Host School Information: DIVULGED!

Days left: Five! Snakes alive!

On a side note (who opens their blog entry with a ‘side note’?! Me, that’s who! Look, I'm breaking convention, okay? xD) I wonder if I’ll automatically make up lame counter rhymes when I start learning Japanese? It’s like these rhymes have been so hammered into me since childhood (seven, go to heaven, eight, lay them straight, etc) that I can’t think of a number without my mind screaming a silly phrase in rhyme at me in an annoyingly smug sing-song voice… man, I hate that voice... hmm, so, what’s this blog about again? "Japan"? Oh yeah! My rambles have no place here, do they? In fact, I'd say that this is the last place I should be-

Ahem! I’m sorry! I'm guess I'm lucky I have these bossy little webcreatures around my blog to make sure I'm blogging properly. Even if they do steal food from the pantry and make nests under my bed using the loose hair off combs... and hold loud 3am-in-the-morning social gatherings on Wednesdays and Fridays in my closet... hmmm... remind me to contact pest control after this blog is done...

Well, while I know all my friends are slaving away at Uni, soon I'll also be slaving away... back at high school! My host school in Japan will be Utsunomiya Bunsei Girls High School (宇都宮文星女子高校), a non-religious, 1035 student, all-girls private school located in (obviously) Utsunomiya City. Whilst I don't know too much about my school yet, from what I can gather, it's situated on the same campus as the Utsunomiya Bunsei Art University (awesome) and offers an Arts and Design course (although I'll probably be put in the English Course classes, for obvious reasons xD), so I'm hoping that Bunsei will be quite arty farty. 8D There is, of course, computer and internet access, which means that I'll be able to update this blog occasionally if I'm not too busy during my 学校生活 (school life). :D

School starts at 8:35am and finishes at 3:30pm, although I'm looking forward to seeing what clubs Bunsei has to offer. From what I've found on the website, there are the 運動クラブ "Sport/Moving Clubs", including:

Kendou ( :D I'm interested ), Field/Athletics, Basketball,Volleyball, Softball, Tennis, Tabletennis, Badminton, Dance, Cheerleading/Baton Twirling Club (their uniform is quite cute! Too bad I'm horribly uncoordinated when it comes to dancing and definitely don't have the "kawaii" factor to pull it off... yep... time to go wrestle another bear), Swimming (the school has their own pool :D), Soccer Club (I'd like to join this club if they don't have a supersuperstrict militant-style training regime that requires me to train until I've gained a six-pack and become an Unstoppable Soccer Warrior or something) and Karate Club (according to Google Search, Utsunomiya Bunsei is supposed to have a really strong and competitive Karate team!)

And then there are the 文化クラブ Cultural Clubs:

* Band
* Some kind of traditional dancing club?
* The 'Word Pro' or Computer Club
* Chorus Club

There could be more but those are the clubs that are showcased on the website, so the rest are up to me to scout out, I suppose. :D I think it'll be important to join a club I can really "get into"... and whilst I'll do my best to try and achieve a passing grade in most classes, having already finished the HSC final exams in Australia and done the whole "souless Year 12 study robot" thing last year, school in Japan will for me be less about studying subjects, and be more about socialising, learning Japanese, being a part of the culture, dealing with new surroundings and situations, and the experience of being completely immersed in Japan, Japan, Japan!

Here's hoping they have a tea ceremony club (eating sweets and drinking tea, mmm, delicious!... and my friends would know about my weird tendancy to sit on my legs, so I'll be immune to your leg numbing powers, Much Feared 'Seiza' Sitting Position)!

The campus also looks great!


My favourite part is that they have their own gallery (although technically, I think it's for the Uni students, but bleh ;D), shown above. :D

The school pays for my uniform and books, too. Brilliant, Bunsei! Speaking of which, here it is:

Ta- daa!

I think I like the Winter Uniform and the shirt/skirt combo best, although the vest is quite cute, too. It's not your stereotypical Japanese sailor uniform, but I guess it's very unique and has it's own charm! I can't tell exactly, but I think that the buttons on the uniform have the school logo engraved on them... Japanese uniforms really seem to have attention to detail! I can't wait to try it on. :'D

Best thing: My host sisters ALL go to Bunsei GH! <3
I'll write more about my host families really soon. :)