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.