Cherry Blossom Festival

Japanese cultural festival called “Cherry Blossom Festival” was held in Japan Town, San Francisco on April 12^th 13^th 19^th and 20^th. I joined on 13^th and 20^th. On 13^th, I was with my Taiwanese friend, and hanging out with her. I saw a Japanese drum concert in the beginning. After that, we bought Japanese food at the booth, and ate it in outside. There were many booths around there, and most of them looked delicious, so it took a little bit time to decide to buy. I finally decided Udon. My friend bought eel don by the way. It was awesome. It was very hot at the day, extraordinary weather. San Francisco is famous for its unique climate, easy to change and difference among places. After eating lunch, I bought ice cream inside of a building and while I was walking, I met my other friend. We took a picture together, standing in front of cherry blossom tree. It was nice picture. Finally, with the friends, I went to see Ikebana exhibition. I don’t have an opportunity to see Ikebana in my daily life even though I’m Japanese, so I had a good incentive to my life.

Valentine Day And Pillow Fight

Today is Valentine Day. There is a difference for the celebration of the day between Japan and US. In Japan, in general, women give chocolates to the men but here, America is not. It’s typical that both women and men give chocolates to the other and many people give presents to the other.

I ate out at Japanese restaurant with my friend today, and I heard an interesting story. There is a yearly event called Pillow Fight in SF. People taking part in it fight literally with a pillow. They bring their own pillow to the place held the event, and smash each other with it. This reminds Japanese of Makuranage that Japanese students throw their pillow to their friends when they stay out of the home for a special school event like school trip and go to bed. I saw some people holding pillows when I was on my way to my home. They seem to get exciting... I’ve uploaded some video shows pillow fight from Youtube.

The Spring Semester has begun!

The Spring Semester of SFSU began today. This semester, I’m taking microeconomic, management and organization behavior for my major, Ethical issue in Journalism, Critical thinking, and English class for multilingual. The total units are 15. My grade for last semester was bad, so I’ll get good grade in this semester.

The Trip To New York④Times Square And Grand Central Terminal

I dropped in Times Square after the visit to Broadway. I was there for a little while because we wanted to check in for the hotel and leave our bag at the room, so it was just quick look. There were many commercial signs and electric bulletin boards in there like Tokyo. Through Times Square, I dropped in Grand Central Terminal. It’s the place like Tokyo Station. Many trains are available at the station , and the building was classical.

The Trip To New York③Broadway

After visiting to Ground Zero, I visited to Broadway. The average temperature of the day was -3℃, so it’s very cold while I was walking. My friend had bought groves for this trip in San Francisco but I didn’t. I felt regret for that. I bought them there afterwards. On the way to there from the nearest station, I saw many people but it’s less than I expected. My expectation was Tokyo. In the end of this trip, I felt being less people than I expected after all. I think Tokyo has more people and even Osaka does. I also saw a bunch of street stalls. I bought nice warming hat at there later on. Like this, I got many discoveries at there. I saw Yoshinoya, many souvenir stores, NY Yankees and Mets goods stores, big McDonald’s sign and so on. As I expected, many theaters were there. There were sings for a play I’ve heard, The lion King and Mamma Mia. I really wanted to see The Lion King but eventually I didn’t because of the schedule and financial problem. There was no time to see. If I had one more day to stay there, I would be able to see it. There was an available ticket but it’s expensive. Even minimum one was one hundred bucks! I dropped in Times Square as the next visit place.

The Trip To New York②

I landed at JFK air port in 10am in Eastern Standard Time. If the plane landed on time, I was going to visit to The Statue of Liberty. That’s because it’s so popular place for tourists that many people may line up to board the vessel to the island located the statue, so it’s better to go there to line up in earlier. I visited there in the second day, so it’s ok. I’ll write about it later on. My friend and I framed our visit plan again while we were on the plane and had decided to visit Ground Zero instead of it. Ground Zero is the place in which World Trade Center stood once as you know. That’s the one of the places I really wanted to visit in NY because it’s historically important place. After I left the plane, I took the train to the subway station to move to the downtown. As soon as I went to outside, my skin felt cold, as if my skin was stuck. After a while, the train came in. I have an image that the subway train of NY is silver and has uneven surfaces. What I saw was the image. My fried said “many scribbles on the surfaces” but it had few, not many. My first impression of the inside was that there are many black people. On the way to the downtown, many people got in, and I saw many black though I also saw white. The difference from SF was that I didn’t see any Asian American. It was obvious that NYC has more black people than SF does. I got off at the transfer station, and took the train to the site of WTC. The site was located at just right side, across a road, of the stair to the ground. The site was under construction that the skyscraper called Freedom Tower is going to be built, and some people who seem tourists were around there. As my impression, I thought it’s very scary that terrorism happened in such a center of a city. I’m sorry for the people who died because of the incident. After I saw the information board about the site, I circled the site. The angles, I saw on the way around, to the site were different. The next visit place was Broadway.

The Trip To New York①

I was visiting to New York in January 4th through 6th. By the trip, I had never been to eastern part of US as well as New York, so this trip was something I really wanted. In the night of January 3rd, my friend who came along with me and I met up at the bus stop near our campus and then took the bus to the train station to SF International Airport. There was unfortunately the 1 hour delay in the flight, so our plane actually had to change. The passengers started to board around 12, and took off in 12:30. Flight Company was Virgin America and inside of the plane had a little bit cool style. It’s a relatively little small though the lights above me were purple and screen which can touch on it to operate was in front of me. With the screen, I could watch TV, listen to radio and music, play game and even chat though I think most people don’t use it.

Christmas Day

On Christmas day, I was invited Christmas party. Before the part, my friend and I went to the beach called Lands End. It’s located in northern San Francisco, so I could see Golden Gate Bridge from there. While I was walking, I saw many kinds of dogs, and some of them weren’t on leash. Though this is a rare scene in Japan, it’s not special one in America. One of the reasons dog owners can let their dogs take a walk with no leash is that those dogs are accustomed to people because they had a lot of opportunities to see people when they were a little, so they are relatively friendly. I also saw this kind of scene in Canada. I’ve got accustomed to it though I had a little culture shock in the beginning.

After the beach, I played video game with the friend. We played baseball one to start with, and succor one afterwards. Needless to say, I was defeated million times. Next time, I will beat him.

My friend and I went to the house held the party by his car. I met many people in the party, and ate amazing dishes as well. After dinner, we played a gesture game. We were divided into four teams. The representative players from each teams picked up a cards which is written their gesture’s topic on it, and on based on the topic, the players gestured. The team which can answer the most is the winner. One of the people was holding a baby. Babies are cute but at the same time, a mysterious existence for me because they have weird face like alien. I had great time on Christmas day, and the last year’s Christmas was something little bit special for me because I’ve become a Christian since I came to San Francisco, so it’s first time Christmas as a Christian.