Well, it's been a busy and exciting two days. I guess three now. Monday I went to school for the first time, but only half a day to sort of be shown around, yesterday I had my first day of actual classes, and after that I went to my first Rotary meeting.
I bike into school, which takes about 10 minutes, and it's pleasant. At least now, when the weather has been decent. So far, I have been biking in with my host sister or dad, but I hopefully know the way by now. Today one of my classmates biked home with me, so that was nice. I love my class. They have all been super helpful and nice, and seem older than I expected. They are second year high school students, which I believe is like 11th grade, or Juniors, which is good so they won't graduate on me part way through. I already have a few friend dates set up :) Japanese high school is three years. It's set up so that we mostly stay in the same room with the same people all day, and different teachers come. The schedule of classes is completely different everyday, so that's confusing. So far I've been having a lot of math and science classes, which is good because I can understand equations at least, while I understand nothing in classes like geography. I'm excited for home economics where we'll cook and stuff. Today was something to do with clothes, and I was so confused. My classmates do their best to help me though, which is really nice. P.E. is interesting, and definitely less intensive than Uni P.E. They do a lot of stretching, and currently the sport is jump roping! Like with big ones that two people hold. I'm definitely improving, and it's amazing how much of a workout it is. They all assured me that being pink in the face is cute, as tends to happen to me to an embarrassing extent, but I'm not sure about that... The gym has a big stage at one end, and doubles as an auditorium, and it was interesting that to change for P.E., everyone just sort of found places backstage. P.E. is gender segregated. It's been a little intense, so I might cut some classes out and get free time.
It's a good school, Kenmei Gakuin, with nice facilities, in a complex with the elementary and junior high school. The uniform is a pain though, although it doesn't look too bad. The girls wear ties or bowties. But there are four different pairs of shoes (inside gym shoes, outside athletic shoes, inside school shoes, and going to and from school shoes)! That's very annoying because most of the girl shoes don't go above a 7, and I'm size 8, so I have to have boy shoes which are too wide and definitely more masculine looking. And they didn't have my size in a number of the other pieces of clothing, so for the next couple weeks I have to wear a winter skirt, which is way too hot. Oh well.
Kenmei is very into cultural exchanges, through Rotary and other programs, frequently sending their students on exchange, often to Australia, and taking students in. Right now there is a girl from Australia named Gabbi, who has been here for 6 months and has 4 more, a boy from the US who I haven't talked to yet, and a girl from Indonesia who will be here for three weeks. There might be other ones, but I'm not sure.
School clubs are very big in Japan, and most people stay until 6. Today I toured a number of clubs, and was served tea at the Japanese culture club, but I'm not sure what I want to do yet. Right now, I don't want an intensive one that has to practice all the time. On Friday I'm supposed to be visiting some sort of Japanese fighting club, so we'll see about that one.
There are all school meetings on Tuesday mornings, and I was told I would introduce myself next week, so I was a little taken off guard when I was told to go up to the front, but I've been surprisingly not nervous lately for all these mini speeches, even though I'm normally not exactly into public speaking. Maybe it's because I'm talking in a different language, from some of the sentences my host mom helped me make about being excited about Japan.
Those came in handy again at my first Rotary meeting after school on Tuesday. My club is much smaller than my home club, with only about 20 people, mostly old men and some women. I gave my Japanese intro, then talked briefly in English about my hometown, but I'm not sure how much got
across. It was at a nice hotel, and we had an artful dinner. The meeting got a little weirder and more amusing as the old men drank more alcohol. One began gleefully doing card tricks for my host sister Mayuko and I, who was nice enough to come, and they were actually pretty good. One man said he would take us to somewhere with delicious food, since hotel food isn't that great, and that he used to like taking older women out, but now he likes younger ones because they're more easily surprised. My favorite was this very old man, quite pink in the cheeks, who I think had been to Illinois and knew it has a lot of soybeans, who said, "Wait! She needs a nickname! Lets call her Miss Soybean!!", and insisted on that for a while. But then I told them my lovely new school nickname, "Buri-chan," which is better than Miss Soybean but will take a little while to get used to... As entertaining as it was, Mayuko and I were glad to finally leave.
I'm looking forward to going to school tomorrow, because the people are so awesome, but we'll see how long that excitement lasts... I have to go to school on Saturday, which is definitely not cool, as I am still not a morning person and that leaves only Sunday to sleep in :(
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Life in General
Whew now that I finally wrote about Nara I'd like to talk about my life here in general, so I don't have to message everyone individually. On that note, to my lovely friends, don't be offended if I don't get back to you much. I've found that whenever I become immersed in something English, like a conversation with a friend, my book, or a show on TV in English, I forget where I am and it's a shock when I hear people speak Japanese or "Buriana?" and remember that I can't actually understand most of what people are saying. I need to keep my head in Japan and stay focused. However, I'll still do my best to blog :)
My household is currently in summer mode. I have four sisters- two in college, one in high school, and one in elementary school, and none have started school yet. I start tomorrow, and I'm pretty nervous. My host mom helped me make a short speech in Japanese, though, which was really nice. Mostly everyone just hangs around during the day reading or watching TV or something, and I've been working on Japanese. Before we went camping, it was very hot and humid, and they don't really use A/C, so that was unpleasant. Everyone always had an iced drink in hand. I've noticed that they drink lots of coffee or watered down coffee, at every meal and throughout the day. Sometimes we eat together, and sometimes separately, usually in the kitchen watching TV, which is almost always on. I'm loving all the Japanese food, which surprises them, because apparently most exchange students don't like things such as seaweed. Oishii ^_^ I wasn't too thrilled when they got McDonalds though. Last night we made takoyaki, which I think are specially associated with Osaka. They're little round dough balls filled with some herbs and octopus pieces, and they're really good and fun to make. Note to outbounds: help with the dishes and whatever household chores you can!
Other things- I cannot get over how tiny the streets are! Often they're just wide enough for two cars to pass if they both go all the way onto the shoulder. Around my house, the streets barely fit one car, and you have to have exact timing and go onto the curb a little to make it around corners. The Japanese are definitely masters of compact- the roads, cars, houses, everything. It was strange to go into my room and not have a bed, instead folding out a sleeping pad that takes up the whole room at night. Definitely a more efficient use of space, but not as comfortable as a real mattress. Also interesting was my pillow at Nara, which was filled with hard little beads. At first when I laid my head on it, it felt like a rock and I made no impression on it, but when I made a dent with my hands, it held my head nicely and kept the shape all night. Old-fashioned tempurpedic, I guess.
My family is Buddhist, so I'm excited to learn more about that. I briefly saw their neighborhood temple, but we only stayed for a few minutes. They have a beautiful shrine in their house, and before we left for Nara they lit some candles and all kneeled in front of it, chanting in unison in fast monotone voices. It was really cool and powerful. At Nara there were these water station things outside of a temple, and they taught me the ritual of washing your hands and feet. This was really useful when I pulled a Brittany, breaking my flip flop and skinning my toe, right next to one.
Also, I'm going to learn traditional Japanese dance! I just went to my sisters' weekly lesson, and it looked really cool. They wear yukatas and kimonos and everything. The sensei was a super nice and smiley woman. Apparently I was not as much of a robot as most exchange students their first time, so hooray.
My household is currently in summer mode. I have four sisters- two in college, one in high school, and one in elementary school, and none have started school yet. I start tomorrow, and I'm pretty nervous. My host mom helped me make a short speech in Japanese, though, which was really nice. Mostly everyone just hangs around during the day reading or watching TV or something, and I've been working on Japanese. Before we went camping, it was very hot and humid, and they don't really use A/C, so that was unpleasant. Everyone always had an iced drink in hand. I've noticed that they drink lots of coffee or watered down coffee, at every meal and throughout the day. Sometimes we eat together, and sometimes separately, usually in the kitchen watching TV, which is almost always on. I'm loving all the Japanese food, which surprises them, because apparently most exchange students don't like things such as seaweed. Oishii ^_^ I wasn't too thrilled when they got McDonalds though. Last night we made takoyaki, which I think are specially associated with Osaka. They're little round dough balls filled with some herbs and octopus pieces, and they're really good and fun to make. Note to outbounds: help with the dishes and whatever household chores you can!
Other things- I cannot get over how tiny the streets are! Often they're just wide enough for two cars to pass if they both go all the way onto the shoulder. Around my house, the streets barely fit one car, and you have to have exact timing and go onto the curb a little to make it around corners. The Japanese are definitely masters of compact- the roads, cars, houses, everything. It was strange to go into my room and not have a bed, instead folding out a sleeping pad that takes up the whole room at night. Definitely a more efficient use of space, but not as comfortable as a real mattress. Also interesting was my pillow at Nara, which was filled with hard little beads. At first when I laid my head on it, it felt like a rock and I made no impression on it, but when I made a dent with my hands, it held my head nicely and kept the shape all night. Old-fashioned tempurpedic, I guess.
My family is Buddhist, so I'm excited to learn more about that. I briefly saw their neighborhood temple, but we only stayed for a few minutes. They have a beautiful shrine in their house, and before we left for Nara they lit some candles and all kneeled in front of it, chanting in unison in fast monotone voices. It was really cool and powerful. At Nara there were these water station things outside of a temple, and they taught me the ritual of washing your hands and feet. This was really useful when I pulled a Brittany, breaking my flip flop and skinning my toe, right next to one.
Also, I'm going to learn traditional Japanese dance! I just went to my sisters' weekly lesson, and it looked really cool. They wear yukatas and kimonos and everything. The sensei was a super nice and smiley woman. Apparently I was not as much of a robot as most exchange students their first time, so hooray.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Nara Trip
Hello! I meant to write this a couple days ago, but stuff happens. Anyway, last week my family went camping for three days at Nara, a couple hours drive from Osaka. For everyone who was wondering, no, it wasn't exactly camping, which I was having a hard time imagining. We were in a pretty nice two-story cabin, in a complex with other cabins, but it was made out of logs and had a nice woody scent, so I guess that's enough to qualify it as "camping." And there was a grill on the porch, so we could make some traditional "camping food" from the large camping recipe book. Still, it was very fun and soo beautiful. We were up in the mountains, so everywhere I looked there were wonderful views. I'm having difficulties uploading pictures onto here, but I'll see what I can do. I may just put them onto Facebook, so if you're friends with me you can see them.
Our cabin was set on this beautiful mountain river/stream, which was clear and cold and a pretty blue shade from a distance. We spent a couple hours there every day, swimming and trying but failing to catch fish. It was very fun and good bonding time with my host sisters. One day after leaving the river thoroughly chilled, I was finally able to appreciate the genius of the Japanese bathing system, since it was too hot in Osaka to take a bath (right now thankfully it has been raining so these past couple days have been much cooler). In the bathroom there is a deep bath with a cover that retains heat well, next to a showering station with a stool and shower hose at about waist height. First you efficiently wash, then are free to relax in the hot bath without having to worry about cleaning and getting the water all dirty. At home, usually even if I want a bath, I'm too lazy to wait for it to fill up, but here it's usually already filled and waiting, so there's no reason not to soak. Yes, everyone uses the same water, but it's really not that bad because everyone is freshly washed.
Anyway, back to Nara. One morning we went on a hike. They told me the trail was 2.4km one way, and that the whole hike should take a couple hours. I thought, "Wow, a couple hours to walk three miles? They must be really slow." Then they all brought little towels for sweat and these candies for replenishing salt. Again, overkill, I thought. Turns out the 2.4km was straight up a mountain, and we were all soon drenched with sweat. Even so, the woods we went through were lovely and the view when we got to the top was breathtaking. But next time we went out, I followed their example and brought a little towel.
The first night after dinner, I was dying to play cards, because for me, camping simply requires cards. So I was very happy when they brought them out! This family is great. I learned some new games and found they play BS but call it "dauto" (doubt), so that was interesting.
On our last morning (which was confusing because they had told me we were staying another night, so when my sisters packed up their stuff I'm glad I followed suit), after swimming in the river and taking 3 minute public showers, we visited some nearby caves. There were mostly just lots of little stalactites, and a little shrine with some animal bones that were apparently a thousand years old? But I don't know if I understood that correctly. But when we came out of the caves we had this wonderful snack at the little lodge outside. It was these clearish sweet jelly cubes, dusted with I think a powdered peanut mixture, that we ate with toothpicks. Sooo good.
After that we returned to Osaka, which I determined from the GPS since I still thought we were possibly staying somewhere else, and it was sad to leave the mountains and return to the bustle and heat of Osaka. But I'm sure I'll grow to love it here!
Our cabin was set on this beautiful mountain river/stream, which was clear and cold and a pretty blue shade from a distance. We spent a couple hours there every day, swimming and trying but failing to catch fish. It was very fun and good bonding time with my host sisters. One day after leaving the river thoroughly chilled, I was finally able to appreciate the genius of the Japanese bathing system, since it was too hot in Osaka to take a bath (right now thankfully it has been raining so these past couple days have been much cooler). In the bathroom there is a deep bath with a cover that retains heat well, next to a showering station with a stool and shower hose at about waist height. First you efficiently wash, then are free to relax in the hot bath without having to worry about cleaning and getting the water all dirty. At home, usually even if I want a bath, I'm too lazy to wait for it to fill up, but here it's usually already filled and waiting, so there's no reason not to soak. Yes, everyone uses the same water, but it's really not that bad because everyone is freshly washed.
Anyway, back to Nara. One morning we went on a hike. They told me the trail was 2.4km one way, and that the whole hike should take a couple hours. I thought, "Wow, a couple hours to walk three miles? They must be really slow." Then they all brought little towels for sweat and these candies for replenishing salt. Again, overkill, I thought. Turns out the 2.4km was straight up a mountain, and we were all soon drenched with sweat. Even so, the woods we went through were lovely and the view when we got to the top was breathtaking. But next time we went out, I followed their example and brought a little towel.
The first night after dinner, I was dying to play cards, because for me, camping simply requires cards. So I was very happy when they brought them out! This family is great. I learned some new games and found they play BS but call it "dauto" (doubt), so that was interesting.
On our last morning (which was confusing because they had told me we were staying another night, so when my sisters packed up their stuff I'm glad I followed suit), after swimming in the river and taking 3 minute public showers, we visited some nearby caves. There were mostly just lots of little stalactites, and a little shrine with some animal bones that were apparently a thousand years old? But I don't know if I understood that correctly. But when we came out of the caves we had this wonderful snack at the little lodge outside. It was these clearish sweet jelly cubes, dusted with I think a powdered peanut mixture, that we ate with toothpicks. Sooo good.
After that we returned to Osaka, which I determined from the GPS since I still thought we were possibly staying somewhere else, and it was sad to leave the mountains and return to the bustle and heat of Osaka. But I'm sure I'll grow to love it here!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Arrived!
Well, here I am laying on my futon, in Japan. (!) The flights went smoothly, and I had a nice seat-mate who went through Narita with me. I surprisingly saw Robyn Cler in the airport, a fellow outbound to Japan from my home district. We had come on different planes, but my gate to Osaka and hers to Nagoya were next to each other and leaving around the same time.
My meeting with my welcome group was decidedly awkward. My first and last host families were there (I think I'll have four), one of my high school teachers, and my Rotary counselor and his wife. First, I came out of a different door than the one they were waiting at. Then, I couldn't think of anything fitting to say in Japanese, and only a few spoke English. But they were very encouraging of my attempts, and I'm glad I learned as much as I did.
We drove home, and Osaka definitely seems like a pretty big city. I noticed there were random vending machines on the streets, even in the neighborhoods, which was interesting. The home is traditional, with lots of tatami mats and sliding screen doors. I have my own room upstairs, with a futon I lay out at night to sleep on. My family is all really nice, and laugh easily, and sometimes I understand why! My oldest sister, Mayuko, is pretty fluent in English since she went to Canada through Rotary, so that's helpful.
So far, so good!
My meeting with my welcome group was decidedly awkward. My first and last host families were there (I think I'll have four), one of my high school teachers, and my Rotary counselor and his wife. First, I came out of a different door than the one they were waiting at. Then, I couldn't think of anything fitting to say in Japanese, and only a few spoke English. But they were very encouraging of my attempts, and I'm glad I learned as much as I did.
We drove home, and Osaka definitely seems like a pretty big city. I noticed there were random vending machines on the streets, even in the neighborhoods, which was interesting. The home is traditional, with lots of tatami mats and sliding screen doors. I have my own room upstairs, with a futon I lay out at night to sleep on. My family is all really nice, and laugh easily, and sometimes I understand why! My oldest sister, Mayuko, is pretty fluent in English since she went to Canada through Rotary, so that's helpful.
So far, so good!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
3 Days!
Hello, everyone! As you probably know if you are reading this blog, I am about to embark on a year abroad as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Osaka, Japan. I leave in only 3 days, and I still have a lot to do (eek)! My Japanese is... minimal, and all my contacts in Japan keep telling me how terribly hot and humid it is over there, but still, I am incredibly excited to begin this adventure. I will do my best to keep you all updated throughout the year.
See you in Japan!
See you in Japan!
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