Halloween

What a wonderful!! “Trick or treat!!” if you say this phrase, you can get some candies for free.

Today I was invited to come to my Friendship-family's house to celebrate Halloween together with them. Soon after my last class ends, my host-mother and one of her daughter picked me up here by car, and we headed toward their house. This was the second time for me to visit it. They spoke a lot to me in the car to the house. Especially the daughter, Hannah, was talking to me about her costume and her hurt she received a couple days ago. She is always talking a lot of things to me, though she is very young, like 7 years old. And she is always smiling to me even if I couldn’t follow what she said.

Anyway, we arrived at their house. On arriving there, host-mother started cooking dinner, and Hannah started being interested in my electronic dictionary. She looked up some English words “Halloween” “”ice cream” and so on in it, of course I changed the regular mode into English-English dictionary before handing it to her though. Surprisingly the person who showed interest in the dictionary was not only her but also someoneone else; another daughter, Peige, and a son, Eric. It must be an unusual instrument for them, I realized.

After eating delicious dinner made by host mother, now it’s time to go trick or treating!! This is the main event of Halloween. Children began to change their clothes into their own Halloween costume, and surprisingly they had prepared for my costume, too. So I also changed into the costume; a pink hat, glasses with a plastic nose, a tie, and a khaki colored coat. I didn’t know what the theme of the costume is, but anyway I could be one of the members of trick and treating children, I hope so….even if I am real 21 years old. It’s ok if I have a young feeling. Changing into costumes was done. Taking a group picture of all children and me was also done. And then, let’s go trick and treating!!

It was so cold in the night, but nobody cared about that. We walked around neighborhood. When we found a house having a light on and putting a pumpkin in front of the entrance, we headed torward the house, and knocked the door. Then at the moment a person who is living in the house opened the door, we said together, “trick and treat!!” And finally we can get some candies from the person. I felt a little guilty. I know it is so cute that children say “trick and treat!” and get some candies, but how about 21 year-old person? I was kind of sorry for getting a lot of candies with other children. But it might be the first Halloween and the last Halloween for me, I thought. That’s why I went trick and treating by trying to pretend to be younger person than I am, though maybe my real age came out. By the way, my host-mother was always laughing at me. I’m a real entertainer!! Haha

Halloween didn’t end here. After coming back to their house, there was a kind of trading a lot of candies each other. Children were very serious to get their own favorite candies as much as possible by giving the other candies in return. I really wanted to join the trade, but I couldn’t tell which one is better and which one is worse…so only when a child asked me to exchange something he has with something I have, I exchanged.

Believe or not, the amount of candies was beyond description. What a wonderful event!! But at the same time, I thought the candies influence my shape. What a terrible event!! But even if it is a terrible event, I really recommend Japan to introduce Halloween. It was so fun.

Haunted House

I don’t like a haunted house (obakeyashiki) so much….but today I tried to go a haunted house in the downtown. I don’t know a lot about it, but maybe I think it is opened only during Halloween.

There are three haunted houses in the hall, and they have different themes, like an old hospital, a clown’s house, and a prison.

We went to the old hospital at first. It was so scary. I was always screaming. Especially when some skeletons popped out in front of me because I couldn’t see anything in the dark. So of course I didn’t notice what happened around me in the dark. That’s why I was so surprised at the skeleton who appeared suddenly right in front of me when light was turned on. I was almost falling because of the surprise. Also Sadako was sitting on the floor, although the theme of the haunted house was an old hospital in Americawww I thought Japanese ghost like Sadako is scarier than American one.

I was almost satisfied with the first haunted house already, but of course I tried to go to another one in order not to waste of money I paid at the entrance.

The next one was like a “clown’s house.” It was a little less scary than the first one fortunately. After coming out of it, the most thing I remembered of the house was a “panda man.” Actually I’m not sure if he is a worker as a ghost there or just a visitor, but he was so funny. He is a short man, wearing a panda costume, and speaking to anybody coming there. The funniest thing of him is that he has no motivation to work as a ghost. He was just walking around there and sometimes speaking to people without letting them funny or scary…just talking to people with no motivation. That’s why I couldn’t tell if he is a worker or just a visitor, and even now I can’t tell. Anyway the second house was also scary. The panda man, who was near the entrance, was a only part I felt funny. Thank you “Panda man”, though you didn’t have any motivation for your work!! A kind of good job!!

And the last house we went to was like a prison, where were a lot of skeletons closed in jails. Before entering it, I heard someone says, “This is the scariest one among three.” Really!? Are you serious!? I really didn’t want to believe my ears. Also the long line for the house made me scarier, because I heard a lot of screaming of someone who is surprised at something from the house in lining for it. After lining for a long time, our turn was coming. Actually it was sometimes too dark to see anything, so we griped the others’ shoulder so that we are like a train. It was a kind of fun.

An American haunted house was a little different from Japanese one, though I don’t know what it is. I thing Japanese one is scarier than American one, because I could keep my eyes open almost all the time in the haunted house today. When I tried Japanese one, I couldn’t open my eyes. I don’t mean American one is not scary. It was scary enough for me. I mean Japanese one is tooooooooo scary for me.

Happy Birthday

I really wanted to be born from September to May. I mean I want to be celebrated once here in the United States. Look at a cute cake on the picture!! There are some tiny cake with whip cream on the table. But they were not just put on the table. They were decorated by some colorful pasteboards and candles shaped into some letters "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" It’s a hand-made birthday cake for Ayako, who is one of member studying here from same university. But if I were born in different seasons from summer, my name would be different from Natsuko… Anyway American birthday party is awesome!! So I’ll enjoy it as a person celebrating someone with his/her birthday.

EID

Today I seemed to be in the Saudi Arabia, not in the United States. Yes, today was the special day for Muslim people, because they finished one of their important religious activity, Ramadan yesterday. That is to say, from today they can eat and drink anytime even when the sun was seen.

During Ramadan, they couldn’t eat and drink anything until the sun set and it becomes dark. I couldn’t understand what they are doing it for. But they said to me, “we are doing it to appreciate what we are eating everyday without thinking specially.” They mean they can know the importance of foods by placing some restrictions on their eating. But even after hearing so from them, I couldn't understand clearly. I thought it is difficult to understand the different cultures; especially it’s concerned with a religion. They stopped eating and drinking anything during this month in day time, but mysteriously they seemed to be enjoying their situation.

Anyway, they can eat and drink anything and anytime from today. So to celebrate the ending of Ramadan, they had a kind of ceremony,EID, in the dining hall in the evening. The dining hall was much more crowded than I had expected. There were Arabian dance, Arabian calligraphy, and, of course, Arabian foods there. Actually I saw some Arabian guys dancing in the hall lounge the last night, so the dance itself didn’t make me surprised so much. Also Arabian calligraphy didn’t because they sometimes teach me some Arabian words and letters. They were not fresh and new for me. Of course, they were so enjoyable for me though. I thought afresh that I’m touching and getting to know Arabian culture here everyday without knowing!! Wow!

By the way, it was a heartwarming scene that they are working hard for the ceremony. Also they looked very cute in their traditional white clothes and turbaned heads. Actually they looked more intelligent than usual, although they are always noisy in the classroom… I wish their motivation for study were also high...

Friday Night

I didn’t imagine at all that I can eat rolling SUSHI here in Portland. But I could today. Moreover the taste is so good, and the price is also same as Japanese rolling sushi restaurant. There were no difference between Japanese one and American one surprisingly. The restaurant itself is totally Japanese style, but Americans are making sushi and also customers are American people, though there were some Japanese people who are trying American sushi. Anyway the scene was a kind of strange!! I think the restaurant is one of the place mixed Japanese and American atmosphere.

One of my Arabian friends were struggling to eat sushi with chopsticks. I said to him, “it is difficult even for Japanese to eat sushi with chopsticks. So you can eat it with your hand, which is also a formal way to eat sushi in Japan.” But he never leave his chopsticks on the table. Maybe he didn’t want to hurt his high pride, I think. Also unfortunately he was always waiting only for egg sushi (tamago). He seemed to dislike raw fish…. I thought a little that we made mistake in selecting the place to eat together tonight. But finally his comment, “I’ll try to like Japanese foods from today,” made me a kind of relieved.

After that, we went to see a movie “DEPERTED,” which was so scary movie. There were a lot of murders in the movie. Instead of that, there was no subtitle…..I really wanted subtitle even in English. So I couldn’t understand the story so much, because there were a lot of slungs or something like that. I couldn’t tell even who is a good person and who is a bad person in the movie. That’s why I was almost asleep. Actually I fell asleep sometimes during the movie.

After sleeping, no, no, after watching the movie, we went to the bar!! It was the first time to go to a bar here. The atmosphere was much better than I expected, because my image of American bar is like a little dangerous place. But there were no crazy people like those I imagined before. Though I had knew that America is so strict on alcohol,it was surprising for me that there was a person at the entrance who is judging if customers are over 21 or not by checking their ID card or passport. Also it was surprising that there were no menu of alcohol, which means you can order anything you like. But it was not comfortable for me because I don’t know a lot about alcohol… Anyway I ordered one glass of alcohol somehow. I found a lot of new thing in Portland today. I was almost satisfied. Yeah

However, today didn’t end safely here. We went out of the bar, and headed forward the bus stop to go back to the campus. !!!!!!!!!!! The last bus had left already when we arrived there. We completely misunderstood the time schedule of shuttle bus from there to the campus. We were just waiting for taxi coming. It was so cold. It was so miserable. And it was so happy when a taxi stopped in front of us. Our long night ended like that at last.

Howl's Moving Castle

I was so moved by Howl. He was so cool!!....Yes, today I watched the Japanese famous movie “Howl’s Moving Castle” as an activity of Japanese club. The movie is the second latest movie by Hayao Miyazaki, and I have never seen it. So it was the first time to see it.

Some of my friends in Japan said, “The movie is not so good,” or “I couldn’t understand the story at all.” So I didn’t have high expectation of the movie before I saw it. However, I was so moved and impressed by Howl’s coolness. He is very cute guy, though he might be narcissist a little. The fact Howl’s voice is acted by Kimu-Taku also let me involved in the movie.www

On the other hand, I can a little agree with some of my friends who didn’t like the movie as I mentioned earlier. I like the whole story of it, but I don’t like ending part of it. During watching the movie, I was always waiting for a scene Sophie can return into her original figure. I really wanted her to return into her original beautiful figure instead of keeping her an old woman…Is it happy ending? I was not sure. Are you really happy even if you are still an old woman, Sophie?? And there is another reason I don’t like the ending part. The war was treated too lightly in the movie. A lot of people were killed by the war, and Howl was also hurt by it. But finally a woman who is a president of magic school said laughing, “I had better stop our war,” or something like that, though I couldn’t explain correctly in English. Anyway, the war was too light thing in the movie.

But after all, I like this movie. If someone hasn’t seen it yet, I’ll strongly recommend him or her to see it. Especially if she is the girl who is falling in love with someone else.www Howl’s Moving Castle came into one of my favorite movie just now.

Conversation Group

This is the second time to go to the UWAJIMAYA for me Umajimaya is a big store dealing with Japanese foods!!

Nicole, Takako, and I are members of same conversation group...but actually there are more member in our group, though I have never met them unfortunately... because they did never appear before us. That's why we only three are spending one hour a week talking or doing something like this trip to Uwajimaya At the first meeting nobody of our group except Nicole came, I was a little sad. But then I a little believe I will be able to meet all of them at the next meeting...However, at last they have never appeared during our conversation group time

....it's Okay...because Nicole is so kind and cute girl!! And we are getting more friendly as our conversation meeting is held every week And today we went to go to Uwajimaya together, as I mentioned earlier

We were walking around in the store asking for good Japanese foods...and the place we stoped for the longest time today was "snack corner" We enjoyed finding funny Japanese foods and choosing Japanese snacks. I miss Japanese food, though I like American food, too.

Natto, Dorayaki, Mattya-ame, I bought But Where to eat natto is a big problem for me...because if I eat natto in my room, the strong smell will remain in my room for a while, which will make my roomie feel worse On the other hand, the scene I'm eating natto on the lawn in front of my hall is also so weirdwww

By the way, on the way from the store to the campus, we ran a little We thought that we were mistaken about the time schedule of bus we supposed to take... but after all our running was meaningless. We didn't need to run from a bus stop to another bus stop But it might make our trip more funny and more memorial one I hope so

Homecoming Dance Party

What's the homecoming day?? I didn't know what it is even when i bought a ticket for the homecoming party But in the United States, homecoming day is very common day, so everyone knows.

It's like a festivel graduate students come to visit the campus So I imagined that there are a lot of graduate students at the party, it sounds fun That's why I bought a ticket, though I didn't understand exactly what the party is....

The party started 8:00 p.m. We changed clothes into a dress, and rode on a shuttle bus driven only for the party. In the bus, every students were in high spirit I was satisfied with such a atmosphere before arriving at the party, though I don't know why.

When I got down the shuttle bus, i began to be a little nervous...because it was the first time for me to join in a party except drinking parties in Japan, and so i didn't know how to dance at all When I entered the dance hall, a lot of students wearing a fashionable dresses were already dancing there Oh, so cool

At the begining, I was just looking at them, but only it is not enough, I thought So I tried dancing together... Things will work out But if I was asked if I could really enjoy the party or not, maybe I can't say "yes!" soon. I was a kind of culture shocked...

Everyone was dancing so hard and so sexy, which I could't follow easily. Even the students who usually look very quiet were dancing the same way But I don't mean that the party was not good!! I learnt one of American culture

By the way, there were no graduate students at the party...www What's the homecoming?? The homecoming remains a mysteryhaha