022

Because I’m in the Calligraphy Club at school I’m currently on a 3-day camp at a hotel in some.. place. I don’t actually know exactly where we are, but it’s surrounded by all these really small, sharply steep mountains. Like, I’ve never seen land forms like that before.

Anyway, I originally didn’t want to come on this camp. Firstly, I’m just not that into Calligraphy. I’ve been tossing up whether I should quit or not for some while now. Secondly, it costs about $130, which I didn’t really want to cough up. So of course, when I say that I “can’t afford” it, the teacher goes and calls my Rotary club without telling me, and asks them to pay for it. Geez. So here I am, in my hotel room.

Basically, we (a whole bunch of students from a few High Schools around here) are expected to spend all day and night doing Calligraphy. Just copies of the same thing, over and over and over. We have this big room that’s just been covered with paper and ink and calligraphy stuff. It looks pretty awesome.

Unfortunately I’m not fantastic at calligraphy, and it bores me very quickly. One of the girls from my school stayed in that room until 5am. Even when I got up at 3am (so I could go and bathe in the onsen without other people being in there too.. there’s no private showers), there were still a few students running around. I could never ever imagine Aussie kids giving up their sleeping time to paint scribbly characters lol.

So tomorrow morning we go home, and I doubt I’ll still understand the point of this camp. I'm pretty sure it's for an exhibition or something. I don’t know whether I’m glad to have come though, yet. And I’m feeling claustrophobic and restless – it’s raining outside, and I haven’t even been outside for about 31 hours now. I’m glad we’re going home tomorrow or I may well go mad.

(A small update. That night I stayed in the room doing Calligraphy until 2am, was woken at 5am to clean the room, then woken again at 7:30am for breakfast. So now I've had barely any sleep the past two nights and I feel so crap. Bleh.)

021

Today I got soaked riding my bike home from the station. I went to Sapporo to meet a friend so we could go to watch some fireworks, but my mobile phone ran out of battery, and we never found each-other haha. So I spent the evening at Sapporo Station, having a little bit of a shop and sitting outside Starbucks to write. It was raining, but not heavily, although as my train pulled into Eniwa Station at 9pm, I stepped outside to a fairly steady rainfall. I got my bike and realised that there was no point in riding fast to try and escape the rain, so I rode slowly and enjoyed it! :P It was about 19 degrees Celsius, so it wasn’t bad or anything, just… wet haha. I got home and my poor host-sister nearly had a heart attack. “すごい雨!”

So that’s about it. I have been so slack in my blog updates, I know. I have them written, it’s just the photos that take up all my time and patience. So if there is a lack of photos, you now know why. You can view any photos I have on my Facebook though. If you’re not my friend, add me!

Today also marks the beginning of Summer Holidays, thank god. Bring it on!! My host family are taking me to the ocean (about a 40 minute drive away, up near Otaru). I haven’t been to the ocean, let alone gone swimming for the whole time I’ve been here, which is actually 6 months today. That’s the longest period of time IN MY LIFE that I haven’t gone swimming or gone to the beach, living in a coastal town and all. It doesn’t feel like that long, but I’ve surprised myself at how excited I am to go to the beach, even if it’s going to be nothing like Australia’s beaches.

Anyway, I’m just rambling now, so until next time!!

020

DOT POINT TIME/the last 3 weeks in short summary!

• Went to Dylan's 18th Birthday BBQ at his host families house. It was fun, but extremely hot, and basically it was just a nice afternoon. Somehow though, his host-mum thinks I am pro-as at Japanese, and apparently keeps talking about me.. haha :) yay, loved.

• I helped out at the Sapporo Beer Festival, because the Rotary Club had a yaki-soba/yaki-tori tent. It was massively hot so I bludged most of the time... I wasn't missed, there was like 50 other people helping. The festival was average, but they had a really good cover band of The Beatles. I was disappointed that no-one recognised the songs though.

• That same day I was meeting my friend Drew to go to Sapporo. It began raining massively - like seriously heavy, so heavy that it shut down the train lines. Luckily I got to Shin-Sapporo before they were shut down, so from there we were able to catch the subway. I didn't know train lines could get shut down just from rain lol. Anyway we ate dinner at this Indian place which was awesome, the owners spoke Indian, English AND Japanese. Awesome. And we managed to find the ferris wheel on the roof of one of the nearby buildings, and then luckily the train lines re-opened again by the time we went home.

• I moved house on the 7th of July, to my real third host family. I'm going to miss the Saitou family, especially the two dogs... but Saitou-san said I can come back any time, he even told me to keep the house key and to let myself in whether they were home or not. :) So now I'm in the Kuno house, back in Eniwa. My second last family! There's the mum, dad, elder brother, younger brother, and little sister. It's a relaxed and busy family, and has been really easy to move into.

• On the 10th we had the Farewell Dinner for the American, Canadian and Finnish exchange students, as well as the Japanese students who are leaving for their exchange this and next month. It was really fun to have everyone together again, I just wish we could've met up a few more times. After the dinner (everyone did speeches and presentations and tears were shed and photos were taken), just us inbounders/outbounders walked downtown Sapporo and did Karaoke, all like 13 of us haha. It was good fun, and we did Purikura before it was time to go home.

• My aforementioned friend, Drew, left to go home to Australia. So I'm sad... everyone is leaving now. I will be alone D:

• On the 11th, Tiffany returned to America. I woke at 5:30am to get to the airport on time to wave her off. Again, tears were shed and photos were taken. After I went back home, Haruka and I went to the Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo. I hated the enclosures, they are too small and unnatural for my liking... Australia has awesome zoos, I've realised. Oh, we rode the rollercoaster. That was fun haha. We also stumbled upon a festival being held in central Sapporo that neither of us had any idea about, so that was cool. Rachael, the Canadian girl, had some fun... She dressed in a hired Panda suit and entertained onlookers in Odori :P Unfortunately I had to be home early... but that was also fun.

• The 14th and 15th was my School Festival. It was actually a really big let-down, for me. I didn't enjoy it at all. The class dances were alright - I memorised the whole dance and didn't muck up (at least not too much). But the 15th, with all the class stalls and things, I was alone...... :( I have no friends, really, so I just sort of wandered around aimlessly, feeling sorry for myself, until I saw some girls from my class and asked if I could just walk with them. They turned out to be good fun, we went in the haunted house. It was even better because I'm the foreigner, so at the end they all got on the floor and bowed to me and apologised for scaring me (although it was more hilarious than scary, but well done).

• On the 20th, we farewelled Lindsey, the second American to go home. That was an early start too. I was allowed to have the day off school for that, and the previous day had been public holiday, AND the next day was Rotary, so I was pretty happy. :D

• And on Thursday, we farewelled Rachael back to Canada. Emmi, her host dad, Dylan and I sat up the top of the terminal eating icecream as we watched her plane taxi off down the runway. It's sad that everyone is leaving. Emmi leaves next week. And then we get new exchange students next month.

So that's it! Update is done! Yes! Hurruh! I hope you read it all! No photos though. Photos are too difficult to upload on here now. Sorry :(

019

The last blog I posted was actually from May. It's now July. Time be flying!!

- - - - -

So again, I've managed to become extremely behind in my blog updates, I'm sorry! Things have just been flat out.

Here are some photos from the end of May - I went to a place called Sapporo Factory which is like a shopping centre, but the central part is like a giant glass-house - it has wind turbines and everything (even though it's indoors haha). They even have like an IMAX stuffed in there somewhere. I also watched a Primary School Sports Day - my Australian friend who's here, Drew, is staying with his sister and her family (her son is in Primary School), so they invited me to come and watch with them. And the last few photos are from a meeting we had in Kitahiroshima.

I had two weeks off from school from the beginning of June, because my host club, Eniwa Rotary, were celebrating their 40th Anniversary. They had invited the previous exchange students to come back to attend the big meeting, so I was given the first week off to accompany the Rotarians to the airport nearly every day to pick up a new visitor. So that was good.

On the Friday night we had a welcome meeting, then on the Saturday we had the big, proper party. It was held at the Sapporo Beer Factory, and we had all these tables set up outside, with a stage and food stands and all. There was a Japanese drum (taiko) performance, and of course all the speeches and such. It was such a hot day, there was no shade, and I'm surprised I didn't get sunburnt lol.

The next day we went to Noboribetsu - only 2 of the previous exchange students came though, because the rest of them returned back to Australia or USA the day after the meeting. We drove to Noboribetsu a different way to which we went last time, but it was really pretty. I hadn't been there since it'd been snowing, so now there was just green everywhere lol. We stopped at a lake, called Mysterious Lake Kuttara - it was a perfect circular lake. I think it's either a crater or an old volcano. I'm leaning towards the latter though, because Noboribetsu is famous for its hot springs, which are caused by volcanoes.

At Lake Kuttara we went on a fast boat ride which was good fun, then after having a stop at a lookout and at a natural hot springs (it stank like crap because of all the sulphur), we got to our hotel in Noboribetsu. I didn't go in the onsen at all this time, but we had a traditional Japanese dinner (something like 11 courses) and later went to a karaoke bar, where the Rotarians loosened their yukatas and dressed up, makeup and everything. It was definitely a sight to see. I hope I can party like the Japanese do when in their 50's.

The next day we visited the Bear Park which I didn't really like at all. The bears were all in this concrete enclosure together, no grass or trees or anything natural - it made me sad to see the conditions they now have to live in until they die. And when they die, they get stuffed and placed somewhere within the park. What a life.

We also visited a Ninja Town which was cool, saw a few plays and ate lunch and looked through the "Horror Houses" and things. There was this one cool building that had all the rooms slanted, so it really messed up your balance and perspective. After that we saw the aquarium which was empty of people lol. So I was completely buggered after that day. I got the rest of that week off school too because the students had exams, and I didn't need to be there. Score!

Now I'm back at school which is alright... We are now into our Summer Uniforms (no blazer or tie, and we can unbutton the top button on our blouse) and my seat is conveniently positioned right next to the window that is kept open all day, so aside from the uncomfortable wooden chair and not having anything to do, it's quite pleasant. I think the students are getting more used to me now, because they're talking to me a lot more than they were a few weeks ago. Maybe it's the good weather haha. But it's nice, and I don't fall asleep in class as much either, although my phone always runs out of battery before I get home because I facebook so much. Oops.

Oh, the weekend before I returned to school, I also went camping with the other exchange girls at a place near Sapporo, called Takino Park. I was expecting, well, camping, but I suppose the Japanese version of camping is very different to Australian camping. I much prefer Aussie camping - at Takino park, it was all manicured lawns, electricity, and motion sensor taps/toilets.

We stayed in a cabin which was really nice, but it just didn't feel at all like camping lol. I still had fun though, and it was beautiful weather.

We all went to the Yosakoi, which is traditional Japanese dance. They had a massive festival in the city, they closed the streets and just had all these groups of dancers on the roads. It was really cool to watch, but the temperature got as high as 29 degrees, so I was meeeelting.

I also went to another festival in Sapporo at Nakajima Park - that was really cool, minus the hundreds of people that I battled with to merely try and walk. It was seriously crowded, and my friend and I ended up ditching and going back to the station for dinner. Hopefully the next summer festival I go to isn't so damn crowded.

Since then, I've just been going to school as usual, taking Wednesdays off for Rotary and my Japanese lessons, and that's all, really. Some interesting news though, is that (with the help of my awesome host dad), I've tracked down an old friend of my Grandpas. I'll briefly re-tell the story.

My Grandpa on my Dad's side died a month before I was born, so I've never met him. But I've heard a lot about him. When he was in his 60's, he decided to learn Japanese. He visited Japan (even Hokkaido) and he had a friend named Fujii-san. My grandpa was from Hobart (Tasmania), and Fujii-san, at one stage, was teaching at University of Tasmania, which is where I'm planning to study next year.

Anyway, being in Japan, I wanted to find him - not only to learn more about my grandfather whom I've never met, but so that my family could meet him too when they come to visit. So with the help of my Dad back in Australia we found an address, then my host dad, who's really interested in this whole thing, wrote a letter in Japanese for me. Fujii-san replied, and so... we found him! He now lives in Nagoya, so we'll go and visit in October. It's a small world.

Anyway I shall wrap it up here. And I really will try to keep things up to date... *looks at un-updated YouTube channel*...That too. Forgive me.

018

Far out. How have I managed to not write for another month and a half?? I can't believe how fast this is going now. It's bittersweet - it means I'm closer to returning home, but it's around now that I'm beginning to get into the swing of things. Anyway. I shall update some more now!

Firstly, I am seriously thinking of becoming vegetarian, or someone who eats a lot less meat, when I come home. There is just too much meat here. Breakfast, lunch and dinner has meat of some sort in it. It's getting un-tasty.

I've helped out at my host-dad's farm twice now, planting potatoes, corn, beans and pumpkins. They'll be ready to harvest by August, and I couldn't help but find it funny that I was actually playing real-life FarmVille.

Earlier this month, I went shopping with my two host sisters in Sapporo, because one of them is getting married soon. So, we spent the morning in this awesome changing room on the 4th floor of this wedding dress shop, sifting through fluffy dresses of all colours, and taking photos of my host sister. We all decided our favourite was this dress with roses lining the bottom of it. Unfortunately it was the most expensive too lol. I don't know if she'll end up getting it or not.
I stayed in Sapporo for the rest of that afternoon and met up with the other exchange girls, to go to a place called Rejaspo (from what I understand it's like a... I guess you could say like a fun activity centre, where you can do rock-climbing and obstacle courses and things.) We waited for the bus for about an hour, but it never came (or we got the times wrong!). It was fine in the end though, we all just had coffee and later walked to Odori where we listened to some University student buskers. They were actually really nice to listen to, so when they finished we went and talked to them and bought their CD. They're called the Nakanishi Riku Trio.

The sakura (cherry blossoms) have bloomed!! They line the street that I live on, and they're in a lot of other places too, although there hasn't been as many as I was expecting. But then again, any photos I ever saw were of the big parks of cherry blossoms in Tokyo, so that was what I subconsciously expected lol. Last weekend, I went to the Naganuma International Festival. I was expecting it to be like an outdoor thing, as festivals usually are, but it was all inside this building, and it was largely directed at Primary School kids. The other exchange students came too, and inside the main hall we all had our own tables for our countries. The Australia table had a big flag on it, so I put my photos out too for everyone to see. I also put a pile of badges on the table, so they were all taken by the end lol. I'm kicking myself for not putting all my business cards on the table too, it's definitely true about never being able to give all the cards away. So it was pretty fun, quite tiring seeing as though we were signing shirt after shirt (G'Day! Laura, Australia *little drawing of Australia*) and stamping their little "passports",and teaching the Chicken Dance. That was interesting. Haha. We also did the whole swapping of banners and drawing of raffles and taking of photos and things. It was a busy day.

The next day afterwards, my host dad, myself, two of the other Exchange Students and the University student from China that my club is hosting all went to a small art gallery, where we painted our own designs on clay mugs. I drew cherry blossoms and wrote, in Japanese, "Spring's cherry blossoms, Hokkaido".

That afternoon I went to Sapporo and met up with another Australian friend of mine (not from Rotary) and we went up the top of the TV Tower. I also found out that there was a place just near the station that sells English books, so I bought three, and I've already read them all (dammit). On Thursday after school, I met up with the other Australian exchange student, Samantha. We had coffee and shopped a little and went to the top of JR Tower at sunset.

It was very pretty, but I was late for my train and ended up missing it by 2 minutes, dammit. And on the train home, I could smell this sort of fishy odour...　I thought it was just the onigiri (rice ball) that a lady nearby was eating, but soon I looked down at the stairwell by the train door to discover a lovely pool of vomit. It made me feel nauseous until I got home, 20 minutes later. Yuck.

So the weather is warming up significantly now - I'm sitting in the loungeroom where all the windows are open, and it was too hot to wear jeans today. School isn't going too badly, I just feel like a loner all the time, because barely anyone talks to me, unless they need to. So at lunch, even though I sit on the floor with two other girls, I don't talk. Between classes, anyone who sits near me gets up and goes to chat with a bunch of their friends on the other side of the room. I know I should go and try and strike up a conversation, but realistically, I still have a very limited amount of vocabulary and it would end up awkwardly petering out. At least, that's what happens every time I do try. I'm sure they get tired of me having to look up every second word in the dictionary.

I'm also torn between whether I want to quit calligraphy club or not. I like calligraphy, but sometimes the actual people in the club just don't seem very accommodating. Especially the 3rd graders, who think they're top stuff, even though they're all younger than me. It's interesting that even being 18 amongst 16 year olds, I feel like a baby amongst them. It's not that they're mature or older looking, because they still squeal and act like pre-teens most of the time, but I still feel extremely quiet and out of place in class. It's frustrating, and makes me wish I could keep my normal confidence that I have out of school. Oh well.

Well that's enough rabbitting from me. One last thing though, my family have decided to come and visit at the end of September, which I'm super excited about! Yay! I can't wait to see them.

My host-dogs, Ganjiro and Saburoku

017

Due to my past month or so of very limited internet access (and when I did have internet access it was for an hour tops), I'm sorry but I'm going to have to just make a giant blog of the past month. I'll try and summarise it, but if no... sorry :3

So my last entry was from near the end of the Spring holidays. Since then, quite a lot has happened. On the 31st of March, I moved on to my second host family. The whole day, I did not see my first host family at all. I woke up to an empty house (which I was used to by then), but they didn't call or anything for the entire day. So I still don't know where everyone was that day. At about 4pm my host dad phoned me to make sure I was home, and then 10 minutes later they were yelling down the hallway for me to bring my gear coz we were going. So I dunno. I was sort of expecting more of a farewell lol. My second host family was the Murayama's - their daughter, Haruka, is my friend and is going to Australia on Rotary exchange in late July/ early August. She'll be going to live in my town and at one stage with my family, so I find that really cool.

Anyway, living there was quite different. Firstly, of course, there was no internet, so I spent my free time editing videos (I finally got a working version of Movie Maker, thanks to a friend of mine), or watching TV downstairs. Their family is made up of the mum, the dad, an older brother (18), Haruka (16) and another son Natsuki (12). I soon discovered that the older brother had very little to do with the family, and I very quickly got the impression that he was either extremely shy, or rude, or he just didn't really like being at home. He was always in his room and only came downstairs for dinner, and he never spoke to me or even looked at me. I didn't care really, because I just never saw him so it didn't matter.

Haruka always was at basketball practice or English lessons, so I didn't really see her as much either, but Natsuki was home most of the time. Unfortunately he is very quick to get on your nerves! He's full of endless energy and at one stage I was leaning against my door from the inside so that he couldn't get in lol.

Anyway, a quick list of events/places I went to in April;

April 1st was Lindsey's 18th Birthday. She's the exchange student here from New York, and all the exchange students met up in Sapporo to go to karaoke, which was good fun. We also did Purikura, but you do that whenever you do something, so yeah.

April 3rd, my host dad took Natsuki and I to Sapporo where we went to the top of the JR Tower; at 38 stories high, it's the tallest building in Sapporo. It was good weather, and now that it's warming up there is no snow around anymore, so I'm back to wearing normal layers of clothing. Anyway the view was amazing, and I had a super tasty hot chocolate while I sat in a chair by the window and looked over the city. Haruka later met up with us and then we went and visited the old Ski Jump from when Sapporo hosted the Winter Olympics. April 4th, I got taken out for a welcoming dinner. We all used it as an excuse to dress up nicely, and it turned out to be at the same restaurant that we went to for coffee when I first arrived in Japan. And it was super tasty! Afterwards, we went to the Eniwa Cat's Eye (Cat's Eye is like a gaming arcade/karaoke parlour. Those back in the Merimbula area reading this, it's basically like a completely awesome version of Top Fun). I discovered that my host grandpa/counselor is an awesome singer.

April 6th was Natsuki's Junior High School entrance ceremony. The Junior High he now goes to is the same one that his mother went to. That's cool I reckon. Anyway, I realized I was extremely under-dressed for the occasion. I was wearing my red pancake shirt and all the mothers were wearing sophisticated skirt-suits and all that. It went for about 2-3 hours, just speeches and the students having their names called out and then photos and things. So it wasn't that exciting, but still interesting to see just how serious the Japanese treat ANY kind of ceremony. My host mum was shocked to learn that no, we don't have entrance ceremonies in Australia lol.

April 7th, nothing much happened but I'll chuck a few photos in here; we had a bunch of Swedish people attend the Rotary meeting for some Rotary thingo, they spoke English so that was cool. Haruka and I rode our bikes back home after wards (no snooow! Yay. It's interesting how I was so excited about snow in the beginning but now I'm glad to see it all gone lol)

April 8th marked the first day of the new school year for me. I'm now 2年生, the second year of High School, or in comparison to Australia, Year 11. As I walked into the front entrance where everyone takes off their shoes, it was completely packed; everyone was bustling to see which class they had been put in. Seriously, there were girls crying in the hallways because they hadn't been put in the same classes as their friends. It was deafening, the screaming and yelling and crying and whatnot. I was put in 6組, so I'm not in the same class as Haruka anymore. But that's okay, I still know a bunch of the girls in my class. And I'm pretty sure I got the best seat in the room.

April 11th, we went on a Rotary trip to a place called Noboribetsu, which is on the southern coast of Hokkaido. It was about a 2 hour drive from Eniwa, and I saw a volcano on the horizon! How exciting. Noboribetsu is famous for its onsen, which I wasn't too keen on. Anyway, it was only for one night but it was very fun - we were staying in this posh hotel which had these beautiful traditional Japanese rooms. While all the Rotarians went to the onsen, Haruka and I changed into our Yukata and did Purikura, went shopping, and just bummed around until dinner. Dinner was a very traditional Japanese feast, with sashimi and crab and stews and things. I didn't really eat that much of it. Oh and we played this game with Toppo (similar to Pocky), where, in teams of 4-5, we each held a Toppo stick in our mouth and passed a rubber band down the line of people using only the Toppo stick haha. I think my group came second. That night we spent a few hours in the biggest hotel room with the majority of the other Rotarians, where we watched them get drunk and arm wrestle haha. I attempted to arm wrestle but lost epically.

April 12th - in the morning, at 7am, Haruka and I woke up and ended up going in the onsen. Luckily, there were only 2 other women there, it was a very large onsen room, and it was super steamy so you could barely see anything. So I didn't mind it that much in the end. At 9am, we all jumped back in our bus and went back to Eniwa. Haruka and I rushed home and changed into our uniforms and host-mum drove us to school by 11am-ish. We had to go to school because it was a club presentation day for the new 1st grade kids, so they could decide which they wanted to join. I helped with the calligraphy one, and also did an English conversation speech with Maimi, which was cool. Maimi is really nice, I just don't see her much because she's in the year above me. All the 1st graders, of course, were staring at me because it was the first time they'd seen me lol. Ah well.

April 18th, I had organised to go to Sapporo with one of the other exchange students, but in the end it was a small bunch of us. We just basically did Purikura of course, played this gambling game and won nothing, went shopping, and went to Starbucks twice. Rachael, the Canadian exchange student, and I looked at the pet shop (there was an Australian lorikeet there.. hmm) and of course there was the Pokemon Centre. In the evening after the other exchange students left, the other Australian and I decided we'd see a movie but we were too late, so we thought we'd go and walk to Odori to see the TV Tower at night. I love the city at night, and Sapporo is great. It was cold, but not too bad, and there were barely any people around so it was quite nice. The TV Tower is really cool to look at with all the fairy lights on it, and it was nice to see the city without snow; last time I'd been to Odori it was for the Snow Festival, so it made me happy to see grass and flowers and things. I can't wait to see it in (proper) Spring or Summer.

Now, this night is where everything changed quite dramatically. I was on the train home, and it was about 8:45pm. Haruka sent me a text saying that my host mum wasn't going to be able to pick me up from the station, and I'd have to walk home. She didn't say why or anything so I just said okay, but I was a little annoyed. It was cold, and I didn't have a proper warm jacket, and it's a 20-30 minute walk home. And in the dark in the streets is a bit creepy. My phone, of course, had to run out of battery just as Haruka called me, so then I had no communication. I power-walked home to find everyone gone, and the front door locked. This made me angry. "Why do they think they can just leave me like this???!!"

I walked around the side of the house after ringing the doorbell , and saw the big brothers light on on the second floor. That made me dislike him even more; he was home but he wasn't letting me in! In hindsight, maybe he was listening to music or something, but still. So like another half an hour later the front door finally opened and he let me in, and talked to me for the first time (in super fast Japanese so I had no idea what he said anyway). All I could hear was "hospital", "Haruka", "Mum", "Shota's house", "Let's go" - sooo... I was confused and still didn't know what was going on. So I just put down my shopping and followed him to Shota's house - that's the first house I was at, for the first week. Shota is the older brother (12).

Anyway, after looking a bit bewildered and finally talking to Miwa (Shota's mum) in a mixture of Japanese and English, I discovered that my host mum had collapsed in the bathroom and had to go to hospital - she had suffered a blood clot in her brain. And as Miwa was talking to me, my host mum was actually going into brain surgery in a nearby hospital. It was definitely a shock, and I felt terrible for being angry before. But to be fair, I had no idea at the time.

So, in a nutshell, she was in surgery for about 8 hours, I stayed in Miwa's house for the next 2 nights, and it was decided that I would be moving out early, either to my 3rd host family, or to another Rotarians house for the remaining 2 months. I visited my host mum in the ICU the day after her surgery, and she was sleeping but she woke up when we started talking. She said sorry to me ("No!! Don't apologise!!"), and she was looking a lot better than I was expecting. So that was a relief.

Anyway. It was decided that I would go and live with a different Rotarian for however long, until I either go back to Haruka's house when her mum gets out of hospital, or when it's time to go to my 3rd family. I'm not too keen on returning to Haruka's house, because her mum will have been in hospital for a month, and I presume that she will need all the rest she can get. I doubt having a fourth teenager in the house would help. I have a feeling that I would just be that little bit more extra strain, and I don't want to hinder her recovery at all. I personally think it would be better for her and for the family if I didn't go back to their place.

So, now I am living with a man named Mr Saito - he lives alone with his two dogs, Saburoku and Ganjiro, and his youngest daughter, Miki, is here a lot. She's now married, so she spends the nights at her husbands apartment, but she cooks dinner here and sometimes sleeps here too. I have only been here for a week, but I love it here. I don't know what it is, if it's because I'm the only child or if it's just their personalities or the fact that they have dogs or just all of the above, but it could easily be my favourite host family so far, even though living here was unplanned. Mr Saito lives in Megumino, which is the neighbouring town to Eniwa - only like 3 minutes by train.

It's a 20 minute walk to Megumino train station but now I ride the bike that the Muramoto family (first host family) lent to me, so it takes all of 5-10mins. I like Megumino, it's a small town, with no high-rises really. There's the one main street, and there's a shopping centre next to the station, and a KFC. I know where the karaoke place is too lol. Megumino is where my 4th host family lives as well, so yay lol.

Okay, I think that that's enough for now. There's another blog I want to write as well, so that will be here eventually.

Please check out my YouTube channel if you haven't already, it's: http://www.youtube.com/user/laurainjapan2010 and it has all my videos from Japan so far. I'll be trying to keep it as up to date as possible.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laura.koerbin