退屈になったときに、何も面白くなるよね？

Well, although I worried some people (sorry Mom) I’m completely fine over here. There just wasn’t anything interesting to post/e-mail about. Though yesterday is a bit of a different story. Before that, an explanation of the title…

It says “taikutsu ni natta toki ni, nani mo omoshiroku naru yo ne?”, which basically means “When you’re bored, anything is funny, huh?” Which is really true, no matter where you are. Though I’ll talk about that later.

Yesterday Rina (16 year old host sister) had to go to Kyoai for the ‘open campus’ for the junior high students thinking about going there. But that ended at around noon, so me and okaa-san (she wants me to call her mama, but that’s just sort of… XDD) went to pick her up then to go eat lunch (melon bread from 7-11, yum! but almost too sweet, even for me) before heading back to the school. Why, you may ask? Because I had to meet with the school councilor for all of the exchange students, and try on the uniforms that they lend (because HOLY FREAKING CRAP it’s expensive.)

Although the councilor says the school will pay for the blouses for underneath the vest/jacket of the uniform (because they don’t lend them except for short periods) and okaa-san says that they would’ve paid for any other parts if they hadn’t had ones that fit, but… Would the school seriously have paid 110,000 yen (~$1,010) if they hadn’t had pieces that fit me? Well, I’m hoping to either slowly save up money to buy it near the end of my time here, or maybe pull a “I’m an exchange studend, please~?”… Though saving up money woudl be best.

Anyway, about trying the lending uniforms on… The girl who’s in charge of the schools uniforms and such (which they actually have a person for that) took me to where they store all the spare uniform pieces. So commence the trying on of things… Though that’s sort of boring, so I’ll just point out that the biggest skirt they had without me having to buy it is a little bit tight, but not to the point of being unbearable. I assume I’ll get thinner in Japan, though (I wish my host family had a scale), so it should be daijoubu (okay).

After trying on uniforms and such me, okaa-san and Rina went to some conference room to talk with Murakami-sensei (the councilor) about what things I’d have to buy and what things I wouldn’t, and then about what’s going to happen for the first few days. It was funny, because he kept breaking every paragraph of speaking or so to turn to me and talk in English. I thought maybe he just thought that there had been something difficult in what he had been saying so decided to explain in English, but after about the 3rd time I said “あの、私は日本語をよく分かりますよ。” (Um, I understand Japanese well.) and he was all “ああ、そうか？” (Ah, is that so?) and stopped doing it.

After doing that he and okaa-san left the meeting room to talk or whatever (why they didn’t just have me and Rina leave the room, I don’t know) so me and Rina sat there in silence for a while, and it sort of went like this…

Rina: … I’ve never been in this room before.
Me: Yeah, me neither. *both laugh*
Rina: So, are you glad you got your uniform?
Me: Un. ^^ … *takes out camera and starts looking through pictures* My friends in the US.
Rina: Ah, memories?
Me: *nod* Look at this~… *shows video of Alisha and Dani dancing weird (I know you have to remember that one. xD)* *both laugh*
Rina: American people are interesting, aren’t they?
Me: What’s that supposed to mean? *both laugh* *silence for a while* *starts zipping and unzipping bag quickly out of boredom, but stops soon* What?
Rina: *holds back laughter*
Me: Well… When you’re bored, anything is funny, huh?
Rina: Un.

And then okaa-san and the councilor came back. xD

He explained that on the first day (tomorrow) they only have an opening ceremony followed by a few tests. They’re going to have all of the new exchange students (3 of us: me, girl from NY, boy from Mexico) be introduced, and since I already know Japanese he was like “Why don’t you introduce yourself *in small voice* in front of all the teachers and students?” I’m sure my face must’ve said what I wanted to scream/say (“EH~~~~~~~?!?!”) because he said “You can just say ‘Hello, my name is Shelbi Morris. I come from the USA. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.'” And, yeah. So, tomorrow I get to stand in front of the whole school and introduce myself, fu~n. When Rina’s taking the tests (since I haven’t had the classes yet and I won’t know what they’re testing over beforehand I don’t have to) I get to sit in the foreign exchange student room (which they have one! OMG) and talk with the other 3 new students and a boy from Chile who’s been here since April. (Japanese people say ‘Chile’ like ‘Chili’, just random note.) But school will be over before lunch, so I don’t have to challenge my bentou box just yet. (okaa-san is funny, whenever she wants me to try something she says “Will you challenge *name of food*?”

The second day they have tests in the morning (once again, hanging out with other exchange students) and then normal classes in the afternoon. So that’s when I’ll go and sit in with class 1-C for the first time~. Murakami-sensei explained to Rina “Although you’ll be going to school together and living together, try and stay separate when we’re actually in school.” And then him and okaa-san sort of sat and thought for a bit, and realized at the same moment OMG, they’re in different courses, which means they’ll get out at different times sometimes! and started worrying. I let them go on for a bit (because I’m weird like that) before saying “Once I get used to riding trains it should be fine, right?” And there was another “ああ、そうか？” moment before they said that until then we could wait for whoever’s class gets out later in the library or the computer room.

After talking with Murakami-sensei we went out to buy me some uniform socks and short-like things to wear under my skirt (because they’re barely a bit longer than american cheer leader skirts) and then went to the nearest eki (station) to buy my teiki (long term ticket? Something like that.) Unfortunately, I severely underestimated how expensive that would be. Turns out for a 6 month ticket (since I’ll be with this family around 5 months) it’s 30,000 yen! (~$275) I’m hoping that my second host family isn’t farther away from the school, since that would make it more expensive.

So, I didn’t have the money with me at the time, and since I had said that I’d pay for it since I have the money on my credit card, we rushed back to the house and picked up Rei and Nagisa before running off to the 7-11 near their house to challenge my first attempt at withrdawing from an international ATM! It had an English option, so that was good. First try didn’t work (picked the ‘credit’ option), though the second time through (picked ‘checking’ instead) it worked and I had my money~. So we went and got my teiki.

After that we went to a book store (think Japanese Borders?) to get me my random school supplies, and Rei needed a new math notebook, too. Then right down the walkway outside that book store was… GASP! A super market. So we went and picked up stuff to make for dinner. Which we had yakiniku, though not all of it was actually meat. Ahaha. Anyway, they left the beef to me (except when I got full Rina ate the rest) and I tried some shrimp (tasted good, but the texture got me…) and all in all it was really fun. And they got to see me fangirl over Arashi on 24 Hour TV (Ninomiya went to Gunma a week before I got here. NO FREAKING FAIR.)

Between the end of dinner and what happened next there were fireworks, which you can see really well from my room, so Nagisa and I went up and looked out the window and watched them… And then she found the gifts. I had been too embarassed to actually give them, so I guess Nagisa finding them was actually a good thing. She and I carried them all downstairs (though Erika was at her half-time job and otou-san was off working (the restaurant isn’t the house, but he’s the head chef of several different restaurants) so their presents were left for later).

Rina, Rei, Nagisa and okaa-san all really liked their gifts, though. And they had fun with my candy (which I went and brought down after Nagisa and Rei discovered the candy in their gifts). Nagisa didn’t like any of the fruit flavored candy except for the red ones, and Rei kept laughing whenever she put a new thing in her mouth (whatever that means.) Rina and okaa-san really liked them, though. All of them enjoyed Reese’s. And they were amused how peanutbutter and jelly could be in the same jar together (because I brought some Goober. xD Wow that sounds weird.)

Then we went and sat down on the couch to watch MatsuJun’s (also from Arashi) new TV movie. It was really sad… Though longer than I expected. It was 2 hours long (started 9:30), so I was up the latest I’ve been since getting here.

After that I went to bed, so… yeah. Their ability to stay up late amazes me. While 11:30 would be pretty normal for me in the US, even the youngest (Nagisa) is still up when I go to bed. And otou-san doesn’t get back from working until midnight, aparently.

That was my day yesterday. It’s really fun here, and with 4 sisters (3 at home most of the time), and a stay at home mom who’s really hilarious to watch it’s sort of hard to get bored.

First Blog Post In Japan! =D

Hey, y’all! Guess who’s typing this in Japan?! XD

Yeah, I know, amazing isn’t it?

Right now I’m unpacking, but that isn’t interesting… So I’ll talk about the trip here and my host family.

The flight from KC to Chicago wasn’t too bad. It was really short, so there’s not much to say about it. And then the ‘horrible’ Chicago O’Hare airport wasn’t bad at all. I didn’t even get lost! Haha. I sat on the floor (because all the seats were taken) near my gate for about 10 minutes before they started boarding. Then there was another boring, short flight up to Toronto, Canada. The airport was really nice. I bought a T-shirt, because they were cheap ($5), especially for airport stuff.

Then came the long flight. I wrote a bit of a log of random things in the journal my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin bought me. Here it is:
7:02 JST (5:02pm CST) – The plane is flying over some really nice snow-topped mountains, but my camera won’t take a clear picture of them! Dammit. I wish I knew where we were over, but the map feature on the seat-screen isn’t working. The food was good. About 4 hours 40 minutes into the flight~…
8:49 JST (6:49pm CST) – I honestly think these flight attendants are trying to make us all fat. They come by with some sort of food every hour or os. And they don’t take “no” for an answer. (And yet I still eat it all…)
10:08 JST (8:08pm CST) – Everyone else is starting to sleep, so I think I will, too. Only 5 more hours!
12:19 JST (10:19pm CST) – The sleeping thing didn’t work out, (not so) surprisingly. I’m not nervous or over excited, and not even uncomfortable (whole row to myself, so I can lay down.) I just don’t sleep in moving vehicles very well. Though I might be dead-sleeping on the car ride to Maebashi from Narita.

Yeah… I did end up sleeping in the car ride.

We arrived at my host family’s house at around 8pm JST, and I came in and my host mother/father talked with the school’s councilors and such. Then I got to go to bed… But I woke up later (10-ish) and threw up a bit. My host family was so nice about it, and I eventually got to sleep again, only to wake up and throw up more at 1am-ish. And~, I went back to sleep again and woke up at 6.

It’s really hot here, and even when they do use the air conditioners it’s set to 26 degrees celcius (78.8 fahrenheit), so I woke up covered in sweat.

This morning I didn’t have much of an appetite, but I ate a bit of an apple (it’s a lot sweeter than in the US!) and was just sitting around watching TV until right now.

No pictures yet, because I was stupid and forgot to bring the cord for my camera. My mom’ll mail it to me, though, so.. yeah. Just have to wait a while, though.

Photograph

No Japanese song to translate this time, but I listened to the song Photograph while typing this entry so I think listening to this song while you read it may let you feel it more or something like that. So here you go:

I just got home from my very last Japanese lesson before leaving. Though getting home from it isn’t what made me want to write this entry. About 15 minutes before the lesson I realised that, holy crap, it is my last Japanese lesson before leaving. My Japanese teacher has dealt with me every Sunday for the past 3.5 years, so I felt like I really had to thank her.

In those 15 minutes I grabbed a piece of printer paper, a mechanical pencil, and wrote up a ‘Thank You’ letter as quickly as I possibly could without it sounding fake. And then on the car ride to her house for my lesson the fact that since it’s my last lesson that means I won’t be here next Sunday for another lesson. Although I’ve been counting down the days until my departure for the past six months it didn’t really sink in until just then. I’m leaving in less than two days.

Then my actual lesson was more of us talking about Japan than actually learning. We went over a few kanji, and a few terms that don’t make sense directly translated into English. (Like how ‘kokorobosoi‘, literally ‘narrow heart’, means lonely.) She asked about my host family, my school, and things like that. She also told me about things to expect in Japan (about the trains, and the overabundance of stairways.)

At the very end of the lesson she said “I have full confidence that you’ll do amazing in Japan.” If I were the sort of person to cry easily, I’m sure I would’ve been tearing up. Though then she continued with “I’ll see you in a year, though if you end up liking it a lot try and stay there!” If I do end up really liking it… I do want to. Even though one of my biggest dreams is coming true by just getting to go to Japan, when one dream is gone it tends to get replaced rather quickly, right? I’d give anything to be able to stay in Japan to finish high school, and then take a college entrance exam like all other Japanese students, and go to college there. Being able to stay at the school would be difficult, though, and finding a place to stay in Japan (if my host family wouldn’t be awesome and let me stay) would be more difficult. The school has dorms, but they cost an arm and a leg.

As a parting gift she gave me a take out box filled with gyouza (chinese dumplings) and onigiri (rice balls), a big bag a candy she normally only gave me one of each week, and a whole bunch of LifeSavers mints (which I’ve always had a few of through my lessons). I’ve never had gyouza before, or onigiri with all the seasonings and seaweed, but I had eaten McDonalds on the way to the lessons (like always) so I wasn’t hungry at the time. I thanked her again (the note was hidden in my book) and smiled and waved. Sayonara.

On the way home curiosity got the better of me and I ate one of the gyouza. It was different, but it was delicious. I really wished I had tried one with her there. I’ve yet to try the onigiri, but I will either tonight or tomorrow. Kent and I also stopped at the old house (because we’ve moved to a 2-bedroom place since I won’t be here soon) to pick up an extra suitcase. My grandma was there, fixing up the house to sell, and I arranged to go to either lunch or dinner with her, my grandpa, my uncle, aunt, and cousin, and possibly  my mom and brother at IHOP tomorrow.

Jumping back in time, earlier today Dani and Alisha showed up at my house for a bit. It involved a lot of talking, and Dani gave me a gift and told me not to open it until I’ve left the state. (Still haven’t opened it, Dani. I feel like you doubt my self control.) There was also a lot of hugging, and I actually hugged back for once. Although it may seem like I couldn’t care less about leaving you all, that’s just because I don’t really express things. I didn’t need a gift, whatever it is, to remember you. I know I won’t get to see either of you again before I leave, and I’ll really miss you, okay?

Same goes for all of my online friends. Leanna (if you still read), Alexis, and many others who’s real life names I don’t know (Rin, Nyanto, Rea, Bre, basically everybody on LJ or the RP I now take part in). I’ll have internet in Japan, though I won’t be on nearly as much as I am here. Make sure to keep track of me with my blog, okay?

All that’s left to do before I leave is finish packing, get my laptop back from Best Buy (I had a faulty hard drive), and get to the airport.

It’s really happening. I’m leaving in a day and 8 hours, I’ll arrive in Japan in two days 3 hours. Wow.

サヨナラよりアリガトウ

I haven’t posted in a while (haven’t done a real post in even longer) and I thought that today would be as good a day as any to post again. From today there are only 10 days until I leave. Well, it was 10 days this morning at 6am. So this is pretty much a general update-thing.

Yeah. 10 days.

Well, two Fridays ago I went to Worlds of Fun (an amusement park near me) with some visitors from Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan. It was really fun (there’s a video of one ride and some pictures up on my Facebook) and I’m still e-mailing with a few of the girls I met there.

I’ve e-mailed back and forth with my host sister more. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: she seems really nice. Albeit a bit girly. But beggers can’t be choosers, ne? I guess I’ll get used to it. It’ll be weird having 4 sisters, when I’m used to being able to rough around with my little brother.

My family has moved. It’s really close, like, a 5 minute walk to our old house. It’s a 2 bedroom thing in a quadriplex or whatever you call them. But because originally I was leaving on the 18th, so we were scheduled to move on this past Wednesday. A few days on a couch, no big deal. But then my flight plans had to be changed so that I arrived in Japan on the 27th, so now an extra week has been added to my couch-sleeping.

I’m fine with it, but it’s just that it means I always have to be the last one to go to bed, because it’s loud in the living room until my mom and brother both go away. But then I’m always woken up as soon as anybody has to come down to get ready (I’m a light sleeper). So basically my mom goes to bed at midnight or 1, and I take a long time to fall asleep (so around 2~3), and then get woken up when my mom’s alarm goes off at 6. Annoying~.

I’ve also found out that my most favorite Japanese band of all, Kis-My-Ft2, is having a concert on October 12th and 13th in Yokohama Arena (with ABC). Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but Kis-My-Ft2 (and ABC) is a Junior band in Johnny’s Entertainment, which means they haven’t actually debuted with a CD, and this is their first (and possibly only ever) concert, since Junior bands are hardly ever permanent. So I really, really, really want to go. Still trying to plan how that’s going to work out.

So… music time?