pengiuns at the zoo really ironically this was the only enclouser which didnt have snow in it at the time
the emu which i felt really sorry for especially coz he s alone
badger
in the park on the way to the zoo
flamingos
sitting in the lexus in the show room
my hot coffee in a can
little girl and mum making a snow man it was soo cute
in the park
on the way to the park, thats the main bridge into the parkTuesday 27th January
So today both my host parents had to be at work or at least out doing various things, so I was given house keys a map of the area and told to have a great day, so I decided to go for a wonder through the park which is literally about 200m away as the crow flies but to get there it’s about 600m not really far at all, and seeing as I got kind of cold yesterday with just my jacket on I decided to wear my ski suit today and I wondered around for almost 2 hours and was fine, except for my face it froze it truly does amaze me that parts of your body can be so numb from the cold while others are almost to the point of being hot. I really don’t have much else to say on the morning’s activities, just a wonder in the park.
Otosan came home for lunch and had brought 6 packs of sandwiches, a little but too much, I really haven’t had much of an appetite recently, I don’t know, I’m eating enough because I’m not hungry I guess to me it just seems like I’m not eating much coz it’s all different and I’m not used to it all. But the sandwich I had today was interesting, potato salad in a sandwich, and then like fried pork in a sandwich.
Otosan had to go into Toyama this afternoon and asked me if I wanted to go with, even though I was really tired and wanted to go sleep I went with… I think I slept most of the way into Toyama anyway. But he has land there that used to have a KFC on it but they didn’t want to renew the lease so the building is being demolished and he needed to go check up on that, we then went and visited the Lexus showroom, where Otosan bought his car from. Now as you all know I’m not much of a car fan but I know enough and was told enough times by people that saw the picture of my house and noticed that my host dad has one of these cars to have already realized that these cars were very ritzy, but wow wow wow they are amazing, I got to sit in the convertible and make the roof go up and down, the people there were really formal about everything they said and did but I actually understood everything that they were saying to me.
They then ushered us round into a lounge room and gave us hot drinks and biscuits, which Otosan made me bring the ones that we didn’t eat home, but they are really nice so it’s probably a good thing.
When we got home okasan and I went out and picked up my inside sport shoes which we ordered only yesterday so I was really amazed that they were there already, we then went to the supermarket, I had been to a Japanese supermarket before but this one still surprised me its more or less the size of an IGA store so fairly small but still very different, while our supermarkets sell or sorts of things from stationary to hardware to toiletries this one basically sold food, and mostly fresh food at that, so a lot of veggies and meat and then a bit of packaged stuff, and a very small toiletries section.
For dinner we had a dish called shabushabu which involved a pot of boiling water on a heater in the middle of the table with veggies in it (cabbage, shallots, and a few types of mushroom) we then had a plate of really thinly sliced meat which we had to pick up and put in the pot one slice at a time. And it cooked very fast. It tasted fairly good, but I was always scared that I hadn’t cooked my meat enough.
After dinner Otosan and I went to the big shopping centre Aeon as he wanted to go to the bookshop and I was being a good exchange student and not saying no to an offer to go with. I went into tower records and I was considering buying the Japanese soundtrack to wicked the musical; however I thought it was a little expensive. I then looked at mobiles because I’m told that I will really need one once I start school but they really confused me. So okasan and I are going to go shopping for one later in the week.
Wednesday 28th January
I had another opportunity to walk around this morning and I made the most of it to get used to the area, so I started my walk by going to Takaoka no eki (Takaoka train station) in doing this I walked past the department store where the 100yen shop is and I intended to visit in my walk this morning however the department store was closed so obviously I couldn’t do that. Down at the train station not many things were open yet so that was a bit of a boring walk. However there was one or 2 shops which were interesting to window shop in. after wondering around the station for a bit and getting a feel for it I headed back towards the park and today I explored the area that I didn’t yesterday. Today I visited the zoo. Now this is a pretty small zoo and it’s just part of the park so you are free to just wonder in so I did, grabbing a coffee from a vending machine on my way. Now you may think oh yeah coffee vending machine we have that here in Australia but ha-ha this is different, this is just from a standard vending machine that also sells cold drinks, but the coffee and other hot drinks that you can buy from the vending machines over here come in cans, just like our soft drink cans.
In the Zoo there were many animals; flamingos, monkeys, cape hyrax, porcupine, ring-tailed coati , Badgers, raccoons, raccoon dogs , mara , miniature horses, sheep, dear, penguins !!!, and lots of other birds but their cages had plastic around them to help protect them from the snow so you couldn’t really see them very well. But I know that there was kookaburras there coz the lady who was also looking knew I was Australian and made a big thing about showing me them as well as the emu. Now the emu I felt really really sorry for, I suppose the kookaburras as well but they at least had a decent shelter and don’t get snowed on, however this emu doesn’t and i felt sorry for it because its not an animal that is apt for the snowy conditions and it was growling the whole time I was there and once I realized it was the emu I also realized that it is the same sound I heard while in the general area of the zoo at the park yesterday. So I really don’t think that the emu is happy there.
I then came home and got ready to go to my first Japanese rotary meeting, now that was intresting, its within walking distance of home, and school and once I have started school I will be skipping school on Wednesday arvos to go to rotary and after rotary I can go back to school or whatever I want. He reason I guess I felt so awkward at rotary today was that it is a male only club so sitting in a room for 40+ fairly old Japanese guys was weird. However I did meat Yoshi’s Grandfather and he seams fairly nice. But they also sing a rotary song and then some other song at the start of their meetings. I had to introduce myself and do a bit of a speech. And then I swapped banners with then.
After rotary Otosan and the president of the rotary club took me to visit my school. Where I was shown around and told that I will have my special Japanese lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. i met the school nurse and the PE teachers. I will start off in year 1 (yr 10) class 2 but the school year is almost over so I will move up into year 2 (yr 11) in April when the new school year starts.
So today both my host parents had to be at work or at least out doing various things, so I was given house keys a map of the area and told to have a great day, so I decided to go for a wonder through the park which is literally about 200m away as the crow flies but to get there it’s about 600m not really far at all, and seeing as I got kind of cold yesterday with just my jacket on I decided to wear my ski suit today and I wondered around for almost 2 hours and was fine, except for my face it froze it truly does amaze me that parts of your body can be so numb from the cold while others are almost to the point of being hot. I really don’t have much else to say on the morning’s activities, just a wonder in the park.
Otosan came home for lunch and had brought 6 packs of sandwiches, a little but too much, I really haven’t had much of an appetite recently, I don’t know, I’m eating enough because I’m not hungry I guess to me it just seems like I’m not eating much coz it’s all different and I’m not used to it all. But the sandwich I had today was interesting, potato salad in a sandwich, and then like fried pork in a sandwich.
Otosan had to go into Toyama this afternoon and asked me if I wanted to go with, even though I was really tired and wanted to go sleep I went with… I think I slept most of the way into Toyama anyway. But he has land there that used to have a KFC on it but they didn’t want to renew the lease so the building is being demolished and he needed to go check up on that, we then went and visited the Lexus showroom, where Otosan bought his car from. Now as you all know I’m not much of a car fan but I know enough and was told enough times by people that saw the picture of my house and noticed that my host dad has one of these cars to have already realized that these cars were very ritzy, but wow wow wow they are amazing, I got to sit in the convertible and make the roof go up and down, the people there were really formal about everything they said and did but I actually understood everything that they were saying to me.
They then ushered us round into a lounge room and gave us hot drinks and biscuits, which Otosan made me bring the ones that we didn’t eat home, but they are really nice so it’s probably a good thing.
When we got home okasan and I went out and picked up my inside sport shoes which we ordered only yesterday so I was really amazed that they were there already, we then went to the supermarket, I had been to a Japanese supermarket before but this one still surprised me its more or less the size of an IGA store so fairly small but still very different, while our supermarkets sell or sorts of things from stationary to hardware to toiletries this one basically sold food, and mostly fresh food at that, so a lot of veggies and meat and then a bit of packaged stuff, and a very small toiletries section.
For dinner we had a dish called shabushabu which involved a pot of boiling water on a heater in the middle of the table with veggies in it (cabbage, shallots, and a few types of mushroom) we then had a plate of really thinly sliced meat which we had to pick up and put in the pot one slice at a time. And it cooked very fast. It tasted fairly good, but I was always scared that I hadn’t cooked my meat enough.
After dinner Otosan and I went to the big shopping centre Aeon as he wanted to go to the bookshop and I was being a good exchange student and not saying no to an offer to go with. I went into tower records and I was considering buying the Japanese soundtrack to wicked the musical; however I thought it was a little expensive. I then looked at mobiles because I’m told that I will really need one once I start school but they really confused me. So okasan and I are going to go shopping for one later in the week.
Wednesday 28th January
I had another opportunity to walk around this morning and I made the most of it to get used to the area, so I started my walk by going to Takaoka no eki (Takaoka train station) in doing this I walked past the department store where the 100yen shop is and I intended to visit in my walk this morning however the department store was closed so obviously I couldn’t do that. Down at the train station not many things were open yet so that was a bit of a boring walk. However there was one or 2 shops which were interesting to window shop in. after wondering around the station for a bit and getting a feel for it I headed back towards the park and today I explored the area that I didn’t yesterday. Today I visited the zoo. Now this is a pretty small zoo and it’s just part of the park so you are free to just wonder in so I did, grabbing a coffee from a vending machine on my way. Now you may think oh yeah coffee vending machine we have that here in Australia but ha-ha this is different, this is just from a standard vending machine that also sells cold drinks, but the coffee and other hot drinks that you can buy from the vending machines over here come in cans, just like our soft drink cans.
In the Zoo there were many animals; flamingos, monkeys, cape hyrax, porcupine, ring-tailed coati , Badgers, raccoons, raccoon dogs , mara , miniature horses, sheep, dear, penguins !!!, and lots of other birds but their cages had plastic around them to help protect them from the snow so you couldn’t really see them very well. But I know that there was kookaburras there coz the lady who was also looking knew I was Australian and made a big thing about showing me them as well as the emu. Now the emu I felt really really sorry for, I suppose the kookaburras as well but they at least had a decent shelter and don’t get snowed on, however this emu doesn’t and i felt sorry for it because its not an animal that is apt for the snowy conditions and it was growling the whole time I was there and once I realized it was the emu I also realized that it is the same sound I heard while in the general area of the zoo at the park yesterday. So I really don’t think that the emu is happy there.
I then came home and got ready to go to my first Japanese rotary meeting, now that was intresting, its within walking distance of home, and school and once I have started school I will be skipping school on Wednesday arvos to go to rotary and after rotary I can go back to school or whatever I want. He reason I guess I felt so awkward at rotary today was that it is a male only club so sitting in a room for 40+ fairly old Japanese guys was weird. However I did meat Yoshi’s Grandfather and he seams fairly nice. But they also sing a rotary song and then some other song at the start of their meetings. I had to introduce myself and do a bit of a speech. And then I swapped banners with then.
After rotary Otosan and the president of the rotary club took me to visit my school. Where I was shown around and told that I will have my special Japanese lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. i met the school nurse and the PE teachers. I will start off in year 1 (yr 10) class 2 but the school year is almost over so I will move up into year 2 (yr 11) in April when the new school year starts.
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