v
v
v
v

Rather eccentric blog of Melissa, an exchange student off to Utsunomiya, Japan. Join her as she blogs about her experiences in the land of the rising sun.
navigation to the left, click the V's.

Japan has been a mixture of both challenges and fun.
I' havent really been out much sight seeing, just down to local neccesary shops like post offices and supermarkets and JOYFUL HONDA (the best shop ever, you can buy pets and food and plants and umbrellas and televisions and clothes and cars and petrol and everything you can ever think of here). I have been out a fair bit around my local area on my bike (yes its completely safe mom, children much younger than me go riding by themselves and with friends around my area because its a neighbourhoodish area with a few primary schools and junior high schools around) with my sister (you can breathe easy now mom). The scariest thing would probably have to be almost running into a bunch of junior high school boys from Hongo junior high (my sisters old school) who had really big hair and were all on their keitais (mobiles). They were pretty good about it though, which came as a shock cos at first sight I thought they would be rough gangsters or something, and they just laughed it off with a ああああ、おもしろい、外人 だ！だいじょぶだよね。(ahh, interesting, a foreigner! its alright, yeah?)
I do have quite a lot of sakura fotos considering they were in bloom for longer than normal kotoshi (this year). They are so beautiful, it was sad to see them start to wilt...

Oh man I just love badminton club so much. After a very stressful day, rocking up to badminton club and smashing a shuttlecock or 300 (yes, we train pretty hard) leaves one feeling satisfied. At first my muscles were aching every single day, but after a while I've gotten used to it. The girls and sensei in badminton are all extremely nice and help me whenever I dont understand Japanese. I'm also in art and rock band club but I'm yet to actually go to a meeting, haha. I've just been going to badminton whenever I feel stressed, and that's happened quite often... haha. But I have gone to art class and I really love it. My art teacher is really talented, she's one of those teachers that you admire and aspire to. She teaches me alot and I love going to art to learn from her. And if my art teacher in australia is reading this, yes, she's got me doing charcoal sketches of grecian busts just like the old school art students did! I've learnt so much from her.

School is pretty difficult but I think I'm slowly starting to settle in. They put me in year 11 here but today I changed to year ten because I found it incredibly hard. I still have some good friends in year eleven though. The exchanging of mobile emails seems to be a token symbol of friendship here, I think, as japanese teenagers mail eachother every night till about 2 am in the morning!! Many times I've woken up at like 3 am with a mail waiting for me. Thats another thing, every day I'm incredibly tired because its NORMAL for japanese teenagers to sleep at 2 am and wake at 6 am (I heard andrew gets up at five? dang!). I, like most Aussie teenagers, go to bed at 10 kara 11 pm every night and wake at 6 am. Considering the time change (10 pm here is 12 am in australia!) I'm left feeling incredibly tired and a little irritable during the day... But I think I'm slowly changing over, getting used to it.

That reminds me, I bought my mobile fone, its AWESOME! The screen turns and you can watch TELEVISION for free (not much use for me right now really considering i don`t know whats going on anyway). I love it. ITs green and Au by KDDI. I think I was influenced by its ad, though, as it was arashi on some mini brightly coloured green planet covered with grass.. you know, people in japan, the shovel ad? shovel family, シャベルかぞく？And matsujun is like, what's with all the shovels, and theres these random people with a skipping rope wielding shovels.. HAHA Its seriously the most effective ad ever..
oh no wait, the most effective ad has GOT to be the SHAVADAVA ad. Shavadava shavadava!!! shavadavashavadava!　シャヴァダヴァしない？(dont you need shavadava?) and theres that guy, whatsisname from arashi (arashi is huge here, they're on like 100000 ads and everyone loves them) whos on a swing holding shavadava... mmm.. I want some shavadava... shavadava by the way is grapefruit soda... so good...
oh and mom, I think I'll be taking Japanese proficiency test level 3... my japanese isnt as crash hot as I thought it was and I'm already finding it incredibly difficult to communicate with people... everyone thinks I'm quiet and meek (people at home know the truth!) when really I cant actually say anything at all. I'm studying hard every day though, but I think I will take level 2 next year.

Last night I experienced my largest earthquake! To date, I've experienced roughly 7 or eight jishin, earthquakes, but last night there was one really big one which woke me up at 4 am in the morning. It was so scary... and my family SLEPT RIGHT THROUGH IT! I was the only one awake. Its such a huge shock coming from a country where the plates are at peace with eachother.. haha. My english is slowly degrading day by day.

I love living in japan, and I definitely want to live here in the future. I remember reading a previous blog from another student living in japan, and she had said 'from the moment I arrived in japan i knew i wanted a future here', and i can fully identify with that. I love the lifestyle, and I know that its not the honeymoon stage of culture shock but my true feelings because right now I'm going through probably the worst stage of home sickness possible. I dont think its japan thats the problem, but the fact that I'm so far away from friends/family and school is so difficult right now thats making me so blue. I miss everyone that I 0nce had supported and was supported by and wish that I could move them all here - but I know thats not possible. I know I will overcome this though, because if I go home to australia now I will never forgive myself. The reason why I came on this trip is to learn another language and succeed in a huge goal. I wanted to prove to myself that I am capable of accomplishing difficult goals. I will never give up, no matter how homesick I get!
The only problem about living in japan thats worrying me is the fact that I have to give up my Australian citizenship in order to become a japanese citizen.. so thats a particularly difficult choice I have to make.

I'm looking forward to JFIE camp on the 27th of this month in TOKYO (yeah baby toky0!! with the whole seeing everyone in kanto region again and face sempais!) and golden week. I get to see my relatives who live in Ibaraki ken for the first time during golden week. I have a cousin the same age as me as well, I want to meet her soon. I'm really looking forward to it, it's so close too, in MAY!

I seriously miss Sydney so much right now, words cannot express my current emotion.
I hope everyone in Sydney knows how much I miss and love them... I really wish i oculd be there right now!

Ok.. I think my free ended.. my school doesnt have bells! haha, they're goal is to teach the students to be punctual.. they play random classical music during class though haha.

Alrighty I gotta go now :) cya!