Sorry!

I'll post pictures tomorrow~


I haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth, I’ve just been so so busy! It’s really hard to find time to use the computer though! I’ve been saying “お休み”, (good night), to my family later and later each night, so I have less and less non-internet time to type these on Word and then upload them when I next have internet, because I have to sleep. What I used to do, because I can only use internet 1 hour per day, downstairs in the family room, is once I said お休み, which before had been at 7:00, was bring my computer back up to my room and type my blogs and emails without internet, and then upload them the next day when I have internet again. But lately I’ve been saying お休み at like 9:30 or 10:00, which is when I used to fall asleep so I haven’t had time to send emails or type blogs.
I went to Nikko! It was simply incredible. Nikko is Tochigi Prefecture’s famous park/city, and is the home of the world famous stone monkey statues; “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.” Did you know that those monkeys that grace the front of Paul Frank T-shirts and bumper stickers alike originated from stone statues in ancient Japan? Because I didn’t! Also, I saw the famous red bridge! I didn’t get to cross it though. Well there is always a next time. If you have seen Spirited Away, the bridge I’m talking about looks almost exactly like the one Chihiro/Sen had to walk across holding her breath. The main reason we went to Nikko, however, was to see the leaves changing color. Nikko is covered in trees, so in the fall it’s literally breathtaking when they all change into brilliant shades of orange and reds. Here’s a little Kanji lesson for you. “Autumn” is “aki” in Japanese. It’s Kanji looks like this: 秋. That Kanji is made up of two elements; the one on the left, 木、means “tree” and the one on the right, 火、means “fire”. Fire trees. Autumn means fire trees. Isn’t that AWESOME??
See, Mom? I am learning things in Japan.
We left for Nikko, which is about an hour away by car, at 2:30 on Friday. We got to travel up the Idohazaka Road, (sp.?) which is the road that climbs the mountain. It has fourty-eight turns. Once we got to the top of the mountains, we saw they built an entire city up there! Hence, Nikko City. Anyway, we drove around until we saw the Nikko Park Lodge, which is a hotel/lodge for foreigners. It was so cool staying there and talking English with the other campers! We stayed overnight. Then at the crack of dawn Saturday morning, we all packed up and headed out to explore Nikko! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves though!
Also, I officially went into the coolest restaurant in the entire world (besides Monticello’s own China Buffet, of course.) It was a really small little building, up in the mountains of Nikko City, along Nikko City’s Main Street. It was brightly lit and the food was delicious, but that’s not why it was so cool: it was covered, head to toe, even the ceiling, in little souvenirs. Foreigners from all around the world had come in and scribbled their names or a funny little message on anything from scraps of paper to newspaper clippings to receipts and pinned it up on the wall. Most of the messages were thank-you notes to the chef, but some were just so awesomely weird. One said, “Whiplash, Ghost Kitten, Mountain Jew, Ex-Riot Cop Dad, Amputee Pilot, Dolomite Tequila, Aminals.”
It was obviously my favorite.
Sometimes, people are so damn cool. Pardon my language but I felt it was necessary to emphasize my point. Lol. Yes, of course I left something! I didn’t have anything cool so I scribbled a note on a receipt that I had on me and posted it up with my Rotary business card. I know you’re dying to know what I said but if you want to read it you have to come to Nikko, find the restaurant, and find my little spot on the wall amidst the thousands.
In other news, I am half way done with my stay with the Komagata’s!. I put both a period and an exclamation point because a period doesn’t put enough stress on how major it is but an exclamation point makes it seem like I’m happy about it. It will be sad to leave them! Although the kids tickle me everyday even though, (and probably because) I told them I hate being tickled with a passion, and I only have limited internet access; I LOVE THE KOMAGATA’s and don’t want to leave yet! I am comfortable here. There is a mutual respect between me and my host parents, and Michica and Akihira hang on me like little gloves. Lol. I am really happy with this family. I’m only 2 minutes by bicycle away from my school, and everyone in Kuzuu is really friendly. On the bright side, although I will miss the Komagata’s terribly, my new house has many awesome things about it:
1. My new house doubles as a Japanese Restaurant. The first floor is a traditional Japanese style restaurant; the 2nd floor is the house. It’s also known to be very delicious so not only to I get to eat even more delicious food everyday, but lot’s of people come to eat there so I will never be bored and will get to constantly practice Japanese AND meet new people!
2. I am 80% sure that my new host family either doesn’t have kids, or they are already grown! Oh man that sounds simply wonderful. Don’t get me wrong, I love Michica and Akihira. They’re both barrels of fun and great kids. It’s just my ears could take a vacation. I am new, so I’m the most interesting thing in the house right now, so I have acquired two Japanese shadows. Japanese shadows that are highly competitive with eachother and suffer from sibling rivalry, especially over who gets to play with the foreign exchange student the most. It will be nice to be able to relax. Right now my biggest respite is using the bathroom, taking showers, and sleeping. LOL.
3. NEW TOWN! I won’t be switching schools, but Tanuma is about twice as big as Kuzuu, which means that I have a whole new town to explore! I’ve already memorized Kuzuu inside and out, so it will be nice to have new grounds to explore! I.LOVE.EXPLORING.
4. The possibility of wireless internet! There is a 50% chance that my new family will have wireless internet. Praise the heavens.

Wow. I’ve already made myself feel better about leaving! Before I typed this, I didn’t want to change host families but now that I have it written down, it sounds more promising!

November is only one day in and already my entire month is booked! It’s actually a nice feeling. Coming up this month is;
Nov 2 (8:00-4:00)
-Volunteering with InterACT, preparing for a festival at Ichibanka
Nov 3 (?)
-I’m going some awesome place with lots of foreigners with my host dad I just can’t remember the name right off hand.
Nov 4 (12:00-1:30)
-Rotary Meeting, (monthly)
Nov 7 (6:00 PM)
Meeting Tom Tamura at the Sun Plaza restaurant
Nov 15-16
Overnight Rotary Orientation OMG IT SOUNDS SO FUN!!!
Nov 22
I’m going to Tokyo! YAY OMG I have a nice story: We are heading up to Tokyo for a festival of some sort, and we need a hotel. Well my host mom and I were looking up cheap hotels in the area on the internet, and we found an amazingly cheap hotel with a French name that I forgot. My host mom was excited because this hotel had a 1 room, 3 bed deal. My host dad was skeptical of being able to find such a room though. So we click on the main page, and a picture pops up of a room about the size of a closet and just one bed, and we all look at eachother and laughed SO HARD. And then we went to look at what food it offered in the mornings, and it had 3 Menu’s: A choice, B choice, and D choice. BWAAHAHA! That started us all off again.
Nov 24-26
I’m going to Nara and Kyoto! OMG I WANT TO GO SO BAD!
I wanted to go to Utsunomiya on the 3rd with some other Inbounders, but I am too busy. That’s okay though, I love meeting other foreigners and that’s what is planned for the 3rd! Also, I met this really nice person who was a foreign exchange student to America a while ago today. She had wanted to meet me to speak English to me! And it turns out she lives in Tokyo, right by the Tokyo tower, and she goes to Ginza shopping. EVERY WEEK! And she invited me to go shopping with her whenever! I just have to say the word! Her parents live in Kuzuu and she visits them every few weeks or so for a few days.

THINGS ARE GOING SO WELL!
YAY FOR HAVING AN AMAZING EXCHANGE/LIFE!

Bottom Daisuki? Nan pahcento? 100% really?

Sorry! I can’t believe it’s been 21 days since my last update!! I’ve been so busy here, I’m finally settling into a nice rhythm. When I first got here my world flipped upside down, but it looks like I’m finally starting to flip upside down to match it; I am really starting to get a hang of things!

So here is an update of the past month:

I went to Tochigi’s Cultural Festival! It was on October 9^th. There were a whole bunch of booths set up with food and other items from different countries all around the world. I had so much fun! I got to wear a traditional Indian sari, which is that blue dress wrap I have on in this picture. Everything there was very low-priced, and most of the proceeds went to charities to help build wells and diffuse landmines. So I bought a lot of stuff!

I met some really interesting people there, too. There was one lady, from the Congo, who was not only a doctor but also spoke fluent French, Japanese, and English! Impressive, huh?! And I met a JET, (Japanese English Teacher,) who used to work at Seirantaito, (my high school.) His name is Don and he has a little half Japanese son named Billy who was so cute!

This is a traditional (either Taiwanese or Thai,) warrior outfit! They had me put on little bracelets with jingle bells on them, and taught me how to do the warrior dance! I have some footage of my dancing that I will put up on my next video blog. J

Oh but it was just terrible: there was a boy at the festival that was from North Dakota, and he was on an exchange program too, but had just arrived three days ago. You’d think that I, being a girl from Minnesota; (North Dakota’s eastward neighbor) and having arrived a month earlier would have a lot to talk about with this guy.

Not in English, anyway:

In the days and weeks preceding the festival, I had been really getting into the Japanese psyche and using consistent Japanese, and finding myself understanding conversations about 70%. So when I was abruptly confronted with breaking that cycle and talking to this guy in English, my brain did a flippy-flip and I couldn’t get my English to trigger. I couldn’t have a natural conversation with him. I kept unconsciously switching words into Japanese!

I haven’t forgotten English by any means at all. I can type this perfectly without having to think twice about it. It’s only that in order to switch between English and my broken-Japanese I have to make a conscious decision to change and it has to be premeditated by at least two minutes!

Oh crumb.

This picture is of me pounding the sticky rice! That mallet must have weighed thirty five pounds. Lol everyone in the background is so excited!

In other news, I have a cell phone thanks to Mr. Yoshizawa, my Rotary counselor. It’s such a fun time! I have the best time sending Japanese emails to my friends! So far, they haven’t been very deep or insightful, but hey; I’m a beginner.

“Fuyuchan! Genki? Ikebana wa tanoshii ne?”

“Matsujun wa Ohnokun yori kakoii desu!”

“Kiotsukete ne, Midorichan?”

I did actually have a decent sized email conversation with Miyuki the other day! We wrote about karaoke, Matsumoto Jun, Arashi, and going to karaoke together soon.

In Japan, text messages are called emails. Or, “e me-ru”. So far, I can’t seem to send emails to my American friends’ cell phones. It won’t let me, but I can’t understand why it won’t let me because the message telling me it won’t let me is in Japanese. LOL

If anyone reading this knows how to send an email/text message from a Japanese AU phone to an American cell phone number, I’d be extremely grateful.

Oh it’s so funny; every day when I walk through the front courtyard thing to get from the building with 2L1’s class to 2K1’s shodo class; like ten or eleven boys will lean out the window and get my attention and yell, “I LOVE YOU!” or something I think sounds like, “Ai shiteru yo,” to me and then run back in the class room.

WHY???

Baseball season’s over now, so I realized that I can’t refer to the guys in my 2K1 class by their baseball positions anymore!!!! J So I’ve been trying to learn names. The guy that sits directly in front of me’s name is either Owata or Outa. I’ve asked him already but he talks really fast, and if spoken quickly Owata and Outa have almost the same pronunciation!! Anyway, the guy that sits in front of him’s name is Kento. They used to be Seirantaito’s first baseman and Seirantaito’s pitcher. Lol.

But they’re all really nice.

Speaking of sports, I traded in volleyball for badminton! I actually stopped volleyball a while ago. It was really fun but the timing wasn’t right. I had only been in a Japan for a few days, still had jetlag, and needed all my energy for speaking Japanese and working out the new school. My arms being black and blue from wrist to elbow and so stiff I couldn’t write was just not in the cards at the moment! Practice was from 3:00 to 6:00! But now I’ve got energy to spare I’m not going to waste it! Badminton starts on Monday!

Today, in home ec., this girl fainted! It wasn’t that hot, around the low 70’s, so no one knows why she did, which is scary. But we ran and got the school nurse and gave them space, but still the girl was out for almost ten minutes. When she came to, she wouldn’t stand up or drink any water. But I don’t know what happened after that because we all had to go to the next class. I hope she’s okay!

Well, now you are pretty much caught up.

One last thing:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN BUNDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bottom Daisuki?

SORRY! I know it's been forever and a day but I've been so BUSY!
I will update a huge post either today or tomorrow after school with pictures and stories but now I'm at school so I don't have time!

But be ready! It will be super long!

My camera is fixed!!

I'm back!!

It's true! I got my camera back a few days ago! I've been taking lots of pictures, but I've been too busy with my video blog and school and everything to update here.

Right now it's 10:10 in morning, and I should be at school but all the kids are having a test so I have 3 hours of free time.

I love school! I'm making lots of friends, and I love my teachers. My Japanese is actually improving, too.

I might get to go to Tokyo soon! I have to give Eri a call when I buy my cell phone, (maybe today,) and then we will schedule a trip up!

I'm working on my new video blog, "A day in the Life", which will follow my life through a whole day of school. My classmates are really pumped to be on film! They are such funny people. I love my 2L1 girls.

Last week, I went on a trip with my host dad and host brother to the coolest place ever! It's called Coco Farm. It's this beautiful vineyard and winery that employs the mentally handicapped. It was built up this huge hill, and has flourished and become really famous. When I went there, one of the employees was friends of Tadaharu, and she gave me a book telling the history of Coco Farm, for free! I read it and it's story is really admirable. In the 1950s, this man decided he wanted to create a safe haven for the unemployable mentally handicapped, where they could find work and companionship. They started with a few hectares of land, mostly mountainous, and working together they cultivated it into a vineyard. Parents from all over Japan would come to Coco Farm with their disabled children, hoping to find a permanent residence for them. Soon, Coco Farm grew and grew in popularity and is now very famous.

This is me and Akihira in the display case with the wines!

This man is banging on a tin can to keep the crows away from the grapes.

That is the hill they planted the grapes on! It doesn't look that high from this angle, but look at the view from the top:

Isn't that beautiful?

My new video blog will be up next week, and I've got a new one up already!

Check it out!

Ill update more later!

-Jare

i'm alive!

Yeah, I know it's been centuries since my last post, but i've been very disenchanted with the idea of posting picture-less blogs.
(My camera is still in the repair shop.)
So I've started school! I have different hours every day of the week here, but they are all fun! Most of my classes I have with my homeroom girls: (2L1), but my shodo class, (Japanese Calligraphy), I have with boys, and my tea ceremony class I have with the 1L1 girls.
I love my homeroom. My teacher is Ebihara-sensei, lovingly referred to as Ebi-chan by all of her colleagues. Then there are my classmates; crazy, hyper, giggly, and tons of fun. They all got together and made me this special little pink book. It has all of their names, phone numbers, pictures, hobbies, and other little details in it. There were also little messages:

"I LOVE JAREMIE!"
"Hello. Were you used to school? I am like making better friends with you. Love, Yumi"
"I like cat."
"I play trumpet sax piano."

You get the idea. It was so adorable!
Yesterday was such a busy day for me! I've been wanting to get the Japanese version of Harry Potter ever since I met John at the Rotary Orientation last week and he told me all about his copy. So after school yesterday; I got on my bike, asked a random stranger where the library was, couldn't understand their answer,　guessed, biked wildly around Kuzuu for an hour, asked 5 more people where the library was, FINALLY FOUND IT, went in, registered for free, and borrowed Harry Potter. ALL BY MYSELF!

It's due back in 2 weeks.
Their are no limits to my awesomeness. LOL

But the excitement doesn't stop there. I had to be home from the library at 5:00 to go to the "Welcome To Japan, Jaremie!" party that the Rotary was throwing me. I walked in the door at 4:55, pretty punctual, if I do say so myself.
Then we all got ready and drove to the building. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!
There was this giant ballroom looking thing, and we got in, sat at a table especially for us, and the festivities began!
There was this giant banner that said, "WELCOME, JAREMIE!". I gave a little speech filled with a whole bunch of subarashi!'s, arigatou gozaimasu's, and tanoshii's!
(subarashii = wonderful)
(arigatou gozaimasu = thank you very much )
(tanoshii = fun)
The food was delicious. A gigantic silver platter loaded with sashimi (sushi without the rice and seaweed, aka just the raw fish), rows and rows of cake, heaping platters of fresh fruit, a section dedicated to just fried things, rice, and a huge variety of drinks. Also at every table was a dish with these little cookie sticks dipped in chocolate.
I stood up on the podium while all the Rotarians, (at this point most were quite drunk), came up and in their best english, (they had a competition going), greeted me and introduced themselves.
Also, I was presented with an ENORMOUS bouquet of flowers!!! And when I say enormous, I mean it was so heavy it required two hands and if held, it impeded your view because their was no way to hold it where it wouldnt cover your face. There were lilies, roses, sunflowers, little white things, (baby's breath, they might be called?), and so many other ones I couldn't name.
It made me feel so special!!!
I've never been presented with a huge bouquet of flowers like that. I was so overwhelmed by how amazing these people are.
Also, I recieved my 10,000 Yen Check.
So Im rich!

Everyone there had so much fun! One Rotarian stumbled on stage, grabbed the mic, and told everyone that he thought that it would be a good idea to throw a Welcome to Japan party next week. And the week after. And the week after. Every week!
Oh it was so fun.

Also, the only think Aki-kun ate were the chocolate cookie sticks. They were really thin, so about 60 of them fit in each dish, and he would grab them 6 at a time and eat them. He polished of 3 dishes before anyone but me noticed!
LOL.
Oh yeah, in Japan, they don't eat the skin on fruit. Even grapes. You are supposed to suck the grape out of the skin and then throw the skin away. Isn't that interesting?

OMG CALPIS!
I have to write something about Calpis.
It's pronounced Cah-do-piece-u, and its this chilled, vanilla-ey, yogurt drink sort of, except its not the texture of yogurt drinks. Its super super thin. Like ice water. And occasionaly bubbly. Ive never tasted anything like it in my life.
Do they have it in America? Ive never seen it. I hope they do!

Oh I love it here so so so much.
But if you're reading this, I probably really really miss you.

My camera should be fixed soon! That means more video blogs! And more pictures!

My next blog will be: "A day in the life!"

:)

seifuku! but no pictures because...

...my camera is broken. The lens won't open at all. So it's at a camera repair shop in Tanuma city. So you don't get pictures of my uniform. But I went and picked it up today! Or should I say: "them."
They gave me 2 skirts, 6 interchangeable tops, a sweater, a tie, a bowtie, 1 pair of leather mary-janes, 2 pairs of tennis shoes, a pair of running pants, a pair of running shoes, a windbreaker, a thicker running jacket, two matching gym tops, an outer jacket for my winter uniform, and a pair of heavy-duty slippers for walking indoors. And it's all embroidered with my japanese name!

シ"エレミ_
That's my name in Japanese.
Shi (soft) + E + Re+ Mi + _ = Jaremie!
They actually embroidered my name on all of my clothes.
In other news,
I joined the volleyball team! Practice starts on the first day of school.
Also, I went to a sushi bar!
OH MY GOSHHHH!
You sit at a little table and sushi goes around you on a conveyor belt and you just grab whatever you want for only 105 yen a plate! That's like a dollar a plate.
I HAD SO MANY SUSHI's!

my personal paradise

Video Blog is up!!!

Today I went to, honestly, the prettiest place I had ever seen in my ENTIRE life. And I know I’m prone to exaggerations, but that was me being modest about this place.

Earlier that morning, I had mentioned to Noriko-san how much I loved the mountains, and how much I would love to climb them. So she took me and the kids out to this meadow that was surrounded by mountains on every side! And there was a little river, and an old bridge, and tons and tons of wildflowers.
It literally took my breath away. I got out of the car, took one step out, and my breath caught in my chest and I forgot about breathing. That’s how beautiful it was. I can’t even describe it in words, so here are more pictures:

I felt so small and insignificant next to the centuries-old mountains. Which, to quote The Hush Sound, are “like sea-glass, so weathered and worn.” And also covered in trees. And moss.
When I first decided on going to Japan, 90% of my reasoning was to see the mountains. I wanted to see the moss-covered stones and the dense trees because to me, the green on green on green is the picture of beauty. Well, I got my wish x9,000,000! I have never seen anything so beautiful. EVER.

With my wicked amazing camera skills, and my equally amazing camera, (LOL), I attempted to capture the beauty of it, but your missing the feeling of intense humility, the pressure of the fog, the smell of the air, the birdsongs, the cold breeze, and the full panoramic view. Oh well, you should just come to Japan. And visit me!!
Japan is a paradise! (So there, Pop. I called it a paradise. Lol)

In other news, I went to my school today! It was nerve-wracking. About 10 Japanese adults were all in a conference room, just for me!!! They gave me a packet of information on the school, my schedule, and a bunch of personal business cards. (In Japan, you hand out business cards when meeting new people.) I also got my uniform fitting. KAWAII, ne???????? A pleated plaid skirt, a sailor shirt, a blazer, black patent leather Mary-Janes….oh we’re in deep now, Jare. And I got a gym uniform! With 2 pair of tennis shoes! So you don’t have to send my shoes, Pop. If you already have, though, thanks!
I pick up my uniform on Friday, and I also get a tour of the school then. Well, a more complete tour.
GUESS WHAT? Not only is Seirantaito both a boy and girl’s school, but I had the best news ever confirmed: Seirantaito is a slacker-school, to put it politely! The kids there just want there diplomas so they can get a decent job. No college aspirations! That means that they just take it easy and have fun all the time!

YAAAAAAAY!
My school counselor told me that. So it’s official. Like, the school is officially a school for kids who just want to clown around.
HOW DID I GET SO BLESSED?
- I never thought there was a family as cool as mine until I met the Komagatas. (Well, they come pretty darn close.)
- I’m living in the most beautiful tropical paradise ever!
- I have my own room and bathroom!
- My host-mom is a good cook!
- My school is co-ed!
- It’s a slacker school!
- I’m actually progressing in my Japanese, really fast!
- I stocked my freezer with green tea ice cream from Haagen-das!
- I’m so happy!
- My little brother and sister get along with me SUPER!
- Back in America, I’ve got the best family and friends and dog waiting for me!
- NOT ONLY AM I ACTUALLY IN JAPAN, WHICH WAS JUST A FAINT HOPE ONLY EIGHT MONTHS AGO, BUT I’M HERE FOR A YEAR AND IT’S MORE THAN THE PERFECT SITUATION!
Kay, so I’m done “happy-ranting”. Lol
Oh, and communication with my host parents is great! We sat down, just the three of us, yesterday, and had a really great talk! They said that it was most likely that their house was in the best condition of my host families, and if I wanted to stay there, I could for the whole YEAR!!!!! Also, they told me that I should use less internet, (one hour per day) because although I was trying to keep it down, I had been spending several hours making these blogs!
So what I do is make them on Microsoft Word when I go to bed, and then it only takes a few minutes to copy and paste them over when I have internet access in the afternoons.
I go to bed at 8:30, and then I have time to myself until I fall asleep at 10:00.
No internet access, but I can “compute” as long as I want up here!
Which is totally fair and awesome!
You know what I just realized? Months ago, I had this idea that I wanted to go to Japan, for a long time. It seemed like a crazy, insane, long shot. I mean I’m 16 years old, 15 at the time, we're not insanely rich or anything, how on Earth was I going to go to Japan?
Guess what?
I’m in Japan. For a long time.
I’m a pretty awesome kid, if I do say so myself.
It be extremely egotistical of me to take full credit. If I hadn’t prayed for it every day since the idea materialized in my crazy head, it wouldn’t have happened. Oh, and the Rotary club and my parents had a little something to do with it too.
LOL.

Jaremie-san ga daisuki! (Genjin Festival Pt. 2)

Hey I'm back!

The 2nd part of the Primitive Man festival was about a billion times cooler than the first! We left when it was just starting to get dark, and they did this thing where they light a whole bunch of candles, and then arrange them in the shape of the outline of a caveman. They also spelled out, in Kanji: "Primitive Festival, Kuzuu, 2008"

We had to climb up a really tall building in order to properly see the fireworks. And to make things even cooler, we put on these fantastic 3d glasses that turned every light source you looked at into a heart!!! I have never seen anything so awesome in my whole life.

It was so cute: Aki-kun and Michica held my hands the whole night so they wouldn't get lost in the crowd!!!

Awww.

And there was this Rotarian, and he was a little...drunk. LOL. And he was so sweet! And he laughed at everything. EVERYTHING. This big hearty guffaw. Anyway, he bought me and the rest of the family each this roast trout!

The man on the left is my host-dad, the one on the right is the slightly drunk Rotarian!!!

Except it was entirely whole.

Fins, eyes, gills, tailfin, dorsal fin, scales...
And I ate the whole thing!

And then I ate a crepe. Which was entirely normal. And really delicious.

I had so much fun!

The best part of the whole day was Aki-kun's "Jaremie-san ga daisuki!!"

"I love Jaremie!"

AWW

Genjin Matsuri! Pt. 1

I went to the Genjin Matsuri today!

It's the Primitive Man festival, where people dress up in caveman costumes and have fireworks displays. We went for a few hours today, and we are going back tonight, and also tomorrow!

Here are some pictures!

Guess which one I am, guys?? LOL

Okay, so Japanese children's television is absolutely CRAZY! I can't even describe it. It's that crazy. It's something everyone has to watch before they die.

Pikachu wants you... to follow the Japanese Food Pyramid!!!

I'm not talking about Pokemon. What I was watching was far more severe. I was sitting down drinking ocha, (tea), when this...erm....outstanding citizen, popped up on the screen:

And as soon as he did, little Aki-kun came bolting in at full speed, and sat down right at the screen and started giggling. To be fair, he is really really funny. Just a little weird.

I saw my high school yesterday! Seirantaito Koko. There were kids there too, playing volleyball and other sports. Even Judo. I might join a sports team. It'd be a precedent for me!! Just kidding.

It's a beautiful school. I wish that I would have taken pictures, but Michica-chan had my camera. She wants to be a journalist, and ever since I showed her how has been videotaping every minute of everyday, with a little Michica commentary along with it. :)

We also went to her elementary school, and I tried unicycling! I failed.

Also, they have the most insane playground at Michica's elementary school. This climbing structure towered 20 feet above my head. Seriously. And they had about 10 unicycles for the kids to ride on, and this stepping-stone like set up for the kids to jump across, except that the stones were actually upright logs, like in Mulan.

After that, we walked home.I'm working on my first video blog, trying to make it less boring right now. It's hard. There's an awful lot of talking on it.

I live in such a beautiful area! Here's some pictures:

Those are some of the mountains that surround Sano City! I took this walking home from the dentist's.

More mountains!

My house!

I just got done making my first Japanese meal! Noriko-san is away at a PTA meeting, so I was charged with making breakfast!!! Todaharu-san left me instructions on how to make tamago-yaki, which is Japanese-style omelet. To make tamagoyaki, you put 2 eggs in a mixing bowl, then put in 3 spoonfuls of brown sugar. To finish it off, you add a little tiny amount of cooking alcohol! It was oishii!

Those two kids are so cute. Today, they were fake sleeping, waiting for me to wake them up! Todaharu told me; "diffeecurut for me to shpeak engrish, but- ahhhhh, akihira and michica....ahhhhh, pretendu, want you to, ahhhh, wake them up. they prray game-u." He actually speaks very very good English. Much better English than I speak Japanese. I shudder to think what my Japanese sounds like to them.

LOL

Michica and I just washed breakfast dishes. We had a routine down: when I needed to get to the left side of the sink, I would say, "Change-u" and we would switch spots. Then we she needed to get to the left side of the sink, she would say "Change-u" and we would switch spots again.

Aki-kun is practicing his hiragana.

He is copying from the Geinjin Matsuri Poster. That's the Geinjin Festival, that happens today!

Happy is well-trained. Michica takes billions of pictures of him, and as soon as I turned my camera on, he ran over and sat directly in front of it and cocked his head and froze!!! I was a little shocked, but he just posed like that for almost 30 seconds. Then I took a picture of him and then pet him! I mean her. Happy is a girl.

Oh yeah! I had my first earthquake yesterday! We were eating dinner, and then I heard a boom! And I just thought it was thunder, but we all had to get under the table. Interesting, though. Nothing was broken or even mildly disturbed. It was a little one. I was asked if I get many earthquakes in Minnesota. They were so suprised that we don't get any!

Well, I am gonna call it quits for this blog.

But whoever reads this should send me mail! And other stuff!

My address is on my Myspace.

I really need: money! American candy! A phone book from Monticello so I can send people stuff, and money!

I have 78 dollars in yen left. That should do me over for a while.

BYE!

chasing the sun

I'm here!

My flight- it was long. Ridiculously so. But I spoke Japanese to some Koreans so it was fun! Oh, I have a slightly embarrassing but really funny story: I had to use the toilet on the plane, and the steward let me in the bathroom. Well, just as I was washing my hands, the power went out in the bathroom. That freaked me out, but it got worse when I couldn't open the door because I was pushing, and the door said "Pull" but I couldn't read it because the light was out. And the plane was taking off. I had to yell and the stewardess had to help me!

It wasn't my finest hour.

It was so interesting though: I got on the plane at 3:05 PM, but we were chasing the sun, so to speak, so even after eleven hours the sun hadn't changed position in the sky. I arrived in Tokyo at 2 in the morning, Minnesota time, and it was still 5:05 PM where I physically was. Weird, huh? We also flew over the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Ocean. It was so amazing!

When I arrived at Tokyo, I got off of my plane, and had to go through security and customs and all of that. Waiting for me at the end of security was my 2nd host family! They had a sign that said: "Welcome to Japan Jaremie Forsman!"

They took me out to sushi, and I ate ikura, which is raw salmon egg! It's that cluster of bright orange balls in the picture.

My Japanese is coming along swimmingly, if I do say so myself. I've been only communicating in Japanese since I've come here, but that does put a limit on my communicating. :)

But through a combination of body language, context, and my limited vocabulary and nice big smile; I've been able to carry a conversation nicely.

I absolutely love my host family. Akihira is four, and he is really energetic and cute. Then Michica is nine, and she's been helping me with language and things. Then my host parents Noriko and Todaharu are really sweet and funny.

Michica's birthday is April either 13th or 30th, I'm not sure yet.

I don't know Todaharu's yet, and Noriko's is February 7th.

Akihira's birthday is December 26th.

Here's a quote from my host mom, referring to the placement of Akihira's birthday: "So much cake! Too much cake! 24th CAKE! 25th CAKE! 26th CAKE!"

L.O.L

So funny.

We went shopping at a shaku-en shoppu, a 100 yen store. It's like a dollar store, but it's the size of a department store! I bought some shampoo and conditioner, and also toothpaste and some Japanese candy.

Oh man, they have YELLOW watermelon!!??

In a few days, the Meinji festival is going to happen. Akihira and Michica are extremely excited for it. I don't exactly know what it is, to be honest.

I am having the time of my life here in Japan. I miss you all, but just know that I am so happy and am learning so much, even my first day!

And my city is absolutely beautiful! It's surrounded by mountains, and they are dark green and covered in lush trees and vegetation. There are also a bunch of houses, all skewed about in no order whatsoever!!! I love it!

I'll update more later!

I have some Japanese Children's television to delve into at the moment!