JAPAN HOMESTAY

December 12th Thu.	Today went about the same as yesterday at school, except there was an English class today that I was able to help with, which was nice. After lunch, when I was going around the school with Riki, I ran into Daisuke, a teacher there who had come to Los Banos 6 years ago. He had been the program advisor for a homestay group in Los Banos, and it was a cool coincidence to meet him in Shibushi! He had printed out some pictures of when he was in Los Banos for me, so I thought that was really nice of him! Today in the brass band club, a new reporter for the town came and took some pictures of me with the band and asked me a few questions, so I thought it was cool to know that other people knew and cared that I was there. After school, Riki and I found out that we had to walk home, and it was a pretty long walk. With a stop at 7-11 on the way, it took us about an hour to reach home, at which point we were really tired, so we just laid down and watched TV for a little bit. We had Nikujaga for dinner, which was familiar to me, and really good! After dinner, Shimo wanted to show me the card game Speed, which I knew already, so we played a few games of it together and had some fun! We also played a couple games of Jenga and some wii before going to bed. The nights here have usually been relaxing and fun, and tonight was no exception.
December 11th Wed.	Today was my first day at junior high school. The day went pretty smoothly. I had Riki helping me and guiding me through the day, and he was a big help. The school didn't have a lot of English classes or any ALTs, so when it was a Japanese class, I just read and did some homework. One of the classes I participated in was an art class, in which they made me stand on the front desk and pose for them so they could sketch me. An odd request, but I obliged, feeling really weird the whole time. After that, I joined with them in copying drawings out of children's stories, and the drawing I did there was one of the best I feel I've ever done (coming from a bad artist). After school, I joined the brass band club at the junior high, where I played sax again. They seemed impressed at how quickly I picked up the music, so I felt good about that. After school, we headed back to the nursery school, where they introduced me to Riki and Shimo's cousin Meika. She was really nice and spoke very good English! We talked for an hour or so, until my host parents were done with work and ready to head home. For dinner that night, we had a meal called Oden, in which a pot was on the table with a lot of different hot foods in it, most of which were good. Tonight I played Jenga with my host brothers, a game I brought to them as a gift, so that was a lot of fun! I went to bed a little earlier tonight to get enough sleep for my last day at school in Japan.
December 10th Tue.	My second day at the high school was just as good as the first, if not better! Once again, I spent the day with Mr. Miyazaki's class, and the ALTs, mostly doing the same things, but it was still fun. Right before lunch, there was a big soccer game going on at the school, so I hung out with some of the other students and watched the game. After lunch, Daniel took me on a little tour of the school, and we got to talk a lot as well, mostly about our impressions of Japan, as he was from Oregon. He was really nice and I was glad I had a chance to talk to him. For my last class of the day, me and the English class had a calligraphy class, or Shugi, as it's called in Japan. I had seen it done before, but never done it myself, so it was a cool experience! I didn't think I was that good, but they all said my work was great, especially for my first time! I guess I'm just not very confident in my art. After class they gave me a gift bag with some notes and origami from the class, they were so nice! I went back to the ESS club after school, and they met up with the tea ceremony club, where a couple other students and I participated in a tea ceremony. It was interesting to see the traditions that are passed down in the ceremonies! Also, the ESS club really wanted me to try Maccha tea, the traditional green tea used in the ceremony. It was really good! I had just a little time left before going home, so I visited the brass band club once more just to thank them and say goodbye. After going back home, we immediately went back out to the most interesting restaurant I had ever been to. The place literally gave you a mini barbecue and a platter of raw meat, and you cooked it yourself! It was really cool and fun to do, the food tasted delicious! There were a lot of different meats like beef, pork, squid, cow heart, sausage, etc. It was my favorite dinner I've had here so far! There wasn't much to do later that night, so I just did some homework and played some games before going to bed.
December 9th Mon.	Today was my first day at the high school, and I loved it! It was my first time ever wearing a uniform to school, so that was interesting. In the morning, there was a big assembly at which I introduced myself, so all the students knew my name and who I was. The class I was with most of the time was with Mr. Miyazaki, the second year English teacher there. He was very nice and helps me out through the day. He had 15 students (all girls :p) in his class who were all very excited to meet me. They all spoke fairly good English, so talking with them was fun for me and educational for them. I soon became friends with most all of them! When I wasn't with Mr. Miyazaki, I was either with Daniel or Peter, the two ALTs at the high school. I helped them out with their English classes and had a lot of fun doing so! All of the students were very kind to me, and very welcoming. After school I visited two club activities, the brass band club and the ESS club. In the brass band, I got to play saxophone for the first time in a few weeks, so that was a lot of fun! After about an hour, I went to ESS (English speaking society), where I met with some of the club members there, and played a game with them. All in all, it was a great day! I was very tired though, because I didn't get home from school until 7, a very long school day. After dinner, I decided to go to bed a little earlier, I felt I needed the rest for another long day at the high school.
December 8th Sun.	Today we visited the Castle Town of Obi, a cool place focused around Obi castle, an old samurai home. The town was very interesting, the whole place was set up like a big tourist attraction. They had maps available showing all of the featured parts of the town, and a lot of specialty foods at different stations around the town. To get the town, we took the train, and this was the first time I had ever ridden a train for transport, so that was cool! We visited many of the sites around the town, saw a lot of cool things, and I tried some new foods as well! One of my favorite parts was an archery setup that they had, so we all tried that out. It was interesting to see the archery style here in Japan, as I have done some in the past. After exploring the town for a bit, we went and explored what remained of the castle. The castle is hundreds of years old, so a lot of it was gone, but what remained looked very cool! Some parts around the castle had been turned into an elementary school and a baseball field, so a lot of kids were there as well. Before we left the town, we visited a few more samurai houses and bought some food for dinner. My host parents had to go to their job, so it was just Riki, Shimo, and me left at the house eating chicken and tempura shrimp for dinner. Good food! I did some homework after dinner, and then played games with them until my host parents came home. I was excited to go to the high school the next day, so I got my things and the uniform I had to wear ready before going to bed.
December 7th Sat.	Today was a really fun day! It was the start of my first weekend in Japan, and we drove to Miyazaki to do some shopping and check things out. It was about a 40 minute drive and the first place we went there was a big media store that had so much in it! There was an arcade, so many books and video games, and a lot of music as well. It was a really cool place, I had never seen one that big in America. After that, we visited a Japanese antique shop that had a lot of really interesting artifacts. There were a lot of vases and some wood carvings, but I thought the coolest thing was the samurai armor in the back, it was awesome to see something like that in person! Later we went to the mall in Miyazaki, which had a lot of cool shops and attractions. The mall also had a big arcade, so I spent some time there, and I also did some shopping, something I hadn't done a lot of so far. After a couple hours in the mall, we decided to go back home, stopping for dinner on the way. When we got back to Shibushi, we went to the driving range only a few minutes away from my host family's house. It was fun to play a little bit of golf again, but I wasn't nearly as good as Riki or my host father. We hit golf balls for about an hour before heading home, where we rested after a long day.
December 6th Fri.	I woke up this morning at about 6:30 to get ready and had some more curry for breakfast (I don't think spicy food for breakfast really agrees with me.). At the elementary school today, everything went a lot more smoothly. I spent most of the day with an ALT ( a native English speaker who helps teach) named Kori from Texas. She was really nice to me, and we talked a lot between classes. I went to classes with her and helped teach English to the Japanese kids. It was a fun experience, and I really enjoyed it! After school, we waited and played for about an hour and a half (not sure why) before my host father came to pick me and Shimo up. After he picked us up we went to some temples and grave sights around the city, introducing me to the spiritual side of the life there. We also visited a few random sites around the city, such as little pets shop with a lot of birds and fish. We spent the evening relaxing, as it was a Friday and there wasn't much to do. I found a game on the iPad that Shimo really enjoys, so we played that together for awhile. Today was a fun day in general, I had a good time. I went to sleep that night looking forward to the weekend, I knew that they had fun things planned!
December 5th Thu.	Today, there was a change in plans, so I had most of the day free to do homework. I was supposed to go to the elementary school today, but it got switched to tomorrow. My host parents had to leave for their jobs, leaving me home, where I got a lot done on my homework. My host father came back around 3:00, and we drove to a place I can only describe as "Dolphin Land", as that is what it appeared to be. It looked like they might have had dolphins there, but they weren't available that day, so we just went to the shops around the place. It really wasn't that big, but the place felt very happy with the upbeat music and smiling pictures of sea creatures everywhere! We returned home in time for dinner, which was Curry and rice, one of my favorites! I enjoyed the dinner, having seconds, and then just played games with my host brothers the rest of the night. I didn't need to do any more homework that night, as I had gotten it out of way earlier. I'm really becoming good friends with Riki and Shimo, what I call my host brothers. They're very nice and fun to be around. I went to bed a little earlier that night so I could get up for school in the morning.
December 4th Wed.	Today I had a day off from school, so my host father took me to see a lot of different places in Shibushi city. First we visited the elementary school, because the students were having a big 1500m race nearby, and it was cool to see all the kids running together! We also went to a Pachinko Palace, which I thought was very funny. I myself have never been in an American casino, but all the different Pachinko machines here made me laugh and smile. They had so many different themes and styles, some of which I recognized. We went out to lunch, and the restaurant had tables with the raised floor where you kneel at to eat. That was interesting to see, and it was my first time eating at place like that. The name of my dish was StamIna, emphasis on the I, or at least that's what it sounded like, and it was very good. We also went to an orchard where we picked oranges and mushrooms, something I had never done before. They cooked up the mushrooms that night, and they were really good! We went back to the nursery school after for a little while, then headed home where I worked on some homework. Today was mostly a tourism day, so it was nice to see all the sights around Shibushi. I got the chance to talk to my family a little that night, so it was nice to see them again. I'm still very happy to be here, but I'm missing my home as well.
December 3rd Tue.	Today was my first day attending school here in Japan, and I was at the elementary school. It was a little scary and hectic at first, but once I got settled into a classroom, everything began to go as planned. My favorite thing that I got to do in school today was the music class. I helped the teacher teach an English song to the kids, a song called "On Top of The World". It was a lot of fun, and afterwards, a few of the students gave me a very cool presentation of their school song, while everyone else sang along. I had a really great time in that class! After school, I visited the nursery school where my host parents worked and stayed there for an hour or two, playing soccer and other games with kids. That night for dinner we had a cooked dish made up mostly of lettuce that I had never seen before. I was a little skeptical at first, but I tried it, and it was really good. That night, I played some games with my host brothers before taking a shower and going to bed.
December 2nd Mon.	Today, my host mother took me to visit the different schools and other places in Shibushi city. We met with the headmasters of the elementary, junior high, and senior high schools, all of whom seemed glad to have me. We also went out to a couple stores, and there was an arcade connecting a supermarket, two things I never would have thought going together. After going to a bakery, we went to the top of a hill that overlooked Shibushi city. We sat at a picnic table to eat our food, and the view was stunning. The entire city was visible, and the water and the trees made the scene absolutely beautiful. That night, for dinner, I helped prepare some ingredients for a make-your-own sushi dinner. It was absolutely delicious! I had never tried real Japanese sushi before, but now, I wish I had. My host brothers played video games with me that evening (they really are a universal language!). It was one of my favorites from America, and we all had a lot of fun! I'm still not fully adjusted to the time, so I welcomed sleep when it came time.
December 1st Sun.	It's a weird feeling leaving one morning and arriving the next night. All of my senses were telling me it should be night when the sun was still out, and vice versa. The two flights and the airport stop between were very draining, so I was very tired when I arrived in Kagoshima. Nevertheless, I was happy to be there, and excited to meet my host family. They seemed very excited to meet as well! I felt very welcomed by the sign they held and the smiles on their faces. I slept most of the way home, exhausted and needing rest. Luckily, they had already prepared a room and a bed for me, so gratefully, I slept.