Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd of March

School both days. Yay. The 3rd years graduated on Tuesday so we spent a lot of time on Monday setting up the hall and practicing for the ceremony… and then the ceremony on Tuesday. I swear we spent more time practicing it than the actual thing went for.
As far as setting up it was held in the gym. And they had put a green plastic thing over the courts so that we didtn reck it with our shoes or the chairs ect. Some of the boys hung huge banners or red and white stripes all the way around the gym and the rest set up the chairs for the 3rd years and the visitors while the girls wiped them all down with wet (freezing) cloths and check that they were in perfect condition.
The ceremony itself was very very simple unlike ours they don’t all get presented on stage, there is no entertainment pieces no awards and only 3 speaches and 2 songs, the national anthem, the school song and a traditional song.
The traditional song is to the tune of auld lang syne but their version is titled the light of a firefly. I have the lyrics and I do fully intend to translate it at some stage when my language is better than it is currently.
After the ceremony we were free to go, so I went home for lunch and later went out shopping to a place I had seen befor but couldn’t decided what I wanted when I was there so I went back and brought aheap of Takaoka stuff the mascot of the town is soo cute and coz it’s the towns 400th year there are a lot of souviners available.
Then went walking in the park and it snowed. So much for it being spring lol.

Wednesday 4th march
School for 3 lessons then went to rotary which was actually kinda fun today, I spoke to a couple of the Rotarians and I think we pretty much understood each other even if my Japanese did get laughed at a few times. I then headed back to school for band, and had to apologize to the English speaking club for not being able to watch the movie with them (was at the same time as band)

Thursday 5th March
Half day at school again I had my Japanese lessons in period 1 and 2 however during the break the principle decided that he wanted to have coffee with me so Ibata sensei, the libraina nad I sat in the library staffroom with the principle and had coffee, I was nice, good chance to use my Japanese.
After school I came home for a little bit befor heading out to the “street lined with storehouses which was ok, not all that intresting but there were some cool things there, I particually liked the teahouse… some very nice ladies there. And there was also the Sugano residence which is of some cultural signifigance, it was really pretty. There was also the bank made of red brick that they seem to think is soo cool. I was like yeah , half the houses in Australia are made of red brick, whats your point? Came back and wandered the park for a bit.

Friday 6th March
School this morning. And I then went to the art museum which is across he road from school and I have walkd past every day but had not yet gone in, I must say I really don’t think its worth the 210 yen entrance fee. I actually thought that the stuff that was just genrally around in the free area and the shop was a lot more intresting that the actual museum itself, but that could just be me. Because it was kinda icky weather I decided against doing the walk to the next place om my map I want to visit and instead decided to have a lazy afternoon at home. Ended up going for a walk just for the heck of it but genrally spent the arvo knitting, studying and napping.

Saturday 7th march
Had band this morning, but not as a whole ensemble I think everyone was at school but today all the woodwinds had a sectional of sorts of our own up in the class room that we go to for tt lessons. and we played all new songs…. Well knew to me I've had them in my folder from the start and I had looked at them a bit but I hadn’t played them with the band yet.
Came home and went out with Otosan for lunch. We had tempura udon. Witch is noodles (udon) in a soup with a tempura prawn on top. Was fairly nice, I don’t really like prawns but its getting there, I will eat them now because they are there but I by no means would actually order them if I had a say in the matter. Oh and there were gold flakes in it, how odd.
In the afternoon we went to Imizu shrine, which is the one in Kojo park for a tea ceromny that was hosted by otosans mum and okasan was helping out in. it was a very intresting experience however I don’t quiet understand why you would host one. Because it is held at a huge expense. The sweet that you eat befor the tea, is alone 420 yen ($6.65 AU), and there were over 200 guests through the day yesterday. So that’s a total of 84000 yen ($1333 AU) just in the sweets and then there is of course going to be other costs involved. Otosan said its all about showing off the art that they own and sharing the knowledge of the arts that they have with the guests. I must say that some of the “art” was quiet amazing… I thought it was more intresting than what I saw in the art museum earlier this week anyway. The art displayed has to reflect the current season, so although while I still think that it is very much winter here the arts were all spring works.
We went out for dinner again tonight this time to a pizzeria with a cob fire oven. Love it. I guess I should point out that Japanese pizzas that you get at resurants are nothing like our in Australia in that they arnt made on a think bready base but on something more like pitta bread. And they are no where near as oily. We then went to baskin and robbins for an icecream which I think is absolutely crazy when its this cold but anyway. Home for a bath and bed.

Saturday 24th september~ home again

When we landed Mel and I went to the toilets and she said “ I really hope they had western style toilets here” me “Mel of course they do we are in BRISBANE” and then when we were washing our hand we realised that we had also semi forgotten about taps…. We were just waving our hands under the tap and expecting it to start.
Mum and dad took me to Strathpine straight away and I so got cultural shock or reverse culture shock which ever you want to call it, when I realised that I could read all the sings and understand everything that was being said to me. i was shocked at our sever lack of culture like there is in japan.
I had a absolutely great time and I think this will have been the first of many to Japan, such a beautiful country.

in the car i started unpacking the bag of presents i had taken aboard as hand luggage and givign them to mum and dad, i was so excited about being able to share my wonderful experiance with others. i couldnt and still cant wait to get back to japan and continue my journey in the land of my heart. God truely did provide for me while in Japan and has given me an incredble passion for the country, the culture, the language and the people.


i hope youve enjoyed reading my journals of japan trip 05 as much as i have enjoyed going over them and reminissing on the trip.

Friday 23rd September ~ Kamakura

haha yet again my lazyness prevails.

on this day, our last in Japan was a school holiday, what the occassion of i really cant remember, but the school had aranged a bus for us, and our host families to go to kamakura for the day. kamakura is basically the hostorical centre and is famous for its woodworks and carving. it is also the home of the biggest outdoor budda, which you can climb inside of. after going to that temple and the surrounding area, and witnessing a Japanese wedding we were free to wonder the area with our hostfamilies.

we left kamakura on the bus to the airport where we had to get of the bus leaving our host families. for me this was a really difficult time as while with this host family i had struggled alot because of the language barrier and being really homesick especially during the 2 days we wernt at school, where i had no contact with any fluent english speakers but as i said God provided for me and brought me through it and it was a strengthiening experiance that i really felt a few more days in and i would have really started to actually enjoy myself instead of using all my energy just on understanding them and what was going on around me and being so stressed about not comprehending. also at that point of time i didnt believe that i would ever see them again as i didnt see it as a reality for us to contine communication once i had gone home because of the language. but it was something that had to happen, and i was given 2 very long letters written by them when we left, that i had to get mrs forman to read it to me, as it was all in japanese, simple japanese as far as the words go but they still used kanji, that once mrs forman had told me the reading off i could actually understand the most of it.

once checked in we had time in the airport befor we could bored our plane, we had dinner and looked around at a few of the shops befor moving down to the depature lounge and location our gate.

at one point we were rather worried about not getting out of japan that night due to the weather conditions, an oncomming typhoon but we did get out befor it hit and only experiances little turbulance. but i discovered that i do not like overnight flights, i could barly sleep and i hadnt packed much in my hand luggage to keep me entertained as i had though that we would be getting he little screens again, though this was not the case.

its hard to define the diffrence of days here because of the lack of sleeping and a true night but i will finish this log here and put the jounal of arriving home in a seprate blog

Wednesday 21st September~ day at school

hmm i must have really been getting lazy towards the end of the trip lol but um this day we went to school with our buddies and basicialy we sat in on whatever classes they had.
i did a mahts class, followed by a maths test, which i got 97% on woo go me. um then my class had problem solving but i found this class strange it was literally that, but in English, so yeah that made it even harder for them, and it was a competition to see who could do them the fastest, and i must say that im ashamed, i was betten on mutiple occasions. i blame that we were using imperial measurments which confused me alot but hey.
we then had english and for this class a few of the other grace students joined my class and we were split into small groups with one of us aussies in each group and they had to ask us questions and what not and ended up doign a poster about us. it was kinda fun. we then played some games that tested the language again. like the one where you all put your arms in the middle of a circle grab someone elses and them try and undo the knot you have formed. after my class's english lesson i stayed with the teacher and went with them to other classes and repeted the same activities. i must say by the end of it i was kinda sick of those activities.

Monday 19th September ~ disneyland

believe it or not i actually dint write anything other than disneyland in my journal for this day.

i remember being overwelmed by this place at first, if you dint allready know i am a huge Disney fan, and this was hevan for me. the only issue was that i was with my host family and didnt understand much of what they were saying to me, or what was going on around me. i understood them to be telling me that it was a really busy day there on this particular day.

but we wanderered around and saw a 3d movie, where i got headphones and got to sit in a special seat where i could specifie what language i wanted to listen to, while the Japanese version was on the loud speakers. we then watched the parade befor heading home again. of course the day wsnt with out its hickups and me gettinglost yet again, but we coped, and i realized that even if your knowledge of the language isnt that great body language genrally gets you through what you need. but in saying that God did really step in and give me language skills and knowledge that i know i donot actualy have, i know that i spoke and understood language that i have not learnt and no longer remeber but God gave me the understanding at that point simply becuase i needed it and he is a wonderful God who provides what we need. ok now for some pictures.