Friday, December 26, 2003
Christmas
12/23/03 - Tuesday
I slept in today, since it was the first day of vacation. At about quarter after 10 I was woken up by my cell phone. I've got my phone set to vibrate when I get calls or email, but when the phone is sitting on a desk or in it's charger on the desk it vibrates the whole desk, which is quite loud. Anyway, the reason it woke me up is that my conversation partner (Masato, 20 years old) had emailed me to ask what time he should come to pick me up and how to get to the kaikan.
After taking a shower and eating breakfast I replied to him (I said that 3 o'clock, which is what he suggested, was fine) and then started packing/cleaning my room/doing dishes. At about 2:30 he emailed me again and said that he'd be late because traffic was bad.
Once I finished packing I put the plant I got for Lars outside his door and then headed out front to wait. It was about 3 o'clock at that point so I figured I'd just sit out front listening to music on my iPod until he came. Eventually a pink car slowly pulled into the parking lot, and then my cell phone rang. Evidently he didn't see me sitting out front.
It took around an hour for us to get back to his house, which is located in a northern part of Sendai. The place is small, like most Japanese houses, and it is jam packed full of stuff. There are things piled everywhere, which sort of reminds me of our house back home (although our piles aren't as dense, since we have a bigger house).
That evening we picked Masato's sister (Aki, 15 years old) up from cram school and headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Her sister will be entering high school in April (here the school year starts in April) and so she's studying hard for the high school entrance exams she has in February and March. She's got cram school everyday (that's 7 days a week, not 5) and then she has to study more when she gets back home.
At the restaurant I ended up getting a pizza, a hamburg plate (hamburg is a big hunk of hamburger meat that doesn't come with a bun or anything like that), and a plate of rice. Looking at the menu I thought the place had cheap prices, but I guess that's because instead of ordering one dish and that being a meal, you have to order several dishes to get enough food for a meal.
12/24/03 - Wednesday
When I woke up Wednesday morning I saw that my dad was online, so I sent him an IM, and we ended up setting up a one-way video conference (I don't have a video camera so we couldn't do it both ways). I got to see and talk to my parents, Nathan (my brother), and my Grandmother. Masato and his mom also watched a bit, and Masato talked with them a little bit in English. I think the conference lasted maybe an hour or two.
For breakfast (which ended up being at lunch time) we had rice, miso shiro (which was much better than the miso shiro I've had elsewhere), and a fish (which wasn't bad). We then played DDR (2nd Mix, which is really old) for a while, and I amazed them with my DDR skills.
In the afternoon 3 ladies from the neighborhood came over for tea, they were told how good I was at DDR, with the result that I was asked to demonstrate my skills for them. We then played a New Year's game which is somewhat similar to pin the tail on the donkey. This game used to be popular in Japan, but isn't any more. There's a face, and the blind folded person is given the nose, mouth, eyes, eyebrows, and cheeks one at a time and asked to put them on the face.
After picking Aki up from cram school, Masato and I headed over to the house of one of the ladies. She wanted to give us some more Japanese New Year's games to play on New Years, and she showed us her husband's koketsu (I think that's what they're called) collection. I think he had about 4 bookshelves full of koketsu dolls. While we were there we tried playing kendama, which is where you've got a ball on a string and you have to catch the ball on one of the spots on the handle over and over. I can't do it, but Masato is fairly good at it.
That evening Masato and I went to a Baptist church in the area for a Christmas Eve service. Aki wanted to come, but Masato told her she needed to stay home and study. The service was all in Japanese, and I didn't understand most of it, but I was able to figure out what all of the passages they read were and knew the English version of all of the songs they sang. The service ended with Silent Night (the Japanese version) being sung by candle light. I think that's probably a tradition everywhere. After the service they had a "tea time" where we had apple cake and tea. I enjoyed it, and I think Masato may have as well. He said the people there were very friendly.
On the way home we stopped by KFC to pick up dinner. They'd preordered it, so all we had to do is come and get it. Evidently it's a Japanese tradition to eat KFC on Christmas Eve. There were 2 people helping direct traffic through the small parking lot of the store, and more than 15 people working inside to make and distribute the orders. The place itself was smaller than most fast food places in the states, but it was really crowded with people trying to get their Christmas Eve dinner. We got a Christmas bucket that had a special Christmas plate, a bunch of chicken, and a salad in it.
After dinner I gave the family the Christmas presents I had for them, and then we played a PS2 game called Momotetsu. At first it reminded me of a cross between Mario Party and Rail Baron or Monopoly, but it's not as similar as I first thought. Basically, there's a map of Japan, with a bunch of spaces on it that have different effects. Most are cities, at which you can purchase businesses in those cities (thinks that city in Japan are famous for). Other spots give you money or cost you money, and some others give you cards. These cards allow you to do things like move a certain distance or steal someone's food business in the city you're in or roll more dice and things like that. There's a destination city, and if you get there (you have to land there exactly) you get a large sum of money. Each year the businesses you own give you money. What makes the game interesting is that when someone reaches the destination, the person who was farthest away gets possessed by the "poor god" who does bad things to the person he's possessing. There's no easy way to get rid of him, but you can pass him to someone else by driving through the space that other person is in. Various disasters (Mt. Fuji erupting, Godzilla rampaging, etc.) can cost you money, and others (your ramen company wins first place at a contest, etc.) can give you money. There are quite a lot of cards and things that can happen, and the game can change very quickly. It's a good way to learn about Japanese geography and have fun at the same time.
12/25/03 - Thursday
Thursday morning we (Masato, his mother, and I) went to the community center to play volleyball. Masato's mother is part of a team of ladies who play regularly. We joined them during their warmup and practice, but by the time that was over my arms were fairly sore, so we didn't join them for the actual games.
When we got back from volleyball I once again did video conferencing with my family, and this time Rachel (my sister) and my uncle and part of his family were also there. Rachel amused us all with her antics. She had lots of fun making faces, waving her arms, and things like that, because the lag on the connection was about a second, so the screen wouldn't show the action until about a second after she did it. I think we talked for about 2 hours.
For lunch we went to a ramen shop, which had really good ramen. It's the best ramen I've had so far. After eating, we browsed the video game and DVD section of Yamada Denki (an electronics store) for a while, and then went and picked up Aki from cram school. We went shopping for a bit (I think they may have been trying to get Christmas presents to send back to my family, but I'm not sure), and then dropped Aki off at home to study. Masato and I headed off to the Seagull store that I got my DDR pads at, since Aki had been looking for a Japanese drum game for the PS2 and the stores we went to didn't have the controller. At Seagull Masato bought the game (well, there were about 4 or 5 versions of this game, presumably with different songs on them) and a drum controller. I saw that they had a ParaParaParadise controller there for only 380¥, and couldn't resist. I bought the controller and the game (but I need a Japanese PS2 to play the game :( ) for just under 2,000¥.
On the way back from Seagull we stopped at a video game arcade in the area that had DDR (Extreme) and I played doubles twice. The first time I played Silent Hill (I got a D), Still in my Heart (I got an A), and Cow Girl (I got an A). I then played ? (I think I got a C), Paranoia KCET (I don't remember what I got), and then Still in my Heart Momo Mix (which I failed at the same place I always fail at). After this I was really tired, so we played air hockey once (we tied 11 to 11), and then headed home.
Back at home we (Masato, Aki, the mother, and I) played Momotetsu until bedtime.
I slept in today, since it was the first day of vacation. At about quarter after 10 I was woken up by my cell phone. I've got my phone set to vibrate when I get calls or email, but when the phone is sitting on a desk or in it's charger on the desk it vibrates the whole desk, which is quite loud. Anyway, the reason it woke me up is that my conversation partner (Masato, 20 years old) had emailed me to ask what time he should come to pick me up and how to get to the kaikan.
After taking a shower and eating breakfast I replied to him (I said that 3 o'clock, which is what he suggested, was fine) and then started packing/cleaning my room/doing dishes. At about 2:30 he emailed me again and said that he'd be late because traffic was bad.
Once I finished packing I put the plant I got for Lars outside his door and then headed out front to wait. It was about 3 o'clock at that point so I figured I'd just sit out front listening to music on my iPod until he came. Eventually a pink car slowly pulled into the parking lot, and then my cell phone rang. Evidently he didn't see me sitting out front.
It took around an hour for us to get back to his house, which is located in a northern part of Sendai. The place is small, like most Japanese houses, and it is jam packed full of stuff. There are things piled everywhere, which sort of reminds me of our house back home (although our piles aren't as dense, since we have a bigger house).
That evening we picked Masato's sister (Aki, 15 years old) up from cram school and headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Her sister will be entering high school in April (here the school year starts in April) and so she's studying hard for the high school entrance exams she has in February and March. She's got cram school everyday (that's 7 days a week, not 5) and then she has to study more when she gets back home.
At the restaurant I ended up getting a pizza, a hamburg plate (hamburg is a big hunk of hamburger meat that doesn't come with a bun or anything like that), and a plate of rice. Looking at the menu I thought the place had cheap prices, but I guess that's because instead of ordering one dish and that being a meal, you have to order several dishes to get enough food for a meal.
12/24/03 - Wednesday
When I woke up Wednesday morning I saw that my dad was online, so I sent him an IM, and we ended up setting up a one-way video conference (I don't have a video camera so we couldn't do it both ways). I got to see and talk to my parents, Nathan (my brother), and my Grandmother. Masato and his mom also watched a bit, and Masato talked with them a little bit in English. I think the conference lasted maybe an hour or two.
For breakfast (which ended up being at lunch time) we had rice, miso shiro (which was much better than the miso shiro I've had elsewhere), and a fish (which wasn't bad). We then played DDR (2nd Mix, which is really old) for a while, and I amazed them with my DDR skills.
In the afternoon 3 ladies from the neighborhood came over for tea, they were told how good I was at DDR, with the result that I was asked to demonstrate my skills for them. We then played a New Year's game which is somewhat similar to pin the tail on the donkey. This game used to be popular in Japan, but isn't any more. There's a face, and the blind folded person is given the nose, mouth, eyes, eyebrows, and cheeks one at a time and asked to put them on the face.
After picking Aki up from cram school, Masato and I headed over to the house of one of the ladies. She wanted to give us some more Japanese New Year's games to play on New Years, and she showed us her husband's koketsu (I think that's what they're called) collection. I think he had about 4 bookshelves full of koketsu dolls. While we were there we tried playing kendama, which is where you've got a ball on a string and you have to catch the ball on one of the spots on the handle over and over. I can't do it, but Masato is fairly good at it.
That evening Masato and I went to a Baptist church in the area for a Christmas Eve service. Aki wanted to come, but Masato told her she needed to stay home and study. The service was all in Japanese, and I didn't understand most of it, but I was able to figure out what all of the passages they read were and knew the English version of all of the songs they sang. The service ended with Silent Night (the Japanese version) being sung by candle light. I think that's probably a tradition everywhere. After the service they had a "tea time" where we had apple cake and tea. I enjoyed it, and I think Masato may have as well. He said the people there were very friendly.
On the way home we stopped by KFC to pick up dinner. They'd preordered it, so all we had to do is come and get it. Evidently it's a Japanese tradition to eat KFC on Christmas Eve. There were 2 people helping direct traffic through the small parking lot of the store, and more than 15 people working inside to make and distribute the orders. The place itself was smaller than most fast food places in the states, but it was really crowded with people trying to get their Christmas Eve dinner. We got a Christmas bucket that had a special Christmas plate, a bunch of chicken, and a salad in it.
After dinner I gave the family the Christmas presents I had for them, and then we played a PS2 game called Momotetsu. At first it reminded me of a cross between Mario Party and Rail Baron or Monopoly, but it's not as similar as I first thought. Basically, there's a map of Japan, with a bunch of spaces on it that have different effects. Most are cities, at which you can purchase businesses in those cities (thinks that city in Japan are famous for). Other spots give you money or cost you money, and some others give you cards. These cards allow you to do things like move a certain distance or steal someone's food business in the city you're in or roll more dice and things like that. There's a destination city, and if you get there (you have to land there exactly) you get a large sum of money. Each year the businesses you own give you money. What makes the game interesting is that when someone reaches the destination, the person who was farthest away gets possessed by the "poor god" who does bad things to the person he's possessing. There's no easy way to get rid of him, but you can pass him to someone else by driving through the space that other person is in. Various disasters (Mt. Fuji erupting, Godzilla rampaging, etc.) can cost you money, and others (your ramen company wins first place at a contest, etc.) can give you money. There are quite a lot of cards and things that can happen, and the game can change very quickly. It's a good way to learn about Japanese geography and have fun at the same time.
12/25/03 - Thursday
Thursday morning we (Masato, his mother, and I) went to the community center to play volleyball. Masato's mother is part of a team of ladies who play regularly. We joined them during their warmup and practice, but by the time that was over my arms were fairly sore, so we didn't join them for the actual games.
When we got back from volleyball I once again did video conferencing with my family, and this time Rachel (my sister) and my uncle and part of his family were also there. Rachel amused us all with her antics. She had lots of fun making faces, waving her arms, and things like that, because the lag on the connection was about a second, so the screen wouldn't show the action until about a second after she did it. I think we talked for about 2 hours.
For lunch we went to a ramen shop, which had really good ramen. It's the best ramen I've had so far. After eating, we browsed the video game and DVD section of Yamada Denki (an electronics store) for a while, and then went and picked up Aki from cram school. We went shopping for a bit (I think they may have been trying to get Christmas presents to send back to my family, but I'm not sure), and then dropped Aki off at home to study. Masato and I headed off to the Seagull store that I got my DDR pads at, since Aki had been looking for a Japanese drum game for the PS2 and the stores we went to didn't have the controller. At Seagull Masato bought the game (well, there were about 4 or 5 versions of this game, presumably with different songs on them) and a drum controller. I saw that they had a ParaParaParadise controller there for only 380¥, and couldn't resist. I bought the controller and the game (but I need a Japanese PS2 to play the game :( ) for just under 2,000¥.
On the way back from Seagull we stopped at a video game arcade in the area that had DDR (Extreme) and I played doubles twice. The first time I played Silent Hill (I got a D), Still in my Heart (I got an A), and Cow Girl (I got an A). I then played ? (I think I got a C), Paranoia KCET (I don't remember what I got), and then Still in my Heart Momo Mix (which I failed at the same place I always fail at). After this I was really tired, so we played air hockey once (we tied 11 to 11), and then headed home.
Back at home we (Masato, Aki, the mother, and I) played Momotetsu until bedtime.
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