the long fabled "hello from japan!!" post

yes, it's that time of my life, where I'm able to write the previously mentioned, very important, "HELLO FROM JAPAN!!" post, so here goes.

in a couple of words: I'm having an awesome time.

my host family is really kind and down to earth. i had read some things about japanese families in general about rules that every single person seems to follow, but they seem to be a bit lenient, which is great. i'm talking about japanese specific bathing rules etc, not major "oh, you can break every rotary D if you want…" hehehe

my host mother and father are in their early 60s, and my host father is still working. We live in Seki, a small city of around 100 000 people, and it's a nice town, but SUPER cold. like, as in, it has never been; and never will be this cold in Adelaide ever. in my family, when it's cold in the morning, you breathe out mist, it's called "dragon breath". well, i have that in my room!! there's a heater, but i don't want to be using heaps of energy, wracking up their energy bill this early.

japanese language wise, i'm improving. currently, i feel as though i'm only getting better at the things i already know; ie i'm SO much better at plain form, after speaking almost entirely in plain form for the last few days. but i'm not actually currently learning any new sentence structures or the like. but soon, i hope that will change. to give you an example of how my japanese is currently, when i watch ANY kind of tv, be it those strange panel shows that you never see anywhere else but japan, or a drama, or the news (which is the hardest) i might understand the occasional word, but nowhere NEAR the level i need to be to understand it. i can have broken conversations with my host mother quite easily, but they're almost constantly punctuated with *new word i don't know* はどういみですか？ (what is the meaning of *new word i don't know*)

i'm currently sitting next to my host nephew, who's 9 years old, and he's SOO good at reading. the book he might take an hour to read; i still might not be able to read at the end of the year!!

i've done some stuff already with my host family. with my host mum, i went to uniqlo, where i bought a super nice polar fleece hoodie for only ¥980, which is about AUD$12, so an absolute bargain. just before, i went to a paper museum, where i got to make some traditional japanese style paper using traditional techniques, and to the library, where i borrowed some super basic picture books, and some bilingual manga. doraemon ftw! :D

the food is awesome!! a note to the potential future exchange student heading to japan. your host family WILL be worried that you won't eat japanese food, and THEY WILL feel frustration towards you if you don't like the majority of the food they eat. and yes, they WILL tell their friends and other exchange students once you have left about how you didn't like the majority of their food. so maybe, if you despise fish, tofu and rice, you should maybe choose somewhere else to go. but if you like japanese food, welcome to heaven. it's incredible. the stuff my hostmum can pull together in a couple of minutes is better than almost every japanese food you can buy anywhere in australia. but toast? the japanese have never, and will never do bread properly. their toast is strangely fat/tall, super white and soft, and has way too much sugar. so, i'm not sure what american bread is like, but for an australian who's used to good quality italian infused bakery bread, it doesn't compare.

i'm about to go do some kanji practice with my 7 year old host nephew, so i'll post more tomorrow, or in the next few days. but i don't start school until monday, so don't hold out for that just yet!
cheers