Ringo, Densha, and Mexshican Biyori

Wow has it been an eventful few days. On Friday we made Mexican food at my friend Kayo's apartment. It was pretty good considering that we had to improvise a lot and we couldn't get all of the ingredients in Japan. We had a lot of people over to eat it and it was delicious. That night, Kayo chan, Emy chan, and I walked to Seven to get a late night snack. After that I went home and told my Okaasan about the Mexican food adventure. She seemed to find it pretty amusing. I actually had a real conversation with her in Japanese, which was pretty awesome. It was the first time that I have actually been able to communicate everything I wanted to say and understood everything that was said to me. I actually spoke in real sentences too, not fragments.

Saturday morning I got up early to go on the apple picking tour with other exchange students from YPU and from Yamaguchi University. (There are two universities in the city, Yamaguchi Prefectural University, Yamaguchi Ken-Ritsu Dai Gaku in Japanese, and Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi Daigaku in Japanese) The other university is public and ours is private so they had a lot more exchange students. It was pretty cool. We went there on two big tour busses and we passed through this really beautiful part of the prefecture. There were huge mountains, a light fog, and beautiful forests. We drove past a lot of really picturesque little hamlets too that were really cool. When we got to the orchard we were given apple bags which were kind of small. They each only held three apples. The orchard was beautiful. It was a huge maze of apple trees and they were all different colors, green, yellow, pink, red, purple, green with red, yellow with red. All of the trees were full of apples and all of the apples are huge! They are about two or three times the size of apples in the US and they taste so much better! I ate two of them and got a green, red, and yellow to put in the apple bag. Then we played bingo at the orchard, which was kind of really random, and I won three towels with soap.

When we got back from apple picking some of us decided to go to the house and garden party at Schakoff Sensei's house. We took the train as far as Ootoshi and then walked to his house. It was so beautiful! The gardens are really gorgeous with lots of big beautiful flowers and sculptures. The house was just as beautiful. It was a Meiji era Japanese house so it was really traditional. All of the floors were tatami and the rooms were full of beautiful antiques and scrolls. It was really fun and Whitney, Eric, and Aya were all there so we sat and talked with them for a while before leaving. Unfortunately, we had left our bikes at Miyano Eki, which is a pretty small train station, so a lot of trains don't go there, especially in the evening. I decided to just take the train to Yudaonsen Eki, which is a block from my house and only two stops away from Sensei's. I could catch the 8:44 the next morning to Miyano Eki and pick up my bike then ride to Mass from there since St. Xavier's is pretty close to Miyano. Taking the train to Yudaonsen allowed me to get home in time for dinner, which was important considering I hadn't asked my mom if I could eat out. Besides, I really wanted to eat dinner with my family.

Dinner was awesome because every Saturday we go to Wasabi, which is a sushi restaurant. Because my family eats there all the time the chefs know us and are really friendly. As the daughter, it is my duty to serve the tea, which I really like to do. This was the first night that I managed to order for myself! It was pretty exciting. I got Salmon with butter, onagi, tomago, azi, ebi, and squid. Onagi is the best, that's eel, and I love it. I have already learned all the kinds of eel so that I can order them and eat them. They're delicious. I really like Japanese food. In fact, just today I ate Western food and it made me ill. I think readjusting is going to be a problem.

Sunday morning I got up and got ready for the 8:44 train. Well, when I got out the schedule and checked it just to make sure I was right and, sure enough, it said that there was an 8:44 from Yudaonsen eki to Miyano eki. I walked down to the eki and, three minutes early, the train rolls in. Well, this is really strange because trains in Japan are dead on time. But, all of the Japanese people got on so I thought there must not be another train coming and I did not see another train on the track. It must be early, I thought. Well, as soon as the train started moving I knew I was wrong because it was going in the wrong direction towards Shin-Yamaguchi Eki. This is the Shinkansen, bullet train, station. It's ok, I thought, I'll just get off at Yabara, the next station, and take the next train back to Miyano. Well it didn't stop at Yabara, or even Ootoshi. That was when I realized I was on an express train. Well, finally after 20 minutes or so the train got to Shin Yamaguchi. I wasn't really worried because I knew I could figure it out but I was worried about whether I had enough money because they don't take credit cards here and I had only bought the 180 yen ticket to Miyano. A ticket to Shin Yamaguchi is about 1000 yen. However, as long as you stay on the same train and get off at a station within the price range of your ticket you will be ok. So, if my same train turned around and went back the same way when it reached Shin Yamaguchi I would be alright.

So, the train got to Shin Yamaguchi and I got off and ran down the platform, then I ran up the stairs, across the tracks, and down the other side. There I saw the arrival departure board. It was all in kanji but I was able to read it and to do so quickly because I was kind of worried. Well, I saw that there was a train leaving in a minute for Yamaguchi Eki on track 2. Yamaguchi Eki is the station next to Miyano Eki so I could get there just fine with my ticket. They only take them when you leave the station. Track 2? That was the train I just got off of! I ran down the platform, up the stairs, across the tracks, down the other side, and sprinted down the platform to jump on the train just as the bell was ringing. I know the conductor must have realized I was the same person who just got off the densha. After all, I was the only blonde in probably a 50 mile radius. He seemed to realize I was lost however and did not give me any problems. Kono densha ga Yamaguchi Eki ni ikimasu ka? I asked him. He just smiled and told me that I was just fine. The train took me to Yamaguchi Eki and I got off of it and ran inside to check the schedule. There was a train leaving for a minute for Miyano but I just missed it. The next one did not leave for an hour and a half. I decided to just walk but it took an hour. Unfortunatley, it started raining in the middle of the walk. But, I had my raincoat and the mountains which surround the city look so beautiful in the rain with the mist rising off of them. So I did not mind so much. I was kind of upset that I missed Mass because I really like it a lot but I really didn't have much of a choice. I'll have to write a post about St. Xavier's because it is pretty cool.

Finally when I got to school I was able to get on skype and talk to Mom, Dad, and Joey. I also found out that Joey got jumped, beat up, and had to get stitches the other day!

Another bad note is that my camera is broken. So, no more videos or pictures for a little while. I don't know what happened to it but when I took it out of my purse it was completely shattered. I was pretty upset. I guess maybe it was a pretty old camera and its time had come. But, Mom and Dad got one for me for Christmas and shipped it to me so that is something to be very thankful for.

Also, today I went to the Yubinkyoku (postoffice) and mailed by absentee ballot. The workers were very helpful and I'm glad I could manage to do that. I also bought geta today, the wooden shoes that go with kimono, because tonight I have to wear my kimono to a halloween party at Marc-Andre's host family's house. It should be pretty fun. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, also I gave the apples, towels, and soap to my Okaasan which made her pretty happy. I am always really happy when I have a gift for her because she is so kind and does so much for me. The apples are delicious and we've been eating them for breakfast.

Another thing is that I feel the language level has risen a bar. I finally had gotten to a point where I was comfotable and could communicate and then the level went up! Now I'm struggling again but it will be ok. I'm really excited to learn more.