The day after I returned home Diane and myself went to Tai-chans takoyaki party and later hanabi. We made takoyaki which tasted soooo good when you make it yourself. His mum also prepared a huge feast where I ate jellyfish xD hehe
Hanabi was awesome! The fireworks were huge and we sat right under them so they appeared even closer! The first thing we all did was go to the kingyou scoop (goldfish scoop) where we had to catch 6 fish with paper scoops. It was difficult since they can obviously desinergrate but I managed to catch them all and gave them to Tai-chans mum for a present. There was also a man who proposed to his love of 10 years on a stage which was just adorable. She said yes!!! So there were heart shaped fireworks. Too cute!!
The next day Diane, myself and the rest of Kyuushu chapter made their way down to Miyasaki for our last ever orentation ):
Just put 30 odd exchange students together and you have a killer 3 days!
Miyasaki is so beautiful. There's so many mountains and trees and to get there you have to pass through 23 tunnels that run through the mountains. The spot we had with our cabins is more or less secluded so it really was like a mini vacation.
I got to meet up with the friends I made in Osaka plus got to know a whole lot more. Did tonnes of great things.
First night was a BBQ and basically taking it easy talking with everyone.
Second day was an early morning and a then off to the university where we had to listen to speeches for 6 hours in Japanese. That part was not fun. So we entertained ourselves half way through by sleeping, hangman etc. Got back and smashed watermelons with sticks and did hanabi!
Last full day in Miyasaki we went back to the uni and did some group volunteering activities. My group went to Aya Chou and made pottery and went around the mountains looking at plants.
Fun fact #1: onibasu = lillypad
Though for me I got a major headache when we were about to do pottery so I slept With Natasha (who was also sick) in a school nurses car.
Alex (an Aussie!) made science stuff in his group so he filled a garbage bag full of slime and we mixed it up in his bath. Afterwards, of course, we had a slim war and played with it.
Leaving sucked big time. We went to a yakitori all you can eat resturant and ate. Afterwards we had to say goodbye. After having 3 days of proper conversations with people it was hard to come back to my limited speaking world. Hence, I felt a tad miserable for a day or two.
All good now though!! :3
So yeah that's about it.
I'll write a blog about our family trip away next time.
Oh, and a shout out to my darling Aunt who reads my blogs. Love you and missing you <3 Give a hug to those cousins of mine for me xoxo
No regrets! Live for the moment!!
K x
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Matsuura and a bunch of other things
I'm going to try and stay cronological so bear with me with this update. Tonnes of stuff has happened and I think I'll write two blogs to separate my two trips: Matsuura and before that then Miyasaki and after.
So almost 3 weeks ago school finished and before it did we had "Class Match" where our homeroom classes compete in sports matches within our year level for some fun. I put my name down for dodgeball and a sub for basketball.
O_O dodgeball is so intense here.
We have these little girls who have arms that can throw balls from one side of the court to the other and still knock the air out of you. We played on the baseball teams work-out area which has a dirt floor so no one stayed clean. My friends tail bone got hurt and at least 5 people walked away with fractured fingers. It didn't help me much that Japanese dodgeball rules are different to the ones I'm used to either. Be afraid when you hear screams of "THE KNEEEEEEES!" you know it means business when they say that ._.
Also on that day it rained like anything. There was seriously no need for an umbrella since we got soaked anyway. The good thing about the rain is that the next day it rained so much the trains were delayed and Maimi and I got a day off :3
--
Because I've proved how cool I am, I like to further enunciate that by staying the night at school with my club and practice soroban from 7:40am~10:40pm for 3 days. XD
Seriously, soroban was sooo much fun! Despite getting up super early everyday, I really enjoyed improving my speed etc I've also moved up with the calculator. I'm now at the same level as the best calculator user in my club though obviously no where near his speed and ability to read the questions :P (Hes also no.1 in the Kyuushu island prefecture).
Just a side note: it's incredibly hard to shower when your classmates aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're watching you undress xP
--
I went to my first hanabi (fireworks) in Japan!! I went with Tai-chan, his friend and wife and Leonardo (Italian exchange student). Tai-chan bought me a fan and him and Leonardo got dressed up in yukatas.
The hanabi place was next to a river so the reflections of the lights were beautiful. Soooo many people! Omgoshhh! But we managed to get a really good spot on the grass. Of course you can't have hanabi without the food! So we all bought and shared yakisoba, ringoame, yakiniku, yakitori and kouri from the little stores that went on for hundreds of meters. Yumm!
--
After the sayonara Party we had for the language students I went with the Kugas (my previous host family from two years ago) and stayed a week at their house.
The Kugas live in a cute, little seaside town called Matsuura. The mornings were a little boring since Nozomi (the eldest daughter) still had school until 6pm but the neighbours and rest of the family gave me a great week.
We had quite a few BBQs with extended family and neighbours, went to an awesome park with a grass slide which you go down in plastic tubs, karaoke, mos burger, shopping and dodging sea urchins as we walked in the water. Also had a wii party at their friends house. The mum is such a great cook and of course my team won doubles in tennis hehe.
It was kinda an ego boost too as everyone who I previously met commented on how much my Japanese has improved. And so it should have! But that didn't stop them laughing at my mistakes.
Oh by the way, for people who went to Matsuura: I met Junko again!! And she's just as cute as ever! XD We ate salted nuts and went through photos of Matsuura. Got a booklet of all our familys from 2008.
--
So that about sums it all up. So happy to be home again with my family and I'll post the next blog soon.
No regrets. Live for the moment!
K x
So almost 3 weeks ago school finished and before it did we had "Class Match" where our homeroom classes compete in sports matches within our year level for some fun. I put my name down for dodgeball and a sub for basketball.
O_O dodgeball is so intense here.
We have these little girls who have arms that can throw balls from one side of the court to the other and still knock the air out of you. We played on the baseball teams work-out area which has a dirt floor so no one stayed clean. My friends tail bone got hurt and at least 5 people walked away with fractured fingers. It didn't help me much that Japanese dodgeball rules are different to the ones I'm used to either. Be afraid when you hear screams of "THE KNEEEEEEES!" you know it means business when they say that ._.
Also on that day it rained like anything. There was seriously no need for an umbrella since we got soaked anyway. The good thing about the rain is that the next day it rained so much the trains were delayed and Maimi and I got a day off :3
--
Because I've proved how cool I am, I like to further enunciate that by staying the night at school with my club and practice soroban from 7:40am~10:40pm for 3 days. XD
Seriously, soroban was sooo much fun! Despite getting up super early everyday, I really enjoyed improving my speed etc I've also moved up with the calculator. I'm now at the same level as the best calculator user in my club though obviously no where near his speed and ability to read the questions :P (Hes also no.1 in the Kyuushu island prefecture).
Just a side note: it's incredibly hard to shower when your classmates aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're watching you undress xP
--
I went to my first hanabi (fireworks) in Japan!! I went with Tai-chan, his friend and wife and Leonardo (Italian exchange student). Tai-chan bought me a fan and him and Leonardo got dressed up in yukatas.
The hanabi place was next to a river so the reflections of the lights were beautiful. Soooo many people! Omgoshhh! But we managed to get a really good spot on the grass. Of course you can't have hanabi without the food! So we all bought and shared yakisoba, ringoame, yakiniku, yakitori and kouri from the little stores that went on for hundreds of meters. Yumm!
--
After the sayonara Party we had for the language students I went with the Kugas (my previous host family from two years ago) and stayed a week at their house.
The Kugas live in a cute, little seaside town called Matsuura. The mornings were a little boring since Nozomi (the eldest daughter) still had school until 6pm but the neighbours and rest of the family gave me a great week.
We had quite a few BBQs with extended family and neighbours, went to an awesome park with a grass slide which you go down in plastic tubs, karaoke, mos burger, shopping and dodging sea urchins as we walked in the water. Also had a wii party at their friends house. The mum is such a great cook and of course my team won doubles in tennis hehe.
It was kinda an ego boost too as everyone who I previously met commented on how much my Japanese has improved. And so it should have! But that didn't stop them laughing at my mistakes.
Oh by the way, for people who went to Matsuura: I met Junko again!! And she's just as cute as ever! XD We ate salted nuts and went through photos of Matsuura. Got a booklet of all our familys from 2008.
--
So that about sums it all up. So happy to be home again with my family and I'll post the next blog soon.
No regrets. Live for the moment!
K x
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