I'm Back!!

This post has been far too delayed and I'm sorry for worrying any of you. I assure you that I have been living a fun filled and busy life in Japan these past few months.
Now then, let's begin with the picture montage!

My Trip Into the Mountains

 Rice Fields↑

 Naturally carbonated water

 The water tastes a little sour and kind of reminds me of Ramune. 

 Can you see the giant hand grabbing the rock?

 A nice snack of Kibi Dango (millet dumpling).

 This one's pretty stylish.

 I'm not sure what kind of place has deer and shrubbery cut into cool shapes, but that's were I went.....

 This was one of the most astounding scenery I have ever seen. It's as if the world is just wide open before you in hues of light blue and green...

I also went to a famous rose garden. I have so many pictures of roses it's not even funny. 

And thus, my trip in the mountains came to an end.

                           

THE END

My Daily Life Part 1

Whoa, it's been quite a long time. Now that things have sort of calmed down, and I've finally managed to work out a decent daily schedule, I can finally type this out.

First things first: Speaking or writing in English has turned into quite a difficult task. It's to the point that when I saw another exchange student a while ago and tried to speak English with them, I stuttered out one sentence that didn't quite make sense and then ended up speaking in Japanese. I have to somehow force my brain to put forth English so that I can write this post!

My Daily Life

5:20 A.M. – This is the time I wake up at every morning. Getting dressed in my school uniform consists of putting on a regular T-shirt and shorts of my own, a blouse that I have to button up all the way to top, a skirt, a vest or sweater, and my school socks. Before, I had to put on a blazer on top of all this, but now that it's getting warmer, the school allows you to take it off. I also take out my earrings at this time, because they aren't allowed at school. In the morning, I always have to think hard about what I absolutely need to bring, because I have to bike to school and I need my backpack as light as possible. Something you have to make sure and pack is a handkerchief/hand towel to dry your hands with, and tissues because you won't find either of these at school. Another thing you should bring is a pencil case of some sort filled with every color of the rainbow of pens, highlighters, and maybe a marker or two; pencils; an eraser; a small ruler; notepad or sticky notes, scissors, and glue. Trust me, you end up using all of these things at school. My school has us students doing extremely colorful note-taking. We also often have to grade our work with a red pen by drawing a circle on the answers we got right and some sort of check mark on the the answers we got wrong. The glue is mostly used to glue worksheets into our notebook. Most of the worksheets we receive are about double the length of regular paper, so we have to fold the sheets to fit them into our notebooks.

Makeup, or anything flashy, like hair ribbons, is not allowed at school. Any hair bands or bobby pins must be a color that doesn't stand out, like black or brown. I don't really mind these rules because it just means less to worry about in the morning. My breakfast is usually a slice of toast, which sounds small, but the Japanese bread (shoku pan) I eat is thicker and fluffier than the bread I usually ate in America, so I'm usually pretty full after one slice. If there's no bread, then I either eat tamago kake gohan (a raw egg and soysauce or soup broth over rice), or leftovers from last night's dinner. Sometimes, if there's curry left over, I put some on my toast and eat it that way. Then, after washing my own dishes, I take my backpack and bento and head to school on my bike. It takes about 30 to 40 minutes of going up and down hills, and sweating in my seifuku (school uniform) to get to school. A large percentage of school students in my area go to school by bike, or take the train and bike to school from the station. I'm not all that athletically equipped for long bike rides, nor am I used to being encased in layer upon layer of clothing while doing so. However, I'm a lot better than the first couple weeks, and by the time I go back to America my legs should be extremely buff. Something I really have to pay attention to is my skirt. Even though I always wear shorts under my skirt, it's still embarrassing when the wind flips up my skirt just as I'm passing a large group of boys headed for the all-boys school in the opposite direction. Setting that aside, I'm always amazed by a particular stretch of road I go through on the way. Even though there's four lanes and it's surrounded by stores and restaurants, when all the cars stop at the stoplight, complete silence envelopes the entire area. Suddenly the only thing you can hear is your own feet on the pedals.

When arriving at school, I put my bike with other first year students' in a long line of hundreds of bicycles. After doing what we call “Two Locking” (taking the key out of the ring lock and putting another lock on the front wheel), I enter the school building, put my shoes in my assigned box, and take out my school slippers. Excluding the ones I use to go to and from school, I keep 3 pairs of shoes at school: my school slippers, my gym shoes, and my ground shoes for when gym class is outside. Then I make my way up to the forth floor, which is extremely difficult after the bike ride, and to my classroom.

~To be continued~

Food I recommend to try in Japan:

• Nomu Yo-guruto (Drinkable Yogurt): It's yogurt you drink!
• Bread: Any kind of bread. Even when the bread looks like normal bread I can find in America, it's not. It's better.
• Peanut butter (cream): I know I already mentioned how peanut butter is different in Japan, but seriously, it's good.
• Strawberries: I cannot stress enough how delicious strawberries are in Japan. I drool just thinking about them. I don't even really know how to explain why they are so much more delicious in Japan.
• Matcha au lait: It's a drink with matcha in it, as included in the name. I usually find this drink at karaoke places.
• Saki Ika: It's like beef jerkey, but squid instead of beef. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ☆～Flowers～☆

Kyouiku Gasshuku

I just got back from the kyouiku gasshuku (education training camp) that my school plans every year for the first year students. It was basically to help us transition into high school and make friends. Also, it got us into the right mindset in order to succeed in school and throughout our lives. One activity during the camp required each homeroom to think of their class goals and present them. It seemed simple enough, but everyone took it to the next level. For the presentations on stage, I saw classes do skits, speeches, sing, rap, and do back-flips to show their goals. I was really amazed by my classmates. They took it seriously and paid attention to detail, all while laughing and goofing off together. Even when just playing games as a class, we had goals and worked together to achieve them. I don't think I've ever seen this much effort come out of high-school students before. It was really heart-warming and fun to be a part of.

Of course, there were parts that were not so fun as well, like practicing getting into different lines, and the correct greeting and bowing sequence. It was actually kind of funny though, because we kept messing up the order of the greeting and bowing, or saying the wrong greeting, and having to do it again.

Overall, I'm having a little trouble making friends, but my classmates are really awesome so I'm sure I'll be fine. By the way, after the class goal presentations, the teachers decided a winner, which was ~*drum roll*~ class 6! Or in other words, the class I'm in! *applause* Thank you, thank you. I know, it was totally my influence that allowed us to win (kidding).

Now I'm getting really excited for our normal classes to begin. During the camp, we started studying math, which for me was really fun. I've learned a whole bunch of new words, like 分配法則 (bunpai housoku), or in English, “ the distribution laws (distributive properties).”

Anyway, since I have some free time now, I'll probably be able to get my pictures all set up sometime soon. Although there's strict rules on what pictures I can show on the internet, so you may see a lot of scenery photos. In other words, look forward to seeing the Japanese landscape! Yay!

Oh and if any of you reading this have any questions about my experience so far, feel free to ask in the comments section. Please don't spam me with questions though. I'll try to answer as many questions as I can to the best of my ability. Also, if you have any requests for future posts, I'd be happy to do a section on that topic. 

More picture preview

                                         

Sentaku (laundry)

The most difficult thing I've had to face in Japan so far would be, without a doubt, laundry. It's the little details that really get me in trouble every time. First, let me explain the whole laundry process step by step:

-Extend the hose attached to the washing machine into the bathroom and put the end (nozzle?) in the tub.

-You don't have to worry about dividing your clothes into lights, or darks, or colors or anything. The colors won't bleed onto your white clothes.

-Put your dirty clothes into the machine, put in detergent, push buttons, you get the gist.

-When it's done, you take out each piece of clothing and sort of shake it a bit (I can't explain this very well without visuals).

-Then you go out on the balcony to hang up your clothes to dry, but don't forget to put on your balcony slippers first!

-Use all sorts of clips and hangers to hang everything up in just the right way so that they'll dry properly.

-Make sure to stretch and smooth out your clothes otherwise they'll get all “shiwa shiwa” (wrinkly), as my host mother would say.

-When hanging up your socks and underwear on the weird clippy thing (again, visuals are needed), put your socks on the outside and your underwear towards the middle to sort of hide them because the neighbor's window is right across from you.

- When you're done, or step inside for a bit, be sure to close the curtains because again, you don't know who could be watching.

-Take in the hangers right away so that the crows don't swoop down and snatch them from you. (I learned these last two earlier today)

Complicated, right? It might take me a while before I can get it perfect.

When I first arrived at my new home in Japan, I told my host family that I would do my own laundry. I thought that it would be easier on them if they didn't have to worry about my laundry as well as their own. However, a few days ago my host mother had a talk with me. Apparently the way I was keeping my dirty laundry was really disgusting. At home in Minnesota, I normally just put my dirty laundry in a basket in my room and let it pile up until it made a full load, so that's what I had been doing in my host family's house as well. Since my host mother didn't like that method, I told her I would bring my basket down to where the washing machine is and wash my clothes with everyone else's after the next load of mine, as it had already piled up. So then I started to unload my clothes into the washing machine, but when I uncovered my black sweater, I shrieked and dropped the basket. Lying dead among the dirty clothes was one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen. I'm talking bigger than a 500 yen coin. I think in that moment I was probably mentally scarred for life. I told my host mother that I would never let it pile up in my room again. Even when I return to America. 

Nyuugakushiki

I woke up late for my new high school's Nyuugakushiki (entrance ceremony) today. My hair was a wild mess, and I didn't even have time to eat breakfast before heading out the door. Nonetheless, I was really excited, and happy to finally wear the necktie with my seifuku (uniform), as it is only worn at ceremonies. Since I'm not actually going to graduate from this school, I wasn't allowed to participate, but I expressed my desire to see the nyuugakushiki and got permission to sit in the upper part with the band. Before the new first year students came in, there was a stretch of probably about 10~15 minutes of pure silence that I have never before experienced. You could have dropped a pencil and the entire five-hundred-and-something people would probably be able to hear it. The entire ceremony was very serious and I could feel the new responsibility as a student settle on me. The principal's speech was very inspiring and, to my surprise, she even announced the arrival of a foreign exchange student (that's me!). From tomorrow on, I'll be a part of the first year's class six, and eventually the chorus club as well. Although the dialect of the prefecture I'm in is especially strong in the younger generation, so I may have some difficulty understanding my classmates. Still, I can't wait to see what class is like and finally make some more friends.

Note: The day I write these entries and the day I actually post them may differ quite a bit.

Preview of the pictures to come~

Since I only just now figured out how I'm going to show the pictures I've taken so far, I thought for now I'd just write about the journey to my host family and random stuff I learned along the way. Please keep in mind that what I write in here is based upon my experiences and opinions. What I write in here does not apply to Japan as a whole, and includes only what I have come in contact with and my thoughts so far. As the year progresses my viewpoints could change as well. Also please note that, as I'm am no longer using English outside of this blog, my English will mostly likely get worse as time passes. I think that's about everything, so I'll move on to the trip to my host family.

In case there are those of you wondering about what an 11 and a half hour plane ride is like, I'd be happy to share. The first word I can come up with to describe it is, of course, long. Also, when sitting next to another person for that long, all your reservations go away. I ended up shamelessly sleeping in awkward positions, like with my my forehead smashed against the tray extending from the seat in front of me. I read the letters some of my friends and family gave me as well, but because I'm so manly, I unexpectedly didn't cry at all. (Though a week later my manly exterior cracked and I cried a bunch. I just love you guys too much!)

Setting the plane ride aside, the airport in Japan was really cool. The bus stop place was so nice compared to what I had previously experienced in the airport back in America. There was a wide space of land with which to stand on while waiting for a bus, and even though it was still daytime, there was no competition between the buses and taxi for a spot to pick up passengers. Even customs and such was quick and painless.

After arriving in Japan, I spent a lot of time with the other exchange students from all different countries. At the place we stayed, I also experienced my first communal bath. I didn't really know what to do or where to go though. That's when I came up with my new motto: I embarrass myself today, so that I won't tomorrow. This way of thinking has helped me a lot these past weeks. In other words, entering into a different culture than your own involves some embarrassment. For those of you curious about the correct procedures in a Japanese communal bath: (This is based upon my observations, instructions given to me, and may not apply to every communal bath.) First, bring clothes to change into and two towels, one big and one small, into the changing room. Shampoo and such is not needed as it is already provided, unless you have allergies in which case bring your own products. Leave your clothes, including the ones you're wearing, and the big towel in one of the baskets (or lockers) in the changing room. You can use the small towel for covering yourself and enter the bathing room with it. If a showering station is open, sit down at one and wash yourself. Once finished cleaning yourself, enter the big bath with the others. You must not get any soap into the big bath so make sure to rinse off well. Also, you should tie your hair up to prevent any from getting into the bath. Of course, after that you dry yourself and change in the changing room. This also applies to most onsen (hot springs) as well. Now that I've explained everything, none of you readers should feel embarrassed if you ever come in contact with a communal bath, right?

I also used washiki toire (squat toilets) while I was there. It really isn't something to gasp about. Even after the first time, it felt very normal. You just face the hood of it, squat and go. No big deal.

Wow, this has turned into a long toilet and bath explanation. Don't worry, I'm done. For now.

Random observations along the way:

-It's really hard to take pictures when in a vehicle because there are so many tall barriers along the sides of the roads.

-I normally hold my breath and make a wish when going into tunnels, but the ones I went through in Japan are so long that I'd probably die if I did.

-”Peanut cream” as what what written on the package, is way different from peanut butter. It's sweeter, creamier, and lighter.

-Mori no Ike (Concordia College language village camp) prepared me for this way more than I could have imagined.

-It's normal not to have paper towels in public bathrooms sometimes.

-It's normal in houses and hotels to not have soap in the toilet room. (oops, I ended up talking about toilets and bathrooms again.)

The time I spent with the other exchange students was really fun, and I ended up learning a lot about different cultures. For example, I learned that in Malay they greet each other with “Have you eaten?” I also received a sucker made with goat milk from another exchange student, among other things.

I think that even if you preach about everyone being one as humankind, if you don't ever come into contact with people other than of your own country, you can't truly feel the meaning of those words. After living, eating, and bathing together with people from all different countries, I can tell you that I strongly feel that I am a citizen of the world. That experience really opened my eyes. I don't think I'll ever forget the friends I made there.

To Be Continued~

I'm Alive

After about two weeks I think I've finally done it. I have obtained internet access. So I would like to take this opportunity to say that I'm still alive. However, I'm still figuring things out so I have no pictures yet and no time to write a long entry on my experience so far. I can say that in terms of language I have been absolutely fine. Since coming here I haven't had to speak in English at all, although there are still many Japanese words I do not know. Everyday my vocabulary expands further and I can't wait to learn more once school starts. I'm still getting used to the cultural differences, but I'll adapt soon enough. For now, just know that I am alive and doing well.

I'm finally on my way to Japan...

I want to thank all the people who have helped get me this far. Your prayers, thoughts, encouragement, and...money have all been the wind under my wings. Thank you so much. I am so grateful to be able to have this opportunity.
Right now I'm gearing up to watch 黄色い涙(kiiroi namida/Yellow Tears), aka my favorite movie. Every time I watch it I feel like I learn something new about life. It taught me that freedom is something you have to work hard for, and you can find it in something you never thought possible. Looking back at these past seven weeks since second semester of school started, I realize just how hard it's been. With the help of my excellent teachers, I completed school three months early, and managed to take the ACT's too. I hope to continue giving it my all in Japan as well. Whether working hard for the sake of something I love, or working hard at doing what I love, I gain a sense of freedom that I can't find anywhere else. Once again, thank you for helping give me wings with which to fly.

            Hello, my name is Grace. I am a junior attending high school in Minnesota. I have been fascinated with the Japanese language and culture for as long as I can remember. Eager to learn, I have attended a Japanese language immersion camp, provided by Concordia College for the past four summers. In total, I have earned 6 high school language credits through this program. In my opinion, Japanese is the most beautiful language I have ever heard, and as my knowledge grows, so does my love for it.  At camp, I have opened up, become more of a leader, and learned that to make my dreams come true I have to jump in with both feet.  Now I am ready to take the next leap: studying abroad. After an extensive application process and much waiting, I have been accepted into the American Field Service (AFS) intercultural student exchange program. I will be leaving in March to attend high school for a year in Kyushu, Japan!

There are so many things I am looking forward to. Living in Japan will give me the opportunity to further my goal of becoming fluent in Japanese. Also, I am particularly interested in the teaching methods, curriculum and the role teachers play in students’ lives. I believe looking through the eyes of a normal Japanese high school student is the best way to observe this. Through hands-on experience, so much culture can be learned: from the simple things, such as daily routines, to the more complicated social and economic aspects of living in Japan. My dream is to move to Japan when I am out of college, so this knowledge would be very useful. I am so excited to experience life in Japan and eager to share what I learn. I will be using this blog to document my experience and share it with my friends, family, Concordia language campers, and anyone else who is interested. I hope to make unforgettable memories while I am there and bonds that last a lifetime.

All of this seems like a dream come true, but with a big opportunity such as this comes a big price of $13,000. I have paid for approximately half of this, but still more than $5,000 dollars of the tuition remains. This does not include any additional expenses such as transportation, and school uniform fees. I would greatly appreciate any help you can give. Through this blog, my goal is to raise $5000 in donations. Whatever you can give would go towards making my dreams come true. Please click the ChipIn! button to make a secure non tax-deductable donation. I would also be thankful if you could pass on my blog to others who would be interested in donating by forwarding the link: http://minnesotaninjapan.blogspot.com/  Thank you so much!

~Grace