Japan: the land of useless things!

Another long break! Oh wells.

Anyway, I thought I would post about all the useless things people use in Japan.　Since I like organisation, I am splitting this into categories!

Cutesy things:
Okay, so this is kind of implied when one mentions Japan. And yes, I have been known to, once or twice, fall prey to the cutesy overload one experiences when living here. But, that is irrelevant.

Okay Japan, yes it might be nice for me to have Rilakkuma on my steering wheel, or Hello Kitty on my pillow, but there is a line. Japan crossed that line about 7000 Hello Kitty products ago.　I mean come on, I go into a store with Japanese people and Rilakkuma is hanging out on a chord, and I think it is a USB or something, but then it ends up being something you plug into a computer. And then it does nothing. My Japanese friends didnt even understand its purpose.

Sidenote: while cutesy things are very much in surplus here, there is also quite a lot of キモカワイイ　(gross or kind of unpleasant, yet still cute things). For example, こびとづかん：

Really unecessary heating objects:
So, Japan sucks at building warm buildings, so instead they use really stupid things to keep warm. Who needs insulation when you can have a small heatpack to put in your pocket? Fires are made redundant when you have a cozy kotatsu to stick your feet under! (I have been known to enjoy kotastu IMMENSELY but that is irrelevant to this point.) Everyone at school has little blankets to use during lessons, and yes, I have seen snuggies in Japan. With cute Japanese characters on them. I ask myself, why they hell do people bring tiny little battery operated heat packs to school, when you can just have warm buildings in the first place! But alas, nobody listens.

Kotatsu:

Sidenote: in Japan, or at least at my school, stockings are uncool. So there are all these high school girls fricking freezing their legs off because they dont (I know I need an apostrophe, cant quite find one on this keyboard so just bear with me) want to cover their legs up. I dont see what people get from not wearing stockings, maybe boys dont look at their legs as much if they wear them, but I doubt boys at school even care. This is Japan, if the only way a boy can see a girls legs is in a knee length school skirt, hes got something wrong with him. Conclusion, girls, it doesnt matter what the boys think, be warm, wear some tights.

Beauty products:
Guides to help you pluck your eyebrows. Double eyelid makers. More varieties of masks then you have ever seen in your life. Weird side handle razors. Decorated nose/mouth masks. The list goes on. 

Eyebrow plucking guide:

Stationery:
From decorated lids to put on your pencils to pieces of plastic to put under the page while you are writing, to sticky notes so decorated and small no writing can fit on them, Japan has it all. Complete with any character you could wish for. Oh, Japan.

Pencil caps:

Technology

I don't know technology in Japanese so here, an English title! So, I am finally writing observations about Japan, not just about my life, so please enjoy!

I guess nowadays people associate Japan with technology in a really significant way. Many of the world's biggest companies are from Japan. But, based on my experience, Japanese people are WAY behind Australia in terms of technology. (Now, I do live in a country town, but really, it is very close to Japan's third biggest city and not so countryside that technology is inacessible, people just don't seem to take advantage of that access.)

Take for example my school. We went to the library today to research for an English speech. And when we went to the library, we actually used books. The teacher told us there was one computer (in a library?) and we could use it, but no one did. It was just natural for them to use books to research. Obviously when researching properly in Australia, I use books a lot. But if it is a little, insignificant English speech, just wikipedia that up man, no time necessary. (I'm not even going to mention what the teacher asked them to do to reference, "just copy the book's title down" :| I mean, these people are going to uni next year, shouldn't they, um, know how to reference? What the hell, Japan?)

In Japan (or my school at least), ALL assessment is tests. No assignments, essays, speeches anything. (Wait, I had a music assessment today and I played guitar, but that is different.) So the school has like no computers. There is an information room with computers enough for one class, but that is nor used for any subject except IT (sorry excuse for IT, if you ask me). Then some teachers have computers and maybe a few in the English room. That's it. Teachers write only on blackboards, no powerpoint, not even any whiteboards. In one room, there are CASETTE recorders. I don't think they use them anymore, but still. Casettes? I thought those died like ten years ago.

On top of that, it's not unusual to not have a computer at home. Most people have one, but if you don't no one thinks it is weird, and it doesn't impair your ability to do anything. And my host family's computer is quite old and slow and has been known to piss me off. A lot.

As for mobiles, a lot of people have iPhones, but flip phones are also still really prevalent. My phone is a flip phone.... Most teenagers have mobiles, but my friend's host sister doesn't. No mobile, no computer. It blows my mind.

My conclusion: so glad my host family has Wi-Fi and all my siblings have iPhones.

学校生活

I haven't posted for ages so I thought I would do a 'day-in-the-life' style thing and walk you through my day. Today probably wasn't that interesting but I am sure (I hope?) I will think of interesting things once I start writing!

I wake up at about seven and leave at about 7:50 every day. It takes about half an hour to bike ride to school, sometimes forty minutes. When I get to school I go to my classroom 1E (first graders- equivalent to tenth graders- English class). Some people speak decent English, a lot speak bad English, but most people make an effort to speak to me in English which is either adorable (most of the girls and maybe a few of the boys), or hilarious (most of the boys). My class has something like 8 boys and 25 girls. It only took me a few weeks to learn all their names which I am happy about.

Today first up I went to a Japanese lesson, which isn't really a lesson because the teacher is crazy, so basically I just chatted with my friend from Finland. After that I had English, which is so easy.

In the third lesson, I had one of the most fun lessons I've had for a while. We went to a third year English lesson with the crazy teacher. They are doing Romeo and Juliet at the moment (and Shakespeare is turning over in his grave because of the bastardisation of his work in the English textbook). We performed it in front of the class, including dramatic gestures, and then the rest of the students had to perform together. The highlight was definitely when two boys performed it together. One (rather feminine) was Juliet, and the other was Romeo. The performed with gestures, and a passionate hug at the end..... Romeo assured us, 'homo-janai' (janai meaning not), while the Juliet one remained silent. Hmmm.

Anyway, after that we had calligraphy, which is boring and pointless. WHY DOES IS MATTER HOW FAR AWAY THIS STROKE IS TO THAT ONE?

Lunch we eat in our classrooms. Everyday it is a bento with rice, meat and vegetables.

After lunch we had English, where we are preparing for going to a primary school and teaching English games and songs to kids. It's a pretty fun and cushy ride for me, being able to sing hokey pokey, bingo, if you're happy and you know it, and play simon says, duck duck goose etc.

Last we had home economics. Usually we cook but today was theory. I slept.

Everyday after lessons we have to clean, and my current job is going outside and sweeping up leaves. Yay.

Then we have homeroom again then bike ride home! Yay!

Okay, other random tidbits about school. In one second year English class we are making a movie, kind of 'Mean Girls' esque, with different cliques etc. I am in the jocks, because I like acting like a jock, and it was so fun to write our script ('Dude, she's so sexy. Shotgun.').

I am in English club. I've only been once because it is always cancelled and I've also forgotten it once. Whoops. That doesn't happen in Japan. It's fun and so easy though.

That is all I can think of now. Rest assured, I will post a proper post soon (which is what I have been promising for ages, but I will! I will!).

なまけもの

Here is another random post with little tidbits about my life. I promise I will post a legitimate, thought out and well written post at some point. I have ideas floating around in my head, I am just too lazy (today's title: なまけもの) to put them to paper (or iPad, in this case). I will probably do so after the speech contest, which is this Friday. My school hosts it annually at this time of year, which would have been fine if I had come in March like intended, but because I have only been here two months it has proven kind of difficult. Anyway, I am trying (perhaps in vain) to learn my speech off by heart.

Today marks the two month mark in Japan. In three and a half months I will be back in Australia. The thought is exciting and scary. I am looking forward to going home for a multitude of reasons, but the idea of only having a few months left in Japan is also kind of terrifying.

Moving on, so I had a really good weekend. On Friday after school I went to karaoke with some friends, which was fun. Then Saturday I went shopping in the next city with my host sister (bought earmuffs! Yatta!) and hen ate gyudon which was freaking awesome (I got the kimchi gyudon which was amazing- gyudon is just meat and rice but the meat is kind of thin and fatty, I don't really know, all I know is that it tastes super good and is cheap!). Then we went to the town festival with our exchange company. We dressed up in yukata first then practiced dancing for like two hours. Then we went outside and danced in this procession along the main street for about another two hours with something like 2000 people. It was really, really fun.

The next day I went with the other exchange student's host family to where my host dad and brother work, which is about an hour and a half away. It's like this weird old primary school building and it was an open day, so they had all this really cool art on display. I dressed up as a samurai, made a Japanese flute and just looked at the art. It was really fun. Afterwards we went to lunch and then went to onsen (hot springs)! It was my first time going to onsen and I was a bit nervous (you have to be naked...) but it was actually really okay and the onsen itself was so nice.

Yeah, that was my weekend. When I am not so なまけもの I promise to do a proper post!

週末

Yay, last weekend was a long weekend because of some random national holiday on Monday. This week is test week so I've been studying hard (ha) for my three exams. I had an English exam, which would have been difficult because all of the questions and instructions were in Japanese, but my teacher, who I like a lot and who speaks pretty much perfect English, explained all the questions to me during the exam. There were some translating things I couldn't be completely sure about, but mostly I think I did quite well. Next I had a science exam, because the teachers asked me to do another subject as well as Japanese and English, and I figured science was a good option (no idea why). I understood little to nothing on the exam, but I know I got at least 1 point which is good. On Friday I have a Japanese test which I actually am studying for. 頑張ります！

After school on Tuesday I went to McDonald's with two of my friends which was fun, and today I went and got lunch with another two friends.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was to talk about my long weekend so here goes! On Saturday I went out to lunch with my two host sisters to a Korean restaurant that we have gone to multiple times already, and which is so amazingly delicious! We then went to this really awesome shop that is cheap, but still has really nice clothes, shoes etc. I bought a jacket (my first Engrish purchase: 'Genial Greetings Bring Happiness To The World') which I have pretty much been wearing since.

Sunday morning I helped my family harvest sweet potatoes (now we are eating heaps of sweet potato, not that I am complaining; it's so delicious!) and then explored other parts of my town with the other exchange student here. After that our host families had a barbeque together which was fun, and we watched movies and just hung out.

The next day we had an outing with our chapter of the exchange company we came with. We went to a temple, prayed for 20 minutes sitting cross legged, practiced calligraphy and just looked around. Then we went to lunch at a terrible restaurant, which was actually so cute and had so much character, but the food sucked. It was trying to be Western, but it was obvious they couldn't cook Western food so it was just a mess. I came home and studied, and also tried making sushi!

So that was my weekend :)

今日

I figured I should just post about my daily life, so here is my post, about what I did today :)

The other exchange student in my school, one of our school friends and one of her friends went to another school's culture festival. It was kind of boring but there was a Haunted House and it was utterly terrifying. People crawling to you on the floor, someone in a scream mask, a hockey mask and so many others. We also had to literally climb in this tunnel, lie on our stomachs and crawl through. It was made a little less scary by the fact the scary people in the haunted house (students) could tell we were foreigners and gave directions in Japanese and English, and we were kind of having a conversation with them. When I said 'please dont kill me', they laughed. And then they asked us if we were high school students, and we were like, yeah exchange students and then they recommenced being scary haha.

One thing very obvious about the culture festival was the slutting up of school uniforms. Everyone wears their school uniforms to other schools' culture festivals (no idea why) but they slut it up big time. The skirts become the kind that barely cover underwear and they tend to wearva long sweater over the top, and their shirt unbuttoned a lot lower than normal. They also tend to wear a lot of make-up.

Tangent: one thing I have noticed a lot in Japan is that SO MANY girls are fake looking. Western looking girls are always said to be cute, so Japanese girls try to make themselves look as Western as possible, but in the process, turn kind of weird. A lot of Japanese girls die their hair blonde, which can look really cute but also kind of eh. Then so many girls also use double eyelid maker glue, which involves basically gluing your eyelid up (in the process, sticking a little plastic fork looking implement above and sort of behind your eye, ick) to make double eyelids, because most Asian people have single eyelids. Also fake eyelashes, everyone uses them here. Anyway, there was a girl who ticked all the above boxes, including the uniform, at the culture festival today, which is why I thought of that. She was cute, but so so so fake.

After that we went to McDonald's for lunch and took purikura (the photobooth sticker photos). We had a scary moment coming home, the exchange student and I returned home by train together because the two Japanese girls lived in a different town. We found the platform and there was a train there so we quickly hopped on, and then saw the screen talking about going to Nagoya (about an hour away) and even as far as another prefecture (state). We freaked out but eventually figured out that it was the right train, and were very relieved, to say the least.

After that we went to my house, and my older brother's friends came over too, with plans to cream pie his face when he came home, because it was recently his birthday. We got wrapped into it too, and when he came home, used party poppers then all grabbed a plate of cream and smashed it on his face, then obviously got whipped cream on our faces as well.

So that was today :D Tomorrow I have big exciting plans to work on my Japanese speech. Yippee.

カラオケ！！！

Yay! Karaoke!!! I have been to karaoke three times so far and I loooove it! It is so popular here!

It's a little difficult sometimes because obviously Japanese songs are written in Japanese and you have to read it at singing speed, but I'm improving (maybe). The karaoke rooms also do have a lot of English songs so those are fun.

We really have nothing comparable to Japanese karaoke in Australia. Basically you go to a karaoke place (bar? Box? Room? I have no idea what to call it) with your friends (I have been with five people once, and three people twice) and get a room which you enter, sit down and start singing. You get a little handheld remote control and search for songs, and create a playlist type thing.

Sometimes the film clip comes up as you sing but more often than not a 90s style crappy filmclip comes up (Juicebox by The Strokes had a car speeding down a road surrounded by city lights, Bleeding Love had a little love story going on, crappy clothes and picnics in the park included, and The Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar had some mechanics just walking around together in a garage and looking serious).

One thing about karaoke that surprised me is that people stay there for SO LONG. I haven't timed it, but I'd say 5 hours is a fair estimate of the longest I've been there. You order drinks and can also order food, and it really doesn't feel that long. Maybe it does but I just really like singing so it doesn't bother me.

Anyway, pictures!

体育祭と文化祭

Sports Festival and Culture Festival! Yatta!

This week my school had both the Culture festival on Wednesday and the Sports festival on Thursday. In addition to this, on Tuesday the whole day was dedicated to preparation for both of these events.

Preparation:
The preparation was kind of intense. My class did a haunted house for the culture festival which involves QUITE a lot of preparation. I truly didn't think it would get done, when it was 8pm Tuesday night and we hadn't yet managed to put up the wall separating the two parts of the room... Luckily, after working that late, then coming to school at 7am the next day, we finished it all.

Prior to that, we had been doing preparation everyday after school, usually finishing about 4 or 4.30. Our class' undertaking was definitely the biggest in the school, but I also think it was the most impressive.

The preparation involved making ghosts and zombies, making the walls for the path and setting, making posters and blocking out all light from getting into the room.



















Culture Festival:

After arriving at school at 7, we eventually finished preparing and the room was ready. First was the Opening Ceremony, which was unremarkable except for one thing. They showed a time lapse video of the construction of a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' poster, made completely from sticking little coloured stickers on in a pattern. After the video they unveiled the actual poster and it is actually so cool:



Anyway, after that we returned to the class room, the vampire, zombie and other creatures dressed up, the rest of us changed into our class tshirts (they have everyone in the class' name on it, including mine!). I was stationed at the exit, and people were terrified. One girl (third year, as in 17 or 18 years old) was crying.

I went through the haunted house after I had finished my shift. I didn't expect it to be scary at all, because obviously I knew all of the scary things that were in it, but I was terrified! It was just an overload; a zombie following you, hands coming out of walls, heads hitting your feet.

After that I ate lunch...




... and then saw four bands perform. They were all boys from the third grade and the other exchange student and I joined the only mosh-y part of the crowd (ie, third grade boys) and danced and cheered...

There was a closing ceremony...





...and then after the massive job of cleaning up...



... I went to Macdonalds with my host sister, her friend and the other exchange student. Japanese Macdonalds is so cheap! I bought two McFlurries (called makufuru), two smalls cokes (futatsu S cora) and two chesseburgers (cheeseburger) and it cost probably about $9 or $10! (I was buying for the other exchange student as well, not eating two of everything.)

Sports Festival:

The Taikusai opening ceremony is actually the best thing ever. First we have to march from our class tents to the field to brass band music. Then they say random stuff in Japanese, and after that we run and spread out (still in number and class order- we must be in two perfectly straight lines, one forward and one to the side) and then do Radio Exercises. They play this tape (it is in English, I have no idea why) and everyone does these stretches in unison. Clearly everyone in the school doesn't speak English, so they know it more or less off by heart.

The day was just a typical sports carnival, classes over the three gades compete, there are no age groups. I was only in one event which was the tug-of-war and my class came second, which I think is pretty impressive considering we are first year and we have only about 8 boys out of 33 students. We didn't place overall though.

I basically spent the day talking to people and trying to stay out of the sun (I failed and got pretty badly sunburnt...) I didn't take all that many pictures, but here are the ones I did take:











じゃ、 またね！

食べ物3

So I figured that after singing the praises of most Japanese food, I would also mention those food experiences that have been kind of... weird.

The first of these was ウニ or sea urchin:




I valiantly tried it and thought it was disgusting. I ate this whole sushi in one bite so it took me a while to swallow it too... ick.

Next, bones. I have no idea what animal these bones belonged to, all I know is that they cooked them on the BBQ then we ate them and it was probably one of the weirdest things I have ever eaten. I did not particularly enjoy it.

Finally (wow, short list) natto, or fermented beans (I think...). This is a traditional new year food but my family bought natto sushi and I tried it. I only had a tiny bit so I can't be all that accurate, but suffice to say, I will not be rushing out to eat natto again any time soon....

食べ物2

So I've decided to make this food thing a series, cause I keep eating awesome food. Off we go, part 2:

Cooking takoyaki:



The finished product:



Watermelon ice-cream:



Sushi train:



Korean food:



This tasted waaaayyy better than it looks:



BBQ:



Obentou (school lunch):



Okonomiyaki!!!:

学校！

Okay first, I know I have been really slack with blogging lately, but I am making an effort to not be...

Anyway, school! I've been going to school for just over a week now an I guess there is a lot to say so I'll break it into sections (*^o^*)


Biking to and from school:


あぶない is generally my most frequently used word when bike riding. It means dangerous.

It takes about 40 minutes to get from home to school, probably about two thirds of which is on the road. It's not quite as scary as I expected it to be, but still quite scary, especially considering my bike riding skills kind of suck. It is kind of fun though. I am always disgusting and hot when I get to school (so happy it is Autumn, Japanese summer was painful) but at least my classroom has air conditioning!

Surprisingly enough, I have yet to crash (badly- I sort of crashed into a pole, but I didn't fall, so I figure that's not really considered a crash).

Literally EVERYONE bike rides to school here, it's amazing. Everyone bike rides in general, from kids to really really elderly people.

Bike riding through the typhoon was kind of unpleasant; my rain coat didn't do much to expel the aggressive rain drowning my face. See below:







Uniform:


Not much to say here expect that my uniform is kind of adorable, so much nicer than my Australian uniform...


Food:


Everyday I have a bentou, which is basically a Japanese lunchbox consisting of rice, vegetables/salad, some kind of meat and maybe some omelette.




Also at school there is a kind of small tuckshop which just sells bread type products. For example, bread with chicken inside. Also it sells really yummy mini donuts! My school also has vending machines for drinks (they are literally everywhere in Japan) which are unbelievably cheap (a drink generally costs 100-150 yen in Japan, maybe $1.50-$2.00.)



Lessons:


Not much to say here except that I understand soooo little. I understand science the most probably, because they are doing quite basic science (not that I actually know the topic they are studying, I just understand the equations). Modern Japanese is super boring so far, just a matter of copying from a text book to your note book. I like music and English the most by far. Music is fun, especially since the other exchange student is in it (we are together for music, calligraphy, all english classes and home economics), but also because it isn't hard to understand. They sing a little bit at the beginning of the lesson (although no one actually sings) and then play guitar, which I suck at but it's fun.

As for English, I have one General English lesson with my class, two English expression lessons with the other exchange student's class, and OP 1, 2 and 3 (with the first, second and third grade respectively). I love the OP classes because they are completely in English and taught by a native English speaker predominantly so they are one of the rare occassions I can understand what is being said.


Japanese:


On that note, let's move on to Japanese! It's really hard at times, manageable at others. I see slight improvements in my Japanese (massive improvements in my ability to speak naturally but minor in the actual Japanese I know). I'm sure the improvement will come (hopefully quickly, because I have a Japanese speaking contest in October in front of my whole school and I kind of don't want to embarass myself....)


School festival/ sports day:


So this week is our school culture festival and sports day. For the culture festival my class is doing a haunted house! I will update about these once they have happened!



Okay, so there we go! If there is anything you want me to write about let me know in the comments! (Also, I apologise if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes- I am using an iPad keypad AND a program with no spell or grammar check...)

生活

生活 means lifestyle, and although I haven't started school yet, which obviously will dominate my lifestyle, I thought I'd post some initial points.

So everyday after school my host sister goes to the nursery that my host mum and older sister work at to help out. I've been going there with her and it is sooooo fun! The kids are really confused by me, ranging from staring, pointing at my eyes and saying 'blue' and crying. They are so cute though and I am starting to become friends with a few of them. But it's hard, because they speak to me and just expect me to understand, and the idea of someone not understanding their language is so foreign that they are really confused. I'm obviously not about to post a picture of someone's kid on the internet without their permission so I can't show any pictures of the nursery but rest assured, you will see them in all their cuteness when I return.

I abslolutely love my house and my room, despite the act that right now it is raining so I am being ruthlessly attacked by mosquitoes. I don't know why, every window has mosquito screens, but I'm about to sleep now and have covered myself in mosquito repellant so hopefully it will work.

I have my school uniform, which is very cute. I'm excited to go to school because of quite a few reasons, which I'll post about in the future.

And with that おやすみ！

食べ物

食べ物 means food. So far in Japan, I have had the most amazing food! My host sister is amazing at cooking, because she cooks every night, and for the rest of my time her I will be cooking with her! Anyway, please enjoy my pictures of Japanese food!

My very varied breakfast at the hotel:


おいしい snacks:


Ice-cream:


Tempura vegetables udon:


Dinner on the first night:


Dinner of bibimbap that I made with my host sister:

Flying out tonight...

Brittany was pressuring me to post on here, so here I am posting. Obviously, I did not leave in March and am now leaving in August, and am no longer going for a year, but going for five and a half months. I missed out on the cherry blossoms but I also missed out on (most of) the disgusting hot and humid Japanese summer, so it pretty much evens out.  I've decided to be happy with that turn of events and am now just really excited and nervous. I fly out at 1am tomorrow morning, have an hour stopover in Hong Kong and then arrive in Japan at about 2pm tomorrow. I'll spend a night in Tokyo, go to Nagoya for two nights and then meet my family.

My suitcase is kind of over-full and overweight at the moment, I'm just hoping the airline isn't too strict about baggage weight (and carry-on size- eeek!).

I really don't have much to say, cause the crux of this blog is to actually be in Japan, so I'll start posting in earnest once I arrive and am settled. Ja ne!

Yay! I finally got a blog...

This is Hello Kitty dressing up as a maneki neko which is a welcoming cat that supposedly brings good luck to the owner. 

So this is my blog where I will post pictures and stories from Japan. Yeah, this is basically a test post so sayounara.