Japanese belly-dancers!

Class today was maa-maa (so-so). I learned some nice new kanji but there is a lot to memorize. I'm not too fond of the format of our class because it's difficult to organize my thoughts about what we have to do each night and how best to practice it. Basically, I miss the Genki textbooks from the last two years, where everything was clearly stated and easily memorize with relevant examples. Our teacher realized that she has been letting us out early every day so now we have to stay until 12:30 instead of 12:10. Oh well.

Nikko is going to be a lot of fun, though! We will get to see Toshogu shrine, the most elaborately decorated shrine in all of Japan. It is a World Heritage site!

We will also get to take an onsen (hot spring) bath, and I know all the rules in Japan. The baths are sex-segregated and we will all be naked!! No towels, bathing suits, or underwear allowed. :) And you can only enter the baths after being clean already. I'm excited to try this.

<---onsen

Today we experienced a cool thing at lunch! There is apparently a belly-dancing club at my university and a ton of beautiful female students in beautiful outfits came into the courtyard and performed. They did some Arabic songs, some Indian songs, and some Colombian and Dominican songs, haha. It was great! I was so happy to see Japanese people doing these things because I did not expect to see it. But after all, Kanda University is for international studies.

(My e-pal Nami is on the far right! So cool!)

My friends and I weren't very good at concentrating on the dances because we were focused on how beautiful the outfits and students were. They were so good at shaking their hips, too! I made some videos:



This one sounded more Indian to me.


This one is the least traditional belly-dancing because it's to a Dominican song, which happens to be one of my favorites. :D (Whine Up by Kat Deluna)


After a long train ride in which my friends became very hungry and impatient, we went to Sunamachi Ginza (my second time) to get delicious food and look at the second-hand clothes store. There wasn't much time there because Robaato had to go home, but it was still fun. My feet were so tired after walking to and from the station four times today, and all through Sunamachi Ginza! I bought eel in a seafood store and the people looked at me like I was crazy when I said I didn't want a second plastic bag. I said I would eat the eel right away, and they laughed at me even more because they said it tastes much better warm. But they didn't have a microwave...and they said it wouldn't make me sick to eat it cold. But everyone in the immediate area was staring at me for my weird eel habits apparently.


DINNER WAS SO GOOD!! There is plain ramen under all of these amazing toppings, and a little bit of sauce/dressing and some kind of grain (?) on the top. My host mom is so talented!