Hanami, etc.

Hanami is the flower viewing festival. You may be familiar with it, they do something similar in Washington D.C. every year. Hanami is a very popular thing to do. We were invited to go to Kyoto for hanami, but it seemed like a lot of trouble and it'd been a long week, so we decided to stay in Suita-shi and go to a nearby park (Minami Koen - "Minami park") which is about 4 blocks from my dorm (1 block from K and M's dorm). So, last Sunday I went to the park about 1pm... I spread out a blanket (the hostel had a "freebie bin" where people had accidentally left stuff and a brown throw blanket was in there, so I acquired it), and set down my goods. A six-pack of Asahi lite, a bento, and myself. It was cooler early on in the day, but the clouds cleared and the sun came up. I ended up getting a very slight sunburn (by the next day it was completely gone, thankfully). People in the park were playing volleyball or soccer, and there were food stands set up too selling takoyaki and other Japanese foods.

We had a pretty good turn-out. The "gokai group" almost all showed up, and I taught the Korean girls gang signs (west siiiiyeeeede haha, I'm ghetto). We had a few guys from the middle east and Africa (Turkey, Iran, Algeria, etc.), and some other people that I'm not too familiar with. With everyone there we had about fifteen people all sitting together on various blankets or tarps. I made friends with a group of older Japanese folks behind us, and they kept offering us more. More beer, more drinks, more food, etc. They gave us onigiri, shrimp shumai, shiokara (which I wasn't a fan of, but kept eating because they seemed really impressed that I would even eat it) among other things. I didn't know what shiokara was and now that I'm reading the wiki, I'M surprised I ate it. Anyway, all the Japanese people were pretty drunk and slurring, so sometimes it was harder to understand them than it would normally be, but they were nice and we all had a good time.

I am still sick. There is an outbreak of measles in the dorms. I am pretty sure that I've had measles before (and chicken pox, too), but I'm not 100% sure. Guess I ought to find out. I don't think I have the measles because even if I've never had them, I had to go through a battery of vaccinations to go overseas when my dad was in the military, plus the shots you have to get just to attend public schools. So... I am pretty sure this is just a cold. I don't think you can get the measles twice.

Takarazuka (wiki here) shows are starting soon, and I am uber hyped about it. I am still trying to decide which show I want to see, either this one or this one. On the trains they have posters advertising the Takarazuka shows, and I really, really, really want to snag a few of them. I think professor Suzuki (in whose Gender Studies class I first learned about Takarazuka) would like to have one or two to show her class, plus I want one for me, and I think one Miss Clarissa Sanchez wouldn't mind having one also (wish you could be here to go to a show with me!).

Now that classes have started I'm learning that I'm going to have to switch my schedule around. Some of the classes that I got approval to take aren't being offered this semester, so I have to reorganise things and figure out which classes are being offered that will count for credit at A&M, and then take those. The nice thing about classes here is that you can take two weeks of courses before you even have to register, so you get to see the syllabus, meet the professor, and get a feel of the class before deciding which ones you want to take. I want to take back as many credits as possible, obviously, so I have some research to do.

Anyway, that's what's up lately. I have to head out to class now, have a good day, all.