YFU - In Miyakojima-shi (宮古島市にいます)

Party at Maehama Beach

2008-06-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Oh what a day today--Saturday. No alarm to wake me up for school, slept until I felt refreshed. I blame myself for staying up so late on school days (ahem 12 or 1 AM).

Mom says we're going for a drive around Miyakojima (Miyako Island) and visit Kurimajima (Kurima Island) on the way at around 1 PM after lunch. On the way, she'll drop me off at Maehama beach for a class party that was decided on my first day of school upon my coming to Miyako. Along with that party is also for Ruriko-sensei (るり子先生), who came to Miyako from Osaka way up in Honshu. She's undergoing training to become teacher right now.

1 PM passes and we're on our way around Miyako. My family said they were going to show me the sunflower fields and along the way, I hear an upbeat song (seems rather fairly new) called "Life" by キマグレン (Kimaguren) on the radio--this was about the 5th time I heard this since I came to Miyakojima.

Drinking (jasmine?) tea and listening to the radio in a pleasant car cooled by air conditioning, we finally arrive at the fields on the outskirts of the ~~city~~ urban areas. (The whole island's the city haha)
We exit our car with almost a "shockwave" of heat that just hits us when we open the car door.

I could sit on top of these and perhaps even lay down for an afternoon nap. Oh wait it's hot and there's no shade.

Long road! (Sunflower field is right, outside of the picture)

After doing nothing but staring in awe, we went back into the car and go back on the highway to Kurimajima. The roads outside the urban areas in Miyakojima are blanketed by trees or crops so much that you feel like you're in the middle of the island but turns out you're right next to the shore, it's just the plants that are covering the beaches. I found a better picture of what I mean when we arrived on Kurima Island, take a look for yourself.

Trees!

But a little zooming out...

See the road on the bottom?

Nonetheless, I take pictures of the ocean and the bridge connecting Miyakojima and Kurimajima.

Now my dad wants to take me to Maehama beach for the class party. Only except, it's a little too early. We wait in the car with lovely J-Pop music and it rains HARD and sudden. :O

But as sudden as it came, it disappeared in a flash. We wait and it's 3 PM (the time where the party is supposed to start) only to see other people with moterbikes dangerously riding around in the parking lot until my mom spots a girl and asks me if I knew her. But with my bad eyes (Aside: those of you in my AP Biology class, this was why I was squinting at the powerpoints. I am NOT confused, angry, or anything. I just can't see), I couldn't see well and I thought it'd be safe to say "No I don't. Probably." Then all of the sudden I see Ongawa-sensei. Yawning to get tears in my eyes so that I can see better, it's actually him. He's dressed EXTREMELY casual, after getting used to seeing him with a formal shirt, black pants and a tie at school.

"あっ、先生だ！" / Ah! Sensei da! (Hey, it's sensei!)

I dash out of my car, say "Itte kimasu!" (I'm going!) to my parents and run over to sensei unloading some stuff out of his car. Helping him was Kaho, a student in 3-1 class that I sit next to in English Oral class. I greet them and sensei tells me the party's on top of the hill. I go up to see more students.

The same day and hour. Look how fast the clouds cleared. I meet Yuka and Mako sitting on a blanket chatting and invite myself in. You can see the boys already meeting up at the pier. The girls, Yuka and Mako, ask if I'm swimming, I told them of course and went into the men's room to change. Upon entry I see where the class has placed their bags of clothes, next to it lie large bags of fireworks (WOW)--the ones that would be illegal over back in the States. I change and quickly ask Yuka for some lotion (shame on me) and she without hesitation offers me it. I finish applying lotion and head down to the pier where the boys were doing flips into the water.

There were about 7-10 boys all at the pier. On the ledge, ready to jump stands Naoya with a scared face, with his back facing the water. His friends dare him to jump, he tells them "Chotto matte" (wait a sec) and after waiting for so long, his friends make gestures as if they were going to push him over. He at lasts finally jumps but in a split second changes his mind--too late. He falls and instead of doing a flip does almost what seems a weird dance and lands in the water. He comes up and laughs and everyone joins. Some couple guys do flips and spends the hour jumping. I recall doing only a few forward sumersaults and a few dives along with the boys.

Tired of jumping they decide to swim and do hand stands or jump of another's back in the ocean, while others decide to climb on an unknown owner's jetski (I joined along). Within minutes came the owner telling us to get off (apparently, angry) and they jumped off.

I then played in the sand, and Taiki sits with me for a minute before joining the boys again.

I'm bored at this point. So instead, I join the girls--Haruna, Tomomi, Misaki and Haruka--who were playing soccer after being invited in. Fun times, of course I didn't kick hard, but they were better than I thought and I'd say got me really good in the game.

I go back into the sand after a tiring game and wanting to do something in which it'll be a good display, I drew--no, sculted--a sand portrait of Ongawa-sensei. Finding a perfect spot to do so wasn't easy. Too close to the ocean meant it being swept away by the tide, while too far away had sand too dry to work with. I instead took some measures to avoid my 'going-to-be' sculpture from being washed away by making dams and a big sand wall.

As I was making the wall, I happened to see Keichi being buried by some girls, apparently giving him some woman body parts made out of sand.

Mako, Yuuki and Yuka burying Keichi (I can't identify who's behind Mako)

Finally I had a place to work with. Flattening the sand, scultuping in detail with a stick and after about a good 2 or 3 hours, I came up with this result.

I see Haruna walking with Haruka up on the hill where the barbeque was taking place. I shout to them to ask for sensei to come down and see, for I cannot trust the tide or any children around me. They asked sensei and sensei told him that he was busy with the food and cannot come down. So instead, I'm left with the only option to run up to the hill, find my camera in the men's room and run back down to take a picture to forever preserve it. I dash like hell up and down and finally took the picture, shown above.

After the pictures, I head back up to the hill to show Ruriko and Ongawa-sensei the pictures and they have a good laugh. We eat chips and fried noodles while drinking milk tea under with the sunset changing the colors of the sky.

Miyako Sunset

A 3-nen-sei student (3rd year student) called me over for a talk and the next thing you know I'm in a group. Ruriko sensei even joins :D

Kurimajima Bridge at night

After sundown, fireworks time! (Remember those bags lying in the men's room?)

Sparkler. I recorded too late. :P (8 sec video)

Here was a rocket. You can hear the girls shouting "Kowai" meaning "scary". (Not 'Kawaii', 'kowai')

Mai playing with two sparklers

Posing (taken with longer shutter speed)

Taiki, Haruka, Haruna (Fukuzato) and Mai (read from left to right) with sparklers.

These things lighted up the beach.

The color gives almost a joyful mood every time I look back at these pictures.

Last picture, with everyone in the 3-1 class. I look like some guy in the 80's with my hair blown back, or perhaps some dude on Baywatch.

On the trip home, my mom told me it lasted a little too long and Bunta (little brother) needed to use the toilet, so she took him to the lady's room up the hill. He cried it was too dark but my mom said "Ganbare!" ('Try your best!' LOL).

Something else funny I found was I also happened to see a sign in Japanese that I asked my mom about it. She told me it was about watching your speed (especially on these dark roads with crops around with the high risk of an accident at an intersection). I asked her if she was sure and she replied "あたし、日本人だよ." ("I'm a Japanese person, you know"). A snicker starts out and turns into a bakushou! (loud laugh)

I shower all the sand off and I'm dead tired by the end of the day. My legs were still sore from that Miyako Rock Festival (a few days back, remember?) after dancing and jumping too hard.

I love to draw. Make that doodling.

2008-06-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

No taking notes today for most classes. Same with Math. The students are preparing for their finals before Summer Break starts.
Seems like our teacher, Ongawa-sensei, posted this up in the class bulletin. :) This was taken all the way from my seat to the front with my camera's digital zoon (so sorry for the quality):

If you really want to see it, I found the online version:
http://www.miyakomainichi.co.jp/modules/bulletin/article.php?storyid=2707

I drew Naoya on the board after Asaho-sensei's English class (2nd period). If I recall correctly he wasn't present on this day so we had a worksheet to work on.

We run off to the Taikan (Gym) for P.E. and went right to Chemistry class after that.
On one of the worksheets handed out by our Chemistry teacher, it was on used paper. On the other side of the worksheet was apparently an unused English assignment. I dedicate this to my parents since they believe GPA is the ONLY thing that matters for college admissions.

Remember this picture? I add some more details to it. He loves sleeping so I thought some effects might match him well. I also drew Ongawa-sensei (on the front main chalkboard). Class loved it and sensei called it "Jyozu" (Skillful).

Here's a side shot comparison. Naoya's on the right (despite Shouta [left] who looks like Naoya). Doesn't he look sleepy?? :D

I decided to draw Sensei :) Seems a little too serious so....

Perfect!

Homework and Fooling Around

2008-06-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the fun stuff. That's why you're probably reading this right?

I believe this picture was during my Japanese Composition class. Students who were finished with their classwork (or who didn't want to do anything) were chatting around a bit. I, like always, have no mandatory homework (since I don't understand) so joined in with the fun. Okay, I lied. I really finished my work and had fun afterwards.

While Ongawa-sensei was talking with some students, I wrote this behind him and the intention was simply to see if he would notice it at all.

マスター先生 / Master Sensei

Yeah he noticed it. :)

2 periods later in Home Economics, we were still having student teachers that were taking the teacher's place because they were training to become certified teachers. Man that lesson was crazy! All the kanji (Chinese characters in the Japanese writing system) really got on my nerves. I had trouble seeing the board and had to squint like George Bush when he does his outside speeches. Despite the hardships, I managed to take notes--with some ugly kanji characters.

But it was readable, says the others. :| The left page is the notes I've taken in my Japanese Composition Class last 2 periods ago.

I might as well show you my notes from the 24th.

See my English homework on top? I didn't do it at home so I did it before he got to checking my homework while he was checking everyone else's. I finished and he said, "Hayai!" (damn fast!--little slang I added in there).

Apology for Blog Subscribers

2008-06-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

NOTICE!

(Even though this post is posted as June 26th, 2008, it is really August 18th at the time of this post. I label my blogs with the date according to the date I've taken my pictures so that their dates can easily be determined)

I sincerely apologize for those who have been to my blog eagerly wanting to know what's life like in Japan for me. I have stopped posting after my birthday because time was taking too much time out with me and my family, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. It takes about 2 hours average to make a single post, and that was too much for me.

Now that I have some free time (as my exchange program is done at the time of this post), I will continue to provide you with my experience based on pictures. I really forgot most of what happened and I regret not keeping a log of at least the things that I enjoyed, but at least I have a story to tell with my pictures that I've taken. Thus, the quality of the posts after this point will not as be as detailed as the posts before this--they'll be more like 'highlights'.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

(I have had 1,000 hits a week, now it's like 80 a week.)

My Birthday ("Sweet" 16)!

2008-06-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

Blog update: 5 posts will appear in one page from now on. If you wish to view older posts, you may do so by clicking "Older Posts".

If you cannot play the videos, click on the blog title (in orange, "My Birthday...." above this message).

Tuesday, June 25, 2008 (２００８年６月２５日[火])
School today was awesome. My best friends and some of my teachers remembered my birthday and said "Happy Birthday" to me (including お誕生日おめでとう Otanjyobi Omedetou--Happy B-day in Japanese).

People walking to school, picture taken from the 2nd balcony

I had quite some fun with Microsoft Powerpoint in 'Information C' class (about computers).

Chemistry! -- In Japanese (this was an assignment)

They love my English assignments. :)

Messing with Haruna's hair. Notice my Spongebob-like laugh at the end.

The girls continue to write stuff about Haruna on her desk. (Title: Haruna's Song) You can ask me personally for a translation if you like.

Keichi doesn't know I'm recording him until I move in. He tells me to stop :)
(Aside: He's calling for Naoya)

At the end of the day, I return home from school today and enter the house accompanied with some small exploding bangs. Confetti falls on my head and I brush it off, Kana sits at the stairs and snaps a picture of me while I'm standing in the 玄関 Genkan (the place where the Japanese take off their shoes and put them). I'm sweating, hot from the walk home and though suprised, I'm not as excited as they think I was despite the ありがとう Arigatou (Thank you) I said for the surprise. I head straight to the shower (lol). Upon finishing, I help out a bit with the arranging and wait for guests to arrive--friends of Yuki-san from Tokyo.

6 (PM) o'clock and they finally come while I'm watching a hilarious Japanese TV show. You have GOT to see this amazing bear (sorry it's 3 parts):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

After, they showed the longest ramen name. See that black text? That's the NAME of the ramen. In the restaurant, since it's so long, they post the name on the ceiling, and the name goes from one wall to the wall on the other side. (I was supposed to record but the camera instead took a picture)

Another skit. It's still funny though.

They talk and we don't begin to celebrate until 7:15pm, where I blew out the flames on the melting candles on the chocolate cake. (Aside: Yuki-san said she didn't know what I liked so she chose her favorite). They give me a present, something wrapped in wrapping paper (duh.) and I put it aside. They ask me why won't I open it now, and I reply that isn't it rude to do so? They seem baffled at who told me this, and I *ahem* said YFU USA said so. They said it's not rude, and explain to me that opening only presents with money inside is considered rude. I open it and it's something I wished for a long time--a Yukata (= summer kimono) :) We feast and talk until 1 AM in the morning. Man I loved Karitomo's laugh--it's high pitched and is extremely contagious. Yuki-san gets drunk (I tell her not to and make jokes at her) from the beer and I'm craving to get to bed and close my eyes.

Blowing the candles

Picture with host family

With everyone else--Yukichi's taking the picture

My cake :) (おたんじょうびおめでとう = Happy Birthday)

My tray of food. The best meal ever. (Notice the Vietnamese spring rolls)

All the food. Chicken's included too!

My Yukata :)

This was my 3rd party for my 16th birthday (1 in America with my real family before I left for Japan, 1 in my homeroom class with my classmates near the end of the school day). I'll be having a 4th one (for my oncoming to Japan) at Maehama beach on Saturday.

The Days Before My Birthday

2008-06-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Note:
I do apologize for the long wait in my posts on how it's going in Japan. I've been studying Japanese (including memorizing kanji), doing my AP Calculus work I brought over, confused on when the due date of my report regarding about my homestay to YFU Japan and the Japanese Embassy, and lots of minor stuff. Therefore, this post will be made from pure memory from the pictures taken.

ANY ENGLISH GRAMMAR/SPELLING MISTAKES--PLEASE POST A COMMENT. I haven't used my English in a while.
==============================
Sunday, June 22, 2008 (２００８年６月２２日)
Waking up early in the morning (not really), my host mom took me over to Yukichi's (my host father's) mother and father. They both seem really lovely, especially my (host) grandpa--despite his old age-- still jokes like a young adult, he's extremely lively. My grandma was more of the caring type, always trying doing things that would make me comfortable. We sit down at the dinner table and they offer me some Niigata-ken (Niigata Prefecture) style spicy snack (it was some seeds). Tasty. We talk about Japan (geography included haha) and how my homestay is and in the end, watch some videos on the Okinawan Odori (dance) where Natsuko performed on stage.

We went outside and grandpa (1st left) catches bugs on trees--the really noisy ones--as his hobbies. Some neighborhood kids we don't know come along and join.

After, it's off to Mos Burger (モスバーガー), the well known burger shop in Downtown Miyako, to eat our afternoon meal. On the way, we stop by a Ginko (bank) so I can exchange my 100 US dollars into 106 Japanese Yen. During the transaction, the clerk whispers to Yuki-san (host mom) while pointing at me, asking if I was the "American" from reading the newspapers. She nods with a smile and we continue to Mos Burger.

Downtown Miyakojima - There seems to have been a festival earlier

The sliding doors open automatically and I'm hushed by a gust of cool, conditioned air from the building. Wait, who's that? It's Haruka, one of my classmates, and her friends eating and talking at a table in the store. I smile and they giggle (I noticed almost every girl does this) and stare for a bit--like still not believing I'm an American. My host mom asks me what I want, and I ask for Teriyaki burger and melon soda for my drink. We wait about 15 minutes at our table in the back, with the girls occasionally glancing over, slapping those annoying mosquitoes that we see. The food comes, and we eat. WOW, TASTY. Nothing compared to In-n-Out, Burger King and McDonalds, MUCH better. This was not an American burger, but a Japanese one, served with Holland-style french fries. We eat with delight for 20 minutes and joke around and leave. Haruka is still chatting with her friends.

We get back in our car that's in a high-tech parking garage that stores your car underground. You park your car in a spot, and a machine puts it somewhere to save space.

Picking up Kana

Next, Yuki-san and Kana (from the Miyako Rock Fest.) decide to take me to a spot in Miyako--I never asked for the name. You can see the whole island from the top, extremely beautiful. We played around with Bunta and Natsuko for about 1 or 2 hours on the swings and a huge lion where you can climb on top/inside and slide down a slide.

The ocean in view

I move my camera a little to the right, and here's the city view (that tower reminds me of Tokyo)

Look! I'm flying 50 feet off the ground!

Following we head to Maehama beach, where my party a few days later from my homeroom class will be held, to see the beach. It's my first time seeing a beach in Miyako, and it's comparable to Hawaii.

Road to Maehama beach

Beautiful!

Video

Kana and Natsuko play around

I write "Atsui" in the sand, meaning 'HOT'.

In the end, we return home and I finally see the first Japanese flag flying over the island. It's flying half-mast because today was an Okinawan holiday--Irei no Hi (慰霊の日), the Day of Comforting the Spirits.

Monday, June 24, 2008 (２００８年６月２４日 [月])
It's school again. Here are some interesting things that happened today:

Takuma practices reading his English :) Well done! (Pachi pachi!)

While waiting for a checkup from the nurse's office, the boys play around with some toilet paper during the waiting in line.

Look at the board.

In Chemistry class today. I decided to put a reply (don't worry--it's erased now)

Naoya dances (taken from a famous comedy show on [Japan] TV) -- part one

Part two

German Culture Village and Miyako Rock Festival

2008-06-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday! Ako returns home with Rito back into Tokyo and we take her back to the Miyako Airport today. The airport’s pretty nice inside, with many interesting things to see and manage to snap some shots despite that I couldn’t get a picture with Ako.

Miyakojima (Miyako Island) model at the airport

Inside Miyako Airport (to drop Ako off)

My host mom was planning to take us to a buffet at a German Culture Village (not kidding!) in Miyakojima with our relatives. Driving is always a beauty on the island, you can see the ocean on the horizon over the afternoon sun. We arrive in the village and go into a hotel (we’re not checking in, just eating) and I shout “Guten Tag”. No one understands me, but I do manage to draw some attention from people whose eyes are fixed on me, amazed and wondering if I’m German from the two words I had just shouted. We find our table and begin eating.

Heading to the German Culture Village

German Culture Village in Ueno with the Welcome sign in German

Inside the buffet

My first plate

Lots of pasta! Yummy! The first non-Japanese dinner I’ve eaten in a few days—it was great (though I do like Japanese cuisine). Even my adored garlic toast was there. I grab my second plate, and my hands get scortched by hot water after a staff member was replacing a meal and the water dripped on my hand. She apologized and I tell her it’s okay (I found out she speaks English after living in the US for 22 years in Colorado when I ask her where the bathroom was a couple minutes later!).

After the second plate as I was grabbing my third one, I happened to stumble on an item I wanted to try.

It said “本日のスープ” (Honjitsu no Soup) which meant “Today’s soup”.

It looked good, but why was it clear (click picture to enlarge)? Whatever, it must be good. I grab a rice bowl (another mistake I—a foreigner—make, as rice bowls are supposed to be used for rice). I bring it over back to the table and Yuki-san laughs me from the wrong bowl. I was startled when she tells me I used the wrong bowl, and I “Eh? Maji de?” (Huh, really? [slang]). We laugh and the waiter that burned my hand earlier tells us that it’s okay to use that bowl for soup since it was a European buffet.

I sample the soup, and I’m baffled at its flaver. Tastes like water. This isn’t soup. Or is it? It looked perfectly like soup! Yuki-san finally notices what I’m doing and tells me it’s actually NOT soup. It’s water (yappari! – I knew it!) used to clean the scoop/spoon (?) for the soup (which is in the other closed jar). We burst into laughter and the waitress comes back and asks us about why we’re laughing. She joins along. The real soup was in the left, closed, metal jug in the picture.

I finally get the right soup this time and spent the last 10 minutes eating that and dessert. After eating, I happened to bring my PSP along and there is WiFi near the door, as the sign reads. Dang, it doesn’t work.

View of the ocean through the window of the buffet

Next, we head to a video store to buy tickets for the Miyako Rock Festival and return home.

We happen to stumble on a patrol car
(沖縄県警察 - Okinawa Ken Keisatsu; Okinawa Prefecture Police)

Front of the ticket

Back of the ticket

On the way home, Yuki-san asks if I’m sleepy, I tell her no (since car rides on long roads are so soothing). It was about 2:30 PM when we arrived home, and I told Yuki-san I wanted to leave at 3:30 PM. I watch TV with Yuki-san and, bummer, I fell asleep on the spot. I woke up the exact time I wanted to leave, Kana and Kumi-san were waiting for me at the beach (where the concert was) and called us that Puffy (Puffy Amiyumi is a famous Japanese band) was performing. Gah! I rush over and Yuki-san drops me off at the spot and I find the two waiting for me.

I asked if I can take photos, and they tell me it’s dame (ダメ= dah-meh), meaning no good, or in a more natural translated way, you can’t. I did manage to see Puffy perform but didn’t take photos. Suddenly, I see two concert staff running in with a stretcher. In the hot beach, I’m assuming someone is having heat exhaustion. They run past me and run back this time with a young girl having a seizure. Everyone near me has their eyes fixed on her instead of Puffy performing. I’m horrified since I’ve never seen someone like this before and wonder if she’s okay (most likely is after receiving medical attention). This told me too that I had to be careful (2 more people fainted/had head exhaustion during the festival).

When Ellegarden and the other bands (including Funky Monkey Babys) perform, I told myself that’s it. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and just pulled out my camera. Everyone was waving their (Japanese) fans in sync with the beat as the performers performed. I pulled out my fan (provided upon entry free of charge), raised my camera over the crowd and placed the fan behind my camera so that no staff members could see I was taking a picture (and a video sometime after).

Ellegarden performing

Second shot at Ellegarden

Kumi-chan and me (: The background lighting made us look dark

Everytime after a band performs, the stage undergoes testing. I found it rather funny. (The tester is shouting "hey! hey!")

湘南乃風 (Shounan no Kaze - Shounan's Breeze) performing

Second shot at 湘南乃風 (Shounan no Kaze)

Funky Monkey Babys performing (remember them from school?)

Second picture of Funky Monkey Babys

I meet some friends of mines from Miyako High and dance along with them. I perhaps danced a little too much and too hard, my legs were sore for 4 days.

After that, Shounan no Kaze (湘南乃風) performed for about 20 minutes, and at the end of the song, people were really hyped up and shouted アンコレ ("Encore!") for another go at the song, and I joined along as well. And soon enough after exiting the stage, Sounan no Kaze went back out and played for all of us another song. What a crowd :)

I do recall somewhere during the Rock Festival of myself shouting something in English (I was rooting for a band) that really stole everyone's attention because I looked Japanese and they least expected an American in the crowd. I just don't remember what though....

Empty stage at the end

The festival finally finishes at 8 and I return home with Kana and Kumi (they are friends of Yuki-san) in Kana’s (rather awesome) car. High-tech inside. Foot lighting, and a nice TV between the driver and passenger seat.

Ako's cool car (:

I return home, eat dinner, shower and head to bed.

5th day at school – Famous Japanese band visit!

2008-06-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

School’s the same! I will not post the same old things except for interesting, unusual or new events. It’s a waste of time and will be boring to read anyways.

What’s new?

During our English class today with Asaho-sensei (Gima Asaho – his full name), some boys were playing with their electronic dictionary and typing in the words “crazy”, “stupid” and “idiot” while pressing the pronunciation key during their ‘fooling time’.

Their electronic dictionary would shout those words out in the middle of a quiet session of study and I found it extremely hilarious. And for the reference, *NO*, I did *NOT* teach them these words. I did ask them if they knew what it meant but other than that, I wasn’t responsible for their actions. All I simply did was

laugh (well… maybe ask them to do it one more time). (;

In this video, Taiki (the guy looking down) types “stupid” into the dictionary and messes with the 'pronunciation' key many times. Notice our sensei, despite hearing it, doesn’t do anything.
Note: It’s hard to hear so turn up your volumes or get earphones since the fans inside the classroom are loud.

Ryou, the guy who sits behind me, shows me a close up view of what Taiki was doing with his dictionary.

Later, I practiced my kanji (Chinese characters found in Japanese) using a Ryou’s electronic dictionary (the guy who sits behind me) for classes I that I couldn’t do (because they were all in extreme Japanese—yet I didn’t leave the class). Naoya, a few classmates and I still had our immature, (but funny) paper fight at each other’s back and legs during classes. (I can post a video if I get enough requests)

More pictures with classmates and I’m loving the life. Everywhere I walk, I can’t avoid a “hello”—it’s awesome. (:

At the end of our classes today, we had to report to the school gym for yet another speech. No~ not in the Miyako heat! I’m walking there and I get swamped by schoolgirls who drag me in to their group pile while the guys shout hello on the outside of the circle. They ask me their name one by one (and I go “wasureta” for I forgot and they sigh and retell their name and giggle again). I walk in the gym, humid like I’m in water. I find my “ichi-nensei” group and I sit with the guys. Not paying attention to the speech (because people were talking to me), I suddenly hear schoolgirls scream. What was that? Was that the track team running in? No, It’s “Funky Monkey Babys” (purposely spelled like that)—a famous Japanese hip-hop band—running in! Oh my gosh. To be honest with you, I didn’t really know who they were until a couple friends told me about them and I took pictures like crazy. I even got to talk a picture of one of the band’s members and shake his hands (I didn't get a picture of myself doing it because the van was moving and I can't shake hands and get a good pictures like that)!

The reason they are here is because of tomorrow's Miyako Rock Festival, and they simply decided to visit the school. I will attend this festival and will post about it soon.

"Funky Monkey Babys", a popular band in Japan, makes an unexpected appearance at Miyako High School. Complete with the TV crew. (:

Here they are accepting the flowers and making a speech.

Different angle

Running up to the van to get this shot.

(I have a picture of 'Chem', a member of the band, close up posing. If you want to see it, you can ask me by comment or e-mail--it's an awesome shot!)

Haha, I’m lucky. They seem to be really popular on the web, so I’m assuming they’re pretty well known in Japan. Because of the nice pictures I took, people wanted me to send the pictures so this one girl gave me a paper with about 7 emails on it. I agree to send the mail (Wah! So much internet work). Take a look.

Oh and I got Naoya's picture too. (: Good friends

After school, I went to Natsuko’s Odori Lessons (Japanese dance lessons) and there was about 15 children dancing. They dedicated a dance for me called “4 seasons” and danced with golden fans. Cute huh?

30-second video (my annoying camera limit) of "4 seasons".

Oh yeah! WE HAD YUMMY CURRY & RICE FOR DINNER!
--“Fruit salad. Yummy yummy.”

Edit: Changed the date from June 26th to June 20th.
("Huh?" you might ask. My blog is behind schedule and because I do not make daily posts on my everyday schedule as I did back when I was in SJSU, I'm falling behind on events. So today is actually June 26 and I accidentally set the date of this post as the 26th, in which the events did not happen on that day. They happened on June 20th so I'm changing it to the 20th. By the way today's is the 25th in America, my birthday. :) I already had a party in Japan [it's the 26th here].)

3rd Day of School in Japan & Ako's Visit

2008-06-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

School in Japan is obviously different than that from America. The schedules are a weekly schedule (so every day is different in a week). Teachers switch for the period, not students (except in cases like P.E. and Chemistry) which is good because we can stay in for the air conditioning. Students here have a lot more freedom than we do, and usually fool around. But what comes with this freedom is a sense of responsibility in which they are responsible for their own education.

There's nothing really to talk about since because school is, well, school. Pictures will tell the story more than words this time.

Yuuto gets whacked by someone's fan. This is what I mean by fooling around :)

Yuuto and Yuuta having a battle to see who can blow a metal ring to the other side of the desk (this was DURING a teacher's lecture [during Japanese Composition class--think of it like Japanese class like we have English class in the US])

Japanese Math Textbook

Suugaku! (Math!)

-During P.E., I didn't swim so I went to the library to study Japanese.

There's a choir class in Japan! Can you believe that? Except everyone participates. You do not get a choice to choose your classes. Ahh, reminds me of my middle school years and freshman year in high school.

Choir Class

We sang a traditional Japanese song called "Furusato"--Yes I can read and sing the song piece, did I understand? Most of it, no. :)

Some girls sitting next to me made a crane (origami) with their towel/handkerchief

- We return to homeroom to clean the class again, like everyday.

Keichi messing around with Shouta's fan. He's talking into it! Another one of the funny moments in the classroom...

I took a picture with some San-nen students in the staff room after school :) (3rd year students--turns out we're friends on the first day)

After school, I finally was able to participate with the tennis club in Miyako High. Unfortunately, I brang two T-shirts and neeed to borrow some shorts. A guy from the club was nice enough to lend me one for the day. I changed and the club was doing running exercises around the campus. Since I was looking for shorts before, I changed late and had to run around the school by myself rather than with the group.

I stretched first (guys from the school near me were introducing themselves or trying to ask me what their name was while girls were shouting 'hello' to me from the gym's second balcony floor) and ran afterwards. Boy did I get lost for quite a bit. I saw a law enforcement officer and decided to ask him for directions, but decided to keep on running around the block. From what seemed like to be a block turned into a maze of roads through neighborhoods. I finally kept running around the road and the school popped up again. I'm not trying that alone again.

I finished running and it seems like I beat the group itself first to the tennis courts and wait for about 10 minutes then they finally show up and we practice. Ah yes, my tennis skills were lost and it took me a while while practicing to regain those lost skills. I had to leave at 7 (PM) but the club was still practicing--that's late.

I'm walking home and I take this picture of (a rather ugly picture because of the wrong shutter configurations--but it has a nice ambience to it) the sunset.

Today, Ako-san, my mom's (who she wants me to call her Yuki-san since calling her "Okaasan" makes her feel old) friend from Tokyo will visit Miyakojima for 3 days and return on Friday. We make her feel welcome and there's nothing else special for the day :)

Me, Natsuko, Karitomo and Ako

Cooking -- I get 4 more mosquito bites so I eat inside the house

A cat from the street looks up, smelling the food from the balcony

We play with Japanese fireworks during the night. HILARIOUS. Yuki-san (my mom) gave me some green sparklers and I was waving it at an intersection. HAHA all the cars were slowing down. :) I love grabbing attention.

Koharu and Rito (Ako's children). Rito grabbed the cat that was meowing from the balcony and played with it while Bunta and Natsuko cried everytime the cat got close to them. Cute picture :)

"Huggable!"

Bunta with his fireworks (;

Rito loves riding the bicycle :D
Koharu's playing with the cat.

First Day of School in Japan!

2008-06-16T00:20:00.000-07:00

I woke up earlier today, around 6 AM and listened to music for a while to relax despite having slept so much. I got up, went to the kitchen and said "Ohayou!" (meaning 'Good Morning') to my Mom and Natsuko. "Hai," Yuki-san quickly replied, and I went in the shower room to brush my teeth. I'm looking at the mirror and I still see my gums are bleeding since the orientation back in San Jose State University.
I finish to eat breakfast with my family, which was Miso Soup, rice and Tomago (egg) and left for Miyako High by car with the whole family. Once we arrived, we had some trouble trying to find where the office was so that I can begin to Shikaishimasu (Introduce) myself with the WHOLE staff of the school. I'm waiting to enter by waiting outside on the side of the hallway since students are passing through as my host family and YFU volunteer bow our heads and say "Ohayo Gozaimasu" for each person that passes by. We enter the teacher's lounge. My heart was 'doki doki' (thump thump!) as I had to do it in Japanese in the teacher's lounge.

Japanese---
私：こんにちは・・・あれー？あーごめん。おはようございます。カリフォルニア州サンホゼー市来ました。アメリカ人です・・・よろしくおねがいします！
すべての先生：よろしくおねがいします。

ENGLISH----

Me: Good afternoon... Oh wait. Opps, Good Morning!
I've come from San Jose, California so I'm American (NOT Japanese as I look like one)... Nice to meet you! *bows*
All of Staff: 'Nice to meet you' *all bowing*)

That was the worst introduction I've made. I've done better, but I think I blame myself because of how nervous I was when I shouldn't have been. Even in English it sounds horrible.

Waiting outside of the teacher's lounge (not shown), picture of the hall in the morning

Whatever, it's over. The I bow one more time and leave the teacher's lounge through the front door and follow Christy (an assistant English Teacher from England) back into the staff lounge in the BACK door to her tiny office space. The teachers now are doing their introductions about me and doing morning meetings, taking about 20 minutes. During that time, I talked with Christy about myself and she tells me about herself. It's nice to have someone to talk to in English :)

The teachers finally finish and leave, Christy and Ayumi-sensei (an English teacher) tell me to stay in the lounge at a table and begin to tell me the rules of the school and all the interesting yada yada. I ask questions, such as where the library is and what's it called in Japanese (aside: it's called "Toushoukan") and other questions such as how much freedom we have to leave school to buy food between classes and lunch. Despite being "the land of the free" in America, we couldn't leave school to buy lunch but in Japan, you can leave. You just simply can't bring the food/drink back into the school--no problem.

Anyways, we decide to go to the nurses' Office first before the library, and I met two young and friendly nurses (Sorry I forget names). I introduced myself again and bowed and we started talking about random stuff for a minute. They tell me if I had any problems, "kochi kuru ne" (Come here, okay). The nurses office in Japan is very much different in America, such as if you feel bad, you are welcome in the nurses' office even if it's something small as "it's-not-my-day". Heck, you can even hang out in here like some Japanese students do.

We (Ayumi-sensei, Christy and I) continue to the library, where I saw some school students staring at me, apparantly wondering how in the heck I can speak so advanced English with the assistant English teacher. Obviously, they think I'm not from Miyakojima but somewhere else such as Tokyo having studied English.

I arrive in the library after a 40 second walk and enter the building. Taking off my shoes, I walk in the main library area (this is a custom in Japan) and am greeted by Hiromi-san. She's in charge of the library and after hearing my Japanese (despite being how bad it already is) calls it Umai (skillful- I find out later it's because of the fact that I've only studied for a year). We greet, and leave, just like the nurses' office. I'm allowed to leave class if the Japanese gets too overwhelming and stay in the library to relax, but I plan not to do that.

Alright, it's back to the teacher's lounge. Why am I not in class now? Well, the school newspaper wants to interview me and take pictures with my host family. We enter the principal's room and I am served Ocha (tea). Two newspaper staff and a sensei as an interpreter are present, with my homeroom teacher behind me and my mother sitting beside me on a tatami mat. (I'm sitting Japanese style--I didn't want to look like a foreigner) They ask me questions on where I'm from, why I chose Japan, and other topics such as my Japanese skill. I tell them I've studied for only a year alone, and one sensei goes 'EHHH?? Sugee (pronounced su-geh)!' (Huh!? WOW~). He asks me how I do it alone, I tell him I use an online site and he does a longer 'sugee' with raised eyebrows and a lightened face. I decide to add that if I wanted to talk in Japanese I use Skype to talk with Japanese people. His eyes are like two full moons and his face lights up like a bright light bulb, saying even a longer and higher-pitched 'sugee'. That was hilarious. I find out later that he uses Skype, therefore he's amazed.

We finish asking questions and take pictures in front of the school's sign. That was probably 30 pictures they took in under 2 minutes and the newspaper staff thank us for our time to be interviewed. I go back to the staff lounge and Nobuyuki-sensei, my homeroom teacher, guides me to our class.

The picture taken on my camera

The newspaper that came out the next day. It's read a lot by people living in Miyakojima.

Title (I translated into English; sounds weird because translation is never perfect):

Exchange Student from the United States of America
"Life in Miyako is Interesting"
Jimmy Ly-kun studies at Miyako High School

About the Picture:
First three people on the left are my teachers. First is Asaho-sensei (English teacher), Nobuyuki-sensei (homeroom & Japanese teacher) and Christy (English assistant teacher from the U.K.). Next is me, Yukichi holding Bunta, Yukiko with Natsuko in front and the last is Shimoji-sensei (YFU Area Coordinator/Representative) ["Fly grabber" as my mom calls :D ]

As I'm walking to homeroom, I get stares and smiles from school school students in other classrooms through windows, pointing at me and smiling. I enter my homeroom, and the students are just like American students having free time. "Ki wo tsuke!" shouts the class leader and everyone dashes towards their seats immediately upon the Nobuyuki-sensei's entrance. Stares again. Ugh--but they were friendly stares, not like stalker ones. Nobayuki-sensei starts off the class by talking briefly about me and tells me to once again introduce myself. I introduce myself smoothly in Japanese this time as I was less nervous, "Jouzu" can be heard among the quietly chabbering students meaning skillful.

Nobayuki-sensei points to my seat, in the middle of the class. My name was on the desk in Katakana and Roman letters. The class leader tells the class to stand up once more, stand up straight, and bow to the teacher. "Yoroshiku" we all say to sensei and he tells us to be seated.

1 nensei 3 kumi 39 ban (1st year student, 3rd group, number 39)

I sit down and Yuka, a schoolgirl sitting in front of me, begins to talk to me. Her name is Yuka.

Yuka: "Nihongo wakaru?"/ You know Japanese?
Me: "Sukoshi" / A little...
Yuka: "Soukka" / I see...

Nobayuki-sensei then tells the class that another girl named Mako, who sits next to Yuka, is related to my host family. She's my second cousin. Both amazed, Mako and I said "Maji de?" in astonishment (meaning 'really?'). Sensei tells the class he's going to plan a party for the class for Ruriko-sensei (who's a new teacher at Miyako High only for 3 weeks) and me. Yuka continues to talk to me on small things with her best of her ability in English, asking for an electronic dictionary from other classmates at times and we engage in a light conversation for quite a while, ending up to be good friends at the end of the day. Sensei tells the class about a party, which will be a barbeque at 3:30pm in Maehama Beach in Miyakojima (Miyako Island). The bell rings and Nobuyuki-sensei leaves (remember teachers switch to classes, not like in America where students move to their classes).

All the boys get out and the girls stay in (to change in the class). The boys tell me to follow and told me we're going to P.E. to swim. I didn't bring any swimming clothes or towels so I'll just be watching today. We wait in front of the lockers for about 15 minutes for the teacher to give us the keys in order to unlock the locker gates. During that time, everyone focused their attention on me and asked questions (like where I'm from, my Japanese skill, hobbies, etc.). The gates finally open and I enter the pool area. The boys wait on the side of the pool for the teacher to come in and simply chatter. The teacher comes in a waits for quite a while (seems like he's waiting for the boys to settle down) and another teacher that seems to be in a higher position disciplines them. All the boys stare down--except for me until I finally noticed they were staring down. Finishing, he begins the class by telling the boys to do warm up stretches. "Ichi, ni, san, shi," the teacher counts while the boys finish with "go, roku, shichi, hachi." One of my friends, whom he perfers me to call him "George" poses in a hilarious position (he's posing like this on purpose) and tells me to snap a shot of him. The boys jump in the pool to do practice laps and class starts, ending about 20 minutes later.

"George" posing

Boys who did not dress out for swimming were cleaning up the pool as told by the coach. Apparently, they're having fun squirting the swimmers with the hose.

We return to class with some spare time during the 10 minute break and I snap some photos of my classmates

"Ano... Nani sore?" our math teacher asks of the party information on the board as he enters and erases it.
Since I was placed in a general math class, it was pretty easy becuase they were learning about quadratic problems and I suprise both the students and teachers when sensei tells us to solve a problem, saying "Jimmy mo wakaru" (Jimmy also gets/understands it). "Eh~~~~?" The boys say while surprised. I get stares from the whole class. I give a light smile and we continue back to work. The math class is really easy (due to the fact that it's a regular math class and I'm entering Calculus) but the Kanji (Chinese characters) make it seem "Holy cow chocolate!"

**NOTE: THE MATH TEACHER REMINDS ME OF MR. CASTILLO (my Pre-cal teacher), he even almost sounds like him**

Overwhelming math because of the kanji, but it's really not hard.

Once the uniform-bell-sound-found-in-almost-every-Japanese-school bell rang, math was over: it was lunchtime. My mom had packed me an Obento lunch (yum yum--how awesome is that??) laying in my bag. Chopsticks, drinks and the food. Oishikatta yo. I noticed all the students left except for a few students and decide to ask some of the boys sitting around me in Japanese. They say that everyone who went out of the classroom is getting their Obento, either from a store or from somewhere else that they left in the school. I nod and eat my Obento (sorry I forgot what I ate, it's been 3 days from the actual event and the time I'm writing this post). LOTS of students came up to me to practice their English, starting with "Hi" and telling me each of the students' names (apparantly some were calling each other nicknames than real ones). Some listened to their MP3s on their cell phones and were asking me about American artists whether I knew them or not. Green Day seems to be very popular with them.

Me, (a girl who never told her name), "Susan" and Reina at lunch.

Lunchtime (Part 1) The girls don't mind taking pictures but are embarrassed with I tell them it's a movie.

Going in with the guys into 3-kumi classroom :)

Posing

Many friends made on the first day at lunch

Lunch ends with the bell again, and we leave the 1 - 3 classroom. 1 stands for Ichi-nensei (First year student--Japanese high school is equivalent to 10th grade - 12th grade in America) while 3 stands for kumi group. Kumi, huh? Didn't you hear that somewhere before? Yup, back at SJSU we used that. We walk to the gym where it is jammed-packed with students with the swelling heat. Before we enter we have to take off our shoes just like in the house. Turns out the assembly in the gym was about the 80th anniversity of the school's opening. Of course, the students were 'naughty' and were talking the whole time, something not seen even in America (not to mention myself after 45 minutes of people trying to talk/wave/practice-their-English with me). At the end, a teacher stepped up to the microphone and disciplined the students, PURE SILENCE from the whole school, saying he was ashamed as a teacher to see such a thing. Once he finishes, we all get the a-OK to leave and we head back to our homeroom class (classroom 1-3 for me).

Hot and boring, but interesting.

Man, the AC was off so the classroom is hot as (noun goes here). "Atsui~~," everyone moans. One students calls me and hands me a mop. We're cleaning the classroom, a custom in Japan as students respect school (NOT like in America where most don't even bother to come to school). We push the tables back, and I start mopping like Custodian Joe (I just made up a name) while other students sweep, clean the board, the chalkboard eraser, etc... We pull the tables and chairs back to their positions when we're done. Lots of students (schoolgirls-not guys since guys aren't shy and come up to me) stood outside wanting to see the only American on the island.

Cleaning up the classroom at the end of the day (around 4:30 PM)

The final bell rings, and we leave. With lots of "Bye bye"s and "Mata ne"s (see you again), I head to the staff lounge to see Christy, who will show me the clubs of the school. Before that, I watch her with some schoolgirls who are competing in a competition on an English speaking contest. After, I decide to join tennis club and observe for the day since I had no proper clothes for practicing in the Okinawan sun. I took some pictures and went back into the Staff Lounge at around 6:30 PM to call my host family to pick me up by car.

Only watching today :(

Yukichi: Konbanwa, Yukichi Sakai desu. / Good evening, it's Yukichi Sakai.
Me: Ah~ Moshi moshi. Otousan? Jimmy desu. Ano, kuruma de kaette mo ii? / Oh, hello. Dad? It's Jimmy. Um, can go home by car?
Yukichi: Hai hai~ / Sure sure.
Me: Shitsurei-shimasu~ / Bye! (Literally: [Sorry,] I'm interrupting!)

He comes in about 2 minutes (that's quick) and picks me up. He asks me about my day and we arrive home in an instant. "Tadaima~ (I'm home)," I say and Okaasan greets me with "Okaeri! (Welcome home!) Gakkou wa tanoshii? (Was school fun?)"

"Sou sou sou! America no gakkou yori Nihon no gakkou wa Tanoshikute, omoroshikatta." (Yup yup yup, Japanese schools are more interesting and fun than the ones in America) [Aside: Seriously, they are, students go so much freedom]

I tell her I'm going to shower and she nods with an "Un!" (Sure--'un' is really a word in Japanese). She shows me around the shower room (notice I didn't use bathroom/restroom) and offers me to use her shampoo. I politely say I have my own and begin to shower once she leaves. It was a quick one, and when I got out, dinner was waiting as I said "Owari" (I'm done).

I sit down at the family table and eat after saying "Itadakimasu" (You HAVE to say this before eating. How do I know? I've forgotten many times). Miso soup again and some rice with unique Miyako-niku (meat found only in Miyako) served with cold Ocha (tea). I finish and began to write my blog after bringing out my laptop into the main area and chat with friends online at midnight-pacific time even though it was 6 PM in Miyakojima-shi.

Then the rest is usual, I brushed my teeth and stuff you probably wouldn't want to read. I turn on the AC and begin to listen to my MP3 for about 10 minutes and fell asleep.

First Homestay Day

2008-06-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

I’m not going to type the whole day like a story for this post. It’s too long. Bah. I’m lazy—and I have work to do like study Japanese. I wake up really early and eat breakfast (with proper Japanese etiquette). (Aside: I figure out my host mom was REALLY nervous of me on the first and second day of my stay, but now she’s not anymore). Yukiko (my mom), Bunta, Natsuko and I go for a walk to Miyako High School so that I familiarize myself with the place while having a light discussion on the way.

Next, we go travel around Miyakojima and Kurimajima for some sights of the beach. Wonderful island (except for the humidity).

In Kurimajima :) The bridge connects back to Miyakojima

The lighthouse where I took a stroll with Yukiko and Natsuko. I drank sugar cane on the way back

That's where we are on the map. Find 宮古島 (Miyakojima if you can't see the characters). (:

Yum yum!

We went to the market ;)

Find out why on the next paragraph

Today my family was throwing a sushi party for me on my arrival. The rest of the family in Miyakojima comes over and so does Shimoji-sensei. I ask my family how to properly eat and they show me how while snapping some screenshots. We have a long talk and prepare for school tomorrow. (Yes I brushed my teeth and everything this time)

Departure to Miyakojima (Sat. - June 14)

2008-06-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 14, 2008

I woke up at 7:40 AM (Tokyo Time GMT +9), brushed my teeth and started packing. Like yesterday, I was late for breakfast and I gobbled down my breakfast. I went down to the lobby and grabbed my luggage. Today there was going to be 2 flights (talk about the awesome take offs and landings I’m going to experience) first to Naha-shi and then to Miyakojima-shi as my final destination, both in Okinawa Prefecture.

The list of flights for YFU student. I have the biggest area :) This list was pasted on the bus.

We got our bags into the bus, and I headed on our way after the YFU Japan staff told us what to expect for the flight(s). Having arrived at Haneda Intl’ Airport in Tokyo (Not Chiba, Japan), we YFU students took pictures and gave good-byes, then approached to the check-in desk, where the YFU Japan staff gave us our tickets and we had to check in our bags having waited 45 minutes to get all of the tickets--that's alot.

Can you spot Okinawa on this list of flights?

I went to the check-in desk to check in my single, large baggage and I was mistaken to be a Japanese person by the young clerk counter after the conversation and she was surprised to hear I wasn’t one. She gives me my boarding pass and my baggage claim receipt and I proceed to gate 9. Ugh, security. It reminds me of the mean TSA agents back in SFO Intl’ Airport. Oh wait, they’re friendly (: Yay! I put all my stuff in the tray for inspection and walk under the detector. “Dozo” says the man in charge. I walk through and he gives me a thumbs-up. I grab my stuff from the tray, put on my metal belt and headed towards my gate. I noticed the whole time, I never pulled out my passport. As I’m walking to the gate, I happen to see one of Japan’s smoking rooms in an airport. It’s hilarious! People come in and out and smoke in there without even talking with one another, blankly staring at something and smoking with barely any interactions with one another.

I get to my gate area and sit (something aside: I accidentally typed ‘the bad word’ meaning feces when was typing the word ‘sit’. Opps.) I was down with my laptop bag and YFU students were also waiting in my gate. A girl shows me a video on her video camera that she recorded a crow attacking one another. One crow was pecking a what seems to be an injured crow while the wounded crow was on its back kicking in a motion that seem to say “get away”. Crows are stupid, well, that’s what I think from now. I sit down back on my seat and watch planes land like giants were trying to stop from running over a cliff, which can be heard as the 747’s thunderous roars from the reverse thrust of their touchdown landing procedures.

Haneda Airport in Tokyo--watching aviation traffic.

Gate 9 to Okinawa for Flight 913

The sound of the piano melody opening plays over the intercom, and the announcer tells it’s time for boarding, ending with the closing melody. I’m kind of angry at another YFU student who told me to watch his stuff and said he would be right back really quickly. Right now they’re boarding and he’s still not back. He comes back in 5 minutes and by now the line’s really long. No comment. I hold my feelings inside and just continue on, grabbing my laptop bag and boarding pass out. I hand my boarding pass to a machine which reads my ticket and it slides out the other side of the machine. I grab and walk on the jetway to the plane. It’s a big plane, the same *type* of plane I flew from San Francisco to Narita. I enter the plane, and WOW. I have economy and…. it’s like economy plus. Beats United Airlines. It’s the last time I’m flying with them when I grow up. United is crammed as hell (sorry for the language) while Japan Airlines is spacious.

Walking on the jetway to the plane

Boarding the plane (I didn't know why I recorded this--seriously)

I sat next to another YFU student (not the one whom I had to wait for) since we had seats next to each other and she also had a transfer flight. What I liked about Japan Airlines was that there was a projector that shows the front of the plane during take-off and landing, so you get to see the runway and the scenery (unlike the terrible United Airways—read the online reviews and see how really bad they are). So we take off and the flight attendants are serving drinks. I pull out my sandwiches (in a rather large box) YFU Japan gave during the bus ride to Haneda Airport and people behind stare at me like I pulled it out of my pocket. Funny stuff. I eat and type my blog on the plane until the pilot announces the approach to Naha (I actually understood the Japanese). Most of the flight had some strong turbulence that almost shook me out of my seat. I was the only one who said “wow!” in the flight; they’re probably used to it. The projector lights up with the map and I find out the plane traveled in almost a zigzag pattern as it went south of Japan (perhaps to avoid the bad weather?). Anyways the runway shows up on the screen and that’s Naha Airport we’re approaching. Beautiful view of Naha can be viewed through the windows (despite having the middle seat) and a moderate landing ends the journey. The plane stops at its gate and we’re in Naha city. I get out, (first to the bathroom) and with the same YFU student I sat with, we ask the counter in Japanese if they spoke English and how to do a connecting flight.

Arrival at Naha Airport--domestic gates

This was the first time I’m doing this, and I didn’t want to get on the wrong plane or lose my luggage so I made sure by asking. They tell me to go to another terminal while the other YFU student had to go straight to her gate, so we said farewell and left. The other terminal, eh? That’s far. I asked someone else where the connecting flight for ANA Airlines was and she explained with hand motions (funny ones rather) and we smiled. I got halfway through the rather giantic airport and asked an officer, and he guided me to the right direction. (“ANA Check-in Counter desu ka? Hai, achi desu.”)

Beautiful :) Just follow the sign to the ANA check-in counter

I approach the counter and they hand me a boarding pass. I sit down at my gate 38A and wait for boarding.

After getting my directions I head to gate 38A downstairs (the left sign)

Hey! Is that a Pokemon plane? Yup. (See picture). A good laugh and within a few minutes I board. I hand my ticket and I don’t know what to do with it with a rather more “advanced” machine.

Gate 38A - Miyakojima-shi. Looks like Hawaii, huh?

"Gotta catch 'em all!"

My ticket. Again :) (I took it just in case I lose it)

I tell the attendant I didn’t know how to ‘work it’ so she explained to me that the ticket had a square barcode and all I need to do was to show it on a scanner and I’m all set. We board a bus which takes us to the back of the airport and our plane is a 737-500. Small plane compared to the 747. I enter the plane through the stairs up the plane and find my seat. Aw man, it’s not a window seat as they said when I checked in my ticket. As the plane fills up, I noticed not all the seats are filled so I ask the flight attendant if I could change seats. “Hai, dozo.” And I move my stuff over to the front seat (Yeah!). I get a beautiful view of Naha after a wonderful takeoff and it is ABSOLUTELY stunning. WOW. I couldn’t help but grab my camera and snap some shots (though electronics are supposed to be turned off, cameras shouldn’t interfere with the radio frequencies of the autopilot because it doesn’t emit radio waves).

Look at the tiny cars on the lower left corner

The tip end of the island

The flight was a pleasant experience, no turbulence with the sunset in view and the clouds that sent your mind into peace. The flight was a low alititude flight (seemed like around 10,000 feet-15,000 feet) and the water was in clear view. I’m enjoying the view and all of the sudden we’re decending. That was about 20-30 minutes. We’re decending a little too fast and the plane seems to be decending erratically (no autopilot??) and every few minutes the pilot would send the engines in full thrust to give the plane more lift and we were in a ride of ascending up and descending down for about 5 minutes—very odd. At last the Miyakojima (Miyako Island) is in view and I can see the whole island, it’s bigger than I expected (seems bigger than Naha though it’s really not) and spacious. Boom! The plane lands and I’m pulled forward as the plane activates its reverse thrust with its flaps on the wing fully out until coming to a controlled speed to exit the runway. Miyako Airport has a rather traditional look for the airport on the outside than most airports (compare to SFO, see picture).

Miyako Airport

I take my bag and enter the jetway into the airport. It’s modern on the inside. I follow the signs to the baggage claim and when I enter the baggage claim area, I can see my host family behind a glass wall waving at me. I wave back with a smile and bow while my host mom tugs on my host sister and points at me. I try to tell them I’m waiting for my bag by using body language since the baggage carousel hasn’t started. 2 minutes of waiting. Yes, finally. I see my distinctive green band I tied on my bag for easy identification and I tug it off the spinning carousel. I approach the exit and grab my baggage claim receipt and show it to an officer and he nods and points to the exit. I thank him by saying “Arigatou” and he nods once more.

There was my host family holding a “Welcome Jimmy” sign. The awkward moment every YFU student expects. I am introduced by the wonderful English-speaking Shimoji-sensei, my YFU area representative, introducing me to my host family (Yukichi-dad, Yukiko-mom, Natsuko-sister and Bunta-brother [nickname Bun-chan]). I bow with a “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” . Bunta and Natsuko say hello to me and I say hi back.

Outside of Miyako Airport, Shimoji-sensei, my YFU coordinator took this picture for me

Yukiko (mom): Jaa, Ikou? / Well, let’s go?

Me: Ikou. / Let’s go.

Yukiko: Hai~ / Okay~

Yukichi grabs my bag and I say I’ll carry it insistently, he says “Daijyoubu” (It’s okay) and not wanting to appear aggressive as a first impression, I let him carry it. We walk to our van and Yukiko asks me about Miyakojima.

Me: Jime jime desu ne. / It’s humid huh? (Seriously, Naha was less humid, Tokyo was like SF)

We get in the van (I get in the wrong side) and Yukichi points me to the other side (the driver’s side in America, but passenger side in Japan) and we laugh. We drive away from the airport and have a light conversation. Bunta’s (boon-tah; not bun-tah) trying to give me the sign but I said “Arigatou kedo kekkou desu” (Thanks but it’s alright) He insists but Yukiko comes in and says “Iranai tte” (He doesn’t need it) to Bunta. He approach the house and Yukiko points to the house. Such a nice and big house compared to the ones in Tokyo. We enter, take off our shoes and Natsuko runs up the stairs pointing to my room (“Jimmy no heya”).

My wonderful new home for the next 6 weeks~ (literally, abstractly and it's actually a new house my host family bought)

I put my bags in my room and I walk out to talk with my mom, who offers me tea after such a hot trip home. We talk about names, age, and the schedule for the week. I’m going to school on Monday since it’s Saturday and there’s no school on Sunday (with the exception of some sport clubs practicing). My mother and I will walk to school on Sunday for me to familiarize myself with the area. She tells me “Kyou yukkuri-shite ne. (Rest today okay?)” I tell her I’m going to take a nap, and she asks about dinner. I tell her to wake me up about 7 PM and fall to sleep. My sleeping area was a futon on a bed with a towel-like blanket. The futon was SO comfortable. <3>

Knock knock, the room goes and Yukichi tells me it’s time for dinner. Rice and miso soup. I was aware of the cultural differences and tried to be careful not to break any rules—it was weird eating and living with someone whom I’ve just met with a few hours. I grab my chopsticks and my mom tells me to wait. She brings out the vegetables. The family sits down and we all say “Itadakimasu” and chow down. I ask her how to eat (properly) and my father, Yukichi, shows me that my soup is on the right, rice bowl on the left. I thank him and eat. After I eat, I said “Gouchisou-sama” (which means “Thanks for the meal!” but literally means ‘It was a feast’). “Hai~” Yukiko says and I sleep straight away (first time after a record-breaking days of not brushing my teeth).

That was a long day.

金曜日、2008年６月１３日 - Friday, June 13th, 2008 (Pictures - part two)

2008-06-13T23:43:00.001-07:00

Japanese Garden in the back of the Takanawa Prince Hotel

Japan Rail Map -- Harold and I took the Yamanote Line (Midori - Green Line) after YFU staff allowed us to go anywhere (alone!). We went to Akihabara to eat and shop but to Shibuya to only shop. Culture shock hit me here because I didn't know what ticket to buy and didn't want to get lost, but I figured out how the train system works.

The train ride to Akihabara from Shinagawa Station

Arriving in Akihabara!

Exiting the Akihabara Station into Akihabara (aka Electric Town)

Department

Outside view of Akihabara (oh yeah, it's also called Akiba if you haven't read my long post) Station

Who is this? :)
Edit: (side note) Turns out 5 days ago, the suspect (stabbing-spree) of the Akihabara Massacre was arrested exactly in the alley on the right side. Don't get me wrong but Akihabara still is and has been a lovely place. The massacre startled everyone because people are stunned that it happened in Akihabara.

Japanese video documentary (watch this first): http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ShXW7GngaE0&feature=related

Excellent Article in English (then read this second): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara_massacre

Department Store

Akihabara!

Post-sunset sky

Well, it's back to the Akihabara Station!

To buy some Soba and Udon for dinner!

Yo! :)

Crowded Train

And my ticket

Trip from Akihabara to Shibuya was fast since the trains in Japan are so fast :)
(This is NOT the Shinkansen though)

Welcome to Shibuya! :)

Walking down various roads in Shibuya

I got in the middle of the road just to take this picture

Hey!

A Store :)

Yet another view

Shibuya = Crowded with people
Here this is all the people lining up at a stoplight to cross the road

When the light to cross is green, this is what happens: People literally flood the intersection, notice the taxi in the middle...

Here's a "smaller version" of the picture above on a less dense street

Going home by going to Shibuya Station (looks like the airport, huh?)

'Densha ga kita yo!'

Taking the Yamanote Line (Midori)

American Embassy in Tokyo - Friday, June 13th, 2008 (Pictures - part two)

2008-06-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

Picture of the American Embassy (It clearly says American Embassy on the stoplight)

Me at the Imperial Palace

Adam, Harold, Elizabeth and me in front of the Imperial Palace

D: A traditional kimono

I was eating obento lunch on top of a building and decided to take a picture of this flag :) Behind the background is Nichidai Chougaku-Koukou, (Nichidai Middle School-High School)

Edit: Oh. About the 7.2 magnitude earthquake, I saw some helicopters fly from the damaged site into Tokyo here.

The official surrender document of Japan during WWII which forever changed its history

Trip to the Embassy - Friday, June 13th, 2008

2008-06-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

(Assuming from the length from this post, you can tell I had an awesome time in Tokyo)

All YFU students were to be awake by 7 AM for breakfast at 7 AM – 7:45 AM (Tokyo Time GMT +9); I had woke at 7:17. This is what happens when you ask your roommate you aren’t sure to place trust to wake you up in the morning at your specified time (I asked to wake up at 6:45 AM). I rushed out of bed and headed down by 7:30 AM since it takes me forever to brush my teeth, change and organize myself. I only had 15 minutes to eat, and I couldn’t even find where the restaurant was (レストラン). By the time I found it, I had 7 minutes remaining, and the line was LONG. I feared that I wouldn’t be able to eat breakfast at all and this was a big deal to be because food in Japan is 高い (takai = expensive)! Just a bottle of water costs ￥340 (about $3.40), can you imagine how much food costs? Anyways, Hiro-san, one of our YFU Japan staff members, happened to be nearby and he said I shouldn’t worry because he just wants us to show up at the lobby by 8:30 AM, which was a huge relief. We were going to visit the American Embassy in Tokyo, and discover places around Tokyo (such as the Edo-Tokyo Museum and see the Imperial Palace).

I ate slowly and had a splendid view of a garden outside of the window from the restaurant of the hotel. “Itadakimasu,” I said, which is what people in Japan say before a meal and I ended the meal with “Gouchisousama deshita” (Literally means, “It was a feast”). And as you guessed again, this is also what you say after a meal. I proceeded to the lobby and met the rest of the YFU staff. We had a couple minutes to spend before the buses come, so I went to the ビジネスセンター (Business Center) to check my emails and if lucky, chat with a couple friends and relatives (yes, like you Tina, haha)..

When the buses came, we got on and were met by another man, Kei-san. He was going to guide us around Tokyo today. So the bus is finally moving, and as we were going out the hotel, I happened to see a taxi driver pulled over by Tokyo police. Cool, huh? Well that’s just the usual, but the reason why I thought it was interesting was because he was pulled over by police bicycles, which I thought was funny maybe perhaps I was getting the image of Taxi vs Bicycle. You can see it in the picture below… We’re going along and the ride to the American Embassy was beautiful, seeing the sights of Tokyo and the Tokyo Tower. It’s a wonderful city. When we finally arrived to the embassy, which took about 45 minutes to an hour, the whole place was guarded by numerous armed police officers (police aren’t usually armed here). I guess it’s common for people protest about American military presence here in Japan, but hey, I don’t blame them. I’d probably be on their side too. We got off the bus, and got in a line to enter the embassy.

As you’re waiting in line, you can see how the American embassy’s gates are

literally, protected by state-of-the-art measures, such as a pole and a barricade that retracts underneath into the ground. Wow. I looked up, and there was that familiar flag again from home--the American flag. Finally got to the front of the line and went through a checkup just like security at the airport. With lots of bows and “Ohayou gozaimasu”s” (Good morning), I got through after having my camera stored safe by the security at the front desk. A couple friends and I finally got to a conference room, and sat down. There two people came in, we all stood up. They told us we shouldn’t have because there were two other people were late, so we chuckled and sat down. Long story short (the whole thing was about 1 hour and 30 minutes), they two late people came in and we began the meeting (which was basically about what skills we as young adults should utilize from our homestay experience. Since this meeting only had YFU students that won scholarship, either JAFS (Japan-American Friendship Scholarship) or the Okinawa Peace Scholars, each representative from each scholarship group presented a plaque to the American embassy, thanking them for this wonderful opportunity for all of us. Finally the meeting was over, and I met Keiko Enatsu, the representative of YFU Japan and the individual who granted me the Okinawa Peace Scholarship. I thanked her personally (though I did send a letter before I began the program) and we went to the front desk to exit the embassy (and to retrieve my camera).

We got on the bus, and headed towards the Imperial Palace. When we arrived, we saw a moat surrounding the palace, and the entrance was HUGE. There was SO much space between modern Japan (with modern buildings) and the traditional buildings of the Imperial Palace. On the way, we got to see KOUKOUSEI (High school students)! We, as a YFU group traveling together, passed by a the high school students and exchange friendly glances. One guy from the Japanese high school group said “ハロー” (Hello) and everyone started to greet each other and wave. The high school girls were a bit shy, but they gave us a warm greeting and headed on their way. And guess what, I even got to meet the Emperor! No, I’m just kidding on meeting the emperor. But other than that, I would have to say it was a fascinating experience. I took photos of myself with Harold, and Elizabeth (she’s also another person I met on an online forum for foreign exchange) at the palace.

Back to the bus, and we happened to meet the same Japanese high school

students eating lunch. In an open grass area. We waved at them and they waved back until we got on the bus and the bus was out of view. Our next destination was the Edo-Tokyo museum, which showed Tokyo’s history (Tokyo’s old name was Edo, hence the ‘Edo-Tokyo museum’). YFU Japan gave us Obento lunches when we reached the museum, and Harold and I decided to sit next to the shougakusei (elementary school children) apparently also on a field trip. ハロー (hello) they shouted again, and we greeted then back. We sat down and started munching. At this point, I finally felt that I was really in Japan. I was eating an Obento lunch, sitting in a Japanese-chatter environment, a Japanese flag waving nearby (it was hard finding one, believe it or not), and some schools around the museum. It felt breathtaking to finally acknowledge that I was here. We headedin the museum, and saw houses with human models of late 19 century Japan up into modern time. I even got to enter a replica old Japanese style home, and this was were I was mistaken as a Japanese high school student (I’m wearing my formal clothes which resemble school uniforms) when a shougakusei runs up to me and asks “これは何？” (what’s this) pointing at objects in the replica home. I reply “知らない” (I don’t know) and smiled—kids here are so cute and friendly. In the end, I actually got a chance to see the official surrender of Japan from WWII, and I have a neat picture for all of you to see.

Well then, it was a ride back to 品川区 (Shinagawa District) where our hotel was. This trip was pure horror, as the sun struck the side of the bus where I was sitting, and felt cooked at the end of the ride back to the Takanawa Prince Hotel.

I took a long rest, and Harold and I proposed an idea to go around Tokyo by ourselves and explore. Yes, by ourselves in a city as big as NYC. Hmm… Where should we go? Perhaps 秋葉原(Akihabara)? Yeah, 秋葉原 (Akihabara- Also known as “Akiba” for short)! We decided to take the 電車 (train—and you know how cool the trains in Japan are) since there was no 新幹線 (shinkansen = the bullet train) to Akihabara. It would be a 15 minute trip and would cost us only 160 円. That’s about $1.60. Thus, after a 1-2 hour rest, Harold and I headed to the 品川駅 (Shinagawa Train Station) and bought tickets to Akihabara. This was the first time I felt my culture shock, as everything was in Japanese and I wasn’t sure which tickets to buy. We somehow figured it out by staring at the maps and got into where the trains were. (We didn’t know that we were supposed to stick our tickets in this machine so that we can gain entry to this area, but we got through anyways because so many people were flooding in, basically, without having to pay at all). After 20 minutes of deciding which train to take, we took the Yamanote Line (Mirdori [green] line). I captured some video clips of the crowded train and the train ride (along with an advertisement of the famous J-pop singer, Otsuka Ai) We arrived in Akihabara in about 15 minutes and got out, dumbfounded to a wonderful area like this. Akihabara in Japan has been known as the “electric town” due to the electronics sold here. After wandering for about 45 minutes together, we headed into a store (I forgot the name) that was 6 stories high and was ALMOST EXACTLY like Fry’s Electronics, except better! I was able to get two pictures because a salesman walked up to me and told me I couldn’t take pictures (I don’t see what’s wrong with taking pictures though). I bought a phone keychain as a souvenir for my phone (sorry I couldn’t buy some for you guys, they’re like $4-$7 each!). The keychain I bought was a member from a girl-group band called AKB48 (for Akihabara48). I walked around a bit in the store so that Harold could buy a dictionary software for his Nintendo DS so that if he didn’t know any symbols on signs, he could write it down on his DS and a dictionary would explain it. When we were done, we went out and ate udon and soba.　I didn’t know how to put away my bowl so I ate slowly and watched other people finish. Well it was back on the Akihabara Train Station to Shinagawa, but Harold decided we should go to Shibuya and walk around, I agreed. Man, it was like New York! Look at all the people stand and walk at the crosswalk. Shibuya is what most people think of Tokyo. Oh, as I was walking, I bought Otsuka Ai’s Album called “Pocket” as a souvenir. We went back to the Shibuya train station after about 2 or 3 hours.

Ah, what a day to end the night in Tokyo. (And the rest is boring; I just packed and got ready for tomorrow)

Departure day! (Part 7)

2008-06-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Tokyo :)

The crowded streets of Tokyo. "It's the usual," says our YFU Japan guide, Hiro-san.

Our hotel

Yummy snack.

Departure day! (Part 6)

2008-06-12T04:42:00.000-07:00

Someone drawing a heart (the other bus)

The outskirts of Chiba, Japan

Cute Kuma (bear)!

Into Tokyo

Departure day! (Part 5)

2008-06-12T04:33:00.000-07:00

Touchdown!

Another airplane taken from a window landing

I love this "Welcome to Japan" sign despite it actually saying "Welcome home" in hiragana.

Look how busy Narita Intl' Airport is!

Departure day! (Part 4)

2008-06-12T04:16:00.000-07:00

More pictures of the 11 hour flight

Departure day! (Part 3)

2008-06-12T04:08:00.000-07:00

Pictures of departure! (I have a video of the beautiful San Francisco departure, but again, all videos will be posted when I return back since it takes so long to upload them)

(Pictures continued)

Departure day! (Part 2)

2008-06-12T03:50:00.000-07:00

There we were met by the YFU Travel Staff and they did attendance and we went on to the check-in lines (which were long but not bad—taking only about 20 minutes). I weighed my bag, and as I was putting it on, I saw it hit the 49 lbs. mark of the 50 lbs. allowed. Oh no, I don’t want to pay $125 for another bag, but it turns out that it read 49 lbs. because I slammed my bag onto the scale, so it fell down to 47.9 lbs. That’s great, but a scary encounter. “All YFU students after check-in proceed to security,” a YFU travel staff member shouted. He made quite a big commotion of the regular civilians waiting in line. I went on with Harold to the security, and set my stuff in the basket and this TSU lady told me I had to take my laptop out, and I immediately followed her instructions. I was then told to go to a scanner and I walked through it, beeping as I went through.

“Step back, do you have a belt?”

“Oh yeah, I do”

“Take it off and place all your things on the tray”

I did so, and there we go! No beeping noises. I took me a while to organize my belongings again, putting things back in the bag. Harold and I proceeded to gate 96 of the international terminal (see photo) and I decided to start typing up my day with Microsoft Word so that I can simply copy and paste to my blog when I get internet (It’s been extremely limited access and also there’s internet you have to pay for at SFO). We’re boarding at 10:30 AM (I’m sure my friends at school are having break at school and about to go to Ms. Daniell’s English class!).

So the people over the intercom calls over people to start boarding by seating numbers. I’m waiting in line and all of the sudden, my friend Adam loses a bet while playing cards and has to do the Radio Exercises we’ve been doing at the university while listening to a radio (see “radio exercises Japan” on google for more information). So he loses and has to do it in front of EVERYONE at the gate (see my video, will be posted later). Absolutely hilarious. So I start boarding, and call my dad of my status in the airport, and we begin to pull out of the gate. As we’re doing so, I think something was wrong near or in the airport because I could see a bright red helicopter on the other side of the airport and a fire truck racing to where the helicopter was. But nonetheless, that didn’t affect our departure time despite already being delayed 30 minutes. We moved across the airport and held short of runway 28R (Runway 28 right) and could see two planes landing (see photos). Once they landed, we took off and I could hear the thunderous roar of the engines of a 747 take off on runway 28R (28 right) and the beautiful view of San Francisco (see video), the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Californian coastline.

Departure day! (Part 1)

2008-06-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

We’re going to stay in Downtown Tokyo!

Today’s the day…. Departure day. I fell asleep again after waking up at 5 AM and expected to wake up at 5:30, but instead I woke up at around 6 AM. I only had 30 minutes to prepare myself until 6:30 which was our scheduled leaving time to drive up to San Francisco International Airport by coach. I brushed my teeth (my gum is bleeding :O lower left side) and washed my face. Thank goodness I took a shower last night. I went back into my room, and started packing up my items such as my electronics (wires, adapters, etc.) and my laptop. I changed my clothes, and was all set. I then proceeded downstairs to check out my keys and to get back my e-ticket and passport (which YFU has kept for safety), but instead, I went right on outside and waited for our coach. Someone had asked me, “Did you sign out and get your ticket yet?” Oh crud. I forgot to do that and had to now wait in the long line (see photos) to return my keys. Next, I went on to get my ticket but had stood in the breakfast line for about 5 minutes.

I then realized the time wasted, and switched back over to the passport and ticket line and went back to the breakfast line (I asked to cut). All is set, we went outside and packed our belongings on the coach and went in. I decided to sit on the front seat (I don’t know why I like the front so much—see photos) and we went our way to SFO Intl. (see photos).

We arrived, and unpacked our baggage and proceeded into an elevator to the 3^rd floor where checking in was.

Tuesday

2008-06-12T03:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 10^th, 2008

5 o’clock, the same ‘yada yada’ except I woke up and went right on to brush my teeth, take a shower and do all the morning procedures I do. It’s about 6:30 right now, probably most of my friends back home are about ready to head to school. Because I live so close to SJSU, I actually feel like I’m cutting class, which is an awkward feeling, but I actually like it here. The food is spectacular, nothing compared to the “crap” lunch our school gives us. I’m about ready to head out to breakfast at the Student Union at 7:15, earlier than yesterday’s (tomorrow’s schedule is going to be much earlier because we’re traveling to SFO by bus). I feel like I’m going to take a brisk walk around the campus, I can’t see why who wouldn’t walk around the wonderful campus with the sun over the horizon.

Update After Culture Activities

2008-06-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

Our 7 o'clock Yukata Session began with a brief introduction of its history and we simply got to try then on (guys and girls!) and take photos...

Here are a bunch of men's yukatas:

The only boys in the session took pictures with me :)

Our group picture (kawaii ne!):

After that, we went on to our 2nd session (well at least the mines, since I chose the two), which was watching Japanese TV and drama shows, with some informative lectures on how widely popular drama has an impact on the Japanese culture. Here's a rather dark picture we took with our group. We were watching "Yukan Club" (It's HILARIOUS).

Thus, this wraps up my post for our cultural sessions. We have free time until 10 o'clock in the Washburn Dorms at SJSU. I will post some videos of the university and some of the YFU Staff fooling around.

I hope you enjoyed!

(Self reminder: Post lunchtime video and breakfast video at the Student Union)

Multi-Post (This is NOT a complete post -- VERY limited internet access)

2008-06-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

THIS POST *WILL* BE UPDATED! I will type it on a plane or sometime; please check back on this post next time! But for now, I've provided photos. I have shot two videos but cannot upload them, as they take a LONG time.

Friday, June 6^th, 2008:

Finally, I’m finished with all my finals and am pretty proud of my accomplishments: A movie for history completed within 12 hours and felt like I did well on my Pre-Calculus test. I ended the day with hugs from a couple friends, and went home. Once I arrived home, I found 1 message in my voicemail (phone) that turned out to be my host family information. My family’s name is Sakai, with father and mother name Yukichi and Yukiko (their names match, huh?). I have a little host brother and sister, ages 2 and 4/6 respectively. I’m attending Miyako High School (http://www.miyako-h.open.ed.jp/). The school, though on a tiny island of many in Okinawa, is extremely fabulous. It’s a typical Japanese high school and it’s a great feeling to know I’m finally going to attend in one.

Sunday, June 8^th, 2008

Our trip to SJSU started at 4:20 PM when we drove from our home and arrived at around 4:40 PM. Thank goodness it was SJSU not UCLA or anything like that. As I was unpacking my bags, I saw Kevin, a good friend from the SF Orientation (see my later post). Literally, we arrived at the same time—which is a huge coincidence. After finding where to go since it was confusing, we signed in and received our name tags. We signed up for cultural session classes (there were traditional dancing, sushi, yakuta, Japanese TV and many other sessions) and our level of Japanese (I signed up for advanced). I got my keys to my dorm, which was also a hassle because not only did it take a while to call the SJSU staff but I received keys to the wrong floor—the girls’. I went back out across the hot campus (it was about 80 degrees this day) and finally got the keys to my room. My parents helped me with my luggage (room 327) and they left. There was nothing to do but dinner with our Kumi (means ‘group’ in Japanese) and I was placed in the Green Kumi, or the Midori Kumi with 11 people in our Kumi. I didn’t take pictures this day, since I left it back up in the dorms at Washburn Hall, so there isn’t really anything I can show. We went to the Student Union area and had our dinner there (roasted beef, potatoes and I forgot the rest—but they were all free). I made some new friends at the dinner table (: and after this, we went in a classroom and sat with our Kumi. We played an icebreaker and explained where we were from and where we’re going as a way to introduce ourselves. I found it hilarious for people who traveled across the country by plane while I simply rode in a car. After, we went to a huge lecture room and viewed a slideshow on Japan, something I found very interesting, such as showing the different homes we are all staying, transportation, food, etc.

The lecture was the last activity for the day, so the YFU staff gave us free time to do whatever until 10 PM to get up in our floors and lights out by 10:30 PM. I’m about to sleep now, I’ve just brushed my teeth and am typing this post. The YFU Night Staff seem to be knocking on doors calling room check so I will end this post now!

Monday:

Monday, June 9^th, 2008

I woke up at around 6 AM today on my own (something that I never done so early in the morning) and fell back to sleep until 6:30 when Sam’s phone rang (Sam is one of the 2 roommates sharing a room with me—apparently they are both named Sam). I quickly got up, grabbed by toothpaste and toothbrush and began the day with a 3-5 minute brush. I went back in my room to grab some towels and new clothes and took a brief shower, and headed out for breakfast with my Midori Kumi (green group). I brought my camera along and I took some pictures, which I have provided here.

Group of friends in the morning walking to the Student Union Hall for some breakfast grub

Most of you guys have seen this before (I'm referring to those back at Independence High School)

Picture of the beautiful campus from Sweeny Hall, where my Japanese class was hosted.

Cole-sensei and Mamiko-sensei conducting an advanced Japanese class purely in Japanese (No English Allowed!)

Information regarding today's orientation.

Right now at the time of this post it's about 6:38 PM, I'm in my next door dorm (325).
What's next is to participate in the culture sessions; I've signed up for Yukata (Japanese summer kimono) and movies/show session which begins at 7 PM.

SF Orientation

2008-05-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, May 17, I attended the non-country specific orientations for students traveling abroad with YFU. It took us quite a while to find where the orientation was set up in Fort Manson partly because we arrived too early. But nonetheless, the YFU staff came and other students arrived one by one. One person who arrived after me was a young man named Kevin arriving with his dad. We were quiet of course, shy to say anything until our parents started striking up a conversation with each other, then we followed suit starting out with questions like, "So... what country are you going to?" Turns out we're both going to Japan, but he doesn't know where specifically because his scholarship doesn't say unlike mines (which was Okinawa Peace Scholarship--Gee, I wonder where I'm going!). We turned into good friends at the orientation and stuck with each other throughout the orientation. Once all of the 15 or so people arrived (some as late as a quarter of an hour), we did icebreakers by playing a game similar to the one played in Leadership class back in Independence High School (Game: "Shuffle your buns if you..."). Thus, there's really nothing much to say because it's just like any other orientation, except that it wasn't boring like at school (*cough* like Link Crew *cough*). We discussed topics such as traveling, clothes, program rules, etc... And the extremely cold day ended with some fog rolling over the SF Bay despite it was 80-something degrees in San Jose.

--Sorry! I didn't take pictures of the orientation because it seems awkward and I didn't bring my camera.

Orientation Details:

Now yesterday (May 24, 2008), I received my second letter from YFU describing the tentative schedule at San Jose State University. You can see the schedules here (click on pictures):

- - - -Page 1 - - - - Page 2- - -

Seems fun. I can't wait any longer, but I still have to focus on 2 more weeks of schoolwork to maintain my grades. Along came with the letter were other information on what (and not) to bring, visa requirements (none needed), and other traveling informative sheets.

You can see some scanned samples here by clicking on the image:

Until then, I'm:
o Working to keep my grades
o Waiting for my Ticket (plane)
o Waiting for my host family information
o Trying to find a 3-prong to 2-prong electrical plug converter
o Planning to start packing soon
o Excited and will miss you all! (because on June 11th, I'm no longer an American!)

Please post comments, I would love to read them! But also be aware of the fact that teachers, as well as adults (parents, counselors, etc.) may be able to view them.

More Program Dates

2008-05-16T16:36:00.001-07:00

Today on a hot 102°F day at my house, I returned home from school by bus and found tons of mail upon opening my front door. I sorted through them, and had a gut feeling there's something for me since there were so many large envelopes (voting-by-mail) until the standard-sized YFU letter caught my eye. I then brought all the mail to our dining table and opened my letter, where I found program dates and a confusing paragraph on where my orientation will take place.

The following dates are the basic dates provided by YFU:

June 8 - Fly from San Jose to San Francisco for pre-departure orientation
June 11 - Fly to Tokyo to begin program (then to Okinawa on later flight)
July 24 - Return from Tokyo to San Jose

Then they said after arriving at the airport, I will be assisted by staff to go to the orientation site in San Jose. (Huh?? I take a 5 hour flight from SJC to SFO [because of the connecting flight in LA or Houston] then go back to San Jose?) Took me 15 minutes to understand that, and I felt stupid for not reading the following paragraph explaining to me that if I lived in SF/SJ Bay Area, then I would have to take my own ride to San Jose State University (SJSU). Now that makes sense, otherwise, I would've wasted 5 hours on a silly flight. :) The orientation will last 3 days (where I HOPE to meet my cousin, Leslie, attending school there) before going back to SFO Intl. Airport for my departure to Tokyo.

I guess that's about it; I should get started on packing and what I need to bring while waiting for my air ticket to be mailed and to confirm I have the required travel documents to travel. Oh, I am also waiting for a confirmation letter securing my flight on June 11 to Tokyo.

Tomorrow's the big day to SFO for a non-country specific orientation for YFU students, I'll be skipping my practice SAT test exam and church school ;)

AP Testing is over!

2008-05-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

First, the school life...

Yes, I've finished my AP Biology testing. Very hard multiple choice questions, but essay was a bit of a breeze. It's just the SAT II Subject Test: Biology Exam in the way now, with a few homework, quizes and tests from other teachers until the end of the school year.

Right now, I'm waiting for my AP teachers next year to hand me their textbooks and give me their summer assignments because I won't be available over the summer to collect my textbook and my summer homework, so I'm getting it early. However, my AP Biology class is still doing a reading assignment on a book (cadavers; how scary :O) while I'm away, therefore I once again have to buy another book and read it over on the plane or in Japan. I hope my host family doesn't think I'm a strange person for reading such a book ;)

YFU Program Update

Nothing new now, I'm still anxiously waiting for the San Francisco Orientation on May 17 (this Saturday). I'll be proudly wearing my acceptance shirt (sorry! I just need some pride after getting beat down by exams, tests and all the other grade-threatening paperwork) on the day of the orientation!

I hope I meet some people I've met on the Cultures Shocked Forum that live in the Bay Area. According to some posts, I'll be expecting my departure ticket to SFO (KSFO) from SJC (KSJC) [why fly when you can drive there, oh well, scholarship will pay for that], then from KSFO to RJAA (Narita International Airport). We'll be staying in a hotel in Tokyo for a day then begin to pack up to go to our individual cities in Japan. I'll also be expecting to know who my host family will be a week prior to my departure, and that's almost in 23(ish) days, I believe.

Mailtime -- Acceptance letter!

2008-05-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Like any other day, I got home from school and relaxed until I heard my mom come home. Before I greeted her, I did my usual 'fetch the mail' and walked towards my front door. I did a quick glance scan of the mail that had dropped in front the mail slot then.. Wait, what was that? A large, plump envelope. Oh gosh, can it be? I rushed over, adrenaline running even though I didn't know who the envelope was addressed to--yet I already knew what it was. A rambling through the mail and I ravaged through the advertisements until I reached the envelope. "Jimmy Ly," it read. I nearly shrieked in joy (this is unusual for me to do this--because I never do). I quickly grabbed the rest of the mail and ran to the kitchen, dropped all the mail other than the envelope on the dinner table, grabbed my mail opener. Oh wait, I can just open it like a flap, forget about the mail opener. I literally TORE the flap quickly as if it was a present. There I did a quick glance, I saw my YFU T-Shirt, and instantly knew that I had made it. I did a little awkward dance with my adrenaline rushing as never before. But what scholarship had I received? Oh, it's not over! I might have won a partial scholarship and that's something I didn't want. I went back in the envelope and saw the words "Congratulations", and read through the rest.

"...Okinawa Peace Scholarship..."

I was thrilled. The Okinawa Peace Scholarship only offers 10 students nationwide of the United States the scholarship--what's more to that was that it was a full scholarship (with the exception of visa fees, overweight luggage, etc.) but all I had to do was to make a $2000 contribution. Not bad, it's better than paying the regular price of $6000. I had never won such a scholarship in my life before, and today marked the first day I did. Let alone, never won one with so much value that would soon take me to my dreams.

Part of the letter is attached for you to see, the exact thing I saw I opened my envelope the second time.

I was a YFU member now--something I yearned for the Summer of 2007 when I couldn't apply because the deadline was passed. I waited one year for this, and took advantage of that year by learning the Japanese culture and language. Though I feel as if I'm not ready, I want to go now! :) Especially after 3 months of doubt on the scholarships (I applied to 9)...

My mom entered, I gave the biggest hug after I told her I had been accepted. She smiled and was amazed. It was one of the happiest days of my life--imagine, that you receive a letter saying that you will finally fulfill one of your dreams.

Details of the trip---

San Jose, California → Okinawa, Japan // Summer 2008

I will be leaving June 8, 2008 on Sunday of the finals week at my school (after attending the final orientation at San Jose State University), therefore, I'd have to request and early release and straighten things out with my teachers (i.e. homework assignments due after the date) and I will be returning on July 24, 2008. I will try my best to describe each day on my journey.

I have an orientation at San Francisco on May 17, 2008 concerning the YFU program. I will have to get my books at school for next year, return my current textbooks, do homework over the stay (especially AP homework) and type a report to the Japanese Embassy on my homestay before I come back to the U.S. Oh and one more thing, make a presentation to the school about it. ;)

Things in my mind:
-> AP Exam (Biology--ugh!), Wish me luck!
-> Fundraise as much as possible up to $2000 (car wash!)
-> Spending some family time after such a harsh week of STAR (Standardized Testing And
Report)
-> Learn Japanese, talk with Penpal :)
　日本語を勉強する、友達としゃべります！（´∀｀）

じゃあ、なたね！
See you next time :)

YFU Interview

2008-04-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

I was finally interviewed today, and am waiting for the results at the end of April. :)

Turns out my interviewer was my counselor at school, something unexpected. But man, when I recieved noticed that my interview was today during my 6th period class (Pre-Cal) during the test, I was eager to get out and get interviewed. Once the bell rang, I dropped my stuff in my Spanish class (7th period) and ran to D villa. I met my counselor where she told me that I was going to be interviewed and if I were not to do anything in my class, I should see her (she told me it would take 1 hour). I ran back, told my teacher and he nodded. When the 7th period bell rang, and I ran back over again to her office. I didn't want to be late! There I waited for another girl to finish talking with the counselor (she talked quite a while and got in my nerves ;)) but it didn't matter anymore, I was next.

I sat down, and greeted her. She then told me the general information of what was basically going to happen and why I was here (though I knew). You bet I was nervous by now, and the questions were VERY similar to the questions on the application. Thedre were about 30ish questions in the interview and every answer had to be quickly and throughly thought out, which was scary! Of course, I finally got through, and it was over within 1 hour an 30 mins, with my tongue and mouth dried up. She inputted her final remarks about me, and gave me hope that by saying I was highly qualified for the program. :) I'm so happy, but it's only the unofficial statement--I still have to way... She then gave me a ride home, believe it or not, because she's a counselor and she takes many students home following a long appointment, and that's it.

--------
Not related to the topic but...
Oh and by the way, I'm on CBS 5 and ABC 7 News for the protest against Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Education Budget Cut, you'll see me holding a conspicuous yellow sign behind the state senator. :D

Praise to Google!

2008-04-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Application Process

You've all heard that google is everything, right? Like those websites you need for that report you have, "googling" random things that pop out of your head while pondering, you get the idea.

It's always been a dream for me to go to Japan, learning about the culture and the modern way of life (No I'm *not* otaku, believe it or not ^^). Well, moving on, Google found me a door to my dream and it's up to me to step in. It's a summer exchange program to Japan of 2008 with YFU (Youth for Understanding), but at a pricey cost of $5,000. Ouch! That hurt a bit, but I happened to overlook a 'scholarships' page, and was dumbfounded at how much there were. And of course, I immediately scanned to see which ones I was qualified for. KEEP IN MIND THIS IS MY FIRST time ever applying to a scholarship, I have never even tried to win one before and as days passed, I would find that I'm eligible for "this" scholarship but not for "that" scholarship (it takes a LOT of reading!!), so my emotions fluctuated quite a bit.

Uh, oh...
At last, it was time to print out the application and begin working on it, it took me over 8 weeks (to finish the application after finding the time), and applied to 9 scholarships. However, when mailing my application, I was stupid enough to mail it in 3 or 2 days before the due date. That's late according my book. More than that, I found out I had to get a TB (Tuberculosis) test, and I told the friendly YFU staff my application would be 'fragmented' with my 2nd shipment (with FedEx Air) would arrive with the missing materials and updated information. Thank goodness I had an appointment with my doctor the day after I mailed the first package, got my test and received a NEGATIVE for the test. Bam! Right in the mail the new immunization record went and I completed my application.

However!
I received a postcard from YFU saying my application was incomplete. Gah! But I thought I turned it in! I called a representative and explained my situation within 5 minutes, and everything was sorted out. Things are looking well...

Currently....

Well, that was the best of my ability to remember the application process, now it's April 15 and I haven't heard from them since. I quickly went on the YFU Chat Room, and asked if I should be worried because I haven't been interviewed yet. They'd say wait a moment, but I waited 45 minutes for a response, none yet. I got scared and that pit feeling in my stomach sank in. I did a polite reply saying if everything was okay or not and a representative said she has found my records and I should be expecting my interview soon. In fact, she pulled it up on the list! How thoughtful of her. I'm euphoric and expect to hear a phone call in a couple days.

All thanks to Google! <3
Please wish me luck, I will promise to keep you updated with the latest news on the process!

Since August 2007 (3 months after I found out YFU), I have been learning Japanese on my own and have a couple pen pals and some good native-speaking friends on Skype to practice with. My level is about a level 2/3 learner if compared to a student enrolling in a high school Japanese class (I've compared with my other friends at different schools), there's just one thing I haven't done---Build my confidence when speaking.