Japan—Week 4: Half Way There

Welcome to Week 4! This week’s post is a bit late, but there has been a lot of responsibilities this past week.  PII’s curriculum is split into two “semesters” that are each four weeks long, and they each cover the material of a whole semester at university.  That means that last Friday, I had a three-hour final exam…and it took nearly the whole three hours, including a 15 minute speaking portion.  In terms of projects, I am still working on the English Table with my group and Kanazawa University students.  In addition to that, we are also writing a speech (which we will memorize and present to other students, staff, and families), but I’ll talk in more detail about this in a future post.

In terms of fun stuff, after the exhausting final, we had a three-day weekend! I made plans with my host family (four of us in total), and we went to the neighboring prefecture, Toyama-ken, to do some sight-seeing in the mountains.  This week’s video features the trolley journey, ryokan (Japanese-style hotel), and beautiful scenery!  I have been doing my absolute best to try new experiences, so when I was served a whole fish (~4 inches longhead, tail, and all), I had no choice but to devour the brains-end in one swift bite.  I could not finish the tail end, as I did not necessarily like the taste of fish intestines, but my host family understood.  The sashimi at ryokans tend to be very fresh and super delicious, and the meals also come with a whole host of other traditional cuisine, such as snail, local shrimp, and native vegetables.  I am not a big fan of the super fishy-tasting food, but I do like raw eggs, raw shrimp, and the endless forms that rice comes in.

Also, I know that I have finally settled in this past week because after yet another existential crisis, I have been branching out creatively and have been quite prolific with musical ideas.  Lastly, before the video below, I’d like to mention that I plan on doing a post (probably in the post with my speech) that describes my experience of the Japanese worldview, according to the people that I’ve spoken with.

CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK’S VIDEO!