So obviously Thanksgiving is a strictly American holiday. Add that to the fact that the week of Thanksgiving, our weekly test was moved from Friday to Thursday, and Thanksgiving pretty much passed me by without me even realizing it. This Wednesday was a holiday in Japan, (Labor Day), so we didn’t have any Japanese class, however I did have to go on a field trip for my class at USP. I had skipped the previous field trip (that had taken place on a Saturday, and would have required biking to the location), and since this trip was on a Wednesday, and we could be bussed to the actual trip, I felt obligated to go. Unfortunately, all but 3 other students from my class didn’t feel obligated, and as such I felt like an idiot for going on a somewhat worthless trip instead of studying for my test. So for the next 5 hours, we wandered around random villages in and around Omihachiman, looking at houses built in the traditional style. Some of the villages had existed since medieval times, but since most of the houses were modern (or at the very least, built within the last couple hundred years), its impact was less than impressive. Every house that we went into was built in a similar style: the guest room, covered with tatami mats, had a large ‘window’ opening onto a courtyard garden. Some of the houses had second stories, which was apparently illegal until the Meiji era. Every garden and moat (yes, most of the houses actually had moats) had numerous gigantic koi swimming around. The best part of the trip was walking along a canal in Omihachiman, which had very picturesque bridges going across it. Added to that the changing colors of the trees, and it was a very beautiful sight. Luckily, we made it back to JCMU by 5:30pm, so my studies weren’t too neglected.

Thursday was the day of our test, which came at the end of our regular class period. It was kind of nice because we spent 2 hours reviewing for it beforehand, which I thought had helped me quite a bit, but getting my test back today, I’m still stuck in the same solid B range as my last 2 or 3 tests. Oh well, could be worse… After the test and a nap, I went to Caines with Cassidy because we were planning a tenpura (that’s correct, the name is actually tenpura, with an n, since in kanji it is spelled 天麩羅, with the first kanji read as ten, meaning heaven, I have no idea why it is also called tempura) ‘party’, so we had to buy some things like shrimp and pumpkin (tenpura Japanese pumpkin is very tasty). While in the store, we thoroughly searched for turkey, with no luck. I had also previously seen a box of instant mashed potatoes, however on this trip it was no where to be seen. We didn’t even bother looking for pumpkin pie or stuffing. The rest of the night was spent sitting around watching anime and otherwise doing nothing.

Friday morning, despite not having class or a test, we had our last ‘Friday Project’, in which we were split up into groups of 3 and 4, and sent to local elementary schools via taxi. I was sent to Wakaba Elementary, a surprisingly new and very nice school (so far all the schools I have seen in Japan are in a sad state of neglect). When we got there, we were greeted by the principal, who didn’t speak much English, but was very friendly nonetheless. We were given tea as we introduced ourselves and he talked to us about Japan and JCMU and about his school. It was myself, Janet Hsueh (former roommate), and two guys from first year who I didn’t know very well. Janet and I got along well with the guy’s Japanese, but I’m afraid the guys from first year seemed a bit lost. After a while, we were taken to a class of 3rd graders, where we introduced ourselves again (in English and Japanese), and then the kids broke off into several groups and the four of us took turns visiting each of them. They showed us some traditional Japanese games, which included games with tops, a game somewhat like musical chairs only you passed a ball, jump rope, and cat’s cradle (very traditional, I know). Well, I’ve discovered that I am now too big for jump rope, and while I could do everything with those string games maybe 10 years ago, I’ve forgotten them all now. Koma, the game with a top, was very difficult for me, but I’m pretty good at juggling! It was pretty fun and the kids were very enthusiastic, though when we first came into the room the poor boy who had to read a little speech got embarrassed and stomped out of the classroom. They were all really cute kids though.
After leaving the 3rd graders room, we were escorted back to the principals office for more tea and questions, although this time the questions were from some of the 3rd graders who had followed us from their classroom. Some of them asked us how we got to Japan (they seemed surprised when we said we flew to Japan..), they asked us about the US (all of the kids seemed to know about NYC, but had no clue of Detroit), etc. I had to draw a map of the US on a whiteboard to give them an idea of where Michigan was. After a while, some kids from the 5th grade class came and escorted us to their room, where instead of moving around and doing activities in different groups, this time we sat in front of the class as groups of kids came up to use and showed us different traditional games, crafts, and other things. Each time they came up their teachers helped them to say “Do you know this?” where we would either say yes or no, and they would give us a demonstration and then say “Its ____.”. One kid came up with his kendo wooden sword and got into a swordfight with one of the first year guys, eventually hitting him on the head, after which he got down and bowed to apologize. It was very cute. Another kid came up and showed us his dagger (!!) which was something that people used to carry for self protection. One of the teachers even gave us a demonstration on how you’d pull it out of its sheath and try to stab someone. All I could think was how if we were in the US the kid would have been suspended faster than you can blink for bringing a 6″ dagger to school. Around 11:30am it was all over, and we were walked back to the principals office again, where he told us the cab was waiting for us and so we had to go. By around noon we were back to JCMU.

That evening, everyone was getting ready for our unofficial Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone who was participating had signed up for different groups (turkey carving, stuffing, etc) and was busy getting ready for our potluck-like event. I signed up for the very difficult job of pie cutting, so at 4:30 I came down to find a whopping 2 pies for the 40 people coming to the dinner. And sadly, only one of them was a pumpkin pie. ;( So, after doing my job (the office ladies even sarcastically said to me in Japanese that it was a very hard job), I went back to my room to wait until 5:30, which is when the dinner was going to start. So, getting there around 5:20, I find a table covered with portioned out pieces of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, pie, salad, mixed veggies, biscuits, and drinks. Yum yum. It was nice that we actually had an opportunity to have real turkey and pie, even if we did have to eat it with chopsticks. It made the somewhat lonely week a lot better. If only I knew where they bought the pie from…..

Visiting historial villages in and around Omihachiman:

At the elementary school:

Food!!: