First Post Since Arriving (sorry it took so long)

Hello everyone! Sorry it took so long for me to update my blog...haha I have been here a month now and I have loads of things to share with you. First of all...Japan has been a wonder to behold. As I sit here in class on my second day of High School everyone is working diligently to the soft tapping of the keys on many keyboards. I am in informatics class...which is like computers and luckily I have been granted permission to go on the internet and do what I wish. So I have decided to provide to you the highly anticipated First Blog Entry since my arrival. And now that I am in school with frequent access to a computer, hopefully I will find time to update you folks more often. I believe I will separate my blog entries into sections, as that is the easiest way to organize my brain…

Rotary

The Rotary Club of Kuroishi is a small club but filled with wondrous people with big hearts. When I first arrived here, many members from the Rotary club and future and present host family members greeted me. They were holding up a huge banner that said WELCOME JANE ASHLEY HORTON SAN. It was such a wonderful greeting...I was so suprised and happy all at once. Soon after, they threw a welcoming party for me at the Appleland Onsen (an onsen is a Japanese hot spring). There was a buffet and many kind people. There, I gave a very short speech, and exchanges host club banners. My Summerland banner for their Kuroishi banner. Also, I recieved my okozukai (allowance from Rotary which I will receive monthly). My kozukai is a lovely some of 10,000 yen, which is equal to about 120$ Canadian. So far, I have been to two Rotary meetings and I believe I am expected to give a speech at each one of them, though at the moment I am allowed to keep them short.


Also, with the Rotary Club, I danced in the Kuroishi Yosare. This is a big summer festival where people from Kuroishi danced for 2 -3 hours in the street while spectators sit on the sides. It is a pre choreographed traditional Japanese dance which was difficult at first, but I eventually caught on. In the middle of the dance, a two man television film crew ran out into the middle of the road, turned on a big blinding light, and filmed me while I was dancing since I was the only caucasion in the parade. I was so nervous! I was also announced on the loud speaker in Japanese. They said something to the effect of: "And with the Kuroishi Rotary Club is Jane! An exchange student from Canada! Do your best Jane!" This also, surprised me a lot. That day I got the autograph from a famous sumo wrestler too. I forget his name though, since it is written in Japanese Kanji. But there was this one time in the parade where we stopped infront of the sumo wrestlers and danced in a circle and they all joined in with their intense hair and yukata etc! It was so much fun!

Host home/family

I'm going to start off by saying that I love my host family and I will cry intensely when I have to leave them. I don't have any host siblings, but that is okay since people and friends come over every day! Also, before she left, I made friends with my host parents' granddaughter, Akane, who is the exchange student in Meritt, BC right now. My host family is so kind and my host father is absolutely hilarious. He has a strong accent due to growing up with the local dialect called Tsugaru-ben, which is extremely different from standard Japanese. Though all of them understand and can speak standard Japanese as well. For example (and this has been a great joke for parties), when my host dad says Hashi (chopsticks), Hasu (floating flowers), and Hashi (bridge), it all sounds the same. So funny...haha

The lifestyle of my family is also very active. When I first arrived, they took me to 7 festivals, and then when we weren't going to festivals, we were having yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) parties, doing karaoke, and going out to eat almost every day. In fact, my host dad and friends and family drink lots of beer every night. But the atmosphere is not that of an alcoholic. It is simply normal and fun, with a warm and cheerful atmosphere always. I will say right now, that being with the Japanese when they are drinking, is one of the most entertaining times one could experience.

In total, I have a whopping 5 host families. 3 of them are taking me for 3 months, one is taking me for one, and the other for 2. I have a feeling that moving is going to be a pain in the butt though, especially since I basically packed my whole house into two bags, and I keep getting presents up the yingyang (the Japanese are a very giving people. it is customary to give gifts in Japan).

School

My high school here in Japan began last week. Every day, I commute to and from school by train using a student pass. From the station, I then walk for about 5 minutes to Kuroishi Koukou (high school). It takes about 40 minutes each way to get to and from school every day.

School begins at 8:30am and goes until 3:20pm every day. After school, most students will attend an after school club. Sports club practice EVERY DAY (weekends and holidays too). Later, I plan on joining the Shodo club (Caligraphy). The days of a regular Japanese student start early and end late.

At the beginning and end of each class, the entire class rises and bows to the teacher. In my class, ni-nensei (like grade 11), 23 homeroom, the students are DEAD SILENT ALL CLASS. It mildly drives me insane, but it is also a nice environment to study my Japanese in. Especially since my brain is constantly absorbing the Japanese that the teacher is speaking.

Everyone in the school wears a school uniform. This consists of a blouse, knee high socks, skirt, and no make up (this was difficult for me to accept), dyed hair, or piercings. Though a lot of the girls subtly wear make up anyways, and for a female student to roll up their skirt is normal.

All classes are taught in Japanese...and for me this means half standard Japanese and half Tsugaru-ben. So confusing haha! But all of the textbooks are in standard Japanese. Oh and each day my host mom makes me a Japanese obentou (lunch box). Sooo yummy...it usually has rice with furikake(rice topping. mine are pokemon themed!), eggs, weeners, chicken, salad, edamame, and sometimes she adds some blueberries for desert.

But yes...all in all, I don't really understand the classes (except for English, which I help out with usually), but I study my own Japanese every day. So far I can write in Hiragana, and katakana, and I am progressing in Kanji.

Lifestyle and Culture

Toilets

So you can imagine the look on my face when I entered the bathroom in my host family's house and the cover of the toilet seat auto opened for me. When I sat down, the toilet seat was heated (oh it will be hard to leave this in the wintertime), and I had the option of spray jetting my bum, and then air drying it. Then the toilet auto flushes and the toilet seat closes. Its....AMAZING. But there is also its counterpart. In most public places and in my school washroom the counterpart can be found. The infamous...Japanese Squat Toilet. It is basically a regular toilet with the shape of a hole in the ground. This was so odd the first time I used it but now I am used to it.

Food

Oh lawd...okay I'm going to start by mentioning that the food here is absolutely AMAZING. I love Japanese food...oh god...but after I list off some of the things I have eaten, you will probably beg to differ from pure FEAR! That's right...cower in the might of my brave scary-food-eating skills. OKAY...so here is a list of what I can remember at the moment....

Kani (crab): I eat this crab raw. Raw as in, it still looks alive and has eyeballs and hair. And I rip off its head and eat the green paste out of it with a spoon. And then, I rip off its spikey legs and eat the meat out of them. BUAHAHAHA.
Fish: I am just going to say fish because there are so freaking many kinds of fish. (I love sanman) And the fish is cooked, but also still looks alive so I tear it apart which chopsticks and take out all the bones and eat it with rice ahahahaha...
Yakisoba
Soba
Udon
Ramen
Octopus (sooo good raw with soy sauce and wasabi)
Eel
Myoga (burdock root thing)
Pumpkin
Shrimp Pilaf
Eggplant
Tofu
Tokoro Ten (diet food...its like clear noodley slimey things. its from sea plants)


Ummmm there is a lot more but I dont remember right now!


Festivals

During the summer I went to MANY MANY festivals. First of all, I saw the famous Aomori Nebuta festival, which feature hundreds of floats that depict paintings of samurai warriors, beautiful maidens, angry demons, and dragons too. They are lit up from the inside and some of them are as tall as houses! People parade down the streets playing flutes and banging on giant drums as they follow the Nebuta down the streets. It is certainly the epitome of Japanese culture. I actually got to try one of the drums too! And also I was surprised for a second to see the swatstika on some of the floats. In fact, the swatstika is also still depicted on some of there man whole covers in the streets as well. Maybe these are left over from the world war II period. Anyways, I went to Nebuta Festivals in: Kuroishi, Hirakawa, Aomori, and Hirosaki. So much fun!

The other festivals I went to were the Kuroishi Yosare (which I mentioned previously) and the Kuroishi Genki Matsuri. Genki Matsuri had bands playing on a stage leading up to fireworks. Now let me tell you right now...Japanese people go ALL OUT with their fireworks. They are always without a doubt...going to be AMAZING. And I am serious...Kuroishi is a pretty small town as far as Japan goes and their fireworks were AWESOME. Im just going to leave it at that.


Wrap up

For now, I cannot think of much else to write. Oh except that Japanese Karaoke and Purikura is SO FUN! There are many Karaoke buildings with individual rooms where you can order food and have parties and such. Purikura are photo stickers which you self decorate after. Lots of fun...

But yes, I am so sorry that I did not update for such a long time. I hope this entry makes up for it. I will do my best to update more often from now on.

Lots of love to everyone! Pictures of my adventure are on my facebook (add me under Jane Horton. I will only add future, past or current exchange students, rotary members, family, or special cases) and later I may post some here!

Jane