It was kind of foggy in the morning which looked neat:
This coffee was probably pretty good, but I'm still not a huge fan of cold black coffee. I'm not sure why I keep getting them:
These cans are all super tiny and cute and I don't think I've shown that very well because my hands are sort of small too, so here is one on a table by my water bottle and some papers:
ようvs.みたい！ (different ways to say things look/are similar) I liked the examples.
Here's the view from the top of the hill (that's HIF on the left). Our school is actually right next to one of the most famous views in the city:
Also, me:
わかめ（seaweed） onigiri (#14):
During our break, our teacher played two videos called 「おれ、ねこ」 and 「あたし、ねこ」 which I think are Canon commercials. Both titles mean "I am Cat" or "I am a cat" in very casual language, but the first one (ore neko) is very boyish and the second (atashi neko) is very girly. They are super cute and are on YouTube.
Cafeteria ramen for lunch:
Today I did a Kado class which is Japanese flower arranging:
This paper explains the specific shape we made:
Many, many flower pictures:
I enjoyed the class way more than I thought I would. It was a lot of fun, relaxing, and I was really happy with how mine turned out. The instructor pointed out that I had ended up making a "く" (ku) shape with the purple flowers, which helped balance it out.
More flower pictures:
More flowers:
Everyone with their flowers. (I thought the instructor was way shorter than me until seeing this picture.)
We had the option to either take our flowers home, or put them on a table upstairs:
Afterwards, I went and got soft cream with some friends. We all got this kind which is chocolate, vanilla, and melon. It was a lot like Neapolitan, but way better because melon flavored ice cream is amazing.
After that, I went to a Kendo workshop:
It was really cool. It kind of looks like people just yelling and hitting each other with wooden swords, but it's a lot more difficult and detailed than it looks. For example, you have to yell out the name of the body part you're going to hit (top of the head, side of the torso, or arm, which are all heavily padded) before you hit it, and kind of scoot-run in a straight line past the person. Kind of like how doing a good swing out (while swing dancing) can be tricky, but instead of just worrying about running into your partner you also have to yell and hit them with a big stick.
We didn't spar with anyone though. We started off by "learning" the footwork and how to hit with the sword, then practiced by splitting taunt newspapers in half and popping beach balls on a mannequin's head. Then the volunteers from the school put their gear on and we practiced hitting their various, padded parts and scoot-running past them.
At the end, they showed us what an actual match looks like:
Later I looked into why there is so much yelling and found out that part of it has to do with calling out the body parts you are going to hit (mostly to show that your hits are intentional), but there are breathing, focus, and confidence related reasons behind it as well.
The swords:
Clover:
This water was ハスカップ（hasukappu）flavored which means fly honeysuckle. It's apparently famous in Hokkaido. This may be because I've never tried actual ハスカップ, but to me it just tasted sweet and vaguely berry flavored:
Dinner:
These were left over from the bentos and I thought they were really cute. The little maki is filled with cheese:
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