So it's been awhile.
It's been almost 3 months since I've come back to America, since my exchange has ended. The last 5 months of my time in Japan were a busy blur of friends, family, and having the time of my life, and I found myself forgetting about my blog. For that I apologize. Almost half of my exchange is undocumented, and unfortunately it will remain that way. I don't have either the time nor the heart to write about all the things that happened. Instead, I'll post some of the photos and hope that my stories are represented through the gallery page. I can't put into words how much this year changed me. It shaped my entire life and sent it shooting off in a direction that I never thought was possible. I can't even write this message without becoming emotional. My family has grown into this giant mess of people, all who I love and all who I may or may not ever see again. Sometimes I wonder to myself if going on exchange was worth having to come back and leave so much that I hold dear behind. It's difficult to believe the people who say this is just the beginning when all I can think of is how the greatest year of my life is now in the past. But I'm not here to show all of that stuff. I'm here to say that going to Japan didn't just change me as a person, but it changed how I look at the world as a whole. There will not be a day in the rest of my life that I don't recall something from my exchange. It is an experience that will stay with me until I die, that is something I'm sure of. Being back in America is difficult, that's for sure. I can't relate to anyone in my high school anymore. I can't even really relate to anyone my age anymore. I wish that there was a way that I could put this without coming off wrong. It's like, in Japan I was always the one who was different. I looked different from everyone else, I couldn't understand what was happening half the time, and I was just foreign.. And now, that feeling of being different, it hasn't gone away. I feel like I just don't fit into the puzzle anymore, no matter where I go. To be honest, the only people who really understand are the other exchange students. There's no bigger family than the one we've created and I think that's something that Rotary takes pride in. They say the path to World Peace is built one exchange student at a time. Anyways, I know this is long and rambly and most likely a little too sad than it's meant to be but that's just how things are sometimes. In the end, 2018 and 2019 will always have a special place in my heart. And to my big messy family, I love every single one of you. Thank you for giving me the best year of my life. Until we meet again, キム
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お久しぶりです。
最初に、私の日本語がちょっと悪くなりましたので、ごめんなさい。書きがまだまだ難しいそうです。 もうアメリカに帰ったらもう少し3ヶ月をかかりました。早かったですね。私もびっくりしました。1月からこのブログにあまり書きませんでした、すみません。実は私は日本の話が大好きけど、よく悲しくなります。日本にいった時間がわたしにすごく特別です。日本の家族、友達、場所、全部また見たい。あー今泣きそう感じがあります。だからあまり書かないのほうがいいと思います。この一年間が私の生活を変わりました。言葉にできません。世界で一番好きな人たちが会えました。それがいつまでも忘れません。ロータリーへ、本当にありがとうございました。とても感謝しています。 みんなまた会おうね :) キムから Tokyo is a very big place and it was only a matter of time before I got myself in a situation where Google Maps would fail to help me. Saturday was that day for me. So we had a District Rotary conference scheduled, and I wasn't very sure what the day entailed except for the fact that we would be meeting Interact Students. I had also been asked to give a speech. (Sidestory - awhile ago we had a meeting where all of the inbounds had to write a speech in Japanese about 'war and peace' in our countries. Apparently the Rotarians liked mine especially and asked me to give it again at this other conference in front of different people). In our Rotary Group Chat thing, we were told we needed to be at the place at 9:30am, so that's what I told my host family (because my host dad always drives me to the train station) but then late at night when everyone was already asleep, a new message came in that we actually needed to be there at 9:00 instead. I thought that I would be fine anyways. Also, I should mention that the school we were meeting at is REALLY far away. Like it's almost in another prefecture far away. It was gonna take me like an hour to get there (if I had gone the right way that is lmao). So the next morning comes, I'm dressed in my uniform (since that's the most formal outfit that students have) with my rotary blazer and tea ceremony things (we had practice after the morning conference) in my backpack. My host dad drives me to a different station than usual, because it has a different train line for me to use, and already I was a little worried about time. The traffic on the way to the station was pretty bad. But anyways, we get to the station, and I go in by myself to get on the train. My host dad even wrote my "directions" down on a piece of paper for me (for some reason no one ever trusts me to get places on my own (THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME MESSING UP ON THE TRAIN ANYWAYS)). Even the paper said to just get on this train at the station, and it will take you alllll the way to the station I get off at. I even looked it up on Google Maps, which is what I usually use for making my way around the city and it said as well that I would be able to use this single train to get to my destination. Easy peesy, right? That's what I thought at least. So I got on the train, and since there were like more than 20 stops, I plugged in my headphones to listen to music on my way there, thinking that I would keep my head up for the last couple station names so I would know when to get off. I wasn't going to listen to every single station we stopped at. So I was chilling for probably like 40 minutes, and I was like, yeah, I'm definitely not going to make it by 9:00. I'm pretty sure I was still on that train when it was like 9:03. So I texted the others to say I would be late, and I checked the train screen thingy to see which station I was at and how much longer it would take me. But as I looked at the station name, and at the guide on Maps, they didn't match. So I kinda freaked a little bit, and I was like - did I go too far? I was really confused, didn't know where I was, and panicking because I was already late to this meeting where I was supposed to give a speech. Of course, the first thing I did was get off at the next station, and find a map of the train line. Immediately I was more confused than I had been because the map was of the a completely different train line! This is what the train lines look like. I was SUPPOSED to be on the Chuo Sobu Line. I started at Koenji Station and I was supposed to get off at Koiwa. Even on this picture it's just a straight line! The picture on the left is of the Tozai Line, which is where I somehow ended up on. So basically, I still don't know why, my train must have switched lines at Iidabashi Station and I didn't realize! So I took a deep breath, and tried to figure out how to get back to where I needed to be. I needed to get back onto the Chuo Sobu line, and the only way to do that was to go back to Iidabashi. Unfortunately, I had gone super far without realizing. Although I'm not 100% sure which station I was at when I got off, I'm pretty sure it was Kasai, which is 11 stops away from Iidabashi kkkkk.
I was still kinda freaking out and not completely sure if I was going the right way or not but I got back on the train - this time going the other direction - and texted the Rotarians to let them know I was not going to be a little late like I had said before, but REAAALLY late. It was already past 9:00, and I had like 30 minutes of retracing my steps. And then once I finally got onto the right train, right train line, in the right direction, I still had like 30 minutes to get to Koiwa. To make things even weirder, the weirdest thing happened to me on the train when I was so close to getting off. The next stop was literally the one where I was getting off and off course, something else had to add on top of my already stressful morning. So I was sitting down on one of the seats, and the space next to me was empty. I was just on my phone minding my own business, ready to sprint to the school as soon as the train stopped ( it was like 10:10 lol) when this guy moves to stand in front of me. And so I just look up, yknow cause it's kinda weird for someone to be moving around when the trains moving, but the guy was STARING AT ME (now this was weird but before you freak out nothing that bad happened it was just extra creepy). I have no idea what he wanted, but he pointed down at the floor, like at my shoes I think? So I looked down and there was nothing there. Then he sits down next to me and points again, meanwhile not saying a word. I don't know, but to be honest I don't think he was in a right state of mind if you know what I mean. I looked back at him and I shook my head, kinda like, I dunno what you're talking about but leave me alone kinda look. This is literally the weirdest thing that has happened to me on exchange because he even touched my hand and kept pointing without saying anything. The only thing I could think of was that I was a foreigner in a uniform? Maybe that was what he meant? Even the other people on the train were looking because it was so weird. THANK GOD my next stop was Koiwa because as soon as the train started to slow down I was UP and OUT. If there's anything good about Tokyo it's that there's always people everywhere, no matter where it is or what time it is. Not that I ever saw that guy again, but still, knowing there's plenty of people around after something like that is kind of a relief. Anyways, at the time I didn't even pause to have a freak out about that because I was too busy running to get to the Rotary Meeting. I made it there at 10;30ish, an hour and a half late. It took me over two hours to get there lol. Luckily, my speech wasn't until after 12:00 so I was safe and only missed a presentation from a guest speaker. Everything turned out fine. As you can imagine, I had a pretty stressful morning. The rest of my day didn't help a whole lot either lolol. Of course. I was nervous about my speech, especially when the Rotarians said they wanted me to do it in English too like 10 minutes before I was supposed to do it. Originally we had to write it in both English and Japanese, but at the first meeting, we only had to present the Japanese version so I thought it would be the same for that day and therefore only brought a copy of the Japanese. I was like fully prepared to go up there in front of those 50 people and translate it back into English on the fly lol but thankfully the Rotarians had brought a printed copy of both versions that I could use and it all went fine. And then finally, after the meeting, the exchange kids all had to go to our Tea Ceremony practice. Except that Saturday was our first test over what we've learned so far. There's three teachers for us, two very kind and one who's kindaaaa very much scary. We all had to perform the ceremony in pairs in front of one of the teachers, (one person as the server and the other as the customer). In my head I was like, anyone but the scary lady pleeeeeeease, but luck was NOT on my side this day. Although, I guess I was a little lucky because I got assigned to the role of customer, which is wayyyy easier and basically I just sat there for awhile while Fernanda did all the tea preparation and stuff. Not that sitting is very nice either when you have to sit seiza (on your knees with your feet tucked under your butt) on tatami (the traditional Japanese rice straw flooring). Trust me, it hurts. Luckily after all that stress I got to go hang out with my best friends, and by hang out I mean freeze our butts off eating convenience store food on the rooftop of a building in Harajuku. Ah yes, a great way to have fun. No but for real I love them and freezing is worth it if I get to be with them. So that was my Saturday. Probably one of the most mentally stressful days I've had since coming to Japan. Definitely eventful lol. One for the memories. Also I live with my fourth host family now. Also I turned 17 this month. Yay. Been busy, and I know I should blog more, but I thought I should really share this story since it's a little bit of a crazy one. Life is crazy here, and I can't get enough of it. It's so amazing. I recently received an incredible opportunity to go to a Sumo tournament at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. I've heard that tickets are difficult to get so I'm really grateful to my host father who got them. My host sister and I spent the day together, first going to the Edo Museum before going next door to the Sumo building. It was all really interesting and I especially loved seeing all the old art they had on display!
After that though, we walked next next door to where we picked up two bags from one of these counters in the entrance. I think it might have come with the seats, or that my host dad knows the people working somehow? I'm not really sure, but inside was a bunch of gifts as well as food to eat while we watched. It was really interesting, and it didn't take me very long to get super invested lol. It's definitely different than any other sport I've ever seen and there's clearly lots of tradition based in it. For example, there are no screens in the arena area, like where advertisements would be on. Instead, before each bout the two wrestler's sponsors have flags that get walked around the edge of the ring. You can tell which wrestlers are more popular as they have more flags before the match. And especially at the last three rounds, which are the highest ranked wrestlers, there were tonsss of flags. I wish that I could post videos on here so I could show everyone, but unfortunately I can only do images. Anyways, it was an experience I won't forget anytime soon! (Oshogatsu - New Years) Because of the title font the hiragana and kanji look really funny together kkkk.
Well. Any homesickness I had for Christmas disappeared after New Years. I didn't do much during the day on December 31st but after dinner at around 10:30pm, my host father, sister, and I picked up my host uncle to go to a temple. Its tradition here to go to a temple/shrine on January 1st, 2nd, or 3rd as the first visit of the year. It's called 初詣 (hatsumoude) and it's especially popular to go to the temple on New Years at 12am for the countdown/beginning of the year or whatever you want to call it. The temple we went to is the same that my host father goes to every year called 川崎大師 (kawasaki-daishi) which has been around since 1128 (just a crazy fact I learned while I was searching for the name lol). It's also the 2nd most popular temple in Japan for hatsumode, with about 3.1 million people coming over the span of those 3 days. Luckily though, not that many people were there when we got there and we were able to shimmy our way to in front of the gates before midnight. When I say not that many people though, it was probably more than a thousand, and the line got longer and longer the more we waited. The street leading up to the temple was just filled with people building to building. The temple gates didn't actually open until after midnight, so as more people came, they all had to stay at the back. Because we were at the front, I couldn't really tell how many people were behind us until the countdown to new years started. From 10-1 and then everyone cheered. It was amazing, how many people I could hear. Unfortunately, I can't post videos on the site but I posted the video on my instagram! But also I was kinda disappointed with the video anyway, it's pretty underwhelming compared to how it was in real life. Once they opened the gates, they let in groups of people at a time (I'm realising now that I'm terrible at estimating how many people there were-I'll post pictures in the gallery) and we ended up being the 3rd or 4th group let in. From there we were inside the temple grounds but they also had block the way up the temple steps for crowd control also. So we did some more waiting and then it was finally our turn to toss in our coins and pray. And that's pretty much it. We bought some new fortunes for the new year and then left the temple to go eat at the udon/soba restaurant literally right in front of the temple gates. I had a bowl of tempura udon I'm not even lying when I think it was the best meal of my life. It was cold outside, 1am, and it was warm and tasted so so good. A good first meal for the new year. After that, we walked along the stalls leading back down the opposite street. It was like an omatsuri, like Japanese festivals, but New Years addition I guess. Once we circled around to go back to where the car was parked, I saw the line for the temple again and it was crazy. Even though they had been letting people in for over an hour, the line was probably double what it had been when we had first got there. My host sister suspected the people just showing up were the ones that had watched the New Years Countdown on TV (which was most likely true lol). So that was my New Years night, but the next two days were really nice too. New Years is the most important holiday in Japan, and it's spent with family. So the next morning, all the family came over and we had a good time eating and talking and just hanging out. It really reminded me of how my family gets together at my grandma's house for Christmas, that feeling that I had really been missing. It made me feel a lot better, and everyone was so nice that it really felt like I was just a part of the family. I had full conversations with people around the table and though of course my Japanese is still pretty terrible, I was really proud at the end of the day when I realized that I was able to understand and talk to people. The next day was also with family, but only the core people this time. Mother, father, the oldest sister Kanna and her husband, the middle sister Naoko and her husband and the youngest sister Yuriko. This too was really fun and continued to fuel my family vibes and just made me generally really happy. Naoko and her husband Ryosuke just got back from America, and it's nice to talk to someone about American things (and even though they speak kinda English, we only talked in Japanese). For example, Naoko and I bonded about how nervous it can be at the checkout counter when you don't understand what the cashier says to you lololol. The answer is always smile and nod. I also spoke a lot this day too, especially with Kanna's husband, who had been hitting the alchohol pretty hard with my host father. It was actually pretty funny kkkkkk. He'd ask me something and occasionally there'd be a word I didn't understand so I'd look at the others for help and everyone would just laugh and ask him how I was supposed to know what that was. I guess it must have been pretty difficult because neither Naoko or Ryosuke knew what it was in English. In the end, I never figured out what that was, but I sure had a good time. And to make it even funnier, when we went out to lunch with Kanna the next day, she said that she'd told him he'd talked to me a lot over dinner and he didn't remember a single thing lololol. It's okay though because I'll just be the one to remember it forever hahaha. Just writing this is making me cackle. It was really really funny. Anyways, that was my New Years! Definitely the coolest and most exciting in my entire life and one I'll sure be remembering for a long time. As always, pictures in the Gallery! (I suggest starting at the one right after the Tower Records Christmas photos and clicking through them because I wrote captions on all of them explaining where we were) I don't want to say that Christmas is nonexistent here, because that's a bit extreme. Christmas is definitely a thing here, I just don't think it can be compared to how it is in the West. First of all, New Years is much much more important. In America, you spend Christmas with your family, and New Years with your friends. In Japan, it's flipped. On Christmas Day, I ate breakfast with my host mom and then left to go hang out with the other exchange students for awhile, which just kind of turned into us moping about how much we miss the holidays. We did however, take part in the Japanese tradition that is Christmas Cake. We bought one from a convenience store with the thought that it would cheer us up, but then we were dumb and realized we didn't have anywhere to actually eat it. We couldn't eat it on the streets, it was too big for that, and we couldn't eat it in a restaurant, because yknow, you cant really bring in other food to eat. So, we just improvised. We went to this cafe on the top floor of a building and coincidentally, they had a rooftop section outside where no one else was sitting. So we hid our cake box under the table, ordered drinks and while there was no one else outside, we devoured our cake. In probably less than a minute. Good times.
If I'm being honest, it doesn't even really feel like there was a Christmas here. There are Christmas commercials, lights decorating the trees in parts of the city, people in their winter clothes, but it just didn't feel like Christmas. Perhaps it's the fact that it's not quite as cold as I'm used to. Maybe it's that there are still yellow leaves on some of the trees. But I think the best answer came from Salome, who on Christmas was hyped up on like 6 coffees at the time. There's just no Christmas spirit in the people. Which, yes, I know sounds realllly cheesy, but it's true. No one was excited for Christmas and I think it's that that killed the whole vibe. I didn't have a whole lot of Christmas homesickness, because it didn't feel like Christmas time at all. Does that make sense? I don't really know how to explain this the right way. It was just weird. Maybe it'll just make next years Christmas even more special. Who knows? Despite all of that, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Now before you flip out and go whaaaaat, Kim's skipping school????????? Technically, yes, I was skipping school. But also, the school was the one who told me to skip. This week is testing and while everyone has 3-4 tests a day, I only have 4 tests in all. Monday I had Math, Japanese and an hour in the library. Wednesday I have an English test, and 3 hours in the library and Thursday I have another English test, along with 2 hours of library. Tis an exciting week, and I was very happy when I was told it was okay for me to stay home on Tuesday, rather than spending even more time in the library, no matter how enticing my school's copies of Harry Potter are (the only english books my school has above a 1st grade reading level).
And because I didn't want to spend the day doing absolutely nothing, I asked if any of the other exchange students wanted to hang out and so Melina and I decided we would go and explore the shops in Ueno. Today was pretty cold though (definitely not as cold as Indiana but cold for here) and we spent a long time walking around in the park and around the shops. The trees here are in peak autumn colors right now, which is a strange feeling for me considering it's December, so it's really pretty and we took lots of pictures. I also found out that similar to in Osaka, Ueno has a whole street market dedicated to American goods (which are all incredibly expensive btw). We found this really cool shop that was all niche and pretty looking and just neat. Melina tried to take some photos but the employees asked us not to so unfortunately I cant really show you. But I did get their website from my reciept and they have like 2 photos on there so if you wanna see you can click here. After that, we stumbled across an arcade where I accidentally spent way too much money but had lots and lots of fun. All in all it was a fun day and I can home exhausted and I really am making this blog come back to life. This is just some stuff about what’s going on at school. Yesterday we had a fun little experience. We were in our classroom changing back into our uniforms after morning stretches and heard lots of girls screaming outside, which is not out of the ordinary. However, everyone was either running away or running towards the classroom next to ours so our interest was peaked and my friend and I went outside the class to see what it was. Don’t ask me what a cockroach was doing on the fourth floor but it was sure causing a commotion, as you can imagine at an all girls school. Eventually a male teacher came around and picked it up though which ended the fun pretty quickly. It was funny though.
Next week is finals week, meaning we get to go home after only 3 hours and after tests is winter break!! Which is like a month long here!! And actually I’ve come across a bit of a school revelation recently. So I have a month of winter break now, and a month of spring vacation in March, and then I’ll be attending school probably right up until I come back to the US. The summer vacation is in August, so kids go to school in June and July, meaning I’m gonna have a short vacation before american school starts most likely. This is just a short little thing I’m writing on my phone before sleeping. I know I said I would blog more and I’m aiming to keep that promise but I just changed host families again last week, meaning I had to lug all my junk into suitcases and bags and then take it all out again. I didn’t even get the wifi for the house until two days ago so forgive me for not updating. I can tell you i absolutely hate updating on mobile. Even just writing this short little thing has almost made my brain explode with frustration. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do I guess. Thats all for now, I’ll write more soon (hopefully lol) On October 4, I changed host families. I don't live in Ikebukuro anymore. Now I live in Itabashi, where I'm pretty sure I'll be spending the rest of my exchange (all the rest of my host fathers are in my host club). It's completely different here, For starters, I live on a Buddhist temple now. They have a website and everything so you can check that out here! Its all in Japanese and the google translation is pretty terrible (I tried it too) but it has lots of pictures! Although the business/temple and the house are the same building, theyre kinda separated so I've only really looked at the temple part once. The big gate is right at the front though and I walk past it everyday! There's also lots of trees on the grounds and its really pretty!
My family is really nice too! I have two older sisters, 22 and 26 and we've done sooo much together in the month I've lived here. We went to Asakusa, Sky Tree, an old village reenact thing that I forgot the name of (think like the old fort except 1000 years older), shopping in Shibuya, and just Tuesday we went to an aquarium! OH, and did I mention WE SAW MY FAVORITE BAND IN CONCERT. Like whaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Talk about an experience. I have to say, if youre vertically challenged like someone else I know (coughcough) then Japan concerts are for you! Why? Because here you can actually see the stage!!! HAhaha besides that though, I could not express how grateful I was to my family to taking me. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I'll never forget it. Just like before, I'll post pictures in the gallery section! Every school in Japan has what's called a "bunkasai/文化祭" a weekend festival where everything is organized by the students. The school is open to anyone and each class has its own theme that they prepare. So far, I've been to 4 school festivals, including my own. My class' theme was cards/gambling. I spent Saturday and Sunday playing a game called babanooki with strangers. I even worked the table by myself for a bit, although problems arose when we had to play rock paper scissors to decided who would go first (at this point in time I still did not understand how the Japanese version worked). For the most part it was all good though! I had tons of fun, going around to the other classes and seeing what they had created. By far my favorite one was the horror house. Those ones are always the most fun :))))))
I was really sad because all of my friends' clubs were performing Sunday afternoon and I couldn't stay to watch. I had to go to a Youth Exchange meeting instead. Of course, I had lots of fun there too. That was also the first time we met Fiona, the Finnish student who couldn't come to summer camp. Since then, we have successfully become best bros. It was a really fun weekend that I wont forget-- Ill upload photos after dinner :)))))))))) |
Author.Through the RYE Program, I spent my junior year of high school as an exchange student in Tokyo, Japan Catalogue.
September 2019
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