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～☆