Sorry I have not been updating often.
Things are a little hectic.
I'm a little jet-lagged.
And my host family is very into keeping me busy.

This picture is from Ritsurin

Flying

As of now I am in the plane.

About a trillion miles off the ground to be exact.

Thing have winded down for a while now. The shades have been shut and everyone around me is sleeping.

Figures I wouldn’t be sleeping when it’s 12:48AM.

I’ve been sleeping in positions that would make most people cringe. Mostly just doubling over and sleeping with my head on my knees.

I had taken a window seat, but a mom and he 2 year old twins had been seperated so I, being the good samaritan I am, moved around and am now sitting in an aisle seat.

Which I guess is better because I am constantly up and down.

Now I’m listening to some j-pop. I plugged my headphones into the seat to listen to the movie... but got this. I decided I was just going to sleep anyways, so I havn’t gone the extra mile to press the “movie audio” button.

I couldn’t even tell you how far into the flight we are. We probably left around 4... central time. Now it’s 1am eastern time. 10 hours maybe?

It’s a fourteen hour flight or so. 4 more hours. Yippee.

I’ve met a few other Rotary exchange students a long the way.

Hadley and Christian arrived first and conveniently sat next to me at the airport.

Speaking of, the Minneapolis airport is absolutely huge and has delicious food. 

I ordered something vegetarian, but got some chicken pesto tasty thing. So though their service may be lacking, the food quality compensated for it quite nicely.

Anyways, they were from Illinois and we just wandered for a bit. There was a Starbucks there which always makes everything a bit easier.

I should start working on my writing skills.

Maybe if I just write for the next four hours that could accomplish some sort of improvement.

Day Ichi (1)

I’m glad for your sake that I’ve decided to write this blog post much later.

The first part of my day started off well, but one small foreigner move sent me spiraling into a less then elated mood. 

Basically my host family, host councelor, and club president took me out for dinner. It was at an Udon Noodle restuarant. It was old style japanese. We took off our shoes. Climbed into this large wooden box and the men sat at one table and the girls at the other. 

All that happened was that when Mama beckoned me up to the counter with plates and food (just the girls went) Nodoka and her grabbed a plate. Everyone else grabbed a plate, so I did too. This seemed pretty logical. When I got back to the table with my plate equally as filled with food as there’s, Mama set hers on the mens table and that left us with Nodoka’s and my plate and my table.

Ohhh... yeah then it dawns on me. It’s one plate per table. And we all eat off of it. (Yeah, germaphobia doesn’t exist here.) So that made me slightly self concious. Then, you know you slurp noodles, I couldn’t manage this with out the noodle letting drops of liquid fly everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It was like Alexa’s own little water park. Lastly, I couldn’t finish mine.

Let me tell you, a young skinny Japanese girl could out eat any American man. And in half the time it takes him to finish.

I’ve only had two meals with them and they eat so fast and so much my stomach aches thinking about it.

So now Im writing again a little bit later... watch as my writing skills slowly deteriorate as I get sleepier. Grammar as of this point, is a little bit sketchy.

Dinner was much better then lunch. 

It was at the home and Mama made a huge dinner. It consisted of these square pieces of sea weed and you’d spread rice on them. Then you could put a piece of raw fish on them. However they also had nato (didn’t even try it. Gag me.), sea urchins (apparently most love it. It’s sort of a delicacy.), and salmon eggs you could spread on it over the rice. Dip it in soy sauce and pop the whole thing in your mouth. Sea urchins had a really strange texture. There were also chips, beans, and Miso soup.

It was all really delicious at first... except the sea urchins and fish eggs... and some fish.

I still ate a lot. Again.

As Derek’s host father said (the one who guided me and a fellow host student around Tokyo airport) I will get fat.

I could make a separate blog post on everything. Such as how the commercials were all extremely... cute. In a way where I mean they obviously have this as a way of advertising everything. 

Cute japanese girl + small kid + giggling + cartoon animal = perfect car commercial.

More small things like the shower was different. You sat down and held the shower head. And it was basically in a small room with a bench and a drain in the floor.tly about other things. I’ll probably go more in depth on everything later to come. 

I'm e

Going.. going.. gone.

Kind of.

I leave in 4 hours for Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
In 7 hours I get on a plane and fly to Minneapolis.
In 12 I get on a plane and then fly to Tokyo.

You have no idea how unbelievably exciting that is.
It's kind of like getting a puppy... and a ticket to Tokyo.

But I'm all packed.
Two suitcases. Both under 50lbs.

See, tonight we weighed them.. and they both came in at 60lbs.
...this obviously was a problem.
So all my winter clothing is being shipped to me.

It's over 100*F in Japan right now so I'm pretty sure 6 pairs of jeans and my red peacoat won't be needed immediately upon arrival.

I also have my carryon and purse. Everything, and I mean everything is decked out in pink and black.
I'm proud that I could make my black monster luggage a bit more.. girly.

I'm tired but there is too much to do before I go to sleep.
I'll update more later. This is just a quickie incase I can't update for a long long time.
I have wifi on the plane so I think we'll be good.

17 hours miles above the ground.
Yay?

Healthy Japan

It's 15 days until I leave.

So, you may think I'm preparing via packing, studying Japanese, and figuring out why some of the pictures on my blog are not showing up (which I'll fix tonight.).
Au contraire, I'm... running. And basically over all getting in shape.

I just got back from a 40 minute run. The fact that I was about to die 3 minutes into the run probably is not a good sign.
See I already knew I was out of shape. I havn't done volleyball conditioning since last Fall.

I've been told that Japanese schools have a lot more intense gym/extracurricular activities conditioning then our schools. Yippee.

And as one who strongly believes you should only run when being chased this did not sit well with me.

Now I'm going to educate you:

Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world! Women live on average to be about 85 years old. IN the States it's 78 years old.
This is due to Japanese diet. The eat so much good stuff that they have extremely low cholesterol.

And obesity is definitely not as much as a problem there as it is here in the US. This can be contributed a lot in part to have physically active the kids are.

At my high school in the US, it is only required for us to have two years of gym. And when I say gym, I mean 5 times a week we'd have 40 minutes where we would sit on the floor and gossip with each other and "stretch."
In Japanese schools, gym is required through all of school (high schools only have 3 grades) and when I say they have gym, the actually have gym. Gym in Japan is intense!
And as I said, Japanese schools have things such as races and homeroom relays.
Not to mention the 20 minute to and from school biking trip probably helps.
(That's specific for me. Some of the students take trains.)

But anyways, I'm figuring the more I write in this thing the better I'll get at it. The whole more experience making you better philosophy. That way once I get to Japan my writing skills won't be all out of wack from the long summer break.

Overwhelmed!

I just took a trip to the wonderful store of TJ Max and bought my first piece of luggage. You could probably fit a small country in this thing. Actually, I have tried and both my dog and cat can fit in it... at the same time (they weren't as fond of this discovery as I was). I wonder if my host family would mind. Just kidding... ;]

Sarah Jean <3

Actually they have an adorable dog already.

Meet Chocola. Mr. Fujimura says she is "part of the family" and she's 11 years old.

Aw <3

Fujimura house.

Big? Yes. 

I'll be getting a single room. Which I'm so happy for, not that I would mind having to share it. 

And here... is the uniform.

As you can see, the uniform is extremely attractive. I've never worn one before... and at least now I won't be ten+ minutes late for class trying to figure out what to wear.

But for now, I really am overwhelmed.
Still so extremely excited though.

Til later.
-Alexa 

My Japanese Family!

Konichiwa mina!

コにちわ　みな！

Hey everyone!

I have been emailing with my family for so long, I can't believe I havn't put pictures up.

My host father, Ikuo Fujimura, sends me a ton! I have pictures of my school, the town, club activities, and the family doing a bunch of things.

<----This was the first picture he sent me!

.        So cool right? From left to right there is                              .       Sunao, then Hikari, then Atsuko, then   .    .       Nodoka.

Mr. Fujimura owns an Iron Company. He'll also be the chairman of the Long Term Youth exchange next year for Rotary! He seems really nice and active. He runs about 150km (93miles) a month,  takes tennis lessons, and enjoy skiing and listening to English radio programming.

He claims to not be good at english, but we've been emailing back and forth for a while now and his English is amazing.

<----  To his right in the picture is his wife,       .         Atsuko. He says he "really appreciates   .         her." Aww. <3

.         She likes reading, watching Korean        .         Dramas, and practicing yoga.

<--- This is a picture of the Fujimuras               .       welcoming a past exchange student,        .       Stephanie, to Japan.

As you saw in the first picture, I will have 3 host siblings. Sunao will be my host brother. He's 16 (likes me!) and is in the astronomical club. He likes fishing and playing base guitar.

There is also Hikari. She is 17 and I will be in her class. I'm so excited you have no idea. She is in the cheerleading club and likes to dance. I'm pretty sure well get along well!

There is also Nodoka. She's on the far right of the first picture. She always looks so stylish I've noticed. She is 21 and is at University. She doesn't live with the family and is in the Billiard club. She also was a foreign exchange student to America from 2006-2007.

<----This picture is of my host family and Cameron, an exchange student, in Tokyo Disneyland. I actually met Cameron on Facebook through pure coincidence. 

So I'll definitely be posting more pictures tonight.

I've got many of there house, and cute cute dog, and even the school!