Azure Eden

Monday, October 22nd - 9:45 AM

     I had quite a busy weekend again!  On Friday, we got out of school early so that we could help prepare for a Jutoku Entry Exam Pretest.  That only took about 30 minutes, so I got back to the Shoda home at about 3:00 instead of the usual 4:30.  I'm usually alone until about 5:30 when Tsugumi gets home from school in Maebashi.  During my time alone, I normally practice the piano or use the internet.  I was asked by my homeroom teacher to play piano for a school chorus thing, so I practiced that song for about 45 minutes.  Chopin's Heroic Polonaise is also starting to come along (I'm still on the first page, but it doesn't feel impossible anymore).  Mrs. Shoda normally gets home at about 6:30, and Mr. Shoda doesn't get back until around 8:00.
     Saturday morning, I played tennis from about eight to eleven.  It's been a long time, but I haven't regressed too much.  After about an hour of practice, I felt like I was back to my usual skill level.  I couldn't find an opponent/partner, so I just practiced against the wall the whole time; it was still fun and good exercise.
     When I got back at about noon, Mr. Shoda had returned from some sort of company test.  Mrs. Shoda was teaching at school, and Tsugumi had her Sports Festival.  Mr. Shoda decided to take me to this museum about 20 minutes outside of town called the Tomihiro Art Museum.  It was filled with all the art of this guy named Tomihiro Hoshino, who was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident as a gym teacher.  His art was impressive, and I was also moved by the poetry that he wrote to accompany each picture.  I'm really thankful that Mr. Shoda took me there!  In the evening, I went to dinner with everyone to a restaurant called the Flying Garden.  It had American foods, like steak, but I got a chicken dish.  I was surprised that refills of rice were free; I didn't get any extra rice, but it was a cool option.  At about 10:00, I got a call from my family, and we talked for over an hour!  I was so happy to hear everyone's voices and to be speaking to them like they were next to me!  So much better than email.  The Rotary club here has a rule about outbound students only being able to call once within the first 3 months or something, so the Shodas have to wait until next month to call Mihato.  Though they use email every day, the limit on calling really is unfortunate!
     Sunday morning, we all went to Asakusa, an area of Tokyo, for some sightseeing.  We brought Meg too because she was free that day, and she's never been there.  It was my first time in Tokyo, and it was a lot of fun!  There were a lot of tourists from other countries in Asakusa, and the roads were really crowded.  That's probably the most white people I've seen in over 2 months!  We went to this big temple; I think it was called Sensoji.  Leading up to the temple is a street with tons of little shops and vendors; it was all very colorful and rather pretty.  It feels kind of weird though because everywhere I go, there are lots of gift shops.  Japanese people tend to comment on how small and cramped Japan is, but if they got rid of all the gift shops, they could probably free up about 20% of ther land, lol.  We also went to this small amusement park called Hanashikiya that was built around the time of World War II.  It's kind of like an historical monument.  There were a couple rides that really surprised me, like this one with a tall tower.  I thought they were going to drop our seats from the top, but it was the opposite!  Instead of ascending slowly, our seats shot up about 150 feet!  It was surprising but really fun.  Also, later in the day, there was going to be a cosplay event where people meet up dressed as characters from movies, cartoons, video games, etc.  So we saw a lot of strangely-dressed people.  Some of the looked really cool, hahaha.
     After Asakusa, the Shodas took us to Tokyo Tower.  It's 333 meters high!  You really can't grasp the immensity until you stand under it.  The wait for the elevator was over 90 minutes, so we decided to take the stairs to the 150 meter point where there's an observation deck.  Tsugumi and I dashed up and took about five minutes compared to the estimated 15 minute walking time.  The steps were marked, so I remember that there were 593 steps!  The view was really great from the deck, and you could almost see Mt. Fuji.  But it was a little foggy and cloudy.  After enjoying the view, we descended to the building under the tower and ate at a really funky curry restaurant.  It was quite good, but I'm a big fan of curry in the first place.  After that, we headed back to Kiryu and arrived at about five.  I'm grateful to the Shodas for taking me to so many cool places!
     In the evening, Mr. Shoda taught me how to play the Japanese board game of Go, the one with the grid and the black and white stones.  Having a person teach me through playing the game was so much better than learning from a book!  He gave me a lot of advice and taught me good strategies, but of course he won because I've never played before.  I did win against the computer later (it was on the easiest setting), so I'm 1-1!  It's actually a really fun game, and its depth is amazing.  So I'm really glad he taught me how to play!  For dinner, Mrs. Shoda make Okonomiyaki.  It was my first time having it, and I really liked it.  It's like an omelette/pancake type of thing that's fried with vegetables and whatever else you want (hence the name: konomi kind of means "as one likes" and yaki means "fried").  You also put toppings on it like Aonori (finely ground seaweed), mayonnaise, and cutlet sauce (which is kind of like steak sauce or barbeque sauce, I think, but a lot different.  Hahaha).  I ended up going to bed at nine because I was so tired!  I slept for ten hours in total, and I feel really refreshed.