My Kanji test was OK. I only made three minor mistakes so I was satisfied with my overall performance. But on Friday, we were given the schedule for next week and we found out that we have a MAJOR test coming up next week.
Well, thanks to the rain, our plan to go to Ushiku was again postponed, the 4th time in as many weeks.
After the test, on Friday night (May 23rd), I went to the Hirasuna Festival . If I haven`t mentioned it before, Hirasuna is one of the other dorms here at the University. My dorm is Ichinoya and the two are at the opposite ends of the University Campus. In comparison to Ichinoya, Hirasuna is much, MUCH more lively than Ichinoya; I suppose this is because its closer to the city center.
Anyway, the festival is one of the two festivals held at the University, the other one being the University Festival which is held sometime in October. Organised by students, there are performances ranging from dancing and singing to talent shows, and of course food. I had no idea that the festival would be organised on such a big scale so I hadn`t taken my camera, unfortunately. The festival reminded me of the carnivals and festivals back home.
We hung around for around two hours watching some talent shows, during which met up with Jurate`s friend Kristina and I also met up with Ronit briefly. At around 10pm, the festival was concluded by burning a huge bamboo structure, which Ronit told me represented a Kanji character. We then met Kristina`s friend, Adrian from Mexico and headed off to a Mexican restaurant, El Torito, for dinner. This was to be my first Mexican food.
After dinner, we met up with some more of Adrian`s friends and went to this Izakaya but it was really small and crowded, so we went to Cyberex, the amusement center that we had went to the weekend before. We signed up for four hours there, playing pool and table tennis and when we finished, it was 4am and dawn had already started to break! We then rode back to the University and parted with ohayo gozaimasu (good morning). It was about 4.10am when I reached my dorm room. I had signed up for a free bus trip that was organized by the International Student Center and Joyo bank and was supposed to convene at the Int. Student Center at 7.10am but I decided against going.
I woke up late the next day, lazed around, dozed off again and woke up again and soon found out it was 6pm! I had got bored with staying in my dorm room all day long so I again went to the Hirasuna Festival with a friend, Tito from Bolivia, who`s also in the same Japanese language class as I am. But this time, it wasn`t so much fun as it was raining. There were no food stalls. The only highlight was a beauty contest in which all the contestants were wearing Kimonos. After watching the crowning, we were about to return but saw that the finale of the festival was yet to be...a fireworks display....yes, thats right..a fireworks display in the rain!...it was quite impressive. An entire carpark was cordoned off and fireworks were launched from there. Back home, we didn`t have such big fireworks even for Diwali! I managed to get some pics on my cell phone. At times, the carpark looked like a small war zone with so much fumes. By this time, it was raining heavily and Tito and I went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant nearby. We were thoroughly soaked when we returned back to our dorm.
We have again rescheduled our plan to go to Ushiku next Saturday. But that's going to be a little problematic as I also have a robot contest in my lab the same day. Lets see if I can juggle both events together.
Well, thanks to the rain, our plan to go to Ushiku was again postponed, the 4th time in as many weeks.
After the test, on Friday night (May 23rd), I went to the Hirasuna Festival . If I haven`t mentioned it before, Hirasuna is one of the other dorms here at the University. My dorm is Ichinoya and the two are at the opposite ends of the University Campus. In comparison to Ichinoya, Hirasuna is much, MUCH more lively than Ichinoya; I suppose this is because its closer to the city center.
Anyway, the festival is one of the two festivals held at the University, the other one being the University Festival which is held sometime in October. Organised by students, there are performances ranging from dancing and singing to talent shows, and of course food. I had no idea that the festival would be organised on such a big scale so I hadn`t taken my camera, unfortunately. The festival reminded me of the carnivals and festivals back home.
We hung around for around two hours watching some talent shows, during which met up with Jurate`s friend Kristina and I also met up with Ronit briefly. At around 10pm, the festival was concluded by burning a huge bamboo structure, which Ronit told me represented a Kanji character. We then met Kristina`s friend, Adrian from Mexico and headed off to a Mexican restaurant, El Torito, for dinner. This was to be my first Mexican food.
After dinner, we met up with some more of Adrian`s friends and went to this Izakaya but it was really small and crowded, so we went to Cyberex, the amusement center that we had went to the weekend before. We signed up for four hours there, playing pool and table tennis and when we finished, it was 4am and dawn had already started to break! We then rode back to the University and parted with ohayo gozaimasu (good morning). It was about 4.10am when I reached my dorm room. I had signed up for a free bus trip that was organized by the International Student Center and Joyo bank and was supposed to convene at the Int. Student Center at 7.10am but I decided against going.
I woke up late the next day, lazed around, dozed off again and woke up again and soon found out it was 6pm! I had got bored with staying in my dorm room all day long so I again went to the Hirasuna Festival with a friend, Tito from Bolivia, who`s also in the same Japanese language class as I am. But this time, it wasn`t so much fun as it was raining. There were no food stalls. The only highlight was a beauty contest in which all the contestants were wearing Kimonos. After watching the crowning, we were about to return but saw that the finale of the festival was yet to be...a fireworks display....yes, thats right..a fireworks display in the rain!...it was quite impressive. An entire carpark was cordoned off and fireworks were launched from there. Back home, we didn`t have such big fireworks even for Diwali! I managed to get some pics on my cell phone. At times, the carpark looked like a small war zone with so much fumes. By this time, it was raining heavily and Tito and I went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant nearby. We were thoroughly soaked when we returned back to our dorm.
We have again rescheduled our plan to go to Ushiku next Saturday. But that's going to be a little problematic as I also have a robot contest in my lab the same day. Lets see if I can juggle both events together.
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