Planting rice, judo tactics... I become more Japanese by the day.

This past weekend was quite eventful. I met my host mother on Saturday, a nice japanese woman named Atsuko. We spoke about our lives for a while, and I found out she has a shy, introverted son who is in 8th grade. Atsuko has difficulty communicating with him, and after school he just goes home and plays video games (sounds too familiar haha). I look forward to meeting him and pulling him out of his shell a little bit. Maybe I can be a model for him, show him how to relate to his mother and get involved in some school activities.

On Sunday, I planted rice with some fellow students. It was a fun experience; sloshing around barefoot in cold mud was humbling to say the least. The first task was to create rows and columns in the mud, so we could plant the rice more efficiently. Then, all the students entered the muddy field to begin planting.

For 30 minutes, I was an expert fieldhand; my left hand held a large chunk of the rice-plant, and my right hand was used for pinching off a few strands of the plant by the roots and submerging it just a few inches in the mud. It was a challenge to stay in the rows we marked, and the many farmers who were standing by helped us by throwing us advice, encouragement, and some more rice-plant when we would run out (those who couldn't catch the plant that was thrown at them instead recieved a splash of mud and laughter from the rest of us haha). I got 4 leeches on my legs during the planting, which I had to rip off of leg when we cleaned up and left the field. I guess I'm a pretty tasty meal haha.

I'm really enjoying Judo Club, and I'm starting to understand the human body in a completely new way, the aspect of physical balance. We usually warm up on the tatami mats with stretching, rolling, and crawling around. Then we move to practicing ukemi (quick recovery), many types of throws, some groundwork, and anything we can think of. Finally, we spend about 30 minutes with Randori, which is a freeform grappling encounter.

The Environmnt and Ecology Club is starting to become more active. We've been meeting weekly, and now we've starting planting green beans and lettuce. We've got some activities to plan, and we're currently trying to devise ways to regulate the amount of paper printed in the library. I suggested that instead of overtly controlling the amount a student can print, we offer a system of rewards to positively encourage limited paper consumption. Now we need to come up with prizes that will actually encourage this behavior!

It's really difficult to get into the habit of making websites! Besides making the time to work on the websites (I'm in Japan, there's other stuff I can be doing!!!), the part I struggle with is adding a mechanic to the site that I have no idea how to do, mainly because it takes so long to find out how to do it, then actually impliment it. The payoff is great though, to learn a new technique that will benefit future projects. I'm trying to develop the habit of spending 1 hour a day working on websites/games, and my current goal is to finish Your Image Center's updated website by the end of this month. Then I'll move on to adding a shopping cart to the site, making my own website, taking on clients, making money, becoming an independent adult, yada yada.

Tonight I'm meeting Atsuko-okaasan (mother) at Kappa Sushi! If the weather is nice, I'll hopefully be going fishing this weekend with Sakamoto-sensei on the sea. If so, I'm gonna catch red snapper and make sushi, not to mention be ON A BOAT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU&feature=PlayList&p=ED9441CFC963F147&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1