いろいろ　な　はなし　が　ある!

Hello Everyone!

So I know, I haven't written a blog in nearly two months... It's been crazily busy here, and yes if you must really know, I've been having too much Japanesification to write home :) No, I'm joking- see I have retained my aussie sarcastic humour (or in Japanese you would pronounce- yuu mar -what?!).

On all serious thought, I miss everyone at home and send my thoughts and love :) I have alot to type about so this will be a crazy quick summary of my escapades :) Hope all is well at home and anywhere else you all are! (Europe, Oz, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, France, England- and for anywhere else I've forgotten, hello!)


First of all, I just want to establish that there is a reason why they call Japan the land of the rising sun- it's just hit the second month of summer here and it is HOT. Now, Oz has hot weather as well, but Japan is particularly humid. And by that I mean, after you take a cold shower, you become hot again in 5 minutes flat. The average temperature around here lately has been at 38-39 degrees and all the japanese people keep telling me 今まだいちばん厚い天気じゃない。　だんだんも天気が厚くなります。Which means that the temperatures in Japan will get even more hotter soon. Which makes for an increase in airconditioning bills and lots of time in the pools. Like Sydney, I still train 3-4 times a week in the pools if I have the time, but the humid weather has turned the pools into a onsen-like bath which has not made me a happy camper! But it is glorious for one's tan :)


So what have I been up to? Well during these past months, I've been very busy with university. My Japanese university language classes take up 15 hours a week. I also then have 5 hours of Sadou classes (traditional tea ceremony). I have tutoring sessions with my japanese friend and tutor for 4 hours a week. And on top of that, I teach English with Peter and Manaka for 4 hours a week. So it's kept me very busy! But of course, there have been and still are many opportunities for fun!


Memorable experiences include:

-Ukai fishing (Comorant Fising)-
Gifu city's most famous attraction and 1200 year old tradition involving using comorant birds to catch fish. What they do is tie rope around the tame birds necks and place them in the water, hanging a lantern full of wood and fire so the birds have light to catch fish. When the birds have caught enough, they pull the birds out and squeeze their necks (the rope stops the birds from swallowing the fish). It was amazing taking the boat on Nagara river, viewing the sunset, feeling the salty breeze in my hair and experiencing such amazing tradition- ukai fishing sure saves alot of manual labour for the Japanese and as my sister Gemma would say, generate positive economic outputs. We 留学生 (foreign students) were given this experience as a gift from the Japanese foreigners society. That group consisted of about 10 lovely older women who ordered beer on board and gave us all sparklers and fireworks to play with on the banks of the Nagara river! It was extremely funny shooting fireworks into the sky and having Chrystian running around yelling, "wooo" "I'm harry potter!" "yaaaaay".


- meeting with my Aussie girlfriends in Nagoya!
It was so great meeting with Rikki and Yeuko. When I first saw them in Nagoya station, I wanted to cry! We spent a nice day shopping and just doing girly things like going to a maid cafe and eating cake. It felt quite surreal being in Japan with friends from Australia- Just like home. It was also great realising how hard it was to speak English and how much I missed my girlfriends. I really enjoyed taking Yeuko and Rikki around- it is quite a nice feeling having your friends experience the country you now call home for a year.

- various falling off bike experiences （自転車にのったのけいかん） and Akina's birthday party
Chrystian was the first casualty in the past month. He was coming home extemely happy from Karaoke (and seeing 'I touch myself' in the corner of the room while the boys and I were off in our own little worlds). Anyway, on his way home, he rode his bike into a ditch and tried to use his face to stop inertia. Cue to Chrystian taking a week off university from his drugs he needed to take for pain.

Then it was me next who fell down. I was riding my bike down a steep bridge and stimultaneously shaking my (then) long hair out of my face (as you do). David was behind me and watched my stupid antics as I lost control of the bike and slammed into the side of the bridge. My hand fell out to catch myself on the railing as I thought to myself (Not the face!), my arms collided with the wall as my legs got caught beneath my bike. How embarassing. As this was on our way to our friend Akina's birthday party at a Japanese Izakaya, this turned into a night of lots of alcoholic remedies as I had to limp around with bleeding ankles and grazed arms. To which afterwards, David and I managed to get my ankles caught in his bike wheel which translated into more painful symbols of my weekend. So being in Japan, we decided to return home to the International house (会館〉and play with many fireworks to celebrate Akina's birthday.


Kabuki
Watched a famous kabuki show, it was a wonderful experience, though I could not understand alot since they utilised completely all keigo
language (photos are coming).

Sado class
This is where Chrystian, Peter and I learn how to walk, make, serve and arrange tea in this complex tea ceremony which is strongly influenced from buddhism and is studied as a degree in Japan. It is very complex learning folding and refolding the cotton cloths and silk cloths, learning how to walk in 6 steps, ceremonially cleaning and arranging the tea... bowing... and who couldnt not forget, sitting on your legs for 2 hours. Besides my constantly sleeping legs afterwards, I've really enjoyed learning this traditional and meaningful Japanese tradition.


Minato Matsuri at Nagoya Harbour Port
Met up with some more aussie friends who did Japanese 3 with me in UTS in 2007 (time moves fast). Amy and Andrew both were in kyoto uni studying japanese for 3 glorious weeks. So it was again really great meeting up, exploring nagoya jyo, eating delicious Japanese Nabe dishes and enjoying delicious matsuri food and fireworks on Nagoya Harbour. I was so excited to see the harbour and smell the ocean breeze- it has been 4 months since I has been near the ocean so it was almost like being home- though we all speak Japanese so it was great learning off each other and relaying our experiences as foreigners in Japan.

Gifu Hanabi Festival
This festival is where 30000 fireworks are let off on the banks of Nagara river. We enjoyed the beautiful fireworks surrounded by friends from the Ryugaku love club and new foreigner members. It was great lying down on the blue mat, watching the fireworks in the sky change into shapes of beautiful flowers, love hearts, waterfalls and of course the usual huge bangs. It was also particularly lovely seeing all the girls dressed up in such beautiful yukatas :) I didn;t wear one myself as I couldn't find one I liked but I made do with a very very long flower dress I sewed up :) It was also really great seeing many of the boys wearing yukata and taking many many happy snappy shots.


I'm sure there are plenty more experiences I have missed, but these at the moment, are the ones that stand out to me the most. Mind you, daily life here is just as interesting. Everyday, there is something new to learn and experience about the language, the people, the culture or about yourself as a person. I've started dreaming in the last two months in Japanese, and language that I couldn't understand before has now become clearer. Its funny coming from Oz where you constantly understand everything people around you say, to coming here and feeling completely deaf. I feel that a cloud has slowly lifted over the language barriers, and now even though it is still hard to create sentences together, I can listen. And I've gotten to the point where if I want to say something, I will just pull out the verbs and the language structure, and if i don';t get it right, my japanese friends will piece together what I wanted to say in the right structure.

I'm very excited. After this week of hell (I have exams on tuesday and friday and a japanese speech (a formal event which will be filmed), it will all be over for me for two months!)

Starting from this friday, we have alot planned. Chrystian and Peter leave in less than 2 weeks, so there are many farewells already in mention which include Nagoya, Izakayas, karaoke, many roof parties at the International House and lots of laughing and poking fun at each other.

In early august, I will go on homestay for a few days with my good friend and tutor Yukari san in Shizioka. Then in mid August, I will be taking a trip with David to Kyoto, Shikoku, Hiroshima, maybe Osaka and Nara.
The in September, the trip with the Aussies will begin from the 6th september from Okinawa, Fukoka, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nagoya and finally Kyoto. It will be really great catching up with my best girlfriend Brooke who lives in Tokyo and friends like Quoc and Bec. Can't wait to explore Japan!

Anyway, that's all the news I have to report now. Sending all my love back home and around the world to all of you. Thinking of you all and hope all is well xxx


Love Kylie

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