Young Writers Society

Ohaio gozaimasu! (greetings) It's finally happened, I've made it to Japan. Access to the Internet in Japan costs more than it does in my home country of Canada, so due to the availability of computers I do not promise I will post any shorts stories, poetry, etc. BUT, what I do promise is that whenever I get the chance I'll write in this journal and tell you all about whats going on in Japan.

Its been two days since I arrived on the 13 hour flight and let me tell you, jet lag is not fun. In fact last night I gave up on sleeping and played my Gameboy DS for the rest of the night. I haven7t met my host family yet but I do know that they are a 60 year old mother and a 30 year old son. There's two other exchange students here with me, they're both from B.C. in Canada. In case you were wondering I'm from "Steel City" Hamilton in Ontario. Did you know that you have to clean yourself BEFORE taking a bath? In Japan, bathing is for relaxation, not personal hygiene. Right now I'm in the office building of WYS (World Youth Service Society), they are in charge of this whole program. Oh, I forgot to tell you I'm in Tokyo. Where exactly... I forget. It's hard for me to remember Japanese names. The two other exchange students I told you about are going to a private school that is very strict with uniforms. Instead of just 6 classes they have to take 7, they leave for school at 8:25 and finish around 4:00. For once fortune is smiling at me, because the private school I'm going to let's you wear what you want, has the regular 6 classes a day, AND ends at around 2:00. That was a close call, I HATE uniforms! Did I mention the trains are crowded? Did I say crowded? What I meant to say was PACKED! There's so many people in the train that its hard to breathe! Thank god my host family lives close to the school so it only takes me around 30 minutes to go to school. (The other exchange students have to travel for a whole hour, that's one more point for me.) If any of you ever get the chance to visit Japan heed my words. Try as much food as you can, I'm beginning to believe things born with fins taste a hell of a lot better than things born with legs. I tried some deep fried shrimp for lunch today, better than steak house ribs! Well that's all I have to tell you for now, Sayonara!

Sounds like you're having a great time! *jealous*

Konichiwa! Here I am, posting from an Internet Cafe. A lot has happened to me since I last visited YWS. First, I want to tell you about Japanese toilets. The Japanese have much better toilets than we do. Not only do they have HEATED toilet seats, but if you push a button some toilets clean your butt for you! After that experience I was quiet shocked when I entered a public washroom and found the toilets IN the floor! Well, enough toilet humor for now, I want to tell you about some of the places I've been to. First I'll tell you about my favorite place, Akihabara Electric City. As the name implies the whole place is one giant Radio Shack!! It's there that I bought an electronic dictionary for my Japanese study and Pokemon Diamond for the Nintendo DS. (I got the game before all of you! ENVY ME!) Of course the whole game is in Japanese so I'm going to use it to help with my Hiragana studying. Hiragana is one of the Japanese alphabets. After that it was off to Sensoji Temple. It's a famous temple where Budest monks and the public come to pray. (I tried to get a picture of one of the monks but he said no.) While I was at the temple I was interviewed for a survey about international marriages, if two people are in love they should get married, its that simple. I came back to the temple another day to buy the ultimate Japanese souvenir, can you guess what it is? If not I'll tell you, a Katana! It's an imitation sword with a white handle and a black sheathe with the word SAMURAI on it. I don't know if my parents are going to be surprised or pissed when I tell them about it. The sword cost me around 13000 Yen, which in Canadian/American it would be $130. I should tell you about Japanese Yen. In coins there is 1 Yen, 5 Yen, 10, 50, 100, and 500. Five and Fifty Yen coins have holes in the middle of them. In bills there is 1000, 5000, and 10000. One of the other exchange students from Canada showed me a trick with the 1000 bill, if you fold it a certain way you can make the face on it look like Hitler LOL! Well, I've already met my host mother and I'll be starting school on Wednesday. I'm going to try to do Kendo while I'm there! So long for now!

I envy you. Japan sounds so great!

Hey, it's me again! I know it's probably been a while since I last posted, but like I said I'll try to post whenever I find a computer. You'd think in the land of technology they'd have a computer in every home like in Canada. ANYWAY, I started school on Thursday and BOOM, instant popularity. Everyone wanted to talk to me. I'll tell you I was never this popular back in my old school in Canada. Everyone is very nice and, surprisingly, they speak pretty good English. In Japan English is their secondary language like French is our secondary language in Canada. (I got exempted from French class.) By the way, Canadian French is A LOT different than real French. The teachers choose the classes we take as apposed to in Canada and America we choose our own classes. One of my friends can do a really good Michael Jackson pose, oddly enough his name is also Michael. In our English classes I help the teacher by pronouncing the right words that everyone has to repeat. An exchange student from America is also in my school, his name is Philip. He can speak really good Japanese already and he's only been in Japan for a month! (By the way, in Japanese Japan is Nihon.) I have private Japanese lessons with the principal every day except Monday, so I shouldn't have much to worry about for learning Japanese. We have a school festival coming up this weekend, it'll last Saturday and Sunday. I believe after that we have Monday off. I don't know what else to tell you so I'll leave it at that for now. I hope I have something more interesting to tell you all about next time. Bye!

Ooh, in my senior year, Ima go to Japan... Which means I need to save some $5-$10 thousand dollars... Depening on which program I use...

Rotary Exchange is $5000, but if your first choice is like... full... or something... you go to your second choice. Someone in my school went last year and got sent to Korea instead of Japan, cuz too many people went to Japan at that time

Aspect Foundation is some $8900 a year, but you get your host family all checked out and get put into a school and stuff... But there is a better chance that you get your first choice

I just need to start saving NOW

*runs to bank to make an account*

Ok, hopefully I can remember everything I wanted to say this time. First, I want you to think of how many vending machines you see every day in America or Canada. After thinking about that would you believe me if I told you in Japan there's literally a vending machine at every street corner? If you think that's something you can also get hot drinks like tea or coffee from the vending machines! Last time I talked about my school I forgot to tell you this: In my school, the girls outnumber the guys 5 to 1, and as an added bonus they're all cute! If you don't believe me you've obviously never seen a Japanese private school before. It's very appealing to a guy's ego if they all like to talk to you. I don't know why but I've always liked cute girls more than beautiful ones..... Moving on! I found out something different about McDonald's in Japan, the service is a LOT quicker. I can remember standing in front of the counter waiting for my food for 5 minutes in Canada, but here it only takes about half a minute, which is good if you're really hungry. This weekend my school had a festival that　lasted two days. One of my friends bought me a paper jacket that you're supposed to wear at festivals but at the festival I was the only one wearing it, but I wore it anyway just to be different! I found out that if you wear one of those paper jackets it means you're happy, it didn't take me that long to catch on. Every home room did something different, I remember one of them doing a haunted house kind of thing. My home room did a cafe kind of thing that served bagels and juice. At 10:00 on each day I had to go to my Tea Ceremony classroom to serve tea to guests. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, in fact it was kind of fun. On the second day I had to play the Japanese harp in front of an audience despite the very little practice I had, so did the other two exchange students. it was a good thing they didn't expect that much from us. If you couldn't find anything that interested you in the classrooms then you could go to the gym to watch some performances. At the beginning of the two days the students sang or played in the school band. After that student bands took the stage and rocked out. It wasn't as good as you might think. I think there was a problem with the microphones because they weren't loud enough, when the bands started playing you could barely hear they're voices over the wailing of their instruments. At the end of the festival there was a bunch of performances done by the students, stuff like dance numbers and singing. It started out with about 20 students dressed up like dead people dancing to one of Michael Jackson's songs, I found that kind of funny, I don't know why. After that the real show began, students were break dancing, doing back flips, one of them sang like a pop star, and in the middle of it all someone jump up on their bike and started BMXing all over the stage! (Believe me, I wouldn't lie about something like that.) It was so impressing you'd think it was being done by professionals, I've seen prep rallies in Canada that could never compare to something like this. After all that excitement all I wanted to do was go home and rest, maybe read a book. I'm going to have to buy a pillow because I woke up with a killer neck pain this morning. Today is Monday in Japan, because of the weekend long festival we get today off. I was able to call my parents today and tell them how I was doing. I tried a little while back on a pay phone but I didn't know how to work the damn thing. My family was very happy to hear from me, my sisters misses me, I thought it was a little scary but I found out she actually misses bugging me. I found out something about the other exchange student from my home country's school. (It's up to you whether or not you want to read this part.) When he first came to Japan his host family was very abusive. He tried to arrange with WYS to get a different host family. When he finally found another host family he had to wait two days before he could move in with them. But, when he told his host family they locked him out of the house with nothing but his wallet and the clothes on his back. He actually had to get the police involved. Call me whatever you want but that story didn't scary or worry me or anything. I tend to not be afraid of anything that doesn't happen to me. I don't know if that's cruel or not but I just don't like to worry without a good reason, or get sad, or get angry, etc. Well, I don't want to end this post with a sad story like that so I'll try to tell you something good. My host mother's friend wants to take me to Hokkaido on the winter vacation. If you don't already know, Hokkaido is a cold part of Japan very far up north, lots of snow. Maybe it's because I grew up in Canada, but I enjoy the colder seasons more than the warmer ones so this trip is going to be fun for me!

Wow, that'd make someone think twice before signing up with a specific host family...

Hee マクードーナルード。。。 I think that's how it's kana-ized... Oh well ^_^

Ooh, in my senior year, Ima go to Japan... Which means I need to save some $5-$10 thousand dollars... Depening on which program I use...

Rotary Exchange is $5000, but if your first choice is like... full... or something... you go to your second choice. Someone in my school went last year and got sent to Korea instead of Japan, cuz too many people went to Japan at that time

Aspect Foundation is some $8900 a year, but you get your host family all checked out and get put into a school and stuff... But there is a better chance that you get your first choice

I just need to start saving NOW

*runs to bank to make an account*

I've paid about £500 for my flight (via Dubai 'cause it's cheaper =P) and I still need to pay insurance. Aside from that though, barely have to pay anything - staying with uncle.

My family was very happy to hear from me, my sisters misses me, I thought it was a little scary but I found out she actually misses bugging me.

That part made me laugh.

When he first came to Japan his host family was very abusive. He tried to arrange with WYS to get a different host family. When he finally found another host family he had to wait two days before he could move in with them. But, when he told his host family they locked him out of the house with nothing but his wallet and the clothes on his back. He actually had to get the police involved.

Eep! That's gotta suck...


Just wondering... how much Japanese could you speak before you left Canada? It'd really help me to know 'cause I don't really know how much Japanese you need to get by in Japan at the moment.

I forgot to tell you this: In my school, the girls outnumber the guys 5 to 1, and as an added bonus they're all cute! If you don't believe me you've obviously never seen a Japanese private school before.

XD

When he first came to Japan his host family was very abusive. He tried to arrange with WYS to get a different host family. When he finally found another host family he had to wait two days before he could move in with them. But, when he told his host family they locked him out of the house with nothing but his wallet and the clothes on his back. He actually had to get the police involved.

That's pretty bad...

At the end of the festival there was a bunch of performances done by the students, stuff like dance numbers and singing. It started out with about 20 students dressed up like dead people dancing to one of Michael Jackson's songs, I found that kind of funny, I don't know why. After that the real show began, students were break dancing, doing back flips, one of them sang like a pop star, and in the middle of it all someone jump up on their bike and started BMXing all over the stage! (Believe me, I wouldn't lie about something like that.) It was so impressing you'd think it was being done by professionals, I've seen prep rallies in Canada that could never compare to something like this.

I'm not at all surprised. It gets pretty wild over there, where stages are concerned. ^.^;

Hi, I'm back. Not much has happened since the festival but I'll try to make this as interesting as I can. I've been pretty money crazy since I came here, the video games I've bought include Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls (GBA), Final Fantasy 4 Advance (GBA), Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Duel Academy (GBA), and the Japanese verson of Pokemon Daimond for the DS. In case you were all wondering the only video game system I have to play is my Gameboy DS, my family wouldn't let me bring anything else, I can't say I blame them. For the GBA games I bought I managed to find them in english, but I had to walk around in Akihabara for about an hour to find the right store. I resently found out that there's an arcade on the second floor of the train station closest to my house, half of it is dedicated to video games and the other half is dedicated to gambling. You see a lot of gambling places in Japan, it's kinda like a mini verson of Vegas. Oh, by the way, in Canada and America we have slot machines, in Japan they have Pachinko. (Sounds funny, doesn't it?) Pachinko is kinda like a cross between a slot machine and a pinball machine, I don't know much more of the details cause I've never stepped foot in one of those places, I don't like gambling. In Japan air conditioners have remotes like T.V.s, I think that's pretty cool. The people here are pretty trusting, almost to a point where you'd think their too trusting. One of my classmates left her Gameboy DS on her desk yesterday and when I got to school this morning it was still there. If you do something like that in Canada it disappears never to be seen again, I'm pretty sure it's same in the States. Well, if I think of anything else interesting I'll tell you all next time.

By the way, KayJuran, when I left Canada I didn't know Hiragana from Katakana, I didn't know very much Japanese either. But, I don't think you have to worry much in that subject, keep a small notebook and pen with you, write down anything useful you hear and you'll be fine.

Let's see, what should I talk about this time? Oh, I know! On Saturday I went to my first kendo class. It was really fun and good exercise. My kendo instructor said I have a lot of talent. I'll be having more kendo classes on Thursdays and Saturdays. I'm not sure if I've said anything about this yet but at Omori station (the train station closest to my house) there's a McDonald's where I like to eat sometimes. They have something called a Teriyaki burger, it's soooooo good! I wish the McDonald's in Canada served it. Just two floors up from McDonald's is the arcade I told you about. You know, have video games half gambling machines. My two favorite games in the whole arcade has got to be Time Crisis 4 (shooting game) and Soul Caliber 3, they're pretty much the only games I play. A good chunk of the games in the arcade require you to buy cards in order to use them, like D Quest and Gundaum Tactics. The games are fun to play but they cost a lot of money so I just stick to the traditional arcade games. Well that's all I can think of today, I'm pretty sure I'll have something more interesting to talk about next time. Bye!

On Saturday I stayed over night at the Olympic Center so I could help with an orientation with some inbound students. The Olympic Center was originally used for when the Olympics were in Japan. Now it's a big hotel with lodging buildings. I called my parents on Sunday and told them about how things were going. They were, how you say, pissed at me for how much I spent the first month. I started out with $1500 (Canadian), now I have only $200. They were mad because that money was supposed to last me half the time I am here, I guess that's what you would call short-sighted. But if I only spend about 2000 yen a week I should be able to survive 10 more weeks.