Black Friday

Warning: This post has absolutely nothing to do with me going to Japan.

I didn't realise that Friday the 13th was Friday the 13th until about 7 or 8 o'clock at night. That made me annoyed as I was well aware of its approach however it just totally slipped my mind. So, I was at work and bored, content to stand there and daydream the remaining hour away when I thought, "I should do a Black Friday tribute. That'd be fun...like an original cosplay." ((Something of which I haven't done before.)) Mind you, the day I did this cosplay my bus didn't come and I had to jog/walk to work which left me both late and very, very red in the face. The unlickiness rubbed off, perhaps?

So, me and my shiny, new camera sat down and had a heart to heart photoshoot which consisted of me looking like: a freak, a goth, an emo and extremely embarrased when I answered the door to guests meant for the house next door in full eyeshadow and costume. ((The door was already open, I had no choice. )) V. embarrassing.

Then I spent today editing my best photos, I could do more but each is so time consuming I don't think I have it in me. Overall, though I am pleased with the result and just wanted to show off a little, I guess. Please enjoy the product of my boredom. ^_^

The last one is my favourite. ^_^. I may have accidentally plagarised... I mean, uh...took inspiration from an Alice in Wonderland cosplay for the one with the cards. I'm sure I would have thought of it...I mean I had candles, a crystal ball, a wand, my death note, a feather quill and a gothic rubber duckie...I would;ve thought of something as rudimentary as playing cards...right?

Anyways, as soon as I can find something that resembles a Slytherin tie there will hopefully be a cosplay to come in honour of HBP. ((Half Blood Prince for all you non-HP fans...(Harry Potter for all you non-acronym fans) )) That was confusing.

Don't worry, I'll shut up now.

<3

Ashley-chan

The Brave Ones

The Brave Ones, indeed. For these are the people that will be struggling to comprehend what the hell I'm saying through my poor language skills, making me food, providing me with accomodation and taking me places, all the while not earning a cent. That and having no preconception of my slightly exuberant personality.

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Kamito Family
The Kamito family will be the first family I am staying with, these are the people who I have talked about previously having a small amount of contact via email. ((But she hasn't returned my latest one >_<))
Period: 01/04/09 - 30/06/09

Host Sibling: Yui, 16.

Yui Narumi from Lucky Star

Father: Yutaka, 43.
Mother: Ichiko, 44.
Brother: Kouta, 17.
Sister: Hitomi, 13.

Message: Our grand parents live in 1st floor. My father and I love Avril. My mother is interested in History. My brother likes F1. My younger sister likes to listen to the music. I have been interested in foreign country since I was a child. When I was a junior student, we hosted Canadian student for 1 month. We had a good time with her that's why we decided to become your host family. I would like to go various places with you.

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Furukawa Family
The Furukawa family is the second and quite possibly the largest. Plus they have a cute little dog that looks like mine.

Period: 01/07/09 - 31/08/09

Host Sister: Akane, 16. Akane Tendo from Ranma 1/2

Grandmother: Kinuyo, 76.
Father: Satoshi, 45.
Mother: Akiko, 45.
Brother: Shouta, 19.
Sister: Nozomi, 12.
Dog: ?

Message: On weekday, only my grandmother and a dog stay at house. Usually we have dinner together. I think this is the great opportunity for us to become a host family. I would like you to know about Japan and go various places together. I have stayed in Australia so I'm looking forward to talking about Australia with you.

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Mine Family
The Mine family is Family number 3. The first family that I know I am sharing with a host sibling instead of having my own room. Meh, I don't mind.

Period: 01/09/09 - 31/10/09

Host Sibling: Hikari, 16. Hikari from Pokemon Diamond

Father: Tatsuaki, 44.
Mother: Mie, 44.
Sister: Arisa, 19.

Message: My father usually comes back home around 10pm so we have a dinner only ladies. My mother likes gardening. My older sister likes playing the base guitar. I would like to know the differend our culture. Sometimes I hope we speak English and Japanese to develop our language ability each other.

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Sakai Family
The Sakai family will be my final family before I join my real family back home in Australia.

Period: 01/11/09 - 09/01/10

Host Sister: Koto, 16.

Koto from Yu Yu Hakusho

Father: Fukuyoshi, 57.
Mother: Yoshiko, 54.
Sister: Mai, 18.

Message: We visit the shrine together on New Years's Day. I'd like to know each other and enjoy spending time together. I think our family members have a warm heart. Let's talk together a lot. Don't be hesitated to ask us anything. We are looking forward to seeing you soon!

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So, that's a little summary of what will be going on and where I will be. I hope everyone found it interesting to find out about as much as I know about my host families. Now that you know that, you are as equally equipped to go and intrude on their hospitality as I am. ^_^;

A/N: Any spelling/grammar mistakes in the "Message:" section is intended, the rest is mine. I apologise.

<3

Ashley-chan

Back 2 School

ZOMFGODZORZ! For some strange reason everyone thinks I am insane after FINALLY finishing year twelve and studying my but off for the last 5 or so years, I am going back to school off my own FREE WILL.

((Just as a side note, writing free will reminded me of Free Willy which reminded me of Flipper. You know the dolphin from Flipper...he's dead.)))

But really it's no that bad, is it? Yes, I am going back to school but this will be totally different as:
1] I'll be in Japan
2] I'm not planning on studying REALLY hard, just enough to pass and be happy.
3] I am actually going to socialize this time.
4] I'll be way more fluent in Japanese when I go to do it in 2010.

Anyway, I am going back to school. So there. Now, onto what I know about the school. Well...it is named Isahaya Commercial School in the prefecture of Isahaya in Nagasaki. It is a public school and is co-education. (((Thank God!))

It is a non-religious school ((Thank...uh...Johnny Depp, God on Earth)). There are 175 boys and 658 girls. Wow. Go the females. I go to school from 8.30 - 3.40 every week day. I get to experience both the summer and winter holidays. I have internet access! I will update this blog, I promise.

And here is the best part: The school pays for all my uniforms and my textbooks! I love you, Isahaya Commercial School! And the school sent me this cute little message too:

The students are really looking forward to sharing lots of things with an exchange student. They are very kind and friendly. The exchange students we are hosted had a wonderful time here. I hope you'll enjoy staying here and learning lots of new, different things.

Nawww...how cute is that. Not too shabby for an english teacher. ^_^
As Isahaya is a commercial school it means that alongside english and maths and normal subjects, it also has business and home economics courses.

Some of the clubs are:
~Baton Club
~English Club
~News Paper Club
~Kendo
~Tea Ceremony
~Calligraphy
~Music Club

And some others that I don't really remember, but there are a lot of clubs. I'm really looking forward to taking part in a club and learning a new skill. I'd like to do something more traditional so that I can come back to Australia and show off. ^_^ Yes, I'm that self-centered. Jk.

That's all from me for now. I'll update soon once I get some more information. Orientation is coming up fast as well. So, by the 27th I should know everything I can possibly know before going.

Ja ne...

<3

Ashley-chan

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...