YFU stuff at MeySen

As the title suggests, I went to MeySen (the Takamori campus) once more to attend the YFU meeting with my host brother and mom, as he's going to America in August. I also saw a friend from YFU there with her host sister. THE SLIDES THERE ARE RIDICULOUSLY LONG AND THEY HAVE HUGE PLAYGROUNDS. One of the many (probably around 10+) slides there was 23 meters (~75.5 feet) and the other 29 meters (~95 feet). So fun. It took me 8 seconds to get to the bottom... and it was FAST. And then there was this one slide that had this HUGE drop-- it scared me. :P You see a couple huge slides and a big playground (and a beautiful waterfall, too!) at first, but once climbing through the trees in metal-bar tunnels and such, you see there are tons and tons of more playgrounds and stuff. It's just... ridiculously cool. I walked the long path around the lake too. :) It really was beautiful. ...and of course I did all this during the meeting which was all in Japanese (the principal told me to "feel free to step out"). There were also ponies, a goat, a ram, some birds, rabbits, chinchillas, a prairie dog and a super loud bird that was going to be returned to the petshop because it was too loud for the kindergartners ( :( ).I couldn't take any pictures though as I forgot my camera... AGAIN. My host brother sternly told me that "I didn't need it"
though, and hurriedly rushed me out of the house before I could even put my socks on.
I also got pictures from the high school camp at MeySen. These four that I'm posting are online on MeySen's website too, so I don't think they'll really mind if I post them here, too. :)



I also saw some 学園祭 (gakuensai, school festivals) going on, but I didn't get to go to any.

...and that's all that has really happened in the past few days that's been all that exciting. I've gotten to page four in my Oreimo book (WHOOP WHOOP)... considering I've been translating EVERYTHING I don't completely understand, along with finding out how to pronounce all the kanji without furigana. (And in case you don't know, furigana is tiny little hiragana to the side/on top of kanji telling you how to read it.)

There's talk of karaoke and purikura next week (again, that's a link, so click if you don't know what it is), and I'm pretty sure we're going to a shrine/temple tomorrow with my host mom's mother. I'm excited. :D :)

Bai bai for now. :3

ANIMATE & MeySen & School Today

MeySen was SO fun. totally worth the 4000円 I paid for it (hah, first time mentioning that. about $40)

Well, Shun and I left at 9:40 AM to go to the Marayama MeySen campus... though Shun's mom didn't know that it was moved to the Takamori campus and starting at 3 PM... SO INSTEAD WE WENT TO ANIMATE. OH MY GOD. love. Animate (アニメイト, animeito) is that store that I went to in Akiba back in Tokyo... and I was like oh my god heaven. We also went to GAMERS, a store that sells basically the same type of stuff. :P I bought magazines. and some other stuff. OH AND I ALSO BOUGHT THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE OREIMO LIGHT NOVEL (which I can barely read). :D Oreimo, in case you don't remember me saying before, is short for "俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない" (Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai ... meaning "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute" of course. :)



After Animate and all that stuff, Shun, his mom and I walked around some.　I got to eat ひょうたん揚げ (hyoutanage), which is, well... this stuff (that's a link-- click it for a picture!). It's two balls of fish paste surrounded with some cooked... dough, or something... shaped like a gourd. :D It was SUPER delicious. We also did a little prayer thing where we put in 10円 and rang a bell. :) very fun. Also, Shun's house is AMAZING-- they have a cabinet in the dining room with TONS of those Japanese dolls in them, and under the table is a space for your feet. and in that space is a thing for you to play with with your feet (don't correct me about the two 'with's in a row, MICHAEL).


Anyways, back to MeySen stuff... SO FUN. All the teachers were really nice and funny, and so were the kids. :) There were about 60 people at the camp in all someone told me... but I also remember there were 27 boys and 17 girls. ...how does that work out. were there really 16 先生 (sensei, teacher) there? hmmm...

BUT YEAH. First, since it was so hot, we had a water fight for an hour. and it was super fun. After camp I learned that you're supposed to say "hen na kibun" instead of "hen na kimochi"... "hen na kimochi" is usually used as a phrase meaning "sexual excitement." maybe I shouldn't have said that when multiple 13-year-old girls were dousing me with water .___. or maybe I should have? :D (just a joke - WEEEOOOHWEEEOOOH SOMEONE CALL THE YFU POLICE!!!11111oneonetwo) Oh God but the best thing was when during the water fight; everyone had huge water tube guns (like the ones from our Grand Canyon & Colorado River rafting trip last summer, Mom) and buckets which they filled with water... after blasting a teacher from afar, he filled up his bucket, chased me, and dumped all the water on my head while screaming "I LOVE THESE BAPTISMS!!!!!!!!" oh my god I laughed SO HARD for so long... I'm laughing now while my host mom in the other room is telling me that I'm strange. :)

Then it was time for foodstuffs. but before eating dinner, we prayed over our food. lol. most everyone was quite srs about it. (Y SO SRSですか。) After dinRAR, we had a treasure hunt in which my team got first place as we were the fastest. :) "Stations" included finding $3.00 in coins in slime, filling bottles with water from the WATERFALL (which was super cool, since it existed :P ), getting a clothespin from the pool and rearranging the English words to form a sentence. that last one was pretty easy for me until the teacher said that I couldn't do all the sentences for my team. :P That night we watched "Rainy with A Chance of Meatballs" with Japanese subtitles and stayed up until 1 AM watching the World Cup. :)

The next morning after not eating the eggs made with strange Japanese gummy-cheese, we went bowling which was really fun. :) I learned that most Japanese people are absolutely horrid at bowling, but those who aren't are amazing. therefore I didn't win a MeySen T-shirt (cry cry) but instead I won some PRETZELS, YAY. As my host mom was all paranoid about me bringing a camera (since the sheet said no video games or cell phones), I didn't get to bring my camera... even though it turned out to be allowed. Hopefully I shall get some pictures on a CD very soon. :)

Oh, and one more thing: all kindergartens, and many schools in Japan, have HUGE slides. LIKE, HUGE HUGE HUGE. The MeySen Takamori campus had this super long and high gorilla one. I didn't get to go down it at all though. ;_; They had ponies too. Like, real ponies. Here's a picture of the slide that I took off a YFU alumni's blog post:




More pictures here (the original blog post).

Everybody there was super nice and awesome (for lack of a better word). :D Especially Hinano (Hina-chan), who was omgsupercute too. :3 (she was 13-- have the police move down four paragraphs before it's too late!)


After MeySen, my host brother and Shun and I had to go shopping as he's going on a school trip for 3 days later this month in which he will climb a mountain. (yeah, high school trips in Japan are like that... and for ELEMENTARY school trips, they sometimes go to another country like America for a while... and if not, then they go to Tokyo Disneyland or something. but still totally different from America.) So we had to buy some shoes. In the stores I saw some pretty funny slogans, including "YOUR FIELD TURNS IT ON" and "Fresh up your life." And then I saw a kid wearing a shirt saying "Good dread DMC sister" ... don't even want know what that is supposed to mean.

* * *
AND THEN IN SCHOOL TODAY! (phew, I'm getting tired) First period was super fun with Bushaa-sensei-- we analyzed dialogue from Avatar. We learned words like "screwed," "damn" and "ass," but only after everyone being confused when a torch was thrown in the water and the character said "Oh, great" (sarcastically, of course... they don't use those types of expressions in Japanese). And then everybody took it literally when the line "Wait up!" was spoken... "why up??? a direction?? the sky???" as I thought about it, it actually does make no sense whatsoever. :) Language is truly fascinating-- perhaps I'll study it in college someday or something.

In computer class, I researched why people go to school and why people eat. I wrote about how we need to eat so we can get energy to ask questions such as that, and go to school so we can gain the knowledge to eat to ask questions like that. Then in math, I was the only one who knew the quadratic formula which we learned for the first time.

Language club after school was also fun, and since it lasted until 6:10 or so, I took the subway home (buses are at 4:07 and 5:07 only). On the subway (which actually doesn't run underground at all-- only the stations are underground) there were lots of adults playing Nintendo DSes and other gaming consoles... I don't think one sees that too much in America. :)

...and that's all for now. Sorry for the lack of pictures-- I promise I shall post some soon! :)

Byeeeeee～ :>

Random pictures & MeySen (明泉)

School has been [moderately] fun... but not really much to write about. :) Instead, pictures:




Not going to try this-- especially since it has ION ELECTROLYTES in it.


NHK, a childrens' television network. only in Japan...


On the way to school outside of a store named "JUNKs" ..... yeah.


This is why MeySen exists (second part of this post for more info)


One of my favorite pictures so far :)


I sent out four postcards today. :) Also, I really wish schools in America had 校歌 (kouka, school songs). Seibun's is really nice I think-- I got a copy of the lyrics yesterday and we sang it today in music.

Hmm, also, just 'cause Google Maps is fun to play with... here's a map of where my school is. :D

View Larger Map

Tomorrow and Sunday I'll be going to the MeySen high school camp with my friend Shun and staying overnight there next night... I think it will be quite fun. :D MeySen (明泉 - the 'sen' kanji is the same as 'Izumi,' which is the prefecture it's in!) is... well, it could definitely be a big evil institution corrupting the minds of Japanese children. :P It's a kindergarten, but also an "after-school academy" (not a juku/cram school) for elementary through high school students. It's a normal kindergarten, but from elementary school and up it's basically an English-studying and conversation school (though they refuse to identify as that). It's very... conservative (aka Christian) too... like, HIGHLY. For example, I went yesterday to see what it was like with my mom, and some teacher (who are all外人 - foreigners, by the way) asked my my name... the conversation went a bit like this:

Teacher: Oh hi, nice to meet you... what's your name?
Me: Eli.
Teacher: Oh! That's a bible name.
Me: *breaks out laughing*
Teacher: I mean it. Are your parents Christians?
Me: Uh.... Um.... They're not practicing, but yes. (kind of a lie)
Teacher: Oh I'm glad. But of course what is most important is your faith to the Bible and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Though I think I'll have fun. we get to read the bible too. :) (Michael - THE MOUND OF OLIVES!!!! :D ) ...don't get all religious on me, Mom.


I just checked out their website and found that the school motto is "Mercy and Truth," lolwat.

Oh also, THE PRINCIPAL BY HIMSELF gives all the children [very strange] English names so the teachers don't have to struggle to remember and pronounce their Japanese names... my host brother's name was Brad... oh, and also, the parents never meet the teachers. When my mom took me last night, she met Taiga's teacher for the first time... "Are you Brad's mother?!" ... I facepalmed (used that word just for you, Mom). Also, my friend from YFU goes with her host sister sometimes... she told me she had a conversation somewhat like the following:

Teacher: What do you think will happen with the world in the next 20 years?
Friend: Well, related to politics, I think democratic governments will become more prominent in some countries.
Teacher: *looks disapprovingly* Uh-oh. Well, we don't want that to happen... anything else?
Friend: *thinks 'what the hell'* Flying cars.

MeySen-related pictures:



Accept the truth. You like to fly kites.


Not oversimplified at all.


My favorite book.


Will post about it when I get back. :)

Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. --Job 1:21

^{(If you get the reference, you're cool.)}