Young Writers Society

Wait... what do you do for kendo lessons?

Hey, sounds like you're having a great time there . Tis also interessting to hear how Japan differs from the US/Canada - those toliets sound cool .

Hi, Tylor! I miss you so much, I love your journal! I wish you were here for Christmas. Mom and Dad are getting me an MP3 player that holds over 8GB. Kamui is annoying sometimes. But all is well. I'm not getting much for Christmas thanks to YOU! Oh well. I wish I could go to Japan. Those toilets are... Well... Creepy. Uggh. *Shivers* I got a C in math! I HATE IT! I AM GONNA FAIL! What did you do to be so good in math? I wish I got Kendo Classes. I wanna swing around Dad's Kendo sword, LOL! I see that your Siggy is the same thing as Dad's Calligraphy writing on the wall beside his computer. Lol! One more thing to anoy you. I <3 Gaara! X3 Bye byez!

P.S. People are calling me emo at school! I hate being bi-polar!

Note: SamansaKun is my sister, and yes, Tylor is my real name. Don't spread that around too much though. Kamui is the name of the exchange student that came to my house from Japan about 5 months before I left.

To my sister: Math was always easy for me. All I did was pay attention in class and finish all the work given to me. The reason why You're doing so bad is probably because you don't pay enough attention in class or don't put enough effort into finishing your work. The reason why the teachers give out homework is so you can practice the work and remember it. If you listen to what your teacher says but don't do your work you're going to forget everything you learned that day.


Has anyone heard of the book Eragon? It's about a boy who finds a dragon egg and becomes a Dragon Rider. I'm just wondering if the movie of the book has come out to theaters yet in America and Canada, because in Japan it's coming to theaters Dec. 16th! I was pretty surprised when I found out. I wanted to see the movie before I went to Japan but I left Canada before the even started advertising.(which was a month ago mind you) I'm already saving up money so I can see it. I bet you've all heard about the Nintendo Revolution. Well I bet you might not have heard of this but Revolution was just its code name, its real name is Wii and it's already out in Japan. It's called Wii so that every language would be able to pronounce it. I know all of this because I've seen it on commercials while I take the train. Oh, did I mention that trains in Tokyo have T.V.s? There are two small T.V.s on a train the are placed above each door. The one on the left plays commercials and shows you the weather, the one on the right shows you information like what the next station is and if there are delays in any of the train schedules.

(For kendo lessons: It's basically the same as karate discipline wise, but in kendo you learn how to fight with a bamboo sword, not your hands.)

The real namde of the Wii was released months ago - before you left for Japan I believe .

I started out writing this journal with about 500 points. I thought that if I post once a week I wouldn't have to worry about running out, cause each post should be 10 points, 4 weeks a month, 10 months. 10 x 4 =40 x 10 = 400, I thought I might be ok. But I've somehow used up half of those points already. So, instead of posting every week I'll post, at the least, once a month or whenever something interesting happens.

OK, on to the good stuff. If you haven't been here before most of you might think that Tokyo is a city, but that's not true, it's a metropolis with lots of cities inside it. That would explain why it's the biggest city in Japan.

In Canada and America the kind of birds we see the most are seagulls, but in Japan it's big black birds that I think are crows. They're a little bigger than seagulls. I haven't actually seen it, but another kind of bird I noticed is probably the size of a sparrow but when it chirps it sounds oddly like a robotic noise. While I'm still on the topic of animals I've noticed a lot of cats in Japan don't have whole tails. Like my host family's cat, most of them just have a stub where their tail should be. I think it might have something to do with medical conditions for the cats, but the first thought that came to my mind is that because lot's of them are aloud to go outside most of them got their tails run over by bikes or cars.

I know I've probably spent more money than I should have when I got here, but my friend told me about a certain DS game and now I want it. It's called "Jump Ultimate Stars." It was made by Shonen, probably the most popular manga company in Japan. The game is a fighting game that has characters from all the Shonen animes, Naruto, One Piece, Shaman King, Bleach, and much more. The variety of familiar characters is only part of the reason why I want the game. When you're playing the game the characters fight on the top screen. (This is the best part) On the bottom screen the game creates a comic while you fight! So the better and more dramatically you fight the better the comic will be. The only reason why it won't be released in Canada or America is due to popularity issues, lots of the characters in the game are from mangas that most Canadians or Americans haven't heard of. The only one I can think of right away would be Death Note. Death Note is about an angle of death the drops his note book into the human world. A kid finds it and finds out that if a person's name is written into it they will die. If a person's name is written into it without specifications of their death within 60 seconds (time of death, cause of death) they'll just die of a heart attack. The kid starts out wanting to use the book to kill all the criminals in the world but he starts to go crazy. The only reason why the death angle doesn't take back the book is because the kid is making his job easier for him. Pretty dark, eh?

Before Nintendo became famous it was just a small card shop. That's why if Nintendo loses it's business in Canada or America it'll never be ruined because it owns almost all of the brands of card games in Japan. Pretty much the only card game Nintendo DOESN'T own is Yu-Gi-Oh!.

One last piece of information before I go. (I think you might get a kick out of this) In Canada and America, when somebody wants to start a conversation the ask "What's your sign?" In Japan they ask, "What's your blood type?" Yeah, I didn't quiet understand it the first time somebody asked me. I don't even know what my blood type is!

Ok, before I start I want to say that I'd like to put in entries every week, but to do that I need more points in order to continue without running out before the end of my stay here. I'd like someone to donate me 500 points if that's not too much to ask.


OK, on to the goodies. Remember when I said there's mostly girls in my high school? Well, I just found out why the girls out number the guys 4 to 1. Hinode High school, the school I'm going to, used to be an all girls' school until just two years ago when it started letting boys in. When I found this out I was told I should have already known about it because it was mentioned in the papers I was given at the beginning of my stay. I guess I should read that stuff.

A few interesting facts: Cameron Diaz does phone commercials in Japan and David Copperfield was in Tokyo this moth from the 6th to the 12th. And no, I didn't get to see his show, I wish I did though. Buses and trains have actual cushioned seats. Back home we just have that plastic stuff on the buses that makes your butt fall asleep if you sit too long. And every one of those seats are cut up by people with nothing better to do, but the seats on the trains and buses in Japan are spotless, I haven't seen one seat yet that had even one cut in it. Tells you how much more responsible the Japanese are compared to us, kinda sad on our part. Have you ever wondered why the Japanese can draw so well? Just take a look at their alphabets, the calligraphy is an art in itself. So, basically the Japanese create art every time they write. What do we have? 24 letters and most of us can't even make presentable. Hardly an advantage on our part. Just being over six feet tall in Japan is a hazard itself. My host family's house's door frames are so short that if I don't bend down in time I'll have a bruise in the dead center of my forehead. A bag of chips in Japan is only 105 yen ($1.05), which is less than half the price of one back home! You can just guess how I spent my weekend with a deal like that.

Guess what? (Speaks in a sing-song voice used for mocking) I've got the Bleach soundtrack, and you don't! It cost me only 3990 yen for the CD and a DVD with all the songs, not to mention a bunch of pinups. You're all jealous, admit it. (At least those of you who know what Bleach is...)

You know the Gundam game I told you all about that uses cards? (Gundam 0079) Well I've seen another game that just throws this game out of the ranks. It's another Gundam game. It's the typical 4 on 4 battlefield setup, except you're fighting with Gundams. The thing that makes this game so kickass is that to play you sit in this giant pod and it feels like you're inside the Gundam itself! I haven't played it yet put I soooooo want to.

That's all, thank you for listening, reading, whatever.

Heh, I like your journal. Keep it up!

Merry Christmas! I hope you're all getting your share of snow, because over here we're having a snow-less Christmas. I remember it snowing here only once and that was a month or so ago, but you couldn't really call it snow. It's the kind of snow that's very easy to mistake for rain. So, yeah, no snow.

I must have lost my mind or something because I did something crazy on the last day of school. It was sort of a Christmas present for my class. So, let me tell you about operation "Christmas Ninja." During the first class on Friday I was in another part of the school for my private Japanese lesson while the rest of my class were in the home room. What I did was I dressed up in black pants, a black T-shirt, sandals, a head band, some fingerless gloves, and one of those scarfs for your face that works just like a head band. What I did was I went to my home room with a plastic toy sword in one hand and a bag of candy in the other. I pretended to sneak into the room while everyone could see me. I sidled against the lockers until the teacher asked what I was doing. My reply: "shhhhhh..." In snuck up to one of the empty desks and dumped the bag of candy on it. Before I left I said "Christmas Ninja!" in a thick Japanese accent and pretended to slit one of my friends' throats. If the teacher didn't give me away at the end of the day no one would have known it was me. The students thought it was hilarious, the teachers weren't as enthusiastic. If the teacher didn't give me away this would have been an act of true ninjary, of course everyone saw me but they had no idea who I was at the time. A true ninja is able to hide their identity. (Yeah, I like ninjas.)

I was able to see the movie Eragon this week. I wanted to go with my friends but they were all busy, so I thought, "Screw it, I'm going by myself.) Cause I've been waiting for this movie ever since I first heard they were going to make the movie, which was more than a year ago. The movie was good, but not as good as the book was so I was a little disappointed. But, hey, Hollywood usually does that to books so there's no point in complaining.

Let me tell you about my trip to Odaiba. The other day I went with another Canadian housing host family to Odaiba. The first place we went to was the Emerging Science Museum. They had lots of cool stuff. There was a virtual motion ride where you are a robot. One person controls the legs of the right and another person controls the legs on the left, they used PlayStation controllers for this. The cool thing about this ride was that the robot you're controlling is just outside the ride room. It's about the size of a remote controlled car. I thought that was pretty cool.

Guess who I saw in that museum? ASIMO, the world's smartest robot! You know, the robot that can walk around, go up and down stairs. I think they put in some new programming into ASIMO because he was able to dance. Pretty cool, eh? I took lots of pictures.

After that we went to Pallet Town. We saw a big Toyota showcase building. They had an orchestra, cars on display, they even had a car ride where you can ride in those new electric powered cars. The ride goes around the building and outside. No, I didn't get to ride on it. They had a good restaurant there. Boy, the Japanese sure know how to make a hot dog.

I also got to ride on the giant Ferris wheel in Pallet Town, you know, the one that broke the world record for being the biggest Ferris wheel ever built. I was glad I brought my gameboy DS because the line was hell! The line started about half a block away. When you get to the front of that line somebody gives you a piece of paper so you can get into the next line. The next line reminded me of the line I had to wait in at the airport for customs, except this line had T.V.s, thank God. At the end of that line you had to buy your tickets, you got a choice of whether to ride in a normal gondola or a full glass gondola, I think there's like five normal gondolas for every one glass one. After we bought our tickets we had to wait in yet another line, but thankfully this line was nowhere near as long as the other two. Before you get onto the Ferris wheel you get your picture taken, after the ride you can pay 800 yen if you want to keep it. The ride itself was 16 minutes long. I took lots of pictures. I also noticed that the airplanes in Japan fly a lot closer to the ground than where I'm from. So, yeah, it was fun, but the line could have been a little shorter.

After that we went to Tokyo Tower! Unfortunately I wasn't able to go in the tower, but we got there in time to see the Light Down event. All the lights on the tower turned off. Since this sort of thing only happens once a year in Japan I guess it was just as good.

So, I took Lots of pictures that day. How many you might ask? When I E-mailed them back to Canada it took me almost an hour and 2 E-mails to do it.

Heh, Japan sounds cool. I wanna go now .

Sorry to keep you all waiting, I couldn't get a hold of a computer until after the holidays.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to go to Hokkaido because I didn't have enough money. But, my host brother toke me on a ski trip with his friends. It was the first time I saw real snow in Japan, as a Canadian it was a big relief. It was also the first time I snowboarded, ever. Despite what you might think, Canada isn't always about snow and skiing. Two good things happened to me on this trip, I had fun AND I didn't break any of my legs! I also got the chance to visit a real Japanese spa. Despite what you might think the real thing isn't like what you see in mangas, a lot more naked men... but let's not think too much about that. The trip was four days long if you count the night I got there. Three days of snowboarding will do a number on your body, my arms and legs felt the way they did that week we lifted weights in gym class back in Canada.

In a way, Japanese New Years lasts three days, everybody likes to pray at the temples. My host brother and mother took me to a famous temple in Kawasaki. You wouldn't believe how many people were there. There were so many people that they had people controlling the flow of the crowd with signs and megaphones. I think it took a half hour just getting into the temple. My host mother bought me a headless arrow that's supposed to ward off demons and promote happiness. Later we went to a Japanese restaurant where you have to cook your food yourself on a small grill, then you dip it in sauce and eat it. It was the best food experience I had since I discovered fried shrimp and the Teriyaki burger at McDonald's. I also found out that some shrimp is blue before you boil it and it becomes red.

Tylor, yeah this is sam anothe raccount caus emy email got deleed and i forgot my pass. I love cat's. Those cat's didn't get run over, or cut off. They are called Japanese bobtails. They are so adorable. Also the 'giant crows' are probably Ravens. Crows aren't THAT bad. But ravens.... They are nasty devils. They are evil, I tell you! EVIL!!! Cool, blue shrimp. Some species of crestatians (they look likes lobsters) are blue. It's so awesome. I saw a video of ASIMO on msn, it was showing it talking saying "I am ready" and then it ran! You might think. Yeah, whatever. ASIMO weighs at least 500 pounds. Yes, POUNDS. Go technology!!!

Reply to AmberKun: Yeah, I believe you on all that stuff, even the part about ASIMO. You may have seen him run, but guess what? I saw him dance! HAH, beat that!!

Hey, everyone! My studies are going well, in fact I've started learning Kanji. Kanji is Chinese characters that the Japanese use in their language. In case you were wondering, there are over 6000 characters of Kanji in the whole Japanese language. I don't have to worry, though. Most Japanese people only know about 1000 characters.

Japan is one of the most safest places in Japan when it comes to crime and stuff. The reason why is because there are police boxes call Kobans placed all over the place. That way there is always a police officer close by if you need help, and they're very nice too.

Let me tell you about my trip last Saturday. I went by myself to a place called Ginza. I originally went there to see Sony's showcase building. There were a lot of TVs. While I was there I saw a Gundam game for the PS3. The graphics were like armored core x10! You can customizes your robots, use laser swords, and you can even zoom in to aim at a distance. Even during game-play the graphics make it look like real life.

When I left the showcase building I looked around Ginza and found myself at a Missan car building. They were showing a new kind of car called Pivo. It looks like an egg on wheels, but it's environmentally friendly! The coolest thing about this car is that the entire passenger and driver place on the car rotates! Before I went back home I bought some REAL candy at a toy store.

Cool beans! It sounds like you're enjoying yourself in Japan.

Eragon has just now been in our theaters for a little while in my little town. I want to see the movie, but no one will take me because they think it's lame. Phooey.

Anyhoo, I'm reading the book right now, it's pretty good. Have you read the book?

I have a Shih Tzu...his name is Sir Charles. He is very old, and deaf. He has no front bottom teeth, and yet he still manages to devor dog food. Interesting...

I'm teaching him Sign Language. Never say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, 'cause he knows...

--Come
--Outside
--Food
--Water
--Shhh!
--Wait
--Sit
--Lay down
--Jump
and
--Bad

He's getting quite good at learning to look at my hands when I get his attention. He was abandoned and we've only had him for a couple months...

Anyway, wow. I've really talked your ear off, haven't I? I guess I'm type-happy.

I've emailed your sister AmberKun a couple days ago, about the storybook, but she still hasn't replied...

I'm not getting ruffled up about it though, I'm doing a ton of storybooks as it is.

I want a heated toilet seat...*pouts*

Sorry for not posting last week. I didn't have anything interesting to post, plus I forgot.

Not much to talk about this week. Finding good host families in Tokyo is tough, so my councilor is going to talk to my current host family about letting me stay for another month. At first I thought my host family didn't have a computer but they actually do have one, they just never got around to setting it up. Once they do I'll be able to visit here more often!

School uniforms in Japan, whether you believe it or not, are supposed to be very fashionable, especially for girls. In fact, Japanese girls have been known to choose they're schools depending on the uniforms.

If you ever come to Japan you'll notice that a lot of people wear paper face masks. I think they're for protection against illness. Personally, I have a high immune system so I don't ever have to worry about that stuff.

I don't know if saying this will be appropriate or not but I think it's something interesting to know. Japanese people aren't shy when it comes to their nudy mags. In fact bookstores put those magazines at the front of the shop so people can find them easily. If that's considered a flaw in decency then I've finally found something that makes Japan not perfect.