024

I am jealous! The Japanese girl going to my town on Student Exchange, Haruka, left yesterday evening and arrived in Merimbula this morning. I'm jealous that she gets to go and see my town and my family and my dogs, and sleep in my room, and see the ocean, and eat fish and chips, and.. basically do everything that I miss. But I have less than 5 months left here, and as much as I'm looking forward to getting back to my life, I know that for now I'm in Japan, and I'm going to keep making the most of that.

So anyway, I'll backtrack a few days and share what I've been up to.

Last week, Haruka and I were taken to the City Hall to meet with the Mayor - my second time meeting him. We chatted for a while, then we were interviewed for the newspaper by a few journalists. This meeting was more for Haruka because of her exchange to Australia, but I was invited too seeing as though I'm here, of course lol.

I also spent a day with my host family in an area down south of Chitose, out in the farmlands. It's like the week where everyone goes and visits temples and graves of family members, so I got to go along for the ride.

We spent the afternoon at a relatives farm, eating yaki-niku and talking, and I napped a bit, the kids ran around, and we picked corn from their fields lol. It was alright, but because of the heat, I was tired and wanted to go home and sleep.

So the other day I was invited to go and watch a play that my next host sister was starring in. I understood the Acts, but I didn't understand the meaning of the whole play as one. So... I don't know lol. I still got a few laughs out of it.

So yeah. I start school again on Thursday.... Bleh. I'm not too keen on going. I suppose it will give me time to sit, and sit, and sit. And ponder... things. And I suppose study Japanese and write some letters and things lol. I'll find something to do.

Something I am looking forward to is my family coming to visit in just over a month. Yay! Like I am seriously looking forward to it; being able to show them around my new life, take them to restaurants I've liked and places I've seen, and then together we'll all go down to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagano, Nagoya, Hiroshima and Kyoto. It'll be the first time I've been to that area, because apart from Okinawa, I haven't left Hokkaido.

Anyway, more on that when it actually happens!

But it is amazing just how fast this is going. When you think about it... my family arrive in just over a month. After they return to Australia, it's only 3 months until I go back to Australia. 3 months! That's crazy. It doesn't feel like I've been here for nearly 7 months at all.