But I must admit I am excited to live with my next homestay, but I thought it was important to share how much I will miss my current host family. Another post will be coming soon.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
short post
Today I found out that it is my last day with my current host family. Tomorrow when i am done with Orientation my new (long-term) host mom will pick me up from my current homestay. When I initially found out I would have 2 homestays I didn't really think about the emotional attachment that would form between me and my first host family. At the time I was more concerned about how I would adjust from living in one area and then suddenly moving to another part of the city. However after meeting my host family and having lived with them the past 4 days I have come to be very attached to them and will miss them very much. お母さん is very sweet to me and I really enjoy talking with her. Likewise お父さん is so funny and comedic I will really miss him. I have also grown very close to my two host sisters Tomomi and Miki and so it is really hard for me to think about leaving the family. お母さん told me it is okay to stop by and visit whenever I would like, so I plan on visiting at least a couple times a month. お父さん was very sweet and after dinner while the whole family was sitting and talking he told me that I am part of the family and that he has 3 daughters now. It is very hard for me to say goodbye to all of them.
But I must admit I am excited to live with my next homestay, but I thought it was important to share how much I will miss my current host family. Another post will be coming soon.
But I must admit I am excited to live with my next homestay, but I thought it was important to share how much I will miss my current host family. Another post will be coming soon.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
プリクラ and 家族 （purikura and family)
Before I get into what I have been up to, I really wanted to dedicate the first half of this post to talking/sharing about the プリクラ or purikura (which I have mentioned before).
プリクラ
I have a feeling that all of my money is going to end up being spent on the プリクラ (purikura). It really is an interesting/amazing たのし！ and above all addicting thing. Ok, so the Purikura (プリクラ ) which is shortened form of purinto kurabu (プリント倶楽部) or printc= club. Anyway the best way to start of describing it is that it is a photo booth. If you have ever used one of the cute photo booths found at Sanrio stores it is a much more complex version than that, but a nice point of reference. When you first enter the プリクラ you first choose the type of photos you will take (e.g. cute pastel, cute vivid, etc.)from there you select 6 backgrounds which vary from simple to backgrounds with flowers/leopard print/stripes, etc. you then take photos like in any other photo booth. One of the very Japanese aspects about the プリクラ is that it makes your eyes look bigger. It doesn't look to strange for Japanese, but since my eyes are rather large to begin with they end up look obscenely large. However the truly unique part about the プリクラ begins after you are done taking photos. Once done you go outside of the photo booth and you can draw/add bling/ stickers onto the photo you took before printing them out. Another cool thing is that once you are completely done designing your photo you can upload them onto your phone via infared
Infared: I don't know if people really know about infrared so I will quickly describe what it does. I think Infrared is kind of like bluetooth. It is a way of transfering information from one phone to another, and I guess also photos from the purikura onto your phone. So in Japan instead of taking the time to put someones number and name into your phone you would simply activate your infrared and connect the two phones infrared ports and have ALL their contact information automatically stored into your phone. Very convenient and interesting!
Editing/drawing on the original photo
((not the best quality since I just used the macro feature on my digi cam, but these are some of my purikura photos.) (Top: other IES students) (Bottom: Me and my host sisters!!!)
Today I met my first temporary homestay family!!! At first I was oh soooo nervous! I was scared that I would offend them or that they wouldn't like me, but so far everything seems to be fine. I have 2 host sisters; Tomomi 19 and Miki 15. They are both very sweet. My host mothers name is Fumie, she doesn't speak much English but she is very sweet and I have enjoyed spending time with her communicating in our own way since my Japanese is even more limited than her English. My host fathers name is Kiyokazu he has such a fun personality and today we watched some sumo on the テレビ and he explained some of the sport to me. There is so much I want to share about my experience so far with my host family, but since it is late and we are waking up early tomorrow I suppose it will have to wait. One last thing I want to share before I go is that tonight I made my first gyoza! My host sisters taught me so I was able to contribute to cooking our とても おいしい dinner!
（In the process of making my first gyoza!)
My first Gyoza, still needs to be fried though!
おやすみなさい！
ケリ
プリクラ
I have a feeling that all of my money is going to end up being spent on the プリクラ (purikura). It really is an interesting/amazing たのし！ and above all addicting thing. Ok, so the Purikura (プリクラ ) which is shortened form of purinto kurabu (プリント倶楽部) or printc= club. Anyway the best way to start of describing it is that it is a photo booth. If you have ever used one of the cute photo booths found at Sanrio stores it is a much more complex version than that, but a nice point of reference. When you first enter the プリクラ you first choose the type of photos you will take (e.g. cute pastel, cute vivid, etc.)from there you select 6 backgrounds which vary from simple to backgrounds with flowers/leopard print/stripes, etc. you then take photos like in any other photo booth. One of the very Japanese aspects about the プリクラ is that it makes your eyes look bigger. It doesn't look to strange for Japanese, but since my eyes are rather large to begin with they end up look obscenely large. However the truly unique part about the プリクラ begins after you are done taking photos. Once done you go outside of the photo booth and you can draw/add bling/ stickers onto the photo you took before printing them out. Another cool thing is that once you are completely done designing your photo you can upload them onto your phone via infared
Infared: I don't know if people really know about infrared so I will quickly describe what it does. I think Infrared is kind of like bluetooth. It is a way of transfering information from one phone to another, and I guess also photos from the purikura onto your phone. So in Japan instead of taking the time to put someones number and name into your phone you would simply activate your infrared and connect the two phones infrared ports and have ALL their contact information automatically stored into your phone. Very convenient and interesting!
Editing/drawing on the original photo
((not the best quality since I just used the macro feature on my digi cam, but these are some of my purikura photos.) (Top: other IES students) (Bottom: Me and my host sisters!!!)
Today I met my first temporary homestay family!!! At first I was oh soooo nervous! I was scared that I would offend them or that they wouldn't like me, but so far everything seems to be fine. I have 2 host sisters; Tomomi 19 and Miki 15. They are both very sweet. My host mothers name is Fumie, she doesn't speak much English but she is very sweet and I have enjoyed spending time with her communicating in our own way since my Japanese is even more limited than her English. My host fathers name is Kiyokazu he has such a fun personality and today we watched some sumo on the テレビ and he explained some of the sport to me. There is so much I want to share about my experience so far with my host family, but since it is late and we are waking up early tomorrow I suppose it will have to wait. One last thing I want to share before I go is that tonight I made my first gyoza! My host sisters taught me so I was able to contribute to cooking our とても おいしい dinner!
（In the process of making my first gyoza!)
My first Gyoza, still needs to be fried though!
おやすみなさい！
ケリ
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Lost and Found
おはよ ございます!!!!!
(Mom and I at the airport)
Today is my first official day in Japan.!!!! However for only being here for about 24 hours a lot has happened. Before I begin about my initial adventures in Japan I will fill you all in about my flight. I flew on JAL and it was an absolutely amazing experience! I was seated on the upper deck which was very nice. There are significantly less people seated on the upper deck which means that there is less people to be making noise. I also was seated at a window seat, and the really cool thing about JAL is that if you are seated next to the window (on the upper deck anyway) You have a private locker under the window to stow your carry-on in. (See photo below) Like many international flights JAL also has the personal movie console to watch movies on. Something really unique about the flight was that the flight attendants brought moist warm towelettes around before bringing us our meals. Once I had boarded the plane I already felt like I was in Japan due to the fact that about only 5% of all passengers were NOT Asian. After landing going through immigration and customs was a breeze, but here is where some of the big crazy begins!!!
After getting all of my baggage I walked out into the main terminal of the building, and talked to the information desk about "the meeting point" (where I was supposed to meet with the IES people). I found out I needed to catch the free shuttle over to Terminal 1. Once there my Japanese E-pal was helping me exchange my money when I realized that my passport was missing!!!!! I looked through all of my luggage (even my checked baggage) attempting to recover my passport. My Japanese e-pal was attempting to comfort me by saying , "Daijobu" (No worries). Which try as she might was not a source of comfort. We called the information desk to see if I had left it at the desk after asking for assistance. However, they said they had not found any passport. We even went and asked the police if anyone had found an American passport. No luck!! However, after another 10 minutes, as I was heading back to terminal 2 to personally search over there for my passport my e-pal ran up to me telling me that my passport had been found! Turns out I had dropped it at the shuttle bus stop, but thankfully someone had turned it in. Last semester in my Japanese Culture class Professor McConnell had told the class that the Japanese are very good about turning in lost items, but I had still been so sure that my passport was gone forever, when I had only been in Japan for less than 30 mins. I'm so glad that my passport is now safe and returned to me!
Now today we had our first official day of IES student orientation. It has been pretty interesting. We had breakfast, which was a crazzy experience in itself. My Japanese breakfast was a piece of salmon, 2 different soups, a bowl of rice, and a strange type of lemon and an orange. Very different from American breakfast. Then we had a seminar for about an hour and a half. After that we went on a tour of the city near the place we are staying at. I'm not too sure how to describe the place we are staying at. It looks a little like a hotel, but it's not. It is called the OVTA and it is a training building but has guest rooms like a hotel. While on the tour our Japanese e-pals took us to an arcade where we took photos in the Purikura, which is this unbelievably awesome ultra Japanese photobooth.
I have been trying to get used to seeing only Japanese around me. One of the really interesting things I noticed today was that in Japan when it is raining, at the entrance of every major store/restaurant/shopping centre they have a plastic bags available which fit exactly for umbrellas, so you wont be carrying around a wet umbrella with you. Kind of interesting.
(My interesting/yummy Japanese breakfast)
Until next time!
またね！
(Mom and I at the airport)
Today is my first official day in Japan.!!!! However for only being here for about 24 hours a lot has happened. Before I begin about my initial adventures in Japan I will fill you all in about my flight. I flew on JAL and it was an absolutely amazing experience! I was seated on the upper deck which was very nice. There are significantly less people seated on the upper deck which means that there is less people to be making noise. I also was seated at a window seat, and the really cool thing about JAL is that if you are seated next to the window (on the upper deck anyway) You have a private locker under the window to stow your carry-on in. (See photo below) Like many international flights JAL also has the personal movie console to watch movies on. Something really unique about the flight was that the flight attendants brought moist warm towelettes around before bringing us our meals. Once I had boarded the plane I already felt like I was in Japan due to the fact that about only 5% of all passengers were NOT Asian. After landing going through immigration and customs was a breeze, but here is where some of the big crazy begins!!!
After getting all of my baggage I walked out into the main terminal of the building, and talked to the information desk about "the meeting point" (where I was supposed to meet with the IES people). I found out I needed to catch the free shuttle over to Terminal 1. Once there my Japanese E-pal was helping me exchange my money when I realized that my passport was missing!!!!! I looked through all of my luggage (even my checked baggage) attempting to recover my passport. My Japanese e-pal was attempting to comfort me by saying , "Daijobu" (No worries). Which try as she might was not a source of comfort. We called the information desk to see if I had left it at the desk after asking for assistance. However, they said they had not found any passport. We even went and asked the police if anyone had found an American passport. No luck!! However, after another 10 minutes, as I was heading back to terminal 2 to personally search over there for my passport my e-pal ran up to me telling me that my passport had been found! Turns out I had dropped it at the shuttle bus stop, but thankfully someone had turned it in. Last semester in my Japanese Culture class Professor McConnell had told the class that the Japanese are very good about turning in lost items, but I had still been so sure that my passport was gone forever, when I had only been in Japan for less than 30 mins. I'm so glad that my passport is now safe and returned to me!
Now today we had our first official day of IES student orientation. It has been pretty interesting. We had breakfast, which was a crazzy experience in itself. My Japanese breakfast was a piece of salmon, 2 different soups, a bowl of rice, and a strange type of lemon and an orange. Very different from American breakfast. Then we had a seminar for about an hour and a half. After that we went on a tour of the city near the place we are staying at. I'm not too sure how to describe the place we are staying at. It looks a little like a hotel, but it's not. It is called the OVTA and it is a training building but has guest rooms like a hotel. While on the tour our Japanese e-pals took us to an arcade where we took photos in the Purikura, which is this unbelievably awesome ultra Japanese photobooth.
I have been trying to get used to seeing only Japanese around me. One of the really interesting things I noticed today was that in Japan when it is raining, at the entrance of every major store/restaurant/shopping centre they have a plastic bags available which fit exactly for umbrellas, so you wont be carrying around a wet umbrella with you. Kind of interesting.
(My interesting/yummy Japanese breakfast)
Until next time!
またね！
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Imma be rockin tokyo
Okay, so there is not much standing between me and tokyo. Only a matter of 48 hours and one looooong plane ride. But there are a whole bunch of thoughts going through my head right now that is making me a little antsy and nervous.
One of the biggest concerns running around in my head is the fact that I am going to a country where the majority (and literally majority...pretty much everyone I will see is going to be asian) I am going to feel like a big outsider! Also I am feeling pretty nervous since I don't know the language. I will be at a big disadvantage because I can't even read the characters. こんにちは is pretty much the only word I can recognize.I have been working on learning the Japanese characters, but I haven't even finished learning the hiragana, and haven't even started with the katakana. I can already tell I will be very exhausted the first few days since I will be encountering a number of new experiences.
Another thing that I have had to decide on was how to handle my finances. Some people (Bastiaan) consider the Japanese banking/finance system to be very backwards from the U.S. This is because the Japanese hardly ever accept credit cards. The reasoning is because since there is such low theft in Japan one is able to carry around cash freely without the fear of being robbed. Additionally, it prevents people from incurring unnecessary amounts of debt. I have also discovered from friends that traveler checks are not readily accepted around Japan. So I guess I am just winging it. Opening an account in Japan and I guess get used to the idea of hauling money around with me instead of a plastic card.
And I have recently found out that I will be staying with two different host families. I will stay with my first family only for a week while my original host family is on vacation, then I will move in with the host family I was initially placed with. I feel pretty lucky because some people didn't get any host family, and I ended up with two! Hopefully it will not be too difficult transitioning into Japanese home life. I really dont want to upset my host family or anything.
I am really excited to begin my trip on Monday morning. Once I board my Japan Airlines Flight I will be pretty much beginning my Japanese experience.
I don't know when I will be able to update this next (as I don't know my internet situation) but I can promise that when I do update it I will be in Japan!!!! And hopefully have some exciting news to share!
One of the biggest concerns running around in my head is the fact that I am going to a country where the majority (and literally majority...pretty much everyone I will see is going to be asian) I am going to feel like a big outsider! Also I am feeling pretty nervous since I don't know the language. I will be at a big disadvantage because I can't even read the characters. こんにちは is pretty much the only word I can recognize.I have been working on learning the Japanese characters, but I haven't even finished learning the hiragana, and haven't even started with the katakana. I can already tell I will be very exhausted the first few days since I will be encountering a number of new experiences.
Another thing that I have had to decide on was how to handle my finances. Some people (Bastiaan) consider the Japanese banking/finance system to be very backwards from the U.S. This is because the Japanese hardly ever accept credit cards. The reasoning is because since there is such low theft in Japan one is able to carry around cash freely without the fear of being robbed. Additionally, it prevents people from incurring unnecessary amounts of debt. I have also discovered from friends that traveler checks are not readily accepted around Japan. So I guess I am just winging it. Opening an account in Japan and I guess get used to the idea of hauling money around with me instead of a plastic card.
And I have recently found out that I will be staying with two different host families. I will stay with my first family only for a week while my original host family is on vacation, then I will move in with the host family I was initially placed with. I feel pretty lucky because some people didn't get any host family, and I ended up with two! Hopefully it will not be too difficult transitioning into Japanese home life. I really dont want to upset my host family or anything.
I am really excited to begin my trip on Monday morning. Once I board my Japan Airlines Flight I will be pretty much beginning my Japanese experience.
I don't know when I will be able to update this next (as I don't know my internet situation) but I can promise that when I do update it I will be in Japan!!!! And hopefully have some exciting news to share!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)