In one of my recent posts, I talked about how I attended a Pre-English Weekend event. This past weekend was the full English Weekend, in which I was one of the staff members.
Here we all are! There were quite a few of us, and we later split off into groups A, B, C, D, E, and F.
Here I am with my group! We were group D, so we tried to make a D shape with our hands.
Once again, at this English weekend we played games like the ones in the Pre-English weekend, only with a lot more people this time. One such game we played was called "バースデイトレイン," or "Birthday Train," in which everyone who attended needed to get in a line according to their birthday. Those born in January were up front, and the line snaked around the room until we reached the end for those who had birthdays in December. But this was the catch for the Japanese students: Since it was English Weekend, they were not allowed to speak in Japanese during the game. If they were caught speaking Japanese, then they had to play a "Penalty Game." Though this sounds a bit scary, the penalties were mostly funny. They had a jar with all possible penalties and you had to reach in and grab one. They had some such as getting a drawing on your face, you having to make a sexy pose in front of everyone, or eat or drink something with wasabi. Only one guy was unfortunate enough to be caught speaking Japanese, and his penalty game was that one member of the staff had to draw a moustache and glasses on his face with a marker.
Another game we played, I'm actually not sure what the title of it was... But 1 person from each group volunteered, and one by one, they all went outside the activity room we were in and given different drinks and foods, but ther was wasabi in a few cups and on some food. When everyone went back inside, they ate/drank in front of everyone, and they all made faces filled with disgust. Those who were left in each group had to identify who had eaten or drank anything with wasabi. And this game went for 3 rounds.
We also played another round of Fruits Basket. Simialar to the "I like everyone, especially those who..." game, in fruits basket you say a random trait, and whoever has that triat (ex. black hair), they get up and must run to a different spot. Everyone sits in a circle, and one person stands in the midle. After running, whoever is left is the next person in the middle. The person in the middle can also say "Fruits Basket," in which everyone gets up and finds a new spot. This game of Fruits Basket was different than the last time we played, since whoever was left in the middle had to play a Penalty Game. I, unfortunately, was the man in the middle one time, and had to play a Penalty Game. My penalty: Eat takoyaki (a wheat based food in the shape of a ball filled with octopus, green onion, ginger, and tempura) with wasabi sauce.
We also had someone come and give us a presentation on the Japanese style drums called "Ōtsuzumi." And they gave us a chance to try them out ourselves!
They also brought some Japanese masks usually worn during performances and allowed some students to try them on.
On our way back to KGU, we stopped by and picked some oranges on the mountain side. The sight was so beautiful, I wanted to stay there!
It was an amazing trip! They allowed us to eat as many oranges as we wanted to there absolutely free, but if we wanted to take any home with us, they were about $3 a kilo.
This past weekend was so amazing! I really hope I can meet up with all these people again sometime!
またね!