Friday 25th September
I finially finished my current project in calligraphy today, that of writing　自分の道 wich means ones own path, or ones own way, my teacher then asked me why I chose this, when I startd it she had given me a book of 4 character phrases and told me to chose one to do, and in all honest I chose this one because it was one of the few I understood and the one I most liked the meaning of and didn’t think was overally hard, ironically I found the 2nd charather the hardest, until today when I discovered ive been doing the stroke order wrong and when I started doing it in the correct order it worked soo much better. Anyway I mad4 up some bull about how living in another country with a culture so difrent from my own I have kinda combined the two and come up with my own way of doing things, and that’s why I chose it but my teacher didn’t believe me coz here reply was no its because you understood it. Ah the calligraphy teacher is good fun.

Saturday 26th September
So this morning after cleaning Yoshiki invaded my room with his homework while I was trying to do mine, once we finially worked through both of our homework we all went out to do the grocery shopping, then home for lunch, after which I looked after haruki at home while yohiki was at the dentist, we then all went out shopping at dasio (the 100yen shop) before Yoshiki and I were dropped home while Haruka went to the doctors.

Sunday 27th September – My 18th birthday
So my birthday, definitely not what I would have ever though I would do on my 18th birthday, after opening all my presents that I had previously been given at like 3 in the morning or something ridiculous, I did it then coz that’s when I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I decided to open presents. I did then go back to sleep for a while and got up proper when my host siblings decided it was well time I showed my face down stairs… at 7. And for the following 3 hours I did the same puzzle 3 times with haruki and then played some Japanese chess against Yoshiki, he is yet to beat me but its not easy easy for me either it is still a challenge. I want to play against my host dad one day soon. And then I went out with Obachan (grandma) to get Ayumi and nick from the train station and we did a bit of sightseeing, the big buddah , the park (nick wanted to go to the zoo) and the copper district befor heading home for a bbq lunch, I don’t think that nick or I ate anything for lunch other than meat, there was vergies and stuff as well, but was good fun all the same. Haruka’s family were also over, so after lunch we played with the kids, at one point nick was playing baseball with a bouncy ball and chopsticks. Then my host dad pulled out his rotary blazer, from when he was an exchange student 16 years ago and I grabbed mine and photos were taken of the 2 of us, and then of Haruka and Yoshiki wearing them, mine touched the ground when Yoshiki had it on. It was very cute though. It was then cake time! Then came present time and omg did I get a pile, I already mentioned opening once I had previously been given, but then there were all the ones from my host family, Ayumi, and Haruka and her family. Ayumi and nick headed home soon after that and I kept playing with the kids for quiet some time until dinner which was yakisoba, but after cake, all the meat at lunch and the various other snacks we ate I barley had room for any of it. And I love yakisoba so that’s saying something

Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th September
School,
Wednesday 30th September àfridays 2nd August
So after school on Wednesday (for me school finished at 11:30 on Wednesdays) mama picked me up from school and we went out for lunch, then returned home for a rest befor I had to be at the train staion at 5 to meet up with all the other exchange students (except Andrew who was on school camp) and be taken off to the 3 day friendship in shinminato meeting, Wednesday night we attended the rotary clubs meating and got presented with happies (festival clothing) and then got ushered off home with our hosts, for this we were hosted with pairs, I was with Ashleigh, the Canadian girl.
Thursday after a traditional Japanese breakfast we were off again to the Fushiki marine museum and then kiomaru (the massive boat) and a river cruise, befor helping to push the floats for a bit and going to see the mayor. The mayor was a character and a half! After that we watched the parade for a bit more outside the mayors office, and then back to the rotary office (in the building right next door) where we proceded to watch the parade on tv… or as us girls discovered we had a much better view from the toilet window. But we soon got shooed away from there by tv film crews who wanted to take advantage of the spot. It was then home again for dinner and a bit of a rest (watching more festive activities on the tv) befor heading back to watch the night parade.
Friday we had a pottery class where I made a plate and a coffee mug, I would like to bring these home if they fired ok, but weight! And the care that they would need in my hand luggage on the way home, I don’t know if I will be able to. From there it was on to aeon, )which I found amusing, mainly coz it’s the shopping center I go past every day to get to school, but also because, with the acception of josh, everyone else lives in kanazawa where there are shops 100X better so like they really want to go to aeon. ) and then to the train and home)
Saturday 3rd August - school festival
So school festival today, and for some reason, (even though I attended the nichidai(sister school in Tokyo) festival 4 years ago) that this was going to be somewhat similar to open days back home, but I couldn’t have been more wrong, each class and club had to do either some sort of presentation or run an activity or two in their class room, genrally with prizes involved but not always. My class didn’t make me help them so I had the whole day to wander the rooms, just after lunch when I had done everything my host family came and I did it all again with them, it was some what funner the second time round with haru and yoshiki
Sunday 4th – district conference
Today it was off to kanazawa on a bus with a heap of Rotarians from my club heading to district conference, when we got there our club went out to lunch at a sashimi restaurant ( I don’t eat sashimi) and then to the conference, the conference itself was very boring, I could understand when I was really paying attention but then as I was on only one there that could read the program I kept getting asked when our next break? Do you reckon I can go to the toilet now? How much longer? Ect. There were some other Australians there from district 9680 (I think) because their club had teamed up with some of the rotairians from our district to help build a house in Vanuatu. Dinner was fun, we had geshi entertainment, and after our 5 hours of sitting in conference it was a nice break. I particularly enjoyed talking to Andrew( one of the Canadians), he didn’t come to the shinminato thing as he had been on school camp so this was the first time I met him, and in a lot of ways he reminds me of 2 of my cousins.
Monday 5th
So I had today off school because we had the festivale thing on Saturday, so I spent the day watching the dvd (7 pounds) I borrowed out last night and finished off knitting the bag for ayakos birthday present. We had a special dinner with lots of cake to celebrate he birthday, she turned 30 today.
Tuesday 6th school
School today, and I must say I am really enjoying pe atm, we are doing dance!

Wednesday 7th / Thursday 8th
Wednesday was another day off school, I don’t quiet understand why, but one should never complain when they get a day off school. However I did have rotary and a half day host, todays half day host took me to Futagamiyama (the mountain I went up with my family) and to the himi botanical gardens (went there in Jan) and then to a very early dinner and home, befor the thypoon got to bad, as soon I as I got home I helped clean the garden up a bit of toys and tie down the outdoor furniture, anything that could do damage in the stong winds of the typhoon, I think the worst of It hit here at about 3 Thursday morning, well that’s when I got woken up by it, but the winds and rain continued all day and is still going to some extent. Because of the thyphoon all schools had a holiday today (Thursday).
Friday 9th – school
So yes I actually had school today, but it was Monday timetable, so I didn’t have calligraphy and the set of subjects that I normally have on a Friday that I like. On the way home I stoped in at aeon for a bit, for some stuff mainly another Japanese study book, I still really struggle with particles! I think that is going to be my weakest point on my up coming Japanese test, but I now have a book devoted to them so hopefully working through that will help me.
Saturday 10th
Happy birthday Rach !
Haru, Yoshiki, mama and papa went away for the night tonight with mama’s parents and her brother family to celebrate her dads 60th birthday, so today it was just ayako, Obachan (grandma) and me. We went out for lunch and then onto some ski fields, well they are ski fields in winter, atm they are covered in “cosumosu” a type of flower, they would have been a lot prettier had we had not had the thyphoon but they were really pretty nonethe less. But it was very very cold there, especially when we went on the chair lift to the top of the mountain, but that was well worth it for the view.
After that we went to uni qlo, (a clothes shop) and I got 2 shirts, a scarf, a pair of leggings, and some slippers for 2500 yen which is about $35 ( I actually have no idea what the current exchange rate is, im still working on what it was in Jan there) after that we went out for dinner.

Sunday 11th

Again today was just the 3 of us, so after going out for lunch again we went to a big shopping center in Toyama, and there was a uni qlo there as well, I bought another pair of leggings, coz they are amazingly cheap, but other than that I didn’t buy anything, but it was a fun time shopping all the same. After that we came home and had sukiyaki for dinner, because of a conversation we had a lunch today that I hadn’t ever had it, this shocked them because it is apparently a very easy and popular winter meal in Japan. But then again if you think back to last winter I was with my first host family and we ate out about 95% of the time.

Monday 12th
So it was a public holiday today, sports day or something to that extent. Mama, Papa, Yoshiki, huruki and I went to taikoyama land and met up with 6 other families, all of which have a kid in yoshikis year level, ( they all went to kindy together but are at 3 different primary schools now) that was really good fun, and made me miss Adelaide a lot, I dunno we don’t have those sorts of parks in queensland, or mabey we do, but there are a lot more in Adelaide, and ahh I guess that’s where I lived when I was the age of most of the kids there today. After we got home, Yoshiki, haru, papa and I went for a bike ride, Yoshiki on his bike, papa actually rode mine, because, haru wanted to sit on the baggage thing above the