Gaijin Smash! Nihongo no Happyou - Japanese Presentations (3/6/13)

Hey oh y’all,

So work. Final presentations. Final papers. And final tests (ie the main reasons, this post is 3+ weeks late). It also doesn’t help that I’m a bit sick. Though not sick enough to go to the hospital and get medicine…which my host mother thought I needed…yes, it’s just a light fever…no I’m fine…don’t worry…no I don’t like to take medicine…that’s only in emergencies…no, no, no this is NOT an emergency…yes I will go to bed…or something like that…

So our first challenge is our Japanese presentation – basically all of us have to explain to our teachers and host families what we’ve learned these past few months…in Japanese.

Wait…we learned stuff? And Japanese?

I hope somebody recorded all of the presentations and whatnot because they were awesome!

First we had “Gaijin Smash” by Adam, Armando, and Nick. They put together an absolutely hilarious skit about all the Gaijin Smash moments. Basically gaijin smash is all the mistakes a gaijin can make (and us being the foolish gaijin, we all at one point or another contributed to this collection). The origin of the term Gaijin Smash is up for debate. One school of thought is that it was coined when I literally cross-checked Jacob while on the train, slamming him into the wall…sorry Jacob. The other quotes an event when another gaijin from our group hit one of our unsuspecting local friends while we were playing ninja…she jokingly attempted to smash the offender’s camera. I personally prefer the second event, but that's just me ;p

Back to the skit – so Adam goes through his study in Japan making every mistake you never thought possible – from entering the women’s only car, to wearing shoes in the house, to not being able to eat with chopsticks, to…pushing the alarm button on a public toilet? I didn’t even know that existed…but apparently one of our group mistook that for the flush button and had to explain to the security what was going on.

The pink sign - Women Only Car

There's an alarm button on the toilets?

In other news – Adam is hilarious…get on his level.

Then we had presentations from Daniel, Vince and Marti. Daniel somehow managed (without his own working laptop mind you) to narrow his 10,000+ collection of photos to 15, but the 15 are absolutely stellar. If you check out his blog http://danielcliem.tumblr.com, look for his photo from Kiyomizu-dera with the two ladies in kimono. That is an awesome photo that deserves to go up on people’s walls at home.

Shashin ippai - there's a lot of photos

Then Vince and Marti explained their travels and meeting new friends! We saw various events with DESA (Doshisha Exchange Club) and their favorite field trips. Special shout-out for throwing in a photo of Pikachu – I heartily approve!

Pikachu, I see you!

Then the second years gave presentations about the differences between American culture and Japanese culture. Sumi and I talked about Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. And yes, aside from Mickey Mouse speaking fluent Japanese, there are notable differences (rides in Japan are slower and have shorter height limits, Duffy exists in Japan and pretty much Japan alone, and Disneyland in Japan is for couples – as opposed to America in which families and gender mixed friends groups often go).

My title slide - reads "Japan's Disneyland by David Calica and Sumi-chan"

Panda's like Duffy (and Shellie Mae - the one in the red dress)!

We are so cool - points for the knowing the costume of guy on the right!

Sidenote – why did Sumi get more positive comments from the visiting host families?

Photo credit to Eguchi-sensei!

For the others – Matt, ever the onsen aficionado, talked about public bathing (which doesn’t really exist in America). Jacob talked about Oshougatsu (remember New Year’s?) and osechi ryouri (New Year’s food). Apparently in America, there are special New Year’s dishes, often involving pork? Casey presented on Christmas – and Colonel Santa Claus and his popular Kentukki Furai (which apparently started as a marketing ploy). And to round it off, Sabu-chan presented on Valentine’s Day and chocolate giving (another Japanese tradition that started as a marketing ploy).

Good rules to follow for onsen!

So...pork on New Year's?

Ho ho who wants fried chicken?

Fun fact - Sabu-chan made those Hello Kitty Chocolates

Lastly, RJ presented on Trance music. I apologize RJ, but even if you spoke in English, I probably wouldn’t have understood Trance music. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but RJ is in 4^th year Japanese (?) and speaks pretty well fluently.

Ok, I understand this slide... ;p

But yeah – presentation day was actually a lot of fun and I managed to understand a lot. One down and a lot to go!

Yay!

-DC