Life In JAPAN!: It's already October?!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

1:00 AM

Konbanwa! (Good evening!)

Honestly, how did September come and go so quickly?! I have obviously been terrible at updating my blog regularly! The days just fly by when you're constantly experiencing new things. Recently, I have been going to my Japanese classes Tuesday through Friday. I am loving my Japanese class. It's definitely been difficult at times, but I truly think that I have been learning a lot. I feel so much more comfortable trying to communicate with people and much, much more confident in myself. I am so grateful to have the chance to learn a new language, especially in the native country! I never have to look for for an opportunity to put what I have been learning to use with others! We finished learning Katakana, the second Japanese alphabet. So now I can officially say that I know how to write in and read Hiragana and Katakana. I have to admit that it's actually kind of fun texting my Japanese friends in Hiragana. I also catch myself wanting to throw in random Japanese words when I am skyping my friends in America! Who knew I would like Japanese this much???

Last weekend was my homestay weekend! I remember arriving in Japan and meeting my host sister on the second day we were here. I got a packet with information on my home stay, and at that time, I felt like the weekend would never come. I had an absolutely amazing weekend, one which I will never forget! My host sister's name is Megumi. She is a second year at Bunkyo Gakuin University and lives in Azabu-juban, Tokyo. It is only a few stops away from Todaimae station, where I live! It is a super cute area with a lot of shops and restaurants and very conveniently located to other areas of Tokyo, schools, and attractions. Megumi picked me up Friday afternoon after our classes and we rode the subway to Azabu-juban. Her apartment building was a five minute walk from the station. We walked there, dropped off my bag, and then walked to a nearby supermarket. We bought ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies, because she had never made them before! Baking must not be very big in Japan, because baking ingredients are either sold in tiny packages (you would have to buy about 20 packages of Japanese chocolate chips to make one batch of cookies) or nonexistant all together! (Baking soda)! So, I was a little worried about how the cookies were going to turn out considering we got back to her apartment to find out that she didn't have enough butter, measuring cups, baking soda, or an actual oven. After about ten minutes, we took the cookies out, and they were surprisingly really good! We also made Japanese curry together for dinner. After we ate, my host mother came home from work, and I finally got to meet her! Her name is Yoko, and she was the best host mother I could have ever asked for. She made me feel so at home and reminded me so much of my mom. She drove us to see Tokyo Skytree since it is super close to their house, and then Megumi and I met up with Megumi's boyfriend so that I could meet him!

On Sunday, we woke up and ate the delicious breakfast that Yoko had made for us. Then, we took a short taxi ride to the Roppongi area to visit Yoko at the Saturday morning farmer's market that she sells vegetables at. It was in a gorgeous area, and all of the fresh produce looked so good. Oishiiso! Megumi also bought soup from Soup Stock Tokyo, a restaurant that I have been seeing all over the Tokyo area since I arrived, because I was getting over a cold. So sweet of her! After we ate under a pretty waterfall, we walked around the Roppongi then made a spur of the moment decision and decided to go to Tokyo Disneyland! We took the subway to Chiba which wasn't too long of a ride, and we spent the rest of the day and night in Disneyland. I had so much fun! There were SO many people at the park; Megumi said that she had never seen such long lines, but I didn't mind waiting in line because it gave us a chance to hang out together and talk a lot! We rode some rides and ate some delicious food, including pumpkin softcream (soft serve icecream), caramel popcorn, and I had my first turkey leg ever. It was so funny... Megumi kept telling me how much she loved the "smoked chicken" at Disneyland, so we hunted down the stand to buy it, and when I saw it, I told her that it was turkey, a popular American food. She said, "oh, I see!" and then continued to talk about how much she loved "smoked chicken." So much for that! :)

We slept in late on Sunday, because we were so exhausted from Disneyland! When we woke up, Megumi took me out to lunch at a sushi restaurant in Roppongi. It was SO delicious! We sat at the sushi bar and the sushi chef made our sushi as we ordered it. I tried a lot of new types of nigiri (a type of sushi with a piece of fish on top of rice that is not often eaten in America as maki, rolls of sushi, are more popular). I ate eel, salmon eggs, tuna, salmon, mackerel, octopus, and squid. Megumi even made me order sushi for us and thank the chef for the meal in Japanese! Kind of scary, but I was glad she helped me and made me practice! After our sushi date, we went to Shinjuku and Shibuya to shop around. Our mutual love for shopping makes us being together dangerous! After shopping, we went back to Azabu-juban to meet Yoko. She brought me to a Korean restaurant for dinner, because she knew that I love Korean food! It was so nice of her, and the food was amazing! After we ate, Yoko walked Megumi and me to the subway station, because we decided to go back to my house to do homework and sleep, because Megumi had class in the morning, and our house is right across the street from Bunkyo. It was sad saying goodbye to Yoko! She was the greatest host mama ever (she told me to call her mama... so cute!), and she told me to come back and stay at their home again whenever I could. I feel so lucky to have had such an incredible homestay weekend! Megumi was the best host sister and is now one of my close friends. I learned a lot about the Japanese culture, spoke in Japanese more than I thought I could and improved, and became so close with my new Japanese mama and sister. Yatta! Arigato! おせわになりました!

I had class last week, tried to rest as much as I could because I have had a cough that doesn't want to go away, and spent a lot of good time with good friends! Last Thursday, I made homemade gyoza (yummy Chinese dumplings) with some of the Bunkyo girls who came to St. Ben's/St. John's last March. A few of them go to school at the other Bunkyo campus, but they have class at our campus on Thursdays, so I love seeing them once a week! Friday, I went shopping in Korakuen (one stop away from Todaimae station) with Kie after class, and later that night, everyone went to an apartment at a different University that's close to Bunkyo to meet new people. Yesterday, I took the subway and went to a festival that wasn't too far away. There were hundreds of food stands everywhere with delicious, cheap street food and an hour long fireworks show. It was the longest one I have ever seen! Today, I have barely left my room, because I have a big Japanese test on Tuesday. I don't have class tomorrow, so I'll be doing some more studying then!

I have really been missing my family and friends back in Minnesota lately, but I can't believe how fast my short amount of time here is flying. Somedays, I still can't believe I'm actually living in Japan. I am definitely missing a few things from the U.S. like... Chipotle, my dog, my bed, Target, and pumpkin flavored everything since it's fall, but I wish that time would slow down a little! It's almost Halloween, then it'll be Thanksgiving in no time. It's crazy to think that I will be on a plane back to America in only 67 days! :(

Here is the link to my latest YouTube video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxLw-BiSNAY&feature=g-upl

And here are a few recent pictures...