blog from Japan 2
Today, I figured out that I had severe culture shock. I was reading the program orientation booklet and I came across the symptoms of culture shock. There were a lot of different symptoms, and I suppose it's different for everyone. It said that some of them were excessive sleeping (check,) weepiness (check,) wanting to withdraw (check,) etc. When i figured out that's what is wrong with me, it was amazing. I started to feel better (but not much.) Every time home is mentioned and my family is mentioned, I get teary because I think about how I made some of you cry when I left.
But today, I talked to Chelsea for a while, and we spent a good hour outside on the balcony in the sunlight. It made me feel a lot better, and then when my host parents came home from shopping they brought us gifts. And not just any gifts; they brought home cell phone brochures with ARASHI on them. This made me so happy I can't even explain it, it was kind of silly actually.
So, now that I am feeling better, I can write about Saturday, yesterday and today. ^^
But first, Friday;
Friday was the day that we met our host family. It turns out that my host family has two young children (and we'll see how I feel about kids when this is over.) And they are fairly young themselves, only about ten years older than me. After we met them, we went to lunch together and then came back to their home. The Amemiya's home is on the 38th floor of Shinagawa City Tower. It's amazing... I'm going to take a picture of it tomorrow so everyone can see it.
Saturday, we went to a place called Odaiba. It was really interesting, because it's right by Tokyo Bay, and there are a lot of things there. We had yakiniku (grilled meat) which was AMAZING, it was so tasty, I think that everyone should try it. The only place that I have ever had yakiniku was Bentou Zanmai and I didn't like it that much. It was totally different, and so much tastier than the one at Bentou Zanmai (and most of you know how much I love Bentou Zanmai, ne?) After that we went to a Sony Museum (I think) and we played with the things there. Kazu-san (host father) tried his best to explain to me and Chelsea about the things, but some of them were just lost to all three of us.
Sunday, I was miserable. I woke up and started to cry, damn culture shock with it's weepiness. I hope this doesn't happen to ANYONE I know when they go study abroad anywhere. It's MISERABLE. Breakfast has been very very interesting the past few days, because I am not used to eating anything else besides toast. Aki-san has been making us all sorts of things, and she made this really interesting bread. Since Saya-chan (the baby) is allergic to eggs, it doesn't have it (does bread usually? No, right?) but she used green tea in one bit and then today it was strawberry. It's really good!
I think that Sunday was really tough for me though, because Aki-san's mother came over (and is still here) and she reminds me so much of my own grandma that it's hard. She is a really nice, sweet lady though and even though she doesn't speak any English she talks to me and Chelsea so that we can understand.
Kazu-san and Aki-san went shopping and left Chelsea, me, Aki's mother and the kids here. When they came back Aki-san said she had a gift for the two of us, and then she pulled out the cell-phone brochures with Arashi on them!!
For dinner we went to a fancy sushi-ya called Sushi Zanmai (same as the one in Boulder :O) but it was so crowded that the line was out the door and down the alley! Kazu-san said that the wait was about 40 minutes, but we didn't have to wait that long. Once we got in, we went to the top floor (it's a three story sushi-ya O_O) and we took off our shoes. It was neat, for sure. Then we went to a table and sat down, Kazu-san sat with Chelsea and me and Aki-san, Aki-san's mother and the kids sat at the table next to us. Kazu-san ordered a lot of sushi (and it's expensive here!!) most of which was tuna. I don't think that I have ever eaten this much fish before in my life but the thing is I kind of like the way Japanese fish is prepared...
Anyways, the sushi came to our table and I didn't know what to eat first, I was kind of nervous because the sushi in Japan isn't cooked like the sushi in America... so it was a little weird. I tried the (fatty) tuna first and it was DELICIOUS. I think dad would be proud of me for eating so much fish. ^^
When we came home, Kazu-san said that he didn't have anything planned for us. Chelsea and I walked to the station for practice, and then we went around the area surrounding the apartment. It's amazing!! Maybe tomorrow I will take more pictures of it. We went to the conveince store and then to the grocery store in the bottom of the building. The fruit here is HUGE!!! I want to buy the peaches and apples just because of how big they are! They're the size of grapefruit!! Grapes are gigantic too!! It's so neat... and I ended up buying Duet, a magazine. It's full of Johnny's idols and it has an ARASHI POSTER IN IT!! Yay~
This morning was a little difficult again, I think that I get hit harder in the morning with the sadness... it sucks. I woke up about 6 am because someone was moving things out in the living room and then they started making lunch for later today. Today was a fall sports festival at Sasa-chan's school (and actually Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week are holidays :O)
We had orientation this morning at 9:30, and it's interesting because even though I have to transfer trains it takes about half an hour to get to campus from here. Riding the trains is interesting! After orientation, we had to go in our small groups to lunch with one of the program staff, and my group went with Ayako. We talked about goals and expectations for ourselves during the program. She remembered that I like Arashi ^^ On the way back to the classroom, I talked to Emily about me having culure shock and she made me feel a lot better. Sunday, I tried to reset my internal clock by staying in the sun as long as I could and it made me feel a bit better, but I was still sad. Emily said that she thinks I will probably be better once I get my cell phone, and I think so too. After that, we were free for an hour, and I went with Emily, George and Geri around the campus. As I said earlier, today is sports festival and we found people playing tennis. Tennis courts are different here, they're dirt I think? Then we went to a conveince store up the street a little and I saw another magazine with Arashi on the cover. George said they're ugly, so I have to hold that against him now :P
Next we went to Ikebukuro (as a group) for an earthquake simulation. It was interesting because we had to go through fire procedure too and it reminded me of when I was little and dad's fire station had the trailer for children to practice that. I remember the smoke and it smelled the same!! I'm going to go back there sometime and buy something for my dad, because that's also part of the fire station.
Chelsea and I came back here after that, and we had dinner almost right away which was fantastic because I was starving. The meals here are very filling but I am buring them too fast... :/ And I need to hurry and finish this because I think that the shower is open now. :)
Tomorrow we are doing a scavenger hunt around the school area and then after that I get my cell phone!! I'm excited because when I get it, if I pay three dollars I can make and recieve unlimited e-mails!! That way, I can keep in touch easier maybe?? When I get it, I will let EVERYONE know the e-mail address. I'm so excited for it!!
Sorry, I don't have pictures this time, but I don't have enough time right now :O (That and I forgot my memory card for my camera when we went to Ikebukuro today... stupid...)