Ashley's Moving Castle and Fireworks

My castle is my suitcase and it moves around. Anywho...

Woot.

So, on Saturday the 26th I moved house. I packed that morning, and tried to remember to get everything under wraps but as you know there always is something that has to be left behind, it is just rite of passage, isn't it? Don't worry, it was only my loafers, it was just lucky that I saw Yui on Sunday so she could return them to me before school started.

I left the house around 3-ish after having like a little Pizza Party thrown with the family, I don't know why pizza but it was nice all the same.

The family, minus Yui and Kouta.

When I gave them their thank you card they gave me cute little farewell notes in from each member of the family in Japanese, of course, which meant it took me forever to read them all but the sentiment was there and I did tear up a few times. Moving was harder than I though. I mean, I did live with them for three months, ridiculously loud and annoying or not.

So, 3-ish we (just the mum and dad) left the house, the hardest person to leave I found was Ojiichan. He is just the cutest little man and even though I didn't understand him half the time, we really did get along. He was just sweet in the whole, old-man way.

Ojiichan and Obaachan

We made our way to like, Higashi-Isahaya were we met Akane and her mother at the front of a big drugstore called Cosmos. When I saw the sign in the car I felt my stomach sink. Just the whole re-adjustment thing in itself would be hard, but Yui had previously said that Akane's mother sounded scary or something which made me scared. In truth, she isn't all that scary but just having the preconception that she was made evrything a little more tense and made me a lot more nervous.

But, we met and everything was fine. I cried a little when saying good bye but I tried not to so the next family wouldn't feel bad. I felt a little bit like property being handed over so simply, ah well...

In the car, it wasn't too bad, the house is pretty close and thankfully, it wasn't the hole I thought it to be. It isn't Nagasaki by a long shot but it also isn't the desolate little farm house I expected. I have my own room with a cooler to fend off all of the evil Japanese heat waves. Stupid summer. And I have a dog, it's not Lucy but Chako and it is nowhere near as cute but it is nice to have a dog again. Chako didn't really like me at first but we are already on our way to becoming fast friends mostly due to the fact that I continuosly pat him and give him the attention I've wanted to give to Lucy over the last three months.

The first night, Nozomi, the younger sister, had friends over. They were so cute and they asked for my autograph. Epic Lolz. So I wrote my name, signed it, drew a smiley face and dedicated it to them. They thought that was pretty cool, don't blame them, they are only like 10.

So, all in all the weekend itself went pretty quickly. On Sunday we went to the train station to figure out my ticket and did a little bit of shopping, I didn't buy anything, it was mostly 100 yen stores. Sunday afternoon, Akane and I went to check out some little local festival which happens like once a year, it is a Taiko (Drum) festival to celebrate having finished the harvesting of the rice or somehing. It basically consisted of the people in that area playing flutes and one big drum and two little ones.

Some of the kids playing the flute songs by memory. The girl on the left is one of the girls I gave an autograph too and the one on the right is Nozomi, the younger sister. After a while, one of the Dad's dragged Akane kicking and screaming up to play the flute for one song.

Most of the people there were just kids but I still think it is really charming how everyone knows these Japanese culture drum rituals that we wouldn't even think of in Australia. Just shows that it is different.

Sunday night, the most of Kokomi (Our class name) gathered together at a YakiNiku bar, one of the ones were you have your own little grill in the middle. For around 35 dollars you could get all you can eat from the menu, mostly meat and vegetables, and free use of the drink and fairy floss bar. The food was really good, it just kept you wanting more. The meat was really nice quality and it was always hot as it came straight of the grill. That was an offer too fun to pass up. In all about 30/40 students turned up, the party was a farewell to the 4 students going to Melbourne in a week or so and Yui who is going to Canada soon-ish.

This is Kiyo-chan, he is our 学院長 (gakuinchou) our class leader. His voice is quite high and he likes anime, he did the Suzumiya dance for me. Lolz. Oh, by the way, did you know a second season of Haruhi has just started. They've released two episodes so far.

This is Shigeru who everyone just calls Geru. Everyone pays him out about being dumb but it is always jokingly and he takes it in good humor.

After eating massive expanses of food, we did the whole 'illegal fireworks' thing that Japanese people seem so fond of doing here.

Kiyo with fireworks.

Arina with Morishita behind.

Mako, left, and Hikari playing with fireworks.

Akane, a.k.a Baby as we have two Akane's in the class. This is the one I'm not staying with.

Not to mention that we had a couple get together which is super cute but they are both pretty shy around each other still. Hopefully that will wear off. I think the class is making it a little awkward for them.

Kosaka and Anna

And can you believe that the guy in the above photo is actually the guy in the photo below too?

I have new train buddies, they are Akane's friends and they seem really nice. I hope we can go out in the holidays which are coming up pretty soon. I want to try and go out with people from the class a lot but not having a phone in the holidays is a definite disadvantage.

Today, we cooked Chanhan which is basically like Chinese fried rice but not so greasy and some soup with Carrot and Daikon (Japanese radish) that was for lunch and now, in like 10 minutes I have double sport. How horrible is that, we have double sport every day this week in preperation for Taikasai. Ewww...Lolz, sport is finished now and we had to decide on activities for Taikasai. How hilarious, I am doing tug-o-war and this odd race wear two people wear a giant pair of pants, one leg each, and run a short distance. That is going to be really embarrassing but it is a lot better than doing the 800 meters or something.

I got my Chocolate. Thank you mummy, absolute life saver. The book too, I don't know when I will be able to get to the library. For your trouble you can have a strange English t-shirt I found at Shimamura.

<3

Ashley-chan

I Saw A U.F.O

But U.F.O isn't apart of my Japanese vocabulary so I didn't tell anyone.
They didn't even have the chance to not believe me.

It was Saturday night and we were going out for Udon at a restaurant around the corner and I was waiting outside because I am always the first one ready. So, I'm leaning on the railing outside and from behind a mountain I suddenly see four or five bright yellow/whitish lights in a row, each one the shape of a square with rounded off corners and occasionally one or two of the windows would suddenly sparkle red. It moved in a straight line, it was close but there was no noise, and it definently wasn't a plane.

I have absolutely no idea what it was. None at all.

Udon was ok but I got Udon with egg, turns out the egg was raw which kind of turned me off it. I thought it was cooked. Saturday, I didn't really do anything, oh I went to the library and finished reading Needful Things by Stephen King. I didn't borrow anything this week as I thought it might be difficult moving house and everything. Luckily they have a few novels in the staff room where I spend my spares so I'll just read them for the time being. They are fantasy too which is just my luck. Artemis Fowl, and the first two books of some Raymond E. Feist series who I've heard of but never read.

Angst.

Satuday I went to Shimabara with Ojiichan and Obaachan, we visited Obaachan's (Grandmother's) older brother and sister. It seemed that both of them ran some sort of farming company or something as we came home with a ridiculous amount of vegetables. Potatoes, Corn, Beans, Pumpkins, Eggplant and some stuff I didn't recognise. Afterwards we had lunch at Joyfull. Joyfull is cool, it is the hamburger restaurant. I had a meat patty with a fried egg and gravy which was good. It was like a mini pot roast.

We got home at about one or two and then I slept for a little while.

Officially have finished downloading Lovely Complex, (I didn't put that on your list did I, mum?)I'm halfway through Nana and am just starting Neon Genesis Evangelion which is a little old but is popular over here. Along with Gundam and (regrettably) Naruto, but the new manga called Pandora Hearts has caught my attention.

The most popular band here that I've noticed is Greeeen which everyone knows but no one has ever seen the faces of the band members. Interesting.

Oh, yeah. Remember that essay I wrote in order to apply for a scholarship to Global Village. Well, I got a scholarship, Huzzah. A full one which means both my camp admission fee and my travel costs are paid for by JFIE. The only thing I am risking is my health with Swine Flu being in Tokyo, although it has officially made it's way to Nagasaki and no one is panicking down here.

I'm not freaking out, I'll just try and be careful, whether it is dangerous or not, I don't want it.

I wrote my newsletter thing and will post it next time as I've run out of time for now. I didn't even plan on doing a blog but I came on the early train so that I could email my mother. Consider yourselves lucky. From Tuesday it is exams again so I might possibly be in early all week so Yui can study. I don't know though so don't get your hopes up. It just means lots of spares for me. ^_~

<3

Ashley-chan

Photographic Festivities

Shock horror!

I promised pictures and, true to my word, here they are only like a day or two later. Can't complain, right. So, this is my photo shoot although it was mostly done by myself. I'm glad that I have become accustomed to taking photos of myself as this made me get some semi-decent results in a fairly short time. They stuck me in a Yukata and left me alone to play with my camera, what did they expect?


So, when I was getting dressed up, Hitomi decided she wanted to join in the fun and quickly dressed. The bow on the back, which I don't think you can see in any of the photos is a clip on which I was thankful for. The real ones suck the breathe out of you like nobody's business. ((Which nobody, I don't know. Probably Zexion, cause he's my favourite. Sorry, suffering from lack of Demyx Time.))



This photo (above) was taken in the lower half of the house, where the Grandma and Grandpa live. Ojiichan is the cutest, little Japanese man you've every seen. I'll try and knock up a photo of him sometime. He's a classic. This room they have all sorts of odd things, including Karaoke, which made me laugh.

The rest of these I took myself so I apologise for the myspace-like quality that they have to them. I tried to be a smidge creative so you lot wouldn't get bored. Here are some of the results:



The following picture is an ode to Jack.

I'm posing in front of the alter where both Yui's mother and grandmother pray every morning. Once, while I was reading in the afternoon, some random dressed in black came in, prayed and excused herself with only minimal words passed between us. I assumed she was a relative or something, I don't know what she thought of me.

The picture is dedicated to Jack, ((I don't even know if he reads this blog, probably not)) because when we first visited Japan in 2006, Jack ((I'm pretty sure it was Jack)) altered the Mickey jingle for Buddha and everytime we went to a temple, threw in our money and prayed; we both, unfailably, muttered this jingle in our heads or under our breaths. Nothing against Buddha, just for kicks.

Indeed, when Yui's mother and I went visiting Dejima and the other temples, she gave me a five yen coin to throw into the offering box and I couldn't help but think of this jingle as she prayed sincerely next to me.

I really want to do Purikura by myself, as lame as that sounds, so I can do a bunch of ZOMG! T3h Ashley is in Japan! pictures but without a phone, they would probably turn out bad and it isn't worth the money or the embarrassment if it doesn't work. I could get Yui or someone to come with me and put in on their phone but I would feel like a bit of a twat asking them to wait outside while I take ego-motivated pictures of myself. So, you'll just have to deal with Gaia type signage. Soz.

I have an exchange student article to write, if you'll excuse me.

<3

Ashley-chan.

Lucky Ducks

Well, aren't you lucky ducks. Today two of our english teachers are away which results in us having a double spare in the classroom. Me, being me, immediately called dibs on the computer as I remembered I had forgotten that I still had purikura to show you from like 2 weeks ago.

I like this lot, iti is nice and colourful, don't you think?

Oh, yeah. A little story from this day. Basically, Yui and went out in Nagasaki for the day. We went to Ami Plaza which is at Nagasaki Station where Yui went nuts over some guy named Kosuke Something...who works at K-42 and previously had stared on the TV love, reality show called Love Bus. I think. I don't remember the Japanese name it was something like nori-basu where 4 Japanese women and 4 men were chosen to travel around the world in a bus. They went on dates and such in the countries they visited. However, if one person wanted to admit a crush to the other person, they had to ask them to return to Japan with them. If the person said yes, they went home happy, if the person said no, the asker must return to Japan by his or herself.

I don't know what happened to Kosuke what's-his-name...

We got a photo, you have to buy something from the shop to get one though and the lowest priced item is around 10 bucks. It is a pretty clever marketing scheme. There was also another guy from the show that worked there but I think he was a second torch when compared to Kosuke. I talked to them a little, told them where I was from and such. Yui just stood there looking raptured, muttering out some words of adoration. I feel sorry for them if they have to put up with that everyday...

Afterwards, we went to Seiyu and I found the first, semi-decent anime shop. I was so tempted to buy everything that I ended coming away with nothing. So much choice and so little time. Plus, I have to think about weight, practicality and whether I will still want it when I get home as an adult.

After, we went to Karaoke. Karaoke had free icecream and drinks for the two hours we rented our room. If it was me, I would have spent more time at the icecream bar than singing but Yui and I only ended up going down there twice. Damn, shame that. In my opinion.

Then we ran around a little plaza thing and just as we were getting games and manga and stuff, after being dragged around clothing stores, we had to go, which epically sucked. I wanted to look for Ouran Host Club DS game...not to mention...

ZOMFGODZORZ! They have Kingdom Hearts, 358/2.

Do you know how exciting that it? Japan is the only place in the world right now that sells this game, and I want but refuse to buy it as Kingdom Hearts is too precious to me, (being one of my favourite games) to buy in Japanese and not understand. I would rather wait for the English version which should be out by the time I get back anyway...If it isn't I'll buy it in Japanese.

They also have Vampire Knight and Kuroshitsuji DS games which I will buy eventually but right now, even the second-hand ones are still expensive as the game is fairly new. It will go down , and I can wait in the meantime with Subarashiki kono sekai, which is like the new Kingdom Hearts by Square Enix. Huzzah.

I recommend it, although I bet it is released in English now. Fortunately, I know enough Japanese to figure out most of the cutscenes. And when I don't Shiki (the girl on the right) helps me out by saying, "Let's go here!" and then I scan and talk to everyone until something happens.

I've sworn to myself to only by games that I can get in Japan, I won't by games that I can get in Australia. With the above game, the only exception. If I can't buy Kingdom Hearts, I had to have something Square Enix, Final Fantasy is too plot based for me to understand...

So, for the second time today.

<3

Ashley-chan

P.s: I was thinking about this as I was looking at my USB, Jenna, if you actually read this, have you found my USB at home yet. I hope you have so you could finish Code Geass R2. Code Geass is great, isn't it?

Huzzah.

For nothing in particular.

Harry Potter comes out in Japan in exactly one month today. Yes!

So, I had a little bit of fun on the weekend, I did a little mini photoshoot wearing one of Yui's Yukata's and I prepeared to show you the pictures in all my glory. I brought my camera cord and my ipod cord but unfortunately, my camera forgot to make the customary switch from weekend bag to school bag. So, I'm sorry. I really am. No computer at home this week nor any late afternoons which gave me no time to blog beforehand.

Life has kind of just faded into normal life which is like meh. It is nice to have spares during school although I spend most of these studying or sleeping. I don't have access to a computer during these spares otherwise you people would be bombarded which you would probably prefer to a simple lack of contact. At least I blog once every ten days, I'm trying.

I don't remember what I wrote in my last blog, so sorry if I am repeating myself. I move in like two weeks. Inside me, a small mod is dancing in a poncho because of this. On the other side, a dark and moody man with the eyes of a shrew is fretting about the situation to come. Ten points to whoever can name this painfully obvious reference.

Apparently, my next family lives out in what my mother would call, Paddy Land. Not to mention that soon my train pass runs out and I have to learn where all the fun things are in a whole new area of Nagasaki, then only to return back to the original place.

My mother told me about the largest anime shop in Kyuushuu. I'm super excited about going although I currently have no plans to go. It is in Fukuoka after all. I'm saving my money so that I can go on a spending-spree when I go. And I will go. Call it, positive thinking.

Last night, we went to Nagasaki to see the view from the top of a small mountain. I think it is one of the nicest night views in Japan according to Ichiko, Yui's mother. It was quite nice but didn't rival the view from the Q1.

Oh, I ate for the first time at a family restaurant called Joyful. They specialise in hamburgers. Japanese hamburgers don't have bread involved, they only eat the meat paddy. WTF? That is hardly a burger in my opinion, it is just a poor, solitary, meat paddy. But, regardless, it was quite nice. I had my meat paddy with a rash of bacon, pineapple and a small blob of spaghetti on the side. Never fear, the burger itself was pretty small. And I got to use a knife and fork for the first time in, like, forever. It was fun to watch everyone else use knives and forks. They could do it, but the weren't quite as dignified as I was, which is saying a lot because my table manners aren't exactly something to be desired. Don't worry, Katherine. You are still better than me at using chopsticks.

I'll just beat you at speaking, reading, writing and understanding Japanese. Fair price to pay? You can slaughter me at Chinese though.

Gosh darnit. Class starts in like 5 minutes so I have to get off the computer. Sorry about the haphazard post. I'll make sure my next post is a killer.

<3

Ashley-chan

P.s- I have earned, kind of, my first nickname. It isn't really used as a nickname but it is used to refer to my eyes. 向日葵　（ひまわり）It means sunflower, they say that because of the frill of green that surrounds my pupil. Apparently, it looks like a sunflower. ^_~

Things I like and Things I don't

For the record: I dislike sport and I like Sadou bu （茶道部）Tea Ceremony Club, though those that know me would already know that, right?

I apologize. I am a liar again. This weekend is not called Taikasai, it is called Kousoutai. Taikasai is later in the year in which everyone competes, marches, and does the embarrassing Isahaya prefecture dance known as Nonoka. Nonoka is more commonly known as the Dish Dance, as everyone holds two small plates in each hand and brings them together to make a happy little sound as we dance.

Yes, I can do it. It took me a while, but I can do it now. Me and Obaa, (Nickname, apparently she looks like a grandma, Obaasan. Real name: Fumiko) were like the only ones that couldn't do it. Considering everyone had learnt it last year and I just had to pick it up, I think I did pretty well to be able to do it after four lessons.

I'll take pictures at Taikasai, though it'll be hard cause I have to dance like everybody else.

So, Kousoutai was meh...basically it runs over three days in Nagasaki, those days (Sat, Sun, Mon) you either go wherever you like to the events but you have to hand in your card or you go to school and hand it in. Saturday, Yui, Hikari and I went to track and field. Both Hikari and I weren't particularly interested so we talked for an hour or two and I got a little sunburnt. All in all, it wasn't too bad. The funniest thing that happened was seeing Aniki on someone's bag.

Okay, story. Aniki is a stuffed duck which Kosaka has introduced to our classroom. Aniki from an anime-style shop in Kikitsu where I bought my Code Geass Game. Aniki, is named after some guy in the shop who is a fully grown man but called Aniki which is apparently an unsuitable name or something. So, the duck became Aniki and he is now pinned up in the classroom, our Aniki has no legs. Kosaka didn't like them so he ripped them off, he was also recently hit in the head with a baseball which could have caused temporary delusion.

This is our Aniki:

Anyway, on the way to Kousoutai, at the bus stop we spotted another Aniki but with legs. We thought it was really funny even though, you guys probably won't. Sorry for wasting your time.

So, today. Yui is at Track and Field again, I didn't want to go so I am taking advantage of the ample time to catch up on stuff and download anime while I can. I know, I'm pathetic.

At Track and Field there was only one person I knew that I saw race, which is Miyuki from my class. I cropped it for you, so you can see her. Aren't I nice. She came second. ^_^ Yay.

We were also trying to do some candid photography we were so bored.


So, now. Things I like asides from Johnny Depp, Severus Snape, anime and books.

Sadou. Tea Ceremony.

I haven't taken any pictures as of yet as I am too busy trying to remember everything without the benefit of understanding the instructions. I am alright, the summer uniform makes it much easier to stand up from Seiza as it isn't as long. Seiza, is the Japanese sitting position and it killed at first but I am getting better. I can sit like that for around 20 minutes before getting pins and needles. It is much better to be serving the tea and sweets than to receive them as that way you can get up and down without your legs leaving the land of the living.

A few rules of Sadou:

<>Always enter tatami mats with your left foot.

<>Walking is a combination of 3 steps and 6 steps depending on the length of the mat.

<>Enter and exit straight on, not on an angle.

<>When bowing whilst kneeling the hands are to be placed on the floor and touch at the thumbs and the pointer fingers.

<>No laughing.

<>Don't step on God. (Kami-sama has his own little square which no one is allowed to step on.)

<>You must be positioned 16 tatami lines back when receiving tea.

<>Standing is horribly hard, you have to do that rocking thing and stand up whilst holding things without using your hands. That is my biggest problem.

We are slowly learning how to make tea without really touching the materials, just some of the processes. I have been lumped along with the first years as a result of me knowing nothing about Tea Ceremony even though I am in second year and older than most of the third years. Makes sense.

It is funny though because I muck around with the kohai (the first years) and talk with the (Sempai) as equals but they don't know how to talk to me. I talk to the Sempai's using plain speech which is usually frowned upon but they don't seem to mind as I am the same age. The kohai's are a little confused due to my age and grade how to speak to me. I speak to them in plain too but they usually use formal back. I don't really care for the whole Sempai-Kohai division though. It's very stilted and promotes and us-them mentality which I don't favour.

Sadou is hard but it is fun. I've made some good friends in there and am trying to remeber people's names. My closest friend in Sadou is Kana. We usually go home together as we take the same train and talk. We did Purikura but unfortunately it didn't have a phone port so I had to take photos of it on my camera and try to crop it in paint. The school doesn't have decent programs so sorry about the poor quality.

Yes, well. Oh yeah, you people want bad english. Here you go. I will keep looking for more, there are plenty out there.

This one is my favourite, printed on a shirt in three different colours at Shimamura:

I am going to be quiet now as I think this post has probably become quite long. I am going to go home in another hour and shall google stuff. Googling is always fun.

Love,

Ashley-chan.

P.s: I have stopped using my other tag due to the stupid asian computer not accepting or otherwise closing it as a html tag.

ZOMG! June already...stuffs abound.

Welcome to June, everybody. It is June right? Life is settling in to how life should be, I didn't blog the other day due to the chaos that happens both during and following exams throwing my normal blogging routine and access to computers out of whack. Exams we had no club and went home after the exam, last week we had 40 minute classes instead of 50 so that we could do club for like an hour and still finish school at the same time. ((During exams we don't do club so we can study. )) This week we are slowly getting back to normal with classes at 45 minutes and half and hour of club.

Next week screws up again as we have taikasai, I think it is called. Basically it is a sports festival in all of Kyuushuu where the schools compete against each other. We are required to go which means we go to school for an entire week without the customary weekend. After that we get possibly Wednesday and Thursday off. Pwnage. On the "weekend" we go and cheer, get our card stamped to say we attended and then we go and run around and do what we like. I think it is on Sunday we are going to Fukuoka for shopping. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let there be an anime shop. I am dying here. Nagasaki is good for manga but bad for anime paraphenelia.

Anyway, that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about my weekend, last weekend not the one just passed as the recent one wasn't very interesting and mostly consists of me playing DS games and reading Hannibal. I've almost finished andI borrowed it out yesterday.

Saturday, I wandered around with Yui and went to Nagasaki Bomb museum although I would like to go again as it was flooded with tourists and it is hard to concentrate with them all talking. I mean, geez, Hiroshima museum was silent not a bloody social gathering. But, I got a free pretty, vaguely attempted arty pictures. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum or else you would have a lot more. The signs were in English too with pictures so I couldn't feign ignorance. How scary is this, there were signs up saying "All of the staff of the Nagasaki Bomb Museum are wearing masks in order to stop the spread of the swine flu virus." Intense, right.

Oh, and how is this, I got a letter from JFIE (host company peoples) saying that if the whole swine flu thing gets any worse and takes over Japan or something, they may have to send us all home early. ZOMFGODZORZ. Lolz. Fail in Japanese is 失敗。（しっぱい）I have been using that.

Then Yui and I went to Heiwa Koen, for the Japanese impaired, Nagasaki Peace Park. Photots below.

After that we headed on down to Cocowalk, did some Purikura which I don't yet have a copy of and I learnt how dangerous game arcades can be (spent 1000 yen trying to get a figurine of Haruhi Suzumiya) and have thus banned myself from them. I also met a giant Pikachu.

Oh, Ash from Pokemon, his name isn't Ash, it is Satoshi. WTF? And Jigglypuff is Purin which is a great wobbly custard like treat.

Sunday, I went with Yui's mother, Ichiko, to Dejima which is a recreated town in the spirit of the Edo Period with a blend of both Japanese and Dutch style. That was interesting. Then we vistied some temples, ate a pizza with a cooked egg yolk on it, v.g, and some Chinese snacky things before going home. Finally, I got to see some culture, it only took 7 weeks but, hey. It is better than nothing, right?

Speaking of culture, here is an interesting little snippet, TeriTeri Bouzu. We made them together out of tissues. When you want something good to happen, ((Hitomi wanted it to be sunny on her sports festival day, the 27th)) so we made 27 of these and hung them up. It rained. But nevertheless, an interesting diversion.

On that note, I shall love you and leave you. I have to catch a train at five.

Love you and miss you all very much, but it won't be long now. Just over 6 months and the ball only rolls faster from here. Edit: You can see why I fail at maths. It is actually 7 not 6 as my lovely mother pointed out.

Love,

Ashley-chan.