No longer a student! What does that make me?

So it's Thursday, and as of 2:30 when I handed in my last paper I am DONE UNIVERSITY FOREVER.

I'm going home Sunday, and today will be the last day I am at the school, so the next time I write, I will be home already. I can't believe it. It went by so fast, but I did so much. (As evidenced by this blog.) So here I am trying to finish recording the last of my adventures. It seems weird to write about what I did in Japan if I'm already back in Canada. So again, just some quick re-caps.

Bon Odori and Traditional Japanese Dance

On the 19th of November I got see my host mom perform a traditional Japanese dance. She and her friends study traditional dance, and they perform at places like retirement residences and festivals. It's like a volunteer thing. So I went with her to an "old folk's home" to see it. She forgot her music tape, and had to do a different dance than the one she had been practicing for all week. She was so nervous. But I thought it looked awesome, and didn't see any mistakes. And then, for the last dance, the whole group did a "Bon Odori" dance, which is kind of like a conga line, but you do traditional dance moves. And then they dragged me up on stage! I was so embarrassed. But it was fun, and I got to say a little introduction, and why I was there. I think I surprised everyone. "That foreign girl is speaking Japanese!"

Trip to Okinawa

From November 24th to the 27th my friends and I took a trip to Okinawa. It was a 2 hour plane ride, and the whole thing, with hotel and everything, only cost 310 dollars. Okinawa is way down south, and the weather was beautiful, even in November. The temperature was like a Canadian June or July. Our first hotel was SO swanky. It was totally a rich people hotel. The second one was just a normal hotel, but along with beds they had tatami maps and futons. I obviously chose the big fluffy bed.

We spent the whole time swimming and playing on the beach, and we ate yummy yummy seafood for CHEAP, and even went kayaking, AND we saw lots of those Geiko lizard things. We didn't do any touristy stuff because our town was small, but it was a nice "spring break" type vacation. And now I have to come back to Canada, with blizzards and snowstorms.

Nara, Buddha and Deer

On Dec. 1st, my host family took me to Nara, to see a temple that holds the LARGEST Buddha statue in the world. And believe me it was huge. The whole temple itself was amazing. I saw that one of the wooden pillars holding up the roof had a square hole through it, and lots of little kids were climbing through it. One girl my age even managed to fit through it (because she was a stick-thin tiny girl). I asked my host mom why they were doing that, and she was like "Well, lots of people climb through it... I don't really know why." There are a lot of things in Japan that people do, and when I ask why they do it, no one knows. It's funny.

I later found out that that hole was the same size as the Buddha statues' nostrils, so it's to give people a sense of size, I guess. It's apparently good luck to go through it.

Also, that part of Nara, where the temple is, is FULL of wild deer. They just wander around, going wherever they please. Tons of them! But they're all tame, and the babies are cute. Street vendor's sell these bread waffer things you can feed to them, and you better believe that the deer know you have food. They go up to everyone, and stick their noses into your hands. One deer even stuck his nose into my purse! At one point, I was surrounded by 10 deer. Before we went, my host mom told me that there were a lot of deer, and that it was scary, but I was like "aww, no, deer are cute!" But yeah, now I know what she means. I felt like I was going to be EATEN! It was fun.

Also, as an aside, I love my host mom! She's so fun, she's like a teenager. We were walking down these long steps, and I wanted to get down them faster, so I sped up, so she sped up, and then I sped up, and then we ended up having a race down the stairs! My whole four months have been full of fun things like that.

Visiting Azusa

On the 3rd, me and my mom went to my speaking partner Azusa's hometown. She commutes 2 hours to school and 2 hours back every day! She and her mom and grandmother (who was the cutest and nicest and sweetest old lady ever), took us to a really awesome zen garden. It was so pretty. We had to walk over this stone bridge, with lots of water underneath, and my fear of bridges was quickly discovered by my host mom, so she took my arm and DRAGGED me over the bridge with me shrieking the whole time. So mean! Azusa took a picture of my terrified face. It was terrifying and fun.

Azusa dressed up in a really pretty kimono, so I have lots of pictures of that, but after walking around all day, she had to go home and change before we went out to dinner, because she couldn't breath. For dinner, Azusa's mom took us to a fancy restaurant, where we all ordered steak, and you better believe it was some of the best steak I have ever tasted. It wasn't like a whole T-bone steak, but it was so good. It also came with a huge grilled jumbo shrimp. The shrimp was almost the same size as the steak. The meal was like 30 dollars per person, with 6 people, and her mom paid for it all. Actually, no matter where I go, it seems the "host" pays for everything and it's completely expected. None of this sharing the check business. And it gets difficult when you can't tell whether you or the person you are out with is the host.

More Takarazuka

On the 5th Jen and I, and some of her classmates, went to go see another Takarazuka play. It was one of those historical and traditional ones, and I really didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the first one, "Lucifer's Tears". But then again, I would rate the first one as an 11 out of 10, because not only was it perfect in every way, but it was so *completely* *exactly* the theme and style that I love. This one I would maybe rate a 6 or 7 out of 10. Although I did hear people say that this was really wasn't the usual style of Takarazuka. I want the DVD of "Lucifer's Tears" but it's 105 dollars. What. Is. That. Like the tickets aren't expensive enough. So I guess I'm out of luck.

Shopping with Ayumi

On the 10th I went shopping with my friend Ayumi in Kyoto. She was looking for a scarf and I was looking for a purse, and after going to 3 department stores, we still didn't find anything we like. We're so picky and/or cheap. Everything I liked was brand name and over 100 dollars. One of the scarves Ayumi liked was 168 dollars. She picked it up, looked at the price tag, put it down and turned to me and went "No." It was funny because I'd been doing the same thing all day. She said she learned a lot of new English words such as "sketchy" and "floofy". I never realized how often I just make up words. I explained that you can usually put "y" at the end of any word to make it an adjective. I'm teaching her non-existent English.

Final Plans

Today I am going out to dinner with my friends from our Soran Bushi group, tomorrow I am going out to lunch with Azusa and Kumiko, and then having dinner with Hiromi, and THEN I am going out to dinner with my host parents on Saturday, and in between all this I still have to finish packing!

And of course, pictures of all my adventures will soon be forthcoming, when I finally have access to that sweet sweet invention called "high-speed internet".