First of all, I apologize for not making a big "Two months!" Blog yet. I promise I will have it up soon! It's been difficult to blog when I have club activities and studying to do everyday after school. I am very happy to be busy though! The reason for this quick blog though: the other day I taught my tea ceremony club-mates the cup song and game! They are still learning the words to the song, because the lyrics are difficult, so for now I am singing it and they hum along. They are very fast learners though and at the end of practicing I asked if I could take a video, so here it is! In the video I am singing the song a lot faster than it's supposed to be sung because they wanted to play it super fast, they actually wanted to go even faster but I can't sing that fast! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. New blog will be up soon!
So much to do, so little time. In the last two weeks I have taken nine different tests and out of those nine, I managed to pass three! That may seem pitiful but with the amount of complicated kanji used on the tests, it's kind of a wonder I passed any. My proudest moment in the last two weeks actually occurred this last Wednesday because I managed to get 100% on my English vocabulary test! We had to learn the translations of 50 words and then ten were selected at random and we had to translate them. It was super hard but I emerged victorious!
Last week I got to go to another jazz concert and, once again, I am left with an enormous desire to dance it out. However, because of my schedule, I won't be able to make it to the ocean this week. For now I am releasing that energy in Badminton practice! It's going great. Everyday after school we run for three kilometers and then practice for an hour or two. I'm still not very good, but I'm able to keep up with my advanced club mates now! The girls in my club are awesome. Slowly, through broken English and Japanese we are getting to know each other and it feels great to be making friends. Japanese people tend to be pretty shy I've found, but my classmates are really starting to open up to me now! Granted many of our conversations are about what foods and bands are, but it's a start! Sanuki-ben, this area's slang, is not easy but slowly I am learning all the little differences. I've actually found myself muttering little things in Japanese without thinking, it's so exciting!! Speaking of exciting things, I finally got to go to Japanese karaoke. Why hasn't America started doing it like Japan? My host family took me during week 6 to gorilla karaoke where you rent a room and then sing the night away, and that's exactly what we did! One things that's very different about Japanese karaoke is that the machine gives you a score on how well you sang on key and with the right words, so of course we all decided that the person with the lowest score would have to do all the dishes at the next nights dinner. I ended up singing Elton John, Billy Joel, Disney, and Let it go in Japanese. Singing karaoke in Japanese is not easy... But hey I ended up getting the highest score, so no dishes for me! It was so fun, I can't wait for next time! Last week I got to go to 秋祭, the fall festival, in Toyohama with some of my classmates. It was so cool! At these festivals each town has a number of Chousa, giant, decorated, structures containing drums that are carried by around 50 people in hapi coats. They were so beautiful! The morning of I woke up to the sound of Taiko drums, talk about a unique experience! At the festival I got to try ringo-ame, candied apples that are hard as jolly ranchers (nearly chipped my tooth, yet delicious!), and ran into many of my schoolmates! It's very interesting seeing them out of school because there's no uniform, so it's like a different person! It was super fun and I can't wait to go to Kanonji's festival with my badminton club-mates today! This weekend is going to be very busy! After the festival, my host father and I are off to Kochi for a rotary party and I will get to meet another one of the exchange students on the island, which I'm super excited for. Then tomorrow I will go to another festival and a traditional Japanese music performance, so it looks like I'm going to be very sleepy at school on Monday, but I'm so excited! All in all, I am loving life here and I can't wait for the months to come. It's almost my 2nd month-aversary! What a lucky girl I am. Until next time! Hello world! It's been a while. I apologize for not blogging last week, I was very tired and didn't feel like I had too much to write about. Not that I'm not having an incredible time here, just that the things I have been recently experiencing might seem mundane to others. Six weeks! Time is really starting to fly by.
At the moment, my life consists of primarily school and studying. Both I am thoroughly enjoying, although it is not easy. My teachers and classmates are all very kind and try to translate as much as they can for me but I really just want to understand in Japanese. Everyday I understand more and more of what they are all saying, but it's not always easy for me to find the words to reply! I keep trying though and I study everyday. Currently, I am practicing by writing sentences in Japanese and then having my classmates or teachers correct them! I feel like an idiot most of the time because I write probably at the rate of a five year old, but I suppose you learn something from feeling like a moron. I know that I am definitely learning how to laugh off things here because I make a lot of mistakes. (Examples: when I told people I was 70 years old and from the country of vending machines) Mistake of this week: my rotary speech. This time I attempted to write the entire thing in Japanese hiragana, kanji, and katakana instead of romaji. This was a great idea in theory, but actually doing it was terrible. I tried to read it too fast so I messed up big time. My club was very kind about it, they were impressed that I tried it. In the end I just had to get over the fact that I stumbled a great deal and it as probably the worst speech I've made so far. I allowed myself to be upset for ten minutes, then I laughed and accepted it. Next time will be better! Something else I have been learning on my exchange so far, is how to deal with people constantly staring at me. Because of my hair, skin, eyes, and freckles, I stand out a great deal from the population of Kanonji. So pretty much every moment of everyday, someone is looking at me. Normally, this would not bother me, but because it is all the time it gets a little weird to deal with. I am glad that at the end of the day I can come home to my host family and relax, they are wonderful people. I just need to keep on smiling at the strangers I meet and remember that I would do the same in there position. Quick note: even though, their stares are weird to get used to, strangers here have been kind to me! Telling me which recycle bin is the one I need when I can't read the sign, helping me with directions, etc. This country has the nicest people, so I think I can deal with the stares! As for school news, school is great! Extremely difficult, but amazing all the same. My classmates are especially wonderful! Everyday we try to speak to each other in both Japanese and English, which doesn't always work, but we keep trying! Slowly but surely, I am getting to know my classmates. It's kind of funny, but they are like my personal cheerleaders! Whenever I try to say anything In Japanese, no matter how simple, they cheer me on! It's very encouraging so I try to do the same when they try to speak English! It's not easy, but I hope we can eventually become friends! Last week I got to spend some time with my badminton club friends at Youmetown, the local mall. We took Purikura, ate ice cream, and they taught me a bunch of new words and teenager slang like "ikemen" which means "cool man/boy". It was fun to see the differences and similarities in teen conversations. It was a great day and I can't wait to get to know these girls more! The following picture is from our purikura at Youmetown! This week I also got to spend some extra time with some of my host rotary club's members! On the weekend three of them took me out to dinner and I got to practice my Japanese. (None of them could speak English) We had a great time. The next night I got to go out to dinner with my second host family. They are such kind people, I am very excited to stay with them! As for the weather right now, lots of clouds and rain! This Monday we are due to have a typhoon, so that should be exciting! I have already been rained on twice while riding my bike to school. Sadly it wasn't as dramatic or cool looking as it is in the movies. It was just wet and I had to squint to see. Still, looking forward to monday! All in all, it's been a very busy six weeks a of exchange and everyday I am learning so much! I currently understand more than I can say, but I'm getting there. I may be frustrated by my lack of communication sometimes but I know that with time, I will be able to communicate. For now, I will study like a maniac. Until next time! ( ´ ▽ ` )ノ |
AuthorI am Summer Ashley and this is my blog documenting my year long exchange to Japan. Archives
September 2015
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