HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Know I haven't written much lately but that's because nothing very exciting has happened. Just been going to school and looking forward to coming back home. I have about a month and a half left!

Just wanted to wish all the Dad's out there a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Promise I'll update soon!

I got a new camera!

It is now Friday, May 22 at 4:54 pm and I am trying in vain to upload new photos onto facebook! So far, no luck! Everytime I try to, it never adds the photos. It's a shame too since it's pictures of all of us in kimono. But, my friends have put up pictures of me in them and have tagged me in them so you all should be able to look at them.

On the bright side, I got my new camera today! So, now I can take my own pictures once again. The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful. Everyone is worried about the swine flu and Japan is running out of face masks rather fast.

Karaoke on Mother's Day was a lot of fun. We sang for about 3 hours or more with the English speakers singing in Japanese (horribly) and the Japaense singing in Englsih (wonderfully). Our friend from Taiwan, Aki, surprised all of us by singing a Chinese rap/rock song. We're going agin on May 31st with our friends from Latvia and whoever else wants to come.

After karaoke, Aki, Sara, Rachel, Zaiga (from Latvia), Aki (from Taiwan) and our new friend Jiro (Japanese) went to this plant festival. It was really cool and we got to eat a lot of really good food! We were actually given samples to try for free!

For the most part though, I've just been going to school. Midterms are in a few weeks, but it feels weird because I feel like I haven't been in school for that long yet. I've participated in a Japanese Tea Ceremony and last week, we got to wear Kimono! It felt like Prom/Senior Pictures, with Sara getting "married" to our Korean friend Gon-san.

Sara has also gotten a lot of interesting texts from our new friend Jiro-san which have been really funny and awkward. He texted her about a week or so ago asking for pictures from karaoke. He then went on to say that he only wanted one's from karaoke and nothing else because even though "we are cute, he has a very cute girlfriend..."

What other pictures did he think we would send him?


The CSU/Yamagata video project has been coming along; we got to watch some of the finished product today. On Sunday, we'll all go to Yamadera and film more about Yamagata. However, we have to climb a thousand steps until we make it to the top! Afterwards, we get to go drinking! This should be interesting since the Japanese are not known to hold there liquor.

The weather has been getting warmer and the humidity is getting worse. Everyone wears a lot of layers around here as if it's a)cold or b)like they can't feel weather. Luckily, last weekend Sara and I found the indoor swimming pool along with running into "The Power Rangers"!

We don't know if it was for a TV show or a group project but the outfits were intense; they hade all the different colors, helmets, bad guys, and even synchronized posing! It was really cool.

We still get stared at on a regular basis along with people talking to us in English or about us in Japanese. We actually meet some new people on Tuesday when one of them came up to me and startled me. It's so interesting to have people want to talk to you just because you can speak English. I feel bad for our friends from Latvia who can also speak English but since they are not American, it's like they don't matter as much.

Tonight, a bunch of us are going to eat sushi and hangout. Hopefully, I can take pictures with my new camera and find a way to post them since facebook wants to be tempermental.

Hope everyone is enjoying there summer!

Golden Week is over!

It's now Wednesday night, 10:12 pm on May 6th. Today is the last day of Golden Week (which is Japan's version of Spring Break) and I have to go back to school tomorrow and Friday. Last week, we had Wednesday off which was spent working on our palaquin for the race held on Monday. The theme was "Gaikoku Cats", which means "Foreign Cats" since all of us 8 in the race were white and either from America, Estonia, or Latvia.

On Saturday, the three of us (Sara, Rachel, and I) went back to school to practice for the relay and the after, we walked around town with our friend Aki, who is from Taiwan. We ended up going shopping and then hanging out back at the dorm. On Sunday, we all meet my tutor/friend Risa in Yonezawa for a big festival that involved a battle re-enactment towards the end. It was really fun and half way through, we had lunch at a make your own "okonomiyaki" place. Everyone's turned out well, except mine was like a blob. Monday was the race, which was fun but harder than I thought it would be. We ended up dressing like cats and being interviewed so I made it onto Japanese TV! My team ended up winning a "special award"- so we got a trophy, certificate, and some food. We were quite the spectacle.

During that time, my camera decided to fail on me, with the LCD scren going white meaning I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of or look at any of my pictures. After contacting Kodak and learning that I would have to wait until I got back to the States to get it fixed, I decided to buy a new one, have it shipped to America, and then have it shipped out here to me. Today, the three of us went bowling with all of our Japanese friends (Risa, Rina, Anna, Natsue, and Hideto) with everyone pulling out mad skills except the Americans...we then made all of our friends play Dance Dance Revolution since some of them had never played it before (shock!).

On Sunday, a group of us are going to do karaoke which is very exciting since this is the first time during this trip for us to do it. We already have some songs picked out to sing! Hopefully, no records it.

I have pictures up on Facebook and Photobucket so go check them out if you can!

Rain Rain Go Away

It is now April 26, Sunday night at 10:51 pm and I am trying to download a bunch of Japanese music. It has rained all weekend here in Yamagata which limits what can be done. Yesterday, I had to buy new tennis shoes since my old ones had ripped on the bottom and got soaked within a few minutes of walking in them! Luckily, I was able to find a new pair "made for walking" in my size (apparently, being a size 8 in Japan means you have large feet...). After that, I bought a necklace and some CDs that were on sale and a children's Aladdin book in Japanese. It's a good thing I get my scholarship on the 30th!

Wednesday is a day off of school for us. It's the start of what's know as "Golden Week" in Japan, with the following Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday also days off. I have to go to the school and help with repairing a float for a race that all 8 of us "foreign" girls are participating in on the 4th. Me, Sara, Rachel, 4 Latvians (Dana, Christa, Ruta, and Zeiga) and Angie from Estonia are all going to dress as cats and participate in this race held every year. We have to carry a pallete with our float on it in costume. The first three places win money and at the end, everyone is invited a party. As I'm sure many of you know that I am not cordinated, this still sounds fun and I'm excited to see how the float and costumes turn out. We could even be on TV and there will be videos and pictures.

Speaking of bad cordination, I've been practicing for Yamagata's annual Hanagasa Matsuri (Festival) by trying to learn the dance. So far, not so good but I'm hoping it gets better once I learn all the steps and the tempo picks up. If you can, you should try to youtube it since I haven't been able to get video of it yet. Practice has been every Tuesday and Thursday.

Since last I wrote, I've gotten a pre-paid cell phone and thanks to our friend Manami, now have our menus in English, which is a huge releif! As everyone State side prepares to finish another school year and relax into summer, Japan is gearing up into another semester and another hot summer full of rain. If the weather is nice this week, I'll get on making a video of where I live and all of my friends.

I'm now on the hunt for Engrish clothes i.e. a hat and a Hoodie. For those of you who don't know, Engrish is when Japanese take English and either a)butcher its spelling so you have no idea what's going on or the meaning is comepletly wrong or b) put random words togher, like on clothing, which also don't make sense. It's fun to try and read some of it...it's easy to get very confused.

We've started getting to work on the CSU/Yamagata project and by we I mean, Hideto has figured out topics, divided work, and is trying to come up with a Japanese script with his fellow classmates. So, us Americans are totally helping! We're hoping to contribute more as we know what all needs to be done but it's kind of hard to do a part on CSU without it in the background...

Tomorrow begins another week of easy classes, which is actually nice. It's weird to not have hours of homework, studying, or a job. I should enjoy while I can.

I miss you all and hope the weather is nice!

INTERNET

Just so you all know, I have internet in my dorm now so I can be on skype and online whenever! Just thought I would pass it on. Oh, I am also putting up pictures on photobucket.com so if you would like to see all of my photos, head on over.

First week of classes are over!

So, it is now 8:10 pm Sunday night which probably means it is 5 am Sunday morning in Colorado. My first week of classes are over and so far, they have been pretty easy. Most of my Japanese classes are easy since most of the material is stuff I have already learned so that kind of sucks. It is amazing to realize how different the cirriculum is compared to the US. And, as far as my Japanese culture classes go, they seem like they will be fun but what is weird is that you get to try them out first to see if you like them and then you can register for them...

The funnest class is for sure going to be my Japanese Culture class because we get to go to onsen (hot springs) and learn about kimono and do all sorts of fun Japan stuff! I am also taking a Japanese film class and a Japanese Performing Arts class, which has a lot of Japanese students in it but I don't know if they will stay since the class is taught in English!

My Japanese Economy class is going to be interesting since my teacher got really excited when he learned I was a native English speaker. He wants me to help him with pronuncation, grammar, and trying to get ideas across if he has trouble. He wants me to like be a tutor or something!

The hardest class is going to be kanji since it is all kanji (Chinese characters) that I haven't learned before! I have met a lot of other international students as well. Me and the two other girls, Sara and Rachel, have become friends with a few girls from Latvia and Estonia, and with people from Korea, China, and Taiwan.

One of the nicest and most helpful people we have met is a girl by the name of Manami. She is a second year graduate student at Yamagata and she has helped out so much that we would be lost without her. She has taken us around town and helped us get rental cell phones, and yesterday, she helped us figure out to send texts and put our menu into English. We owe her big time. (I'll take a picture of my cell phone soon to show the differences...and of my dorm).

We have also gotten to know more Japanese students, like our tutors and the two students that will come to CSU in the fall. We are so excited to have them come to CSU so we can show what our home is like and be as helpful to them as they have been to us.

It is kind of weird to be a foreigner. Everyone looks at you and random people will want to talk to you in English. Plus, when you say like two words in Japanese, everyone says ''Nihongo ga jouzu desu ne!'' which translates to ''Your Japanese is so good!'' It is quite funny! The other day, the three of us were walking home behind a group of elementary school kids who kept looking back at us and whispering in Japanese. We started talking back to them in Japanese, things like ''what'' and ''why'' and ''we must be monsters''. That scared them so that started screaming and running away from us! But, it's just funny to hear school kids of any age say ''amerika jin'' (Americans) and wonder if they know that we know what they are saying. It often takes a big group of kids to get up enough courage just to say hello or to come over and talk to us.

The sakura (cherry blossoms) are so pretty, I have had to have taken like 50 pictures of that alone! Today, we went to a town called Tendo and got to watch human shogi (Japanese chess). It was really cool but it was really hot so I got a little sunburned! Hope it turns into a tan! I took a lot of pictures and some videos so I will try and post them on here for you all to see. I hope to get skype very soon but sometimes the lobby of our dorm has free wi-fi so I will try to hook up skype when it is night here and morning there or vice versa. So, be on the look out!

Also, it may be easier to view my pictures on facebook so if you can find me, that would be good!

This is me in front of a beautiful sakura tree. I love the color!

These are our friends (l to r): Adam, Kentaro, and Hideto. They were in a noodle eating contest and Hideto took second. He is coming to CSU in the fall.

Human shogi being played. It was really cool!

The First Week

So, it's been a week since I landed in Japan and got settled in my dorm. My plane ride to Dallas was pretty uneventful. The woman next to me was heading to Mexico for a much needed vacation and when I told her my plans, she told me good luck and that I was very brave for doing something like this. I got thata a lot actually! Navigating the Dallas Airport was very easy since there was a sky subway that took me right to the terminal I needed to go so I didn't have to go through securtiy again! YAY!

My flight to Tokyo was long and my video screen quit working part way through but that was ok since there wasn't anything I particularly wanted to watch. The flight staff however, wasn't very nice and I don't think I'll ever fly with American Airlines again. Once I got to Tokyo, I went through customs and then got my extremely heavy luggage! Luckily, once I exchanged my money, I was able to pay around $30 to have it shipped to my dorm so that took a load off. Unfortunately, my plane was delayed by about an hour due to weather conditions which meant Sara's was as well, so I had to wait for her plane to get in. Once it did, we got her money exchanged and shipped her lugguage and then we called my host parents the Aoki's to tell them what happend. Apparently, my Japanese is good enough to talk over the phone. We then spent an hour on a ''limousine bus'' and met my host mom, Kumiko, at the train station.

It was so nice to see my host parents again! They were very excited to see us! They even have the calendar I gave them last year hung up in the house. We had a really good dinner of beef and vegetables that we cooked ourselves on a portable grill and then had homemade ice cream afterwards. They even gave me a CD with a bunch of Miyazaki music on it (he's like the Walt Disney of Japan). They asked both me and Sara a bunch of questions about school and life in America. The next day, they took us to the train station and made sure we got the right tickets for the shinkansen (bullet train) up to Yamagata. They were so helpful, I don't know what I would have done without them!

We arrived in Yamagata at around 3 pm last Friday and were greeted by our dorm supervisor who's name is Mariko. After filling out a bunch of paper work, Sara and I moved into our dorm. (I'll post pics later!). It's a nice sized place for what we pay. We are now waiting to have internet and to get our rental cell phones. We've meet other international students and some Japanese students as well.

Last Monday, we went and got registered as aliens in Japan and opened a Japanese bank account. I'll take pictures of all of my new Japanese things soon. We've mostly just gone shopping to get dishes and food, things to make our place feel like a home. We had our placement exam on Tuesday and I placed into intermediate level! On Wednesday, we had our orientation and got to look at the classes we could take. Classes start on Monday! On Thursday, Sara, Racheal, and I went to inquire about rental phones with our new friend/helper named Manami. She is a graduate student studying biology. Yesterday (Friday), we met with our Japanese tutors who can help us whenver we need it and with our advisors. We also met with two students, Rina and Hideto, who are coming to CSU in the fall, so that was exciting. I already knew Rina from last year...I've been running into a lot of people from last year!

Our big group has to make a video about Yamagata University and its surrounding areas in English and Japanese to post for prospective students to look at and see what life is like in Yamagata, which should give them an idea on if they want to come here or not. On the flip side, when Rina and Hideto come to CSU, they have to make a video about CSU and Fort Collins to show what this area is like to prospective Japanese stuents who would want to come to CSU. It all may sound confusing, but it also sounds really exciting and fun I can't wait to see the finished product.

Everyone has been so nice and very helpful. I can't wait to start school on Monday and to interact with my fellow classmates. A big group of us should be going to view cherry blossoms within the week so that is exciting!

This is me a bowl of Imomi- it is a stew of meet and vegetables. Every fall, Yamagata makes a giant pot of this stuff and serves it to all of the spectators!

This is part of Yamagata city. I love the mountains in the background!