A Week of Updates
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2008
1
25
43
Trip End
Ongoing
Okazaki,
Chubu,
Japan
Friday, December 12, 2008
on, just so you guys know I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.
hahahaha.
Monday attempted to read Harry Potter in Japanese in Sasaki's class. Oh
boy was that painful, so many kanji I didn't know. Yamaguchi's class
was cancelled but before he left he gave us sweet potato and mochi from
Tokyo to try. Yummy! Dinner was fish :D yay! Oh and I got Bryn's
Christmas present in the mail! Can't wait to open it ^_^
Tuesday was teaching English to Aoyama's class, I tried to mix it up
with the students because the textbook had the phrase "Row, row, row
your boat" so of course I taught them the song. They had lots of fun
with that ^_^Some pretty random phrases in that textbook though.
Seriously "casual pleasure" that was too difficult to explain the
meaning of that phrase. We also helped out in Sasaki's class where she
is teaching them Nursery Rhymes. We played telephone with the students.
It was interesting what the final results were...a lot of them weren't
even actual english words that they wrote down haha. My phrase "the cow
jumped over the moon" changed to "the cat on the moon" but then my
phrase "Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet" was changed to "the cat
on the" Very very interesting, oh and we tried a Japanese phrase and I
was lucky enough to have an easy phrase to remember. I got almost the
whole phrase, save two or three words.Dinner was this chicken cabbage
concoction, very delicious ^_^. Oh and I got a personal invitation to
Seijin Shiki (The Coming of Age Ceremony) mailed to me from the city of
Okazaki. I hope Roxy and Emily's invites are just late, I want to go
with them if I can. I also had a tough time explaining what a pagoda is
to my host family. I thought pagoda was the Japanese word but
apparently it isn't. Wonder what the Japanese word is...
Wednesday we didn't have class with Sasaki because she had a dentist
appointment but we struggled through reading a Children's book, lol
manga is way easier to understand. After lunch Roxy and I tye-dyed
another shirt. It turned out awesome! The best part was our intention
for the t-shirt also turned out looking like a face hahahaha. Haven't
laughed so much in a while. After that I hung out with Emily a bit at
Yahagibashi before her train came and then headed for home. Once again
I beat my host mom home, so no after school snack. Too bad. Although I
have to say I don't snack as often now. Dinner was yakisoba, miso soup
and rice. Finally a meal where I had lots of food again. Yay! Although
my cel phone bill finally came, so that put a damper on how much food
there was. My first month cost me $64. Not bad...but not good.
Thursday I woke up early and went to school to work on homework. I
really should study more...In any case, Aoyama's class was first and we
had a different teacher for the first half. I got to re-learn how to
make the origami wreath, so now I know it by memory ^_^. The second
half of Aoyama's class was quite the eye-opener, although we didn't do
any Japanese practice, I learned a lot about Aoyama and her travels.
She really has seen the world without rose-colored glasses. I was
touched by how sympathetic she was towards the way my host grandfather
treats me. She thinks I should definitely go to Seijin Shiki. I had
okonomiyaki for lunch and then Nishio had us do more kanji practice, of
course the ones I can read but can't write were on it, I just need to
practice more. Nishio doesn't think I should go to Seijin Shiki, he
says that I would be singled out if I went. So now I'm not sure if I
should go or not. I am going to get Sasaki sensei's opinion this
weekend and see what she thinks. After school I came home, wrote out my
New Year's card to my host family and biked to the post office to mail
it. They can't mail it yet though, I have to go back on the 15th. I
paid my cel phone bill at Family Mart and then biked to the 99 yen
store. Mandarins have gone up in price, it was $2 for 7 mandarins as
opposed to the 80 cents from last time. So I only ended up getting an ice
cream sandwich, I got home at 4:30 and still my host mom wasn't home. I
guess December is just a really busy month for her. I just had water
instead of snacks. My ice cream sandwich is for after dinner. Dinner
was meatballs, salad with tomatoes and celery and also had tofu and
this jelly stuff that I am told is pure fiber. Yummy! Of course the
meatballs were the most delicious and I wasn't sure how much of that I
could have. So yes I'm still hungry...good thing I have my ice cream
sandwich...
Friday I woke up earlier than usual because I got tons of junk mail on
my cel phone this morning O_o, such a pain, but sometimes I go for days
without any. The funny thing is that it's all in English! In any case I
had Yamaguchi's class first and we read the comic Sazae-san. Very very
entertaining ^_^. Nishio's history class was well, same as always, *shrug* I
try to get interested, I really do try! The answer he had for that
question "'What were you before your parents were born?" was 'morning
dew'. After class Emily, Roxy, Moriya, Kana and I decorated the
classroom for the Christmas party! So much fun ^_^ Then I went to get
snacks for the Christmas party and then Emily and I went to Apita for a
bit. I actually got home just in time for dinner, which consisted of
fish, i was given a korokke on a stick as well, rice, aka miso ramen,
shredded daikon and of course salad. Oh and we even had apples for
dessert! Yay fruit!
