tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50704055262889442352024-03-05T03:03:58.188-05:00A Vermonter in Ikeda - 池田市に住んでいる留学生"I simply happen to find Eastern Philosophy more satisfactory than Western"Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-70864327458423481012010-04-13T07:57:00.004-04:002010-04-13T08:04:58.163-04:00Lack of PostsHi.<br /><br /><br />Just wanted to apologize for the complete lack in posts recently (as in like the majority of my exchange so far), and I will definitely provide full detail of most/everyday so far. Currently I am catching up with my online VHS class <--definitely top priority right now, along with studying all new vocab I encounter during school, and also practicing riding a bicycle through the super narrow streets of Japan without continuously running into walls like I did the day before yesterday. Running into a wall really did hurt a ton, and I actually passed the same location today on my way home from school, and you can see the mark on the wall where I smashed my bike into the wall...darn.<br /><br />OK SO, I am super sorry, and eventually I will be completely caught up with this blogging, after I am completely caught up with my online classes.<br /><br />I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUUNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!<br /><br />-OliverOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-70546393196674297332010-03-23T11:02:00.025-04:002010-03-25T09:13:24.448-04:00Costco, Hibarigaoka Gakuen, and City Hall 3/23 - 3/24-3/25<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mSodCvgHj9JAKvZ42Z9bgfT3g4v9n11Xe1GjIBh3R8V5wPiu3cyNFpybvxtRNUkaf75he6jFQrdNvTZ7EXmH5fm_xFgHu_1a9Fxy-q1hW_3JZ4kY7eGqubZBi_r-zvgwWrj_74CdwHA/s1600/2010_0324Japan0258.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-mSodCvgHj9JAKvZ42Z9bgfT3g4v9n11Xe1GjIBh3R8V5wPiu3cyNFpybvxtRNUkaf75he6jFQrdNvTZ7EXmH5fm_xFgHu_1a9Fxy-q1hW_3JZ4kY7eGqubZBi_r-zvgwWrj_74CdwHA/s320/2010_0324Japan0258.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452201784819007426" border="0" /></a><br />3/23<br /><br />Hmm...so right now it is 10:35 PM on the 24th (I have totally lost track of the days of the week), and I am currently trying to recall as much as possible about yesterday while my pictures are being uploaded to my computer, or as they say in Japan, pasokon (personal computer).I am super tired right now (btw, the picture of the dog is Suzu on my bed. I am in love with Suzu), because I went to my school (Hibarigaoka Gakuen) an<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_N5700HlFMwBhTPtjtDVx30Hgx9tFYazLzrj91PB6acwe7TIPZ31S0A7f5cOWwxJp-plm_BLilbVDN9FK2lCzL_NeKfLZVYIbs2lZX_4IhHst64crVst4Qa7pl3buMp0rwIsfStpLI0/s1600/2010_0324Japan0269.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_N5700HlFMwBhTPtjtDVx30Hgx9tFYazLzrj91PB6acwe7TIPZ31S0A7f5cOWwxJp-plm_BLilbVDN9FK2lCzL_NeKfLZVYIbs2lZX_4IhHst64crVst4Qa7pl3buMp0rwIsfStpLI0/s320/2010_0324Japan0269.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452205161873273234" border="0" /></a>d spoke with the teacher who "I should always consult to" Nakanishi-sensei, which was draining for reasons I will explain later on in this post (my school is gorgeous). ANYWAY, TODAY, I went to Costco for the first time in my life, and, the experience was pretty amazing (I use that word a lot don't I). I had heard the word "Costco" everyday in my American life, and I continue to hear it everyday in my Japanese life, but, it was strange. I had HEARD of Costco, and I knew it was a place where people bought food in bulk, but I had no idea like...what it was, anyway. SOOO I went to a JAPANEEESE costco with host mom and brother.<br /><br />...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKH8XDqumdvGV5WUYDvz6USH-F41BAQ9v2KxYGOGu5KccAZlOXXQqe2wGDpOIg-st9brd2pDEJRFEoL8vuCfyMTz0cuapB1OhJ1TBOfQQiCOqd3u-F1XmF9S_DTPk7BVERto0ra8Vgnl4/s1600/2010_0324Japan0260.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKH8XDqumdvGV5WUYDvz6USH-F41BAQ9v2KxYGOGu5KccAZlOXXQqe2wGDpOIg-st9brd2pDEJRFEoL8vuCfyMTz0cuapB1OhJ1TBOfQQiCOqd3u-F1XmF9S_DTPk7BVERto0ra8Vgnl4/s320/2010_0324Japan0260.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452201792031350626" border="0" /></a>Soooo Costco is pretty cool. There is a ton of food. This Japanese costco was ba<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-CqPC1ZkTLN4y2dXPSW1f5NFe3Yfxnnrcz_GA-AJGfKLtN14q23XECgHHHlpYAzvoz2C3Flcy7uAMETo6IaMZ-EHBCDMFj_uCvlaY7-3vj8A8SM0j6Vzo77aNavD6oHGl7hwvykryf34/s1600/2010_0324Japan0266.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-CqPC1ZkTLN4y2dXPSW1f5NFe3Yfxnnrcz_GA-AJGfKLtN14q23XECgHHHlpYAzvoz2C3Flcy7uAMETo6IaMZ-EHBCDMFj_uCvlaY7-3vj8A8SM0j6Vzo77aNavD6oHGl7hwvykryf34/s320/2010_0324Japan0266.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452204685871489682" border="0" /></a>sically entirely American food, and I even saw a group of three<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQR5Dj5-K07j_WhI4IGRAuOmgKEEzS0iWlnoGjwpKjmZKFvcd8XDA96o6xRwErodtfAGaW0P8WK8VoR2jDZd5jL61RvXNrmXuiyg0h8deI8KTCYrx-fZyaDR_MwqAxu3o341Jm6NOv4_8/s1600/2010_0324Japan0264.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQR5Dj5-K07j_WhI4IGRAuOmgKEEzS0iWlnoGjwpKjmZKFvcd8XDA96o6xRwErodtfAGaW0P8WK8VoR2jDZd5jL61RvXNrmXuiyg0h8deI8KTCYrx-fZyaDR_MwqAxu3o341Jm6NOv4_8/s320/2010_0324Japan0264.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452204239938999074" border="0" /></a> Dutch men which was pretty awesome. I would have to go to an American Costco to compare between countries though. Now, when I think of Costco, I think of the Japanese costco, and I don't know what the American Costco is like, so, it is difficult to compare, obviously. The Costco I went to yesterday seemed pretty popular, and was incredibly crowded, and I noticed that a ton of the fruits were from Florida. I bought some blueberries because I NEED FRUIT and no matter how much I eat I NEED MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSOYyJKnTV8PXYHIWK5sHRZViY8kOMTkGeIB4cf-OQeP3h894K9AE5YTAm_OvWXoHwp0nsY5-MfVPmKJ_Qc08w0miVnvmtVbHtBGJY4DVxGzannUyEctTWrbWdzdmlTknkgfEqG096Rc/s1600/2010_0324Japan0261.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlSOYyJKnTV8PXYHIWK5sHRZViY8kOMTkGeIB4cf-OQeP3h894K9AE5YTAm_OvWXoHwp0nsY5-MfVPmKJ_Qc08w0miVnvmtVbHtBGJY4DVxGzannUyEctTWrbWdzdmlTknkgfEqG096Rc/s320/2010_0324Japan0261.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452201799705105730" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKIwC8ePbiKD__l5RfXxqq_8EGbJqwp5ZZ2BGBvcqsu4B4Lub4K3QSK6VXiQD8TpgaerdsdavHbtbFCHUDBzyv38H9vCAFfybTgv8eRpyNuCxOXuQYFiDrPKyYznjLeikkkTiFd2j9bho/s1600/2010_0324Japan0265.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKIwC8ePbiKD__l5RfXxqq_8EGbJqwp5ZZ2BGBvcqsu4B4Lub4K3QSK6VXiQD8TpgaerdsdavHbtbFCHUDBzyv38H9vCAFfybTgv8eRpyNuCxOXuQYFiDrPKyYznjLeikkkTiFd2j9bho/s320/2010_0324Japan0265.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452204248791922962" border="0" /></a>I have yet to see my host brother eat any fruit, actually.Which is kind of scary (in this picture you can see the sea of Japanese people in Costco around the sushi section). I used to live on fruit. Host mom has actually been feeding me a ton though, which is<div class="cssButtonInner"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vzGo6xhZvLYZ3WsoGqERbMp5pDMfbij4pi_k8evkt_H6TJ4XDeswFBJkpa0CiXSVi1Ay1vvwWP7-tk9PV7s2kutRCPIRDEZEEaPTRFkWncherG-RjOOv6_HMPBGaI7vvsqJT1fizcDU/s1600/2010_0324Japan0267.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-vzGo6xhZvLYZ3WsoGqERbMp5pDMfbij4pi_k8evkt_H6TJ4XDeswFBJkpa0CiXSVi1Ay1vvwWP7-tk9PV7s2kutRCPIRDEZEEaPTRFkWncherG-RjOOv6_HMPBGaI7vvsqJT1fizcDU/s320/2010_0324Japan0267.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452204693444168738" border="0" /></a></div>too kind of her. And before she gives me a ton of food every even<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHFdqx9PMl7n_S8QhJG0P1WBDLYm6IY9RbdWcCQ6wOhqlZzs4tEI1PiumeIr8IwRNiHLZtzwOhM93CEtwtcTAn_cjOKhOs8ck-y5vqzB9RiCYTz18fAWYhNhJRym-EbamUxgnw4wWGn0A/s1600/2010_0324Japan0262.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHFdqx9PMl7n_S8QhJG0P1WBDLYm6IY9RbdWcCQ6wOhqlZzs4tEI1PiumeIr8IwRNiHLZtzwOhM93CEtwtcTAn_cjOKhOs8ck-y5vqzB9RiCYTz18fAWYhNhJRym-EbamUxgnw4wWGn0A/s320/2010_0324Japan0262.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452204231358869842" border="0" /></a>ing, she always says "parents in <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHp8x2GqFcwrNixb4uWMeAa4ORidaPGRWRa2TvvrUo6mmM6wU0vbM8haXssjxv_6wy6Vesh4fkgebyt2LFBvptCWUGncfESPlBTUCim3NfqMqyyEnaJOJ8RiDIOWfjfx2o1x-zPonPI84/s1600/2010_0324Japan0268.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHp8x2GqFcwrNixb4uWMeAa4ORidaPGRWRa2TvvrUo6mmM6wU0vbM8haXssjxv_6wy6Vesh4fkgebyt2LFBvptCWUGncfESPlBTUCim3NfqMqyyEnaJOJ8RiDIOWfjfx2o1x-zPonPI84/s320/2010_0324Japan0268.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452204704734493362" border="0" /></a>Vermont must be worried, ne".<br /><br />Oh, also, I also brought a ton of chocolate and candy for my host family, and, my host family loves all of it, and they call it Orichoko (Oli-choko/Oliver Chocolate) (in the picture of host mom and brother, they are trying to figure out the chair thing in Costco, which was like completely broken, or atleast impossible to figure out).<br /><br />Later on that night, YUKI my host sister arrived with her ex-boyfriend (I'll explain that in a sec), and I must have forgetten to mention that up<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyW2gaFe1NAkcNPxJ-y9NbFbz7xNGWknyueW8NlEpZZTcyA4lWwX39wcL-48ai9AwmUyIK3TYVpjtpKCiGoEbUTNhsSv6McEhPLKVoci4EIXfzciDU-y57zVgitWT7kRqfrpCiqy2yljE/s1600/2010_0324Japan0272.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyW2gaFe1NAkcNPxJ-y9NbFbz7xNGWknyueW8NlEpZZTcyA4lWwX39wcL-48ai9AwmUyIK3TYVpjtpKCiGoEbUTNhsSv6McEhPLKVoci4EIXfzciDU-y57zVgitWT7kRqfrpCiqy2yljE/s320/2010_0324Japan0272.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452205176736824018" border="0" /></a> until the 23rd, Yuki was in Miyazaki surfing with her friends, and she just got home after hanging out with her ex-bf. She had been with him for a super long time, but then he cheated on her, and she punched him, and now they are friends. His name is Eryou (I LOVE THAT NAME) and he is to become a Priest at Nakayama-dera, a super famous temple, meaning he has a lot of money, and so my nick name for him is kanemochi (rich). He was pretty cool. He has dog allergies though, so he had a bunch of tissue paper stuck up his nose the whole time he was at the house because of the three super loud dogs that were like attacking him with their hair. I don't have a picture, but I most definitely will get one next time I see him. I do have pictures of Yuki already though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yuki is pretty amazing. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE67ImC7fS2vxr_qlBxj1-Mh318KA99q9-xpn47JPo1hsSO5hyphenhyphenoT58oMuqCNtLzHQ4UytXAXlkQsttZpuRvQdVEpc2ivs1WVAczXP9keQmCwqnqlJ1lNReYV7idILbZFPkaAwKqiXYmjo/s1600/2010_0324Japan0273.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE67ImC7fS2vxr_qlBxj1-Mh318KA99q9-xpn47JPo1hsSO5hyphenhyphenoT58oMuqCNtLzHQ4UytXAXlkQsttZpuRvQdVEpc2ivs1WVAczXP9keQmCwqnqlJ1lNReYV7idILbZFPkaAwKqiXYmjo/s320/2010_0324Japan0273.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452205186819847682" border="0" /></a>She is insanely wonderful at the piano, she is super skilled at Shodo (calligraphy), she is open minded and super friendly and skilled at surfing and awesome, and is obviously a part of this super awesome host family I have.<br />Aaaaah I can't really remember what else happened, but I will update this if I receive any awesome spurts of memory.<br /><br />2/24<br /><br />OK. SO. Today I didn't really take any pictures, because even though I went to my school, the weather was completely gray and rainy and I didn't want to destroy my camera, and I didn't know if bringing my camera to a little school-related discussion was appropriate (the school is intimidating D:D:), and my camera ran out of battery, which irritated me. I was in the middle of making a video tour of my Japanese house, and then my camera ran out of battery, and I was pissed. But, it was ok, because I still have until 2011 to make as many video tours as I would like. Also, regarding pictures of the school, I would rather get pictures of the pretty buildings in pretty weather, so that you all get a very attractive view of the school.<br /><br />So, I was woken up at 9:30 am, took a shower, ate breakfast, and was driven to the school with host brother and mom. Host brother had guidance for becoming a high school student, so he went off to see his Japanese guidance counselor. The first thing I noticed about the school, was that, there were a ton of white-purplish/pink buildings, one of them newly opened for this upcoming year of high school (so I get to spend high school in a brand new Japanese building. AMAAZING), there were a ton of trees and vegetation, with one huge sakura/cherry blossom tree in a small square outside the high school area. There is a huge Olympic sized pool sorrounded by trees and stuff which is pretty awesome. A ton of benches, and the school is extremely hilly/on a steep hill. And there is no parking.<br />So, we went into one of the buildings, and were required to put on Hibarigaoka slippers, and like 10 different men came to say 'Hajimemashite' (how do you do) within the course of like, 6 minutes, and I had no idea who any of them were..one of them went by the name of Nakanishi-sensei, and he was the one I, host mom, and Miyahara-san spoke with about MEEE. At first there was a ton of confusion, and apparently the confusion was because we were supposed to come to the school on the 25TH, but Miyahara being a Donkusai (according to host-mom, means like, 'always making easy mistakes/always forgetting'), she told us to come on the 24th. Mizuno-san, who is one of the head representatives for YFU in Japan, is very annoyed with my area rep. all the time and is constantly telling her to go to the hostpital cause she thinks Miyahara-san has Alzheimers, hahahha. Miyahara-san is super friendly, but makes mistakes, with everything, which is actually hilarious, and I LOVVE IT. SO ANYWAY, things worked out, and we had a talk with Nakanishi-sensei in a separate room, who went over clubs (he signed me up for Judo. He said I should try a martial art and I don't know if I am capable of doing Kendo sooooo I said Judo. I am very interested in Judo anyway). He also went over some paper work and everything, and we went over my current enrollment in online classes which he said is fine, and at the end I asked him if I am able to receive class credit and he said that wasn't a problem at all. OMGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AAAAH that made me so happy. SAAAAAAAFE. Then the vice principal came, and he seemed kind of questionable about me, and my host mom was all like "Don't worry, Oliver is good student. He is GOOD!" Apparently (my host mom told me this after), Hibarigaoka Gakuen hosted several exchange students in the past, one from Finland and another from Germany, and they both recently also went to Hibarigaoka Gakuen for a year, but they were...........really bad. And would make excuses not to come to school, and didn't follow the rules. So. The Principal said "NO MORE EXCHANGE STUDENT AT HIBARIGAOKA!" But, they accepted me and only me (so I will be the only exchange student), for certain reasons. Which is why the vice principal was kinda like "whats he doing here talking to Nakanishiiii". Host mom also said that the teachers at Hibarigaoka are super strict, and the Principal is super SUPER strict, and thus the school has become more prestigious, and acceptance into Hibarigaoka has become much more difficult. He also took away the majority of international-related classes, and currently the only language offered is English because he wants to put a ton of emphasis on English.<br /><br />Hmmm...so actually, the whole time we were talking with Nakanishi, I thought that Nakanishi-sensei was the principal of the school, but then later on found out that he is actually one of like 20 English teachers, and is very kind, but according to many people is a terrible teacher. Some people question if he is even able to speak English which I think is hilarious. Anyway, then we walked over to another building and spoke with a Math teacher, and theeen....host mom, Miyhara-san and I went to McDonald's, bought coffee (host mom hates McDonald's but the coffee is cheap[er]), spoke for a while and reassured her that being a Donkusai is totally fine (she is actually pretty old), then we returned to the house, and I don't really remember what happened then, but an hour later we went back to Hibarigaoka Gakuen in order to measure my body for a school uniform (YFU Japan is paying for a new one apparently), I also bought gym shoes which are super Japanese-school-uniform-like and thus I am super excited about having them, we also had my body measured for my gym clothes. Since I am going to be a Junior/second year student, my gym clothes are PINK WOOOOOOOO and I am pretty excited for that too along with basically the entire thought of going to a Japanese school (school starts April 8th I believe...not quite sure though). Also I noticed that at the time when I was getting my body measured for uniforms and stuff like that, there were other students as well, and they along with all the teachers at the school were super solemn and serious looking. Host mom said it wsa because these were the students that weren't accepted into the school/class they applied for, and so the majority are in the lowest class at Hibarigaoka. Today (yesterday) was measurement day for most of the lowest scoring students :/ Scary stuff.<br /><br />Hmm.....I am having a super hard time remembering stuff. We returned to the house after all the measurement stuff and introducing to several random teachers, we also ran into one of host-brother's female friends that is transferring to Hibarigaoka (she was the only happy/smiley student I saw at the school that day), and she apparently used to live in the same apartment building as my host family when host family used to live in an apartment/'Manshon'. (I am watching t.v. while writing this right now, and I am completely noticing that unlike in america there are like, at most 15 commercials ONLY, and so I keep seeing the same commercials ooooover and over again and I am starting to memorize them all word for word unexpectedly. It's kind of creepy. There was this commercial about 'Sumaato Chizu' [Smart Cheese] and I just sang the whole thing word for word somehow. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH OMG so scary) so after all going back and forth between house and school, we finally settled in at the house, and sort of just hung out. I did this, and online classes, and showed pictures to host brother and sister, and gave them m<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQEwmLUF-pSNPn3IFWQXeAnIZDCmpFI_CyQeQ7E-9Yu0HNFCiFfphEsXSGR8_Bv1i146C-13smDIMO2AGa3v06EpSXn5zgQqB5S4ZUq1BPY3x7cGRbLHq5BJ1sXPRtlPo3Ny11LTiSlI/s1600/2010_0324Japan0274.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQEwmLUF-pSNPn3IFWQXeAnIZDCmpFI_CyQeQ7E-9Yu0HNFCiFfphEsXSGR8_Bv1i146C-13smDIMO2AGa3v06EpSXn5zgQqB5S4ZUq1BPY3x7cGRbLHq5BJ1sXPRtlPo3Ny11LTiSlI/s320/2010_0324Japan0274.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452205361187211266" border="0" /></a>ore Orichoko, aaaand I can't remember anything else. OOH and we also figured out my kanji name. For gym clothes, since I am buying new ones, I get to have my name printed on, and my host mom recommended that I don't use katakana so that I can actually like, have a Japanese meaning which would be pretty amazing. Yuki and host mom really liked: 織羽 instead of just regular phonetic オリバー, and I really liked/like it too, SOOOO that is my new kanji name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The meaning is something like, 'Weaving Wings', which to me sounds like something that could have a TON of hidden symbolic meaning which is pretty amazing. My host brother said I should use 檻馬, which means 'Caged Horse' or 'Horse in Cage' and I was all like "no" because that is a suckish meaning, and my host mom couldn't stop laughing. In the picture you see Shota writing my name in Kanji.<br /><br />My host sister is super skilled at Calligraphy/Shodo as mentioned before, and so seeing her write my name was quite amazing. Much appreciated.<br /><br />3/25<br />Soo, today so far has been very lax. We went to the Shiyakusho/City Municipal Office to register me as an alien/foreigner, and besides that we haven't really done much. I just had a bowl of udon which was wonderful, and I have kind of been half asleep the whole day. The weather is also incredibly dreary and gray and depressing, and I am insanely tired, so, the day has been pretty slow. Host dad says that Osaka weather is very 'kurejii' (crazy) and changes a lot, so, hopefully tomorrow will be super sunny!!! I kind of love rainy weather though. It's relaxing, but this is like stormy gray rainy weather (and the wind is super cold), so, it isn't really relaxing. Totally ok though. I have been doing quite a bunch lately, so I appreciate today. I also have constantly been asking host mom if she needs help cooking and all that, and she appreciates me asking a ton but doesn't want me to help. SO, a rule to any prospective exchange students: always be willing to help. It's a super easy thing to do and makes your host mom amazingly happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111 (also try putting away everyone's dishes for them before they put them away themselves ;);D You can have a kindness battle [kind of kidding])<br /><br /><br />Hmm...talk later. BYE!!!!!!!!!!Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-44889787971308993062010-03-23T10:52:00.015-04:002010-03-25T09:10:42.587-04:00Walking Around Ikeda----Experiencing アバター (Abataa - Avatar) 2/21 - 2/22<span style="font-family:georgia;">2/21/10</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Hi.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">So I apologize for being so slow with my posts and updates. This post is about 3/21, so I probs forgot a bunch</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family:georgia;">BUUTTT I will try to remember as much as possible as I write, so, yeah. I will also be updating posts whenever I get sudden bursts of random memories and such. ANYWAY,</span><p style="font-family: georgia;"></p> <p face="georgia" class="MsoNormal">I woke up sometime around noon, which was actually incredibly early for me as I usually get up quite a bit later than that BUUTT I am currently trying to change my sleeping hours to a more realistic and polite schedule. My family/Japan currently has several days of vacation though, so everything is pretty lax. My host brother is actually just as bad/nocturnal with his sleeping, so I’m not alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I ate breakfast/lunch with my host brother, who then then skateboarded off to go hang out with friends that I would actually surprisingly run into later on in the day unexpectedly. SO, I actually spent the whole day with my host dad which was pretty awesomely amazing because he is a pretty awesomely amazing host dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My host-grandmother/obaachan actually lives right next door, in this absolutely gorgeous traditional Japanese home that smells like incense on the inside which.is.awesome, and we went to see her immediately after breakfast/lunch. The houses are kind of connected in the back, or in other words it takes like 1 step to get into obaachan’s house from my host-house, which is super convenient and awesome. We walked into her house from the back door which I guess is something she doesn’t appreciate, because she scolded my host dad for doing it (host dad is obaachan’s son) which was funny. She doesn’t speak a word of English, but I told her I speak a teeny bit of Japanese and she immediately took that as an indication of me being super fluent in Japanese and started speaking in slightly rapid fire Osaka-ben which I kind of, didn’t understand at all. It was all perfectly ok though, because, she is hilarious, and very grandma-like, in the sense that she gave me a ton of Japanese cookies and was super sweet. She told me that, 20 years ago, she hosted an Australian girl for 5 months named Jenny, and Jenny is now married to a Japanese man and lives in <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Perth</st1:city>, <st1:country-region st="on">Australia</st1:country-region></st1:place>. She also has a giant wombat stuffed animal and she showed that to me as well. Up until then I actually had no idea what a wombat looked like, so that was an enriching experience. OMG her house was so gorgeous toooo!!!!!!! The house was incredibly traditional Japanese-like, with a semi-large altar in one room, incense everywhere, tatami floors in every room and an insanely gorgeous traditional Japanese garden. Next time I go over I will most definitely take pictures. I was impressed, impressed over already super impressed because of my host family’s house (HEATED FLOORS> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style=""> </span>After that excursion, we went one step back into the host-house, my host dad and I sat for maybe like 5 seconds, and then he was all like “let me show you Ikeda city!”, and I said “yeah!” and we walked/took trains around the city which was super amazing!!!!! I couldn’t BELIEVE how much there is in the city. I had expected the city to be nothing but a suburb of houses housing 120,000 people BUUUUT I was totally wrong. The city is most definitely not touristy, but there is a ton to see and do. There are several museums and quite a ton of parks all over the place which feels super homey, and there is this mountain in the center of the city called Satsukiyama, my host mom said it’s just a hill though. She went all like “NO. Satsukiyama is HIRU (hill)”, which was really funny. I like Satsukiyama a lot—very calm and when the wind blows all the trees swish all over the place which looks really cool. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style=""> </span>S<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh803NyVE8sujJpLfcTSY69CjLg-pLMbNEB3Evl-0tH-pvHEKQCDop4_42_H6KuVivfwlS7McSqPBCM-8Lb-bVsmj8X4i3va-9s822D25GMOvt7Iv4X0cmm0hR93fKheLy0Six2fkBgyjo/s1600/2010_0321Japan0006.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh803NyVE8sujJpLfcTSY69CjLg-pLMbNEB3Evl-0tH-pvHEKQCDop4_42_H6KuVivfwlS7McSqPBCM-8Lb-bVsmj8X4i3va-9s822D25GMOvt7Iv4X0cmm0hR93fKheLy0Six2fkBgyjo/s320/2010_0321Japan0006.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452142810333816226" border="0" /></a>o. My host dad and I walked along several narrow streets (in the pictures you can kind of see what their area looks like. Unlike what these pictures show however, my host-house is at the end of this extremely narrow little road that is basically hidden from the rest of society. Totally ok though. I LOOVE their location. I will soon provide <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0D-qGDV89yzoqxnmCmd3YmMCt4r9mEpRY-vbvn5Qj-bj7Btu1dIiMfpyJVDICabNGgrL7PmJSwGSByukRDrxJ1F6waSA0VIqcVCvOn7q_dBOvM-GBvP3SLC-dFfzviNqBtys-LNoYhU/s1600/2010_0321Japan0007.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja0D-qGDV89yzoqxnmCmd3YmMCt4r9mEpRY-vbvn5Qj-bj7Btu1dIiMfpyJVDICabNGgrL7PmJSwGSByukRDrxJ1F6waSA0VIqcVCvOn7q_dBOvM-GBvP3SLC-dFfzviNqBtys-LNoYhU/s320/2010_0321Japan0007.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452142821189420482" border="0" /></a>more pictures/video) to this covered shopping arcade-shopping areas which I remember very well from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> when I came last summer. I looooove these shopping arcades. They are so incredibly convenient, the store names are <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHkPfu3srJIlJ4oMAZFGzXZMf0eKzTqbKeo1xdk1ZdtqoyJKYk3EURGQrUF6zDcy3mhIwpCbPnfBm7YmK-Ygc4iOwpV2gKfLbMNQAJgRnUhGZvD7exjdJb5o2liq8L21BR298Q4mm6Fo/s1600/2010_0321Japan0008.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHkPfu3srJIlJ4oMAZFGzXZMf0eKzTqbKeo1xdk1ZdtqoyJKYk3EURGQrUF6zDcy3mhIwpCbPnfBm7YmK-Ygc4iOwpV2gKfLbMNQAJgRnUhGZvD7exjdJb5o2liq8L21BR298Q4mm6Fo/s320/2010_0321Japan0008.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452142830257793810" border="0" /></a>wonderful examples of awesome ‘Engrish’, and the background music is super catchy. Also to note, I was pretty surprised that I didn’t notice a single non-Asian the whole day. I saw tons of people because <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> is busy and dense with human bodies, but not a single Caucasian person. THUS, I received a ton of stares. Like, the kinds of stares you receive in places like <st1:city st="on">Matsuyama</st1:city> on <st1:place st="on">Shikoku</st1:place> where foreigners are nonexistent. Usually I am ok with stares but it diiiid get a teeny bit awkward after a while. Some of the teenagers would stare at me, and continue to stare at me when I started to kind-of-stare at them, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrysLz6K9oPRDYVP4kTtkTV4aF5L4-C41m_HE2bP3BRme1dHRI_XvnHCblYZYr7NWnNeGj_uDQRs_0SNXTyYR2SkvARcrflaGuL9sQz4klu4j-2SVMCogMcby_mgdMDU2VviUBLrrjqM/s1600/2010_0321Japan0010.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrysLz6K9oPRDYVP4kTtkTV4aF5L4-C41m_HE2bP3BRme1dHRI_XvnHCblYZYr7NWnNeGj_uDQRs_0SNXTyYR2SkvARcrflaGuL9sQz4klu4j-2SVMCogMcby_mgdMDU2VviUBLrrjqM/s320/2010_0321Japan0010.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452143358854533202" border="0" /></a>and when they passed me along a sidewalk, I would look back at them and sometimes they were still staring at me. YEAH, like THAT much. And that happened more than once too..Also when we took the Hankyu train to a different part o<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2DeRF-ysOOhSe9DvQPeev7LzZi0MowuF9SCSGgBBbFmDLAj-5Ihvn5dwExQNRwIcueEjkDdDiZCCAuScUpSnhICYu4XfNzQIDC2gvGpkm6y8g4qYAJZTENPOZMS2JJCW_ws6duWwT10/s1600/2010_0321Japan0011.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2DeRF-ysOOhSe9DvQPeev7LzZi0MowuF9SCSGgBBbFmDLAj-5Ihvn5dwExQNRwIcueEjkDdDiZCCAuScUpSnhICYu4XfNzQIDC2gvGpkm6y8g4qYAJZTENPOZMS2JJCW_ws6duWwT10/s320/2010_0321Japan0011.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452143373350885570" border="0" /></a>f Ikeda (I took a picture of our local station. It's actually pretty big and has a modern shopping mall attached, and one of the exits is connected to a covered shopping arcade. I also took a picture of the houses of Ikeda with some hills in the background. Super peaceful and pretty), several of the fellow train-riders would stare a lot…I was surprised, and sometimes kind of scared. But it was all good, just something I may have to get used to. But SEERIOOUUSLY the stares totally surprised me (and still kind of do). I didn’t hear anyone talk about me in Ja<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYppGFIm8pWom-kEdijv35GoAyy1VNRNSu0heSZuJv3rL4oI4rxWAVhlXbKqpJtSJmQ16Mvpl32xhagNEe-sk_m3fT-dXxTzRWnF9Cavfu3EwDjtP6sv8lrmvFuCEJzS3ZYGTNYcIR8M/s1600/2010_0321Japan0012.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYppGFIm8pWom-kEdijv35GoAyy1VNRNSu0heSZuJv3rL4oI4rxWAVhlXbKqpJtSJmQ16Mvpl32xhagNEe-sk_m3fT-dXxTzRWnF9Cavfu3EwDjtP6sv8lrmvFuCEJzS3ZYGTNYcIR8M/s320/2010_0321Japan0012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452143379600879842" border="0" /></a>panese (or any other language) though. I was KIND OF hoping someone would (and that I would hear/be able to understand them) just so that I could eavesdrop c: teehee. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style=""> </span>OH, something I learned about my host dad. HE MAKES INTERACTIVE BOARDS! When I called my host mom several months ago, I somehow thought she had told me that he works at a bank. I was totally wrong though, and I actually still don’t really understand what he does, but apparently one of the things he makes is INTERACTIVE BOARDS! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNVr3YuqSTSrQpYeLLD1qKSnZ9FDfKunQxebmJ7cs0LFRl9b-Ek7pD4n2TD9UfbPusyBb9dzWv3wiFfTp_xu83Nk_pDTs3p4tFvcPDdVfI3V1fR6jkCF54jcIMjNspxSqtW-c0dpe22UY/s1600/2010_0321Japan0014.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNVr3YuqSTSrQpYeLLD1qKSnZ9FDfKunQxebmJ7cs0LFRl9b-Ek7pD4n2TD9UfbPusyBb9dzWv3wiFfTp_xu83Nk_pDTs3p4tFvcPDdVfI3V1fR6jkCF54jcIMjNspxSqtW-c0dpe22UY/s320/2010_0321Japan0014.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452143744967859138" border="0" /></a>Like, in this picture you can see random animals and buildings of Ikeda, and you press one of the b<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQxZeufxm_IVe5ucHOGk3zOWQlD1Q0Y66vXTJnhOnm4MQxpr4COipHZ5qse-UIwZxpPeCvMMArk9N8Q6sA1Fhh1mLJb_28dKc8OZKYbX-F24EJHZaf_kvhQoRKRECOk0dBzuYzp0sp4s/s1600/2010_0321Japan0015.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyQxZeufxm_IVe5ucHOGk3zOWQlD1Q0Y66vXTJnhOnm4MQxpr4COipHZ5qse-UIwZxpPeCvMMArk9N8Q6sA1Fhh1mLJb_28dKc8OZKYbX-F24EJHZaf_kvhQoRKRECOk0dBzuYzp0sp4s/s320/2010_0321Japan0015.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452143750490958338" border="0" /></a>uttons, and this traditional Japanese music plays while this enthusiastic man explains the picture. My host dad said he “made” this particular board. He also apparently made a map in one of the Ikeda city information <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwLMOI-6-mZhooFhpwD_zRfQ8kPLQcrkyXlDQirMYJq4KwvKayCfruCT6aItCB6Xt_c7jwPVGLMOeI9izMnV6GrkuJtj-np4K4dEBPwaR-o4rb76-EED0FtvZQjIsmHWk1JG70llIyfc/s1600/2010_0321Japan0017.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwLMOI-6-mZhooFhpwD_zRfQ8kPLQcrkyXlDQirMYJq4KwvKayCfruCT6aItCB6Xt_c7jwPVGLMOeI9izMnV6GrkuJtj-np4K4dEBPwaR-o4rb76-EED0FtvZQjIsmHWk1JG70llIyfc/s320/2010_0321Japan0017.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452144392176821346" border="0" /></a>pamphlets. He also apparently had something to do with cleaning dirty buildings. I am kind of very confused, but eventually I should be able to figure out Mr. Toshiyuki’s shigotoooo (job). </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style=""> </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil29iQBufaxxONbiKMZ_5xvY0e83d9qIPwdBIChjTKxFQhKVynkIjzkVJQly4i43zL1xrb-Qts4WjyVAQDlsTBDspx3G7j0NcwB_Uu3EtWF4vyJEe6uOw5GAQDHSrg-XOsIXs9kNGa570/s1600/2010_0321Japan0016.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil29iQBufaxxONbiKMZ_5xvY0e83d9qIPwdBIChjTKxFQhKVynkIjzkVJQly4i43zL1xrb-Qts4WjyVAQDlsTBDspx3G7j0NcwB_Uu3EtWF4vyJEe6uOw5GAQDHSrg-XOsIXs9kNGa570/s320/2010_0321Japan0016.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452143767825267682" border="0" /></a>Hmmmmm (I am trying super hard to remember everything that happened. Here is a picture of Satsukiyama btw)…I noticed that there is a ton of shopping in this city. We went to one of several large department stores located throughout the area (This is random, but my host family owns three tiny dogs and they are always constantly licking the tatami mats in the house. I am watching Nana doing it now). There is also this famous statue named <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3fQEBMixPXcdc56ljQjt0RWuq2s0eAkYmUqk3ZqNb_6yjORrf_lFsVoTEtOYWNcTq2_1JhHHheyT0LFP-cUTKUwb0wIu3skDiA6HmVa5IN8nHzp59fM3oRc7JMz9wi0ojyi-BACpuJSI/s1600/2010_0321Japan0020.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3fQEBMixPXcdc56ljQjt0RWuq2s0eAkYmUqk3ZqNb_6yjORrf_lFsVoTEtOYWNcTq2_1JhHHheyT0LFP-cUTKUwb0wIu3skDiA6HmVa5IN8nHzp59fM3oRc7JMz9wi0ojyi-BACpuJSI/s320/2010_0321Japan0020.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452144402898524594" border="0" /></a>Billiten (picture of Billiten and I), designed by an American guy. If you rub his feet, you shall be blessed with good luck. He looks pretty awesome c: There is also a replica of a castle in the city which looks awesome (I didn’t take a picture though, for some strange reason). I’ll eventually get a picture of it. OH! ALSO, there are wombats EEEEVERYWHERE. Not real ones, but there are pictures of wombats, cartoon wombats, stuffed animal wombats etc. all over the place. Wombats are like, Ikeda city’s mascot animal. LITERALLY, everywhere. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style=""> </span>We also went to a Hyakken/Hyaku En/100 Yen store which <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK4SZRY78olj0npqFYHcWd06s1GWLWZwYmEVBpPR4a6vb0JLbPf7Vd-sqvvoDRascYT1ehgsd1SOVXm2VjMP4xgeqddJml1JNWnMXfXQlcHxqoSS5R1e3qXhR07sHO99ib7C233YHa3Cc/s1600/2010_0321Japan0021.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK4SZRY78olj0npqFYHcWd06s1GWLWZwYmEVBpPR4a6vb0JLbPf7Vd-sqvvoDRascYT1ehgsd1SOVXm2VjMP4xgeqddJml1JNWnMXfXQlcHxqoSS5R1e3qXhR07sHO99ib7C233YHa3Cc/s320/2010_0321Japan0021.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452144409098568610" border="0" /></a>was amazing. I had heard good things about them from a bunch of people, and seriously, 100 Yen stores are like the definition of convenient. They have everything, and it is super cheap. I would have taken pictures but I don’t think picture taking was allowed (the store had so much amazing “engrish”). There was a chain restaurant named “Friendly!” nearby as well which I remembered from my visit to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> last summer. I also bumped into Shota and his friends right after leaving the 100 Yen store who were skateboarding/socializing outside the train station. Apparently he and his friends had dropped by the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghMWD9AbJeN5RaXW86O_KoofUA-7SOnKoL2vd2QuGmA4EUDpZFsvTcqRDCfN-LxD8w9yNBFZU3LXeCewDfI-VCko5BIk9NOGzbDEmhPMvjMx2j41Oug2hEUCAsmMNHq1QxfezxxYqAf8w/s1600/2010_0321Japan0023.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghMWD9AbJeN5RaXW86O_KoofUA-7SOnKoL2vd2QuGmA4EUDpZFsvTcqRDCfN-LxD8w9yNBFZU3LXeCewDfI-VCko5BIk9NOGzbDEmhPMvjMx2j41Oug2hEUCAsmMNHq1QxfezxxYqAf8w/s320/2010_0321Japan0023.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452144633204842898" border="0" /></a>house to come hang out with me, but I had left already with host dad, BUUUTTT it’s all good cause I bumped into them NOW! They were really awesome and friendly and wanted a picture with me as seen here. The one to the left loves baseball which is why his hair is so short (according to host mom), host brother is in the middle, host brother’s best friend is to the right of host brother. I feel terrible right now though because I forgot their names, and I suck with names, so even if they told me their names I would probably still not remember for a while BUUUUTTT..things shall work out. I will work incredibly hard to remember people’s names here. !!!!!!!!! OH, I also met several college students who know my host dad, and we met up in covered shopping arcade. They were super friendly too. People I have met have been, in general, very friendly. Wonderful-ness :D </p> <p face="georgia" class="MsoNormal">Hmmm…I also had Takoyaki for the first time, and it was delicious!!!!! I love <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Osaka</st1:place></st1:city> “jyankii fuudzu” (junk food)!!!!!!!! We had curry for dinner, family taught me some Osaka-ben (<st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Osaka</st1:city></st1:place> dialect) and host mom explained to me what ‘Kousa’ is. Kousa is yellow sand from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and apparently there has been a lot of it recently. The sand makes laundry really sandy and heavy when being dried outside, so she apologized for having to wash my clothing twice. I was totally ok with it though BECAUSE with MY terrible body odor, my clothing would probably need to be washed…a lot. After all that, the family watched some game shows which was obviously HILARIOUS. We saw a bit of Manzen, which is <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Osaka</st1:place></st1:city> comedy where two male comedians just, do stuff, and it is hilarious. We also watched Pirates of the Carribean (first one) on T.V. That was great. I tried introducing Pirate Language to the family through the movie but it didn’t work out too well…that’s ok though. I should be able to find another opportunity to introduce Pirate Language. </p> <p face="georgia" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p face="georgia" class="MsoNormal">SO, that was 2/21. 2/22, <span style=""> </span>I woke up and went to see Avatar in 3D with my host brother. WOOOOO I EXPERIENCED A JAPANESE MOVIE THEATER!!!! Aaahh Japanese movie theaters are super expensive. The food is insane. They don’t really offer much, but a medium popcorn is like 7 dollars and it isn’t very big in comparison to an Amurican medium size. Host brother and I were also 22 dollars each, which is kind of insane. Since our movie was 3D it was 22 dollars, though usually we are $18 each. Host mom paid for me which was super awesome of her. SO, we saw Avatar, and I was the only foreigner in the entire building (The building is/was huge: 18 theaters. I also think I am the only foreigner within like 100 miles), I got my share of stares (some lasting unnecessarily long), and also noticed that there is assigned seating, very unlike Amurica where people have like bitc* fights over seats, except that actually never happens…at least in <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:state> it doesn’t. Our theater was completely full and my seat was B18, second row from the top, YAAY!!!!! I had not seen Avatar yet so this was pretty awesome. The movie was also in English with Japanese subs, which I appreciated BECAUSE the Japanese could then hear the various dialects, and I could then hear the English version, and then Shota could practice English, haha. Except, it was super difficult for him, because the movie had a ton of random Amurican slang that would be kind of hard to understand, and the Japanese subs were super literal and bland in comparison to the English being spoken, unfortunately. Or maybe the Japanese had a ton more meaning, but I just didn’t understand it. Either way, the languages differed. Like “sounds good sir” was translated as “onegaishimasu” for Japanese which means ‘please’. Anyway, the movie was amazing. I am so glad I finally saw it!!!!!!!!! The animation was absolutely amazing, and I completely freaked out when the black panther looking thing jumped out from the trees when Jake encountered those triceratops looking things, and then Jake ran away and the black panther looking thing is chasing him, and then he jumps off a cliff/waterfall thing and the girl almost shoots an arrow but then a jellyfish looking thing lands on her arrow and so she doesn’t shoot her arrow…yeah that was a really scary part of the film. I totally embarrassed myself while everyone else watched the movie completely contently. I actually freaked out quite a few times throughout the movie, and I couldn’t laugh with my obnoxious laugh like I usually do during movies because EVERYONE would have gotten mad and stared at me. People would have done the same in Amurica but I wouldn’t care. Being the super obnoxious foreigner in <st1:country-region st="on">Japan</st1:country-region> doesn’t sound like a cool label to have unfortunately <span style="">L</span><span style=""> </span>I am noticing that my laugh is pretty much completely forbidden throughout most of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, but that is ok. I will find a location where I can laugh my obnoxious laugh, so that I won’t lose it. Maybe I can find a deserted park or deserted location somewhere in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Japan</st1:country-region></st1:place> where I can just..laugh. Now I am excited. I must find this place. </p> <p face="georgia" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">OK, so this is what I recall from the past two days. If I suddenly have a spurt of memory regarding these two days, I will most definitely update this post. So, if you have time, reading this blog multiple times may be worthwhile <span style="">J</span></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="font-family: georgia;" class="MsoNormal">BYE!! </p>Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-88808188531253838102010-03-23T10:51:00.012-04:002010-03-24T06:11:56.523-04:00Goodbye Fellow International Japan-lovers, and Meeting Host Family FOR THE FIRST TME (3/20)SOME VIDEOS OF THE US STUDENTS BEFORE HEADING OFF TO OUR HOST FAMILIES---<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMnVob6XmG8">1</a>---<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy6eOfSE0FY">2</a>---So in the morning, everyone had to wake up at like, 6 AM or so, get their luggage together, bring it to the area near the orange building which you can see in these pictures, exchange the luggage for a breakfast ticket, go eat breakfast, go back to the luggage outside the orange building, and wait for our buses. For the people having their foreign exchange outside of Tokyo or Kanagawa (Yokohama City), <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeirmWKj8uwRQ34Me0hXycOCQPMCzNYXuUvdYXPEsAXTDLZLzJXRRYkFcxbYNwvnD5qgVK4R4AVZmkbDsU2pTPTxw-883HsJBRsHHj-CAI2usuHIkVOSQ50F2tmILMOF2uL3zCCl5BBxc/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0184.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeirmWKj8uwRQ34Me0hXycOCQPMCzNYXuUvdYXPEsAXTDLZLzJXRRYkFcxbYNwvnD5qgVK4R4AVZmkbDsU2pTPTxw-883HsJBRsHHj-CAI2usuHIkVOSQ50F2tmILMOF2uL3zCCl5BBxc/s320/2010_0320Japan0184.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452052428429615362" border="0" /></a>buses came to pick us up and bring us either to the Shinkansen station, or Haneda Airport. The students taking either ANA or JAL (I took JAL), took a pretty bus which came and picked us up toooooo bring us to Haneda Airport, Haneda Airport being a super busy and super large Domestic Airport in Ota, Tokyo. While waiting, everyone went super crazy with their cameras and took tons of pics with everyone as a final goodby<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhzyD9lMNsf4aAWiprt12pzwTxAdUYW5jbW5Bc-KSYDK4SpNsJx_hTGZk8y1zPQD6gBiVk5AS2CJxsQjOyXz12Xhnj7vrYj8gMcHUye5nFz33RDKKX1WnbZjKFCaUcKug7cKwLkty8brE/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0189.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhzyD9lMNsf4aAWiprt12pzwTxAdUYW5jbW5Bc-KSYDK4SpNsJx_hTGZk8y1zPQD6gBiVk5AS2CJxsQjOyXz12Xhnj7vrYj8gMcHUye5nFz33RDKKX1WnbZjKFCaUcKug7cKwLkty8brE/s320/2010_0320Japan0189.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452052451165579570" border="0" /></a>e, which was pretty sad. Here on this post, I have several pics of people waving goodbye as <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBJY-_4TBFulqLvY_M3LBx5VweAdNEaGgtcGN-jzwzedL9LlNo9L6fg21pHncn0rb04_FAImhyphenhyphenwa9JvdvF4ady6kJWX4TO-fOh-zONZOPkHLxkAogm2wXb9zm_fOQMsnhgunearXuvE8/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0191.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIBJY-_4TBFulqLvY_M3LBx5VweAdNEaGgtcGN-jzwzedL9LlNo9L6fg21pHncn0rb04_FAImhyphenhyphenwa9JvdvF4ady6kJWX4TO-fOh-zONZOPkHLxkAogm2wXb9zm_fOQMsnhgunearXuvE8/s320/2010_0320Japan0191.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452052950919001586" border="0" /></a>I <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5rHEqIUSvh0pZrCwhaSfC42U727S4RzTduZPdvc490Y8KYqY_4Hlvd2yyuidkUMTmcl7t2Kwp_k2kIFTPvyk7qc_bDG3_M3XQ0riXHMDjXAhET-ZjR-1NmLcDjw6Q_4HT1H6uqjH7Q4/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0193.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5rHEqIUSvh0pZrCwhaSfC42U727S4RzTduZPdvc490Y8KYqY_4Hlvd2yyuidkUMTmcl7t2Kwp_k2kIFTPvyk7qc_bDG3_M3XQ0riXHMDjXAhET-ZjR-1NmLcDjw6Q_4HT1H6uqjH7Q4/s320/2010_0320Japan0193.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452052961292876338" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbDnZoWgTOlbj69uC_Aw2lUKQDTF4tbGvbLy6Zu1iVsrNGZ4J3s_1XEzS_8PdzWlD-C0lwWhM5Iq6rkKuKE25tLh3J4KF58DEz_mA-fhVgoL_25Ske5tecmC7I5Y0NVGfEf_KxxIJZbN8/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0190.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbDnZoWgTOlbj69uC_Aw2lUKQDTF4tbGvbLy6Zu1iVsrNGZ4J3s_1XEzS_8PdzWlD-C0lwWhM5Iq6rkKuKE25tLh3J4KF58DEz_mA-fhVgoL_25Ske5tecmC7I5Y0NVGfEf_KxxIJZbN8/s320/2010_0320Japan0190.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452052944157188098" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS37KKCIcGIz3auioKIAMKXOPgiIDCTZNgu1-5BzNzuVdy0udno3rqz0nXntHwuuloacIoHhU8oWIm_YhEvWLrkcO40nYSmq2ojozzSf4kvbjg78d4R8nw6cu0tcILwJPnCLmLL6-xwxs/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0186.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS37KKCIcGIz3auioKIAMKXOPgiIDCTZNgu1-5BzNzuVdy0udno3rqz0nXntHwuuloacIoHhU8oWIm_YhEvWLrkcO40nYSmq2ojozzSf4kvbjg78d4R8nw6cu0tcILwJPnCLmLL6-xwxs/s320/2010_0320Japan0186.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452052442495945346" border="0" /></a>get on the bus to head off to HANEDA AIRPOORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (In this pic you see me <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQf54qAd8NgfH8r5bV0Pb7ZxyXNOeuOql8dyspcZ0qorNfh8TzmDIgjQepgYpmCNUTZHckKQmXvQaAnHT3jV9XMfPgkSMt-vkjTVUm8mo0OPHUms6rq4rFRuu-Nh5z_AwEy4jjUhaW3FU/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0194.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQf54qAd8NgfH8r5bV0Pb7ZxyXNOeuOql8dyspcZ0qorNfh8TzmDIgjQepgYpmCNUTZHckKQmXvQaAnHT3jV9XMfPgkSMt-vkjTVUm8mo0OPHUms6rq4rFRuu-Nh5z_AwEy4jjUhaW3FU/s320/2010_0320Japan0194.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452053417206874658" border="0" /></a>with the Canadian exchange student, student from Belgium, and three from the Netherlands, also the Finnish exchange students, next is Masato, Finnish speaking returnee on the left who I met before while talking with the Finnish exchange students, and super awesome Australian accent returnee on the right, also the Thai students waving good bye, )<br /><br />Anyway, so I along with the other students traveling by plane drove off on a bus (picture of two Dutch students), to Haneda Airport, and on the way we saw a bunch of pretty awesome Tokyo sites (from the bus) like, Tokyo Tower, the sky scrapers of <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsUHj2lAPw__1HfwgEufFNdfJhZ9GvJve82Bq32AOHKwOTfAKO_x5n_p4L6v8e61oS1xoimYPVnOvncX73dcx5fw8jgNZufWEwlv0xKjEMi08eu7fTjw_JTj8x0cL9h9TlfNSIojz2R0/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0197.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsUHj2lAPw__1HfwgEufFNdfJhZ9GvJve82Bq32AOHKwOTfAKO_x5n_p4L6v8e61oS1xoimYPVnOvncX73dcx5fw8jgNZufWEwlv0xKjEMi08eu7fTjw_JTj8x0cL9h9TlfNSIojz2R0/s320/2010_0320Japan0197.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452053439192476066" border="0" /></a>Shinjuku, Palet Town and other recreational areas of Odaiba, and we also went across the Rainbow Bridge which was pretty cool. If we had gone across at night, we could have seen the bridge lit up BUUTTTT it was day time so it was kind of like just a regular (but super long and awesome and Japanese) bridge. We eventually arrived at the airport, and the students taking ANA (blue luggage tag) got off the bus first and went to Terminal 2, which the JAL students got off afterwards at Terminal 1. As you can see, I took some <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Q-bJiLgigMMkp7FzkK0GCc1jlmzebKFmHx2R44ntzjL6-IDCP7F61zmT_sadLI8MX3C5dzNWijQPM2KHk7akzVCKZZTBSX7L9BgU4LomiFq5mTc8EveIc_ndyjiutyWj8_PtatVQvy4/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0196.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Q-bJiLgigMMkp7FzkK0GCc1jlmzebKFmHx2R44ntzjL6-IDCP7F61zmT_sadLI8MX3C5dzNWijQPM2KHk7akzVCKZZTBSX7L9BgU4LomiFq5mTc8EveIc_ndyjiutyWj8_PtatVQvy4/s320/2010_0320Japan0196.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452053427571303602" border="0" /></a>pictures of the super pretty airport which was super flashy and glassy and had awesome stuff like the Mobile Ashtray Museum Cafe, RESTAURANT, JAL Smile Support (everyone took a picture of this), <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2tMAyHbNi9N42v5V4c-MRYKNLK-hoUHPkTxoMcBTSqq9-4E1zXatHU8jRIQ1oUnjrVT5NkbmS89ky54f9fId0iYeq83CtDr7f5d5r69fwB_oG1k9Bs4YGqre3txLQ7vlKJEc-v-NMHE/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0210.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2tMAyHbNi9N42v5V4c-MRYKNLK-hoUHPkTxoMcBTSqq9-4E1zXatHU8jRIQ1oUnjrVT5NkbmS89ky54f9fId0iYeq83CtDr7f5d5r69fwB_oG1k9Bs4YGqre3txLQ7vlKJEc-v-NMHE/s320/2010_0320Japan0210.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452053853017070082" border="0" /></a>JAL NEWS, and an incredibly hostile looking animal poster. As you can see, there is a picture I took of the airpor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3peK74G3KFvrRMywn0HEF2xbfnmuX_SWvSAmLr2Dqtj0MCl0fXEakluu3aj1SU3JEcT57JMB9BfmIqw7GyguDoe8INpnEC0ew8-dSd21sN4LUFTf0vhquTxFWCvXbQ0HBB672EzRGPs/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0211.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3peK74G3KFvrRMywn0HEF2xbfnmuX_SWvSAmLr2Dqtj0MCl0fXEakluu3aj1SU3JEcT57JMB9BfmIqw7GyguDoe8INpnEC0ew8-dSd21sN4LUFTf0vhquTxFWCvXbQ0HBB672EzRGPs/s320/2010_0320Japan0211.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452053866113411218" border="0" /></a>t with security people in the foreground, and those security people all gave me incredibly h<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCOmaKA5YLXOt6N03J7DYpS45LhZvRI9wd3cgHpJePTzofOoq5pf9lpsVhtZFkYCFvahvRG4WuDZq4kWVTWM3ohW5ZWONG7HXcnlNsqCOu9rLjqSempwq_gpTu5OPSRYrZzGPl5UsSlo/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0212.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCOmaKA5YLXOt6N03J7DYpS45LhZvRI9wd3cgHpJePTzofOoq5pf9lpsVhtZFkYCFvahvRG4WuDZq4kWVTWM3ohW5ZWONG7HXcnlNsqCOu9rLjqSempwq_gpTu5OPSRYrZzGPl5UsSlo/s320/2010_0320Japan0212.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452055209793912418" border="0" /></a>ostile looks after taking the picture, because, my camera has an incredibly flashy, huge, and <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPeoEUNv1wN6wk2LCsSiph6_McvLlxaEMUTutqIsqFwIiZgoes1N1GL4Eea0s6OOJYZa-v2MsUXUQJITs7X-LNee2PSjL_rZlHYijd_EFPbjQ63LApBurgEcpcrWrT8GqQulBNHyrrTs8/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0213.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPeoEUNv1wN6wk2LCsSiph6_McvLlxaEMUTutqIsqFwIiZgoes1N1GL4Eea0s6OOJYZa-v2MsUXUQJITs7X-LNee2PSjL_rZlHYijd_EFPbjQ63LApBurgEcpcrWrT8GqQulBNHyrrTs8/s320/2010_0320Japan0213.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452055215515743106" border="0" /></a>bright flash, and I think they may have thought that I was taking a picture of them, and thus, they gave me hostile looks, which made me feel bad. And then, like 5 minutes later, I intended to take a picture of RESTAURANT, and the security people showed up like the moment I took the picture (with my super strong flash), and they gave me semi-hostile looks again, which made me feel bad again. Bad timing.<br />So, I said good-bye to a bunch of people, which was super sad, and one of the American exchange students and I went up to the Chinese Exchange student and told her how much we lo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdf5eBqU6f48ZKnxg813J0Sma5KHip-jtR50BYqDe0So6z8aQYef1FxhwQOTVo8uKraGwxdMkeYqY_u23yTRs2KPzoQh8pl-_ETVJChbv5p8fOifwKnTMsbgZZh_J17yb41EjmUQPqZPc/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0209.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdf5eBqU6f48ZKnxg813J0Sma5KHip-jtR50BYqDe0So6z8aQYef1FxhwQOTVo8uKraGwxdMkeYqY_u23yTRs2KPzoQh8pl-_ETVJChbv5p8fOifwKnTMsbgZZh_J17yb41EjmUQPqZPc/s320/2010_0320Japan0209.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452053843992329698" border="0" /></a>ved her hair and overall perfect-ness, and I went through security, and didn't even have to take off my shoes which was super convenient, and then I sat down<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1ipUMqIQCFSW6ocETAkgrFxQykcIgtWIeDLTj7DiKA8CF57SLS7B5T9NVDdQihzMbL5jovK6HKUKJOo0zCqLP1-Aap7VfFKFi3RErRmtL6-wuUkFkytzf9BCPh9u1W3MtLa8axbzHJs/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0214.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1ipUMqIQCFSW6ocETAkgrFxQykcIgtWIeDLTj7DiKA8CF57SLS7B5T9NVDdQihzMbL5jovK6HKUKJOo0zCqLP1-Aap7VfFKFi3RErRmtL6-wuUkFkytzf9BCPh9u1W3MtLa8axbzHJs/s320/2010_0320Japan0214.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452055226279979666" border="0" /></a> with some other exchange students, and watched Japanese commercials on the T.V. nearby, and peed (in the bathroom on a wonderful japanese potty), and eventually boarded the plane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOMG IT WAS MY FIRST TIME ON A JAPANESE PLANE!!! The plane was quite amazing, and even had a camera thing at the front of the aircraft displayed on the t.v. screen to give everyone a like, airplane-eyeball-view which was pretty nice, I fell asleep with a pocky on my sweatshirt, and since the plane was super hot, when I woke up, I had a mess of melted chocolate on the front of my sweatshirt WHICH IS STILL THERE SITTING IN MY JAPANESE BEDROOM IN THE CORNER BECAUSE I JUST REMEMBERED THAT I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT IT STILL HAS CHOCOLATE ALL OVER IT AUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH crud. But yeah, when I woke up I basically peed at the sight of the melted/hardened chocolate which kind of looked like poo and was super obvious (the sweatshirt was my blue one from PA)...so I had to carry my sweatshirt and wear my YFU t-shirt instead, which was totally fine. BUT YEAH, anyway I slept throughout the entire flight and woke up to see Osaka below me/the plane. We eventually landed, and I was super sweaty because I was FINALLY going to see my host family in like 5 minutes (they sent me pictures in the mail but I never received the package) and I am actually sweating right now as I type because the whole thought was incredibly super frickin scary and I am pretty glad that my host mom fell asleep on the floor 5 feet away from me right now because if she saw how excited I am getting as I type this that would be pretty super awkward, and I actually don't know how to say "sweaty" in Japanese so I wouldn't be able to EXPLAAAIIIIIN MYSELLFFFFF! ANYWAY, I went straight t<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsh6d93kTd2V3fQh8ZTUbK1KXCzlxE6ZcELM1_BnpZvfdOv2j3fyk8yhjWtBGh3e5PpHTdCQYXeLLYruX9zDCtV9kOFRZ97Q-yHfshTGIdvsz4iM7AMquwCUpIIi6PhA4vsZ6GQlp865E/s1600/2010_0320Japan0226.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsh6d93kTd2V3fQh8ZTUbK1KXCzlxE6ZcELM1_BnpZvfdOv2j3fyk8yhjWtBGh3e5PpHTdCQYXeLLYruX9zDCtV9kOFRZ97Q-yHfshTGIdvsz4iM7AMquwCUpIIi6PhA4vsZ6GQlp865E/s320/2010_0320Japan0226.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452100718732158610" border="0" /></a>o the bathroom when I landed, and ate like 7 tic tacs, and everyone else wanted tic tacs so I gave everyone else tic tacs, and I peed (again in one of those amazing japanese toilets), and washed my hands, and walked down the stairs to the baggage claim super quickly, and looked at the area outside of the baggage claim and saw a man and woman and boy with a sign that you can see in these pictures (personally, I love the fact that they taped a clothes hanger on the back of my welcome sign), it said like HELLO ORIBAA! and I was like OMGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and I ran to them super quickly and my host mom was all like ORIBAA!!! And she hugged me/I hugged her, and I shook hands with my host brother and host dad, and they took a picture with me immediately, and we were all like super happy. And then my area rep. introduced herself and she is super awesome (I had coffee with her today at McDonald's actually), aaaand I said g'bye to the rest of the exchange students who went with their host families...so yeah. We walked off, to thei<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-VkCwGsl4UGqTzf6bSr4W28EQMvszbH5LyQLefYoePINyF1ioRrQA76mTC6CY5lDLSk1ovGCSzNxOZ1SbmNh3CXnHGNCS5OCvrAGlFoR-KzwHvYg9mv5ArGXoYY7xxCdNPMJHsrNH4M/s1600/2010_0320Japan0227.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-VkCwGsl4UGqTzf6bSr4W28EQMvszbH5LyQLefYoePINyF1ioRrQA76mTC6CY5lDLSk1ovGCSzNxOZ1SbmNh3CXnHGNCS5OCvrAGlFoR-KzwHvYg9mv5ArGXoYY7xxCdNPMJHsrNH4M/s320/2010_0320Japan0227.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452100745916984242" border="0" /></a>r car in the parking lot, and it was super hot out (unlike in Tokyo, there was barely a breeze so it was sweaty hot weather, especially for me), and for the first time since I had landed in Japan, I wasn't incredibly crazily loud and instead, had a normal volume, and we made conversation, as we drove off to their house (I will provide a video tour of the house when the weather isn't so gray. Weather suddenly got super rainy today).<br /><br />The first thing I noticed, was that, American music was eeeeverywhere, and that day alone, I heard Lady Gaga three times. 2 on the radio (Bad Romance and Just Dance), and then I heard Just Dance again when we went out for dinner, and they also played this song by Justin Timberlake on the radio, and Beyonce, ALL IN ONE DAY IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. I was surprised. But yeah, we arrived at the house, which was a pretty awesome feeling, and you will soon see the house once I provide a video tour (video = far superior to pictures).<br /><br />Hmm...so I spent a little while unpacking and checking out the house. My luggage arrived like an hour after I did which was super convenient. I unpacked, which took a while, and then I took a shower in their super awesome bathroom that has like, a really deep bath in comparison to Amurican bath tubs, (their shampoo is $50 WTFFFF. All of their lotions and stuff are SUPER expensive :O) I felt super bad using some of their expensive shampoo but my host mom told me to use it. I felt fortunate and still do c: Later that day, we went to this mall-like place, and ate dinner at a spaghetti/Italian style restaurant, and my host family bought a SHI* TON of food and yet we managed to eat it all, which was pretty great. I found out that my host brother is going to the U.S. in July for a year as an exchange student through YFU, along with...I think 130 other Japanese students going to the U.S. through the same program. He really wants to go to California, and I told him that he TRULY wants to go to Vermont ;) Except I didn't really say that, but I was thinking it. I remember my host mom said that she wanted an exchange student from the United States above any other country, which made me feel pretty amazing. She had her reasons which also made me feel wonderful about being American <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcXzyGSR0AnfXYv5kEEaV6XYAr1JEqTfD-_yVXTtriqRn0tSp4M2oEys6AltOgNMSzQd5CmaFGRl1O7SjwAkcNcq8ajYisWZKVtHMsczmBLAo_v9O8owScWdLGFSy5PLs2O2KYjKYV7fA/s1600/2010_0321Japan0027.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcXzyGSR0AnfXYv5kEEaV6XYAr1JEqTfD-_yVXTtriqRn0tSp4M2oEys6AltOgNMSzQd5CmaFGRl1O7SjwAkcNcq8ajYisWZKVtHMsczmBLAo_v9O8owScWdLGFSy5PLs2O2KYjKYV7fA/s320/2010_0321Japan0027.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452106454533272802" border="0" />and they went CRAZY (the bottle is like half gone already. They put it on eve<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBrtW6-7fF1E-w-Qu0354aM_ReahZXIGqZzXf0u8QrJYGjBDoUH-3r3i5YWETC6kzD9-8dxhUeX1Q-RSIKrcV76_JMcyP2lpgHkJPrx-BZyh0XfqoFnrIlHBl40DEVzNoXoAoI-AKx-o/s1600/2010_0321Japan0029.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWBrtW6-7fF1E-w-Qu0354aM_ReahZXIGqZzXf0u8QrJYGjBDoUH-3r3i5YWETC6kzD9-8dxhUeX1Q-RSIKrcV76_JMcyP2lpgHkJPrx-BZyh0XfqoFnrIlHBl40DEVzNoXoAoI-AKx-o/s320/2010_0321Japan0029.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452106463228849202" border="0" /></a>rything).<br /><br />Oh, and sorry about the lack of pictures of my host family :( I will get more most def and post them on one of the upcoming posts. I had totally forgotten about taking pictures somehow. I DID however take a picture of host mom loving the maple syrup, and of the three doggies (fat one sleeping is Kota, black-ish one is Nana, and golden one peaking from the corner of the table is Suzu [Suzu means 'Bell'], Suzu and I have a connection ;D. Also, those dogs are freaking LOOOOUD. They never stop barking.)<br /><br />BYE!!Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-61385559627610150762010-03-21T06:37:00.054-04:002010-03-23T10:51:46.902-04:00Chicago-O'Hare Airport and Orientation 3/15-3/19<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJapaneseOlive#grid/user/6621DBFACEC5BEEB"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Playlist of all videos of the Orientation. Please watch c:</span></a><br />Hi.<br /><br />So a kind of unexpected event happened before I was to meet my host family. I had an Orientation at the Olympic Center in Tokyo (from the 1960's Olympics), and that lasted until yesterday (3/20), thus I didn't have internet access UNTIL yesterday, and I couldn't figure out the internet access until today. WHICH is why I haven't written before today. Also, a bunch of stuff has happened since coming to Japan, like, a TON of stuff, so I am going to write two posts cause I want to write a bunch and attempt to put a bunch of detail into these posts, and all that info in one post would be kind of way too long.<br />SOOOOO, this post is planned to be about the Orientation, only!!<br /><br />Alright so to start this off, I did not sleep on the 15th (the day I left for Japan), as my plane left from Burlington int. Airport at 6 in the morning and seeing as how I am nocturnal, there was no point i n going to sleep. Also I totally could not have slept no matter how hard I tried. I was just too darn excited.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9r93Rqy3hWAkW2aonoDZQ3znynNWnKvJTiAT5DRvs1G-MXfuuO6w_yn18ZxJtFCM5qatvG3iny1YBlsxIHEB1sYlIzF4_KJeyOs-wQHti6G9xslgChVDBG0NU_N0tvOA4trh4QWLLv4/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0002.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz9r93Rqy3hWAkW2aonoDZQ3znynNWnKvJTiAT5DRvs1G-MXfuuO6w_yn18ZxJtFCM5qatvG3iny1YBlsxIHEB1sYlIzF4_KJeyOs-wQHti6G9xslgChVDBG0NU_N0tvOA4trh4QWLLv4/s320/2010_0320Japan0002.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451075033002277826" border="0" /></a><br />So my plane left at 6:15 or some time around there, and after saying g'bye to my dad which was pretty difficult, I boarded the plane to Chicago, and slept, and woke up with the plane landing at Chicago=O'hare Airport, left the plane, and walked myself into the Airport to be immediately confronted by an elderly lady who was apparently the person responsible for gathering all of the exchange students to Japan. Because I was not expecting someone to confront me at the time, this surprised me as I had originally thought that everyone in nthe airport would have had to fend for themselves and find the correct gate (it was B16). Apparently not, she gathered me and we went off to find another exchanger who I would find out to be a guy that would room with me at the Orientation (actually, all of the other American dude exchangers did). My plane also arrived at Chicago an hour early (HAHA. I still wonder how that happened), and so I was the first exchanger she had to pick up. We went off to get the exchanger from Michigan, then the exchanger from New Jersey and the one from Florida arrived, then the guy from Pennsylvania, and finally the one from Minnesota. They go by the names of Oliver (me), Riley, Devin, Alex, Henry, and Amanda. Us 6 would then sit at gate B6 for about....7 hours until we were off to TOKYOOOO! The waiting kind of totally sucked, but I have pretty cool memories of it. Like, how one of the exchangers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRdzv-svVbHmG0QgtnRpMjIoanDe9LOaprJv7K0iKL17NESJbXp1WOLBs6R2Efp9xIVytdiCCO9Q5VY15zyV29C3CIY8UIq5thGlg6YD7t7djEip8kcCVO6UJvUn7KpScscmDgKfCrYs/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0006.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRdzv-svVbHmG0QgtnRpMjIoanDe9LOaprJv7K0iKL17NESJbXp1WOLBs6R2Efp9xIVytdiCCO9Q5VY15zyV29C3CIY8UIq5thGlg6YD7t7djEip8kcCVO6UJvUn7KpScscmDgKfCrYs/s320/2010_0320Japan0006.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451075194217465634" border="0" /></a> bought several bags of Beef Jerky (it had a SUPER strong scent), and we waved the bags infront of one of the other exchangers who was a vegetarian. That was hilarious. We also talked about how to not pay for stuff by pretending we don't speak English in America. We also walked around the area for 5 minutes and saw the huge Dinosaur fossil thing nearby <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgXn8lrsOE6q8dPrnLqcLOPBfnMt3nS5V3UL9DudTXRzCC0BvNFmT1qu3wzOsOu1uzyPuFV-Q4tbblXYmLwgk1H4FiWK0Yvn-a8qHJAKvaC5P9TLSve0JzKNN1WeuxxCf7QDDOCoZ4t8/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0017.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgXn8lrsOE6q8dPrnLqcLOPBfnMt3nS5V3UL9DudTXRzCC0BvNFmT1qu3wzOsOu1uzyPuFV-Q4tbblXYmLwgk1H4FiWK0Yvn-a8qHJAKvaC5P9TLSve0JzKNN1WeuxxCf7QDDOCoZ4t8/s320/2010_0320Japan0017.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451075511965245826" border="0" /></a>(I'm in the picture somewhere). But besides that we didn't really do much. HOWEVER our plane DID indeed arrive and so we boarded it, and went off to Japan!!! HOWEVER, the ride kind of..sucked. It was I think, 13 hours, a length I had done twice before, but felt so.insanely.looooong. We also didn't have screens infront of our seats, and the food wasn't of the best quality (I ate it and many other people's plates though, which reminded me of my lunch days at EHS), but that w<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpmLg-MDnKtajpy5NdI9nfieSwFQOuLeAsszNdJclpdOSex6XUusHapnGNPWZfRCUrZnjm85kgB9SgWQ9SxEH_d44rnofvLznlz5pSmIrydq_aV2Cesi4huJ85VPD9H2_CIpEGHQM-LpY/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0010.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpmLg-MDnKtajpy5NdI9nfieSwFQOuLeAsszNdJclpdOSex6XUusHapnGNPWZfRCUrZnjm85kgB9SgWQ9SxEH_d44rnofvLznlz5pSmIrydq_aV2Cesi4huJ85VPD9H2_CIpEGHQM-LpY/s320/2010_0320Japan0010.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451075346458745410" border="0" /></a>as TOTALLY ok BECAUSE, we were going to Japan WOOOOO! One of the other exchangers also had Avenue Q on her ipod, which made me happy.<br />I don't know what was up with the length of the ride and how painful it was though. Like, I fell asleep at the beginning, and then woke up thinking that we were almost there, to find out I had only slept for an hour which was pretty frustrating. I remember the stewardists also offered water like 40 times throughout the flight, we had 3(4) meals, we/the exchange students also randomly met this college student who is currently in Hiroshima and spoke super intense Japanese (his accent was awesome. It was like a very serious Japanese man which makes him sound like a born Japanese native). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1EF83SFEewha3m6IevSb8i8OMHcgo7VVoi-3Sdp5WbJi2bHHB24m8T0w56ElcRQQAkhQQCqz11QBbVfghJ6utoKexQn0kgPaTsWxRvR9WOsnYbC3yfRvzreGP4DFnR9YF16RZOISc-g/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0029.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1EF83SFEewha3m6IevSb8i8OMHcgo7VVoi-3Sdp5WbJi2bHHB24m8T0w56ElcRQQAkhQQCqz11QBbVfghJ6utoKexQn0kgPaTsWxRvR9WOsnYbC3yfRvzreGP4DFnR9YF16RZOISc-g/s320/2010_0320Japan0029.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451075838062507810" border="0" /></a>Aaahhh...OH YEAH we also started eating the super mega large stash of chocolate I was carrying with me (including a chocolate bunny), and I took some fruit leather (organic) from one of the other exchangers and it was completely amazingly delicious, and I also ate an exchangers bag of gummy worms (they said it was ok). Several movies were shown as well. The new one about Roller Derby with Ellen Paige was shown but the name escapes me, and this other movie about an Australian widowed dad and two Australian boys was shown after that...oh and this documentary/commercialization thing about Hawai'i was also shown.<br /><br />SO when we DID land in Japan, everyone kind of quietly and tiredly went "woooo Japan.." (I rose my hands wheee) and we were all super happy. When we exited the plane and entered Narita Airport, the first thing I noticed was the scent. IT SMELLED LIKE JAPAN!!!!! Japan has a ton of smells, but they all have the sam<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhizoAAvjHSs_uDrhorZVMdUevhov2TLGE5tOy_E6RncDNW8LQWSz4B0wOGM3VTMJYRlkW6BPyjsbO_Niv4iTyRsnx9Wir6VvcPiQdWMwZRecP3pbrh9S7RfZaLq9fs3AWERQ4JYDroOrU/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0030.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhizoAAvjHSs_uDrhorZVMdUevhov2TLGE5tOy_E6RncDNW8LQWSz4B0wOGM3VTMJYRlkW6BPyjsbO_Niv4iTyRsnx9Wir6VvcPiQdWMwZRecP3pbrh9S7RfZaLq9fs3AWERQ4JYDroOrU/s320/2010_0320Japan0030.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451076003523855170" border="0" /></a>e characteristic as being a Japanese smell. I honestly do not know what it is, but the smell is---Japan. Whenever one of you comes to Japan, you will notice it too (it's a super satisfying smell as well). Another one of the exchangers noticed the smell too, so I knew I wasn't completely crazy.<br /><br />So we walked through the airport to the passport examination place/where they let you into the country, waited in line for a little while sweating like crazy (the airport was basically completely filled with human bodies), until a man opened a door about 10 feet away from us, and beckoned us (the exchangers) to him with his hand. He didn't say anything but just beckoned, which was slightly confusing, but we/the exchangers figured out that he wanted us to go through the door he was standing outside of. (this paragraph so far sounds extremely awkward and is probably impossible to understand. Sorry about that. Also I'm doing this and my online science class while watching Pirates of the Caribbean in Japanese with my host family in their living room, so I am completely multi-tasking. My host family is always multi tasking which is pretty awesome. Making very good use of their time ;D We are also eating cake at 11:50 PM). ANYWAY, we went through the door to another passport examination area with a shorter line/waiting time, when it was my turn to show my passport, the guy at the counter took a good 3-4 minutes looking at my passport & visa while doing his respectful stuff on the computer, gave me a paper telling me to get my picture taken at my host city's municipal office within 2 months or something (I need to find that paper actually), and then I walked several steps into the reeeallll Japan!!!! We all gathered our luggage from the baggage claim (I of course needed help with my weak body and incredibly huge luggage), we walked to the entrance of the terminal to find a Japanese guy and lady waiting for us. The lady was/is a YFU representative and the guy was/is a return<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwNn0LARYrg7MuTC_qso6rzNuTY1l1O3nx6i5_P7xqZIAm32J8xsjW-Z2WXXD2gF7E06R9izwQgNtT4v167x8cpfDp34nFWfKiWtE192vYuY03X0VELWu18b4dKRjx7XEPo5Ym0dvyOg/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0045.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwNn0LARYrg7MuTC_qso6rzNuTY1l1O3nx6i5_P7xqZIAm32J8xsjW-Z2WXXD2gF7E06R9izwQgNtT4v167x8cpfDp34nFWfKiWtE192vYuY03X0VELWu18b4dKRjx7XEPo5Ym0dvyOg/s320/2010_0320Japan0045.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451103937341335010" border="0" /></a>ee who went to the US through YFU when he was in high school (Name: Masato). Apparently the exchange students came to Japan in clumps of countries and in 4 waves, so the first group was Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, second group was Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Denmark, and Hungary, the third group was Netherlands, Belgium, Korea, China, Philippines, and Canada, and the final group was us (US) and Thailand. We and Thailand were the last to arrive apparently (7 PM). We all took a bus of just exchange students to the Olympic Center in Tokyo, and I introduced myself to all of the Thai exchange students who were very friendly. I also asked the Japanese returnee how old he was since he looked like he could be either 17 or 29, but he didn't tell me. I found out later on that he (and just about all of the other returnees) are college students though. So that's all good. Once we arrived at the Olympic Center, we were immediately directed to a lecture room known as c101, which we exchange students would begin to know as basically, THE room. C101 is where everything happened, and also where everyone would meet up for lectures. The Americans and Thai were given a small introduction to this whole Orientation, along with a towel, bottle of water, two masks (I have ALWAYS wanted to try wearing one), several papers, a contact card with our host family's address, two carry on bag tags (color coded, however at the time we didn't know that the color had any meaning. My tags were red, indicating that I would take Japan Airways to my host destination). OOOH we also got name tags with our name and country printed on it. Pretty cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Also, one of the returnees who went to Australia for high school exchange, had a completely LEGIT Australian accent when he spoke English. GASP. SO SKILLED. He had no Japanese accent at all. The head returnee who would speak at all of the lectures, known as Saki, went to Alaska for exchange.<br />Note, I was also randomly turned into the Key Master of my dorm's key, and I was also given the Farewell Party info paper for our country. For the Farewell Party on the last night of the Orientation, each country must do a presentation, and I was given the info paper...just thought I would brag a bit if it means anything c:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdj84irMwLtLTQT0_5m7DHcMff_xlaHCcvf2fPpeIu4ekX09V4Y_h0rTjBFUFiR0Ez8tGIn4iwasePfKRuTE0RW9-T2VMOEK4_n75ois-bat0a4wDQBW4zfpAqdY8Si68yG-QYIVKlRs/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0046.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdj84irMwLtLTQT0_5m7DHcMff_xlaHCcvf2fPpeIu4ekX09V4Y_h0rTjBFUFiR0Ez8tGIn4iwasePfKRuTE0RW9-T2VMOEK4_n75ois-bat0a4wDQBW4zfpAqdY8Si68yG-QYIVKlRs/s320/2010_0320Japan0046.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451104155558983746" border="0" /></a>SO. Everyone was rooming with their fellow same-country exchangers. There were exactly 4 male American exchange students (of 6 Americans), and there were 4 students to a room so that worked out perfectly. We were actually located on the girls floor as well (3rd floor) while all the dudes should have been on the first floor. There were 76 exchange students total (it felt way less than that though). Anyway we got kind of settled into our room, which was really old and dirty but that was totally fine, and I/we went off to the sento bath (Japanese public bath) to cleanse. ew. It was disgusting. My mouth smelled like a bird had died in my mouth and I was overall pretty nasty. The bath changed all that though to a super good smelling body, which was great.<br />I think I went to sleep after that.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5N_GWeGhJhweXKsVUHvT4_6gbkX5nctQe2ur4lj41AtMT9JWlaKr3bQ0hWfRUtb1MQdS8nHJlZ2bJioKYR9Quh2sDyq2PkmHK0VjWfHWfZBNMuiSDlc79yI6sOIYmI4cm8rikb12k32w/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0053.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5N_GWeGhJhweXKsVUHvT4_6gbkX5nctQe2ur4lj41AtMT9JWlaKr3bQ0hWfRUtb1MQdS8nHJlZ2bJioKYR9Quh2sDyq2PkmHK0VjWfHWfZBNMuiSDlc79yI6sOIYmI4cm8rikb12k32w/s320/2010_0320Japan0053.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451104377520687794" border="0" /></a>(The big glass building to the left is where C101 and the cafeteria are located, along with basically everything else) The next morning, I had breakfast and then everyone met up in C101 at 9 AM (I would soon find out that being punctual was extremely essential...). We had a placement test that showed our skill and where we should start in the KUMON curriculum. Kumon is a Japanese language practice split into levels from 4A to 1A, to J, I think. After the test, there was lunch, and I met the Korean exchange students. The 4 Korean exchange students and I finished our placement test at about the same time (they were a few minutes faster), and so we started making convo in Japanes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykeYdkGeNakY34g-Jt1d-ZxwSENMAfNu0LkKWA3JhgjDIaDRs5h4tQqCQpwb7CRvqLTQJbQJodePllBfS8rbs4jtkxqn2SrVO95iIuRPJvsZdqIuZ-2RFcg2P9epPYBPpxIHjCbH47mg/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0054.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykeYdkGeNakY34g-Jt1d-ZxwSENMAfNu0LkKWA3JhgjDIaDRs5h4tQqCQpwb7CRvqLTQJbQJodePllBfS8rbs4jtkxqn2SrVO95iIuRPJvsZdqIuZ-2RFcg2P9epPYBPpxIHjCbH47mg/s320/2010_0320Japan0054.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451104544207412354" border="0" /></a>e. I attempted to write their names in Hangeul, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7d_yjBM8YsKmGXgR0jHso1yzFTPC-lLp5VCstdGU_kQ9BLU89RacAQRlz57jQTdxFaSVNdSNpLN5YWoHXk8C1tfx9X7KriDnvO3VFJ4b8WN8lJjarYi6CvNkT0mf7pVeS3ZWTgqP7tM/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0057.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7d_yjBM8YsKmGXgR0jHso1yzFTPC-lLp5VCstdGU_kQ9BLU89RacAQRlz57jQTdxFaSVNdSNpLN5YWoHXk8C1tfx9X7KriDnvO3VFJ4b8WN8lJjarYi6CvNkT0mf7pVeS3ZWTgqP7tM/s320/2010_0320Japan0057.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451106477454998482" border="0" /></a>and then we ate lunch together along with a Japanese returnee who had done her foreign exchange in the U.S. ( most of the returnees went to the US for exchange. The rest either went to Germany, Australia, New Zealand, or Finland). The only guy Korean exchange student, Se-Young, really liked my name (and I reeaaally liked his because it is Korean. OMG), <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAh7TViqz78DlC2wFkA_4zrZmuym_dsLgfOxHl9ozH8caH7M_osNXFBbJJ4n6-aGz6W7Vxf30WpIdnWow_EWGCtoAyX2H4zZJ-ZIK60tkBq_QTHjmzwlBYME_ZIcB-sWJivQwvMj7I-GA/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0059.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAh7TViqz78DlC2wFkA_4zrZmuym_dsLgfOxHl9ozH8caH7M_osNXFBbJJ4n6-aGz6W7Vxf30WpIdnWow_EWGCtoAyX2H4zZJ-ZIK60tkBq_QTHjmzwlBYME_ZIcB-sWJivQwvMj7I-GA/s320/2010_0320Japan0059.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451106672085704674" border="0" /></a>and so we exchanged name cards, and Se-Young thus became known as Ollibeo (Korean pronunciation of Oliver), and from then on I called him Ollibeo. That was pretty amazing I MUST say. The Korean exchange students also called me Se-Young. haahhaha, funny. I loved that. After lunch, everyone grouped back up (but in a different room, on the FIFTH floor :O), for our ADVENNTTUUUURREEE GAAAAAMMMEE YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. There were 8 groups of students, and we had to find a total of 8 games all of which accurately taught about Japanese culture, and we got scores depending on how well we did at each Japanese culture-teaching game. The games were pretty amazing I must say. Just saying, you probably <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDdd8pyn0PHayRlpdefpp27OKdWi4bN4Rufhr1zgIoecjbX1m_lh1lPO5aNVGRWnlAw8Uf4bmARHF4O6pdI2PHJhcQfPLJ50se9gfMql7YVE3gLE8Hu5_gHoXhMVcXDMve1Av53c8yI0/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0060.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDdd8pyn0PHayRlpdefpp27OKdWi4bN4Rufhr1zgIoecjbX1m_lh1lPO5aNVGRWnlAw8Uf4bmARHF4O6pdI2PHJhcQfPLJ50se9gfMql7YVE3gLE8Hu5_gHoXhMVcXDMve1Av53c8yI0/s320/2010_0320Japan0060.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451757236863595586" border="0" /></a>will be jealous. :)<br /><br />My group had Riri as the returnee in charge of our group (Group 1), and the students were Lola from Austria, Stina from Estonia, Kristiina from Finland, Luisa from Germany, Christian from Germany<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyZcB7P2uEo8iJ-SowyCAy7K9obEWUH1AkCJeA9mzlZ8c9EKL3-6JSxRli2QO5LoKJnmK0vTEMDRQ9ahlC0bYjbRhn3WOh_7jIcI_CWrKBjDPRdQGK18xwI89kjv21ghckf2hCiwu2vMA/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0063.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyZcB7P2uEo8iJ-SowyCAy7K9obEWUH1AkCJeA9mzlZ8c9EKL3-6JSxRli2QO5LoKJnmK0vTEMDRQ9ahlC0bYjbRhn3WOh_7jIcI_CWrKBjDPRdQGK18xwI89kjv21ghckf2hCiwu2vMA/s320/2010_0320Japan0063.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451110300525220114" border="0" /></a>, San-Yi from Korea, Sara from Sweden, Paloma from Switzerland, Wasin from Thailand, and ME from AMURICA!!!!!!! In the pictures shown, you can see what we were required to find and do once found. We had to pick up Gummy Bears, Beans, and pieces of scrunched up paper with chopsticks, as much as possible within a minute or something like that. We also needed to find this diorama of the entire Olympic Center and count the number of cars in the model <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIMytx_s-phTFomMtLHxZbHnpAqHAG9h_saOurhlneRZNe1tXegohk5LooxzCoNZf4lCc0r7fXOr0qpBx0vB5HjHw6WnXxI9xVIDg1ylcETf1Y-X7FmP3FZPYd4n2xM7-vbFN1jRipil4/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0066.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIMytx_s-phTFomMtLHxZbHnpAqHAG9h_saOurhlneRZNe1tXegohk5LooxzCoNZf4lCc0r7fXOr0qpBx0vB5HjHw6WnXxI9xVIDg1ylcETf1Y-X7FmP3FZPYd4n2xM7-vbFN1jRipil4/s320/2010_0320Japan0066.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451110306821748994" border="0" /></a>(the answer was 9. We got it right). We also <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtfkf892HaoEcTLcB8LGY__5NBCTuwvg63A1GIH6d8n-Ug-YLnFVynahMzrmqUA6fwbYPTyHLFymrdUZiphPcx6-ObcKqLj-LrUdgFxdsmL5L4VHo7zslvQyPAvVqfWjm0R3MicTFIGo/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0068.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtfkf892HaoEcTLcB8LGY__5NBCTuwvg63A1GIH6d8n-Ug-YLnFVynahMzrmqUA6fwbYPTyHLFymrdUZiphPcx6-ObcKqLj-LrUdgFxdsmL5L4VHo7zslvQyPAvVqfWjm0R3MicTFIGo/s320/2010_0320Japan0068.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451111188341053826" border="0" /></a>had to create Origami Sumo wrestlers and have Sumo matches against the lady who taught us how to make the Origami Sumo wrestlers who was absolutely INSANELY AMAZING at Origami Sumo wrestling matches. Like WOW, I was impressed. I actually tied her though (our Sumo men fell at the same time), so I didn't cry.<br /><br />There was also a sort of slang-ish/Japanese culture vocab game where this returnee (she went to the US for exchange and her sarcasm makes it super obvious. She was hilarious) holds up cards with a picture on them, and you guess what it is (in Japanese). Like, certain foods, and Japanese slang guessing the meaning. I remember Takoyaki was one of the cards, and I screamed out "OCTOPUS BALLS" (The English name for Takoyaki) and everyone started laughing. Also note that I was the only native English speaker, so I was surprised that everyone else found OCTOPUS BALLS an extremely awkward word before I did. oops. I have a video of this that I may eventually add to this post.<br />Hmm...we also had this game where everyone had to line up in order of birthdays without speaking to one another. At the time I didn't actually understand how this <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPB_5VPBqJzEXuHWAiZwMlC6nInqaAzW4tTLD2Dz4qA6ACoVgeeSC8UgDHW49l5Vota40J8-X2l_wt4Gzu0dR87Y0js97P-jXDcJQKYEHEXAUek3KYEuVvbAvcbbm6AQVr2eeKzqoQDv4/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0070.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPB_5VPBqJzEXuHWAiZwMlC6nInqaAzW4tTLD2Dz4qA6ACoVgeeSC8UgDHW49l5Vota40J8-X2l_wt4Gzu0dR87Y0js97P-jXDcJQKYEHEXAUek3KYEuVvbAvcbbm6AQVr2eeKzqoQDv4/s320/2010_0320Japan0070.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451759703478349986" border="0" /></a>had anything to do with Japan BUUUTTT I TOTALLY just think I JUST figured it out. Maybe like...language barrier? Communicating without speaking, perhaps. Anyway, we didn't get any points at this game because I messed up, and stood after the Swedish girl when I was supposed to stand before her as her birthday was after mine. darn. (It was totally ok though because our team eventually came in 3rd place, SOMEHOW. Despite my suckish skills at every game except Rock Paper Scizzors).<br />We also had to count the correct number of steps from Floors 1-5, the answer was 89 I believe. And at the end, everyone returned to the room on the 5th floor of the building, and the results of each team were shown with a bunch of music and awesome power point skills. Of 8 teams, our team INDEED came in THIRD PLACE!! OMGGEEE!!! The top three teams received prizes, and we received HI-CHEW!!! I ate mine in like 2 minutes, while sitting with the Koreans, Belgian girl, and Finnish dude. Koreans shown. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yBFEy2wdzGfvPZn4zQuC8E7jWmZO_vzse-GW7fwjuGjz_5j5Clsxk-VBM4v_L3XkSb-x_Ocfc_WNfZHuQ4gJbVP4pOJ_OrbgnbtrzTJiQyOXxgYgOYPdgxhNT3SWZEbAgIbsdjta048/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0073.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yBFEy2wdzGfvPZn4zQuC8E7jWmZO_vzse-GW7fwjuGjz_5j5Clsxk-VBM4v_L3XkSb-x_Ocfc_WNfZHuQ4gJbVP4pOJ_OrbgnbtrzTJiQyOXxgYgOYPdgxhNT3SWZEbAgIbsdjta048/s320/2010_0320Japan0073.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451436268749535202" border="0" /></a>The dude Korean (Ollibeo), said "F*** You" to the Belgian girl to show his American-ness too C: I laughed with my obnoxious laugh. The girl from Belgium, dude from Finland, and I, also made conversation about 'Bear In a Can' which is apparently a food item sold in Finnish grocery stores. Bear In A Can<br />After this, we had dinner, and then free time before having to go to bed at 10:00 PM (I needed to make a mistake in order to understand that there was a strict curfew). I stayed in one of the other dorm's, and watched Coraline while eating a bag of Butterfingers <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiagJE-FihkWIj_X93bkvJYikmlzvFU53b346UZ4j2YTk2yOxJ7Rz15idnk3U-dh44uLnuqTd5QMLEH0qohI-m1pNGez8R99OJcEsHgLkroWId7LGb2LSGy-hFTmtEfAq7QeN2g3o6YyGo/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0076.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiagJE-FihkWIj_X93bkvJYikmlzvFU53b346UZ4j2YTk2yOxJ7Rz15idnk3U-dh44uLnuqTd5QMLEH0qohI-m1pNGez8R99OJcEsHgLkroWId7LGb2LSGy-hFTmtEfAq7QeN2g3o6YyGo/s320/2010_0320Japan0076.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451440742361676050" border="0" /></a>and CalorieMate (as shown) with one of the American exchange students until midnight, forgetting completely that there was a curfew while getting super into Coraline. When I left the room, one of the returnees I had met previously (Yusuke), caught me and asked why I was late going to bed (two hours late). I told him I was watching Coraline, and he didn't understand what "Coraline" was, so he just told me to go to bed immediately. I felt pretty terrible (I most definitely was not the last exchange student to go to bed though...thankfully, haha).<br /><br />The next morning, I ate breakfast with the two Estonian girls, which was super awesome, and from then on I hung out with them quite a bit. We were late to the morning lecture though, which SUCKED, and made me feel even worse about breaking the rules. I apologized a ton to the main returnees though, and they actually seemed to appreciate that ;) teehee. We also received our scores on the Kumon placement test, and were then grouped into random groups of all Japanese levels, and we were then sent to random rooms to have our "Japanese Lesson". This lasted for 3 hours, and we sort of just went over basic Japanese grammar, and also what to say to our host family as an introduction...our teacher was Kurokawa sensei, and my class was made up of another American, a German girl, an Austrian guy, a Swiss girl, a Thai girl, me, a Finnish guy (same one who introduced bear in a can), and the two Estonian girls. In one of the pictures shown, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BjlEp8HTkZDJvwAzcRRKQ5EF9niIGFFl1BZKmMtdqL8UJp4meVEKrWjRIuJR5LVouSxGgOWPhmeIY4LXWLFZr5xnFJBY4A0kQgPRUAVuynPAUbeP7d4-SvG5Obd08-iPejqDEWDe5G0/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0102.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BjlEp8HTkZDJvwAzcRRKQ5EF9niIGFFl1BZKmMtdqL8UJp4meVEKrWjRIuJR5LVouSxGgOWPhmeIY4LXWLFZr5xnFJBY4A0kQgPRUAVuynPAUbeP7d4-SvG5Obd08-iPejqDEWDe5G0/s320/2010_0320Japan0102.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451464195107350242" border="0" /></a>I explained to Kurokawa sensei what a "traitor" is.<br />After that, we had lunch, and then our group discussion. This was grouped by country, so our group was made up of 5 of the 6 Americans and 1 Canadian girl. Our group returnee leaders were Asuka who went to Australia, and Masato, same guy who picked us up from Narita airport. We spoke about what we wanted to accomplish in Japan, and how we plan to accomplish what we want to accomplish. The returnees also gave us a bunch of tips regarding Computer use and everything. Like, don't ever spend long periods of time on the computer unless for online classes and homework, stuff like that. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8a3caXw97n-3Y4G31AaB7w-HBIm4fhf8EKxV1eUkBEtaGmWMb86S_1pPdyjYBRimXHWZD4JbNIy7z3aQG5YuIgc3jmSvVjjSgJ4f1Zrq1FfjplJzOpDQSw-VBw2slxYEYZ2jbnA5grs/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0084.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8a3caXw97n-3Y4G31AaB7w-HBIm4fhf8EKxV1eUkBEtaGmWMb86S_1pPdyjYBRimXHWZD4JbNIy7z3aQG5YuIgc3jmSvVjjSgJ4f1Zrq1FfjplJzOpDQSw-VBw2slxYEYZ2jbnA5grs/s320/2010_0320Japan0084.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451441239523002242" border="0" /></a>Our group was kind of insanely loud and obnoxious because of ME, who didn't stop laughing with the obnoxious laugh I have. I DO have a super great picture of our group though, as shown, which makes me happy. This is one of the awesome pictures I have :) I also have a picture of the group leaving, way before me due to my slow-ness and how I am always the last person out of a room (each returnee had to tell me to hurry up like, 20 times throughout the orientation).<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHzmgllj1Y5xS79Yu46FHTMj-b3ncLS7sv72KJK_EVWku1SSCasL83gYMIZP7R35mpt7D8AWiUDfwTqKUszfmoH2RXhOKAcUEjTSRkGNr_KdX9ZHfB8-XpD2wwTeQuk9WErQYrTNxf7c/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0086.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHzmgllj1Y5xS79Yu46FHTMj-b3ncLS7sv72KJK_EVWku1SSCasL83gYMIZP7R35mpt7D8AWiUDfwTqKUszfmoH2RXhOKAcUEjTSRkGNr_KdX9ZHfB8-XpD2wwTeQuk9WErQYrTNxf7c/s320/2010_0320Japan0086.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451442800167458114" border="0" /></a><br /><br />(My page just refreshed itself, so I have to write this paragraph all over again. I am slightly irritated). <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6y82gPkRt0YdCov_iZjmocke16Zbx8S26doCBpt4-MXfrkvnTu-bk74Jt7jVVny_SVRxa_Zhg2-3YGzY7BIz1ia7oyPr7Fdgh8-ofbzTuECEd7eeeliSdcgXcF3nHkJwvLiEbezOIjGc/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0089.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6y82gPkRt0YdCov_iZjmocke16Zbx8S26doCBpt4-MXfrkvnTu-bk74Jt7jVVny_SVRxa_Zhg2-3YGzY7BIz1ia7oyPr7Fdgh8-ofbzTuECEd7eeeliSdcgXcF3nHkJwvLiEbezOIjGc/s320/2010_0320Japan0089.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451443710135691826" border="0" /></a>ANYWAY, after the Group Discussion, everyone returned back to room C101 to have another lecture. This one had several returnees make presentations on random parts of modern Japanese culture, such as slang names for Japanese food chains, like how 'Starbucks' is usually called 'Sutaba' among teenagers, and 'McDonald's' is 'Makku' in Tokyo, and 'Makudo' in Osaka (I am in Osaka. In this area they have an extremely, EXTREMELY differing dialect known as Kansai-ben or Osaka-ben which sometimes resembles Chinese due to the different tones compared to Tokyo Japanese. I actually saw a Starbucks today when I was with my host brother, and I was all like "SUTABA!" and he was all like "YEAH!!" Oh, and I also JUST ate a banana, and noticed that I have NOT been eating fruit. I am totally changing that now). I have this video of the presentation on the customs of a Japanese house, as shown.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXuwaRA97nAMH1eU3bIO55mbLXfBwpOEs-RlNMr_YGn5XOYVf8AVai2KaHBVnMpkU2LlbCkDWcwKOVRl8s8Y4bUGxLAuBsfwKMjklmoc3j9-OjG1QEduatGV9vJo35mv_JD2FQPKJm9JQ/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0090.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXuwaRA97nAMH1eU3bIO55mbLXfBwpOEs-RlNMr_YGn5XOYVf8AVai2KaHBVnMpkU2LlbCkDWcwKOVRl8s8Y4bUGxLAuBsfwKMjklmoc3j9-OjG1QEduatGV9vJo35mv_JD2FQPKJm9JQ/s320/2010_0320Japan0090.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451443715656670594" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Next, we had dinner, but I didn't go and so I didn't use my dinner ticket (we were given tickets for each meal), and so I have it to this day, which is a mighty awesome souvenir. I went to the bath, and then...I went to sleep.<br /><br />The next morning we had breakfast, and I, being confused as to what I should eat, was confronted by a Japanese college student who asked me what I wanted (in English) and "helped me out!"!!!!! I actually unexpectedly bumped into him two more times that day, which was pretty awesome. I also was confronted by this Japanese man who asked me if I was "Dan". I certainly was not Dan, so I told him, and he apologized a ton, and I told him that it was totally ok and I totally understood how he confused me with a "Dan". That event stood out a lot for its awkwardness and awesomeness. As shown, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgir78wEH4qMqR3TCMB5AcCXlDzI5D6lLOpbh-z7g24hl5CTv8uGiDsrzvOlaTkFLinuDUWFrUvXqazY89okRdtLWsiwOA8-BxQW1zbCHB65P6UnJI45bvKxDmizkQVsVUIww88WFO6FC8/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0105.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgir78wEH4qMqR3TCMB5AcCXlDzI5D6lLOpbh-z7g24hl5CTv8uGiDsrzvOlaTkFLinuDUWFrUvXqazY89okRdtLWsiwOA8-BxQW1zbCHB65P6UnJI45bvKxDmizkQVsVUIww88WFO6FC8/s320/2010_0320Japan0105.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451464711966091090" border="0" /></a>I also ate about 10 oranges of orange peels due to the lack of fruit in my diet at the time. c:<br /><br />We then had another lecture in room C101, and then for the rest of the day,<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdo5qsIYOYi-413qW7fMLQQkc3K7_xCg-VP3y_1ZIX-zsDXJFKow-_kEu8PvHKSFjoFB1hkRloZmLI0OuTcHuUKJ6NyAgF2N9EXBweMUuE9eUhMT-4fj07llu_NsuYdzJ1KUQ-dzaoY0/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0094.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQdo5qsIYOYi-413qW7fMLQQkc3K7_xCg-VP3y_1ZIX-zsDXJFKow-_kEu8PvHKSFjoFB1hkRloZmLI0OuTcHuUKJ6NyAgF2N9EXBweMUuE9eUhMT-4fj07llu_NsuYdzJ1KUQ-dzaoY0/s320/2010_0320Japan0094.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451452560101159570" border="0" /></a> we had to pack and get <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLcOOxPLzw6nMoPZYtRQVSPdYwsmo9Bq3YF4R4Hp4jXYMxouuXm53mOCRola_3aX7CUqoOSzyLHZz9IKaeDkFcURqnYP9RFx8hOOB-iqHvF4LVE-o4OGEgXSBQbBrAEuQLxi1CfL_fAI/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0095.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLcOOxPLzw6nMoPZYtRQVSPdYwsmo9Bq3YF4R4Hp4jXYMxouuXm53mOCRola_3aX7CUqoOSzyLHZz9IKaeDkFcURqnYP9RFx8hOOB-iqHvF4LVE-o4OGEgXSBQbBrAEuQLxi1CfL_fAI/s320/2010_0320Japan0095.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451452738372744914" border="0" /></a>ready for the next day (we would be leaving in the morning to meet our host families), and this time period lasted until 5:30 PM, when the Farewell Party would take place. This got pretty crazy as none of the Americans like, agreed on the same thing and our presentation ended up being a complete improvisation (or as we called it, "the ancient American art of, winging it"), so I actually had spent hours in the American girl's dorm listening to Amurican music for no reason (we didn't play any music). We were going to play Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani (the whole Japan-relation, you know), and/or We Are the World....Colors of the Wind/A Whole New World as they both perfectly represent the United States, yep yep. ANYWAY, eventually we had the Farewell Party, with all of the countries (15 in total including Japan). Here you can see all of the exchange students (I think there were 76), <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3486HyOna55EJovfKEu9yVSOHoj1hn7qvxFtf8zlojINID7tSrOTfjZDpDDycVrmcTEg8aUbPtcuVEy6pzAwIfzeCTHUGhzPWCihal-WDIB1j2yzOb98-OntY0k6dkCI4Jf4XKGjWrU/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0111.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3486HyOna55EJovfKEu9yVSOHoj1hn7qvxFtf8zlojINID7tSrOTfjZDpDDycVrmcTEg8aUbPtcuVEy6pzAwIfzeCTHUGhzPWCihal-WDIB1j2yzOb98-OntY0k6dkCI4Jf4XKGjWrU/s320/2010_0320Japan0111.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451465163244729874" border="0" /></a>along with the returnees in super intense desk-moving-action.<br /><br />So....the Germans went first, with a presentation on a typical German classroom. The Thai were next, who did a traditional <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dnYIvIdteLBAGLUhQ-RQr3rTEyk_B0XxehJhz9ND-43r0fN8rZBUY1_e7rOeG2YbmzDI-Q9klr1Pz8ySqk3V8qi8HYTbw1tLHIdxJHzOvLhBbtnSla1tQFw0losc7upTKgLTknlBElE/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0118.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dnYIvIdteLBAGLUhQ-RQr3rTEyk_B0XxehJhz9ND-43r0fN8rZBUY1_e7rOeG2YbmzDI-Q9klr1Pz8ySqk3V8qi8HYTbw1tLHIdxJHzOvLhBbtnSla1tQFw0losc7upTKgLTknlBElE/s320/2010_0320Japan0118.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451467195601654210" border="0" /></a>Thai dance in<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwf6efPgW6McMVwUF69m7ER_Qhjxu0KBAGvIxJm5BI5fCLHuYFSjMHwDuC4m9kzAicrmhaHcljnnM0a1n5y00AnAA4a9sRHfRHllpZa8lbtzN6sugnQMzFQ_q2IiAtW6HT65kNf-duPk/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0121.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwf6efPgW6McMVwUF69m7ER_Qhjxu0KBAGvIxJm5BI5fCLHuYFSjMHwDuC4m9kzAicrmhaHcljnnM0a1n5y00AnAA4a9sRHfRHllpZa8lbtzN6sugnQMzFQ_q2IiAtW6HT65kNf-duPk/s320/2010_0320Japan0121.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451467209731810610" border="0" /></a> AWESOME attire. Estonians were third with a sort of stomp-dance-traditional dance presentation, and a comical informational speech on Estonia at the end (each country had a maximum time of 10 minutes), Finland was fourth, presenting a dance involving everyone, linking shoulders and hands....it is kind of hard to explain so just watch the video. Fifth country was China, who did a speech in Chinese, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0L2a7yoxFzdmCgmjV5lSzeKm2fxaISwQO-5vKcr_Uz0b15lZX5_7e_wj_IRGGsIAa95sK3aZZdj9DcbgkcdGC2eLZqvom5JJ3uxzzO2nIurmQWdqQ09wWOIGxTLcPkri9KKX5LlIxZAg/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0135.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0L2a7yoxFzdmCgmjV5lSzeKm2fxaISwQO-5vKcr_Uz0b15lZX5_7e_wj_IRGGsIAa95sK3aZZdj9DcbgkcdGC2eLZqvom5JJ3uxzzO2nIurmQWdqQ09wWOIGxTLcPkri9KKX5LlIxZAg/s320/2010_0320Japan0135.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451698403063876498" border="0" /></a>I THINK from a Japanese electronic Kanji dictionary. She said she can not speak English or Japanese very well. Philippines was next, and they did an<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheLh4p2AhGzhfyZdu44gbXMwD1Bh8f3SuijqPbP97LlU8zq0j9AL2VTljB9ePq0mW6VTv2WLwWhpmoSLEQmuG82wIGilBLa_kK7rx9Z7Oa_0zsKjPYurVuTWmYZ03x9XdF-KcR0mTLbLc/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0110.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheLh4p2AhGzhfyZdu44gbXMwD1Bh8f3SuijqPbP97LlU8zq0j9AL2VTljB9ePq0mW6VTv2WLwWhpmoSLEQmuG82wIGilBLa_kK7rx9Z7Oa_0zsKjPYurVuTWmYZ03x9XdF-KcR0mTLbLc/s320/2010_0320Japan0110.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451465152047887586" border="0" /></a> English-Filipino translated speech, and ended with a tourist video on the Philippines. Sixth country was Austria, and they explained the Austrian dialect of Germany and how harsh and hostile it is. Next country was Belgium and the Net<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxEAbKDuiOB4_eeCIZ7JGFrveiVmpssX5TykdT7Id0j297_lv4zsF3AcVPHkgdlUNgSSFjDBjc93pyDHnBhxveY9oxmwkZ8fzMt4cnWFvr88-zjegnIVcxzyaOM-IJ01a2y1k4X7oThu4/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0134.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxEAbKDuiOB4_eeCIZ7JGFrveiVmpssX5TykdT7Id0j297_lv4zsF3AcVPHkgdlUNgSSFjDBjc93pyDHnBhxveY9oxmwkZ8fzMt4cnWFvr88-zjegnIVcxzyaOM-IJ01a2y1k4X7oThu4/s320/2010_0320Japan0134.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451695614101828594" border="0" /></a>herlands,<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZSvYC4KmmxTCFOhj2Yx1riDwmeIVncVbAKFQf4poG1yGWZQx6Z42-nlCbeAA2N9fVPqW_p53zmK7PYwrQIsmnS4E2okUQXEU2aGh5wm53W3-XgJFjs-Ca99Gwu3IfIH-m0WW9GlJwxc/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0136.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZSvYC4KmmxTCFOhj2Yx1riDwmeIVncVbAKFQf4poG1yGWZQx6Z42-nlCbeAA2N9fVPqW_p53zmK7PYwrQIsmnS4E2okUQXEU2aGh5wm53W3-XgJFjs-Ca99Gwu3IfIH-m0WW9GlJwxc/s320/2010_0320Japan0136.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451698418262251666" border="0" /></a> and they explained their respective countries through awesome power point skills. Next was <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7k25L6j-3hJ03f40iNCi-LVrj3cNdiaVje0dF5rMCgVRYcyfs0HvLBef26ImfWGQFpEBSONa0qg9JApwPFnwEYMI_ADGz5geTLfA3v6DmJDGnbkVfFN4gnh2znzzbR-3shHJFVKwVnpo/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0139.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7k25L6j-3hJ03f40iNCi-LVrj3cNdiaVje0dF5rMCgVRYcyfs0HvLBef26ImfWGQFpEBSONa0qg9JApwPFnwEYMI_ADGz5geTLfA3v6DmJDGnbkVfFN4gnh2znzzbR-3shHJFVKwVnpo/s320/2010_0320Japan0139.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451698421831184210" border="0" /></a>Denmark and Norway, and they introduced a game where they draw something on the board, and we have to guess what it is (the first drawing was a straight line, which represented Denmark cause Denmark is very flat), next was Hungary, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mGTstmhgO6vn1OnXi_0r2dq8TQUBeXjS_XtJQzm7AQgs4jSd3xZvkbjmhmhg7tZgGCnmY0oV85qywAcSnRNa2roCexbUnqpunorLEPxzSnO0J2wSb6Rv4-ixHQH4e0aIXANGxYyUUas/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0141.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mGTstmhgO6vn1OnXi_0r2dq8TQUBeXjS_XtJQzm7AQgs4jSd3xZvkbjmhmhg7tZgGCnmY0oV85qywAcSnRNa2roCexbUnqpunorLEPxzSnO0J2wSb6Rv4-ixHQH4e0aIXANGxYyUUas/s320/2010_0320Japan0141.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451700044866322594" border="0" /></a>and he gave some info on Hungary, then Sweden was up and I remember they ended with a song on frogs.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG5QPMN6-5ZRodvrY4hZv2bbBGMIc_3GumALNLHW7yRYv4vM3F9KyVKzn2adcL-edtE8mJf4hczEoIyMETh0IqlCKhEJJVVWeEfR7eSKDAMwve8_Xudmbg9s4pqKot0WrbpbH_iNJtGps/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0143.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG5QPMN6-5ZRodvrY4hZv2bbBGMIc_3GumALNLHW7yRYv4vM3F9KyVKzn2adcL-edtE8mJf4hczEoIyMETh0IqlCKhEJJVVWeEfR7eSKDAMwve8_Xudmbg9s4pqKot0WrbpbH_iNJtGps/s320/2010_0320Japan0143.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451700067266914066" border="0" /></a> Then WE WERE UP(US and Canada), and I understandably do not have any pictures or video of us, because I was presenting, but we sort of just gave info on our respective states (and Canada) which was pretty cool. Everyone/me and Amanda sort of acted super obnoxiously and "amurican" throughout the entire presentation, which I personally found to be incredibly hilarious. We actually managed to make people laugh a ton too!!!!!!!!!!!! That was all good. After us, Switzerland presented, and they randomly picked a students from each country and a random returnee to come up and try to pronounce random Swiss words. Apparently I had good pronunciation, but my word was really easy so it was nothing special at all. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh85usFgyAm0QfmL2c7DDl7obmJs6sH91buudKPtiPx-BjfYYvMJQ0WSSmHpDgnKYyfRAO4MtRQs4GocMulH1vbLkgJq-kbk85PEDOlxmQs9u3JWIZnSEPMzA445HdDVsmBnBaEzGSKscY/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0144.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh85usFgyAm0QfmL2c7DDl7obmJs6sH91buudKPtiPx-BjfYYvMJQ0WSSmHpDgnKYyfRAO4MtRQs4GocMulH1vbLkgJq-kbk85PEDOlxmQs9u3JWIZnSEPMzA445HdDVsmBnBaEzGSKscY/s320/2010_0320Japan0144.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451700076163893218" border="0" /></a>Last before Japan was Korea, and they presented a traditional Korean fan dance in awesome attire, which was very impressive. And then LASTLY, was JAPAN, made up of the Returnees, and they had....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLKv4NCHVuVgKeHEYZoUsbm8gEb4KONAaYXA29nXtdtW1cHeDiapiweIN1AlY0wIsTT6V8s_gMmJp0thlWwpi3MIGOhcXM9bYsY5iav6mevV2l7YfMDnC9_qISYq9pqHyDwXqDHHXQIA/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0158.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLKv4NCHVuVgKeHEYZoUsbm8gEb4KONAaYXA29nXtdtW1cHeDiapiweIN1AlY0wIsTT6V8s_gMmJp0thlWwpi3MIGOhcXM9bYsY5iav6mevV2l7YfMDnC9_qISYq9pqHyDwXqDHHXQIA/s320/2010_0320Japan0158.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451701410325170770" border="0" /></a>A JAPANESE FASHION SHOW<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYPQK1nGf_Jr9tgnON5cm3tCV_JBh2_gYYCNy9TqPuZjaNnn_8TAnw7ESOmQ3Qu5eAX79QT7c1o-ilANvDIJ9O_WBAXA0rAtqw9m9hW4QkvgfJDFu0FmyqMZAaCWJ5eYk_ezs8BnuJNaM/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0164.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYPQK1nGf_Jr9tgnON5cm3tCV_JBh2_gYYCNy9TqPuZjaNnn_8TAnw7ESOmQ3Qu5eAX79QT7c1o-ilANvDIJ9O_WBAXA0rAtqw9m9hW4QkvgfJDFu0FmyqMZAaCWJ5eYk_ezs8BnuJNaM/s320/2010_0320Japan0164.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451702309297596578" border="0" /></a> WOOOOOOO. That was pretty hilarious. I was quite impressed.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ15o9jlKjBNv5jN3k4nVQIhrUOkV3Mr_KxHz36Xeq1fygjGiEgfYutHre8JBAkcyLB4hxUj20URbWAImaP48stBkM1w4xFjAB9h9SOUt1XtDgbxj7c_fQa41O2GhwtcRW7DppSBlrC-k/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0145.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ15o9jlKjBNv5jN3k4nVQIhrUOkV3Mr_KxHz36Xeq1fygjGiEgfYutHre8JBAkcyLB4hxUj20URbWAImaP48stBkM1w4xFjAB9h9SOUt1XtDgbxj7c_fQa41O2GhwtcRW7DppSBlrC-k/s320/2010_0320Japan0145.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451700649769325682" border="0" /></a><br />After this, we were provided some food and drinks and stuff, which was pretty amazing, and then everyone went to bed for the big day happening 'tomorrow'.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhCLniqbfFTFovkHzAWDIkjWyPU0Zj6nYy4AGvwWZCvpEpfnxA7Uh199sS84YaDpQfrsVtjdJR3bTu7_AhVPqO0JR2Rz_N2nOqDZiQqmqFWnUfZxPMyr0IWX9HSg65QvJ04RUgbwuLVI/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0167.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhCLniqbfFTFovkHzAWDIkjWyPU0Zj6nYy4AGvwWZCvpEpfnxA7Uh199sS84YaDpQfrsVtjdJR3bTu7_AhVPqO0JR2Rz_N2nOqDZiQqmqFWnUfZxPMyr0IWX9HSg65QvJ04RUgbwuLVI/s320/2010_0320Japan0167.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451702317766535858" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8M4ldBhxiEiX5GX_MtgcsncFWtS2iZhyphenhyphenYULr6hSdVlIe8Ss01h8fFxdiLf3432W48JIfREMOUpJWvV5po3wdgKtD4yGNBUOmIG5RarTYT3dqupdtV1sBnLF5GS49yx6tputzuCPTpzQc/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0169.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8M4ldBhxiEiX5GX_MtgcsncFWtS2iZhyphenhyphenYULr6hSdVlIe8Ss01h8fFxdiLf3432W48JIfREMOUpJWvV5po3wdgKtD4yGNBUOmIG5RarTYT3dqupdtV1sBnLF5GS49yx6tputzuCPTpzQc/s320/2010_0320Japan0169.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451702327715448242" border="0" /></a>(Pictures. Finnish students. Me with the Thai students [<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihU7Q5nA_ZacP36TLjmazEtE3nCQh4Ia_HydiRSqtb31-Fpi11mMMa_DilL1nhGlfDjt0xufOVWOeDRHYsk4mfoxdfJhnUXdxPpXahaccjtL0RjzfV6ZveL_3DGPGHBjIZoPq1-i1OVHw/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0171.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihU7Q5nA_ZacP36TLjmazEtE3nCQh4Ia_HydiRSqtb31-Fpi11mMMa_DilL1nhGlfDjt0xufOVWOeDRHYsk4mfoxdfJhnUXdxPpXahaccjtL0RjzfV6ZveL_3DGPGHBjIZoPq1-i1OVHw/s320/2010_0320Japan0171.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451703257069785826" border="0" /></a>they wanted a picture with me and I reeeaallly wanted a picture with them!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM1ESu5h5ln31H4M0OyiYD8gPEWhmJSHQwWbu1GntCAyX5cickdb_SY0CdUKTxWuKuTCkSsCLWQu7xxzkWXH8KYIC29SW6-OSGR5Nbi3ZMowWXlIZx-4X_LIA8shHI398NkZbq2fF6ilc/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0170.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM1ESu5h5ln31H4M0OyiYD8gPEWhmJSHQwWbu1GntCAyX5cickdb_SY0CdUKTxWuKuTCkSsCLWQu7xxzkWXH8KYIC29SW6-OSGR5Nbi3ZMowWXlIZx-4X_LIA8shHI398NkZbq2fF6ilc/s320/2010_0320Japan0170.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451703247761893154" border="0" /></a>!!!], two awesome female returnees an<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2X6Ip5UNsXGyKDxQDaZci4jpCTGS_S7M-UywW3N43Q5ESMN3pJtPtbVzL9CLtaJEFS1VdB8v-thOfaWL7iV43WJgGXDLtttz4NhIFFcD_t7INJE62Szpv4V7OcSQ-0QDp1JZqIfiJkI/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0172.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI2X6Ip5UNsXGyKDxQDaZci4jpCTGS_S7M-UywW3N43Q5ESMN3pJtPtbVzL9CLtaJEFS1VdB8v-thOfaWL7iV43WJgGXDLtttz4NhIFFcD_t7INJE62Szpv4V7OcSQ-0QDp1JZqIfiJkI/s320/2010_0320Japan0172.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451703271718129554" border="0" /></a>d I, Ollibeo and I, Yusuke and I)<br /><br />Later that night, everyone got ready for the big day tomorrow. I however, came to my dorm to see my pillow, pajamas, and sheets completely gone, stripped from my bed. I had left the door unlocked earlier that day, and literally, someone had stolen my BED (and corduroy pants). This SUCKED. I was totally irritated and was freaking out and getting all emotional, and the rest of the Americans were laughing at me, mainly because it was the first time they had seen me be serious about something (I acted pretty strangely throughout the entire orientation). Well, one of the other American exchange students (CRUUUUNK) apparently had stolen my bed and pants as pay back for stealing something of hers. The previous night, I had stolen her toy Ram named Rammy (female), and so she decided it was ok to steal my bed the next day. WELL, as you can see in the picture, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQy4yaI72zKZKrT8nsjFg_6wjm-SXrxqg6WicLtDSY4Hc4RlKHKmQLoyFRpcXjDOR5z60Zu0rNbYHRLphfEvqbRCfDqUwA6ri0lwijJmYYt3alpOW-5cHgKJDpFIClnk8-a44nJr7QGyw/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0174.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQy4yaI72zKZKrT8nsjFg_6wjm-SXrxqg6WicLtDSY4Hc4RlKHKmQLoyFRpcXjDOR5z60Zu0rNbYHRLphfEvqbRCfDqUwA6ri0lwijJmYYt3alpOW-5cHgKJDpFIClnk8-a44nJr7QGyw/s320/2010_0320Japan0174.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451707329491188306" border="0" /></a>she showed me to my bed (stuffed into a closet in her dorm room)--totally annoying though. I had even been in that dorm room multiple times during this time period and had never noticed my BED stuffed into an open closet in the room....If you check my playlis<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxSM2_mdX35QZC-NgJRwam74PNq0C-mZhMuW4ptHMP85-v9ry4TTIgvI7nBJGablKYaHyCYh5JhvSmJQfEbuFKie5faUR09_rzlIp9k_poFwqn2Pc9czTp5Swln285fhyphenhyphenX9FMAppXwzY/s1600-h/2010_0320Japan0176.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxSM2_mdX35QZC-NgJRwam74PNq0C-mZhMuW4ptHMP85-v9ry4TTIgvI7nBJGablKYaHyCYh5JhvSmJQfEbuFKie5faUR09_rzlIp9k_poFwqn2Pc9czTp5Swln285fhyphenhyphenX9FMAppXwzY/s320/2010_0320Japan0176.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451707336313778690" border="0" /></a>t (and the picture shown here) of videos, you can see a video of her again stealing my stuff due to me stealing Rammy again.Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-91500925769209146222010-03-14T22:27:00.017-04:002010-03-15T01:07:40.498-04:00Leaving for Ikeda<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDiz2NF622B9Y0oFJSdv_bcy-b96eeVOvVAYqrzhG-_7Xl0qSOevk14xNJJRD6ebdQt9AUZlCVQ4bEb65AtHv740RheqZ6AoVMmlDd654xmcxnma_Y4tuAMkqcYHJ0JzdBf_L24EhiWlQ/s1600-h/2010_03130263.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDiz2NF622B9Y0oFJSdv_bcy-b96eeVOvVAYqrzhG-_7Xl0qSOevk14xNJJRD6ebdQt9AUZlCVQ4bEb65AtHv740RheqZ6AoVMmlDd654xmcxnma_Y4tuAMkqcYHJ0JzdBf_L24EhiWlQ/s320/2010_03130263.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448711817832894210" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Hi.<br /><br />So. I have not posted in a while, in almost 2 months. I apologize for that, but I plan on being incredibly active and awesome with this blog throughout my exchange experience, which is <span style="font-style: italic;">actually</span> going to start in approximately 8 hours, when I leave Burlington International Airport at 6:15 AM, for Chicago, and then at... 1 PM or so, I will be on a plan heading for Tokyo.<br /><br />So. These past several weeks have been completely amazing. I CAN NOT believe how kind people have been, throwing me surprise parties that actually were not a surprise (one of them was though, omg. Thank you all), writing me cards, buying stuffed ducks, and unicorns, and peeps (the marshmallow birds), hello kitty coloring book, pencils, spending quality time AAAND giving me hugs all of which is like incredibly awesome of people to do. Oh, and giving me Edna, a gender neutral bouncy ball with two huge eyes that I actually can't find at the moment. Like WOW you guys! This is appreciated beyond belief. I mean, getting stuff is super awesome, but just the overall total random acts of kindness were extremely appreciated. EXTREMELY APPRECIATED. I feel so fortunate to have people in my life who are this wonderful. You all seem to really know how much this upcoming experience means to me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTMO4aDZU2yFwRkjIoRm2B3rpQakv-ctFOHu0hhEJPAFyEH7GiMDCuL67PHDZpmWcalIpCztZSOFnBwpJ_NrKfGrrx6v21Ulf8R8UYHTfUHeso0EQ7w3E6CHraNpVGuTMKNGfa-gltNFU/s1600-h/2010_03130207.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTMO4aDZU2yFwRkjIoRm2B3rpQakv-ctFOHu0hhEJPAFyEH7GiMDCuL67PHDZpmWcalIpCztZSOFnBwpJ_NrKfGrrx6v21Ulf8R8UYHTfUHeso0EQ7w3E6CHraNpVGuTMKNGfa-gltNFU/s320/2010_03130207.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448689577374648962" border="0" /></a>SO I have been packing for a lot of today. I spent a very long time looking for Edna my bouncy ball, but shim seems to be gone. Hopefully shim can be mailed to me once shim is found, because I was going to have this awesome pattern in my photos where Edna would just be randomly in the background, or something like that. The photo of me to the left right here, is of Edna and I. Bony gave shim to me as a going away present!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I feel like this post won't be long enough. I want to write a ton of gushy gushiness and attempt to show just how appreciative I am. But I won't. Through my incredibly awkward personality I am/will/have been making this blog incredibly awk, so I won't add on to the awkwardness, too excessively. I also feel kind of emotionless right now. Oddly I am already over my sadness phase (for now), and I get these random super zingy spurts of excitement due to the fact that I am going to Japan BUUUT they usually only last for like 15 seconds, and then they go away, but come back again immediately. I am like a huge pot of super mixed feelings right now. I also literally have NOT slept, at all, for the past month except for this past Wednesday when I slept for 16 hours. I am starting to notice that besides giving me more time to do stuff, this lack of sleep isn't benefitting me much. Unfortunately. And I totally WOULD sleep right now but I kind of can't because I am way too excited because I am going to Japan.<br /><br />Wooow. I do not know what to think. Actually, I think I am about to collapse cause my life has been insane these past few weeks. OOH OMG SOMETHING I SHOULD MENTION, my passport and visa were actually "lost", or more like given to the wrong mail-dude or w/e by YFU (my exchange program), and so that was<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwc1VzCZ4FbyaDwJ24cypGKkOxqfzZFU3xY-YwD3u9pv0vbuKTtiZz4MSr-pW3xX5kx8OpEZBQk2OfEaPRNo90tyTFrlccAMQPEzkfCJsiPiDID7J-SHVVlvw1O_N3zqniZnJYh3ry-Y/s1600-h/2010_03120127.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAwc1VzCZ4FbyaDwJ24cypGKkOxqfzZFU3xY-YwD3u9pv0vbuKTtiZz4MSr-pW3xX5kx8OpEZBQk2OfEaPRNo90tyTFrlccAMQPEzkfCJsiPiDID7J-SHVVlvw1O_N3zqniZnJYh3ry-Y/s320/2010_03120127.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448696099194576226" border="0" /></a> insane hectic. There was a huge chance I wou<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBLqb7v0c6T4veduCmCGx_JEtAyabmrtyipEOwg-ZZjvTLytbpTAF1wI1Bj4-SyZd07aO_QFG1Zust2JAAPNaOvxfwvHnxqcOPZAyzWy41OP1hmhFnEkUY3xyWnxjvDAy9Q_4mCBjCep8/s1600-h/2010_03120022.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBLqb7v0c6T4veduCmCGx_JEtAyabmrtyipEOwg-ZZjvTLytbpTAF1wI1Bj4-SyZd07aO_QFG1Zust2JAAPNaOvxfwvHnxqcOPZAyzWy41OP1hmhFnEkUY3xyWnxjvDAy9Q_4mCBjCep8/s320/2010_03120022.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448718627677193554" border="0" /></a>ld not have gone to Japan on time. Thankfully though, my dad being the awesome guy he is tracked down the passport and the passport arrived yesterday (Saturday). Wow. Another reason why I am such a fortunate pe<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoBbek62zlSLElzhfUbLwD_6SLNnV0ffSMo5OCN7hanxIqR2ob6n_iHwoFcd6SsrCr-ipw1XIQnENqXk-nf9Uw9qxJ7qH-TAkAO56U-PSse6f6vxAWqkjvuBmCaiEBtDhbDSJhxqdSMzM/s1600-h/2010_03140365.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoBbek62zlSLElzhfUbLwD_6SLNnV0ffSMo5OCN7hanxIqR2ob6n_iHwoFcd6SsrCr-ipw1XIQnENqXk-nf9Uw9qxJ7qH-TAkAO56U-PSse6f6vxAWqkjvuBmCaiEBtDhbDSJhxqdSMzM/s320/2010_03140365.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448697608941001794" border="0" /></a>rson.<br /><br />So. I think I am done writing for now. I will be <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOKwiKP71Tp_wo2Y_QkeTTVjF_dWM3RPAeJxrqWBrSSl029JP_OSpKpQ0h_hEPRmSiQ6bLTiJJ2-i9RfRSSCPMnVPfn0tJFgCQCjXHnWTbgMy5S0Vdsa-2m047pLMw9VueQOCefmWiqao/s1600-h/2010_03120062.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOKwiKP71Tp_wo2Y_QkeTTVjF_dWM3RPAeJxrqWBrSSl029JP_OSpKpQ0h_hEPRmSiQ6bLTiJJ2-i9RfRSSCPMnVPfn0tJFgCQCjXHnWTbgMy5S0Vdsa-2m047pLMw9VueQOCefmWiqao/s320/2010_03120062.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448701812892008498" border="0" /></a>leaving for a year in Japan super soon, and I need to do a little more preparation. Like, memorize Japanese vocab someone would use when laminating paper, or developing awesome photos of awesome people. This picture shown to the top left, is an act of amazing kindness that I will most definitely somehow manage to laminate in Japan. The picture shown to the left, is an example of an awesome picture of an awesome person (the<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2O3SSXswnrNm4GOfspUDeQl-HEz44U3_hICadY7JMhsBQK_6jk2G2YPwN5mgkWi0iw_Fait4bCI6qdDCPrOWd8mzwaAgVqfXNm7aCDvzlPtrNb2dZBBxH-Pqbdgf-6Ywyk9BsBPdKZuY/s1600-h/2010_03120030.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2O3SSXswnrNm4GOfspUDeQl-HEz44U3_hICadY7JMhsBQK_6jk2G2YPwN5mgkWi0iw_Fait4bCI6qdDCPrOWd8mzwaAgVqfXNm7aCDvzlPtrNb2dZBBxH-Pqbdgf-6Ywyk9BsBPdKZuY/s320/2010_03120030.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448709527569728834" border="0" /></a> girl) and so I must somehow develop the picture and show the picture to my host family.<br /><br />The most amazing class I have ever taught :)<br /><br />Time to go. Time to go to Japan!! (check facebook for all pictures. I've taken like 600 in the past two weeks. Facebook is also soooo waayyy more convenient.)<br /><br />I can not believe this is actually happening.<br />-OliverOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-9508370185392744592010-01-22T19:50:00.012-05:002010-03-11T23:59:54.040-05:00First contact with Host FamilyHello everyone!!!<br /><br />I just may be the happiest little boy in the WORLD! I just spoke with my host mom on the phone, and though my conversational Japanese absolutely SUCKS resulting in her probably thinking that my Japanese is nonexistent, IT WENT MARVELOUSLY!!! Here is what happened:<br /><br />So I wrote down some notes in order to leave a well organized message, since I was not at all expecting someone to be home when it is 9 in the morning (somehow the fact that it is a Saturday in Japan slipped my mind). I did this for a good half hour or so, and then when I finally thought I was ready, with my heart beating SUPER fast and my body creating a perspiration storm of sweat in my clothing, I called them up. HOWEVER, instead of a Japanese answering machine, this very obviously American man voice answers the phone from ('u' intended. Just imagine the American accent) : "Amurica's best quality watches". Frick I'm not kidding, I almost pee'd myself. If this had not been such a serious time for me I would have fainted of laughter. Instead, after almost having a heart attack I tell the man I called the wrong number, and apprently it is because I didn't dial in the international calling code (it's 011 btw. Hopefully I am not the only one who didn't know that). SEE, going on foreign exchange is beneficial beyond belief! You could even learn the international calling code!! Anyway, I dialed the correct number, and after about 10 seconds of no sound because I am calling a phone that is over 6000 miles away, the ringing from the other end finally occured (except it sounded way different from American phone ringing). Then suddenly a lady picks up and utters the following, はい、松室家族で~す。<br /><br />We spoke on the phone for a good 40 minutes or so, using a hybrid tongue of Japanese and English. She would speak in Japanese and English, and I must say her English is um, omgee crazy skilled. Not only does she know vocabulary and grammar and the like, but her pronunciation is just about perfect! LIKE WOW when she says my name (Oliver, it's sort of a butt for Japanese people to pronounce) she has no accent. I was mighty impressed and I find her a super woman indeed. Speaking a language with a very minimal accent is so difficult and she wins. She was extremely easy to talk to as well, as in, she was very open about everything and just totally chill (she called me Oliver Twist--I almost fainted. Apparently people in Japan will be making that connection too). She also mentioned that she was a YFU exchange student to Oregon when she was 17, which may be the reason behind as to why her English speech is good, and how seemingly understanding she is. She has an international perspective ;D She would crack a lot of jokes too, and was overall just a very jolly lady. Oh, and her name is Kumi, rofl I could have said that earlier.<br /><br />So I asked her a hoard of questions regarding the family, and first found out that the reason as to why she was home alone was due to the host dad hiking, host brother at school (on a Saturday, ew), and host sister out 遊びに行っている'ing with friends <-- asobi ni itteiru means going out to play, basically. In Japan they use "play" for "hang out" which is so so much cooler in my honest opinion ;D. Anyway, I found out that the host sister attends Kobe Joshi University (literally means Kobe Women's University) in Kobe, which is the 6th largest city in Japan, capital of Hyogo prefecture where my high school is located, and one of the three main cities alongside Osaka and Kyoto that make up the Osaka metropolitan area, which is the 6th largest in the world at 17.3 million people. <br /><br />The host brother's birthday is in August, so he is almost exactly one year younger than me as I turn 17 in September, while he is turning 16. If he went to a school in the U.S. he would be a current Sophomore like me, but the Japanese school year starts in the beginning of April, meaning he is going into 10th in two months while I "technically" should be an 11th grader once I arrive. They may place me with the 10th graders though, due to like, language barrier, way lower academic intelligence in math and science (rofl) etc. He also loves tennis, which is super awesome, but may prove to be super embarrassing for me because I literally SUCK at tennis. I never play it and it is actually perhaps my least skilled sport besides football, rugby and all the sports related. I really like tennis though and I think watching tennis is quite epic. He also does Judo, which is awesome because I have been doing a Korean martial art for 9 years, so we can relate. The host mom also told me that she wants me to do Judo with him, cause there is a dojo right near their house and I have always wanted to try a Japanese martial art anyways. Note: I just spent the last 20 minutes or so reading up on Judo, and I really appreciate the essence behind the art. The bearing of the art is very appealing and I like the method of using the opponent's force and balance against them. "Mutual prosperity" this makes me want to do Judo. However I hope I do not kill myself, since the art is based on like, throwing the partner down to the ground and stuff :/ It shall be an experience. Oh! Also forgot to mention, he loves skateboarding too. <-- I was not expecting that AT ALL. His name is Shota. 将太 しょうた<br /><br />Host sister is ゆき. I do not know what her name kanji is, but it is not snow according to host-mom. Besides the above mentioned information regarding her college and the like, she apparently rigorously practices the piano, and when I responded to that with my cello playing, my host mother told me that Yuki apparently practices the cello too, and I was then asked if I am bringing my cello with me to Japan. Um, no. Like crud I hope they don't ask me to play it (which they totally will). I love the cello, I just do not practice. I'd rather spend my time on other activities. I do not really know much else about her, but she seems very musically inclined, she is 20, and she was playing with friends while I was on the phone with host-mom. She sounds awesome c: <br /><br />The host parents, according to my host family information paper, own their own business, yet when I asked host-mom what their respective jobs are, she said hers was something along the lines of like, exchange or something, but I couldn't quite understand her. The father works at a bank and from the way she explained it, it seemed he owns the bank. I am not quite sure though. They do live in a very high end area though so I wouldn't be too surprised, and the school Shota and I will be attending is like crazy amazing. It's in Takarazuka! <br /><br />So anyways, this is a lot of writing, and I apologize if it is too much. I am extremely thankful for how my exchange is turning out, and I could not have asked for anything better. OHHH! And I totally forgot, but I had planned on learning Osaka Kansai-ben (the regional dialect of the Osaka/Kyoto area), as the family lives in Osaka, and if I am able to speak in their dialect I may gain people's respect much easier. However apparently, according to host-mom their family and the surrounding area tends to speak in the Kyoto dialect, which is a much softer, refined, and often considered sophisticated sounding Japanese dialect. Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 1000 years after all, so it makes sense. This actually makes my life much easier though, as the Osaka-ben is way more confusing and sounds like a completely different language from that of standard Japanese. Host-mom even said it sounds strange, which was funny. She also said that we will have to go to Kyoto on the weekends to go and practice Kyoto-ben! HOMG KYOTOOOOOOOO!!! GAWD they could not have placed me in a better location! I am right at Osaka which is an AWESOME city, I am in a super nice high-end sleeper community which is what I always wanted, and I am super close to Kobe and KYOTO!!!! WHOO. There is also a mix of Kansai Osaka and Kyoto-ben, which is awesome cause I love both dialects. I'M SO HAPPY! OH, <span style="font-weight: bold;">AND MIDTERMS ARE OVER!!!</span><br /><br />Thank you so much for reading! I hope all other fellow exchangers to Japan are fairing marvelously! You all may actually have the same questions, but I will need to ask my host family what I should do regarding the school uniform. I also need to deal with what class they will place me in at Hibarigaoka Gakuen. I asked the YFU admissions office these questions already, and they said that they are waiting for a response from YFU Japan. So we will see what happens :) I also want to know if my host family has "homed" an exchange student in the past, to see if they have actually dealt with this before.<br /><br />BYE!<br /><br />-OliverOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-14025010511616142452010-01-20T21:04:00.019-05:002010-01-23T01:48:00.745-05:00Host Family Information!Hello everyone! So I have not made a post in quite a while, but as March comes closer, I happily anticipate the time when I will finally be in Japan, and the actual blog will begin!!!<br />Ok, SO, I.AM.VERY.HAPPY. Though midterms are currently taking place and are furthermore causing mass sleep deprivation on top of mass sleep deprivation, I AM VERY HAPPY.<br /><br /><br />I HAVE A HOST FAMILY!!!! When I saw the e-mail in my inbox titled "Host Family Contact Information" I totally flipped. Here's the story:<br /><br />I arrived home from a friends house (I eat 1+ pint of Ben and Jerries ice cream each time I go over there, which is at a minimum once a week, by the way), where we totally "studied" for our second day of midterm exams happening tomorrow 1/21/10, which I actually seriously should be doing now BUT, writing this is way more enjoyable. ---> So I arrived home with my dad at about 5:30 PM, however I had absolutely no expectation regarding information on my host family. My dad had called the admissions counselor (and left a message, which is why I arrived home without the expectation of an e-mail from the admissions office) we are currently connected to at YFU, regarding host family information, which (I mean host family information) acts sort of as a tree with a bunch of other important topics branching off of it which we will begin to understand and be able to discuss ONCE, I know of my host family. In example, once I would be informed of my contact information of my host family, I could begin discussing my school uniform and how to come about it, essentially, along with various visa information, the visa process, and OF COURSE, CREDIT EXCHAAAANGE WWOOOOO FUN STUFF! <-- Precisely the epitome of my concern, quite frankly. I have mentioned this in every post posted thus far. Anyway, back on topic: Without the expectation of an e-mail from the admissions office at Youth for Understanding, I checked my e-mail, to find, .....an e-mail from YFU titled "Host Family Contact Information". I squealed, and flipped as stated before. The moment was incredibly frustrating however, since my computer decided to be excruciatingly slow at the time, and so the contact information DID NOT OPEN. The beginning of the e-mail read as follows (I wont post the second part of the e-mail) :<br /><br />"First and foremost, please find attached the contact information for your host family in Japan! Feel free to contact them- a letter with this information has also been sent to you via mail and should arrive in a few days."<br /><br />HOLY FRICK I WAS DYING AUUGH! The attachment wasn't opening and I WAS SO FRUSTRATED LET ME TELL YOU. It did open after about 50 seconds though, so it was all good. Among the information received, I was given:<br /><br /><br />-The family name and first names of my Host parents. I do not want to post their names on the internet without their consent.<br /><br />-The ages of my BROTHER AND SISTER! I have a 15 year old brother and 20 year old sister!!<br /><br />-School: Hibarigaoka Gakuen High School. I checked the website....um, wow. WOW. WAOWWWWW<br /><br />-The fact that a grandfather and/or grandmother is/are not present in the host household. <br /><br />-Their address and phone number, and address and phone number of my WOW high school. <br /><br /><br />Ok, SO! PARENTS!!! I love their names! I may post their names later but I just have to say, that those names are marvelous. As of yet I do not know the names of either my host sister or brother, but I do intend to call my host family once midterms are finished, and I will receive more information then. Also, a fact I must let you know of. I tried to anticipate the time when my host family information would come, <span style="font-weight: bold;">without</span> any expectations. I personally did not care in the least what my host family would be made up of because quite frankly, any type of family would have been marvelous. Single parent, two parents no kids, a bunch of kids and one parent, an old couple, an old lady, an old gentlemen OMG ANYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME! I had no serious standards as to what type of family I wanted. And as long as they would/will smoke outside if they do indeed puff, I would/will/do not mind that either. However if I must sleep every night in a dense cloud of cigarette crud, um, no. Will not appreciate. Otherwise, no rules and or standards, as long as I can spend a year as an exchange student in Japan, I will be eternally satisfied of course!<br /><br />SO, what I had originally tried to say at the beginning of that paragraph, was that I actually did sort of wonder (EVERY DAY) what kind of family I would have ended up with. Personally I did not mind what kind of family shape/structure etc. I would have joined for a year,(but I wanted a brother who was about my age and a sister who is in college, and that is what I received). In conclusion, I am frickin pleased.<br /><br />One more topic to cover--my school. Yes, the WAAOOOW school. I will now decipher the hidden meaning behind those "wows".<br />The school is impressive. It is a private school known as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Hibarigaoka Gakuen High School</span> as stated before, and it is gorgeous. The website is beyond impressive, it is incredibly fancy, preppy, informational, and just plain attractive. The school building looks unbelievably nice, it is only about 1.5 miles from my house OH YEAH I TOTALLY FORGOT TO SAY WHERE I AM STAYING!! I'll post that later. Anyway, there is a seemingly very nice list of apparently famous alumni who are now fairly well known icons, and just in general, the school is very impressive.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Here is the school website</span> </span>: http://www.hibari.jp/<br /><br />The second tab down on the left is the school's high school catalog (<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">link</span></span> - http://www.hibari.jp/calendar/hs_digest.pdf ). Very impressive. Just LOOK at those school uniforms! Just<span style="font-weight: bold;"> LOOK</span> at that SCHOOL! I checked the rankings of the school compared to all other Japanese schools, and Hibarigaoka is one of Japan's most prestigious high schools. The campus has a temple-like building for tea ceremony, two pools (one is 50 meters), a train station seemingly connected to the school, a freaking AMAZING auditorium, all among many other buildings. There are pictures on the 12 (last) page of the 2010 school catalog which I provided a link to at the beginning of this paragraph.<br />Also, the school offers a wide variety of clubs:<br />-合唱 (chorus)<br />-囲碁将棋 (japanese chess)<br />-放送 (broadcasting)<br />-書道 (calligraphy)<br />-演劇 (traditional and modern theater)<br />-科学 (science)<br />-箏曲 (koto music) <-- Koto playing. Koto is a traditional stringed instrument.<br />-美術 (fine arts)<br />-茶道 (tea ceremony)<br />-華道 (flower arrangement)<br />-鉄道研究 (railroad research) <-- This is new to me. Never heard of it before<br />-吹奏楽同好会 (wind instrument music) <-- Traditional wind instruments<br />-ESS (english speaking society) <-- Probably will come in handy for me ;D<br />-インターアクト (rotary interact club) <-- The school has a rotary club! That is cool<br />-マンドリン (mandolin/stringed instruments)<br />-写真 (photography)<br />-サッカー (soccer)<br />-剣道 (kendo) <-- Swordmanship/Japanese fencing<br />-合気道 (aikido)<br />-ソフトテニス (soft tennis)<br />-バスケット (basketball)<br />-バレーボール (volleyball)<br />-硬式テニス (hard tennis) <-- The tennis we know<br />-柔道 (judo)<br />-水泳 (swimming)<br />-硬式野球 (baseball)<br />-軟式野球 (softball) <br /><br />Goodness, I feel so fortunate to be able to attend such an institution... <br /><br /><br />It is marked where my town is. I will be living in the city of Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture 池田市、大阪府 <iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ikeda,+Osaka&sll=42.934708,143.446588&sspn=0.702792,1.222229&g=Ikeda,+Japan&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Ikeda+City,+%C5%8Csaka+Prefecture,+Japan&ll=34.821705,135.428444&spn=1.573288,2.444458&z=9&output=embed" scrolling="no" width="425" frameborder="0" height="350"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ikeda,+Osaka&sll=42.934708,143.446588&sspn=0.702792,1.222229&g=Ikeda,+Japan&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Ikeda+City,+%C5%8Csaka+Prefecture,+Japan&ll=34.821705,135.428444&spn=1.573288,2.444458&z=9" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small><br /><br /><br />This is where I am in relation to the greater Kansai region/central Honshu area. Ikeda is essentially at the corner of Hyogo, Kyoto (YESSS! Kyoto is the best), and Osaka prefectures.<br /><br /><iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ikeda,+Osaka&sll=42.934708,143.446588&sspn=0.702792,1.222229&g=Ikeda,+Japan&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Ikeda+City,+%C5%8Csaka+Prefecture,+Japan&ll=34.821705,135.428444&spn=6.22042,9.777832&z=7&output=embed" scrolling="no" width="425" frameborder="0" height="350"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ikeda,+Osaka&sll=42.934708,143.446588&sspn=0.702792,1.222229&g=Ikeda,+Japan&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Ikeda+City,+%C5%8Csaka+Prefecture,+Japan&ll=34.821705,135.428444&spn=6.22042,9.777832&z=7" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small><br /><br /><br />This is my high school. Hibarigaokahanayashiki 雲雀丘花屋敷 is the station, as you can see it is right next to my high school. The school is literally, a mile and half from my door step (and it's in Hyogo prefecture while I am in Osaka).<br />Wow, definition of the Japanese suburban life :D I made a preference to be near Kyoto, in an outskirts town rather than the center of a city.<br />SO EXCITED!!<br /><br /><iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%E9%9B%B2%E9%9B%80%E4%B8%98%E5%AD%A6%E5%9C%92&sll=34.826434,135.401816&sspn=0.011872,0.019097&ie=UTF8&hq=%E9%9B%B2%E9%9B%80%E4%B8%98%E5%AD%A6%E5%9C%92&hnear=&ll=34.826434,135.401816&spn=0.011872,0.019097&output=embed" scrolling="no" width="425" frameborder="0" height="350"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&geocode=&q=%E9%9B%B2%E9%9B%80%E4%B8%98%E5%AD%A6%E5%9C%92&sll=34.826434,135.401816&sspn=0.011872,0.019097&ie=UTF8&hq=%E9%9B%B2%E9%9B%80%E4%B8%98%E5%AD%A6%E5%9C%92&hnear=&ll=34.826434,135.401816&spn=0.011872,0.019097" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small><br /><br /><br /><br />So, thank you so much for reading! I apologize if my reading is at all difficult to follow. This was in a way an act of procrastination from my Honors English review for the exam I have tomorrow.<br /><br />I AM SO HAPPY! Ikeda, Japan will be LOVELY MAAAAAN! They could not have picked a better location for me.<br /><br />Thank you!<br /><br />-OliverOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-43852757465156774602009-12-11T20:50:00.008-05:002010-03-13T05:37:22.044-05:00Phone ConferenceHello,<br />So today was the YFU Phone Conference for the New England region, which I took a part of. The conference was from 3 Pm to about 6 (PM), and I accessed it through the Business Office at my high school, made possible by some nice connections my dad has with the people working there. During the conference, the YFU assemblage gave a ton of information to the 7 of us students (I know one was going to Germany, another to South Korea, Henry, me, and two other students). This shall be long, but they mainly went over such information as, the purpose for foreign family living, which is understandably a good topic to cover. They wanted us to think of the differences, be prepared to learn and understand that we will not agree with every distinguishing characteristic about our host family.<br /><br />We also went over the Top hats paper (Talk, Obey, Participate, Help, Affection, Trust, Smile), along with culture and culture shock, discussed with us by the New England coordinator.We each had to answer what we thought the definition of culture was/is, understand exactly what culture is, among many other subjects regarding and/or relating to "culture. This was a subject we especially stressed, and so we reasoned with this for a while.<br /><br />They explained to us the U curve that many students go through while on exchange, Goals and Expectations, keeping your body to yourself, what we plan to Accomplish, Safety in general, no Drinking, driving, or drugs, what happens if there is a family fight, anything regarding internet use, how to be a lovable exchange student, Credit transfer, and making a good relationship with the local representative in our host country.<br /><br />So that was the conference in a delicious nutshell. After the afore mentioned, the parents of each of us students joined in and had a discussion chalk full of questions regarding the foreign exchange each of us students would experience within three months. Credit exchange, was a huge subject, and the number one discontent on my mind at the moment.<br /><br />SOOOOOOOOOOO, I am extremely frustrated. Unlike the above posted stuff, I will become slightly more emotional now: Credits! My goodness gracious they are stressing me out! After many minutes of stressed planning with my dad, after I sent a page long e-mail to one of the guidance counselors at my school, I figured out that I only need to take Personal Fitness, a Social Sciences class with at least 1/2 American Government Credit, and another class which is at least 1/2 a Practical Arts credit. I also will not need to worry about Health if I can switch that for Target Sports next semester (the semester I will leave halfway through for Japan), and then I should easily be able to obtain some gym credit in Japan. Otherwise, I am fine considering I will be taking Oceanography online through Virtual High School while I am in Japan for half a Science credit, a Geometry-Algebra II class during the next semester (September-January), and if I can finish my U.S History class before I go to Japan then I will be fine with that as well.<br /><br />This, on top of everything else I must attend to during my days, is seriously stressing me out. If I was still in A.P. US History (due to the teacher, it is actually the most difficult History course in the school), I would not be alive right now. I just have so much to do!! I just wish I could be told the contact information for whichever high school I will be placed in Japan, now! I could actually sort out the credit-bewilderment/agitation/disorientation/chagrin (omg I totally love the word chagrin) I am currently experiencing.<br /><br />Oh well, hopefully I will be able to meet with my guidance counselor on Monday, or sometime this upcoming school week to discuss the many questions I have regarding credits. It is quite amazing though, how I have gone over this with the guidance office four times, yet I still need more information. The credits shall haunt me forever, apparently. I will ask my guidance counselor about credit exchange this week though, and hopefully (s)he can answer me whether my school will give me credit for classes in Japan despite the dissimilar curriculum. I need answers for Junior year classes!<br /><br />Alright, now I shall study Japanese adjectives, and then do my online U.S. History class.<br /><br />Thank you for reading! Sorry for the ranting.<br /><br />-OliverOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-59202927862238631322009-12-08T18:31:00.014-05:002010-03-12T00:07:54.892-05:00Acceptance of the James Bradley ScholarshipHello all,<br />The title may be misleading......as I did not win the scholarship. It was, and still is a great disappointment considering the unbelievable amount of time and effort I contributed to the application and overall scholarship process. I spent over a month and a half, (very, very, very) hectically completing the scholarship/application process, with the sacrifice of many sleepless nights/early mornings and a suckish Geometry, Honors English, and Biology grade.<br />However, I am still absolutely proud of myself for all of the effort I <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">did</span> put into what became a very long pending process, waiting for results, and thanks to much support from the amazing people I love at Essex High School, along with the very appreciated encouragement from fellow to-be Japan exchange students, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER. Of course, being rejected totally sucks. But ultimately, I was not rejected at all. I was accepted into the regular program, which means I <span style="font-weight: bold;">am</span> going to Japan.....<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">so.I.believe.that.is.a.mega.accomplishment.to.be.totally.proud.of. </span><br /><br /><br />This whole phenomena feels so strange, though. I anxiously waited for two whole months to be given the results of the scholarship, yet it <span style="font-weight: bold;">literally</span> feels as if I only sent in the application last week. So much has happened during the time when I waited so anxiously, almost apprehensively for the day where I would be told if I was awarded the scholarship I was so determined to achieve. Time actually "flew", and now I am only 3 months from going to Japan for a year. I began the application in August, the moment I returned from Japan, and that was 4 months ago. Truly unbelievable.<br /><br /><br />Now I will move on to what exactly happened within the last several hours (in a delicious nutshell):<br />My dad picked me up from my friend's house at about 4:50 PM, in a mad rush to the post office right across the street from our house which closes at 5 PM. Considering the car ride home usually takes a good 15 minutes or so, I was quite the opposite of tranquil (love this word). We arrived at 5:03-ish, the post office was thankfully still open, I ran to our mailbox/location where it is possible to extract mail, to find a letter from Youth For Understanding. A friend of mine told me at school this morning, that a big letter is a "good thing, as that is what they do in college" <-- . Taking that in mind: this was a small letter, and sure enough it gave me a long spiel on how I was not selected as a scholarship recipient, and I was among many qualified applicants etc. It was/is upsetting! I have many reasons to think that I should have won, therefore I feel that I truly deserved the scholarship, practically. Being rejected is not fun at all, especially when one is intensely serious regarding the outcome. Despite all this, however, I <span style="font-weight: bold;">will</span> stay positive, the scholarship gave priority to certain schools and people with backgrounds relating to the war<span style="font-style: italic;">(not</span> making an excuse), plus I was accepted into the regular program, which is what I originally always desired. Keeping a positive and open mind at all times, which is a major rule I stressed in my application, is key. I shall look at the bright side of affairs, as I quite obviously am extremely fortunate to be able to study in Japan for a year, with a 8MP webcam, laptop, and marvelous digital camera :O<br /><br />Thank you so much for reading!! I know this was more of a negative post at the beginning, so I am sorry if that was at all awkward to read. I am/was also quite rushed throughout the process of writing this post as I have an astonishing amount of "stuff" to attend to. Oh, and to M.N, I did not mean to accuse you of <span style="font-weight: bold;">anything</span>. My lovely Asian goddess.<br /><br />STAY POSITIVE EVERYONE! I will post again updating you all on the phone conference happening this Friday from 3-5 PM! I am so excited!! :D<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />4 Down, 3 to goOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-11602047643305491342009-12-06T16:13:00.007-05:002010-03-12T00:07:06.011-05:00Preparation before the Phone ConferenceSo, Anita and Henry (two applicants who also applied for the James Bradley scholarship), received letters from YFU stating that they did not win the scholarship. This seriously irritates me considering how they are both totally worthy of the scholarship award--plus they both received results before any other applicants I know of. As of now, me and Natalie (sorry for not mentioning these people before! I am actually in contact with many exchange students heading to Japan next year) are the only applicants yet to be determined as scholarship winners...apprehensive.<br /><br />However, I <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> receive a letter in the mail containing various preparation papers, and some information on the phone conference taking place this upcoming Friday (12/11, according to my Japan calendar wink wink ;) ), which is super exciting!! I have a departure checklist, with advisable objectives to accomplish before leaving the country--such as, getting my passport (obviously I have that, going to Germany every year), small gifts for the host family, cleaning up my affairs...lmao wink wink, and making arrangements with my school for credits and required subjects. Speaking of credits, I have actually been fulfilling any confusion regarding that these past several months, by making arrangements with the guidance office and having meetings with various school officials etc. (This is advisable for any prospective exchange students by the way). -->I am planning to take Oceanography from January to June through Virtual High School for half a Science credit, and from September to January I hope to take an Algebra II/Geometry class for half a Math credit, again through Virtual High School. Currently I am also taking American History through BYU Independent Study (of course I would never slack off on this....>_>) since I dropped AP US History as it was essentially killing me. Plus, I will be gone during the AP Testing term, so there is no real point in taking an Advanced Placement class this year. The thought of class taking in Japan is still one of my major worries though (I believe I have mentioned this in every post). Math is the epitome of my dislike for school. 幾何学が嫌いよ!高校が大嫌い理由は数学授業だ。 :)<br /><br />Oh, something else I found in my preparation papers I found hilarious, was that they were apparently directed towards students coming to America as exchange students. For instance, I received a paper titled: <span style="font-style: italic;">How To Be A Lovable Exchange Student</span>, and it lists advice such as: "Study English and try to speak it as much as possible" and "Realize that you have assumptions about American life and culture, and that some of them might be wrong". lol, I laughed<br /><br />So anyway, I will probably post again once I am revealed as a scholarship winner or not. Considering I am going to need several thousand $ of spending money...I really hope I win the scholarship. I will need a lot of money for when I travel to Korea during one of my Japanese school vacations. I have always seriously wanted to go, and I am currently self-teaching the language alongside Japanese! 韓国に旅行したい :)<br /><br /><br />Thank you for reading!!!Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-88991509835756078912009-11-21T00:08:00.004-05:002010-03-12T00:06:15.022-05:00AcceptanceHello everyone!<br /><br />On Thursday November 19, 2009, I received a call from the Foreign Exchange program Youth for Understanding.<br />I was on the computer listening to a song by the artist Eiko by way of youtube. I had been hearing the song quite often on Japanese T.V. (the song's title is あの子の夢 by the way) being played as the main theme for the Japanese drama Welkame (no idea where the name comes from). While singing along, my dad abruptly interrupts my vocal session by suddenly entering my room and transfering the phone to my hand. Now as I hope you can imagine I was very confused, but when the phone speaker greeted my ear, I heard a message from a YFU representative stating...........<br /><br /><br />that<br /><br /><br />I was accepted into the program.<br /><br /><br /><br />I have never been this happy in my whole life. I had been patiently (not really) waiting for months until the moment of absolute truth, and it came. The first post I wrote titled 'Anticipating', was really written based on my aspiration of being accepted, and as a result I had absolutely no idea whether I <span style="font-style: italic;">would</span> be accepted or not. Now I know, and now I am the happiest little man alive.<br /><br />I have yet to discover if I am the winner of the James Bradley Peace Foundation scholarship or not, but quite frankly I am just blissful that I am now offically accepted into the program. No more, "wondering if I am on the waiting list", "there may not be enough host families" or anything of the sort. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />My dream came true! </span><br /><br />Now, for any prospective exchange students who are waiting or will be waiting for their respective moment of truth, I wish you the best of luck and I truly hope (and believe) that your hard work pays off/will pay off!! Waiting is understandably the most painful part of the application process. The waiting causes so many negative thoughts and worries...but it is all <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">beyond</span> worth it in the end. And if you are not accepted, stay positive. There will be more opportunities later in life to go on exchange, and if you look at the whole thing positively, it is actually very beneficial if you are not accepted, lol. For one thing, you will have more time to study the language and research on foreign exchange!!! だから頑張ってくださいよ!<br /><br />Currently, I am actually working on figuring out my high school courses issue while I am in Japan. In September, I spoke with my guidance counselor at length about credits and classes, and she said I will finish off my sophomore classes when I return from Japan at the beginning of 2011. I also spoke with my local representative later that month, and I am currently figuring out courses (especially math and science) with other foreign exchange alumni/current exchange students on the cultures shocked forums. Since Essex High School only allows 2 credits of online study to be transfered onto my transcript, I am currently considering an online Math course (most likely Algebra II) while I am in Japan alongside my US History class which I am currently supposed to be finishing through BYU. Since I have only been studying Japanese for a year, I understandably do not have a high school level of proficiency in the language quite yet, and since I have a hard enough time not failing math when taught in English, I honestly do not see how I will survive a math class taught in Japanese. Of course, I will need to talk to my teachers in Japan if I cannot contact my Japanese high school beforehand.<br />Currently I am hoping they will give me some time to adjust to my surroundings and improve in the language before I am actually tested (if I even <span style="font-style: italic;">will</span> be tested). I am told that Japanese science is literally impossible to follow if not fluent in Japanese, and Japanese Classics is precisely a sadistic nightmare, which sounds just marvelous. Apparently they learn even <span style="font-style: italic;">more</span> kanji that is actually nonexistent in modern Japanese! JOY!<br /><br />Well, as long as I can obtain a Math credit and maintain my knowledge in math, I am happy. Considering math is clearly my weakest point academically, I think it is what I should spend my second online credit on. I am currently being tutored and am studying math much more. It is not enjoyable, but I will stay positive!<br /><br />Everything should become clearer in time. I will be attending a conference in Boston on December 6th, and I will also be meeting with the guidance counselor in charge of online classes at my high school.<br /><br />Ok, NOW, I will sleep.<br /><br />Thank you so much everybody! I will probably post again once I have my conference in Boston.<br /><br />Stay happy!<br /><br />-OliverOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5070405526288944235.post-45686654328881756792009-11-13T23:42:00.007-05:002010-03-13T04:19:02.944-05:00AnticipatingHello everyone!<br /><br />My name is Oliver Nolte, and I will be going to Japan for a year starting in March through the organization, Youth for Understanding. I applied for the James Bradley Peace Foundation, along with full tuition in case I am not accepted for the scholarship.<br /><br />Now I know this post may be somewhat unnecessary, but I just felt that I should start an introduction to my new blog NOW, while I am still an infant to the entire blog concept. I kind of want to see how I improve over the next year and a half in my blog skills.<br />I very recently made this blog yesterday actually, as an act of procrastination to avoid my English homework. I received the punishment however, by staying up until 2 AM finishing my reading of Huck Finn. I had a Geometry test today as well, and, well....goodness, I wonder how I will deal with Math in Japan. It is by far my weakest point in academics.<br /><br />When I arrived home today, I actually talked to several other YFU applicants and recent alumni by way of facebook, who just went to Japan this summer/past year. It was very fun, and felt great to be able to talk with other eager applicants who are dreaming about Japan as well. I actually spoke with a particular applicant for quite a while today through facebook Henry!!!!), and we discussed the application process and acceptance. I have a small anxiety with the thought that I may be on the waiting list, and as a result may end up not being able to go to Japan. With all of the preparation and effort I have put into this ambition, being "rewarded" with denial would be beyond depressing. Right now, going to Japan is my main motivation, and the thought of being able to live in Japan for a year is what currently drives me in...academics.<br />I will try to stop worrying though, AND HAVE A POSITIVE MINDSET :D<br /><br />Another fear I currently have is the thought of going to a Japanese school. As of now I have read ABUNDANT blogs of YFU exchange students in Japan, and just reading their posts of the first adventure into a Japanese school is enough to make my body all tingly. Goodness gracious! Making an announcement in front of a ton of students on a stage is a downright scary thought! Though actually, in a way I do hope that my school has me make the announcement/introduction as well, just to create some immediate prominence and have the students actually like, know what kind of person I am. This event should prove useful in making friendships! And then people will help me in Math!! Though I most likely will not participate at the same level as the other students in most of my classes (there is a language barrier), Math is a subject I will always need assistance with.<br /><br />So these are my current thoughts a month before the truth will appear! This is all so nerve wracking! I...I WANT THE RESULTS NAO!!!<br /><br />Thank you!Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01690566015555386000noreply@blogger.com3