How I Spent My New Year's Eve - by Thayne Bohman

I barely slept at all this morning, spending the last two hours (of three in bed) tossing and turning most of the time.  Then, around 5:30, I got up and had breakfast.  Then I played some piano while I waited for my mom to get ready to take me over to a doctor's appointment I had at 7:30.  Once there, I filled out a bunch of paperwork and had the doctor test out my legs.  I've had a bad left knee for around six years now, ever since it moved out of place while I was limboing in a dance class back in my first year of college.  Finally decided I should do something about it.

After that appointment, I went to get my knee x-rayed, and didn't make it back home until around 11:00.  So I had lunch and watched some anime with my mom and brother.  Normally, the anime only comes after dinner, but we were already all up and eating at the same time, so I suggested we do it then.  Then I messed around on my computer, played some games, and fell asleep around 4 or so.

My mom woke me up to have some dinner before going to the church dance tonight.  The dance started at 9, but I didn't show up until a little after 10.  There were probably about 4-500 people at the dance, of whom I knew 3, sort of.  None were really my friends, and I've never been much of a dancer (despite taking the class), so I mostly just stood around and watched other people dance.  Then they started doing the limbo, and I got all depressed because that's what made my knee bad in the first place.  But I figured, it's been years since I really got to limbo (I don't think I've done it since the accident), and I used to be really good, and if I'm careful and pull out if my knee starts to hurt, then I think I'll be okay.

So after they'd already lowered the bar probably two feet from the starting position, and it was now at low chest or stomach level, I joined in.  My first run wasn't great, because I wasn't into it, and honestly it was still too high for me.  By the next time I went, it had dropped another foot or so, but I made it through easily.  After one more run, there was only me and one girl left, and they lowered it to just above my knees.  She went first, but bumped her chin on the bar, and they called it out.  I went through and cleared it with an inch or two to spare, so they declared me the winner.  Didn't get to see how low I could actually go.  I'm surprised my knee held out, though.  Didn't even hurt this time.

Anyway, I stuck around and ate some stuff there, watched everyone attempt to dance to Gangnam Style, and then decided to go home.  That was around 10:50.  When they started playing Cha-cha Slide, I left immediately.  I despise that "song."

So I got home around 11:20, talked to my parents a bit, changed out of my nice dance clothes, did some laundry, and have spent the last 45 minutes or so discussing the finer points of Windows 7 and 8 with a friend online.  And now it's past midnight.  So, yay?  Happy New Year, to those of you who care.  お正月おめでとうございます。

Days 23, 24, and 25: The final week of school

This week marks my last at Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku.  It's been fun.  Not as hard as I was fearing, but generally busier than I had expected.  This week, though, we don't have many of the cultural activities planned, so I've got more free time at home in the afternoons.

Sunday was church again.  I got rather lost during the second hour, but so did the native Japanese, so it wasn't entirely my fault.  I bid farewell to everyone at church and thanked them for their help.  There weren't any special activities in the afternoon, so I pretty much just stayed home.  Lunch was a few pieces of bread, including one of the ones I bought in Kyoto but didn't manage to eat there.  Japanese breads are really something.  Most of them are more pastries than bread, but they sometimes have things like hot dogs inside, or chocolate, or spices, or whatever.  It's pretty interesting.

On Monday, we worked on our final projects for class.  We have to make a survey and ask a bunch of Japanese people questions, then present the answers to everyone on Friday.  Our topic is home and school life, targeted towards the college students.  School ended at lunchtime, so I ate at the cafeteria and came home.  It was too hot to go back outside, so I stayed inside all day.  It was also too hot to stay inside, but at least that way I didn't have to move.

Today (Tuesday), we've got a typhoon on the way!  This morning was cloudy (as were yesterday and the day before), and it started raining shortly after I got to school.  It let up when I went to the cafeteria, but was raining again when I biked home, so my hands and legs got pretty wet.  I had a rain jacket that helped with my upper body, and my helmet mostly kept my head dry, so it wasn't too bad.  My shorts, socks, helmet, and jacket are all hanging up to dry now.

Japanese people have this amazing talent of riding bycicles in the rain with umbrellas held over their heads.  I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like it would be really hard to do.  Instead, I just opt to get a little wet and dry off when I get home.  Granted, I also bike about twice as fast as they do, so maybe it would be easier to do if I slowed down.

So yeah, typhoon (taifuu/台風).  It's supposed to really hit tonight, sometime between 6 and 9 pm.  I heard it's a super typhoon, roughly equivalent to a class 4 hurricane.  I haven't confirmed that myself.  No one really seems all that worried about it, but they did close the schools early today.  It's sort of like getting a snow day, except it's a typhoon day.  This seems to happen somewhat often.  It's a little odd, because it's out of season, but it's not a huge deal.

I don't have any new pictures today, but I've got some old ones from the first week that we've received from the school.  These have everyone who was there at the time, so not including the people from England.

Our arrival at the airport.  The really big Japanese guy on the left is the only Japanese person I've seen so far who was taller than me.  There have been a few who were pretty close, though.

One of the classes during the first week.  The teacher for this day was Kanzaki-sensei, who is in charge of the whole program.  He's a really cool, nice guy.  Everyone loves him.

Standing outside in the sun, blocking all the foot traffic next to St. Johns Hall.

I've gotten to know everyone pretty well by now, since we see each other every day.  There are a few people who I don't really talk to still, but overall we all get along.

Day 16: Church and barbeque

Sunday I went to church in the morning, barely biking there on time to be picked up.  But still on time.  There were actually quite a few Americans there this week, visiting for various reasons.  They had 41 people, which is quite rare for them.  I didn't get much out of the first two hours this week, but the third hour I understood almost all of.  It helped that half the people there spoke English as their native language, and one of them had an English version of the reading material available.

After church, Yukie picked me up from the train station and we went to a barbeque she and some friends had put together for a few of the host families and their students, both current and former.  So there were a bunch of people there who I didn't know, but it was still fun.  We were outside in a park area next to a small stream.  After everyone had eaten, most of us went down to the water and watched the kids catch frogs, bugs, and fish.  It was a good time.  Unfortunately, I got sunburned on the back of my neck, and probably some on my arms and face, but not noticeably.  I got burned a lot worse on my first Sunday here at the softball game.  It took most of the first week for my skin to not look red anymore.

So that was Sunday.  I can't think of anything else exciting that happened.  Unfortunately, no pictures, since I didn't bring my camera to church (and hence to the picnic).  But Yukie did bring a change of clothes for me in the car, so I wasn't out there all day in my suit.  That would have been horrible.

Day 9: Church and Osaka Castle

Sunday I got shown the way to the station more directly by bike, and was picked up by Bishop Ozaki and taken to church.  It was a small branch, only about 35 people there, but there were two missionaries I met there who spoke English.  I couldn't really understand much of what was said, since people tend to use different language at church than they do in regular conversation.  However, I got the idea, I could sing all the hymns, and aside from the size and the language, it was pretty much just like every other church meeting I've ever attended.  The church is the same everywhere.  [For those of you reading who don't know me personally, I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormon church.]  After church, I got a ride back to the station, biked home, and soon departed with my host family for Osaka Castle.

Apartments on the way there.

Some interesting architecture we drove by.  I have no idea what this building is.

After we got there, our first stop was a big playground, where Ranmaru climbed around for maybe 10 minutes before we moved on.

Sadly, you'd never see playgrounds this dangerous in the US anymore.  It looked like a lot of fun.

After that, we headed off towards the castle, but not before passing by many other interesting objects, people, and scenery:

Ranmaru had fun walking in the fountain.  I didn't want to take my shoes off (and there were tons of people around) or I might have joined him.

The fountain was going taller than he was.

The area is basically a huge park.  People were riding those skateboards that twist in the middle, and I saw a few people on some things I'd never seen before.  Like a cross between roller skates and a skateboard: Two small boards with just two wheels on each, and you use one board per foot.  It looked really hard to use.

Interesting trees.  I don't know what they're called.  I asked Yukie and she didn't know either.

Someone was bouncing down the path towards us in an astronaut costume.  I have no idea why.

There were actually a lot of foreigners there, too.  I saw several American families, along with some Chinese and I think Koreans.  No one really looked at me as anything special there for once.

Osaka Castle was first built in the 1500s, but has been damaged, burnt down, largely destroyed, and rebuilt several times since then.  Still, some of the walls I was walking next to and climbing on were older than my country by a good century or two.  That's something to think about.

An impressive stone wall we were on.

...right next to a forest, right next to a cityscape.

Ranmaru kept worrying everyone by getting just a little too close to the edge, but we were never in any real danger.  Those grooves along the wall are presumably archer/crossbow slits.

The plant life in that area was really different from anything else I've seen here.  It was pretty cool.

An ancient Buddhist temple, I believe.

The wall that borders the moat.  The moat actually only goes about 3/4 of the way around, with the rest of it just being a huge ditch.  Apparently that's how it was originally, and no one knows why (I read that off a sign).

More cool plants.

The front gate of the castle courtyard.

A torii opposite the main gate, outside, and right next to a modern refreshment stand.

The stones that made up the wall were huge.  I can't imagine how hard it must have been to roll those into place.

Approaching the central manor.

An ancient cannon, apparently.

 At this point we went inside the manor, took an elevator (!) to the top, and looked around the area from above.  We didn't have much time to spend there, because it was closing in half an hour, but we skimmed through all the displays.  It was basically set up like a museum, and about half of it had English text next to the Japanese.

One of the coolest things I saw in there (at least I think so) is the blade of a short sword that was forged by the legendary Masamune.  It has his real name engraved on the blade as the maker.  The hilt was gone, apparently rotted away, but the blade that remained was very impressive.  I could clearly see the temper line, and the display said that there were traces of gold lines through it, but I couldn't see them.  I would have taken a picture of it, but photography and video was prohibited on that floor.

Yukie and myself after we left the manor.

We all enjoyed some ice cream.

Ranmaru, Hiroto, and I climbed up this wall.  They did it the easy way and went up the stairs.  I did it the hard way and climbed up the front.  Really.  (Only as high as Ranmaru is here)

There were many steps and walls.  It was most tranquil.

Each of the stones on the right side had some symbol engraved in it, but I couldn't read the sign explaining what it was all about.  They weren't Kanji, though.

The ferocious wild Japanese Neko.  There were many of them in the area.

There was a group of girls dancing to American classic rock, from the 60s and before, while the guys stood around and listened to/played the music.  You can't really see it here, but in addition to the girls wearing period-style clothing (mostly), several of the guys had their hair done up in classic Grease style.  It was pretty amusing to see.

Inko-san (Mr. Parakeet).  He has a live bird on his hat in this picture.  We later saw him riding his bicycle away, with the bird still on his hat.  I have no idea how he did that.

And that concludes the tour of the Osaka Castle park.  It was a busy, fun day.  For dinner, we went to one of those sushi bars where the food goes around on conveyor belts and you pick up whatever you want.  I had udon and a couple other not-really-sushi things.