No snow this year for Chrismas. :(

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaashhhhh!! (I'm not sure what that's supposed to be...)

I know this is a day late. I definitely meant to get around to it yesterday but you'll understand later in the post why I'm only just getting around to it.

Be forewarned: it was a good weekend. 

And the fun didn't even start until yesterday, yet somehow it more than sufficed for Saturday as well. 

I'll quickly mention my ride home on Friday from school because it was just so Japan. Basically I was riding home from school on my bike, and at the halfway point it starts to rain. And there was lightning. It probably would've been a better idea to go to a convenience store and have my host mom pick me up, but I figured I could make it, cause I'm just like that. Anyway, I was wearing my giant winter coat (it's been pretty cold lately) so everything but my hair stayed dry. My poor smiley bag got wet. It made him look very sad. (Btdubs, he needs a name, so すすめ (recommendations) are welcome! Hopefully I'll get around to posting a picture of him soon) Needless to say, I probably looked like a wet rat by the time I got home. Only in Japan, children. Only in Japan. I tried sneaking upstairs so my host mom wouldn't feel bad, but she saw my wet bag by the door and immediately goes, "えりちゃーん (Ellie-chaaaaan)". It honestly wasn't that bad though, and I tried to convince her that it was no big deal and she shouldn't feel bad... I don't think it worked. 

That was my fun Friday. Saturday morning, my host family took me to buy freshly made もち (mochi), which is basically just rice that has been pounded to oblivion. Or until it gets a doughy consistency. But I prefer the first description. 

That metal bowl to the side has boiling water, because the wooden hammer has to be kept warm the whole time. The people beating the rice (I'm sure there's a more elegant way of describing the process) take turns, and if they're really feeling it, they exclaim things, most commonly, "よし！(yoshi!)" Except when they say it it doesn't sound like the green and white Mario character.  

We bought some mochi, brought it home, and ate it for lunch. I personally like mine baked and dipped in soy sauce with a little sugar. Sounds weird, but it's surprisingly good. 

Sunday morning I went to see mochi being made again. This time we walked from home because it was two minutes away, and I ended up helping to make some! I even go to try the hammer! (Don't worry, I kept myself under control... no one was hurt) It was, however, surprisingly fun. I wasn't expecting it to be so enjoyable. 

That's me making the mochi into it's signature ball shape! Excuse my struggling appearance... it was windy and cold. The mochi was really warm, so everyone making it into balls was fighting to make them because of how cold our hands were. Notice how much taller I am than everyone. (I won't mention that I'm wearing heels in the picture... oops.)
Yesterday, AFS had a Christmas party thingaling. There were a bunch of kids from other countries because these 2-week-long kids came too. New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia... I think that's everyone. My friends from school came too, which they do everytime, and have I mentioned how much I love them? They're a whole 50% of the reason I don't want to go home (the other being my family here). For real. It's crazy we've only know each other for three months and yet I'm closer to them than most people I've known for years back home. 

Anyway, I think the highlight of the party was when my お祖父ちゃん (grandfather) took up a tamborine with the band that was playing Christmas music and proceeded to tap out the rhythm for the band. He's so wonderful, I can't even. That instantly dubbed him an 'adorable grandpa'. 

After the party, a group of 13 of us went to Machi to do some shopping and show everyone around the city. Andres, Anna, my friends from school, and a bunch of exchangers came. There were so many of us that we had to split into two groups to take purikura. Fun nonetheless. Unfortunately, Andres and I had to leave shortly after getting to Machi because our families were having dinner together that night. Turns out it was with one of the exchange girls that had been at the party and her host family. Ate... too... much... As usual. -___- After dinner (the had MANGO JUICE by the way ;)) everyone went to take purikura, only this time it was with our host families. Yayayayayayaaayy :) 

I got home around 8:30, still had to take a shower, and do some *gasp* homework for today, so I didn't get around to this.

For the entire time I've been here, for one of my class' English classes, they've been doing these Show & Tell presentations. Basically, you introduce anything you want and bring something in to illustrate the speech. It's in English, obviously. Mine was in Japanese. THE STRUG LIFE. Actually, this one was a hundred times easier that the first day of school. I'm happy to say that I wrote 100% of it on my own and had minimal corrections done to it. And it was about four minutes of me talking about Mexican food. Needless to say, I was incredibly hungry afterwards.

Speaking of hungry... today was Monday, so I had 茶道 (Sado - Tea Ceremony). We made tea ceremony okashi today, which is the stuff you eat with the tea. I only got a picture of the sugar candies because I was busy the rest of the time, but these are pretty cool.

And pretty! You press the sugar into those molds and they come out in the shape of the mold. Weeeeee... Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of most, if not all, tea ceremony okashi... If you can believe it (coming from an American) it's all way too sweet. I still wouldn't choose nattou over it, but it's a close one. I'm so mad I don't like them. *pouty face* 

That's it for this post. OH! I'll quickly mention that the foreign exchange kids from the party yesterday came to my school today. We had a period where we rotated around the room and got to talk to them all. Good stuff. The boys in my class were loud and insane as usual, but that's why the girls in the class love them.

Oh, and I know I mentioned it a while back, but I finished The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest last weekend and they're PHENOMENAL. Honest to God. Go read them. I don't even know if they'd be your type of book, but I highly recommend them... and it's very hard to get me interested in most books, so take my word for it.

Before anything else comes to mind, I'm going to close this post.

JF;REKLOE4IJUHGJNFMKDM (I got punctuation and a number in that one.. boss.)

-Ellie