Social Moon Firesky
07-19-2005, 12:24 PM
Whoooooooo! I've just recovered from jet-lag (That sucked BIG time!) and I'm gonna try and recount my tales from Japan. It's gonna be difficult though, 'cos of all the things we did. To make it easier on me, please PM me any questions you have, otherwise I'll get confused and I'll have to back-track, and THAT'S NOT GOOD, PEOPLE!
First off, Japan was hot, but not as hot as Spain, which was good. It was comfortably hot. Secondly, all the people were really nice, despite most of them not talking fluent English. I only met a handful of people who spoke fluent English, and they were reverred to like a holy saint. And I surprised a lot of my home stay families by talking Japanese.
Home stay families:
Ebetsu, Sapporo - My family was lovely! They were the first family I stayed with, and they had 5 kids; 3 daughters and 2 sons. I loved the kids so much, and have officially adopted them all! :D They were all younger than me, which made them even more cute!
I missed a day with them though, 'cos of really bad weather at Heathrow, which meant that our flight was delayed 3 hours, and we had to spend the night in a hotel. When we finally arrived in Sapporo, my Japanese friend Shiho (Headmistress of the school we visited) launched herself at me and gave me a massive hug! I felt so loved! :)
The first few hours with my home stay mother, Naomi, were really awkward, as she didn't speak any English, and I couldn't understand her Japanese, so we just sat in silence. Then she picked up her eldest son, Kenji (12), who could actually speak a little English, and after that, everything went swimmingly.
We went to a pachinko centre (Slot machines, pinball, etc.) and played at the slots, and then got puri-kura (Mini photos) done! It was excellent! (I'll scan them at some point) Then we went home and Kenji and I went off to meet his little sister, Chiaki. I had to ride a scooter...Ho-hum. The less said about that, the better. I did fall off at one point, and ended up with 2 fat old bruises on both my legs. Owies...:cry:
Chiaki (8) was so cute! We went and played dodgeball with her and her friends at the local park, and then we climbed about on the climbing frames! All the kids were about 8 or 9, so I felt at home playing with them. :) I took pictures of the park's 'Japanese-style' toilet, and you literally have to see it to believe it. It's like a very advanced squat loo. (Pictures will be provided at a later date)
After a while, we went home and I met Yuichi (9) and Chiharu (10) Chisato (13) came home from school with her report card, and her mother showed it to me and was completely shocked because of all the 'akaten' (Bad marks) I explained that my report cards always looked like that, and we had a good laugh about it all. We then ate dinner, and watched TV for a while (VERY INTERESTING! I :<3: Japanese comedy! :D) Afterwards, I had a shower and then the dad came home and I introduced myself and went to bed.
Well, that's all for today! More will be posted whenever, and I'll probably edit this at some point and add a bit more on, as soon as I remeber what I did. :)
First off, Japan was hot, but not as hot as Spain, which was good. It was comfortably hot. Secondly, all the people were really nice, despite most of them not talking fluent English. I only met a handful of people who spoke fluent English, and they were reverred to like a holy saint. And I surprised a lot of my home stay families by talking Japanese.
Home stay families:
Ebetsu, Sapporo - My family was lovely! They were the first family I stayed with, and they had 5 kids; 3 daughters and 2 sons. I loved the kids so much, and have officially adopted them all! :D They were all younger than me, which made them even more cute!
I missed a day with them though, 'cos of really bad weather at Heathrow, which meant that our flight was delayed 3 hours, and we had to spend the night in a hotel. When we finally arrived in Sapporo, my Japanese friend Shiho (Headmistress of the school we visited) launched herself at me and gave me a massive hug! I felt so loved! :)
The first few hours with my home stay mother, Naomi, were really awkward, as she didn't speak any English, and I couldn't understand her Japanese, so we just sat in silence. Then she picked up her eldest son, Kenji (12), who could actually speak a little English, and after that, everything went swimmingly.
We went to a pachinko centre (Slot machines, pinball, etc.) and played at the slots, and then got puri-kura (Mini photos) done! It was excellent! (I'll scan them at some point) Then we went home and Kenji and I went off to meet his little sister, Chiaki. I had to ride a scooter...Ho-hum. The less said about that, the better. I did fall off at one point, and ended up with 2 fat old bruises on both my legs. Owies...:cry:
Chiaki (8) was so cute! We went and played dodgeball with her and her friends at the local park, and then we climbed about on the climbing frames! All the kids were about 8 or 9, so I felt at home playing with them. :) I took pictures of the park's 'Japanese-style' toilet, and you literally have to see it to believe it. It's like a very advanced squat loo. (Pictures will be provided at a later date)
After a while, we went home and I met Yuichi (9) and Chiharu (10) Chisato (13) came home from school with her report card, and her mother showed it to me and was completely shocked because of all the 'akaten' (Bad marks) I explained that my report cards always looked like that, and we had a good laugh about it all. We then ate dinner, and watched TV for a while (VERY INTERESTING! I :<3: Japanese comedy! :D) Afterwards, I had a shower and then the dad came home and I introduced myself and went to bed.
Well, that's all for today! More will be posted whenever, and I'll probably edit this at some point and add a bit more on, as soon as I remeber what I did. :)