Kakezome

Japanese people have a lot of traditions around the new year. A lot of the cultural, special, or in some aspects of their culture, "sacred" things they do are extra special when they do it for the first time in the new year. Calligraphy is no exception to that. The first calligraphic writing of the year is called a kakezome. Usually it is done on the first of January, but I did mine at school. My first day back from winter break, we all did calligraphy for 2 hours and then went home. (I wasn't expecting that either. I thought we were going to have classes after calligraphy!)

This is my kakezome!


They were all submitted to a Judge (and the high-school's principal gave the one he deemed best a special award). It's possible that the principal was the judge, but I have no clue. Anyway, Last week one of my teacher's was like. "Oh! Good job on your kakezome! I was so surprised when I saw the name! It's really good!"

I was very surprised to find out that it was put in our school's art display in Queen's Square. Queen's Square is a big shopping plaza place very close to landmark tower. It is absolutely ginormous and mostly underground. The school's art was on display there for about a week so the public could come and see it. I ended up going to see it with my friend Katja (from Finland) on the 24th. The other art was amazing! There were drawings, paintings, ceramics, miniature models, and other things in addition to calligraphy. Honestly, my school has a huge amount of artistic talent. I couldn't believe these were done by middle and high school girls. Some of them looked very professional. I should have taken some pictures of the other stuff too.

Me and Katja- most, if not all, of the other kakezomes there were better than mine. I wonder if they just put it in there because I'm the exchange student.... hmm...


After the display was taken down from Queen's Square the kakezomes were put up in the entrance hall at school. I was once again surprised, and pleased to find out that I had gotten a bronze prize for it! This is the first time I've ever won an award for something artistic. Which might have something to do with the face that my drawing abilities haven't improved much since third grade. Yeah, stick people (and animals!) are about all I can do. I'm not sure how the prizes work. There was one special award from the principal, maybe a couple golds, a few silvers, and probably 10 or so bronzes. I'm so proud of myself! :D

Okay, this is not a good picture of me at all, but you can see the prize on the side of my kakezome.

These kanji together don't exactly make a sentence, but rather give the viewer an image. If they understand the kanji, that is. From top to bottom, the kanji have the following meanings: remainder, leftover, balance; snow; brightness, light; tall, high, expensive; summit, peak. The last two together mean "high mountain" or "lofty peak".

*note. These are the old kanji. Today, they are written a little differently.

The image that I came up with, which was actually very similar to my host mom's, is a high mountain peak from a little distance, with the snow glittering in the sunlight of a spring day, maybe at dawn.

My host dad gets the image of almost the same thing, but he thinks it is at night with the mountains silhouetted againts a moon-lit sky. And you can see the snow on the mountain peaks in the moonlight.

I think eveyone's image is slightly different. It's pretty likely that this is a line in an old chinese poem and if you read the whole poem, you'd get a more accurate view of what image the writer was trying to describe.

5 Months

I know it's been a while since I've posted again, but I was waiting for something to write about. And time to write. :D

First the big news. I have officially been living in Japan for 5 months! Woo hoo! It seems like every month goes faster than the last. I remember the first month felt like an eternity. But this last month was so fast!

Next news... I have officially found out my day for changing host families. :D On February 21st, I will have lunch with this host family, and then move on to my next one. So one more month. I do really like this host family, but I am ready to change. To be honest, I am most excited to live closer to my school. Right now I have an hour and 15 minute commute to school each day. My next family lives about a 20 minute walk from the school. I will get to sleep till like 6:30 or 7 each morning! I am also excited to see how another family lives here. I'm sure they will do some things differently than this family. I will write about that once I actually change though.

Other things that have happened since I last posted. I had lunch with Iliana at Subway! My first Subway in like 5 months. Crazy! I've gotta say it's better in America. A little different somehow. And the 6 inch subs here are definitely not 6 inches.

I also went to the new James Bond movie. 007 Quantum of Solace. Yes, it just came out here. It's new to me, okay? I went with a few of my friends. Sakura, her friend named Ayo (a girl from the Netherlands), and David (from Czech). It was really fun. We went to the movie and then dinner at a random japanese restaurant. The movie was okay. LOTS of good action. The plot was okay. They managed to fit a car, boat, AND airplane chase into one movie. Can't get much better than that...

Oh! Monday in school I had manner's class. It was pretty interesting, actually. I learned how to bow, sit, stand, and give someone something (like a book) in the proper Japanese way. And then I got to have my turn demonstrating how to give someone a book in front of the whole class while another teacher took pictures. I'm sure I looked slightly confused, because I was. But everyone was really nice about it. They didn't even laugh at me too much when I totally didn't understand that "ippo" ment take another step forward! haha. I knew it was one something... I just couldn't figure out what. I thought the teacher was going to be really strict, but she was nice.

Today in school was a special all-day presentation to our grade level by a priest. It was actually pretty good. Almost like a really long catholic fireside in Japanese. :D We drew pictures of scenery, which then told us about ourselves. He named something and then we drew it on the paper however and whereever we wanted. For example, if you drew lots of mountains it means you have lots of goals. If they are in the distance it means that your goals are very long-term and maybe difficult goals... etc. Then we played some small group game with no talking. Then he talked and read us an Ampan Man book. (I understood from the story that Ampan (anko bread man) went to save someone who was hungry, so he had them eat his face. Then a whole bunch of people (?) came and ate lots of him. Then, a big sea monster ate him!... the part I missed was how the sea monster didn't like sweet food (ampan is sweet) so he spit him back out. I was a little confused at why the hero died in a children's book.) Then we had mass. So, today was different. That is always nice though. The same old schedule in school gets a little old and boring after a while. Especially when the classes all seem the same. (blah blah blah YAY! I UNDERSTOOD THAT WORD blah blah blah blah)

So, that's about it for now. Sorry it's not a very good post. I just figured I should put something up for you guys to read. :D Now it's time for bed.

Okinawa sounds like a fun place....

So yesterday was my monthly Rotary Orientation meeting. All the exchange students (inbounds, outbounds, and rebounds) are there so its always a fun time to catch up with people. In between the long speeches the rotarians give to us, that is. And I know they are talking to the inbounds sometimes. I really hope they know that we don't understand more than like 5 percent of what they say to us. Well, if I try really hard I can understand about half (maybe) of what people say. But I loose focus after a few minutes. I'm sure someone will tell me what I need to know later. :D

My speech went well. I did it in all Japanese again. No more romaji for me! That is the worst thing in the world for anyone studying Japanese. Never get into the habit of using romaji. Just learn how to read Japanese right away. That's the one thing I should have done differently. And maybe started studying kanji sooner.

After the meeting was over I got to talk with the girl that is outbound to America. She doesn't have her placement yet, but she is in the Central States Region! That's the same as me! Maybe she'll be close enough to visit once when she comes. She's really nice. I can remember waiting for my placement. It was horrible! Mostly because I was pretty much the last person to receive my guarantee papers in our whole outbound group.

Then my rotarian, Mr. Fuyukawa, came to pick Iliana and I up for dinner. We went to shabu-shabu with him, my host dad, and 4 other rotarians. It was good. This was how part of our dinner conversation went:

Iliana: You should all come to Mexico! You can stay at my house by the ocean! It's beautiful!
Mr. Fuyukawa: Does Mexico have scuba diving? My daughter loves scuba diving at different places. She took lessons in Okinawa one year.
Me: Oh, cool! I would love to go to Okinawa! (in just a conversational way)
Mr. Fuyukawa: Abbey, you want to go to Okinawa?
Me: Yeah!
Mr. Fuyukawa: My family goes to Okinawa every August. Well, you'll be gone by then, wont you?
Me: Yeah, I leave in July.
Mr. Fuyukawa: How about May? During spring break? Do you want to go to Okinawa in May?
Me: Really?! I would love that!
Mr. Fuyukawa: Yes, Iliana can come too. Oh, but she leaves at the beginning of May. Maybe before that then.

:D So maybe, just maybe, I'll be going to Okinawa in May. I do have my doubts on this one though. It just sounds too good to be true. And he was drinking at the time. So you never know. But it's possible... What did I ever do to deserve such a nice host club?

Party and random thoughts

So, yesterday I had a little party. Well, it was more of a get together than a party. There were like 11 of us and I rented a "party room" here at the apartment complex. It would have been better if we could have gotten the stereo to work with our iPods or at least had some games to play, but we didn't. Well, we did play games, but not like real games. Just group games. But it was fun. There were two Japanese girls and then a whole bunch of exchange students. And I think everyone, including myself, got to meet someone new. So that's always fun. :D After the "party" we all went to Yokohama and did purikura (short for purinto kurabu...print club). It's like a really fancy photobooth for those of you who don't know. Then we got gyuudon (beef bowl) for dinner because it's cheap and good. But really, it's a man food and girls don't eat it too often. I don't care. I like it. And there was a Japanese girl there before we got there, so it's not like girls never eat it. After that we went shopping. Well we just looked around. I don't think anyone actually bought anything. But it was a really fun day.

Top: Katia (Finland), Karuna (Japan), Ruan (Brazil), Bala (Malaysia) Middle: Felipe (Ecuador), Jonas (Germany), David (Czech Republic), Abbey (America) Bottom: Irwin (Taiwan), Iliana (Mexico), Chika (Japan)

It was a very full purikura booth. It's so cool that I have gotten to make friends from all over the world here. Seriously, there are 11 people in this picture and we are from 10 different countries! It's awesome! But also sad because we all live so far away from each other that once we go home, maybe we will never see each other again. :( I honestly think that if everyone got to have an experience like this there would be peace in the world. How could you ever hate a country or it's people after meeting them so personally? People are the same everywhere.

I am caught up again! Phew. I am really glad I got that done before I go back to school again. Tomorrow is my last day of break and I have plans so not much would have gotten done if I hadn't done it today.

So lately I've been thinking about my exchange as a whole again. Mostly because I have been on break and there is lots of time to think. And because I am now officially through the holidays. That's supposed to be a kind of turning point in your exchange. After this I should know my language pretty well. Apparently I'm a little behind in that department, but I'm working on it. And once you know the language well you can actually get to know people from school and stuff and find out who your good friends here are. From here on out, everything is supposed to go by so fast, and the next thing you know you are sitting on an airplane going home. Yikes. So, sometimes I feel like I'm leaving so soon, but really, I still have more than 6 months left. I'm not even halfway done yet. The past four and a half months have gone by so fast, especially the last two, that I don't think six months is going to seem long at all. So, I guess now its time to figure out what I really want to do with my time here. I have been having a really good time and making friends and learning the language and stuff, but is there something more I should be doing with my time here? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I don't want to miss anything.

I have decided that I want to work harder on my Japanese, especially kanji. I really want to be able to read and I really really want to be able to take and pass that AP exam in a year or so. It only took me a week or so to learn the first 80 kanji. 400 isn't that many. And even with those first 80 I have figured out what some things mean. Like the kanji on the toilet handle for big and little flush. I can read it now! Exciting, huh? I do want to be able to read more than the toilet, however, so I will keep studying that. Maybe my teacher at school will be able to get me some worksheets from the gradeschool or something. That would be fun. Actually I have discovered that I really miss school. Not school itself, but like homework. I know, that's crazy. I especially miss math homework. I thought I hated Algebra II last year, but I miss it now. Doing math homework made me feel smart. I never really feel smart here. I don't want to have to do all the homework in school in Japanese, but having Japanese assignments for me, to help my Japanese, would be awesome. That would mean making extra work for a teacher at school though, and since I'm not a real student there, I don't know if I want to ask for that.

The other thing I want to do here is meet more people. But not more Rotarians. They are very nice and generous and all, but I want to meet more teenagers. I want more Japanese friends. I have my friends from school and a few people that I have met at Kamakura, but I want to meet more. And I want to get to know people that don't speak english. As long as they'd be patient with me. That would force me to explain everything in Japanese, even if it is hard and I don't know all the words. However, I don't know how to meet people myself here. There really isn't much I can do about that one now. Maybe my next host family will be friends with families with kids my age or something.

Okay, that's about all I've got right now. Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon. This week I start school again and I have my two monthly rotary meetings. I can't believe that I have those again! That means a whole month has passed already. And I have to write another stinkin' speech. Yuck.

New Year's 2009!

One of the traditions for New Years in Japan is for children to go stay at their parents' houses. My host family went to stay at my host Dad's Dad's house. There wasn't enough room for me there, so I went to Iliana's house for a few days. I think my host family felt a little bad for sending me off during the big family holiday of the year, but I didn't mind. And I had a really fun time at Iliana's house.

I went there on the morning of December 30. I wanted to go for a run before I went there, but Iliana insisted that I wait until I get there and then we could go together. So I did. I practically forced her out the door, but I really needed to go for a run. And she swore she wanted to the night before. We ended up running like 2K (that's 1.2 miles, Dad) in like 40 minutes. Which really means we walked most of it, but we had fun with it. I couldn't get Iliana to go again the rest of the stay. I am so out of shape again. I will be happy to get back to a normal schedule with school and running every day.

Anyway, that afternoon we went shopping together. I did end up getting a sweater to wear the next day, which was good. They surprised me and told me I was going to stay a day longer than I had packed for after I got there. Luckily, I had packed extra underwear. :) Then after dinner we played wii with her host family on their 65 inch TV and chatted with her host sisters and brother-in-law. I really love her host family. I hope my host sister in my next family is like her's are.

Me reading a book in Japanese to Himari-chan. Iliana's host niece. Oh, and that's my new sweater.


New Years Eve was fun. We really didn't do much, but it was nice. A lot like the ones back home. :D Except once it got to midnight, Dad didn't send us to bed. hahaha We played wii, watched some random, but really really funny show on TV, and watched the countdown. YAY, IT'S 2009! After that, at about 12:15 we walked to the temple nearby. We met up with some of Iliana's host sister's friends, too. At the temple we stood in a line about a million people (for real it was one of the longest lines I have ever been in) to throw our five yen coin (it's lucky to do it here) into the money thing and clap twice and bow. I tried to get a picture of it, but I looked at the camera in the first one and Iliana got annoyed and left just as he was taking the second one. haha. We got home at like 2 and then went to bed.

Iliana walking away...


We got up pretty early the next morning for the family breakfast. Its was osechiryori. Like a really big obento box. Iliana's host mom had this one ordered from a famous restaurant in Osaka. She had to pre-order it over a month in advance! But it was good. Most of it. I didn't try everything, because there were like 75 different things in it. For dinner we went to a family karaoke with Iliana's host sister, brother-in-law, niece, and their friends. That was fun. We did get to hear a lot of kiddie songs and see a whole salad AND a cup of orange juice hit the floor. Well, the salad landed on the bench for the most part. Oh, the other thing I did that day was watch The Chronicles of Narnia on TV in Japanese. That was actually really fun. I want to watch other movies I've seen already in Japanese now. Maybe I'll ask my host mom if she wants to sometime...

Breakfast... part of it. I still prefer sweet food at breakfast, but that's just not how they do things in Japan.


And of course I got to talk to Dad and Benjamin and Christy as they had their New Year's Eve party. I was pretty jealous of the monkey bread Benjamin had made. Iliana's host family kept saying how cute my family was. And how nice Daddy is. :D They're right.

January 2 was a fun day. Iliana's host mom had arranged for us to get dressed in Kimonos. A lady from Iliana's host club, who is friends with her host mom also came over with a lady who teaches traditional japanese things. It took all 3 of them to get us dressed. My kimono had 14 pieces to it! And it takes a professional to tie the obi in the back. It was a really good experience. We went to the temple nearby and rung the bell. I'm not really sure what the point of it was for, but it was nice. Everyone really stared at me because I was wearing a kimono. That was fun. Iliana didn't get quite as many stares because she has black hair and can pass for a Japanese person if you just glance. And she's short.

Getting dressed only took like an hour... that's the teacher by me.

Bun-chan, Iliana, Tomo-chan, Abbey, and Iliana's host father in front. I never realized that I look this tall... I'm a GIANT!

Iliana and I at the temple. Those ropes are attached to bells.

Abbey, Iliana, and Himari-chan


Wearing the kimono was fun. I always liked getting dressed up. And the teacher also did our hair. :D The kimono was quite snug and I'm not saying I'd want to wear one every day, but it was fun. After we got out of them, Iliana and I went up to her room and had some downtime. At about 4:45 we were just watching TV and I was almost sleeping when her mom knocks on the door...

"Do you want to go to Disneyland?"
"What?" (really confused because I was almost sleeping and it was in Japanese and it just sounded too good to be true.)
"Disney. Do you want to go?"
"Right now?!"
"Yes!"
"Disneyland?! Really?! Yeah, we want to go!!!!"
"Okay, hurry up. You are leaving in like 10 minutes. Dress warm. It's cold."
"Yay! Ahh, my hair!" (haha. I had taken it out of the up-do with the kimono and hadn't done anything with it yet. The plan had been to go to dinner at 7 at a pasta place.)

So Iliana and I very quickly got changed into warmer clothes and did our hair. We then piled into the car with her sister, brother-in-law and their friends and their kids and we were off to Disneyland! It took just over an hour to get there, so it really isn't too far away. We, well Iliana's family, paid the "after 6" rate so it was cheaper to get in. We arrived around 6:30, went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, watched the big parade with all the Disney characters, went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and then went one the 3-D movie ride about the Honey, I shrunk the Kids movies. After that we had dinner, took some pictures in front of the castle, looked in the shops, and came home. :D It was a really fun little trip. I do still want to go back again though. I think maybe my host club is thinking of taking me there too, because I had so much fun at Disney Sea. So I hope they do. I didn't really see much of the park or go on the awesome rides like Space Mountain. It was lots of fun going with Iliana's host family, though.

Himari-chan and I in front of Tokyo's Disneyland!

Himari-chan, Tomo-chan, Iliana, Abbey, and Tomo-chan's friends. Tomo-chan's husband was taking the picture and that was everyone.


The next morning (January 3) I came back to my apartment. I had such a nice time with Iliana and her host family. It was a really fun way to spend New Year's.

Random pictures:

All of us in line at the temple. Except Tomo-chan's husband, who is taking the picture.

Rubbing the lucky cow on New Year's Day early morning. It's extra lucky this year because it is the year of the cow!

Church Dinners

I am so glad that there is a church so close to me here. And I am grateful that I have the opportunity to addend it pretty regularly. All the members here are so awesome! There aren't very many youth here at all, but the adults are so nice. The last time I went (Dec. 28) I was invited to a couple different dinners at member's houses. The first one of them was for that night, so I met up with the Bishop, President McGerry and his family at the station where we got a ride to the member's house. I guess the purpose for the dinner is for home teaching and they hold them once a month. President put it as the "best home-teaching gig he's ever had." haha That night they had gyoza for dinner. Along with soup and side salads and sashimi and shrimp and lot of other good food. It was really good food and it was nice to get to talk with some of the members and get to know them better. When I change host families in a month or so I will be closer to a different ward, but I think I will probably keep coming to this one. I really love the members here and they make me feel so at home.

The other party was at Sister Fujii's house. It was on January 3rd. She invited me, the missionaries, and a couple priesthood holders over. She is a really sweet lady and she made some awesome food. We had a nice salad, soup, and then fried chicken. It was so good! And way more than we could eat. It was a nice evening just talking over dinner and, of course, practicing my Japanese. :D Sorry I don't have pictures for this post. I didn't take any.

Christmas in Japan

My first Christmas away from home went well. It was pretty different, but it was good. Of course I missed being home with everyone and decorating cookies and the whole Christmas morning routine, but I had a nice day here. It really didn't feel like Christmas to me though.

My host family doesn't do much at all for it. They had a little tree set up and a few other decorations and then on Christmas Eve they put out a present for each of their kids. In Japan, it is tradition to put it next to the pillow so you see it first thing in the morning, but my host mom wanted to put them under the tree this year because the kids always wake her up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning. :) My host parents took me shopping on the 23rd for my present.

Toru decorating the tree


With this being about all they do for Christmas here, it was fun to share a little bit of and American Christmas. I woke up a 5:50 (Toru gets up at like 6:15 or 6:30 every day). I quickly got dressed and stuff so I would look cute in the pictures, and then I played Santa! I put out gifts and stockings for the family (Thanks Dad and AnnaMarie and Tyler!). I even put out one present for me. It turned out to be The Tales of Beedle the Bard. From AnnaMarie. Thanks! So here are some pictures of me being sneaky.

Putting out presents


Done!


And then on the way back to my room for the last of the presents (as I'm wearing the Santa hat) my host dad looks out of his room! He started laughing and I told him to go back to bed. haha. But it worked out well because he got to video tape the kids when they got up and sjavascript:void(0)aw everything. And just so you know, my host dad was up early in his room working on a powerpoint for work. I wasn't so loud that I actually woke him up.

Abbey Santa


If you want to see the videos I took, they are on Michael's website.

After all the presents were opened and stuff (by like 8:00), it was just a normal day. My host Dad had work because Christmas isn't a real holiday here. I got to talk with my almost everyone on Skype. In the afternoon my host mom took me to the hair salon to get my hair cut. It was about time I did. I hadn't cut it since June. I just got some layers put in it so it looks a little nice down. So, that's about it. Oh, and then on Christmas night we ate our Christmas Cake.

Christmas Cake