Swords and Fireworks

This morning was not kind to me. I think I've been blessed with a cold that has been going around the school. Japanese cold feels shittier then American cold, that much I can assure you. Once again I struggled in Yamada-sensei's class, and the less I understand, the more she calls on me. Today I managed though, and I'm getting much better and reading and writing Japanese in hiragana. If only I had more time here to study I know I could get it all down. Well, maybe not all the kanji, but at least the language and the basic characters. I've found that I have a bit of an advantage over some of the other Americans because I'm an air traffic control major. In the ATC classes, a lot of emphasis is placed on memorization of sectors, radio frequencies, and a plethora of other information. So I've been able to pick up the hiragana pretty fast, thankfully.

At lunch I sat with An, who presented me with about 10 pages of local attractions. I had barely mentioned the other day that I was looking for something to do locally with some friends and she went out of her way to print all this out. I was amazed at her kindness. An had to leave school early for something but not before Seth told her that I was wondering if she was married, much to my embarrassment. I still felt pretty shitty at lunch, so I basically just sat around after An left and avoided much conversation.

Onuma's class came and went, I felt even worse there, but she did manage to lift my spirits a bit with her antics. The real fun of the day was after Onuma's class.

Our culture lesson today was a presentation by local Kendo sensei. Kendo can be called Japanese fencing. A more accurate description would be that it is what remains of Japan's samurai culture. Instead of teaching one to kill with the sword, kendo teaches one to better oneself through the sword. The sensei gave us an overview of kendo and proper bowing practices before giving a demonstration with real swords. They sampled a few of the best techniques for us. Once this was done we were given shinai (bamboo swords) and we began to practice moves with the sensei. There are three places you can strike a opponent; the top of the head (men), the wrist (kote), and the side of the abdomen, on the armor (do). As one strikes each area the strike is yelled.

Kendo Sensei duel with real katanas.

After practicing the kendo moves, the sensei took four volunteers to bout in a mini tournament while wearing the kendo equipment. I volunteered, I really had no idea how to dual but I thought "What the hell". First Dani and Roshan fought with Dani landing the two winning hits. Then it came my turn versus Brett. I managed to win but put a nasty bruise on Brett's arm. Next was the final match between Dani and myself. It was a long match and I was already tired. Dani finally got the last hit on me, much to my relief. I wouldn't have minded winning, but I was done by that point. Everyone who volunteered got to keep the head bands we wore inside our helmets. They have kanji written on them and look amazing, even though I have no idea was it says. The whole experience was amazing and I'm very happy I volunteered to try the dueling. I'm considering joining the Kendo Club back home for my final semester.

I didn't have any plans after school so I changed into athletic clothes and went back to play soccer with Roshan, Mike, Mariko, and some Japanese students. It was a good time, but I suck at soccer, and I was already very tired. I played for about 20 minutes before calling it a day and went and shot baskets for a while. I went upstairs and watched the twins do karate with Yuu and the karate club for a bit and then headed home.

At home I went up to Dani's room and joined her, Amanda, Toniya and a bunch of Japanese students for dinner. They were making American omelets and pancakes. Chihiro was there so I spent a lot of time talking with her. Eventually we decided to go set off the fireworks that one of the Japanese kids bought. We gathered up a big group of students and walked way out into the countryside. We spent the next hour or so lighting off every kind of kick ass Japanese firework you can think of. Finally we got to the "bomb". The bomb was created by taking and empty can, poking a hole in the side, filling it with sparkler powder, and attaching a fuse. In America we call this a pipe bomb, and an act of terrorism. In Japan it's just good fun. The bomb detonated not so much like a firework, but like a quarter stick of dynamite. It was yabe (Japanese slang that can be loosely translated to "bad ass").

We walked back to the apartments and I spoke with Yuu along the way. I tried teaching her how to say "microphone" but when she had trouble pronouncing it she just said "microdenwa" (denwa is Japanese for phone). Yuu will be leaving for social work next Monday and won't be back until after we're gone. This is incredibly sad for me, she's been such an awesome friend and she won't even get to see us off. I can say without a doubt that Yuu is the best friend I met here.

Once back at the apartments I went from room to room hanging out until finally getting home around 12:30. It was a good day, and it thoroughly wore me out, and tomorrow should be just as fun.