I actually wrote this entry a few weeks ago for the Seiritsu website however I kept forgetting to upload it, so here it is:
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| the International Department |
I kind of got off on a rocky start on the first day of the Bunkasai. First of all the Bunkasai started at 10am so I thought I would get there early at about 9am, but it turned out that I needed to be there at 8:20am like normal so yeah, I was late. I also showed up wearing the wrong clothes too, so it was a double whammy. During the sports carnival everyone went to the event wearing their sports clothes with their class t-shirt over it, so I did the same thing for the Bunkasai too. However when I got there I saw everyone else wearing their normal school uniform with their class t-shirt over it so I had to go home to change back. Other than that the rest of the weekend went well.
I was involved with three different rooms: the English Conversation Club, the Art Club and my Homeroom.
We had the International Department and the English Conversation Club together where we each took turns to tell fortunes AKA (uranai) to the Japanese people in English and then we had to translate them into Japanese.
Some fortunes were direct and easy to translate such as “Wearing red tomorrow will bring you good luck”, while some were very vague like “You should spend less time thinking and more time doing.”
Here is a picture of Nicolas fortune telling.
We also got to go on stage, where the Japanese girls from the English Conversation Club interviewed us and introduced us to the community. After the interview we had 10 seconds to present our ‘Special Talent’, my talent was playing the guitar. They later sent me into the hall way with the guitar to attract customers, which actually worked since one lady said she followed the music.
In the Art Club’s room we made a little art gallery.
Last week everyone prepared their best works and made little frames for them and hung them up.
We each had to name our works (in Japanese) so I close really simple titles to avoid messing up, my works are the two middle ones.
We also had the new Art Club magazine on display, where everyone contributed something towards it.
For my homeroom, we made two rooms for the festival the Haunted House and a Kid’s Room.
I have no idea why they we made two rooms since everyone else only had one room but it was handy since the teachers made us close the Haunted House.
Everyone really put their hearts into making the Haunted House so in comparison they really didn’t count the Kid’s Room, which didn’t need any management like some of the other rooms, which were shops or attractions.
I was lucky since I was involved with other clubs, so I didn’t get as depressed as some people.
The funniest thing is that they kept the bleeding dummy from the Haunted House and put it in the Kid’s Room and filled his belly with candy!
When I was off duty I went looking around at all the other rooms.
Some of them were really cool.
There was a planetarium, cassino, miniature train room, and many more.
One of the classes had a gold fish catching game, which I’ve only seen in animes.
You have to use a paper paddle to catch as much fish as you can before it breaks.
A lot of people said that it was hard but I ended up catching about 13 fish with one turn.
It looks as though I’ve got a new special talent.
On the Sunday the International students including me had the privilege of carrying the Mikoshi.
The Mikoshi is a portable shrine that people carry around in the streets during festivals, however it is extremely heavy.
With the help from the professional Mikoshi carrying guys we marched into the school were the other students joined in and helped us carry it in.
The Mikoshi had little bells on it so we had to keep shaking it up and down to ring them.
It was exhausting, but also a fun experience.
Over all the Bunkasai was awesome!! It was great seeing everyone working together to make something as amazing as this. I feel as though I’ve gotten to know my class more from working together with them this last week and I hope I can continue to make more friends.
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| kids room - guess who drew most of these |
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| my class |
As some of you may know, (from eating boxes of it at animania) Pocky is a popular snack in Japan and last week they had Pocky Day on the 11.11.11, because pokey is straight and looks like a 1... get it?
I was involved with three different rooms: the English Conversation Club, the Art Club and my Homeroom. We had the International Department and the English Conversation Club together where we each took turns to tell fortunes AKA (uranai) to the Japanese people in English and then we had to translate them into Japanese. Some fortunes were direct and easy to translate such as “Wearing red tomorrow will bring you good luck”, while some were very vague like “You should spend less time thinking and more time doing.” Here is a picture of Nicolas fortune telling.
In the Art Club’s room we made a little art gallery. Last week everyone prepared their best works and made little frames for them and hung them up. We each had to name our works (in Japanese) so I close really simple titles to avoid messing up, my works are the two middle ones. We also had the new Art Club magazine on display, where everyone contributed something towards it. 
For my homeroom, we made two rooms for the festival the Haunted House and a Kid’s Room. I have no idea why they we made two rooms since everyone else only had one room but it was handy since the teachers made us close the Haunted House. Everyone really put their hearts into making the Haunted House so in comparison they really didn’t count the Kid’s Room, which didn’t need any management like some of the other rooms, which were shops or attractions. I was lucky since I was involved with other clubs, so I didn’t get as depressed as some people. The funniest thing is that they kept the bleeding dummy from the Haunted House and put it in the Kid’s Room and filled his belly with candy! 
When I was off duty I went looking around at all the other rooms. Some of them were really cool. There was a planetarium, cassino, miniature train room, and many more. One of the classes had a gold fish catching game, which I’ve only seen in animes. You have to use a paper paddle to catch as much fish as you can before it breaks. A lot of people said that it was hard but I ended up catching about 13 fish with one turn. It looks as though I’ve got a new special talent. 
On the Sunday the International students including me had the privilege of carrying the Mikoshi. The Mikoshi is a portable shrine that people carry around in the streets during festivals, however it is extremely heavy. With the help from the professional Mikoshi carrying guys we marched into the school were the other students joined in and helped us carry it in. The Mikoshi had little bells on it so we had to keep shaking it up and down to ring them. It was exhausting, but also a fun experience.
