桜が咲いている！

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I've posted. There has been so much going on this week!

Monday and Tuesday I didn't really do much besides school. Wednesday though I went on a trip with a couple kids from school to see Kabuki Theater! It was a really neat experience. Not many people went because a lot of people consider Kabuki to be long and boring, and I'll admit I dozed off a little in the second Act, but I'm really glad that I went. Kabuki uses really ancient Japanese, so I understood almost none of it. Imagine someone who was just learning English trying to understand Shakespeare! I had an English summary though, so I followed along ok. The show that I saw featured an actor from a very famous Kabuki family playing 5 major roles. He was very good, and the finale was very exciting.

(I couldn't take pics during the show obviously but this is the inside of the theatre)

Thursday after class I went shopping and spent way too much money. I did finally get my Dragons jersey though! I haven't worn it yet, but I'm really excited. It's #2 Araki. I probably won't wear it for a while because I have messy, inky classes on Monday and Tuesday. Nothing better than black spots on my new white jersey. For dinner we went to Great-Grandma's and had some delicious tempura again.

Right now the Sakura trees are in bloom!! Sakura trees are found all over Japan and bloom beautiful shades of pink to white for about a week or two every spring. Since they are only in bloom for a short time, Japanese people celebrate by doing Hanami- which literally means looking at flowers. Everyone goes to the park, puts out a tarp and sits under the trees eating and drinking. On Friday my friend from ND invited us to do Hanami with his aquaintance from the nearby Nagoya University and other students and study abroad kids from there. It was tons of fun, I got to meet lots of new people and enjoy the beautiful trees.

(While I was waiting for friends to get out of class I wandered around near school and found this really pretty lake with Sakura trees all around it)
(This is the same place but zoomed out- I think this picture really demonstrates the essence of Japan because of the really beautiful scenery with a high-rise building going in behind it)(Another neat temple/graveyard area near school)
(This is Tsurumai Koen where we went for Hanami. Lots of food stands of course!)

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to a place about an hour train ride away called Inuyama for a Sakura festival. Unfortunately it was raining the whole time and the parade didn't really happen. I did get to visit Inuyama castle though, which was really cool because unlike Nagoya Castle it is completely original. From the top there was a really neat view of the surrounding town. (I realized I never took a picture of the outside of the castle, but here is a view from the top)

After eating dinner in Inuyama I headed back to Nagoya where I saw Dragonball Evolution. It was in English with Japanese subtitles, since it was made in America. It was sooo bad. So bad that it was funny and I was still glad I saw it, and I was expecting it to be bad anyway.

Today has been dedicated to laundry, cleaning, and homework. I have to head out soon to do some more Hanami (since it only comes once a year!), so I will put up pictures from the last week later tonight.

名原　（This is the Kanji that I just picked today for my name. If I'm right the symbols should accurately represent the right sounds and would mean something like Distinguished Meadow)

Fact of the Day: Buying in bulk definitely does not exist here. Most people make trips to the grocery store every day. It's almost impossible to buy in bulk because some grocery stores don't even give you bags to put your stuff in, and most people bring a little shopping bag with them.