013

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.

010

Guess what day it is! It's the 24th of February, which means I have been in Japan for exactly one month now. It's gone incredibly fast, and I really miss Australia but it has already been such an experience here. I'm really looking forward to the next 11 months.

Anyway, this will mainly be an update about my trip to Okinawa. :)

We woke up at 6am on Friday morning, caught the train to Chitose and flew out of Hokkaido at around 9:15am (in ALOT of snow. I was scared!)
Anyway, after getting the connecting flight in Tokyo, we arrived in Okinawa around 2:30pm and went to our hotel in Naha. I shared a room with my two sisters and the parents slept in a room next door.

In the afternoon, we visited the underground tunnels where Japanese soldiers fought from in WW2. It was pretty interesting.. and one room I walked into, saw some chips in the wall and thought "oh yeah, just gunfire.." then I saw this;...definitely got the heebie jeebies. everything was in Japanese so unfortunately I didn't understand why they committed suicide etc. But there you go.

We spent the evening walking around the main street, which is really awesome; lots and lots of lights, music, people, everything. Okinawans have a lot more of a laid-back personality, and a good sense of humour. And there was no snow! It was only about 18 on the first day, but the warmest it got was around 23 or so. It was extremely nice to have the sun on me again.
On Saturday morning, while my host parents went to play golf all day, my sisters and I (in the rent-a-car), drove 2 hours north to visit the biggest aquarium in the world. It was pretty good, although there were so many people there it made it a little hard to be able to look at everything.

We also watched a dolphin show which was good, the sun came out and so it was waaarm~~ and the dolphins seemed like they were having fun, which made me happy :)



After the aquarium, we drove back down south to a Pineapple Park where they grow some of the pineapples and things. We had a small tour in a self-driven pineapple buggy, which sort of creeped me out; no cables or anything, it just literally drove itself.
After tasting many pineapples (And pineapple cake, pineapple biscuits, pineapple chocolate..) we drove back to the hotel where we rested, then went back down the main street after dinner. There are alot of American soldiers who are stationed in Okinawa, so I met some who were hilarious; and they were very happy to meet me - "man you are so sexy, that Australian accent, ahh!"We also made friends with a few more shop-keepers.. basically, when they realise you don't want to buy whatever it is they're trying to sell, they'll just strike up a conversation. :)

On Sunday, we took the rent-a-car back out again, this time to Okinawa World; which is exactly that. Like a small theme park about Okinawa. There were caves, more pineapples, glass-making, traditional song and dance, snakes and snake wine.
That night we went, yet again, to the main street, to a Teppanyaki restaurant. It's a table with the BBQ built in, and each table gets their own personal chef. We ate tofu, salad, steak, rice, lobster, and this garlic rice stuff which was really tasty but I only could eat like half a spoonful because I was so damn full.
We flew out of Naha International Airport on Monday afternoon, after visiting Okinawa Castle (A World Heritage place) in the morning. It was good, but they had been renovating and restoring everything. I personally think they've overdone it; it's basically just been rebuilt completely new, so it doesn't feel like anything ancient.
But anyway, Okinawa was great, I hope that one day I can visit again.. maybe in the summer!

009

Two weeks since my last post... sorry! I've just felt so busy and tired that I haven't wanted or haven't had an opportunity to sit down and update this. I've been doing my best to keep a written diary too, and my Japanese tutor also asked me to start keeping a diary in Japanese to help me learn. So I'll flick through those as I go and point out some of the more interesting things I've been up to since my last update :)

I'm getting into the routine of school now, although I'm being put in the library instead of going to classes like Maths, Science, Japanese, even Home Ec... I only attend English, OC (Oral Communication - like a more fun version of English), Calligraphy and P.E (which is cross-country skiing - awesome, I know!). I've asked to be put in with all of the classes, because I'm not progressing at all by sitting alone in the library with the occasional English teacher coming to talk to me (in English, which doesn't teach me how to talk here). I also recently got my uniform, yay.

Anyway, the other students have pretty much accepted me; all the girls seem to love me, but the boys are pretty shy I think. A few have said hello, or nodded quietly, but there is one boy named Shuto who is a bit of a bugger lol. I had to do an introductory speech infront of the whole year at assembly, and afterwards as everyone was filing out, he walked past, said hello, shook my hand, then blew me a kiss over his shoulder as he left. Later that day after P.E, he kept calling out "Laura! Texas Burger! This Is IT!" (meaning Texas Burger; the current popular McDonald's burger in Japan, and This Is It; the Michael Jackson movie) I just smile and shake my head and wave enthusiastically at him.

I had an official welcoming party for me at the Eniwa Rotary Club headquarters which was really good, all the Rotarians and my host families were there, but it turned out I had to do a speech which I hadn't written. So I got called up and said a line or two, but then I just couldn't translate into Japanese what I wanted to say. So I stressed out a bit, and my host sister helped, but yeah. Made a bit of a fool of myself and shed a few tears but everyone clapped for me and it was all fine in the end. And we played bingo and I won a 6-pack of Sapporo Beer (which is now sitting in the corner of the loungeroom because I'm not allowed to drink it here lol).

The Sapporo Snow Festival has been and gone, and although I was only able to see it briefly, it was pretty good. It snowed a fair bit and my host parents sort of rushed past everything, so I didn't get to see everything, but I got a couple of photos and saw the main things so.. it's okay I think. We also went to Otaru, which is on the coast; I loved it. We went at night, so there were all these fairy lights and music and snow and it was just beautiful.

I finally got to experience Karaoke for the first time with my two host sisters, Ai and Mai. It was so awesome!! I love it. And the Japanese are actually really good singers, I haven't heard any Japanese person sing out-of-tune yet. I went to Karaoke again the other night with some people, including a girl named Tessa who was the Exchange Student here last, also from Australia. She'd come back for a visit with her boyfriend. So we, along with my future host brother Atsuo and a bunch of his friends, went to the same Karaoke place and sang our hearts out. Karaoke is so good.

and don't let the wall mislead you; the flash ruins it, but it's actually lime green fluroescent paint :DSo anyway. I also did things like meet the Mayor of Eniwa (complete with about half a dozen reporters taking photos and jotting down notes and asking me questions), went to Chitose and saw the Hyotou Ice Festival which was beautiful - I personally liked it more than the snow festival - and I joined the Calligraphy Club at school (although this means I don't leave school til 4:30-5pm when it's on). I also had a Soba cooking class at the pre-school across the road which was good fun, although I missed out on the pumpkin tempura (my favourite) because we had to wait in line to cook the soba :(

^^^ this last photo is taken at my 4th host families house. from L > R; Tessa, Atsuro, the two girls I don't know the names of but they're friends of Atsuro's little sister Chi-chi who is behind me. Then there's 'Kevin' who is actually Korean and lives in Australia and is here with Atsuro (they both study in Brisbane), and another of Chi-chi's friends.

I got a keitai!! (mobile phone) - it is epic awesome. it was apparently a cheaper option, but I am very happy with it. Unlimited internet! so I won't be completely cut off from the world during my next host family (they don't have the net).


apologies for crappy badly lit gross-looking-me webcam photos. But basically it can twist and flip and has a Google button and touchscreen and TV and full internet browser and 5.1MP camera and all sorts of awesome things. <3

I also went to the onsen for the first time, in Yuni which is about an hours drive away. It was pretty daunting to, you know, walk naked into a room of about 50-100 women and go for a bath. Hm. But I went with Tessa and Chi-chi, so it wasn't too bad, although I don't think I'll go again. Though, sitting outside in the middle of the snow, in a hot rockpool, with snow falling on your head is pretty unreal. I mean, if I were there alone it would've been perfect, but with all the other women... not as nice :( but at least I can say I've done it!

So that's basically what I've done since last blog. Today I had another Rotary meeting and Japanese lesson, and tomorrow's my last day of school before I go to OKINAWA! Wooooooo I'm excited. Faaar away, and home to the BIGGEST AQUARIUM IN THE WORLD. yay :) So i'll update after that more than likely.

And I apologise if I make any errors in English; I've only been here for 3 weeks and I can already feel my English sort of slipping! For more photos, please look on my Facebook :) Already 300+...

008

Today is Wednesday, and I had the day off school because I have to attend every Rotary meeting, and Eniwa RC's is at about midday every Wednesday. I also have a Japanese tutor visiting me every Wednesday too, so it's not like I miss out on learning stuff.

This morning I woke up feeling quite unwell; my chest hurt and it felt hard to breathe, my mouth was very dry and later in the morning my stomach began to hurt too. I'm not sure if it's just a cold or if it's still just my body becoming used to the cold temperatures, but I'm feeling better now that I've had a little to eat and a bit of a rest.

Anyway, I thought I'd use this blog to share with you some tips, as well as show you where I actually live now (via Google Maps, yay yay.)

Firstly, where I live:

In Hokkaido...

in Eniwa (between Sapporo/Chitose)...

In Town...

In Omachi... there's my apartment :)

Ta da! It's a really nice place. I hope I can have a nice house like this one day (they have the BEST BATH).

Anyway, now for some tips;

1) School starts early. Like 8:25am, so getting up at 6am is the norm. Arrgh. And don't be surprised if you have to walk really far; for me, I leave home at about 7:10am, get driven to Eniwa station, catch the 7:23am train to Kaminopporo which takes around 20-25 mins, then from Kaminopporo I have to walk to school which takes around 25-30 mins. So I travel around 2 hours a day to and from school.

2) Credit cards and such are rarely used... so always have cash. Try to give exact cash as much as possible because otherwise you end up with loads of these (like me..);
...sort of like their version of 5c coins - annoying!

3) The coffee sucks. Just saying. If you're a big coffee fan, start weaning yourself off the stuff before you come to Japan.

4) As an exchange student, people always want to see where you're from, and what your life is like at home. I bought a small photo album that holds about 35 photos, and fits easily into my handbag or school bag. I've used it countless times already, so it's a great thing to have.

5) Always carry your Rotary business cards... and try to get rid of them all, because we get SO MANY.

6) Always smile :) it does wonders, seriously. And try your hardest to communicate well, even if it means speaking horrible Japanese (like me). As long as you keep smiling and trying, they know you're doing your best.

7) People are still allowed to smoke inside in Japan, so it may come as a little shock. Alot of people smoke so... if you're a non-smoker, also be prepared. I still have to try not to look twice when I see someone light up in a restaurant I'm in.

Well I think that's about it for now.. I just had my first Japanese tutor lesson which was fun, an hour and a half of talking Japanese; I had better be fluent when I come back or I'll be disappointed!!

For more photos, please visit my Facebook :)