over and started talking to me. He asked if I was a student and could read kanji and I told him I could read a few. He then reached under the table and pulled out more locks and explained that he had a bunch more if I didn't see one that I liked. He continued to explain that he had other sizes that were different prices. He pulled out smaller ones and their prices ranged from $30 - $50, until he said, "but for you, $20 and $30". I was tempted to get the $30 one, but I knew most of the Kanji on the $20 one and it was cute. I couldn't read all of the handwriting so he helped me out and showed me that it did unlock and now I know the kanji that do it. Of course I bought it and thanked him very very much.

I took two or three steps outside of his booth when an older (60-70's) woman was off to my right in the middle of the street with all the people and she got my attention somehow. She was making something out of flowered paper and she started talking to me (I think that's way I stopped). She wasn't in a booth or anything, she just started to fold the paper and asked me if I knew about origami cranes. I didn't recongize the Japanese word for cranes, but after (tsuru) going with "bird" I confirmed that's what she was talking about. I whipped out a quick sentence about how in high school I knew how to make them but regrettably now I'd forgotten. She was very nice smiled and hand the crane to me. Just before she did she showed me how if you hold on to the front and pull on his tail his wings flap. I have never figured out how those cranes are made, still don't, but now I have one. I asked her how much it was because I honestly had no idea why she stopped me or made this, but I acted eternally grateful and impressed (I didn't act, I seriously felt that way) This whole thing is weird because I have no idea where she came from and why she stopped me of all the gaijin there. She may have heard me talking to the man with the locks, but I didn't see her there and it was very random. I also don't know where she went after I thanked her up and down for the crane. She went a few steps ahead of me and disappeared in the crowd. She's one of those people that you meet and swear are supernatural because there's something about them and then they're gone. Either way I still have the crane and it's going with the tanuki in the family heirloom box.

Did my day stop there? Hell no! I went back to my homestay and dropped of the booty (sorry I'm in a pirate mood and am going to abuse that word to no end) especially since I was carrying my plant in a bag and he was getting beat up and I didn't want the tanuki couple to break if I got bumped into something. My plans for that evening included meeting up with Riho at Makino Station so I could visit her apartment for dinner. He kept bouncing emails back and forth trying tofigure out when I should head over and what I should bring/do for dinner. Eventually I went to Makino around 6pm and I met Riho and her friend Chinatsu at the Life (supermarket, same chain as the one across from my house) right next to the station. At first this was SUPER awkward because I felt like Riho was doing this because she felt really bad that I was having trouble with my host family (Was, things are cool, but she helped me through the lonely part) and so she invited me over for dinner. Her friend was nice, but I had no idea how to act around them. When we got back to the apartment they started to make dinner and I wanted to help and it bugs the hell out of me to just sit and be a guest. They were super super nice, they gave me the "seat", which is a pillow with a back since we're all sitting on the floor and they gave me the nice cup/bowl and set up with a tv and Final Fantasy III to play while they worked on dinner. I of course didn't turn on the tv and half play FFIII and mostly kept up a conversation with them from the other room. Thankfully dinner wasn't very "makeable" because it was nabe. Basically you have a special hot plate with a big pot on it that you put in the middle of the table fill with flavored soy sauce (or water) and boil everything and anything you can find. Mostly it's gyoza (chinese dumpling things, kind of like egg rolls), cabbage, carrots, potatoes, mochi (rice paste, which is delcious), etc. It's like a soupy stew and you pick out what you want once it boils.



It was super good and after chatting with them a bit I started to have a really good time. They seemed happy too, to the point where Riho finally said, "Amanda I didn't know you talked this much!". She said it in a happy way, not a "omg shut up" way so all was good, I didn't seem like a American recluse anymore and I found out a lot about my host family from Riho. Apparently I'd been going about the whole talking thing all wrong. I was asking Otoosan about his day and telling Okaasan about my day. The way Riho put it, Okaasan is a more personal person and likes to talk about herself more than hearing about you, so I should ask her about HER day. Meanwhile Otoosan is much shyer and is sympathetic to other people so he doesn't want to talk about himself you have to tell him what YOU'RE doing. I got it backwards and although I didn't get bad results, I've been getting much better ones working the system the other way. I also discovered that Minami (host sister) did not graduate high school early. She stopped going when she was 16 and finally has gotten the certificate that allows her to take enterance exams for college, but she hasn't yet. I asked why and Riho explained that she had the same good group of friends in middle school, but they all went to different high schools and Minami didn't try to make new friends. As a result she was miserable and although she's pretty smart didn't want to go to school anymore. I asked how in the hell the parents put up with that and apparently Okaasan spoils her a bit or at least sympathizes to the point where it's okay. I can't blame Minami, I have no idea what would've happened to me if I didn't have Tessa and Kirk around in high school, I probaly would've been okay. Especially considering how bad middle school sucked, but either way, good info to keep under my hat. I also heard that Soji does have a girlfriend and that she's super protective of him. Then Chinatsu laughed and said something in Japanese, which they then explained meant... unattractive. Apparently she's the jealous type, but she really doesn't have any grounds to be pitching a fit. I have no idea what to think about this, but I guess it's good to know that if I ever see her to be super nice and not be nice to Soji in front of her.

Overall, after Chinatsu helping me through FFIII, much joking around and major smack downs in a Mario Kart DS three-way. They were super happy to have me over and I felt so much better about my host family and having friends here in Japan. :3 Happy Saturday. Sunday was also crazy.

(NOTE: okay I finished this on October 30, over a week since it happened. I promise I'll have a flood of things before this weekend. :3)