桜

Yes! The sakura trees are in bloom! :D

I went with my family to partake in the hanami - flower wieving. We haven't done the whole thing with a picnic basket yet, but I think we will now during the spring holidays. Still, no food meant no ditracting me from all the beauty surrunding me. (Haha, I sound like such a glutton!) I'm not complaining - I needed all my senses to take in as much as possible. :)

The cherry blossom is Japan's national flower, and I must say I don't think they could have made a better choice! And with all the sakura trees here blossoming in perfect unison now, it looked like a veil of pink blossom clouds. It was really warm and sunny that day too, so it was a perfect day for a hanami.

I love flowers and trees, so a blooming tree is perfect! It was beautiful.

Without further ado, I bring thee: pictures! (click for larger)

Look! A chibi sakura! :P

Also, there's news on the bukatsu (clubs) part of things. I've decided to quit kyudo, as we hardly ever trained, and so I found little reason to stay. However, I had a good time when we did train, and I'm very grateful to both my wonderful sensei and my bukatsu friends. :)

Still, my goals in joining a club were to try something new, to have fun, make new friends and train so that I could get as good as I could withing a year. This cannot be achieved without training.

So! I've talked to my councelor in Ijuin Rotary club (for the first time, go me!) and asked him if he could pwetty pwease do a bit of snooping around to see if there's any kendo clubs close to where I live that would allow a cute little foreign girl to wave a bamboo stick around. (Since my school's kendo club will be history as of the new term.)

There's a junior high kendo coach that's said he's willing to teach me, though, so at least I know of one. Fingers crossed!

Location: Japan
Mood: um... hungry?
Listening to: Scarborough Fair
Eating: no
Drinking: cocoa!

...but my eyes are dry.

My 110th post, yay~!

Kagoshima Josei Kokou, my high school, came second in the all Japan school competitions!
...so now there's crying and despair all over the place.

What's with people? Yeah, they lost, but... they're second in the whole country, for crying out loud! The changing room was filled with boys in blue uniforms sobbing. Ookaay...? I understand that they're probably disappointed that they didn't win when they'd worked so hard to get to the finals... but it still kind of baffles me. They say they're happy they got this far, learned so much and had fun, but they say it with a choked voice while stearing with tear-filled eyes into the camera. When these sport clubs do something, they go all the way.

...Still, you don't see a lot of people winning silver medals in the olympics crumbling into a sobbing pile at the finish line. "Those who get in second didn't win a silver medal - they lost a gold". The person who said this can never have won a silver medal.

People - be happy! This was friggin' well done if I may say so myself. Now let me see some smiles.


Location: Japan! In front of the TV...
Mood: O__o ?
Watching: soccer on TV

Testing Kyudo!

Today was my trial day at kyudo. It was fun, although we only got to practice with rubber bands fastened to a small plastic handle. (Obviously, thinking you'll be shooting an arrow from a 2 meter long bow on your first day when you can't even hold it correctly is asking a bit much! XD) We went by car to practice in a dojo away from our school, since we don't have a dojo of our own. It was amazingly Japanese and really beautiful!

The teacher did nothing but sweep the floors(!), so we were taught by the students. Still, they were really helpful and knew a lot more than we did, so it was fine! They even stood behind me correcting my stance and way of holding the bow. ^^ And, OMG, physical contact!! XD (Still, I must say I'm surprised the teacher didn't even come to look at any of us...?) They were really nice and funny too - there was one boy we found out went a class beow us (or he's younger, can't recall), so he's our kouhai (junior at work or school etc.). He jokingly got down on his knees, bowing with his head to the floor. Then we realized that he's our senpai (senior) when it comes to kyudo - so Francesco threw himself flat down on his stomach while I repeated the low bow. All the while laughing and saying "onegai shimasu" repeatedly. XD

They're having a contest in a few weeks time, so up until then they're all practicing. After that, they don't really seem to know when the next training will be. Apparently they send each other mails on their cell phones when they have a training. What I'm worried about is that I might not learn as much if we hardly ever practice. In which case maybe I should just work damn hard ans start kendo? I might get bored of going home so early eventually too, although club activites every day will be tiring, I'm sure... I don't know. I'm confused again. :S What to doo~?

People who have tried any of this, or just want to give me a tip... you're welcome to leave a comment! :)

Location: Japan!
Mood: tired (thank God it's Friday...)
Listening to: my host dad snoring in the sofa XD
Eating: are you crazy?! It's past midnight...
Drinking: maybe some water before I go to bed. Bed~ m(_ _)m