Adjusting Back to Living in America. . .

   Five days being home is enough time to make my whole YFU experience seem like a distant dream ((but it wasn't haha)). I learned so much this summer, and living abroad in Japan for 6 weeks was a lovely experience. I was able to fully immerse myself in the language, culture, food, and nature of Japan. I have previously experienced Japan from the point-of-view of a tourist before, and now I know how much you miss of Japan standing from that side. I remember the day Josh and I really realized we weren't tourists anymore, and we were actually waking up every morning in Japan from the place we were living then. We felt as if we fit in in school ((fit in with our clothing included)) and belonged in our town. It was a nice moment(:
   Since returning, my friend has brought up how he gained a lot of weight while in Japan, which made sense to me, seeing as we spent a lot of time trying the sweets and candy over there ((oops)). I was curious, so I weighed myself to see how much I gained. I was rather surprised to see the opposite happen-- I seemed to have lost a startling amount of weight abroad ((nothing unhealthy though, I'm fine haha)). After school a lot of days, my friends and I would go to bakeries of sweets shops to hang out, so to me it seemed we were eating a lot of sweets. But thinking about what you eat over there. . . Food with my family was always prepared in smaller portions than anything you get in America. This was because the food was communal, usually on big plates in the middle of the table. Also, I ate white rice three times a day for 6 months; Not sure why I was expecting to gain weight. Looking back on everything, I ate really healthy food with my family and healthy-sized portions. If I were on vacation, this would have been different, BUT this was how my family ate, so this was just what I was used to. (: Surprise. . .
   BLAH. OKAY, sorry, that was far too long for a simple explanation. Here are my thoughts on adjusting back to living in America:

• No one thanks me for buying their products. In Japan, you'd always get a "arigatou gozaimasu, okyakusama" which would always be followed by a smile. Buying Shampoo and Conditioner in America, all I got was some attitude and a "NEXT!" haha, it was different. . . Japan-1, USA-0
• It is much less humid back at home. Okay, my friends always complain about how humid and hot it is in Georgia. It's hot, I'll give you that,  but this humidity is SO beyond manageable, you have no idea! In Toyama, when you stepped outside, it was so humid, you suddenly felt as if you existed as a cloud. but you got used to it. . . Japan-1, USA-1
• I forgot how much grass there was here. I've always grown up with grass just being grass. It has always been fun to play on, but I have never noticed anything particularly beautiful about grass...In Japan, not much grass, but many, many rice fields. Rice fields have a mysterious, beautiful aura about them, it's difficult to explain if you have never seen the wind roll through a rice field♥ Japan-2, USA-1
• I'm afraid of being hit by a car. In Japan I rode my bike everywhere-- It was a lovely mode of transportation. But where I live in Georgia, the sidewalks aren't connected, in fact they are so few that I would spend more time looking for sidewalks as opposed to riding on them ((oops so much sass sorry haha)). I'm not too sure if riding in the streets in illegal or anything like that, but I just know i'd be hit by a nice driver here if I tried. . . Japan-3, USA-1
• Summer isn't about sleep, anyway. In Japan, the sun would rise at 4 in the morning (I believe due to their latitudinal position, si?). I would always wake up at around 6am, because there was so much to do, and because no air conditioning in Japan so it became hot very early. . . I'm not sure what time the sun comes up in America, because I've slept right through it this past week haha This Jet-lag has destroyed me, I'm not sure if I'll be able to wake up before noon for the rest of the summer -_-   Therefore, points to both haha Japan-4, USA-2

    Adjusting back to American food was easy-ish, I haven't had a lot of it since coming home though. you drive on the right-side in America, and you also wear your seat-belts. That was a little shocking to adjust back to haha. Other than that, my main difficulty adjusting back to life here has been the Jet-Lag. . . It's really not like me to sleep 17 hours a day, oops~

~Jane Claire  ☆〜(ゝ。∂)

The Long Journey Home

   Soooo, it's 11am on a Wednesday Morning (July 31st), and I just woke up in my bed for the second time this month.... I am back home! :)

   Okay, so My last day with my host family was July 28th. After we parted ways with our host families in the airport ((which was pretty sad)), the Toyama YFU kids boarded the flight from Toyama to Tokyo. The flight was only an hour long, so once we arrived at Narita Airport, we waited for the other 20 YFU students to arrive as well ((there were really 71 YFu students, but only 20 were staying the night in Tokyo)). I believe all of us arrived at around 4pm that day, so we headed to the hotel in Tokyo to stay the night. In the morning, we all met up with the other 50 YFU students again at the airport to board our plane back to America.
   No one on our flight from japan was too thrilled to see 70 teenagers on the same flight....haha, I cannot imagine why. :) We were all good for the most part, but it was an incredibly long flight to San Francisco... We finally arrived in SF at 10:30am on July 29th....the same Day we left Japan. . .Gotta love time travel~
   My next flight to Dallas left at 11:45am, I barely had any time to rush through customs and re-check my bag. SO this was the stop that I left most of my friends, because only 10 of us were on the first flight to Dallas. I cannot fully express how heart-breaking this goodbye with everyone was. We all spent the summer together and became extremely close. We were there for support through good times and bad. Saying goodbye to 70 friends at once, The feeling is difficult to explain. Let me just say, many tears were cried.... But most of all, this was the moment I said goodbye to my best friend, Josh. Josh lived down the street from me in Toyama, he attended my school, and our parents were best friends. I experienced everything with Josh, and he was my support through everything I went through in Japan. Josh is funny, smart, and has an incredible personality overall, Glad I could find a best friend in him over our 6 weeks abroad this summer! Most of my tears were shed saying goodbye to him. I promised to visit when I go up to Pittsburgh for college visits, as long as he promises to come down to Atlanta!
   Okay, so as I boarded my flight to Dallas, I left blowing kisses to all of my friends, making promises of nationwide hang-outs in the future weeks and months. It was a lovely farewell!! Granted, when I actually got on the flight, I started crying again.... I feel bad for the lady who sat next to me on the plane. I was silently crying, but she did NOT know how to deal with me while that happened, oops...
   My flight to Atlanta left the airport soon after I arrived at the Dallas airport, so I had a similar but less emotional goodbye with my remaining 10 friends at that airport. And then my final flight took off for Atlanta. I arrived 8:45 pm on a Monday night, July 29th. My Journey across the globe began on  June 14th and it ended July 29th. . . It does not feel like everything is over yet ((probably because I am behind on my blog, oops sorry. . .))

   Sooooo, Today is July 31st. Since being home, I've slept for 17 hours straight, I woke up at 6-m last night, and I went to bed again at 4am this morning. Jet-lag is its own special gift from my trip in its own way, haha(:
I am back home now, but STILL so much to update on my blog about my experience, and now I have to finish summer reading and projects for school...12 more days until school starts again, I'm going to be really busy, but this is what I was looking forward to for this summer so I am happy!
じゃあね、
またいつか♥

~Jane Claire   ⊙︿⊙ zzz

Chopstick Etiquette

   When you are living in a foreign country where you eat 3 meals a day with chopsticks, you become extremely aware of of importance behind chopstick etiquette. As a foreigner, you already stick out-- no need to stick out further  due to bad table manners....

   Chopstick etiquette is very important, and something I think we (rightfully) review every year in Japanese class. Do the wrong thing with your chopsticks, and you could accidentally be creating an offering to the dead ((such as by stabbing your rice with the chopsticks)). So here are just a few rules I've learned over the years that I finally get to live by! First and foremost, you never want to stab your rice, or any food for that matter, with your chopsticks....It is very rude. In school, we also talked about never passing food directly between pairs of chopsticks. When moving food from another plate to your own, flip the chopsticks around, and move the from the serving plate to your own-- You don't want to touch all of the food with the side of the chopsticks your mouth touched. ewwie(: haha It is also very rude to lick your chopsticks, also to stab your food with your chopstick. chopsticks are not forks, so do your best to pick up the food without attempting to stab it...

   I was fortunate enough to have learned these rules before coming to Japan, but some people on this trip had never taken Japanese class before...Thank goodness we learned these rules right before at orientation!
That touches on some of the more important rules to using chopsticks, but there are many more. I found this video explaining chopstick etiquette-- It even has some points that I didn't know about! check it out~
Chopstick Etiquette

   The reason I am blogging about this randomly is because my host family has created confusion in my head....Everything I know is a lie...! haha no not really... My host family picks up there food with the same ends of their chopsticks ((the end they eat from)) and they also stab foods like dumplings and meat....I always learned these were HUGE no-nos haha, but I guess within the family it is fine!

~Jane Claire   ☆＾▽＾☆

Japanese Phone Calls

   So, something really amazing happened last night. My friend called our house-line just to touch base on some plans to do Karaoke within the next few days. We talked on the phone for just around 30 minutes, and we talked about our karaoke plans, the new Studio Ghibli movie that came out, the end of school, and our departure information at the airport for next week. . .
   That's when it hit me. I'm in Japan, and I'm getting by speaking only Japanese everyday. I had a 30 minute Japanese conversation on the phone with a friend. I am successfully getting by in Japan with my language knowledge. woah. (: We went over a phone-call unit in Japanese class at home, where we learned how to answer the phone, ask if someone was home, and respond with "this is the wrong number." I was really thankful for the knowledge I received from that lesson, but even that did not prepare me for what just happened. And the bucket-list just got shorter!

~Jane Claire   (っ･ω･)っ

Today's Adventure: Getting Lost(:

  Today, I found myself lost(: Today is Tuesday, but I didn't go to school because the final day of school before summer vacation was last Friday ((it was an incredible sad but meaningful last day at my school--with of course many tears-- Post about that day coming later~))

    So, don't worry, I was not really lost... I have become very comfortable with the area in my town, so it would be very hard for me to actually get lost here... But today, I went to the book store with my friend Josh. I have been wanting to go to that book store for a while. There were so many books I wanted to look for and I found everything I was looking for and more! So, walking into the bookstore finally getting to circumscribe its books, I became lost. haha(:
   First things first, what I was really looking for some reliable Kanji study books. Japanese Has three alphabets: Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ which reads foreign words), and Kanji (漢字 Chinese characters that each have different meanings). Hiragana and Katakana have only 46 characters each, so these are the alphabets we learned to write first in Japanese class. As we moved up in Japanese levels, my class and I learned more and more Kanji, which we have been able to learn and sporadically use kanji in our writing. Because there are thousands of Kanji, not even educated Japanese people can read or write all of them. Being a level 4 Japanese student at school and living in Japan, the reality has hit me that my kanji ability is not where I would like it to be, so I am really glad I was able to buy these kanji books!
   After I found my Kanji books, Josh and I went into the kids section of the store just to see what books we would know~ We found The Giving Tree in Japanese ((its name in Japanese translates to "The Big Tree" lol)) and we found....we found that book about the Caterpillar that eats things. Haha, sorry, my English is escaping me, what is the name of that picture book? (^^) After finding our way out of the children's section, we headed to the manga section--As a foreigner, I felt obliged to venture over there haha(:
  Before we got up to pay for our books, we stumbled across a few familiar pieces of literature. Josh found Le Petit Prince in Japanese. He already owns that book in several Languages that he knows-- I think in French, English, Spanish and Italian?-- so he felt he needed to add the Japanese version to his collection. (: I thought that was really awesome~
   I came across this~ The Japanese version of Romeo and Juliet!! C: I am a good Shakespeare fan, so this was an incredible find!! It will be an interesting project to read through this and translate to an understanding that I can handle! (: When we read Romeo and Juliet in school, no one appreciated it (lol), but I really liked it; it was such a perfect tragedy I thought. I don't know if she has been reading my blog, but I really want to show this to my Lit teacher when I get home!! ((Ms. Salmon, look at what I got! haha))

Japanese version = way stellar

After the bookstore, Josh and I went to lunch, ohh my gosh I am too in love with Japanese food. . .

  ahh, sorry for such a long post about my bookstore adventure -_- I'm 16 years old, am I supposed to be this excited about a trip to the bookstore?? ((YES.))

~Jane Claire      (｡・ε・｡) 

~*~Purikura Magic~*~

   Okay, so I know I already did a post dedicated to ~*~Purikura~*~ and all of the magic that comes with those photo booths, but I have been taking a lot more recently with my friends, and my friends have put them online. (: haha sooooo for anyone who has never had the pleasure of experiencing purikura, here are some more recent photos I took with my friends!! ((as opposed to the ones I posted from last year~))
haha I could probably talk about ~*~purikura magic~*~ all day... (:

Ahh, I do have a short, funny purikura story, though! Josh and I were exploring the 100yen store at the mall the other day and we came across a purikura machine! photobooth for 100yen?? We couldn't resist, haha(: so we paid for the really cheap purikura. And for 100yen, we could tell the quality was going to be really bad....So we decided to do many funny poses instead of just standing there smiling. (: this purikura turned out hilarious, we added so many sparkles and stickers over our funny faces. Purikura is something that is always really fun, even the purikura that is at the dollar store, haha. ((another one of those why-don't-we-have-this-in-america moments!!))

~Jane Claire  ♡☆♡☆

Gion Matsuri ( During 宵々山)

   Aggh, another much delayed post ;; Internet was out for a while, sorry~ The weekend of July 15th, I went to Kyoto with my host family, and we were able to go to Gion Matsuri ((a very large summer festival in Kyoto's Gion disctrict)). Check it out~ Kyoto's Gion Matsuri

   Anywho, Kyoto is a very special place in Japan. It shows the more traditional, incredibly beautiful side of Japan which I absolutely love. I was looking at a map of Kyoto one night trying to figure out what temples and shrines i wanted to visit the next day, when I decided to to count just how many temples and shrines Kyoto has. The Map I was looking at was not complete, but still I counted over 100 temples and shrines! (: Something else to add to my bucket list: One day, I want to visit all of Kyoto's temples and Shrines!!
   So Gion Matsuri is put on over the whole month of July. The biggest festivities happen on the evening of July 17th, when a large parade and procession moves through the street's of Kyoto's Gion district. We could not be in Kyoto on this night, however, because I had school that day, but we were there on July 15th ((a night called Yoiyoiyama 宵々山).
   My family and Josh's family were staying in a small bed and breakfast in the heart of Gion district. I cannot begin to explain how wonderful it was to wake up on a futon of tatami floors(: haha. So the day of yoiyoiyama, we woke up early to go shopping around town and to eat in a little cafe. It seems everywhere I go, I try to get some sweet that is Matcha flavored, so of course I bought this....It's iced Matcha, and it was delicious haha. Kyoto was definitely the place to buy Matcha goods♥

Saki knew I wanted to try on a yukata while I was in Kyoto, so after she took me to a shop where we both rented beautiful Yukatas for the day~! I was able to cross something off of my bucket list-- Wearing a Yukata at a summer festival~ It was very comfortable ((even the wooden geta shoes))! It ended up raining minutes after Saki and I got out Yukatas on, but the rain did not spoil the day(:
   Because it was really early in the day, Saki and I wanted to take a little tour of Kyoto, so we signed up to take a tour on......on one of these. goodness, I don't even know what this is called in English....Yikes. Haha, it was just a cart pulled by someone. He took us through the streets of Kyoto. So here Saki and I were, sitting in the cart in our Yukata, posing for pictures that strangers were taking of us. haha, it was an interesting experience(:

  Soooooo, the evening of the summer festival.....appearently a few things did not happen that night because of the earlier rain, however, we were still able to walk through the streets of the festival, take pictures in our yukata, and buy Takoyaki and Dango from the street-venders. It was my first summer festival in Japan, and it was a great experience! ♥ Glad I could make these memories!

~*~Here is a video I shot at the festival....not much, but maybe it will give you an idea of what the festival looked like?? (: ~*~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPK3KMdzs5M&feature=youtube_gdata

~Jane Claire   ☆〜(ゝ。∂)