Today was the time to wonder around and learn what there is around my home and what kind of stores there are. We left home at around 9:34 AM. My mother, Kanako, first showed me a restaurant that I would go later with my brother, Ryosuke. There they sold different types of foods. After walking by the restaurant she took me to use the subway station. This is actually my first time using a station. The station is underground. After entering we headed to go buy me a ticket. My mother had her own pass for the station. We then proceeded to go to the subway. We waited for the train to arrive. It was not as full as a thought it would be. Apparently it as not full because it was morning and people had already gone to either work or school. We were heading to the next city over. It took only 2 minutes to get there by train. I we had gone Wallingford it old have been a bit longer. On the train the seats were all taken. We gad to stand during the ride. It was a bit weird because the train would move pretty fast and I would get off balance and almost fall. After we arrived the first store we went to was Seven Elevan. Next we headed to another store. It was a grocery store. I am currently very tired at the moment so I don't actually remember what i did. I will try my best with narrowing what I want to write about my day. We went shopping around in the city for a while. In one store though somebody walked up to me and said that i was not allowed to take photos. After being in this nearby city we started heading backs home. On our way home we stopped at another grocery store and got ice cream. Then we had finally arrived home. My mother had to go to work at around 1 PM. My brother had to leave as well for his job i believe. I was left home alone. At around 3:30 PM my father had returned and was here for a little while and then left again. My brother later returned at around 4:45 PM. He was eating a snack. I was in my room working on my Japanese. I needed help with understanding the time. My brother helped me a lot. He helped me with the time and being with me for about the next two hours helming me with Japanese. We talked about differences of schools from USA and Japan. After we finished with Japanese, we were going to go get dinner. I mentioned up earlier about the restaraunt my mother showed me. When we arrived Ryosuke asked me what i would like to eat. All of the food seemed very Japanese to me. After eating together we went out to go for a walk. He was showing me a park that was neat and a sports center. Now, i have arrived home. I am very tired, so once this uploads i am going straight to bed. I have also posted some images onto the photo sections in my website under the The Photos tab. So, thanks to all reading my blogs! Sayonar
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Alright, this will be the now be the fourth blog. In case you haven't, make to sure to read the blogs that were posted earlier today. There are three others. Now onto what i had done today. Firstly, i woke up. Hehe. Then my host mother asked and wondered about my family and if they were worried about me. I explained that i have been having trouble with my phone. She asked if it was about the wifi. I said it was connected it not working, so i tried my iPad. She gave me the password and i was connected. It was 7:44 AM here in Nagoya, so it was 6:44 PM in Logansport. I Facetimed my mother and she answered very quickly. She was mad at me for not having call earlier. I explained to her what was going on and what was happening. After the call it was time for breakfast. We had to leave the house at 9 AM. For breakfast we had a very popular cereal. My host father asked if it was popular in USA. I said no but if it was i need to know about it because it was very delicious. It was a cereal with dry fruit in it. After breakfast i had to get ready for my schedule. First, we were heading to my high school. I mead the head master and was shown around the school. My father was with the head master and they were talking about my school schedule and classes. Almost the whole entire time it was all in Japanese so it was hard to understand exactly what was going on. My school is very tall. It was 6 floors tall but also had a lower floor and then another floor for outside. After walking around the school it was time to say good bye and thank you. Here in japan there is a lot of bowing. After school it was time for Rotary meeting. This was the time in which i had to make a speech, preferably in...Japanese. This was the time in which i worried. Everybody in the Rotary was very kind and patient with my little speaking of Japanese. We will be having meetings on Tuesday. They are about an hour long. The meetings are held at a hotel. After the meeting we went to go get my form of staying and living in Nagoya. We were there for a little while. I also saw a man sleeping while waiting. Here in Japan many people are sleeping everywhere. It is okay to fall asleep. I believe it is seen as a result of your hard work. At first it was a bit unusual for me to see that but after a while i got used to it and just went with the flow. After this we headed to our car but then we returned back because my father saw a sausage store. After we went to go get a mobile phone. On our way we visited a shrine. We did not enter but we parked in the parking lot. Then we were off to the mobile store. We ended not getting the mobile phone then but we will later. Then it was time to head home. My father decided to rest a bit. I actually rested for quite a while. After writing the earlier blogs i went to sleep. I guess i am still very tired because i fell asleep very fast and for a long time. I literally woke up before this blog. Oops...hehe. I am currently having little trouble though. I seem to be having a reaction to something and my right wrist is filled with many bumps. My host brother has contacted his father at his work I believe. I was given an ice pack. It isn't that great of a deal, please do not worry. All it is is itchiness. Well, i am here with my brother and he said that after writing this blog we would eat together. So, good night from Nagoya but good morning in Logansport. Thank you!
Firstly, in case you did not know I have posted earlier blogs. I suggest you read those first and know what has been going on. I will also post a later blog about what has happened today. So, lets get started! After arriving yesterday at the airport i had to go through customs and all that. I as having trouble a bit because of my reason of being here. I had put on a lip of paper that i was in Japan because i was an exchange student from Rotary. Eventually it has all worked out and i was sent next to get a residence card. Everyone was very kind and they were helming me out very much. I am so glad because i was too shy to ask for help and had no idea on what i was supposed to do. I am sorry. Lol. I'm supposed to be getting out my shell and yet i have already failed. Well, after receiving my card it was time to get my baggage. I had found one baggage very quickly. The next ones were more difficult. Once again i had received help from a kind lady. She told me that the next bags would come from a different baggage drop off. She showed me where to go. I waited for my bags for quite a while. They were not appearing. I decided to look around and see what was going on. Turned out that my bag was on the other baggage drop off. Where i was already at. Heh. Somebody had already gotten my baggage off the drop off so it would be easier to get instead of having it go round and round. I got my bags then it was time to meet my Osten family and my host Rotary. My host Rotary greeted me first, then shortly after my host parents came to us. My host Rotary gave me a present they had gotten. It was a hat with pikachu ears and these paper things with Pokémon on them. Then we took a picture. Next, it was time to go home, at least that's what the plans were going to be. Our home area is about an hour from the airport. There i talked to with my host parents and asked questions. Now, i said we were going home but we didn't. We went to go visit my counselor. He is a dentist. I said hello and took a picture as well. After that we went to go get my school uniform. It was... awkward. To receive a uniform you had to get your body measured. There were people around me and measuring my body and stuff. Lol. We were there for quite a while. I don't know exactly how long but it was long. At Japanese schools you have more that one outfit. There is an outfit for every season. I had to try every single outfit for every season. Next was onto the shoes. I had to try on some shoes to see what my size was. After that, we went to a shopping place. It was almost closing time and it was also very chaotic...? Everyone was going everywhere so fast. To be honest, all of Japan is going fast. Even when driving everyone is going fast and the roads are so narrow but yet they have control. Does that make sense? I'm still a bit tired and am hoping that all of this makes sense. Yall are asleep and i am awake. It will be something my body will have to get used to. Always, back to what i did yesterday. After the shopping at a food market place we headed home. I was glad. I was starting to get very tired. My family kept asking earlier in the day after my plane if I wanted to head straight home and sleep. I kept saying no because i wanted to be with my family and for them to be with me on my first day in Japan. After getting home i took a shower and watched tv with my brother, Ryosuke. I had little idea what they were saying on the TV but i could try to figure it out with the video and the few words i could understand. It was a tv show about funny videos and pranks and stuff. Then around 10 it was time for me to sleep. My body couldn't last anymore. I was too tired and decided to listen to my brain. Everyone else stayed awake. I later drifted off into deep sleep. Well, that was my first day of Japan. There was a lot going on yesterday and today. So, I will post a blog later about today. Stay tuned! I will also try to post pictures. I took pictures on my phone but its having a hard time posting. I will try my best to post them in the Photo section in my website. Thank you once again.
Alright, I just post a while ago a blog. I have to explain that and what is going on. Do not worry, everything is going well for me over here. The reason that the blog was just recently posted was because yesterday, Monday, I was having extreme troubles with my phone. I had no service and it was not connecting to the home wifi. Just sending one email took a very long time. I brought my IPad to use. I am very glad i did. It is working a lot better than my phone. So, that explains about my blog. I wasn't able to contact my family in telling that I had arrived. Today I was able to finally contact them. My mum as very upset though.... She was mad at me for not contacting her. I had to explain everything to her and what was going on. I have solved everything out and I will begin doing daily blogs again
Hello everyone. I have officially arrived in Japan. I actually arrived at around 2 PM here on Monday but it would be 1AM for y'all Indiana folks. I was very nervous at the airport because I was afraid that I was going to mess things up. It went pretty well actually. I was early and on time. On the first plane from Indianapolis to Detroit the flight attendants and captains were intrigued by my Rotary Jacket. They even gave me pins!! Both of the captain pin and flight attendant pin. After they had given me the pins they had decided to let me sit where the captain sits. It was pretty cool. After that we were off to Detroit. Midway the flight attendants all gather around me and start asking so many questions about the pins and who I was or what I do. Once arriving to Detroit it was off straight to Nagoya. At the Detroit airport there were signs all over in Japanese. I guess they were preaparing me? Haha. We waited about three hours until it was time to board the plane. FOR ABOUT 13 HOURS WE ARE SITTING ON OUR BUMS!!!!! I was soooo bored. I was so bored of being bored. I decided that watching 2 hour or more long movies would make time go fast. I was wrong. The movie too so long that time seemed to stop. The two hours of movie felt like 1 hour of real life. I was in a row of four but it was only a man and I. All around me I heard Japanese. It wasn't strange. I was used to it. I did get a bad seat though. I had two little girls behind me who just kept kicking my seat. Every now and then one would begin to cry very loudly. I tried sleeping my way through the ride but…THE SEATS WERE SO UNCOMFORTABLE! I managed to sleep about three hours? As I'm writing this I actually want to sleep but at the same time I don't. My eyes are telling me to stop though. Back to the seats, because I was in the middle I wasn't near a window. I like to be next to the window because I can take photos. NOT A SINGLE PERSON OPENED THERE WINDOW TO ALLOW IN SUNLIGHT! No sunlight and then no picture of over Tokyo. Bummer. Anyways, I made it safely to Japan and am currently with my host brother, Ryosuke. But I think imma sleep now. My eyes can't hold it anymore. I tried my best in typing well, hopefully I succeeded and have few mistakes. Oyasu mi nasai mina! (Good night everyone) "When are you leaving Elizabeth?" "Do you know when you are leaving yet?" To these questions have an answer. I leave today. Hehe. I was supposed to have blogged it but I fell asleep in the process. Well, now I'm awake and getting both excited and nervous about my trip to Japan. It still hasn't hit me that I, Elizabeth Solis, is actually going to Japan. It's just so odd to think about. One day you're in the US and then all of a sudden the next day you're in a whole different country where you thought you would never go. Going to Japan is actually on my bucket list but now I'm doing more than just going. I'm actually going to have school in Japan and it's super cool! I'm really excited! So, I'll try to blog during the flight. I'll try my best! Sayonara…until later. ٩(^‿^)۶
Yesterday was an important day that should have been blogged. It would have been. We had no wifi yesterday. Why?!?!!! If you've read my past blogs you know that I have not gone to Japan yet. We were waiting for the visa to arrive. The day it arrived I had no wifi! I was so sad because I wanted to tell y'all. Now I had to tell you the next day. So, my visa has now arrived. The next step is receiving my tickets. Then after is bye-bye. Well, I guess I won't be able to see my host sister. I was really hoping to hang out with her. We keep in touch but it's not the same. I'm kinda sad. She also wished I could've come sooner but she just wants me to come safely. Even if it means not hanging out. Well, what I wanted to tell y'all was my visa has arrived. It's here and it's a step closer to being in Japan. Night y'all. Sayonara!
This weekend we had family time. We decided to spend the weekend together as our last trip before I was supposed to have left. Haha. If you don't know what is going on I explain in an earlier blog. Anyways, we headed up to the Indiana Sand Dunes. I mentioned earlier that my uncle came by surprise. It was during the time we had just finished leaving out of my town Logansport. We were about five minutes away from Logansport when my mother had an incoming phone call. It was my uncle. He asked where we were because he was waiting for us at home. Our home. He likes to joke around and we weren't taking him serious. We located him with the app Find Friends and he was actually in Indianapolis! We had no idea he was coming. We ended up tagging him along to the dunes. We arrived first. My father wanted to do some grilling so my siblings and I headed towards the dunes. We were at the sand playing for about 30-40 minutes before my uncle arrived. My mum called me and told us to go back to welcome my uncle and his family and to say hello. We decided to not go the same path we did to get to the sands. Terrible decision. We ended up going a different route and having to walk aaaaalllllllll the way around just to get to where we were supposed to arrive. By the time we arrived everyone else had already decided to dig in to the food. While we were eating racoons had decided to walk up to us. They were adorable but they kept hissing. I had my camera with me so I tried to take some shots. Without noticing I had one right next to me. When my father pointed it out I panicked and grabbed my little cousin of 6 years by his arm and held on. He just looked at me and I felt bad but I was too much of a scaredy cat. After eating we decided to head towards the beach! I love the water as much as I do photography. Although I don't know how to swim really well I still enjoy it. It was really fun and relaxing. At one point I made the mistake of taking my camera into the water. It's not waterproof…so I really do make bad decisions. Lol. I kept my camera high so I'd make sure it wouldn't get wet. The waves were calm and my camera was fine. So far…. Then the waves began getting stronger and stronger. Before I had decided to get my camera to safety a wave crashed onto me and splash my camera. I panicked. I kept thinking I broke my camera. It was okay when I got out and dried it quickly. I learned my lesson though. If you're thinking of taking your camera into the water…have it higher than anything else. No, just kidding. Don't take a camera into water if it's not waterproof. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the water. After, we decided to head towards the hotel. We put everything in and decided to rest. I mentioned earlier that I love the water…the thing is the hotel had a pool. We already had plenty of water time at the beach. I don't know if it was safe to go from a whole afternoon in the water to then a pool. I didn't care. I jumped in the pool and had a blast! After the pool, I took a shower and got ready to go to bed for the next day. I ended up staying in bed and playing an online game with other players. Stayed up till like 1 in the morning? Anyways, on Sunday we headed up to Paw Paw,Michigan for a flea market. We bought fresh peaches. After, we decided to go out to eat at a taqueria. A taco selling place. These were real tacos. After the meal we headed towards my hometown, Eau Claire. It still looked the same. There were some few differences but nothing much. After the quick visit we went back home. My uncle wanted to have tamales. We made tamales and ate them for dinner. After dinner I watched some videos about Japan. Then it was time to sleep…. That was what I did this weekend. My uncle had to leave very early morning on Monday for the eclipse. He was headed towards Kentucky but ended up going to St. Louis. Anyways, it's kinda long. Hope it doesn't bore y'all. Well, good night. Sayonara! "Woah! Wow! That's so cool!!" "Unbelievable!" "I am so glad to have come all the way to see this!" "My family and I came from the UK to see this." "This is so beautiful!" These are phrases that I have heard today. Can you believe it? A total solar eclipse occurred! We weren't able to go down and see it during its path but we were able to see partially. Thanks to my uncle we had gotten some solar eclipse glasses. Gotta protect our eyes! My uncle had swung by surprise. He lives in Florida and decided to get up here to see us out of the blue! We ended up spending the weekend together (I will post about my weekend soon) before he headed to St. Louis for the eclipse. He handed my family and I our special glasses for the eclipse today. I was so happy he did that. It was so cool and I'm glad to have been able to experience that. But something so cool also brought some trouble. I've read that there have been many accidents and there have also been some wildfires. I hope there weren't any losses or any of your family members were hurt if they went for the eclipse. Stay safe no matter what! My mother though was something else. She wanted to see it the most maybe of our family. She loves to see things like this. The whole time she was in awe. She seemed like a child. It made me happy. I was glad I was able to spend this moment with my family. My younger sisters loved it. I'm glad they were old enough to understand what was happening. They thought it was the coolest thing in the whole wide world. I think their favorite part was when we took them out of school though! Ha! They were just so anxious to see the eclipse. I guess I could cross out ECLIPSE from my bucket list. I posted another blog today! Make sure to read that! It's titled "Honesty & Patience". Unless you've already read it of course. Anyways, sayonara!
Some of y'all were told I was leaving this weekend. Truth be told I did not leave. Some things came up and I was unable to leave to Japan. I am still in the US. I am a bit upset but it's okay. I have to learn to be patient. Many of you are already wanting to know when I leave. I tell you that…I don't actually know. I am only waiting for my visa and passport. I do know though that I leave from Indianapolis then to Detroit. After Detroit it will be straight to Japan. Those are the plans so far. Hopefully the day to leave comes very soon. I would really like to see my host sister before she leaves on the 27th. We have talked and she too says she will be a bit bummed out if we can't hang out together, even for a little while. Rotary has a saying that goes,"Blessed are the flexible for they can not be bent out of shape". It's a very well phrase. I will be patient and I will be okay. I just hope it comes fast. Hehe…. I will post another one right after because I did not post this weekend. Be ready for that! Unless of course you read that first then this. Anyways, sayonara! Thanks to all reading my blog!!!
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January 2018
AuthorI am a student from the US to Japan. I enjoy writing, photographing, & travelling. |