Japan!!!!!!!!

Welcome To my journal of my AFS Trip to Japan!! I'll try to update as much as possible(weekly) but I really can't guarantee anything. -_-;

Have fun reading about my adventures in Japan!!!!


P.S If you want me to send pictures to you, please give me your E-mail address. ( Just want to avoid trouble ^_^;)

Asakusa




Disney Castle.
I took this picture while on the disney resort train line going towards Disney sea.




Harajuku street sign.

More pictures!!! ( Livejournal wouldn't let me post anymore on the previous one soo....)




( my second design 1/25/07)



( the really cool roller coaster in Tokyo dome City. It actually goes through the center-less ferris wheel too! ^_^)



( this has nothing to do with my most recent post, but I saw this at Disney Sea and I thought it was funny ^_^)

January 11

Nothing much happened today except I started the flower arrangement club!! you can see the pictures of my flower designs at the end of my post!

January 13

I went to the glay concert today! ( Glay is one of my favorite bands) It was AMAZING!!!! They were sooo good and the fans were soo energetic. I wish I could go see it again!! ^_^ AHHHHH!!! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

January 14

I had to go to the AFS farewell orientation. We had to write a thank you notes to our host families. While I was writing the note it finally hit me that I was going to go home soon. time goes by so fast... ;_;

January 19

My school had an english festival today! I was an MC, but I didn't find out about it until the monday before the festival...-_-; but at least I could speak in english haha. ^_^ the english festival program included: the english projects the sophomores made ( Commercials, speech, sing along, story telling, and two plays(one was a cross between annie and a popular japanese comic. the second one was based on Heidi) and then we watched the movie " Mother Theresa" I really enjoyed the english projects, especially the commercials and the plays!

January 20

I went to Tokyo Dome City today with my friends Yukino, Emi and John. Tokyo Dome city is an amusement park, spa and shopping area that surrounds the Tokyo dome, which is a large stadium. They actually had a cosplay convention while we were there. ( Cosplay is when people dress up as their favorite anime/manga(japanese comic) or game character) It was kind of cool to see! after a little while, John's friends came to hang out with us for a bit. ^_^ after they left, we went to do karaoke, which was a lot of fun! ^_^ Today was a lot of fun except for the part where John got drunk...-_- i wouldn't have cared if he was a quiet drunk... BUT..... he wouldn't stop talking....-_-; but luckily he didn't drink too much so he was sober in a couple of hours. phew!

January 21

I went to Odaiba with my host family. We went to go to the glay store there. There was a necklace that I wanted but sadly, every store sold out on the first day. ;_; after that we walked around some of the malls and went into the Fuji Tv building to look around. Fuji TV is one of the main T.V channels in Japan.


Well that's it for today!!!!!



( my first flower arrangement!)


( different angle ^_^)

あけましておめでとう〜！！！！！！！＾＿＾(akemashite omedetou)(ah-kay-maa-she-te oh-may-day-toe)


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^

Sorry for not updating lately!!!! I’ve been busy lately…;_; anyways….

December 7


I went to Disney Sea with my friends Yukino and Emi. Disney Sea is a Disney attraction that is only located in Japan. It was a lot of fun!!! Since I went there in December, Disney Sea had a Christmas theme. The decorations were really nice!!!

They had a lot of rides like:

Indiana Jones Andventure:

And The Tower of Terror:


December 9

I went to Ginza and Shibuya with some AFS Friends. We went to Ginza to see the sony building. After that we went to Shibuya and looked around. We took some purikuras, which was fun, but the problem was that the instructions were written in Japanese( Kanji ) which was really hard to read so we just pushed some buttons on the screen hoping that it would end up being nice. Haha ^_^;

December 12

My birthday!!! But sadly didn’t do much since I had school and I got home late. I got some nice present from my host family and friends! ^_^

December 19

Today my school made omochi (Japanese rice cake). (omochi tsuki ( oh-moe-chee tsoo-key) It was really interesting to watch. Kids from the kindergarten joined us, and they were really cute!! Since there weren’t enough seats, the children had to sit on the high school students’ laps. The little girl sitting next to me found out I was American and said, “ hello! Nice to meet you!” Which was amazing because she was only 5. I actually participated in making the omochi. It was definitely different, but it was fun! After that, some of the students prepared an omochi bean paste soup called oshiruko ( oh-she-roo-koh)

The dish consists of omochi and sweet bean paste called anko. It was really good but extremely sweet.

December 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I didn’t do anything special( since Christmas isn’t really celebrated in Japan). I went to a Party hosted by my host sister’s English program. The kids were cute, but the party was pretty boring…. -_-

December 29

I went to Yokohama’s chinatown with Yukino, Maki, Aki, and John. It was nice since I was able to see more of the Chinatown this time. We decided to take some purikuras when John and I saw the best game ever…. Inu no osanpo ( ee-noo no oh-sahn-poe) which is a dog walking game. John and I decided to play it and I must say it was actually pretty hard since you have to avoid obstacles such as bikes, cars, bad food, etc. after that we ate lunch and decided to look at a couple shops. The weirdest thing I saw was bags with Rastafarian babies on it and one store had pudding shaped like breasts……… yea… Anyways…after that we went to Karaoke which is always fun.

Well that’s it so far, hopefully I’ll post more frequently hehe….


じゃあまたね！！！


Vocabulary:

おてあらい／トイレ＝　Otearai ( oh-te-ah-rai)/ toire ( toe-ray)= bathroom
　
おいしい＝　oishii (oh-ee-shee) =delicious

＿＿＿をください＝　＿＿＿＿ o kudasai (___ oh koo-dah-sah-ee) = please give me______

＿＿＿をおねがいします＝　＿＿＿ o onegaishimasu (oh oh-ne-gah-ee-she-mahs) = please


いまはなんじですか。＝　ima ha nanji desuka. ( ee-mah wah nahn-jee des-kah)= what time is it now?

Cultural corner:



Shibuya:

Shibuya is one of the 23 wards of Tokyo. It is known as a place to get fashionable clothing.
What’s there:

Meiji shrine: Shinto shrine near Harajuku.

Yoyogi park

Shibuya 109 : known as ichi maru kyuu ( ee-chee mah-roo keyuu) meaning 1 0 9. It has a lot of trendy clothing and accessories.

Hachiko crossing: Hachiko crossing is an extremely crowed cross section in Shibuya. It’s actually quite famous.

Shibuya is one of my favorite places to go in Tokyo. It has a lot of things for you to do and is extremely lively.

Hachiko:

Hachiko is a famous dog in Japan. He was known for his loyalty towards his owner. Everyday he would see his owner off to work and would always be waiting for him to come back. Even after his owner passed away, he would wait for his owner at the train station. He followed the same routine for 11 years. Because of his loyalty he became very famous through out Japan. Eventually a statue was made for him and was placed in Shibuya.

For more information about shibuya and hachiko:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiko

Sorry i haven't updated lately. ;_; I've been preparing for my japanese proficiency test that's this sunday....-_- I think I'm going to fail......

anyways... On with the show..er... post.

My school festival


The entire school participated in the festival( kindergarden, elementary, middle, and high school) the festival lasted for two days and started and 10 and ended at 4. Each class had different exhibitions. My class' theme was あっぱれ！日本〜！(admirable japan). We had displays about the Tokyo Tower, miyazaki/chibli( spirited away, my neighbor totoro...etc.) , japanese horror, different sight-seeing attractions, and guiness book of world records.

There were different kinds of shows, food, snacks, and drinks. There were many different kinds of shows( ball room dancing, volunteer dance, brass band, different sports games, etc.) but I could only make it to a few of them. There were also shows that only visitors and college students could attend( any show that was in the college building of the school's campus) , so I missed out on those. We also had a famous actor come to do an interview for a talk show and had a singer come to perform her new songs, but high school students were not allowed to attend... ;_;

I was free for both days so i was able to go to the elementary school building. they displayed their artworks they made over the school year. It was really cute ^_^ they made chairs, green peppers, lettuce and cherry blossom trees.

The college building had many different interactive activities. I took a lie detector test, but the college student couldn't read the graph haha... there were also a bazaar shop, which was pretty cool. On the second day the college students had a flea market.

I've heard a lot about school festivals and it was really cool to actually experience one ^_^!

Tuesday ( november 14th)

Since the school festival was on saturday and sunday, we had tuesday off. I was supposed to go to disney land, but I ended up getting sick. ;_; but luckily, on December 7th I'm going to go to Disney Sea, which is a disney attraction that is only in Japan, so I'm excited about that!

Thursday ( November 23rd)

I went to kamakura with my first host family and my host sister. Kamakura is know for their shrines and temples. I went to three of them and after that we went to yokohama's china town for dinner. when we arrived at yokohama, the first thought that came to mind was that it really reminded me of chicago. China town was suprisingly clean.... it was amazing.....I think it's the cleanest China town I've ever seen! anyways, dinner was really good!!!

well that's it for now!!!! I'll try to send you guys pictures!


Useful words:

買い物＝かいもの＝shopping
かばん＝bag( kah-bahn)
くつ＝shoes( koo-tsoo)
シャツ＝shirt(sha-tsoo)
ズボン＝pants(zoo-bon)
とけい＝watch ( toe-kei)









Kamakura= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakura%2C_Kanagawa

Today I had an AFS barbeque event. It was fun, but I thought it was a little too long. ( 11:00- 3:00) It was amazing how the students that are staying for the whole year are already pretty much fluent!!! I hope I will be fluent in Japanese by the time I leave!!!! after the barbeque, My host family and I went bowling. I got a turkey!!!( three strikes in a row) and my highest score was 133! My host family is really good at bowling!!

NOt much is going on now sadly...but my school is preparing for their school festival. I've heard about school festivals so I'm really looking forward to seeing it!!!!!!

ja ne！！！

Words of the day:

駅＝eki=station ( eh-key)
タクシ=takushi=taxi(tah-kuu-she)
バス=basu=bus(bah-sue)
でんしゃ=densha=train(den-sha)
しんかんせん=shinkansen=bullet train(shin- kahn-sen)

Cultural facts:

It is okay to slurp (noodle soups ex: ramen or udon)

Don't stick your chopsticks in your rice. ( people only do it when someone dies)

The bathroom and toilet are in different rooms.

when using the toilet, you must wear different slippers( toilet slippers)

When taking a shower and bath, you must shower first then you can enter the bath.

On saturday I stayed over with my first host family. It was a lot of fun! My host mother and I went to a place called Kichijoji. It's really far from my new house, so I don't go there often anymore, so it was nice to visit Kichijoji again. I love that place!! ^_^ Kichijoji is an area like shibuya , except a lot smaller. there's a small street that's lined up with different kind of stores and restaurants. If anyone of you guys ever go to Japan I suggest you go to Kichijoji.

On Thursdays (26th) I had my first school club practice. I joined the kendo ( Japanese sword fighting) and Flower arrangement club. I'm going to do the kendo club for two months and the flower arrangement for two months. Foor the first two months I'll be joining the kendo club. It was not the first time I've ever done kendo, but man, was it intense!!! I'm so sore now!!! -_-

Not much happened since the last time I posted. so until next time!

ja mata ne!!!


Words of the day:

ありがとう= arigatou=Thank you ( ah-ree-ga-toe)

はい= hai=yes ( ha-ee)

いいえ= iie=no ( ee eh) ( pronounce the ee a little longer,otherwise you'll be saying house!)

食べ物＝たべもの= tabemono=food ( tah-beh-moe-no)

飲み物＝のみもの = nomimono= drink ( no-mee-moe-no)


I'm a little tired today so I'll post two cultural lessons next time!


Gomen nasai!!!!

I just saw an ad for a car that can parallel park itself......







I LOVE JAPAN!!!!!!!!

I just got back from my school trip. It lasted for about 6 days. I really enjoyed it, but I thought it was a little too long. The school trip is basically going to school in a different campus except you stay over night and and there are some fun things to do.

Friday:

My grade and I left the school around 9 o'clock and arrived and the school's other campus around 12 o'clock. I had no classes but the other students did. One of my teachers showed me around campus and then we decided to watch Mad Hot Ballroom. I really enjoyed the documentary! Bath time was really awkward for me though. In the campus, there was a shower area ( which I didn't know about at the time) and a big shower room where about 34 girls would shower in at the same time. I was surprised when I walked in but since we only had about 15-20 minutes to shower I had to hurry up and join them. I have to say it was really awkward and I definitely did not like it. So the next day I asked the teacher is there was anyway to shower by myself and she told me about the shower area and gave me a shower pass!! Thank God!!!!!!!

Saturday:

All the classes my class had were english classes. I brought a book along so while they were studying I read a book that I brought with me. after classes we had this candle ceremony where each student would volunteer to share something on their mind.

Sunday:

It's a tradition in my school to go to the sea, catch fish and then cook it and eat it. We caught a LOOOTTTTTTT of fish with a big net. We even got some squid! The students will then kill the fish and slice it to grill or they would just eat it as sashimi. I was grossed out by the killing/ cutting of the fish so I lost my appetite and couldn't eat much. after fishing we had a home economics class. We learned how to make an angel cell phone charm. it's soooooo cute!!!!!! ^_^

Monday:

We had an excursion day where we went to a shrine/park. I was sightly disappointed because from what they told me I thought we were going to more than one place, but I was wrong. The shrine was pretty small but it was interesting. After that we just basically had free time. I played badminton and watched clueless.

Tuesday:

I had another english class where we watched a movie about world war II. I was soo tired that I fell asleep..... ;_; after that class, I had another home economics class where we just smoked cheese and eggs.
after home ec. we had a mini sports day. it was fun but My class got 3rd place ( out of 4) After the sports day we did a dance called maimu maimu. Basically, you hold hands with eachother and spin around in a circle and eventually everyone runs into the center of the circle. I really don;t understand why we do it, but it is fun. One of my friends explained to me that it makes more sense when there are boys around ( especially your crush, since when you run into the center you have a chance to be together)


wednesday(today):

We had to clean the campus today and after that we went back to our school and went home.


Oh!! I've decided that after each entry I would teach you guys some useful japanese words and phrases and teach you about japanese cultural facts and tidbits. You don't have to read this part of the entry but I thought it would be interesting for you guys.

here is how you pronounce the vowels in japanese:

A= Ah
E= get
O= oh
I= we
U=soon

Words of the day:

おはよう（ございます)= ohayou (gozaimasu)=Good Morning (oh- ha-yo go-za-i-mas)

こんにちは=konnichiwa=Good Afternoon (co-nee- chi- wa)

こんばんは=konbanwa=Good evening ( co-baan- wa)

ごめんなさい= Gomen nasai= Sorry ( go-men na- sa-i)

すみません= sumimasen= excuse me; sorry ( suu-mee- ma- sen)

Cultural lesson:


Purikura ( poo- ree-koo-raa)

Purikura is REALLLLLLYYYYY popular in japan, especially among girls. (Boys do take purikura but not as often as girls. actually, a man by himself is not permitted to go into the purikura section of an arcade. He must be accompanied by a girl or multiple boys).
It's a special type of photo booth.

In order to take purikura, there are four steps.

1: insert money. the price ranges from 200 yen ( ~$1.70) to about 400 yen (~$3.40)
2: Select backgrounds ( can be just colors or it can be scenery, depends on which purikura booth you pick)
3: pose for pictures
4: there are two sections in the photo booth. after taking pictures in one section of the booth. you enter the other section and there is a touch computer screen where you can customize your picture any way you want it.
( You can write what ever you want, and you can add anything you want.)

Just wait for a minute or two and your photos should be done.


Purikura booths can be in arcades, but there are places just for purikura. It's a big area with about 20 different kinds of booths.( each booth has a special feature. for example, one has seasonal backgrounds or one can take multiple images of you in one picture, etc.)the walls are lined with pictures of famous japanese idols. The background music is either famous japanese pop songs or up-beat techno music.


Of course being a girl in Japan. I have taken a couple of purikura. It's actually really fun!!! the customization possibilities are endless!!!! if anyone of you guys decide to go to japan, I suggest taking at least one purikura!


until the next post, ja mata ne!!!!!! ( see you later

Saturday:

after school I went to my firend`s calligraphy exhibition with a couple of her friends. It was very interesting and the artworks were really good!!

Sunday:

Today was the sports day which the school has been preparing for for months. It started at 8:30 and ended at 3:00. The school is divided into two teams(red and white) and I was on the white team. It was a lot of fun to watch and I took a lot of pictures! I participated in three events. One was tug of war. My team lost the first time but we won the second time!! The second event which I participated in was a half time dance. a group of people form a circle and hold hands and runs in a circle and when the music stops everyone has to run to the center. When the music starts again you do the same thing. after a while another song starts and many people form small conga lines and the people in the front of the line had to battle each other by playing rock-paper-scissors. the loser had to join the winners conga line. The last event I did was like tug of war except there were about 20 small ropes and you had to get as many as you could to your side. We ended up losing though...;-; In the end, the white team lost. ;_;

Monday;

I went to Harajuku with two of my friends. Harajuku is actually pretty small, but it was fun though. We shopped for a bit and after that we went to do some karaoke. I was soo nervous.. haha... I tried to sing some japanese songs but...I sucked.. I kept getting 76. It was hard to read the japanese because there were soo many kanji characters( chinese characters) that I didn`t recognize!! The song books at that karaoke -place were HUGE!!!!!!!! they had so many different kinds of songs. ( Japanese, english, and korean) I had a lot of fun! I hope I can do that again sometime!!!


That`s all that happened so far!!

ジャね！！！(bye)

Sorry for not updating!!! ^_^; I`ve been pretty busy with school, moving and I also had a really bad cold....

Last sunday I moved to my new host family. My first family`s mom is having some family issues that she needs to take care of. Her parents live in a different island. Anyways, My new family consists of a mom, dad and a 14 year old daughter. They`re really nice and I think I`m going do to jsut fine here. Though I miss my　first host family. ;_;

The weather changes all the time here. It`s amazing!! One day it can be soooooooo hot and humid and the next day it can be sooooo windy and cold. Recently, it`s been raining for two days straight and today has been incredibly windy! I think that a typhoon might be heading this way... yay....

My school is currently preparing for a sports festival, I don`t really get to participate in it but I`m practicing with them anyway. The sports festival is a huge school event where they do multiple relay races and other group games. We had a rehersal the other day and it was really entertaining. They have so many different games! Since my school goes from Kindergarden to College, everyone except for the college students participate. The younger kids do simple relay races( They do two legged races and push a cart with a teddy bear in it towards and around a flag. It`s sooo cute!!>_<) and the older kids do running relay races and other games! I`ll send pictures of it!! During the sports festival, some selected grades perform different dances through out the day. My grade is going to do a baton dance. I`m not going to perform with them but I`ve been practicing with them and it`s actually kind of hard ^_^; I`ll have to show you guys pictures of that too!

I recently got a cell phone here and it`s AMAZING!!!

Here`s a list of what I can do with my phone:

I can watch TV on it

I can listen to the radio.

I can use it as a MP3 player

It has a built in navigation system

The screen rotates

It has a camera/Video recorder

I can use it like a credit card ( can ride trains, buy drinks etc)

Many other things that I can`t figure out yet....

And the best thing about my phone? It was only 38 dollars!!!!


*Ahem* anyways....

it`s almost time for dinner, so I have to go now, but I`ll try to update this journal more often!!


P.s Please comment! ( so I know if anyone actually reads this haha! ^_^;)

A lot happened this week!!! I don't even know where to start....hmmmmm... well I experienced my first earth quake in Japan i think it was a 3. it wasn't that bad though and my host mother said that it was a pretty bad one so I'm not really worried.


My first day of school was today. I go to an all girls private school. The teachers are all reaaaallly friendly and can speak some english so I'm not completely screwed. ^_^ I get to take really neat classes like calligraphy and tea ceremony!! I'm so excited to find out what other classes I'm taking! All of my classmates are taking an exam through out september so I only have two days of 6 classes and the rest only 4! I also don't have classes on saturday which is awesome!!! My first day was really cool. I felt Like a celebrity! haha! everyone kept waving and smiling at me ^_^ my homeroom even serenaded me!!! I didn't understand it but it was still really cool!


I also tried a lot of food. The weirdest food I ate were Natto ( fermented soy beans), sea slug, and sea urchin. The sad thing about the sea slug was that it was actually pretty good, but the texture was really weird.


okay soo maybe not that much happened so far but it sure seems like it!!!!!!



P.S don't be afraid to comment!!!

I`m finally in Japan!!!! I met my host family this morning and booooooyyyy was I nervous -_-.... but they`re very nice people and made me feel right at home. ^_^

I`m happy I decided to do this and I think this is going to be a great experience!!


though I do miss my friends and family ;_;