043

Just another update :)

On Boxing Day (Dec. 26), myself, the other exchange students and a few Japanese people went to Miyu's house for a Christmas party. It was pretty laid-back and fun; we just ate, watched TV and a movie (on their 3D TV whooaa), and played Wii.

We also entertained ourselves with the face-paint pens... Luckily they were easy to wash off ;D

On the 27th I went to Sapporo with Sam and we went shopping and saw Tron: Legacy (3D). I'm going to miss the Sapporo Station shopping centre and stuff. I'm starting to realise that there are a lot of "lasts" - that was probably the last time I'll go to the cinema here.

The 28th was my Dad's birthday so I skyped my family a bit. Other than that I didn't really do anything :D

And today, the 29th, I waited around home because I was supposed to be going to get my phone disconnected, but the Rotarian never showed. So I wasted my day waiting when I could've posted things home, or gotten a haircut. But I did end up getting a haircut - lucky for me, the hairdressers here are open late. And I dyed it too. I have only two weeks left in Japan and I want to come home different. I know I've changed this year emotionally, but I want to come back physically different too (don't worry, no tattoos or piercings lol).

Aaand yeah, tomorrow is "mochi-tsuki", where we make mochi - rice cakes. They're very yummy and I'm going to have to be careful so as to not eat them all. One rice cake is the equivalent of a bowl of rice. Eep. But it should be fun!

042

Merry Christmas~!!

This morning I was woken by a text from my Dad at 7am (9am Australian time) telling me to get on Skype. So after a quick Skype, I headed downstairs to join everyone. All the kids were up but the adults were still in bed so we had to wait a little, and soon enough we were allowed to open our gifts. From my mum and dad (the real ones), I got books and gift vouchers and SO MUCH chocolate and stuff. I also got a few other bits and pieces from other friends and family.

So after that, I headed outside to do a very important thing: BUILD A SNOWMAN!

It actually turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. The snow was all powdery and crumbly and didn't stick together, so it took a lot of effort to just make a tiny snowman. I think he turned out well though!

For the rest of the day everyone just chilled out, eating chocolate and christmas cake, and we had a huge dinner of roast turkey, Shepherd's pie, pasta, and more cake and stuff. I was so ridiculously full (I ended up going for an hour long walk at 8:30pm in the snow because it felt so terrible D: )

And who can forget Christmas bon-bons. I swear I got the best bon-bon gift ever; a piece of plastic that looks like a moustache, that hooks onto your nose and is just generally awesome. I love it lol.
Anyways I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and although I expected today to be hard not being in Australia with my family, it was actually pretty nice. A quiet, white Christmas. And now it's only like 18 days til I'm home again :O :O Woo!

OH! I nearly forgot... Yesterday was my last day of school. I really didn't enjoy going to school here, but leaving everyone yesterday actually got to me a bit. I was sad to say goodbye, which I did not expect at all.

I did a speech in front of my year, then the class president presented me with a bunch of flowers, I was walked through a path of students clapping and cheering me, I was given more presents plus a signed book thing by my home class, and then even more presents from my teacher and librarian. I had two massive bags of stuff to lug home. Definitely more than I could ever have expected.

So yeah, my school life here is over, and I have the rest of my time in Japan to do what I want.

Tomorrow I have a party at Miyu's house with all the other exchange students plus some Japanese friends. That will be fun :) Then, soon enough it will be New Years, then I only have two more Rotary meetings, a meeting with the Mayor, and one or two more Japanese lessons. It's really getting close to the end now, and I can't believe how fast this year has flown by.

041

Christmas Eve tomorrow! Well, today really but I'm yet to sleep so... tomorrow! It really doesn't feel like it. Having snow and school and not much Christmas stuff around just makes it feel like nothing. :\

Anyways. Last Friday, after I recovered from my sickness, I went to school for one of the two days of the Sports carnival. It was indoors only, with basketball, volleyball, table tennis, etc etc. I didn't have to play anything because I was still sick the day my team played, so I just watched the basketball and a bit of table tennis (both in which my class teams won), and spent the rest of the day sitting at my desk which was very dull.

So yeah, the snow's definitely arrived. I woke up on Saturday morning to a 30cm deep blanket of snow; snow plows were driving around the streets and everything was just white. It's beautiful, and the powder snow is the best. I need to make a snowman soon.

Last night, Wednesday, was the Rotary Family Christmas Party. All the Rotarians brought their wives and kids along (there are no women Rotarians in my club, but we have like a female secretary and stuff), and we played games, won lollies and chocolate, ate, and there was a flower auction??? Not sure how that fitted in but oh well.

Today I went to Sapporo to hang out with Kaela, Dylan and Ku, and we ended up having a new friend tag along too. You see, last week a girl at my school came and asked for my phone number, which is perfectly normal. But yesterday I got a message on my phone saying "Hi, do you remember me? I got your number from so-and-so!" ..........Hmmmm!

It was a guy from a nearby high school who I'd met at the train station way back in like April or something. So he called up and ended up coming and hanging out with us in Sapporo too. It wasn't a bad day lol.

Anyway, that's about it. Tomorrow is a lot of things;

• Christmas Eve
• 11 Months of being in Japan
• Last day of Japanese school (YEAH!)
• 20 days (3 weeks!) until I return to Australia (WOO!)

I've been receiving Christmas gifts in the mail from my family and friends in Australia, and I can't wait to open them. At the moment I'm the only one with presents under the tree haha :) I can hopefully Skype in with my family tomorrow night while they have their Christmas dinner. My first Christmas away from my family... I wonder how it will turn out.

040

Well the Farewell Party was a success - Myself and the other two Australian Exchange Students (Dylan, from Townsville, and Samantha, from Nambucca Heads) did speeches and Dylan and I did presentations (See the link to mine at the end of this blog).

We also had speeches from our Japanese teachers and Rotarians and we received gifts and got photos taken, all that jazz. And, of course, after the meeting we all went to Karaoke.

Farewell Speech...

Kaela (Canada), Miyu (USA Rebounder), Samantha, Me, Dylan, Yodai (USA next year), Chiharu (Australia next year), Eveliina (Finland), and the District Chairman + another important Rotary guy...

AUSSIIEEE!

All us Exchange kids.. (Back L>R) Yodai, Eveliina, Chiharu,
Hiroshi (Canada next year), Miyu, Me, (Front L>R) Dylan, Kaela and Samantha.

So it was a pretty good night, although not as many people turned up as I was expecting :( But I got a lot of praise for my presentation, so I'm proud of that :)

In other news, the snow's really arriving now. Sapporo is covered in it, and I think the snow's finally in Eniwa for good (for this Winter). Although I don't really know - I've been confined to my room/house since Monday afternoon. I got sick!!

I slept all day yesterday (Tuesday), only getting up to take painkillers for my sore throat/head/neck/whole body and to eat one small bowl of noodles for lunch. Then I went to bed at 1pm and got up at 10am today. Good side of being sick is no school (I have tomorrow off too), and weight loss. I lost about 1-2kg due to my loss of appetite. But the obvious bad side is feeling like death. :\

Today has been a lot better though and hopefully I'll be completely mended by this weekend.

Also! LESS THAN A MONTH! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! :D :D 28 days until I leave Hokkaido, and 2 days after that (thanks to my terrible flight itinerary), I'll be back in my beloved Merimbula. These next 4 weeks feel like they will never end, but then again, I read back on that and think "4 weeks? Only that? That's no time at all!" But still. It feels a verrryyy long way away.

Anyways. Back to bed for me. Gotta love illness :(

MY PRESENTATION: for the presentation, as well as the subtitled video of my speech etc, please go follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/laurainjapan2010?feature=mhum - Thanks!)

039

Helloooo. Not much to update on but I thought I'd just have a clear slate so I can write about tomorrow's Farewell Meeting/Party that's happening. Woo. I've finished my speech and presentation, let's just hope they go smoothly!

So last weekend we went bowling at Shin-Sapporo (Kaela, Sam, Dakota, Miyu, Rikiya and a bunch of Dakota's school friends), because Dakota dropped the news that he was heading back to America the next day :\ so we all went bowling, then took some Purikura, and went out for dinner at Bikkuri Donkey.

Afterwards, Kaela Rikiya and I headed into Sapporo to play some Pachinko & Slot. I do not understand it at all! It seems like a huge waste of money just to try and get the slim chance of winning a lottery. Kaela and I just put $5 each in and played like one game haha. Too much of a waste, but it was fun watching the other people.
The next day, Sunday, a few of us went to the airport to see Dakota off. His mum is apparently due to have surgery and he wanted to be back in America with her for it. So now that he and Kimber are gone, there are no more American exchange students, and only 5 of us in total now - soon to decrease to just two (Canadian and Finnish) after us Aussies leave. :|

So yeah that's all, really. It's been a pretty normal week at school, there's been a bit of snow although nothing very heavy, and.. yeah. Today at school we went on an excursion to a college specialising in things like Hotel Services, Cabin Attendants, Bridal Registries and stuff. They had mock set-ups, like half a Boeing 767-300 fuselage on the 5th floor haha. It was pretty fun, although learning to be a Japanese flight attendant is HARD!!! Just trying to bow properly takes all this work.

Aaaanyway. Only 2 weeks of school left now, and 4.5 weeks til I head back home :)

038

December December December yay yay yay yay! I'm coming home NEXT MONTH!!! Hell to the yes. Anyway. The snow's here! It hasn't fallen much in Eniwa, but it's in Sapporo and surrounds. Yay yay.

On Sunday, my host sister Chiharu and our friend Mayu and I went to Sapporo in the evening to see the Christmas lights in Odori. So pretty!

It was just beginning to snow while we were there, and it was the next morning when the snow fully arrived. But it was so nice, very very cold, but nice. They have these German Christmas markets there at the moment, selling Christmas ornaments and German food, so there were a lot of Germans around. A few of them kept staring at me lol. I just smiled and yeah.

It was almost like a movie, because there were all these fairy lights, and people walking around and talking, the snow was so lightly falling and there was Christmas music floating around; from where, I don't know, but it set the Christmas mood haha. うれしい感じあった。

Sooo... now that it's December, it's getting colder, the nights are arriving earlier - usually around 4pm - and I'm starting to see just how close I am to the end. I'm not sure if I'll know what to do with myself when I arrive back on Merimbula soil. Maybe I'll just sit there looking dumb and happy. I suppose we'll find out in a little over a month :)

037

Today I returned from an overnight trip with my Host Family to a place called Lake Toya which is here...

It's super pretty. Definitely added to my list of favourite places in Hokkaido. We stayed in a hotel right on the water's edge, with uninterrupted views of the lake as well as the mountain in the distance (Mt Youtei, aka "Hokkaido's Fuji").

There were 12 of us all up that went; my host mum, host dad, host sister, host brother and his girlfriend, the grandpa and grandma, me, and kimberly and her three boys (they're staying in this house for 3 months too, because Kimberly stayed here 20 years ago).

Anyway, it was pretty good. We arrived in the afternoon and went to the pool! Second time swimming since I left Australia. It's hard to believe I've only been swimming twice in 10 months. I can't wait to get back in the ocean.

Anyway, we hung out there for about an hour and a half (there were waterslides and a wave pool, yay), and after an all-you-can-eat buffet for dinner, we went back to our hotel and chilled out, mostly in my/my host sibling's room. We all sat around drinking red wine and listening to stories from my host parents which were hilarious.

Everyone had gone to the onsen earlier, but I was adamant and said NO NO NO ONSEN NO but of course I went in the end lol. It was my best onsen experience yet; I had the whole place to myself. It must be the quiet season. But it was awesome; I stayed in there from 10:00-10:30pm because I didn't have to freak out about other people being there. So, I love onsen, but only when I have it to myself haha. Like a giant bath pool. Yum.

Anyway... we woke up early this morning and ate breakfast and then just chilled out again until it was time to check out and go home. Snow had fallen overnight so we had a mini snowball fight, but it hadn't fallen back here in Megumino/Eniwa :( soon, maybe.

036

Well well well well well well. Today I've been in Japan for 10 months. Double figures! Which now means I have 7 weeks until I leave Hokkaido. I've heard that it's already super hot back in Australia so I'm contemplating wearing my swimmers on the plane and jumping in the ocean as soon as I get off :P it could happen.

So this week I only had school on Monday - yesterday was a Public Holiday and the rest of this week I have off due to school exams. Hurruh. But I forgot how easy it is to get bored. I have stuff I could do, but.. もう無理だ。hehheh.

Quick update since last blog.

I went to a small meeting in Sapporo for the new bunch of Japanese exchange students who are due to go on exchange in mid-2011. So far there's only 3 of them, which is a lot less than the several that went this year, but maybe they'll have more later.

These three are (from left to right) Yodai, who is the little brother of my friend Miyu who went to USA last year on exchange, Hiroshi, who is the little brother of Tsubasa who went to Australia in 2008 (his family were my previous host family), and then there's Chiharu, my current host sister. They're going to America, Canada, and Australia respectively.

I also found out the date for our farewell meeting/party - it's in three weeks!! THREE!!! that's still like a whole month before we're actually due to go! Hah. So Dylan, Sam and I have freaked out a little and are frantically working on speeches and presentations to show at the meeting. I'll be uploading mine to YouTube a bit later, so if anyone's interesting in watching it, it'll be up in a few weeks.

So yesterday I went to Kaela's house (the Canadian girl), along with Sam, to watch a Disney movie and hang out. Then we went with her host mum and her host sister to the chocolate factory in Sapporo - they're these biscuits with chocolate sandwiched between them, and they're famous to Hokkaido - 白い恋人 - and they're super yummeh. The factory was more like a museum, and had loads of fairy lights too.

Anyway that's it really, today I have my Rotary meeting in the evening and my teacher should be here in an hour or so. Tomorrow I have nothing planned apart from shipping a whole lot of stuff back to Australia. That'll be interesting.

Then on Friday, I'm going on a trip with my host family to the onsen/pool, so I'll update again after that. Weeooo.

Just out of curiosity - if you read this, could you please just leave a comment? It doesn't have to say anything in particular, I'm just curious as to how many people read this blog. Thankyou :)

035

Firstly... apologies for the very frequent barrage of blogs being published lately. But I just wanted to share this; I got my return itinerary! Yay! Although it turns out it's going to take a massive 48 hours just to get from Japan to Australia.

January 13th - Depart at 11:30pm Chitose > Tokyo Haneda and stay the night in a hotel (with all the other exchange students that I originally came over with... that should be cool)

January 14th - Depart at 10:30am from Tokyo Narita > Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and arrive at 4:45pm. Then at 10:40pm, Kuala Lumpur > Sydney Airport.

January 15th - Arrive in Sydney Airport at 9:30am. Then, after going to the Domestic Terminal, depart at 12:00pm from Sydney Airport > Merimbula Airport, arriving at 1:15pm.

LONG LONG LONG LONG!!!!!! I'm a little annoyed that it's going to take 2 nights just to get back to the country, especially when there are reasonably cheap, DIRECT flights between Tokyo and Sydney. I find it a bit unnecessary to stay overnight in Tokyo, let alone go all the way to Malaysia. Geez!!

Anyway, it's good to have a final return plan now. It means I can start to organise things a bit more, and most importantly, start organising what to post home and what to pack. I'm excited :)

034

On Friday night after school, Dakota, Kaela and I went to Susukino in Sapporo to go out for dinner. I've only been there once before, but not really looked around. So it was nice to walk around.

We went to a "Japanese Pub Restaurant" where we ended up being the only foreigners there, so we made some friends, and soon enough we had to leave to get home by curfew -__- ah well.

So that's really the only thing that's happened lately but I just felt like writing for the sake of it. Today is overcast, quiet and still, and I'm heading into Sapporo later to meet up with Sam and Kaela and maybe see a movie, go shopping, just do whatever lol.

Today is November the 14th. This time, in TWO MONTHS exactly, I'll be on the plane and leaving Japan. Like I've said in basically all of my other posts on here, time has gone very fast. I'm so excited to get back to Australia. It almost seems to good to be true that I can actually go back to that wonderful place.

Week after next I get nearly the whole week off school which will be good, due to the students having exams. After that it's basically December, and it's only about 3-4 weeks of school until I can run out of there screaming and never go back. I have to go to school on Christmas Eve :( but after Christmas, I'll have only 2 weeks left. I've been trying to think of things I want to do that I haven't done yet, but my mind draws a blank. So... if anyone reads these still, want to leave suggestions? Please?

Other things I have coming up... not much I suppose.. I'm going to the Rotary Orientation meeting for the new batch of Japanese exchange students due to go to Australia/Canada/America/Finland mid-2011. I have a trip with my host family to a hot spring resort, which will be interesting seeing as though I don't like onsen :P

Other than that, it's basically just Christmas, New Years, Farewell meetings and parties, and then home-time. I read back on all my blogs this morning. I wrote way in the beginning that with only three weeks to go it hadn't sunk in that I was going to Japan. To be honest, it has never hit me that I'm here! Sure I speak the language and things are different, but it's never just come around and smacked me in the face that I'm here. Hmm.