Nagasaki: The Exotic City

So, as you all now know I am going to Nagasaki. Most of the time when I tell people I get a whole lot of blank stares and biting of lips so generally I substitute Nagasaki for, "It's down the bottom of Japan". It's easier. Now, apart from an atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki, I didn't know all too much about it like many other people. Therefore I did what all modern people do and submitted myself to the tool which not only is used by people everyday, everywhere but has now become a verb in our language. That's right. I Googled it.

Google is usually quite helpful but unfortunately due to the large amount of attention it received from the bombing, It was quite difficult to find any relevant information for my stay. But we did scratch the suface, hence the following information is very vague. My apologies. I will hone my Googling skills one day.

Nagasaki is a large prefecture on one of the lower islands of Japan, Kyushu. It maintains a small connection to Japan's main island, Honshu, by one bridge. Nagasaki is considered to be a very different flavour to traditional Japan, whilst it still has elements of traditional Japanese in it, the Nagasaki port has opened it's culture to western and chinese influence. Evidence of these influences still exist today within the cuisine, dutch theme park, Huis Ten Boch, and Nagasaki's many China towns. It is home to many temples, shrines and churches but people seem to say that the most interesting thing about Nagasaki is not the landmarks but the friendly if not slightly disfunctional people. That is one thing I am definitely looking forward to exploring.

Even though I am a little isolated from the main island, I am looking forward to discovering all that the city has to offer and to share the time with my (hopefully) newly made friends. ^_^
Coming up next, some information on my school.

<3

Ashley-chan

Spam? Definitely not.

I shall now tell you a story.

As most of you will know I am quite lax when it comes to checking my email. It's not that I purposely don't want to read it, it's just that most of the time I have better things to do. Well, at least I think they are of a higher priority. I don't think many people would rate anime-watching and sleeping to be above checking my remaining connection to the real world but...that's just me.

Anyway, so a few days ago I opened my inbox and quite to my dismay I found I had been stealthily invaded by a lone spam email. From no address I knew, nor recognised to be one of a familiar origin but being less than concerned with the continued livelihood of my laptop, I proceeded to open it. This is what I found:

Hello Ashley！

Nice to meet you.
I'm Kamito Yui(^ω^)
I live in Japan.
I look forward to that Ashley stays from April.

Japan is the depth of winters now.Is Australia warm？
When Ashley comes to Japan,I will become warm！

My mother is busy with work.So let's cook together(^∀^)
My family very happy！Because Ashley coming to Japan.

From Yui

Of course, at that stage I had (and technically still have) no information from AIIU on where I was going, what school I was going to and with whom I was staying; I, quite naturally, freaked out. It was all I could do in my incapacitated, shocked state to call my mother (several times) in a voice that obviously scared her as she called in reply, "I didn't do it". When she finally came in, it was all I could manage to point at the cutest email ever written in half horror/ half elation.

Once I gradually slipped out of shock and after a small procession of jumping up and down as females are often wont to do, I hurriedly emailed back in Japanese. Considering that I took a considerable amount of time just staring at the screen wondering what I should say. The obvious questions came first:

- Where do you live?
- What is the name of your school?

And the not so obvious questions followed soon after:

- How long does it take you to get to school?
- Do you go by train?
- Are you in any clubs?
- What are your hobbies?
- And so on, and so forth.

The not so obvious questions are equally as relevant as I have to pay my own travelling fares for the train and I am afraid of walking/cycling for long periods at a time. Clubs are important as I want to join one and bonding with my to-be host sister is also crucial to my sanity and enjoyment once in Japan.

I quickly received answers to these questions the following day.

My host sister, Yui, lives in Isahaya, Nagasaki. The school is named Isahaya Shou Gyou. It is a commercial school (I'll explain more about it later). It takes her an hour to get to school by walking and catching the train each morning. She is in the english club and her hobbies are singing, karaoke, talking with her friends and cooking.

And thus an emailing war began, I shall include what I know about my school and prefecture in the next post. The saga continues...

Fly me to the moon...uh...Japan

I received an email from the lovely staff of AIIU two days ago which declares that my flight is officially booked. Yay! Which means that in approximately 100 days I will be on my happy way to Tokyo.

In the email it also mentioned the details we will receive at orientation day. By the sound of it they already have acquired our host school and some host family details. Oh. My. God.

I'm really excited to find out where I'll be going. (Please Tokyo) I'd love to be in a more city situated area so that I can learn about the rail system (which I am sure I will be exposed to no matter where I go) and so I can go shopping for all the most amazing things but still be able to visit all the traditional temples. To me, the city seems to have a really good balance to it.

Mind you, I am quite sure that wherever I end up in Japan, I will have a wonderful time and most likely be taken on trips to the city anyway but the ease of accessibility would be so much more convenient.

Anyway, enough about that. So, as you may well know I am leaving the dusty land of Australia on the 26th of March, 2009. Doubtless, I won't get any sleep that night. Well, I have nine hours of a plane flight to make up for it.

So, I will arrive in Japan on Thursday. That night and the following day are expected to be filled with introductory activities to get to know each other (the other AIIU members), japanese language and culture. Saturday, it is possible we will be whisked away by train to meet our host families and get settled into our new homes for an indefinite period of time.

Sunday will be filled with angst as I try and cope with learning about the family and them about me all in an foreign language. And Monday, that has got to be the scariest day. The first day of school. I'll be poked and prodded by the population of the school, much to my discomfort as I momentarily reach the status of "new, shiny plaything". That's gonna be very scary.

But I'm sure it will get better from then on...I hope.

And this is just me hypothesizing! Oh my goodness, this is definitely going to be quite some adventure.

<3

Ashley-chan

A Frodo for Paul

LoL. It has been a while since I have posted, I know. It's mostly due to the line in my acceptance letter which said, "You will receive further information at the end of December". With this blog being intended as a blog about me and Japan and all, not just a normal blog, it's hard to give you non-existent updates.

So, I figured I'll post some random stuff for the time being...just to keep me and my (lack of) readers occupied.

This is a Frodo for Paul:



I'll tell the story for you because Paul has probably forgotten anyway.

I did guitar lessons with a strangely awesome, male-version-of-me named Paul. I told him about this blog as we want to stay in touch (something we haven't yet done, I'll do it, I SWEAR!)And I told him I would include photos of Japan and he thought I said "Frodo's"

Therefore, this is just a little joke between us, we have a lot of personal jokes it seems. I mean, after nine years of being isolated together in a small, little room that was bound to happen. S'awesone though. ^_~

<3

Ashley-chan

Correction

I'm no longer a liar.

I am officially going to Japan next year.

Now, this is slightly strange for me. I have mixed emotions. Don't get me wrong I'm ecstatic about the opportunity to bask in the glory of another country's culture and certainly will do so without fail. But...I'm nervous.

After waiting for over a month, with the constant self re-assurance that I would be going, it has all fallen into place. Going by the estimated departure date, I have 135 days left in Australia before I double that amount in Japan.

I'm terribly excited, I'm horrible nervous and I'm slightly melancholy.

I'm terribly excited:
I can experience what this world has to offer, I can learn a new language, a new culture and a new way of life. That is something that will surely change me as a person for the better. Plus, it will help me gain independence, a trait which eludes me in favour for its more convenient twin, co-dependence.

I'm horribly nervous:
While Japan offers me all these wonderful things, I'm afraid of being unable to communicate. The world revolves on communication, without it each person would be building their own tower of Babylon, unable to work together. If I'm going to miss one thing it will be the certainty in myself that I can inform others what is happening.

Imagine If I'm having a heart attack and don't know the words, I can't tell anyone what is happening and, in my ditress, all I can summon up are the words: "heart" and "accident". What if it makes no sense? What if they tilt their heads and ponder over my meaning while I die lying on a unimprtant backstreet of Kyoto.
You have to admit, that's a little scary, and a little exaggerated, I realise that. But for purposes sake...

I'm slightly melancholy:
300 days. It seems like such an expanse of time that looms when I think that it will be that long be for I hug my Kitty Kat again, Lucy Loo, Constable Christie or my beautiful, supporting, loving mother.

It will be sad to part and I am sure the coming months will make it harder but it's only ten months out of my life. If I live untill I am eighty that's just 1.05% of my life. That's not a lot when I can spend the remaining 99.95% with all the people I love.

I'll be happier once I receive my letter tomorrow containing details. Then I'll probably go hyperactive and post random nonsense. So, I apologize in advance for any jibberish that is posted. My mind is not always my own. 0_0

<3

Ashley-chan