These past few bunch of weeks were filled with preparation for the school's festival. Every student was either planning something, preparing something, or building something for the school festival. Everywhere I went, there was somebody painting something, coloring something, or gluing something to another something. That is to say, I was also very busy during our school festival.
I enjoy doing artistic things, so preparing for the school festival was more fun than I thought it would be. Most of the preparations were consisted of decorating the rooms. For every stall, I was doing a different thing. One of the stalls I helped decorate was the Hawaii-Japanese Cultural Exchange stall. In this stall, I made a nice piece of art on the classroom's green board. The only sad thing was, not much people could read what it said. Haha.
Before the festival started, a couple of the clubs decided to go somewhere to celebrate. In one of those clubs, we visited an Italian buffet restaurant by the name of Papageno. The food was delicious! It was a mix of Italian food and Japanese food. There was an ice cream maker, a chocolate fountain, and the most best thing of all, Fanta Melon Soda. Boy, have I missed that soda! In Hawaii, I was sad to leave Diet Coke, but was happy to know that Japan had Fanta Melon Soda. When I got to Japan, I got sad when I found out that I couldn't buy any, as you could only buy them from a Seven Eleven convenience store, which was miles and miles away from where I live.
In Japan, schools hold festivals once a year for their prefectures. Classrooms become shops, the outside campus becomes filled with food shops, and stages are set up everywhere. This year, AIU had two stages, tons of classrooms transformed into cafes, a haunted house, and random people dressed up in costumes wondering the campus. It was a lot of hard work, and a lot of fun.
On the first day, I dressed up as one of the band members of a Japanese band called Golden Bomber. The first time I saw the music video, I laughed so hard from how the main singer reacted to his girlfriend getting taken away, I could not forget it. I thought, "Wow, these guys are terrible dancers." The next time I watched it, I thought, "Dang, I like this." The third time I watched it, I thought, "Dang this is cool! I want to learn this dance!"
On the first day, I dressed up as one of the band members of a Japanese band called Golden Bomber. The first time I saw the music video, I laughed so hard from how the main singer reacted to his girlfriend getting taken away, I could not forget it. I thought, "Wow, these guys are terrible dancers." The next time I watched it, I thought, "Dang, I like this." The third time I watched it, I thought, "Dang this is cool! I want to learn this dance!"
The first day was filled with all sorts of reactions. The first reaction would be the stares. If there is anything that stands out about the Japanese culture, it is the fact that they will blatantly stare at people or things. If you stand out like a sore thumb, people will stare. I stood out like a tree in the desert.
The second reaction were kids screaming, crying, and running away from me. There were a few kids who were terrified of me. I didn't even do anything either. I would just be walking, and all of a sudden you would hear a child screaming. There was a boy who ran so fast in the opposite direction, the parents couldn't even find him. I had to apologize for being so scary.
The last reaction were random high school kids coming up to me and asking me if I could take a picture with them. Some girls were even screaming in joy when they saw me. I was even surprised to have one of the band's fans follow me around all over the place.
The second reaction were kids screaming, crying, and running away from me. There were a few kids who were terrified of me. I didn't even do anything either. I would just be walking, and all of a sudden you would hear a child screaming. There was a boy who ran so fast in the opposite direction, the parents couldn't even find him. I had to apologize for being so scary.
The last reaction were random high school kids coming up to me and asking me if I could take a picture with them. Some girls were even screaming in joy when they saw me. I was even surprised to have one of the band's fans follow me around all over the place.
After the first day ended, the school had a big bonfire. Of course, all the couples started appearing during this time. As the fire burnt, and the acoustic players played their music, I started to think of how great it was to be in the school. The stars were shining brightly that night. After 30 minutes of pleasant thoughts, my mind ran into "Go Home" mode. It was too cold out there. Even with the bonfire. It was so cold, I could see my breath for the first time. I didn't even have to try and exhale hot air. It was doing it on its own.
The next day, I worked again at the festival. In the night time, however, I performed with the Kanto Club. It was great, because I got to perform with the lanterns being lit up for the first time. It was really nice. The only sad thing was, I couldn't take any pictures. I have to go look for them through friends.
The festival was loads of fun! I just wish that I had given myself more time to explore the festival and see what it had to offer. Regardless of it all, I still had a pretty awesome experience!
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The following are the new sections created in the scrapbook:
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