Japan November 2017

Card Games !  Today was a quiet day. I had a day full of school. One thing in particular that stuck it to me was a card game we had played in Japanese class (just putting this out there that I had no idea what was going on. I don't speak fluent Japanese!). Mio (my host sister), Riko (a classmate who sat with Mio and I) and I were sitting in a row of three. We turned our desks so it would be easier to play. We got multicolored cards from the teacher and we started with green. They had hiragana written on them. I didn't know what the words meant but the teacher would call out a sentence and we would have to slap the card that matched that sentence. I didn't do too bad but my host sister obviously let me win. It was fun. We played for about a half an hour and just in that half I got better and faster at reading hiragana! 

Dinner I think that the thing that stuck out the most to me was the experience of having a meal with just some of my classmates and their host’. The reason that this experience stood out the most was because even though we have a large gap in communication we still were not only able to speak to each other but be able to make cokes that everyone understood. The kojo students’ were very understanding with the incorrect Japanese and did not only try to understand what we were trying to say,  but also corrected us to help us improve our Japanese. One thing that is human nature is humor and we were even able to explain what and how to use popular slang used in the America like “lit” and “shook” which allowed us to express emotions that we wouldn’t be able to express without understanding of American jokes. They also were able to explain popular memes in Japan like “kebedon” which I found a little strange but also interesting. One thing that interested me was knowing what Japanese ki...

Today, we left Shintoku Highschool and embarked on a journey to Kojo Highschool. Shintoku Highschool was an interesting experience especially since Highschool in Japan is different from Highschool in America. We got to learn first hand about Highschool life in Japan. We learned about how their classes function, the closeness the students had with each other, and the types of classes the school offered. Upon our departure, there were lots of tears and hugging and pictures. We were all sad to leave the families that sheltered and fed us for four days. They took us to a lot of places and treated us like their own family. If we were sick or feeling unwell they would do whatever necessary to make us comfortable. They took time out of their day which they probably wouldn't normally do, to take us around and show us memorial sights and shrines. We got to see the breathe taking and beautiful sights of Miyazaki in Kyuushu. A moment that really stuck with me on our last day in Miyazaki was ...

Although Sunday as a whole was very fun I am going to be talking about the saddest part of the day: The last dinner with my host family.                    For starters I started this trip constantly worrying about my host family, wondering if they would like me or if they wished that they could switch host children. Meeting my host family for the first time was awkward to say the least but through the days we began to connect more.       So when we sat down to eat ramen, our last meal together, I could feel the dense ball of sadness looming overhead.      We were all eating in silence when my host mom cleared her throat, pulled out her google translate (it was our best friend) and spoke. “The house will be lonely without you” and suddenly a single tear slid down her face.       Now I am a BIG sucker for tears. When some...

On Saturday with my host family we went out for Conveyor Belt Sushi, and I haven't went for Conveyor Belt Sushi since I was a kid.  It was very fun.  We got to eat lots of different fish that I liked like different kinds of salmon, tuna, yellowtail and fluke.  I ate so much that a stack of plates started at the table.   They showed me many different drinks and food to eat.  There was also a lot of toy vending machines on the way out that I got to get pigs and dogs and cats from and I would gladly go again.  I like the spin on a classical sushi restaurant.

Today was our first day at Kojo and I instantly found so many differences between Kojo and McMahon. Walking in Kojo, I saw many drink vending machines, heck even an ice cream vending machine. If there was one at McMahon, I’d waste all my lunch money (Sorry mom :( ) Students at Kojo have more respect for their classrooms and the teachers than what I have seen through my academic career. The students are dead silent when the teachers are teaching and they have more responsibility over their education. The teacher is not telling napping students (I’ve seen 5 students sleep at the same time) to wake up. Also, the students clean their classrooms and hallways in the daily “Osoji” ensuring that their school is clean. The commute was also different even though it was the same sequence of bus-train-bus. Firstly, you enter the bus from the rear and press your IC card to check in and when you get off, the fare is deducted by stop because the fares differ. The train station was gigantic and it w...