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!

host families!

Today was the best day ever. First, my mom, sisters and I went to the Mall of America to do some last-minute shopping! I bought a T-Shirt and this really cute, salmon-colored knit hat; and some gifts for my host family. Speaking of host families, I got my first e-mail from them! It was written by my host-father. His name is Tadaharu Komagata. He is 50 years old and has a line manufacturing company. My host mother is his business partner, too. Her name is Noriko. They have two children, too. Michica, his daughter, is nine years old. And Akihara, his son, is four.

That's a picture of them, with their dog; Happy. Aren't they cute? And just look at the background of their picture. Those trees look like sakura trees, and they are absolutely beautiful!

I am so blessed! :)

That's Happy, the dog. She might be one of the cutest little dogs I've ever seen! Isn't my host family wonderful?

two days left

It's officially Sunday today. That means I have two days left before I leave for eleven months! I have never had more emotions running through my head at the same time as I do now.

Excitement-I can hardly eat. I can't sleep, I break out in random giggles and songs. I'm constantly hyper, and all I can think about is Japan.

Apprehension-My stomach is clenched and seems like it can't contain the butterflies that threaten to explode out of it. I lie awake for hours running over checklists, worst-case-scenarios, etc. And sometimes I get random bouts of Acid Reflux.

Sadness-It seems like everything I look at will be for the last time. Last meals, last car rides listening to Bright Eyes at full volume, last Wal-mart runs, last adventures, last HUGS. I just have to remind myself that I'm coming back. The year will fly and soon I'll be lonely for Japan! I'm going to grow as a person, learn a language, and meet people I will love.

Exhilaration-This is the most pronounced feeling. It goes along with excitement, but to a much much higher extent. I get adrenaline rushes that last for the longest times, I feel like I'm rising to meet this challenge head on and I'm going to conquer it!

Overwhelmed-edness?-I have only two days left, and still I have to buy gifts, pack, set up the webcams, get some last-minute shopping in, say goodbye to more people, mentally prepare myself, clean my room, and trim Lokie's toenails *(which is no small task).

Gratitude-If I hadn't prayed for this since September, it never would have happened. And I owe so much to the Rotary clubs that have put countless dollars and hours into this for me.

How can one person feel all that at the same time???
Oh yeah and I got a haircut. :)

i will be sure we shake the mountains while we dance

While I admit this has nothing to do with Japan, I want to suggest to whoever is looking for musical enlightenment to check out The Hush Sound.

They've slowly been creeping up my list of favorite artists, and might just have taken the lead. The girl singer, Greta Salpeter, has the most amazing vocal range I've ever heard in my life! They're a classy, pop-punk band under either the Fueled by Ramen label, or Decaydance records; I don't know which.

You could go to Wikipedia to find out the rest of their bio, so I'm not going to waste time copying and pasting. What I am going to do is rave about why I love them so much!

Their music is beautiful and complicated, with haunting melodies and catchy choruses. I don't know how to put my finger on it, but their songs, especially off of their "Like Vines" album, remind me of the Mediterranean countries; with vines and villas and grapes.
If you are new to the tidal wave of awesomeness that is The Hush Sound, you should watch some of the below videos and see what I mean!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r6MFfMEziE
"Wine Red"
Arguably their most famous song, before "Honey" came out anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQQvgC4IYI&feature=related
"Molasses"
I think this one might be my favorite song that they do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIhuxCSMY4
"The Boys Are Too Refined"
This one has been stuck in my head ever since I heard it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntyEuaO0Nnc&feature=related
"Hurricane"
One of their softer songs, sung beautifully!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5avW7Bw-1tA
"You are the Moon"
I think this was the first song I heard from them.

If you watched all of those videos, you are awesome! If you only have time to watch one, then you're simply not going to get the full picture.
They are an extremely talented new band, and I hope they get really really famous, it would be a waste of incredible musical prowess and skill if they didn't.

goodbyes

It's the 11th today. I leave in seven days, twelve hours, thirty-one minutes, and fourty-two seconds! I've had to say goodbye to so many people already. On Thursday the 7th, I went to Valleyfair with Justin, Taylor, and Ryan. It was really fun!

Then we had a going-away party for me and Patti; and Brett and Charles got me some Pokemon stuff as a present! Actually right now, I'm watching the season that they bought me. Pokemon is ridiculous! I love it so much. If I never grow up, that'd be okay with me.

"I wanna be the very best, that no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause. I will travel across the land, searching far and wide, each Pokemon to understand, the power that's inside."

LOL

It's so hard to say goodbye to everyone. I'm going to miss them so much! Especially my little dog, Lokie.

It's so hard to not know if she's okay 100% of the time. I bought her two years ago, and she's my responsibility. She's so little and she causes so much trouble!

And then there's Diana, my best friend in the entire world!!! We are sarcastic, and rude, and cynical, and absolutlely hysterical when we're together. I'm going to miss sitting on the park bench with her wondering why everybody else isn't as cool as us and making plans that usually don't work.

Wow, this is the hardest part of the entire trip! Saying goodbye. I still feel like I have an infinity before I leave, but it's only 7 days away!