Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Service, Camps, Stuff...

Haven't mentioned Japan's fantastic service.
I went to the hairdressers around a month ago, the one that Supika goes to. I had 3 people working on my hair, who talked to me (like hairdressers do), but afterwards the price was 2000 instead of 2500 yen because it was my first time, and one of them opened the door for me and i was waved goodbye!!! Aw, it's a special feeling..
And, yesterday Supika went to the optometrists for new glasses and I thought I'd tag along to get mine fixed. I'd brought my wallet, but they fixed my glasses, cleaned them, and gave me new nose fitter thingies for FREE!! AND they gave us juice!!
Dad said later on they probably should have charged me, and I'm like, I don't mind XD
I was meant to start a first full day at school today, but yesterday the school pipes broke down so the tests were postponed til today and I don't have any tests =D so, home alone...
I've been building a small manga collection, and Supika and I read manga late in the night in my room cuz I have the aircon ;P but its still embarrassing buying manga cuz I'm foreign, browsing through these books in another language and they use heaps of slang so its slow going...
I had my family camp, which was fun. We stayed at a campsite first night, then a real flash Japanese Inn the 2nd, and my Mum's Dad's place on the 3rd. I forgot to mention, we had my hostfamily's old exchange student return and stay for 2 weeks, so he came on the camp too. He arrived on my birthday, from Germany and same age. Dad was evil and didn't tell him that I was there, so he didnt know of my existence, so you can imagine his surprise when he walked in the door and saw me there!! But his being there meant I was also allowed to drink alcohol for the 2 weeks so I'm not complaining!! XD
Oh yes, and the little sister came. First I'm like, yay! our family's growing!! but after one day I was prepared to kill her. Supika could tell I didn't like her, I wasn't my usual cheery self, so Pi tried to keep the 10 yr old away from me.. Luckily I had my AFS camp right after the fam camp so I could escape the house early!! The girls name was Norichan, and whenever someone mentions her name, everyone sighs and says never again! lol
I went to the beach on the fam camp, used HEAPS of sunscreen, and entered the onsen 3 times XD once before the beach, once after, and one more time the next morning.. we like onsen..
When we went to stay at grandfathers house we stopped off at a river for a swim and there were these Americans there MOCKING me!! And I'm like, I can speak english you know!!
Afterwards my whole fam was like OMG Juliette what did they say? what did they say?? fools..
So yeah.. then AFS camp was good but I felt like I was in primary again with the way they treated us. Keep on the left! Don't separate! Wait at the lights! It was like it was our first time out in public or something. It was absurdly hot, and we spent the whole time walking round looking at things in Hiroshima which were very boring because naturally I've already seen them all! We had 17 students gathered which made it good though. New people were: 1 Vietnamese, 1 Malaysian, 1 American, 1 Norwegian, 1 Finnish, 1 Laos, 1 French, 1 Nepal(ese?), and 1 Chinese.
When I returned I became sick and it still hasn't gone away XS
And my first full day of school is tomorrow XS
Have received more info bout my school trip, don't know when I have to pay though.. When I go to see Lion King I have like, one of the best seats!! In the middle near the front yuss!
I've just been finishing my essays and baking ^_^ and now I'll carry on reading my manga!!!
Ja ne, Juju <3

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Summer holidays and whatnot

So, I'm already a 1/3 of the way through my summer hols already *cry*, but they've been really good so far and are only going to get better!! I had an AFS orientation on the 24th, where I made a short speech to a family that wasn't present lol. They don't like the AFS events either XD On the 25th I had to go to the peace park in preparation for the 6th of August. I basically say my poem (in English), a Jap student then translates it, and then I sit down. Apparently the UN president is coming.. whoever that is.. lol. When I'm not going out with friends I occupy myself by reading manga on the computer, although you can imagine how boring it is when Supika'S using the computer and it's too hot to do anything else. Ah, for Supika's birthday we went out to watch the new Studio Ghibli film, Kuragashi (sp?) Arietty. It being a kid's film i could understand the Jap fairly well XD. I bought Supika a CD and made her a chocolate cake. On the 28th I spent 6 hours at karaoke with my mates, and it only cost 500yen!! ($8.30)
Then, on Fri I met up with the ESS club members and the teacher took photos of us with some origami cranes sent over from a Junior High in the US. We then went to purikura 5 times XD
The next day I had a Jap lesson with my LP, and my morning lesson teacher gave me manuka honey chocolates from NZ!! Her dad had been there recently and brought them back, man honey is good... When I came back home the whole family was gathered, aunts, uncles, cousins included, and we ate chinese dumplings =)
But yesterday was an epic day, we went out for a drive after lunch to an Acorn village which was preparing for a festival(I didn't see any acorns or squirrels). It was Supika, cousins Miwa and Takakun, Mum, Dad and I. Us 'kids' played tiggy then we went into onsen =D When we came out there was a crowd already, and food already being sold. There was a noodle line thing too (I've got photos) I'd always wanted to try it ever since reading about it in a manga!! It's a long line of bamboo halves connected on a hill, water is poured down along with soumen (noodles), cucumber and tomatoes. You pay 300yen ($5) for a bamboo cup filled with soumen sauce, add spring onion, grab some chopsticks then choose a spot by the bamboo and try to catch the noodles, cause the water's really fast!! It's even harder to catch cucumber or tomato!
Afterwards Supika and I bought snowcones (in Japan there's always the option of sweetened condensed milk on top which tastes really good!), ate some Jap cream filled sweet and boars meat... I was the only foreigner there XD There was a raffle for vegetables but we only won one bag of capsicums (we wanted corn or even melon!!) A melon half costs around $7!! Later, we danced. We were all given fans and danced around a wood thingy, learning the steps as we went. Then we had fireworks!! It was a really awesome day but I was soo tired!
My plans for the rest of the hols: tomorrow I'm meeting a mate and her foreigner friends to do.. something.. not quite sure what; wed is the cinema! watching a horror film called confession..; Fri is the peace day, from 7am til late; the next day is an AFS BBQ; the 9th Supika and I are going to the pools; 10th is my bday, I want to go to the cat cafe!!; 11th karaoke with Supika; 13th - 15th is a fam camp, going to the islands in the south, and to the beach!! finally!; 17th - 20th is an AFS camp, around 2o other students are coming!! I'm so excited!! I think I have a pretty good summer XD it all ends on the 24th though when I go back to school D=
Something I thought might shock: Mum was asking me the other day how much I thought the 'loaf' of bread my Dad bought cost. I said 300 (5), 400, 500!! no, 650yen!! ($11) for a loaf of bread!!!
Ok, thats me done, its too hot to write!!!!!!!!