Autumn Festival

Today my town had their Aki Matsuri, or Autumn Festival. My town in small and their festival is too, so it wasn't a really huge occasion, from what I could see. There were several groups of men, women and children wearing blue and red festival coats and pulling small shrines and floats on wheels around the town. They stopped at various spots around town chanting, beating wooden sticks, taiko drums, blowing whistles and waving banners. According to my host mom, at the end of the day everyone meets up at the local shrine and the children receive candy. Probably some small religious ceremony goes on as well but I don't know what. I took pictures while they were stopped, waiting to meet up with another group.
Here's one of the shrines:


I feel really white.


You cannot....resist.....the cuteness!!

I'm Famous

Japanese fashion magazines have strange names. "With." "Vanilla." "Egg." "My Nail." (The last one is a magazine solely about doing your nails. Yes, it's truly scary.) But my favorite magazine name has to be this one:

...even though they spelled my name wrong. At least they got the L's right, though.

Why Dad Should Come to Japan

That's why.
Makes a great desktop wallpaper.

Love Hotels and Ii Naosuke's Castle

On Sunday a Japanese friend, Saki, took two other American exchange students and myself out to Hikone Castle. It was an hour and a half drive, but everyone had so much to talk about that it went by quickly. On the way there we passed some strange-looking buildings.
Me: What is that?
Saki: That's a hotel for...um...a very specific purpose...
Me: Oh my gosh, is that a love hotel??! I need pictures!!
"Love Hotels" are a Japanese phenomenon (at least as far as I know) where you rent rooms by the hour. One of my goals when going to Japan was to get a picture of at least one. Be sure to read the signs on the one with the palm trees.


You've probably seen enough pictures of castles from me, so I'll spare you any more. Hikone castle was beautiful, but since it was the castle's 400-year anniversary, it was super super crowded. I enjoyed the old garden much more. It was really beautiful and peaceful. If I could buy it and live there forever, I would.

Notice the castle in the background!

I'm happy with the way this picture came out:

There was a ferry on the castle moat, and this amazing leafy swamp was behind the castle garden.

It was a really fun day, mostly because the people I went with were totally awesome. I pretty much live for the weekend here.

Maybe I should have chosen the dormitory?

This evening some fellow exchange students, who are with a different program than I am, got to see Aida in Nagoya. I am so jealous.

Another lovely family dinner.
I don't know why, but Host Mom was in a really bad mood. She was scolding her sons right and left in that growly voice she uses when she's really angry.
Whiney and Origami Boy, on the other hand, were in very high spirits and found everything hysterically funny. I don't know why. Even the head slaps they received couldn't stop the giggling.
Host Dad was trying his very hardest not to laugh at whatever the boys were laughing at.
When Host Mom is really upset, she seems to find things to scold her family for. And when she scolds people, she talks super fast so I have no idea what was said, although it's not hard to guess. This was the only part of the dinner conversation I understood:
Host Mom: Papa, why do you eat so quickly? Everyone else is eating slowly and you're finished before all of us.
Whiney: Yeah Dad, you eat like a shinkansen! (a bullet train)
As dinner progressed Origami Boy and Whiney's snickering was sending corn kernels across their plates and milk up their nose. And every time another potsticker fell to peices from their grinning mouths, to them it was so much the funnier. Host Dad, still trying not to laugh, cleaned off his plate and went outside to work on the car. I could tell that Host Mom was about to snap. Finally Whiney's hysterical laughing with his mouth full of half-eaten rice did the trick, and she grabbed him and dragged him literally kicking and screaming through the house, shoved him outside and locked the door. She turned to see me and Origami Boy watching with astonishment.
"Sorry about that Kelley," she said. "His manners were so rude."
I wonder if she wouldn't have reactly so harshly if I hadn't been there to make his bad manners more embarrassing.
Origami Boy was about to head towards the front door when his mom snapped,
"Don't even THINK about going outside!" She said it so fiercely that Origami Boy actually jumped and backed off. Later they had a hard time getting Whiney to come back in the house because he knew his Mom was going to slap him, which she did.

How was your evening?

Japanese is hard.

I'm having a difficult time understanding ageru, kureru, and morau. I learned these two years ago, or at least I thought I did. Then I came here and all my classes have been messing with my brain.

Ageru means "to give." You can only use it when you are giving something to someone else, or when a third party is giving something to another third party who is not within your "inner circle." Also, you can't use this word in question sentences, except for when you can.

Kureru means "to receive." Kureru can also be used as a substitute for ageru if needed. According to a website: "kureru is restricted to sentences in which the subject is anyone except the speaker (I), and the receiver is the speaker (I) or a person of the speaker’s in-group (family members, colleagues)." From my textbook: "Kureru is possible only in limited contexts in which you think you yourself have benefited because somebody very close to you has received something." That clears things up doesn't it.

Morau also means "to receive" or "to be given." The textbook elaborates, "it is basically interchangable with kureru except that it 'implies that you identify yourself more closely with the recipient than with the giver. Thus it is wrong to use morau if you receive from me.'" It also cannot be used regarding presents received from Santa, while swimming, or if the speaker is a sock puppet and its in-group consists of other sock puppets.

I've spent way too much time on this blog. I should be studying.

Just another evening

Host Mom: Origami boy, hurry up and get out of the bathroom. Whiney needs to go.
Origami boy: (from the bathroom) Ok, ok.

*30 seconds later*

Whiney: Need to gooooo!
Host Mom: Origami boy, hurry!
Origami Boy: I'm hurrying!
Host Mom: What's taking you so long? I told you not to read books in the bathroom!
Origami Boy: I don't have any books!
Whiney: Need to goooo!

At this point, for reasons unknown to myself, Whiney stripped off all his clothes and started dancing around the room naked.

Whiney: GAAHH!
Host Mom: ORIGAMI BOY! GET OUT OF THERE!
Origami Boy: I'm coming!!
Whiney: UHN! UHN!

Meanwhile I spotted a very large mosquito flying around the room. Using a technique I learned by observing my host brothers, I killed it by clapping it between my hands. Just then origami Boy finally emerged from the bathroom and Whiney was about to make a run for it.

Me: Wait! Whiney, look at this! I learned from you. Pretty big, isn't it?

I showed them the smeared remains on my palm, and for a moment everyone dropped what they were doing and peered into my hand. Host Mom stopped washing the dishes, Origami Boy stopped standing around looking bewildered, and Whiney stopped dancing while holding his crotch. I got a smile out of all of them. And yes, Whiney made it to the bathroom in time.

I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from this.