4 posts from September 2008

September 19

Mm... the past few days..........

Eh. I don't know. I'm dealing with a lot of different stuff that I don't want to have to deal with. But I'm kind of getting over it... Whatever... Anyways. I've been asked to help with all three of my English classes all the time....

But whatever. It's kind of fun... sometimes.

On Sunday, I'm going to Jusco with the other exchange student. So that'll be definitely be fun! :D

Uhhh what else. Oh. My 2nd host family problems. They still haven't found me one so I've been asking around... but no luck so far.

There's been one person who's interested... but he's a guy. And his mom is against it or something. So who knows what'll happen with that.......

Anyways. I don't really have MUCH to say... other than the fact that the guy in my business english class had the most amazing socks on the other day...

Oh. And I'm going to Fukuoka in a few weeks. So that'll be fun too...

September 20

What I did today... I woke up kind of late, then I sat around the house until about 3:15, when I left to go meet my friend at school so we could go to Youme. He wanted me to tutor him in English because there's like an English proficiency test-like thing tomorrow. So yeah. I got there at four-ish.

And then I helped him for about an hour... and then he was just like "Mm... let's go walk around now."

So we did. I bought books! Yay!!!! I bought Kamiji's book... and Tsuruno's as well haha. And then I bought the Mediator in Japanese (for practice) and Takeru Sato's photo book. Yayyyyyyyyyyy.

He was looking around for a present to buy his girlfriend. How sweet is that? He actually starts looking a month before her birthday! Haha.

I also got ice cream. Again. Green tea and azuki. As in one scoop of each flavor haha. Not like... put together. It was so funny though. When I got it, the lady asked me if that was all and if there was anything else, and kept looking at my friend intently. And I'm like "No... this is it." And she's like still staring as she hands the guy at the register my ice cream.

Seriously. It was hilarious.

The Twilight series (Japanese version) was funny to look at. It's broken up into tons of smaller books, for one... like, they have 9 out right now. And then they have pictures in the book. James looked terrifying!

Tomorrow, I'm going to Jusco with the other exchange student. So I'm doing some serious shopping tomorrow :)

September 21

Oh God. Today, I took puricura and went to karaoke. Seriously, am I even me anymore?! Haha. Anyways. I had SO much fun today.

I bought barely anything... ish....... but then there was all that puricura. Is that even how you spell it? Probably not... whatever.

Anyways. That was a LOT of fun. Me and the other exchange student took sooooo many. And then we went to karaoke with two other people. I was told when I was a kid that I wasn't very good at singing, so I haven't really ever sang in front of other people since then, unless it was with a large group of people. But so I was singing a song with this other person, but she didn't know the words very well so it was just me singing at one point and she's like "Kanna-chan... you're good!". And I'm like "...really?"

But yeah. It was fun. Lots of fun. I guess I'm maybe going again on Tuesday with my host family, since there's no school and both the parents don't have work and so on and so on. So we'll watch Wanted, then go to Jusco and take puricura or something... and then go to karaoke. Which'll be lots and lots of fun :)

Ooh... the other thing... I was running really fast up the stairs because I had to grab something and I was semi-late to meet my friend.. and I tripped. And Japanese stairs are STEEP and have REALLY SHARP EDGES!!! My host parents heard me trip, but I acted like I was fine so they wouldn't worry. I checked later... my right leg isn't so bad, but my left leg was already swelling up. And I finally was able to check again and HOLY CRAP it swelled a LOT. It hasn't started to bruise yet, but it is DEFINITELY going to bruise tomorrow.

And today, it rained a LOT. This morning, at least... after a while it stopped raining. Haha. But when I woke up there was lightning and everything...

:) Well tomorrow's school again... I'm thirsty and I want to check my email. Really, really bad. a;slkjdf;alkdjf;alksjdf;kajdf;lkjaslkf

Maybe I'll risk letting my host family see my leg and go downstairs...

September 22

Today... back to SCHOOL. No school tomorrow though :) But classes today were BORING. Yet again.

I kind of reaaaaally hate going to school... but I guess that'll never change, no matter what country I go to.........

I ended up going to karaoke again today after school. I was just kind of talking about how I went yesterday during lunch... and then one of my friends was like "Let's go!!!". So we went.

It was so worth it :)

I'm definitely watching Wanted tomorrow, but I don't think I'm doing anything else with my host family... Too bad. I was shooting for karaoke three days in a row :D

Maybe I can take purikura tomorrow though.......

Hm. Still haven't found my 2nd host family, I'm planning on telling the guy who's interested thanks, but you can quit trying to convince your family now. I'm causing too much trouble for everyone on this one case... so I'm planning on just leaving it up to the company now............

I should really probably start studying for my SAT subject tests..... Why am I so lazy?

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Anyways. I'm just going to go now.... I want to take a shower. :)

September 8

So today, I went to go watch Hancock... in Japanese. It was pretty amazing. I understood almost everything :D Hahahaha instead of "asshole" they say "kuzu" (trash). I thought that was an interesting way of translating that particular part...

Japanese movie theaters, apparently, have you buy the tickets... but for particular seats. So... you can choose which seat you sit at. I thought that was pretty interesting... The only time I know that we can do that in California is if we're going to the theater or something, right? I'm not a hundred percent sure... but that's what I think.

Other than that, my host sister and I went shopping again... well... at least I went shopping again. I ended up buying like... zero clothes. I was looking for good shoes for a few hours, but I couldn't find any in my size. Apparently I have big feet for a Japanese person hahaha. Some person asked me what shoe size I was, but I only told them that I knew my size for the US and then they gave me an amazed look and asked me a bunch of questions.

I explained to her a million times that I'm studying abroad right now and that I was born and raised in the US and that I've never lived in Japan before so it's not like I'm coming "home" but she kept asking the same exact questions over and over again so I just eventually smiled and nodded. She's extremely young too...

So anyways, all I ended up buying were little gifts for friends. They're hilarious. They're pillows... Bread pillows. With faces. :D And then I bought myself a chair. It's tofu... apparently. And it has a face too... And then I bought keychains... pudding themed. And yes, these have faces too...

I'm sorry it's absolutely adorable though.

Mmmmmmmmm so Monster Parent and Shibatora finales are on tomorrow... I believe... and real school starts tomorrow as well. It should be an interesting day tomorrow :)

September 9

So I'm kind of writing this during class right now... my teacher already told me beforehand that I wouldn't have to participate because it would be too hard for me to keep up with... Apparently it's a computer class. But it seems much harder than any of the computer classes I've taken in the US...

They just had their test right now and they're going over the answers and I'm listening to what they're saying, but it seems amazingly hard. Just... goes into a whole lot of detail and everything.

Oh, before this, we had to go to some thing for the first years again... something about the future or whatever. Yes, the PE teacher that I already don't like was there... We seriously spent like 5 minutes sitting down, standing up, bowing, saying our greetings... because he wasn't satisfied. He spent another few minutes yelling at another student, and then later, when we were passing out papers, he smacked some guy in the head.

Yeah... I don't like him very much. I'm really glad I only have to see him twice a week.

But the thing is... today's meeting really has nothing to do with me. It's not like I'm going to a Japanese university or anything... and I'm a third year (here) not a first year, so it's kind of... pointless for me to be there. So I was kind of getting yelled at for absolutely nothing. So, in other words, I really didn't like that.

I'm supposed to be studying my Japanese right now. I don't feel like it. Kanji is horrible. Hm. What else do I have today... I think like... economics, English, Japanese, and math for sure... there's one class I'm missing.... oh no wait. That's the  class I'm in now haha. 

Let me just say... I think that Japanese textbooks are incredibly skinny. 

And I guess we're switching seats sometime.... Next class starts in about 10 minutes...... so I should go. I'm going to have to put my laptop away.

Oh. And I'm starting to get worried that my English is getting weird. Not written... spoken. I haven't spoken in English for a while now.... Gah! Haha.

September 11

So I just realized that I've still been writing that it's August. When it's not. It's September. Oops. So I went back and fixed it now, but.... Anyways. Finally met my PE teacher today... I ended up not having him yesterday for PE... scheduling mistake. But I ended up having him for health today and then PE tomorrow... But yeah. Two times is too much. Luckily, on both those days, I have something to look forwards to. On Thursdays, my history teacher. On Fridays my class with the 2nd years. Both are FUN. My history teacher didn't know who I was so he comes into class, points at me, and is like, "Who are you?"

And I'm like "The new exchange student..."

And he's like "What?! I didn't hear about this!"

It was soooooo funny. He's hilarious too. And he's been to like 30 countries, apparently. I really liked him. :)

And then... my English class with the 2nd years. That was fun. Really fun. So these two 2nd year girls and then my teacher come to pick me up, and obviously, they're treating me as a first year. And then I mention that I'm 17. They're like "Oh! So we're in the same grade!" And then I said, "No... actually... I'd be a 3rd year. I'm a year older..." They look at each other and they're like "OHMYGOD!" and then they started bowing and apologizing like crazy while kind of laughing nervously.

Jeez. The senpai/kouhai thing... I thought it sounded kind of cool, but I actually don't think that way anymore......

But anyways. Everyone was really fun and nice. There was a Q&A time... and I was asked if I had a boyfriend (no) and what my type was. When I mentioned that I looked (sorta) for pretty eyes... the guy who was sitting in the very front was all, "Do I have pretty eyes?!" and fluttered them jokingly. So I just said yes while laughing. He was really funny. One of his questions was simply, "How are you?" when everyone else was asking me harder questions.

I have that class again tomorrow and I'm really looking forwards to it. :)

But...... not so much to PE. Ok. So the PE teacher... wow. He called one of the guys up and then started poking him with a pointer that the last teacher had accidentally left behind, saying that his shirt buttons and his pants buttons weren't aligned, so he looked sloppy. He ordered these two girls to redo cleaning the blackboard, because it wasn't clean enough... although he didn't use it at all during the class.

And when he saw that I was just sitting there, not doing my work (work pages.... a lot of them...) because 1. I didn't have a textbook, and 2. I couldn't read the kanji anyways... he called me up. Not even by name, he just frowned and sat there and motioned for me to come up.

And then he asked me where my textbook was and why I didn't bring it. So I'm just like "Oh... I... don't have one... I was told to share with someone nearby me." He seriously expects exchange students that are only there for half a year to buy the entire set of textbooks needed for all these classes?! Is he crazy?! So then he's just like, "Oh ok then. Never mind. Just sit there." So I did.

I heard he's worse for PE. ;alskdjf;lakjsd;lfkjak;sjfakl;djf Great. I'm so glad that my PE periods have been cut down from two to one though... I don't think I could stand it...

I think I'm going to talk him into letting me just observe tomorrow... I don't know what to choose and what my host sister is doing seems a bit difficult. Apparently there's swimming, but then I'd have to buy an entirely new swimsuit (apparently, bikinis aren't allowed.....) and that's just bothersome. And... I don't know how to swim properly, so I wouldn't be getting a great grade or anything........ haha. Oh wait. I wouldn't get a grade anyways... but I'd probably get yelled at a lot by my PE teacher. So no thank you......

Mmmmm so I may seriously have to take a kanji test tomorrow. I DON'T WANT TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

Gr. I hate homework... but bookkeeping is kind of fun. :)

September 14

Weekend. Fun :) Well this entire weekend all I've really been doing is going with my host sister to her musical lessons. It's actually been incredible to watch all of them. They're all so young but yet they can still do everything so amazingly. 

My host sister is amazing at dancing... I've noticed. I haven't really heard her sing seriously... I've heard her sing with a whole bunch of other people... and such... but yeah.

Everyone keeps asking me if  sing. Which I don't. So it's been kind of awkward haha. But everyone here is way nice as well... well at least the people that actually take the time to talk to me are... Of course, there are a lot of people, so it's not like I'm expecting to be able to talk to all of them... I've talked to maybe like 15ish people. 

And another thing I've noticed since I've gotten here is that people keep telling me that I have a small face. No one ever said that when I was in America so that kind of confused me.

No school again tomorrow... so I'm way happy. I hate having to sit through the classes... I can't understand anything except for the English classes (I seriously have like 3 different ones... regular English, Oral Communications, and then Business English) and PE. Bookkeeping I'll understand if it's explained to me... and I vaguely remember what we're currently working on in my math class. I think it's like Algebra. But I hate the way the teachers act.......

Oh. PE is going to be FUN. For once. I know. It's amazing. Apparently at Japanese schools, they give you choices for what to do for certain seasons of the year. So the choices for these next few weeks are dance, kendo, and judo. Of course, I chose dance. Because, 1. I would have to pay like $50 for kendo and judo (equipment fees) and 2. Not even joking, my entire class decided on dance. And it seemed the easiest......

Actually though... we apparently have to group up into small groups, and then come up with a dance routine and then present it as a final grade. Do I REALLY have to? I can't get a grade... can I even really get it for credits or anything?

Oh mannn... I hate my Japanese class. I have NO FREAKING CLUE what's going on. Luckily for me (I guess) the teacher is the type that ignores me. So there's no way she'll call on me or anything.....

Gr. I'm way hungry... and it's only like 12:10. 

Ok. So one thing I've definitely realized is the fact that everyone is way majorly flexible. Well... I guess that's obvious. They're in a musical thing. They're going to have to be flexible. And they're also going to have to be able to memorize dance routines quickly. I swear... that should've been way easy to figure out. But I guess that it's amazing to watch anyways. Most are younger than I am. I think there's only like about 5 that are the same age or older. Two I know are older.... but I've only met like three others that were the same age as me... so yeah. Everyone else is younger. And like I mentioned before, there's like 40ish people. 

Sundays are harsh man...... Apparently it starts at like 9 (with individual practice time) and then they moved into voice lessons, dance practice, and then they have a break for lunch. Apparently they're moving into more... I don't even know what practice until about 5 and then after that people can either go home or do what my host sister is doing... continue on to go to tap dance lessons. So I'm here with my host sister until 8 PM.

I know. Crazy.

Ohhhhh. I drank the most amazing drink yesterday. Random, I know. But I don't care. It was amazing. It's Fanta. But not just any regular Fanta. It has jello in it. You shake the can reaaaaaally hard and then when you drink it, it has the drink... and then bits of broken jelly in it. It's sooooooo good. It made me laugh when I drank it haha. My host sister was like "Have you had this before?" and I told her yeah, because I thought it was just regular Fanta.

And then she was like, "Are you sure?" and then explained it to me. And then I was like "Woah."

And it was amazing.

:)

Oh. My host family and I watched Disturbia last night. In Japanese. Yeah. As in... dubbed. Not subbed. They really wanted to watch something. So they ended up getting that... I got my host sister hooked on Rent by the way...

So anyways. Disturbia went on until about midnight. I got up at 7 today... so that was interesting. It's a weekend. I wanted to sleep in... but if I didn't go with my host sister today, I would have nothing to do anyways. Like seriously... nothing. 

My other host sister is at basketball practice and my host parents would be in and out all day. So I'd sit at home all day and do nothing, most likely. I still have a while here, so I figured I'd just come once every few weeks or something. :)

September 2

Ok so today we were practicing more for the sports/cultural festivals and it was a lot of hard work. There's so much to remember and stuff... like all the clapping or whatever for the sports festival and then the song for the cultural festival. It's way hard. I can't remember the lyrics at all and the song is pretty fast so I can't really keep up. Right now I'm just lip-syncing because I can't remember the notes or anything quite yet. I'm probably just going to end up lip-syncing the entire time though. There's no way I'm going to be able to remember the notes by this Saturday.

I apparently have to be in the English Speaking Club room for like an hour for the cultural festival. Because the teacher is going to be setting aside a time to "talk to the exchange students". ...Thanks. Now I'm on freaking display. But anyways I'm splitting my time with the other exchange student. But she's in the 3rd year (lucky duck......) so we're just switching off... Apparently first years are all singing before anything else starts.......

So I totally want yakisoba and kakigori while I'm there... :D

But I'm still not looking forwards to it. The singing I mean. And being on display. I'm looking forwards to seeing what everyone else does though.....

So everyone's totally shocked that I can type without looking at my hands... and that I can type so fast or something. So it's kind of weird... all of my friends can type without looking at their hands... I thought it was pretty normal... especially for high school students. But I guess that since a lot of Japanese kids use their cell phones more than their computers, they can probably text faster than they can type. So maybe that's why they're so surprised.

And I'm also pretty sure that Japanese essays aren't typed... I think they're handwritten, right?

Oh. And I found out today that I probably shouldn't try to make friends with the guys here. Because apparently I'm going to be seen as... boy crazy? I guess would be the best way to translate what was said to me. I mentioned that a lot of my friends in America are guys... and everyone said it wasn't a good idea here.

They said that some girls DO talk to the guys but for the most part they stay separated unless they were in the same club or something. So I thought that was way majorly weird.

It's definitely different... and really frustrating too. Because I really just want to make friends with everyone in the class. Even if there's only like 6 guys in the class (of 40) I still want to make friends with them...

The person who sits in front of me is a guy (I don't remember his name... did he even tell me his name? ...) and so I told him to ask me if he had any questions about English or anything because they're trying to take like an English proficiency test. And he kind of just nodded and turned away while mumbling thank you.

Oh. Random note. I have gone almost a week with no internet. It is SO amazing. I can't believe I've been fine for this long.........

I'm going with my host sister to her practice for the dance routine (for the cultural festival) so that should be fun too... I hope it doesn't rain again.... 

September 4

Well so seriously... we've really just been practicing for the cultural/sports festivals all week long... tomorrow's the cultural festival so I'm really looking forwards to it. :) Not so much the sports festival... we have to do radio exercises or whatever and everyone knows what they're doing except for me haha. But I don't really mind anything else anymore because now I know I don't have to run... since all I'm participating in is the cheering section and then the tug-of-war thing.

I've just barely memorized the song for the cultural festival.... I'm still going to lip-synch haha.

Oh. I've gotten bitten like a million times by mosquitos since I got to Japan... I now have 17 on my left leg, 15 on my right leg, 5 on my left arm, and 7 or 8 on my right arm. I've been out late at night every night because I go to practice with my host sister... her practice, I mean... She's going to be dancing, you know? At the cultural festival?

Mm so I really wanna check my myspace and my email right now... but it's kind of impossible for me right now... I don't want to bother my host family and such so... I'm going to have to do it tomorrow after I get home..... which'll probably be at like... 6 or 7 again. Since I'm at school til 5.

Tomorrow... my host sister and I are getting up and leaving... going to the conbini to buy lunch, then we're going to a park nearby for her to practice with her friend one last time before the performance. Then we go to school and the cultural festival begins. I'm going to try to get my homeroom teacher to take a video of my class singing... 

Oh. So yesterday, someone's wallet was stolen or something. So guess what the school did. They called the entire freaking school in for an "emergency meeting". And spent about 30 minutes saying that "we're Saga Sho" and "this shouldn't be happening" "it makes me want to cry". etc, etc, etc. And then they were saying "it's only hurting you..." "I'll let it go the first time but I won't let you get away with it a 2nd or 3rd time!". And then after the 2nd and 3rd years left, the 1st years were still there because we had rehearsal for the songs. And so the 1st years got yelled at for another half hour about how different they are from first semester. And were yelled at for not having their shoes straight outside... or because they would come up with excuses when they were told to cut their bangs, or how this one guy pierced his ear over the summer and the teacher felt like crying...... or something. We had to sit seiza style on the wood flooring. And one of the teachers called up a student (guy)... I'm not sure what he did but the teacher started like walking all intimidating towards the guy so obviously the guy backed up. And then the teacher just like... screamed at him basically. Idk. I'm so glad my school isn't that strict.

The other study abroad student told me that when she had her little uniform check thing, they told her she wouldn't have to cut her bangs... so I'm going to hope that that's true... Cuz I really don't want to cut them.

Oh. And I may have to introduce myself to the entire student body... all 800 of them. Haha. But anyways. I'm totally starting off in Japanese (name, age, where I'm from) then moving into English. I just basically want to let everyone know that yeah I'm in the first year but I'm supposed to be in 3rd. Haha.

At ESS today, I was helping some students with their story-telling piece for the speech contest. Basically they get a story and they have to memorize it and yeah. It's from The Golden Compass. So yeah. I got to help teach pronunciation. It's pretty hard to do that... but also a lot of fun... haha.

Well I should really sleep... tomorrow I have to get up super early.

September 5

So my host sister and I ended up getting up a little bit later than we should have... but we made it to school with plenty of time... I got to talk to a whole bunch more people at school today... some 3rd years from the ESS club introduced me to a few of their friends during the cultural festival. One of the girls TOTALLY understands my feelings about all this being weird... with the girls being separated from the guys. She came from Kumamoto but she was in Fukuoka for a while, so she said that when she came to Sasho, she found that for some reason they were really separated and it felt weird to her because most of her friends were guys as well...

I also talked to a guy in a Pikachu suit (...uhhhh cultural festival stuff. don't worry too much about it...) and he was a third year... and I was wearing a first year uniform (borrowed from my host sister for the singing contest today... I didn't want to be the only different one..) so I talked to him in English at first hahaha. I also talked to these two second year guys... and I talked to them in English at first... but that was on accident, I swear... Later, there were some random guys from a different high school at the conbini... and they were in the way while I was trying to get my ice cream... so I asked them if they could move a bit... but yeah. I found it too bothersome to speak in Japanese so I spoke in English. They were totally whispering later hahaha.

Mmkayyyy but yeah. Singing contest today... we didn't win. But that's ok. It was sooo much fun. We were all laughing at my host sister... because she had drawn on her hand an eye on one hand... and then the word laugh on the other. It was really funny. She was the conductor and all... Everyone was saying that even though they could only see her back, it was totally obvious that she was totally all bright and bubbly and such.

:)

Oh. Two people mistook me for the "conductor for group 5" today. One was a teacher and the other a student. Then I was talking about that with others and my classmates were like "ohhh yeahhh. You two look kind of alike from the back... and such... and you're kind of alike in other ways too. I think you could be actual sisters." How weird is that? I ended up at her house by coincidence and... yeah...

So I can't think of anything else to say right now.......

So yeah. I'll end here for today. :)

September 6

Mm so I'm kind of freaking out about SAT deadlines right now... I don't think my brother is checking his email and I don't want my parents to have to pay too much money for when I call them and such. So I haven't been able to ask them about a problem I'm having with their credit card number.

Other than that... the sports festival is over. I got a picture of everyone... and I mean everyone... in kidan. It was a lot of fun today... although wayyyy hot. But that's all right... Shirodan won... aodan got second and then kidan was third. Akadan was last. Kidan won first for panel design though :) And 2nd for cheering... yayyyy!!! But the fact that shirodan won for cheering made me mad... They did parapara. That's fun... but it's not even cheering anymore haha. It's just parapara. 

They had a billion fast runners though... it was really amazing. And I DO have to say... almost all of their leaders were wayyyyy cool. Only a few in ours were cool. But all the leaders were amazing today during the cheering competition. Later, they did one of the cheers again, so I have a video of that :) If I can figure out how to put it up... I will. Oh. We got 2nd place in tug-of-war by the way... that's what I participated in. :) I personally think we would have won... but here's what happened. (Warning, this will sound like just a bunch of excuses)

First, it was blue vs red. Blue won both rounds. They went to take a break.

Then... it was white vs. yellow. We won the first round. Then we started the 2nd round and we were totally winning when the teachers decided that the rope hadn't started off in a good position so they had to realign it. Then we started a third time and yellow won. So we were in the semifinals.

So finally, we went up against blue for finals. The teachers gave us zero chance to rest... so we went straight into a fourth round. Blue won. Fifth round... JEEZ BLUE WAS STRONG!!!!!! They seriously pulled so hard that the girls on our side tripped and fell. One girl actually hurt her arm pretty badly... she was bleeding. And then a few girls from my class hurt their legs too. I let go because I knew we were just going to get dragged haha.

There was also kibasen by the way. That was amazing as well :D Way dangerous though!!!

Aha. I went to go talk to the cheering people to see if I can take a picture of them in their AWESOME uniforms. And then the danchou (I heard banchou at first.... it was so funny haha... I was like "Banchou? ...") came up to talk to me and turned to his friend and was all, "Does she understand Japanese?" Haha. I'm like "Uhhh yes I do..." Because I do... I just have problems with Saga-ben sometimes.

Tomorrow is Sunday... so we finally get a break. And to make up for having school today... we get Monday off as well. So I'm going to a place called Yume Town or something... to go shopping!!! Yayyyy!!!

Oh. So I've seriously been at the conbini every day after school... so I keep thinking that I'm going to get fat... because I keep getting ice cream and pudding. But then again since I'm biking so much... maybe I'll be fine?

Mmmm and I talked to some guy from the kendou club. Cuz I wanted to ask him how long they practice every day. Why is it that every guy that I've met so far has a hard time talking to me? Is it because I start off in English? Haha. Or is it seriously because guys at Sasho are no good at talking to girls? Because seriously... no one mingles. Which is why it surprises me that many of them have girlfriends and boyfriends. 

Mmkay. So I'm going downstairs now to eat more ice cream. Yup. Not even joking... it's too hot to sit in my host sister's room..............

September 7

Mm today is a Sunday... and both my host sisters are out the entire day. So I sat around and watched TV the entire morning since my host parents were also busy. And then at around... like 3ish... I went to Youme to go shopping with my host mother :) The only thing I couldn't find were good shoes... I found these cute high heels... but not in my size. So yeah. I was way disappointed. Japanese baby clothes, by the way... are ADORABLE!!!!!!!

Ok. And I keep hearing from people that Japan's population is going down because no one is reproducing since they keep thinking about their jobs? First I was just walking around the mall and there were seriously 10 pregnant women that I saw. Then we went to Aeon to do some grocery shopping and I saw another 2 or 3. Idk... It seems like a lot of people are having kids......

I'm going somewhere else tomorrow with my host sister and maybe her (our?) friend. We're apparently going shopping again and then maybe watching a movie. So that should be fun. :) It's probably going to be an American movie haha but it'll be good practice for me, at least......

It is wayyyy too hot today. And I feel kind of sick... I think I'm overeating. I've cut back on the amount of snacks I've been eating... I haven't had any snacks today. But I feel bad if I leave ANYTHING my host mother makes, so I force myself to eat... and I don't ever really get hungry either, so... yeahhh...

Another thing. I miss my internet. D:

Oh! And apparently there's one other guy in our class... but my host sister says he hasn't been to school at all lately so he may have to quit school soon. I was just thinking "OMG!!!" And then just jumped a billion kajillion conclusions that come from watching too many dramas. -_______-

Speaking of dramas... I've kind of lost interest in watching the summer dramas... Maybe it's because I accidentally skipped a few episodes here and there... but I basically just want to watch the Monster Parent finale, Shibatora finale, and Seigi no Mikata finale. When I get back to the US I'll finish watching Taiyo to Umi and Yasuko to Kenji... but I DO miss my London Hearts and Hexagon II. I'll have to research times for those shows and watch them....

OH! Major was on yesterday when I got back from the sports festival, so I was watching it... haha. Goro didn't appear at all! Hahahahaha. And I was so lost because I haven't watched since halfway through the 3rd season... That was all I got to. Maybe I should finish watching it... It's supposed to be pretty good.......

Eh. Maybe when I get back. :)

And then... my Detective Conan. Haven't been able to watch that either......... I'll get times for that too........

On the upside, the Hana Kimi SP is airing while I'm over here :) And the Music Station special is next week or something... I think. So yeah. It'll be fun!

Mmkay. Well I'm feeling creative, so I'm going back to writing my story. :) :)

(Mmkay so I don't have very stable internet connection right now... so I'll have to post pictures later... sorry!)

August 30th

So it's been a few days since I've gotten to Japan now... I got here the 27th, so... yeah. Today's the first day I was able to meet my host family. Here's basically a summary of everything that I've been doing since I got here. The 27th, we arrived, got settled into our ryokan rooms, and were basically just given orientations and everything. The 28th, we studied Japanese for a majority of the day. Truthfully, that part was extremely boring for me (and I really don't mean to be mean or anything...) because most of them were simple words. I thought it was cool that we got to go to the community center though. We just sat in like... a meeting room or something and studied for about like 4 hours. We had more orientation stuff (we went over AYUSA policies... cell phones... etc.) and then we walked home. Walking home was a lot of fun :). We got to walk through a park... We got home and most of us went to the conbini down the street. Conbinis (convenience store) are absolutely amazing. Or so I've decided. They really DO have everything! Except for clothes... although they sell like... little things like stockings and ties. Office people stuff. But yeah. Lots of fun :) The 29th, everyone left to meet their home families. I, unfortunately couldn't... Basically, me and this one other girl that got placed in the same area (Kyushu) got on a plane to Fukuoka (where she's staying), where we met our program advisor. My program advisor, by the way, is really nice and helpful. :) Anyways. We went to the Aeon shopping center (a really huge mall-like thing... it seriously has everything inside...) to meet the girl's host family and school teacher. And then I stayed the night at my program advisor's apartment. Her kids are SO adorable! I ended up playing Uno with them the entire night... Other than that, we were watching anime. Gintama was on :D

Ok. So then... today. I got on a train to Saga. By myself. Truthfully, it was kind of terrifying. Because even if I'd gotten on trains before in Japan, I was never by myself....... and the dude who took tickets was asked by my program advisor to tell me before Saga station came up hahahaha. I felt like a little kid...

So yeah. I met my teacher and my host family (as they came to pick me up from the station...) and we discussed things about the school and such. And then I got to come home to my house for the next 3 months :).

I will say now. Saga is TOTAL countryside. People seriously have fields for backyards. Not exactly what I'm used to, but I think it's kinda cool actually. But yeah. 

Now I'm going to talk about more... random things. I guess you could say. Here's my schedule for school:

Monday

Oral communication/Japanese/English/Calligraphy/Business English/LHR

Tuesday

Information/Bookkeeping/Japanese/Mathematics/English/Business Economics

Wednesday

English/Bookkeeping/Mathematics/General Science/Business ENglish/PE

Thursday

Oral Communication/Japanese/Health Ed/Business Economics/Bookkeeping/Information

Friday

Japanese/Oral Communication/Math/PE/Business English/English

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Ok. At least I have PE only twice a week... but according to my host sister, they're pretty strict. Just great. Sports are my ABSOLUTE weakness. Oh. My calligraphy class (once a week) and my business English class (3 times a week...) is with 2nd years. Yay!!!!! People my age!!!! (Although I am perfectly fine with being with younger students...) So yeah. Hopefully it'll be good...

I start school Monday. I have to introduce myself to the teachers... and the students as well (I think...). But wow. There's so many classes!!!!! And I have no idea what information or LHR are... I've been told I don't have to take bookkeeping though. I can either sit there and study Japanese or go to the library. Apparently it'll be too hard for me to keep up with... But it's way weird. There's no history class... Maybe it's like my school (idk about others..) where history isn't required for first years... Who knows.

Ok. So also according to my host sister, the school... is just....... way strict. White shoes for walking to school. Bangs have to be cut above the eyebrows (ew). No makeup (I figured...) no accessories (that also wasn't a surprise). Hair needs to be in pigtails. ............ Why pigtails? But yeah. I'm hoping they don't make me cut my bangs. Maybe I'll tell them I'll grow it out. And then just make bangs again when I get back to the US. Because apparently we can't pin them back either. And I do not want to cut my bangs that short. I know we're supposed to be open-minded or whatever, but I think that's just way too annoying for me. I don't really mind having a required hairstyle (I just don't understand why they went with pigtails... ponytail I would understand...) but a length for cutting bangs is... yeah.

About my host family. I've met the mother and the two sisters so far. The dad isn't at home yet. Both the sisters have basically been out of the house the entire time. The older one has a bunch of dance lessons and such to get to... and then the younger one is at basketball practice. I went grocery shopping (I almost put food shopping...) with my mother and sister (the older one... well... not older than me... but older in the family...) and it was a lot of fun. :) The younger sister lent me her High School Debut manga (yay!) and so I read the 12th volume because that was the only one I hadn't read yet... And now I'm just way majorly excited for the next/last volume!

It comes out while I'm here in Japan I think... right?

More random notes. I'm taking the level 2 Japanese Language Proficiency test or whatever... Lesson 3 was about my limit as of now... so I figured that if I were to study for about 5 months I could make it to at least level 2. Level 1 is impossible though. Haha. I took one look at the practice exam for it and I just closed the book. 

Um... I'm sharing a room with one of my sisters (makes me feel SO much better! I was so worried that maybe they would go out of their way to give me one of the girls' rooms or something...). I feel bad though... because she's sleeping on the floor. 

Apparently I'm cleaning the bathtub. But the girls rotate duties so I've just been fit into that. I hope that's ok... I was also kind of surprised that they don't separate the lights from the darks for laundry. They apparently only wash their towels separately. 

I went on a walk to take a look around... and... it's small. But really green/pretty. It's amazing for me to see so much green hahaha.

So I think my host family thinks that I study for like... forever. All I said is that I do homework for about 3 hours (definitely an over-exaggeration... but still. Homework should take me that long...) and they thought that was amazing, so... they keep asking me if I want to go upstairs and study now. Maybe I should tell me that I usually spend my time watching dramas? ... Haha

Oh. I was really surprised to hear that there are 40 students in my class! There's 7 1st year classrooms and there's still that many people?! I thought it'd be maybe 30... but 40's a bit much... 

There's a nice breeze here. I know... totally random, but it's actually really nice outside if there's a breeze. It's way humid, of course, so you sweat just standing there, but if there's a breeze, it's really nice. 

Another random note. I had ramen today :D It was soooo good! I knocked over the menus or whatever on the table though... it was way embarrassing. 

Tomorrow, I'm going to some little party thing with my sister for her drama musical thing. They just finished a performance so they're having like a... "Congratulations! It went well! Let's try hard for the next one too!" party. And they invited me... even though it's supposed to be members only. Aw I feel special :D. Anyways, I'm going to that... so it should be fun. 

So I'm not sure when I'll be able to get on the internet... I felt like it'd be rude to ask even though I just got here. So I still have yet to get on... I'll probably end up writing little notes to myself over the next few days... and then when I ask, I can just post all of it. 

And so finally... a summary of things I'm looking forwards to:

1. Tomorrow's party!

2. School (well... at least... kinda.)

3. Shopping with my host sister!!! Apparently we can bike over to the Aeon shopping center... so that's what we're doing. I just don't know when. She's at lessons all day tomorrow so........

Anyways. I'm going to write a list of everything I need. 

Bye! :)

August 31st

I was just watching 24 Hour Television... It was really good :)

I got to watch the last few hours and everything... it was so much fun! I wonder... does America have anything like that? It'd be really good if we did... I mean seriously. They raised a LOT of money. I contributed too by the way. Like... a dollar haha. That was all I had on me >_<

If I'm ever here for it again... I swear I will contribute a lot more.

But yeah. It was so amazing. I cried like a billion kajillion times. And I know I cry a lot.. but seriously. There was some really sad/inspirational stuff in there.

Ok. So... what else happened today...

I went to my host sister's party thing for her musical group. It was a... "Good Work" type of party. It was kind of way awkward. I don't really like being together with huuuuuge groups of people. Because then that means I have to remember names. And I don't enjoy that haha. 

I talked to like... 7 people total. And I can barely remember their names...

Wow. What's going to happen tomorrow when I meet all my teachers and all the students in my class.......?

Oh. Apparently, tomorrow and until the cultural/sports festival is done and over with... we don't have homework and it's basically PE time all the time.

EWWWWWWWW.

Totally the worst way to start off my school year. I haven't done PE since... sophomore year. So it should be interesting. Ugh. But I didn't know they pushed the two festivals together... that kinda sucks as well.

Uhhh what else... it looks like it's gonna rain over here, unfortunately. I'm not looking forwards to it... Oh. Except for the fact that rain=my host mom driving me and my host sister to school! I'm not exactly looking forwards to biking for half an hour in the rain. Especially since it's been....... 4 years? 3? since I've gotten on a bike.

Going back to the party for my host sister... it was kind of awkward when everyone left the table to perform on stage. Because EVERYONE left and I was the only one sitting there. Since basically no one knew what I was doing there (they all thought I was just my host sister's friend or something) they must have thought I was really weird.

Like for instance, there was this guy and this girl that I saw outside, and my host mom came to pick me up... my host sister had more classes so she was taking the bus back to the studio. But so yeah. These people were taking their bikes home and they saw my host mom so they said hello. And then they saw me walking next to her and they said, "Oh! That's the study abroad student!". So yeah. It was just like it all of a sudden made sense to them. I had fun talking to them though.......

All the performances, by the way... were amazing. They (well... some of them... my host sister was part of it...) did a dance to the Majiranger theme song. I think that was the best part haha. No. Seriously though. It was amazing. :)

So yeah. I also finally had a full conversation with my host dad today... He's not home all that often during the day so I had fun. He's a really funny guy haha. 

Ok. So I feel like talking about differences I see...

1. All the cars in Japan are like BOXES!!!!!

2. In Japan, apparently you only have to wear a seatbelt (if you're sitting in the back) if you're on the freeway.

3. When people go grocery shopping, they seriously only buy groceries for THAT DAY only. I don't know about everyone else, but my family stocks up on food for a few days...

But yeah. I just thought that was pretty interesting...

Oh. I watched the first episode of Cat Street because it was on this morning. For some reason I thought it was like a one episode thing so I started watching it... and I was completely drawn in by the end of the episode. So I didn't mind that there were more episodes haha. Apparently it's a manga and the youngest sister has it so maybe I'll have time to read it while I'm here...

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Starting school tomorrow... and I'm kinda sorta just like... "Grr. Don't really want to go..."

I think I'm starting to get nervous. Haha. Or maybe I just really don't want to have gym the entire time? I'm not sure.

Well I think I'll read a bit and go to sleep.......

Bye!

September 1

Today was my first day of school at Saga Shogyo High School. 

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It's frustrating... all the changes...

So like I mentioned before, we're not really doing classes. We seriously spend the entire day preparing for the sports and cultural festivals. Like... the entire day. For the sports festival, I'm doing tug-of-war. Haha. For the cultural festival I guess the first years have to sing. So I get to sing.

But it's kind of a waaayyyy hard song to learn and the cultural festival is on Friday. So I have to work really hard....... plus I just don't like singing in front of other people... Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm a study abroad student... I have to have an open mind... But still. I like what I like and I dislike what I dislike. I'll try... I just think I'm going to be a little reluctant. Oh. The sports festival is on Saturday by the way...

Ok... the school is kind of way huge. And there's tons of kids in my class so I don't know if I'm going to be able to remember everyone's names. I can only remember like... 5. Haha.

Oh. So I'm borrowing a uniform for 2nd and 3rd year students for now... I'm probably only buying my winter uniform. Since... apparently we're changing uniforms like this month or something anyways. So yeah. This morning I went to the classroom before I went to the teacher's lounge for a self introduction thing... and some of my host sister's friends were already in there. So they treated me like a senpai until they figured out I was going to be in their class. And then they found out I was older than them anyways and they got all formal again but I told them not to be so they kind of attempted to drop it haha.

I kind of don't like that whole... senpai-kouhai thing. In my mind, we're all still kids in high school so I don't really see why I have to treat people older than me (well if they're adults I understand...) with respect. And they're not even technically older than me! Like... I wanted to give away all the candy I brought to school today. I still had like tons left so I wanted to see if some of the third years sitting in the hallway wanted some, so I asked my host sister to come with me and she said that we shouldn't because they were third years. And my teacher said the same exact thing!!!

What the heck. I thought it was just really dumb... I mean if I were attending a Japanese school, I would be in the third year too... but I don't think that should really matter... haha. But I guess since I'm in Japan and they're like way strict about that and all....... It was just kind of weird.

I got stared at kind of weird by everyone too. Well... if I was talking in English or something. Otherwise, no one really looked... because I'm Japanese haha. Oh. But they looked because I was wearing a uniform for older students and I was walking with a bunch of first years.......

Ok, ok... Sorry. It just really bothers me haha.

Holy crap it's midnight..............

Oh wait. But I just have to talk about what I did after school.... I went to the English Speaking Club... or whatever with my host sister today. And then after that we left school... went to the conbini (I really wanted food...)... and then we biked (through the rain at one point because it randomly decided to rain... and really hard too...) to this one shopping plaza thing. My host sister and her friend are dancing at the cultural festival with two other people, so they were meeting up so that they could practice the dance. But the guy was reaaaaaaaallyy late and ended up coming at like.... 7 or 8 or something... can't remember. But anyways. There was this REALLY creepy hobo man or whatever there. I think he was kinda crazy. He just kept talking to the air and shouting out "Why don't you love me?!" randomly. And then he'd walk by everyone's bikes and stare at them for a reaaaaaally long time and then just walk away. He also wore a skirt... although he had pants on underneath. At one point he put on like a dress or something. I'm not sure.. I was trying REALLY hard to avoid eye contact.

It was just kind of scary because it was just us three girls... and then the guy we were supposed to meet wasn't there yet... and plus there's no lighting where we were so it was basically incredibly dark. The only light was from across the little hallway thing... from another store. And then there was another group of guys there (older... probably college) practicing their dance, and when the crazy old man started talking really loudly to the air again, they told him to shut up and got into an argument with him. They were kind of being way rude too... so I was totally terrified that he might go crazy or something... and by that time I was sitting alone watching my host sister and her friend practice, cuz the guy had come by that time. So it was just kind of terrifying for me. 

But yeah. We went for yakitori after that... my family wanted to have sort of a welcoming dinner for me. :) It was reaaaaaaally good. I just couldn't eat the pig legs... I did try it though. I took a few bites and I really just couldn't eat it... The taste was kind of weird.

Ok so yeah. I should probably get to sleep... because apparently we have practice for tug-of-war tomorrow. And then I have to remember the clapping thing for the cheer section of the sports festival. Oh yeah. And then I have to start remembering the words for the song for the cultural festival. Gr. Now I'm actually just wanting to get into the regular schoolwork stuff.......

And... I'm going to be waaaayyy honest. There aren't that many guys at the school. And there aren't many good-looking guys. The ones that are are mostly in the 2nd and 3rd years. So...... yeahhhh. Haha. At least I have some classes with the 2nd years......... (Apparently the "coolest" guy in the entire school is in 2-5)

Haha.

Good night. :)

(I have a few more entries but I'm not done with them... I'll post them later on... along with pictures!!!)