Pieces of Yo~ou!

I brought some pieces of Shannon with me to Japan. :D

Which is to say that some of her hair got trapped on one of my shirts somehow. But it's true! :D

Anywaaaaay... for the first time in my life, I am finding myself wishing that I had a good sense of smell. For those of you who may not know, I generally can't smell much. Case in point: one time my friend and I were out 4x4ing in his car. It was a hot day, but since his window was broken, mine was the only one rolled down. He, not I, smelled the very dead, very rotting corpse we drove past.

Yeah, my sense of smell is that bad.

Some things reach my nose fairly easily, like cinnamon and nutmeg. I also smell better when the air is humid, such as during/right before/right after rain. Other than that I tend to not smell things unless there's a sudden change in smell, as when you open a door to someone's dorm room and their trash really needs to be changed and the smell wafts into the hall. Even then, it's momentary, and I'm lucky if I can regonize the smell before it goes away.

One thing my sense of smell is good for -- besides saving me from the bad smells that plague other people -- is recognizing atmospheres. I went to Chugiak High to visit a couple of teachers before coming to Japan and knew as soon as I walked in that it still smells pretty much like it always did. Granted, I don't know what that smell is, but I know it's the same.

When I was in shodou (Japanese calligraphy) class today, I knew that it smelled different from every other classroom I've been in here, and that got me thinking. My laundry soap smells like laundry soap (only a little different, of course), my trash smells like trash, and the music practice rooms and classrooms smell like music rooms (only a little different, of course). I know Japan smells different than America, but I can't tell how and it bugs me. :(

Sadoubu yesterday. More sweets to try.

Taste-O-Meter!

Ogiyoukan: 5
The type of candy is called youkan; ogi refers to the place in which it was made. Ryoko (whose name I misspelled as Rioko before) got it on a trip to somewhere. I don't know what it's made of, but it came in a block. Its color was a purple dark enough to be almost black. The texture... it was more solid than gelatin, but similar. Kind of like gumdrops, only bigger and tasty instead of untasty.

Soukasenbei: 4
These are a kind of cracker. Souka refers to the flavor; senbei is the kind of snack. I've had a different kind of senbei in America, thanks to Yoko-sensei.

Kabocha no tane: 5
A Japanese kind of pumpkin cookie, and I love pumkin cookies.

Rokka no Tsuyu: 5
I don't know what the name means, though the first word means 6, but these were awesome. They were a thin, hard candy shell wrapped around sake. ^^ The candy perfectly offset the harsh sake. (And I like sake in the first place. Ahahaha!)

Somen by itself: 5
This stuff cooks fast, and is tasty. Not eaten at sadoubu, by the way; that was dinner.

So yeah. My class schedule is set, and I am happy with the classes I have... though I need to study up on a lot of vocabulary. ^^ My Nihon Jijou (Japan's Circumstances, best as I can figure for a translation) class is about politics and governments, and I don't know much in regards to that vocabulary. I have had a growing interest in politics for a while, but I didn't know where to jump in. Might as well start with comparing the ruling bodies of Japan, America, Korea (Kim is taking this class as well), and the European Union. Ahoy! Anyway, this paragraph started as an introduction to me putting up my schedule:

Monday
- No classes
Tuesday
- 4:20 PM Nihon no Dentou Ongaku (Japanese Traditional Music, aka koto lessons)Wednesday
- 10:40 AM Nihon Jijou (Japan's Circumstances?)
- 1:00 PM Nihon Kaiwa (Japanese Conversation)
- Sadoubu in the afternoon/evening
Thursday
- 10:40 AM Nihon Bunka B (Japanese Culture B, aka shodou lessons)
Friday
- 1:00 PM Nihongo B (Japanese Language B)
- Sadoubu in the afternoon/evening
Saturday
- 10:30 AM Nihon Jijou (Not required, but the teacher invited me to the extra session, and I think it'd be a good idea to go, so I am. w00t!)

They're taking blood donations today. Sayaka asked if I was going to donate, so I told her about the fact that when I tried to do so in Alaska, I was told that because I lived in Germany when I did, I may have Mad Cow Disease (MOO!) and therefore cannot give blood. When I mentioned that it's a shame, since I have type O blood and O is rare, she told me that O is common in Japan. No wonder it's rare everywhere else in the world; the Japanese are keeping the O-blood for themselves! :O

I also got to go to a sadou show today. There was a display of various, pretty, expensive pieces. Vases (often one or more flowers are present at the tea ceremony), ochawan (the bowls you drink from), futaoki (a small, cylindrical piece of equipment on which one places the hot lid [the futa] of the kama [kettle]), obon (dishes from which sweets are offered to guests), some other dishes whose name I don't know but which replace kaeshi (paper on which an individual places their sweets), and incense holders. There were some really nice pieces of pottery there, but some of them were over $3000 a pop.

The show was in a department store. Japanese department stores are their equivalent of malls. It's a lot like the co-op I described before, though. For the most part, the only real delineation from store to store was that you could tell where, say, the kimono goods ended and the dishes began. It was pretty cool, and man-oh-man those kimono were gorgeous. I want one.

Realizations of the Period

1) Taking small classes is good. I was in one large class on accident at first, but that one session of class is enough for me to know that when you can't understand everything the teacher is saying, small classes are good. If you're not getting it, the teacher has a chance to notice that you're not getting it. There's also a lot more demonstration involved, I'm finding. I'm soooo glad I have small classes. So glad.
2) I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches for people tomorrow evening, but I have no place to put stuff like butter and chees before preparing the food. Ack! If it were winter, I could use the windows; there's actually two sets of windows, one on top of the other, so it'll be perfect for storing things come winter time, but winter is not now. Aiee!