So for the past couple of days I've been quite busy.
6.16.12 On Saturday it was my first day of school! It was only a half day, so we only went to 3 classes.Going to school I walk for about 10min to the train station and meet up with another YFU student, Jade, and her host sister, Wakana, and take 2 trains, then walk for about 20min. When we arrived at school Jade and I had to introduce ourselves to the teachers and staff, so I got to use some of my Japanese skills :D . After that, we went to our homeroom classes. In my homeroom there are some students called "returnees," they used to live in America for a couple of years and now live back in Japan. Each day so far I follow around one of the "returnees" and go to their classes for the day. That day I went to Math, Japanese, and World History. In the classes I dont really do anything, since I dont know what they are saying. In some classes like Math and Chemistry I recognize some stuff that they are working on, which i think is super exciting! :) After school was over that day Wakana, Jade, and I went to this Rock Climbing competition. There were so many people there! At times it would get really intense and exciting, it was a lot of fun! After that we went to this mall close by where I saw a Starbucks! Me and Jade were freaking out so we went in and I had my first Japanese Starbucks :) After that we walked around and looked through some stores then went home.
Park we walked through High school where the Rock Climbing Comp. was held
Rock wall competition
Japanese Starbucks!!
Japanese Claire's!
6.17.12 Sunday My host family and I drove to Kamogawa Sea World! The drive was about 2 hours long. At sea world we saw many shows like the Dolphin, Killer Whale, Belugas, and the Sea Lions. We walked around for a little bit and got some lunch. I tried octopus which was actually very good! We walked through some aquariums and looked at all the animals, then we left and went to this tower about 30min away from Sea World. In the tower it would go underground so you could see in the water and look at all of the fish. It was very interesting! After a long day of so much fun we drove back home and picked up my host sister Aya and went out for Chinese food! It was a very fun day!
6.18.12 Monday I had school from 8:40 to 4:00. We went to homeroom first, then math, music, geography, lunch, English, and Old Japanese. In English I am in the "returnee" class. So they speak only English in that class. After school Jade and I participated in Wakana's Mountain Climbing club. That day we ran 9km (5 miles). It was HARD! I think me and Jade overall ran about 5km (3mi) and then walked the rest. After the club Wakana, Jade and I rode the train back home. I got home about 7:15, so it was a very long day and i was very tired.
In class Some boys in my class playing around
Cake my host dad bought for dessert :)
6.19.12 Today I had school again. I went to Biology, Algebra, Swimming, lunch, English, and Chemistry. I was very tired today and slept in some classes. I found out today that a typhoon is headed toward us, but everyone doesn't seem to be worried about it, which is ok. I think that I'm staring to get the hang of riding the train here. The trains are VERY crowded! Everyone sort of packs their selves in the train until you can't fit anyone else in there.
My homeroom class
View from my class
One thing here that people are amazed by are my legs and how tall I am. While we were stretching I saw some people staring at my legs and then I heard the word "long". Sometimes when I'm walking through the hall I see some people just staring directly at me. People at my school treat you like your a celebrity. The kind of stare at you in awe, like your the president. It's a lot of fun.
Oh and Happy Birthday to my beautiful mother! I love you <3
That's everything for now. Until next time,
Kenzie
