046

Here I am, tomorrow is my last day in Hokkaido. Caaaan't believe how fast it's gone. やばい。

So it's late and I'm tired and I'm sure I'll have a big day ahead of me tomorrow, so I will briefly outline the contents of the past week.

5th January - My official Farewell Party at my Host Rotary Club.

I did my speech and presentation and got speeches done by a few people including the vice principal from my school and my Japanese teacher which were good. We talked and ate and had as much fun as you can at a Rotary event :P nah, I've always liked going to Rotary.

5th January - Final meeting with Mayor of Eniwa.

I went to the City Hall early (8:30am is early for me now lol) and chatted with the mayor, he gave me a Parker Pen with the kanji for Eniwa on the case. Then I got photographed and interviewed by a small group of reporters, and yeah. It was my third time seeing the mayor.

8th January - Dinner with Saitou-san and the dogs.

I went to my favourite Host Family's house for one last dinner with them, also so I could say goodbye to their dogs (Saburoku and Ganjiro). I'm going to miss them :( :( :( :( :(

We ate "shabu shabu" which is like boiled meat and vegetables that you do yourself, and dip in sauce. It's yum. Then we gorged ourselves on cake and yeah, it was a good night :)

The only other thing I've been doing this week is hanging out with the other Exchange kids while I still can. Tonight I went to Sapporo for the last hang-out :( and the last time I'll see Sapporo at night, at least until I come back to visit. But it hasn't sunk in at all that I'm leaving. Not at all.

Anyway... That's all, really. It's getting pretty cold here now, between -5 and -8 degrees usually. Tomorrow is my last day, as I said, and I'll have my last Rotary, last Japanese lesson, and last dinner. But seriously, NOTHING HAS SUNK IN!!! It's crazy. Just at the point where I'm feeling comfortable, it's time to come home. But I'm glad, because I feel like my time here is up. It's time to move onto more things :)

045

Holy crap! I'm going home next week! When I put it that way, it feels very very very close but it is not sinking in. What the hell is wrong with me. Argh.

I've been busy every day so far, and now that it's nearing the end, my schedule is filling up and up. I hope I don't run out of time to get everything done.

On the 2nd I hung out with my host sister Chiharu, and our friend Mayu. We went to Bikkuri Donkey (my favourite Japanese chain restaurant) and did Karaoke too. It was the last time I saw Mayu, because the period of time around my departure is when her main High School final tests are on. :( I hope I can see her again someday though.

On the 3rd, I spent the day in Sapporo to meet Jono, the guy who was here from my District last year. He'd come back to visit, so there was Jono, Rikiya (he went to Australia while Jono was here), Miyu (went to America last year), Minami (went to Australia year before last), and Sam (the other exchange girl from Australia at the moment).

It was a pretty good day, we just hung out and went to Karaoke, took Purikura, looked around shops, ate and went out for dinner at Taj Mahal.

Aaaand today, the 4th, my host dad took me, Chiharu, Josh and Matthew (the two sons of the Australian lady who's also staying at this house) out to the snowfields to do some skiing and snowboarding.

I hadn't snowboarded since March when I went to Niseko, so even though I was a tiiiiny bit better, it was still only my second time and I only went down the slope 3 times. So hard lol. But we had really good weather so it wasn't too bad.

And yeah... Just another update. I expect there'll be a lot of updates in this final week, as I have another Farewell party tomorrow night, then another meeting with the Eniwa Mayor, and a few more nights out with the Exchange kids. Busy busy busy.

044

明けましておめでとうございます！

Happy New Year!

Japanese New Year is a lot different to Australian New Year. It's a lot more quieter and family-oriented, and although I missed the atmosphere of the Australian summer and fireworks and going out with my friends, I liked the Japanese New Year.

On the 30th, I went to my Rotary Counsellor's house to join him and his family in "mochi-tsuki", which is the Japanese New Year tradition of making mochi (rice cake). It's made by thumping rice with this big wooden hammer until it turns into a sticky rice dough. Then it's broken up and moulded into balls, usually with "anko" (sweet bean paste) inside it. It's very tasty but filling too - one little ball of mochi is the equivalent of a bowl of rice, so you have to be careful!

Outside the mochi making room, there was a little snow slope that they'd built in my Counsellor's backyard, so I played with the kids and slid down that, as well as snowball fights and making snow men. It was really fun. Afterwards, I went to Miyu's house to join the other exchange students in more mochi-tsuki, but by the time I got there they'd finished, so we just hung out instead.

On New Years Eve, I didn't do anything during the day. For dinner we had a big feast of Japanese food, beer and sake. Then we all waited around - I skyped my parents because the Australian New Year was 2 hours before the Japanese New Year, so I wasn't quite sure when to call it a new year....

But anyway, at 11:30pm we got picked up by the mother of Chiharu's friend, and went to a shrine to ring the bell and stuff. It was a quiet occasion, and the bell was really loud - it echoed all around. It was cold, but no snow was falling and there was no wind, so it was pretty pleasant.

We also got free sake! Yeahhh! Nah, it's another tradition I think. We also went to a second shrine where we read our fortunes; I couldn't read all the kanji in mine, but I showed it to my host sister and she said I got some of the best things lol. So let's hope that 2011 reflects that.

This morning I skyped my family again, and I'm really excited to be going home in 2 weeks. I can't believe it's so soon. I'll miss it here but I can't wait to get back into my Australian life. I think 2011 is going to be a defining year for me.

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!)