Sendai Days -- and Nights

There have been no festivals or trips since two weekends ago; rather, life has been filled with the small adventures that constitute life everywhere but are magnified when adjusting to a new culture and a new life. No day is like the one before or after, and something note-worthy happens almost every day. Examples:

-I learned how to withdraw money from a Japanese-speaking ATM.

-I discovered that missing the last subway home (which is at 12) is not a big deal when you have a bicycle. A half-hour ride seems a pretty good trade-off for not having to act like Cinderella for the evening.

-In a class where we were studying the phrases "What's this?" and "It's a..." with the scenario of one character showing another some origami animals ("Mike: What's this? / Judy: It's a bird. etc), one student made the tiniest paper crane I have ever seen. The teacher gave it to me, and it now lives on my desk in a clear plastic box I bought so that I don't lose it.

-I found a twenty-four-hour internet cafe that offers free drinks (in abundant variety) and ice cream (in vanilla), and is about a ten-minute bike ride from my apartment.

-I looked under my desk and found a huge collection of books -- everything from Pride and Prejudice to The Very Hungry Caterpillar (great for teaching days of the week, or food, or numbers) to a book about the more salacious aspects of Japanese culture -- and a year's worth of New Yorker magazines. I have been slowly dragging them back to my apartment, in stages, and my evenings are now quite literary.

-I have learned that the best way to deal with staring is to smile, bow a little, and say "Ohayo gozaimasu (Good morning)/Konnichiwa (Good afternoon)." It's really fun to see people jump and get all embarassed. It works especially well with old people and small children.

-Although it can backlash. I played this game with two kids near my apartment. After I kept going, one said to the other: "Kore-wa Amerika-jin desu?" This means "Is that an American?" but the funny part is that "kore" is the pronoun usually used for inanimate objects, as in "Is that a book?" (Japanese grammar jokes may not translate well. It made me laugh, anyway.)

-One night, just as it was getting dark, I heard drums and music coming from somewhere close to my apartment. I hadn't been told about any events in the area, but I went out to investigate. I took a couple of wrong turns but eventually discovered, about four blocks from my house, a pavilion with live music being played, people dancing in kimono, and tents with people selling food. I don't know what it was or who was running it, but it was pretty interesting. I call it Random Festival.

Every day I feel a little bit more at home here. I just wish I could speed up the internet-at-my-apartment process...