First Exam and More Viva City!

I'm afraid I don't have any Kyoto pictures yet - our trip has been postponed to next weekend, unfortunately. But that's ok! I still have lots of pictures to post. :)

First things first! We had our first exam on Friday - I thought it was pretty easy, so it went pretty well. After that we had our first cultural activity/presentation thing. It's on ikebana, the Japanese art of flower-arranging.
There's a big difference between Japanese and American floral arrangements. In ikebana, the basic structure of the arrangement is a dish filled with water with a little disk in the middle filled with needles. You stick 3 branches on the needles (which impale the branches/flowers to allow them to stand up) to form sort of a triangle, then you just add flowers as you wish. To the Japanese less is often more - your focus is on making each individual flower stand out instead of putting a bunch in a vase.Here's mine - we each got to make our own after a brief demo. :) The name card has my last name in katakana ("Uitto"). Also, you have a lot of creative license here. The 3 branches (and their lengths and arrangement) are required, but the rest is entirely up to you!

I was up late last night teaching some friends to play 42 - they ended up really liking the game, so I'm sure we'll be playing again soon. :D I'm glad I have someone to play with again, because I was missing it.

Instead of Kyoto today, Amanda and I went to Viva City for some shopping. I had less restraint this time so I bought a lot of stuff. But now, I have pictures to prove to you why it's so hard to NOT buy things.

EVERYTHING is just so darn adorable! There are 3 shops on the first floor dedicated to cute stationary things and jewelry and such. A lot of times things will come as part of character sets - there are several "character sets" that appear on a lot of different things(pens, pencil cases, notepads, etc). One example is Sanrio's Hello Kitty (though you actually can't find a lot of her stuff at random stores). They range from the heart-meltingly cute to the really really strange. I've found 3 sets that I really like - the Alice in Wonderland theme and the Fairytale theme(chibi/miniature versions of Snow White, Peter Pan, Ariel, etc.) are everywhere. But my very favorite is pretty new (and so so so so cute): Sentimental Circus.:3 I love it. It's all cute animals and old-fashioned circus-looking things. How can you not like it? I just looked at the kiosk for a while to figure out what to get. I ended up getting a pencil case, a little elephant phone charm, and some stickers for starters. Honestly, though, I wanted to buy out the whole thing.

Besides oohing and aahing over cute things, we also had lunch! At McDonald's. XD I know, I know. I feel like a bad study abroad student for going. But their fries are delicious! And I actually had something not offered in American restaurants, so it counts as acceptable. :P It made me laugh that they had this outside, though.

I'm pretty sure this is the lovechild of a cheeseburger and a barbecue ribs sandwich. First of all, throwing barbecue on something doesn't make it Texan. I kind of felt the need to defend my state. There are so many better Southern food items you could advertise. Like sweet tea. :P

We also went clothes shopping, with limited success. Japanese clothing is cut differently from American clothing, for two reasons. The first is, of course, that the majority of Japanese women are short and slight in build. Curves don't really factor in to Japanese clothing design. The second reason is due more to fashion. Japanese fashion works towards a different "ideal" than American fashion does - different parts of the body are accentuated. So there are plenty of things that fit...they just fit oddly and don't seem flattering in an American sense.

However, I did find a sweatshirt. Amanda and I stumbled across some really spectacular Engrish clothing, and I found this beauty.
I don't really know where to begin! There are so many parts of this obnoxious sweatshirt that give it cool points. First, there's the screaming bright pink color. Second, there's a rainbow - a glittery rainbow (and I know you can't see the glitter but it's there!) - and some glittery stars. Third, random turtle. Fourth, there is so much Engrish ("I want study something from this beautiful ocean", not to mention the random words). And last, but certainly not least, the shirt contains the words leniency AND undulate. I decided I needed it. And it was less than $10. So I'm wearing it right now. I doubt I'll ever wear it out in public, but it's fuzzy and warm and perfect for cold days where I just stay inside. :) So, yay for garish sweatshirts!

Today was one of those days where Japanese is kind of starting to click some! I'm able to understand a lot more than I used to (even compared to starting out here a week and a half ago). For example, I could read the train marquee that asked if I had eaten crab yet this winter (do I know why this is important? No. It's a start, though. :P). I was able to understand when the crepe lady told me that they didn't have chocolate ice cream and wanted to know if vanilla was an acceptable substitute. And I was able to overhear a father telling his crying toddler son to "Try your best for your mother, okay?" It's a really good feeling to know how much you're learning. I can also order properly in a restaurant, ask for stamps at a convenience store (which took a TON of practice to get right, let me tell you!), and follow directions in a grocery store when I ask someone where something is. I look forward to seeing how my language skills improve over time!

That's about all I know for now! To everyone back home, enjoy your weekend and have a wonderful day. :) And drop me a line if you get the chance! I'd love to hear from you.