desu ne

on saturday moegi and i went to a school bazaar. i dont remember where the school was, and moegis not here to ask. it was probably close by, though. my host father gave us a ride.

anyway. one of moegis friends from elementary school gave her a couple of tickets to the bazaar, so we got in for free.

i could tell a lot of work went into it. they really went all-out.

the bazaars theme was "desu ne." it wasnt until we had been at the bazaar for over an hour that it finally clicked. "desu" was written in katakana (the alphabet for foreign words) and "ne" was written with english letters. im so used to seeing the whole thing in hiragana that i didnt get it right away.

all the classrooms on one floor were set aside for clubs. first moegi showed me the photography clubs display, because she knows i like photography. there were some really nice shots that i wanted to look at a little longer, but i didnt want to make moegi wait. the next classroom over was calligraphy. i dont find calligraphy particularly interesting, but moegis a big fan. its hard to read her, but i think she was impressed. we checked out some other clubs, too. art club, which was a let-down. english-speaking club had (american) song lyrics up with the japanese lyrics side-by-side, and some gems from president cowboy. manga club had animation cells on display. most of them were from one particular anime series that ive heard of but havent seen. i forget the name now.

someday i want an animation cell. theyre pricey, though.

i think some boys waved to me on the 1st floor. whatever.

tea ceremony club had a line out the door. while we were waiting club members were busy running back and forth in their cute yukatas (summer kimonos). i got a group photo of them after the ceremony. i probably shouldnt have asked, but this country owes me big time. they seemed a little startled, but they didnt say no.

out of context that last sentence could make me sound like a rapist.

after a few hours i ran out of money. shops were closing anyway, so moegi and i got a refund on our unused tickets (the japanese are so trusting. its cute). we were standing in line and peekos mom showed up. i didnt find out it was peekos mom until later, though. i guess she teaches at the high school. anyway, she gave us some cookies. i dont know where they came from, but i wasnt abount to turn them down. throw away everything i ever learned about not accepting candy from strangers out the window.

moegi and i went to a convenience store so i could use the ATM, but it wouldnt accept my card because it wasnt issued in japan. moegi called her dad to ask for advice and he suggested we try the ATM at the post office. he said hed pick us up out front. moegi and i bought some ice cream (drumsticks!) for the journey. the post office accepted my card. FYI, it turns out post office ATMs are pretty much the only ATMs that will accept foreign credit cards. just in case youre ever in japan and want to withdraw some cash.

my host mother made ramen for dinner, probably because i mentioned that i was craving some a few days before. what i meant, though, was that i wanted to eat out. homemade ramen cant hold a candle to grungy ramen stand ramen.

after dinner my host mother showed me all of her kimonos. she had at LEAST 15, most of which she had received from her mom. because kimonos can cost as much as $20,000 (and thats not even a wedding kimono), owning that many kimonos is rare.

youd think that with 15 kimonos id have liked at least one of them. most of them were pink, because my host mothers mom loved pink, i guess. i usually dont have a problem with the color pink, but it was kind of like pepto bismal pink.

that night i finished kuroi ame (black rain). the ending is kind of fucked up, so after i read the last sentence i felt pretty lonely. i hugged my pillow and pretended it was pat. awww.