So two weeks ago, we had a school festival here at Tokai! This was my first time participating in such a big event and it was overall fun! Back home, there's no way that the University of Winnipeg could pull something off that is nearly as similar as this, therefore I benefited greatly from the experience.

Now what exactly was this festival all about? I'm not quite sure, to be honest. All I know is that, from the south gate all the way down to the bottom of the "Tokai Hill", tents were set up and sold foods from different countries all over the world. On top of that, if you went up the hill, there were even more booths set up there! In total maybe... 100 or more booths were set up, selling various things (mostly food), where the average price was about 300 yen (about 3$ dollars). There were also concerts here and there, at night some Korean artists came over who are apparently very popular from the looks of it; the line up was huge! Within some of the buildings there was a few more activities from all the rec activities and clubs from the university, such as sign language and drawing. The last night of the festival, there were fireworks, but the best part was that we had no school the next day nor throughout the festival! So you can imagine how much fun it was!

I myself didn't participate too much in it for a few reasons. First of all, I still had judo practices. Second, I wanted to study haha. But I did walk around quite a bit giving "FREE HUGS" with Anzu (my sister's roommate when she came to Japan) and a few others girls. Now what is this whole free hugs thing? Don't ask me, I still don't know haha. I just like doing it and it's fun with Anzu. She kind of sucked me into and I had to say yes haha. We just hold signs saying free hugs and those willing come and give us free hugs. Now in Japan, hugging isn't really a common thing so many people are too shy. ESPECIALLY THE WOMEN! It really hit me that weekend how women can be reluctant to touch anyone. Obviously, I'm a stranger to most of them, therefore it's understandable, but for example, one girl was trying to push her friend to give me a hug, and her friend was soo scared, she fell to the ground in order not to get any closer to me. Heart breaking right? But yeah, during that time, I get to practice my Japanese with my friends so I don't mind doing it. I got a LOT of hugs that weekend.

My friends from the Japanese staff at both international dorms were working to help the Russian booth. I have also come to befriend most of the Russians that are part of the Bekka program and so I would find myself hanging out there as well! I tried their soup which was... okay. My mom has really ruined me for life when it comes to food. I would also help them a little bit, and I helped them bring down the tent on the last day!

One night, after the day of work was done, the staff and I went back to the dorms and cooked Nabe. I wrote already about this and you can read about it here: http://thesoundsofjapan.blogspot.jp/2014/11/friends-and-food.html

All in all, the festival was a pleasant experience and I was glad to be able to take part in it.

Here's a little taste of how it looked.

So two weeks ago, I received my first haircut in Japan! Now when my sister had went, she had told me about how she had such a fun experience going to the beauty parlour with her friend and blah blah blah haha (just kidding France, I love you!) Anyways, because of that, I was really looking forward to going there and getting my hair cut. But a lot of my friends had gone to the surrounding ones and had gotten bad experiences. So I held off on it as much as possible.

Now, since I've come to Japan, one of the Mongolians, called Tselmen, had a pretty cool haircut. This is the kind of haircut that isn't accepted as appropriate for most people in Japan, but it was still cool. And I was surprised to find out that he had done it himself! I gave him compliments that he had done a great job and joked around that he should do the same for me! But apparently he didn't take it as a joke. Every time he would see me after, he would ask me when we were going to cut my hair, and I would answer I haven't decided what kind of style I wanted yet. I was kind of scared and I knew him well-ish but not enough to trust him with my hair haha.

But one night, after studying until about 12 o-clock, I bumped into him going to the showers with his hair cutter. I asked him was he was doing, and he answered he was going to fix a little bit of his hair. Then he asked if I wanted to cut my hair at that time, and that right now was the perfect time. So at about 12:15 A.M., on a Sunday night, I walked into our dorm's shower room to get a haircut from a Mongolian I barely knew. You know you're crazy when...

The whole thing took about one hour and a half, and we debated many times on how we should cut it, considering the fact that I had curly hair and that I was part of the judo club. It turned out pretty well and I was glad with the result. It was a new hairstyle I had never had before and yeah, why not I thought?

I've been getting A LOT of compliments since, so I guess I'm not the only who likes it. Even guys that passed by me during the festival where calling me handsome in Japanese. Now that's something that will go straight to your head haha.

Now I didn't get the same experience my sister did, but I got my own one and was this ever nerve racking. I didn't know him too well, but somehow, I knew I could trust him. That's one beauty of being in Japan.

Sorry guys, these past two weeks have been too busy for me to post anything, but I’m planning on getting you caught up on everything I’ve done during that time! Lots of exciting stuff! I just don’t know how my sister managed to keep a consistent blog going, I really am struggling to find the time. 

On Tuesday afternoon, I ran to the men's dormitory once again for the running practice. We lined up, bowed, and were soon back on our way to the school. During that time, I found out that we were going to do what they call "dash training", basically sprints. I had seen many other teams do it on one of the hills at Tokai, and I was very excited to be able to do it myself.

Once we arrived, we were separated into two groups (66kg and under was mine). Moments later, we left off up the hill. Now I kinda have this problem here where since I don't understand about 70% of what they say, I don't know where I'm running. Therefore, I always have to follow someone. So the first round, we went around the "V" that separates the two hills here in Tokai, which took us about 1 minute and a little more. Then it was the other group's turn. Once they finished, we lined up again, and we were off. This time though, I knew where I was going, so I ended up being 2nd out of that heat, tied with Takaichi, Tokai's best 66kg fighter. The next round after that, I made it first, but what really hit me was that as our group took off, I sped past everyone, and to my big surprise, some of them were cheering me on. Obviously, I think some of them were just joking around, but it felt nice and helped me push myself!

After we had done enough rounds, we walked up back the hill, lined up, bowed and practice was over. Me and a few other teammates stayed around to chat and work a little more. Masaya came to me and we carried each other once up the hill on our backs. We said our farewells, and I headed back home.

The next day, yesterday (Wednedsay), during the night practice, I went to the underground part of the dojo again with the other injured judokas. I had originally planned to do some rope uchikomis, but just as I was finishing my 4th set, they pulled out the big white ropes they use to work their arms. Ever since I had come here, I had always wanted to try doing this, but had been either too shy to ask, or too scared to fail in front of everyone. They had set the ropes up right behind me, obstructing me from being able to continue my exercises. The judoka performing the ropes first was Hayato Watanabe. I had seen him fight in Osaka as well as in Tokyo, and he is no doubt one of Tokai's strongest fighters. During the breaks at practice, he had sometimes approached me and asked me a few innocent questions. Even though he seems like a tough guy, he usually smiles when talking to me, which gives me some relief. But this time, after watching him perform the first set of ropes, I asked him if I could try it. He said that once he was done his three sets, I could definitely have a go at it. Two sets later, it was now my turn. I wasn't scared of anything, just afraid not to be able to finish. But soon Takahashi who was the timer yelled out: "Hajime" and so I was off.

It was tough alright, but Hayato stayed the first set to encourage me and push me to go faster. That really surprised me. He then asked me if I wanted to do two more sets, and even though my arms felt dead, I agreed. I thanked Takahashi for taking the time to time me. Every 20 seconds we switched the type of exercises with the ropes and he would yell out 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.. SWITCH (in Japanese of course) before each one.

But once again, I was caught off guard. Even though Takahashi was just there to time me, he would also push me harder when I would start to slow down. And he wasn't the only one. As the other judokas passed by, some of them would say: "faster, faster" in English to cheer me on.

After I was done my third set, I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that I could no longer move my neck, due to having not used those muscles in a while. I performed a few other exercises, during which I spoke with Matthew Baker, another half-Japanese who is part of the Tokai team, and Yuri Nishikawa, a girl who trained with my sister three years ago and has now become my friend!

All these experiences give me a slight feeling of belongingness, which is I think a big part of university sport teams here in Japan. I still have a ways to go (like over 100 more judokas to befriend haha), but this kind of experience just helps me persevere and gives me a little boost of motivation.