Yuji and Mayu, Tokiwa Students and volunteers for the speech contest.
Tea Ceremony held by the the 'circle'
Tokiwa's dance 'circle'
I do this in America too because I have already become accustomed to doing it. Hanging clothes after washing them is very common in Japan and the use of drying machines is very rare. It saves you money, electricity, and gives your room a nice laundry smell.
Look! We are studying very hard for an upcoming test. I had to snap this picture as evidence… sort of. I’m happy to be studying in the dorms because there are many Japanese students we can turn to for help. In return, we help them with their English. It’s very beneficial this way and I think it’s great.
We went to a local park with a clear view of the sky to see the meteor shower that occurred lasted week. Awesome!
-James
The Tokiwa School Festival was packed and exciting!
Everyone in the school had been insanely busy during the weeks leading up to the festival. The Chinese circle practiced cooking gyoza, making the wrapping and filling by hand; the Saado circle prepared for their tea ceremony, including the room with the tatami mats and their kimonos; the different hip-hop dance teams practiced their dances and set up the cafeteria with a stage and stage lighting; the ikebana circle created beautiful flower arrangements; and many other clubs worked with all their might to set up their venues, perfect their speeches, acts, and performances, and to create popular snacks and foods to raise funds for their club, such as crepes, parfaits, chocolate bananas, yakisoba, yakiudon, yakitori, takoyaki, etc. There were also very many people dressed in costumes (even though it is not quite Halloween yet). Halloween is not really celebrated here in Japan, but it seems that many students use the Tokiwa Festival as a day to dress in costume (but that could be due to the Cosplay Contest).
It was lots of fun, despite the crowds.
Till next time,
Germaine
These are sweets you snack on while drinking tea to counter the tea's bitterness. This box had 6 very delicious sweets.
We went to an aquarium in Oarai (大洗). I had a very good time because it’s been a long time since I’ve been to an aquarium even in America. We saw lots of interesting fish, sharks, penguins, otters but nothing too significantly different from aquariums in America. They had “California seals” which were interesting.
The structure of the aquarium reminded me of a mall. While Sea World in San Diego is wide and requires much walking outside amongst the different venues, the Oarai aquarium was one entire building and visiting the different attractions required much stair-climbing. At the highest floor of the aquarium, after observing all the fish, I ate sashimi in the food court while observing people surfing at the beach below us. 
Also, at the gift shop, there was an overflowing abundance of phone straps. Phone straps are extremely popular, and many people carry cellphones with 4 or more colorful and decorative phone straps.
Convenience
The following picture was taken in Keisei, a very expensive Japanese department store. By looking at the brand names sold in Keisei, I believe it is the equivalent to America's Neiman Marcus.
Language
On another note, although I have never played basketball nor do I know how to play basketball, I was able to play a few rounds with one of the Sensei's from the Communications department here in Tokiwa as well as James, Kristine, and some of our friends from Fresno. At first, we spoke very formally with the Sensei, but during the game, all of us students found ourselves speaking to him informally because we were so out of breath and in the heat of the game that we did not have the brain energy or the time to speak in the formal tense. We students found ourselves correcting ourselves and apologizing for speaking informally, but the Sensei responded "Daijoubi, shiai da kara", letting us know that it was acceptable to speak informally during the basketball game. We appreciated his understanding and after the game ended and we rehydrated, we reverted to speaking to the Sensei in formal tense. Apparently, there are specific tenses that are acceptable only during sports games (and other similarly heated events such as police chases), which, if used in any other situations, could be considered rude and offending.
I have to say the most amazing thing about being in Japan is witnessing the language and its characteristics in varying societal contexts. In the example of the basketball game, the context of the basketball game overrode the hierarchical relationship between us students and the Sensei. As a foreigner, I feel that the hardest part about the societal contexts and hierarchy in Japan is finding out and understanding where you fit in each situation. For example, I felt awkward when my roommate who is younger than me called me Senpai. As another example, even amongst really close friends, younger students or students of a lower class level use formal tense when speaking to their friends who are older (even if the age difference is just 1 year) or if the friend is in a class year higher. Of course, since I did not grow up in Japan, for the most part, I am not expected to follow, let alone be aware of or understand, all the politeness levels within the Japanese language and their appropriate usages. Despite that, all of us exchange students try to exercise caution, since we do not want accidentally offend the people around us.
Till next time,
Germaine
The history class that was offered to us here in Tokiwa is taught in Japanese. At first it was intimidating because of the fact that it was taught in Japanese, but it changed later on when we met Itoga-sensei, the professor of the history class. He welcomed us the “traditional Japanese way” where we did an お茶会 (tea ceremony) in class. He served us お菓子(sweets) from different parts of Japan like the お菓子 called 8 bridges, a flat mochi-like treats that is cinnamon flavored. Igota-sensei also gave us a くちなおし, which literally means to fix one’s mouth. It is a salty treat that Japanese people usually eat after eating the お菓子
What was interesting was that while we were having tea, Itoga-sensei explained the different types of tea and other things like the tea boxes and the gold and silver ones that the daimyos (lords) owned before.
くちなおし
