Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

It was an ordinary day, waking up at 6:45 am to make to breakfast and class on time. I’ve missed Super Hotel’s breakfast. Of course the other hotels were great, but something about Super Hotel brought a calmness over me.

During Creative Writing, it was our first day of Pecha Kucha presentations! These presentations were something I was looking forward to since the beginning the dialogue. Even though, before, that wouldn’t really be something I would be excited for, I played a game recently that was similar on the Nintendo Switch, and it was pretty fun. The first group of people set the bar high. It’s so crazy to me how much of a memory food can evoke. After that, I was getting more nervous prepping for mine the following day.

My favorite part of the day was the mixer Ochanomizu University put together. We did human bingo which reminded me of an activity that I do for a club back in Boston. It was great getting to mingle with these students more!

The food was really good, which I later found out was from the International Cafeteria in the school. They gave us Karage, sandwiches, a spaghetti of some sort, and so on.

One of my lifelong goals is to be really good at origami. Today Ochanomizu put that to the test. I certainly was not the greatest. In fact, I probably was the worst, but the students helped me along the way to make sure I wasn’t completely lost! Funny enough, Corinne was also helping me out, and of course, she had to juggle, so she spent some time making some origami paper balls to do just that. Her goal in Japan was to find the perfect juggling balls, and I’m hoping she did. It is a skill she tried teaching me, but I was not the best.

The following day, one of the Ochanomizu students brought me back a ninja star she made because she remembered that I always wanted to make one. I have gotten attached to all the students we’ve met, from the elementary school to the Ryukoku University students, and now Ochanomizu. The goodbye never gets easier. I hope to stay in touch with them!

As the program is coming to an end, I wanted to thank Professor Ito and Young Sensai for the work they put in. They should know that they made me believe in myself in these subjects. Would have never thought I would look forward to a writing or a biology class. I also really enjoyed the smaller group excursions that I would find myself having with Young Sensai, Corinne, and others. My camera roll for this month will be full of great memories. Thank you Japan.

Signing off,

Maryorie