Matsuyama_Kid's Xanga

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 00:11:33 GMT

Well, seeing as i left this incomplete, lets wrap it up. this is the last entry.

That weekend, when i talked about doing AFS papers and stuff, well, most of them I didn't even have to do. I ended up only having to do a small anket. I had some other things to do for school, but otherwise my weekend wasnt too busy. I bought a very nice picture frame for my host parents as a present that I would give them when i left.

On Monday after school, I was supposed to go to Karaoke with the Judo club, but the intercultural club held a "going away party" for me, which they told they were doing that day, so i had to go to them. The quotes are because it wasnt really organized, and Kouno Sensei (who was supposed to have organized it) ended up coming in like the last 5 minutes of the thing. He gave me a going away present and a card, then had each member of the club say something about me at the end. Then they gave me a bag full of assorted food and a good luck charm for studying (which I officially carry around with me now). Then we all had to go home because Kouno Sensei told us we had to. It was only like 5 so i thought about going to Judo, but I didn't for whatever reason. I didn't do much at home.

Tuesday consisted of a really unnecessary gym class since it was raining so we couldnt run.

Wednesday had another unnecessary gym class due to rain. The caligraphy teacher was sick so i couldnt do my final lesson. After school I finally went to Karaoke with the Judo Club for around 3 hours. We went to a place near my house so it didnt take long to get there. We sang a shitload of songs, oh man it was so much fun. Afterwards Tsuyuguchi and Mariyama had to go home, but me, Kensuke, Kiyokawa, and Muuchan went to eat some ramen. AFterwards I went home and started to pack.

On Thursday there was a going away party for me thrown by my homeroom. We played a few games and did some stuff. Afterwards I made a small speech in english because I didnt prepare for it before and it didnt matter if it was in english. Then Mr. Yoshioka, who was also there, made a speech about me in Japanese because he cant speak englihs. I wish he would have slowed it down for me to understand, but i still caught a good amount of it. He said things like "Jeff looks like a japanese student, and that is what i think about him. I have enjoyed having him in my class. If I look around, when everyone is studying, so is Jeff. If I think about 209 homeroom, its 209 and Jeff, he's a part of it." Afterwards I recieved presents from my homeroom and from Hasegawa. Then I went to see the Caligraphy teacher and he gave me all my work from his class, plus a really nice print he had done himself for me. Then I went around the school saying goodbye to teachers and such, because I didnt expect to go again friday. But after doing some things there, and realized i had alot more to do, I realized I really should go on Friday. Then I went home and packed some more and such, then went to bed for my last day of school.

Friday was my last day. I went the whole day and everything. I cleaned out my desk, got a book from Nagano sensei and some pictures, had my last gym class, in which we ran the last 5km time trial. I got 20:04, which beat my previous time by like a minute and a half. Then I took some pictures with Mr. Ishimaru and with my whole gym class. My final lunchtime, I ate a shitload, and some people gave me extra food too. It was a good final lunch. After school, I took pictures with my friends and some other people, and then we decided we would go downtown together for a while. But first, I had to say goodbye to a few more teachers and I had to say goodbye to the Judo club. I would have practiced with them that day, but I wanted to go downtown one last time and I had also just gone to karaoke with them that week, so i decided not to. I went downtown with Otachi, Masuda, Ohkita, and Shirakata. We didn't do too much, but i still had fun hanging out with them one last time. We first bought a box of bean-paste filled japanese sweets, still fresh and hot. once we finished them, I decided we should buy another box, so we did. Then we walked for a little bit and went to an arcade for like 20 minutes. I was the only person to do anything, I played a boxing game for a while. Then there wasnt much else for us to do, so we went all the way back to in front of my house, and talked for a while, then they all said goodbye to me and left. I then went inside, cleared all my files off the computer, packed a little more, had dinner, then started packing alot more. Ms. Futagami and Bjorn came over and gave me a small present and then I said goodbye to them. Then I started packing fulltime, only i ran into one huge problem. first off, i got a shitload of presents before leaving, something i didnt prepare for, so when i was close to done, not only did I have all these extra things, but it ended up that i actually had alot more than I thought I did, and I couldnt fit it all. If there was no weight limit at Matsuyama Airport, I might have been okay, but there was, so i got screwed. I had to tell mom and Dad that I couldnt fit everything, and dad was a little mad, which gave me the impression that he just wanted me to be out of his life already. Finally, Misato proposed that she mail the things i couldnt take with me to me later on. I felt so bad about accepting this, but they refused not to do it. Finally, I got everything packed, wrote my going away cards to Parents and Misato, but didnt have time to write one to Junka, which i still feel bad about. I also realized that I had to leave the present that Ms. Futagami had given me, which I felt bad about as well.

Saturday was the longest fucking day ever. it lasted around 30 hours or so, due to time difference and shit. i woke up at like 7:30, but was too nervous and sad to eat or anything, and I just couldnt believe I had to leave. Finally, we left the house around like 8:30, saying goodbye to grandma and then we were on our way. We arrived at Matsuyama airport, to find Ms. Fukuda and Otachi waiting for me. Ms. Fukuda told me that everyone wanted to come, but she had just realized how good of friends me and Otachi were, so she only let him come, and everyone had to go to saturday lessons like usual. Otachi then gave me a small bag of presents. Finally, we went up to the security gate. We talked for a little bit, and everyone said what they wanted to say to me. Dad told me something that made me feel better about how our relationship had been during the entire experience. See, we didn't talk so much, and i often felt uncomfortable around him because of it. He was also very strict with me throughout the entire thing. however, he told me something that relieved me of all the crap I had felt about our relationship. He told me "during your stay here, everyone was so nice to you, but I was always so strict. I know you didn't like it sometimes, but I know, and can see, that your heart god bigger as a result. I think what I did was right. Do your best always." This made me feel so much better about it, and he was smiling serenly when he told me this, so i knew he was serious. Finally, the time came when it was time to leave. Everyone was crying, but in my usual fashion, I wasn't. I went up to security, put all my shit through, then turned around and said to everyone "またね！" At this point I nearly started crying. I went through security, got on the plane, sat down, covered my face with my arm, and started to cry. I realized what I had to give up by leaving, and I realized how I really felt about the whole thing. I was very sad about it, but eventually I stopped crying and accepted it. I opened the bag of presents to find a set of two nice pens, 5 pencils, a small notebook, and a caligraphy pen, plus a letter (im not gonna say what it said). In tokyo i was happy to meet alex again, but i was already depressed because I hadleft Matsuyama. On the way back to america I couldnt sleep because there was so much i was thinking about. I realized how much I didnt want to deal with american people again, and I started to say to myself "ive come to realize that everyone in america is an asshole, and that Im one of them, but i dont want to deal with them again." In Los Angeles I was tired as hell and I just wanted to go home. Me and alex said bye to the kids we had met during the trip, then checked our bags, went to the gate, sat down and ate some burger king. We met up with Misha at the gate, and he told us that security had just taken his kendo sword, which had to suck. Finally, after waiting like 4 hours, we got on the plane and headed for Chicago. I slept the entire flight, I just couldnt take it anymore. Finally, at O'hare, I met with my parents and Tafhim who was also there. I felt really glad to see them again. I went home, hung out with Tafhim and Benjy, and finally went to bed at like 3 when I felt like I could.

I slept until 3pm the next day. around 4:30, I decided to call my host family and tell them I had gotten to America fine and that I already missed them alot, and all that stuff. Misato wasnt there at the time, which sucks, but its okay. I felt alot better after calling, but i little pissed because i realized that my japanese listening skill had slightly decreased because i used nothing but english the day before.

Since the monday after that day, Ive been back in school. Its hard to work because Im still jetlagged, depressed, and because of other shit i cant explain. I just dropped philosophy in an effort to lighten my workload, but also because I dont need the class and i prefer asian studies over philosophy.

Well, thats it. I hope that those of you who were here the whole time reading this, that you enjoyed reading it. Well, this is it. thanks for reading, and have a good life.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 02:52:52 GMT

Damn good day today. but first, a little bit leading up to it.

Sunday went to Kagawa prefecture and climbed all the 1380 or so stairs at the temple there (the name evades me). Afterwards bought some japanese sweets for the teachers at school, and then went to a really really awesome udon restaurant and ate the best niku udon ever.

Monday didn't do much. I didnt go to judo all this week because there was shit i had to do at home and such. tuesday didnt go to school and caught up on some sleep. wednesday was another 5km time trial in gym. my time was 22:08, which actually is more towards the worst, lol. problem with this day was i somehow fucked up my foot while running, and it hurts to walk on it. thursday no gym or judo, but i did give a speech in front of the whole school, my last one. Came home thursday and iced my foot some more in preperation for today. heres why

so, at chuo high school, every year there is a marathon that everyone has to run. about 22km for boys and like 10km for girls. problem with this is that its on february 7th, 3 days after i leave, and all we've been doing in gym is training for the marathon. so i find out on monday from my homeroom teacher ms fukuda that she organized a "pre-marathon" just for me that would be on friday (today). 16km for boys, about 8km for girls, and also there were 5 or 6 teachers running in the marathon (ms. futagami, mr. oyama, mr. nagano, mr. yamamoto, and a few more i dont really know personally), but of course the gym teachers of that period as well (my gym teacher mr. ishimaru, mr. morita) and also ms. ishimaru did the marathon on a bike, which was funny as hell to watch. Its funny because yamamoto told me before the race "i know i cant keep up with you, but ill do my best" Now, remember that i have a foot injury here, but two days of heavily icing it helped alot, and today, it didnt start hurting until the last like 6 or so km of the marathon. Its funny because all most of the teachers running are over 30 and i know smoke, so therefore nagano and yamamoto finished towards the end, but the younger teachers and mr. oyama actually did fine. two teachers finished before me. The surprising part about Oyama is that im sure he's in at least his 40's, but now that i think about it he looks like he's in really good shape, so in a slight way im not surprised he finished before me. The course of the marathon started on the school's field, then we did a half circle and went behind the school and to the side, then out the front gate, around the school to the river path behind the school, went that way for around 6km, crossed a bridge and back which is about 1km, ran another 1km to where ms. fukuda and two other teachers were standing, turned around and did the same course in reverse order. we met several teachers on the way, such as my math teacher mr. yoshioka. it was hillarious when we got to him, because he saw that i was running right alongside mr. ishimaru, and he was like "‚ ‚ A‚·‚²‚¢‚æIÎŠÛ‚Æˆê‚É" and then he gave me a high five while i was running. Anyway, everyone was waiting at the finish line when i came back, and they held out the ending tape for me and everything. then we got to see most of the other people come back. its funny because a few people didnt finish and some other people had to go look for them, but in the end, everyone came back.

anyway, no i have to brace myself for a busy weekend filled with afs's papers and shit like that. wish me luck. thats all for now.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Sat, 21 Jan 2006 09:28:02 GMT

So, ive decided to do a small update.

not much is new. I sent more stuff home and now i have only one package left to send. Im at the two week mark. One of the cats is sleepy bottoms up next to me. anyway, we ran 17km in gym yesterday. we left matsuyama thats how fucking far we went. Tomorrow im going to Kagawa prefecture to a temple that has at least 1000 stairs leading up to it, but also for udon because thats what kagawa is famous for.

anyway, thats about all. i dont feel like writing now. as much as im enjoying myself, i also want to go home. we'll see how things go when i get home. thats all, later.......

Friday, January 13, 2006

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 07:38:01 GMT

So, its more than a week later, and i havent felt like writing lately, but i've decided that I would right now. anyway....

First I have to add the fact that I've had badass headaches for more than a week now. I was actually convinced i was really sick, but after a day of rest (yesterday) and some deep thought into the matter, i've ruled it out as a mental thing. im guessing its either about me wanting to go home, or about not wanting to leave, im not really sure which one.

On monday I finally went to Dogo Onsen, but before that we went to a few temples in the area, like Ishite. At the second one we went to there was a public throwing of rice cakes and I got one. Its funny because the people there are really extreme about catching them, and I heard that Misato's aunt had broken her back there like 2 years ago because someone jumped on her to get a rice cake. luckily, nothing happened to me or Misato. When we finally got to Dogo Onsen, me and Misato did the second most expensive ticket where you get to wear the Yukata and you get to eat traditional Japanese sweets after the bath and drink tea. The only difference between that one and the most expensive is with the less expensive you eat Sembe, and with the most expensive you eat Botchan Dango (i'm thinking thats a kind that they only have here in Matsuyama). Now, the actually bath inside Dogo isnt anything like totally glamourous or anything, but im glad I went because now I can say that I've been there, since it is the oldest and most famous hot spring in Japan. I also got to go into the rooms and see the bath that are reserved only for the Emperor of Japan and his family when they visit Matsuyama. I also got to see Natsume Soseki's room in Dogo (I talk about him further down). After that we went to a restaurant right next to Dogo and had Matsuyama-style Japanese food. its was fucking delicious, notably the Mochi gyoza.

Anyway, school started on tuesday, so im back to my usual schedule, except that now the gym classes are nothing but running, and for the whole fucking period, so ive decided that its crucial for me to go to bed earlier, so ive been going to bed around like 10:30 this week. On tuesday we only ran like 6 or 7km, and it really wasnt that hard. wednesday was 5km time trial (five times around the school). It took me 23:00 exactly to do that, which isnt really good or bad. best time was about 15:30 by my friend Aibara in my homeroom. Thursday (like every week) there was no gym. then today, we ran around 15km in about an hour and a half. Im sure next friday will be somewhere around like 17km or something, since thats now the gym period where there's enough time to run that much. Anyway, after lunch, my homeroom went to the group home (known as the old folks home in america of course) near to the school and entertained the elder people for about 2 hours. I, being american, was afraid that the old people might not like and shit (because of the atomic bomb and the stuff like that), but i was totally wrong about that one. The elder people were so nice, and i had a good time entertaining them for a while.

I have to add in here that because I've been a bit bored lately, ive been reading alot more lately. they're famous Japanese novels, but translated english versions. So far I've read two books by Natsume Soseki, "Botchan" and "Kokoro." Both were very interesting. Botchan was quite interesting because about 90% of the book took place in Matsuyama (Its an actual part of the author's life), but it also reminded me alot of "Catcher in the Rye" because the main character hated just about everything, especially Matsuyama. It also reminded me of Hiro because the main character was from Tokyo and he hated all country people, just like how Hiro hated the kids from Nagano for the exact same reason. Kokoro isnt a true story (i dont think), but its still interesting. We're currently reading it in Gendaibun class anyway, so now I might be able to follow along at least a little bit. I did get to show the two books to Nagano Sensei after class on Wednesday and he asked me if I'd ever been to Dogo and if I'd eaten Botchan Dango and that kind of thing, and then he told me to tell him my thoughts about the two books when I was done with them. Now I'm reading this book of short stories by Kenji Miyazawa, another famous Japanese author (I think). We read a poem of his in Gendaibun a while back, so I decided to pick up a translation of one of his stories. Its a really really childish story, but Its still good.

anyway, thats about all there is to say for now. I've begun sending my stuff home already. I've already sent home more than half of my books and some of my games, but i still got alot more to send. thats all, later........

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 21:38:52 GMT

So, how about an update?

So New years was quite fun. Japanese new year is a big thing, much bigger than christmas, so we did alot. On New Years Eve I helped my host father make Soba (one type of Japanese noodles. my least favorite type, but still good), which is a tradition every year. On New years eve, the men make the soba and the women don't have to do anything cooking related. Anyway, the result was pretty good, except my father is convinced that we used a little too much water (however thats possible, since theres only like 1 cup of water in the whole thing), since the noodles ended up being a little sticky. either way, they still tasted fine. During New years, theres also a really special sweet sake that you only drink at new years which we drank over this time. Misato then left a little bit later after all this. She was going, dressed in a Kimono, to a temple with some friends to hear the bell ring 108 times at midnight. for those of you who don't know about this, at the beginning of the year, most Japanese people go to a temple to listen to the bell being rung, and the reason its 108 times is because in Buddhism, its believed that every person has 108 desires, and the bell ringing cleanses you of the 108 desires at the beginning of the year. Anyway, Misato went to a temple, but me, mom, dad, and Junka stayed at home and watched tv until midnight. the new years programs are fucking hillarious, lots of like celebrity karaoke type shows, which are really funny. Then we did the countdown (im somehow surprised they do that here, but whatever), and then everyone basically started drinking after that. Around 1:30 am, we went to the nearest Shrine (i went there for the first time when i had been in Matsuyama for about 1 week, and this was the second time), whose name i seem to have forgotten, and did the wish thing. I actually did mine in Japanese, but only because I had been thinking about it like 10 minutes before we did the wish thing. then we took a walk inside the shrine building, and I got a fortune. I got the best one possible, which I think is a good thing. After all this, we finally went home, and father insisted that we all go to bed because we were having a sort of lunch party with mother and father's english teacher and her husband, as well as father's mother (who lives next door) the next morning.

Woke up around 9:30 the next morning and helped prepare for the party. the table we always eat meals at can only cater around 4 or 5 people (just enough usually), but theres a special setup for dinner parties. in the living room, we put two tables together and eat sitting on the floor. Anyway, it took us roughly like 45 minutes to set up, and then the people came. Their english teacher and her husband are both native Sri Lankins, but they've lived in Matsuyama for like 5 1/2 years now, so they're Japanese is perfect, and of course so is their english. Theyre both really nice people, and I talked with them for a while. they have one daughter who is probably about 1 or 2 years old right now, and they named her Sakura. Sakura really liked me for some reason, and she always smiled when she looked at me, even if she wasnt before. she also kept trying to say my name, but all she could say was "Je." Next I got my Otoshidama (new year money) from mom and dad, grandma, and Mom's mother (who i still havent met yet because she lives like an hour away from Matsuyama). The total amount I got was 25000 yen (around $210), which I think is quite steep, but I obviously can't just give it back, so I'm quite happy about it. After eating and everything, we all went to the Shrine again, except for Misato and Grandma. At the shrine we first looked at this one haiku that grandma wrote a long time ago that is carved into a pillar at the shrine. Grandma is really really good at writing haiku, and she has been all over the world for haiku contests. Anyway, after this we went into the shrine again, but I was temporarilly seperated from the group because I saw Robert (the American guy from Chicago who helps teach english at Chuo, and who has been for roughly 2 1/2 years) and talked to him for a good like 20 minutes, and then i found mom again and we did the wish thing together, and then we found everyone else and went home. After all this, I didn't do too much for the rest of the day.

On monday, alot of different stores had new years sales, and the stores were quite hectic because there were lots of little kids running around trying to figure out what to buy with their Otoshidama. I went to Book market twice that day and to a few other places, all of which were, like i said, hectic.

Next is yesterday. Me and Misato were supposed to go to McDonalds (lol, yeah, im not kidding there), but Dad convinced us to go to the Children's playground in Tobe (one of the towns next to Matsuyama) with him for this little new years festival type thing. Dad worked there like 3 years ago, and its no surprise since he's really really good with children. First off we met my dad's old boss. He was really nice, and just like dad, he had some really intellegent views on things. I also have to point out that I picked up right away that he is a bit older because he used ‚í‚µ instead of Ž„. Anyway, after this, we first did Mochizuki (i think thats what its called), which is where you help make rice cake by pounded on the really hard dough with a sledgehammer in an effort to soften in up a little. It was hillarious because dad started it off (since he was volunteering that day), and he was going for a while and then he started getting really slow and then stopped and was like "‚í‚ŸA‚µ‚ñ‚Ç‚¢‚ÈI" Anyway, after all of this, we ate some rice cake, had a little lunch, and then we went on next to kite flying. Even I'm surprised by the fact that I've never flown a kite before, and I wish that wasnt the case, because that's quite fun. It was funny because the wind wasn't all that strong, so to get the kite to launch, you had to run with it behind you and let it catch the wind. anyway, I'm actually not too bad at kite flying, and plan to probably do it again in America sometime. After this we did Japanese top, which was also kind of fun. I'm actually okay at it if i concentrate when I'm doing it. After this we left the Childrens playground and went to an Udon restaurant not too far from the park, which was as usual, fucking delicious. Then we went home, picked up mom, went to the video store, book market (again), and the super market, then came home. Not much else happened after that, but man, what a fun day the way.

Anyway, thats about all that I've left out since last time (i think). later..........

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 20:57:08 GMT

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a good time. Christmas isnt really celebrated here, but thats okay. Youre bound to miss something you really like when you go on an experience like I am on now, so im not too down about it. tonight i think theres a small get-together here, so that should be interesting. I still have to give everyone their presents.

Now for a funny story. its about what i did yesterday. So, for a week or so before yesterday, Misato had talked about this illumination that she wanted to go to the beach to see. the beach that it was at was a bit far away from here, and we didnt have a car to use, but we decided to go by train. only problem was that she was used to going by car and wasnt confident about where to get off. so we ended up getting off one stop too late, and the station we got off at was roughly a 40 or 50 minutes walk from the beach, as opposed to if we had gotten off maybe one or two stations earlier where it would have been about 5 minutes. I also have to point out that there is maybe only one or two train lines in Matsuyama and around (the beach was maybe two towns over or so), so a train only comes like once every hour or so, so riding the train back a stop wouldnt have been an option even if we had realized that we had gotten off too late. but either way, im not mad that we had to walk so much, though I know Misato was worried the whole time about me being really pissed off at her. After we watched the illumination for a while, and waited for the next train, we talked for a while. then we rode the train back into matsuyama and went downtown to a korean restaurant. that was delicious, but jae wasnt there so it just wasnt the same. anyway, then we took a taxi home around like 10, and then i didnt really do anything after that.

so anyway, merry christmas everyone, hope you get some cool shit, and to the people who i bought stuff for, hope you like it. later.......

EDIT (12/28/05): I got a book (famous japanese story translated to english), two mangas (in english), a cat calender, a small pocketknife, and clock tower for snes. I'm quite happy with these items. I've already read both mangas and the book. once again, christmas is quite small here in Japan, but I'm still quite happy with the result.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 21:42:44 GMT

well, it seems ive got a case of conjunctivitis, so no school for me today. got some medicene though, so im not worried. not much else is new. I didn't get to go to Dogo Onsen this past weekend, but ill go soon enough. I did get to ride the ferris wheel above the Takashimaya, and i have some aerial pics of matsuyama. I got my speech award re-presented to me infront of the whole school at morning meeting. Other than that theres not a whole lot different, ive just been relaxing because I have nothing that i have to finish, and winter break starts in like two days for me, so im looking forward to that, it should be fun. anyway, thats about all for now. oh yeah, and i translated my speech. the title is a little strange, but everything else should be okay. for people not studying japanese/japan, juku is a school after school that high school kids go to, and hiragana and katakana are two essential alphabets of Japanese. here it is:

My Inner Japan

Matsuyama Central Senior High School 2^nd grade Jeffrey Cap

The country I am most interested in right now is Japan. Though I wasnft so interested before, Ifm very interested now. The reason for this is that in the past one or two years, I have witnessed with my own two eyes, Japanfs successful economic growth on an international scale, and because I want to know more about the economically successful Japanese society as a whole. Also, because Japanese is my favorite school subject in America, I have an equal-sized interest in Japanese as well. By the time I return to America this winter, I want to learn more about Japanese culture and the Japanese language.

Before high school, began, I was required to choose a foreign language class to study that year in school. Because I couldnft decide which class to take, I began to worry. When this happened, my older brother, who had already been studying Japanese for three years, recommended that I choose Japanese class. If I had ended up choosing a different foreign language, I would probably not be right here right now.

When first-year Japanese class began, I immediately liked that class very much. My Japanese teacher is originally from Sapporo. Learning about Japan and learning Japanese was always fun, because my teacher always used humor in class to teach us whatever we were studying at the time. The first thing we studied in class was Hiragana and Katakana. Immediately after that, we began learning about Japanese culture and the Japanese way of life. We also learned about Japanese high school students. At the beginning of this, there were two things that I though I wouldnft believe until I gsaw them with my own two eyes.h The first one was about how Japanese high school students have to clean their school everyday by themselves. The second one was about how when Japanese high school students are studying for college entrance exams, they often go to Juku. Because we donft have Juku in America, I couldnft not believe this before I came to Japan. After first-year Japanese class was finished, I always wanted to learn more about Japan and Japanese.

When second-year Japanese class began, Sensei said, gnext summer there will be a 24-day trip to Japan in which we will experience many things.h Seeing this as my chance to go to Japan, I decided to participate in the Japan trip. When we went to Nakano Nishi High School in Nagano Prefecture, all the students we studying very hard. This was a very impressive thing to watch. In Tokyo, we visited Tsukiji Fish Market. To this day, I have not seen any group of people work as hard as the workers at Tsukiji Fish Market. I had read about Tsukiji in a book before, but seeing the actual thing was more than I had imagined. Because I experience these things in Japan, when I returned to America, all I could say to my parents was gI donft care what it takes, I will go back to Japan somday.h

Now, Ifm in Matsuyama. All though itfs been three monthes since I came here, Ifve experienced many new things. For example, Ifve joined the Judo club at school, and every day have been participating in practice after school. Also, in October, I participated in the school trip and spent four days in Tokyo. But also, the thing I must not forget is the extremely strict P.E. program at Matsuyama Central High School. The class is aimed at the Central Marathon in February, so every gym class we have to run a fair distance. Though at first, keeping up with the other students was a bit difficult, by now Ifve gotten fairly used to it. An even more important thing I must not forget is the fact that I feel like a Japanese high school student because Ifve been able to participate in such things. I think that because I have been able to do these things, to me, I feel like Ifve because a Central High School student. Of course, my hair is still blonde, some of my characteristics are different, and I am still different from the other students in certain ways. However, even the teachers sometimes take me for a Japanese high school student, and they are so glad to be receiving me this way.

As for my future, I donft know exactly what I want to do yet, but Ifm thinking that someday, I want to live in Japan and completely immerse myself in the culture, while still enjoying my life. But also, I want to form a friendly bond because America and Japan, but I also want to flourish as an international person. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 04:10:20 GMT

Well, a week and a half later, the first thing i have to say is: you know a week youve been dreading for roughly 2 monthes ends in a great way when you see this:

2nd prize in the exchange student japanese speech contest of Ehime Prefecture at Iyo Agricultural High School Dec 9. I fucked up the first sentence because I was nervous as hell, but it was perfectly smooth from there on. oh man, i am so relieved its ridiculous. Now I officially have nothing that i have to do that im not finished with yet. Now, there is a small thing i have to write for Fukuda Sensei, but its in English, so its okay. It seems that I will have a small few paragraphs in the next year book for Chuo, so i have to write them in English and then Fukuda sensei will translate it to Japanese for me. Should be easy. Its funny because we (me, kouno sensei, and Yamamoto, this other girl that was in another speech contest at the same place) went there in Kouno Sensei's car, and i think the first thing he said when we started driving was "man, i really want to smoke, but since youre here i wont." its funny because hes really blunt about his smoking. at least twice during the day, when there was a break, he was like "okay, im going outside now.....to smoke." Oh yeah, i forgot to say that I caught Ishimaru Sensei (my gym teacher) smoking today right when we left Chuo, which im pretty sure is the reason why Kouno sensei talked about wanting to smoke right at the beginning. I find it kind of fucked up that Ishimaru smokes, because Im pretty sure he not only plays rugby, but he also runs with us in gym class, and he never has any trouble doing that. But about the speech contest, it was (in the order of speeches given): this Australian kid named James, me, this mongolian girl with a really difficult name (even the annoncers had a hard time saying her name), this girl from America named Ann (i think), and this girl from Germany who's name i forgot. The mongolian girl got first, but im actually not surprised by that, because, to say it bluntly, if she hadnt been in the speech contest, I wouldn't have known she was an exchange student. She looks and sounds exactly like a Japanese school girl, and she said she studied japanese in mongolia for like 6 years, so Im not surprised that her Japanese is really damn good. I actually got along really well with James from Australia. its funny because he wasnt at all enthusiastic about the whole speech contest thing, and he did just read his speech, but all that set aside, he was still a really nice/interesting guy. hes been for 11 monthes, and the Mongolian girl has been here for about 8 monthes. but anyway, now I will talk about the time since the last entry.

Last week, tests ended on thursday. on friday I got back both of my math tests. (i dont understand the scoring of these tests, so im not sure how bad/good the scores for the first one is) the first test i got a 9 on (2 problems answered correctly) and the second one a 0 (obviously 0 answered correctly). now, those scores are obvioulsy really low, but keep a few things in mind: 1. they dont matter for me because im an exchange student. 2. All the questions are in Japanese, and math words arent in the dictionary. 3. I somehow did better than Hasegawa, but then again, he did say ƒ€ƒŠ ("its useless") over and over again before both math tests. After the classes, we cleaned for about an hour, since it had been a week since we last cleaned. we had to wax the floors and everything, and it was sort of annoying, but whatever. Anyway, a normal week followed last week, except that all i was doing when going home was memorizing my speech and practicing it and such, getting ready for Friday (today). I was getting damn stressed about it, but i was still doing it. during that time, i sent a package home on tuesday or something, which cost about $107 to ship (fucking international shipping rates). On wednesday, we had what I call "sports day II," though its really "classroom sports games." basically, the homerooms are split up into the same teams from sports day, and they face each other in tennis, basketball, soccer, volleyball, handball (unbelievable different from handball in america, something we dont have in america), and dodgeball. I left my camera home that day (goddamnit!), so i dont have any pics from it. i was doing dodge ball, with people on my team such as Tanaka, Shingo, that kid that looks exactly like Matt, that other kid that looks like matt but not as much, and a bunch of other people I know but dont know their names, since they are all in gym with me. So yeah, it was like another sports day, except that instead of staying out the whole day in like 90 degree weather, we stayed outside all day in like 40 degree weather. that part of the day sucked majorly, but the rest of the day was really fun. I also have to talk about how american dodge ball is different from japanese dodge ball. in japanese dodge ball, not as many people play, theres only one ball, theres no way to get back in if youre out, you can still throw the ball if youre out, and if you catch the ball the person who threw it is not out. it looks like the same game, but the rules are different, especially the catch thing.

anyway, thats about all that there is to the time since the last update. I may post the speech later, but not now, i dont feel like typing it. later.......

EDIT: heres the speech, and yes i DID memorize this entire speech. ill probably provide a translation later, but not now. enjoy!

Ž„‚Ì’†‚Ì“ú–{

¼ŽR’†‰›‚“™ŠwZ“ñ”N@ƒWƒFƒtƒŠƒLƒƒƒbƒv

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:49:49 GMT

I think we all thought this day would never come. You were a god among men, rest in peace my friend.

Pat Morita

1932-2005

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 07:56:44 GMT

Since I have access to Junka's computer, ill do a small update, but it wont be long because the internet is ridiculously slow on this computer (‚·‚²‚¢’x‚¢ in Junka's exact words). anyway, yesterday me and mom came to Kobe. we were the only two people on the coach bus to Kobe. thats right, a fucking fullsized coach bus with only two people on it: me and mom. ricidulous. anyway, it was like a 4 hour ride, but when we got there, Junka was waiting at the station. First, we put our suitcases in a coin locker, and then we rode about one hour or so worth of trains to get to Kyoto. I got to revisit KiyomizuDera and HeianJingu, but it was late as hell when we got to HeianJingu, so we couldnt go in, which sucks, but oh well, at least I got to go back. A huge reason why we got to HeianJingu late as hell is because of me. I got us lost completely, lol, seems I dont remember the area so well. At KiyomizuDera I drank the water again and took a bunch of pictures of the country side from the temple, since its situated in a high-up area. Anyway, around like 8:30 or so we got back on all the trains and started on our way back to Kobe, but we first stopped in Osaka (I think) and had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant. It was actually really good. Basically, its a Viking style restaurant (buffet style in america) for everything except the meat. for the meat, people working there come to the table with basically a sword in one hand that has a huge piece of meat on it, and a huge knife in the other hand, and they cut off pieces onto your plate. that place was actually really really good, even though my expectation was low when i first got there. Im pretty sure all the people there, even though more than half of them werent japanese, speak fluent japanese. it was kind of cool. Anyway, after this, we went and got out suitcases and then we got on another like 30 minutes of trains to get to Junka's apartment. Its hillarious because everyone who told me about Junka's apartment was totally not kidding: its EXTREMELY small. I seriously think theres like less than 40 square feet. I have pictures which Ill post later (since I cant upload any from this computer). Then we basically all went to bed because we were really tired.

Today we went to Nara. It was quite interesting, since we went to like 3 or 4 temples. I've got plenty of pictures from there. speaking of pictures, ive taken like 130 this weekend alone, and ill post some later when i have the capability. Anyway, thats about all I have to say for right now. tomorrow is basically all about helping Junka pack up her stuff, but I think I still might have the chance to do some stuff tomorrow. okay then, wait till the next update. later........