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So this is me finally updating my blog again. Right now I'm sick. I hate being sick.

I should probably explain why I havent updated as often as some of you would like. In Japan I am BUSY.

I have school monday-friday and i got out of having to go once a month on a saturday. Thats a nice break. But what keeps me busiest is Kendo. Here everything is taking seriously and there is a deep loyalty to ones club and much dedication to school work. I have no idea how these people do it. Its crazy.

I begin my mornings with a 20 minute bike ride to Tochigi Girls. School starts at 8.30 and all i get is about 45 minutes for lunch time. No morning tea. No afternoon tea. At 3.30 school finishes and everyone cleans until 3.45. then at 4.00 kendo begins and I dont leave until 7.00. Kendo practice is everyday. Right now its supposed to be golden week holidays but not for the kendo team. I got two days (now 3 because im sick) of holidays, the rest i spent watching kendo games for 8 hours straight. If you havent got the point, the japanese way of life is busy and there is always something going on.

This kind of makes me think how lazy I was in NZ, I would go home, watch tv go on the computer and thats just how i did things. Here everyone has something to do, all the time. My Host mum has work, dance practices and looking after the family. My host dad has work and some sword swinging sport. My host sister is crazy busy and i can go a few days without seeing here and my host brother still doesnt talk to me.

My school friends, well they have there club activities and study like crazy. Tochigi Girls is the 3rd best in the prefecture and I get told this all the time. One of my friends stayed up studying until 4.00am!!! Then had to wake up at 5.30 to get ready for school. There is noway i could every see myself doing that.

At school I take the arts course. My biology teacher gives me the lesson plan in half english and i enjoy this class the most. Every english class i read the newspaper and in Maths i study japanese. Every friday i have Calligraphy which is really fun. Kanji in the calligraphy textbok look like little pictures and hyroglyphics (yeah i cant spell but who can spell that). Talking about spelling i have learnt to spell axolotyl in japanese and english, there is once in my biology lab. Yup i learn the most useful of phrases.

So yes now is holidays and yesterday my host dad and i went to Tokyo to see a Soccer game. We drove for 2 hours got on about 2 trains, arrived in Shinjuku. There we looked around but i didnt buy anything. It was all brand names and over prices goods. We took another train to the stadium and waiting until the gates open. so all sounds fine and dandy but all day it was raining. I was outside, walking around all day in the rain. The soccer stadium did not have a roof and a rain poncho is exactly as ineffective as it looks. My shoes got wet, my socks got wet, my jeans and shirt got wet.

However we ( Urawa Red Diamonds) won the soccer game 2-3 which made it all worth while. The game was amazing. Once again i saw dedication by the japanese. It was like a sea of red. IT was the Urawa Reds away game but the was definately more of our supporters than there were of theres. We stood all 90 minutes of the games chanting what i assume was encourage, i dont know it was in Japanese.

Yesturday i had already began to feel sick, my throat was in a permanently dry state. I suppose spending the day in the rain was not a good idea, however it was worth it when we won! but now i am Sick.

As i mentioned the japanese take everything very seriously. You say "いたい" (ouch) and people drop everything to ask if your okay. My host parents were going to take me to the hospital because i have a cold but they say that well wait another day and see what happens. My temperature is 36.9C i dont know what that means.

If you stand, sit or walk past someone and brush against them, you always say excuse me or sorry. Everything is taken seriously I have noticed. I`ved heard stories of friends failed attempts at sarcasm so i dont think i`ll go there and say something i don`t mean.

I feeling super lonely this one day. i felt that no one liked me and no one would talk to me. I was sitting watching kendo games doing nothing for 8 hours, the lack of sleep and mind numbing bordem had finally gotten to me. But i want to thank my parents, i think if i were raised any other way i would have cried there at the kendo game infront of everyone. I told myself you cant expect people to talk to you if you dont talk to them and set myself goals for the next day. The next day was great. I talked to as many people as i could and random people i didnt know came up and talked to me aswel.

Lately I have been giving out so much advice to everyone of my AFS friends, i dont mind at all. Helping them makes me feel good. It seems i needed a little of my own advice too.

And thats what i have been up to as of yet. Until next time. This is Sarah on Location in Japan, telling you to stay tuned.

xoxo

Wow long title isnt it.....

So yes! i have arrived safely here in japan and all is well.

Except for the fact that it is so cold that my fingers are going numb as i sit here and type so i may have to make this quick. I also don:t know how much internet usage im gonna get while im here, especially with computer sharing i dont know what im going to do about uploading photos for you guys to see..... comment me and let me know there are actually people reading this and i will see what i can do.

The first few days were spent at an orientation in Tokyo. It was awesome and i had a great time, Im glad i could talk with all the friends i made but had never met in 3D. I took lots of photos with my friends, but i hope to get a new camera before i go to DISNEYLAND NEXT WEEK!

YES! I did say disneyland!!

My AFS chapter here seem really nice and i have made friends with the other AFS student in Tochigi. So far we have had an arrival orientation, a (super easy) japanese lesson, a tour around Utsunomiya and gone to a Department store together. Yesturday at the department store i bought the book "One Litre of Tears" its all in Japanese and the Kanji is hard, but it is my goal that i want to be able to read it before i return to NZ.

Goals are an important thing while on exchange i think. My goal this year, besides the aforementioned is to "do something differently, meet someone new, or try a new thing everyday for my exchange year" However with goals like this you need to look at it from all angles. At an orientation we were told of this one girls who wanted to be friends with everybody and so spent every lunch time with a new group of people. In doing this she found no real place to belong to and no proper friends. This almost cost her to go home. With my goal i hope to experience the most of my exhange and mainly to have a good fun time while doing it!

Difference in Japan to NZ? In NZ there are clouds in the sky every where everyday. On the first few days in JApan i saw no clouds. I have come to miss clouds. Talking of the weather it is truly cold here and it is supposed to be spring ><. New Zealand is known for its green-ness but to me the green trees here seem a different colour, or maybe im just imagining things, whatever.

Until Next Time!

じゃまたね！セーラちゃんより！！

So the countdown keeps ticking and there is little time left with only 1 day 18 hours until I leave for Japan.

WANTED! Yes believe it or not, some japanese family wants to host me!

wow so much has happened, i keep hearing the song "all my bags are packed I'm ready to go, I'm standing here outside my door, i hate to wake you up to say goodbye cause I'm leaving on a jet-plane" you know the song. . .

So due to some technical difficulties I had to delete and now repost this blog.

My second orientation was great. I felt like we were actually doing real stuff for once unlike the first orientation. Third selection is now over and there was a new batch of people there. i think there are 4 people from my chapter going (or at least hope to go to) Japan. There must be about 20 of us going away now. After my selection their was only 5 of us.

Ok in my efforts to go to Japan next year i have applied for 2 AFS programmes.