Yay More Pandas! Ueno Zoo! (2/18/13)

Hi everybody!

Today we went to Ueno Zoo!

We also saw a bunch of other stuff too!

First – we went to the local elementary school to watch Ken-kun’s concert! The elementary school kids were really good! They played some fun songs. David, ever known for his musical taste and music appreciation, also came (but only because he saw that the music class was playing AKB48’s “Heavy Rotation”).

Then – we got on the Shinkansen again! And this time we got pictures (tell David Lam)!

And then we arrived in Tokyo! We then took a quick chikatetsu (subway) ride to Ueno Doubutsuen (Ueno Zoo)!

Yay! Meeting more pandas! Kawaii panda ga nihiki ita (there were two pandas!)!

And who says pandas only sleep all day – these pandas were very nice to us and walked up to say hi! They had some nice bamboo too!

Then we bought panda cookies and ate panda snak’ems! The café also had panda pancakes and panda udon! I like going to zoos! All the people at zoos like pandas!

We also met other nice animals – like Mr. Shirokuma (polar bear) and Mr. Pengin (penguin) like in Shirokuma Café. There was also a fun petting zoo – it was fun petting the sheep and goats with a bunch of cute toddlers.

There was also this poor tortoise (kame) who fell over. But then he got up all by himself so it was good.

Then we saw a scary tiger (kowai tora). David likes tigers…makes sense…both are scary monsters…

But we had a lot of fun! Hooray for Ueno Zoo!

This weekend we will go back to Tokyo with the Stanford students! Looking forward to it!

-Sumi

Some more fun pictures:

Mario says, "Bullying is bad!"

Barentaindei - Valentine's Day! (2/14/13)

Hey oh y’all,

Happy Valentine's Day y’all!

Bear choking...barely breathing...help me!

It’s an extra special day since this year I finally have a Valentine! Yay me!

Ummm...hi?

Thank you Sumi-chan! Yay! I gots chocolates!

--don’t get so excited…it’s only giri-choco…sigh…

Giri-choco? What’s that?

--In Japan girls give chocolates to guys, but not just their special someones. Often girls/women give chocolates to all of the men in their life – bosses, co-workers, classmates, etc. Most of these guys get giri-choco or obligatory chocolate. It’s like saying, “I acknowledge you are a guy and you exist. Here you go.” And so, David, you exist…here you go.

So it’s not honmei?

--you mean the super fancy chocolate that you can buy (or make) that you give to a special someone?…keep dreaming…

Sigh…awww….

--while David eats his chocolate I will explain how Valentines works here in Japan. So unlike America, in which partners both exchange gifts (or at least the panicky guy rushes to buy flowers on his way home from work) and go out for dinner, in Japan, women traditionally give chocolates to guys—guys plural. Then on White Day (March 14), the guys are supposed to give back gifts or chocolates to whoever gave them chocolates on Valentines. The chocolates have classifications, depending on the relationship – honmei is for the special someone, tomo choco is for friends (can be guys or girls), and giri is for everyone else that you see regularly but you really aren’t all that close to. So David naturally gets giri.

But Sumi…I’m still cool right?

--did you read my prior post on what makes a cool guy right? Takarazuka? I don't think so.

Yes but…

--but nothing. On that note, yesterday we got to meet a ex-Takarazuka member! She was a musume-yaku (female performer). She was so cute! And she liked pandas! She told us about the challenges and joys of being a Takarazuka student and performer. She had to train for long hours with no sick days and do a lot of cleaning (she even had to sweep the floors with sticky tape). But she got to meet the imperial family and she had lots of fans who gave her lots of gifts and stuff!

Umm Sumi…I thought this was my blog post? I was going to talk about Takarazuka?

--uh-huh…you can talk about how your language class is going?

Sigh…

--uh-huh…like how you went to the clothing store today, learned some clothing related kanji, then tonight when you came home and your host family had you read a clothing advertisement, you couldn’t since you forgot?

Gee, thanks…

---that’s what I’m here for!

Ok…before this gets any more embarrassing, I think I shall end the post.

--that's probably a good idea.

Come on Sumi. Can't we agree on one thing? Can we at least wish all of our friends and family a happy Valentine's Day?

-Now you are thinking! I actually like that idea!

-------We hope you all have/had a great Valentine’s Day! Much love to everyone!------

-DC 

(and Sumi...who wrote most of this post... --wait what?)

Gaijin (Foreigner) Power Hour With the Whole Gang! (2/13/13)

Hey oh y’all,

It’s time for the Gaijin Power Hour!

So at lunch the other day, we had a gaijin jam session! Jacob brought out his ukelele, hit us with a melody, and then we all just made up a hilarious song as we went along and bellowed laughter you could hear for miles (or rather kilometers since we're not in the US...as we are constantly reminded). In terms of clearing the tables around us and drawing confused looks from everyone else? It's super effective!\

Remember the first few lunches in which we were the awkward gaijin and had to sit outside? Not anymore! We rule this lunchroom now (also many of the students are on break so that could explain it too...)!

I had the most interesting thought today when I went to an esoteric Buddhist temple – one where they do really loud chanting and bathe themselves in freezing cold water – I was actually shocked and stunned when they started chanting so loudly – not exactly because the chanting but because there was a lot of noise that wasn’t Stanford group gaijin noise. Seriously, if you can’t find us, just stop and listen – that noise, that English, that laughter…it’s us…not even probably…it is.

Notice the Buddhist monk sutra praying, combined with the Shinto lightning paper marking, 

Apparently by proving you can do this, you release some spiritual energy .

Then that spiritual energy can be spread to others for healing (so like the ultimate in exorcism?)

On the other hand, it is kinda funny and cute when little elementary school kids give your group a double take and excitedly yell out “gaijin?!” Also they like pandas.

In other news, I like taking still life photos of fire. Does fire count as still life?

DC

Stage entertainment! Yay! (2/10/13)

Hi everybody,

It’s apparently Chinese New Year! Gung he fa choi?

It’s also the weekend!

And that means field trips! And meeting new friends!

First off, I met an usa-chan (usagi - bunny-chan) named Majyu-chan! She likes cheese!

Meet Mr. Lion and Majyu-chan!

So Friday we went to see a Rakugo performance. Rakugo is Japanese traditional comedic storytelling. The Rakugo-ka was so funny. He did a lot of cool skits. He even performed paper cutting and bamboo screen art in his stories. He also made me a Tony Tony Chopper cutout (it’s from an anime…I like the character. He’s a cute reindeer.).

Art of paper cutting!

Today was Takarazuka! Takarazuka is Japan’s famous all-women musical performance troupe. They spend their whole high school careers training and once they become performers they can become national stars. Since it’s all women, that means even the male roles are done by women, but it’s so cool. In fact, the otoko-yaku (men actresses) are way more popular. They are really stylish and talented. Basically they have all the coolness a guy should have without the clumsiness or roughness. Now while I don’t see myself joining a fan club and writing letters and sending gifts anytime soon (yup fans – mostly middle aged women – do that), I really like the otoko-yaku. They say that the Takarazuka “men” are the ideal men, and I believe it. The voices and dancing is so graceful and pure, but they stand and present themselves very strongly.

Hear that David? The goal is to be graceful, strong, and nice. That makes you cool. Not weak, clumsy, and gruff. You really could do to learn a thing or two about style from them as well. But enough about you.

...not quite...

I bought a Disney CD! Now I can listen to my favorite songs in Japanese from really good singers (who also happen to be really cool women)!

Oh and we also went to another manga/anime museum….Tezuka Osamu or something…Astro kid something rather?… I don’t really know, ask the sleeping otaku…

There was a cute lion character and another golden bird though! I got to take pictures!

She's cute - Princess Knight (based off Takarazuka!)

Fortunately we have Monday off so we can catch up on some sleep. Oh and I should also probably do some shopping. An important day is coming up soon (stay tuned to see what it is)!

-Sumi

I don't really like Astro Boy.

Is that a unicorn?