Happenings 1

Lots of things Happened this week. Lets start with...I don't even know what to start with. Monday was a normal day. I went to school and school went along as usual except that we did have an extra addition in our class. His name is Cullen, he is from New York, America and he is living in Japan for one month and stayed in our class for one week. I did my normal, everyday thing and Cullen did something a little bit different. He got to do what I wanted to do, he skipped some classes and went to music and cooking class instead, lucky bastard.

Not speaking any real Japanese except for Sugoi, Oishii, Dame, Hen and Baka which he uses frequently, I was gifted with the role of temporary translator for both him and Keri, a girl also from somewhere in America who came with the same company although is a year below.

I had been told a few weeks before about an English camp on the 14th and 15th of July. With no further information about where it was or what we would be doing there, I assumed we would leave in the morning and be returned to school at the end of the day. Asides from one conversation with Chris, who said it had been at some place on top of a mountain last year, I received no information. Tuesday at 11:10 took me to outside the front of the school gate where Keri and Cullen were both waiting with bags. I was like, "What are the bags for?" and they were like, "Uh...you know it's overnight, right?" and I was like, "Obviously not." Which left me panicking slightly, I didn't want to go anywhere without knowing whether or not I would be coming back or in what condition. I definitely didn't want to spend two days in my school uniform, that was for sure.

I informed the teacher that I hadn't brought anything as I never received any official information telling me what this was about, (it turned out everyone got a form saying what to bring except for me) which made me even more jumpy as I got into the teacher's car with the other two and headed off to who knows where. In the car, I was trying to calm myself, when we started heading in the direction I lived I eased up a bit and when I noticed the station that I leave from every morning and asked whether it was close from here, I was relieved when she said that it was fairly close from here. So, I figured I'd be able to do something, or catch a ride home for the night before returning in the morning. I wasn't staying there with only the clothes on my back. No way. I may enjoy studying but there is no way I am nerdy enough to sleep in my uniform. That's more of a Katherine thing. Jks.

Arriving at the camp, everyone was still in their assorted uniforms so I didn't stick out. Explaning to Miyamoto sensei, my Chinese teacher, that I didn't know it was a camp he apologised repeatedly and assured me that he'd get someone to take me home and bring me back to camp the next day. With that bland reassurance, we all were ushered into a room where we sat with our alternative schools. Kansho was easily the largest school there are we seemed to be the sponsoring school or something as all of our teachers were the ones that gave the speeches. I hate the awwardness that always hangs in the air at the beginning of camping experiences. Everyone relaxes so much afterwards but the first kind of half a day is always the most awkward. So, after the speeches which forced me into a sleep like state of boredom due to it all being in Japanese, everyone headed to their rooms to get changed. Oh noes.

Everyone was just like, 'Why isn't that freaky gaijin in the corner getting changed?' I just excused myself from the room and waited for everyone to come back out. People did offer to lend me clothes but I was like 'It's all good, I'm going home later 'cause I didn't know that it was overnight.'

With that explanation everyone proceeded to ignore my current state of attire and we started with ice breakers designed to break the frosty atmosphere so commonplace with strangers. The ice breakers consisted on Jun-ken trains, which is just Scissors, paper, rock with the loser of the match tagging behind the winner to eventually make a very large chain. As well as the game where you hold out both your hands and place the finger of your right hand in the palm of the person standing next to you, then when someone says Go! you have to try and get your right finger to escape and your left hand to catch. I was good at that game.

The program consisted of three workshops over two days. In the first workshop all of the gaijin (there were like 7 or 8 of us) were seperated and had a team of three or four Japanese kids. The Japanese people had to ask us about our school memories and we had to draw vague recollections of high school on a large piece of paper. Mine had was doodlings of the Formal, Guitar, Shakepeare, the Musical, eating outside...I was just trying to think of things that schools in Australia did that they didn't do in Japan. Then the Japanese guys had to explain my picture in English, they didn't get it all right but it was good enough.

Once we had finished that workshop we had dinner where one of the foreign teachers from my school, Kris offered to drive me home so I could get my clothes and drive me back. I thought about it over a dinner of Curry Rice, a dish which is extremely popular here and decided that I did want to stay and that it would be so much easier if I didn't have to go to school and then go back the way I came to arrive at camp late and thus informed him that I would be taking him up on his offer. Yamasaki sensei however did tell him that he had to be present for workshop two and thus we'd have to make our dash for freedom during bathing time.

Workshop two I thought was going to be lame but I found myself getting into it much more than I like to admit. Basically, it was a business game. We were all participants in a world bank which traded money for paper shapes. There were three groups A, B and C. A got the most materials, B got the avergae and unfortunately for C, they were given hardly anything and left desolate. The reason I probably got into it was because we were given an enveolpe with a big, happy A smiling up at me which meant we had a pretty damn good chance of winning. There were six teams in total. I took control of the group, which I am slightly ashamed to admit, as I batered with the other students who were trying to get their hands on our abundant amounts of equipment for the pitiful prices that they could scrape together from their limited supplies.

Rushing around for half an hour, making shapes from paper was much more fun than expected. Different shapes had different values and at one point in the game a circle with a diameter of 12cm became worth $50 for one minute only, I managed to make two in that time before they got taken off the market. It just kind of got you hyped up is all. In the end we came second with $720 dollars. We thought we had won as every group put up their final tallies, we were like $60 dollars ahead of the group behind us but then the B2 group came up and put up their grand total of $1160 and we were shot down in our prime. We still got some lollies. ^_~

After Workshop 2 we went and ventured off to my house which was an interesting adventure considering that not only was it dark but Kris had no idea of the way leaving me to give him directions. Something which is a very dangerous thing considering my lack of that particular sense. We somehow made it to the station as I only know the directions from there and we got there without any major difficulties. I rushed inside, quickly said hello to my family as I shoved unnecessary amounts of stuff into my bag and ran back downstairs.

I was fairly sure I took under five minutes as I jumped back into the car and being very careful of what Kris calls 'Gaijin Death Traps' (the really deep gutters at the side of roads) as we backed out we trucked on over to Lawson to buy prizes for his and Annette's workshop the next day. I bought a packet of Mitsuya Cider lollies which I've taken a particular liking to. Speaking of Mitsuya Cider I have a joke, it's a Japanese one so you probably won't get it but...

What do you get if you put Cucumber, Carrot and Lettuce in a bowl and mix it together? Mitsu yasai da! Told you you wouldn't get it... Mitsu means three, yasai means vegetables and da is just the plain form of desu. Anyways...

We got back in a timely fashion and held a steady conversation throughout the trip. I thanked Kris and gave him my old pair of headphones as a gesture of thanks. He did actually say he wanted headphones, I just don't give people random things. I bought cool new ones so I didn't need them anymore. Returning, I quickly bathed. I think I'm getting used to public baths now. Although I don't really do it all that much I'm not so freaked out anymore. It wasn't so crowded which was nice.

I bathed, which I'll just skip over once I got dressed and was brushing my hair the water kind of suddenly just cut out. Annette who is one of the other foreign teachers at my school was cleaning her teeth when it died. ((Annette is from Jamaica and has a very strong personality. If she has a problem with you, she tells you, right up front. But the way she does it can be a little harsh and it is for that reason that most of the students are a tentative around her. ))

She seemed really annoyed (truth be told, she always kind of does) as she had toothpaste all over her hand. She was furious that she had to return to the bathroom, where other people were showering naked and wash her hand. I think she was put out that she was expected to bathe like Japanese people at all. Soon after that, we went to bed which I was very much looking forward to. People may have talked but either way I didn't notice, I just kind of stuck in my earphones and went to sleep.

We woke up at the energetic time of 6.30 the next morning and we exercised. Who exercises? Luckily it was the Japanese version of exercise which is more like stretching than any actual physical labour. The most taxing of the moves was five star jumps. If you want to see it, Chiyo-chan does it in Azumanga Daioh at her summer house, listening to the radio and later Sakaki joins her because she too wants the cute cat stamps. With a breakfast of apple, bread and yakult, we ventured off to the third and final workshop.

The third workshop, run by Kris and Annette was more language based than communication based which suited me fine. We played Bingo were we had to figure out which questions matched which answers on our bingo sheet. That and another game where we had to make 30 words using the letters of the word 'Incomprehensible', that was a race which we won and were rewarded with Black Thunder. Black Thunder is a chocolate bar which has like coco pop like crisps in the middle and is covered in chocolate. I'll bring a bunch back, they are only 32 yen each. Do you know they have macha flavoured kit-kats? I haven't tried one yet though.

After that we had to return to our bedrooms to clean up and fold away our futons even though we slept on beds. They just put a futon mattress on the bed, lolz. They were pretty strict about that, then we took some photos, had speeches, lunch and returned to school.

Arriving back around one. I wasn't sure what classes I had so I figured I'd just lounge around with Cullen and Keri and the other students until the end of the day.

We ended up playing some game called Apples to Apples which I hadn't heard of before but both Keri and Cullen knew it so I tried to explain it to some of the Japanese kids. The rules are that everyone takes 7 red cards which have various things, names, places, events written on them and they take turns putting down a green card which has an adjective on it like 'weird', 'scary' or 'brave' and you have to put down a word that compliments that card. It can either be a word that is close, funny, or completely opposite. It just has to make sense.

For example if the green card says 'sweet' you put down marshmallows. The worst one that I did was the green card said 'Honourable' and I put down 'Terrorist Attack', I felt really bad about that one but I still won the card even though it was extremely bad taste on my part.

Sorry.

This photo was one that came by incidentally, someone had taken photos on everyones cameras so they were all lying on the table and I thought it looked cool so I just pressed the button before I picked it up. It's a photo of the screen of a camera through which you can see another two cameras. Don't you think that is cool?

So, all in all it was a somewhat hazardous camp and I'm sorry I've been slack and haven't written. I'll write again tomorrow detailing Tokyo and Sadou but I am done for today.

<3

Ashley-chan.

P.s: I've only got the Top Deck left. Oh noes!

Drama, Drama, Drama

And at a sports festival too. Who would have thought it.

I awoke yesterday at 6.00, was on a train by 6.30, arrived at school by 7.00. I had to sow on my numbers to my school shirt because I didn't bring it home. No one told me, how was I supposed to know? I ended up failing at life and Akane did it for me because my stitches looked like a three year old had done it.*sigh*

So, Taikasai. As you may have previously read, it is our sports festival. There are seven classes in each year level and at Taikasai the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years from each class get together and become a 団 which loosely translates as brigade. So, I'm in 2nd year, Class 5 and along with the 1st and 3rd years from Class 5 we became 五団。 Go dan.

Every dan had a colour:

一団：Yellow

二団：Orange

三団：Red

四団：Green

五団：Purple

六団：Blue

七団：Pink

In the morning, every one was bright and happy, ready for a hard day of fun and games.

By around nine, the sky was looking dangerously overcast and it had rained earlier that morning but the teachers still gave us the ok to do our sports festival outside. By 9.45 we were all wet. But we continued, nonetheless, inside and outside our tents dancing away, trying to prove that we were the best to the audience of umbrellas. Everyone was ridiculously enthusiastic, doing their best to remember all the moves and be energetic at the same time. Then it started raining harder and reluctantly the Kansho staff decided to take the whole thing into our school gym.

We all lined up, after having changed our shoes of course, for こうしん。 Marching. Everyone is very fond of complicated marching patterns but luckily this one was fairly simple. We marched to the front, did a little dance and then returned back and watched the other 6 groups do theirs. Everyone was still pumping.

After that came something I really didn't expect, the unveiling of each group's mascot. I didn't even know we had a mascot so it was all news to me. I think it was the job of the third years but they all came out really well. Ours was what looks to be a panther, either way, it is pretty awesome. It had a newspaper covering it initially with ''It's Showtime!'' graffitied on top, that being our group (5団). Then when they revealed our picture, our group all yelled, ''It's Showtime'' because we are awesome like that. Nana Dan had a pretty cute one too.

Once that was all over and done with, we moved in to the festivities, first up was つなひき　or Tug-o-war, which I participated in. Our match was first against Roku Dan, as soon as the guy yelled よい！and snapped his two pieces of wood together, we started losing. We then lost even faster due to most of the front half falling over. When I saw the dominoes starting to cascade towards me, I quickly let go of the rope and moved safely out of the way. I didn't feel like falling over and getting dragged along the ground in front of everyone. Roku Dan came second, losing to Nana Dan but it was close.

We returned to the classroom feeling slightly defeated but still pretty buoyant. I had a snack and we all prepared to do our little plate dance, のんのか。The thing we had been practicing for every morning and after school all week, not to mention for the last two weeks in P.E and this week, all day. We were all pretty nervous but we shouted encouragement to each other determined to do it and do it well.

((Side Note: My class also recently discovered my ability to yell English very loudly and thus, being Coccomi (an abbreviation of Kokusai meaning international, and Communication.) I have been recently used as the encouragement person. Basically, we gather around in a circle and I yell something like, ''Go Coccomi'' or ''We are Coccomi'' or ''Go-chan is really really deaf''. Don't blame me, they asked for that one, I just translated. Go-chan (Nakagami Go) is our home room teacher who is pretty nice but has a lot of trouble hearing students answers, especially Sayaka poor kid. She always ends up yelling.))

So, having discovered this ability they asked me to yell something before we danced. Lolz. We ran inside with another group on each side, flanking us. We all huddled in our starting positions, and it all quiet inside the gym, and Yuuri and Chika were like, ''All right, go!'' So, much to my public embarrassment I stood up and yelled, ''Let's win, Coccomi!'' And Coccomi cheered and then I sat back down and waited for the music to start.

How do I describe what happened next? Well, I guess we can just say we heard the faint, incoherent drifts of music from afar and thus, we, and the other groups all kind of looked around. The other groups moved forward and started dancing, someone quickly turned up the music all the while, our group was in the center shouting back, ''もう一回！'' and ''聞こえなかった！'' meaning, ''One more time!'' and ''We couldn't hear!''

You see, our beginning is quite impressive and it was a real shame to have us miss it, that being the reason that we persisted. However, when it became quite clear that the judges weren't going to restart it, we quickly rushed into position just in time for the basic dance. The rest of the dance went pretty well I thought, I, knowing the show must go on, slapped a smile on my face and tried to dance as well as I could to regain our lost credibility. In hindsight, I must have looked like an idiot, shouting something odd in English and then our group being all weird in the beginning. Great.

The dance finished, people clapped, I only made a few minor mistakes, I wasn't used to doing the dance with the plates which we are meant to clap together in time with certain moves. The plates are only small, two in each hand and very breakable. When every one stopped holding their final pose, it was only then that I noticed Anna, who was next to me, crying. I patted her on the back, slightly confused. Then as we were jogging out, it was only then that I noticed that nearly everyone in my class was crying.

I was like, WTF?

It was sad about the beginning, but it wasn't the end of the world. Was it? It must have been a real disappointment, as they had come first last year in Nonoka and with our catastrophe in the beginning, it was all but impossible that would win. Not to mention all of the effort everyone had put in practicing and Minori and Sayaka choreographing it and all but still...crying? It was only a dance.

After everyone exited crying, with all the other groups waiting for their turn staring and wondering what happened but not daring to ask, I searched for someone to ask where Rika pan (the sport were two people wear a giant pair of pants and run together) was as I knew it was coming up soon. However, I couldn't see anyone in my class that wasn't hopelessly sobbing to ask, so I asked someone who wasn't crying as much.

Getting to the place were everyone was assembled, I looked around for my partner, who hadn't arrived yet. Seeing a group of my class crying in the back, I went over to join them but I felt kind of odd not crying or showing any sign of crying. Then, some of the third years comforting them started crying as well. It just kept getting better and better.

We lined up and started moving towards the gym, arriving in front I was like, ''Uh...my partner still isn't here...'' and then everyone was like, ''Oh...'' and I was like, ''Thanks guys, that helps.'' (In my mind, of course.) So, I ended up sharing a giant pair of pants with Hitomi who I hadn't practiced with at all but we came second which was pretty good. However, everyone was still sobbing when we left even though they tried to look happy.

When we returned, everyone was sitting in the classroom looking depressed. The message I wrote on the blackboard kind of just sat there and mocked me. I nearly wanted to rub it off but I refrained. Yui tried to relieve some of the tension by getting everyone to dance but it ended up with everyone crying again. Then the third years came in, thankfully, they helped calm everyone down. Lunch was pretty awkward, it was all still pretty quiet.

After lunch, and the ran had stopped, the teachers decided to have another shot at holding Taikasai outside. Half of the groups did their おうえん which is like a group dance for the entertainment of the audience. That was followed by relays which we had a tendency to lose but I took some semi-decent photos, the one below isn't really one of them but it has Morishita running which is always amusing.

The relays were then followed by the third year's dance. Below: Mai Sempai who is a terrific performer, seriously, she puts everything into every move.

Guess what they danced to? All for One from High School Musical 2. That made me cringe and hate the irony of being in a different country but still being unable to escape hearing Zac Efron blasted over a loud speaker. Angst.

We danced our Ouen which was a combination of Japanese and English song parodies like most of the others, one of them being Mama Mia. ((Performed again by the boys and Yui inside the classroom.))I tried to sing when I could but having all the words in Japanese does make it a touch difficult. Then, the day began to come to a close. We all lined up in our class numbers, marched to the center, stood and bowed an unnecessary amount of times before sitting and listening to a few speeches before they announced the winners of events.

We became more and more disheartened as Yon Dan won a large amount of things, with only a few cheers for our group. When Ichi Dan won Ouen, there was a loud, collective, 'Ehhh?' from everyone. Then came Nonoka:

In 3rd place: Yon Dan.

In 2nd place: Nana Dan.

The tension was tangible in the air, everyone was clutching their hands together, and staring at the announcer who had left a dramatic pause just to tease us all a little longer. We all knew that after the fiasco in the beginning it would be impossible to win, but still...we had to hope.

In 1st place: Go Dan!

Everyone erupted in applause, squealing and flailing their arms in excitement and then the tears came rolling down everyone's cheeks in wracking sobs, all the while I just sat their with my mouth hanging open, thinking: How the bloody hell did we manage that?!?! My second thought was: God, these guys are emotional. My third was something like: At least we didn't let Sayaka down.

We came second overall for the whole day, whilst Yon Dan came first.

Naturally, it started raining again. We returned to our tent where the whole weird day had began and gathered around in a circle for the thank you's which are so ritualistic here. The third years thanked us for our effort, and apologised that we didn't come first like last year then they all started crying, including our 団長 who is the ultimate leader of us all.

We ended up doing our Ouen again, and somehow we ended up in a giant circle with all of the other groups in the pouring rain which then turned into a mosh pit as we all jumped up and down for no reason.

We returned to the classroom and everyone finally felt like taking some photos. I tried to take some earlier but I felt bad beause every one was still crying, I didn't get any in-action shots of me either, having no one in the audience I could trust with my camera. So, sorry. But I've got some photos at least even though it meant risking the rain, and putting my camera in my obentou bag and tying it to various poles inside the tents so it wouldn't get rained on. Kind of risky, but I had to get SOME photos, being my only Taikasai ever and all.

I would like to direct your attention away from my horrible looking self in this photo and instead look at Morishita who is the second boy on the right hand side. His pose is hilarious in the closeup.

My shoe schedule for the 11th of July: Loafers-Slippers-Sneakers-Slippers-Gym Shoes-Slippers-Sneakers-Slippers-Loafers. Imagine how much easier it would be if we wore only one pair of shoes, or even two instead of four! Four pairs of shoes in one day! Seriously.

Akane and I arrived home around 6.30-ish and much to my delight we went out to dinner to a very atmospherical restaurant called Nanayozuki. 七夜月。 It was traditional style with bamboo and plants on the outside and on the inside it was very dark, all the walls were black. It was very slick and streamlined with mirrors and dim lanterns, we had to wait in the foyer for around 20/30 minutes but when we finally got into our small booth, seperated by the others by a bamboo drape which gave it the exotic Japanese feel. We all had a mix of chips, karage, om rice, spaghetti. The food was very good, as was the desert.

Tadaa! Mini Chocolate Parfait which wasn't so mini...

Home came by car, I showered and quickly went to sleep, and now here I am, telling you all about it. Lolz. I watched Japanese cartoons this morning. Currently popular: Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Fresh Pretty Cure, Yattaman and Detective Conan.

There are also some funny ads on Japanese television, so far I have seen Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sam Neil, Emmy Rossum, Tommy Lee Jones and someone else whose name I can't think of.

Here is a Japanese Ad which makes me laugh for no reason at all: Click Me! (Youtube)

And now, I'm going to go because I am hungry and I want some lunch.

<3

Ashley-chan.

P.s: Gosh, I'm tired. Lolz, I watched Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in Japanese on Friday Night and tonight they've got Prisoner of Azkaban on. Wohoo!

Read the P.S!!!

No, I'm not dead. Michael Jackson is but I'm still here.

Welcome to July, the time goes quite fast, doesn't it.

Yes, I am afraid it has been quite a while since I have posted but don't blame me, blame bloody　体育祭 (Stupid sports festival). Man, these Japanese really work hard at everything. This week, I wake up at 6.00, on a train by 6.30, at school by 7.00, practicing before school from 7.30-8.00. At 9.00 we start practice again until 3 with only a one hour break in the middle and then, guess what we do after school? We practice more until around 5.00. How horrible is that! T_T

I mean, I don't even like sport. But I am glad it is dancing, now there is something I bet you thought you would never hear me say, but dancing is infinitely better than running all day. 　We had Monday off to justify everyone coming to school on Saturday even though half the students do for club anyway.

So, I'll skip onto what happened on the weekend because that was fun. Saturday, oh yes, I forgot for a moment. We went out somewhere and did something in the morning that I don't quite remember...maybe it will come back to me. (See, this is what happens when I don't blog regularly) Then around lunch time we picked up Chihiro from the station and we went to Joyfull for lunch. I am becoming quite fond of Joyfull. I had the pepper hamburger set which is basically a meat patty with a sprinkling of pepper, two small roast potatoes and some beans, a small salad and a dinner roll for 699 円.

So, then we went back to the house and sat and talked for a while and looked over Chihiro and Akane's old yearbooks. We didn't do all that much. Then, Chihiro returned home and I slept at night like everybody else.

The following day was Yui's performance of an abbreviated second act of Romeo and Juliet, Yui was playing Juliet and invited people from class to come along. I went with Yui's family, being driven to Kikitsu station by Akane's mother and picked up by Yui's was a little strange but Yui's mother and I quickly slipped back into routine and talked on the way home.

When I got back to Yui's house and was prodded with onigiri's and banana's I didn't know what to say. I didn't say anything at first but it is usually customary to say something when entering the household. Then the dad came home and said お帰り (Welcome home) and I was like, ah ただいま。。。(I'm home) and then half as a joke, half confusion I was like...おじゃまします。 which means please excuse me for intruding. Then they were like, 'I'm home is fine...'

Lolz.

So, I went to Nagasaki with Yui's mother, father and grandmother who insisted on giving me lollies. Not that I minded at all...they sure know how to win me over. Unfotunately, it meant returning to the odd little community of international communication and understanding that is LABO. I had to sit through like 2 and a half hours of small children speaking bad english and singing english songs that nobody has ever heard before.

Once that was through, everyone else arrived. We watched Yui who was kind of decent as was everyone else, this is, of course, decent by amateur standards. Once everything was over the group of us who saw Yui went and ate icecream at Baskin and Robbins, went to Cocowalk and had a look around. I was dragged around lots of fashion stores which was a little annoying but I managed. We took Purikura, but I've only got one to show you, sorry. XD.

The following day, Monday, Akane, Mako, Anna and I went to see the movie Rookies which is pretty popular here at the moment, they even have Rookies onigiri's. Basically, it is a movie about a baseball. I wasn't that interested in seeing it as I am not that interested in sports films but it was a whole lot better than I thought. I even teared up at the end, but then again I ball in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, every time without fail so I guess you can't really judge. The guy on the very top right is really funny, he is ridiculously enthusiastic but not very good.

It was also a good practice for the 20th when I will be going to see this:



DUN DUN DAAAAAAA....ハリー　ポッタ　と　謎　の　プリンス。 Something which I am majorly looking forward to, it's the highlight of my year, seriously. Nazo no Purinsu actually translates much differently than the original title of half-blood prince. It just means mysterious prince but I'll be seeing it in English (non-negotiable, Alan Rickman's voice is too amazing to turn down) with Japanese 字幕 (じまく） subtitles. This is so Katherine can learn some Japanese while she's studying the evil language of the Red Army.


So, we also took Purikura on Monday and here it is:

For a reason that has something to do with mobile phones we could only get one normal size but the rest are here they are just much...smaller. Sorry. Most of the Japanese has to do with the upcoming sports festival which is, GAH! tomorrow.

We also had four of my class go to Autralia yesterday for three months, they are all staying in Melbourne so if anyone is there and find Japanese kids called Sayaka, Chihiro, Hikari or Arina say Hi from me and tell them to eat lots of Cadbury while they can still get it easily.

I'm really happy, I finally got to acccess Youtube and watched Demyx Time 11 and Pedro. Damn those guys are great. Jack's probably seen it, no one else but Kingdom Hearts fans will get it and even then you have to know a lot about Organization 13 (with 14 members) to get the jokes. Ah well...

(In order to get Demyx to leave)

Vexen: 'Hey look, a spider.'

*Demyx Runs away*

Vexen: 'Oh f**k, a spider'

*Vexen runs away*

Epic Lolz.

That's all for now, I'll probably post with Taikasai stuff on Sunday.

<3

Ashley-chan

P.S:

...

...

...

You just lost THE GAME.

＞＿＜ Sorry guys.

((For those who don't know the game, it is simple.

1. You are now playing THE GAME.

2. When you forget about THE GAME you are winning.

3. When you remember THE GAME you lose and consequently have to tell everyone else. ))

Even my super awesome mother knows about the game, I've been playing for around 3 years now I think, and Katherine will be reminded on her deathbed for introducing it to me.

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