Pictures

Finally i have uploaded photos, i hope you enjoy them, please comment! Well here we have one of the rooms in the house. A whole heap of relatives came over the other day and it was really interesting to see the kind of ceremony thing they did. This room smells so good, of inscence so it is really nice!
Sorry this is sideways, not sure how to fix it as of yet but tilt your head! This is the bathroom. You have a shower out of the bath, and get perfectly clean and then once you have no soap or anything on you, you can get into the bath. The bath is red hot but awesome once you are in it. It is really deep too! There is a little stool to sit on while you have a shower but... i tend to just stand haha.
Grandad`s favourite food. I was so shocked and i am lost for words, i will leave it up to you. Slurping and burping here is polite which i am finding hard to overcome for those of you who know me even just a little.. you would understand how hard it is for me to keep a straight face sometimes haha.
Here is the view from my hotel room in Chiba. You have to wait for the chance to see in my room but how awesome is that view, don`t you agree! I was pretty high up, room 1204 to be exact!
Dinner. This is classically what i eat each night, the main meal just changes. This was at the Chiba OVTA Hotel and don`t ask what is in the big bowl, i am merely the consumer. Then there is lot`s of rice, miso soup and little pastry dumpling things filled with cream.

Ok, the picture above is of from the left, Michelle, Helen, Me and Rebekkah. It was taken at the Chiba OVTA Hotel and they are all from Australia and are all here for 10 months.
This picture is my house! The Hanzawa`s house! That is the front door and the house is actually really big but it is like a little maze.
This is my room and Maddie and Rach, see your lovely bag in the corner. My bed is really warm and you can see my blessed heater! I always have to turn off the heater when i leave the room and the lights, things like that are apparently expensive here.
Okonomiyaki! It was so so yummy and really filling. That is Miki and I, she is lovely and Mr. Hanzawa took the picture for me.

Well there you go, there is so much more to show and tell but for now this will have to suffice! I hope you are all well and i will talk again soon, also sorry for posting everyday but it is school holidays at the moment, i have a feeling that when i start school these posts will become less and less but yeah, thankyou very much for looking and commenting, it means a lot to me xxx

Sunshine

I woke up today at 7am which is rather lucky and i only got to do so because we have no plans today, these japanese people are very good with their time management haha. I got dressed, a fair few layers yet again and then made sure my room was clean etc. I opened my paper sliding door and said good morning to the whole family but mum and dad left a few minutes later to go to work. So Miki, myself and Grandad had breakfast. Rice, a salad with cold chips, eggplant, lettuce and what looked like cucumber but did not taste like it. There was also miso soup and a very pink fish thing that was really salty but i actually enjoyed. I washed all this down with a cup of coffee which they dont use teaspoons to make which really does not figure in my mind. Then, we sat down and watched this show where there is a guy who is dying and his wife is a writer and it is quite sad, even though it is in Japanese, it is still very sad, just ask Callum R what i am like when it comes to sad Japanese shows haha. Grandad went out so Miki and I took the dogs for a massive walk. It is super cool out there in Fukushima, i am in love. We went into Mikis primary school and it was super cool and i even cried, because i read this really sad book which was again in Japanese but i definately will hunt it down in a book shop because it is the saddest book i have ever read in my entire life. (It was a childrens book with pictures). Anyway, the cherry blossoms have started to bloom and have come out of no where so i got great pictures. We got home about twenty minutes ago and had lunch which was sandwiches, how japanese...
Now i am writing this and yeah, have no massive plans, just relaxing while you are all at school and work...

The language barrier is so difficult, my japanese is for sure improving but they dont talk the way we are taught it, Ms Wright, i thank you a trillion times over for introducing me to the plain form, i would be dead by now if i did not know it.

Anyway, it has only been a week and what a busy week it has been but i already feel pretty good in this home but i change on the 31st to Marina Yokouchi`s house so it is kind of exciting.

Until later, Melissa xxx

Japan

I love this place! Yesterday i went to school for an orientation. I did not wear my uniform as it was just orientation and we left home after breakfast at about seven thirty and dad drove us right to the school. Then, at school i had to take off me shoes and i got a shoe locker and wore my uwabaki. I was shunned to the library while they had a ceremony for the graduating students but while i was there, checking out the super-cool Harry Potter in Japanese, i heard an american fluent voice and that was when i first laid eyes on david, more like Jesus in my case. He is american and is an assistant language teacher and we talked for ages and he totally understands me and i ws so relieved to speak english fluently for a while but yes in japanese kept spilling out accidently. He kept laughing and understood and his japanese is limited too so it was nice, he knows exactly what i am on about.

Anyway, doubt this will work, it is the one hundreth one i have written and they do not work argh. Wish me luck xx

Report From Japan

Well, i wish i could say this post was full of damn information, i wrote about four pages and then lost it because the buttons are in Japanese!

Basically, damn it, i am soo angry! Ok, sorry about the wait this is the first computer i have had access to!

I was so sad to say goodbye at Adelaide, i tried to just keep walking but it was very very hard. I could see luke and my family through the glass as i boarded the plane, so i waved, but they could not see me wave which was really hard. Brisbane was, crappy! I was really sick but once i woke up at 4.45am to leave for Japan, my stomach ache was better.

I spent two nights in Chiba and i loved every minute of it. Orientation was great and i made good friends with the other AIIU students. On the first day i got to use the atm and thank goodness, it works! There are heaps of vending machines here and all the cars are perfectly square. It looks like a fake village because of how clean it is. I had my own hotel room in Chiba, where we stayed for orientation, the view of the city at night was amazing.

Yesterday we caught a bus into Tokyo. Tokyo was like i have never seen before, so amazingly big. We were at Tokyo station for a long time but the time came when Sean from Adelaide, Celvie from Seattle and myself had to catch the shinkansen to Fukushima. Celvie and Sean got off at Kuriyama, so i was on my own until Fukushima city.

When i got off, there were so many people waiting for me that i looked behind me thinking they were all waiting for someone else... they all laughed at me. The car ride home was awkward, it was me, Miki and her dad and then Marina and Sayoko who are my host sisters from other families. The language barrier is hard to overcome. We got to where they live and it is amazing. Their house is so japanese, it has sliding paper doors, tatami mats, low tables, massive shrines with inscence, heaps of calanders, toilet slippers, kitchen slippers, heaps of slippers! I have my own room which is nice and the house itself is kind of in the country. There are tombstones everywhere along the road, where the people have offered food to the gods, foods like coffee from vending machines and random modern things like that. The background is mountains that are covered in snow, it is beautiful.

I have been eating rice with every meal and luke if you read this, we went through the concept of wabaki at orientation! I just eat what i am given and say it is good, even if it isn`t. I had a traditional Japanese bath last night, the shower is actually a room and then you get in the bath once you have had your shower. Grandad goes first, then Miki then me then Mr. Hanzawa then mum. The damn tap, even though i would turn it to hot, it would be freezing cold and i could not work it out and i froze until i got to get in the bath!

I slept like a log last night, very comfortable. This morning i had to sweep the hallways, i was glad to have a job, makes me feel more at home. Today Miki and i went shopping and i bought a skirt and a neck-tie thing, the ribbon ones. I love everything about this place, so far, it is amazing and i am so glad i am here. The other orientation students who have been before for three months said you have to make the most of each day because time really does fly.

Well, hopefully i do not loose the whole lot of this AGAIN! Sorry it is rushed, i do not want to be on the computer too much. I love you all and you are in my thoughts but i am having a brilliant time.

Sorry for making you wait, i could not get to a computer. xxx

This Is It

Never ever thought i'd be writing this post. It's still dark, i am drinking a cup of milo from my elvis mug, wearing my warm morning socks, and feel like i'm on another planet. I can't believe that today i step onto a plane, and ok, i am not quite flying to Tokyo today, but Brisbane. That is scary enough, this is the last post from my house.

Well, i wish i had some amazing feeling of excitement, anticipation, which i do.. but it's not that strong, i feel more.. detatched from what i am actually doing.

So, thankyou, i will talk to you again somewhere around the world, whenever i find a computer, wherever that may be...

Now is the biggest chapter of my adventure.

The First Challenge

Perhaps something that has been on my mind worse than Japan.. my driver's liscence. I got it! Finally, i am so relieved. It seems a bit pathetic that it worried me so much, but a final drive you fail or pass where as Japan, there is no failing option.

It is a great relief and has set me up now so that all i need to focus on is having the time of my life when i'm away. Here is a picture of Rach and I on Friday night before we went out to 'the last supper' (for twelve weeks). I thought visual aids might soften the website up a bit!

I'll write again soon when i get the chance. xx

One Week

So long since i've written, it's just that i've been really busy but now it is only a week! I have started packing, it is so surreal, i can't believe i am going!

School work is maybe at it's peak, but i am getting through, i just need to not get wrapped up in it.

Today i spoke to some of the Tachibana students and teachers, they are at my school on exchange for a few weeks so i am really lucky to meet them before i go, it's good for them to see where i come from i reckon, so they can understand my background a bit better.

My sensei is so lovely, i am lucky she is here. She gave me a little teddy keyring which is made of Japanese silk, i love it so much and it is one of those things that just make you smile :) She is so lovely and i really can not wait!

Only a little stressed over the things i need to get done before i go but besides that i have no regrets or ... things i am doubting, i just can't wait. Tomorrow and then Friday will be my last days at school. Friday afternoon is the twilight food affair then on Saturday night going out with the girls to say proper goodbye, which will be sad but great fun! Then just homework, homework.. which i should be doing now!

Anyway, just a rambling blog to get you up to date, i will write before i leave for the airport, then, the next post will be from Japan! Goodness me!

Suddenly i see, why the hell it means so much to me...