Goodbye Party #1

We had our AFS Chapter goodbye party last Saturday.

We went bowling and ate party platters ;P

I did awesome when we were practicing bowling and hit a strike (or is that the one where you knock all the pins down in 2 tries? I knocked them all down at once), but once the game actually started I became horrible at it (＇ー＇)v

We also played musical chairs. I played against my LP in one of the final rounds and she won, but she game me the prize. It was a paper Hello Kitty noise maker. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it now. '__'
Make noise?

 We said short speeches and one girl started crying on the middle of hers, and then her host mom cried when she was talking too.

Then AFS gave us gifts. We got tour guide books on Miyazaki. It's a nice thing to have to show our families back home!

Then our host families got certificates of congratulations on 6 months of hosting, although all of us were originally supposed to come in March (no originally semester students here), except for one girl from Hungary will be staying still July, so she said goodbye to us too ;__;

Then we went up to the second floor and took purikura~
I will miss everyone a lot :(


Oh yeah and my host sister came back from her exchange in Brazil 2 weeks ago! So now I am not the only young person here XD

I can't believe I only have one week left...

Happy Late New Year!

Me and my ikebana

Sorry for not updating in a while! I've been busy and lazy.
I need to update my vlog too. I've taken a lot of video footage, but haven't put it together yet >_<

I did some flower arrangement, ikebana, for the New Year.

For New Years we went to my host father's mother's home in Hyuga in northern Miyazaki.


We watched Kohaku Uta Gassen, went to a shrine on New Years day, and ate o-sechi ryori. I am not very fond of o-sechi. The only parts of it I ate were the egg, the fish cakes (same kind you find in udon), and the soybeans. Oh and the mochi in miso soup, o-zouni. I trieed it, nut do not care much for Kazunoko or sardines.

Kohaku Uta Gassen is a big music show on NHK that airs every New Years Eve. They have many popular artists on the show, half is music like J-Pop, the other half is enka.

Kohaku Uta Gassen (AKB48)

I met one of my host sisters for the first time last weekend, and this week, my other host sister is coming back from her year long exchange in Brazil.

Today I met with Girl Scouts in Japan with 2 other exchangers, and we went to eat udon, to Miyazaki Shrine, the Prefectural Museum, and to eat majuu. It was a lot of fun!

I can't believe it's almost time to leave here... I only have  3 weeks left. A part of me wants to go home, but the other part of me wants to stay. Talking to other exchangers, it seems many of us feel this way.
I'm going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone here ;__;

I have bought a crapton of gifts. They fill like half my suitcase.

Bye bye for now~

☆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

Out and About... (Part 1: Aoshima + Heiwadai)

Peace Tower

 ...is a horrible blog title, but oh well :D

2 weeks ago I went my my host family to Aoshima, Heiwadai, an Onsen, and a temple.

SATURDAY

Heiwadai Park 平和台公園

First we went to Heiwadai and saw the Peace Tower. It's made of different stones from all over the world.

If you stand on the stone in the picture to the right and clap your hands, you can heard a "Biin Biin" sound. I think it's the echo of the clapping resounding in/off something.

After poking aroung the tower we went to the nearby Haniwa Garden. It's full of statues such as the one in the picture below.

Creepy Dancing Woman

Me and my host mom

Aoshima 青島

Aoshima

Aoshima is an island in Miyazaki. It's pretty small, but has a shrine on it and you can see the famous Oni no Sentakuita (Demon's Washboard) and there is a beach and lots of touristy shops on the land before the island, if that makes sense.

You have to cross a bridge to get onto the island.
The wind was really strong that day too so people's umbrellas and hats were flying all over.

Oni no Sentakuita

Shrine Entrance's Torii Gate

Aoshima Jinja

Throw money in here and pray

To be continued...

Culture Festival, Sports Festival, 2-B Class Gathering, etc.

We had our Culture Festival last week. It's called the Ootori-sai (鵬祭) literally Phoenix Festival.It's not like the festivals you see in dramas. At our festival, all the students go to the community culture hall, which is luckily very close to my house so I just walked, and we watch performances.

The first day was the choir competition, each class sung a song, my class sang "Kimi to Mita Umi", I sang alto which was pretty hard >_<

We watched the dance club dance to High School Musical and one song from Burlesque, the Acting Club put on a play, 3-E put on a very hilarious play, some speeches, musical performances, and had some free time to go see performances, and see club exhibitions (art club, picture club, Japanese history club, etc.).

It was 2 days long, and the 2nd day was the best one, we saw the plays and had free time that day.
The sports festival was held at the Sports Park which was farther away so my host parents drove me.

My team (Ao-dan; Blue group) won! Ki-dan (Yellow group) won cheering. Because of that our teacher bought us all drinks the next week at school :3

I took tons of video footage so I will make a vlog soon about the Ootori-sai and Sports festival~!

But because the Sports Festival was on a Saturday we had Monday off, so our class 2-B got together and went to a Viking at Aeon (pronounced Ee-on, spelled Ion in jp), the big mall in Miyazaki. Out of 38 of us 23 went. Viking in Japan = All you can eat buffet. Which I already knew, so there was no confusion XD
I went by bus since my host parents were at work, and Aeon is pretty far away to walk or bike to.

The day of the Sports Festival was actually an AFS orientation, only I didn't go because I wanted to participate in the Sports Festival instead. The other exchangers went to the zoo and bowling. But after the festival I stayed at my LP's house for the night. And the next day I went shopping with my LP and her daughter who is 19. We went to Shimamura, Pura Vida, Miyako City (a small mall), and ate lunch at Joyful.
I also ran into a classmate at Joyful.

Also had my first Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy) class this week. The ALT at my school came in to show the shodo teacher the shodo we was working on, and I had to help translate for him because my Japanese is better than his. All the kids in back me were whispering "How cool!" when I started speaking English. They all think English is the coolest thing ever. Sometimes I'll put on a really bad American accent on my Japanese to amuse them. lol

And remembering names is not hard at all, I know all the girls in my class, first and last name, which I remembered within a week (the print out I received from my teacher was helpful). And I know all the guys last names at least. Also everyone who comes up to me and says "Hi!" etc, etc. and tells me their name I remember too :D I'm very good with names though.

I take all the classes my classmates take. The class I least understand is Math. The class I understand most is Biology, especially since I've already taken Bio Acc in 9th grade and AP Bio in 11th grade (although I can say I payed no attention in AP Bio).
I'm not including English, Shodo, or Computer in this btw, which I classes that I of course understand.

This is getting pretty long so I'll end it here!
Byebye☆

Ame ame fure fure...Kyuudou!

It's been really rainy here lately. A typhoon is coming soon!But for the most part of the past week it was clear. Only it's funny because it seems to be clear and sunny only over our school, which sucks because we have practice for the Sports Festival (Taiku-sai) everyday, so we're out in the hot sun all day.

We also have group practice. There are 4 groups, Red (Aka-dan), Yellow (Ki-dan), White (Shiro-dan), and Blue (Ao-dan). I'm in the Blue Group. We have been learning 2 dances for the past week. GReeeeN's UNITY and AKB48's Everyday, Kachuusha (<3) which I also took video's of as well. Only I only got the last part of the GReeeeN one because I thought I was recording, but my camera was still on standby ;__;

I also joined the Kyuudou-bu (Kyuudou Club)! I didn't have any intentions of joining it when I first came, but it's really fun so I'm glad I did!

 

Inside the Kyudo-jo

 

 

Arrows (矢 ya)

Bows (弓 yumi)

 One of my senpai's drew this :3

It says 'Welcome to Kyudo-bu!  Welcome Safya'

Lol, but he didn't finish before I got there so Hello Kitty was half colored in and I added the stars and blue to the US flag myself XD Oh and the 峯岸 pointing towards Hello Kitty says "Minegishi". She's my AKB oshimen (Minegishi Minami aka Miichan) :3 We were talking about AKB the day before~

 I also went to an AFS orientation last week (where I got my cell phone :D)

On the way to Nichinan

(Taken from the inside of a moving car.)

 The 3 in the middle (including myself) are the Miyazaki exchange students (except for one girl who couldn't make it).

Today we're going to Aoshima and tomorrow we're going to a temple.

First Day of School

Am I updating too much?
Well, I'm mostly just putting the big stuff that happens.

Today was my first day of school.
I rode my bike there.
I got lost. Twice. Thank god I can read Japanese because I use the shop names to know where I'm going.

I got lost even more on the way home. I went one way, and passed 3 boys who were most likely in the baseball club, then I turned around because I realized I was going the wrong way, and they kept looking back at me which was embarrassing. Then I had the horrible luck to run into them again in front of the train station coming from another direction (I made a big circle), at which they started pointing at me which was horribly embarrassing. They probably recognized me so fast, due to the fact that I was wearing a bright pink raincoat over my uniform, which made me stand out even more.

-__-;

Well, today Libra had an unlucky horoscope on TV... #11.... Yesterday it was #1 though.


Anyways, I got to school late on account of being lost, but I didn't miss anything big or something. I went to see the ALT from America who lives here with his wife and we talked in English for a while. Then there was the opening ceremony where I had to make a speech.
As soon as they announced me the gym suddenly got louder because all the students were commenting about me. That made me even more nervous. I kept pausing during my introduction (at the end of sentences) because I saw so nervous.

Then the 2nd year girls had a uniform check where they check skirt length, if you plucked your eyebrows, the length of your bangs, if you hair is tied up if it's too long, and if you are wearing make up or not.

My skirt was a bit too short because I have long legs compared to my torso (on a Japanese girl of my height it would be just fine). The skirt went halfway to my knees when it's supposed to cover them, but they said that because it was a borrowed uniform and not my own it was okay. More like, there's nothing that can done about it so I would be allowed to have it at that length.

Then I went to my classroom and talked with some girls for a bit, and then I introduced myself to my class and one of our teachers told them to ask me questions. I was asked by one boy if I like hamburgers. lol

Then I went to go buy my slippers and went home because everyone had tests.
They have tests tomorrow too so I get to go home early again. Also I don't have school on Saturdays either because that day is mostly for extra studying (my school is for people aiming to get into college).

Bleh I feel all embarrassed and nervous even now.

Oh and Japanese summer uniforms are amazing, they like don't absorb your sweat or something. The summer shirt is made from a different material that a regular shirt.

I also did some stuff yesterday, but I'll save that for another post!

byebye★

Cicadas are loud

I got to Miyazaki 2 days ago~
The plane ride from Haneda took 1 hour and 45 mins. but I slept the whole way, and when I woke up we were starting to land.

We (Me and 3 other exchangers from other countries) got off the plane and could feel the heat right away.
We went to baggage claim and went to the bathroom, and we could see our host families on the other side of the glass which made us really nervous. My host parents had a sign:



Then we went back to their house which was a like a 10 minute drive from the airport.

Yesterday I went to visit my school with my LP and her daughter Yumi who is 19.
We met the principal, an english teacher, another teacher which I don't exactly know what she does, and my homeroom teacher. Then my homeroom teacher showed me around the school. I am in 2nd year Class B.
There were a lot of kids there even though it's summer vacation because of club activities, etc.




Then my LP and Yumi took me to Mister Donut were I had a maccha (green tea) donut with milk. Japanese milk is very creamy and sweet, while American milk is more salty because they take fat out of it. I prefer American milk.

After we went to the book store next door under TSUTAYA and I bought a magazine and book. I used my Tosho card so it was very cheap.
And then they dropped me off at home.

I also got my uniform. Yumi's friend graduated from my school and is letting me borrow it.
I have the summer uniform, normal uniform/winter uniform, minus the blazer which my school will prepare for me, and the summer PE clothes, and shoes.

summer uniform

Tomorrow school starts. I have to make a speech that day.

I go to school by bike, and it takes about 20 mins, so it's pretty close.
Today I practiced how to get there~

I also made a new vlog.

Oh my gosh, I never want to leave Japan, I love it here so much.

byebye☆