The JLPT: N2

I went to the test site with my Taiwanese friend from school, and we agreed to go eat out afterwards as well. The thought of eating some tonkatsu was what I considered a reward for taking the test.

Tonkatsu

Hong Yi and I met at the station, and we could immediately tell what bus to ride. The bus stop was surrounded by foreigners. Since I`m in rural Japan, it shocked me to see so many foreigners at once. Surprisingly, there were almost no white or black people. Everyone was from places like Malaysia and Indonesia. And a LOT of Vietnamese people. Everyone crowded into the small bus and I began to feel a tad nervous.

Once arriving, we studied a little before going to the test site. I think N2 was the most crowded; there had to be well over 150 people. There was also no clock, practically a death sentence to some people there.

During the break time between the reading and listening sections, an American woman I met gave me cookies! So nice! In fact, all the Americans were nice.

The test itself was harder than I thought it`d be, particularly the listening section. I felt the most prepared in listening, yet I think that`s the section I did worst on. I`m hoping that my reading score will make up for the listening. I find out the results in the end of January, so here`s to hoping they were good!

Taking the JLPT This Weekend!

I`m now in a mad rush to study Japanese for my Japanese Language Proficiency Test this Sunday. Of course, I`ve been studying Japanese the whole time I was here, but started studying specifically for this test for around two months ago.

There are 5 levels, N5 being the lowest and N1 the highest. I`ll be grappling with N2, without having previously taken the JLPT before. May be in over my head, but I will try my hardest!

I prepared for the test by first studying Kanji, then vocabulary, and then doing 3 mock exams to get a grasp of what grammar I need to know. Judging from the mock exams, I actually have a chance of passing! My weakest point is definitely vocabulary, strongest is kanji, and as for listening and reading comprehension it`s a mix. Still gotta work hard and study as much as I can these next two days.

Something unexpected was that I found someone who is also taking the test near me! He`s Taiwanese and goes to my school, but since he`s been living in Japan a while he`s taking N1. So we`re planning on riding the same bus to the test site and then going out to eat dinner afterwards! I`m excited to get a chance to talk to someone from another country and learn about his hometown. He also seems like a pretty funny person.

Overall, I`m a little nervous but determined to give it my all. Even if I fail, I`ll just study more and take it again once I`m in America.

Coincidentally, next week is finals week for everyone at my Japanese school, so everyone else is just as stressed about studying as me ahah. But since I don`t take the finals next week, I`ll have time to wind down, explore Miyazaki, read some books, and study Japanese at an easier pace.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!
Camilla

National Pocky Day!

This past Saturday, 11/11,  was national pocky day! Of course Japan has to have a national pocky day ahah.

I started out my Saturday by helping out at my school's open campus. This meant performing a ~2 minute speech in front of middle schoolers. Since I was told on Friday that I'd be doing the speech, I had to write it on the train in the morning. Despite this, I didn't mess up, yay!

Then, since it was pocky day, everyone that helped out at the presentation got free pocky!


After that, someone who was coincidentally my friend bought $400 worth of pocky (wowza!) and was handing them out at the station. Since we're friends, he gave me extra :)

Pocky I got from my friend

Even though it may have just been pocky day, the city seemed more busy and bustling than normal. It feels great to eat some pocky with friends, so I'm happy this cute little holiday was created :)

I guess pocky day is my replacement for Thanksgiving!

Japanese High Schooler's Halloween

Although this halloween may have been the least dramatic halloween I've ever had, it was still fun in a sweet way!

There was absolutely NO way that we were going to be able to wear halloween costumes. Not even halloween makeup. However, that's to be expected, considering my school dress code doesn't even allow hair bands that aren't black or brown. Strict to the max! So on the surface, it seemed like a normal school day. But just entering the classroom, I could see that everyone was happy, cheerful, and in proper halloween spirit. Despite everyone never having trick-or-treated, I was shocked to hear my Japanese classmates saying things like "trick or treat!" and "happy halloween!"

In fact, most people (including me!) bought little snacks to hand out to our classmates. And sometimes, like people in America, they wouldn't give the candy out until the receiver said "trick or treat!" It was so cute! I was so glad I stopped by the convenience store on the way to school so I could also participate. Everyone was so energetic, even if they didn't understand the meaning of halloween. Wait wait, is there even a meaning?

I did miss trick or treating a little (this year is actually my first year not doing it!), but school turned out so pleasant that I didn't really miss it that much. At the end of the school day, one of the upper classmen even bought candy specially for me <3 and SOO many snacks at club, because the retired upperclassmen gave a lot to us. Yeessss!

I would also recommend everyone slowly eats their halloween candy. I ate mine all at once, and stayed up until 12 with stomach aches/problems. Pretty embarrassing to spend an hour on the toilet ahah!

As for costumes and make up, Japanese teenage girls get dressed up on the weekend before/after halloween, or for halloween themed events, and then take pictures in the Japanese photo booths. While walking downtown, I happened to see a lot of 'bloody' faces, maid costumes, etc. these past few weekends. It's been entertaining!



Hope everyone had a spooky halloween!
Cheers!

Going to a Japanese Birthday Party!

My slice of cake :)

Today I went to my first Japanese birthday "party!" I say party but it was more of a small gathering c:

It's interesting to see the differences between American birthdays and Japanese ones. I'd say it's a bigger deal in America, like "this day is all about me me me!" For example, I know Americans who will start telling everyone around them that their birthday is in two days, tomorrow, etc., while Japanese people will not say anything and the only way you find out is through their friends or looking at social media.

Today was a normal school day, so after getting out of school at around 5:30, I biked home, grabbed my present, and rushed to my friend's house.

The birthday gal and our other friend had already arrived, and we ushered the birthday gal into a separate room while we blew up balloons and prepared our presents. I made a scrapbook with pictures and captions about our memories together. My other friend prepared a HUGE box of snacks. Finally the preparations were perfect!

We placed party crackers in our hand and called out the b-day gal. Surprise!!!

Getting to enjoy a scrumptious birthday dinner really made me think about how much I love Japan. We ate teriyaki chicken pizza (SO GOOD), fried chicken, and a bunch of vegetable based dishes to balance out how much cake we were going to eat.

And that cake.

Ooh my goodness. Japanese cake is a gift from heaven. American cake is far too sweet; frosting tastes like a$$. However, Japanese cake manages to be the perfect amount of sweetness.

My friend loves T-Swift, so the cake has her face on it :O

Laughter rang through the apartment the whole time. Nothing can beat being with close friends and eating good food!

After dinner, we started taking Polaroid pictures with my camera. I'm so glad I brought it! The birthday girl got 6 pictures, while my other friend and I kept 4. Needless to say, I'll always love those pics.

Cooking in Japanese School!

This past Tuesday, I made food at school for the first time ever!

At my school, everyone is required to take Home Ec, and we  have it for two class periods in a row once a week. This gives us time to sew and cook, although we usually just read from a textbook. My teacher is really nice and has a soothing voice, so I'd say about half the class sleeps when we read. 

Before we could do any cooking classes, we had to sew our own aprons. When we did that, I used a sewing machine for the first time ever, and called the teacher over for help about 15 times ahaha. I was the only person who had never used a sewing machine before, which shows how thorough  Japanese school systems are with their Home Ec. I felt pretty proud when I finished my apron through all the sewing machine struggles. 

Everyone in their aprons preparing the dishes

So when we finally got to use our aprons for the first time this Tuesday, I was really excited! My only experience with cooking was grilled cheese and the occasional batch of pancakes, so I was enthusiastic about learning how to make a traditional Japanese dish. We made a dish called "Oyako-don," which means "parent and child rice dish." It's called parent and child dish because it contains chicken (parent)  and eggs (child). Cute, right?!? Speaking of cute Japanese names, they call the ends of bread the bread's "ears." So cute! 

We started with chopping onions and other japanese vegetables. My eyes have always been really weak to onions; they would burn from someone cutting onions in a whole other room. So of course, guess who decides to volunteer to cut the onions. I almost got through the whole onion. Then my eyes burned like hell's fires, tears were streaming down my face, and I couldn't see clearly. Not only was I the only one who cried from my class, but the stinging  came back several times so I ended up crying next to the teacher when she was demonstrating something to the class. It was pretty entertaing!

After making the food and washing the dishes, we sat down to eat. At first I was worried I wasn't going to be filled up, but it turned out to be far too much ahah. It was  delicious! But  I wished I had some salt and pepper or some kimchi to add some spice.

Oyako-don and some soup

Overall, I became closer to the people in my group and I also know an easy Japanese recipe now! I can't wait until our next cooking class :)

My Group!

Elementary School Sports Festival!

Today I went to my little host brother's sports festival :)

All elementary schools tend to have the sports festival on the same day, so my instagram was filled with pics and videos of these adorable little kids.

During sports festivals, the school is split into teams. My high school was split into 5 teams, but my brother's school only had two teams. Teams then compete in races and games split up by grade and gender, and whoever gains the most wins wins the overall sports category. Teams are also graded on their cheers, and the team with the best cheers wins the cheer category.

It's absolutely adorable watching little 1st graders racing for their lives over ~40 or so meters. I would say that races are the most entertaining things to watch. However, the games like Rope Pulling made me laugh.

Along with games and races, each grade will do a dance/performance. Sixth graders get to do the coolest performance (I may be a bit biased because my brother is a sixth grader ;) ). They made human periods and tested their balance by going into bridges, etc.

During lunch, parents meet up with their kids and everyone eats from giant bentou boxes. It was delicious, as usual :)

In the end, my brother's team lost the sports category but won the cheer category. Yay!

It was interesting to compare his sports festival to mine, because although the concept is the same, the difference between high school and elementary school is a VERY wide one. Sooner or later I'll make a blog post about my sports festival. I had mine a long time ago, so it'll be a really delayed blog post. I've been procrastinating it because I know it'll be a long one ahaha. I promise I'll write it sooner rather than later!

Here's to a good week!

A Little Homesick

I thought it wouldn't really hit me, but with the start of school again I've become homesick. It's nothing drastic, and definitely not to the point of crying, but it's still an aching feeling in my chest.

To describe it, I want to eat American food a lot right now. Don't get me wrong, Japanese food is delicious and I love it, but I could really use some chili or a Chipotle Burrito. I also think about my American friends a lot, as well as my school. What doesn't help is that this week is Spirit Week for my school back home. I see tons of fun pictures and end up missing my school more.

Another feeling I get when I'm homesick is a little bit hard to describe. When I remember places, it gives off a sort of feeling in my chest, like an aura. Rather than remember certain words or sights, I'll remember the feelings I had during that time. Now that I'm homesick, I keep recalling the auras of my past home, a Coloradan sunset, my high school, and sweet memories with my friends. And of course my wonderful mother, who I miss most of all!

Overall, this is a difficult stage of my exchange. I'm ready to have fun and get over these complicated feelings! I would say that when I'm laughing and messing around with my friends, that's when the homesickness goes away. It's moments when I'm alone or have time to think that it hits hardest, just like any sad thing ahah.

Hopefully by my next post these feelings will have gone away a bit!

First Week of the Second Semester!

This week was the first week of my second semester. Whooo time goes by fast!

The first day was absolutely crazy fun! I brought Tootsie Rolls and Hot Tamales that my mom sent me to give out to my friends, and boy that was a LOT of entertainment. It may seem like it would be a simple interaction when giving American candy to Japanese people, a simple little "Oh thank you!" And normally that's the way it is.

Not with Hot Tamales.

Japanese people cannot eat them. They absolutely despise them. I had a whole box, and I gave a bunch of people one hot tamale each. How many people ended up like them? TWO. 2. When I started giving them out in my class, people would chew off a tiny bit, chew silently with a face full of dread, and then start yelling out "Spicy!!! Spicy!!!!!" I managed to trick a few of my friends and say, "Oh no, it's not spicy at all! It's just cinnamon flavor!" Once that hotness hit them, they died.

My class/department is full of girls and few boys, so there weren't any super drastic overreactions. I still had a lot of tamales left over, so I decided to head down to the sports department, which has a ton of boys. The reactions there had my doubling over in laughter. One of my friends ate it and then ran into the bathroom, and another ran to the sinks in the hallway. And it was not a leisurely jog, oh no, they sprinted. One kid threw up a little bit into an old newspaper.

I wanna try giving them out again!

The other days were not quite as fun as the first, but they were still nice. I got to see all my school friends after summer, and it was just as great as I thought it would be. It helped me realize how much I grew even in the six weeks of summer; the way I treat people and handle situations definitely changed, as well as some goals.

It was a bit tough getting used to arriving home at 8 pm everyday again. Showering, eating, and sleeping is all I can do.

Now that I'm in the second half of my exchange, I'm really trying to make every day count. Here's to more happy weeks!

Participating in a Japanese Archery Tournament!

This past Sunday was my first Japanese archery tournament!

My school club is kyudou, otherwise known as Japanese archery, and due to that I got to compete in a tournament! I'm not actually sure if it's legal for exchange students to participate, so shhh don't tell the Japanese government.

The day started out with me waking up at 5:20 so I could catch the 6:50 train, even though the tournament didn't start until 8. The reason I had to take a 6:50 train is because Miyazaki is very rural, so the trains only run about once every hour in certain directions.

While biking to the train station, I realized I forgot my lunch box at home. Whoops! I caught the train right on time, and knew I had to get off after about 3 stops. 3 stops later, I looked up and didn't recognize the name of the station. At that point I was nervous and fidgety. By the time the train stops at the next stop, I knew that I took the wrong train. I mean, where the hell is Tano!?

The station sign that made me lose all hope

I needed to get to Kibana station!! I also needed a taxi. I guess the one lucky thing was that an empty taxi with a nice driver was stopped at the train station. I asked him how much it would cost to get to the kyudou dojo, and he told me I would need around $50. At this point my heart sank because I didn't have enough cash on me. However, the taxi driver kindly stopped at a 7/11 for me to withdraw cash. The whole ride ended up "only" being about $40, but I still was not happy when I got to the tournament.

However, the tournament itself went well! Each time someone participates, they get 4 arrows. The first time I went up, I didn't hit any. The second time I went up I hit 2, which made me really happy!

During tournaments or formal practices, you have to wear special clothes called hakama. Everything from entering the target area to collecting the arrows is done in a very precise, specialized way. It's quite efficient, and we were able to go home at around 3.

Everyone lined up (I'm second furthest down!)

Overall, despite the mishaps, it was fun and I'm glad I participated!

(I do not recommend biking with a big ass bow in Japan's narrow streets)

Halfway Through My Exchange

August 28, 2017 is exactly halfway through my exchange.

Wowowow. It just feels so surreal. It feels as if I've come so far and changed so much, yet I'm still only halfway there. How much more will I change?

If someone asked me to say the ways I've changed, I would say the tenseness I had from America is almost gone. I just want to have fun with people I love! I want to learn, and challenge myself, and create. I want to do everything! I wanna live forever!

Anything that could be considered shyness is practically gone. I still have my moments, but considering all the embarrassing and awkward things that have happened, it's pretty hard for me to feel shy.

For example, there was a period of time here where I was getting diarrhea constantly, like every day ahaha (TMI) My body showed me no mercy even when hanging out with friends. So I was on a road trip with my friend's family. We had just stopped at a road stop, where I didn't feel a hint of anything that was to come. As soon as we pulled out I felt a little rumbling in my stomach, but I thought it would quiet down. Nope! Not even 15 minutes later I whisper to my friend, "Uhhh, I gotta go to the bathroom. Badly." I was the only one that got out to use the bathroom, and left them all waiting there for like 8 minutes. The finishing blow was when the concerned parents kept asking "Are you okay now?" throughout the trip. Ahah!



I don't want to go back home, but at the same time I'm excited for my future back in America. I want to see all my friends back in America, but I don't want to leave my Japanese ones. My Japanese friends are some of the kindest people I've ever met, I cannot stress enough how much I love Japanese girls! They are so sweet, interesting, expressive, and sometimes even a little sassy.

As for my Japanese, I feel pretty happy with how far it's gotten! Today I went to a cafe with a Japanese friend and it didn't end up feeling awkward at all, even though we were just talking for 2 1/2 hours. That's a pretty good indicator of my Japanese level! However, I still have plenty of room for improvement, especially when it comes to vocabulary. Hopefully I'll be able to easily read manga and easy novels when I come back.

I still definitely want to keep posting more stories on here and more YouTube videos, but now that school is starting up again I'm going to lose a lot of my free time. I'll try the best I can!

Thank you to everyone that is cheering me on from back home. I love you all!

Japanese Summer Festivals!

To put it simply, Japanese festivals are great, and a must if you go to Japan!

The smell of sizzling meat, sweat trickling down my back, and laughing with friends. Could a summer day get any better?

 As a HUGE foodie, one of the biggest attractions about festivals is the stalls that offer foods from ice cream to chicken to even fried squid! Some of the foods that I always get when I go to festivals are takoyaki (fried balls with octopus in them), hashimaki, shaved ice, and sometimes tornado potatoes.

Hashimaki

Tornado Potato

All this delicious food is the reason why I gained 7 kilos since coming to Japan!!! :,(

Another charm of festivals is wearing traditional Japanese "Yukata" or "Jinpei." My friend Natsuko actually gave me a yukata, which I'm super thankful for :) I'd recommend buying flipflops to wear with the yukata, because the traditional Japanese shoes that go with yukatas are not comfortable

Other than the food stalls, there is always some sort of event going on at festivals. Usually, there is a stage featuring dances, acts, etc. Sometimes, festivals are based entirely around fireworks, like a giant Fourth of July party! The recent festival I went to, which is one of the biggest in my city, had around 7 stages as well as big marches.

A lot of people use festivals as a chance to meet up with friends as well as take pictures with any acquaintances they happen to meet. It's always a festive environment, and fun to yell/squeal if you see a friend!

If you ever come to Japan, please try going to a festival at least once! And you can also buy yukatas for fairly low prices ;)

Appearing on Japanese Television!

Last Saturday, I was on Japanese television! The segment I was on was in the news for about a minute and a half, not long at all, but I had a mini-interview within that time.

So, why was I on the news?

My LP coordinator, Rika Kubota, invited everyone in my chapter (Miyazaki prefecture) to Miyazaki's agricultural high school. This meant my friend Maggie and I were waking up at seven on a Saturday, and our friend Nina was catching a train to get to Miyazaki city at about the same time.

But, contrary to being sleepy, everyone was excited. The only thing we knew was that we would be taking an emergency course for what foods to cook if an earthquake occurs. We were looking forward to talking to the students who would be helping out with the course and making new friends! I set a goal for myself to be energetic, positive, and fun.

We arrive, and after a few shorts icebreakers and a slideshow, I finally notice a cameraman. I turn to a girl I had gotten close to, Ayaka, and whisper, "Whoa...is this going on the news?"

"Yup! I think so!"

I then ask my LP, and she tells me that she thinks it's advertisement for the school.

So, we proceeded to be filmed throughout picking vegetables from the school garden and preparing dishes.

 I was getting to be friendly with the cameraman, as well as someone that I think was a news reporter. So who knows, maybe I'll be in some newspaper as well!

Overall, the whole experience was super fun and I'm really glad that Rika organized for us to go. Other than the three AFS high school students, there were 3 college exchange students and a grown woman from the United States. Everyone was super friendly! I'd say that the foods we made were definitely more about Japanese culture than "survival" foods, because all of them required some type of heat ahah. 10/10 experience!

Mochi

Miso Soup

My table of dishes

My Japanese High School Class!

It's been a fun few weeks :) I thought that I would write about my classmates, because a lot of them are interesting people that make school wonderful! I won't write something about everyone, but I thought I would write a bit about the people I interact with the most/most interesting personalities.

First of all, there are only 6 boys in my class. I actually prefer this MUCH more than if it was half-half. All of the girls feel free to act like how they normally would, without being shy/acting fake because of  boys. There is also way less of a "clique" feel in my class, and I also think this is because there are fewer boys. In the other departments in my school where the numbers of boys and girls are even, there is definitely a less welcoming attitude.

I'm in the English department at my school, which means everyone genuinely has an interest in English and Americans/foreign things. This is nice as an exchange student from America :) I would like to include pictures of my classmates when I talk about them, but I'm not going to for privacy reasons.

Onward!

First, my closer friends! I'm very close with two girls named Tamaki and Midzuki (even though Midzuki's in another class).

Midzuki was the first person to approach me, and she somehow always understands what I'm trying to say despite my sometimes awful Japanese :O I usually laugh the most with her.

Tamaki seems really shy, and she's really cute so a lot of boys like her, but the little jokes she pulls contrast her shy girl image completely and she's not afraid to show who she really is.

Airi is half-Japanese half-American, and she also loves talking about...rated r stuff...which is SUPER rare for Japanese girls. V amusing!

Kyanmera is an adorable shy-seeming girl who loves k-pop and wants to marry a korean. Also super good at dancing!

Speaking of k-pop, there's also a girl who looks like a k-pop star, she's absolutely beautiful. Her complexion is the best I've ever seen. Her name's Nariho, she's also always smiling and a cheerleader!

I also have a very chill friend, the most chill Japanese person I've ever met. Just being with her somehow soothes my soul (lol). Her name's Amane :)

There's also a super cute girl who loves bears named Chise. I sometimes call her Hiyoko, which means chick, because her personality is just like a chick's.

Misaki is a girl with the loudest laugh I have ever heard. You can hear her laugh from 2 classes down. She's also super funny and outgoing!

Moeka has the disposition of a princess, but her personality is not stuck-up at all! She's easy to talk and the boys in my class always call her Kimiya, which is the name of her boyfriend.

Now onto the boys!

Shuty is short and a lil chubby, so his friends will call him pig sometimes, but he's also adorable. Beat him in arm wrestling!

Yoshi was pretty distant at first, but he's actually funny and I consider him a good friend!

Hibiki is loud and likes to make people laugh. He gets the worst grades in the English department, and he's always making jokes. A lot of girls don't like him at all because they think he's annoying, but I personally like him.

Hunter is half-Japanese half-American, and SUPPEERR incredibly shy around girls. All the girls think he's cool, probably because he's really good at basketball.

Ryuuji. Oh, Ryuuji. He's very attractive, but people are starting to call him a psychopath because he'll start laughing randomly and then stop, and he does really creepy things. He can be pretty mean, but also hilarious! He has a super cute gf.

Juugen is really nice, and tends to eat lunch alone. I consider him my closest boy friend! He's really easy to talk to.

So that is everyone I'm going to talk about. I interact with way more people on a daily basis, but this post would be too long if I talked about everyone!

New Videos! Culture Shock and My School Uniform!

Hey guys!

I have made two new videos, one is about culture shock and the other is a showcase of my school uniform.

Here's the links!

Culture shock
Japanese High School Uniform'

Enjoy :)

Two Months in Japan

Wow. Two whole months in Japan! I can barely believe it, and every time I think about the fact that 1/5 of my exchange is done, I feel like crying. I love it here! Life in Japan as an exchange student feels so rewarding, and I am incredibly grateful I was able to come here. So, two months? A lot can happen in that time! First, I want to talk about Japanese food, and how my body has changed since coming here (not necessarily in a good way lol).

Japanese food is delicious. Any sushi/ramen lover would agree. But, how does real Japanese food compare to the cheap cup noodles that college students live off of? Real Japanese ramen is so delicious that even writing about it is making my mouth water. It is a perfect mix of ingredients, be it spicy or salty.

Tonkatsu ramen from Kagoshima

Karamen from Miyazaki, spicy level 15/25

There were also foods that I needed a little time to get used to. One is umeboshi, which is a pickled plum that is SUPER salty. I didn't like it when I tried it in America, but now I love it! Another food is "raw" chicken. Since my Japanese is not perfect, I could be a little bit wrong, but in Miyazaki prefecture it is okay to eat raw chicken. It's either raw or has very little roasting done to it. The texture is really chewy and feels like chewing slightly hard fat. The taste is surprisingly fine! The taste of squid is also going to take some getting used to; it's really strong.

One thing that has shocked me is how weak Japanese people are to spices. They cannot handle them! Eating spicy hot Cheetos would probably kill some of my friends ahah

As expected of exchange students, I've gained weight :( I don't understand it. because I bike 80 minutes every school day (way more exercise than I did in America), yet I am still gaining weight. It could be the fact that I ate way too many Japanese snacks in my first weeks here hehe! Also, because of those darn delicious snacks, my skin is the worst it has been in a while. Before I left for Japan, my skin was the best it had been in years. Now, my chin is a warzone :( but I won't let that make me insecure about my face!

When you live in Japan as a foreigner, especially if you're in a rural area, you will get stared at a lot. Sometimes, I have fun with the staring and stare back. But I will admit that it does get to me, and I'll find it creepy occasionally. Especially if it's someone older. Not going to lie, I also stare whenever I see foreigners ahah. They're rare here in Miyazaki! 

The nature and views here are beautiful. I'm surrounded by small mountains, and there are lots of rice fields. Biking to and from school, I basically go from the downtown area to rice fields to city again. 

My view of rice fields while biking home

Speaking English has become weird to me. When I hung out with another exchange student after not speaking English for a while, it felt so strange to have my mouth forming sentences. We both had weird pauses in our sentences initially. I will admit, I miss the versatility of English and how fun English slang is! But Japanese is awesome too. I especially love using Miyazaki-dialect, like なんしちょっとinstead of なにしてるの. I want to sound like a Miyazaki native by the end of my stay! 

As for homesickness, I got hit pretty hard in the beginning. But now, I'm completely fine :) Thinking about going home actually makes me sad! I <3 Japan

Since school is the biggest part of my life right now, I am going to make a separate post and a YouTube video for it. I'm also going to be making one for culture shock, so stay tuned~

バイバイ！

My Youtube Channel

First Week of Japanese High School!

Hello!

I have now successfully my first week at a Japanese high school (kind of). The reason why I say "kind of" was because it was only half-days for the first week, because it was still technically spring vacation. I just got back from my first (half) day of school as a second year, which was super exciting! But first I'll talk about my time as a first-year student.

To give more insight into the Japanese school year, it ends before spring break and you move up a grade after spring break. Thus, summer break is in the middle of the school year. My school is a rich private school, so of course the students didn't ACTUALLY get a break for spring break. They had half-days of school every weekday. Americans would not consider that break haha! Anyways, I attended the last week of those half-day classes. Every day got better and better!

The first day of school was definitely not how I thought it would be. Note: the fewer expectations you have, the better! Almost every exchange student talks about how the kids scream and shriek when you wave at them, but that was not my situation. The kids in my class were already very accustomed to foreigners, because a long-term exchange student had been in the same department the past year, as well as two short term exchange students actually being in the class. I had to start most of the interactions I had with people, which is not necessarily a bad thing!

There's actually a considerable amount of people who are half Japanese and half something else. I was pretty surprised!

The last day before the new school year was definitely the best. I guess it technically was the new school year, because it was the opening ceremony. The vibes were happy, lively, and I was cheerful as well. It made me really excited for school!

Bye-bye!

A Week in Japan!

Hello! It's been a while :) Sorry, it's been really busy!

I've been in Japan for a week now! It's now March 29th, and I arrived on the 22nd :)

As for events, I'll start with the AFS USA orientation in Los Angeles before leaving Japan. I arrived in LA on the 19th and I was the third person there. The orientation was actually incredibly fun! Even though the orientation went from the 19th to the 21st, I was never bored. The people who ran it were really into it and cared a lot about preparing us! When we were all leaving at the airport, the person who ran the orientation specifically called me out and said "I'll be looking out for you." The kids were incredibly nice, funny, amazing, EVERYTHING! I will remember some of them for a long time! I'm also excited to have the same type of experience as them, which will bring us closer together.


The plane ride was long but good! They had a really nice movie selection, and I didn't get any emergency bowel movement types of things (which could happen!). Not really a lot of talking happened on the plane ride, because everyone was sleeping or watching movies.

Then we arrived in Japan! I was amazed by everything at first. We took a bus from the airport to a fancy hotel, where we stayed one night. From there, we went to three different orientation sites. There was Tokyo, for people staying in Tokyo, near Tokyo, and above (like Hokkaido), Nagano for people around Nagano, and Osaka for people from Osaka and below. Since I'm in Miyazaki, which is on Kyushu, the southernmost island, I was in the Osaka group. Osaka group was lit!!

We took a 10 hour bus ride from Tokyo to Osaka, where I discovered the wonderful items in Japanese convenience stores. The ride was fun, long, and brought us closer together. At this point, there are people from all over the world. The Osaka crew really made me want to learn Spanish, which is actually going to be my next target language! Anyways, once we arrived in Osaka we stayed at a youth hostel for 2 nights. No wifi, 6 people per room, and group bathing! I discovered that a community bath is actually fun, and I have no problem getting naked with strangers ahaha. Of course boys and girls are separated.

After that, I took a 1 hour plane ride with the other Miyazaki and Miyazaki-Minami people and I arrived in Miyazaki! The more I see this city the more I love it. It's been a little cold the past few days, since it's winter, but the building have a nice aesthetic. I met my host family, and I love them! My host brother and mother are both lively and funny! I'm not really sure how much I can say about them because of privacy reasons. But yup! Today I went into  my school and received a tour as well as important documents. And OMG my school is so high tech. There's 3 buildings, most doors are automatic sliding doors, and the toilets are the ones that have tons of options. I'm excited to start attending!

じゃ、またね〜
Camilla Pernell

Update! Host Family and Placement

Hello!
Happy New Years! Hopefully 2017 will treat everyone well :)

I've gotten lots of information since my last blog post. Just this last Saturday, January 7th, I had a SEVEN hour orientation. And this orientation is going to be my shortest one! The orientation really made the concept of going abroad real to me. This is really happening. I am going to Japan! was a constant thought circling my head. It's actually pretty cool, because there are three people from Colorado who are going to Japan at the same time as me. That's a substantial amount, considering ~35 kids from the US go to Japan, so 3 is a large percentage for a kind-of low population state. I only got to meet one of the kids going, a girl who is a junior. She was super cool, so I'm excited to meet the other kids going to Japan as well.

Now on to the information that basically made me jump up and down in excitement: my host family and city placement. I will be in Miyazaki in the Miyazaki prefecture. It's in Kyushu (very far south) and practically a tropical paradise. At first I was a little bummed I was gonna be super far from Tokyo, but then I watched videos on Miyazaki and realized I'm going to be right next to the ocean in a tropical paradise! I've never even been to a beach before, so I'm super psyched. Here's a video about Miyazaki if you're interested, by Rachel and Jun.

Miyazaki Prefecture!

Miyazaki compared to Tokyo

My host family is going to be a mother and an eleven year old brother. Most people have gotten HUGE families, so I'm pleasantly surprised to be a part of a lil teeny family :)

My high school is going to be Miyazaki Nichidai High School, which has SUPER cute uniforms. According to my mom's Japanese boss, it's a good school.
 here's the uniforms. Cute!

I've also decided to make a YouTube channel, so if you want to check out vlogs as well feel free to check that out!

Have a nice day~