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!"

:)