Posts

Showing posts from June, 2024

Day 11

Image
Hello!!! Today was sooooo fun! This morning me and my host mom played cards! She was supposed to come with me today but she was sick! I ended up meeting the other foreign exchange student from my school and her host family! We made our way to the city of Chiba! We visited a shrine and it was absolutely beautiful. I got some gifts and I got my fortune slip! It was a paper that told me my fortune. I have favorable luck/general luck. A lot of what my slip said made sense to me! So I will take it seriously. After that we went to a cafe and got the most delicious pancakes EVER. They were the fluffy ones and they were so good. I got the strawberry one while Stef’s host mom got macadamia nut one and Stef got a matcha one! I ate the entire thing and it was so good. We went shopping after and I got some manga! We also went thrifting and I got some cute clothes. We went back to their house and hung out for a bit. Then they drove me to my house and met my host family! For dinner we had some dish

Day 10

 Hello! Today was a chill day! I woke up at 7:30! My host mom brought me a banana, some yogurt, and some vitamin c water for breakfast. I was already feeling a lot better. So I hung out downstairs with my host and brother. My host dad had to work today so it was jusy us three. We had lunch and decided to go shopping! We rented the second Mama Mia movie because I havent seen it and my host mom loves it. Today was supposed to be rainy and cloudy but it ended ip being sunny! We went to a grocery store and it kind of reminded me of home! It was set up in a similar way to stores at home. We grabbed some stuff and headed home so baby could take a nap. While he was napping, my host mom and I decided to play a card game called trump (lol). We played for like an hour and it was so fun. She also let me know that a family friend would be coming over for dinner and to spend the night. We decided to take Halu to the park as he was getting antsy. We walked to the park and then a convenience store ca

Day 9

 Hello! Today was lowkey kinda bad. Not too much to report on so heres the gist of it. It was rainy today and kind of chilly. At school I got a really bad stomachache and went to the nurses. It was kind of funny because somehow the majority of the staff got involved lol. My homeroom teacher walked me to the nurse but it was closed! So he took me to his office which was in the teachers lounge area. His office was with everybody elses office area, kind of hard to explain. But all the teachers were there and were like “why is she here?…” and so he had to explain to them so they all tried to help me out. Then the principal came in and was asking me if I was okay, if I had a fever, and if I needed anything. They then opened the nurses office for me and the principal went back to my classroom to retrieve my bags. I then discovered that a banana exploded in my bad so I had to clean the bag and they gave me a temporary replacement bag. They sent a teacher to look over me while I waited for som

Day 8

Image
Hello! Today I went to school as usual. Today started out kind of chaotic. I spilled yogurt all over my uniform 🫠. I got to buy lunch and it was pretty good. They have a cream filled bread and it is so good. At school my service ran out lol. Thankfully a classmate let me use his hotspot so I could finish a presentation we were working on for english. After school, I decided to go straight home. These past few days Ive either gone out with friends or had club but today I decided to have a break from that. I got off the bus only to realize that I had left my water bottle on the bus 😐. My host dad called the bus company and went to pick it up for me as they had found it. In the meantime, my host mom wanted to shower so I ended up babysitting baby Halu. No complaints here, he is so sweet. We watched cocomelon and hung out. After that, my host mom and I relaxed with Halu in the living room. My host dad returned with my water bottle and started on dinner. Dinner was SO delicious. I really

Day 7

Image
Hello! It’s officially been 1 week since I got here! Its been a great time so far :). Today I went to to school again and had the dreaded PE class today. PE wasnt too bad because we had a skills test. My PE class is volleyball so it was very easy. I’m very surprised about how many teachers make an effort to include me in class! In one of our Japanese class, I don’t know what is going on and the teacher likes to print things off in english or he writes questions in english for me to answer. Today he used google translate to make me a worksheet of 4 questions. He asked “How do you perceive others? What do you want to learn about Japanese culture and why? What world issues are you interested in the most? Describe characteristics of your school in america.” So I answered it during work time. He then read me some traditional Japanese poetry and asked a student to help translate it. My history teacher is very encouraging, which is very surprising because a lot of students said they dont like

Day 6

Image
Hello everyone! Today was kind of a slow day. I made it to school with Nanami and her boyfriend Ibuki. School was pretty good today! It was soooo hot tho. For lunch my host mom packed me tuna and ham sandwiches 😋. They were sooooo good. I had all learning classes today, meaning no PE thank god. For english class, they have been studying about sesame street! We ended up watching an episode of sesame street lol. I havent seen that show since I was very little so it was pretty nostalgic. Our last class of the day was Traditional Japanese which was all kanji. I couldnt understand any of it. The teacher talked and wrote on the chalkboard the whole time and I didnt understand it. At the end of class, some guy came up to me and handed me a paper. He had translated all of the kanji that the teacher wrote on the board to english and wrote it by hand down on the paper. I was really impressed and it was so sweet. All of my classmates are very kind and im so grateful. After school, me and Stef he

Day 5

Image
 Today was a long day! I went to school today and started out with PE 🥲. I caught the train with my new friend Nanami and we walked to school together. We had lots of classes and it was kind of boring. I ate linch with Nanami and her boyfriend and the other exchange student Stef. My host mom packs me the left over karaage and rice from yesterday. It was soooo good. We had an assembly today where a retired athlete came to talk to us. His story is very cool. He is blind and he managed to participate in many track events and was very good at it. After school, me, stef and some friends went to Karaoke! It was so fun, I would highly recommend. We sang and sang until it was time to go home. We almost missed the train so we had to run and I got really sweaty 💔. It is SO hot in japan. However, we made it with no time to spare. The sunset was gorgeous and we had a nice view on the ride home. I got home and took a cold shower that felt SO GOOD. I am very tired so I will be going to sleep now.

Day 4

Image
 Hellloo! Today was a very chill day for us! I woke up and made myself some pizza toast! After breakfast Halu and my host dad went out to the store and me and my host mom stayed behind. It rained all day long so we just hung out. We ended up watching The Intern and I really liked it. I thought it was cute. Then we had lunch, karaage and rice! Karaage is fried chicken and we had ours coated in sauce. In a way, it was basically boneless chicken wings. After that we all hing out and I FINALLY got to give them their host family gifts! They really enjoyed them and everything fit great! The dad said he had been looking for a good black hat to wear and that Japanese hats dont really fit him that well. I showed them the pictures I brought from home and they enjoyed that too. We watched videos of my combining cultures performances and they were really impressed. Shoko thinks I should join the dance team at my school. Then, I was feeling sleepy so I took a nap while Kyohei took Halu to burn some

Day 3

Image
 Hello! Today was a pretty chill day! This morning my host family made me pizza toast for breakfast. It was actually really good! We headed to a nearby high school for Japanese lessons! My host mom teaches beginner to intermediate Japanese to afghan women. I got to sit in on the beginner class today! It was really cool and the teachers said my handwriting was very good when writing Japanese. After, we went home for lunch and had soba! It was sooooo good. Then, my host mom, Halu, and I went to a mall. The mall was very cool. On the bottom level it was a grocery store. We got me a fan and some other stuff from the upper level and then got groceries. We returned home and made dinner. I forgot what it was called but it was so yummy! I had squid for the very first time and it was actually kind of good. Anyways, I am ready for sleep🙌 Good night everyone!

Day 2

Image
 Hello! Today was ny first day of school! It was very exciting. My host dad drove me to the train station so I could catch a train to Tōgane. I was alone and waiting for the train when a girl came up to me and introduced herself. Turns out she was in my class at school! She introduced me to her friends and boyfriend and we rode the train together. We met up with Stef (the other exchange student at our school) and walked to school together. All of the students are very nice and made me welcome cards! They helped me understand what is happening during class. After school we toured the clubs. I havent decided what clubs to do yet. I was invited to many. I want to join volleyball club, karate, koto, and tea ceremony. Me and Stef went to the train station and met up with some other students. We invited them to go shopping with us. Only two if then could come and it ended up being really fun. We went to a huge mall and shopped! Then we got food at the food court. I had udon with a soft boile

Day 1

Image
 Hi! Today was my first full day in Japan! I figured I would update this every night before I go to bed. But I realize it’s like 5 am for you guys lol. Anyways, my first day was awesome! For breakfast we had rice, sunny side up eggs, miso soup, and natto. Natto is a traditional breakfast item and its basically very sticky beans. I didnt really like them but it was okay. I helped clean up and then me and my host dad, kyohei, went exploring the town! He renovates houses so he showed me his current project and another house he did. I may be able to help him paint some of the house! After that we went to a small shop in town to get dango 🍡 and we stopped at a convenience store. It was really cool, they had a lot of things. Then we went home and had some noodles for lunch. At about 1:50, kyohei and I went to catch a bus to the train station. We took the train to togane train station and went to go see my school! I got a uniform for school and toured it. It was a very nice and big school. I

Travel Day

 Hello everyone! This is my first post lol. I’m writing this as I am sitting in the Chicago International Airport waiting for my flight. We left our house at 7:00 AM to catch my 11:50 flight. As we were about 20 minutes away, I learned that the flight got delayed until 3:30 PM. So here I am, in the airport waiting for another 2 hours. TSA was really nerve wrecking to go through alone but I made it! I was sad to say bye to my family but it all turned out okay. I am quite nervous about my flight. It’s 13 hours 😔. However, I think I will be okay. I am excited to land in Japan and meet my host family!  P.S ignore the labels on top until I figure out how to get rid of them lol this airport WiFi kinda sucks