Cherry Blossoms, Kyudo Examination, and Taylor Swift

A little (big) post about things that happened in April and the start of May. 

I remember when I first came to Japan, one of the things I was most looking forward to was seeing the cherry blossoms. We don´t have cherry blossoms where I come from, so I was extra exited. During the beginning of April, I saw my friends living farther south/not up in the mountain post lots of pictures of cherry blossoms, and I was getting quite anxious. My host family explained that they usually bloom later in Takayama because it´s a bit colder up in the mountains, so I started to wait patiently. One day after school, I skipped kyudo practice because I was pretty tired. My host mom was surprised to see me home so early, then she suggested for us to go see some sakura, since the reports said the trees were in full bloom. We then drove about 15min to Ichinomiya to check out this thousand year old, massive sakura tree.

It was pretty ginormous

It´s so old and drapey it needs help to stand up

While taking this picture, I heard an elderly couple make comments about how white my legs are.

This tree was much more beautiful than the pictures give it credit for.

Around the same area there were so many trees that I had to take pictures of.

This one was of the extra pink and fluffy kind.

I had my mom stop the car on the way back so I could take some selfies with the cherry blossoms. There were kids playing close by, so I felt a little bit silly posing with the sakura, but sometimes you do what you gotta do.

The cherry blossoms have a lot of cultural significance in Japan. When the blossoms bloom, people will gather with friends and family to view the flowers while enjoying festivals, eating and drinking. In Japanese culture, the cherry blossoms represent the beauty and fragility of life. They serve as a reminder that life is overwhelmingly beautiful, but also very short. At least that´s what I´ve heard.

Now the cherry blossoms have all fallen, but I remember how happy seeing them on my way to school made me. I think cherry blossom season would definitely be the ideal time to come visit Japan.

The rest of the week I spent my time practicing kyudo really hard, trying to perfect my technique

 and brushing up on the theory, because the examination was sneaking up on me really quickly.

I managed to hit myself with the bowstring pretty hard, which doesn´t happen if your form is good. It took sometime for the swelling to go down, but I did learn to keep my arm straight as not to hit it again.

I got my friend to take some pictures of me. In kyudo we raise the bow like this so we can draw the bowstring back with minimal amount of effort. It still takes a good bit of effort though.

You have to make sure you focus your eyes on the target, and breathe steadily. When I go into this position, I have a hard time keeping myself from adjusting my grip, which is a pretty big no no. In kyudo you must not second guest yourself.

Drawing back takes a lot of upper body strength, as well as strength everywhere else basically. You have to tighten every single muscle in your body to be able to pull the arrow back as much as possible. You´re also supposed to push the arm holding the bow forward. It´s quite tiring.

When you release you push both arms open while clenching every muscle. After staying that way for a few seconds, you place both hands on your hips while looking at the target.

These pictures were taken on the last practice before the examination. When I got home that night, I watched lots of kyudo videos on youtube and tried to memorize all the terms and orders of the different sequences of kyudo. I only recently learned there was a written portion of the exam as well, so I was getting really nervous.

The next day I had to wake up early to get ready for the examination. I also noticed that I had caught a cold, but I couldn´t let that stop me. I got driven to school where we packed everything up and headed down to the arena. I was surprised to see how many people there were there, for some reason I thought it was only are school that would be there, but all the high schools in town, plus a few from some nearby towns showed up. My nerves doubled. We had a small opening ceremony where we got to see the guys that would be grading us demonstrate kyudo. It was pretty cool. After that I spent a little bit of time practicing and going through the motions, but I was the first person out in the first group, so I had to rush to get my glove on and arrows ready.

I was the first one out in the group, which usually consists of five people. Everything has a set order and you kind of have to pay attention to the others in your group to know when you can start. When we had entered and bowed and finished all that, I got ready to shoot. I was so in the zone, I was so focused and it was a really cool feeling. I managed to hit the target, which was so awesome, I had to try really hard to keep my composure. Then I sat down and waited for my second turn. 

Now, I thought there were five people in the group, but there were only four, which kind of messed up my timing the second time around. I waited too long, so one of the examiners had to tell me to get up. It was quite embarrassing, but I didn´t let it ruin my focus. I got up the second time, and hit the target again. I couldn´t believe it. I exited calmly, and when I went out of the doujo my heart was beating really fast. I told my friends about how it went and they were impressed I hit the target both times. I was really happy, even though I messed up just a little.

My friends and I waiting around for the results of the practical test. We all passed, which meant we had to start studying for the written part. I was really nervous because my teacher only translated part of the kyudo manual, which I had memorized, but I would have to write the answers in Japanese. Luckily I got a lot of help from my friends.

On our way down to take the test, quite nervous. Out of all the practice questions we had been given, there were only two questions on the sho-dan test. The first one was to write about what we thought we had gained from doing kyudo. I wrote that I had learned a lot about Japanese culture, history, and tradition, and that my body and soul had become stronger. I also wrote that my wilpower and physical strength had increased, and also my number of friends. The second question we were asked to explain one of the positions/sequences of kyudo. I did my best trying to put it into words, and luckily one of the examiners helped me out a little. I finished, and then everyone waited around nervously for the results. My friends and I ended up playing hide and seek in the meantime.

I ended up passing! I couldn´t believe it, I just started shooting arrows over a month ago. It´s so motivating. I got so many congratulations from my club mates and teachers. I was on cloud nine even with my cold.

Happiness! I walked home and pretty much crashed on the couch. The cold got even worse, so host mom made me stay home the next day at school. I was so worn out.

Wednesday the 29th I met up with exchange students from my district and the Aichi district. Instead of going shopping like we usually do 99% of the time, we went to Round 1 in Nagoya, and tried out the sports center. They had everything from bowling to baseball, to mini golf to soccer. We had a hard time choosing what to do first

Half of the gang, we decided to hit up archery first.

We asked Aki to do a cool pose for us, this is what we got.

It was strange doing regular archery, it feels so different from kyudo. Also the arrows were shorter for safety reasons, which made pulling back all the way impossible. I hit the target once, cause the arrow hit the wall and bounced back onto the target haha.

Logan looked pretty badass.

Then we headed down to the food court to get some lunch. Unfortunately, everything we got served was pretty nasty. At least the melon soda was good.

Surprise selfies

We waited in line to play soccer, which had a pretty long line. This is a kabe-don gone wrong haha. The wait was so long we ended up playing a really spastic game of volleyball instead.

We also tried out the machine bull. It felt like a roller coaster without a safety belt. It was really fun, but I got off once I got close to being thrown off.

Roller-skating! This was a blast too. Logan and I chose easier blades to skate with, the other girls kept on falling.

On the subway on our way to do some shopping. When I first come to Nagoya, I sure as hell am going to shop, at least a little. 

There lots of piggy back rides. All in all it was a pretty awesome day. We did sports and stuff, laughed a lot, annoyed people on the bus, I found some things I´ve been wanting to buy for a long time,  and I got to hang out with my friends. I spend so much time and money going back and forth to Nagoya, but it´s always worth it.

At kyudo practice the next day, I was feeling kinda out of it, so I ended up smacking my arm again. It got red and a little bit swollen, as per usual. I ended up smacking myself again, and it hurt so bad I almost started to cry. I looked down at my arm and the red mark had turned white. A few seconds later it was turning purple. I took it easy the rest of practice. The next few days my bruise got even worse, and now it´s been every color in the world at some point.

The next day at school we had this sports text, where we had to get tested on how fast we could run, how far we could throw, how long we could jump etc. It took the whole day and it completely wore me out. Luckily, there was no kyudo after, so I could go home and rest and pack my stuff.

On Saturday I spent the day finishing packing. I must say I´ve become quite the pro at packing everything up by now, after this move I´ll have one more move before I go home.

My host sister and her husband came over last night and we all went out for sushi. I´ve been to this sushi restaurant once before, and it seriously is the best sushi I´ve ever had in my whole life. Nothing comes close.

They of course had mostly seafood, but you could also get Hida beef sushi. My host family ordered a ton for me. I got filled up really quickly haha.

From left to right, host grandma, host dad, me, host mom, host dad´s sister and brother in law. They may not smile much in pictures, but these people are always laughing and making jokes. I´m really lucky to have had such a wonderful family take me in twice.

I moved in with the Kenda family for the second time, just as before, it took no time for me to get settled in again. The next day I went to practice and relaxed. The day after that here was a festival in our neighbourhood, which I got to help out with.

I woke up fairly early, and my host mom, host sister, and host nephew went to the temple across the street to get ready to walk in the children´s parade it was cool and I got to wear a happi and ring a bell. It was lots of fun.

Kazutoyo and I standing by one of the shrines that we carried around.

My host sister(in-law), Yuko.

A float of some sort. I don´t know if they were carrying this around or not, cause it looks pretty heavy.

Everyone that walked in the children's parade. After we finished walking we went home so I could start packing for my trip to Tokyo. I was leaving later in the evening but haddened started packing at all. Luckily I´ve become a seasoned pro at packing by now.

Host dad getting ready for yet another parade.

Since my third host family was taking me to Tokyo later that night, we headed over there to watch the big parade. It turned out to be the perfect spot. The highlight was maybe seeing some of my host family dressed in cool outfits, but the shishimai (lion dance) was also really cool to watch. My little host nephews didn´t seem to enjoy it that much though.

Me getting my head bitten by a shishimai. They say that if you´re "bitten" you´ll become smart. I hope this will help me when I go back to school in Norway. The guy standing next to me is a rotarian. 

Host sister Noriko and some of the kids, the littlest one does not look thrilled.

My host bro Yutaka and I. This outfit is on point.

There were a lot of cool outfits actually.

My third host family (minus my host dad who had work) were going to Tokyo and took me with them! In total there were eight people in the car, three of them kids. Needless to say it was a lively car ride.

I missed these kids so much. Since it was a public holiday, there was a lot of traffic. It took two hours longer to get to Tokyo.

The next morning we all woke up slightly groggy from little sleep, and then we headed towards Tokyo Skytree. We did a lot of shopping and stuff there.

The tallest building in Tokyo. Which says a lot, because there are a lot of tall building in Tokyo.

My host sister, Akiko, had a friend who worked as a chef at this fancy french restaurant at the top of the skytree. No kids were allowed, so host mom and other host sister took care of the kiddos. Because of our reservation at said restaurant, we passed all the elevator lines, which made me feel like a VIP.

The view, this pic doesn´t give it credit I think. It was pretty panoramic. It would be so cool to come here at night and see all the lights.

We got our picture taken, unfortunately the light wasn´t being very cooperative.

 We ended up buying a physical picture.

We finally went to the restaurant. It was so swanky, and of course the view was amazing. The food was delicious.

So fancy you have a hard time eating cause its so pretty.

After finishing our amazing meal and meeting up with the others, we headed back to the hotel so host mom and I could get ready for the Taylor Swift concert we were going to. I was so excited I couldn´t contain myself. I had never been to a big concert like this before.

It was at Tokyo dome. There were so many people it was crazy. I tried to buy a t-shirt but they were all sold out. Oh well. Eventually we went in, and although our seats were quite far back, we still had a pretty good view. On every seat there were light stick bracelets attached. They all blinked with the beat of the music, which was pretty damn awesome. I pretty much sung and danced the entire night, and there were a few times I almost started tearing up, because I was so happy to be there. Between the songs Taylor would talk about different things, in English of course. I´d ask my host mom if she understood, and she looked at me and laughed as she said no. It was an amazing night, and hearing all of my favorite songs live was unbelievable.

Tay tay. I tried taking a lot of pictures, but they didn´t exactly turn out thaaat well. Whatever. It was an amazing night. Can´t wait to go to some more concerts. I´m so lucky my host mom brought me.

My host families are so amazing.