「十二個の幸運のブドウ」

　　　　　　　　　　

　「スペインではお正月を祝うためにブドウを食べます」

私がこのようなことを言ったら、相手は驚いた表情を見せ、「不思議な行事だね」、と言う。幼い頃からお正月にブドウを食べることを習慣にしている私にとって、スペインの行事に何の違和感がない。しかし、異なった視点から見れば、習慣としてわざわざブドウを食べることが正月のイメージに合わないのは確かである。

　　この「不思議な行事」には、正式に「ラス・ドセ・ウバス・デラ・スェルテ」という名前があり、日本語で表すと「十二個の幸運のブドウ」にあたるであろう。スペインにこの行事が定着した理由として、1895年がブドウの生り年であったことを挙げられる。十二月に、スペイン南東部にあるアリカンテというブドウの生産が盛んな都市で、ぶどうが豊作であった。その大量のブドウが素早く消費されるため、アリカンテのブドウ生産組合が正月の行事を提案し、促進した。

         

　　しかし、「情熱の国」と言われるスペインでは、正月にただブドウを食べるわけにはいかない。そこで、注目したいのは、そのブドウの独特な食べ方である。大晦日の夜に、大勢の人がブドウ十二個を用意し、鐘楼のある数々の広場で集合する。（今時、とりわけ大都市における大晦日の広場が寒であるはもちろん、大混雑であることも、真夜中に広場に集合することも不愉快である。よって、現在暖かい家でテレビの生放送を観る人がほとんどである。）そして、新年になる12秒前に、ブドウ12個を食べ始める。なぜブドウが「十二個」という非常に特定な数字であるかというと、一年に十二月があるからである。鐘の「ドーン」は「ブドウ一個」にあたり、鐘の鳴り響く音に合わせ、毎月幸運に恵まれますようにと願いながら、ブドウ12個を一個ずつ口に入れる。さらに、ブドウが甘かったら、その月にいいことがある、酸っぱかったら、その月に悪いことがある、というようにブドウの味が新年の運勢を占っていくという。まさに、「十二個の幸運のブドウ」は占いの一種だと言えよう。

          

　　このように、十九世紀から今日に至るまで「十二個のブドウ」は続いているわけであるが、最初のきっかけは現在のバレンタインやハロウィンといった年中行事並にたんなる販売促進にすぎなかったといってもよいであろう。

First two weeks of school

Dear readers, 

So, Sept. 1-3 was placement testing, which was super tiring. It was really hard and I got really depressed that I didn't understand a large portion of it haha... Surprisingly, though, I did really well on the reading part, and on the first part of the reading part I got 100%! How?!

Thursday was a day off, so I went to see the movie "Lupin III" with my new friends from the my program, Jake and Atsuo! The movie had one of my favorite actors, Oguri Shun, and he did a really good job at his role, so I enjoyed the movie a lot! It was also fun that I had friends to go with :)

Monday Sept 8 was the first day of classes and the program is really tough. There's a lot of work in class and a lot of homework. We have to write an essay and practice for an oral everyday! Plus, I have to do work for the independent study courses that I'm taking for Madison, so...it's a lot of work. 

After morning class, though, we have a lunch break and there's a rock garden veranda where I like to eat lunch. It has a beautiful view of Yokohama's ferris wheel and bay:

  

Speaking of the ferris wheel, the other day, my friend Jake was like, "Do you wanna ride the ferris wheel?" and I was like YEAH SURE! It's a huge ferris wheel and the view is really beautiful. It feels kind of fancy to be able to ride a ferris wheel out of the blue after class.

This is me and Atsuo in the ferris wheel: 

Last weekend, I was mostly studying, but on Sunday I was able to participate in a special free cooking class done by a famous cooking school called ABC cooking studio. The teacher was also really sweet and the same age as me, actually. Sometimes I felt she was only being so nice because she was trying to get me to sign up for classes, but it was still a lot of fun. I actually tried to sign up for classes, but I don't have a cell phone yet, so I couldn't do it in the end, which is probably for the best because the classes were pretty expensive. I do want to find a cooking class that I can join maybe as a nice relaxing afterschool activity. Maybe my roommate and I will try to find one. Anyways, I made a cheese fondue bread! It was the first time making bread and it was really fun:

There are also several free cultural activities that you can sign up for through my program, which is really cool. This was the first one I went to, an ikebana (flower arrangement) exhibit. It was very pretty:

So, school is a lot of work, but cultural activities are really fun and I've already found some really great friends: Of course, my roommate, Erika, but also my neighbors Nathan and Steven, all of who I walk to school with everyday, which is nice company. My friend Jake is really nice and reminds me a lot of Tamaki. My friend Atsuo is someone who has worked at Mori no Ike before and I met 2 years ago and is friends with Inga and Tamaki so it was kind of a crazy that we met again here! I think because I've grown a bit, it's been a lot easier to find friends this time and I feel a little less alone. I'm also looking forward to all the lovely people that are coming to visit me in the next few months. 

I have full weekend planned so hopefully I can blog about that soon, but in the meantime, I will continue to work hard on both classwork and having fun! The program doesn't give out grades, so all the work I do is for myself. I will work hard because I want to learn a lot and expand my linguistic and cultural knowledge a whole bunch this year!

Visiting nostalgic places

Dear readers,

Sorry that I haven't been able to post in a while. It's been really busy with school and the like. I probably won't be able to update as much as I like, but this weekend is a three day weekend, so I have a little more time. 

I'm probably going to divide the past couple weeks into different entries.

First, before school started, I decided to revisit the little town I used to live in, Hiyoshi. It was kind of relieving that not much had changed! I did notice that some of the stores changed, though. For example, the place where I bought my PSP, the used video game store and the bookstore I used to go to aren't there anymore, which is a bit sad. 

So, I walked all the way to my dorm, Shimoda: 

 

 

This is the entrance to Keio University, Hiyoshi campus. I remember walking this way to go to the Sukima Switch concert and to go to Manga club on Wednesday evenings:

This is the famous meeting place in Hiyoshi station, "gintama" or silver ball:

Yup, so Hiyoshi was fun! Hopefully, it will be an even more fun experience revisiting the places we used to go when Inga and Tamaki get here!

I also thought that I might as well visit Shibuya while I was on the train, so I went to Shibuya afterwards. The train station has changed a lot and gotten more confusing, but I was able to make my way out and into the crowded streets. It was a weekend, so of course it was full of people as always. Shibuya has always been confusing to get around for me, but I was really proud that I was able to find every place that I wanted to find.

Of course, the first place I stopped by was the Disney store. I remember going there all the time when I was feeling down and it would help make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I passed by the Loft and Tokyo Hands department stores and stopped in to look around the tiny manga/anime Mandarake store that I found by chance 3 years ago.

I also found the larger manga/anime Animate store for the first time. I had only been to the Animate in Akihabara, but I had heard there was in Shibuya, so it was cool to find it. There, I bought a voice actor DVD for fun that came with a ticket that may let me go to a voice actor event. Hopefully, I can get it♡ haha...

By the end, I was super tired out and it was super hot, so it was nice to return home that afternoon. Overall, it was a nice day of nostalgia. It was kind of lonely to do it all on my own, especially in Shibuya, where there are more people so when you're alone you feel even more alone than usual. It's really a strange feeling. But, in the end I'm glad that I did it!

The first days

Good afternoon~

Another rainy day here in Yokohama. It's actually supposed to continue to be rainy for the next week, which is disheartening. This is not the rainy season (and it's not Galicia either), so I don't know what's up.

Yesterday, I got a lot done.

Went to the nearby convenience store (7eleven!) for breakfast. It is literally across the street. My whole neighborhood is super convenient. I'm really really happy with my apartment and neighborhood. It's really so great.

So, after a quick breakfast, my roommate Erika and I were walking toward the station, and I see THIS:

THIS is the super market that I bought all my cheap groceries from 2 years when I was studying abroad at Keio, so it's filled with nostalgia. I went shopping there this morning for groceries and it was the best thing. I'm really happy that it's here.

Our first stop was the Kuyakusho（区役所）, or ward office, where we got registered as living in Japan, received an official ID, and signed up for the national health care. Interestingly, the ID card for foreigners is a bit different from 2 years ago, when it was called "Foreigner Registration Card". Now it's called "Residence Card". In other words, Japan has gotten a bit more politically correct. The process to get a card also seems to have gotten easier, which is nice.

Our next stop was Minatomirai, which is where the IUC center is where I'll be studying. The center is actually only a single floor inside of an office building where a lot of official looking people work, which was different than I expected. There's also a large shopping center nearby, where Erika and I did some shopping.  

We bought some little needed things at the dollar store (Daiso) and then we checked out a sale at Tokyu Hands and I bought THIS:

This is a baby blender so I can make smoothies and soup things. It's the best thing I'm so happy with it. It's going to be my best friend.

When we got home, Erika and I were planning on going shopping for groceries after an hour or so, but we both ended up crashing until this morning. Haa jetlag. Plus, this sticky weather doesn't help.

Today, we got the grocery shopping out of the way, paid our rent, and Erika has gone out to set up a bank account, but I got caught up sending emails and reviewing and such, so I probably won't go out for the rest of the day. I'm still also suffering with my cough, so this is probably for the best.

Tomorrow, though, I really want to go visit my old neighborhood in Hiyoshi and hang out in the department store and bookstore like old times. Hopefully, I'll feel well enough to do that.

Until then!

Yokohama, "tadaima!"

Good morning!

I arrived in Narita yesterday at 4pm and it's like I'm back home rather than visiting somewhere for the first time. The difference from when I arrived last time was noticeable right away. Once the inspectors saw my passport and that I had lived in Japan before, they were like "Oh, you've been here before so of course you can understand everything I say". It's like I was accepted into the cool club. Not a bad feeling.

Like last time, I ended up taking the limousine bus to the Yokohama Airport Terminal and a taxi from there to my apartment because I knew I would get lost if I went by myself and it was raining so... It was only $40 total so I'm ok with it.

The taxi drive was a lot different than last time though! I actually had a nice conversation with the taxi driver and I got some laughs out of him hehe... He was real nice and helpful and made sure I was in the right place and everything. Soo great.

Ok, now I'll give you a quick tour of my apartment:

 This is my room! I was hoping for tatami mats and it IS. YES. It's actually pretty spacious. I could easily fit two people on the floor for a sleep over. There is also a floor desk and pillows to sit on so I can work on the floor like I like to do! The view is just of other apartments so not too interesting but the lighting is okay.

 This is my kitchen/dining area! A tiny fridge, sink, LOTS of tupperware. Yes.

 I have never seen one of these in my life but it is fairly normal? It's a water heater in the sink so to wash your face and dishes etc. with warm water. So, water is normally cold unless you use this.

 My toilet comes in a tiny room with no ventilation. It's cute...?

Of course, my shower/bath is it's own room. To take a shower, you just stand up on the tile floor and spray yourself, which is different than I'm used to but I'm sure in the winter, I will be taking many warm and toasty baths!

Ok, that's it for now. Today, my roommate, Erika, and I are going to run errands and such, so I'll let you know how that went later!

Byebye for now!