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Hello everyone.

Aahhhhhh I'm so bored ;___;

Now that it's school holidays there's not too much for me to do. I move house on Wednesday, aaand that's about all I'm doing haha.

The other day I went to the shopping centre at Sapporo station (it's huge.. something like 11 floors) with a new friend from school. It was a really good day; we did Purikura, had lunch, went shopping and went and saw a 3D movie (G-Force, which was dubbed lol).

So overall it was quite fun :) and that night I went to a family reunion with my host family. That was pretty cool, although I steered away from eating the pig intestines. Hm.

So... that's about it. Boredom prevails.

Oh and I got my hair cut shorter. Yay. I'm not too scared of Japanese hairdressers anymore lol.
p.s - the shirt is from a webcomic called Toothpaste For Dinner, if anyone's interested.

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Niseko was really good :) It's a shame we only got to stay for one night, but it was fun while it lasted.
I woke up early on Saturday morning and met my Host Counsellor and my 2nd Host Family (who are related) at Eniwa train station. From there we caught the train to Sapporo, where we met up with all of the other Inbounders and Outbounders and their families and then took a private bus to Niseko. The bus trip was maybe around 2 hours, maybe a little more, but it was good. When we stopped for a rest halfway there, somehow we ended up trying to stuff everyone inside this telephone box :P

We stayed at the Niseko Powder Lodge, which seemed to be a sort of Backpackers/Hostel sort of thing. We had the traditional futon beds/tatami mats, and in the end we just had all of us (13 girls and 1 guy.. poor Dylan, the only male exchange student here at the moment) in the one room trying to pull an all nighter.
But anyway I've skipped a whole (main) part; the snowboarding! It was very hard, but I managed to go down the slope twice.. very slowly.. the whole time I got helped by one of the Outbounders dads, he was so patient with me. As in, he jogged alongside me the whole way down the slope both times to make sure I was okay. The first time I attempted to get off the ski-lift, I fell straight over not once but twice. How embarrassing. But I'm the clumsy foreigner who doesn't even know how to spell 'snow' so it's okay :D

In the end I really enjoyed going down the slope; I was terrible at it, and after the 3 hours we were out there I was soaked from all the snow, but now I really want to try again soon before all the snow goes away.

That evening, we (the Inbounders) decided to go to karaoke - but after walking up to the bus station, we got sidetracked by the hot drinks from the vending machine and our bus must have just gone straight past. So when we realised this we just sat around inside the little Information Centre, which was fun. We even had our own little "Zombie Apocalypse" adventure and whatnot. Then these really loud bangs began to go off outside, so we ran outside screaming "STREET FIGHT!" but it was just fireworks being let off from the slopes. They were really pretty though, and we all clapped at the end. Oh, we also visited an Ice Bar ("Bar The Ice") which was really cool.. literally. Wow I'm un-funny.

Soo yeah, the bathrooms at the lodge were super creepy... if you've seen any of the 'Saw' movies, then picture those types of bathrooms. Yep. And they were downstairs in the basement-type place, just really creepy.

Our attempt at pulling an all-nighter failed by around 2:30am. Everyone had crashed on my bed so I attemped to sleep in the doorway, in the hallway, in another room (until people went in there too so I had to relocate) and finally in yet another room. All part of the fun :P

The next morning we left Niseko around 10:30am, and went back to Sapporo via Otaru. I've decided I love Otaru. It's all vintage and stuff and right next to the ocean. We had lunch and then went shopping all together in this shop across the road, which was basically filled with souvenir-type stuff. But yay, shopping :)

The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Caught the train back to Eniwa, and that night I slept for 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) hours. It's the longest I've ever slept, ever. I'm glad I slept that much because last night I got only 3 hours of sleep haha.


So yeah, that's pretty much the Niseko trip :) I had a really good time getting to know the other Exchange Students better, and doing something different. Oh and I found out that I'll be moving house in about 9 days, which is alot sooner than I was expecting. I thought I was moving at the end of April, but apparently it's the 1st of April. Which means no internet access for 3 months... or very limited :( I hope I find an unsecured network... :3

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Time for a quick blog update so that I have a clean slate for this weekend's Niseko trip!

Not much has happened since last blog, basically just school and stuff. Spring break begins next week which I'm looking forward to... I'm sick of being woken up at 5:45am by my alarm every morning :( i'll enjoy the sleep while I can. I'm really looking forward to the snow melting. bring on the ability to walk without being scared of falling over...

Eniwa ^^

It's been really nice to finish school early this past week, it means I can walk home from the station during the day.. usually i don't get home til it's getting dark, so my host mum picks me up. I've given myself a goal to walk as much as i can (or just exercise in general) to try and lose a bit of weight. so the approximate 5km a day and the 6 flights of stairs at school are looking good despite my sore legs haha.

Eniwa Station (after school) ^^

What else is there to report on.. uhh... well next term (not sure what they call it here. but term makes sense) there's like a bunch of demonstrations from the school clubs to try and get the new kids to join them. on that note, i'm going into the 2nd year, which is like Australia's Year 11. lol.
Anyway, I get to join in on the demonstration for calligraphy club. Using that beautiful $200 brush that I want (please), they want me to do a giant 新 (atarashi) which means 'New'.

Last night I went to a Rotary Meeting in Chitose, I don't really know what it was for, but they had nice chandeliers. :3

And here are just some photos from the train station for the heck of it :) I'll write again after Niseko :)

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just to start, this was copied from my Tumblr. account. my Tumblr. is sort of a more personal bloggy/photo page, whereas this is more about sharing with everyone what I get up to in Japan. If anyone is interested - http://laura-jane.tumblr.com/

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i haven’t been able to sleep for maybe 3-4 days now. never happened before… but i just sit up until any time between midnight and 3am, not really doing anything, just sitting and clicking around the internet. it doesn’t help that i need to be up at 6am every morning for school, but that’s okay. at this rate i’ll be getting up for school in about 4 hours. :P

today i actually got out of the house though, which was great; the past week has gone really slowly from lack of doing stuff. tonight i went out to dinner with a family i know, to this really nice place that i’ve been to once before.

we went to another restaurant afterwards for dessert - i fell in love with the high ceilings, thick curtains and the mismatching chandeliers, and the overall vintage atmosphere it had. the lighting was really well done, and i’m pretty sure my future house will be influenced by this (or at least one of the rooms will be).

alot of people are talking about Easter back in Australia, and it feels odd to me because there is absolutely nothing here in Japan that relates to it. the Japanese barely even know what it is, when I ask. it’s okay though, less chocolate, less body fat! Easter is never as exciting as it was when i was younger, anyway.

I also found out today that my hosting Rotary Club is taking me on a trip to Kyoto next month sometime for the weekend, along with some other Rotary members and another girl who’s here from Australia, whom I’ve only met twice. I’m looking forward to it - any opportunity to travel is an instant ‘happiness’ for me. :)

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Last night I attended my sponsor Rotary Club (Pambula 9710) meeting via Skype.. it was really cool, went really smoothly and I talked for about 15 mins (Q&A). They've invited me to Skype in again for their 20th Anniversary meeting in June, and the District Governer will be attending too.

Next weekend, together with Rotary, I'm going to Niseko for a skiing weekend. It's apparantly very popular with Australians, so who knows, might make some friends lol.

In other news, I was finally able to come home from school alone for the first time haha. Usually I'm always accompanied by a friend or something. All my friends were worried about me getting lost, but it's an extremely easy route from school to the train station, basically every train stops in Eniwa - and I can read the timetable well enough to know which one to catch and from which platform - and the route from the Eniwa station to my apartment is also very straightforward.

All up, I walk about 5-6km a day between my home and school every day. This will increase to around 7-8km a day when I start walking to the station from home in the mornings when it's warmer.

Ok well that's enough from me for tonight - it's time for me to go to bed! 2:16am, Laura, what!? I need to have a word with my body clock.

012

i had my first truly difficult and frustrating situation today; the post office.

together with my host dad and my older host sister, we went to the local post office so i could send off a package to my family, and about half a dozen smaller things for some of my friends. unfortunately, after leaving about an hour later, AU$50 poorer, only the parcel for my family made it over the counter.

what i never realised was that to post something from japan includes ALOT of information from my end. that is, what EXACTLY is in the parcel, how much did it cost, does it contain alcohol, what's the recipients phone number, etc etc etc. so, even though i knew what was in each parcel, and i would put my parents phone number for the numbers i didn't know, and i probably could've been able to post everything at once, for some reason my parcels and i were all sent back home to re-write all the details.

the mistake i made was a simple offhand comment in the post office that i had no idea would cause trouble. i was becoming a little overwhelmed and frustrated at the language barrier (between myself and my host family), and "why can't i just send the damn things", when i bowed my head and said to my feet, in a low voice, "far out this is stupid" - you don't think of it in Australia, because, well, it's not offensive there, especially when it's said in a casual tone whilst smiling, which is what i was doing. but my host sister took it very seriously, and i didn't realise she was offended until we were in the car driving home. my host father and i were talking about how japanese post is difficult, and different to australia, when my host sister started talking to me in english, "yeah well that's australia isn't it. and if you EVER say it (the system) is stupid again, i will never forgive you."

i literally couldn't reply - she'd said it in english (she quite fluent), so the rest of my host family had no clue what was going on. it came as a bit of a slap in the face; i'd said the comment to myself, and she'd just overheard. all i was trying to express was that it was a difficult and frustrating process just to post a couple of gifts home, something that would've usually taken me only 10 minutes.

so back at home she stormed off and i went into my room and had a good cry to my dad on Skype. anyway, basically i just needed a bit of a rant. it's definitely been a difficult afternoon. i don't really want to have to see my host sister again, which is a shame because i thought that we were actually getting on well. i know that it's hard for them too, to have a near-stranger live with them for 3 months, but it also is upsetting to me that she could so easily tell me off like that, and say something that harsh, too. it really did hurt, but you know. what can i do about it.

011

Blog-lazy... my apologies.

Not much has been happening, really. March has rolled around, but on the first day of "Spring" it snowed. It's pretty different to Australia... basically, each season starts nearly immediately. But in Hokkaido, Spring doesn't get into the swing of things for another 1-2 months. I'm looking forward to warmth, though. The warmest I've experienced in Hokkaido has been maybe 5 degrees (C) - today, walking to school, it was blue sky and the sun was shining right on me, and it felt so nice. I never thought I'd miss the sun; I've always loved the cold. But one can only have so much cold :P

Yesterday was the graduation ceremony for the senior students in my school. It felt a bit odd, seeing as though I've already graduated High School back in Australia, to see other kids a little younger than me graduating.. and I was the one in the junior year. A bit weird.

But it was a good day, the other juniors and I (from the Calligraphy Club) set up the Calligraphy classroom for a small congratulatory party for the 2 seniors who were in the club. We drew on the blackboard, I brought along some Tim Tams, and we cooked tako-yaki. We had too much batter and not enough octopus so we ended up making chocolate ones, which tasted interesting...

Afterwards, we walked up the highway a bit (before being picked up by one of their mums) and ended up at a karaoke place in Kitahiroshima. We booked the room for 3 hours, and my head hurt a bit at the start.. the high pitched/too loud music didn't help.. but by the end it was good.


Now that it's beginning to warm up a little (or more the fact that it isn't snowing every day anymore), I'm able to walk from Eniwa station back to my house in the afternoons. It's nice to have a little time alone, just to listen to my iPod and walk along the street. I hadn't actually ever walked down the main street of my town, only ever driven. Hopefully in the Summer I can get out a little more.

At the moment.. I don't think it helps that it's so cold.. I don't see anyone out of school really. All the other exchange students live in Sapporo, so they're all able to see eachother, but Eniwa's a little far away. I mean, by train it's only about 20 minutes, but I don't think I'm allowed to travel alone yet. I'm confident that I can, but my Rotary club worry about me lol. So I hope I get a life soon. It's quite a contrast to my life in Aus where I'd spend loads of time either alone, or out with my friends having a good time. Here, school IS social life.

Anyway, I hate sounding like I'm complaining. On a good note, starting from next week I'm finally being incorporated into all of the classes at school. I think I'll miss sitting in the library though; the librarian is super nice and fun to talk to, and she even began ordering in English translated versions of the Japan Times, which I love reading every day. I'll definitely try to keep visiting her.

What else.. oh - my next host family's (Murayama's) daughter, Haruka, is going to Australia in August. I'm in her class at school, and we catch the train together too. She's really helpful. Anyway, there's rumour that she might be going to live in my town :D nothing's confirmed yet, and I think if she doesn't end up in my town it'll be around Canberra somewhere, but if she comes to my town I think that'll be awesome. My family are really keen to host her if she does, and I want to show her so much after I return to Australia (because she'll still be there). The only thing is that I head off to University a month after I return so things will be hectic!

Ahhhhh I'm tired. I crashed this afternoon, slept like a rock for 2 hours from 6pm-8pm before my host dad woke me up for dinner. 4 hours later and I'm buggered again. At least I can sleep in tomorrow. :)

Oh and today I wore a kimono for the first time :) I went with my host mum to a shop, so that she could buy a kimono for my younger sisters graduation celebration, and the shopkeeper decided to dress me up haha. They're quite heavy.. but very pretty :)

PS - today I also got in trouble from one of the teachers at school for having my skirt too short haha. It was maybe 3cm above my knee. Bad Laura.