Yo ho, everyone

 

The cultural festival is tomorrow. Or you can call it a School Festival, perhaps. I’m trying now to figure out how to write about what I’ve been seeing in the school today.

 

It’s pretty crazy. The kids are running everywhere, busily decorating classrooms, hauling desks, etc. At lunch, the ENTIRE school gathered in the courtyard, hanging out the windows and over the rails to watch the dances of the 3^rd-year students who were not chosen to dance at this morning’s assembly (the “winning” dances from each year performed at that time). Even the teachers all crowded at the windows to watch, and the broadcasting club played the music over the school speakers (which pipe everywhere except the teacher’s hall).

 

Everyone is in really high spirits. O-sensei says this is what the students look forward to all year, and after this they will have no spirit or energy and will just sleep in class all the time. I believe it. These kids are running from 6 in the morning till who knows when at night. I still see uniforms heading home around 8 or 9 pm sometimes.

 

Each homeroom puts on an event, such as a food stand or a game (bingo, jenga, water-balloon toss, etc) or something such as a make-up salon, or “ashimizu” (putting your feet in a bucket of cold water and reading a book. Who knew?). On top of all this, each club does an event (and there are roughly 50103941 clubs at the school). I helped English Club set up their foreign goods bazaar, put up paper flowers, wrapped bags of candy, hauled desks, etc. Every time I run into a group of students, they either ask me a favor (I’ve loaned out basically all my art supplies at this point) or pimp their product.

 

So far, I’ve promised to work for English club, try Ashimizu, eat sweet potatoes, buy an okonomiyaki, and visit the foreign sweets room. When the last group asked me (sporting sandwich boards with paintings of every cake and candy under the sun) I was pretty sure they said “falling” sweets. This sort of mistake will always result in the following type of conversation:

 

Person: Please come eat our foreign sweets!

Me: Falling sweets?!

Person: Yes! Foreign sweets!

Me: Sweets.

Person: Yes.

Me: Falling sweets.

Person: Yes.

Me: (finally getting a clue) Foreign sweets!

Person: (thinking, “duh”) Yes!

Me: I thought… I would tip my head back, and you would drop candy in my mouth. (pantomimes this)

Person: (busts out laughing)

 

I talk to people, I mishear what they say, and I wind up doing a ridiculous charade to either explain what is really going on verses what I thought was going on. It makes light of Japanese accents, since the other person usually winds up laughing at me and whatever crazy thing I was thinking.

 

I had this exact conversation today, except involving the word “blender”. Apparently the word for a balcony in Japan is “balander” (or something along those lines… it didn’t sound like a Japanese word, and was explained to me as “a word in Japan” instead of “the Japanese word for”). Did I have one in my apartment? I sure as heck did. Then, because I’m learning my lesson in terms of miscommunication, I acted out what I had heard (in this case, making my hand into a blender).

 

My JTE promptly busts out laughing and says “No! A blender is for drying your clothes, and you walk out on it!”

Me: Uh…. Oh! Yes! I have one of those too!

Her: Oh, good! It’s the same word?

Me: No… (In the end, I had to explain the point of a blender, and what you use it for. I guess they’re not so common in Japanese kitchens?)

 

 

Last thing: I got a keitai (cell phone). No, I did not opt for the fancy-pants ones that flip open 9 ways and can play television and youtube at the same time. No, I did not spring for the iPhone (though I might as well have done, considering what they want for a phone round these parts). It calls, texts, emails, takes photos and videos, and has a number of other small bells and whistles that I don’t really need (such as the scrolling news feed… which only scrolls in Japanese). Please let me stress that this was the most basic plan possible and it took nearly 2 hours in the store. I had a friend with me who spoke Japanese, and she said 2 hours wasn’t too bad, considering what it could have taken.

 

The most important thing, the thing that takes the most thought and careful consideration is not the phone, nor the plan (both are relatively straightforward in terms of what I want), but what sort of charm will I get to dangle on the little strap?

 

This is a question that will require deep thought and serious shopping.

 

Expect a crazy mad festival report soon!