May

This month started off with Golden week, which is a week in Japan where they have a whole heap of public holidays one after the other. During this week my local shrine had a matsuri (festival) on, in which they race horses up a hill and over a high jump, if the horse makes it to the other side then the harvest is good that year. This showed me how important tradition is for the Japanese people as this matsuri has been running for over a thousand years. The riders and their helpers were all dressed in formal traditional dress too, which I thought was really awesome. Like every tradtion in Japan (and probably everywhere) odd little quirks had appeared over the years, stuff like the fact that the riders weren't aloud to touch the ground for the duration of the festival and that they used to get the horses drunk on Sake before they sent them over the jump (something that was banned when animal welfare complained about it). Of course like every other Japanese matsuri there were tones of foods stalls containing a wide range of very yummy Japanese foods, which I had fun eating.

My host family also took me to Nagashima Spaland, which is a theme park just out of Kuwana, which is where I now live. It's home to the tallest roller coaster (or jeto coaster as the Japanese like to call them) in Japan. I had promised a friend that I would go on it with her, but i had to test it out first. Both my host sisters and host mother said that nothing would make them go on it, so me and my host father went on it, both of us terrified. I am now completely in love with roller coasters :) We of course went on all the other rides in Spaland, they were all excellent, except i got sick on the pirate ship. I also explored the huge outlet shopping centre that is also part of spaland. I will gladly go back there when i have more money to spend.

That night I also made dinner for my host family, which I hope they loved. :)

The next weekend the other exchange students from my district, both outbounds and inbounds, spent the night in Gifu city. We watched Cormorant fishing on the Nagara river, a form of traditional Japanese fishing which is done at night. The fishermen tie rope around the Cormorant bird and get it to fish for them as they move up the river with bonfires on the end of their boats to light the way.

The next day we climbed the mountain Kinkazan, which is a mountian that overlooks Gifu city. There was beautiful traditional Japanese castle on top which was built by the samurai who renamed Gifu prefecture. The long walk was fun with all the other exchange students to talk to, but so tiring that I didn't really pay the castle or awesome view much heed when i did get to the top.

The next day I changed host families to the Sato household, they also live in Kuwana although in a different area to my previous host family. They were very welcoming to me and I am enjoying my stay already :D

The weather is slowly getting hotter here, which is excellent. I'm out and enjoying the sun (and sometimes thunder storms :D) before it gets to humid and hot.

Stay awesome.

-Aly

April

The month started off with me going to Kyoto with my host mother, she had timed the trip so that we would be there for the Sakura (cherry blossom) season but they were incredibly late this year due to cold weather. While we were there it rained for the better half of the day and in the afternoon a storm rolled in, which was actually more exciting than bad. We went to see Sanjusangen-do, famous for it's one thousand and one wooden statues of the Buddhist deity Kannon. This was really impressive, made even more so by the fact that no two of the statues are the same and the extreme detail which was put into each of them. We also visited Kiyomizu temple, it over looks the whole of Kyoto up in the hills and underneath it lies hundreds of sakura trees. I also had the chance to make my own sensu (or Japanese fan), being really into Japanese art and art in general this was so cool! It's one of those things that I know i will keep for the rest of my life. Kyoto was full of excellent culture and awesome, I know I will get a chance to go back there on my exchange.

I went to Nagoya with another exchange student later that week to visit the Tokugawa Art museum and see the Hina Matsuri (or doll festival) exhibt that was being held there. It was cool, i like old things :D. We also wandered around one of the shopping distrcits a bit, it was nice being able to see the city on a nice day this time.

That weekend my host club took me with them on a day trip to Osaka (contrasting really well with Kyoto) to see the King Tut exhibtion and have lunch at this super fancy hotel. The exhibtion was amazing and the food, it was Chinese, was delious. I also think it gave me the chance to get to know my club a little better and talk to a few people that I hadn't yet talked to.

The Sakura had also come out by this time and I had a lot of time to go and take tones of pictures of them, i also went to a sakura festival in Yokkaichi with a friend of mine, we ate a lot of the food on sale, including chocolate covered banana's and pineapple. We talked a bit with some of the locals while we sat underneath the trees and watched a group of people play Japanese drums.

I changed host families that Tuesday, a little early due to the fact that my host mother had to go out of town. My new host family is excellent though, it's the first family where i have had host siblings that live in the same house as my host parents which is excellent. They live in the city of Kuwana which is right beside Yokkaichi, a one and a half hour drive from my old host family. It's really pretty here, lot's of bambo covered hills. The landscape sort of reminds me of the Anime Totoro :).

I went back to see my first host family, the Ichikawa's that weekend because they wanted to show me the Sakura trees outside their office, by this time it was nearing the very end of the season. It was nice going back to see the family again and i had lunch with Ichikawa-okasan and my host sister and her family.

The next day I went to a rotary orintation in Gifu, it was awesome seeing all the other exchange students again.

My host family took me to a manga kessa for lunch, which is a café that you go to to read the manga that basicly lines the walls of the place. It was super fun, i'm really enjoying all the manga and anime culture that is avalible here. That afternoon my host dad took me to a nearby tulip festival, the colours were beautiful, the Japanese love flowers and spring in general.

I love this country.

-Aly

March

Sorry I'm a little behind on these things so expect a large amount of posts over the next few days :D

March:

This month started off with me leaving the Ichikawa family which was super sad beans, they are seriously kind people and i miss them very much. Just before i left they took me to the Nabanano sato illumenation festival, which is this big light show that they put on every year. They had shown the lights onto the Ume (plum) blossom trees making them look really beautiful, almost like fireworks. I also celebrated the girls dolls festival with them, i have my own set of little dolls that i was given in Gifu prefecture by one of the Rotary clubs there.

My new host family is really nice and i am enjoying my stay here in Suzuka where they live. I have now started the spring holidays, on the first day of the holidays i went to Nagoya with some of the exchange students from my district as well as those in Nagoya. We went to the Sakae shopping district, taking the subway to get there. It was my first time ever on a subway and maybe riding it in the middle of rush hour wasn't the best idea. Sardines in a can comes to mind.

I went back to stay the weekend with my old host family, it was great seeing them again after two weeks. I also took the train to Tsu city to see the Mie prefectual art museum, it was quite exciting, they keep a Monet and Picaso there. Getting to see them in real life was amazing.

As April starts the cherry blossoms are supposed to start this week, i'm really looking forward to seeing them.

-Aly

The illumination festival i went to on the 4th of march.

February

This month has been quite busy, I started at Maryknoll Girls School on the first of February, a school that I share with Ellen an Austrailian exchange student (i have to take they train to get there which is quite exciting). It's quite different to what i'm used to, every time a teacher comes into the room at the start of the class we bow to them and welcome them, we then do the same saying thank you as they leave. I like to think that i have made some new friends, dispite them not knowing any English and my Japanese being minimal. They like to touch my hair a lot, and looking at my ear piercings (none of them seem to have these).  I was only at school one day and a half before it started snowing and we were all sent home, of course we went back the next day but I was only there for about an hour before going to my first Rotary meeting. The afternoon it snowed however, my host family took me up to a temple in the mountains, it was like being in a winter wonderland.

My first Rotary meeting with my host club went well i think, i gave a presentation on New Zealand in English whilist  a Japanese girl who had been to Australia a few years before translated for me. After this my host parents took me to see the marriage of the foxes at our local shrine, which is part of the bean throwing festival. Every year a couple is choosen to be the foxes, they are married with fox masks on at the shrine infront of the crowd of people. Afterwards they threw packets of beans into the crowd for people to catch, which is part of the bean throwing festival. I managed to catch some I was seriously over the moon. That night my host club threw me a welcome party and i met all of my host families, the second of which i will be moving in with this weekend.

That weekend I went to a Japanese tea ceremony where we drunk tea and ate traditional Japanese sweets, there were these two woman dressed in beautiful kimono's playing the koto which is a Japanese 13 stringed intrument. I have joined the koto club at school and am now learning how to play, I also joined the art club, i am enjoying both of these and have already finished one painting in the art club.

My host mother took me to the public bath whilist my host father was away the next weekend, it was an interesting experience considering everyone goes in nude. I was a little uncomfortable even though men and woman have separate baths, but once i got in there it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be and i actually really enjoyed it.

I also went to the snow festival in Gifu with five other exchange students for a weekend, it was great being able to talk with everyone and making some new friends. It was very cold but totally worth it, there were so many ice sculptures some being incredibly large. The theme of the dragon ran clearly threw most of them, it being the year of the dragon. We also went on this snow train ride which we told the driver to go "super high speed" on, and he did, it was excellent.

That night we had dinner with the Nagaragawa rotary club, where we had to introduce ourselves and our countries. They also threatened to make us sing, which i was actually looking forward to but in the end it didn't happen. They did bring in some Bugaku dancers however, which is a Japanese mountain dance. These three ladies then tried to teach us and the rotary club (consisting of business men mostly all of whom were over forty) the dance. It was hilarious, i was horrible at it but had a tone of fun. The next day we drove up to this village consisting of these old straw roofed houses, which were really quite magical in the snow. We had Yackisoba, a fired noodle dish, for lunch, which is quickly becoming one of my favourate foods.

My host family took me out the next weekend to a sushi place, I love sushi, i don’t think i will be able to eat sushi ever again after this year because the sushi here is so good. That night i cooked dinner for them, which was disastrous but i think they enjoyed it.

The next day we went to the city of Nara, which was Japan's first capital city. It is home to many very old temples, the ones that we visited were 1,600 years old. This included wooden buildings that were five stories high, they all had incredibly old and in some cases scary statues in them (some were of demons that snarled at me as i tried to take photo's of them). The detail in the architecture was amazing, with little men and dragons holding up roofs and pillers. The best part of the day was the afternoon however where we went to the Toudai-ji temple which is home to the largest wooden building in the world. We walked up to it, surrounded by many people and deer, (who are alowed to run free because they are considered to be the messangers of the Gods, but also like to head but you and eat your food, one tried to eat my shopping bag) and came to this huge gate, that looked so old and beautiful with two very large guard sculptures on either side. The main building was amazing, inside it however was better still, it houses this huge Buddha statue that weighs 360 tones and has fingers the size of my host father. I was seriously overwhelmed by this, it was just so excellent.

This month has been greet and i hope that the other exchange students are having as much fun as i am.

Bring on March!

My welcome party, all my host families were there as well as my counceller and many of the rotary people.

First Week

The trip over here was long and boring and riddled with nerves but once I actually got here and meet my host family I became a lot more relaxed. My host family, my counceller and the club chairman all came out to greet me at the airport and they were all incredibly welcoming, they bought me hot lemonade which really amused me. The trip from the airport was amazing, having my first look at Japan with all its tall buildings and tiny cars. We went over this huge bridge which I thought was absolutely brilliant at the time, looking out to the left you could see the city of Nagouya.

 Since then I have been having an excellent time, my host family took me to the city of Ise and we went to see the shrines of Toyoukedaijingu and Kotaijingu which are these temple like spaces surrounded by incredibly old trees. They rebuild the shrines every twenty years and have been doing so since 690AD. I have also helped my host mother cook dumplings and have been enjoying all the food that she makes. We have been to the supermarket together many times so far and they have all been very interesting experiences.

 On the 29^th I went to the city of Gofu for a orintation, there I meet five other exchange students, three of which have been here since the middle of last year. News has come in that we will be going on a ski trip together, aswell as going to the winter festival.