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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.