京都

Yesterday I went to Kyoto!

Yesterday morning my host grandma and I went to Nagoya station. It was raining, which it did for most of the day, but I didn't mind too much. It wasn't as terribly hot as it usually is, so I was fairly happy with how the weather was.
Anyway, we waited behind Nagoya station for a while in the rain (with our umbrellas of course) before boarding a large bus with a big group of people. I had been under the impression that we were taking a train to Kyoto, so again I wasn't sure what was going on.
The bus ride was so nice! Not that I remember much of it. I slept for most of the way to Kyoto. I was asleep for much of the time I was on the bus that day. I don't even remember falling asleep, so I guess I really must have been tired. I may have been sleepy, but it was very peaceful. My host grandma and I had the entire last row to ourselves, and I sat by the window on the left.

First we stopped at a gift shop place that had lots of nice Japanese things. I was confused though, because people (including us) left some of their belongings on the bus, and we weren't at a big train station or anything. Eventually I figured out that it was like a tour bus. It drove us to some places and we had a designated time to be back in the bus by.
Our second stop was a Holiday Inn for lunch, where everything was prepared. Then we went to a train place. Everyone boarded a train that had big windows. We went on a scenic ride through the mountains, basically, and saw forests and rivers and so on.
After that we went to another place, but I'm not entirely sure what it was. There was a sign that said "cake factory", but it didn't seem very relevant. We all went upstairs to a dining area where plates were set out for everybody, each with two small gelatin cubes and a small piece of cake and a big cream puff. There was also a big gift shop that we visited.

At the next stop my host grandma and I went to the Byodoin. It's this famous temple, and its Phoenix Hall is on the back of ten yen coins.
(I can't put up pictures right now, but I plan on adding a lot in about a week.)









That's pretty much all we did. I had fun though.

Mt. Fuji, Graduation Ceremony, Toyota Motors, etc.

Ok. On Saturday I didn't do much. I did purikura with my host mom and host sister, and in the evening I speant time with my host mom's friend's daughter again (her name is Saki). There was this small festival in the evening, so I wore my yukata. There was food and music, and I saw more people wearing a yukata at once than I ever did before. Well, I only speant about five minutes there though. Saki and I went to a park to meet her friends and light sparklers. That's when the yukata got more inconvenient, because first of all it was hot and it was a bit tricky for me to walk, but then I had to worry about keeping it clean. It also seemed a bit awkward for me to be wearing a yukata around a bunch of Japanese teenagers. So I met at least ten people from Saki's class or school or whatever, though we hardly talked. Saki and I had fun with the sparklers, and I met one of her good friends who joined us and was really nice. Time flew by. I have plans to go to the movies with Saki today.



Sunday was a long day because my host family and I drove all the way to Mount Fuji. We drove up part of the mountain to a parking area. The air seemed very fresh and there were clouds and fog. We must have been pretty high up, because when I looked down the mountain all I could see were trees and then a layer of clouds below me. The most wonderful thing about being there was the temperature. It was high enough to be cold. It reminded me of late fall or maybe even winter, and it was so refreshing. I think that if anyone plans to go to Japan when it's summer they should just stay on Mount Fuji. Honestly though, the temperature was getting close to 100 degress Fahrenheit last week, and there's also humidity.
I did take pictures, but I didn't get a big scenic one of the entire mountain.






Monday was our last day at the language school. We had a ceremony, to which I wore my yukata. We had our speeches and group presentations prepared. I was totally nervous about it in the morning, but as the day progressed I started to feel better.
We held the ceremony at a big room in a hotel.
First, I believe, the teachers talked to the audience (students and host families) for a while. Then they had all of the students sing a song that we had heard in class on Friday, but it didn't go very well. After sitting down again, each student's name was read because we had to go up and accept a certificate. This was the graduation ceremony part.
Finally it was time for the individual speeches. I went fourth out of my class, and I think I did all right. After all 23 speeches it was time for the group presentations. The first group did a skit about Japanese food, the second group's theme was Japanese culture, and the group I was in was the festival group. We focused on the bon festival, so we also did a dance.
Like I've said, it was the last time all 23 Nagoya summer program students were together.
I knew that day would come but I wasn't particularly sad after all. Later on I did feel a bit quiet though.

AFS arranged for all of the Nagoya students to go to Toyota Motors on either Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Two of the classes went on Tuesday while the third class went on Wednesday, but some people couldn't come and others switched days because of other plans.
I went on Tuesday. After an hour and a half ride, we arrived at a small Toyota museum area. There were mostly just cars and things about Toyota's goals and achievements. After we had some time to look around there, it was time for the tour to start. We took a tour in English so we were part of a large group. All of us boarded a bus and went on a ride to a Toyota factory. We basically saw welding lines and car doors that weren't attached yet and lots of car frames that were being worked on. Cameras were forbidden in the factory. It was interesting but also fairly long. I became tired after a while.

Finally the tour was over and we were brought back to the little museum area. The AFS students got back on the AFS vans and we went to a restaurant for lunch. Afterward, most of us were driven back to Nagoya station while some of the others were brought to another station because of the area they live in. I became very sad on the car ride. I felt lonely.
The students from Bulgaria leave Nagoya on August 1 and the students from Italy and Sweden leave Nagoya to go to the airport on August 3 and the students from the U.S. and Hong Kong leave Nagoya to go to the airport on August 4. I honestly think everyone would be a lot happier if we all left on the same day so we could see each other again. But our flights are at different times and whatever.

Anyway, these last few days have been hard. I spent the first few days of this week keeping track of who I was seeing for the last time. Sometimes I become sad that I won't be able to see people again, and that our time in Japan is almost up. But I think my biggest regret is that I couldn't become better friends with more people. I'm sad about saying goodbye to people, but I also have the feeling that nobody's really going to miss me, which makes me sadder. I just wish that some things could have worked out differently.
Sometimes I wish we had another week here or something, but on the other hand I know that the time has simply come to wrap things up. It's the way it is. Everything has an end eventually.
That said, I'm not dwelling on the fact that I have to leave next week. Maybe it still has to sink in, or maybe it's because I've already been here for so long, but in a way it also doesn't quite feel like I won't be here anymore in a week. I don't know. I become very sad at times, and I regret some things now that it's too late, but I don't let the fact that I have less than one week here get in my way of trying to enjoy the time I have left.

Slowly Coming to an End

Maybe the title of this is misleading, because we don't leave Japan until August 4, but in a way things are already coming to an end. For one, our last day at the language school will be on Monday. It will be the last time that all 23 of us students will be together.

This week in school we mostly just worked on our individual speeches and group presentations again, which is for Monday.
If there's one thing that let me down the most during my time here, it's the school. Or at least how my class turned out. It's a good school and all and the teachers are nice and we went on some great field trips. However, not one thing that my class studied was new material for me. They divided the AFS students into three classes based on a placement test that we took on the first day. Class A is for beginners while class C is for more advanced students. I'm in class B. But really, it's more like classes A and B are for beginners, because we learned similar things and received some of the same work-sheets. The big differenece is that class A is for people who haven't learned kana yet while students in class B know at least hiragana already. I think to get into class C you would have to know enough kanji.
Sometimes it seems to me that they divided us based on how much we know the Japanese writing system. I don't know. The thing is, class B wasn't much of a class for people in the middle. I know they can't divide us into a bunch of little classes, but an actual intermediate class or something would have been nice.
I don't feel like my class covered much, but maybe that's because I had already studied the material we learned. But, for example, my class didn't learn new things this week because we spent a ton of time preparing for Monday and whatever, while class C was still learning new grammar, I believe.
I'm not saying I belong in class C though. I don't know if I do. I could have learned a lot more, but perhaps it would also have been too advanced for me. But what also annoys me is that some of the grammer that I used in the written part of the placement test was what my class was taught during the third week of school.

Anyway, although what my class was taught wasn't satisfying to me, I usually had a great time at school. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the other students. I really enjoyed it.
Still, sometimes I become sad that I'm not as close with the others as I could have been. I'm not very good at becoming friends with people, and it's apparent. It's saddening. I'm better at tagging along, I guess. I'm happy that I could spend time with the other students, even if I don't entirely belong sometimes. (sorry, I'm feeling pessimistic again)


On Wednesday, there was an earthquake. Actually, I don't even know if I should call it an earthquake, because it was so tiny. I woke up almost two hours before my alarm was to go off. I was just lying in bed when I started to hear rattling and noticed a little wiggling. It was 6:20 am. It didn't even last a few mintues, I believe. Nothing in my room fell over.
I've spent most of my life in Massachusetts or Germany, so I'm not used to these kinds of things. I wasn't scared though. I was sleepy.

My Weekend (sumo, shrine, etc.)

Ok my posts tends to get long and maybe a little pointless...
But this one should be alright, I hope.

Also, thank you for the comments and emails I've received. I'm sorry I haven't really responded at all, but I do read them when I have the chance.

Now, some other things I've noticed about Japan!
Since Japan is very densely populated, many things are narrow. Some streets, especially in residential areas, are quite narrow (cars have to slow down when passing each other, and often one car has to pull over to the side). In the neighborhood of where I live, sidewalks are hard to find. Hallways, like the one outside my bedroom, can be fairly narrow as well. Houses tend to be very close to each other, too. Closer than some laws in the U.S. would allow, it seems.
Also, another thing I'm getting used to is the hand-motion for "come". People extend their arm straight out in front of them, with the palm facing down, and wave the fingers inward in a beckoning motion.


Now, about the weekend. On Friday after school I went to a nearby arcade with the others for a little while. I tried Dance Dance Revolution and I did purikura again.
On Saturday, in the afternoon, I went to a sumo wrestling tournament! It was indoors (thank God for air conditioning) at a place near Nagoya castle. There were many fights, or matches or whatever, between two people, with teams (or sides) divided into east and west.
The matches didn't take long at all. Instead, the preparations did. That's when it's slow. The wrestlers would stand but then they'd go to the edge of the ring to get water and a little towel and then throw more salt across the ring. They'd kind of slap themselves lightly and lift their legs slowly and stomp down. That's nice and all, but after watching them do all that over and over you start to wish they'd just get on with it and start.
Although it's called wrestling and it's physical and whatnot, I don't find it particularly violent. Nobody gets beat up or is really injured. They just fall. The wrestler loses when he leaves, or steps outside of, the ring or when a part of him (other than his feet) touch the ground. There are various techniques, such as pushing or lifting or tripping the opponent.
Another thing that I find unique is that the wrestlers can appear to be out of shape. They tend to be fat. They need to be big and they need to be strong, but they also need balance. That's another reason I thought it was amusing that McDonald's did a lot of sponsoring.
There were a lot of other non-Japanese people in the audience. I heard a number of Americans. Not only that, but some of the sumo wrestlers are foreigners too.








On Sunday I visited a shrine with my host family. (I plan to add pictures, but it's possible that I'll have to wait until I return to the U.S. to do it)

First you wash your hands.
The second picture is of me, my host sister, and a miko (which, according to a book, is an "unmarried woman in the service of the deities").





Yesterday, Monday, was a holiday: Marine Day. I ended up having a very long and busy day. My host mother's friend has a daughter who is my age. We met over a week ago and made plans for yesterday. First Saki, who is also 17, and her little sister Miki and I went to do karaoke. I'm not much of a singer at all, but I still really enjoyed it. We went out for lunch, and Saki, Miki, their mom, and I visited a lot of stores and did a bit of shopping. We also did purikura. Later we returned to their house and watched TV for a while. I had dinner at their house too, and I also met Saki's brother and father. They are all very friendly. I enjoyed spending the day with them.

Today the AFS classes went on another field trip. This time it was to a little shop place to make our own fans.

It's awfully hot in Nagoya. Really really hot and humid.

Another Week

...another field trip.
On Thursday all of the AFS classes went on an excursion again. This time we visited the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. It was pretty neat. I took a ton of pictures, although I can't upload them now, and the museum had some cool stuff. We learned that the Toyota Group had its beginning right where the museum now stands, since the site is the former Toyoda Spinning & Weaving Co., Ltd. headquarters plant. In the museum there was a huge hall full of all kinds of looms and spinning machines and things like that. Later on there's a huge area full of cars and models and different things having to do with automobiles. It was fun.







On Thursday and Friday this week I went to a big arcade that's near the school with a lot of the other AFS students. I did purikura several times :)
Now it's the weekend, except this time it's a three-day weekend because Marine Day is on Monday. As far as I know, I'm going to a sumo wrestling event or something like that today and I'm going to go shopping with my host mom's friend's daughter (who is my age) on Monday.
I've had a soar throat since yesterday. I hope it won't get too bad. I don't want to be sick.

I prefer the weekdays a lot more. That's because I have a nice routine and I have things to do and I get to spend time with the other students. I may have gone over this before, but it's basically like this: I get up around 7:30 am and I get ready and then I eat breakfast with my host grandparents. I usually expect bread and blueberry yogurt and milk, though it has been switched up before. Then I brush my teeth and prepare things for the day before watching TV for a bit. Finally my host grandpa drives me to the subway station and I take the subway for about 35 minutes or so. I.C. Nagoya (the language school) is in a big building full of other offices. The underground area by the subway leads to the elevator area on the first basement floor of the building, so I go up and I arrive about 30 minutes before class starts. Then more people start to show up and we hang out or whatever for the remaining time we have.
School is really easy and my class never gets any homework and sometimes we play games or do activities. I was hoping to learn a lot of new grammer in this school this summer, but everything we've done in that area is just review for me. The only new things I'm learning are some vocabulary words, but I'm still disappointed. I'm just not dwelling on it too much anymore.
After school people go to places nearby, and there are a lot of department stores and stuff. I usually get home around 5:00 pm or later. Sometimes I talk a lot with my host grandma before dinner. I go to my host family's house for dinner (because I have a unique hosting situation). After an hour or so I come back to the house I'm living in. In the evenings I usually watch TV for a little while with my host grandparents before going to bed.
I'm sad that there's only one more week of school left. I'm going to miss everyone.

More Pictures

I just added a few pictures to a couple of the older posts, but the rest of the new pictures I'm posting are in this entry.

First, here is a temple and the area around there (I went there at the beginning of last week).





These are from Nagoya Castle this weekend:





The golden dolphin is a symbol of the castle. Notice it on the roof.

Struggling

This will be a pessimistic post.

I'm concerned about my time here. I don't tend to feel at ease around my host family. I keep to myself too much, and although I'm simply a quiet person sometimes, I feel like it's getting in the way. I don't mean to be difficult. I need to get past this. I have to show my interest and speak up and remember to smile more often.
But I hesitate all the time. I wanted to be outgoing, but I'm failing completely.

I'm also worried about learning Japanese. School turned out to be fairly useless. I don't use Japanese often (not that I speak much in the first place). I'm insecure about speaking in Japanese and I don't want to become embarrassed. I'm afraid of trying, I suppose. I'm getting in my own way again.

I fear that I will have too many regrets once my time here is up. I need to reach out for the opportunities I have here, but at times I'm not sure how to.


That said, I am taking steps to appear more friendly around my host family, and to talk with them more often. I do like them, and they are very kind, but for some reason I'm still quite shy around them.
Sometimes I worry too much. But my time here is short, and I need to work on any issues I have as soon as I can. For me some of these things are difficult though.


Anyway, I love it here, actually. I'm having a lot of fun, and I enjoy spending time with the other students. I like learning about Japan, and exploring around Nagoya Station frequently. Japan is lovely, and I'm not looking forward to the day I have to go back home.

Differences

Ahhh I just saw that my blog was featured on http://www.afsblog.org !!
That's a bit nerve-wracking... But I'm glad.
I've been following a number of blogs by AFS students for a while, and at some point I started to notice what I like in a blog. So I was going to try to create a blog with traits that I looked for in a blog. Well, that has become challenging because I don't get much of a chance to add pictures and I usually don't have the chance to go online.
Oh, and I realize that of the pictures I've posted, most of them are of people and not so much of Japan. I'm sorry... I'll try to work on it.

I haven't mentioned this yet, but my name is Anastasia, and it's pronounced ah-nah-sta-see-ah (not anna-stay-sha). Since my name is kind of long, my host family calls me アナちゃん (Ana-chan; "-chan" is less formal than "-san", and is usually used for girls).

Anyway, I'll try to focus more on some differences between Japan and the U.S.
They were much more apparent when I first arrived, but here are a few.
First of all, many of the toilets are different. Either they have more buttons than seems necessary or they don't look much like a toilet at all, because it's in the ground. Yes, I'm talking about washlets (with bidet things) and the traditional Japanese toilet, which you squat over. Also, please note that paper towels aren't very common, so it's useful to carry around tissues or a little towel.
Trash cans can be hard to find as well, by the way.

Then there are cars. In Japan you drive on the left, which is opposite from the U.S. Even though it is forbidden for AFS students to drive, I've had trouble getting used to the cars driving on the left. It seems fairly confusing to me, and I can't help but wonder how the drivers know where to turn or where to go. Also, streets tend to be very narrow in some places (like residential areas, from what I've seen).
The cars themselves can appear different too. Many (or most) of them have a different kind of design, or style, or something. I guess the best way to explain it is to say that they are more square and compact. I didn't know that cars could look different in such a way.

Another thing is laundry. Since it's summer it seems like everyone hangs their laundry outside to dry. If you go by large apartment buildings you can really see a lot of laundry drying out on the balconies. Therefore there are all kinds of plastic hangers and clips to fasten the laundry with.

Well, that's all I can come up with for now. I hope that was mildly interesting.
(I've been planning on making a whole entry on food, so I may get to that next week)

おやすみなさい

My Week So Far

Hi... It turns out that my host grandparents do in fact have a laptop. Today I finally gathered up the courage to ask if I could use it. So here I am. I checked my email for the first time in three weeks... Bear with me.

Anyway, I guess I'll go over my week. I learned nothing new in school, other than a few adjectives. I did practice writing some Chinese characters (kanji) with my host grandmother (obaachan) though.
On Monday, after school, I ended up missing out on karaoke (not that I sing or anything, but still) with the other students. I did see a big pretty temple though. I suppose I'll add a picture of it to this post whenever I get the chance (which may take a while).

On Tuesday it was my class's turn to go on a field trip. We took the subway over to Sakae to see the Nagoya TV tower. We went up inside of it and could look out at the city. Oh wait, I think I already wrote about this.

Anyway, on Thursday all three classes of AFS students went on a field trip together. We went to a disaster center or something like that, since Japan is prone to the most natural disasters in the world, I believe. There was an earthquake simulator, which we all tried out in smaller groups. We just sat under the table, while our heads banged into it repeateadly (well that's what happened to me, but it didn't really hurt at all). So we learned some useful information on what to do in an earthquake.
Then we were shown a movie clip on a terrible typhoon that left a lot of destruction behind in 1959(?). There were photographs and other things on display.
Then we were put to another test: finding our way out of a building that's completely dark and filled with fake smoke. Some of us got a lot of practice escaping, in case there's ever a big fire.

Pictures from the disaster center:




Yesterday was Friday, but I didn't go to school. Why? Because my host family had set up an appointment for me to visit an actual Japanese high school. It ended up being a tour that took less than an hour, but it was still interesting.
I had to remove my shoes upon entering the building, just like at the Aichi Youth Center (where the arrival orientation for Nagoya students was). The classrooms had sliding doors and of course everyone was in their uniforms. There were big windows between the wall of the classrooms and the hallway, so I could see all the students bent over their desks and working. However, I did cause a bit of a destraction later on, when I was led down the hall in a direction so that I was facing the students, where they were able to notice me through the window. Great. But later on, when I visited a number of small science classes, nobody stared at me. I liked being at the school. I wish I could spend more time at a Japanese high school.

By the way, the program may vary for the AFS summer program to Japan based on which city you're placed in. The students who are in Sapporo go to a language school and spend several hours at a Japanese high school everyday as well, I believe. I've also heard that the Tokyo students go to a language school that lasts a lot longer (compared with the one in Nagoya). Nobody has a choice as to where they will be placed, but I'm sure everyone is having a good time regardless of that.
Also, what you may not realize at first, is that when you go on a summer program to Japan, where you will spend time with the other AFS exchange students but are placed in one of five cities, it really comes down to which city your language school is in. I met a lot of other Americans at the gateway orientation in L.A., and I still remember many of them (there was also a girl who speaks German as well! by the way). However, it's the city of your language school that matters. It comes down to the city. Sure, we are all going on the same program to Japan this summer, but if you're not in the same city, you barely get to see the others. It's the people in Nagoya who I spend time with and see at school everyday. Many of them aren't from the U.S., but we're still sharing many of the same experiences here in Nagoya. (I don't mean to be negative or discourage getting to know other people who aren't placed in your city, but I'm just pointing this out, I guess)


Anyway, yesterday evening my host family and I went out to eat at a sushi bar! Actually I'm not entirely sure what the accurate name for it is, but it's where little dishes of Japanese food go by the tables on a conveyer belt. It was really fun! I found it all rather amusing. You just take the dish you want, and if you don't see what you want, you find it on the touch screen by the table. Then, on a track above the slow conveyer belt, a little train type thing will zoom right up to your table with the food you requested. There's also a little slot in the table by the wall, where you just slide in the empty plates. It's such a fun way to eat. I really enjoyed it!





Today was enjoyable as well, though I usually don't look forward to the weekends (I've found that I end up with way too much time on my hands, and other than a few books that I don't feel like reading, I didn't bring anything to occupy myself with).
Anyway, today I visited Nagoya castle! It was pretty. Then we had lunch, which was a disaster, because I had udon-type noodles. I can usually manage chopsticks (but I still get embarrassed when I eat), but those noodles were impossible. They're unbelievably long, and even with a fork I had a lot of trouble eating them. That's too bad, because they taste really good. So I made a fool of myself again while eating.

Speaking of food, I had heard about Mister Donut in Japan, and that they had delicious donuts. Well, on Monday I went to one, and I have to say I was quite disappointed. I ordered a donut with strawberry frosting and a smaller pastry that was shaped like a ring. Not only were they not remarkable, but they weren't even very good. They also seemed a bit dry or something. I wasn't expecting that at all, since I had heard good things about Mister Donut. If I can I think I'll give it another try sometime, just to see.

Today, after dinner, my host family and I played some fun card games. Then we played karuta, and I totally beat them all, and they were surprised. Haha.
Later, we lit sparklers. It was also really fun! I had a nice day today.


Another thing: if you happen to be planning on going on a summer exchange program, pick a country where it's not currently summer. Really, the heat here can be unbearable, and it's very humid too. I only brought one sweatshirt, but I really shouldn't have bothered. (Ok, I needed it once: on the plane from Boston to LAX. But it was in my suitcase during that time anyway) I have really come to appreciate air conditioning. The weather can be awful.


Tomorrow my host family plans on taking me to visit a shrine!
Yeah. So bye now.

The Star Festival

Today is the star festival in Japan, or "tanabata". There's a story from a Chinese legend, and basically there are two stars that are separated by the Milky Way. They can only meet once a year, on the night of July 7. People decorate bamboo branches with decorations and paper strips with their wishes written on them.
I did this yesterday, and although I took a few pictures, I can't add them now. (I'll probably cheat and add them another time to this post)




Anyway, yesterday was fun because my class went on a field trip to see the Nagoya TV tower. We also went to a hyaku-en shop, which is like a dollar store. Sophia, Amanda, and I did purikura there (I'm not sure which verb fits to "purikura", by the way).
I realize I haven't explained what purikura is, if you don't know. "Purikura" comes from "purinto kurabu", from the English "print club". It's basically a photo booth where you can choose colorful backgrounds and then draw on it and add decorations and stuff. They're mostly only found in parts of Asia, I believe.

A view from the TV tower:


This weekend my host grandma bought me a yukata as a gift. A yukata is a type of kimono kind of, but a lot lighter. I got to choose mine. It's really pretty and I'm very grateful for it. I need to think of something special to do for my host family sometime...

Food

I had lots of delicious Japanese food yesterday. For breakfast I didn't have bread for once, but rice balls (onigiri). For lunch we ate udon. For dinner we made takoyaki, which is like ball things with octopus pieces in it. I tried it and it's really good! Afterward I had a read bean/azuki ice cream popsicle thing, which was also good. It had actual beans in it, but it wasn't gross.

PICTURES!!!!

Hi... I'm at school on my lunch break, and Chase was really really nice and let me use his laptop and his camera to upload pictures from my camera chip. Thank you soo much! :)
Chase's blog is here: http://tyreetojapan.blogspot.com
Peter's blog is here: http://www.destinedforjapan.com
Carrie's blog is here: http://sarurunkamui.livejournal.com
Nicole's blog is here: http://nicoleafs.blogspot.com

So here are some pictures!

They're not in order though.

1. First is a card game that we played at the arrival orientation in Nagoya, called karuta. It was fun! I'm pretty good at it.
2. All girls, except for Nicole, in our room at the orientation.
3. Carrie, me, and Sophia on our futons.
4. Nicole and me with Fiona's awesome Hetalia cards at Hotel Nikko Narita.
5. Japan from the airplane window. Japan is beautiful.
6. My host grandparents' house, and where I live.
7. My subway card and the cell phone I use.
8. Purikura!!! I've always wanted to do this, and it was so much fun =) I was with my host sister and her friend.
9. Some of us waiting for our host families to pick us up after the arrival orientation. I was so nervous.
10. Group 1!! This was over a week ago at the arrival orientation.
















sorry... image heavy.