久しぶり〜 (Part I)

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みんな、久しぶりですね〜！

Hi friends, it's been a while! Sorry about that >__< Right when I got back from 軽井沢 (Karuizawa) I was assigned a big project to do and then had two different midterms to study for. However, now that that is all over, I FINALLY found/made the time to catch up everyone on what's been going on!

Also, because it's been such a long time, I've decided to do two different posts. This one will cover everything from 軽井沢 to チーズフェスタ (cheezu fuesta--cheese festival), and the second blog post will be from after the チーズフェスタ to now.

始めましょう！Let's begin!

I went to 軽井沢 on a mandatory retreat with my study abroad program on Halloween weekend. A lot of us weren't very happy that the program directors scheduled it to be on Halloween night, but we made the best of it and all had a great time. After our Saturday morning classes ended (still not a fan btw), we all met up in 高田馬場 (Takadanobaba--a neighborhood near campus and the prime hang-out spot for Waseda students) and hopped on a charter bus the program rented. It was so nice being able to ride on a bus because riding on the trains for three hours would have been miserable. Once we reached the retreat center in 軽井沢, we had some free time for a couple hours. 軽井沢 was SO much colder than it was in Tokyo, so we all added on a bunch more layers than what we originally were wearing and settled into our rooms before heading out to explore. The girls split up into groups, and the group I was with ended up going up this huge hill to a giant soccer field where we took pictures. Eventually the boys joined us (I should note that there are only seven boys total in our group of 30ish people), and we all had fun just hanging out and enjoying the fresh air. After a while, we all ended up splitting off into smaller and smaller groups and had fun bonding time with people. I had a life-talk sesh with one of my friends and it was great. After walking around talking about anything and everything for two hours, we all went to dinner. Once dinner was over, we had a group meeting with the program directors to discuss the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the program and how far have we come since then. Well, turns out that the head director (Vanessa) didn't feel like doing that (to be honest, nobody did), so she just asked us all to come up and share stories about our life in Tokyo so far. I told the story of my host dad climbing on the roof when we both accidentally locked ourselves out (I also told this story in a previous blog post), and everybody loved it.

After our story time, we had a small Halloween Party. The four Japanese students who helped us with orientation came to 軽井沢 with us (they get invited to all of our events) and joined our party. They also bought everybody drinks, which of course was fun. At the party, we had a costume contest and there were prizes. I had a super last minute costume--I went as a lumberjack because I realized that the outfit I was wearing made me look like one. So, I borrowed my friend's beanie and drew a fake beard with eyeliner on my face and called it a day. Everybody was shocked and laughed when I came in, and loved my costume. However, I did not win the contest (nor was I expecting to). One of the girls in my group won, and she earned it. She had a homemade robot costume, and it was awesome. After the costume contest, everybody ate, drank, and hung out for a few hours. Towards the end, I left at one point to grab something from my room and when I came back, the Japanese students who came with us had bought party foam and it was EVERYWHERE. It also was a pain in the butt to wash out.

Once the party ended and we cleaned everything up, everybody went back to their room and went to bed (it was pretty late at that point). The next day, we all had to wake up early to make it to breakfast by 7:30 and then checkout by 9. Everybody was exhausted from the night before, especially since we all were running on no more than 6 hours of sleep at best. After we dragged ourselves out of bed, packed up, and ate breakfast, we had another meeting right after that. This meeting was about the Cultural Internship most everybody will be participating in during February and the beginning of March. However, some people won't be because they're only here for a semester and have to return to the states after the semester ends in January. Right now, I'm thinking about applying for the internship in Kyushu, because you get to work in three different elementary schools. Knock on wood and hope it goes well 😊 After the meeting, we had some free time before lunch and then after lunch we all left to go home. I ended up going on a walk with a different friend, which was fun. After lunch, everybody piled onto the bus and we began the long three hour drive back to Tokyo. The entire ride back, everybody was passed out--we were all super tired.

Going to 軽井沢 was a wonderful break from the hustle and bustle of everyday Tokyo life. I didn't realize how much I missed open spaces and fresh air--it was a wonderful break, and I would have loved another day there. Also, fall in 軽井沢 is STUNNING. The colors of the trees and the sky were unreal, no camera much less my dinky cell phone camera could do it justice. I really want to go back one more time during my time in Japan, maybe during the summer or spring.

After 軽井沢, we got a four-day weekend because of 早稲田祭 (Waseda-sai, Waseda festival). It's basically Waseda's version of homecoming, minus the football game and formal dance. 早稲田祭 was a big four-day festival on campus where all of the clubs at the school had different tables and booths set up of a variety of activities. I actually ended up not going, though I was planning to do so. My host mom and I were planning on going with her friend and her friend's daughter (who wants to go to Waseda--she's in her final year of high school), but we ended up not going because it was raining a lot that day, and the majority of the festival was outside. However, I was able to get one picture of the festival. Well, technically I took it on Wednesday, the day before the festival, but during the lunch period that day, all of the dance clubs put on a HUGE performance advertising the festival. I got a picture of all of them at the end.

Though I didn't go to 早稲田祭, I did do other things. Namely, celebrate my host dad's birthday. My host dad and the kid of my host mom's friend have the same birthday, so we went out to dinner that night and had a small party afterwords. It was a lot of fun!! As I learned, it turns out the November is a birthday-filled month: my host dad, my older host brother, the girl I tutor, the two kids of my host mom's friend, and my own dad. SO. MANY. PRESENTS. I also learned my lesson in gift-giving in Japan: when you give a gift, no matter what, you will get a gift in return. The reason is because when you give a gift, it's believed in Japan that a small part of your soul goes into that gift, so it's VITAL that you return the favor. This was something I knew going in, but dumb-ol' me didn't think it would apply to birthdays. Oh boy was I wrong. For every present I gave, I got one in return. HOLY TOLEDO DID I FEEL DUMB. Everybody like their gifts, and I didn't go too big. But still, I definitely have that in mind come the holiday season.

Finally, the last big event which happened was the チーズフェスタ, which was the Cheese Festival. Yes, I went to a Cheese Festival in the middle of Tokyo, and IT WAS AMAZING. It was free entry, and you got four tickets to go to each of the four booths which sold cheeses from all over the world. The tickets got you a free sample of the cheese from one of the countries at the booth, and there also was a bar so you could have some wine to go with the copious amounts of cheese. It was HEAVENLY. For those of you who don't know, wine and cheese platters are one of my favorite things in the world, so this festival was my dream come true. I went with four of my friends and we all had some wine and cheese at 11 in the morning and bought a whole lot of cheese. That weekend, my host parents threw a small wine and cheese party with us and their friends so everybody could try the immense amount of cheese I bought (still have some. ha. never fear, it hasn't gone bad). One of my friends from the program actually found out about the cheese fest from this website called Tokyo Cheapo, which lists extremely cheap and/or free events in and around Tokyo, and this was one of them. For anyone who is either currently planning or wants to go to Tokyo, I highly recommend this website--it's great.

Ok so I'm going to call it quits on this post, and will start on part two! Again, sorry it's been so long >__< まったね〜

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Photos

早稲田祭
Waseda-sai promotion from the dance clubs

友達〜
me and my friend in 軽井沢

軽井沢の風景
Karuizawa scenery (plus the bus)

友達も〜
me and another friend in 軽井沢

軽井沢の日の入り
Karuizawa sunset

軽井沢の風景
more Karuizawa scenery

誕生日のケーキ
my host brother and I made a birthday cake for the two kids of my host mom's friend--except I spelled birthday wrong in Japanese >_<

いっぱいチーズ
all the cheese i bought at the cheese festival!!

チーズと友達
Cheese and friends, what more could you ask for