Family and School

Thursday (June 19th) was the first day of school. Sakura and I woke up and ate cocoa rice crispy cereal for breakfast (very Japanese?), and my host mother drove us to school.There are also 4 other girls from YFU America attending the same school as me (we are 5 of the 10 that won the Mazda Scholarship). We had to make a self-introduction in front of all of the school's teachers (in Japanese)! It was actually okay because I had prepared that morning, and I knew enough Japanese to introduce myself. We were then taken to a room with numerous extra school uniforms, and we all received a uniform to borrow for our time here! We spent the rest of the day in the library receiving our schedules and talking to the English teacher. After school, my host mother picked Sakura and I up to go home. We spent the rest of the night watching Japanese TV and talking. I am so impressed with Sakura's English!


Friday was the first actual day of school. I am in a Junior High School class (my classmates are mainly 14-years-old) because the English teacher said that they also wanted to receive foreign exchange students to become friends with. 3 of the YFU girls are in a high school class, and 2 (including me) are in a junior high school class. In Japan, the students stay in the classroom and the teachers move from class to class (except for Gym and specialty classes). I went to English Class, Communications (an English class taught by an American man and Canadian woman), and a knitting class (knitting class actually turned out to be crocheting)! In Communications, I was able to help them with a few English-learning games, and it was a lot of fun!


On Saturday, all of the school's foreign exchange students (5 from YFU America, and also 4 from China, Mongolia, Hungary, and Kazakhstan) went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (the trip was set up by the school). Before we went to the museum, the YFU America girls (with our host sisters) went shopping at Hondori Street (lined with stores and a giant mall). It was so much fun! Japan has absolutely amazing clothes and the fashion is so unique! After shopping we made our way to the museum. All of the exchange students split up into 3 groups, and we each had our own guide to lead us through the museum and talk about all of the pictures, models, and information presented. It was a powerful experience that I will never forget. Seeing the pictures and hearing the stories of those affected by the bomb brought me to tears as I walked through the museum. I really couldn't help but cry.

Sunday, June 22: Sakura had baton club practice from the morning and into the evening, and Yae also had ballet all day. I stayed home with my host mother, and she taught me how to make origami! It is very difficult at first but still lots of fun. Once my host sisters came home, we (host mom and sisters) went to a giant mall/shopping building called You Me Town. We looked around at the stores for a while and then went to a Kaitenzushi restaurant. You sit at a booth and there is a conveyor belt with sushi and other tasty Japanese foods that go around. Each plate cost between 100-126 yen unless stated differently on the plate. You simply watch the food go by and grab any plate that you want! There are even desserts to pick from. It was really delicious and a lot of fun. A few minutes after we got there, some of the sushi chefs began chanting and one of them was walking around the restaurant with a big fish in a plastic bin to show all of the customers. It was flopping around as he held it down. The whole restaurant then played janken (Japanese rock-paper-scissors) to see who would win the fish to eat! The chef then cut right into the live fish (on the cooking counter), and the fish was served to the winner. It was quite a sight.

-I promise, I will catch up on my blog entries as quickly as possible!