Masagi

Tonight my host family and I all went out to dinner, and I am happy to say that it was much, much more enjoyable than the last dinner I wrote about, partially due to some clever jokes made by yours truly. Yes, yes, I'm amazing, I know.
Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Even Whiney (the name I have secretly given to my youngest host brother) was well-behaved. I got a good laugh out of my host family by telling them about the random guy who hit on me at the station. He used the classic Japanese pick up line, "How about some tea?" I brushed him off with something like, "sorry, I'm busy, excuse me..." My host Dad said I was far too polite and next time to just tell the guy to get the **** away from me.
Whiney's older brother, the 8-year-old, entertained himself by making animal-shaped chopstick rests out of the chopstick wrappers. Yes, you read that right. Animal-shaped chopstick rests. A-like so:

My host mom said that he made up these designs all by himself.
"No way!" I said. "Here's my wrapper, can you make me a rabbit?" That kept him busy for quite a while. In the end he came up with this little creation, which I dubbed a "Masagi," which is a combination of his name and "usagi," which means "rabbit.

Sure, it doesn't look much like a rabbit, but not too bad for an 8-year-old coming up with something on the spot, right? From here on he shall now be referred to as Origami Boy.