Silver Week

At the arcade playing the drums.

Purikura

Purikura

From Saturday September 19th to Wednesday September 23rd I had no school because of a holiday and it was called silver week. On Saturday I got to rest. I did go out to lunch though for soba with my host family and then I went to the DVD and bookstore to get my own card so I could rent DVDs whenever I want to. On Sunday I got up quite early in order to pack for Fukuoka. We left at 10 o'clock in the morning and drove to Fukuoka which is another big city about two hours from Nagasaki. On the way we stopped at a rest stop. The rest stops in Japan are so much nicer than the ones in the United States. It had many street vendors selling delicious food and people playing the drums. At one of the street vendors I got my favorite food in Japan which is mochi. It is a rice cake and is really chewy. We finally arrived in Fukuoka and had to rush to get lunch because I was supposed to meet my friend at one o'clock. We went to a restaurant that served curry and it was delicious but we had to eat it fast so it was a little hard to enjoy. When my host parents dropped me off at Tenjin station my friend took me to another shopping area called Marinoa. At the Marinoa there was a huge Ferris wheel but I did not go on one. After having little luck finding things to buy at the Marinoa we returned back to the Tenjin area and went to an underground shopping mall. It was very cool. The Tenjin area had some of the best shopping. For dinner we went to an Italian chain restaurant and I took the opportunity to order pizza. After a little bit more shopping we returned to my friend's family's apartment. We rented a DVD in Japanese and watched it. Although I had no idea what they were saying I did understand the plot. The movie was based on the TV show that I had been watching so I knew all the characters. My friend's mom was a tea ceremony teacher so she made us some matcha and we had a little tea ceremony. Next we set off for the day first returning to the Tenjin area to go to a couple of stores where I had good luck buying some dresses and a hat. We then headed off to Canal City where we did some more shopping and went to see a movie. The movie was "The Ugly Truth." The movie was in English with Japanese subtitles. At the movie I had caramel corn which was delicious. They also sold french fries, juice, green tea, and hot dogs at the concession stand. When the movie was done we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. With our movie ticket we got free drinks so I had a lassi. It was delicious. I ordered naan and alu gobi for dinner. It reminded me of home. When we left canal city we were very full and tired. The next day we visited my friend's grandma who was very eager to meet me. She served us tea and some sweets from Italy. We then returned again to the Tenjin area to go shopping again before I was to be picked up. During my time in Fukuoka I took advantage of eating familiar foods! For lunch we went to Starbucks and I a sandwich and had a chai latte. At three o'clock my host family picked me up and we headed back home. I had so much fun in Fukuoka and I have many Purikura pictures to remember it by. Purikura is like photo booth pictures only better! Purikura is very popular in Japan. On Wednesday I had to go get my supplies for tea ceremony club. I met three of my classmates from school to help me get them in the morning. Unfortunately the shop was closed so we went and did karaoke instead. We first stopped by a convenient store to get food to eat while we were doing karaoke. At the karaoke place we rented our own room. It had a table, couches, and a karaoke machine. It was so much fun and a great way to help me with my reading Hiragana and Katikana. I sang a couple of songs in English as well. My other classmates knew the song "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne so we all sang it twice and danced around. After I sang that song my throat hurt! We then went to McDonald's for a snack and I had mini pancakes they were really gross. Many teenagers like to go to McDonald's in Japan. We then went shopping, however, I did not buy anything. I had a great last day of break with my classmates!

Kwassui Sports Day

This is me with some of the girls in my math class.

The Eye of the Typhoon

Marching

The class flags. My class flag is the American flag.

Yesterday was my school sports day. I practiced for sports day almost every day at school for four weeks and the other girls at the school started practicing before I started school! The day started out with an opening ceremony. The only thing I understood from the opening ceremony was that they had worship during the opening ceremony. After a quick warm up the games began. My first event was jumping and I must say that I will not be going to the Olympics for it anytime soon. I only jumped 30 cm. After jumping I was able to relax for a little while and watched the other events that were going on. There was a big pants race, a 100 meter race, many club relays, races where they had to blow up a balloon while running and then pop it, and some dances from the junior high. After those events were finished the 3rd year high school students which are the seniors had a costume race and then put on a performance. The costumes were all very amazing and the performances were very funny. The first part of the first performance I did not really understand what was going on but in the end Michael Jackson came by and made everything all better. Then they danced to thriller. The second performance they danced to music and dressed up like people from the roaring twenties. In the third performance there was a wedding and people weren't really getting along. Then President Obama arrived with Michelle Obama in a limo and said "Yes we can!" He made it all better and then they danced. Everyone really loves Obama here. Many of the class flags that they made said "Yes we can!" After lunch with our families the events began once again and were kicked of by marching. My next event was the eye of the typhoon and all of the second year high school students competed against each other. We ran with this huge bamboo stick and before we passed it of to the next line our class had to jump over the bamboo stick. It is a really difficult event to explain. My last event was the dance that we practiced for so long. It was a dance to four different songs. The songs were "Rock Around the Clock", "Fly on the Wall" by Miley Cyrus, "London Bridge" by Fergie, and "Best of Both Worlds by Hannah Montana. The events wrapped up with another dance with the first year high school students and some other grade events such as jump roping. The teachers also had one event which was trying to through balls into a basket that was on a bamboo stick. To close sports day there was a closing ceremony and a few awards were given out. When the ending ceremony came to a close we had to clean up by taking down the tent and taking our chairs back to the classroom. I was so exhausted by the end of the day and really ready to go home and relax. I had spent the previous night up late sewing on my zeken which is the thing on my shirt that says my class and my name. It me a little over a hour to sew and my classmates said it only took them a half hour!

Ashura

Last Sunday I went with my host family to Fukuoka. There we picked up my host mothers mom and we went out to lunch. Lunch was at an Italian restaurants with pizza and pasta. The pizza tasted so good because I hadn't had it in such a long time! Although I have to say if I was back in the United States it would not have been on my list of favorite pizza restaurants. After lunch we dropped off my host mom at cooking school and continued to drive on to the Kyushu National Museum where there was a special exhibition gallery "The National Treasure Ashura and Masterpieces from Kohfukuji." When we got to the museum there were 180 people waiting in line. So after we got in line my host father bought my host grandmother and I both some ice cream. It helped pass the time and cool us off. finally after an hour and a half of waiting in line we began the ride up the escalator into the exhibition hall where the treasures were kept. Many people were packed inside the room. The statue Ashura has three faces and six hands. It is one of the Devas of the eight classes. It is one of the most famous statues in Japan. As we got closer to the statue we were herded around it by other viewers trying to get a look at the masterpiece. The national treasure the Ashura and the other masterpieces are usually in Nara and people can go see them behind the glass however this special exhibit was to commemorate the 1,300 anniversary of Kohfukuji temple.

Meeting the Mayor of Nagasaki

On August 31st I met the Mayor of Nagasaki. He was very kind. Many people from the Nagasaki Rotary Club came who were involved in the exchange program. The Nagasaki Rotary Club talked about there exchange program with the St.Paul Rotary Club. They talked mostly in Japanese so I did not understand a lot of what they said. When it came my turn to talk to the Mayor I told him about my hopes for my year in Japan. He said he hoped that I would make friends everywhere I go in Japan because that is how we begin to create peace. He also said he hoped I would learn some of the dialect from Nagasaki as well. The Mayor gave me a scarf with penguins on it and it said Nagasaki. It was so kind of him. One of the local newspapers was there during the meeting and covered the story. The next day the story and and a picture was in the newspaper.

My School Schedule

Monday

1st : Math

2nd : English

3rd : Japanese literature

4th : Sports

Lunch

5th: Free

6th: Free

7th: Homeroom

Tuesday

1st: English

2nd:Math

3rd: Tutor for Japanese

4th:Tutor for Japanese

Lunch

5th:Japanese literature

6th: Computer

7th:Free

Wednesday

1st: Free

2nd: Free

3rd: Sports

4th: English

Lunch

5th:Free

6th World History

7th: Math

Thursday

1st: Japanese

2nd: Free

3rd: Free

Rotary Meeting

Tea Ceremony Club

Friday

1st: Tutor for Japanese

2nd: Tutor for Japanese

3rd: English

4th: Free

Lunch

5th: Free

6th: Math

7th: E Learning

Kwassui Cultural Fair

Last Saturday was my schools cultural fair. My class had been preparing their games for weeks for the fair. During the day of the fair I mostly spent helping out my classmates with the games but I also had a chance to watch some of the programs on the chapel stage. The first show that I watched was the chorus singing and some people played the piano. The piano playing was absolutely amazing I had never seen anything like it before. The girls fingers just flew across the keys on the piano. After the first show we went to one of the classrooms where they were giving out juice and snacks. They decorated the room to look like Hawaii. A few of my classmates and I  then had to return again to help out with the games. Many people came. I think more than one hundred and fifty people came and played the games. There was rarely any down time. After lunch I went to see one of the classes perform a short version of high school musical. They did a few scenes from it in Japanese and then they danced to various songs from all three movies but did not do the singing.  Next I went to do tea ceremony which the tea ceremony club was conducting. This was my second time doing tea ceremony. The first time was last Thursday. My host mom's aunt taught tea ceremony and she showed me how what to do. I really enjoyed it. It was very peaceful. I really liked the tea which is called Matcha but did not really like the sweet thing with it. Both times it was really hard to sit with my knees tucked under. This way of sitting is called sesa. After the tea ceremony my legs were so numb! I got up anyway and walked back to the chapel stage where the dance club was performing some dances which were really good. The next show was the one that I wanted to see the most and that was the Rhythmic gymnastics club. They put on a really great show and were very talented. Kwassui's Rhythmic gymnastic club has won many awards and are very respected in Nagasaki. I was very tired when the fair was over and was happy to rest on Sunday! 

My Five Pairs of Shoes

For school I have five pairs of shoes. One pair is to walk to school in. They hurt really bad and are very unattractive. My second pair of shoes is to wear inside during the school day. They are not that bad and at least they are comfortable! My third pair of shoes is for gym class inside. They are not that bad either. My fourth pair of shoes is for dancing inside. And my fifth  pair of shoes is for gym class outside. They are very big and clunky and not at all fun wear. I couldn't believe how many shoes I received! My host dad told me what they were all for but I forgot. On the bright side I can leave four out of the five pairs of shoes at school. Two of them are stored in my locker in the classroom and two of them are stored in my shoe box. On the first floor there are shoe cubbies assigned to the students. I have to be careful where I go outside with my inside shoes because sometimes we have to walk from building to building. I think I am getting the hang of which shoes to use when. However it is awfully complicated!

School

Last Thursday I went to my first day of school at Kwassui. I was first introduced to the teachers and then to the students. Ⅰ made a short speech about three times. One time to the teachers, one time to the students, and another time to my classmates. I am in a class with seventeen girls. The girls are in the english program and so they speak English. I asked them to speak Japanese to me though because I want to learn how to speak Japanese. It is hard but when I do not understand I just smile and nod my head. On Thursday I did not have a full day of school there because I had to go to a Rotary meeting. While I was at school on Thursday I watched the girls practice their dance for sports day and my homeroom teacher gave me a tour of the school. Friday was a long day for me. They had prcatice for sports day agian and this time I practiced the dance with them.  It was very interesting. I had no idea what to do or where to go ever and people were directing me to go here and there. They found it quite amusing and kept laughing. It was very funny. After practicing for sports day the girls in my class had to prepare for the school cultural fair this Saturday. I only covered a box with yellow paper so it wasn't that exciting. On Monday I attended the regular classes. My first period was World history. I could only catch which countries they were talking about but not much else. The next class was English and I was very happy to help out my teacher and my classmates. They were reading a passage on Christmas and my teacher asked me to explain to them what my family usually does on Christmas. After I was finished they explained to me what they do on New Years day which is there big holiday here. We had dance practice twice on Monday. It was really hot outside. After lunch was another English class, the second dance practice, and then home room. In home room we had a meeting, practiced dance, and cleaned the room. Tuesday was the second day of regular classes. The first period I had English and then the second period I had Japanese history. The book was all in Kanji so I looked at the pictures. Third period was oral English. They had to say what they did over their summer vacation. The girls told me they only get a one month summer vacation and they can't do very much because they have tons of homework. They all were very surprised to hear that I usually get about three months and have no homework! Well at least at my school we had no homework. The teacher was from St. Paul Minnesota! She was so nice and told me that I could always come and talk to her. Fifth period they had Japanese literature. They all told me what their names meant. It was very interesting. Some of the names had mountain, or child, or grass in it. After Japanese literature we had dance practice and then we had marching practice. The Japanese literature teacher told me that Japanese students are good marchers. I did not really understand what to do or where to go so I just followed. I also couldn't understand what the person was saying so I never knew when to stop. Today was my day in the computer room. The students were having their achievement tests. I will not be taking all of the classes and next week I will have my permanent schedule for now. I go to school and come home from school using the street car. The days are long because many of the days they get done at 5! I was surprised but I hope I will get used to it soon.