First week full of fun

Hello everyone!

Wow. It has been a crazy week and I can’t believe it has already been over a week since I first arrived. The routine that I am starting to build goes something like this: 6:00 am I wake up, talk to my friends in America, get dressed, and do my physical therapy exercises (I tore two ligaments in my ankle back in March so I am still trying to fully recover from that). I eat breakfast with Nanase at 6:50. This usually consists of rice with some variations. We leave at 7:15 and walk about 15 minutes down and extremely steep hill to catch the overly crowded bus. Usually there is standing room only. After riding the bus for about 30 minutes and another short walk, we arrive at school. School starts at 8:10 and ends at 4:00 but club activities do not finish until 6:30. This means we get home at about 7:15 at which point I take a quick shower and then eat dinner with the whole family. Recently Nanase and I have been practicing our class dance that we will perform at our schools Culture festival, but usually I try to go to bed before 9:00.

School is so different. To start off they have 7 periods in a day that are 50 minutes long with a 10 minute break in between each class. At the beginning and end of every period all the students stand up and bow to the teacher. This demonstrates the large amount of respect and order that I admire about Japan. Another difference is that the students don’t move to a different class every period. Instead the teacher are the ones who move between each class. I enjoy all the classes although Japanese history, biology, earth science, and old Japanese are difficult to follow along. I prefer math, English, and PE. I’m enjoying English class because I get to share about American culture and see how excited everyone else gets. The English teacher is middle aged male from Arkansas. His name is James and he is probably the most energetic teacher I have ever met. He does an excellent job of keeping the class engaged and participating. PE is another subject I have always enjoyed. We are currently in a swimming unit. The girls and boys don’t interact a lot and they don’t do PE together. It’s so very different from America where the girls and boys want to talk to each other.

Sarah and I have also both joined the Kendo club. Kendo is such an intense sport that requires immense discipline and lots of respect. The club is very small and I was shocked to find fewer than 10 members. Clubs practice everyday but because of the shortage of members Sarah and I only practice twice a week so we don’t take away from their own practice time.

I’ve met so many friendly people and I love talking to all of them. Nanase has so many friends and they are always making an effort to come talk to me. Learning all their names has been challenging especially because my brain is already filled with new Japanese words.

This last weekend was my first real weekend in Nishinomiya. On Saturday we had our Welcome Party. It was so fun to get to talk to everyone there because they were all so interested in sharing cultures. Talking with the past exchange students also gave my a more vivid picture of what’s to come. Each pair of exchange students had to perform something so Nanase and I decided to take turns reading Little Red Riding Hood. She read in English and I read in Japanese. I think everyone enjoyed it and once again the food was outstanding.

On Sunday, Nanase, Rinka (a girl that sits in front of me in class), and I all went to Osaka. We took the train there and it was so crowded and complicated. I don’t think I could have ever figured it out if I was by myself. Once we got there we first went to a 3 story tall ¥100 stores. I bought a bunch of gifts to bring back to my friends in America. It was so busy and the check out line was 10 minutes long. Next we went to a dessert shop to buy a new trendy drink. It was a tapioca cheese drink. I know it sounds gross but it was surprising delicious. After another two hours of walking and shopping we went and took pictures in front of Glico, a famous landmark in Osaka. We also got to go to a Purikura machine which is basically a photo booth that makes your face look better. After eating so Takoyaki (fried octopus balls) we called it a day and headed home.

I am loving Japan so much. I am comfortable enough now to talk to all my other classmates and my Japanese has already noticeably improved. I can’t wait for more! I’ll attach some pictures down below.

-Hana Hill