I had a very relaxed weekend. Yesterday I traveled to Osaka for my first violin lesson with my new violin teacher! We spoke English during the lesson, which helped me to better understand her critiques and comments. When she played her violin to demonstrate to me how to improve my playing, her playing was incredible. I am very grateful to my violin teacher from my high school days for recommending this teacher in Osaka. I will have a lesson once a month here, which is less frequent than my number of monthly lessons in the U.S., but I will try to work hard each month so I can learn the most with my new teacher. It takes about two hours to get from my host family's home in Kobe to my teacher's home in Osaka, but the lesson was totally worth it, and now I feel as though I have a new mastery of the subway and some other train lines in Osaka.

Today I spent most of the day at home, but I did go on two walks. In the morning I took the family dogs for a walk with Okaasan, and in the afternoon I met up with a friend and we walked to a nearby park. I had a very interesting conversation with my friend about relationships between men and women in Japan. We discussed how a Japanese man shows his devotion for his wife in different ways than does a man from the United States. I have heard many stories from other exchange students about their host fathers' actions at the dinner table. When their host fathers want more rice, they simply hand their bowl to the host mother without saying anything, the host mother refills the bowl with rice, hands it back to the host father, who doesn't say anything and commences eating. I told my friend that in the U.S., if the husband did not get additional rice himself, he would at least thank his wife for bringing it to him. My friend replied that Japanese husbands may not always show their appreciation by saying thank you, but he believes that Japanese husbands do love their wives very much and that their appreciation and emotions manifest themselves in other ways. He said that Japanese husbands always try to protect their wives and children when the need arises, and when Japanese women find themselves in difficult situations, their husbands will not try to avoid the situations or run away, but will stick by the women and help them solve the problem. My friend said that this demonstrates their love and devotion to their wives as opposed to frequent hugs, kisses, and saying thank you.

My Part-time Job - Nov. 5

Every Thursday afternoon from 2:45 to 3:45 I tutor Konan University students in English. I go to the office that runs the tutoring program and obtain the room key and sign-in sheet, and then I go to the English tutoring room on the sixth floor of the same building and work with fellow students. Various students visit the tutoring room, most in search of speaking practice. We talk about whatever is on our minds, from the meaning of the word citizenship to English slang to relationships. I have found that many of the students who are majoring in English Literature and who attend the tutoring sessions are quite competent in spoken English, and I am impressed. Each student must sign in on the sign-in sheet and state the purpose of their visit to the tutoring session, so I have also had a few students come to the sessions in search of homework help. I assisted one of my friends with her studies for her upcoming English vocabulary quiz, and she told me she obtained the second-highest grade in the class on that quiz. I am proud of her. I also helped her review a speech she gave for her English class. I took some photos of some of the other tutors, who are exchange students, and some of the other Konan University students who came to the tutoring session to practice English conversation.

Violin Presentation and Dinner in Osaka - Nov. 4

Today I gave a presentation in Japanese class about the violin. We are all required to give ten-minute long presentations about a topic that interests us. One of my Japanese teachers suggested I present on the violin, so I thought, "Why not?" If I ran out of things to say, I figured I could just start playing the violin to take up more time...

But I had plenty of things to say. I talked about the different orchestras I have played in, my summer music experiences, my views on practicing, and my previous private lesson experiences. I demonstrated how to set up the bow and violin to prepare to play, and I played a short piece called Hamabe no Uta, which I learned here in Japan. I took such a long time with my presentation that the person presenting after me didn't have much time to speak! But no one was complaining...

In the evening I met up with a Mexican friend of mine who lives in Osaka. He took me out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, so I got to eat very delicious chicken enchiladas with salsa verde and also practice speaking Spanish. My friend Jorge is twenty-five and works as an engineer for a construction company in Osaka. I am enjoying getting to know various people who are part of the Japanese workforce because it is interesting to hear about what it's like to be employed in Japan. There are language barriers, however, because I am fluent in neither Spanish nor Japanese, but I try to ask and learn as much as possible.

Visit to Himeji - Nov. 4

On Tuesday I finally visited Himeji Castle. Okaasan and I went together and had another adventure. I really enjoy her company, but I hope I'm also spending equal amounts of time with my host family and with friends.

Himeji Castle is simply exquisite. It is, of course, built on top of a hill, and there are beautiful views of Himeji City from all parts of the castle. It is hard to know how much of the castle that is currently standing is authentic, but I did visit Princess Sen's living quarters, which were authentic. I also went during the one-week time period when special parts of the castle that are not normally open to the public were open. I got to see a small tower and the toilet area of the main castle, both of which are areas into which the public usually is denied entry. After we saw the castle, Okaasan and I visited some beautiful gardens next to the castle. The castle was quite crowded with sight-seers, so I was glad to visit the peaceful, quiet gardens.

After I returned home, Okaasan did a little extra shopping in Himeji City and bought me some socks to help me keep warm in my room. I didn't mention this in my previous post, but one reason that houses become rather cold during the winter is there is no internal heating system in houses. They heat the floors with electricity, but there are no radiators or furnaces. I'll have to compensate by wearing more clothing than I do at home in the United States.

It's Chilly Here! - Nov. 3

The orientation handbook I received at U of I did not exaggerate about the weather becoming quite cold here in Japan!!! The weather was mild until the beginning of November. Then, this past Sunday, it suddenly became quite cold.

My bedroom and living area seem to mirror the outside temperature, which means it is extremely hot in my room during the summer and extremely cold in my room during the winter. Okaasan brought an electric carpet into my room from the main part of the house, so that helps keep the room slightly warm. I also bundle up in several layers within my house to keep warm. Taking showers is not such a pleasant experience because contact with the cold air upon finishing the showers is rather uncomfortable.

I've moved my violin and music stand from my room to the main part of the house, which is warmer than my living area. Also, my host family lets me practice violin in the main part of the house, which is incredibly kind of them! Now I just have to overcome my embarrassment of playing in front of people and get used to practicing in front of them!

Visit to Kyoto! - Nov. 1

Today I went to Kyoto with Okaasan! It was my first visit to Kyoto, which is such a famous city known for its wealth of temples and shrines. The weather started out sunny and warm as we walked to the train station in Kobe, but after we finished our visit at the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, it began to rain.

So first, let me back up. I did go to the Golden Pavilion, and I was so excited about this! The Golden Pavilion is an extremely beautiful, gold-colored, three floor building within a temple complex called Rokuon-ji Temple. It was erected centuries ago; however, the building tourists visit today is not the original, I think that it was rebuilt a few centuries ago. Nobility or feudal lords lived in the area surrounding the Golden Pavilion, both of which are World Heritage sites.

Next we went to a shrine about fifteen minutes away from the Golden Pavilion. It was not a World Heritage site, but Okaasan has visited this shrine before so she thought it would be nice to show me. When we got there, she spotted a miko-san, or a woman who assists brides during wedding ceremonies. We then saw a bride and groom come out of a side building near the shrine. They formed a procession and walked toward the shrine, finally entering the shrine structure which is off-limits for regular visitors. It turned out that this was the bride and groom's wedding ceremony, so Okaasan and I were able to watch it from twenty-five feet away. It is rare to see a wedding ceremony because normally only close relatives are invited to keep the cost low. It is, however, more normal to have expensive wedding parties after the ceremony. But the normal marriage ceremony is usually reserved for family. Indeed, there were about twelve or so relatives in attendance at this ceremony.

After we watched part of the wedding ceremony, Okaasan and I ate lunch at a tofu restaurant. It served all different types of tofu dishes. We had fried, crispy tofu (not fried in oil but browned and slightly flaky), warm tofu on a stick covered in a salty miso sauce, and cold tofu in a bowl covered with fish flakes. Apparently this is food typical of Kyoto, so I was pleased to indulge.

Okaasan wished to take me to a shrine after eating lunch, but she took a wrong turn and we ended up at a temple complex. Normally we would have enjoyed walking around and viewing the various buildings, but the rain was coming down pretty hard at this point, so we decided to head home. Despite the rain I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to Kyoto.

Saturday, October 31

Halloween is not celebrated in Japan the way it is celebrated in the United States. However, there were various parties in restaurants, bars, and clubs in Osaka and Kobe this past Saturday night. I went to a restaurant in Osaka with my Peruvian friend Duñia and her husband.

Duñia is my classmate Kevin's host mother, and I am on good terms with her and her family. Her husband is Japanese, and they have three children, but just the parents came out to the restaurant tonight. They also brought Kevin. Before going to the restaurant, I spent a few hours in Osaka with Yusuke, an acquaintance who is Kevin's host dad's fellow employee for Dell in Osaka. Yusuke and I did some shopping and walked around the city. It's fun to walk through Osaka and see what kind of fashion is currently in style. We also looked for people wearing interesting Halloween costumes, but we didn't see too many costumes. There was good music playing at the restaurant, so we all danced and ate delicious Mexican food. We returned home to Kobe very late at night, but Duñia and her husband, Okamura-san, took me out for a late-night meal of ramen before they dropped me off at my host family's home.

Duñia is a very caring and selfless person. She invites me to spend time with her, she speaks Spanish with me, and she looks after me. Okamura-san drove to and from Osaka so that we didn't have to wait for the trains to start running on Sunday morning in order to return home. They are very kind, and I appreciate their generosity. I enjoy spending time with them.