I'm finally starting to really fall into my routine here. The time change and the 'culture shock' that so many people apparently experience isn't even the hardest part of doing this kind of thing. The tough part is being on the go for 5ish days and then living in a new house. Not even because it's in a different country, it's just a different house that you have to find out how to fit into without disturbing everyone else's daily routine.
With that being said, I'll get to my update.
And I really don't have anything major to report so I'll just start off by going through my daily routine (because I know you're all dying to know what I do every single day. Bear with me on this part). My day starts at 6:00 a.m. because I'm crazy, and all of my close friends know that I tend to get up at times that are really unnecessary. I don't actually leave the house until 7:30. Usually it takes me about 20 minutes to get ready, I head downstairs and my host mom always has some awesome breakfast prepared and set out for me. It's kind of awesome. Usually breakfast in Japan (at least in my house) consists of a hard-boiled egg (I know everyone at home is totally shocked that I'm actually eating eggs here; I HATE EGGS), some sort of vegetable (cucumbers, tomatoes, white radish on one occasion), and toast. No rice, surprisingly enough, but I guess since you eat plenty of that the rest of the day you don't really need it in the morning. I head out at 7:30 on my BIKE, and I usually make it to school at around 8:10. That gives me 15 minutes to get into school and in class. Which I need because (not to be gross), but you definitely don't arrive at school as clean as you left the house when you ride your bike. So I take a few minutes to cool down and dry off.... In case you were wondering how many people bike to school, here's your answer:
I have 7 periods a day, 50 minutes each period. The only difference between here and home is that school starts at 8:25 and ends (on Mondays and Fridays) at 3:40 and (Tuesday-Thursday) at 4:40. WHAAAAAAT? Yeah. I'm kind of dead by the end of the day, and I don't even do any work. You'd be surprised how exhausting it is to just sit for 7-8 straight hours. At 12:30 the whole school has lunch in their classrooms (there's usually no cafeteria in a Japanese school). For anyone that doesn't know, a Japanese high schooler's mother (of father maybe...?) still makes them lunch. Only it's not a sandwich and chips. It's an おべんと (obento) and it's very carefully made. Some parents put more effort into it than others but they're all above and beyond what you usually get in North America. Here's what mine looked like last week:
Erm... something's being weird because it's the wrong way. Whatever. The right container is rice, some seaweed boiled in soy sauce and sugar (I think; it's really delicious), and UMEBOSHI. Dear lord that stuff is amazing. It took me a bit to get used to it but it turned out to be delicious. It's so strong that you can use that tiny piece for the entire container of rice. The left hand container has some chicken with a white radish sauce (yellow), some kind of seafood patty thing-y... I never really figured out what it was (light green), seaweed or something... again, don't really know what it was, but it was good (dark green), and tomatoes. Some kids have really elaborate ones. This one girl had a nori cutout of a bear that her mom put on her rice.
After lunch the entire school does 'soji', which is literally 'cleaning'. The students and teachers all take about 20 minutes to clean the school themselves. Sweeping, taking out the trash, cleaning the courtyard, etc. It's really weird to see so many kids cooperating. Back at my school in the states, there would definitely be some kids slacking off. Not here; EVERYONE participates. Even the kids that look like they don't really care about school.
At 3:40 or 4:40 (depending on the day, and sometimes we run late so it goes a few minutes over), school's out, but most people don't go home. Most students have an afterschool activity/sport. In my case, I'm in the 2nd year play for the October festival so I have practice everyday after school until 6 or 6:30.
I usually get home at around 7ish or a bit before. Looooooong day, but it keeps me busy and I really don't mind that much. I haven't been getting much homework so I almost can say that I enjoy school (GASP).
In other news... today I visited the local mall with my family. It's pretty popular among the town I'm in, and usually an outing to the mall is a big deal for a family. It's kind of a day trip type thing. I ended up running into the host mom that picked me up from the airport the day I got here and the exchange student that she's hosting. I shopped with them for a couple of hours while my family went home and I found some souvenirs for people at home (I can already see everyone at home's anticipation through the screen). I finally got change for my 10,000 yen bill hurrahhh! Legit Japanese money, check it out:
Sorry about having to crane your neck so much. Front and back of everything, in case you were at all interested.
Welp, that's about all I can muster today. I'm thinking about doing an extra post on school so I can talk about the differences between it and American schools. There's A LOT more than I mentioned here.
That's all for now, hopefully college apps will let me update again soon. Sigh.
-Ellie
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