Pic

Pics of sushi from a sushi museum ( including Obama) and mt Fuji (it's in the distance)

Finally it's autumn

Well the summer heat & humidity in Japan (with lack of decent AC) basically turns everybody into mush. But finally the autumn weather seems to have come :) so back to some Japanese culture. Over the 1 1/2 month summer vacation most people still go to school i.e. I had club activities everyday, along with the occasional kendo match. There are also club camps that last about 3days and consist of practice practice and more practice. But even though the vacation wasn't what I'd consider a normal sleep in everyday vacation, it was still very fun;) I went to Nagoya a few times with some school friends to shop and play, which in Japan always includes going to purikura (like a really pimped out photo booth). Also saw mt Fuji but didn't actually go to mt Fuji (whyyyyy??!?!) along with a bunch of food related places (like a wasabi factory) and an AFS camp in Gifu-Ken!! But alas school started back up a couple weeks ago... Still fun though ;)

Kendo party

Today was the last day the 3rd year kendo club members have club and/or game and/or practice :( because they have to study hard for college entrance exams, so they won't have enough time for kendo everyday(in Japan sports clubs meet almost everyday) (including the weekend). After the epic game we partied for over 3 hrs in the budoujo: drank calpis water, ate macha cookies & pocky, had an extreme dodgeball game,etc... It was really fun but I'm sad cause we won't get to see the goofy 3rd years that often... At the game the 3rd years from every high school cried after their last game, I hadn't realized how emotional it is to "graduate" from club activities ... Starting June (after 2 week break from club activities) (testing weeks) I may get to play in an actual kendo match, don't know if I will but I'm hoping for my lucky chance

Instagram

* I post a lot of photos of Japan on instagram ... My username is rouroken321 if u feel like checking it out or following ... Yeah

こどもの日 aka Children's Day

Today is Children's Day, a very big holiday in Japan that ends the golden week. Mainly for celebrating boys growing taller, koi noberi is hung and takenoko is eaten... Fish flags are hung and baby bamboo is eaten... Went to host family's grandparents home today... I ate way to much then the grandparents gave me a giant chocolate cake!!! I can't eat no more!!! It was really cute when my host bro tied what I think is a green onion around his head (part of the holiday). Yesterday I went digging for clams, it's was really fun, I spent way to much time digging cause more than half the clams I found were just laying there waiting to be picked up... School again Monday, long sleeves are too hot in this weather!! When can we switch to the short sleeve uniform?? ... Anyway Golden Week is oober fun/awesome...

First month!!

So I've been in Japan for about a month now and have done so many new things in such a short amount of time. I especially like kaitenzushi (conveyer belt sushi).

Orientation is great

Futons!!

Oh boy...

Ugh packing is so tiring(~_~;) can't wait to get to LA then off to Japan... Ate at ihop today, trying to squeeze in everything I'm going to miss when in Japan , but I guess next year when I come back I'll be missing everything about Japan like their cool toilets and zaiten sushi ... Only a few days to go!!!

...yeah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ron17xFNBf0&feature=related

it's a mixture of modern rock and classical japanese, kind of cool yeah :)

Countdown!!

8 days to go

Only nine days till take off

9...

Yay!!!

Finally tomorrow I will get my Visa!!! I've awaited Japanese landing permission for soooo long （＾Ｏ＾）... On an even higher note in two weeks I'll be on a plane flying high in the sky that will ultimately land in Tokyo!!! I can't wait to meet all of the other exchange students and my host family!!! Yipeee!!! Btw I recently got an instagram so please follow me at rouroken321 , I will be posting pics while in Japan ϵ( 'Θ' )϶ ... Will post again soon

3 Weeks!!!

Yosh! In just 3 weeks I'll finally board that plane 2 Japan!!! I'm going crazy cause I still don't have my visa and I need to get a few things before packing σ(^_^;) I've been practicing Japanese with another girl who is also going to Japan, she's been studying a lot longer than I have so it's been really good practice :) (thank you) I really got to work on my katakana these next couple of weeks!

Toyohashi-shi, my future 2nd home *^*

I never realized how big the city part of Toyohashi is... I've never lived so close to such a large city before so hopefully I won't get super lost! I found my host family's home on google maps, it kind of made me feel like a stalker... to protect their privacy I will not be posting a map to where they live. They live in the residential part of Toyohashi, in between the downtown area and beach/countryside; the switch from city to countryside is really drastic in Toyohashi. ...yeah

Good times \(^@^)/

Saturday/Sunday I went to an super ooooober awesome AFS orientation. I met another girl who is going to Japan!!! She's been studying the language for a lot longer than I have but that just means I must work harder! >,< I also met two girls from Japan who are in the US right now, both were really awesome and helpful. There were two boys from Japan last year who are also awesome (awesome people are great) that I had met and they gave me a lot of info too, but I'd forgotten some of their advice :( ...If you all are reading this, HI!!! I learned that UNO, the card game, is not just in the US but in other countries to, like Japan, so I need to get my host bro a new gift...idk what but I have 2 months so I'll definitely figure it out by then ;) Anywho, can't wait to leave in a couple months and I really hope my COE (needed for the visa) comes soon, last year I got my COE so last minute that my visa wasn't processed till a week before I was supposed to leave to Japan. ...yeah

It's a New Year!!!

the past year I've been doing everything I need to do to catch up in school and what not, so that this coming March I can actually go to Japan!!! the whole nuclear situation is now under control and it's relatively safe to go to the country :) I'm going to be staying with the same awesome host family!!! It's only a couple months away but I want to go and board that plane tomorrow. I just hope that Japan will be ok now that they might pass some legislation that closes all nuclear plants over 40 years old, which will shut down 90% of their plants leaving only 4 open. But the Japanese people have many great ideas and will hopefully figure out a way to gain back the lost energy through other means :) ... note I added a link to a picasa album on the side of the page so that you can access pictures that I upload when in Japan, but it may change to flikr soon (I'm still deciding between the 2). oh yeah... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!! that was a bit late, sorry O_O  ... I know this has nothing to do with what I was just writing about but here's a cool link :)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkCuPrsPn_I