Katie in Japan

Reflections

2009-11-15T17:33:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile since I returned to America.
I don't know why it's taken me so long to write this last post...But I felt like I needed to sum it up.
There's so many things I have to say about my experience in Japan, but I'm going to try to keep this short.
Basically, going to Japan was the best decision I've ever made.
After coming back, I've completely changed the direction I want to go with my life. Before, I was set on being a journalist, but it's become clear to me now that I want to do something in the field of International relations, and I plan on attending Georgetown University (although it's kind of a long shot, haha) or Temple University's Japan Campus after high school. And no matter where I go to school, I am most definitely going to study abroad a year in Japan. Now I know that whatever career path I chose, it is without a doubt going to have something to do with Japan.
Going to Japan really gave me a much broader view of the world, and really put everything in perspective for me. I think about things a lot differently now, and I think that's definitely a good thing.
My experience in Japan was amazing, and I think about it everyday. I really felt that my time there was too short. I told my host mom this before I left, and she said that if I'd gone later it would have been much harder on both of us. I guess she's right, but I miss Japan, I miss Matsue, and I miss my family and friends so much. I keep in touch with my host family through email and have received lots of mail from my classmates, and I actually got an email today actually saying that my host family got skype, so I'll be able to see them soon!
But I'm glad to be back in America, because now I can share with everyone all the wonderful things that happened to me in Japan! I hope that my stories will help people learn something new about it and lessen some of the stereotypes they have about Japan. I aim to use this experience as a tool to give people an understanding of Japan closer to the one I have now.

I have so much more to say, but I think I'll stop there. To sum it all up, this was truly a life changing experience.

Before I end this post, I'd just like to give a few tips to people reading who might be visiting Japan as foreign exchange students in the future.

1) Stay positive. Although it sounds cheesy, finding the silver lining in every situation will help you so much. This is the best thing to keep in mind while you're there.If you don't, you're going to have major culture shock and be miserable. Everytime something didn't go the way I hoped, I focused on the good things about it. You can always find something. A lot of the exchange students complained about things that happened to them when they were there when they came back, but I found myself having nothing but positive things to say, even though some of the things they were complaining about had happened to me as well. My stance is that you really shouldn't have anything to complain about and just be greatful you have the opportunity to be there, and remember that you can make any situation positive.
2) Accept everything you're confronted with. This goes along with staying positive. Whatever situation you're in, don't wish it had gone a different way. Whatever happens to you will be great, and you can always make it fun. Just go with the flow, and take things as the come. Don't be picky!
3) Don't have any expectations. Don't plan out the perfect host family in your head, don't hope to go to a certain place, because it's not going to happen. If you have high expectations before going and they're not met, you're going to be negative and feel like your experience there sucked. Just know that where ever you end up in Japan, you're going to have a great time.
4) And, most of all, がんばって！ (ganbatte) Don't get discouraged while you're there, and stick it out! Even if you're in a small, rural city like I was, there are new and fun things to explore all the time. Be tough, and don't give up! Things are hard at first but make every effort to adapt and you'll have the time of your life.

I hope that helps a bit. I really kept all these things in mind while I was there and stuck to them, and I think that's what made my experience so great. If anyone going to Japan has any questions, please feel free to contact me! I would love to help. I would also like to thank all the people who read my blog up until the very end. And to all the people who have contacted me with questions and read my blog, I hope I was of some help to you.
Thanks everyone!
-Katie

さようなら

2009-07-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving tomorrow...
Of course I miss everyone in America...
But parting with Japan is so hard.
When I arrived in Matsue, I showed my host family a photo album I made of my life. While I've been in Japan, I took lots of pictures, and put the new ones in it as a present for my host family. When I gave it to my host mom, she started crying really hard...I've become so close to my host family, and leaving them behind is so difficult. They're like my second family now. I've spent everyday of the past 6 weeks with them and gotten to know them so well. I want to be able to watch Junpei and Akari grow up. I want to keep going to the super market with my host mom, and watching TV with my host dad. I want to remain apart of their family. But I have to go, so it's difficult. I hate thinking about how long it will be before I see them again.
I've also made so many good friends here. Yesterday, I had three of my best friends over, and they said that if they all pass their college entrance exams in the spring, they're coming to visit me. I really hope they pass so they can come do that! It amazes me how I've become good enough friends with people in 6 weeks that they would seriously fly all the way to America to see me. It's hard to leave friends like that behind.
But when I remember Japan, I don't want to feel sad. I want to feel happy! I'll look back at this experience and think about how lucky I was to meet such wonderful people, and have such a wonderful time. Leaving is difficult, but I love it here so much that I will definitely return someday.
So until then, bye bye Japan! I'll never forget you or anyone I met here!
さようなら！

Matsuri!

2009-07-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Tenjin Matsuri! It was definitely the loudest and craziest I've ever seen Matsue.
My host mom helped me put on my Yukata. I think I could sort of do it on my own now, but I will never be able to tie an obi. The obi is the part that goes around your waist. It's a very stiff and thick piece of cloth, but somehow my host mom worked it into this amazing bow! How she did it I will never know. Magic maybe?
After that, I met my friend Hiroko (who gave me the yukata) at SATY to take purikura. I thought this might be a little strange...Walking around the mall in a yukata? But actually lots of people were there in their yukatas, so it was fine. We took purikura, and were off to the festival!
I was surprised to find that the main attraction at the festival was a bunch of adorable Japanese kids ghetto dancing...But they were really good! And also, you throw some money in a box thing at the shrine and pray.
Mostly, there are lots of little games that you play. There are lots where you try to catch things like fish (live ones) or bouncy balls with little paper nets. I didn't try, but it looked pretty hard because obviously the net breaks when you put it in the water! There was also this thing where you cut out a pattern along these lines, and if you can do it perfectly, you get money. But it's very difficult. Mostly, I just walked around and ate stuff :) There were lots of things to buy, but my luggage is morbidly obese already, so I decided it'd be better if I didn't...
I don't know what it's actually called but I also got to saw the first part of the parade type thing. Little kids were carrying these big float things and cheering, and it was really adorable! I don't really know what everything is called so it's hard to describe, but I think the videos will give you a better understanding. One of the floats stopping in front of me and this little kid started screaming "GAIKOKUJIN!!!GAIKOKUJIN!!!" (Foreigner). Actually, many more people were pointing out the fact that I was a foreigner than usual...when I walked by people, I'd here whispers of "foreigner!foreigner!" That was amusing :)
After the festival, I was supposed to walk home. I thought that my friend was sort of walking the same way (because my host mom asked her before and she said yes), so I was fine with that. My host my said my host siblings were also walking home, but they left before me. Except it turned out my friend was actually going to walk back to the mall to get picked up, which was the exact opposite of the way I needed to go. So I thought, "ok, I'll just call my mom to come pick me up."
Except I didn't have her number with me.
And I had no clue where I was...
So I walked around for a bit trying to find some landmark I could identify. Eventually, I stumbled across the park I'd taken a walk to the other day! Good thing I took that walk, otherwise I seriously would not have know where I was. So I sort of knew the way from there, and after about 30-40 minutes managed to make my way home. What a site that must have been. Lost foreigner in a yukata stumbling around in the dark in Matsue...And my house was very far away from the festival, I'm not sure how my 10 year old host brother made it home like this.
Also on the way home, a man stopped me to ask for directions to the festival. I was like "Me? You're asking ME?" But luckily, I had just come from there, so I could tell him. When I apoligized for being bad at Japanese he was really surprised. I think since it was very dark he thought I was Japanese...
But yeah, other than that scary walk, the matsuri was very fun!

The Beach!

2009-07-25T18:29:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, I went to the beach! I don't really have much to say about this, except that it was really beautiful. Texas beaches are ugly and muddy, but this water was super blue, and there were mountains surrounding it. It was awesome. We had a barbecue as well, except we grilled things like noodles...And it was really delicious! My little brother brought his friends, And my host mom's friend brought along her daughter, who goes to my school and is 15. So I got to hang out with her :)
My only complaint is that in Japan, they designate and close off little swimming spots for you. And at the beach I went to, they did it with an unfriendly looking concrete wall. But it was beautiful anyways :)
Here's some pictures!
There were t ons of hermitcrabs, I don't know if you can see them in that picture though. And my brother and his friends caught sea urchins.

I love my friends. And karaoke.

2009-07-18T03:25:00.000-07:00

Today I went to hang out with my friends from another class. I had to take the bus to Matsue Station, and man was it confusing! You have to pay a different amount depending on how far you rode the bus, and I completely don't understand how they know how much to pay. So both times I kind of held things up trying to figure things out... After meeting up with my friends at Matsue station, of course we went to SATY. And of course, we took more purikura atSATY!! I love purikura so much. So much. After that, we didn't really know what to do, so we went to the arcade. We played this awesome taiko drumming game. They told me to play it because "This is Japanese culture!" Japanese culture indeed. And it was super fun.

After that, we went to karaoke. I really really really truly love karaoke!!
I can't sing at all. Seriously, I'm horrible at it. But at karaoke it doesn't matter. Everyone sings, no matter what. Japanese boys are really really shy, but even my friend Naoki sang at karaoke. If I eat lunch with him and my other friends, he'll sit one seat away from us, but he'll sing at karaoke. People can really let loose, so it's so much fun! Plus they have all the japanese songs I want to sing. That explaination didn't accurately express my immense love of it, but karaoke is deffinitely going to be really far up on the list of things I'm going to miss about Japan.

Here's my friends singing Sailor Moon's theme

Hiroshima

2009-07-17T18:19:00.001-07:00

So, on Monday I left Matsue for Hiroshima to go and meet the president of Mazda and do other various Mazda related things. I took the bus with my host mom (three hours, not too bad) and arrived at the station in Hiroshima to be greeted by my YFU friend Anh and her hostmom, who I was staying with for the trip. My host mom left for her hotel, and I went with Anh and her mom to do a bit of shopping :) Anh's host mom left, and we went to Hondori stree together. Hondori is this street that's closed off to traffic where there are just tons of shops! It's awesome.
Also, if you look in the top right hand corner of the first picture, you'll see pictures of Arashi! It's part of Au's campaign for some awesome phones including the most awesome boy band ever. They're seriously everywhere in Japan. Everywhere. It's wonderful. But I digress...
Anh and I headed straight for the idol shop. The idol shop is amazing. Amazing. You walk up the stairs and are suddenly surrounded with pictures of boybands and actors and singers. The walls are completely covered with photos. Actually, the ceiling is too! You walk around and write down the number of the pictures you want, and then they get them for your from the back. I'm not going to say how much I spent, but lets just say it was a lot. Probably more than I spent at any other store....And unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the store because you can't take pictures in it. :(
After that, we returned to Anh's house. You have to use a lot of public transportation in Hiroshima, and it's really expensive! We rode a street car (like a train but on the street), a train, and a sky rail. They skyrail was really cool though! Anh lives on top of a mountain, so she takes it everyday.
Anh's host family were really kind to let me stay with them, and I had a lot of fun with them! They all speak perfect english (lucky for Anh!), so it was really easy to communicate. Anh has a little sister (10), and two little brothers (7 and 8), as well as her parents. It was really fun staying with them, and I had a lot of fun with Anh as well :)
They next day, we were off to Mazda! First we all sat down in a confrence room and heard speeches by various employees, and then the President of mazda, Mr. Yamanouchi, came to speak to us. After his speech, we were aloud to ask him questions. Then he presented everyone with some gifts from Mazda (a shirt and two hats). Afterwards, we took pictures with him, and he gave everyone his buisness card! That's pretty special, he doesn't just give those out to anyone. Once we were done with all of that, someone interviewed me for the newspaper in Hiroshima...And only me...And then in the paper, the picture was of me..Why?? Mostly they asked me what I thought about Mazda and the president, and what car my family has, and what car I want (of course, I said Mazda :P). So yeah, 6 weeks in Japan and I've already been in the paper twice!
next, we went to tour the hydrogen station. Mazda has made hydrogen powered vehicles, and their only byproduct is water! It's awesome! When you put your hand in front of the exhaust pipe, your hand gets wet! They explained to us how they work and how you fill them up, and then we got to ride in one!! This was really special, even Mazda employees haven't ridden them yet. They wouldn't let us take pictures of them then, but this is a photo of one from the museum.
After lunch, we had a crafting activity. We made dust pans. Apparently Mazda always wins these competitions where you make stuff out of metal...So we got to make stuff out of metal! We went into the room where they were practicing for the competition, and it was seriously 100 degrees in there. I'm not exagerating, they even told us that it was 100 degrees. Then we got to bend these metal sheets into dust pans! Then we decorated them. I drew flowers on my hadle and wrote "I love Mazda!!" in Japanese. The best three dust pans were going to win prizes, and first prize was four tickets to a baseball game!My dust pan won second place :). I thought it was funny because they kept talking about the dust pans like they were these amazing works of art. "And the bending on this dust pan was just so beautiful," "Oh, the dust pans you created are so beautiful and wonderful!" I thought it was kind of funny :) But it was really fun making the dustpans! I will treasure my award winning dust pan forever.
After that, we toured the Mazda museum and factory. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in the factory so I don't have any, but you can take them in the museum!
They let us get in some of the museum cars, even though you're not supposed to ;) I have pictures of me in it, but I like this one better :) That other red car is a concept car, and it's supposed to look like it's moving even when it's not. It's funny, in every picture I have of it it looks like it really does look like it's moving! But that could have just been me moving the camera...The green and orange one won a 24 hour race. Awesome! Anh's family have a model of this one at their house.
The factory was really cool too. You walk above it, and can look down on all the people putting parts in the carsMine won second, so I got two keychains. It was funny when they were presenting the awards, . They do it so fast! The museum and the factory were both really interesting.
After the museum, we tried out some of the demo cars.
After that, we went back to the confrence room for some closing statements. One of the other YFU students, Lauren, gave an awesome speech in Japanese! She's really good, it was really impressive. Then we heard some other closing statements, and it was time to go home.
...Except I didn't go home, I went shopping again! This time with Anh and two other YFU friends. We went back to the idol shop, and I bought more stuff..It's impossible not to in that store. Yesterday, they girl working in the shop forgot to put a keychain in my bag that I bought. When I asked for it, she remembered exactly which one it was and gave it to me. Probably because I had the funniest fragmented conversations with her trying to figure out what was going on last time...This time I also had to play translator. I like doing that though, it makes me feel good when I'm able to communicate with people in Japanese. We went to some other shops too, I bought some clothes, and then we headed home.
The next day, before I left, I went with Anh and her hostmom to have some Hiroshima style okon omiyaki! It was delicious!! Okonomiyaki is made like a pancake, only it has vegetables, meat, noodles, whatever you want in it. There are two types of okonomiyaki, Hiroshima and Osaka style. I've had both now, and I must say I prefer Hiroshima style. :) But it was so big I could barely finish it!!
Hiroshima was really fun :) I loved getting to see all the Mazda scholarship recipients again, and I had a lot of fun catching up with them. Me and Anh had so much catching up to do that we only slept about two hours the night before I left! I thought that would be ok because I could sleep on the bus, but there was an old man snoring really loud behind me...Oh well, small price to pay for such a great time!

Tea Ceremony Club

2009-07-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after school ended, my friends Akari and Rei took me to tea ceremony club, or sadou. Japanese people have been drinking tea since the 9th century, so tea ceremony is very old. There's a certain way of doing everything: walking, the way the bowl is turned, the order in which you pick up certain things, etc. It's all very intricate and particular, and of course very interesting! They gave me a big bowl of green tea to drink, and everyone was really surprised I drank it all because it's supposed to be really bitter. I dunno, it tasted pretty good to me! So I drank tea and ate little tea ceremony snacks while everyone took turns preparing the tea for eachother.
After they finished, I got to try on a yukata! I wish I had brought my own, but since I didn't, I tried on Rei's. It's really confusing to put on, I'm not sure I could do it on my own! It also didn't really fit me...but it was really fun!
Me with Rei and Akari (first) and the older members of the club (second)

After trying on the kimono, they let me make some tea on my own. I'm pretty sure I didn't get the technique and all right, but I successfully made tea! Basically, you take three scoops of tea, add water, and whisk it with the chasen, or tea whisk. When they whisk it, their hands move so fast you can't even see them! I couldn't do it quite as fast, but the result was still the same.
Tea ceremony club was really fun! I wish I'd thought to go earlier, because I would like to go more...
The older students showing me how to make tea, tools for making tea, and Rei (left) and Akari (right) being silly :)

Last day of school...

2009-07-17T05:21:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted about Hiroshima yet, but I promise I'm getting to it. I feel like this is more important though, so I'm going to talk about it first.

Yesterday was the last day of school.
I've made so many friends here, and I'm really going to miss it. At my school, they have school during summer vacation, (they call it summer vacation, but it really doesn't seem like one), so I don't think I'll get to see them much any more.
As I was walking upstairs, one of the teachers grabbed me and said "Kathryn, you need to come make a speech to the teachers now." I was like..."EH??" Couldn't you have told me that sooner? I was completely not prepared to give a speech in Japanese...So I did it in English. I don't think many people understood, but I couldn't accurately express how grateful I was in Japanese on such short notice...

In the morning, we had four classes, but two of them just happened to be the classes I don't go to, so I spent a lot of time in the library. I go to the library everyday, and the librarians have been so kind to me(that's them in the picture), so I was glad I got to see one last time. They gave me a Japanese chime, and helped correct the speech I'd written for my class. I almost cried when I left the library. I also had P.E., but no one told me the schedule for that day, so I didn't bring my uniform and had to sit out. But a girl from the other class was sitting out too, so she helped me correct my speech a bit more. She went over the whole thing with me and even let me practice it with her.

After that was lunch, and then cleaning, and then the closing ceremony. I have to admit, it was pretty boring. Especially for me, because not only were the speeches long, but I couldn't understand any of it. Other students were falling asleep, so just imagine how I felt! The principal talked for so long, that someone had to cut him off in the middle of his speech. But even after that, he kept going.
After the ceremony, we had a long home room. The teacher said there was nothing for me to do there, so I should go to the library until it was time for me to speak. So I went to the library, and fell asleep for a bit. I tried to prepare myself mentally a bit for my speech, because I knew I was going to have trouble holding back the tears. The entire day I'd felt like I was about to cry, but I really didn't want to ruin my speech by crying!
After about an hour spent napping and thinking in the library, my homeroom teacher finally came to get me. I went up to the front of the class, and the class rep gave a really sweet speech about how happy they all were that I became a part of their class. He presented me with a gift from everyone, and then it was time for me to make my speech. I told them how truly glad I am that I became friends with everyone and enjoyed school life with them, and how I'll always remember the time I spent with them. I told them how I really hope I'll be able to return to Japan and meet with everyone again. And most of all, I thanked them for making my stay at Matsue Kita High School so fun and memorable. Luckily, I did it all without crying! Although it was very difficult. Then we took group pictures together, I sat back down, and I opened their present. At that point, I couldn't hold back the tears any longer. Everyone had writen me a note about the time we spent together, and they were all glued on a decorated posterboard. It was so sweet, and I was so overwhelmed with happiness and saddness all at the same time that I couldn't help but cry. Every single one of those little notes means so much to me. Nothing can top this gift. It will definitely be the best thing I bring back from Japan. I'm so glad I became friends with all the people in my class, class 28. We all became such good friends, and I'm really going to miss being like that with them at school so much. I'm never going forget them. I'm sad that it will be such along time before I get to see them again, but I have a feeling we'll meet again in the future.

Class 28, including my regular teacher (first picture) and my homeroom teacher (second).

School Update

2009-07-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

I only have two days of school left :(. I would have five, but I’m spending three days in Hiroshima instead. Lately things at school have been great though! Occasionally I understand a class other than P.E or English now(I don’t even usually understand math, they use kanji all over the place in it!). I still have no clue what Modern Japanese is though. I even asked one of the teachers and all he said was “it’s hard.” I’m starting to think Japanese people don’t even know what it is…
Mostly during class I study Japanese. During Biology and Japanese Classics, I go to the library. Even though Matsue doesn’t celebrate Tanabata until next month, they still put up the Tanabata trees. You write down a wish and hang it on the tree. There’s one in the library, and every time I go in they ask me to put a wish on, so I have about 5 up now. Yesterday, they had tests for most of the day but my teacher forgot to tell me, so I came to school. I ended up spending all but 2 periods in the library. The librarians are really nice though, so I like talking to them, and they let me decorate the Tanabata tree and a display board outside the library.
I make friends in weird ways. There are a lot of people that just go “OOHHH KYASARIN!” and run up to me, and then we’re automatically friends. The best one was early this week though. During lunch, there were people outside my classroom staring at me (which is pretty normal..) They called one of the boys in my class over, and then he came over to me and said, in English, “Excuse me, Kathryn. Mr.Izumi requests to see you.” I was like EH?? Who’s mr.izumi, why is he waiting outside me classroom, and why does he need to see me?! So I went outside, and actually it was my friend Naoki (he’s a senior) who I worked at Jidou Club with. He had brought two girls from his class with him. He said “Please be friends with them!” and then BAM we were friends. I told them my email and later that night, one of them emailed me asking if I liked Robert Pattinson. I said yes, although I don’t really like him that much. The next day the two girls came to my classroom again, this time with and envelope. I opened it to find…A picture of Robert Pattinson. I couldn’t stop laughing. The next night, the other one emailed me asking if I like yukatas (like a summer kimono). The next day at school, she GAVE ME a yukata. Just gave it to me. I couldn’t believe it!! Yukatas are really expensive. And it’s really pretty! Those two girls are really nice. We ate lunch together the past two days, and they talk to me in English and I answer in Japanese.
My class has P.E. mixed with another class. Yesterday, two girls from the other class ran up to me and were like “Kathryn, say ‘perfect body’ please!” So I did, and they were so impressed! “Now say computer!” “…computer” “OHHH!!!!” Then they called they’re friends over and made me say it to them. “Perfect body computer.” “OHHHH WOW WOW WOW!!” (applause).
Yep, those are so highlights from school recently. I'm going to miss it so much...But tomorrow I'm off to Hiroshima, and that should be fun too!

Walk

2009-07-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

I went on a walk yesterday, so here are some pictures from it!!

Kyubi Taika

2009-07-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was Kyubi Taika! Kyubi Taika is a school-wide sports tournament. You have no classes, and just play sports all day. At my school, first years played volleyball, 3rd years played basketball, and I’m not sure what 2nd years were doing but I think they were either running or playing volleyball also. I’m no good at sports, but it was really fun! Before we started, we did a sort of team huddle thing, and they asked me to say something in English. So I said “Everyone have fun and do your best!” And they were super impressed. People are always really surprised when they hear me speak english for some reason. They always ask me to say funny things…but I’ll talk about that in another post!
I played in the first game, but I was really bad and we lost, so that was the only game I got to play. They’re really competitive and take things like P.E. really seriously! If they miss the ball or something, they feel really ashamed like they let everyone down. One girl in my class missed it and started crying. Their competitiveness made it really fun though, because everyone was really into it! I actually had more fun cheering for everyone than I had playing! Everyone was really amazing. On the guys team, one time we were losing by 9 points, and this one guy came up to serve and his serve was so fast that no one could return it! By the time he finally messed up and didn’t hit it over, we were tied with them! And then we won! It was amazing! Gosh, I had so much fun. I wish we did this every week!
The pictures with guys are the guys from my class being awesome at volleyball. All the pictures I took of the girls came out blurry :( The first picture is of some girls from another class. The pictures below don't really have anything to do with volleyball, but my friends are really cute! Also it was hilarious because they had this fan and they were holding it out in front of them and then bringing it closer and closer to their face...I don't know why. But they were making funny faces while doing it.

Vogel Park

2009-07-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

3 years ago, my family hosted a Japanese girl, Natsumi, who had just graduated college and had to come to America to be a student teacher before she could become an actual teacher. When I found out I was going to Matsue, I contacted her to see if it would be possible to see her while I was there. Turns out, she actually went to college in Matsue! So last Saturday she came to visit me. I was so happy to see her! I met her at the station, and we took the train to Vogel Park. Vogel park is a giant green house/aviary thing in Matsue, and it was amazing! We talked so much on the train that we missed our stop (and went two stops further before we realised), so we had to get off and get on another train back. On that train, she opened the present from my family, and when she read our card she was so happy that she started crying (I almost did too). And we missed our stop again, The first time, another train was there immediately, but this time we had to wait an hour before another one came! But it was nice, because we got to talk a lot. When we finally arrived at vogel park, it was amazing! I wasn’t sure what it was before we actually arrived, but we stepped in and there were tons of flowers and beautiful plants hanging from the ceiling and on the ground. So pretty!

After we’d walked through there, we took the longest escalator in the world up to the Aviary part of vogel park. THAT was awesome. There were birds everywhere, pelicans, swans, toucans, penguins, and tons of other weird birds I’d never seen before. In some parts, they were roaming free and would just come up to you. Oh, and I got to hold a toucan!! That was definitely the best part. We got to see penguins being fed, and I also got to feed some emus (which was actually kind of scary.) Later, we went to see the owl show, where they had tons of really cute and fluffy owls! They asked for volunteers, so I raised my hand, and they picked me! I got to hold a hola hoop while an owl flew through it. Usually they pick little kids for this kind of thing, so I felt kind of silly, but it was really fun! Once that was over, I also got to hold an owl. Through that experience, I learned the Japanese word for fluffy: Fuafua. That’s become my new favorite Japanese word!

Basically, Vogel Park was really amazing. Later, we went back to my apartment and had dinner with my family. After that, Natsumi had to leave…I was really grateful that I got to see her. When we took her back to her hotel, I couldn’t help but start crying! For some reason, Natsumi’s visit really made me thing about how lucky I am to be here, and all the wonderful things I’ve gained so far from this experience. It made me think about the things I can do with the knowledge I’ve gained here when I get back. It also really inspired me to start studying Japanese more, because Natsumi is trying really hard to pick up English again. She said I also inspired her to study english harder, because three years ago we could barely speak to each other because we didn’t speak each other’s languages well. Now, we can have really long conversations and understand everything the other says. It felt kind of surreal seeing Natsumi again. can’t really explain it, but we were definitely both effected by this visit 

SATY

2009-07-11T04:09:00.000-07:00

SATY is where 90% of Matsue’s population spends 90% of their time. It’s a mall, but it also has a super market on the first floor…I’d been three times already with my family and other people, but last weekend I went with my friends. My first time hanging out with people outside of school! There are 15 girls in my class, and 13 of them came. Once everyone arrived, They started doing Janken (which is Japanese rock paper scissors. They Janken for everything.). I was really confused and had no idea what was going on but I did it anyways. Then based on that we split up into two groups. I didn’t get why because right after we did that we all went together up to the 4th floor, where the arcade is. The arcade also has purikura! Purikura booths are like photo booths, only you choose really cute backgrounds and then draw all over the pictures later. AND IT’S SO FUN. They’re really small, but we had 14 people to fit in them…Luckily there was one that was really big, with risers in it, so we all went in that one (it was still a tight squeeze!). When you finish taking and decorating the pictures, you print them out as itty bitty little stickers! In the ones with all 14 of us, you can hardly pick out anyone’s faces they’re so tiny !(although I’m pretty visible…) After that, we split up into the two groups to go take more. They traded me off every other time (that’s what the groups were for) so that everyone would get to take pictures with me. I did it 5 or 6 times! It was so fun!

After Purikura we went to Karaoke!! I love Karaoke!! I really don’t understand why we don’t do this in America. And when do, it’s nothing like it is in Japan. You go in these tiny little rooms (karaoke boxes) that have benches and a TV and just sing whatever you want! It’s a good thing they do it in private little rooms because they get super into it! It was so fun. They have a lot of songs in English, but they didn’t really have any of the ones I wanted to sing, so I just sang Japanese songs. When you sing, they show the most random videos on the TV. They have nothing to do with the songs.

Also, if you haven’t noticed already, my English is seriously deteriorating. Who knew it would go so fast! But on the bright side, my Japanese is improving because I speak it all the time! Anyway, sorry if these posts are a little difficult to understand!

Whoops.

2009-07-07T22:53:00.001-07:00

I've had a lot to post about the past few days, but I haven't had time!! I went to karaoke, did purikura, had kyuubi taika today, went on a walk to many awesome places yesterday, and have a few funny stories to share...so I will post all of that when I get a bit of time! Sorry!

Grrr.

2009-07-06T02:07:00.000-07:00

So, tomorrow is Tanabata! A Japanese holiday!
At least it is in the rest of Japan.
Matsue celebrates it in AUGUST.
なんで？！ ;-;
I want to go to a matsuri toooo...
Apparently, matsue celebrates a lot of holidays a month late. I asked my mom why, and she said there's no reason.
Matsue should just celebrate it tomorrow so I can go to a matsuri(festival)! I really want to go before I leave...

Jido Club

2009-07-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

Since my school had tests this past week, I haven’t been at school. Instead, I was volunteering at my host brother’s elementary school’s Jido Club. Jido Club is where kids whose parents are still working after school go until their parents can come pick them up. None of them were older than 3rd grade, and they were so cute! There were about 40 kids, I mostly played with the 1st graders because they liked me a lot :D

The first day my mom came with me for a bit, and she introduced me as her daughter, Katie Ueda, and told all the kids I was Japanese. For some reason, they actually believed her! So whenever I didn’t understand what they were saying, they’d say “Why? Why? You’re Japanese!!” They were puzzled by my hair color too, they kept asking “why is you hair white?” One kid said “Are you a grandma?” They totally thought it was white, not blonde.
The first day, I introduced myself to everyone. Before I had even finished, the kids I’d been playing with before the introduction were jumping on me going “YAY KATIE YAY YAY YAY!!!” And pulled me away to go play with them. We played “Daruma-san ga Koronda.” It’s basically like red light green light, only Japanese. When they’d teach me games, it was really difficult to understand what they were saying because they talk so fast! They thought I understood japanese well because they thought I was Japanese…

One 1st grader even tried to teach me Japanese chess! I think it’s almost the same as our chess, but I’m not sure. I didn’t understand how to play so the kid would be like “Ok, move here.” I’d do it, and then he’d take my piece!!

I also taught them the American game “Mr. Fox What Time is It?” which is a bit like Daruma-san ga koronda. I also brought them American candy everyday, and they loved that : )
It was so much fun, playing with them everyday. I’m really gonna miss Jido club : (
On my last day, one of the parents brought a box full of packing peanuts and confetti type stuff, and we had a lot of fun with that!! We dumped it all out on the floor and and a confetti/packing peanut fight. That was super fun :D

Aw man, I miss it already!

This isn't that relevant, but this kids name tag says "Gakuto," which isn't his name. That's the japanese pronunciation of Gackt, who's an emo Japanese singer. It thought that was pretty funny :)

Calligraphy

2009-07-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

I love calligraphy so much! It's really fun, but I'm terrible at it. Everyone makes it look so easy, but I guess they've been practicing for a long time. I really want to get good at it, when you can do it well it's really beautiful. I do calligraphy at school (although I haven't been at school all week, so I haven't done it much), and yesterday I went to calligraphy class with my host sister. I didn't know what kanji to do, so I my host sister was like "do Arashi! Arashi!" Arashi are my favorite boyband. The teacher said the kanji was really hard, but she insisted I do it!
Indeed, it was really difficult!! This was probably my best one, I had to write it so many times before it got that good, and it's still ugly. The teacher said it's hard even for Japanese people, so that made me feel a bit better. But I was pretty proud I could do it at all, it's really difficult! But see all those little orange swirls? Those are the teacher's marks that mean "this looks awesome!" Yatta! Calligraphy is hard because you have to pay really close attention to the pressure you put on your brush, your speed, the angles, and so many other things. But I really want to learn more about it, it's fun!

This isn't related to calligraphy, but this it's Arashi's new single "Everything." It's on T.V. all the time here! I saw this performance live on Utaban last week :D

Sushi

2009-07-02T21:46:00.001-07:00

After Izumo Taisha, I went to one of those sushi restaurants where the sushi comes around on a conveyor belt and you pick out what you want. After you're done, you just count up the number of plates and pay 105 yen for each one.

Before I came to Japan, I hated fish. I loathed it. Really. But I told myself that even though I hate it, I was going to eat it anyways. Ive been doing just that. I'll eat anything, and now, I actually like it! People will always ask how I like Japanese food, and my host mom will say "She's amazing, she'll eat anything!!" I had sushi for the first time and the viking, and I liked that too. But eating this much sushi kind of defeated me. The first few plates were fine, but after about the 4th one I wasn't enjoying it too much anymore. I ate 7 plates before I couldn't eat anymore. I'm pretty proud of myself forgetting that far though! It was still pretty cool, I love the whole conveyor belt thing!

Izumo Taisha

2009-07-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my host mom took me to Izumo Taisha! It was absolutely amazing. Izumo Taisha's history is really interesting, so before I talk about what I did there I'll give you a brief summary of it.

Izumo is the town that neighbors my town, Matsue. Izumo Taisha is the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan, and the second most important, just after Ise Jingu, which enshrines Ameterasu, the sun goddess and the parent goddess of the Japanese people. No one knows exactly when Izumo Taisha was built, but when it was constructed it was the largest building in all of Japan. They actually know this from children's textbooks they found at the site, which listed it as the largest building. It used to be raised 48 meters off the ground, but now it's on the ground because it has been reconstructed a few times (the last time was in 1744). Izumo Taisha enshrines the god (or "kami" in japanese) Okuninushi no Okami, who is Ameterasu's nephew as well as the god of relationships. He arranges all relationships, not just romantic ones. He created Japan, and then gave it to Ameterasu as a gift. Ameterasu was so impressed that she granted Okuninushi the power to arrange relationships and presented him with Izumo Taisha, where he is now enshrined. All of japan was once rulled from Izumo. It's said that Okuninushi is the god that guides everyone to happiness. And in October, all the gods spread around Japan come to Izumo Taisha for a matchmaking meeting. On the lunar calendar, the japanese people call october "the month without dieties," But in Izumo they call it "The month with the dieties."

Pretty cool, right? After learning all of this I was really excited to visit Izumo Taisha!

The entrance to Izumo Taisha. Those big gates are called "Torii"

See all that Paper in the trees? I'll explain that later.

Before you enter the shrine, you have to wash your hands here.

The intrance to the actual shrine

And there it is! The shrine! That rope is seriously impressive. It's massive.
You throw money in this, and then pray. At most shrines you clap twice and bow, but at Izumo Taisha you clap twice, bow twice, and then clap twice again. Because Okuninushi is the god of relationships, you double it because you're praying on the behalf of another person as well.

There's paper tied everywhere! Anywhere that it's possible to tie it, it's tied. These slips of paper are fortune slips! You buy them, get your fortune, and then tie it somewhere.

My fortune said something to the effect of "You're hopes will come true, you won't get sick, you'll find something you lost, you'll travel a lot, and you'll be in charge of your own life." Sounds pretty good to me! :)

I tied mine on that tree. It's the really white on in the center of the photo.

After the shrine, we went to the Izumo Taisha museum. That was sooo awesome! And the had a electronic tour guide in english I got to listen to. There are many things in that museum that are designated national treasures. No pictures from the museum because, of course, you can't take pictures there. But it was really amazing! Izumo has such an interesting history. There were all these models of how Izumo Taisha has changed over the years. The original was massive! The building its self was raised up on the gigantic pillars, and then there was this humongous staircase that led up to the entrance. The staircase wasn't steep at all, so it was ridiculously long. It must have taken 30 minutes to walk up it. There were also all these bronze swords on display. They're unusal, because in Japan bronze was never used to make weapons, only tools for religious ceremonies. They also aren't sharp, so they think these were probably used for religious ceremonies as well, but they're not sure how. They found them all neatly burried in Izumo, side by side, and there were hundreds of them. Along with the swords, they found the beautiful and big bronze bells that were used for ceremonies as well. All these things have only been found in the Chugoku region, where Izumo is, and they're designated national treasures. Another interesting thing was that the Chugoku region was one of the first regions to start using iron heavily. If you've ever seen Hayao Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke, there's a scene where they're making iron on that thing that you hold onto the rope and push down on the sides. I don't know how to describe it...But they had one you could try and the museum! It's unbelievable difficult!
There was so much other stuff that was really interesting but i don't want to make this post too long (although it probably already is), so I'll end it here.
Izumo Taisha is amazing!

100 Yen Shop

2009-07-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

The 100 Yen shop is heaven.
It's the same as a dollar store, only it has magnificent things of all kinds that you actually want.
100 yen shops are by far my favorite places to shop. I've been to three so far. My host mom knows I love them so she even took me to the giant 100 yen shop :) That was spectacular.

These are some things I've gotten at 100 yen shops:

I buy a TON of school supplies. See that picture with the erasers? I bought 22 erasers. I don't know what I'm going to do with 22 erasers, but they were really cute, so I couldn't resist! And just look at those pencil cases! So adorable!
I also buy a lot of stationary, notepads, etc. That stationary set with the panda says "Happy Panda. Someday, I want to ride a camel." And the Hedgehog one says "Bland Hedgehog" The little notepad with the squirrel says "This place is his reserved seat. He generally passes daytime there." D'awww. So cute!
STICKERS! The stickers are great. Also, I LOVE Shinkansen. Shinkansen is by far my favorite Sanrio character. I don't think they have him in america...Do they? I've never seen anything with him on it in America

I bought my very own bento box, complete with matching fork and bag! Mommy, I know you don't know how to make Japanese food but when I come back to america I still wanna use this for my lunch!...and maybe you can learn to make some japanese food? I'm really gonna miss it :(

I've also bought a lot of random things...That little frog thing doesn't really do anything, but it was cute, so I bought it. I mean, why not? It's only 100 yen! The little rabbit is for wiping dust and finger prints off things. I use it all the time! It's cute and useful!

100 yen shop, I love you!

(At the above 100 yen shop, I spent $36...o.o)

Video trouble

2009-07-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

So I've been trying to upload the videos of me on the news, but they're .mtv file format, which basically nothing will play. I tried uploading them to youtube but that didn't work either. I also can't find any program that will convert these files to any other file type, but I've found lots that will convert other files to .mtv. So if anyone knows a way I can make this work, please help!

Park

2009-06-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

When I walk to school, I always pass by this really big park that looks super awesome, but I’d never been in. So the otherday, I decided to explore the park!

Actually, it turned out it wasn’t a park, but it was part of the castle grounds! It’s so beautiful. There are massive trees everywhere that completely shade the entirety of the grounds, so it’s really nice and cool inside and there’s moss growing everywhere. It’s huge too, so I spent a lot of time wandering around.

There are three shrines in the area, and I visited all of them. They’re so beautiful. I wish I knew more about shintoism, because I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do at the shrines. I think you put money in this little thingy, clap twice, and bow. I’m not quite sure though…I’ll have to find out later.

There were all these signs pointing you to “The Valley of Camellias” but I couldn’t find it…Maybe they’re not in bloom right now? There were a lot of other beautiful flowers though.

There was also “The Forest Stroll.” It was basically a scenic little root around the castle, and it was really awesome! And I was the only one there.
the last one is my favorite :)

And, I got a good picture of a sagi!

Also, this week I’m not going to school because they have hardcore tests. I feel bad for them, they all had to stay after school to study this week, they’re tests are really hard, and they even have school on Saturdays! Anyways, instead of school I’ve started a part time job at the day care my host mom also has a part time job at! Yay! It's fun, and I'll make a post about it later

News Worthy

2009-06-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday my host mom was like "you're going to meet the mayor."
Actually, by "meet the mayor," She meant be interviewed by two TV stations and a newspaper, then be filmed meeting and talking with the mayor, and then have a billion pictures taken of you.
Wow. That was really unexpected.
But it was also really fun! And a really good chance to share with people why I love Matsue and why I wanted to become a foreign exchange student.
A man named Lafcadio Hearn once lived in Matsue. He came from New Orleans (but he's of Irish decent) and was so impressed with Matsue that he wrote a lot about it, and sort of put Matsue on the map. He's a very important person in Japanese history because he was a very good western interpreter of Japan. The mayor told me to please be just like him for Matsue. I really hope I can do that! I really want to act as an embassador to japan and a link between Japan and America. I'm really glad that I got this opportunity to share with all of Matsue how much I want to help Americans and Japanese learn about each other's cultures. I want to be like Lafcadio Hearn and help each culture understand the other! While I'm in Japan, I'm going to try my hardest to help all the people I meet learn about my culture, and then when I get home I'm going to teach everyone everything I learned here.
This experience really made me realise what a wonderful opportunity I'm getting, and what a difference I can make!
They also gave me these beautiful pins and pamphlets, and a poster that says "Ms.Kathryn Botto, Have fun and make Matsue memorable!" I was so really touched. I got lots of "good luck!" and "Do your best!" I almost wanted to cry, it was really nice.

I don't have any pictures from it, but lots were taken and I believe the interviews are airing tomorrow, so I'll record them and post them later.

I love vikings!

2009-06-28T03:14:00.001-07:00

I went to the viking. And by viking, I mean baikingu. And by baikingu, I mean buffet. Yep, the Japanese word for buffet is actually viking, or baikingu in kataka speak. And it’s so great.
First, you go ahead and grab yourself a nice plate of raw meat.

Then you go around and get all the delicious Japanese food you want. There’s sushi, ramen, tempura, dango, absolutely everything you could want! And it was my first time eating everything I took. I even ate pig tongue. At the time, I didn’t know it was pig tongue, because they didn’t tell me until after I ate it (thankfully), but it was delicious. I also ate this squishy speckledy thing and I still don’t know what it was.

Anyways, after you’ve gotten everything you want, you go ahead and grill that delicious plate of raw meat you got earlier. Right there in front of you, on the table! It’s so great! Everything was so delicious. It’s called yakiniku! Do they have this in America? If they do, I don’t think I’ve seen it. Maybe where you watch other people grill your food, but not where you actually do it yourself.

After you’ve eaten like three whole plates of spectacular japanese food, it’s time for desert. They had everything from cake to cotton cady. I was kinda full, so I just made an itty bitty one with the left overs from my sister’s.

Also, the flavors of everything are really different here. The most popular are peach and melon. I don’t ever really see chocolate or vanilla ice cream, it’s usually peach or melon.
Anyways, japanese food is delicious and I love vikings!!

I’m sure you can tell from my host brothers expression how magnificent it was.

Sleepy Time

2009-06-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

This is where I sleep! Doesn't it look comfortable??
...I know, it really doesn't. But actually, IT'S AWESOME.
It's a Japanese futon! It's only about an inch and a half thick but it's way better than any bed I've ever slept on. I really don't understand how this is possible. It's so awesome though. I don't ever want to go back to sleeping on a bed.
Also, the pillows are amazing! I don't know what's in Japanese pillows but it's different, and so wonderful.
When you're not sleeping, you fold it up and put it in the closet for safekeeping. It's comfy, and it takes up hardly any space! Yay!
!

School!

2009-06-24T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, it’s been three whole days since school started!! Sorry for not updating! There’s just so much to write and I never have time. This is probably going to be a really long post, and I’m sorry I don’t have many pictures because every time I try to take one start posing in front of it, so they get in the way of the things I’m actually photographing…

So, My first day started walking to school with my mom. The walk is about 15 minutes, and it’s soooo nice because I walk down the street that’s preserved to look like it did in the edo period everyday. Most of the students ride their bikes to school, but I walk.
When we got to school I forgot which shoe cubby thing was mine…So I just put them in a random one off in the corner. My mom took me to the english office and I met up with the teacher who had shown me around the other day (yamasaki sensei) and we went off to the teachers meeting so I could introduce my self! These things usually make me really nervous, but I wasn’t at all for some reason. I said something like this:
Nice to meet you! I’m Katie. I came from Texas, USA. I’m 16. I’m really looking forward to school. Thank you.
Very simple. But the teachers were schocked that I knew any japanese. After the teacher introduction I went to my class to introduce myself. Walking down the halls, I heard “Kawaiiiii” (cute) so many times. I am constantly rushed by groups of girls going “Kawaiiiii.” People are always really surprised to see me and stare a lot. I did my introduction to the class, and then my homeroom teacher (Oya sensei) introduced me to some members of the ESS, or English Speaking Society. Then I went and sat down and all the girls were so nice to me! I made friends with all of them. There are 15 girls in my class and 25 boys. Isn’t that crazy? There are 40 people in every class! They’re gigantic! Only two boys have talked to me, they’re all super shy and I think a bit afraid of me. I talked to one because I was lost in the freakin huge school and couldn’t find the shoe cubbies, so he showed me. I talked to another because the evil Japanese classics teacher made me. I’ll talk more about that later.

When I walk through the halls girls will stop me and be like “Ohhh! Kyasarin!! Hello!” And everyone calls me Kathryn (or Kyasarin in japanese) instead of Katie, even when I tell them that’s my name. I kind of like Kathryn in Japanese better though!
People are always asking me “Do you have boyfriend?!?!” This one girl thought I didn’t understand the word boyfriend for some reason so she rephrased: “Do you have love boy!?!” They also ask me who I think is coolest in the class and who’s handsome and who has the best hair etc.
Also, people always want to touch my hair! Sometimes, before they even tell me their names they’ll say “Can I feel it?” Except they say it really really fast and I don’t understand so one of the girls in my class will translate and be like “Feel hair?” Or they won’t even ask, they’ll just come up behind me and touch it and then act like they didn’t do anything.
The first class I had on the first day was P.E. The girls and guys are in separate classes, and before class everyone goes to change in another class room (there are no locker rooms). Everyone changes SO FAST. I was totally not used to it so I took forever to change and made all my friends late. I don’t know how they do it. It’s hard to take off a button up shirt under another shirt.They’re just like ZIP ZIP! Done! Same with shoes. They just slip them on as they run out the door and are so fast. But the slow american holds everything up.
On Mondays they have math TWICE. Ew. I feel so bad for them. I thought I would be able to do math, but they use kanji! I can’t read it! And I have no clue what they’re talking about! I mostly just chill in that class. Same with biology, I have no clue.
Now, the one thing I don’t like about school is Japanese classics. Before that class, the kids told me the teacher was “sadistic.” Indeed, she is. Before class, she gave me a copy of the book they’re reading and asking me if I could read Kanji. I said no, and she was like “ok, that’s fine.” So then later, she asked everyone to read aloud in pairs. The kid next to me was just going to make a group of three, but then the teacher came over and said “Nope, you read with HER.” So, we had to read back and fourth, and I couldn’t read any of the Kanji. I was reading it like a five year old, and he had to tell me the reading of every single kanji. We were still going when the rest of the class was finished, and the teacher made up keep going until we were almost done and she told us to stop. I felt so bad for that guy, he was really embarrassed. I go to the library during that class now.
My favorite class is Oral Communication! All in English! Yay! The teacher is Jamaican. The first day, she had me say words for the class to repeat, and it was fun. They were doing dialogue about club activities. She asked one guy what club he was in, and he said “I’m in the go home club!” So cute. The second day, we had to do skits about club activities in the form of a variety show. It was so much fun! They were all hilarious! Everyone was really amazed by my english skills. They said I was really good. Lets hope so, because I’ve been speaking it my whole life…
They also have english reading and English grammar (which I haven’t had yet. The schedule is kind of random, they don’t have the same classes everyday.) It’s amazing, what they’re reading in english. It makes me feel so bad, because Japan tries so hard to learn english and so do many other countries. It makes me feel like Americans are saying “Yep, you should be learing english.” We’re required to take three years, but that’s nothing. They take english since elementary school here. My host brother, who is ten, sometimes helps me translate things I want to say into Japanese.
I also had calligraphy! It’s so much fun. Really hard, but so much fun. I really want to get better at it. I wrote “Harmony.” And the teacher is a really nice old man, he gave me an ink stick, brushes, and paper as a present. I’m definitely going to get better at it. I also will mix the ink right next time. The first time, I messed up and made it too watery so my stuff looked kind of weird. See how it’s all Runny? (also I don't know how to turn the picture around on blogger, sorry!)
There’s also a class called “Modern Japanese.” I don’t get what this class is. Shouldn’t people living in modern japan already know modern japanese? I really don’t get it.Yesterday they were writing and then today they were talking about optical illusions and baseball. I have absolutely no idea what this class is.
Lunch is really fun! People come to my classroom and peak inside and stare at me so it’s a bit uncomfortable…but it’s fun! Everyone makes little tables with their desks by pushing them together, and we all eat in the classroom. There’s no cafeteria. My mom makes me an adorable bento everyday :)
Yesterday, there was a group of people outside the classroom staring at me. I waved, and they got really nervous and pushed one guy inside to talk to me but he ran away! It was really funny.
I love school. I’m finally busy during the day. And I’ve made so many good friends! Everyone is so kind, and they help me so much. They love to teach me Japanese slang, and I love that! Like instead of “Muzukashii” for difficult, they say “Muzui.” I feel like I don’t do much in return, but I try to help everyone with their english homework and give them American candy. They like that :)
Also, at my school they clean the classroom (as well as the halls, and even out side) right before lunch. I think at most they do it after school? I like cleaning the chalk boards because when you clean off the erasers you rub them on this weird machine that vibrates and sucks all the chalk off. It's fun

2009-06-23T05:50:00.000-07:00

I had my first day of school yesterday and it was awesome! I don't have time right now but I'll make a really really long post about it tomorrow (or later today in america?).
Until then, bye bye!

Exciting day

2009-06-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

(I have too many pictures, please click them to make them bigger)
Yesterday was a really big day! My mom and I went together and rode the little boats that show you around town. They were so fun! Some of the bridges were really low, so they would lower the roof of the boat so that there was maybe a foot between the roof of the boat and the floor. You had to crouch down really low and couldn’t move at all. That was really fun though. And everything was really beautiful. There are rivers ane canals that go through the city everywhere, so the boats took us pretty far. It was so great. There were also a lot of ducks that would come up and swim right next to the boat. There are also these really loud but beautiful birds everywhere called “sagi.” They’re kind of like herons, I think. Anyways, that was awesome, and I really wanna go again before I leave (plus it’s cheap because there’s a discount for foreigners ;) ).
After the boats we went to watch my host brother practice baseball with his team. They were so cute! Everyone was also really surprised to see me, and when they saw me they would say “Blonde?!?! Blonde!!” It was adorable. We went again today to watch an actual game, and my mom convinced a little girl that I was actually Japanese and my name was Hanako. When I meet people, my mom introduces me as her daughter. It’s really sweet. But people always say “Oh, I thought she was your little sister.” I’m confused. I don’t actually look Japanese do I?
Last night, we went to the onsen, or public bath (no pictures of that…). I thought I would feel really uncomfortable, but it was actuallly really nice. First you shower outside of the bath until you’re VERY clean, and then you get in. It was so hot I could only stay in for a few minutes, but it was really nice!
When we got home, my host brother and I played wii. We played Mario Tennis for a bit, and then this game where you run around and blow up walls and the other players…I don’t know if they have it in America, but it’s really fun! My host brother is really good at it. I kind of suck. But hopefully I’ll get better if we play more!
Today I also went to the bakery. You go around with a tray and just pick up everything you want and buy it. There was some american esque food, and I was kind of happy to get some of that. The best thing was this bun with curry inside. It was so delicious! We got some sweets too, but after the curry bun I was too full to eat anymore.
Today, my sister is bringing some of her friends over to meet me. I hope that goes well, because maybe then my sister will talk to me more (she’s very shy). And then tomorrow I start school!
I’m so excited! Also, the day before yesterday I went to visit my school (the picture is in front of the school). There are a lot of English teachers, so that’s good. I decided to enter the calligraphy class, and I’m supposed to join the English conversation club. I want to join other clubs, but I don’t know which one to chose! If anyone has any ideas, please tell me! The school is huge, and I’m afraid I’ll get lost. Even the gym is 4 stories. When I walked into the school, this one girl on a bike started talking to me from across the parking lot (in english) She kept saying “Who are you??? Who are you??” and so I told her that I was the foreign exchange student and she got really really excited. There were people on the fourth floor peaking out of the windows and looking at me. When we met the teachers, we were in a confrence room thing. There are so many little courtesy things they do, and I didn’t really understand it. We stood up for along time and just kept bowing. I was so confused. But, I’m sure I’ll get used to it. So, until tomorrow, bye bye!

Elementary School and Doctor

2009-06-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

Today, I woke up feeling much better than I did before! After I had breakfast, my host mom told me we were going to Junpei’s school to read to the kids. Junpei’s school is right next to our house, and we got there very fast. The little kids were so cute! And very surprised to see me. I sat with them while my host mom read to them. I couldn’t really understand what the story was about…Something about a frog in Australia that drank all the water so there wasn’t any for the other animals. But, later, an eel made him laugh and he threw up all the water. Something like that. I think. After that, we went to the doctor, where we met my YFU rep. Explaining to someone in another language how you’re feeling is pretty hard…But luckily my YFU rep speaks some english, so it went alright. They were worried that I had swine flu or something, but I didn’t have a fever or anything so they decided they didn’t have to test me or anything. They gave me a perscription for some medicine. After that, my host mom took me to the convenience store and bought me some of the most delicious mango jello stuff ever! Now, I’m home alone, watching Japanese TV, which make absolutely no sense. Right now, I’m watching some program where this little robot is going around a mayonnaise factory and then chalk factory. I think it’s supposed teach people english, because they’re speaking in english. Well, sort of. Mostly the little robot just keeps saying “Eggshells! Eggshells!” Why isn’t american TV like this? My host mom said I can go to the library later if I want, and I probably will because no one will be home until 4. I think after that I’m supposed to go meet my teacher at school (which I start Monday). I’ll hopefully be updating a lot more now!

Second day

2009-06-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was feeling kind of sick. Mostly nauseous. I slept almost all day! Around noon, my host mom’s friend’s daughter came to show me around. She’s a former YFU student and speaks perfect english. First we went to a wonderful noodle restaurant and had cold soba. It was in a part of town that is preserved to look how it had in the edo period, and it’s very close to our house. Next we went to the castle. When we were walking there, I looked up on the huge castle wall to see two high school students frantically waving at me. I waved back, and they went crazy! It was so funny. We were walking along the castle moat, and boats full of people were going by. Every time one passed us, they started frantically waving. It was hilarious! The castle was absolutely amazing, and also much bigger than I thought it would be! It was so beautiful. You had to take off your shoes to go inside, and it felt really nice to walk on the smooth old wooden floors. We went all the way up to the top, and you could see the entire city. On the roof of the castle, there are these fish things that are unique to that castle. I can’t remember what they’re called, but they have the body of a fish and the head of a tiger. All of the stairs were extremely steep, it was almost like climbing a later. Apparently, that design has something to do with easily being able to take the stairs up during a siege. One of my favorite things about Japan is that it has this amazing traditional culture that it’s preserved so well, but it’s also so modernized (like my family has one of those toilets with confusing buttons). After the castle, we went to the mall for a bit, but I was feeling bad so we decided to leave. I slept for the rest of the day, right through dinner. It’s kind of scary feeling sick in another country, I don’t know what medicine to take or what to do. But, my host mom is very helpful, and she really understands how I’m feeling :)
From the top of the castle

First day in Matsue

2009-06-18T20:02:00.001-07:00

I’m going to split up my past few days into three posts, so here’s the first.
So, two days ago, I arrived in Matsue! I got off the plane (only an hour long flight) in the tiniest airport ever to see my host mom with a sign that said “Kathryn.” I was so happy! My host father was there to greet me too. After taking a picture and meeting my YFU representatives, we got in the car to go home. They have a van with a TV in it, and there was some hospital soap opera thing on but I was too distracted by the scenery to pay any attention to that. The entire ride back we rode beside the huge lake, lake shinji. It was so beautiful! There’s water everywhere and mountains and trees and it’s overwhelmingly beautiful. On top of that, their house is on the top floor of an apartment complex in the middle of town. You can see everything from it, even the castle.
When we got home, my host dad left for work, and the kids were still at school. I spoke with my host mom for awhile until I decided to go wrap the presents I’d brought.
Later, Junpei (my host brother) came home from school. We said hi to each other, but he seems pretty shy around me. After awhile, my host sister, Akari, came home, and I discovered that she likes Arashi! She has posters of them all over her room. It’s awesome! Then I got out my photo album and yearbook and showed them to her. It’s so difficult to explain in Japanese some of the pictures! And I don’t think they have yearbooks in Japan, so it was really difficult to explain what one was. I don’t think I did a very good job of it either, they asked if it was my school pamphlet. Actually, it’s been kind of hard to explain everything in Japanese. I’m understanding more than I’m able to say, but I’m sure my speaking abilities will get better in time. My host mom tries hard to explain things to me in english with the aid of her handy dandy electronic dictionary, but I really want to speak in japanese more. I’m getting along with them really well I think, and I hope there aren’t any things as far as manners go that I’m forgetting! I really want to make them happy and for them to like me. I think I totally over did it with the presents though, I gave soo many! It made my luggage way lighter.

Sorry!

2009-06-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

I just now figured out how to connect to the internet in my host family's house, so I can update my blog now. I've been in Japan for a few days so the next post is probably going to be extremely long, sorry! I don't have time right now but I will update as soon as I can.

Contact has been made :D

2009-06-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Yaaay! This morning, I discovered a message from my host mom on our phone. It was so cute and sweet. She doesn't speak english, but she told me that she was waiting for me and looking forward to it. :)
I've been calling my family almost everyday with no answer, and I think it was because YFU gave me the wrong number. The one she called me from was different. So, later today, I called, and she picked up! I talked to her in Japanese, and it was totally awkward. I could understand absolutely everything she said to me, but I'm not used to thinking in japanese so it was hard to quickly think of what to day and how to say it. I think that's how it's going to be when I get there too, but I'm not to worried. Anyways, my host mom sounds very sweet and I can't wait to meet my family!

I leave at 6:35am tomorrow morning for california! Yay!

School!

2009-06-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

I received a call from YFU today telling me what hight school I'm going to! It's called "Matsue Kita Senior High School." Here's the website: http://www.matsuekita.ed.jp/
Watch that little slideshow thing at the top! Look at how much fun those kids are having! That's gonna be me!! Woo hoo!
Also, if you look closely in the back of one of the smaller pictures, you'll see a kid with an afro...
I'll be sure to thoroughly investigate this when I arrive.

Anyways, I'm super excited!!!!!!
4 more days :)

YESSS!!!

2009-06-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

I found out who my host family are today!!! They are the Ueda family. I have a father, a mother, a 13 year old sister, and a 10 year old brother. They live in Shimane prefecture in Matsue city, the capitol.
At first I was a bit disappointed because shimane is the second least populated prefecture in Japan, and Matsue only has aroun 190,000 people. But I really couldn't care less now. It looks stunningly beautiful. I can't believe I'm going to such a beautiful place.

Matsue is in southern Japan (if you click the image I think you should be able to see where it is on the map. If not...sorry!). It faces a gigantic lake, has a river running through it, a lake on the other side of it, and is very close to the Sea of Japan.

For this reason, it's nicknamed "The Water City." one of it's most famous features is the lake it faces,

Shinji Lake, where the sunset is said to be absolutely breathtaking!

The first thing you get when you search matsue is on google images is a picture of the castle, which looks amazing.

Here are some picture of the town! Everything about it says that it's a quite and small town, but it doesn't look all THAT small to me. Matsue, you're sending me mixed signals!! I guess some of it will just have to remain a mystery until I arrive there.
You now know just as much as I do about Matsue and my family. I tried calling them today, but no one answered (I proceeded to leave a really awkward messagge in japanese after that). I'm going to try again tomorrow, bust out some japanese skills, and get to know my family! yeah!!!

From here on out, the posts should be much more interesting! Those last 5 or so were mostly to keep me from going crazy waiting for info. Patience is a virtue, Katie...A virtue...
Anyways, wish me luck! I leave in 6 days!
(All pictures are from Wikipedia or Matsue's official website!)

More Info...

2009-06-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

And more mail has arrived! Yay. That always makes me happy. And this time it's plane tickets! Woo hoo! That makes it seem so much more believable that I'm actually going. My first flight is at 6:30am though...That means I'll be arriving at the airport at at least 4 am that morning. Yaaaayy....
I haven't been on a plane since I was 6, and I've definitely never been on one alone! That really scares me...I don't know how all this airport stuff works!
They also sent luggage tags and a dorky little pouch which I guess is for carrying your passport around you neck. My parents are totally gonna make me use it too. Double yay! But, knowing my tendancy to misplace virtually everything I get my hands on, I should probably be grateful.

Just 11 more days! And still no host family information... :( But that should be the next thing I recieve. It can't be too far away!

I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

And more information has come!

2009-05-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Ah, it's these little packets that YFU sends me that keep me from going crazy...
More mail came today, it was just a packet of more specific information on Japan. It included a packing list, orientation schedule, things about insurance, stuff about swine flu, suggested reading material on Japanese culture, etc. And today, I started packing! Which is not as difficult as I thought it would be. I think I'm bringing a good amount of stuff too. I'm also very excited about the orientation! I can't wait to meet all the other people going :) the itinerary features things like "bafa bafa" and "barnga." I have no clue what that means.
Still no information on the host family either...I'm hoping it comes soon!
Also, I'm starting to get scared about the food...I really hate sea food, and I know there's a lot of that. I don't even like sushi. Some how, i've managed to eat japanese food only once in my life, and it made me sick. But, I'm going to eat whatever they wanna give me. You want me to each sea urchin? No problem. Eel? Fine then. Whale? Well...I think I draw the line at whale, but you get the picture. I'm gonna try everything and take every opportunity, with every thing, including food!

Just 12 more days...
:D

Waiting...

2009-05-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for information to come about my host family for awhile now. I didn't start getting impatient until my friend received her information about her host family! I'm so jealous, I just want to know right now! But, no updates whatsoever yet. Hopefully more information will come soon...In the mean time, I need to work on being patient. :)

Just 2 more weeks until I leave!!
(You don 't know how hard it was to resist the urge to put 20 more exclaimation points at the end of that scentence...)

The Mail!

2009-05-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

The mail has become such an exciting thing because of YFU! I'm constantly coming home excited to check the mail and see if there's anything new...
I got a letter from them yesterday, but it didn't really contain much information I didn't already have. Just things like departure dates (leaving June 12th, returning July 29th) and basic information about the program. The only new information was luggage restrictions. I'm starting to dread packing for a 6 week trip...I've never gone anywhere for more than a week!
Hopefully, the next letter from YFU will contain airline tickets and itinerary for the orientation...And then after that...Possibly....Host family information?!?
Also, I found out that only ten people won my scholarship. I was shocked! Actually, 5 of those people are children of Mazda employees, one is from some specific school, and the last four are just the lucky ones like me who worked really hard to get this scholarship! I am so greatful to Mazda and YFU for this! And, all of the people who won the Mazda scholarship get to go to Hiroshima to meet the president of the company and tour the factories. Or something to that effect, I'm still waiting for details. But, I feel so lucky!!
Just 17 days until school ends. And 26 days until I leave. School just needs to end so I can go to Japan NOW.

Orientation!

2009-05-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

Who knew that sitting in a disgustingly hot little church for seven hours could be so great.
While parts of it were boring and I was almost ready to pass out by the end, I had a lot of fun at the YFU predeparture orientation! It was in Fort Worth, about four hours from Austin.

The thing that made it so great was that not only were American students there, but foreign exchange students studying in America were there too! We were in separate sessions most of the time, but we got breaks and lunch together. It was so great to get to meet all of them and hear what their experiences have been like. I met people from Germany, Estonia, Brazil, many other countries, and even one student from Japan. There were a lot more foreign exchange students there than American Students! They all seemed like such fun people, they were really hillarious, and I wish I could have talked to them more!

Everyone playing that pretzel game they always make you play at this sort of thing....

All the exchange students kept talking about how much they were going to miss Dr.Pepper. I can't tell you how many times I heard "Why isn't there any Dr.Pepper here?" In their introductions, a few students said something like "I don't want to go home because I will miss Dr. Pepper." I really don't blame them. I heard one kid defending himself after getting made fun of by his friends because of how much Dr. Pepper he drinks: "I don't drink it that much! I didn't even have one yestderday. Well...Maybe I did. But definitely not the day before. Well, actually..."

The best session was "Not With Me!"
Basically, it was about how not to get raped while abroad.

The "Not With Me!" pamphlet.

Ok, first of all, "You decide who can touch you!"
I picture it like this:
"Ok guys, if I'm gonna be living in this country, we're going to have to lay down some ground rules. So, you with the red hair, yeah, you can touch me I guess. You can touch me too. But YOU definitely cant touch me. Oh, and you can touch me, but only on Sundays."
...Looking at that pamphlet, it can totally be read two different ways...
But yeah, the other sessions were significantly less absurd.

A lot of the things they were telling us were things I thought I already knew. Most of it was about the mindset you should have, how to respect a different culture, yaddayadda. One of the German students pointed out that when he went to orientations for this stuff, he thought it was so stupid and was thinking "Why am I here?!" But in reality, the tips they gave him helped him a lot. So, I made sure to pay careful attention! I think feel a lot more prepared now. And it feels more believable that I'm actually going!

I'm so glad I went to this! I met a lot of great people, and a lot of students going to Japan who I will hopefully get to see at the orientation in California!!

Only 34 days until I leave! :)

(might add more pictures here later, we'll see.)

It's FINALLY here

2009-05-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

On December 12th, after completing 5 essays, an 18 page application, teacher recommendations, a host family letter, and various other things, I submitted my application to Youth For Understanding (YFU) for the summer exchange to Japan.

I’ve been taking Japanese for four years. After studying it for so long, you think I’d be able to tell you quite a bit about Japanese culture. I can sing you a song by a Japanese boy band, I can rattle off facts about the crime rate in Osaka, and I could tell you how to say “That is a beautiful moustache!” in Japanese. But if you asked me what it’s like to walk down the streets of Tokyo, or be in a math class at a Japanese high school, or eat dinner with a Japanese family, I would have nothing to say. That’s why I decided to go to Japan.

Four years of studying Japanese and trying to understand some culture and language that I've never encountered, just seen through the pages of a textbook. Even after four years, I feel like I know nothing real about it. After all, how much can you really learn from a textbook? How can I truly know what cultural values shape a Japanese person’s life or how to apply the language if I am hearing all of this through my teacher, who hasn’t been to Japan in years(don't get be wrong thouhg, he's still really awesome and a great teacher!), in a classroom that is 6,559 miles away from the place I’m trying so hard to understand? There’s simply no way. Currently, I am completely disconnected from Japanese culture.

So, I applied for YFU. They're a wonderful, helpful, and amazing organization that gives students in 60 countries around the world a chance to become foreign exchange students in one of 40 countries for a year, semester, or summer. I applied for the summer program, to 6 scholarships, three of which were partial (I would only have to pay $2,000 for the trip), and the rest full (I would pay absolutely nothing for the trip).

A very nice YFU representative told me that we would be informed of my status with the scholarships by May 1st.

May 1st came...
and went...
another student at my school had already heard from them, yet, i still had received nothing.
..uh oh..
But, a shining beacon of hope appeared in an email sent to my dad about predeparture orientation (which is saturday)! It read: 'If the status of your scholarship is still unknown within a week of your orientation, we ask that you contact your district office."
Yes! The orientation was less than a week away! And so, it was time to pester the district office. During advisory this morning, i texted my dad "DADDY CALL YFU PLEASE"
A few nervous minutes roll by, and my heart was beating faster than normal...
"Katie, call me now I want to tell you something"
I jumped out of my seat and said "MS.ADAMS I'M GOING TO THE RESTROOM" and before she could say anything I was out the door and standing in front of a sink in the girl's bathroom, where i promptly called my dad.
He told me that not only had I been accepted, but I'd recieved a FULL scholarship through Mazda/Nationwide Communtity.
Right as those words reached my ears I started screaming and jumping up and down and banging on the walls, making as much noise as I could. All of this in the middle of the girl's restroom, with a few onlookers...but I couldn't control myself! I even started tearing up a bit.

Finally, the torture is over and I can momentarily relax knowing that I'm going to Japan for 6 weeks! On top of that, I'm going for freesies!

This is truly a dream come true. There's nothing I've ever wanted more than this, and I'm so happy that all of that hard work payed off. I want nothing more than to be completely immersed in Japanese culture. There's no other way to learn about it. I don't want to just take a trip there with my class or something, I want to live with a real japanese family in their home, attend school there, and feel like I'm actually getting to see Japan. Not from a tourist's point of view, but much more intimately. It's hard to describe in words how happy I am to be given the opportunity to do this now, it truly means the world to me.

It's hard to believe that this is real. I can't imagine actually being in Japan. I've never even been out of the united states! I have no idea what it will be like. I try to picture getting off the plane and seeing my host family smiling and waiting there for me, but even that just seems like a dream. I suppose reality will sink in in due time, maybe a little bit after the orientation this weekend. But knowing me, I probably won't believe it until I'm really on the plane to Tokyo.

So, this has been an introduction to the blog I'm starting. I've enjoyed reading many foreign exchange student's blogs, and I want to share my experience with everyone so maybe someone will get the same enjoyment out of it that I got reading other people's blogs. It may be a bit early, the trip isn't until june, but as you've probably guessed I am too excited to wait until June to start talking about this! Anyways, I'm going to continue this throughout the predeparture process and of course when I'm in Japan! Plus, maybe writing things down here will keep me from annoying the heck out of people at school by talking about it too much! (I think and talk about it all the time now, just imagine when we get closer to june...)

Well, thank you for reading to the end of this terribly long post! I promise they won't ever be this long again! And for those of you who don't know me, My name is Katie, I'm 16 years old in the 10th grade and live in austin TX!
よろしく！
:)