yikes.

Wow I haven't written anying on here in a while.

A lot has happened, but I will just do a quick summary for now.

I went to Osaka with my family a couple weeks ago. We went to Universal Studios Japan - which was SO busy.

I was in Shin-Minato with Rotary for the past three days. We helped push the floats in the Matsuri festival, met the mayor of Imizu, stayed with host families, went to the festival at night time, did pottery. It was a lot of fun.

I feel like I'm not giving you the right idea about any of this stuff because of my lack of detail..

so keep checking back. I promise I will write something a little more detailed about all the events in the past three weeks :)

亜朱里

its been a month!

I can't believe it's been a month! Time has gone by so fast.

School is still fun, but very boring at times. I draw a lot, and its funny because so does everyone else. I do it because I can't understand, but they make bracelets and draw disney characters for eachother all day long!

Im starting to pick up the language much more, and people are noticing. I've got a LONG way to go, but I start lessons in October so that should help.

School on Saturday is so weird for me. I mean, it's friday and Im here, about to go to bed early because I'm exhausted from the first 5 days of school this week.

People here shave their eyebrows, by the way. They're usually just short and spiky and they get them tattooed on or they use make-up. Different..

Another thing is the amount of socks here is cool. There are stores entirely devoted to just socks! You can get socks with anything on them, it's cool!

I had my rotary welcome party on Wednesday. It was cute, I met 3 more of my host families. One wasn't there though. The food was good, I actually love fish. Its hard to make a good impression on the Rotarians though when your Japanese is so bad.. ugh..

This week coming up is holidays, and im going to Osaka UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN with my host family! How cool is that :) I will take many pictures/compare it to Florida.

The food I've had this week has been great. I had Tempura last week, SO GOOD. I tried yakisoba yesterday, yum. Japanese food is great! Even sweet potato ice cream is great :) But fruits and vegetables here are super expensive. I mean 158Y for an apple is crazy.

Anyway questions? Anything? Leave me a comment! I don't know if anyone is really interested in my blog anyway! hahah

亜朱里　<-- my kanjii name!

the next stop is ko-rin-bo

So I've been in Japan for three weeks now.

What has happened in the past week or so? Not too much.

School everyday, which is still fun because everyone wants to talk to me. But its still boring, because I can't understand much yet. So I sit there and draw or practice Japanese writing for like 3 hours at a time. Also, I can't remember if I already said this but in Japanese highschool the teachers move to different classes and the students stay in the same room, and eat lunch there and everything. It reminds me a bit of Canadian elementary school.

I started my 'Saturday" school, and I decided to take karate. So I went to the class, and considering I've done karate for 11 years, it was horribly easy. I think I'm going to switch out and take cooking for my school on Saturday instead, and maybe sign up for a "musakashii" (that means difficult) karate class.

Karaoke is the main activity of teenagers here. I've been four times now. And yesterday, it was for four hours with my two Japanese friends who went on exchange last year, and an exchange student from Australia. 3.5 hours were Japanese. Can I do karaoke in Japanese yet? No. It was not fun. For them? Tons of fun. I can't wait to actually be able to read Japanese at a normal speed.

Another thing that's all the rage here is "purikura". Its basically an interactive photobooth with green-screen technology where you get to edit the photos really cute-ly and add backgrounds and stuff. Then you get a copy of the 6 pictures, with 4 copies of each picture. aka its VERY small, and each person gets a copy of each picture. It's fun, I like it. Girls at school have photoooks just filled with millions of the little puri pictures. As of right now, I have 12. 6 of those are seen above.

I have my Rotary welcome party this week, and we have school holidays from the 19th onwards for a week. And my host family is taking me to Osaka to go to Universal Studios Japan! How wicked is that? I'm exited. Then the next week I have a weekend, thing, with the other exchange students. That should be plenty of fun as well.

Now I'm off to laze around and watch Japanese tv that I can't understand.

亜

朱

里

Japanese High School

So I started school on Tuesday, and its been a lot of fun!

On the first day, it was SO hot (its been SO hot every day actually. people bring towels around with them in japan to wipe off their sweat). I had to do a speech in front of all the teachers first thing, and I was so hot. It just wasn't pretty.

When I first walked into my class, there was a nice little sign on my desk, "welcome to yugakkan ashleigh!"

and a plus giraffe and some pens. It was from a couple of really nice girls, Gami and Lisa. From the moment I walked into school that day, EVERYONE stared at me. All day, all I got was people staring at me or people coming up to me saying something in bad English and when I would reply they said "kawaii!" That means cute. The culture in Japan has some obsession with being "kawaii". I was told I was kawaii only about 238 times on my first day, its only because i'm pretty different looking. My hair being the main thing too. People touch my hair all the time..

So my first was was a lot of fun, despite being stared at all day. But walking home? Well, see, in Kanazawa there's barely any foreigners. Seeing a foreign girl in a Japanes

e uniform causes people to turn their heads. Some guy actually stuck his head completely out of his car window to look at me, even after he was way down the street. That's h

ow much I stick out when wearing my uniform.. But I like the uniform, it looks like "sailor moon". If you say that to people here, they say no, because they don't like sailor moon, or something to that effect.

My first 3 days of school were really fun, everyone in my class is very friendly and helpful. Another thing is that EVERYONE wants to take a picture with me! Its the same with the other exchange students too in their schools. I'm starting to learn more Japanese. It's really hard because NO one speaks English. My homeroom teacher does, but no one in my class does! So there's a lot of miscommunication. But it's fun, and I'm starting to get it. For the past two weeks, Japanese basically just sounds like background noise because I can't understand any of it. It's a really hard language, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

But I think I'm starting to get it. I start Japanese lessons in October.

Anyway. Today was my school festival(it happens tomorrow too, despite tom

orrow being Saturday). It was SO hot out, so obviously, everyone had towels to wipe off their ridiculous amounts of sweat. You know what Japanese people are so small? They sweat out half their body weight everyday here because it's so humid.

SO anyway. We spent all of yesterday preparing for the festival. Meaning we sat outside in the 30* heat all day in our uniforms making signs and stuff. But today was fun, but hot.

My class was making waffles. Other classes made floats or yakisoba or hot dogs or pancakes. Today was my day off so I got to have fun while the other half of my class sold the waffles. But the waffles were like, packages and store bought and were flat and round like a pancake. I still refuse to actually call them waffles. But anyway. Japanese people seem to really like haunted houses, so two of the classes made a haunted house. There was also karaoke in the gym and there was "couple feeling" which in the real world basically means speed dating without the speed. So my friends took me there, and dropped me off, despite my "i dont understand what this is" - in japanese of course - I went to the room where I was greeted with a HOORAH! from a group of like 15 cocky japanese guys. So it was just me and a bunch of guys. The first question they asked in their broken English? "whats your type" ahaha, and every answer of mine was responded with a HOORAH from everyone. Quite entertaining to be so popular..

I think I really like Japanese school. It could just be that the people at this particular school are really friendly and nice and helpful. But the school has a lot of school spirit and its really fun to be at. Of course, real lessons haven't started yet, but the few classes we've had, everyone really tries to include me even though I can't fully understand everything. For example, to the right you will see a note from history class. What does it say? No idea! But the teacher told me to "koh pee" it anyway.

Some interesting things I've found out about Japan this week is that 1) there are no garbage cans on the streets. But when there are, there are 4 or so beside eachother, all for different things! I can never tell which is which..

2) Washrooms at my school have no soap nor hand dryers. Odd.

3) Japanese people can not speak English what so ever (its like Canadians speaking Japanese), so I really think more people should come here to teach English.

4) Karaoke is a way of life here. I've done it three times in the past three days. I went once with the other exchange students (again, if you're reading this, hi!) and then I went with my friend Ayumi who came to my district in Canada last year, and then today we had it at the school festival. Crazy!

5) It's SO humid here, you wouldn't even believe.

6) I have school, on Saturday!

Thats it for this week.

Ps. I've been here two weeks as of tomorrow! Its seemed like much longer though..

アシュリ <-- my name in katakana, its written on my uniforms too!

honey love closet

The past two days havent had super exciting events, but I guess there are some things worth telling.

Yesterday I went to my new school to get fitted for uniforms. So basically, I walk into the school and there's about 800 medals and trophies hanging in the cases. Uhm, legendary?

So I get into the room, and my host sister Mayuka was translating and helping me out, and there was also the rotarian who drove us there and then the admins from the school. My teacher seems so sweet and nice! She was very helpful and gave me a tour of the school and everything. But fitting my uniforms, oh my gosh..

So basically the uniforms in Japan have uniform shoes,

because you have to take your shoes off when you enter a building. So they were fitting me for my shoe size. Yeah, size 9 Canadian doesn't even exist in Japan. They have to special order my shoes for me.. Another thing is that Japanese uniforms are VERY expensive. For a girl, for one article of each item of uniform is about $800 in total. I'm very glad my Rotary club is paying for that!

Then they gave me a sheet with the classes I will be taking. I guess I didn't get to pick - because in Japan they start school in April, so I'm joining a class that already sta

rted. Also, in Japan you study with the same kids in your class for everything. An

d school on Saturday, (optional for me) but one

can take japanese tea ceremony or cooking or things like that. I don't know what I will take, but I get to decide next week. Japanese cooking might be nice, then at least I will have a useable skill..

Today I went out with my host mom to look for cell phones. "takaii" means expensive. I don't know what phone I will get yet, but hopefully one that doesn't cost me Y70, 000! The technology here is really cool. Watching hd tv on your cell? possible.

I met up with some other exchange students in Kanazawa at

Kanazawa station today - Jared, Sandy and Michael (if you're reading this, hey :)! ) The station itself has such cool architecture! and the fountain at the from spells out "welcome" and the time in little water fountains. Twas neat.

Right next to the station is a 7 story

shopping mall. Can you say heaven? The fashion here is INCREDIBLE. Clothes were absolutely gorgeous, but very very expensive. So when people here see that you have a lot of clothes, they think you are rich - but its only because clothes here cost an arm and a leg for nice stuff. But I don't think I will be able to help myself, Japan fashion is just way too cool! Plus, everyday I have to walk through a fashion district of Kanazawa to get to school.. so Im pretty sure I'm going to buy a lot.

Jared, myself and Michael took the bus (which by the way, you are supposed to be quiet on. and its rude to have your cell on loud or to talk loud on the bus) to Korinbo (basically the centre point of downtown) and we went restaurant hunting and found a delightful little soba noodle restaurant, which was basically sooo oiishi. (remember what that means? delicious!) Then we went for a green tea donut at 'mister donut'. I'm absolutely loving Japan. The food and the culture - just everything about it! Green tea flavoured everything also isn't too shabby!

We all went our separate ways to go home, so I took the bus home by myself for the first time. Plus it was dark - so I almost got off on the wrong stop, which would have been a disaster because the stop I have to get off at was about 6 stops after that. Plus it was raining, in the middle of no where and my Japanese isn't very good yet! Its just that the kanjii symbol (the complicated chinese characters you see meshed with japanese characters) for my stop matched the other stop too..

Its very very hot here I find. I'm looking forward to Autumn, so it won't be quite so hot! I'm also looking forward to school on Tuesday and meeting the rest of the exchange students on Sunday.

Questions? Concerns? Anything? Drop me comment :)

ps. daily ridiculous english on a japanese article of clothing:

Three thousand yen for socks?! no way!

Today was nice! I visited the Sea of Japan in Fukoi prefecture with my host mom and Mayuka. It was breathtaking! The road up to the sea had a bunch of little shops which sold things from trinkets for your cellphone (fyi, everyone has a trinket on the strap of their cellphone .. from hello kitty to a plastic vegetable), to squid on a stick!

When we got to the sea, we took a boat ride around the shore. I understood none of the tour though, considering I know no Japanese. But the sea was "kireii" which means beautiful.

Then we went to a Japanese noodle bar in F

ukoi. It was "oishii" which means delicious. I had "tempura soba".. but I couldn't eat it all, it was huge! They serve you cold green tea with every meal I have

come to conclude.. green tea is called "ocha".

After that we went to a big mall, called "the lovely partner".. awkard name..

There were a lot of shops from a grocery store to stationary to clothing. There were a few shops with beautiful clothing, but way too expensive for my budget in the first week of coming here. My host mom told me I had to buy a "bento" box, for my lunches every day. So we went around the mall looking for one. I basically bought the most childish thing ever, consisting of a box with chopsticks ad matching bag. the design? It's like, a cartoon rabbit called miffy and it's orange and probably made for three year olds. But that's okay.. I guess..

The amount of Hello Kitty things in every store still amazes me. There's EVERYTHING Hello Kitty, personally I'm not into it but I mean, it's surprising that they can make so much with the same character.

Another thing I noticed about Japan is that everything you buy is wrapped up in a bad with a sticker and given to you like a little gift. I really appreciate it! But I'm disliking when the lovely casheirs / service people give me my purchase all wrapped up beautifully, say something in Japanese and I have to stare at them like a loser because I have no idea what they said.. I can't wait for Japanese to become less 'noise' and more 'language'!

Tomorrow I am going to my school and buying my uniforms and setting up my classes! I'm pretty excited about the uniforms, only because they look super Japanese and sailor-moon like. I will for sure upload a picture when I get mine.

For now? Oyasui Nasai! (which means good night!)

アシレエ

PS. I absolutely love the English on products here..

Clothing has English saying, and they seldom make sense. Mayuka's boyfriend wore a shirt the other day that said "will show you how to dead" and a shirt today in a store said "long skirt holiday trip". Plus, look at these pictures..

"Whenever you use as you like in favourite colours"

"Lets keep our town beautiful. Therefore, it is important to keep our hearts beautiful first of all"

There's more, but that's just making the Japanese look stupid.. and I would feel bad.

Kenrokuen Gardens

Yesterday, my host sister Mayuka took me to see Kenrokuen Gardens, which is one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. And it is conveniently located in my city! And my oh MY it was gorgeous! We walked around for a few hours, and I was just in awe and taking pictures of everything. It is said you have to see Kenrokuen in every season. Spring for the 'sakura' or, cherry blossoms. Winter for the snow. Autumn for the coloured leaves. I am excited to go back, it was abcolutely breathtaking! I have more pictures on my facebook, (a LOT more.. like 50), so go check those out. It was absolutely beautiful there!

Kenrokuen Gardens is very close to Kanzawa Castle, so we went to visit that too! It was incredible as well, nothing like the Castles in North America or Europe!

We got there and there was a festival going on called 'Japan Tent' where there are tents with different food from different countries. I find it funny that there was no Canada because.. well.. Canadian food can not be described ;)

After our visit to the Castle we walked back to the bus station but stopped in a little dessert store on the way. I don't know what it was called, but I got some .. white balls on a stick covered with Matcha.. Apparently it's very good, but I just must not have the taste buds of a Japanese person yet.. I couldn't eat it all..

The bus station I have to go to everyday to get to school and whatnot is right in the downtown of Kanazawa, right in front of the big department store. So Mayuka and I went in yesterday, man it was big! I guess I don't live in a small city, because what small city has a Louis Vuitton all the way to Gucci store in it's downtown? Kanazawa reminds me of Toronto, totally. I forgot some stuff at home, like makeup, so we went to a store called 'Plaza' in the department store, and I was looking at makeup. Holy Crap are things expensive here! I mean, ¥1,200 is A LOT for one tube of mascara, and not even a good brand either! I ended up spending ¥2,100 on an eyelash curler and mascara.. that's $24.00 Canadian, for two things that should have been worth only $10. Maybe it was just my choice of store..

I am still very jetlagged. I fell asleep last night at 6 and got up this morning at 7:30! haha

Today my host mom and Mayuka are taking me to Fukui prefecture to go see the Sea of Japan! I am excited and will update you whenever possibleeee.

Leave me comments also, because then I know if people actually care ;)

アシリアンエ