Yeah, I go to a Japanese high school now...

I'm sitting on my bed right now, listening to the screams of my host nieces and nephews as they chase each other around the house, and trying to remember all the details of what has happened in the two weeks since my last blog post. Time has been flying in here in Japan. I mean, it's almost been a month and a half since I arrived! Where did the time go? Unfortunately, my memory is having a hard time keeping up with all the excitement, so I apologize if the timeline of this post is a little vague, and I'm a little ramble-y. I'm even struggling to remember everything that happened on my first day of school, but since that's where I left off last time, it is where I will now begin...

Well, obviously my heart was pounding on the morning of my first day. I was running around the house super-flustered, and my host mom was just standing in the kitchen, reminding me that I shouldn't be nervous and there was nothing to worry about, every time I passed by. Once I got my uniform on, though, she started to remind me of my parents on my first day of elementary school. Omigosh! Look at Emma, she's so cute! Obaa-san wake up! Look at Emma in her uniform! Let me take a picture of you eating breakfast! Now one of you about to leave the house! Now one of you at the station!...You get the point.

First day of school! Sorry it's not the greatest picture...

Anyways, Mama walked me to the station, but I went the rest of the way by myself, since it's a fairly easy route. Once you get off the train all you see is a mass of Bunkyo Gakuin students (since it's the only school in that area) and just follow them to school. I arrived at school and announced myself to the front office like Mama told me to, and within the frame of about 30 minutes was ushered to, and told to wait in, at least four different areas until my advisor, Maruyama-sensei, arrived. When she finally got there, I was brought to the teacher's lounge, and she introduced me to the entire staff. Then, I my homeroom teacher, Sugimoto-sensei, came to take me to class so I could start my day!
I think the thing I remember most vividly about that day was walking into my new classroom and being greeted by a scream of, "MECHA KAWAIIIIIIII!!!" (I would soon come to learn that my class, and actually all the English-stream classes, for that matter, are notorious for being the loudest classes in the school...) I proceeded to give the class my self-introduction, one that I had done a million time, for various Rotary activities, and family events, and had down pat. Then, I was sent to sit in the back corner, the only desk available. I honestly don't remember much about the rest of the day, except for getting a tour around the whole school, which, by the way, has 3 buildings: the junior high/1st and 2nd year senior high schoolers building, the indoor gym, and the 3rd year high schoolers building (apparently, they get their own because it's quieter, so they can study). I went home right after school ended, forgot the shortcut back, and ended up taking the long way, getting home about 20 minutes later than expected. So it went a lot better than I hoped!
My second day of school was much more exciting. It was a field trip to watch this famous acting company called Takarazuka. And the way we did this was everybody just shows up at the theater (get there on your own) at 1, and go home once the play is over. I got to sleep in- it was great! The play we saw was Romeo and Juliet, but it wasn't normal Romeo and Juliet, it was Romeo and Juliet: the Musical, in Japanese, played by an all-women cast. Apparently that's why Takarazuka is famous! They are the only company in the whole world that does all their plays with all-women casts. It was indeed an interesting experience. I knew the story pretty well from reading it in school last year, so I could tell this was not the typical Romeo and Juliet. A few minor changes included Tybalt also being in love with Juliet, and the reason he hates Romeo (and Paris in this version) is because he's jealous (because he somehow found out about them...), Lady Capulet having a thing for Tybalt, and all the main men wearing what can only be described as punk rock versions of Shakespeare-era clothing. Did I mention there was a disco ball and a chorus line in the end?
I can't remember much about the rest of the week, but I don't think anything interesting really happened. I hadn't gotten my schedule yet, so I sat through all the same classes as the rest of Sakura class (that's what they call the English-stream classes). I couldn't understand most of what was going on, but the teachers write everything on the board, so I copied everything down, Kanji included, amazing my classmates, even though I had no idea what I had just written on my paper. I keep telling myself that someday I'm going to translate all of it...
So my school week is now extended to 5 1/2 days, meaning my weekends here in Japan now consist of Sunday and half of Saturday (I get home around 1:30). It's kind of tough, since school is very taxing on my brain, but I think I'm already starting to get used to it.
However, last Saturday, Sumo came to town. From what my Mama explained to me, every year, there's the huge national Sumo competition/festival, which every other year is held in Tokyo. The arrival of the Sumo wrestlers is heralded by a taiko procession, which stops in various cultural landmarks and the leader of the procession sings some kind of announcement song. Now, as I just learned last week, my host family's restaurant, Kanda Yabusoba, is actually a cultural landmark. I think it's one of the oldest and most traditional soba places in Japan (being founded in around 1880) and it's actually very famous amongst the Japanese. And because of all of this, the taiko procession came to the restaurant, and I got a chance to see some of it (since the restaurant is attached to the house).

Last Sunday was my host nieces' Nihon Buyou recital. I love watching the dance, so I enjoyed it, and there were some adorable little kids dancing, as well as some adults (and only one boy).

Hi-chan and her adorable friend giving the introduction.

Reiko, my host sister, is the assisstant teacher, but she danced as well.

 Afterwards, we went to the Grand Palace Hotel, where I have my Rotary meetings, for a buffet dinner.  Now, I was hungry, so I decided to go at the buffet, American style, piling everything that looked tasty onto my plate, hoping I could get away with it because I'm foreign because obviously polite the Japanese don't pig out in public, right? Well, right and wrong. It's true the Japanese don't pig out in public. No, they do it sneakily. They take just enough food to cover the plate (no piles), but then once they finish, they get back and and get another plate, and another, and another. I think people got up like five or six times. And everyone was worried about me because I only went twice (the norm, I think, at least for Americans I know), thinking I didn't eat enough! I just thought it was hilarious that you could even find cultural differences in buffets!

During this week, my second week of school, I've been settling into my routine. I wake up at 6:30 every morning, and leave at around 7:40. Mama gives me 500 yen for lunch, which I buy at the convenient store next to my station. School starts at 8:35. I have four periods, then lunch, which is 45 minutes long and most people eat in the classroom. Then, we have two more periods, and school ends at 3:40. I also finally got my schedule, which goes as follows:

Monday:   LHR*               PE               Math                 Japanese**             Chemistry              Self study period               

Tuesday:  Computer       Oral Communications (English)        English          Self study         Math            Chemistry

Wednesday:  Self study         English         Integrated Studies         Writing (English)         Biology          Self study

Thursday:  Oral Communications            Biology            Writing           Japanese            Japanese              Self study 

Friday:  Math                English                 PE                  Self study                  Home Ec                    Home Ec 

Saturday:  English              Japanese               Self Study               Self Study 

*I'm not quite sure what LHR stands for, but I think it's Long Home Room, because that's precisely what it is. 
**During this time I have individual Japanese lessons, like Japanese as a Second Language. Regular Japanese class would be wayyyy to hard for me! 

My self study time is supposed to be just me studying Japanese by myself, but, as I get bored easily, I usually go on the computer, do homework, attempt to read of Japanese book, or, if I get sick of that, read one of the English book from the library's surprisingly large collection. Probably not the best for learning Japanese, I know, at least I'm keeping up my English reading skills (right now I'm reading Macbeth). I think some of my self study times, though, are going to be switched to calligraphy classes sometime next week, which I'm happy about because I get bored by myself. 
This past week and the weeks to come, however, I think I'm just going to focus on making friends and getting adjusted to school life. I was actually kind of surprised when I got to school, because I had heard stories from the other students in Japan right now about them being really popular at school because they're foreign, and because of that, they had no problems making friends. However, first off, my school has exchange students every year, as well as many "returnees" (what the Japanese call people that have lived abroad), so I was nothing really special to them. Also, I realized that many people thought I was just a half-Japanese person (my school has a few), not an exchange student. For those reasons, it's been a lot harder making friends, since people are not super excited to come talk to me and be my friend. But my class is super friendly, and many of my classmates are easy to talk to (or would be, if I could actually hold a real conversation in Japanese), so I think things are starting to go well. 

My classroom: 1-Sakura

Some friends from school: Yurino, Tsukino, Minamo, and Rebecca (who's half-American)

 Anyways, that's about it for school for now! But before I finish, I remembered that in my last post, I forgot to mention my first earthquake experience! Now, in the US, I live in a place where really the only natural disasters are blizzards, which besides the huge amount of shoveling to be done afterwards, really aren't bad. I knew Japan had a lot of earthquakes, and I was prepared, even a little excited, to experience my first one (which I hoped would just be small). I can honestly say that I had no idea how I would react, but truthfully I did not expect it to go the way it did. Here's how my first earthquake went down: 
 At about 3 in the morning, I was woken up by some shaking, which I immediately assumed was a large truck passing by (even though I live on what can barely be considered a street). Keep in mind, I was like half asleep the entire time. However, it kept going after 30 seconds, and that's when I realized "Oh, this is an earthquake." In light of that realization, I looked up at the swaying lamp above my head and thought, "Wow, that would really hurt if it fell on me." And then I fell back asleep.
Not how imagined it would go, but hey, at least I didn't freak out. Apparently, there's been others, bigger ones, since then, but I slept through them. Typical Emma.




Well that's all for today, folks! In about an hour and a half, my family and I will leave for a two day trip to Mt. Fuji (since Monday is a holiday)! I wish everyone a happy Rosh Hashanah! Mama said she's look for some honey for me, so we can have a little celebration!

L'shana tova! またね！

Festivals, and Day Outings, and Disney! Oh My!

 Hey everybody! So, I apologize in advance but this post is going to be kind of sloppily written because I am writing quickly since I want to catch all of you up on my past two weeks, so I can move on to SCHOOL, which started three days ago. I'm so behind...

Alright, first let me start off with the summer festivals! So, my host dad's "thing" (I guess it's a hobby, I don't really know what to call it) is organizing festivals. I'm not sure if that's just restricted to summer, but I guess I'll find out as the year goes by. And I don't mean a little block-party-let's-invite-all-the-neighbors-and-wear-our-yukatas-type festival, I mean a legitimate festival, with booths and traditional food and entertainment. Did I mention they're very popular? There were so many people! (He organized two festivals, by the way). Now let me fill you in on some of the highlights:

During the first one, there was this big, tall platform in the middle of the area, where there were these women dancing in a circle. And below them, on the ground, many of the festival-goers were doing the same. I think it's kind of like Japanese line-dancing. Anyway, I was watching them when one of my host dad's drunk friends ambled over and invited me to come dance! So I said yes, and it was actually a lot of fun! This really nice lady next to me showed me the basic movements, and it was pretty easy to catch on to the rest. And of course, proud old Papa-san stood in the middle of the circle and took pictures the whole time!

Oh, and there was some pretty sweet taiko playing

Of course, I had to don my festive headband before I could do any REAL Japanese dancing!

For the second festival, I got to wear a yukata! For those of you that are unfamiliar the term, a yukata is like a kimono, only it's much simpler and, um, lighter? I guess? I suggest google if you're really curious. Now it may look all free and flowy, but those things are the Japanese equivalent of corsets. They are tight! And to make things worse, they add these awful wooden shoes that pinch your feet and are so small that your heel falls of the end. But I still had fun dressing up like a Japanese person!

Me and my host niece were matching :)

geta, japanese for "feet torturers"

Oh, and at the festival, we got to fish for water balloons! I sucked, but it was really addicting!

The next day (or maybe it was the day after that...) a friend of a friend from Boston who lives in Japan (although he also goes to school in Massachusetts) came by to take me to this big summer festival in Japan called Azabu-Juban Matsuri. It's basically like this super famous festival in Japan that attracts a lot of people because of the food and culture/entertaiment booths. For (a little) more info click here. However, this year, for some reason, there wasn't really much to do there. So instead, I got a tour of the cool hangout places in Tokyo, plus a walk through Azabu-Juban Matsuri! It was really nice, the guy was really sweet (forgot to ask if I could mention him in this blog...), and I discovered some really interesting parts of Tokyo! I think we went to Shibuya, which is a great place for shopping, but really crowded, Roppongi, and some other place with a long name that I forgot (that happens to me alot, I should start writing these things down...).

 Modern art in Shibuya

So crowded!

So the tradition of cucumbers on a stick came about when there was a drought in Japan, long ago, and people ate cucumbers instead because they were water-y? and refreshing.

More modern art in Roppongi

Then, that night, my host parents and I went on a little dinner cruiseboat on the river that goes through Tokyo. It was pretty relaxing and I got some nice views of the city as a whole.

A day or two later, I got to go with my mom to her taiko (a kind of Japanese drum) class. I was really excited when at the beginning, they handed me some drum sticks and I got to bang away with the rest of the class. Then ten minutes passed, and my sticks were promptly taken from my hands, and I was sent to sit in the corner and watch for the next one hour and fifty minutes. And I thought I was doing well...Hmph.

Host Mama drumming away!

Some time after that, the sister of the friend that took me around Tokyo came by and took me out to dinner in Harajuku! We had gyoza and it was sooooo good. She goes to college in Tokyo, so it was nice to have connections with someone who lives close by and knows the city well. And a few days later, the rest of the family took me out for a fancy lunch at this teppanyaki restaurant and then to an amusement/waterpark afterwards! Did I mention how lucky I am to have been put in touch with this family! I feel so blessed! Thank you Kato family!!!!

Also during these two weeks, my host mother took me and four of her grandkids to the aquarium. It was really nice, because I get pretty bored in museum-like places, but the kids, including a 4 and 6 year old, had about the same attention span as me, so I did not get bored this time. And we saw a seal show! I love seals. They're so cute!

Also, there jellyfish exhibit was considerably better than the New England aquarium's. Just saying. It was pretty darn cool.

Thought I would share this picture of an ad for a kid's show that I saw in the subway. I think this was one of my first experiences with culture shock, since, in Japan, there is nothing wrong with this image...

 Oh, and I forgot to mention that the youngest of the grandchildren, Kosei, was half Canadian, so he could just switch from Japanese to English whenever he felt like it! It was like this magic switch in his brain that he just flipped, like, whenever! It was amazing, but it also made me very jealous that I cannot do the same...

And finally, the highlight of my last two weeks of vacation: TOKYO DISNEYLAND!!!
It. was. amazing. We got there kind of late, around 11:30, so there weren't really any fastpasses left, but it didn't matter because it was pouring rain until about 12, so there was like half the crowd! None of the waits were more than 50 minutes, even for Space Mountain. Also, I got to go on all the rollercoasters I wanted because my 19-year old host cousin also came along (Oh, I didn't mention that our group was me, my host sister, two of my host nieces, and my host cousin), meaning, along with H-sis, roller-coaster riders made up the majority. And the majority always rules. I did feel bad, though, because my 12-year old host niece hates rollercoasters, so she was alone a lot, but she brought along this giant disney bucket with her, that can be filled with popcorn sold around the park, which she ate quite a large amount of. On the other hand, my other host niece was the bravest 9-year old I had ever met. She went on nearly every ride with us, except Splash Mountain. Granted, my host sister and cousin, did literally drag her onto Space Mountain with us, and she was pretty much crying at the end, but I mean, she did it, and that's what counts right? I also got to see two parades, where I figured out where all the foreigners in Japan work- as Disney prince and princesses. That's going to be my job in the future, by the way. Overall, it was a pretty Disney-magical day! I want to go back soooo bad, and, of course, I still haven't been to Disney Sea...

Splash mountain! I think I went on all the mountains in Disney: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. But Space Mountain was definitely my favorite.

I took a ton more pictures then that, but since Blogger takes a really long time to upload photos, I must make do with just these. But if you want to see more, just check Facebook, or ask someone who's Facebook friends with me to see them.

Did I mention I tried soy sauce and butter flavored popcorn? Yup, I'm definitely in Japan.

Oh! And one more thing I forgot to mention. My host family put me in traditional Japanese dance classes. The kind of dance is called Nihon buyou (Nihon being the Japanese way of saying "Japan") and I love it! I feel like a geisha girl, haha. I even have to wear a yukata for class!

So that's about all the interesting events of my last weeks of vacation! I have to say, they were pretty exciting, and I can't wait until my next break, seeing as my weekends have been reduced to one and a half days. I'll try and get a post up about school by the end of this week, but there is also a large chance that I will get lazy and it will be up next week. We'll just have to see, shall we? So for now...

おやすみなさいみんなさん！


Oh, and by the way, thank you to everyone for all your comments and feedback! It really means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying reading about my year. Thanks again!