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February 22
Today we go to meet our host families! I'm extremely scared and extremely excited. We had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. I had a lot of fruit again. This is a picture of "Hydrogen Water". The English translations of some of the Japanese posters are hilarious.
Then we packed and it was time for departure. We wanted to give the senseis a present for planning our trip, so a couple days ago we bought them their favorite snack and this morning and we passed around a card for them. They were so surprised when we gave it to them. I'm glad we could make them happy after all that they have done for us. After we left the hotel we got on a Shinkansen and then a double decker train to KJ.
This was the view from the shinkansen. It was very beautiful. Next to it is a picture of the sink in the double decker bus. It was so cool. All the way on the left is the soap, in the middle is the water and on the right the hand dryer. I don't know why, but I was amazed when I saw this.
Before we arrived at KJ it was cram time. I was studding this vocab list that Betsy made on the train.
They were all waiting for us with signs with our names on it. I'm was super cute! I got to finally meet Nami! She is so adorable. We sat down at the train station for a while with Molly, hazel, and their students. We did self introductions, and basic questions to get to know each other. It was a little awkward but I'm sure that it will be less awkward as the days go on. After we got on a Shinkansen to nami's hometown. We had to wait for nami's mother to pick us up so we walked around the station. There were so many shops in the station. We went to a make up shop and a little figurine shop until her mother arrived. We got in this really big mini van. It was so cool. At the front of the car there is a camera to show how close the car is to things on the side because the streets are so narrow. When we arrived in the house they gave me my own pair of slippers. They are so comfortable. I then met her younger sister. She is so cute and is very good at English. Then I met her dad. Nami introduced her dad to me as shy so I won't see him a lot. He was very funny. He walked into the room and very loudly said "Hi nice to meet you. You can call me Nami's father. This is Nami's mother. You can call her Nami's Mother". Then he left and I have not seen him since. Nami's mom asked me something about laundry and I did not understand, so for the rest of the night they talked to me in English to help me get situated. Even though I did not understand, they were super nice and did my laundry for me. After we had curry rice. It was very delicious. I was so happy to eat curry because it's my favorite type of Japanese food.
After dinner I helped set up Nami family's Ohinasama. Nami said "It is the girls day doll". Every year there a holiday called girls day. that is when valentines day is in America. Another reason why Japan is awesome.
After we set it up I grabbed my gifts for them. They were so appreciative and excited. Then I took a bath. It was so relaxing!! The bath was a green color because of the bath salts. It smells minty and wonderful. Every night they shower then relax in the warm bath. It's a time to take a break and relax. WHY DON'T WE DO THIS IN AMERICA??? It was amazing to reflect on the day in the warm bath. After I worked on some homework. My host family is so cute when I told them I was gonna do hw they got super excited and ran into my room do watch. I love them so much. I showed them my photo book and we sat and talked until about 11. It was really nice to just sit and talk with them because it really took away my nervousness. After I stayed up and got some supplies ready for my KJ presentation and then got in bed. This bed is the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. It was perfect in every way. The bed was the perfect temperature and hardness. And the pillow had a little dent in it where your head is supposed to go. That was also the most comfortable pillow I have ever layed my head on. I am very happy about the whole situation.
February 23
First day at KJ! Today I woke up at 6. I got ready quickly, and then I sat down with Nami for breakfast. We had a clementine, bread with honey, eggs, broccoli, and miso soup. I felt really bad because I have a cough right now, and whenever I cough, my eyes water and my face gets all red. It looks like I'm crying. My family got so worried. I tried to explain, but I don't think they understood. I hope they do not think that I am sad or that I do not want to stay with them.
I was ready to go before we had to leave, so my host mother gave me this ponyo book to read because she knows I like Miyazaki movies. My family is super sweet. We left the house around 7:15 to catch a 7:40 Shinkansen to school. Nami's dad drove us to the train station where we met up with Molly and Tomoka. After the shinkansen we took a bus to KJ.
This was how the school welcomed us to KJ. It is super cute! We have a whole room just to ourselves, so they decorated the chalk board. They also set out tea and candy for us to snack on.
Here are the guys playing basketball in the big gym before school starts.
Sensei accidentally took the wrong train, so we had to switch the welcome ceremony with math class. Math was a lot of fun. I actually understood what was going on! I learned about imaginary numbers and the quadratic equation. After was the welcome ceremony. The school gave us all towels. They are super cute! DJ and sensei gave a speach about how happy we are to be welcomed into their school. It was really nice. After some students gave a presentation about their school. Next was English class. The teacher had a group of students interview me, and then present their knowledge to the class. It was pretty fun! After was computer class. I had no idea what was going on, but it seemed hard.
Lunch was so good! I sat with Hazel, molly, and their host students. It was fun to get to know them.
The biggest surprise of the day was seeing Motoyo! She was my exchange student sophomore year. Sensei told us that only first years were in the school today so I was not expecting to see motoyo because she is a third year. I missed her so much, so seeing almost brought me to tears.
After lunch we made a snowflake out of old rice bags. It was really fun! Then we had presentation preparation time which was needed.
The last class of the day was P.E. They had this cute warm up that they do together where the stretch, bounce, and hop over each other. It was very funny. After we played basketball. I loved how into it everyone was. From my perspective it was not competitive at all, and no one cared weather you were good or not which seemed very different from American P.E. Everyone was just running around having a good time. It was really nice! After P.E. we cleaned up the school. All of the students have a designated spot in the school and they sweep and clean. It seemed so wired to me because there school is already spotless, and in America no one would do that. Everyone would ether dip or not try. It was cool to see students so dedicated to their school. After cleaning was homeroom. It is a short class to debrief the day. Then we went to tea ceremony club. I had a lot of fun. We each got a dessert and then some tea. Even though my feet were dead by the end it was so much fun.
This was us on the 40 minute train ride back home.
For dinner we had ramen. The train station has a mall attached to it, so there was a little ramen shop. It was very good and only about 6 dollars.
We then shopped until the shops closed (which is at 8 o'clock). We went to a book store. I bought a magazine that has a makeup bag and face mask inside. We also went to a Hinaningyo store which has dolls for girls day.
At the end of the day I took a relaxing bath, had some selfie time, and went to bed. Below are our selfies.
February 24
Second day at KJ! This morning I had to wake up at 5 so that we could make the regular train which is a 40 minute train ride. Even though we were in a rush Nami's mom still made us a delicious breakfast with fruit, salmon, raisin bread, miso soup, egg, and broccoli. Something that surprised me was that Nami's mom cut the bread long ways instead of what Americans are use to. Then she gave me two thick slices. It was a lot of bread, but I loved it.
This is Nami's necktie hanger. It is so small and cute that I had to take a picture.
After breakfast we drove to the train station to get on the train to school. When we were on the train Nami helped me practice for my presentation. I remember looking down at my note card then looking up and out of the window and seeing it start to snow. It was absolutely amazing. From that sign I knew it was gonna be a good day. This was the view from the train window.
I had told Nami before coming to Japan that I wanted to have a snow ball fight. So, after getting off of the bus Nami pulled me aside, grabbed a handful of snow, and threw it at me. Nami is the best. This picture was taken right out side of KJ.
This is the guys uniform for KJ.
Our first activity was playing jump rope in the big gym. We split up into 4 large groups. Each person in the group stood on one side of the very long jump rope. Two people at either end would turn the jump rope, and as a team we would try to jump over it. I think that our max amount of jumps that we got was 20 jumps in a row. There P.E. class is so much fun.
Next we participated in an activity lead by some third years. Hazel and I got to wear Yukatas. I love the first picture because Hazel and my hair is almost exactly the same. It is hard to tell who is who.
The guys also got a chance to dress up too.
We also learned how to make paper cranes and we played a game where we had pieces of a face and, while blind folded, we had to stick them on the face. Mine turned out pretty bad, but it is OK because it was a lot of fun.
Before lunch I helped correct grammar on the first years presentations, and the food and geography group presented to the first years. I'm glad that I presented later in the day because then I had time to practice during lunch.
This is what I ate for lunch. It was very yummy! Today we ate in the classroom. It still is weird to me that the teachers change classrooms and not the students because then the teachers cannot decorate the classroom and make their own, but it is nice for the students because they can move into a desk and not worry about leaving all of their stuff somewhere.
After lunch I helped some more first years with their presentations. I gave them suggestions and corrected their grammar. I'm so surprised at how good everyone's English is. It is crazy how advanced they are.
Then was the scariest moment of the day. Giving my presentation. We decided to teach them american dance moves. So we started out with the dab and then Juju on the beat. It was a lot of fun. Once I started speaking all of my fears went away. It was fun to just dance and have fun with the first years. It was really cool to see that they actually understood what we were saying.
Then I had English class. In this class the students would ask me question in English and I would have to respond in Japanese. It was pretty scary. The guy sitting next to me likes to draw, so when I was asking him what his hobbies were he showed me this sketch that he had just drawn of me! These kids are too nice. I'm gonna miss them.
At the end of the day we cleaned up the school again, and I said my goodbyes to my fellow trippers because this was the last time I was gonna see most of them until the train ride to the airport. This trip is going by too quickly. I never wanna leave! Sorry Torma fam but I'm going to live here forever.
The first picture is what Nami calls ç›—ć’® which is a sneaky picture.
At the train station Nami and I bought Tofu chan. It is super cute! Then her mom picked us up. It still freaks me out that in Japan they drive on the opposite side of the road. I always think that we are going to crash into someone. We then had dinner while watching this cartoon. I could sort of follow what was going on! After I took my bath after dinner Nami said "you are tired go to bed" so I did what she said and went to bed. She is so funny.
February 25
Today is my free day with Nami. I didn't wake up until 7 which was really nice compared to 5 the day before. We ate breakfast and then left the house around 8:30. Nami's mom drove us to a mall. We first stopped in the supermarket part of the mall so that I could buy all of the candy that I wanted to buy. I hop I can pack it all because I bought a lot of food.
When we were walking around waiting for Hazel, molly, and their host students to arrive we walked past the girls day dolls! I got so excited that Nami had to take a picture.
We met up with the others at Starbucks. In Japan, Starbucks has a really cool frap called a sakura (cherry blossom) frap. It was very pretty and yummy.
We had a ton of fun shopping around the mall. Nami saw a moana poster, and she knows how much I love moana, so she wanted to take a picture in front of the poster. I also taught Nami how to dab so now she does it all the time.
Next we went to Pirikura. It is a photo booth where you can edit the photos by putting on little top hats, or draw little hearts. It is a lot of fun. Nami saw that this one was called Katy, so she wanted to try it out.
After we went to lunch, but i had to go to the bathroom, and in the bathroom they had toilet slippers! I love toilet slippers they are so cute. I was not expecting them in a restaurant. I have only seen them in traditional Japanese hotels.
For lunch we had all you can eat okinomiyaki. That is a cabbage pancake with meat, eggs, onions, and other vegetables. It is a lot of fun because you make it yourself.
We then sang our hearts out at Karaoke. Nami is a very good singer. All the Japanese girls were super cute when they were singing because of how good they were. Hazel and I chose songs that we though we knew, but we actually didn't.
After karaoke Nami's mom picked us up and she drove us home. When we got home she pulled out a huge bag of fireworks and sparklers. It was so much fun. Also Nami's sister and I had a snowball fight, and I spelled my name out in the snow.
For dinner we made sushi hand rolls. Nami's family thought it was so funny that I wanted to take pictures of them rolling up their sushi. Whenever I pulled out my phone to take a picture they just started laughing. They are so cute. I had 4 hand rolls and some sashimi. Nami's mom also gave me fruit.
This was my attempt at a hand roll.
While we were eating we watch the news, and it was all about trump. They asked me if I liked trump. I of course said no. It is weird to think that as Americans we automatically get associated with trump because I have tried so hard to distance myself from that awful image that he puts forth. The funniest part of the day was when Nami asked me if trump wears a wig. Then a couple minutes later on the TV they explained how trump does his hair. It was pretty funny.
For dessert we had this mochi thing wrapped in a sakura leaf. It was pretty yummy.
While I was blogging Nami's sister practiced her piano. She is so good. She had the piano's volume down low so she wouldn't bother me, but I wish it was higher because she is amazing.
Later that night Nami and I watched Laputa (Castle in the sky). We started it pretty late because I was behind on blogging, so about one fourth of the way in Nami was out like a light. It was pretty funny.
February 26
This morning I woke up at 7:30. Nami said i could get up when I wanted, but for her that is 7 o'clock so I pushed it until 7:30.
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