Shawn the Sumo, formerly from Miami, reports from Japan
Yes, everyone, I am still alive.
I am extremely sorry for having been so lazy and or busy the past two months. Wow, so much interesting stuff has happened it is amazing. Christmas time brought about my Rotary Club's Christmas party, a party at my house and that's about it. The real fun started with New Years. First of all, we apparently have parties at our house and the other two families' houses fairly often, or at least when we are all on winter break. These families are: My family, Mom, Dad, Daiske (16); My dad's sisters family, Her, Husband, and three sons (14, 16, and 18); and another family, Mother, Father, and two daughters (13 and 15). So over the winter break, we had about 5 of these parties. These parties are always a lot of fun, we talk and hang out and play Playstation which my
brother bought around Christmas.
Another thing which was quite interesting was all of the Japanese ceremonies for Sho-Gatsu (New Years). One thing was the making of mochi. This was a lot of fun. We started by steaming a whole lot of rice in wooden box-like things over a pot of water over a fire outside. The boxes were about two feet square and made so the steam could get in, cook the rice, and then go up into the next box. Then, we put the rice (one little box at a time) into a stone bowl and smashed the rice with a big wooden hammer. While we were smashing (all taking turns and having fun) someone put a bit of water in the rice and made sure it all got smashed evenly. It eventually turned into a mass of off-white, semi-stretchy, sticky stuff which we then rolled into balls and stuff these sweet beans into. Afterwards, we used the bowl with the boiling water to cook Noodles for everyone (there were about 12 people there) and it was good.
We also visited shrines, prayed, I visited Kabusanji for a special ceremony they were having here, and applied to college. One thing I found out about Japanese New year is something I really like. Christmas time presents are not given very much, however, at New Years, Parents, relatives and such give the children money. From my host family, Shindo, and the other two party families, I ended up getting about $230 for New Years, not a bad deal. However, Anne and Lauri each managed around $450 somehow. I love this country. I soon after
bought a new camera because my old one was completely broken.
I bike to school occasionally, a 50 minute uphill bike, which I guess is helping my physique. I shaved my beard off, my hair has grown out a bit, and everyone says I look thinner and much better. I will get some pictures scanned in next time I come because I forgot them today. Otherwise school is going fine, third year classes ended early to let them study for college entrance exams, so I joined more second year classes. PE is variably Soccer or Running. Soccer is sort of fun, I play goalie and don't do a bad job. Running is a 15 minute run. The first time I ran for about two-thirds and walked the rest because I couldn't. Since then, I have been jogging the entire time. Endurance in running has never been my strong point. I went to a cooking class with one of my second year classes and that was fun, everybody made something different and it all was "TOTEMO OISHII" (very delicious). Plus it was a very fun time.
I have, of course, still been doing Judo with school and at the Takatsuki Police station. I also had two big practice sessions with about 15 other schools and a Martial Arts center near my school during winter break. Also, except for about five days during winter break, we had Judo practice, which wasn't too bad. Well, I went back to the Martial Arts Center today, along with Matsumoto (the other club member), and another first year who does judo, but not with the school club. He started around the same time I did, but doesn't practice as much as me or have my size and strength. Well, today was my first Judo Tournament. It is a National Holiday today. The competition was arranged in the following way. Each school had a team of three people, and each person
fought one match against a person from the other team. If at least two people won, you advanced. If not, you could go home. The first school we were up against (actually very near my house now), the new guy lost, Matsumoto won,
and I won. I was the only one against a black belt. In our second match, we were up against the team which won last year (and ended up winning today). The new guy lost (he isn't very good at Judo), Matsumoto got beaten with a choke hold, and I won. I found out later that I was their only loss. Since we only won one, we sat and watched the rest of the competition. It was very interesting. On my way home, I decided it would be good if I wrote you all a letter since I had time.
Well, now for the fun stuff which is happening to me. First of all, last week it snowed in this area. About an inch and a half. It was absolutely beautiful. The trains even got severely slowed by it. Two weeks ago (sorry, my brain is Random Access Memory) we had the Rotary New Year Party (yes, a bit late) at which we all gave speeches (in Japanese) and met the new exchange student from Brazil, who lives about twenty minutes bike from me. That was a fun night. Last Friday through Sunday, my host Mom, Disuse and I all went on a three hour
train ride to visit my mom's home city. This is a place northeast of here and there was about a foot of snow there. Her family is very fun. Her two nieces are in their late 20's and each have two little kids with whom I had a great
time playing. We mad a snowman and everything. I also got to go skiing for a few hours on Saturday. I didn't remember at all how to (since the only other time I've been was when I was ten or so, if I have my age wrong on that dad, please correct me) so I was taught by a ski instructor for a while and then hit the slope myself. Yes, I fell quite a few times, but I think I wasn't doing too bad by the time we stopped. Nothing hurt, the snow was pretty soft. I of course didn't pay anything, and before we left, my mom's brother gave each Disuse and I an envelope. I opened it later on the train on the way home and found a 10,000 yen note (about $85). I love people in Japan. That was an extremely fun weekend.
Well, a month ago, Tiffany (the exchange student from South Florida in the very north of Japan) came down here to Osaka and stayed at Shindo's and my current host family's house. We had a pretty good time, she came to my school, and I showed her around Osaka. At the end of next month, I will be visiting
here up in Mombetsu for a little while, go skiing and stuff like that. I asked Shindo to see if he could get me a good price on the ticket through his Rotary connections. Well, I called him the other night to ask him the final price to tell my parents, and he told me it was 52,000 yen ($450 about), but that he was going to pay for 30,000 ($260) of it which is absolutely great. Speaking of great cheap trips, this weekend, I am joining my Rotary club members and their families on a trip to Okinawa. That should be fun (and very warm). Well, the good news continues, around the middle of March, Rotex (returned Japanese exchangers) is planning a trip for the exchange students to Nagano (remember the Olympics?) to go skiing (Jon, Jonah, and I are actually going to try
snowboarding for the first time) for a few days. Well, my rotary club is picking up the tab for that as well. Add to that the trip to Hiroshima (and western Japan) and the trip to climb Mount Fuji that we are going on later in
the year, and I will have seen pretty much all of Japan by the time that I leave this summer.
Well, my Japanese is progressing wonderfully. I attribute that mainly to the fact that I speak it so often with my host family and friends at school and have my Japanese classes and study on trains and such. I talk with my current host family (and the other adults who come over fairly frequently) nearly every night. Often times, the subject of conversation is Japanese. Last night, for example, we were talking about the differences between the way we describe animal sounds. Here a pig says "boo, boo," a rooster "koh-ke-koh-koh," and a cow "Moh moh." That of course had us all laughing because my host father was doing his impressions and such. Plus, I learned a few new Kanji last night. I don't know how many I know now, but everyone is completely bewildered, asking
me how many years I've studied Japanese and such. And that's all I have to say about that. Please send me mail people, I can check my mail a lot easier than I can write, but small responses shouldn't be a problem. Hope all my friends in college (and those still in high school) are enjoying homework and studying, cause I'm not!!! I will hopefully be able to write again fairly soon. Best wishes.
Shawn the Sumo
