Around the first week of November, I was informed about this party called The International Friday Night! Since the explanation came from my very excited friends, in Japanese, I wasn't quite sure what it was. But it seemed like a fun party so I asked my friend if I could DJ at this event. She contacted the staff and sure enough, I was now part of the group.

I didn't really do much preparation except consult a few Japanese friends about which songs were popular in Japan, and I also helped sell some tickets. The day before, I practiced a little bit, since I was informed that I would only be performing for 15 minutes, I decided that I would make it the best 15 minutes.

The day of, I came back from school, changed my clothes, and headed over to the building, carrying all my stuff. I got there and chaos. Nothing was set up, and the guy in charge, Ekon, was yelling all over the place. He basically ordered us to do stuff for him and I thought it was quite rude. He kept on pushing me to set up my stuff when I didn't have a table to set it up on. Anyways, after 2 hours of setting up, about 20 minutes before the doors opened, I had my stuff set up, but now came the time for sound check. My sound wasn't loud enough. So I had to talk with the sound guys to try to get every inch of volume out of those speakers. I ran back and forth soo many times. I even went back to my room to get a plug in adaptor. Without even knowing whether or not the sound was loud enough, they started letting people in. At first, during the supper, it was the other DJ, Yukina who was playing, so I talked with friends, ate a little, but I was soon called to replace her.

Now that whole night, I had to stay on my feet. Whenever they requested something, I did it to my best ability. Soooo many crazy requests came to me. One guy asked me to play music off his laptop to show a video, but it didn't work. Had I known beforehand, I could have prepared. Next, I basically had to play music for them at random intervals, and Ekon kept pressuring me to play tracks that would get people dancing. Keep in mind this is all before my actual performance time. I had to use tracks from the set I had prepared, which meant I would later have to find new ones on the spot. I think I did a very good job of getting people dancing. The other DJ had even forgotten her charging cable for her laptop, so while she needed it, I lent it to her. But I couldn't play music off my laptop without it, so ran back in forth many times, just for that.

At one point, Ekon told me I would need a little introduction pattern, again last minute, so I put something together moments before they introduced me. When my time actually came to perform, I worked it out pretty damn well. People were dancing, singing, and they even asked me to play longer. I would raise my hand out to the crowd and sing out to them and I think a lot of them enjoyed that. At many points, I even went out on the front stage to dance, with everyone watching me, and although I was embarrassed, I think I made quite an impression on many people that night. 

I ended my set finally, yet they kept me there in order to play music in between the other performances. There was beatboxer, soccer ball jugglers, a band -- Ekon played the saxophone --, and singers. My friend Anzu even sang a few songs, and during the set up that day I had noticed how nervous she was. When came the time to perform, her nervousness really showed but she sang so beautifully, it made me mad that soo many people were talking in the back while she sang. So I made my way to the front of the crowd and smiled at her to reassure her as much as I could. Yet again, for her second song, I was called back to my station to get ready. I think they preferred me over the other DJ just because they never called her back. From there, I sang along, in English, to Anzu singing Let It Go in Japanese, the track from the Disney Movie "Frozen."

After that, I was asked to play a song that had never even been confirmed if I had it or not. I quickly looked it up, loaded it onto my DJ software, and off we were. They, the staff and MCs, were trying to teach people a floor dance on the spot, and they even asked me to start the track over again. It kind of worked...

The band played again, another singer sang "All I Want for Christmas Is You" quite well actually, and then to close off the night, we all made a circle, and by all I mean everyone in the building. We held hands and they played "We Are the World" by Michael Jackson, and we sang our hearts out. It's crazy how music can reunite people. That's why I love it. Anyways, after that, the staff was called to the middle, we said our thank yous and goodbyes. This part was really weird. I don't know how many times they repeated thank you and thank you again. People just wanted to leave. After that, we were all called to take a group picture. This took like 15 minutes on its own... while they did this, Ekon asked me to play some music. I played my Taylor Swift remix and I was glad to see people dancing to it. 

Then the cleanup started. Ekon then asked me to play music as people left. I was trying to say goodbye to some people when Ekon came and rushed me to clean up my stuff. I gave a birthday gift to two of my friends, Maho and Azusa, both of them having helped me since I came to Japan. Before I made it back to my station, someone unplugged my whole set up, which made me furious. My equipment is quite expensive and unplugging it like that can only damage it. I put my stuff away in the fastest manner I could while getting rushed by Ekon, and I was sure I would have lost something in all the chaos. After I tucked all my stuff in a corner, we had to re-set up the hall as it was before the evening started. This took... 45 minutes I think. 

At the end, the staff reunited, and we were congratulated. I was then informed that there was a "nomikai", a drinking party, for some of the staff members. I was invited and I decided to go. I went back to my room to get changed since I smelled quite bad after all that dancing and running around which, inevitably made me sweat like crazy, and to bring back my equipment. My friend told me we would go together to the place, yet I was surprised to see a car waiting for me as I walked out of my dorm. I squeezed into the back seat with two other ladies, and we were off. The black male driving was crazy. He had not drunk anything, but he was driving fast to impress the ladies. I felt like I was going to die many times, or some poor pedestrian would be a victim. I really didn't appreciate it. We got there without any accidents, and waited outside for the others to come. From then on, it was quite fun. Beers jugs were filled, food was served, laughs were shared. I drank a fair bit, but really, due to me having a very long day, I began to feel tired. But the whole drinking party was my first real one in Japan, and I have to say it was pleasant.

We said our goodbyes, hugs were exchanged, and Chipa and I were back to the dorms. I had asked him to make sure I made it back to the dorm because I was quite exhausted. Another girl named Mariko also walked with us since she lives near our dorms.

I entered my room, cleaned my bed, and moments later, sleep took over.

Thoughts? Well I enjoyed it all, but I just wish I had been a little more respected. With all my efforts, I believe I was a big reason for the success of that evening. But, I played my Japanese part, and worked silently, on demand, for the greater good of the party.

One thing that this made me realize is that I really want to DJ more in Japan. Cheers!

So school ended on December 22nd, and as it was our last day of school, a lot of the other international students had a fun time that night. But not for me. The next day, there was a tournament for the members of the judo club. 

Not all the members were participating. I think they had the choice to participate or not and also the strong fighters obviously didn't participate. So in total, there were about maybe 50 fighters. I offered my friend to help him warm up that day so I showed up at 9:00 with my uniform. After a few uchikomis, grip fighting, and some throws, we discussed the techniques of his first opponent. At 9:30, the tournament started. It was really interesting to watch the once friendly club members become enemies. In that moment, friendships were forgotten, as each member fought for themselves. My friend lost his first and only match but he was against a much bigger opponent. This tournament was all weights, so -66kg fighters could fight -90kg fighters. 

The tournament lasted about two hours and a half, and from what I could tell there were two winners from the two pools, cause the winners never fought. That or I messed up haha. After the tournament, Agemizu Sensei gave us all a long speech, mostly about the holidays, and what not to do, and then after that it was time to clean up the club.

They already had separated the members into three groups so I just pick number two and sat down as the captains decided which group would clean what. Our group was the winner, thus we has the easiest task: the dojo area. We cleaned the windows, the lights, the mats, and the mats again. It was pretty slack I found, and most of them didn't really clean it as well as they could. We could have finished in like 30 minutes but instead it took one hour and more. 

After everyone was done, they took out all the forgotten items of the past year and laid them out on the floor. Now this took for EVER. No one did anything. Most were too shy to take their things, so they just sat down and talked. About one hour later, we were finally allowed to go eat lunch, but we only had thirty minutes. I rushed back to the dorm, made myself the best sandwiches ever. 

When I got back to the club, no one was there. I called my friend and he informed me that the meeting was in a completely different building. At that point, I should have realized that it was not going to be the usual meeting, but no, I went over there blindly. Oh and did I ever have the surprise of my life, I walked into the classroom of building 7 and sat down with every pair of eyes on me. And my embarrassment didn't stop there. As I looked to the front, I noticed everyone had pencils and notepads and they were recopying what was written on the board. I wish I could tell you what was written, but unfortunately, it was all written in kanji, and not the cleanest writing either. As they all recopied onto their papers, I sat there trying to find/recognize one kanji that I knew. By the time Agemizu sensei started talking, I had found three... Even while he spoke, I could only catch words here and there, and so I felt out of place.

I noticed the time for me to leave was coming soon and I stayed as long as I could, but I unfortunately had to leave to prepare to go visit the Iwasa family. Once more, I left the room with everyone watching. From now on I'm going to make sure to know what I'm getting into, although I was glad to see what kind of class the other members have to go through.

In order to celebrate Christmas, I was invited over to the Iwasa's house to eat dinner with their family on December 23rd. I left the dorm at around 3:30pm and arrived at the closest station near their house at around 5:07. So if you ride the fast train, it takes around 1 hour and a half. A few minutes later, Shigenori arrived smiling. It had been a while and it felt amazing to see him again! 

He walked me through the illuminations near the station and Shigenori insisted on taking one thousand pictures of me with the hello kitty illumination. Then we rode the bus that leads to his house as he explained to me so I would know the next time I came.

We arrived, and after shouting out "tadaima!", Reiko came to great us! Reiko is one of the sweetest persons I've met in my life and since my stay at their house when I first came to Japan, I have really become accustomed to their house. Thus it felt like home. And maybe that's why I didn't really feel like I missed Christmas this year.

I met with Daisuke's wife for the first time, and I also got to see their three month old child, Merei! Daisuke is Iwasa's oldest son, and I had met him three years ago when first coming to Japan. He arrived a few moments later and he recognized me right away! This time though, we spoke only in Japanese, while previously we had only communicated in English. Daisuke is an English teacher and therefore his English is really good.

Reiko then begged us to sit as she was starting to serve the dishes. And as usual her dishes were as plenty as they were delicious. It really felt strange though, since everything was in Japanese. Although I didn't understand everything, I now understood the majority of the conversation and even catching on to some of the jokes. I was also given a few gifts from Reiko and Shigenori.

After the dinner, Reiko and Daisuke's wife started to sign Christmas songs and Daisuke's wife even played piano! It was funny to hear Christmas carols in Japanese but I liked it and it made me realize that these crazy holidays can affect people, the world, and life.

After that, Reiko insisted I played some songs on the guitar. It had been a while since I had played, but I managed to pull off a few songs. The baby was sleeping therefore I tried to keep down and if anyone knows how I play the guitar, it's rarely at a low volume. But anyways, it felt great to play and I think they enjoyed it.

Yoshiki, their youngest son, then arrived home as I was getting ready to leave. Like his brother Kenzo, he has to prepare for the upcoming university entrance exams. To do so, many Japanese high school students opt to go to preparatory private evening schools specializing for that kind of studies after regular school hours. So we knew that both of them would come home late. Soon Daisuke and I were out the door since he had kindly accepted to drive me back to the station. But as we were getting to the car, Kengo popped up on his bicycle! So I got to see everyone that day!

After saying our farewells, we left for the station. Moments later, I was riding the train back to home.

The weekend before Christmas, December 21st, I went out with a few friends out to Kamakura to have a little bit of fun. We rode the train early in the morning all the way to Enoshima where we transferred onto a smaller touristy train. As we were making our way there, I got to see the sea for the first time. I also managed to see many surfers riding the waves despite the cold. I really want to try it one day and it happens that one of my friends is willing to teach me during the summer.

Once we arrived, the first thing we did was stop to go see the famous "Daibutsu", a statue of Buddha. But before entering the area we had to wash our hands which really represents the washing of our souls before entering a holy place. After a few moments of anticipation, there it was! It was seriously huge... 

(The Daibutsu.)

(The Daibutsu's sandals. I could fit my whole body on them.)

I tried reading about the history of the Daibutsu but I probably should have done so before leaving. We were able to enter the inside of the statue. Apparently, from the signs inside the Daibutsu, its head had to be reinforced since the metal it was made of started to rust.

After that, we headed back to the station and met this cat haha. Of course we had to take some pictures.

We also ran into a weapon shop and I was really tempted to buy a traditional Japanese sword known as "Katana." No worries mom, I still have all my figures.

We reached the station, jumped on the train again and off we were to the central part of Kamakura! There we walked around, walking in and out of various temples, parks, and buildings. That day I was having a few problems with school and stuff in general, and I was very grateful for my friend Valentina who listened to all of it and gave me advice as well as shared her problems with me.

After having visited everything we could, Kahea and I left the group to head off to Enoshima, where our Russian friends were waiting. As soon as we got off the train, we were greeted by a chilling wind. It got even worse when we crossed the very long bridge which led us to the illuminations. We met the Russian girls there and climbed up the mountain. This is part of what we got to see while we froze our butts. Here's what we saw there:

We had some good laughs and conversations. After taking a break to eat some warm food, we headed back all the way to Tokai and that was a wrap. I can now check both those places off my bucket list!

One thing about being part of the judo club is that you get to see the inside of what makes the world's best club, the world's best judo club. The other day, with the end of the semester coming up and the 4th year students graduating, I got to attend the transfer ceremony for the team captains. It wasn't really anything crazy, but for me it was important.

During the ceremony, names were called, people stood up, bows were exchanged and outgoing captains (both of men’s and women’s teams) soon each faced with the respective, newly named captain, and the new team was brought forward. 

Small thing really, but it's something that not many people get to see or understand.