Japan | Tea Ceremony
Once again, I over slept but twenty minutes. I wish I could stop myself from turning off my alarm in my sleep. I need those extra minutes. Other than the over sleeping. My morning was pretty smooth. I ate breakfast (the same thing as all ways), got ready and FaceTimed my family. And at 8 I headed to the bus stop to go to school.
At school I learnt something that upset me greatly. As you all may know, there are four levels of Japanese being offered. And I am currently in level 3. All four levels have a presentation tomorrow, all different topics. Level 1 has a self introduction, Level 2 has to talk about things they like, Level 3 has to talk about a social problem in the world and talk about the solutions to make it better, Level 4 has to talk about the differences between Japan and America. Level 3 has a more difficult topic than Level 4! The hardest class of the whole entire program has an easier topic than the Level 3. I repeat, the most difficult and advanced class in the entire program has an easier topic than my level. I would have felt more comfortable writing a report in 4th grade level Japanese about differences...but no...we got a report about something we can explain very well because our lack of grammar structures and vocabulary. I was fuming about it to Elaine for a good 10 minutes.
Anyways, class flew on by, and lunch time came...and I forgot to take a picture of my lunch...again...sorry...But I did take a picture of the desserts and snacks I was given. When Mitch left to the cafeteria to buy lunch I shouted to him, "Get me something sweet!" I of course was joking. Mitch did not catch my joke...and he brought me green matcha pudding. I was so blown away, because I was joking about the whole 'get me a something sweet' thing. Mitch is great. Then a few minutes later Mika comes into the room and sits beside me...then she gives me two waffles from the heavenly store. I almost cried. I was so touched that she bought them for me when she went to Kyoto Station. I did not know what to say or do. I kinda just hugged her for a while and told her that she hurt my heart in a good way...then I ate them.
I really enjoy lunch time, because I get to talk to all the buddies and play around with them. Franz and I taught Maho slide slide slippery slide and she taught me the Japanese version of the hand game. I wish lunch time was longer than an hour.
After lunch, we had our Chado (Tea Ceremony) excursion. And you will not believe who joined us! Kazuki! I knew he was going to one of the Chado excursions I just did not know it was mine~ I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Kazuki is very attractive and very fashionable ( did I mention handsome?). Last time I saw Kazuki I was forced to talk to him in a very uncomfortable situation, but this time I talked to him out my own free will and it was fun. Especially since I now feel so much more comfortable speaking Japanese. He was beside me when we got on the bus, that took of the the temple of the chado excursion, and I showed him how I read signs. It goes a bit like this "Kanji kanji kanji *knows hirigana* kanji kanji", it made him laugh. Something about Kazuki is that he speaks very little english, so it forces me to use Japanese a lot more.
I felt really bad for him during the Tea Ceremony lecture. He originally was super excited because it was going to be the first time he was going to go to Chado class, but then...the lecture and the instructions turned out to be spoken in just English. Poor guy looked so disappointed through the whole thing, and bored too. Every now and then I would ask him (in Japanese) "Did you understand?" and then he would give me the saddest face and say "No, I don't understand anything". I felt so bad for him, but at the same time it was so amusing to watch him suffer. (I am a horrible person).
I was bit upset with the Chado thing because I was not allowed to take any pictures or record anything. Not the lecture, not the demonstration nor the making of the matcha. I did manage to snag a few pictures without anyone noticing though. I got a picture of the room and of the sweet that we were fed.
Anyways, class flew on by, and lunch time came...and I forgot to take a picture of my lunch...again...sorry...But I did take a picture of the desserts and snacks I was given. When Mitch left to the cafeteria to buy lunch I shouted to him, "Get me something sweet!" I of course was joking. Mitch did not catch my joke...and he brought me green matcha pudding. I was so blown away, because I was joking about the whole 'get me a something sweet' thing. Mitch is great. Then a few minutes later Mika comes into the room and sits beside me...then she gives me two waffles from the heavenly store. I almost cried. I was so touched that she bought them for me when she went to Kyoto Station. I did not know what to say or do. I kinda just hugged her for a while and told her that she hurt my heart in a good way...then I ate them.
I really enjoy lunch time, because I get to talk to all the buddies and play around with them. Franz and I taught Maho slide slide slippery slide and she taught me the Japanese version of the hand game. I wish lunch time was longer than an hour.
After lunch, we had our Chado (Tea Ceremony) excursion. And you will not believe who joined us! Kazuki! I knew he was going to one of the Chado excursions I just did not know it was mine~ I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but Kazuki is very attractive and very fashionable ( did I mention handsome?). Last time I saw Kazuki I was forced to talk to him in a very uncomfortable situation, but this time I talked to him out my own free will and it was fun. Especially since I now feel so much more comfortable speaking Japanese. He was beside me when we got on the bus, that took of the the temple of the chado excursion, and I showed him how I read signs. It goes a bit like this "Kanji kanji kanji *knows hirigana* kanji kanji", it made him laugh. Something about Kazuki is that he speaks very little english, so it forces me to use Japanese a lot more.
I felt really bad for him during the Tea Ceremony lecture. He originally was super excited because it was going to be the first time he was going to go to Chado class, but then...the lecture and the instructions turned out to be spoken in just English. Poor guy looked so disappointed through the whole thing, and bored too. Every now and then I would ask him (in Japanese) "Did you understand?" and then he would give me the saddest face and say "No, I don't understand anything". I felt so bad for him, but at the same time it was so amusing to watch him suffer. (I am a horrible person).
I was bit upset with the Chado thing because I was not allowed to take any pictures or record anything. Not the lecture, not the demonstration nor the making of the matcha. I did manage to snag a few pictures without anyone noticing though. I got a picture of the room and of the sweet that we were fed.
When the excursion was finished I returned back to the accommodations. I finished the powerpoint to Komura's sensei class and tried to memorize my report for my Japanese class so I don't always look at the paper. (I only know the first two lines, someone help me). Then Riley came to my room so we could put the finishing touches on the project and then we went out to eat.
Today was Riley's birthday, so I took him to the sushi restaurant I went to a while back, Sushi Tomo. He said it was the best sushi he had ever eaten, and he has eaten sushi many times in Japan. I love Sushi Tomo. I had different sushi this time. I ate steamed squid, steamed octopus, egg, salmon and tuna slim rolls. It was all so delicious!
Then I took Riley to the little French Bakery from yesterday. He was also amazed by how yummy the little sweets were. Again I had no clue what I ordered, it was like a raspberry tiramisu cake thing with the cutest decoration in the world.
Originally Riley and I wanted to play the 1 yen Pachinko but the place we went to in Teramchi reeked of tobacco and we could not stand the smell so we fled before we could even play and went to the arcade instead. There we played some really weird and hard music games. After half an hour or so we returned to the accommodations, because we both had homework to finish and presentations to get ready for.
Simply a girl who loves tea, blogs about her ever exciting life and wants to make her dreams come true.
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