Soccer Tournament thing...

So These last couple days have been competitions for all the clubs. Thursday and Friday we got of early.
Thursday was the soccer tournament thing, but since the girls don't compete we just went to cheer the guys club on. So all 30 or so of us piled on to a mini bus and drove about 2 hours to Noto. However, on the way, the bus broke down on a bridge, and every time the teacher/coach tried to start the engined it won't go and we'd roll back a little X\. It eventually started working again, so we were only a little late.

We ended up going to this Aviation Academy (plane school) which was pretty cool. I felt a little awkward because I stood out and everyone kept staring where ever I went. Plus it was pretty much all guys XD. Like, I went to the bathroom with a friend, and we passed the baseball club. They were standing in this huge group and started calling kawaii and whatnot. When we came out, there were a couple of them standing there... but I just smiled and waved like normal. My japanese is still not good enough to keep up a conversation >.<

My school was the last team to compete. I kinda got the feeling we were the"underdog" so to say, because we have less players than everyone else, no 3rd years, and everyone else had really nice uniforms and brand stuff (puma, Nike, Adidas, etc). Anyway, my school lost 5-0 :(.

We got back kinda late, and I had left my school uniform in my classroom because I didn't want to carry it all day (were wore our gym/club clothes). Unfortunately, no one was there and the school was locked >.<. Luckily I have a spare blouse and I just wore my summer uniform skirt the next day.


Today, since school ended early and I had no club, my host sis and I went to MacDonalds. I had a Teriyaki burger (it made me sick feeling after >.<). There were a whole bunch of students there. Since make up isn't allowed at school, most of the school girls were sitting there putting on their fake eyelashes, contacts, makeup, etc. They seem to get really dressed up after school, but they still wear their school uniform because they think it's cute.

Lanterns at night

After we went and did Purikura! So much fun! After, I went to Japanese lessons and then Helle came over for supper and we went to this event (It's to commence the festival this weekend) where they put a whole bunch of paper lanterns (mostly made by kids) on the Asano River and they float down from one bridge to the end at the next bridge.

They were all collected at one end of the river

Tomorrow is the Hyaku Man Goku Festival, the biggest one in Ishikawa. Looking forward to it!

No Free Time

So far I am enjoying club. They aren't crazy strict, but I'm still working/exercising hard. Tuesday and Thursday I have PE on top of club after school. Today, PE was last block, and we ran around the school for about 25 mins (I only stop to walk twice, for about 30 secs each :D) and then I ran more during club.

 I am so exhausted...(but it's a good kind of tired.) I don't get home earlier than 7pm during the week. Wednesday and Friday are Japanese lessons and I get home about 7pm. The rest of the week, club ends at about 6:30, but then after we have to sweep the field.
The soccer field/baseball diamond is all dirt, so we have to drag big brooms around after to even it out and remove most of the marks from are cleats. Speaking of which, I was able to finally buy some supaiksu (spikes/soccer cleats), so now I don't have to wear my converse :). They are Puma, so kinda expensive but they were one of the cheaper pair at the store.

Anyway, (sorry I'm jumping around a bit XD) I usually don't leave school until about 7pm - I have to sweep the field, then change, and I talk to the others a bit - so I don't get home until 7:30 - 7:45pm! So late, but that's the life of a student in Japan. I really don't have any free time during the week anymore. It's pretty much go to school, club/Japanese lessons, come home and eat, about an hour of free time/study(doesn't happen often >.<), bath, then a bit more free time and to bed between 10:30 and 11:30pm. I sometimes end up falling asleep after supper XD.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm whining. It's not my intention. I'm just trying to give you an idea about my day to day life. I'm enjoying being busy. However, this also means that I may not have as much time/energy to post on my blog... but I will do my best to keep it updated. :)

Also, I would like to say a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to my dad back in Canada! \(^o^)/ Miss you (and everyone back home)~♥!

So tired, time for bed... ( -.-) zzz
oyasumi~ (goodnight)

Soccer Club

So last Thursday, I started soccer club. Wednesday I met the captain, but I couldn't go because I had Japanese class. Thursday, I realized I had no idea where to meet, so I was just standing in the hallway looking kinda lost, and then the captain comes up behind me. I thought it was really nice of him to come find me and show me where the girls meet ^^.

There are 11 girls in the club (2 first year and 9 second year) and 15 boys. There are no 3rd years, so I am the oldest >.<. We practice on the same field, but are on separate sides. It started raining, but we still practiced anyway XD. Club is from 4:30 to 6 or 6:30. I go on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday(9am to 12pm). I've gotten a lot of exercise and its great! I joined a sports club to get into shape. Everyone is really nice. They were asking me some questions and one girl asked if I like Maximum the Hormone (Jrock) and Linkin Park! I thought "Yes! finally people who actually like rock music, and not just Disney pop stars!" Alot of poeple here are really into Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montanna, Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber (bleh!), etc. Sorry to anyone who likes them (you are entitled to your own opinion, as am I) but I really do not like their music.

The first day, we just played a game, and apparently I don't suck as much as I thought because they kept saying sugoi (awesome/amazing) and kakkoi (cool).

Saturday, It was kinda was hard getting up early on a weekend, but I was able to drag myself out of bed. Unfortunately, when I was about to leave, I realized there were only 2 bikes outside...where was mine?! Turns out when my host sis was at her dance practice and my brother was at his cram school, my bike was stolen!!? O.O We know when it was, because they would have taken my host siblings bikes too. It was quite a shock first thing in the morning, or just in general. This hardly ever happens where a bike is stolen from right in front of the house >.<. I ended up borrowing my host bro's bike and was only a bit late for club.

It was really hot and I kinda forgot to put on sunscreen, so my face and part of my legs got a bit burnt >.< I have a stripe on my legs between where my shorts ended and my soccer socks started X\. Club was pretty fun. We just did a couple drills like zigzagging between cones, using diff parts of our feet to dribble and then we passed and took shots for a bit. We played a game for about an hour, so that took up alot of time.
I bought sunscreen on my way home, so now I don't have an excuse if I get burnt.

Random Presentation

My homeroom class is a "International Understanding class" meaning they learn a bit more about the world, and have more english. They have a english international class, but since they are going to Australia in summer for a 3 week homestay, it is dedicated to learning everything possible about Australia. However, today the teacher (who is japanese, but his english is pretty good) asked me if I would like to do a presentation on Canada. I said sure, thinking that it would be later in the week and I would have time to prepare, but then he told me to come to the front of the class. I was like "EHHH, NOW??!" Ah well...

At the beginning, I had no idea what to talk about, so I asked if any one had any questions, which got the ball rolling. We talked about the fact we have "big" animals (Japan does have some bears in the north, but no wolves, cougars, moose, etc) and the weather and mountains/landscape. They were shocked when I told them in January it was -57C and that we were the coldest place in the world that day XD. The record low here is -4C.

Most of the discussion was about the differences in school/teenage life. In Japan, the school has a bigger part in the student's life. Parents seem to leave the disciplining to the schools most of the time. (Although the strictness differs) you are not allowed to wear makeup, accessories, dye your hair and you skirt must be min. a certain length, guys can't wear their pants too baggy/low. Also, you can't use phones/ipods in school.
 Although they are strict about uniforms and being on time for school, it is totally acceptable to sleep in class. Students are so busy with club and studying that they don't seem to get enough sleep/rest, and so they sleep in class. I also find it rather strange that there are no discussions in class. The teacher just talks/writes on the board and the subject is rarely talked about with the students. They are told how -insert topic- is and they don't usually question it.

They were pretty surprised when I told them that those things were allowed in school and that you could wear pretty much whatever you want. Also, that tattoos are way more common, and lots of teens do drink and some smoke/do drugs. They were also amazed that high school students can drive.
In Japan, if you miss a class, it is an automatic call home, however in Canada, it is common to skip class and the teachers don't seem to care as much. A high school student in Canada is considered more or less an adult, so they are responsible for their education/ more independent and should suffer the consequences of their actions (ie: skipping). In Japan, however you are a child until you are 19/20... and are not that independent. Curfews are normally 8pm or 9pm (coming home at 11pm or 12am is unimaginable for a student).

Also, girls and guys hardly communicate. The guys hang out with guys and girls hang out with girls (at lunch, they even go to diff classes). It's their choice, maybe because they have been less independent/are less mature. This is prob one of the strangest things for me, because I'm used to everyone hanging out together (guys and girls). Even boyfriends/girlfriends don't talk at school! Guys here are really shy and seem to have to talk to me when I'm by myself and there are big groups of them... in Canada, it would be opposite XD.

School is a big part of Japanese students life. School is from 8:30am until 3:30-4pm and then there is normally club after for 2 or so hours. My school in Canada started at 8am and went to 2:30pm/ friday was 1:30pm. Everyone was quite jealous of schools/life in Canada.

The presentation was alot of fun and I think my classmates enjoyed it too. Did I mention I did most of it in Japanese? :D I only needed a bit of help from the teacher, and had to resort to charades a couple times, but overall I was really proud of how much I talked in Japanese! What was supposed to be a 10 min presentation turned into about a 40 min one XD. All of this is just my view on school life, and it could differ from place to place. There are always exceptions,  but this is my opinion on the average student.

Exam Week

So I wrote my geography test on Tuesday... It was frickin hard! I could hardly understand the questions, mostly because there were so many kanji I couldn't read. I think I ended up answering about half of it. I answered all of the mulitliple choice/ fill in the blank (words were provided) and a couple written questions. I might have been able to do more but I ran out of time >.<
School finished at lunch, so I went home.
It got kinda boring being at home, because either no one else was there or when my host sis was, she was studying. I was able to hang out with Helle on Thursday after she was done school. We ended up going to Don Quixote. It is one of the most amazing stores ever! It has everything from groceries to clothes to vehicle products/accessories XD

I unfortunately kinda forgot the way. At this one intersection we went straight, but it didn't look right so we turned around and went left instead. That didn't seem right either, so we went back and turned right. We then ran into a bridge I knew you don't go over... It turned out the first way we went was the right way XD.

We ended up spending a couple hours just looking around. I got shorts and pants for gym. I also bought a notebook and pencil crayons (I want to start drawing again...) We got crepes filled with banana, strawberries, whip cream and vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Soooo delicious!

Back to exams. Today, I got my exam back and... *drumroll*............I got 43%! Now in Japan, a passing mark is around 30%, so I actually passed! When the teacher handed back my test, everyone was asking what I got, and he told them... and I got lots of oohs and aaahs XD. Apparently I actually did better than a couple people :S.

During last block we had Chinese exchange students come visit. There were about 8 of them. They were pretty good in English, not fluent, but could make themselves understood. Our class was split up into groups and one Chinese student per group. The girl in my group also spoke some Japanese which was cool. We had to make a chart thing about the differences between Japan and China. We wrote about New Year, some foods and school. Something that surprised me was they had school from about 7:30pm or 8am to 6pm or 7pm! O.o I thought Japanese school was long (8:30am to 3:30pm or 4:10pm). The girl was really nice. It was fun! My classmates English isn't that great, and the girl's Japanese wasn't that great (but still pretty good). So  I ended up translating for them, which was really cool! :D

Studying...

So I just wanted to say that I have the best host sis ever! My geography test is tomorrow. I have no idea what most of the vocab means, or how to read the kanji. My host sister chose to sit down with me for a couple hours tonight and taught me the vocab. It helped so much. It made me happy (tho I also feel a bit bad) that she decided to help me study, when she should have been studying for her exams.
I don't know if I can remember much, but it definitely helped.

Wish us luck for tomorrow :D