The end of a journey...

So I've been back in Canada for 10 days now.
It's great being able to see my family again! I missed them. I was kinda worried it would be weird coming back again, but everything was so familiar, everything went back to normal. There are times when I question if it all really happened. Did I really go live in Japan for a year, or was it all a dream?? XD

So the saturday before I left, I had 2 goodbye parties. The first was KARAOKE, of course, with all the Ishikawa exchange students. We sang for about 5 hours straight, and it was so much fun!!! At one point, these random Japanese high school guys came in our room a couple times, and started singing/dancing with us XD. We also ran into their room one time, haha. Helle and I ended up piercing our ears that day with these self piercing gun things they have in Japan. Lots of girls pierce their ears themselves. My ears were pierced before, but now there are 2 holes in each, and luckily they haven't got infected (was kinda worried about that, piercing our ears ourselves in bathroom in a karaoke place, hehe.

It was really sad saying bye to everyone. I miss them alot! :(. After the karaoke and went and met most of my homeroom class for dinner. It was still fun hanging out with everyone, but it was a totally different, way calmer fun :P. I miss my class mates as well.

Monday was supposed to be my last day of school, but it snowed so much that the trains were stopped, and so school was canceled. Kinda sucked, because I had plans with Helle and Gus both Tuesday and Wednesday >.<

Wednesday, we (gus and helle and I) went out (in our school uniforms ;p) took purikura and had okonomiyaki one last time. After we went to rifare to say goodbye to Hannah, Maddie and Zac (rotary exchange students) one last time. I'm jealous they are still in Japan.

On Feb 3rd, I left Kanazawa. Saying goodbye to my host family and the AFS staff was really hard too. I'm sure I'll be back, but still. We all started crying, and then we got on the train. Irisz, Katta and Yuka, as well as the 4 exchange students in Fukui were also getting on the train. Us 3 finally stopped crying, when Irisz, Katta and Yuka got on crying and we almost started again. T_T

We got off in Nagoya, and then made our way to the bullet train bound for Tokyo. We all had soooo much luggage. My suitcase was sooo heavy >.<

Once we were on the shinkansen (bullet train) it was alot of fun. We were talking alot, and kinda loud. Felt a bit bad for all the business men on the train who were probably trying to sleep. ^^; We were also able to see Mt. Fuji which was awesome! It went by too fast. We were hoping the train would never stop, because it was our last time together ToT 

Once we got to Tokyo, we said our goodbyes (easier said than done) and all went our seperate ways with our temp host families. My host family was really nice. I was actually in Chiba, not Tokyo.

I flew out Feb 5, and had to pay 8000yen cause my suitcase was 4kg overweight >.<
The flight was really long, and kinda boring. The old guy beside me slept the whole time... was kinda wishing for someone to talk to :/ I wasn't able to sleep at all.

My flight from Vancouver to Edmonton was on a really tiny, icky plane. I was able to sleep for about an hour then. It was one of those planes you walk down stairs, out of. That was quite a shock, going from 15*C Tokyo weather to -15*C, snowy, windy weather in Edmonton XD

I really miss Japan. I'm quite bored here. It's great being with my family again, but my friends are pretty busy with school so I don't really have anyone to hang out with at the moment. I will be going to uni in September,  but in the meantime I guess I will have to find a job. Back to reality >.<

I miss my exchange friends, speaking japanese, being able to take public transport to go anywhere, and there being things to do (like karaoke or purikura) XD.

I will definitely be going back to Japan in uni for hopefully a year. This past year was such a great experience, and I definitely recommend it. It was full of ups and downs, but the positive things definitely outweighs the bads. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to go to another country and all the people I was able to meet.

Thank you to everyone who have read my blog. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to post that much the second half. This will be my last point. I hope you were able to get a bit out of this blog, and for following along on my journey of a lifetime.

If you have any questions about Japan or exchange, feel free to email me.

One door closes, another opens. On to the next chapter in my life.

Thanks for reading ^^

PEACE OUT! \(*⌒▽⌒*)/

♥♥♥♥ ジェニー ♥♥♥♥

Going Home

So today was my last day of school. I had to do 3 goodbye speeches - one for the teachers, and my soccer club teacher gave me a japan soccer team scarf. Almost started crying. Then one for the whole school over the intercom which went pretty well. Then the last for my class. It was supposed to be 5 mins long, but didnt end up quite that much. Took lots of pics, said a ton of goodbyes and got a scrapbook thing from my class which I have yet to read... cause im sure it will push me over the edge. I takes A LOT to make me cry, but this last week, I have been very close. Alot has happened, but I dont have time to update now. Will let you guys in on it when I get home.

I leave Kanazawa on thursday the 3rd, and go to Tokyo. I'm pretty sure I will be staying with a host family, but know nothing else about what will be happening on friday. My flight back to Canada is at 7pm on Saturday.

I don't wanna leave! About a month or 2 ago, I was ready to go home. These past 2 weeks have made me realize how much I'm gonna miss everyone and how much i love my life in Japan (club, school and all). I am looking forward to meeting everyone back in Canada, but I also dont wanna leave everyone here. Wish I could just live 2 lives ;)

I'll be back tho, so hopefully I will be meeting everyone again.

Most likely last post before I leave. Hope everything goes smoothly on my way back to Canada.

JLPT N3

Well that was really difficult.

I bought textbooks that have it set up so you learn the JLPT material in 6 weeks. I ended up cramming them into about 3 weeks >.< I’m such a procrastinator.

The test is split up into 3 parts: Kanji/ Vocab, Grammar/ Reading and Listening and was about 5hrs.

The Kanji and vocab was sooo hard. I ended up guessing for most of it, along with a lot of the other afsers. Grammar was pretty easy, only a couple I wasn't sure about. And the listening was super easy, but that could because I have practice with that everyday. ;)

There were a ton of ppl there. It was held at one of the universities. You werent allowed to park your car/bike there so it was either bus or get a ride. I ended up taking the bus (since it goes right by my house) and it was packed. Not normal packed either, like I had to get on at the front (normally you get on at the back). They had to have 3 or 4 extra buses for to take all the gaijin to the exam. I use a bus card/ pass thing that u are supposed to scan at the back when you get on and then the front when you get off, and the fee is deducted from that. Since i never got to scan it in the back, the bus driver let me ride for free! Which was great, cause the bus was like 400yen (about 4$). 

The exam supervisors were really strict, like you cant open your book until they say, cant write after the time is up, or hold your pencil even O.o. If you break certain rules, they give you a red card (kicked out) or yellow card (2 and ur kicked out)

However, there were a couple of ppl you broke the rules. One guy in my room ended up burping really loud right before the listening part started (cant make noise during the listening section) tho that's kinda unavoidable.

There were a lot of Chinese ppl who would open their books, and even start the test before we started and a couple got in trouble, tho they were sneaky about it. They did not seem to learn, no matter how many times they were warned. A couple of them were kicked out. In my friends room, there was a Chinese lady (I swear I have nothing against Chinese ppl, but they just happened to be the ones breaking the rules the most) who actually pulled out her dictionary during the test and was flipping through it O.O. My friend glared at her, and he got a yellow card for “looking” at someone else’s test. She on the other hand went un notice >.<;.

I was fiddling with my pencil at the beginning of the test, and was given a yellow card for that, ehehe. I have no idea if I passed or not, kanji are still my enemy. Im just glad its done…

Pikachu, I choose you~

Sorry I haven’t updated lately. Don't know if I metioned this earlier, but I’m talking the JLPT N3 (Japanese language proficiency test) and have been busy studying for that… along with other everyday stuff. This will just be a short post.

Yesterday, Helle, me, and a few other exchange students went to see Harry Potter 7 (part 1). I thought it was actually pretty well done, though that could be because I don't really remember the book :P.

Helle and I dressed up as PIKACHUS!!! We ended up changing in the movie theater washroom (we were worried they wouldn't let us in if we were dressed up as pikachus when buying the tickets). Coming out of the bathroom stall, I think we kinda scared the couple girls in there. A gaijin lady also walked in, and just laughed at us (but in a good way).

There wasn't that many ppl in the theater, since it was kinda early and the movie was in English, so it wasn't that weird. However walking out of the movie after, and through the mall… well it was quite amusing to see everyones expressions :P.

We hung out at the eki (station) for a bit, and took pictures. A big group of Japanese ppl (I think they were tourists)  came up to us and asked to take a picture with us!! It was awesome. Also all the little kids kept looking/ pointing and yelling pikachu. IT was so cute!! Half the people who walked by looked at us like we were so cute, and the other half  gave us the “WTF?! Crazy gaijin” look ;). There also a couple guys who took a video of us walking by, hehe.

We went to take purikura, and played a couple games at the arcade such as air hockey and some shooting game. Got even weirder looks, but it was a lot of fun.

I had to take the bus home, and ended up not having enough time to change, so I took the bus home dressed as pikachu… which was a bit awkward since I was alone :P.

Walking home after getting of the bus, some random tourists took a picture with me. It was quite a shock to my host family, when a human sized pikachu walked through their door, mwahaha.

Have the JLPT on the 5^th. So not ready…. Wish me luck >.<

Nagoya

Last week, I went to Nagoya for a week to stay with a different host family. It was awesome! My host family was super nice, and I miss them. It was mom, dad, my host sis was in 1^st year high school and host brother was in 4^th year elementary school. I played Pokemon and wii with my host bro the first day, which was a lot of fun XD.

On Monday it was the first day at school, and we took the train to school, which was cool, but super crowded. The school was amazing. I stood out even more, because not only was I a foreigner, but wearing a different uniform. Everyone was really nice, and seemed to be even more open than ppl at my school here. It could be because it was a bigger school (almost twice the size), there were way more guys, or the school was just more… “yanki”, meaning the kids were a bit more rebellious/not super studious.

I was in my host sis’s class, which was a bit weird cause they were all 15, but everyone was really nice. My host sis is in the light music club, which is pretty much a whole bunch of ppl playing the guitar, bass, drums or keyboard. It was cool, at the end of the day, lots of ppl pulled out amps and guitars and sat in their classes practicing.

Next day I had PE, which was one of the super strict things compared to my school in kanazawa. They had to run the length of the gym 40 times, and do push-ups, sit-ups, etc as a warm up, then we played volleyball. The gym teachers kept saying I could rest if I wanted, but I was able to finish with everyone (and pass a lot of ppl ;). Soccer has paid off, haha.

Wednesday was a holiday, so I went to Nagoya Castle with my host dad, which was really cool. Way bigger than Kanazawa Castle. We went out and had unagi (eel) after which was really good!

Friday, was my last day. I was really sad to say goodbye to everyone. Even tho I was only there a week, I made lots of friends, and I really wish I could have stayed at the school. I hung out after with my host sis and a friend went to take purikura. 

Oni (japanese troll/demon...thing)

On the way to the station, we saw this super creepy guy who looked just like a oni! He even had fangs! O.O He kinda growled at us when we walked by, and watched us (probably me >.<) walk down the street for a couple of blocks. It was kinda scary. We went to downtown Nagoya, which was awesome. However, there were a couple old, creepy guys who were like “ aww, gaijin in a school uniform… kawaii!” but in a super creepy way. I probably fit some fetish O.o….

I unfortunately caught a cold… I maybe cause I wore my skirt short when I was there, lol. I really miss everyone. I got along super well with my host family, and we talked a lot! My host sis wanted to go on exchange to Canada or Italy or France, so we stayed up one night (my host mom, host sis and me) talking about dif exchange programs and countries and whatnot. They also included me a lot more with chores and stuff, which made me really happy cause I felt like part of the family. It was an awesome week, tho it was kinda nice to be back in Kanazawa and see my host family here again :D.

♥~TOKYO~♥

WARNING: Super long post…(hopefully won’t cause drowsiness)

Back from Tokyo and it was AWESOME!!! I am very grateful that my host mom and host sis let me tag along. We pretty much went to all the main places in like 2 days so it was quite busy.

The trip did not start off all that well, because we took…dun dun dun… a night bus. I hardly slept the whole way there, which was 7 or 8 hours. When I would finally start to doze off, the bus would stop for a break, or to pick up/drop ppl off, which meant they would turn the super bright lights on and then I would have to start all over again. So upon arrival I had hardly slept, but it didn't matter cause I was in TOKYO!

First thing I noticed other than a ton of ppl was that it was dirty. Not filthy, but not like someone had licked the ground clean (like in Kanazawa ;p). I guess with so many more ppl, its kinda unavoidable. I was also shocked to see hobos… homeless ppl to be politically correct. I don’t think of Japan as having that problem, but I passed a guy sleeping under a bridge and then some ppl sleeping under newspapers and in sleeping bags on the stairs in the stations… :( …Anywho… We also saw some foreigners passed out on the floor of the station... was rather embarrassing but hilarious.

We had breakfast, and dropped our stuff off at the hotel, and then headed off to the Pokemon Center!

The Pokemon Center is a store dedicated to pokemon goods, and it was packed because Pokemon Black and White just came out. Everything was super expensive, but everything was really cute. After we went to AKIHABARA!

I loved Akihabara! The nerdyness in me kinda showed. We looked around at some of the random stores. They had everything from anime and manga to electronics. There were some duty free stores that sold just about everything and then I saw a place selling random pieces or computers/electronics and light bulbs and whatnot.

Since my host mom and sis aren’t really into that sort of thing, we didn't look explore as much as I would have liked, but I was able to buy an electronic dictionary for a decent price and got a case for free! I don’t know why I waited so long to buy one, it’s so convenient for looking up kanji and vocab. Also bought a tshirt with Snoopy on it that says 秋葉原 (akihabara).

Lunchtime rolls around and we passed a Indian curry place that looked super delicious, that was run by real Indian ppl O.o/:D. I haven’t had real curry since I came (which is prob one of my fave foods) so I stopped to look at the menu and was like oishisou (looks delicious) the guy came out and started to convince us to come inside  (in perfect Japanese and English). I really wanted to eat there (tho I think my host family was aiming for the Mos Burger) so I convinced them to try something new. 

Giant nan bread...mmm :)

When the guy gave us our food, I said arigatou (Thanks) and my host sis said thank you. He looked at us kinda funny and my host mom laughed. The curry was soooo good! Tho we were all stuffed after, there was so much food.

Takeshita Street

After lunch we went to Harajuku! Since it was Saturday, there wasn't really anyone dressed up (most come on Sunday I guess).
There were a lot of cool shops there, and this one street, everything was pretty cheap. Unfortunately the electronic dictionary took most of my moneys, so I will hopefully be able to go back at the end of the year. All the stores had such different fashion (not everything looked the same like it kinda is in Kanazawa).

We then went to Shinjuku, and looked around a bit (just more shopping really XD) and then my host sis went to some break dance meeting and my host mom and I went back to the hotel.

Next day my host sis had more dance stuff, so my host mom took me to Akasuka Temple.

We also saw some random dance going on.

It’s this really famous temple in Tokyo.  It was soooo packed! Like the whole population of Kanazawa could prob fit there. There were tons of random souvenirs shops that lead up to the temple. Looked around there for a bit and then went to meet up with my host sister.

We went to the Imperial Palace…thing. Couldn’t actually go in, but could go up near the gates. It was surrounded by a moat thing, and big stone walls.

We got there just in time to see the changing of the guard

It was in the middle of this huge park, that took forever to walk and it was super hot.

It was then time for Shibuya! First stop was Shibuya 109, which is this super huge mall thing. There is 7 or 8 floors of stores, all girls clothing. They built a second one for guys XD.

Shibuya 109

Since it was Sunday, it was super packed, but we looked around a bit in there and then wandered around Shibuya for the rest of the evening. Got to see the famous crosswalk in shibuya, tho I didn’t get a chance to take a pic from high up, you can see there are tons of ppl.

 We were heading for the station (we have been getting around by train the whole time, btw) and passed the Hachiko statue.

Hachiko (kinda blurry)

Since we were in a rush, I was able to snap a pic with my phone… but its pretty crappy.

Next day my host sis went to hang out with friends, and my host mom had an AFS meeting, so I hung out in the lobby of the center where it was held. I ended up sleeping most of the time, but also fiddled with the electronic dictionary.

I found out has helpful/basic phrases in Korean, Chinese, Russian, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Filipino. That amused me for quite awhile listening to the random languages XD.

That evening, we went to my host sis’s break dance competition being held by her team. 2 guys from Thailand ended up winning, but I was awesome watching. There weren’t people from Japan, but all over the world. The judge was from Australia and DJ from the US. I met bboys (and some bgirls) from the US, Canada, Italy, Australia, S. Korea, Thailand, France, and a ton of other countries. Everyone was super cool ;).

kinda blurry

That’s one of the things I found awesome about Tokyo. Though the majority of ppl were Japanese, there were so many gaijin (foreigners). They weren’t just tourists either, you could tell a lot of them lived there. I am very jealous XD. I was not used to seeing that many, so I was kinda staring at the beginning... I also noticed that I hardly got stared at, they are used to gaijin in Tokyo. Reminded me a bit of Canada. :)

After saying goodbye to everyone, it took a lot of convincing from my host mom cause my host sis and I didn’t wanna leave Tokyo, we went back to the hotel, got our stuff and then got on the night bus home. I slept a little more on the way home. I had finally gotten comfortable and dozed off half way thru, but my host mom woke me up and told me to switch with my host sister who had an empty seat beside her. Apparently sleeping with your head in your lap (like what you would do in an airplane during a crash) was not a good way to sleep so she made me move XD.

We got home tuesday at 6am, had a shower and then went to school, where my host sis and I slept thru most of the classes ;p.

Tokyo was amazing! There were so many people and so much to do. I only saw a bit of it. I will most likely be in Tokyo for the last week before I go home, so I will hopefully to explore more of the city when I go back. I came back a lot more broke than when I went, since I had to pay for the hotel and bus and trains and food… but it was totally worth it. One of the highlights of my exchange for sure. :D