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

I'M GOING TODAY!!!

hi everyone,

in 5 and a bit hours, my plane will depart from adelaide international airport, heading to Kuala Lumpur, and then on to Japan for me! :)

i can't believe how quickly the last 2 months have gone. but at the same time, it's felt like an eternity waiting for this day to finally arrive!

i got a phonecall from my hostmum yesterday morning, my japanese is getting worse by the day. since i haven't been doing it almost every day for school, it's deteriorating at a serious speed. :/

yesterday was fairly hectic. I got up early (for me, ie 10am :D), and then started preparing to pack. i don't think i've ever spent that much time with my mum as i did yesterday, packing my suitcase. A word of advice to future exchangers, do several practice packs, and write a list of what you think you want to take before you start actually packing. that way, you'll remember what you think you needed when it comes time to do the real pack, and it's easy to have a list to look at to see what can be taken out.

but i doubt i've ever been as happy as i was last night! i called up malaysia airlines to request a lactose-free meal (thank god… haha) and i sort of jokingly asked the woman on the phone if she would be able to give me some extra baggage allowance. and she's like "oh, if you're a full time student, then you get 10kg extra, when you show your student ID card". when i was told that, i don't think i've ever been happier/more relieved in my entire life!! but, it would've been nice to know a couple of days earlier. so another word of advice to future exchangers: call up your airlines (unless you're an american, who probably gets about 40kg/88lbs anyway, compared to us civilised people, who are only given 20kg/44lbs) and ask for extra baggage allowance. if you mention that you're a rotary exchange student, you'll often be given extra allowance for free!!! that news seriously made my year!

in other news, i had my first drive ever last night, after getting my learner's permit on wednesday! it was pretty good, only very short, driving around one of the almost empty super markets, but i really enjoyed it! :D

anyway, the next post you read from me will be the long fabled "hello from japan!!!" post! hahahaそれはとても楽しみ！！：D

cya!!

happy new year!

ok, so what's been happening?
well, i've been working, xmas and nye are now finished, and i'm starting to get my head around the fact that i'll be going to japan in 21 days and 23 hours! :D

xmas was good, but fairly quiet. usually, my mum's brothers are in adelaide so we'd have afternoon tea/dinner with them, as well as mum's parents, but this year, they're both overseas, so we had my mum's parents for lunch and afternoon tea instead. i got some good stuff, including some money, a 4GB memory card for my camera, a laptop case, some hugo boss shirts and some PS3 games, among other things. so all in all, a great haul, if i don't say so myself! :P

i'm not sure if iv'e written about work before, but i'll do it again anyway. for three weeks, a group of 10 japanese highschool students are living in host families in adelaide, intensively learning english. during the day, they have classes and excursions to various touristy things around adelaide. so when they go on these excursions, i and one other person join them. really, all i'm doing is facilitating english conversation with them, while being a tourist in my own town! haha the kids are really nice and polite, and the pay is much better than at previous jobs i've had, so i really enjoy it! it's exhausting though, especially when we went to Glenelg (the most popular and accessible beach in adelaide) and it was 40˚C. the sand was almost burning my feet!

actually, i sort of have two jobs. once a week, i also tutor a family friend's kid in japanese. he's in the year below me, and isn't going too well in japanese, so i'm sort of helping him to try and bump up his knowledge before he gets back to school in about a month.

NYE was great. i was planning to be going only to a family friend's place, where another family would also be. we're all scotch families, and the ages of the kids all roughly match up. so after dinner, us three eldest kids went to another party in unley. i had a great time welcoming in 2010! :D although, i did sort of hit my finger on a fan though, and there's a blood blister on it now, which isn't that great, but otherwise, i think everyone had a good time.

rotary wise, i finished the first draft of my presentation, and showed it to my rotary club, with honorary members being the mayor of marion (a local council mayor) and a parliament representative, among many other rotarians and their spouses. otherwise, i saw caity and trephina at the house that caity's currently looking after, which was great fun; and we went to a rotex bbq thing as well. while dutch liquorice may not be my ideal lolly of choice, it was fun to hear about other people's exchanges.

i've also been emailing my host brother a bit; and i'm able to understand almost all of what he writes, which is great! :D

btw, how on earth are you supposed to work out what should and what shouldn't be packed?!?! it's so difficult trying to pack up your entire life for a year! :P

time to do a blog post then…

so… what's been happening?
well i love holidays. a lot. i'm really not sure how i ever lived doing school work everyday. also, we get our results back in about a week. that's kind of scary… up until a couple of days ago, i wasn't worried at all; but now i'm quite nervous, worrying about what i'll get. but i did some estimations of marks, and that sort of calmed me down quite a bit. so all is fairly good. :)

rotary wise? well, on sunday, there was the final briefing, where we, with our parentals, were given lectures on various things, such as travelling/packing, quarantine, insurance, mental and physical health, host families, etc. it was actually fairly interesting, and we also got our blazer and rotary rugby top. the rugby top's a good size, but the blazer seems quite big! apparently i'm gonna become a porker while i'm overseas and put on several kilos, but i still don't think that will cover how much bigger the blazer seems compared to any other jacket / blazer i have! :D

This week, i've also got a huge amount of info from rotary about my exchange. Apparently, i've changed high school, and I am now going to Sekiuchi high school, not the technical college like i previously thought. The photo to the right is my new highschool! i'm really excited about it. it's a coed highschool, started in 2004. Apparently, the translation google gave me of the school's motto was: Creative self-worship… so i'm a little unsure about that… :) but otherwise, i've got pretty much no info about the school, like how many people etc. but it should be good! i'm really excited to go, i can't wait!

Currently, it's only 44 days (i accidentally typed in 33 days just then, and it looked like such a small amount of days!!! but that'll be really soon! aahh!) until i go, and 16 days until xmas. the year's almost over! i can't believe it really… it should only be about july, not mid december already!

Also, i sent an email off to my first host family! it was predominantly in japanese, with two lines in english of things i couldn't say in japanese. :) but they haven't responded yet, so i'm stuck here, waiting for a reply. Rotary has only told me their address, but it hasn't been said whether i have any host brothers/sisters. I've also been told of my counsellor's name, so i guess i should make some contact with him too! :P

wow… this is a dis-jointed post if i ever saw one… hope you enjoyed it! :P

PS: how am i supposed to make a 20 minute keynote about my life by the 21st of december?!? not likely, me thinks! :P

just a quick update

ok, so a couple of weeks ago, i was given my draft itinerary. I'm going Adelaide > Kuala Lumpur direct, and then Kuala Lumpur > Narita Airport (the international airport of Tokyo). On the itinerary, it says that it's at narita that i'll be picked up. So, just for kicks, i had a look at how long it takes to get from Narita to Seki on google maps. If we're driving, it'll take about 6.5 hours, and if we're taking trains, it'll be about 3.5 hours, including several transfers.

I can tell you now, i'm going to be tired, because the Kuala lumpur > tokyo flight is overnight. the people are gonna want to talk to me, and i'm gonna be like: uh………… ぼくはねたいです… (ie. I want to sleep……) and it's not gonna make a good impression.

Or, it could be like dad thinks it'll be like. I'll be picked up by my host family, and they'll take me to their car in the airport, and it'll be some microscopic keicar (a 600cc micro box car) and i'll get in the back, and they won't even be able to see over the top of my head, because i'll be too big, compared to them. dad then goes on to think that they'll be like: "oh god, what have we gotten ourselves into??!?!"

either one of those situations don't seem particularly appealing. fingers crossed i'm not too bad that morning, because i land at 7:15, tokyo time, according to the itinerary.

btw, i love will and grace. it might be one of the best tv shows i've ever watched. I love it! :)

oh, and a couple of days ago, it passed below 2 months to go! currently, i've got only 58 days, and 13 hours! it's not too much longer to go now! ahh! :D

something miraculous has happened

I can't believe it.

this day has finally arrived. I've finished year 12. I remember, in the first week of school, when it was still late january, i started a countdown on my dashboard, counting down the days until year 12 would be finished for me. it was like 220+ days. and now, it is -8 hours! :) i can't believe i'm finally finished.

I remember talking to a few people who finished last year, and they all remarked on how quickly it went past. at the time, i couldn't believe them; it felt like this year would go on forever; i'd have no free time, i'd spend every waking moment doing solid work all year. that didn't happen! :) instead, i worked a little, and wasted a huge amount of time, but i enjoyed myself. and i think i actually went OK! :)

i had a moment just now, where i had a thought of "ok, what is expected of me now?? what is somebody demanding of me at this moment??" and i realised, there's absolutely NOTHING i need to do. I leave for japan in only 65 days, (AAHHH! :D ) i've probably got a job lined up, and tomorrow morning, i'm gonna buy Modern Warfare 2. Life is good! :)

oh, exchange wise, i got an email last week; i now know what high school i'm going to. It's in Seki, which, i think, is a small city close to gifu. don't quote me though! :P It's a technical/commerce highschool, and i was sent an email, asking which school section i would like to be part of. I had a look at the school's website, and I've decided that i'm going to be part of the commerce section. It should be good!

anyway, i've got NOTHING to do,

so cya! :)

best feeling this year! :)

ok, so as of now, i've finished both my physics and english exams, and hence, the ENTIRE course for my entire schooling life. as in, never having to have to do anything to do with physics or snow falling on cedars, or poetry EVER again! :) that's a bloody good feeling to know that you never have to write a crappy essay on poetry techniques anymore! that in its self is a reason for celebration!! :)

but here was the best thing; i was just doing some japanese revision, for my exam tomorrow, when of the example sentences was to do with not finishing an essay. and instantly, my mind did a sweep of "do i have any english essays due??" and i had to remind myself that, "no, i do NOT!!" hahaha it's such a good feeling knowing that i don't have to do english studies anymore, and especially knowing that i've finished it forever!

but, i've still got japanese, geography and a token music exam to go. the cruel, evil people at the SACE board decided to give me three exams in a row, which has been lovely, i can assure you. on monday, i had english, which went quite well, i believe, much better then i was expecting, which wasn't much! today, i had physics, which i know i didn't fully revise for, or so i thought, but i think i actually went really well! :) it seemed that i knew how to do almost every question! it was quite a relief! :) i'm still riding on a sense of elation, especially knowing that the exam is worth half of my entire physics mark! :D note the large use of smilies. this is how happy i am with it! :) :D :P

tomorrow, i've got japanese, which should be ok. i'm a little worried about the listening, but maybe, i'll fluke that too! :)

then, next week, on thursday, i've got geography, which i'm hoping I'll ace.

then, the week after that, on the 18th of november, 2009, i have my last ever school test/exam/markable piece of work. it's a music exam that won't count for anything! :P this is because i'm doing 1.5 music subjects; solo performance, ensemble performance, and musicianship. the top two marks are used to make me a music mark, and the lowest mark is discarded. as i know i went really quite well in my solo and ensemble performance, i know that my lower musicianship mark won't be used, so really, this exam is worthless… but meh. but, solo and ensemble performance together make a HESS restricted, but it doesn't really matter, because I'm doing four other HESS general subjects.

oh! i've sort of been recommended for a job by my Japanese teacher to be sort of like an english tutor/chaperone for a group of japanese students for about 3 weeks over the holidays! this is exciting! i think it could actually be really fun! :)

i hope that was riveting enough for you caity! xx haha

ben, the veryhappilyrelievedbutstillgottostudy,(asinrightnow) guy.

only 80 days to go! ahhh! :)