Saturday, I headed around lunch time for the Chiba prefecture. I met up with Arisa at the Chiba station, from which we went to Sodegaura, a small town in the middle of nowhere. Why were we off to there? Well, Arisa happened to have a concert there. At the local primary school, there is this festival being held every year. Last year, Arisa was invited to sing there, and due to her performing well, she was re-invited this year again. So she was off to perform, and I was off to watch.

We arrived well ahead of time, and as soon as we got off the train, I could tell this was what they call "the country" side, mainly filled with citizens and small businesses. We met a few other performers at the station, and headed to the festival. After walking for about 30 minutes under the hot sun, we made it to the school, where the festival's final preparations were taking place. We were given tea, and a place to sit. After about ten minutes, Arisa looked at me and told me her dad had come. Now I don't want to get into the details of their father and daughter relationship, but as her boyfriend, I felt slightly under pressure. We didn't speak much, he simply asked me if I could speak Japanese and if I was ok with the hot weather. I replied as politely as I could, and gave him a nice smile. A few minutes later, Arisa and the other two singers went up on stage to practice and sound check.

Once that was done, we were told we had to move. Haha, don't ask me why. We headed off to the gymnasium, which had washrooms and change rooms. I had been told by the manager not to enter, since the only room available to set our stuff was the ladies changing room but the ladies told me it was fine since it was just the four of us. I left the room while they changed and soon they were up on stage for their first performance. Arisa performed three songs, which I really enjoyed. The three were in Japanese, therefore I had fun trying to figure out the meaning of the lyrics. But what really surprised me was her presence on stage. After she was done, the two other ladies, which I found out formed a duo, performed their songs. Their singing was so-so, but they danced while they sang which added to their performance. Once they were done, Arisa changed out of her dress and we walked around the small festival area to grab some food.

While we ate, various performances were held on stage, one of which was a marching band, from the nearby middle school. This really blew me away for a couple reasons. First they were really good. Our high school band couldn't even play half as well as these kids sitting down on a chair. Second of all, all of them, at one point played the drums. Not only could they play their respective band instrument, but they also had learned to play the drums quite well I must say. As they marched and danced around, I could only scream out "SUGOI!" which means awesome or cool in Japanese. One of the melodies they performed was a medley of the Beauty and the Beast's famous soundtrack.

Now one downside of being there was that I felt slightly out of place. I was looked at by many with frowning faces. Since this was a small town, I can't blame them for not being used to seeing foreigners. And yes, I do stand out here. I think it's my eyes...

After about two hours, Arisa changed back into her dress and I waited in front of the stage. The politicians of the area had come to give speeches. That, as in any country, was quite boring, yet I tried my best to listen to what they were saying. Who knows, I might learn a few things. After that, they threw out 4,000 "mochi"s out to the crowd (Japanese snacks made out of packed rice and usually filled with something.) I caught one for myself as well as one for Arisa. I found out later they were quite un-tasteful, and I ended up not eating more than half of mine.

Next up, Arisa came back on stage, shining and full of energy. This time she sang two songs, one being the famous Let It Go from the movie Frozen. She sang the Japanese version, which was a very popular song amongst the kids of the whole country. I watched her sing her heart out while the eyes of many kids gleamed out as they watched in silence.


We left soon after she was done. I really did enjoy this experience. I got to see an authentic small festival, visit a new place I hadn't been to yet which is something I can't do on a regular basis.

Japan is widely known for its traditional culture, but also for its weird culture. There are many odd things embedded within the culture that a lot of people actually enjoy. For example, in the convenience store, there are porn magazines for sale. I still can't quite wrap my head around that. There's also a lot of odd anime, manga, and TV shows magazines.

Now, since a while, there had been talk of going to what they call "Chinko Matsuri". "Chinko" means penis and "matsuri" means festival. So in other words, there actually is a Penis Festival here in Japan. Now, I have no interest in this kind of thing, but many of the students were going and asked me to come along. In the end, I decided to go see this side of the Japanese culture. This was April 5^th, the weekend before school started.

I learned that this actually happens to be the most popular festival among the foreigners in Japan. Once we arrived at the station, which was near Yokohama, the streets were already filled with people, mostly foreigners. Even the train had been filled to the walls. It was raining, so we ended up buying umbrellas there. We then headed to the starting location of the festival, and waited in the midst of hundreds of umbrellas and cameras for about 20 minutes. Then it started. They carried out three huge penises while shouting words of encouragement. We all just laughed so hard!



After that, Valentina and I wanted to find ourselves some candy, and so we got in line. After about 15 minutes of waiting, I came out of the shop with a bag of sexual part shaped candies. Just watching people eat these was really hysterical.

It was getting quite cold, so we headed back to Yokohama, where we had planned to eat at a Chinese buffet! This was my third time here in the Chinatown of Yokohama, but my first time in an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Jokes, laughter, and smiles accompanied us while we ordered and ate many different dishes!




We headed back about one hour and a half later, still laughing about the day's adventure.

About a month and a half ago, our teacher handed out papers to those who wanted to participate in the speech contest. Now, since my sister had participated in this contest during her stay in Japan, the teachers didn't really give me a choice. Haha. In order to compete in the final competition, we had to present the first two minutes of our speech first to a few students and teachers. They would then pick the top 10 best who would then be picked to perform in front of everyone.

After writing my speech in English, I had my friend Maho Sagawa and my father translate it into Japanese for me, and I began to memorize. The day of the elimination, I spent 2 hours practicing and I had everything memorized. But as I noticed during my Japanese speech I performed back in Canada, I apparently get REALLY nervous while performing a speech in front of a crowd. Even though I have everything memorized, I seem to still forget as I am performing. And this time was no exception. I didn't think I did very well, and I was surprised to hear that I was picked to go through to the finals.

Even though my dad had worked very hard at translating my speech, apparently it wasn't the best way to present my topic, so after having memorized half of it, my teacher decided to rewrite pretty much the whole thing. Therefore, one week before the contest, I started to rememorize my five minute speech. Now keep in mind I was still going to class, still had tests, homework, and other studies to keep up with. I also had judo practices to attend and other life necessities to perform.

Now knowing about my nerves problem, I prepared myself this time in order not to forget in the moment. I had memorized most of it three days before the event. I practiced in front of my friends many times, my Japanese friends helped me with the intonation, I practiced in front of my class, people I barely know, and my family. We had a rehearsal the day before and I practiced with formal clothes on, knowing that I would be wearing them during my performance, I took pictures from the stage to help me visualize later. I even practiced with my friend by having her read the first three words of any sentence, which I then I had to complete. So, I knew my speech pretty well.

The day of, my teacher and my classmates wished me good luck. I left class early, wearing my suit and tie, and arrived there early, which allowed me to walk on stage one more time before the performance. After that, I went outside to practice some more. A lot of people complimented me on my suit, and one of my friends even told me I looked awesome, and that made my day.

Next, the time to perform. I was number 6; therefore I got to see others perform before me. All the participants were nervous, and you could feel the tension in the air. Soon, I was called up, I walked up the stairs, took a deep breath, smiled, and off I went. I'll let you see for yourself how it went.

Nonetheless, I received some money to buy my textbooks next semester as did everyone, but not only that, I also received a special frame, although I'm not quite sure why. Most likely because of the topic I chose for my speech.

Soon it was over, my stress relieved, and I was on my way back to the dorm. I then hurried as much as I could and made it back for the last hour of practice.

All in all, the experience was... beneficial. I actually learned a lot of grammar and vocabulary thanks to the help of everyone. I am kind of disappointed with my personal performance, but, I can say that I gave it my best.

So this past weekend, the university hosted what they call the International Fair. Basically what it is, is that the students from the different countries come together and make a booth within the classrooms of the 4^th floor of building 8, the building in which I study all day long. It's up to the students to use their imagination in order to show the highlights of their country.

Now I'm one of the only Canadians here so I decided that I would help with the Hawaiian booth. I didn't really help too much with the preparation, due to being busy with judo and my speech, but I came and helped during the days of the fair.

Some people might disagree, but I really think it was a fun experience. I had to hand people leis and take them back, bow, bow, and bow again, apologize and say thank you again and again. We had tons of students coming in, most I didn't know, some I came to befriend. It was very tiring and very demanding mentally and physically. I also had to walk around the 4^th floor in order to promote our booth, playing the ukulele and singing songs.

Now why did I like it so much? Well I think it gave me the experience of working in Japan. You see, whenever you walk into stores in Japan, you always hear: "Irasshaimase!" which means welcome to our store. But that's not it; they always ask the same questions, apologize, bow and bow again even though they made no mistake. This is an extreme politeness that Japanese companies enforce to all workers. No matter what your mood, everyone follows these rules.

I just think I was lucky to be able to experience it at least once, since I don't plan on working in Japan.

Besides that, I also got to see many booths from different countries including Vietnam, Spain, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Thailand, China, Russia, and more. On the third floor, there were also performances from different countries. I got to see a Mongolian guitar being played, I got to hear famous Chinese melodies, Brazilians bands and dances, Arabian dances (in which I joined in haha), and many more. I also got to perform with one of the native Hawaiians, Kahea Kashinoki, and a few songs with a Hawaiian feel. He played the ukulele while I sang along with him to certain songs like Over the rainbow, La vie and rose and, of course, the favourite, I'm yours by Jason Mraz.

With the speech and all, the International Fair ended up being a very interesting experience.

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.