adventures from Japan

001; Updates from where?

2009-11-05T18:32:00.003+09:00

Hello, long time no see! A lot has happened since my last post. Somehow I never got around to putting up my final post from Japan, which makes me a bit sad. I apologise to anyone who actually wanted to read it!

In new news, I'm leaving for Europe on November 23rd with Benedict. We fly into Frankfurt initially and we plan to make our way around continental Europe before crossing the sea to see his family in the UK and then finally jetsetting off to Japan before coming home again on February 25th. I figured since I still have this blog I would update bits and bobs from around the place to keep you all posted on our travels :)

Stay tuned for updates
-m

029; Happy New Year!!!

2007-12-31T10:41:00.000+09:00

My year is quickly coming to a close and that's a bit scary! It's a really strange feeling to try and explain. I think it's something that only when you've experienced it you can fully understand!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Not long till I get back!

November 12th was a normal Monday. The only thing of real interest that happened was that in Computer Design we entered in a competition where we had to create a mascot for the small city of Yame. Yame is near where I am currently and it's famous for it's tea apparently! The winner would get $500 so we were all pretty amped about creating something good! I made several and everyone ended up convincing me to enter the one that looked like a teapot.

On the Tuesday pet and pottery were not much to report on but in bread making we made curry pan! Curry pan (curry bread) is just what it's name says, Curry bread! It's basically a soft, spongy type of bread with curry in the middle that has been coated in bread crumbs and deep fried! Not very healthy but it tasted fantastic!!!! My teacher is always interested in knowing what types of breads we have in Australia and what I've eaten before or not and whether or not I think it tasted good. He was pretty happy to hear that I hadn't tried it before, I thought it was fantastic and that I would have to make it when I go home for everyone else to try this "japanese bread"!

On the Wednesday we finished our landscapes in art. I'd already finished so the teacher insisted I draw something else in the meantime so he gave me a random object to sketch for the two periods. In Sports II it was basketball and badminton again. Except this time instead of having shooting practice and no games it was all games! Pretty tiring stuff! In Green Life we were out in the school garden weeding and picking "Mizuna" that we could take home to eat. Mizuna is a leafy green plant which doesn't have an English name as far as I know! According to my culinary dictionary it's a "pot-herb mustard plant, used as a leafy green vegetable". Basically it's added to salads and so on! :) That night we ate it at dinner and my host mum seemed pretty happy to receive it (and so much!) considering vegetables are quite expensive over here!

On the 15th it was ultimate in Recreation again as it had been for the past good long while. Afterwards I headed to the Rotary meeting for lunch and then back to school again. Not much else happened though I did go for a walk with my host Dad that night. We actually go basically every night but I don't need to type out for every day "I went for a walk with my host dad as per usual" now do I? :P

Friday morning was spent practicing singing for Bunkahappyokai (Bunkasai, a.k.a the school's cultural festival). All the music classes were to combine into one big group and sing two songs, Heiwa no Kane (peace bells) and Michi (road) in front of the school. We practiced and took desks down to the stage in the gym for a makeshift stand for the 17th. In Calligraphy we continued making our personalised stamps. After school as I was going home there were lots of people around practicing their acts for the next day. Two boys were on the library roof (it's like a courtyard area in the middle of the school) and they were singing a duet. Quite a few people were all standing around watching and cheering!

practicing their act

That night it was just Yuusuke, my host mum and I so we went out for okonomiyaki. My host mum ordered the special which turned out to be one GIANT square okonomiyaki! I was pretty impressed, I'd never seen square okonomiyaki before, but what impressed me the most was when the guy could actually flip the whole thing and it stayed intact!!!

very large, very square okonomiyaki

Saturday morning I was up early and off to school for early morning music rehearsal before Bunkasai! After we'd run through the songs I had a little bit of free time to meet up with my friends before we trotted off to the gym. Basically we spent the morning watching different events in a semi-formal assembly sort of thing. We performed our two songs which went well and I was relieved to find I didn't forget the words! (them being in Japanese makes it a bit harder to memorise!!!!) After the assembly-like thing I found Christy and we wandered around the school events together. We visited the tea ceremony club first up because Chen tipped us off that if we got in early we got the good sweets :)

Christy and Chen

My tea and I

Chen, myself and Tanaka-sensei (Music teacher~!)

After our tea we visited a performance that was being held on the roof of the library. The roof itself is pretty big but there is also corridors on either side that we could watch from which was a relief because I doubt we would've seen very much from the roof! Several different students were basically singing karaoke in front of the crowd but some of them got all dressed up for it. Once the students had finished a few teachers came out to perform. One of them was a maths teacher and he was deliberately singing a well known, high-pitched girly song in an attempted girly high-pitched voice. It was really quite painful to both watch and listen to so Christy and I decided we'd make our escape then and find somewhere else to go. We ran into some of her friends from school and all headed to another performance where some boys had formed a band and were performing popular rock songs. It was great! The lead singer was the guy I sat next to in Computer design and speak to quite a bit so it was great to see him having so much fun singing and dancing around!

rooftop performance

the band!

Junpei and I

After the band we walked around the school visiting the various stalls that different clubs and classes had set up. From Walking dogs with the Pet doubutsu class to the freshly baked bread and cookies of the bread making stand. My Bread making teacher actually gave christy and I free freshly baked bread because Christy mentioned it all looked so good and I told her it all tastes as good as it looks and he was quite thrilled by that. :D Afterwards we sat down and ate our bread and had a nice long chat before deciding it was about time we left. The events had finished and everyone was cleaning up and heading home. We walked back to my house (which took about an hour and 10 minutes!!) and then watched a movie before having dinner. My host mum's sister came over so we all had Yanagawa style "unagi" which is eel. :) It was really yummy but I couldn't finish it all, too much rice!!! Afterwards I walked her to Shinsakaemachi station but before she left we took some purikura together. Always fun! Then I walked back home thoroughly exhausted after my long day!

The 18th I went for a walk with my host dad in the morning. We visited a temple fairly close by the house which when we got there I realised I'd visited with my first host family, way back when! It has a really great view and is known for it's flowers and being very pretty when they're in full bloom. It was really nice to visit it in Autumn/beginning of winter as all the leaves were that brilliant red colour! When we got back to the house we turned around and shuffled out the door again except this time it was into a car and Yuusuke and my host mother were with us! We went out to eat soba for lunch at a really yummy soba restaurant before we headed to Kurume to watch The Bourne Ultimatum! I'd mentioned that I wanted to see it a while ago so my host Dad had decided we should make a day of going, all together. It didn't seem to bother him that he hadn't watched the first 2 movies!!! He mentioned afterwards he was confused at first but he gradually understood what was going on so that was a relief! :D That night we went out for shabu shabufor dinner to celebrate Yuusuke's birthday, which was on the 19th. Nariaki came with us so the whole family was together which was quite nice! :)

Monday the 19th of November was my host brother Yuusuke’s 14th birthday. Unlike back home though it wasn’t all up early opening presents and everyone wishing happy birthday’s which was definitely different. Basically the day went like any other normal day. I went to school and found everyone to be busy studying away hard for exams next week (thus with me with nothing much to do!!). When I came home things were pretty much the same too except after dinner my host mum pulled out a birthday cake with ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUUSUKE!’ written in the top. I found out afterwards that he received his presents when he got home from school (so before I got home) so it was birthday-ish after all!

20th there is nothing much to report. The 21st it was all badminton in Sports II and self study for art and green life. Thursday I had the day off school! Because we had to go to school the Saturday before for the Cultural festival we were given the Thursday off (as Friday was already a national holiday!). I woke up the same time as per usual and got cooking on honey crackles and brownies for Friday. As on Friday I would be off to Hiroshima and Miyajima on the Rotary Trip and the crackles and brownies were for celebrating Erica’s birthday (which was on November 13th!). Once I was done I got changed and headed out to the rotary meeting with my host dad. Afterwards I walked home from the hotel as I had plenty of time to spare then once I was home I made a quick trip to the post office to mail off one big box of Christmas presents and goodies for back home! I believe it’s still yet to arrive which is OK, I didn’t expect it would have by now, just so long as it arrives eventually!!!!!

23rd it was up bright and early to eat breakfast and then dash off to the station to catch a train to Hakata where we were to all meet up before taking the Shinkansen to Hiroshima (minus Erica as she lives further north than us and going to Hakata would be going backwards!). In my rush and excitement I accidentally hopped on the express train to Hakata instead of the slower one and ended up having to pay more for my ticket! I was pretty annoyed at myself because I deliberately was catching an earlier but slower train so I wouldn’t have to pay so much and then I went and hopped on the wrong one! Once we all arrived we hopped on the Shinkansen and were off to Hiroshima!

lily and I

Erica joined us all at Kokura and it felt like no time at all before we were in Hiroshima! Though we didn't stay long! We made a quick trip by the hotel to stash our bags and then it was back on the bus and off to Miyajima!. The bus to Miyajima got stuck in traffic so it felt like an age before we reached the ferry! Our tour guide got us to give self introductions and tell her a little about ourselves to help pass the time. She was a pretty funny lady. Once we eventually arrived at the port it was pretty awesome! The weather was really good and the sky was beautiful and clear so it all looked really pretty!!! We boarded the ferry and off we went!

miyajima from the ferry

again

Once we hit the mainland we headed over to the restaurant for lunch. We were late for our reservation so we were supposed to be hurrying but along the way we ran into some deer! They were really friendly but our tour guide warned us they're a little too friendly and that they'll attempt to eat anything that looks like food!!

myself and a deer

deers and beaches. Odd combination I thought!

Lunch was conger eel, a local specialty and a bentou box of some sort. Afterwards it was off to see Itsukushima shrine (which is known for the fact that it's build in the sea as well as the special 'shinden zukuri' architecture) and the Torii (grand purification gate) to see the sites then for a little shopping!

In front of the gate. well not in front in front but you understand :)

the gate from the shrine

around the shrine

being silly with shadows

in front of some nice autumn scenery

us crazy goons

I was really excited by being in Miyajima as it was somewhere I'd wanted to visit with my parents but didn't get a chance as we ran out of time. I wasn't let down, it was really quite beautiful and the people were really friendly! We wandered around the shops afterwards and had till 3:30 to buy souvniers and whatnot before we had to catch our ferry back to the mainland. All in all, it was pretty and I enjoyed myself!

Next on our places to visit was a quick run by of the Hiroshima Peace Park. We were to be visiting it the next day and seeing then museum and so on but we wouldn't have enough time to view the museum and the park itself so we were given a run down of the park. Our guide explained the monuments and different aspects of the park to us which was great as I didn't know about some of the things she was teaching us. Next up it was off to an Okonomiyaki alley where we'd have dinner. We walked there from the park, as it was close and when we arrived I thought the whole place was pretty cool. Instead of it just having an alleyway of several okonomiyaki restaurants it was a 2F building and basically it was sort of arranged like a foodcourt, except all the restaurants were okonomiyaki! We found the place we had our reservation at (and luckily at that as everywhere was full and people were having to wait!). Rotary ordered us all deluxe Hiroshima style okonomiyaki and boy, when they say deluxe they mean it!

wouldn't want to drop it!

best okonomiyaki I've ever had

Aussie's preparing to chow on down

It was absolutely DELICIOUS! A bit too much but I had to eat the whole thing as to not would be a waste!!! Once we'd all finished and were well and truely stuffed it was off back to the hotel for the night. We were told we could go out so long as we were in pairs but we had to be back by 10:30 so Erica and I decided we'd go for a walk as we were feeling pretty full from out dinner. We dumped our stuff in our room then headed out and walked around the night time Hiroshima. Coming back to the hotel however we discovered something interesting. The hotel we were staying at has two buildings on two parallel streets! The annex and were we were staying were located in two different sections. We noticed what we thought was our hotel building but when we walked inside we realised we were wrong. We were confused as we were sure we had the right name and thought maybe we'd come in a back enterance or something till the nice man at the counter explained to us that the half of the hotel we wanted was on the next street along. :) oops! When we arrived inside the rotarians said goodnight to us and told us we weren't allowed to leave. We invited everyone back to our rooms for honey crackles and brownies and to hang out.

eating brownies and honey crackles and playing silly word games

The next day it was up early for breakfast before we headed out to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum. We watched a 30 minute video on the bombings and the people and why the park was built and afterwards we were to wander around the museum. Seeing as Erica and I had both seen the museum our guide let us wander around the park instead. The museum itself is a really good experience but just a tad depressing for me to go over and over again!

Erica and I displaying peace with the trees

A-dome

A-bomb dome again

After the peace park it was off the Hiroshima Castle. At the castle not only did we get to go up and see the view from the top and see all the neat arifacts but there was also a dress up section were you could dress up and pretend to be a samurai! The helmet was pretty heavy!!

on the bridge

in front of the castle

again

Aussie Samurais

Once we'd had enough of dressing up it was off to our restaurant for lunch. It was awesome and buffet style and had heaps of yummy food so I was pretty thrilled! haha. Once we'd eaten our fill it was off to Yamaguchi-ken (the neighbouring prefecture next to hiroshima) where we visited the famous 'glasses-shaped' bridge Kintaikyo.
We got to walk across it and back and buy souvniers but we didn't spend too long as we had to get to the station to catch out train home as our trip was coming to a close!

the bridge

scenery

We took the bus back to the station where we said goodbye to our guide and hopped on our shinkansen for the long ride home.

Despite being fairly tired I was up the next day as my host family were taking my to a festival where I could see katanas being made. It was only really small so there weren't a lot of people but it was really interesting! I hadn't seen anything like it before so I had a lot of fun. We went out for ramen for lunch before heading off to Kiyomizu temple in the afternoon. I was surprised to find that the temple has the same name as the one in Kyoto but it was so close by. Apparently it's not uncommon. After climbing up a staircase that felt like it lasted an eternity I was rewarded by a really breaktaking view and spectacular autumn scenery.

making a katana

seems quite fun but hot work!!

host mother and I at the temple

the temple

I love Japan in the Autumn! It's so pretty!

the most interesting thing I've seen at a temple so far...

November 26th it was back to school. Exams started so I was back to having half days. Basically I'd spend the first half of the day in the library and then would come home and eat lunch with the host parents and then spend the rest of the day helping out my host mother. And that's how I spent the rest of my november!

That brings us to December. I would like to say I'll have another post before I leave but I'm afraid I probably won't get one up in time (I can try though!). I'll definitely finish off the posts when I get back though as December was so busy and full on and I had such a wonderful time!

till next time!
Happy new year!

-m

028; time keeps slipping

2007-12-10T17:36:00.000+09:00

Update number 28! How are you all going? Still following my travels? We're almost up to date which is good as it's not much longer now till I'll be back in Australia!

Karate practice is the only thing that was particularly of interest on the 22nd so moving on to the 23rd! A regular Tuesday, pet doubutsu, pottery and bread making except in bread making we made pizza! Yum yum! We got to make the dough from scratch then make the tomato sauce! It was awesome fun. Our topping included mushrooms, capsicum, onion, cheese and bacon. Even though the dough was really thin it still tasted pretty good I must admit! I was pretty amazed at the amount of girls who don't like capsicum though!

On the 24th we continued out landscapes in art, played basketball and badminton in sports II and made and packaged biscuits in Green Life. What you might call a pretty typical Wednesday! After school I had karate then went home and that was about it.

Thursday there is nothing much to report on. Friday I went to school as per usual but that night Akiyama papa and I went to see a Live! Turns out Akiyama papa helped his friend, who is a producer/director make a movie! So this movie had promotional music and the girl who sang the promotional song was also the lead actress in the movie. Originally being from Okinawa her songs were pretty interesting! Akiyama Papa and I got there at 6:30 and wondered why no one was turning up till we were informed by the man who owns the small hotel it was being held at (also a friend of Akiyama Papa's) that we were actually an hour early! Seeing as we were early he took us down to a local cafe/restaurant nearby called Victoria to eat dinner. The chef/owner of the restaurant was really nice and so when it came to ordering he just asked me what kind of food I'd like to eat and he'd make it for me. He ended up making me a really nice vetegable spaghetti with a tomato sauce. Yum! Akiyama Papa ordered a seafood salad and a pizza for him and his friend to share but when it came insisted I was to eat it too.

very colourful seafood salad!

Akiyama Papa's friend and Akiyama Papa enjoying their beer

Once we were done eating it was back to the hotel for the live. The live was a lot of fun. She sang quite a few songs, some of them were Okinawa style and had dances to go with it so she got everyone up and dancing and singing with her at some points. Okinawan dialect is really hard!! I don't understand it at all (because it's just nothing like regular Japanese) but that didn't matter at all! Afterwards I got a CD and she signed it for me so I thought that was pretty cool!

the performance

The two of us. She was quite short so she asked me to bend down haha

Afterwards Akiyama Papa and I went for coffee downstairs where we bumped into more friends of his. They introduced me to their son who, as it turns out, lived in Australia for 6 years! His English was really good and it was really awesome to hear a Japanese guy speaking with an Australian accent for once! We spent a long time talking and I found out that "Kenny" (Aussie adopted nickname!) was actually now a pro-golfer in Japan and by the sounds of it, that's a very good way to make a living!! Eventually it was time to call it a night so we said our goodbyes and caught a taxi back home.

That Saturday I had school for half a day!!!! It wasn't fun waking up on a Saturday after a late night out only to remember you've got to go to school! I forgot that the train times were different so when I reached the station I realised the next train was going to get me to school late and I would have to take the JR (Japan Rail) line instead if I was going to get there on time! After almost missing that train I eventually got to school on time. Phew! It was Monday's periods 1-3 and then cleaning and homeroom and then we could go home. Why we had 3 periods of Monday's classes when on Monday we had school but Tuesday we had the whole day off I have no idea, but that's what they did. After getting back home I ate up and finished my washing for the weekend as I knew the next day I'd have no chance as it was my host brother's wedding! I was off to the Tsutsumi household to stay the night there as Akiyama Papa and Mama were very busy with other guests staying at their house and last minute things to organise. Seeing as the Tsutsumi house was basically around the corner they were more than happy to have me back for a day so off I went back to the house for another night! It was interesting being back in a previous host family's house because at first I was kind of unsure of how to act!! I'd lived there for 3 months but now I wasn't living there so it was a bit like I was just a house guest again to begin with but once everyone had come home that changed! I got to play with Ayaka, Chiaki and Haruna and they filled me in on all the fun things they'd been up to since I'd last seen them. I had a nice long chat with Tsutsumi Mama too. It felt really good to catch up! She mentioned how Ayaka was warming up to the idea of a short exchange overseas when she was older which surprised me! When I first moved in back in April Ayaka had been very vocal about how exchange for even 2 weeks sounded way too scary for her!

Grandma came home from one of her trips around 5ish and was so delighted to see me she ran up and hugged me. Yep, she's definitely doing well for her age! Every time I see her I'm amazed by how energetic she is! She had various goodies for us that she'd brought back as omiyage (souvenirs) as well as Godiva Chocolates that someone had given her as omiyage. Mmm. Those chocolates are so expensive I'm surprised she let everyone have one instead of keeping it a secret and eating them herself! That night we all helped with dinner. We made Chijimi which is sort of like Okonomiyaki. It's a Korean food and it was pretty good. This year I've had quite a bit of Korean food and I must admit I'd like to try more!

The next day it was up early to do make up and eat breakfast as we had to be at Eguchi-san's (the Rotarian who owns a business that rents out kimonos/dresses/suits for weddings) shop to get into my kimono for the day. Ayaka, Chiaki and Haruna seemed to enjoy watching me have my kimono put on. Chiaki decided she was quite the budding photographer and took a lot of photos! Kimonos take so long to put on it's amazing really.

the under layer

now it's been tied the outer layer

obi being put on

obi being tied

geez that obi sure is complex!

and that's that!!

So next up it was off to the hotel to have my hair done and then meet up with everyone. Once we got there I was collected by Akiyama Mama and I said goodbye and thankyou to the Tsutsumi's before being whisked away to the room where everyone's hair was being done. The lady who was doing my hair actually mentioned she was a friend of Tsutsumi Grandma! She was quite a funny old lady and she kept telling me off for laughing while she was pinning up my hair! And we're done!

Ta-dah!

I could barely see because the sun was so bright!! Hiromi's sisters, Nori, Myself and Hiromi

my very funny hairdresser

After running around greeting people and being busy telling everyone how pretty they looked it was time to shuffle inside. There was no ceremony this time as Nori and Hiromi actually got hitched in Hawaii on their early Honeymoon/wedding as it turns out it's cheaper to do it that way. So they had a small ceremony in Hawaii and then the reception and after events all in Japan. We were shown to our tables where I discovered I was with Ryou-kun, Akiyama mama, Akiyama Papa, Yoshitaka and Rumi-san. Once we'd all sat down we were shown the video of Nori and Hiromi in Hawaii getting married and once that was over they entered the room and made their way to the front where their special seats and decorations were. It was all set up really beautifully. After a few speeches from the best friends and Nori and Hiromi themselves we did one big KANPAI! (cheers!) and we were told to begin our feast. As the dishes came and went several people came to greet us and give their congratulations to my host parents. Akiyama mama and papa were swamped with people coming to the table as well as them travelling to other tables to greet guests. While we were eating Nori and Hiromi cut the wedding cake and then there was a lot of picture taking. I found myself wandering around the room being introduced to several people and mixing and mingling with people I'd met previously. At some point some of Nori's friends took up instruments on the stage at the side and sang some songs for Nori and Hiromi. After they'd finished Nori joined them and sang a song for her too. I thought it was really sweet.

Cutting the cake

Nori, myself and Hiromi

Morimatsu-san, Nori and Hiromi and myself

nori's friends and their "band"

Nori singing

I eventually made it back to my table and discovered more food to be eaten. Hiromi in the meantime "threw" her boquet of flowers. Instead of actually throwing it she had one long ribbon attached to the bottom of it. In the same hand she held identical ribbons so it was impossible to tell which one led to the flowers. Everyone grabbed a ribbon and whoever ended up with the right one got to keep them. People came and gave speeches about Nori and Hiromi and some people put on small performances. Nori and Hiromi ducked away as cakes were served and I found myself busy the whole time talking to lots of different people as they came up to my table. Soon after they returned, changed into traditional wear. As they walked around the room they lit the candle in the middle of every table in the room before walking to the front and lighting the big candle there. Hiromi's kimono was really pretty!! After that there was a thankyou speech and presentation of flowers for my host parents and Hiromi's parents from Nori and Hiromi. Just after Nori spoke my host dad started crying a lot which definitely made a few people go "AWW". Then they all bowed in thanks to everyone for coming and it was time for the parents to speak.

lighting candles

akiyama papa crying

receiving their flowers

bowing in thankyou

Once the speeches were over we collected our stuff and shuffled outside where we were thanked for coming and handed cookies by the newly weds. Then it was time to say our goodbyes and get back to the house. We were all pretty tired by that point (and full!) so it was good to get back to the house and relax a little. A few guests came back with us (those who stayed the night before) and so we all sat around sharing photos and videos from the day. Weddings are a lot of fun and while everyone looks stunning and is really happy they sure can be tiring!!

Unfortunately for me it was much a case of 'no rest for the wicked' as the following day I was back at school! After a full day I took myself to karate and then was thoroughly exhausted by the time I reached home. When I got home however I was told by my host parents I had been invited by their friend Morimatsu-san to go to his house for a house party that night. I remembered talking to him at the wedding and he asked if I'd like to go over some time but I didn't realise it would be so soon!!! So off I went to get changed and then head to his house. I was surprised to find the invitation extended to me, but not my host parents so it was just me at his house to begin with. I helped him prepare the food as we waited for the other guests to arrive. We had sukiyaki (a pot style dish) which was absolutely yummy. He was really surprised I hadn't had it before! He told me all sorts of stories about his travels overseas, recent and not so recent (he had been to Scotland the week before visiting friends) and soon the Restaurant Victoria Chef/owner turned up. This REALLY surprised me as I'd been to his restaurant the other day when I went to the live with my host dad! Pleasantly surprised we chatted for a good long while as he started up the Sukiyaki till Morimatsu's daughter Emi arrived. We all chatted away over the pot as we ate and discussed everything and anything. Morimatsu-san had a lot of fun getting me to pronounce a lot of Gaelic words he'd learnt while he was in Scotland. Of course I was pronouncing it as it was written and was of course getting it wrong and he was finding it fun to correct me.

sukiyaki cooking

Victoria-man!

myself, morimatsu-san, emi and victoria-man

As the night went on Victoria-man's (I'm really sorry I can't remember his name) wife turned up to add to our group. Eventually it was really late for me and I was thoroughly exhausted having had a big weekend so I had to head home. I thanked everyone for a wonderful evening and caught a taxi back to my house where I was very glad that the next day was a day off!

Seeing as I had Tuesday off you'd assume I'd sleep in but I've discovered that I can't really do that anymore! I've somehow gotten into a habit of waking up the same time every day (around 6:30) so I was up and eating breakfast deciding what to do with the rest of my day off. I visited the gym and afterwards, rode my bike to Loc Town to buy groceries. It was such a nice day outside that I quite enjoyed my pleasant 1 hour bike ride in the sun! When I got home Akiyama Mama showed me a gallery invitation she'd received and asked if I wanted to go. So off we went for a walk to the gallery to check out some local artwork. It was not very big, maybe 30 paintings tops. They were all of flowers and I didn't recognise a lot of them so that was different for me! We chatted to the lady who painted them all before we left and then made our way back to the house. On the way back we stopped in at my host mum's friends house to say hello. I noticed she had a lot of really old movies in her house and when I asked her if she liked them she told me that she learns English from them in her spare time! I suppose that's definitely one way of doing it! When we got back to the house we started dinner early as Akiyama mama wanted to make rolled cabbage. Though as she doesn't eat meat, and when she does it's mince in small proportions, instead of having just meat we mixed tofu in instead. It was pretty yummy I must say!

Halloween! I came to school and saw Chen (the new ALT) running around in a witches outfit and was very confused at first! Then I remembered, of course! Halloween! Besides that though, nothing halloween-ish actually happened. In Japan I guess just the shops get into the Halloween spirit of things! We played basketball and badminton in sports II and drew landscapes in art. In karate I got to learn a kata for the sais which was a lot of fun! Though I don't get to practice with them very often so I know I'll forget it quite soon!!!

for those who don't know what I mean when I refer to a sai

Unfortunately when I got home, my host mum was sick! So she went to bed and my host dad and I ordered bentou boxes to eat for dinner.

Thursday the first of November was a School Anniversary of some sort so couldn't go to my Rotary meeting as we were having a concert at school. A pianist came and played for us all at the assembly. It was really interesting to watch her as she got really into playing! She also changed twice over her hour and half performance which I thought was pretty odd but it reminded me of how they change at weddings too. Only she wasn't changing into traditional Kimonos, just different dresses! That night my Host Mum was better again which was a relief! We went for our last nightly walk together which was kind of sad.

Friday was school as per usual but that night Nori, Hiromi and my host parents and I all went out for dinner together as it was the last dinner I'd be eating with them! We went to the same restaurant we had oden at when it was my host parents.'s wedding anniversary. We were shown to our room and when we sat down and were chatting away the door separating the rooms opened! Turns out the people in the room next door knew my host family!!! We ordered a lot of yummy food and ate and laughed and made fun of each other and I had a lot of fun! We also had what I think is the best tempura I have ever tasted. YUM!

last dinner!

Akiyama mama and I

Hiromi and Nori and I

akiyama papa insisted he was number 1

Saturday was a full on day! I went to the gym and when I got back I ate lunch then baked some cookies to take with me that night. I was going to celebrate "Shichigosan" which is a festival for children aged 7, 5 and 3 with the Tsutsumi family at the Ryotei (exclusive Japanese style restaurant). Once I was done baking Akiyama Papa, Nori and Hiromi and I all visited Akiyama Papa's friends Mikan Farm to go Mikan picking! Mikans are a Japanese orange. They look a lot like mandarins and taste somewhere in between and orange and a mandarin! Before we started, Akiyama Papa's friend explained which ones we should pick and how to pick them then he let us go nuts! We were allowed to pick as many as we wanted to Akiyama Papa handed me a big bucket and simply told me to fill it!

This is how you pick a mikan...

some of the mikan trees

Amongst the mikans. happily picking away

my bucket

After we felt like we'd picked enough we thanked my host dad's friend and made our way back home, fully loaded! We stopped on the way back to check out an interesting "glasses" bridge.

akiyama papa and I on the bridge

view from the bridge

Then it was back home to finish packing a little before I headed out that night! At the Ryoutei I discovered how big an event this was! We were celebrating not only shichigosan but something for Tsutsumi grandma as well so there were a lot of guests. We were set up in the tatami mat room with our special seats. There were speeches, photos, drinking, celebrations and of course lots of eating. I spent the night talking to the people around me which was lots of fun. The lady who did my hair at the wedding the weekend before came (she had mentioned that she was friends with Tsutsumi Grandma!) also so was Kawano-san and his wife. There was a small ventriloquist show and afterwards people sang karaoke and danced and had a great old time!

Haruna in her kimono

Kawano-san, Tsutsumi mama and papa

dancing away

Afterwards I thanked everyone and we all called it a night and started making our way back to our homes. I walked back to my house with Kawano-san and his wife (as it's really close to the Ryoutei) and we had coffee and talked about the night and how full we all were! It was a lot of fun, though a little tiring!! After my long day it was nice to retreat to my bed!

Sunday I headed to the gym for the last time in the morning then finalised my packing. We ate our last lunch together before Nori and Hiromi turned up to help me move. I said goodbye to the house and it was off to go see what my last host family would be like! I was pretty anxious as I'd heard things like, the house is in the middle of no where and so on before I came so I was really curious to see what it was like! Honestly, when I first saw the house I was amazed. It's absolutely MASSIVE! There's even a front and back garden!!! The front garden has a vegetable patch too! Talk about a shock! I said godbye to the Akiyama's and thanked them for a wonderful past 2 months and then it was time to take my stuff inside and settle into my room a little. I discovered I'm back to a futon so sleeping on the floor again for me! I met my host brothers for the second time, Yuusuke (14) and Nariaki (16) and I was introduced to my host mum and dad again. Everyone seemed really nice so I was quite happy. My new host dad, Sakai-san, explained to me that I'd be riding to and from school so he took me on a ride to show me the streets and so we could work out how long it takes. It actually took us about 30 minutes to get there (I'm quite in the boondocks actually) so that'll be a good amount of exercise every day for sure! The roads are a little small at times and there are quite a few hills so it definitely makes for an interesting ride at least! I'm happy with it! :)

The 5th I was off to school for the first time. While I was looking forward to riding my bike I discovered that it wasn't meant to be as it was raining outside! I'm not very good at the riding with an umbrella thing so my host dad drove me to and from school that day. Not much to report on that day of school. I was supposed to have karate but there were some people using the hall so we waited for them to leave, but by the time they left I only had 10 minutes left!!! So that meant no training for me!

I woke up Tuesday to find it was raining again! Alas! So again, no ride to school for me. In Pottery my teacher decided he was too lazy to do anything so we had 2 periods to do whatever we felt like. In bread making we made french bread! French bread is suprisingly hard to get the shape right. It tasted really good though! Again I didn't have karate practice so I decided I'd walk home instead of waiting around. It took just over an hour but thank God that it didn't rain!!

Wednesday I woke up to find I could ride to school for the first time! Hooray! It really wakes you up in the morning to get in a little bit of exercise before starting your day! I'd forgotten that feeling (having no early morning training sessions of course!) We continued our landscapes in art but I was surprised to find that we had guests come to view us working. I was even more surprised to find my first host mum came!!! We had a quick chat before they moved on to the next class they were visiting. It was great to see her again! Afterwards it was Basketball and Badminton again. In green life we started weeding instead of baking things which was definitely different. I prefer baking over weeding haha! After school I actually had karate which was good but then I had to ride home. After my busy day it was a little tiring but definitely worth it!

On the 8th I went to the Rotary meeting as I missed the week before. Everyone was really in a talkative mood so it was a lot of fun! When I got home I found no one was here which was a bit of a shock. When my host mum and Yuusuke eventually came home I found out he'd gotten braces! Poor guy!

On Friday in music we practiced for Bunkasai (Cultural day). We were going to be singing 2 songs, Heiwa no Kane (Peace bells) and Michi (road). Although we've sung them a lot all year I decided I should buckle down a bit more and make sure I knew all the words!! In Calligraphy we made personalised stamps with your initials in them, which they use a lot in Japan. It was pretty interesting. After school my host mum drove me to a game shop so I could buy myself a kanji game for my DS which works as a dictionary too. I was really happy with this purchase as it makes life so much easier and it was so much cheaper than buying an electronic dictionary! Afterwards we came home and I helped her make sakana fry (deep fried fish coated in bread crumbs) for dinner.

The 10th was an Orientation in Tenjin so off I went! Erica didn't go so it was a shame I didn't get to see her though it was nice to see the other exchange students again! Unfortunately Bianca couldn't hang out afterwards so just Lily, Sofie and I wandered around together. We ended up eating Baskin Robbins (expresso and cuppacino delight yumyum!), rummaging through the 100 yen store and purikura-ing. We also went shopping for a bit. Lily bought a lot of manga (a rather scary amount in fact)! I had to leave soon after though so I said my goodbyes and caught the train to the station where I was picked up by my family and we all went out for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant. It was pretty yummy. Nariaki and I decided we'd walk back from the restaurant to the house for a bit of exercise as it was relatively close so it was good to be able to talk to him a little. He's quite quiet (I think it's because he's shy) so I got to learn some new things about him which is always good!

11th of November. Pocky Day! I woke up and when I checked my phone I'd gotten a message from Reina asking if I wanted to go to Teikyo university's Cultural Day with her. I replied "Of Course!!!" and got ready so she came and picked me up and we went to the University together. I found out when we were there that Reina actually went to the uni and is now graduated! (She's actually 23 years old!! And here I thought she was 20!) I got to meet some of her old teachers which was interesting. They all wanted to speak English with me so we got caught up talking for quite a while! When we eventually got away we got to walk around the grounds and see all the different events. We watched and voted in a Mr/Ms Teikyo competition which was lots of fun as well as watching a Taiko performance. There were various displays around the campus of photos from arious programs and so on and also several clubs had set up cafes and were trying to get us to go eat there every time we walked by! I had a stress test taken which said I had so little stress I should try and live more! We got free soup from a stand and went to buy lunch from another but were bombarded by uni guys wanting to take a picture with me! They wouldn't let us buy anything till I did so of course we obliged!

the view from the 3rd floor

Reina and I

Us and some random guys

Afterwards we wandered around a bit more till we felt we'd seen enough. We drove to the nearby shops where we took purikura in the 100 yen store and waited for her friend Naoko. Then it was off to Arao City Mall (Kumamoto Youme town!). We walked around and window shopped but didn't see anything in particular worth buying. Once we got bored with shopping it was time to call it a day and so Reina took me back home where we put our feet up and had a chat over coffee before she went home. All in all, a fun day!

And I think I'll end this post here! Hard to believe we're in December already! On the home stretch now!

Till next time

-m

027; what do you do? you go to eat of course...

2007-11-19T20:26:00.000+09:00

Well I didn't get it up on the Monday I wanted to but it's a Monday and a blog is up! That's what happens when things refuse to work as you would like them to but oh well!

October 1st. I went to the gym as per my daily routine for when I had free time. It was after all, the first day of Autumn Holidays! When I was told we got Autumn holidays I was expecting 2 weeks as per usual in Australia but we only got one week off! While that surprised me the fact that other schools don't have Autumn holidays surprised me even more!! It turns out, my school finished summer holidays one week early (as I think I explained in an earlier post) for a reason! It was so we could get one week off for Autumn holidays after exams! The rest of the day I was pretty lazy and caught up on my reading and with my host mum. That night we went for one of our daily walks together but we ended up going for about 2 hours instead of 1!

The next day the gym was closed, which I was very sad about but my host mum suggested I go for a bike ride to the library nearby instead and study in the morning so that's what I did! I came home and helped make lunch and then spent the afternoon being lazy and catching up on some sleep.

The 3rd however I was back at the gym in the morning! It was just my host mum and I for lunch so we went for a walk to a local udon/soba restaurant to eat. It was pretty yummy! Afterwards we picked up her friend Michiko-san and the three of us headed to a cute little cafe/bakery in the country. There was an exhibition at the place where they had all sorts of flowers made out of bread on display. They were pretty awesome flowers I must say! I was quite surprised when I found out they were made of bread!

bread flowers!

After we'd finished viewing the exhibition we made our way next door to the bakery/cafe where we had our afternoon tea. I chose an almond smelling and sort of tasting tea. It was really nice!!

my tea set. different teas came in different pots. I thought mine was quite cute

the view from where we sat was very peaceful

That night we went out for dinner to a restaurant called Maruyama to eat oden and yakitori as I hadn't had oden before. The real reason we were going out though was because it was my host parents wedding anniversary! It was the first time I'd ever had oden (a type of nabe ((pot)) style dish) and I found it really filling but quite yummy! The restaurant workers were really friendly and we ended up spending quite a long time in the restaurant talking to the staff even long after we'd finished and were full! My host mum and I decided we definitely needed a walk to settle our stomachs so we went for our daily walk but this time we ran into quite a few people! The first people we ran into were friends of my host mum's who were waiting for the bus. My host mum mentioned I had a week off so they asked if it was ok if we made plans to do something later on in the week with them. That wasn't the end of our meetings for the night though! Further on I bumped into a girl from my school who's in my Green Life class. Yumika was just finishing up an Eikaiwa (英会話 english conversation) class and was waiting with 2 of her friends outside. She was really interested in us all becoming friends so my host mum invited them all over. We switched phone numbers so we could set up a date and then set off to finish our walk. It was pretty odd for me but I was happy!

The 4th I woke up to find a message from one of the girls we'd met up with the night before, Reina-chan. Seeing as I had free time that afternoon I asked them over for that night. I hit the gym then helped make lunch then it was time to do some cleaning around the house! Tiring stuff! That night Reina, Erika and Yumika-chan came over and we all got to know each other. We played some Wii (which was a first for all of them! and a lot of fun) watched movies, swapped purikura and sang songs in silly voices. It was a lot of fun and I had a great time with them. Eventually the night wore on and they had to leave so we made a promise to keep in touch and catch up again to take purikura or go karaoke for real! :)

everyone

Yumika and I

Friday the 5th, my host mum's friends we ran into decided to take us to Dazaifu as I hadn't been there before. It's pretty close to Fukuoka city so it didn't take very long for them to drive us there! They picked us up in the morning then explained that we were heading to the Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka Prefectural Asian Culture Exchange Centre first up as there was an exhibition going on called the Treasures of Hongwanji. Hongwanji, as I learned, refers to a group of Bhuddist temples which were once long ago in Kyoto. They were established on the site where Shinran (the founder of the Joudo Shinshuu sect) was buried. Basically the whole exhibition was dedicated to Bhuddist artifacts and scrolls and so on and so forth. I wasn't allowed to take photos but I was pretty amazed by some of the scrolls and at just how old they were! I don't know much about Bhuddist history so it was a learning curve for me. Thank god there was some English translations to a lot of the displays or I'd never had understood all the complicated Kanji!

After the museum we made our way through Dazaifu to visit a temple where the God of learning resides. We stopped in at a restaurant on the way to the temple for lunch where we ate soba that didn't taste or look like soba! It was very amusing! I even found an udon noodle in mine!

After lunch we made our way to the top of the hill where the temple was. There was a lot of students there (quite a few from China actually which was surprising!) as apparently you pray to this god when you want to do well in exams!! There was a lot of charms and pencils and all sorts that you could buy to help you with your exams as well.

the temple

interesting tree!

road of smalls shops leading to the temple

Then afterwards it was time for a little exploring around the area before heading back home for the day!

The 6th was a special day for me. My 18th birthday! I woke up and went to the gym in the morning as per my usual routine but came home early and rushed around and got ready as Miki and Christy were coming over for lunch! It was interesting talking to both of them at the same time as Christy doesn't speak Japanese really and Miki doesn't speak English so to speak to Christy I'd speak in English and to speak to Miki I'd have to switch! I spent a lot of time switching and translating but it all worked out somehow! My host mum had prepared a delicious meal for us to eat so we spent the afternoon merrily chatting away. At some point in the afternoon Koga-san and a couple of other Rotary members stopped by the house to wish me happy birthday and also give me gifts! I was very shocked! It was pretty unexpected! Also at some point in the afternoon, Nori's old primary school teacher and friend of the family turned up. He brought with him his son Shinta, who'd lived in America for a couple of years on exchange and they wanted to meet me and speak English with me. The father was pretty funny, I'm not sure if he was mixing up his English on purpose of not but we all found it entertaining. He even put on a mini-magic show for us! After a while they decided they should take off so we bid them farewell. About the same time Christy had to leave as she had an ALT meeting to go to in Yame and Miki had to get to her part time job so unfortunately we had to say our goodbyes.

Miki and I

Not long after they had left though it was back to being busy and rushing around clearing up and preparing for dinner as Nori, Kawano-san and his wife were all coming to celebrate my birthday together! The dinner was a lot of fun. Everyone was quite silly and we had a great time. When the cake was brought out my host dad kept switching the cake around and proclaiming I was turning 81 instead of 18. I said my host mum should save the number one candle as she'll be able to re-use it for my host dad's first birthday next year!

foooood!

Host father was being a bit silly so Kawano-san decided he'd settle him down a bit

host mother's home made banana cake

My haul XD

The next day it was no rest for the wicked and everyone was up early (even my host mum who has trouble getting up in the morning!) to get ready to travel up to visit Ryou-kun and his parents, Yoshitaka and Rumi as it was Ryou-kun's Pre-primary Sports Day! Once my host mum and I had finished preparing bentou boxes (lunch boxes) for everyone that was coming it was time to hit the road! Nori picked us up and drove us but Hiromi had a business weekend in Fukuoka that weekend so she was going to meet up with us there. Ryou-kun lives not very far out of Fukuoka city so the drive didn't take too long. When we got there I was introduced to the grandparents from the other side as well as aunts and uncles who had all turned up for the occasion.

The 'sports' events themselves weren't very sports like but it was still enjoyable to watch. There were dance routines and all sorts and Ryou-kun had to twirl a flag and march. I feel sorry for the person who had to teach the kids all the dances. It must have been very tough!! Everyone was wearing a uniform for that part of the sports festival which I thought was very un-Japanese looking!!

Ryou-kun in his uniform

marching along

The last event for the kids was a relay for the final year pre-primary kids (ryou-kun). Basically it was a running relay and the fastest people from each team were last. Ryou-kun was fastest from his team and he wore his final runner sash with pride. His team didn't end up winning but the fact that we all saw him run seemed to be good enough for him! The events slowly came to an end around lunchtime so everyone could eat and enjoy their food without having to worry about missing something. All the families around had big lunchboxes and picnics packed and I could see what my host mum meant about it being an essential part of the whole experience! Everyone at our picnic rug brought out the food the brought with them and we placed it in the middle to share. It sure was good!

the picnic feast. the yellow boxes I helped my host mum with!

The last event was after lunch, and it was the parents and kids relay. The parents basically had to ride a really small bike with their kid on the back on the other seat to the other side then hand the bike over to the next person. These kids would have been 4 so they didn't really play a part but it was still fun for them! The parents were pretty competitive I must say!!

After the day finished and ceremonies were completed and everyone was handed their complimentary medals it was time to head back to Ryou-kun's house to rest up while waiting for Hiromi to finish with her business weekend. There wasn't enough room for everyone to go back in the cars so Nori and I opted to walk (as I had been told it was close by). Once we reached the house (apartment) we all decided it was rest time. My host mum and dad and Yoshitaka-san took a nap and Nori entertained Ryou-kun who was still bundles of energy. As for Rumi and I, we spent the time chatting and relaxing over green tea, which I always find very relaxing! Eventually Hiromi turned up with croissants as gifts for being late. Ryou-kun was determined we should all go to Canal City so we were off yet again! When we arrived Ryou-kun visited the Pokemon store with Yoshitaka, Rumi and my host Dad while Nori, Hiromi and I went shopping together and my host mum went looking for something for herself. There were a lot of Halloween decorations around which is kind of surprising considering the Japanese don't celebrate Halloween!

Jack-o-lantern display in the fountains area

Once we'd all finished shopping we met back up for dinner but we couldn't all decide on one restaurant. Ryou-kun was determined to eat omlette rice so he took his parents and Nori and Hiromi to that restaurant while my host parents were eyeing a soba restaurant quite hungrily! We opted to eat at the soba restaurant for which I'm really thankful because it was really delicious! After dinner we all met up again to say our goodbyes and head our separate ways as it had become late and we were all quite tired from our long day and we still had the drive home ahead of us!

The next day I was really tired but that didn't mean I couldn't go to school! I don't remember much of what happened during the day, I was pretty zoned out for the majority of it! After school though I had karate practice which is always fun! I got to start training with sais which delighted me immensely. I don't know if I've mentioned but there are 6 boys in the club and me. The boys joined after autumn holidays. Some girls joined at one point in time sometime in summer but they came once or twice and I never saw them again...

Tuesday the 9th was school as per usual. In bread making we made melon pan (melon bread ((basically cookie dough on top of white bread that's sweeter than usual))) again. Not much else to report here.

On the 10th we started drawing landscapes in art. I was excited because it was the first project we were using colour in. So far everything has been charcoal or pencil so it was nice to crack open some watercolours! In sports II we had basketball. Unfortunately though the girls and the guys don't play together so when it comes time to play games there isn't enough girls so we get stuck doing more drills while the guys get to play. In Green Life we made and packaged a lot of cookies which is always good fun! After school I had karate practice again and my teacher decided that I could come in Monday through Wednesday if I wanted to instead of just Monday and Wednesdays which delighted me! I also got to practice with the sais again which is very cool!

The 11th I went to school for the morning lessons but then left early to head to the rotary meeting as I wouldn't be able to go the following week (as I'd be in Hokkaido). I was really shocked as when I was at the meeting they passed around an envelope and asked people to donate towards spending money for my school trip to Hokkaido! Everyone was really generous and I ended up with a pretty decent amount of extra spending money! I was so thrilled and speechless I had no idea how to thank everybody!!! I tried to give a short speech when I received it but I think I didn't succeed in communicating very well I'm afraid!! When I got back to school I had to find where my group was as we were completing preparation for our school trip.

The next day I went to school, which is nothing much to report on. We had school trip prep again. After school however my host parents and I visited a sunflower field! I was amazed to discover that such a field actually existed in Omuta without me knowing it, especially as I'd rode past the same spot sometime in May/June and there was nothing there! It sure popped up rather suddenly! It was really pretty and even more so because the sun was beginning to set!!

"Himawari hatake iriguchi" Entrance to the sunflower field

sunflowers!

myself surrounded by sunflowers

The 13th it was off to Fukuoka as there was a Rotary Camp! I was excited as it'd be the first big thing we were doing with the new exchange students. Before the camp we had our monthly Japanese lesson, but seeing as we didn't have any books it was more just a "how is everyone settling in" talk-fest! Erica didn't turn up till the very end of the session as she'd been touring with her family around Japan for the past 2 weeks and had just gotten back from Tokyo! (And by just I mean literally! She had hopped off the Shinkansen then came straight to the meeting with all her stuff!) She gave me a birthday present which was really sweet of her! It was a really big, fluffy bathrobe that is so unbelievably soft!! I can tell I'm going to be wanting to wear it a lot as it gets really cold over here!!

After the meeting finished we all crammed into a very, unique looking bus and then headed for our hotel in Shikano Shima. When we got there we were shuffled into meeting rooms to give self introductions and listen to self introductions and speeches before we were given room keys and asked to put our stuff away. Once we'd put our stuff in our rooms it was back to the meeting rooms for some more speeches and explanations of the day and then some more Japanese lessons!

After our lessons we were able to go back to our rooms to rest up for a bit before heading to the restaurant for our buffet dinner. I walked around with Lily translating the dishes so she had an idea of what she was eating. Before we started taking food she warned me she was really picky but I didn't believe her till she started taking food!! She ended up grabbing a lot of bread to fill her up because she had not a lot of everything else!

Erica and Ayumi decided on their 3rd time up that they'd grab a lot of things they could munch on.

Erica and Ayumi chowing down!

After dinner we basically had free time so we decided we'd hit the baths. I was really happy to see that they were Rotenburo (outdoor onsen ((hot spring))).

after our bath

When we got back from the baths I spent a long time talking to Lily. Everyone else had disappeared. When Erica and Ayumi emerged they told me I had to go speak to one of the rotary members and Ayumi took me away from the room. When we got to the supposed meeting place there was no rotary member so we waited around for about 5 minutes till we decided they weren't coming and headed back. When I came back everyone surprised me by wishing me a happy birthday! The boys were acting like they were part of a cafe and waiters and asked me if I wanted tea to which made me laugh. There was a cake and a card which everyone signed. It was a really nice surprise and I was really, really happy. Thankyou Erica! It was really sweet of you! That night we stayed up playing drinking games with soft drink and tea (a really bad combination I might add) and acting goofy. It was great!

We woke up at 7 to eat our breakfast the next day, then once we were done we had to head to our rooms and pack our stuff. Once we were done packing it was upstairs to the meeting rooms for us to study some more. Around 12 we finished up and were dismissed and driven back to Hakata station where everyone had to go their separate ways to get home. Lily was a bit lost as to how she was supposed to get home so Erica and I helped her figure out her train to make sure she'd get back ok before we scooted off to catch our own transport.

When I got home it was about 5 in the afternoon. I was pretty tired so I took a nap as I was going to need some energy that night as Nori and Hiromi had invited me to go bowling with their friends (Yoshio, Hana-chan, Mi-chan and Kaede). So after dinner I got ready to go out and was picked up and we headed out to Yoshio's place where I discovered they'd actually had a special fish barbeque thing that day and that everyone had been hanging out since lunch. I had been invited but since I was busy I couldn't go. We bowled and laughed at each others funky bowling style and had a lot of fun.

Bowling team

After we played our way through 3 games it was pretty late so I had to get back home. Everyone made me promise we'd go out again together, next time to Karaoke! So we made plans to karaoke the following weekend. :)

On Monday I was tired but very excited. The whole day was basically talks about our trip the next day and we even got to go home early to finish packing and finalising!

The 16th of October it was up early to eat breakfast and get ready to catch an early train at an ungodly hour as I was going to Hokkaido for four days on my school trip! For those who don't know where Hokkaido is, it's the Northern most island of Japan. Japan is made up of 4 main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikokku and Kyushu. I live on Kyushu, the southern most island so I was pretty excited to be travelling all the way to the other side of Japan! My group consisted of 5 people, Asuka, Anri, Sayaka, Risa and of course myself. Anri was the only one I really knew and I hadn't really spoken to the others all that much but during our planning sessions I'd gotten to know them all a bit better and they were all really nice so I didn't mind at all! We had decided we'd all meet in Yanagawa in the morning and then we'd all be driven to the airport by Asuka's Dad instead of having to get there by ourselves. I was quite happy with this arrangement as it meant I didn't have to pay for train tickets and I wouldn't have to worry about finding my group! So at Yanagawa we met up and waited till Asuka and her Dad arrived (they were late!), thre our stuff in her car and drove off to the airport. We were pretty early so there weren't a lot of people there yet but there weren't that many people going to Hokkaido anyway. As we hung around with the teachers eventually more and more people turned up. The lady who would be helping to organise us throughout our trip, introduced herself to us then explained our boarding procedure and what we'd have to do with our luggage and so on. Once we were organised it was time to check out luggage in and head for the departures gate! It was pretty amusing getting through the airport. I was in my school uniform and so when it came time for me to send my luggage through I think the staff were unsure of which language to use because it kept switching from English to Japanese to English again (which gets awfully confusing awfully fast!). After waiting around and going through metal detectors and having our stuff checked we were handed our tickets and lunchboxes and guided to yet another place where we were to wait. After what felt like an eternity we could finally board the plane! I asked a lot of the other students if they'd ever been to Hokkaido before and I couldn't find a person who had. Even the teachers I asked hadn't been. Apparently it's too far away and expensive!

On the plane my group was completely split up. The seats were random so I ended up somewhere in a middle row next to people I didn't know. I spent my time talking and getting to know them and while it was fun I kind of wished I had a window seat! We ate our lunches, slept and listened to music. The flight didn't take particularly long so we arrived in what felt like no time at all! When we arrived we discovered that Hokkaido was currently at a nice and happy 10 degrees!! What a change! We moved through the airport and collected our luggage then formed rows and sat down to await our further instructions. Lots of other schools went by who were also on school trips. I was quite amazed by the amount of them! A lot of the other schools waved at me which my school mates found interesting. Eventually our bus arrived so we shuffled outside with our things, loaded them onto the bus and then waited to go on ourselves. The guys in the bus next to us kept waving so I waved back. My sports II teacher (who was one of the 3 teachers who came to Hokkaido with us), Takano-sensei turned to me and was like "You sure are popular aren't you?" I couldn't help but laugh.

On the bus our tour guide introduced herself and told us we were going to have a lot of fun in Hokkaido. She was really nice and I was relieved to find I could follow most of what she was saying. Our first stop after leaving the airport was the Chitose Salmon Farm. I didn't understand a lot about the different types of salmon but it was still interesting. There were all sorts of weird sections to the farm, for instance there was a section you could sit and listen to music about salmon, pretend to be a quiz master and so on. My favourite bit would definitely be the section where you could walk down under the river and watch the salmon swim by.

After the Salmon Farm it was off to the Sapporo Hitsuji ga Oka Observatory. From the top of this observation hill you can see Sapporo (the main city of Hokkaido) and the Ishikari Plain, which was delightfully spacious and green! There is a statue at the Observatory of a man called Dr. William S. Clark and it has "Boys, be ambitious" written on it which is apparently his famous words. It was really pretty but cold! It was raining a little bit while we were there so while I was busy being excited by what I was seeing as the same time I couldn't wait till I went inside the rest house/souvenir shop!!! I was probably most excited by the sheep I saw as it was the first time I'd seen sheep in Japan! A lamb dish called Ghengis Khan is one of the many specialty foods in Hokkaido.

BOYS BE AMBITIOUS!

SHEEP!

more signs to take photos in front of! "sukidesu. Sapporo" I like Sapporo

After we'd taken enough photos outside and felt we wanted to get warm we rushed inside to check out what souvenirs were available. Anri and Asuka and Risa all bought themselves a gyuunyuu soft (milk soft serve) to try as it is a specialty food of Hokkaido, even though it was cold! Sayaka bought herself nice hot butter potatoes (another specialty food) and shared some with me while we wandered around the store. Pretty soon we were out of time and had to head back to the bus with our purchases. From there it was to the hotel to put our stuff in our rooms and check it all out and whatnot. Our rooms were pretty nice and we had beds so I was happy! I was sharing with Anri while Sayaka, Risa and Asuka were next door sharing a room.

hotel room

Once we were done throwing our stuff in our room it was back to the bus to head off to Mount Moiwa where we would be eating dinner. It was dark by now, so on the way up the mountain you could see the glittering lights of Sapporo below. It was really something else! The drive took quite a while and when we reached the top of the mountain and the restaurant the view was absolutely spectacular! Though we didn't spend too much time outside enjoying it as it was freezing and raining! We were shuffled through the souvenir store and to the restaurant where instead of having electric lights the tables were lit up by candles. This was done because it was to help you enjoy the view! The far wall was made entirely of glass so it was one big window out on Sapporo. It's impossible to get a good photo of it but I tried!

eating dinner!

the view from the restaurant window

The dinner was delicious. I found it amusing that Asuka kept watching me to see how to eat her dinner politely (we were using knives and forks). I wowed everyone by eating it so neatly and my plate being so clean at the end. After we'd finished our dinner we could visit the gift shop for about half an hour before we had to head back to the bus. We had to run as it was raining but that proved difficult with all the stairs and the fact that the ground was really slippery!! From there it was back to the hotel where I was more than happy to just shower and go to sleep!

The 17th was the first day of our plan. Basically of the 4 day trip, days 2 and 3 were left to us to plan while 1 and 4 we had to wear uniform and everyone went to the same places. We woke up early to eat our breakfast at 7 and then head out at 8:30. We walked to Sapporo Station to catch a train to a city called Furano. In spring and summer there are Lavender fields and apparently it's very pretty but since it was autumn when we went unfortunately we couldn't see it!

sapporo station

On the train ride over we had to switch trains and lines at one point. When we got on the second train we managed to get seats this time and a lady near us decided she'd give me the run down on all the scenery and towns we went by. She was quite nice and I thanked her when we got off and waved goodbye. Asuka asked me if it was like this everywhere I went, to which I replied pretty much!

Risa and I on the first train

train ride scenery

From the station we made our way to a small bike rental/souvenir shop where we hired some bikes for the day. From there we rode to the Furano handmade cheese, bread and ice cream factory! This is where we spent the whole day. At first we wandered around looking at the museum and various bits and bobs they had around. Then it was to the adjoining restaurant to eat lunch! Our choices were pizza, pizza, pizza and more pizza so guess what we chose! Of course the pizza was all handmade and used the factory's handmade cheese so it was really yummy!

the view from the factory

eating lunch

part of the restaurant and the really nice view

cute factory display

After lunch we walked around and tasted the different cheeses as well as the cheesecake. It was so good! (in case you haven't realised by now Hokkaido is famous for a lot of foods and I basically ended up going around Hokkaido to eat!). There were also a lot of different wines available as Furano is also known for its vineyards except we didn't try them being under 20. We did eat the wine cheese though!

Once we were done looking it was time to make bread! As part of visiting you can either make cheese, ice cream or bread. I really wanted to make either cheese or ice cream but unfortunately the time we went was bread making time but that was ok because bread making is still fun! our teacher was really nice. We ended up making bread rolls and anpan (sweetened red bean paste inside bread).

Anri

Sayaka and our tray

everyone!

Once we'd baked our bread we thanked the lady and got ready to ride our bikes back to the station. It had been raining most of the day but thankfully it had cleared up long enough for us to be able to ride back without getting wet. The scenery on the way back really was something!

on the ride back

Once we got back to the station we had a wait for the train so we returned our bikes and bought souvenirs. Then it was back on a train for the long journey back to Sapporo.

That night we looked for a place to eat dinner at the station. We ended up choosing a ramen restaurant on one of the restaurant floors as we all wanted to try Hokkaido's Miso and Shio ramen (miso flavoured ramen and salt flavoured). It was great to try the different flavoured ramen as I was used to Kyushu style which is very very different! We also got some butter rice to try (again, Hokkaido only food) and felt very full by the time we returned to the hotel.

The next day we were up for breakfast then off to the station again, this time to head in the opposite direction to the tourist town of Otaru. I thought it was a really pretty city!! We walked through the streets and admired the old buildings and scenic feel to the city. We walked past the Otaru Canal which is lined with Former brick and stone warehouses that had been turned into museums and shops. There were than enough students on their school trips around to fill the shops though! I was asked while we were browsing through a store if some boys could get a photo with me so I agreed.

walking the streets of Otaru

old buildings

some school boys on their school trip

hokkaido brand novelty shirts which I found highly amusing

After shopping around the majority of the stores we made our way to Kitaichi Glassworks where we were able to participate in a hands-on glassmaking workshop. We got to pick what type of glass ball we wanted to make as well as the colours and whether we wanted it to be a necklace or a phone strap and so on. It was a lot of fun! I've never done something like that before!

concentration!

of course I picked green

Sayaka chilling after we'd finished

Once we'd finished we stopped for ice cream outside. I tried the Hokkaido milk icecream while Anri got melon flavoured, Asuka got Cheese and Sayaka got milk and Risa got melon. Then it was lunch in a department store and back to the station to head to Nakanuma. When we arrived at Nakanuma we caught the bus to an onsen and then decided we would walk the rest of the way to our destination. I had no idea what was going on but Asuka believed that it wasn't too far away and seeing as it was either walking or taking a taxi we decided the walk was the way to go.

We just didn't realise that it was actually 5km away!!!!!

I didn't mind though as it was really scenic and seeing as we were walking it meant we could view it as slowly as we wanted to and take pictures too! :)

the view along the way

more view

When we finally reached the farm we discovered that we were actually just a bit late to milk the cows which was a shame. The lady who ran the place was so surprised that we walked all the way there and offered to give us a lift back to the bus stop when we were done. She also had the bus time for us which was really helpful. Around the farm we got to see all sorts of farm animals as well as feed the goats and sheep and ride horses. It was great because I haven't had a chance to see anything like this really in Japan before! It was a first for my friends though so they were really excited.

at the farm

riding a horse

the cow house

We were driven back to the bus stop and thanked the guy immensely. We then caught our bus back to the station to catch a train back to Sapporo. We reached Sapporo and headed to the JR Observation tower to view the night view of Sapporo which was really awesome.

Sapporo at night

more sapporo

Afterwards we ran out of time to eat dinner at a restaurant and be able to get back to the hotel before curfew so we dashed to the food centre downstairs to buy a bentou box (lunch box) to eat back in our hotel rooms. The others also bought more omiyage (souvenirs, mostly food) for people while they were there before we ran back to the hotel.

The next day we were up half an hour earlier, 6:30am breakfast start. The buffet restaurant wasn't even open at that time but the hotel opened it early for us. We ate our meals then rushed back to our rooms to pack up all our belongings and souvenirs before we had to turn in our keys and board the bus. As it was our final day we were back in uniforms. Our first stop was a marketplace in Sapporo where we were reminded this would be one of our last chances to buy omiyage (souvenirs). There were a lot of interesting foods around and bits and bobs. I had a lot of fun exploring and bought some things for people myself.

well the place is famous for its crab and them being large...

those famous Hokkaido yubari melons!

After we finished our shopping at the markets it was off to Otaru where we visited Orgel, Otaru's Hand Made Music Box Workshop. It's the biggest-scale orgel specialty store in Japan. It's also the Otaru Music Box Museum. The red-brick building itself is historic and was built sometime back in 1910 I believe. I was amazed at how many different music boxes you could choose from though the range that was within my price range was significantly lower!!! There were some pretty expensive music boxes in there!! So many different shapes and sizes I was mystified. After I'd spent enough time in the store we were allowed to roam around the nearby shops if we wanted to before we had to head back to the bus.

can't choose a flavour? why not pick 6 different flavours in one?!

I would have bought this sushi clock music box if it weren't so expensive!!!

Once back at the bus it was off to our destination for lunch. I honestly have no idea where it was but it was obviously a popular sightseeing bus tour point as there were a lot of tourists and buses present. We ate our special ramen lunch (which there was too much of but still yum) then were given time to buy last minute gifts as this was our last stop before we were to head to the airport. I happened to over hear some people talking and realised they were Aussie so I struck up a conversation with them. Turns out that they were from Brisbane and breed Wagyuu (?) a type of cow popular in Japan. They were all really nice and asked me why I was in Japan, how long I'd been here, if I was enjoying myself and so on and wished me luck on the rest of my journey.

Then it was off to the airport! We said goodbye to our bus and tour guide then went inside to begin our return home. There was a lot of waiting and again the people had trouble picking a language and sticking to it.

waiting to depart

On the plane I was seated next to a boy I didn't know and Anri. Anri was lucky and got the window seat but I was glad I wasn't in the middle this time around! I actually got to know the guy next to me as he was trying to teach himself chess and was failing pretty badly (not that I'd be much of a help but at least I know how the pieces move and the general aim of the game).

hello kyushu fukuoka!

We arrived back in Fukuoka with no problems and after collecting our baggage and being debriefed it was time to say goodbye to everyone and head home. I had eaten a lot, bought a lot and was ridiculously tired but unbelievably happy. It was a lot of fun! I still had to ride the train back though so I hauled myself and my luggage to the subway and back to Tenjin to catch the train home where my host parents were eager to hear (and see) all about my trip!

And I think that's a good place to end this post. For all the photos of the trip and so on check out the photo site. You can see a lot of the meals that I took photos of (I forgot a few times...) and scenic bits and bobs. Y'know, I've been told that you know you've been in Japan too long when you take photos of all the things you eat. I've certainly realised I'm doing it quite a bit but I can't help it!

Till next time!
-m

026; now that I'm sorted again...

2007-11-08T19:55:00.000+09:00

Just so you guys know, I have now officially moved into my final host family's house! This makes for host family number 5! Sure is tough moving around a lot but it's good because I get to experience many more lifestyles!

Anyway picking up where I left off, the 17th of September. I headed to the gym for my morning session then raced back home to eat lunch before setting off to Tenjin to catch up with Erica and the new exchangees, Bianca and Sofie. Unfortunately Lily couldn't make it but that didn't stop us having fun anyway! We ran around like mad, ate soba, went shopping and debated over whether or not to see a movie. We decided against it in the end so I ended up getting a little early Christmas shopping done (preparation at least!). It was a bit absurd to be thinking about it in September but considering I had to have it done by early November so I could ship it all home so that it would arrive when I got back I decided I wanted to get it done earlier rather than later! We all had to go home pretty early so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways and I returned home for the night.

On the 18th I went to the gym and then afterwards had quite a bit of free time on my hands so I decided I'd whip up a dessert for the nights events. My school principal, Kawano-san (host club President) and Atsusaka-san (a Rotarian from my club who is friends with Akiyama papa) were coming over for dinner! I helped Akiyama mama make and prepare dinner while my Akiyama papa made his yummy soba. About 10 minutes before people were due to arrive, Kawano-san turned up, quite unexpectedly for my host mum. Apparently he hadn't actually been invited!!! I helped quickly arrange a chair and place at the table for him as well as a plate as the other guests arrived. Needless to say I was a little nervous having both my Rotary club president and school Principal over for dinner but it all turned out ok! I was informed that my host dad, principal and Atsusaka-san all went to the same high school together which I didn't know! We ate a lot and had a great time. I was surprised by how much my principal drank and even more surprised by how he just kept on talking!

The 19th I can't remember doing anything and I have nothing written down so I'll skip it!

The 20th I continued my routine of hitting the gym before spending the rest of the day relaxing and getting stuck into reading the books I borrowed off Erica in the 17th. Normally I would've attended a Rotary meeting at lunch time but I was told that instead of it being a lunchtime meeting it was going to be dinner instead. That was fine with me! When I arrived at the hotel though I was quite shocked to find that this wasn't our ordinary Rotary meeting but actually a birthday party for Kobayashi-san (who is the only female member and handles secretarial stuff I think) and I! What a surprise! A little early, not that I minded!
It was great to see my old host families again plus several faces I hadn't seen in a while, Madoka-san for one. I received quite a few gifts from various members (one of the most baffling was a toothbrush!) as well as some very adorable letters from my previous host sisters Ayaka, Chiaki and Haruna. I gave an impromptu speech thanking everyone and someone yelled out I should say what I want for my birthday but I couldn't think of anything! Kobayashi-san was quick to come up with A CAR! now that she'd turned 20. Also, as she was now 20 and of legal drinking age she spent a lot of the night having people pour her beer and sake and shochu. She seemed quite pleased!

My birthday cake!

Receiving flowers

Kobayashi-san and I with our carebear present

The food was delicious as always. I love the way that Japanese food is always presented so colourfully!

one of the dishes

The biggest omlette rice I have ever seen

I spent most of the night mingling and greeting all the faces I hadn't seen in a while and talking, talking, talking so I didn't eat too much! Though by far the person I spent the majority of the night to was definitely Madoka. I received a very small amount of expensive chocolates from a member so I shared them with her much to her delight. There were only 4 bite size pieces in the box but apparently it costed about roughly $12! wow! That night I went home carrying my cake, flowers and bear very shocked, delighted and blissfully happy!

The 21st I can't remember either and again, nothing written down so moving right along!

The 22nd of September Nori and Hiromi got back from their trip to Hawaii so they came over during the day to show us videos and photos they'd taken as well as hand out presents and show what they'd bought for other people as well as themselves. The videos were pretty funny! They went golfing and it was a first for Hiromi, so Nori decided he'd "show her the way" but as he went to hit the ball it went way off to the far right and Out of Bounds! He turned to the camera and told the person filming that it was a practice shot and from now on it'll be real so he could erase the previous footage, meanwhile Hiromi is dying of laughter! After getting through the videos I learned that they actually went ahead and got married in Hawaii! I was surprised because they were having a wedding on October 28th back here in Japan so when I asked why they went ahead early the reply I got was "because it works out cheaper to get married there and hold the reception and everything else in Japan". Fair enough I guess!

Before they left my host mum schooled them on how all souveniers must have made in HAWAII on it and not China or some place else. It was amusing to hear them complain how nothing was authentic made in HAWAII and they had to search really hard! Haha! They brought me back a bracelet with thongs and flowers on it which I thought was nice of them because they didn't have to get me anything! They mentioned that they looked for something that would be easy for me to take home which I thought was really thoughtful of them! Afterwards Nori and Hiromi (officially very tired from a long journey) returned home for a good nights rest.

The next day I headed to the pool for a much appreciated swim. We went out for dinner that night to celebrate Nori and Hiromi's return. We visited a local restaurant nearby which my host family obviously went to a lot when Nori and Yoshitaka were kids because the owners were very familiar with them! We ordered a lot of yummy food and spent the night swapping stories of our past week.

we ate quite a bit!

aloha

notice my host dad's authentic hawaiin shirt? :D

the 24th I had the day off school so I visited the gym in the morning before dashing off to meet up with Christy in Kurume. I hadn't actually been around Kurume yet (just around the station mainly) so I was pretty excited to be going somewhere new. There was a restaurant she wanted to eat lunch at but unfortunately it was closed so we ventured off in search of somewhere that looked like it had decent but cheap food. After finding a pretty good Chinese restaurant we decided where we'd visit. Seeing as Kurume has a Youme Town I wanted to check it out and see how it's much bigger and different from the one in Omuta so off we went on the bus! I got thoroughly lost wandering around inside and I still don't know how the place works! You walk in one side and end up somewhere completely different from where you thought you'd end up! Even though we looked at a lot of shops I didn't find anything I felt like buying but it was still fun. Seeing as it was pretty easy to get lost in there soon enough we found we were out of time and had to head back home. It was still lots of fun though!

25th we can skip so, on the 26th we had our final round of table tennis in Sports 2. My teacher is so competitive it's scary!!! In green life we made these biscuit cookie things out of something I swear was pancake batter. It was pretty fun! Afterwards we got to baggage it neatly and package it and seal it in a really professional manner. I was quite pleased with how mine turned out and was thinking it would be a shame to open it!

The next day I went to school as per usual but then when I came home we went to my Principal's house for dinner! He lives in the mansion (note: that means apartment building in Japan) really close to my host family's house! When we arrived and made our way up the 8 flights of stairs I was greeted at the door by a very pleasant woman, his wife! I handed over the biscuits I'd made the previous day as a gift as well a delicious looking banana cake my host mum had whipped up and we made our way inside the tiny apartment. I discovered a lot of interesting things that night! My principal's wife is a really funny and pretty awesome lady! They lived in Russia for a while so she cooked us some russian food (called Julian. Mushrooms, cheese, sour cream, what's not to like?!) and told my host mother and I all sorts of stories. The boys spent the night discussing goodness knows what on the other side of the table. I had a lot of fun! :D

looking at photos from when they lived in Russia

Principal, his wife and I

The 28th it was back at school for the last day before Autumn holidays started (Autumn holidays only actually being a week long). Not much happened, just the general assemblys and dismission speeches and so on and so forth, but at some point during cleaning a helicopter landed at school!

helicopter landing on the sports field

I still don't know why...

It was pretty much the highlight of my day.

the 29th I went for my final swim in Japan as the pool closes down from October onwards! It was relaxing but I was sad :( Then again, it's not heated and it gets a lot colder in Japan than it does back home so I doubt I'd have been visiting it very frequently!!!

On the 30th of November it was an early start! My host mum and I got up and got ready and were picked up by Kawano-san and his wife as we were all going to Nagasaki together for the day! We drove down to the ferry where we drove the car on board and climbed up to the lounge to begin our approximately 45 minute journey across the Ariake-kai (ariake sea).

Kawano-san's wife, Akiyama mama and myself

We eventually reached the other side and began our drive towards Nagasaki city. Once we arrived we parked the car in one of te most amusing carparks I have ever seen then made our way through the maze of small alleyways to find a place to eat at. We eventually found a place that Kawano-san (who was acting as our guide for the day) insisted was delicious. We ended up ordering a local specialty and then tuck in as we were quite hungry from our long trip over!

on our way to the restaurant

In the restaurant

After our stomachs were filled it was off to see the sites. Kawano-san lead us through the very hilly streets to show us small temples and old historic buildings and sites. I learnt quite a bit as we walked around and I must say, the people who live there must be pretty fit from walking up and down all the hills and staircases!

In front of a small, tucked away temple

an old brothel in the old Chinese quarters!

As we walked around I learnt that Nagasaki used to have divisions for the foreigners and the Japanese. They enforced a rule way back when, that stated all Chinese were to live in a specially sectioned off quarter and no where else in the city.

Chinese building in the old Chinese Quarters

one of the millions of flights of stairs

Beginnings of China Town

After making our way through China Town we came out at the bridge to Dejima Island. Dejima is where all the Dutch traded from back in the days. When the rule was passed that foreigners and Japanese had to live separately, the Dutch were confined to Dejima island and from there they had to carry out all their trading and business.

Dutch Building on Dejima Island

minature scale of the island

It was pretty interesting to be able to walk around the island and look in all the old buildings. There were some rooms set up just like they were in old fashioned times which I found really interesting because it combined Japanese culture with Dutch. For instance, in a tatami mat room you wouldn't normally find beds and tables and so on but sure enough in some of the rooms that's exactly what you saw! The doorways were pretty low though so I had to be careful so as not to bump my head a lot!

down the street

an example of an east meets west room

The island is really pretty small so it didn't take us very long to get all the way around and see everything. Once we'd finished it was off to Glover garden! Along the way we stopped in at a tea house for a break as the others were pretty tired from walking!

outside the tea cafe

walking to Glover Garden

After our tea we continued our walk and stopped once or twice to take a peek in some shops and take photos with the mayor of Nagasaki, who we just happened to run into! My host mum and Kawano-san both asked me to pick out something in one of the shops along the way that I'd like for my birthday but I couldn't choose something so they both got me a necklace each from a specialty store that I'd been admiring. One of the stores we visited was also a character goods store which I always adore!

in a ghibli character goods store. The biggest catbus I've ever seen!!!!

Us and the mayor of Nagasaki

Eventually we made our way to Glover garden where I discovered it was a loooong way up!! And it just kept going! Luckily though, it wasn't all stairs and there were escalators too!

Glover garden

view of Nagasaki on the way up

At the top were a lot of fancy gardens and old houses (including a walker house!) which you could walk through and explore and see all the old rooms. It was really pretty and the view of Nagasaki was really something!

one of the fountains/water features

in front of the walker house!

in front of one of the old houses

Eventually we made our way back down and towards the car again. We were pretty tired having walked for about 6 hours all up so we caught the tram back and on the way back we stopped to look at the 'megane' bridges (bridges that have a glasses appearance!)

meganebashi

nagasaki in the evening

Then it was back to the car park to collect the car for the long drive home. We stopped in at Yame for dinner then finally arrived back at about 9.30pm thoroughly exhausted!

So that brings us up to October! I'll have the next update for you next week Monday (I'm setting myself a time limit so I'll get it up sooner than usual!) Also, check out the photo site as I've gotten a lot up lately!

till next time!
-m

025; life continues to roll on

2007-10-23T19:30:00.000+09:00

Well I'm back from Hokkaido and it was fantastic but that'll be another blog in the future! So for now onto September 1st!!

It was a Saturday and there was a rotary orientation in Tenjin, so Benedict and I headed up to Fukuoka for the day. We got to meet the new inbounds for the first time which I had been looking forward to for a while! For the girls there's Sofie from Sweden, Lily from Canada and Bianca from Brazil. For the guys there's Nico from Germany, Lin (or Ernie) from Taiwan and last but not least, 'Form' from Thailand! (I don't think anyone can pronounce his full name XD) Thankfully everyone speaks at least a little English so we can all hold conversations together! Yay! We were given the introductions and run downs about how the year will work and so on and so forth and we had to introduce ourselves. Then it was time for our Japanese lesson. We have a new teacher as apparently the teacher we had before, Yoko-sensei, is sick and isn't coming back to teach which I was really sad to hear! I hope she's ok. :( Seeing as everyone can't really speak Japanese the lesson was based around finding out just how much they could speak. Erica and I were told we are taking the level 3 Japanese Proficiency test in December and that we'd have to apply soon and buy a book to study from. Scary stuff!! So after the orientation finished we trotted off to Junkudo, the massive department store just for books, where we purchased the application forms and something to study from. Afterwards everyone had somewhere to be so we said our goodbyes, exchanged mobile phone contacts and parted ways.

Sunday the 2nd was Benedict's last day in Fukuoka-ken so we went to Hakata to buy him a ticket to Tokyo on the Highway Bus and to find out what time it left. After all that was settled we trooped around Hakata Station, looking at all the shops and whatnot. The place is honestly rather massive so I wasn't surprised at all that we could spend so much time wandering around one place without getting bored! We actually spent quite a bit of time in the 100 yen shop because you can find almost anything there!

spot the odd one out

Japanese Pride!

We decided we'd walk it to Canal City (as it's relatively close by) and see if we could catch a movie in our spare time but as we were walking around we missed the turn off and ended up walking a lot further than we needed to. It kept raining a lot that day too so we were forever ducking into the nearby convenience stores to try and keep from getting soaked! It was still lots of fun! We eventually found our way back to Hakata and said our goodbyes. He boarded his bus and I made my way back to Omuta.

Monday the 3rd was a holiday so my host mum decided we could cook bread together. I'm not exactly sure why but I think she just really wanted to make bread! My new house has an oven so I was really excited by this idea. This is the first house I've been in that has an oven!! I got to choose what type of bread we were making so I picked out a really yummy looking Pumpkin and Sesame bread. My host mum took me to a nearby bakery where I discovered that she had had the dough made for us by the man who owned the place. She introduced me to him and I soon found out that they were friends. He had baked some bread rolls himself with the same dough except he made some slight variations for us (like putting cream cheese in the middle). It was really good!

pre-oven

tadah!

After we'd finished baking it was time to make dinner. I discovered my host mum doesn't eat meat or chicken at all so she asked me if it was ok that we ate vegetables and fish and seafood and only very occasionally we'd eat a little bit of meat. I was surprisingly fine with that idea. After living here in Japan for this long now I've somehow grown accustomed to eating fish (for those who know me I do not like fish) but having eaten it quite a bit this year I've gotten used to it! After dinner my host mum and I went for a walk together to Nori and Hiromi's house to give them some of the bread we'd made. When I got there I saw that they'd put up the koalas and the flag I'd given them which made me really happy!!! :D

Tuesday was back at school. We made melon bread again in bread making. That night my host mum and I went for another walk after dinner. It was really quite nice to go for a walk with her after dinner. I really enjoyed it because we got to bond a little bit more and spent the whole time talking about this and that. It's a shame that my host father refuses to join us!

Wednesday was a bit weird. I turned up period 1 at art to discover that we didn't have art at all. I was very lost and it took me till 3rd period to find out what was going on. Turned out that since Monday was a public holiday we were having our Monday schedule on Wednesday. It made no sense to me then and it still makes no sense to me now! After dinner that night my host mum and I went for another walk together and discussed it becoming a daily routine which thrilled me. We ended up walking for about 2 hours and made it quite far away from my house which was surprising! My host dad even called my host mum wondering where in the world we were!! (He goes to sleep when we leave and wakes up when we get back but he'd woken up to find that no one was home!)

Thursday was rather uninteresting so I'll just skip it :). The 7th I went to school but when I came home my host mum and dad took me to the Omuta Sports Facility where they'd heard about a gym. I was really excited! When we arrived I discovered it's not really a gym, but just a training room with free weights, couple of weight machines, a rowing machine and a couple of exercise bikes but I didn't mind. The idea of getting some exercise in was sounding wonderful to me!! Since I'd moved house I wasn't sure how I'd be able to get to the pool and because undoubtably it'd be close for autumn/winter I'd been looking for something else I could possibly do. This 'gym' was relatively close by and cheap and I could go anytime from 9-9! It suited me perfectly!

the 'gym'

That night my host mum and I sat down and worked out a schedule for me which fit in my karate, walks with her and visiting the gym and pool. Hooray!

The next day I headed to the pool for a swim. While it only cost 100 yen to swim, with train tickets it suddenly seemed a bit more expensive! My host mum had a tea ceremony class to attend and a ceremony that night and Hiromi was off on a business trip so that night it was Nori, my host father and I. We went out to a nearby okonomiyaki restaurant to eat for dinner and boy was it delicious! My current host family's house is located quite conveniently near Omuta station and a short walk away you have your choice of restaurants! It's quite handy! Nori ordered some scallops to begin with and then monjyayaki for him and my host father and a prawn, cheese and spring onion okonomiyaki for me. While we were waiting for things to cook some kids came in with their grandmother. They were obviously good friends with the owner and came in frequently. One of the younger girls kept asking me questions then running off and coming back again with a whole bunch of new ones and saying things like "My mother wants to know what school you go to!". From this I worked out that her mother probably ran a restaurant nearby and this girl was quizzing me then running off and relaying every thing to her mum then coming back again. It was rather amusing and she even asked for my autograph!

nori cooking the scallops

beginnings of the monjyayaki

my okonomiyaki! yum yum

nori and my host dad

When we'd finished the girl, who by now I'd learnt was called Momoko, decided that we absolutely had to visit her mum. Seeing as the restaurant was nearby we didn't see any harm in taking a small detour so we walked over to the restaurant and as soon as I entered everyone started laughing and a very flustered woman came up and apologised profusely for her daughter! It was obvious that she'd been running in and just yelling everything to her mum then running out again so everyone in the restaurant could hear her! She was quite the silly little girl.

Momoko-chan and I

Sunday was my first visit to the gym. I rode there on the bike and paid for my two hours and then rode home again quite happy with how this had been arranged. Seeing as I had oodles of time to spare that day and no internet at the house I made my way to the local internet cafe to post a blog and check emails and so on before returning home. When I got back Nori asked me if it was ok if he, Hiromi and their friend and I all went bowling that night because he'd told his friend about me and he really wanted to meet me. Of course it was fine by me so that night after dinner he came round with Hiromi and picked me up and off we went to pick up their friend, Yoshio. Yoshio turned out to be a pretty funny guy! It was a lot of fun bowling, seeing as it's been quite a while since I last went it was amusing watching me do well then not so well then well again! Yoshio and Nori had a game going that whoever got the first strike was the victor and the other had to buy a round of beer for everyone. I actually ended up with the first strike (amazingly!) which produced a minor dilemma! In the end Nori ended up with the first strike out of the two so Yoshio made a defeated face and ran off to buy the beers.

Nori and Hiromi

Hiromi and I

YAY! I actually got a strike! (and then a couple more after!)

Yoshio and Nori

We played for two rounds and then afterwards Yoshio wanted to go karaokeing but unfortunately it was a bit late at night for that and seeing as I had school the next day I needed to get back home. We dropped Yoshio back at his house/restaurant and he made me promise we'd hang out again sometime soon, then it was time for a very tired me to flop into bed!

Monday saw me being very tired. I was half dazed as I walked to the train station that morning that when someone came up and started talking to me I was quite out of it that I didn't realise it was my school principal at first! It surprised me like you wouldn't believe! It turns out he was headed to Fukuoka and wasn't going to school that day but he wished me a pleasant day and reminded me that he was coming around on the 18th to my host family's house for dinner (this is because my host dad and he are friends, also to come round that day is a rotary member called Atsusaka.) I don't remember much else of that day so moving on we have Tuesday. Tuesday nothing much happened so onto Wednesday!

Wednesday was actually the Wednesday schedule which relieved me greatly. We drew bugs in art which was a first for me. I was surprised that the girls didn't freak out while they were drawing them considering how much they freak out when bugs fly within 2 meters of them but I guess it's slightly different when they're dead and not moving! Sports 2 was table tennis which was quite fun. My sports 2 teacher is quite competitive, which I already knew, but boy is she competitive at table tennis! I beat her in one game and she was very vengeful in the next one. Quite scary!

Thursday was a half day for me and the beginning of exams so I went to school then came home for lunch. After lunch I went to the gym. As I was working out a lady came in and decided she'd talk to me the whole time I was there. She was a very curious person!

Friday was another half day for me so that after I went shopping for ingredients to make dinner the next day. Afterwards I hit the gym again and this time it was a man who wanted to talk to me. He wanted to learn English and was planning on heading out to Australia and get a working VISA or something sometime in the future so I ended up exchanging business cards with him. When I got home I told my host parents about it and so they asked me his name and I showed them the card. Turns out the guy is a friend of my host dads! I was so shocked! This isn't the first time I've met someone purely randomly who happened to know my host parents! The world is such a small place!

Saturday the 15th I got up for my morning swim then made my way home. The weather was absolutely beautiful, not too hot and not too cold so the walk to and from the station was very nice and refreshing! When I got home I ate lunch and then my host mum went out to her tea ceremony class and my host dad and nori went back to work. I had the house to myself so I made banana choc-chip muffins. I went shopping for more ingredients for dinner but I couldn't find some of the ones I needed so I had to improvise!!! That night when I cooked dinner I ended up making up a soup and being very experimental with the fish curry. Overall it still tasted pretty good and seeing as it was a flavour that everyone hadn't tried before everyone was very complimentary as they didn't know how it was supposed to taste ;) Not that it didn't taste nice though! My host dad rang his grandson, Ryou-kun, and decided that I should speak to him so I did. He's 6 years old and kept calling my host mum a liar for telling him I was foreign because I spoke to him in Japanese! I couldn't possibly be foreign! Just wait till he meets me in person on Sunday!!

Sunday morning I made my trip to the gym but when I came back Ryou and his parents had come over! I was introduced to Nori's older brother and his wife and then Ryou-kun. Ryou-kun was definitely shocked when he saw me because I was so obviously not Japanese like he thought. He immediately got over this shock though when he heard that I could play on the Wii and that I'd play with him! So we spent the rest of the morning battling it out in sports and mario party 8 till it was time for lunch. My host dad makes soba as a hobby and seeing as ryou-kun likes soba, my host dad had made soba for everyone. It was really yummy! After we'd finished eating Ryou-kun wasted no time in wanting me to get back on the Wii with him so for the next couple of hours we continued to battle it out.

Ryou playing on the Wii

Nori and Hiromi turned up to greet everyone and then say their goodbyes as they had to get to the airport as they were going to Hawaii for the week as an early honeymoon.

Oh the fun they'll have!

off to Hawaii

We drove them to the bus stop and said goodbye as they got on the bus then headed to Loc Town, a nearby shopping center in the city next to Omuta called Arao. I was shocked to find that the bookstore at this center stocked English books!! For dinner we headed to a restaurant called matsumoto, where we dined on quite interesting food. It was a mix between Japanese and French!

Nori's older brother and my host dad

nori's older brother's wife, my host mum and myself

And that's where I'll end this blog for today. Don't want to update too much and overload you all after all!

till next time!
-m

024; we'll all catch up eventually!

2007-10-15T11:33:00.000+09:00

Wow it's October and I'm finishing off August! Sorry for being so far behind! I'll try and fix that for you guys. I meant to have this up sooner but I've been so busy lately it's crazy!

August 10th my host sister Aya and her friend Suzu and I went to the pool together. My host mum joined in and decided she'd swim too but after walking up and down the lanes a couple of times she got out! We had the whole pool to ourselves so I swam my laps while Aya and Suzu ran around like lunatics. It was good fun. When we'd eventually had enough we debated over what to get for lunch and after much argument and indecisiveness we agreed on Chyanpon, which is a type of noodles and soup. We took some purikura after and headed home and that was about it for the day.

The 11th we had an early start as we were off to Fukuoka. My host mum enrolled Aya into a three-day English Camp at a place called "Umi no naka michi" outside Fukuoka city. My previous host sister Ayaka was coming too as well as Suzu, Aya's friend. My host mum enrolled me in the camp too (goodness knows why) so we all trooped off to the cars and made our way to Fukuoka. I traveled with Suzu's sister and her mother while Ayaka, Aya and Suzu traveled with my host mum. Boy was Suzu's little sister full of energy! Suzu's mother is actually the lady who looks after me at Taiko drumming. Before we went to the camp however we visited a place nearby called the Sunshine pool. My host mum had been telling me all week about this place and kept saying it would have plenty of room for me to swim but I could tell it wasn't going to be the case! Japan is so crowded many houses don't have gardens, thus many people don't have pools. So where would you all go on a weekend when it's hot out and you don't want to visit a beach? Bingo. We parked the cars and caught the bus for the 10 minute ride to the gate (the only way to get there!).

On the bus

welcome to Sunshine Pool

This place had 3 fairly large odd shaped pools with all sorts of climbing equipment and fountains and so on. It was absolutely PACKED with kids in inflatable doughnuts and rings and things to sit on. It was so full people were just spending the whole time standing up and slowly walking around the pool. I've never seen a pool so jam packed before. It was crazy! There was a smaller area with 2 water slides a bit further away where I spent most of my time while we were there. I had to wait in line for 120mins to ride down the slide once. Talk about insane! Once we were done swimming we grabbed ourselves some lunch, got changed then headed to Umi no Naka Michi camp site. When we arrived we were ushered into the hall where I was met with a lot of staring faces of kids in one corner and older women in another. I was handed a name tag and showed to the front of the room where I was asked to give a self introduction. Once I'd finished with that I was shown to a table with other foreigners sitting at it. They were all there as teachers (but I was there as a student!). There were 3 guys from Hawaii, two of which were Japanese-American Kiley and Sean, and one was Chinese-American, John, (though all claiming to be more American than Jap/Chinese), One guy from Nigeria, Bonnie and Marta a girl from Italy over here for 3 weeks on holiday and visiting her friend who happened to drag her along. They gave their self introductions and explained a little about why they were in Japan.

The teachers

After introductions and small explanations about the weekend, the dorms and how to make our beds, we were sat in a line where we met all the students and assessed how good we thought their English was. We gave them a number and that divided them into rough groups based on their skill level. Once that was finished it was time for lesson 1. This came as a surprise for everyone because we hadn't been told at all about this so everything was improvised! Martha asked me to help her and her friend Kumiko out as "us girls and non-teachers should stick together!" and she claimed her pronunciation of English wasn't as good as mine with it not being her native language.

Once the lesson that seemed to last forever finally finished we had some free time to find our rooms and relax. I discovered that as I wasn't officially a teacher I didn't get a room with a bed, instead I was sharing with the older women (all around 50 or so) who were here to improve their English. I was ok with that and sleeping on the floor because they all seemed pretty nice! I had a really nice long chat with one of the ladies in particular called Yoko, who told me she has a penpal she writes to all the time and would love to be able to speak English. I must say her English was a lot better than a lot of people I've met but she kept claiming she was too old to learn it properly! We ate dinner in the cafeteria area then Yoko asked me if I was going to have a bath and decided we should go together. (Yes, this is strange but it no longer is that odd to me). After our baths we watched some strange Canadian animation about a girl wanting a dog and her parents not buying her one, so to prove she was responsible, she tied a leash around her rollerskate and pretended it was a dog for over a month. There was also some animation about something called a Snow cat. They were pretty strange! Then it was off to bed, but no sleep for me as I discovered the ladies in my room can snore!!!!

The next day we awoke early for the early morning exercises. Basically it was just the national warm up (which never fails to amuse me!). Afterwards it was time for breakfast, a selection of shredded cabbage, powdered eggs, fish, rice and miso soup, plus something that came in a box that everyone grabbed. At first we had no idea what it was as it said POWER UP FOOD and a smiley face next to it but then we found out it actually had natto inside (which isn't very yummy at all. really) so we ended up with a pile in the center of the table no one wanted to eat.

the tower of natto!

There was a bit of free time to organise ourselves so the teachers and I organised who would be teaching which classes for the next 2 days, who was with who and roughly who was teaching what so that there were no double ups. Marta, Kumiko and I were paired together as one person as Marta and I aren't teachers and Kumiko insisted we should stick together which was fine by us! Once we were sorted it was time to start teaching so we grabbed our stuff and headed to the rooms.

We had three lessons before lunch and then after lunch we all headed down to the beach to collect shells for the afternoon activity. Marta and I really wanted to swim but we were told we weren't allowed to because it was dangerous. The water itself didn't look dangerous at all and so we asked why, and they just simply said "hammerhead sharks". I was quite disappointed because I really wanted to swim!!! Afterwards it was back to the youth hostel for a craft session where the kids glued the sand and shells and things they collected onto paper plates to make something. That afternoon we had plenty of time off so I went for a walk around to explore the place.

collecting shells

the second ink cartridge I have found on a beach in Japan...it came from China!

later that day when I went exploring

I ended up going for a very long walk along the beach and then when I got back Marta decided she wanted to go to the beach so we went back together. That night we watched a video on Canada. While everyone was watching I was told it was ok for me to move rooms to one of the spare rooms with a bed. Apparently yoko was worried about me because I didn't get a good nights sleep so she requested it for me!

That night there were shooting stars so Kiley, Marta and I spread out a blanket and lay down to watch them. A few kids joined us and then the more we saw the more kids appeared and soon we had quite a few of us outside lying down. It was great! Afterwards, Kiley, Marta, Sean, John, Kumiko and the older women all played taboo and talked. Kumiko had run to the store earlier on that day and bought us a whole pile of snacks so we stayed up late playing and talking and having a blast.

We woke up early for our morning exercise and breakfast, same as the day before, except this time afterwards it was packing up time. We packed our bags and cleaned the rooms and then headed to the main hall for the final lessons. After the lesson everyone gave a small speech in English (or Japanese if they couldn't) about what they thought of the camp. Then it was picture taking time! A lot of the kids ran around with books asking us to sign them which made me feel a lot like a celebrity! Yoko gave me a pair of earrings and exchanged emails and mobile numbers with me, promising to keep in contact (and she has!).

Yoko and I

There was one girl on the camp Marta and I became pretty good friends with as well. She had excellent English for her age and considering she taught herself! She actually is going to school in an international school, because she wanted to learn English. I was so surprised!

Marta, Misa and I

group shots

and again

and again!

Afterwards everyone was picked up or headed home. I had 2 hours to kill before my host mum showed up so I went for a walk along the beach again. It was really nice and relaxing but once again a shame I couldn't go swimming!!! When my host mum showed up she took aya, suzu, ayaka and I around Shikano Shima, the island nearby where we were staying and showed me some interesting spots. One of which we could actually see Fukuoka Tower and Fukuoka Dome across the other side of the ocean which was pretty neat!

from Shikano Shima

at some statue thing

Then we headed to the very large aquarium in Fukuoka. We saw dolphin and sea lion shows and shows with small whales as well as visiting all the various large tanks and aquariums with all sorts of fish, crabs, sharks and other sea creatures. It was pretty cool! By the end of it though we were all well and truly tired though!

the aquarium

outside

We went out for dinner at Joyful when we got back to Omuta, which was pretty late! Then we dropped everyone off at their homes and finally made it back.

The next day I took it easy. I went for a swim and then caught up on some sleep I'd missed out on the past couple of days. That night however we went out and took purikura and ate out.

The 15th I went for a swim and then ate very little for lunch as we were having a very early dinner with my host grandparents at their place in Yanagawa that evening. We headed out around 4 to get there and when we arrived we were seated at their table. They'd bought a lot of different very large sushi and mixed lunch boxes for us to eat. Apparently they were worried about what I would and wouldn't eat but were relieved to find I'd eat any of it! When we'd finished eating we went for a walk to visit the local, very large, grave to pay our respects to one of the Iwasaki family members. It was a special day that people visit the grave and so there were lots of offerings left before the different names. All sorts of things from cigarettes, to beer, to sweets and so on.

the grave

paying respects

16th and 17th I didn't do much apart from go swimming. The 18th I swam in the morning then went to a Karuta (playing card) event at the city Culture Hall. Even though I had no idea what I was doing my host mum entered me in it and somehow I came third overall! There was a tv crew there and I was also interviewed for the newspaper which was embarrassing!! There was a French man at the event as well, teaching everyone French Karuta. That was a lot of fun because I was able to learn a few words in French!

receiving my certificate and fireworks for coming third

The next day I went for my morning swim then visited the karuta event again (it was a two day event) briefly this time as I was heading out to Tenjin that day. The karuta sensei gave me a Karuta t-shirt which was really nice of her! I caught the train to Tenjin with Christy where I met her AFS friends, Diana (germany), Sophie (France) and Mark (Switzerland). While we were wandering around we also ran into another AFS student from Finland but she is with a different district. We shopped and tried on hideous clothing for fun and took purikura and couldn't decide what to do. At lunch we split up with Christy and I going one way and Sophie, Diana and Mark heading home.

On the 20th I can't remember what I did but I'm pretty sure it was my day off to watch movies and relax! The 21st I had to go to school for half the day. It was such a shock after being away for so long! We spent most of the morning cleaning the school thoroughly. I got the fun job of scrubbing down the floors where they'd been well and truly scuffed. It was pretty tiring work! We also organised a bit of our school trip and I got to meet the rest of the members of my group, Asuka, Sayaka and Risa. Together with Anri that means we have 5 people! Once the half day ended I walked home and ate lunch and then watched Marie Antoinette with my host Dad. That night I went to Taiko drumming which was as usual lots of fun!!

August 22nd I went to Hakata Station to meet up with Benedict. He'd flown in to Tokyo and had taken the Shinkansen down to Hakata but then had no idea how to get to Omuta from there by himself. He'd been in Europe for the last month and a half and was visiting for 2 weeks in Japan on his way home from traveling. It was really exciting seeing him again and I think I'm going to be very, very overwhelmed when I get back from Japan and seeing everyone again for the first time in so long! We took a train back to Omuta and I showed him to his hotel where he booked in. We went to Youme Town where we took purikura and had dinner and then eventually I had to say goodnight and go home because it was getting late.

The 23rd I took him to Tenjin where we ate very yummy okonomiyaki for lunch. We visited Hawk's Town, the shopping center outside the Fukuoka Dome where the Hard Rock cafe is, where we met up with Erica and her host sister for december. We wandered around and laughed at the statue/mime people who kept scaring the children. It was lots of fun! Erica and her host sister were going to a baseball game that night so they had to leave so we said our goodbyes and they headed off to the dome while Benedict and I headed back to Tenjin and the station so that we could get back home. We ate dinner at a nearby restaurant and then it was time for me to go home. My host mum came and picked me up which was always very amusing. This time she brought Aya with her and they marveled at how tall Benedict was. Aya couldn't pronounce Benedict so she took to calling him Banana instead which I thought was rather funny.

The 24th we went to a Rotary meeting. It was a different meeting than usual which surprised me! There were a lot of members from other clubs and the tables were arranged more like a business meeting than the usual eating arrangements! Afterwards we headed to Tenjin then walked to Canal City where we watched the movie Rush Hour 3. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend it! Though it was interesting because during the movie there is Japanese speech. As we were watching it in English and subbed instead of dubbed, whenever they spoke Japanese there were no English subtitles! I understood what was going on though luckily so it was ok!

The 25th I showed him around the small town that is Omuta. There isn't really that much to do in Omuta but it was still fun anyway! We took purikura and wandered around Youme Town and the games centre as well as around the area near the hotel. I saw several people I knew from school which was definitely interesting!

The 26th we were going to go to Mistui greenland (the amusement park in Kumamoto-prefecture) but it was too expensive for the two of us (poor exchange student I am!) so instead we visited the Omuta Zoo. I haven't been there before so I was really looking forward to it. I was pretty surprised by the enclosures though! I'm so used to Perth Zoo and the enclosures being so much bigger for the animals. There was a bird enclosure which you could walk through though that was quite large. It had Black Swans in it which we found very amusing! There were also a lot of birds just roaming free and one of the more interesting ones was a very curious peacock.

the peacock and I

Black swan!

There were some llamas and mountain goats and seals and even guinea pigs and rabbits! Also there was, of course, kangaroos! The next day was my host sister's birthday so we bought ingredients to make rocky road for the 27th. Unfortunately it's really hard to find simple things like raspberry lollies so I had to improvise with other lollies but it turned out ok! It's hard to go wrong with chocolate, marshmallows, lollies and peanuts after all!

The 27th was the first day back at school. I met the new ALT (assistant language teacher) who was replacing Melissa. Her name is Chen, and she's Chinese-American and comes from Hawaii. She was really nice and can speak Japanese really well so I was quite relieved as she's going to be my new Japanese-sensei after all! At karate after school I got to practice with a new weapon once we'd finished our regular training. It was so much fun!! I really want to use them all the time but I'm not meant to start learning to use them till I'm a higher level. Oh well! I'll just have to practice hard! After school I picked up Benedict and took him back to my host family's place where we had a party for Aya. There was a lot of food and people and games and we played with fireworks and had a good time. We even sat around later that night playing Uno which is always fun! The rules in Japan are pretty much the same as back home. There is a punishment for losing however~!

uno!

On Tuesday we started using the pottery wheels in pottery class. I was expecting my teacher to explain to us how to do it but instead he simply showed us once and made it look easy. But when we all had a go we found it wasn't as easy as it looks!! In bread making I learned how to make melon pan (melon bread). Melon bread is one of the things that confuses me because it tastes nothing like melon and doesn't even really look like melon so I can't work out why it's called melon bread! I discovered that it's actually cookie dough on top of the bread roll school. I didn't actually know this but I always wondered what it was I was eating before because it didn't taste just like bread. After school Aya, my host brother, Benedict, and two of my host brother's friends that went to the fireworks festival all went to Karaoke! It had been a while since I'd been Karaokeing so I was really looking forward to it. We sang away to our hearts content till we finally decided we should eat. So my host mum took us all out for dinner.

after karaoke

The 29th we drew bugs in art. My teacher wanted to give us practice at drawing something small much bigger than it is. I was expecting a lot of the girls to freak out considering how much they scream and overreact to bugs flying/slithering/crawling near them but everyone remained very calm. It was really odd! I also made shiso juice in green life. Shiso is a kind of Japanese herb and as far as I know it has no English equivalent name. It has a really interesting flavour though so the juice turned out to be very different. It was bright red which surprised me and the sensei added a lot of sugar so it was a very strange tasting juice! We started playing table tennis in sports 2 and we learned in October we'd be playing basketball and November/December would begin tennis. After school Christy, Benedict and I all visited Youme Town together.

Thursday I went to school for recreation then I left to attend a rotary meeting. Benedict came too and this time it was a lot less formal which was good! Afterwards I took him back to school for a small tour which was definitely an experience! I forgot how everyone reacted to me when I first came to school and how I was followed around and stared at like I was a celebrity. It's amazing how vocal Japanese girls can get when they get excited! After school he helped me pack as I was moving house the next day and then we all went out for Okonomiyaki.

The 31st of August I moved house to my new family. After school we picked up Benedict and then we headed off to my new family, the Akiyama household. We met my new Host mum and host dad and their son Noriaki and his finacee Hiromi. Noriaki told me to call him Nori or Nori-chan and that he and Hiromi would be going to Hawaii soon and also that they'd be getting married in October and I was definitely coming too. My new host mum told me we'd be having a welcoming party for me that night but first I could go upstairs and unpack my things if I wanted to so we went upstairs and Benedict helped me unpack. When we'd finished we came down to discover my host mum had cooked us a yummy looking feast and they even had a cake with Welcome Emily written on it! I was speechless!

It was delicious

welcoming cake!

I learned that they're not Rotary members either and that they don't speak English but they really would like to. I also found out that they've hosted exchange students before which is always nice to hear! They were a lot of fun and I know I'll definitely enjoy my time in this house!

the new family. Meet the Akiyama's!

that's it for now. I'm off to Hokkaido tomorrow but I'll put up a new blog hopefully soon after I get back!

till next time!
-m

023; free time to spend but on what?

2007-09-18T15:58:00.000+09:00

July 22nd was my first official day of summer holidays without my parents. I woke up around 8 and trudged downstairs for breakfast. My host mum informed me that I had club so I ate my breakfast and did some study before heading off to school for practice. But much to my dismay no one was there! After waiting around for an hour and the boxing boys staring at me because I was doing nothing I decided I should just ride home. So I did! I came home much to the surprise of my host mum and spent the rest of the day catching up on good old sleep. My host dad woke me up to go for a mountain hike so off we went but when we were 100m away from the top of the mountain he realised I was running a fever and didn't look so good and so we headed back down. And so I got to go back home and sleep for the rest of the day.

On the 23rd I went to school again for club and again no one was there. I went in search of my teacher and it turns out he said we could practice in the hall if we wanted to and that we didn't actually have training. He stuck around to teach me for about an hour then he had to leave because he was busy.

staff training!

trying to learn a kata

After I got home from practice I got to go to the pool nearby. It was after lunch so there were a lot of kids and I couldn't swim at all. Not really what I had in mind!!! It was still nice in the water nonetheless!

The 24th I decided I'd try swimming at night since the pool was open at three different time slots, 9-11:50, 1-4:50 and 6-8:50. I'd been during the morning and the afternoon but not night yet. Night certainly had not as many kids so I could actually swim! I got home late and ate a late dinner then went to sleep thoroughly pooped.

On the 25th I went for a swim in the morning. Definitely the best time to go I think! The people who work at the pool all knew me quite well by this point and asked me how my trip with my parents went and when my boyfriend would be getting here. It turns out I go to school with one of the lady's daughters! Same homeroom and year and everything!! I was quite shocked. I didn't know who this girl was though which is a bit of a bummer! Other than swim I don't think I did much this day either.

The 26th my host dad took me to see the new (well not so new now) Harry Potter movie. We visited the cinema in Kurume which I hadn't been to before so it was all very exciting and new. We ate lunch at the cafe downstairs then it was time to watch the movie. I enjoyed it but I think my host dad was very confused. Considering he hadn't watched any of the previous movies I don't blame him! Actually I think he'd seen a bit of movie 2 on TV the night before but didn't pay much attention to it. Outside the theatre was a big stuff anpan-man as a promotion for the anpan-man movie so I got a photo with it

anpan-man and I

He's a rather strange fellow isn't he? On the way back home from Kurume we went shopping in a really large second hand clothing store. There were some really cute looking tops but I didn't buy any. That night we went out for dinner. We couldn't decide where to go. I didn't feel like eating anything in particular while everyone else wanted something different. Kousuke wanted sushi, my host mum wanted takoyaki or okonomiyaki, my host dad curry. Whenever my host sister is asked what she wants to eat her reply is always Kentucky!! (KFC) so that was her vote. In the end we ended up going to a Chinese restaurant! I don't know where that conclusion came from honestly. We ordered a lot of food and everyone basically tucks into what they want. My host brother and sister both love karaage and fried chicken of some sort so when the dish came out they fought over it.

see?

Silly really. Considering there were two plates of the stuff!

The 27th I went for my morning swim then it was off to Fukuoka to go to the beach with Erica and Nik! Nik's friend also tagged along. It was great fun! Around lunchtime Nik and his friend had to disappear to go back home so we said our goodbyes. Erica and I went for a walk in search of Ayumi's (the girl who went on exchange to Perth last year) school as she had invited us to come eat lunch in her school cafeteria and apparently it was really close to the beach. After getting a very vague map from someone working in a cafe at the beach we headed off full of bounce, excited as to how delicious the meal would be.

Rather unfortunately we couldn't seem to find her school. In the end we called Ayumi and she met us at Freshness Burger nearby where we'd somehow ended up at thoroughly confused. She brought with her two friends from school and we ate a rather late lunch together. On the way back to the beach Ayumi showed us how to get to her school. It's rather confusing because her school and a university with the same name are right next to each other. The entrance for the school wasn't so easy to spot! At least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Back at the beach Ayumi, Megumi, Erica and I played some beach volleyball. Ayumi didn't have bathers so she couldn't swim but that didn't stop us from going back in for a bit. By the end of the day we were tired and happy and it was time to eat dinner before we knew it. We went to the Hard Rock cafe as it's close by and ordered us some yummy food. After dinner we had to head back to Tenjin so I could get home. I slept the whole train ride back!

On the 28th I went for a swim in the morning. I didn't do much during the day but around 4 my host mum started dressing me up in a yukata and getting me ready for the big festival held in Omuta called Daijyama! When we got there I could see all the dragons around the place. I'd seen them being made before but it was definitely something to see them lining the streets. People were handing over their small children and babies to have the man swing them back and forth in and out of the dragon's mouth while yelling something at the same time. Supposedly it's supposed to help the child to grow up healthy.

RAWR!

Alot of them just ended up crying.

My host mum decided she'd take me to meet dancing instructors who she knew for whatever reason. When we got there I discovered there was a small stage in the middle of the main street and a lot of people milling around.

a lot a lot!

When the music started everyone was in groups and then in lines, dancing up and down the street. My host mum insisted I danced with the ladies too despite not knowing a thing, so I got to learn as I went, copying the lady in front of me! Instead of dancing in a line down the street we were in the middle dancing around the main stage. We danced for about 50 minutes! We had one break in between where someone I didn't know handed me a drink. I took a look at it and it turned out to be alcohol! haha! When all the dancing was finally over one of the dancing ladies gave us free tickets to go watch a tea ceremony and drink tea. But before we would go watch, my host mum got me to have a lot of photos taken with the ladies.

dancing in the street

myself and the instructors

So next up we thanked everyone and went off in search of this tea house. It was funny because my host mum got lost looking for the place and when she finally decided she'd ask for directions we'd wound up standing in front of the place! We were ushered to a seat where we could watch the very traditional ceremony take place. When the girl at the front had finished making her one bowl of tea, the other ladies came out with the sweets and tea for everyone. I got given the tea that was made in front of us by the lady at the front. I quite like green tea myself so I was quite pleased!

making tea

drinking tea

We wandered around the festival some more where my host mum bumped into several people she knew. One of them was a friend who was participating in taiko drumming. I've always wanted to try taiko drumming so they invited me to have a go. The teacher was really nice about it. Although it was a lot of fun I'm definitely not doing it again in a yukata!!!

having a go

The next day I went for my swim and spent most of the day organising myself for the night ahead of me. As the Daijyama festival runs over more than one day I was going to see it again though this time with a friend from school, Miki. My host sister Aya and her friend Moi got ready together while my host mum put me in a different yukata. Once we'd finished getting ready we went and picked up Miki from her house.

Myself, Miki, Moi and a girl who happened to be there at the time

We were dropped off at Youme Town as the streets were blocked off closer to the festival and so we decided that we would go purikura before hand. Youme Town was incredibly crowded and we had to wait about 45 minutes till we could get inside the purikura booth! I saw a lot of people from school so at least in the meantime I had plenty of people to chat to! Once we were done we walked on over to the main road and browsed the food stalls for things to eat. I wanted to eat corn on a stick (also known as toumorokoshi). Aya wanted yakitori (kebabs) and fried chicken (naturally) as well as fried potatoes. Miki wanted a crepe, kakigori (shaved ice) and Moi wanted yakitori, takoyaki (octopus balls) and kakigori so we spent a long time wandering around looking for the most appetising and cheapest we could find! There were more people at the festival on the second day then there was on the first! I ran into a lot of people from school and so we were forever stopping to talk!

Me, miki and some girls from school

The dragons were still making their way through the streets but this time there were a lot of fireworks going off too. I couldn't get close enough however to take a decent photo of them.

a daijyama dragon

We spent the night wandering around looking at the various stalls and eating till eventually we decided we'd had enough and called it a night. All in all it was a lot of fun.

On Monday the 30th I went to Tenjin to meet up with Erica. We were going to meet up with Ayumi then afterwards go to Nik's place as he was returning home on the 31st! We went for a walk to find Ayumi's school again as Ayumi had invited us to eat there and visit her club (the tea ceremony club). This time around we found her school though it still took us longer than it should have to find it!!! When we got there I found myself very envious! The school is massive and everything looked so new and nice! The canteen was awesome and the food tasted great. Daniel met up with us and we all ate lunch together before we headed off to visit the tea ceremony club. When we walked in it was obvious Ayumi had not told her fellow club members we were coming because they were all very, very, surprised to see us! We watched Ayumi prepare the tea while we sat and chatted amongst ourselves. We ate, drank and eventually said our goodbyes as Erica and I had to leave to catch a train to Kurume, where we were meeting up with Nik!

When we got to Kurume Charlie was with Nik but he wasn't coming with us. We said goodbye to Charlie and boarded the train to Nik's host family's house in Oogori. Nik's host Dad picked us up from the train station and drove us back to the house so we could drop off our stuff. When we got to the house I found it amusing that Nik still hadn't finished packing! He was to board a plane the next day and he hadn't finished!? It didn't really inspire much confidence in me for when I have to leave! I really have too much stuff.

We went out for Shabushabu at a nice restaurant. Two of Nik's friends met us there and we all had a blast sitting talking around the pot. It'd been a while since I'd eaten shabushabu so it was good fun! After we'd eaten far too much it was back to the house to play with fireworks!

The pile before we got to it

and after

It was my first time playing with fireworks so I was pretty excited. Some were a lot like sparklers except bigger, while others were completely different. They let off a lot of smoke which really stinks but when you're having fun you can forget your eyes are stinging and watering a little! When we'd finally used them all up Nik's friends said their goodbyes and headed home and we headed back inside to watch movies and help Nik pack up a little. His host mum kept bringing us ice cream and things to eat but honest to god I was so stuffed there was no way I would even have considered it!!! Eventually we were tired enough that we decided we should sleep as Nik had to board a plane the next day.

We woke up 5:30am, nice and early in the morning. Nik shoved a few more things into his already bulging suitcase and then we had fun trying to close it. At last! Nik had finished packing finally!!! We packed up our stuff and crammed into the car and drove off to the airport. We were greeted by Ayumi, Shizuka, Charlie and Nik's friend from the night before, as well as Nik's previous host family. Daniel accidentally went to the international airport instead of the domestic one so he couldn't come to see Nik off which was a shame. There were a lot of hugs and "see you laters" (Nik wouldn't let us say 'goodbye' because he insisted that it wasn't really a 'goodbye' just a 'temporary leave of absence') and of course photos.

Ryuutaro, Shizuka, Ayumi, Nik, Erica, Myself, Charlie

Eventually it was time for Nik to go through the gate so we all gave him one last big hug and waved him goodbye. With Nik gone Ayumi, Erica and I decided we'd hit Starbucks (as we hadn't had breakfast yet and we had gone to Starbucks when everyone else left. It had become a sort of tradition by this point) where we'd decided what to do for the rest of the day. Daniel met up with us there and he seemed pretty miffed that he'd gone to the wrong airport which was understandable. I needed to go home early so I left the others behind to decide what they'd do for the day.

When I arrived back at home Kawano-san swung by the house to talk to me about my plans for the up coming months. After we'd finished planning out different events he reminded me of the time of the next meeting and then said goodbye. I had some free time so I went for a swim. Later that night my host mum took me to the taiko drumming class as I'd enjoyed it so much at the festival. It was such a workout!! It's definitely a lot of fun. They were practicing hard for an upcoming festival performance so I couldn't participate the whole time but they insisted that I could come back next week when they weren't rehearsing so hard and it would be even more fun!

Not in a yukata this time!

I can't remember anything special happening on the first so I'm skipping it! On the 2nd however a typhoon was floating around near Omuta so the weather was awful! By this point I was incredibly sick of hearing about typhoons (just so you know I'm still hearing about them now). My host mum wanted me to go to a yoshino festival but because of the typhoon it had to be held inside a building. It wasn't really a typical festival but more like a festival for old folks. It was even held inside a retirement village. Regardless, there was dancing, karaoke, games and a raffle. I didn't recognise anything that was sung (and not sung as it happens as some of the people couldn't read the screen...) and the games were all very strange. One for instance was 1 vs 1 where you had to roll up a piece of rope as fast as you could so that you could get the bottle attached to the end. I got suckered into playing a game out the front as I stood out being young and foreign and the announcer needed participants. I ended up beating my opponent and winning soft drink. I also won iced coffee in the raffle. Aya and my host Dad didn't win anything though which Aya didn't like very much!

The next day I visited the taiko people again. It was good fun but they were still busy preparing for a festival so again I didn't get to participate the whole time.

On the 4th there was a festival at the local primary school. My host dad, Aya and I went together. The kids in the local area got together with kids in there street and made small daijyama 'dragons' following the theme of summer. They paraded the around in teams and each one was judged. The winner awarded two boxes of coke cans to share amongst their team.

the kids from my street and myself

the real dragon

My host dad took me around the stalls and asked me if I'd played any of the typical festival time games. I hadn't so he took me over to one stall where there was a big long trough full of water and tiny goldfish and paid 100 yen for his go. The lady handed him a small paper circle thing attached to a stick and a bucket. The aim of the game was to catch as many with your paper net as possible before it rips. My host dad boasted he was really good at it but he ended up ripping his net straight away and caught nothing!! Because I laughed he paid for me to have a go and stood by ready to laugh himself. Luckily for me I had beginners luck and ended up with 10 fish! The lady put them in a bag for me and I felt pleased with myself. Of course now I had a whole pile of fish and no idea what to do with them!

The 5th I headed to Tenjin where I met up with Charlie and Erica. We headed to the beach since the weather was so nice and hot. Charlie's friend Megumi turned up later which was good fun. She went to Brazil last year and had just gotten back recently so she was a new rotex! We swam and built sandcastles and had tons of fun.

and then we knocked them down.

destruction

Oh yes, as we walked to the beach I took a photo of a building that might be of interest to you Adrian. Well not really the building but just a sign out the front. I'd been meaning to but always forgot.

F city. ACROS

Once we'd had enough of milling around the beach we wandered back to Tenjin for some shopping. Charlie wanted to look at getting himself some hats and buying a lot of different things. I don't know why he would because he would be leaving the country in 2 days but obviously he had enough room to spare for some last minute things!

I headed home where my host mum took myself and aya out to eat takoyaki (octopus balls). The restaurant was equipped so you have the takoyaki made in front of your (like at an okonomiyaki restaurant) so I got to learn how to make takoyaki. It's a lot harder than it looks. The people who work in takoyaki stands make it look so easy!

making takoyaki

On the 6th my host Dad took me to something I believe is called a genbaikan (?) because the pool was closed for the day. Basically its like a sauna you go lie down in. Something like 15 minutes on your front, 15 on your back, 5 outside. Then repeat. It was certainly something different. He kept insisting even though you sweat a lot it doesn't smell bad but I don't think he smelled too good at all haha!

Afterwards, I checked my phone and found I had a message from an exchange student I didn't know. My host mum had found out that there was another exchange student living in Omuta who was here with AFS. She'd been here since April and was attending the all girl's school that is right next to mine. She gave her my mail address and said that we could become friends.

I messaged her back and we decided to meet up at Youme Town to go shopping. We met in starbucks and it turned out her name was Christy and she's from Oregon, America. It was good fun to make a friend nearby who speaks English!!!

On the 7th I went to the airport to see charlie off. Erica was there too. It was kind of hard to believe that all the exchange students had gone home apart from erica and myself. I don't know how I'd cope if I didn't have erica! It was good I'd become friends with Christy the day before so I wasn't completely by myself!

The 8th and 9th I didn't really do that much. Just mostly swam and watched movies. So that brings you into August!!! Still a bit further to go but we're getting there!

till next time!
-m

022; busiest two weeks

2007-09-09T14:14:00.000+09:00

I feel I am constantly apologising for late blogs! I've moved house again and am back to having no internet however I have a laptop now so I have a whole backlog of blogs to post up in the near future. New photos however on the photobucket site I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little longer for!

warning: this is a photo heavy post! (:

These were a jam packed couple of weeks! It started with early monday morning. I woke up and ate breakfast and was picked up by Kawano-san (my clubs new president) who drove me to the airport. When we got there we met up with Nagamatsu-san and Koga-san and another rotarian. As we were a little early we sat down and waited in one of the coffee shops and the men ordered breakfast, as they hadn't had any. I was really anxious for my parents to just arrive already but we still had a bit of time to kill so we waited and chatted over coffee. Eventually we made our way over to the arrivals door where we stood around waiting for my parents to walk through. While we were waiting the club members studied the very dark photocopy of my family portrait. They couldn't tell really how tall my Dad was so they went with the fact that he had no hair to try and recognise him. So of course every bald man who went through that door they got excited thinking it could possibly be Dad, but when I didn't rush over in excitement, they became disappointed again! We waited for what felt like forever. The people around us disappeared as the ones they'd come to pick up arrived. Soon enough though they arrived!!! It was great to see them again. We had so much to catch up on!

hugs for mum

dad too

the three of us

After we finished our initial greetings we headed out to the cars.

heading out

Kawano-san got us to get into his car, Dad in the front and Mum and I in the back. The whole way back Dad had a lot to talk about, though this of course isn't very helpful when the one you're trying to talk to doesn't speak your language. But still, Dad tried his hardest to make Kawano-san understand and with help from me translating the whole 1 hour trip back was very... interesting! It was also amusing to see their reactions to Japan. Things that had become normal and like second nature to me since I'd come were now new to them. Things I'd forgotten about and things that surprised me when I came surprised them. It took me back to when I first got here, except I had no one to explain it all to me!!!

On the drive to the Omuta Garden Hotel we swung by my school. I didn't know we'd be doing this so it was a surprise to everyone! The road my school is on is one of the narrower roads you see in Japan. There are a lot of them in Japan. It's still a two-way road however despite the fact that two cars side by side can't actually fit on it. Basically if you're driving down one way and a car comes the other way and you both want to get past one car must veer into a driveway or at least as far off the road as possible so that the other car may slowly slide through and continue on its way. It's very shocking when you first see it. I still get nervous sometimes when the cars are that close to each other! So of course the moment we go down this road Mum exclaims "Surely this road can't be two-way!?". Oh but it is Mum! Scary stuff.

So we got to the school where we were taken through to the principal's meetings room. Unfortunately we couldn't meet with him so they found the Vice Principal and my first homeroom teacher, Hashiguchi-sensei, to come in and have a chat. My current homeroom teacher and Melissa were also busy so they couldn't come and meet my parents either but that was ok.

greetings and questions

Everyone

Us trying "Japanese Style"

After introducing themselves and asking a few questions and having a coffee we said our goodbyes and had a very brief tour of the ground. Once that was over we headed past my counsellor's clinic where they got to meet him. Briefly of course.

Mum, myself, Dad and Nagaoka-san

We then finally headed to the hotel. Busy morning! When we got there we were handed our key and told instructions for tomorrow night. Then the rotary members said their goodbyes and left us to check into our room.

After collapsing into the beds in the hotel room we discussed what we'd do for the day before we met up with Melissa at night time. The popular vote was sleep so we took a quick nap (as plane trips are tiring stuff and so is coming to a whole new country where not many people speak your language!). After we rested up for a bit we headed down to the banks to cash our travellers cheques. When we got there I acted as translator and asked the man all the questions Dad needed answering to make sure he was satisfied (for those who know my father, that's quite a few!). All seemed to be going relatively well. The man flipped through the cheques, we stated the total amount, he OKed everything and told Dad to sign and cross sign all of the cheques. Only once Dad had finished, it dawned on the man helping us that we couldn't cash it all at once. Which meant we'd need to make another trip to the bank tomorrow. Oh no! Luckily the guy was nice enough and insisted he'd be working tomorrow and that everything would be ok in the end so we need not worry. Phew! Crisis averted! Once our banking for the day was finished we went for a trip to Youme Town.

The great thing about Japan is all (...well most) restaurants will have plastic food displaying some of the foods on the restaurants menu. This means that I didn't have to sit and explain what was in each restaurant we walked by, and, judging from the look of the fake food, it is much easier to say "yes, this looks good. Let's eat here" or "not it's not very appetizing. Let's look somewhere else". What you see is normally pretty much what you get. I realised just how much I was thankful for the plastic food the moment it first came to eating out with my dear mother and father! It definitely made it a lot easier to pick what foods they wanted to eat and what they didn't want! We ate omlette rice (I believe?) for lunch and discussed our plan of action for the rest of the day. Which of course means I dragged them into the Purikura (print club) booths! And so my parents learnt the fun of taking silly looking pictures then doodling over them and having them printed out! :)

We wandered around Youme Town for a bit more and then went back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel we met up with Nagamatsu-san, Koga-san, Madoka (a daughter of a rotary member who went to England for 10 months and I met at the flower viewing way back when) and her father. Nagamatsu went through our travel arrangements and asked us what we wanted to do on the day we had free time in Tokyo. I didn't know where to go so I stated disneyland considering I hadn't been there before and so Nagamatsu noted it down and gave us instructions on how to get there by train. He went through the procedure for the flights and catching the shinkansen and handed us our tickets for the train, plane and hotels. We discussed the option of having a taxi take us around Kyoto instead of taking a tour bus, so that we could visit where ever we wanted to for how long we wanted to. Once explanations and discussions had finished we thanked everyone and headed back to our room. I messaged Melissa at around 6:30 and she came and picked us up to take us to dinner that night. I hadn't eaten Indian since I'd been in Japan and I believe I might've mentioned it once in a Japanese lesson that I wouldn't mind eating it so she drove us to Arao (which is in Kumamoto prefecture) about 20 minutes away to a good Indian restaurant she knew called Bishnu (which admittedly it should be Vishnu). Melissa's car was very small and very much a two person car but somehow us tallies squished in and made the trip safely. When we arrived we saw a sign on the door which said that they were closed but when we went inside we discovered that it was in fact open. The whole time we were in the restaurant no body else came. We had the whole place to ourselves! It was great! We ordered several curries and naans and shared it between us. It was delicious and I'm pretty sure we all had a great time. After, Melissa drove us back and dropped us off at the hotel and we said our goodbyes and that was day one over basically!

Day two, Tuesday, began with breakfast at the hotel and a trip to the bank to cash the remainder of our travellers cheques. As promised, the guy from the day before was there and everything went through hassle free. While I had planned to have my parents visit my current home my host dad was out for the day! So there was a change of action and I took them to Tenjin. It had been raining pretty much all Monday and Tuesday so far was looking to be the same. Mum and Dad armed themselves with their cheap plastic umbrellas and we caught the limited express. An hour later we stepped out into Tenjin. We wandered around for a little while before I decided I'd show them the department store Tenjin Core. Expensive clothes and accessories are about the only things sold inside the very tall buildings so it probably wasn't terribly interesting. We ate lunch at a ramen/chanpon place after much debate as to where to eat. We ordered and mum and my dishes arrived but Dad's order was lost to the world. So I asked for it again and the man apologised profusely. We looked around Shintencho Hall for a bit and bought some small presents for people before we decided we'd had enough and it was time to head back.

When we got back to the hotel we got ourselves ready for the welcoming party that Rotary was throwing that evening. I wrapped the presents for everyone and wrote a speech to introduce my parents. Mum and Dad had to give a speech to so I insisted they should think of something before we got there because giving a speech in English to people who don't understand English can be very hard. Especially when you're up there speaking and everyone's looking at you but you know they're not following a word you're saying! We headed up to the 7th floor Sky Chapel room which had been set up nicely for the occasion. There was even a giant banner saying "Welcome Party for Parents of Emily" in big letters at the end of the room.

see?

First up on the program was several welcoming speeches from various Rotary members. This included the current president, Kawano-san, who spoke about the interesting "conversation" he and Dad had all the way back from Fukuoka airport. The previous president, my counsellor, Madoka and her father, and several other members all gave short speeches which were quite humorous. Then it was my turn to give a small speech and introduce Mum and Dad. After confusing everyone as to what Dad does for a living, it was time for them to take the mic and give their speech. Needless to say, I think Dad realised just how different it is to give a speech to a room full of people staring attentively when you know they're not understanding any of it! Then we called up my previous host families one by one and other people who have been very helpful over the year so far to give them Australian presents. Once that was over Kawano-san asked Mum and Dad to step forward to receive gifts of their own. My previous host sisters Chiaki and Haruna handed them over. Then it was time to do cheers and then finally eat! As the dishes were brought out my second host Dad stepped up to the microphone and gave a speech about my time in his house (April - June). After he'd finished he asked my previous host sisters, Ayaka, Chiaki and Haruna to step forward and give us a present (a photo album of my time in their household made by my host mum).

Receiving the present

Throughout the night as the dishes came in, many different people all came up to talk to us. We didn't get to eat much! Dad got to try a lot of beer and Japanese sake and oodles of photos were taken. More small gifts were received and many new people were met. I'm sure Mum and Dad found it really tiring over all!!

Looking at the photo album. From left: Narikiyo-mama, Ayaka, Iwasaki-mama, Tsutsumi-mama, Koga-san, Madoka, Tsutsumi-papa, myself, Haruna, Dad, Chiaki and Mum

madoka using her bullroarer

Mum trying to be taller than me

Fourth host family, Akiyama-san (Aug 31st - November 1st~). Us trying to be their height

Dad and Chiaki

After eating and mixing and photo taking it was time to sing the "hand in hand" song and join hands and 'dance'. After, we had a mass group photo taken and then it was over. We were invited to go to the drink bar next door for drinks and once we'd had enough we visited my host parents at the time, the Iwasaki family. At their house we handed them their present, a book of Perth, in which we could show them Cottesloe. That was where their son, Ryosuke, who is currently on exchange in Perth, was staying at the time.

We didn't stay long as it was late and we had to get back to the hotel so I dropped off some stuff Mum and Dad had brought over for me that I didn't need and we headed off. A very long, and thoroughly exhausting day!

Wednesday 11th of July we flew to Tokyo. I can't remember how we got to the airport actually. We either caught the train to Tenjin then the subway or we were driven there. Anyway, when we were at the airport Nagamatsu-san helped us make sure we boarded our correct flight and our luggage was sent correctly. Once that was all done we waved our goodbyes and waited to board our plane. The trip didn't take very long and soon enough we were in Tokyo! It was my first time out of Kyushu (the southern most of the 4 main islands of Japan) so I was very excited! We landed and collected our luggage then went trooping around the airport to find where we had to go. I was a little nervous directing Mum and Dad around considering I'd never been there before but I could find things ok so it wasn't so bad. We took the Keiken-kyukou metro to Shinagawa station where we got off and went in search of the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. It didn't take very long at all to find being practically across the road! We checked into our room which was on the 27th floor and decided what it was we were going to do for the day. We ended up booking ourselves on a tour bus for the next day with the help of a lady downstairs and then decided to go for lunch somewhere nearby. After wandering down the wrong side of the street where there were very few restaurants we found one that had quite a few people in it and decided it must be ok. It turned out to be a ramen place, which is all very well and good but Dad can't use chopsticks. Honestly, watching someone try and eat ramen with a fork is very strange to me! We decided to check out Asakusa after lunch (which I had been told was a shopping district) even though it was raining. We caught the subway then wandered around through a whole pile of little shops looking for interesting things to buy. We took a break and had a coffee then ventured out back to find some more shops when we had a little incident. Mum wanted to buy some nice socks and when I asked the man how much they were he simply yelled NO! and took the socks and hung them back up again. ...um? He was very rude towards us and when I asked him why he wouldn't let us buy anything he simply walked away. I couldn't believe it! It turns out that you couldn't buy individual things there, just wholesale goods, but he didn't explain that to us!! After this happened we didn't feel very much like shopping so we headed back to the hotel, stopping in at a local supermarket to buy something for dinner and breakfast the next day.

So the next day began with a small breakfast in the hotel room before we walked down to the area where we were going to be picked up by the tour bus. When the bus did come we sat down and I found myself next to a rather amusing Texan who was here with his parents and brother and sons and so on. He said hello and asked me where I was from and when I asked if he was from Texas he was really shocked. Apparently everyone so far could tell when he introduced himself that he was Texan and he didn't realise it was such a recognisable accent! The bus took off and picked up the other members for the tour from their respective hotels and soon it was full with people from all over. We met some Perth girls who had just arrived from a trip to Europe and were looking at a way to kill time during their short stopover in Tokyo. The bus stopped and we were organised into our tour groups and so many people got off our bus and headed to another, including the Perth girls. Once we were sorted it was time to begin the tour!

The first place on the long list of places we were to visit was Tokyo Tower. Our tour guide was actually quite funny and cracked many jokes during the whole tour. Whether it was about how it was built in the image of the Effiel Tower and built to be just that little bit larger to parasite singles. She also mentioned that the night before we experienced an earthquake. That explains why our cups were rattling in our hotel room! And here we thought we'd ended up with noisy neighbours! When we arrived at Tokyo Tower Dad took one look at the tower and decided he wouldn't go up (he has a morbid fear or heights for those who don't know) so Mum and I bravely took the elevator up without him. Honestly when we reached the indoor observatory I think he would've been fine coming up too but I guess he didn't know that. We 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed at the magnificent view before us where we could see miles upon miles of Tokyo! ....Ok I lied. Had there not have been a typhoon and it wasn't raining maybe we would've been able to see for miles and miles but there was a typhoon and rain so we couldn't see very much. Still the view was quite impressive!

Tokyo Tower

view from one side

We bought some little souvenirs and whatnot and something for my blazer and then it was time to meet up and go back down. We piled back into the bus, were counted off and then it was off to the next stop, the Meiji Shrine. On the way to the shrine we drove through Roppongi, a district famous for it's nightlife.

signpost

At the Shrine there was quite a bit to see. We were taken past a tori (gate) that was quite impressive in size.

Mum and I in front of the gate

When we reached the shrine itself there was a place where we could purify ourselves with the water. There were also oodles of different 'omikuji' (fortunes) to buy as well as prayer beads and charms for all sorts of things. From traffic safety to passing exams to charms for couples. After my luck with cars was demonstrated earlier in the year and upon seeing some of the roads here, Mum decided it would be best to buy me a traffic safety charm. You know, just in case. She bought a couple other little charms and we visited the main building. We couldn't go inside it however.

the central building

We headed back to the bus and were then driven to our next stop. The Imperial Palace, where we would visit the east garden only. Along the way we went by the Akasaka guest host and National Diet Building. The Guest house was absolutely massive and we were assured only the creme de la creme could get VIP passes to stay there when they visited Japan. Our tour guide mentioned that if any of us were so lucky as to get to stay there to remember our friendly Tokyo tour guide and bring her along too! When we reached the Imperial palace we saw a lot of people going for a run. Apparently it is a very popular jogging/running course with many people. We headed over to the East garden which was quite pretty and would probably look stunning in spring. The rain had picked up a little more at the point so we had our umbrellas out weary of a sudden downpour.

the entrance

From across one of the bridges

Our next stop on the list was the Ginza district for lunch. We headed to Munakata, a Japanese restaurant where we were said goodbye to by our friendly and funny tour guide. The food was yummy and we got to meet some of the other people from our tour which included Chen, a boy travelling from America as a graduation present, a lady from Scotland, a couple from Hongkong and two ladies from Malaysia. After we'd finished eating we headed out to the meeting spot for the last half of the days tour. We got to take a quick look in the a toy shop while we waited for the bus then it was back on and off to the Tasaki Pearl Gallery.

Here we learnt how pearls are cultured and about the different types, sizes, colours and so on and so forth. Did you know each individual pearl is like a thumbprint and that none of them have the exact same pattern on their surface? I didn't! From the Pearl Gallery we headed off to the Sumida River where we took a boat cruise to Asakusa to visit the Temple there for Kannon (as our new and less interesting host guide stated many times, Kannon - the goddess of mercy). The boat itself had a really low roof in some areas so we couldn't stand up properly. But luckily other areas had more head room! On the river cruise Mum pointed to a lot of buildings and asked me what they were for, one of which had this giant golden/yellow thing on top. Honestly I wouldn't have had a clue what it was for if not for the fact that it had the company name written a little bit further down. It was for a Japanese Beer company. Goodness knows how it relates to it!!

...what is it!?

Soon we arrived at Asakusa and so we hopped off our boat. There was a large concentration of tourist shops lined up the whole way down towards the temple. We took our time wandering down looking for gifts and presents for people before we finally made it to the temple. There was a big lantern at the front and several tall buildings. No one has actually seen this statue of Kannon that is being worshipped there because supposedly the only other people to look at it died mysteriously...

the temple

The lantern

Next on our list of places to go through was the Nakamise Shopping street. It leads to Japan's finest Buddhist temple supposedly! We didn't stop anywhere here as the rest of the tour for the day was just drive bys of areas and no actual stops. After Nakamise it was a drive through of Kappabashi, a place that sells restaurant wares and so on. I've never seen so much plastic food before in my life!!!!!! Not to mention signs advertising food being sold!! After Kappabashi we drove through the districts Ueno and Akihabara, the shopping and amusement district and the discount electronic district respectively. They are both right next door to each other. Mum, Dad and I decided it would be a great idea to go wandering around these two districts the next day as Mum wanted me to help buy her a camera. The drive through was really helpful as we got to see where we would like to go the next day so we could plan it! Once we'd seen Akihabara and Ueno the tour was over and it was time to drop everyone off at their respective hotels. We eventually got back to ours after most of the other people on board had left and we decided to head out looking for a restaurant to eat at. We ended up dining at a place nearby our hotel that had some pretty yummy food. The waiter who served us had really good English and he mentioned he's studied overseas in Nepal I think! Afterwards we grabbed an ice cream then headed back to the hotel.

We woke up and ate our breakfast then headed down to Shinagawa Station. From there I worked out how to get us to Ueno by train/subway. The skies were very grey but it wasn't raining yet as it had been the previous couple of days. It looked like it was threatening to do so any minute though! When we rocked up to Ueno Station we walked down to the very large amount of small shops and began our shopping spree! The shops reminded me of the markets a little. We walked up one isle for what seemed forever, the shops just never ending, and when they finally did, we turned around and headed down another section. Honestly it felt like it was endless! We were in there for quite some time but once we'd had enough of shopping there we decided we'd move on to Akihabara so Mum could get her camera and I could check out electronic dictionaries.

Akihabara is a very, very brightly lit district! There are great big neon signs everywhere trying to lure you into their stores. We had one department store in mind that we wanted to visit, Yodobashi camera (which doesn't sell just cameras). We were told it was the biggest discount electronic store in Akihabara. It wasn't in the main conglomeration of shops and department stores but out to the side. They weren't kidding when they said it was big! We were in there for maybe 4-5 hours!! It's amazing thinking back on it how we could spend that long in just one department store. We headed inside and found the floor for cameras. At first we looked for the specific camera Mum wanted. When we found it we checked it out to make sure the language could be changed and so on. I realised she'd need to buy an Australian powerpoint adaptor if she wanted to charge it. In the end we had several questions before we purchased it but ....we couldn't find someone to help us. I wasn't sure I'd be able to communicate complicated camera mumbo-jumbo in Japanese so we checked out the "duty free" section for foreigners where the people 'supposedly' spoke English. We found Mum's camera again in this section but this time it said it was sold out. I asked for someone to help us and he ran away after muttering something about not speaking English and going to find someone who could. So we waited. And waited. ....and well waited. But no one came. So I decided I'd find someone else, who wasn't a help either because they simply said they didn't speak English either, the camera was not in stock and we couldn't buy it. So much for being helpful!!!!

I decided I would just risk doing it in Japanese and walked back over to the other section. The first person I asked for help, after having a small discussion with him I realised he ended up speaking really good English (his wife speaks English supposedly). He answered all our questions and was incredibly helpful! He also recommended which memory card to buy, grabbed us our adaptor we needed and a camera case and he didn't tell us the camera wasn't available! :D I also got myself a new camera case as the one I'd been using I'd borrowed from an old camera we had at home and it really wasn't very good. All in all we got a camera Mum was happy with very cheap! We wandered around the games section in search of things to buy as gifts and checked out the electronic dictionaries. I had no idea what I was looking for and when I asked the man behind the counter what would be suitable for me he told me Japanese people use them. ...Not very helpful at all. In the end I just decided I'd quiz Melissa about them later and buy one in Fukuoka if need be. The prices were about the same as back down in Fukuoka anyway. We ate lunch upstairs on the restaurant floor and checked out the giant bookstore in the same area. Mum bought herself a few books to keep herself occupied and I browsed their selection for a better English-Japanese Japanese-English dictionary but with not much luck. Dad was duely impressed with the couches/places to sleep in the store for the men who came with their wives/girlfriends but didn't want to shop. He thinks we should get them back home in Aus! Unfortunately for him, everyone else thinks they're wonderful too so he couldn't grab a seat!!!

Eventually we'd had enough of wandering around this big department store and were all tired out from shopping. So we left and headed towards the subway so we could get back to our hotel. We bought some more food from the supermarket nearby and that night we headed out to dinner at another restaurant that was nearby. It was a beer restaurant which suited Mum and Dad fine so they ordered a large beer to drink with their meal. Did I mention large? They were VERY big!!! They got the shock of their lives when the waitress brought these giant glasses out! When they said large I don't think they meant quite that large!!! The meal was delicious. We kept checking out what the people next to us ordered because it all looked very interesting.

Dad with the big fake beer outside

Saturday the 14th we were up to check out and head to the station to catch our Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto at 11:13. It was all very exciting riding the Shinkansen. What's not to love about a very fast interesting looking train?! We got to Kyoto quite fast. I was rung up earlier that morning by Nagamatsu-san who said that at Kyoto we'd have to meet our tour guide, Katsura-san. We'd booked a taxi to take us around Kyoto after all. They were really worried about the typhoon and as a result we probably wouldn't be able to see as much as we'd wanted to see. In the end we decided the first day we'd visit the Sanjyuusangendou and Kiyomizu Temple. The second day we'd visit the Golden Pavillion and Mt. Arashi. When we arrived and hopped off the Shinkansen we were immediately greeted by Katsura-san who directed us through the gates and to our own personal taxi. Talk about service! The weather was terrible and it was raining pretty heavily but we were going to our stops no matter what. He spoke about the typhoon and how he was unsure how the weather would be on the Sunday but we'd just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. We arrived at our first destination, the Sanjyuusangendou, which Katsura-san had a lot to talk about. I can barely remember everything about this place because there were so many gods and so many names and so many things they control that it has all muddled in my head! He mentioned festivals and arrow firing contests, and a lot about each of the different gods.

After we'd finished seeing all the different gods and reading about them it was time to head off to the Kiyomizu temple. I was really excited about visiting here because I'd been told all sorts of wonderful things about it and that apparently it was very pretty. I wasn't disappointed. Even though it was raining quite heavily the place was still very beautiful. I can only imagine what it would be like in Autumn or Spring! We couldn't drive right to the front of the temple so Katsura-san parked at the bottom of the hill and we walked up past all the little shops to get there. The shops themselves were really quaint and filled with all sorts of goodies so Mum and I decided on the way back down we'd get a little shopping in! They also had a lot of Kyoto sweets so there were things for Dad to do (...well try) too! We reached the temple and walked up the stairs and Katsura-san explained to us about an underground passage we can walk through in which there is no light. To get through it we have to feel our way around and navigate with a rope to reach a rock. When we get to the rock we spin it around and pray. This sounds a little odd but it was a lot of fun! The person in front of me however didn't think so, constantly screaming "It's scary!" and "I can't see!!!!!"

We reached the exit and were greeted by Katsura-san again who took us to another building where we prayed. You toss money into the big box-like thing in front of you then sit seiza style (legs underneath you) and tap a giant pot-like thing with a mallet of some sort. It makes a gooooooong noise and you put your hands together and pray. I do have photos of us doing it but unfortunately it's not digital but prints. We walked around the whole of the temple and around the surrounding area. Katsura-san showed us the beautiful paint work and pointed out things we might miss like the decorations running along the ceiling and so on. It was really rather magnificent. By the end of it my pants were soaked but that certainly didn't matter!

Mum, Dad and Katsura-san

the building where we prayed from

at the very entrance

On the way back down we visited a few shops and bought a few little things before we finally headed to our hotel, the Grand Prince Hotel Kyoto. We arranged a pick up time with Katsura-san for the next day and waved goodbye and thanked him, then greatfully we checked into the hotel and plonked ourselves in our room. There were no restaurants or ...well...anything really nearby so we ate dinner at the restaurant downstairs and pondered what to do tomorrow if the typhoon really was going to be super bad.

Luckily when we woke up the next day the weather was absolutely perfect! We ate breakfast at the hotel then met up with Katsura-san who took us to the Conference center of some sort right near our hotel first before we visited the Kinkakuji (Golden Pavillion). He showed us around and the running track and lake nearby then off to the Kinkakuji! They don't call it the Golden Pavillion for no reason!

isn't it spectacular?

We wandered around quite thoroughly impressed. Kyoto was turning out to be a favourite in all of our books. There were small waterfalls and lakes and places where you could toss money and all sorts. It was really pretty!!

a small waterfall

We headed off to Mt. Arashi, stopping by a river for a photo op. The river was raging considering all the water it'd been getting lately. I wouldn't want to fall in there! We arrived at the Tenryu temple where the gardens were very, very beautiful. There were pictures up displaying how it looks in different seasons and my god I want to come back to Kyoto and see it for myself! I particularly liked the one of autumn and winter, because autumn was so red and the winter one was so calm and crystal-like.

The pond

We hiked up the mountain a short way and got a lovely little view of Kyoto.

The view down

After we'd had enough of the garden and the temple we headed off to a bamboo forest nearby that I'd never heard of. When we got there it was really something. The weather was perfect so there was patches of sunlight everywhere. The bamboo really grows quite tall over here, nothing like the stuff I see in our garden back home!

the forest

We asked to be dropped off in the Gion District instead of back at the hotel and we thanked Katsura-san for everything he did. It was really worthwhile hiring a taxi instead of taking a tourbus. We could spend as long as we wanted in a place and we could visit where we wanted. We all had a great time! In Gion we discovered that because the festival was on there were a lot of people. And I mean a lot. It reminded me of the Dontaku festival I went to in Fukuoka back in May sometime. There were just people everywhere and you had to push your way through the crowd to find some space for yourself to just breathe. There were a lot of small streets with stalls set up, as per festival style. There were also a lot of float like things with lanterns attached scattered all about the place. We wandered around checking out the sites and being touristy until we decided it was time to find somewhere to eat and take a break. We found a nice, quiet cafe to eat lunch in and enjoy a coffee before venturing out and braving the streets again. We found a shopping arcade area of some sort so you know what that means! We spent quite a while walking up and down this arcade buying more gifts for even more people. I got two t-shirts, one with I love Kyoto on and and another with a map of Japan that has Japan cleverly written inside it. I also found myself a kanji book to study with and a new dictionary! All in all very good and much enjoyed I do say! Eventually we were too tired to spend any more money so we walked in search of a subway station. We saw some people dancing in the street which was quite interesting. Probably practising for the festival. I found us a subway station to take us back to the hotel where we retreated quite happily to our room to rest ready for our big trip for the next day.

Next day we woke up, ate breakfast, then subwayed to Kyoto Station where we caught our next Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Unfortunately the weather was not as happy as it had been the day before and it was raining quite spectacularly when we arrived. We placed our luggage in a coin locker before heading out for the next couple of hours to go see some sights before out next train. I wasn't feeling too well this day and I don't think a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Park really helped it! The diaramas of people who'd had their skin melting and their clothes torn and tattered and their houses blown to pieces was rather depressing. The whole Peace Park museum, while very fascinating and interesting, was also incredibly depressing. All those poor people who died. We walked around for a bit and saw the A Bomb Dome amongst other things before heading down a shopping arcade nearby. We were actually searching for a taxi but we couldn't find one. Eventually we did and we headed back to the station to go in search of our luggage. This was definitely fun because we put our stuff in a coin locker on the south side, whereas the taxi driver took us to the north side so when we went in search of a coin locker....we couldn't find ours! We spent a while wandering around before we finally asked a man how to get to the other side of the station and he opened the gate so we could get through. Once on the right side we found our lockers easily. phew! Then it was just a matter of waiting for the train before finally catching it to Hakata Station, Fukuoka.

Once in Fukuoka we had to transfer lines and catch the yufu deluxe 5-gou to Yufuin. There weren't a lot of people on our train which was rather nice. The scenery the whole way was mountains and trees and all rather pretty and green. When we finally reached Yufuin we were quite tired and ready to check into our Ryokan (japanese style inn) called Sansuikan. We were picked up at the station by a bus from the Ryokan which surprised us all greatly. Talk about service! The Ryokan itself was very nice. We arrived quite late in the day so it was downstairs to the restaurant for our meal first. Our bags were taken from us and we were directed to our separate table and room where our waiter for the evening was waiting. He explained to us as we went what we were eating (not that Mum and Dad really understood, and my translations of what I did understand were quite iffy). The food, whether we knew what we were eating or not, was absolutely delicious. I can tell Dad really enjoyed all of his because he ate absolutely everything and left nothing behind. Bellys stuffed it was time to hit the baths, the onsens. Unfortunately the girls onsen wasn't outdoors like the last ryokan I stayed in. It's really an interesting feeling having a bath outside in one of those. Nevertheless the bath itself still felt refreshing, even if you can't get used to the other people walking around!

The next day I was feeling really crook but we headed out anyway to enjoy our day. The weather had taken a turn for the better and it was wonderful and sunny again. Armed with a very not-to-scale and vague map we headed out in search of places to shop. We came across a street where each side of the road had it's own little quaint shop. Yufuin really is a nice getaway. Mum mentioned it reminded her a bit of York! We came across all sorts of bits and bobs and interesting things.

taking a break

the thinnest building Mum has ever seen

We walked and walked and walked and bought and bought and bought for the whole day till we couldn't find any more shops so we headed back to the ryokan and discussed our plan of attack. We decided we'd visit the stainglass museum, which by following our map took a while to find. When we did find it however it was rather pricey so we decided we didn't need to see it after all! So we headed back the way we came in search of a cafe of some sort. We didn't find one so we made a quick stop in at the supermarket nearby for an icecream and little bite to eat before heading back to the ryokan. I went to sleep because I was feeling really crook and when I woke up I didn't feel any better. I sent Mum and Dad down to eat dinner without me and told them if I felt up to it I'd come down and join them. I ended up joining them later but still not feeling 100%. The dinner was very worth it though, just as yummy as the night before! Mum and Dad told me they'd been having an interesting time trying to work out what they were about to eat armed with only my dictionary. haha. When we got back to the room I hit my bed and went to sleep so not much else to report from me on this night!

On the 18th we woke up and ate breakfast then packed our bags. We were picked up by a rotary member from my club, Koga-san, who was driving us to Kumamoto. We were going by Mt. Aso, a large active volcano and seeing a few sites before heading to kumamoto however. I still wasn't feeling too crash hot but I didn't want to miss out on anything! We headed past a place that I can't remember the name of. It had very crystal clear water and it was really pretty. You could stand in the water down at the bottom of some steps so Dad went and tried it out. It was really cold! Mum claimed to have seen something interesting so she pointed and told me to look and when I did she promptly poured some freezing cold water down my back. Gah!!! Koga-san caught it on camera. It was really, really, cold.

Koga-san asked if we drank milk, so I asked and we all said yes. So we stopped for milk along the way! The aso region is known for it's milk apparently. It was certainly different stopping in the middle of no where just to drink milk! We stopped at a cafe restaurant in front of Aso farmland for lunch. Koga-san's friends actually own the place so we didn't have to pay for our lunch at all. After we headed up to an outlook from on of the 5 peaks of Aso. I'd been there with my first host family, the Narikiyo's so I was really surprised to see the same place all very much green where it had been very much brown!!! Mum and Dad spoke to 2 girls who had been to America to study and were now back in Japan. One of them commented on my awesome t-shirt I bought in Kyoto. We headed to another lookout nearby before heading to Aso volcanic crater. Mum and Dad went up on the ropeway but I wasn't feeling so good so I stuck to staying in the car.

Afterwards we headed to the really big suspension bridge which is somewhere along the way from Yufuin to Aso. Dad being Dad did not want to cross so I stayed with him (as I'd already walked it) and Mum and Koga-san walked across and back. Then it was finally off to Kumamoto city! We visited a place I believe was called Suzenji. It was a traditional style garden called Izumi Shrine or something of the sort and we could feed the pidgeons... I mean the koi! I was literally attacked by these birds when I was trying to feed the fish and one would just not leave me alone. He got very attached!

me and the pidgeon

trying to feed the fish

We drank cold green tea then were dropped off at our hotel by Koga-san. We thanked him for a very enjoyable day then checked in. A nice guy with a very Australian accent helped us to our room. He mentioned he'd lived in Darwin for a while. Web hit the nearby shopping arcade in search of a restaurant for dinner. Then we retreated for the night in order to get some rest for our busy day the next day.

The next day we headed out early to visit Kumamoto Castle and the samurai warrior abode right next to it. I must say, castles sure are impressive no matter how many times you see them!

in front of the castle

After Kumamoto we headed to the Rotary Meeting at the Omuta Garden Hotel. We checked ourselves into our rooms first and then joined in with the meeting. I gave a short speech about what we'd been up to and what we'd thought about our trip so far and thanked everyone. Mum and Dad got a nice gift from Kawano-san. All in all quite pleasant.

at the meeting

After the meeting we were taken to Yanagawa where Nagamatsu-san, Koga-san, Mum, Dad and I all went on a kawakudari (canal boat ride). It was quite pleasant and not too hot out on the water. Our boatman was really friendly and sang us many traditional songs.

Our Boatman

When we got back from Yanagawa we took a long nap before dinner. I felt too sick to go out to eat anything so Mum and Dad went in search of a restaurant in the hotel to eat at. Apparently they had a very interesting meal! Aren't language difficulties fun?

I felt a lot better when I woke up the next day. We were taking the train to Fukuoka to check into our last hotel of our trip the JAL Resort Sea Hawk Hotel. The hotel was very swish. Probably why we were only staying there one night! I took my parents to see Canal City (because it is a very interesting shopping center place of sorts).

Canal City.

interesting architecture

We ate okonomiyaki for lunch. Unfortunately not the best I've had which is a shame because I'd really have liked if Mum and Dad had tried good okonomiyaki! We walked around and did some brief shopping, by this point pretty much shopped out. We visited the Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome and decided for dinner we'd go to the Hard Rock Cafe.

at dinner

We ordered dessert, myself and mum included (despite wanting to lose weight). Dad ordered this monstrosity of a sundae. It was ridiculously large but he happily went away eating it all while Mum and I could barely finish our smaller desserts! (In all fairness I think this is because ours were much, much sweeter!!!!)

what you think I can't eat it? just watch me!

Then it was back to the hotel for some R&R to rest up for the big departure.

We went off to airport nice and early in the morning. We were met by Koga-san, Nagamatsu-san, his wife Yuuko and Kawano-san. It had been a fun two weeks. Undoubtably busy but we did and saw a lot which is good.

Mum and Dad

Everyone

Koga-san and Dad

Myself and Mum

After our last big photo op together it was time to check in and for them to leave. We hugged and said our goodbyes and waved as they disappeared through the gates.

and they were gone!

I can say while we had a lot of fun they probably not coming back to Japan for a long time! So that brings you up to speed to...July 21st!

This is so long so I apologise!!!
I'll try and get the next lot up as soon as I can!

till next time!
-m

021; and you're slowly catching up

2007-08-05T07:48:00.001+09:00

If you haven't noticed already I and my mother have been uploading a lot of photos to the photo site so go check it out when you have some free time! The link is on the left. (: I actually went right back to the beginning and started uploading from there all the ones I'd missed. I still have a lot to go though so keep your eyes peeled for more updates to come!

So picking up from where I left off, Tuesday June 19th. When I got to school there was a note in my locker from Kileen, Ohan and Morgan. It asked to keep in touch and they left me their emails. It was a nice start to my day. Basically this whole week was to be dedicated to studying for the mid-term exams next week. I thought I would be taking at least a couple of the exams but it turns out I wasn't. I was pretty disappointed as I was looking forward to taking them and seeing how well or terribly I went!

June 20th and 21st I can't remember anything special about so we'll just skip them shall we?

On June 22nd I went to school as per normal but after school I rushed home because I had to hurry and catch the train to Tenjin as I was going to Ian's place for his farewell party. It was on the Friday and Saturday as he was leaving early Sunday. It took me forever to get to his place (as I have to catch a train to Tenjin then from Tenjin I catch the subway to Hakata station, where I have to catch a train to Nogata station. From Nogata I then catch another train to Kanada and all up it takes about 3 hours! YIKES! It costs quite a fair amount too!) but when I finally got there it was great to see everyone again. Having been to Ian's host family's house several times I'd become quite good friends with his host mum and sister! It was nice seeing Erica and everyone again! There was the next exchange student that they were hosting already staying with them as well. He was French-Canadian and he said his name was Gion. He was a bit of an odd ball I must say! We stayed up watching movies and the Chaser's war on everything (even though the others couldn't really follow what was going on!) and then the next day we said our goodbyes and left Ian to pack. I headed back to Tenjin where I did a little bit of shopping but as per usual I didn't really end up buying anything.

On Sunday June 24th my host mum took me to the Youme Town in Kumamoto, which is actually called City Mall Youme Town. Youme Town is the biggest shopping center/mall in Omuta. There's several of them in different cities and I guess they're similar to Westfield shopping centers back in Perth. It was great fun! It's interesting to see how the Youme town of Kumamoto differs from the one in Omuta! While I was looking at electronic dictionaries I was followed around by someone in a Naruto outfit which was definitely different. They kept waving at me and so in the end I took a photo with them.

Naruto and I

On the 25th exams started for everyone. Koga-sensei asked me what I did last time exams were on, which was go to the library for half a day then I could leave at 12. So that is what I got to do! Basically I spent the entire week in the library either studying or watching things on the computer so my week wasn't terribly interesting.

After school on the 26th my host family and I, host grandmother included, all went out to a Ryoutei for dinner. My host mum had asked me if I'd ever been to one before and I said I hadn't but when we got there much to my surprise I recognised the place! It's where my first host family went out to lunch for their engagement ceremony. Basically a Ryoutei is an exclusive Japanese restaurant. The waitresses all wear kimonos and you sit in tatami mat rooms. You are served a 10 course meal and there is always sake. The kids were served a different meal to the adults so theirs came first. One by one the dishes came and went. So much food!!! The waitresses seemed to know my host family so obviously they'd come quite a lot in the past but as the waitresses kept commenting on how much the kids had grown I assumed they hadn't been in a while. Everyone joked and a lot of beer and sake were drunk. My host grandmother told me that her husband used to joke when he was drinking sake that he didn't need any rice with his meal as he'd already had his fill for the day. It was quite amusing. The Chi-mama and O-mama came out and sat with us towards the end. It was explained to me that they were basically the important people and I was to treat them with a lot of respect. When the O-mama went to speak I realised she was speaking in Kansai-ben (the dialect from the Kansai region) I was so surprised. I didn't understand a lot of what she said as a result but she seemed really nice. I actually recognised them from the first time I was there so I asked them if they remembered me. It took them a while but soon enough it seemed to click! She taught me the proper way to drink sake and the manners that follow. It was a lot of fun! Eventually everyone had had enough to drink and eat so we made our way home. Everyone piled into a taxi but my host grandmother and I decided we'd walk back after that meal!

On June 28th there was a rotary end of year party. My host mother, father and I all went along to it. When I arrived I was greeted by a wife of the another rotary member who hadn't seen me since the flower viewing. She was so surprised to see me out of my school uniform. She commented on the fact that because it's too big for me she thought I was rather large as well as tall. Oh no!!! We were shown to our seats where we left our stuff so that we could go and greet people. After everyone arrived we headed back and sat down. I was next to an exchange student from China who has been in Japan for 7 years, studying at university. I think my counsellor sponsors him or something along those lines as he was there through him. We sat through many speeches from the previous president and several other people and then I had to give a speech of my own. I think I'm getting quite used to giving them now. It is still strange standing up in front of all those people and giving the speech in a language you only sort of understand yourself! It's really great when you can crack jokes and people laugh though! It leaves you with a real sense of accomplishment. I spoke about how half a year was over for me and the differences of what I expected I'd have done by now and what I had accomplished. I also talked about what I thought it might be like before I came as opposed to what I had experienced. I also said how I'd be moving host familys on the 1st and thanked my host mum and dad for the last 3 months and told them I'd never forget it. My host mum actually started crying a little.

my host mum and I (she's holding my speech!)

Once I was finished and so was everyone else, dinner was served! And boy what a large feast it was! Though I have to hand it to the Japanese. They really do go all out with their presentation of food!

first course

second course. Yes you eat the gold too! There is some really old story about a man who was sick and supposedly eating gold helped him get better

Also you're never a glass half empty...

what to choose! haha

It's customary that someone else pours your drink for you.

an example of pouring each others drinks

After the fifth course the previous members who were the president and so on went up on stage and handed over their titles and sashes to their succesors. It was actually quite amusing as some did little jigs on stage and told jokes! The previous president and so on received a special pin and commemorative plaque stating their reign in that position.

giving a speech

and presidency is handed over

Then after that was over a couple more courses came and went and then came dessert! It arrived in the form of a giant chocolate dome. Inside was cheesecake, a little fruit and whipped cream. I stared at it quite a while because I'd never seen anything like it before. I also had no clue how to eat it or whether I'd be able to down the whole thing! The chef came around and poured a hot coconut-y sauce with small tapioca balls over the top and melted the chocolate so that you could eat it.

before sauce

after

I didn't finish... Someone at that point came up to me with their dessert and tried to switch my plate for his. He insisted I should eat his! I think he'd had a little bit more to drink than he realised! After all your glass is always full! When dessert was finished there was a massive rock paper scissors competition to win some prizes. I made it to the 3rd last round!

everyone trying their luck

rotary is serious business!

Once that was over and the prizes had been handed out it was photo time for everyone apparently.

this lady insisted I have a photo taken with her. We actually had about 5 taken!

Yamada-san, My host mum, Koga-san, Nagaoka-san (my counsellor), his wife, myself and Ryuu

I got given flowers!

Eventually the night ended and I got to go home. Though festivities were still not finished for the blokes as they all headed off to drink for the rest of the night!

Friday I went to school as per usual. I asked someone why our school doesn't have a pool and they told me this is why

reason

I was also told it's because I'm at a public school not a private school but I don't know if that's true or not. I do know however my school is weird and offers interesting subjects. Also it's very modern and revolutionary as I can choose what subjects I want to take. Not many schools in Japan let you do that. It made me appreciate school back home just a little bit more. I got home (early as exams were still on) and my host mum took me shopping as I was going to make dinner as it would be my final dinner with this family! I had planned to make pasta provencale and this yummy looking fruit dessert but when I went shopping I discovered I couldn't get a lot of the ingredients. In fact basically all of them except the pasta! So I had a big think about what I'd put in instead and went with an improvised recipe. It turned out pretty good actually! I had to make the sauce and everything but in the end it tasted quite nice if I do say so myself. I count it as a success as the kids wanted seconds and Chiaki ate up everything even though she hates tomatos and there were a lot of them in there!

On Saturday I got up nice and early as Erica and I had decided that since the weather had been nice all week we'd go to the beach before the final orientation. Unfortunately the weather forecast didn't look so good for us but luckily it didn't rain! It was the first time I'd been able to go swimming at a beach in Japan. The water was the colour of the swan river. And it was inclosed basically and there were definitely no waves! The sand wasn't so great either but I was just happy to be at a beach swimming, for the first time since I'd come to Japan! The water was delightfully cold and we had a blast. We were going to get fish and chips from the Hardrock Cafe and have brunch at the beach but we ran out of time so we grabbed some indian from a restaurant in Tenjin where we were meeting up with Nik. The next task was to find a way to get to Orientation! The site was different from usual so we decided we'd find a taxi to take us to the place but we had a bit of trouble trying to get one!!!! After many attempts and failures finally we managed to catch a taxi but he had no idea where the building was that we had to get to! Oh no! Luckily this is Japan so he had a navi- navigational system in his taxi and he rung up someone and asked them to send the directions through it. Phew! Crises averted! When we got there we met up with Marvin and Charlie. Steve hadn't arrived yet and no one knew where he was. We had our last Japanese lesson with Yoko-sensei and we chatted and had a blast. Marvin, charlie and Nik practiced their final speeches but there was still no sign of Steve! Turns out he went to school (even though he wasn't meant to) and then when he finally got to Tenjin he went to the wrong place. He ended up turning up just before we had to make our way to the next room for speeches and presentations and so forth. We headed next door where many rotary members from all different clubs were assembled. I saw my new president (who is also known to me as camera-man) but he was the only member from my club. We were taken to the front to sit and Nik, Charlie, Marvin and Steve were called forward. They were each given certificates and a present from rotary, a special fan. It's the same fan that Ploy and Ally received at the weekend.

at the front

Charlie with his fan

Then it was speech time. Each of them gave their farewell speech

marvin

charlie

nik

steve

Afterwards Erica and I were called forward to say a few words to them, in Japanese. Erica spoke for the two of us haha! Then it was time to move the desks and bring in the food! And of course, take lots and lots of photos!

oh my god it's pizza fish!

everyone, some rotexes and Yoko-sensei!

the three tallies

signing charlie and Marvin's books

Some of the rotexes also presented us each with a small handmade gift. It was a small ball made out of felt that had a map of japan on it and a loveheart and our names on the back!

receiving our gifts

charlie with his

Once it was all over and we'd helped finishing cleaning up the place we all headed out to kareoke together. Us inbounds, the outbounds yet to leave and Shizuka. We sang and sang and laughed at the slightly suss video clips and had a lot of fun. We tried to think of as many nostalgic songs as we could that we already knew all the words too. It was great fun!

marvin and ayaka, ayami and kan-chan

charlie and marvin

Finally it was time to head home. Marvin and I caught the train together and we spent the whole time talking. Turns out we liked a lot of the same bands which I had no idea. I hadn't really spoken to Marvin much as he doesn't speak English and I didn't speak Japanese or German well enough so we couldn't really communicate. It was kind of sad that we got to know each other on the last orientation but that's just the way it goes I guess!

July 1st I woke up nice and tired as I was moving house! I changed host familys! I'd been packing all week and I was meant to move on the 30th actually but obviously that wasn't going to be easy to do. My host Grandmother came up to my room and lured me downstairs with a lie that I had a phonecall. When I got down there she gave me a big hug and a present and said to come back anytime. It was really sweet of her! My host mum made me a special traditional breakfast for my final breakfast with them and set the table up with nice kitchenware. I headed back up to my room to discover the same whiteboard that was decorated wtih welcome emily when I came to be in my room. This time it said "see you again Emily" "Emily come again soon!" A couple of giggles later my host sisters emerged and they gave me a big hug. Then it time to pack the car and head out to my next house! The moment I arrived at my new house I was greeted and welcomed in. I lugged all my stuff upstairs to my new room where I was told to unpack. My new host sister Aya was sent up to help me but she ended up just sitting on my bed looking at my stuff as I went through and decided what would go where. When I eventually finished I headed downstairs where I was asked what I wanted to do. Turns out there's a pool really close to this house and it only costs 100 yen to go swimming so I knew exactly where I was headed!!!! It's great. This pool you can swim everyday and you can go between 9-12, 1-5 or 6-9 and it only costs you 100 yen! Aya and my new host dad and I headed down there where we swam for 2 and a half hours till it was eventually time up and we had to go home. When I got home we were taken straight back out again to go shopping for what I wanted to eat. I was handed a basket and told whatever I wanted for breakfast and so on to just put it in. I ended up buying milk, yoghurt, lots of fruit and some cereal. They kept telling me that I could buy whatever sweets I wanted too but I declined and told them I wanted to lose weight. Afterwards they asked me what I wanted for dinner and what foods I would and wouldn't eat. There's only two things I don't eat over here. Natto and cow intestines. I've tried both and I don't care to ever have them again! Apparently I'm rather difficult because I eat practically anything because then we can't choose where to eat! We ended up having dinner at an Okonomiyaki restaurant nearby the house. It was delicious! Afterwards my new host father and I walked home together as he remembered I wanted to lose weight. When I got home I headed to bed for an early night as I had had a big weekend and with school tomorrow I was really tired!

On Monday I couldn't walk to school as it was pouring with rain so my host mum drove me and showed me the way I would walk to school. When I got there I found out all my classes for the week would be getting exams back and going through them so all and all this week wasn't going to be terribly interesting for me. I was sad though because I had my last Oral Communications lesson with Melissa as I wouldn't be there next week for her last lesson. After school I headed to karate where I was told we were going to train in the multi-purpose hall from now on. When I got to the multi-purpose hall there were 7 first year girls waiting around who were apparently new members of the club. Also there was a new teacher! He had come in from somewhere else and apparently will be teaching us for the next couple of months. My old teacher however is still helping out. He showed us the things we will learn and got us to try and do te splits. He wished us good luck in our practice and then I had to race off as my new host mum was picking me up to drop Aya and I off at her piano lesson. The entire lesson Aya never once actually played the piano but the teacher managed to get me behind it to play some duets with her. I got some good sightreading practice in! After dinner my new host dad and I went for a walk together. About half way through our walk it started pouring with rain! We got soaked from head to toe but it wasn't cold so it actually felt kind of nice. A lady actually came out of her home and offered us an umbrella but we declined and thanked her for her kindness. People over here sure are considerate!

On Tuesday I woke up early as my new host dad and I were going to go for a walk before school as he had work that night but it was raining so we couldn't go in the end. It kept pouring with rain when it was time to go to school so I couldn't walk. My host mum drove me and I spent the day watching people get exams back and going through them. All in all not a lot to report.

I finally walked to and from school on Wednesday and I discovered it takes about 30 minutes. I can't catch a train as my current house is no where near any train lines. More exams were given back but in Sports II we got to play some games of volleyball which was good fun. After school I walked home and then visited Aya's mini-basketball training. Everyone kept commenting on how tall I am and the coach got me in at the end to play games against the kids. He made teams like him, myself and the assistant coach against 10 kids. It was fun. After it finished everyone asked me to come back again and play with them sometime.

On the 5th I walked to and from school and this time when I got home I had a new surprise. My host family's other son Kousuke had come home for the holidays. He recently had graduated from highschool and went off to university and was back for the holidays. I met him earlier on in the year when he was still in highschool so it was a bit of a shock seeing him again because he'd changed a lot!

Friday I wasn't feeling so crash hot and I think I'd caught Melissa's cold. My host mum suggested I should sleep for half the day then go to school for the last two periods as I had to be up and about for the Rotary beginning of year party that night. So that's what I did. When I got home I slept for a bit more till it was time for me to leave for the party. When I got there I discovered that this was one big joint occasion with 3 other clubs from nearby, Arao, Omuta south and Omuta. The wives of the members didn't come this time so I was in a room full of men up until all the hostesses arrived! We sat through a lot of speeches and I had a lot of people come up and ask me where I was from and offering to fill my glass with beer till they discovered I am 17. We sat and ate and mingled with the members from other clubs and eventually I could go home.

On Saturday I slept in and felt a lot better. Kousuke decided he wanted to hire out dvds so he took me for a bike ride to the video store and back. I didn't feel so crash hot after that so it was back to sleeping. My host mum said when I was better I could go swimming every day. She asked me if I was up to going anywhere but decided I should sleep instead after she took my temperature.

On Sunday my host family decided to take me to the Karuta (playing card) museum and to go shopping at Youme Town. Basically the history of playing cards in Japan is said to have begun in Miike (a district/suburb of present-day Omuta) at the end of the sixteenth century. So basically the museum was full of old playing cards from all over the world.

interesting display of manequins playing cards

After we had enough on wandering around looking at the cards we headed to youme town for lunch and a bit of shopping. My host dad bought me a hat and shoes that were on sale and my host mum kept saying that I looked good in anything and that lots of colours suit me. Aya bought herself some sandals and eventually we'd had enough and went home. I went to bed early that night in hopes that I might be able to fall asleep but I was far too excited to do so. I had an early start the next day to get to Fukuoka but even so I couldn't sleep as on the 9th I was going to see my parents again!

and that's where I'll end this blog for now
till next time!

-m

020; the 6th to the 18th in a nutshell

2007-07-23T15:52:00.000+09:00

Well, it’s been a while! I’m well over a month behind! Since Ally left and took her laptop with her I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and type out a blog. I did have a final blog typed up to post before I returned her laptop but unfortunately for me her laptop blue screened on me and I lost it. But anyway gosh where to start!! I've just finished travelling around Japan with my parents for two weeks so I have a lot to catch up on before then. But fear not! I'll be doing it in installments because it will be way too much if I post it all at once!!! I also went back and commented on the comments people left me before which I have been meaning to do for a long time so yay for productivity!

Ok, Wednesday June 6th, I spent the day watching Sports Day practice. All classes were cancelled of course for this practice to take place. The American exchange students were all out and about for the day being busy so I just entertained myself by studying and reading books all day. All in all not very eventful.

Thursday was a much better day event wise. The American exchange students, Koga sensei and I all went to Yanagawa for the day! We hopped on the train in the morning and when we arrived we walked our way down to where the boats are kept. The walk took about 15 minutes and when we got there there was a bunch of Japanese tourists waiting around to ride the boats also. It didn’t take very long for us to get a boat so we all popped off our shoes and hopped in. Our tour guide was a funny guy, not that the American kiddos understood anything he was saying which was a shame. Koga sensei translated a lot of what he said but more often than not he simplified it a lot. Our tour guide explained all about Kawakudari (canal boat sailing) and how many tourists come by to enjoy seeing the landscape of the town from the canals. It’s certainly a lot different to just walking around and viewing it! Koga sensei tried to explain it by comparing it to a minature Vienna in Japan. Over the approximately 70 minute trip our boatman told us all about the history of Yanagawa and interesting facts about the houses and things we saw on the way. He also sang us traditional songs that originated from Yanagawa which was awesome (especially because he had a pretty decent voice!!). Along the way there were a lot of bridges we went under and one of them I had to actually duck so I wouldn’t hit my head because they were pretty low. I asked what the boatmen did when the tide was high and he replied “we run and jump onto the road and run across then hop back in the boat!” all while smiling. Something I definitely want to see!!! I wonder what they do if they’re too slow?

a fellow boatman

some scenery

and some more

and more

an example of going under a bridge

When we arrived at our destination we were greeted by my school principal who took us to where we were going to eat lunch. All week since I’d told my host mum that I’d be going to Yanagawa on Thursday she’d been saying “Are you going to eat unagi(eel)? I bet you’ll eat it! It’s the specialty!” Surely enough when we got in the restaurant and were served our food it was “Unagi no Seiro-mushi” (eel and rice steemed with a salty-sweet sauce made of sugar and soy sauce topped with finely cut omlette). It tasted great! It was also wonderful to be inside as it was quite hot outside and despite the restaurant being old and that we were sitting on tatami mats there was air con!

When we’d finished we walked over to the former residence of the Toshima family around the corner. I was told that it is used as a teahouse now. There wasn’t really much there to talk about. After that we headed over to the Ohana Seiyokan (the western style building) which is a museum for historical materials now. Each room had a lot of different things in it. My favourite was one that had a whole row of helmets lining the wall above the doors to the outside garden.

the helmets

The garden in the middle of the Ohana was very pretty. Apparently it is a minature version of the garden of Matsushima in Sendai. There is something like 280 pine trees over 200 years old, 1000 stones, and 14 stone lanterns. There’s a huge stone placed in front of the main hall which used to be the base of the old castle tower.

a bit of the garden

Next up we headed to the Yanagawa municipal folk museum. Which had a variety of historical folk materials from Yanagawa aswell as several artifacts related to the poet Hakushu Kitahara. There was also a lot of armor and other neat stuff.

Gusoku Armor of Mogamidoomaru type, laced with purple thread

sword guards

After we were done wandering around the museum we took a quick look at the omiage (souvenirs) and then headed off for a walk to the train station. We stopped in at a place where you could rest up and relax your feet in water when it hit me that I knew the area and that my first host sister’s shop was just around the corner. I got Koga-sensei’s permission and dashed off with Killeen to go visit her. Needless to say she was very shocked!! We had a nice conversation which surprised her even more as I couldn’t say much when I was staying with her parents! She kept complimenting my Japanese and my uniform (even though its too big for me). I said my goodbyes and she told me to come visit whenever I’m in Yanagawa. After that we caught the train back to school and then I went home. Glad to get out of the sun and thoroughly pooped!

Friday was more Sports Day practice. Wan tried to get me out of it but Koga sensei insisted I should be there to practice with everyone (despite the fact that I wasn’t doing anything and everyone was practicing things I wasn’t in.) The blackboards were all covered in scrawls of team spirit, GO BLUE! GO RED! GO WHITE!

the graffiti

there were some highly inappropriate words scrawled across the board in very pretty writing. I think they had no clue what they were writing when they wrote it and what it means because it was very hard to explain it to them. I don’t think there’s really an equivalent word in Japanese, it’s too polite!

lining up

practicing the panel display

and again

and again

And that’s about it for Friday.
Saturday I got to school and got handed my blue bandana. I got herded into the lineup and marching and was quite shocked. Yes, I got to participate, despite never having practiced any of it!!! Thank goodness I’d been watching everyone run back and forth and do the same thing over and over for the past two weeks otherwise I would’ve looked pretty stupid out there with everyone watching. It’s one thing to be the only 6’1” blonde person running around down there (thus being stared at quite a bit anyway) but to be the only one down there and stuffing up would’ve been highly embarrassing!! After all the bowing, turning, singing and more bowing we all spread out and did the national warmup. The whole school doing this warmup at the same time is something else really. And this time around it was to some cheesy piano music which was really very strange for me! Once it was all over we bowed some more and then ran into our stands. I sat with my friends who were luckily in the same colour as me. Not all of us unfortunately, a couple were separated, but I was thankful to have at least a few people to talk to!

The events of the day were very strange. Relays weren’t your typical relays. Instead there were things like 4 man teams where the bottom three people were acting as the support to a man holding a giant flag. The men would run around the track whilst the guy on top must hold the flag in the right way. Let me tell you, they were very strict about this flag and the particular way it should be held! Other relays consisted of all sorts of bits and bobs, some three legged components, army crawling under nets, giant skipping rope competitions, the works! Very different from any sports day I had pictured! The most atheletic and normal events were probably the 100m dash and similar running events. Though the runners seemed more preoccupied with falling then running them. Seriously! Every race someone fell over spectacularly into the dirt. It happened in just about every event actually! At some point in time in the morning y one and only event came up. Massive tug-of-war. More than half the girls from my year were all pitted against each other. One massive team pulling the rope from one end, and another massive team on the other end. First up was against white, followed directly by red. We won both times against white but lost both times against red. White won both times against red and thus it was a complete tie! Soon after the teams began their performances and I had to leave as I had a Rotary Debriefing camp to go to!

I raced home at lunch and then hopped on a train to Hakata Station in Fukuoka where I met up with the other exchange students and some rotexes. Trevor had gone home the day before so unfortunately he couldn’t make this final get together. Ian, just being Ian, didn’t come. We piled into the minibus and off we went to Welsunpia Hotel, located somewhere in Fukuoka! It was near a beach much to my delight however I couldn’t take my shoes off and go swimming because I actually had a problem with my toe (which appeared since the car accident) and it was healing. The last visit to the doctor he bandaged it up and said it should be good in 2-3 days and made it so I could walk without a limp. While I was greatful it would’ve been nice to go swimming! We checked ourselves into our rooms and then headed downstairs where we were handed rotary t-shirts and told we were going to clean up the beach! This, although it doesn’t sound like fun, really was. Mainly because the things you find on a beach over here are absurd!

Erica with her prized shoe

the ink cartridge I found

I ran around with Chika and we collected as much junk as we could. There were so many different things and a whole lot of fireworks. So many so, that Chika and I made up a song about the fireworks (which got stuck in my head for the rest of the weekend). When we were done we were allowed free time to muck around on the beach. Marvin went swimming happily by himself while Nik, Aidan and Steve started wrestling each other.

Bring it on!

1…2…3….HE’S OUT!

The girls and I played around with a beach ball that sort of just appeared out of no where and took lots of photos.

our shadows

everyone get in!

We headed back to the hotel where we were told to grab some stuff and head down for dinner. Which there was way too much of and I could not possibly eat it all! Erica unfortunately had a headache so she headed back to the room early. After we’d eaten and talked enough for one meal it was time for us to take our J-tests! The current rotary exchange students were going home thus this test was basically to show them how much they’d learned and how far they’d come. For Erica and I, it was an official practice test to show us how far we’d come in half a year and to prep us for our final test in December! The test was made up of listening, kanji and general grammar and reading. For those who scored 400 or more out of 500 they got a level E which is the equivalent of level 3 proficiency. For 300 or more it was a level F, the equivalent of level 4 proficiency. And 299 or below you got a thankyou for participating. The test was ok and I was surprised by how much I actually knew. They were sent away to Tokyo to be marked by a computer and we wouldn’t get our results till our final orientation. After we’d finished it was time for a nice bath in the onsen! Which meant all the girls in at once! Yikes! The outbounds showing us the way we bathed then got dressed in our pjs and/or yukatas and headed back to the rooms. Erica, Ally, Nik, Aidan, Steve and I veged out in the guys room watching movies and talking. Rotary had bought snacks for us so we took them around to the other rooms to share with the other exchange students. Eventually as the night wore on we got tired and we all retreated back to our respective rooms to sleep, except Erica who’d already well and truly passed out in the guy’s room and was more than comfortable to remain there the night. Honestly she was sleeping so soundly I didn’t have the heart to wake her!

In the morning we were woken up super early and headed down for breakfast. After which was followed by Yoko-sensei explaining to us the answers she got from the J-test the night before. This gave me a rough indication of how well I went, which wasn’t so bad!! We packed up all our stuff then headed to the meeting room where we had a mini farewell service for the other exchangees who were leaving. It was mainly for Ally and Ploy as they were going home before the final orientation. They both gave a goodbye speech and were given these really neat fans from Rotary.

Ploy with her fan

After their goodbye speeches were over the rest of us got up and said goodbye to them. One by one, in Japanese! Then we all got together and took group shots.

Erica, Steve, Nik, Ploy, Marvin, Me, Ally and Charlie

Once it was over we headed back to our rooms for a quick cleanup then hopped on the bus and headed back to Fukuoka. Nik, Ally, Steve, Aidan and I headed to Tenjin together to hang out for the rest of the day. I don’t remember much past catching the bus and wondering around looking for a specific camera thing for Ally’s camera.

Monday was a day off because Saturday was a Sports day. My next host mother asked if I'd like to go be an assistant teacher for the day at her Primary School with Peter (as Peter was staying with them) so I decided Why not? It was certainly interesting!!! When we first got there the kids all ran up and stared and were obviously very fascinated by us. We were taken to meet some teachers and the principal then shown to our first classroom for the day. Year 1 class 1. The teacher introduced us then got us to introduce ourselves (in Japanese and English). Our teacher got all the kids to stand up and come up one by one and shake our hands and introduce themselves back but in English. So we had about 40 different kids come up and say "Hello. My name is .... Nice to me you". Some of the kids needed a bit of prompting to remember what to say though! They were pretty cute. Next up on the program was question time. We got all sorts of questions asked from "what's your favourite food?" to "what dinosaur is the best one?". There were some pretty amusing ones like "Is your hair gold because you eat gold things? If I eat gold things will my hair go like yours?". I had to laugh at that! Once the questions had run out we were made to form lines and hold hands to do a dance to the 1-7 song. Yes this song only goes to 7 for whatever reason. And the words are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7! Hard huh? Basically you walk 7 steps to the right then 7 to the l eft then stop 1, 2, 3 slapping your knees, 1, 2, 3 clapping your hands then 7 with slapping the hands of the person next to you. It was a really repetitive song. We also learnt the Hello how are you? song which goes:

Hello! Hello! Hello How are you?
I'm fine! I'm fine! I hope that you are too

Also another very repetitive song. It also had actions with it. Once we'd finished dancing and singing the period ended and we moved to the next class for the day, where I learnt that we'd be doing the same thing over and over! We gave introductions, the kids came up one by one, we answered questions, we danced and we sang. This continued for all the classes in first year (there's 7). All I can say is I got pretty darn good at those songs and those actions!

We ate lunch with the kids at their very small tables then it was off to my next host mum's class. She teaches the mentally disabled kids so thankfully we had a whole new class program to go by. We did some calligraphy and played some games where we read out the names of animals in English and the kids had to pick up the correct corresponding card. When the period ended we said our goodbyes and were taken upstairs to the 4th floor where a 5th grade class was watching a video. The came up one by one and handed us a printed out card with their names on it and introduced themselves. Once they were done and Peter and I had a lot of cards we played a game where everyone was to introduce themselves to another person in English and shake hands. Once you'd introduced yourself to 10 different people you sat down. The game took a surprisingly long time for some people. Peter had trouble with some girls he tried to shake hands with because they were a bit too intimidated by him! When the period ended we said our goodbye and where taken to a waiting room. We had to wait till school was over and clubs so that my next host mum could take us home. I got to see my next house and meet Aya (Ryosuke's little sister who's 11) and my next host Dad again. I got quizzed on what I do and don't eat and what I like to do and so on but it didn't last long as it was time for me to head back home.

Tuesday I had a normal day of school. The Americans came with me to my classes and so we headed off to Pet Doubutsu, in which they kept asking me why it was a subject! Pottery and Bread making however, they didn't go to as they had prior engagements. In Breadmaking however we didn't make bread, we made udon! YUM! We made the noodles from scratch and my teacher made the soup and the topping for it. I asked if it was ok for me not to eat it there and take it home so I got to put mine in tupperwear containers. He gave me extra for my host family too! After school I had karate practice as on Wednesday we were showing the Americans what we do in the Karate/Aikidou club. Two girls turned up who had never come before which surprised me greatly!! One of them, Kanako-chan, I recognised from my gardnening class. She's really nice so I was quite happy! We were taught a whole pile of new moves and patterns to practice which were too much for us to remember!

On Wednesday I only had periods 1 and 2 and a bit of 3. I took the exchange students to art where they were asked to draw with pencil the sculptures that we'd been drawing the past several weeks. They might've started drawing them but soon their papers turned into doodles of all sorts. It was certainly interesting to see their reactions when the teacher asked to have them!! We headed over to sports II where I participated in some of the beginning stuff but then had to leave as the Americans and I were going to the Mitsuminato club with the principal of the school for lunch. When the town was mining coal apparently the house was used as a place for guests to stay. Now that the town no longer mines coal, no one stays there anymore but you can still dine there.

The Mitsuiminato club

the funny tree out the front

After lunch and returning back to school I headed over to the judo room where we were preparing to put on our display for the Americans. My Karate sensei had ordered me a gi to wear so I got to wear it for the first time! It's too big though haha. I had to roll up the sleeves and the pants so it fits. It's also really hot to wear as I have to wear a t-shirt underneath it. ick! We ran through what we'd learnt on Tuesday and practiced our movements and bou (staff) patterns. Then finally they turned up and so it began. First up my teacher demonstrated aikidou with some of the students. It's great when he hits the ground because when he sticks his arm out it makes a really loud BANG and although it sounds painful, it isn't for him. Once that was over he got us to stand up and practice our punches and kicks and our different movements. Then came the bous which I really like. All in all it's lots of fun!

Thursday and Friday not much happened so they are unimportant!

When I woke up on Saturday morning my host parents had a surprise for me. We were going to spend the night at Sekia Hills! We packed up our stuff and headed out! We checked ourselves in and to my surprise my host father was staying in the same room as my host sisters and my host mum and I got a room to ourselves! Awesome! We made our way downstairs and over to the Amusement complex nearby where we got in a few games of bowling. My host father vs me and my host sisters vs themselves (they had bumper rails). It's certainly been a while since I've been bowling. I think I need a bit of practice! haha! I got a few strikes in a row which was pretty spiffy for me. After the games we were allowed to wander around the rest of the complex and check out all the other sports facilities around. I went on some nifty exercise bikes that had screens in front of you with a simulation. They also told you what your pulse was, how fast you were going, how long you'd been riding and how many calories you'd burnt! Next up I hit the massage chairs. :D

Once we were all done it was time to head back over to the hotel to check out the restaurant. I was told by my host mum that my host sister Ayaka really likes the food there and that its buffet style. We turned up too early so it wasn't open yet so we took a quick look around the Studio Ghibli store (which I went to when I was at the hotel with my first host family). My host mum bought me a totoro pencil case and it came with a kiki's delivery service ruler and my neighbour totoro pen. When we went back we were still a bit early so my host Dad took us into the bar next to the restaurant as it was happy hour and bought a guiness for himself and one for my host mum and I. When the restaurant finally did open the buffet was MASSIVE. There was Japanese food, Italian food, Chinese and some Korean. Yum yum! I ate quite a bit but definitely no where near as much as my host family!! There was a chocolate fountain in the dessert section and pieces of fruit and marshmallows you could dip into it. I lost count of how many times my host sister's went back to it!!!

After all being fully stuffed we headed back upstairs where I had a shower in the room over the onsen and was ready to go to sleep.

When I woke up on Sunday I remembered that it was Father's Day in Japan. I had a mild panic attack that it might be Father's Day in Australia too but I was pretty sure that it wasn't until September! We ate breakfast and then got our stuff and checked out for the day. Pretty much as soon as I'd gotten home I was heading out again as I was going to Tenjin to meet up with Ally one last time before she went home on Monday and so that I could return things to her and vice versa. When I arrived I got to meet her younger brother Alex, and her older brother and her Dad. We weren't sure what exactly to do so we went off to kareoke! At first no one wanted to sing but then Ally's dad had a stab at it and her older brother and soon everyone was having a great time. We went shopping for presents that Ally could hand out when she got back and I can definitely say that is one thing I am not looking forward to. I ended up carting around a bag of stuff for her and it was heavy!! I don't know how I'll get all my stuff back but I'll manage somehow! We ate lunch at a restaurant that Nik and Ally and I had been to before but then time was running out for me. I'd promised I'd get back to Omuta by 6.30 to go to the going away party that my school was holding for the Americans. I said my goodbyes and caught the train back to Omuta station where I had to walk to the building where this party was held. When I arrived I was greeted by the Americans very apreciatively! They also said it was strange because it was the first time they'd seen me out of school uniform haha! I got to meet Ruth, an American who is living over here and married to a Japanese man, who was hosting some of the kids. Her foster daughter wants to go on exchange to America so she was asking me all sorts of questions about exchange and what I thought would be the best time for her to go etc.

Basically the whole party was spent mixing with people and at one point we were handed out words to a song none of us knew and where asked to sing karaoke!! I wasn't included in this at first but then Ruth absolutely insisted I should too so I was shuffled to the front and asked to sing a song I didn't know along with everyone else. Afterwards Morgan, Ohan and Kileen thanked me for going up too and they said that they felt less embarassed if I was doing it with them. I honestly don't know how but oh well! Eventually the party wound down and I said my goodbyes to everyone, wished the Americans a safe trip and headed home pretty tired after a full day!

This is the last day I'll update about in this blog. I think this is more than long enough at the moment! Monday the 18th was a sad day because Ally was leaving! I got up early to catch a bus from the station to the airport as there was no train that would get me to the airport on time. When I arrived I was early and so no one else was there. I waited for a bit and the Nik showed up and Erica soon after. Ally and her brothers and her Dad came plus her host parents. Some people who I assumed were her host club turned up and took her phone from her (noo!!!) then Daniel came. Everyone was pretty sad and Ally cried a bit as she was leaving. We all said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch and with that she disappeared through the gate. :( After Ally left everyone else had to return to school. Erica walked with me to Canal city but then she had to go too. I decided to watch Pirates of the Carribean 3 seeing as I had nothing much else to do and no one to do it with. Afterwards I headed back to Omuta.

And that brings you up to June 18th! Sometime soon I shall have June 19th till July 8th up so look forward to it!

till next time!
-m

n.o.t.i.c.e

2007-06-03T01:53:00.000+09:00

we interrupt our regular postings to inform you all photos from previous posts have now been uploaded.

thankyou for your patience! :D

019; accidents and mishaps pt 2

2007-05-31T11:49:00.000+09:00

Wow. Well it’s definitely been an interesting week! Tuesday started off fairly normal. Ok I lie, Tuesday was a weird day all over. First up in Pet Doubutsu we watched something that was like a bad version of Power Rangers. As to why I’m still not sure. I think it’s because one of the episodes had a dog in it but I really wouldn’t know! Pottery was much the same I guess, normalcy, however we used a different clay, a softer one this time. Bread making we made roll pan again however Misa wasn’t there which made all the difference! After school I got ushered along to sports day preparation and funnily enough no one had told me I needed to bring my sports uniform and out door shoes so I couldn’t participate and got to spend the entire time watching. When I got home I decided I’d go for a bike ride. Now, this is for those of you who don’t know but when I was going home for dinner I was hit by a car. This shocked me greatly but luckily, almost a miracle I think, I came away with only a few scrapes and some nasty bruises! No broken bones thank god, and I didn’t hit my head which was definitely a relief as, in Japan, you don’t wear a helmet! The people in the car merely rolled down their window asked if I was ok, then drove off. I couldn’t believe it! Isn’t that a hit and run?!? Apparently that’s against the law and they’re supposed to take me to a hospital and pay for damages but I guess they freaked out because I’m foreign. My bike was a lot worse for wear and when I got back home after carrying it as it wouldn’t wheel properly my host mum must’ve called everyone under the sun! She kept telling me she was really surprised and shocked. No kidding! We patched me up, ate dinner, then made the trip to the hospital. I would’ve gone to my counselor’s hospital but he wasn’t in so I ended up going to the one that all the Omuta Kita Rotary members go to. When I got there, there were 3 members from my club there to greet me and to make sure I was ok. They were pretty worried but I kept trying to reassure them I was fine. They needed a doctor’s opinion before they’d stop worrying though! I was shown through to a doctor pretty much straight away and he asked me a bunch of questions about where it hurt and so on while two nurses patched me up properly. It was all over really quickly. I was surprised how fast we got in and out of the hospital. They gave me more pain medication than I’d ever need to take and a whole pile of bandages to change. I haven’t taken any of the pain medication because I felt I didn’t need to but apparently it doesn’t work on foreigners and they need to take double the amounts because it’s manufactured to suit the Japanese. Then I made the trip home and spent the next few hours telling people I was ok! An experience I wouldn’t mind not to repeat!

Wednesday I went to school. Rain, hail, shine, if I have a cold or if I’m hit by a car, nothing phases my host mum enough to let me stay home from school! I was bombarded by questions by Koga-sensei about what happened and I thought they’d never end! I managed to sneak away to art where we started sketching famous statues in charcoal. There are replicas of the heads of many different statues in the room and I started off with Venus before my teacher switched it to one I don’t recognize. By the looks of things we’ll be sketching them slowly for the next couple of weeks. I turned up to Sports II and had to explain to my teacher why I was all bandaged up. She wouldn’t let me participate, which is fair enough, so she made me sit out to one side and watch the whole time. She also made me write sentences about what was going on in the lesson. Japanese practice! After a while I ran out of things to write so I had to sit quietly and try and avoid being hit by misguided balls. I finally got a uniform for gardening so I could participate in green life! We were planting flowers though which is no different from what I’ve been doing in gardening which was a bit of a let down. Apparently we will do other things and it just so happened that that lesson we were meant to plant flowers. It was pretty humid which I’m definitely not used to! Ick! I don’t think I care for humidity much, but apparently it’s going to get much, much worse! After school I couldn’t participate in Sports Day preparation as I had to go back to hospital because Nagamatsu and some of the other members were still worried. I also visited Nagaoka-sensei, my counselor, for a check up with him as he was particularly worried too. He gave me some cream that smells pretty foul and said he was relieved I was ok. I didn’t mean to worry everyone!

On Thursday everything was pretty much as it always is. I didn’t have a rotary meeting so I had a full day of school. After my host family went to dinner at a yakiniku place in Kumamoto. It was sort of to celebrate Ha-chan’s birthday. Even my host grandmother came too! It was yummy! On Friday I got my results from the music test. 94%!! Everyone was so shocked it was amusing!!! We have a singing test coming up where we have to sing a song called Heiwa no Kane which literally means Peace Bells. I don’t particularly like the song very much but it’ll be interesting to see how I go! I didn’t go to preparation as I was told not to for the rest of the week so now I don’t know any of the dance or the panels but as I probably won’t be there for the very end I will miss out on it anyway. Still, it would’ve been fun to learn! After school Ayaka handed me a packet mix for something called strawberry bavaroire (sp?). I asked her where she got it from but she wouldn’t tell me. She pointed out it was low calorie and basically made out of just milk so I could eat it too. Haha. So being the good older sister I made it for everyone but we decided we would wait to eat it when Ally arrived!

I spent all morning Saturday clearing out and cleaning my room and switching the mats to summer mats. I also removed the kotatsu. Ally was coming to stay the weekend so I needed to create extra space to lay out a futon for her. Once I was finished cleaning I dashed off to the pool for some very much appreciated swimming. I can’t wait till I can go swimming back home again I can say that for sure! The old ladies at the pool didn’t mention my bruises and bandages which was great. They were super friendly, even more so than usual. A couple actually asked me to teach them how to swim properly! Fancy that. I’m in Japan giving free swimming lessons to old people!! There was a bunch of people I hadn’t seen before so I got to go through the whole “I come from Australia. I’m an exchange student” speech again and again. One of the ladies told me I was very pretty, beautiful and cute. I’m not sure where she was getting this from as after exercise I’m always red in the face but it was appreciated. Another insisted I could be Miss Universe which certainly made me laugh!!! Some of the old men started talking to me as well which was new as they’re usually the more hard working swimmers (ie: they spend more time swimming and less time walking back and forth down a lane talking!). I got home and had a shower and picked some Umeboshi (baby plums) that my host mum couldn’t reach. After she took myself and the kids and two of their friends to Youme town. The kids ran off to do purikura while we went shopping for food. We then stopped by the station and picked up Ally and then it was back to Youme town for some more purikura! We dropped Ayaka and Chiaki’s friends back home and then picked up Sue-chan from the station. She’s a student at Kyushu university from Korea. She’s married a Japanese man and just recently had a child. Her child, Shion-kun was so small and fat!!! I’m not exactly sure how my host family knows Sue-chan now that I think about it. When we got back there were people outside for the Kaishyaiin (Company) barbeque. We were introduced individually and then had to give a speech. Impromptu speeches, oh my! Then everyone dug in. Ally and I had a table fairly far away from everyone so we were pretty much left alone to just talk and occasionally get up and eat something which was nice! It’s great when you’re not being force fed and everyone’s insisting you should try all these strange foods. After some time my host mum took us inside with Sue-chan and the kids to make takoyaki (octopus balls). People came and went and before I knew it everyone had left. I set up Ally’s futon while she had a shower. After we discussed plans and wake up times for tomorrow and Ally suggested we make hotcakes and put chocolate in them for breakfast. Gee Ally I thought we were dieting!! Once everything was sorted we crashed in my room and watched house. I got her addicted to it! I’m sorry Ally!!! Eventually we decided it would be a bright idea to go to sleep and get some rest for a big day ahead tomorrow.

We woke up 7 as we were going to make these hotcakes but we both decided they could be put off for another 30 minutes and rolled back over for some much appreciated sleep. When we did eventually get up, we got dressed then headed downstairs and made these things. Ally has told me many times she cannot cook so she wasn’t going to help but seeing as it was her idea I got her to chop up the chocolate at least. Once the hotcakes were cooked and finished I got out the strawberry bavaroire (sp?) I had made earlier in the week and cut up some strawberries for that. I made myself and Ally yoghurt with bananas as we both decided we did not want to eat those hotcakes!! When breakfast was over and everything was cleaned up we grabbed our stuff and headed out. We went to Mitsui Greenland, the amusement park just over in the next prefecture. It was about 20 minutes away and my host mum had free passes so we didn’t have to pay to ride anything! My host father didn’t go and neither did my host grandmother so there was only the 6 of us. When we got there we were given our bands and treated as VIPs. It was awesome! We made arrangements to meet up again at 12:30 for lunch and then split up. Ally and I went off to ride as many things as we possibly could and it was so much fun!!! She screamed so much on the rides and was so scared. We went through this thing called the danger maze and she was clinging to my arm the whole time. Aww Ally!!!

Ally’s forced attempt to look scared not actually on a ride

It was really hot though! We ran around trying to squeeze all the fun looking rides in. Some of the rides however were DEFINITELY not suited for people with long legs! OUCH! We took heaps of silly pictures with the strange statues floating about and had a blast looking like idiots.

I choose you! Pikachu!

some strange power ranger imitation. Named the Mitsui Greenlanders

I don’t know why I did the bankai pose but hey!

In the end we both decided the last ride we went on, Nio, was the most fun. Instead of being on top sitting in a cart you were suspended below and your feet dangled and as you went around all the loops and went upside down and all around your legs swung all over the place. It was great!!! We met up for a quick lunch and then went to go ride a couple more rides before heading home. We both decided we wanted to ride Nio over and over but we couldn’t straight away because we were sure we’d throw up so we went on the ferris wheel to give our food time to settle. When we eventually went home we were well and truly exhausted! I had to pick up ingredients for dinner so we made a quick stop off by the local supermarket. I couldn’t get everything I needed (you can’t buy cooking sherry in Japan! ) so when it came to cooking dinner I had to improvise a little. It didn’t look so great and I wasn’t so sure about how it’d taste but apparently it tasted alright so all was well! Phew! Cooking for 8 people is a lot more than I’m used to! We then sent Ally back home on the train and my host parents went out to a meeting of some sort leaving me home to babysit the kids! Thank god we were all tired and so they weren’t a hassle at all.

Monday. Sports day preparations have officially taken over and screwed up my timetable! All periods were shortened to 40 minutes and instead of cutting out period 6, which would make sense, my day went homeroom, period 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, cleaning then lunch!!! After lunch was preparation. Everyone goes to the grounds and separates into their blocks. Then once they’ve all been addressed they split up and practice different things related to the performance. Unfortunately as I will probably not be participating in said performance I get to sit and watch everyone else run around in the heat getting ready. It looks like fun which is a shame but I’ll be able to participate in some races which is good. I was roped into competing in tug-of-war but I’m not sure if that’s still happening! I don’t blame them. I’d want me on the team too considering I’m basically double everyone else’s height! When I got home I discovered a new bike out the front. Well, not new, but you understand what I mean! I asked if I could go for a quick bike ride before dinner and I was given the all clear. I was worried I wouldn’t get to after my little accident but everything worked out in the end! 

Tuesday I had a bad day for Japanese. I found it really hard to understand anything which makes periods seem a lot longer than what they are! Because of the funny timetable in pottery we were given free time. The teacher asked us what we wanted to do and someone suggested we play a game called Fruits Basket (yes same one as in the manga Adrian!) but we didn’t end up playing. Instead we sat around and talked and set up mini obstacle courses in the room. The teacher had his bike (which might I add is a normal looking bike in my opinion. A mountain bike, not one of these silly Japanese ones!) in the room and so some of the boys rode around the course we set up. My teacher set them mini tasks, like ride as slow as you can from this line to that line and so on and so forth. It was a lot of fun! In bread making we made this funny plaited looking bread. I found it strange that the members at my table weren’t really sure how to plait considering I bet they all know how to plait their hair. Still, it felt a little strange plaiting dough but in the end it looks pretty cool! Preparations dragged on and when I finally got home I was glad to go for another bike ride. We ate dinner then my host sister’s happily exclaimed that Full House was on and all gathered around the tv. I was thinking, surely they can’t mean Full House but sure enough it was the same show! Just…dubbed over in Japanese. That was certainly interesting!

Wednesday the timetable changed to one I think that makes more sense. We have periods 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and not 6. In sketching we continued with our charcoal pieces. In sports II we continued our volleyball practice and green life I was allowed to read a book as we weren’t doing anything in particular due to only having one shortened period. Preparation was long but everyone’s slowly learning everything. It’s been pretty hot (well, humid) and it’s been sitting around 28 degrees so I feel sorry for everyone having to stand outside for so long. Also, Japanese sunscreen is really bad. It wouldn’t protect me at all and the Japanese put on the tiniest amount! I was so shocked. I’m glad I have my own good stuff but I accidentally left it in a bag hanging on my desk so hopefully it’ll be there tomorrow when I arrive in the morning!

Anyway I think that’s about it from me.
Till next time!
-m

018; the school's internet isn't so great...

2007-05-22T13:10:00.000+09:00

Update time! I don’t know if some of you noticed but I did get a few more of the pictures from the previous post working so there are a couple more up if you’d like to take a look! I think there:s something about the internet connection here which is preventing me from posting pictures. Again I can't get them all up but I'll come back and try again later in the week. Along with attempting to upload the rest from the previous post too!

Ok, from where I left off. On Monday the 7th it was my host sister, Haruna’s 7th birthday! I made sure I got home as quickly as I could so that I could help prepare dinner and whatnot. I was supposed to have aikidou but when I turned up I was told by one of the guys that it wasn’t on so I could go home. When I did get home my host mother had everything all under control. She’d bought a big sushi platter filled with all sorts of interesting sushi and was making the yummiest food that I have no idea what it was called!!! Apparently Ha-chan really likes it hence why my host mother was making it! I asked about a cake because I knew my host mother wouldn’t have made one and she showed me the hello kitty cake she’d ordered. Layered with whipped cream and NOT icing I might add! Pretty soon it was dinner time and so we set up a table on the tatami mats and dug into the dinner. Afterwards we went and got our presents for Ha-chan. Ayaka got her a paper set, Chiaki got her something similar, I gave her my biscuits which she started eating straight away and my host parents got her a toy crane game. Of course instantly they started arguing over who got to use it! At first they couldn’t work out how to use it so that was funny. It plays the most obnoxious music ever!!!! And it’s so loud! Afterwards my host grandmother brought out the special mangoes she’d bought for the occasion and my host mum cut up the cake. All in all a good day, although I might go a little loopy if I have to listen to much more of that crane game music!!

Tuesday I had to buy a Pet Doubutsu textbook. It cost 6000 yen!!! It’s absolutely filled with pretty colourful pictures of dogs. We got to learn how to clip a dogs fur and then we got to try it out on our teacher’s dogs which he brings to every lesson. That was very interesting! In Pottery my teacher went to sleep, after his cigarette of course. It was, uh, very informative? We were left to our own devices to come up with an object based around our practice. It could be like a bowl or cup it didn’t matter. I find him to be a highly strange teacher! In Bread making we finally made some bread! Jam pan (jam bread). My teacher brought in strawberry jam that he’d made himself so once the bread was finished I put some of the jam on the freshly baked bread and took it home for everyone to eat. They eagerly finished it off which is great because it means I’m not the one left to eat it!! After school I mailed my sister’s birthday present/mother’s mother’s day present and the lady at the post office was obviously new because she had NO IDEA what she was doing! She almost charged me double to send the package but luckily I managed to sort it out and didn’t have to pay so much. Phew!

I decided that I should wake up early before school and go for a run. I thought about the fact that I’m always really tired in the afternoon and based upon previous experience with training in the mornings I always found it better so up I got and went for a run. Afterwards I do my karate exercises and then wake up my host sisters. It’s a very neat arrangement! Apart from being a little sleepy! In art, my teacher explained to me that we were designing a pin badge/tie clip for a national competition. It had to have “’07” in it and a red feather with a gold outline. He also said that the winner has their badge/tie clip made and they receive $800. I think that would be very awesome if I won because then I could get one of the badges and stick it to my blazer! Not to mention how nice it would be to get $800!!! In sports II we’re still practicing passes. We got to practice spikes though as well and serves which was a welcome change. Green life I still don’t have a uniform so I got sent to the library for self study.

Thursday was Nan’s birthday (happy birthday!) and I had no school! I still have no idea why that was but instead of having school on Thursday we had a half day on Sunday! School on a Sunday! And mother’s day no less!!! I had to go to a rotary meeting but afterwards I headed off to Tenjin to meet up with Ally, Nik, Steve and Daniel (a Swedish exchange student with AFS who is currently going to the same school as Ally). The idea was that we studied but we had to try and organize a mobile for Daniel first which proved to be an attempt at futility. We tried to figure out a way he could get one but we need someone to sign the form and AFS doesn’t allow their students to get mobiles (which I think is daft because they’re very useful devices). We ended up getting the tiniest bit of study done before I had to head back home though the train trip provided a whole hour for me study some more!.

On the 11th I baked vanilla chocolate chip cupcakes because it was Ally and Nik’s birthdays on the 15th and 17th respectively. I made the cupcakes to take to Orientation on Saturday (the language course once a month in Tenjin, Fukuoka) to celebrate. They smelled really good in the oven and Ayaka begged me to teach her how to make them!! I managed to get my hands on some icing sugar so I made real icing to go with them and even though I followed how much the recipe told me, I had way too much icing left over! I don’t actually know what happened to it but I have a sneaking suspicion that my host sisters will know how it disappeared…

Saturday, my sister Amee’s birthday, I got up early then got on my train and headed to Tenjin. My host Dad and some members from my rotary club all came along too as they were headed to some function in ACROS Fukuoka. They thought that I would go with them but much to their disappointment I had to disappear off in the other direction. It was our last orientation like this as next month is the official debriefing camp. Trevor actually leaves around the time of the camp and can’t go which is sad. Yoko-sensei informed us that we have a J-test the first day of the debriefing camp. It’ll extremely interesting to see how well I do. I think it’s the Japanese proficiency test level 3 but I’m not so sure about that. Whatever it is, like I said, it’ll be interesting! I gave Nik and Ally their birthday cupcakes which everyone seemed to enjoy. Such a relief! Actually I've been bugged for the recipe several times now! haha!

Nik and his half eaten cupcake

After our lessons Ally, Nik and I went to pick up Daniel (the AFS exchange student) while Erica, Trevor, Ploy and Steve went to the café to have free drinks on Rotary. We were going to meet up after but Daniel took a lot longer to arrive then first expected because he missed the bus. It was raining by this point and we’d all forgotten umbrellas and were getting pretty wet. We went and did some purikura (print club booth photos) and then wandered around for a bit, none of us quite sure what to do. We ended up going to karaoke because Daniel hadn’t been. It was a lot of fun! As we were about to go into the elevator a bunch of Japanese girls walked out and they screamed UWAAAAH! when they saw us standing there. Nik doesn’t need a microphone to sing karaoke. He can just belt it out no problems!!! After singing till our hearts were content we ventured off in search of somewhere to eat. Neither Ally nor I were all too hungry but we decided we should eat anyway. We always have a problem of never knowing where to go to eat. It’s been suggested on several occasions that we should just make a list of all the restaurants in Tenjin/Fukuoka and just cross them off one by one as we eat there. Work our way down the list. Nik ended up recommending a place that had some of the yummiest food. I don’t know how to describe it exactly but it had rice on the bottom, a cheese sauce of some sort, then you picked out what you wanted and there is more cheese on top. Ally and I shared one with shrimp and pumpkin and it tasted awesome. It’s served really, REALLY hot though so you have to let it sit for a bit otherwise you burn your tongue! Or in Daniel’s case, his arm! Daniel got one that had a meat sauce on it which tasted pretty good too! By the time we’d finished and had a great conversation it was pretty late so I had to head back. After all I had school the next day! Nik and I said our goodbyes and headed off to the train.

Mother’s day! Early rise, I regretfully pulled on my uniform, ate breakfast then caught the train to school. In Recreation we didn’t actually do anything. The lesson consisted of us sitting in rows listening to the teacher but not taking notes. Afterwards, Koga-sensei told me my schedule had changed for the day and that I had double English. I couldn’t work out why but when period 4 came around parents started walking through classrooms. Much to my surprise my host mother came too! She stood behind me the entire lesson!! I however, don’t have an English textbook so I study Japanese in the period. My host mother told me after she couldn’t work out why I was doing something different! The school day finished early at 2 and my host mum took me to a ramen restaurant for lunch. Yum! After we went shopping for groceries and I bought what I needed to make dinner tonight. I decided I’d cook for my host mum and she wouldn’t have any hand in it at all considering it was mother’s day. I went for a bike ride/run when I first got home as the weather was so nice and when I got back I started cooking. I sent my host mum and the kids to the park so that I wouldn’t have them poking around the kitchen while I prepared! I made dessert first, dark chocolate mousse (my host mother adores dark chocolate ((and so do I!!))) and once it was finished I stuck it in the fridge to set. For the main course I made chicken kievs and Caesar salad. Working at Lenards for so long I know how to make some pretty good chicken I must say! When they got back it was dinner time and even my host grandmother, who normally goes out very frequently with her friends for meals, was eating with us. According to my host mum, she told all her friends that she was staying home tonight because she was so looking forward to my cooking! It went down a treat because I don’t think they’d ever really had something like it before. My host sister’s love garlic butter (which is one of the reasons why I chose kievs) and so, much to my delight, they finished off their plates. Afterwards I got out the mousse and cut up some strawberries to place on top and served dessert. Everyone said it was a great meal and my host mother asked me to cook every night! Aha!

Monday I had aikidou. My teacher handed me a staff and taught me some routines to practice. I was surprised because this was only my third lesson! He had three Bou on him, one which was heavy and two lighter ones. He let me take one of the lighter ones home so I can practice every day and the other one was left at school so I don’t have to cart the other two and from school (it’s certainly interesting carrying it on the train!). He said that at the end of the year he wants to give me a proper uniform and my own staff to take home to Australia which is nice of him. My host sisters seem to really enjoy watching me practice!

Tuesday, not much of interest happened. My pottery teacher spent more time of the lesson sleeping again, that or playing games on his phone. Bread making we made bread rolls and I got a jar of homemade strawberry jam to take home. After school I went for a bike ride and that was about it! Also it was Ally’s birthday!

Wednesday the terrible weather began. It’s been raining pretty much ever since, at least in the afternoons when I’m walking home!! I’ve been told that Japan’s rainy season is around June and I’m to expect it will rain at least half the day every day. I can’t picture that honestly.

Thursday was Nik’s birthday and I had to give a speech at my rotary meeting. After school I met up with Chika, her mother, Ian, Trevor, Charlie, Steve and of course the wonderful Erica, as we were going to a baseball game! Chika had tickets so she invited us which I thought was extremely nice of her. I was excited as it was my first baseball game in Japan. We headed off to Fukuoka (yahoo) dome in two separate taxis.

fukuoka dome

When we got there, Erica, Ian and I had to wait for the others to get there so Erica showed me her cheerleading routine for Sports Day.

standing around waiting. we got a little bored!

I recorded it and will stick it up on youtube when I can ahah! (sorry Chika but it’s got to be done :P) She couldn’t remember a lot of it though! Across from the dome is a Hard Rock Café which I made note of, because according to Erica they sell real fish and chips there!

the giant guitar!

When the others arrived we raced up the stairs and went inside. It is absolutely massive and there were a lot of people as the Softbank hawks (Fukuoka’s team) were playing there. We had pretty good seats behind the plate!

the crowd

our view

As the innings went on we sat there talking away. Trevor mentioned that he hates the WATCH OUT that’s played across the big screen when a foul ball is hit. The one time that it wasn’t played the ball bounced off a chair nearby us and hit some old lady smack bang in the middle of her head!!! She spent the rest of the time there complaining and holding ice to her head!

Sometime through the game everyone got these balloons to blow up and we all released them at once. I’m not sure why this was but it was fun to watch these balloons go soaring around and then eventually fall.

the crowd pre-balloon release

At the end of the game the Softbank hawks unfortunately lost. We said goodbye to Trevor and Erica as they were going the opposite direction and Charlie, Chika, Chika’s mum and Steve and I caught a bus to Tenjin then we said goodbye to Steve and caught a train back. It was so late when I got home! And raining! All in all I had a LOT of fun and can’t wait to do it again!

Friday it was pouring with rain. Thunderstorms and lightning galore! No chance to exercise at all unfortunately. In music we had a test. I could actually answer questions much to my delight! I could answer everything but one question. It was stuff about guitars and rhythms. I don’t know what I got though. I have to wait a week to find out! Koga-sensei also told me when the American students are going to be coming to my school. They arrive June 3rd and leave June 18th (same date as Ally leaves! :(). He asked Melissa and I to pronounce some of the names and my god! I wouldn't have a clue how to pronounce Wanczyk. Really!!!

On Saturday I went to the floating book fair. Melissa brought it up in my Japanese lesson on Friday and we both thought, clearly we have to go check it out so we made plans to catch the train together on Saturday. When I told my host mum she absolutely had to come too so she brought Ayaka and Chiaki. Haruna stayed with my host father. In Tenjin we met up with Melissa’s Canadian friend, Jessica, who was pretty darn awesome. She’s an ALT as well, with the JET program, though she seems to be leaving soon to go to Toronto. Anyway, we caught a bus to the Chuo Wharf in Hakata as that’s where this giant floating bookshop was docked. The Dolous ship is part of a Christian-based charity organization in Germany and relies partly on booksales for its funding, yet the books on board were still fairly cheap!

the ship!

on our way up!

inside

Instead of just prices, everything was in Units, 300 units equals 600 yen and so on. I was told that there are about half a million books and an international café but sadly when we looked around the boat we didn’t seem to find said café. Also, the books were mostly just non-fiction, and there were a lot of Bibles and Christian related books. I was hoping for novels but oh well! I ended up buying a cookbook and a CD. All the books were in English which makes me wonder what all those Japanese people are going to do with them! Afterwards my host mother wanted to stick around with the kids so Melissa, Jessica and I headed to Fukuoka Dome. Jessica needed to buy tickets for a game so I investigated what I didn’t see the first time I went there. There are these models of hands of celebrities all down one side. As I was browsing through the multitudes of Japanese people I didn’t know I stumbled across Billy Joel! It surprised me greatly and made me a happy person!

Model of Billy Joel’s hand and his signature

Big Peace sign statue

Afterwards we went and ate at the Hard Rock Café. Every time a song came on that we hadn’t heard in a long time we burst out singing. It was great! We headed back to Tenjin as Melissa needed to go to the IMS building and check out job postings while Jessica needed to get her glasses fixed. I just tagged along and learnt some new places to check out in Fukuoka that I didn’t know about. They taught me a lot of useful things! After Melissa and I caught the train back to Shinsakaemachi and we walked to Youme Town. Melissa had parked there because its free and we grabbed a coffee together at Starbucks. We were spotted by a couple of girls from school and so we got asked if we were sisters. …But of course. I guess we both have blue eyes… When I got home my host mum announced that we were going out for dinner, Ayaka, Chiaki, Haruna, her and myself. So much eating out that day!!! We walked to the restaurant and I soon discovered it was an okonomiyaki restaurant. Yum! Apart from okonomiyaki we also had monjya which I think comes from Tokyo. The guy came out and made it in front of us on the hotplate. I took a video of it! Once we’d finished, we headed to a nearby park to run around for a bit. It was very much appreciated. Working off all the food I ate!

Sunday we got up early to go to catch a bus. We were heading off to Nagasaki-ken. By bus I didn’t realise we’d be heading off on a tour bus but that’s what we did. It was filled with old ladies who were having a grand old time. Once we got on the bus it headed towards the ferry were it was driven aboard and we all hopped out. How’s that? On a boat two days in a row!

on the ferry

We were heading to the other side of the Ariake-kai sea. There was a map on board so I took the liberty to take a photo of it and write in English where we went.

my wonderful computer skills obviously shine through…

thar be land!

When we got to shore the buses got off (there were several tour groups going around) and we headed towards Mt Unzen Fugendake Mizunashi Honjin Fukae (Avalanche-stricken homes preservation park). Of course I wasn’t told where exactly we were headed so when we got there it was a shock to see all these half buried houses.

one of the houses

Apparently there was a big eruption of Mt Unzen 15 or so years ago and it cause a whole pile of avalanches and buried a lot of houses. My host mum told me she could actually see a giant ball of red from her house over in Omuta. Wow. That would’ve been a real site! Afterwards, we were quickly shuffled into the small shopping village part of Mizunashi Honjin where we all ate lunch together as one big tour group.

the village

Mt Unzen from a distance

Then we were given free time to wander around and check out all the omiage and so on to buy. Omiage is basically what you buy when you go on trips, like souvenirs. It’s a massive industry in Japan and the omiage is almost always food. Food, food, food, EVERYWHERE! My host grandmother goes away frequently on trips and keeps bringing back these foods. The ladies on the bus stocked up and I bought some non-food related goodies and we headed off to Mt Unzen. It took over two hours to get to the top of the mountain due to horrible traffic jams! The whole way people on the bus slept,

my host sisters

my host parents

or they ate! The Obaachan’s of the bus spent the majority of that two hours eating their omiage and chatting happily. I think I’ve discovered what the national pastime in Japan is when you’re an older woman. Grab your buddies and go on a tour and buy lots of omiage! Then eat most of it before you even get home! Another national pastime seems to be feed the foreigner! Unfortunately for them I have host sister’s who are willing to eat anything sweets related placed in front of them. It’s highly useful. I accept the food, thank them very much then pass it on to the forever hungry little ones!

When we finally reached the top we were given about half an hour to go around and see things. I think it’s funny how we might spend forever getting to a place and then spend the smallest amount of time looking around before we pack up and leave for the just as long trip back! I opted to go the ropeway which my host family thought was a good idea.

heading to the ropeway. Look at the flowers!!!

the ropeway

view from the ropeway

view from the top! Facing the other way

After we got back down we hopped on the bus and once more there was sleeping and eating. We passed through Unzen city and saw some more sights from the bus. The tour guide lady started giving a spiel about Kastella and the different flavours and its origins and so on. It originated in Nagasaki-ken (I think) so of course we made one last stop at a place that sells Kastella omiage. And sure enough everyone on the bus bought some! Then we headed back. I thought we were going to go back via ferry but I soon discovered that we were driving the whole way back!! It was about 7:30 when we hit Kurume and we were told it would take another 2 hours to get back to Omuta as we were dropping off everyone in between so my host family got out and we had dinner in Kurume. We caught the 8pm train back and then walked home. Nice and tired!

Today was pretty boring for a Monday. We planted sunflowers in Gardening and that was about it. I was going to post this at lunch time but lo and behold the internet was down at school! After school we had preparations for Taikusai, sports day. I’m in Blue block. However I found out it’s on the 9th of June and that’s the same day as the Rotary debriefing weekend (9th to 10th). I don’t know how this will work!!

Anywho that’s it from me,
Till next time!

-m