Throughout high school in America I was able to meet a lot of exchange students. It’s been interesting being put into that position and realizing that there is so much more that goes on than what one could find out from being in the same school, class or on the same sports team as an exchange student. My life before I arrived here, the events that took place in order for me to get here and what I do outside of school are all things that are for the most part hidden from my classmates and teachers. I’ve found that by being here, I’m almost always aware of the fact that I’m in a foreign setting. My classmates and teachers obviously know I’m not from Japan but school is the only setting that they know me in and they're used to me being there by now. It’s just strange to think about!
A New Home
Since my last blog post I've switched homes. The family that I was supposed to move in with wasn’t ready yet for reasons I don’t know so I’m living with Shigetoshi Nakamura again and will be until February. He doesn't have WiFi in his house so it's been more difficult finding time to work on this blog.
I've been enjoying living with Shige a lot but he knows English fairly well which can be both really good and bad. It's helpful but also tempts me to not speak in Japanese. The first night in his home, he told me that he isn't the best cook and if he hadn't I could have guessed because while him and I were thinking about making the brownies that had been sent to me from home, he suggested using the microwave. So, since I've been living with him, we usually go out to eat.
He is often gone for various business related things so his daughter, Shouko, has been coming to make and eat dinner with me on those nights. She is really nice and I feel that I've been able to learn Japanese more efficiently while speaking with her. Shouko sometimes brings her two daughters, Miharu (9) and Chihiro (7) which is really fun. I never get to be around little kids so for some reason it was really strange hearing them speaking Japanese at first. Maybe it was my realization that kids younger than 10 are substantially better at Japanese than I am. It's not their intention but they are probably some of the best Japanese teachers I've had. They don't hesitate to correct me if I say something wrong and they don't make a huge deal out of every little thing I say like my classmates do. They also don't know English.
Currently, (December 6th) Shigetoshi is away in California to meet with some representatives from the tequila company that he's been marketing in Japan since I first arrived here (Yeah...strange, I know). So, I've been living alone except for the when Shouko has dinner with me. On top of that, my high school had testing last week, which I don't take part in, and this week they are in Tokyo for a class trip (I didn't get to attend because it was too early in the year) so for the past two weeks I've been fending for myself. As long as I can find something to do I have a fine time and the freedom has been a nice change from the school schedule.
Shouko took Miharu, Chihiro and me to see Gunkanjima (a small island that looks like a battle ship when viewed from far away) and also a botanical garden just outside of the city of Nagasaki. I had never been to a place like this before and I had a lot of fun.
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| Chihiro is on the left and Miharu on the right. In the upper left hand corner is the Gunkanjima battle ship island. |
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| This was one of the views at the botanical garden. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park at times. |
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| They had a hibiscus dedicated greenhouse filled with huge flowers like this one. |
Karatsu Kunchi
On November 2nd through the 4th I went to another city called Karatsu to see their Kunchi festival along with a couple of other exchange students in my district. This festival ended up being a lot different than Nagasaki's Kunchi festival. Floats called hikiyama were paraded down the streets with large numbers of people carrying or pushing them. The oldest of these floats was originally built in 1819 and throughout the next 60 years, twelve more were built. We were able to see all thirteen. These were some of my favorites:
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| This one was originally built in 1847. I was given a t-shirt that has this float printed on the back. |
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| This is the oldest float in the festival. |
The festival itself was really cool too. There were tons of people cheering and shouting as all of the floats were ran past us. The brochure I have says that the floats each weigh 2 to 5 tons which makes it fun to watch as they are all pushed by hand.
During our two nights in Karatsu, we stayed in two different hotels. The first hotel was a very traditional one called a ryokan. That night marked my first time sleeping on a Japanese futon which is a traditional Japanese bed. It was really comfortable other than pillow which was filled with either plastic pellets or rocks.
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| This is Nathan from Belgium and our Rotray Youth Exchange counselor, Sako-San. |
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| The next morning revealed that our hotel was located in a sleepy little fishing village. |
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| With old women chopping the heads off of fish. |
The next night we stayed in another ryokan but this one had more modern amenities:
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| The bath tub was located outside and really close to the ocean. |
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| This was taken at the shrine and home of the Rotary member in Karatsu who was our guide for the weekend. |
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| Karatsu Castle. It was under constructing when we visited so it's probably not as photogenic as it usually is. |
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| This was taken on top of the Karatsu Castle |
Penguins
For some odd reason, Nagasaki has a museum/zoo dedicated entirely to penguins. Before I moved in with Shigetoshi, my host mom and I visited one day and I was not disappointed.
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| There was a little show they put on that they called the "penguin parade." |
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| There were at least three kids who darted away from their parents in hopes of being able to walk across this thing with the penguins. |
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| This one posed for me. |
たべもの (Tabemono)
