i'm not very creative with these titles..

Wow, time goes by really fast. I keep wanting to update this blog but I can never find any time. And that isn't very good because I'm always doing stuff and after a months worth of adventures, I end up sort of forgetting a lot of the good stuff I had worth saying. But anyway, here it goes.

Since last February 14th, I moved in with a new host family. The parents are only 28 and 33, really young. maybe the youngest in rotary host family history?

but it's so fun living here, they have no kids - it's just the three of us. they're so great with wanting to give me a good experience while in japan! they've taken me out to a bunch of local historical spots, and in the start of my March Break they even took me for a two day trip to Kyoto! That was awesome, because I got to see a lot of great and famous places, and it's always nice to go with people whose company you enjoy. Life seriously turns around when you have a great host family! I am sad to say I'm moving out on April 4th.. It will be exciting to have another new host family, but I am really content living here! My host "parents" feel more like siblings, and I feel so at ease. Well, I guess that's the life of an exchange student, moving on..

I went on my school trip to Kyuushu at the beginning of March! That was something I was looking forwards to since the beginning of my exchange -

a 6 day trip with my friends from school. I can't believe it's over.. On the calendar in my mind, once the school trip is over means that it's almost time to go home to Canada.. and it is! There's only about 4 more months! That seems like a lot, but it's oh so very short. Anyway, my school trip was wicked. We took a bus to osaka, rode a plane, then rode in more busses. It ended up being that for the 6 days we mostly rode in busses. They would let us out for like 10 minutes at a famous place then stick us back on. We drove in a crammed humid coach bus all the way through the bottom island of japan (kyuushu) from kagoshima airport to nagasaki. We had a day trip in Nagasaki and saw the atomic bomb site, we saw Kumamoto Castle, we ate a ton of food, and even went to universal studios japan for the last day.

It was a good trip, a lot of fun! I also had my first onsen?

In Japan it's totally legit to bathe with everyone in a hot spring. It may not have been so bad if it wasn't with a group of your skinny school friends? My teacher told me I didn't have to do it, on account of the culture is so different - so I didn't do it the first night. But the second night, I took the plunge and did it. It ended up being a lot of fun! The weird thing was that they brought their camera's and were totally fine about taking pictures of eachother? That's apparently not normal - so don't be frightened, it's just my weird school.

Speaking of weird school.. In Japan, school ends in March and the new school year starts in April. The last day of school is usually a sports tournament. My school's sports day was fun, but everyone was acting weird and immature and the day ended up with me yelling at my entire class for how immature and mean they all are - and me storming out of the class on the note that I was going back to Canada. Apparently I'm a horrible person in their eyes because I have a lot of guy friends. It's apparenlty a horrible thing for a girl in Japan to have a lot of guy friends. It's not my fault if the guys are more friendly and act their age in compared to many of the minnie mouse loving girls in highschool who act like they are 10. It was about time I yelled at them. Yeah, I know I'm in the wrong for doing it - that's their culture, but the amount they bully eachother and the way they act towards each other .. it was about time I called them up on it. Can't take it back now either - what's been done has been done. I guess it was good timing, now they have a 2 week break to forget about it and we will all return back to school in April in a new grade and with the adventures of spring break on our minds.

I just want to point out that I'm not getting an average look at the average japanese teenager. My school is for very, let's say, "not so smart" students. And because of that, they are all very immature and it doesn't truly show me the japanese highschool student culture - although my school is fantastically fun! I believe normal japanese highschool students study a lot, go to cram school after school and all of that which we would imagine. But my school is different, I don't even want to imagine them trying to take a test that I took in highschool.. I don't think this school even gets homework! It's crazy, but fun. I enjoy it.

See? I forget everything that's happened. I guess when I remember or have something new to talk about, I will re-update. Oh, well, I am going on a Rotary trip this saturday for 4 days - kind of exciting! I will update about that afterwards.

Questions? Feedback? Anything? Send it my way!

アシュリー

huh? wher'd time go?

it's been almost a month since my last post. what?

where on earth has time gone?

speaking of where time has gone, I can't even remember. everyday is so busy, but nothing too extravagant happens everyday. it's just so tiring to listen so intently to japanese all day long, but i love it here. time is going to fast and i don't want to leave! we have to book our flight dates with the travel agent in two days, greeeattt. i don't wanna leave!

even though, i feel like i've hit a wall with the language. i try to hard and still cant speak properly and writing and reading is killer.. even though i try so hard, it just doesn't come easy. and i definitely had a breakdown over that a few days ago - along with having my first catfight in japanese with a friend over the fact that i didn't help sweep the classroom one day out of the past six months.

im moving to my FOURTH host family today! time has been flying so fast - and i've accumulated so much luggage. i think i have just about double what i came with. crap. i feel so embarrassed!

so, the olympics are in canada - and i feel so patriotic about it. i love canada so much and am glad that people are finally going to pay attention to it a little more :) watch the opening ceremonies? they were amazing! it was cool to see all the countries and realize i have a friend in so many places - i love exchange students! the world is so big, yet so small. there are so many more places that i want to go to, and as soon as i can. theres so many more languages i want to learn and cultures that i want to experience. it just sucks that my wallet isnt deep enough for these dreams of mine. anyone wanna hook me up with some lucky lottery numbers? thanks.

anyyyway, i don't feel like writing anymore - but i should update more. soo, i will do that another day. i move to my new host family in twentttyyyyy minutes! scary, but exciting as always. wish me luck?

ash

ps. i can't believe i was in temagami a year ago - it seems like just yesterday we were all getting ready to go out on exchange and didn't even know what country we were going to. now we're all off and out in the world becoming new people for the year. time flies.. make every moment a good one eh :)

pps. valentines day in japan is very different - girls only give chocolate to boys?

best days of my life

So, I’m going to talk about myself in this post. Maybe a little conceited, but my birthday and the day after have been the most amazing days of my life. Went through every emotion to the extreme, it was amazing.

So, my birthday was coming up. And, my classmates know I’m getting better at Japanese – but I guess they still don’t believe I know as much as I do. The day before my birthday, I knew they were making me a big card and planning a birthday surprise. I smiled to myself all day and pretended not to know a single thing about it. It was so cute knowing how much effort they were putting into stuff! They kept asking me really obvious questions like, “what time are you coming to school tomorrow?” and such. I knew, and that made me really excited.

So, my birthday rolled around and I went to school and one of my best friends at school kept me outside in the hallway, even past when the bell rang. I totally knew what was up and played into it, it was so adorable! So when she finally said we should go to class, I walked in, on the chalkboard they wrote “HAPPY BIRTH DAY ASHLEIGH” and wrote all their names! Then they sang “Happy Birthday” in English! It was amazing! In Japanese, they pronounce birthday bas-day, it’s cute. By the way, “Happy Birthday” in Japanese is “Tanjouubi Omedetou” :) We took group pictures with the writing on the chalkboard. It was so cute of them to do that for me :)

Then time past, and it was lunch time. That’s when they showered me with gifts! People got me all kind of packaged treats, and many people made me cards with cute charcters (hand drawn) or with pictures of us of together. I could read all of what they wrote to me in the notes, which I find amazing. I would have had NO IDEA what so ever what they said 4 months ago! One girl even wrote to me in English. Of course, it’s broken English, but her message was so sweet. She said how I became one of her best friends, etc. That’s when I started to bawl and realize how great my classmates are! Then a boy from another class gave me chocolate, and a boy in my class came inside, and handed mea mini snowman – made of legit snow from outside. Basically the funniest thing ever! I brought my Nikon camera to school so we took a TON of pictures. My friends took the camera and took pictures of everything that went on. It was so much fun!

Then my classmates made it seem like it was over, but I still knew about the card. And at the end of the day when we were all about to leave, they said Ashleigh, turn around and we’ll blindfold you. When they re-turned me around and un-blindfolded me, they had put the giant card up on the chalkboard. It was absolutely amazing – they all had written notes to me next to their favourite character that they drew. It’s amazing and it’s something I’m going to keep forever!

In the evening, Rotary gave my host sister money for me to have a party and bring my exchange student friends out for dinner. We went to the arcade before hand and played with the “UFO catchers” – the claw machines. Since they’re kind of hard, I took advantage of it being my birthday and asked one of the guys working there for help. I ended up winning a huge hello kitty for only 200 yen, 2 dollars CAD. Pretty good gift to myself I would say! Then we went for dinner – we had Indian curry. It was delish! Then we went to another restaurant and had cake. They sell the cake in separate slices, but the store put it all together and pit candles on it and made me a birthday cake! It was so cute! Definitley had a great day!

But my happiness came to a halt because I had planned to go to the airport the next day and say goodbye to my friend Nick – who was going back to Australia – with all the other exchange students. I had asked my teacher, and she had to ask the principal. Because it was during school time and I wasn’t with an adult, they asked Rotary – and they said no – I couldn’t go. I cried and cried because I never got a proper goodbye with Nick who has been one of my best friends for the past 4 and a half months. I cried, and there was no way I could go because my school said no and my parents also knew I wasn’t allowed to go. But the thing that made it worse, was that every other exchange student got to go – it was just me. So, my plan was so wake up super early and go to school super early and cry to my teacher. She’s a sweetheart and it was a surprise that she told me that I couldn’t go. I toyed with the idea of just skipping school, but I was nervous my teacher would call my parents, who would then tell Rotary, and that would not be good – because they could get so mad about it that they would send me home. So I didn’t want to risk it. So, I set my alarm for 6 o’clock Friday morning. Because I was just so tired, I never even heard the alarm to actually get up. I woke up at 7 and just said to myself no, there’s not enough time now.. So I didn’t go and I just kept sleeping – and had dreams I was at the airport.. But then I woke up at 10 and went into school around 12 o’clock.

I walked into class and my friends asked if I had said goodbye to Nick – because that’s what they thought I was doing. That’s when the tear fell from my eyes because I was so sad that I didn’t get to go. I told all my friends how my school said no and my host family said no because the school said no. By that point I was so sad – and my friends told me to call him at the airport. I called him just in time – he was just going through the security check. I was crying on the phone, and all of my friends understood and they all started to cry because it was so sad. They all knew how hard it was for me not to say goodbye to a good friend. They were all so compassionate. I’ve never met so many compassionate people in my life – they are such amazing friends. Then, I guess two friends went and told my teacher about what happened and how I was still crying my eyes out. And then she called me to the teacher’s room. That’s when she and I sat down in a room while my friend patted my back, and my teacher explained how sorry she was that she had even asked the principal. She told me that she realized she should have just let me go in secret. She told me that that night, she was sleeping and it occurred to her that Australia is so far from Canada – I would have no idea when I would see Nick again. She said how she realized how close the airport is to the school and how I would have been just fine taking a bus and being able to say goodbye to my friend. She saw that I wasn’t there at school today, and said she was happy because she thought I had just went to the airport, and she told no one about the absence. The class told her at the beginning of the day how good of friends I was with Nick – how we always hung out and he was in so much of my purikura. When I showed up and 12 and she heard what happened, that's when we had this talk and I realized how amazing of a person she is. She shed tears as she was telling me how truly sorry she was about me not saying goodbye. That’s when she promised that she would let me go say goodbye to the next friends at the airport, and if there was no one to take me, she would. I was crying so much at this point because I was so thankful for her compassion and I realized how truly cared about I am at this school. I was the saddest I had ever been, and hearing what she said to me, and seeing my friends compassion and how much they comforted me – made my tears of pure heartfelt sadness, turn into tears of joy and happiness and love. This sounds so cheesy, but it’s absolutely true. It was hard not to be able to say goodbye to a close friend, but today I realized how many more friends I have right here, right now. They also explained how he would be my “zutto tomodachi” – meaning friend forever and how I could send him mail or e-mail. The emotional rollercoaster ended when I realized how much these people care about me and the words they said to comfort me. It was truly remarkable.

The day continued to be remarkable because my host dad picked me up from school and we went to the “Kimono Yasan” – meaning Kimono store. I got to try on three kimonos, because tomorrow – I am having a professional photo shoot in the kimono! AMAZING! I am also going to be a model for their kimono store with the pictures! That is absolutely amazing and I am so excited! I will definitely put the pictures up once it happens! Getting a kimono put on me for the first time was amazing, I felt so Japanese. I tried two purple kimonos and a greenish blue one. The light purple one was so pretty, but I ended up choosing the brighter and bolder greenish blue kimono with pink accents. I think it’s more bold, and the picture will look interesting that way. I’m really excited to see how it all turns out, and also, so have a professional photo shoot in Japan! Rotary is such an amazing organization; they put this all together for me to my surprise. Same with the birthday party too. It’s a great organization, being a Rotary exchange student is incredible.

Well, I have more things to say but I don’t want to bore you. I will update after I get to try on the kimono! So exciting!

Questions? Concerns? Let me know :)

bikurishita

just an quick update about racism in japan..

yesterday a couple friends and i were at the station buying out train tickets to go to the next city over to see a movie. a japanese man comes out from no where and slaps my blonde friends arm and tells her to leave japan. he then continues to make a fuss and tell my other friend to go back to his country because foreigners don't belong in japan.

the man then went on and told the ticket takers at the station that we, foreigners shouldnt be there because, well, we're foreign.

and thats the story for yuh, racism exists!

too bad you cant pick where you were born, or how you were born!

four months!

I haven’t written on this blog in a while, I kept wanting to update with something but I’ve just been so busy living that I’ve had no time to sit down and write about everything I do all day!

This December has been a very crazy month. I moved host families and that’s a really hard thing. I’ve never experienced it before – but moving into my new host family made me really homesick for my first host family. I didn’t realize how good that family was to me until I started to live in a different situation. Because of all this, homesickness settled in. But not homesickness for Canada – homesickness for my first host family! So I started to do more things – tried to at least. I got a gym membership, hung out with friends after school. Tried to fill up my time rather than being at home all the time. It kind of worked – I’m feeling better about the whole sitch now – but the whole reason I still feel so down is that this family isn’t very Japanese. They don’t take me anywhere and don’t do anything with me. The house is small

and they don’t do many Japanese things. I just feel like there are so many other families that could be giving me a more cultural experience about Japan and Japanese life. So that is still bothering me about living here – but you also can’t forget, as an exchange student, your host family had a life before knowing you. They just can’t drop everything and make life revolve around you. That's a big thing that exchange students learn while on exchange – how life doesn’t revolve around them. But then again, there do end up being the exchange students who have amazing host families all the time who pamper them and treat them amazingly and that doesn’t end up helping them in the end. It just sucks when you have a member of your host family who you just have a complete personality difference with – but, that’s life. And its hard! And an exchange student life is no exception.

I hung out with all the other exchange students a lot this month - both Rotary and AFS. I’m writing this without internet right now and can’t remember if I told you about the other AFS exchange students of not – but there are two other kids in Kanazawa, my city. A guy from Germany and one girl from France – they're really nice, and both speak English – they’re a lot of fun. The difference between hanging out with another exchange student or students means we always go out for a meal and actually do something substanstially fun compared to hanging out with just my Japanese friends. The culture in Japan is that when you hang out with your friends from school after school or on the weekend – you go put on some makeup, go for tapioca, take pictures and go home before dinner. I love hanging out with my Japanese friends – they’re great, and it’s fun, and it’s why I came to japan – to learn Japanese from native speakers – but it’s definitley a lot of fun just hanging out with us exchange students. I speak a lot of English because I hang out with them so much – but I think that's fine. My Japanese is getting there . My host family only speaks Japanese and at school all day, I only speak Japanese. I’m trying so hard to learn this language – but it’s so very hard. You need a lot of determination to learn Japanese that’s for sure. The grammar structure is opposite from English – on top of that, any new language is hard with creating a whole new vocabulary . Plus, writing and reading Japanese

is a whole other language on top of that – the writing system, Kanji, is even difficult for native speakers! I’m trying my hardest and I can see how much I’ve improved. I mean I am able to speak and understand a majority of things now a days – but I’m still basically close to illiterate. I’m trying so hard to learn new kanji, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day for all of the stuff that I have written in my hello kitty schedule book.

Earlier in the month, a really nice woman took me and another exchange student Mari out for the day. The woman was an exchange student to America about 30 years ago! It’s always such a great time when someone takes me out for the day, and these people have definitely inspired me to host and take out the exchange students back home in Canada in the future! This lady was so nice – she took us out for a beautiful lunch, then we went and decorated chopsticks and boxes and obento’s with gold leaf paper – which is kind of a traditional thing about my city, Kanazawa. It was really interesting! The gold leaf paper is so thin and delicate, it was really difficult - and definitely gave me an appreciation for all of the beautiful pieces of artwork and plates and house decorations that are decorated with gold leaf! After all that, she took us out to a beautiful buffet dinner with her family. And by the way in Japanese, buffet is “biking” so she said, in English, “we’re going to a biking” – because she didn’t know the world buffet in English. Those thing always happen with the mix of Japanese and English, always make me laugh. But yeah – it was a great day and I’m always so appreciative of when people take out us exchange students J!

Before Christmas, I went out for dinner with my first host mom. We went out for Tempura and we had a really nice chat about all of the things causing the emotional roller coaster ride I was on this month because of all the changes with my family and everything! My first host mom is definitely someone I would consider a second mother and it’s so amazing to be able to have that. That’s definitely a cool part of being an exchange student – being able to have two or six moms or 7 host sisters and 4 dads all around the world – it’s pretty cool, and it’s definitely even better when your host families or members of your host families become people part of your real family in your heart J

The week or so of school before Christmas break was really fun. The students in my class all want to be kindergarten teachers – so we went on a trip to a University in a city near by and for two days, we just played children’s games and sang children’s songs in order to learn what children would like to do! It was a lot of fun. We also had sports day – for two days. There was volleyball, basketball, soccer, and dodge ball. It was a big tournament between all the classes in each grade – it was a lot of fun. I met a lot of new people and a lot of people I don’t ever get the chance to talk to came and talked to me. I probably took pictures with like 60 people – it was like my first day of school again, when they’re seeing a foreign girl with gold hair for the first time! It was a lot of fun, and it made me realize how much I love my school and how friendly and great everyone is J I will definitely miss these kids when I go back to Canada.

Christmas was the most, different and un-meaningful Christmas I’ve ever had. My family all had work and both host sisters had school on Christmas eve day. That night we went out for, another, buffet. Had some Christmas cake and that was it. No cute family activities, no sitting around the fireplace watching family videos or watching Rudolph on TV. I recall my host sister was on the computer – he other playing with a nitendo ds, my host dad watching some American drama on television with Japanese subtitles. So my Christmas activity for the night was painting snowmen on my fingernails and toes. Christmas morning – both host parents went to work and one sister had school. Just that in itself made Christmas not Christmas. I work up and said goodbye to my host dad who was leaving for work – and then, I skyped my family back in Canada for their Christmas eve.

They sent me a huge package of gifts for Christmas to open over skype – and I did the same. So we watched each other open up gifts over skype. That technology is so amazing, to be able to talk and see someone all the way across the world and it’s as if you’re just sitting in the same room as them!

Christmas day also happened to be TWO of my exchange student friends’ 19^th birthday! So instead of it being Christmas – it basically turned into a birthday party. We went out for lunch, and karaoke for a few hours. We ate a lot of snacks – including a gianormous milk chocolate bar and then after, went out for dinner. Not to forget, took some more purikura too. Purikura is just, something you do – its just a rite of passage to take puikura pictures every time you go out!

On the 26^th, we had a Rotary Orientation. We met al of the exchange students going out from Japan on exchange next year an we saw all our friends who came to our districts last year or the year before on exchange J It was a lot of just, information sessions and talking – not quite as fun as the Rotary weekends we had in Canada.. but it was nice to hang out with everyone J

It’s now the 28^th of December 2009. It’s almost 2010! I can not believe how much time has passed, and how fast it’s gone by! I’ve lived here for four months already! It seems like I just got here last week - but then again, I can barely even remember my life before living in Japan! And I can barely remember my English.. writing this was a pain in the neck because keep forgetting how to properly word my English phrases, hah, great.

it's december already?

As I'm sitting here in my school's computer lab, bored stiff while everyone else writes tests.. I reread all of my blogs I wrote in Japan. And it's amazing how much I can see I've changed! My style, my taste and my opinions! Food I wrote about not liking, I now love. Like dango - its a japanese sweet. Japanese sweets aren't very sweet my the way, most are bland and flavoured with matcha or sweet bean. But don't be fooled, sweet beans are just sort of sweet. But yeah! and the things I didn't understand or I didn't know what they were, I know now and use them daily and can't even remember life without them! Such as the vending machines here. Before you come to Japan it's like a legend, "the amazing japanese vending machines" and for the first while I was here I thought so too, but now they've just become so common and just a part of my life!

So it's December, unbelieveable! I've moved host families.. I was really sad to leave my first host family, but I didn't feel sad until the moment my new host family came to pick me up from my old house and I had to rush off. So, obviously, my old host mom chocked up, I cried, I left, it still makes me sad to think about it! I had a great host family for my first three months :) My new hostfamily lives in an apartment, which is new for me. It's really small. I have a host mom, dad and two sisters. One sister came to Canada last year! So it's nice to already know her. The parking garage at my apartment is really cool, you park your car, and then the platform you parked it on lowers down into the ground so the next person parks on top of your car! It's pretty cool! They do this because Japan is so small and there really isn't alot of space, so they build up and down.

Christmas here isn't the same as in Canada. All my fmaily will do is eat a cake. No decorations, no music, no big dinners or parties.. I find that kind of sad and I know I will become more homesick this month - but I think I will skype home for their Christmas morning. Because by that time, Christmas will be over here.
Yeah, kind of sad. But I guess I can deal with it. It's just so different living ina culture where they don't celebrate any of the same holidays you grew up with as a kid and are a big part of your culture!

I have to get writing a speech in Japanese for my Rotary meeting.. so I should get on that.
Questions? Concerns? Holiday Wishes? Give me a comment :)

3kagetsutachimashita!

So yesterday I went to my school's BATON TWIRLING Club's recital, and it was honestly amazing. Broadway quality showmans ship! I mean they were such amazing dancers and then on top of it, trirling and throwing batons. Then they just kept bringing out more things, like hoola hoops and ribbons. They did about 10 costume changes and at the end was a colaborative dance with music from movies - starwars, pretty woman, a jackie chan movie, harry potter, titanic. I mean the way they put it together was amazing!
The school clubs here in Japan are so different than in Canada. Students here don't get homework, so clubs are everyday, and they're really intense. I think my schools baton twirling club is one of the best in the prefecture! Amazing!
At the end, everyone shouted "encore", and of course they did an encore, which with another costume change, was amazing. But the funny thing is, in Japanese, "encore" is "on-ko-re! on-ko-re!" ;)

It's getting really cold here. Houses don't have central heating, they just heat the rooms they're using. My room in my host families house gets SO cold at night! I turn on the heater so its 21* when I go to bed and I wake up and the thermometer says it's 9*. Cold. Plus I have to walk to school for 40 minutes and it has been raning everyday here, so it's freezing. Kids at my school don't wear coats, they just wear clothes under their uniforms. I weighed the shirts I was weighing yesterday, they totalled to 10lbs. My salor uniform shirt, my sweater and my long sleeved sweater underneath. Heavy, and I'm still cold! School also doesn't really have heating, so kids bring blankets to school and wear them over their legs. It's pretty unfortunate that Japanese school uniforms are so sex-ist and girls have to wear skirts all year round.

Time seems to be flying by so quickly. It's almost been 3 months! I change host families on MONDAY! I can't believe how fast time has gone by. I've been at school here for 3 months too, it does not seem like it's been that long! They're starting to put up holiday lights in the streets here and I can't believe it's almost Christmas either! Time is flying by,　but I'm really enjoying it here :) In theory wish time wouldn't seem to go by so fast (but I wish it would go even faster when I'm sitting in Japanese math class. hah)

Well, It's time for lunch now. and yes, it's 1:00. They eat really late here, probably because of all the clubs that go on after school, this is the middle of the day for those students whi go home at 6 or so. It's such a difference from BT and having second lunch, 9:37am ;) Let me tell you, Japanese school is COMPLETELY different than Canadian school. I think kids here would die if they tried to do the work we did in highschool. Here, no homework. Tests once a month. And the work they're doing here as grade 11 is work we did in grade 9. Maybe it's just my school, it being a school for the 'less smart kids' but it's completely different. But needless to say I'm having a blast here and I absolutely love it! I was invited back for my grade's graduation in 2011! How sweet :) Apparently Japanese graduation, they have to wear their school uniform - and it's not that big of a deal at all. ぜんぜんちがうね！

Thanks for reading! I will upsate again once I've moved host families and have new adventures to tell :)