From Wednesday, September 1 to Friday, September 3 all classes had been canceled, therefore giving us students three full days to prepare our classrooms and the entire school for the upcoming Bunkasai, or School Festival. Those three days were some of the best times I have had with my classmates so far and I am so thankful that the Bunkasai occurred so quickly after my arrival. I was given the chance to work with my peers, get to know them, and just let go and have fun.
Our class’s theme for the festival was a bit like a giant “photo booth” that you would find in a mall. The idea was that the customers would have the choice if they wanted to wear a costume or not, choose the backdrop they wanted (we made two different backdrops), and get their photo taken! We were even getting a printer in the classroom with photo paper so we could print out the picture and give it to the customers.
Three girls named Ikumi, Misato, and Riho invited me to join their group and work together. We ended up going to a huge mall together and buying t-shirts to decorate for the festival. Misato drew a large image on the back of my shirt and I decorated the rest of my shirt. It was so much fun and it makes a great souvenir. I also went around to different groups and helped out as much as I could. Some of the following things I did to help were: make and hang paper flowers (we made hundreds, not even kidding), cut out hearts and stars then spray paint them, spray paint letters, hang the backdrops, hang and organize the cosumtes and a whole lot more that I can’t remember. It was a long and exhausting few days, but when everything was put together, our classroom looked so amazing.
On Friday, we had an opening ceremonies for the festival and a few people from each class would dress up, go on stage, and advertise what they what activities they had to offer at the festival. Some of the guys in my class (Yuuta, Toshiki, Tikashi, and one other guy but I can’t recall his name) dressed up in Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure costumes. These two shows are very famous “magical girl” animated series in Japan and it was hilarious seeing the guys in skirts and wearing ribbons and wigs.
Silly Japanese Boys.
Saturday was our costume parade day and my friends lent me a very cute French Maid Outfit. I think the parade was one of my favorite parts of the festival, even though it was extremely hot. We paraded through town for two hours, got our pictures taken multiple times, and I got to talk to some of the students I wouldn’t normally be able to talk to. After the parade, we put the finishing touches to our classroom and left the school extremely exhausted. I slept very well that night.
I woke up really on Sunday so I would be able to get to school early to help with last minute fine tuning. One of my classmates, Mika, had also asked me to come early so she could do my makeup and my hair and she did an amazing job. My shift at working in the classroom wasn’t until later in the morning, so once the festival began Misato, Ikumi, and I toured around the other classrooms. Everything was so colorful and the air was just buzzing with excitement. We played a few “carnival games” and won some small prizes as well as created some neat key chains. But soon we had to head back to help out running our classroom activity. My job was to stand outside the door and herd people inside. I also went with some classmates around the school yelling out “Ninen nikumi, kitte kudasai!” (Please come to Classroom 2-2!) Before I knew it, we were closing things down for a lunch break and I was so glad to be able to sit down.
What our classroom looked like.
Neither Misato nor I were scheduled to work any shifts after lunch, so we spent the rest of the day going to each classroom. Man, there was a lot! We went to so many different café styled rooms and ate and drank way too many sweet things. Haha. We also went to some Haunted Houses; more carnival games, and went back to the Art Club’s set up to make more key chains. I have never had so much fun at a school function or had been that exhausted like I was that day in my life. Our classroom activity turned out to be a huge success but everyone was glad that it was finally over. My heart sunk a little when our homeroom teacher told us that we would still have to come to school on Monday, but then they were giving us Tuesday and Wednesday off from school. The reason why we had to attend school on Monday was to take everything down and watch the Closing Ceremonies for the Bounkasai. It was a little heart breaking when we were taking everything down. It took us almost a full week of preparing but only an hour to take everything down. The Closing Ceremony was also pretty exciting; it was a very appropriate way to end our school’s festivities. We watched a slideshow presentation about the events that had taken place that week as well as awards for the best classrooms were given out. Our class, 2-2, won third prize!! Thankfully, the teachers let us go home and lunch to get an early start to our “holiday” but before my classmates and I took off, we planned a celebratory party to take place the following night at a Doutonbori, a type of Japanese restaurant.
The party at the Doutonbori was such a blast. This was the first time I got to meet up with my classmates out of school and almost all 40 of us showed up! We pretty much took over the whole restaurant. Haha. Doutonbori’s are very unique restaurants. They serve what’s called “okonomiyaki”, which is pretty much like a big potato pancake filled with meat, vegetables, and other good stuff. From the menu, you would order what type of okonomiyaki you would like and the waiters would bring you the raw ingredients. What you would do then was you mix the ingredients together and cook the okonomiyaki yourselves! The tables had giant, built-in “frying pans” on them. Misato, Ikumi, and I sat at a table and those two girls went crazy and ordered like six different kinds of okonomiyaki’s to split between the three of us. (Misato and Ikumi are probably what you can call my “best friends” here in Japan.) We ended up calling some of the guys over to help us eat it all, haha! Everything was so delicious, and I think okonomiyaki made my “Top 5” for the best Japanese food. I can’t wait for a chance to go back to the Doutonbori.
The four steps of okonomiyaki:
1.)Raw Ingredients 2.)Mixing 3.)Cooking 4.)Finished Product
I don’t really remember what happened between Wednesday and Friday that week, but I had a very memorable Saturday, a week after the School Festival! I had really been itching to go back to Komine Castle and actually go inside and tour around it and the grounds it stood on. So when my host mom asked me what my plans were for Saturday were I asked her if she could take me. My host mom thought that was a great idea and was totally up for taking me. I am still amazed by the beauty of that castle and how much history exists in that one area.
We were able to get our own private tour guide and although I didn’t understand him completely, he had lots of pictures to explain historical parts along the tour, so that helped a lot. Komine Castle is the 6th most famous castle in Japan, and the one that is erect right now is actually an exact replica of the original. The original castle was built sometime around 1177 (or maybe it was 1117?) and only 10 years ago, the government decided to tear it down because of its instability. Isn’t that crazy?! The castle was originally built to house the royalty/nobles that ruled over what is know Shirakawa and it was passed down for many, many generations.
There are still ruins and old shrines lying around where the original castle stood and it was amazing to see that some of the shrines were still in good condition. Our tour guide told us that the biggest shrine that was still standing there was built, they figure, sometime during the Meiji Period! That thought just blew me away. You can also still see markings of Japanese characters carved into the original protective walls, which are still standing! I really wished I had paid more attention in social class back in Grade 7 when we had a Japanese history unit. Haha.
Finally, we came to the actual castle itself. The government put money towards building this exact duplicate because of how famous this site had become. A well known Japanese movie was also shot at Komine! The castle itself was actually quite small; it had looked a lot bigger from the outside. I think the coolest part of the castle was that they salvaged all the wood they could from the original castle and incorporated it into the duplicate! Some of the wood in the floor on the first as well as one of the walls, there were different sizes of bullet holes or chipped wood where a bullet grazed against it. I really want to look into what kind of battle was fought at Komine Castle. The castle had three levels, and each level was smaller than the one before it. The stairs were also scarily steep; I thought for sure I was going to fall down head first on my way down. Overall, the trip was just so awe inspiring and I am so glad I asked my host mom if she would take me. I have found a new love for Japanese history and I really wish I could understand my Japanese History teacher in school because I think that would be my favorite class. That just means I have to work that much harder at picking up Japanese. And to top off our day, my host mom took me to an Udon shop for lunch. Udon is a type of thick noodle it was super delicious.
The following week (which was this past week); I had my first full week of classes. The first day of school was on a Wednesday and because of the festival, our school weeks had been scrambled up a bit. I made it through the week a lot happier than I thought I would. The school festival really helped in me bonding with my classmates so I had a feeling of belonging all week. I had also finally had it figured out in my head that this is a cultural exchange, not an academic exchange, so even though it’s mandatory to attend school, its okay that I don’t understand any of courses quite yet. It’s only my second month you know. Haha.
This coming Monday (September 20th) is a holiday in Japan, so I get an extra day of rest, which I am really looking forward to. I also decided it may be a good time to get together with my exchange student friend, Karly. Karly is from Grand Prairie and we met at the Rotary Spring Orientation in Edmonton last March and quickly became very close friends. So we were both excited to hear that our towns are only a half hour drives away! We hadn’t seen each other since the Summer Orientation here, so I was really hoping to be able to get together with her this weekend. When I emailed her, she was also all for getting together, but unfortunately didn’t think we would be able to get together until the next weekend. I was a bit disappointed, but at least I had something to look forward to. But this morning I woke up to an urgent email from her saying that her host parents had decided to take her to this “Animal Kingdom” and would be driving through Shirakawa and wanted to know if I wanted to tag along! Each weekend seems to be topping the previous weekend, I could get used to this. Haha. Karly and I had such a blast at the Animal Kingdom and saw all sorts of creatures. My favorites were the penguins and kangaroos. We saw a dog, bird, and sheep show, as well as checking every single exhibit on the site (the place was so huge!), to even riding camels! We also chatted a lot, telling each other about our schools and the good things that happened as well as our struggles. We were able to give each other advice and encouraging words, and I think both of us were just so happy to “get away” and speak English for a bit. We make a great support team for each other. Somehow, we managed to be at the park for almost five hours and our feet were so sore by the time we got back to the van, but it was totally worth it. I can’t wait for another chance to get together with her.
Tomorrow, there is another festival and I cannot wait to go. For the past week I have been hearing the musicians practice near my house and each day that it gets closer, I get more excited. Hopefully my batteries won’t die on me this time!
Again, my apologies for such a late (and long) post. Three weeks worth of adventures is hard to fit into an entry. Maybe I will make a goal of updating at least every two weeks. I hope all is well in everyone’s lives and I miss you all!
~Stephanie
