Places

Okay, time to fill everyone in on what I've been doing for the past 2 weeks. Or was it 3 weeks? I'm losing, my sense of time as you can tell. Also been a bit low on time

During exam week (Began 1st of June Monday). Ms Sakurai took us to Kabuki and Ghibli on Wednesday 3rd June. Both were fantastic!

I stated earlier, Kabuki is Japanese traditional theatre. The entire cast is male and the opposite of Kabuki is Takarazuka where the entire cast is female. The Kabuki theatre we went to was in Ginza (same one Hannah went to last year). However, it will be demolished next year and rebuilt as it's old. Approximately, building will take 2 years which, is a shame since it'll be harder for a lot of people to see Kabuki in those 2 years. Kabuki has it's own season like sport. It's not an all year thing. 3rd of June was the opening date so the waiting line for tickets shot right up to the 4th floor when we got there to get our tickets.

The traditional theatre was beautiful but were unfortunately we were prohibited from taking photos. Off to the sides of the packed theatre were old traditional balcony seats with tables for guests' (o)bentos (lunch boxes). One look at the stage and my brain was screaming "old" but it was decorated with amazing art while some old men plucked a stringed instrument.

I looked it up later. Instrument is called Shamisen which literally translates to "Three flavour strings". Another name for it is Sangen meaning "three strings". It's a 3-stringed lute played with a plectrum called a Bachi. Similar length to a guitar but has no frets. First became popular during the Edo Period (1600-1868) and has been used for Kabuki performances ever since.

Back to Kabuki. When the play began all the lights turned off and since there were no windows in the theatre (must've been a good 30°C(+) in there) we were sitting in a pitch-black room, with barely enough air. The play was called Cho no Michiyuki (Journey Through the Afterworld of the Butterflies). We had English translation on headphones so we could understand. It began with a barely lit stage with two people holding lights and moving their arms to imitate two butterflies. It looked unbelievably real. The play was about the belief, "When people die, it's said their spirits become butterflies." Two lovers who had committed a double suicide and now danced in their human forms in a world between life and death. They rein-acted the time they met up until their death. They were forced into the suicide by war since the side. In the end, both were sent to hell after their short dance in the world between.

After Kabuki we went around Ginza and had a brief look but it's shops consist most of brand shops and other merchandise shops with extremely expensive products.

We headed to Ghibli Museum afterwards. It was incredible there. Everything completely Ghibli and we recognized a lot of things which we had previously seen in Ghibli films. I uploaded the photos a long time ago so I hope you guys all have checked that. The staircases there were all spiral shaped and caged, the elevator was old fashioned and life size models of Studio Ghibli characters. We saw the neko bus, Laputa robot and a room full of claymation and film rolls on machines. They were all working and we saw some incredible things. The claymation was by far the best. All the characters from Totoro were made in perfect detail and at least 10 (or over) claymations of each character was made and put in a circle. The circle ceased movement from time to time but while moving sporadic lights accompanied it. Because of the brief intervals between when there was light and where there wasn't, while the circle spun, the claymation seemingly came to life. Every character looked as if it was moving in it's natural manner. A rabbit appeared to pop up from the ground, a girl jumped with her skirt actually adjusting to the movement, a skipping rope moved with precision, and totoro jumped with his entire body seemingly contracting downwards then springing upwards. Unbelievable. My brain couldn't even comprehend the knowledge that they were still just still claymation images.

We also saw tanks of painted glass where there were just layers and layers of glass. Each separate glass was painted with something eg. bubbles, lines representing where the water level was, insects, plants, leaves etc. From the top it looked ridiculous something like that could look real but when you kneeled down and looked at it head on, everything looked 3-D. There was also a tank with over 100,000 pieces of paper inside. It was all the drawings belonging to one movie. Not all the papers, all the sketches only.

On Friday, 5th June, we went to Chika's house (nickname: Ossan = Means old man). It was huge! Huge lounge, huge tatami room (Floor is tatami matting, made from rice straw) and 3 stories! Her mother made us the most delicious pastas, spaghetti, salad, sausages, and dessert. We ate it all =]

Saturday we went to Tokyo Dome Amusement park. The best ride by far was the 130m roller coaster, Thunder Dolphin. Super fast and went through a lot of rings plus the middle of the Big-O (World's first centre-less Ferris Wheel). A tad nervous at first along with Eiko who clung onto my arm screaming "Yada, Yada" (literally means hate but loosely holds the same meaning as "Don't/I don't like it/I don't hate it/Stop, I don't like it"). Unfortunately by the time she was screaming at the top of her lungs and actually meaning she wanted out she was already strapped in and the carriages were already moving. I just got more nervous from all her screaming. I was so fun though! In the end, I rode it about 5 times. Don't think a roller coaster can ever scare me again.

Some other small roller coasters were around and there were even electronic parachutes! There was also one of those rides which swing you back and forth at a ridiculous speed and height. Each end was completely vertical. Looks scary but while you're on the ride, there's really hardly any feeling. The speed's fantastic and a thrill but there's no feeling of falling. Maybe it was going too fast?

Also went on a water slide ride in a boat 3 times. One time, our boat managed to get stuck in the mechanism before the huge waterfall. Brilliant when 2 other boats are coming right up behind you and you're sitting thinking all three boats are going to end up flying down that waterfall at the same time and tip over. We received a pretty big shock when an unseen microphone turned on and told us not to worry. Of course at that time we were at the very top of the ride, the staff members were all at the bottom so we had no idea how they could see us. Turns out, there was a camera behind the boat that had been watching us all along.

There was also Tower Hacker (80m Tower climb in seats that just dropped downwards at the most horrific speed). Lastly, if you ate too much, there was a self operated roller coaster. You had to pedal it yourself like a bike in order to ride it. I found it tons of fun! Everyone else told me I was crazy and had sore legs after.

Oh! We also got to see Connie Talbot live at Tokyo Dome. She had 3 concerts there. Saw 2/3 concerts and Miyuki bought her CD. Amazing voice that little girl has.

http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/park/ <-- Take a look at that website for more information.

That's all I have time for today! I'll type more tomorrow night. Gotta sleep now since I need to get up at 6:20am tomorrow and get to school by 7:40am for singing practice and then stay till 12:30pm for Chorus competition. Yes, it will be 20th June, Saturday tomorrow. Saturday school! =O Holidays are rare here.

2 Months already!

It feels like time here has been going really slowly but really it's gone so fast. We've been here 2 months already... Another 2 weeks and we're going home.

Well LOTS has happened! I meant to write a bit earlier on but there's was no time and I really wanted to sleep.

Anyhow in my time here, I've noticed Japan is a country conscious of many things.

First of all, health. I'm sure you have all heard of the new Swine Flu and are probably being a bit more careful than normal but it's a very big thing here. Ever since it's started, I've heard it as the topic of many daily conversations. I also find that when I sneeze or cough (because sometimes you just do) someone will always look horrified and say "Are you okay?! It's not the influenza is it?". The school also has a yearly health check which takes an entire day. Also if someone is sick, they wear a face mask as to not sneeze and cough on others. Sometimes, you even see people who aren't sick wearing masks to guard against sickness. My host family has a habit of... I'm sure what you call it... gurgling water? It's like when some people brush their teeth, at the very end they take a mouthful of water, throw their head back and gurgle (that has got to be the most ridiculous word I've used in a description) then spit the water out (Great). My host family does that as soon as they get home. It apparently is a great way to prevent sickness.

Secondly, image. As I noted quite a while earlier, everyone here carries mirrors. Not only the females but also the males. Image seems to be very important here. A lot of people also carry a hair brush around and you see them brushing their hair again and again when the teacher is reporting the notices for the day. In the magazines here, there are pages and pages of how to do your make up and hair. I don't think I've seen so many different make up and hair styles in my life!

Thirdly, weight. The Japanese like to eat small portions and a bit of everything. Usually though, it's only 3 meals a day. There's some snacking in between meals but not very often. I've also noticed in restaurant menus, beside every selection, how much calories the dish contains is written on the menu. I asked my family why and they said it's because Japanese people like to be very careful bout their weight. =/ I must look like a pig here.

Fourthly (I've always found that a strange word), rain. I'm used to not caring very much about the rain unless it's absolutely pouring down. Here, even the slightest drizzle will result in everyone pulling out their umbrellas. I saw an incredible sight on the way to school one day. It was just a bridge of umbrellas. I don't mean to sound like I've been living under a rock my entire life but I've seriously never seen so many umbrellas before, and definitely not all in one place. Everyone makes sure to bring flannels too, especially during the rain. Usually everyone brings a flannel to dry their hands after the bathroom since they're always in a rush they don't always use the dryers and if they do, they literally slide their hands under it for 3 seconds and rush off. I see some people wiping their suitcases, phones, drink bottles..., watches (and other daily items you can name) with the flannels sometime. During rainy days, they'll wipe their faces, clothes, shoes and (bags plus everything else that got wet excluding umbrellas) after getting inside. My host mother's stressed many times over giving me a flannel during rainy days. It's very cute and sweet of her. There are also umbrella holders everywhere. Outside and inside stores, restaurants etc. If there aren't holders, there are bag machines which you shove your umbrella into and the machine releases a plastic bag for you to carry your umbrella around without it getting everything else wet.

Everything here is.... really mini. Really, everything's downsized. Though the insects are all super sized. Their bikes, fridges (The fridges wouldn't be able to fit half of the stuff shoved into my fridge at home!), cutlery (I swear the chopsticks in my house are longer...), plates, bowls (which I just stupidly spelt bowels haha), cups, cars, buses (Some buses here aren't much bigger than an average sized van), tissues, skirts, oreos, chips and other food products and items are half the size of what we're normally used to. Some of the bikes the teens and adults ride here are the same size as the bike I had at 7 years old. Their school bags are also ridiculously small. I wouldn't even fit half what I have in my bag in NZ in my current school bag, not to mention I've never had a lunch box ([o]Bento) so filling yet so small. Their meals are also downsized. You end up being really full after the meal but it's a very tiny portion of everything. Their streets are also impossibly narrow. There are mirrors above almost every street corner. They're slanted downwards slightly so you can see oncoming traffic on both sides of the road. It's so narrow around some corners so I've giving up looking sideways, I just look out for cars using the mirrors now.

Japan also loves hiding things and confusing you with escalators. Zoe and I were checking out Shibuya 109-2 one day and on every level, the next escalator leading up changes sides. I'm sure we spent an extra hour or two in that building than was necessary just because we kept getting the wrong side. We've also rarely run into rubbish bins here. I asked Ms Sakurai why and apparently Japan doesn't have a lot of public rubbish bins because they're scared someone will chuck a bomb inside it. Thus everyone's encouraged to take their own rubbish home with them. Unlike how we usually chuck what rubbish we create at school and outside into the bins provided, you take all your rubbish home with you. Their rubbish is very well divided though. It's not like how we chuck everything recyclable into the same bin. They separate their recyclable items so it's like paper only, plastic only, caps only, straws only, cans and cartons only etc.

We've also been a tad surprised that there are so many housewifes still and gender is very separated. Unlike how even at a one gender school in NZ everyone has a mix of friends from their school and other schools and friends of both genders, here, they don't mix if they're not at the same school. Barely anyone in my school knows anyone in another school. The ages are also divided. Everyone respects their elders so much, even at school but year groups don't mix. Nearly everywhere, girls are urged to wear skirts or dresses and avoid pants. A lot of females do where shorts and pants now but female students and all business women I've seen so far always wear skirts. Anything school related, pants are not allowed, skirts and dresses only, because we're not males. A lot of the co-educational schools here separate the genders once inside the school.

That's all I have time for tonight. I'll write some more in the weekends.

Weather

Sunday 31th May 1:58pm (3:58pm NZ)

Yesterday was brilliant! The plan was to go to Kappabashi, Asakusa, Harajuku, a 100 yen shop and Ghibli Museum but it was too much in one day so we only managed to see Kappabashi, Asakusa and a bit of Harajuku.

Kappabashi was where all the plastic foods were at. There were just countless stores which specialised in making plastic foods. Twas unbelievable! I've uploaded pictures so you can see for yourself... how real they looked! I couldn't tell the difference from real food and fake food there! Everyone except for me (typical) was hungry after seeing all the delicious plastic foods so we went to a restaurant called Jonathan's where I had rice with bamboo shoots, miso soup and the most delicious but gigantic Strawberry Sundae. Ms Sakurai paid for it all which was so extremely nice of her! We didn't expect that at all! After lunch she also bought us red bean cakes, ice cream at Asakusa and the biggest crepes I've ever seen at Harajuku! Mine was filled with cream, chocolate and strawberries.

We were so full we decided to walk to Asakusa. It was a HUUUUGE market. So many things there and not too expensive either. I bought some nice gifts there and after we took the train from Asakusa to Harajuku. Unfortunately it was already 3pm and we were going home at 6pm so we only had 3 hours in Harajuku.

We managed to go to the end of the biggest shopping district in Harajuku but it wasn't enough time to look through all the shops decently. I've asked my host family to take me back there after exams are finished. Not only is it unbelievably cheap there but the clothes are all so funky! It's prolly the best place to shop, has absolutely every type of clothing and accessories you can think of. Most of the clothes there are 500-2000 yen ($8.20 NZ - $32.70 NZ) . In Shibuya you'd spend about 10,000 yen ($163.50 NZ) and that'd get you about 2 or 3 clothing items at the most. In Harajuku, 10,000 yen could yet you mountains of stuff! I'm dying to go back! And you can see all sorts of people in crazy clothing there!

The weather here's getting pretty... wet... I asked my host family about climate here and this is apparently what it's like.

In Winter, Tokyo isn't really that cold (though their Summer is so hot, to these people, they think its freezing). The normal temperature in Tokyo Winter is 10°C. Warm right? I KNOW! You'd wish NZ was that warm in Winter sometimes. Ms Sakurai also said that in some places in Winter, it still stays warm. Tokyo hardly gets any snow during Winter but out of the city and in some other cities, they get plenty of snow. She didn't give me a figure but if the Japanese think it's warm, NZders must think it's hot or at the least, muggy. Hokkaido (up north) however, is usually quite cold all year around.

Spring or Autumn would be the best times to Visit Japan I think since it's just right.

It's basically Summer now since tomorrow is June. Unbelievably hot. You don't have to move, just stand and you'll sweat like a pig here (30°C). However June is the rainy season here. It apparently rains just about everyday. Yesterday it rained for a little but today it's bucketing down. Or, not even bucketing down. It's been raining so hard for the last 2 hours that it looks like someone is tipping a huge tub of water onto us and either the tub is VERY deep or there's just endless water coming from it. Reminds me of the other day when Zoe and I tried using only 1 umbrella to get to handbell. We thought it'd be okay, turns out, we still ended up soaked after. Luckily, there's usually barely any wind here when it rains. 'cept when there are typoons but Zoe and I aren't here for the Typoon season (THANK GOODNESS).

What I find surprising though is how the buildings support all this rain. I can't comprehend the logic behind their building structure. You'd think for a country that has a rainy season, they'd build their rooftops slanted and add more gutters to the streets to avoid rooftops caving in and flooding. Instead, most building rooftops are flat, buildings are square or rectangular and there's a gutter every few hundred metres down the road. When there is a gutter to be seen, there are about 3 in one place but wouldn't it be better to have less gutters in one place but seen more often? The sides of the street look like a river when it's raining because of that.

Well I'm off to tidy my luggage and then get to homework. Take a look at the pictures and I'll post again soon I hope.

Currently Thursday 28th of May, 5:32pm (7:32pm NZ)

(I'll give you some more factual details in this blog since ma said my other blog posts are boring TT__TT Cheers ma)

Exam Season next week! While everyone else are in exams Zoe and I get to go to Kabuki and the Ghibli Museum.

Kabuki is the opposite of Takarazuka. Theatre performances/musicals. However in Takarazuka, all the cast are female and in Kabuki, the entire cast are male. It's like a girls only or boys only school reciting a play except more professional of course. Ms Sakurai said there will be Chinese and English translations being played in earphones at Kabuki so Zoe and I will be able to understand.

Ms Sakurai is also going to take us to the Ghibli Museum and maybe Asakusa and Tokyo Tower. Ghibli Museum is a museum dedicated to the Japanese Animation production company, Studio Ghibli. They've produced some very famous movies such as Spirited Away, Laputa, Grave of the Fireflies, Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea. Despite being animations, the storylines in these movies are usually unique and fantastic, so we're looking forward to that. Asakusa is apparently a superb place but I'm not sure exactly what's there so I'll give details about that later. Tokyo Tower reminds me of a red and white version of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, I'm curious as to how high it is.

It seems the Japanese exchange rate is quite direct depending on where you go. At the moment the Japanese Yen's gone up (Woop woop! It should go up more, cause then I'd get more money if I change my NZ currency =] ) It's at about 60.04 at the moment so for every $100 NZ Dollar I'd get 6003.83 Japanese Yen. Big numbers, I know. It sounds like a lot but basically, it gets you what $100 NZ Dollars would get you, perhaps a bit more depending on what you buy. For clothes, I'd say it's about the same. You can get ridiculously cheap clothing, say for 500-1500 yen but they're usually the clothes that aren't very good or are nothing special. There are shops with good clothing only for 1500-2500 yen though but it's quite rare and when you compare the clothes to the more expensive shops, they really are, nothing special.

Here it have 100 Yen shops which would be the equivalent to our $2 shops in NZ 'cept you can get really good stuff from these 100 yen shops (Unlike the $2 shop). They sell nearly everything in those shops and a lot of it is actually decent quality and useful, not cheap rubbish. If you want an exact figure, 100 yen is around $1.70 NZ dollar so I it's cheaper than the $2 shops if you think about quality as well.

When you look at most things here, the cost here seems cheaper than NZ but if you shop at a popular place, things aren't really all that cheap. You can get accessories for say 300-500 yen which is very cheap or you can get basically the same thing for 1000-2000 yen, and you could get some nice clothes for about that price or about 1000 or 2000 more yen. I've noticed in shops when I buy something, there are a lot of people buying pants or a top for 10,000 yen or more ($165.20 NZ Dollars). I think it's because realistically, even though we'd say that's far too overpriced for just some pants or just a top, it's not really too bad in Japan considering the tax rate is only 5.5%. Most clothing items in shops are 4000 or above so it's not hard to spend over 10,000 yen a day here.

Food here is really quite cheap, especially in supermarkets and convenience stores. You can get a lot of delicious food items for only 100-700 yen. ($1.70-$11.60 NZ Dollar). Restaurants are around the same price but if you go to restaurants in department stores or foreign restaurants, they're quite expensive. Around 1000-2000 yen for one dish ($16.51 - $33 NZ Dollars). Department stores are abnormally expensive in general (Like Ballentynes in NZ, good example).

For a visitor, you need to be pretty careful in Japan because when you look at something you think, "Oh that's not too bad, it's only 700 yen" but there are A LOT of things here and eventually it all adds up when you thought it was just ONLY 700 yen and another 300 yen, plus another 500 yen.

Here's a basic look into how much living costs here.

Japanese food = Reasonably cheap

100-1000 yen for normal foods ($1.70 - $33 NZ Dollars)

(Oh their apples here are huge, and only 100 each! That's only $1.70 NZ for this apple the size of a normal sized fist {Not Asian fist, European fist! Excuse the funny description}).

Other than that, fruit here ain't all that cheap.

Drinks, ice creams, small snacks are usually 100-300 yen ($1.70 - $5 NZ).

Some stores selling desserts and drinks only sell them for 500-1500 yen ($8.20-$24.70 NZ). Pretty expensive.

Starbucks is like that, because it's a foreign cafe.

Vending machines (That are everywhere, literally) are usually 100-170 yen ($1.70 - $11.50 NZ), sometimes a tad more for the contents. You can get everything in them too. Cigarettes, alcohol, underwear (why you'd want to get underwear in front of hundreds of people walking past you on the street... I don't know) and other stuff! The displays, even... move sometimes and you can get hot drinks in cans from those vending machines, not to mention jelly and yoghurt!

Average clothes = 500-2000 yen ($8.20 - $33 NZ)

Decent/good clothes = 1500-2800 yen ($24.70 - $46.20 NZ)

The best clothes = 3000/8000 yen and over ($49.50/$131.90 and above)

Shoes = 3000 ($49.50 NZ) and over. Most shoes here are 5000 ( $82.50 NZ) and over, not cheap.

Other small necessities like skin care lotion, make-up are around 600-1500 yen ($9.90 - $24.80 NZ) usually.

CD's and DVD's are around 1000-2000 yen ($16.50 - $33 NZ)

Doesn't sound like a very cheap place to live does it? But considering their tax and public service, it's not too bad. They have pretty good public service here, clerks are always pleasant to you and you even get free tissues and other handouts on the street.

That's about all now. I'll write more next time, I was expecting this post to be short =S

I. Hate. Being. This. Tired.

It doesn't seem to matter how much sleep I get anymore. I'm always tired. I feel like I haven't slept for a month. I've even tried sleeping really early this week. I've been getting 7 hours sleep during the week and last night I went to sleep at 11pm and got up at 9am today. I'M STILL TIRED.

Not much is happening these days since exams are in another weeks time. It's just been busy, busy, busy so far. Zoe and I have both been dropping asleep in our spare time. It's a bit odd really because in New Zealand, I sleep at about the same time and I'm not THIS tired. Sleeping till 12pm on weekends doesn't even matter. I feel like I could sleep for a day or two straight. But we're still loving being in Tokyo, despite being International Zombies.

There've been a few funny things so far. The other day, Zoe and I finished Japanese class and rushed out to get changed for P.E since it's a huge deal to be late for class here. We got to class a tad late and were confused since everyone's faces seemed to have changed from the previous week and they all had the new P.E uniforms, not the old ones. They were also looking at us like it was the first time they'd seen us, which was unusual. When we got to the P.E grounds, we yelled out, "Okurete sumimasen" (Excuse us for being late) and the teacher gave a us a puzzled look, like either we were trying to pull a strange joke or were just being plain ditzy. He came over and said "Uhh... P.E is 4th Period, it's 3rd Period now, you're about an hour early" Oh how ditzy we were. We walked back in fits of laughter to grab our bags and head towards our study period.

We also saw an oversized wasp in the library which Zoe bravely scooped up with a book and threw it outside while I jumped around a library table screaming in whispers "What is that! What is that! What in the world is that! It's huge, what is THAT?!" I'm not kidding when I say it was huge. It was at least 5cm long and I'm guessing about 2-2.5cm wide. HUGE.

It's also been abnormally windy this week, reminds me of our horrible gusty winds in NZ. I'm still amazed at how most of the girls' don't seem to have any trouble in the wind while Zoe and I are holding our skirts down because our long skirts are somehow flying up more than the short as skirts everyone else wears! Wind defying skirts! I want one!

I was also rather angry the other day when I studied till 2am for a Japanese test the next day and we didn't have one. Then the day after that, the teacher forgot and the day after, there wasn't a Japanese class! All that effort! I seem to be getting worse at English and making odd mistakes in Japanese. Zoe's made some funny mistakes too. The other day I said "I might not be able to read all this kanji I've written here because I've written them so carefully and smally" -Smally. EH?! What is that? I also spelt Tenisu (Tennis) as Ninisu and Computer as Conpoota. Zoe wrote Banana as banabana. I wonder what banabanas taste like.

I made another silly mistake in Japanese when answer the questions "Do you like smart people or good looking people" (Don't even ask me why that was in the textbook. In Japanese smart is Atama ga ii (literally "head is good") and I omitted the ga ii. Thus ending up with "I like people with heads more than good looking people" Well I do well hope that the people I meet have heads, it'd be a bit hard to like them if they didn't since they wouldn't be speaking.

Today (Saturday 23rd May), Zoe and I's host sisters were studying for the upcoming exams so we went to have a browse around Kichijoji and Shibuya on our own. It was a great deal of fun and we were surprised at how well we managed to handle ourselves without anyone speaking and translating the Japanese for us. We went to Iinokashira Koen Zoo in Kichijoji first. We managed to stumble across it after just walking down a miscellaneous road and heading down a slope into some gigantic park which was lovely. After walking across a bridge (and taking notice of the oversized carp while crossing) we noticed a sign saying "Zoo" so we decided it might be fun to browse through the Zoo. Unfortunately we couldn't read the sign so we just got to asking. It seemed almost natural and easy to just say "We're International Students and cannot read the sign. We're currently 15 and in our first year of Senior High so much would tickets be?" Although we weren't quite sure what the ladies said to us after getting our tickets, we managed with "Hai, arigatoo gozaimasu" (Yes, thank you very much). We repeated that a great deal before actually entering the Zoo. Pretend you understand and it's all good ^_,^ The Zoo was well interesting, birds on all kinds in the most incredible cages! They were in cages but it almost seemed luxurious. They all had their own pond and trees of all kinds with nests, on the ground or in trees or even little huts to sleep in. The front part of the cage had no covering so rain would be able to pass through the cage roof but the back half of the cage had a plastic covering in case the birds wanted to keep dry.

There was also an Aquarium in the Zoo (More like a plant Aquarium really). We saw some funny creatures there, like frogs who clung to walls. Yes they just sat there, sticking to the walls of their glass box looking like the happiest creatures in the world. It looked like someone had gone along, grabbed them and super glued them to the walls. There was also a ENORMOUS toad sitting in the middle of the room. I'm guessing something so big would case a considerable explosion when jumping into the water it had in the box. While going through the Aquarium, Zoe found a lady with a bag which said something rather funny so we asked if she could take a picture of the bag. It ended up rather difficult to explain to her we wanted to take a picture of her bag, not the fish. We received some good ol' odd stares afterwards.

We headed off to Shibuya after the Zoo and went around Shibuya 109-2. We even looked at the mens' clothing! Which rewarded us AGAIN with some odd stares and strange looks, all good, we just pretended to be extremely manly (Which was probably worse than being "normal" ahem). On the 7th floor though, the shop attendant starting saying something to me which ended in me embarrassing myself. I didn't understand what he asked me so I apologised and told him I'm only an International Student so I don't understand Japanese very well but we were just browsing around the mens' wear but in the process, after reporting the fact I was an international student, I added "ka" on the end of my sentence which made it into "Am I an International Student?" Must've sounded incredibly idiotic but it was funny in the end.

The mens' clothing shops have very girly music playing in them and we found some interesting and funny stuff. Like shirts, undergarments and hates with "Daisy" written on them. DAISY! Zoe was nearly tempted to buy the hat saying "DAISY" for her brother for his birthday.

We've noticed some very funny translations and names of things in Japan. I saw an advertisement in a train today saying "Urinetown" - The Musical. I burst out laughing and asked Miyuki why it was called "Urinetown" and she didn't know what was wrong with it. She told me there's a train in Japan called "Urine". We also stumbled upon a T-shirt today while shopping and it read "It just love". We also got handed an English Menu at a Cheese Cake and drinks cafe and it said one of the cheese cakes comes with "Affixing Cream". Say what? Still on the hunt for some more funny translations.

Oh and the Swine Flu! It's so serious here! Nearly everyone wears masks now and schools all over the country are closing and ordering the students and teachers to stay home, literally, "Stay home and DO NOT GO OUT" unless to supermarkets and places you need to go to. At the moment Tokyo is okay but it'll prolly cross over to Tokyo too which would be inconvenient for Zoe and I and a waste of time for something not as serious as people made it/are making it.

I think that's all for now. Waiting for Exams to finish before anything really exciting happens now.

Jia ne!

Melting, melting, melting

On Tuesday 5th May, I went with Miyuki and Hikaru to the famous Japanese shopping area, Shibuya. Kinda unfortunate that it was raining but it was still superb. First off we went to take more Purikura (sticker photos). Yeah, people are pretty obsessed with those in Japan. Did you know they even have Purikura DS? Yep, you can buy a DS which is able to take photo booth photos and allows you to decorate them like an actual Purikura machine then send it to your phone etc. There was even an entire shop filled with Purikura machines, I'm estimating there was around 20 or something of them in the same room, and whaddayaknow, the room was full with people and their mirrors, waiting in line.

That's something else I've noticed about people in Japan. They're very careful and care about the way they look. Everyone carries mirrors, lip treatment, bandages etc (Well at least the girls carry around lip treatment and bandages). However the guys do carry around mirrors too. You see a lot of guys looking at themselves in their mirrors and fixing they're hair.

We had a fun time walking around Shibuya and had lunch at First Kitchen after Purikura. It was sort of like McDonald's but seemed to have better food which were less oily and a better selection. There were pastas and more and I even had BBQ flavoured fries and a really nice chocolate drink with great cream and ice cream inside (Though I do admit I kind of regret ordering it because it was overly sweet).

After that we went to 109 (Ichi maru kyuu [<-- q] ) which was... HUGE!! Eight floors full of clothing! Really nice clothing too. It really reminded me of China which made me a tad homesick but I had great fun trying to weave past people and look at all the clothes. In the end, I came out of 109 with new boots, a nice top and funky pants from Album (http://www.shibuya109.jp/shops/index.html). I'm still waiting to go to Harajuku to buy more clothes.

We took off to 109-2 after 109 but by that time it was around 6pm so soon after we headed back home. Pretty mad rain by then.

Next day, Miyuki and I took too to Kichijoji and met up with some friends there, Saori, Akagu, Mayu and Aya. Again we went for Purikura (really obsessed with it these days I guess). We all bought matching Rirakkuma (A cute bear character) keychains and watched the most amazing magic show. I'm still wondering how that guy did it! He placed a small empty contained on my hand and after tapping the top of the container while it was still in my hand, five 100 yen coins appeared. When I examined the container, there was really nothing there and the bottom was too small to even hide the coins not to mention he put the container over the 100 yen coins while they were still in my hand and they suddenly changed to 1 yen coins. Unless he managed to turn my hand into a robot, I still don't see how that was possible.

We went off to lunch after that at Sweets Paradise, a buffet. They had the best spaghetti there! I had 4 platefuls of different flavoured spaghetti and 3 plates of dessert filled with all types of cakes and mochi (Sweet rice treat) and jelly plus melon juice! Was completely stuffed afterwards. We could barely move after all having downed so much food so we went to the Kichijoji station shopping centre and walked around for a bit there and they discovered bluetooth... Yes, that's right, Japan has probably some of the most amazing technology I've ever set my eyes on but hardly anyone seems to know what bluetooth is. Japanese phones all infrared and not many have bluetooth. It's a little odd to have phones which enable you to watch TV on them yet have something as undeveloped as infra sending (Since the two devices need to be touching to sending, a pain).

We stood around in the station for quite a long time after. Actually, I'm such a freak I remember the times exactly. It was 3:00pm when we got out of the shopping centre and into the Kichijoji station centre, then we talked until 4:24pm before all departing to our separate gates and heading back some.

Then the next day... SCHOOL. But it wasn't too bad because we really only just had a normal day on Thursday. Friday the 8th of May was barely school because it was Health Check and sports test day. I was slightly dreading it I suppose since you all know I'm probably the most uncoordinated person you've ever met and some people from my class had said that we get timed to run 1000m. Basically as soon as they said that, my brain rebooted because I was too shocked for a second. Turns out, we didn't do anything hard at all.

Every homeroom had a different time for their health check and sports test and my homeroom was at 9:10am so we got the benefit of getting up a little later, and also leaving school early. The health check was pretty strange though. There was an ear check first and didn't understand the lady conducting the test at first until halfway when I realized she meant for me to press the button when I hear a noise through the headphones. From her actions, I thought she was telling me to hold the button down the entire time and when she told me to let go, I just left it until she asked me if I could hear any of the sounds. It made me look rather retarded and deaf. After that, the others went for heart and x-ray checks but I didn't need to do any of those. Then there was the mouth, teeth, tongue, neck and nose check... Not sure what's up with some of those random checks but it sure was a tad odd.

Then it was the sports test. All we had to do was do as many sit ups as possible in 30 seconds, jump as far as you can and move rapidly from side to side in 30 seconds and count how many times you moved. We finished at 11:50am and were free to go home. It was quite funny when Miyuki kept saying she was sore from all the exercise. I guess if it wasn't for my constant exercise I would have been complaining like a grandma too since Japan seems pretty stressful on your body with the long hours and lack of sleep but somehow I've managed to keep up with 60-80 press ups a day and 200 sit ups a day. Mainly because I'm not moving a lot here and I'm eating too much even when I'm rarely hungry here. It's far too hot to really eat here but the food's just too good!

Saturday we had to go to school at normal time to watch a 2 hour play which was interesting. I didn't really understand it but everyone had to write something about it so I just described what I thought happened. My Bible teacher wrote a response to what I wrote and turns out, the story was talking about morals and family. After that, Miyuki, Hikaru and I went to an International Gathering in the blistering heat. Maybe blistering is an understatement. It was probably hot enough to cook eggs on my head.

There were numerous different activities at the International Gathering, some rather pointless to tell the truth but it was all a laugh in the end. There was a drill where 4 people could go up into a truck where they had a dining room environment set up and the truck would begin shaking madly while you had to all squeeze under the table. It couldn't have shook us any harder if it tried, I hit my head countless times on the table. Which push the thought, "If I'm going to get 10 boo boos on my head while trying to hide from an Earthquake, I wonder if it's really worth it" into my head. There was also a fire drill and a rubbish drill. Yes, you did just read that, a rubbish drill. We practiced throwing rubbish bags into a truck. A really fun drill was the rope tying one since many people got stuck trying to tie knots in the rope. Two girls actually managed to tie their hands together. We were typing escape/emergency ropes and then learning the fast way to undo it all. Sushi making was after that and that's when I was paired up with a Chinese lady and made some new Chinese friends who I now constantly email. I seems they all thought I was 20 which was a laugh. It was bit regretful to have the event finish since we all had to part ways again even though it was a relief as it was ridiculously hot and many people were quite horribly sunburnt. We're going to go to the next one on 20th of June, 8 days before I depart Japan.

It's been crazily hot here during this week. Last 3 days has been 25°C - 30°C. I'm melting, really melting.

I didn't have music last period Tuesday because the class which I have music with were away on a trip. It was nice to have another free period. The American exchange student currently at the school is in the same music class so we went to the library instead and talked heaps which was fun. I think the poor thing's a big homesick though, she's been here since last September and still has a while to go yet. It was nice to have a proper conversation in English since I've been mostly speaking Japanese with broken English at school.

Chemistry lessons seem to be getting more hilarious day by day as my Japanese improves. At first, I knew the Chemistry teacher had a great sense of humour because all the students love having him as a teacher and being able to joke and talk with him in class. Albeit that's all I knew in the beginning because I couldn't understand him but now when he asks me questions, I can understand him a bit and am able to reply. For some reason he was talking about toilet button shapes one day and asked me what toilet flush buttons in NZ were like so I drew some pictures for him which was a crack up. Then when were walking past him after school this week Miyuki and Yuka told me to say "Oshiawaseni" (May you be happy) to him, which was when I made the silly mistake of saying "Oshiawase" meaning happiness. He gave me a blank stare and repeated what I had until I realized I'd skipped out the important ending "ni".

The next day he told the whole class about it which embarrassing but amusing. Today was another funny lesson as he did some experiment and passed around a bottom of acid with a pill inside. After it got to me he asked if he could have it back and the students refused to let me give it back to him so we ended up passing the deadly bottle around the class until he finally managed to squeeze past the bags on the ground and get to the bottle. At some point after that I yelled out "Teacher, please drink that" in Japanese. Of course he refused and instead asked me out of CaCl and HCl, what my favourite compound was. I chose HCl and everyone wowed and laughed for some reason. I found out later it was because the teacher said I pronounced my L in a cool way. There is no L sound in the Japanese language so everyone usually says eru. He also made me choose a number, my favourite number and what luck that it turned out to be 12. It ended up being changed to 10 because 12HCl was slightly ridiculous and hard for working calculating the weight of the molecules (At least that's what I think he was doing, he was saying the words, mol and grams a lot.

There are some things I'm missing I guess. I miss being in a house where I can walk around and do whatever without someone asking "What's wrong?" and I miss being able to not eat if I'm not hungry. I don't want to offend my host family so I eat everything they give me but it's too hot to be eating anything or very much sometimes and they don't eat a whole lot of fruit because Japanese eat a little bit of everything. I also miss drinking water. Since I came to Japan, I've had about 4 glasses of water. My family don't seem to be big on water so they drink green tea or hot tea or just cold tea of some kind all the time. I like rarely having wind here in Japan but I'm starting to think I'd prefer NZ's usual cool/cold weather to Japan's warm and muggy weather. I do miss school in NZ and being able to just say something floating around in my head sometimes. I'm also missing friends and my parents. I miss doing the housework for some reason. I nearly feel bad that all I'm able to do is the vacuum here. Yes, I'm crazy, don't remind me.

Zoe and I have picked up on some strange and interesting aspects of Japan. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE carries mirrors. You even see guys walking along the street and indoors and they suddenly stop and take out a mirror and look at themselves, check their hair etc. Girls are constantly reapplying their make-up everywhere. When we were at First Kitchen in Shibuya, when I turned around to survey the restaurant, all the girls there had a mirror in their hand and where reapplying make-up.

The Japanese also seem to take a strong liking to uniforms. The school I'm at has no uniform rule (except they have to wear a skirt) but everyone wears Japanese uniform style clothing because it's fashionable. Interesting how when there's no uniform, the girls want one and when Zoe and I think back to our school Mufti-days, we realized wearing uniform styled clothing would never happen in NZ if we were given the choice of what to wear.

And shoes... When we go into school, we have to change out of our normal shoes and into special school shoes called wabaki. I'm still trying to figure out if we change into the Wabaki's to keep the school grounds clean or to keep our normal shoes clean because we're allowed to go outside in our Wabaki as long as we keep within the school gate. Changing rooms in shops and sometimes in restaurants you have to take off your shoes too.

Did I mention also that the price tags in supermarkets are electronic? YES! THEY'RE DIGITAL. Have a look in my pictures to find what I mean but I was surprised when I walked into the supermarket and saw digital instead of paper price tags!!

Ah well, I'll go for now and try to update my blog more often. It feels like time in Japan is going really slowly or standing still but when I think about it, we've already been here for one month. I seem to be losing my sense of time here as well as rest. I'm off to catch up on sleep now, finally Saturday tomorrow!

Laters!

Atami

Whew! I'm loving Golden Week! Holidays are brilliant.

Currently Sunday 3rd of April 9:36pm. We just arrived back from a sight seeing area called Atami. We went around 10am in Saturday and took about 5 different trains to get there. (I'm uploading pictures now so check after reading this blog). On one of the trains, it took 2 hours so Miyuki and I slept a good deal of the way. Apart from the last 40 minutes when Miyuki put her head on my shoulder and used it as a pillow I slept pretty well. After that, I didn't want to wake her.

We first went to an art museum and looked at a lot of historical Japanese paintings, items and kimonos. After, we drove up a ridiculously steep and curvy mountain road nearly crashing into 3 cars because you couldn't see around the bends. We finally got to the top where we took a nice walk through a lot of flowers and then watcheds turtles and carp in a pond with the Koi Nobori (Japanese carp decoration put up for a celebration on the 5th of May - Boys Day) floating magistically above. Also fed some rabits, adorable!

Afterwards, we drove a bit more to our resort way up the mountains with a fantastic view. I was feeling rather car sick by the end of the ride though and wobbled my way up to the resort entrance. Inside we changed out of our shoes at the genkan (Entrance where you take off shoes) and we had slippers waiting for us. There was even a nice locker for all of us to put our ourside shoes in! Our room was on the second floor and my host parents had one room to themselves and Miyuki, Hikaru and I shared another Tatami room. It was so comfortable and nice! We were so tired and hot (as it was 24 degrees that day) we went straight to the baths. I wasn't really used to the idea of all going into the same bathroom at once and showering beside each other then getting into the hot spring together with no swimming costumes. So I waited for everyone else to finish and then went in by myself (Male and female are separated!! Just incase you thought they weren't). What was slightly disturbing was there was a bit window looking out to the garden where there was a walkway. Lack of privacy much?

Dinner was incredible. Every table had a set selection of food on it and after we sat down, more food kept coming! There were 11 dishes for everone (not sharing, just 11 dishes for each person) and Miyuki had 4 extra bowls of rice while I had 2. Whew, we were stuffed by the end. I have never eaten so much raw fish or fish in general! Some of the food was pretty odd looking but it all tasted great! After dinner, we went down to the Karaoke room since it was free and started flicking through the books. I sang 3 songs, Real Emotion and 1000 Words by Koda Kumi along with My Medicine by Nakashima Mika and Miyuki and Hikaru had a go at Chocolate Disco and Hey! Say! Jump! Hikaru also sang some Hamasaki Ayumi and Koda Kumi and someone else I think. She has an awesome voice! 

We were in the Karaoke room for about 2-3 hours I think and after we packed up, an old man came in. Hikaru and Miyuki helped him figure out how to use the machine and when we were leaving he pointed to his drink and said to Hikaru, "Don't forget your drink! Take it with you!" and Hikaru picked up the drink and was like "Oh yeah yeah finished with that and took the bottle and looked dumbstruck. It was tomato juice. Then the old man was like "OHHH!! That's mine sorry!" It was hilarious (Well at the time) I hit my head on the wall outside the Karaoke room and fell over laughing too hard. There was also one stage where I went back to our room to fetch my Ipod and use the loo and forgot I was wearing the toilet slippers (Japanese don't walk around the Tatami flooring with any shoes or slippers on and the toilet has it's own pair of slippers). When I stepped out of my room and was locking the door a man down in the next room gave me a really odd look. I figured I just had silly hair or something and walked back to the karaoke room. It wasn't until I sat back down that I pointed to my slippers in shock and embarrassment. Miyuki was like "EWWWW GROSS" and Hikaru just kept laughing at me. I quickly ran back to change.

We slept at around 11pm and Hikaru and I both woke at 6:44am. I was a little tired but I couldn't sleep more because it was far too hot. I got myself ready and packed up my things while Hikaru went down to the baths and Miyuki who loves sleeping was still curled up in her Futon (Traditional Japanese bed. Just a mattress on the floor with blanket over it and then a thick as duvet, even in 24 degress Celsius! I woke Miyuki at 7:30am and we headed down to breakfast at 8am. We got back to our room at around 8:40am and packed up our things and the Futons then I did some eye make up for Miyuki which looked stunning on her! She had the longest natural lashes I've ever seen an Asian have TT__TT We took some pictures on the balcony after which was odd because Miyuki and Hikaru kept saying "Do a cool pose!" and I didn't konw what to do.

We signed out at around 9:50am and started driving to the Zoo. Miyuki, Hikaru and I got extremely bored so we all fell asleep and 2 hours later we were STILL on the road. So we changed plans and went to a Cat Museum instead, which was extremely cute and interesting! They had skeletons on Zaber Fangs and all the cats (Tigers, Lions, Panthers, Leopards etc) were real ones that were stuffed. They were adorable! But my host family all said I was a bit strange thinking lions and tigers were cute. We had lunch at a famous Sushi bar which was once again delicious! After, we went back to the station where we had a look around all the shops and my host family bought a lot of food. We also went to a nice dessert restaurant there.

We headed back to the station at around 5pm and got on the train a bit after. Switched about 3-4 trains before we got on the one we had to sit on for 2 hours. There was lots of nice food on it though. Better than airplane service! We were well tired when we go to Shinjuku and got on another train to Asagaya. Had dinner around 10:30pm. And now I should be going to bed! I think We're going to Yokohama, Tokyo Tower and Shibuya sometime this week! Exciting!

Problematic

Bit of a problem, my laptop doesn't seem to be able to connet to the internet anymore so I have to use Miyuki's laptop for everything which is a little inconvenient since she also uses her laptop of course.

Other than that, tomorrow I have to get up at around 6am and we need to get to school fast for a singing practice at 7am. Then we have homeroom at 8am and after we have Chapel at 8:05 till 8:35. I also have Tea Ceremoney club after school tomorrow so that'll go till about 6pm and having to wait for Miyuki because she has her club too. I'm glad we get a 5 day rest next week! Golden Week is a life saver. I'm so tired. 

We're goinging to a place called Atami during Golden week and there we will stay at a place where we will sleep on the Tatami mats (basically on the ground) in a more traditional Japanese house! Which will be very interesting! We're also goinging to Yokahoma and Tokyo Tower. I think Miyuki said we will also go to Shibuya and Harajuku sometime but I'm not sure if it's also in Golden Week.

Miyuki asked me a strange question today. She asked if I had tried any of the buttons on the toilet. Course I hadn't after hearing that a girl 2 years ago who went to Japan on the class trip got toilet water everywhere after pressing a button. I don't want that to happen, would be embarrassing. Miyuki told me there's a butt washing and drying option which I just cracked up laughing at. No thanks! It sure is very Japanese to have toilet buttons but I'm not too keen on a butt wash from the toilet haha.

I'm finding it easier to remember names of people at school and I know a lot of people now! Zoe and I love it how when we walk past people we all say hi and can just break into conversation.

Every now and then, it's extremely irritating in the early mornings (7-8am) when I'm trying to catch up on sleep and the rubbish and recycling collectors come. Not only does the truck make a lot of noise but they also have loud speakers announcing that it's okay for you to take out your rubbish such as refridgerators, boxes etc etc. And it goes on and on for an hour or over sometimes.

Japanese climate is amazing. I haven't had one blemish on my face since coming to Japan. The air is magic. Though I always fee thirsty. There's not much wind here but sometimes when there is wind, it's incredible! You feel like a tornado's coming but somehow the girls manage in their tiny skirts. The other day, I woke and saw 4 umbrellas being blown around the streets. They're everywhere! Oh and the rain here is lovely. It falls straight and steady and only for one day at the most. So as well as an umbrella actually working, it's also refreshing and washes away some dust in the air. When it's raining, there's usually not much wind.

Another thing is, the school I'm attending now, St. Margaret's or Rikkyo Jogakuin doesn't have a school uniform. They aren's allowed hair dye, make up, cellphones, Ipods, piercings and accessories but apart from that, you can wear whatever you want and your hair doesn't need to be tied back. Though in this weather, I don't see how all the girls survive with their long hair untied. I'm glad a went for a haircut before coming here. Teachers here are also very close to their students. Most teachers and students speak in informal Japanese even though students respect their teachers very much.

My schedule at the moment is:

Monday

1. Japanese (8:45-9:35)

10 minute break

2. Japanese (9:45)

10 minute break

3. Self-study

10 minute break

4. Outdoor P.E

Lunch

5 min break

5. Japanese

10 minute break

6. Maths

4pm - Computer Club till 5:30pm

Tuesday

1. Chemistry

10 minute break

Zoe: Bible

10 minute break

2. Advisory (Talk with Ms Sakurai)

10 minute break

3. Japanese

10 minute break

4. Japanese

Lunch

5 min break

5. Self-Study

10 minute break

6. Music

Zoe: Chemistry

Wednesday

1. Maths

10 minute break

2. Chemistry

10 minute break

3. Shodo (Caligraphy)

10 minute break

4. Shodo (Caligraphy)

Lunch

5 min break

5. Self-Study

10 minute break

6. Indoor P.E

Thursday

1. Self-Study

Zoe: P.E

10 minute break

2. Japanese

10 minute break

3. Handbell or Cooking

10 minute break

4. Handbell or Cooking

Lunch

5 min break

5. Maths

10 minute break

6. Bible

Zoe: Music

Friday

1. Japanese

10 minute break

2. Japanese

10 minute break

3. Self-Study

10 minute break

4. Music

Lunch

5 min break

Zoe: Chemistry

5. Oral Communication

10 minute break

6. Chemistry

Zoe: Self-study

4pm: Tea Ceremoney Club until around 6pm

Everyone Monday and Tuesday I have to go home alone. Which is now okay since I know the area I live in! Whoo!

Oh and eating habits! The Japanese set out at the table is, rice to your left, main dish in the middle, soup to your right, vegetables and extras at the top, drink off to the side and chopsticks horizontally at the bottom, before your main dish.

I forgot if I needed to say anything else but I'll write down anything else I remember.

Laters for now!

P.S Japanese puddings are the best!

NO TIME

Whew! National Green Holiday today. So I get a break and catch up on sleep. Woke at 11pm which isn't too bad compared to the time I woke last Saturday. So lemme fill you in.

Last Saturday was raining pretty heavily so we didn't really go out. I slept till about 12pm and felt well rested after. We basically studied for the entire day and at about 4pm, Miyuki's father and mother took me to a clothing store called Uni Qlo. It's quite a famous store here and there Miyuki's parents bought me a nice top I liked as a present which was really nice of them since they're already feeding me 3 full on meals a day and have taken me to nice places. Anyhow, shopping only took a few minutes because I didn't find anything else paritcularly amazing.

Sunday was great though, we drove to Edo Museum at around noon and inside we saw Cherry Blossom paintings etc. Outside the Museum was Edo Park and we visited all the old buildings belonging to high ranking people and/or farmers during the Edo Period. (Edo Dynasty, the time when Tokyo was calld Edo). It was facinating though there were so many bugs. Their ants here scare the life out of me, they're as big as the 1st half of my thumb. In NZ, they're so small you can barely see the evil fellas. I kept hopping around because I was scared they would climb onto me. I bought a few souviners at the shop in the museum.
We went back home for a big before going out again at around 5pm to the famous Japanese area, Shinjuku. There, Miyuki, Hikaru (Miyuki's sister), their mother and I headed to, what I think they said was the biggest CD store in Tokyo? I may be wrong. But there we watched a live performance of 3 rising chorus bands. The event was called Mitsu or Michu and included the bands, chorus groups, Maria, A.G.E and Butterfly Dance. Rock and Pop music. It was great! Exciting. Many people came and Hikaru got to shake hands and take a photo with her favourite member because she bought 2 of their albums, one of which she gave to me which was very generous. Unfortunately they didn't allow photos but I will take a picture of the CD and mini poster I got there.

Monday and Tuesday were nothing special because of school. Though I did go home alone on Monday as Miyuki had cram school after her after school club. I went to Computer club with Yuka which I am now apart of. It's very interesting to design game maps etc. I even got to play my own game I created. After Miyuki and I said bye and I went with Yuka, Riko (another good friend Zoe and I made) and Zoe and we hopped on the train to Kochijoji station. There we asid bye to Riko and after passing another paygate I had to part ways with Zoe and Yuka. From there, I took the train to Asagaya by myself. It was a little nerveracking and I was basically on the edge of my seat, ready to run out the next time the door opened incase it was my stop. I passed 2 stops and at both I was wondering if I should go out or not but turns out I was right to stay on and later get off at Asagaya station. From there, I had to take the Asagaya bus. I had to listen very intently for which stop I was to get off at as it was a long name. Shimoigusa Yubinkyoku no Mae (Shimoigusa Post Office Front). I got a tad lost when I got off because I headed straight down the road and forgot to turn. I figured I was going the wrong way because why would I get off at the later stop and walk back to the earlier ones? It was rather dark so I stopped at a bike shop and luckily my Japanese was good enough to ask for directions. When I got home, my host mother was on the balcony turning and circles. The poor kind lady was panicing that I might have gotten lost.

I've also noticed that I'm either becoming very old or just somehow very sore in Japan. Not only does my leg ache but so does my left hip and upper right arm. I don't know what I would do without those daily Japanese baths. Without them, I'm sure I would be nearly disabled by now.

Every resting day now, I help my host mother with cleaning, I wipe all the floors in the house and some tables which is good as it makes me feel like I'm not sitting around letting her run after me.

Okay! Technology. If I've already told you some of these things in my last blog, sorry but I am just really amazed! Phones first of all have not only text message options but everyone pays a monthly fee and gets unlimited messaging, email and internet. The newer ones also have T.V and a barcode reader. The school doesn't have any fancy notice boards or computers but all notices are given at the start of the day or during the day if there is a notice, a speaker will turn on in every room and the notice will be read out. Notices are also given at the end of the day during the homeroom time.

Now I will be going out to see more things! Even though it's a public holiday, Miyuki still has club so I will be going with Miyuki's father

Will write again as soon as possible!

2 days into it... Feels like a week already

Currently 11pm in Tokyo. I should probably sleep soon but I'm not too sure when else I'll have time to type this up. So far, life in Japan is incredible! And the flight was also great. Great service, fantastic food and entertainment. I managed to watch the movies, "Marley & Me", "Yes Man" and "Ikigami" (A Japanese movie, fantastic but extremely sad. I believe I began crying, tad embarrassing)

We arrived about 4:30pm in Tokyo and overwhelmed as we were, we forgot our Japanese the instant we stepped out of the plane. Useful. So we shuffled through our bags to find our Japanese expressions sheet which had the words "Mayoimashita" (I am lost), and "Tasukete kudasai" (Please help me).

Not only did we take 15 minutes to find our way out of the arrival gate but we also found the toilet soap amazing. We had to ride a train to the area where we had to go to the Quarantine and Health Consultation (Don't ask me why it's called that, it was just a passport check and some stamps). We literally asked everyone where it was that we should be going. Unfortunately we sounded silly while people replied to us in very good English. Soap! WOW!! We all know there's automatic water nozzles in NZ toilets but automatic soap... Now THAT'S cool. However we did look idiotic in the bathroom while we "Oooohed" and "Ahhhed" at the soap technology.

Then it was downstairs to baggage claim and after wasting so much time, baggage claim had already stopped rotating and our bags were sitting in front of the rotating machines (The Japanese removed the bags for us instead of us going around asking where our bags were!) Luckily, we knew how to ask that questions anyways. The baggage trolleys were also incredible. They had locks on the wheels so to push them, you had to push down the handle to unlock the wheels. Soap and trolleys and we were already amazed. Simple aren't we?

We weaved our way through the airport and found the exit and found a large group of people waiting for us (Yuka and Miyuki and their family members). It was great meeting them and Ms Sakurai for the first time! A bit shy but we quickly began fitting it. They're incredibly welcoming and the fathers were extremely excited. My host father has already begun calling me "Jen-Chan" (What a father would call his own daughter. -Chan refers to people who have a close relationship). My host sisters and their friends at school also call me Jen-Chan or Jenni-Chan.

It took 2 hours to drive from the airport into Tokyo City and we went for dinner at a restaurant. It was incredibly delicious! Also very cheap! 100-400 yen [Max] (Note 100 Japanes yen is NZ$2. We had tempura prawns, octopus, Pizza, Okonomiyami (Japanese pancake like pizza), rice, salmon, friend squid. I believe Zoe also went out to dinner with her host family and they ate Sushi. We arrived home about 9-10pm and I gave my host family their gifts then had a nice shower and a soak in the bath.

I was shown around the apartment afterwards. It's quite incredibly how many hidden rooms there are. I expected more cupboards but the doors you'd think would lead to cupboards turned out to be toilets and bedrooms. I have my own room which is very nice. It's not as small as I expected. There are also 3 toilets and wow behold these toilets have buttons on the side and heated seats. I haven't dared touch those buttons though incase something horrible happens and I have to somehow tell my host family I broke their toilet. On the back of the toilet is a sink where you wash your hands after so you don't need to go from one room to the other. Very convenient (and yes, it IS clean water which comes out)

I got to sleep around 10:30pm and woke at 5:50am (by myself!) It was amazingly bright at that time. The sun was already out (Oh and Japan doesn't have daylight saving). I felt rested (due to the time difference I thought I was waking at 8:30am and was panicking that I did not wake in time for school). Turns out, I was up before everyone else (except the mother of course).

School was brilliant, confusing and embarrassing at first since Zoe and I had no inside school shoes so we had to march around the school in the wrong size bright blue slippers for the better half of the morning. Ms Sakurai had also pinned our pictures up on the wall outside the staff room and apparently when the girls walk past they said I look like a panda haha. We talked for a while and met some of Miyuki's and Yuka's friends. They were eager to speak english and become our friends so it was really great! When the bell rang, Zoe and I went with Ms Sakurai who introduced us to the staff and then we went to our respective homerooms where it's similar to our school's Tutor Group system except in one homeroom, there were around 40 girls. Scary, I was prepared to introduced myself in front of 15 at the most.

Everyone is very kind and funny and are eager to converse with Zoe and I in both English and Japanese. The girl who sits in front of me during homeroom and Chemistry is hilarious. I told her I was finding it hard to remember everybody's names so now she repeats her name to me every 5 minutes and everytime she sees me she says "I am Chiha"

On our first day, we went with Ms Sakurai to the bookstore where she gave us both a nice set including a pen and pencil and also gave us St Margaret's school bags, badges, flannels, P.E uniforms and Shodo (Calligraphy) paper. Then we tried on some new shoes (In Japan, when you enter the school, it's required to change from your dirty outside shoes into school shoes, however you can actually go outside with these shoes as long as you are WITHIN the school grounds.) There is no morning tea time but between each class is a 10 minute break where students return to their homeroom to exchange textbooks because their school bags are the size of a handbag (I have to alternate between what I take to school everyday because I don't have enough room for everything). As for out lunch boxes, they're the size of my purse. No jokes, they really are that small but the food here is great, I never feel hungry.

Today we made more friends and exchanged email addresses. It was also raining today which was nice. Unlike NZ, the rain falls straight and isn't blown from side to side. There is minimal wind and even though it was thought to be "cold" today, it felt like NZ Summer. It's very interesting riding the train to school every morning. First we drive to the Asagaya station which takes around 7 minutes then we march in with our train cards and scan them on the gates to pass and climb up several stairs to reach the train. Somehow the timing is always perfect and we're on the train for another 7-9 minutes until we get off at another station and switch trains. The second train is always more cramped as there are hundreds of students and we stay on until Kichijoji Station then it's a 2 minute walk to school. I can sure get sick of NZ buses but trains? Never.

After school, 3:30pm, we all put on our aprons and grab a broom or cloth and either sweep the homeroom floor or wipe down tables. That takes us till about 4pm then the club activities begin. Today (Tuesday 21st April) I watched Music club and some of the students asked me to play the drums for a bit then took me to the auditorium where I played a piano piece of them. It was very fun! It's only been 2 days but I can feel it's easier to remember all my Japanes vocabulary. Club ended at 6pm and then we headed for the station again. Usually we take the bus from the station home as at night, no one comes to pick us up from the station. The city is spectacular at night. Billboards, flashing lights, lights on the building corners, electronic signs etc you name it. I was also surprised to see kids who looked around 7-10 taking the trains all by themselves with no supervision. Japan is incredibly safe. We arrived home around 7-7:30pm and had dinner. Another thing is, breakfast is huge. Compared to me usually having just a simple Up & Go, it seems like a lunch to me!

Well 12:40am, I'm off to bed or I'll be falling asleep tomorrow. It's a long school day tomorrow as opposed to NZ Wednesdays being a short day. I'll write again when I have time and upload all the pictures I've taken!