We met out host families on June 26th. Eveyone was extremely nervous; some people were even shaking. While we were waiting, my friend Sophia and I met out laison. She told us what to expect and taught us how to introduce ourselves to our host families. "Konnichiwa. Watashii no namae wa Nicole McNevin desu. Hajimemashite."
It wasn't long before my host familiy arrived. I have a mother, Tomomi-san, a father, Toshi-kun (he likes to be called that so he doesn't feel old), a little sister, Yumi-chan, and a little brother, Yuto-kun. I blanked on how to introduce myself; I got really nervous and just said, "H-hi...". Thankfully, Tomomi-san is an English teacher, so she knows my language very well, lol.
The car ride to their house was a bit awkward. We were all a bit nervous about talking to each other. However, we finally got engaged in a conversation about High School Musical. I don't really like that movie, but it was better than just sitting in silence.
On the way there, we stopped at a steakhouse for lunch. Surprise! No traditional japanese food here! In fact, it was mostly meat and potatoes, and the menu was half in English. While we were waiting, my family taught me how to write my name in Katakana (one of the three ways to transcribe Japanese).
Once we got home, the children gave me a tour of the house and showed me my room. There was no air conditioning in my room, so it was often very hot. They put a fan in there to keep me cool. The house was small, but nice. It was just the right size for us.
Later that day, Tomomi-san took me to Yumi and Yuto's musical practice. They asked me to sit through it and help them with pronunciation in their songs. Well, I didn't think that I'd be much help, since I didn't know very much Japanese, but it turned out that they were singing Disney songs, such as "I Just Can't Wait to be King" and "Be our Guest". It turns out that I was actually of some use to them.
The next day, my family took me to a rice cracker factory. These are no ordinary rice crackers; they acually put FISH in these! And you can get a whole variety - salmon, shrimp, and even squid ink, amongst about fifty more that I didn't even know the names of! We also made our own giant rice crackers. They'd pour the batter on to some sort of grill, and then they'd cook it like a beligian waffle. After it was done, you'd take it over and color it with soy sauce flavored paints. I drew a dog; I'm not good at art. You'd then take it over to this huge machine where it would basically dry it, and it would come out ready to eat. It didn't have much flavor, but it was good, nonetheless.
Afterwards, we went to this huge media store. There were a lot of cool things there. For example, they had box sets of anime, several Japan-exclusive DVD's like Arashi no Yoru Ni, and a bunch of video games that hadn't been released to the U.S yet! I saw the latest Harvest Moon and Pokemon games, so that was sweet.
Those were basically my first days with my host family. The next entry: first day of school!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Computer = Difficult in Japan
Alright, so I BARELY got on the computer while I was in Japan, so I didn't write much; I apologize.
So, since I had a real lack of computer time, I've just decided to go through my journal and write about my experiences out of that ^_^.
Hmmm.... why don't we start out with the orientation in Japan?
We got up at about seven to eat breakfast. Since we were at an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, I decided to take the plunge right away and start eating japanese food. It was the first time that I'd ever eaten rice, pudding, and salmon for breakfast. It was actually pretty good; a lot better than I'd expected!
We left for the youth center we'd be having our orientation at about an hour later. A lot of people were actually sitting alone on the bus. I guess that we were just a bit shy at first. We had to turn around because our counselors forgot our bottled waters, lol. But at least we were only about ten minutes into our trip, so we didn't have too far to drive back.
It was cool to see all of... well, Japan. It was different seeing kanji characters as opposed to romaji on buildings and signs, but what can you expect?
It was gonna be about a six-hour drive, so we stopped at a rest stop along the way. My friend, Carlos, and I went to a small food stand, but they were all sold out of real food, like dumplings. So we just decided to get ice cream. I'd never seen MILK flavored ice cream in Wisconsin, so I decided to get that... it didn't have much flavor, but it wasn't bad. Afterwards, we went to the Starbucks next door for REAL food.
The bus ride was long and boring, but we FINALLY got there. I'm pretty sure that it was called the Aichi Youth Center. When we got in, they made us take off our shoes and put slippers on. That was interesting; I've never had to do that before. We were given a tour of the place, and we set up our futons. Futons are like the little mats that some people sleep on in Japan. They're actually quite comfortable. We then had some free time; most of us watched TV in japanese.
Shortly after, we had dinner. I don't remember what it was, but I remembered rice. Lots and lots of rice. We also had to eat with chopsticks. It was a difficult thing to do; I'd never eaten rice with chopsticks. After dinner, we had separate boys/girls sessions, but I won't get into that...
We had more free time after that. I was beginning to feel the effects of jet lag again, so I just curled up in my futon and slept for about an hour. However, we still had to take a bath, so a counselor got me up and told me to at least go take a shower. So I did, but after that it was straight back to bed <:O
The next day, we got up and had a morning assembly. We performed a little... excersise routine. I don't know; I personally thought it was more like one of those little discs that you'd dance to in preschool. It was kind of like a dance. Afterwards, we had breakfast. I remember this time: it was fish, eggs, and rice.
We then had an activity in which we'd go to... I think... three (?) activity stations. One was writing kanji with a paintbrush, like they do in the movies. I wrote the words "Nicole", "Music", and "Butterfly". They turned out pretty good; I surprised myself. The next station I went to was one in which we had to play a card game. There was a hiragana symbol on each one, and when the counselor called one out, we'd all try to slap the card. Whoever had the most cards by the end won. I, of course, didn't win (with my lack of knowledge of japanese at that point), but I did get a few :). The next station was just a table with a bunch of traditional japanese toys. Somehow, we all got into a circle playing with a paper beach ball. That was really fun! :)
There was more orientation after that, mostly on manners and stuff, and later that day we had a talent show. We had people playing ninja, people singing the Pokemon theme, a few singers, and a couple people playing instruments. We also danced to the Caramelldansen. Amazing <3
So that was pretty much our orientation. I'll add more later.
So, since I had a real lack of computer time, I've just decided to go through my journal and write about my experiences out of that ^_^.
Hmmm.... why don't we start out with the orientation in Japan?
We got up at about seven to eat breakfast. Since we were at an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, I decided to take the plunge right away and start eating japanese food. It was the first time that I'd ever eaten rice, pudding, and salmon for breakfast. It was actually pretty good; a lot better than I'd expected!
We left for the youth center we'd be having our orientation at about an hour later. A lot of people were actually sitting alone on the bus. I guess that we were just a bit shy at first. We had to turn around because our counselors forgot our bottled waters, lol. But at least we were only about ten minutes into our trip, so we didn't have too far to drive back.
It was cool to see all of... well, Japan. It was different seeing kanji characters as opposed to romaji on buildings and signs, but what can you expect?
It was gonna be about a six-hour drive, so we stopped at a rest stop along the way. My friend, Carlos, and I went to a small food stand, but they were all sold out of real food, like dumplings. So we just decided to get ice cream. I'd never seen MILK flavored ice cream in Wisconsin, so I decided to get that... it didn't have much flavor, but it wasn't bad. Afterwards, we went to the Starbucks next door for REAL food.
The bus ride was long and boring, but we FINALLY got there. I'm pretty sure that it was called the Aichi Youth Center. When we got in, they made us take off our shoes and put slippers on. That was interesting; I've never had to do that before. We were given a tour of the place, and we set up our futons. Futons are like the little mats that some people sleep on in Japan. They're actually quite comfortable. We then had some free time; most of us watched TV in japanese.
Shortly after, we had dinner. I don't remember what it was, but I remembered rice. Lots and lots of rice. We also had to eat with chopsticks. It was a difficult thing to do; I'd never eaten rice with chopsticks. After dinner, we had separate boys/girls sessions, but I won't get into that...
We had more free time after that. I was beginning to feel the effects of jet lag again, so I just curled up in my futon and slept for about an hour. However, we still had to take a bath, so a counselor got me up and told me to at least go take a shower. So I did, but after that it was straight back to bed <:O
The next day, we got up and had a morning assembly. We performed a little... excersise routine. I don't know; I personally thought it was more like one of those little discs that you'd dance to in preschool. It was kind of like a dance. Afterwards, we had breakfast. I remember this time: it was fish, eggs, and rice.
We then had an activity in which we'd go to... I think... three (?) activity stations. One was writing kanji with a paintbrush, like they do in the movies. I wrote the words "Nicole", "Music", and "Butterfly". They turned out pretty good; I surprised myself. The next station I went to was one in which we had to play a card game. There was a hiragana symbol on each one, and when the counselor called one out, we'd all try to slap the card. Whoever had the most cards by the end won. I, of course, didn't win (with my lack of knowledge of japanese at that point), but I did get a few :). The next station was just a table with a bunch of traditional japanese toys. Somehow, we all got into a circle playing with a paper beach ball. That was really fun! :)
There was more orientation after that, mostly on manners and stuff, and later that day we had a talent show. We had people playing ninja, people singing the Pokemon theme, a few singers, and a couple people playing instruments. We also danced to the Caramelldansen. Amazing <3
So that was pretty much our orientation. I'll add more later.
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