I think Im going to be switching back to my xanga. Yes i know i switched to mindsay to stop using xanga, but now i want to use the private posting that xanga has, which i could do here, but not as easily. so yea.
By the time I got home last night, I had traveled so much that all the details had begun to blur. So now in an attempt to recall everything I will start from Friday..well, Japan's friday.
I woke up on FRIDAY at 7:30 am ( god i am having to readjust to the keyboards here lol) which would be 6:30 PM on Thursday in KY. So i ate breakfast with the host family, hung out with them, took some pictures, and then at 9:50 my host mom and I hopped in the car *first transportation step for the day* and went to the station where we were met by 2 of my classmates who had bought me some snacks from a store at the station, and we also met my English teacher there and the AYUSA rep who was gunna ride the shinkansen (bullet train) with me and then help me get on the limousine bus.
So then the next step was waiting for like 30 minutes since we got there early, then Nemoto-san and I hopped on the bullet train, sat on that for an hour, got off at Oomiya and rushed to the limousine bus place (think like Greyhound buses) and we waited for about 10 minutes there or whatever and then I had an hour and 45 minute bus ride, where I managed to get off at the right terminal and with some confusion about how to get my electronic tickets at the airport, I was quickly on my way and through security. When I first walked into Narita, however, I was overwhelmed--GAIJIN! everywhere! (which is funny because i AM a gaijin) Most were fat and tall businessman. I probably saw like 2 women haha. AND I SAW A BAND THERE! dunno who they were though. THEY WERE DEFINETELY SOME ROCK BAND THOUGH. IT was clear by their hair, clothes, and I saw them talking to airport people about these huge metal cases they had *which probably held guitars and stuff in it*. One of them had a shirt on that plainly said the Constantines on it. I think they were on my flight but in first class or something because i never saw them--but it would make sense because my flight was going to CA>
So I navigated through Narita, sat around for like an hour maybe (and thats even after taking some time to find food) and got stared at by some crazy looking Korean woman--with my luck, I ended up sitting near this huge group of Korean tourists..and I got confused because I was like that CANNOT be Japanese..NO..if it is then i know NOTHING..but then i saw one of their bags and yes they were korean..AND THEIR CLOTHES WERE SO UGLY! One woman had a bright purple and pink outfit on, topped off with light brown loafers of some sort.
My flight from Tokyo to San Francisco was 9 or so hours? I think? I had a middle seat -_- but luckily they were both small women on both sides of me. One was Chinese and the other was Japanese (she was in college and she was comin to the US to study..i was impressed because she didnt have an accent).They played 3 movies--madagascar (i had already seen that so i tried sleeping during it but that didnt happen), monster-in-law (that surprised me as actually being pretty good), and kicking and screaming. I tried sleeping during the latter movie too but that didnt happen.
So i had a lovely layover in San Francisco too and I noticed that my plane was going to leave late so i asked a worker about it and said oh its still expected to get in a few minutes early though (the board said it was running 10 minutes late)...So by the time everyone finally gets on the plane, we sit there for a while and the captain tells us we are 15th in line! FIFTEEENTH! We left an hour late. Oh and by the way I had another middle seat, this time squeezed between 2 bigger men. And the plane played Monster-In-Law grrrr. I managed to sleep a bit during this flight.
My plane ended up getting in 20 minutes late. So that was 8:20. My next plane was leaving at 8:40. Thanks Continental. YOU SUCK! I almost didnt make it home. I was sooo stressed about it. The stewardess on the plane asked everyone staying in Cleveland to sit in their seats to let the people who need to catch their flights to do so. BUT DID THEY LISTEN?! no! Some guy was standing in the aisle to put his coat on...AND HE HAD A CLEVELAND IDIANS HAT ON so the guy behind me in line spazzed out about it (we were in Cleveland, Ohio so he assumed the guy lived here)
Its pretty scary to see a bunch of adults start yelling at other adults. But I understand their situation because I mean, I was in it. I almost got to the point where i was going to say "Would you want your 15 year old daughter stuck in some city for a night when she could've made it home?" (i think a lot of people assumed i was a college student when they heard i was getting back from japan...because someone was like what were you studying? 'Japanese' well i kinda knew that..)
I had no idea where my gate was, so I asked teh stewardess as I was getting off and she was like OH thats FAR away. The guy behind me turned out to be going to Louisville also, so THANK GOD he helped me find it. It was the FURTHEST terminal it could be from my terminal aithjepiothes. We were practically running! And the continental workers were like "OH so you made it?" its not our fault your company was late! But luckily somehow my luggage made it. -woo-
Anyway i cant do anything this weekend or probably the next because of having to catch up (and this weekend my parents want me to get some rest so i can adjust to the times so i am ready for school..i went to bed at 12:30 last night and got up at 7 this morning haha...im really surprised though because its 8:30 now and the sun STILL hasnt risen yet..so its like crazy for me) but I think im buying Nintendo DS today so then at least i will have something to do besides work.
I return home tomorrow. Its gunna be one hell of a friday (i leave on friday, and get back to louisville on FRIDAY at 10 pm)
I feel sad about leaving, but I understand it is important for me to go. Like Suzanne said "Japan will always be there".
Going back to real English will be strange. In English class yesterday they were working on changing sentences to a different form. Not sure what form that is hahah but all of the sentences worked except for one. It was
Eating is not allowed in the classroom. Which, according to my teachers textbook, was supposed to become Eating must not be allowed in the classroom. Umm, is it just me or do those sentences carry slightly different meanings? I tried explaining to my teacher that a teacher would sound very strange telling a student "Eating must not be allowed in the classroom". If a principal was telling a teacher that was letting their kids eat in the classroom, he would say "eating must not be allowed in the classroom" and then the teacher would tell the kids "Eating is not allowed in the classroom". Follow me? So I told my teacher that "Eating must not be DONE in the classroom" made more sense, but she was like "The textbook says..." ehtisjesfhsuit. What do you think?
Oh and when she wrote done on the board, I spazzed out. For some reason done looked really foreign to me and actually looking at it right now, it still does. AHHHHH..
By the way everyone pronunces 'been' as 'BEAN' so when I was helping some girl on her English homework she gave me a blank stare when I said 'been'. I had to write it down for her and she was like 'OH BEEEEAN'. Um no.
i'll see ya'll 'gain soon.
So.
Im going home. On friday. So after today I've only got Wednesday and Thursday as real days, but I probably wont be leaving until late afternoon (somewhere between 4-6) on Friday. Tomorrow is my last day of school in Japan. I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but I know that I should try to make the best of it.
Today was such a boring day. My host mom had work, my grandparents were out in the field, and my host sister sat around watching TV (and then she went out elsewhere...dont blame her). So all I've done today is woke up, got on the computer, ate, got back on the computer, went out to lunch with the nearby ALT (mmm spaghetti!), got back on the computer, ate (a little repetitive, eh?), went upstairs to sleep and well....I couldn't sleep. I thought about a lot of stuff. After that I sucked it up and finally decided to go to the grocery store and somehow managed to find it woo.
Anyway I thought about a lot of stuff while I tried to sleep (I spent maybe an hour or an hour and a half trying to fall asleep..failure). A big thought was of course about going home. I have mixed feelings about it. I'd stay here if it wasnt for my personal problem, so its a bit sad. And when I get home I know I'm going to have a lot of makeup work to do. It doesn't help when people tell me "Oh I'm so sorry, this was your dream and now this..." or "You're problem isnt big..Even if ------------------- happens, then its fine. Get over it" or "YOURE GOING TO HAVE SOOO MUCH WORK TO DO..WHAT ARE GOING TO DO" and I just want to say shut up, dont make me pessimistic.
Then another thought I had. Ive been thinking a lot about last year. And thought if I had been brave enough, I wouldn't have screwed over my relationship with someone by lying to myself, telling myself that i didnt love them and it was a shitty relationship. But really...looking back on it it wasnt. It was probably the best relationship Ill have had for a while, even with all the problems it had (which couldve easily been fixed had i not been so stupid!) And now there is nothing I can do about it. But I'll get over it eventually I guess...so yea
HAHAHAHAH my host mom just gave me these pics she took at the welcoming party (and some from the festival this weekend) in 2 of the pictures i look high in, 2 of them are ok, one of them i was talking in so my mouth is open at a strange angle, and one of them is just plain ugly. I now have pics of Chiaki, Rena, Testuya, and Keiya now though so that makes me happy.
I decided to make some cultural notes about things here, because I forgot what I was writing about (Oh yeah, I bought a bunch of presents today and I think I spent a total of $90 here...on presents...but I'm not sure..haha..so I could only buy stuff for a few friends and my family and my japanese teacher..sorry if i didnt get anything for one of you, its just that it was getting so expensive..hell, a pen around here costs like 150 yen which is maybe a bit less than $1.50 USD..)
You know you're in Japan when:
-Your 30 year old (host) sister watches Hamtaro in the afternoons (I thought that was only a little kids show!)
-You see vending machines EVERYWHERE (I can walk down my street and get a drink if I want..keep in mind I live in a little neighborhood surrounded by ricefields EVERYWHERE)
-People DO wear those yellow straw hat things that you thought do not exist anymore
-People DO wear their school uniforms out shopping even when there was no school that day (i saw some girl at the library wearing my school's uniform but there was no school today?)
-Most doors and windows slide open and shut (well, not all of them but a lot of them do)
-The toilets in my house are automatic flushers, but you can also choose between a 'small' flush and a 'big' flush (I read somewhere that the 'small' flush was for when people are trying to cover up the sounds they make in the bathroom hahahah...). Also there are special ass washing options/bidet option and you can choose different water options. Keep in mind this is at my HOUSE (we have 2 of those toliets, as well as an old fashioned 'squatter toilet')
-Because there is no AC in my school (and just about EVERYWHERE else for that matter), kids will bring paper/plastic (not the battery run kind) fans to fan themselves and a lot of japanese people carry towels around to wipe sweat off of them (which is why you never really see a sweaty Japanese person! either that they have smaller pores than we do -.-)
-At Japanese meals, about 4-7 or so different dishes are served and they take a bite of each one (in the US I think most people just focus on one thing at a time...meaning we finish our chicken than move onto the pasta...but in Japan its like a bit of fish, bite of nasu (eggplant i think), some rice, some miso, some more fish...So my host mom doesnt understand why I focus on one thing at a time
-If you are skilled at chopsticks, people will be amazed. If you lack chopsticks skills, they will laugh at you and hand you a fork (there is actually a Japanese girl in my class who is bad at chopsticks so she always eats with a fork)
-Japanese peanut butter is different from peanut butter in the US...I decided that its texture (and sweetness) is almost similiar to caramel. Almost.
-The cereal 'Frosted Flakes' is called 'Corn Frosties' or just 'Frosties' (it says both on the box). I guess 'Frosted Flakes' was just too much of a mouthfull for them?
-Bread is sold in packages of like 6 or 8 or some strange number, the bread seems to be of a larger size than bread slices in the US. Additionally, the ends of the loaves (wait is that how you spell it?) arent in the bag.
-Milk tastes...different...here. Im not sure how to describe it. One of the other JYSers says it tastes like cream, but i wouldnt know. And a lot of juice drinks are more like soda..except..not carbonated
-The word 'chocolate' is shortened to 'choco' and chocolate milk is called Kokoa Miriku (Cocoa Milk). okay...?
Well I cant think of anything else to say and this post is already REALLLY long..so thanks for reading it!
