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…

♥~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

Quack Quack and Swiss Cheese English

Yes I know, very random title XD...

First of all I want to wish my sister back home a Happy Birthday!!! I miss you very much ♥ and am sorry I could not be there to spend it with you. I hope you have an awesome birthday and a great time at The Crèperie ^^ (jealous…).


Now yesterday, me and my host sis took the bus back to school to buy slippers and gym shoes and pick up my blouses. I want to thank my AFS chapter for paying for my bike, uniform and bus card. It has been a big help financially and I greatly appreciate it ^^. All the new students entering high school were also there buying there uniform, so I got quite a few stares… and they were not discreet about it. We were walking past a fiver (my school is right beside it) and the was a duck in the water. MY host sis asked what kamo was in English. I starting saying it was a quack…tho I quickly recovered and said it was a duck. My English is starting to resemble swiss cheese, with certain words missing XD.

After getting my shoes, my host sis wanted to go to blank (don’t remember the name) department store. It’s pretty much like a Walmart, super low prices. We didn’t end up buying anything, but my host sis liked looking through all the makeup. I was very surprised when she told me her mom doesn’t allow her to wear makeup. She is 16 btw… I guess because makeup is not allowed at school, her mom doesn’t see a point in wearing it…idk. I’m glad the rule doesn’t apply to me tho XD.
We took the bus back (I think I pretty much understand the bus system and where to get off :D)

Today, I went with my host mom the supermarket. There were sales at 2 different stores so we went to both, and my host mom bought me cookie flavoured kitkat (it tastes the same as normal kitkat) for helping her :). My host sis and mom went out for a bit and spent the afternoon at home with my host bro. We watched this show, kinda like America’s Funniest Home Videos, except really extreme, dangerous events. Then after they had this show were a panel would watch videos and chose which one was the most baka (stupid) stunt, accident, etc. They were quite funny :D

My host sis is leaving to Yokohama for a break dance competition, so I’m gonna go say goodbye.
All my posts seem kinda long… hopefully I’m not boring anyone...