Free Time

Two days ago was the first morning that I ate breakfast with the cottage I'm going to be with for the next five weeks.

They're all really nice!  Even though they definitely don't speak English as much as the other home, the kids were all really interested and kept on trying with me.  The adults did too.  After dinner was really fun too, as one of the girls played piano for me, and the boys showed me Pokemon and some of their toys.  (And one of them showed me his lizards too right after breakfast.)

During our free time we went to grab some things we needed, and visited a pet store even.  Here in Japan it's okay to sell pets at a pet store.  It makes me a little worried though, because how pet stores normally use puppy mills and such...  But the animals looked well taken care of for the most part.  (And cute!)  But I think I'll stick to reputable breeders for my pets.

Elephant Slide in Machida

The next day was our first day off, and Yumie and I went to go see her friend in Shibuya.  It was really fun!  His English is like near-perfect since he studied abroad for a year.  We walked around Takeshita Street in Harajuku (I bought something for a friend at the official AKB48 shop), and then went to Shino-okubo where Korean Plaza is.  The streets are like lined with Korean Idol shops because of Kanryu, or the Korean Wave.  I picked up a Big Bang CD and a bracelet, but I realize the more... child-ish things, like a giant poster with an idol's face on it or something doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to.  I guess I'm just getting older.  I definitely like more subtle things now and I always think like "Where am I going to put this?"  I even do this at anime conventions, but I just realized it more in the idol shop.  It's a good thing though, as it means I'm spending less money and buying less useless stuff. 

Takeshita!

We ate at a Korean restaurant where I had bibimbap and tried makkori, a sort of rice wine.  It was good, but I don't think it became like my favorite for anything.  Afterwards, exhausted and everything, Yumie and I went back to Machida and met up with some workers where we had their birthday dinner.  It was really interesting seeing the eating dynamic where you have to ask if someone wants to try a dish, or the whole process where each plate had a pair of serving chopsticks.  Cutting the food with chopsticks seemed really hard too.

Party!  (Although sort of a bad picture)

Near the end, one of the workers surprised Yumie with a birthday cake (or haha, sort of surprised us since we knew something might be going on), but then they definitely surprised me with a pair of house slippers for the both of us.  Our manager got Rilakkuma for me and Hello Kitty for Yumie because I mentioned liking Rilakkuma a lot and Yumie has a Hello Kitty credit card.  It was incredibly thoughtful of her, and I have a feeling the slippers were a lot of money.

Delicious keeki. 　

Today is another free day, but we're not sure what we're up to yet. 

First Days: Long Excited Post

Hi!  I'm in Japan safe!

The day started out really early, with my family and I getting up around four o'clock.  We get there around 7:45 and check in, only to realize that my flight got delayed by five hours.  I felt like all my anxiety about the trip just go woosh out of my body, only for it to be replaced with a like "Ahhh" feeling.  My mom had to go, so she told me to call my dad who lives in the area.  I was really sad my mom wouldn't be there in the last moments before I left.  But I think it was a sign from the big man upstairs, or whoever upstairs, was giving me time to see my sister and my dad, who I canceled on visiting the day before.  I was really glad in the end that it happened, because I don't see them that often, and not seeing my sister (who went through a major surgery ages ago, but I never saw her) before I left for Japan for three months would have been terrible of me.

After fishing on the pier with my dad and hanging out with my sister at stores (like I wasn't about to go to another country for three months no sweat), I met up with my partner Yumie and boarded the plane!

Dad being very nice and letting some kids on a walk take a picture with him and a crab he caught.

The plane was all right, since it was United Airlines and no JAL or Virgin Airlines.  Their food was pretty good though.  One funny thing was that Big Bang's "Blue" was playing on the C-pop (Chinese pop) music channel on the airplane...  It took me a second to realize that wasn't quite right.

Yumie and I were freaking out about the Encho-sensei (head of the house) not being able to pick us up because of the flight delay, but there they were!  Poor Yumie's friend, who she even told not to pick us up because we had a ride, even waited there five hours for us.  :( 

The first night we just settled in.  Their accomodations are more than we expected.  I get my own room and even my own private bathroom!  And they gave us towels, shampoo, conditioner, etc.  I even have my own mini-fridge, and you don't even get that in hotels all the time.

The morning after, we had breakfast and met all of the staff.  Yumie and I totally bombed our jiko-shoukai (self-introduction).  We then walked around by ourselves in search of a combini because I missed my tuna onigiri.  Later O\our manager, Sato-sensei, took us out to exchange money at the same center where the Hello Kitty Land (Puro Land) is.  There was so many tall buildings everywhere!  We also figured out what Yumie's phone wasn't working, and then got me a train pass.

Afterwards, we played around the home a bit with two adorable girls.  Yumie then was pulled away from me and I must have had super nervous look on my face because one of the workers was like "Don't worry!"

I ate dinner at a house off-campus, and it was seriously fun!  One of the girls there is going to Seattle during the summer, and everyone, even the like two-year-old tried their best to use some English with me.  The older girl also plays soccer in high school!  I also got lucky because the worker that picked me up had been to the Philippines before and also was able to use English really well.  It was really fun, and I liked that they were able to achieve that family dynamic so well.  When I pulled out these jelly bean goody bags Yumie and I made they had so much fun asking what color was what flavor.  I hope to visit them again, since I won't be able to see them so much since they're off-campus.

Insert Picture of Jelly Beans later >o<

I'm a little bummed I won't be able to use my own netbook and video chat with my mom... But I understand that they don't quite understand my English and don't quite understand that I can just use their ethernet cord.  My mom probably won't be able to get the Skype running for a while anyway!  And I can at least text chat with her!  Gotta stay positive!



Overall the first few days were fun!  I'm definitely getting used to using my stumbling Japanese more.  And having Yumie with me is a life-saver for the nervousness.    I know a typed a ton here (probably because I had such a long but fun day) so here's a picture of their dog!

She's super adorable!  <3

Preparations!

Time has gone by so fast since I made my last post.

My partner and I are leaving on Monday!

I've been so busy finishing up school and then getting ready for everything.  Eleven weeks is starting more and more to seem like a lot of time!  Things that I normally don't have to worry about (like when I go on two-week long vacations) are starting to become things I have to think about.  Like: will my shampoo run out during my visit? should I bring a different style of clothes for when the season/weather changes?

I also think I'm nervous because I'm working in Japan, rather than simply going for vacation or studying abroad.  But while I think I'll face different challenges because of that, I think working in another country provides rare opportunities I wouldn't experience otherwise!  And maybe it'll prepare me for something more long-term like JET.  :)

I've been buying a lot of things from souvenirs for everyone to personal items I normally wouldn't need like bug spray.  My to-do list and packing list is so long.  (ー_ー)!! But I'm happy to say that most of the stuff is done and now I just need to pack.

Look at what I just got done with today:

A photo album to help me with conversations about things, and Japanese business or name cards, known as meishi.  My cousin's amazing girlfriend designed it for me, and dealt with me freaking out on what design to use.  In the end, I used the first one she did for me, haha.


Meishi are an integral part of the business side of Japan.  While I'm not going to represent a giant company or something, I wanted something I could hand back when people give me their cards.  When I went to Chichibu three years ago there were so many times someone gave me their card and I didn't have anything to hand back.  I also have a nice business card holder that my cousin gave to me!

I've bought somethings for the kids I'll be working with, and for previous host family.  I have bubbles, stickers and Jelly Bellies for the kids, and American things like Cocoa Pebbles and chicharone (okay, not exactly mainstream American...) for my host family.

Once I get to Japan I'm sure I won't be as nervous as I am right now!  But I know I'm going to be missing everyone a lot.

Obligatory Introduction Post

Having one's own travel blog seems to have been in style for a long time now, so I thought I'd try my hand at it!  

So this little spot on the internet is inspired roughly by my friend's travelling blogs.  :)  You can find them here: http://chaostravels.blogspot.com and http://slewis-adventure.blogspot.com  They're both amazing writers, and have had adventures of their own that I hope to match.

My upcoming adventure is actually an overseas internship, so I'll be staying in one place a little more than a normal adventure, but I hope that doesn't mean I won't have exciting tales to tell.

I will be working at a Japanese children's home through the program J-CHIP for ten weeks in the city of Machida, Tokyo at Bott Memorial Home.  I'm a little lucky because compared to other students in my program, I got placed in a pretty populated area, and I feel that there's more people at my home that speak English compared to others.  Nonetheless, I'm going to push myself to speak Japanese as often as I can and to get better in it!  I also applied for this program because I'm a Human Development major, and this is an amazing opportunity for me to further my experience in working with children.

Afterwards, I plan to stay a week with my host mother from my Antioch-Chichibu Sister City Organization 2009 trip.  

My partner is an amazing and sweet girl named Yumie.  :)  I expect to be hiding behind her a lot when I stumble over my Japanese, haha.  

Here's pictures of letters that we sent (that I stole from Yumie xD). 

They're cute, right?

We'll be leaving the end of June!  In the meantime I'll try to post things about my preparations for my trip, which will include buying gifts to give to the children.  We're thinking about making goody-bags together.  :)  For now though, I have to finish finals for school!