So anyways, when I came to check my blog a couple pretty interesting things happened, first I was checking my site’s stats and apparently the conrad.murray.verdict.news blog referred someone here, which is pretty awesome. Oh and right after that happened I got a request to be friends with someone named Gertrude Georgevic on skype, I declined her generous offer.

But I digress, I’m sure you’re all here to read about my awesome adventures in Japan! So here is the update, I’m in the final 3 weeks of this semester, I’m not coming home for winter break, this week is going to be especially torturous, I butchered my hair today, and I think I know which apartment I’m going to move into.

And here is short random fact: From time to time I see an old man practicing kendo on the roof of a post office.(I’m not going to provide any context for you, just make up your own!)

I started my original series of flights on the morning of the 10th of August from Green Bay. Overall the actual flights were good, however I have to admit that I was not impressed in the slightest by the Chicago O’Hare airport. To put it simply, It has a horrible layout. From Chicago I departed for Japan on a dual operated flight by American Airlines and Japan Airlines(JAL). The aircraft was actually owned by American Airlines, but the flight was operated by staff from JAL. And I have to say that the flight was the most enjoyable international flight I’ve had thus far. I was lucky because no one was sitting in-between the other passenger and myself, each seat had a television in the back of it for the passengers behind them, and there was a good selection of movies. Once I landed in Narita(Tokyo’s international airport) I quickly moved through immigration and customs so that I could get on my bus to Haneda(Tokyo’s domestic airport) and try and get there at a reasonable time before my flight to Kushiro took off. After landing at Narita I only had about 4 hours to work with before my flight to Kushiro took off and my bus ride to Haneda was about an hour and a half, needless to say I was a little stressed. But fortunately after having a little trouble finding where I was supposed to check my baggage in I was able to get to the boarding gate one hour before the flight took off.

Not soon after I left Haneda I landed in Kushiro, my Japanese hometown. While I was flying I was worried that maybe no one would be there to pick me up! I was nervous because I never specifically asked my host family to be there in my emails, it was always implied, at least I thought it was. However that fear was quickly squashed as I was greeted by my host mom after I picked up my baggage. In the car ride to her house she told my that my host dad wouldn’t be there until that Sunday(the 14th) because Meiki’s(the high school I attended) soccer club was having a soccer camp that week in order to improve their game. The week in Kushiro was a fairly uneventful one, after my host dad got back from camp we went back to Meiki to pick up my year book. Unfortunately a lot of the teachers I was friends with transfered to a different high school, as is custom to do in Japan after a few years. And the ones that hadn’t changed schools were home because it was summer vacation. However I was able to say hello the vice principle and some other teachers I was acquainted with. There were many, “お久しぶりです”(it’s been awhile) to be had by all.

After my week of R&R was over and jet lag, for the most part, had been battled I boarded my flight to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. After I arrived and was waiting for my bus to the Hotel Sheraton I was questioned by airport security who wanted to know what nefarious schemes I was planning. Of course one must never let the authorities know their plans, so I told them I was waiting for a bus and showed them my passport. After an excruciating bus ride to the hotel to meet Temple staff, I took a taxi with another new Temple student and we made our way to the famous Ontakesan Dorm. The Ontakesan Dorm got its name from the train station that isn’t more than a 5 minute walk away from the dorm itself. After checking in at the dorm and making my way to my room I was welcomed by an air conditioner, which I couldn’t be happier to see considering summer time is the bane of my Wisconsinite existence and Tokyo’s 95 degree humid summers are no exception. After getting unpacked I went to bed early so I was ready for the next day’s orientation. Orientation went well and after 2 days the weekend was upon me. I didn’t do much besides picking up some needed supplies from the local Aeon mall. However I will admit that Saturday I made a trip to Shinjuku, I’ll blame this escapade on trying to better learn the train system. And while I was out familiarizing myself with that part of town I stopped at a bar to test the rumors that foreigners aren’t exactly carded when drinking. I’ll let you guys decide how that went. After about 5 hours I returned to the dorm to make it back before curfew so I didn’t get locked out(I forgot to bring the dorm’s pass key). That following Monday was placement exams and without a guide we students had to make it to school all on our own this day. However small groups of about 2-5 usually banded together so that we wouldn’t get lost. But before I go on let me explain the two most common routes to school taken by Ontakesan Dorm students. There is the “Komata” route and the “Gotanda” route, and for orientation our student guides always took us the Komata route. They always explained that Komata is not quite as busy in the morning as the Gotanda route. Ho, let me tell you, that is the understatement of the year. I’m sure most of you are familiar with Tokyo train horror stories and the videos of train staff shoving people into trains, if not:

While that is an extreme case, there is usually a little bit of pushing people into the trains during the morning rush hour. Well, Monday one of the students in my group thought we should take the the Gotanda route to school in the morning instead of Komata. Let me just say one thing, NEVER AGAIN! So anyways after braving my way through the English placement test, I basically was destroyed by the math placement test. And after seeing others leave as early as I did, I will assume that they also felt the wraith of the Math placement exam. Once that was finished I decided to make a whole placement exam day of it. So off I went to do the Japanese placement exam, well that was a bad idea. I didn’t brush up before the test and I didn’t exactly study this summer vacation. Well, I payed for it, that’s for sure. I ended up in Japanese Elements 2, which basically means I get to go through the second half of the Genki 2 text book again first semester. FML. And to celebrate not having class on Tuesday I made another trip out to Shinjuku. I went to a different bar this time, and it would be one that I wouldn’t mind returning to. However, I had an unexpected exchange with the bartender when I was there:

Bartender: “How old are you?”                                                                                                   Me: “I’m twenty”                                                                                                                               Bartender: “Yeah? You look kind of young…”                                                                   Me: *Slightly nervous laugh* “Yeah?”

Needless to say I made my getaway shortly after, but not too quickly as to seem guilty.  I think I’m going to wait another month until I am actually legal and hope he forgets who I was. That way I won’t be banned from that bar should he actually check me and figure out I was lying earlier.

So now you know how I’ve been faring up until this point in Japan. I’ll be sure to try and update semi frequently about interesting things that happen while I’m here!

First I’ll explain why I let this blog die out. Like I posted before, I couldn’t access the Internet at home or school . Because of that I could only update my blog at Rotary conferences, and if I did that I would only have 3 or 4 entries. But fear not, I’m back!

Well you see, right now I’m at the tail end of my second semester of my first year of college at Carthage College. It’s been fun here at Carthage, however the price of tuition is pretty steep and it’s going to increase again next semester. I had always planned on returning to Japan for another year as a university exchange student. So, while I was searching for potential exchange programs I learned of Temple University Japan Campus. Temple University Japan Campus or TUJ is a branch campus of Philadelphia’s Temple University. That means that TUJ is an American university and all classes, except language courses, are conducted in English. And it is also considered a Japanese university as well, so the degree will be recognized in the U.S. and Japan . After learning this I knew I was going to want to transfer, and I thought to myself, “If I can get fairly proficient in Japanese after only 1 year in Japan, just imagine how much better I could potentially get after 3 years!”. So, after getting a hold of some people I knew who had attended TUJ, I applied and was accepted.

Right now I’ve already turned in the information required to obtain a visa and have turned in the housing forms so I can get a dorm. And right now I am patiently waiting for  more information from TUJ and and focusing on finishing my last semester at Carthage and keeping my GPA high.

PS. AHHHH YEAHHHH, OSAMA IS DEAD!

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!

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

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!

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.

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