New House

I changed houses yesterday and I am now two train stations west from where I was. My new host family consists of my host parents, their 23 year old daughter, and her 3 year old son. I am speaking a lot more Japanese in this house (and using a translator a lot more) but thats a good thing because it should help my language more. My little host brother is really cute and just learning how to talk so we talked about Micky mouse this morning. I get stuck sometimes when he uses words I don't know but he is always quick to help out; I think he loves being able to talk better than someone. lol. My new house is GORGEOUS!!!!!! OMG!!! and I really like my family. All in all I'm having a fantastic time here.

Someone asked me for directions today! And more importantly I could give them!!!! Granted they wanted to know how to get to the castle and its on top of a hill in the center of the city and the road we were on led right up to the castle but STILL!!!! I understood what was going on and helped them out.

about 30 seconds later I was stopped by an elderly woman on the street and asked what country I was from.

Yesterday some friends and I went to Kobe to the aquarium and the beach. It was awesome!!! Its still in the 70's here  but no one in Japan goes swimming at the beach after August. Once the temperature is below 95 its WWWWAAAAAYYY too cold to go swimming. I, being from New York, went in the water anyway and it was wonderful. I'm currently driving my host mother crazy by wearing t-shirts around the house and outside. "It's winter" she says. "You must wear long shirts and wool sweaters". "Its 68 degrees and sunny" I say, "T-shirt weather". I was asked today if I wear t-shirts in winter in New York. Truthful answer is yes. She said that New Yorkers are crazy. Fair enough. Tomorrow I'm going to buy "winter clothes" so she wont worry so much, I don't want to drive her crazy I just only brought t-shirts thinking it would be warm here. I forgot that people have different ideas of warm. While I was rolling up my jeans and splashing around in the ocean most people were wearing turtle neck sweaters and wool socks. I feel bad for the kids from my area who are in NY and Washington. They must be dying.

Thank You Notes:

So I almost caused a traffic accident the other day, and I wasn't even driving! While walking home from school and waiting for the light to change some guy driving his car down a busy highway thought it would be a great idea to stick his head out the window and turn around while driving to do a double take at me, comment that I'm white, and drive away. The other cars behind him did not appreciate this. I thought it was kinda funny. Thank you driver, for reminding me for the 8000th time that I'm a pale outsider here, I might have forgotten if you hadn't informed me thus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the same day, I was on the train with a group of 7-8 year old boys who looked like they were coming home from soccer practice. The were all running around and goofing off and being adorable. When we all got off the train at the same spot one of them spotted me. The following conversation with his friend was in Japanese but I understood enough to get the drift.
           "Look! Theres a foreigner behind you!"
            "No there isn't"
          "No really! Look behind you" (friend turns and looks at me, I pretend to not know whats going on, all of the kids do their best to not look like their staring at me.)

The kids all crowd together and whisper at this point. Thank you soccer boys, for putting me on the same level as spiders, bears, monsters, and snakes. Also, thanks for making me laugh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Animae, for totally confusing me even with english subtitles, Japanese TV is very different and the cultural differences confuse me, there are huge differences in humor so even though I understand something is supposed to be funny based on the tone, I don't get the joke. Also, thank you for teaching me how to insult people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you Japanese language for not really having swear words, things are insulting based on the context their in but there aren't any words that are insulting by nature or forbidden on TV or anything. This makes it so I don't have to worry about accidentally using a terrible word that I didn't know was terrible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, Thank you Jimmy Fallon for writing your book of thank you notes and making me laugh.

Old rule: Eat first ask questions later. New rule: Don't ask questions

Twice today I have put food into my mouth that I had no idea what it was (this happens a lot) the first time it was a rice ball (a kind of sweet) the second time it turned out to be stomach.....I'm done asking questions. 

Today my city had an international festival. Stands representing countries from all over the world were set up in the part with food and costumes and all sorts of cultural events. Unfourtunatly I didn't get to see much of the festival because I was in a group with my school doing a sort of work shop. We listened to over 30 people give speeches about their travels around the world (I of course was asked to give a speech without notice) It was nice to hear all of the experiences but I would have liked to go around to the other stands to see what they were doing. 

So I haven't written anything in a while, not much has been going on. I've been going to school, coming home, studying, not really much. I had this week off because the other students had midterms which I didn't have to take. Today though I decided to head out to downtown Himeji to find myself some new clothes. Fashion is entirely different in Japan, its kind of difficult to explain. Any way I ran into some friends from school and with their help and the help of a store clerk I picked myself out some new clothes. Do you think I look Japanese now? Will people stop staring?

A week ago in my area there was a HUGE festival that over 100,000 people attended. It's apparently very famous in Japan and its name loosely translates too "The fighting festival" basically, about 40 men come dancing into the open area with a shrine carried on poles on their shoulders. The men all wear a colored cloth around their heads and a special diaper- ish looking thing.....thats it. Inside the shrine are a few more men playing Japanese drums. All the men chant and they carry the shrine through the main area, then a bunch of other men with decorated poles try to tip the shrine over. Then they bring in more shrines and they ram them against each other and try to knock each other over.....no one has a clue what this is about. I looked at guidebooks, I asked at least 5 people, they consulted guidebooks, no one has a clue what this is about. It was still an awesome experience and really interesting. I'll try to post a video if I can. This festival is also very dangerous though, a lot of fights break out and last year a few people were killed. To my knowledge no one died this year. (yay!) The festival took up the entire day, my host family some friends and I ate lunch while watching the fights. It was a ton of fun.

Well lets see, yesterday I broke a soda machine in my school which started spraying fanta and crushed ice everywhere. I tripped during an assembly when we were all supposed to be quiet and I hit two girls in the head with balls in gym class learning how to play tennis.

Today my class took a trip to Kyoto which was awesome. To start with, I misunderstood what time my host mother and I had to leave so I woke up at 5:30 planning to leave at 6:15 when in actualitly we were leaving at 6:50. I slept on the bus though, so it was fine. In Kyoto it rained ALL　DAY!!!! So running from shop to shop we all got soaking wet. It was fun though. My friends had me try what I do believe is the healthiest dessert ever; green tea ice cream with sweet bean jam on top. Its ok, but its defenitly not chocolate. At one of the shops I decided to try out my Japanese skills and pointing to a stuffed bear said ``This is a bear`` (impressive huh?) Anyway thats what I meant to say, what apparently came out was ``This is a gay``. My friends figured it out and corrected me but they still laughed. Can't really blame them.

Walking around the college we were visiting we saw a replica of a Da Vinci sculpture I guess. The person giving us the guide told us it was Jesus Christ. Several girls then asked me if I had ever heard of this person. When I said I had they asked me to explain who he is and why he is famous.......this was an interesting conversation. I knew that western culture is totally dominated by Christianity but I never realized how much. I have seen many of these girls wearing cross's and they have seen me wearing mine but they have no idea that it is a symbol for a religion. They all just comment that my necklace is pretty. I tried to explain the concept of God-parents once before and it was hard, a confirmation was impossible to explain. I never have had an experience like this before where someone doesn't know what my cross means. I defenately have never been asked if I have ever heard of Jesus Christ or been in a position to explain Christianity to a group of people who have never heard of  him. It was weird.

In Japanese the word ``ringo`` means apple. So today we were talking about the beatles in class because there was a quote from one of their songs in the English textbook. There was a picture of the group and when the teacher was talking about something else the girl next to me pulled my arm, pointed to the picture and asked ``apple man, which one is apple man?`` Then the teacher called on me and asked if a) I knew who the beatles were, and b) if I could point out and name each group member......yeah.....I could handle that.
We're also covering cooking in Home Economics and the teacher wants me to learn how to cook japanese food so all the kids have to plan a menu in a group, pick recipies and then translate the whole thing into English (haha) I've been getting asked a lot of questions about food in the U.S. I was asked if we have rice cookers, if we can boil water in our kitchens, (I think this was wondering if I have a stove). I also keep getting asked what we call all different types of Japanese food, most of which they don't even serve in Japanese restaurants in the U.S. I keep getting this look like ``Well then what do you eat if you dont have any of this``