My first post in Japan, and its a whale of a story.

Hello everyone, sorry for the long wait for a post! Well I am in Japan and I am doing fine. But I don`t have internet at my host family`s home and I can`t access my blog at school!

So where do I start? Well the flight over here was about 12 and half hours. And let me say that it wasn`t the most comfortable flight I have ever had. I flew over with about 6 other exchange students. Some were from the central states multi district, and some were not. When we arrived we went through customs and some of the exchange students had host parents waiting for them so they left. In the end there were only 2 other exchange students waiting at Narita with me. Luckily Mr. Sannomiya was there and helped us get our tickets for the bus to the domestic airport. So after Mr. Sannomiya took us to dinner and bought some goods from a convinience store at the airport we went to bed and the next day we went our separate ways.  Well the trip to Kushiro went smoothly, everything was good, except for the heat. I swear, it is an oven there! It also doesn`t help that the AC kind of sucks. It is nice under the air ducts but everywhere else is hot and humid! When I arrived in Kushiro a large group of Rotarians were there to meet me. The ALT Lucy was there, my host father, the vice principal of my school, and the school office manger of my school was there.

So, I started school and all has been going well. For the first few weeks I studied Japanese with the ALT(Assistant Language Teacher) at my school. But now I have officially started school. I have my uniform, but I am still missing my gym uniform. I like all of my classes, and all of the students are really nice. Our life design class also cooked whale dishes! It was kind of a big deal so a news crew was there filming us. My group may Whale Curry, which was good, but because of all the flavoring we put in the curry I could barely taste the whale. But some students also gave me some whale pizza, which was in the shape of a whale, to try. And I was also given some whale ravioli, both of which were delicious.

I got to meet the exchange students at our districts conference. They are all awesome. There is a boy from Germany, a girl from Indonesia, and a girl from California. I am really jealous of the Indonesian girl and the German boy because they can speak Japanese a lot better than I can. But both of them studied Japanese before coming. I am a little upset though that I can`t see them until February.

Our school just recently had a sports festival and it was a lot of fun. It was two days long and on the first day the students play soccer(boys only), kickball(girls only), and volleyball(girls only). On the second day we played dodgeball(girls only), and basketball(boys only). We also played tug of war, which I participated in, our class got 4th out of 15 teams. And we also had a relay and our team got 2nd out of 15 teams.

My birthday was fun, it was on the final day of the sports festival and many students sang happy birthday to me. Some students also held a birthday party for me at KFC and that was also tons of fun! My host parents even got me gifts and a cake!

Well that is all for now, sorry for my lack of structure! I won`t be able to make another post for awhile, sorry!

Less than 24 hours

Well the time has finally come! In less than 24 hours I leave for Japan. I have most of my packing done, I just have a few things left to pack. I don’t think the reality that I am going to Japan for 10-11 months has sunk in yet. Maybe it will on the plane? Speaking of planes, I am really excited about my flight! I can’t wait to meet the other exchange students!

Bon Voyage everyone! I’ll try and make a new entry when I get to Japan and am settled in!

Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids, it is the final conference our Rotary district attends before we leave for our exchanges. Grand Rapids is a conference put together by Central States( a multi-district which our district is part of) and is considered to be the most fun, and it was fun! I wasn’t a fan of the heat, but I was able to help alleviate my problem by renting a fan for the weekend from the college. A lot of the sessions at Grand Rapids were already covered at our district’s conferences, but that is ok because Grand Rapids is the first conference for some of the other districts. But I had a lot of fun with my friend Kathy(she is an outbound to S. Korea) and some of the other outbounds to Taiwan and a Taiwan rebound(someone who has just come back from their exchange).  Our district also held an all night long party in the basement of the dorms we were staying at. I talked to a S. Korea rebound and heard some interesting stories from the other rebounds in our district.  At Grand Rapids I didn’t think I would be able to check my email, but fortunately the college had computers around the campus and I was able to check my email and I found out who my host dad was! He is actually Mr. Sawano, an English teacher at the school, I got the email from Lucy because Mr. Sawano doesn’t have an email and wanted to contact me.

That is all for now

Just an update

Ok, so I was talking to my travel agent from It’s Your World Travel and according to Mele I will be leaving on August 20th. I am excited that I know my departure date, but I was hoping it would be sooner.

I also was talking to Lucy Lou and unfortunately their school break ends right after I get there, so I guess I won’t have any vacation time in Japan before school starts. The teachers and students there also seem nice. According to Lucy one of the teachers, Mr. Sawano, is excited to meet me and welcomes me into his home(I am sure he was just being polite). Also according to Lucy the 2nd year students are trying to learn more English so they can talk to me when I arrive.

Anyways, that is all for now.

Edit: I found out which club will be hosting me, the Kushiro Bay Rotary Club!

Exciting News!

Well hello again my loyal fans, I have exciting news tonight! I finally found out where exactly in Japan I will be going!

I will be going to Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan, and the High School I will attend is Meiki High School. The English teacher, Lucy Lou,  from Meiki High School emailed me and was the one to tell me this information.

Here is a blurb about the school that Lucy emailed to me:

“We’re the newest school in the city (we formed when three older ones
combined two years ago), and about in the middle academically. The
school has 600 students in 3 grades (equivalent to 10-12 grades in the
US, but we just call them “year 1, year 2, year 3″… like in Harry
Potter, actually). Each grade has 5 homerooms, but I’m not sure which
grade and homeroom you will be joining (probably third year, but maybe
second, since the third years will graduate in the middle of your
stay). All the schools in the city seem to have a lot more girls than
boys, so only about a third of the students here are male. The school
day is made up of six 50-minute periods, from 8:35am to 3:20pm, but we
have an extra period at the end of the day on Wednesdays for 1st and
2nd years. At 3:20pm every day, all of the students help clean the
classrooms and hallways with the teachers, and club activities start
at 4:00pm and can go until 8:00pm (usually only the sports clubs go
that late, since they have to wait to use the gym).”

Well that is all for now. I am currently emailing Lucy and I will learn more soon.

Brand new blog!

Ok, so I decided to finally make a blog for my exchange. I really don’t have much information to post at this point. All I know for sure is that I am going to Japan and I will be in Rotary District 2500.

That’s all for now, I will post as soon as I have something to say/new information!