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