The Zoo! (1/7/09)

A friend and I went to the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Garden in Nagoya in early January. Luckily on the day we went the weather was quite nice. Prior to going I found out it is one of the largest Zoo's in Asia; it was MASSIVE. We walked around for a good three or four hours and didn't see everything. We saw many more life forms than there are in the pictures; including all kinds of reptiles, plants, birds, fish, etc.

Near the beginning we were looking at elephants while they were drinking water, and of course what happens? One of them starts to blow/sneeze water from it's trunk onto the people. :o One woman standing in front got a good bit of all the water and elephant snot.

Later, we where heading into the rhino room and we entered and left immediately becuase the smell was so bad as soon as we walked through the door. Perhaps the zoo should get some more vents put in that building or just clean up the poop. We also a few really colorful paretes. They were cool, as I haven't seen any of the since Nicaragua.

The Zoo also has a tower that rises about 100 meters off the ground with restaruants on top, but we didn't go up there becuase it cost money to get to the top.


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Coming of Age Cermony at Chubu Uni (1/9/09)

Chubu University had a Coming of Age Cermony on campus the Friday before the second Sunday of January. I was picked to wear the kimono becase I was the closest person to age 20 years old who agreed to wear the kimono. I was told to be at the place where they put on the kimono by 1pm, but we didn't need to be dressed until 5:30pm-ish. It only took about 15 miuntes to get it on. Myself and the three other kimono wearers wondered around the campus for a few hours and fortunately didn't spill anything on, or rip the kimonos during the day. We went arounf and took pictures with lots of people. Of course, four foriegners walking around in kimonos attracted more stares than usual. It was entertaining to see people's more than average suprised faces.

The actual formal ceremony consisted of a few speeches and a candle lighting mini ceremony. During this part we pretty much just sat and listened.

After all of the formal stuff we went outside and they were serving some food/soup dish that I didn't get a chance to eat becuase I didn't want to spill on the kimono. Then it was off there where the I put on the kimono to take it off. It only took about 3-5 minutes to change.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seijin_shiki

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I just got back from Osaka and will have a few posts about that, but first I have a 7 or 8 more to put up.

New Years Eve Gathering with Chubu Engineering - 12/29/08

Near the end of last year I went to a New Years Eve gathering with my friend Fred. I was really interested to see how a gathering like such at Japanese persons house would be. They had a small BBQ going, but mostly it was all about pounding and smashing rice into mochi! It was a good time; even the kids got to try smashing the hammer into the mochi. The food was great, all the people were great and the weather could not have been better!

One of the professors had recently gone to Tokyo and brought back some candy/pastry thing. It was made out of bread/cake with a cream filling in the middle. The cream filling was not so sweet as to be overwhelming, but still sweet and very delicious.

It was difficult (of course), but fun talking with all of the Japanese people there. The girl we meet up with there, told everyone I was studying Japanese and only to talk to me in Japanese. That made it more challenging, but it was good for me!

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Kareoke with Friends from Chubu! 12/27/08

About a month ago I went to kareoke with some friends from Chubu Uni. We had a great time and will almost certainly go again! We sang mostly Japanese and Chinese songs, which was pretty difficult...lol. The Chinese songs have katakana in them, but that is generally hard to read quickly enough to actually sing along with songs you don't know! But the Japanese songs have lots of hiragana which is easy as cake. :) It was still really fun hanging out with everyone!

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スピーカーユニットを買いました（I bought speakers)

今日は！

私はスピーカーユニットを買いたかったのですが、ちょっと怠けておりました。併し、二日前ハHARD-OFFへ行て。白いピーカー買いました！スピーカーが好きですが、音質が悪いですが、それは安かったので大丈夫です。


I have wanted to buy speakers but, I have been lazy. However, two days ago I went to HARD-OFF. I bough speakers! My new speakers are white. I like the speakers but, the sound quality is poor. It's ok though, they were inexpensive. :)


写真を見て下さい：

From Random

じゃね (Bye)


PS - お祖父さんと伯父さんを見て下さい。How do you say, "please correct" or "please grade" in Japanese?

All Japanese All The Time

I came across this website a week or two back and have found it to be very enlightening and a great aid for studying Japanese. Basically, you stop doing everything in English, and only work, think, speak, listen, write, live in Japanese. So, I have changed the language on my computer and the programs I use frequently to Japanese, listen to Japanese music(most of the time) and Japanese podcasts about a wide array of topics, etc. So from now on I will try to write on here in Japanese with an English translation. Grandpa and Uncle Uncle Geoff, feel free to tear the Japanese posts apart, as they will be rubbish. でも、時の過ぎやくままに、忙しいになります。ごめなさい。

見て下さい。(Take a look):
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/

Making Mochi

Last Thursday the dorm invited some people in to show everyone how to make mochi. Well, mostly just to let us smash rice with big hammers. From what I gathered, mochi is made from a special kind of rice that is cooked, then smashed into a paste substance, and then torn into little bit sized balls for covering with some jelly paste or cinnamon type powder. James, one of the international students got a little too excited and slightly missed the center of the big bowl and instead hit the edge. This chipped the hammer and little bits of wood went into the mochi...we had to pick it all out. It was all good though and we all ate lots of mochi!

More Mochi info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi


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