Well, I am sure you have all heard about the pig/bird/people flu that's going around. I guess WHO has said it is now at a level 5... which roughly translates to "not good". And it may take up to 6 months to come out with a vaccine. I have been keeping an eye on the news about it (I know, amazing. I never read the news.) for a couple of reasons. Okay, mostly because I wanted to know how much it was going to affect Iliana and her return trip that may or may not be scheduled for next week.
Anyway, the reason I am blogging about it is because I though Japan was doing pretty well. Nobody has it here yet! Well that's what I though until home room at school today. Apparently there is a high school boy here in Yokohama who is suspected to have it. He was on a school trip to Canada a little while ago and is now at a hospital here with flu-like symptoms. If it is confirmed to be the pig flu, all the schools in the city are going to be temporarily closed. Not that that will keep it from spreading if anyone else gets sick. I believe Yokohama is the most densly populated city in Japan. Everyone that works in Tokyo lives in Yokohama. I am so glad I am not riding the trains or buses to school now. The normal flu season was bad enough here. What takes 3 weeks to go through Ironwood cycles through the Yokohama/Tokyo area for 3 or 4 months.
Hopefully it is just a false alarm. Everyone is so worried about this virus that people are over reacting to mild symptoms that could be from any number of minor illnesses. But if it isn't, I hope all his classmates from the trip don't have it too. I should probably start drinking more orange juice...
Luckily it's already cool to wear those masks here!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
DISNEYLAND
I love Disneyland.
Iilana's rotarian, Kodama-san, invited Iliana, myself, and Ruan to go to Disneyland. It was very generous of her. I think she did it because Iliana is leaving so soon. I asked my club, and they granted me permission to skip school for the day. My host mom wrote a note to the school telling them that I had a "rotary function" to go to so I would be taking the day off.
Me and Mary Poppins! I had a really hard time speaking to her in English for some reason. I kept wanting to use Japanese and we all know Mary Poppins does not speak Japanese.
It was so fun. We met at Sakuragichou station at about 1 o'clock and Kodama-san drove us there in her car. We went on most of the good rides, saw the electric parade, and ate lots. The three of us shared a smoked turkey leg (it was huge), and we also had popcorn, frozen ice pops, pizza for dinner, and then a snacky sandwich before we left.
I believe this is Mickey's car. Iliana, Ruan, and me.
My favorite ride was Splash Mountain. I even bought the picture at the end of it. I know, I know, it's a rip off. But it was a good picture. Ruan is absolutely hilarious on the rides. He had our entire log (?) doing different things. I actually didn't like Space Mountain that much. It is so dark inside and all you can see are little lights that spin around like crazy as you race through. I got a little bit of motion sickness on that one. But the wait for it was fun.
The three of us on Big Thunder Mountain. You can tell the ride is pretty intense. I even pulled out my camera in the middle of it.
We ended up doing rock, paper, scissors in Japanese to decide who had to sit alone on the ride. Iliana lost and then refused to go alone. I ended up going alone anyway. (I'm such a good friend, huh?) Anyway, there was a group of Japanese girls behind us in the line and they thought our random Japanese comments thrown into an English conversation were pretty funny. We ended up talking to them a little bit. As we were about to get into our car (we decided to go as a group of 6, because there were three of us, and three Japanese girls), they say to me, "You are so beautiful. Like, really pretty..." in English and then Japanese and then English again. Japanese girls are so funny. haha. I was like, "aww, thanks!" Then at the end of the ride they all said thanks for riding with them.
Waiting for Big Thunder Mountain.
Oh, and Iliana and I also wore our Minnie Mouse headbands. I had to get some as soon as I got there because I regretted not getting them at Disney Sea before. It was a really fun day. I ended up getting home at about 10:30 after trying to figure out and then explain how to get to my house which is not very close to any train station and it is on a tiny street with no name. And Kodama-san could not understand me telling her to go on the big street that we went over when we crossed the bridge. Is my Japanese really that bad?! That was an adventure and Iliana and Ruan both got a good laugh out of my directional retardedness.
We got to meed Mickey! Ruan, Mickey, Iliana, Kodama-san, and me. Mickey even gave me a kiss!
Iilana's rotarian, Kodama-san, invited Iliana, myself, and Ruan to go to Disneyland. It was very generous of her. I think she did it because Iliana is leaving so soon. I asked my club, and they granted me permission to skip school for the day. My host mom wrote a note to the school telling them that I had a "rotary function" to go to so I would be taking the day off.
Me and Mary Poppins! I had a really hard time speaking to her in English for some reason. I kept wanting to use Japanese and we all know Mary Poppins does not speak Japanese.
It was so fun. We met at Sakuragichou station at about 1 o'clock and Kodama-san drove us there in her car. We went on most of the good rides, saw the electric parade, and ate lots. The three of us shared a smoked turkey leg (it was huge), and we also had popcorn, frozen ice pops, pizza for dinner, and then a snacky sandwich before we left.
I believe this is Mickey's car. Iliana, Ruan, and me.
My favorite ride was Splash Mountain. I even bought the picture at the end of it. I know, I know, it's a rip off. But it was a good picture. Ruan is absolutely hilarious on the rides. He had our entire log (?) doing different things. I actually didn't like Space Mountain that much. It is so dark inside and all you can see are little lights that spin around like crazy as you race through. I got a little bit of motion sickness on that one. But the wait for it was fun.
The three of us on Big Thunder Mountain. You can tell the ride is pretty intense. I even pulled out my camera in the middle of it.
We ended up doing rock, paper, scissors in Japanese to decide who had to sit alone on the ride. Iliana lost and then refused to go alone. I ended up going alone anyway. (I'm such a good friend, huh?) Anyway, there was a group of Japanese girls behind us in the line and they thought our random Japanese comments thrown into an English conversation were pretty funny. We ended up talking to them a little bit. As we were about to get into our car (we decided to go as a group of 6, because there were three of us, and three Japanese girls), they say to me, "You are so beautiful. Like, really pretty..." in English and then Japanese and then English again. Japanese girls are so funny. haha. I was like, "aww, thanks!" Then at the end of the ride they all said thanks for riding with them.
Waiting for Big Thunder Mountain.
Oh, and Iliana and I also wore our Minnie Mouse headbands. I had to get some as soon as I got there because I regretted not getting them at Disney Sea before. It was a really fun day. I ended up getting home at about 10:30 after trying to figure out and then explain how to get to my house which is not very close to any train station and it is on a tiny street with no name. And Kodama-san could not understand me telling her to go on the big street that we went over when we crossed the bridge. Is my Japanese really that bad?! That was an adventure and Iliana and Ruan both got a good laugh out of my directional retardedness.
We got to meed Mickey! Ruan, Mickey, Iliana, Kodama-san, and me. Mickey even gave me a kiss!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Odaiba
Today I went to Odaiba with some of the other exchange students. Odaiba is right in the middle of Tokyo, located right on Tokyo Bay. It was really fun. The weather was beautiful and we just hung out at the beach all day. I really would like to go back there sometime to swim. It was really clean, especially considering it is in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.
We also saw the Statue of Liberty.
And the boys decided to try out windsurfing. They told the people at the shop that they had done it before. Apparently not. They barely got the sail out of the water. The rest of us just hung out at the beach and the shopping area that was close by. I guess that's about all there is to say about it though. Here are some more pictures.
Tokyo Bay
Sylvana (Germany), Katja, Iliana, Me, and Lena (Russia)
The water was warmer than Lake Superior ever has been. I wanted to swim!
Sunset
We also saw the Statue of Liberty.
And the boys decided to try out windsurfing. They told the people at the shop that they had done it before. Apparently not. They barely got the sail out of the water. The rest of us just hung out at the beach and the shopping area that was close by. I guess that's about all there is to say about it though. Here are some more pictures.
Tokyo Bay
Sylvana (Germany), Katja, Iliana, Me, and Lena (Russia)
The water was warmer than Lake Superior ever has been. I wanted to swim!
Sunset
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