misha
Warning: Sentence fragments ahead
day 12
KJ Day 4
Woke up early today and I was the first American at school. It snowed about one and a half feet last night. So I finally got to experience the magic of Niigata’s snow melting idea. Basically, there are hoses running along the sidewalks and in the street, and they squirt warm water, which melts the snow! It works really well. I wonder how they implemented that... Mei left me in the room where our group meets in the mornings, or when our students are testing after school. And when I was supposed to get picked up to go to class with her (we’re kinda treated like daycare children) Grey’s host student tried to explain to me why I was going with them instead. I was a little confused, but I thought I’d only be sitting through one class. That class was english speaking, where they were reading about Jansson the author of the moomin series. Then there was lots of confusion about taking a bus to a hall for speeches?
Then we went to the hall, and there were many long speeches, and I didn’t really understand what was going on. All the speeches were in Japanese, with graphics that didn’t make much sense. So, it was hard to pay attention. After school Mei and I had dinner with Jada and her host student, Kanon.
Day 11
KJ Day 3
Today in classical japanese I drew the teacher. The students were impressed, but I didn’t really like it. I was so tired today! I almost fell asleep in math. And it’s a little awkward because I sit in the front of the class. I tried to distract myself by drawing the view out the window, but I only had markers, and I wasn’t very happy with it. Then on the schedule it said the american students had 4 periods of art!! So I went to the art room, and not even half of our 20 students were there. The art teacher only spoke Japanese, which was fine, but it was a little confusing when she gave us the art prompt. She handed us a sheet of paper with four boxes and some kanji on it. Then she seemed to explain that we were supposed to listen to music and draw how it made us feel. So I expected her to play a CD or something, but instead we were just supposed to think of or remember a song, and then draw how it made us feel. The 3rd of the 4 periods of art was a classical guitar concert in the art room. One of the math teachers had learned to play during university, and played for us. After all the art (basically a long free time with some markers available) all 20 of us went to the gym with the 2nd years. We did some pretty hard warm ups, like frog jumping over your partner, and jumping over a whole two rows of people lying down in a loop. Then everyone split into four or five groups. I quickly realized we were going to do jump rope, with one huge jump rope. At first everyone went through the jump rope diagonally one by one. Then, two by two. Then we all stood in the center of the jump rope (maybe 20 people? A lot). We attempted to all jump at the same time as a group. I realized that it significantly matters how’re you’re standing, and what direction you’re facing whether or not you can succeed at this. One way I was standing I kept getting caught, but when I switched it up only a little, I succeeded every time. Our group got a total of 3 group jumps in a row. I think they were counting everytime we got one full rotation, so my group apparently got 16 in total? Idk. But I believe Rho’s group got around 32 or something??? So that was very impressive. After school we went home and dropped off our stuff, then we went to dinner with Mei’s grandparents. If they had talked a little slower, I think I could’ve caught a lot more. But instead they spoke quickly asking questions about me to Mei, then Mei would try to translate them into English (unnecessarily). I would then respond in Japanese towards her grandparents. It was funky. The food was deliciously spicy, the type that kind of grows the more that you eat? And I had some tongue that was cooked to perfection! They also gave me a small portion of ramen with a chicken broth. I’ve never seen chicken broth ramen before! It wasn’t my favorite. But it was good.
After dinner, we went home and I went straight to bed because I was so tired.
Day 10
KJ Day 2
This morning I woke up at 6 because we had to take the train to school. It’s so beautiful! We got to school early, so I just hung out in a room with the other american students who were there early, and we practised our presentation. Then I joined my host student for her classes of the day. I witnessed English grammar, physics, PE, English, math, and chemistry. My host mother packed me a big lunch again, so even though everything was good, I couldn’t finish it, because I was too full! The leftover meatball was good though. I played badminton in PE, and because of a lack of space, we played 3 v 3 in a quarter court, which made it hard to move. So when my two American friends left me, I was excited to play 1 v 3 and have more space. The Japanese students only let me play 1 v 3 for one round though, because they felt it was unfair to me (even though I was winning). And started to fall asleep in physics, so I made origami to try to keep myself awake, but math was harder because I was sitting in the very front, and struggling to not drift off. Both of the english classes were interesting. In the English grammar class I was trying to describe the concept of the plural s in English, in Japanese to my host student. I think she understood? Then in their English speaking class, the teacher asked me to read many things aloud so that the students could copy my pronunciation. Next, chemistry was a lot of fun because whenever the teacher was waiting for the other students to finish a problem, he would write a new kanji on the side of the board and ask me how it was read. (see photos below) He also drew hints for some of the kanji. I learned his favorite kanji is 銀 ぎん gin “geen” for silver. After lunch we did our presentations to about 100 KJ students, it was a little stressful, and it felt awkward and stunted. But! The sensei’s said we did well. So I don’t know. After school, I talked with my merican friends while my host student did homework (because I went to get my coat, and then she left me). Mei’s mom picked us up, and we had dinner around 5:00 literally directly across the street from their house. We had udon, tempura, and one of my favorites: agedashi tofu! It was all very very good. Then I worked on homework, showered, and now I’m going to go to bed. I'm so tired!! side note, they have the tv playing all the time here, and it's very distracting for me. It's also interesting because it's so different from American television.
Day 9
1st Day at KJ (Kokusai Joho High School)
This morning I woke up at 7am and got dressed around 7:30. I went downstairs (The bedrooms are upstairs) and ate breakfast Mei’s mom had left out for me alone, because they were still getting ready. My breakfast was a tuna and nori onigiri, and kiwi yogurt. The onigiri was still warm, which made it even better. For lunch Mei’s mom gave me a really cute bag that has french on it. Then we went to school. The drive was foggy, so I couldn’t really see the mountains. When we entered the building, I switched into the slippers I brought from home, and I was glad, because the school slippers looked very uncomfortable. The students don’t even wear them. The students wear school specific tennis shoes inside. Mei lead me to a room with all the other students in our group from ETHS. Then Van Krey Sensei explained we were about to go up on stage for the KJ introduction ceremony. We filed one by one behind him around the school, into the gym, through the crowd of students, and onto the stage. First, they had a student say something in english, but I couldn’t hear what. Then they played the American national anthem. It was a little awkward, because I don’t always stand or put my hand over my heart for the pledge or the national anthem. But as “the americans” that was the expectation for us. I later talked to my friends on the trip, and they agreed it felt weird. After that, the principal of KJ gave a speech to us in English that was a little hard to hear. He talked about how KJ had opened in 1992 and this exchange started in 1994. Then one of the KJ students came and gave a short speech to us in English. Then it was time for Aurora to give her speech in Japanese. Her speech was wonderful, and I was very impressed. Then Van Krey sensei gave his speech, also in Japanese, and I got a little lost trying to follow along. From there we went to our host student’s second, third, and fourth classes of day. So, I went to math, PE, and classical Japanese with Mei. I liked math best because I could actually kind of understand what was going on. But today is Setsubun, the day before the beginning of spring, so bothe PE teacher, and the classical japanese teacher tried to explain to me the traditions for this holiday before they taught their classes. I learned that you’re supposed to eat as many soybeans as your age for good luck throughout the year, and without talking, facing southwest, finish a whole maki zushi roll so that your dream will come true. For dinner tonight we had maki zushi, but we didn’t eat a whole roll each, nor did we face southwest. We actually had "hamburgers" more like big meatballs in sauce. During lunch, I sat with the student I hosted last year at my house, Yu Tagawa. She spoke very little english last year, so I expected talking in Japanese here would be better. However, even after I told her it was okay to speak Japanese to me, she only wanted to talk to me in English. So lunch was a little quiet. Though, she was very kind, and gave me a gift. I hope to give her a gift tomorrow. I forgot to bring it today! My lunch was very tasty! However, my host mother gave me a lot of food! The salad was very good, and I had kiwi slices, rice, an onigiri, kiwi yogurt, and a really thin sandwich on a wonder type bread. It had mayonnaise, ham, lettuce or basil? And cheese. After lunch all the american students went to a room with computers, and listened to different groups of students do presentations in English. We helped correct their grammar. We did that for about an hour and a half. At KJ, class periods are 45 minutes long, and they have 7 periods in a day. Then we practised for our presentations tomorrow, and then went to KJ’s tea ceremony. I don’t go often to ETHS’s tea ceremony club, so I have an idea of how things go, but this seemed different. My feet fell asleep very quickly sitting in position, so I had to sit cross-legged a majority of the time. But I wasn’t the only one. After the tea ceremony I walked to the train station with Mei and her friends Fu, and Momo. It was a lot of fun talking with them. We sat at the train station until 7pm, then took the train home, and Mei’s mom picked us up from the station. Then we went home, had dinner, and I went to do homework in Mei’s room. I had to take photos for our presentation. I went to bed around 11.
Day 8
Meeting my Host Family
I woke up at 6 this morning to pack before breakfast. I was happy to hear breakfast was another buffet, because I don’t think I could’ve eaten any more big set meals. So I had some sashimi, miso, and croquettes for breakfast. After breakfast we got the bus to the train station. Van Krey Sensei suggested we buy omiyage from aomori to give to our host families as is custom. We then took a train to another train to a shinkansen to another shinkansen finally arriving in Niigata to meet our host families. I was really nervous, but I finally got really excited as we were waiting about to walk out to meet them. I was practicing starting small talk to myself right before we walked out. Oh! And Niigata is in the mountains. It’s really really beautiful!
My host student, Mei, is awesome!! She lives with her mom and younger sister and her mom is really nice! Her mom speaks some english, and Mei speaks a lot of english! So I try to always talk to them in Japanese, but sometimes they’ll respond in English. I was feeling pretty good when they picked me up from the airport because I was understanding a significant amount of what they were saying to each other on the car ride home. Also, I believe I told Mei that I like takoyaki a while ago, but I might’ve chosen the wrong kanji, because we went to eat okonomiyaki for dinner and she said “it’s one of your favorites, right?”. However, it was a perfectly fine misunderstanding because okonomiyaki is really delicious!! And it was a cool experience too. It was a small restaurant with maybe 4 or 5 tables and a bar. When we walked in, it was only us (my whole host family), and an older man at the bar. We sat down at one of the two tables they had where you had to sit cross legged at a low table. Then a woman brought us hot washcloths for our hands. This, surprisingly, was the first time this had happened to me thus far on the trip. Every restaurant and hotel/hostel we’ve stayed at has instead offered basically... cold wet wipes? Wrapped in plastic. And in Chicago, the nice Japanese restaurants I’ve been to give you the hot washcloths, so I went to Japan expecting to see a lot of more of those. Perhaps it’s mainly in smaller restaurants, or places with less foot traffic so that they have the time to wash and reuse the washcloths? Idk. Just a mental note I made. Anyway, it was really cool! The table we sat at had an inset skillet top thingy, and when we ordered, the woman brought over the ingredients for the okonomiyaki in bowls that we then mixed (the egg with everything else) and then flipped onto the skillet in front of us. It was kind of funny to go to a restaurant and then cook your own food. The guy at the bar kept asking my host mother questions. He was very interested in why I was here, and what was happening. And then, he kept buying us food! First he bought us a steak which the woman came over and cooked on the skillet thingy for us. It was pretty great. Then he bought us ice cream for desert (after 2 servings of okonomiyaki, 1 potato pancake thingy, 3 sausage bites, a piece of steak, some chicken, and udon noodles!) AND THEN he bought us bubble tea!! It was a little awkward because he was talking to us from across the room, to the host mother, and I couldn’t hear and understand quite everything. But I think he was making jokes about how he liked me...
Anywayyy I learned that Japan has really strict rules about drinking and driving. So even though my host mother only drank a little bit, she called a taxi to go home. BUT in Japan they had a genius idea for this type of situation. So when you call the taxi it comes with two drivers. One to drive you home, and one to drive your car home!! Isn’t that really smart? I think it would significantly help the rate of drunk driving in America if we implemented a similar idea. Though, you have to trust the taxi driver won’t steal your car ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Then we went back to Mei’s house. Mei did some homework, and I made small talk with her and her mom. Then I showered and went to bed. Their house is only 15 minutes away from school (by car)! So I’m very lucky. Many of my friends have to get up incredibly early, but I only have to get up at 7, and even then we only leave the house at 8! So I’m very happy. They keep their living room heated, and they have a kotatsu (Japanese heated table) so it’s comfy. However, every other room in the house is cold. Maybe 55 degrees? Or 50? But Mei has fleece blankets, so sleeping is nice and warm.
Day 6
Leaving Oirase
I woke up today at 4am from noises, then at 5 for Nicki’s alarm, then at 5:30 for Drew’s alarm, then got out of bed at 6 with my alarm to pack. I was fully done packing early, then I went and had a delicious breakfast at the buffet. We then had the same tour we had on our first night here? Again? But in the daylight. I liked it though, because this tour guide spoke more slowly in Japanese and tried to help us understand things, so I felt more competent. And you can see a lot more detail in the daytime for sure. After the tour we took a long long bus ride to go see snow monsters in the mountains. After the bus dropped us off at another ski slope we got in line for the 2nd gondola I’ve ever ridden. But this one was fully enclosed, and much larger. It was hard to see because of the fog on the windows, and also because on the way up, I was crowded between too many people. When we got to the top, the temperature seemed to be about 10 degrees maybe? But the wind was craaaazy! snow collected on Asia's eyelashes! It was basically a white out up there. You couldn't see more than 15' in front of you. Because of the chill, and number of people who were poorly dressed, we left almost as soon as we got there. On the bus ride home I took photos and typed these words. We then moved our luggage onto another bus and took another hour long bus ride. This time, to our next hotel. This hotel, Amoriya, is connected to the other via the same owner. This hotel seems more "traditional". The restaurant and common rooms are styled less western than Oirase. Our dinner was overwhelming. It was a five course meal. I think I definitely would've enjoyed it more if the room hadn't been SO HOT. wow. It was a lot. There was sashimi, and soup, and steamed meat, and steamed fish, and steam pork, and yogurt daifuku (kinda mochi?), and so much more. After we were done eating we experienced a man playing some really cool tunes on a shamisen. Then a woman started singing traditionally over it, and it was interesting, but hard to appreciate. After that we watched taiko drumming for a good bit. Now we're working on our KJ presentations, and then we sleep.
Day 5
Oirase
Wow! Oirase is fancy I have never been in a hotel this nice!
Unfortunately, I woke up with a pretty bad migraine. Luckily, today was less hectic than previously. So I got up and went to breakfast in my yukata. Then, because I was in the snow-shoe group going much later in the day, I had time to attempt to sleep off my migraine. So, I went to bed, and woke up feeling much better! Breakfast was amazing every meal here is a buffet and I love it! So much absolutely delicious food! There were so many options of small servings, which I attempted to try all of, that I cannot begin to list what I ate. But everything was amazing. The whole hotel is low-key apple themed. So the food attempts to incorporate apple whenever possible. They offered sashimi salmon with apple, which was quite good. The drink options are between three types of apple juice, and water. They offer amazing apple compote on a single buttermilk pancake, and obviously apple slices. They also have pickled apple, which I’ve heard mixed reviews of. When I woke up, it was close to lunch time, so I worked on trying to upload some darn photos to this blog! Which has been a significant struggle for unknown reasons. Lunch was in a different location, and based on choices we had made before going on the trip. However, I had missed the opportunity to choose my options, so I didn’t know what I was getting. They didn’t offer chopsticks as a utensil for lunch, which really surprised me. My meal was a starter salad which was dressed perfectly. Then I had apple curry. I’ve never had any Japanese curry, so apple was an interesting place to start. It was good! It came in a bowl, and you pour the curry over a mountain of rice. Our food was taking a little while to arrive and Van Krey Sensei told us we only had 15 minutes before we left for an unknown group activity. So we scarfed down our food asap. I had heard Sensei say to dress warmly, so I had. We then took a bus out to either a small mountain or a huge hill that was a ski slope. As soon as we got there, people started a snowball fight while we waited for sensei to do something. We thought it might be sledding? But whatever the plan was, I don’t think it’s what we did. Instead, for the first time in my life I rode a gondola, and I rode it up a really steep slope for a significant amount of time. Honestly? I thought I would be way more scared than I was. It was pretty okay. When everyone arrived at the top, Sensei said we could have a snowball fight, as long as it was in an unused area, so we walked a couple feet away from the main path. Sensei also suggested that it be senior vs. juniors, which the juniors were significantly more excited about. And then we had a snowball fight. For a good while. I was proud of the fact I remained a perfect temperature the entire time. After that we tried to take a photo with Sensei that makes it look like he has superpowers, but apparently our group isn’t great about jumping in unison. The ride back down on the gondola was also scary, but the view was definitely cooler. I didn’t take any photos of it though because I chose to cling to the hand rail instead. The bus was going to be a while, so Sensei decided we should walk back to the hotel. It was mostly pleasant. 2/3rds of our group had snow-shoed in the morning, but my group was in the afternoon. We were signed up for the beginner snow-shoe route at 3:15. We changed into taller snow boots, and walked outside to connect our snow-shoes. There were eight of us, plus Van Krey Sensei, and one family with an 8ish year old? The tour guide seemed lovely, and spoke a lot of english. She noted that because we had a child on the trip she’d try to make it easier. So we started off by walking in circles in a snowy patch near the side of the hotel for a while. Then she started leading us back towards the river that runs behind the hotel. We walked next to it, but above it, because it’s next to a ledge. Then suddenly our guide stopped and started slowly going down the side of the over 10ft high steeply sloped ridge. One by one people followed her, attempting to walk down it. The other family was in front of me, and they sat down because it was so steep. I decided the best course of action would be to slide all the way down. So at my turn, I walked over and expected it to go slower, but I quickly slid down into a snow mound. It was fun though. However, I then had some snow caught between my coat and my lower back that melted into my pants for the rest of the tour. I think everyone assumed coming down would be tough, but then the guide would lead us to a short slope up. But no. After appreciating the river, and taking a group photo. We hadn’t walked very far when she started scaling a nearly 90 degree angle slope. I watched in awe for a moment as some of us started to follow her before turning back to see Van Krey quickly scaling a slightly less severe slope up. I chose to try Van Krey’s way. I must say, it was super fun scaling that wall. It might’ve been about 18’ tall? After that I showered and went to dinner. It seems that the buffet, which seems endless, does consistently offer the same food every night. But, tonight at dinner they had clafoutis which is one of my most favorite desserts! So I was very happy. After dinner I went to the onsen and talked with Aurora, Jada, Rho, Asia, and Alex. It was very hot, and it took awhile to cool down afterwards. Then I went back to the room I’m sharing with Nicki and Drew.
Day 4
On our way to Aomori!
I woke up late because Rho turned off their alarm before it went off, so I got up at 7 rather than 6:30. This change meant that I got dressed asap, and left breakfast early (The hostel has approximately the same breakfast options everyday). This left me an hour to pack, which I had hoped would be enough. I had purchased a few things the day prior, but they were all small items, so my assumption was that I could simply pack them in my suitcase. However, I had forgotten that I had packed my suitcase to the brim, and stuffed my backpack packing for Japan. This meant that after I spent quite a while repacking my suitcase, there was a very significant amount of items left to go into my backpack. I brought a duffle bag in my suitcase that I had chosen not to use yet, thinking I hadn’t purchased very much, and once I had packed my suitcase, that duffle bag was under everything else! All this packing took awhile even though I was rushing and stuffing. Then Yokota sensei came in to me everyone else was ready to leave. All in all. My backpack is stuffed to the gills, and quite heavy. We made out way to the train station and transferred between 3 trains to finally get to the Shinkansen (bullet train). This is the first Shinkansen we’ve ridden on this trip. It’s a funky experience. The doors are much smaller than average train doors, and you have to line up in dictated spots while waiting to get on the train. The ride feels very smooth, though at times a little loud, but! The train goes so quickly, I cannot pop my ears fast enough!! We purchased obento at the train station to eat on the shinkansen for lunch. I had fun admiring all of the obento packaging. Once I finished eating, I became sleepy immediately. It’s funny how hard it is to change habits. In Japan, everyone walks and drives on the left side rather than the right. And I remind myself of that constantly, yet I always find myself drifting over to the right. However, there are so many exceptions to the conceptual walk on the left rule. Especially in Tokyo. Stairs have little arrows to tell you which side to walk up, and in Tokyo many of the staircases go up on the right. So I was often confused where I should be walking. We’re currently in the bus that will take us to the next hotel, and we’re are driving on the left side of road. At first I didn’t notice, and when I did I just thought, ‘oh right, that happens’. Also, right now I feel a but like an inconsistent windshield-wiper. The window keeps fogging up, but it’s large, so I have to drag my whole forearm across it.
Day 2
Got up at 6am with Rho, then I showered, got dressed, and ate breakfast. Sensei really hyped up the rice, so I was curious to try it. It was good, but just rice, I’m unsure why previous students have loved it so much? Then we got on a train and went to the Tokyo Borderless Team Lab. Where they had amazing light shows and art! I don’t really know how to describe it, so here are some photos:
After that we walked to a lunch of Japanese style fluffy pancakes. Then we took the train to see the winter peonies at Toshogu Shrine in Ueno.
From there we walked to Amayoko to shop and eat dinner. I bought some food to bring home to my friends there as well.
Day 1
disclaimer: This might be a little boring, it's mainly thoughts on plane food.
Right now it’s about 2:30pm American Time. I started my day at 2:45am this morning, and I’ve been trying my best to catch up on sleep since then. I’m not doing a very good job. My parents made me breakfast, then Rho’s mom picked me up and I drove to the airport with them. I’ve been trying my best to remember to take photos (especially with the pixel). I also have to take videos for my independent study in film so that I have footage to edit when I get home. That’s been harder to remember. The plane ride to Dallas wasn’t too bad, but I forgot to download any music or podcasts, so it was a little boring. Currently we’re about maybe 3 hours into our 14 hour flight to Tokyo. Both the planes we’ve been on so far have been fancier than I’ve ever flown on—free wifi, movie options on your own screen on the back of the chair in front of you, and you can actually lean the seat back enough to sleep! They just fed us lunch, and it was delicious! I was wondering whether it would be more of an American or Japanese meal, and it was Japanese, but it felt very american. I had sautéed beef with rice and vegetables. (Other options included chicken). It was very good, and the tiniest, tiniest bit spicy. The meal also came with a tiny romaine salad, and a cold potato salad like dish? I didn’t get a chance to try the potato dish because I was so full from the beef and salad! It also came with a salted caramel brownie which was better than expected. I will probably be writing a lot about food in this blog. I like food. Anyway... I’m very nervous. I know should be excited, and I am excited, but I don’t really feel giddy about it. I’m wondering about how transferring money works. I thought we were going to do that in O’Hare but we will actually be doing that in Japan after we go through customs. Customs scares me, I don’t remember the last I went through it, if I even did. I think I’m going to try to sleep again now... catch you up later.
So it turns out they give you two meals on a 14 flight! So I had instant miso with ramen noodles, and a tiny ice cream. The noodles didn’t cook fully because they water wasn’t hot enough, but the broth was tasty. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So! It turns out they feed you 3 times on a 14 hour flight! The last meal was noodles with vegetables (green and red pepper with carrots and mushrooms) with a ... ginger soy sauce?
What I did not expect from sitting without moving for so long, was how much my knees hurt? But perhaps that’s just me. In the already small amount of legroom we have, I have my giant backpack and large coat. So basically can’t move my feet at all. I’m also in a middle seat, so I feel really bad about getting up.
It is now Monday the 27th, we got into Tokyo around 5pm last night.