野球

 

Sarah’s Blog Post 29: May 30, 2016

 

Yesterday I went to a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome. I saw the Yomiuri Giants play the Hanshin Tigers. I don’t watch Japanese baseball very often because I don’t have a TV, so I can’t say who my favorite team is. However, the Yomiuri Giants and the San Francisco Giants, from the United States, have the same colors and very similar logos, so I cheered for the Yomiuri Giants at the game.

 

I really enjoy going to live sports games in the United States and have gone to many baseball games. I was very excited to compare baseball in Japan to baseball in the United States. Of course, food is very different. Japanese baseball stadiums serve snacks, but they also serve rice bowls and bento boxes. In the United States, we serve fast food. Popular foods are hot dogs, chicken nuggets, French fries, nachos, and peanuts. Different baseball stadiums serve special foods too. In San Francisco, we serve local specialties like soup in bread-bowls and Godiva chocolate ice cream sundaes. The cheering sections in Japan are amazing too! Each baseball player has a special cheer. We don’t have that in the United States. Instead, people make posters for their favorite players and bring them to the game to show to the TV cameras. Overall, the game is still the same, and I am happy to see that Americans and Japanese people can share this sport.

Japanese Candy （季節限定品）

 

Japan has great sweets and is particularly skilled at seasonal treats. For me, it’s fun to be able to try the new foods that arrive with each season, but it’s sometimes sad to see the snacks that I like vanish from the stores. I’m amazed at how well coordinated the shops are at having new items and getting rid of the old ones. I guess it’s something that the people of Japan are used to but for me, it’s an interesting thing to experience. I think this is a unique aspect of Japan and I am happy to be here to see it for myself.

 

- Yaya Campbell

アレルギー

 

Sarah’s Blog Post 28: May 20, 2016

 

When I was younger, I didn’t know what allergies were. I just thought they were something older people got because my parents were always complaining about them. I didn’t realize that there were different kinds of allergies. The first allergy I was aware of was a skin allergy to metal. My parents told me that when I was a baby, I would get rashes from metal snaps on baby clothes. So I wasn’t allowed to wear any metal jewelry when I was a kid. In elementary school, I found out I was allergic to grass because we used to sit outside on the fresh cut lawn for our PE classes. My legs became very itchy.

 

When I was in high school, I developed pollen allergies. We call pollen allergies “hay fever”. The first year that I experienced hay fever, I was miserable. I didn’t know what to expect or what medicine worked best for me. Now I have gotten used to hay fever, but I started developing food allergies. I am allergic to some peppers and some berries. Allergies are very strange because you can inherit them from your family. Some allergies even begin later on in your life. I didn’t know I was allergic to berries until the end of high school. Before that, I was able to eat them without any problem. Spring is a time for many allergies and since I am not used to Japanese plants, my allergies are very strong this year.

Pizza

 

Sarah’s Blog Post 27: May 13, 2016

 

Sometimes I wonder if Japanese people would like different types of food from America. There are some distinctly American foods like hamburgers and American barbecue, but the United States is also home to many other cultures. I like Mexican food and Italian food in the United States, but I’m not sure if you can call it real Mexican food or real Italian food. Even if the restaurants are owned by people who are really from Mexico or Italy, they often make food to match the tastes of their customers. This is how many kinds of fusion foods are born. For instance, “tarako pasta” is a Japanese-Italian fusion food.

 

Today, we went to get a food called “trapizzino” for lunch. Trapizzino is a new restaurant that Jared-sensei recommended. I researched online and found out that it is actually a street-food trend from Rome. It is basically toasted ciabatta bread filled with Italian-style toppings. I think it is like a pizza cone. I tried the meatball flavored trapizzino. It was delicious and reminded me of Italian food in the United States. I wonder if Japanese people will like it because many times Japanese Italian food is very different from American Italian food.

International Movies

 

Last weekend I saw the new Captain America movie! It was really great. I love movies and although I don’t go to the movie theaters very often here in Japan, I was glad that I got to see this one. During the movie, I noticed that my American friend and I were laughing a lot more than the other people in the audience and I wondered why that was so. After talking about it with each other, we realized that some of the jokes probably didn’t translate well into Japanese. I feel like this could be true for most movies, that even though the dialogue can be translated, there is still an element of nuance and personality that gets left out when it’s not seen in its original language. I encountered a similar situation when I went to Disney Sea and my friends who don’t speak Japanese did not understand the jokes of some of the shows. Overall, I enjoyed going to the movies and hopefully next time I’ll get to watch a Japanese movie.

 

- Yaya Campbell

Golden Week

 

Sarah’s Blog Post 26: May 6, 2016

 

This week we had vacation for Golden Week. In International Club, we asked what everyone was planning to do for Golden Week. Then the students asked us what we call Golden Week in America. I was confused because Golden Week is made up of two English words. So I told them that we call it Golden Week, but we don’t celebrate it. We don’t have a break from school the first week of May. The closest we have is Spring Break. Our Spring Break occurs between our second and third terms of school. That is when we get time away from class. Spring Break is very fun and important to college students.

 

I think this year’s Golden Week was strange because we had to come to school on Monday, so it was impossible to go far away for a vacation. It is very crowded and expensive to travel, so I didn’t go anywhere. Instead, my friends visited me from Tochigi. They enjoyed seeing Tokyo because it is so different. I hope everyone had a fun holiday.

Golden Week

 I had a really nice and relaxing Golden Week. I hung out with some friends and ate Mexican food. It was very good. I also went to a beach a bit south of Tokyo. The weather was really sunny and the train ride wasn’t too long. Now that winter is over, I really wanted to feel the sun again and be outside. I found it interesting that the sun didn’t feel very strong even though there weren’t any clouds in the sky. I am used to beaches where the sand is so hot that you have to run if you’re not wearing any shoes and the sun is so strong that you should apply sunscreen many times throughout the day if you don’t want to get burned. Nonetheless, it was nice to be outside in warm and sunny weather and I hope to go more often.

 

- Yaya Campbell