Natasha

JUNE 15

I'm right now mixed with so many feelings that I think they all canceled themselves out so it's making me feel  bland-anxious (woosaa). I'm excited to get on the plane and go through the process and sit down and NAP! Because I do not plan to go to bed tonight. eheh.  But I'm scared about the luggage weight even though I really didn't bring much...and I weighed it..thrice.. >v> All the super heavy things like soap and lotion are in my backpack because LOOPHOLE!!

Now with going TO Japan IN Japan ON that islands GROUND?! meeting my HOST...in like a week...but still, oh my gosh, I cannot contain myself any longer O_O . I emailed my home host and even someone I'll be meeting at KJ school and we already have so much in common!!!!! She sends messages in English and I reply in Japanese (with English because I don't wanna say anything wrong)and it's just soo much fun! hard. but fun! I wish I had emailed her eariler o: I've only spoken with them these last 3 days and I see just how the time difference has been affecting us. I'm not even a morning person But I've been trying to be awake early so I can reply while she's still awake and I kiiinda stay up late since it's like noon for her. ... The struggle is real.

Lastly, souvenirs. I didn't ask shirt sizes >v> I want it to be sooomewhat of a surprise (hopefully they don't read these.. otherwise..uh oh) I hope they fit. and I'm still shopping for afew small things but other then that, I. am. all. set. but this wait is killing me softly.

OH OH OH! o: If we're on the plane and they don't accept my 3 EMPTY bottles of water, I will be upset and and and sit in a corner...being sad..and dehydrated.. yeah.. I hate plane service. I'm also bringing my favo snack for the plane and yeah..keeping that seal on it is the hardest thing in the world. O^O So  serious

yep, I'm done.
~Tasha♥  

JUNE 18

So I'm not sure how to describe how our blogging time is now the 18th it might be because 1) were 14hrs ahead and 2) because we traveled for 14 hours to GET here. 

So today I'll be talking about my yesterday and lead into today..but it's only 6:15 am... Anyways. The plane ride was the longest wait I hated it soooooo much I fell asleep at least 10 times. Ugh. And the airplane food wasn't baaaad but  it did make me feel iffy. We had TVs too. I watched movies but they put me to sleep :/ ah well. I wanted to take a picture of the view before we landed but I wasn't window seat :c sadness. I wish I brought that lint roller :c my bag has plenty space. 

Moving on, Japan. Wow I made it, no, WE made it! O: it's really pretty but cities are supposed to be that way. So I'm waiting for my countryside reaction. It feels kinda the same as America minus variety of people. I get stared at abit.... But the group was totally rocking our Japan shirts and I think the stares were then positive c: ummm food. We haven't had a lot of that yet. Lunch and breakfast was airplane food. Dinner was at Mos Burger. The chicken nuggets were delish. And melon soda was nice. I ate pretty fast so I could get to my room in time to shower. That was...different. Not bad either, I don't think anyone felt too uncomfortable, I hope ;0;  and I slept pretty easily. But waking up at 4am felt awk. Maybe I'm still on American time... I hope that won't hurt my waking up skills later on .x.  
But yeah. It's morning. I'm hungry. I can't go back to sleep. I'm excited for what we eat! I don't usually eat breakfast so this'll be nice. I sorta wanted to call my mom last night but not cause I'm homesick but I mean she misses me >v> silly gal. I love her though hehe. Ok. Until next time o: bai
~Tasha♥

Jun18 (Jun17). ✅
(Today) Yesterday we went to harajuku and shinjuku asakusa akihabara. 
Wow we did so much walking it was almost ridiculous. We burned probably 2000 calories. Now. For me, if I gained any sort of weight from breakfasts and lunches, I probably lost all of it. It's sad. 
In harajuku the stores were so various that I couldn't figure what I wanted. I didn't want to end up spending all mah mulah and I was budgeting even though I think I have a decent amount to spend my days. The first thing I bought was actually a replacement pair of sunglasses because at first my "arm"(?) of the glasse's screw came out. But then, as I was looking at more glasses, the second arm just completely have way and was gone forever. :c the sadness. So I bought new glasses, they're cute. We were given free time to roam. Roaming with TEAM SAKURA plus a bamboo team member o: that was pretty cool. I forget what happened after, it was so got and I get so exhausted (of course I never show it, I just drink me some waterrrr) so I'm finishing with that. Night

Jun 19✅
Yesterday was really relieving weather. Even if there was a chance of rain it was all fine because the wind was soooooo refreshing. We went to the meusuam  and there were alot of pretty dishes and artifacts that were really stunning. I took pictures of them because I know my mom likes dishware and china and all that sort (I do too sorta) that lasted an hour or so. I sadly lost one of the three hair ties I brought :c no triple braids for me. Afterwards we met up with more people and the group dispersed for lunch. I can't remember the name of the ally street thing we went down but somewhere to the left we found somewhere to eat. I ate an omelet thing with green veggies in it ( mom would be proud, haha) it was good I liked it. I tried eseh's hot cakie which is like a pancake with filling. Really yummy. And then I tried a dango(?) with bean paste inside o: I think the bean paste is an acquired taste sort of dish. I liked it though :/ I'm glad because now I can take the risk and eat anything <v> yuuusssss.  We went...somewhere.  I forget what we did before going back to the youth hostel for dinner... Oops. But I know that we were in a rush to eat and et back on the train to go to Tokyo tower. I ate. So fast. And stuffed the MESS out of my face with food. I blame myself for deciding to get a larger portion plus 2 drinks. But like always the food was great. They had some amazing pasta and I was soooo happy. I love pasta. On to Tokyo tower, there was afew delays because some people went back to their rooms and sensei was figuring the fastest route to get there. We made it there about 3 minutes early. Yay. And the view was incredible o: and super high I would've taken pictures of the whole "circle" but my battery started dying. Sadness. We even met some eths alums, that was nice. After awhile my tiredness liked in and alot of us were just waiting for sensei to finish his picture taking >v> 
Oh oh we met up with Barnes Sempai who at the moment is living and studying and working in Japan o: I missed her so it was nice seeing her again.  When we finally got home it was time to pack. So after taking our last bath we washed all our clothes and the ones that didn't finish drying (all of them) we put them in ziplocks and went to bed. Yep. Night 

Jun 20✅
Yesterday was our last breakfast in the youth central hostel and then we ventured to our 2-3 hour train ride to come to Nikko. I wish I took more pictures o: we saw the more country side of Japan which was actually a relief. All the fumes and population of  Tokyo made the feeling of being in Japan quite difficult :/ but this part of Japan isn't thaaaaat country. I think our next place will be(?) idunno. Um. When we got to our new 3day home our TEAM SAKURA TEAM got split in 2 o: I somehow became leader in deciding who roomed with who amongst our team but it's a o k because our rooms are next door, yus! Once we were settled with that it was time to got have lunch before moving on to our next thing. most of the restaurants looked like it would take awhile to order and eat so y team went to the Conbin (convenient stores) and basically everyone went there o: but we missed our bus..twice.. Oopsie  some of our other teams were finishing up there Conbin food...and were slow walkers... But I can't really blame them o: no one really knew which bus we were waiting for. But when the bus came it was the world heritage site bus so I immediately thought this place is gonna involve so much walking (ugh) I was very right. But it was nice I liked it. We got to walk in on a blessing ceremony for a couple. It was really long but no one moved until it was finished with. Afterwards we went to a few more temples and took pictures while someone spoke about the place. I found a bug 0: I seem to be good at that ill definitely find more.  Night

Jun21✅
Onsen
Toby world square
Samurai village

Today after waking up in our new house Japanese style suite place thing we caught a bus to the Samurai Village wonderland thingy. My first reaction was that I wanted to try everything that was interactive fun, so after we got our tickets we dispersed into whatever group of people we wanted. Mine was Team Sakura Team plus Brianna and Lillian. It was alot of fun, so much fun that I forgot where I went and where because alot of the places were hard to read/remember(?) I do have highlights of events though o: he first place I remember is the ninja maze. When we went in I lost eeeeeveryone.  Well almost. I found Brianna and tried hard to stick to her. With that we met up with other teams whilst adventuring. The maze was really fun because of the trick doors and deceiving signs with faces. That's mostly why I lost my teammates in the first place. O: but I went with it an continued my fun until I got to the lopsided house. It was some crazy fun. Me Brianna and Victoria were laughing our butts off because we kept almost falling. It was great. But I'm m   glad we stayed in for as long as we did because when we were done we sat somewhere under some bamboo roof sit in. And then it RAINED. SO. HARD. MY SHOES WERE BEYOND SOAKED. Oh my gosh =x= I don't even want to walk anywhere with them squish squashing  everywhere @x@ grrr. But they pretty much dried when we went to world square. O: I think takin pictures of all those sites extra miniatured took the most of my camera data as of now. But it was really cool I liked it alot. After wards we walked the WRONG WAY and got lost getting to the onsen. Open bath. I recommend it. So much. It was so great. After that wonderful time we walked to the train station and as soon as we were under the roof the pouring rain came once more (SAAAAFEEEE) kami-sama was looking out for us. Hehe. Night night

Jun22✅
Today we went to the mountains in Nikko. We took a really long bus UP I hated that. So much. But the turns were the worse @x@ oh my gosh those turns. I thought my worries were done with when we got off but I was very very wrong. We went into the building since that's the only building that was there. Since it's a mountain... But yeah, there was a gift shop and I peaked around to see if I might possibly want something there to bring home for both myself anndd family and SOME friends >v> someone's getting a bear. Anyways we had to take the sky raft thingy up.  I can't remember what those lift are called at the moment but we fit alot of us on it much to my surprise and worry. I video taped going up and down, 'twas an interesting experience. But totally worth it because the view was AMAZING. The mountains; awesome. The clouds; Awesome. The village near that WATERFALL; Absolutely Stunning!! I didn't even know that would be our next destination (because I don't like to read intieneraries before I go to sleep T_T or when I wake up... Zannen(shame)...) until the bus ended up going there. From there we went into a building to an elevater to see the waterfall up close. Wow. It was cold. Where was my sweater.  But the view was great. I took afew pictures (lying I took many) and afterwards it was lunch time. I wasn't in a large eating mood mostly because I wanted something sweet :/ so instead I got me a crepe and tried the local specialty of Yuba in dumping form. It was an interesting taste, I liked it. But tht crepe I LOOOOOVVVVEEEDD it. Took me awhile to eat it but that's because I was savoring the taste. And it was kinda big.. And I eat slow..and yeah. On our way out of the crepe store I spotted  those clear umbrellas and just Had to have it. 5$? For an umbrella? Heck yeah I'm buying. And right on time to because I was able to be on time to the meet up. But unfortunately afew people were late and we had to wait an hour for our next bus. So we spent sometime in a local museum of animals(?) and I blogged while we waited (kikiki) then we got there and yay

Jun 23✅
Today we went to my report site. That was nice. I wasn't really prepared for it. But ah well. We also left our 2nd hotel home after having our last breakfast there and moved on to Hiraizumi. Oh oh oh and my site report is in this area. Ummm. We weren't heavily packed today with things to do which was nice because I was tired. After "enjoying" the loooong time we were given we went to the icecream place and sensei bought everyone shaved ice. Yum.

Jun24
Hiking hated it. Can't even blog about that. It was quite the workout though. Sorry too tired. Read someone else's today :c

Jun 25
Today we went to Taylor's site report place. First of course we had breakfast. It was really rushed though and my tummy wasn't feeling really good, I'm not sure why :c
I forgot my iPod today so I felt like I'd left a piece of me behind :c I did enjoy the view though.

Jun26✅
Our last morning in our 3rd home. Last nights dinner we couldn't leave until EVERYONE finished everything on that plate or helped others finish in exchange for another. That too happened this morning but both weren't so bad because we all kinda liked the food. I did anyways. If I get too much rice I can't finish it sadly but I ate. Everything else entirely to the last bite. Even the egg. Oh gosh. The mornings that we have to leave are actually the most chilliest of days. After we ate we were given some time to pack up which wasn't too hard this time because I've learned,oh have I learned the art of faster packing. Some people still are struggling to pack, oh how real the struggle is. Ha. So after we pack we leave the suitcases in the room we ate in which now had its door thing opened so its a bigger room since its conjoined basically with the neighboring room. T'was kinda awesome. Should've taken a picture. Oopsie :c
but today's the big day everyone had been looking forward to, we get to see meet greet and LIVE with our home host that we've all (mostly) been emailing, facebooking, or reuniting with. Fun fun fun. We first went to a place to buy a greeting gift that is some sort of tradition for when you've visited somewhere else in Japan before actually coming to the home stay home.  It includes a cookie. O: I hope they like cookies. And I also hope tht haven't visited Hiraizumi yet >v> otherwise this could get awkward...
So I wrote that while part while waiting on the 2 trains to get to Niigata. Oh. My. Gosh. When we got off the train and were walking they were waiting for us!!! I got all excited and I was just so ready to meet my host student that I can't even explain it. And she was adorable yus. <v> gihihihi. First night of dinner was abit nerve wreaking. What if I didn't like it. What if I turned out to be rude. O: soo scaryyy. But all worry was for not and the food was greattttttttttttt. And then I went to bed. Quite tired. 

Jun27✅
I woke up this morning not even knowing I fell asleep o: (zannen)  I love my home I just love it. I woke up abit earlier then expected, obviously because I feel asleep early and stuff. Got ready for school, ate a wonderful breakfast, salad, eggs, sasuage, BACON, and pan (bread), got an obento (eep!!) and before I knew it, it was time to go. We drove to school which was fun and I got to see the place where outside shoes are placed in cubbies and inside shoes are put on. None of us Evanston students got and indoor slippers like I thought we would but daijoubu(it's ok) because tomorrow I'm expecting them. If it were raining it'd have been a different story but we were fine. I went through English, Science and Japanese class. English had to be my favorite  class for the most part because I actually understood things better than the other classes.  At lunch it took us awhile to find somewhere to eat. We were going to eat on the roof, but it's hot up there, then we were thinking of eating at the meeting room but..neeeehhh. And then we ended up eating with Yuriko and Minami's friends so yay I was with Eseh.  Bleeblaahbloo. School may be "shorter" but it felt like the longest day of my liiiiiife. It must've been because I understand not too much...zannen. Afterwards we had a meeting like thing to practice and fix our grammar speech for our presentations. I've got the not to fun parts to say. Ugh. I'll do my best. After, we went to gym an had a jump roping contest event game thing. It was fun. Hard. But fun. I enjoyed it o3o
 When we came home, we left just as quickly and went to the sushi bar. Made sure to get my melon soda... And then I ordered sushi. Which was difficult but I had help ( ;0; yay) I got the salmon and I was alittle skeptical at first since it was raw but when I took that bite I felt like I was on top of the world oh my GOSH it was good. I ordered an ebi miso soup (shrimp miso soup) but then I opened it and see these dead shrimp faces just string at me @x@ I only had the soup part and my lovely family took care of those heads ( ;0; arigatouuuuuuu) and that was my day. Yep. Night

Jun 28✅
Woke up again to a wonderfully potent day because today is the day of my welcoming party,yaay. But first school comes first. Instead of pairing with Minami mah G, I get a new G, Akane. I like her too and  I think she came to america with the group from this year. Yay. The only downside was I kept losing her ;0; oopsieeee. Then we went to yummy and I got awesome ice cream. Walked back to school and listened to the first years perform musical music to us ;v; it was so cute up until we had to sing too...I didn't want to present our eths school soooongggg. I'm not even in high school anymoreeee. Aaaaaaah. But they clapped. And then it started raining. It rained. So hard. I almost cried. I thought I was gonna have to walk home in that. ;0; but then but then Minami called grandma and she came to pick us up (Yattaaaa) and that's when I had my welcome party o: the party allowed me to make 4 new friends <v> they nicknamed me Nata-chan. Funny how it's almost still my name normally. Ah well. 
Jun29✅
Today was great. We went to school and today I guess I was "less late" (we're never late..we live so close that we can leave at a later time the most, is all...)
And I sit down and nap cause even I felt like I came to school earlier then usual. But unlike yesterder where we shadow students, today was field trip day. Yay. Our Senseis went missing...so we were in the care of the KJ senseis..gihihihihi. First place we went to was the soba making place @x@ it kind of upset me because 1) I had breakfast not too long ago 2) I have to EAT ALL THIS SOBA I MADE. O gosh that was alot of soba. I'm weak though so the "playing with dough" part I could not do for the life of me.. Oopsie. But it was fun none the less o3o then we moved on to the Yukata dress up. A Yukata is a kimono that you wear in the summer. It's summer. So we wore them. I liked it, I felt..rigid though. But everyone else looked really good o: I jealous. But I forgot all about that when we went to the Aeon something shopping district o: let me just say now. The Hyaku en Store ( basically the dollar store) was amazing. I bought a few things there for the cheapest price and I'm so glad. I also bought things from afew other stores. I'm officially a HanoUsagi brand fan too btw :p ummmm. Oh I went to a pinu picture machine thing. I look so cute >v> ...and so did everyone else in the picture <v< but me first... >v> heehee jk...maybe.. That machine is amazing though o: I want to go back and actually be able to READ the instructions given with those silly time limited decoration mini game. Ehehe. After that We went back to school. I got some Japanese KFC chicken because I was mean mugging/ happened to eye some of that chicken. Mhm. If I sees it. I wants to eats it. Yep. And then me and Minami went home o3o she had a test today, so sad. But she's really smart so it's totally ok. Went home. Chilled. Watch tv. Played shiritori. Spoke aloooot of Japanese with her today o: I was abit surprised in myself. Yay. And then we ate. Yeah. Today was nice. My host brother helped me get wifi today ;v; oh how I've missed sweet sweet wifi. Yatta. I called my mum who I left hanging for a week now... Eheh. She misses me >v> how cute. And here I thought i could meezle my way into staying longer..giheeheehee. 

Jun 30✅
It's Sunday. I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad o: why? Because 1) yay we're going to karaoke with friends; so that's the good part and 2) we're almost done with our trip; that's the really bad thing :c makes me abit sad. Anyways, I got to sleep in abit but I guess I slept alittle too long because when I tried to Skype call my mummy and friends, everyone was busy :c aw. It's ok. I'll see them in a few days...moving on. We went to the train station and met up with Eseh at another train stop, then when we arrive in town first thing I notice is that there's a mall IN the train station. That's so cool!! I made sure to get myself a nice necklace and some earrings to remember such a moment. After that we went to the higher levels and that's where the arcade area was. After taking pictures in the Purik-something booths we saw this expert guy dancing DDR (ok AFTER Eseh played her rounds) it was so amazing. I'm glad I caught that on film (fuhuhuhu) mmmm and then we spotted an American! I don't know the arcade was the meeting place for everyone because I just kept spotting people in our group. O:  I'm abit sad that some people couldn't make it .x. But it was great. The karaoke lasted I think 4-5 hours...wow... I got my favo melon sodaaaaaaa. And and ummm then we went to a yakiniku place. Yaki means fried or grilled and niku means meat. So we basically fry/grill our own meats that we order. i made sure to order another melon soda...(gihihihihi) I was pretty much open to any meat. From what I remember (because the taste was so...different..) I had liver, tongue, pig intestines annnnnd squash. Yep.... And then I misse the group photo :/ had to go potty, yo..zannen. And then ran to the train station (the rules for no swimming after eating applies to this too. Ouch those tummy cramps) thanks to our JR pass I didn't have to do many things to get on the station (luckyyyy). Went home. Finally showed my family album (eheheheheh)  and here I am again just typing this up. Yep..I'm sleepy now but I gotta practice my lines for the presentation tomorrow. Yaaarrrg.  Night night. 

3 comments:

  1. I Am very happy to hear from you. You will soon get adjusted! Grandma from time to time asks if I have got in contact with you yet. Have fun. Love you. Mommy
    Sneak me some Japan sand in a jar. Japanese candy would be nice. If there are any Japan singer/famous/idols get me a poster of them (if they r cute) some of their albums would be nice too. Get some pretty flowers. Japanese toys and souvenirs would be cool. But enough about me cuz I am being selfish. Have fun. Not too much fun. Take pictures. Meet new boys ans girls. Take videos. Soo uhh yea tell all ur senior friends that I said hi. Take pictures of the Japanese money or bring it here. And I hope u can get Japanese clothes and jewelry. Deuces-Christie

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  2. I dare you to eat octopus! Im glad you made it, Have fun!!!! And you have a message from like monday on your skype so when you have time look at it. If you can take pics of the mountains..or oceans...or something landy that's beautiful that would be awesome Study hard! :D
    -rebecca

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