Today was my second day of school. The trains are starting to get more crowded even though in the mornings I always catch the 7.02 to either Minamirinkan or Sagamiono to transfer to Sobudaimae. I learnt the art of rushing to transfer trains today. Because I was meeting everyone at Sobudaimae to walk together because we all think the bus is a rip-off/we can’t afford it, I had to do my amazing dash across the station. I was pretty much running and got in right as the doors were closing. It felt kinda like an action movie. Not really. But I’m getting fit here. Now that I’m walking to school I spend roughly 80minutes walking total a day.
In class I have someone I consider a friend, her names Akiko and she’s really nice. She always comes to explain what the teacher said. Because it’s really hard for me to understand because my teacher talks so fast and the class talks so loud. I’m going to ask her tomorrow if she wants to walk to school with us sometime. Back to my misbehaving class, I’m so shocked. Auctually. I never would of thought Japanese were like that. A couple of people even made phone calls during class. Onto another note of how naughty my class is, one of the stricter teachers was in, a kid was eating. She took his food. When she wasn’t looking he took it back and ate it.
Anyway at school it was a half day for my year and the year above but the exchange students had to stay for the bukkatsu (club) orientation. Although not everyone stayed (*COUGH COUGH* angela), I was going to leave to because no one told me about it until time stopped me. Anyway the orientation was kinda pathetic. Afterwards we got to walk round and look at the clubs. I looked round at the art, photography, cooking and English club (because my friend from class asked me to come to it). I also looked at the sports clubs, I’m thinking I wont join one because there all like 7days a week training for hours on end. Surprisingly table tennis club trains the most of any club. I’ll be doing enough physical activity at school anyway ontop of my hours of walking (its pretty much a run half the time). Judo is a compulsory subject at the school. I’m glad I have atleast some knowledge of it. Just on a side note this class made me laugh; Food Decoration Class. Anyway I’m still deliberating on which club to join.
Me and Zoe walked to the station together because Angela left early and tim stayed with the tennis club meeting. Well we didn’t really make it anyway. Some how with what seemed like a 10minute walk we managed to end up ages away. I think we were walking for close to an hour. Mainly because we were constantly stopping to ask people which way to make sure we didn’t get more lost. I called my host mum to let her know that we’d taken a wrong road and would be slightly late. She was fine, probably because Zoe’s pretty much fluent in Japanese so getting directions was easy and Japans pretty safe in general.
Tomorrow me and the other exchange students are to study Japanese in the library while all the Japanese kids are doing exams or something allday.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
First Day of Shcool and Machida
Wahhhh, first day of school!!!!!! Out of all the exchange students I was the only one who was early/ontime. Everyone else showed up 10-15minutes later. We sat round in talked in some room we were told to sit in until we were to do our speeches to the teachers. It was actually a lot of fun just getting to know each other. The speeches with the teachers went allright I didn’t make any real errors as far as I know. After that we went to the school hall for an assemblr full of speeches we couldn’t understand, and then our own which I’m pretty sure they couldn’t understand (well mine anyway). After that we were taken to our home rooms. Tim and me are in the classes next to each other while Angela is in another building and Zoe is god knows where. In form class they went on about a lot of stuff that I couldn’t understand. I got worried when they pulled out time table stuff and I didn’t know what was going on. After class I talked to my teacher and he said not to worry and something about next week. I don’t quite know what, but everything will be just fine.
Anyway about my school, I thought it was going to be lax, but this school is.. like the epiphany of laxness. The girls break just about every standard rule that I know of.
-No Makeup (these girls weren’t just wearing light makeup)
-No earings (one girl had her whole ear full of them)
-No hair dye (A lot of them had brown hair, a few had blonde or other coloured streaks)
-No cellphones (half the students were just blatantly using their phones in class and the teacher didn’t care)
Apparantly other classes are much the same, the uniforms worn VERY casually. I excentuate the word VERY. Once again VERY casually. Everyones friendly and I’m sure Im going to have an Amazing time here.
After school finished at about 12.30 me and the other exchange students walked to Sobudaimae station. Its further than my station I usually get off at but within walking distance so I save 200yen not taking the bus versus the 60yen extra it costs to get home from sobudaimae. Anyway when we were their those who didn’t have obentou made for the bought lunch and ate together. We then decided that we were going to hang out for a bit so I called my host mum to check this was ok. We then took the train into outskirty Tokyo area but It was still mall after mall and high rises. Yet only 10minutes from our deserted school area. It was pretty cool. I had the most amazing time with them we all get on so well and we’ve known each other like a day. I know I should be hanging with Japanese students but I don’t know any yet, although we did invite some people from our school to come with us but they were “busy”.
Me and Angela got slightly confused at the train station. Mainly me making sure she was on the right train because she’s only been here four or so days, anyway we all managed to get on the right train home and yeah. It was awesome. I have to decided whether I want to walk with everyone from Sobudaimae Station to School tomorrow, I’ll see how I feel in the morning.
Anyway about my school, I thought it was going to be lax, but this school is.. like the epiphany of laxness. The girls break just about every standard rule that I know of.
-No Makeup (these girls weren’t just wearing light makeup)
-No earings (one girl had her whole ear full of them)
-No hair dye (A lot of them had brown hair, a few had blonde or other coloured streaks)
-No cellphones (half the students were just blatantly using their phones in class and the teacher didn’t care)
Apparantly other classes are much the same, the uniforms worn VERY casually. I excentuate the word VERY. Once again VERY casually. Everyones friendly and I’m sure Im going to have an Amazing time here.
After school finished at about 12.30 me and the other exchange students walked to Sobudaimae station. Its further than my station I usually get off at but within walking distance so I save 200yen not taking the bus versus the 60yen extra it costs to get home from sobudaimae. Anyway when we were their those who didn’t have obentou made for the bought lunch and ate together. We then decided that we were going to hang out for a bit so I called my host mum to check this was ok. We then took the train into outskirty Tokyo area but It was still mall after mall and high rises. Yet only 10minutes from our deserted school area. It was pretty cool. I had the most amazing time with them we all get on so well and we’ve known each other like a day. I know I should be hanging with Japanese students but I don’t know any yet, although we did invite some people from our school to come with us but they were “busy”.
Me and Angela got slightly confused at the train station. Mainly me making sure she was on the right train because she’s only been here four or so days, anyway we all managed to get on the right train home and yeah. It was awesome. I have to decided whether I want to walk with everyone from Sobudaimae Station to School tomorrow, I’ll see how I feel in the morning.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Shcool Tomorrow
So today I did not really a lot that’s of particular wow factor. Anyway I got up, my family were algone except my host mother who left like half an hour later. Heres where they went; Grandmother-Hakone Onsens, Host Dad; Work, Host mum and two brothers; some school ceremonies or something, Other host brother; University.
Any who I used that free time by myself to write my school speeches for tomorrow. Which I’m pretty sure I wrote poorly because it took my host brother forever to fix it all. I think he was being over pedantic though. This is better and so is this but I’m very thankful for his help so people don’t think I’m retarded tomorrow.
My host brother returned round 12o’clock ish with a group of his friends. One of his friends goes to my school, is in the same year as me, and in the class next door to mine (apparently). That was good though because I’ll have one face that I know at school.
I also got my uniform today, everyone was shocked I got it the day after ordering. I was shocked cause they couriered it. I assumed we would have had to pick it up. I realised I don’t know if the school has shoe regulations which I suspect they do. Anyway I’ll just wear my black shoes as they’ll be the most suited if the school uses school shoes. I’m sure they won’t mind on my first day, I’ll just say I don’t have any cause I wasn’t expecting to get my uniform so soon. I could just wear mufti but I want to wear my uniform. I promise I’ll have a picture of me in it tomorrow.
Anyway dinner was just typical Japanese meal, lots of vegetables, miso and rice.
Im getting nervous for school now, hope all goes well.
Just by the way I have to get up at like 6.00am so that’s not to bad I guess.
Any who I used that free time by myself to write my school speeches for tomorrow. Which I’m pretty sure I wrote poorly because it took my host brother forever to fix it all. I think he was being over pedantic though. This is better and so is this but I’m very thankful for his help so people don’t think I’m retarded tomorrow.
My host brother returned round 12o’clock ish with a group of his friends. One of his friends goes to my school, is in the same year as me, and in the class next door to mine (apparently). That was good though because I’ll have one face that I know at school.
I also got my uniform today, everyone was shocked I got it the day after ordering. I was shocked cause they couriered it. I assumed we would have had to pick it up. I realised I don’t know if the school has shoe regulations which I suspect they do. Anyway I’ll just wear my black shoes as they’ll be the most suited if the school uses school shoes. I’m sure they won’t mind on my first day, I’ll just say I don’t have any cause I wasn’t expecting to get my uniform so soon. I could just wear mufti but I want to wear my uniform. I promise I’ll have a picture of me in it tomorrow.
Anyway dinner was just typical Japanese meal, lots of vegetables, miso and rice.
Im getting nervous for school now, hope all goes well.
Just by the way I have to get up at like 6.00am so that’s not to bad I guess.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Uniform, Fish and Calligraphy
Today I woke early so I could go down and get fitted for my uniform. I was pretty exciting. But not the whole paying for it part. Anyway It was allright, a few measurements and trying on some things. It was a bit awkward because my head pretty much stuck out the top of the changing room. Compared to everyone here I am quite tall. Today I realised if I was 5cm taller Id have to duck to get through my bedroom door. At the uniform store they had a lot of other things in the downstairs level, little samurai type shrines for the home and such.
After that we returned home for a quick lunch of instant ramen, we then headed down to the Mr Max Mall for some shopping. Me and my host brother went to look in the pet section of the store we were in for fish tanks. The fish we caught in Kinyo Sukui were all at the top gulping for air in the tiny bowl we put them in. But boy I have to say fish and their aquariams are pretty cheap in Japan. I think my family paid the equivalent to $40NZ for a decent sized tank which came with and air bubble thing. Now heres the thing which really shocked me, you can buy the salt water tropical fish here for less than 2000円 ($30NZ) and like 50 gold fish for some ridiculously cheap price. The clown fish were like $20NZ. It was crazyyy.
For dinner we had a very traditional meal. It was sorta like what we normally have but I just had a fried fish skin and all still on (no guts) and some tofu thing. The fish smelled pretty bad but was actually nice. I still don’t quite like tofu. Just doesn’t make me go yummmmm.
For the rest of the night we all did calligraphy because my host Mum was making some signs for the nyugakushiki (new student ceremony) at my little host brothers school. It was really fun. My host family were all really good especially my host Grandmother. I was crap. To be expected though.
School starts in two days so yay!
After that we returned home for a quick lunch of instant ramen, we then headed down to the Mr Max Mall for some shopping. Me and my host brother went to look in the pet section of the store we were in for fish tanks. The fish we caught in Kinyo Sukui were all at the top gulping for air in the tiny bowl we put them in. But boy I have to say fish and their aquariams are pretty cheap in Japan. I think my family paid the equivalent to $40NZ for a decent sized tank which came with and air bubble thing. Now heres the thing which really shocked me, you can buy the salt water tropical fish here for less than 2000円 ($30NZ) and like 50 gold fish for some ridiculously cheap price. The clown fish were like $20NZ. It was crazyyy.
For dinner we had a very traditional meal. It was sorta like what we normally have but I just had a fried fish skin and all still on (no guts) and some tofu thing. The fish smelled pretty bad but was actually nice. I still don’t quite like tofu. Just doesn’t make me go yummmmm.
For the rest of the night we all did calligraphy because my host Mum was making some signs for the nyugakushiki (new student ceremony) at my little host brothers school. It was really fun. My host family were all really good especially my host Grandmother. I was crap. To be expected though.
School starts in two days so yay!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Soccer Match
Today I woke up like 9.30 ish. I don’t know why that’s relevant. I think it’s just because I know that I woke up around 9.30. Anyway after that I played half an hour of xbox with Rei and Kazunari. Afterwards Kazunari left for his friends house. I then helped my host Mum prepare lunch which was Ramen. It was yummm.
Afterwards I watched some sort of watching clips of people suffering/embarrassing themselves show show. One of the funnier parts was that they had some Martial Arts experts smashing full beer cans with his fist. They had cans which were loaded so in the ended he was struggling to even dent them. It was the same for an American football play who was breaking through sheets of glass until they had one made of thick plastic. It made me laugh.
After watching that I helped my host mother make some of the dishes for dinner, One was a noodle dish and the other was konyatsu. I must say konyatsu it pretty weird looking. I thought it was jelly fish at first. I don’t think I have photos of either. Because my host mum forgot to serve the konyatsu until midway through the meal and my noodles were to the side. For desert I tried mocha for the first time. It was more sweet than I imagined it would be. I wish I’d taken a photo of it. After dinner while I was doing the dishes I got a call from Nigel (my dads best friend who lives here in Japan, pretty close to where I am). Someone else did my dished for me, I was gratefull but I would of done them after the call.
Just to make the order of this entry confusing I’m jumping back to before dinner time. Anyway after talking to Mum and Dad on the phone me and my host mum headed off to the sports taiikukan where my host brother was playing his soccer game. We picked up my host mums friend. Just on a side not while I’m thinking of cars, NO ONE here wears their seatbelt in the backseat. Its so weird. Especially with how crazy the roads are. And no cyclists wear helmets either. When arriving my host mum introduced me to a lot of her friends who were at the sports match. I met my host mums “bad friend” who isn’t actually a bad friend. She was an English teacher so she said it in English I forgot the Japanese word for it. It basically just means a friend who you can do good things with and bad things with. I can’t actually comprehend either of them doing anything overtly wild to be honest.
Throughout the games I was progressively given a variety of lollies by the women in between their what looked to be like typically gossiping. Once the games were over all the mums (and dads) began sweeping the area, It does get kinda dirty cause they play on dirt pitches. Then the coaches dragged these massive brooms over the dirt till it was very smooth dirt. I had my first major attention circle thing at the sports arena. One of my host mums friends was talking to me and got her child to do a self introduction to me, then a whole bunch of mothers gathered round wanting their kids to introduce themselves to me and practice English. Most were too shy.
Anyway another amazing day in the land of Japan
Again if your interested in pictures please visit my other blog.
lifeinjapan.tumblr.com
Afterwards I watched some sort of watching clips of people suffering/embarrassing themselves show show. One of the funnier parts was that they had some Martial Arts experts smashing full beer cans with his fist. They had cans which were loaded so in the ended he was struggling to even dent them. It was the same for an American football play who was breaking through sheets of glass until they had one made of thick plastic. It made me laugh.
After watching that I helped my host mother make some of the dishes for dinner, One was a noodle dish and the other was konyatsu. I must say konyatsu it pretty weird looking. I thought it was jelly fish at first. I don’t think I have photos of either. Because my host mum forgot to serve the konyatsu until midway through the meal and my noodles were to the side. For desert I tried mocha for the first time. It was more sweet than I imagined it would be. I wish I’d taken a photo of it. After dinner while I was doing the dishes I got a call from Nigel (my dads best friend who lives here in Japan, pretty close to where I am). Someone else did my dished for me, I was gratefull but I would of done them after the call.
Just to make the order of this entry confusing I’m jumping back to before dinner time. Anyway after talking to Mum and Dad on the phone me and my host mum headed off to the sports taiikukan where my host brother was playing his soccer game. We picked up my host mums friend. Just on a side not while I’m thinking of cars, NO ONE here wears their seatbelt in the backseat. Its so weird. Especially with how crazy the roads are. And no cyclists wear helmets either. When arriving my host mum introduced me to a lot of her friends who were at the sports match. I met my host mums “bad friend” who isn’t actually a bad friend. She was an English teacher so she said it in English I forgot the Japanese word for it. It basically just means a friend who you can do good things with and bad things with. I can’t actually comprehend either of them doing anything overtly wild to be honest.
Throughout the games I was progressively given a variety of lollies by the women in between their what looked to be like typically gossiping. Once the games were over all the mums (and dads) began sweeping the area, It does get kinda dirty cause they play on dirt pitches. Then the coaches dragged these massive brooms over the dirt till it was very smooth dirt. I had my first major attention circle thing at the sports arena. One of my host mums friends was talking to me and got her child to do a self introduction to me, then a whole bunch of mothers gathered round wanting their kids to introduce themselves to me and practice English. Most were too shy.
Anyway another amazing day in the land of Japan
Again if your interested in pictures please visit my other blog.
lifeinjapan.tumblr.com
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Endless Xbox and Table Tennis
Today was a pretty normal day, I got up late. My host family often don’t get up to like 10 at the moment, except the adults in the house. Again no photos because there wasn’t really anything to photograph.
For breakfast I had toasted sandwiches fried eggs and some apple that my host Grandmother cut all fancy. After that I proceeded to spend a long time with my younger host brother Rei playing halo 3. We managed to win “normal” difficulty this time. When then took the dog for a walk.
For dinner we had a prawn stirfry, I’m finding a lot of things that I hated in New Zealand I now like. One thing I’m still not particulary fond of is wakame. My host family always puts heaps in their miso, thus I end up with a lot. It’s supposed to be super healthy though so my sufferance will possibly be rewarded. I should say though that its not unbearable, it just not nice.
After dinner I played table tennis with my Host family members who were home. It wasn’t really table tennis. We just put up the mini set that Rei bough from the 100円 store on the table. My host Grandmother and brother (Kazunari) stopped playing after a good 20minutes. Me and Rei played together for a good 30-40 minutes. He’s such a funny child, I was doing the whole “pretend I’m going to hit the ball super hard thing” so he decided he would to. He ended up throwing the bat at me when he went in for his “super hard pretend swing” luckily he missed.
For breakfast I had toasted sandwiches fried eggs and some apple that my host Grandmother cut all fancy. After that I proceeded to spend a long time with my younger host brother Rei playing halo 3. We managed to win “normal” difficulty this time. When then took the dog for a walk.
For dinner we had a prawn stirfry, I’m finding a lot of things that I hated in New Zealand I now like. One thing I’m still not particulary fond of is wakame. My host family always puts heaps in their miso, thus I end up with a lot. It’s supposed to be super healthy though so my sufferance will possibly be rewarded. I should say though that its not unbearable, it just not nice.
After dinner I played table tennis with my Host family members who were home. It wasn’t really table tennis. We just put up the mini set that Rei bough from the 100円 store on the table. My host Grandmother and brother (Kazunari) stopped playing after a good 20minutes. Me and Rei played together for a good 30-40 minutes. He’s such a funny child, I was doing the whole “pretend I’m going to hit the ball super hard thing” so he decided he would to. He ended up throwing the bat at me when he went in for his “super hard pretend swing” luckily he missed.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Mr Max mall and Kinyo Sukui
Today I went to the Mr Max mall with my host family. It didn’t look very big. But it was quite deceiving. I bought a school bag today. It was quite exspensive. I wanted something that wouldn’t be to big or a nuisance when trying to squeeze onto the train. My host mum said my line gets really crowded. Mind you, everythings crowded here. We had to wait like 30-40minutes for a table for lunch today, we went to a restaurant called “(some stupid English word) buffet”, It made me laugh also because they call beffet’s Viking (baikingu). I don’t know why.
After lunch my host family took me to try “kinyo sukui” which is scooping fish with the really thin paper nets. People were surprised how well I did. I caught four fish before my net broke. I was only allowed two though. I think you must only be allowed to keep half of what you catch cause my host brothers caught two each and were only able to keep one. The games addictive too. I really wanted to go again. But I’m pretty sure my host family doesn’t want a million goldfish or to wait for hours for me to catch them.
For dinner tonight we had hamburger patties with salad and soup and rice. It was good. Im still not keen on the soup though It has like egg in it and it looks like runny snot and tastes odd. Also tonight my mum and host sister are packing up her things because she’s leaving for university tomorrow. Meaning I’ll get my own room soon. I also opened my school uniform package tonight because I’m going to school tomorrow for an orientation. It didn’t fit and had some items missing, my host mum called JFIE for me and found out it was a JFIE owned uniform so I can see if the school has one in my size, I’m hoping they will.
After lunch my host family took me to try “kinyo sukui” which is scooping fish with the really thin paper nets. People were surprised how well I did. I caught four fish before my net broke. I was only allowed two though. I think you must only be allowed to keep half of what you catch cause my host brothers caught two each and were only able to keep one. The games addictive too. I really wanted to go again. But I’m pretty sure my host family doesn’t want a million goldfish or to wait for hours for me to catch them.
For dinner tonight we had hamburger patties with salad and soup and rice. It was good. Im still not keen on the soup though It has like egg in it and it looks like runny snot and tastes odd. Also tonight my mum and host sister are packing up her things because she’s leaving for university tomorrow. Meaning I’ll get my own room soon. I also opened my school uniform package tonight because I’m going to school tomorrow for an orientation. It didn’t fit and had some items missing, my host mum called JFIE for me and found out it was a JFIE owned uniform so I can see if the school has one in my size, I’m hoping they will.
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