Adventures in mochi

So last night Louki and I went to the mochi party at the Nagoya University international dorm.  On the way there, Itou-san regaled us with stories of when she went to Izumo Taisha (with her brother as a sort of college roadtrip) and managed to not stay in a hotel room...or pay for showers...or pay for food sometimes.  Needless to say, there were extreme hijinks which involved bathing in rivers and sleeping in cars.  Man, it makes my adventures seem so boring in comparison.

Anyway, we got to the mochi party where everyone from the Tomodachi no Kai (literally "the club of friends," but they host events for international students so they can practice their Japanese) was still setting up.  We got to see a mochi machine in action!  It is the craziest thing--sort of like a cross between a rice cooker and a bread machine.  Basically, you throw your mochi rice in with water and once it has cooked, the machine starts spinning like a washing machine and the rice turns into mochi.  CRAZY.

Also, as it turned out, they needed someone to make an announcement about the party over the dorm intercom in English, and Itou-san elected me to do it, so I got to announce the party.  It was exciting.

Once the mochi was done, it was time to eat SO MUCH MOCHI.  You have never seen so much mochi in your life.  We had mochi with black sesame (definitely my favorite) and mochi with ground soy beans and mochi with red beans and mochi with grated daikon and mochi with spinach and fish flakes and mochi with cheese and seaweed (which is strangely delicious?).  Oh, and one of the students from Laos brought some kind of excessively delicious soup that I might have been way too into.
Also, while eating the cheese-and-seaweed mochi, something went horribly wrong and Louki wound up with both her hands stuck to the mochi...which was also stuck to her mouth.  The fact that she was laughing while trying to get unstuck wasn't really helping matters.  Itou-san decided to be helpful by taking a picture.

Also, all the guys in the Tomodachi no Kai kept telling us, "Mochi has twice the rice of normal rice,* so don't eat too much or you'll get fat!" and all the women kept telling us to eat more.  Clearly the women had their priorities straight.

As it turned out, most of the students from Nagoya U. who came speak absolutely no Japanese.  (Literally no Japanese at all.  I have no idea how they take classes, but maybe Nagoya U. offers them in English?)  Some of the Tomodachi no Kai members speak English, but a lot of them speak very minimal English, so they were THRILLED OUT OF THEIR MINDS when they discovered that we could actually understand what they were saying.  So a whole bunch of people came over to talk to me and Louki about a whole bunch of things, which was pretty cool.

...also there was this really awkward moment where this old guy asked if Louki and I were planning on getting Japanese boyfriends, and Louki (very sensibly) gave a very noncommittal answer while I said I already had a boyfriend.  Then he told me that Japanese boys were cool.  And I said I was sure that was so, but I kind of like my boyfriend 'cause he's pretty awesome.  And then he told me that when I break up with my boyfriend I should let him know so he can hook me up with a Japanese guy.  One of the older women overheard him and was horrified and told him he was horrible and made him apologize.
Yeah.
It was exciting?

There was also a guy who kept trying to convince Louki that Japan has significantly more equality than the Netherlands by citing the fact that less than half the population in the Netherlands is allowed to go to college.  Except, of course, that's not true and we have no idea where he got this statistic from.  (He appeared to believe that certain people are forced to become farmers because of their social class?  Maybe he was confusing the Netherlands with the Edo period...)
The same guy tried to convince me that atheists don't exist.
It was an exciting conversation.

But I had a cool conversation with a Japanese woman who just finished up her master's at Nagoya U. in foreign language studies and with a bunch of older ladies who foisted food on me and with some Chinese master's students in engineering.
Also, this random guy called me cool?  He said, "You strike me as the kind of person who, if a cockroach suddenly appeared, would calmly kill it while everyone else freaked out."  Ahahahahaha.  That's definitely not happened before.

So, yeah!  It was fun!  We ate SO MUCH MOCHI.  And it was delicious.  And we were invited back any time we like.  Apparently they have activities every Thursday, so I might start going to those.  It seems like a fun group, even if some of them are committed to seeing me with a Japanese guy.
I...I really don't know what to say about that.

Anyway, I am currently writing this post from a hotel room in Izumo!  I took three trains (uggggh don't even talk to me about it) with my advisor and Torii-san (the only other girl in my advisor's seminar) to get here.  It was about 8 hours in transit.  UGGGGGH.  There was some serious freaking out on the way (not on my part) 'cause there was no snow in Nagoya and then there was SO MUCH SNOW in Gifu and somehow my advisor heard that there was a foot of snow in Izumo and when we got to Tottori there was about a foot of snow and it was snowing and everybody (except for me) was freaking out everywhere...and then we got to Izumo and there was no snow at all and it's above freezing.  LAME.  I miss snow.  Which is ironic because I've only really had one winter with proper snow.  BUT WHATEVER.

Tomorrow we're going to see Izumo Taisha and also a museum related to Lafcadio Hearn...?  And probably other things that I don't know about yet.  But hopefully it will be exciting.  Two of our other classmates are taking a night bus up, so we'll see how awake they are...

*I think they meant that because mochi is basically super compacted rice, it's twice as dense as normal rice...?

Futons, plastic surgery, tacos, weather, and boyfriends

Time for a random thought dump!

First off, futons are the best.  Seriously.  I am planning on sleeping on a futon for the rest of forever if I can.  They're soft and warm and comfy and snuggly and just generally epic.  Yes.  Futons.

Second of all, the weather has really cooled off.  It was actually kind of chilly today, which was a nice change from the oppressively hot and humid weather we were having earlier in the week.  I can wear long pants without feeling like my legs are shriveling up and dying!

Third of all, I went to a "tacos party" in the dorm common room this evening (it was in celebration of one girl's birthday).  It was 300 yen for one...taco...like object.  It was supposed to be 300 yen for ALL THE TACOS, but apparently they did not expect 37 people to show up, so they made enough food for about 10.  But they were good, despite not really being taco-like.  They hand-made the tortillas, so they were more like flatbread than tortillas, and there was tuna (???) and some sort of...onion...like...substance...and the taco meat was a lot saucier than normal.  If someone had handed me one of their tacos and asked me to guess what it was, I would have said some kind of Mediterranean food.  But it was food, and I got to meet some more people, so I guess it was worth 300 yen?

Fourth of all, we had a discussion in Japanese class today about plastic surgery, and four of the six girls said they would like to do it.  My response was "NO NO NO NO NO NO" and the other girl's response was, "I like my face."  ...also, apparently our teacher didn't know what sabi meant.*  I need to stop using obscure tea ceremony terms in class.

Fifth of all, it seems that I am once again in danger of being paired off with someone.  I did not realize how completely obsessed pretty much everyone I have met is with dating.  When introducing themselves, girls will say whether they have a boyfriend or not and whether they're living with their boyfriend.  People have, multiple times, asked me if I am living alone (i.e. whether I'm living with a boyfriend/husband).  The girl whose birthday it was today said her goal for this year is to get a boyfriend.  Also, Hi-chan, the Japanese girl in my suite, shortly after we met asked me if I had met other people from the dorm yet.
Me: Um, not that many.
Hi-chan: Have you met any boys?
Me: Um...not that many.
Hi-chan: There are lots of boys in the dorm.  You should meet them.
...of course, it took me about half an hour to realize what she'd been implying there.
And then this evening, I was taking out the trash and, on my way back up to my room, I passed Hi-chan talking to a bunch of Japanese guys.  She thanked me for taking out the trash as I passed, and I said it wasn't a problem.  But then, about half a flight up, I heard her tell the boys I was from California.  There was, as usual, an immediate reaction of awe.  (I don't know.  Apparently being from California is really cool or something?)  And then some random guy asked, "Does she have a boyfriend?"
...I must admit that I nearly sprinted back down the stairs, but I decided to ignore it, because A. probably not cool to eavesdrop on conversations and B. if I had misheard him, that would have been really bad.  But I'm pretty sure I didn't mishear him and FRIGGIN' GEEZ.  I am a PERSON, not some random Californian object you can buy off a shelf.  You don't even KNOW me, so what the heck do you care if I have a boyfriend or not?
...of course, now I'm going to be paranoid that every guy who tries to talk to me is just trying to win the Californian prize.  I'm kind of horrifically dense when it comes to flirting, to be honest, and I probably wouldn't even notice if the guy was hitting on me unless he was being REALLY OBVIOUS.  On the other hand, I could be loudly obnoxious about having a boyfriend, but that's not really going to stop anyone (as I have heard from sitting in corners as other people are talking about their long-distance relationship-like entities).  It would also be obnoxious, and, honestly, it's none of their business.
But on the other other hand, I don't want a bunch of guys sizing me up like I'm a piece of meat.
AUGH, FRIGGIN' AUGH.
Maybe I should just tape a sign to my forehead: "SO NOT INTERESTED. LET'S BE FRIENDS INSTEAD."

*Sabi is a concept most common in medieval Japanese art, especially in tea ceremony.  It's the idea that asymmetry and imperfection is more beautiful than symmetry and perfection.  It's why a lot of very expensive tea ceremony bowls are warped or unevenly glazed.