I have realised...

1. I've only walked outside in bare feet three times since being in Japan. That includes out in the yard. 

2. I'm extremely slack with these blogs. 

3. I've lost two kilos :D but then every so often I'll lose/put on 400g. Stupid bathroom scales! I blame it on all the muscle I'm developing from being so active...well that's my excuse anyway haha.

4. When I went on my family vaction to the onsens I saw an emu farm. Blew my mind. Seriously? They eat emus here? Lol. So yeah I completely spazzed out haha and we stopped and had a look. They had spray painted bums so perhaps they were the ones going to get the chop?

5. Onsen vacation was sooo much fun! We stayed at a traditional style Japanese inn and whilst we were there we could go in these small one/two people onsens and just relax. All in all I think I went to 4 different ones. Soooo relaxed. My skin was incredibly soft afterwards. Probably cooked my insides.  But it was amazing! The food was gorgeous. Everything was fresh and just delicious. Coming home was also a lot of fun. We stopped by a deer farm which had deer (obviously) but also a trillion trees cut to make them look like birds, elephants, dinosaurs...it was fantastic! Ate corn :3 we also went to some botanical gardens which stretched out as far as you could see with such an array of colourful flowers. 

6. Soroban is a lot of hard work. I went to another camp which was great, but I got sick and was vomiting everywhere (pleasent). I'm glad I have friends looking after me though :3 I have 5 exams in the next 3 months. My final exams will be 1kyuu (the highest level for kyuu and the level before you start dans...think of karate and getting your black belt and then a white dan comes next. Same type of leveling)

7. Bunkasai is super duper fun!!! But omg, it must have been close to 40'C and our stall was outside. But wooooow!!! Bunkasai is the cultural festival schools host every year. Our class was selling this really high quality soap which left your skin feeling ii kimochi!! Approx. 23$ a piece but we sold out fast! There was also a whole lot of other stalls like handmade bracelets, phone accesories, fans, food, a stage which had taiko drum performances, bands, dances, plays, art displays, photo displays....it was just a great day!!! I helped out our team (I was red block) ["AKB 235" PRIDE!!!! <3] by doing block symbol which was setting up the grand display, organising booklets (omg, we must have made over 1000 booklets in one afternoon, legends!!) and other bits and pieces. So many people from the public came too so with all these people it was so worth everything. Fantastic!!! :D

8. Gashou is fun, but so very, very, very tiring. Gashou is chorus and we had that last Sunday. Even though it was just a chorus competition solely within our school, practice was taken quite seriously and was intense hardcore. We gave up 3 hours of our morning everyday to practice for the competition. Our group had sign language too and this really helped me remember the lyrics. When the day of our competition came, all those hours of practice was completely worth it! The day was magnificant! It started off with a play performed by the drama club which noooobody understood the meaning of. All I caught on was that it was about cicadas and people stabbing each other. Even my friends didn't know what it was about haha. Then there were original plays and more taiko drum performances. So that was followed by the brass band club which was terrific! No shame in Japan if you belong to the band. They are elite! And the drummers...well ;) not only did they play tremendously but they didn't look too bad either HAWHAWHAW 8D. The guy who was playing the triangle far outweighed the rest though. He was INTENSE! He rocked that triangle! Also...he was dressed as a yellow rabbit with sunnies which made my day. Next was the choir who's voices are seriously from heaven. They were beautiful <3...then came us! Eeep! I was so nervous but we did well xD

9. No matter how tired you are after going to gashou, go out with your friends and play games at the arcade and take purikura because that is just wayyy to much fun to miss out on!

10. My host sister Aimi is the best! She went to Aus for a holiday and brought back all these goodies like ANZAC biscuits, fudge, praise mayo, timtams...I made a smashing potato salad with the aussie mayo which my family favours over their Japanese mayo. And I ate Timtams the proper way. Biting both ends and sucking milk through the holes. Got some funny looks but they soon will learn the ways hehe. 

11. I *heart* my host dad <3. He bought these two huge Aussie steaks for dinner last night. Tasted devineeee!

12. I don't need glasses. Apparently due to all this squinting at my soroban I've just got strained/tired eyes. Phewww. I thought I was going blind. No worries. I have perfect vision. Also a bonus, the doctor didn't even charge me the 3300¥ bill. How nice is he? :D

13. I'm half way. Another 5 months to go. Where is all this time?

14. I love my family in Aus so much. Being away for 5 months has really made me appreciate them and love them even more (if that is possible). I can't thank you enough for all your support and encouragement. I love you to no end. Thank you for everything. 

K x

Live for the moment! 
No regrets!