JAPAN HOMESTAY

NOV13TH, SAT - NOV 14TH, SUN	We just departed from San Francisco Airport, I am so so excited. The take off was a little bumpy. We are now at 34,000 feet above the ground, going a speed of 501mph, This is so much fun!!!! There are little T.V.'s on the back of the seat in front of us. I'm watching Around The World In 80 Days. You can play video games, watch the news, listen to music etc... On these little T.V's. It's so awesome. Whoops, I pushed the wrong button and the flight attendant came and turned it off. I guess I know what button to push if I need anything now. Cool!!!
NOV 15TH, MON	Today I went to Onomi elementary school, where I helped Maria teach the little kids their fruits and vegetables in English. These little elementary age kids know so much English it's amazing. During recess, we played freeze tag, except I didn't know who was "it", because I couldn't understand them. Oh well, it was super fun anyways. I'm learning Japanese! I was taught the alphabet today. I hope I can remember how to pronounce each of the letters. Everything here is super green. My host father said there is only 5,000 in the whole town. Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOV 16TH, TUE	This morning I went to Matsuyama Junior High School. I went to 2 English classes, and gave self introductions. During 3rd. period, Malia and I walked around campus and talked to some of the Boy's who were ditching class. They played 20 questions on me. Everything you can think of, they asked. Some of the questions they asked were whether or not I have a boyfriend, no, how tall I am, I figured it out that I am 177.8cm. 3 inches taller than the tallest person in this town. Pretty cool!!! Then we had lunch with the 7th graders, who are really shy. During recess, I played ping-pong with some of the 9th grade girls. It was a ton of fun because none of us can really play all that well. After recess, we all came inside to clean, my job was to sweep the teachers room. After that, during 6th period, I went to play soccer with some of the 9th graders. The teams were blue girls and blue boys on one team, and black girls and white boys on the other. (The uniforms are black with blue shorts underneath, and a white tea shirt with a sailor shirt or an old military jacket.) I actually scored a goal. After school, Mrs. Sakamoto took me to the grocery store to do some shopping, then to the 100 yen store. After dinner I got a Japanese lesson.
NOV 17TH, WED	This morning, I went to Matsuyama Junior High again. I sat in on a 9th grade English class, and instead of them learning, they taught me the fruits in Japanese by playing Bingo. Then I went to the language lab to sit in on a 9th grade English elective. They wrote me self introductions during class, because they were too shy to say them out loud. Some of the ones from the boys are pretty interesting. I got some weird stuff, including a couple of marriage proposals. Then the same group of boys arranged for me to eat lunch with them. They desperately tried to make conversation with me, but half of the words I couldn't figure out. It was a lot of fun though. The guys wanted me to play volleyball at break with them, but they didn't tell me where to go, I walked all over campus but couldn't find them. The students here treat me like a movie star, they all want me autograph, and a hand shake. (They don't do hugs) Then I sat in on a math class. When I got back to my host families house, I watched Lilo & Stitch in Japanese, then I made them an American dinner.
NOV 18TH, THU	This morning I shared the Pop Tarts I brought with my host family. They thought they were frosted cookies!!! I then went to Iwagawa High School with Mai. 1st period was modern society. I practiced writing Japanese words ( I have gotten very good). Next was English class. We played a game, and then I asked them questions, and they asked me questions, so that they could practice their English. All the questions were the typical ones that I have gotten very good at answering.(ie...do you have a boyfriend, what's your favorite food, how tall are you, will you marry me, what's you favorite color, where do you live, what's your favorite animal, have you ever met a movie star...) Then for periods 2-6, I went to art class where I sculpted a cup holster, a flower pot, a stamp with my name in Japanese. I also used a pottery wheel to make a vase, it was so awesome!!!!! Next I painted a flower with the calligraphy stuff. They made me paint my flower four times before I was allowed to do it on the special board. I ate lunch with Mai and her friends. They were so cute, they tried to talk, but they kept mixing up their words, and we all started laughing uncontrollably. I ate a teriyaki chicken burger. It was so so good Oishii!!! After school, Mai and I walked to the bus stop, where we rode to a Denny's type restaurant. It was pouring down rain, but it was a lot of fun. I ordered a chicken teriyaki dish that also came with rice, meso soup, and egg soup. We sat there and talked with her friends for three hours. Oh, this place, you walk in and you seat yourself, when you have figured out what you want to eat, you ring a little bell thing and the waiter comes to your table. Is that not cool or what!!!!! When we were all done Mrs. Sakamoto came and picked us up. On the way home, we stopped by her sisters house. They were really nice. They tried so hard to talk to me. Mai had to keep translating for me, but I did pick up a couple of the words. When we finally got home it was 10 o'clock. Bed time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOV 19TH, FRI	This morning for breakfast I had corn soup. It tasted really good, compared to some other things like cows tongues. Then I went to Mai's school. 1st period was Japanese class, 2nd, was English class. Today's lesson was "make origami for Amy". We all made origami and then everybody gave me theirs, I have so many now. I made a tulip and a rose. 3rd period was P.E., we played badminton. Every time I made it over the net, everybody cheered for me. It was so weird. After P.E., was calligraphy class. The professor taught me how to hold the brush, and how to write with it. After practicing my word over and over again, he gave me a board thing for me to write flower on. I had to do that to a bunch of them. I have no idea who they are going to, but someone wants my work. Weird!!! Then I got to write flower on my flower painting from yesterday. For lunch, I had a huge huge apple. It was gigantic. I brought my fashion magazines to school today to show, because every body asked me yesterday what was in style right now in America. They were so excited, cause some of the clothes they have are of the same style as the ones in the catalog. Next, was cleaning. After that was fifth period, modern society. In Japan, the students don't change classes, the teachers do. it took a while to adjust to that, cause I used to pack up all my stuff when the music played. They turn on music instead of having a bell. 6th period was biology. The teacher had to keep walking around the room waking people up. It was so funny. After school, I had to give a farewell speech (freaky). After school, Mai and I walked to a farmers market place. On the way we went to a really big Spanish Commemorative monument. It is a huge statue about 4 stories tall. Huge! We then went to a really fancy Korean restaurant, with my host family and all their living relatives. It was a huge party. I got to rock little Rian (3 months) to sleep she was so cute. I sand her a lullaby and she kept smiling at me. I then went shopping with my host family for food for our picnic tomorrow when we hike up an inactive volcano . Sounds Sounds like fun to me. Since it's 11:45, I thing I should log off and go to bed. Good night!
NOV 20TH, SAT	Today we drove to Karakuni Mountain, which is an inactive volcano. On the way we stopped at a natural hot spring. I could see the steam miles away. It smelled so bad, ( like boiled egg). We had to plug our noses and run when the wind changed to our direction. The water was a milky pukey green color. It was so hot the water was boiling up a couple of feet into the air. I tried to take a picture of it, but every time I tried the steam blocked my vision. When we got to Karakuni Mountain, I realized that I forgot my sunscreen back at my host families house. Oh Well! So we started hiking. After about 2 hours of straight up (literally) hiking, I was exhausted and we still had an hour to the top. By the time we got to the top I was ready to plop down and not budge an inch. The hike up was so so pretty. There were other inactive volcanoes all the way around the one we were hiking. All of their tops were blown off, it looked kinda like a crater on top of a mountain. Some of the craters were bare, and some had lakes on top. At the top you could see for miles it was so so beautiful. I felt like I was inside a painting. At the top we also ate lunch. We had kiwis, tomatoes, meat balls, fried garlic chicken, egg and cheese cake rolls, chicken nuggets, salmon rice bowls, and pork sausages. Oishii!!!! After being on top for about an hour resting, talking and taking pictures, it was time to head back down. I don't know which was harder, going up it was straight up hill, and going down it was straight down hill. We all took a couple of tumbles and were all quite muddy be the time we got down. Then we drove to a foot bath to relax our muscles. My legs were shaking so bad I could barely stand upright. The hot spring was weird, you put your legs (knee down) into like a creek thing, but the water was lukewarm. Then we drove to a really pretty water fall. It was soooooooooooooo pretty! Then we drove to a really expensive Japanese store, but it was way way too expensive. I only bought a couple of book marks. Outside was a play ground area that had stilts. They were bamboo poles that you stood on then tried to walk. I could only manage 3 steps before I fell off. Then we went to the 100 yen store where everything is supposed to be 1 dollar, but sometimes it costs more. Then we went to a food court place that also had I am guessing a mini mall. We ate 2 dinners. One was sushi, the other was Chinese. I would write what we did the rest of the evening, but I am so tired I'm about to fall off my chair. Good night!
NOV 21ST, SUN	This morning I went to Miyazaki, to go to the Ocean Dome. Everyone is really sore from yesterdays hike, but thankfully I'm not. There are three toll booth things where you pay to use the freeway in a 45 min. time span. Each costs about $10.50. And there is 3 of them! I fried my face yesterday, it's beat red except for around my eyes and a little strip going to my ears (where my sunglasses were) it looks so funny. So back to the day trip. For lunch we went to a mini mart and bought a picnic lunch that we took to the ocean side to eat. It was so awesome I was at the other side of the Pacific Ocean! Then we drove to the Ocean Dome. This place was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's an indoor water park! There is a huge wave pool, a volcano that has slides coming off of it, a slide from the ceiling down, and a tiki man tree for that has slides coming off of it. one of the slides from the volcano was a "dark" slide. It was pitch black in this tunnel with little blinking lights. At one point you drop straight down. It's soooooooooooooooooooo awesome. Then Mai, Yusuke, and I went down the slide from the roof down, but I didn't like it cause　it really scratches your back. Then there was this slide that you sat on intertubes. It was so fast. At one point, going around a turn, it was so sharp I thought I was going to flip over; but I didn't. Then we went shopping. About half way through I thought I had run out of money! Then I realized I had put it in another pocket. I was kinda freaked for a couple of minutes. Did you know at the grocery store, a cantaloupe costs between $25 and 30. That’s crazy! For dinner, we went to a French restaurant.
NOV 22ND, MON	Today I went to my host sister Hikari's elementary school. It's ssssssssssssooooooooooooooooo cold. I am freezing! The first class was Japanese; I actually practiced the kanji they were learning. I have no idea what some of them mean, but one means poor, the other means art, and one means farmer. Then I watched Hikari and her class mates practice for an oral presentation they have to give in front of the entire school on Friday. They were really nervous. Their presentation was on the "History of Rice". For third period, I went out side where the first graders were gardening. They all ran up to me (muddy hands and all) and started jumping and hanging off of me. My sweatshirt was covered in mud. But I didn't care cause they were SSSSOOOOO cute. After that, Malia the vice principle and I walked around the school. We looked at the chickens, the bunnies, the green house and we even played on the playground! Oh, there is finally someone taller than me! The science teacher at the elementary school is no more than a fraction of an inch taller than me. But hey, he's still taller than me! During fourth period I went to music class with Hikari, the little sixth graders wanted me to sing with them, but all the songs were in Japanese. So I pretended like I was singing along. Luckily no one noticed. For recess I walked on stilts. At first I couldn't figure out how to stand and walk on them , but by the end of lunch recess, I had taken 151 steps without falling. After school, I went to Mr. Sakamoto's green tea farm. It's huge. There must be a hundred acres of green tea bushes. I also went to a strawberry green house. When I got home, I watched Japanese tv. Since I can't understand the words I just watch. All the sitcoms seem the same. Every body is happy, everybody cries, everybody is happy again. There is probably a different story line to all of them though. Then I taught Mai and Hikari and Sherry (Mai's friend) how to play mancala.
NOV 23RD, TUE	Today I got to see Rie who came to my house as an exchange student over the summer. I was so awesome! The first place we went to was a really old castle. It was really cool. Then we walked up the street leading up to the castle. It's supposedly a really famous street. Even a TV show was filmed on it. On the side of the road there are big gutters to catch all the rain and there are gigantic fish swimming in them. These fish are enormous they must be a foot and a half long. They look like colorful, overgrown goldfish. Then we drove along the coast to go to a shrine. The ocean was so pretty. All the waves were crashing in and it was so so beautiful. When we got to the shrine, we had to walk up a bunch of flights of stairs. Along the way there is all these vendors selling stuff. One of them rushed up to Rie and I and handed each of us a mandarin orange. Rie said it was cause I'm an American. At the shrine, there was some sort of special ceremony going on. Rie and Mr. and Mrs. Nakamura threw clay pebbles into the ocean, If you make it into a little circle on a special rock, it means you will have good luck. I just watched, because I knew it would not be pleasing to God if I practiced a "good luck thing" from buddha. They were kinda taken aback, but I didn't care. For lunch we went to a really fancy restaurant. Then we went shopping, and more shopping. It was ssooo much fun. When I met up with my host family and said good bye to the Rie's family, we went shopping again. When we got home, we watched Japanese TV, played mancala, and talked till midnight. I was really tired, but I had an awesome day!
NOV 24TH, WED	Today I went to Matsuyama junior high school. I sat in on all English classes today. During 5th period, I went to a third year (9th grade) English elective, and the boys drilled me on almost every aspect of my life. It was so much fun trying to figure out what they were saying, cause they can't pronounce their R's and they have an accent. In the 2nd English elective, the kids were too shy to ask me questions out loud, so their assignment was to write down five questions, that they would read to me at the end of the class period. After school, I went home and Haruna did my hair and I got dressed up in a kimono. They had to put a beach towel around me cause you have to be box shaped in order for it to look right . I felt so funny and really fat. Then Mr. Sakamoto took a ttttoooonnnn of pictures of me in every pose he could think of. After all that, Mrs. Sakamoto, Mai, and I went out to eat. We got home around 9:30, and then we played a couple of games of Mancala before going to bed.
NOV 25TH, THU	Today I went to a play school. All the kids are between the ages of 1 and 6. They play a lot of games, do a lot of art work and do a lot of musical theatre stuff. During recess, I played freeze tag. It's pretty much the only game that doesn't require communication. during lunch, a lady from MNCC came to talk to me, take pictures, and record my voice. She was really nice and encouraging. During nap time, Malia and I walked around "down town" Matsuyama. When my host mom came and picked me up, we went food shopping for my going away party on Friday night. For dinner, we had the best beef stew. It tasted sooooooooo good, we also had rice, tofu, and a weird vegetable mush thing. After dinner, Mrs. Sakamoto's sister and her two kids came over. They tasted my "American candy", played Mancala, and tried really hard to talk to me.
NOV 26TH, FRI	Today I went back to Matsuyama Junior High for the last time. I am going to miss them so much cause they are all so sweet and kind to me. During 1-4 periods, I watched the first years (7th grade) play an old Japanese proverbs tournament. They were all so serious about it. I was surprised. Then during 5-7 periods, I went to 7th grade English classes. It started to rain too. After school, I went home and helped Mrs. Sakamoto get ready for my the going away party they are holding for me. A bunch of Mai's friends and Malia came. It was fun until midnight, when things got a little out of hand. I decided then would be a good time to make a quiet exit and go to bed.
NOV 27TH, SAT	I can't believe two weeks is over! It flew by so fast. Today we went shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a total blast. But that’s typical because I absolutely love to shop. Yep. Nothing else really exciting happened, it was kinda a low key day. Which I am totally glad of!