The M.A.D. Show

So, what is the M.A.D. Show? Don't quote me on it, but I think it stands for Music Acting and Dance. ...maybe that's totally wrong, but nevertheless it is a talent show of sorts. This annual event showcases the talent of BEST club students in whatever form they want to show. For example, I took part in a skit (that included a dance number), and there were comedy routines, dancing, piano, a magic performance, singing, and rap.

My groups skit was entitled "Modern Cinderella", and included elements of the Cinderella story but in a modern Japanese setting. I had the role of a fortune teller, who was to give advice to Cinderella. At the end, when Cinderella was reunited with the prince, who was just a cool guy, we all "celebrated their reunion" with the show stopping, final dance number from High school Musical! It was kinda bizarre and made sense all at the same time. And as it turned out, we all got first place!

Here is a picture of me and Sekki, who was the MC, and dressed up as Mickey as he can do a really good Mickey impression. Mind you, it's an impression of the Japanese voice of Mickey. And finally, I'd like the thank the internet for it's turban tying lessons.

A dilema settled the Japanese way

So, in this situation, all of us decided to have sushi for dinner. It is a lot cheaper to get a large amount, but the issue came up of dividing all the good sushi with the 10 people. Well, like all problems in Japan, the only fair solution is to play "Jan-Ken", which is the Japanese version of Rock-Paper-Scissors. I'm not joking in any way when I say almost every problem is solved by this method!

So, in this video someone nominates a sushi, and then the people that want to eat it play Jan-Ken to see who can eat the available 4. It was a hilarious meal! Also, here is your chance to experience the dynamic of a Japaneses gathering of friends. It's also worth pointing out that having bi-lingual conversation is quite normal with upperclassmen. We can all understand each other in our own language (for the most part ^_^)


For those that are curious, what they are saying is "Seishyo wa gu. Janken poi!" to start. At a draw, you say "Aiko desho!" and play another hand until a winner is decided. You'll notice it gets shortened to "desho, desho, desho" because there was no winner for a while. Being able to judge a game is very difficult, but I'm getting better at being able to keep up with the speed they play the game. I play this game, at a minimum, once a week, so it doesn't take long before you get used to it.

And sorry Mandy, I'd explain how I got the video from you, but it would take more than 10 minutes! ^_^ I'll give you a hint: HTML source! HAHAHAHA!

Mega New Years Update Part Three

Christmas has now become New Years, which is a much more important holiday here in Japan. This is the time of vacation. Not only in the sense the the students are on break for the semester, but also this is the time that we get to take a break from our BEST club duties and ministry.

So what do you do when you have to spend your first Christmas away from home in 23 years? Spend it with the other people that are away from home! There is certainly no time like Christmas that puts the "foreign" in foreign country. So for Christmas, coming from our respective prefectures, we all traveled to Karuizawa to create 'Little America', and celebrate Christmas together, the way we know and love. It was a fun time, and that may be the last time that all of us will be together, as some of the people you see in the picture will be returning to America.

Happy New Years! And what better way to bring in the New Year by taking a large hammer, and hitting a big pile of rice! No, I'm not joking... In this picture, I am helping to make mochi; a traditional Japanese New Years food. It's essentially hammered rice, until it turns into a dough-like paste. It's rolled into balls, and usually eaten with kinako powder, which I don't know how to explain, or anko, which is a sweet red bean. It's much more delicious than I'm aware it sounds when I describe it. We also made a soup-thing, which I too don't really know how to describe. It's kind of like Japanese nabe, but that doesn't help either, does it... That's why I took video! So, maybe just watch it and then you can see. The people in the video are upperclassmen, and/or BEST alumni.

Here is a video of me making mochi. It may look easy, but you have to be very careful not to hit the wooden rim of the bowl, or you could crack the bowl (which is very expensive) or the hammer (probably expensive too)



Here is a video of my good friend Shige making mochi also. The people in the background are not really saying anything, but they were trying to start a rhythm that just became funny.



This is the soup being made. It tasted very good despite the fact that it contained vegetables that I didn't even know existed...