Monday, June 26, 2017

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

Saturday, June 24, 2017

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!