authentic Japan?

On Saturday morning, I went to an international event at South Uji Junior High School. My host mom asked me weeks ago if I would give a speech and presentation, and of course I said yes, but did not work on it at all until maybe two weeks beforehand. My speech was about the bay area and California, middle school life in America, and what middle school students do on summer and winter breaks. I had an accompanying powerpoint as well. The presentation had to be 20 minutes, to be performed three times to three different groups of 5 or 6 students. My speech ended up being only about 15 minutes but that left 5 minutes for questions, which turned out to be a really good idea. 

So on Saturday morning, I went with my host parents to the school, where I and the 17 other international presenters met and prepared. The whole process was really funny and interesting. Just before 10, I went into my assigned classroom with 2 other presenters, and did my presentation. The first group was pretty interested, but one girl was sort of disruptive. The second group was really interested. The third group wasn't interested at all, but listened very quietly. All three groups asked me what sports I liked. Only the last group asked me about my piercings and my curly hair. 

On Sunday, I went with my host dad to the Uji Stamp Rally. This event is sort of hard to explain, but was probably one of the most fun things I have done in the past 2 months. Basically, we spent four and a half hours walking 14km around Uji, going to all the cultural/historical/famous spots. There is a short course that only takes an hour and a half, but we did the long course. The short course has 10 points, and the long course has 22. At each point, we received a stamp on this giant piece of paper that also had a map of the courses. 

I feel like that wasn't a very good description of the event, but thats pretty much exactly what it was. Uji does the Stamp Rally for three weekends every autumn, and while we were walking I couldn't help thinking that it was probably the most "authentically Japanese" thing I will do this year. I saw maybe three other foreigners all day, because this event is pretty specifically for the local people in Uji. I saw lots of parents and young children, I saw lots of people running the course, I saw many many middle aged friends and couples walking it together. Because it's really just walking around town with your friends or family, but also walking with thousands of other people at the same time. My host dad and I had some really good conversations while we were walking, and now I know where all the great hiking trails in Uji are.