Week One

My school, Sanyo Girls School, is very interesting. You wear a plaid, pleated skirt on your way to school and you then change into a denim skirt when you get to school! I was so surprised by this when I first arrived! Apparently, Sanyo Girls School is known throughout Japan for it's very strict rules, and you wear the nice, pleated skirt when outside of school to display a studious, uniformed image. It is still strange seeing all of the girls wearing a uniform shirt and different styles of jean skirts! Each student is given 3 pairs of shoes- indoor school shoes, indoor gym shoes, and outdoor shoes.

Monday, June 23: Today at school I had Information PC, knitting, art, and music. I really love my class! They are all so cute and sweet! In Information PC, the teacher allowed us to just go on the internet for our first class. In 'knitting' class we are crocheting a cute bag. I find crocheting to be extremely difficult, and I am not making much progress at all! In art class we are making paper sculptures. We get a big sheet of poster paper, scissors, and glue to make any kind of sculpture that we can imagine. In music class, the students sang songs in Japanese as the teacher played the piano and sang along. After school, my host father and Yae were both home so we went on a long bike ride around town. We rode for quite a while, and the weather was amazing! Riding bikes in Japan can be a little scary/difficult at times because there are so many other people walking and biking around also. There is also a lot of starting and stopping at intersections but you get the hang of it. For dinner that night we ate somen noodles with special toppings and also a platter of fried foods. It was delicious! The somen noodles are served cold (iced, actually) in their own bowl. You are then given a little bowl with a special sauce (liquidy- almost like soy sauce) and you add water to it so it isn't so strong. You transfer the noodles to the sauce bowl a little at a time and add toppings like green onions, ham, and egg.

Tuesday, June 24: My host mother set up Japanese lessons for me to attend today at the public hall! The Japanese teachers are volunteers so there is no cost for the lessons! I've become friends with Hanna, the Hungarian exchange student at Sanyo, and she also goes to the hall every Tuesday for lessons! School gets out at 4:40 and the lessons weren't until 7:00 PM. We stayed at school for a few hours and went on the computers. We then took the train to Miyauchi Station (the station I get off at when I go home) and walked a little until we arrived at the public hall. Caitlyn, my YFU America friend, lives in the same city as me so she also attended the lesson! Hanna went to her classroom, and Caitlyn and I went to a different classroom together. The lessons were split into two groups: Caitlyn and I with one teacher and a small group of people with another teacher. The lesson lasted for an hour and a half. It was a little difficult because our teacher barely spoke any English and he didn't seem to know what to do with us! All in all, I'm glad I went!

The rest of the week was full of school and relaxing at home. The weekend was great, but I'll save that for another post!