I'm Alive! : AIIU Newlsetter Article

Here's my contribution to the AIIU newsletter, I thought, since I haven't posted in a long while, I should post it here too as an assurance that I will soon update. Expect more updates this week! I've been working on some "catch-up" posts to make up for my slackness.
Thank you for reading. :D I will also reply to all your comments (starting from... NOW!). Alright, over and out!

...

It’s five thirty in the morning.

“HEY hey, YOU you, I could be your GIRLLFRRRIEND!,” Avril Lavigne screams from the futon beside me, giving me a small heart attack for the umpteenth time this week. Stunned, it takes me a moment to realise that it’s not really Avril going off at me, but just my host mother’s alarm clock. Wincing at the clash of ring tone guitars, I groan, check my watch, roll over and reluctantly rise, body swaying unsteadily as I do, still groggy with sleep. Legs shaking, I make a quiet but somewhat precarious leap over the sleeping bodies of my host family (who, being veterans of Avril’s wake-up-call, are able to maintain composure over the roar of her guitar), and land safely (thank goodness) on the other side of the tatami mat. Today, I made the leap. But tomorrow could be the day I don’t. I resolve to practice my landings in たいくtaiku (PE) class.

But for now, it’s shower time.

With three cranks of a small lever, the little fire inside the heater of our Japanese bathtub is lit. Shivering and, well, stark naked (as one usually is when taking a shower), I utter a grateful sigh as the warm water rushes over me. Let me tell you, the minute that warm water comes out, it’s like HEAVEN ON EARTH. It’s quite cold here, in Oyama City, Tochigi (a city, not entirely country, but not entirely city, that lies approximately one hour from Tokyo by Shinkansen) and hey, I'm a bit of a wimp. After my usual shower (my 'daily trial', I suppose!), I take a peek out the window, and gasp as I see that the cars parked outside have been lightly tipped with snow. Beautiful! I’ll be able to take a closer look at it after my host sister and I make our usual bicycle ride to school, dressed in our navy Japanese seifuku school uniform. That is, after eating our Japanese breakfast prepared by our Host Mum, and packing our neatly wrapped おべんとうobentou (Japanese lunch boxes). Today, it’s curry rice.

A month here, and I am in awe of Japan. It’s, as others will and probably already have assured you in this newsletter, a very different, but very beautiful place, rich in culture. The scenery in Tochigi is absolutely gorgeous, and sakura (cherry blossom trees) adorn almost every street corner, constantly drawing looks of admiration from passersby. In a park by Oyama Library, street musicians often softly practice singing their music in Japanese, sitting in a circle together and strumming their guitars, which makes for a pleasant backdrop. A distant bark in the morning will reveal that the little white Akita dog of the neighbourhood has escaped once again and is performing his morning ritual of chasing cars on the street. The locals shake their head as they pass by. Just a normal morning in Oyama.

Lovely Oyama City - the urban and the rural

I am really enjoying my time here. Whilst I do think about my friends and family in Australia and miss them very much, being here, every day, is an adventure. So far I have tried foods that, in Australia, I would never have dared go near (牛タン‘gyutan’, or cow tongue, こぶくろkobukuro, pig uterus and うに‘uni’ or ‘sea urchin’ sushi, for example, and have developed a taste forたこ tako, or octopus); have braved the Japanese 温泉Onsen during our First Year school trip with some of my classmates (think naked public bathing); have been shopping and to Karaoke with friends (and took advantage of the free drinks; boy, did I abuse the system! 5 litres of Calpis, oh yeah!) and have visited a Japanese traditional temple at night time with my Host Grandparents to gaze upon the six hundred year old sakura tree, blossoming for another year.　すばらしくて、いっしょう忘れられないけいけんです。

My classmates, who will be introduced to you soon!

I am struck by the kindness of the Japanese people; the politeness of shop staff (during our school trip, for example, the entire hotel staff filed out of the building, including the chefs, and waved us all a hearty goodbye as we left), the kindness of strangers (an ‘おみやげomiyage’ charm from Korea I dropped – yes mum, I was clumsy again, stop shaking your head! - was returned to me at school, as someone had picked it up and had the heart to give it in rather than keep it for themselves), the kindness of my teachers (two of which who particularly go out of their way to make sure I loosely understand the contents of their classes, one by giving me little letters written in simple Japanese after class, which I am very grateful for) and the accepting nature of my classmates (whilst there is a definite language barrier, it doesn’t stop us from being pals, and they do their very best to include me. Despite my not yet being able to express myself in Japanese words, they have made me feel like one of the group).

Utsunomiya Bunsei Girls High School, too, is beautiful.
In short, I love it here.　日本がほんとうに大好きですよ！

Blossoms in the park near Oyama Station

Well, time’s up! If you’re interested to hear any more of my experience in Japan (both the exciting and the mundane of my rants!) please feel free to visit my blog:
www.lucie-in-utsunomiya.blogspot.com
Shameless advertising! :D

I hope all the other exchange students are having fun out there too, and I can’t wait to hear about what you’re up to. みなさん、がんばってください！：‘D　FIGHT！

Over and out for now,
Lucie ルーシー

NEXT POST: All about my school, its teachers and the students (introducing our story's setting and the all important characters)! Will have some new photos/information to show, and I'll post this either tomorrow or the next day, depending on how busy I am with my recently joined club (who knows what the next few days will bring)... please look forward to it! おたのしみに！

Rollercoaster - The Happenings

Japan is a rollercoaster ride!

Exchange, it seems, is not exactly a holiday. I mean, I’ve only been here for about two weeks, but my mood has been going up and down, up and down, and probably sideways as well (round and round, this way and that way, like my emotions are in a giant blender - mainly due to the fact that I'm now way out of my comfort zone, and have been thrust into a new lifestyle). This is, perhaps, a good thing, because I’m not experiencing Tourist Japan, rather, I’m having a shot at Real Japan. Daily Life Japan. I think, in the long run, what I’m experiencing will definitely do me some real good.

So, you ask, do I want to come home yet?

Definitely not!

Well, let me share some things I have learnt whilst staying here:

In Japan, New Super Mario Brothers on Wii is SRS Business.

Never, never have I played such a hardcore game of Super Mario Brothers in my life! During our three player (Mina, Yumi and I) Wii New Super Mario Brothers gaming session, we were so loud and excitable (screaming 'じさつしないで’ and many 'あぶな～い’s) that eventually the people in the unit upstairs rang up to complain about the noise, bringing our voices down to still very shrill whispers. Yes. It was Mario, alright. Mario, Hardcore Style.

Every night, my stomach is filled with delicious food.

Soon, I’ll be able to roll home. We eat snacks every day here, so I’m really glad that my daily routine includes riding a bike to school. Really, really glad! However, the food itself is delicious. During my stay in the Machida household, we’ve made Japanese style pizza, takoyaki, macha (green tea), held a Temakizushi sushi party at the grandparents house (where you make your own sushi rolls), among other foods of impeccable deliciousness. Om nom nom nom.

During the sushi party, I also tried the much feared Natto. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s actually one of those fabled “must try” Japanese foods that is famously known for being disliked by foreigners to Japan – stinky, rotten, fermented soybeans covered in goo that hold a pretty repugnant scent, a powerful taste and slippery texture. Before coming to Japan, having read my share of Japan related blogs, I knew about the powers of Natto. And I also knew that one day, my turn to eat it would come. And it came.

Perhaps, because I’d braced myself to eat something I thought to be an unspeakable horror, when it came to tasting it, it really wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t the tastiest thing I’d ever eaten. But it surely wasn’t the worst. If you come to Japan, don’t fear the Natto! To me, its bark was worse than its bite!

Interestingly, I found that tackling the Sakana Kobukuro dish presented a greater challenge than Natto. Sakana Kobukuro is the fish version of pig uterus, apparently (although I could be wrong). Whatever it was, it was intestiney. And creamy. And let us never speak of it again.

Japanese schools are very different to those in Australia!

For one thing, the sakura tree outside my classroom is just breathtakingly spectacular. No photograph could do it justice. For another thing, I found that Japanese school rules are much more strict than Australian schools, and the atmosphere much more formal. Although my first day was not my official "first day" at school (I had to come for a uniform fitting), there was a lot of bowing in the hallway to be done to every student or teacher that passed (I felt like one of those Wooden Bird Things that dip up and down a lot... you know, like the one in The Simpsons that obese Homer uses to press the Yes key on his computer whilst he goes to the movies/does other stuff instead of working? No? Damn) and so, so, so many おはようございますohayou gozaimasu's ("good morning"s).

In Japan, there's formal and informal speech, and sometimes I muddle up each one (you speak informally with your friends, but must be extra polite to the teachers and use polite form - です、ます). But nevertheless, I really felt the importance of Japanese formalities that first day. You must bow, smile, speak formally to your superiors. It's a culture of respect. I was so surprised that in my Nyugakushiki (First Year Opening Ceremony) everybody was so disciplined when it came to standing still and listening to the teacher during the ceremony. Nobody moved a muscle. Well, except to stand up, bow, and sit down. It went like this:

"Mr Kobayashi is going to speak. Stand up!"

We stand up.

"Bow"

We bow.

"Sit down"

We sit down.

Mr Kobayashi gives his speech. He finishes. We stand up, bow, sit down. The next speaker takes the stage. We stand up, bow, sit down. He finishes. We stand up, bow, sit down. This continues on for 40 minutes.

Still, it was extremely interesting... and good exercise, yeah?

Self introductions are also extremely important.

On my first day, I was forwarded into the staff room to do a jikou shoukai (self introduction) in front of a staff room full of teachers, which was nerve wracking. Man, was I nervous. I managed to stutter it out and completely butcher the Japanese language ("K-k-konichiwa"!)but still got the obligatory polite "Nihongo jouzu desu ne" from the teachers, which was nice of them. :D I also had to do a speech today, in front of the whole school at one of the Opening Ceremonys, which I'll write about later, because I'm running out of time.

I also went to Karaoke for four hours with Mina and her friend Mari for about four hours, which was quite fun. The best thing about the karaoke joint, in my opinion, was the fact that you could have as many free drinks from the vending machine as you wanted during the karaoke session... in my mind I was like, "Dude... I am so going to abuse the system." And the system I did abuse!

Free drinks over singing any day! I drank a truckload of Calpis (a yoghurty drink).

Well, signing out... oh! And thank you very much for your comments... I'll work on replying to them tonight! Really, they make me so happy and encourage me to write this thing, rather than abandon it. :） So thank you very much!
I miss you guys, and for the people I haven't met in real life who are still commenting, another THANK YOU to you! :D I'm honored that my blog is being read by other people!

じゃ、またね！

Lucie

Nihon Adobenchya: SUUTATO! And Japanese Style BBQs!

H-h-howdy there! :D

Lucie here, and feeling much more refreshed now that I’ve finally started to settle in. The first few days have been a little difficult, but, as they say, as soon as school starts (which it does for me, next week) I’ll get into a routine and get myself busy and not "floating in limbo land", so to speak!

But for now, things are still sketchy, and every day is a surprise. Today, for example, I walked into the living room only to see two giggling, completely naked grown men wrapping eachother with clingwrap, followed by four dancing bears holding rolls of toilet paper walking on stilts singing to me in Japanese whilst a bunch of foreigners did the moonwalk. On TV, of course. But Japanese tv is still so surprising… programs usually involve people dressing up in strange costumes and scaring eachother, people in fluffy tv mascot suits dancing merrily around stern-faced newsreaders, men in dresses (in fact, over here on tv, I see a man in a dress about twice a day… that's an official statistic!) and lots and LOTS of bad karaoke. It’s a guilty pleasure. Although, I did spend the other day putting socks on chairs:

Lol, Japan。

However, there are the genuinely awesome days. On my second day with my host family, I had the opportunity to visit my host family’s grandparents house, a charming Japanese style home complete with sliding doors, tatami mats, small shrines and pictures of the ancestors displayed on the walls (there was even a small, modest shrine built for “Dai”, their golden retriever that passed away last year whilst Mina was on exchange in Australia… Mina’s grandma rang a pretty little bell for him as she told me about him :’D ).

The grandparents, Yukio (but ‘Yuki’ for short, as the family like to call him) and Yoshiko (a very pretty grandma), were extremely kind and were quite enthusiastic about showing me aspects of Japanese life (for example, as soon as we got to their home, Yukio-san pulled out a bag of brown rice and asked, “Do you want to see them become white?” and an interesting and quite enlightening visit to a rice-polishing machine soon followed suit).

Stepping onto their property (only five minutes from the Machida appartment), I was greeted with the nostalgic smell of burning wood (almost like an Australian campfire… I love that scent!) and fields of cultivated land with sakura trees sprouting out from the earth. It was quite beautiful, in that rural way (like a Japanese version of Robertson, Australia). Apparently, the sakura there will be more beautiful as the weather gets warmer, so I’m looking forward to going back and taking lots and lots of photos then (たのしみにしていますよ).

Anyway, the highlight of the day was definitely the food. It was definitely a “try new things” day. Although, when Mina first divulged the fact to me that we were about to eat 牛タン 'gyutan' or ‘Cow tongue’, I have to admit… I was a little apprehensive. I mean… a cow’s… tongue… Old Bessie’s flapper… eat it?! Me?! Could I?!

I could.

Surprisingly, cow tongue was the tastiest meat of the day (goes to show that you have to try new things, right?). I also tried れば 'reba' or 'cow liver' (which was quite nice, if not a little gooey, but you should eat it with a really salty sauce to get the best flavour), こぶくろ 'kobukuro' or 'pig uterus' (very 　コリコリ　‘korikori’, gummy… it was alright, but I only tried one piece… I couldn’t get past the fact that I was eating an organ, ack! Actually, you know, I thought it was just an intestine until I googled it just now… uterus, huh?... my gosh! xD), かるび 'Karubi' beef and さし 'sashi' raw fish. These were all cooked on a Japanese style BBQ, and my gosh, it was such a feast!

I also really like 'tako', octopus, now! :D

The vegetables we cooked were しいたけshiitake mushrooms (also very delicious),　えりんぎ Eringi mushrooms, そらまめ　‘soramame’ or ‘sky beans’ (broad beans), はぼちゃ'habochya', pumpkin, さつまいも 'satsumaimo', sweet potatoe and たまねぎ 'tamanegi', onion.

The remainder of the day was spent relaxing under the family’s kotatsu,

a kind of low wooden frame that is covered by a futon and a tabletop, with a hole in the ground where you put your legs to warm up… its like a heater in the ground. There, under the kotatsu, the family gathered around to eat some very professional looking AND tasting sushi, served direct to us fresh from Mina’s Iron Chef-like uncle, a real sushi chef. It was definitely some of the tastiest sushi I’d ever eaten. I called him a ‘sushi samurai’… I mean, the way he swiftly put those delicate little morsels together was so swift and cleanly done that it was quite amazing! Upon us, he with the hurricane fingers rained down a hundred sushi!

The sushi samurai himself:

Oishiisou desu ne? :D Yokudekimashita!

Sushi: Tai, Salmon, Tuna, Clam, among others I've forgotten. Basically everything in the 'Under the Sea' sequence in The Little Mermaid. Except Sebastian. I'll get him later.

That day was definitely the highlight of my Japan stay so far, but I have also been to Karaoke (350 yen for 3 hours, wow!) with Mina and her friend Chinatsu, walked around AEON supermarket, taken two lots of Purikura and made delicious Takoyaki with Mina, Yumi and Mina’s friend who stayed over, Natsumi.

It was really tasty.

I’m actually looking forward to school and the prospect of being really busy and joining a club excites me. Eating delicious snacks like Kinoko no Yama every day, I know I’m going to get fat! たいへんですよ! でも日本で、すべてはおいしそうだから。。。;o;

Me being an idiot with dango

Also, walking around the streets of Oyama, everyone stares at me like I’m some kind of celebrity. At first, it was slightly off-putting (seeing people literally double-take every time they walk past me, and gawk for a few minutes before hurrying off) but I’m getting used to it, slowly. On the street, a Japanese baby was waving to everyone behind it, and, being polite, I waved back, only to be met with its puzzled eyes and gaping mouth (“What the hell are you?!” it seemed to be saying xD). Yes, that’s right! I even scare babies now! 8D

Warning: Here, the peace sign is infectious.

All in all it’s pretty hard, but I’m getting used to things! This week is supposed to be the hardest so I’ll がんばります. Thank you to everyone reading this back at home! :’D I’ll try and make these entries a little more interesting in the future (it’s hard to edit, though, because time is scarce and I shouldn’t be on the computer forever, but I’ll do my best).

- Lucie