Costco, Hibarigaoka Gakuen, and City Hall 3/23 - 3/24-3/25

3/23

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) and 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.

...

Soooo Costco is pretty cool. There is a ton of food. This Japanese costco was basically entirely American food, and I even saw a group of three 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. 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

too kind of her. And before she gives me a ton of food every evening, she always says "parents in Vermont must be worried, ne".

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).

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 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. 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.
Aaaaah I can't really remember what else happened, but I will update this if I receive any awesome spurts of memory.

2/24

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.

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.
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.

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.

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 more 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.

My host sister is super skilled at Calligraphy/Shodo as mentioned before, and so seeing her write my name was quite amazing. Much appreciated.

3/25
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])


Hmm...talk later. BYE!!!!!!!!!!

Walking Around Ikeda----Experiencing アバター (Abataa - Avatar) 2/21 - 2/22

2/21/10

Hi.

So I apologize for being so slow with my posts and updates. This post is about 3/21, so I probs forgot a bunch 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,

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 Perth, Australia. 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>

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.

So. 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 more pictures/video) to this covered shopping arcade-shopping areas which I remember very well from Japan when I came last summer. I looooove these shopping arcades. They are so incredibly convenient, the store names are 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 Japan 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 Matsuyama on Shikoku 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, 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 of 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 Japanese (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.

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! Like, in this picture you can see random animals and buildings of Ikeda, and you press one of the buttons, 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 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).

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 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.

We also went to a Hyakken/Hyaku En/100 Yen store which 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 Japan 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 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

Hmmm…I also had Takoyaki for the first time, and it was delicious!!!!! I love Osaka “jyankii fuudzu” (junk food)!!!!!!!! We had curry for dinner, family taught me some Osaka-ben (Osaka dialect) and host mom explained to me what ‘Kousa’ is. Kousa is yellow sand from China, 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 Osaka 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.

SO, that was 2/21. 2/22, 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 Vermont 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 Japan doesn’t sound like a cool label to have unfortunately L I am noticing that my laugh is pretty much completely forbidden throughout most of Japan, 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 Japan where I can just..laugh. Now I am excited. I must find this place.

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 J

BYE!!

Goodbye 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---1---2---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), 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 goodbye, which was pretty sad. Here on this post, I have several pics of people waving goodbye as I get on the bus to head off to HANEDA AIRPOORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (In this pic you see me 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, )

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 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 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), JAL NEWS, and an incredibly hostile looking animal poster. As you can see, there is a picture I took of the airport with security people in the foreground, and those security people all gave me incredibly hostile looks after taking the picture, because, my camera has an incredibly flashy, huge, and 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.
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 loved 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 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 to 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 their 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).

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).

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">and they went CRAZY (the bottle is like half gone already. They put it on everything).

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.)

BYE!!

First contact with Host Family

Hello everyone!!!

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:

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。

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.

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.

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

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:

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!

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, AND MIDTERMS ARE OVER!!!

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.

BYE!

-Oliver

Host 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!!!
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.


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:

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) :

"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."

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:


-The family name and first names of my Host parents. I do not want to post their names on the internet without their consent.

-The ages of my BROTHER AND SISTER! I have a 15 year old brother and 20 year old sister!!

-School: Hibarigaoka Gakuen High School. I checked the website....um, wow. WOW. WAOWWWWW

-The fact that a grandfather and/or grandmother is/are not present in the host household.

-Their address and phone number, and address and phone number of my WOW high school.


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, without 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!

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.

One more topic to cover--my school. Yes, the WAAOOOW school. I will now decipher the hidden meaning behind those "wows".
The school is impressive. It is a private school known as Hibarigaoka Gakuen High School 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.

Here is the school website : http://www.hibari.jp/

The second tab down on the left is the school's high school catalog (link - http://www.hibari.jp/calendar/hs_digest.pdf ). Very impressive. Just LOOK at those school uniforms! Just LOOK 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.
Also, the school offers a wide variety of clubs:
-合唱 (chorus)
-囲碁将棋 (japanese chess)
-放送 (broadcasting)
-書道 (calligraphy)
-演劇 (traditional and modern theater)
-科学 (science)
-箏曲 (koto music) <-- Koto playing. Koto is a traditional stringed instrument.
-美術 (fine arts)
-茶道 (tea ceremony)
-華道 (flower arrangement)
-鉄道研究 (railroad research) <-- This is new to me. Never heard of it before
-吹奏楽同好会 (wind instrument music) <-- Traditional wind instruments
-ESS (english speaking society) <-- Probably will come in handy for me ;D
-インターアクト (rotary interact club) <-- The school has a rotary club! That is cool
-マンドリン (mandolin/stringed instruments)
-写真 (photography)
-サッカー (soccer)
-剣道 (kendo) <-- Swordmanship/Japanese fencing
-合気道 (aikido)
-ソフトテニス (soft tennis)
-バスケット (basketball)
-バレーボール (volleyball)
-硬式テニス (hard tennis) <-- The tennis we know
-柔道 (judo)
-水泳 (swimming)
-硬式野球 (baseball)
-軟式野球 (softball)

Goodness, I feel so fortunate to be able to attend such an institution...


It is marked where my town is. I will be living in the city of Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture　池田市、大阪府　
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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.


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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).
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.
SO EXCITED!!


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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.

I AM SO HAPPY! Ikeda, Japan will be LOVELY MAAAAAN! They could not have picked a better location for me.

Thank you!

-Oliver