Hello everyone!
On Sunday we participated in Odori Nagashi, a big once a year festival in Kanazawa that I think was originally intended to give their samurai strength and make their rice fields grow well. Kuo-san and I watched the opening ceremony in front of Kanazawa station where there was a huge drum, some big drums, and lots of other regular sized drums that were played to mark the start. Then there was some dancing performers and then the daimyo of Kanazawa cut a ribbon and the parade through the streets of Kanazawa began. Kuo-san (Henry Kuo (studying neuroscience and CS and a rising senior at Harvard)) is shorter than me, and the crowds to watch the opening ceremony were pretty packed, so I gave Kuo-san a piggy back ride so he could have a good view of the events, which worked well. I’m always looking for ways to get exercise in, and that was certainly one of them. We only watched for like 20 minutes because then we had to get to the Ishikawa International Lounge, a 40 minute walk away, to prepare for our part of the festival. We had practiced dancing before, and got into our happi (I think that’s what their called), then went as a group and joined lots of other groups dancing through the streets. If a make a youtube video about it, the link will be here: https://youtu.be/UFoy8DKe3pE. I made it.
Then I studied a lot, and learned a lot more Japanese this week. The routine is starting to come together I think. I made Japanese sweets, called wagashi, but was not very good at making them. We had our first midterm yesterday, and I think it went well. On the bus ride back I sat next to an 11 year old Japanese kid who was learning English. I spoke to him in Japanese and he spoke to me in English. At first I thought that it’s a bit funny that we would both use tools of communication that we are worse at, but then I realized that it is actually a good thing because the listener will be able to understand all the words spoken by the speaker. He said he wanted to go to America, Ohio specifically, for high school and live with a host family. I asked him why he wanted to study English and he said it was easier than math. I asked him why he wanted to go to Ohio and he said he wanted to go somewhere rural. Then I ran back from the train station again today, instead of taking the bus, and I explored some of Awazu-onsen (the town I live in). I went into a manga/bookstore which was run by an elderly couple and the wife told me about her experience living with a host family for 10 days in Washington State and traveling to Canada (昔) (mukashi) (a long time ago). They seemed like they knew everyone in the town, but they didn’t know my host family’s name. But when I told my host mom, she thinks she knows the lady.
Anyway, through a long and complicated process, I was finally given the OK to row tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to that. Today I will hopefully start studying soon and go for a run.
That’s the way it is.