Me and 部活

Hello, how are you? I feel a little bit sad, that no one writes new posts here... Come on, write something! I am curious about your school life, etc.

Today I am going to write about my bukatsu, Soccer (サッカー部).

I have got training four times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday). Training extends 2 hours (except Saturday one, 3 hours!).

My team, called KFC (Kokusai Football Club, not Kentucky Fried Chicken) has got a professional coach, very good training facility and pretty nice playing field (gritty).

First days in bukatsu were hard, because I didn't understand commands in Japanese (like pass, shoot, use you voice, side, direct shoot etc). Now there is no problem with that. :-)

One week ago and yesterday we've played practice games (練習試合　-　れんしゅうじあい）. 1 draw and two defeats :-( But I think, that our team is strong and we are doing very good job during trainings and games.

I play during games as a single top striker, however I can play only one half, because now KFC is preparing for Tournament (in which I can't play, because I am 留学生(りゅうがくせい). But it's enough to score some goals (^____^)\/.

Does anyone has joined サッカー部？

Pozdrawiam,
Piotr （ピョトル）

Greetings from Osaka!

I'm gonna start with a cheesy Hey everybody!

I'm looving my stay here in Japan. Everybody are so nice here. My family is great, they always have great ideas of what to do during the weekends and national holidays. This morning I woke up for example at 4:30 to climb a mountain next to the house and watch the sunrise and see a great view over the Osaka, Kyoto and Nara at the same time. It was so cool! I've been to an amusement park, I set off fireworks with my family, I have had 4 trips to Kyoto temple visiting, sports center, I went fishing in the Pacific ocean, onsen, I suddenly got into a mexican festival downtown and so many other great things. I went to Kinkakuji temple in Kyoto which is definitely the most beautiful temple I've seen here in Japan.

Downtown Osaka is ridiculous. It has like a huge underground city of shopping malls. It's so easy to get lost. I walked the other day for two hours without knowing were I was and then I realized I hadn't moved moved anywhere, I had just been walking in the same area underground, on the street or in big buildings without noticing. I guess I'm maybe not the only one who has gotten into that situation during their stay here. I didn't see enough enough in Tokyo to get to see how it actually was there (I guess it's a bit similar) and plus, I come from Iceland with 300.000 inhabitants so it's a bit overwhelming.

The school is great. I'm studying japanese on my own in the classroom or in the library most of the lessons. I'm doing sports, calligraphy and english as well. From the library where I study a lot I have a great view over Osaka Castle and it's surroundings, I love it. I go to school around 7 every morning and I usually come back around 7 in the evening so I'm often very tired. I have around 1 hour of commuting, including standing in a train stuffed with people that doesn't stop for 20 minutes. The school festival was 2 weeks ago. I participated in my class play, I played thee role of an english butler,which was quite funny. It was a lot of fun and my class went to a restaurant afterwards in the evening.

The weather has been great, even the typhoon that was supposed to hit Osaka, never came. It's starting to get a bit cooler after the summer that means I'm not sweating like a monkey when I get to school. I'm going to my second family next monday and I'm just excited about it and I hope they'll be as great. My little brothers in both of these families are in my class so know my little brother in the next family.
Has anyone changed family yet? How was it?


A few responses to other blogs:

Eva, Random people are always saying hello, especially girls at school. People are so curious about me everywhere i go, always saying some phrases that they know in English.

Marco, It doesn't matter that my school has air-conditioning. I'm still always sweaty, or was, since it's getting a bit cooler, but still hot, to many commas.
There hasn't been any matsuri here and the pictures look cool, I wanna go to a Matsuri.


I have no idea were the pictures will come so here is some information.

Nr.1 I took a picture in the train I take very day. I'm a bad person, I thought it was so rude to take up the camera and flash straight into their sleepy faces but it was worth it. I've been in so much more stuffed trains than this but I had the camera that day.

Nr.2 My and my 2 host family brothers by The Kinkakuji temple

Nr.3 My hometown, Katanoshi, between Osaka and Kyoto. I bike for 20 minutes every morning along rice fields on my way to the station.

Well, best regards and I hope all of you continue having a great time or if it hasn't been very pleasant for you, I hope you start having a great time and enjoying your stay here!

Ólafur Páll

Hello from hot Sagamihara!

Oh my god, I love this place. I can live in Japan forever. However There are some times when I feel like an animal. In school everybody like you but for example when I was coming back home after school, on the station was a guy who point at me and was talking about me to his friend. It's really not nice.

But besides that, it's great! I will see so many places with my family and I even go for kabuki performance in October!!! But I'm also preparing for the exam - Did somebody apply for Nihongo Noryoku Shiken? I did it - I will try to pass 2-kyuu. Oh, my god, this grammar and kanji are horrible! But everybody help me - in school I feel great, I have so much fun!

Oh, and I was on my first matsuri - It was last week but I didn't write anything till now. These three pictures are from that matsuri.

Oh, and two things:

1st - I have skype now -anya.xd so if somebody want to talk - I'm waiting!

2nd - I'm still waiting for e-mails from the rest of people near Tokyo - I want to meet you!

I miss everybody so much, even I really enjoy my homestay. Write more and see you in January!!!

Greetings from Matsumoto

hey guys, how's the weather in your part of japan? right here in the mountains it's getting pretty cold at night!
However, I feel like in heaven here! My host-family is sooooo great! They really treat me like their own child and my mother is so cute!
School is pretty funny - besides from the lessons where I understand not so much - everyone is like: Hi Sarah! I'm ...! Nice to meet you! Shall we go to a Karaokebar some time? yeah? great! Bye bye! and while wlaking away you can always here the typical: kawaiiiii,ne!
and then there is this hot guy from 3nensei who can actually speak German and is the coolest guy in school! and he actually talks to me! Cracy,he?!
Besides the fact that we only have like 3,5 months left (!), I'm really enjoying every moment and I already climbed my first japanese 3000m mountain! The first omatsuri is in the past as well, two class-matches (song-contest and sports-contest) were on schedule already, too!
Okay, hope everyone is still alive, is having as great a time as I have and remember: be careful with eating ふぐ　！

Rock on, Sarah

Hello from Saga!

Hello from forgotten by God Saga! I`ve been living here for a week now, but I didn`t have the time to update.. at all. Or maybe I did, but had nothing to write about :P

As almost everyone, my first day at school was on the 27th August and was full of embarassing events, such as introducing myself to the whole school, riding back home with the Geography teacher and meeting random baseball guys with interesting ideas. (That was a long sentence, excuse me.) After this, this whole week, without counting today, was full of preparations for the 体育祭＆文化祭 (Taiikusai&Bunkasai) which took place, respectivly, yesterday and the day before yesterday. What a long and tiring week it was..

I do not have any pictures to share, because me and Arisa (my host sister in my second family) have yet to figure out how to upload the pictures from her camera on her computer. Yes, I do indeed know this sounds weird! But as soon as we do figure it out, I promise to upload them, so you can see how awesome (not) I look in my sports clothes and how different a sweaty European looks from a sweaty Japanese.

Just because all of this sounds boring, short fun facts and questions based on my experiences!

→ Did you ever get "hello" from random people, but prefer to reply in Japanese? During our 文化祭 (Culture Festival) we had folk dances (yes) and I had to dance with half of the boys in 7th and 3rd classes (yes). So I got a lot of "hallo"s and they got a lot of こんにちはs.

→ Do people call you cute all the time? Because I don`t ever get called cute and I`m starting to think my image of Japan was wrong as Hell. (うわぁぁぁかわいい? No?)

→ Our class was selling かき氷 (kakigori) and mine crepes on the 文化祭 (Culture Festival), so we had to go around and sell tickets. I`m so proud of myself- I sold 1/96 of all the tickets!

→ My team (red) was last on the 体育祭 (Sports Festival). .. just as we all expected. Do you guys have Sports Festival in your school? If you do, when? And if you already had.. post pictures of your sweaty faces, come on!

Just so this is not text only, picture with me and Maki and Misa (my host sisters in the fist family) taken in Canal City (the most absurd name ever, I know) in Fukuoka. See you, or rather "read you" soon!

Matsuri

Everybody has talked about his first day of school... but mine was actually on 27th August (they say mountain's men are early...), so it's quite a long time ago... besides, yesterday I've been to my first matsuri, so I'm going to tell you about it!

Me and my host mom at the matsuri!

I guess you all already know what a "matsuri", but I was surprised by their importance. Here in Iida, in summer, there is one matsuri each week!

This matsuri was composed of two parts: fireworks and fireworks... a whole lot of great fireworks!!!

fireworks (hanabi)

I asked explainations about what they were doing with those paper things that you can see in the picture under here, but... well, let's say that my Japanese needs improvement!! Besides, everybody was more concerned about the fireworks, which were the best ones I've seen in my life after the ones of world fireworks championship. (kono hanabi wa goran no suponsaa no teikyou de okurishimasu!)

The big paper under the guy is "kami no kami" (goddess's paper)... I don't know if it's the real name or a simplified version for me, but it sounds good ^^

The festival's climax was in the end, when the guys pictured up here rounded around a central firework, the one under here.

This was the end of the matsuri... masked guys around a central firework

The nice thing about the matsuri was that almost everyone in the city was there... I could meet classmates, teachers, my host parents met friends from the Kominkan and introduced me... it was great!!!

I was made to carry a Japanese light... cool!

Ok, this was my first matsuri... but they told me the next one will be much bigger, so I can't wait!!!
See you!!!
Marco

PS BTW, why am I the only one whose school doesn't have air conditioning? I had to buy oshibori, deodorants, refreshing body sheets and bring them to school since I'm always sweating! It's so unfair!

The first week of school...

Hey! Sorry that I didn't post anything!!!





Oh, my god, I'm alive! After first week I'm exhausted - even I didn't learn so much in school xP


I've already joined the hip hop dance club in my school but I'm starting from maybe 22th of September. I will be dancing on a school festival in the beginning of November!





I'm waiting for news from people near Tokyo - when do you have free time? We can meet in Tokyo!





My school is great but uniforms are not as good as I imagined. I'm learning a tea ceremony, calligraphy and two languages ( I'm not counting English and Japanese) - Chinese and Spanish xD Other subjects are ok but sometimes I understand all lesson and sometimes nothing ^^

One photo is from Sagamihara when I'm living now - this is where I'm going to school by bike - These streets are so small, I don't like to ride a bike here!


I hope that you have wonderful time - send more posts!