☆Happy Merry Christmas☆

Yes, they actually say Happy Merry Christmas here.
Just pick one way guys. American or English. Don't mix it up.

So today I went with my host family to the big illumination at Seagaia (which is a big resort hotel in Miyazaki).

They've been showing commercials for it on TV so I had been wanting to go, but unfortunately I did  not get to eat the delicious looking berry waffles they showed on TV as well D:

It was really pretty, and I got got to watch the butterfly light show :D
These girls are dressed up as butterflies, but the wings are made of lights and they dance around the "flower" field.

We had Christmas the Japanese way with chicken and Christmas cake with a strawberry (or two) on top.
We also had sukiyaki<3
I had some kids champagne (no alcohol) which was just sparkling juice, but that's okay because I freaking LOVE sparkling juice.

And I got a  present from my host mom~
A body lotion and perfume set.
Not to mention the new camera I got from the host aunt and uncle, and thy also gave me a thing full of chocolates and sweets today!
I have been eating them and they are so delicioso.

I made Christmas cards for my host family and extended host family out of construction paper and glue and the help of my handy dandy scissors, I can tell you that my room is a a complete mess of small paper scraps and that my fingers are covered in glue.

I bought myself my own Christmas present as well :3
At TSUTAYA they were selling some of the CD's they rent out for really cheap, so I got myself 2 Nishino Kana albums!

They albums when new, are like over 3,000 yen and I got one for 1,000 yen and the other for 600 yen. The 1,000yen is actually her new album from this summer and I had been wanting it so I was excited to find it there!

My Christmas Present★

They also had some other fairly recent CD's for like 100 yen, such as Ikimonogakari and Perfume and Arashi but I didn't buy them. Have to save my money for Karaoke next week with some other exchangers!

We are on winter break for school now as well! The last day of school though we had a big Hyakunin Isshu ,or Karuta, competition. Unfortunately my class lost, but it was a lot of fun!

They also had the band playing Christmas music during lunch the last 2 days of school. It was really neat, everyone was standing on the balconies watching.

Oh yeah and the 23rd was the Emperor's birthday, which means we had no school!

Next up is New Years, which is a big event in Japan!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Or whatever you celebrate~

Bye bye☆

School Trip & Jeneseys

So I went on my school trip week~
We went to Hokkaido for 3 days and Tokyo for 2 for a total of 5 days (and 4 nights).

Hokkaido

We went skiing in Furano, to Asahiyama zoo, and Sapporo.
I have ski experience but, many of my classmates did not. So I was one of the best ones there...eheheh ;3

The snow was so fluffy and white! It was so much fun XD We played in the snow in-between skiing and made snow men and castles and mountains.

I lost my camera in Hitsujigaoka (Boys Be Ambitious!) so I only have pictures taken with my phone D:
Luckily I got a new camera as a present from my host uncle and aunt!! They were already planning to give it to me though. I am really grateful (-v-)~<3 ありがたいなぁ～
But I'm really sad I wasn't able to take many pictures on my school trip... ;o;

Tokyo Disneyland

I really wanted to go to Disney Sea :P
Rode some rides watched the parade and had lots of snacks :3
We didn't have much time here though...
And I actually ran into another AFS exchanger here! She is from the same place I am, and it was great to see her again!!☆


Tokyo - Shibuya

I went to Shibuya and shopped in the ever famous 109 (Marukyuu)!!
I wanted to check out Harajuku too, but we had to stay in groups and we didn't have much time T_T

Well there's not much to say, but it was really fun! I wish we had had more time though, everything felt so rushed...

I got back from my school trip Thursday night, and on Friday the JENESEYS students came and there was a welcome party~ And today we went to a school in my city (which we will be going to for 2 days) and were on NHK news :3 and we'll be in the paper tomorrow, but of course since I'm (and the other Miyazaki exchangers are long time exchangers they didn't need us ;_; :P lol

Tomorrow I'm going for Purikura with the other long term AFS exchangers XD

Also today I was told by a boy from Indonesia that my English sounds like Japanese Enlgish.
I assure you it does not, but it is hard for me to speak English after speaking straight Japanese for 4 months. It just feels foreign and wrong XD Haha or as AFS would put it, different.

Kyoto

I went to Kyoto.

I'm too lazy to write anything so here's a vlog.

Skipping a Grade!

Today was a very amazing day.

We had an official examination for Kyudo, so we went to the Miyazaki Gymnasium’s Kyudo-jo.

There were 305 people there for the exam.  About 110 were taking the shinsa for classes (kyuu) and the rest for groups (dan). A Dan is above Kyuu btw.

The amazing thing is that I got Class 2 (2kyuu)!!!

That means I skipped classes and went to a higher class! I was trying to pass 3 and passed 2!!!!

4 is the lowest, 1 is the highest, and after 1 there is the groups (dan).

There are first years who having been doing Kyudo since April, and they only got Class 3, and I have started in late August and learned everything to do for the exam in just 5 days and got a higher grade than them.

I am super shocked and super happy!!!

Here’s me wearing a hakama.

Please ignore my face.

After that I went with some friends to the mall. We did some shopping for our school trip in December and took purikura and went to Mister Donut~

There was a Kyushu Milk event going on in the mall and we got free balloons and milk. lol

P.S. Happy Pocky Day! Yesterday 11.11.11 was pocky day in Japan. Everyone brought pocky to school and ate it :D

On The Farm

Sorry for not posting lately! I’ve been really busy and focusing more on my vlogs as well!

About 2 weeks ago we went to a farm (I forgot the name of) and had milk ice cream. (Why don’t they make milk ice cream in Amercia? *shakes fist* It’s so good!) They had some sheep and other animals there, but we just stayed in the touristy part with all the shops.

It was really pretty~ 

On Thursday (11/3) it was Culture Day (Bunka no Hi) so there was no school. My host mom’s dad had this birthday celebration and a lot of relatives came, and I talked with the girls there close to my age.

Although I’m not sure what it was really for, my host mom told me but I don’t remember. Because I know that my host grandpa’s birthday is in September, because we went with him and my host uncle and aunt to a restaurant and it’s already November… ‘_’? But he was saying things like “Thank you for being here with me as I turn 88…” so idk.

One girl wanted to try out her English on me, but then the English turned to Japanese because it’s so much easier for both of us to use it. Haha~

The fish (Ayu) was so good! The girl next to me had 3 of them!!

But before that we went to my host mom's cousins bakery Fukutomi Farm Garden Aya (Aya is the name of the city) and they make cake and bread out of rice instead of wheat.

It was easily some of the best cake I've ever had in my life.

Uniform Change

We changed from our summer uniform to our normal/basic uniform, which is worn in the spring and fall. It's kind of sad knowing that I will never wear the summer uniform again.

Basic Uniform 合服 aifuku

 The normal uniform (as I call it) feels more JK like. (JK means joshikousei, female high school student)
Only my sleeves are too short. Now everyone rolls their sleeves up since it's still pretty warm, some days are warm even hot, while other days are cold and rainy. But I'll be in trouble when winter comes. :/

The point is the ribbon!

We also had a lesson on bicycle safety. They also did a computer bicycle simulation game. One person rode safely, while the other person (2-D's Gisshi) rode badly. Everyone was laughing at Gisshi's because it was really hilarious. Although then the teachers were saying how even if it was funny in the game, in real life you could get hurt.

They also showed us a slideshow. Notice the girls eyebrows.

Part 2: Onsen and Japanese Temple

Inside Bath

Part 2

Onsen.

We went to the Shiratori Onsen in Ebino.

Pictures courtesy of the internet :D Because for obvious reasons I can't take pictures inside myself.

It was pretty embarrassing and I kept my small towel covering myself the whole time (except when I was in the water and you can't take your towel in there).

There was an indoor and outdoor bath and a sauna as well as a jigoku "hell" sauna (it's just really hot, and it's muddy water so you don't actually go in it). I didn't go to the hell sauna though, although I wish I had because I wonder what it looks like in person.

So yeah, after this we headed to Kobayashi to go a Japanese temple (they were having some sort of event, only we didn't get to stay for the fun part since Kobayashi is pretty far from Miyazaki (the city) and we had to head back.


Japanese Temple.

Chanted some prayers.
Listened to old people talk.
Bought some stuff at the bazaar.

Outside Bath

Yeah, that's pretty much it :D

Here's a short badly done vlog about all this.
Starting with Part 1 (Aoshima & Haniwa) and then some temple chanting footage with a Korean song in the background. An American in Japan with Korean music. Yeah, it's just so international :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gbssqo5Gvs